FGM essential part of Islam, can’t be subjected to judicial scrutiny, SC told

Senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared for Dawoodi Bohra community, justified in the Supreme Court on Tuesday the female genital mutilation (FGM) and called it an integral aspect of religious practice.

Making this submission before a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud hearing petitions from advocate Sunita Tihar and others challenging the practice of FGM, Dr Singhvi contended that it has the sanction of religious texts.

He said, “It is an essential aspect of Islam and cannot be subjected to judicial scrutiny. Quoting from religious texts, he demonstrated that this practice has been followed for centuries.

FGM or ‘khatna’ is a practice prevalent among the Dawoodi Bohra religious community of Shia sect though it is a crime and punishable offence. This practice is an age-old tradition in this community to mark the arrival of womanhood. The court had already orally expressed its disapproval to this practice. [The Asian Age] Read more

Study: Turkish Background Germans Increasingly Feel Closer Bond to Turkey Than Germany

A study has found that a growing number of ethnic Turks in Germany no longer see both Germany and Turkey as their homeland, but identify solely as Turks.

The study, undertaken by Martina Sauer of the Centre for Turkish Studies and Integration Research (ZfTI) at the University of Duisburg-Essen, says that many Turks feel excluded from German society, SVT reports.

The report comes after German star footballer Mesut Ozil quit the national side over allegations of racism sparking a movement called “Metwo” in Germany in which people of migrant backgrounds share stories of alleged discrimination.

.... The study echoes the loss of identity described by French radical Islam expert Gilles Kepel who noted that in France many migrants from Muslim backgrounds eventually began to feel excluded from society and instead of seeing themselves as French, increasingly saw themselves as primarily Muslim instead. [Breitbart London] Read more

UK couple jailed after trying to force daughter to marry

A couple who tricked their teenage daughter into travelling to Bangladesh in an attempt to force her to marry her first cousin have been jailed.

The husband and wife, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were found guilty in May of using violence, threats or coercion to force their daughter into marriage.

On Monday a judge at Leeds crown court sentenced the father to four-and-a-half years and the mother to three-and-a-half years.

During a three-week trial, a jury heard that in 2016 the couple’s daughter, then 18, was taken out of college during term time for what she thought was a six-week holiday to Bangladesh to see family and celebrate Eid. [The Guardian] Read more

Government's counter-terror strategy Prevent is creating 'high levels of distrust' among Muslims leading to 'genuine fears' of persecution

A 'lack of information' about a Government counter-terrorism strategy has led to 'genuine fears' of persecution among Greater Manchester Muslims, a report has found.

Although Prevent was 'working well' in the region, a commission set up in the wake of last May's Manchester Arena suicide bombing, said it was not getting its message across to communities where 'high levels of distrust and suspicion of statutory agencies continues to exist'.

It concluded there should be an effort to move Prevent - which aims to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism - away from the police and law enforcement to wider safeguarding.

The report stated: 'Most people agreed that the safeguarding principles that underpin Prevent are correct. [Daily Mail] Read more

Child Brides in Turkey

.... According to Turkish Philanthropy Funds (TPF), 40% of girls under the age of 18 in Turkey are forced into marriage. TPF found that the Turkish national average of female high school dropouts was 56%. It further found that early marriage is seen in families with a low education level. "Low education" means almost all of Turkey: The average schooling in the country is a mere 6.5 years. In 45 Turkish provinces, the schooling rate is below the national average.

The Islamist rule in the once secular country has added to the problem of child brides instead of combating it. In November 2017, President Erdogan signed the "mufti law," which allows state-approved clerics (or simply imams) to conduct marriage ceremonies, "despite concerns from civil society that this could have an impact on child marriage."

In January 2018, the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) -- a government body under Erdogan's jurisdiction -- suggested that according to Islamic law, girls as young as 9 years old and boys as young as 12 could marry. [Gatestone Institute] Read more

Muslims 'genuinely fear' being persecuted by Prevent due to lack of official information, report warns

Muslims “genuinely fear” being persecuted by the government’s controversial counterextremism strategy because of the lack of official information, a report has warned.

