C L O S E R

Protected: nu.nl/algemeen | Europese imams voor democratie en vrijheden

Posted on April 9th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Internal Debates, Multiculti Issues.

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CNN.com – Islamic preacher ripped for reform push

Posted on April 4th, 2006 by .
Categories: Internal Debates.

CNN.com – Islamic preacher ripped for reform push – Mar 20, 2006
Islamic preacher ripped for reform push
Popular Egyptian televangelist tries to bridge Islam and West

Islamic televangelist Amr Khaled is young, smiling, teaches love and mercy and is so popular he’s credited with inspiring thousands of women — turned off by dour, traditional clerics — to take on the veil. Now he’s putting his popularity on the line by trying a new role, as a bridge between Islam and the West at a time when many are talking about a clash of civilizations. In the process, Khaled is sometimes telling the faithful what they’re not used to hearing from clerics — that Muslims aren’t blameless in tensions, that the West is not always bad and that dialogue is better than confrontation. “A young Muslim goes to Europe with a forged visa, takes unemployment insurance there, then goes on TV and says, ‘We’re going to expel you from Britain, take your land, money and women,'” Khaled said recently on his weekly program on the Saudi satellite TV channel Iqraa, trying to explain mistrust of Muslims in Europe. “It’s a rare example but it exists.” The 38-year-old Egyptian raised a storm of controversy when he attended a March 9 dialogue conference of European and Muslim leaders in Copenhagen — the capital of Denmark, which has been the focus of anger across the Islamic world over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed first published in a Danish paper. Some in the Arab world saw his attendance as a surrender and branded him a traitor and an opportunist. This week, Khaled is headed to a gathering of Islamic clerics in Bahrain that begins Wednesday, aimed at considering the next step in the response to the prophet cartoons. The conference is organized by one of Khaled’s most vocal critics, hard-line Sheik Youssef el-Qaradawi. Many Muslims saw the caricatures — which depicted their beloved prophet as violent and backward — as an intentional insult and reacted with a wave of protests. In the West, the outrage was seen as an attack on freedom of speech and only deepened anti-Muslim sentiment. For Khaled, the controversy underlined what he has seen as a need for a new approach by Muslims, one of reform and dialogue with the rest of the world. “For the past three years, with youth across the Islamic world, we’ve been working for a faith-based renaissance in this region, which will not take place by clashes but by coexistence,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press in Cairo. (more…)

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Protected: Brabants Dagblad – Het kronkelpad van een rekkelijke moslim

Posted on March 25th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Internal Debates.

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For Muslim Who Says Violence Destroys Islam, Violent Threats – New York Times

Posted on March 11th, 2006 by .
Categories: Internal Debates, International Terrorism.

For Muslim Who Says Violence Destroys Islam, Violent Threats – New York Times
She said the world’s Muslims, whom she compares unfavorably with the Jews, have descended into a vortex of self-pity and violence.

Dr. Sultan said the world was not witnessing a clash of religions or cultures, but a battle between modernity and barbarism, a battle that the forces of violent, reactionary Islam are destined to lose.

In response, clerics throughout the Muslim world have condemned her, and her telephone answering machine has filled with dark threats. But Islamic reformers have praised her for saying out loud, in Arabic and on the most widely seen television network in the Arab world, what few Muslims dare to say even in private.

“I believe our people are hostages to our own beliefs and teachings,” she said in an interview this week in her home in a Los Angeles suburb.

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Protected: Trouw, hetNieuws| nederland – Mohammed B.: imam is vervloekt

Posted on February 3rd, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Internal Debates, Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues.

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Protected: Trouw, hetNieuws| nederland – Mohammed B.: imam is vervloekt

Posted on February 3rd, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Internal Debates, Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues.

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On Holocaust Exploiters, Deniers, & Heroes – altmuslim.com

Posted on January 29th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Internal Debates.

On Holocaust Exploiters, Deniers, & Heroes – altmuslim.com

For it’s Holocaust Memorial Day 2006. Mas’ood Cajee reflects on the politics of memory and why Muslims should represent the best of Islamic tradition and spirit. A story on altmuslim.com,

Six decades on since the slaughter of World War II and the Nazi holocaust, we hear extremist voices alternately exploiting or denying the Holocaust for political gain. By warping our memory of the Shoah (the Hebrew word for the Holocaust), both exploiters and deniers miss the stark, vital message of the Holocaust and its heroes – those who displayed uncommon moral courage in the face of evil.

