Is Europe setting up clash between Muslims and the West?

Via CNN:

Europe and the Muslim world seem to be on a collision course that could have major political, economic and ideological ramifications. January 23, 2012, may well come to be remembered as the crucial date when Samuel Huntington’s “clash of civilizations” thesis, which many of us believed discredited beyond repair, was reaffirmed.

Political scientist Huntington wrote in 1993 that cultural divisions preclude a defining global civilization, and the West and the Muslim world would never share the same values.

Last month, Europe took two different actions that nonetheless sent the same message to the Muslim world: You are not our equals and are doomed to be judged by standards different from those by which we judge ourselves. Future historians might call January 23 the day when Europe irreversibly alienated not one, but both, pivotal powers — Iran and Turkey — that in all probability will dominate the political landscape of the Middle East for several decades.

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Moscow: High-ranking Interior Ministry officials suspected of extortion from Muslim community

Via Interfax:

Federal Security Service officials have submitted to the Prosecutor General’s Office materials stating that several high-ranking officials from the Interior Ministry’s Main Department for the Prevention of Extremism extorted a large amount of money from a Moscow Muslim community, Kommersant daily reports.

“The Federal Security Service officers obtained information that a major extortion incident had occurred in the Moscow Lefortovsky market before the New year holidays. According to that information, a group of police officers went to the market under the pretext of an inspection, suspended the market’s operation and demanded 1 million rubles from traders for permission to resume work,” Kommersant writes.

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According to Kommersant, the police said they were checking reports stating that there was an illegal extremist center disguised as a prayer room at the market, which was visited by Muslim traders and Tajik workers from nearby construction sites.

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Germany: Muslim arbitration affects court decisions

Via DW:

Joachim Wagner, who has written a book on the topic called “Judges acting outside the law,” can see the positive aspect of that tradition, but his research has also yielded many negative examples.

In an interview with DW, Wagner describes one of 16 cases he analyzes in his book. In that case, a man shoots another in the foot. Later, the victim’s brother takes revenge and shoots the perpertrator in the leg. Both cases go to court.

According to Wagner, Muslim mediators from Sweden and Germany are consulted, resulting in a watering-down of the original statements in the course of the lawsuit. The shooting in the foot is now seen more as accidental.

Wagner claims the case is a typical example of how statements change and lead to a wrong and unfair ruling. In the end, the German court handed down a sentence of nine months on probation – too lenient in Wagner’s opinion. If both the victims and the perpetrators had stuck to their original statements, the sentence would have most likely been harsher.

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Belgium: Muslim Executive asks mosques to shelter homeless

Via HLN (Dutch)

On Wednesday the Muslim Executive asked Belgian mosques to open their doors to the homeless and others in need during the cold wave.

The Executive was responding to a request of Brussels MP Fouad Ahidar (sp.a), who said he was very happy that the Muslim Executive took responsibilty to take care for the victims of the cold wave.

Ahidar also called the Brussels authorities to use MIVB buses to transport the homeless to shelters.

Brussels: Israeli minister speaks with EU officials about combating Muslim antisemitism

Via European Jewish Press:

Israeli Minister for Public Diplomacy and Diaspora, Yuli Edelstein, was in Brussels this week to attend an event marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day at the European Parliament.

At this occasion, he also met with several European Union officials, including Viviane Reding, EU Commission Vice-President in charge of justice and fundamental rights, and Stefan Füle, EU Commissioner for enlargement and neighbourhood policy.

With Commissioner Reding, who has the fight against anti-Semitism in her portfolio, he brought up several subjects including the issue of education, educating younger generation against Holocaust denial and against all forms of xenophobia and anti-Semitism.

“I brought her attention to the fact that unfortunately Muslim communities in many European countries are more and more exposed to anti-Israel and anti-Jewish propaganda,” he said in an interview with European Jewish Press.

“We have to pay special attention to proper education about the Holocaust, about Jewish history and against anti-Semitism in these communities. We have a lot of cooperation with the EU in this field. Once a year, we hold a special seminar organized by the Israeli foreign ministry and the EU on the issue of anti-Semitism. And I myself chair an international committee on combating anti-Semitism on the Internet. I suggested that a representative of the EU join this committee which was accepted.”

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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.

A New Beginning for Muslims in Europe?

Via the Boston College Chronicle:

Western Europe hardly seems a model for harmonious relations between Muslim minorities and the non-Muslim societies in which they reside. Controversies have flared recently over the wearing of burkas in public, construction of mosques, and an ironic suggestion from a French ex-political official that his fellow Muslims wear green stars.

But Associate Professor of Political Science Jonathan Laurence tells a different story in his new book, The Emancipation of Europe’s Muslims: The State’s Role in Minority Integration. During the past two decades, he says, European countries have stepped up efforts to integrate Muslims into the institutional, political, and cultural fabrics of European democracy. Foremost among such initiatives has been the government-led creation of Islamic Councils to help resolve public disputes over Islamic practices.

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Netherlands: Burka ban might popularize it, warns Muslim politician

Via JPost:

It’s easy to see why Fatima Elatik dislikes burkas. The Islamist cloak of female chastity is in stark contrast to everything this young and charismatic Dutch-Muslim politician represents. She nonetheless adamantly opposes the new initiative to ban the garment, which the Dutch cabinet announced Friday.

“I’m no fan of the burka, but currently there are about 100 women who wear it in this country. Banning it might make it more popular,” says Elatik, an Amsterdam-born practicing Muslim of Moroccan descent.

Three years ago Elatik, 39, became district mayor of East Amsterdam, and one of the best-known faces of the Dutch Labor Party.

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Hague: Muslim party wants dog ban

via Spitsnieuws (Dutch):

Hasan Küçük, Hague councilor for the Islam Democrats, says dogs should be banned as pets in the city, reports De Telegraaf. The Muslim party says that the animals belong in nature, not inside the house. Küçük says that keeping dogs is animal abuse and should therefore be criminalized.

He responded sharply during a council debate last Thursday, when the Party for Animals suggested more consideration for dogs.

Paul ter Linden (PVV councillor) responded saying that pets are the norm in the Netherlands, and whoever disagrees should move to another country.

Netherlands: Dutch plan ban on Muslim face veils next year

Via Reuters:

The Dutch minority government plans to ban Muslim face veils such as burqas and other forms of clothing that cover the face from next year.

The ban would make the Netherlands, where 1 million out of 17 million people are Muslim, the second European Union country to ban the burqa after France, and would apply to face-covering veils if they were worn in public.

“People should be able to look at each other’s faces and recognize each other when they meet,” the interior affairs ministry said in a statement Friday.

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Via RNW:

The burqa ban passed by the cabinet on Friday is drawing mostly negative reactions, both among Muslim organisations and political parties.

A large Turkish interest group, IOT, says the government hasn’t considered the ban’s consequences. “Women who currently only venture outside, or are allowed to go outside, wearing a burqa, will from now on stay home,” IOT chair Aydin Akkaya warns.

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