Shia Strength: [MahdiUniteMuslims] Is Europe turning intolerant to Islam?

Is Europe turning intolerant to Islam?

April 5, 2010

Europe is shutting the door tight on its minorities and doing all it can to 'perhaps' feel protected. The failure to integrate Muslim minorities in Europe is worrying. The community is falling pray to what is being termed as (in German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schauble words) 'non-compliance with European values'.

Off late, trends pointing towards a radical change in Europe's liberal outlook have come to the fore. Several countries have control measures for immigration, such as language tests and tougher visa and border rules.

In Denmark, immigrants who arrive to the country for marriage have to be 24-years-old. The Netherlands has entry laws that require potential immigrants to take not only language but also 'culture' exams in order to live in the country.

A look at the measure taken by some European countries to isolate its minorities (especially Muslims).

SWITZERLAND

The ban on minarets came as a major blow to the 40,00 odd Muslims who reside the country.

A November 2009 referendum on a ban on minarets, which was opposed by the government, was passed with a 57.5 per cent vote. The result paves the way for a constitutional amendment to ban the construction of minarets.

The Swiss constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but the rightist Swiss People's Party had proposed inserting a single sentence banning the construction of minarets, leading to the referendum.

Supporters of the ban said minarets represented the growth of an alien ideology and legal system that have no place in Swiss democracy.

The Geneva-based Human Rights Council denounced the vote while passing a resolution, proposed by the Organisation of Islamic Conference that termed the ban as a manifestation of Islamophobia, which clearly contravened international human rights obligations concerning freedom of religion, belief, conscience and expression.

The Swiss government, meanwhile, is drafting a supporting law on the ban -- a process that could take at least a year and could put the country in breach of international conventions on human rights.

BELGIUM

This is a very strong signal being sent to Islamists, said a Belgian MP when he was asked about the rationale behind the country's moves to ban the wearing of the burqa and over the face coverings in public spaces.

A Belgian parliamentary committee has unanimously backed the bill banning the burqa, which if passed by the Belgian parliament in April end would come as a body blow to nearly 600,000 Muslims who reside in the country.

The ban would apply to areas accessible to the public, which would include people walking in the street or using public transport, and would be enforced by fines and even jail terms.

According to The New York Times, the unanimity with which the measure was approved by the home affairs committee suggests strong cross-party support when the measure is discussed by the full Parliament of Belgium, a predominantly Roman Catholic country.

FRANCE

France now proposes to ban the veil.

France has over five million Muslims and Islam is the second religion of country after Christianity. Over decades, many Muslims have migrated to France from sub-Sahara Africa and North Africa for better financial options and these migrants in particular are resisting government's move to ban burqa.

President Nicolas Sarkozy has declared the burqa "not welcome" in secular France and is in favour of legislation to outlaw it, although he has also warned against stigmatising Muslims.

Talking tough on the issue and making an apparent reference to migrants French envoy Bonnafont said: "Why choose a country where you are not comfortable, why migrate to a country where you don't respect the law."

On March 14, 2004, the French legislative council voted the ban on "religious symbols" in public schools. This uncommon law, which mainly targets Muslim young girls, was widely supported in France.

GERMANY

Germany has been witnessing protests over the past few days with right-wing populist pro-NRW (short for the German state North Rhine-Westphalia) party demanding a ban on minarets, like the one passed in a Swiss referendum last year.

What sparked off the protests was the desire of the Muslim community in the western German town of Volklingen to build a small minaret.

In a town meeting held on the subject in late January, a number of locals came out against the minaret plan.

Some have even described the proposed small minaret, stretching a mere eight meters (26 feet) above the roof, as an infiltration of their community. Muslims reportedly make up 5 percent of Volklingen's 40,000-strong population.

Germany is believed to be home to nearly 4 million Muslims, including 220,000 in Berlin alone.

A survey by Der Speigel magazine last December found that, were a minaret referendum held in Germany, 44 percent would vote in favour of a ban while 45 percent would not.

The majority of Germany's 4-million strong Muslim population has Turkish roots.

POLAND and AUSTRIA

A lot is being written, in the backdrop of the developments in Europe with regard to the 'Islamophobia', about protests have broken out in Poland and Austria over Muslim immigration from around the world.

