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Far right spreads its wings
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THE jury is still out on whether French voters will cast their ballot in favour of incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy or opposition leader François Hollande in the French presidential polls on May 6.

In an acrimonious television debate on May 2, the two men locked horns on an array of issues, often demonstrating their clear dislike and loathing for each other. Mr Sarkozy repeatedly called Mr Hollande “a liar”. Mr Hollande in turn castigated Mr Sarkozy for playing the victim and not taking responsibility for his actions and policies.

The sparring between the two men makes good entertainment. But French politics is not just fun and games. Watching Sarkozy and Hollande from the sidelines is Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right French National Front, who stunned observers by winning nearly 18 per cent — or over 6.4 million ballots — in first-round presidential voting on April 22.

Ms Le Pen has not made it into the second round of voting of course. But her xenophobic, anti-Islam and anti-immigration views, have cast a deep shadow over the election campaign — and are likely to dominate the French political agenda for years to come.

The 43-year-old daughter of FN founder Jean-Marie Le Pen is clearly pleased at the sight of Mr Sarkozy and other French mainstream politicians agonising over how to reach out to the voters of a far-right party which may have been considered a pariah group in the past but is now much too popular to ignore.

“I believe we will one day be in power, because one day our views and ideals will be those of the majority in France. Our ideas are gaining ground very rapidly, as we’ve now seen,” said Le Pen recently.

Le Pen is not the only far-right European politician to succeed in ‘de-demonising’ extremist political parties which were once shunned by mainstream political leaders for their anti-foreigner and anti-Semitic views.

In the Netherlands, far-right leader Geert Wilders has been pulling the strings of government for several months. His decision last month to stop supporting budget cuts proposed by prime minister Mark Rutte brought down the government. Now Wilders, who rose to international prominence in 2008 with his movie denouncing Islam, plans to turn September’s elections into a vote on Dutch attitudes about Europe and the single currency.

As Le Pen and Wilders showed off their political clout, the self-described anti-Muslim militant, Anders Breivik, went on trial in Norway for the massacre of 77 people last year.

Breivik told the court his victims had betrayed Norway by opening the country to immigration and called for a “patriotic” revolution aimed at deporting Muslims from Europe.

The rise of Europe’s far right has often been overlooked as the continent battles to impose austerity, combat high unemployment rates and ease concerns about globalisation. No longer. Skilled far-right leaders like Le Pen and Wilders are recruiting new followers not just because of their shrill anti-Muslim views. They are also turning the heat on the European Union which they see as disconnected from the concerns of common people.

Still, it’s their success in propagating their toxic views on Islam and Muslims that is especially disturbing. Over the past year, David Cameron, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy — centre-right leaders — have given speeches proclaiming that multiculturalism in their respective countries has proven a failure.

Populist, xenophobic and anti-Islamist parties are now represented in legislatures from Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy to Finland, Sweden and Switzerland. In Germany, Thilo Sarrazin, a former board member of the Bundesbank, one of the nation’s most venerated institutions, caused a furore in 2010 with a bestselling book that portrayed German identity under threat from Muslim immigrants.

The reasons for this rising xenophobia are not difficult to understand. Europe is uneasy about its future, its mood soured by the economic slowdown, the euro sovereign debt crisis and public anxieties about the impact of globalisation on European jobs. But there is a disconnect. In fact, despite the anti-Islam rhetoric gaining ground across Europe, the current picture is not as grim as often depicted. The last 10 years have actually been marked by transition and change in the lives of European Muslims as both mainstream society and Muslim communities have confronted difficult issues of integration and multiple identities that had been neglected and overlooked for decades.

European government and business recruitment policies are being gradually changed to increase the employment of Muslims and minorities. In fact, business leaders are demanding an increase in immigration, including that from Muslim countries, to meet Europe’s skills shortage, and in the most recent Lisbon Treaty, the EU adopted a new anti-discrimination directive that strengthens existing rules on combating racism.

For their part, European Muslims are becoming significantly more active in demanding equal rights as fully fledged citizens, organising themselves into pressure groups and emerging as influential politicians, entrepreneurs and cultural icons. However, this slow but steady recognition that all Europeans, whatever their religion, ethnic origins and cultural background, share a common space has not been translated into a rallying and attractive narrative which can dispel misperceptions between European Muslims and non-Muslims.

