A study conducted for the Dutch government has concluded that Islam neither conflicts with Dutch values nor undermines human rights, with welcoming Dutch Muslims hoping for a fresh start.After three years of research, the Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) affirmed that Islam, in principle, neither conflicts with democracy, nor human rights nor Dutch values. It advised The Netherlands and the European Union to reach out to Islamic movements which embraced democracy like Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt and Lebanon's Hezbollah.
The study concluded that some Islamic movements are fully backing democracy and are in no way an obstacle to it. It also recommended that the government communicates with and offers aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian government.The United States and the European Union have suspended direct aid to the new government, like Russia which pledged urgent aid.
Dutch Muslims have seized celebrations of Prophet Muhammad's Birthday earlier this April to introduce their religion and prophet of Islam to non-Muslim Dutch.
Europe’s main rights and democracy watchdog, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), expressed concern in May last year at the increasing Dutch intolerance towards the Muslim minority and the "climate of fear" under which the minority was living.
Islamophobia gained momentum in the Netherlands after the November 2004 killing of director Theo van Gogh by a Dutch-Moroccan after directing the first film of Hirsi. There are one million Muslims in the Netherlands, mostly hailing from Turkish and Moroccan origin.
8 comments:
It's not easy, but society's like your and ours in Canada have to keep striving to be open, secular societies. This, however, includes people of every religion adhering to our human rights structures (and penalties apply to all). It also only works with real efforts to provide language support, integrated schools, a good economy etc.
So far, it's working well in Canada - we'll see!
I agree with Gary. The Report is not as yet published but I suspect portions of Islamic Law would need to ignored for democracy to exist within a uniform framework of human rights.
Best wishes
The "report" is hogwash.
Islam is neither amiable nor compatible to a western secular approach in societal dealings and living conditions - nor is their space therein for the general concept of democracy. Islamic tradition based on the teachings of the Qur'an forbids the separation of "faith" (religion) and state. It is all one and the same! Thus, one of the reasons the Iraq adventure of the US and Britain is sorely failing, is due to the lack of understanding that Democracy can never be exported to a Muslim country.
If Iraq and Afghanistan was or is a nightmare, adding Iran will be hell.
Ah, it is very PC to believe that we can all coexist peacefully and get along so well. Unfortunately, I don't believe that is the nature of religion (or any other dogma for that matter). There seems to be something in many humans that makes them desire that everyone affirms what they believe as well. Doesn't matter if it is Islam, Catholicism (anyone remember the Inquisition?), Protestantism, Atheism, etc. Unfortunately, every monotheistic religion I've encountered claims to be the only true way to "God". Islam falls into that category with Judaism and Christianity. They don't play well with each other.
It is a pitty that the report isn't out in English but the Dutch one I have read and is very good and scientifically profound. It gives a clear distinction between fundamentalist countries like Iran and Syria and the rest of the more modest muslim countries (the majority). I believe it is working well here too. I think Zee is referring to the extremist countries for that matter.
Take Turkey for example, a country that was very Eastern oriented a decade ago. Now that dialogue has started they clearly became more open and western orientated. Turkey, allthough they have their Muslim problems, has improved a lot according to OUR standards (which are sometimes outrageous too)
Hi Haider, thx for your explanation. I have visited your site and was indeed surpised by the information. This kind of information however, is not widely spread which is a great loss for your country to my belief.
These kind of articles we get presented every day:
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=11174
"The Syrians are very supportive of Iran and very supportive of Hamas and Hezbollah," says Mr. Moubayed. "Almost everybody in Syria is praising [Syrian President Bashar] al-Assad's alliance with Iran as a very smart move. Many are saying that the alliance with Ahmadinejad was not political suicide after all."
What do you make out of that? It's an Al Jazeera post. The rest I found on the internet was even more against Syria. And reconfirming my idea on Syria.
If your opinion on your country reflects the real truth then your country has a serious media marketing problem.
Thx again, for your response. You made a good point.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/04/18/news/web.0418un.php
gives another example Haider. I am wondering though wheter it is the politics or the fundamental belief system that makes Syria's desire to destroy Israel so strong.
Post a Comment