YakimaGulagLiteraryGazett

The ECFR, which is close to the Muslim Brotherhood, posts its fatwas in Arabic on its Web site www.e-cfr.org.

The scholars said that, after the September 11 attacks and the bombings in Madrid and London, Muslims in Europe felt more isolated and sought help to reconcile faith and everyday life.

#For example, one important ECFR fatwa ruled that Western women who convert to Islam should not leave their non-Muslim husbands and children even though Islamic custom calls for this.

*The scholars contrasted what they called the "positive integration" policies in Britain and Ireland, where religious and cultural differences were respected, with stricter French policies they said aimed to erase Muslim identity.

*I personally observed that the British and the Irish are MUCH more accommodative of cultural and religious difference even than the U.S. Neither the British nor the Irish act as if they feel culturally threatened by a Muslim presence in their countries. This is not to say there never were problems, in Britain, there have been in the past serious riots and such, in Ireland, the minority of Muslims is mostly from the Indian sub-Continent, and mostly in big cities. They've carved out kind of a niche for themselves, but they associate with Irish people and there is intermarriage. There have never been problems in Ireland.

My observation of both places was that the U.S. could learn a little something from how the British and Irish deal with ethnic and religious minorities.

#One of the more interesting decisions was that if a European woman converts and she's married she doesn't have to leave her non-Muslim husband. The old rule was that there was a 3 month deadline for him to convert and then she had to leave if he didn't convert.

This is because technically speaking, Muslim women aren't supposed to be married to non-Muslim men. That is based on something in the Koran. So given that this organization has close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood I find that decision interesting

There was a sad case of an Egyptian woman whose husband was an atheist, and she was FORCED to leave him. He was a famous writer, Amnesty International became involved, it was a mess. This was back in the 1990s.

I'm kind of on a rant on the subject this morning anyway because of the Rush Limbaugh show. He really needs mental help. He's acting like American culture is so weak, so fragile that someone dressing differently, eating differently or praying differently is going to bring down everything. The same man doesn't think the earth can be affected by human influences to have things like global warming, but he thinks America is so fragile. Any country that fragile doesn't deserve to exist!

I support the troops more than you do!

By way of Mefi and then this guy Electric Escape

http://www.electric-escape.net/node/958

# posted by Katja R. @ 8:53 AM