Book Review: Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth?

Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth?: Demography and Politics in the Twenty-First Century by Eric Kaufmann

Via The Observer, Kenan Malik’s review:

Europe, 2020. The Islamists have stormed to power across the continent. Every French woman is forced to be veiled. Holland’s gay clubs have been relocated to San Francisco.

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

Kaufmann is sceptical of the idea that Europe will soon become a Muslim continent. He accepts that Muslims are predominantly young, have a higher fertility rate, are more devout than other groups and rarely marry out. But while Muslim fertility rates may be relatively high, they are plummeting. In Britain, for instance, the fertility rates of Bangladeshis and Pakistanis have fallen from almost 10 children per couple to under three in 40 years. The drop is partly the result of fertility rates falling in immigrants’ home countries, and partly the result of assimilation to local norms. By 2030, the fertility rates of European Muslims are expected to resemble those of the majority population. By the start of the next century, he expects around a fifth of Europeans to be Muslim.

But there is a kicker in his argument. The real problem is an “emerging ‘culture war’ between fundamentalists of all faiths and those who back the secular status quo” in which Islamists, Christian fundamentalists and orthodox Jews join forces to establish a “new era of religious politics” and “an unprecedented European desecularisation”. Since “fertility differences based on theology do not fade like those based on ethnicity”, fundamentalist victory is assured. For Kaufmann, Europe appears doomed because fundamentalists of every kind are multiplying far more than their liberal cousins while secularists are failing even to replace their numbers. Is this any more plausible than the arguments of the fantasists of Eurabia?

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Kaufmann recognises this distinction between peoples and values. His Europe will be convulsed not by a clash of civilisations between the west and Islam but by a war of values between secularists and fundamentalists.

Nevertheless, he still makes his argument on the terrain of demography. And therein lies the problem. Secularism and fundamentalism are not ideas stitched into people’s DNA. They are, like all values, absorbed, accepted, rejected. A generation ago, there were strong secular movements in Muslim communities and fundamentalism was a marginal force. Today secularism is much weaker, and Islamism much stronger. This shift has been propelled not by demographic changes but by political developments.

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Whether or not the religious will triumph, no one can say. What is certain is that if they do, it will not be because secularists have been out-bred, but because they have been out-thought. The real challenge they face is not in bed but in the public square.

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Today Hijab Style brings you a quick interview with Katrin Meyer, founder of the Moroccan-based hijab company Modiste.

Jana: Tell us a little about yourself?

Katrin: Salaam alaikum! I’m a revert to Islam, German, living and working at the gateway between East and West. Upon completing my studies of Islam in 2001 I worked long-time as assistant of an Arab ambassador in Berlin. From this exposed position I witnessed over the last decade the increasingly negative image of Islam in the West, marked by associations such as aggressiveness, oppression of women and backwardness.

This discrepancy between Islam’s timeless beauty and truth and its contrary outside perception has since been my great concern because it has far-reaching consequences: It prevents Muslims living in Western societies from an equitable participation in the social and political life.

Jana: What’s the idea and ethos behind Modiste?

Katrin: The negative image of Islam doesn’t have anything to do with its essence. Rather with some of its outer forms of appearance and wrong conclusions of those who don’t know better. In order to rectify this distorted picture, it’s certainly not the message that has to be changed, but rather the way of communicating it. Fashion is unique in the sense that it is a subtle medium of communication with an immediate effect.

Modiste hijabs are designed to reflect the universality of a divine religion. Islam by its very nature is vital and progressive and not necessarily Oriental. The misconceptions about Islam – oppression of women, lack of innovation – are actually a reflection of the current state of Oriental social structures. Our major goal is to empower Muslim sisters through a style of clothing that is less charged with connotations.

At the same time we want to simplify hijabi life style. All our hijabs are simply pulled over the head, no need to wrap, pin or knot. Maybe it is because of my European background, but I’ve never got used to the traditional headscarf. It might look good if you’re skillful, but it’s not practical. We would like to offer an alternative to those, who feel the same.

