Turkey Grows Role of Islam

Turkey’s religious ministry, the Diyanet, is planning a strategic action plan budget of $11 billion until the year 2023. The ministry’s budget exceeds that of other ministries by a large margin. It is responsible for promoting Islamic education, as well as building and funding mosques. The Diyanet has projects throughout the world.

Turkey is constitutionally secular but under the leadership of President Erdogan, has increasingly leaned Islamic. Whereas the Diyanet has grown in activities to promote Islam, other religious groups in Turkey are experiencing an uphill battle to practice their faith.

For Christians, there is no legal pathway to build new churches. As a result, many are left to worship through the establishment of associations or foundations. Several Christian leaders have also warned that as the government grows the role of Islam in society, the environment becomes more challenging for believers to live as Christians. [International Christian Concern] Read more

Messiah: Jordan calls on Netflix to ban controversial ‘anti-Islamic’ drama series

The Royal Film Commission of Jordan has called on Netflix to ban a controversial US drama series due to stream in the country this week.

Messiah revolves around a CIA agent (Michelle Monaghan) investigating a man named Al-Masih (Mehdi Dehbi), who has sparked a legion of devoted followers after claiming to have been sent to earth by a higher being.

“Having been made aware of its content, the RFC has asked officially the management of Netflix to refrain from streaming it in Jordan,” the commission’s statement reads.

“The story is purely fictional and so are the characters, yet the RFC deems that the content of the series could be largely perceived or interpreted as infringing on the sanctity of religion, thus possibly contravening the laws in the country.” [The Independent] Read more

Muslims treated differently by newspapers, says press watchdog

The portrayal of Islam and Muslims in the British press has been “the most difficult issue” facing the press watchdog in the past five years, according to its outgoing chief.

“I speak for myself, but I have a suspicion that [Muslims] are from time to time written about in a way that [newspapers] would simply not write about Jews or Roman Catholics,” said Alan Moses, who is standing down after five years as chairman of the Independent Press Standards Organisation.

His comments come two months ahead of Ipso’s plans to publish voluntary guidance for journalists when writing about Muslims, who make up roughly 5 per cent of Great Britain’s population, according to 2017 data from the Office for National Statistics. The regulator has previously issued similar advice for journalists reporting on transsexual people and victims of sexual crime.

“A shock-jock Muslim story on the front page sells papers,” the former Conservative party chair Sayeeda Warsi told the committee at the time. “This is nothing new, we have been here before — some of the headlines we see now could have been written about the Jewish community in the 1930s and indeed were.” [The Financial Times] Read more

Bangladesh closes breast milk bank after Islamist protests

A Bangladesh hospital has suspended plans to give donated breast milk to babies after a backlash by Muslim clerics who said the scheme violated Islamic law.

The programme aimed to feed up to 500 orphans and infants of working mothers in the Muslim-majority country, which has high rates of child malnutrition and stunted growth.

Bangladesh's top Islamic leadership has not yet made a ruling on the milk bank, but it was halted after critics said the plan could lead to breaches of Sharia law if two babies drank milk from the same mother and later married.

"Their entire marriage and lineage would become illegal," said Gazi Ataur Rahman, a spokesman of the influential Islami Andolan Bangladesh political party.

Another Islamist, Ahmed Abdul Kaiyum, said Sharia law did not allow for milk banks. [France24] Read more

Saudi sentences Yemeni to death over Spanish theatre group stabbing

A Saudi court sentenced a Yemeni man to death Sunday for a knife attack on a Spanish theatre group, state television said, amid a controversial push to ease decades-old restrictions on entertainment.

The court also sentenced an accomplice to 12 and a half years in jail for the November 11 attack during a live performance in Riyadh, which state media linked to militant group Al-Qaeda, and which Madrid said left four performers wounded.

"The criminal court issues a preliminary ruling handing the death sentence to the perpetrator of the terrorist attack... in Riyadh," the official Al-Ekhbariya television reported.

The assailant, identified by Saudi police as a 33-year-old Yemeni, went on a stabbing spree during a musical in the capital's King Abdullah Park, one of the venues hosting the two-month "Riyadh Season" entertainment festival.

It was the first such assault since the ultra-conservative kingdom began easing restrictions on entertainment. [France24] Read more

'Counter jihadism with pluralism'

Many Muslims are misled into believing they must help Islam dominate the world, Sultan Shahin, editor of an online magazine on Islam, said earlier this week.

He was part of a panel discussion on December 21 at the Bangalore International Centre, Domlur, focused on the history of Islam, its theologies, and the concepts of Jihadism and pluralism.

