Syria: Mufti threatens Europe with suicide attacks

Via Reuters:

Syria’s most senior Sunni Muslim cleric has warned the United States and Europe that his country would unleash suicide bomb attacks in their countries if they launched military strikes against Syria.

Mufti Ahmad Hassoun, whose son was shot dead by gunmen in the northern province of Idlib a week ago, made the comments to a visiting Lebanese delegation late on Sunday.

“I say to the whole of Europe, I say to America: We will prepare our suicide bombers who are already with you if you bombard Syria or Lebanon,” Hassoun said in remarks broadcast by Al Jazeera television.

“From today an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”

(source)

Oslo: Pakistani uses religion to justify rape

Via FreeThoughNation:

The Oslo police recently came out with their annual report on rapes in the city. In a TV discussion on the report, a Norwegian girl described being raped by a Pakistani man:

“He said that he had the right to do exactly as he wanted to a woman. Why? Because that is how it was in his religion. Women did not have rights or opinions. He was in charge.”

More here.

The title of the clip “ALL Sexual Assaults ending in Rape commited by Non-Westerners” is misleading.

The clip discusses ‘assault rapes’, which are defined as rape by a stranger. These accounted for 13% of the total number of rapes in the city. There were 6 known rapists (counting repeat offenders per rape) in the assault-rape category, all of them non-Western (4 from the Middle East, 1 from Africa, 1 from Asia).

Around 59% of rapes were ‘relationship’ rapes (mostly non-Norwegian victims) or ‘party’ rapes (mostly Norwegian victims).

There were 131 unique rapists (152 rapists if repeat offenders are counted by rape). 54.2% were Western (Norway: 38.2%, Europe: 13.7%, America: 2.3%), and 45.8% were non-Western (Africa: 19.8%, Middle-East: 14.5%, Asia: 11.5%).

So, non-Western immigrants were over-represented, but it’s untrue to say that all rapists were non-Western immigrants.

‘Islamophobia in Europe is deep-seated’

Via Teheran Times:

Islamophobia in the United States is shallow and temporary while Islamophobia in Europe is deep-seated because of Europeans’ long history of warfare with the Muslim World, Dr. Muqtedar Khan says.

Muqtedar, an associate professor at the University of Delaware who teaches Arab and Middle Eastern politics, politics of development, globalization, and Islam in world affairs, made the remarks in an email interview with the Tehran Times on Sunday.

(…)

Q: You have spoken about the rising tide of Islamophobia in Europe and the United States. Could you explain the reasons behind this phenomenon and how Muslim communities in the EU and the USA should deal with it?

A: The reasons are separate in the EU and the U.S. because of several reasons. I think the European Islamophobia is deep-seated because of the long history of warfare with Muslims and because Islam is seen as genuinely transforming the identities (which have been stable for centuries) of European nation states. Danes have been white and Christian for ages. Now they are also becoming dark and Muslim and very rapidly.

I am confident that Islamophobia in the U.S. is shallow and temporary. Notice for example that the biggest supporters of the mosque project in New York (other than Muslims) were American Jews, and look how nearly everyone who mattered in the U.S. condemned the (call for) Quran burning. There are strong pockets of Islamophobia in the U.S., but I am confident that American Muslims and their allies in mainstream America can overcome the poison they spew.

Muslims in the West must engage with the mainstream society, participate in philanthropy, social service, and politics. When critical, they should be fair… They should distance themselves from the hateful messages that come from the Muslim World, respect pluralism, and Islamophobia will erode.

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Congratulations to the three winners of the Elenany Eid Giveaway. They are as follows:

Adibah from Malang, Indonesia: Testify! Shirt

Mariam A from London, UK: Throw Yo’ Hands Jumper Dress

Maresa V from Strand, South Africa: Summer Baggies

Thank you to everyone who sent in their inspiring answers! Here are the winning entries:

I like the “Salaam” graphic, because it symbolizes brotherhood or sisterhood, and peace. No more hatred when we shake hands with our sister (between sister and sister) and brother (between brother and brother). – Adibah

My answer to this question is Elenany graphic ‘Brotherhood’.

