ISLAM IN
THE EUROPEAN UNION:
WHAT’S AT STAKE IN THE FUTURE? EU Paliament
Here
the bit re the UK in the 176 page document.
United
Kingdom191
1. Estimated Muslim
population and percentage on total population
According to the 2001 census, 1,588,890 out of 57,103,927 persons
resident in the United Kingdom are Muslims, amounting to a 2.8 % percentage on
total population. The arrival of Muslims into the country in significant
numbers started after the Second World War from former British colonies [Catto
R. and Davie G., “Religion in Great Britain: Constitutional Foundations, Legislations,
Religious Institutions and Religious Education”, State and Religion in Europe. Legal System, Religious
Education, Religious Affairs, Centre for Islamic
Studies, Istanbul, 2006, pp. 156 and 160].
2. Main Islamic
organisations
The Muslim Council of Britain is
the primary representative organisation for Muslims in the United Kingdom, with
a network of at least 380 smaller organisations. It was founded in 1997 after a
meeting of a number of Muslim organisations and is associated with about 70 %
of Muslims in the United Kingdom. It is composed of national, regional, and
local organisations organised into geographical
zones [http://www.euro-islam.info].
3. Legal status of
Muslim communities
Religious communities, including Islamic ones, can register for
charitable status. Muslim and other religious groups, registered as charities,
are officially recognised and have significant financial advantages [Catto R.
and Davie G., op. cit., pp. 157-158].
4. Mosques, places of
worship, cemeteries and imams
In the United Kingdom, there are more than 500 mosques with official
registration, which gives tax benefits and the right to perform recognised
marriage ceremonies. There are at least other 500 unregistered mosques as well.
Islamic burial practice has not been impeded, and there are sections in public
cemeteries for Muslims as well as several Islamic cemeteries. There are
approximately 1,000 imams [http://www.euro-islam.info].
5. Islamic schools
Religious communities have the right to establish their own independent
schools, although such schools must be registered with the Registrar of
Independent Schools and must meet certain minimum standards. Since 1997, the
Labour Government has extended State funding traditionally given to Anglican,
Catholic, and Jewish schools to other minority faith schools, including four
Muslim schools. There exist approximately 60 independent (that is, private)
Islamic schools in the country [http://www.euro-islam.info; Khaliq U., “Islam and the European Union: Report on the United Kingdom”, in Potz R. and Wieshaider W., Islam and the European Union, Peeters, Leuven, 2004, pp. 254-255].
6. Teaching of Islam in
public schools
Religious education is part of the basic compulsory curriculum in State
schools, but it is not denominational. This means that, while focusing on Christianity,
it also takes into account other religious traditions, including Islam. In
schools attended mainly by Christian students, Islam usually forms a relatively
small component of religious education [Khaliq U., op. cit., pp. 256-257].
7. Education of teachers
of Islam and leaders of the Islamic community
There are currently two institutions dedicated to the training of imams,
the Muslim College in London (established in 1981), and the Markfield Institute
of Higher Education in Leicestershire (established in 2000) [http://www.euro-islam.info].
8. Ritual slaughtering
Ritual slaughtering is allowed in the United Kingdom. There has been
some controversy, but the government has determined that banning the practice
would not be consistent with the European Convention on Human Rights [http://www.euro-islam.info].
9. Headscarf
The country has got a very liberal policy on religious symbols. In 2000,
new Home Office guidelines were issued allowing Muslim women to cover their
heads with the headscarf on their passport photographs. In 2003, Muslim women
working at the Metropolitan Police Force were given the right to wear their
headscarves at work. The first case on the wearing of Islamic garments in
schools concerned a Muslim student’s claim that her school wrongly refused to
allow her to wear her jilbab (a long coat-like garment; the prohibition did not concern the hijab, which she was allowed to
wear). In 2006, the House of Lords ruled against the applicant. However, it is
important to note that the headscarf was not banned as a symbol of political
Islam, but as contrary to the school’s uniform policy. Two subsequent cases
have followed and applied the House of Lord’s decision. In the first
case, a bilingual support worker employed by a school was suspended for refusing
to comply with a school
instruction not to wear a full face veil when teaching children. The
Employment Tribunal dismissed the claim for discrimination, since the ban could
be justified as a proportionate means of achieving the legitimate aim of children
being taught properly. In the second case, a 12-year-old Muslim girl refused to
attend school on the basis that the school would not permit her to wear a niqab veil, which covered her
entire face save her eyes. The judge held that there had been no interference
with her rights because she could have chosen to attend an alternative school
in the locality which would have permitted her to wear the veil [Islamic Human
Rights Commission, Briefing: Good
Practice on the Headscarf in Europe, 9 March 2004, http://www.ihrc.org.uk; Hill M. and Sandberg R., “Muslim Dress in English
Law: Lifting the Veil on Human Rights”, Derecho y Religion, vol. 1, 2006, pp. 302-328].
10. Islamic festivities
Issues concerning Islamic festivities and the times for prayer are settled
through an
agreement between employers and employees. Thus, some employers, who
have a large number of Muslim employees, have made adjustments in break and
lunch times and in allowing holidays to accommodate religious observance.
However, in the absence of a contractual term being inserted at the time of the
negotiation of the contract, the law does not consider claims by Muslims to
allow time off work to attend Friday prayers [Khaliq U., op. cit., pp. 251-253].
11. Islamic chaplaincies
in hospitals, prisons and the Army
The State funds personnel to
provide religious assistance and services in hospitals, prisons, and the Army.
130 imams have been employed to serve the country’s prisons. As of 2001, there were
reportedly one imam working full-time in hospitals, and 20-25 working parttime.
Islamic chaplaincies have been established in the armed forces, as well [Catto
R. and Davie G., op.
cit., p. 165;
Ansari H., “The
Legal Status of Muslims in the UK”, Aluffi B.-P. and R. and Zincone
G., The
Legal Treatment of Islamic Minorities in Europe, Peeters, Leuven, 2004, p. 275].
For
the full document
Other
bits
The explicit aim of the Istanbul Process -- currently backed
by the Obama administration -- is to make it an international crime to
criticize Islam.
A
Muslim fundamentalist group is organizing a conference focused on turning
Austria and other European countries into Islamic states.
The
"Caliphate
Conference 2012" will be held on March 10 in the Austrian town of
Vösendorf, situated just south of Vienna. The main theme of the event will be
"The Caliphate: The State Model of the Future."
The
conference is being organized by Hizb ut-Tahrir [Party of Liberation], a
pan-Islamic extremist group that seeks to establish a global Islamic state, or
caliphate, ruled by Islamic Sharia law.
Hizb
ut-Tahrir -- which is banned in many countries, including Germany, but is free
to operate in Austria -- is virulently opposed to Western capitalism and
democracy and seeks to extend the future caliphate to Europe and the United
States.
According
to a promotional video
(in German) for the conference, "the Islamic Caliphate is the only social
and political system that has the right solutions to the political, social and
economic problems of humanity."
Round
three of the Istanbul Process opened in London on 3 December and was co-hosted
by the governments of the UK and Canada. (1)
The governments of both these countries are therefore complicit in a plan to
subvert our most basic human rights standards. They are effectively
colluding with the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to replace human
rights standards with those of the Islamic sharia.
For
more click on
USA
64 pages
Brussels
Process Launched By The International Civil Liberties Alliance On 9 July 2012
Global Partnership for the Prevention of
Armed Conflict
(GPPAC)
13 pages. http://www.gppac.net/documents/guest/istanbul%20process.pdf
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