Facing far-right challenge, minister says Islam doesn’t belong to Germany

March 16, 2018 Article

New Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said Islam does not belong to Germany and set out hardline immigration policies in an interview published on Friday, as he sought to see off rising far-right challengers.

Seehofer told Bild newspaper he would push through a “master plan for quicker deportations”, in his first major interview since he was sworn into office on Wednesday.

The minister – a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CSU Bavarian allies who are further to the right than her own Christian Democrats (CDU) – said he would also classify more states as ‘safe’ countries of origin, which would make it easier to deport failed asylum seekers.

The statements come after Merkel’s conservatives, and their coalition allies – the Social Democrats – lost ground to the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in elections last year.

Seehofer is particularly keen to show his party is tackling immigration ahead of Bavaria’s October regional election, when the AfD is expected to enter that state assembly.

“Islam does not belong to Germany,” Seehofer said, contradicting former German president Christian Wulff who fuelled a debate over immigration in 2010 by saying Islam was part of Germany.

In 2015 Merkel echoed Wulff’s words at a time when anti-immigration campaign group PEGIDA – or Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West – was holding marches.

“LIVE WITH US”

“Of course the Muslims living here do belong to Germany,” Seehofer said before going on to say Germany should not give up its own traditions or customs, which had Christianity at their heart.

“My message is: Muslims need to live with us, not next to us or against us,” he said.

The government estimates between 4.4 and 4.7 million Muslims are living in Germany. Many of them have a Turkish background and many of the more than a million migrants who have arrived in the country from the Middle East and elsewhere after Merkel adopted an open-door policy in mid-2015 are also Muslims.

Andre Poggenburg, head of the AfD in the eastern state of Saxony, said Seehofer was copying his party with a view to Bavaria’s October regional election: “Horst Seehofer has taken this message from our manifesto word for word,” he said.

The far-left Linke and Greens condemned Seehofer’s message, and the Social Democrats’ Natascha Kohnen told broadcaster n-tv: “Saying that incites people against each other at a time when we really don’t need that. What we really need is politicians who bring people together.”

In a coalition agreement, Merkel’s CDU/CSU conservative bloc and the Social Democrats agreed they would manage and limit migration to Germany and Europe to avoid a re-run of the 2015 refugee crisis.

They also said they did not expect migration (excluding labour migration) to rise above the range of 180,000 to 220,000 per year.

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Categories: Bavaria, Germany, News

Tunisian women march for equal inheritance rights

March 11, 2018 Article

Hundreds of women took to the streets in the Tunisian capital on Saturday to demand equal inheritance rights as men, a subject often seen as taboo in the Arab world.

The North African Muslim country grants women more rights than other countries in the region, and since last year has allowed Muslim women to marry non-Muslim men.

But the protestors marching to the parliament building in Tunis on Saturday said they wanted to be compared with European women and to be entitled to the same inheritance rights.

Joined by some men, they carried slogans such as “In a civil state I take exactly what you take”, demanding an end to inheritance laws based on Islamic law. This usually grants men the double of what women get.

“It is true that Tunisian women have more rights compared to other Arab women but we want to be compared with European women,” said Kaouther Boulila, an activist.

“We just want our rights.”

In August, President Beji Caid Essbsi, a secular politician, set up a committee to draft proposals to advance women’s rights.

Tunisia has been hailed as the only “Arab spring” success story following political freedoms introduced after the ousting of autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.

Economic growth has been disappointing, however, with high unemployment driving many young Tunisians who had joined the uprising, abroad.

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Categories: Equal Rights, Muslim women, News, North African country, Tunisia, Women's rights

Buddhist mobs target Sri Lanka’s Muslims despite state of emergency

March 7, 2018 Article

Sri Lanka shut down social messaging networks including Facebook on Wednesday to control violence targeted at the country’s minority Muslims, officials said, even after the imposition of emergency in the Buddhist-majority island.

Tension has been growing between the two communities in Sri Lanka over the past year, with some hardline Buddhist groups accusing Muslims of forcing people to convert to Islam and vandalising Buddhist archaeological sites.

