Are British Muslims in peril?

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia appears to be at a crossroads today. For decades the alliance between its powerful clergy and the royal family has proved to be one of the most stable and blissful.

However, King Abdullah’s recent flirtation with modernity appears to have backfired. Cracks are now visible in this alliance that has up until now successfully acted as a vanguard against attempts to democratise the oil-rich state or to bring any progressive reforms to its society. [Pickled Politics] Read more

French-speaking Belgium divided over burqa ban

The telephone has not stopped ringing at the offices of “Insoumise et devoilée” (Defiant and unveiled)," located in Verviers, in southern Belgium. "In the past two weeks, sixteen young women have reached out to us," says Karima, who is visibly overwhelmed by her work.

When in 2008 she founded the organisation, named after a book she published the same year, Karima never imagined things would evolve so quickly. "It’s proof my story is not an isolated case, as some politicians suggested," she jokes. [France24] Read more [via Islam in Europe]

Islamist Blogpost of the Day 2: 'The Disbelievers Shall Perish'

Musleh Faradhi, the Islamic Forum of Europe’s president, admits in the Guardian today that “we are not perfect, and have room for improvement.” But he does insist that the IFE works tirelessly and only for community cohesion and peace.

Here, in my second extract from the IFE’s official blog, you can see quite how committed all the group’s members are to peace. On 24 January 2009 Abdullah Hasan, a regular IFE blogger, and named as an IFE member on the Islamic Awakening website, quotes the “great and just” thirteenth-century anti-Crusader leader Salahuddin al-Ayyubi, “whose statement today is more relevant than ever.” [telegraph.co.uk] Read more

Geert Wilders' Speech in the House of Lords

.... For they do not want to hear the truth about Islam, nor are they interested to hear the opinion of top class legal experts in the field of freedom of expression. Last month in a preliminary session the Court refused fifteen of the eighteen expert-witnesses I had requested to be summoned.

Only three expert witnesses are allowed to be heard. Fortunately, my dear friend and heroic American psychiatrist dr. Wafa Sultan is one of them. But their testimony will be heard behind closed doors. Apparently the truth about Islam must not be told in public, the truth about Islam must remain secret. [The Iconoclast] Read more

Towards an All Party Parliamentary Group on Islamophobia: expert witness transcript

On Wednesday 3rd March 2010, I was invited to give an ‘expert witness’ statement at a Parliamentary meeting to discuss the creation of an All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Islamophobia . APPGs include members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords from across all of the political parties who meet together to discuss a particular issue of concern.

They tend to focus most on the governing party’s priorities, discussing new developments and inviting Government Ministers to speak at their meetings. APPGs have no formal place in the legislature but are an effective way of bringing together parliamentarians and other interested parties including academics, NGOs and campaign groups amongst others. [Walls Come Tumbling Down] Read more

Hamas bans men from working in female hair salons

Gaza's Islamic Hamas government has banned men from working in women's hair salons. It is the latest step in a campaign to impose strict Islamic customs on Gaza's 1.5 million people. Since seizing the city in 2007, Hamas has moved in that direction while avoiding a frontal assault on secularism. [guardian.co.uk] Read more

Church group's concern at mosque 'division and discord'

CHURCHES in Camberley have denounced the plans to build a large traditional mosque in the town. This week the Churches Together group said it felt the domed mosque, which will have 100ft minarets, would be making a powerful cultural and political statement.

The group, which represents 11 churches in the borough, also said that if the plans for the mosque were approved it could become a serious source of antagonism between the Muslim and wider communities. [Get Surrey] Read more [via Islam in Europe]

IFE: not harmless democrats

Members of Islamic Forum Europe, despite what their defenders say, are concealing their real views in order to win power

.... Perhaps our unemotive, factual quotation from original IFE documents has helped still those complaints about "defamation" and "vindictiveness". Such as, for instance, the transcript of a 2009 recruit training course where the organisation tells its new members:

"Our goal is not simply to invite people and give da'wah [call to the faith]. Our goal is to create the True Believer, to then mobilise those believers into an organised force for change who will carry out da'wah, hisbah [enforcement of Islamic law] and jihad [struggle]. This will lead to social change and iqamatud-Deen [an Islamic social, economic and political order]." [Guardian Cif] Read more

