Norway: Breivik inspired by secret British anti-Islamic network Via Dagbladet : Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet reports that Anders Behring Breivik told police investigators he was inspired by a secret anti-Islamic network called the Four Freedoms Community (FFC). FFC is run by British businessman Alan Lake, who preaches his messages through person contact, business cards, and secret meetings in two churches in London. Dagbladet repeatedly tried to contact Lake without response

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UK: ‘Honour code’ supported by young Asians, poll says Via the BBC : Two-thirds of young British Asians agree that families should live according to the concept of “honour”, a poll for BBC Panorama suggests. Of 500 young Asians questioned, 18% also felt that certain behaviour by women that could affect her family’s honour justified physical punishment. These included disobeying their father, and wanting to leave an exisiting or prearranged marriage.

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UK: Meet the British lawyer fighting Islam, one parking ticket at a time Via Foreign Policy (h/t DW): The Mosquebusters, or the Law and Freedom Foundation as they’re officially known, are part of a new wave of anti-Islamic campaigners in England with links to more established anti-immigrant groups such as England Is Ours and Stop Islamisation of Europe. Like many of these groups, the Mosquebusters fear that traditional British culture, laws, and values will disappear with the changing face of Britain and worry that extremist interpretations of sections of the Koran urge Muslims to kill non-believers and take slaves.

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UK: Ministers pledge end of multiculturalism Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Via the Daily Mail : The English language and Christian faith will be restored to the centre of public life, ministers are to pledge today. Eric Pickles will praise the traditions and heritage of ‘the majority’ and describe multiculturalism as the politics of division. Public bodies should no longer ‘bend over backwards’ to translate documents into dozens of languages and migrants must be asked to learn English and understand the British way of life, the Communities Secretary will say

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Amsterdam: British clerics in heated debate, tells Muslim apostate he should be killed British Muslim cleric Haitham al-Haddad participated in a debate in Amsterdam this past Friday. Asked by a member of the audience who left Islam what the cleric thought of him, al-Haddad told him apostates should be killed in an Islamic country. In a previous discussion on stoning adulterers, Al-Haddad claimed that he had been approached by European women who had committed adultery and wanted to go to a Muslim country to be stoned for their bad deeds

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UK: MPs consult Abu Hamza on causes of radicalisation This is from the same Guardian article as my previous post , but I thought it deserved its own post. Via the Guardian : (…) The MPs do conclude that there may be growing support for nonviolent extremism within the Muslim community, fed by feelings of alienation and a sense of grievance, and this is a challenge for society and the police. They recommend that tackling Islamophobia and demonstrating that the British state is not antithetical to Islam should constitute a big part of the official Prevent strategy designed to counter the ideology that feeds violent radicalisation.

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UK: Muslim airline pilot ’sacked because of religion’ Via Asian Image : A Muslim airline pilot who was sacked after links were discovered to two suspected terrorists told an employment tribunal today that an “air of suspicion” had been created around him because of his race and religion.

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UK: Why British Muslim women struggle to find a marriage partner Via the Guardian : First, there has always been a tradition for British men originating from the Indian subcontinent to marry women from their country of origin. Families encourage their sons to do so for a host of reasons, including the cultural expectation that girls from “back home” will stay with and look after their in-laws. The second trend is for Muslim men to marry “women of the book” (Christian or Jewish women), which is permissible in Islam

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UK: Imams must reach out to youth, says cleric Via ENInews : Imams at British mosques have let down a generation of young Muslims by failing to reach young people who sometimes end up in prison, Ibrahim Mogra, chair of the mosque and community affairs committee of the Muslim Council of Britain, said. Following the publication of a report showing that the number of Muslims in British prisons has rocketed over the last 20 years, Mogra told ENInews in an interview on 11 January that most Muslim clergy and mosques have finally realized that in houses of worship they are preaching only to the converted

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UK: ‘Muslims are not betraying Islam in embracing liberal democracy’ Via the Guardian (by Turkish journalist Mustafa Akyol): It is far better to propose Islam than impose it, for if there is no liberty there can be no genuine religiosity Last week, during a book tour in London, I spoke to a large group of British Muslims on Islam and liberty. A few of the questions that I received from the audience indicated why discussion on this topic is much needed.

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