Swiss Radicalization: A Sign of Things to Come?,

Muslims and Islamophobia

Swiss Radicalization: A Sign of Things to Come?

Nestle. The United Nations. Rolex. Secure Banking. Toblerone. Yodeling. William Tell. Cowbells. Neutrality. Rousseau. Alpine Skiing. Heidi.

These are a few of the things -- mostly pretty -- that come to mind when you say "Switzerland."

But now thanks to a recent popular vote on a controversial referendum, things like "intolerance," "paranoia," and "limitations on freedom of religion" have joined the merry list.

In case you have not heard already, 57% of Swiss voters approved a proposal Sunday to ban mosque minarets in a nationwide referendum sponsored by the Swiss People's Party (SVP), a right-wing group long known for its anti-immigration campaigns. A complacent Swiss government subsequently stated that it will "respect the decision" of the people and will affect the ban on all new minarets in the country.

2009-12-02-swiss_minaret.jpgThe SVP flooded the tiny landlocked Alpine state with posters in which minarets appeared as missiles rising from the Swiss flag. They told voters that "the minaret is a sign of political power and demand, comparable with whole-body covering by the burqa, tolerance of forced marriage and genital mutilation of girls." This is not true of course.

Most Muslims accept the minaret as an architectural conduit for the call to prayer, but most do not seek political power, subscribe to the burqa, tolerate forced marriages, or accept genital mutilation of girls. Forced marriages and female circumcision happen mostly in poor, uneducated parts of the world and have no foundation in Islam. The burqa is worn by less than 1% of Muslim women. How these three things are "comparable" with a minaret must be Switzerland's dirty little secret because I cannot figure it out.

http://newageislam.com/swiss-radicalization--a-sign-of-things-to-come?/muslims-and-islamophobia/d/2190

Horrors inflicted in the name of Islam, Radical Islamism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Radical Islamism and Jihad

Horrors inflicted in the name of Islam

By Irfan Hussain

Soon after his arrest, Ajmal Kasab was questioned by the police, and admitted that he had been sent by the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba. Asked why and how he had joined the group, he said his father had "sold" him to the Lashkar for money that would lift the family out of poverty, and pay for his sisters’ weddings.

A Turkish couple, spared because of their faith, recount how the bodies of massacred guests at the Trident Oberoi piled and how slippery it was to walk over the pools of blood. A neighbour of the rabbi and his wife who were murdered at the Jewish Centre describe how the couple said "shoot me" to the killers and were duly shot. After the terrorists had left, the two-year-old son of the couple is filmed in a heart-breaking sequence, walking around in the room, clearly confused.

After Kasab had been captured, the controllers realised what would happen if he spilled the beans. They ask two of the killers to take a hostage and get her to call the authorities with a demand to free Kasab in exchange for her life. After an hour or so, when there is no response from the government, they are told to finish off the hostage. All through the atrocity, the handlers keep urging their footsoldiers on, encouraging them by descriptions of what they are seeing on TV. "The whole world is watching your deeds… Remember this is a fight between the believers and the non-believers… If you speak to the authorities, tell them this is only the trailer and the real film is yet to come..."

http://newageislam.com/horrors-inflicted-in-the-name-of-islam--/radical-islamism-and-jihad/d/1523

Shariah Court Campaign in India: Battle for the Muslim Mind, Islamic Ideology, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic Ideology
Shariah Court Campaign in India: Battle for the Muslim Mind
The demand for separate shariah courts for Muslims in India is by no means a new one. For many years now various ulama associations have been demanding that Muslims should seek to have their family matters settled by trained mullahs, instead of by judges in the secular courts. They insist that mullahs are best able to understand and interpret the shariah, including Muslim Personal Law (MPL), suggesting that judges trained in a secular system, particularly if they are non-Muslims, do not have the same qualifications to do so. Indeed, so vociferously opposed are some of them to judges in state courts interpreting MPL that they go so far as to claim that such judges may be in league with 'anti-Islamic' forces to deliberately misinterpret MPL as part of a alleged secret plot to smuggle in a Uniform Civil Code and eventually to absorb the Muslims into the Hindu fold. Advocates of shariah courts claim that their campaign has the support of the entire Muslim community, because, so they argue, this demand is actually mandated by Islam itself. To oppose this, they suggest, is tantamount to opposing Islam, a sin unthinkable by any practising Muslim. Muslims who resist this call may, therefore, expect to be branded as apostates or at least as traitors to the cause of Allah.

http://newageislam.com/shariah-court-campaign-in-india--battle-for-the-muslim-mind/islamic-ideology/d/133