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The Swiss Ban Minarets
By R. Albert Mohler, Jr. | The Christian Post
 The banning of minarets appears to be a cowardly move that contradicts Swiss commitments to religious freedom and tolerance. Singling out minarets in this ban is tantamount to isolating Islam and relegating it to second-class status - all protests to the contrary notwithstanding. The Muslim minaret is the central architectural symbol of Islam, as recognizably Muslim as steeples with crosses are recognizably Christian. Any nation that is truly committed to religious liberty cannot sustain a ban on one religiously significant architectural symbol or structure in this manner.
The receding influence of Christianity in Switzerland can be traced directly to theological liberalism in its churches and the increasing secularity of Swiss culture. Islam now enters the void created by the decline of Christianity and Christian culture in Switzerland, and throughout much of the continent as well.
Banning the minaret may serve to hide Muslim influence from view, but it does not address the underlying issues at stake. Surely the Swiss can do better than this. With this measure they have managed to violate religious liberty, anger Muslims, and avoid dealing with reality - all in one simultaneous act. "Out of sight, out of mind" is not a respectable or sustainable policy.
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Vote to Ban Minarets is Fueled by Fear
The Swiss have voted not against towers, but Muslims. Across Europe, we must stand up to the flame-fanning populists.
By Tariq Ramadan | The Guardian
 Voters were drawn to the cause by a manipulative appeal to popular fears and emotions. Posters featured a woman wearing a burka with the minarets drawn as weapons on a colonised Swiss flag. The claim was made that Islam is fundamentally incompatible with Swiss values. (The UDC has in the past demanded my citizenship be revoked because I was defending Islamic values too openly.) Its media strategy was simple but effective. Provoke controversy wherever it can be inflamed. Spread a sense of victimhood among the Swiss people: we are under siege, the Muslims are silently colonising us and we are losing our very roots and culture. This strategy worked. The Swiss majority are sending a clear message to their Muslim fellow citizens: we do not trust you and the best Muslim for us is the Muslim we cannot see.
I have been repeating for years to Muslim people that they have to be positively visible, active and proactive within their respective western societies. In Switzerland, over the past few months, Muslims have striven to remain hidden in order to avoid a clash. It would have been more useful to create new alliances with all these Swiss organisations and political parties that were clearly against the initiative. Swiss Muslims have their share of responsibility but one must add that the political parties, in Europe as in Switzerland have become cowed, and shy from any courageous policies towards religious and cultural pluralism. It is as if the populists set the tone and the rest follow. They fail to assert that Islam is by now a Swiss and a European religion and that Muslim citizens are largely "integrated".
That we face common challenges, such as unemployment, poverty and violence - challenges we must face together. We cannot blame the populists alone - it is a wider failure, a lack of courage, a terrible and narrow-minded lack of trust in their new Muslim citizens.
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American Muslims Fear for European Counterparts
By Karin Kamp | The Turkish Weekly
 Switzerland's decision to ban minarets has sparked outrage by Muslim-Americans who have called the vote "xenophobic and bigoted."
The Swiss minaret ban, agreed by voters on Sunday, heightens a general concern by Muslims in the United States about the challenges faced by Muslims living in Europe. "Our fear is that the ban is going to further alienate a growing population of Muslims in Europe," said Faiza Ali of The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a leading Muslim-American group.
Ali cited other examples of challenges faced by European Muslims, including French resistance to burkas worn by some Muslim women, and opposition in parts of Europe to Turkish membership in the European Union.
Besides national papers, such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, a number of local newspapers have also denounced the decision. The New York Daily News, called the Swiss vote "utterly idiotic" adding that "passing laws that target Muslims for being Muslims is not part of any clash of civilizations, it is a failure of one".
The Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy said in a statement that the decision is of "great concern", calling it part of a "disturbing trend in significant parts of Europe to restrict the religious freedom and self-expression of religious and ethnic minorities, notably of Muslims".
