Italy: Muslim MP in court against death 'fatwa'

Italy: Muslim MP in court against death 'fatwa'


An Italian MP and Muslim women's rights activist was due to give evidence to a court on Thursday over death threats allegedly made against her in a 'fatwa' or religious edict. Souad Sbai, MP for the ruling conservative People of Freedom party, was due to attend the court in the northern Italian city of Bologna as witness.


"I am today in Bologna to defend myself against a death 'fatwa' issued against me, for which I had to live in fear for quite some time," said Sbai in an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI).


Akrane H., is accused of having issued the death threat in 2007 and accused Sbai of taking advantage of immigrants for personal gain.


"I call on God to act against you, in a way that he will expose you. You are a very bad woman, begin to pray to God, leave work for men.


"I have heard very bad things about you and you have thus been exposed as a 'massihia' (Christian)," Akrane wrote in a letter to Sbai.


The claim by Akrane is an accusation of apostasy, which under Islamic law calls for the death penalty, which can be carried out by any Muslim at any time.


"You are an opportunist. You use immigrants for profit-making. You Souad, are nothing and you have nothing to do with Islam and have no knowledge of fikh (religious jurisprudence)," the letter stated.


"You have your hair uncovered in the sight of God, and a woman who does not cover her head must be hanged by the hair. God will punish you for the evil you do to people," the letter continued.


Sbai, who is also president of the Moroccan Women's Association in Italy, said she hopes the judge will understand the severity of the death threat.


"Today's hearing could be the last hearing of the trial and I hope the judge understands the danger of this 'fatwa' and the seriousness of this issue," she told AKI.


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Source: AKI (English)

Finland: Ombudsman allows separate swimming times for Muslim women

Finland: Ombudsman allows separate swimming times for Muslim women


Reserving a separate time at swimming pools for Muslim women does not constitute discrimination, Finland's deputy parliamentary ombudsman decided Wednesday.


According to Ombudsman Jukka Lindstedt, time reserved for Muslim women is justified as doing so safeguards the teaching of swimming to immigrants and helps them to adjust to Finland.


The ombudsman's decision came in response to five complaints about certain Finnish cities that were reserving separate swimming pool times for immigrant women.


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Source: Newsroom Finland (English), h/t Hodja

Poland: Bill to introduce changes in legal status of Muslims

Poland: Bill to introduce changes in legal status of Muslims


Poles belonging to Muslim community are calling for changes to a law dating back to 1936, obliging them to pray for the President and the Republic of Poland.

 

The law regulates the relationship between the state and the Muslim Religious Association and stipulates that Polish Muslims are obliged to pray for the Republic of Poland and its President every week during Friday service, while on national holidays they are bound to say a solemn service for the Republic of Poland, Poland's President, Government and Army. 

 

The Foreign Ministry, along with representatives of Polish Muslims, are working on a draft bill which will abolish the inter-war  law and introduce profound changes to the legal status of Muslims in Poland.

 

Polish Muslims will be granted the right to take days off on Muslim holidays, Muslim marriages contracted in a mosque will have equal status to civil marriages  and Muslim clergymen will be able to issue "halal" certificates, confirming that a product is permissible according to Islamic custom. 

 

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Source: TheNews  (English), h/t Weasel Zippers

CIS: Muslim leaders condemn extremism

CIS: Muslim leaders condemn extremism



The Muslim leaders of countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States have condemned extremism and called for inter-confessional peace.


"We, the spiritual leaders of the CIS space, have always said and we are saying our emphatic 'No' to forces that encroach on the territorial integrity, security and stability of states, and sow the poisonous seeds of separatism," head of the of the Muslim Board of the North Caucasus Allahshukyur Pasha-zade told a conference in Moscow.


"Religious expansion attempts are doomed," he said.


"Life proves that religious ideas which are alien to us, but imposed on us, lose the battle against traditional religious values", he said.


