Sweden: Boys not circumcised without medical grounds

Via The Local:

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Every year, around 3,000 boys are circumcised in Sweden, many for cultural or religious reasons, according to the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR).

However, the organisation estimates that only about one third of the operations take place in the country’s publicly financed health system.

To reduce the chances of circumcisions being carried out by individuals who lack medical training, Sweden’s county health authorities are supposed to offer the procedure whether or not there is a specific medical reason for the operation.

Currently, health authorities in Örebro, Varmland, Västernorrland, Västerbotten and Jamtland refuse to sanction circumcisions on purely religious or cultural grounds, according to SR.

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Chechnya: Sharia law threatens Moscow control

Via Reuters:

Aspects of sharia law imposed in Muslim Chechnya in recent months are inching the republic closer to autonomy and posing a renewed threat to Kremlin control, analysts say.

The Kremlin relies on its hardline Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, to maintain order in the violent region in the North Caucasus, where separatists were driven from power a decade ago after two wars.

Analysts say Kadyrov’s methods to tame the region include a crackdown on opponents and imposing his radical vision of Islam, which could push Chechnya again towards separatism.

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Earlier this month Chechnya’s spiritual leader successfully ordered the shutting down of all eateries during the holy month of Ramadan. Separately, many women said they had been harassed by men for not wearing headscarves in what some of the assailants said were instructions from religious authorities.

The Ramadan orders followed words of praise from Kadyrov who told state TV he was grateful to attackers who targeted women with paintball pellets in June for not wearing headscarves.

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Aarhus: Crimes dealt with in self-appointed courts

Immigrants from the Middle East often deal with criminal matters themselves and fail to report violence, for example, to the police.

A couple of years ago the Danish media reported about similar courts in Odense.

It is better to deal with illegal issues without the involvement of the police. this attitude among groups of immigrants from the Middle East, means that criminals go around freely, because their compatriots refuse to report them.

Instead they have several self-appointed courts: they make mutual agreements outside the system. Self-justice has come so far, that in at least one case money was paid. A violent man was set free in return for payment. He bought his victim’s silence about the violence. It was settled in cash without the involvement of the authorities.

A step backwards

Police describe this self-help as a step backwards. The head of the neighborhood police in Gellerup Park in Århus Vest, police commissioner Jens Espensen says:

“For a period we thought things were moving forward. The willingness to go to the police steadily increased. One example was many reports in the spring which contributed to solving a series of muggings. But now we meet – as had happened before – many silent witnesses.”

A question of honor

One of the reasons is that people fear reprisals from the most powerful criminal immigrants in Gellerup Park. Another explanation is honor. In some families it’s still considered less dignified to involve the police, say the police representatives.

Source: Århus Stiftstidende (Danish)

HRW: Russia should protect Chechen women

Via HRW:

Russia should put an end to local rules forcing women in Chechnya to observe an Islamic dress code, Human Rights Watch said today.

Since the start of Ramadan in mid-August, Human Rights Watch has received numerous reports from Chechnya about women being harassed in the streets of Grozny, the republic’s capital, for not covering their hair and/or wearing clothes deemed too revealing.

“Forcing women to wear religious or traditional clothing violates their right to personal autonomy, and the Kremlin should end this interference with their private life,” said Tanya Lokshina, Russia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Chechen women, like other Russians, should be free to choose how they dress.”

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France: Attacked for eating on Ramadan

He was eating breakfast on the terrace of a restaurant in the center of Lyon on the weekend of August 15th, when three youth jumped him because he didn’t observe the fast of Ramadan. The father of the Senegalese family from Vénissieux was hit on the head with a glass bottle, and then beaten with a chair. Rushed to the hospital with a fracture to the back of his head, the victim was operated on. The attack was caught on CCTV, but the images are of poor quality and it is impossible to identify the attackers. The Lyon prosecutor opened a preliminary investigation. According to our sources, the manager of the kebab (restaurant), fearing reprisals, wants to testify anonymously.

