Islam Under Scrutiny by Ex-Muslims

Islamization of Europe and Policies to Prevent It, Part 2


Part 1: A theory of the Islamization process in European countries [07 Jan, 2007]

Part 2: A Theory of Policies and Laws That Prevents Islamization of a Country  [09 Jan, 2007]

Part 3: Reformation of Islam and Various Law and Policy Issues  [12 Jan, 2007]

Part 4: Policy Area 4:  Religious  Freedom  And  Its  Limits  [22 Jan, 2007]


2. A Theory of Policies and Laws That Prevents Islamization of a Country - An Integrated Approach
 

2.1 Introduction

Given the process above, a highly pertinent question is: What can prevent Islamization wars in European countries and the possible loss of traditional freedoms in the region ? The answer naturally lies in the number of immigrants from Muslim countries, and/or the success of their integration or assimilation.

If the immigrants leave that part of their traditional values which are hostile to non-Muslims and downgrade women, and start to think and behave like ordinary citizens in their respective countries, the danger has decreased. However, the multicultural policies in European countries cause failures regarding integration, and Europe is left with large unassimilated groups of sometimes angry and resentful people who don't understand and/or accept European values. Integration/assimilation is therefore the key to a peaceful future with freedom and human rights in Europe intact. Parallel societies can not be accepted because they automatically lead to violence and crimes against human rights where specially the rights of Muslim women are violated by Muslims. In the end, that violence will be turned towards the European population.

To make integration into the European society possible, a strategy defining as certain legal structure promoting that goal must be erected. A goal may be to stop the Islamization process in an as early phase as possible. Comprehensive protective policies can then be employed already in phase 1. It is n o t enough to leave this important issue alone and hope for the best.

There are a number of alternative structures possible (depending on the decisions regarding the various dimensions in it). If the Muslim immigration to a country is e g eliminated to a large extent, and the minority of Muslims there is small, the demand to integrate rapidly can be less strict, and vice versa. Policies like: demanding requirements to integrate rapidly; no public financing of teaching home languages and promoting contacts with earlier home countries; strict rules for becoming a citizen etc, are circumstances that allow less stringent requirements in other respects.

What is needed is a structure for the discussion of the possible contents and variations of an integrated basic policy (policies and laws) that will preserve freedom and human rights in Europe.


2.2. A model for preserving freedom and human rights in a western country

2.2.1. Goals for the Policies

In order to evaluate different proposals regarding policies, one or more goals shall be formulated for the integrated policy. Those goals guide the formulation of laws and policies. The following general aim is basic:

1) To keep the specific country as a free society based on (1) the rights won during the long history of that country, and (2) the modern definition of human rights.

A policy to realize one human right may contradict or hurt another right. The privacy of at least the parents will be broken, if their female children are controlled in order to prevent Female Genital Mutilation. However, during civil conflicts and wars, all human rights cannot be observed all the time but some must be sacrificed. That fact of life is not a reason to be passive; hard choices must be made regarding contradictory matters which are enough important. But measures shall have as their goal to further human rights as an end-result.

2) To protect human rights from all limitations caused by religious activities and rules, and specially by the sharia.

3) To save also individuals belonging to the Muslim faith from having their human rights violated by representatives of radical Islam, or people influenced by that creed. Muslim girls and women are then especially vulnerable, and are of the utmost interest. Their human rights must be specially protected.

A general lesser goal is also to continuously build knowledge among non-Muslims and Muslims alike about the contents of real (traditional) Islam and the true consequences of its possible victory.


2.2.2. An Integrated Approach

A suitable policy will build on an integrated approach using many methods and laws regarding a multitude of matters. Policies using few methods are doomed to fail because the attack against western society is so broad and consists of so many dimensions. An integrated approach will use a large number of parameters consisting of (1) various laws and their implementation, or (2) activities according to policies determined by the government and/or parliament. Each specific design use various tools and methods relevant for realizing the policies within the areas stated below. The designs that can secure a free society for centuries are of special interest. The areas which are most relevant to notice are:

1. Individual Rights

Special attention must be given to an individual???s right to be an independent person enjoying all now existing freedoms. Human rights in general, and specially in relation to how the Muslims value persons of different faiths, must be stressed. E g the low valuation of women???s rights in the Muslim religion must be counteracted.

