The dangers of political religion - Islam as an example for present times
What is political religion?
The theory of political religion concerns governmental ideologies whose cultural and political backing is so strong that they are said to attain power equivalent to those of a state religion, with which they often exhibit significant similarities in both theory and practice. In addition to basic forms of politics, like parliament and elections, it also holds an aspect of sacralisation related to the institutions contained within the regime and also provides the inner measures traditionally considered to be religious territory, such as ethics, values, symbols, myths, rituals and for example a national liturgical calendar.
Totalitarian societies are perhaps more prone to political religion, but various scholars have described features of political religion even in democracies.
Who supports political religion?
Societies where a certain religion forms a vast majority and where religion calls for influence in politics and civil life, most observed in Islam.
Political religion is yet also observed to have been established in former times, when societies were overrun or colonised by countries that held a strong religious participation in politics. We can observe that in West and North Africa under the influence of Islam, and in terms of Christianity when it came to the colonisation of those countries. Even in The Philippines, when the Spaniards came, they didn’t only colonise politically but also religiously; in this case with Catholicism.
In modern times we can observe certain political parties being in support of Islam. These are in Europe the left wing parties like the Labour in UK or the Social Democrats in Germany, the Green Party and ironically the former conservative and centre right party CDU in Germany under Angela Merkel. The CDU yet has engaged in a strategy of Ms Merkel, the so called "hug tactic", embracing particular political stances of other parties to gain more power, by weakening those they embrace the political points from. There is less and less need to vote for a Leftist Party, as social welfare, women and LGBT rights, Child education rights, slowly stepping away from nuclear power plants and focusing on environment and climate change have all been laws signed under the present CDU government.
Having this done, the original ideology of the lefts and the green parties have vanished, leaving them in a struggle for a new identity or if too late, finding themselves catapulted out of parliament, like the Liberal Party in Germany, as also they were made obsolete.
Modern politics and political religion; but let me now use political Islam as the example for my further presentation, have found a way to run hand in hand, forming a perfectly looking and solid front, playing the negatives down and placing, better said projecting, made up positives onto the screens of society.
Screens, yes literally screens, is the first point for me to talk about. Screens can be TV screens, monitors of the PC, laptop or tablet; in the manual sense, newspapers, magazines and billboards.
This is where "political correctness" comes in. Having this vocabulary made “acceptable in polite society ", everybody not acting or talking conform to this new standard is called "islamophobia", "racist" or "far right". Interesting enough all three terms, and I mean ALL, do not fit even slightly into the set standard of claims.
Why is that the case?
Islamophobia is a newly invented term which includes the word phobia. Phobia is a medical term for an unfounded fear: "A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder, usually defined as a persistent fear of an object or situation the affected person will go to great lengths to avoid, typically disproportional to the actual danger posed."
The fear of or towards Islam is yet 100% founded, as it forms in the mildest form an isolated being, showing in sub communities, parallel societies and even nowadays "no-go-zones" as observed in the UK for example. It further isolates itself through dress code and anti-social behaviour, such as the deformation of the woman by the way they dress and cover, and further through the behaviour in society i.e. public prayers, publicly showing rejection (food, other women’s way of dressing, staying away from work or school, rejecting certain school activities, demanding special rights and acting superior instead of integrated or even just equal).
Muslims tend to create ghettos, and the first places they concentrate in are big cities.In Berlin,Germany’s capital, Muslims stay in Kreuzberg (38%), Neukölln (40%) and Mitte (44.8%). The remarkable thing about Kreuzberg is that it has long been the epicentre of Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual, Transgendered and Queer life and Arts in Berlin. It is home to the Schwules Museum(Gay Museum) which was established in the late 1980s. It is dedicated to preserving, exhibiting, and discovering LGBTQ history, art and culture. Who knows how long this museum can remain un-destroyed or un-attacked, maybe forcing it to leave Kreuzberg one day.
In The UK again we can find such phenomena in Tower Hamlets, which I would like to point out as example. Lutfur Rahmanis a Bangladesh-born British who was the first directly elected Muslim mayor of Tower Hamlets. When he was first elected, he was an Independentpolitician. He previously was the leader of Tower Hamlets London Borough Councilfrom 2008 to 2010 for the Labour Party (Left Party in The UK). He was re-elected at the 2014 mayoral election, but the result of the election was cancelled and declared null and void on 23 April 2015, because the Election Court officially reported Lutfur Rahman to be personally guilty of corrupt or illegal practices. The case fell under electoral fraudunder the Representation of the People Act 1983. He was removed from his office with immediate effect and was also personally debarred from standing for elected office until 2021.
Further: “Mayor Rahmanhas been known to have associated with two convicted criminals; one convicted fraudster; the multi-millionaire housing association resident Shiraj Haque and one convicted sex offender; Zamal Uddin. Mayor Rahman later apologised for providing a court character reference to Zamal Uddin stating that he had been misled by the defendant's family. In 2014, Rahman provided a "glowing" court reference to Mahee Ferdous Jalil, a convicted insurance fraudster who was subsequently sentenced to three years in jail for money laundering.” Source: Wikipedia
The Daily Mail wrote about the true situation in Tower Hamlets, where for example gays are threatened.
UK and Belgium have already experienced the establishment of Islamic Parties, and even it is still in the beginning stage, it’s best to resist in the beginning stage, rather than when it’s too late. The Belgium Islam Party is the most hard-line. The politicians refuse to shake hands with non-Muslims; they don’t look women in the eye and they demand Belgium to be ruled under Sharia law. Sounds all a bit fanatic and fictive or impossible? With the double digit birth rates and the new influx of expected millions of Muslims, it may happen earlier than anyone would think about.
“The separation of church and state is a situation describing the distance in the relationship between organized religion and the nation state. It may refer to as the creation of a secular state, with or without explicit reference to such separation, or to changing an existing relationship of church involvement in a state (disestablishment).” That is one of Europe’s values.
Yet in Belgium a small Islam Party is set to destroy this, and all that Europe stands for.
Next to the just mentioned "moderate" Muslim behaviours, we then come to the "extreme" or "literal" acting Muslims, as recently observed in Brussels and last year in Paris. People having reservations, rejections and fears towards Islam are evidentially not unfounded or unreasonable.
Racism is the belief that a particular race is superior or inferior to another, that a person's social and moral traits are predetermined by his or her inborn biological characteristics.
This clearly disproves the claim of the main stream mind-set that criticising or rejecting Islam is racist. Islam is not an inborn biological characteristic, but an indoctrination or self-chosen belief system, resulting in the person’s way of life and acting. This means that it can be removed, which in the case of skin colour, sexuality or racial physiques could not.
Example: If a non-Muslim father tells his daughter not to marry a Muslim, it’s called racism.
If a Muslim father tells his daughter not to marry a non-Muslim, it’s called cultural identity.
Lastly the claim that all people opposing the main stream opinion forming, anti-Islamism and the demand to end the islamisation of Europe by stopping the refugee influx from the Middle East are "far right" is again wrong.
Far-right politics are right-wing politics further on the right of the left-right spectrum than the standard political right.
Far-right politics often involve a focus on tradition as opposed to policies and customs that are regarded as reflective of modernism. The term is commonly used to describe Nazism, neo-Nazism, Fascism, neo-Fascism and other ideologies or organizations that feature extreme nationalist, chauvinist, xenophobic, racist, or reactionary views, which can lead to oppression and genocide against groups of people on the basis of their alleged race.
To explain why this is not right again, I would like to show the example of the Party for Freedom, the PVV in The Netherlands under its leader Geert Wilders.
The PVV is pro LGBT, pro women’s rights, uphold of culture and identity, Turkey out of the NATO, an end to the Islamic influx.
Mr. Geert Wilders is living since 11 years under a 24/7 bodyguard protection supplied by the state, lives in a safe house and his office has tinted windows. He is protecting himself against Islam, and the "fatwa" on him, to be killed for insulting Islam.
So, Nazis for example, chauvinists or racists have truly other views on life and how politics have to be executed. The see other races as less worthy, discriminate against LGBT's, want women back behind the stove and oppose all kind of immigration. They want a one party system, no democracy, and often a male dominated ruling system.
But stop; this sounds similar to religion right? So wanting to fight a totalitarian system as the just mentioned, basically also wants to fight Islam, and religion that wants to impose exactly that. Hence, Islam critiques and opponents are basically the defenders of freedom and democracy, Human Rights and needed and wanted immigration.
And in regards of immigration:
Europe is at the moment not experiencing the traditional immigration, but a wave of uncontrolled, uncounted and unknown people. Studies have found that more than 80% of the so called refugees are men, whom again 80% are uneducated and even illiterate. 40% are not even from Syria, but from Africa or the Balkan, hence people without the need for asylum. Many others have disposed their passports, posing as Syrians, yet being from Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iran or Iraq, also not eligible for asylum. Further, most of the people have already passed through up to 8 safe ground countries, making the refugee status invalid; even more, changing themselves to economic migrants. Why are people not halting in Turkey or Greece? Because one, Germany and The Netherlands have the highest benefits for asylum seekers, and secondly, Ms Merkel has invited them all in, breaking EU laws and acting without consideration towards her own country: do the people want this? How can this all be paid? Questioning the sovereignty of the country.
Ms Merkel last year stated: We can’t protect 3000 km border anyway. In her television interview, Merkel insisted closing Germany’s borders was not an option. “We cannot close the borders,” she said. “We carry out checks there but we have 3,000km of border – do you want to erect a fence the full length of it? People will still find ways to come.”
But what distinguishes a sovereign state?
International law defines sovereign states as having a permanent population (not moving or increasing unnaturally), defined territory (borders it can protect and distinguish), one government (an elected government acting in the interest of its citizens), and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states (hence not acting above other states heads).
Political correctness is also imposed through the media, especially the state media and the left oriented media houses. One can observe a strong tendency towards the shaping of opinion. One example is how the German press broadcasts its messages about the present refugee crisis. It basically avoids using Islam, but only refugees. It shows pictures of crying children and women (contradicting the 80% men coming). It shows singled out cases of successful integration, but does not mention the majority of the Muslims not integrated into the system
One example of a billboard is "Happy Ramadan". A message in a society where Islam forms only 5% of the population, yet presenting it as if it were relevant for the majority of society. Just to compare; I have never seen or heard of billboards put up stating "Happy Christopher Street Day". And it becomes worse; everything is done to avoid Muslims to be offended.
We can then on the other side observe Islam and their representatives pushing themselves in the front line, nearly as if they were grown in Europe and should naturally enjoy the same attention and representation in all sections of society; be it at school, at work, in politics and their rites and exercises, even if they would be a disturbance or nuisance for others in daily life.
With the support of the political correct, leftist and EU politics, and the misuse of democracy Islam pushes more and more into the system:
- Politically having candidates and members in the leftist parties
- Having daughters being excluded from swim lessons, as they would see half naked boys
- Having girls excluded from school outings, as they may come into intimate contact with boys, having their virginity risked to be lost
- Having women wear a head scarf or burka or hijab (Europe is secular, hence by law, religious symbols are banned in public places as schools, courts, administrations and so on)
- Prayer rooms at school (even Islam prayers can be performed at a later time cumulated)
- No exams during Ramadan (even though Islam excludes students from even needing to participate in Ramadan)
- No pork served in school canteens (cause the risk that a Muslim student may eat pork would be there)
- Introduction of Halal food even in non-Muslim schools or canteens or airlines; and even opposing the anti-animal cruelty laws in place. (What is Halal? Halal slaughtering involves cutting through the large arteries in the neck with one swipe of a blade, while a Muslim butcher recites a religious verse. All blood is then drained away since the consumption of blood is forbidden under Islamic law. Under Islamic law, an animal must be slaughtered by having its throat cut while it is conscious.)
- Circumcision (Suddenly here they were in agreement with the Jewish community - the Koran’s declared enemy normally)
- Public holidays (not yet in place)
- Buried in a cloth (even there is a coffin law in Europe)
- Having the mosques call for prayers through speakers (mostly still not allowed, yet in some places allowed if it does not exceed a certain decibel)
- Having a representation in the media
- Special treatment in court due to religious background (too often already implemented and taken into consideration)
- No more pork in prisons (already happened where the majority of inmates are Muslim - we must think why that is even the case)
- Multiple wives (not yet law, but can be bypassed by marrying many wives in a mosque. As the marriage in a mosque means more than the official marriage in city hall to Muslims its basically already implemented)
- Child marriage (Islam knows no age restriction when it comes to marriage. As Muslims wont report such an abuse to authorities, child brides remain undetected and a practice within the Muslim communities)
- Two Human Rights declarations – Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam and Universal Declaration of Human Rights
-Sharia law in regards to family issues (already in UK officially and other countries unofficially)
Let me come up with an example here regarding sharia:
"A young man runs over another man with his car. The police findings are that the driver of the car is not guilty of the case. The person who died is a Muslim. The family of the dead does not comply with the verdict and seeks help at an unofficial magistrate (the mild form of sharia friendly unofficial judges in Germany). During the sitting of the unofficial court the magistrate sentences the driver of the car to pay 50000 Euro to the family of the dead man. Of course the driver is not present at this sitting. The driver of the car is informed about this judgement and told that, if he wouldn’t comply, life in a city can be dangerous.
Interesting enough is, that most of these demands made in Europe, if would be made by non-Muslims in Muslim countries they would be rejected or would result in the deportation of that person, or if national in imprisonment or worse. Again that shows how superior Islam puts itself above all.
What are the negative effects of such?
1. Integration is made not just difficult but even next to impossible
2. Being a Muslim saves from being punished according to national law
3. Islam becomes attractive to people who find themselves in a category Islam supports, i.e. child marriage, multiple wives, special treatment)
It terms if the Islamic influx society is often misinformed and deliberately manipulated.
Cost of each refugee: 1000 Euro per month hence 12000 Euro per year (300 pocket money and food, 290 social workers and government workers, 220 health aid, 190 accommodation)
Costs up till now: roughly 55 billion till 2022 and 12 billion per year just for the refugees when one million
Consequences for the working population: Higher taxes, higher health insurance
Who benefits?
Interestingly the leftists and so one answer to why they support Islam. I have to mention that it was the leftists that were the first to leave church and religion and are now the ones welcoming and supporting Islam, having even Muslims in their midst steering in the favour of Islam. Christian organisations and health care establishments (that’s why Christians are silent), and finally social workers and social jobs that are filled mostly by leftist people. Again its about money and voters.
The false portrayed benefits:
More children in an older getting society. Where is the encouragement for more children within society and money for their care?
Refugees will fill up needed jobs: Europe needs immigrants, but qualified ones as nurses and care takers (Philippines), Doctors (India) and IT specialists (India). It is an illusion that the most unqualified and illiterate Muslim refugees can work in the car production or as the latter mentioned. Comparisons
Now the LGBT community and the Muslim community may both form a similar size in western society, and one comparison sometimes made because of that is wrong because:
- Islam has its rise through coming in from outside, especially since during the 1950s and 1960s when West Germany signed bilateral recruitment agreements with Italy on 22 November 1955, Spain on 29 March 1960, Greece on 30 March 1960, Turkey on 30 October 1961, Morocco on 21 June 1963, Portugal on 17 March 1964, Tunisia on 18 October 1965, and Yugoslavia on 12 October 1968. These agreements allowed the recruitment of Gastarbeiter (Guest workers) to work in the industrial sector for jobs that required few qualifications. At that time one didn’t distinguish between Islamic and non-Muslim workers, the future problems that would arise and the consequences nowadays in regards to failed integration.
LGBT's have been around everywhere since mankind knows and remains the same percentage
- Islam grows and spreads
LGBT's remain the same, don't increase or grow in numbers
- Islam is an invention by mankind, like all religions, in order to influence, control and manipulate
LGBT's are a natural fact, observed in more than 1500 species, that can’t control, take over or gain power over mankind
We can observe humanists siting with the pro-Islamic stance. The reason for that is that most of the leaders and members are left wing voters and politicians. Also lack of experience in the Muslim world my underline that, as they treat Islam as every other religion and don’t see the bigger picture.
Europe has become a battle field for Islam. Not only opposes it western values and democracy, it also has trouble within, tribal disputes; one reason why we can observe Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Qatar, for example, not taking in one refugee. This is due to their tribal disputes between the Sunnis and the Shiites and the Alawites.
And instead Europe securing its borders and placing help where it is placed best, hence within the Middle East, where refugees would be amongst their culture and likeminded, it lets in all what can come, without limit and without borders. The result is a shaken EU and Schengen system.
The EU and Schengen were set up for a reason, the free trade and movement for EU citizens, not having such an external penetration in the equation. One by one, countries have and are closing their borders, such as Hungary and the Czech Republic. This is natural, a consequence of wanting to protect their country.
Finally we have to ask why refugees are coming to Europe in the first place.
The answer is astoundingly simple. Next to the clear invitation spoken out by German chancellor Merkel, Europe has the best laws for them in place, the best welfare system and a small but established functioning Muslim community.
Having a refugee status in Europe gives them the right to stay indefinitely and guarantees access to the social support system, accommodation, and schooling for children, language courses and help with training for a job skill; all free. As mentioned before, we can observe more than 80% of the refugees being men. This means, that we would have to expect at least about plus minus four family members to follow, once the asylum status is granted, because wife and children are family. So out of the one to two million already in the continent, we could expect ten million and rising over the next years. But even if the refugee status is not granted, he or she can go into revision and slow bureaucracy gives those months to find their way round.
Estimates have been made that roughly one percent of the Muslims coming in belong to the extremists and terrorists. That sounds small, but in regards to one million, that’s already 10000 people potentially causing a threat to Europe. They blend in and disguise as refugees.
