Blasphemy 'is no crime', says Macron amid French girl's anti-Islam row

Emmanuel Macron has waded into a row over a schoolgirl whose attack on Islam has divided France, insisting that blasphemy is “no crime”.

The French president defended the teenager, named only as Mila, who received death threats and was forced out of her school after filming an anti-religious diatribe on social media.

Macron’s intervention comes after his justice minister, Nicole Belloubet, was criticised for claiming Mila’s attack on religion was “an attack on freedom of conscience” while saying the death threats were “unacceptable”.

The case has sparked a furious public debate in France, a strictly secular republic with a large Muslim population. The education authorities have since found another school for the teenager.

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“In this debate we have lost sight of the fact that Mila is an adolescent. We owe her protection at school, in her daily life, in her movements,” Macron said in an interview with Le Dauphiné Libéré newspaper. [The Guardian] Read more

Honour Crime: Swedish Muslim Migrant Sentenced for Beating Daughter with Kebab Spit

A Swedish court has sentenced an Iraqi asylum seeker to eight years in prison for honour crimes after he beat his daughter with a kebab spit, locked up his wife, and forced his daughters to wear Islamic veils.

The father, who fled to Sweden from Iraq with his family in 2006 and was highly active at the local mosque in Hässleholm, was found guilty of abuse, serious abuse, illegal threats, and unlawful coercion from a period between January of 2015 and September 17th of 2019.

Investigators were made aware of the father’s behaviour in 2019 when two of the family’s seven children reported his actions to social services in Hässleholm, telling of serious abuse and death threats, including being labelled “whores” by the father if they refused to wear the Islamic veil.

The investigation was considered an honour crime with prosecutor Malin Paulsson stating that the father repeatedly told them not to bring shame to the family, SVT reports. [Breitbart Europe] Read more

Mila: Teen who criticised Islam on Instagram moves school

A French teenager who criticised Islam on Instagram has moved to a new school after receiving death threats.

Education minister Gabriel Attal told broadcaster LCI on Monday that they had found a new school for Mila "to allow her to continue her life".

Mila, 16, sparked a national row over free speech when she called Islam a "religion of hate".

The teen's criticisms prompted fury but also drew support in France, where there are no laws against blasphemy.

Her comments about Islam came after she received homophobic abuse from a Muslim commenter. Supporters started the hashtag #JeSuisMila (I am Mila), while critics responded with #JeNeSuisPasMila.

.... The controversy began on 18 January, after Mila did a live broadcast on her Instagram account. After speaking about her sexuality she was called a "dirty lesbian" by a Muslim commenter.

In response, Mila posted an attack on Islam. "I hate religion. The Koran is a religion of hate," she said, before using stronger words to attack Islam. [BBC] Read more

France Quietly Reintroducing the Crime of Blasphemy

Today, in France, using freedom of expression to criticize Islam is clearly an extremely dangerous act, even if you, like Mila, are a child.

France is rapidly going from laïcité (secularism) to lâcheté (cowardice); from freedom of expression to unconditional surrender. France keeps trying to procrastinate while Islamism thrives on the elites' rapidly abandoning their Judeo-Christian values.

Feminist organizations, so quick to denounce "toxic masculinity" and "patriarchal structures of domination", were also silent.

Today, in France, the country of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which always sanctified freedom of expression and the right to criticize religion and ideologies, some within the justice system.... are quietly and de facto reintroducing the crime of blasphemy. [Gatestone Institute] Read more

Orbán: Not a single Muslim immigrant in Hungary, declares liberalism over

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, during a panel discussion at the National Conservatism conference in Rome on Tuesday, declared liberalism to be over and said that not a single Muslim immigrant lives in Hungary.

During conference, which was organized by the Edmund Burke Foundation, Orbán declared liberalism to be over while adding that a fresh kind government in the form of Christian democracy is needed to replace it, About Hungary reports.

.... While mentioning Europe’s growing Muslim population which has coincided with its rapidly declining Christian population, Orbán said: “According to the liberals, this is fine, because they don’t like Christian society,” before noting that the suicidal choice was theirs to make, but that forcing Central Europeans to follow in their footsteps is completely unacceptable. [Voice of Europe] Read more

French teenager who received death threats for saying Islam was a 's**t' religion says she 'does not regret' her online rant and defends her 'right to blaspheme'

The French teenager who received death threats after footage of her saying that Islam was a 's**t' religion went viral online has come out of hiding to defend her strong atheist convictions.

