Bharat Rakshak

Abdel-Samad: In a sense, Islam is like a drug, like alcohol. A small amount can have a healing and inspiring effect, but when the believer reaches for the bottle of dogmatic faith in every situation, it gets dangerous. This high-proof form of Islam is what I'm talking about. It harms the individual and damages society. It inhibits integration, because this Islam divides the world into friends and enemies, into the faithful and the infidels.

Published on Sep 17, 2010
Interview with Hamed Abdel-Samad, author of "The Downfall of the Islamic World"
'Islam Is Like a Drug': Der Spiegel

The case provides a good opportunity for public discourse, because it is not based on allegations about what Faisal might have done. Faisal attempted to detonate the bomb, he was charged with this offense, and he admitted doing it. Like the cases of seven Canadians who pleaded guilty to charges in the "Toronto 18" bomb plot (four others were convicted), there are no complications from speculation or hearsay. Nobody is saying that Faisal represents all Muslims, or even most Muslims. There is no question of prejudice, bias or conspiracy. There is no reason to accuse anyone of Islamophobia. Faisal tried to kill as many people as he was able; he freely admits as much, and even seems proud of it.

It seems surprising, then, that more informed analysis of such uncomplicated stories does not appear in the public media. Faisal's case allows people to ask a number of straightforward questions: How does a young man who seeks U.S. citizenship and pledges allegiance to the U.S. form the intent to destroy it? What did Faisal mean when he said that the Qur'an allows Muslims to defend themselves? How did he connect that understanding of the Qur'an with the crime he attempted in Times Square? Is Faisal's understanding of Islam shared by a significant number of young North American Muslims, or is he a lone wolf? In either case, is there any way to deal with such a deadly understanding? If so, who could do it?

One interesting detail of Faisal's story is that, according to the Associate Press, Judge Cedarbaum told Faisal after sentencing him, "I do hope you will spend some of the time in prison thinking carefully about whether the Qur'an wants you to kill lots of people." It seems that Faisal had already decided this question as a free citizen of the United States. What are the chances that he will learn a less radical interpretation in jail?

Present-day Islamophobia has many incarnations: the Cordoba House/Park 51 controversy continues with 68 per cent of Americans (according to a CNN poll) opposing the construction of the ‘ground zero mosque’ at its proposed location. Opposition also rages against the construction of mosques in Wisconsin, Tennessee and Kentucky.

Published on Sep 17, 2010
Interview with Hamed Abdel-Samad, author of "The Downfall of the Islamic World"
'Islam Is Like a Drug': Der Spiegel

Today's NYT re Pam Geller

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/nyreg ... wanted=all

According to columnist Andrew Alexander, the Washington Post’s editors recently pulled a Non Sequitor comic strip by Wiley Miller, because they were “concerned it might offend and provoke some Post readers, especially Muslims....

According to Israeli literary lion Hillel Halkin, Islam is “an insult to human intelligence.” That’s a harsh assessment, but then Islam is also harsh in its assessment of Jews, so one might say it’s a saw-off on the phobia front. What is to be done about Islam’s Jewish problem, the source of so much of the world’s tensions and misery?

Tarek Fatah, Canada’s most outspoken reformist Muslim, would be the first to acknowledge and even sympathize with Halkin’s contempt for Islam. In his new book, The Jew is Not My Enemy, to be released Oct. 19, Fatah summarizes the present situation between Jews and Muslims: Jews hate Islam, and Muslims hate Jews. “Even the most radical Islamist websites [attack Jews viciously but] do not have a single sentence attacking the Jewish faith,” Fatah notes, while even the most rabidly anti-Islamist Jews “rarely attack Muslims, yet have little reservation in deriding Islam and the Koran.”

By coincidence, Jonathan Kay’s review of historian Martin Gilbert’s In Ishmael’s House: A History of Jews in Muslim Lands, appeared here yesterday. Gilbert’s book leaves us with a depressing portrait of “a hateful pathology rooted in 14 centuries of Muslim history.” But Gilbert is by no means the first, or even the most erudite scholar of Islam, to arrive at this glum and apparently hopeless conclusion.
Tarek Fatah is almost as savage a critic of Islam in its present manifestations as the others, but unlike the others — whether non-Muslim like Gilbert, or a Muslim apostate like Ibn Warraq, whose new book Virgins? What Virgins? batters Islam to a polemical pulp — he is also a deeply committed Muslim. He is guardedly optimistic, too. Fatah envisions a peaceful place where Jews’ respect for the Koran and Muslims’ respect for Jews can co-exist in harmony.

His book attempts to take us there. Not on a flying carpet of wish fulfillment, but on a slow, steady train of facts, textual analysis and historical interpretation.

....implication of these statistics: 7pc of Muslims are not peaceful. And 7pc of 1.5 billion comes to 105 million violent Muslims out there. For me, that’s 105 million too many.