2. Values and Laws

How much freedom shall a religion have to proclaim opinions and rules which are contrary to human rights and the laws of the country? What can imams say, and what is permitted in mosques? It is important to delimit religious freedom in a rational manner and taking a long-term view because those rules have such an important influence on the behavior of people.

The values and natural culture of a country should be a great strength in opposing the attack from foreign Islamic values. If most people still share those national values and they haven???t melted away in the consumer society, this national consciousness can be mobilized.

The penalties for breaking various laws and specially those of importance for preserving a free society, is another area of interest. The definition of hate crimes (se below) is specially important.

3. Citizenship and Integration

The specific requirements for being allowed to live in a country is another factor of interest in a policy. The rules for annulment of citizenships and for deportation must be realistic and take the interest of the population of the country into enough consideration. The type and extent of the education given to immigrants and later their family members after their arrival to the country is important and influences their worldview and chances to progress in the society. This education can be a very powerful instrument to influence immigrants and change values opposite to human rights and democracy.

The demand that an immigrant integrates into the ways and values of the society, and the level of assimilation demanded are vital aspects.

4. Foreign Policy

The foreign policy of the country must also be formulated to resist the threat from political Islam and in the end eliminates that threat.


2.2.3 THE MODEL

The following 12 dimensions are of most interest for our integrated approach:

1.  Human rights generally, and specially regarding

2.  Equality between people, and

3.  Equality between sexes

4.  How religious freedom is interpreted and its limits are decided

5.  National identity (the various values that are basic to a country; the definition of the obligations of their citizens etc)

6.  How integration/assimilation is carried out in the society, and which policy regarding foreign cultures is applied

7.  The educational policies in the society

8.  Rules for visas, immigration and citizenship

9.  Other areas of special interest in the society

10.  Rules for various types of religious organizations

11.  Laws and hate crimes *

12.  Foreign policy


* Part of a definition of hate crimes:
Crimes against people because of their faith, and/or because of the religious rules and traditions of the perpetrators, are hate crimes. To advocate and apply religious rules (or rules inspired or supported by a religion) which break human rights, is a hate crime. Because of their special danger for the society, hate crimes shall be punished twice as hard as ordinary crimes of the same type. All hate crimes which are punished by a prison term causes an examination of a resident???s or immigrant???s visa or citizenship in order to decide if it shall be revoked and the person deported. Three convictions for hate crimes of any types lead to a similar examination.


SECT. 4.3. EQUALITY BETWEEN THE SEXES

4.3.1. BACKGROUND

Among the methods to control a girl in certain Muslim families in order to be able to deliver her as a certified virgin to a certain husband often chosen by the family, we find the following components: female genital mutilation (used mainly by certain nationalities; its basic goal is to remove interest in the opposite sex, and also to influence the girl???s temper, i.e. making her more docile); religious indoctrination; strict control of dress and behavior; isolation regarding her social life; very early engagement and/or marriage; physical and violent methods to punish, and - as the final and extreme method - honour murder to uphold the authority of the father or family against a disobedient girl.

Such habits are based on the general view of women in the Quran. Besides its impact regarding girls, the view has concrete consequences for women in form of e.g. sharia rules regarding guardianship, wife beating, polygamy, the way of divorce (wife banishing), divorce rules regarding property and child custody etc, rules of inheritance, status as witness a s o. It is possible to describe it as gender apartheid. Such a low valuation of women established at the core of Islam makes it necessary to apply strict rules to break the habits and counter the reactionary opinions which Muslim immigrants to Europe often have.

4.3.2. IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES AND ISSUES THAT SHALL BE REALIZED IN A EUROPEAN COUNTRY

The European view is that true honour belongs to individuals, not to collectives such as families, clans or tribes. An individual's honour is determined by his/her actions, and sexual behavior is seldom an important part of true honour. Girls and women do not represent the honour of a family, and are not the property of the family.

