U.S. Administration Wrongly Advocates the Islamist Interpretation of Islamophobia

by DR. WALID PHARES

The State Department issued a report denouncing what it called “a spike in anti-Islamic sentiment in Europe and Asia.” It said that “Muslims also faced new restrictions in 2012 in countries ranging from Belgium, which banned face-covering religious attire in classrooms, to India[,] where schools in Mangalore restricted headscarves.”

The State Department report confuses religious persecution, which is to be condemned, with politicization of religions, which is a matter of debate and includes strategies of which the U.S. government should not be a part. If countries ban the right to pray, broadcast, and write about theology — any theology — this would be against human rights. But Belgium and India do not ban religions per se. In fact, they are more tolerant regarding diverse religious practice than most of the members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. The Obama administration is not criticizing secular European and Asian governments for deciding to ban prayer or theologically philosophical dissertations, but rather criticizing these countries for banning the hijab or niqab in public places.

The administration understands the wearing of the hijab as a religious injunction for all Muslims. This is not the case, as senior theologians have decreed, including al Azhar, and the niqab is not a universal Muslim obligation, as one can see in 53 Muslim-majority countries. It is a matter of choice. The organized groups calling for a systematic imposition of the niqab are Islamist forces. This translates politically into an official endorsement on the Obama administration’s part of the Islamist political agenda under the camouflage of religious rights.

The Obama administration, by using the charge of Islamophobia against countries that oppose the political agenda of an ideological and political faction comprising those known as Salafists and Khomeinists, has become a partner with these factions against secular, liberal, reformist movements who do not abide by the niqab rule. It is one thing to defend religious communities and something else to defend the agenda of ideological factions. The niqab is part and parcel of the ideological agenda advocated by the Islamists, not a tenet held by all Muslims. If the Obama administration is worried about the Islamist agenda not yet met by European and Asian countries, it should claim so, but the administration cannot claim defense of a religious injunction to all Muslims while the latter have no consensus on the matter….

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What 9/11 Is Telling Us Years Later in ‘Plane’ Language

by LT. COLONEL JAMES G. ZUMWALT, USMC (RET)

….Despite Islam’s influence on the 9/11 attack, the United States has continued to keep the doors of tolerance open to a religion clearly motivating some followers to pursue violence against it.

In the years since 9/11, there has been a significant increase in the number of mosques built in New York. Where these mosques have been built, steps have been taken later by Muslims to close businesses providing un-Islamic services, such as selling alcohol.

Like areas in Paris, which are “no-go” zones for non-Muslims, some areas in New York have become similar zones for non-Muslim vendors. The effort is slowly turning non-Muslim neighborhoods into Muslim footholds to convert locals to Islam.

And Islamists have found converts to be good fodder for terrorist activity.

Interestingly, since 9/11, as mosque construction has blossomed in the West, so, too, has the intimidation and persecution of non-Muslims in Muslim countries, forcing them either to close their houses of worship or leave.

Supposedly “moderate” Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia prohibit other religions from being practiced. Thus, the West’s tolerance has been met with continuing intolerance by Muslim states.

A surprising discovery was made April 25 by surveyors inspecting the Ground Zero Mosque site on behalf of its owner. In a small trash-filled alley passageway, found wedged between the mosque and an apartment building next door, was the 5-foot high landing gear of one of the Boeing 767 aircraft flown into the WTC by Islamic hijackers.

This discovery, almost 12 years later, opened old wounds for those who lost loved ones on 9/11, especially the 1,000 families of victims whose remains were never found.

As mentioned, symbolism is important to Muslims. Perhaps non-Muslims should see some symbolism in the discovery, years later, of a 9/11 plane’s landing gear. For one, it should symbolize that the victims of 9/11 never be forgotten.

But just as important, it should symbolize in “plane” language a warning about Islam: Muslims aggressively increase their global footprint methodically and deliberately while decreasing that of non-Muslims passively accepting their doing so.

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Mosques are the battleground of the war between Islam and the West

by Enza Ferreri

….Like many other people in Britain, for almost 10 years Boby had witnessed the progressive penetration of Islam in his country, but like many other people he watched idly not knowing what to do about it.

It was the same feeling of impotence that most of us shared. But then, a couple of years ago, he had this idea. Many mosques disrupt neighbourhoods and drive out long-time residents. Non-Muslim women in particular are made to feel uncomfortable in those areas. Why not use his legal skills to help local communities resist planning applications for mosques?

