Koran Handouts in Germany: Freedom of religion... by RTnews
Showing posts with label freedom of religion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label freedom of religion. Show all posts
Monday, January 13, 2014
Koran Handouts in Germany: Freedom of Religion vs Fears of Islamism
Koran Handouts in Germany: Freedom of religion... by RTnews
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
CNN: Muslims in Europe face discrimination in education, employment and religious freedom, an Amnesty International report said Tuesday.
"Muslim women are being denied jobs and girls prevented from attending regular classes just because they wear traditional forms of dress, such as the headscarf. Men can be dismissed for wearing beards associated with Islam," said Marco Perolini, Amnesty International's expert on discrimination. "Rather than countering these prejudices, political parties and public officials are all too often pandering to them in their quest for votes."
The report, titled "Choice and Prejudice: Discrimination Against Muslims in Europe," details the problem, with a focus on Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland.
Amnesty International raised the issue, as it has done before, of restrictions "on the establishment of places of worship and prohibitions on full-face veils."
The report said employers have been permitted "to discriminate on the grounds that religious or cultural symbols will jar with clients or colleagues or that a clash exists with a company's corporate image or its 'neutrality.'
"Wearing religious and cultural symbols and dress is part of the right of freedom of expression. It is part of the right to freedom of religion or belief -- and these rights must be enjoyed by all faiths equally." Perolini said. » | CNN Wire Staff | Tuesday, April 24, 2012
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: Muslims discriminated against for demonstrating their faith » | Monday, April 23, 2012
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Wednesday, February 15, 2012
A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of secularism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: the pope, politicians from both the Conservative and Labour parties, Melanie Phillips ...
It seems odd to borrow the opening words of Marx and Engel's the Communist Manifesto to describe secularism and to find them so apt. For someone such as myself who has always seen the secularist ideal as the most benign legacy of the Enlightenment, it's a bit like discovering that your cuddly teddy bear is being portrayed as a rampaging grizzly.
But there is no doubt that secularism is increasingly seen as a threat to liberty rather than its stoutest defender. Conservative party chairman Lady Warsi is the latest to raise the alarm, speaking of her "fear" that "a militant secularisation is taking hold of our societies". She pulls no punches in claiming that "at its core and in its instincts it is deeply intolerant" and that it "demonstrates similar traits to totalitarian regimes".
Pretty much the same message came from Labour's David Lammy on Friday's Any Questions? on Radio 4, when he attacked "an aggressive secularism that is drowning out the ability of people of faith to live with that faith".
Warsi is taking this message to the pope, which is a bit like taking pizza to Napoli. In the pontiff's 2010 visit to the UK, he also railed against "aggressive forms of secularism", likening it to the evils of Nazism and claiming that "the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man and of society".
Other clerics have followed suit. The leader of the Catholic church in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, used his last Easter sermon to decry the "aggressive secularism" that tries to "destroy our Christian heritage and culture and take God from the public square".
And the list of those who have said similar things is endless. But just what is that people are so terrified of? Is secularism really a threat, or has it simply been distorted, by its critics, its defenders, or both? Read on and comment » | Julian Baggini | Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL – LETTERS: Regarding the Nov. 10 news article "EU gauges member readiness," it is regrettable that the current Turkish government refuses to recognize its continued shortcomings in the areas of freedom of speech and freedom of religion.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu appeared quick to respond in terms of Turkey's patience and how long it might last, but he seems oblivious to the suffering of millions in a country where there is virtually no freedom of speech unless one supports the ruling AKP party's ultimate aim: an all-out Islamic state.
Would Mr. Davutoglu be so quick to respond to questions on whether there are any independent media at all in Turkey capable of reporting freely and without recrimination? Let us not forget that, during the recent debates about changes to Turkey's constitution, the opposition were denied equal and unbiased media access.
I sincerely hope the EU delegation has taken note of this, as well as of the restrictive religious practices currently imposed on Turkey's non-Muslim population. >>> Tayfun Balkan | Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Freedom of religion is at the heart of British society, the Queen said as she welcomed Pope Benedict XVI to Britain.Meeting the Pope for the first time at Holyroodhouse Palace, her official residence in Scotland, she praised the contribution of Christianity to world development.
