Major survey challenges Western perceptions of Islam

Posted on February 26, 2008 by Bob Pitt

Who Speaks for Islam WASHINGTON — A huge survey of the world’s Muslims released Tuesday challenges Western notions that equate Islam with radicalism and violence.

The survey, conducted by the Gallup polling agency over six years and three continents, seeks to dispel the belief held by some in the West that Islam itself is the driving force of radicalism. It shows that the overwhelming majority of Muslims condemned the attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001 and other subsequent terrorist attacks, the authors of the study said in Washington.

“Samuel Harris said in the Washington Times (in 2004): ‘It is time we admitted that we are not at war with terrorism. We are at war with Islam’,” Dalia Mogadeh, co-author of the book “Who Speaks for Islam” which grew out of the study, told a news conference here. “The argument Mr Harris makes is that religion in the primary driver” of radicalism and violence, she said. “Religion is an important part of life for the overwhelming majority of Muslims, and if it were indeed the driver for radicalisation, this would be a serious issue.”

But the study, which Gallup says surveyed a sample equivalent to 90 percent of the world’s Muslims, showed that widespread religiosity “does not translate into widespread support for terrorism,” said Mogahed, director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies. About 93 percent of the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims are moderates and only seven percent are politically radical, according to the poll, based on more than 50,000 interviews.

In majority Muslim countries, overwhelming majorities said religion was a very important part of their lives – 99 percent in Indonesia, 98 percent in Egypt, 95 percent in Pakistan. But only seven percent of the billion Muslims surveyed condoned the attacks on the United States in 2001, the poll showed.

Moderate Muslims interviewed for the poll condemned the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington because innocent lives were lost and civilians killed. “Some actually cited religious justifications for why they were against 9/11, going as far as to quote from the Koran – for example, the verse that says taking one innocent life is like killing all humanity,” she said. Meanwhile, radical Muslims gave political, not religious, reasons for condoning the attacks, the poll showed.

AFP, 26 February 2008

Headscarf row flares again in Danish parliament

Posted on February 26, 2008 by Bob Pitt

Asmaa Abdol-Hamid COPENHAGEN — Tension about the possibility of a Muslim politician addressing the Danish parliament in a headscarf has flared again, but Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen tried to calm the debate on Tuesday.

“It’s up to parliament to decide dress codes, and if some people were to get up on the podium wearing a [Muslim] headscarf, I would not leave the room,” Rasmussen told reporters. “In my opinion, people’s ideas and points of view are more important than what they wear,” he said, adding however that “it would be beneficial for Danish society if the public sphere were exempt of some religious displays.”

Rasmussen’s comments came after his liberal-conservative government’s ally, the extreme-right Danish People’s Party (DPP), rekindled a row over whether women wearing the Muslim headscarf, or hijab, should be allowed to address parliament. DPP spokesman Soeren Espersen said last week that Asmaa Abdol-Hamid, a Dane of Palestinian origin, should not be permitted to address parliament while wearing a hijab.

She failed in her bid to become the first headscarf-wearing Muslim in Europe to be voted into parliament in last year’s general election, but there is a possibility that she could stand in temporarily for a parliamentarian from the small far-left Unity List Party.

Daily Times, 26 February 2008

Update: The Copenhagen Post reports that Asmaa Abdol-Hamid has decided to take a one-year break from party politics. She is quoted as expressing her “disappointment in the left wing” over its response to Islamophobia, stating: “while there’s all this hubbub out there over Muslims, with one over-the-top suggestion after the other, the Red-Green Alliance has been disturbingly silent.”

Secularists have nothing to fear from women wearing headscarves

Posted on February 25, 2008 by Bob Pitt

“Secularism, a cherished principle with as many believers as non-believers, does not – should not – preclude the assertion of religious identity. It is a robust enough idea to hold the ring, as a secular state has done in the deeply religious US and India. Secularism can accommodate religious identity, as Turkey is showing by modifying Ataturk’s authoritarian secularism. What remains to be seen across western Europe is whether secularism is hijacked by a racist far right to become a rallying cry, or whether it can find its own way to adapt and modify its traditions to new identities.”

