Islam: The Religion of Peace?

[Gavur]

Swiss authorities forbid Muslim center to hire Turkish imam

The Associated Press


BERN, Switzerland (AP) - Swiss authorities have barred the
Geneva-based Islamic center from hiring a Turkish imam because of
doubts over the content of his teachings, a Swiss official said on
Sunday.

Dominique Boillat, a spokesman for the immigration office, said the
decision by Swiss political authorities backed up the immigration
office's decision. ``Imams who work in Switzerland must defend our
values or at least not be against them,'' Boillat said.

Hani Ramadan, the director of the Islamic center who had sought to
hire the imam, has publicly defended the stoning of adulterers and has
also said that AIDS was a form of divine retribution against sinners.

Last year, the Swiss immigration office denied the Turkish imam and
his Senegalese aide a residence and work permit. Hani Ramadan, the
institute's director, subsequently appealed the decision.

Swiss authorities can deny citizens from non European Union member
states the right to work and live in Switzerland. According to
Switzerland's new immigration guidelines immigrants must show
readiness to integrate and respect the Swiss legal system.

According to Sunday's edition of the NZZ am Sonntag, a Swiss Sunday
newspaper, about 500 mostly Turkish- and Arabic-speaking Muslims
regularly visit the Islamic center.

After his suspension from work as a public school French teacher, Hani
Ramadan told Swiss media that Muslims living in Europe had a duty to
speak about their beliefs even if they offended others.

Hani Ramadan is the brother of French-based Islamic scholar Tariq
Ramadan. The pair are grandsons of the founder of the Muslim
Brotherhood, Egypt's now banned fundamentalist party.

Tariq Ramadan has been barred from entering the United States. He has
been criticized for alleged links - which he denies - to Islamic
militants. Last year, the U.S. revoked his visa to teach at Notre Dame
University.

[Hovik]

TURKEY: IS THERE RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN TURKEY?
By Dr. Otmar Oehring, head of the human rights office of Missio

Forum 18, Norway
Oct 12 2005

The European Union (EU) must make full religious freedom for all a
core demand in the EU membership negotiations with Turkey which have
just begun, argues Otmar Oehring of the German Catholic charity Missio

http://www.missio-aachen.de/menschen-kulturen/themen/menschenrechte

in this personal commentary for Forum 18 News Service
http://www.forum18.org. Dr Oehring also calls for people inside and
outside Turkey who believe in religious freedom for all to honestly
and openly raise the continuing obstructions to the religious life of
Turkey's Muslim, Christian and other religious communities. He analyses
the limited, complex and changing state of religious freedom in the
country. In particular, he notes that Christians of all confessions,
devout Muslim women, Muslim minorities, and other minority religions
face official obstacles in practicing their faith and (in the case
of non-Muslims) strong social hostility.

Go to any mosque or church in Turkey and you will see people
worshipping. So clearly some religious freedom exists. Yet serious
problems persist. Religious communities are not allowed to organise
themselves as they choose. Individual religious freedom exists up to
a point. For example, you are entitled by law to change your religion
and to have the change recorded on your identity documents, but people
who have done so have faced hostility from fellow-citizens. As soon as
a religious community wants to organise itself, problems arise. This
holds just as much for Muslims as for communities of other faiths.

Although many Turks dislike the term "State Islam", it has to be
stated that Islam is organised by the state. Sunnis who consider
this an unacceptable innovation are not allowed to organise. Although
Sufi orders exist, some even with a vast membership, they have been
officially forbidden banned since the 1920s.

The main problem religious communities identify is their lack of
legal status as religious communities. In the late Ottoman period
some religious minorities had legal status under the millet system,
but the Islamic community had no separate legal status as the state
was considered to be Islamic. But since the founding of the Turkish
republic, any such status has disappeared. Some Muslims are concerned
about this lack of legal status, especially minority Muslim groups
within the dominant Sunni majority, as well as the Alevis, Shias and
the Sufi orders. But few Muslims are prepared to voice their demands
for legal status openly, for fear of imprisonment, although in recent
years the Alevis have become more vocal. This has led to their gaining
some recognition as associations, though not as religious bodies.

Religious meetings and services without authorisation remain illegal,
though it remains unclear in law what constitutes legal and illegal
worship. The Ottoman millet system recognised some religious
minorities and the 1923 Lausanne Treaty spoke vaguely of religious
minority rights without naming them, but the Turkish authorities
interpret this to exclude communities such as the Roman Catholics,
Syriac Orthodox and Lutherans, even though these communities have
found ways to function. Protestant Christian churches functioning
quietly in non-recognised buildings are generally tolerated, but
Muslims gathering outside an approved mosque are viewed as a threat
to the state and police will raid them.

It is not possible for most Protestant Christian churches to be
recognised as churches under current Turkish law. But in one bizarre
case, a German Christian church was recognised in Antalya, but
only by calling itself a "chapel" not a "church." Most Evangelical
Protestant churches in Turkey do not meet in private homes, but in
rented facilities such as office buildings or other non-residential
buildings. These can be fairly large.

The Law on Associations - adopted by Parliament in October 2004 -
does not allow the founding of associations with a religious purpose,
so founding a religious discussion group or even a religious freedom
group is impossible, even if some religious communities do try to
register as associations. Some Sufi orders and new Islamic movements
have registered as businesses, even with religious names.

However, the government has changed the building planning laws,
replacing the word "mosque" with "place of worship". The government
indicated to Protestant churches that individuals cannot ask for
buildings to be designated as a place of worship, but individual
congregations should try to get recognition as a legal personality
first (as a "Dernek" or society) and then try to get their meeting
place designated as a place of worship. At least two Protestant
churches are now trying this route.

