Norway: Paper destroys possibly provocative illustration

Five years after the Mohammed-cartoon controversy, it recently flared up again, following a couple of terror plots and a book about the controversy. Kurt Westergaard intends to publish an autobiography next month which is expected to include the cartoons.

Jan O. Henriksen illustrated the debate with a satiric illustration on the last page of the Uke-Adressa section of Adresseavisen. When the newspaper management saw the cartoon, they immediately destroyed 90,000 copies of the paper. [Islam in Europe] Read more

Europe Doesn't Get Islam

.... The thinking is that this is still a cultural problem that can be corrected with 3 drops of educational indoctrination, and 6 drops of enforced integration for the natives whose discriminatory attitudes are just making things worse. The problem is that their model is wrong.

The Islamic problem is not merely a clash of cultures, but also a clash of civilizations. Had it been merely a clash of cultures, Europe would only be in the same boat as America. Troubled, but not immediately fatal. Instead Europe is facing a clash of civilizations.

The cultural and religious dimensions of the conflict underlie a larger perception on the Muslim side, that they are fighting to expand the borders of the Muslim East, rather than trying to be accepted in the Christian West. [The Iconoclast] Read more

Hizb ut-Tahrir: no such thing as a ‘Danish Muslim’

At its annual conference this weekend, Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir called on Muslims to be proud of their faith and not label themselves as Danish Muslims or French Muslims.

During the conference, themed on the Muslims’ role in the West, the message to Muslims was that their faith should be their identity.

At the conference, Jaweed Yusuf, a member of the group, explained that it was their duty to call others to Islam, however difficult that might be and whatever consequences it might entail. [The Copenhagen Post] Read more

Geert Wilders trial suspended after he attacks judge

Geert Wilders, the anti-Islam politician, told a Dutch court that he stood by his opinions that the Koran is a "fascist book" and Islam is as dangerous as Nazism, as he went on trial for inciting racial hatred.

The flamboyant, peroxide blond MP, who holds the balance of power in the Netherlands after coming third in recent national elections on an anti-Muslim platform, told judges that he had no regrets over the comments.

Mr Wilders is being prosecuted for describing the Koran as "fascist" and for comparing it to Adolf Hitler's book Mein Kampf, a text that is banned in the Netherlands. [telegraph.co.uk] Read more

The British Muslim schools where EVERY pupil is forced to to wear the veil - and Ofsted inspectors have approved them

At least three Muslim faith schools are forcing girls as young as 11 to wear face-covering veils with the blessing of Ofsted inspectors, it emerged yesterday. One of the schools insists that fees are paid in cash and warns parents against speaking to the local education authority.

All three schools have been approved by education watchdog Ofsted, which inspects private faith schools to ensure they prepare pupils for life in modern Britain and 'promote tolerance and harmony between different cultural traditions'. [MailOnline] Read more

British schools where girls must wear the Islamic veil Hundreds of girls are bring forced by British schools to wear the Islamic veil in a move which has been heavily criticised by mainstream Muslims. Islamic schools have introduced uniform policies which force girls to wear the burka or a full headscarf and veil known as the niqab. Moderate followers of Islam said yesterday that enforcement of the veil was a "dangerous precedent" and that children attending such schools were being "brainwashed". The Sunday Telegraph has established that three UK institutions have introduced a compulsory veil policy when girls are walking to or from school. They are: [telegraph.co.uk] Read more

Murfreesboro’s Imam Bhaloul versus London’s Imam Choudary: Who was the Truth Teller on ABC’s This Week?

ABC’s This Week host, Christiane Amanpour held a special town hall event: “Holy War: should Americans Fear Islam”? It was a further example of her series of televised food fights pitting alleged moderate Muslims and their non-Muslim props against alleged extremists tar brushed with the label of Islamophobes.

Out of this contest of ideas might come truth? If it does, you wouldn’t recognize it. Agitprop is more like it. Brent Baker of Newsbusters Media Review set the stage for this skewed contest of ideas with this post: [The Iconoclast] Read more

Lahore High Court upholds death for blasphemy accused

A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Wednesday confirmed the death sentence handed down to a blasphemy convict and ordered that he be hanged till death. This is the second case of its kind in the country when the death sentence of a blasphemy accused has been confirmed by the LHC since inception of the blasphemy law.

