C L O S E R December 2007 Archives

IK ROEP
HALT! TEGEN HET LASTEREN VAN ISLAM

Halt! Tegen het lasteren van ISLAM

De afgelopen tijd wordt Nederland overheerst door een klimaat van laster en platte belediging van Islam en de Moslims. En het is duidelijk dat bepaalde politici en andere personen van invloed de drijvende kracht zijn hierachter. In reactie zijn wij, de jongeren van Hizb ut Tahrir in Nederland, dit weekeinde gestart met de campagne “Halt het lasteren van Islam!”.
Met deze campagne, een grootschalige handtekeningen actie, willen wij de moslims een stem geven en hen in staat stellen te reageren. Opdat zij op gepaste, respectabele wijze uiting zullen kunnen geven aan de gevoelens van grote onrust en ongenoegen die bij hen zijn ontstaan als gevolg van het continue lasteren van de hoge waardes van Islam.

Daarbij willen wij met de campagne “Halt het lasteren van Islam!” tevens aantonen dat het platte beledigen van Islam en de moslims een tweespalt creëert in de Nederlandse samenleving, en dat het de harmonie van de Nederlandse samenleving ernstig verstoort.

Wij kunnen melden dat het eerste weekend van deze campagne positief is verlopen. Met open armen is het initiatief ontvangen, en wij hebben positieve reactie en uitingen van steun ontvangen van zowel moslims als niet-moslims.

Voor meer informatie en de petitie zie: HALT LASTEREN VAN ISLAM!

3 comments.

The Word of Muhammad :: ZemZem

Posted on December 26th, 2007 by .
Categories: Important Publications, Internal Debates.

The Word of Muhammad :: ZemZem :: ZemZem
The Word of Mohammad

Interview
Reformer Abdolkarim Soroush on the Koran

Michel Hoebink

Muhammad is the creator of the Koran. That is what well-known Iranian reformer Abdolkarim Soroush says in his book The Expansion of the Prophetic Experience that will be published early next year. With this view, Soroush goes further than some of the most radical Muslim reformers. In an interview with Zemzem by Michel Hoebink, he gives a foretaste of his book. Michel Hoebink works for the Arabic department of Radio Netherlands World. The Expansion of the Prophetic Experience will be published early 2008 by Brill. Leiden.

Since the coming to power of president Ahmadinejad, it has become increasingly difficult for Abdolkarim Soroush to work in Iran. For that reason, he has accepted invitations to teach at western universities such as Harvard and Princeton in the USA and the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin. In the past academic year he was a guest lecturer at the Free University in Amsterdam and the Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM) in Leiden, the Netherlands.

Abdolkarim Soroush is regarded as the intellectual leader of the Iranian reform movement. Initially, he was a supporter of Khomeini. He held several official positions in the young Islamic republic, among which that of Khomeini’s adviser on cultural and educational reform. But when the spiritual leader soon turned out to be a tyrant, Soroush withdrew in disappointment. Since the early 90s, he is part of a group of ‘republican’ intellectuals who started out discussing the concept of an ‘Islamic democracy’ but gradually moved away from the entire idea of an Islamic state.

Soroush’s basic argument is simple: all human understanding of religion is historical and fallible. With this idea he undermines the Iranian theocracy, because if all human understanding of religion is fallible, no-one can claim to apply the shari’a in God’s name, not even the Iranian clergy.

In The Expansion of the Prophetic Experience Soroush makes clear that his view on the fallibility of religious knowledge to a certain degree also applies to the Koran. With thinkers such as Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd and Mohammed Arkoun, Soroush belongs to a small group of radical reformers who advocate a historical approach to the Koran. In his new book, however, he goes one step further than many of his radical colleagues. He claims that the Koran is not only the product of the historical circumstances in which it emerged, but also of the mind of the Prophet Mohammed with all his human limitations. This idea, says Soroush, is not an innovation, as several medieval thinkers already hinted at it.

You can read the interview: (more…)

2 comments.

Is de discussie over vrouwenbesnijdenis overdreven?

Posted on December 24th, 2007 by martijn.
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Multiculti Issues.

Recent verklaarden imams in Nederland zich tegenstander van de praktijk van vrouwenbesnijdenis. Ook recent is er een onderzoek uitgevoerd of in Nederlandse privé-klinieken deze initiatierite wordt uitgevoerd.

Meisjesbesnijdenis wordt soms getypeerd als een typisch islamitisch gebruik, maar het is socio-historisch beter te plaatsen als een cultureel-regionaal gebruik dat stamt uit de tijd voor de komst van de islam (dat geldt overigens ook voor jongensbesnijdenis). Meisjesbesnijdenis komt namelijk in diverse landen voor, onder moslims, christenen en animisten. Vooral in sub-Sahara landen en Noord-Oost-Afrika worden meisjes besneden als ze in de basisschoolleeftijd zijn, maar ook in het Midden-Oosten en Indonesië komt het voor. Soms krijgen vrouweneen klein sneetje in de clitoris (incisie), soms wordt de clitoris en een deel van de kleine schaamlippen verwijderd (clitoridectomie) en soms worden ook de grote schaamlippen weggesneden en wordt de wond dichtgenaaid op een kleine opening na voor urine en bloed (infibulatie). Nederland wordt sinds eind jaren tachtig geconfronteerd met meisjesbesnijdenis.

