Who Is Behind The Campaign To Silence The Debate on Islam- by Muslim Journalist Asra Q Nomani

A former Wall Street Journal reporter and American Muslim, Asra Q. Nomani, has written an interesting article on the "organized campaign" to silence criticism of Islam. She, herself, has been a target for her progressive views, including the bullying attempts to silence her, the ad hominem attacks: "Zionist media whore" and "House Muslim,"  and, of course, the obligatory death threats.

She writes about when and where it all began:

The campaign began, at least in its modern form, 10 years ago in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, when the Organization of Islamic Cooperation — a mini-United Nations comprising the world’s 56 countries with large Muslim populations, plus the Palestinian Authority — tasked then-Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu with combating Islamophobia and projecting the “true values of Islam.” During the past decade, a loose honor brigade has sprung up, in part funded and supported by the OIC through annual conferences, reports and communiques. It’s made up of politicians, diplomats, writers, academics, bloggers and activists.

In 2007, as part of this playbook, the OIC launched the Islamophobia Observatory, a watchdog group based in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, with the goal of documenting slights against the faith. Its first report, released the following year, complained that the artists and publishers of controversial Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad were defiling “sacred symbols of Islam . . . in an insulting, offensive and contemptuous manner.” The honor brigade began calling out academics, writers and others, including former New York police commissioner Ray Kelly and administrators at a Catholic school in Britain that turned away a mother who wouldn’t remove her face veil.

“The OIC invented the anti-‘Islamophobia’ movement,” says Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy and a frequent target of the honor brigade. “These countries . . . think they own the Muslim community and all interpretations of Islam.”

Alongside the honor brigade’s official channel, a community of self-styled blasphemy police — from anonymous blogs such as LoonWatch.com and Ikhras.com to a large and disparate cast of social-media activists — arose and began trying to control the debate on Islam. This wider corps throws the label of “Islamophobe” on pundits, journalists and others who dare to talk about extremist ideology in the religion. Their targets are as large as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and as small as me.

The official and unofficial channels work in tandem, harassing, threatening and battling introspective Muslims and non-Muslims everywhere. They bank on an important truth: Islam, as practiced from Malaysia to Morocco, is a shame-based, patriarchal culture that values honor and face-saving from the family to the public square. Which is why the bullying often works to silence critics of Islamic extremism.

It works for both Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

The rest here.  Well worth the read.  We need more voices like Asra's. There are some, but they are very few.

Dutch Muslim Mayor Tells Muslims Who Don't Want Freedom- "F**k Off" "Pack your bags and leave"

The Moroccan-born mayor of Rotterdam, Ahmed Aboutaleb, got it right when he told fellow Muslims in the Netherlands that if they don't want the freedom that is part and parcel of living in the West, then  "pack your bags and leave."  He came out with that pithy remark right after the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris. he also told them to eff-off.

According to the U.K. Daily Mail, Aboutaleb was quoted as saying on live Dutch TV:

“It is incomprehensible that you can turn against freedom." “But if you don’t like freedom, for heaven’s sake pack your bags and leave.”

“..and if you can't accept humorists who create a newspaper, then I would like to say f*** off.”

This is stupid, this so incomprehensible. Vanish from the Netherlands if you cannot find your place here. All those well-meaning Muslims here will now be stared at'.

53-year-old Aboutaleb was a journalist before eventually becoming mayor in 2008.

His message to immigrants:

'stop seeing yourself as victims, and if you don't want to integrate, leave'.

Yes. His is a voice of reason. We need more Aboutalebs. Though who knows how long he'll last being this outspoken.

Video, photos and more info on Mayor Aboutaleb on the UK Daily Mail.

Malaysia's Moderate Muslims Call For Sharia Law Reform

Extremist Muslims have been taking center stage in what's supposed to be a secular democratic Malaysia, and the moderates are finally taking a stand.

[snip] An open letter urging a rational discussion on religion signed by 25 former senior servants and addressed to Prime Minister Najib Razak has gained popular support. The group, which came to be known as the “prominent 25,” is petitioning Najib to lead a peaceful dialogue about the application of Islamic laws in Malaysia.

The letter raised several issues concerning what they think is the excessive and unfair implementation of the shariah law in many aspects of governance. They questioned why some religious bodies are “asserting authority beyond their jurisdiction,” such as in the issuance of various fatwa that violate the Federal Constitution. They also cited the indifference of authorities over the “rise of supremacist NGOs accusing dissenting voices of being anti-Islam, anti-monarchy and anti-Malay.” And they pointed out how the Sedition Act “hangs as a constant threat to silence anyone with a contrary opinion.”

“These developments undermine Malaysia’s commitment to democratic principles and rule of law, breed intolerance and bigotry, and have heightened anxieties over national peace and stability,” they added in the letter.

They wanted Najib to “assert his personal leadership” in reviewing the implementation of Islamic laws in the country: “Those who act in the name of Islam through the administration of Islamic law must bear the responsibility of demonstrating that justice is done, and is seen to be done.”

In recent years, some hardcore Islamic and nationalist Malay leaders inside Malaysia’s ruling coalition have successfully lobbied the government to act against perceived threats to Islam and the dominance of the Malays in the affairs of the country. Those who opposed or criticized their views are often accused of conspiring to undermine either Islam or the state.

They have support from activists and academics who were ignored or chastised in the past for their criticism of religious intolerance. And support from others who were too fearful to speak out.

