Europe’s new Islamophobic extremists: now it’s Sweden’s turn

Last Sunday it was Sweden’s turn to see the arrival of an anti-immigrant and anti-Islam party in the national parliament.

The Sweden Democrats, or SD, got 6 percent of the votes and will take 20 of the 349 seats, leaving the country in a difficult situation because neither the ruling center-right coalition nor the center-left opposition parties got enough votes to form a majority government.

Although polls indicated for a long time that the populists SD would make it into the parliament this time, many in Sweden and abroad were shocked. The daily Svenska Dagbladet reflected the mood in the country when it commented: “It is Monday morning and time for Swedes to find a new self-image. A center-right government without a majority, a wrecked Social Democracy and a party with roots in far-right extremism holding the balance of power.”

After similar developments in Denmark and the recent rise of Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, the conclusion can only be that not only Sweden should get used to the new realities. The established welfare states of Europe have been confronted with a new phenomenon: an extremist party holding the balance of power.

In Denmark, the Danish People’s Party, with whom the SD has strong links, does not take part in the government but supports, for the second time in a row, a conservative-liberal minority coalition. In the Netherlands, the Freedom Party of Geert Wilders got 15 percent of the votes in the June elections and is still negotiating with the conservative Liberals and the Christian Democrats to introduce the Danish model in Dutch politics: a center-right minority government that is dependent for a parliamentary majority on the extreme right. It is not a done deal yet, mainly because of strong opposition within the Christian Democrats against such a construction, but at the end of the day we could be faced with three countries in Europe that were, till recently, considered to be the champions of democracy and human rights, at home and abroad, where government policy is strongly influenced by parties that want to stop or radically diminish immigration and that see Islam, in the words of the SD leader, as “the biggest threat to Europe since the Second World War.” What is happening in Europe?

I am afraid these anti-immigration and anti-Islam parties will not go away soon. They reflect the fear and the anger among a part of the population in Europe consisting of citizens who do not feel represented by the established political parties, feel insecure amidst the global economic turmoil and who blame the presence of Muslim migrants for all the changes in their lives they don’t like. They will keep voting for parties that present themselves as anti-establishment and suggest that being tough on migrants and their religion will solve all problems.

The unsolved challenge is how to react to them. In the past, different strategies have been tried. In Belgium, all the other parties refused to cooperate with the populist right and the result was that they lost out to more moderate protest parties. In Austria, the radical right was taken on board in an effort to diminish their appeal. It worked in the short run but it did not take away the root causes for their ongoing success.

Personally, I think the Danish model is the worst option. It allows the extremists to appear respectable by making them responsible for government policies. At the same time, because they are not part of the coalition, they can continue to produce their hate speech and appeal to angry citizens. Let’s hope the Swedes find another solution and the Dutch Christian Democrats come to realize that ruling the country with the support of a populist extremist is not a viable option.

The rise of anti-Islam parties in Europe is deeply worrying and frustrating for Muslims around the world. But alarmist reporting on Europe turning anti-Muslim does not help. The large majority of Europeans do not vote for these parties. In fact, most radically oppose them. The best way for Europeans to deal with this new phenomenon is not to make the extremists more honorable by taking them or their ideas on board.

Trying to defuse some of the real problems related to mass immigration, hard as that might be, seems to be a better option. But those who are watching these developments from the outside with anger and disgust should not make the mistake of blaming the majority of Europeans for the errors of a minority.

Europe offers tax benefits for illegal Israeli settlements

Organisations raising funds to benefit the Israeli army and illegal settlements in the West Bank enjoy tax-exempt status in Europe, an IPS investigation has shown.

The Sar-El Foundation is one of several groups working in the Netherlands dedicated to supporting the Israel Defence Forces. It organises regular visits to Israel, where Dutch volunteers spend three-week periods training with the IDF.

Max Arpels Lezer, the foundation’s Amsterdam-based chairman, said that he tries to encourage volunteers to work in Israeli hospitals but if “that is not possible they can do civilian work on military bases.”

He has previously stated that while the volunteers do not become soldiers, “they help in the battle against the Palestinians.” But he would not comment when asked why he wishes to assist the Israeli army, given that a United Nations inquiry led by retired South African judge Richard Goldstone found that its troops committed war crimes during a three-week offensive against Gaza in 2008-2009.

“I don’t wish to answer the question,” he said. “We don’t talk about politics. Our organisation is a non-political organisation.”

Under Dutch law, foundations such as Sar-El are exempt from tax, and individuals giving money to them can deduct the donations from their income tax.

A similar group Collectieve Israël Action (Collective Action Israel) collects about eight million euros (11 million dollars) per year, according to its website. Among the projects it assists are training for Israeli soldiers, particularly on the applications of advanced technology. The CIA’s board of advisers includes Doron Livnat, director of Riwal, a supplier of cranes used in the construction of the massive wall that Israel has built in the West Bank. That wall was found to be illegal in a 2004 opinion issued by the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

The Nachamoe Foundation, meanwhile, raises money for the upkeep of Israeli families. The foundation has admitted that some of the families live on Israeli settlements between Jerusalem and Bethlehem.These settlements violate international law; the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention forbids an occupying power from transferring part of its own civilian population into the land it is occupying.

Some groups in the Netherlands have categorised support for the IDF as “humanitarian aid”. Visie voor Israël (Vision for Israel) encourages its sympathisers to give donations that will be used to buy gifts such as backpacks for Israeli soldiers. A newsletter from the organisation says that the quantity of gifts provided has increased substantially since the Israeli army’s offensive against Gaza over the past two years.

Shuva is one of several Christian Zionist organisations working in the Netherlands viewing the foundation of Israel and the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as the fulfilment of a Biblical prophecy. According to one of its 2009 newsletters, it has financed a school in Nofei Nechemia, an extension (frequently termed an “illegal outpost” by Israeli newspapers) of the Israeli settlement of Ariel the West Bank. Shuva has stated too that it helps hundreds of settlers establish themselves in four Israeli communities in the West Bank every year.