There are currently two Protestant churches that are legally recognised
by the Turkish state, one of which is in Istanbul. It was recognised
as a "Vakf" (charitable foundation) several years ago, after a
long court battle, making it a legal entity. Several weeks ago,
they finally had their building officially designated as a place of
worship. The second example is the Protestant church in Diyarbakir,
which has legal recognition as a house of worship under the Ministry
of Culture, as a heritage site.

Religious education remains tightly controlled. In law such education
must be carried out by the state, although in practice Christian
churches - Armenian Apostolic, Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant - have
been able to provide catechetical training to their children on church
premises. The state turns a blind eye to this. But Koranic courses are
different. Officially they should take place only under the guidance of
the state, yet some 6,000 such courses are widely spoken of as existing
clandestinely. Many officials and police officers have good contacts
with them, while many senior officials and parliamentarians have been
members of Sufi orders which officially do not exist or are forbidden.

It is generally impossible to found higher education establishments
for Muslims, Christians and others. The Armenian Apostolic and the
Greek Orthodox seminaries were closed down in the 1970s and the
government has resisted all attempts to reopen them. Protestants
cannot normally establish Bible colleges. However, an Evangelical
Bible college functions in Selcuk; it is not government recognised and
accredited, but it has been providing theological training for several
years. Christian clergy and pastors mostly have to train abroad. Alevi
Muslims do not tend to demand religious colleges, as they are led
not by imams but by elders who are initiated by other elders.

The Law on Construction - which came into force into July 2003 -
makes it possible to "establish" places of worship. But the law -
probably deliberately - does not define if this means "build", "rent"
or "buy". Protestant churches face problems trying to build. Any
community wishing to build a place of worship officially can do so in
an area with a minimum number of adherents of their faith - but the
state decides if the community has enough members to get the land it
needs. There is no authoritative definition of how the law should
be interpreted. The Justice Minister said recently that religious
communities intending to establish a place of worship should apply, but
how can religious communities apply if officially they cannot exist?

Government officials do not want to acknowledge that Alevi Muslims
cannot officially establish places of worship. The government is
building Sunni mosques in many Alevi villages, but Alevis will not
go to them. Instead they meet openly for worship in cemevis (meeting
houses), not only in central Anatolia but even in Istanbul. The
government stated in parliament in 2004 that such Alevi cemevis are
not to be considered as places of worship. Although many of them
still function unimpeded, some have been closed down in recent years.

Conversion from one faith to another is possible, even from Islam,
under the law on personal status (though you cannot be listed
officially as an atheist or agnostic). If you convert from Islam
you can change your faith on your identity papers, but being Muslim
on your identity card makes day-to-day life easier. Christians,
Baha'is or Jehovah's Witnesses are often unable to find employment,
especially in rural areas. So many who have converted from Islam
to another faith prefer to leave their religious designation on
their identity papers unchanged. According to information given by
the Minister of State in charge of Religious Affairs this autumn,
during the last ten years fewer than 400 people officially converted
to Christianity and only about 10 to Judaism.

Islam is controlled by the Presidency of Religious Affairs, or
Diyanet http://www.diyanet.gov.tr/english/tanitim.asp?id=3, which
is directed from the Prime Minister's office. This was deliberately
established not as a government ministry, as Turkey claims to be a
secular state. Some Muslims do object to this state control, especially
those from newer groups, such as the Nurcu movement, the Suleymanci,
followers of Fethullah Gulen, and members of Sufi orders.

Some religious communities can officially invite foreign religious
workers. The Catholics can under the 1923 Lausanne Treaty invite
foreign priests up to a certain number, though even then the
government makes this difficult, asking why the Church needs so many
priests when there are so few Catholics. It is more difficult for
Protestant communities, as officially they do not exist as religious
communities. Foreign religious workers who come to Turkey under
some other guise can face problems, if the government finds out
about them. As long as the state does not have to know about their
activity they can function, but as soon as the state is forced to take
official notice of them, they can face problems. The government knows
about most, if not all, Protestant missionaries, because these made a
conscious decision to be open about what they are doing. Occasionally
they experience some problems but - with occasional exceptions -
the government merely monitors what they do, leaving them otherwise
undisturbed.

All religious communities are under state surveillance, with religious
minorities facing the closest scrutiny. Christian leaders know they
are listened in to and their telephones are tapped. The Ecumenical
Patriarch states that "walls have ears," even when speaking within
his own Patriarchate in the Fener district of Istanbul. Police visit
individual Christian churches to ask who attends, which foreigners
have visited, what they discussed. They are particularly interested
in which Turkish citizens attend.

Are such visits a threat, or do the intelligence agencies just want
to know what is going on? When the police attend Catholic services
in Ankara, they say they are there to protect Christians. From my
conversations with church members, I'm sure this is not true.

When secularism was proclaimed as a guiding state principle in line
with French laďcite it was sincerely meant. Kemal Ataturk and his
followers aimed to crush Islam. Later on, officials understood that
society was not willing to follow this line. Slowly, Islam returned
to schools and other areas of life. Now Turkey is a Sunni Muslim
state. All those whose mother tongue is Turkish and are Sunni
Muslims are considered Turks. Alevis, Kurds, Christians and all
other minorities are not considered Turks - they are considered
as foreigners.

The furore over headscarves - a genuine concern to devout Muslim women
- was exploited as a political issue by Islamist parties, eager to
demonstrate their opposition to the military authorities which had
banned Islamic dress after the 1980 coup. Had there been no headscarf
ban, there would have been no problem. This point was illustrated by
the case of a non-political devout Muslim, Leyla Sahin. She was barred
from wearing a headscarf in Istanbul University in her fifth year
of medical studies and subsequently successfully completed medical
studies at Vienna University in Austria. This disturbing ban - which
de jure bars devout Muslim women from universities - is currently
under consideration by a Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human
Rights (ECHR). (See http://www.strasbourgconference.org for more on
this and other ECHR cases.)