Some Buddhist nationalists have also protested against the presence in Sri Lanka of Muslim Rohingya asylum seekers from mostly Buddhist Myanmar, where Buddhist nationalism has also been on the rise.

Police clamped an indefinite curfew in the central highlands district of Kandy where the violence has been centred since Sunday following the death of a Buddhist youth in an altercation with a group of Muslims.

Buddhist mobs attacked mosques and businesses belonging to Muslims overnight, residents told Reuters on Wednesday, even after President Maithripala Sirisena imposed emergency for seven days to control the violence.

Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said there had been “several incidents” throughout Tuesday night in the Kandy area, famous for its tea plantations.

“The police arrested seven people. Three police officers were injured from the incidents,” Gunasekara told Reuters. There was no information about how many civilians had been wounded, he said.

Some of the violence has been instigated over social media with postings appearing on Facebook threatening more attacks against Muslims, the government said.

On Wednesday, it said Facebook, Viber and Whatsapp would be blocked across the country for three days.

Sri Lanka is still healing from a 26-year civil war against Tamil separatists that ended in 2009, with reports of rights abuses on both sides. Muslims make up 9 percent of the 21 million population, the smallest minority after ethnic Tamils, most of whom are Hindus.

UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said he was alarmed by the recurring episodes of violence against ethnic and religious minorities in Sri Lanka and sought accountability.

“There should be no impunity, either for the incitement that led to the attacks, or the attacks themselves,” he said in a speech to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The U.S. State Department in a security alert warned of the possibility of further unrest in Kandy, famous for a temple said to contain the tooth of Buddha.

A government minister said the violence in Kandy had been whipped up by people from outside the area. “There is an organised conspiracy behind these incidents,” Sarath Amunugama, a senior minister, told reporters in Colombo.

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Categories: Myanmar, News, Persecution, Rohingya, Sri Lanka, State of Emergency

French judge steps up Le Pen investigation over Islamic State tweets

March 3, 2018 Article

A judge placed France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen under formal investigation on Thursday on suspicion of disseminating violent images over tweets she posted of Islamic State executions, a move she indicated was politically motivated.

The investigation relates to three graphic images of Islamic State executions she posted on Twitter in December 2015, including the beheading of American journalist James Foley.

“If they are trying to silence me, they will not succeed,” Le Pen told news channel LCI. She had denounced an earlier stage of the investigation as “political interference”.

Under France’s legal system, being formally placed under investigation often – but not always – leads to a person being sent to trial.

The judge’s decision to step up the investigation comes a little over a week ahead of the National Front’s annual congress, where she is expected to lay out how she plans to rebuild the battered party after her thumping defeat at the hands of President Emmanuel Macron in last year’s election.

It is, though, unlikely to affect her popularity with party loyalists.

Other ongoing investigations, including one into allegations her party misused European Union funds to pay parliamentary assistants and another into the financing of past election campaigns, have not dented her appeal among the National Front faithful. She has denied any wrongdoing in both cases.

Party stalwarts rallied around Le Pen on social media.

“@MLP_officiel placed under formal investigation for spreading photos of Islamic State executions. No, it’s no good telling the truth,” tweeted Bryan Masson, a National Front official from the southern Alpes-Maritimes region.

If the investigation proceeds to a trial, Le Pen could face a maximum sentence of several years in jail and a 75,000 euro fine if convicted.

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Categories: court, Far Right groups, Far Right leader, France, Front National, Islamic State, News, Prosecution, Tweets

Closure of the Holy Sepulchre is a Dark Day for All

February 25, 2018 Article

The Holy Sepulchre holds a sacred meaning for Muslims as well as Christians. Many Jerusalemite Muslims light candles and revere both Mary and Jesus, in part hoping that they maybe blessed in some way by these holy figures. This is highlighted through this tweet from Ghanem Nuseibeh, whose family members were entrusted with the keys to the Holy Sepulchre, as a Jerusalemite Muslim family. They have symbolically held the keys to the Holy Sepulchre for generations.