An Additional District and Sessions Judge Lahore on May 27, 2002 had awarded Wajihul Hassan death sentence for allegedly uttering blasphemous remarks against the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and other prophets. He was also accused of hurting religious sentiments of the complainant – Senior Advocate Muhammad Ismail Qureshi. [The Express Tribune News Network] Read more

I migrated to Europe with hope. Now I feel nothing but dread

When I arrived with my mother in Rotterdam in the late 1970s, we thought we had found a safe haven. Coming from the sharp-edged mountains of north Morocco, the streets of the Low Countries felt like a place where everything could be done better. It did not seem possible that, 30 years later, the likes of Geert Wilders would wield influence, pushing his ban on the burqa, but then there were no burqas to be seen in the street. [Guardian Cif] Read more

Waitrose forced to ditch halal lamb from Prince of Wales' Duchy range

Waitrose is to introduce a range of non-halal lamb products as a response to customers’ concerns about its meat supplies. Until now, all lamb sold by the store has been slaughtered in accordance with Islamic law, with a Muslim reciting a prayer in Arabic over the meat.

But Waitrose said last night that, from now on, organic Welsh lamb from its Duchy Originals range – established by Prince Charles to market produce from his estates – will no longer be halal. [MailOnline] Read more

Saudi women fight for control of their marital fate

Women in Saudi Arabia are fighting back against tribal traditions that make them hostage to the whims of their fathers and male guardians who alone can decide who their future husbands will be.

Faced with a lifetime of being forced to remain single, an increasing number of Saudi women, many of them university graduates with good jobs, are going to court to dispute their fathers' refusal to sign off on their marriages.

In July, a Medina court rejected a 42-year-old doctor's petition to override her father and brothers' refusal to allow her marriage to a surgeon she works with, because he did not belong to their tribe. [AFP] Read more

Amid protests, controversial Dutch lawmaker visits Berlin

Populist Dutch politician Geert Wilders, known for his strident anti-Islam and anti-immigration views, held a speech in a Berlin hotel on Saturday amid protests outside the venue.

"Germany too needs a political movement that defends the national identity of the country. Germany's political identity, its economic success, is threatened by Islam," Wilders told an audience of some 500 people at a hotel in Berlin's Tiergarten district.

"Islam is a dangerous political ideology for everyone," Wilders, who is facing prosecution in the Netherlands for incitement to hatred, said. [Deutsche Welle] Read more

MCC welcomes Minster Mackay’s decision to bar CIC Imam

The Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC) has strongly welcomed the decision by Minister Peter Mackay to bar an Imam from the Canadian Islamic Congress from speaking at an internal event at Department of National Defence headquarters Monday.

“In the past few years we have seen the so-called Islamic History Month turned into a propaganda machine for the Islamists in Canada who wanted to introduce Sharia Law and who wish to hide behind the cover of teaching history to infiltrate the highest levels of government in Ottawa,” said Salma Siddiqui, Vice President of the MCC. [Canada Free Press] Read more [via Islamophobia Watch]

Norwegian Publisher Cancels Biography of Muhammed

The Norwegian historian and journalist Halvor Tjønn has written a biography of the founder of Islam, Muhammed. The book was announced by the Oslo publisher Kagge in last year’s fall catalog. But now the publisher has suddenly pulled out — and refuses to provide any explanation of why it no longer wishes to publish the book.

According to the newspaper Aftenposten, Kagge says that it doesn’t consider it dangerous to put out such a book, but at the same time it refuses to give a reason for its turnaround: [PajamasMedia] Read more [via The Iconoclast]

Shut academy doors on both religious and political extremism, urges biggest sponsor

.... Terry Sanderson, president of the NSS, said: "We are alarmed at the prospect of extremist religious groups taking control of these schools and using them to brainwash children. What is to stop a Muslim group taking over a school and turning it into a madrassa at public expense if that is what parents want?

"What is to stop a Scientology front group taking over a school and then introducing its teachings with taxpayers' money? The fact that some parents want to indoctrinate their children in a particular religion does not mean that they should be able to access public money to do it."

A Department for Education spokesman said there was "no question" of this happening. "We will not allow any extremist group to set up an academy and in the highly unlikely event that an existing academy strays from what is acceptable, we have powers to stop their funding and even take over the governing body," he said. [TES] Read more

Indonesian women caned for selling food during Muslim festival of Ramadan

The two women were found guilty of selling food during the fasting hours of Ramadan, thereby violating Islamic sharia law.

Hundreds of people gathered to watch as Murni Amris, 27, received three lashes and Rukiah Abdullah, 22, received two at a mosque in the city of Jantho, southeast of the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

“The two women were found selling rice in a stall at noon during Ramadan. The sharia forbids selling food during fasting hours at Ramadan,” said Marzuki Abdullah, Aceh’s sharia police head. [telegraph.co.uk] Read more

French women cause a stir in niqab and hot pants in anti-burka ban protest

Two French female students have made a film of the pair of them strolling through the streets of Paris in a niqab, bare legs and mini-shorts as a critique of France's recently passed law.

Calling themselves the "Niqabitches," the veiled ladies can be seen strutting past prime ministerial offices and various government ministries with a black veil leaving only their eyes visible, but with their long legs naked bar black high heels.

