exploring muslim identities in europe & north america

Danish artist Kurt Westergaard died at the age of 86 on 14 July 2021.  The  illustrator was the creator of one of the twelve drawings published by Denmark's  largest daily conservative newspaper   Jyllands-Posten  on  30 September 2005, in an article entitled  Muhammeds ansigt  (The face of Muhammad).  Flemming Rose, the culture editor of the daily had written about the project commissioned by him and which  Kurt Westergaard was part of : Modern, secular society is rejected by some Muslims. They demand a special position, insisting on special consideration of their own religious feelings. It is incompatible with contemporary democracy and freedom of speech, where one must be ready to put up with insults, mockery and ridicule. It is certainly not always attractive and nice to look at, and it does not mean that religious feelings should be made fun of at any price, but that is of minor importance in the present context. ... we are on ...

Recently, Charlie Hebdo featured a cartoon that purportedly provided commentary on the refugee situation and accusations of sexual misconduct in Germany by controversially depicting Aylan Kurdi—the three-year-old Syrian boy whose tragic drowning captured global attention—as a grown "pig-faced" individual chasing "white" women. The questionable caption asks what Aylan might have grown up to become, implying he would be an assailant in Germany. The illustration, created by Laurent Sourisseau, who is the magazine's current director and a survivor of the terrorist attack at Charlie Hebdo's offices, appears to underscore the claims that refugees, including Syrians, were among the perpetrators of the sexual assaults reported in Cologne, Germany, on New Year's Eve. Despite the claims of Charlie Hebdo that it champions a "healthy critical attitude," the overtly provocative nature of the cartoon borders on sheer sensation-seeking. Indeed, misinterpreta...

American journalist  Liz Smith once said very aptly that gossip is just news in a red satin dress. Although there is indeed an intimate relationship between rumour and news, it is important to note that rumour can often be a form of fiction that dones the cloak of veracity. Over the past couple of weeks a story has been featured in social media and email inboxes about a burqa-clad woman chastising a supermarket cashier for supporting Western bombing of Iraq. The most recent posting that came to my attention reached my facebook timeline from a user based in Israel and situated the alleged incident in a small Canadian town. The story sounded suspicious as, since the eviction of the Iraqi army from Kuwait in the first Iraq war, Canada has not been involved in military operations in Iraq and I therefore did some investigation only to find that the story must have been circulating in the internet since as early as 2003,  during the early days of the second Iraq war. This o...

A research team based at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence has released a report on the English Defence League (EDL) and its European allies . The report provides a rare insight on the EDL and its strategy of linking up with other European islamophobic movements which the authors of the report  refer to collectively as the European Counter-Jihad Movement. According to the report In the last several months  this loose international alliance has begun to exhibit a more developed  operational structure.  Based on fieldwork in Europe and interviews with the  leading figures of the  European Counter-Jihad Movement, the report points out that the latter, u nlike most other far-right organisations, remains  a one-issue movement, and has yet to show an interest in  expanding its scope to cover other popular concerns. The authors suggest that the  European Counter-Jihad Movement  espouses wha...

Yet another instance of selective concerns on the part of one of Britain's MPs. Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant has expressed reservations about a scheme supported by the city's Muslims to build a mosque and create a Muslim burial ground even before an application reached the planning department of the local authority. Mr Fabricant warned against a development which, in his opinion, would not be in-keeping with the character of the city. While he acknowledges that  it is for the Council to make its own planning decisions, his own view is 'that domes and minarets are not appropriate in a heritage City like Lichfield'. Commenting on the possibility of an amplified system of calling the faithful toprayers, Mr Fabricant said “I do not think it right that those not of the Muslim faith should be subjected to calls to prayer against their will. Tolerance works both ways and one religion should not seek to impose itself on those of another or no religion.” It is alarming to...