Devorah Lauter, Los Angeles Times, July 21, articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/21/world/la-fg-france-muslims-20100722

The relatively uncommon burka is just one of the issues making things tense. ‘It’s like the Jew before,’ one businessman says of the prejudice. ‘It’s dangerous.’

“Be patient. This is just a phase. It will all blow over eventually. “That’s what Abdel Basset Zitouni tells the young people who come seeking his advice on getting a job or starting a business.  But Zitouni’s counsel isn’t just in response to questions about finding work in a depressed economy.  Many of the people who knock on his office door are Muslims from the housing projects in this city west of Paris who have felt the sting of discrimination.  They tell of an unwelcoming professional world, with regular bank rejections for business loans, or months without a callback for an interview. Zitouni, who presides over the nonprofit National Assn. for Young Entrepreneurs here, says it is common to hear of employers asking new hires to change their names to something more “French-sounding” and less Muslim, apparently to appease touchy customers.

Issues causing “concern and misunderstanding” among Muslims, according to the French Council of the Muslim Faith, include the proposed outlawing of the burka.  “It doesn’t matter if most of us practice our religion in private or not,” said Faycal Douhane, a left-leaning activist and secular Muslim who promotes diversity in French politics. “People feel trapped because project this false identity onto Muslims, and we then have to apologize for that.”

Full story.

Andrew Sarle

I returned from my trip to the US and Canada to discover over 20 items of news to summarize and publish.   Following this post, you’ll find them all!

If a summary interests you, follow the link below the source details to read the original article.

Your comments are, of course, always welcome.

Michael Ireland, ASSIST News Service, July 20, www.assistnews.net/Stories/2010/s10070112.htm

Since the 1960s large numbers of Muslims have been migrating to the West. Muslim migration is unusual because of radicals within the community who are deliberately seeking to create dramatic changes in their host societies; they want Islam to gain social, cultural, economic and political power.

This growth in the presence and power of Islam in the West provides Christians with unique opportunities.  “For Christians, the growing Islamization of the West can be seen as both a challenge and an opportunity to sharpen our thinking and renew our evangelism,” says Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, International Director of Barnabas Fund.

“As we Christians see Muslim zeal, commitment, and willingness to sacrifice, we should be driven to repent, to pray for revival and act boldly for God in this generation. We need to stand firm on our Biblical foundations, beware of compromises and reach out in love to Muslims, offering them the Gospel of salvation in Christ.”

He quotes Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a popular Sunni Muslim cleric, head of the European Council for Fatwa and Research, who said: “Islam entered Europe twice and left it… Perhaps the next conquest, Allah willing, will be by means of preaching and ideology. The conquest need not necessarily be by the sword… Perhaps we will conquer these lands without armies. We want an army of preachers and teachers who will present Islam in all languages and in all dialects.”

WCC News, July 19, www.oikoumene.org/news/news-management/eng/a/article/1634/justice-is-at-heart-of-hi.html

A multi-faith meeting on the eve of the 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna has heard calls for faith communities to keep commitments they have made to promote universal access to HIV treatment, care, support and prevention.  The conference gathered more than 250 people, including leaders of religious groups, networks of people living with HIV and international organizations, under the theme, “Rights Here, Right Now: What’s faith got to do with it?”

Leadership by faith communities in the struggle against HIV and AIDS, “doesn’t come just like that”, said Hany El Banna, the Egyptian-born founder and former president of Islamic Relief. “It comes with responsibility.”  Faith communities, he said, are able to mobilize people at the “grass roots”, in mosques, churches, synagogues and temples. “We shouldn’t be afraid of religion,” El Banna stated. “We should be afraid of ignorance and a lack of knowledge.”

Pew Forum, July 19, pewforum.org/Religion-News/Ahmadi-Muslims-gather-to-preach-nonviolence-assimilation.aspx

Ahmadi Muslims have been preaching peace since the movement was founded 121 years ago in India. Now, they say they are just trying to get the rest of the world — including their fellow Americans — to listen.

