Khalid Yasin on Tour in the Netherlands

Posted on March 23rd, 2009 by martijn.
Categories: ISIM/RU Research, Young Muslims.

Khalid Yasin is in the Netherlands again. I attended two earlier meetings with him. His style can be seen as a combination of Malcolm X (in his later days), Evangelical preachers and Salafi preachers. He is also a controversial figure as a quick scan on several websites such as Salafi Burnout (here and here) and SheikhYermami.com, tells us. These allegations may or may not be true, I have been to his lectures now two times (and plan to go more often) and his style is certainly not apologetic it is more like confrontational. Most damaging I think for his reputation to non-Muslims was the Channel 4 documentary Undercover Mosque (part two) You can find a transcript of the first documentary here, with the following quotes:

Yasin: We don’t need to go to the Christians or the Jews debating with them about the filth which they believe. We Muslims have been ordered to do brainwashing because the kuffaar they are doing brain defiling. You are watching the kaffir TV and your wife is watching it right now and your children are watching it and they are being polluted andthey are being penetrated and they are being infected, so that you come out of the houseand your children come out of the house as Muslims and come back as kaffirs

Sh Yasin: This whole delusion of the equality of women is a bunch of foolishness….
There’s no such thing

Yasin: Missionaries from the World Health Organisation and Christian groups went into Africa and inoculated people for diphtheria, malaria, yellow fever and they put in the medicine the AIDS virus, which is a conspiracy

The second documentary shows footage of a DVD in which Yasin states:

At least I say, we Muslims should have that kind of power all over the world.

And about Shari’a in Saudi Arabia:

and then people can see, people without hands, people can see in public heads rolling down the street, people can see in public people got their hands and feet from opposite sides chopped off and they see them crucified, they see people get punished they see people put up against the pole ?.. and because they see it, it acts as a deterrent for them because they say I don’t want that to happen to me.

The problem I must say with these quotes is that they are completely taken out of context. Viewing the DVD’s from which these quotes are taken, do lead to a better understanding of where his convictions come from (which doesn’t mean you have to agree with him and you still may find at the way he states it offensive).  You can obtain the videos that feature in the documentary at his website: Changing the world through Da’wah, Some Advice to the Muslim Woman and from another website also Jihad or Terrorism? and(from part two) Building a Muslim Community. Read also Yasin’s response to Channel 4.The following is an excerpt:

Your allegations of my statements on a DVD, titled “Building a Muslim Community”, and I must say allegations, because, in every lecture, writing, or communication of any kind, there is something called the “context”, which can only be appreciated when someone objectively, sincerely, and intellectually, forms an opinion, after making a comprehensive and thorough examination.

I want to remind you, that capital punishment, including, but limited to: decapitation, lethal injection, firing squad, gas chamber, electrocution, and hanging by the neck, has been, and is still resorted to by Governments and States throughout the modern world as both a punishment and a deterrent for criminal behavior in the society. It is not a practice limited to Muslim countries, whether past or present.

Whatever statements I made in that lecture was aimed at reforming the Muslim people, the Muslim society, and the Muslim world, to know that Islam is not merely a system of religious rituals and theological observances, but is a comprehensive system of Law and Justice, legislated by Almighty
God, and adjudicated by the Sovereign Islamic State, when there exists such a state.

Due to historically documented conspiracies between criminal Muslim States and the immoral empirical ambitions of countries like Great Britain (as the United Kingdom was referred to at that time) and the United States of America, the legitimate ambition to have and sustain a Sovereign Islamic State in the world, has been almost completely annihilated and in most Muslim countries today, criminalized.

If you call yourselves educating and alarming the UK society about radical, Saudi-based intolerance and extremism, why are you using my alleged words “to Muslims”, “about Muslims” and the reformation and development of their countries and societies, to make your bastardized point? I have visited Saudi Arabia for Hajj and Umrah, and yes, I have learned some Arabic there, but does that make me a purveyor of what you characterize for your illicit media purposes as a “Saudi – based theology based upon intolerance, separatism, and extremism?

Suppose you or some other “good Christian visited Ireland, and studied their language, would that itself an indictment of your support for what used to be at one time, the very criminal, intolerant, separatist, and extremist Irish Republican Army? Of couse not! So why the double and blatantly hypocritical standards? I am not, and have never been a supporter or a promoter of Saudi Arabian government policy or religious rhetoric, and most objective intellectuals in the world of multi-media would know that, except you and your ignorant Islamophobic colleagues.

As for the alleged promise of the bookstore in the Islamic Cultural Centre at the Regents Park Mosque, to stop selling my DVD’s based upon your now very infamous “Dispatches Series”, titled: “Undercover Mosques”, if they made such a promise,(which I have no evidence that they did) that would have been very shameful, cowardly, unIslamic, and unconstitutional!