Veel discussie over vrouwenbesnijdenis en ook veel projecten om er iets tegen te doen. Des te opmerkelijker is het eigenlijk dat we er helemaal niet zoveel van weten. We weten niet precies wat de lichamelijke, seksuele en psychische gevolgen ervan zijn en in welke mate die optreden. Uit het rapport van Bartels en Van der Kwaak is wel een en ander bekend (p.16):

De meeste literatuur over de gevolgen van meisjesbesnijdenis betreft de gevolgen van infibulatie en circumcisie, de zwaarste varianten, zoals die plaatsvinden in Noord Oost Afrika en Mali. In een van de eerste Somalische studies schrijft Dirie (1985) hier uitgebreid over: shock, bloedingen, fistelvorming, in een latere fase genitale-urineweg en obstetrische complicaties als ook psychiatrische, psychosomatische en psychosociale effecten op het leven van jonge meisjes. Grassivaro Gallo (1998:248) beschrijft hoe vrouwenbesnijdenis het psychosociale leven van Somalische migrantenmeisjes in Italië beïnvloedt. Na de ingreep worden de meisjes introvert, stil, teruggetrokken en vertonen gedragstoornissen zoals eetstoornissen en angsten. Menage (1998:215) stelt dat circumcisie als een genitale medische procedure genoeg stressgevend is om te leiden tot een posttraumatische stress stoornis. Immers er is sprake van gevoelens van machteloosheid van het meisje, gebrek aan controle, gebrek aan instemming, gebrek aan kennis en intense pijnbelevenis Over de gevolgen van mildere vormen van meisjesbesnijdenis is minder bekend.

Opmerkelijk is dat de auteurs in dat rapport ook het volgende signaleren (p. 18):

Enkele maanden na deze studiedag eindigen de publieke reacties.7 Na 1992 is er nog wel literatuur (Bartels 1993a,b, Reyners 1992, 1993, Struijs 1995, Smith en van der Weide 1992, Smith 1995 Veerman e.a.1995) verschenen over dit onderwerp maar veel discussie heeft dat niet opgeleverd. Vrouwen die besnijdenis praktiseren komen niet aan bod. Ook pleidooien om tenminste naar hen te luisteren worden verkeerd begrepen (Van der Zwaard 1994, Bartels 1994). In een analyse van dit debat laat Suurmond (1998:90) ook deze eenzijdigheid zien. “Bij het debat over vrouwenbesnijdenis gaat het om het zoeken naar een concrete oplossing voor vrouwenbesnijdenis (namelijk het verbieden ervan) ten koste van een andere mogelijke uitkomst van het debat, namelijk het aan het woord laten van de verschillende deelnemers.” Met de verschillende deelnemers bedoelt Suurmond de belangrijkste gesprekspartners, de mensen die vrouwenbesnijdenis uitvoeren. “In het debat werd vooral gezocht naar een concrete oplossing voor het probleem. Daarnaast zien we dat niet alle betrokkenen hebben deelgenomen aan het debat. De constructie van ‘onbeschaafdheid’ die een rol speelt door het hele debat heen, leidde tot een buiten het debat houden en laten van een belangrijke groep van gesprekspartners, de Somaliërs.” (Suurmond 1998:90).8

Het gebrek aan feitelijke kennis en het niet horen van de stemmen van de praktiserende vrouwen, is aanleiding voor een interessante discussie in The New York Times. De discussie over vrouwenbesnijdenis zou bewust overdreven worden, de gevolgen de negatief afgeschilderd en vrouwen die het praktiseren zou de mond gesnoerd worden. John Tierney stelt daarbij het volgende:

Should African women be allowed to engage in the practice sometimes called female circumcision? Are critics of this practice, who call it female genital mutilation, justified in trying to outlaw it, or are they guilty of ignorance and cultural imperialism?

Those questions will be debated Saturday morning in Washington at the American Anthropological Association’s annual meeting. Representatives of international groups opposed to this procedure will be debating anthropologists with somewhat different views, including African anthropologists who have undergone the procedure themselves.

[…]

Dr. Ahmadu, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Chicago, was raised in America and then went back to Sierra Leone as an adult to undergo the procedure along with fellow members of the Kono ethnic group. She has argued that the critics of the procedure exaggerate the medical dangers, misunderstand the effect on sexual pleasure, and mistakenly view the removal of parts of the clitoris as a practice that oppresses women. She has lamented that her Westernized “feminist sisters insist on denying us this critical aspect of becoming a woman in accordance with our unique and powerful cultural heritage.” In another essay, she writes:

It is difficult for me — considering the number of ceremonies I have observed, including my own — to accept that what appears to be expressions of joy and ecstatic celebrations of womanhood in actuality disguise hidden experiences of coercion and subjugation. Indeed, I offer that the bulk of Kono women who uphold these rituals do so because they want to — they relish the supernatural powers of their ritual leaders over against men in society, and they embrace the legitimacy of female authority and particularly the authority of their mothers and grandmothers.