The session was titled ‘Islam and modernity.’ Shahin, founder and editor of online news magazine New Age Islam, and Syed Mohammed Faisal, postdoctoral fellow at the International Institute of Information Technology, Bengaluru, spoke, while well-known columnist Aakar Patel moderated the discussion. Shahin said he was concerned about the “extreme resonance” of Jihadism among educated youngsters.

“Today, we are living in a very different world, we just can’t go out and conquer other territories and expect to be accepted as legitimate rulers. Through New Age Islam I am trying to evolve a new theology of peace and pluralism,” he said. [Deccan Herald] Read more

Pakistan blasphemy death sentence ‘travesty of justice’, say UN experts

Thirty-three-year-old Junaid Hafeez, a lecturer at Bahauddin Zakariya University in Multan, was sentenced to death – despite last year’s landmark Supreme Court ruling in which Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi was tried and condemned to hang for blasphemy but was later acquitted.

"The Supreme Court ruling in the Asia Bibi case should have set a precedent for lower courts to dismiss any blasphemy case that has not been proved beyond reasonable doubt," the experts said.

Moreover, they raised concerns in an urgent appeal to the Government over the legal merits of the case

"In the light of this ruling, the guilty verdict against Mr. Hafeez is a travesty of justice, and we condemn the death sentence imposed on him”, spelled out the independent experts.

“We urge Pakistan's superior courts to promptly hear his appeal, overturn the death sentence and acquit him." [UN News] Read more

'Arbitrary': Pakistan rejects US religious freedom designation

Pakistan has rejected a US government move to designate the country "of particular concern" on religious freedom, with the Pakistani foreign ministry saying the label was "unilateral and arbitrary" and the result of a biased evaluation process.

The US State Department announced last week that it was re-designating Pakistan a "country of particular concern" for having "having engaged in or tolerated 'systematic, ongoing, [and] egregious violations of religious freedom'".

Pakistan's Foreign Office, however, rejected the designation, saying it was a "selective targeting" of countries.

"This pronouncement is not only detached from ground realities of Pakistan but also raises questions about the credibility and transparency of the entire exercise," said Foreign Office spokesperson Aisha Farooqui in a statement.

"The designation is reflective of selective targeting of countries, and thus unlikely to be helpful to the professed cause of advancing religious freedom." [Al Jazeera English] Read more

Saudi Arabia moves to ban child marriage with a new ruling

Saudi Arabia on Monday issued a de facto ban on child marriages, in another social reform initiated since Mohammad Bin Salman became crown prince two years ago.

The Justice Ministry issued an order to the courts that any marriage application for someone under the age of 18 would have to be referred to a special court to make sure that “marrying those below 18-years old will not harm them and will achieve their best interest, whether they are male or female”.

The order comes after an amendment to the kingdom's Child Protection Law was passed by the Shoura Council in January that sought to ban child marriages under 15 entirely and establish new rules around those between 16-18 years old.

Latifa Al Shaalan, a member of Saudi Arabia’s Shoura Council, reportedly described the move earlier this year as a "good step forward," despite being "not easy to reach."

Issa Al Ghaith, another member of the Shoura Council, also praised the move as well as his colleagues, including Ms Al Shaalan, for their work in passing the bill. [The National] Read more

It’s shameful that Johnson has reneged on the inquiry into Tory Islamophobia

A few years ago, I was reporting a story about Prevent, the government’s counter-extremism programme. I interviewed various Muslims from around the UK who had interacted with the programme in one way or another.

Many wanted to be anonymous. These were ordinary people, not activists, and for many it felt too risky to draw attention to themselves, even if they had not been accused of wrongdoing. “We’re already seen as terrorists,” one young woman told me. “Just look at the way people talk about our community.”

I thought about that young woman as it was announced that Boris Johnson would replace a promised inquiry into allegations of Islamophobia within the Conservatives with a more broad-brush review of how the party handles discrimination complaints. There is compelling evidence that the Conservative party has a specific problem with Islamophobia.

During the election campaign, the party continued to back several candidates who had made Islamophobic statements; a dossier of social media comments found that 25 Tory councillors had posted racist material including descriptions of Muslims as “barbarian” and “the enemy within”. [The Guardian] Read more

Islamist extremists hold Sharia trials and groom young Muslims in British prisons

Islamist extremists in Britain’s prisons are holding makeshift Sharia trials, circulating banned books and openly grooming young Muslim inmates, The Times has been told.