Germany: Iranian bank investigated for evading sanctions

Via Reuters:

Germany’s financial market watchdog is investigating a report that an Iranian-owned bank in Germany is helping the Islamic Republic do business linked to its nuclear programme, the government said on Monday.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the European-Iranian Trade Bank AG — called EIH Bank in Germany — has done more than one billion dollars’ worth of business for Iranian firms, including some blacklisted by the United Nations, the United States and the European Union.

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

Citing Western officials, the newspaper said EIH “appears to have been involved” in a broad sanctions-evasion scheme, doing deals for Iran’s state-run Bank Sepah, which is under international sanctions for aiding Iran’s sensitive nuclear work.

(Photo, Spiegel)

Germany’s Finance Ministry said the central bank and financial market watchdog BaFin were investigating the matter.

“The banking oversight currently has no findings about the infringements reported, but BaFin and the Bundesbank are investigating these accusations against this bank,” ministry spokesman Michael Offer told a news conference.

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Italy: The Catholic Church theology of helping immigrants

Via LA Times:

Visually speaking, the John Paul II Canteen is more IKEA cafe than soup kitchen. Tucked away in a pleasant hillside neighborhood in Rome, it has clean lines, attractive furniture, track lighting and framed photographs, making it a welcome oasis for the immigrants who stream in daily from shelters, homeless camps and overcrowded apartments.

Strolling down the cafeteria line on a recent day, canteen coordinator Maurizio deStefano boasted about the quality of the free food, which today included farfalle pasta and meatballs, spinach, boiled eggs, cheese, bread and apples.

“The thing is,” he said, “there are so many Muslims that the menu often doesn’t have pork on it.”

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

That may be sacrilege in some Italian culinary circles — no prosciutto? no spaghetti alla carbonara? — but it’s hardly unexpected, considering Muslims are the largest group of immigrants in Italy. Still, as the name suggests, the John Paul II Canteen is run by Roman Catholics, not Muslims. Therein lies an interesting dynamic.

In Europe, as in the United States, the Roman Catholic Church has assumed a leading role as a protector of, and advocate for, immigrants. But whereas the largest bloc of migrants to the United States are Catholic, the majority of European immigrants are Muslim.

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“For the church, the perspective is … the right of the human person to be treated with dignity,” said Father Federico Lombardi, the chief Vatican spokesman. “It is a general principle; it’s not just a religious principle. It is more profound.”

European nationalists, Catholics among them, worry about the Islamicization of Europe, but the Vatican itself has been steadfast in its support for immigrants. If anything, Vatican officials see the growing secularization of Europe as a greater threat.

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“It’s a theological conviction,” said Luigi Accattoli, a veteran Vatican correspondent for the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

“But,” he added, “there’s also a very modern reason. It’s due to the strong convictions that [ Pope] John Paul II had on this subject, and this was due to his experience as a Pole. The Poles immigrated all over the world, and the Poles were political refugees who were escaping communism. And so John Paul II formulated a kind of right to immigration, and he did it very forcefully.”

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There are those who believe the church could reap some benefits in showing kindness to Muslim immigrants in Europe.

For one, Pope Benedict XVI has spoken out recently about his concern for the treatment of Christians in predominantly Muslim countries. By treating Muslims well in Europe, one line of thinking goes, the church could influence the way Catholics are treated in the Mideast and elsewhere.

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Some European Catholics also suggest that the presence of so many Muslims, who are more visible in their faith than others in Europe, might, in effect, shock non-practicing Catholics back to their faith.

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France: Rioting after police kill suspected robber

Via DW-World:

Rioters torched cars, looted shops and shot at police in the French Alpine city of Grenoble Saturday after police shot dead a man who allegedly held up a nearby casino the night before.

The riots began around midnight in the Villeneuve suburb of Grenoble, after a memorial to 27-year-old Karim Boudouda, the alleged robber, who was a Villeneuve resident.

The violence flared when police tried to intervene in the attack of a streetcar held up by brushfire, police spokeswoman Brigette Julien told the AFP news agency. A group of about 30 youths had attacked the tram with baseball bats and iron bars, forcing out passengers.

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

After police arrived, the youths began burning cars, setting between 50 and 60 vehicles ablaze. Gunfire ensued, with police returning fire four times.

