 It is sad that President Obama and his team are still going through on-the-job training a year into their administration. Despite the fact that Janet Napolitano, our homeland-security secretary, bizarrely tried to nix the use of the term terrorism and despite the fact that his own White House dubiously dubbed this global conflict "an overseas contingency operation," the president has finally learned to use the most obvious term — terror— this week. Mr. President, if you are listening, here are a few more thoughts from a concerned Muslim. You cannot just stay hunkered down at your "beachhead" in Hawaii after another virulent byproduct of global political Islam attacked on our homeland. While no one was really hurt, you don't exactly look like you are taking the issue seriously when your photo of the day captures a romp on the beach.
It was not a coincidence that this was attempted on Christmas day, yet you ignore the religious struggles in this conflict. It is time that our commander-in-chief and the leader of the free world come to terms with the reality that this is the greatest conflict of the century and a battle of ideas between western liberal secular democracies and political Islam. While you and your colleagues are stymied by the question of whether to even use the term "terror," the ideology of al-Qaeda (violent political Islam) is spreading exponentially. Your systematic failure to advance American security against ideologies that threaten us may turn catastrophic. In fact the Christmas bomber said so himself, telling an investigator that "there are more just like me who will strike soon." By all means, Mr. President, fix the holes in our security that we know are there — but terrorists who are suicidal religious zealots and very creative will sadly very likely strike again soon. This year certainly proves that. Our nation is clearly becoming more and more anxious and concerned over the rash of radicalized Muslims. Is it not time for you to acknowledge that terror is a simply a symptom of a more profound deeper underlying disease? That disease is political Islam. Hopefully you will realize that we can only defeat an enemy we can name, describe, and understand. As Thomas Friedman and others have recently reminded us, the only answer to jihadists, Salafists, and Islamists is a narrative from within America, and most important from within Islam, that counters the global supremacism of political Islam. Until you say exactly that, we will continue to flail in this conflict. I hope after Nidal Hasan, after the American jihadis in Pakistan, and now after the Christmas bomber radicalized in London, that you see our need for clear leadership against political Islam and its ubiquitous permeating militant manifestations.
We need a leader who recognizes that this conflict is most significantly within Muslim communities as we Muslims struggle with the conflict between theocracy and democracy, sharia and liberty, Islamism and freedom, and salafism and modernity.
The longer you squander your leadership and stay silent on this, the more vulnerable we will be. M.Zudhi Jasser 
 Many Jews consider Christmas Day an opportunity to serve their community while Christian neighbors celebrate their holiday.
This year, what's also known as Mitzvah Day in southeast Michigan is getting an added boost from Muslims. For the first time, about 40 Muslims are expected to join 900 Jews for what they call their largest annual day of volunteering. Leaders say it's a small but significant step in diffusing tensions and promoting good will between the religions, particularly on a day that is sacred to Christianity. Mitzvah Day, a nearly 20-year tradition in the Detroit area also practiced in other communities, is so named because Mitzvah means "commandment" in Hebrew and is generally translated as a good deed. The new partnership stemmed from a recent meeting between members of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan, the Jewish Community Relations Council and the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, which said it was unaware of any similar Mitzvah Day alliances. The Jewish groups organize Mitzvah Day, which consists of volunteers helping 48 local social service agencies with tasks such as feeding the hungry and delivering toys to children in need. Victor Begg, chairman of the Islamic council, said he was seeking a public way for the two faith communities to "build bridges of understanding and cooperation," which led to joining the Mitzvah Day effort. "The general public is what we need to give the message to, our entire community," he said. Not only are most Muslims and Jews available to serve on Christmas Day, but leaders also recognized a shared commitment to community service. Charity in Judaism is known as "tzedakah." In Islam, it's called "zakat." "It's an interesting parallel," said Robert Cohen, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council. "Both of our faiths predispose us to engaging in this sort of thing." Muslim and Jewish volunteers will work together at the Gleaners Community Food Bank in Pontiac, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Detroit. "We felt it was a perfect activity for people to be getting together like this because you work side by side with one or two other people as you're moving the boxes," Cohen said. "The grass-roots connection builds relationships on a personal level." Cohen said the local bonds are important given global animosities. He said Muslims and Jews here "have serious differences about what happens in the Middle East," but that shouldn't be the only dynamic defining their relationship. Begg added the two faiths can set an example in the Detroit area, which has historically large Jewish and Muslim populations. "Whatever happens in the Middle East, we have no control over it," Begg said. "But here, our kids go to the same school, we work together; we need to focus on building an inclusive community." Ynet