I like the different and wonderful colours of the praying men. For me it symbolises the fact that all true believers are alike. It even inspires me to say, Insha-Allah, each and one of us is part of the Islamic Ummah. We’re human beings from many geographical areas of the world; the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe, America and Australia. However, our diverse colours, in other words diversity, in terms of culture, tradition and last but not least physique bear little significance in relation to how we are guided to behave in the holy Quran. Hence, good treatment of people, be it family members or strangers, is considered important in Islam.

Our religion highly regards relationships between Muslims, and even Non-Muslims. Some hadith (or saying) from our scriptures state: “What actions are most excellent? To gladden the heart of a human being, to feed the hungry, to help the afflicted, to lighten the sorrow of the sorrowful, and to remove the wrongs of the injured.”

Brothers and likewise sisters have been ordered to not discriminate each other, but quite the opposite stand in strong faith side by side, like the men in the picture! They might be green, blue or whatever, but notice their yellow background, or in other words environment or common place in this earth, is the same. We all follow one religion, and we all must obey the creator of all creators, Allah (SWT). In addition, we’re all yet again going to be judged equally in the hereafter. – Mariam A

‘Salaam’. I have only recently become a Moslem and every time people say ‘Salaam’ to me it reminds me that I have so much more peace in my life. – Maresa V

Book Review: The Future of Islam

LibertyPhile posted a review of The Future of Islam by John L. Esposito. I have not yet read the book, but one point based on this review: Anybody who brings radicals such as Qaradawi and Ramadan as exemplary reformers, should also deal with the fact that they continuously threaten Europe and the Western World with a ‘Muslim takeover’. In fact, by claiming they are moderates, Esposito encourages ‘Islamophobia’ and the idea that there are no real moderate Muslims.

I bring here an excerpt:

(4) Muslims in the West

Esposito’s treatment of Muslims in the West is totally inadequate. We get the standard condemnation of hate preachers but what we mainly get is special pleading and an exiguous failure to understand the depth of the problem and to suggest any solutions.

This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog – islamineurope.blogspot.com

(4.1) Integration or What?

Despite the talk of integration and the idea of “European Muslims” or “American Muslims” rather than “Muslims in Europe” or “Muslims in America”, the discussion, the language, the examples, the arguments are always about Muslims as somehow different, a distinct and different class of people. They need understanding, consideration, because they are Muslims, a separate community!

The message seems to be, it is you Europe, you America, that has to change if we are to fit in. We are only going to identify with you if you change to suit us.

Esposito poses a question.

“Whether Muslim communities in America and Europe will be able to supply the financial and human resources necessary to build a strong self-sustaining community in the twenty-first century remains an important and unanswered question.” (p35)

Would Esposito speak about American black people in this way as if they should exist in some “community” of their own. Could that mean separate neighbourhoods, resources, institutions, just for them? Calling the community self-sustaining even requiring financial and human resources seems to say so. I think that’s called segregation. Perhaps segregation is what Muslims want. Surely Esposito should be talking about how individuals integrate into the community of all citizens.

The comments of Esposito’s reformers are instructive.

“For Mustafa Ceric, as for Ramadan and others, the successful encounter of Europe and Islam has two interconnected prerequisites: Muslims must embrace their European identity, and European governments must facilitate Muslims’ integration by accommodating and institutionalising their religious needs. [emphasis added]

…. European governments, he believes, will only gain the trust of the Muslim community when they institutionalize Islam through state sponsorship of Muslim schools, state councils, and mosques. [emphasis added] Ceric also emphasizes the importance of training European imams in Europe rather than in Muslim countries ..” (p114-115)

Winter starts by asking a sensible question:

“Are we Americans, or Canadians, or Britons, simply by virtue of holding a passport and finding employment? Or is this our emotional home?”

But then crassly rubs in Muslim separateness. He warns:

“An insulting guest will not be tolerated indefinitely even by the most courteous of hosts…. A measured, concerned critique of social dissolution, unacceptable beliefs, or destructive foreign policies will always be a required component of Muslim discourse, but wild denunciations of Great Satans or global Crusader Conspiracies are, for Muslims here, not only dangerous, but are also discourteous scarcely a lesser sin.” (p116)

Yes, Muslims are outsiders. It’s just that they need to improve their manners. And those denunciations, apparently acceptable if made by Muslims elsewhere, are dangerous (to the denunciator) and discourteous in the West itself.

