Wer diesen Text im New York Times Magazine liest – und die Bilder ansieht – braucht Nerven:

When a girl is taken — usually by her mother — to a free circumcision event held each spring in Bandung, Indonesia, she is handed over to a small group of women who, swiftly and yet with apparent affection, cut off a small piece of her genitals. Sponsored by the Assalaam Foundation, an Islamic educational and social-services organization, circumcisions take place in a prayer center or an emptied-out elementary-school classroom where desks are pushed together and covered with sheets and a pillow to serve as makeshift beds. The procedure takes several minutes. There is little blood involved. Afterward, the girl’s genital area is swabbed with the antiseptic Betadine. She is then helped back into her underwear and returned to a waiting area, where she’s given a small, celebratory gift — some fruit or a donated piece of clothing — and offered a cup of milk for refreshment. She has now joined a quiet majority in Indonesia, where, according to a 2003 study by the Population Council, an international research group,

96 percent of families surveyed reported that their daughters had undergone some form of circumcision by the time they reached 14.

Ich glaube, wir können alle ein bisschen Comedy über den Propheten, neunjährige Mädchen, Hitler und deutsche Identität brauchen:

… und beide müssen sich dafür rechtfertigen: Ramadan wurde von islamischer Seite unterstellt, er begebe sich in einen Klub, wo „Alkohol in Strömen fliesse“ – Le Pen wurde in rechtsradikalen Kreisen unterstellt, sie mache den „Agenten der Islamisierung Frankreichs“ hoffähig. Ramadan verteidigt sich hier auf seinem Blog.
Le Pen ist die Tochter des Parteigründers des Front National und seine wahrscheinliche politische Erbin als Parteiführerin.
Sie ist dafür verantwortlich, dass der FN im letzten Wahlkampf neue Formen der Werbung versucht hat – mit Angeboten an das Einwanderer-Milieu (ohne große Erfolge). Sie vermeidet auch die antisemitischen Bemerkungen, mit denen ihr Vater Jean-Marie Le Pen von sich reden machte.

Fischen im Migrantenmilieu jenseits von Rechts und Links: FN-Wahlplakat

Le Pen stellte den drohenden europäischen „Identitätsverlust“ in den Vordergrund. Sie gestand die Diskriminierung muslimischer Einwanderer am französischen Arbeistmarkt ein und schlug als Lösung vor, die Töchter eben nicht Fatima zu nennen, sondern ihnen französische Namen zu geben.

Ramadan gerierte sich als Verteidiger genuin europäischer Werte, indem er für die Rechte der Einwanderer eintrat:
„We need to stop Islamizing the problem, and we need to stop talking about minorities,“ he said. „I tell Muslims: You are not a minority, you are citizens. You can have a different culture and a different name and still adhere to the same laws and democratic values.“
Eine interessante Pointe: Der Gottseibeiuns der französischen Islam-Debatte wehrt sich gegen die „Islamisierung“ des Problems und wird zum Fürsprecher demokratischer Werte.
Zum Kopftuch an französischen Schulen sagte er folgendes: „It’s against human rights to ban it; it’s against Islam to impose it.“ Das ist eine vernünftige Position.

Hier der Bericht der Herald Tribune.

Hier ein Interview beider Beteiligter mit der Tribune de Geneve.

Der iranische Journalist Ahmad Zeidabadi, der im Jahr 2000 in Iran verhaftet und verurteilt wurde, weil er die Selbstmordattentate der Palästinenser abgelehnt hatte, schreibt in der refomorientierten Publikation Rooz:

„We need someone like Friedrich Nietzsche to hit us hard so we are awakened to the dangers brewing ‎within the Islamic world. And just as his declaration of ‘God is dead’ opened the aperture ‎to the dark world out there, today, the irreconcilable nature of the modern world with the ‎identity of Muslims has opened up the gates of horror to us.

Ahmad Zeidabadi‎

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto in a country whose modern identity is built on ‎religion, is only a small example of the violence that appears to drown us, if permitted to ‎unleash. Some Muslims who have tasted this danger at close range know of its scope and ‎horrors. But unfortunately, there is no serious discourse among them and no practical ‎road map to deal with it. …

I am occasionally questioned for using the term ‘us’ whenever I use the term Muslim and ‎their violence. ‘It is they who perpetrate the violence and ‘we’ are not part of ‘them’’, ‎they protest. The reality is that when I read the writings of some of these secular thinkers ‎in the Islamic world I am astounded and perhaps even envious of how naïve they are in ‎the lines they draw between themselves and the Islamicists. They believe that by ‎changing their own views they acquire an identity that is independent from their native ‎culture and have a destiny that is different as well.‎