 The recent Swiss vote to ban minarets was seen by many as a further indication that European populations are waking up to the threat of Europe’s Islamization and the need to stop the trend. If so, the European Union—the centralized bureaucracy that, as documented in Bat Ye’or’s important book Eurabia, went “over the heads” of European publics to meld the European and Arab/Muslim civilizations in the first place—still hasn’t caught up and remains locked in a pro-Arab/Muslim disposition. At least, the EU’s stance on Jerusalem would suggest so. Last week the new EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, “came down hard on the Israeli government” in her maiden speech to the European Parliament and said: “East Jerusalem is occupied territory together with the West Bank. The EU is opposed to the destruction of homes, the eviction of Arab residents and the construction of the separation barrier.” Her words prompted Israel’s deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon to reply: “Just as the Romans did not succeed in cutting off Jerusalem from Israel, so too will diplomats from the UN and the EU be unsuccessful as well.” Ashton, previously the EU’s trade commissioner and expected to be given considerable authority as a new sort of EU foreign minister, also called Israel’s recently launched ten-month moratorium on settlement construction a “first step”—representing, as the EUobserver comments, “a cooler tone than EU foreign ministers who last week took ‘positive note’ of the move.” The EUobserver also pointed out that the speech was “significant for what it left out: Ms Ashton did not say that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, that it faces a security threat from Palestinian ‘terrorists’ or that Palestinians should immediately return to formal peace talks—the classic tenets of Israeli supporters.” Ashton’s statements also come hard on the heels of an EU-Israel spat over Jerusalem in which the EU explicitly called for East Jerusalem to become the capital of a Palestinian state. That demand was later only partially toned-down under intense Israeli objections. In other words, even at a time when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly accepted the call for a Palestinian state and enraged part of his right-wing base with the settlement moratorium, the EU keeps reflexively embracing Arab/Muslim positions.
As always, the EU’s stance on Jerusalem ignores several facts. Jerusalem was unified under Israeli sovereignty in 1967, after nineteen years in which Jordan illegally occupied the city and finally used it to attack Israel despite being implored by Israel to keep out of the fighting. Under Israeli rule, Muslims and all other groups (except Jews—on the Temple Mount itself) have enjoyed full freedom of worship—a stark contrast to the nineteen years of Jordanian rule when Jews and Christians were denied access to Jerusalem’s holy places and Jewish synagogues and gravestones were destroyed and desecrated. Muslims already have full control over Mecca, Medina, and countless sacred locales and shrines throughout the vast Muslim world, and their demand for Palestinian sovereignty in Jerusalem and the redivision of Israel’s capital can reasonably be regarded as excessive – especially when, as noted, Israel gives Muslims full access to their Jerusalem shrines and full rights in the city. Indeed, Jerusalem is full of minarets, and any visitor to its Old City or its Arab neighborhoods can attest to the vibrancy of Muslim religious life there. The EU should be more concerned with Islamization on the continent than with taking harsh stances against Israel as it struggles to survive and to find the right mix of accommodation and steadfastness in an Arab/Muslim environment hostile its very existence. But for the EU, after decades of forsaking its Judeo-Christian roots for pro-Arabism, that may be too much to expect. Even if European populations are starting to grasp the consequences of this civilizational self-abnegation, Europe’s Brussels-based bureaucracy remains willfully ignorant of the stakes. FPM
 Via Swedish journalist Per Gudmundson's Blog. Gudmundson also links to an interview Waberi gave to the RFSU (Association for Sexuality Education) in 2006. I translate the parts about polygamy below, though Waberi does talk about other Sharia issues as well.Abdirisak Waberi is not the only conservative Muslim who's a Moderate Party politician. See also Sweden: The best Muslim state.One of the leaders of Sweden's most influential Muslim associations might get into parliament in the next elections. Abdirisak Waberi (Moderates), can expect to have his candidacy examined with a microscope. Principal and Gothenburg resident Abdirisak Waberi wants to build bridges between different parts of society. He's fifth on the Moderate Party list and has good chances of getting into parliament. "I want to primarily work on exclusion. Youth who are slipping, good care for citizens, and environmental issues," he says. He thinks it's a positive thing that more Swedes of non-Nordic background get on the party's list. Abdirisak Waberi himself is a conservative Muslims who also represents the Islamic Association, which runs the Stockholm mosque. In a recent SVT documentary he and his association were identified as Islamists. Abdirisak Waberi thinks that it was an issue of smearing Islamic organizations. He doesn't call himself an Islamist. Later he wrote in a mail to SvD: "It's natural for me as a believing Muslims to try and live by the Koran in the same way that it's natural for a Christian to try and live by the Bible." At the same time he stresses that "supports equality between the sexes. Swedish law is based on the principle that even homosexuals should have the same freedoms and rights as others, and I think that's good." Abdirisak Waberi says he agrees with the foundations of Swedish family law, which prohibits polygamy. "I stand for the political agenda of the new Moderates," he stresses. But Abdirisak Waberi's candidacy puts the spotlight on the debate about Islam in Sweden. Aje Carlbom, phd of social anthropology, thinks that the Islamic Association is part of the Islamic movement which wants it's own public space, with its own schools, kindergartens