Even when we ignore the threat of terror and the Muslims with such a mind-set, we still have the so called moderate. And of course if they grow in number are more willing to follow Islamic law and rules rather than democratic ones. The ones supporting their influx, originally religious critics, LGBT and women rights supporters, will find themselves on a losing ground one day, as Islam opposes all those Human Rights.
If we want to know what Islam is about, we just have to look at where it came from, and not at the ones telling us how they think it is going to be. The multi-culti system dreamt of in Europe may work to some extent, but not with Islam. The modern western and other free democratic states base on the sovereignty of the people, secularism, hence power from the peoples hand, also to assure security and wellbeing, whilst Islam sees only a god as absolute sovereign instalment, and sharia as the basis of a state. Islamic political leaders and historic figures have said it themselves:
Ibn Taymiyyah: Inb Taymiyyah lived 1263 till 1328; he was a Islamic scholar in Damascus Syria and sought the return of Sunni Islam. Nevertheless, the four fundamental sources of the sharia accepted by thirteenth century Sunni jurists were
1. Qur’an,
The Quran, literally meaning "the recitation", is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God (Arabic: Allah). It is widely regarded as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language.
Muslims believe the Quran was verbally revealed by God to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel (Jibril), gradually over a period of approximately 23 years, beginning on 22 December 609 CE, when Muhammad was 40, and concluding in 632, the year of his death. Muslims regard the Quran as the most important miracle of Muhammad, a proof of his prophethood, and the culmination of a series of divine messages that started with the messages revealed to Adam and ended with Muhammad.
2. Sunnah,
Sunnah is the verbally transmitted record of the teachings, deeds and sayings, silent permissions (or disapprovals) of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, as well as various reports about Muhammad's companions. Along with the Quran, the Sunna makes up the two primary sources of Islamic theology and law. The Sunna is also defined as "a path, a way, a manner of life"; "all the traditions and practices" of the Islamic prophet that "have become models to be followed" by Muslims.
3. consensus of jurists (ijma),
Ijmāʿis an Arabic term referring to the consensus or agreement of the Muslim scholars basically on religious issues. Various schools of thought within Islamic jurisprudence may define this consensus to be that of the first generation of Muslims only; or the consensus of the first three generations of Muslims; or the consensus of the jurists and scholars of the Muslim world, or scholarly consensus; or the consensus of all the Muslim world, both scholars and laymen.
4.qiyas (analogical reasoning),
In Islamic jurisprudence, qiyās is the process of deductive analogy in which the teachings of the Hadith are compared and contrasted with those of the Qur'an, in order to apply a known injunction (nass) to a new circumstance and create a new injunction. An example of the use of qiyās is the case of the ban on selling or buying of goods after the last call for Friday prayers until the end of the prayer stated in the Quran 62:9.
Ibn Taymiyyah opposed the use of consensus of jurists, replacing it with the consensus of the "companions" (sahaba). Like all Islamic jurists Ibn Taymiyyah believed in a hierarchy sources for the Sharia. Most important was the Quran, and the Sunnah or any other source could not abrogate (do away with)a verse of the Qur'an.
Like all Islamic jurists Ibn Taymiyyah believed in a hierarchy sources for the Sharia. Most important was the Quran, and the Sunnah or any other source could not abrogate a verse of the Qur'an.[94] (For him, an abrogation of a verse, known in Arabic as Naskh, was only possible through another verse in the Qur'an.[94]) Next was Sunnah which other sources (besides the Quran) must not contradict.
Colonel Gaddafi: We have 50 million Muslims in Europe. There are signs that
Allah will grant Islam victory in Europe—without swords, without guns, without Conquest—will turn it into a Muslim continent within a few decades.
Speech (10 April 2006)
“PM Erdogan: The Term ‘Moderate Islam’ Is Ugly And Offensive; There Is No
Moderate Islam; Islam Is Islam,” from the MEMRI Blog (thanks to Mackie):
“Speaking at Kanal D TV”s Arena program, PM Erdogan commented on the term
“Moderate Islam”, often used in the West to describe AKP and said, “˜These descriptions are very ugly, it is offensive and an insult to our religion. There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam and that’s it.”
Source: Milliyet, Turkey, August 21, 2007
Finally I have to ask: Why does this concern other parts of the world like Philippines?
Well, millions of Filipinos live and work and enrich Europe.
Australia has offered money to the Philippines 97 million Euros to accept refugees Australia doesn’t want.
We have already observed Muslim intentions when they wanted to install a Muslim belt in Asia including Mindanao.
The freedom of speech and expression ends where the wellbeing of the citizens is threatened.
By Thomas Fleckner
Comments powered by CComment