EU: Islam in Europe now has strong local leadership

Via The National:

There are major changes underway for Muslims in Europe. They go beyond threats to ban the burqa in France or plans to build the largest mosque on the continent in Marseille. They go beyond the Dutch elections last month, which doubled the number of parliamentarians from the anti-Islam Freedom Party.

What is more momentous is the birth of a homegrown form of Islam, an indigenous approach to practising the religion in today’s Europe.

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

And a Dutch imam is leading the way. Himself a product of a cultural melange, Mohammed Cheppih was raised in a family of Moroccan immigrants in the Netherlands. Having learnt his faith at the knee of community elders, Imam Cheppih, 33, now believes that it is time for a homegrown form of Islam that is true to the cultural mores of the country that he and many other young Muslims consider their home.

“I personally got fed up with religion promoted by others,” he told me over coffee in downtown Beirut during a recent trip to the region. “Culturally, it is not what I believe.”

He is no stranger to challenging conventional thinking. During his religious training at university in Saudi Arabia, his ideas about Islam’s role in the West rattled more than a few cages. “I was always under threat for being kicked out of school for questioning and debating everything,” he said.

Similarly the religious texts that are available in the Netherlands are usually translated from abroad, with little relevance to everyday life in his home country. It is a deficit that many critics have identified. Muslim communities in Europe often lack well-trained imams with a local connection who can truly engage both the Muslim and European aspects of a community, especially the youth.

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France: “We are at war against al-Qaida”

Via AP:

France is “at war” with al-Qaida and will step up efforts to fight its North African offshoot after it executed a French hostage in the Sahara, Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Tuesday.

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French President Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed the killing Monday, vowing that the perpetrators “will not go unpunished.”

His prime minister said Tuesday that France will reinforce efforts to work with governments in northwest Africa fighting al-Qaida in the sparsely populated swath of desert that includes the borders dividing Mauritania, Mali, Algeria and Niger.

“We are at war against al-Qaida,” Fillon said on Europe-1 radio. He said France “thwarts several attacks every year,” without elaborating.

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Manchester: Mall introduces squat toilets

Via Daily Mail:

From next week, shoppers in Rochdale who push open the cubicle door expecting the reassuring sight of a modern, clean lavatory could instead be faced with little more than a hole in the ground.

Bosses of the Greater Manchester town’s Exchange mall have installed two as part of an upgrade costing several thousand pounds after attending a cultural awareness course run by a local Muslim community activist.

A familiar sight in parts of the Middle East, and still sometimes seen in France and Italy, the toilets require users to squat above them, rather than sitting.

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

With one in ten of Rochdale’s population of Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin, centre managers say they have been told some members of the local Asian community prefer them for cultural reasons.

News of the introduction of squat toilets was met by disbelief, however.

‘This strikes me as a classic case of excessive pandering to a politically correct minority,’ said Philip Davies, Conservative MP for Shipley.

‘We in Britain are rightly proud of our toilets, and the onus is on people who come to this country to appreciate them for what they are.

‘It’s absolutely ludicrous – Thomas Crapper would be turning in his grave!’

The Exchange shopping centre is in the process of refurbishing its ladies’ and gents’ toilets, and the changes were made after managers went on a cultural training course.

It was hosted by Ghulam Rasul Shahzad, a retired Rochdale Council training officer who runs courses for the groups including the police on cultural understanding and community cohesion.

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France: Parliament approves ban on face veils

The bill is still now law.

Via AP:

France’s lower house of parliament overhwelmingly approved a ban on burqa-like Islamic veils Tuesday, a move that is popular among French voters despite serious concerns from Muslim groups and human rights advocates.

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

There were 336 votes for the bill and just one against it at the National Assembly. Most members of the main opposition group, the Socialist Party, refused to participate in the vote — though they support a ban, they have differences with President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservatives over some aspects of it.

The ban on face-covering veils will go in September to the Senate, where it also is likely to pass. Its biggest hurdle will likely come after that, when France’s constitutional watchdog scrutinizes it. Some legal scholars say there is a chance it could be deemed unconstitutional.

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France: Muslim denied citizenship for refusing to shake hands

Via Expatica:

A Moroccan man who refused to shake hands with a French female official and whose wife wears the full Islamic veil has been denied French citizenship, the immigration ministry said Friday.

The man, who has been living in France since 1999 and married a French woman in 2004, failed to “assimilate into French society” and displayed a “discriminatory attitude toward women,” said the ministry.

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

He “refused to shake the hand of a female official whom he met at the state prefecture because it was ‘against his religion’”, said a statement.

The man’s wife wore the full veil and only agreed to uncover herself in a room where no men would be present, the statement added.

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Source: Expatica

Tunisia: Two Europeans sentenced for terrorism charges

Via Expatica:

A court sentenced eight Tunisians, two of them refugees in Europe, to up to 12 years in jail on charges of belonging to a militant group and inciting terrorism, a lawyer said.

The eight had denied the charges and said their confessions were obtained under torture, lawyer Samir Ben Amor, who is also secretary general of the Association for the Defence of Political Prisoners, told AFP Saturday.

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

Three of those convicted on Saturday were sentenced to 12 years in jail and included Bilel Beldi and Sami Bouras, who were tried in absentia and are refugees in France and Sweden respectively, he said.

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Bilel Beldi, 31, and Sami Bouras, 35, were jailed in 2003 on similar charges and released on parole in 2006 when they left Tunisia to seek asylum in Europe.

