UK: Surge in tax-funded ‘virginity repair’ operations

Via Daily Mail:

An increasing number of women are having controversial ‘virginity repair’ operations on the NHS before they get married.

In the last five years, 116 hymen repair operations have been undertaken at the tax payer’s expense.

Thousands more women are believed to be paying up to £4,000 to have the surgery done privately each year.

NHS surgeons carried out 30 of the procedures in 2009 – up 20 per cent from 2005.

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

In the private sector one Harley Street doctor claimed to carry out up to three of the operations a day.

The specialist who offers a hymenoplasty for £1,850, said demand had tripled in recent years.

The operation, which is available on the NHS ‘for physical and psychological’ reasons, takes just half an hour.

Private practitioners have claimed a surge in demand in the operation has been driven largely by Muslim women desperate to preserve the illusion that they have not had sex before their wedding night.

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Consultant surgeon Ash Mosahebi, who performs the procedure at various London clinics, said he had noticed a recent rise in demand of around 40 per cent.

He said: ‘There is a clash of cultures where Muslim women are leading westernised lifestyles but then wanting to conform to the traditional lifestyle of remaining a virgin.

‘As it becomes more widely known that operations are available, they are getting to hear about them from friends and increasingly considering it.’

Critics, including moderate Muslim groups, have condemned the trend as a sign of the spread of Islamic fundamentalism in the West.

Imam Dr Taj Hargey, chairman of the Muslim Educational Centre in Oxford, called on the Muslim community to try to reverse the trend.

He said: ‘The rise in the number of these operations in Britain is a very disturbing trend.

‘The situation is very common in the Middle East where there is a huge scandal that can lead to divorce or even honour killings if there are not bloodstained bed sheets after the wedding night.

‘It is very disappointing that Muslim women in this country feel they need to lead a double life, resorting to subterfuge surgery.

‘That is not conducive to either their psychological or spiritual health and it is hypocrisy and double standards because Muslim men are doing as they please with women.

‘The Muslim community should be confronting the issue rather than pretending it is not happening. I shall be speaking out about it in my next sermon.’

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Switzerland: Swiss People’s Party surveys Swiss on foreigner policy

Via WRS:

Should Switzerland abandon or renegotiate the Free Movement of People accord with the EU? Should long term unemployed foreigners be sent home? Should foreigners who commit serious crimes be automatically deported?

The Swiss People’s Party has sent out a questionnaire to every Swiss household to canvas opinion on these and similar issues. The questionnaire’s accompanied by a pamphlet outlining the Swiss People’s Party’s outlook on foreigners, immigration and crime.

WRS reports (audio).

Germany: Soccer authorities get ruling on Ramadan fasting

Via AP:

A Muslim group and German soccer authorities said Wednesday they have determined that professional Muslim players may break their fast during the holy month of Ramadan.

The announcement followed a dispute involving second-division club FSV Frankfurt, which last year gave a formal warning to three of its players for fasting.

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8.1 VISITING A PATIENT
It is your duty to visit your Muslim brethren in time of illness. This will enhance and nourish the bond of Islam and the brotherhood among you. As a committed Muslim, do not undervalue the great reward from Allah. Imam Muslim reported that the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said: ‘A Muslim visiting ill brethren will continue to be in the Khurfa of paradise until he, or she comes back home. He was asked, ‘What is the khurfa of Paradise?’ He answered, ‘This means the harvest of paradise.’ Imam Ahmad and Ibn Hibban in his authentic book reported that the Messenger said: ‘A visitor walking to visit a patient will be wading in the mercy of Allah. When the visitor sits with the patient they will be immersed in mercy until his, or her return.’

8.2 PRAYING FOR THE SICK
It is very appropriate to say few prayers for the sick asking Allah (SWT) to bless them with recovery and help them through their sickness. Bukhari and Muslim reported that Aisha said ‘If someone fell sick the Prophet would pass his right hand over them while saying the following prayer ‘O the Lord of humans, take away the suffering, bring the recovery, no cure but your cure that leaves no ilness.’ In another hadith reported by Bukhari, Ibn Abbas said that the Prophet when vising a sick person would say: ‘Hold on, may Allah cleanse you.’

8.3 THE LENGTH OF THE VISIT
Certain etiquette will make your visit to an ill person a refreshing and morale boosting one. Your duty is to ease his or her pains, and to make him or her more conscious of the rewards they will gain in return for their suffering and endurance.

Make your visit brief. Sick persons may not withstand such long visits. The length of the visit should be not longer than the time between the two speeches of Friday. In this respect, it was said that the visit should be long enough to convey your greeting and wishes (Salam), to ask the sick how he or she is doing, to pray for recovery and to leave immediately after saying good-bye.

If you visit a patient say your greeting
And immediately you should say, ‘Good-bye’
The best visit is every third day The best stay is in the blink of an eye
Do not bother the patient with many questions
Two or three words will get you all along.