Firstly, because that bookstore is privately owned, and secondly, because it is the constitutional right of every person in a free and democratic society like the United Kingdom, to express any view they wish, so long as it is not politically seditious, inciting hatred, promoting violence, maligning or attacking any lifestyle or religion, or seeking to commit or conspire to commit, any act of terrorism. I can say without the leastreservation – I have never, and will never knowingly support or advocate any such behavior!

For more and other views of Undercover Mosque see Indigo Jo, Yahya Birt, Eteraz, Austrolabe, Peace Bruv, Central Ohioans against Terrorism and Pickled Politics.

In the previous Dutch lectures Yasins message was calling Muslims to return to Islam, set a positive example and have an active (or even activist) attitude and at the same time conservative about particular values in society. He has a broad following (certainly not only people one would call ‘salafi’ – whatever that label means nowadays) and a broad international network of volunteers (that includes a few Dutch Muslims). You can find his website on Challenge your soul.

Netwerk, a program on Dutch television did an interview with him earlier this evening.
[flashvideo filename=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gROk2sg6Ww0 /]

You can watch the whole program here, but also on my Youtube channel (only the part with Yasin). In general I don’t think the program is bad, but there is an error in translating 6’15” (youtube video). When Yasin says: ‘As a Muslim you have the right to say: Islam is a better way” the latter part is translated as ‘Islam is superieur’ (Islam is superior).

NOTE: Subtitles is not something Netwerk is directly responsible for. Such tasks are usually, as the case is here, done by external companies.

19 comments.

Ramadan vs. Gay Krant

Posted on March 23rd, 2009 by martijn.
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Internal Debates, Public Islam.

Tariq Ramadan is a guest professor in Rotterdam. I met him once, an intelligent, eloquent man. He has been accused numerous times and since ages, probably since he was born as the grand child of Hassan al Banna, of being insincere. On the one hand showing a ‘moderate’ and ‘liberal’ face towards non-Muslims while secretly having radical views and expressing these in a closed circle of Muslims. The latter face then would be his real, true face, the other just a mask. In the Netherlands this debate has resurfaced again after a gay magazine announced to ‘expose’ him.

GK.nl

In the texts on the cassettetapes Tariq Ramadan without hesitation says that ‘homosexual behaviour is a sign of an affection, a disorder and an unpoisedness.’ Many of his statements are written in the book Frère Tariq of Caroline Fourest. Ramadan denounces Fourest as a feminist lesbienne who cannot be taken serious. Al his tatements however can be found on cassettetapes meant for the Islamic constituency of the professor. Gay Krant listened to these tapes, wrote down the literal texts, and talked about it with former policitian Frits Bolkestein and writer Caroline Fourest.

The translation is mine, and also the links included in the quote.
The Gay Krant shows the controversial quotes:
GK.nl

On cassette QA 38 (timer 33:10) Ramadam says: “Dieu a voulu un norme et ce norme est “l’homme pour la femme et la femme pour l’homme” (timer 33:32) “Le message de l’islam de ce point de vue là est clair. ça n’est pas permis, ça c’est pas quelque chose qui entre dans la conception générale de l’homme.” En een paar secondes later : “L’homosexualité n’est pas quelque chose qu’on considère admis en islam”. And: “Ce comportement révèle une perturbation, un dysfunctionnement, un déséquilibre.”

On cassette QA 37 (timer 15:05) Ramadan says about women: “….dans la rue, mesure veut dire, on doit toujours avoir les yeux collés au béton.”

And on cassette QA 5 (timer 41:36) “Il y a un principe devant dieu. Si tu cherches á attirer le regard par les formes, ou par le parfum, ou par l’apparence, ou par les gestes, tu n’es pas dans le cheminement de la spiritualité.”

Ramadan gave the following reaction in a press statement:
AD mobiel – 24 uur per dag actueel nieuws

Over twenty years as an expert in Islam, I am involved in discussions and debates about women and gays in Islam. I have always defended the rights of women and I have never judged about gays regardless of my audience (Muslims, non-Muslims) and regardless the language (English, French, Arabic), or the location. The article consists of quotes that have been cut, twisted or are simply not correct. This is not to be taken seriously and is unacceptable.

Ramadan recommends everyone to read his views on his websites www.tariqramadan.com and www.vert-islam.com. The conservative liberals of VVD Rotterdam are fed up with him now (but felt that way already). The municipality of Rotterdam (that funds his chair at Erasmus University) has announced an inquiry.

Bolkestein was probably consulted because of a debate he had with Ramadan earlier. Bolkestein then referred to Fourests book but, as Ramadan at the time rightly argued, without reading the actual book. Story will continue probably. One thing I would like to know, what is the exact context of the statements, according to Gay Krant, made by Ramadan? What is the full text of his speech, when did he deliver the speech and where?

2 comments.