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Source: Expatica

France: Socialists to boycott burqa ban vote

France’s Socialist opposition decided Tuesday to boycott a vote on a bill outlawing the full-face Islamic veil in protest at the sweeping ban that will apply to all public places.

Home to Europe’s biggest Muslim minority, France is set to adopt a bill banning the wearing of the face-covering veil despite warnings from top legal experts that the move may be unconstitutional.

Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry told deputies at a meeting that while they should not vote against the bill, they should not take part in a vote scheduled for July 13, a Socialist party official told AFP.

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

“We are against the burqa but we believe that the means chosen to outlaw it are not good,” said the party official.

The Socialist stance was agreed just hours before debate was to open at the National Assembly on the bill that would make it illegal for anyone to cover their faces.

The proposed law would impose fines of 150 euros (190 dollars) on those caught wearing the veil and up to 30,000 euros and a one-year jail term to men who force their wives or daughters to cover their faces.

President Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP party and its right-wing allies hold a strong majority in parliament and the bill could easily pass without support from the opposition Socialists.

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Source: Expatica

France: “Open a mosque and you close a prison”

France’s most prominent Muslim leader has called for the number of mosques in the country to be doubled to 4,000, sparking fresh debate on the secular status established in French law a century ago.

Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Grande Mosque of Paris and formerly president of the French Council for Muslims, believes a sharp increase in facilities for worship is necessary to give Europe’s largest Muslim population a chance to pray in dignity and comfort.

In a revealing interview in the daily newspaper France-Soir, the contents of which were confirmed by his office, the Algerian-born cardiologist stressed the social benefits of easing the “pressure, frustration and the sense of injustice” felt by many French Muslims.

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

“Open a mosque and you close a prison,” said Dr Boubakeur. If this seems a colourful way of justifying a major programme of mosque-building, he can point to a powerful ally: the president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

France jealously guards the principle of separation of religion and state set down in the 1905 law. This legislation, the bedrock of French secular society, expressly forbids the official recognition or state funding any faith.

But in 2004, when he was the finance minister, Mr Sarkozy argued in a book entitled The Republic, Religions, Hope for an updating of the law to meet modern challenges.

He said the provision of a mosque in every sizeable town would help counter the extremism fostered by self-styled, usually untrained imams holding prayer meetings in tower block basements and garages.

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For French groups such as Riposte Laïque (Secular Response), which fiercely defends the church-state separation, Mr Sarkozy has defeated the spirit of the 1905 law by allowing it to be circumvented.

There are now various ways, from tax advantages to the leasing of land or property at peppercorn rents, in which the public purse can contribute to the cost of building mosques.

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In his France-Soir interview, Dr Boubakeur said secular principles represented a “safeguard against abuse” but should not prevent a fair response to Islam’s need to express itself.

He pointed out that the law had not prevented the Grand Mosque of Paris being built in 1922 with substantial financial state aid given with parliament’s blessing. The gesture was made in recognition of North African Muslims who fought and died for France in the First World War.

In one glaring contradiction of opposition to public funds being used towards the building of mosques, such criticism is often accompanied by anger at the closure of city streets – in areas lacking proper facilities for worship – for Friday prayers.

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Source: The National

Strasbourg: Muslim tombs desecrated

18 tombs of the Muslim sector of the Robertsau cemetery in Strasbourg were violated last night by persons unknown that left no trace or message.

The discovery came this morning when the guardian of the 61 tombs arrived.

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

Socialist mayor Roland Ries defined it a barbaric act, and announced that the municipality will take care of the expense of renovating the burial sites. Strasbourg will inaugurate its Great Mosque in 2011, and by the end of next year will have a cemetery reserved to Muslims, the first public one in France, in the name of religious equality and fair treatment.

The cemetery will be built on a 25,000 square metre surface in the La Meineau neighbourhood and will cost approximately 800,000 euros, financed by the municipality.

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Source: ABNA

France: PM urges Muslims to reject “hijacked Islam”

Prime Minister Francois Fillon urged France’s Muslims on Monday to reject full face veils as a sectarian caricature of Islam, a week before parliament debates a law banning burqas and niqabs in public.

Inaugurating a mosque in a northwestern Paris suburb, he said French Muslims should combat a tiny radical minority using face veils as a way to combat the integration of a tolerant Islam that respects the separation of church and state.

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

“The Islam of France, the Islam you practice daily, has nothing to do with this caricature that dims the lights of your faith,” Fillon, the most senior French politician to inaugurate a mosque in decades, said to applause from the crowd.

“You should stand in the front line against this hijacking of the religious message … it’s up to you to make intelligence triumph over obscurantism and tolerance over intolerance.”

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Fillon defended the plan to ban full veils, saying the government had to defend some groundrules of society.

“This minority practice, which flouts the basic rules of living together and scandalises our citizens, amounts to radical behaviour that does not reflect the reality of Islam,” he said.

The prime minister made clear he recognised Muslims’ concern about a growing trend of anti-Muslim feeling they saw in France, noting that six mosques had been defaced or attacked last year and several Muslim graves vandalised early this year.

“Thirty percent of all acts of racist violence (last year), mostly threats, were made against Muslims,” he said.

Mohammed Moussaoui, president of the French Muslim Council (CFCM), said Fillon was welcome after the tensions raised by the national identity and veil debates. “His presence is a gesture of recognition and respect,” he told the daily La Croix.

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Source: Reuters