A spokesman for the Dutch inland revenue service said that the country’s tax rules do not contain any clauses relating to breaches of international law. He said that Dutch legislation allows non-profit organisations to apply for tax exemptions based on their stated goals. “At any given moment, the Dutch tax authorities may decide to revoke this favoured status” after examining the activities of those benefiting from it, he added. But the spokesman said he was unable to speak about the status enjoyed by any particular organisation.

Ghada Zeidan from United Civilians for Peace, a Palestinian solidarity group in the Netherlands, said it is “very difficult” to convince the authorities that they should take action against fundraising by pro-Israel organisations. “The problem is that there is a kind of culture of acceptance of it,” she added.

Earlier this year a campaign was launched in Britain to have the Jewish National Fund (JNF) stripped of its status as a charity. While the JNF presents itself as an ecologically minded body that plants trees in Israel, it has actively supported violence against Palestinians for many decades. One of its leading figures Yosef Weitz explicitly advocated in 1940 — eight years before the state of Israel was founded — that Palestinians should be forced out of Palestine. More recently, the JNF has concentrated much of its energies on settling Jews in the Negev, a process that has involved the uprooting of indigenous Bedouins, often by the destruction of their homes.

The latest accounts made public by the JNF in London say that its total income for 2008 amounted to 7.7 million pounds (12.2 million dollars). Another priority for the fund has been to help the Benji Hillman Foundation; set up in memory of a soldier killed when Israel attacked Lebanon in 2006, it offers accommodation to young people who travel from abroad to join the Israeli army.

A spokesman for the British revenue authority said he could not say if any investigations have been undertaken into the JNF’s activities.

The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) — one of the organisations monitoring the JNF’s work — is seeking a probe into whether fundraisers for foreign armies can be considered charities under British law. Matthew Richardson, an ISM activist, noted that the JNF has powerful allies — David Cameron, the British Prime Minister — has agreed to be one of its patrons; so too did his predecessors Gordon Brown and Tony Blair. Richardson added: “The JNF is very embedded within the (pro-Israel) lobby and the political elite as a whole.”

Rise of Bosnian mayor in hijab challenges assumptions about Islam

VISOKO, Bosnia and Herzegovina — For years, Bosnian Muslims embraced a form of religion so moderate that many capped dinners during the holy month of Ramadan with an alcoholic drink.

But the bloody war that pitted Muslims here against their Serbian Orthodox and Croatian Catholic neighbors tested the faith of one of the few European countries where Islam is the most common religion. It was once rare to see public expressions of faith on the street. Now, more women are donning head scarves — and one who does so just became mayor of this small town in the mountains of central Bosnia.

Amra Babic’s election victory in Visoko late last year made her the first mayor in this war-scarred Balkan country, and perhaps all of Europe, to wear the hijab. Her rise in this river valley town of 46,000 is making inroads for others who have also taken up visible signs of their religion. And it is challenging assumptions across Europe as societies debate whether to reject as repressive the Islamic practice of women covering themselves or to embrace it in the spirit of moderation.

France banned the niqab, or full-face covering, two years ago. Turkey, which has long put up barriers to observant women in public life, recently eased restrictions on wearing the hijab in public universities. Other countries are debating their policies.

In Bosnia, an inland, rolling country of 3.8 million, Islam was introduced in 1463 by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror. The hijab has long been a part of the country’s life, especially in rural areas such as Visoko, but it dropped away during more than 40 years of communism. Practicing religion openly in the officially atheist state meant jeopardizing opportunities and jobs.

Many women cite their wartime experiences in their decisions to return to the moderate form of Islam that has defined religious practice for centuries. Some say they felt that Europe and the United States were slow to come to their aid during the war because of concerns over Islamic terrorism, and that their only recourse was God.

The war drew jihadists from the Middle East, and there are still pockets of violent religious extremism here. But many Bosnian Muslims say that the resurgence of moderate religious practice is a counterbalance to the ultraconservative forms practiced at the periphery.

Babic, a trained economist, is quickly making waves in her country for her political acumen. In the short time since she took over the town hall in the middle of November, she has earned a reputation as a tough administrator. Even jaded observers of Bosnia’s deeply divided political system hold out hope that she could help overcome years of government turmoil that have put the country far behind its rivals, Serbia and Croatia, which are both on a path to joining the European Union.

“I am European, I am Muslim. This is my identity,” she said. The hijab “is what you see on the outside. But the strength is what’s inside, not to do bad deeds. To live my life in honesty, and not to speak the language of hate.”

Doctors say active lifestyle prevents heart disease

Coronary heart disease is the number one killer, worldwide, of men and women over the age of 60.  But people of all ages succumb to heart attacks each year. And while death rates have declined in the U.S. and many western European countries, mortality is on the rise in the developing world.  Yet most heart disease is preventable.

No one would have guessed that Barbara Teng would have a heart attack.  She was not overweight.  She did not smoke.  But she also did not exercise.

“In 2004, the week after I turned 49, when I was on a business trip in Chicago, I had a major heart attack,” she said.

And that changed her life. She now exercises daily, monitors her heart health, and speaks at events held by Sister to Sister, a heart health program for women. Susan Gurley, the organization’s director, says the message is urgent.

“Heart disease is 82 percent preventable and it is the leading cause of death for women,” she said.

It’s also a leading cause of death for men. The World Health Organization reports that more people die each year from heart disease than from any other cause. WHO says more than 60 percent of deaths from cardiovascular disease take place in low and middle-income countries. It says the heart disease pandemic is on the rise.

Dr. Patrice Desvigne-Nickens is with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. She says the key to staying healthy is knowing your numbers.

“Your weight, your blood cholesterol, blood sugar and your blood pressure are important numbers that can help you take action and reduce your risk,” she said.

She says a healthy lifestyle can prevent heart disease.

“And the steps to take are simple: don’t smoke, maintain a healthy weight, exercise, know your numbers and talk to your physician and control these risks,” she said.