Bemused passers-by can be seen gawping at the pair or asking to take photographs in the clip. [telegraph.co.uk] Read more

Student wearing niqab begins teacher training

A student wearing the niqab has begun attending a teacher training course in Stockholm, more than one and a half years after another woman reported a school that would not allow her to wear the headscarf in class.

Employers and principals are still waiting for a guiding principle about the niqab in classrooms from the Equality Ombudsman (DO) following the woman's notification last year, Dagens Nyheter (DN) reported on Monday.

Another Stockholm woman reported an adult education college in Spånga northwest of Stockholm to the DO in January 2009 after being told that she could not wear an Islamic headscarf in class. The woman was told that she was no longer welcome at Västerort Vuxengymnasium, an adult education college, if she persisted in wearing her niqab. [The Local] Read more

Fun-loving Muslims

There is an assumption that the experience of migration to, and subsequent life in, Europe does nothing to change Muslims and that, in fact, their religious affiliation is of such overwhelming importance to them that nothing else goes into forming or maintaining their identity. This, I think, is far too crude and pessimistic a view. [New Humanist] Read more

Lady Warsi accuses Asian community of electoral fraud

.... She said "At least three seats where we lost, where we didn't gain the seat, based on electoral fraud. Now, could we have planned for that in the campaign? Absolutely not. I think it would be wrong to start identifying them . . .

It is predominantly within the Asian community. I have to look back and say we didn't do well in those communities, but was there something over and above that we could have done? Well, actually not, if there is going to be voter fraud." [The Iconoclast] Read more

Most Germans see Muslims as a 'burden': poll

A majority of Germans believe the country's roughly four million Muslims are an economic burden, a poll showed Thursday, adding further fire to a raging immigration debate in Europe's top economy.

The survey, by the Allensbach Institute for the Financial Times Deutschland, showed that 55 percent of Germans thought Muslims "cost considerably more socially and financially than they produce economically."

Only one fifth of those polled believed the opposite. Anti-Muslim feeling was strongest in economically depressed East Germany, where 74 percent had a negative view. [Expatica] Read more [via The Iconoclast]

Gay film festival attacked by masked Islamic protesters

An international film festival celebrating gay cinema was yesterday targeted by masked Islamic hardliners in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

The protesters, members of the Islamic Defenders Front, chanted homophobic slogans and accused organisers of the Q! film festival, now in its ninth year, of blasphemy, threatening to burn down a venue if screenings did not halt. The event, which is being held at foreign cultural centres in Jakarta, opened last week and was scheduled to run until Wednesday night. It aims to raise awareness of gay issues. [guardian.co.uk] Read more

US cartoon strip rejected for even mentioning Muhammad

.... Via the MediaWatchWatch blog, we learn of a bizarre case of self-censorship in the US, in which "upwards of 20" newspapers rejected an edition of Wiley Miller's popular Non Sequitur cartoon strip on the grounds that it depicted "a lazy, sunny park scene with the caption, “Picture book title voted least likely to ever find a publisher… ‘Where’s Muhammad?’"

An amusing satire on the widespread fear of publishing anything that comes close to depicting the Prophet Muhammad, don't you think? Sadly, satire appears to be dying, as editors go one step further by displaying a fear of publishing anything that comes close to satirising the widespread fear of publishing anything that comes close to depicting the Prophet Muhammad. [New Humanist] Read more

Against its wishes, Europe’s political class is deep in immigration debates

.... The magazine Der Spiegel mentioned “the danger of an emotional and irrational debate that would give a new impetus to the rightmost fringe.” True, the right has got some impetus out of the Sarrazin affair.

But the taboo that is being broken is not the one the German mainstream press thinks. Until now the debate over immigration has been platitudinous, based on moral uplift, lecturing, and exhortations to fellow feeling.

Sarrazin’s book merely asks Germany’s political leadership to look at the numbers. The threat to them is not of an irrational debate but a rational one. [The Weekly Standard] Read more [via The Iconoclast]

Salafis pose threat to Muslim women, says alderman

.... Though orthodox Muslims might not be a danger to society, they're a threat to the personal freedom of Muslim girls and women, Amsterdam diversity alderman, Andrée van Es (GroenLinks), said in response to a recent study on Salafism.

The report concluded that strictly orthodox Muslims are not a threat to Dutch society. This is also due to the enormous social control in Salafist communities: the faithful consistently check each other, and continuously speak of what is allowed and what isn't. [Islam in Europe] Read more

Modern, moderate Malaysian government warns that "stern action" will be taken against those who "insult Islam"

They want to "avoid any untoward incidence" -- i.e., Muslims going mad and murdering innocent people because of something this priest said. And so we see once again that terrorism and violent intimidation work, which will only ensure that we will see much more of both.

.... The Malaysian government will not keep quiet to any form of insult against Islam in the country to avoid any untoward incidence. [Jihad Watch] Read more