I think they have only eliminated the façade of the problem. Certainly this is one way to ‎simply shake off some of the baggage and tensions that they carry. I believe that anybody ‎born in a place that has the stamp of Islam on it is at least partly subject to the historic ‎and identity destiny of that culture, regardless of whether he accepts it or not.‎

Salman Rushdie may be among Muslims who denied having the same destiny and put ‎that in words that are said to be insulting to the prophet of the Muslims, but his destiny ‎has not turned out much different because Ayatollah Khomeini’s death fatwa has been ‎following him ever since, depriving him of his desired and normal life.‎

So there is a group that I label ‘we’ or ‘us’ which is undergoing a historic crises ‎vacillating in choice between the modern and the traditional worlds, roots, and identity – ‎or somewhere in between. This crisis boils in some violent and bloody spheres, and ‎ironically has even appeared in the centers of Western civilization.‎

…‎

So, a problem that is rooted in our world and had to be resolved by us, is now imposed on ‎others who will resolve it to their own benefit – if of course they succeed in resolving it. ‎In other words, we have been driven to the periphery in our own country of origin, while ‎this periphery is dangerous and unsafe.“

Ganzer Text hier.

Dem Observer hat Gordon Brown am letzten Sonntag ein Interview über seine jüngsten Pläne für das kommende Jahr gegeben. Darin findet sich ein bemerkenswerte Passage über die Notwendigkeit, „die Herzen und Köpfe“ der Muslime zu gewinnen. Brown hat offenbar das großartige Bekenntnisbuch des Hizb-ut-Tahrir-Aussteigers Ed Husain gelesen.

Zitat:

Brown, who says he is determined that the battle against terrorism should involve a campaign to win the ‚hearts and minds‘ of Muslims, even indicates that he can understand why young people are attracted to Islamism.

Asked about Ed Husain, the young Muslim who wrote a book about how he supported and then abandoned the hardline Hizb ut Tahrir organisation, Brown says: ‚When you read Ed Husain there was a ferment of activity around colleges and around certain mosques and institutions. And it’s hardly surprising that lots of young people are drawn into that, not just because of the excitement, because of the pressures that are upon them.‘

The Prime Minister adds that more needs to be done to persuade Islamists that their image of Britain is distorted: ‚We ought to be … part of that debate. And the more we can have these roadshows that are encouraging the debate and discussion, the better.‘

Diesen Kommentar sendet soeben Ellen R. Sheeley, die selbst im letzten Jahr ein Buch über Ehrenmorde in Jordanien veröffentlicht hat:

Sorry, I cannot read all of this blog post, nor am I proficient enough to write a response in German. So please forgive me.

But, since I have worked on dishonor killings in Jordan for years now, I wanted to respond.

I recently conducted a nationwide attitude and opinion survey about these crimes in Jordan. In my representative sample, 89% of the respondents support tougher penalties for these crimes (3.5% are neutral and the rest prefer the status quo). Right now, there are three penal code articles on the books in Jordan that offer such leniency to the perpetrators that the average sentence is just six months (not a typo). So my findings are heartening. . .people do know right from wrong. Now, if only the leadership could summon the courage to act in a manner that is consistent with the wishes of the overwhelming majority rather than pander to the extremists.

It is the case that some perpetrators return to their towns, villages, and homes as heroes, but that is not to imply that all Jordanians view these crimes as in any way honorable.

Ellen R. Sheeley, Author
„Reclaiming Honor in Jordan“

(Muss ich das übersetzen? J.L.)

Tolle Islam-Ausgabe der New York Times Book Review. Darin ein Rezensions-Essay von Irshad Manji über die Theorie des gerechten Krieges in der Scharia.
Keineswegs ist es so, daß die islamischen Theologen und Juristen dem totalen Krieg gegen die Ungläubigen das Wort reden. Manji arbeitet in ihrer Lektüre interessante Paradoxien des islamischen Nachdenkens über gerechtfertigte Kriege heraus:

Take the just-war criterion of protecting innocents. One mainstream Muslim scholar has acknowledged that, in Kelsay’s words, a child’s death may be “foreseeable but unavoidable, as when an enemy’s military resources are deployed in the midst of a civilian population. … Soldiers whose actions take place under such conditions are excused from the guilt associated with unjust killing.” That ruling would let Israeli defense forces off the hook for collateral damage in their 2006 war in Lebanon, since Hezbollah deliberately operated in residential Beirut.

Hier alles lesen.