Research commissioned in Manchester following last year’s bombing found that although Prevent does good work tackling all forms of radicalisation, poor communication has caused a “dangerous perpetuating cycle of fear” and made people less willing to engage with the voluntary scheme.

A commission set up to investigate extremism and social cohesion said that Prevent’s work was “vital to community safety and vulnerable people are being safeguarded from being radicalised”.

But accurate information, statistics and positive news of interventions was are not reaching communities feeling “high levels of distrust and suspicion” towards authorities, it said.

“The lack of information is exploited by those with an anti-Prevent or anti-Islam agenda who maliciously miscommunicated the aims of Prevent or true nature of the issue,” the report concluded. [The Independent] Read more

Germany: Rise of the Salafists

The number of Salafists in Germany has doubled over the last five years and now exceeds 10,000 for the first time, according to Germany's BfV domestic intelligence agency. BfV estimates that Germany is home to more than 25,000 Islamists, nearly 2,000 of whom pose an immediate threat of attack.

The new figures are included the latest annual report of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, BfV), and presented by Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and BfV President Hans-Georg Maaßen in Berlin on July 24.

The report, considered the most important indicator of internal security in Germany, draws a bleak picture. The BfV estimates that the number of Islamists in Germany increased to at least 25,810 by the end of 2017, up from 24,425 in 2016.

Strangely, the report does not provide any estimates for the number of followers of the Islamic State or al-Qaeda living in Germany. As a result, the actual number of Islamists in Germany is undoubtedly higher than 25,810. [Gatestone Institute] Read more

A few thoughts on MEND’s recent report on Islamophobia

.... I find it really concerning – and it’s not just MEND who do this – when definitions of bigotry slip into an implication that anything which falls foul of the guidelines should be illegal.

People should absolutely have the right to invoke free speech arguments to say offensive and challenging things – that’s exactly what free speech is for, not to enable you to say things no one could possibly object to.

Identifying anti-Muslim or antisemitic discourse might help one decide that someone should be expelled from a political party, than at an article should not be published in a particular paper or simply that you want to unfollow someone on Twitter.

It’s right that people should be able to recognize a spectrum of bigotry ranging from the extreme to the subtle and marginal – but the (appropriate) inclusion of the latter makes it all the more important not to see every example as something which should be punished or banned. [Harry’s Place] Read more

Britain's teachers of terror: How extremists infiltrated classrooms

Twenty-four hours after Khuram Butt led his last Quranic class for the young children of an English Islamic school in June 2017, he strapped on a fake suicide vest, pumped himself up with steroids and committed a terrorist atrocity.

The dedicated extremist led three men in a murderous attack on the capital’s London Bridge, mowing down pedestrians and embarking on a frenzy of stabbing that left eight dead and dozens injured before they themselves were shot dead by police.

What was not known at the time was that for four months before the attack, the 27-year-old had been given the opportunity to mould the minds of young Muslims at the fee-paying Eton community school on the outskirts of London. He had no Arabic, no specialist knowledge and was unsupervised despite a conviction for violence.

The fallout from the murders and the scandal of the unsupervised sessions concluded this month with the school’s head receiving a life ban from teaching. But documents seen and interviews conducted by The National have revealed flaws within the British schooling system that allowed extremism like Butt’s to flourish unchecked. [The National] Read more

Indonesian Christian, 21, is sentenced to four years in prison for a Facebook post that likened the prophet Muhammad to a pig

An Indonesian Christian has been sentenced to four years in prison for a Facebook post that likened the prophet Muhammad to a pig in the latest conviction under a controversial hate-speech law.

Dozens of Islamic hardliners cheered and shouted 'Allahu Akbar' (God is Great) as the court in Sumatra ruled that Martinus Gulo was hostile toward Muslims in his post, which also said Mohammed sanctioned bestiality.