A former prisoner who claims that he took part in Sharia courts and punishment beatings has given a detailed account of how he came to join a group of prisoners at HMP Woodhill, Milton Keynes, who pledged allegiance to Isis.

The revelations have prompted security experts to call for a fundamental review of terrorist radicalisation in jails across Britain.

The issue came under scrutiny last month when Usman Khan, 28, a Category A terrorist prisoner freed on licence, murdered two people at London Bridge before being killed by police.

Richard Walton, former head of Scotland Yard’s Counter Terrorism Command, and Ian Acheson, who led a previous review of jail extremism, said that reforms to tackle the problem had stalled and the ability of the Prison Service to deal with it was in question. Professor Acheson’s 2016 report described Islamist extremism in jails as a “growing problem” and outlined measures to counter it. His ideas have met with resistance, however. [The Times (£)] Read more

Sentences of nine non-Trinitarian Christians to 45 years in prison

Reports from Iran indicate that nine non-Trinitarian Christians were sentenced to five years in prison by the Tehran Revolutionary Court.

On Friday, December 20, 2019, Iran Human Rights Activist News Agency reported that Abdolreza Ali Haghnejad, Mohammad Islam Doust, Behnam Akhlaghi, Babak Hosseinzadeh, Mehdi Khatibi, Khalil Dehghanpour, Hossein Kadivar, Kamal Naemanian, and Mohammad Vafadar Kamal were sentenced by Mohammad Moghiseh, the head of Tehran Revolutionary Court, Branch 28, to a total of 45 years in prison.

The court was held on September 23 and the verdict was announced on October 15.

These Christian converts have objected to the verdict issued by the Tehran Revolutionary Court and are awaiting final appeal.

Babak Hosseinzadeh, Behnam Akhlaqi, and Mehdi Khatibi were arrested earlier in a house church meeting in Rasht on February 23, 2019.

The pressure of the Islamic Republic’s security and judicial institutions on Christians increases on Christmas Eve each year, including mass arrests, heavy sentences, summonses, and interrogations of Christians, the prohibition of religious ceremonies and celebrations as well as their economic activities such as selling Christmas decorations and Christian symbols. [MOHABAT NEWS] Read more

My teacher almost outed me for taking off the hijab

Today I was happy. I had completely stopped covering my hair and was speaking confidently with other people. I was just so happy, I wanted to go home and dream about it all night.

In math class, when the bell rang to switch, a teacher asked me about my hijab. I told her that I just took it off and it was no big deal. She told me that it was important to uphold culture, she then asked if my parents knew what I was doing. Being the idiot I am, I said no and asked if she would tell. To my absolute horror, she said yes.

My whole world stopped. I know what would happen if she said a word about this to my mother. I asked her why she would do that and she said:

“because it’s your culture! And you are an exception to be able to wear the hijab as a uniform, so don’t just take advantage of that.”

I put my head down for a while, holding back tears. Before I knew it, it was time for the last class. In the hallway I just walked mindlessly to my next class. [r/exmuslim] Read more

Academic sentenced to death for blasphemy in Pakistan

A university lecturer in Pakistan has been sentenced to death for blasphemy.

Junaid Hafeez, 33, was arrested in March 2013 and accused of posting derogatory comments about the Prophet Muhammad on social media.

Allegations of blasphemy are taken very seriously in Pakistan, and even an accusation is often enough to make someone a target for hardliners.

Mr Hafeez's first lawyer, Rashid Rehman, was shot dead in 2014 after agreeing to take on the case.

The lecturer has also spent years in solitary confinement, after repeated attacks by other prisoners.

The sentence was delivered by a court in the Central Jail in Multan, where Mr Hafeez was being held.

Mr Hafeez had studied a Master's degree in the US on a Fulbright Scholarship, specialising in American literature, photography and theatre. [BBC] Read more

Denmark: Why Integration Fails

"Here my point is that Islam has never fully assimilated into any society and that Muslims have never fully adapted into non-Muslim cultures. With an increasing number of Muslims in the West, this will end in conflict." — Ahmed Akkari in his new report, "The loyalty conflict in the West – why Muslims are hard to integrate."

"As Islamists influence Western Muslim circles, Western political parties engage with them to win more votes, thus making unfortunate alliances with forces that really... condemn the established system...The dilemma is that by seeking Islamist votes they allow those who wish... Denmark to become Islamized to be strengthened... the same sort of dilemma as if one sought the votes of a neo-Nazi, fascist or Stalinist group." — Ahmed Akkari in his new report, "The loyalty conflict in the West – why Muslims are hard to integrate."