Madeleine Bunting in the Guardian, 25 February 2008

UN reports bias against Muslims in UK

Posted on February 24, 2008 by Bob Pitt

The United Nations says Britain’s war on terror has left Muslims feeling alienated in a nation that is no longer predominantly Christian.

The UN is questioning the treatment of Muslims living in Britain, 80 percent of whom feel discriminated against, especially with police having permission to search people without having to show reasonable suspicion. From 2004 to 2006, there has been an 84 percent increase in searches of people with ‘Asian appearance’, compared to an increase of 24 percent for white people. This has left Britons from Asian backgrounds feeling alienated in a country consisting of a large non-white population, considering themselves essentially British and entitled to equal treatment from authority figures.

Also under question is the role and privileges of the Church of England. A 23-page UN report shows two-thirds of the British people admit to no religious affiliation, unlike the UK’s 2001 National Census which claimed nearly 72 percent of the population to be Christian. Based on this report, the UN is calling for the disestablishment of the Church of England, stating it no longer reflected “the religious demography of the country and the rising proportion of other Christian denominations”.

Press TV, 24 February 2008

‘Sharia is not the problem’

Posted on February 24, 2008 by Bob Pitt

When Hibah Khan wanted a divorce, she turned to a sharia court. Her case would have concluded swiftly and happily – if the ruling had been allowed to stand…

Independent on Sunday, 24 February 2008

Muslims as the enemies of western civilisation

Posted on February 23, 2008 by Bob Pitt

Alex Klaushofer takes issue with “the ubiquitous rhetoric of the ‘clash of civilisations’ between Islam and the west which, as the UN-sponsored Alliance of Civilisations group notes, is the prevailing political doctrine of our time.” He writes:

“Recently I came up against its most extreme form when an evangelical Christian presented me with a copy of the book Jerusalem Countdown by the Texas-based pastor John Hagee. Although broadly familiar with the tenets of this brand of Christian conservatism and ‘end-time’ theology, nothing prepared me for the contents – page after page of ‘evidence’ demonstrating incontrovertibly that Muslims, as members of a faith group out for the destruction of Christians and Jews, are the enemies of western civilisation.”

Guardian, 23 February 2008

HT speaker reinstated

Posted on February 23, 2008 by Bob Pitt

The British leader of the Islamist Hizb ut-Tahrir group will speak after all at a controversial debate tackling extremism in London’s East End. It follows pressure to reinstate Dr Abdul Wahid, chairman of the UK wing of Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Tower Hamlets council leader Denise Jones said on Monday that the Cordoba Foundation had agreed to cancel its invitation to Dr Wahid. But by Wednesday, the foundation had changed its mind and reinstated him as a speaker at the debate entitled “Has Political Participation Failed British Muslims?” at the London Muslim Centre in Whitechapel next Tuesday. Cllr Jones, as a result, has ordered that public funding for the event be withdrawn.

But Tory Opposition councillor Tim Archer said it was “not good enough” and has written to the council chief executive. “I acknowledge the council has now withdrawn its public funding for this particular debate,” he said. “But I’m unhappy it is still supporting a foundation that thinks it’s sensible to invite Hizb ut-Tahrir to address our youngsters. It shows a real lack of leadership from the council who seem to want to appease a small minority. Hizb ut-Tahrir is virtually a banned organisation in this country. Gordon Brown has already said he is reviewing its current status.”

He added: “Tower Hamlets would never have anything to do with an event where the BNP was asked to speak. So why is it not distancing itself further from an event where a virtually banned organisation is due to speak? It smacks of political correctness and a real lack of courage to tackle difficult issues. The Cordoba Foundation should be told it will receive no funding if this event goes ahead, not in our name.”