The Medan District court on Tuesday ordered the 21-year-old university student to pay a fine of one billion rupiah ($70,000) or spend an additional six months in jail. [Daily Mail] Read more

Criticising Muslims doesn’t make you a racist

ast year, Sarah Champion resigned as Labour’s equalities spokeswoman after writing an article for The Sun about child sex grooming gangs in her Rotherham constituency. She had said that the assailants were “predators and the common denominator is their ethnic heritage”. And by and large she was right. As The Times reported over many years, and proved in the teeth of much criticism, the bulk of these crimes were committed by men of Pakistani origin.

Now it seems a serious effort may be under .... [The Times (£)] Read more

County leader seeks halal ban meeting with Lancashire Council of Mosques

COUNTY Council leader Geoff Driver is seeking a meeting with the Lancashire Islamic leaders in a bid to end the deadlock over the definition of halal meat.

Currently 9,000 Muslim pupils in Blackburn, Nelson, Burnley, Rawtenstall, Hyndburn and Preston are set to boycott all school meals when they return to class in September.

The threat followed Lancashire County Council’s cabinet earlier this month deciding to supply only halal meat from pre-stunned sheep and cattle to 27 schools, meaning those wishing to use un-stunned meat would have to find an alternative supplier. [Lancashire Telegraph] Read more

Indonesian Christian jailed for Facebook post ‘insulting’ Islam

An Indonesian Christian has been sentenced to four years in prison for a Facebook post that likened the prophet Muhammad to a pig in the latest conviction under a controversial hate-speech law.

Dozens of Islamic hardliners cheered and shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is Great) as the court in Sumatra ruled that Martinus Gulo was hostile toward Muslims in his post, which also said Mohammed sanctioned bestiality.

The Medan District court on Tuesday ordered the 21-year-old university student to pay a fine of one billion rupiah ($70,000) or spend an additional six months in jail.

“Finding the defendant guilty of misusing information by offending believers through his Facebook account, I sentence him to four years,” said presiding judge Saidin Bagariang.

Gulo was convicted under Indonesia’s electronic information and transactions law, which makes it a crime to spread “hatred or animosity” against an individual or group based on their race or religion. [Arab News] Read more

Danish imam charged over call to kill Jews

Danish prosecutors on Tuesday charged an imam with calling for the killing of Jews in the first case of its kind in the Nordic nation.

Imam Mundhir Abdallah, who preaches in the Copenhagen neighbourhood of Nørrebro at the Masjid Al-Faruq mosque, which media have linked to radical Islam, is accused of citing a hadith or koranic narrative calling for Muslims to rise up against Jews.

"Judgement Day will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them," Abdallah said in a Facebook and YouTube video post in March.

"These are serious statements and I think it's right for the court to now have an opportunity to assess the case," public prosecutor Eva Rønne said in a statement.

This is the first time the prosecution has raised such charges under a criminal code introduced January 1st 2017 on religious preaching.

Rønne said it's legal to quote religious books like the Koran and the Bible, but that inciting or welcoming the killings of people could be punishable by up to three years in prison. [The Local] Read more

Austria’s vice chancellor calls for ban on ritual slaughter

Austria’s vice chancellor has called for a ban on ritual slaughter in the country, including Jewish shechitah.

Heinz-Christian Strache, the nation’s interior minister and head of the far-right Freedom Party, in a Facebook post Monday said animals should be stunned before slaughter, which is prohibited for both Jewish kosher and Muslim halal meat.

“Slaughter is in many cases contrary to animal rights,” he wrote. “Slaughter should generally be prohibited without prior stunning. As in other EU countries, too. And animals are not a thing either, but protected creatures that cannot be tortured.”