At the end of his book of Malkite Fiqh, Al-Kafi, Imam Ibn ‘Abdul Al-Barr said: ‘Whether you visit a healthy or an ill person, you ought to sit where you are told. Hosts know better how to ensure privacy in their home. Visiting an ill person is a confirmed Sunnah. The best visit is the shortest. The visitor sought not to sit too long with an ill person, unless they are close friends and the ill person enjoys their company.’

8.4 THE MANNERS OF VISITING A PATIENT
The visitor ought to wear clean clothes with a fresh scent in order to make the patient feel better both spiritually and physically. At the same time, it is improper to wear fancy clothes that are more appropriate for parties and festivities. Wearing a strong perfume may annoy the sick.

Visitors ought to keep their conversation light and avoid gloomy talk that might exacerbate the patient’s distress. Avoid conveying bad news such as a failing business, a death, or similar bad news. Also, visitors ought not to inquire about the details of illness unless the visitor is a specialized physician. Similarly, visitors should not recommend to a patient any food or medicine that might have helped them or someone else. Such recommendation might lead the ill person, out of ignorance or desperation, to try it, causing further complication or even death.

Do not criticize or object to the treatment by the physician in the presence of the ill person for it might cast doubt in the mind of the sick. If you are a specialized physician, you may want to discuss the case and its treatment privately with the doctor in charge.

8.5 How the Ill express their complaints
It is recommended that when asked about our condition, a sick person should start by thanking Allah and then proceed to list his complaints. This is to avoid the appearance of complaining of Allah’s will. This was the etiquette of the followers as reported by Al-Khatib Al-Baghdadi in his Tarikh Baghdad in the biography of Abdul Rahman Al-Tabib who was the physician of Imam Ahmad and Bishr Al-Hafi. Abdul Rahman said both Imam Ahmad and Bishr became sick and were treated at the same place. ‘When I visited Bishr, I asked how he felt, and with thanks to Allah first, he then proceeded saying I have this pain or that complaint. When I visited Imam Ahmad and asked how he felt, he would say ‘I feel all right.’ One day I told him, ‘your brother Bishr is also ill, but when I ask him of his conditions, he thanks Allah first, then tells me his condition. Imam Ahmad said, ‘Please ask him from where did he get this.’ I answered, ‘His presence makes me reluctant to ask.’ Imam Ahmad said, ‘Tell him your brother, Abo Abdillah asks from where did you get this.’ Abdul Rahman asked Bishr as told. Bishr said, ‘Abo Abdillah wants everything with authority. I heard this from Azhar who heard it from ibn Aoun who heard it from ibn Sireen; ‘If a person thanked Allah before complaining, it will not be a complaint but as if telling the acts of Allah. ‘ Abdul Rahman said, ‘I
told this to Imam Ahmad. After that, if asked how he felt, he would start by thanking Allah, and then describing his complaints.’

The answer of Bishr indicates that when asked about their health, the sick preferably should praise Allah first then explain their complaints. By this approach, it is not considered complaining against the acts of Allah.

from the book ISLAMIC MANNERS
By Shaykh Abdul-Fattaah Abu Ghuddah (RA)

UK: ‘Honestly, the burka doesn’t work’

Via Daily Mail:

Jeremy Clarkson has joined the debate on whether burkas should be permitted in Britain in his own inimitable style.

The outspoken presenter provoked a flurry of complaints after telling viewers of Top Gear on Sunday night that he had seen a Muslim woman wearing saucy underwear beneath her gown.

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

Clarkson had been discussing the best way to stop drivers being distracted by female pedestrians, along with co-presenters Richard Hammond and James May.

More than six million viewers had tuned in to watch the show, which featured guest appearances from Hollywood stars Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz.

In front of the studio audience, he said: ‘This is an important bit of news, I really want to bring this up. People imagine that the most dangerous time of the year to drive is November or perhaps February – dark nights, fog, ice.

‘But we were talking about this the other day and we think the most dangerous time to drive a car is round about now. Sunny skies, light breezes, girls wearing short skirts, because the thing is, you can’t not look. You can’t physically not look.’

Hammond interjected, saying: ‘You can physically not use your mobile phone and it’s easy not to drive home when you’ve had 18 pints of lager. But when you’re driving along and a girl walks past, you have to look. Actually, do you not think that here, there is actually a case for the burka? Because then the problem would go away.’

Clarkson then replied: ‘No, no, no. Honestly, the burka doesn’t work. I was in a cab in Piccadilly the other day when a woman in a full burka crossing the road in front of me tripped over the pavement, went head over heels and up it came, red g-string and stockings. I promise that happened. The taxi driver will back me up on that.’

(…)

The Muslim Women’s Network UK last night criticised Top Gear after they joked about using the burka as a way of preventing drivers being distracted by female pedestrians.

Faeeza Vaid, co-ordinator at the organisation, said: ‘The debate surrounding the burka is a serious issue which shouldn’t be publicly joked about. Rather than joking about it, we should be having serious dialogue.’

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Surrey: Muslims pay less for burial

Via Telegraph (h/t NRP):

Christian churchgoers have complained about the “discriminatory price” of burial plots in the Greenlawn Memorial Park cemetery in Warlingham, Surrey.