Developing a new discourse on Islam and Muslims requires the joint efforts of politicians and policymakers, scholars as well as religious leaders, civil society organisations, business representatives and the media. It means highlighting that Europe is a truly diverse continent which celebrates all its citizens, regardless of race and religion.

I know that there is little room for inspiring and visionary messages in the rough and tumble world of politics, especially in France. However, it would have been heartening to hear Mr Sarkozy and Mr Hollande espouse such inclusive views in their electoral discourses.

SOURCE:DAWN.COM

Md. Teenager Pleads Guilty in Terror Case in Pa.
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A teen from Pakistan with a once-bright future in the U.S. pleaded guilty Friday to terrorism charges for helping an American woman dubbed “Jihad Jane” support an Irish terror cell planning to wage a Muslim holy war in Europe.

Mohammad Hassan Khalid had won a full scholarship to prestigious Johns Hopkins University before the FBI arrested him last summer at 17, making him the rare juvenile held in federal custody.

Khalid, now 18, faces up to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to a single count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. In a secret life online, the high school honors student had agreed to raise money and recruit terrorists for jihad.

“It’s absolutely tragic,” defense lawyer Jeffrey M. Lindy said after the plea. “Was he feeling lonely after coming from Pakistan? Absolutely. But he was not a loner. He wasn’t the big man on campus, or captain of the football team. But he wasn’t a black trench-coat wearing loner.”

Khalid lived with his hard-working parents and siblings in a cramped apartment in Ellicott City, Md., while building an alternate life online.

He met Colleen LaRose in a chat room when he was 15 and began corresponding with her. LaRose, who dubbed herself “Jihad Jane,” lived with a boyfriend in small-town Pennsylvania, but had secretly converted to Islam and was appearing in jihadist YouTube videos. She faces life in prison after admitting last year that she had plotted to kill a Swedish artist whose cartoon had offended Muslims.

In court Friday, prosecutors said that Khalid once received a package from LaRose, removed a passport from it and then forwarded other items to co-conspirators. He wanted to deliver the passport to them himself, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams said.

“Khalid also sought confirmation from LaRose that her ‘brothers’ are REAL muhahids,” or jihadists, Williams said. Khalid also helped LaRose remove online jihadist posts after the FBI interviewed her, she said.

The government recovered extensive electronic communications between the parties, she said.

Messages sent on July 19, 2009, detail co-defendant Ali Charaf Damache, known as the Black Flag, telling Khalid their group would be a “professional organized team” training with either al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb or the Islamic State of Iraq.

Damache instructed Khalid to recruit men and women with passports who could travel through Europe. Khalid then sent out at least one questionnaire that he forwarded to LaRose.

Damache remains in Irish custody on an unrelated phone threat charge, U.S. authorities said.

Khalid and his family are legal immigrants, but his parents and three siblings had become naturalized U.S. citizens, some recently, while he had not. He therefore faces likely deportation when he leaves prison, U.S. District Judge Petrese B. Tucker warned him.

Khalid, a thin teen with glasses and closely cropped hair, said he understood. His family was not in court for the brief hearing. His sentencing is on hold indefinitely, perhaps because Damache awaits extradition to the U.S.

Khalid had been offered a full scholarship to Johns Hopkins while a student at Mount Hebron High School, where his teachers recalled his strong work ethic. Online, he was investigating various ideologies, as other young people might dabble with socialism or communism, Lindy said.
“He was experimenting with an ideology from his cultural background,” Lindy said. “It was his misfortune to meet (LaRose).”

LaRose, of Pennsburg, Pa., was being watched by the FBI after posting online videos in which she vowed to kill or die for the jihadist cause.

LaRose was arrested in November 2009 after returning to the United States from Ireland, where authorities said she traveled after agreeing to marry an online contact from South Asia and become a martyr. LaRose intended to murder Swedish artist Lars Vilks for depicting the prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog, authorities said.

Investigators said there’s no evidence LaRose ever made it to Sweden.

Damache, an Irish citizen from Algeria married another American woman, Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, of Colorado, after she moved to Waterford, Ireland, to meet him. Paulin-Ramirez has also pleaded guilty to providing material aid to terrorists.

Neither she nor LaRose has been sentenced.

The American women were sought for their Western looks and passports, authorities have said.

