The failure of this Islamist experiment poses a danger far beyond Egypt

Even the most global events, those whose reverberations are felt far beyond their borders, are rooted in the specific and the local. This week's coup d'etat in Egypt, the army stepping in to remove and then arrest the democratically elected president, is no different. The toppling of Mohamed Morsi had a hundred causes, many of them wholly peculiar to Egypt.

A choice example: Morsi wanted to close all shops at 10pm, so that Egyptians would be fully rested in time for morning prayers. That didn't go down well in famously nocturnal Cairo where, as the New Yorker put it, "there are still traffic jams at 2am and where internet usage peaks at 12.45am".

[Guardian Cif] Read more

Our crippling fear of the truth

Pat Condell on the subject of the EDL, the UAF, Hope not Hate, Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller. I can't fault him lately. It's good stuff. [The Iconoclast] Read more

Don’t Blame Islam for the Failure of Egypt’s Democracy

.... This may have been the turning point in Tunisia’s constitutional process. Ghannouchi’s position is straightforward: He wants Tunisians to adopt Islamic values, but piety means nothing if imposed by coercion. Islam, he believes, will succeed in persuading people to adopt its truths more effectively if they don’t have its teachings shoved down their throats.

Ghannouchi’s diehard critics would say that omitting Shariah from the constitutional draft was only a tactical retreat, not an ideological one. But if they are right, that is yet another reason why Tunisia’s constitutional process is working: Leaders have displayed willingness to compromise in the face of ideological opposition. [BLOOMBERG] Read more

Iranian swimmer Elham Asghari: 'My 20km record has been held hostage'

On a Tuesday morning in June, Elham Asghari stepped into the tidal waters of the chilly Caspian sea in northern Iran to swim 20km in full Islamic dress. But her record-breaking nine-hour feat has not been recognised by national authorities because she is a woman.

"Although I [stuck to] the full Islamic dress code and had swimming officials present at all times, [the authorities] said no matter how Islamic my swimming gear, it was unacceptable," she told the Guardian. "They said the feminine features of my body were showing as I came out of water. [guardian.co.uk] Read more

Turkish Scientists See New Evidence of Government's Anti-Evolution Bias

Relations between Turkish scientists and their government just got even tenser. The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK)— the country's main research-funding agency—has rejected a funding application for a summer workshop on quantitative evolutionary biology because "evolution is a controversial subject."

The organizers are calling this the first open admission of a bias against evolutionary biology by Turkey's conservative government. But a TÜBİTAK official counters that the rejection was the result of objective peer review. [SCIENCE NEWS] Read more

Public Oppose Channel 4 Muslim Call to Prayer

Britons opposed to the TV broadcast of the daily call to prayer during Ramadan outnumber supporters two to one – but there are significant splits by politics and age

Channel 4 announced this week that it will broadcast the calls to prayer during the Muslim festival of Ramadan, as "a deliberate provocation” for viewers associating Islam with extremism.

The majority (52%) say Channel 4 is “wrong to mark Ramadan in this way”; twice as many as who say it is right (26%). [YouGov] Read more

Catalonia lifts veil on 'burqa ban' plans

The proposed rule will also control the public wearing of other garments including helmets and masks, Ramon Espadaler, Interior Minister for Catalonia, announced in the autonomous region's parliament on Wednesday.

A full debate will follow the introduction of the public safety motion designed to combat people concealing their faces in public places.

Espadaler argued that it had nothing to do with "religious issues", according to Catalan daily La Vanguardia. [The Local] Read more

German finance minister says Turkey is not part of Europe

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Wednesday Turkey should not join the European Union as it was not part of Europe, bluntly underlining Berlin's opposition to the long-running membership bid.

Germany pressed the 28-member bloc to delay a new round of membership talks last week, in response to Ankara's crackdown on anti-government protesters.

Brussels postponed the discussions for at least four months, but said the path to Turkey's membership was still open. [Reuters] Read more

Right-wing party tops Dutch poll

Right-wing leader Geert Wilders has called for a series of mass demonstrations in the Netherlands following an opinion poll that shows his anti-euro Freedom Party would become the largest political party in the Dutch parliament if an election were held tomorrow. [The Irish Times] Read more

Egypt shows the failure of ‘political Islam’: Assad

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad yesterday said the massive protests against his Islamist Egyptian counterpart brought the fall of “political Islam,” in statements posted on his official Facebook page.

The Egyptian army toppled Islamist President Mohamed Morsi yesterday after a week of bloodshed that killed nearly 50 people as millions took to the streets to demand an end to his turbulent single year of rule. [The Daily Star] Read more

Turkey stands at the crossroads. Will it opt for democracy?

....This is a crossroads for the country. If the government realises that it represents those who have not voted for it just as much as those who have; and celebrate diversity through more democracy, freedom of speech and human rights, Turkey could become an exemplar state throughout the Muslim world.

