Indonesia: Religious fraternity: : Eid al-Fitr: Jokowi Also Greets Christians on Ascension Day of Jesus Christ

President Joko Widodo or Jokowi greeted and congratulated the nation’s Christians on the day of the Ascension of Jesus Christ that took place in conjunction with the 1442 Hijri Eid al-Fitr on Thursday, May 13, 2021.

“To all of my Christian brothers and sisters, I would like to wish for peace, love and health for us all,” Jokowi said on his official Instagram account @jokowi, Thursday, May 13, 2021.

The Instagram post shows an animated picture of the President on the screen of a cell-phone in front of four Christians who clasp their palms—also on the screen of a cell-phone. Two flying doves are seen beside each of the pictures.
The Eid al-Fitr this year is celebrated alongside the Ascension Day of Jesus Christ on Thursday. The determination of the Eid al-Fitr Day was based on the isbat (confirmation) meeting presided over by Religious Affairs Minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas at the ministry building’s HM Rasjidi Auditorium in Jakarta on Tuesday, May 11, 2021.

Read more at: Eid al-Fitr: Jokowi Also Greets Christians on Ascension Day of Jesus Christ - News en.tempo.co

France: ‘Islam is being hyper-politicised in France, but Muslims are not part of the debate’

On October 2, the day President Emmanuel Macron unveiled his plan to fight “Islamist separatism” in France, the mayor of the Paris suburb of Trappes, 35-year-old Ali Rabeh, was invited by French broadcaster CNews to discuss Macron’s proposed measures to root out radical Islam from the country’s deprived banlieues.

Read more at: ‘Islam is being hyper-politicised in France, but Muslims are not part of the debate’

MIDDLE EAST - SAUDI - ARABIA: The hardline intolerance of Saudi Arabia weakens its Islamic Leadership say Islamic authorities

Read more at:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/04/22/saudi-arabias-intolerance-weakens-its-islamic-leadership/?utm_term=.020e8e96f7bb

Canada: Freedom of Religion and democracy: Ahead of federal elections Imams at 69 Canadian mosques urges their congragations to vote

Ahead of federal elections, Imams at 69 Canadian mosques deliver message that every vote counts.

Note EU-Digest: Proof that Democracy and Islam can co-exist, if only Democracy could be the norm for countries where Islam is misused to suppress Democracy and Human Rights.

Read more at:  

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/canadian-muslim-voters-2019-federal-election-1.5105355

Bangladesh - Islam: Nusrat Jahan Rafi burned to death for reporting sexual harasment

Nusrat Jahan Rafi: Burned to death for reporting sexual harassment

Read more at:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-47947117

Canada: Religious Freedom: Torontonians of all faiths form rings of peace outside area mosques

Torontonians of all faiths form rings of peace outside area mosques

Read more at: 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-ring-of-peace-1.5067803

Religion: Indonesian president invokes 'Pancasila' to counter rising Islamism

 Indonesia’s President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, a moderate Muslim who enjoys widespread support from the country’s minority religious communities, is resurrecting the country’s founding secular ideology, known as “Pancasila,” as he aims to counter the growing forces of Islamism in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation.

Pancasila, a term from old Javanese that roughly translates as “five precepts,” is a set of principles including “belief in the the One and Only God” and has historically been thought to demand respect for the country’s formally recognized religions – Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism. Promising a unified Indonesia and social justice for all citizens, it has been considered a key to Indonesia’s relative stability since it gained independence from the Netherlands 73 years ago.

It’s also why, many say, Indonesia has never had an expressly Islamic government.

Read more: Indonesian president invokes 'Pancasila' to counter rising Islamism - Religion News Service

The Netherlands - Islam: Dutch Children from Turkish descent Forced to Submit to Islam

Parents in the Netherlands can't stop their children from being indoctrinated with Islam against their wishes.

A new report from Cultuur onder Vuur (Culture Under Fire) documents evidence from hundreds of cases where children in Dutch schools are instructed by an imam on how to pray and how schools are taking measures to hide these trips from parents.

Church Militant spoke with Hugo Bos, the campaign leader for Culture Under Fire, who said they started investigating Islamic indoctrination in Dutch schools after they found one video of a school trip to a mosque.

"We found it very shocking," he said. "We found proof of 19 cases where children took part in Islamic rites."

Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch, told Bos that when children pray at these mosque excursions, it is "exercise in Islamic dawah" — a form of proselytism. From the Muslim perspective, these children are "purposefully prepared for converting to Islam."

One of the cases from 2014 involves elementary school children who were taken to a mosque in Zwolle. That mosque hosted the hate-preaching Pakistani imam, Mohammed Anas Noorani Siddiqui. Siddiqui reportedly said, "Non-Muslim Dutch people live like dogs and b*****s."

They found other mosques children had visited had allegations of extremism and anti-Semitism and ties to the Turkish nationalist movement and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party.

Last year, Erdogan called on Muslim Turks to have five children and "educate your children at better schools."

Bos noted a survey found three-quarters of Catholic and Protestant schools visited a non-Christian place of worship. In 41 percent of those cases, it was a mosque.

Additionally, parents are often not informed of the field trips and schools take steps to hide the information from the public. Oftentimes, Bos found that the school would take down the information from their website after parents complained or they were contacted by him.

"The government has made goals for education that include respect for other religions," Bos said. The curriculum includes spiritual direction, yoga, meditation and visiting a church. In practice, Bos found little to no efforts being made to take Muslim students to non-Islamic places of worship.

Read more: Dutch Children Forced to Submit to Islam

EU: Muslims make up 4.9% of Europe's population in 2016 Says Report Pew Research Center

Note EU-Digest: this figure is in total contrast to the nonsense European Populist politicians are saying, which is that the EU will become a Muslim Political Entity by 2030


Read more: Muslims make up 4.9% of Europe's population in 2016 | Pew Research Center

Germany - Islam: German Muslim leader says anti-Semitism is a sin | News | DW | 24.04.2018

The head of Germany’s Central Council of Muslims has said anti-Semitism is sinful and must be tackled. His comments came after Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced concern about a "new phenomenon" of anti-Jewish sentiment.

Hatred and abuse of Jewish people are against the tenets of Islam, the president of Germany's Central Council of Muslims, Aiman Mazyek (pictured above), said, adding that the Muslim community had work to do in tackling the problem.

"Anti-Semitism, racism and hatred are great sins in Islam, therefore we will also never tolerate that," Mazyek told the Tuesday edition of the regional newspaper Rheinische Post.

The Muslim leader made his comments in response to remarks by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to an Israeli broadcaster at the weekend. Merkel told Channel 10 News that "refugees and other people of Arab origin are bringing a different form of anti-Semitism into the country."

Read more: German Muslim leader says anti-Semitism is a sin | News | DW | 24.04.2018

Islam: The (Silent) Revolution of Muslim Women - Andrés Ortega

There is much speculation as to whether liberalizing moves, such as the ones undertaken in Saudi Arabia, are for real. To be sure, despite recent, very encouraging signs, the jury is still out on that matter.

But in a broader context, there are definite signs of progress across the Muslim world. Indications are that a veritable revolution is underway among women in such societies.

Of course, it is not an overt revolution, but a profound transformation that has great scope: Since the turn of the century, 50 million women in predominantly-Muslim countries have entered the labor market.

As Saadia Zahidi, a Pakistani member of the World Economic Forum’s Executive Committee and head of its initiative on Education, Gender and Work, argues in her well-researched book packed with concrete examples, Fifty Million Rising: The New Generation of Working Women Transforming the Muslim World, what is happening is a real “tsunami.”

It is true that working women still account for only one quarter of the female population of these societies. But as Saadia Zahidi states, “the increase in their numbers represents an economic and cultural shift of enormous magnitude. Fifteen million women are renegotiating their own and their families’ norms and values.”

To give one example, in Pakistan, only four million women worked out of a population of 107 million 1990. By now, while the population has since doubled, the number of women workers has risen fourfold.

We should also remember that the United States and Europe only managed this transformation half a century ago. Some decades ago, in countries like in Germany, women still needed the consent of their husbands to take up work. Sound familiar?

Research suggests that, once women reach a 30% share in a nation’s labor force, this constitutes a tipping point where things start to change. They now account for 31% of the workforce across the Islamic world.

Clearly, there are major differences among Muslim countries. Only six of them have laws protecting against discrimination on the grounds of sex in employment contracts: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Mauritania, Morocco and Tajikistan.