The teenager, identified only as Mila, appeared on the French TV programme Quotidien last night to say she 'does not regret' her comments.

It comes after France's left-wing elite was criticised for failing to support a 16-year-old girl who has faced death threats for insulting Islam.

She was removed from her sixth-form college in Lyon, south-east France, by police 'for her own safety' and has faced a torrent of insults and threats to rape and kill her.

During the interview Mila defended her right to her strong atheist convictions. She said: 'I would like to clarify that... I would like to come back to the subject about the fact that I absolutely do not regret what I said, that it was really what I thought.' [Daily Mail] Read more

Hamburg court rules against school niqab and burqa ban

The ruling stopped a school's attempt to ban a 16-year-old girl from wearing a full-face veil during classes. The state's education senator is now calling for a change to state law.

The Hamburg Administrative Court in Germany ruled Monday against an attempt to forbid a 16-year-old student from wearing a niqab during classtime.

Hamburg education officials had earlier ordered the girl's mother to ensure that her daughter did not wear the veil at school.

State law does not currently permit authorities to impose such a ban, the court said in a statement. The girl, who is studying retail sales, has a "right to unconditional protection of her freedom of religion," said the statement.

The ruling, which cannot be appealed, is being met with some controversy. Hamburg's social-democratic education senator Ties Rabe said that to implement the ban, he would seek to change state law. [Deutsche Welle] Read more

Teenager in hiding over anti-Islam comments amid fierce row over right to criticise religion in France

A French teenager forced to go into hiding for criticising Islam was on Thursday at the heart of a ferocious secularism row after the justice minister claimed her comments breached "freedom of conscience”.

The row initially erupted after a 16-year old schoolgirl called Mila got into a heated exchange on social media that ended in her receiving a torrent of death threats and being taken out of school for her own safety.

An avid singer from Lyon, southeastern France, Mila had engaged in a live “chat” with followers of her Instagram account.

During the exchange, she rebuffed repeated advances by one online suitor, saying she was lesbian, prompting insults about her sexuality.

Then the attacks took a religious bent, with zealots online reportedly accusing Mila of insulting "our God Allah, the one and only" and hoping that she would "burn in hell." [The Telegraph] Read more

French teenager in hiding after insulting Islam online

Police have told a French teenager to go into hiding after she received death threats for insulting Islam.

The 16-year-old has been advised to stay away from her lycée (sixth-form college) in southeast France after calls on the internet for her to be killed, raped or attacked.

The girl, named only as Mila, is understood to have been told by officials that she should avoid being seen in public until the controversy fades. She is being given psychological support by the local prosecutor’s office.

Prosecutors said two separate criminal inquiries were under way, the first to track the authors of threats to kill and rape the teenager, the second to determine whether her comments amounted to the offence of hate speech.

The case risks widening the gulf between mainstream French society and the country’s five to six million Muslims who often claim they suffer discrimination on a greater scale than their counterparts in the UK. [The Times (£)] Read more

Nearly One-in-Five French Newborn Boys Have Muslim or Arabic First Names

According to French political scientist Jérôme Fourquet, the number of newborn males with Arabic or Muslim first names has increased from just one per cent in 1960, to 19 per cent today.

Fourquet noted that the decline in the French birthrate — there were 70,000 fewer children born in 2019 than in 2014 — has led to the growth of Arabic-Muslim names among newborns. He added that “sustained migratory flows, particularly since the beginning of the 2000s”, has also contributed to the trend, Le Figaro reports.

“The study of the prevalence of types of first names among newborns makes it possible in particular to aggregate the strength of legal and illegal migratory flows, because, with some exceptions, all children born on French soil are registered with INSEE AAAFrance’s national statistics bureauBBB, even if their parents are illegal,” he added. [Breitbart Europe] Read more

Western Feminists AWOL in Supporting Abused and Dissident Muslim Women

Muslim and ex-Muslim feminists and dissidents have been risking torture and death in the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa, and the Far East by refusing to wear the hijab and by adopting other Western ways.

Bizarrely, Western feminists and accomplished and powerful women, including diplomats and politicians, are donning the hijab as a gesture of culture "sensitivity" and as a symbol of resistance to alleged racism.

For example, the American female lawyers defending the jihadists in Guantanamo Bay, including 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, are wearing hijabs and abayas so they will not "offend" their clients, and as a way of gaining their trust.