and so on. This parallel structure is at odds with the party's integration policy. "It doesn't annul segregation. It strengthens it. But the Islamists want segregation. They believe that it protects Muslim children." To be a candidate for a political party is one way to give the movement increasing influence, thinks Aje Carlbom, though he points out that he doesn't have any idea as to what Abdirisak Waberi stands for as an individual. Pernilla Ouis, phd of human ecology, who has insights into Muslim Sweden, doesn't want to speak about Abdirisak Waberi either. But she thinks that there are both advantages and disadvantages with having people she sees as Islamists engaging in a poltiical party. "They represent a part of society in a democracy. I would rather they engage in the Moderates than that they start an Islamic party," she explains. But Pernilla Ouis doesn't think it's not just practicing Muslims who are forced to wrestle with issues where politics and religion collide. The same applies also to Bible-literalist Christian politicians. Mehmet Kaplan, a parliament member for the Greens, is a Muslim. He was president of Sweden's Young Muslims and has good insights into the Swedish Association. "So far during my years I've seen no organizational signs that they are attempting to do any type of Islamizaton." On the contrary, says Mehmet Kaplan, there have been some individuals in the organizations with more extreme views. Jan Hjärpe, religion historian and professor emeritus, thinks that those who speak of Swedish Islamism are completely wrong. There are a few individuals, smaller groups in Sweden which can be called Islamist, that is that they have a political agenda where religion is state policy and the aim is an Islamic state. "But to characterize the large Swedish organizations this way, that's unlikely. I think this is quite undramatic." But Jan Hjärpe has already gotten reactions to Abdirisak Waberi's placement on the Moderates list. "The campaign to put him under suspicion is part of the Sweden Democrats' tactics. There are less politely worded repudiations so to speak."
 BRITAIN’S Muslim population has hit 2.4million because the UK is seen as the best country in Europe for the Islamic faith, a report is to reveal. There are 1.1million Muslim immigrants and 1.3million UK-born Muslims – mostly the children of newcomers. Muslims quizzed said there was less open hostility to Islam in Britain than other EU countries and that the Government is sympathetic to them. But critics seized on the findings as confirmation that Labour’s multicultural policies are pandering to Islam. Sir Andrew Green, of the pressure group Migrationwatch, warned the Muslim population in Britain was likely to be even higher than research showed. He said: “The rapid rise in the Muslim population is just one way in which mass immigration promoted, even encouraged, by this Government has affected the whole nature of our society.” Muslim illegal immigrants were unlikely to respond to Government-linked surveys, he added. The population research is to be published next month in a new “faith map” of the UK drawn up by the Institute for Public Policy Research, a think-tank with close links to 10 Downing Street. Even the authors admit the increasing numbers of immigrants of different religions will be “challenging” for social cohesion in the UK. The report found in the past decade a rise of 275,000 in the number of Muslims who were born in Pakistan or Bangladesh living in Britain. The increase is equivalent to twice the population of Oxford. And the number of Somali-born UK residents had also risen sharply – from fewer than 40,000 in 1999 to 106,700 this year. They claimed to prefer the UK because of “latent Islamaphobia” abroad, the report said. The “faith map” showed that 4.5million immigrants living in Britain had a religious affiliation. Of those, around a quarter were Muslim and more than half Christian. Polish Catholics and African Pentecostals also were also among the fastest-growing religious communities in the UK. The findings were based on previously unpublished results of the Labour Force Survey, which quizzes 200,000 people each year. Researchers said traditional church attendance had declined over the last decade but evangelical Christianity was growing. The report, called Faith, Migration and Integration in the UK, says: “A challenging change is that brought about by the arrival of migrants with an established faith organisation whose traditions and beliefs differ from that of the UK-born population.” A separate report found British Muslims are the most patriotic in Europe. Seventy-eight per cent think of themselves as British, says the Open Society Institute. In Germany it was 23 per cent. Daily Express 
 It would be reassuring if Muslim organizations were more unequivocal in their condemnation of acts of violence done in the name of Islam. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) includes in its statement condemning the killings at Fort Hood, the following warning: “Unfortunately, based on past experience, we also urge American Muslims, and those who may be perceived to be Muslim, to take appropriate precautions to protect themselves, their families and their religious institutions from possible backlash.” This statement is designed to create and establish among Muslims the feeling they are victims within America. It also is meant to provide the basis for understanding why some lunatic who is Muslim might have reason to “snap.” This is not much different than the view, still held by a large minority of Americans (Reverend Wright anyone?) that 9/11 was simply America’s chickens coming home to roost. This warning by CAIR is an irritant and does not belong in this press release. Hate crimes in America are virtually non-existent, relative to its size. The last year for which the FBI has detailed data is 2007. There were a total of 1477 hate crimes against religion, 1010 of which were “Anti-Jewish.” “Anti-Catholic” and Anti-Protestantant crimes totaled 129, “Anti-Muslim” crimes totaled 133, and all other religions combined totaled 241.