At the same time, CSID credited the Swiss government for its stance against the proposal.
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Cleric Wields Religion to Challenge Iran's Theocracy
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN | The New York Times
 Ayatollah Montazeri has emerged as the spiritual leader of the opposition, an adversary the state has been unable to silence or jail because of his religious credentials and seminal role in the founding of the republic. He is widely regarded as the most knowledgeable religious scholar in Iran and once expected to become the country's supreme leader until a falling-out with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the 1979 revolution and Iran's supreme leader until his death in 1989.
Now, as the Iranian government has cracked down to suppress the protests that erupted after the presidential election in June and devastated the reform movement, Ayatollah Montazeri uses religion to attack the government's legitimacy.
"A political system based on force, oppression, changing people's votes, killing, closure, arresting and using Stalinist and medieval torture, creating repression, censorship of newspapers, interruption of the means of mass communications, jailing the enlightened and the elite of society for false reasons, and forcing them to make false confessions in jail, is condemned and illegitimate," he said in one of a flurry of written comments posted on Web sites since the election.
Ayatollah Montazeri's disillusionment, and his alienation from the state, came within a decade of the revolution. He mocked Ayatollah Khomeini's decision to issue a fatwa calling for the murder of Salman Rushdie, author of "The Satanic Verses," saying, "People in the world are getting the idea that our business in Iran is just murdering people."
In recent times, Ayatollah Montazeri has kept up the pressure, taking the unprecedented step of apologizing for his support for the 1979 takeover of the United States Embassy. He also has said that the Islamic Republic is neither Islamic, nor a republic, and that the supreme leader has lost his legitimacy.
"Independence," he said in a recent speech on ethics, "is being free of foreign intervention, and freedom is giving people the freedom to express their opinions. Not being put in prison for every protest one utters."
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Ibrahim Kalin, new chief foreign affairs adviser to the Turkish Prime Minister, Tayyip Erdogan
By Nicholas Birch | Al-Majalla
The Majalla: Would you agree that Turkish foreign policy has radically changed in the past five years or so?
 I believe there is as much continuity as there is change. Take Israel for example. People think Turkey has turned its back on Israel because AK Party is an "Islamist party" with a hidden agenda. That is not true. Turkey was the first Muslim country to recognise Israel in 1948, but it was also among the first to pull out its ambassador when Jewish extremists set fire to the Al-Aqsa mosque in 1968. When the Jenin incident happened in 2002, it was the late Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, a secular politician, who called it a genocide, not the AK Party. Until 2008, this government was facilitating Israeli-Syrian negotiations. The Israelis trusted us. The Syrians trusted us. And we trusted them. The Gaza campaign broke that trust. Relations go up and down.
The nature of debates in Turkey, the West and the world are changing. Turkey is no longer a stagnant country living in the shadow of super powers in a Cold War world. History no longer flows from west to east. There is no longer a convincing western axis. The question is whether Europe has the strategic vision to project itself into the new world. Will it transform itself from a continental power to a soft power effective over a wider region? Or will it remain imprisoned in technical debates about EU legislation, its geopolitical vision extending no further than the Bulgarian-Turkish border? Those who interpret change as a threat will be discarded by history. That is why Turkey, independent of the Europeans' state of mind, must follow through its own reforms with determination. If we know what we are doing at a time when Europe and America are feeling muddled, whose fault is that?
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The Muslim Brotherhood
Struggling to Steer a Democratic Course
The Muslim Brotherhood is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states, particularly Egypt. Now splits within the world's oldest and largest Islamic political group indicate that it is at a decisive crossroads.
By James M. Dorsey | Qantara
 The strain of the repression is, however, starting to take its toll on the Brotherhood. Splits within the Egyptian movement after Supreme Guide Mohammed Mahdi Akef announced that he would not stand for re-election in January of next year have spilled onto the pages of the Egyptian media. Conservatives in the movement blocked Akef's nomination of a leading reformer to the movement's leadership council.