The Muslim leader expressed concern about "attempts to picture Muslims as extremists and fundamentalists, being made in different regions of he world." "Islam is a religion of peace and it does not accept violence, terrorism or extremism, whichever their form," Pasha-zade said.

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Source: Interfax (English)

Netherlands: 'Christians face submission or persecution'

Netherlands: 'Christians face submission or persecution'

For ethnic Dutch it's a frankly shocking opinion, but pastor H.G. Koekkoek dares to say it: we should not be surprised if within 25 years sharia, Islamic law, will be introduced in the Netherlands.

"Within 25 years Islamists are expected to be in the majority in the Netherlands.  And whoever is in the majority, has the power, also in a democracy," he says.  "Introducing sharia everywhere is a goal of Islam.  What remains to the Christians is submitting to Islam or persecution."

This is rather what the baptist pastor from Alphen (aan den Rijn) says.  It all appears in his recently published book "Mohammed, Islam, the Koran and the Bible" ('Mohammed, de islam, de Koran en de Bijbel').  The rather boring title hides an explosive cargo.  "But my book is certainly not meant to insult, I write with a lot of respect about Islam and about Mohammed, who I think is an honest man," he says.

Dominee Koekkoek (70) studied the Koran in detail.  He decided to write the book after a series of study evenings on this subject.  "People came from all over the country for that.  The subject of Islam attracts many.  There is fear of Islam and of Muslims.  That is on the basis of slogans that we hear, without knowing what Islam is.  And also the government knows nothing about it," he says.

"My goal is to tell what Islam is.  Simply, put the facts side by side, look at what are our points of contact.  Because there are such.  Judaism is the oldest religion; Christianity originated from it.  But we actually don't know that also Islam originated from Judaism and Christianity.  Therefore the God of Islam and the same as that of the Jews and the Christians.  So there are more points of contact, but there are also clear points of difference.  And I'm not going to avoid that in my book.  I name the pretty things, but also the dangerous sides of Islam."

According to the clergyman, the Jewish religion is not missionary, aimed at spreading.  "Christianity is, and that was done with the sword.  Islam is also missionary.  The missionary urge in Islam differs however, that is aimed at the entire world.  It is clearly the goal by means of Jihad - the holy war - to bring the whole world under Islam, if need be by strong means."

Koekkoek doesn't give any opinion about that in his book.  "I draw attention, and whoever draws attention asks a question that he doesn't answer.  The reader answers the question."

The Alphen resident says he wants to teach his readers understanding of Islam.  "Islamists are people like us.  Many live in peace with Jews and Christians and are respectable people.  Some things in Islam are really essentially different.  Why do Muslims call our women whores?  In Islamic doctrine people are brought up very solidly and it's normal that women cover themselves.  If these people come to our world and see those women with naked legs than in their eyes they are immoral.  You can try to have understanding for that."

Koekkoek also doesn't believe that Muslims in the Netherlands will in the end let go of the base of their belief.  "The Jews were already 2,500 years out of Israel, but their they always kept to their religious customs," he says.  "That will also happen with Islam, the mosques ensure that.  It's about the doctrine.  And that says: we are in war with the Netherlands, because that is not an Islamic state."

The Islamic part of our population is increasing rapidly, he says.  "Now already half of all babies have Islamic parents.  The forecast is that in about fifteen years, half of the population will consist of Muslims.  Presently they'll be in the majority, with all the consequences of it.  That could be political and religious consequences.  Christians run the chance of becoming second-class citizens who could choose from two things: persecution of submission," says pastor Koekkoek, who's been a pastor for 40 years in the Triomfatorkapel.

He draws a somber future for Christians in the Netherlands.  He says he hopes it won't turn out like that, but that he only outlines what can happen.  He says he fears that it can't be stopped anymore.

It is not the first book of his published by his association Het Licht des Levens, but it is the first that attracts so much attention.  "Hundreds of books in one week.  I've never yet gone through that.  It does show how much ethnic Dutch are engaged with Islam."