No deaths were attributed to the victim’s religion. There were 16,000 murders in America in 2008. Bias crimes exist, but they are a sideshow. To include them in a statement condemning the murders at Fort Hood is political propaganda. It would also be reassuring if CAIR’s statement were more specific in its condemnation. They state that “no political or religious ideology could ever justify or excuse such wanton and indiscriminate violence.” That’s not true. Not only can political and religious ideologies justify such violence, they do it all the time. Plus, why the generic “political or religious” passive sentence construction? Why not simply Islam itself condemns such violence? CAIR instead says the “American Muslim community condemns this cowardly attack.” [Emphasis added.] In today’s world, there are no accidents of language by sophisticated and well-funded organizations of any kind. Yes, paranoia can strike deep. But carefully constructed statements as obvious in what they exclude as what they include, do not help matters either. CAIR, and other such groups, needs to do better than this. Editors Note: Visit Michael Rulles Blog Here. See his previous NewsReal commentaries here. NewsReal Blog
 Nursery-age children should be monitored for signs of brainwashing by Islamist extremists, according to a leaked police memo obtained by The Times. In an e-mail to community groups, an officer in the West Midlands counter-terrorism unit wrote: “I do hope that you will tell me about persons, of whatever age, you think may have been radicalised or be vulnerable to radicalisation ... Evidence suggests that radicalisation can take place from the age of 4.” The police unit confirmed that counter-terrorist officers specially trained in identifying children and young people vulnerable to radicalisation had visited nursery schools. The policy was condemned last night. Chris Grayling, the Shadow Home Secretary, said that it ran the risk of “alienating even more people”. Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said that it was an “absurd waste of police time”. Sir Norman, the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire, said: “There is absolutely no example, nationally, of the police engaging with nursery-age kids specifically on this issue. That is the age for learning about ‘Stranger Danger’ and ‘The Tufty Club’.” The Home Office has disclosed, meanwhile, that a seven-year-old has become the youngest child to feature in a scheme to tackle grooming by extremists. David Hanson, the Police Minister, disclosed in a parliamentary answer that the child was one of 228 people referred to the Channel Project, part of Prevent focused on individuals. More than 90 per cent of those identified by the project have been aged between 15 and 24 and most, but not all, are Muslim. Criticism of the anti-extremism strategy is growing. The programme, funded from the £3.5 billion per year security budget, is said to stigmatise communities and encourage Muslims to spy on one another. This week John Denham, the Communities Secretary, said that the programme had to be more transparent to dispel “the fear that by joining a Prevent activity, the organisers or the participants are opening themselves up to covert surveillance, intelligence-gathering and the collection of files on the Muslim communities”. The e-mail obtained by The Times was written by a sergeant in response to Muslim community concerns. He was trying to allay fears but seems to have inflamed them. He wrote: “I am a police officer and therefore it will always be part of my role to gather intelligence and I will report back any information or intelligence which may suggest someone is a terrorist, or is planning to be one or to support others. However, my role is to raise the level of awareness of the threat of terrorism and radicalisation and support and work with partners to try to prevent it.” Arun Kundnani, of the Institute of Race Relations, contacted the officer and said he was told that officers had visited nursery schools. Mr Kundnani added: “He did seem to think it was standard. He said it wasn’t just him or his unit that was doing it.
He said the indicators were they [children] might draw pictures of bombs and say things like ‘all Christians are bad’ or that they believe in an Islamic state. It seems that nursery teachers in the West Midlands area are being asked to look out for radicalisation.
He also said that targeting young children was important because they would be left aware of what was inappropriate to say at school. He felt that it was necessary to cover nurseries as well as primary and secondary schools. He said it was a precaution and that he wasn’t expecting to come back with a list.” More at Times Online
It would indeed be confronting - almost a challenge - to have your city streets taken over by an imported faith in such an exclusionary way, especially when traffic regulation is left to that faith’s marshals: So I’m not surprised that some Parisien locals have now written to their President demanding the return of their streets.