The BBC video above the article exposes how corrupt the process of granting mosque planning applications can be, showcasing a session in the Rochdale Council’s planning committee in the North of England, during which councillor Begum does not allow discussion before the vote is taken and rushes the other members to vote.

This is very topical in light of the recent revelations that the Boston bombers’ mosque ”has been associated with other terrorism suspects, has invited radical speakers to a sister mosque in Boston and is affiliated with a Muslim group that critics say nurses grievances that can lead to extremism”, has classic jihadi texts in its library, and gave money to two terrorist charities which have been shut down by the U.S. government. But then again, when is something about the violent nature of Islam not topical these days?

Still, this is a good way to introduce the mosque buster’s work. What are mosques? As we know, mosques are not like churches or synagogues, they are far more than houses of worship and contemplation, many of them are centres of jihadist activity that indoctrinate to commit and support violence against infidels. In America, as many as 4 different studies have independently come to the same conclusion that80 per cent of US mosques ”were teaching jihad, Islamic supremacism, and hatred and contempt for Jews and Christians”.

The Law And Freedom Foundation website declares: “A mosque is not merely a place of worship. Islamic doctrine requires the application of Islamic law within its geographical reach.”

We can see the truth of that in London. It is no coincidence that sharia-law areas or self-declared Muslim areas with Muslim patrols acting like vigilantes in cities like London are near mosques. We are increasingly seeing Muslim patrols in the proximity of mosques saying to passers-by that they can’t walk a dog, wear a skirt, drink alcohol.

In an interview Gavin Boby explains that mosques are being used as the bridgehead, the forefront of the advance of Islam in a territory. What happens in neighbourhoods – usually working class districts which are not used to dealing with officialdom – where a mosque is built is that the area changes forever for its residents, who no longer recognize it and eventually have to move out, due to things like the parking jihad, general harassment, vandalism.

“The parking jihad is” he describes, “soon after the construction of a mosque, people will find no parking space there, their driveway is being blocked or even a car is parked in the driveway inside your property and if you ask them to move their car they’ll say it’s only for an hour.” The parking tends to be used as a way to establish possession and control over the area, of saying: “This is a mosque area, we are the owners now and there’s nothing you can do about it”, and then after that it gets worse until the point when people move out.

“The Koran,” the Bristol lawyer continues, “calls 14 times for the enslavement of non-Muslims, and 3 times for killing the unbelievers wherever they are found. This is obviously against English law. You don’t need to be a good lawyer to fight it but you need to be a very good lawyer to get around it.”

Partly, the mosque buster’s approach is that of finding the contradictions and incompatibilities between Islam and Western fundamental principles (that’s the easy part), and making mosque building and planning regulations become the battleground of these ideological conflicts.

In the same way as Islam is not just a religion but also a political doctrine of supremacy and power, so the mosque is not simply a building of worship but also a political one.

Gavin elaborates:

This is the Islamic doctrine, every mosque is instructed to be based upon the original mosque in Medina, where Muhammad originally in the 7th century set up his religious-political doctrine of social control, and the mosque is a place of government, it is a place where treaties are made, death sentences are passed, armies are blessed and dispatched, it is primarily about political control and it is very much used as a tool of advance. Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey talked about that, the Muslim Brotherhood compared their mosques to battalions and to beehives, where Muslims will gather and then advance, and there’s nothing new about this, it goes back to the 7th century.

So this is the why of the Law And Freedom Foundation’s operation. Now let’s see the how….

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Father Reportedly Locked Out of Daughter’s Swim Practice to Accommodate Muslim Sensibilities

By Erica Ritz

A  Toronto area father is upset after being locked out of his daughter’s swim class for what he was told are “religious reasons,” according to the Toronto Sun.

“I spoke to a staff member and she told me that it’s because of Muslim women, that we’re not allowed to look at them or whatever,” 38-year-old Chris said Friday (he declined to give a last name). “I don’t think religion has a role to play in a public pool.”

The single father knew when he signed his daughter up for the 9-week course at the community center that it was a female class, but didn’t realize the gender segregation also reached the stands, apparently.

“She doesn’t have a lot of friends and I wanted her to swim with girls.  I don’t know what parent wouldn’t want to watch their child participate,” he said, adding: “There were other fathers there who weren’t too happy.”