If the government takes the other path, however, and uses today's tensions as convenient propaganda material for the forthcoming elections, not only will Turkish democracy be badly bruised, but the entire region will also be affected. [Guardian Cif] Read more

Former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt Says Problem of Immigration Concerns "Foreign Cultures Marked by Islam"

Helmut Schmidt: As regards Italy or Greece, there's no problem. One day the Italians and the Greeks will go home or they'll integrate into society in the course of time. That's what we've seen for decades. The problem isn't due to Italian, Greek or Spanish immigration. The problem is due to immigration from foreign cultures, for example cultures marked by Islam.

Interviewer: You said before that immigration from outside the European Union was problematical. What do you mean exactly? [Islam versus Europe] Read more

“BOYCOTT Channel 4!” “Is this a Muslim country?” “Last one to leave, turn out the lights.”

.... Three minutes in the middle of the night hardly signifies a death knell for Britain.

So, do I agree with it? Not at all.

According to Ralph Lee, Channel 4’s head of factual programming, the broadcast is an act of deliberate “provocation”. Ain’t that the truth.

This is the channel that recently aired Dogging Tales and The Man With The 10-Stone Testicles.

And the channel that gave us The Untold Story last August — a documentary pouring scorn on the belief that Muhammad was a prophet of God — prompting 1,200 complaints.

Channel 4 doesn’t worship Islam, it worships controversy.

With the killing of soldier Lee Rigby and a number of retaliatory attacks on mosques across the country, this is the sort of provocation we can all do without.

The world doesn’t need more provocation, it needs more understanding. And I say: Amen to that. [The Sun] Read more

Iranian hardliners apoplectic over Shakira Confederations cup shot

When the cameras panned to the Colombian singer Shakira cheering on her footballing husband, Gerard Piqué, during a Confederations cup match, to many it was just another shot of a glamorous celebrity. But in Iran, the few seconds of a woman with bare arms and a revealing top broadcast on national television for the first time prompted furious debate.

Hardliners in Iran attacked the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) network this week for a series of gaffes, showing "indecent" and "un-Islamic" images in the middle of its live sports coverage, including the glimpse of Shakira. [guardian.co.uk] Read more

Islam and democracy: Tunisia at a crossroads

A primary driver of the Tunisian revolution was the unanimous call for freedom of expression and mass participation in national politics. With the demise of the Ben Ali regime, Tunisians hoped their liberation would remove controls on freedom of speech and freedom of the press and further expand women’s rights.

In theory, journalists were freed up to share information, unhampered by fear of imprisonment or the harassment that characterised press censorship under Ben Ali, while newly empowered citizens exercised their right to vote in Tunisia’s first democratic elections.

However, after recent developments, not only are Tunisia’s newfound liberties under threat, but rights previously enjoyed for decades are being eroded in the process. [openDemocracy] Read more

Islamism and the Left

Siding with the Oppressor: The Pro-Islamist Left (pdf) is a report by One Law for All which "focuses on the most conspicuous examples of the pro-Islamist Left in Britain – namely Stop the War Coalition, Respect Party, Unite Against Fascism and individuals such as Ken Livingstone and George Galloway". They are, mostly, condemned from their own mouths:

‘Calls for an Islamic state by some corners should not scare us nor should it bring about a negative reaction. […] In Muslim countries where Islam forms a focal point of history and society, this must not be dismissed as mere political or ideological fanaticism, but rather viewed as a collective aspiration.’ Anas al Tikriti, Vice President, Stop the War Coalition. [Mick Hartley] Read more

Anti-Muslim acts rising in France, rights group says

.... The group said in its annual report that anti-Muslim acts rose to 469 last year, after 298 in 2011 and 188 in 2010. The rise reflected trends cited by other recent reports that also noted increasing levels of anti-Semitism and racism in France.

CCIF President Samy Debah said Le Pen and other politicians were making anti-Muslim rhetoric commonplace. France's estimated five million Muslims form the largest Islamic minority in Europe but are poorly represented in politics and business.

.... The CCIF report said anti-Muslim acts were increasingly aimed against people, especially women, rather than institutions such as mosques, cemeteries and shops. Attacks against mosques had almost doubled to 40 in 2012 compared with 2011, it said. [Reuters] Read more

Beheading of Catholic priest in Syria highlights fears over arming opposition

The Vatican has confirmed that a 49 year old Catholic priest from the Franciscan Order was beheaded by Syrian rebels in late June. Father Francois Murad was establishing a monastery in the northern Syrian village of Gassanieh when he apparently fell foul of Islamist opponents of the Assad regime linked to the Jihadi Nusra Front.

In graphic video footage circulated online, Father Murad is seen tied up and pushed to the ground as a man slowly cuts his head off from behind with what appears to be a kitchen knife. Several dozen onlookers, including several children, chant Allah Akhbar (God is Great) as the beheading, which takes about a minute, takes place. [The Commentator] Read more

Ukip fury over Channel 4 broadcasting daily Muslim prayer during Ramadan next month

In what the station called an act of “deliberate provocation”, it will play the “adhan” chant to mark the start of the day’s fasting from next Tuesday.

