Hague: Dentist opens night for Ramadan patients

For the first time in the Netherlands, Peter Thiel, a dentist from the Hague is opening his clinic in the evenings and nights during Ramadan, to enable fasting Muslims to get dental care.

"they can't swallow their own saliva from sunrise to sunset," explains Thiel. "One of my patients told me last week that because of that he didn't want to come for a follow-up appointment. That got me thinking."

After speaking with an imam in the Hague, he decided to open his clinic in the evenings and nights. Muslim who want to, can come to him after sunset. He accepts emergency cases all night. [Islam in Europe] Read more

Teacher suspended for 'insulting' Muhammad in Bangladesh

A Hindu teacher in Muslim-majority Bangladesh has been suspended after allegedly making offensive remarks about the Prophet Muhammad that triggered angry protests.

Madan Mohan Das, a follower of the Hindu faith, taught at the Dhanmondi Government Boys High School from the year 2010. On July 26, 2011, he allegedly made disparaging remarks about the Islamic Prophet's pilgrimage and his numerous wives at a teachers' meeting that infuriated many teachers, students and parents.

The comments led to severe protests around the city and at the school, where protesters ransacked the office building, broke flower pots and vandalized the garden. [Deutsche Welle] Read more

Family of albino Muslims terrorised after one of them marries a Christian man

.... Aslam Parvez, 53, blames members of the Muslim community who believe the family have been dishonoured by his daughter's marriage.

The hate campaign started five months ago when a national magazine published an article on albinos which featured Naseem, who no longer lives in Coventry and has little contact with her family.

It revealed how she has married a Christian, goes to church and is expecting her second child with her husband.

Moved away: Daughter Naseem Akhtar married a Christian and spoke about her life in a magazine

Mr Parvez says copies of the article were quickly spread maliciously, and were posted on walls near their house and through the doors of Muslim homes in the community. [MailOnline] Read more

Iranian youths arrested for public water pistol fight in Tehran

In the 40C heat of an Iranian summer, what better way to have fun and stay cool than a water fight with friends? In the Islamic republic, however, things are a bit more complicated.

For one group of boys and girls, their game turned serious when they were arrested for taking part in a water pistol fight in a park in the capital, Tehran.

Last Friday hundreds of enthusiasts used plastic pistols and empty bottles to play in the ironically named Garden of Water and Fire for hours and, to the surprise of many, without police interference. But the event – organised on Facebook – prompted criticism from conservatives when pictures of it emerged online days later. [guardian.co.uk] Read more

In the Burqa Ban, Italy's Left and Right Find Something to Agree On

.... the bill's main sponsor is a naturalized Moroccan immigrant, a Muslim woman who runs an association of Moroccan women and edits an Arabic-language newspaper.

Souad Sbai is a member of Silvio Berlusconi's party and a former member of the National Alliance, a party with fascist roots that in Italy's topsy-turvy political system has become one of the country's main champions of immigrant rights. she is also championing a measure that would ease the path to citizenship for second-generation immigrants.

Sbai says she proposed the veil ban as a response to what she says is a rising wave of extremism in Italy's Islamic community: "I feel humiliated having to talk about burqas. I never saw burqas [as a child in Morocco]. Why do I see them here?" [TIME.com] Read more

Latest threat to the Islamic Republic: squirt gun fights

.... I got up early in the morning to write the previous post on the Islamic Republic’s lack of tolerance for a public water pistol fight in a Tehran park. By the time I got home in the evening, the state TV was parading some of the organisers and participants who were confessing to their “crime.”

The head of the Moral Police, Roozbehani : “We have asked the judiciary to deal with these wrong doers as severely as possible. We can not tolerate such public events any where in the country”. [Harry’s Place] Read more

Germany Tries to Forge European Brand of Islam

.... One challenge is that nearly 90% of the nation's imams come from abroad, particularly Turkey, and many promote an Islam that is "oriented to Turkey," said Rauf Ceylan, professor of religious sciences at the University of Osnabrück, and therefore "disturb the integration process."

With German consent, the Turkish government began sending imams to Germany in the 1980s, a decision fueled by concern that more conservative forms of Islamic teaching forbidden in Turkey were taking hold among Europe's Turkish diaspora.

Today, some 900 mosques, about one-third of the total in Germany, are led by Turkish-state employees. These imams, Mr. Ceylan said, have trouble relating to a new generation of German Muslims because they often know little about German society when they arrive for periods of up to five years and speak little German. [WSJ.com] Read more [via National Secular Society]

Italy approves draft law to ban burqa

An Italian parliamentary commission has approved a draft law banning women from wearing veils that cover their faces in public.

The draft, which was passed by the constitutional affairs commission on Tuesday, would prohibit women from going in public wearing a burqa, niqab or any other garment that covers the face. It would expand a decades-old law that for security reasons prohibits people from wearing face-covering items such as masks in public places.

Women who violate the ban would face fines, while third parties who forced women to cover their faces in public would be fined and face up to 12 months in jail. [AP - Guardian] Read more

Egypt's Islamists mobilising mass support

.... When a protest was called in Tahrir Square late last week, it was known the Islamists would dominate it. But the numbers brought in by the Salafists far exceeded even those the Muslim Brotherhood could muster.

The Salafists favour an Islamic state, with Sharia law, as soon as possible, whereas the Brotherhood has emphasised the separation of state and religion - at least for the time being.

Hundreds of thousands of Salafists came to the square - many waving the flag of Al Nour or "The Light", the party they have established to contest the elections.

One Westernised Cairo woman who was shocked by this show of strength said to me "I think I will have to leave Egypt". [BBC] Read more

Two legal systems, and two choices. Which do we want?

.... And I'm absolutely sure that those councils are not all run by highly educated, moderate Muslims like him.

Most of them, according to Fiyaz Mughal, the Muslim director of an organisation called Faith Matters, are run by men over 60 who "don't have a clue what happens in life in this country" and "will give you an autocratic, dictatorial line".

Sharia, he told me, "was never meant to be an imposition on communities". Young Muslims, he said, need to be given the opportunity, "to revive the 500-year-old Muslim tradition of healthy debate".

God (or Allah, or whoever) only knows how we've got ourselves into this position, where a big chunk of our population waits for the edicts of men schooled in a medieval interpretation of a 1,500-year-old religion, with medieval views on freedom of expression, homosexuality and women's rights.

Some of it, clearly, is a result of a Labour government which thought it didn't matter what you believed as long as you were sincere, even if that sincere belief meant wanting you dead. [independent.co.uk] Read more

Poll: Muslims, atheists most likely to reject violence

New data from polling firm Gallup shows that out of all the religious groups in the U.S., Muslims are most likely to reject violence, followed by the non-religious atheists and agnostics.

Through interviews with 2,482 Americans, Gallup found that 78 percent of Muslims believe violence which kills civilians is never justified, whereas just 38 percent of Protestant Christians and 39 percent of Catholics agreed with that sentiment. Fifty-six percent of atheists answered similarly. [The Raw Story] Read more [via loonwatch.com]

Italy: 'Moderate' Muslims cheer draft law banning 'women-segrating' burka

The approval of a Italian draft law to ban the burka is a victory for women's rights, according to some leaders of Italy's Muslim community

"We learned of the news with great pleasure," said Gamal Bouchaib and Ahmed Bashir of advocacy group Moderate Muslims in Italy and Mustapha Mansouri, member of the Interior Ministry's Committee for Islam, an advisory group, in a joint statement.

The draft law passed by a parliamentary committee on Tuesday would prohibit the wearing of a burka, niqab or any headwear which covers the face. It has the backing of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's government and is due to face a parliamentary vote when politicians return from their summer break. [AKI] Read more [via Islam in Europe]

How Policy Exchange and the Centre for Social Cohesion encourage The Cold War on British Muslims

In a report published today, Spinwatch examines the Centre for Social Cohesion and Policy Exchange; two key right-wing think-tanks involved in the debate on Islam and multiculturalism which are thought to have influenced the Coalition Government’s new Prevent strategy.