SOURCE:abc NEWS

Fatwas can be changed
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RECENTLY a conference of the Muslim Personal Law Board in India saw a huge crowd of 200,000 Muslims from all over Maharashtra.

The chairman of the board, Maulana Rabe Hasan Nadwi, made a highly emotional speech and said that Sharia is divine and no change in it can be made; even if the whole Islamic world changes Sharia, Indian Muslims will not allow any change and will keep traditional Sharia close to their hearts.

How appropriate is this stance? Today many women are agitating for certain necessary changes to issues such as triple talaq and unregulated polygamy which cause suffering to them. Some concerned people, including myself, have taken the initiative to codify Muslim personal law so as to minimise its misuse and give relief to Muslim women.

To what extent Sharia can be misused can be judged from the fact that a well-known Islamic university in Hyderabad Deccan allowed a man to marry two young girls simultaneously on the assumption that Islam allows polygamy.

All this is based on books written and fatwas issued hundreds of years ago. Our ulema do not want to deviate from these written texts. Whenever any question is asked they simply consult these texts and issue a fatwa and again, like court judgements, these fatwas become a precedent for subsequent edicts and are treated as universally applicable. Lay Muslims do not know that these fatwas are merely opinions expressed by a mufti and are not binding.

Should fatwas issued by eminent ulema be treated as unchangeable? Or can they be changed with time and place? Generally, Sharia is thought to be divine and immutable and no human being can make any changes in it. In fact, Sharia laws have been developed by eminent imams like Abu Hanifa and others to meet the requirements of their time and place. Thus Sharia can be described as a sincere human approach to divine intention. It is well known that when Imam Shafi’i shifted to Egypt, he changed his opinion on several fiqhi (jurisprudential) matters.

Recently I saw a book by Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a well-known scholar highly respected in the Arab world. It is on the subject of fatwas and the necessity for changes in fatwas. Yusuf al-Qaradawi has invoked the principle of ijtihad in Islam to justify changes in fatwas. The sheikh even maintains that Sharia cannot be useful for the ummah unless ijtihad (he indicates several forms) is exercised from time to time.Sharia, it is important to note, must remain dynamic and relevant to the time and place where it is applied. Fundamental principles and values on which Sharia is based cannot be changed, but the laws based on these principles and values should and must change from time to time to keep them relevant and useful. That is why in most Islamic countries traditional Sharia laws have been changed or codified to make them as useful as they once were.

Al-Qaradawi has given 10 grounds on which fatwas can be changed; all these grounds are highly relevant. First, he gives four grounds on which fatwas should change i.e. change in time, change in place, change in conditions and change in what he calls ‘urf (social practices or traditions). The Quran also uses the term ma’ruf in this sense. Then he gives six more grounds for desirability of change which are: change in knowledge; change in needs of people; change in capabilities of people; spread of calamity (when some acute problem becomes common); change in collective political or economic condition and change in opinion or thought.

These 10 grounds, in fact, capture all possible changes which can take place in a given society. This makes it amply clear that Islamic jurisprudence is by no means static or immutable as commonly thought but it has enough space for change. It is altogether another matter if our ulema are rigid or incapable and try to hide behind the divinity of Sharia. In fact, if any law remains static it cannot meet the requirements of society.

Today personal laws — as developed during the mediaeval ages — need many changes. It is also well known that Sharia law during that period had incorporated many Arab customs and traditions as ma’ruf, and triple divorce was among them. The Prophet (PBUH) had denounced this particular practice as the Quran intended to empower women and give them equal
status and no one practised it during his time. However, it was later on reintroduced for certain reasons.

Today, women are highly aware of their rights and such practices are against the principle of equality, which is more
fundamental than any Arab custom. Still, it is practised in countries like India and even thought to be divine. Similarly, polygamy is much misused and also thought to be a man’s privilege. It has to be regulated and should not be allowed to be used as per one’s whim. No woman would accept it today as they did in the past.

Mediaeval formulations in respect to personal laws were also influenced by patriarchal values and today patriarchal values are being challenged, especially by women.

Polygamy should be allowed only in cases where it is very necessary. Similarly, other personal laws could also be reviewed if needed. It would greatly benefit the ummah if our ulema kept the abovementioned 10 grounds in mind while giving their opinion in matters of Sharia.

The writer is an Islamic scholar who also heads the Centre for Study of Society & Secularism, Mumbai.

SOURCE:DAWN.COM

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