C L O S E R

Protected: Trouw, deVerdieping| dossiers – De Wijk / WRR scheidt wel feiten en meningen over islam

Posted on April 20th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Important Publications.

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Protected: Trouw, deVerdieping| dossiers – De Wijk / WRR scheidt wel feiten en meningen over islam

Posted on April 20th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Important Publications.

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ArteEast-Virtual Gallery: Ali Kaaf

Posted on April 20th, 2006 by .
Categories: Arts & culture.

ArteEast-Virtual Gallery
FEATURED ARTIST: Ali Kaaf
February 1, 2006

ArteEast introduces the drawings and photography of Ali Kaaf, which are explorations of black itself — as a color, a material and formal presence, and a set of possibilities and foreclosures. More broadly, Kaaf’s works are visual discussions of the contrasts of light and form and their material possibilities. These discussions draw on, but are not limited to, different international histories of modernism. Critics have also highlighted a Sufi element to his work. And they have welcomed its concern with artistic questions unrelated to the political, in contrast to much of the art from the Middle East featured in Western arts institutions. Indeed, Kaaf’s work reflects an intense interest with materiality among many artists working in the Middle East, but so rarely acknowledged elsewhere. It reminds us of the necessary freedom of all artists to engage formal and material questions, and the truly international history of that process. Born in Algeria of Syrian descent, Kaaf graduated from the Lebanese University and later trained at the Universitat der Kunste in Berlin. His bright future was recently recognized when he was awarded Germany’s prestigious Daad Prize. Since 1999, he has exhibited in Amman, Beirut, and Berlin. He is currently an artist in residence with Solidere’s Beirut reconstruction program, and this exhibition features new work that is simultaneously showing at an exhibition at Beirut Central in Lebanon.

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'Hip' hijab takes on Dutch prejudices | csmonitor.com

Posted on April 20th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Young Muslims.

‘Hip’ hijab takes on Dutch prejudices | csmonitor.com
‘Hip’ hijab takes on Dutch prejudices
A ban on head scarfs in school gym classes spawns the ‘capster’ and a small business.
By Leela Jacinto | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
SON EN BREUGEL, THE NETHERLANDS – In 1999, while seeking a graduate project idea at the Design Academy of Eindhoven, Cindy van den Bremen found a problem-solving opportunity.

The Dutch Commission of Equal Treatment had recently ruled that high schools could prohibit Muslim girls from wearing head coverings in gym class. Girls were advised to wear turtlenecks teamed with swim caps. But some were ignoring the sartorial advice, preferring instead to skip gym all together.
At about that time, the Dutch were beginning to become disillusioned with multiculturalism – a trend that was to intensify in the next few years with the death of maverick anti-immigrant politician Pim Fortuyn and the murder of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh by a radical Dutch Islamist.

For Ms. van den Bremen, the phys-ed class controversy offered a means to marry her political sense of injustice with her professional expertise. “I realized that if the hijabs did not look traditional, but hip and trendy, they could possibly change prejudice into some sort of admiration,” says the young Dutch designer.

Within months, the “capster” was born, and quickly blossomed into a business. In four styles designed for tennis, skating, aerobics, and outdoor sports, van den Bremen’s head coverings were sleek, safe, and – in the words of a local Islamic cleric – “Islamically correct.”
(more…)

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‘Hip’ hijab takes on Dutch prejudices | csmonitor.com

Posted on April 20th, 2006 by .
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Young Muslims.

‘Hip’ hijab takes on Dutch prejudices | csmonitor.com
‘Hip’ hijab takes on Dutch prejudices
A ban on head scarfs in school gym classes spawns the ‘capster’ and a small business.
By Leela Jacinto | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
SON EN BREUGEL, THE NETHERLANDS – In 1999, while seeking a graduate project idea at the Design Academy of Eindhoven, Cindy van den Bremen found a problem-solving opportunity.

The Dutch Commission of Equal Treatment had recently ruled that high schools could prohibit Muslim girls from wearing head coverings in gym class. Girls were advised to wear turtlenecks teamed with swim caps. But some were ignoring the sartorial advice, preferring instead to skip gym all together.
At about that time, the Dutch were beginning to become disillusioned with multiculturalism – a trend that was to intensify in the next few years with the death of maverick anti-immigrant politician Pim Fortuyn and the murder of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh by a radical Dutch Islamist.

For Ms. van den Bremen, the phys-ed class controversy offered a means to marry her political sense of injustice with her professional expertise. “I realized that if the hijabs did not look traditional, but hip and trendy, they could possibly change prejudice into some sort of admiration,” says the young Dutch designer.

Within months, the “capster” was born, and quickly blossomed into a business. In four styles designed for tennis, skating, aerobics, and outdoor sports, van den Bremen’s head coverings were sleek, safe, and – in the words of a local Islamic cleric – “Islamically correct.”
(more…)

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Nonviolent but still a threat? – Islam in Europe – MSNBC.com

Posted on April 20th, 2006 by .
Categories: Religious and Political Radicalization, Young Muslims.