“Many, many Americans do not trust Muslims,” Naseem Mahdi, the national president of the community, told thousands of listeners during his address here at the Ahmadi movement’s 62nd annual convention on July 17.  “Love of your homeland, your place of residence, is part of your faith,” Mahdi said, standing just steps away from a display that held the flags of the United States, Virginia and the Ahmadi movement.  The community’s message of nonviolence seemed particularly poignant in the wake of attacks on two Ahmadi mosques in Lahore, Pakistan, on May 28 that left at least 94 Ahmadis dead.

Faisal al Yafai, Guardian – Comment is free, July 19, www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/jul/19/syria-niqab-ban-islam

Quietly, away from the fanfare that accompanied the French vote on banning the niqab in public, and calls by Philip Hollobone to impose a ban in Britain, the Syrian government has instituted its own, more limited, ban, removing teachers who wear the full face veil from teaching in public schools.

At first glance, such a move might seem puzzling: Syria, with dozens of religious sects and a nominally secular government, has managed for decades to use a light touch, at least when it comes to personal faith.  But Syria’s struggle with Islamists and visible symbols of Islam is part of a wider clash, a clash within Islam itself. Political Islam is gaining ground across both the Arab world and Muslim-majority countries. What happens in this debate matters profoundly, because the same debate is taking place within Muslim communities in the west.

The debate, crudely put, is over the space between the personal and the political. Secular-minded governments have tried to keep faith out of state institutions; Islamists want their faith to guide those institutions. Personal space has also increasingly been politicised, with a rise in the wearing of the headscarf and the veil in Syria and in most Muslim-majority countries.

Patrick Hennessy, Daily Telegraph, July 17, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/7896751/Burka-ban-ruled-out-by-immigration-minister.html

Britain will not follow France by introducing a law banning women from wearing the burka.  Damian Green said such a move would be “rather un-British” and run contrary to the conventions of a “tolerant and mutually respectful society”.  He said it would be “undesirable” for Parliament to vote on a burka ban in Britain and that there was no prospect of the Coalition proposing it.

Archbishop of Canterbury, July 16, www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/2939

Together with the Chief Rabbi and Archbishop of Westminster and leaders of other faiths (including Hinduism and Sikhism), the Archbishop of Canterbury hosted a discussion with the Secretary of State, Eric Pickles, and the Minister for Decentralisation, Greg Clark on the government’s new scheme.

In the course of the very constructive and positive discussion which focussed on the government’s approach to the ‘Big Society’, participants shared their optimism about the sense of a ‘new moment’ arising from the government’s willingness to see Church and faith communities as providing a model to be appreciated, rather than as a group to be shaped by government. The approach is one of co-operation rather than co-option.

As one contributor said, “churches and faith communities have a great deal to offer to this society and to the common good. In addition to a vast network of volunteering, they offer the wisdom of tradition and scripture, a lived understanding of community and the rewards of friendship across boundaries. All these are needed in times of uncertainty but perhaps are not always valued as they should be. People of faith want to share these gifts with the wider community and hope the government is also interested in helping us to share what we have to offer for the common good and the widest possible benefit.”

The Guardian, July 15, www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/15/israel-land-peace-british-jews

The majority of British Jews favour a “two-state solution” to the situation in Israel, and more than half would support negotiations with Hamas, according to research published today.  The study carried out by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) found Jews in Britain strongly identify with and support Israel, with nine out of 10 having visited the country.

Nearly three quarters (72%) agreed Israel’s action in Gaza in 2008 and 2009 was “a legitimate act of self-defence”. But more than three-quarters (77%) favour a “two-state solution”, which would see the creation of a Palestinian state, as the “only way” to make peace in the Middle East. Just over half (52%) said they would support Israeli government negotiations with Hamas.

Liz Gooch, New York Times, July 14, www.nytimes.com/2010/07/15/world/asia/15iht-malay.html?_r=1

Women’s groups have applauded the recent appointment of two female judges to Islamic courts in Malaysia, but its significance is not yet clear: The new judges will have to wait a month before finding out whether they will be prevented from hearing certain cases.  On Thursday, a committee of 20 senior judges is scheduled to begin considering whether Shariah guidelines would bar women from handling certain legal matters, like divorce.