EU: ‘Being too Western’ reason for 71% of ‘honour’ killings

Via the Irish Independent:

Yes, it’s a cultural rather than a religious thing, stemming from some nasty tribal customs of South Asia and the Middle East, but though Hindus, Sikhs and the odd Christian might be perpetrators, the blunt truth is that honour killings are mainly Muslim-on-Muslim (91 per cent worldwide, 84 per cent North America, 96 per cent Europe).

Worldwide, two-thirds of victims (93 per cent women) were killed by their families of origin: 49 per cent in North America, 66 per cent in Europe and 72 per cent in Muslim countries. More than half the victims died in agony, having been either gang-raped or burned or stoned or beheaded or stabbed many times.

Being ‘too Western’ did for 58 per cent: this includes being insufficiently subservient, rejecting Islamic dress, wanting a career, having non-Muslim friends or boyfriends, rejecting an arranged marriage or leaving an abusive husband. This criterion covers 91 per cent of North American murders, 71 per cent of European and 43 per cent in the Muslim world. Offences against sexual propriety (eg being raped or accused of adultery) were the justification for the other murders.

(source)

Netherlands: Minister says imams should speak out against homophobia

Via spitsnieuws (Dutch):

Education Minister Van Bijsterveldt says all imams in the Netherlands should jointly speak against homophobic violence and support respecting gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders.

“I would really appreciate it if they do that, just like Christian churches did not so long ago,” she said yesterday during a meeting of SMN (Alliance of Moroccan-Dutch) in Utrecht. The minister said it would be a strong signal that everyone can be part of the Muslim community, regardless of sexual orientation, origin or culture.

Yesterday Van Bijsterveldt received the results of a three-year project of dialog meetings, expert meeting and school meetings that SMN conducted among Moroccans on accepting gays in their community. “It must really come from inside one’s own community, It can’t come from outside. That’s why I have such admiration for the courage of leaders and others who stand up in this community and support accepting gays,” she said.

Some experts say that the curriculum in elementary school should include attention to homosexuality. But Van Bijsterveldt says that’s up to the schools.

It was revealed yesterday that there’s certainly progress in the possibility of discussing homosexuality among Moroccans. More young Moroccan gay are coming out of the closet. Although exclusion and even abuse after ‘coming out’ is still not uncommon. NIP, the Dutch Institute of Psychologists, is concerned about the welfare of these youth.

“There are about 10,000 Muslim gay youth ages 15-25 in our country and they really run a high risk of severe mental, emotional problems,” says Michaël von Bönninghausen, NIP psychologist and head of the Crisis Intervention Network for School Psychologists. “It’s difficult for a Dutch youth to accept his homosexuality. For a Muslim youth it’s 10,000 times harder. Social workers, schools, sports clubs should see these youth and develop the expertise to guide them. These youth suffer more often from psychological problems like depression and drug abuse. They also often go into prostitution.

Denmark: DPP says Muslims are racist for sending children to private schools

Via Fyens Stiftstidende (Danish):

Alex Ahrendtsen, education spokesperson for the Danish People’s Party (DPP), said Muslim parents who send their children to private schools are ‘little racists’

Ahrendtsen was speaking to TV 2 NEWS, which reported that immigrant children go to private schools more than ethnic Danish children (14% of Danes vs. 15% of immigrant children)

“Arab, Turkish and Somali parents, they stick with their own. They marry their own, and they are not interested in meeting Danes and Danish society, who have reached out to them for 30 years,” Alex Ahrendtsen told TV 2 NEWS.

Newspaper Politiken reported today that the number of children in Muslim private schools increased by 25% over the past three years. Cultural sociologist Christian Horst (Aarhus University) says that it’s mostly the advantaged Muslim parents who reject the regular schools.

He told Politiken that those Muslim parents have gotten to the conclusion that the public schools aren’t good enough and that their children deserve better.

Education minister Christine Antorini (S) doesn’t want to point fingers are parents who prefer a Muslim school for their children.