Source: AD (Dutch)

Netherlands: PVV backs down from Wilders' statement

Netherlands: PVV backs down from Wilders' statement

Geert Wilders was interviewed on Danish TV a few days ago and said that millions and tens of millions of Muslims will be deported from Europe if they deal in crime or pursue Jihad and Sharia.  Up until now Wilders only said that criminal Muslims with double citizenship will be deported, and his recent interview received a lot of condemnation.

The party now took a step back and announced that the PVV wants to make it possible to deport criminals with double nationality after de-naturalization.  The same holds for people with double nationality who, for example, pursue sharia and refuse to sign an assimilation contract which disqualifies it.

The PVV also introduces the idea of an assimilation contract.  An idea which Wilders raised in an interview three years ago, but which contradicts Wilders' current notion that Muslims believe in the Islamic idea of takkiya.  Under a non-Muslim administration, they may , according to Wilders, lie and cheat and even tear the Koran to pieces if need be in order to mislead unbelievers.  "You never know," according to Wilders.  According to this reasoning, it is actually impossible for Muslims to prove that they mean well and signing an assimilation contract means nothing.

Meanwhile, Integration Minister Eberhard van der Laan (Labor) is on the attack against the PVV.  He thinks that Wilders is exaggerating the number of Muslims in Europe and the number who pursue Sharia.

Wilders counts all Muslims in gegoraphic Europe, including Russia and the European part of Turkey, which is estimated at 50 million.  He points to studies in European countries which show that considerable Muslim minorities are pro-Sharia.  Van der Laan looks at the EU, with 20 million Muslims and says he does not know of those studies regarding attitudes towards Sharia.  He says that the ideas of Wilders conflict with the constitutional state. 

Source: De Pers (Dutch)

See also: Wilders: Criminal Muslims should be deported

France: Proposal for inquiry commission on burkas

France: Proposal for inquiry commission on burkas


Facing an increasing number of women who are completely veiled, French parliament members across teh board are calling for a debate.

Today it isn't rare anymore to pass a woman veiled from head to toe on the street.  In Vénissieux, the third largest city in the Rhône department, niqabs, long black veils that only leave the eyes uncovered, are very popular.

André Gerin, parliament member for this area for PCF (Communist Party), is calling for a national debate, and not only because he was incapable of marrying a woman whose future husband did not want her to reveal her face.  57 other parliament members - 2 from PCF, 7 from the Socialist Party , 43 UMP (Union for a Popular Movement), 2 New Center and 3 independent - signed a proposal for a resolution to be brought up in the National Assembly which will create a parliamentary commission of inquiry on the issue.  A similar commission on secularism in 2003 led to the ban on religious symbols in schools.

Will there be a ban on burkas, similar to that in Belgium?  A year ago the Council of State refused to give French citizenship to a Moroccan wearing a burka, and HALDE (High Authority for the Struggle Against Discrimination and for Equality) confirmed in September a case where a woman was excluded from a French integration course because she wore a burka.

André Gerin says that the idea is not to decide in advance what should be done, but to study the issue and to conduct dialog. 

The Muslims community does not object against the debate.  Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Paris Mosque says that wearing a burqa is not prescribed by the Koran.  According to Islam women should cover their hair and dress decently.  He says that the increase in this type of dress is a sign of progress in certain fundamentalist trends.  He supports the parliamentary efforts on condition that they listen to experts in Islam.

Source: Le Parisien (French)

Paris: Increasing tensions between immigrant youth and police

Paris: Increasing tensions between immigrant youth and police

Community activists in Villiers-le-Bel suburb of Paris, where riots broke out in 2007, are sounding the alarm.  Over the past month there have been severe clashes every weekend between the local youths and police.

The activists, young men aged 24-30, are the only ones who have authority over the youth.  Six of them met in late May with Secretary of State for Urban Policies, Fadela Amara, who wanted to establish direct contacts in the city.

