generalspeaking

Shall Never The Twain?

"We don't want it and they don't either, but it is possible that there could be a religious war."
"There are far more tensions today than a few years ago. I feel that Belgians are becoming Islamophobes. Some of them are very hard on Islam."
"To cross the bridge, it is necessary for Muslims to be given a little liberty, while at the same time punishing extremists by keeping them in jail or executing them, if the law allows it. At least there is a conversation about these problems today, so I am an optimist. We have to get deep into the person to find out why they think the way they do and attack it from this base."
Osama, 24, 4th year Moroccan-Belgium medical student

"It is taboo to speak of Islam in Europe today. I fear for our future because all Arabs  are being attacked because of the actions of a very small number. This touches me, my husband and my children. People feel free to insult my religion, but my religion means everything to me."
"The jobs the Belgians allow us to do are basically the jobs that they don't want to do. This fuels great resentment."
Zhour Lamraoui, recent immigrant to Belgium

"How can we live together? That is the question. The key is integration and following the laws and rules of Belgian society."
"Our problem is that we can't reach those who are causing the problems. Obsessed with what they read about jihad on the Internet, some young men here refuse to listen to what learned scholars say about our religion."
Hamza El Mouden, 28, imam at Molenbeek mosque

REUTERS Molenbeek is the Brussels neighborhood that has been associated with four recent planned terrorist attacks, including those in Paris on Friday and the foiled plot against a high-speed Thalys train in August

Perhaps the problem stems as well from the fact that many learned scholars knowing the religion         most intimately encourage and incite young Muslims to engage in jihad? This is a reality that has cropped up time and again, throughout the Middle East and Europe. Mullahs, imams and other clerical experts in Islam simply reading what is written, no interpretation required, to ensure that the faithful know what is expected of them.

The current president of Egypt himself, pointed out that Islam is badly in need of an enlightenment phase to bring it in line with the modern era, deploring the very fact that Islam as it stands is a beacon of encouragement to those who take up jihad and are the cause of terror both in their native countries and abroad. How likely is it that many others in his position will take up the challenge to demand that the fastest-growing religion in the world re-invent itself to actually become what it claims it is: a religion of peace?

Xenophobia will always exist irrespective of the fact that religion is not always involved; being someone of foreign birth, someone who comes from an alien tradition, whose culture does not align with that of an indigenous population, finding themselves ostracized is a human trait. In the case of Islam arriving within countries for whom the Judaic-Christian tradition has long been settled, and claiming for itself the exalted title of the completed and final version to which respect as such is owed, push-back is natural to the human condition.

Most Europeans, so prepared to generously open their arms and their homes to the presence of Muslims desperate to escape state oppression and repression -- conflicts born of sectarian hatreds, of tribal entitlements and clannish suspicions -- now engulfed by an unstoppable flood of refugees who have been failed by their Muslim leaders, are aghast at the prospect of their culture, their religion, their society and heritage being engulfed and superseded, leaving them strangers in their own land. That too is an entirely human reaction.

Zhour Lamraoui is proud of her religion, of her status as a Muslim, of her education, a university degree in classical Arabic, a diploma in hotel management, speaking outstanding French and English, but furious that no hoteliers in Belgium have seen fit to recognize her credentials to hire her. They do not recognize her qualifications; an unsurprising turn of events, since it is entirely possible that her professional qualifications don't reflect those of her Belgian professional counterparts.

At the other end of the scale, and at the very heated crux of the suspicion and fear now being felt all over Europe, there is the proud Belgian-born Islamist, Abdelhamid Abaaoud who bragged of helping kill 30 people on November 13 in Paris. The woman who informed police to his location has spoken of her November 15 surprise exposure to the man who engineered that multi-pronged attack. With Abaaoud's cousin two days later, they drove to a road outside Paris to pick the man up, at his request.

"He was proud of himself. That was the worst. He appeared to fear no one, a superman. He talked about it as though he was shopping and had got a bargain on a box of detergent", she informed authorities of the man who bragged that he had slipped into France along with a group of 90 extremists from Europe and the Middle East.

France and Belgium remain in lockdown and the government of Belgium has approved a new plan to combat Islamic radicalization and the threat posed by extremist violence. An additional thousand new polices officers will be hired and trained over the next four years; 300 this year, and over 500 by 2017. In the hopes that the negligently ineffective surveillance of suspected radicals in Belgium can be overcome by bringing in more police.

Labels: Belgium, Immigration, Islamism, Muslims, Terrorism

posted by Pieface @ Saturday, February 06, 2016