"Many mosques were formed to be a spiritual and religious space for believers, and not as places where violence, hatred and political agendas should dominate. Nevertheless, the leading mosques in Denmark are characterized exactly by a pseudo-Islamic influence under the control of small strong elites of Islamic leaders.

In that world, influence, not numbers, counts, and therefore it is not possible to say that Islamism is weak, just because it only exists in one quarter of all mosques, which I estimate." — Ahmed Akkari in his new report, "The loyalty conflict in the West – why Muslims are hard to integrate." [Gatestone Institute] Read more

Number of girls being forced into marriage ‘spikes during Christmas’

The number of girls being forced into marriage spikes during the Christmas holidays due to authorities failing to properly protect girls ahead of the festive period, frontline service providers have warned.

Karma Nirvana, a national charity which supports forced marriage victims, said the wider problem of so-called honour crimes perpetrated against girls also rises during the festive period.

Honour-based abuse includes forced marriage, which sees girls taken abroad to be married off to strangers, coercive control, female genital mutilation (FGM), assault, threats to kill, attempted murder and even murder itself.

Karma Nirvana, which trains the police, NHS and social services about issues of forced marriage, said the most significant increase in cases of forced marriage and wider honour-based abuse reported to them by victims in the autumn and winter period was between last December and this January, when cases increased by 57 per cent.

.... Farhana Raval, a 36-year-old accountant, said she was forced into a marriage on a family holiday to Bangladesh in the summer holidays when she was just 16. [The Independent] Read more

Pakistan court hands down death sentence to scholar accused of blasphemy

A Pakistani anti-terrorism court on Saturday sentenced a liberal scholar and former university lecturer to death on blasphemy charges.

In 2013, Junaid Hafeez was accused by students at the university where he taught of making blasphemous Facebook posts. Insulting Islam’s Prophet Mohammad carries a mandatory death penalty in Pakistan, which is about 95% Muslim.

His lawyers say he was framed by students from an extremist Islamist party for his liberal and secular views and this month a U.S. religious freedom commission placed Hafeez on its list of global victims.

“He (Junaid Hafeez) shall be hanged by neck till his death subject to its confirmation by the honorable high court,” a court order stated. [Reuters] Read more

Pakistani professor sentenced to death for blasphemy

A Pakistani court on Saturday sentenced a university professor to death for blasphemy under a law that critics say is often used to target minorities and liberal activists.

Junaid Hafeez, 33, was arrested in March 2013 for allegedly posting derogatory remarks against Prophet Mohammed on social media.

Blasphemy is a hugely sensitive issue in conservative Muslim-majority Pakistan, where laws against it carry a potential death sentence. Even unproven allegations have led to mob lynchings and vigilante murders.

Hafeez's sentence was announced in central city of Multan, where he was a university professor at the time of his arrest, and his counsel Asad Jamal slammed the decision as "most unfortunate".

"We will appeal against this verdict," Jamal told AFP. [France24] Read more

Lord Carlile removed from Prevent review after legal challenge

Lord Carlile QC has been stood down by the government as independent reviewer of the Prevent programme following a legal challenge over his appointment.

In a letter to Rights Watch UK, which launched the legal action against the Home Office earlier this year, the government’s legal advisers said they had “full confidence” in his work but confirmed his role “has been concluded”.

Terms of reference for the review of Prevent are also being reconsidered by the Home Office, the letter stated.

The decision to reassess the review of the controversial Preent programme is a victory for Rights Watch UK. It objected to Lord Carlile because in the past he has declared his strong support for the programme, which is aimed at combating radicalisation leading to terrorism. It has become a toxic brand for many within Muslim communities, with some viewing it as a state tool for spying on them. [The Guardian] Read more

Islamophobia vs Anti-Muslim Bigotry – We’re Losing Against Racists And Bigots

.... The fact that Islamophobia has the word, Islam and phobia just invites racists and bigots to shift the debate to their side. Scour any racist or bigots social media and you will see the same arguments from them: “Islam is an ideology, it should be criticised” and then they attribute anti-Muslim tropes as a cover for their “right to free speech.” This is what Muslim communities are dealing with whilst we debate amongst ourselves.

My position on the which term is most appropriate lies in what takes ammunition away from racists and bigots. With this in mind, I prefer the term anti-Muslim bigotry. I prefer it because it firmly places the emphasis on the individual. It provides the human element that is much needed and denies racists and bigots the opportunity to disguise their hatred of Muslims through criticism of Islam.