The Queen also praised the contribution of the Roman Catholic Church in helping the poor, educating the young and bringing about peace in Northern Ireland.
Her comments echoed those made by Baroness Warsi, the Conservative party chairman, who said earlier this week that “faith is very much alive and kicking” in Britain.
The papal plane touched down at Edinburgh International Airport on Thursday morning and in a break with tradition the Pontiff was greeted by the Duke of Edinburgh.
The entourage swept onto the courtyard of Holyroodhouse Palace in limousines where the Queen and the Pope shook hands at the formal welcome.
The two heads of state stood shoulder to shoulder, with the Duke of Edinburgh behind them, on a small dais in front of a Guard of Honour formed of men from the Queen’s historic Bodyguard for Scotland, the Royal Company of Archers, who carry longbows and wear bonnets decorated with a single eagle feather.
The Papal Anthem and the National Anthem were played by the Band of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, before the Queen introduced the Pope to a line of dignitaries including the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams; the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg; and Alex Salmond, the First Minister of Scotland.
Peter Robinson, the First Minister of Northern Ireland, was not there although his name had been on an official list.
The Queen, the Pope and the Duke of Edinburgh exchanged gifts in the Morning Drawing Room.
Benedict was presented with a facsimile of 85 drawings by Hans Holbein the Younger, and then gave the Queen a copy of the Lorsch Gospels dating from 778 to 820. She thanked him and described the book as “lovely”. >>> Martin Beckford, Religious Affairs Correspondent in Edinburgh | Thursday, September 16, 2010
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
This man – President Barack Hussein Obama – criticises President Bush so much, yet he then proceeds to steal his mantra! Really, this is surreal! – ©Mark
BBC: US President Barack Obama has told the BBC that the US cannot impose its values on other countries.
But, in his first interview with a UK broadcaster, he said the rule of law, democracy and freedoms of speech and religion were "universal values".
"These are values that are important, even when it's hard," he said.
Speaking ahead of a trip to the Middle East and Europe, Mr Obama said closing the Guantanamo Bay prison was a way that America could set a good example.
Mr Obama told BBC North America Editor Justin Webb that he wanted to deliver the message "that democracy, rule of law, freedom of speech, freedom of religion ... are not simply principles of the West to be hoisted on these countries".
He said there were "obviously" human rights issues to address in some Middle Eastern countries, but there were some "universal principles that they can embrace and affirm as part of their national identity".
"The danger, I think, is when the United States, or any country, thinks that we can simply impose these values on another country with a different history and a different culture," he said. Obama Gives Pledge on US 'Values' >>> | Monday, June 01, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
THE GUARDIAN: A court ruling that Egyptians will no longer be forced to pick from three approved religions is a crucial victory for equal rights
Egypt took a small but important step towards freedom of belief and equal rights yesterday when a court ruled that the "religion" section on national identity cards can be left blank.
In 1995 the Egyptian government began introducing computerised ID cards which forced everyone to identify themselves as belonging to one of the three "heavenly" religions: Islam, Christianity or Judaism. Cards could not be issued to anyone who refused to accept this, with the result that they effectively became non-citizens, unable to work legally, study beyond secondary school, vote, operate a bank account, obtain a driver's licence, buy and sell property, collect a pension, or travel.
The practice of restricting religion on ID cards to three officially approved choices had no basis in Egyptian law but was derived from the interior ministry's own (possibly erroneous) interpretation of Islamic teaching. It was challenged in the courts by several members of the Baha'i faith, which is thought to have around 2,000 followers in Egypt.
The Baha'i originated in Iran during the 19th century and by the early 20th century also had a flourishing community in Egypt.
Although the Baha'i faith is often regarded as a heretical offshoot of Islam, the Egyptian community was initially tolerated, but its position worsened in the 1950s – partly because of its accidental connections with Israel. In 1868, after being banished from his native Persia, the founder of the faith, Baha'u'llah, was exiled with his family and a small band of followers to the Turkish penal colony of Acre. As a result of this, the faith's international headquarters was established in the Acre/Haifa area, which later became part of Israel.
