Germany's Experiment with Islam Takes Another Step Forward

While some of us who watch world events see the extraordinary migration of Muslims into Europe in the last couple years as being the first steps in the Islamization of the continent, Europeans, many of them, mostly liberals, believe European culture is strong enough to endure Islam. Germans, for instance, believe that Muslims will fit into German society in time.

This new mosque is probably seen as confirmation that they are correct. Their priorities seem to be equality and living together in harmony, which is laudable, but has little to do with Islam. That is born out by the venom and threats that have poured out upon the mosques leaders. I expect the mosque and it's leaders will be big targets for violence, not from neo-Nazis, but from traditional Muslims not willing to be westernized.

‘Islamist side’ issues death threats,

Berlin ‘liberal mosque’ co-founder says

Men and women pray together at the new liberal Ibn-Rushd-Goethe-Mosque in Berlin, Germany, 

© Hannibal Hanschke / Reuters

A co-founder of the first “liberal mosque,” which opened in the German capital last week, has faced intimidation, including death threats, she told RT Deutsch.

“Death threats, and other threats… are partly coming from the Islamist side,” Seyran Ates said. She is one of the seven founders of the unusual prayer site, which accepts everyone except those wearing a full face veil, such as a niqab or burka.

Ates, however, who is a women’s rights activist and lawyer, stated that the threats should not stop people’s fight for their values.

“As a civil society, we cannot let ourselves be guided by those who threaten us and who forbid us to do something, [threatening] to otherwise take our lives. It is only when we fight together against this hatred that we can change something.”

Earlier, the co-founder said that even before opening the mosque, she had already received some “very violent and obscene” threats. She even requested police protection at last week’s opening.

Thousands of people have reacted to Ates’ activities on Facebook, as a DW Arabic report about her gained more than a million views within just four days and received almost 16,000 comments. A large portion of the comments condemned the idea of the mosque.

“This is not the religion of our prophet,” one comment under the video reads.

“Is this a mosque or a club? A woman who is showing her breasts during praying? And who is serving as an example for all liberal Muslims and [as a female] Imam? Absurd,” another person said.

I think the term 'showing her breasts' might have a different connotation in Islam than elsewhere in the world. I expect the woman was fully clothed but the fact that she had breasts was not hidden in the Islamic tradition of women being invisible because men cannot control themselves otherwise.

Muslims need a culture to speak fearlessly to each other, another founder of the mosque and Islamic scholar, Abdel-Hakim Ourghi, told RT Deutsch earlier.

He said that the founders want people of all religions to live together peacefully. Although this path is difficult, it is only a matter of time, he added.

“We want our kids – both from the monotheistic religions, as well as children of atheists – to finally live in peace together… And I believe that it is a question of time. It is not an easy path, it is something new and I believe it is a challenge for the conservatives in Germany, the so-called established umbrella organizations,” Abdel-Hakim Ourghi said in an interview.

He added that Muslims need a culture in which they can peacefully talk to each other regardless of the branches of Islam they are representing.

The first mosque in Germany offering a place of worship to believers of all Muslim denominations, giving equal rights to male and female worshippers, and friendly to the LGBT community, opened on June 17 in the heart of Berlin.

Entering in niqabs and burkas, which is obligatory for women according to Muslim rules, is prohibited there.

I'm curious to know who funded the building of the mosque? It certainly wasn't Saudi Arabia.

Ibn-Rushd-Goethe-Mosque, Berlin

Dutch Parliament Approves Partial Ban on Full-Face Veils

Invisible women not allowed in many places in

Netherlands after new law passed

    © AFP PHOTO / ANP PHOTO / Filer Jerry Lampen | A woman wearing a burqa walks in The Hague 

by NEWS WIRES

The Dutch parliament voted on Tuesday to ban face veils in some public places, a law the government said was essential for security but which opponents said pandered to anti-Muslim sentiment.

The law, passed by the lower house but still requiring the senate's approval, bans veils and other items that hide the face such as ski masks and helmets, in places where identifying the wearer is considered essential, including government buildings, public transport, schools and hospitals.

Few women in the Netherlands wear face veils, but a ban has long been a demand of Geert Wilders' anti-Islam opposition Freedom Party which is leading in polls ahead of elections in March.