And very often, although they can now study and work, these freedoms are not accompanied by basic freedoms for women. For example, rates of mobile phone ownership are significantly lower among women than among men in the majority of these societies.

In other words, it is a revolution that is by no means assured. It is “exponential, but not inevitable,” as Saadia Zahidi puts it. The forces of conservatism may push it back – as has already happened in some countries. Armed conflicts may thwart progress as well, as has occurred in Syria.

The type of education these young women are choosing also matters considerably. There are only five countries in the world with a higher proportion of women than men studying science, technology and engineering.

Two of them, Kuwait and Brunei, are predominantly Muslim. Half of the 18 countries where women constitute 40% of such students are Muslim, according to Zahidi.

Recent academic years in Egypt have seen almost 34% of the places in these subjects being taken by women, many of whom go on to pursue careers in the same fields, often as tech and online retailing entrepreneurs.

But if the trend continues, it will change many things. Just recall that in 2004, the sociologists Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris had convincingly argued that the real clash today’s world has to contend with was not one between civilizations, as Samuel Huntington had argued. They cast it as a clash between sexes, because of the often subservient role played by women, especially in the Muslim world.  

Note EU-Digest: Great progress indeed for Muslim women, but unfortunately it also is a matter of the equality of men and women that needs to be addressed. The Koran was never modernized to reflect the equality of women in relation to men. In contrast to what was done during the Reformation for the Christian religion by Martin Luther against the doctrinal and oppressive Catholic Church based in Rome.
 
For the complete report click here: The (Silent) Revolution of Muslim Women - The Globalist

Sharia Law - Islam: Greece limits Islamic Sharia law courts for Muslim minority

Greek lawmakers on Tuesday overwhelmingly backed legislation to limit the purview of Islamic religious courts over the nearly 120,000-strong Muslim minority in the region of Western Thrace.

Islamic religious courts will only be able to rule in family law matters such as divorce, child custody and inheritance if all parties agree, under the new law supported by major parties.

Regular Greek law will apply in cases where all parties do not agree to a religious court settling a dispute.

Greece is the only EU country that has Islamic religious courts.

State-appointed clerics, known as muftis, have resolved family law matters among Muslims in Western Thrace under the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne between Turkey and Greece following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Among other things, the treaty involved a population exchange of some 2 million people between Turkey and Greece, except for on some Aegean islands, the Greek Orthodox community in Istanbul and the largely Turkish-speaking Muslim community in Western Thrace.

The Greek Orthodox and Muslim minorities were given certain minority language, cultural and religious rights under the treaty.

But in a strange twist of history, the Muslims of Greece fell under Islamic law while Turkey moved to a secular legal system in the Turkish Republic.

The Muslims in the northeastern corner of Greece near the border with Turkey are mostly ethnic Turks, although there is also a Bulgarian-speaking Pomak community.

Turkey has long taken an interest in what it deems Turkish-ethnic brothers in Western Thrace, drawing accusations from Greece that Ankara is interfering in its affairs.

Greece has been reluctant to change the law around Muslim family matters, fearful that it could prompt Turkey to request changes to the Lausanne Treaty.

Note EU-Digest: To allow Sharia, or any other religious law to function on a parallel status with local and national laws in EU member States is ridiculous and creates more problems than it solves.   

Read  more: Greece limits Islamic Sharia law courts for Muslim minority | News | DW | 10.01.2018

Islam: France to ‘prevent’ Muslim Public street prayers in Paris suburb

France’s interior minister announced on November 19 that Muslims will no longer be allowed to pray in a street north of Paris.

“They will not have prayers on the street, we will prevent street praying,” Interior Minister Gerard Collomb told Questions Politics (Franceinfo, France Inter, Le Monde).

As reported by the Agence France-Presse (AFP), prayers in the street have taken place every Friday in the multiethnic suburb of Clichy-la-Garenne since March to protest the closure of a popular local mosque that had operated in a government building but since been turned into a library.

In response, worshippers accused the authorities of not offering suitable land to build a new mosque and the interior minister acknowledged the need for an alternative: “Muslims must have a place of worship to pray.”

A local Muslim association has said it intends to hold prayers in the city centre next Friday.