A recent bill by lawmaker Rachel Azaria, who sponsored the legislation, would mean that the State could expropriate land in Jerusalem sold by churches to private real estate firms in recent years. This has caused concern since the Church is a major landowner in Jerusalem and opens up racial and religious fault lines as every inch of Jerusalem is historically contested and with ramifications globally for faith communities.

Such a move is even more startling since the closure of the Sepulchre places a focus on the bill and does nothing for the image of the State in the eyes of many Christians. In fact, it can be regarded as a retrograde move, playing on sensitivities at a time when the US Embassy move to Jerusalem has already inflamed tensions in some communities. More than ever, stable and calm heads are needed rather than inflammatory pieces of legislation and moves that irritate the fragile balance and peace that is within Jerusalem.

Further posts by Nuseibeh also reflect a change in the position of liberal and progressive Palestinian voices, which need to be heard if there is to be any form of peace in the future.

The Holy Sepulchre is a symbol of hope at a time when darkness seems to be taking over parts of the global political landscape. The longer is remains closed, the longer the damage to the reputation of Israel and in the eyes of both Christians and Muslims. No doubt, many Jews will also see this as a retrograde move by the State of Israel. However, we want to highlight the comments made by Nuseibeh:

“Israel’s action against churches harms Israel as much as the churches. Someone should tell Israeli politicians not to over-rely on Trump. They need Arab, Christian and Muslim (s), more than American Evangelicals”.

 

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Categories: Christians, Ghanem Nuseibeh, Israel, Jerusalemite, Keys, Opinions, Palestinians, Rachel Azaria

“France first”, far right’s Marechal-Le Pen says in comeback speech

February 24, 2018 Article

France should follow U.S. President Donald Trump’s lead and fight for “France first”, Marion Marechal-Le Pen, seen as a potential leader of France’s far right, told U.S conservatives on Thursday in her first public appearance in months.

The 28-year-old former lawmaker, granddaughter of National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen and niece of party leader Marine Le Pen, temporarily withdrew from politics after her aunt’s presidential election defeat last May.

But she has long been viewed in France as a possible future leader of the National Front, and the fact that she was a keynote speaker at a conference that both Trump and U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence were addressing was widely commented on in French media as posing a challenge for Marine Le Pen.

“I’m not offended when I hear President Donald Trump say ‘America first’. In fact, I want America first for the American people, I want Britain first for the British people and I want France first for the French people,” she said.

“I came here today to tell you there is a youth ready for this fight in Europe today,” she told thousands of activists at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland.

Marechal-Le Pen, who is more socially conservative and economically liberal than her aunt, did not say if or when she was planning to return to an active role in French politics, instead mentioning her plans to open a management and political science school, which she said should train tomorrow’s leaders.

But the reception for Marechal-Le Pen, who has been praised by right-wing U.S. media such as Breitbart, was in contrast to her aunt’s visit to Trump Tower in New York in January last year, during the French presidential campaign.

Marine Le Pen, who has long aimed to burnish her credentials with foreign appearances, did not meet either Trump or anyone from his team during that visit and was photographed having coffee in a public area of the building.

While Le Pen has over the past months softened her anti-EU, anti-euro comments, Marechal-Le Pen lambasted the bloc, which she said was “slowly killing” ancient nations.

Blaming immigration and political correctness, she said in a speech delivered in English: “France is in the process of passing the eldest daughter of the Catholic church to the little niece of Islam.”

Marine Le Pen is hoping that a National Front congress mid-March will help her reassert her authority.

But in the complicated Le Pen family, whose rows have made French headlines for years, another possible problem for her is her father, who she expelled from the party but who said he would gate-crash the congress.

Meanwhile her niece told the activists: “Let us build on what you have achieved here so that on both sides of the Atlantic, conservatism may prevail.”