The cemetery – which is managed by Croydon Council – offers Muslims a graveyard plot for £2,383, but charges non-Muslims £2,927 – a hike of £544.

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

The cemetery has a specially-designated area of land for Muslims, who as part of their religion only allow one body to be buried in any one plot and must be buried apart from non-Muslims and facing Mecca.

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A spokesman for Croydon Council said that the reason for the price difference was that Muslims only allow one person to be buried in a grave, whereas people of other religions can use the plot for more than one person.

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Spain: Moorish revival

Via BBC:

A thousand years ago North African Muslims ruled southern Spain. Now some of their descendants are contributing to a “Moorish revival” that is regenerating parts of Andalucia, says the BBC’s Sylvia Smith.

Sitting in Abdul Hedi Benattia’s tea shop you forget for a moment where you are.

The sound of sweet mint tea being poured into tiny glasses, the murmur of Arabic in the background, and piles of almond cornes de gazelle, served to customers sitting on low sofas, all suggest Morocco or Tunisia.

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

But step outside the shop and walk a few metres downhill and you are in Granada, Spain.

This teteria, or tea shop, is just one of dozens that festoon the historic area and have come to symbolise a significant change in the culture and economics of an important part of the city.

It was the opening of a tea shop alongside the city’s first neighbourhood mosque that ignited the North African renaissance in Granada, according to Said Ekhlouf from Tetouan in northern Morocco.

He and his fellow shop owners took over empty properties, breathing fresh life into a previously run-down area.

“Before we set up shop, few people dared walk down this street, especially in the evening,” he explains.

“Everything was boarded up and the only people you’d meet were junkies and prostitutes. But we have turned this street into one of the most popular.”

The transformation is eye-catching. Dozens of brightly coloured, open-fronted stalls sell all kinds of Moroccan and Tunisian handicrafts, and the only music you will hear is Arabic, interspersed with the call to prayer.

Taking advantage of low property prices, the first arrivals in the 1980s colonised the Calderia Nueva and began, unwittingly, to introduce a modern version of Islamic Andalucian culture.

Abdul Hedi Benattia, who is a Tunisian historian as well as owning a restaurant and tea shop, claims that Islam as practised in Granada is very close to the original tolerant religion that spread across North Africa and through most of the Iberian peninsula from the 7th Century until the 14th Century.

“We accept our Christian neighbours and respect their traditions,” he says. “We didn’t set out specifically to recreate peaceful co-existence, but at times you can’t help but reflect that this is exactly what has happened”.

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Finland: Foreign minister opposes burka ban

Via YLE:

Finland’s Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb is not in favour of a ban on wearing the burkha face-veil. He told the provincial paper Satakunnan Kansa that diversity should be respected. He added banning the burkha sends the wrong message from Europe to the Muslim world.

A ban was not the right answer, Stubb said, even though he does not favour women wearing the garment.

”In all honesty, I don’t like to see a woman wearing the burkha face-veil but interfering with her right by means of a legal ban is no solution,” he said.

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Catalonia: Mayor closes mosque for being too popular

Via Telegraph:

Angel Ros, the socialist mayor of Lleida, in the northeastern region of Catalonia, complained that the mosque was too full and closed it on Wednesday until further notice.

The building, a former garage used to service trucks, was often filled with crowds exceeding a thousand people, the council said, when the authorised limit for the venue is 240.

A new mosque is under construction on the outskirts of the town but work had been stalled because of a lack of financing during the economic crisis.

“The municipality has no obligation to provide places of worship,” Mr Ros said in response to complaints from the town’s Muslim population over the closure. “Those that wish can pray at home, as I do,” he added.

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France: Muslims feel sting of discrimination

In a related story: Two Muslim women marched out of swimming pool in French holiday village because they were wearing burkinis

Via LA Times:

Be patient. This is just a phase. It will all blow over eventually. That’s what Abdel Basset Zitouni tells the young people who come seeking his advice on getting a job or starting a business.

But Zitouni’s counsel isn’t just in response to questions about finding work in a depressed economy.

Many of the people who knock on his office door are Muslims from the housing projects in this city west of Paris who have felt the sting of discrimination.

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

They tell of an unwelcoming professional world, with regular bank rejections for business loans, or months without a callback for an interview.

Zitouni, who presides over the nonprofit National Assn. for Young Entrepreneurs here, says it is common to hear of employers asking new hires to change their names to something more “French-sounding” and less Muslim, apparently to appease touchy customers.

Others climb the sparse stairway to Zitouni’s single-room office with fists still clenched, mulling over a snide look after handing in a resume.

Zitouni reassures, and listens to their troubles.

Still, the 49-year-old prefers not to focus on the negative. If clients complain of discrimination, Zitouni stops them short.

“Serious and honest work will always bear fruit at the end,” he tells them.

But not all of France’s roughly 6 million Muslims are in the mood to be patient.

Muslim organizations and some critics of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government have condemned a cocktail of events that have made this a particularly tense time for Muslims in France, with violence against them rising sharply in the last year.

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