East London Advertiser, 22 February 2008

Muslim convert not a threat, says judge

Posted on February 22, 2008 by Bob Pitt

The high court today quashed a control order restricting the movements of a British convert to Islam on the grounds that there was “no reasonable suspicion” that he was planning to travel abroad to engage in terrorist activity.

Cerie Bullivant, 25, from Dagenham, Essex said he was pulled into “the depths of despair” after MI5 alleged that the order was necessary because of suspicions that he planned to travel to Iraq or Afghanistan.

But Mr Justice Collins, sitting at London’s high court, quashed the order, which had been imposed under anti-terrorism laws. He ruled: “There is no reasonable suspicion that establishes that.”

Lawyers for Bullivant had argued that the accusations were “baseless” and that he was the victim of an abuse of power.

Towards the end of last year, Bullivant attempted suicide while being detained in Belmarsh prison.

Guardian, 22 February 2008

Britain did host US torture flights

Posted on February 22, 2008 by Bob Pitt

Britain did host US torture flights

By Louise Nousratpour

Morning Star, 22 February 2008

FOREIGN Secretary David Miliband made a forced apology yesterday after admitting that an air base on the British territory of Diego Garcia was used by CIA torture flights.

Mr Miliband’s belated admission stood in stark contrast to new Labour’s previous claims that the US had not used British territory or airspace for “rendition” flights.

In the face of credible evidence gathered by human rights organisations, former foreign secretary Jack Straw and former prime minister Tony Blair both flatly denied that rendition flights had touched down on British soil.

In a Commons statement, Mr Miliband told MPs that he was “very sorry” that previous information given by ministers had been “incorrect.”

Details of the two flights, which stopped to refuel at the Indian Ocean island in 2002, were only passed to the government by US authorities last week. Mr Miliband claimed that this was due to an “administration error” on the part of the US. He hailed Washington’s “voluntary” decision to disclose the information as a sign of US commitment to ensuring that it will not happen again.

Campaigners and Labour MPs reacted furiously to the disclosure, warning that the US had “deliberately lied” to the British government and would do it again.

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Qaradawi ban denounced across Muslim world

Posted on February 21, 2008 by Bob Pitt

Britain’s refusal of visa to cleric sparks anger in Muslim world

BBC Monitoring, 20 February 2008

By Mohamed Shokry

The British government has recently refused an entry visa to prominent Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi on the grounds that he justifies terrorism. The decision, announced on 7 February, has drawn angry reactions from the Muslim world.

Egyptian-born, Qatar-based Al-Qaradawi is widely seen in the Muslim world as a symbol of moderation and advocate of inter-faith dialogue. He is the head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars. Al-Qaradawi visited the UK in 2004 and received a warm welcome from the mayor of London, Ken Livingstone.

The visa refusal decision has been widely viewed by Muslims as motivated by influential lobby groups in Britain.

Decision to widen “gap” between Muslims, British people

Al-Qaradawi, who condemned the 11 September 2001 attacks on the USA, has nevertheless always described attacks carried out by Palestinians as “martyrdom operations”. Al-Qaradawi is banned from entering the USA.

“Britain does not tolerate the presence of a person like Al-Qaradawi on its soil. This is because of his extremist ideas and support of terrorist acts. His presence will cause divisions within society,” a British Home Office spokesman told the pan-Arab London-based daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat.

Some Muslim scholars have warned the British government that the decision may have a bad impact on the relations between Muslims and British people.

“The government should go back on its decision because this harms British interests and Muslims’ feelings. It will widen the gap between us and the British people,” Dr Azzam al-Tamimi, the head of the Institute of Islamic Political Thought, told the Qatar-based pan-Arab TV Al-Jazeera’s “Behind the News” programme on 7 February.

“I am afraid this decision will send the wrong message to Muslims across the world on the British society and its culture,” Muhammad Abd-al-Bari, chief of the Muslim Council of Britain, commented following the decision.