Watch out: democratic Muslims about .... Gilligan's chief charge was that recent years had seen the IFE gradually increasing its influence in the London borough of Tower Hamlets. His programme accused them of trying to "infiltrate" the local Labour party so that they could subvert the local council and bend it to an extremist "Islamist" ideology in a tactic reminiscent of Militant tendency in the 1980s. [guardian.co.uk] Read more

Mr Bunglawala (deliberately?) misses the point. Nobody is complaining about Muslims taking part in politics. What people object to is the IFE (The Islamic Forum of Europe) not saying what it really stands for and vote fiddling. See what Guardian CiF readers think here

Muslims Found In Mosque Shock Channel 4 Dispatches used to be a haven of serious documentary, but has degenerated into a stream of Islamophobia. .... These Muslims actually wanted society to be ordered in an Islamic way on Islamic principles. To try to achieve this they were - shock horror - undertaking political activity and joining political parties! [Craig Murray] Read more

The IFE: Riding the Climate of Fear .... In response to the programme, IFE stalwart Azad Ali has produced not one but two angry personal tirades against Gilligan on the IFE blog. .... This comes after he lost an attempt to sue the Mail on Sunday for publishing an article with the headline “Civil servant ‘backed fanatic’s call to kill our troops in Iraq’”. Justice Eady said in his summary judgment that Ali’s case was bound to fail and had about it “an absence of reality”.

A similar absence of reality permeates Ali’s last two blog entries. They also contained sneers at the members of the Bangladeshi community who spoke out against the IFE in Gilligan’s documentary. [The Spittoon] Read more

Islamist radicals: Complain early, complain often… You may have noticed that any newspaper articles or TV programmes exposing the doings of Islamist radicals - such as the ones about the Islamic Forum of Europe which I’m in the process of bringing out at the moment – always attract weirdly formulaic, oven-ready complaints (”what the well-known racist and CIA agent Andrew Gilligan conveniently forgets to acknowledge is the decisive role of the IFE in promoting community cohesion, ending world poverty, stopping climate change,” etc, etc.) Well, I think I’ve solved the mystery. [telegraph.co.uk] Read more

Blasphemy law returns with a vengeance: Religiously aggravated sentences more draconian than blasphemy

The National Secular Society said today that the blasphemy laws had been reintroduced by the back door after a Manchester man was convicted at Liverpool Crown Court on Wednesday of causing “religiously aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress”. [National Secular Society] Read more

Does this insult, deeply offend and alarm? If so, His Grace is on his way to prison. And if not he, then what about Oliver Kamm of The Times.

And if not he, then the original artist Peter Brookes must certainly have drawn this cartoon with the intention to insult, deeply offend and alarm. Indeed, he disclosed later: “That got me into a bit of hot water, which I was quite glad about. (The Pope) said condoms were not the answer to the continent’s problems. [Archbishop Cranmer] Read more

Philosophy tutor and atheist Harry Taylor in court for leaving anti-religious cartoons in John Lennon airport .... To be frank with you it is astounding that some Christians can muster the courage to leave their homes. Would you not have simply chucked the crap in the bin? OK, so the police did become involved, but is it not astonishing that they charged Harry Taylor with three counts of religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress under the Crime and Disorder Act? Am I missing something perhaps? [eChurch Christian Blog] Read more

Atheist accused of leaving insulting religious images in Liverpool’s John Lennon airport prayer room .... But he told Liverpool crown court he was just practising his own religion of "reason and rationality" in the hope of converting people to atheism.

Taylor added: "The airport is named after one of my heroes and his view on religion was pretty much the same as mine. I thought it was an insult to his memory to have a prayer room in his airport."