"This is dangerously short-sighted. It weakens the foundations of democracy as a whole ... and has a corrosive effect on public freedoms, transparency and accountability," Marc Lynch, an expert on the Brotherhood at Washington's George Washington University, told Deutsche Welle. That, however, may well be the purpose of the crackdown.
"It is in the (Egyptian) government's advantage to keep the Brotherhood ultra-conservative," Khalil al-Anani, an Egyptian expert on radical Islam, told Deutsche Welle. "The more democratic the group gets, the more popular it will become in the country."
Carnegie Endowment's Ottaway notes that repression by Arab governments coupled with their own inexperience in formulating polices has ensured that the Muslim Brotherhood has little to show for its endorsement of the democratic process.
"The present weakening of Islamist parties that sought to participate in the political system is not a positive development for the future of political reform in the Arab world. Because the secular opposition is extremely ineffectual everywhere, the weakening of Islamist forces means the weakening of all opposition, and governments are unlikely to reform if they do not confront domestic pressure and demands," Ottaway says.
Privately, several European officials and diplomats say they favor integration of moderate Islamists into the political life of the Arab world. They note that the Brothers in Egypt and Jordan are seeking non-violent ways to survive government repression. In Palestine, Hamas, the only Brotherhood group holding political office, is struggling to cater to the needs of 1.5 million mostly destitute Palestinians under its rule.
"The castrated American political system lacks the ability to act with conviction on the really tough issues so as to talk to all actors; Europe is not so emasculated, and should avoid at all costs following the United States' route to impotent self-marginalization," Khouri said.
While widely praised as competent, critics fear that Ashton, until her appointment, the EU's relatively low key trade commissioner, who is widely seen as lacking significant foreign policy experience, may find it difficult to unite the EU's 27 member states on bold approaches toward the Middle East like an opening towards the region's Islamist forces.
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The Deflated Arab Hopes for Obama
By Jackson Diehl | The Washington Post
 It's been nearly six months since Barack Obama stirred hearts and raised hopes across much of the Arab world with his much-promoted Cairo address. Many came away from it expecting a new and more vigorous U.S. attempt to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Others hoped for more American sympathy and support for liberal reform in countries where free expression, women's rights and democratic elections are blocked by entrenched autocracies.
The peace-process bubble burst two months ago at the United Nations, when Obama's poorly executed attempt to launch final-settlement talks between Israelis and Palestinians collapsed. Arabs who were led by Obama's rhetoric to believe that the United States would force Israel to make unprecedented concessions -- like a complete end to all construction in Jerusalem -- were bitterly disappointed.
But they are not the only victims of post-Cairo letdown. Arab reformers, who for most of this decade have been trying to break down the barriers to social and political modernization in the Middle East, have also begun to conclude that the Obama administration is more likely to harm than to help them. "All Arab countries are craving change -- and many of us believed Obama was a tool for change," says Aseel al- Awadhi, a Kuwaiti member of parliament. "Now we are losing that hope."
Clinton began her speech by referring to Obama's call in Cairo for "a new beginning between the United States and Muslim communities around the world." She then said that after consulting with "local communities" the administration had "focused on three broad areas where we believe U.S. support can make a difference." These turned out to be "entrepreneurship," "advancing science and technology" and education. As if citing the also-rans, Clinton added that "women's empowerment" was "a related priority" and that "the United States is committed to a comprehensive peace in the Middle East." The word "democracy" appeared nowhere in the speech, and there was no reference at all to the Arabs who are fighting to create independent newspapers, political parties or human rights organizations.
Saad Eddin Ibrahim, an Egyptian who is one of the best-known Arab reformers, was part of a group who met Clinton after the speech. He told me that he tried to point out to her that "the next two years are crucial" for determining the political direction of the Middle East, in part because Egypt is approaching a major transition. Parliamentary elections are scheduled in 10 months, and their results will determine whether a presidential election scheduled for 2011 will be genuinely democratic.
