Europe’s fight against Islamification

Al-Muhajiroun is an extremist Islamic organization whose two offshoots, The Saviour Sect and Al-Ghurabaa which are banned under the British Terrorism Act 2006 for the ‘glorification’ of terrorism. It operated in the United Kingdom from 14 January 1986 until the British Government announced an intended ban in August 2005.

Omar Bakri Muhammad and Anjem Choudary are known to have led Al-Muhajiroun. The group became notorious for its conference “The Magnificent 19″, praising the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The former Home Secretary Charles Clarke banned Bakri from the United Kingdom on 12 August 2005 because it was alleged that his presence was “not conducive to the public good.”

In June 2009 following more than a five year hiatus the organisation re-launched itself.

Al-Muhajiroun’s proclaimed aims are to establish public awareness about Islam, to influence public opinion in favor of the sharia, to convince members of society that Islam is inherently political and a viable ideological alternative, to unite Muslims on a global scale in the threats facing the Ummah and to resume the Islamic way of life by re-establishing the Islamic Caliphate.

Abu Hamza al-Masri created the Islamic Council of Britain to “implement sharia law in Britain,” on 11 September 2002, the first anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, primarily through funding from Al-Muhajiroun. Masri celebrated the establishment of the ICB and the 9/11 attacks by holding a conference in Finsbury Park mosque in North London entitled “September the 11th 2001: A Towering Day in History.” Bakri, who attended the conference, said, that attendees

“look at September 11 like a battle, as a great achievement by the mujahideen against the evil superpower. I never praised September 11 after it happened but now I can see why they did it.”

Flyers distributed at the conference referred to the 9/11 hijackers as the “Magnificent 19.” Bakri said he saw Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda terrorists as “sincere [and] devoted people who stood firm against the invasion of a Muslim country.” Anjem Choundary, British spokesman for Al Muhajiroun also attended.

Aside from declaring the 9/11 bombers “the Magnificent 19″, controversial statements made by al-Muhajiroun include one warning the British government that it was

“sitting on a box of dynamite and have only themselves to blame if after attacking the Islamic movements and the Islamic scholars, it all blows up in their face”.

BBC quoted one Al-Muhajiroun leader, Abu Ibrahim, as saying,

“When they speak about September 11th, when the two planes magnificently run through those buildings, OK and people turn around and say, ‘hang on a second, that is barbaric. Why did you have to do that?’ You know why? Because of ignorance. … For us it’s retaliation. Islam is not the starter of wars. If you start the war we won’t turn the other cheek. … According to you it can’t be right. According to Islam it’s right. When you talk about innocent civilians, do you not kill innocent civilians in Iraq?”

The English Defense League

The English Defense League (also known as the EDL and occasionally referred to as English and Welsh Defence League) is a British political group formed in 2009 whose professed aim is to oppose the spread of Islamism, Sharia law and Islamic terrorism in the United Kingdom.

The group has organized various protests in the United Kingdom, and claims around 300 active supporters. The English Defense League’s spokesman Trevor Kelway said in August 2009 that British Muslims and Jews who are against militant Islam can join the League “as long as they accept an English way of life”.

A sister organization, the Scottish Defense League, has been formed as has the Welsh Defense League in Swansea and Newport.

Stop the Islamification of Europe

Stop the Islamification of Europe (SIOE), also known as Stop Islamisation of Europe, is an anti-Islamist political interest group which has been active in Denmark and the United Kingdom. The group originated out of the joining of the Danish group Stop Islamiseringen af Danmark (da) with English anti-Islam activists.

The group’s proclaimed aim is to oppose Islamic extremism; they have the motto “Racism is the lowest form of human stupidity, but Islamophobia is the height of common sense”. In September 2009, John Denham, Labour’s Communities Secretary, criticised the group and stated that it was “trying to provoke violence on Britain’s streets” and called it “right-wing”. Unite Against Fascism have opposed the group.

The group describes itself as an alliance “with the single aim of preventing Islam becoming a dominant political force in Europe.” The British National Party denies any links with Stop the Islamification of Europe.

The group was inspired by a Danish group of the same name which have held protests outside Danish mosques since the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. The group has 2,300 supporters on its Facebook page. Social networking sites have been used to plan protests.

Stop the Islamification of Europe was originally a Danish anti-Islamist group which originated out of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. The group were founded in 2007 by Anders Gravers Pedersen, the leader of a small Danish party called the Stop the Islamisation of Denmark (Danish: Stop Islamiseringen af Danmark). On September 11th 2007 the group staged a demonstration in Brussels, Belgium.