Broadcasting the prayer, which will be heard for three minutes from 3am, has raised concerns over religious tensions following the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby last month.

Yesterday a Ukip spokesman said: “The channel knows people will be angered by this and it can’t be good for community relations.

“Religious Muslims do not need a TV broadcast to remind them to fast.” [EXPRESS.CO.UK] Read more

The boy killed for an off-hand remark about Muhammad - Sharia spreads in Syria

The murder of a boy accused of blasphemy has come to symbolise concerns about the power of Islamist radicals in Syria's armed uprising. Paul Wood reports from Aleppo on how Sharia is spreading in rebel-held areas.

Mohammed Qataa's mother wanders the streets of Aleppo looking into strangers' faces as she tries to find her son's killers.

She knows she would recognise them. She was looking right at them when, in front of a dumbstruck and terrified crowd, Mohammed was shot dead, accused of blasphemy. [BBC] Read more

Can Islam Be Reformed?

Islam currently represents a backward, aggressive, and violent force. Must it remain this way, or can it be reformed and become moderate, modern, and good-neighborly?

Can Islamic authorities formulate an understanding of their religion that grants full rights to women and non-Muslims as well as freedom of conscience to Muslims, that accepts the basic principles of modern finance and jurisprudence, and that does not seek to impose Sharia law or establish a caliphate?

A growing body of analysts believe that no, the Muslim faith cannot do these things, that these features are inherent to Islam and immutably part of its makeup. Asked if she agrees with my formulation that “radical Islam is the problem, but moderate Islam is the solution,” the writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali replied, “He’s wrong. Sorry about that.” She and I stand in the same trench, fighting for the same goals and against the same opponents, but we disagree on this vital point. [JewishPress.com] Read more

British TV channel plans call to prayer at Ramadan

Channel 4, one of Britain's top mainstream television media stations, has announced plans to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer this year on all 30 days during the Muslim festival of Ramadan, which begins next Tuesday.

This is merely the next logical step for a station steeped in the cliched agenda of 21st century political correctness and which shocked the world on Christmas Day 2008 by offering Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's Holocaust-denying president, a seven minute uninterrupted propaganda slot as a kind of riposte to the traditional Queen's speech to the British people which takes place every year on the same day.

That same intent to invert traditional Western values by replacing them with a grovelling exhibition of Western self-hatred was made explicit by the words and associated themes offered by Channel 4's Ralph Lee, who has (given the circumstances, what can only be described as) the Orwellian title of, "Head of Factual Programming". [The Commentator] Read more

Channel 4 to broadcast Islamic call to prayer throughout Ramadan

.... Let us be clear about what is going on here: this is Channel 4 simply facilitating Islamic worship. By sounding the adhan, they are fulfilling the function of a muezzin in a mosque. Ralph Lee says: "The calls to prayer prompt Muslims to carry out quiet moments of worship, but hopefully they’ll also make other viewers sit up and notice that this event is taking place."

The objective is clear: it is proselytism.

Amidst all the media coverage and widespread comment this story is attracting, there has been absolutely no religious analysis at all. And it is only in the religio-political realm that the significance of this decision can be understood.

Firstly, let us dismiss the notion that the call to prayer is somehow the the Islamic equivalent of bell-ringing. Church spires with pealing bells are a British cultural manifestation with a thousand years of history, and the sound is theologically neutral. Indeed, it is merely audible symbolism.

But the adhan belongs to quite a different culture: it is an unequivocally insensitive theological declaration with profoundly political implications, and is invasively ‘in-your-face’ and ‘down-your-throat’ (or whatever the audial equivalent be). It includes the words: [Archbishop Cranmer] Read more

The East London Mosque: A Place For Hate

The event is backed by Labour MP Rushanara Ali, Unison, the extremist-backed mayor Lutfur Rahman, and the Islamic Forum Europe: a group which is aligned with the South Asian Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, and which was founded by men who are wanted for the most horrific war crimes perpetrated against Bangladeshi liberals in the 1970s.

Last week at the East London Mosque, you could have heard the Friday sermon being delivered by a hate preacher who has been banned from Sheffield Hallam university: Assim al-Hakeem. You can watch his sermon on the institution’s own Youtube channel.

Assim al-Hakeem teaches that apostates must be killed: [Harry’s Place] Read more

Canada in landmark move to strike out "hate speech" law

Free speech advocates are hailing a move by the Canadian Senate this week to abolish a highly controversial section of Canada's Human Rights Act which, critics say, has been used to stifle the opinions of right-leaning journalists such as Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant.

.... Commenting on the move, Steyn, who had been a victim of Section 13 due to his writings against Islamism and terrorism, said:

"So victories against the state’s encroachments on free speech are protracted and difficult, but still just about possible. I am honored to have played a small role in a modest victory for liberty in Canada, and I hope my friends in London, ashamed by what their government has done, will take heart." [The Commentator] Read more