Holocaust exploiters

A growing chorus of voices which exploits the Holocaust for political gain has been trying to smear Muslims – and Arabs in particular – with grand accusations of complicity in the Holocaust and support for the Nazis. These voices serve hawkish interests in Israel and the United States who wish to justify and legitimize continued war, violence, and yes – even genocide – against Muslims and Arabs. Identifying Muslims with and as Nazis eases the task of selling continued bloodshed to war-weary publics. Reading the books and op-eds of the smearers, one could almost conclude absurdly that the Nazi holocaust was an Arab Muslim and not a European Christian project. As evidence, the smearers usually trot out the pro-German Mufti of Jerusalem Amin Al-Husayni and the Bosnian Muslim SS “Handschar” division.
(more…)

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On Holocaust Exploiters, Deniers, & Heroes – altmuslim.com

Posted on January 29th, 2006 by .
Categories: Internal Debates.

On Holocaust Exploiters, Deniers, & Heroes – altmuslim.com

For it’s Holocaust Memorial Day 2006. Mas’ood Cajee reflects on the politics of memory and why Muslims should represent the best of Islamic tradition and spirit. A story on altmuslim.com,

Six decades on since the slaughter of World War II and the Nazi holocaust, we hear extremist voices alternately exploiting or denying the Holocaust for political gain. By warping our memory of the Shoah (the Hebrew word for the Holocaust), both exploiters and deniers miss the stark, vital message of the Holocaust and its heroes – those who displayed uncommon moral courage in the face of evil.

Holocaust exploiters

A growing chorus of voices which exploits the Holocaust for political gain has been trying to smear Muslims – and Arabs in particular – with grand accusations of complicity in the Holocaust and support for the Nazis. These voices serve hawkish interests in Israel and the United States who wish to justify and legitimize continued war, violence, and yes – even genocide – against Muslims and Arabs. Identifying Muslims with and as Nazis eases the task of selling continued bloodshed to war-weary publics. Reading the books and op-eds of the smearers, one could almost conclude absurdly that the Nazi holocaust was an Arab Muslim and not a European Christian project. As evidence, the smearers usually trot out the pro-German Mufti of Jerusalem Amin Al-Husayni and the Bosnian Muslim SS “Handschar” division.
(more…)

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Muslim WakeUp! A Mountain Out of a Molehill Over Danish Cartoons

Posted on January 29th, 2006 by .
Categories: Internal Debates.

On Muslim WakeUp! also a discussion about the cartoons in Denmark. Here one of the articles by Mona Eltahawy

Muslim WakeUp! A Mountain Out of a Molehill Over Danish Cartoons

By Mona Eltahawy

Can we finally admit that Muslims have blown out of all proportion their outrage over 12 cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad published in a Danish newspaper last September?

In the latest twist, both the Organization for the Islamic Conference and the Gulf Cooperation Council condemned a Norwegian newspaper for reprinting the drawings – a decision the publication defended as protecting freedom of expression. Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador from Denmark for “consultations” and Iraqis called in sermons and demonstrations for an investigation into the Danish and Norwegian publications that published the cartoons.

The initial printing of the cartoons in Denmark led to death threats being issued against the artists, demonstrations in Kashmir, and condemnation from 11 countries. What did any of this achieve but prove the original point of the newspaper’s culture editor, that artists in Europe were censoring themselves because they feared Muslim reaction? He commissioned the cartoons after hearing that Danish artists were too scared to illustrate a children’s book about the prophet.
continued-below-300.gif

While one cartoon was particularly offensive because it showed the prophet as wearing a turban with a bomb attached to it, a great deal of the anger had to do with the mere depiction of the prophet. Muslims seem to forget that just because they are prohibited from representing the prophet in any way, this does not apply to everybody else. Even with regards to the egregious cartoon showing the prophet with a bomb, Muslim reaction was exaggerated. This should have remained an internal Danish issue. Muslim groups in Denmark have been pursuing a legal course and have vowed to appeal a prosecutor’s refusal to file charges against the newspaper.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen was right not to intervene, insisting the government has no say over media – the argument used by Arab leaders when they are asked about anti-Semitism in their media, by the way. But in a New Year’s speech, Rasmussen condemned “any expression, action or indication that attempts to demonize groups of people on the basis of their religion or ethnic background.”

