Thursday, March 19, 2015

Norway: The Land of Pre-Chosen "Truth"

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Norway: The Land of Pre-Chosen "Truth"

by Bjorn Jansen  •  March 19, 2015 at 5:00 am
When Muslims themselves now understand there is an issue, politicians and key decision makers throughout the West might do well to understand this, too -- and seriously support them.
Another level that will have to be addressed is how Islam is presented in Europe's education system. The Norwegian translation of the Koran has been abridged to take out the less charming parts. Islam is presented as if it were already reformed. It is as if Einar Berg, the translator of the Koran, were shocked by what he translated, and trying to package it in a more charming light.
The crucial question is: Will Islam now be reformed to meet the version found in the textbooks? Or will the textbooks be altered to describe accurately Islam's stated ideology?
This self-censorship -- whether voluntary or the result of some implicit threat -- is the death of enlightenment, humanism and the foundation of all science: the spirit of free inquiry.
Possibly more important is the pervasive, divisive focus on non-believers -- the insistence on disparaging them and killing them -- and how this might well condition the minds of many Muslims, especially children.
Islam gives every child this conditioning. Imagine if those tenets were the desired result of every Confirmation, or every Bar Mitzvah or every First Holy Communion.
Norway also has plans to deport at least 7,800 illegal asylum-seekers this year.
Amal Aden, at left with a police escort, has been living with death threats from Muslims for years, including threats from Arslan Maroof Hussain (right).
The last few weeks have seen serious signs of interest in the Muslim world for the reform of Islam. They started with the heroic and honorable initiative at the end of 2014 by Egypt's President, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, criticizing the ideology of Islam. He comments on how it is hostile to the whole world, and calls for a "revolution" in Islam. This was followed up by an appeal by Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb of Egypt's al-Azhar University, with calls for radical reform of religious teaching, although unheroically, dishonorably and not at all believably, still trying to pin the blame on others.
An Egyptian plan to combat radical Islamism is also on the agenda for the Arab summit in Sharm El Sheikh, on March 26th.
When Muslims themselves now understand there is an issue, politicians and key decision makers in Norway -- and all over Europe and the West, for that matter -- need to understand this, too, and back them up.

UK: Some Faiths are More Equal than Others

by Samuel Westrop  •  March 19, 2015 at 4:00 am
London Citizens, which receives tens of thousands of pounds from the government every year, is a coalition of faith groups that include extremist Salafist and Muslim Brotherhood organizations. London Citizens' deputy chairman before 2014 was Junaid Ahmed, an Islamist activist who describes Hamas founder and leader Ahmed Yassin as a "hero" and has said that, "Every single [Palestinian] resistance fighter is an example for all of us to follow."
Although President of a taxpayer-funded interfaith organization, Ibrahim Mogra refused to share a platform with a Muslim from the Ahmadi sect. Mogra did share the same platform with Azzam Tamimi, a "special envoy" for the terror group Hamas. (Image source: Surrey Islamic Society video screenshot)
In February, Britain's largest Jewish newspaper, the Jewish Chronicle disclosed that Yitzchak Schochet, a Rabbi in North London, was removed as patron of an interfaith charity because "the government believed he was too extreme." It reported:
"According to a source close to the charity, the decision was taken after the Department for Communities and Local Government threatened to remove funding for other groups run by the charity's head."
Rabbi Schochet has undoubtedly made some troubling comments. In January, after the Islamist terror attacks in Paris, he stated that the staff of Charlie Hebdo "committed a sin against society," and that, "Any sensitive human being who cares about the rights of another will find these cartoons abhorrent." Islamist media outlets have condemned a tweet sent by Schochet, in which he told an anti-Israel activist: "I have a spare Israeli flag if you want to hang yourself on it."

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