Three days later, a young Jewish woman lodged a complaint for being assaulted in a supermarket in Toulouse. The victim said she was taken to task for buying food during the fast. The young woman argued that she was Jewish, which just made her attackers angrier. They called her a ‘dirty Jew’, hit her on the head, and roughly pushed her down. A guard witnesses the events, without intervening. Questioned by the investigators about his passivity, the man explained that he observed Ramadan and hurried to leave in order to eat after sunset.

Source: Le Point, h/t Bivouac-ID

See also: Brussels: Ramadan rage attacks

Finland: Gym bans prayer

A women’s gym in Espoo decided to ban prayers after their dressing room became a makeshift mosque for both clients and passers-by. Via Vartii, more info at Tundra Tabloids.

“We just serve imported beer with the food,” the general manager of the Istanbul Café and Restaurant, Zeynep Karagøz, told tv2nyhetene.no.

The restaurant in the Norwegian town of Moss is being pressured by the building owner and neighbor, a mosque run by the Turkish Muslim community, to stop serving alcohol, reports Moss Avis.

“I was told of the complaint on Friday, and was very surprised. But Norway is a democratic country. People can think what they want,” says Norwegian-Turkish Karagøz.

The restaurant is in the first floor of the same building as the mosque, and was given the license to serve alcohol before New Year’s.

The mosque has its premises on the second floor, but uses that same entrance as the restaurant.

In the summer the community complained to the Moss municipality, saying that the serving of alcohol is a nuisance for the children and youth activities going on there.

“Especially on the weekends and in the evenings, there’s a lot of activity for children and youth in the building and in the area,” says the complaint, which will be processed by the municipality’s supervisory board this week.

The manager of the restaurant says she doesn’t understand the claims of the community and says the the activities that the community mentioned take place between 12PM and 4PM on the weekends.

Zeynep says that the restaurant she runs doesn’t have alcohol on the menu, but sells imported Turkish beer in bottles.

“We are keen to promote Turkish culture and food traditions. Here we don’t serve boiled potatoes, and alcohol is not on the menu,” the manager told tv2nyhetene.no.

The restaurant leases the premises from the Turkish religious community, which wants the alcohol license to be taken away.

If their complaint to the municipality doesn’t get anywhere, they will check other options to stop the serving of alcohol, a spokesperson told the local paper.

“We will comply with the municipality’s response. Meanwhile we think that something should be done. It’s out of the question to move the mosque. We will see what we do with the lease contract when it expires,” Bilal Øzbal of the Turkish Muslim faith-society in Østfold told Moss Avis.

Source: TV2 (Norwegian)

UK: The Talibanisation of British childhood by hardline parents

Via Daily Mail h/t Veritas Universalis

Last November, on the steps of Tate Britain, I witnessed a scene that troubles me still.

A furious Asian father was shaking his young son and tearing up the picture his child had drawn.

The boy kicked and cried. Recognising my face from TV appearances I had made as a commentator on current affairs, the father came across to say ‘hello’.


So I asked him what his child had done that had made him so angry. He explained that according to his Islamic mentors, drawing pictures of people was forbidden.

I was flabbergasted. After all, this was in the middle of Britain’s multi-cultural capital – a modern metropolis, not some dusty backstreet in Kabul.

What harm can there be in a picture?

So I asked the man if he owned a camera. ‘Yes,’ he replied. ‘And a video camera.’

So why, I asked, was it acceptable for him to take pictures, but not for his child to draw a stick figure?

‘The madrasa teacher told me children are not allowed to,’ he said, referring to the places of religious instruction for Muslim children, which are the equivalent of Sunday schools for Christians.

‘I am not an educated man, so I must listen to them.

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Tolerant Muslims who fear and loathe the propagators of Bin Laden’s Islam can see where this will lead.

Young British Muslims – too many of whom are way behind in educational achievements and at the bottom of the job market – will be affected unless we can find a way of stopping the ideologues.

The full burka has been banned in France (where the hijab – a headscarf – is also not allowed in schools) and other European nations will follow.

In Britain, where personal liberty is sacrosanct, such state actions would appear authoritarian.

To me, that hands-off approach makes no sense.

Why are we fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan and indulging Taliban values here?

