Headlines:
• Sweden Hit by Third Assault on Mosque
• Fears over Growing Hatred of Islam in Germany
• Indian Muslims Protest against Anti-Terror Drills in Narendra Modi’s Home State Of Gujarat
• China Uighurs: Xinjiang City of Urumqi to Ban Islamic Veil
Sweden Hit by Third Assault on Mosque
Sweden suffered its third arson attack on a mosque in a week amid an intensifying debate about immigration in the Nordic country. Police in Uppsala, a university town north of Stockholm, said they were hunting one person suspected of throwing a Molotov cocktail at the mosque as well as writing racist phrases on the building. It follows an attack on Christmas Day on a mosque in Eskilstuna, to the west of Stockholm, and another on Monday in Eslöv, in the southern Swedish region of Skane. Nobody was injured in the Uppsala and Eslöv attacks but five were hurt in Eskilstuna. Stefan Löfven, the centre-left prime minister, said that the attacks were not representative of Sweden. “No-one in Sweden should be afraid of practising their religion,” he added on Thursday while on an official trip to Brazil. Samir Muric, the imam in Eslöv, told a Swedish news agency: “Unfortunately this is probably something to do with Islamophobia. I live nearby, and it’s beginning to feel unsafe.” The attacks come against a backdrop of rising political tension over Sweden’s status as the leading destination in the EU for asylum seekers relative to the size of its population. The Nordic country of about 10m people is expecting about 100,000 refugees this year, a record number in modern times. The Sweden Democrats, an anti-immigration party that shocked the establishment by finishing third in September’s elections with 13 per cent of the vote, campaigned on reducing immigration to the country by 90 per cent. Party leaders have compared Islamism to Nazism. [Source: Financial Times]
Support for America’s war against Islam has finally come to the shores of Sweden to cause havoc. Sweden a bastion of neutrality and tolerance must now choose between supporting America’s war against Islam or damaging its brand image. However, the failure of the Swedish authorities to curb the attacks demonstrate quite clearly where Sweden’s loyalty lie and a torrid time awaits its Muslim populace.
Fears over Growing Hatred of Islam in Germany
Thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets of Germany in recent weeks to protest the “Islamisation of the West”, shocking the country and drawing condemnation from Chancellor Angela Merkel. Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA) started weekly protests in the eastern city of Dresden in October, and the movement has been growing steadily ever since with regular Monday demonstrations. On December 22, 17,500 took to the streets of Dresden chanting “We are the people”, a slogan borrowed from 1989 protests in the same city that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Worryingly for Germany’s leaders, a Forsa opinion for Stern Magazine last week revealed that one in eight Germans would join an anti-Muslim march if PEGIDA organised one in their home town. In an unusually strong-worded New Year’s Day address, Merkel said, “Today many people are again shouting on Mondays: ‘We are the people’. But in fact they mean: You do not belong – because of the colour of your skin or your religion.” “So I say to everyone who goes to such demonstrations: Do not follow those who are appealing to you! Because too often there is prejudice, coldness, even hatred, in their hearts.” PEGIDA is supported by a motley array of extreme right and neo-Nazi groups, football hooligans and notably the anti-euro (although not anti-EU) Alternative for Germany (AfD) movement.
PEDIGA is led by Lutz Bachmann, a 41-year-old photographer and graphic designer who said in October he was appalled to see TV reports of Kurds and Muslim groups fighting on the streets of Hamburg. Bachmann used his network of far-right contacts to organise anti-Islam protests in response. The first of these took place in Dresden on October 20, a relatively small demonstration that attracted around 500 protesters. OECD figures published in December demonstrate that Germany received 400,000 immigrants in 2012, a figure that makes Germany Europe’s biggest immigrant destination. All this feeds into the hands of PEGIDA, and the protest movement has spread rapidly to other German cities. [Source: France24]
There are 2 main reasons that have fuelled the rise of Islamaphobia in Germany. First, is the daily diet of Islamaphobia fed to the German public via the German media. Second, the wave of refugees coming to Europe is a consequence of Western intervention in Muslim lands. However, no German leader is willing to discuss these reasons, and this only confirms that domestic Islamaphobia in Germany is party of Merkel’s domestic agenda.
Indian Muslims Protest against Anti-Terror Drills In Narendra Modi’s Home State Of Gujarat
Police in the western Indian state of Gujarat have come under fire for conducting anti-terror drills using people who posed as militants with white skullcaps and shouted pro-Islamic slogans, according to local media reports. Muslim leaders reportedly criticized the incident as “atrocious and highly condemnable” after videos showing two separate police drills surfaced over the last two days. According to local media reports, the videos released Wednesday showed police personnel in the city of Surat capturing three people posing as militants while dressed in white skullcaps and long white tunics, which are traditionally worn by Muslims. Another video that surfaced on Thursday reportedly showed a similar drill in the Narmada district, where people posing as militants were also heard shouting pro-Islamic slogans such as “Islam zindabad (long live Islam).” After the videos were shown by several local television networks, Gujarat’s Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, who belongs to the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), reportedly admitted that it was a “mistake” to link religion with terrorism. “The mistake has been rectified. The issue has been resolved and the matter should be put to rest now,” Patel said, according to local media reports. However, Kamal Farooqui, a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, reportedly demanded that the state government take legal action against those responsible. “It is profiling the Muslim community which is very bad. They (police) should apologize, otherwise they should be taken to the court,” Farooqui reportedly said. Meanwhile, Gujarat police, which had initially tried to brush off criticism and had asked the media not to sensationalize the incident, has eventually apologized and said that it was an “avoidable situation,” according to local media reports. [Source: International Business Times]
This comes as no surprise, considering that under Modi’s tenure in Gujarat Muslims were brutally massacred by Hindu bigots. But what is difficult to comprehend are the apologist Muslims who continue to support Modi and his allies in Gujarat, despite the anti-Islamic policies of Modi’s government.
China Uighurs: Xinjiang City of Urumqi to Ban Islamic Veil
The Islamic face veil is to be banned in public in the capital of China’s restive Xinjiang region, home to its Uighur Muslim minority. The ban was backed by local authorities in Urumqi, state media reported. The move is the latest in a campaign against Islamic clothing and symbols in the mainly Muslim region. China’s government has blamed Uighur militants for several recent attacks – but activists say the violence has been fuelled by Chinese repression. The Uighurs traditionally practice a moderate form of Islam. Recently, though, the influence of stricter forms of the faith from the Gulf and Pakistan has led to more women covering their faces. According to the BBC’s Asia Pacific editor, Charles Scanlon, the Chinese authorities regard wearing an Islamic face veil as an act of defiance at a time of growing violence in the region. In August this year, the northern city of Karamay banned men with long beards from boarding buses. Some experts believe such restrictions could backfire at a time when many Uighurs believe their culture is under attack. James Leibold, an expert on China’s ethnic policy at Melbourne’s La Trobe University, told Reuters news agency that the ban on the veils would make them “more popular as a symbol of resistance and assertion of ethno-national identity”. He is quoted as saying that China’s Communist party had made a direct link between certain Islamic dress styles and religious extremism. The law passed in Urumqi is set to come into force after it has been approved by a regional body. [Source: The BBC]
Chinese enmity towards Islam knows no bounds. The continued oppression of Muslims at the hand of the Chinese government is an eye opener for those who claim that the 21st Century belongs to China. China, like the West and India fear the return of the Caliphate; for they know that the Caliphate is the only true state where tolerance of other people is practiced both in word and in deed, irrespective of creed, colour, ethnicity and religion.