Spain: Moorish revival

Via BBC:

A thousand years ago North African Muslims ruled southern Spain. Now some of their descendants are contributing to a “Moorish revival” that is regenerating parts of Andalucia, says the BBC’s Sylvia Smith.

Sitting in Abdul Hedi Benattia’s tea shop you forget for a moment where you are.

The sound of sweet mint tea being poured into tiny glasses, the murmur of Arabic in the background, and piles of almond cornes de gazelle, served to customers sitting on low sofas, all suggest Morocco or Tunisia.

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

But step outside the shop and walk a few metres downhill and you are in Granada, Spain.

This teteria, or tea shop, is just one of dozens that festoon the historic area and have come to symbolise a significant change in the culture and economics of an important part of the city.

It was the opening of a tea shop alongside the city’s first neighbourhood mosque that ignited the North African renaissance in Granada, according to Said Ekhlouf from Tetouan in northern Morocco.

He and his fellow shop owners took over empty properties, breathing fresh life into a previously run-down area.

“Before we set up shop, few people dared walk down this street, especially in the evening,” he explains.

“Everything was boarded up and the only people you’d meet were junkies and prostitutes. But we have turned this street into one of the most popular.”

The transformation is eye-catching. Dozens of brightly coloured, open-fronted stalls sell all kinds of Moroccan and Tunisian handicrafts, and the only music you will hear is Arabic, interspersed with the call to prayer.

Taking advantage of low property prices, the first arrivals in the 1980s colonised the Calderia Nueva and began, unwittingly, to introduce a modern version of Islamic Andalucian culture.

Abdul Hedi Benattia, who is a Tunisian historian as well as owning a restaurant and tea shop, claims that Islam as practised in Granada is very close to the original tolerant religion that spread across North Africa and through most of the Iberian peninsula from the 7th Century until the 14th Century.

“We accept our Christian neighbours and respect their traditions,” he says. “We didn’t set out specifically to recreate peaceful co-existence, but at times you can’t help but reflect that this is exactly what has happened”.

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Amal Murad is a talented abaya designer from the UAE, whose work is frequently on the runways at Dubai Fashion Week (see her website for photos). Below is a recent interview of hers, and unfortunately it’s in Arabic, but you can forward to 5:15 to see some video footage of her runway shows:

Amal has also recently been involved in judging an abaya design competition called Arwa’a Abaya on MBC. You can watch the episodes on the persilabayaworld YouTube channel; this is part 1 of the finale, what did you think of the designs?

Germany: Exit programme for Islamists

Germany aims to tackle a growing threat from Islamic extremists with an exit programme modelled on assistance for repentant neo-Nazis, authorities said Monday.

“We plan to offer a hotline and a website for people who have fallen under the influence of fundamentalists, Islamists or terrorists,” Heinz Fromm, head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the domestic intelligence agency, told reporters.

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

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told the news conference that the service would be available in a few weeks’ time.

Militants wanting to turn their backs on extremism will be put in contact with “trained personnel who are capable of offering help to people in German but also in Arabic or Turkish,” Fromm said.

“We think it will be a useful effort, even though it is modest, to take a preventative approach to this problem,” de Maiziere said.

(…)

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution launched a similar programme for right-wing extremists in 2001.

It said it has received about 1,040 calls to the hotline since it was established, about 300 of them from former extremists seeking help.

About 120 of them have received or are receiving “intensive assistance” in reorienting their lives, the office’s website said.

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Source: Expatica-AFP (English)

Sweden: Manifesto for Muslim Social Democrats

The Swedish Social Democrats established a special section on their site (h/t Snaphanen) for Muslim social democrats, which includes a manifesto, information about their journal “Islam and Politics” and a clip from a conference the party held in the fall about why 70% of Muslims vote for the party, and why Muslims should vote for left-wing (red) parties. The manifesto is available in Swedish, English, Arabic and Somali.

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

Being a Muslim is about having an identity that means different things to different people. The first group of Muslims are the individuals who adhere to the religion of Islam and its teachings, and may practise Islam to varying degrees. Then there is another group who identify themselves as Muslims, have a Muslim identity, but are not necessarily practising. A large number originate from a country where the majority follow Islam or that is a Muslim state. Many in this group do not always identify themselves as believers.

