Oslo: Students complain school segregates by gender and ethnicity

Via VG (Norwegian):

Ali Hassan, Ali Al-Amin and Ali Hasane, who learn at Ulsrud high-school in the Oslo suburb of Bøler, say their school segregates based on gender and ethnicity.

Ulsrud high-school has two gym classes: one for immigrant boys, and the other for girls and Norwegians.

“It’s not good at all. You don’t get a good learning environment by organizing a class with just immigrants and boys,” Ali Hasane (18) told VG.

Several students tried moving from the immigrant class ot the other gym class, but did not succeed. They say that students only move in one direction: from the Norwegian and girls class to the immigrant class.

Though the school claims they don’t discriminate based on ethnicity and sex, the students say that’s exactly what’s happening.

Ali Hassan and Ali Al-Amin say that the school discriminates the boys class and their achivements are overlooked.

Their class includes students from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria, the Philippines, Morocco, Iraq, Somalia, Turkey and Sudan. There are no Norwegians in the class. The students ask whether this is legal according to Norwegian law.

They say they’re willing to finish the year in this class, but warn against such immigrant classes in the future.

Principal David Dunlop doesn’t hide the fact that the division of the two classes was controversial. However, he says the division is based on educational principles and not on ethnicity or gender. He says the teachers are ‘color blind’ when they consider the needs of the students.

When asked what educational principles were involved, Dunlop preferred not to say, citing privacy concerns. He said that educational concerns were always considered when it comes to the students’ academic level, group size, subject composition and the teachers’ skills.

Ulsrud school was previously criticized for not allowing students to pray in school

Belgium: Four family members convicted of ‘honor’ murder

Via Knack (Dutch):

On Friday the Court of Assize of Henegouwen convicted the four members of the Pakistani Sheikh family of the murder of Sadia Sheikh (22).

Tariq Sheikh, Sadia’s father, and her brother Mudusar were convicted by the jury,with aggravating circumstances since it was an honor murder and an attempted forced marriage. Parveen, Sadia’s mother, and her sister Sariya, were also convicted of murder, with aggravating circumstances of honor murder, but were acquitted of the charges of attempted forced marriage.

The jury convicted the four family members after three weeks of debates in court. Sadia was a senior of law at the Charleroi university college. She was murdered on October 22, 2007 in the Lodelinsart section of the city.

Mudusar’s conviction was based on his confession, and due to the fact that he committed the murder in order to restore the family’s honor, which had been violated by his sister who, as a woman, refused to submit.

Regarding father Tariq Sheikh there were various issues to his detriment, including the speedy conclusion of the forced marriage with a cousin in Pakistan via webcam and the administrative steps he took to officialize the marriage.

Sariya was convicted due to ballistic analysis which linked her to the incident. The mother stated in her testimony that she preferred her daughter die rather than marry a non-Muslim.

During the court case the prosecution and civil parties who had joined the suit, the Institute for Equality of Men and Women and the Union of Independent Health Services, tried to show that every member of the family played a significant role in Sadia’s murder.

The defense claimed that the investigation was blemished by the media attention to the crime. The family’s lawyers also claimed that, except for Mudusar, there was enough doubt against conviction.

Pakistan: ‘Muslims need to assimilate into Europe’

Via DAWN:

European culture and Islamic culture have different ethos and both are bound to collide unless there is assimilation and compromise.

Anwar Shaheen of the University of Karachi’s Pakistan Study Centre said this here on Thursday on the second day of a two-day international conference on ‘Islam in Europe’ while speaking on the topic of hijab and burqa in Europe. The seminar was organised by KU’s Area Study Centre for Europe in association with the Hanns Seidel Foundation.

Ms Shaheen, who had conducted a survey of Muslim women living in Europe as well as Pakistani scholars to back up her research, said European society was justified in its reaction to Muslim women wearing hijab. She said proponents of the veil considered it a divine commandment while other women faced patriarchal pressure to observe the veil. However, she said many women also wore hijab out of free will.

(…)

“If Muslims don’t feel comfortable with European laws they should come back” to their countries of origin, she said, while adding that “European governments should not frame discriminatory laws”.

(source)

More from the conference here and here.

Pakistan: ‘Islam in Europe a reality despite challenges’

Via the International News:

Islam in Europe today is a reality the world would have to contend with despite the immense challenges it faces there.

This was the majority opinion among speakers at the two-day seminar, “Islam in Europe”, held at a local hotel, under the aegis of the Area Study Centre for Europe, University of Karachi (KU), and the Hanns Seidel Foundation, Islamabad on Wednesday.

The keynote speaker, Lars-Gunnar Wigemark, EU ambassador to Pakistan, could not turn up on account of the inordinate delay in the PIA flight that he was supposed to come by.

The first one to speak, Prof Dr Naveed Ahmed Tahir, Director, Area Study Centre for Europe, University of Karachi, said that Islam in Europe was a reality which could no longer be seen as a temporary phenomenon to be just glossed over by the decision-making European elite. The Muslim population of Europe, which by some estimates had risen to 50 million, in addition to the universality of the message of Islam which was attracting large numbers to its fold, was viewed by many in the West as a disturbing phenomenon which, they felt, could not only change the demographics of Europe but also its cultural identity.

(source)

Birmingham: Four men arrested over ’suicide plot’

Via the Daily Telegraph:

Four men have been arrested in connection with an investigation into an alleged suicide bomb plot in Birmingham.

