Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Gatestone Update :: Andrew E. Harrod: "Euro-Islam" and Its Problems, and more


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"Euro-Islam" and Its Problems
"Playing Two Different Pianos"

by Andrew E. Harrod
March 12, 2013 at 5:00 am
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Yet the book also contains troubling passages revealing cracks in Idriz's façade. "Idriz plays two different pianos." — Gunther Beckstein, President, Bavarian Interior Ministry
Benjamin Idriz, an imam who leads the Islamic Community Penzberg (Islamische Gemeinde Penzberg or IGP) in a town south of Munich, has achieved prominence in Germany as an exponent of a rational, modern understanding of Islam. Yet aspects of Idriz's biography and public positions call into question his enlightened image with unsettling links to radical Islamic elements.
Idriz presents his conception of Islam in his autobiographical 2010 book Grüß Gott, Herr Imam!: Eine Religion ist angekommen (Greetings Mr. Imam!: A Religion has Arrived). As Idriz describes in it, and online at his mosque's website, he "grew up in Macedonian Skopje in a multilingual house." His family counts a "series of venerable imams reaching back generations." Correspondingly, Idriz memorized the Koran by the age of 11, earning him the traditional Islamic honorific of hafiz.
Idriz's opus describes an Islam supportive of human morality and not sectarian barbarism. He regrets that "unfortunately there are in fact Muslims who mistake jihad for violence and terror, understand under sharia medieval corporal punishments, and propagate a conflict between Islam and the so-called Western culture." Idriz places in his "weekly sermons the main emphasis upon universal values…as old as our cosmos."
These universal and sectarian understandings, he writes, correspond to "two various forms of Islam." There is one version that "formed itself in the process of revelation as it was given to Muhammad." A second corrupted version "was instrumentalized for political goals after Muhammad's death…and was also strongly dogmatized in its dogma-free aspects."
Idriz concludes that "Islam, as Muhammad interpreted and lived it, possesses a universal character and has the capacity to adapt itself to every epoch and every place." In Muhammad, Idriz sees a person who encouraged people "to follow the voice of their conscience" in the name of a philosophically and theologically undefined "justice". Idriz thus places himself in the tradition of "rationality emphasizing" Muslims such as the Mutazilites of the 8-10th centuries.
Accordingly, Idriz argues that regressive behaviors often associated with Islam such as the oppression of women derive from particular cultural conditions, not from Islam. Throughout history, Idriz claims, the "essential principles of Islam's belief remained the same" while Islam's "conception and practice…correspondingly adapted to the sociopolitical conditions of individual countries." Drawing upon his Balkan heritage extensively discussed in the book, Idriz contrasts the "proximity of the Bosnian understanding of Islam to the European mentality" with Islamic "oriental societies" supporting practices such as "honor murder."
Thus Idriz sees personal Islamic faith as compatible with a free polity. In his understanding of Islam, "stand in focus two authorities, which harmonize one another: the Koran and the Prophet on the one hand and the Grundgesetz [Germany's Basic Law or constitution] on the other hand." "In matters of faith," Idriz elaborates, the Koran and Muhammad
are the standards of measure; in worldly matters, in contrast, it is reason and experience. The first are unchanging, the latter dynamic. Blind imitation is worthy of reproach; God emphatically demands from the person the application of reason.
Idriz's "Euro-Islam" therefore "means turning towards Mecca in prayer and towards Brussels and/or Berlin in politics: to be with the soul there, but with the body and mind here." "Islam's fundamentals of belief and morals" and Muhammad's "universal validity" for the "proclamation of religion" remain unchanging. Yet his "solutions for the social and political questions of his society, sharia," are "historically conditioned." This "historically contingent" relativism "includes a renunciation of those Koran verses that deal with war" and of "behavior that could provoke and frighten others," including the "wearing of all too foreign clothing such as a black chador."
Befitting this "Euro-Islam" is Idriz's "ideal Muslim personality with reference to integration" among European immigrant communities. Such a Muslim should actively engage in all aspects of civic life from school boards to politics. Particularly important for Germans, this ideal Muslim would remember "to separate appropriately the trash" among other modern codes of conduct. She (as identified by Idriz) would also "support at international meets the sports team of the country in which she lives," thereby meeting British Conservative Party and lifetime peer Norman Tebbit's "cricket test."
As one Bavarian publication has noted, Idriz's vision has made the IGP a "glowing example for integration extending beyond the borders of Bavaria." Accordingly, many policymakers have visited the IGP, including Alois Gluck, the president of the Bavarian provincial parliament (Landtag) from Bavaria's conservative Christian Social Union (CSU); Munich's mayor Christian Ude from Germany's social democrats (SPD); German federal politicians such as Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (from the free-market-supporting free democrats or FDP), and Green Party chairman Cem Özdemir (who inaugurated the IGP's solar panels). Foreign figures, such as Israel's former ambassador to Germany, Avi Primor, and the American ambassador to Germany, Robert D. Murphy, have also stopped in Penzburg.
Yet Grüß Gott, Herr Imam also contains troubling passages revealing cracks in Idriz's façade. A book excerpt available at the IGP website, for example, lists some rather strange choices of "Muslim thinkers advocating democracy." As Franz Feyder of the Stuttgarter Nachrichten noted on April 24, 2012, one of these "role models" for Idriz is Rachid Ghannouchi, the Islamist leader of Tunisia's Al-Nahda ("Renaissance") Party, who has praised Palestinian suicide bombers and their mothers. In Germany, Feyder notes, the Baden-Württemberg Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Verfassungsschutz) has delineated Ghannouchi's Islamist deviations from "rule of law principles." In particular, Ghannouchi rejects apostasy from Islam and the subordination of sharia to non-sectarian law in contradiction to basic free society norms of equality for all. Another of Idriz's role models, suspect to Feyder, is Alija Izetbegovic, Bosnia's president during the 1990s Balkans bloodbath. Izetbegovic's death in 2003 halted initial international war crimes investigations of him while his 1970 Islamic Declaration contained Islamist memes such as the incompatibility of Islam with non-Islamic societies.
Other Idriz role models appearing elsewhere in Grüß Gott, Herr Imam also raise Feyder's concerns. Like Ghannouchi, Bosnian mufti Mustafa Ceric has justified Palestinian suicide bombing in conjunction with the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR) in Dublin, Ireland, and has called for the introduction of sharia into the Bosnian constitution. Disturbing to Feyder as well is Hussein Djozo, who helped forge a Nazi-Muslim alliance as the imam of the 13th Waffen-SS "Handschar" Division, containing Muslims from Djozo's native Bosnia, and who, after the war, retained his anti-Semitism.
Not discussed by Feyder, but appearing in the online excerpt, is Hassan al-Turabi, a Sudanese member of the Muslim Brotherhood who supported Sudan's adoption of sharia and gave Osama bin Laden refuge in the 1990s. Idriz also has approving words for Tariq Ramadan, the grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna. Ramadan has often drawn criticism for duplicitously hiding Islamist views behind a veneer of Islamic reform.
Various seemingly benign passages of Grüß Gott, Herr Imam also raise concerns for perceptive readers. Idriz, for example, cites the Koran's verse 5:82 with its statement that the "nearest of them in affection to the believers" are "those who say, 'We are Christians.'" Idriz, however, neglects to mention that this apparent reference to Christian-Muslim harmony exists juxtaposed in this verse with a description of the "most intense of the people in animosity toward the believers" being the "Jews and those who associate others with Allah." Given Islam's condemnation of the Christian triune God as such an association of "others with Allah", this verse might not even entail Christian-Muslim friendship.