Clinton, said Ibrahim, replied that democracy promotion had always been a centerpiece of U.S. diplomacy and that the Obama administration would not give it up -- "but that they have a lot of other things on their plate." For Arab liberals, the translation is easy, if painful: Regardless of what the president may have said in Cairo, Obama's vision for the Middle East doesn't include "a new beginning" in the old political order.
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Torture is systematic in Egypt 'police state'
By Jailan Zayan| AFP
 Egypt has become a police state where citizens receive no protection from torture, human rights groups said in a report published on Thursday. The rights groups, including the Hesham Mubarak Law Centre and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), lashed out at the state for its "systematic" use of torture.
"Egyptians enjoy no protection against torture -- a systematic, routine practice," they said. "Crimes of torture continue to be an everyday practice in police stations (as well as) prisons and even on public roads.
"In many documented cases, torture has resulted in death," despite the Egyptian government insisting they are isolated cases, the groups said.
"The security apparatus also commonly detains entire families as hostages to force wanted fugitives to turn themselves in," the report said.
The state of emergency allows for the detention of anyone who falls under the broad category of constituting "a danger to public security".
As a result, there are now around 12,000 to 14,000 detained persons "some of whom have been under detention for 15 years without charge or trial, although many have received numerous release orders."
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LETTER FROM YEMEN
Child brides' enduring plight
Problem illustrates hold of tribal doctrines
By Sudarsan Raghavan | The Washington Post
 Ayesha rested her head on the doctor's desk. She had removed her black veil, revealing a round face contorted in pain. She had married a 53-year-old man when she was 13. Now 15, she wanted her childhood back. She clutched her sides and groaned.
It was 3:30 p.m. in Arwa Elrabee's office. The gynecologist looked at Ayesha and shook her head. She knew Ayesha's pain was as much psychological as it was physical.
"I don't want to be married," Ayesha explained, her mother standing next to her.
"Why did you marry her off so early?" the doctor demanded. "Why didn't you allow her to continue her education?"
"It wasn't me. It was her father," Ayesha's mother replied. "He wanted to marry her off."
Yemen has no minimum age for marriage, and girls as young as 8 are often forced to wed. Many become mothers soon after they reach puberty. The country has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world. The death of a 12-year-old in childbirth this fall highlighted the health risks.
Child brides and young mothers are the most vivid manifestations of how tribal doctrines prevail over modern attitudes in the Middle East's poorest country.
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CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF ISLAM AND DEMOCRACY
Call for Paper Proposals
Deadline: December 10, 2009
U.S. Engagement with the Muslim World:
One Year After Cairo
CSID's 11th Annual Conference
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Washington DC
In a much-anticipated speech in June 2009, President Barack Obama, speaking from the Egyptian capital, sought a "new beginning" in U.S. relations with the Muslim world. Promising to move beyond terrorism and security to focus on issues of mutual interest, the President laid out an ambitious agenda for overhauling ties between his country and the world's 1.57 billion Muslims. Since the speech there has been considerable debate over its meaning and significance: were Obama's words to be accompanied by new programs and concrete initiatives, or were they merely intended to signal a new diplomatic posture towards the Muslim world? Muslim audiences tended to welcome the speech, but indicated that they would reserve judgment until it was translated into action. Months after the speech-with the U.S. administration bogged down by healthcare reform, economic recovery, and ongoing challenges in Afghanistan-the path towards improved relations with the Islamic world remains unclear.
CSID's most recent conference invited reflections on what might be possible for the U.S. and the Islamic world under a new U.S. administration. Following naturally from this previous theme, its 11th annual conference will assess the state of U.S.-Muslim world relations a year after the Cairo speech. What, if anything, has changed in terms of how the United States approaches its major policy challenges in the Muslim world? Do we see signs that governments and other actors in the Muslim world regard the U.S. differently since the new administration came into office?
