“As of New Year‘s Eve evening, police had no suspects for an attack against a mosque in Malmö earlier in the day when shots had been fired through the window of the building.”
“Nobody was seriously injured during the incident. The imam was taken to hospital to treat minor cuts from glass splinters, but he was not struck by a bullet. He was allowed to leave the hospital after his cuts were bandaged.”
“Around five people, including the imam, were in an office following the evening prayers. ”
” ‘The imam was sitting in front of the computer when (we heard) a bang. At first I thought there had been an explosion,’ one of the witnesses told Sydsvenskan newspaper.”
— Haaretz reports: “Settler teen arrested over West Bank mosque arson”
— “Israel Police on Thursday arrested a settler teen suspected of involvement in the torching of a West Bank mosque three weeks ago.”
— “The teen, whose parents and grandfather were killed in Palestinian terror attacks, was arrested at the Tapuah Junction in the West Bank.”
— “The vandalism at the mosque in the West Bank village of Yasuf drew harsh rebuke from Israeli leaders, among them politicians and clergy. During the attack, the vandals torched books of the Koran and prayer carpets, and scrawled Nazi slogans in Hebrew across the walls.”
— “Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger visited the mosque following the attack to express his condemnation.”
— “‘I came here to expression my revulsion at this wretched act of burning a place holy to the Muslim people,” Metzger told the residents after he was escorted into the village under the protection of the Israel Defense Forces and Palestinian police. “This is how the Holocaust began, the tragedy of the Jewish people of Europe.’ ”
— “A delegation of West Bank settlers, led by renowned peacemaker Rabbi Menachem Froman, brought copies of the Koran to the village to replace those lost in the fire.”
NYT: "On Friday, Palestinians inspected the damage done to a mosque that was set on fire in the West Bank village of Yasuf." (Jaafar Ashtiyeh/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images)
Daily Breeze reports: “Thieves damage Azusa mosque”
— “Thieves broke into an Azusa mosque, damaged the building and stole cash from a donation box, and American-Islamic relations advocates today urged police to investigate the incident as a possible hate crime”
— “The break-in occurred Monday between 2:30 p.m and 7 p.m. at the Masjid Al-Fatiha mosque in the 200 block of North Citrus Avenue, said Sgt. Sam Fleming of the Azusa Police Department.
— ” ‘There was $20 stolen from a donation box,’ Fleming said, adding the front door and glass windows were broken.”
— ” ‘It appears to be a crime of opportunity,’ he said. ‘There was no other damage. There was no graffiti and no vandalism.’ ”
— CAIR also reports to Daily Breeze past incidents of Islamophobia at the Masjid Al-Fatiha mosque
France: Anti-Muslim graffiti found on French mosque
— AP reports: “Police say assailants have scrawled a Nazi slogan and hung pig feet on a mosque in southern France.”
— “Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux has denounced the “vile and racist desecration” of the mosque in the town of Castres.”
— “Police say the swastika in black paint and slogans including Hitler salute “Sieg Heil” in German, “France to the French” in French, and “White Power” in English were scrawled on the mosque.”
— Netanyahu to officials: Catch ‘criminals’ behind mosque attack
— Haaretz: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday ordered Israel’s security branches to find the “criminals” who vandalized a mosque in a West Bank village, joining other Israeli leaders in condemning the incident.”
— “The assailants torched furniture at the mosque, in the village of Yasuf, and sprayed Nazi slogans in Hebrew on the premises. They are suspected of being settlers protesting Israel’s temporary freeze on new construction in West Bank settlements.”
According to World Radio Switzerland (WRS), on Sunday, November 30, 2009, Swiss voters passed an initiative to ban Islamic minarets in Switzerland. WRS reported that a “strong majority – 57.5 percent – of voters accepted the initiative Sunday to ban the construction of new minarets… [and that] the “government and major political parties, with the notable exception of the Swiss People’s Party, had called for voters to reject the measure.” WRS further reported that the Swiss Federal Council stated that the “four existing minarets will remain, the statement said, assuring that it will still be possible to construct new mosques and that Muslims in Switzerland ‘are able to practice their religion alone or in community with others, and live according to their beliefs just as before.'”
“‘Singling out Muslims for differential and discriminatory treatment is bigotry, plain and simple, and may irreparably harm Switzerland’s historic reputation as a haven of religious liberty and tolerance,’ said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.”
“‘The Swiss ban will almost certainly undermine efforts by the U.S., the EU and other democracies to counter the successful campaign at the United Nations, led by countries like Pakistan, Algeria and Egypt, to prohibit any criticism of Islam as a form of ‘defamation’ and ‘racism’,’ said Neuer. The General Assembly is soon to vote on a ‘defamation of religion’ resolution, while in Geneva an Algerian-led committee is seeking to amend the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.”
