Amnesty International and Muslim Discrimination in Europe
by Soeren Kern
May 10, 2012 at 5:00 am
May 10, 2012 at 5:00 am
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Amnesty
International omits, however, all instances of discrimination initiated by
Muslims against Christians and others in Europe who have taken them in, and who
may well feel dismayed by what might be seen as an escalating procession of
Muslim demands, threats and attacks. Nowhere does it call on Muslims to accept
responsibility – not only for problems brought about by the refusal of many of
them to accept the values of the majority, but also for their efforts to
displace these values with their own.
A new report from Amnesty International lashes
out at "widespread discrimination" against Muslims in Europe. The
report directs particular ire at laws banning Muslim veils in public spaces,
and excoriates European politicians for helping to "foster a climate of
hostility and suspicion against people perceived as Muslim."
Amnesty International omits, however, all
instances of discrimination initiated by Muslims against Christians and others
in Europe who have taken them in, and who may well feel dismayed by what might
be seen as an escalating procession of Muslim demands, threats and attacks.
The report also fails to explain why growing
numbers of Europeans are increasingly skeptical about Muslim immigration; it
also fails to mention that in country after country, Europeans have been going
out of their way to afford Muslims special benefits, rights, privileges and provisions
that do not apply to native-born Europeans, and that are establishing the
Muslim population as an entitled class in European society.
The 123-page study, "Choice
and Prejudice: Discrimination Against Muslims in Europe," says that
"Muslims in Europe face discrimination in several areas of life because of
their religion," and this "blights their individual prospects,
opportunities and self-esteem and can result in isolation, exclusion and
stigmatization."
It continues, "[D]iscrimination against
Muslims in Europe is fuelled by stereotypes and negative views;" and calls
on European politicians to "adopt a more rational approach" and stop
portraying Islam "as a system of values which denies gender equality or a
violent ideology."
Amnesty International, perhaps welded to
notions political correctness, also further fails to mention actions by Muslims
themselves that might well have been responsible for fuelling the
"stereotypes and negative views" that it accuses Europeans of having.
Consider Belgium, where radical Muslims have
launched a propaganda
and intimidation campaign aimed at turning the country into an Islamic
state. Muslim neighborhoods in Brussels -- the so-called capital of Europe --
have already become "no-go"
zones for Belgian police officers, who are often pelted with rocks by
Muslim youths.
In Britain, hundreds of Muslim children every
year are subjected to forced
marriages. In England and Wales, more than 65,000 Muslim women and girls
have been the victims of female genital
mutilation, and another 24,000 girls under the age of 15 are believed to be
at a high risk.
Also in Britain, tens of thousands of Muslim
immigrants are practicing bigamy
or polygamy, possibly at times to collect larger social welfare payments
from the British state. At the same time, radical Muslims have launched a
campaign to turn twelve British cities, including London, into independent
Islamic "emirates" to be ruled by Islamic Sharia law.
In Denmark, Muslim criminal
street gangs have taken over large parts of Danish towns and cities; in
Copenhagen, some suburbs
have also been transformed into "no-go" zones, off limits to
non-Muslims. Meanwhile, over the past decade, the number of Muslim immigrants
living on social
welfare benefits in Denmark has increased almost ten-fold.
In France, where there are now more
practicing Muslims than practicing Roman Catholics, there are 751 Sensitive Urban Zones , also
off-limits to non-Muslims apparently because they are too dangerous; in these
French "no-go"
zones over which the French state has lost control, an estimated five
million Muslims currently reside.
In Germany, thousands of Muslim women and
children are the victims of forced
marriage every year. At the same time, Islamic
Sharia courts are operating in all major German cities, and German
authorities say they are "powerless" to do anything about them.
In the Netherlands, nearly
half of Moroccan immigrants in the country between the ages of 12 and 24
have been arrested, fined, charged or otherwise accused of committing a crime
during the past five years. Further, as Islamic legal tradition holds that dogs
are "unclean" animals,
a Dutch Muslim politician in The Hague, the third-largest
city in Holland, has recently called for a ban
on dogs in the city.
In Italy, Muslims have been commandeering
the Piazza Venezia in Rome for public prayers; and in Bologna, Muslims have
repeatedly threatened to bomb the San
Petronio cathedral because it contains a 600-year-old fresco inspired by
Dante's Inferno that depicts Mohammed being tormented in Hell.