Being a Social Democrat is about having an idea for building society together, which we feel goes hand in hand with Islam’s sense of fairness and justice. The land of opportunity is a Sweden based on the insight that we are stronger together, that a good society is built on everyone working and contributing to society according to their ability and everyone being supported by society according to their need. The key is the equality that creates equal opportunities for freedom. That gives the individual the opportunity to grow, to always have new chances to achieve success and to realise their life’s adventure. A Social Democrat wants everyone involved.

An active political fight for freedom, equality and solidarity lies at the heart of Social Democracy, and for us it is also a question of the best way to turn the Koran’s message from words to action.

The following eight points in this manifesto are for and by those who identify themselves as Muslim Social Democrats.

1. We are Muslim Social Democrats, believers fighting for peace, solidarity and justice. What unites us is the progressive fight for an open and democratic society, we are a little redder, a little greener.

2. We consider Muslims to be part of Sweden and to have the same rights and responsibilities as everyone else, to follow the nation’s laws, to live with and show respect for our fellow citizens.

3. We want to see an open and democratic society. We seek the right to build mosques wherever they are needed, to have Halal food in schools, at conferences and on courses, to have requests for time off for Friday prayers and religious festivals treated sympathetically, and a society where the right to be treated well with or without a veil can be taken for granted.

4. We strive for a world free from superiority and subordination, without class difference, without rifts, inequality and oppression on grounds of skin colour, religion or gender, where everyone is needed and everyone has a place, where everyone has the same rights and value to society.

5. We are a movement that works to counter the stigmatisation of Muslims and that also works against all forms of self-isolation. There is no conflict between being Swedish and being Muslim.

6. We stand for a pluralistic and democratic society that feeds curiosity and interest in different ways of life, even those that seem incomprehensible. We oppose an authoritarian and restrictive society that feeds challenge and conflict.

7. We believe that all people must have the freedom to choose their own life and the right to their religious convictions and practices, in accordance with our democratic laws. It is only in respect for the lifestyle of others that we can gain a true sense of freedom and justice in society.

8. We want to see an open social climate where people do not see difference as a threat, but take different lifestyles and norms seriously and see the opportunities.

Source: English manifesto, PDF

See also:

* Sweden: Christian Social Democrats turn to Muslims

* Sweden: 80-90% of Muslims vote for the Left

France: Muslim girls flee to private school

When 17-year-old Shainez Dib announced she wanted to start wearing a hijab as a deeper expression of her religious faith, her mother advised against it, telling her daughter she was not yet mature enough. Just because she could, since she was now attending a Muslim private school, didn’t mean she should.

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

“To wear a veil means you can no longer do foolish things,” said Dib, who ultimately followed her mother’s advice. “You have to adapt your behavior.”

Instead, Dib continued wearing a headscarf, since she no longer had to remove it at her school’s entrance like her friends still attending public school, where covering one’s head as a religious symbol is against the law. A nationwide ban in 2004 outlawed all such symbols in the public sphere.

“If I am to amuse myself wearing it on weekends and not during the week, it becomes a game and that’s not good,” said Dib, who is looking forward to turning 18 in November so she can don a full veil — provided she is ready.

Dib spent more than a year on a waiting list before she could transfer for her second year of high school to Reussite, one of the first Muslim private schools in France.

Several associations and activities are grouped under the umbrella of Reussite, which translates into “success.” The school first opened in 2001 in the drab and densely populated suburb of Aubervilliers, just northeast of Paris. The district is usually associated more with the rioting that erupted there in 2005 than with achievement.

Back then, the school had a handful of middle school students, but today 138 pupils in junior and senior high school (the equivalent to American grades 6-12) study there. Many girls come specifically because of problems they’ve had in public schools related to the veil ban, said Belkhier Okachi, the school’s treasurer.

The school has become a victim of its own success and regularly turns away students in order to keep class sizes small — the average is 24 — so students can benefit from individual attention from teachers.

“This is supposed to be the worst district, the district that can’t do anything, the darkest district that has ever existed,” said Patrice Waridel, the school’s director since 2003. “That’s false. There are extraordinary young people here.”

Recognized by the state, the school follows the same national curriculum as its public school counterparts, Waridel said, with some notable differences. Students are required to take Arabic language classes as well as one hour of religion per week. Although the midday prayer is not a requirement, most students participate in the 15-minute exercise.

The school’s enrollment is almost equally split between girls and boys, although it enrolls slightly more girls because they have a harder time in public schools, Waridel said. In addition to allowing girls to wear veils, the school makes other accommodations for their religion, for example allowing girls who are menstruating (a period during which they are considered impure) to go discreetly to a private room during the midday prayer. Male and female students attend the same classes but sit separately. They eat in separate lunchrooms but are grouped together for some recreational activities.

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Source: Global Post (English)

Netherlands: Muslim converts to Christianity live in fear

Muslims who become Christians in the Netherlands often have to deal with persecution. Harassment by former coreligionists are on the order of the day, and death threats come regularly. The Gave foundation is sounding the alarm. Other sources confirm the threats.

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

“People think that threats aimed at Muslims who’ve become Christians only happens in Muslim countries like Morocco or Iraq” says Johanna Marten, team leader of the Arabic work at the Gave foundation, an inter-church organization which helps churches with missionizing among asylum seekers. “Many people in the Netherlands have no idea of the problems that Muslims in the Netherlands encounter when they become Christian. They don’t know that also in the Netherlands there are concrete threats and attacks in the name of Islam.”

Marten and the people on his team hear every month of ‘one or two serious death threats’ towards the ex-Muslims they guide, he says. “Often we hear of people who have to deal with physical violence.”

In the Netherlands, about 200 Muslims converted to Christianity last year. In the Friesland police they don’t know of complaints of threats which were made by converted Muslims, says spokesperson Irene Sloot. “In this type of cases complaints aren’t made so quickly.” According to Marten, ex-Muslims usually skip it out of fear.

Eerde de Vries, chairman of the Dutch-Arabic services of the Reformed-Liberated Morgenster Church in Leeuwarden, says he knows of the tensions with which ex-Muslims have to deal with. Twice a year the church holds a service in Arabic, for which about 80 Arabic speakers show up. “The atmosphere becomes grimmer. I sometimes also hear of concrete death threats. In the most recent one, somebody with whom we have contact, got death threats by SMS. Additionally I hear of people who ’simply’ get beaten up.”

For the safety of those involved, De Vries proposed to only use fictional name in the church paper of the municipality when naming Muslims who converted to Christianity. De Vries wants to hold Arabic services on the Sundays when shops are open. “So that it won’t attract attention in the asylum centers when people go out the door. Nobody has to know that they’re going to church.”

Islam scholar and director of the scientific institute for the ChristianUnion party, Gert-Jan Segers, knows of the problems. He lived seven years in Egypt and saw that it always causes tension when a Muslim converts to Christianity. “In the Muslim world, freedom of religion is structurally trampled upon. With the arrival of Muslims in the Netherlands, that culture was imported to the Netherlands.”

Segers says that freedom of religion is very important. “It affects freedom of expression. But besides the Christian parties and the VVD, you don’t hear anybody on the subject.” He says that on this point there should be tough demands on the integration of Muslims. “If Islam wants a permanent place here, then Muslims should come to an agreement on freedom of religion. It should be made clear to any Muslim who comes into the Netherlands that physical violence won’t be tolerated also in this field. It could lead to deportation, because it totally conflicts with what our country stands for.”

Source: Friesch Dagblad (Dutch)

Odense: Somalis vs. Arabs

At least one shot was fired during a fight between a group of Somalis and Arabs in Vollsmose in Odense, Denmark.

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

On Wednesday night the Bøgeparken in Vollsmose in Odense was the site for a mass brawl between a group of Somalis and a group of Arabs.

“We got a report of shots at 1:08am. When we came out there, about 30 people were in the middle of a big brawl,” says Kim Munksgaard of the Fyn police.

