C L O S E R – Let's start integrate again

Posted on June 25th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Joy Category.

Well, game over. After 90 minutes (well effectively 30 and something minutes) we lost against Portugal and deserved so. Now let’s start integrate again!

“Hey, stupid never heard of integration?”

Picture via Levinas and Culture.

0 comments.

C L O S E R – Let’s start integrate again

Posted on June 25th, 2006 by .
Categories: Joy Category.

Well, game over. After 90 minutes (well effectively 30 and something minutes) we lost against Portugal and deserved so. Now let’s start integrate again!

“Hey, stupid never heard of integration?”

Picture via Levinas and Culture.

0 comments.

Allochtonen Weblog – How Westerners and Muslims view eachother

Posted on June 25th, 2006 by .
Categories: Multiculti Issues.

Allochtonen Weblog
Onderzoek: diepe kloof tussen moslims en Westen

Uit een onderzoek dat het Amerikaanse Pew Research Center in 15 landen hield, blijkt dat er een diepe kloof is tussen moslims en het Westen. Zo zien moslims de Amerikanen en Europeanen als zelfzuchtig, immoreel en inhalig. Aan de andere kant zien Amerikanen en Europeanen de moslims als arrogant, gewelddadig en intolerant. Het onderzoek werd niet gehouden in Nederland, maar wel in onder meer Amerika, Duitsland, Groot-Brittannië, Egypte, Pakistan en Turkije.

De meerderheid van de mensen in zowel het Midden-Oosten als Europa vindt de verhoudingen tussen moslims en westerlingen slecht. Beiden wijzen met de beschuldigende vinger naar elkaar over die slechte verhoudingen. In de westerse landen worden de moslims verantwoordelijk gehouden, in de moslimlanden en onder moslims in Europa krijgen de burgers in het Westen de schuld.

Het duidelijkst komt dat aan het licht als gevraagd wordt naar de ophef die losbarstte na de Deense spotprenten van de islamitische profeet Mohammed. Zo vindt een overweldigende meerderheid van de ondervraagde moslims dat dit te wijten is aan een gebrek aan respect voor de islam. Westerlingen geven de intolerantie van de moslims de schuld.

Christenen
De meeste Europese moslims staan positief tegenover westerse christenen: 91% van de Franse moslims, 82% van de Spaanse, 71% van de Britse en 69% van de Duitse moslims. Europese moslims hebben een positiever beeld van Europeanen dan hun geloofsgenoten in islamitische landen.

Volgens het Pew Research Center zijn de Britse moslims het meest geradicaliseerd; de Franse zijn het gematigdst. In Frankrijk heeft 71% van de moslims een positief beeld van Joden, terwijl bij moslims in Groot-Brittannië, evenals bij hun geloofsgenoten in Duitsland en Spanje, een sterk anti-Joods sentiment heerst.

Tegenspraak
In Duitsland en Spanje vinden de meeste westerlingen dat de levenswijze van een vrome moslim in tegenspraak is met de moderne westerse samenleving. Moslims in die landen zien die fundamentele tegenstelling echter niet: slechts 36% van de moslims in Duitsland en 25% van de moslims in Spanje vindt beiden onverenigbaar

In Duitsland hebben de meeste westerlingen (70%) een negatief oordeel over de betrekkingen tussen moslims en niet-moslims. In Frankrijk is dat 66% procent en in de Verenigde Staten 55%.

In vergelijking met inwoners van andere Europese landen staan Duitsers en Spanjaarden het negatiefst tegenover moslims. Slechts 36% respectievelijk 29% heeft een gunstig oordeel over de islamitische bevolking.

Steun terreur neemt af
Opvallend is dat heel veel moslims niet geloven dat de aanslagen van 11 september 2001 in de VS door een groep Arabieren zijn uitgevoerd. In Indonesië is 65% die mening toegedaan, in Turkije 59%, Egypte 59% en Jordanië 53%. Ook moslims in het westen willen daar niet aan: Moslims in Groot-Brittannië (66%) en Duitsland (42%) scoren het hoogst.