Nonviolent but still a threat? – Islam in Europe – MSNBC.com
Inside ‘Islam’s political insurgency’ in Europe
In the war of ideas, Hizb ut-Tahrir stakes its ground, courts controversy

• Hizb ut-Tahir Q&A
Jamal Harwood, spokesman for Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain, answers MSNBC.com’s questions about the controversial group.

LONDON — Merely a radical Islamic political party or a “conveyor belt for terrorists”?That is the question British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government hopes to answer when it decides whether to join Germany, Russia and many Muslim-majority states in formally banning the activities of Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation) for allegedly inciting violence.

Hizb ut-Tahrir says it is a nonviolent political party, but critics assert it is deeply divisive and potentially dangerous — especially in Europe — because it is openly anti-democratic, calls for a new world order based on uniting the world’s 1.2 billion Muslims in a new state and shares a worldview, if not methodology, with some violent groups.
(more…)

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Gulf Times – Qatar’s top-selling English daily newspaper – Qatar

Posted on April 20th, 2006 by .
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues.

Gulf Times – Qatar’s top-selling English daily newspaper – Qatar
Fatwa ‘gives green light’ to boy-girl chat on Net
Published: Monday, 17 April, 2006, 11:39 AM Doha Time
Staff Reporter
IF the intentions are genuine and transparency is maintained in the interaction, it is permissible for a Muslim youth to chat with a girl of marriageable age on the Internet and ultimately get married with the approval and blessings of their respective guardians, says a fatwa published on the Islam Online website of the Ministry of Awqaf (Endowments) and Religious Affairs.
A local Arabic daily, quoting the fatwa, says that although Internet chatting seems to be innocuous and above reproach, one cannot rule out mischief and malintentions. Hence the youth are advised not to resort to such means to select their life partners. They would be better advised to go by the age-old practice of match-making through the word of mouth, especially by elders in the family.

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Protected: nrc.nl – Binnenland – Financiële sancties tegen Hofstadgroep

Posted on April 20th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues.

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NRC Handelsblad – Islambashers en Islamitisch activisme

Posted on April 20th, 2006 by .
Categories: Important Publications.

NRC Handelsblad – Digitale Editie – Donderdag 20 april 2006

Opinie-stukken van Dr. Wendy Asbeek Brusse met Dr. Jan Schoonenboom (beiden WRR)

Wij denken dat het ook voor degenen die de gewelddadige, gevaarlijke kanten van de politieke islam benadrukken, belangrijk is zelfs de kleinste mogelijkheid in de moslimwereld om toenadering tot democratie en mensenrechten te bevorderen. Zij zouden meer interesse mogen opbrengen voor positieve aanknopingspunten, die er volgens ons onderzoek wel degelijk zijn. Dit temeer omdat de alternatieve scenario’s van voortgaande confrontatie (Irak, Iran) of handhaving van de status quo (het Midden-Oosten, Pakistan) uiteindelijk geen soelaas bieden voor het behoud van een open samenleving.

en van Shervin Nekuee in NRC.

Niet alleen waren de radicale islamieten radicaal, de seculieren waren dat ook. Het politieke alternatief voor radicale islamietenwas stalinisme of maoïsme. Ik heb me keer op keer door ex-communistische ballingen laten vertellen dat „een overwinning van de seculier linkse beweging in Iran zou hebben kunnen leiden tot Iraanse killing fields.” Of hun hypothetische retrospectief bewaarheid had kunnen worden, weten we niet. Wat zeker is, is dat de huidige Islamitische Republiek een zeer bloedige geschiedenis kent.

Maar in het Iran van nu zijn juist de moslim-democraten de hardnekkigste concurrenten van de huidige machthebbers. Dat zijn activisten die de islam als een leidraad voor hun politieke handelingen beschouwen, maar die wars zijn van de huidige islamitische theocratie. Deze moslim-democraten vertonen in hun denken veel overeenkomsten met de christen- democraten.

Hun politieke denkwijze is niet eigen aan Iran. Men ziet het opbloeien in Turkije, onder de vlag van de thans regerende AK Partij, en bij het moslimbroederschap in Egypte. De huidige Hamasleiders hebben gedurende hun bezoek aan Turkije min of meer laten weten dat de AK partij een voorbeeld voor hen is. OfHamas werkelijk in staat is deze verandering door te maken, valt te bezien. Het betekent wel dat er een vorm van radicaal islamitisch activisme bestaat dat vanuit democratische principes wil opereren. Deze stroming wordt ook wel het ‘post-islamisme’ islamisme’ genoemd. Haar verfijningen van de islam brengen de positie van moslim-bashers behoorlijk aan het wankelen. Vandaar hun furieuze reactie op de WRR.

Voor wat betreft dat laatste kan ook Hezbollah nog wel genoemd worden. In zijn proefschrift laat Alagha zien hoe Hezbollah langzaam is opgeschoven naar een politieke partij die de democratische spelregels begint te accepteren. Misschien nog niet helemaal zoals we het graag zouden willen zien, maar wel degelijk een stap in de goede richting.

Als reactie op de reacties op het WRR-rapport. (more…)

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Protected: Trouw – Het Andalusië-debat met Leezenberg en Allan

Posted on April 20th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Multiculti Issues.

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