In the 1960s, President Nasser issued a decree which, in effect, withdrew state recognition from the Baha'i community and confiscated their property. Nasser's decree was reaffirmed by the supreme court in 1975 in a ruling which said that only the three "revealed" religions were protected by the constitution: the Baha'is were entitled to their beliefs but practice of the Baha'i faith was a "threat to public order" and therefore fell outside the constitutional protection for freedom of religion.
Yesterday's victory by the Baha'is in the supreme administrative court appears to mark the end of a five-year battle over the ID cards, since there is no route for further appeals by the Islamist lawyers who have been fighting them since the government dropped out. "The significance of [yesterday's] decision… >>> Brian Whitaker | Tuesday, March 17, 2009
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback) – Free delivery >>>
Saturday, December 20, 2008
WORLD NET DAILY: Christian ministry calls for recognition people can choose religion
With Shariah law cited as the source of justice in most of the Islamic world, and new encroachments by the drastic religious rules into the West, a Christian ministry has launched a campaign to do away with punishment for apostasy, the act of leaving Islam for another religious faith.
The effort launched by the Barnabas Fund said in addition to those in other religions, there are brave Muslim voices already calling for the apostasy law to be abolished
"Although only Muslim leaders can make this happen, we as Christians can help the process, by speaking up for freedom of religion and belief and by encouraging others to do the same," said Patrick Sookhdeo, the international director of the fund. >>> © 2008 WorldNetDaily | Friday, December 19, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (US) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (US) >>>
Friday, October 03, 2008
There is no doubt that the USA is going through tough times; indeed, its very foundations are being rocked – financial and economic. Indeed, it could be argued that capitalism, the US’s raison d’être is being challenged profoundly. The current president, George W Bush, has only added to America’s problems. He has been a disaster for America. It is time for him to retire. And retire he will – shortly.
The recent débâcle with the USA’s most prestigious financial institutions either going to the wall, or having to be all but nationalized has only added to America’s woes.
It is a national disgrace that this profligate president has brought the once proud nation almost to its knees. America’s national debt is at an all time high: more than three trillion dollars, and still counting. Since 2001, a spurious war on terrorism has been fought, mostly in vain, since terrorism is not the ailment; rather it is a symptom of a far greater malady, namely Islam itself. It is rather like a medical consultant trying to treat the symptoms of cancer without excising the underlying cause: the tumour itself!
The US economy, totally deregulated as it has been since the era of Reagan, has succumbed to the worst of man’s faults and weaknesses: Greed. The people working on Wall Street, as in the City of London, have been paying themselves bonuses in Monopoly figures: Millions here, and tens of millions there. The result is there for all to see: The economic system has all but collapsed; and the American taxpayer is now being asked to pick up the tab.
It’s a disgrace. Nothing short of a national disgrace. There is simply no reason why the American taxpayer should bail out the bankers and financiers of Wall Street, with all their greediness and excesses. They certainly should not be expected to pay for the bonuses of these greedy and unprincipled people. They should be allowed to perish, as should the institutions they worked for.
The bail-out is flawed to its very core. When people in America are going hungry, and when more than forty million people there cannot afford healthcare, there is something very flawed in a bail-out plan which cossets the very people who have caused the near collapse of the capitalist system.
Yet, for all the flaws of the capitalist system, we have nothing better with which to replace it. It is an imperfect system to be sure; but it’s the very best system man has ever been able to come up with. We must nurture it; and we must certainly be careful that we do not lose it.
America is no paradise on earth; America’s sidewalks are not paved with gold. America is as flawed as anywhere else on earth. Yet America has given the world something which the rest of the world has been unable to give people. It has given them hope and freedom – the hope to aspire to a better life; and the freedom to live without fear. How many other countries can say the same?
America has been a beacon of freedom for a couple of centuries. People have for centuries flocked there in their droves, in search of a better life. As a result, America has become a hub of creativity, for nothing fosters creativity more than freedom of thought and freedom of expression.
Yet, we are living through very difficult times. So many, worldwide, are gloating in the difficulties that America is now experiencing. When the US was attacked on September 11, 2001, few could have imagined the success that OBL would have had by flying planes into the Twin Towers in New York. Indeed, OBL couldn’t have dreamed of a better outcome from this attack. He wanted to bring the USA to its knees; and to its knees it has just about brought it.