(photo, AFP)

No one was injured in the riots, according to police, who arrested two men aged 18 and 20 for burning cars and three others for attempting to loot shops.

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“This is Beirut. I swear, it’s Beirut!” exclaims one Villeneuve resident at the sight of police cars passing with sirens blaring. In the night sky a police helicopter passes above the buildings, with lights and infrared to film the crowd. The riot police try to circle elusive small groups of youth who are breaking everything in their path. A dozen of them, some with their faces masked with a while T-shirt, destroy two bus-stops with baseball bats.

“The youths told me: You killed one of ours. In any case, you’re a dirty race, we’ll kill you too,” a policeman deployed to Villeneuve says, confirming the hatred against the police expressed by many local youth. “Anybody European, we’ll shoot down,” he says he’s heard.

Local residents of all ages, elderly and children, took to the streets to watch the violence, and to express their anger. Passing the riot police, one elderly woman shouts: “Go home!”.

“The cops, when you need them, they’re never there, zero. And when you don’t need them, they come. All of this is because of them,” says a young woman in a blue djellaba, who took to the street late at night, while the police were shooting flash-balls in the air to disperse the groups.

“All the mothers, they came and they saw the bodies on the ground. What does it all mean. The children are shocked. The cops are dogs,” adds a woman in thirties wearing the full veil.

A group in their sixties laments: “The youth are messing around. they have nothing in their heads. We don’t need another death, it serves nothing,” one of them throws out.

Source: TF1 (French)

Update via Daily Mail:

Locals accused armed officers of overreacting by gunning down Boudouda, allegedly as he tried to give himself up.

A Grenoble police spokesman said: ‘There has been a very fierce reaction. As mourners gathered in a park to hear Muslim prayers for the dead man late on Friday night, trouble broke out. By Saturday morning tear gas was being used on the youths.

At about 2.30am a handgun was used to fire shots at the police. A youth was arrested, which seemed to make matters worse. The trouble went on until morning.’

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Al-Qaeda vs. Cartoons

The new Al-Qaeda magazine ‘Inspire’ includes a death threat against various people who made their mark in recent years in the Islam in Europe debate.

Almost all of them are European, and not one of them is on the list for anti-Islam laws.

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

Who did make the list?

Lars Vilks and Ulf Johannson (Sweden, cartoonist and editor who published Muhammed cartoon)

Kurt Westergaard, Flemming Rose, Carsten Juste (Denmark, cartoonist and editors who published Muhammad cartoon)

Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Netherlands/US, ‘Submission’)

Geert Wilders (Netherlands, ‘Fitna’)

Salman Rushdie (UK, ‘The Satanic Verses’)

Molly Norris (US, ‘Everybody Draw Mohammed Day’)

(photo)

Two Dutch politicians made the list: Geert Wilders and (former MP) Ayaan Hirsi Ali, but they got on that list for making movies, not laws.

Who is not the list? The European far-right, for example. People who publicly express anti-Muslim sentiments. European politicians who pushed for laws against burkas, veils and minarets.

This can serve as a notice to all European politicians. According to al-Qaeda, a cartoon depicting Muhammad is much worse than a law banning burkas or minarets. And on the other hand, if you want instant notoriety in terrorist circles, all you really need to do is to be European and draw a cartoon or make a movie and you might soon find yourself facing the man with the Golden Gun.

Netherlands: Muslims unfazed by rise of anti-Islamic party

Via Hurriyet:

The rise of an anti-Islamic political party in recent Dutch elections leaves some Muslims in the Netherlands concerned for their future. Others, however, say the hostility is unlikely to last long because it is only a symptom of a lack of knowledge about the religion and does not reflect the day-to-day reality of their experience

Although Dutch voters gave the anti-Islamic party a boost in recent elections, Muslims in the Netherlands predict the hostile political atmosphere will be short lived, an idea bolstered by the fact that they are facing no increase in discrimination.

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

In the recent general elections, Geert Wilders’ far-right Party for Freedom, or PVV, recorded significant gains and ended in a strong third place, with 24 seats out of 150 in parliament. Wilders campaigned on a platform that included ending immigration from Muslim countries and instituting a ban on new mosques and the Quran.