African-Americans are at higher-than-average risk for heart disease and stroke, according to Dr. Michelle Magee.

“There’s a very high prevalence of uncontrolled hypertension and also unrecognized hypertension so people don’t even know they have it, which increases the risk for heart disease and stroke,” she said.

In the nation’s capital,  Medstar Washington Hospital Center is trying to reach this population – like at this opening of an outreach program at a Washington barber shop.  Neighborhood barbers develop relationships with their clients. With the right training, they can play an important role in community health….for example helping their clients monitor their blood pressure.

These programs operate on the premise that if people realize they are at risk for heart disease, they’ll make lifestyle changes: lose weight, exercise, eat the right foods and keep in touch with a doctor.

Europeans approve, Americans reject Niqab ban: study

Days before French lawmakers are due to vote on a bill that would make it illegal for Muslim women to wear full veils in public, a US poll has found that a majority of Europeans back such a ban while Americans reject it.

The French overwhelmingly endorse a ban on Muslim face coverings, also known as the burqa or the niqab, as do majorities in Britain, Germany and Spain, a survey conducted by the Washington-based Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project found.

More than eight in 10 people in France said they would approve of a ban on Muslim women wearing full veils in public, including in schools, hospitals and government offices, the survey, conducted over three weeks in April and May, found.

Just 17 percent of French people were opposed to a ban on the burqa.

Majorities in Germany (71 percent), Britain (62 percent) and Spain (59 percent) said they would support a burqa ban in their own countries.

But in the United States, the opposite was true, with two-thirds of Americans saying they were against a ban on full veils in public.

Opinions about banning Muslim women from wearing a full veil did not vary along gender lines in any of the five countries where the question was asked.

Pew asked 1,002 people in the United States, 750 each in Britain, France and Germany and 755 in Spain about how they felt about a burqa ban, as part of its Global Attitudes Survey.

France’s lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, is due to vote on July 13 – the day before France’s national holiday — on whether to ban the burqa in public. The draft law will then go to the French Senate for its vote in September.

Under the bill, women could be fined 150 euros (190 dollars) if they are caught wearing a full veil in public places like streets, parks, public transport or shops.

Men who force their wives or daughters to wear the full veil would face stiffer penalties — a fine of up to 30,000 euros and a year in jail.

A ban in France would affect a tiny minority of Muslim women, according to the French interior ministry, which estimates that about 1,900 women in France wear the full veil.

Similar laws are pending in Belgium and Spain, but the ban is particularly sensitive in France, home to Europe’s biggest Muslim minority.

Euro-US far-right groups anti-Muslim rally again flops

On August 4, far-right anti-Islam fringe but vocal groups from across Europe and the United States staged a rally in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, which attracted only 200 people, according to Reuters news agency while the Associated Press put the numbers to 100 only.

This was the second flopped rally of the Euro-US far-right groups. On March 31, 2011,

an anti-Islam gathering in Denmark’s second city, Aarhus, had attracted fewer than 200 supporters compared with thousands of counter demonstrators.

Reuters said the Stockholm rally by European and U.S. far-right groups seeking to create a global “counter-jihad” movement attracted fewer than 200 people who were outnumbered by anti-racist protesters. Police said the rival demonstration was kept apart from the far-right rally and drew a few hundred people, a small number of whom were detained.

Reuters pointed out that the far-right rally was organized by groups including the English Defense League (EDL) which gained international attention through the Norwegian anti-Islam fanatic (read terrorist) Anders Behring Breivik, who massacred 77 people in Norway a year ago and who referred to the EDL admiringly in his manifesto on the Internet.

In February 2012, the British newspaper, Independent, quoted Weyman Bennett, spokesman for pressure group Unite Against Fascism, as saying: ” We should not forget that it was the Norwegian Defense League that gave us [Anders] Brevik. The growth of a Euro-league in a time of economic crisis threatens to resurrect fascist street armies such as those that destroyed European democracies in the 1930s. The development of this network allows fascists and right-wing populists to share ideas, finance and experience in a way that should worry us all.”

The English Defence League was founded in 2009 by Stephen Lennon, who also calls himself Tommy Robinson. Not surprisingly, the EDL leader Tommy Robinson as well as US anti-Muslim bloggers and co-founders of   Stop Islamization of America, Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller participated in the rally. Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller were also major supporters of this rally.

Nottingham University’s Matthew Goodwin, an expert on British far-right militant groups, was quoted by AP as saying that the Stockholm meeting was of strategic importance despite the modest turnout. “The attending are quite significant figures within the anti-jihad movement. It signifies the strengthening links between counter-jihad groups and anti-Muslim groups within Europe and the United States.”

“It’s about sharing ideology, sharing resources, work together in any way we can over the next 12 months in order to highlight the truth, the truth about Islam,” the EDL leader told Reuters on the sidelines of the Stockholm rally.

However, one expert said the low turnout for the rally underscored the weakness and isolation of the European defense leagues, which are fashioned after the EDL, which remains their strongest and most organized unit. “It represents a failure for the English Defense League to broaden out into a European-wide movement,” said Arun Kundnani, a fellow of the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism at The Hague.

Far-right rallies across Europe

Stockholm rally was not the first to gather anti-Islam groups in Europe. Across Europe, far-right politicians have accelerated their rhetoric against Muslim minorities in recent years.

In 2010 the EDL and other groups held a rally in Amsterdam in support of Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders, who was in court accused of insulting religious and ethnic groups.

In Britain, far-right groups like the English Defense League and the British National Party are playing the card of immigration to stoke sentiment against Muslims and immigrants.

In the Netherlands, far-right lawmaker Geert Wilders called for banning the Muslim face-veil in the Netherlands and stopping immigration from Muslim countries. In Sweden, the far-right Sweden Democrats unveiled plans to impose a moratorium on building new mosques in the Scandinavian country.

New groups were also appearing in Denmark after English Defense League leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon held the inaugural meeting of a Europe-wide network of defense leagues in Oslo recently.