“I think it’s just as troubling when Danish parents reject public schools. But in relation to immigrant students we have a problem, that we can see, that public school isn’t good enough to start them off professionally,” she told Politiken.

Europe: a Christian continent?

Via Today’s Zaman:

I think the biggest challenge for the future of Europe is to develop ways and forms of coexistence among the culturally and religiously diverse populations living on the continent. Instead of declaring multiculturalism dead, Europeans have to reinvent it.

For a start, they should stop imagining Europe as a historically and culturally Christian continent. Such an endeavor will open up cultural space to accommodate a non-Christian social presence in Europe.

(source)

Germany: Muslim car-pool service

Via TAZ (German, h/t Snaphanen)

Selim Reid (24) is the founder of MuslimTAXI, a Muslim ride-sharing service. The service is free, and is ad-supported. He says he thought of the idea because of complaints he heard that regular carpools don’t implement gender discrimination.

Reid immigrated from Iraq to Germany with his parents in 1996. He studied automotive and aircraft technology in Hamburg. He says he once organized a ride for his parents from Hamburg to Berlin, but when he brought his parents to the meeting point, it was clear that the driver did not like foreigners. The driver assumed the parents couldn’t understand German and since they couldn’t get off in the middle of nowhere, they had to listen to his rants the whole way.

Reid says his service is no different from how some Christian communities organize to help their members. He says non-Muslims are also invited to join.

His site allows people to choose the gender of the driver and passengers. He says until now it was difficult for Muslim women to use regular carpool services unaccompanied. He also says he’s heard of many affairs that started in such cars and that destroyed marriages.

He says the best thing about it is that it encourages Dawa. Since the Muslims who meet on his rides have only one thing in common – Islam. And this way other faiths get introduced to Islam. He goes on to say that Islam unites all religions and that there is only one true God.

Asked whether gender segregation isn’t a thing of the past, Reid answered that more and more people are converting to Islam, many of them women, and they adopt the headscarf of their own free will. Islam is unchanging and its principles are lasting, and so women will want to keep the headscarf even 1000 years from now. Islam is the true religion and since God is flawless, so is the religion he gave.

Reid says he already got 2,000 sign-ups, as well as thank-you calls and emails. He was also criticized, but he says that doesn’t mean he’s wrong.

Norway: Two Iranian converts attacked, called ‘kuffar’

Via Världen idag (Swedish):

Two Iranians who converted from Islam to Christianity were stabbed by masked me in Haugesund last week. The attacker shouted ‘Kuffar’ (Arabic for non-believer) during the attack.

The attack happened Tuesday evening, when both Christian Iranians were out walking in Haugesund. They were suddenly attacked by three masked men armed with knives, who shouted ‘kuffar’ while they stabbed the two.

A nurse passing by gave first aid and then an ambulance brought them to hospital, reports Haugesunds Avis.

According to the police, one of the victims was knifed twice in the back and the other was attacked with a stick in his side. No perpetrators have been caught.

The two victims want to remain anonymous and have not spoken of the assault. They’ve lived in Norway for many years. One of them converted in Norway, the other did so in Iran and managed to flee to Norway after he was abused and imprisoned for his faith.

They’re both active in a local evangelical church.

‘They’ve very active in the community, and have also bore witness to their faith during meetings,’ says their pastor, who also wants to remain anonymous, since he often travels to Muslim countries where Christians are persecuted.

He’s certain that the attack was religiously motivated. “I’m totally sure of it. Since the attackers shouted ‘kuffar’ during the attack, I have no doubt about it.”

He says he didn’t expect such things to happen in Haugesund. “It’s very dramatic and surprising. I didn’t take that into account. I hadn’t heard of threats against any coverts in the area.”

Germany/Switzerland: Honor killings

Two recent honor killing stories:

In Germany, five siblings are suspected of killing Kurdish Arzu Ö. (18) in November because they disapproved of her relationship with her boyfriend. The siblings, four brothers and a sister, have been held for months but refuse to cooperate with the policy. Arzu’s body was apparently found this week.