In Spain, a high
school teacher in the city of La Línea de la Concepción was sued by the
parents of a Muslim student who said the teacher "defamed Islam" by
talking about Spanish ham in a geography class. And a discotheque
in southern Spanish resort town of Águilas (Murcia) was forced to change its
name and architectural design under duress after Islamists threatened to
initiate "a great war between Spain and the people of Islam" if it
did not.
Elsewhere in Spain, Muslim immigrants were
accused of poisoning
dozens of dogs in the city of Lérida, where 29,000 Muslims now make up
around 20% of the city's total population; again, according to local residents,
as dogs are considered "unclean." In the northeastern Spanish region
of Catalonia, Muslims have deployed "morals
police" to ensure that practicing and non-practicing Muslims comply
with Islamic Sharia law.
In Switzerland, an immigrant group based in
Bern said it wants the emblematic white cross to be removed from the Swiss
national flag because as a Christian symbol it "no longer corresponds
to today's multicultural Switzerland." Further, leading Islamic groups in
the country announced that they want to establish a "parallel
parliament" so that all of the country's Muslims can "speak with
one voice." Based in Basel, the new parliament would straightforwardly
operate according to Islamic Sharia law.
These developments in Europe have been
occurring during just the last eight years in addition to, of course, the
bombing by Muslims of commuter
trains in Spain in March 2004; the bombing of public
transportation in London in July 2005; the attempted bombing
of the Glasgow airport in June 2007; the attempted bombing
of the Barcelona metro in January 2008; the attempted bombing of several
US-bound airplanes, including that of the "shoe bomber"
Richard Reid in December 2009; mass riots caused by the reprinting of the
"Mohammed
Cartoons" in Denmark in 2005 and 2006; Muslim riots in Malmö, Sweden in
December 2008 and in Strasbourg,
France in June 2010; and Muslim threats to mobilize 10,000
demonstrators onto the streets of London to prevent a democratically
elected member of a European government, MP Geert Wilders of the Netherlands,
from entering Britain in February 2009; and Muslim attacks on
German police in May 2012.
Muslims in Europe also murdered the Dutch
filmmaker Theo van Gogh in January 2004; tortured and murdered the French Jew, Ilam Halimi in
January 2006; attacked the Swedish
artist Lars Vilkes in July 2007; tried to murder the Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard in
January 2010; killed French
servicemen and Jews in March 2012; and attacked Spanish
politician Josep Anglada in April 2012.
Muslims in Europe have also been attempting to
muzzle free speech, including by "lawfare," the malicious use of
costly court trials to intimidate Europeans into silence to shut down the
discussion of Islam. In the last few years, Muskims have initiated trials
against Geert
Wilders in the Netherlands; Suzanne
Winter and Elisabeth
Sabaditsch-Wolff in Austria; Lars
Hedegaard and Jesper
Langballe in Denmark; Jussi
Kristian Halla-aho in Finland; Brigitte Bardot, Michel Houellebecq,
and Marie
Laforêt in France; and Gregorius Nekschot
in the Netherlands;
Muslim gangs have also been found responsible
for "Rape Waves" in Britain,
Denmark,
Finland,
Germany,
Norway
and Sweden.
Although Amnesty International lists in its
report a litany of "discriminatory experiences" faced by Muslims in
Europe, it does not acknowledge that most European countries have granted their
Muslims minorities a host of special privileges, all in the name of
multiculturalism, and that Muslim values are increasingly influencing European
public policymaking.
In Belgium, for example, the government now pays
the wages of more than 200 imams in 100 mosques in a bid to end
discrimination against Islam. At the same time, dozens of Christian churches
are being turned into mosques as Muslims demand more places to worship.
In Antwerp, the second-largest city in Belgium,
an Islamic
Sharia law court is now mediating family law disputes for Muslim
immigrants. The self-appointed Muslim judges running the court are applying
Islamic law -- rather than the secular Belgian Family Law system -- to resolve
disputes involving questions of marriage and divorce, child custody and child
support, as well as all inheritance-related matters.
In Britain, the largest university
in London plans to ban the sale of alcohol on campus to accommodate the
"cultural sensitivity" of its Muslim students; and the British
Broadcasting Corporation admits that it treats Islam with more
"protection and sensitivity" than Christianity.
The British Girl Scout Association
has designed new uniforms for Muslim students who had "issues" with
the existing range of clothing. Across Britain, municipal
swimming pools are being closed to the general public to host Muslim
women-only sessions.