After the letter went viral in the cyberspace, other moderate voices were encouraged to speak out against religious and racial discrimination. Ninety-three NGOs declared support for the letter signers. They were joined by the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism, which praised the group for drafting the letter. Internet users circulated online petitions using the Twitter hashtags #KamiJuga25 (We are also 25) and “I am #26” to show support for the stand taken by the group of 25, “by standing together in solidarity as #26.”

No response from the government. Yet. But as expected some of the radical elements have piped in.

I wish them luck, because the hardcore Islamists aren't going to give up their fight for supremacy that easily.

Saudi Cleric- Women Can Ditch The Hijab, Wear Makeup, and Post Selfies On Social Media

Saudi Cleric and former head of the Kingdom's Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice Sheikh Ahmed Bin Qassim al-Ghamdi has revisited his fatwa from several years ago claiming that women were not required to cover their faces or arms. Many in Saudi Arabia wear abaya's/niqabs that cover everything but one's eyes.

 It appears he is taking it one step further with another recent fatwa stating that a Muslim woman doesn't need to wear a veil at all:

 “Islam doesn’t require women to wear veil.” 

Plus they can wear makeup, take selfies, and post them on social media sites like Facebook.

Apparently, a Twitter follower asked if it was okay for Muslim women to post photos of themselves on social media, which prompted his response:

 “...there is nothing wrong if a woman showed her face or put make-up.”

He also posted on Twitter that it was only Prophet Mohammed's wives who were supposed to wear the hijab.

Quoting a Moroccan scholar, he said it was preferable but not mandatory.

More here.

Muslim Voices of Reason- Shazia Mirza 'Getting Offended On God's Behalf'

Whether out of fear or simply a lack, there are very few voices of reason in the Muslim world, but there are some. Found mostly in Western countries, they are a breath of fresh air, and worthy of sharing.

Shazia Mirza is a Brit writer/comedienne and Guardian columnist of Pakistani heritage who has written an opinion piece regarding the madness that has ensued over the anti-Muslim film "Innocence of Muslims", and it merits a read.

Getting Offended On God's Behalf

The alarm went off on Monday morning, the radio came on and all I heard was, “It’s been described as the most serious insult to Islam ever! People have been killed, and protests are mounting.”

I thought ‘What’s happened? Has Satanic Verses been turned into a cartoon?’ I switched the TV on and heard people talking about a film.

I had to rush and get on the tube, as I walked into the carriage everyone was reading a newspaper with this same story on the front, I heard one man say to his friend, “They’re offended again”, his friend replied, “What’s new?”

I watched the film, and it’s the most serious insult to film making ever. It is a badly made, amateur pantomime of a film. Clearly a joke in itself. But what is even more outrageous – is the reaction to it.

My mum is religious. Very religious, fanatical about her religion. She’s done Hajj 12 times, prays all day and fasts even when it’s not Ramazan. If she saw the film she wouldn’t like it, but would she go and shoot four people because of it? No way. Because she is a rational, open-minded human being, and she’s so religious she doesn’t watch films, at least ones which don’t include Omar Sharif.

God, whichever God you believe in, is all knowing, all forgiving, and all loving. God has seen it all, because he made it all. He made the blasphemers. God can’t be attacked. So if you’re offended on his behalf, you don’t actually have enough faith in him.

It is fashionable to be offended, and predictable for certain people to be offended at anything from cartoons to films, jokes, books … what next? Food, hair colour?

Every idea, every belief has to be challenged because that’s how the rational mind works. There has to be questioning and debate, and if your religion is strong enough, it will withstand that.

Blasphemy is important. If blasphemy laws ruled the world we’d still be living in caves, and we’d never had made any progress – some people still haven’t. Blasphemy laws are the armour of the insecure. If you are unable to laugh at yourself as a religion or a culture, that culture is suffering from low self-esteem, and devolution. Blasphemy doesn’t just apply to religion, but economically and socially as well.

Now, because of the way certain Muslims react to things that offend them, artists, writers, comedians, film makers all over the world are slowly being silenced because they are scared to say what they think; in case they end up dead. The East is taking away the West’s democracy. I don’t like the film, it is offensive and insulting, although the comments underneath it on YouTube are far more offensive, but if you truly believe in democracy you have to defend the right for it to be made.

It is always a minority that are offended, and they often react with irrational violence, some of them don’t even know what they’re reacting to; violence is all they know. It gives us all a bad name. And if they don’t stop, I’ll have to continue to get randomly searched at airports, being felt up by some strange woman, and not be able to take more than 100ml of moisturizer through customs.

I live in England. It is a democracy, not just because of the way we vote, but because of the way we think. A good working democracy treats minorities well, and has a view of religion that is accepting. Britain is a melting pot of many religions and cultures, which is what makes it so great.

The Muslim world needs to be open minded about religion; it is ridiculous, insulting in itself and anti-Islamic to call someone an infidel just because they don’t agree with what you believe.

Murdering someone, anyone, is never justified but even more outrageous when over a flimsy book or a badly made film.

There is a war between the East and the West, the moderate and the extreme, the religious and the non-religious, the repressed and the free, the open minded and the closed minded. Ultimately the open minded will win. Those are the people, who are accepting and tolerant to other people’s beliefs and opinions which is the fundamental basis of all religion and those are the right thinking, rational people you’d want to live next door to.

Don’t kill me for writing this column; it’s just an idea.

Well said.  We need more Shazias.

Source: Dawn