According to AFP, the row about prayer space saw around 100 local French politicians attempt to block worshippers on November 10, disrupting the crowd by singing the French national anthem.

The rightwing mayor of Clichy, Remi Muzeau, has argued that another mosque already exists north of the town, but mosque leaders have dismissed that idea as unviable, arguing it is too small and has poor transport links.

Read more: France to ‘prevent’ Muslim street prayers in Paris suburb

Turkey: Concept of “Moderate” Islam Originates in West: says Turkey’s Erdogan

MECCA - Moderate Islam?

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has lashed out at Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for pledging to make Saudi Arabia a bastion of “moderate Islam”, saying the concept is a false one originated from the West.

“Islam cannot be either ‘moderate’ or ‘not moderate.’ Islam can only be one thing,” Erdoğan said in a speech at a program hosted in Ankara by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on women’s entrepreneurship on November 9.

“Recently the concept of ‘moderate Islam’ has received attention. But the patent of this concept originated in the West,” Erdoğan said, according to Hurriyet Daily.

Note EU- Digest:  On this one President Erdogan is right. Moderate Islam is a US creation, after they embraced present day "Turkish outcast Gulen",,who now has asylum status in the US .

It was Fethullah Gulen who preached to the Americans that there was something in his doctrine which he coined for the Americans as "moderate" Islam. 

Moderate Islam in fact does not exist The Koran was never put up for revision, scrutiny, or "modernized", like the Bible was with the new Testament - when Christ did not come to judge people but to redeem them by dying for them on the Cross. The Reformation was another indication that Christianity become a truly moderate religion. Unfortunately, either in the past or today, there never has been a strong movement against some of the antiquated Islamic laws, similar to when Martin Luther led the Reformation Movement and actually.got.rid of the autocratic rules of the Catholic Christian Theological Doctrine.

You can't call a religion moderate, if it has radical rules. So let's be honest, and call a "spade a spade".

Moderate.Islam is a fallacy. Regardless, if some Muslims consider themselves moderate Islamists, mainly because they don't take some of the Koran rules too seriously.

Whatever they say, unless they disavow Islam as their religion, they will continue to be part of a religion which is not moderate.

Read more Concept of “Moderate” Islam Originates in West: says Turkey’s Erdogan

USA - terrorism: New York attack suspect Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov is 4th derelict Islamic terrorist with links to Uzbekistan in 2017

The president of Uzbekistan on Wednesday offered his country's assistance in investigating the deadly terror attack in the lower Manhattan area of New York City. The suspect in the attack was identified as an Uzbek national, Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov.

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev expressed his condolences to the families of the victims in what appeared to be the first instance of Uzbekistan officially acknowledging or commenting on a security incident abroad involving one of its citizens, but the country has been linked to at least three other terrorist incidents over the last year.

In April, Uzbek national Rakhmat Akilov drove a truck into pedestrians in Stockholm, Sweden, killing five people.

Earlier that same month, Akbarzhon Jalilov, a Russian citizen who was born in Kyrgyzstan but of Uzbek heritage, blew himself up on a train in St. Petersburg, Russia, killing 15 people along with himself.

And, in the early hours of New Year's Day, another Uzbek national, Abdulkadir Masharipov, attacked a party at a nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey, killing 39 revelers.

The Muslim-majority nation of Uzbekistan, which gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, is located north of Afghanistan and governed by an authoritarian regime. The harsh conditions there have meant a number of nationals leave, looking for opportunities abroad.

Read more: New York attack suspect Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov is 4th alleged terrorist with links to Uzbekistan in 2017 - CBS News

Germany: German interior minister floats idea of Muslim holidays

Germans are debating whether to allow the celebration of Islamic holidays at the state level in areas where large numbers of Muslims live.

The discussions come after the interior minister endorsed the idea on October 10.

Thomas De Maiziere, a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) which won federal elections last month, made his comments during a campaign rally for state elections in Lower Saxony in the country's northwest.

"I'm willing to talk about the possibility of introducing Islamic holidays," de Maiziere said.

According to the German constitution, all 16 states can decide on their own which religious public holidays are celebrated.

"In areas where a lot of Catholics live, we celebrate All Saint's Day, and in areas where not a lot of Catholics live we don't celebrate All Saint's Day. So why can't we think about Islamic holidays as well?" said de Maiziere.