Wel blijkt dat de steun van moslims voor het terrorisme aan het afnemen is. Van de Indonesiërs zei 71% dat zelfmoordaanslagen en andere vormen van geweld tegen burgers nooit gerechtvaardigd zijn. In 2005 was dat nog 66% procent en in 2002 slechts 54%. Ook in Pakistan en Jordanië is die trend te zien.

Verder bleek dat in veel moslimlanden ook de steun voor Al-Qaidaleider Osama bin Laden is afgebrokkeld. Zo steunt in Jordanië nog slechts 24% van de ondervraagden de terreurleider. Een jaar terug was dat nog 60%.

Bron: Telegraaf/ Fok

On Sabbah’s Blog an extensive covering of the report.

0 comments.

C L O S E R – The Miami Terrorists…

Posted on June 25th, 2006 by .
Categories: International Terrorism, Religion Other, Religious and Political Radicalization, Uncategorized.

Several people in Miami have been arrested for alledgedly trying to attack Sears Tower. Quickly described as ‘muslims‘

Well, we’re told these seven arrests — most of them in Miami, one in Atlanta, people described as radical Muslims, a religious sect that identified with al Qaeda, although officials have said — one senior official told us they were not related to al Qaeda. And one, we’re told, had taken an oath to al Qaeda, but we don’t know exactly that that means. It might have been something quite informal. I suspect we’ll learn a little more about that today.

We have to be a little more carefull though, because the people arrested seem to belong to a called that isn’t Islamic, but more a syncretistic sect:

Batiste and his followers swore an oath of allegiance to Al-Qaeda and requested help from an undercover agent to buy weapons, explosives and uniforms, according to the indictment. He sought $50,000 to fund his mission and boasted that his attacks would be “as good or greater than 9/11”.

Batiste’s targets were said to have included the Miami FBI building as well as the Sears Tower, America’s tallest building. He was secretly recorded and filmed by the FBI, which infiltrated the group after a tip-off from a member of the public.

No weapons or explosives have been found at the windowless warehouse that Batiste called the “temple” in a rundown area of Miami.

Batiste grew up in Chicago and, as a young man, joined the Guardian Angels, a beret-wearing citizens’ crime prevention group. In 1994 he told his father, a former preacher, that he was “joining the Muslims” but his beliefs bear little relation to orthodox Islam.

A close friend said his teachings came from the Moorish Science Temple of America, an early 20th century religion founded by the Noble Drew Ali, a wandering African-American circus magician who claimed to have been raised by Cherokee Indians and to have learnt “high magic” in Egypt. Ali went on to style himself an “angel” and prophet of Allah.

The Seas of David borrows tenets from Judaism and Christianity as well as Islam and emphasises self-discipline through martial arts.

More information can be found on Unqualified Offerings: HERE, HERE and HERE. In the words of Crooked Timber: a conferaderacy of Dunces.

0 comments.

Muslims address silence on Europe attacks – Yahoo! News

Posted on June 25th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: International Terrorism, Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, Public Islam, Religious and Political Radicalization.

Muslims address silence on Europe attacks – Yahoo! News
I cannot speak of course for all Muslims in all European countries, in the case of the assassination of Van Gogh, Dutch Muslims rejected the murder outright, with one Muslim organization calling Van Gogh a martyr of the freedom of speech. Nevertheless, it seems necessary to talk about this topic, because in particular non-Muslims seem to do not have heard these comments. Therefore probably the debate among Muslims about the so-called silence on Europe attacks:

By SCHEHEREZADE FARAMARZI, Associated Press Writer Sat Jun 24, 11:56 AM ET

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – Europe’s Muslims have remained largely silent in the face of terrorist attacks that have killed 254 people in Madrid, London and Amsterdam. Europeans want to know why.

Why have so few of them publicly condemned the train and bus bombings in Madrid and London? Why have so few spoken out against the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, killed because his work was considered an insult to Islam?