With coalition talks ongoing since the shock of Wilders’ election victory and debates continue over his possible participation in the Cabinet, many immigrants and Dutch people think the far-right’s surge in popularity is a temporary situation and does not reflect what they encounter in daily life. And, generally, they don’t take Wilders seriously.

“Although we don’t receive the anti-Islam party’s election success favorably and describe Wilders as a racist, we believe that this was not because of increasing discrimination in this country,” İslam Erkal told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review. He also said he thought the political atmosphere would change soon.

The negative image that minorities in Holland – especially Turks – face is nuanced: Religious stereotypes, as evidenced by Gert Wilders’ party, that depict Muslims as criminals and the question of whether immigrants are integrating into European society remain as obstacles.

The Turkish Institute in the Netherlands serves to eradicate these prejudices by informing Dutch society about Turkey and its people. “It’s been two-and-a-half years since we were founded,” Turkish Institute Director Lily Sprangers said. “We still need time to change Turkey’s image.”

Whether Turkish immigrants have integrated into Dutch society is still debated, even within the Turkish community. “We can’t say Turkish immigrants have integrated into Dutch society yet,” said Zihni Özdil, program manager at the Turkish Institute. He said Turks in the Netherlands rank lowest among immigrants in the country when it comes to participating in social activities.

“The question is whether Turkish immigrants are going to become Turkish Dutch or whether they will segregate themselves,” he said. Integration means “the Dutch will become a little bit Turkish and the Turkish will become a little bit Dutch. But except in some underdeveloped countries, there is no example of this kind of ideal integration.”

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EU: Seeking to combat homegrown terrorism

Five years after the London bombings, in which 52 people died, homegrown terror remains a concern across Europe. More dialogue and a coordinated strategy is how EU countries hope to tackle the problem.

Homegrown terrorism is a relatively new term – and a new phenomenon. But Europe has learned through experience that it is a danger from within that cannot be ignored.

Five years ago, on July 7, 2005, four bomb attacks on the London transport system left 56 dead and countless wounded. One year earlier, the Madrid attacks claimed the lives of 191 people.

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

In Germany, the so-called Sauerland terror cell had devised attacks on airports that were only prevented because the group’s plans were uncovered shortly before they intended to carry them out.

Homegrown terrorism is different from attacks like those in the United States on September 11, 2001. The perpetrators come from the very countries they attack, where they grew up and went to school. Most come from secular immigrant families and are brought up without religious zeal.

They seem well integrated into society – until they come into contact with Islamist extremists. Some of these homegrown terrorists do not even have a Muslim background and only convert to Islam when they become adults.

Some argue that the crucial lesson learned in the wake of the London and Madrid attacks was that efforts to foster closer cooperation with Muslims in European countries need to be stepped up.

“It’s essential that we work with those parts of society where trends toward radicalization can occur,” says Ole Schroeder, a parliamentary state secretary in the German Interior Ministry. “For instance we have to directly work with mosques or with groups close to radical Islamists.”

The best protection, Schroeder says, is to ensure that Muslim communities in European countries are not susceptible to extremist tendencies. The German government has tried to take a step in this direction by founding a forum on Islam aimed at creating a dialogue with Germany’s Muslim population on shared societal values.

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After the London attacks, European Union member states decided to join forces on the issue; Spain with its large Moroccan population is, for example, to devise a model on how such training can best be done.

“The Spaniards have the responsibility for expertise on the training of imams and passing it along to the other countries,” said Magnus Ranstorp of the Swedish Defense College in Stockholm.

In Britain, the authorities are also working together with mosques and Muslim communities to prevent the radicalization of young men. The British government has initiated a program with more than 260 publicly funded projects aimed at reaching out to the Muslim population. Mentoring schemes are one aspect.

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Some argue that if a person is not susceptible to extremist ideologies, he or she won’t turn to terrorism. Among those who subscribe to this line of thought is Judith Sunderland of Human Rights Watch.

