‘Huge mosque stirs protests in Cologne’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pro KolnThe construction of one of Europe’s biggest mosques near to a globally famous Christian landmark has sparked a furious row in Germany.

Immigration and integration are hugely sensitive questions in Germany, which is home to a Turkish community of several million. But almost within the shadow of Cologne Cathedral, political correctness has now been replaced by bitter confrontation as the city’s Muslims begin to build a 2,000-capacity mosque with twin minarets that will reach 170ft.

“Muslims have been here for 40 years, yet people are praying in back rooms,” said Seyda Can, an Islamic theologian at the Turkish Islamic Union in Cologne. “There are 120,000 Muslims in Cologne, that’s 12 per cent of the population. We should not hide.” Work will begin in the autumn on the £15 million mosque, which will include huge glass and stone cupolas and two six-storey minarets.

“It’s not a popular plan,” said Joerg Uckermann, the district’s deputy mayor. “We don’t want to build a Turkish ghetto in Ehrenfeld. I know about Londonistan and I don’t want that here.” Mr Uckermann is part of a curious coalition of protest that has united Jewish intellectuals and neo-Nazis. Leading the charge is Ralph Giordano, a prominent Jewish author, who wrote recently that Germany was witnessing a “clash of two completely different cultures” and questioned whether they could ever be reconciled.

For Mr Uckermann, who belongs to the Right-wing CDU party of Chancellor Angela Merkel, Mr Giordano’s comments smashed a long-held taboo in Germany. “Giordano broke down the wall,” he said. “Before if you criticised this monstrous mosque you were a Nazi. But we have a problem with the integration of Muslims. It’s a question of language and culture.”

Daily Telegraph, 25 June 2007

What are the Quasi Muslims really selling?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Every day newspapers, TV shows, radio programs, new books and lectures revolve around the topic of the ‘threat’ of Islam and its relation to the West. Islam has become a commodity, a business to be exploited. The list of super stars and ‘experts’ that are part of this Hollywood-esque movement of cashing in on Islam has become quite long; at the head of the list are Quasi Muslims such as Brigiette Gabriel, Walid Shoebat, Nonie Darwish, and Ibn Warraq….

“Quasi Muslims are not only united in a deep distrust of Islam and Muslims but also in a program of vile hatemongering thinly disguised as intellectual criticism and absolute truth. In a lecture at the University of Memphis, Brigiette Gabriel called Arabs ‘Barbaric’. Walid Shoebat and Ibn Warraq have consistently claimed that Islam is the new totalitarian threat to the world, the new ‘fascism’, the new ‘Nazism’ even though these concepts are uniquely Western products. In any other circumstance or in reference to any other religion this rhetoric would be dismissed for what it is: hate speech….

“A grave consequence of legitimizing these polarizing and obscurantist personalities is that it takes away from the scholars, academics, and lay people that are engaged in real reform and criticism. Voices such as those of Tariq Ramadan, Khaled Abu Fadl, Heba Ezzat, Suhaib Webb and others are voices that have a pulse on the Muslim community and are much more deserving of a hearing from the wider public.”

M.T. Akbar at Media Monitors Network, 23 June 2007

German cardinal against ‘equal’ Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Cardinal Karl LehmannBERLIN — In statements endorsed by the ruling Christian Democratic Union party and harshly criticized by MPs, Germany’s top cardinal has warned against “uncritical tolerance” which could lead to Islam enjoying equal standing with Christianity in the country, Deutsche Welle reported Friday, June 22.

“The neutrality of the state regarding individual religions must not be confused with indifference and uncritical tolerance toward the impact of religions on society,” the German news network quoted Cardinal Karl Lehmann as saying. Lehmann, the head of the German conference of bishops, expressed concern about religious freedom leading to all faiths being treated equally regardless of the size of their flock and their history. He pointed to Christianity’s role in shaping European history and even its legal culture.

Ronald Pofalla, the general secretary of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union party, said Lehmann was right to say Islam could not be afforded the same legal standing in Germany as Christianity. “Unlike Christianity, Islam is not in Europe’s cultural centre and is not reflected in everyday life in the same way,” Pofalla said in a statement.

The leader of the Green party’s parliamentary group, Volker Beck, said Germany’s constitution required Islam be treated the same as Christianity. “The Cardinal is wrong if he concludes that Europe’s or Germany’s undoubtedly Christian character infers a legal discrimination of other religious communities,” Deutsche Welle quoted him as saying.