Full and partial face veils such as burqas and niqabs divide opinion in Europe, setting religious freedom advocates against secularists and those who say that the garments are culturally alien or a symbol of the oppression of women.

France and Belgium have completely banned wearing face veils in public and some other European countries have local or regional restrictions. Violating the Dutch law would incur a fine of 405 euros ($430).

"Everyone has the right to dress as he or she wishes," the government said in a statement announcing the law.

"That freedom is limited only where it is essential for people to see each other, for example to ensure good service or security."

Opponents of the law have accused center-right Prime Minister Mark Rutte of pandering to the anti-Muslim vote in a bid not to be outflanked by Wilders.

Long seen as one of Europe's most tolerant countries, the Netherlands has seen racial tensions mount since the turn of the century, with the 2006 murder of controversial film-maker Theo van Gogh by an Islamist militant widely considered a turning point.

(REUTERS)

Burqas, Mosques, ‘Gay Propaganda’ All Banned in Hungarian Village

Mayor thinks he has a strategy for

all of Hungary to follow

    The mayor of the Hungarian border village of Asotthalom, Laszlo Toroczkai. ©Laszlo Balogh / 
    Reuters

The far-right mayor of a southern Hungarian village has banned the open expression of Islam, including the building of mosques and wearing of veils and headscarves, as well as the promotion of same-sex marriages.

In a post on Facebook, Laszlo Toroczkai, mayor of Asotthalom, a village near the Serbian border, (population about 4,000), outlined the proposals adopted by his council after a session on Wednesday.

All board members voted for the new rules, with only two abstentions. How many board members can there be in a village of 4,000?

“Instead of looking for a scapegoat, I offer an immediate solution, a defense against the forced mass resettlement [of migrants] by Brussels,” Toroczkai wrote in his post.

“Today the Asotthalom village council adopted my proposal – which is an action package – to defend our community and traditions from any plan for the outside resettlement [of migrants]. All that needs to be done is for the rest of Hungary’s municipalities to adopt our preventative action package, and with that we will have defended our homeland.” 

    Asotthalom, Hungary

The measures that Toroczkai put in place include a ban on the construction of mosques and any other place of worship which undermines the Catholic Church, a ban on the muezzin’s traditional call to prayer, and a ban on all face coverings such as the hijab, niqab and burqa, as well as the burkini.

Additionally, the ordinance also bans any kind of “public propaganda” which shows the institution of marriage being in any way other than “between a man and woman. This includes any public activity, performance, demonstrations, billboard, leaflet, or audio advertisement.”

These measures, Toroczkai says, will protect Hungary from the “two pagans”: migration from the south, and “extreme liberalism” from the West.

Toroczkai belongs to the far-right Jobbik party, whose stated aim is protecting “Hungarian values and interests.” But the party has also been accused of racism, anti-Semitism and homophobia.

"I want to be an example to other pioneering local authorities on how to protect themselves from external resettlement or any other subversive intentions," he said at the council meeting, as reported by delmagyar.hu.

Toroczkai is also the leader of the Sixty-Four Countries Youth Movement, a nationalist group seeking to reclaim lands that have historically belonged to Hungary. He is also known for his harsh anti-migrant rhetoric, including an action-movie like video showing big, burly men giving chase to illegal immigrants on motorcycles, helicopters and even on horseback.

Hungary is one of the European countries least welcoming to refugees and asylum seekers. In a referendum held in October, 98.3 percent of Hungarian voters rejected mandatory EU asylum seeker quotas in a referendum proposed by PM Viktor Orban. However, the referendum failed to reach the required 50 percent turnout, partly due to a boycott by the opposition. Orban himself has made a number of remarks on the subject, including suggesting that all refugees who came illegally be deported onto camps on an island or off the coast of Africa.

I have some sympathy for what Toroczkai is trying to do, although I shiver from the thought of associating myself with the racism of Jobbik. Nevertheless, he, and Orban are correct to defend Hungary against the Islamic invasion that will destroy much of the rest of Europe by the middle of this century, and the rest of it by the end of the century.