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Categories: Breitbart, Donald Trump, France, France First, News

French PM vows to combat ‘slow-burn’ threat of radical Islam

February 24, 2018 Article

France’s prime minister on Friday announced steps including prison isolation zones and more stringent licensing rules for faith-based schools to combat what he called a slow-burning threat from Islamist radicalisation.

In a traditionally Catholic country that is home to Europe’s largest Muslim community, President Emmanuel Macron has already imposed tougher legislation after attacks by Islamist militants killed more than 230 people in the past three years.

But he is under pressure to address voter fears of broader radicalisation at mosques manned by radical preachers and prisons that offer fertile ground for proselytisers of a hardline Islam at odds with France’s secular foundations.

Among the measures promised by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe were the creation of isolation zones for Islamist militants in France’s prisons and more scrutiny on the licensing of faith-based schools that opt out of the state-funded system.

“We cannot ignore this slow-burn process,” he told a news conference in Lille, northern France.

“Islamist radicalisation is a threat to our society, and not just when it leads to violence. It’s a challenge every time the law of the state is respected only if compatible with religious tenets.”

Philippe also promised better screening of people hired as coaches sports centres.

The scale of the challenge was highlighted by a report for the Interior Ministry.

The report by a senior civil servant warned that sectarian sentiment or behaviour was rising in parts of France, notably in poor urban areas where Muslims more openly resented or challenged obligations of secular public life.

He cited examples of young Muslim girls being kept away from school swimming, sculpture classes and choir activities frowned upon by some of the country’s estimated 5 million Muslims.

The report also highlighted fears about the number of young people being taken out of secular state-funded schools to teach them at home or put them in strictly faith-based schools.

Philippe said some 74,000 pupils entered schools outside of state system last year, calling the trend worrying if small compared with 12 million in education. The report said the number concerned had doubled in five years.

Such opt-out schools need licensing and that would be made tougher by law shortly, Philippe said.

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Categories: Emmanuel Macron, Islamic Schools, News, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe

Second Austrian far-right group has anti-Semitic songbook – newspaper

February 21, 2018 Article

A second Austrian student fraternity has a songbook containing anti-Semitic lyrics making fun of the Holocaust and insulting Jews, a newspaper said on Tuesday, three weeks after it exposed a similar case that forced a far-right politician to quit.

The earlier case reported by Falter prompted the resignation of a prominent member of the anti-Islam Freedom Party (FPO), which became the junior partner in conservative Chancellor Christian Kurz’s government in December following elections.

Austria is the only western European country to have a far-right party in government.

Last month, left-wing weekly Falter reported on anti-Semitic lyrics in a songbook published by a student fraternity in Lower Austria, the province surrounding Vienna. That fraternity’s deputy leader was the FPO’s top candidate in an election for the regional parliament there, Udo Landbauer.

Landbauer eventually stepped down over the affair. After initially refusing to sack him, the party later said it was setting up a committee of historians that would examine its past and that of right-wing fraternities like Landbauer’s, which are often close to the FPO but not formally part of it.

On Tuesday, Falter reported that another fraternity, Bruna Sudetia based in Vienna, had a similar songbook, and that the head of that group is on the staff of FPO Infrastructure Minister Norbert Hofer.

The staffer, Herwig Goetschober, who works on social media, was not immediately available for comment. A spokesman for Hofer said Goetschober was sick but denied knowing of the lyrics published by Falter, adding that his songbook had a different content and layout.

“He has no knowledge of this other songbook. He also does not know who produced it,” the spokesman said.

The FPO says it has abandoned its neo-Nazi past and rejects anti-Semitism. It now focuses its criticism on Islam and even openly courts Jewish voters.

But the main group representing Austria’s tiny Jewish community, the IKG, says the FPO has done too little to address the long-standing anti-Semitism within its ranks. It sees fraternities as a breeding ground for the problem.

The IKG has also questioned whether the FPO’s historical commission will get to the bottom of anti-Semitism within fraternities. Many senior political party figures belong to a fraternity but the FPO has said it cannot force those organisations to cooperate with the commission.