Read more: German interior minister floats idea of Muslim holidays | Germany News | Al Jazeera

Europe: What do Islamic Parties Want? - by Judith Bergman

Rome Mosque

Gatestone Institute, a Non-Profit organization based in New York, USA, recently published an in-depth look at Islam in Europe, written by Judith Bergman - a columnist, lawyer and political analyst.

Ms. Bergman gives some interesting insights into the political development of the Islam community in Europe.

The Gatestone Institute is a non-political international policy council and think tank dedicated to educating the public about what the mainstream media fails to report in promoting:

• Institutions of Democracy and the Rule of Law;
• Human Rights
• A free and strong economy
• A military capable of ensuring peace at home and in the free world
• Energy independence
• Ensuring the public stay informed of threats to our individual liberty, sovereignty and free speech.

Gatestone Institute conducts national and international conferences, briefings and events for its members and others, with world leaders, journalists and experts -- analyzing, strategizing, and keeping them informed on current issues, and where possible recommending solutions.

Ms Bergman in her report on "What do Islamic Parties in Europe Want?" writes: 

*Sweden's Jasin party is not unique. Islamist parties have begun to emerge in many European countries, such as the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, and France.

*In the Netherlands, Denk ran on a platform against the integration of immigrants into Dutch society (instead advocating "mutual acceptance", a euphemism for creating parallel Muslim societies); and for establishment of a "racism police" that would register "offenders" and exclude them from holding public office.

    "I consider every death of an American, British or Dutch soldier as a victory". — Dyab Abu Jahjah, leader of a group called Movement X and possibly starting an Islamist party in Belgium. The Belgian political magazine Knack named Jahjah the country's fourth-most influential person.

*The "I.S.L.A.M" party, founded in 2012, is working to implement Islamic law, sharia, in Belgium. The party already has branches in the Brussels districts of Anderlecht, Molenbeek and Liege. The party wants to "translate religion into practice".

*In France, as the journalist Yves Mamou recently reported, the PEJ has already approved 68 candidates and wants to abolish the separation of church and state, make veils mandatory for schoolgirls in public schools, introduce halal food in all schools and fight "Islamophobia".

*Sweden's brand new first Islamic party, Jasin, is aiming to run for the 2018 parliamentary elections. According to the website of the party, Jasin is a "multicultural, democratic, peaceful party" that is "secular" and aims to "unite everyone from the East... regardless of ethnicity, language, race, skin color or religion". Jasin apparently knows what the Swedes like to hear.

In an interview, the founder and spokesperson of the party, Mehdi Hosseini, who came from Iran to Sweden 30 years ago, revealed that the leader of the new political party, Sheikh Zoheir Eslami Gheraati, does not actually live in Sweden. He is an Iranian imam, who lives in Teheran, but Jasin wants to bring him to Sweden: "I thought he was such a peaceful person who would be able to manifest the peaceful side of Islam. I think that is needed in Sweden," said Hosseini.

The purpose of the Jasin party, however, does not appear to be either secular or multicultural. In its application to the Swedish Election Authority, the party writes -- with refreshing honesty -- that it will "firstly follow exactly what the Koran says, secondly what Shiite imams say". The Jasin party also states that it is a "non-jihadi and missionary organization, which will spread Islam's real side, which has been forgotten and has been transformed from a beautiful to a warlike religion..."

In mid-September, the Swedish Election Authority informed Jasin that it failed to deliver the needed signatures, but that it is welcome to try again. Anna Nyqvist, from the Swedish Election Authority, said that a political party with an anti-democratic or Islamic agenda is eligible to run for parliament if the party's application fulfills all formalities. Nyqvist considers it unproblematic that the leader of the party lives in Iran. "This is the essence of democracy, that all views should be allowed. And it is up to them to choose their party leader", Nyqvist said.

Sweden's Jasin Party is not unique. Islamist parties have begun to emerge in many European countries, such as the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, and France.

In the Netherlands, two Dutch Turks, former members of the Socialist party, founded a new party, Denk, only six months before the Dutch parliamentary elections. Despite the short timeframe, they managed to get one-third of the Muslim vote and three seats in parliament. The party does not hide its affinity for Turkey: Criticism of Turkey is taboo just as is their refusal to name the Turkish mass-slaughter of the Armenians during the First World War a genocide. The party ran on a platform against the integration of immigrants into Dutch society (instead advocating "mutual acceptance", a euphemism for creating parallel Muslim societies); and for establishment of a "racism police" that would register "offenders" and exclude them from holding public office.