Nor am I surprised that this debate is getting ugly, much as I regret it. Andrew Bolt
 THE GOVERNMENT of Saudi Arabia is planning to establish a school with an Islamic ethos in Dublin.The plans have been announced in Arabic on the website of the Saudi embassy in Dublin which opened in September.According to the notice, the decision to set up a school was taken at a meeting in Dublin late last month. The meeting was attended by members of the education committee of the Saudi Shura Council, an unelected body whose members advise the Kingdom's government, and Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Ireland, Abdulaziz Aldriss. "It was decided in the meeting to establish a Saudi school to teach the children of Saudi citizens and students residing in Ireland," the website says. The Saudi embassy insists the plans are at a very early stage, and a spokesperson yesterday declined to give further details. In a statement, the Department of Education said the Saudi government had not been in contact with the department regarding the matter. Speculation has mounted within Ireland's 40,000-strong Muslim community over how big the school might be, and whether it will cater for non-Saudi Muslims. According to the embassy, less than 15 Saudi families live and work in Ireland, and more than 400 Saudi nationals study here, though the latter number is expected to rise in coming years following the Saudi ministry for education's recognition of more Irish third-level institutions. Ali Selim, a theologian based at the Islamic Cultural Centre in Clonskeagh, Dublin, welcomed the plans. Asked about speculation within the Muslim community that the school may incorporate secondary education, he said that if this proved correct it would "achieve a long cherished Muslim ambition" in Ireland. The State already has a number of Muslim primary schools. ( more) Source: Irish Times
 The leader of Switzerland’s centrist Christian Democrats (CVP) has apologised for calling for a ban on new Muslim and Jewish cemeteries, just days after Swiss voters approved a halt to building minarets. “I am sorry. I didn’t mean it like that,” CVP leader Christophe Darbellay told the tabloid Blick daily on Friday, adding: “It was about the principle that we all belong to the same Swiss society … but you can’t explain that in 15 seconds.” Darbellay provoked protests when he told local television earlier in the week that Switzerland should not allow the building of separate cemeteries for Jews or Muslims in future. The Conference of European Rabbis criticised his comments on Thursday and said the Swiss minaret ban will fuel xenophobia and risks making Jews the next target of religious intolerance.
“We don’t have a situation of the extreme right in Europe attacking Jews because they are content to attack Muslims,” Philip Carmel, the international relations director for the Conference of European Rabbis, told Reuters. “But the Swiss example is classic: it’s not just Muslims who are going to be targeted by the extreme right.” Darbellay has also proposed a ban on the Muslim burqa, or face veil. His comments are seen as a response to the rise of the populist Swiss People’s Party (SVP) which campaigned for the minaret ban. Read the whole story here. Reuters
 This might be nitpicking, but as I've followed articles on the Swiss minaret ban, I've noticed the number of Muslims fluctuating.
Before the final results:
Muslims make up about 6 percent of Switzerland's 7.5 million people. Many Swiss Muslims are refugees from the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. Fewer than 13 percent practice their religion, the government says, and Swiss mosques do not broadcast the call to prayer outside their buildings.
After the final results:
Supporters of the ban said the number of Muslims in Switzerland had grown sharply from 50,000 in 1980, but it is still only 4 percent of the 7.5 million population, many of whom don't practice. Western Europe has an estimated 14 million Muslims.
According to the AP, it took a day for a third of Swiss Muslims to disappear.
Either that, or the AP is using whichever demographics are more convenient to make the point ('Muslims are integral to Switzerland' vs. 'there's barely any Muslims around'). Thanks to Islam in Europe
 They were just five words, but they swept through the Muslim world like a brush fire nearly four years ago, launching a scorching backlash that endures to this day. “Be quiet. It’s my turn,” the Syrian-born American, Wafa Sultan, said in February 2006 to a Muslim cleric she was debating on Al Jazeera. A woman interrupting a man? In public? In Islamic societies, particular in the Arab world, a Muslim woman could be killed for such behavior, for it challenges the very nature of relations between the sexes. Nor can such a woman, even a highly educated psychiatrist like Sultan, live in safety just by escaping the Middle East. Today, facing death threats, Sultan lives in hiding in the United States. The drive behind Sultan’s outburst, and the years-long anger that fueled it, is chronicled in her controversial new book, A God Who Hates.
In it, she tells her life story of professional success but personal humiliation in an Islamic society, and she describes Islam as an inherently destructive ideology, that keeps its adherents in backwardness and its women and children in slave-like conditions. Her book is not only riveting but important, for it forces attention on an issue of great debate – what is the essential nature of Islam, and how should the West respond to terrorism and the ideologies that drive it? On one side are those who believe that Islam is a moderate, mainstream religion, little different from Judaism and Christianity, one that can live in peace with, and thrive within, modern Western society. Key adherents of this view include Irshad Manji, who lives as an openly gay and feminist Muslim in Canada, lectures and writes widely, runs the Moral Courage Project at New York University and is author of the provocative book, What’s Wrong with Islam Today; M. Zuhdi Jasser, a physician who earned his medical degree on a Navy scholarship and is founder and president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy; and Zainab Al-Suwaij, a women’s rights advocate who is co-founder and executive director of the American Islamic Congress. On the other side are those who believe that Islam is inherently aggressive and anti-Western, that it demands anti-Jewish and anti-Christian violence and that it’s not really a religion at all but a political ideology. Along with Sultan, leading subscribers to this view include Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali native who fled to the West, served in the Dutch Parliament, now serves as a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, requires round-the-clock protection, and is the author of two heartrending books about her life, The Caged Virgin and Infidel; and Brigitte Gabriel, the Lebanese-American journalist, founder and president of the American Congress for Truth and author of two books that urge the West to confront Islam, Why They Hate and They Must be Stopped. This unresolved debate over Islam shapes the disjointed response of Western governments to attacks