Violence feared as Dutch M.P plans new anti-Muslim provocation

by the digger Thu Jan 31, 2008 14:29

Free speech to take the piss out of all religons, just as long as its not Islam, eh?

by gurgle Wed Jan 30, 2008 12:09

"...Across Europe, right-wing populist parties are gaining support by focusing on issues such as the construction of mosques. SPIEGEL ONLINE talks to right-wing populism expert Oliver Geden about the strategies used by the right and the pressure they put on the mainstream......"
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,53180....html

( It seemed a pity to leave the above comment with its invented words & confused ranting as the only feedback to the article above. ) The interview linked to is interesting in that it draws connections between campaigns against new mosques in Germany, Austria & the attempts last year to form a "far right" block in the EU parliament which will soon be repeated & very much count on the "talent" of Geert Wilders & his PVV party (of the article) in the Netherlands.

Though that much said, it is not only the far right who oppose mosque building projects. Left wing city or municipal governments are also rejecting mosques for various criteria. The easiest to understand perhaps being an aversion to see public money spent on promotion of religious beliefs in the case of secular societies. & even more crucially for our understanding of a future Europe & the development of fully integrated citizens of migrant backgrounds & Islamic faith - the overwhelming role played by the Saudi Royal damily in mosque construction. In my own city on the continent, at the moment there is a muslim population estimated at around 100,000 of a total con-urban population of approximately 3 million. The municipal government has refused a Saudi royal family proposal to co-fund a mosque on both secular grounds but also on the sensible ( I believe ) premise that given that 100,000 muslim population hold three seperate faith options - it would seem desirable to build "3 little mosques" rather than " 1 super big mosque ".

Yet as long as those "sensible arguments" prevail, it is important to remember the far right have more oxygen & they will use it. Less purpose built mosques suitable to the needs of muslim faithful means more unsuitable spaces converted in "prayer-rooms" which foment fractitious communities & a sense of non-integration. It seems odd that amongst the first Dublin mosques & the current home of the "Islamic foundation of Ireland", the location was an ex-church of the Church of Ireland which like many others was sold off as part of Irish Anglicanism's financial rationalisation. (incidently coming five generations before the real estate bubble burst & even more trivially being the work of ex-president of Ireland Mary Robinson's father-in-law) & oh yep - even more weirdly that mosque was located almost opposite one of Dublin's synagogues.

Anyway.
there you go.
fancy that.

read the interview in Spiegel it's in English.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,53180....html

by C. Sun Jan 27, 2008 19:20

Issues of anti-muslim violence , theocracy and migrancy created by war in unequal societies
are discussed by Muslim women at http://www.europeanfeministforum.org

Martin Amis , who makes a lot of money, discusses the issues of mobocracy and the suppression
of women in London Independent today- of course first world theocratic materialistic societies
are not immune from a formulaic approach to war and corporatism that is deeply misogynistic
and have gender imbalanced governments concerned solely in profiteering and exploitation.