In Austria, Turkish Muslims also formed a new party, the New Movement for the Future (NBZ), established in January 2017. According to its founder, Adnan Dincer, the NBZ is not an Islamic party or a Turkish party, despite being composed mainly of Turkish Muslims. Several of the party's Facebook posts are written only in Turkish. Dincer has made no secret of the fact that his party strongly backs Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom it publicly supported at the time of the coup attempt in August 2016, and the subsequent clampdown by the Erdogan government.

In Belgium, several Islamic parties are preparing to run in the next elections. Dyab Abu Jahjah, apparently behind one of them, while not having presented a formal platform yet, has said he wants to "be part of an egalitarian radical renaissance that will conquer Brussels, Belgium, Europe and the whole world, with new politics of radical equality... defeat the forces of supremacy... of sustained privileges ... of the status-quo... in every possible arena".

Jahjah is a Lebanese immigrant, who emerged on the European scene, when he founded the now defunct Brussels-based Arab-European League in 2001. It was a pan-European political group aiming to create a Europe-wide "sharocracy" -- a supposedly sharia-based "democracy". In 2001, after the September 11 terror attacks, Jahjah said that he and many Muslims had felt a "sweet revenge feeling". In 2004, Jahjah said that he supported the killing of foreign troops in Iraq. "I consider every death of an American, British or Dutch soldier as a victory". He has also been opposed to the assimilation of Muslims, which he has described as "cultural rape".

Jahjah used to be considered a Hezbollah-supporting extremist, and, although he describes himself as a "political friend" of Jeremy Corbyn, he was banned from entering Britain. In Belgium, however, he is seen as a respectable activist, leader of a group called Movement X, and formerly with his own weekly column in the Belgian daily De Standaard. The Belgian political magazine Knack named Jahjah the country's fourth-most influential person, just behind Manchester City footballer Vincent Kompany. In January 2017, however, De Standaard fired Jahjah after he praised a terror attack in Jerusalem. "By any means necessary, #freepalestine," Jahjah had tweeted after an Muslim ISIS-affiliated terrorist plowed a truck through a crowd of young Israeli soldiers visiting Jerusalem, killing four and injuring countless others.

Jahjah will likely experience fierce competition from the "I.S.L.A.M" party, founded in 2012, and working to implement Islamic law, sharia, in Belgium. The party already has branches in the Brussels districts of Anderlecht, Molenbeek and Liege. The party wants to "translate religion into practice". One member explained that, "It's no coincidence that we started in Brussels. Here there are a lot of Muslims... who are not allowed to come forward with their identity too much...They are therefore frustrated. That can lead to radicalization".

 The party has put forth a mayoral candidate for the Brussels municipal elections in 2018: Michel Dardenne, who converted to Islam in 2002. In his program, Dardenne speaks mainly of how much the party respects Belgian democracy and its constitution, while simply wanting to help an undefined populace against "the elites". He may have found it easier to appeal to "progressive" non-Muslims that way. Brussels, 25% Muslim, has enormous potential for Islamic parties.

 In France, several Islamic parties are also preparing to run in elections. One party is the PEJ, established in 2015 by French-Turkish Muslims and reportedly connected to Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AKP. As the journalist Yves Mamou recently reported, the PEJ has already approved 68 candidates and wants to abolish the separation of church and state, make veils mandatory for schoolgirls in public schools, introduce halal food in all schools and fight "Islamophobia".

The obvious question is :How many Europeans are even paying attention to their agendas?
 
Read more : Europe: What do Islamic Parties Want? from the Gatestone Insitute

Muslim Travel Ban: Trump uses London terror attack to promote his 'Muslim ban' - by Emily Shugerman

Donald Trump has used the latest terrorist attack in London to promote his beleaguered travel ban on residents of six Musl “Another attack in London by a loser terrorist,” the President tweeted, hours after an improvised explosive device detonated in the London subway system.

He added: “The travel ban into the United States should be far larger, tougher and more specific – but stupidly, that would not be politically correct!”

