Working Out at Harvard: How accommodating: “Six times a week, Harvard kicks all the guys out of the Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center at the request of the Harvard Islamic Society,” reports The Boston Herald’s Michael Graham. “This is to accommodate those female Muslim students whose faith won’t let them work out in front of men. In the old days, Harvard would have laughed if some Catholic or evangelical mother urged ‘girls-only’ campus workouts in the name of modesty. Today, Harvard happily implements Sharia swim times in the name of Mohammed. [NYT]

Islam and Its Critics The latest clash between the West and the Muslim world is taking place in the Netherlands, where a yet-to-be-released film critical of Islam has already stirred protests in Afghanistan and caused a world-wide outage of YouTube when Pakistan tried to block a brief clip. No one wants a repeat of the Danish cartoon controversy, but suppressing the film, as some in Holland and the Muslim world are urging, amounts to political blackmail. [WSJ]

March 6th, 2008 at 3:39 pm

This article is filed under Blog, Integrating Islam.

Denmark’s security services have provided protection to namesakes of the Danish cartoonist behind controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. There are 82 Kurt Westergaards living in Denmark but only one of them is the man who life is under daily threat because of his caricatures of the founder of Islam. However, some of other 81 “Kurts” scattered across Denmark have also received mistaken identity death threats because they share the same name as the illustrator. [Telegraph]

Berlin Exhibition Closes after Muslim Threats. A Berlin gallery has closed an exhibition of satirical art by the controversial Danish group Surrend after receiving threats from a group of Muslims. The men were objecting to a picture of the Kaaba at Mecca under the title “Dumb Stone.” [Spiegel]

The Danish cartoon controversy has had a murderous epilogue. Since Kurt Westergaard acquired dubious fame because of his cartoon drawings depicting the Prophet Muhammad and began receiving death threats, he has been forced to live in hiding and under police protection. [Spiegel]

March 4th, 2008 at 10:47 am

This article is filed under Blog, Integrating Islam.

A burqa may not be the flirtiest garment ever invented for women. The highly modest head-to-toe robe even shrouds the eyes, so for centuries it’s been difficult for women wearing them to send suggestive signals to men. But now a German designer has debuted a digitally-enabled burqa that can broadcast a photo of the wearer to nearby mobile phones. Markus Kison calls it the “CharmingBurka,” and says it isn’t forbidden by Islamic law. [Spiegel]

The archbishop’s speech is another example of British multiculturalism gone crazy. Under multicultural pretexts, abuses are being tolerated. In some cases nurses have not reported instances of female genital mutilation, because that horrific practice is deemed to be a local custom of immigrants. Social workers have ignored women who may be victims of domestic violence, assuming if they interfere they’d be accused of being racist. [Salon]

International Muslim students, predominantly from Saudi Arabia, have asked universities in Melbourne to change class times so they can attend congregational prayers. They also want a female-only area for Muslim students to eat and relax. But at least one institution has rejected their demands, arguing that the university is secular and it does not want to set a precedent for requests granted in the name of religious beliefs. [Australian]

February 26th, 2008 at 11:43 am

This article is filed under Blog, Integrating Islam.

The Turkish government’s move to lift the ban on headscarves in universities is part of an ongoing discussion on a new constitution that has the potential to decide the country’s future and would potentially introduce democratic change. With a view to EU membership, too, the constitution must find a post-Kemalist form. [Eurozine]

Amir Mertaban vividly recalls sitting at his university’s recruitment table for the Muslim Students Association a few years ago when an attractive undergraduate flounced up in a decidedly un-Islamic miniskirt, saying “Salamu aleykum,” or “Peace be upon you,” a standard Arabic greeting, and asked to sign up. Mr. Mertaban also recalls that his fellow recruiter surveyed the young woman with disdain, arguing later that she should not be admitted because her skirt clearly signaled that she would corrupt the Islamic values of the other members. [NYT]

When Westerners broadly agree on rejecting a specific Islamic law or tradition and unite against it, Western Islamists must adjust to the majority’s will. [JP]

You can’t take away our right to offend. [Australian]

Much ado about head scarves. [Boston Globe]

February 22nd, 2008 at 1:56 pm

This article is filed under Blog, Integrating Islam.