Hungary has no official religion although more than half of all Hungarians are Christian with the majority of them being Catholic. It seems like Toroczkai would want Catholicism as the official religion which is not acceptable as there are large numbers of Protestants. Other religions make up less than 1% of the population each, and barely exceed 1% in total. I suspect, Toroczkai and Orban would both like to keep it that way.

    Asotthalom, Hungary

Swiss Parliament Paves Way for Nationwide Burqa Ban

The movement against the burqa is important not just for women's rights sake, or for security sake, but the ban will disincentivize (did I just make up a word?) fundamentalist Muslims from immigrating to those countries where a ban is in place. Fundamentalist Muslims, if not already radicalized are very susceptible to radicalization.


A Swiss national flag, a woman wearing burqa. © Reuters

Switzerland’s parliament has approved a draft bill aiming for a nationwide burqa ban, initiated by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP). Its backers also launched a public petition with the same goal.

The draft bill was approved on Tuesday, with 88 MPs of the lower house voting in favor and 87 voting against the move. The draft legislation should be now reviewed by the Council of States, which represents all 26 Swiss cantons. Back in January the body signaled that it is likely to vote against such a measure, citing small numbers of women wearing the burqa in the country.

Tuesday’s vote was based on a SVP proposal which had roots back in 2014. An SVP MP and an anti-immigration advocate Walter Wobmann said that the main goal is to “maintain public order and respect for the dignity of women." Earlier in September Wobmann urged the banning of hijabs from passports, saying that “it is unacceptable that you can wear a hijab in a photo but not a cap.”

The idea of allowing a burqa in passport photos is utterly ridiculous. What's the point of a photo if a woman looks exactly like a hundred million other women? 

The SVP-linked activists have meanwhile launched an initiative called “Yes to disguise ban.” On its website the project calls for an amendment to the Swiss constitution so that it contains a new article, banning the burqa across the country.

“No person shall cover [his/her] face in public and in places accessed by the public (exempt for holy places),” the statement by the initiative reads.

The paper adds that “no one is allowed to force a person to conceal [his/her] face because of their gender.” However it also states that exemptions are allowed in the case of “medical, security, climatic” reasons. The initiative must gain a minimum of 100,000 votes by September 15, 2017 for the move to be handled by authorities.

The burqa, alongside niqab is a full-face veil that only leaves a small opening for the eyes and is worn by women adhering to certain conservative interpretations of Islam. According to the latest polls conducted by the Swiss “Schweiz am Sonntag” news outlet 60 percent of people in the country are in favor of a nationwide burqa ban.

Interesting contrast: the woman in the distance has her eyes covered while
the woman in the burqa has everything but her eyes covered

On July 1 this year the Swiss canton of Ticino already implemented a complete ban on wearing the burqa and niqab, with a fines ranging from 100 Swiss francs ($98) to 10,000 ($10,200).

The majority of people in neighboring Germany has also backed a complete ban on burqa according to an August ARD poll. The survey said that 51 percent of respondents advocated outright prohibition. The idea is being strongly supported by the German anti-immigrant AfD party.

Similar mood can be noticed in the UK, where a recent YouGov poll found that 57 percent of Brits would vote in favor of burqa prohibition.

In May, the Dutch government backed a partial ban on wearing an Islamic face-covering veil in schools, hospitals and on public transport, with fines amounting to £300 ($388).

In 2011 France became the first European country to outlaw full-face coverings including the burqa. The country’s island of Corsica caused an angry reaction from Muslim women this summer after it also banned the burqini – full-body swimsuits worn by Muslim women. In July the island’s authorities bypassed the State Council’s legislation regarding the issues and introduced the ban on the beaches of commune of Sisko.

No to Multi-Culturalism? Merkel’s Bavarian Allies Call for ‘Dominant’ National, Christian Values

 
© Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters

The Bavarian ruling party and Merkel’s ally CSU has proposed a set of new measures aimed at toughening Germany’s refugee policy and fostering integration and particularly called for enshrining the priority of the German traditional and Christian values in the legislation.

“Germany must stay Germany,” says the document by the Christian Social Union party (CSU), which was published by the Bavarian Kurier daily. “We are against our open-to-the-world country being changed through migration and inflow of refugees,” it adds, emphasizing that “it is not the Germans, who should look up to the refugees…” but, on the contrary those who come to Germany should adopt German culture.