12 comments.

Muslim WakeUp! Why I am (not) a progressive Muslim

Posted on January 29th, 2006 by .
Categories: Internal Debates.

Is it important to be progressive Muslim. On Muslim WakeUp! a discussion.

Why I’m A Progressive Muslim Some arguments:

7. My penis. As the owner of a penis I can assure those without one that my penis confers no significant religious insight upon me its owner. Nil. Nada. I will go out on a limb and assume that my penis is somewhat similar in thinking ability to others’. I extrapolate from that similarity that a woman leading a prayer is perfectly fine since a penis cannot think.

10. Big words like patriarchy, misogyny, hegemonic power. Because thankfully progressive Muslims don’t need any of them to get their point across. Sure they could bore you with talk of the need to create a counter discourse to the received orthodoxy inherent within the socio-, political economy of the faith as constructed and understood both subjectively and implicitly; that this has been and continues to be based on certain constraints that are arguably social and not religious in the strictest sense; that their enterprise is merely an attempt to marry Islam as praxis to external experience so as to negate the disconnect between the temporal and spiritual, and that such an endeavor presupposes a certain dynamism that runs counter to the current orthodoxy. But who in the world would want to listen to that?

Or Why I am not a progressive Muslim, some arguments:

16. Labels suck. They don’t do us complex humans justice. (And you’ll note that I use them anyway, just like you do, so shuttup.)

And the Number One reason I am not a progressive Muslim: I don’t want my teenaged kids hanging out with them if that leads to their thinking that all the openness-postmodern-fluidity yadda-yadda means I will budge on our family’s no-dating rule. And no premarital sex, ibni, binti! No judgment implied on any readers—you folks do what you deem right in your life path, your decisions are between you and God, I will defend your right to privacy. I know this issue is not as black-and-white as the conservatives make it, that abstaining from or engaging in sex outside sanctioned relationships is not the isolated standard by which purity of heart is discernible (by God, in any case, not by us), and that honor is an internal quality known to God, not a quality indicated by, say, an intact hymen. So I won’t shake my holier-than-thou finger at you, and I won’t tell you how to raise your kids. Me, I’d rather hang with Mormons and Baptists on this issue. Until my kids—male and female—are, like, at least thirty. Yeah, you heard me. Same person from the Sex and the Ummah column. This will come as absolutely no surprise to anyone who knows me, or has read me carefully, as opposed to alarmists and cheerleaders. Just because a person writes openly about sex and respects discourse from differing opinions about it, doesn’t imply she advocates in her personal life all the practices described in the writing (the imbeciles who believe that it does know who they are). And just because the damn conservatives believe in this principle (no premarital sex) for all the wrong, anti-feminist reasons, guess what progressives, doesn’t make it automatically wrong. It’s right in my book, on entirely other, spiritual-ethical grounds.

And you can discuss it further on their forum.

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Times Online – Gay, Muslim and trying to come out of the closet

Posted on January 11th, 2006 by .
Categories: Internal Debates, Multiculti Issues.

Britain, Gay, Muslim and trying to come out of the closet – Times Online

By Ben Hoyle

The conservative mainstream is forcing Islamic homosexuals into sham marriage and a secret sex life

THE marriage proposal described the prospective groom as a successful and devout second-generation British Pakistani who would pride himself on showing duty and kindness to his new family.

But it was the finer details of “Muslim Man’s” offer, recently posted in an internet chatroom, that might concern his future in-laws and lead them to see their own daughter in a new light. “I am looking for a bi- Muslim woman,” he wrote. “Someone who aspires to stability whether that is as husband and wife, or as husband, wife and same-sex partners.”

In the week that Sir Iqbal Sacranie, Britain’s most senior Muslim figure, described homosexuality as a harmful, immoral vehicle for spreading disease, the internet remains the only place where many gay or bisexual Muslims can truly be themselves.