Taylor, who also claimed the controversial images were "satire" and would not offend anyone, even recited the lyrics from Lennon’s track Imagine. [Liverpool Daily Post] Read more [The Liverpool Post article gives a description of the cartoons]

Guilty of offending sensibilities The recent guilty verdict for the so-called ‘militant atheist’ Harry Taylor is deeply troubling. Mr Taylor was convicted of the offence of ‘Religiously aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress’, which carries up to a seven year jail term. His crime was to leave cartoons mocking religions and religious people in the airport’s multifaith room. The cartoons included: [Pickled Politics] Read more

Women detained for not wearing veil in Bangladesh

Golam Minhaz, an inspector with Detective Branch of Bangladesh Police at Rangpur district .... detained 19 women in various areas in the city for 'not wearing veils'. It may be mentioned here that, according to Bangladeshi law, women are not required to wear veils, which is compulsory in a number of Islamist countries. Iran has imposed law for compulsory wearing of veils by women since 1979. [Weekly Blitz] Read more [via Jihad Watch]

Punjab: Christian couple touches Qur‘an with dirty hands, gets 25 years in prison

A court in Kasur district, Punjab, convicted a Christian couple, Munir Masih and Ruqqiya Bibi, to 25 years in prison. According to the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS), judge Ajmal Hussein convicted the couple for touching the Qur‘an without washing their hands. [AsiaNews] Read more

Saudi Woman Gets 300 Lashes, Jail for Complaints, Group Says

A Saudi woman who filed harassment claims in Saudi Arabia without being accompanied by a male relative has been sentenced to 300 lashes and 18 months in jail, Human Rights Watch said.

Sawsan Salim lodged a series of complaints in 2007 at government offices and in court in the northern region of Qasim in which she alleged harassment by local officials, the New York-based rights group said. She was sentenced in January on charges of making “spurious complaints” against government officials and appearing “without a male guardian,” the group said in an e-mailed statement received today. [Bloomberg] Read more

Yes, There Are Moderate Muslims and Here Is One

.... In my original post, I was going to write about how this should be followed up by fatwas in support of women’s rights, separation of mosque and state, and against oppression and theocracy to help modernize the Islamic world. Given what we now know about ul-Qadri’s past, I definitely should have included that.

I had a conversation with a fellow writer last night about this and about how such change can be speedy but will come in stages. We may not like everything ul-Qadri says, but this is something we can support as we try to empower more liberal elements in the Islamic world’s leadership. [NewsReal] Read more [via EuropeNews]

Burkha Ban: Two-Thirds In Favour

ALMOST two-thirds of Britons think women should be barred from wearing the burkha in public, a poll has revealed.

Figures from pollsters Harris show that 57 per cent of people – Muslim and non-Muslim – say they would support a ban on the head-to-toe garment like the one being considered in France.

Moderate Muslims supported the move here, pointing out that the burkha had no justification in Islamic teachings. [Daily Express] Read more

Que. government forced woman from classroom for refusing to remove face covering

MONTREAL - After months of balancing a woman's religious beliefs with her desire to learn French, the Quebec government stepped into her classroom to offer an ultimatum: take off the niqab or drop the course.

The woman opted to keep her Islamic face-covering and has filed a human-rights complaint against the government.

In a province where the government frequently faces accusations of doing too much to accommodate minorities, these actions have prompted a fair bit of praise. [Winnipeg Free Press] Read more [via Jihad Watch]

France: Halal Takes Over

.... I posted an article on Quick several weeks ago, but at the time I did not think it was a major news event, since halal is not a new phenomenon in France. But apparently the French are suddenly more aware of what the Islamization of their country really means, in terms of altering their traditional eating habits, and interfering in their daily lives to an intolerable extent.

Both Polemia and Riposte Laïque have published articles, and Marine Le Pen, appearing on French television, has been an outspoken critic of Quick, condemning in particular the tax the French people have to pay for halal, even if the taxpayers do not eat halal. [The Brussels Journal] Read more

Why France does not want an 'Entente Cordiale' with the burqa

.... Although France is not the first country to legislate on the issue, the legal moves to ban the burqa and the niqab in certain public places have caught the attention of the global media.

Interestingly – though unsurprisingly to me as a French woman – the disagreement lies between France and other countries (mainly Britain and the US) and not within France itself. Indeed two out of three people in France are actually in favour of a complete ban on the burqa in public places, which goes further than the proposal the French parliament will act on this spring.

In other words, two thirds of France thinks that wearing the burqa in public should be completely banned and is “contrary to our values and to the ideals we have of women’s dignity”, as Mr Sarkozy said. [The Samosa] Read more

Women, equality and Islam: Rethinking the faith to meet the expectations of modern man

.... We often hear these reflections from the mouths of Muslims in Europe. Moreover we often hear that Islam has liberated the Arab woman. These apologetic speeches include elements of truth but others that are not accurate.