Was Frauenrechte angeht, kommt Bewegung in die öffentlichen Debatten der islamischen Welt. Auch Männer gehen dabei mit voran. Ein neues Beispiel: das Blog LA-HA.ORG (Leading Ahead Her Ambition), das sich mit „Ehrenmorden“ und Genitalverstümmelung, aber auch mit alltäglicher Benachteiligung.
Aus der Selbstdarstellung:

The role of the LAHA initiative will be to network young activists, both male and female, who want to promote grassroots reform. LAHA’s core founding members come from Jordan, Syria, and Egypt, and the project hopes to attract a regional following.

One of the main issues that LAHA targets is so-called “honor killings,” where male family members “rid their families of shame” by killing a female relative whom they feel has “dishonored” their family. The problem is not simply social attitudes in some families. Courts in countries like Jordan and Syria routinely give light punishments to men who kill their female relatives. Murderers are often given only brief jail terms because judges claim to understand the motivation behind the killing.

Auf der Website findet sich zum Beispiel ein Essay über eine jordanische Richterin, die ihres Amtes enthoben wurde, nachdem sie einen Mann, der seine Schwester wegen einer angeblichen vorehelichen Affäre ermordet hatte, zum Tode verurteilte.
Die Richterin schlägt zurück und argumentiert als Muslima:

Fatima Habib considers the decision complete barbarism and primitivism. She adds that it will take us ages to convince people here that women are human beings, and they are as wise as men if not wiser sometimes. Fatima would never put her hands up and surrender. She said that she has the right to be a judge or even a prime minister without doing any harm to the criteria of justice.

“Extremists in our midst spread propaganda claiming that women’s liberation is a western thought aiming at eradicating Islamic morals. This propaganda is false, and its purpose is to confuse you and justify acts of extremism against women. Those extremists know nothing about Islam because one of the major messages of this religion is to defend women and give them their rights to be as equal as men,” says Fatima.

Auf lange Sicht werden sich Frauen wie Fatima Habib nicht aufhalten lassen.

Auch Websites wie mideastyouth und nohonor.org berichten regelmässig über Diskriminierung.

Muslime gehen nicht in die Disco, und wenn sie doch in die Disco gehen, sind sie keine Muslime mehr. (Diese Meinung wurde hier im Forum von Muslimen und Islamkritikern bereits vertreten.) Die gleiche Logik greift bekanntlich bei der Homosexualität.
Was ist dann mit schwulen Muslimen, die in der Disco tanzen gehen und trotzdem Muslime bleiben wollen?
Wie ist der rege Zulauf zu den Discoabenden im Kreuzberger SO36 zu erklären, wenn dort „Gayhane“ (türk. hane = Haus, Zuhause) stattfindet? Die volle Tanzfläche straft die Meinung Lügen, Homosexualität sei für Muslime „kein Thema“. An dem Thema zeigt sich vielmehr exemplarisch, wie und ob Muslime mit der westlichen Moderne zurechtkommen.
Nachtleben im Gayhane
Und es tut sich durchaus etwas: Türkische Homos bevölkern Internetforen wie etwa Delidivane. Dort trägt der meistgelesene Artikel bezeichnender Weise den Titel: Wie steht der Koran zur Homosexualität? Der Artikel ist der Versuch eines frommen schwulen Muslims, den Koran für sich und seinesgleichen zu retten.
Eine schöne Reportage von der Gayhane-Party für schwule und lesbische Araber und Türken hier in der Herald Tribune.
Sie endet ziemlich düster:
K., a 22-year-old Turk from Hamburg, said: „For us, for Muslims, it’s extremely difficult. When you’re gay, you’re immediately cut off from the family.“

He had recently moved to Berlin not long after being cut off from his mother because he is bisexual. „A mother who wishes death for her son, what kind of mother is that?“ he asked, his eyes momentarily filling with tears.

Hasan, a 21-year-old Arab man, sitting at a table in the club’s quieter adjoining cafe, declined to give his last name, saying: „They would kill me. My brothers would kill me.“ Asked if he meant this figuratively, he responded, „No, I mean they would kill me.“

„I’m living one life here and the other one the way they wish me to be,“ Hasan said, referring to his parents. He said he still planned to marry, but when he turned 30 rather than right away, as his parents wished. „I have to have children, to do what Islam wants me to do,“ he said. „I would stop with everything in the homosexual life. I would stop it.“

He stood up from the table and called to his two friends. „All right, boys, let’s go dance,“ he said. „We’re here to have fun.“ And they marched off to the dance floor, smiling.

Zum Thema Einwanderungsland Kanada. Das kanadische Fernsehen hat die erste islamische Sitcom produziert. Ich finde sie ziemlich lustig. In dieser Episode von „Little Mosque on the Prairie“ kommt ein Burkini vor: