HRS International

I have now begun to fear waiting for the light to turn green at the very crowded traffic signals of Lahore. Because; who knows when someone decides that now is the time to punish those who need punishment, and this “someone” does it through his own form of ‘freedom of opinion’?

Shakil Rehman, spokesman for the LIM (which stands for the Norwegian words for Equality, Integration, Diversity) is hoping for a reaction from the Islamic Council of Norway (IRN) after one of the Muhammed cartoonists, Kurt Westergaard, was attacked with an ax in his home on New Year’s Day. The LIM has challenged the IRN to arrange a demonstration in support of free speech.

Kurt Westergaard and other brave critics of Islamic fanaticism continue to fend for themselves.

Italy is the country where the late Oriana Fallaci was indicted for speaking her mind about Islam; within its borders is the Vatican, whose head of state became a target of Muslim wrath when he quoted in a speech an obscure Byzantine emperor’s remarks about the religion of Muhammed. Yet as Angelo Pezzana observes in this piece for rights.no, the issue of Islamization has occasioned nary a parliamentary debate, TV opinion poll, or editorial commentary in his country – not, that is, until the other day, when Italy’s leading newspaper prominently featured an extraordinarily provocative editorial on the subject. Yet even that, he discovered, wasn’t enough to kick off the debate that the land of Garibaldi so desperately needs.

Almost ten years ago, the Dutch author Paul Scheffer wrote an essay that proved to be a milestone. In ”The Multicultural Drama,” Scheffer took on the multicultural orthodoxy that inspired Dutch immigration policy, and thereby introduced a nationwide debate about ”the multicultural society.” Now Scheffer has written a new book, and in an interview with Weekendavisen he shares his current views on the Islamization of Europe and the people he calls (not admiringly) “doomsday prophets.” In this article, one of those “prophets,” Bruce Bawer, takes a critical look at Scheffer’s comments.

Recently Aftenposten reported on a firm that was found guilty of discrimination by the Equality and Anti-Discrimination Ombud (LDO). ”To forbid the wearing of hijad is discrimination” read the headline, but Aftenposten later decided to alter it to “Hijab protest was discrimination.” The firm’s manager, Roger Trones, wanted to tell Aftenposten’s readers about his experience with the LDO, but his op-ed was rejected. Here is his account of his experience, which is important both because it shows that the LDO doesn’t seem to understand the intention underlying the ”reverse burden of proof” clause in the Discrimination Law and because it makes clear how easily the law can be exploited. Trones’s account also warns employers that they don’t enjoy the same rights as others in this country, and suggests that “hijab protests” can lead other employers to hesitate to employ Muslims.

The New York Times, supposedly America’s “newspaper of record,” has long boasted that it offers “all the news that’s fit to print.” But when it comes to American Muslims and Muslim organizations, the Times’s almost perfectly consistent policy has been “hear no evil, see no evil.” In this piece, Bruce Bawer takes a critical look at the latest absurd example of the Times’s typical spin on these matters.

I do not think that radical Islamists can yield on the subject of women's rights any more than they can yield on the subject of Israel's right to exist, true democracy, freedom of religion, or tolerance for homosexuals and for dissent. Here, then, is exactly where the greatest battle of the 21st century is joined, says Phyllis Chesler in this article written specially for rights.no.

A higher percentage of Muslims live in France than in any other European country. The challenges that have been posed to the country and its people as a result of the failure of many of these Muslims to integrate into French society and to embrace French values have led to widespread debate. What is national identity? What are our nation’s values? In the following article Robert Redeker addresses the question of national identity at a level of intellectual sophistication and abstraction that is uniquely Gallic and that makes it clear why he is considered one of the leading philosophers in la belle Republique.

The Muslims vote Socialist, and in return the Socialists take a passive approach to political Islam; the Church seeks Islamic support on social issues; and the country sends more welfare payments abroad than any other nation in Europe. In an incisive essay written specially for rights.no, Spanish political scientist and journalist Antonio Golmar provides an illuminating overview of where immigration stands in his country.

“Either Islam will be Europeanized, or Europe will be Islamized.” In recent years this prediction has been made by many major experts, among them the American Bernard Lewis, the Syrian-born German Bassam Tibi, and the French Gilles Kepel. This is, without question, an uncomfortable and sensitive topic, but it’s one that is very pertinent now that the Swiss have put their foot down and said that they will not accept another minaret within their borders.

HEGE STORHAUG: The European media are crowded with editorials condemning the Swiss for voting to prohibit the construction of any more minarets in their country. Here in Norway, the newspaper Dagsavisen went furthest of all, devoting its entire front page on Monday to a comparison of the entire nation of Switzerland with Nazi brownshirts. The front-page illustration did not admit to misinterpretation: the Swiss were Nazis, period.