The paper also lashes out at the multiculturalism policy advocated by Merkel. It proposes to introduce a “dominant culture” (Leitkultur) rule in Bavaria that would mean the opposite to multi-culturalism and would encompass all the German traditional national and Christian values as well as customs and traditions.

Germany is actually living in a post-Christian culture but most values are still sacred, if nothing else is.

Multiculturalism becomes unworkable when there is mass migration of a single culture into a state with significantly different values. There has to be some give on both sides for any possibility of it working, but many Muslims are intractable and expect the Germans to give way to their backward culture from the Dark Ages. If they do, it's a slippery slope and will eventually lead to the end of the post-Christian culture in Germany.

Such dominant, or “guiding” culture, the paper says, should become the basis of social development and integration. It calls it “the best countermeasure against the [creation of] parallel societies and ghettos” demanding to enshrine the particular set of values in the Bavarian Constitution.

The document also calls for an introduction of an annual upper limit for new arrivals that would amount to 200,000 people, citing the necessity to curb the massive refugee influx to facilitate successful integration.

It also says that Germany should favor migrants and refugees with “Christian western culture,” which is close to the European values.

The paper also advocates the re-introduction of full border controls on the German borders “as long as [the system] of protection of the EU external borders does not function,” stressing that the nation “should not tolerate illegal border crossings.”

At the same time, the paper says that only those who are granted entry should be able to come to Germany with all asylum requests being processed directly at the border in specially established “transit zones.” The document also points out that those who are denied entry should be sent back directly at the border.


‘Find another country to wear burqa’

The CSU policy paper also advocates stricter integration rules and says that integration is a duty of those who come to live in Germany. It particularly calls burqa and niqab “a uniform of Islamism, an absolute barrier to integration and a symbol of the repression of women that is unacceptable in [German] culture.”

“Those, who do not want to give up wearing burqa and niqab, should find another country,” the paper says, adding that the CSU will seek “a ban on burqa in all public places, wherever it is legally possible.”

The document also says that any forms of “parallel justice” and “erosion of the German system of justice,” including unofficial Muslim sharia courts, child marriages, forced marriages and polygamy, are unaccepted and should be by no means tolerated.

The paper adds that Germany also should not “tolerate immigration into its welfare system,” emphasizing that refugees and migrants must provide for living themselves instead of just getting social benefits.

That's pretty much impossible sometimes. What are you going to do let people starve?

Another point of the CSU is that asylum does not equals to a “permit for committing crimes in Germany” and those found guilty of committing any crimes should automatically lose their right for asylum and be sent out.


‘One cannot be servant of two masters’

The issue of double citizenship is particularly highlighted in the new CSU policy paper, which refers to it as a huge barrier to integration that leads to “double loyalty.” 

“One cannot be a servant of two masters,” the paper says, adding that “those who want to be Germans do not need any other citizenship.” The paper demands an end to dual citizenship as well as an annulation of the regulation that allowed the children of non-German citizens, who were born on German soil and lived in Germany for a long time, to be automatically recognized as Germans.

The CSU also expressed its opposition to the idea of visa liberalization for Turkish citizens and criticized Turkey for “moving away from European and western values” as well as for not fulfilling the necessary requirements for visa liberalization. It also said that the implementation of the refugee deal between Turkey and the EU should not be linked to some “unrelated issues, such as visa liberalization or Turkey’s accession to the EU.”


‘Irresponsible’ and ‘racist’

The document immediately provoked a wave of indignation among German left-wing politicians, who labeled it “irresponsible” and “racist.” Some of them said that it is highly reminiscent of what the right-wing populist party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), demands.

The Green Party leader, Simone Peter, said that the CSU was apparently seeking to become “the Bavarian sister party of the AfD.” At the moment, CSU is commonly referred to as the sister party of the Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), with both parties sharing the common origin and core program. The CDU does not operate in Bavaria while being present in all other 15 German states.

Jan Korte, an MP from the Left Party, denounced the new policy paper of the CSU as “irresponsible, backward-looking and brimming with hypocrisy.” He also called the idea of selecting migrants by cultural background “racist” and a violation of the German constitution and international human rights conventions.

The new policy paper comes after the electoral success of the right-wing populist and anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD), which beat Merkel’s CDU in several regional elections a year before the national elections to the parliament.