Even if it offends liberal principles, the powerful must find a way of stopping Islamicists from promulgating their distorted creed.

If they don’t, the future is bleak for Muslims and the country. Many of us British Muslims care deeply about both.

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UK: Muslim drivers refuse to let guide dogs on board

Via Daily Mail:

Blind passengers are being ordered off buses or refused taxi rides because Muslim drivers or passengers object to their ‘unclean’ guide dogs.

One pensioner, a cancer sufferer, told how had twice been confronted by drivers and asked to get off the bus because of his guide dog, and had also faced hostility at a hospital and in a supermarket over the animal.

The problem to carry guide dogs on religious grounds has become so widespread that the matter was raised in the House of Lords last week, prompting transport minister Norman Baker to warn that a religious objection was not a reason to eject a passenger with a well-behaved guide dog.

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

While drivers can use their discretion to refuse to carry non-disabled passengers with dogs, they are compelled to accept guide dogs under disability discrimination law.

Yesterday both the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and the National Federation of the Blind confirmed the problem was common, and, according to the latter organisation was ‘getting worse’.

The tension stems from a strand of Islamic teaching which warns against contact with dogs because the animal’s saliva was considered to be impure, the Muslim Council of Britain said.

It urged Muslims to show tolerance and common sense over the issue.

‘We need to be flexible on this,’ a spokesman said. ‘Muslim drivers should have no hesitation in allowing guide dogs into their bus or car.

‘If a dog does lick you, it’s not the end of the world. Just go home and wash yourself.’

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Oslo: Debate on swimming classes after brothers drown

Two Somali-Norwegian brothers drowned to death last Wednesday in Svarttjern, Romsås (Oslo). The two were playing football when the little brother (9) jumped into the waters and started drowning. His brother (12) tried to save him. Neither could swim.

The boys’ mother and older sister were there. When the police arrived, 15 people were there, and many of the witnesses said they couldn’t swim.

The accident occurred next to a school and a play area.

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

Islamic Council: Exempt children from mixed swimming classes

In a commentary in Aftenposten’s paper edition, Mala-Wan-Naveen writes that many children in Oslo school seek exemptions from swimming classes. According to Naveen this is because the parents don’t want their children to swim or do sports in mixed classes.

Shoaib Mohammad Sultan of the Islamic Council of Norway emphasizes that they think it’s extremely important that all children learn to swim.

“Islam has basic rules on covering next to members of the opposite sex, which means that some parents will think mixed-sex swimming classes are problematic. In such situation it would be most appropriate to have dialog between the school and parents, to find practical solutions that take core of both the religious consideration, as well as the need for all students to learn to swim,” says

Sultan says a possible solution for to avoid the mixing some Muslims are responding to is for students to get exemptions from the regular swimming classes. They would then be obligated to go to acceptable private lessons.

“I think it’s fully possible to do this if you have the good will,” says president Per Rune Eknes of Norway’s Swimming Federation.

Eknes says that a study done last year showed that 50% of 10 year old in Oslo couldn’t swim. Among ten year old of immigrant background that increased to 70%. Eknes thinks the most important thing is for children to learn to swim, not how they learn.

“Children of an immigrant background have a different culture, tradition and religion than we do, and therefore different codes for how to act next to others. Many ethnic Norwegians also have help from the parents with swimming skills, while the ratio is smaller among the multicultural,” says Eknes.

Eknes supports the Islamic Council of Norway, who think it can be appropriate to take children out of ordinary swimming classes for religious reasons.

“It’s not so important how it’s done, as long as the youth learn to swim,” Eknes says.

Eknes thinks that regardless, it’s the school’s responsibility to ensure that swimming training is satisfactorily completed.

Minority researcher at NOVA, Ada Engebrigtsen, told VG Nett that geography is also a factor in why children of immigrant background look poorly in swimming research.

“Many immigrant parents grew up in other places, with a different geography and a completely different attitude to water. Their experiences with swimming are therefore not as good,” says Engebrigtsen.

She says it’s serious that many children in Norway can’t swim. According to the Norwegian curriculum, Norwegian schoolchildren should be comfortable in the water during 4th grade.