Mustafa Ceric is more ambitious and even blunter. He says:

“Muslims must become educated and get organized. The strength and unity of Muslims in one country will strengthen the Muslim community in other countries.

…. If you are strong, united and organized here we will naturally be strong, united and organized in Bosnia, Kashmir, Palestine, and the rest of the world…. It is useless if only parts of that body are functioning and others are not: we all need to get our acts together.” (p115–117)

What does he mean by strength and unity? What are they going to do with this strength and unity? Would the leader of the Catholic Church in England speak like this about Catholics? The leaders of the Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, would they?

Many individual Muslims themselves seem set on marking themselves out as distinct and separate from the rest of their fellow citizens. I am a Muslim and I am different. We do this. We don’t do that. For a start, we dress differently and women don’t show their hair in public.
It is an appalling idea to ban a piece of clothing in a liberal democracy but the headscarf is a political badge and it represents something. It represents I believe I’m different from you and I’m superior. I don’t flaunt myself in front of strangers. You do.

On many western Muslim women a headscarf is also close to rank hypocrisy. The idea that it retains their modesty by concealing what men find attractive is a laugh. It was fascinating to see the headscarfed young Muslim women attending the recent British Council and Intelligence Squared debate [Ref 6] when Tariq Ramadan proposed the motion “Europe is failing its Muslims” (he lost, 51% to 37%, 12% undecided). So many of those headscarves were fashion items, some even flamboyant, designed to draw attention to the wearer. And some wearing jeans!

(more)

Source: LibertyPhile

Germany: A closer look at the demographics

A couple of days ago I published a news article about a recent comprehensive report on the immigrants in Germany.

According to this report, immigrants (and their descendants) make up about a third of the population in the 0-5 age group. Does this mean that in 20 years Muslims will make up a third of the population?

This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog – islamineurope.blogspot.com

The data comes from a 2008 ‘micro-census’, published by the German Federal Statistical Office. The data does not give the religion of the immigrants, but rather their national background.

I put the information together in a chart. As can be seen from the chart below, Turks make up about 3% of the total population in Germany. This is about 16% of the total number of immigrants.

(click the chart to enlarge)

There are more immigrants from the EU-27 countries (5%) and those who did not answer the question (~6%).

This last group is a very interesting one, and it is definitely growing, making up almost 18% of the total population in the 0-5 age group, and more than half of the total number of immigrants in that age group.

Are they Muslim? Not according to every other statistical measure. Muslims are estimated to be 4-5% of the total population, and most Muslims in Germany are Turks. Adding the ‘unknowns’ to the data as Muslims would mean that Muslims make up 9% of the total population in Germany today, and that Turks make up just a third of that.

Back to the Turks. While they make up 6% of the total population in the 10-15 age group, they make up less than 3% in the 0-5 age group. This drop shows up in absolute numbers as well: down from 234,000 children aged 10-15 to 81,000 aged 0-5.

Immigrants make up 34% of the children aged 0-5. A third of those are from Europe (17% from the EU-27 countries, and 17% from elsewhere in Europe). 8% are from Asia, Australia and Oceania, 3% from America, 4% from Africa. 51% are ‘unknown’.

I would love to get to some conclusions on this issue, but I find it impossible to do with that big group of ‘unknowns’.

What I do see from the given data is that the groups coming from Muslim majority areas (Turkey, Bosnia, Middle East, Southeast Asia) are either decreasing in population in the young children age groups, or are pretty much static.

Kosovo: Man seized, linked to North Carolina terror plot

A Kosovar man was arrested overseas and faces charges of participation in a terror plot involving several suspects from North Carolina, federal authorities said Thursday.

Bajram Asllani, 29, a resident of Mitrovica, Kosovo, is charged with providing material support to terrorists and conspiring to murder, kidnap, maim and injure people abroad, the Department of Justice said in a statement.

This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog – islamineurope.blogspot.com

He was arrested early Thursday in Kosovo on a provisional U.S. arrest warrant from the Eastern District of North Carolina. The United States will seek his extradition, authorities said. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 40 years in prison.

