Closing the week 11
NEW on Closer!
The official website of ISIM is closed and the repository of Leiden University works like…well it doesn’t work so well. Which is a problem if you want to read the ISIM Review articles. Therefore I’m happy to present to you: ISIM Review via Closer
Most popular on Closer this week:
- IslamOnline – Strike, Stream and Twitter
- Linda Herrera and Arjan de Haan – A court case and an election: Letter from the Hague
- Islamizing Europe – Muslim Demographics
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http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/ayaan-hirsi-ali-wilders-channels-anger
Ayaan Hirsi Ali has returned to the Netherlands with the same message as when she left: Islam needs its own period of ‘Enlightenment’. Ms Hirsi Ali is back for one week to promote her most recent book, Nomad. It’s her first substantial visit since leaving the Dutch parliament four years ago to live in the United States.
The Imagination Age: DAM in Sheikh Jarrah: Protest re-Imagined
Social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, have been instrumental in raising international awareness about what’s going on in East Jerusalem and keeping supporters informed about the rallies. YouTube and Flickr have also played important roles, allowing for real-time photo/video archiving of the rallies, including aggressive police behavior, arrests, and counter-protests from Orthodox Jews. The video below shows a typical scene from such a rally, beginning with smiling Israeli demonstrators offering a bouquet of flowers to the chief of police, and ending with police getting aggressive with demonstrators at the end of the rally and Orthodox Jews approaching.
Muslim Scholar, Formerly Barred, Coming to New York – City Room Blog – NYTimes.com
A prominent Muslim academic barred from the United States for six years under the Patriot Act will speak at a panel at Cooper Union next month, his first public appearance since the restriction was lifted.
The scholar, Tariq Ramadan, will speak at “Secularism, Islam and Democracy: Muslims in Europe and the West,” presented on April 8 by the American Association for University Professors, the American Civil Liberties Union, PEN American Center and Slate.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62G41Y20100317
Muslim activists launched a campaign on Wednesday against a series of educational books that they say promote anti-Islamic sentiment among U.S. school children.
altmuslimah.com – Politics: France gets riled up about a candidate’s headscarf
While not the first candidate with a headscarf, the buzz around Moussaïd’s candidature is something new.
http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=55570
Muslims in Russia celebrate the 100th anniversary of St Petersburg Mosque.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hkf-F7ym6Gmwn1C_ETD5l7xmMypA
The Tatars first came to Poland in the late 14th century to serve as soldiers in its royal army, and remained. A group was granted land in Kruszyniany in 1679.
Today the country’s Tatar community numbers around 5,000 — of whom only 10 still live in the village.
Centuries of mixing mean they have lost their Turkish-linked language and adopted Polish-sounding names. But they kept their faith and are among the rare Muslims in this overwhelmingly Catholic nation of 38.5 million people.
http://www.khabrein.info/news/Debate_on_Muslim_women_in_Europe_hijacked_by_Hijab_issue_1268758882/
The debate on the situattion of Muslim women in Europe is being dominated and hijacked by the issue of headscarf and veil and is not tackling the real problems, according to speakers at a seminar on Europes Muslim Women held here Tuesday It is the social, cultural and political discrimination that we are victims of.
That is the problem, not the veil,stressed Malika Hamidi, head of the European Muslim Network (EMN) think tank.
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a916266213~db=all?tab=references
Generational differences in ethnic and religious attachment and their interrelation. A study among Muslim minorities in the Netherlands
altmuslim – Art: Jihad Jane and the Muhammad cartoons
Art can be used as a loaded cultural and political weapon to incite animosity amidst an already hostile climate dominated by foolish controversies — or it can be used wisely and bravely as a common language to bridge the divides.
Indigo Jo Blogs — Further thoughts on Qadri fatwa
why is a fatwa against suicide bombing significant in a British context now?
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1886539,00.html
Today’s revolution is more vibrantly Islamic than ever. Yet it is also decidedly antijihadist and ambivalent about Islamist political parties. Culturally, it is deeply conservative, but its goal is to adapt to the 21st century. Politically, it rejects secularism and Westernization but craves changes compatible with modern global trends. The soft revolution is more about groping for identity and direction than expressing piety. The new revolutionaries are synthesizing Koranic values with the ways of life spawned by the Internet, satellite television and Facebook.
http://mcgilldaily.com/articles/28988
Accommodation is a word with baggage in Quebec. In 2007, the public sphere was overtaken by debates about what accounts for reasonable and unreasonable accommodation. Who were we afraid of accommodating too much? Generally speaking, immigrants and their children, people of different faiths and customs whose demands were, some felt, unreasonable.
Focus on rebellion in Yemen, not al-Qaeda | statesmanjournal.com | Statesman Journal
While these series of problems can be met with eye-rolling, as they are almost comical in their repetition, the rebellion in the south is a different animal altogether than the other rebellions. It, more than anything else, has the potential to tear this fragile nation apart.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124915139
The arrest in Ireland of seven people alleged to be planning to kill Swedish artist Lars Vilks for a sketch he made of the Prophet Muhammad has once again turned the spotlight on the limits of free speech in Europe and the sensitivities of European Muslims. Two of those arrested earlier this month have been charged; five others have been released.
But the reactions in Sweden have been very different from the anger that erupted when similar cartoons were published five years ago in Denmark.
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100320/WEEKENDER/703199858/1306
The latest poster children in America’s “war on terror” could not embody anything further from the stereotypical Middle Eastern fanatic. Not only are they female, they have blonde hair and blue eyes – the sort of features more commonly associated with cheerleading at ball games and fresh-baked apple pie than guerrilla fighting against the United States and its allies.