Sir Iqbal is regarded as a moderate and his comments were the latest in a long line of similar statements from mainstream Islamic leaders.

These have in turn provoked outbursts of Islamophobia from sections of the gay community, with some activists at the Gay Pride parade last year berating Muslim marchers as “suicide bombers” and a gay magazine categorising Islam as a “barmy doctrine”.

Trapped in the crossfire, the vast majority of gay, lesbian and bisexual British Muslims live secret double lives or never acknowledge their feelings.

The Times contacted members of this underground community this week. Their testimony reveals a world where thousands of lives have been wrecked by sham marriages, elaborate deceptions, unacknowledged HIV and crippling loneliness.
(more…)

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Protected: AD.nl – ‘Internet-imams gevaarlijk’

Posted on January 10th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Internal Debates, Religious and Political Radicalization, Young Muslims.

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Protected: AD.nl – 'Internet-imams gevaarlijk'

Posted on January 10th, 2006 by martijn.
Categories: Internal Debates, Religious and Political Radicalization, Young Muslims.

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Uitgeverij Bulaaq – Islam en moslims in Europa

Posted on January 6th, 2006 by .
Categories: Internal Debates.

Uitgeverij Bulaaq

Vrijdag 20 januari 2006
debatteren Tariq Ramadan en Dyab Abou Jahjah met elkaar over

Islam en moslims in Europa
visies voor een harmonieuze aanwezigheid

Abou Jahjah is de voorman van de Arabisch Europese Liga (AEL) in België. Hij is tegen integratie als die leidt tot assimilatie, en voor gelijkberechtiging en de multiculturele samenleving. Buiten de wet zouden er geen eisen gesteld mogen worden aan het burgerschap, meent hij.

Tariq Ramadan combineert de islamitische leer met ideeën van westerse filosofen als Nietzsche en het gedachtegoed van neo-Marxisten en andersglobalisten. Hij pleit voor een Europese islam: democratisch, rechtvaardig en gestoeld op religieuze fundamenten van de islam.

Plaats: De aula van de Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, Woudestein
Datum: 20 januari 2006
Tijd: 19.30 uur
Entree: 5 euro
Reserveren: info@eurabia.nl
(Ophalen op 20 januari tussen 18.00 en 19.00 uur)

Dit debat is georganiseerd door:
De Nieuwe Horizon, platform voor debat en dialoog, verbonden aan Vereniging Ettaouhid i.s.m. studentenvereniging Eurabia

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MGGPillai.com :: [AFP] Malaysian woman’s lonely campaign for religious freedom

Posted on December 29th, 2005 by .
Categories: Internal Debates.

MGGPillai.com :: [AFP] Malaysian woman’s lonely campaign for religious freedom

In some countries leaving Islam can cause great problems. When there are two systems of law (civil and shari’a) you are caught in between because no one dares to interfere, like in this case in Malaysia. That makes this an interesting case to follow, also because the religious convictions of the woman concerned are worthwile noting. The gender issue is probably also important, but the author of the article does not elaborate on that.

Agence France-Presse news agency
28 December 2005

ASIAN LIVES: Malaysian woman’s lonely campaign for religious freedom

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 28 (AFP) – No one will give Kamariah Ali a job, relatives and one-time friends shun her, and much of her time is spent in the law courts — all because she no longer wants to be a Muslim.
“People look down on me because I renounced Islam. But people don’t understand. Actually, religion belongs to God and you can access God in any way, not necessarily through Islam,” says the soft-spoken 54- year-old.
(more…)

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MGGPillai.com :: [AFP] Malaysian woman's lonely campaign for religious freedom

Posted on December 29th, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Internal Debates.

MGGPillai.com :: [AFP] Malaysian woman’s lonely campaign for religious freedom

In some countries leaving Islam can cause great problems. When there are two systems of law (civil and shari’a) you are caught in between because no one dares to interfere, like in this case in Malaysia. That makes this an interesting case to follow, also because the religious convictions of the woman concerned are worthwile noting. The gender issue is probably also important, but the author of the article does not elaborate on that.