Affiliate organizations have been created in 10 European countries including Denmark, Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden and the United States of America.

Attempts to preserve values and culture are attacked by Muslim immigrants

The rise of the organizations who protest the injection of Islamic values into their societies, governments and legal systems illuminate the tactics used by Muslim leaders against them.

While the citizens of a country feel the threat of Islamic culture and the need to organize and act to preserve their way of life, Muslim leaders play the “discrimination and hate crime” card.

Local politicians are helping Islamic encroachment by countering with the “diversity and understanding” card.

America is not immune to this Islamic movement. We had better wake up and form the policies required to prevent the Islamification of the United States.

The double-edged sword of multiculturalism and lessons from Denmark

In August 2002, a Muslim group in Denmark announced that a $30,000 bounty would be paid for the murder of several prominent Danish Jews, a threat that garnered wide international notice. Less well known is that this is just one problem associated with Denmark’s approximately 200,000 Muslim immigrants. The key issue is that many of them show little desire to fit into their adopted country.

For years, Danes lauded multiculturalism and insisted they had no problem with the Muslim customs – until one day they found that they did. Some major issues:

* Living on the dole: Third-world immigrants – most of them Muslims from countries such as Turkey, Somalia, Pakistan, Lebanon and Iraq – constitute 5 percent of the population but consume upwards of 40 percent of the welfare spending.

* Engaging in crime: Muslims are only 4 percent of Denmark’s 5.4 million people but make up a majority of the country’s convicted rapists, an especially combustible issue given that practically all the female victims are non-Muslim. Similar, if lesser, disproportions are found in other crimes.

* Self-imposed isolation: Over time, as Muslim immigrants increase in numbers, they wish less to mix with the indigenous population. A recent survey finds that only 5 percent of young Muslim immigrants would readily marry a Dane.

* Importing unacceptable customs: Forced marriages – promising a newborn daughter in Denmark to a male cousin in the home country, then compelling her to marry him, sometimes on pain of death – are one problem.

Another is threats to kill Muslims who convert out of Islam. One Kurdish convert to Christianity, who went public to explain why she had changed religion, felt the need to hide her face and conceal her identity, fearing for her life.

* Fomenting anti-Semitism: Muslim violence threatens Denmark’s approximately 6,000 Jews, who increasingly depend on police protection. Jewish parents were told by one school principal that she could not guarantee their children’s safety and were advised to attend another institution. Anti-Israel marches have turned into anti-Jewish riots. One organization, Hizb-ut-Tahrir, openly calls on Muslims to “kill all Jews . . . wherever you find them.”

* Seeking Islamic law: Muslim leaders openly declare their goal of introducing Islamic law once Denmark’s Muslim population grows large enough – a not-that-remote prospect. If present trends persist, one sociologist estimates, every third inhabitant of Denmark in 40 years will be Muslim.

Other Europeans (such as the late Pim Fortuyn in Holland) have also grown alarmed about these issues, but Danes were the first to make them the basis for a change in government.

In the November 2001 elections, a center-right coalition came to power that – for the first time since 1929 – excluded the socialists. The right broke its 72-year losing streak and won a solid parliamentary majority by promising to handle immigration issues, the electorate’s first concern, differently from the socialists.

The next nine months did witness some fine-tuning of procedures: Immigrants now must live seven years in Denmark (rather than three) to become permanent residents. Most non-refugees no longer can collect welfare checks immediately on entering the country. No one can bring into the country an intended spouse under the age of 24. And the state prosecutor is considering a ban on Hizb-ut-Tahrir for its death threats against Jews.

These minor adjustments prompted howls internationally – with European and U.N. reports condemning Denmark for racism and “Islamophobia,” the Washington Post reporting that Muslim immigrants “face habitual discrimination,” and a London Guardian headline announcing that “Copenhagen Flirts with Fascism.”

In reality, however, the new government barely addressed the existing problems. Nor did it prevent new ones, such as the death threats against Jews or a recent Islamic edict calling on Muslims to drive Danes out of the Norrebro quarter of Copenhagen.

The authorities remain indulgent. The military mulls permitting Muslim soldiers in Denmark’s volunteer International Brigade to opt out of actions they don’t agree with – a privilege granted to members of no other faith. Mohammed Omar Bakri, the self-proclaimed London-based “eyes, ears and mouth” of Osama bin Laden, won permission to set up a branch of his organization, Al-Muhajiroun.

Contrary to media reports, the real news from Denmark is not flirting with fascism but getting mired in inertia. A government elected specifically to deal with a set of problems has made minimal headway. Its reluctance has potentially profound implications for the West as a whole.

~ by Ben on October 17, 2009.