“At a time when Saudi Arabia is being asked to finally end its ban on churches – where some 1.5 million Christians, many of them Filipino workers, are not allowed to worship publicly – Switzerland’s act of xenophobia marks a setback for the credibility of all international voices calling for tolerance.”
Some view that the towering Islamic minarets represent an architectural problem, a nuisance in terms of loud calls to Islamic prayer five times a day, and others view the minarets as symbols of political Islamic power where they are located. Others point out that the minaret ban vote does not impact Islamic mosques in Switzerland. Still others point to the failure of extremist states to have “reciprocity” in terms of allowing the building of churches and other non-Muslim houses of worship.
But none of these arguments address the point of the matter which is that the Swiss vote to call for a ban on Islamic minarets sends a signal that the Swiss people seek to be “situational” in their acceptance of the basic human right of religious freedom. This is the slippery slope that leads to the undermining of credibility for our universal human rights. Clearly some in Switzerland are stunned and disturbed by this decision, and I have also learned that there are plans underway for a new vote to be taken.
Certainly, some of those complaining the most about the Swiss decision also support some of the worst violations of human rights and religious freedom in the world.
It should be a wake up call for all those who support human rights when the likes of Sheik Ali Gomaa and Hizb ut-Tahrir are given a platform to call for “religious freedom.”
The arguments by Ali Gomaa and Hizb ut-Tahrir for “religious freedom” are reminiscent of those white supremacists who used the argument of “white rights” to mask their goals in defying equal opportunities for all people and seeking preferential treatment for white Americans.
We must not give such groups that promote extremism the moral high ground on our universal human rights.
Freedom can be unpopular, freedom can be annoying, freedom can seem threatening, and freedom can be inconvenient.
But despite all of this and because all of this, consistency on freedom is essential.
To those who find such towering minarets intimidating, I ask you to consider – can’t the human spirit rise above any structure?
Our power and our strength comes from within humanity, a humanity that has traveled into space, and walked on the moon. A humanity that has sent vehicles out to the stars.
As viewed from our shared Earth, how can any structure cast a shadow on the human spirit?
We are bigger people than that.
In fact, it is the indefatigable human spirit which defends our shared human rights and our shared dignity for one another which gives us the endless hope that…
Love Wins.
Image of Minaret (London Daily News)Where Our Universal Human Rights Apply...
— Swiss leader calls for Jewish cemetery ban — JTA: “A mainstream Swiss political leader is calling for a ban on separate Muslim and Jewish cemeteries. Christophe Darbellay, president of the Christian Democratic People’s Party of Switzerland, made the statement in a television interview Tuesday, two days after Swiss voters passed an initiative to ban minarets.”
— AP: Nashville, Tennessee: “A federal judge is sentencing a man who firebombed a mosque in central Tennessee to 14 years in prison. Senior U.S. District Court Judge Robert L. Echols sentenced 23-year-old Michael Corey Golden on Monday. Golden and two other men pleaded guilty earlier to burning the Islamic Center of Columbia last year. The city is about 40 miles south of Nashville.”
— ” Court documents showed the men painted swastikas and racial slogans on the center, then threw two homemade Molotov cocktails into it. Prosecutors say Eric Ian Baker and Jonathan Edward Stone will be sentenced in December.”
— November 3, 2008: White Supremacists Plead Guilty to Firebombing Tennessee Mosque
— ADL: “On November 3, 2008, Jonathan Edward Stone, 19, and Michael Corey Golden, 23, pleaded guilty to civil rights charges in federal court in Nashville, Tennessee, for firebombing the Islamic Center of Columbia in February.”
— “Stone and Golden each pleaded guilty to one count of use of fire to damage religious property and one count of destruction of religious property.”
— “During the plea hearing Golden and Stone admitted to constructing Molotov cocktails, breaking into the Islamic Center, igniting the devices and using them to destroy the mosque. The men further admitted that they had committed these actions due to the religious component of the building.”
— “A third defendant charged in the case, Eric Ian Baker, 32, has not yet entered a plea.”
— “Authorities claim the three men went to the Islamic Center, where Baker allegedly spray-painted swastikas and the words “White Power” on the walls, while Golden and Stone broke in and ignited the Molotov cocktails. ‘”
— Summer 2008: ADL – “Three men, all believed to be members of the white supremacist group Aryan Alliance, face federal charges in connection with the pre-dawn arson of a Tennessee mosque.”
— “At least two of the three men are followers of Christian Identity, a virulently racist and anti-Semitic perversion of Christianity that’s often espoused by hate groups. Stone told officials that his role in the fire got him ‘two stripes’ from Baker, his Christian Identity sponsor. He said Christian Identity members earn stripes ‘for committing acts of violence against enemies,’ according to the affidavit.”