Agence France-Presse news agency
28 December 2005

ASIAN LIVES: Malaysian woman’s lonely campaign for religious freedom

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 28 (AFP) – No one will give Kamariah Ali a job, relatives and one-time friends shun her, and much of her time is spent in the law courts — all because she no longer wants to be a Muslim.
“People look down on me because I renounced Islam. But people don’t understand. Actually, religion belongs to God and you can access God in any way, not necessarily through Islam,” says the soft-spoken 54- year-old.
(more…)

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Chron.com | Factions battle for the soul of Islam

Posted on December 29th, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Internal Debates.

Chron.com | Factions battle for the soul of Islam

•Moderates and militants exchange proclamations in war of the fatwas

By BRIAN MURPHY – Associated Press

ATHENS, GREECE – It’s becoming known as the war of the fatwas: the dizzying exchange of proclamations between Islamic moderates and militants on what it means to be Muslim. The duels have been waged in pamphlets and in cyberspace.

Now some Muslim leaders seek to shift tactics. Their hope rests in one of Islam’s most elemental questions: Who has the real authority to make religious rulings and other interpretations of the faith?

Proposals to sharply control the issuing of fatwas — the nonbinding edicts on Muslim life, law and duties — are still little more than loose concepts and would require potentially stormy challenges to Islam’s decentralized leadership.

But there are some influential backers such as Jordan’s King Abdullah II. They argue that bold changes are needed in Islam’s hierarchy to isolate radical clerics and discredit terrorist leaders.

Abdullah, who brought his anti-terrorist message to Athens last week, has appealed for moderate Muslims to take decisive control of fatwas and religious guidance. In early December, Abdullah told the 56-member Organization of the Islamic Conference that failure to establish a clear framework to interpret Islam leaves the door open for radicals.

The summit in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, wrapped up with a statement reinforcing that only “those who are authorized” can issue fatwas.

But now there’s the Internet and other ways to spread messages to mass audiences.

One of the most infamous salvos was the 1998 “fatwa” by Osama bin Laden and followers that called on Muslims to “kill the Americans and their allies.”

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Chron.com | Factions battle for the soul of Islam

Posted on December 29th, 2005 by .
Categories: Internal Debates.

Chron.com | Factions battle for the soul of Islam

•Moderates and militants exchange proclamations in war of the fatwas

By BRIAN MURPHY – Associated Press

ATHENS, GREECE – It’s becoming known as the war of the fatwas: the dizzying exchange of proclamations between Islamic moderates and militants on what it means to be Muslim. The duels have been waged in pamphlets and in cyberspace.

Now some Muslim leaders seek to shift tactics. Their hope rests in one of Islam’s most elemental questions: Who has the real authority to make religious rulings and other interpretations of the faith?

Proposals to sharply control the issuing of fatwas — the nonbinding edicts on Muslim life, law and duties — are still little more than loose concepts and would require potentially stormy challenges to Islam’s decentralized leadership.

But there are some influential backers such as Jordan’s King Abdullah II. They argue that bold changes are needed in Islam’s hierarchy to isolate radical clerics and discredit terrorist leaders.

Abdullah, who brought his anti-terrorist message to Athens last week, has appealed for moderate Muslims to take decisive control of fatwas and religious guidance. In early December, Abdullah told the 56-member Organization of the Islamic Conference that failure to establish a clear framework to interpret Islam leaves the door open for radicals.

The summit in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, wrapped up with a statement reinforcing that only “those who are authorized” can issue fatwas.

But now there’s the Internet and other ways to spread messages to mass audiences.

One of the most infamous salvos was the 1998 “fatwa” by Osama bin Laden and followers that called on Muslims to “kill the Americans and their allies.”

0 comments.

Pickled Politics » Women in Islam – veils of the mind

Posted on December 22nd, 2005 by .
Categories: Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Internal Debates.

Saw the item on Gary Bunt’s Virtuallyislamic: Pickled Politics » Women in Islam – veils of the mind
Women in Islam – veils of the mind

While Imams tainted the message of Islam and used it for their own diverted interests, West carved it’s own picture of Muslim women.

For them, we are one of those sad creatures, whose husbands go and marry four times. Who carries her ugly existence under heavy drapes of veil and lives a life determined by men. The moment the image of veils comes, suddenly western world puts all in question in one pre-determined bracket.

But is it a true picture? But the women I know, even under the veil are not such typecasts.