I think it useful to take stock of the situation, to bring some clarity. What is more, my goal is to affirm the ability of Islam to evolve and to help change society, provided they agree to reconsider their faith in depth. Since this work is very difficult, we must do this together, Christians and Muslims and others, in friendship and fraternity. [AsiaNews] Read more [via The Iconoclast]

Bar slammed over 'disrespectful' name change

A Scottish bar that has undergone a re-branding exercise has caused outrage among the local Muslim community who say it is disrespectful to the Islamic faith.

The Dundee establishment, which was formerly known as Bar Rio, has recently reopened as Medina Bar and Grill in the city's Nethergate. [stv.tv] Read more [via The Iconoclast]

Tariq Ramadan Sets New Record

In his post last week “Islam's role in an ethical society” on Guardian Cif, Tariq Ramadan offered Islam as a cure for Britain’s ills (his cue was the MPs’ expenses scandal).

His offer has been met with near universal disapproval and disbelief. Of the 4359 votes given to the first 50 comments on his post, 4225 (97 percent) disagee with him. Some even said he is “opaque and oblique and doesn't say anything straight out". [LibertyPhile Research] Read more

Europe Cracks Down on Bloggers, Not Terrorists

.... Last January, the French Inter-ministerial Committee on Racism and Anti-Semitism met to discuss measures to ban from the Internet those websites deemed by public moralists to be “racist.”

The French government is acting in accordance with resolutions of the European Parliament that urge the member states of the European Union to “combat racism and xenophobia.”

The French authorities are currently working on “a plan of action at the national and international levels, mobilizing public authorities, Internet operators and special-interest groups” to combat “the expression of racist commentary on the Internet.” [The Brussels Journal] Read more

Black Sheep of the Islamist Family Comes to IFE’s Aid

It is obviously bothering Hizb ut-Tahrir that they have not been addressed in the Dispatches show or the Telegraph article. Understandably this is annoying for them.

Perhaps the journalists concluded that the task of exposing an organisation that so obvious rejects democracy and human rights in all its forms would be like shooting fish in a barrel. Still, let’s have a look at Hizb ut Tahrir’s press release, defending the Islamic Forum Europe: [Harry’s Place] Read more

Imagine if Australian women were flogged for drinking a beer

If my women friends lived in Malaysia, and we happened to be Muslim, we'd – with a few exceptions – be badly battered and bruised. Our bodies would be red raw from constant thrashing. I wonder if we'd wear those lashing marks with pride. Or would the pain and humiliation of official caning eventually break our spirit, and reduce us to a pitiful submission? [theage.com.au] Read more

God’s Law and Man-Made Laws: Muslims Living in Secular Democracies

One of the thornier issues that conservative Muslims who live in liberal democracies face is the question of navigating a relationship between Shariah and the laws of the land where they live.

On the one hand, traditional Muslims believe in a Divine Law that dictates not only their rituals of worship, but also many aspects of their regular life, such as business transactions and family issues. On the other hand, for Muslims living as minorities in Western lands, the laws of the land typically also regulate these aspects of life. [MuslimMatters.org] Read more

When Douglas met Tariq...

It was never going to be a particularly focused discussion. The motion for debate – “Europe is failing its Muslims” – and the panellists chosen made this week’s British Council and Intelligence Squared event inevitably rancorous.

Pro the motion were Tariq Ramadan, .... and Petra Stienen, a former Dutch diplomat with much experience in the Arab world.

Against the motion were Douglas Murray, well known in British media and political circles as the director of the Centre for Social Cohesion and an arch controversialist, and Flemming Rose, .... the man who commissioned the notorious cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. The event was set for acrimony. [The Samosa] Read more

Instead of facing reality, many young British Muslims take refuge in delusion and self-pity I debated Tariq Ramadan last night in London for Intelligence Squared, the British Council and the BBC. I’ll link to the video here once the BBC put it out.

The motion was “Europe is failing its Muslims”. I argued of course that it was not Europe that was failing its Muslims, but Islam that was failing Europe, indeed Islam that is failing Muslims. [telegraph.co.uk] Read more