Headlines:
- Dutch Muslims Feel Anti-Islam Backlash in Liberal Holland
- Saudi Deputy Crown Prince calls Donald Trump a ‘True Friend of Muslims’ after White House Meeting
- Pakistan in Talks with Saudi Arabia to Send Combat Troops to Protect the Kingdom
- Rebels Lose Homs with 12,000 Displaced
- Turkey-Netherlands row
- EU Court Rules Employers allowed to ban the hijab
Dutch Muslims Feel Anti-Islam Backlash in Liberal Holland
For the first time in nearly 40 years, Ahmad Elbaghdadi is wondering whether he should return to his native Morocco. As the anti-Islam leader of the far-right Party for Freedom seeks to win the March 15 national election, Elbaghdadi, an imam at a local mosque, worries that Holland’s progressive society is threatened and life here could become unpalatable for Muslims. “There’s no way I could have known all those years ago that Holland would get to a moment like this,” he said. “It’s very hard to constantly hear from a major politician that you are not a Dutch person. However, I have children here and I can’t just go. We have to hope that one person can’t just change everything.” The election is drawing international interest because it is the first of three major tests of the strength of populist revolts in Europe in the wake of President Trump’s upset victory and Britain’s referendum vote in June to leave the European Union. The French go to the polls in April and Germans in September, and all three elections include anti-immigration, anti-EU candidates vowing to overturn political systems they claim are run by out-of-touch elites. Dutch candidate Geert Wilders wants to close all the country’s mosques, ban the Quran and shut the borders to immigrants from Muslim countries. A manifesto published on his party’s website discusses making the Netherlands “ours again (by) de-Islamizing” it. “We need to stop being tolerant to the people who are intolerant to us,” Wilders said in an interview. Last year, he was convicted of inciting discrimination against Moroccans. Other members of Holland’s Muslim community, which makes up 6% of the country’s population, also are feeling unease about the political climate in a society known for its liberal views on issues ranging from same-sex marriage and euthanasia to drug use. Forty percent of Dutch nationals of Antillean, Moroccan, Surinamese and Turkish origin don’t feel at home in the country, according to a recent survey by the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP), a government agency. About a fifth of Holland’s 17 million people have a foreign background, and Islam is the second-largest religion after Christianity. These non-natives suffer discrimination in jobs and education, according to studies by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights and the SCP, the Dutch government’s social research institute. [Source: US Today]
The defeat of Geert Wilders in the Dutch elections brings little respite for Dutch Muslims. Wilders anti-Islamic views still enjoy huge support in Holland, and the situation for the Muslim community is likely to worsen.
Saudi Deputy Crown Prince calls Donald Trump a ‘True Friend of Muslims’ After White House Meeting
Saudi Arabia’s deputy crown prince has hailed Donald Trump as a “true friend of Muslims” and said he does not believe the President’s controversial immigration ban targets Islam. A senior adviser to Prince Mohammad bin Salman said the meeting marked a “historical turning point” in US-Saudi relations, which worsened under Barack Obama’s administration because of the nuclear agreement struck with Iran. A statement said the prince’s visit had put “things on the right track” and marked a significant shift across politics, security and the economy. All of this is due to President Trump’s great understanding of the importance of relations between the two countries and his clear sight of problems in the region,” it continued, according to Bloomberg. “Saudi Arabia does not believe that [the immigration ban]is targeting Muslim countries or the religion of Islam. “This measure is a sovereign decision aimed at preventing terrorists from entering the United States of America. “President Trump expressed his deep respect for the religion of Islam, considering it one of the divine religions that came with great human principles kidnapped by radical groups.” Saudi Arabia has been accused of fuelling Islamist extremism with its adherence to fundamentalist Wahhabism and funding foreign mosques and schools that spread the ideology, sparking criticism from German intelligence services in a recent report. Mr Trump was criticised for omitting the Kingdom from the six predominantly Muslim countries included in his second attempted immigration ban. It claims to be “protecting the nation from foreign terrorist entry into the United States” but opponents have pointed out that the nations linked to most atrocities, including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt, are not barred. Attacks on 11 September 2001, was carried out by 15 hijackers from Saudi Arabia, two from the United Arab Emirates, one from Egypt and one from Lebanon. The countries included Mr Trump’s travel ban – Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen – only have a handful of citizens involved in terror attacks on US soil but the White House argues the countries prevent an increased threat because of activity by Isis and al-Qaeda linked groups. [Source: The Independent]
The overwhelming American population alongside eminent politicians and senior judges have highlighted that Trump’s travel ban is Muslim ban. So how is it possible for the Crown Prince to have an alternative view? Allah says:
أُوْلَـئِكَ الَّذِينَ اشْتَرُوُاْ الضَّلاَلَةَ بِالْهُدَى فَمَا رَبِحَت تِّجَارَتُهُمْ وَمَا كَانُواْ مُهْتَدِينَ
“These are they who have purchased error for guidance, so their commerce was profitless. And they were not guided.”