On September 4, the AfD placed second in state elections, ahead of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in her home state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Established in 2013 following the euro crisis, the AfD is already represented in eight out of 16 state parliaments.

Horst Seehofer, the leader of the conservative CSU, has long criticized Angela Merkel’s open-door policy and earlier already proposed to introduce a cap of 200,000 refugees pro year.

Seehofer, who is also the head of the German state of Bavaria, which is a transit region for the vast majority of all asylum seekers arriving in Germany, several times threatened to take the German Chancellor to the Constitutional Court if she fails to change the country’s refugee policy.

Send Them Back: Bavarian Minister Wants to Repatriate 1,000s of Refugees Within 3 Years

Merkel's Migrant Madness under fire from Bavaria

© Dominic Ebenbichler / Reuters

The thousands of migrants that flooded into Germany thanks to Chancellor Merkel’s open-door policy should be sent back home within the next three years, Bavaria’s Finance Minister said in an interview with Spiegel newspaper.

The politician added that the conflicts in the war-torn states the refugees come from should be over within that time-frame.

“In specific terms, we need instead of reunification of migrant families, to repatriate these several hundred thousand refugees within the next three years,” Bavarian FM Marcus Söder said.

“We’ve given many people temporary protection from civil wars, but if the situations in their home countries improve, they should return there to rebuild their homelands. The Asylum Procedure Law stipulates that people should return to their homeland when they no longer need to flee,” he stressed, while noting that some countries that the refugees come from, such as Afghanistan and Iraq, already have safe areas where migrants can go.

Germany accepted more than a million asylum seekers last year. Since the closure of the so-called Balkan route and signing of the refugee pact between the EU and Turkey, the number of refugees flowing into Europe has sharply dropped. Still, there are thousands of asylum seekers crammed into migrant camps all over Europe waiting to be granted the right to stay.

Söder further stated that even “the best of intentions do not have the power to successfully integrate so many people from a completely foreign culture,” pointing to the recently intensifying debate on Islamic attire worn in public places in Germany, especially full-face veils that are deemed to rob Muslim women of a “chance of integrating” into society. A new law is being mulled over by German authorities that would ban the burqa and niqab, garments worn by Muslim women that adhere to ultraconservative interpretations of Islam. Polls suggest that 81% of German citizens support the move, and Söder says he can be counted among them.

“Whoever wants to live here must adapt to our values – and not vice versa. The burqa is not compatible with Germany. If someone wants to keep wearing it, this someone should do it elsewhere,” the politician noted sharply.

I wonder of German courts will agree with that thinking? French courts did not.

The idea for the ban appeared after violent Islamist attacks were carried out in the German cities of Wurzburg and Ansbach this summer, for which Söder blames Merkel, saying that instead of trying to integrate refugees into German culture, the main priority of the government should be protecting the German population.

“It is therefore clear that a simple ‘we can do it’ is not enough,” Söder said.

“I think the citizens would have preferred a different message [from authorities] after the attacks, something like ‘we have realized [the threat].’ But we’re still waiting.”

Her initiative has met strong opposition from a number of European leaders, however, some of whom, like Söder, would prefer to talk about the repatriation and deportation of migrants instead. Austrian Defense Minister Hans Peter Doskozil has suggested that the EU should hold a “summit on deportation” to discuss steps that would speed up the process of returning refugees to their home countries, while slamming Angela Merkel’s “welcoming” approach as “irresponsible.”

The Czech Republic has also openly criticized the quota system, along with Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary, which together form the so-called “Visegrad group” that opposes any mandated re-distribution of migrants across the EU.

The German state of Bavaria has been an outspoken critic of Merkel’s refugee policy over the past months. Last year, Bavarian leaders even threatening to sue the federal government if it failed to stem the influx of refugees. Back then, Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann warned that if “effective measures” weren’t taken to deal with the crisis, Bavaria would take the matter to the Constitutional Court and charge the German government with endangering “the legal capacity of the German states to act independently.”