RITA KARLSEN: “What’s liberating about Islam is that one is spared from having to think.” This, essentially, is how a woman explained to me the change that had taken place in her life since her conversion to Islam. Since then, I’ve thought about her many times, especially because at that time I didn’t know very much about Islam. Now I’ve learned more, have gotten to know many more Muslims, and just begun to worry about her lack of thought.

By KAI SØRLANDER: Recently the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled that the crucifixes that hang in classrooms in many Italian schools are illegal – that they represent an offense to human rights as formulated in the European Convention on Human Rights. But is this a correct ruling? Is it consistent with the articles of the Convention? And is it in line with rational democratic principles?

Islam’s sexual obsession must become a subject of debate. Unless Muslim girls and women – and men – are liberated from a view of sex that is founded in religious law, integration in the West based on freedom and gender equality will never be anything more than an illusion, writes Hege Storhaug. In an op-ed that originally appeared in a major Norwegian newspaper Bergens Tidende, Storhaug examines one of Islam’s most festering Achilles’ heels: a sexual fixation that leads to the oppression of females.

Taslima Nasrin is a doctor, author, and feminist – and born Muslim. But her criticism of Islam has led her out on a terrible journey. Death threats drove her out of Bangladesh; after living briefly in Sweden, France, and the U.S., she relocated in Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal, where she was threatened with beheading and where the military had to step in. In New Delhi she spent seven months under house arrest, then moved to New York. Yet through it all, Nasrin has continued to criticize Islam. Her objective is to revise the Koran. In this essay, Helle Merete Brix recounts Nasrin’s journey.

PART 2: Last week the Turkish-German lawyer Seyran Ates, who has a new book out, sought shelter in New York at the home of the feminist author and psychologist Phyllis Chelser. Ates has been the target of death threats and has been shot in the line of duty while working for the rights of Turkish immigrant women. In conversation, Chesler and Ates agree that Western freedom willl stand or fall on the question of women's rights. Ates cites a German study which shows that 30 percent of Turkish university students support honor killings of women and that 60 percent believe that a woman should not be allowed to leave her home without a man's permission and a male chaperone.

An unholy alliance has established itself in the UN system. Its purpose: to break down universal human rights. As part of its effort to protect Islam from criticism, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has allied itself with despotic regimes outside the Muslim world. China, Russia, and Cuba support the OIC's attempt to cripple freedom of speech. The quid pro quo? The OIC does its best to quash criticism of these countries' notorious violations of human rights. So writes Jacob Machangama in this article for rights.no, in which he calls for the West to stand up to this dangerous hypocrisy.

PART ONE: When the publication of her new book, "Islam Needs a Sexual Revolution," caused a spike in death threats, the Turkish-German lawyer Seyran Ates cancelled her German book tour and instead flew to New York to visit the well-known American feminist Phyllis Chesler. Chesler, who is now a regular contributor to rights.no, has interviewed Seyran Ates for us. "We come from a tribal culture," Ates says. "We have not learned how to be or live alone. Individualism is not valued. You are nothing without your family. But some very high-profile honor murders in Germany were due to re-establishing contact with a dangerous family. Often, the mothers would give their daughters a sob story to lure the girls home. The girls returned and were murdered."

Catholic and Communist influences play such a major role in Italian politics that they make it impossible for authorities to take the challenges of immigration as seriously as they should. The same is true of the challenges that accompany Islam and hatred for Israel. So argues journalist and author Angelo Pezzana in this essay for rights.no.

H.R.H. Crown Princess Mette-Marit is the patron of the Norwegian Guide and Scout Association (Boy and Girl Scouts). Tuesday she visited the Muslim scout troop Rabita in Oslo. In recent years the Guide and Scout Association has made an effort to establish several “Muslim scout troops,” which they think is integration in practice. But such an organization can also be seen as segregation in that children and teenagers are divided on the basis of their parents’ religion – under the banner of the scouts.

For over thirty years, feminist and women's studies researcher Phyllis Chesler has studied women's inhumanity to other women. In the present article, written expressly for rights.no, she suggests that those who feel obliged to believe that women are softer and kinder than men think again. Women's cruelty to one another, maintains Chesler, is on the rise. The solution, in her view, is to exhibit courage -- and to support heroes.

Hva betyr det å være fransk? Hva er egentlig de franske verdier? Dette er de overordnede spørsmål som den franske innvandringsministeren Eric Besson har sendt på høring til det franske folk. Frankrike har, som de fleste innvandringsland i Europa, erfart at innvandringen også byr på utfordringer. Men hva er egentlig integrering? For å kunne definere hva som er integrering, må man også kunne definere hva det er å være fransk. Dette viktige spørsmålet ønsker Frankrike nå å få et mer utfyllende svar på.

For several years, Norway has poured millions of kroner into religious schools in northern Pakistan – in other words, into the heart of Taliban country. The absurdity and naïveté of the dialogue industry obviously knows no boundaries – literally. This is a scandal, and it should have consequences in the form of a government investigation.