[…]

Dr. Shweder says that many Westerners trying to impose a “zero tolerance” policy don’t realize that these initiation rites are generally controlled not by men but by women who believe it is a cosmetic procedure with aesthetic benefits. He criticizes Americans and Europeans for outlawing it at the same they endorse their own forms of genital modification, like the circumcision of boys or the cosmetic surgery for women called “vaginal rejuvenation.” After surveying studies of female circumcision and comparing the data with the rhetoric about its harmfulness, Dr. Shweder concludes that “‘First World’ feminist issues and political correctness and activism have triumphed over the critical assessment of evidence.”

If I were asked to make a decision about my own daughter, I wouldn’t choose circumcision for her. But what about the question raised by these anthropologists: Should outsiders be telling African women what initiation practices are acceptable?

Daar kwamen nogal wat reacties op en dus kwam Tierney met een tweede post over dit onderwerp.

My post about a debate over a female initiation rite in Africa prompted lots of angry reactions, some quite thoughtful ones, much misinformation and one entirely reasonable request from Charles:

Having read dozens of passionate comments, are there any dispassionate factual examinations of the subject addressing (a) the health risks, (b) the health benefits, and (c) the actual effect of the procedure on the lives of those subject to it, all categorizing by the varieties of practice? It would be nice to have some granular facts rather than summary conclusions.

I’m not sure it’s possible to find anyone dispassionate on this subject. The experts, like Lab readers, can’t even even agree on what to call this procedure. (In my post I used several of the terms: circumcision, female genital mutilation, female genital cutting, genital modification.) But I would like to give Lab readers a sense of the research results and range of expert opinion. I’ve asked several researchers to respond to Charles’ question and to other concerns raised by Lab readers. The first response (others will follow) is from Richard Shweder, a cultural anthropologist at the University of Chicago and one of the organizers of Saturday’s debate on this topic at the American Anthropological Association’s annual meeting. Here’s Dr. Shweder’s response:

“Female genital mutilation” is an invidious and essentially debate-subverting label. The preemptive use of that expression is just as invidious as starting a conversation about a women’s right to choose by describing abortion as the “murder of innocent life.” Pro-choice advocates rightly object to the presumptive disparagement implied by that label; many African women similarly object to naming a practice which they describe in local terms as “the celebration” or the “purification” or the “cleansing” or the “beautification” as “the mutilation”. Notably in most ethnic groups where female genital surgeries are customary, male genital surgeries are customary as well and are named with the same terms.

Charles calls for a dispassionate factual examination of the risks and consequences of female genital surgeries. Fact checking has not been the strong suit of anti-“FGM” advocacy groups or of the American press. Indeed, the press in general has served as an effective outlet for the advocacy groups and has kept itself innocent of available sources of information that run counter to the received horror arousing story-line about barbaric or ignorant or victimized Africans who maim, murder, and disfigure their daughters and deprive them of a capacity to experience sexual pleasure. With rare exceptions, the only African women who have been given a direct voice and allowed to speak for themselves in our media are those who oppose the practice.

For example, in recent years there have been two major scientific reviews of the medical literature and an exemplary Gambia-based research study, which have raised serious doubts about the supposed effects on mortality, morbidity and sexuality that are so often attributed to these customary surgeries; yet, as far as I know, there has been absolutely no mention of these reviews and studies in any American newspaper or on NPR, although one might have thought they were sufficiently eye-opening and significant to warrant media coverage.

Any reasonably objective assessment of the risks and consequences of female genital surgeries should begin with the epidemiologist and medical anthropologist Carla Obermeyer’s comprehensive and critical reviews of the medical and demographic evidence on the topic (published in the journal Medical Anthropology Quarterly). Her first publication reviews and critiques the available literature on female genital surgeries through 1996; her second publication reviews the subsequent literature from 1997-2002. The third key source is a research report by Linda Morison and her Medical Research Council team published in 2001 in the journal Tropical Medicine and International Health. That research, conducted in the Gambia, is the most systematic, comprehensive and controlled investigation of the health consequences of female genital modifications yet to be conducted.

This is what Carla Obermeyer says in her first comprehensive review. “On the basis of the vast literature on the harmful effects of genital surgeries, one might have anticipated finding a wealth of studies that document considerable increases in mortality and morbidity. This review could find no incontrovertible evidence on mortality, and the rate of medical complications suggest that they are the exception rather than the rule.” …“In fact, studies that systematically investigate the sexual feelings of women and men in societies where genital surgeries are found are rare, and the scant information that is available calls into question the assertion that female genital surgeries are fundamentally antithetical to women’s sexuality and incompatible with sexual enjoyment.”

Perhaps the most scientifically rigorous and large-scale study of the medical consequences of female genital surgeries in Africa is the Morison et al Gambia study. In the Gambia a customary genital surgery typically involves an excision of the visible or protruding part of the clitoris and either a partial or complete excision of the labia minora. (It is important to note that the visible part of the clitoris, which many African women view as an unbidden, unwanted, ugly and vestigial male-like element that should be removed for the sake of gender appropriate bodily integrity and a sense of mental well-being, is not the entire tissue structure of the clitoris and much of that tissue structure, a good deal of which is not visible and protruding but is rather subcutaneous, remains even after the surgery, which may explain why “circumcised” women remain sexual and have orgasms.)