But if anyone out there is happy about this, then his happiness is totally misplaced; and for one simple reason: If America is no longer to be the world’s superpower, then the world will fall into darkness.
Why? Because the US has guaranteed freedom not only for itself, but also for much of the rest of the world. Which other country in the world could do this? Russia certainly couldn’t. In Russia, one goes against the political system at one’s own peril. Ask the once richest man of Russia, Mikhail Khodorkovsky! He’ll tell you the price he has had to pay for perceived criticism of the system, and for political activity in a country which understands neither democracy nor freedom.
In a silly article asking who else would be up to replacing America’s hegemony, SpiegelOnline International posed the question who could take over from America’s pole position. The answer is no-one! Which other country could guarantee us all such freedoms? Which other country would be so generous with its resources? Which other country would come to aid all in time of need?
Where would Germany be today without the aid of America after the Second World War? And where would Britain be today without America’s help in that very same war? Indeed, how free would Europe be today without the the help of the generous, oh so generous Americans?
America, and the rest of the West, is under threat from the Islamic world; indeed, our great Judeo-Christian civilization could go under because of the threat of Islam. Islam is not only knocking at our door, it is already within, and is out to destroy everything we in the West stand for: Freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, or the freedom to choose none, freedom of sexual expression, and freedom in so may other ways, too. Yet only the few are listening! Only the few are taking these threats to our liberties seriously.
For most people, these threats are but abstract, distant possibilities; yet they are not. They are anything but. They are very real. Muslims are here in the West; and many of them – though certainly not all – are out to destroy everything Western. They must NEVER be allowed to achieve their goals. We must this resist attack with every fibre of our beings. We must OVERCOME!
If we do not, the West will be taken into a New Dark Age. The way of life that will ensue will be one which will be quite unlike the way of life we have come to know, understand, appreciate, and love. It will be a repressive way of life – repressive for women, repressive for infidels, repressive for Christians, repressive for Jews, repressive for homosexuals, repressive, indeed, for all except Muslims.
If we are to fight this darkness, it is imperative that the United States be kept strong, and buoyed up. The United States needs to be strong militarily, financially, and economically, for without a strong United States, there is little hope for a free world. Little hope for liberty. If the light goes out Stateside, the light goes out for us all!
©Mark Alexander
All Rights reserved
Thursday, August 21, 2008
RIGHT SIDE NEWS: Persecution of Christians and Jews is not new in this world. Although such condemnation for religious beliefs goes back thousands of years, Nazi Germany developed it into an art form with the wholesale murder of Jewish people. Of course, the Nazis didn't limit atrocities to Jews, they spread their horror around but Nazis were mainly interested in eliminating the Jewish population.
In their hatred of Jews, they were not alone; Muslims aided and abetted the Nazis since they shared a belief system that relegated Jews to the category of "dogs and apes", as the Koran teaches Islamic adherents. However, unlike the Nazis, Muslims disdain all religions other than Islam. While Muslims complain bitterly about any perceived insult to Islam and any acts of disrespect for the Koran, it is not only accepted but prescribed by Islam to destroy the Holy Bible and those who worship the word of God as opposed to the Islamic reverence of Allah.
Muslims have succeeded in intimidating much of the world so that by actual and the threatened violence the Western World accepts restrictions on freedom of expression lest Muslims be offended. The prime mover of this pressure on the world is the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). With the help of endless petrodollars and fear of violating political correctness, the OIC has managed to have their way across the globe; they have also become the largest lobbying body of nations within the United Nations and are urging an anti-Christian and Jewish agenda with full force.
The Organization of the Islamic conference has actually succeeded in attaining passage of UN resolution in the General assemble called "Combating Defamation of Religions." This harmless sounding title is in reality a deceptive name for targeting men and women of faith who speak out in any way against Islam or reveal the atrocities committed in the name of Islam on behalf of Allah. If Muslims had their way, not only would discrimination against Christians and Jews be practiced universally but any proclamation of a faith other than Islam would be punishable by imprisonment or even death. Supreme Court Justice Scalia said in a recent dissent, "America is at war with radical Islamists"; in this he was not only correct, he was issuing a warning to the world that to overlook or ignore the intrusion on civil rights by these enemies of freedom would result in the worst form of tyranny not seen since the Nazi regime.