Paper proposals are invited from prospective participants on the following four broad topics related to the main conference theme. Prospective presenters are also welcome to submit papers that fall outside these topics, but must establish their relevance to the broader conference theme:
A. The Cairo Speech Agenda: Fulfilled or Deferred?
How have U.S.-Islamic world relations fared in the year following President Obama's Cairo speech? Has the new U.S. administration delivered on its commitment to a "new beginning" with the Muslim world? Can we detect significant differences in how the United States is viewed by the Muslim world?
B. Democracy Development in the Muslim World: New Approaches or No Longer a Priority?
The previous U.S. administration placed a premium on democratization in the Middle East and Muslim world, but received mixed reviews on its implementation. Some argue that so far the Obama administration has largely abandoned the democracy agenda in favor of regional security interests. How does the current administration view democratization in the context of other challenges it faces in the Muslim world, and to what extent can we detect any policy shifts?
C. The Role of American Muslims in U.S.-Islamic World Relations
President Obama made special mention of Muslim Americans in his Cairo speech. What role have Muslims in the United States played in promoting ties with the wider Muslim world and to what extent do they serve to promote economic development, political reform, and new thinking? Will the appointment of a Special Representative to Muslim Communities at the State Department have significant consequences for outreach to American Muslims and beyond?
D. The U.S. and Conflict in the Muslim World
From Afghanistan to the Israel/Palestine conflict, much of the U.S. relationship with the Muslim world continues to be defined by ongoing conflicts. How has the Obama administration dealt with these situations and have we seen any signs of new thinking?
Paper proposals (no more than 400 words) are Due by December 10, 2009 and should be sent to:
Prof. Peter Mandaville
Chair, Conference Program Committee
E-mail: conference2010@islam-democracy.org
Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by January 22, 2010 and final papers must be submitted by March 15, 2010.
Selected panelists and speakers must cover their own travel and accommodations to participate in the conference, and pay the conference registration fee by March 15, 2010. Speakers and panelists coming from overseas will receive a contribution of $300 from CSID to defray travel expenses.
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View Images of the Hajj - 2009
Click here to view more photos of the Hajj.
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BDC Visiting Fellow Program
The Brookings Doha Center hosts two to three Visiting Fellows each year from the United States or the Muslim world. Visiting Fellows conduct individual research and collaborative activities, interact with policymaking communities, and present their research at a policy seminar. The BDC's convening power gives Visiting Fellows the opportunity to share views with policy scholars and opinion leaders, university professors, diplomats, government officials, journalists, as well as the oil and financial communities. The Doha-based international media frequently calls on Fellows to provide commentary and analysis.
Each Visiting Fellow is expected to complete a Brookings analysis paper of 10,000-15,000 words that falls within one of the three areas of the Center's work: (i) Governance Issues (e.g., analysis of media laws, political reform, religion and society), (ii) Human Development (e.g., analysis of government and non-governmental policy in the areas of education, health, environment, and economics); and (iii) International Affairs / Security Studies (e.g., analysis of Gulf security, the war in Iraq, Israeli-Palestinian affairs, etc). All fellowship recipients must meet Brookings' high standards for quality. In addition, Visiting Fellows will write a short 2000-4000 word policy paper on a separate topic.
Apply by: December 10, 2009
Decision by: January 10, 2010
Start date: Between February 15 and April 1, 2010 for at least three months.
Please submit the following three items to DohaCenter@brookings.edu
Apply Here
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CSID Board Member Receives MESA Academic Freedom Award
 A prominent advocate for human rights and reform in Syria, Radwan Ziadeh has frequently given talks in and outside Syria on the status of human rights and democratic reform in Syria, Ziadeh was editor of Tayarat magazine in 2001-2002 and served as secretary of the Syrian Organization for Transparency. In 2004, he was named the best political science researcher in the Arab world by Jordan's Abdulhameed Shoman Foundation. He was also a principal figure and activist in the Damascus Spring, a period of intense debate about politics and social issues and calls for reform in Syria after the death of President Hafez al-Assad in 2000. Following an extended period of intensive surveillance by Syrian security agencies, and based on indications that he was about to be detained, Ziadeh fled Syria in mid-2007. He received a Jennings Randolph Senior Fellowship from the U.S. Institute of Peace for the 2007-2008 academic year, and was then selected as a "Scholar at Risk," by Harvard University where he spent the 2008-2009 academic year in residence at the Kennedy School. Having left Syria without government permission, Ziadeh is not able to return to his home country.
