Canada: Muslim family ID'd in fatal truck attack in London, Ont., known for commitment to community

The Muslim family identified as the victims of a hit and run Sunday in what police are calling a hate-motivated attack in London, Ont., were deeply involved in the community and committed to their faith, friends and family say.

Salman Afzaal, 46, his wife Madiha Salman, 44, their 15-year-old daughter Yumna Afzaal and Salman Afzaal's 74-year-old mother, Talat Afzaal, were killed after a black truck slammed into them as they took an evening walk.

Read more at: Muslim family ID'd in fatal truck attack in London, Ont., known for commitment to community | CBC News

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

Britain: Sadiq Khan: London has chosen ‘hope over fear’ - by Robert Booth

Sadiq Khan: London's new Mayor

Sadiq Khan has been elected mayor of London, reclaiming the post for Labour after eight years of Conservative rule and becoming the first Muslim mayor of a major western capital.

Khan took 1,310,143 votes (57%) after second preferences were taken into account, beating Conservative Zac Goldsmith into second place on 994,614 (43%). His tally gave him the largest personal mandate of any politician in UK history.

The 45-year-old son of a Pakistani bus driver beat Zac Goldsmith at the end of a sometimes bitter campaign during which the Conservatives accused Khan of being “dangerous” and “pandering to extremists”. Labour complained that Goldsmith’s campaign was Islamophobic.

In his victory speech Khan said he was “deeply humbled by the hope and trust” voters placed in him, adding: “I want to thank every single Londoner for making the impossible possible.”

He added: “I’m so proud that Londoners have today chosen hope over fear and unity over division.”

The convincing win will provide solace to the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, after a poor set of election results overnight in Scotland, England and Wales. Khan becomes the first Labour leader at City Hall since the Conservatives’ Boris Johnson unseated Ken Livingstone in 2008.

Note EU-Digest: This is a fantastic victory of hope over fear and bigotry. All Londerers can be proud about this success which shows that there still is hope for a united, multi-cultural, multi-religious EU.

Read more: Labour's Sadiq Khan elected mayor of London | Politics | The Guardian

Turkey gets first Christian TV station: by Julia A. Seymour

For the first time, millions of people in Turkey watching government-regulated satellite television will be able to find Christian programming.

Shows created by SAT-7 TÜRK, a satellite TV ministry reaching the Middle East and North Africa, began broadcasting on Turkey’s most-watched satellite, Türksat 4A, in recent weeks, Mission Network News announced. The new channel airs dramas, documentaries, and worship programs, as well as content for women and youth. 

“We are overwhelmed and truly believe it is a miracle that we can finally broadcast on Türksat,” SAT-7 Executive Director Melih Ekener said in a press release. Ekener also said the company had been hoping and praying satellite access since 2006, when it began airing SAT-7 ARABIC.

Note EU-Digest: As Christian TV Comes to Turkey, Martin Luther the great Christian reformer from the 1500's, who modernized Christianity and broke away from the hardline Orthodox Vatican Catholic Church, did away with Latin "only" being spoken from the Pulpit (which no one could understand}, fought for women's rights and abolished celibacy for nuns and priests, comes to mind.

Martin Luther made many profound statements. On what we would today consider freedom of speech he said: "If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write.” On faith he said::“We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone.” .

Turkey today is a Muslim Nation, but 100 years ago Turkey’s Christian minority made up 25 to 30 percent of the population, this has now dwindled to between 100,000 and 200,000 believers, mostly from the Syrian, Greek, Russian, and Armenian Orthodox traditions. 

Christians around the world hope and pray that this first Christian TV station in Turkey will not only reflect truly modern biblical interpretation and teaching, but also inspire their Muslim Brothers and Sisters to follow Martin Luther's footsteps in seeking refreshing non violent ways to also modernize Islam and may God bless them in these efforts.

Read more: WORLD | Turkey gets first Christian TV station | Julia A. Seymour | Feb. 23, 2015

Islam: Even though Islam and Democracy are secret enemies there is hope for change from within - by RM

Tariq Ramadan

Whatever" the West" wants to believe, the complexities of Islam in the modern world and the currents of fanaticism and radicalism cannot be regulated by Western-style democracy or military intervention.

Change can only come from within.

Alon -Ben Meir wrote in the American Thnker: "Islam is the most recent of the Abrahamic religions to emerge on the world stage. Monotheism in general, and specifically as it developed in the Dark and Middle Ages, in principle reflects extremely authoritarian regimes.

Theologically, it posits a cosmic or heavenly hierarchy with absolute authority in God, angels in go-between positions, and a fallen humanity in need of salvation at the base of the pyramidal power structure.

It is no surprise then that in the centuries wherein the Catholic Church was at its zenith of influence in the West, political power was held by kings, popes, emperors, and powerful nepotistic and despotic elite with huge economic chasms between the people and their rulers.

Obviously, all these structures were not compatible with democracy.

Christianity and Judaism, being monotheistic, are no less inheritors of this stratified and centralized power paradigm, but unlike Islam these religions were effectively secularized and toned down during the century of the European Enlightenment.