Lale Akgün, a Social Democratic parliamentarian in charge of Islam issues, said Lehmann’s statements were unrealistic and explosive. “Whoever says that Islam cannot be put on an equal legal footing (as other religions) is stoking social unrest,” she said.

Islam Online, 22 June 2007

Another boost for the ‘Council of Ex-Muslims’ fraud

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A new group of secular-minded former Muslims in the UK has urged the government to cut all state funding to religious groups and to stop pandering to political Islam.

The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, launched yesterday in London, opposes the interference of religion in public life. Its spokeswoman, Maryam Namazie, said the group provided an alternative voice to the “regressive, parasitical and self-appointed leaders” from organisations such as the Muslim Council of Britain and the “oxymoronic” Islamic Human Rights Commission.

“We want to challenge the Islamic movement,” she said. “It does not surprise me people are afraid to criticise Islam. There has been too much appeasement from the government. There are specific policies and initiatives aimed at Muslims and this approach divides society.”

The council’s manifesto calls for the freedom to criticise all religions and the separation of religion from the state and legal system. Another aim is to break the taboos that come with renouncing Islam.

Inayat Bunglawala, spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, said: “We’re not taking them seriously. I don’t think Muslims will have time for this.”

The launch of a Central Council of Ex-Muslims in Berlin has inspired similar groups in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. The British branch has 25 members who are prepared to have their names and photographs published.

Guardian, 22 June 2007

As we’ve already pointed out, the Council of Ex-Muslims is a complete fraud. It’s a front organisation for the Worker Communist Party of Iran, an ultra-left sect most of whose leaders were never Muslims in the first place. It’s just an excuse for the WPI to indulge in their obsessive and destructive propaganda against Islam.

Unfortunately the Council of Ex-Muslims has been given credibility by having its launch at the House of Commons yesterday (I suspect Lib Dem MP Evan Harris was involved in this) and has been treated seriously by the media, who have shown no interest in investigating the origins of the organisation.

Update:  Read the National Secular Society’s report of the event here. Note that the so-called ex-Muslims referred to in the NSS piece – Maryam Namazie, Mina Ahadi and Mahin Alipour – are all leading figures in the WPI.

Jewish activist attacks Muslims at Mighty Heart screening

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Michael Winterbottom’s true-life drama A Mighty Heart, about the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, was at the centre of a fresh controversy last night following a preview screening in Los Angeles.

At a post-film panel discussion featuring representatives from Muslim, Jewish and Christian groups, a Jewish activist denounced the event saying, “The only reason [Muslims] like this film is because it’s about a dead Jew.”

The activist said the participation of members of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was like “David Duke co-sponsoring Schindler’s List”, referring to the former Klu Klux Klan Grand Master and Louisiana politician.

Other invited panelists included Progressive Christians Uniting, Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak, and the film’s producer Dede Gardner.

A spokesperson from the film’s US distributor Paramount Vantage said the event was designed to promote harmony. “Vantage went into the screening tonight with the best intentions,” the spokesperson said. “Like the film, this was designed to celebrate dialogue of people of diverse backgrounds and faith.”

Guardian, 22 June 2007

See also Variety, 21 June 2007

The Jewish activist was one Allyson Rowen Taylor. Last year when the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission voted to give an award to a local Muslim leader, Dr Maher Hathout, Taylor accused them of bowing to Muslim intimidation: “They’re afraid of the Muslim community burning cars, burning effigies and burning synagogues.”

Ignore Islam, ‘ex-Muslims’ urge

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BBC News gives favourable publicity to the launch of the Worker Communist Party of Iran’s fraudulent front organisation, the so-called Council of Ex-Muslims (which claims that it “represents the views of a majority of secular-minded Muslims in Europe”), as does the Washington Post and the Daily Telegraph. See also A.C. Grayling’s ridiculous remarks (“a torch of hope in a dark quadrant of the world’s affairs”) at Comment is Free. Meanwhile, frothing-at-the-mouth right-wing US Islamophobe Michelle Malkin has hailed Maryam Namazie and her comrades as “the bravest of the brave“, who are “putting their necks on the line for Western civilization”. Malkin urges her readers: “Find a way to show your support.”