Swiss minaret ban 'extreme Islamophobia', Muslims and Islamophobia, NewAgeIslam.com

Muslims and Islamophobia

Swiss minaret ban 'extreme Islamophobia'

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani religious groups on Monday condemned a referendum in Switzerland that saw voters approve a ban on the construction of mosque minarets, calling it 'extreme Islamophobia.'

Switzerland on Sunday voted in favour of a ban on new mosque minarets - the towers or turrets attached to mosques from which Muslims are traditionally called to prayer - prompting dismay and anger in the Muslim world.

'This development reflects extreme Islamophobia among people in the West,' said Khurshid Ahmad, vice president of Jamaat-e-Islami, a Islamic political party that is represented in Pakistan's parliament.

'This also represents very serious discrimination against Muslims.' Pakistan is the world's second most populous Muslim nation.

The far-right Swiss People's Party (SVP) had forced a referendum after collecting a mandatory 100,000 signatures from eligible voters.

Conservative Swiss politicians argued that the minarets were not architectural features with religious characteristics, but symbolised a 'political-religious claim to power, which challenges fundamental rights.'

Ahmad described the Swiss decision as a serious violation of human rights and international law, telling AFP: 'This is an effort to provoke Muslims and prompt a clash between Islam and the West.'

Yahya Mujahid, a spokesman for Islamic charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa - accused of being a front for the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba radical insurgent group - also decried the referendum as a blow for inter-faith harmony.

'This new decision violates the principles of mutual understanding and religious tolerance,' Mujahid said.

'The West never takes respite in claiming to be champions of religious tolerance and inter-faith harmony, but this latest decision shows their bias against Muslims,' he added.

http://newageislam.com/swiss-minaret-ban--extreme-islamophobia-/muslims-and-islamophobia/d/2168

Fort Hood Fallout: Muslim Soldiers Profess Love For America Amidst Growing Islamophobia

Muslims and Islamophobia

Fort Hood Fallout: Muslim Soldiers Profess Love For America Amidst Growing Islamophobia

When Nader Alsafari of Dearborn was sent to Fallujah, Iraq, in 2006 to fight with the U.S. Marines, some of his fellow Muslims at a local mosque weren't pleased because they felt it was an unjust war.

"Most of them didn't like it," Alsafari, 23, recalled last week. "They'd be like, 'You should try to get out.' ... They were thinking, we were just going to go and kill innocent people."

But Alsafari -- like other Muslims -- saw himself performing his duty as an American. There are some 3,500 declared Muslims in the U.S. military. And they're in the spotlight after the Nov. 5 shootings at a military base in Ft. Hood, Texas. The suspect, Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, is an Arab-American Muslim.

Caught between two worlds, they're trying to carve out their own identity during a time of war when some are questioning their loyalty.

A director with a conservative Christian group says Muslims should be banned from serving. And amid the many Muslim leaders who denounced the Ft. Hood shootings were a few who praised Hasan, saying his actions were Islamic.

But Muslim veterans strongly reject the extremists on both sides.

"We love this country," said Shelton Hasan, 54, of Detroit, an Army veteran, "and want to protect it like anyone else."

Muslim troops aim to build trust in U.S. military

When Jamal Baadani, a native of Dearborn and U.S. Marine, was visiting his nephew a few years ago, he noticed the 5-year-old boy didn't want to play with him as usual.

"What's the matter?" Baadani said he remembers asking him.

http://newageislam.com/fort-hood-fallout--muslim-soldiers-profess-love-for-america-amidst-growing-islamophobia/muslims-and-islamophobia/d/2099

Blind Opposition to Shari’ah law smacks very much of Islamophobia

Blind Opposition to Shari’ah law smacks very much of Islamophobia

It turns out Islamophobia is no myth. Researchers in psychology and medicine have found that anti-Muslim sentiment is a very real phenomenon with potentially dire effects on safety and medical care.

During last week's United Nations interfaith dialogue, Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon singled out Islamophobia as "a new term for an old and terrible form of prejudice."

Simply appearing Muslim can increase aggressive tendencies towards Muslims a recent study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology found. They termed this bias the "Turban Effect."

Perception and aggression

http://www.newageislam.com/blind-opposition-to-shari%E2%80%99ah-law-smacks-very-much-of-islamophobia/islam-and-the-west/d/1006

Feminism, Colonialism and Islamophobia: Treacherous Sympathy with Muslim Women, 25 Aug 2011, NewAgeIslam.Com

Islam, Women and Feminism

25 Aug 2011, NewAgeIslam.Com

Feminism, Colonialism and Islamophobia: Treacherous Sympathy with Muslim Women

By Leila Ahmed Aug 23, 2011 Ever since the attacks of 9/11, feminists in the West have increasingly used the theme of the oppression of women in Islam as justification for war and domination. This strategy of using this rhetoric of “saving the women” in the name of “civilization” is an old ploy used many times in the past by Western imperialists, writes Leila Ahmed. http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamIslamWomenAndFeminism_1.aspx?ArticleID=5319

Missing Introspection needed to counter growing Islamophobia

Editor, NewAgeIslam.com, Mr Sultan Shahin's oral statement in the Thirteenth Session of UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on 16 March, 2010 introspects the reasons behind growing Islamophobia. He says that discrimination against religious minorities in Muslim-majority countries has grown. Anti-blasphemy laws, for instance, have been routinely used to harass and commit acts of violence against religious minorities. The Report of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Asma Jahangir, mentioned the case of Christians and the minority Muslim sect of Ahmadis who are continually harassed on baseless allegations of blasphemy in Pakistan despite the government’s stated commitment to fulfil its international obligations.

In Mr. Sultan Shahin’s view another issue that may be fuelling Islamophobia is the widespread Islam-supremacism in the Muslim community. God told us in the Quran, Mr. Shahin says, that Islam is not a new religion; it is the same religion that God has been sending to this planet through tens of thousands of previous prophets. We were told that the Holy Quran is merely a reiteration of the messages that were sent before. We were specifically told not to fall in the trap of considering ourselves the chosen people. But we did not listen. We have developed an ideology of Islam-supremacism, contrary to all Islamic teachings. We have developed a theory that Muslims alone will go to Heaven, all others are going to be consigned to Hell, no matter how righteous. Obviously anyone who harbours a feeling of superiority over others cannot possibly expect to have good relations with them.

Mr. Shahin has another lament too: He says: “Then we have allowed a section of Muslims to spread among us a version of exclusivist Islam that wants us to get away from each and everypre-Islamic tradition. Pre-Islamic traditions like Hajj and veneration of Kaaba sharif are intrinsic to Islam itself. But we are told that we should behave and look different from followers of all other religions and forego all our local cultural traditions. A derivative of this same petrodollar Islam is what is known as Jihadi Islam. This Jihadi Islam is taking away our youth, brainwashing them and turning them into human bombs. It is using some verses of the Holy Quran as weapons of war. We all know that the Prophet had to fight existential battles to safeguard Islam. These verses were revealed then to buttress the war effort. But they are not meant for us to act upon today.”

Full Text of the UNHRC speech is available at:

http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamMuslimsAndIslamophobia_1.aspx?ArticleID=2590