US: Europe biased against Muslims

The annual report of US State Department on human rights has warned of increasing concern that discrimination against Muslims was on the rise in Europe.

The human rights report for 2009 cited Switzerland's ban on the construction of minarets on mosques enacted in November, as well as continued bans or restrictions on head scarves and burqa worn by Muslims in France, Germany and the Netherlands.

The report said: “Discrimination against Muslims in Europe has been an increasing concern.”

Germany and the Netherlands have prohibitions against teachers wearing head scarves or burqa while on the job, and France bans the wearing of the religious garb in public, the report said.

The report particularly focused on problems in the Netherlands, where Muslims number about 850,000, saying that Muslims face societal resentment based on the belief that Islam is not compatible with Western values.

The report blamed right-wing politicians for playing a role in fuelling the resentment.

It said: “Major incidents of violence against Muslims were rare, but minor incidents, including intimidation, brawls, vandalism, and graffiti with abusive language, were common.”

It added that the department's annual human rights report is mandated by Congress to allow MPs to factor the issue into decisions on allocated aid to foreign countries.

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Source: Al-Jazeera

Norway: Pakistani girls lead double life

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Norwegian-Pakistani parents are afraid their daughter will smoke, drink or have sex.  But the girl say they just want breathing space.

Today is 100 years since International Women's Day was celebrated for the first time.  Though some Norwegian girls and women feel equal in 2010, the circumstances are completely different for many minority women.

VG Nett met Norwegian-Pakistani women who have a different story to tell.

We meet 'Amna' together with two Norwegian-Pakistani girls in a secluded cafe in Oslo.  They chatter and smoke, but keep the cigarette under the table every time they suspect a foreign girl or boy is passing.  They don't want to be recognized, since what they're doing is improper and 'prohibited'.  'Sara' says she feels like a product.

“From [the time] we are small and until marriageable age, we are like a product to be sold.  Marketing is very important.  When people are out to find a potential spouse, they need good references to get good candidates.  Therefore my parents don't want me to go out and have much of a social life,” she says.

A foreign couple stroll by.  The cigarettes are hidden once again under the table.

“I don't want anybody to see me smoking, because it's taboo.  It's not nice for girls to smoke, they get labeled.  They are called bad girls.  I don't want my parents to know that. Then I don't know what they'll do,' says 'Amna'.

'Huma' says that she wants to move out on her own, but that probably will remain a dream.  She was told that it's not relevant, because her father thinks people will gossip.  Why would a girl live alone?

“People always think negatively, they think that people want to move out to have sex or drink alcohol.  They don't think that girls need breathing space in this culture.  As long as it's bad in other people' eyes, I can't be permitted to do it,” says 'Huma'.

The girls talk a lot about marriage.  They explain this saying that they're of marriageable age, therefore it's not a topic to avoid.  They must get married within their own caste, and a marriage with a non-Pakistani isn't a topic to discuss.

“Modest girls are good.  There are rumors all the time, especially about girl.  If one is stigmatizes, he's marked for life, and won't get ahead in the community,” add 'Huma'.

At times 'Amna' gets nervous because her parents constantly point out the time is starting to run out for her. She must get married as quickly as possible.

People are asking questions on why 'Amna' isn't getting married.  Can't she have children?  Is there nobody who will ask for her hand?

“I am so tired of gossip.  I choose not to have contact with other Pakistanis, because they're so good at gossiping.  I choose to distance myself and be anonymous.  I don't want them to know who I am,” says 'Amna' with disappointment.

“Yes, it's not cricket which is our favorite sport.  It's gossiping,” 'Sara' adds.

“When you come home, you must hide who you are.  You must live up to your parent's expectations and demands.  I need to change into traditional clothing.  They want me to be a traditional girl who prepares food, takes care of her parents and is married as quickly as possible.  I feel strong mental pressure,” she continues.

The friends, who like traveling, went on a trip to London last year, but they couldn't tell their parents.  Regular trips, like the ones most other young adults go on, must be planned carefully.  First they need to find a reason for a trip.  They told their parents that they went with a seminal group at their university – to another city in Norway. 

“The easiest is of course work or school.  Additionally you must have an alibi, and other accomplices like, for example, little siblings.  They must be several who can save you if it goes wrong,” says 'Huma'.

You also need to call home every day so that the parents don't call the girl.  'Sara' says that she was of course afraid of being discovered during the trip, but it was worth to take the risk. They would never have gotten permission to go if they had told the truth, because it's not accepted in their culture for girls to go on trips alone.

“The parents think it's ok if we go on a trip with the school or for a seminar at work.  Then the trip has professional content, but they don't understand that people need a break or time together with friends.  It's not accreted, because we're girls and must behave in a certain way,” says 'Sara'.

The girls say they don't do anything special in these secret vacations.  they're simply out to have a good time with friends.

“We do normal things, like eating good food, shopping and looking around a bit.  There's some partying too.  We can choose what clothing we go with, but all this is abnormal for our parents.  I was honest a few years ago and asked my dad if I could go on a trip with girlfriends, but he flatly said 'no'.  After that I thought there's no point in being honest,' says 25 year old 'Huma'.