The Morison et al study systematically compared “circumcised” with “uncircumcised” women. More than 1,100 women (ages fifteen to fifty-four) from three ethnic groups (Mandinka, Wolof, and Fula) were interviewed and also given gynecological examinations and laboratory tests. This is rare data in the annals of the literature on the consequences of female genital surgeries.

Overall, very few differences were discovered in the reproductive health status of “circumcised” versus “uncircumcised” women. Forty-three percent of women who were “uncircumcised” reported menstrual problems compared to 33% for “circumcised” women but the difference was not statistically significant. Fifty-six percent of women who were “uncircumcised” had a damaged perineum compared to 62% for “circumcised” women, but again the difference was not statistically significant. There were a small number of statistically significant differences – for example, more syphilis (although not a lot of syphilis) among “uncircumcised” women, and a higher level of herpes and one particular kind of bacterial infection among women who were “circumcised.”

But in general, from the point of view of reproductive health consequences there was not much to write home about. As noted in the research report, the supposed morbidities (such as infertility, painful sex, vulval tumors, menstrual problems, incontinence and most endogenous infections) often cited by anti-“fgm” advocacy groups as common long-term problems of “fgm” did not distinguish women who had the surgery from those who had not. Yes, 10% of circumcised Gambian women in the study were infertile, but the level of infertility was exactly the same for the “uncircumcised” Gambian women in the study. The authors caution anti-“FGM” activists against exaggerating the morbidity and mortality risks of the practice. In addition, circumcised Gambian women expressed high levels of support for the practice; and the authors of the study write: “When women in our study were asked about the most recent circumcision operation undergone by a daughter, none reported any problems.”

My conclusion from reading those three publications is that the harmful practice claim has been highly exaggerated and that many of the representations in the advocacy literature and the popular press are nearly as fanciful as they are nightmarish. A close and critical reading of the much publicized 2006 Lancet publication of the “WHO Study Group on Female Genital Mutilation,” which received widespread, immediate and sensationalize coverage in the press because of its purported claims about infant and maternal mortality during the hospital birth process, suggests to me that again there is not very much to write home about.

In that WHO study, not a single statistically significant difference was found between those who had a “type 1” genital surgery versus no surgery; no statistically significant differences were found between those who had no genital surgeries and those who had type 1, 2 or 3 genital surgeries for the best predictor of infant health, namely birth weight; the perinatal death rate for the actual women in the sample who had a “type 3” surgery was in fact lower (193 infant deaths out of 6595 births) than those who had no surgery at all (296 deaths out of 7171 births) and only became statistically significant in a negative direction through non-transparent statistical manipulation of the data; the study collected data on women across six nations but never displayed the within nation results; there was no direct control for the quality of health care available for “circumcised” versus “uncircumcised” women; the sample was unrepresentative of the whole population; and in general any reported increased risk for genital surgery was astonishingly small and hardly a mandate for an eradication rather than a public health program.

The best evidence available at the moment suggests to me that the anthropologist Robert Edgerton basically had it right when he wrote about the Kenyan practice in the 1920s and 1930s as a crucible in which it is not just the courage of males but also the courage of females that gets tested: “…most girls bore it bravely and few suffered serious infection or injury as a result. Circumcised women did not lose their ability to enjoy sexual relations, nor was their child-bearing capacity diminished. Nevertheless the practice offended Christian sensibilities”. As Charles put it in his comment: “Personal revulsion is not a good basis for making general policy.”

It is noteworthy, perhaps even astonishing, that in the community of typically liberal, skeptical and critical readers of the Times there has been such a ready acceptance of the anti-FGM advocacy groups’ representations of family and social life in Africa as dark, brutal, primitive, barbaric, and unquestionably beyond the pale. Many commentators are confident that when it comes to this topic no debate is necessary.

One witnesses the ready assumption that any deliberate modification of the female (and even the male) anatomy is an example of oppression or torture (as though we should begin describing the Jewish practice as “male genital mutilation”) and that these coming-of-age and gender identity or group identity ceremonies of African mothers should be placed on the list of absolute evils along with cannibalism and slavery. At the panel on “Zero Tolerance” policies held on Saturday at the American Anthropological Association meeting, one of the participants Zeinab Eyega, who runs an NGO concerned with the welfare of African immigrants in the USA, noted that these days in New York “the pain of hearing yourself described is more painful than being cut.”
[…]

De informatie die er is, is dus gebrekkig want eenzijdig. Eenzijdig omdat voorstanders (en vrouwen zelf) nauwelijks aan bod komen en omdat het is gebaseerd op de meest vergaande vormen van besnijdenis en nauwelijks op de lichtste vorm die het meeste voorkomt (80% van de gevallen). Dat het overdreven is, lijkt mij overigens een premature conclusie als we niet genoeg weten. Termen als ‘beautification’ en ‘celebration’ maken een vergelijking met schoonheidsmaakbaarheid in westen ook nog wel voor de hand liggend. Ervan uitgaande dat de negatieve gevolgen dus overdreven zijn, zoals wordt gesteld, staan we vrouwenbesnijdenis dan wel toe? Of is er toch meer aan de hand? Of mag toch eenzijdig worden bepaald wat vrouwen zich wel of niet mogen aandoen in naam van de schoonheid, reinheid en vrouw-zijn? Een tricky punt lijkt wellicht nog de besnijdenis van minderjarige meisjes te zijn. Maar als de gevolgen dus inderdaad mee vallen (en ervan uitgaande dat dit zo is) en jongensbesnijdenis of plastische chirurgie bij minderjarigen worden ook toegestaan, wie zijn wij dan om ouders te verbieden hun dochters te besnijden? Of is dat toch echt wat anders?