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/article/782003–veiling-and-a-woman-s-right-to-choose
You seem to agree that the Muslim “garb,” be it hijab, burqa, niqab, is not a religious, but a cultural phenomenon. I agree. In fact, this was the explanation given by no less than Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, grand imam of Al-Azhar Mosque and grand sheikh of Al-Azhar University, in Cairo, when he proclaimed a fatwa on various veilings in October 2009. Indeed, cultures and symbols that come with them constantly change over the time.
The veil used to be a sex symbol in pre-Islamic times, some 5,000 years ago. It was the identification sign of the temple priestesses who had ritual sex with young men to celebrate fertility. Nowadays, some brands of Islam brandish it as a sacred requirement of their religion, while other brands, such as Ismaili Muslims, claim that veiling has nothing to do with the religion.
Who is right and who is wrong?
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62I2LB20100319
A British anti-radicalization campaign called Prevent is a pressing priority in the European country experts see as the most at risk from al Qaeda attack.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/19/AR2010031904284.html
Top Dutch officials ditched their usual diplomacy Friday in an angry reaction to suggestions by a retired U.S. Marine Corps general that allowing openly gay troops to serve in their military was partly to blame for Europe’s worst massacre since World War II.
Al Jazeera English – Middle East – Egypt appoints senior Sunni figure
Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, has named Sheikh Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed al-Tayeb as head of Al-Azhar, the country’s most prestigious seat of Islamic learning, state television reported.
Societies use punishment as a tool to enforce norms in large populations
A society with a large number of people uses punishment to enforce norms, while the same does not hold true for societies with lower population, where everybody knows each other, claims a study.
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/movie-guide/Sociological anthropology/2701506/story.html
magine for a moment the following situation: a young man gets onto a commuter train but all the seats are full.
In most circumstances, everyone else with seats would probably hardly even notice the young guy’s discomfort. If they did, they’d probably think that he’s young enough and strong enough to stand or find some other way to deal with not having a seat.
This young man is different. He’s on crutches and carries a skateboard. And what he does is a little different too: he takes out the skateboard and sits on it.
The Truth about Muslim-Coptic Relations in Egypt « Inner Workings of My Mind
It is time for me to tell this story. I tell it with the utmost shame. But it is a story that must be told. Unless we admit we have a problem and try to understand why we have it, we will never be able to fix it.
Naema Ahmed, a 29-year-old Egyptian, was attending a government-sponsored class in Montreal for immigrants who want to learn French. In the middle of writing an exam, she was pulled out of class by a provincial official, who gave her a stark choice — remove the veil or leave the class. Ahmed left.
Months earlier, Ahmed had been thrown out of another French class for the same reason.
De Raad van State heeft het algemene verbod geschorst op het dragen van levensbeschouwelijke kentekens in het gemeenschapsonderwijs (GO!). De Raad van State stelt intussen een prejudiciële vraag aan het Grondwettelijk Hof om na te gaan of het verbod door het gemeenschapsonderwijs wel mag worden ingevoerd zonder voorafgaand optreden van de decreetgever. Het Minderhedenforum, de koepel van etnisch-culturele minderheden in Vlaanderen en Brussel, is verheugd.
http://www.eerstekamer.nl/nieuws/20100302/senaat_verwerpt_motie_over
De Eerste Kamer heeft de motie-De Vries (PvdA) c.s. over het ‘beroepsverbod’ (EK 31.386, G) dinsdag 2 maart verworpen . De motie kreeg steun van de fracties van PvdA, SP, GroenLinks, D66, PvdD en de OSF. De fracties van CDA, VVD, ChristenUnie en SGP stemden tegen.
http://www.standaard.be/artikel/detail.aspx?artikelid=7V2NEE5N
De Nederlandse toppolitici Wouter Bos (PvdA) en Camiel Eurlings (CDA) verlaten de politiek, omdat zij meer tijd willen besteden aan hun privéleven. ‘Voor vrouwen betekent emancipatie demonstreren dat werk en gezin goed te combineren zijn; mannen oogsten daarentegen gegarandeerd een applausje als zij kiezen voor zorg en gezin’,
Mediawijsheid gevaarlijk | DeJaap
Jongeren die al problemen hebben, lopen het grootste risico als het gaat om geseksualiseerde of gewelddadige media-inhoud . Mediawijsheidinitiatieven sluizen geld weg bij instellingen die juist wel gericht zijn op die risicojongeren, zoals de jeugdzorg. En daarmee is mediawijsheid niet alleen onzinnig, maar zelfs gevaarlijk.
KLPD-lijst met criminele Marokkanen – Maroc.NL
Het Korps Landelijke Politiediensten (KLPD) heeft een ranglijst opgesteld waar de problemen met criminele Marokkaanse Nederlanders het grootst zijn. Hiermee wordt bepaald hoeveel geld gemeenten krijgen om overlast aan te pakken.
Een meerderheid in de Tweede Kamer lijkt het PvdA-wetsvoorstel te willen steunen voor een acceptatierecht in het onderwijs. Scholen kunnen dan niet langer leerlingen weigeren, als hun ouders maar respect hebben voor de grondslag van de school. Volgens de indieners betekent dit grotere keuzevrijheid voor ouders en zal het ervoor zorgen dat achterstandsleerlingen beter verdeeld worden over de scholen. Zou hierdoor het aantal zwarte scholen afnemen? Ik ben bang dat meer keuzevrijheid juist zal leiden tot meer segregatie.
http://www.standaard.be/artikel/detail.aspx?artikelid=DMF20100318_102
Saïd Arissi, een van de negen beklaagden die voor de correctionele rechtbank van Brussel terechtstaat voor terrorisme, heeft donderdag gezegd dat hij ervoor had gekozen om te gaan vechten in Irak, er een vriend te ontmoeten, en uiteindelijk te vertrekken naar Pakistan. Vervolgens zou hij in Afghanistan gaan vechten.