In British courts, Muslim defendants are
frequently the beneficiaries of favorable
judicial treatment which does not apply to British defendants.
In Denmark, primary
schools will soon begin teaching Islam to all students in the first grade.
In France, all of the slaughterhouses in the
greater Paris metropolitan area are now producing all of their meat in
accordance with Islamic Sharia law. France
2 television reports that much of the religiously slaughtered meat known as
halal is not labeled as such and is entering the general food chain, where it
is being unwittingly consumed by the non-Muslim population.
In German courts, judges are increasingly citing
the Koran in civil divorce cases that involve Muslims. Muslim employees in
German supermarkets are now exempt
from handling alcohol on religious grounds. Municipal
authorities in towns and cities across Germany have agreed to allow Muslim
girls to wear "burkinis" in public swimming pools.
The city
of Mannheim is planning to rename a Muslim-majority neighborhood, giving it
a Turkish name. At the same time, German taxpayers are paying for four new
Islamic theology departments in Tübingen, Münster/Osnabrück,
Erlangen/Nürnberg and Frankfurt/Gießen, at a total cost of €20 million ($25
million) to train Muslim imams and Islamic religion teachers.
In the Netherlands, the National
Police Union says Dutch police will not enforce a new burka ban. A court
in Rotterdam has decided that Muslims may remain seated while all others
rise when a judge walks into the courtroom, because Islam ostensibly holds that
all people are equal, while the Qur'an and Islamic Sharia law also hold that
women and non-Muslims are not equal.
Elsewhere in the Netherlands, dentists
open their clinics in the evenings and nights during Ramadan because Muslim
clients "cannot swallow their own saliva from sunrise to sunset."
Insurance companies and pharmacies offer special "Ramadanchecks"
that offer advice on how to take medicine during the month of daytime fasting.
In Ireland, the government recently introduced tax
legislation for financial products that comply with Islamic Sharia law.
In Italy, the southern island
of Sicily is about to become the proud new home for a multi-million euro
mega-mosque, which its supporters hope will become a reference point for
Muslims in Sicily as well as the rest of Italy. In Milan,
the city council says it will recognize a dozen "mini-mosques." In
Rome, the Higher
Judicial Council (CSM) recently ruled that on religious grounds, Muslims
may wear a veil in Italian courts.
In Spain, the city of Barcelona recently
announced plans to build an official
mega-mosque with a capacity for thousands of Muslim worshipers. The new
structure would rival the massive Islamic
Cultural Center in Madrid, one of the biggest mosques in Europe. The
Barcelona mayor's office said the objective is to "increase the visibility
of Muslims in Spain" and to promote the "common values between Islam
and Europe."
In the Spanish capital, the government has
authorized two radical
Islamic television stations to begin 24-hour broadcasting to
Spanish-speaking audiences from new studios in Madrid. The first channel,
sponsored by the government of Iran, will focus on spreading Shia Islam. The
second channel, sponsored by Saudi Arabia, will focus on spreading Sunni
Wahhabi Islam.
In Sweden, the Social Democrats state that they
want to turn Ramadan into an official
Swedish holiday.
In Switzerland, the army has drafted guidelines
outlining special
conditions for meals and prayers for its rising number of Muslim recruits.
The canton
of Aargau has issued a 17-page guideline for accommodating Muslims in
public schools and public swimming pools. The cantons of Basel-Landschaft,
Basel-Stadt, Lucerne, Solothurn and Zürich have all quietly changed municipal regulations
to allow Muslim women to wear the "burkini" in public spaces.
Also in Zürich, the international governing
body of football, known as FIFA, says female
footballers can wear headscarves when playing in official competitions. The
rule change, instigated by the brother of the King of Jordan, Ali bin
al-Hussein who is also FIFA vice president, is due to come into effect on July
2.
While Amnesty International has put the entire
onus for "Islamophobia" on non-Muslims, nowhere does it call on
Muslims to accept responsibility -- not only for problems brought about by the
refusal of Muslims to adopt the values of the majority, but also for their
efforts to displace these values with their own.
As the Dutch politician Pym Fortuyn put it in a
television interview the day before he was killed for criticizing the rise of
Islam in Holland, "I think the guests are trying to take over the
house."
Amnesty International has missed an opportunity
to help Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
Soeren
Kern is Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based
Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook.
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