The report, which was completed before the recent terrorist attacks in Norway, argues that right-wing think-tanks have understated the rise of Islamophobia on the far-right and in some cases condoned the rise of groups such as the English Defence League because of their own links to the 'counterjihad movement'. [Spinwatch] Read more [via Islamophobia Watch]

Norway Terror Stigmatizes Islam Haters as Labor’s Appeal at Decade High

Anders Behring Breivik’s efforts to galvanize anti-Islam sentiment in Norway after last month’s hate killings have given the ruling party he sought to destroy its biggest tailwind in more than a decade.

Support for Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s Labor Party, targeted by Breivik in the July 22 bombing and shootings that left 77 dead, soared to more than 40 percent, two polls showed this week. If a vote were held today, that would be the best result since the 1985 election. Approval of Stoltenberg’s handling of the crisis is at more than 90 percent, polls show. [Bloomberg] Read more

Why Islamist terror dwarfs Breivik's brand: Almost nobody supports 'Christianist' violence

.... Breivik's ideology does not represent the same sort of threat that Islamism does because it is not shared by nearly as many people, governments or institutions. Aside from a handful of anonymous Internet postings, there have been no avowals of support for Breivik's mass murder.

No influential Christian preachers have praised what he did. There were no celebrations in the streets, nor has any government applauded his attempt to "save" Europe from "Islamization."

The only organizational backing for Breivik's massacre appears to have come from a 12th century crusader outfit called the "Knights Templar," which, as far as we know, exists nowhere but in his own deranged head. [NYDailyNews.com] Read more

"Sharia Controlled Zones" for UK cities

.... In order to achieve this, Muslims Against Crusades have announced the establishment of 25 "Sharia Controlled Zones" around the UK, in areas targeted by the government in their anti-extremism Prevent strategy (posters announcing their establishment have already appeared in some east London boroughs).

In those areas, said Choudary, his supporters will set about "encouraging awareness of Islam among the Muslims and non-Muslims" and "educating the Muslims to make sure they struggle to implement the Sharia wherever they are".

Muslim residents will the encouraged to live in "enclaves, where they will trade with each other, resolve their disputes according to the Sharia, and protect and defend each other". [New Humanist] Read more

Re-emergence of the Brotherhood

The Muslim Brotherhood has never had it so good; thanks to the Arab Spring which has toppled their nemeses in Egypt and Tunisia.

Last Friday's mass demonstrations in Cairo and Alexandria, which were exclusively attended by the movement's supporters, were a bold show of strength and influence. They also marked an important turning point in the course of the January 25 uprising, which was triggered by largely secularist youth. [Gulf News] Read more [via National Secular Society]

Kelly Brook and the jihad seekers' allowance

.... Hasnath and Tahir, both 18, told police that the way the women had been photographed was against their religion. Hasnath said: ‘If someone was to look at our wife or mother or daughter with a bad intention, we would not like it, so we were just trying to do good.’

There will be some sympathy for them — and not just from other Muslims. Plenty of people, especially those with young children, are uncomfortable with the proliferation of sexually-explicit advertising in public spaces.

You don’t have to be a purse-lipped prude to believe there’s far too much gratuitous nudity and hard-sell soft porn on daily display.

On one level, Hasnath and Tahir are no different from those Victorians who insisted on covering table legs lest they unleash pent-up male passion. It would be easy to dismiss them as harmless eccentrics.

But their actions come against a backdrop of growing militancy among young Muslim men and attempts to impose Islamic Sharia law on whole areas of Britain. [MailOnline] Read more

Spray-painted burkas and religious freedom

Liberal intellectuals are unwise to scoff at Daily Mail columnist Richard Littlejohn. His journalism on Jihadist activity in East London is of the highest quality.

His commentary today on the case of two young Muslims convicted for painting a burka on a bus shelter poster of Kelly Brook shows why anybody committed to liberty as it has developed in Britain should be concerned about the threat to it from radical Islam.

It would be easy to dismiss the individuals responsible for the bus shelter incident, Mohammed Hasnath and Muhammed Tahir, as ‘harmless eccentrics’, he writes, but ‘their actions come against a backdrop of growing militancy among young Muslim men and attempts to impose Sharia law on whole areas of Britain.

The most serious incident of religious intolerance in Tower Hamlets came back in April. I brought you the story of a 31-year-old Asian shop assistant in fear of her life because she refused to hear a headscarf’. [Heresy Corner] Read more

Can Islam Be Reformed?