The Toronto Sun reached out to Local Councillor John Parker, who hadn’t heard of this specific case but called the complaint “legitimate,” adding that it raises a “fair issue.”

“We have to decide and we have to determine just what are the options that are available to us and how many hours are there in the day to allow the different options that communities want,” Parker said. “So far the pressure has been to provide hours for women only, this gives rise to the legitimate question: ought we to find time for mixed groups precisely to accommodate the concern that this parent has raised.”

City aquatics manager Anne Jackson seemed to stand by the rule.

“Without a female-only program, there would be women that wouldn’t be able to participate in swimming,” she said….

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Europe: Mosque Building Shifts into High Gear

by Soeren Kern

From Belgium to Greece and Spain to Germany, 2013 is shaping up to be another banner year for the construction of mosques in Europe.

In Belgium, work is about to begin on the construction of a mega-mosque in Liège, the third-largest city in the country. The largest mosque in Wallonia (the French-speaking region of Belgium) will be built on an 11,000 m² (118,000 ft²) plot and will consist of a main building with a capacity for 1,000 worshippers, a library, a cafeteria and several shops.

Plans to build two 30 m (98 ft) minarets were scrapped after opposition from local residents. The new plan involves one 18 m (60 ft) minaret which will be automatically illuminated during calls to prayer.

The mayor of Liège, Willy Demeyer (PS), banned a protest march against the mosque that was to have been held on March 30. “My role is to avoid excesses and problems of public order,” he said.

In Germany, Muslims in the northern city of Hamburg are converting the former Kapernaumkirche (Capernaum Church), a cultural heritage site, into a mosque.

In the southern German city of Munich, local politicians are debating where to build a massive mosque complexknown as the Center for Islam in Europe-Munich (ZIE-M). The 6,000 m² (65,000 ft²) mega-project, which will cost an estimated €40 million ($51 million), is designed to be a key strategic platform for spreading Islam throughout Europe.

Speculation is rife that the Persian Gulf Emirate of Qatar will pay for the project, although the Qatari Ambassador to Germany recently told the newspaper Münchner Merkur that no final decision has been made.

The citizen’s movement Die Freiheit Bayern (Freedom Bavaria) organized a demonstration against the project in downtown Munich on March 24, but only 120 people bothered to show up.

In Greece, which is effectively bankrupt, the government has pledged to spend €1.1 million ($1.4 million) to build an official mosque in Athens for the city’s expanding Muslim population.

The mosque, which will be built on the former naval base in Votanikos, will be able to hold around 500 worshippers as well as hundreds more in an outdoor area.

The Greek government agreed in September 2011 to pay for the mosque after an offer from the Turkish government to pay for it was rejected by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, and opposed by the Muslim community in Greece, which insisted that the Greek state pay for it….

….In Switzerland, a Muslim group called Club Paradise is converting a bowling alley into a mosque. The future imam of the new mosque, Fehim Dragusha, originally from Kosovo, made local headlines in late 2011 when he called on Muslim parents to beat their children if they refuse to pray. Dragusha says he was misunderstood because of his poor German language skills. He now says he favors a “modern Islam.”

In other mosque-related news, the Danish toymaker Lego has tried to defend its controversial decision to remove its Jabba’s Palace toy set — based on a scene from Star Wars Episode VI — from store shelves.

In January 2013, the Turkish Cultural Community of Austria (TCA) complained that “Jabba’s Palace” resembled the Hagia Sophia mosque, originally a Christian church, in Istanbul, formerly the Christian city of Constantinople; and that the accompanying figures depicted “racial prejudice and vulgar insinuations” against Muslims as people with “deceitful and criminal personalities.”

Initially, Lego refused to back down, insisting that the product was merely a faithful reproduction of the images in the Star Wars movie. But after a meeting in Munich on March 29 between Turkish community leaders and Lego executives, Lego agreed to end its production of the toy from 2014 onwards.

Lego says its decision had nothing to do with pressure from Muslims and everything to do with the natural lifecycle of the product. But the Turks do not see it that way. The jubilant president of the TCA, Birol Killic, said in a statement: “We are very grateful and congratulate Lego on the decision to take Jabba’s Palace out of production.” He added: “Lego managers have also promised that the chief toy maker will be sensitized on this [multicultural] issue.”

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