In rural Sunni areas women have always worn headscarves - though not
the type seen in Iran or Saudi Arabia - which some women have tried to
wear in towns. In some cases, supporters of the Refah (Welfare) party
and others have paid women to wear such scarves. Even nationalist
politicians say that if women are free to choose whether to wear a
headscarf or not, many who have worn them for political reasons would
no longer wish to do so.

Societal opposition to minorities of all sorts does impact on
religious freedom. Such social pressure is felt most keenly among
the poor. Members of the urban middle class who convert from Islam to
other faiths can freely practise their new faith. In Izmir a Christian
church exists where many young converts of university background
attend unchallenged. But openly converting to and practising a
non-Islamic faith is often impossible in poor neighbourhoods. In former
Armenian-populated areas of Anatolia - where there are also people of
Syriac descent - many families changed their formal identification to
Muslims, but did not convert in reality. Their attempts to practise
Christianity face enormous obstacles unless they move to Istanbul or
even to Ankara. Back in these towns and villages are no Christian
churches, so anyone wanting to meet for Christian worship could be
dragged off to the police or suffer beatings.

One former Interior Minister stated that Christians should only
conduct missionary activity among such people of Christian descent.

He estimated the numbers of such people at between 800,000 and three
million people.

You have to be very courageous to set up a Protestant church in remote
areas, as pastor Ahmet Guvener found in Diyarbakir. Problems can come
from neighbours and from the authorities. Even if not working hand
in hand, neighbours and officials share the same hostility. They
cannot understand why anyone would convert to Christianity. People
are not upset seeing old Christian churches - Syriac Orthodox and
other Christian churches have always existed in Anatolia - but seeing
a new Protestant church, even when housed in a shop or private flat,
arouses hostility.

Officials vary in their attitudes. The Kemalist bureaucracy follows
Ataturk's secularist line and is against anything religious. There
is a nationalist, chauvinistic wing of officialdom which believes
that anything not Turkish is a threat to be countered. The security
and intelligence services, including the powerful military, are both
Kemalist and nationalist. Anyone considered not to be Turkish and not
Sunni Muslim faces problems. Even Sunni Muslim Kurds are excluded,
while Alevi Kurds are regarded as even worse.

It is very difficult to imagine that in the next decade or so Turkish
society will change to allow full religious freedom. To take one
example, for the change to be conceivable the chauvinistic content of
primary and secondary school education - constant praise of Ataturk,
Turkey and all things Turkish - will have to change. Unless this
happens, it is very hard to imagine Turkey evolving into an open
society that is truly ready to accept European Union (EU) human rights
requirements. One non-religious illustration of the lack of openness
in Turkish society is the near impossibility of free discussion of
the genocide of 1.5 million Armenians and Assyrians in the last years
of the Ottoman empire, along with continued official denial that the
genocide took place.

Christian churches have welcomed the prospect of Turkish EU accession,
often due to their own communities' experience and hopes.

If negotiations last for more than a few years some improvements
for religious minorities - including Islamic minorities - might
be possible.

Sadly, there appears to be not enough interest among diplomats in
Ankara from EU member states - or in their foreign ministries back
home - in promoting religious freedom in Turkey. The EU has forced the
Turkish government to change the Law on Foundations. This law governs
inter alia community foundations (cemaat vakiflar) that act as the
owners of the real estate of Armenians, Bulgarians, Greeks and Jews,
who are treated by the government as minorities within the meaning
of the Treaty of Lausanne as well as some of the properties of the
Chaldean Catholic, Syrian Catholic and Syrian Orthodox Christians,
who are not treated by the government as minorities within the meaning
of the Treaty of Lausanne. But reforms will have to go much deeper
for Turkey to meet the EU's stated 'Copenhagen criteria' of being "a
stable democracy, respecting human rights, the rule of law, and the
protection of minorities." The EU must make full religious freedom
for all, including for Muslims, a core demand.

Full religious freedom would bring with it an increase in the
influence of Islam, which some think would endanger the western
orientation of Turkey. Possibly this is the reason that the EU has
not pushed Turkey harder on religious freedom. However, it is unwise
to see the relationship with Turkey through such "war-against-terror
spectacles." It is vital for the future of Turkey that full religious
freedom be a core demand, so that Turkish democracy can be strengthened
to the point that it can in democratic ways cope with the hostility
of some Islamic groups.

With so little apparent interest in pushing for full religious freedom
from within the EU, local religious communities within Turkey will have
to take the lead. They are starting to challenge the denial of their
rights through the courts. Protestant Christians have been doing this
for almost 10 years, usually with success. The Ecumenical Patriarchate,
however, has failed to regain a former orphanage it ran on an island
near Istanbul through the High Court in Ankara. It is now taking
the case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg,
to which Turkey is subject as a member of the Council of Europe. I
believe this is the right way for such communities to defend their
rights and others are already following. The Alevi Muslims have told
the government that, if they continue to be denied religious education
in state schools to their children according to their own teaching,
they too will go to the ECHR. Denial of legal status to religious
communities is another possible ECHR case.

(con't below)

[Hovik]

Pt2

The most important thing is to put religious freedom on the agenda
and talk openly of the problems with full knowledge of the nuances
and complexities of the situation.

It is important to challenge Turkey's restrictions on religious freedom
using Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which
Turkey signed in 1954. This article guarantees "freedom of thought,
conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his
religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with
others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief,
in worship, teaching, practice and observance."