Her group says that banning minarets or the burqa only leads to further radicalization. Terror suspects, they say, must never be treated with disrespect to the rule of law – as has been the case in several western counties.

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“Measures that are taken to counter terrorism that ultimately violate human rights, in the long run, feed the grievances and the sense of injustice that can fuel radicalization.”

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Source: DW-World

EU: Wide Islamic perception ‘key to Muslim integration’

EU academics have identified that understanding different Islamic cultures, based on perceptions of regional identity, is pivotal to the successful integration of Muslim communities in Europe.

Their research was presented alongside Indonesian experts at a seminar last Wednesday, organized by the European Union Delegation to Indonesia, to promote interfaith dialogue between Indonesia and the EU.

In a keynote presentation, Agata Nalborczyk from the University of Warsaw, Poland, stated that there was “no single [Islamic] situation in Europe” stressing the existence of “different levels of religious and nationalistic identity”.

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

She highlighted that “British Muslims from Pakistan held different religious beliefs to Tatar Muslims from Poland”, concluding that Islamic values often depend on individuals’ backgrounds and communities, rather than a universal mindset. Agata represents a group of European scholars who approach Islamic studies from a scientific, sociological level. Her work primarily attempts to analyze the role of the state and its effect on religious immigrant groups in Europe, noting governments should focus on integration over assimilation.

“The main problem Europe faces is citizenship and confessional laws. The French government relies on assimilation — immigrants are encouraged to think ‘I’m French’. The UK has a much better policy, it permits immigrants to remember their origins, such as British-Muslims or British-Pakistanis.”

The architecture of mosques in Europe also shows how different Islamic groups have integrated into European communities, she said, giving examples of mosques in Birmingham, the UK, made from local red bricks that attempt to blend in with the surrounding landscape.

In referring to recent protests that erupted in Cologne, Germany, when a new-age mosque’s minaret was planned to rise higher than the city cathedral’s, she emphasized the acceptance of mosques in Europe was an increasing problem.

“Many people see mosques as a threat, but they should see them as meeting places for interfaith discussions and a step toward integration for Muslim communities”.

This research was presented as part of broader dialogue the EU is initiating with Indonesia over Islamic integration in Europe. The discussions hope to draw upon Indonesia’s experience as the world’s largest Muslim-majority democracy.

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Source: Jakarta Post

EU: Somali girls lured into sex-slave rings

The police are investigating a suspected racket through which young African girls are lured from Malta into European sex-slavery rings.

The suspicions were confirmed last Wednesday when a young, attractive Somali girl turned up at the airport to buy a plane ticket to Denmark. When she was arrested for possession of a counterfeit Italian travel document, she could not identify her final destination.

She told police she was given the travel document and offered the ticket money by a co-national in Malta. The woman was told that someone would pick her up at Copenhagen airport. However, she would not name the man or give more details for fear of reprisals.

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

The Italian passport was a fake copy of a document which Italy issues to asylum seekers who have been processed and been given some form of status.

Police believe her story because it is consistent with others that have surfaced in the past three months or so whereby young African girls have said they are being lured to mainland Europe by the promise of an arranged marriage.

In the past, migrants trying to flee the country illegally were predominantly male, but the number of women making their way out has risen of late. But unlike their male counterparts, the women do not appear to have contacts or plans in the country they would be travelling to.

“The probability is that they would then end up being turned into sex slaves,” one police source said. “We do have some corroborating information from our European contacts but we’re a long way from establishing a link.”

Once there, the girls would end up in a soaring trade of European sex slaves – women who are literally sold by criminal organisations, often for as little as a few hundred euros, to pimps all over Europe and forced into prostitution. The line the local police are following is that the girls are being lured with the promise of an arranged marriage and a better life in northern Europe.

Arranged marriages are the norm for nationals of a number of African countries, especially war-torn Somalia, where millions follow customs that fuse a conservative form of Islam with tribal traditions.

“It is unlikely, especially for Somali girls, that they walk into the sex trade consciously,” one immigrant told The Sunday Times. “Prostitution would be taboo for them, but I have heard about this kind of racket going on… obviously it’s very hush hush.”

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Source: Times of Malta