In this mailing:
- Soeren Kern: Iceland to Get its First Mosque
- Khaled Abu Toameh: Hamas Threatens Egypt, Israel And Palestinian Authority
Iceland to Get its First Mosque
by Soeren Kern
September 27, 2013 at 5:00 am
September 27, 2013 at 5:00 am
|
Share:
 |
Be the first of your
friends to like this.
The Muslim
Association of Iceland now admits that foreign donors will be paying for the
mosque's construction costs. The former mayor of Reykjavik says he believes it
is outrageous for the city to give Muslims a site at no cost at a great
location in the center of the city, and asks why political and feminist groups
are so tolerant of a religion that he says degrades women.
The Reykjavík City Council has approved a building permit for the
construction of the first mosque in Iceland.The mosque will be built in Sogamýri, an upscale district near downtown Reykjavík on a highly desirable plot of land that was granted to Muslims free of charge, courtesy of Icelandic taxpayers.
Members of the city council -- which is led by Reykjavík Mayor Jón Gnarr, who identifies himself as an anarchist -- say they hope the prime location will make the mosque a prominent landmark in the city.
Critics of the mosque, however, say the project is being financed by donors in the Middle East who are seeking to exert control over -- and radicalize -- the growing Muslim community in Iceland.
Although reliable statistics do not exist, the Muslim population of Iceland is estimated to be approximately 1,200, or 0.4% of the total Icelandic population of 320,000. Most Muslims in Iceland live in the capital Reykjavík, where they make up about 1% of the total population of 120,000.
The Muslim community in Iceland may be small in comparison to other European countries, but its rate of growth has been exponential: Since 1990, when there were fewer than a dozen Muslims in the country, their number has increased by nearly 10,000%. Much of this growth has been due to immigration, but in recent years native Icelanders have also been converting to Islam in increasing numbers.
Currently there are two main Muslim groups in Iceland: the Muslim Association of Iceland, which has around 500 members, and the Islamic Cultural Center of Iceland, which has some 300 followers. The former group is run by Salmann Tamimi, a Palestinian immigrant who considers himself to be the voice of moderate Islam in Iceland; the latter group is run by Ahmad Seddeq, a firebrand preacher from Pakistan whose activities are allegedly being financed by Saudi Arabia.
Although both groups pertain to Sunni Islam, they have been openly fighting with each other for many years over who should be the rightful representative of Islam in Iceland.
In 2000, Tamimi -- whose group meets at a make-shift mosque on the third floor of an office building in downtown Reykjavík -- submitted an application to obtain a free plot of land from city authorities to build the first purpose-built mosque in Iceland.
Not to be outdone, Seddeq -- whose group meets at a make-shift mosque in an old concert hall near the Reykjavík airport -- submitted his own application for free land to build a competing mosque.
City officials responded by saying there should be only one mosque and that it should be shared by both groups. "Obviously we won't be allocating two lots for mosques at this point and we find it natural for them to cooperate on the construction of one mosque," Páll Hjaltason, the chairman of Reykjavík City's Urban Planning Council, told the newspaper Fréttabladid.
Seddeq said he was open to the idea of sharing one plot of land, but Tamimi, who submitted his application first, would have none of it. Instead, Tamimi lashed out at Seddeq, accusing him of extremism, fanaticism and oppression in the name of Islam.
"Our application is completely different from theirs," Salmann said in an interview with the newspaper Fréttabladid. "This is like asking the national church to be with the Jehovah's Witnesses."
Tamimi sought to undermine Seddeq's group by accusing it of being financed by Saudi Arabia. At one point, Tamimi called the police to report members of Seddeq's group, accusing them of misunderstanding the peaceful nature of Islam, and saying that he feared that Muslim extremists were attempting to gain a foothold in Iceland.
Tamimi also sought to assure the Reykjavík City Council that -- unlike Seddeq -- his mosque project would not be financed by foreigners and thus would not be promoting extremism.
"If we are going to have a mosque, it must be done according to local considerations," Tamimi said in October 2010. "As soon as you lose sight of the source of funding you lose control of what happens subsequently. The experience of other countries teaches that it is wise to reject large foreign investments in religion. Such investors are much more likely to import their own countries' traditions and not adapt to the traditions in their host country."
In the end, city officials sided with Tamimi, whose mosque project was formally approved on September 19. After more than a decade of bickering, construction of Reykjavík's first mosque is expected to begin in early 2014.
The cost of building the 800 square meter (8,600 square foot) mosque -- which will include a prayer hall, community center and library, as well as a nine-meter (30 foot) minaret -- is expected to exceed 400 million Icelandic Krona (€2.5 million; $3.3 million).
But now that the Reykjavík mosque project has been given the go-ahead, Tamimi's group has changed its tune and now admits that foreign donors will be paying for the mosque's construction costs after all.
During a newspaper interview on September 19 -- conducted just a few hours after the mosque project was approved -- Sverrir Agnarsson, a convert to Islam who is chairman of Tamimi's group, the Muslim Association of Iceland, was asked how the mosque would be financed.
"We have received numerous promises," Agnarsson said. "We are mostly seeking funding from individual foreigners. We have a right to get support from the collective funds of Muslims [the Ummah, or the worldwide community of Muslims]. We are doing all of this in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice to guarantee that all the money coming to us is received legally, and is not associated with any terrorist organizations," he added.
