issue 8 june

Muslim leaders in France have agreedto end almost 1,400 years of Islamictradition and use modern astronomy todetermine the start of the holy month ofRamadhan and other Islamic holidays.The French Muslim Council (CFCM)voted recently to start using astronomicalcalculations to set the date ratherthan relying on the naked eye to sightthe new crescent moon.Ramadhan traditionally begins themorning after the sighting, which has inthe past been delayed by a day or eventwo by weather.Council President Mohammad Moussaouisaid the old method played havocwith French Muslims’ schedules forwork, school and festivities. France’sfive million Muslims are the largestIslamic minority in Europe.‘Now all this will be simplified,’ hesaid, and promptly announced theRamadhan fast would begin on July 9this year.Turkey began using scientific calculationsto set the start of Ramadhandecades ago. Muslims in Germany, whoare mostly of Turkish origin and thosein Bosnia, also use this method.Muslim minorities elsewhere in Europeoften start Ramadhan according to itsbeginning in their countries of origin,or in Makkah. That can lead to differentethnic groups starting it on differentdays, even in the same country.‘This is historic. Now all Muslims inFrance can start Ramadhan on thesame day,’ said Lyon Muslim leaderAzzedine Gaci.Muslim scientists have been arguing forusing astronomy to determine Islamicdates for years, especially now thatglobalised communications make itincreasingly awkward for different countriesto start Ramadhan on differentdays. Moussaoui said French Muslimswere not planning to ask for theirholidays to be included in the nationalcalendar. ‘It would be more importantfor us that they are taken into consideration,that’s all,’ he said.However, the majority of the Muslimworld relies on the time-honouredtradition of moon sighting which alsoputs the believers in touch with thewonders of creation.French Politician Attacks Muslimsto Appease Far RightFirst he lambasted ‘anti-white racism’;now an outspoken right-wing Frenchpolitician has set his sights on theMuslim community as he seeks tobecome the heir to Nicolas Sarkozy.Jean Francois Copé, who is bidding tobecome leader of the centre right UMPparty, a position once held by Sarkozy,lamented the state of some neighbourhoodsin France’s cities, and in doing solaunched a thinly veiled snipe at Islam.At a meeting in the southern town ofDraguignan he said: ‘I can understandthe exasperation of some of our compatriotswhen there are some neighbourhoodswhere a mother or father willcome home from work in the eveningto learn their son has had his pain auchocolate snatched out of his hand bythugs, telling him it is forbidden to eatduring Ramadhan’.The story was seized upon by theFrench media with the words Copé,Ramadhan and Pain au Chocolatheadlining numerous articles.Copé’s inflammatory comments comenot long after he was accused of stirringup tensions, when he expressedhis dismay over the growing ‘anti-whiteracism’ in France’s cities.On both occasions the brazen Copé wasaccused of trying to court the far rightvote in his bid to beat rival FrançoisFillon to become head of the UMP innext month’s election.Copé’s apparent efforts to win favourwith France’s powerful far right echothose made by his friend and formercolleague Nicolas Sarkozy duringthe latest presidential election, whenthe former head of state’s repeatedanti-immigration rhetoric saw himlambasted in the left-wing press.Copé, who has published a new bookroughly translated as ‘A manifesto foran unabashed right-wing’, later tried tojustify his words saying he was simplydescribing ‘an everyday scene’ andclaimed that this type of behaviour wasmotivated by a desire ‘to manipulatereligion’ for their own ends.But his words have provoked an angrybacklash on social media and on theair waves. Speaking to French radiostation RTL, government spokeswomanNajat Vallaud-Belkacem said: ‘It is clearJean-Francois Copé is trying to exploit asubject that is far too important to beexploited, which is the question of livingtogether.’‘The day he wants to speak calmlyinstead of seeking to exploit fears andfantasies, I would be ready to listen,’ sheadded.Leaders of France’s Muslim communityalso slammed Copé for his remarks.