- MUST READS
- PRODUCTS
- RESOURCES
- MULTIMEDIA
- ENFACTLOPEDIA
- FSM AUTHORS
- ABOUT US
- CONTACT US
- FSM BLOG
- DONATE
- PRESS COVERAGE
SEARCH FSM
- IN THIS SECTION
February 3, 2009
Mosques in Europe – Where’s the Reciprocity?
President Obama mentioned reciprocity: mutual respect between Muslim world and America. Not much reciprocity in Europe, where some governments are already putting up white flags as clever Islamists attack their basic institutions. Diana West (townhall.com) worries that French schools no longer teach authors deemed offensive to Muslims (Voltaire, Diderot, Darwin), and, of course, history of the Holocaust.
She notes that the British government “cravenly elevated five Sharia courts to the level of tribunal hearings, making their rulings legally binding.” The first verdicts upheld male supremacy – inheritance that gives girls half of the inheritance of boys – and they dismissed several domestic violence charges. Sharia permits wife beating.
The French city of Tours was the historic capital of the French king, Charles Martel, who in the 7th century turned back the Muslim invasion that had overrun Spain. Because of this, Europe did not become Muslim. The only European who apparently regretted that Muslim loss was Hitler, who said so to his allies in the Arab world.
Now Tours is the recipient of money from the French government (as well as Algeria and Saudi Arabia) to construct one of the largest mosques in France. While this is very generous (and politically correct) of France, Algeria is shutting down Christian churches because they might try to convert Algerians – and in Saudi Arabia, Christianity is illegal. In almost all Muslim countries, Judaism may not be practiced either.
The French Ministry of the Interior lists 1,500 places of worship, including 400 mosques. Here "mosques" means any places of worship. Prisons are another locus for active Islamist conversion. According to Walid Phares, who has been talking with French counterterrorism people, a terrorist cell from Central Asia was picked up in France where they were getting military training. French Interior Minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, said that 90 Islamic activists were arrested in France in 2007. She notes that French (and American) prisons are incubators for Islamist recruitment and conversions, as are French suburban ghettos.
The ministry has compiled a “handbook on Islamism” to be used inside prisons so that authorities can detect the growth of Jihadist ideology. They watch airline passenger lists and destinations such as Pakistan or Yemen – and watch those going through Switzerland to avoid detection. Security trumps political correctness in France now – except for building mosques.
England is less clever. Despite the good work of British intelligence and police, the courts and elitist clamor keep them from effectively protecting themselves. And in London an enormous mosque is being built which upsets many Londoners, but apparently not the government. They did better in the 19th century when they refused to give religious toleration to Catholicism until the Pope of the time finally recognized Protestantism as a legal religion in Catholic countries. Islam must be treated the same way. Apparently Moscow believes the same; despite a rising number of Muslims there, there will be no more mosques until the Saudis reciprocate.
England’s concerns in earlier centuries were that Catholic churches and their priests were spreading insurgency – and there was truth in it. Queen Elizabeth I knew that she was on a Papal assassination list and should they succeed, England would suffer an Inquisition like that in Spain. Today, many Europeans know that Mosques are hotbeds of militant Islamism and active conversion campaigns and are dangerous.
But grim as this all seems, the Jihadi dream of taking over the world and forcing us all under some mythical Caliphate looks more and more the realm of fantasy. There will continue to be suicide bombers and mosques that recruit clueless young men and send them off to “Muslim education” in Yemen or Pakistan and military training in Sudan or Somalia. However, this really is the last hurrah of an ideology that is quickly heading for the trash heap of history. They have nothing to offer but death, destruction, and fantasies of a hyper-sexualized afterlife, and more Muslims know and reject it. This is not enough to create a civilization. Charles Martel needn’t turn over in his grave.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman is an historian, lecturer, and author who also writes for the Santa Cruz Sentinel. You may contact her at Lfarhat102@aol.com or http://www.globalthink.net/.
Reader Comments: Submit Your Comment (0)
| Print This E-mail This |
|