This should be the basis for all discussion of religious freedom,
not the 1923 Lausanne Treaty, with its highly restrictive approach
to religious freedom.

Turkish religious communities will have to speak more on the importance
of religious freedom to the outside world, though they will have to
be wise in the way they do this. Religious minority leaders are in a
difficult situation: they believe that they have to argue in favour
of negotiations on EU membership, however sceptical they might be
about how ready Turkish society is to make the necessary changes.

Foreign churches and religious communities should be talking to
their own governments, to press them to promote religious freedom in
Turkey. They will have to convince them they are not simply advocating
greater rights for their co-religionists but truly advocate religious
freedom for all in Turkey, including Muslims.

The big question remains: do the Turkish government and people have
the will to allow full religious freedom for all? The Turkish media
speculates that the current government might not be in favour of EU
membership, but is merely using this as a way to introduce domestic
developments to achieve Islamist aims. The suggestion put forward
in the media is that, if democracy develops, the military will be
prevented from mounting a coup and so there will no longer be any
obstacle to Islamist aims.

Whether or not this media speculation reflects reality, all those who
believe in religious freedom in Turkey - both within the country and
abroad - must keep the issue on the domestic and international agenda -
and be honest about the continuing obstructions to religious life of
Turkey's Muslim, Christian and other religious communities.

(END)

Dr Otmar Oehring, head of the human rights office at Missio
http://www.missio-aachen.de/menschen...menschenrechte,
a Catholic mission based in the German city of Aachen, contributed
this comment to Forum 18 News Service. Commentaries are personal views
and do not necessarily represent the views of F18News or Forum 18.

[url]http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=670[/url

[Reincarnated Am]

Get out if you want Sharia law, Australia tells Muslims

Thursday, August 25, 2005

CANBERRA: Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on Wednesday to get out of Australia, as the government targeted radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks. A day after a group of mainstream Muslim leaders pledged loyalty to Australia at a special meeting with Prime Minister John Howard, he and his ministers made it clear that extremists would face a crackdown. Treasurer Peter Costello, seen as heir apparent to Howard, hinted that some radical clerics could be asked to leave the country if they did not accept that Australia was a secular state and its laws were made by parliament. “If those are not your values, if you want a country which has Sharia law or a theocratic state, then Australia is not for you,” he said on national television. “I’d be saying to clerics who are teaching that there are two laws governing people in Australia, one the Australian law and another the Islamic law, that that is false. If you can’t agree with parliamentary law, independent courts, democracy, and would prefer Sharia law and have the opportunity to go to another country which practises it, perhaps, then, that’s a better option,” Costello said. Asked whether he meant radical clerics would be forced to leave, he said those with dual citizenship could possibly be asked move to the other country. Education Minister Brendan Nelson later told reporters that Muslims who did not want to accept local values should “clear off”. “Basically, people who don’t want to be Australians, and they don’t want to live by Australian values and understand them, well then they can basically clear off,” he said. Separately, Howard angered some Australian Muslims on Wednesday by saying he supported spies monitoring the nation’s mosques. agencies

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_25-8-2005_pg1_2

[Gavur]

Turkey : Turkey Orders Iranian Christians Deported

Widow in convert family faces court-ordered arrest for apostasy.

October 11 (Compass) – A family of Iranian converts to Christianity faces jail time, the death sentence and the forced marriage of their daughter if Turkish authorities forcibly deport them back to Iran next week after nearly three years of failed attempts to obtain U.N. refugee status.

A deportation order issued October 5 by Turkish police in Kastamonu, 130 miles north of Ankara, gives Zivar Khademian and her three adult children 15 days to leave Turkey or be forcibly repatriated back to Iran.


But only a handful of nations will grant even limited visas to any of the thousands of Iranian refugees in Turkey trying to find resettlement abroad. Although Turkey issues an automatic three-month visa to Iranian citizens, its immigration procedures resist attempts to resettle Iranians in a third country.


So with an October 20 deadline hanging over them, the family of four has packed up to leave Kastamonu, planning to seek anonymity in one of Turkey’s large cities while searching for some visa option.


“If we cannot find a legal way to leave Turkey,” one of them told Compass, “we will go into hiding to avoid arrest and deportation back to Iran.”


Together with her daughter Fatemeh Moini, 19, and sons Hossein and Kazem Moini, both in their early 30s, the widowed Khademian was baptized several years ago by a Protestant church in Tehran.


The family decided to leave Iran in January 2003 after it became known among relatives, neighbors and local authorities that she and her children had become Christians.


Christian Daughter Promised to Muslim Militiaman

In particular, Khademian wanted to prevent a strict Muslim relative of her late husband from marrying her daughter Fatemah Moini, who had been promised in marriage to this cousin at her birth. Now 35, the cousin lives in the Islamic holy city of Qom and is an active member of the Basij, a volunteer militia that enforces Iran’s severe Islamic codes.


Although the mother and daughter had been practicing Muslims, they were deeply impacted by telephone calls from Canada from the eldest son, Faheem Moini, who had become a Christian and urged them to start reading the New Testament. Only after they had both accepted Christianity did they admit this to the two other sons, who then began to accompany them sometimes to house-church meetings.


Arrest

Eventually the entire family landed in trouble when Kazem Moini was arrested and jailed in May 2002. During a raid on their home, police found Christian and other cassette tapes that he had been duplicating secretly.


Kazem Moini remained in prison for six months, while his brother Hossein went into hiding, and his mother and sister were subjected to regular police surveillance.


When the family scraped together funds to bail Kazem Moini out of jail, the conditions of his release were severe. He was forced to promise to spy for the police on evangelical Christian activities, and the family had to surrender the deed to the family home as collateral for his bail.


Escape but no Refuge

But a month after he was released, the family managed to sell their car, find a black-market passport for him and buy train tickets for them to neighboring Turkey, crossing the border on January 11, 2003.


Following required immigration procedures, the four applied for refugee status three days later at the Ankara headquarters of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). But within four months, the UNHCR rejected the family, declaring their claims to be “not credible.”


“Your testimony was not found plausible,” the May 27, 2003 rejection letter stated, going on to declare, “The harm you suffered or fear you have is not related to any of the five [U.N.] Convention grounds listed above”—one of the five being religion. The family had submitted proof that Kazem Moini had been jailed, along with copies of their baptismal certificates.


Under the laws of Iran, apostasy from Islam is listed along with murder, armed robbery, rape and serious drug trafficking as a capital offense.


Within a month the family filed an appeal, but in August 2003 the Turkish authorities sent the family from Ankara to Kastamonu to wait for the UNHCR decision.


Fifteen months later, Khademian learned that the Supreme Court of the Islamic Republic of Iran had issued an order for her arrest, charging her under Islamic statute No. 471 with apostasy, or abandoning Islam. The court arrest order shown to Compass was issued on October 28, 2004 and sent to her former Tehran address.


Although the family immediately took the document to Ankara and submitted it to the UNHCR, they received no response. On February 15, 2005 they received a final rejection letter, declaring their UNHCR file closed with no further review possible. A week later Turkish police delivered a deportation order for the family.


Temporary Extension

The next day, however, Faheem Moini’s church in Canada filed a plea with Turkish authorities. Confirming their formal sponsorship of the family, the Calvary Baptist Church in Vancouver, British Columbia, requested a stay in the deportation until immigration procedures could be finalized to bring them to Canada. So Ankara’s security police extended the family’s temporary residency for another six months.


But when the six-month extension expired this fall, police in Kastamonu informed them their residency could not be extended again, since the UNHCR had closed their case.

When the family turned in their expired residence permits on October 5, the Turkish police returned the Iranian passports on which they entered Turkey.


The family remains unsure where to turn now.


“They shouldn’t be sent back to Iran,” the pastor who baptized the family told Compass. “This case should be announced all over the world.”

UPDATE:
TURKEY : FAMILY ORDERED TO RETURN TO IRAN WINS REPRIEVE

http://www.compassdirect.org/en/lead.php

[Gavur]

Turkish brothers convicted for ‘honor killing’

By Suzan Fraser - The Associated Press

ANKARA - A Turkish court yesterday convicted two brothers for the “honor killing” of their sister and sentenced one to life in prison and the other to more than 11 years behind bars.

Guldunya Toren was shot dead in her hospital bed last year, where she was recovering from an earlier attack by her brothers. The brothers were accused of killing Toren, who was 22, to punish her for having a child out of wedlock.

Toren has become a symbol of Turkey’s struggle to stem the practice of honor killings and human rights groups have been watching the case closely.

Turkey, which is vying for EU membership, has overhauled its criminal code to hand down severe punishments to family members who kill, force or encourage another member to kill a relative believed to have disgraced the family, in an effort to combat the practice.

Families often assign the task to a teenage member of the family, because of lighter sentences handed down to minors.

In the past, perpetrators were also able to escape with lighter punishments if they could prove that they were “provoked.”

The court yesterday sentenced Irfan Toren to life in prison. His younger brother, identified only as F.T. because he was a minor at the time of the killing, was given a sentence of 11 years and eight months, the Anatolia news agency and other media reported. A third brother is still on the run.

Toren died in hospital in Istanbul, a day after her two brothers shot her in the head for having a child out of wedlock. She was in hospital for treatment for wounds after one of the brothers shot at her in the street.

Toren reportedly fled her hometown of Bitlis, in southeast Turkey, for Istanbul to escape her family’s wrath after becoming pregnant. She was living at the home of an imam, where she gave birth to a boy, reports said. One of her brothers, pretending to have come to take her to an aunt’s home, lured her outside of the house while the second shot her, reports said.

Toren escaped that attack with severe injuries. She was in the hospital’s intensive-care unit when her brothers, pretending to be visitors, shot her in the head, reports said.

[Gavur]

More than 53 million Muslims in Europe

Survey shows Islam on the rise across continent

Posted: October 22, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern


By Wolfgang Polzer
Š 2005 ASSIST News Service

WETZLAR, Germany – More than 53 million Muslims live in Europe – 14 million of them in the European Union, according to newly released figures.

The Central Institute's Islam Archives in Soest, Germany, says the number of Muslims in Europe has increased by 800,000 over the last two years, reports the German evangelical news agency IDEA.


The institute’s director, Salim Abdullah, says that among the 25 EU states, France has the highest number of Muslims – 5.5 million – followed by Germany with 3.2 million, the United Kingdom with 1.5 million and Italy with 1 million.

Taking into account the whole continent, Russia has 25 million Muslims and the European part of Turkey 5.9 million. The Muslim population in Germany is mostly made up of Turkish migrants. But the number of Muslims holding a German passport has risen to almost 1 million.

Muslim worship in Germany is on the rise. Approximately 200,000 take part in daily prayers and 493,000 in Friday prayers at mosques and prayer houses – an increase of more than 10 percent over last year’s figures.

Islam in Germany is a "young religion," according to the institute, which counts 850,000 Muslims as minors. One in five Muslim adolescents worships regularly.

The number of converts to Islam has reached a new high in Germany. According to the institute, more than 1,100 people changed their religion to Islam between 2004 and 2005. Approximately 60 percent of the converts were women. Most converted because they married a Muslim.