Thinkers like Descartes, Locke, Spinoza, Kant, Voltaire, Rousseau, Hume, and Hegel paved the way for Marx, Schopenhauer, Buber, and Sartre to challenge conventional approaches to religious ideologies and political formations.

Traditional monotheism, with its highly categorized view of man and God, may not in itself be wholly compatible with democracy, but modern Western monotheism gradually molded itself to new ways of thinking during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, and was certainly forced to do so amid rapid scientific and technological advances."

If we look at the turmoil in the Middle East today we see nothing, or any country in the area that seems to offer any hope which will make the area change for the better when it comes to Democracy or equal opportunities for all its citizens.

Some people claim that the development of democracy in the Islamic world eventually came to a halt following the Sunni-Shia split. But was there ever any democracy to speak of ?

Even  Erdogan's Turkey, which was on the right track when the followers of Ataturk known as Kemalists where in control, is now sliding back into "re-introduced undemocratic Muslim traditions", inspired by Fethullah Gulen a Turkish Cleric who directs a world-wide network from a US sanctified base in Pennsylvania.

The question that obviously arises is, where is the Muslim equivalent of  the Christian  Martin Luther who can steer Islam onto a more modern and democratic course without compromising the basics principles of the religion ? A name which keeps on surfacing when this question is brought up is Tariq Ramadan

Tariq Ramadan  might not a household name in the US, but the Swiss professor is probably one of the most important and knowledgeable intellectuals in the world when it comes to Islam.

Ramadan’s thinking, his methods and his personal history are all connected to the same question: Islam’s encounter with the modern world. Can the youngest of the world’s three great monotheisms co-exist harmoniously with the Western world and its Enlightenment legacy? Or is it fated to be reactionary, closed off from the world, an excuse for terrorism and failure?

Ramadan’s theological inquiries cut to the heart of the motivations of the Sept. 11 terrorists, of the apocalyptic claims of Hamas and Hezbollah and the Iranian mullahs. Above all, however, they are concerned with that disputed terrain where Islamic tradition collides with modernity.

Ramadan has the credentials and credibility to confront Islam’s modern identity on its own terms. Many Muslim scholars recognize that no one is more orthodox in his methods and sources, or more innovative in his conclusions.

He is genuinely radical ub the good sense of the word, rather than reactionary. Quiet, thoughtful and deeply religious, he always closes his e-mails with: “May the Light protect you and go with you and all the people you love.” 

Indeed,  there is hope for Islam around the world, but it won't be coming from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey. or the U.S.A.

EU-Digest

Egypt's Islamists sweep 75 percent of Egyptian parliament

Final election results on Saturday showed that Islamist parties won nearly three-quarters of the seats in the Egyptian parliament following the first elections since the ouster of authoritarian president Hosni Mubarak, according to local election officials and political groups.

In the vote for the lower house of parliament, a coalition led by the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood won 47 percent, or 235 seats in the 498-seat parliament. The ultraconservative Al-Nour Party was second with 25 percent, or 125 seats. The Salafi Al-Nour wants to impose strict Islamic law in Egypt, while the more moderate Brotherhood, the country's best-known and organized party, has said publicly that it does not seek to force its views about an appropriate Islamic lifestyle on Egyptians.

The Egyptian bloc, which is headed by a party founded by Christian telecom tycoon Naguib Sawiris, said it won 9 percent of the seats in parliament. Egypt's oldest secular party, the Wafd, also won around 9 percent. Newer parties, such as the liberal Revolution Continues Party won 2 percent, as did the Islamist Center Party, which had been banned from politics under Mubarak.

It is expected that the Muslim Brotherhood will seek a coalition with one of the smaller more liberal parties and not with the more radical Salafi Al-Nour.

EU-Digest

Netherlands to vote on law banning slaughter of meat by halal and kosher methods without anesthesia

For reasons of animal welfare, the Dutch parliament is considering a ban on ritual slaughter without the prior use of anesthesia. Although the vote on the bill proposed by the Dutch Animal Party banning ritual slaughter is still a few weeks off, it could possibly get a majority.

Anesthesizing animals prior slaughtering them is mandatory in the Netherlands. An exception, however, was made for halal (Muslim) and kosher (Jewish) slaughtering. In these cases the animals for some obscure religious reason do not have to be anesthesized prior to slaughter.

Both the Muslim and Jewish communities are now protesting the upcoming vote in the Dutch parliament. “I can speak for the Dutch Jewish Community and I think for the wider Jewish world, that this law being voted on in the Netherlands raises grave concerns about infringements on religious freedom”, said Ruben Vis, Secretary-general of the Dutch Jewish umbrella organization

Abdulfatteh Ali-Salah, Director of Halal Correct, a certification Muslim body for Dutch halal meat, said that his organization and Muslims in general will protest if the law passes. .

A member of the Animal Party in the Netherlands, in response to the statements made by the Muslim and Jewish organizations said,  " maybe the next time one of them goes to the dentist they should opt-out for having an anesthesia given to them, just to experience a little of the pain they are inflicting on animals during their religious rituals"..  

EU-Digest