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By supporting CSID, YOU:
- Create a better future for our children so they can have more opportunities for improving their lives and realizing their dreams.
- Educate and inform Americans about Islam's true values of tolerance, peace, and good will towards mankind, including peoples of other faiths.
- Improve U.S. relations with the Muslim world by supporting popular movements rather than oppressive tyrannies and corrupt regimes.
- Replace the feelings of hopelessness, despair, and anger in many parts of the Muslim world, especially among the youth, with a more positive and hopeful outlook for the future.
- Encourage young Muslim Americans, and Muslims everywhere, to participate in the political process and to reject calls for destructive violence and extremism.
- Build a network of Muslim democrats around the globe who can share knowledge and experience about how to build and strengthen democratic institutions and traditions in the Muslim countries.
Center for the Study of Islam & Democracy
Membership/Donation Form 2009-2010
Name: ___________________________________________________ Institution:________________________________________________ Address: __________________________________________________ City____________________State______________Zip _____________ Tel.:______________________________________________________ Fax.:_____________________________________________________ E-mail:___________________________________________________ I would like to join CSID as: Student Member ❑$20 Newsletter Subscription ❑ $20 Institutional Member ❑ $200 CSID 500 Club ❑ $500 Associate Member ❑ $50 Founding Member ❑ $1000 Member ❑ $100 Lifetime Member ❑ $2500 National Advisory Board ❑ $1,000 International Advisory Board ❑ $5,000I would like to make a tax-deductible donation for: $__________ I would like to make a pledge to CSID for: ❑ $1000 ❑ $500 ❑ $200 ❑ $100 ❑ $50 Other________ I would like to pledge a monthly donation of _______over___months. Please mail, along with payment, to: CSID, 1625 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Suite 601, Washington, D.C. 20036 The Center for the Study of Islam & Democracy is a non-profit think tank, based in Washington DC - dedicated to promoting a better understanding of democracy in the Muslim world, and a better understanding of Islam in America. To achieve its objectives, the Center organizes meetings, conferences, and publishes several reports and periodicals. CSID engages Muslim groups, parties, and governments - both secularist and moderate Islamist - in public debates on how to reconcile Muslims' interpretation of Islam and democracy. CSID is committed to providing democracy education to ordinary citizens, civil society, religious and political leaders in the Muslim world, and has organized meetings, workshops, and conferences in over 25 countries, including Nigeria, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Iran, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, etc.
" In just a few years, CSID has done remarkable work in facilitating the vital discussion about Islam and democracy in the United States and beyond. In so doing it has made an invaluable contribution to breaking down prejudice and misunderstanding and to meeting the crucial challenge of advancing human rights and democracy in the Muslim world." Neil Hicks
Human Rights Defenders Program
" The Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID) plays an absolutely vital role in creating a platform for the voices of democracy and reform throughout the Muslim World. Equally vital is the role they play in bringing a better understanding of the diversity within Islam to the people of America. CSID's advocacy of Islamic values coupled with democratic principles needs and merits our support." John D. Sullivan
Center for International Private Enterprise
For more on What they Say about CSID please visit our website: www.csidonline.org
Please support CSID with your membership and/or donation to continue its mission of promoting a greater understanding of Islam in the US, and a better understanding and implementation of democracy in the Muslim world.
With our best wishes and regards,
Sincerely,
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Radwan A. Masmoudi
President
Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy |
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