3 comments.

Protected: nrc.nl – Wetenschap – Vluchtige vervoering

Posted on December 23rd, 2007 by martijn.
Categories: Religion Other.

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NRC / Alexander Weissink: Jihad in verwarring

Posted on December 23rd, 2007 by .
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization.

Jihad in Verwarring door Alexander Weissink

Sayyid Imam, spijtoptant van de terreur

Een belangrijke ideoloog van de gewelddadige jihad verwerpt de activiteiten van Al-Qaeda en roept op tot een ‘eind aan het wereldwijde bloedbad’. Maar: is hij oprecht?

In de Tora-gevangenis in het zuiden van de Egyptische hoofdstad is de Egyptische emir Sayyid Imam Abdulaziz al-Sharif (57) op andere gedachten gekomen – of misschien: gebracht. Een belangrijke ideoloog van de internationale jihad roept op een einde te maken aan het wereldwijde bloedbad en verwerpt de activiteiten van Al-Qaeda. „Het is ons door god verboden agressie te begaan, zelfs als de vijanden van islam dat wel doen”, stelt Sayyid Imam in zijn herziening onder de titel Rationalisering van de jihad in Egypte en de wereld. „Vech t in godsnaam tegen degene die jou bevechten, maar overtreed de grens niet, want god houdt niet van overtreders.”

Het pleidooi voor vreedzaam verzet lijkt een spectaculaire ommekeer in de opvattingen van de man die direct na de aanslagen op New York en Washington op 11 september 2001 nog zei dat terrorisme een plicht is zolang de Verenigde Staten een land van ongelovigen zijn. Dagelijks verschijnt een passage uit het honderdenelf pagina’s tellende document van zijn nieuwe gedachtegoed in Masri al-Youm (Egypte Vandaag), de grootste onafhankelijke krant van Egypte.

Sayyid Imam, opgeleid als chirurg en ook bekend onder zijn nom de guerre Dr. Fadl (Edelmoedige Doctor), is de grondlegger van de Egyptische Islamitische Jihad, een islamitische terreurbeweging die dood en verderf zaaide in de jaren tachtig en negentig. De Islamitische Jihad was verantwoordelijk voor diverse bloedige aanslagen, waaronder de moord op president Anwar Sadat in 1981 en een mislukte aanslag op president Hosni Mubarak tijdens een bezoek aan Ethiopië in 1995.

Sayyid Imam was de eerste emir, ofwel de ideoloog, geestelijk leider en commandant van de Islamitische Jihad. Zijn theoretische beschouwing met de titel Basisprincipes in de voorbereiding op jihad werd wereldwijd het handboek voor gewelddadige jihadisten en dient tot de dag van vandaag als blauwdruk voor Al-Qaeda. In de gedachtewereld van deze extremisten is iedereen, moslim of niet, die het niet met hun fundamentalistische doctrine eens is, een ongelovige en verdient daarom de dood. De geestelijk leiders claimen het gezag over ‘takfir’, ofwel excommunicatie. (more…)

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Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | To believe in a European utopia before Muslims arrived is delusional

Posted on December 23rd, 2007 by martijn.
Categories: Multiculti Issues.

Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | To believe in a European utopia before Muslims arrived is delusional

There are at least six million reasons why Dejagah would be better off not identifying with German history and culture when it comes to contemplating a visit to Israel. But, for the time being, here are just two. First, he will find a far less murderous recent history of antisemitism in his Iranian heritage than he will in his German. Second, if any nation exemplifies the limits of integration without a vigorous culture of anti-racism it is Germany – the European nation where Jews were most assimilated and almost found themselves wiped out.

The point is not to handcuff the likes of Pofalla to their history but to liberate them from self-delusion. No competition between Iran and Germany to see who has hated Jews least can produce a winner anyone can be proud of. But in Pofalla’s case it illustrates that when you live in a street full of glass houses everybody should think twice about what they throw and who they throw it at.

This is not a lesson confined to Germany. It has become a Europe-wide habit to refer to Muslims in particular and migrants in general as though they are barbarians who must either be civilised or banished, before they pollute the egalitarian societies in which they were either born or now live. Lacking all sense of humility, self-awareness and historical literacy, Europe’s political class acts as though these communities not only manifest homophobia, sexism, antisemitism, political violence and social unrest, but also as though they invented them and introduced them to an otherwise utopian continent.

0 comments.

Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | To believe in a European utopia before Muslims arrived is delusional

Posted on December 23rd, 2007 by .
Categories: Multiculti Issues.

Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | To believe in a European utopia before Muslims arrived is delusional

There are at least six million reasons why Dejagah would be better off not identifying with German history and culture when it comes to contemplating a visit to Israel. But, for the time being, here are just two. First, he will find a far less murderous recent history of antisemitism in his Iranian heritage than he will in his German. Second, if any nation exemplifies the limits of integration without a vigorous culture of anti-racism it is Germany – the European nation where Jews were most assimilated and almost found themselves wiped out.