The post included a link to an article in German that listed several European Union states that have made ritual slaughter illegal in recent years, including Denmark, Poland, Switzerland and the Netherlands. [JTA] Read more

In Western Europe, familiarity with Muslims is linked to positive views of Muslims and Islam

Across Western Europe, people who say they personally know a Muslim are generally more likely than others to have positive opinions of Muslims and their religion, according to a recent Pew Research Center study in 15 countries. However, knowing something about Islam – as opposed to personally knowing a Muslim – is less associated with these positive feelings.

This pattern is evident across several different questions the Center asked of non-Muslim Europeans to gauge attitudes toward Muslims, including whether they think Islam is compatible with their country’s culture and values and whether they would be willing to accept a Muslim as a member of their family. [Pew Research Center] Read more

Bavarian town votes against building mosque

Citizens in the small Bavarian town of Kaufbeuren voted not to provide public land for a mosque. A local initiative was started by a retired detective and garnered enough votes to stop the negotiations.

In a local vote on Sunday, the residents of Kaufbeuren, a small town in Bavaria, decided against providing public land for the construction of a mosque.

At issue was the question of whether the city would provide the local branch of the nationally active Turkish-Islamic religious association DITIB with a 5,000-square-meter (54,000-square-foot) plot in an industrial area.

At least 45 percent of approximately 34,000 eligible voters took part in the local referendum. A minimum turnout of 20 percent was necessary to make the vote valid. The city must now break off its negotiations with DITIB.

According to the direct democracy NGO "More Democracy," there had only been one referendum in Germany before on building a mosque: in 2002, and then, a majority in Schlüchtern in Hesse voted in favor of construction. [Deutsche Welle] Read more

Play shines light on Trojan Horse 'Islamist plot' to run schools

Much-disputed events centring on Birmingham schools is subject of ambitious drama

The notorious Trojan Horse inquiry into an alleged Islamist takeover of a number of inner city schools in the east of Birmingham is the subject of a documentary play that explores the devastating impact of the affair on the city and those whose lives it touched.

Based on more than 200 hours of interviews with about 90 witnesses, including many of the teachers, pupils, parents and governors whose lives were turned upside down by the events four years ago, the play will have its premiere in Edinburgh next month.

Inevitably not everyone will agree with its interpretation of what has been described as “the best known and most polarising story about Britain’s relationship with its Muslim citizens”. Among those who declined to be interviewed for the production were Michael Gove, then the education secretary, and the head of the schools inspectorate at the time, Sir Michael Wilshaw, who later claimed to have needed two bodyguards because of concerns for his safety during the course of the inquiry.

The play is the work of the critically acclaimed theatre company Lung, which enjoyed success with its Chilcot production, based on the government inquiry into the UK’s involvement in the Iraq war and which was co-authored by Guardian journalist Richard Norton-Taylor. [The Guardian] Read more

Rare secular candidate in Pakistan hounded by angry mobs

It began with a audience members asking Pakistani parliamentary candidate Jibran Nasir to declare his religion at a public forum, a request he politely refused on the grounds it is irrelevant.

Later, the mobs started showed up. In the past week, three of Nasir’s public meetings in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, have been disrupted by religious hardliners - shouting out and shoving his supporters.

Nasir, a human rights lawyer, is a rare breed in Pakistan: an avowedly secular, progressive candidate in the overwhelmingly Muslim country of 208 million, where most parties appeal to an Islamic vote bank.

His independent candidacy is in stark contrast to the prevailing mood of Pakistan’s campaign, which has seen the rise of new ultra-right Islamist parties campaigning on protecting draconian blasphemy laws and denouncing the persecuted Ahmadi sect. [Reuters] Read more

Sweden struggles over child marriage

A row over how to deal with child marriage among immigrants has inflamed political debate ahead of a general election in Sweden, where migration continues to divide public opinion and the far right is riding high in the polls.

A tug-of-war between the ruling Social Democrat-Green Party coalition and the opposition over the government’s role in managing or eradicating the practice — which predominantly affects young girls, and in some cases boys, from immigrant backgrounds — is emblematic of a broader struggle to find a balance between efforts to integrate a large number of new immigrants and preserve a Swedish way of life.