on their people and property that seem motivated by religion. Some officials blame Islam, some blame a radical perversion of an otherwise peaceful religion and some studiously avoid any notion that Islam has connections to violence, pointing instead to social pathologies or the personal demons of the perpetrators. It’s a debate that has played out this year over, for instance, the Fort Hood massacre, allegedly perpetrated by a Muslim Army psychiatrist who praised suicide bombings and ranted about the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; the ongoing saga of Rifqa Bary, the 17-year-old Ohio daughter of Muslim immigrants who converted to Christianity and fled her family out of fear that they would have her killed for abandoning Islam; and the recent beheading in Buffalo of a Muslim woman allegedly by her husband, a prominent local Muslim leader from whom she had filed for divorce. This debate over Islam is tough and explosive, and I admit to uncertainty about which way to lean. The Koranic verses, the “hadiths” (sayings) of the Prophet Mohammad, and the “fatwas” (opinions) of Islamic scholars that Sultan and others cite in tying Islam to violence are compelling. So, too, are the Islam-based justifications for death and destruction by terrorists around the world. But, equally compelling are the examples that Manji, Jasser and Al-Suwaij have set in reconciling Islam with modernity, peace and human rights and in confronting the perpetrators of violence in the name of Islam. It is a debate in which the West must engage more openly, however uncomfortable that might be. To put it bluntly, only if we know what we’re facing will we be able to confront it effectively. North Star National
 by Paola Del Vecchio The first Islamic party in Spain is getting ready to have representation in the key municipalities in the administrative elections in 2011.
The Renaissance and Union of Spain Party, promoted by Mustafa Barrach, a former journalist and Arabic professor in Granada, is close to Rabat, according to a report today in the ABC conservative newspaper.
Member of the Al Hegira Muslim community and treasurer of the Spanish Islamic Council, Barrak aspires to gathering not only votes from the nearly 1,300,000 Muslim residents in Spain but also from immigrants who represent 10% of the Spanish population. Mustafa Bakkach, who has been living in Spain for 15 years, dedicates much of his time to supporting immigrants.
The Islamic Council, an organisation inspired by the Sufi branch of Islam, is made up of a majority of Spanish converts belonging to the Yamaa Islamica-Liga Morisca. Moriscos is what the 300,000 Muslims are called who stayed on the Iberian peninsula after the expulsion of the Catholic kings and were forced to convert to Christianity and then banished for good in 1609.
In the internal gazette, the organisation expounds a clearly national vocation not only for consolidation in one area or autonomous region and considers Islam the base of its principals in political activities, a determining factor for the moral and ethical regeneration of Spanish society.
However, at the same time, it respects the Spanish constitution and refuses terrorism as an instrument of political struggle.
The organisation does not realistically aspire to winning the municipalities but wants to obtain a discreet number of councillors in some key Spanish cities.
According to ABC, the government does not hide a certain worry, since there are currently 1,300,000 resident Muslims in the country including Spanish converts and immigrants from Islamic countries of which there are 700,000 from Morocco.
But there could be more than two million if illegal immigrants are counted. The politicians fears have to do with the new party eventually lead to the non-integration in urban area with high
Muslim presence and that in cities where they already have a majority, the Muslims could attempt to impose their customs through municipal regulations.
 Spanish Muslims launched Saturday, October 26, an independent, self-regulatory body to train imams in the southern European country."The Islamic Union of Imams and Preachers in Spain is the fruit of strenuous efforts of Muslim imams over the past years," chairman Sheikh Alaa Said told IslamOnline.net. The new body will be entrusted with training imams and preachers across the country. "The growing Muslim community in Spain required the launch of an official Islamic body to unify efforts of imams and preachers nationwide," said Said. The umbrella body will have three specialized committees on fatwa, research and training."It seeks to upgrade the level of all those working in the field of Da`wa in Spain," he said. The Union was approved by the Spanish Interior Ministry last May. "At first we encountered some obstacles with the Justice Ministry to register the Union," said Said. "But we later moved to the Interior Ministry to get the official approval after presenting the necessary papers to launch the body." A dignitary of Spanish officials and nearly 70 imams and preachers from across Spain took up in the launch of the Muslim Union. Leading among attendees were Josep Maria Felipe, the general director of the immigration of the Valencian government, Sheikh Hussein Halawa, chairman of the European Council for Fatwa and Research and Sheikh Wanis Al-Mabrook, the head of the European Assembly of Muslim Imams and Spiritual Guides. ( more) Source: IslamOnline (English)
 ELAINE GANLEY PARIS (AP) — The head of France's Muslim council said Wednesday that the full-body veil worn by a minority of Muslims in France is an "entry way" to radical Islam, but that a national debate over whether to ban the garment in public is stigmatizing the entire Muslim community. Mohammed Moussaoui told a panel of lawmakers that any decision to outlaw the veils that cover the body and face risks feeding a sense of discrimination. The debate "has taken on unexpected proportions" and "Muslims are increasingly finding themselves confronted with stereotypes whose consequence is the stigmatization of an entire religion," Moussaoui said, referring to what many Muslims say is a tendency to group them into a single unit be they moderate or radical. Moussaoui heads the French Council of the Muslim Faith, or CFCM, which groups the various tendencies of Islam in France and serves, among other things, as a conduit for dialogue with French authorities. The council, which includes some Muslim fundamentalists, was called to testify before parliamentarians holding hearings that could lay the groundwork for an law banning Muslim women from wearing head-to-toe and face-covering veils in public. Some claim the number of women — and girls — covered by niqabs or burqas is rising. President Nicolas Sarkozy has said that such robes make "prisoners" of women and won't be welcome in France, a position that spurred the parliamentary inquiry. Islam is the second religion in France after Roman Catholicism. With an estimated 5 million Muslims, France has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe. Moussaoui said the council agrees the wearing of full-body robes is not required by Islam but is instead a religious practice of an "extremely marginal" minority of Muslim women.