The point is not to handcuff the likes of Pofalla to their history but to liberate them from self-delusion. No competition between Iran and Germany to see who has hated Jews least can produce a winner anyone can be proud of. But in Pofalla’s case it illustrates that when you live in a street full of glass houses everybody should think twice about what they throw and who they throw it at.

This is not a lesson confined to Germany. It has become a Europe-wide habit to refer to Muslims in particular and migrants in general as though they are barbarians who must either be civilised or banished, before they pollute the egalitarian societies in which they were either born or now live. Lacking all sense of humility, self-awareness and historical literacy, Europe’s political class acts as though these communities not only manifest homophobia, sexism, antisemitism, political violence and social unrest, but also as though they invented them and introduced them to an otherwise utopian continent.

0 comments.

Ijtema » To my Neighbour

Posted on December 23rd, 2007 by .
Categories: Multiculti Issues.

Ijtema » Blog Archive » To my Neighbour
To my Neighbour
Written by Faraz on December 17, 2007 – 12:15 am –

I don’t blame you for having a skewed image of me. Every day, it seems like there’s another story that undoubtedly affects your perception of the Muslim community. Whether it be the ridiculous response to offensive cartoons, or the nearly daily attacks that take place in our war-torn countries, it must be difficult for you not to think we’re just a little bit suspicious. The murder case here at home, which has dominated headlines this past week, certainly does not help our case.

0 comments.

SufiStication – Ayan Hirsi Ali in the NY Times: Where are the Moderate Muslims? « SufiStication

Posted on December 23rd, 2007 by .
Categories: Misc. News.

Ayan Hirsi Ali in the NY Times: Where are the Moderate Muslims? « SufiStication

Dear Ayan Hirsi Ali,

As a “moderate” Muslim I will tell you where I am.

0 comments.

Tri-City Herald: Opinions – Hannah Allam: Muslims speak out through Arab-themed T-shirts

Posted on December 22nd, 2007 by .
Categories: Arts & culture, Young Muslims, Youth culture (as a practice).

Tri-City Herald: Opinions
HANNAH ALLAM: Muslims speak out through Arab-themed T-shirts

http://www.halalapalooza.com/
http://www.rootsgear.com/
http://www.phatwafactory.com/
http://www.t-shirtat.com/
http://www.zazzle.com/
http://www.wearaloud.com/
http://www.cafepress.com/khalifaklothing
http://www.cafepress.com/muslimteez
http://casualdisobedience.com/

Published Tuesday, December 18th, 2007

— McClatchy Newspapers

CAIRO, Egypt The Christmas and Eid holidays run back-to-back this year, and it’s hard to shop for people who straddle Western and Middle Eastern cultures. While surfing the Web in hopes of finding unique gifts, I was surprised to stumble across an array of Arab-themed T-shirts whose slogans illustrate how bold Muslims have become in speaking out about their post-9-11 experience.

Once described as an “invisible minority,” Muslims in the United States and abroad can now express themselves with in-your-face T-shirts that strike at U.S. foreign policy, racial profiling, cultural stereotypes and Islamist extremism. A few years back, a friend gave me a gag gift, a T-shirt that shows a dancing mullah below the word, “FUNdamentalist.” A novelty at the time, such clothing is now widely available from online specialty stores.

Last year, an Iraqi peace activist said he was forced to remove a T-shirt printed with, “We will not be silent” before boarding a JetBlue flight to California. Activists against racial profiling drew attention to the case. A blogger who was outraged by the incident has created his own T-shirt, with “I am not a terrorist” written in Arabic. Proceeds reportedly go to the ACLU. Go to: http://casualdisobedience.com/

(more…)

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Protected: HLN: België – Terreuralarm in Brussel na ontsnappingspoging Trabelsi (111745)

Posted on December 22nd, 2007 by martijn.
Categories: International Terrorism, Religious and Political Radicalization.

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AFP: Saudis bust Islamist ring planning attack during hajj: ministry

Posted on December 21st, 2007 by .
Categories: International Terrorism.

AFP: Saudis bust Islamist ring planning attack during hajj: ministry
Saudis bust Islamist ring planning attack during hajj: ministry

RIYADH (AFP) — Security forces in Saudi Arabia, the target of Islamist attacks since 2003, arrested an Al-Qaeda linked group planning a “terrorist act” during this week’s Muslim pilgrimage, the interior ministry said on Friday.

“The authorities have arrested a group which planned to carry out a terrorist act aimed at harming security and damaging the (hajj) pilgrimage,” General Mansur al-Turqi, a ministry spokesman, told AFP.

The spokesman said the attack planned by a “deviant group”, the Saudi term for militants linked to Al-Qaeda, did not however target Islam’s holiest sites in Mecca or the pilgrims.

Earlier, the Dubai-based television Al-Arabiya said Saudi authorities arrested an Al-Qaeda linked group planning to carry out attacks during the hajj, quoting Saudi security officials.

The Saudi sources said the arrests were made in several different cities of the oil-rich kingdom.

“The group aimed to trouble the security of the pilgrimage” which has this week attracted almost 2.5 million Muslim pilgrims from around the world to Islam’s holiest sites in western Saudi Arabia, the television report said.