As the American Center of Law and Justice wrote recently:
"We are seeing worldwide persecution of Christians as part of the radical Muslim mission to "take the world for Islam" - by purging Christianity from the face of the earth. Not Only Is Freedom of Speech Threatened by Muslims, So Is Freedom of Religion >>> By Vincent Gioia | August 20, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – USA)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardcover – USA)
Friday, June 29, 2007
NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE: At Wednesday’s rededication ceremony of the Saudi-funded Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., President Bush missed a perfect opportunity to repudiate apologism for radical Islam, and instead announced his latest plan to get the Muslim world to stop hating America: appoint a special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
Bush praised the OIC, saying, “We admire and thank those Muslims who have denounced what the Secretary General of the OIC called ‘radical fringe elements who pretend that they act in the name of Islam.’” The special envoy’s mission, Bush said, would be to “listen and learn” to OIC ambassadors.
While this may sound nice, it is rooted in complete ignorance of the rampant radicalism, pro-terrorist, and anti-American sentiments routinely found in statements by the OIC and its leaders, including referring to “Islamophobia” — and not the mass slaughter of innocents in the name of Islam — the “worst form of terrorism,” as OIC did last May. Radical Outreach: Bush coddles American apologists for radical Islam (more) By Steve Emerson
Mark Alexander
Fact Sheet: Strengthening Our Friendship with the Muslim Community Worldwide
THE PRESIDENT: Imam, thank you very much. Thank you for inviting me. I bring my personal respect to you, sir. And I appreciate your friendship. I do want to thank the governors of the Islamic Center. I welcome the Ambassadors. Thank you all for coming. I appreciate other distinguished guests who are here. It is an honor to join you at this rededication ceremony.
As the Imam mentioned, half a century has passed since one of our great leaders welcomed the Islamic Center into our nation's family of faith. Dedicating this site, President Dwight D. Eisenhower offered America's hand in friendship to Muslims around the world. He asked that together we commit ourselves "to peaceful progress of all men under one God."
Today we gather, with friendship and respect, to reaffirm that pledge -- and to renew our determination to stand together in the pursuit of freedom and peace. We come to express our appreciation for a faith that has enriched civilization for centuries. We come in celebration of America's diversity of faith and our unity as free people. And we hold in our hearts the ancient wisdom of the great Muslim poet, Rumi: "The lamps are different, but the light is the same."
Moments like this dedication help clarify who Americans are as a people, and what we wish for the world. We live in a time when there are questions about America and her intentions. For those who seek a true understanding of our country, they need to look no farther than here. This Muslim center sits quietly down the road from a synagogue, a Lutheran church, a Catholic parish, a Greek Orthodox chapel, a Buddhist temple -- each with faithful followers who practice their deeply held beliefs and live side by side in peace.
This is what freedom offers: societies where people can live and worship as they choose without intimidation, without suspicion, without a knock on the door from the secret police. The freedom of religion is the very first protection offered in America's Bill of Rights. It is a precious freedom. It is a basic compact under which people of faith agree not to impose their spiritual vision on others, and in return to practice their own beliefs as they see fit. This is the promise of our Constitution, and the calling of our conscience, and a source of our strength.
The freedom to worship is so central to America's character that we tend to take it personally when that freedom is denied to others. Our country was a leading voice on behalf of the Jewish refusniks in the Soviet Union. Americans joined in common cause with Catholics and Protestants who prayed in secret behind an Iron Curtain. America has stood with Muslims seeking to freely practice their beliefs in places such as Burma and China. President Bush Rededicates Islamic Center of Washington (more)
Mark Alexander
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
The West is faced with an implacable enemy: Islam. This religion is Christianity’s greatest competitor. It was always thus, ever since Islam’s birth in the deserts of Arabia more than 1400 years ago. Islam means ‘submission’: Submission to Allah. In order to become a Muslim, one has to testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah – Allah’s final messenger. This testimony is called the Shahada. After one has testified, usually before an audience and an imam in the mosque, one becomes a Muslim.