“If it is true that the FPO cannot control the fraternities, then that probably confirms that fraternity members control the FPO,” IKG chief Oskar Deutsch told ORF radio at the weekend.

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Categories: anti-Semitism, Austria, Falter, Far Right groups, Holocaust, Jews, Neo-Nazi, News

Anti-Ahmadi Rhetoric Rumbles On – With Terms Such As ‘Kafir’ Used

February 11, 2018 Article

In 2018 in modern day Britain, there are religious leaders who think that believers of their faith are so weak that different sects may ‘affect’ believers in their faith. Forget the fact that social media, access to the Internet, Daesh, unemployment and reduced life chances may affect the faith of the congregation, today, they are speaking about the ‘perils’ of a community that are so small and who feel so embattled, that such comments should concern us. 

Who are they speaking of? Well, here is Imam Muhammad Yasir Ayub who is commenting about an open day which was held by the local Ahmadi community in Nottingham. Such is the concern around an open day held by a peaceful local community (which regards themselves as Muslim), that it led to this outburst by this Imam who has preached in several mosques and in places like Manchester.

Here are his comments on the 4th of February and made on this social media page: 

 

Comments by Imam Muhammad Yasir Ayub

Calling another community group ‘Kafir’ in today’s context and putting their address up online, is potentially putting this community at risk. and is unacceptable. It also raises the issue about spiritual guidance and how easily it can be turned to attach to the political and social views of an individual, something that we have seen over history. What this has to do with Islam, can also be questioned, when Islam repeatedly asks for patience, introspection and for moderation. This is not to detract from other verses in scriptural texts, that within historical context were made at a time of instability that affected the first Muslims. So, in other words, since there is no physical threat to Muslims as a whole, why are such statements being made and which add to community tensions and fractures and being made by someone with a pastoral and spiritual responsibility. We stress the responsibility since turning people against another set of people is, we believe, hardly responsible.

We know that the vast majority of Imams in the UK may disagree with the Ahmadi movement. That is their right to do so and they disagree by listening, through dialogue and by ensuring that they do not play a role in inflaming tensions. However, there are some Imams who believe that if someone calls themselves a Muslim, then they should be treated as such. As said before, Ahmadis are a peaceful, well integrated and deeply introspective community. Not one of their community have been involved in extremism or terrorism and they work to raise large amounts of finance for charity work. They are a community who are an asset to our country who do not deserve such outbursts made in public.

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Categories: Ahmaddiyas, Anti-Ahmadi rhetoric, Imam Muhammad Yasir Ayub, Kafir, mosques, Opinions

Man sentenced for posting violent anti-Muslim Facebook posts

February 8, 2018 Article

A man who admitted to stirring up hatred against Muslims on Facebook was sentenced yesterday at Bradford Crown Court.

John Hanson, 61, called on members of the public to attack Muslims in response to attacks across the world in a Facebook post in July 2016. A second Facebook post that month blamed Muslims for starting wars.

Hanson then uploaded a photo to Facebook of himself in a t-shirt which advocated for the destruction of Islam in July 2017.

He denied stirring up religious hatred but accepted that the posts were upsetting to others.

But when he appeared at Bradford Crown Court on 22 December 2017, he plead guilty to three counts of publishing material intending to stir up religious hatred, contrary to section 29C Public Order Act 1986.

He was sentenced to 12 months in prison suspended for two years. Hanson must also undertake 300 hours of community service.

Sue Hemming, Head of the Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division in the CPS, said: “John Hanson’s case is another example of people posting extremist messages on social media.

“This is a serious offence which harms community relations. Where there is enough evidence and it is in the public interest we will prosecute those who seek to stir up religious hatred.”

Our 2016 annual report included 311 verified reports of anti-Muslim abuse online. An overwhelming majority of abuse and race hate occurred on social media platforms.

You can get advice through our confidential and free helpline on 0800 456 1226. Or through our free iOS or Android apps. Report through our online form. Or contact us via WhatsApp on 0734 184 6086.

 

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Categories: CPS, hate crime, Hate Speech, News, War