But the reverse also is true: More and more Muslims in Germany are becoming Christians. Most are Iranians in exile, who left their country after the Islamic revolution of 1979. Iranian converts estimate that each year approximately 60 Muslims are baptized in Germany.

The institute believes that more than 100,000 Iranian Shiites have converted to the Christian faith since the Islamic revolution. Most live in the United States.

[Gavur]

Alcohol - Not Prohibited in the Koran

Monday October 24 2005 23:57:51 PM BDT


Mesbah Uddin, U.K.


Contrary to popular belief, a Koranic verse of a very revered Sura describes the alcoholic drinks as gifted with "good nourishment", and or, "wholesome drink".

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Alcohol - Not Prohibited in the Koran
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Over the years, the detrimental effects of alcohol are well recorded even in the West. The highway statistics of deaths, because of the influence of alcohol, are astronomically high. The US Congress once voted for the prohibition of alcohol in 1917, when cars were rare on the streets. Organisations such as MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) sprang up in recent years to elevate social conscience about the use of alcohol.

But alcohol as a source of intoxication is poles apart from its beneficial aspects. Quite often, alcohol is needed as preservative and solvent in medicines.

Nevertheless, very frequently, sermons are heard in the mosques to avoid those medicines that contain alcohol. Islamic journals could hardly be browsed without stumbling upon an article, advising the devout Muslims to check the alcohol and other ingredients in medicines. Even tooth paste - a cleaning substance, is not spared by the 'self-appointed' Islam-defenders.

Contrary to popular belief, a Koranic verse of a very revered Sura describes the alcoholic drinks as gifted with "good nourishment", and or, "wholesome drink". Naturally, this Koranic verse may inspire a few truth-seekers to trace their memories on the Koran, and relate the journals and news coverage, on the life-enhancing marvels of selective alcoholic drinks.

In reality, the medical researchers, in recent years, have confirmed that the taking of certain red wine in a prescribed limit has been proven to be highly deterrent against heart-attack. The effectiveness of alcohol, in the prevention of infection during oral surgery - and for that matter most surgery is indisputable. Nevertheless, the mullahs, the Imams, as well as those scholars, heavily brain-washed with the corrupted Islamic value based on the Hadith, are adamant in their belief that the Koran prohibits alcohol even as a life saver.

Does the Koran really define alcohol as 'haram'? Let us examine the source - the Koran, and keep the Hadith not to intervene in this issue.

The characteristics of haram or prohibitions found in the Koran usually begin with the expression "forbidden for you." In some occasions, it gives a strong warning of hellfire. For instance, about the prohibiton of swine meat, the Koran says:

"Forbidden unto you are carrion and blood and swine-flesh.... (5. Al Ma' idah: 3).

The Koranic prohibition about murder states:

"Whosoever slayeth a believer of set purpose, his reward is hellfire for ever..." (4. An-Nisa: 93).

There are five major verses in the Koran that deal with the alcoholic drinks. Selecting by their sequential positions in the Koran, the first one contains the most interesting dogma and will be addressed at the end of this topic.

The second verse advises the followers of Islam not to engage in prayers when they are under the influence of alcohol. The Koranic text is:

"O you who believe! Draw not near unto prayer when you are drunken, till you know that which you utter,. ...." (4. An-Nisa: 43).

Obviously, the expression "forbidden for you" is not found anywhere nearby. Nor the threat of 'hellfire' is directly or indirectly traceable in the verse. Rather, the deterrence applies to praying under alcoholic influence.

The third verse defines alcoholic drinks as "an infamy of Satan's handiwork." and indicates the believer that to succeed in life, it is advisable to stay away from alcoholic drinks. The Koranic text is:

"O you who believe! Strong drink and games of chance and idols and divining arrows are only an infamy of Satan's handiwork. Leave it aside in order that ye may succeed." (5. Al Ma' idah: 90).

Strikingly, no word of forbiddance or the fear of hellfire is found here to classify alcohol as 'haram'. More to the point, the advice: "leave it aside in order that you may succeed" relates to earthy success in life. No doubt, career successes are often impaired and impeded because of the excessive influence of alcohol. Amazingly, the Koran places rightful emphasis on it.

The fourth verse relates to food in general including alcohol, and assures the believers not to be too concerned about consuming food, as long as they do 'good work'. The phrase 'good work' has been emphasised repeatedly. Here again the hellfire and words of forbiddance are missing. The verse states:

"There shall be no sin unto those who believe and do good works for what they may have consumed. So be mindful of your duty and do good works; and again: be mindful of your duty, and believe; and once again: be mindful of your duty, and do right. Allah loveth the good." (5. Al Ma' idah :93).

As stated earlier, the fifth verse relates to a significant Sura of the Koran. It describes the alcoholic drinks as gifted with "good nourishment", and or, "wholesome drink" (16.An Nahl : 67) The Koran, as translated, reads:

"And from the fruit of the palm and the grapes, you get out wholesome drink and food: behold, in this also is a sign for those who are wise (Yusuf Ali).

And of the fruits of the date-palm, and grapes, whence you derive strong drink and good nourishment. Lo! therein is indeed a portent for people who have sense. (Pickthall).

Now we come to the first verse that we skipped in the beginning for analytical discussion. Here, alcoholic drinks are qualified as having both 'detrimental' and 'beneficial' aspects for the mankind. The verse places emphasis on the 'detriment' (interpreted as sin) than on the 'benefit'. This, in reality, is the status of alcohol even today and its interface with numerous life saving usage besides medicines. Incidentally, the word 'alcohol' is derived from the Arabic word 'alkuhul' and it originates during the Golden Periods of Islam.