Talk to Europe’s mainstream Muslims privately, however, and it turns out they have a lot to say. (more…)

0 comments.

ISIM – Former ISIM fellow 'Hero against Slavery'

Posted on June 25th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News.

ISIM Home – Former ISIM fellow ‘Hero against Slavery’
Kyai Husein Muhammad, who was a visiting fellow at ISIM in 2002, was named as one of ten ‘Heroes Acting To End Modern-Day Slavery’ in the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report 2006, which was released earlier this month.

The report writes:

Kyai Husein Muhammad, founder and leader of The Fahmina Institute, Indonesia, has helped raise awareness of human trafficking among women and children in rural communities in West Java through an anti-trafficking media campaign, which included the distribution of 22,000 leaflets each week in mosques after Friday prayers, along with outreach to village health clinics and schools. He has researched and produced written works concerning the application of Islamic Law and human trafficking, an unprecedented initiative to use Islamic arguments and traditions to combat this crime. His scholarship highlights the Islamic perspective on victims’ rights, the rights of women and children, and the immorality of human trafficking, while emphasizing that victims should not be criminalized and that communities have a responsibility to combat trafficking. Kyai Husein’s efforts were instrumental in raising awareness of the risk of trafficking in posttsunami Aceh, and enlisting Muslim schools there in the ultimately successful prevention of trafficking in persons.

Kyai Husein (kyai is the Indonesian title for a religious scholar) is best known in Indonesia as the most senior scholar to support, and make major contributions to, efforts to develop a Muslim feminist theology. Besides leading his pesantren (traditional Islamic school) and the Fahmina Institute, which are based in Cirebon in West Java, he is also actively involved in the Jakarta-based major Muslim women’s NGO, Rahima.

His stay at ISIM was in the context of research for his book Islam agama ramah perempuan: pembelaan kiai pesantren [Islam, a woman-friendly religion: an apology by a pesantren-based kyai], Yogyakarta: LKiS & Fahmina Institute, 2004.

0 comments.

ISIM – Former ISIM fellow ‘Hero against Slavery’

Posted on June 25th, 2006 by .
Categories: Misc. News.

ISIM Home – Former ISIM fellow ‘Hero against Slavery’
Kyai Husein Muhammad, who was a visiting fellow at ISIM in 2002, was named as one of ten ‘Heroes Acting To End Modern-Day Slavery’ in the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report 2006, which was released earlier this month.

The report writes:

Kyai Husein Muhammad, founder and leader of The Fahmina Institute, Indonesia, has helped raise awareness of human trafficking among women and children in rural communities in West Java through an anti-trafficking media campaign, which included the distribution of 22,000 leaflets each week in mosques after Friday prayers, along with outreach to village health clinics and schools. He has researched and produced written works concerning the application of Islamic Law and human trafficking, an unprecedented initiative to use Islamic arguments and traditions to combat this crime. His scholarship highlights the Islamic perspective on victims’ rights, the rights of women and children, and the immorality of human trafficking, while emphasizing that victims should not be criminalized and that communities have a responsibility to combat trafficking. Kyai Husein’s efforts were instrumental in raising awareness of the risk of trafficking in posttsunami Aceh, and enlisting Muslim schools there in the ultimately successful prevention of trafficking in persons.

Kyai Husein (kyai is the Indonesian title for a religious scholar) is best known in Indonesia as the most senior scholar to support, and make major contributions to, efforts to develop a Muslim feminist theology. Besides leading his pesantren (traditional Islamic school) and the Fahmina Institute, which are based in Cirebon in West Java, he is also actively involved in the Jakarta-based major Muslim women’s NGO, Rahima.

His stay at ISIM was in the context of research for his book Islam agama ramah perempuan: pembelaan kiai pesantren [Islam, a woman-friendly religion: an apology by a pesantren-based kyai], Yogyakarta: LKiS & Fahmina Institute, 2004.

0 comments.