Said (28) says that they're on the verge of a catastrophe.  There used to be a little hate, but now it is even worse, and has deteriorated over the past year.  One 24 year old shopkeeper, requesting to remain anonymous, says that when there's no more guiding values, no more future, they get to the logic of suicide bombers.  One of the group's leaders says that the police come in in a guerilla mode.  They show up dressed like Robocop, as if they're entering an occupied area.

Source: Le Monde (French)

Greece: Hijab Frappe

Greece: Hijab Frappe


As head-scarfed Muslim women proliferate on the streets of fiercely Orthodox Christian Greece, a daring play staged in Athens is breaking some deep-rooted social taboos about Islam.


"Can you be a Greek Muslim or a Greek Bahai? Are you Greek if you're atheist? Should there be a mosque in Athens? What to do with Muslim kids during religion class? [These] are some questions the play raises," said Cassie Moghan, a British multimedia artist involved in the show.


An all-female cast of Greek and expatriate women perform "Hijab Frappe," a play irreverently examining the issues stirred up when a homogeneous, immigrant-exporting country becomes Europe's southeastern gateway.


Characters such as a conservative Athenian housewife, a recent immigrant from Iran, and a Greek convert to Islam struggle with their prejudices in a range of battlegrounds in their daily lives: bus stops, schools, and fashion shows.


The convert embraces her new religion's strictures on eating pork and drinking alcohol but without sacrificing late-night music gigs; the housewife can relate to "foreigners" as long as they accept her patronizing them, and sputters "isn't our Jesus good enough for you?" to the "traitorous" Greek convert to Islam; and the Iranian woman (who wears her hijab only because her husband demands it) is dazzled by the freedom, color, and vivacity saturating her new surroundings.


"In the UK I saw true hate in the eyes of Brits street-fighting with Pakistanis," said [*], an actress with Yemeni roots who has lived in Greece most of her life. "Greeks are fundamentally good, they eventually open up to outsiders."


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Source: Christian Science Monitor (English)

[*] : name removed per request

Scotland: Muslims favor sermons in English

Scotland: Muslims favor sermons in English


The majority of Scottish Muslims are favoring that mosque sermons be delivered in English rather than Arabic, language of the Noble Qur'an, to tailor to the needs of mosque-goers, though some oppose the proposal as a direct contravention of Islam teachings.


"The delivery in English would be a bit more meaningful to a younger generation," Mona Siddiqui, Professor of Islamic Studies and Public Understanding at Glasgow University, told the Sunday Herald on June 14.


The call for imams to hold Friday prayer sermons in the country's native tongue is finding a lot of support among Muslim Scots


They contend that Arabic would make the audience, especially the youngsters, disengaged with the sermons, as only a small percentage of the congregation usually understands it.


Leading Islamic scholar Shayke Amer Jamil toured Scotland this month to suggest sermons be delivered in English.


The Scottish Islamic Foundation (SIF) already posted an online survey asking the community whether they prefer breaking with tradition and modernizing the sermons to reflect the needs of a younger generation.


More than three-quarters of those who responded favored the proposal.


Siddiqui stressed that the move is not necessarily "revolutionary" but rather "common sense".


According to the Herald, more than half of Scotland's Muslims are under the age of 25, and few speak Arabic at any level.


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Not everyone, however, is welcoming the proposal of the English sermons.


"There are principles in Islam that are not changeable," Muhammad Mustaqeem Shah, imam of the Al-Furqan Mosque in Glasgow's west end, told the paper.


Shah believes such a move now would be in direct contravention of Islamic teaching.


He contends that many Muslim scholars have concluded that it is prohibitively offensive to give the Friday sermon, known in Arabic as khutba, in other than Arabic.


"The word of God is in Arabic, not English," says Shah. In khutba, we recite verses from the Qur'an.


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Source: Islam Online (English)