Sociologist Anja Bredal of the Institute for Social Researcher is aware of the problem of living a double life among minority girls through her research.

“A double-life can be problematic in the long run.  I've seen several examples where such strategies are risky.  At one point or another, the parents discover it, and it can be dramatic,” Bredal told VG Nett.

The Norwegian-Pakistani girls feel they lead a double life.

“We have been to so many so-called seminars, work-trip and school-trips that we should have been rocket scientists by now,” laughs 'Amna'.

She explains that the only way for her to escape is to get married or study abroad, but she doesn't want to get married just yet.   That isn't met with understanding.

“First, it's difficult enough to find a man that I'll love, and in addition he should be from the same caste.  What type of requirement is it that our parents make of us.  It's inhumane.  And the thought of me marrying a Norwegian, I can just forget, it's unheard of,” says 'Huma'.

She thinks there's something wrong with the culture she belongs to.

“The sickness of this culture is that other parents also have problems with their children, but in order to save their own skin, they speak about the children of others. Why can't people stop meddling about what everybody else is doing and saying all the time,” she asks and shakes her head.

'Amna' says that she has considered what she would do for quite a while. She found a way out to avoid everything.

“I will be a stewardess.  I love to travel so it suits me perfectly.  I'd be far away.  I will experience life and be an independent woman.  I won't let my parents stop me this time.  I can't deal with the thought that I'm 27 years old and won't get the opportunity to develop myself,” says 'Amna'.

The interview is over,  They pay for their coffe and put the cigarett packs at the bottom of their bags. They must get the bus. Their parents don't know they sit in the cafe.  They think their girls are at school or work.

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Arild Stokkan-Grande (Labor Party) wants answers from the government on how they intend to deal with inequalities between boys and girls in some minority communities.

In recent days VG Nett described how some women in Norway of Pakistani background feel the need to lead double lives in order to do the things which are obvious for boys.

Sociologist Anja Bredal is aware of the phenomenon among girls of minority background through her research, but leading minority women tell VG Nett the the girls must rebel against their family on their own.

“I disagree.  Girls who fight this battle should know that they don't stand alone and that we stand together with them.  We can't accept that girls and boys are treated so differently as we see.  We have equality, that means equal opportunities,” Stokkan-Grande told VG Nett.

He sent an interpellation to Equality Minister Audun Lysbakken, because he wants the issue to be spotlighted in parliament.

After publishing the stories VG Nett got many responses from people of minority background.  Some expressed anger, others thought the stories stigmatize minority women, since far from all of them lead double lives.  Some also told very similar stories to those the four girls told anonymously – that they must live two lives, one hidden from the family.

Stokkan-Grande thinks there are several things society can do to help those who feel they are given an impossible choice between family and culture, on the one hand,  and their own needs, on the other.

“We can, to an even greater degree, make schools aware of how they can speak with the children who go there, and have discussions in student groups about equality.  Are today's young people comfortable having unequal attitudes to how boys and girls should act, and who can go out on the town and who must go straight home from school?”   He says parents should be urged to talk about what they fear.  He also says that starting a debate in parliament can be good, and that men, particularly also those of minority background, say they want equality.

“We as menn must enter the equality debate to a greater degree and not leave it to the women.  Also immigrant men must enter the issue and go clearly out to say that they don't want girls and boys to be treated differently and have different demands from each,” says Stokkan-Grande.

He says that the equality debate might have gotten on the wrong track recently.

“In recent weeks we've seen great weaknesses in the equality debate.  There are things whhich show that in the name of tolerance, we accept major discrimination between boys and girls.  We often speak about girls' rights to wear religious symbols, but there's too little talk if there are very different expectations made of girls and boys,” says the Labor Party politician.

Sources: VG 1,2 (Norwegian)

Sweden: Muslim Youth group invites hate preacher to annual conference

Swedish journalist Per Gudmundon, reports that Sweden's biggest youth organization invited a hate-preacher, Abdullah Hakim Quick, to headline its annual event.

In related news, controversial British Muslim convert Abdurraheem Green was invited to speak at the Scandinavian peace conference by the Norwegian IslamNet. The conference, which is to be held March 27-29, supposedly intends to promote dialog.  .  Green had been invited to speak at University College London by Nigerian terrorist wannabe Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.  Green told Norwegian newspaper Klassekampen that neither he nor the conference organizers support extreme tendencies.

This is not the first time IslamNet, whose declared goal is to clear up misconceptions about Islam,  invites controversial speakers.  In 2008 imam Zulqarnain Sakandar Madni gave a sermon accusing the US of the 9/11 attacks and saying the Jews knew of it in advance.

Dr. Zakir Naik writes many of the texts on their site.  Naik was accused of supporting al-Qaeda, says that 9/11 was an inside job, and supports the death sentence for apostates.