Another group, Women Against Islamization, was founded in Belgium last month whose launch was addressed by Jackie Cook, the wife of BNP leader Nick Griffin.

Not surprisingly, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg, posted a blog in October 2010 about how European Muslims are stigmatised by populist rhetoric. “European countries appear to face another crisis beyond budget deficits – the disintegration of human value. One symptom is the increasing expression of intolerance towards Muslims. Opinion polls in several European countries reflect fear, suspicion and negative opinions of Muslims and Islamic culture,” he wrote in a powerful indictment.

It is economy not religion

In Europe–western civilization’s heartland–hate movements are once again on the march, according to the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center report of June 2012. The report, titled European extremist movements, said from the UK and France, to Norway and Sweden, to Germany and Austria, to Spain and Greece, to Hungary and Poland and Ukraine and Russia, the resurgence of extremist movements is a common theme with variations.

History teaches us again and again that societies, which are oblivious to the past, are destined for disaster, the report warned and added: “A generation after Auschwitz, Hitler’s aura still looms. New generations of Europeans are targeted by the siren song of extremist movements on both the right and the left that distort and deny history in the name of destructive visions of the future rooted in hatred. In today’s “post-modern” Europe, the continent’s oldest disease–Jew hatred–is metastasizing.”

The rising tide of hate crimes across Europe during the last decade–four times as likely to target Jews as Muslims–demonstrates the inextricable connection of prejudicial beliefs and anti-Semitic behavior, the Simon Center report went on to say. “Equally disturbing are the convergence of extreme right and left around an anti-Semitic political agenda, and the internationalizing of hate movements in transnational alliances.”

At the same time, a German think tank, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Forum Berlin, has warned that particularly in times of crisis, right-wing extremists and right-wing populists in many places are trying to use the fears of European citizens to promote their “cause” by providing simple answers to complex social challenges. “As a result, not only were 29 right-wing representatives elected to the European Parliament in 2009, but in Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria and Eastern Europe, too, they scored in national elections with slogans of scapegoatism and exclusion.”

The 2011 report titled ” Right-wing extremism and right-wing populism in Europe,” pointed out that analyses of right-wing extremism and right-wing populism in different countries show that the radical right appeals to those on the losing side of current social processes. “Be it the British National Party, the Progress Party, or theDanish People’s Party : the target groups always comprise people who are, in the course of economic and social processes of change, threatened by losses in terms of labor, income, prestige, access to education and leisure time. The main target groups in Western Europe are therefore people from the lower and lower middle class.”

EU Muslims move to synchronize Ramadan

CAIRO – Differences on the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan are forcing Muslim minorities across Europe to turn to modern astronomy to help determine the first day of the fasting month.

“In the modern world, especially in the West, people can’t decide on the fly to start or end the holy month at 10 p.m. the night before,” Nidhal Guessoum, an Algerian-born astrophysicist, told Reuters.

Muslims have always differed on the beginning of the dawn-to-dust fasting month of Ramadan.

While one group of scholars sees that Muslims in other regions and countries are to follow the same moon sighting as long as these countries share one part of the night, another states that Muslims everywhere should abide by the lunar calendar of Saudi Arabia.

A third, however, disputes both views, arguing that the authority in charge of ascertaining the sighting of the moon in a given country announces the sighting of the new moon, then Muslims in the country should all abide by this.

This usually causes confusion among Muslims, particularly in the West, on observing the dawn-to-dusk fasting and celebrating the `Eid Al-Fitr, which marks the end of fasting.

Frustrated by this confusion, Muslim leaders across Europe are increasingly turning to modern astronomy to help solve the problem.

Astrophysicists like Guessoum, a physics professor at the American University of Sharjah, can now calculate exactly when the new moon will appear in the sky around the world.

That removes the problems the traditional sighting method has with clouds, pollution, ambient light in cities and false sightings of the hard-to-discern sliver in the sky.

This month, the Ramadan moon will first be visible in South America on July 19, then in most areas except northern Europe and Canada on the 20th and finally almost everywhere on the 21st.

Because of this delay, Guessoum would split the world into East, where most Muslim countries are, and West, essentially the Americas.

If the crescent could be sighted anywhere in a region, Ramadan would begin in that whole area the next morning.

Other Muslim scientists propose that as soon as astronomical calculations show the crescent could be seen anywhere in the world, Ramadan would begin everywhere the next day.

Turkey introduced this method decades ago and Muslims in the old Ottoman lands in the Balkans and in Germany, where most Muslims are of Turkish origin, follow this.

Ankara has already declared July 20th the start of Ramadan.

France, which has Europe’s largest Muslim minority with mostly Arab roots, usually copies what Saudi Arabia decides.

Confusion

But theological differences, ethnic divisions and the sheer weight of tradition are still holding up progress in using modern technology to decide the start of Ramadan.

“It’s a bit confusing,” Usama Hasan, senior researcher at the Quilliam Foundation in London, told Reuters.

“If they can’t see the moon in Britain, they’ll follow what’s happening ‘back home.’ There’s a lot of ignorance of the science.”

This year, the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe and the European Council on Fatwa and Research stepped up the campaign to use only astronomical calculations to determine the start of Ramadan and `Eid.

The Council declared last week that scientific calculations are fully acceptable according to Islamic Shari`ah and announced on Monday that Ramadan would start this year on July 20th.

Mohammed Moussaoui, president of the French Muslim Council (CFCM), said French Muslim organizations would most probably agree on this method later this year and apply it from 2013.

There are suggestions in France that some Christian holidays be replaced by Muslim and Jewish days, in respect for those minorities, but Paris needs fixed dates well ahead of time.

“Most Muslims want a calendar based on these calculations so they can organize things in advance,” Moussaoui told Reuters.

But not everybody may agree.

The two European groups backing this harmonization are mostly ethnic Arab. Muslims of other backgrounds, especially from the Subcontinent, might be reluctant to follow them.