My sister writes from Saudi Arab: “Have you ever wondered why all the western designers flock to Saudia? I have yet to meet a Saudi woman who does not know how to carry her Gucci or Versaci under her veil.

“An average westerner can hardly afford new designer underwear every day, but the rich Shiekh’s daughters, wives and sisters change them three times a day. Veils can be very misleading.”

Still, Muslim women are feeling like pawns in a political game: jihadists portray them as ignorant lambs who need to be protected from outside forces, while the United States considers them helpless victims of a backward society to be saved through military intervention. “Our empowerment is being exploited by men,” says Palestinian Muslim Rima Barakat. “It’s a policy of hiding behind the skirts of women. It’s dishonorable no matter who’s doing it.”

And these misinterpretations and misrepresentations of women are practiced every day.

What I find excruciating is plain and blatant assumption by everyone and anyone determined by the way someone dresses.

A person who forces a veil on a woman is no less evil than the one who orders her to take it off. The balance is achieved only when you give the woman the choice.

The way a blonde is not always stupid; a woman in veil is also not always an oppressed woman. I have met brilliant, smart and empowering women who do live in these veils, and I have also met some stupid ones. The problem is not in the veil, it’s in the prejudice!

Oppression does not come from what you wear; it comes from social attitudes and norms. Isn’t it time we got out of these centuries old, long obsolete attitudes?

See also the discussion at that blog.

0 comments.

Black information Link: Islam blasted by gay Muslim peer

Posted on November 26th, 2005 by .
Categories: Internal Debates.

Black information Link: Islam blasted by gay Muslim peer

On Blink an article about Waheed Alli, the first openly gay MP and Muslim

NEW LABOUR PEER Waheed Alli has attacked Islam claiming the Quran is riddled with contradictions and the religion dominated by rituals.

In remarks which will infuriate Muslim leaders the openly-gay Lord Alli accused clerics of being “intellectually lazy” and called for a “radical democratisation of Islam.”

One Muslim figure who witnessed Lord Alli’s speech reacted: “I’m angry, I think he’s got it wrong”.

The normally low profile peer waded into the religion in a lecture called ‘Islam the Third Way’ at the Canadian Embassy on Monday night.

Lord Alli – who has previously never spoken out on Islam – attacked “Muslim reluctance to tackle the contradictions in Islam.”

Referring to the community’s response to the London terror attacks, Lord Alli issued a stark warning. “Verbal condemnation is not enough. We can no longer be intellectually lazy”.

values

Lord Alli argued that Muslims must try and understand Islam better and Islam must be reconciled with the modern world, saying: “ritual has overtaken religion”, adding that 7th century values do not fit 20th century life.

“The problem lies in the Quran itself”, he said. “There are contradictions in Quran; we have to stop avoiding them. If you find the Hadith literally, you can kill and maim as many people you can.

“If you use Quran as literal text, you can stone a woman who has been raped and in Iran, two boys were hung up for being gay”.

Lord Alli, a friend of Euro trade commissioner Peter Mandleson, said that Sharia law could be a powerful defence in balancing the rights of individuals against the rights of the state.

lambasted

“In a Muslim country, I as a gay man, should be able to go to Sharia law for protection, Sharia law should be a source of protection not oppression”

He called Muslims to follow “the third way” which he said was the democratisation of Islam. “We have to take individual responsibility for action, collective responsibility for our religion.

“We are today at a crossroads – modern values in Islam against orthodox values in Islam, this century will be defined by this conflict – conflict of values”

Green Party MEP Jean Lambert found his speech a useful contribution and called for Alli to speak on campuses where many tensions lie. “I think he was good, and he should go and speak to the younger people at the universities”.

However there was some scepticism from the Muslims in the audience. A young hijab-wearing student lambasted Alli for misreading the Quran and argued that Islam guaranteed rights for women.

A Labour politician said privately before the event, “I have great respect for his work in every other area, but I don’t understand why he has chosen to get involved in this debate”.

Voted the most powerful Asian in the media in 2005, Lord Alli first came to prominence in the media through his TV production company Planet 24.

Lord Alli, was given a life peerage at the age of 34 in 1998, became the youngest and first openly gay peer in Parliament. He has been very close to new Labour and was an outspoken critic on Section 28, the legislation that bans local authorities from promoting homosexuality.