The word Muslim comes from the same root as Islam. Islam means ‘submission’, and a Muslim is one who has submitted: submitted to Allah’s will, and one who has accepted that the Prophet Muhammad is Allah’s final messenger here on earth.
The greatest problem for Westerners is that Islam recognizes no separation of religion from politics. Both are one integrated whole. The West, by contrast, based as it is on Judeo-Christianity, is wholly committed to a separation of the religious from the political. Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s. Without such a separation, the West as we know it would cease to exist. It would simply not be possible to have Western-style government were this separation not to be respected.
In recent decades, Westerners have allowed an unprecedented number of Muslims into their countries; indeed, Muslims have come to the West in their droves. Many have been legal immigrants; but so many have not been. They have just slipped in through the back door.
For many years, it was a trickle, so only the few paid any attention to the problem. In recent years, however, that trickle has become a constant flow. As a result, we are now faced with a huge problem: How can we integrate a people professing a faith diametrically-opposed to our own when those very people do not understand the importance of the separation of the religious from the secular, and when those very people refuse to integrate anyway because their religion forbids them to do so? Then there is the added problem that Muslims have a superiority complex: Ye are the best of the peoples evolved for mankind, enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong, and believing in Allah. They therefore believe that they are the chosen people, the people chosen by Allah to bring Islam to all corners of the earth and to all its multitudes, to bring them to submission to what Muslims consider the one true faith: Islam.
Integration is difficult for the Muslim, too, since his religion forbids true integration. Muslims are exhorted to set themselves apart from the kufar, or infidels. So not only do we have a problem of integrating these people, but we also have a problem with them because they feel superior to us. This is further complicated by the fact that Muslims do not- will not- recognize- man-made, secular laws. Any man-made law is inferior, very inferior, to the laws as laid out by Allah and the Prophet Muhammad in the Shari’ah.
Westerners are committed to the noble and lofty concept of freedom of religion. In fact, many emigrated from Western Europe to the New World over the centuries simply because they felt that they were unable to practise their religion satisfactorily and without persecution in their own homelands – in Europe.
The fact of the matter today, though, is that this very commitment to freedom of religion is exactly what is endangering the survival of the free West. How can the West survive if it is committed to a concept which will continue to be a thorn in the side of liberty. This very liberty – the liberty of freedom of religion – when extended to a group of people who refuse to accept any separation of the religious from the political, any separation of the temporal from the sacred, is bound to become a problem of colossal proportions in future, especially when the Muslim population of the West will increase explosively due to far higher birth rates in the Muslim population in the West, the so-called Ummah. Added to this, the West is experiencing depressingly low birth rates in the communities of the indigenous population. All Westerners seem to want to do these days is remain free to lead a hedonistic life, free to earn more and more money, and free to fulfil their dreams and aspirations.
It should be remembered that Islam is not simply a religion; rather, it is a political system, with its own economic system based on not using interest rates as are used in the capitalist model. The Islamic economic system is rib’a-free.
In view of the fact that Islam is so political, and in view of the fact that Islam refuses to separate religion from politics, how is the West to survive in its present form for future generations? For our children and our grandchildren and our grandchildren’s children? Are they going to thank us for not acting to stop this increasing Islamization of the West? Are they going to thank us for allowing a religion to grow here in the West which is determined, nay hell-bent, on destroying the very system which has given it the freedom to grow here in the West in the first place?
Were we to be talking about communism or Nazism, two systems which were out to destroy the West as people had come to know it, then there would have been no debate. The political parties propounding these ideas would be closed down – for good. But when it comes to a political party which clothes itself in a deity – Islam – we allow it to flourish, even when that very political party is out to destroy us and the very freedoms we respect and love.
It is high time for Westerners to reassess our commitment to religious freedom, and to reassess our tolerance for all movements and parties that happen to clothe themselves in a deity. If we do not find a way of making this reassessment, then I am sure that the days of freedom and democracy are numbered. We will fall into a form of totalitarianism – Islamic totalitarianism. It’s your choice!
©Mark Alexander
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