....In Holland, Austria, Germany and Belgium, radical rightwing parties have climbed on the Islamophobic bandwagon, and have increased their votes in recent elections. Britain, while it remains a bastion of liberalism and tolerance, is becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the crime and violence rampant in its Muslim communities. Although around 2.8 per cent of Britain’s population is Muslim, currently 12pc of the jail population profess Islam as their faith. And of course, Muslims are increasing at a far faster rate than any other group. According to an article by Richard Kerbaj in the Sunday Times last year, the number of Muslims in the UK rose by 500,000 between 2004 and 2008.Understandably, such statistics cause disquiet among the majority who fear they are being swamped by foreigners who largely refuse to accept the culture and the values of the host country. Even liberal Brits are beginning to question an immigration policy that has produced the tensions that are now surfacing.

Above all, the perception that somehow, Islam sanctions and promotes acts of violence is creating a backlash in the West. The truth is that in the 21st century, there are very few sacred cows left in the West. When the Pope visited Britain recently, he was attacked mercilessly in the media. The Queen is often lampooned. Steve Bell, the irreverent Guardian cartoonist, regularly portrays the Prime Minister as a condom. Nobody is spared, and nobody is off-limits.

Against this backdrop, Westerners just cannot understand why Muslims should expect special treatment for them and their faith. The point many commentators make is that if they have decided to move to the West of their own free will, Muslims should get used to the unfettered right to comment and criticise that is taken for granted here. Thus, if some nutty preacher in Florida decides to burn the Muslim Holy Book, or some obscure Danish newspaper runs cartoons of the Holy Prophet [PBUH], Muslims should ignore such provocations.

Rather than blend into the mainstream, many Muslims in the West have chosen to make a defiant statement about their identity. More and more young women are wearing the headscarf or the burqa when their mothers never did. Similarly, young men sport ragged beards and high shalwars to announce their faith. This, of course, is their choice. But it does set them apart, and signals that they have nothing in common with their Western hosts.

This deliberate distancing from the West, while living within its boundaries, gives rise to an understandable degree of hostility. Many Islamic websites and imams advise Muslims not to have anything to do with non-Muslims. Often, this results in misunderstandings when some Muslims refuse to even extend the common courtesy of saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’.

In the IQ2 debate, Zeba Khan cited a Gallop poll that showed that some 93pc of all Muslims were peaceful and against acts of violence. What her opponents did not immediately pounce on was the logical implication of these statistics: 7pc of Muslims are not peaceful. And 7pc of 1.5 billion comes to 105 million violent Muslims out there. For me, that’s 105 million too many.

Veteran dawn scribe,Irfan Husain has this insightful piece about IQ2,an outfit that promotes "Islam as a religion of peace".However,in a NY Univ debate,some unpleasant truths emerged.

"....implication of these statistics: 7pc of Muslims are not peaceful. And 7pc of 1.5 billion comes to 105 million violent Muslims out there. For me, that’s 105 million too many.

The great debate over Islam By Irfan Husain
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/daw ... -islam-300

http://criticalppp.com/archives/25851

OK Islam maligns the Jews but not their religion because it also owes its existence to Judaism. There is a linear descent of Isalm from Judaism. By berating the followersof Judaism, it is blostering itself as the true message. Quite easy to understand.

By same token Jews berate the Koran for its a heresy of the Judaism etc. Again easy to understand. Why does Fatah not see this?

Also Fatah's shikwa or complaint is with the current Wahabist hijack of Islam. Hence he criticises it.

The core problem is Islam is a reactionary Christianity without Christ. Its not a new religion but a political doctrine claiming divine right. Just as the Romans took over Christianism as a poltical religion, the Arabs created Islamism as an imperial doctrine. Hence all this confusion and angry/polemic exhcnages between the three faiths: Judaism, Christianism and Islamism.

Nasr examines the life and thought of Mawlana Mawdudi, one of the first and most important Islamic ideological thinkers. Mawdudi was the first to develop a modern political Islamic ideology, and a plan for social action to realize his vision. The prolific writings and indefatigable efforts of Mawdudi's party, the Jamaat-i-Islami, first in India and later in Pakistan, have disseminated his ideas far and wide. His views have informed revivalism from Morocco to Malaysia.

Nasr discerns the events that led Mawdudi to a revivalist perspective, and probes the structure of his thought, in order to gain fresh insights into the origins of Islamic revivalism. He argues that Islamic revivalism is not simply a cultural rejection of the West, rather it is closely tied to questions of communal politics and its impact on identity formation, discourse of power in plural societies, and nationalism. Mawdudi's discourse, though aimed at the West, was motivated by Muslim-Hindu competition for power in British India. His aim, according to Nasr, was to put forth a view of Islam whose invigorated, pristine, and uncompromising outlook would galvanize Muslims into an ideologically uniform and hence politically indivisible community. In time, this view developed a life of its own and evolved into an all-encompassing perspective on society and politics, and has been a notable force in South Asia and Muslim life and thought across the Muslim world.