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Turkish Torque: The Owner of the Orchard is silent – Turkish Torque

Posted on November 25th, 2005 by .
Categories: Internal Debates.

The Owner of the Orchard is silent – Turkish Torque

God’s House.

The sacred inner secret of the Divine Heart.

And now… they are blowing up that Divine Heart apart without mercy.

And with it, they are blowing up to smithereens the child in me that used to believe in the possibility of reforming the human soul.

Has the worm eaten its way too deep into the apple?

The Owner of the Orchard is silent.

0 comments.

MediaMonitors.net – Zarqawi's message hitting home in Arab World – Media Monitors Network (MMN)

Posted on November 21st, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Internal Debates, International Terrorism.

Home / Headlines / Zarqawi’s message hitting home in Arab World – Media Monitors Network (MMN)

by Ray Hanania

Everyone in the Arab World is denouncing Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his attacks against the people of Jordan these days.

It’s politically correct, even though suicide bombings happen elsewhere and no one says a word, especially when the victims are civilians in Israel.

The truth is Zarqawi has a fundamental core base of support in the Arab World, despite the harsh attacks, the strong words of denunciation, and the tragedy Zarqawi brought on his own people – he’s Jordanian and most of the victims of the triple suicide bombings were Arab and Muslim.

And, if we want to win the “War on Terrorism,” we had better wake-up.

Yet, deep down, most Arabs and Muslims will forgive Zarqawi, mainly because his attacks are striking home.

For example, many Arabs are wondering out loud why Jordan’s King Abdullah, who claims to be the voice of freedom and Democracy in the Middle East, continues to remain silent as Israel reeks havoc on the Palestinian civilian population.

Israel’s continued abuses of Palestinian rights are outrageous. Yes, Israel has a right to fight the terrorists, but they have no right to destroy the lives of innocent family members who are related to suicide bombers.

And it’s not just in Palestine.

What about in Iraq, where more and more we learn about torture and violations of human rights?

The alleged purpose of the war in Iraq was to free the Iraqi people. They’re not free. They’re living in a Hell, imprisoned under a new dictatorship that is different only from Saddam Hussein’s tyranny by the fact that the Americans are better are “spinning” their actions.

How else can you explain the outrageous decision by the United States to avoid applying the fundamental basic rights of the Fourth Geneva Conventions to Arab prisoners?

Americans should remember that how we mistreat our prisoners will be exactly how other will mistreat our soldiers when they become prisoners.

Why isn’t King Abdullah talking about all this?

Why isn’t that other “Democratic” leader, Egypt’s President Husni Mubarak also denouncing American atrocities in Iraq or Israel’s continued violation of Palestinian rights in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Eact Jerusalem?

The Arab and Muslim “street” recognizes that Zarqawi is the only person who is championing the rights of the downtrodden. He is the only one who is speaking out against the injustices. He is the only one doing something to fight back.

They know that war is about violence and death, and they are learning from Israeli and the American policies that innocent people are killed and brushed aside all the time without anyone complaining.

So while they are outraged at the death of innocent Arabs and civilians in Amman, Jordan, they also are asking themselves quietly why they should be outraged when the American and Israeli publics are not outraged at all by their own governments’ abuses?

0 comments.

MediaMonitors.net – Zarqawi’s message hitting home in Arab World – Media Monitors Network (MMN)

Posted on November 21st, 2005 by .
Categories: Internal Debates, International Terrorism.

Home / Headlines / Zarqawi’s message hitting home in Arab World – Media Monitors Network (MMN)

by Ray Hanania

Everyone in the Arab World is denouncing Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his attacks against the people of Jordan these days.

It’s politically correct, even though suicide bombings happen elsewhere and no one says a word, especially when the victims are civilians in Israel.

The truth is Zarqawi has a fundamental core base of support in the Arab World, despite the harsh attacks, the strong words of denunciation, and the tragedy Zarqawi brought on his own people – he’s Jordanian and most of the victims of the triple suicide bombings were Arab and Muslim.

And, if we want to win the “War on Terrorism,” we had better wake-up.

Yet, deep down, most Arabs and Muslims will forgive Zarqawi, mainly because his attacks are striking home.

For example, many Arabs are wondering out loud why Jordan’s King Abdullah, who claims to be the voice of freedom and Democracy in the Middle East, continues to remain silent as Israel reeks havoc on the Palestinian civilian population.

Israel’s continued abuses of Palestinian rights are outrageous. Yes, Israel has a right to fight the terrorists, but they have no right to destroy the lives of innocent family members who are related to suicide bombers.

And it’s not just in Palestine.

What about in Iraq, where more and more we learn about torture and violations of human rights?

The alleged purpose of the war in Iraq was to free the Iraqi people. They’re not free. They’re living in a Hell, imprisoned under a new dictatorship that is different only from Saddam Hussein’s tyranny by the fact that the Americans are better are “spinning” their actions.

How else can you explain the outrageous decision by the United States to avoid applying the fundamental basic rights of the Fourth Geneva Conventions to Arab prisoners?

Americans should remember that how we mistreat our prisoners will be exactly how other will mistreat our soldiers when they become prisoners.

Why isn’t King Abdullah talking about all this?

Why isn’t that other “Democratic” leader, Egypt’s President Husni Mubarak also denouncing American atrocities in Iraq or Israel’s continued violation of Palestinian rights in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Eact Jerusalem?

The Arab and Muslim “street” recognizes that Zarqawi is the only person who is championing the rights of the downtrodden. He is the only one who is speaking out against the injustices. He is the only one doing something to fight back.

They know that war is about violence and death, and they are learning from Israeli and the American policies that innocent people are killed and brushed aside all the time without anyone complaining.

So while they are outraged at the death of innocent Arabs and civilians in Amman, Jordan, they also are asking themselves quietly why they should be outraged when the American and Israeli publics are not outraged at all by their own governments’ abuses?

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UK Muslims to fight extremism on the road and Web

Posted on November 13th, 2005 by .
Categories: Internal Debates, Religious and Political Radicalization.

UK Muslims to fight extremism on the road and Web
Coming soon to fight extremism in Britain: the Imam Roadshow and Islam Online.

After years of watching radical Muslim groups teach violence in town meetings and on the Internet, British Muslim leaders announced plans on Thursday to fight back by taking the message of mainstream Islam onto the road and out into cyberspace.

A task force set up after July�s suicide bomb attacks in London concluded that extremists have found recruits among young Muslims “fueled by anger, alienation and disaffection from mainstream British society.”

At universities, in schools and in prisons, extremist groups are shouting down “mainstream Muslim organizations that are perceived as pedestrian, ineffective and �part of the system,”� wrote the task force in a 100-page report.

Among its recommendations were a roadshow of Islamic scholars — who could visit towns and cities and explain mainstream Muslim teachings — and “Islam Online,” a Web site for British Muslims looking to understand their faith.

Both steps would give young Muslims opportunities to learn from recognized scholars with mainstream views, said Muslim Council of Britain spokesman Inayat Bunglawala, who convened one of the committees that made up the task force.

“What this roadshow would hopefully do is to highlight that the answers extremists give are no answers whatsoever. There is nothing Islamic about committing mass murder,” he said.

“There is no doubt that the Internet has opened opportunities for all sorts of people and groups. And some are extremist groups who have used the Internet as a means of propaganda to spread their hate and division. There is a need to ensure that mainstream Islamic teachings are also disseminated.”

The task force — including prominent Muslim figures ranging from members of the House of Lords to Yusuf Islam, the former singer Cat Stevens — also proposed new training for imams and better teaching of Islam in schools.

Controversially for British Prime Minister Tony Blair Tony Blair, the report concluded that British foreign policy was a factor in stoking anger among Muslims. Blair has insisted that his decision to wage war in Iraq Iraq was not a cause for the July bombings.

The report comes on the heels of a report in Brussels by the European Union European Union�s racism watchdog, which praised British authorities and Muslim groups for averting a backlash against Muslims in the wake of the July attacks.

“The lesson of July 7 is that strong, coordinated action by all stakeholders works effectively,” wrote Beate Winkler, director of the European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia.

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Protected: Trouw – Radicale imam hekelt rellen

Posted on November 12th, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Internal Debates, Young Muslims, Youth culture (as a practice).

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