The four men – three aged 19 and one aged 24 – are accused of raising funds for terrorism and travelling to Pakistan for terrorist training.

The men were arrested in connection with a “major counter-terrorism investigation” known as Operation Pitsford.

(source)

UK: East Lancashire mosque donates £47k to local hospitals

Via the Blackburn Citizen:

MEMBERS of an East lancashire mosque has donated £47,000 to provide home comforts for patients at Royal Blackburn Hospital and Burnley General Hospital.

Blackburn peer Lord Adam Patel and representatives from Masjid-e-Tauheedul Islam mosque in Bicknell Street met health bosses to present the gift this week to the hospitals’ charitable fund.

It is used to improve equipment for patient areas, and pay for additional patient “comforts and amenities”, outside of what the NHS normally provides.

Speaking to health chiefs during a presentation event, Lord Patel said: “At Bicknell Street mosque we have always taken part in charity work.

“When the hospital needed a new MRI scanner we contributed generously, there was a need in the eye department and we also donated there and throughout the world we are collecting handsome money for charities in Pakistan and India and to people who are suffering in Africa.

“We have collected this money for this particular purpose for East Lancashire Hospitals to contribute something back.

“We want to prove ourselves as good citizens. We need to work together because this is our hospital and this is for the East Lancashire community.

(source)

Norway: “It was an attack against the Labour Party”

Via VG (Norwegian):

According to Geir Lippestad, Breivik’s lawyer, Breivik went to Utøya to warn the Labour Party that Judgement Day will come if the party won’t change its policies. He wanted to hit the Labour party and its recruitment as hard as possible. According to him, Labour party people were ‘Maxists’.

According to Lippestad, Breivik thinks that a violent revolution is gruesome but necessary. “It was an attack against the Labour Party. He thinks he was on a mission.”

Q: Why did he use a method which was previously linked to Islamists?

“He says he saw there was no way except for using violence. He tried all other ways. He wrote letters to different newspapers about his thoughts, but didn’t get the letters printed.”

Lippestad says that Breivik hates many, and that includes all social institutions.

Via RT (h/t Tundra Tabloids):

Via EuroNews:

“I think this is an attack with a clear political message for the Labour Party and the government of Stoltenberg, who is seen by the attacker or attackers as too soft and accommodating on immigration and Islam.

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Breivik on Muslims

Reuters has excepts from Anders Behring Breivik’s manifesto:

“I don’t hate Muslims at all. I acknowledge that there are magnificent Muslim individuals in Europe. In fact, I have had several Muslim friends over the years, some of which I still respect. This does not mean however that I will accept an Islamic presence in Europe. Muslim individuals who do not assimilate 100% within 2020 will be deported as soon as we manage to seize power.”

More quotes from the Washington Times:

Our source said that Mr. Breivik “seemed completely normal” at first though clearly highly focused on the issue of Islam in Europe. In a brief introductory message on July 11, Mr. Breivik said that he had “been working full time on a compendium about the Islamisation of Europe now for almost two years” entitled “September 11th, 2083.”

The next day in a longer message he began by observing that “the U.S. is much better off than Western Europe, that’s for sure. I’m from Oslo btw,” he continued, “which [has] about 20% Muslims now. The Muslim ‘ghettofication process’ on the east side of my city is pretty radical. Most of these Muslims are religiously conservative non-educated individuals from NW Pakistan and Somalia which makes it even more challenging. The only positive aspect I guess is that they live in their own enclave (parallel society) with little to no interaction with Norwegian society.”

(…)

“A few years ago… I had different priorities in life,” he wrote, “me, myself and I.” He said that his “best friend for many years (in my childhood) was a Pakistani. He resented everything about Norway and Norwegians (me being the exception). I have known a lot of Muslims over the years which triggered my interest for Islam. … I sold my company a few years back which allowed me to focus full time on the current compendium I’m writing; ‘September 11th, 2083.’ I’ve lived quite ascetic since then.”

“Anwaar-e-Suhaili is a well known Persian book. In it has been narrated a very thought provoking story:

Once a man saw a crow whose wings were cut. He thought, “poor thing, how is it going to survive? From where shall it get its food?” Hardly a moment had passed when that person spotted an eagle carrying some prey in its beak. The eagle came closer, landed and fed the crow.

On seeing this the man thought “ This is how Allah provides for His creatures, so why should I worry about earning a living. Allah will provide for me.” So he sat down and remained idle. Some days passed but yet the person did not get anything. One wise man said to him “ O servant of Allah, you were shown two birds, one injured crow and an eagle. Why did you prefer to become like the crow? Why did you not think about becoming like the eagle who not only eats himself but also feeds others who are in need?

This story illustrates very well the real nature of ‘Tawakkul’. IF anyone has yet means of livelihood at his disposal, then he should not give up those means. His case is a like that of the eagle. He should not only fulfil his own needs but also look after others. “
Taken from “the World Within” by Mufti Muhammad Shafi (late grand mufti of Pakistan)
Source : Tears of Realisation

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UK: Asian women subjected to ‘virginity tests’ at Heathrow

Via the Telegraph:

The government is facing calls for an official apology after documents showed that Asian women were subjected to humiliating “virginity tests” when they tried to move to Britain in the late 1970s.

At least 80 women from India and Pakistan hoping to emigrate to Britain to marry were intimately examined by immigration staff to “check their marital status”, according to confidential Home Office files.

The files show the practice was more common than previously thought.

(source)