The idea that foreigners are financing the spread of Islam in Reykjavík does not sit well with many Icelanders.
One of the most vocal opponents of the mosque project has been the former mayor of Reykjavík, Ólafur F. Magnússon. In an article he wrote for the newspaper Morgunbladid, Magnússon laid out his position:
It is a matter of grave concern that it seems to be no problem for Muslims in Iceland to finance such a mosque here in Iceland with money from 'Muslim/Islamic promotion organizations' abroad. They could receive financial help from organizations that want to increase Islamic influence in Iceland as well as in other countries. This can be dangerous for our national culture and safety.
Magnússon also said why he thought it was wrong for foreign organizations to be financing the construction of mosques in Iceland:
Islam is a religion with the goal to eliminate all other religions and to expand all over the world, the West, the Nordic countries…and now even Iceland. The experience in the Nordic countries shows that Muslims are not adapting to society. This has become a huge problem, in Malmö [Sweden] for example. The other day, a mosque was to be built on Trondheim [Norway], but the Norwegian authorities canceled the project because some Saudi Arabian organization was to finance the whole thing.
Although he is not opposed to the mosque per se, Magnússon believes it is outrageous for the city to give Muslims a building site at no cost at a great location in the center of Reykjavík. He also asks why political movements and feminist groups in Iceland are so tolerant towards a religion that he says degrades women.
Part of the answer may be found in the political make-up of the Reykjavík City Council, which is led by the upstart Best Party, a so-called joke party that was propelled into office in 2010 as a backlash against establishment parties in the wake of Iceland's banking collapse in 2008.
The Best Party -- a semi-serious far left party that is home to anarchists, atheists, surrealists, punks and poets -- is being led by Jón Gnarr, a stand-up comedian whose stated political aim is thoroughly to upset the established order in Reykjavík. Critics say the new mosque represents a big step toward achieving Gnarr's objective.
Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook.
Related Topics: Soeren Kern
Hamas Threatens Egypt, Israel And Palestinian Authority
by Khaled Abu
Toameh
September 27, 2013 at 4:00 am
September 27, 2013 at 4:00 am
|
Share:
|
Be the first of your
friends to like this.
If the
leaders of Hamas believe that the Egyptians are determined to undermine or
topple their regime, they will not hesitate to initiate a new military
confrontation against Israel. Hamas would never dare to initiate one against
the Egyptian army. It is easier to fire rockets at Israel.
As Egypt steps up security restrictions along its border with the Gaza
Strip, Hamas and some Palestinian terror groups have been holding
"military parades" in a bid to show that they are prepared for war.The parades, which saw hundreds of heavily armed militiamen march through the streets, are mainly intended to send a message of warning to Egypt's new rulers against any attempt to launch a military offensive inside the Gaza Strip.
A Hamas military
parade.
|
However, the show of force by Hamas and its allies is also designed to send a warning message to Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Hamas believes that Israel and the Palestinian Authority are directly involved in an Egyptian-led scheme to overthrow their regime and bring Mahmoud Abbas's forces back to the Gaza Strip.
The parades are also intended to send a warning message to Abbas as to what awaits him and his loyalists if they dare enter the Gaza Strip with the help of Israel and Egypt.
Given Hamas's growing isolation in the aftermath of the downfall of the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Cairo and the Egyptian authorities' severe and unprecedented restrictions along the border, there is no underestimating the threats coming out of the Gaza Strip.
If the leaders of Hamas believe that the Egyptians are determined to undermine or topple their regime, they will not hesitate to initiate a new military confrontation with Israel.
In public, Hamas leaders and members say that the "military parades" are aimed at sending a warning message to Israel, and not Egypt.
But in private, several Hamas leaders and spokesmen admit that the biggest and most immediate threat to their regime is coming from Egypt.
The Egyptian authorities see the threats as being directed first and foremost toward Egypt.
This explains why Egypt's Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy this week deemed it necessary to warn Hamas of a "harsh response" if it threatened his country's national security. Fahmy said the response would include "military and security choices."
Days before the warning, hundreds of gunmen belonging to Hamas's armed wing, Izaddin al-Kassam, staged a provocative march near the border with Egypt, carrying photos of deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi and chanting slogans against the "military coup" in Cairo.
In yet another sign of mounting tensions between the two sides, Egyptian border guards stationed along the border with the Gaza Strip have been hurling abuse and threats at Hamas policemen and Palestinian farmers, Palestinians living in the area said this week.
Palestinian fishermen have also fallen victim to the standoff between Hamas and the Egyptian authorities.
Last week, five fishermen were each sentenced by an Egyptian military court to one year in prison for fishing in Egyptian territorial waters.
Earlier, Egyptian naval forces detained and severely beat other fishermen for approaching Egypt's territorial waters.
Despite the show of force, Hamas would never dare to initiate a military confrontation against the Egyptian army. Hamas will find it easier to fire rockets at Israel than launch terror attacks against the Egyptians.
Hamas is fully aware that such a confrontation would spark a harsh response from the Egyptians -- one that would surely lead to the collapse of its regime. Previous confrontations between Hamas and the Israel Defense Forces would then look like children's games compared to a clash with the Egyptian or any other Arab army.
That is why Israel needs to be prepared for the possibility of another war with Hamas and its allies in the Gaza Strip.
Related Topics: Egypt, Israel
| Khaled Abu
Toameh
To subscribe to the this mailing list, go to http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/list_subscribe.php
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment