Posted on 06/21/2004 7:18:14 PM PDT by auzerais
Beheadings cause Muslims grief
By Uwe Siemon-Netto
UPI Religious Affairs Editor
BORDEAUX, France, Jun. 21 (UPI) -- European specialists on Islamic affairs fear that the beheadings of Americans and other foreigners in the Middle East will trigger a severe anti-Muslim backlash.
"These barbaric acts have been catastrophic for the prospects of Muslims in France," said Bruno Guiderdoni, one of the country's foremost Koran scholars. "A discernable shift has occurred in public attitudes," he said. "Its most dangerous aspect is a new hostility even among the once-liberal French intellectuals against our religion."
Two years ago, a three-judge panel cleared bestselling author Michel Houellebecq of inciting racial hate for describing Islam as "the most stupid religion." Later he explained: "I have never displayed the least contempt for Muslims. But I have as much contempt as ever for Islam."
Last fall, Claude Imbert, founder and editor in chief of the newsmagazine Le Point, declared: "To be honest, I am somewhat hostile to Islam. I am not embarrassed to admit that."
To Guiderdoni, such blunt remarks from members of the intellectual elite are alarm signals. To observers it seems that Europeans no longer buy into statements of disassociation by prominent Islamic leaders such as Dalil Boubakeur, president of the French Council of Muslim Faith.
Boubakeur said: "Islam is not a religion that beats women, kills kids and desires the death of the West. What shocks the French is ... even more of a shock to us." Muslim extremists have by now beheaded three Americans and are threatening an abducted South Korean and a European -- possibly German -- journalist with a similar fate. This comes on top of the slaughter of thousands of women and children in Algeria, once an integral part of France, a few years ago, and the persecution of Christians in the Sudan and Muslim-controlled northern states of Nigeria.
Says Guideroni, who is also research director of the Paris Institute of Astrophysics, "Our image is disastrous." It is so because of the popular acuity of a "divided Koran" on issues such as human rights and interfaith tolerance, says Christine Schirrmacher, head of the Institute on Islamic Affairs in Bonn Germany. On the one hand, the Muslim Holy Book counsels a broad-minded attitude toward other faiths, insists Sheikh Mohammed Mohammed Ali, a Shiite Muslim scholar who is currently running for a seat in the new Iraqi assembly.
On the other hand, the Koran clearly advises the faithful to slay and main infidels: "Strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them" (Surah 8:12).
In a telephone call from Baghdad, Ali explains that under religious law decapitation is only permissible if approved by a ranking scholar whose role would then be comparable to that of the Supreme Court of the United States. "Nobody in al-Qaida has this competence. None has even ever attended an Islamic university or similar institution."
But then who in the Islamic world possesses such indisputable authority? According to Schirrmacher, it is one of Islam's most troubling problems that it lacks hierarchies, bishops or councils comparable to the leaderships of Christianity. In other words, al-Qaida acts as its own court sentencing people for "murder" on the basic assumption that in the current conflict -- as in the struggle between Palestinians and Israelis - nobody is innocent.
That is to say, just as all Israelis are presumed "guilty" because they have or will have children serving in the army, so do Americans "aid and abet" the slaughter of Muslims by paying taxes or, as in the case of the slain American hostage Paul Johnson, working with helicopters that might be used against Muslims.
As Guiderdoni sees it, his moderate "European" form of Islam ranks among the first casualties of this barbarian way of thinking. "The radical Islamists accuse us of treason, while Christians and others see us as wolves in sheep's clothing. They distrust us now. They are more and more convinced that all we are trying to do is to lull Westerners into believing that Islam is harmless."
This leaves the field to radical Islam, Guiderdoni fears. "The West no longer accepts that we have something to contribute. There is no longer any space for moderation."
This is an extremely serious situation, Guiderdoni and Germany's Schirrmacher agree, because it leaves Christian partners in the interfaith dialogue in a lurch. In France, lay members of the Catholic and Protestant churches are increasingly turning against what they see as gullible bishops and senior pastors kowtowing to Muslim interlocutors not truly interested in theological exchange.
In Germany, resentment is building against church and state authorities dialoguing almost exclusively with radicals and entrusting newly endowed chairs of Islamic studies at the nation's universities to their fanatical branch of the Muslim faith.
"Add to this the public perception of Muslim immigrants as an arrogant, close-knit community whose members will not learn our language but always act as if our state owes them something," says Schirrmacher. "God forbid terrorism will strike here as it has in the United States, Spain or the Middle East! I dread to ponder the consequences."
Good, maybe the muslims will leave france and go back to their own countries. Please don't come to the USA all you muslims.
If even the Europeans are realizing what bruts they are, they are finished.
As well as their should be. Personally Bush should lob 10 nukes in 10 desolate areas of muslim countrys. Go on the air and tell them that unless Wohabism is wipped off the face of the earth, we will target popluated areas and take care of it ourselves!
Well then somebody didn't get the memo...
Will they jump before it boils, though?
"Islam is not a religion that beats women, kills kids and desires the death of the West."
Liar, Liar, Liar!!!
Also, he condemns the beheadings not because they are evil and morally reprehensible, but only because they "have been catastrophic for the prospects of Muslims in France."
In other words, if the backlash hadn't hurt the Muslims in France, they would be just okey-dokey.
Islam is a cancer. It is time for a cure.
This is a good example of exactly why these so-called moderates are in fact full of BS. They act as if so-called radical Islam is new. They act as if they are hearing Muslims say radical things for the first time in their lives. I am more convienced than ever that there is no such thing as a moderate Muslim.
Show me a moderate Muslim and I'll show you someone who no longer believes Mohammed is a prophet of God.
Remember, folks, your continued trust is a strategic necessity to continue the act of militant muslims beheading Innocent people across the free world !
Ummm ... what did it cause the victims and their families?
Jeez, ya think????!!!!
Semper Astounded
"European specialists on Islamic affairs fear that the beheadings of Americans and other foreigners in the Middle East will trigger a severe anti-Muslim backlash."
Note that the Muslims in this article do not seem too sorry for the beheaded victims, but are instead concerned for THEMSELVES only!
What friggin jerks! People are getting their heads lopped off and all these guys care about is making sure no Frenchies give them mean looks on the subway...
I am afraid you are right
Islam=Religion of Evil Worldwide
Or, there IS an "undercover" Imam out there that is giving succor and guidance to the AQ dweebs.
Semper Fi
So it is OK then....also allowed to lie to infidels .
Why bother with an ultimatum?
..."...all we are trying to do is to lull Westerners into believing that Islam is harmless."...
I cite this quote out-of-context because this tactic is also considered acceptable in jihad-Warfare.
Let's just glass the place over.
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