Still, he said in a prepared speech approved by all factions in the Muslim grouping, such a garment "should not be a motive for incriminating those who wear it." The Muslim grouping said it preferred to try to dissuade women from wearing the veil through dialogue, saying any law could prove counterproductive, raising sympathy for those who wear the garment and feeding radical agendas. The council asked lawmakers to form a commission to inquire about what it said was a rise in Islamophobia and find ways to fight it even such anti-Islamic prejudice, like the full-body veil, "is marginal." Some lawmakers took exception to what the said was the "timid" approach of the five-man Muslim panel, saying the full veil has implications for a range of issues from women's rights to public safety and terrorism. "It is an extreme practice and we don't want it to install itself on the national territory," Moussaoui then said. He later told The Associated Press that he considered the wearing of the full-body veil to be an "entry way" to a radical interpretation of Islam, "and there is a risk of falling further." Source: NewsOK
 The British government has denied that a programme for tackling religious extremism is used by its security agencies to spy on Muslim communities. In a statement released on Saturday, the Home Office said its $230m Preventing Violent Extremism strategy did not engage in covert intelligence-gathering on potential terrorists. "Any suggestion that Prevent is about spying is simply wrong," the Home Office said. "Prevent is about working with communities to protect vulnerable individuals and address the root causes of radicalisation." Launched in 2006, the programme's mission was to fund projects aimed at rejecting extremist ideology and employing youth workers and teachers to help young Muslims deemed vulnerable to radical organisations. But in a critical report, the Institute of Race Relations claimed the programme has, in effect, established "one of the most elaborate systems of surveillance ever seen in Britain". Arun Kundnani, the report's author, concludes that far from tackling extremism, Prevent actually fostered division, mistrust and alienation. "The Prevent progamme constructs the Muslim population as a 'suspect community' ... encourages tokenism, facilitates violations of privacy and professional norms of confidentiality, discourages local democracy and is counter-productive in reducing the risk of political violence", Kundnani said. Read more here,,,, Source: Al Jazeera (English)
 Switzerland's biggest city, Zurich, has allowed the use of a controversial poster which urges a ban on the building of minarets in the country. The poster shows a woman dressed in a burka in front of black minarets standing on a Swiss flag. But Zurich city council said campaign posters were protected by free speech. The advert is being used by the far-right Swiss People's Party (SVP) ahead of next month's referendum on whether to ban the building of new minarets. The Swiss Federal Commission Against Racism said earlier this week that the poster was "tantamount to the denigration and defamation of the peaceful Swiss Muslim population". Some media reports have said the minarets resemble missiles. Zurich city council said on Thursday that although it disapproved of the "negative and dangerous" poster, it had to be accepted as part of political free speech ahead of the 29 November national referendum. The city followed the examples of Geneva, Lucerne and Winterthur, who earlier also gave the green light to the use of the SVP's advert. But a number of Swiss cities - including Basel, Lausanne and Fribourg - have banned the advert in public spaces. Meanwhile, an opinion poll on Thursday showed that 51% of those questioned would reject the proposed ban. Nearly 35% of the respondents supported the ban, according to the poll in the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper. Switzerland is home to some 300,000 Muslims, who make up about 4% of the population. It has hundreds of mosques, but only a handful of them have minarets. Plans to build more minarets prompted the campaign for a ban. Source: BBC
Meet Sweden's Muslim Minister: She wants to ban girls from wearing the hijab
Wednesday, September 2, 2009 Nyamko Sabuni wants all girls checked for evidence of female circumcision; criminalize arranged marriages and end state funding of religious school
Helena Frith Powell - The Sunday Times, UK “Nowhere in the Koran does it state that a child should wear a veil; it stops them being children. By putting a veil on a girl you are immediately saying to the outside world that she is sexually mature and has to be covered. It’s wrong”
THE latest media darling of Scandinavian politics is not only black, beautiful and Muslim; she is also firmly against the wearing of the veil.