"Women on Mr. Mohammed's team mostly wear long skirts and other loose-fitting clothes topped by a variety of colorful scarves, shawls, head coverings and, in at least one instance, a one-piece, pull-on hijab," the New York Times reported Dec. 27. [New English Review] Read more

Islamists have opened a terrifying new front in their war with France

France has endured an appalling series of Islamist terror attacks in recent years. One might feel a sense of relief that the country escaped relatively lightly last Friday. That will, of course, be no consolation to the family of the man who was killed by 22-year-old Nathan C, a recent convert to Islam, who stabbed his victim to death as he defended his wife in the Parisian suburb of Villejuif.

She is recovering in hospital, as is another woman, while a passer-by apparently has his religion to thank for his survival. Confronted by the killer who was dressed in a djellaba and shouting ‘Allah Akbar’, the man pleaded for mercy, pointing out that he was a Muslim. The terrorist ordered him to recite a prayer in Arabic, which he did, and so off he went in search of other victims.

Some media outlets have cautioned that the perpetrator, who was shot dead by police and whose surname hasn’t been disclosed, had a history of mental illness. But arguably of greater relevance is his apparent adherence to the ultra-conservative Salafism, the ideology that links many of France’s Islamist terrorists. [The Spectator] Read more

Austria Considers Headscarf Ban to Counter ‘Political Islam’

Austria’s coalition government on Thursday announced it is considering several measures to curb the influence of what Conservative People’s Party (OVP) leader — and once and future chancellor — Sebastian Kurz described as “political Islam.”

The measures include a ban on Islamic headscarves for girls until they reach the age of 14 and a provision for putting potentially dangerous individuals in “protective custody” to prevent them from committing violent actions.

Kurz said during his first term as chancellor that “radicalization and political Islam have no place in our country.” He invoked the 2015 “Islam Act” to close mosques that were accused of supporting extremism and engaging in subversive political activity. Among other features of the Islam Act was a ban on foreign funding of religious activities in Austria.

Headscarves were banned in May 2019 for girls younger than 10, a rule denounced as “shameless” and a “direct assault on religious freedom” by Austrian Muslims, and an act of “rightwing extremism” by Kurz’s political opponents. Kurz plans to raise the age to 14 during his return to office. [Breitbart London] Read more

My teacher almost outed me for taking off the hijab

Today I was happy. I had completely stopped covering my hair and was speaking confidently with other people. I was just so happy, I wanted to go home and dream about it all night.

In math class, when the bell rang to switch, a teacher asked me about my hijab. I told her that I just took it off and it was no big deal. She told me that it was important to uphold culture, she then asked if my parents knew what I was doing. Being the idiot I am, I said no and asked if she would tell. To my absolute horror, she said yes.

My whole world stopped. I know what would happen if she said a word about this to my mother. I asked her why she would do that and she said:

“because it’s your culture! And you are an exception to be able to wear the hijab as a uniform, so don’t just take advantage of that.”

I put my head down for a while, holding back tears. Before I knew it, it was time for the last class. In the hallway I just walked mindlessly to my next class. [r/exmuslim] Read more

Denmark: Why Integration Fails

"Here my point is that Islam has never fully assimilated into any society and that Muslims have never fully adapted into non-Muslim cultures. With an increasing number of Muslims in the West, this will end in conflict." — Ahmed Akkari in his new report, "The loyalty conflict in the West – why Muslims are hard to integrate."

"As Islamists influence Western Muslim circles, Western political parties engage with them to win more votes, thus making unfortunate alliances with forces that really... condemn the established system...The dilemma is that by seeking Islamist votes they allow those who wish... Denmark to become Islamized to be strengthened... the same sort of dilemma as if one sought the votes of a neo-Nazi, fascist or Stalinist group." — Ahmed Akkari in his new report, "The loyalty conflict in the West – why Muslims are hard to integrate."

"Many mosques were formed to be a spiritual and religious space for believers, and not as places where violence, hatred and political agendas should dominate. Nevertheless, the leading mosques in Denmark are characterized exactly by a pseudo-Islamic influence under the control of small strong elites of Islamic leaders.

In that world, influence, not numbers, counts, and therefore it is not possible to say that Islamism is weak, just because it only exists in one quarter of all mosques, which I estimate." — Ahmed Akkari in his new report, "The loyalty conflict in the West – why Muslims are hard to integrate." [Gatestone Institute] Read more

Sweden Shuts Down Islamic School Due to Radicalisation Concerns

The Swedish School Inspectorate has revoked a Gothenburg Islamic school’s licence due to concerns that pupils may be exposed to radical Islamic ideology.