“I don’t expect Britain to follow for a number of years,” Guessoum said.

Ramadan is the holiest month in Islamic calendar.

In Ramadan, adult Muslims, save the sick and those traveling, abstain from food, drink, smoking and sex between dawn and sunset.

Muslims dedicate their time during the holy month to be closer to Allah through prayers, self-restraint and good deeds.

It is customary for Muslims to spend part of the days during Ramadan studying the Noble Qur’an.

Many men perform i`tikaf (spiritual retreat), spending the last 10 days of the month exclusively in the mosque.

Catholic priest urges European Christians to fight off Islam by having babies

A prominent Catholic priest wants European Christians to fight off Islam with a unique weapon: babies.

Father Piero Gheddo, an Italian missionary priest, said Wednesday he believes a declining birth rate among Europeans combined with a rising tide of Muslim immigrants could mean that Islam will soon dominate Europe.

“Certainly from a demographic point of view, as it is clear to everyone that Italians are decreasing by 120,000 or 130,000 persons a year because of abortion and broken families; while among the more than 200,000 legal immigrants a year in Italy, more than half are Muslims and Muslim families, which have a much higher level of growth,” he said, according to Rome’s Catholic news service Zenit News Agency.

Gheddo’s solution? Christians need to start having more children.

“The fact is that, as a people, we are becoming ever more pagan and the religious vacuum is inevitably filled by other proposals and religious forces,” he said. “If we consider ourselves a Christian country, we should return to the practice of Christian life, which would also solve the problem of empty cradles.”

Father Gheddo is a well-respected member of the Vatican’s Pontificial Institute for Foreign Missionaires.

His comments were made in response to Libyan chief of state Moammar Khadafy, who said this week that Europe should convert to Islam.

Khadafy, on an official visit to Italy, laced his speech with controversial remarks, such as, “Tomorrow Europe might no longer be European, and even black, as there are millions who want to come in.”

“We don’t know if Europe will remain an advanced and united continent or if it will be destroyed, as happened with the barbarian invasions,” Khadafy added, before handing out free copies of the Koran.

Incensed that Muslims could one day outnumber Christians in Europe, Gheddo vowed to bring more attention to the issue.

The media hasn’t “seriously taken into consideration how to respond to this challenge of Islam,” he said, “which sooner or later will conquer the majority in Europe.”

Gheddo intends to change that.

“The challenge must be taken seriously,” he said

Catholics, Muslims, Jews Consider Anti-Gay marriage alliance

European Catholic leaders are reaching out to other spiritual leaders, including those of the Muslim and Jewish faiths, to possibly form an alliance against the proliferation of marriage equality.

In an address to U.K. Catholic bishops, Archbishop Antonio Mennini echoed the words of Pope Benedict, urging the church to take a leadership position in fighting against marriage rights for same-sex couples, theTelegraph reports. His address comes shortly after several clerics of multiple faiths have spoken out against U.K. Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone, who kicked off an investigation on marriage equality.

“I wonder if we shouldn’t ask for and look for more support among other Christian confessions and indeed, persons of other faiths,” Archbishop Mennini said. “It seems to me that, concerning the institution of marriage, and indeed the sanctity of human life, we have much in common with the position of the Jewish community, the Chief Rabbi and many of the more significant representatives of Islam.”

Archbishop Peter Smith, one of the highest ranking Catholic leaders in England and Wales, said that while there has not yet been a formal alliance of religious groups against marriage equality, “we will work with anyone who agrees with us that to redefine marriage is not a good thing for society and will lead to more confusion.”

Many rabbis for Liberal and Reform synagogues have expressed support for marriage equality, but Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks in London has yet to announce his position. The Muslim Council of Britain came out in opposition of the proposed policy change last month. A council of Imams in Glasgow, Scotland approved a joint resolution that said marriage equality was an attack on their faith, and a Sikh leader said same-sex marriage was a “sideways assault on religion.”

The future of Islam in Europe

While Western Islamophobia is a reality to contend with, Muslims based in the West often don’t help matters, writes Khalil El-Anani*

The current Western obsession with the niqab, or full- face veil, often seems part of a subconscious plot to restrict anything Arab and Islamic, symbolic as that may be. The niqab is not really Islamic garb, this I am sure something that Western politicians know. And yet it is becoming a target of hate because it is seen as a cultural symbol that is extraneous, and indeed dangerous, to European societies.

Sometimes I wonder, what if it were Indian women, or Sikhs and Buddhists for that matter, who wore the niqab ? Would European parliaments still spend entire sessions discussing the niqab ?

Theological debate on niqab aside, Western outrage against the niqab seems to be a by-product of Islamophobia, a phenomenon that is raging like wildfire across Europe, asserting itself sometimes as mosque- phobia and at other times as minaret-phobia. Should this trend continue, the day may come when European parliaments ban men from wearing their beards long and shaving their moustaches. I wonder what kind of phobia we’ll name that one!

There is a real crisis of conscience in the West. When it comes to Islam, Europe seems to be negating its past of freedom and equality, the very essence of what it claims to be defending today. What damage is done to 65 million in France, 22 million in Australia, and 10 million in Belgium, and a similar number in the Netherlands from hundreds, or even thousands of niqab -clad women? Whether the niqab is an expression of faith or habit, I fail to see the damage it is being blamed for.

Meanwhile, the Western intelligentsia seem silent on the matter. For all their loud defence of homosexual rights and of gay and lesbian marriages, the European intelligentsia remain sympathetic to anyone who criticises Islam and Muslims. Criticism of Islam is seen as part and parcel of Europe’s freedom of expression.

The French parliament has voted to ban the niqab, calling it a threat to the secularism of the French state. But secularism is innocent from this kind of thinking. The ban on the niqab — and an earlier ban on the hijab — has nothing to do with secularism. As a doctrine, secularism was supposed to defend the rights of everyone, especially minorities. Secularism was supposed to protect the rights of all to religious freedom and identity. It was supposed to be a statement of pluralism and religious tolerance.

I have three words I wish to add to the famous motto of the French state, that of liberty, equality, and freedom. I wish to add the phrase, “for non-Muslims only”.

The ban on the niqab is a moral scandal as well as an insult to the Western tradition. For one thing, the anti- niqab crowd assume that any woman wearing the niqab (and perhaps any man wearing robes and a beard) is a time bomb that must be defused. The anti- niqab crowd make no distinction between extremists and moderates. It is bigotry such as theirs that inspired the murder of an innocent Egyptian woman, Marwa El-Sherbini, in Germany a year ago.

There is no real evidence of a connection between the niqab and terror. All the terrorist operations that took place in Europe — from London to Madrid — were mounted by men baring their faces. The attacks mounted by masked men and women across the Arab and Islamic world are rare compared to those mounted by individuals showing their faces. Terrorists like to be seen and recognised. That’s how they are.

I find it ironic that the admirable work of the great intellectual and philosophical brains of the European Enlightenment, of men like John Locke and Montesquieu and Kant, is being reversed by their grandchildren. I find it appalling that in a multi-ethnic country such a Britain, a country known for its religious pluralism and human tolerance, more than 30 Muslim tombs in Leeds have been desecrated. Shops owned by British citizens of Muslim origin were attacked in Birmingham a month ago.

Equally disturbing is the fact that religious fervour and identity-related obsession are spreading across Muslim communities in Europe. Muslim minorities in Europe seem to think that the future of Islam hinges on such outward matters as wearing the niqab, growing a beard, or attaching a minaret to a place of worship. Some members of the Islamic community, especially those of Asian origins, deal with Western societies as if they were still back in Peshawar or Islamabad. Their actions only fuel the Islamophobia of those at the other end of the spectrum.

Islam may be the fastest growing religion in Europe, but its true power is not in outward appearances, but in the spiritual appeal of its message, a message that attracts those wishing to break free from materialism.

The tendency of Muslim communities in Europe to place their “universal” connections above their local loyalties is perilous. There is a tendency for Europe’s Muslims to worry more about Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan than about the more immediate tasks of women’s rights, communal ties and political affiliation. They confuse one’s country with one’s citizenry. In their minds, their countries are not where they live, as in Britain or France, but where they came from. But this doesn’t make sense, for it is in Europe that they ask for their rights as citizens. It is in Europe that they demand equality and religious freedom.

The schizophrenia of European Muslims is triggered by a mistaken loyalty to Salafi, or fundamentalist trends. As many know, Salafi movements oppose integration and are loath to constructive coexistence. The Salafis both fuel the current Islamophobia and thrive on it.

Some of the Muslims who live in Europe have turned into an impediment to Islam. Some actively obstruct the spread of its message of tolerance. Some are distracting non-Muslims from the values of Islam, because of their ignorance and their obsession with appearances.

It is my opinion that mistaken religious concepts are being propagated among the Muslim minorities of Europe. These concepts are bound to hinder their integration into their new societies. A few days ago, I heard that some Muslim men in London branded as haram, or religiously banned, the participation of British Muslims in the general elections of last month. This is crazy. Even worse, the fanatical utterances were made by recent British converts to Islam.

New converts to Islam tend to subscribe to Salafi views as being pure and therefore perfect. In doing so, they turn their back on tolerant views and the progressive opinions that are required for coexistence. This narrow-minded view of Islam makes much of appearances, such as garments and minarets, and of the literary interpretation of religious texts. It also tends to confuse freedom of worship with respect for the public sphere. It is necessary for European Muslims to stop viewing the cultural legacy of European countries as a threat to their religious freedom.

Western countries defend and allow the practice of religious freedoms without hindrance. But they also want to maintain their cultural legacy and protect it from perceived threats, especially when these threats — like the niqab — are matters of contention within the Islamic world, not just in Europe.

The Salafi interpretation of Islam may not be dominant among European Muslims, but it is the most vocal in Europe’s public sphere. As such, it creates a wall between Europe’s Muslims and non-Muslims. It also inspires some of Europe’s most racist laws. The Salafi currents are giving Europe’s rightwing groups reason to claim that a Muslim takeover is imminent unless action is promptly taken.

A polarisation of identity is taking place inside two groups, each obsessed with the other, and each reassured of its own superiority. Should this continue, the next decade will just be as bad as the last.

Europe finding a spiritual fix in Islam

In secular Europe, countries are starting to see a blowback, not toward their historic Christian roots, but toward Islam.

Islam has been growing in European countries—especially the urban areas of France, the U.K., and Spain—through increased immigration and higher birth rates. But native Europeans also are converting to Islam, either to fit in to Muslim-dominated neighborhoods, for marriage, or to counter the spiritual emptiness in the secular countries, according to an article in last weekend’s New York Times.

During the past 20 years, the number of Muslims in Europe has increased by nearly 50 percent, from 29.6 million in 1990 to 44.1 million in 2010, according to a 2011 Pew Forum study. By 2030, the number is expected to climb to 58 million, making up 8 percent of the entire European population.

About 100,000 of the six million Muslims in France are thought to be converts, the New York Times article reports. French prisons are considered fertile ground for conversion to Islamic radicalism, with Muslims making up a third of the inmates.

One imam in the southern coast of France told the New York Times that French conversions have “increased at an incredible pace in the last three years.” He signed 130 conversion certificates last year.

“Secularism has become antireligious,” Hassen Chalghoumi, an imam near Paris, told the newspaper. “Therefore, it has created an opposite phenomenon. It has allowed people to discover Islam.”

The increase of immigration also has created Muslim communities in cities like Paris, London, and Barcelona. France had an influx of 66,000 Muslim immigrants in 2010, mostly from North Africa, making up two-thirds of all new immigrants to France. Spain saw 70,000 Muslim immigrants that year, while the U.K. had 64,000.

