Chestnut, read through this article when you have a chance - I thought about clipping it, but it's such a downer.....here's the highlights:

Sylvain Ephimenco is a Franco-Dutch journalist who has been living in Rotterdam for twelve years. For twenty years, he was the "Libération" correspondent in Holland, and is proud of his leftist credentials. "Even though I don't believe in that anymore," he says, welcoming us to his home overlooking one of Rotterdam's little canals. Not far from here is the al Nasr mosque of the imam Khalil al Moumni, who when gay marriage was legalized described homosexuals as "sick people wo...

Chestnut, read through this article when you have a chance - I thought about clipping it, but it's such a downer.....here's the highlights:

Sylvain Ephimenco is a Franco-Dutch journalist who has been living in Rotterdam for twelve years. For twenty years, he was the "Libération" correspondent in Holland, and is proud of his leftist credentials. "Even though I don't believe in that anymore," he says, welcoming us to his home overlooking one of Rotterdam's little canals. Not far from here is the al Nasr mosque of the imam Khalil al Moumni, who when gay marriage was legalized described homosexuals as "sick people worse than pigs." From the outside, it can be seen that the mosque is more than twenty years old, having been built by the first Moroccan immigrants. Moumni has written a pamphlet that is circulating around the Dutch mosques, "The path of the Muslim," in which he explains that the heads of homosexuals should be cut off and "hung from the highest building in the city."

I realize we're talking about two different places, but the religion is the same.

That's like saying Boston Catholics, Russian Orthodox, megachurch Prosperity Gospel televangelists, Nigerian Episcopalians, and Atlanta Southern Baptists are all the same because they all share the "same religion".

The Dutch-Moroccan example is heinous, but I really think there are vast cultural difference between North African Muslims and their Balkan Caucasian co-religionists that is playing a big role in the differences we're seeing.

Islam is not a one-way monolithic religion any more than Christianity is, and failing to recognize the important differences between groups and sects (to say no...

I realize we're talking about two different places, but the religion is the same.

That's like saying Boston Catholics, Russian Orthodox, megachurch Prosperity Gospel televangelists, Nigerian Episcopalians, and Atlanta Southern Baptists are all the same because they all share the "same religion".

The Dutch-Moroccan example is heinous, but I really think there are vast cultural difference between North African Muslims and their Balkan Caucasian co-religionists that is playing a big role in the differences we're seeing.

Islam is not a one-way monolithic religion any more than Christianity is, and failing to recognize the important differences between groups and sects (to say nothing of local cultural influences on them) does a disservice to us all.

That said, GO, ALBANIA!

chestnut - Yeah, the article is interesting and raises important issues, the far-right slant against multiculturalism and the mention of The Edumund Burke Society, not withstanding. I live in Cairo and all of my friends are Muslim, except for two Palestinians who are Christian. None of my Sunni Muslim friends want sharia or the niqab as they view both as impositions of Wahabism. That said, recently I met one a cousins who married into a family that requires the womrrm to wear the niqab. I asked one of my women friends what she thought about the niqab. She laughed and said: No way, I am a free Muslim."
clip-on-tie: your article link has prompted me to resume my research on Islam. Thanks for...

chestnut - Yeah, the article is interesting and raises important issues, the far-right slant against multiculturalism and the mention of The Edumund Burke Society, not withstanding. I live in Cairo and all of my friends are Muslim, except for two Palestinians who are Christian. None of my Sunni Muslim friends want sharia or the niqab as they view both as impositions of Wahabism. That said, recently I met one a cousins who married into a family that requires the womrrm to wear the niqab. I asked one of my women friends what she thought about the niqab. She laughed and said: No way, I am a free Muslim."
clip-on-tie: your article link has prompted me to resume my research on Islam. Thanks for that. Perhaps you have viewed it, but there is an informative video about Dutch women who have converted to Islam.
YouTube trailer

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