In Switzerland, a Pakistani is on trial for axing his daughter, Swera (16), to death. Swera’s Christian boyfriend also said her parents disapproved of her relationship with him. The father is on trial also for a previous unsuccessful murder attempt.

News catch up

Various news stories I haven’t been able to get to recently:

Sweden

* Islam was dropped from the curriculum in the Sundsvall high school. The school inspection service says that such a decision to exclude the religion should be carefully considered.

* Christmas morning Sweden Radio broadcast a rerun of a morning show where imam Abd al Haqq Kielan spoke about “Islam in Swedish”. Many listeners complained by Sweden Radio says they don’t understand the criticism, since there was no preaching on the program. The show’s producer says that he did not take into account the importance of the day for the show’s rerun. On the other hand, they will not put something similar on Easter, since it’s a Christian holiday, and will be more careful on Easter not to broadcast anything that might annoy listeners. (h/t Muslimska friskolan)

Netherlands

* The Amsterdam council supported a motion allowing illegal aliens to lodge complaints by the police without fear of being deported.

* There was a lot of criticism in the Hague when members of the Salafist As-Soennah mosque helped police patrol the streets on the New Year’s. The mosque participated in the municipal ‘role models’ project.

Belgium

* In Antwerp the court ruled a company is allowed to ban headscarves. In the case in question, security company G4S fired a Muslim woman who wore a headscarf, since their uniform policy forbids wearing any religious and political symbols. The court ruled that the woman was not fired for being Muslim, but because she did not follow company policy.

Norway

* 90% of Norwegians say the July 22 terror attack did not change their attitude towards immigrants. 6.9% say they now more positive and 1.7% say they’re more negative towards immigrants.

* 2nd generation immigrant youth now graduate at about the same rate as Norwegians (66% vs. 70%). About 50% of first generation immigrants graduate.

* The Country Governor of Oslo says schools are allowed to ban students from wearing hats or caps in class, but they cannot ban the hijab since it’s a religious practice,

* Halal Christmas meat has become more popular in Drammen this year. Keran Kacar, who runs a halal meat company, says he has sold three ton of such meat in November and December, a tripling since 2008. Kacar says he sells the meat also to restaurants and regular Norwegian families.

Denmark

* The number of non-Western immigrants who get early pension with disability increased nationally by 51% over the past five years.

* A new study on immigrants in the media shows that the media turn to immigrant sources for just 5% of its stories, focusing mainly on crime, social security and forced marriages, though immigrants make up 10% of the population.

* The average stay in asylum centers in Denmark is around 500 days. But there are 68 rejected asylum seekers have been waiting in such centers for more than 10 years, since it’s impossible to deport them and they refuse to leave voluntarily.

France: Muslim and Jewish celebrations ‘should be bank holidays’

Via France24:

France’s Green presidential hopeful raised heckles across the political spectrum Tuesday by suggesting that France should honour Muslim and Jewish festivals as well as Christian ones, by according them a national holiday.

Speaking in Paris on Wednesday at her first campaign rally, Green presidential candidate Eva Joly argued that national holiday status should be accorded to the Muslim festival of Eid-ul-Fitr and the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur.

Currently six of the 12 national holidays in France are Catholic calendar events, with the other six having no religious connotation.

(source)

Athens: Appeal against plans to build mosque

Via Today’s Zaman (h/t Qalam)

A group of Greeks that includes bishops, academics and military officers have appealed against a parliamentary bill that will allow the construction of a mosque in the Greek capital.

According to the Greek press, a petition submitted to the Council of State in December was signed by Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus, as well as a university professor, naval officers and five residents of the area in which the mosque is planned to be built. The appeal argues that the construction of a mosque would be in violation of the constitution and harmful for national unity. It also cites the high cost of the building project in the face of Greece’s financial crisis.

Known for his far-right views, Seraphim said the bill constituted an anti-Christian action and described it as disrespectful to Christian martyrs. He went on to condemn the Greek parliament for approving such a bill.

(source)