Deputy police chief Jack Liedecke says that with the help of dogs they found a cartridge from a 9mm weapon which had been fired.

Nobody was hit by the shots, but a 24 year old Somali man was attacked and hit with bats by six men of Arabic origin, says the police agent. He’s now in the Odense University hospital, but is now out of danger.

At the site the police found a hunting rifle and several bulletproof vests.

Police arrested 11 people, who were all interrogated by early Thrusday.

It’s unclear what was the reason for the brawl. Jack Liedecke: “It’s not the first time we see youth of Somali background and youth of Arab background quarelling with each other in the area, but we don’t completely know what it’s about.”

Sources: Berlingske Tidende, Fyens Stiftstidende (Danish)

Netherlands: Dutch anthem in Moroccan

A Dutch artist created a Moroccan version of the Dutch anthem.

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

Yuri Veerman says his clip, showing a Moroccan woman in an orange [ed: Dutch-colored] skirt singing the Dutch anthem in Moroccan [ed: in fact, Arabic] is a response to the ‘current populist-nationalist politics’.

YouTube

Source: Telegraaf (Dutch)

Netherlands: “Draw Mohammed Day”

Kurt Westergaard, the famous Danish Mohammed cartoonist, says the Facebook “Draw Mohammed Day” initiative is good for freedom of speech. “the initiative is seen as a protest for freedom of speech, where Mohammed and my cartoon have become icons for this culture battle,” he told the Journalisten magazine. He says there’s a risk that it can inspire terrorism, but that this isn’t something that should repress us. (DA)

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In Rotterdam, Mohammed cartoons were posted in various public places:

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Mohammed Mohandis, PvdA (Dutch Labor Party) candidate for parliament, removed a parody of the Danish Mohammed cartoon with his face from the Jonge Socialisten (Young Socialists) Amsterdam site.

In the context of the international “Draw Mohammed Day”, held in solidarity with cartoonist who are threatened for their cartoons of the Islamic prophet, the Amsterdam youth division of the PvdA put an edited portrait of Mohandis on the site.

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

Mohandis wore a turban, just like the prophet in the famous Kurt Westergaard cartoon. In place of a fuse there was a PvdA rose in the bomb. The text on the turban was changed for the Arabic word for love and above it said “On June 9th you can vote for our prophet Mohamed.”

“We think that everybody worldwide has the right to express his or her vision on anything by means of ridicule or satire,” said the accompanying text. “To quote the words of our chairman Mohammed Mohandis: “Offense belongs to freedom of speech, and that is a great thing.”

But the image wasn’t there long before Mohandis, the national chairman of the Jonge Socialisten, asked it be removed. He explains: “This was an initiative of the Jonge Socialisten Amsterdam. Previously I was contacted and I said in a sort of intoxication draw what you want. But this goes too far. I’m for freedom of speech, but I am personally depicted. I hadn’t seen that in advance, and I think it shouldn’t have been submitted to me.”

“I have no interest in being portrayed like that. It should be about freedom of speech, about the issue, and not about me.” Mosselman had asked Mohandis via Twitter for a photo for ‘Draw Mohammed Day”, and he had pointed to a photo [of himself] on his website.

the initiator and board member of the Jonge Socialisten in Amsterdam Arne Mosselman responded with deep disappointment. “It was a playful manner to say: Mohandis is our prophet, vote for him. And with the rose and the word love our message was: it’s possible.” Mosselmen wasn’t only called by Mohandis, but got various calls from the ‘heart of the PvdA, from the campaign’ saying that the picture should be removed. It would be harmful to the campaign.

“I think it was good for the campaign,” says Mosselman. “Anybody who is not a fundamentalist, thought it was great. And fundamentalists aren’t going to vote for you.”

Mosselman does admit that portraying Mohandis this way bears a security risk. “I think that’s most regrettable. That leads to censorship. And we’re doing that too now.”

Mosselman is now considering voting for Femke Halsema of GroenLinks. “That party does too little for integration, but at least has principles.”

Sources: De Pers , NU.nl (Dutch), h/t NRP