Nyamko Sabuni, 37, has caused a storm as Sweden’s new integration and equality minister by arguing that all girls should be checked for evidence of female circumcision; arranged marriages should be criminalised; religious schools should receive no state funding; and immigrants should learn Swedish and find a job.
Supporters of the centre-right government that came to power last month believe that her bold rejection of cultural diversity may make her a force for change across Europe. Her critics are calling her a hardliner and even an Islamophobe.
“I am neither,” she said in an interview. “My aim is to integrate immigrants. One is to ensure they grow up just as any other child in Sweden would.”
Sabuni believes all immigrants must try to become proficient in Swedish — just as she did when she arrived from Africa aged 12 — rather than alienating locals.
“Language and jobs are the two most crucial things for integration,” she said. “If you want to become a Swedish citizen, we think you should have some basic knowledge of Swedish.”
An elegant, vivacious woman who uses subtle make-up and wears soft clothes in pastel shades and tight woollen sweaters, she argues for a total ban on veils being worn by girls under the age of consent, which is 15 in Sweden.
“Nowhere in the Koran does it state that a child should wear a veil; it stops them being children. By putting a veil on a girl you are immediately saying to the outside world that she is sexually mature and has to be covered. It’s wrong,” she said.
Sabuni was born in Burundi. Her father was a political dissident who was in prison during much of her early childhood. In 1980 he was granted asylum in Sweden. The next year his wife and six children joined him and they settled near Stockholm.
Sabuni read law at Uppsala University, Sweden’s equivalent of Oxbridge, and became a public relations consultant. Her husband, who works in the travel industry and runs their home in Stockholm, took paternity leave when their twin boys, now five, were born.
In Sweden she is best known for her suggestion that adolescent girls should have compulsory examinations to make sure they have not been subjected to genital mutilation. “It would enable us to prosecute people carrying out the practice,” she said.
According to Sabuni, many politicians have shied away from talking about the need for assimilation rather than multi-culturalism: “I am one of the few who dares to speak out. Sadly, some members of the Muslim community feel picked on.”
Muslim groups in Sweden are already organising a petition to have her removed from government. “I regret that Muslims feel I am a threat to them,” she said. “Everybody has a right to practise their religion, but I will never accept religious oppression. And I represent the whole of society, not just the Muslims.”
Despite her ascendancy in her adopted country, Sabuni says that Sweden, where immigrants — half of them Muslims — make up nearly 12% of the population, has been only moderately successful at integration: “We have a whole underclass of people who don’t have jobs, who don’t speak the language and who are living on the fringes of society.”
Although fighting discrimination is one of her stated aims, she effectively closed down a Centre Against Racism last week by withdrawing its £400,000 state funding. By chance, the centre was run by her uncle.
“It didn’t achieve its aims,” she said bluntly. “It simply didn’t do what it set out to do, so I had to pull the plug. My uncle is a good and a competent man, but a whole institute can’t be run by one man. He understands that I have to do my job.”
Other ministers appointed by Fredrik Reinfeldt, the prime minister, are more concerned about their jobs. Since he took over on September 17, two ministers have resigned in a series of minor scandals involving unpaid television licences and black-market domestic help, and two more are under pressure to go.
Should Reinfeldt’s government fall, Sabuni would be willing to step into his shoes. On a TV show three years ago she declared that she would become Sweden’s first female prime minister. “I stand by that,” she said. “It’s not something I think about on a daily basis but, if I’m in politics, the ultimate aim has to be to become prime minister.”
Anders Jonsson, a political commentator on the liberal newspaper Expressen, says there is no doubt Sabuni is one to watch. “She is a tough cookie and incredibly ambitious,” he said. “But I think it’s good that a black woman is raising these issues and she has proved that she is prepared to take tough decisions in order to get things done.” Source: http://www.averroespress.com/AverroesPress/Main/Entries/2009/9/2_Meet_Sweden%E2%80%99s_Muslim_Minister__She_wants_to_ban_girls_from_wearing_the_hijab.html
By Ajit Jain
The Muslim leaders were invited for the round table as Canada's spy agency is reportedly frightened of potential terrorist attacks on Canadians and now are seeking the help of Muslim leaders.
"I want you to help... Us doing it alone is like one hand clapping," Ellis told the group on August 16 in Toronto.
Not many Muslims were interested in attending this round table and in fact some e-mails were reportedly circulated advising Muslim leaders to stay away from the meeting.
Ellis admitted that attendance was small, which was unfortunate for him. He conceded that prior to the meeting, certain opinion makers in the Muslim community had circulated e-mails suggesting it was best to give the meeting a pass, since no high level political officials from Ottawa were there. Source: Rediff
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Copyright Muslims Against Sharia 2008. All rights reserved.
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It is sad that President Obama and his team are still going through on-the-job training a year into their administration. 
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