“The fact that many children don’t have the same basis for learning to swim is a problem should should be taken seriously. They should get a good [training] offering,” says Ingebrigtsen.

Gran School in Groruddalen teaches swimming in 4th, 7th and 10th grade. They also have an afternoon option and their own course for girls. Principal Anne Myhrvold says that swimming classes are obligatory and that they’ve adapted what they offer to meet the challenges.

“Those who want to swim with clothes that completely cover the body are allowed to do so. Additionally, we’ve introduced our own bathing suit with a hijab,” she says.

The principal at Mortensrud school, Leif Arne Eggen, says he would like to offer more swimming classes to his students.

“But again it’s a question of resources. If anything goes in, something must come out. Swimming can’t come at the expense of writing or reading,” he told VG.

The president of Norway’s Swimming Federation completely disagrees.

“You don’t die by not being able to read or write, but you do actually die by not being able to swim. As the last days have shown,” says Per Rune Eknes.

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Frp: “It’s apartheid”

Mazyar Keshvari of the Oslo Frp (Progress Party) thinks the Islamic Council of Norway proposal is objectionable. He thinks it’s wrong to divide children based on religion.

“The plan of the swimming federation and the Islamic Council of Norway resemble a type of apartheid. If Muslim children can’t swim with others, what will be next? That they won’t have gym together? You can’t separate children based on religion,” he told VG Nett.

Keshvari says that children should both play and swim together, regardless of religion and background. He doesn’t understand Muslim parents who deny their children this.

“I don’t have respect for such wishes, and I think the parents should being to act more civilized. I don’t want to take their religion from them, but in 2010 you should look differently at this. It’s more important that the children learn to swim, so that they don’t risk getting drowned, then that they swim in mixed classes.”

The Frp politician is supported by the head of the Oslo’s Liberal Party, Ola Elvestuen. He says swimming classes are mandatory and must apply to all students.

“Muslim students can swim with body-covering clothes if necessary. Additional regulations can also be considered by the individual schools, but you can’t give students exemptions from classes based on religious affiliation.”

Elvestuen thinks there should be additional resources so that all students know how to swim.

“The schools and parents should have a closer and better dialog about the importance of swimming. Secondly we should strengthen the students’ swimming skills,” he says.

Keshvari is committed to increasing the focus on swimming – especially after the drowning accident where two bothers died in Romsås, Oslo, Wednesday.

“This can also be done by introducing swimming tests, just like the tests carried out in other subjects. Students who don’t pass the tests, we’ll put in extra resources. In this way you’ll lift the weak students.”

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Mothers learning to swim

Nine women from India, Kurdistan, Ethiopia, Iraq and Somalia try hard to keep their body afloat in the swimming pool in Lambertseter Pool in Oslo. They are on a week long water-acquaintance course.

“I’m in this course for the first time. I’m here because I’m afraid of landing in a dangerous situation where I can’t swim,” says Amina Abdullah (37) from Kurdistan.

The accident where two bothers drowned made the immigrant mothers in the swimming course very concerned.

Many minority children have parents who can’t swim. The women think culture and religion are the reasons why neither they nor their children can swim well.

“Thirty years ago when I grew up in India, girls weren’t allowed to learn to swim. The couldn’t show their body in a bathing suit with men. Today the situation changed,” says Karmjit Kaur (41).

Iranian Nagah Imran (47) is a believing Muslim and mother to four teenage girls. All four go every week to a swimming course for girls.

“Islam doesn’t allow girls to swim together with boys,” says Imran.

The statement makes Indian Deepak Mahal (33) see red.

“Religion is not more important than saving lives. Life should always come first.”

Mahal wants even more swimming classes in the curriculum.

“My children had swimming classes just seven times during the school year. It’s not enough,” she despairs.

Source: VG 1, 2, 3, 4 (Norwegian)

See also:
* Norway: Swimming classes for Muslim girls pose dilemma
* Oslo: Debate about segregated swimming classes
* Norway: ‘there is no sneak Islamization here’
* Norway: County to adapt swimming classes for Muslim girls