The organization also promotes Malaysian preacher Hussain Yee, who denies Muslims were behind 9/11, hinting that the Jews did it, and says Allah cursed Jews and Christians.  Hussein Yee is also invited by IslamNet to the Scandinavian Peace Conference.

Other speakers are Ali Mohammed Salah and Yusuf Chambers, who will lead the conference.  IslamNet has yet to announce who the top speaker will be.

Sources: Dagsavisen, Dagbladet (Norwegian)

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Sweden's biggest Muslim youth organization booked a notorious preacher as top attraction for their annual conference.  He calls Jews 'dirty' and preaches that the punishment for homosexuality, which he calls an unnatural disease, is death.

When American imam Abdullah Hakim Quick recently lectured at King's College London and other British universities, it set off a storm of criticism.  OutRage!, an organization which fights for gay rights, said the imam was 'antisemitic and homophobic', referring to statements he made in sermons, and urged King's College to stop the event.

Now Sweden's Young Muslims (SUM), the country's biggest Islamic youth organization, with about 40 local chapters and more than 3,500 member, booked Abdullah Hakim Quick as their top attraction for their annual conference, which will be held April 2-5 in Stockholm.  It's Scandinavia's biggest Muslim youth conference, which SUM thinks offers 'educational lectures' and 'stimulating discussions'.

The topic for his appearance wasn't yet published, so it's difficult to predict whether SUM agrees by this with Quick that gays should be executed.

This is not the first time that SUM has lecturers at the conference whose former statement were offensive in character.  Last year American preacher Khalid Yasin gave a lecture that didn't cause any headlines.  When the same preacher came to Copenhagen in February, it caused a greater debate.  The controversy concerned Yasin's well-documented views that Judaism and Christianity are 'dirty', that gays should be executed, that wife beating is ok, that the US is responsible for the 9/11 attacks, that AIDS is caused by Western regimes, that woman's equality with man is 'an insane delusion', that Church and State shouldn't be separated, that Sharia law should be applied, and so forth.

In November 2005, SUM arranged a forum in Stockholm, with British religious leader Riyadh ul Haq as guest.  The Times revealed through thorough documentation that he is an antisemite who preaches Jihad, praises the Taliban as the ones who can enforce Sharia and also opposes Christmas celebrations and the opera!

SUM receives government subsidies – in 2010 the Board for Youth Affairs gave out 1,505,174 kroner in establishment, structure and development subsidies.  Among the objectives of the government subsidies, the Board for Youth Affairs says that recipients should 'promote children's and youth's democratic upbringing', as well as 'promote equality between the sexes'.  An absolute criteria for government subsidies is that the recipients should carry out 'activities which do not conflict with the ideas of democracy”.

Gudmundson points out that it's to be expected that religious extremists would abuse Swedish freedom of speech, but it is strange that SUM choose to invite preachers who despise Jews, gays, women and democratic ideals over and over again, though they are far from radical.  When a state-sponsored youth organization which claims to operate by 'balanced and tolerant Islamic view' actively portray hate-preachers as role models – it's only natural to question this moderation or the honest intent of this youth organization.

Source: Gudmundson (Swedish)

Russia: Sweden gives refuge to Chechen bandits

'Bandits' being the new Russian term for Islamic extremists.

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has hit out at Sweden for providing a home for Chechen “bandits”.

Pushing back at criticism of Russia's human rights record in the North Caucasus, Medvedev made his comments at a joint press conference in the Kremlin with Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt. Sweden has sparred with Moscow over abuses in Russia's troubled southern region of Chechnya.

“If we are going to talk about the Caucasus, besides the problem of human rights, there is another problem that I told the prime minister about – the bandits who have unfortunately found refuge in Sweden,” Medvedev said.

“We can talk about adhering to human rights, but we must fight crime together, too…. I am counting on constructive cooperation with our Swedish partners on this issue,” he added.

Reinfeldt, who has sought to improve ties with Moscow that were strained by the Russia-Georgia war of August 2008, said he had a “frank and constructive discussion” with Medvedev about human rights.

Russia has criticised Sweden for refusing to extradite Chechen rebels such as Aslan Adayev, whom Moscow accuses of terrorism and other crimes connected to Chechnya's bloody post-Soviet struggle for independence.

In 2008 Sweden's Supreme Court blocked a Russian extradition request for Adayev, ruling that his offenses were political in nature.

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Source: The Local (English)

France: Teacher attacked for calling al-Qaeda terrorists

The student is of North African origin. (NL)

 A 15-year-old French schoolboy sprayed a teacher with teargas after she described al-Qaeda as a “terrorist group”, she told reporters on Tuesday as prosecutors began their investigation.

“I had just explained that the attacks on September 11, 2001 were carried out by the terrorist organisation al-Qaeda, as is written in the text book,” said the history teacher, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“He stood up and declared that al-Qaeda is not terrorist and that neither is the Taliban,” she said, adding that the boy had then pulled out a spray can and doused her and a teaching assistant with teargas.

Neither victim was seriously hurt.

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Source: IOL (English)