Members of the group, whose number was unknown, were arrested “three days before the start of the hajj season”, or at the end of last week, the sources told Al-Arabiya.

The reports emerged as the hajj was winding down on Friday.

The authorities were on high alert this year because of the participation of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the first president from the Islamic republic to take part in the hajj.

Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz said in early December that his forces had foiled “more than 180 terrorist operations” since a wave of bombings and shootings by the Saudi branch of Al-Qaeda broke out four years ago.

The conservative Muslim kingdom also said it arrested 208 suspected Al-Qaeda militants over the past few months plotting assassinations and an attack on a logistical oil facility.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil producer and exporter, announced in February 2006 that it had foiled an attempt to blow up the world’s largest oil processing plant, in Abqaiq in the Eastern Province.

The militants, who are followers of Saudi-born Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, espouse the ideology of “takfeer” — branding other Muslims as infidels in order to legitimise violence against them.

The hajj, in which every Muslim is expected to take part at least once in a lifeterm if they have the means, has been hit by a series of disasters over the years, mostly caused by stampedes or fires.

There were no major incidents reported during this year’s hajj.

However, in December 1979, 151 people were killed and 560 wounded after Saudi security forces stormed the Grand Mosque in Mecca to rescue pilgrims held hostage by Islamist militants for about two weeks.

And in July 1989, one person was killed and 16 wounded within the Grand Mosque sanctuary in a double attack blamed on 16 Kuwaiti Shiites who were executed later the same year.

Four hundred and two people were killed, including 275 Iranians, according to official Saudi figures, when security forces tried to break up an anti-US demonstration by Iranian pilgrims during the hajj in July 1987.

The last of this year’s pilgrims took part in the “stoning of Satan” ritual on Friday at Mina, east of Mecca. After throwing pebbles at pillars representing the Devil, they returned to the Grand Mosque before preparing to head home.

According to official Saudi figures, a total of 2,454,325 pilgrims from 181 nations, 1,707,814 of them from outside the Gulf state, performed this year’s pilgrimage.

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Der Spiegel – Vast majority of Muslims in Germany reject religiously motivated terrorism and violence

Posted on December 21st, 2007 by .
Categories: Religious and Political Radicalization.

New Study Shows Islamist Minority: Interior Ministry Warns of Radicalization of Muslims – International – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News

[…] the authors concluded that the vast majority of Muslims in Germany reject religiously motivated terrorism and violence: Some 92 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that terrorist acts in the name of Islam were a serious sin and an insult to Allah.

But the authors saw a potential threat in a small minority with Islamist leanings: Around 6 percent of those surveyed were classified as having “violent tendencies,” while 14 percent of respondents had “anti-democratic” tendencies.

Around 12 percent of the Muslims in Germany identified with a religious-moral critique of the West and supported corporal punishment and the death penalty. The report also concluded that religious beliefs are becoming increasingly important for young people.

The study, which was carried out by Katrin Brettfeld and Peter Wetzels from the Institute for Criminology at the University of Hamburg, was commissioned by the Interior Ministry in an attempt to finding out the extent to which the Muslim community in Germany provides a breeding ground for extremist groups and potential terrorists. The authors interviewed 1,750 Muslims living in Germany for the study. Of that number, around 40 percent had German citizenship.

[…]

[…]social anthropologist Werner Schiffauer urged caution when interpreting the results. He told the daily newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau that “anti-democratic attitudes were equally common among Muslims and Germans (sic),” adding that it could not be concluded that Islam encourages anti-democratic tendencies. Leaders of groups representing the Turkish community and Muslims in Germany also urged caution in interpreting the results.

In concluding that 6 percent of Muslims in Germany have violent tendencies, the study appears to contradict to some extent the findings of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which monitors Islamist activity in the country. According to its 2006 report, there are currently around 32,000 Islamists in Germany who pose a potential security threat. That figure represents slightly more than 1 percent of the around 3 million Muslims who live in the country.

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Beliefnet Presents 'Not My Father's Hajj' by Shahed Amanullah — Beliefnet.com

Posted on December 19th, 2007 by martijn.
Categories: Ritual and Religious Experience, Young Muslims, Youth culture (as a practice).

Beliefnet Presents ‘Not My Father’s Hajj’ by Shahed Amanullah — Beliefnet.com

During the modern hajj, the emphasis on commerce and the abundance of modern technology can be distracting. New malls with Western stores are beginning to surround the Masjid al-Haram (“the Sacred Mosque”), contrasting with the nearby bazaars and street markets that echo historic experiences (commerce itself during hajj time has not traditionally been discouraged). Mobile phone and camera use, though prohibited around the Haram, is still widespread, even by pilgrims performing the tawaf and other religious rites (Internet access, on the other hand, is not accessible to pilgrims). The Saudis have been criticized for their disregard for archeology and buildings of historic importance. Most likely, within a decade’s time, few of the buildings immediately around the Haram will be more than 30 years old.

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Beliefnet Presents ‘Not My Father’s Hajj’ by Shahed Amanullah — Beliefnet.com

Posted on December 19th, 2007 by .
Categories: Ritual and Religious Experience, Young Muslims, Youth culture (as a practice).