Rather than blend into the mainstream, many Muslims in the West have chosen to make a defiant statement about their identity. More and more young women are wearing the headscarf or the burqa when their mothers never did.

The granddaughter of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst and great-granddaughter of millionaire George Hearst, she gained notoriety in 1974 when, following her kidnapping by the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), she ultimately joined her captors in furthering their cause

The central question for many in M.East has for years been: Why is it – since we are a superio people (Arabs) with a superior religion (Islam) – that we are behind the West and what can we do about it?

NEW YORK – Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg walked off the stage of "The View" Thursday during an argument with Bill O'Reilly over the proposed Islamic center near the site of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The women objected to the Fox News Channel host saying that "Muslims killed us on 9/11." They returned after an O'Reilly apology.

Angela Merkel, German chancellor

"Germany should … get tougher on those who refuse to integrate before opening itself up to further immigration."

Horst Seehofer, Bavarian state premier

"Integration is the achievement of one who has integrated … I don't have to recognise anyone who lives from the state, rejects that state, refuses to ensure his children receive an education and continues to produce little headscarfed girls."

"A large number of the Arabs and Turks living in this city (Berlin) has no productive function other than selling fruit and vegetables".

"Turks are conquering Germany in the same way as Kosovars conquered Kosovo – with a high birth rate."

Alex Wilner: How to use SUVs to mow down Canadian enemies of Allah

National Post. October 18, 2010 – 9:57 am …………….

In a “feature” article – “The Ultimate Mowing Machine” – AQAP offers instructions on how to use a vehicle, preferably a large SUV, to plough into unsuspecting bystanders going about their daily business. Reminiscent of the 2008 and 2009 bulldozer attacks in Israel, “the idea,” AQAP explains “is to use a pickup truck as a mowing machine, not to mow grass but [to] mow down the enemies of Allah.” To ensure maximum carnage, AQAP suggests welding “butcher blades or thick sheets of metal” on the front of the vehicle at chest-height in order to more easily “slice through bone” and inflict mortal wounds on victims. The ideal locations to carry out such attacks are pedestrian-heavy streets: “In fact if you can get through to “pedestrian only” locations that exist in some downtown (city center) areas, that would be fabulous”. And because perpetrators are unlikely to escape alive, AQAP sells vehicular terrorism as a suicide mission. “It’s a one-way road. You keep on fighting until you achieve martyrdom.”

Lest Canadians think we’re somehow not on AQAP’s target list, the journal piece specifically suggests carrying out such attacks “in countries like Israel, the U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Denmark, [and] Holland.”

It won’t take a genius to conduct an act of vehicular terrorism and it isn’t difficult for us to ponder the worst-case scenarios. ……………..

National Post

For the last eight months – without complaint or challenge from Mr Rahman – this blog and newspaper have laid out his close links with a group of powerful local businessmen and with a Muslim supremacist body, the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) - which believes, in its own words, in transforming the “very infrastructure of society, its institutions, its culture, its political order and its creed… from ignorance to Islam.” Mr Rahman has refused to deny these claims.

We have told how the borough’s change from a conventional council leader to a mayoral system came about as a result of a campaign led and financed by these two groups – and how the IFE, in its words, wanted to “get one of our brothers” into the position.

We have described in detail, again without complaint or challenge by Mr Rahman, his deeply problematic two years as council leader until he was removed from that post six months ago, partly as a result of our investigations. After he secured the leadership with the help of the IFE, millions of pounds were channelled to front organisations of the IFE, a man with close links to the IFE was appointed as assistant chief executive of the council despite being unqualified for the position and the secular, white chief executive was forced out. Various efforts were made to “Islamicise” the borough. Extremist literature was stocked in Tower Hamlets’ public libraries.

By Agence France-Presse, Updated: 10/21/2010

Malaysian TV station fined over 'Christmas-like' Ramadan ad

A Malaysian TV station has been fined after airing an advertisement marking the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr which was accused of insulting Muslims by using a Christmas-like theme.

TV3 apologised and pulled the commercial off the airwaves after an outcry over imagery including a "Santa-like" character wearing an Islamic skullcap who took children on ride through the sky on a magical trishaw.

There was also criticism that the ad, which marked the end of the Ramadan fasting month last month, featured a lotus flower which is linked to Buddhism.

Deputy information, communications and culture minister Joseph Salang Gandum told parliament that the private channel had been ordered to pay a fine of 50,000 ringgit (16,000 dollars).

He said he was "happy to say" that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission had slapped TV3 with the maximum fine possible "in regards to the case which is said to have insulted and shamed Islam". ……………….

AFP via MSN News