Authorities closed the Safirskolan school after its former owner, Abdel-Nasser el Nadi, had been detained by the Swedish security police (Säpo). Säpo recommended he, and several other Islamic radicals, be deported from the country on national security grounds, Nyheter Idag reports.

While a new individual did take the helm of the school, which was formerly called Vetenskapsskolan (the Science School), the inspectorate determined that the new head was still close enough to el Nadi that the school risked “being subjected to radicalisation and recruitment to environments that accept violence or serious crime as a method of political change”.

“We have made the assessment that the new owner does not take a completely independent position from the previous owner,” said School Inspectorate Divisional Lawyer Johan Kylenfelt. [Breitbart London] Read more

Switzerland investigates Muslim preacher over welfare fraud

Switzerland-based Muslim preacher Abu Ramadan is under investigation for allegedly committing welfare fraud. He has also been investigated over hate speech.

.... The media reports say the former agronomist received more than CHF590,000 ($598,317) in social assistance between 2003 and 2017. He is accused of concealing income worth tens of thousands of francs that could have led to a lower allocation of welfare benefits. The sums relate to pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia that the preacher accompanied.

Ramadan is reportedly in contact with authorities to “clarify any misunderstandings” but declined making a comment to the press.

It is not the first time that the preacher of the Ar’Rahman Mosque in the western Swiss city of Biel has caused controversy.

The imam, originally from Libya, was investigated over hateful statements he allegedly made against Jews, Christians, Buddhists and Muslim Shiites while preaching. [swissinfo.ch] Read more

Silencing Muslim Dissent

On November 16, the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) announced that Professor Muqtedar Khan would no longer be delivering the Al-Faruqi Lecture at this year's American Academy of Religion annual meeting.

IIIT justified this decision by declaring a certain post from Khan's Twitter account "to be inconsistent with IIIT's policies and interests." In fact, Khan had recently criticized an article published by the Islamist Yaqeen Institute, which discussed and endorsed the reestablishment of an Islamic caliphate.

In the essay that set it all off, Yaqeen writer Ovamir Anjum presented a caliphate as the "idea of a pan-Islamic union," which is winning more converts "with every suppressed uprising in the Muslim world, every new cycle of terrorism and punitive war, every new Muslim population violated with impunity, and every new wall erected in Euro-America." Now that ISIS's caliphate has collapsed, reasoned Anjum, this was precisely the right sort of "boost for the idea of a good caliphate" over a "bad" one.

Anjum concluded that a modern day caliphate would "not only be in accordance with the divine command but also is the only long term alternative to the mutually reinforcing coterie of despots and terrorists." [The Middle East Forum] Read more

France Shuts Down Mosques and Schools Linked to Islamism in 15 Neighbourhoods

The French government has shut down mosques, schools, and associations linked to the spread of Islamist ideology in fifteen neighbourhoods across the country.

French Secretary of State for the Interior Laurent Nuñez announced the closure of 130 drinking establishments, 12 places of worship, three schools, and nine associations linked to radical Islamism on Friday, Le Parisien reports.

“We fight against political Islamism that suggests that the law of God is superior to that of the Republic,” he told French media. He added that in his view political Islamism should not be conflated with the religion of Islam more generally.

While Nuñez noted that the closures occurred in fifteen different neighbourhoods, he did not identify which specific neighbourhoods were affected by the closures. The closures come as part of the National Plan for the Prevention of Radicalization (PNPR). [Breitbart London] Read more

The New Political Weapon of 'Islamophobia'

The objective of using the word "Islamophobia" appears to have been to make Islam untouchable by placing any criticism of it as equivalent to racism or anti-Semitism.

The word "Islamophobia" deliberately intends to transform the critique of a religion -- a fundamental right in Western societies -- into a crime.

"The term 'Islamophobia' serves several functions....Above all, however, the term is intended to silence Muslims who question the Koran, who demand equality of the sexes, who claim the right to renounce their religion, and who want to practice their faith freely and without submitting to the dictates of the bearded and dogmatic." – Pascal Bruckner, in his book, Un racisme ordinaire : Islamophobie et culpabilité, Grasset, 2017 [English version: An Imaginary Racism: Islamophbia and Guilt, Polity 2018]

It is not Muslims people "hate," any more than they hate Hindus or Buddhists or Shintos. It is the violence and coercion that some adopt -- what is known as jihad or holy war -- that people reject. [Gatestone Institute] Read more