West Meets Middle East

Check out this episode of ABC’s ‘What Would You Do?’ on how Muslims are treated in the US. Notice how different people’s reactions are; some could be surprising and uplifting to some. Very interesting experiment.

London, England (CNN) — Hit the road, Jack. Last year’s most popular name for baby boys in England has been knocked off — by Mohammed. That’s not immediately obvious from data put out this week by the Office of National Statistics, which declared Wednesday that Oliver was the single most popular name for boys born in 2009.

But a CNN analysis of the top 4,500 boys names shows that, when different spellings of the name are lumped together, Mohammed is No. 1. Oliver and variations come second, followed by Jack, Thomas, Charles, Harry, William and Daniel.

The United Kingdom is about 4.6 percent Muslim, with just under 2.9 million Muslims according to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. And Muslims have a strong tendency to name their sons Mohammed.

“The first reason why people keep the children’s name Mohammed is because of their love of the prophet Mohammed, because they want to emulate him,” said Imam Abdullah al-Hasan of the East London Mosque.

“They want to copy him not just through his behavior and conduct, but also his name,” said the imam, who is thinking about naming his own newborn son after the founder of Islam. The Muslim population has risen rapidly in Western Europe in the past 20 years, according to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. From under 10 million in 1990, it’s gone up to about 17 million today, the think tank said in a report last month.

That has be accompanied by tensions ranging from racial violence in parts of England to legal restrictions like banning the burqa in France and banning minarets in Switzerland. But al-Hasan says Britain has nothing to fear.

“One message I would give to them is that you shouldn’t be surprised. You shouldn’t be scared. You shouldn’t be frightened or anything like that,” he said.

“It shows that Islam is here to stay in Britain. Islam is here to stay in Europe,” he said. “It’s not alien from the Western society. It’s not alien to the British context.”

By Richard Allen Greene, CNN
CNN’s Brittany Harris, Erin McLaughlin and Atika Shubert contributed to this report.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/10/28/uk.mohammed/index.html?hpt=T2

GOT TO LOVE CREATIVE PROTEST…

From the Telegraph.co.uk

Two French female students have made a film of the pair of them strolling through the streets of Paris in a niqab, bare legs and mini-shorts as a critique of France’s recently passed law.

Calling themselves the “Niqabitches,” the veiled ladies can be seen strutting past prime ministerial offices and various government ministries with a black veil leaving only their eyes visible, but with their long legs naked bar black high heels.

Bemused passers-by can be seen gawping at the pair or asking to take photographs in the clip.

At one stage in the film, the two women approach the entrance to the ministry of immigration and national identity, only to be told by a policeman to go elsewhere. However, a policewoman also present is delighted by their clothes. “I love your outfit, is it to do with the new law?” she asks. “Yes, we want to de-dramatise the situation,” one girl replies. “It’s brilliant. Can I take a photo?” asks the policewoman, who will soon be required to fine public niqab wearers.

In an opinion piece published on the news website, rue89, the anonymous duo – political science and communication students in their twenties – said the film was a tongue-in-cheek way of criticising France’s niqab ban, which the Senate passed last month and is due to go into force early next year.

“To put a simple burka on would have been too simple. So we asked ourselves: ‘how would the authorities react when faced with women wearing a burka and mini-shorts?,” asked the students, one of whom is a Muslim.

“We were not looking to attack or degrade the image of Muslim fundamentalists – each to their own – but rather to question politicians who voted for this law that we consider clearly unconstitutional,” they said.

“To dictate what we wear appears to have become the role of the State (as if they didn’t have other fish to fry …).”

The film had been viewed 71,000 times on rue89 and a few hundred times on YouTube yesterday, but French websites predicted it would become an internet sensation.

France’s law banning the burka makes no mention of Islam, but President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government promoted the law as a means to protect women from being forced to wear Muslim full-face veils such as the burka or the niqab.

France’s five-million-strong Muslim minority is Western Europe’s largest, but fewer than 2,000 women are believed actually to wear a full face veil.

Once the law is in force, a woman who chooses to defy the ban will receive a fine of 150 euros (£125) or a course of citizenship lessons. A man who forces a woman to go veiled will be fined 30,000 euros (£25,000) and serve a jail term.

It could yet be overturned by France’s constitutional court.

This is the guy who wanted to burn 200 copies of the Quran. This guy is about a dim as a flickering candle in the middle of the desert. It’s a 20 minute interview…but it’s worth a listen. I love how the interviewer asks him to dig into doctrine and theology and he can’t address even the easiest of questions. I wish I could say that he “sidesteps the question” but he can’t. He wrote a book, for example, titled “Islam is of the Devil” and he’s never read the Quran. Frankly, I’ve never heard someone who is so dumb. He sounds like a really NICE guy, however.

I know that I sound arrogant…and I am…but I’m just trying to encourage you to take a listen because…well…you just need to. HERE’S THE LINK.