Beliefnet Presents ‘Not My Father’s Hajj’ by Shahed Amanullah — Beliefnet.com

During the modern hajj, the emphasis on commerce and the abundance of modern technology can be distracting. New malls with Western stores are beginning to surround the Masjid al-Haram (“the Sacred Mosque”), contrasting with the nearby bazaars and street markets that echo historic experiences (commerce itself during hajj time has not traditionally been discouraged). Mobile phone and camera use, though prohibited around the Haram, is still widespread, even by pilgrims performing the tawaf and other religious rites (Internet access, on the other hand, is not accessible to pilgrims). The Saudis have been criticized for their disregard for archeology and buildings of historic importance. Most likely, within a decade’s time, few of the buildings immediately around the Haram will be more than 30 years old.

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Press praise, blogger anger over Saudi rape girl pardon – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

Posted on December 19th, 2007 by .
Categories: Misc. News.

Press praise, blogger anger over Saudi rape girl pardon – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

“It is a victory for justice… and for the defense of human rights and an affirmation of female dignity.”

Several newspapers gave prominent coverage to comments by the victim’s husband hailing the “noble gesture” of the king.

The Saudi edition of the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat quoted the rape victim herself as saying she was “unable to find the words to thank the father of the people.”

But reaction on Internet websites dedicated to carrying uncensored commentary on the kingdom’s affairs was far more critical.

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AKI – Adnkronos international Egypt: Women of the Muslim Brotherhood rebel

Posted on December 19th, 2007 by .
Categories: Religious Movements.

AKI – Adnkronos international Egypt: Women of the Muslim Brotherhood rebel
Cairo, 18 Dec. (AKI) – Women are raising their voices for the first time in the history of one of the most important political movements in the Islamic world, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.

A group of women from the movement has appealed for the right to run for office as members of the movement’s council, “to resolve the internal problems of the organisation, play a more important role and participate in political life so that they can be elected to the general leadership”.

This request has been written and published on the Internet site of the Muslim Brotherhood, an international Sunni movement considered one of the world’s most influential Islamist groups.

In the missive, addressed to the leader of the movement, Muhammad Mahdi Akif, the women complain of being obstructed while their meetings are considered “meetings of housewives in which they only speak about their children and their vegetables.”

It’s the first time women have made such an appeal since the movement was established in 1928.

The Brotherhood’s general leadership has asked to meet one of these Islamic leaders, Risha Ahmad, who teaches in the faculty of medicine at an Egyptian university.

“Dear father, I am one of the thousands of your daughters and sisters that appeals to you to do us the honour to be a part of this organisation,” says the teacher. ” I am 35 years old. We know the problems that interest the movement and we have also put forward some proposals without, however, receiving a response.

“Then I wonder, perhaps Allah has not spoken to women in the same way he has spoken to men? Then inside our organisation why are there some things for men and some things for women?

“I realise that there are some things that only women can do but I don’t think that it is fair that they are happening now.”

Risha complains that women in the Brotherhood can only take part in the work of certain committees, while others are banned from politics or involved in communication, although members of the movement specialise in these areas.

Actually, this letter was sent in a private form to Akif some time ago, through internal channels of the movement, but the young Islamic activist did not receive a response.

After trying to make contact several times with the leader of the movement, she decided to go public posting the document on the website of the brotherhood.

It is not, however, an isolated protest. Other women have taken a courageous position and put their requests on the same website calling for internal reform sought by women inside the movement.

The Muslim Brotherhood is the largest political opposition organisation in many Arab nations, particularly Egypt. Founded by the Sufi schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928, several linked groups have since formed across many nations of the Muslim world.

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Geenstijl.nl – Hiep hiep HOERA voor WC Eend!

Posted on December 15th, 2007 by .
Categories: Deep in the woods....

Een tijd geleden te lezen op Geenstijl.nl:

Geenstijl.nl – Hiep hiep HOERA voor WC Eend!
Mogen wij u hartelijk danken voor het eens te meer aantonen dat internet-verkiezingen volstrekt ridicuul en onbetrouwbaar zijn

En daar hebben ze natuurlijk gelijk in. Geenstijl heeft dat zelf door diverse manipulaties overvloedig aangetoond. Daar zijn ze, met gebrek aan andere wapenfeiten, erg trots op en daarom is het ook zo opmerkelijk dat ze de verkiezingen van politicus van het jaar aangegrepen hebben om manipulaties aan de kant van christelijke jongeren aan de kaak te stellen. Geenstijl.nl noemt dat poll-fraude en eiste dat de hele top 5 eruit gehaald zou worden en dit terwijl men bij eerdere eigen manipulaties toch wel eiste dat de uitslag gerespecteerd zou worden.

Nu heeft uiteindelijk Geert Wilders de verkiezing gewonnen en deels begrijpelijk is dat wel gezien zijn vermogen het politieke debat te beheersen en zelfs ten dele de agenda te bepalen (los wat je er verder van ook mogen vinden). Daar is men bij Geenstijl.nl wel blij mee. Dat er, mede naar aanleiding van de berichtgeving op Geenstijl.nl, ook vanuit de hoek van Geert Wilders aanhangers opgeroepen om allemaal op Geert Wilders te stemmen en de stemming de manipuleren, maakt dan schijnbaar ineens niet zo veel uit. Geenstijl.nl zet zich hier toch wel lelijk te kijk als een stel hypocriete moraalridders.

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