“People who are plotting to harm America and Americans are no longer a world away from us. This case began in Raleigh, N.C., and now stretches across the globe, a circumstance no one would have thought possible less than ten years ago,” said Owen D. Harris, special agent in charge of the FBI in North Carolina, in the statement.

Eight people were indicted last year in North Carolina on terror-related charges. According to a criminal complaint unsealed Thursday, Asllani was a member of the same conspiracy.

The April 19 criminal complaint, unsealed Thursday, alleges Asllani “solicited money from the conspirators to establish a base of operations in Kosovo for the purpose of waging violent jihad” and “accepted funds from the conspirators to help him travel.”

Kosovo, which declared independence more than two years ago, was once a restive province of Serbia with a majority ethnic Albanian population. Islam is Kosovo’s dominant religion in the Balkan nation.

The complaint alleges that Hysen Sherifi, one of the eight indicted last year, left Raleigh for Pristina, Kosovo, in 2008 “to pursue violent jihad” and formed a relationship with Asllani while in Kosovo.

Asllani allegedly provided Sherifi with videos to recruit militants and directed Sherifi to collect money to buy land, where weapons can be stored and a base of operation could be established.

(more)

Source: CNN

Netherlands: Dutch Hamas leader one of Gaza flotilla organizers

The Dutch Amin Abou Rashed (43), who was arrested by Israeli commandos on the ‘freedom flotilla’ by the coast of Gaza, is a top official in the Hamas terror organization, according to intelligence services.

This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog – islamineurope.blogspot.com

Yesterday Israel announced that all 600 foreign activists would be freed within two days. These include two Dutch: Rashed and Anne de Jong (29).

The originally Palestinian Rashed has a Dutch passport and operates from Rotterdam.

In his struggle against Israel the Dutch activist lost an arm in the past. The Dutch man is mentioned as one of the organizers of the ‘freedom flotilla’ on the official website of the Muslim Brotherhood, a movement that fights for Islamic domination.

“Rashed is the leader of Hamas in the Netherlands,” says an intelligence service source. “He appears by an alias, mainly Amin Abou Ibrahim, in several intelligence reports. He worked for the notorious Dutch foundation al-Aksa, which was suspected of collecting funds for the Hamas terror organization. He is also very active in the Palestinian Platform and Human Rights and Solidarity Foundation (PPMS),” says the intelligence agent.

Hamas is financed by worldwide Muslim ‘charity institutions’. The Dutch ‘Amin Abou Rashed’ was mentioned in connection to the Holy Land Foundation, a notorious charity organization which was charged in America for financing Hamas.

Source: Telegraaf (Dutch)

See also: Global MB Report

France: Muslim intellectuals criticize Obama’s hijab statement

In his June 4, 2009 Cairo speech, U.S. President Barack Obama emphasized that Muslim women in the U.S. are free to don the hijab. He said: “…Freedom in America is indivisible from the freedom to practice one’s religion. That is why there is a mosque in every state of our union, and over 1,200 mosques within our borders. That is why the U.S. government has gone to court to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab, and to punish those who would deny it.”[1]

Obama’s statements triggered strong criticism among Arab intellectuals in France, where for the past few years there has been an ongoing debate about the permissibility of wearing the veil in public.

This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog – islamineurope.blogspot.com

Following are excerpts from some of their reactions:

Reformist writer Dr. Abdelwahab Meddeb, a professor of comparative literature at the University of Paris X in Nanterre and author of the books The Malady of Islam (New York: Basic Books, 2003) and Counter-Preaching (Contre-Prêches, Seuil, Paris, 2006)[2] wrote: “Obama’s pertinent speech in Cairo was wrong in at least one respect. Let us say [for the sake of the argument] – though I find it difficult to do so – that women should be free to wear the veil. [Still, Obama] should have added that they must [also] be free to remove it.”[3]

Leila Barbès, a professor of religion and sociology at the Catholic University of Lille, also referred to the hijab issue, though not in direct response to Obama’s speech. She explained that, in the context of the veil, “free choice” was an illusion: “The moment [wearing] the veil is presented as a divine duty, the issue of free choice is no longer valid, [and] all Muslim women are exposed to [this religious] propaganda. How can we pretend they have a choice when they are told that [their] religion obligates [them to wear a veil]? The women [who wear] a full veil [i.e. a niqab, which covers everything but the eyes,] do so in order to comply with what is requested and expected of them by their husbands or their sect.”[4]

(more)

Source: MEMRI (English)

See also: France: Obama, Sarkozy on hijab in Europe

The Muslims are coming!

