Growing Islamism in Europe Results in Backlash from Majority Community
By New Age Islam Staff
Writer
25 June
2024
A 14-Year-Old Autistic Boy Was Suspended for
Inadvertently Dropping the Quran
Main Points:
1.
Muslims held rally demanding Islamic
caliphate in Germany.
2.
An Imam in France was deported for
calling French nationa flag satanic.
3.
Extremist preacher Anjem Chaudhary
of London was sentenced to 5 years for supporting ISIS.
4.
'Muslim Patrol' in East London
imposes Shariah Law in the area.
------
Europe and
America have granted refuge to immigrants from all over the world under their
age old democratic values and inclusive approach and also granted them social,
political and religious rights. Taking advantage of the tolerance, inclusive
approach and secular and democratic values of the European countries, the
Muslims from the Muslim majority countries of Asia, Africa and Europe have
found refuge in the US, UK, France, Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway,
Germany etc. and settled there for better life and future for their children.
As a result, Muslim population in Europe grew to 3 to 4 per cent in Europe in
the last one hundred years. The Muslims migrated to Europe in the wake of
social, political and religious strife, wars and civil wars in their respective
countries. Some major events that caused large scale displacement of Muslims
were the 1971 war of independence of Bangladesh, the 20-year war in
Afghanistan, the civil war in African countries and the civil war in the Middle
East that started in 2011. During this period alone, 1.3 million people
migrated to European countries due to large scale displacement of the Muslims
from Iraq, Syria, Libya and other African countries. This caused the problem of
illegal immigration in Europe leading to a number of social, economic and
political problems in host countries.
With the
growth in Muslim population in the European countries, the problem of Islamism
and religious extremism also became distinct with the passage of time. The
Islamist organisations of the Middle East and the Indian sub-continent started
appointing preachers and imams associated with their sect or ideological
schools in the mosques and Islamic centres in Europe. These preachers and imams
had a hostile attitude to the majority population of their adopted countries
because they were mostly Christians, the People of the Book in Quran's words.
But the preachers declared these Christian majority countries Dar-al-Harb (enemy territory) and
presented the majority community as the enemies of Islam and Muslims though
they enjoyed all the religious rights in these countries. They were granted
land for building mosques and educational institutions. They were allowed to
preach and propagate their religion peacefully. They were allowed to pray and
hold demonstrations. Still a section of preachers preached extremist ideas
among the immigrant Muslims. After the emergence of the ISIS, they have even
started demanding the imposition of Sharia Laws and establishment of caliphate
in some countries. In April this year, a radical organisation Muslim Interaktiv
of Germany held a rally in Hamburg demanding a caliphate and abolition of
democracy in Germany. In February this year, an imam of France, Imam Mahjoub
Mahjoubi was arrested and deported to Tunisia for calling the French national
flag 'satanic'. A preacher of UK, Anjem Chaudhry was sentenced to five and a
half years in jail for openly supporting the ISIS. The Muslims of East London
started 'Muslim Patrol' imposing Sharia Law in the area. The members of the
patrol harassed Christians for drinking wine in their area and harassed women
wearing skirts. As a reaction, Christians started 'Christian Patrol'. This
caused tensions between the two communities. Recently, the Islamist
organisations of Pakistan and Bangladesh have been trying to impose blasphemy
laws by threatening people with punishment for blasphemy. A 14-year-old
Autistic student was suspended for inadvertently dropping the Quran.
All this
has evoked reactions and concerns among the British, German and French people
over the future of their society and now they have started expressing their
concerns over the growing Islamism and extremism among the immigrant Muslims. A
fortnight ago, a rally was organised by a far right activist Tommy Robinson in
London. The protesters held placards that read: "This is London, not Londonistan" and "We want our
country back." This reflected their fear of their country being
overtaken by the extremists. During the election campaign UK Prime Minister
Rishi Sunak also said that Islamic preachers spread poison and declared that
Islamists would be deported. Demands have been made for strict screening of
foreign preachers before granting them visa. His government has even formulated
a plan to resettle all illegal immigrants to the unsafe African country Rwanda.
The majority of illegal immigrants being the Muslims, they will form the
majority of the deportees to Rwanda.
The growing
population of immigrants and the growing number of illegal immigrants, mostly
Muslims have compelled the European governments to chalk out plans to solve the
immigrant problem. The growing Islamism and extremism of extremist and militant
Islamic organisations have further exacerbated the problem. The majority
community now feels threatened by the Muslims. This fear has further been
fuelled by far right activists and politicians like Le Pen in France, Geert
Wilders in Netherlands, Georgia Melony in Italy and Rasmus Paludan in Sweden.
Rishi Sunak is also tilting to the far right ideology so far as his approach to
Muslims is concerned. He includes pro-Palestine protesters in the universities
of the UK among the Islamists and has cancelled visas of students calling them a
threat to the society. He seems to be influenced by the Jewish lobby. A
Lebanese PhD student of Palestinian origin Amina al Ashka was denied visa after
she was awarded a scholarship by the London School of Economics. Other students
have also suffered due to Rishi Sunak's anti-Palestine policy. To him,
supporting the cause of Palestine is also Islamism and extremism. That's why, a
section of the activists and scholars of the UK have not supported Rishi
Sunak's deportation plan or his stance against pro-Palestine students.
The
European governments have every right to legally deal with terrorism, extremism
and religious fanaticism and Islamic countries have co-operated with them in
the war on terrorism. The UK, France, Germany or Netherlands rightly take legal
action against extremist preachers who spread hate and create differences
between communities but there is a difference between Islamism and social and
political activism.. The Islamist preachers have added to the problems of the
immigrant Muslims in European countries. Through their extremist and sectarian
ideas, they are creating the same environment in the Muslim society in Europe
which they left in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
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Urdu Article:
Threat Of Local Reaction To Muslim Extremism In Europe یوروپ میں مسلم انتہا پسندی کے خلاف مقامی ردعمل کا خطرہ
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