‘These types of accusations are easy tomake,’ said Abdallah Zekri, presidentof the French Observatory againstIslamophobia. ‘He wants to please theextremists in his party and as usual heattacks Muslims and young people’.USA‘Hijab Wearing Terrorist Girl’ CardAngers Rights ActivistsA member of a Chicago-area civil rightsgroup made a disturbing discoverywhen she found a neighbourhood cardand novelty shop selling a card thatdepicted a young Hijab-wearing Muslimgirl — as a terrorist.The Chicago Monitor reported thecard featuring the smiling cartoon girlis covered with messages like, ‘She’lllove you to death!’ and ‘She’ll blow yourbrains out!’ Inside, the card reads, ‘Hopeyour birthday is a blow out!’Ahmed Rehab, Chicago executivedirector of the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations, called the card‘moronic’. He says he has heard fromplenty of people decrying the card asoffensive and feeding into negativestereotypes about Muslims.‘The woman in Massachusetts just twoweeks ago that was punched whilewalking her kids for no other reasonthan wearing a hijab on her head, wasbecause someone thought that becauseshe wears it, she is a terrorist,’ Rehabtold CBS television.The Monitor pointed out the card’s uglyinference, noting: ‘Notice that nothingidentifies this doll as a terrorist in theminds of the card designers other thanthat she wears a Hijab. Moreover, she -like many Muslim girls who choose towear the Hijab - is a smiling, non-threateningnormal-looking female wearing apink Hijab and a flower-patterned dress.The unmistakable message behind the“humour” is that even the most peacefullooking Muslims are synonymous andexchangeable with terrorists.’Deana Othman, a Chicago Muslim journalist,said: ‘Why is the lampooning ofthe Muslim terrorist an acceptable one?The parody of the Muslim presents aunique scenario: While satire of AfricanAmericans, Latinos or Jews is seen asracist, “Muslim” is not a race, and thereforeparody of Muslims does not fallunder the purview of racist discourse.’More Muslims and HindusImmigrate to the U.S.While the majority of legal U.S. immigrantsare Christians, there has been agrowing percentage of non-Christiansimmigrating to the United States,especially Muslims and Hindus. Thatimmigration has been reflected in thegrowing number of new mosques andtemples in different U.S. cities.A recent report released by the PewForum on the religious affiliation ofimmigrants shows that the percentagesof immigrants who are Muslim or Hindudoubled from 1992 to 2012. Over thepast two decades, the United States hasgranted permanent residency to abouta million immigrants each year.While Christians continue to makeup a majority of legal immigrants, theestimated share of new legal permanentresidents who are Christian declinedfrom 68 per cent in 1992 to 61 per centin 2012.Over the same period, the estimatedshare of Green Card recipients whobelong to religious minorities rose from19 per cent to 25 per cent.Muslims increased from five per centin 1992 to 10 per cent in 2012; Hindusincreased from three per cent to sevenper cent in 2012. Buddhists decreasedslightly, from seven per cent in 1992 tosix per cent of legal immigrants in 2012.Since 1992, the United States hasadmitted an estimated total of about1.7 million Muslim immigrants, nearly amillion Hindu immigrants and about amillion Buddhist immigrants, accordingto the Pew Research Center’s estimate.The percentage of religiously unaffiliatedimmigrants remained stable, about14 per cent. Immigration accountsfor much of the growth of Islam andHinduism in the United States.The estimated number of new Muslimimmigrants has grown from roughly50,000 in 1992 to 100,000 in 2012.Since 2008, the estimated number ofMuslims becoming U.S. permanentresidents has remained at or above the100,000 level each year.Legal immigrants arriving over the pasttwo decades constitute a large portionof the overall U.S. Muslim population.Pew Research Center surveys of U.S.Muslims in 2007 and 2011 show thatthe number of Muslims living in theUnited States rose in that four-yearperiod by about 300,000 adults and100,000 children, to a total of about2.75 million Muslims of all ages. Thatrate of increase would be difficult toexplain without rising immigration, thereport said. •8 9