After having studied Arabic at college and lectured on comparative religion for decades, and having devoted years to writing my upcoming book comparing American values with leftist and Islamist values, I have become convinced of two things regarding Islam: It must be reformed, and it can be reformed.

Both suppositions are highly controversial. Few believing Muslims think that Islam needs to be reformed; the suggestion would strike most religious Muslims as absurd, if not insulting and ultimately blasphemous.

And it would strike many non-Muslim critics of Islam as naive. As Lord Cromer, British consul-general in Egypt from 1883 to 1907, put it in a quote known to all Western students of Islam, "Islam reformed is Islam no longer." [Townhall.com] Read more

One man's crime is not enough to sanitise radical Islam

.... Clearly, blaming ‘Islam’ as a whole is wrong because the faith is rich in ambiguity with scope for multiple interpretations. In any case, it would be absurd to believe that a community of over 1.5 billion people all share an identical belief system and moral outlook.

But the opposing view involves implausible denial and is equally unmerited. Bin Laden’s followers are not just reckless adolescents driven by narcissistic rage. They are religious fanatics quoting chapter and verse to justify slaughter.

Thus, while it would be reckless to tar all members of a community with the same brush, this is not a licence for political correctness either.

Just because a ‘Christian fundamentalist’ became a loathsome mass killer is no reason to sanitise radical Islam. We owe as much to the victims of that ideology, including Muslim ones. [The Commentator] Read more

Is secularism to blame for Norway attacks?

.... When critics of Islam point out that the Koran contains verses that justify the subjugation of women and incite hatred toward non-Muslims, they are not doing so to be recreationally mean to people.

Rather, they do this because the importance of Koranic inerrancy and infallibility to orthodox Islamic beliefs has real consequences, especially when these beliefs are exploited by Islamists to further their own objectives.

The fact that one reasonably-literate Norwegian psychopath may agree with this concern does not make it any less true or important, nor does it remove any of the responsibility for this attack from the man himself. [National Post] Read more [via National Secular Society]

Washington plans to host a meeting on resolution opposing defamation of religions

During the next few months, Washington plans to host a coordination meeting to discuss with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) how to implement resolution no. 16/18 on combating defamation of religions, and how to prevent stereotypes depicting religions and their followers; as well as disseminating religious tolerance, which has been endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council last March, in agreement with Western countries.

The resolution was adopted after lengthy discussions held between the OIC and countries in which the phenomenon of Islamophobia is in the rise. [International Islamic News Agency] Read more [via National Secular Society]

The French Secular Government Model Is Dying In The Middle East

.... In Egypt, too, we see a revolution resulting from failure rather than a revolution grounded in a viable vision for the future.

Fortunately Egypt’s centuries of relative stability and strong sense of identity protect it from the worst kinds of chaos and civil war that assail weaker and less firmly-founded countries like Iraq, Syria, Libya and Lebanon. Egypt is neither a developing country in the sense that it is gaining on the advanced world or a failed state; it is stuck in the gray zone in between.

In Turkey, a sometimes feisty and over-the-top Kemalist regime has given way to a sometimes feisty and over-the-top group of Islamists; in the Arab world, a gaggle of failed secularist modernizers is being driven from power by waves of public resentment and frustration.

Either way, the century in which French secularism was the dominant ideological force in the Middle East has now clearly come to an end. From Pakistan to Morocco, the Muslim world has turned its back on the modernity of the 20th century. God only knows what comes next. [Business Insider] Read more [via National Secular Society]

Hatred, smears and the liberals hell-bent on bullying millions of us into silence

.... As soon as the atrocity happened, people on the Left saw a heaven-sent opportunity to smear mainstream conservative thinkers and writers by making a grossly distorted association between Breivik’s attack and their ideas.

They claimed that anyone on ‘the Right’ who had spoken out against multiculturalism or Islamic extremism was complicit in the atrocity and therefore had a moral duty to stop writing about such things.

To my stupefaction, I have become a principal target of this incendiary witch-hunt, being smeared for having helped provoke the Norway massacre. [MailOnline] Read more