“Sweden has been bad at providing people who come here with clear information about how our system works, about this society’s views on children’s rights, gender equality, family policies, and parents’ and guardians’ responsibilities,” said Juno Blom, who is running for parliament on behalf of the opposition Liberal Party. [POLITICO] Read more

Populist views in Europe: It’s not just the economy

Nationalist populism has become a major force in European politics. But while such populism has long been thought to have its roots in economic anxiety, a new analysis of Pew Research Center survey data suggests there are additional factors at play.

.... Another sentiment strongly expressed among those who support right-wing European populist parties is that Islam is fundamentally incompatible with their country’s culture and values: 75% of Germans with a positive view of AfD, 66% of Dutch PVV supporters and 63% of French National Front backers say Islam is “fundamentally incompatible with our culture and values.” About four-in-ten or fewer adults with unfavorable views of populist parties in these nations agree.

Old-fashioned nationalism is still evident in modern European right-wing populism, too. [Pew Research Center] Read more

Programme to tackle Islamic extremism launched

Founded by Middlesbrough-born Ifty Rafiq and officially launched at the Jamia Masjid Al-Madina Mosque in the town, The Harmony Initiative is a national initiative, which seeks to explain moderate Islam as compatible with British values. [The Northern Echo] Read more

Why is the US now taking a serious look at Muslim Brotherhood threat

Experts who recently testified at a US Congressional hearing looking into the Muslim Brotherhood have lauded Republican efforts into reviving a bill designating the group as a terrorist organization but said that much more needs to be done.

Last week, several experts testified before the House Oversight National Security Subcommittee hearing on whether the US should designate the Muslim Brotherhood – or at least some of its factions – for its terrorist activities.

During his opening statement during the hearing, Congressman Ron DeSantis (R-Florida), chairman of the Subcommittee on National Security of the House oversight committee, spoke on the origins of the Muslim Brotherhood and its founder Sayyid Qutb, whose books some observers note were used as manifestos by modern political Islamist regimes like Hamas. [Al Arabiya] Read more

Victorian judge bans niqab in court's public gallery

A Victorian judge has banned a woman whose husband is facing terrorism charges from wearing a niqab in court, saying it posed a potential security risk.

The woman applied through her husband’s lawyers to wear the face veil, which she said was a “a fundamental way in which she observes her faith”, while sitting in the public gallery to support him through the six-week trial.

She said she had been permitted to wear the niqab during a committal hearing in the magistrates court and was willing to show her face to security guards manning the metal detector and weapons check at the court entrance to verify her identity.

But the supreme court judge Christopher Beale said the risk of a mistrial or other incident caused by “misbehaving” in the public gallery would be heightened if a person could not be instantly identified because their face was covered, and ruled that the risk outweighed the infringement upon the woman’s right to freedom of religious expression. [The Guardian] Read more

Muslim swimmers asked to leave Wilmington public pool; mayor apologizes

It's the fourth year Tahsiyn A. Ismaa’eel has taken children, participants in her summer Arabic enrichment program, to the Foster Brown public pool in Wilmington.

But this year marked the first time some of her elementary schoolers were asked to leave the pool, Ismaa’eel said — supposedly because they were wearing cotton shirts; shorts; and hijabs, or headscarves.

The pool manager said it's against city policy to wear cotton in public pools, according to Ismaa’eel. If it's a rule, Ismaa’eel said, "it's never been enforced."

To pick on her group is discrimination, she said.

"There’s nothing posted that says you can’t swim in cotton," said Ismaa’eel, owner and principal of the Darul-Amaanah Academy and director of its summer program. "At the same time, there are other kids with cotton on. … I asked, 'Why are my kids being treated differently?'"

Ismaa’eel, who wears a hijab with a niqab covering her face, said she told the manager she would relay the message to the program parents. But that didn't resolve the issue.

"She (later) had a police officer come over and ask what time we were leaving," Ismaa’eel said. [Delaware News Journal] Read more