What God addressed to prophet Muhammad in the Koran, can logically be understood as:

"They question you about strong drink and games of chance. Say: In both is great abuse and usefulness for mankind; but the abusive side of them is greater than their usefulness." (2. Al-Baqarah :219). It is worth mentioning here that the word "abuse" has been replaced as "sin" by the early promoters of Islam. It is really a mind-boggling issue whether the word "sin" is an appropriate opposit of "usefulness"?

Philologists or the experts of languages tell us that they find groups of languages that have similar root words and similar ways of expressing the same idea. They, however, find in other areas of languages, an altogether different grammatical scheme. With all these linguistic characteristics, the antonyms or the opposite words of all languages are the same. For instance the opposite of 'good' is 'bad' and definitely not 'dog'. Thus, when the opposite of 'usefulness' is arbitrarily made to mean 'sin', question arises as to the credence to the interpretation and its validity.

Despite having total absence of the fear of hellfire and prohibitive connotation, it is really a thought provoking question: Why alcohol is known as a prohibited (haram) drink in Islam? Perhaps, the answer is not apparent, rather buried under the rubbles of historical antiquities.

Unlike today, access to the Koran was limited to a few people in the early days of Islam because of the absence of paper and printing press. Paper, though an ancient commodity in China, came to the Arab's hand and subsequently to the West only during the tenth century. And not until Johann Gutenberg's invention of printing press in the fifteenth century, the mass production of any book was feasible, including the Koran.

Obviously, those religious elite, possessing copies of the Koran in parchment with golden calligraphy, had no rival in challenging their marinated interpretation, with their own recipe. Over the years, the unchallenged interpretations got ingrained in the religious belief and kept passing from generations to generations.

Unfortunately, that's the way the Koranic verses have been interpreted, translated and propagated. In other words, the Koranic interpreters had to bend the linguistic rules to suit the whim of Islam's promoters during those early days, closer to 300 years after Prophet Muhammad.

History tells us that the Seljuk warlords were mostly originated in Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan. Towards the collapsing days of the Abbasid dynasty, the Seljuks captured the administration of the Abbasid kingdom. The Abbasid Sultans remained happy only with a yearly allowance and hearing their names mentioned during the "Khutba" of the Friday-prayer.

After analysing the historical sequence of the Abbasid dynasty, some historians are of the opinion that it was the Seljuk generals who chopped-off alcoholic drinks for their soldiers in the battlefield. A few years before the Seljuks, the Buyids systematically had formulated their theological and judicial ideas. And more than ever the ulemas got prominance in functioning as the interpreters of Islamic laws.

The Seljuks, previously exposed to Christianity, were the new converts to Islam. It was a juncture of the time when the dominance of Bukhari's Hadith was more prevalent than the Koran. After all, when Bukhari insisted that his Hadith was no inferior to the Koran, it was normal for the Seljuks to place more importance on the Hadith - presumed to be the updated Islamic guidance than adhering to the Quran - viewed as old and outdated. The Hadith provided the Seljuks all the ammunition to rule the country in the false pretext of Muhammad's precedents.

In fact, most Sharia Laws were developed during this Seljuk period of Islam based on the Hadith. The dreadful powers of Fatwa, apostasy, stoning to death, honour killing, Jihad with a reward of 70 virgins in the heaven and many more were enshrined in the Hadith while they were totally absent in the Koran. Obviously it doesn't leave any room for the researchers to ponder other than to conclude that the prohibition of alcohol too was a strategy of the Seljuks. It was largely the Seljuks that tossed Islam from its original orbit.

It is an irony that the alcoholic drink had been a normal beverage during the time of the prophets prior to Muhammad. Wine was a significant item when Jesus was having his last supper with his twelve disciples. Even one of his miracles involved the making of wine for the guests in a party. In fact, the use of wine could be traced in the Old Testament to all the notable prophets including Moses, David and Solomon.

The Koran tells us that wine is one of the significant attributes and rewards in the Heaven. Yet the early Imams arbitrarily made it a forbidden drink despite the fact that neither the word, 'forbidden', nor the warning of 'hellfire' relates to alcohol in the verses of the Koran.

Presumably, it is a high time for the rational Muslims to ponder and read the verses of the Koran for themselves instead of relying solely on the hearsay. After all, the Islamic God Himself has declared the Koran as

"....a lecture in Arabic containing no crookedness.... (Aa-Zumar 28).

Could the Koran then be so complicated? Have the Muslims not been assured in the very preamble of Surah Al-Baqarah that the Koran is a "guidance"?

Misrepresented by the ill-educated mullahs, misinterpreting the message of the Koran for political and military purposes, the Muslims are perceived today as backward people with nothing to offer to the rest of the world. While God allows even the forbidden swine-flesh to save life, what could be more evil than avoiding medicines because of their alcoholic contents?

Source: Translation of the Koran, by Yusuf Ali, Pickthall and Shakir; The Holly Bible, King James Version; Classical Islam, Von Grunebaum.

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Mesbah Uddin is a freelance writer and a researcher.

http://www.bangladesh-web.com/news/view.php?hidDate=2005-10-25&hidType=HIG&hidRecord=0000000000000000067734

[Gavur]

Three School Girls Beheaded in Indonesia

By ALI KOTARUMALOS, Associated Press Writer



JAKARTA, Indonesia - Unidentified assailants attacked a group of high school girls on Saturday in Indonesia's tense province of Central Sulawesi, beheading three and seriously wounding another, police said.



The students from a private Christian high school were ambushed while walking through a cocoa plantation in Poso Kota subdistrict on their way to class, police Maj. Riky Naldo said. The area is close to the provincial capital of Palu, about 1,000 miles northeast of Jakarta.