The large migration of a different culture has created problems in London. In 2011, Abu Izzadeen, the self-proclaimed director for Waltham Forest Muslims declared the borough a Sharia-law zone and put up fliers that banned drinking, gambling, immodest dress, music, smoking, and homosexuality.

His group, Muslims Against Crusades, said on a website that “what was once a predominantly Christian country has now been overwhelmed by a rising Muslim population … the entire infrastructure of Britain is changing. Mosques, Islamic schools, Sharia courts, Muslim-owned businesses and banks have now become an integral part of the British landscape.”

Another small extremist group, “Muslim Patrol,” recently posted videos on YouTube of the group harassing East Londoners for “breaking” sharia law. They approached a women in a short skirt and said she could not “dress like that in a Muslim area.” They also attacked a gay man and a man drinking beer.

While the extremist groups represent a small part of the British Muslim community, the youth of those involved is representative of a British study group’s claim that second and third generation Muslims are having a harder time integrating than their parents. Policy Exchange found more than 70 percent of Muslims over 55 felt they had as much in common with Muslims as with non-Muslims, while only 62 precent of 16 to 24 year olds feel that way.

Izzadeen also claims scores of young Britons have converted to Islam, and according to U.K’s Daily Mail, many of the girls in hijabs and activists putting up flyers were of white descent. One girl the newspaper interviewed said, “I was a Christian of sorts, but now I have, like a lot of my friends, embraced Islam. It makes me feel better about my life.”

Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, believes this Islamization of Europe has its roots in the weakening of Christianity.

“The receding influence of Christianity in Switzerland can be traced directly to theological liberalism in its churches and the increasing secularity of Swiss culture,” Mohler wrote in a 2009 blog post about Switzerland’s decision to ban minarets. “Islam now enters the void created by the decline of Christianity and Christian culture in Switzerland, and throughout much of the continent as well.”

Gaddafi’s son threatens imminent civil war

Appearing on Libyan state television, Seif al-Islam Gaddafi says his father is in the country and has support of army.

Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, a son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, has promised a programme of reforms but also warned of “civil war” after bloody protests against his father’s 42-year rule reached the capital, Tripoli.

Speaking on state television in the early hours of Monday morning, Saif Gaddafi blamed thugs, inmates, foreigners and Islamists for the unrest that has spread across the country since February 14.

He promised a conference on constitutional reforms within two days and said Libyans should “forget oil and petrol” and prepare themselves for occupation by “the West” if they failed to agree.

The younger Gaddafi contrasted the situation in Libya with revolts earlier this year in Egypt and Tunisia, where long time rulers were forced to step down or flee in the face of mass popular discontent.

Protesters in Libya have similarly called for Muammar Gaddafi’s ousting, but his son drew contrasts between neighbouring countries and Libya, which he said was more tribal and divided.

“Libya is different, if there is disturbance it will split into several states,” he said.

“You can say we want democracy and rights, we can talk about it, we should have talked about it before. It’s this or war. Instead of crying over 200 deaths, we will cry over hundreds of thousands of deaths.

“Brothers, there are $200bn worth of projects at stake now. We will agree to all these issues immediately. We will then be able to keep our country, unlike our neighbours.

“Or else, be ready to start a civil war and chaos and forget oil and petrol.”

Gaddafi said his father remains in the country and is backed by the army, despite reports from several cities that soldiers have refused to take action against protesters and in several cases have joined their ranks or withdrawn.

“We will fight to the last minute, until the last bullet,” Gaddafi said.

Tripoli violence

Following Saif Gaddafi’s speech, witnesses in Tripoli reported an escalation of violence, as supporters of his father flooded into the city’s central square and confronted anti-government protesters.

Armed men in uniform fired into the crowds, witnesses said, and continuous gunfire could be heard in the background of recorded phone calls from the capital released to journalists by Libyans living abroad.

Saif Gaddafi admitted that some military bases, tanks and weapons had been seized and acknowledged that the army, under stress, opened fire on crowds because it was not used to controlling demonstrations.

Witnesses in Libya have reported that some cities, especially in the east, which is perceived as less loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, have fallen completely into the hands of civilians and protesters.

Though human rights groups have said that hundreds of protesters have died, a toll they still described as “conservative,” Saif Gaddafi said that numbers had been exaggerated.

He said there were 14 dead in Tripoli and 84 in Benghazi, Libya’s second-largest city and the site of some of the bloodiest security crackdowns.

In a new estimate released on Sunday, Human Rights Watch said at least 233 people have died so far.

Doctors and eyewitnesses throughout Libya have offered widely varying death toll but have reported many hundreds of injured, even in Benghazi alone.

‘Desperate speech’

Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, said Saif Gaddafi’s speech appeared “desperate”.

“It sounded like a desperate speech by a desperate son of a dictator who’s trying to use blackmail on the Libyan people by threatening that he could turn the country into a bloodbath,” Bishara said.

“That is very dangerous coming from someone who doesn’t even hold an official role in Libya – so in so many ways, this could be the beginning of a nightmare scenario for Libya if a despotic leader puts his son on air in order to warn his people of a bloodbath if they don’t listen to the orders or the dictates of a dictators.”

Saif Gaddafi offered to put forward reforms within two days, saying Libya faced a “historic moment” and could choose between reform or something “worse than Yugoslavia”.

He said the regime was willing to remove some restrictions and begin discussions for a constitution – something he said “the leader Gaddafi” desired.

He also offered to change a number of laws, including those covering the media and the penal code.

“It’s also fascinating how he threatened the West with chaos in Libya and then threatened Libyans with Western intervention, because, as he put it, that would turn Libya into a decentralised country allowing various Islamist groups to take over, which the West would not allow,” Bishara said.

Saif Gaddafi said the General People’s Congress, Libya’s equivalent of a parliament, would convene on Monday to discuss a “clear” reform agenda, while the government would also raise wages.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Najla Abdurrahman, a Libyan dissident, said Gaddafi’s speech was an attempt to “play up” Libyans’ fears.

“I don’t think anyone in Libya who isn’t close to the Gaddafi regime would buy anything he said,” she said.