The recent protests in Poland's capital Warsaw were widely covered by the media. The bone of contention was a multi-million dollar Centre for Islamic Culture, believed to have been funded by a Saudi royal.

Chants of "Down with jihad" and "Freedom for women" by the anti-mosque protestors mingled with "Stop Islamophobia" from the pro-mosque group led by members of Poland's extra-parliamentary Left-wing.

The anti-mosque demonstration was organised by the Future of Europe foundation, who fear the Islamisation of the continent.

In Austria, two girls from the city of Graz have been expelled for setting one of their classmates' Hijab (headscarf) on fire. The Austria News website reports that this is one incident in a growing trend of attacks on Muslims and Muslim women in particular.

Incidents such as these prove that the climate of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim sentiment is not abating, instead it verifies the findings of the Pew Global Studies Survey that Islamophobia is on the rise in Europe. A worrying trend given the recent successes of far right and fascist parties in different European nations. How long until we see discriminatory and anti-Democratic laws being passed in most of the European parliaments?

The reactions of the anti-Muslim blogosphere to a story such as this has been one of support and happiness, with the crazy wing-nut Shekyermami proclaiming it as an instance of "Hijab Resistance," while the curiously named Infidels United blamed the victim for her plight saying it was a reaction to the "Muslim Invasion of Austria."

NETHERLANDS

Reports of racial discriminations are common these days in a country that was till recently considered among the most moderate in Europe. Political parties and activists groups have been springing up all over the Netherlands to protest the continued immigration to their country.

Geert Wilders, the leader of the Freedom Party and a member of Dutch parliament, feels that the Muslim way of life is in direct contradiction to Dutch principles.

Wilders sees them as a 'Trojan horse, and fears that European civilization will be lost if the trend of blind, post-modern, multicultural, suicidal tolerance is allowed to continue unchecked.'

Wilder's policies and actions are too extreme, yet they still find support in Amsterdam (the capital of the Netherlands).

In a recent interview to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, he was quoted as saying: 'Because of a high birthrate and swelling immigration, Europe is becoming more and more Muslim every day. Islamic culture, dress and religion are so starkly different that Europeans have begun feeling like strangers in their own homes.'

Wilder's party recently won local elections in a few Dutch cities.

BRITAIN

Britain has been in the line of fire since it joined the United States in its war against terror.

A major study conducted by Britain's National Centre for Social Research has found that only a quarter of the locals feel positive towards Muslims.

The findings show that the British public is concerned at the rise of Islam in the UK and fear that the country is deeply divided along religious lines. The study also found that more than half of the population would be strongly opposed to a mosque being built in their neighbourhood.

David Voas, professor of population studies at Manchester University, who analysed the data, said that people were becoming intolerant towards all religions due to "the degree to which Islam is perceived as a threat to social cohesion".

"Muslims deserve to be the focus of policy on social cohesion, because no other group elicits so much disquiet. The size and visibility of Islamic communities has led to serious concerns about their impact on British society," The Telegraph newspaper quoted Voas, as saying.

Police in Britain are set to share personal information concerning the private lives of almost 1,000 British Muslim university students with America's Central Intelligence Agency.

The decision has sparked off outrage among British Muslims, who feel that they are being targeted. They are also concerned that their names will appear on international terrorist watch lists.

http://news.rediff.com/slide-show/2010/apr/05/slide-show-1-is-europe-turning-intolerant-to-islam.htm

http://www.loonwatch.com/2009/10/austria-classmates-set-fire-to-muslim-girls-hijab/

comment:

This is written by a non-Muslim so you see some rationalization for the bigots in these countries instead of the plain truth.

What's even worse is the Muslims who go to these countries where they are oppressed. If they focused on building their own countries or other Muslim countries then they too would have "1st world" countries. How will these Muslims answer this question?!!!

Verily! As for those whom the angels take (in death) while they are wronging themselves (as they stayed among the disbelievers even though emigration was obligatory for them), they (angels) say (to them): "In what (condition) were you?" They reply: "We were weak and oppressed on earth." They (angels) say: "Was not the earth of Allâh spacious enough for you to emigrate therein?" Such men will find their abode in Hell - What an evil destination! (An-Nisa 4:97)

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