Using the term anti-Muslim bigotry exposes racists and bigots in a way racism does also, for example, “I’m not racist, I have a black friend” and so, in the same way, “I’m not anti-Muslim, I just hate Islam”. To be clear, I am not arguing that Muslims are a race, they are not, and they are not like Jews who are. What I am arguing is, if we focus on Muslims and not Islam.... [Faith Matters] Read more

‘We were furious’: Uber driver rejects couple because of their Christmas ham

A couple were left stranded and out of pocket after a rideshare driver refused to pick them up because they had a Christmas ham

The couple had been for dinner at their local RSL in Melbourne’s south-east on Tuesday night, and picked up a ham they’d won there a few weeks ago.

They ordered an Uber, but as they approached the car the driver told them the ride was cancelled.

“My husband had it (the ham) in his hand and the boot opened,” stranded passenger Marion told 3AW’s Kate and Quarters.

“The guy said ‘what’s that?”

“My husband said ‘it’s ham’, and he said ‘no, you can’t get in. The trip is cancelled.”

The driver told the couple he wouldn’t take them home with the ham because he was Muslim,

But when Marion checked her bank account she got a rude shock.

She’d been charged a cancellation fee from Uber for the ride which the driver cancelled! [Radio 3AW] Read more

Ofsted concerns after 'dangerous' Solihull school closed on inspection day - and local media accused of Islamophobia

AN INDEPENDENT faith school in Solihull which was repeatedly warned by Ofsted over its failings closed its doors on the day of a recent inspection.

Al-Furqan Community College, which has 14 children aged between 11 and 18 on its roll, was set for a visit from inspectors on November 19.

But the principal said he had to shut the school due to broken heating, before inspectors arrived.

The Department for Education asked Ofsted to carry out an inspection of Al-Furqan, set in a listed cottage in Warwick Road, after the college applied to make a ‘material change’ to its registration – to change from single-sex to co-educational by admitting boys as well as girls.

When the Solihull Observer invited the school to respond to the concerns in the Ofsted report, the school’s principal Amjad Ahmed accused local media in a written statement of ‘Islamophobia’. [Solihull Observer] Read more

Sudanese brides under pressure to have FGM - again

Some women in Sudan are opting to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM) a month or two before their wedding to pretend to be virgins.

This is even though most of them have already been circumcised as girls - something that usually happens between the ages of four and 10 years old.

In the mainly Muslim country this can involve the removal of the clitoris and labia and often includes some stitching to narrow the vaginal opening - a process known as infibulation.

These stitches come away when a woman has sex.

If a bride-to-be opts for further FGM, the operation, usually carried out by midwives, can involve cutting away more of the labia and re-stitching the vagina. [BBC] Read more

Tory Islamophobia inquiry chair in row over Kashmir views

The newly appointed chair of the Conservative party’s inquiry into its handling of complaints about discrimination, including Islamophobia, has been plunged into a row over comments he made about the disputed Kashmir region.

The Tory peer Sayeeda Warsi questioned the views of Prof Swaran Singh, who was announced on Tuesday as the chair of the review, after he wrote a piece for an online publication whose editor has dismissed Islamophobia as a term designed to shut down criticism of Islam.

Warsi highlighted sections of the article in which Singh, who is a former equality and human rights commissioner, argued that the Kashmir conflict had been portrayed as a tragedy only for Muslims and that, for many, Sikhs and Hindus “do not meet the criteria of victimhood”. [The Guardian] Read more

No, Melanie Phillips, the Muslim Brotherhood did not invent Islamophobia

.... The term can certainly be misused in that way but the essence of Islamophobia is fear, hostility and rejection directed against Muslims as people. Intentionally or not, denying the reality of Islamophobia helps to legitimise prejudice and discrimination.

Phillips, however, adopts a meme that is especially popular among the American far right and claims the concept of Islamophobia "was invented by the Muslim Brotherhood to mimic antisemitism".

.... In fact, the word “Islamophobia” been around for more than a century. Its first recorded use was in French – as islamophobie – in 1910. It appeared in a book, La politique musulmane dans l’Afrique Occidentale Française by Alain Quellien, describing the attitude of French colonial administrators towards the culture of the countries they were governing.

According to Robin Richardson, in a brief history of the word, it appears to have been first used in English in 1985 by Edward Said who linked it to antisemitism, saying that “hostility to Islam in the modern Christian west has historically gone hand in hand” with antisemitism and “has stemmed from the same source and been nourished at the same stream”. [al-bab.com] Read more