(Al Baqara: 16)
Pakistan in Talks with Saudi Arabia to Send Combat Troops to Protect the Kingdom
Pakistan is in discussions with Saudi Arabia to send combat troops to protect the kingdom amid growing concern over threats from ISIL militants and Houthi rebels. Plans are under way to dispatch a brigade-sized deployment following a request from Riyadh, which wants the troops as an emergency response force. A brigade is usually made up of between 1,500 and 3,500 troops. Islamabad and Saudi Arabia have long had a close military and security relationship, with troops from Pakistan’s large and combat-hardened army regularly deployed for training Saudi soldiers. Although the kingdom, like other Arab Gulf countries, does not make the numbers public, experts say there are as many as 70,000 Pakistanis serving across the Saudi military services at any one time. But requests for Pakistani combat brigades have usually only been made during times of heightened tensions in the kingdom. Pakistani combat troops were sent after the 1979 attack on the Grand Mosque complex in Mecca by a proto-Al Qaeda extremist group and the Iranian revolution of the same year. Forces from Pakistan were based in Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War when the kingdom feared attack by Saddam Hussein. Again, a decade ago, they were deployed as the US military ramped up operations to crush Al Qaeda in Iraq, prompting fears that the extremists would flee across the Saudi border, and as the militant group carried out a violent terrorist campaign within the kingdom. A senior Pakistani military source confirmed the Saudi request, but stressed troops would “not go across the border” with Yemen, where Saudi Arabia is leading an Arab military coalition, of which the UAE is part, against the Iran-backed Houthi rebel movement. Instead, the source said troops would be kept on standby in case of any major internal security threat or terrorist incident. The deployment – which another Pakistani source claimed was still at the planning stage – comes at a sensitive time in Saudi Arabia’s relationship with Islamabad. In 2015, the Pakistani parliament voted to turn down a request by Saudi Arabia to join its coalition fighting the takeover of Yemen by the Houthis and their allies. Members of Pakistan’s parliament opted instead for a neutral stance on the Yemen conflict, fearing it would jeopardise their efforts to balance relations with the kingdom and Iran. At the time, the Pakistani military was also wary of any involvement in a foreign war because its forces were overstretched fighting Pakistani Taliban and other extremist groups in the north-western tribal areas and elsewhere within the country’s borders. That offensive has ended and an intelligence-led operation requiring less manpower has taken its place. Another Pakistani official said the deployment emphasised that Saudi Arabia’s internal security and economic prosperity are key interests for Islamabad, but that Pakistan would not do anything that could be perceived as taking sides in the regional rivalry between Tehran and Riyadh which has inflamed sectarian divisions across the Middle East. Former Pakistani army chief Gen Raheel Sharif was selected last year by Riyadh as the potential commander of the Saudi-led alliance of Muslim-majority countries aimed at counter-terrorism. But this prompted concerns among politicians and within the army command that Pakistan was becoming too involved in an organisation that excluded Iran and Iraq, where the government is dominated by Shiites. Up to a quarter of Pakistanis are also Shiite, and that proportion is reflected in the armed forces. “You don’t want to get involved in a conflict that is ultimately sectarian because that is going to undermine the unity of the Pakistan army,” said Rifaat Hussain, an expert on Pakistan’s relations with the GCC at the National University of Science and Technology in Islamabad. Since then, debate has continued in Islamabad about whether to allow retired Gen Sharif to fill the role and what the parameters for any Pakistani troop involvement will be. Gen Sharif himself has reportedly placed conditions on his taking the position, including a role as mediator between Saudi Arabia and Iran. If the latest discussed deployment of a Pakistani brigade to Saudi Arabia goes ahead, it would not be as part of the Islamic military alliance. But it is a sign of a marked improvement in ties between Pakistan and Arab Gulf states since the low point of 2015. [Source: The National]
The Saudi regime is slaughtering Muslims in Yemen to uphold West’s colonial plan. Now Pakistan not satisfied with its own slaughter of Muslims in Baluchistan and the tribal areas wants to support the Saudis. Is there any benefit in the rulers of the Muslim world towards this Ummah?
Rebels Lose Homs with 12,000 Displaced
Al-Waer, the last rebel-held region within Homs was lost by the opposition as the regime allowed the 2,500 fighters to leave the town. The town was under siege since 2003 and had 75000 residents who despite being happy upon seeing the end of the siege, realised the repercussions of the lost in rebel control. Strategically this has led to the regime once again funnelling rebels into Idlib province which has been a gathering place for rebel fighters. This raises the chance for the further rebel infighting which has been seen over the past few weeks.
Turkey-Netherlands row
Turkey has announced a series of measures in retaliation for a Dutch decision to block its ministers from campaigning for a referendum. Deputy PM Numan Kurtulmus said the Dutch ambassador would be barred from returning to Ankara, and high-level political discussions suspended. The row comes just two days before a general election in the Netherlands dominated by concerns about immigration and Islamic radicalism. The proposed rallies aimed to encourage a large number of Turks living in Europe to vote Yes in a referendum on 16 April on expanding the president’s powers. The plans were criticised by senior EU officials on Monday. Mr Kurtulmus, who is also the Turkish government’s chief spokesman, said: “We are not allowing planes carrying Dutch diplomats or envoys from landing in Turkey or using our airspace.” Ambassador Kees Cornelis van Rij is currently out of the country, with his charge d’affaires standing in for him. Mr Kurtulmus added that all high-level political discussions would be halted, and parliament would be advised to withdraw from a bilateral friendship group. The measures would remain in effect until the Netherlands took steps to “redress its actions”, the deputy prime minister added.
EU Court Rules Employers allowed to ban the hijab
Employers are entitled to ban staff from wearing visible religious symbols, the European Union’s top law court ruled on March 14, a decision that directly attacks Muslim women wearing hijabs at work. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) said it does not constitute “direct discrimination” if a firm has an internal rule banning the wearing of “any political, philosophical or religious sign”.
The court gave a judgment in the cases of two women, in France and Belgium, who were dismissed for refusing to remove their hijabs.