Girls/women have the same value as individuals as boys/men, and have the same rights in all respects. This rule - applied rigorously in all matters - will influence the family life of Muslims thoroughly. To have the same rights in all respects means e g that girls and women are allowed to decide in all matters like boys or men do, to do the same things in life, and get the same education as they. It is a goal for the society that Muslim girls and women will reach the same educational and income levels and show the same frequency of work as women generally in that country. This equality will have far-reaching consequences regarding the balance of power inside Muslim groups generally, and inside Muslim families specifically.

Female Genital Mutilation is forbidden at any age, and shall be criminalized. Despite its origin in ethnic habits, it could probably not have survived without the unspoken support of a religion that says it wants to control all phases of life. It can probably be defined as a hate crime today. The state shall inspect girls below the age of 15 years to control the observance of this law.

The veil: It is a matter of interpretation if the veil is prescribed in the Quran. It was earlier not in widespread use in many Muslim countries. However, the veil has now been transformed into a uniform showing that one belongs to a rigid form of Islam. A veil therefore shows that the woman belongs to the faith that aspires to keep its female members separate from the rest of the society, and that the rules of that society shall be changed.

A veil also shows a backward and unacceptable view of the human body in that it regards hair as mainly sexual. It is a small but important part among many measures which forces women to accept a certain gender and sexual role, and therefore certain behaviour. It is also a part of the gender apartheid that takes away the individual freedom from girls and women only because of their sex. A veil shows her inferior status connected to her sex. The veil takes away the individuality from a woman for the benefit of the collectivism in a tribal society.

Cloths which are tools to intimidate women into certain gender roles and also to show Muslim power, are treated as political uniforms and shall therefore be forbidden. If they are not forbidden, all Muslim girls will sooner or later be forced to carry the veil because of the pressure and mutilation threats from Islamists. As a first proposal, veils should be forbidden for girls until they are 18 years old, and thus are free to determine the issue themselves. Manners to dress which conceal a larger part of the face of the woman (niqab) of any age are forbidden. If there is a political/religious pressure on women to dress in a certain manner, such a uniform shall be forbidden for everybody.

Parents which prevent their children or girls to meet non-Muslims in daily life because of their religion or lack of it, show a behavior that is deplorable. More research is needed to establish if and how that behavior shall be counteracted more firmly. Religious schools may have to be forbidden.

The state shall offer anonymity and protected places to live for girls who must leave their families because of the oppressive and violent behaviour by parents and family members. Muslim girls are given priority regarding protection and support against unacceptable treatment by their families. Crimes committed against girls inside families shall be given priority by local prosecutors.

A woman has no legal guardian after reaching an age of 18 years, and her family or relatives have then no right to decide for her.

Girls are not allowed to be betrothed or given into marriage before 18 years of age. It is solely the decision of the female whom she wants to marry. To force (or try to force) a woman to marry another person shall be criminalized, and such marriages are invalid.

It is a criminal offence for parents who are citizens of a specific country or have permanent residence in that country, to leave daughters under 18 years of age, in other countries in order for them to marry there.

Moslem women have the same right to marry non-Muslim men as to marry Muslim men. To act against a marriage between a Muslim woman and a non-Muslim man because of religion, is a hate crime. To preach publicly against such marriages is a hate crime.

Polygamy is strictly forbidden in all European countries, and such marriages when they exist, are not legal in the country. However, there is certain evidence that polygamy exists to some degree, and that the authorities look the other way. The crime shall be given priority by Social Administration officials and local prosecutors.
Physical violence against women is never acceptable inside or outside the family. Muslim women shall be given all necessary protection and support in case of assault and battery by their husbands. Such crimes shall be given priority by local prosecutors.

Murder of a female as part of a so-called honour killing is a very serious violation of human rights and constitutes a hate crime. To influence a girl to commit suicide (because of religious rules) is a similar crime. Direct or indirect participation in, or inspiration to, an honour murder is a hate crime. All suicides by Moslem girls and women shall be investigated thoroughly because of the possibility of an honour murder.

 
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