Later, in an appearance at the White House Rose Garden, Mr Trump said the country must be “smarter” when it comes to terrorism.

“It’s a terrible thing,” he said of the London attack. “It keeps going and going, and we have to be very smart and we have to be very, very tough – perhaps we’re not nearly tough enough.”

The US Supreme Court allowed a partial version of Mr Trump’s ban to be implemented in June. The ban has been plagued with legal challenges since its inception, with many claiming it amounts to an unconstitutional ban on Muslims.

Read more: Trump uses London terror attack to promote his 'Muslim ban' | The Independent

Islam: The Berlin mosque breaking Islamic taboos - by Damien McGuinness

With its red-brick spire and stained-glass windows, St Johannes looks like any other 19th-Century Protestant church.

Go around the back, however, head up a few flights of stairs and you come to a simple white room, with shoes neatly laid out at the entrance and patterned prayer rugs folded away in a corner. That is because this is a mosque.

The room is being rented from the parish, while the church remains active.

But the mosque is not unusual because of its location. Rather, because of the people who come here.

At Berlin's newest mosque, men and women pray together, women are allowed to lead Friday prayers, and gay, lesbian and transgender people are welcome.

"Our mosque is open for everybody," says mosque founder Seyran Ates, a German Turkish-born lawyer and women's rights activist.

"And we mean that really seriously: everybody, every lifestyle. We are not God. We don't decide who's a good or a bad Muslim. Anybody can come through this door - whether you are heterosexual or homosexual, we don't care, it's not our right to ask."

Read more: The Berlin mosque breaking Islamic taboos - BBC News

Muslim Reformers Versus Islam Apologists: A Brief Field Guide

 First of all, it’s important to stress that it is dangerously paranoid to see all Muslims as “bigots”, “misogynists” or potential “jihadists”. Each person, whatever their race, skin colour, religious affiliation or nationality is an individual and must always be judged on his or her personal merits. There are many exceptionally brave, enlightened Muslims and ex-Muslims risking their lives to try to spread humanitarian values in the Muslim-majority world and Muslim communities in the West. I also know my own real life friends of Muslim background would never condone violence or oppression. I would unhesitatingly trust my personal Muslim friends with my life.

But I’m really tired of apologists trying to pretend there isn’t a problem within the Muslim world. There can be no doubt that both Islamic terrorism and Islamofascism inspired by regressive interpretations of Islam are huge problems worldwide. Not the only problems by a long shot, but still a major cause of suffering. In their desperation to find solutions, people tend to clutch at simplistic narratives. In the eyes of the loathsome alt-right (the ‘racist right’ as I call them), Muslims are the aggressors and have some kind of genetic propensity towards bigotry and violence. This is arrant and despicable nonsense. But it’s equally nonsense to suggest that Muslims are all innocent victims of dastardly white Westerners. Muslims are the perpetrators of Islamist violence and repression – and the vast majority of its victims. They are human beings and contain a spectrum of attitudes and personalities from Maajid Nawaz at one end of the scale, to Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi at the other.

This isn’t a battle between East and West, and this isn’t a battle between brown people and white people, nor is it a battle between non-Muslims and Muslims. This is a struggle between, on the one hand, those fighting for human rights and humanitarian values, and on the other hand, those who favour regressive values and theocracy. When a Saudi woman is caned because her hijab slipped, a gay man stoned to death by an angry crowd, a blogger imprisoned for life for stating he is an atheist, a young man forced into hiding because of death threats for ‘liking’ a Facebook post, an Indonesian woman caned for standing too close to her boyfriend in public, or a ‘blasphemer’ who allegedly said something rude about the prophet killed by a mob and the killer later lionised and celebrated – none of that is a response to the West.

This is how to tell a reformer from an apologist: a reformer is frank about what is going on and dedicated to changing it. An apologist is smug and complacent. A reformer is passionate about righting wrongs. An apologist pretends they don’t exist. An apologist cares about scoring points for his ‘side’, his ‘team’. A reformer cares about improving things for humanity. An apologist tries to gloss over misogyny, anti-Semitism and homophobia. A reformer supports equal rights for everyone: man, woman, gay, straight, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, atheist. An apologist cares only about Muslims. A reformer cares about everyone.

Read more: Muslim Reformers Versus Islam Apologists: A Brief Fiel