Muslims Defy Laws in Paris - Because They Can

SHOCKING: What you are about to see is illegal in Paris. A hidden camera shows streets blocked by huge crowds of Muslim worshipers and enforced by a private security force. The police have been ordered not to intervene. Muslims "are blocking the streets with barriers. They are praying on the ground. And the inhabitants of this district cannot leave their homes, nor go into their homes during those prayers." An ordinary French citizen who has been watching the Islamization of Paris decided that the world needed to see what was happening to his city. He used a hidden camera to start posting videos on YouTube. But his life has been threatened and so he uses the alias of "Maxime Lepante. " Even though some in the French government want to get tough with Muslims and ban the burqa, other parts of the French government continue to give Islam a privileged status.

https://www.facebook.com/cbnnews/videos/10156087723405393/

PARIS - Friday in Paris. A hidden camera shows streets blocked by huge crowds of Muslim worshippers and enforced by a private security force.

This is all illegal in France: the public worship, the blocked streets, and the private security. But the police have been ordered not to intervene.

It shows that even though some in the French government want to get tough with Muslims and ban the burqa, other parts of the French government continue to give Islam a privileged status.

An ordinary French citizen who has been watching the Islamization of Paris decided that the world needed to see what was happening to his city. He used a hidden camera to start posting videos on YouTube. His life has been threatened and so he uses the alias of "Maxime Lepante. "

Lepante's View

His camera shows that Muslims "are blocking the streets with barriers. They are praying on the ground. And the inhabitants of this district cannot leave their homes, nor go into their homes during those prayers."

"The Muslims taking over those streets do not have any authorization. They do not go to the police headquarters, so it's completely illegal," he says.

The Muslims in the street have been granted unofficial rights that no Christian group is likely to get under France's Laicite', or secularism law.

"It says people have the right to share any belief they want, any religion," Lepante explained. "But they have to practice at home or in the mosque, synagogues, churches and so on."

Some say Muslims must pray in the street because they need a larger mosque. But Lepante has observed cars coming from other parts of Paris, and he believes it is a weekly display of growing Muslim power.

"They are coming there to show that they can take over some French streets to show that they can conquer a part of the French territory," he said.

France's Islamic Future?

Notre Dame Mosque

If France faces an Islamic future, a Russian author has already written about it. The novel is called "The Mosque of Notre Dame, 2048," a bestseller in Russia, not in France.

French publisher Jean Robin said the French media ignored the book because it was politically incorrect.

"Islam is seen as the religion of the poor people, so you can't say to the poor people, 'You're wrong,' otherwise, you're a fascist," Robin explained.

The book lays out a dark future when France has become a Muslim nation, and the famous cathedral has been turned into a mosque.

Whether that plot is far-fetched depends on whom you ask. Muslims are said to be no more than 10 percent of the French population, although no one knows for sure because French law prohibits population counts by religion.

But the Muslim birthrate is significantly higher than for the native French. Some Muslim men practice polygamy, with each extra wife having children and collecting a welfare check.

"The problem of Islam is more than a problem of numbers," said French philosopher Radu Stoenescu, an Islamic expert who debates Muslim leaders on French TV. "The problem is one of principles. It's an open question. Is Islam an ideology or just a creed?"

"It doesn't matter how many there are," he aded. "The problem is the people who follow Islam; they're somehow in a political party, which has a political agenda, which means basically implementing Sharia and building an Islamic state."

In Denial or Fed Up

From the 1980s until recently, criticizing or opposing Islam was considered a social taboo, and so the government and media effectively helped Islam spread throughout France.

"We were expecting Islam to adapt to France and it is France adapting to Islam," Robin said.

About the burqa controversy, one French Muslim man told a reporter that Europeans should respect Muslim dress. One Parisian woman wearing a headscarf said "the veil is in the Koran" and "we only submit to God and nobody else."

But even if many government elites are in France are in denial over Islam, the people in the streets increasingly are not. Some have become fed up with what they see as the growing Islamization of France.

They've started staging pork and wine "aperitifs," or cocktail parties in the street. They're patriotic demonstrations meant to strike back against Islam.

A Warning to the West 

The French parliament debated the burqa law in this year. Jean-Francois Cope, president of the Union for a Popular Movement political party, has a warning for the West and for America.

"We cannot accept the development of such practice because it's not compatible with the life in a modern society, you see," he said. "And this question is not only a French question. You will all have to face this challenge. "

**Originally published September 1, 2010.