Idriz also writes of Safiya, a Jewish woman who was one of Muhammad's wives, as proof of Muhammad's "close" relations to non-Muslims. The conservative German website Politically Incorrect condemned in Grüß Gott, Herr Imam as "extremist-anti-Islam," though, has a less positive view of this marriage. As Politically Incorrect explains, the captive Safiya became in canonical Islamic accounts Muhammad's "wife" precisely after he had her husband tortured and killed during a massacre of a Jewish tribe, as depicted in the controversial Innocence of Muslims film.
Beyond Idriz's writing, the Bavarian Verfassungsschutz cites in its annual reports from 2007-2010 the IGP as an entity having contacts with Islamist groups. A December 18, 2007 cable from the American consulate in Munich, revealed through Wikileaks, shows the then Bavarian interior minister and later minister president, Günther Beckstein (CSU), confiding to American diplomats that "Idriz plays two different pianos." These suspicions have led the small German Freedom Party (Die Freiheit) led by Politically Incorrect's Michael Stürzenberger to start a petition drive opposing Idriz's proposed Center for Islam in Europe-Munich (Zentrum für Islam in Europa-München or ZIE-M).
Such a Jekyll and Hyde mixture severely strains Idriz's credibility as a proponent of a 21st century Islam. If Idriz is not actually concealing a stealth agenda as frequently made accusations of Islamic taqiyya suggest, then he is, at the very least, seriously confused. At any rate, Idriz has ultimately failed to present a convincing vision of Islam as a rational religion and a faith in harmony with political freedom. The search for moderate Muslims in Germany and elsewhere continues.

Britain's Comic Relief Charity Event Provides for Extremist Groups

by Samuel Westrop
March 12, 2013 at 4:00 am
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Every year, the charity Comic Relief organizes the leading fundraising event in Britain. Some of the vast sums it raises, however, end up in the bank accounts of politicized groups with extremist agendas.
Every year since 1985, the British charity Comic Relief has held a high-profile fundraising telethon called Red Nose Day. Since its creation, Comic Relief has raised £800 million from mass public donations and corporate sponsors, which has gone to over 15,000 different charitable projects based both in the UK and abroad. On 15th March, the 2013 Red Nose Day telethon will distribute more millions of pounds. Does all this money go to reputable causes?
The most serious problem with Red Nose Day is that the public, whose donations are then matched by the UK government, have no idea where the money will go. Donations are kept by Comic Relief and then distributed, in the form of grants, to a list of charities not finalized until months after the event. At the time of the telethon, most of the public donate in the name of charitable good, and not to any particular project. We can, however, get some idea of where the money goes by looking at the past recipients of Comic Relief funds.
War on Want, for example, is a leading British charity that has received just under £1.5 million of Comic Relief's funds. It has also obtained just under half a million pounds from the European Commission and about £160,000 from the British Government. The stated aims of War on Want include the promise "to relieve global poverty however caused through working in partnership with people throughout the world." Such a claim suggests a forward-thinking organization that acts in the interest of progress and prosperity; regrettably, the opposite is true.
War on Want is known for its stridently anti-Israel views. The charity has been criticized by many individuals and organisations, including British cabinet minister Teresa Villiers MP as well as the watchdog group NGO Monitor, which issued a report that concluded:
War on Want is an extremely politicised NGO which actively promotes the Durban Strategy and uses anti-Semitic themes to attack Israel. Given WoW's extensive political campaigning and lobbying efforts, its one-sided approach to the conflict that ignores Palestinian terrorism, and the recurring investigations by the Charity Commission, funding from the EU and UK to this NGO is highly problematic.
In 2010, War on Want produced a list of recommended books for its supporters. War on Want's Executive Director, John Hilary, explained:
One of our volunteers asked us the other day to recommend key books for someone wanting to learn more about Palestine. For anyone seeking a first guide, Ben White's Israeli Apartheid (Pluto Press, 2009) gives a good overview and set of sources.
Ben White is the author of Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner's Guide. He has previously written in defence of Iranian President Ahmedinejad against claims of Holocaust Denial and anti-Semitism. Further, in an article entitled, Is It "Possible" to Understand the Rise in "Anti-Semitism"?, published on extremist website CounterPunch, White linked the rise of anti-Semitism with "the widespread bias and subservience to the Israeli cause in the Western media." He concluded, "I do not consider myself an anti-Semite, yet I can also understand why some are."
