A British university has established a dedicated centre to study the extremist far right, with a particular focus on the increase in violent anti-Islamic sentiment and the possibility of a lone, Anders Behring Breivik style attack.

The Centre for Fascist, Anti-Fascist and Post-Fascist Studies at Teesside University will be formally launched later this month at an event marking National Holocaust Memorial Day. Beginning with two academics, Professor Nigel Copsey and Dr Matthew Feldman, the centre will specialise in both the history of far-right radicalism in this country, and current trends and dangers.

The two main UK public fronts for far-right sentiment, the British National party and the street-based, anti-Islam English Defence League, are both in apparent decline. The BNP has lost almost all its council seats, and last autumn one of its two MEPs, Andrew Brons, publicly quit, saying the party had shed 90% of its membership. The leader of the EDL, meanwhile, was jailed this month for travelling to the US using someone else's passport.

Feldman, a historian by background, said organisations such as the EDL, which began in Luton in response to anti-armed forces demonstrations by hardline Islamist groups, tended to fizzle out: "You can only mobilise people to come out on a Saturday and shout slogans for a couple of years. Then people will say, I've been to five of these demonstrations, they're getting smaller, my chance of getting arrested is getting bigger. Then you get fragmentation."

However, he argued, this should not obscure a more gradual shift from race-based far-right activism towards "cultural nationalism", notably against Islam. He said: "For the first time since, I believe, the National Front in the late 70s and early 80s, the far right is really going for popular support. It's moving out into the mainstream, with some success."

Guardian, 13 January 2013

See also "Teesside University to open study centre of far right", BBC News, 11 January 2013

And "Britain's first research unit into study of extremist politics launched by Teesside University", Northern Echo, 11 January 2013

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Organizations using fear and anger to spread negative messages about Muslims have moved from the fringes of public discourse into the mainstream media since the Sept. 11 attacks, according to new research by a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill sociologist.

Titled, "The Fringe Effect: Civil Society Organizations and the Evolution of Media Discourse about Islam since the September 11th Attacks," the study appears in the December issue of the American Sociological Review.

Christopher Bail, an assistant professor of sociology in UNC's College of Arts and Sciences, used plagiarism detection software to track the influence of 1,084 press releases about Muslims from 120 organizations on more than 50,000 television transcripts and newspaper articles produced from 2001 to 2008.

"I found that organizations with negative messages about Muslims captivated the mass media after the Sept. 11 attacks, even though the vast majority of civil society organizations depict Muslims as peaceful, contributing members of American society," said Bail, who also is a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar at the University of Michigan. "As a result, public condemnations of terrorism by Muslims have received little media attention, but organizations spreading negative messages continue to stoke public fears that Muslims are secretly plotting to overthrow the U.S. government."

Bail said the mass media has not only contributed to the spread of negative messages about Islam, but also given fringe organizations the opportunity to raise funds and build social networks within elite conservative circles.

"They are now so much a part of the mainstream that they have been able to recast genuinely mainstream Muslim organizations as radicals," he said.

Most importantly, Bail added, "The rising tide of anti-Muslim sentiment in the American media not only tests foundational principles about religious tolerance, but may also validate foreign extremists who argue that the United States is at war with Islam, since American media messages routinely travel to the Middle East."

Bail is working on a book that expands on this study. The book will explain how fringe groups not only create cultural change in the mass media, but also public policy and public opinion more broadly.

Science Codex, 29 November 2012

See also "Study: News stories aid anti-Muslim groups", UPI, 29 November 2012

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Demand of Islam for its human beings is to fashion their lives completely in accordance by the divine principles. By these divine principles, he realms his life with freedom. Islamic basic philosophical percepts of Islamic Economics is very clear and a complete way of life. Percepts of Islamic Economics symbolizes the necessity of intense obedience to Allah and practicing Allah’s laws and percepts. Islam gives the complete definition of relationship between human being and his acquired wealth money.

From Islamic point of view man has not brought anything with him when he is born and he will not take anything from his worldly wealth when he will die. Only his good and bad deeds will go with him. Islam says that a person does not form any part and has no ownership in property and wealth he owns in world. How a human can own anything from that property which he does not even own. He cannot take his earned wealth into his grave. They will remain here. This percepts of Islamic Economics gives a clear linkage of man with his property.  Quran has given a complete key for philosophical percepts of economics, it says:

“Believe in Allah and His Messenger (Muhammad) and spend of that whereof He has made you trustees”

Verse clearly says that real and absolute power and ownership of wealth and property lies with only creator of universe Allah. Human beings represent Allah in economic percepts of world. Human being is responsible to obey and comply with Allah’s laws, rules and precepts in the realms of his economic activities. As property is concerned, the human society has got a collective responsibility. According to Islamic teachings man is responsible for giving zakat and charity from the wealth and property he owns in world. He is responsible for giving the mentioned and prescribed percentage of wealth to needy and poor from his property. Zakat is a process of purifying the wealth with serenity of teachings and religion. Charity is one of the basic philosophical percepts of Islamic economics. It prevents man from evil mentality of worshiping his money wealth and property. It centralizes and balances the property in a proper condition and way. Islam curtails and controls the freedom of earning wealth through moral ways prescribed by religion. Wealth earned through wrong deeds is strongly forbidden and forms a link with Allah’s punishment. Islam promulgates economics as civilization of one’s life. Charity and zakat is a mixture of others right and dues which Allah has made obligatory for every human being. Islam has got the most beautiful and lofty concept of labor. Wealth earned through labor and purity gives satisfaction and contentment. Islam is a simple and unique religion. It has true essence of moral values and ethics. Philosophical percepts of Islamic economics are clear and understandable by every human being. Islam does not want his people to be self centered. It wants a complete balance and centralization of wealth and property. It is a key towards earning a purified life.