Is it Islamophobic to say that Europe would be overrun by Muslims?

This article was written by Aijaz Zaka Syed, a journalist from Dubai. Less than 20% of the people living in Dubai have citizenship, and the foreign workers, who make up the overwhelming majority, can forget about settling down. So why doesn’t Aijaz Zaka Syed think that Europe should treat its foreign workers the same way? What’s wrong with Dubai becoming Asian?

—————

No matter what Europeans think of Muslims and other recent arrivals, the continent badly needs new blood and ideas

Step out of Brussels South and you step back in time — into a different world that looks exotic in this part of the world but not out of place. This is the main train station that connects Belgium’s capital with Paris, London — thanks to Eurorail — and the rest of Europe.

This article was prepared by the Islam in Europe blog – islamineurope.blogspot.com

During a visit to the European Union headquarters a couple of years back, one was pleasantly surprised to see all those restaurants offering “halal” food and elderly Arab and Turkish gentlemen enjoying their cuppa of heady Turkish coffee and even an occasional shisha by the roadside cafe.

This is the heart of Europe, the seat of European Parliament and perhaps the capital of coming United States of Europe. With Arabs and Muslims living and working in this quintessentially European city, Brussels increasingly looks like Beirut, Istanbul or any other great city of the Middle East.

With its rich multicultural society and growing Arab and Muslim population — most of them arrived in the 1950’s and 60’s to work in its mines — Brussels is perhaps one of the finest examples of European multiculturalism and tolerance for diversity.

And it is not just Brussels. Scenes like these are increasingly familiar all across Europe — from London to Paris and from Berlin to Copenhagen to Amsterdam. Lately, things are changing though and changing fast. Belgian lawmakers recently voted to ban the Islamic veil even as their counterparts in neighboring France and Italy are working on their own measures to “tackle Islam.”

(….)

Every now and then, some of Europe’s most celebrated photographers and artists take time off to shoot and paint crowds of men and women in their birthday suit all in the name of some social cause or the other. All across the continent you can buy and sell sex like candy — across the counter without raising any sensitive eyebrows.

This is why one finds these growing European restrictions and “dress code” for Muslim women a little hard to digest and reeking of duplicity. But more than cultural imperialism — which is what this is — I believe this phenomenon has more to do with the growing Islamophobia in the West and bigotry of Eurabia mongers, as Pankaj Mishra called them in an incisive essay in the Guardian last year.

Of late, the European media has been buzzing with the talk of “Muslims are coming” and the “demographic time-bomb” that could turn Europe into Arabia or Eurabia.

In the past couple of years, there has been a flood of books howling about the coming “specter of Islam” which they claim will change Europe into an Islamic caliphate. Some of them even suggest the solution: Keep Muslims out of Europe — at any cost!

Check out this chilling suggestion from Canadian author Mark Steyn in his book, America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It: “In a democratic age, you can’t buck demography — except through civil war. The Serbs figured that out — as other Continentals will in the years ahead; if you can’t outbreed the enemy, cull ‘em.”

(…)

But no matter what wonks like Mark Steyn, Christopher Caldwell and Bruce Bawer, whose new book Surrender: Appeasing Islam, Sacrificing Freedom has been recommended by the New York Times as the essential “wake-up call” for the West, might like to do with Europe’s 53 million Muslims, or those of the United States, they aren’t going to go away anytime soon.

In fact, in years to come they could only grow in numbers coming as they do in droves from around the world from the impoverished parts of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Like them or hate them, Europe has to learn to live with its Muslims. Ditto for Muslims who must present the real, humane face of their faith before the world.

(more)

Source: Arab News (English), h/t The LibertyPhile