Hilary also encouraged campaigners to read Shlomo Sand's book, The Invention of the Jewish People, which posits that the Jews, as a single collectivity, do not exist.
Further, War on Want openly supported a tour organized by the British Committee for Universities for Palestine, which brought extremist Bongani Masuku to speak at a number of British Universities. The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) found Masuku to have wilfully incited violence between different student groups on campus.
Hilary has blamed Jews for criticizing War on Want, claiming that investigations into War on Want's activities were "part of an ongoing strategy by an organised pro-Israeli lobby and the Jewish press." In the past, Hilary has been happy to work with the Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC), an extremist Islamist group that was condemned by both the National Union of Students and a Parliamentary committee for publishing anti-Semitic materials. The founder of MPAC, Asghar Bukhari, notoriously provided financial support to the Holocaust denier David Irving.
The misuse of Comic Relief funds is not limited just to War on Want. For grants under £10,000 there is another layer of separation between the public and the charities. With this extra layer of separation comes an extra layer of unaccountability. Comic Relief entrusts another charity, the Community Foundation Network, to distribute the smaller grants.
In 2012, just under £10,000 was given to the Muslim Women's Association of Edinburgh [MWAE], an Islamist group that has supported the jihadist Syed Talha Ahsan, who was extradited to the USA in 2012 on charges of providing material support to the Taliban and the Chechen Mujahideen.
The MWAE has organized an "Islamophobia Awareness Conference" for next month, which it is promoting on its website. The proposed speakers include:
  • Inayat Banglawala, a radical Islamist who circulated the writings of the "freedom fighter" Osama bin Laden a few months before 9/11, and who described Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman, a jihadist imprisoned for planning to set off bombs in New York, as "courageous";
  • Yvonne Ridley, an Islamist convert who founded the pro-Hamas group Viva Palestina with pro-Assad politician, George Galloway MP. Viva Palestina notoriously handed over bundles of cash to Palestinian terror group Hamas on a Viva Palestina convoy to Gaza;
  • Eddi Truman, the co-founder of Islamophobia Watch, an organization with a long history of attacking anti-Islamist Muslims and defending extremist groups;
Comic Relief has also given £4,500 to Worthing Islamic Social and Welfare Society, a local community organization whose website promotes the works of Abul Ala Maududi, founder of the violent Bangladeshi Islamist group Jamaat-e-Islami. The Society also promotes publications of the Muslim Education Trust, including a pamphlet written by Ibrahim Hewitt, entitled What Does Islam Say?, which advocates the death penalty for apostates and adulterers and demands that homosexuals suffer "severe punishments" for their "great sin." Further, the Society offers books by Turkish cult leader and Holocaust Denier Harun Yahya as well as Muslim Brotherhood cleric Yusuf Al Qaradawi.
Many other charities, such as the Irish Catholic anti-Israel charity, Trocaire, receive millions of pounds from the well-meaning public, who are unaware that their funds will be used for highly politicized activities. Trocaire has been accused of an anti-Semitic obsession because of its long-standing demonization of Israel. The charity's Palestine co-ordinator, Gary Walsh, is the former National Coordinator of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC). The IPSC has a long history of supporting Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah -- Raymond Deane, IPSC chairman, described Hezbollah's murderous and unprovoked attack on Israeli soldiers in 2006 as "perfectly legitimate".
Comic Relief's Red Nose Day is the most high profile of all the fundraising events in Britain. Almost everyone, from the Prime Minister to leading television actors, is involved. There is a basic assumption of trust between a generous public and the receiving charitable projects, especially when the British government matches the donations. The exploitation of good-intentions by politicized charities should be investigated, exposed and stopped so that those charitable projects of genuine benefit will not be sacrificed for those with extremist agendas.
Related Topics:  United Kingdom  |  Samuel Westrop

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