“And even if there is any truth to what he said, I don’t think it’s any better than what the people of Libya have already been living with for the past 40 years.”

“He promised that the country would spiral into civil war for the next 30 to 40 years, that the country’s infrastructure would be ruined, hospitals and schools would no longer be functioning – but schools are already terrible, hospitals are already in bad condition.”

Soldiers defect

On Sunday, before Saif Gaddafi’s speech, thousands of protesters rallied in Tripoli and clashed with Gaddafi supporters.

Witnesses said earlier that protesters had begun to mass in many smaller cities in Libya’s west and along its Nafusa mountain chain and had plans to march on the capital.

“We are sending our message to Gaddafi via Al Jazeera, telling him we are determined to topple him from power because of the reign of terror we have experienced for more than 40 years,” said Nassen Sefao, speaking from Yafran, around 160 km southwest of Tripoli. “We will never concede to humiliation again.”

Gunfire rang out in the night and police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators in the capital, some of whom threw stones at Gaddafi posters.

“We are in Tripoli, there are chants [directed at Gaddafi]: ‘Where are you? Where are you? Come out if you’re a man,” a protester told Al Jazeera on the phone.

Another resident told the Reuters news agency that the lights had gone out inside their house.

“There are gunshots in the street,” the resident said by phone. “That’s what I hear, gunshots and people. I can’t go outside.”

An expatriate worker living in the Libyan capital told Reuters: “Some anti-government demonstrators are gathering in the residential complexes. The police are dispersing them. I can also see burning cars.”

There were also reports of protesters heading to Gaddafi’s compound in the city of Al-Zawia near Tripoli, with the intention of burning the building down.

Most of the protests and violence have occurred in Benghazi, the cradle of the uprising and a region where Gaddafi’s grip has always been weaker than elsewhere in the oil-rich desert nation.

Habib al-Obaidi, a surgeon at the Al-Jalaa hospital there, said the bodies of 50 people, mostly shot dead, were brought in on Sunday afternoon. Two hundred wounded had arrived, he said.

“One of the victims was obliterated after being hit by an RPG (rocket propelled grenade) to the abdomen,” he said.

Members of an army unit known as the “Thunderbolt” squad had brought wounded comrades to the hospital, he said.

The soldiers said they had defected to the cause of the protesters and had fought and defeated Gaddafi’s elite guards.

“They are now saying that they have overpowered the Praetorian Guard and that they have joined the people’s revolt,” another man at the hospital, lawyer Mohamed al-Mana, told the Reuters news agency by telephone.

‘Tribal revolt’

In another sign of popular resentment toward Gaddafi, the head of the Al-Zuwayya tribe in eastern Libya threatened to cut off oil exports unless authorities stop what he called the “oppression of protesters”.

The Warfala tribe, one of Libya’s biggest, has also reportedly joined the anti-Gaddafi protests.

Libya has become a key oil provider to Europe in recent years, and EU countries buy approximately 75 per cent of the country’s oil.

Sheikh Faraj al Zuway, the head of the Zuwayya tribe, told Al Jazeera that his people would stop oil exports within 24 hours if the government-sponsored violence did not stop.

The tribe’s population is primarily centred south of Benghazi.

Akram Al-Warfalli, a leading figure in the Warfala tribe south of Tripoli, told Al Jazeera that Gaddafi was “no longer a brother” and must leave the country.

Protests have also reportedly broken out in other cities, including Bayda, Derna, Tobruk and Misrata. Anti-Gaddafi graffiti adorns the walls of several cities.

Army ‘defects’

Anti-government protesters in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi have reportedly seized army vehicles and weapons amid worsening turmoil in the African nation.

Mohamed, a doctor from Al Jalaa hospital in Benghazi, told Al Jazeera that members of the military had sided with the protesters.

“We are still receiving serious injuries; I can confirm 13 deaths in our hospital. However, the good news is that people are cheering and celebrating outside after receiving news that the army is siding with the people,” he said.

“But there is still a brigade that is against the demonstrators. For the past three days demonstrators have been shot at by this brigade, called Al-Sibyl brigade.”

Sadiq al Ghiryani, a Libyan religious leader, told Al Jazeera a “massacre” was under way in the city and troops firing shots were mostly mercenaries. Kamal Hudethifi, a judge, described the killings as “ethnic cleansing”.

Moftah, a Benghazi resident, who requested Al Jazeera use only his first name, said the city had become a “war zone” in recent days. Residents have barricaded the streets with overturned trash cans and debris, and security forces have largely confined themselves to two compounds, though snipers continue to target protesters, he said.

The forces who remain are “thugs” loyal to Gaddafi, Moftah said, and they are firing high-calibre ammunition at protesters.

The eyewitness report came a day after security forces opened fire at a funeral in the eastern coastal city on Saturday, killing at least 15 people and injuring scores more.

A group of six alleged mercenaries – reportedly brought in from Tunisia and other African nations to bolster pro-Gaddafi forces – were captured and arrested by demonstrators in the city of Shahat.

Appeal for calm

Against this backdrop of violence, opposition groups said some 50 Libyan Muslim leaders have urged security forces to stop killing civilians.

“This is an urgent appeal from religious scholars, intellectuals, and clan elders from Tripoli, Bani Walid, Zintan, Jadu, Msalata, Misrata, Zawiah, and other towns and villages of the western area,” the appeal, signed by the group of leaders, stated.

“We appeal to every Muslim, within the regime or assisting it in any way, to recognise that the killing of innocent human beings is forbidden by our Creator and by His beloved prophet of compassion, peace be upon him … Do not kill your brothers and sisters. Stop the massacre now!”

Around the world, people have been gathering in solidarity with the protesters at Libyan consulates and at the White House in Washington, the US capital.

Libya’s government has responded to the international criticism by threatening retaliation against the European Union.  It said on Sunday that it would stop co-operating with efforts to try and stop illegal migrants heading to Europe.