Naldo said the heads of three victims were found several miles from their bodies. Two were left near a police station and another in front of a newly built Christian church.

In Jakarta, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered police to track down the killers.

"I condemn this barbarous killing, whoever the perpetrators are and whatever their motives," he said.

National police spokesman Brig. Gen. Arjanto Boedihardjo said the wounded student told police that there were six masked attackers who were wearing black shirts.

Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation, but Central Sulawesi has a roughly equal number of Muslims and Christians. The province was the scene of a bloody sectarian war in 2001-2002 that killed around 1,000 people from both communities.

At the time, beheadings, burnings and other atrocities were common.

A government-mediated truce succeeded in ending the conflict in early 2002, but there have since been a series of bomb attacks and assassinations of Christians. These included a blast at a market in Poso, a predominantly Christian town, that killed 22 people in May.

Christian leaders have repeatedly accused authorities in Jakarta of not doing enough to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice.

The Christian-Muslim conflict in Sulawesi was an extension of a wider sectarian war in the nearby Maluku archipelago in which up to 9,000 perished between 1999 and 2002.

[Gavur]

The mask slipped

Monday, October 31, 2005




Robert ELLIS

COPENHAGEN - TDN Guest Writer


The Turkish ambassador to Denmark, Mrs. Fügen Ok, and the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs have blundered. At the end of September a leading Danish daily, Jyllands-Posten, published 12 drawings of the Prophet Mohammad such as the artists imagined him. The background was serious enough. Last year a lecturer at the Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Near Eastern Studies in Copenhagen was attacked by three young men speaking Arabic, because he as a 'kuffar' (non-believer) had read aloud from the Koran during a lecture. A month later the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered after his film Submission was shown on Dutch TV.

These events have had considerable repercussions in Denmark. Shortly before the drawings were published a Danish publisher complained of the difficulties he faced in finding an illustrator for a children's book on the life of the Prophet. Three artists had refused, one of them mentioning the attack on the lecturer from the Carsten Niebuhr Institute, and the one who finally agreed insisted on remaining anonymous. Consequently, the editor of Jyllands-Posten took the initiative to publish the drawings to counter this tendency to self-censorship for fear of offending Islam.

This initiative has since caused fervor. There was a demonstration by 3,000 Muslims in Copenhagen and three weeks ago ambassadors from 11 Muslim countries, including Turkey, wrote to the Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and claimed that the drawings were part of an on-going smear campaign in Danish public circles and media against Islam and Muslims. Furthermore, the ambassadors urged the prime minister to take all those responsible to task.

In his reply, the prime minister explained that Danish society is based on respect for the freedom of expression, on religious tolerance and on equal standards for all religions. Furthermore, Fogh Ramussen underlined that the freedom of expression is the very foundation of Danish democracy and added that the Danish government has no means of influencing the press. However, as Danish legislation prohibits acts or expressions of a blasphemous or discriminatory nature, the offended party may bring such acts or expressions to court.

Subsequently, passionate reactions of a different nature began. Three days later, the prime minister, at a press conference, reminded Turkey that one of the criteria that qualify for EU membership is that a society complies in full with democratic principles, including the freedom of speech and the press' unlimited right within the law to criticize both political and religious authorities. He took it for granted that the Turkish government was aware of that fact.

The next day Berlingske Tidende, another leading daily, in its editorial expressed its surprise that the Turkish ambassador, as the representative of a secular and democratic state, should co-sign the letter to the prime minister in the expectation that he would call the media to order. The fact that Turkey is also a candidate for EU membership gave further cause for concern, and the ambassador was invited to explain her motives. Two days later there was still no reply, so Berlingske Tidende demonstratively published an empty page where Ambassador Ok's reply should have been.

Ekstra Bladet, a widely read tabloid, was more forthright in its editorial and told the ambassador to go jump into the harbor.

The Danish prime minister's response was given full political support, so the 11 ambassadors, including those of Iran, Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, had clearly misjudged the prevailing mood in Denmark. Denmark has long had a tradition for tolerance. For example, most of the country's Jews were helped to escape to Sweden during the Second World War, but the growing influx of immigrants and refugees since the 1960's has put Danish society under increasing pressure.

As Hamid El Mousti, a member of the Copenhagen City Council from Morocco, put it succinctly in a recent reader's letter: "Forty percent of those living off welfare are immigrants from Third World countries. We are 6 percent of the population. 82 percent of the youths who appeared before a Copenhagen magistrate in 2004 are from ethnic minorities. Forty percent of the patients admitted to Sankt Hans (a mental hospital) are immigrants. Ninety four percent of Somali women are unemployed. Sixty one percent of young Turks are uneducated. Twenty percent of the prisoners in Danish prisons are immigrants. We are a part of Danish society."

Add to this the fact that Denmark, together with Sweden, has the world's highest rate of taxation, then you have all the ingredients for an explosive xxxxtail. And now a plot by Denmark's own homegrown terrorists has just been uncovered, adding to the sum of all the fears.

Since April three opinion polls, including the EU Commission's own Eurobarometer, have confirmed that over 60 percent of the Danes polled are against Turkey's membership of in the EU, and this latest move by the Turkish ambassador, which was approved by the Foreign Ministry in Ankara, has only served to stiffen Danes' resistance.

Despite the problems encountered in the everyday with Turks in Denmark, there is still considerable goodwill towards Turkey, which the surge in tourism and the number of Danes buying holiday homes has helped to increase. Therefore, it is unfortunate that the Turkish ambassador's ill-timed intervention has caused a justified suspicion as to the real nature of Turkey's intentions in Europe.