About the author

Osama

I am 20 years old from Karachi, Pakistan. I am doing graduation from Karachi University. Right now, doing freelance writing for Muslim Academy.

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Since 11 September 2001 – and especially since the murder of Theo van Gogh – Muslims and Islam have frequently been unfavourably portrayed at the heart of public debate.

Manifestations of Islamophobia can be found on the Internet, in comments by the PVV, and in acts of violence committed against mosques. Dutch anti-discrimination policies are coming under pressure now that this ideology has forced its way to the centre of the political stage.

How do negative connotations about Muslims come about? Where are the acts of violence taking place? Is the Netherlands the front line in the 'clash of civilisations', as has been claimed by politicians, opinion formers and others in the international arena? Or is it all about an exclusion mechanism?

The author states that shifts in the political climate can only be fully understood if racism, ideology, and language are involved in the analysis. Her research for Islamophobia and Discrimination consisted of a study of relevant literature, an analysis of documents, and the gathering of data on the various methods people use to express their views.

Ineke van der Valk is a researcher with a broad background in the social sciences and discourse studies, and who specialises in ethnic diversity, racism and extremism.

"This book is about an issue that is very important for the Netherlands but about which remarkably little has been investigated or written. It offers an overview of theory formation about Islamophobia that is as thorough as it is accessible, and an overview of the actual situation in the Netherlands that is as up to date as it is complete." — Frank Bovenkerk, FORUM Frank J. Buijs Chair of Radicalisation Studies, IMES/University of Amsterdam

English and French translations of Islamofobie en discriminatie, published by Amsterdam University Press earlier this year, can now be downloaded here.

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Zakat is an obligation on every Muslim. It is one of the pillars of Islam. Allah has ordered the entire Muslim Ummah to give Zakat to the poor and the needy, if one is capable of doing so. Allah has clearly informed us with the dynamics of zakat and the dynamics of zakat: a sample study is also being clearly mentioned in Quran. In Quran, complete elaborations of the seven divisions of the society who are eligible for zakat are mentioned. If one study those seven sects then he is able to understand that Zakat is not a utilized for the enjoyment of people but zakat is employed in order to uplift the weaker parts of the society and to make stronger the position of the people who are weaker in society.

According to the dynamics of zakat: a sample study, zakat is impliedfor meeting the expenses of governance and progressive works, government may impose other service taxes on its citizenry. Zakat is never equivalent to the service tax that is allocated to the government. For collection of Zakat, Islam uses the means of piety as well as the force of the power. The concept of hereafter life and its realization makes the believers to be punctual and active in paying zakat. During the rule of Abu Bakr, when a group of the people denied the decision to give Zakat, Abu Bakr encountered it using force. This makes it obvious that, it is compulsory for every Muslim to observe complete Islamic laws in their socio-political as well as in economic life.

The responsibility of giving Zakat and taking it with force ascends when a person attains wealth in a certain level. So, the Islamic economy which emphases on the devolution of the wealth through innumerable means and balanced distribution of it amongst the civilization communicates, even earlier the ways of circulation and interchange of the wealth, the just and legitimate ways of its achievement. The dynamics of zakat: a sample study can be understood from the fact that at the Day of Judgment, there will be two questions regarding wealth. The first question is: “Where from and how did you acquire it?” And the second question is: “How did you spend it?” Islam shortens and panels “freedom to” obtain and earn through its moral prescriptions in order to protect its citizenry’s “freedom from” mistreatment, deceitfulness, fraud and robbing. It comprehends that the concept of freedom barrens the right to justice and downgrades it into a means to do exploitation.

According to the dynamics of zakat: a sample study which has been mentioned in Quran, Islam has fixed an amount of 2.5% of zakat on gold. Gold is a main source of income. So some of the percentage of zakat is implied on it. In Islam, wearing of gold is prohibited in men and women are only allowed to wear it as an ornament. Islam has allowed women to have 84 grams of gold which she can have without zakat but once the limit is crossed, it is implied on that women to pay 2,5% of zakat on the total quantity of gold.

 

About the author

Osama

I am 20 years old from Karachi, Pakistan. I am doing graduation from Karachi University. Right now, doing freelance writing for Muslim Academy.

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The most controversial article of clothing of the early 21st century may be the headscarf.

In her new book, The Headscarf Controversy: Secularism and Freedom of Religion, UCSB professor Hilal Elver tackles the issue currently affecting Muslim women – and courtrooms – around the world.

Elver, a global and international studies scholar, explains the legal and historical background of wearing headscarves in public places, specifically in Turkey but also in Germany, France, and the United States.

Elver believes that due to the recent "war on terror" in the Middle East, many Western countries have banned public use of the headscarf, supposedly in the name of women’s rights. But rather than helping women, she argues, the ban has had the disastrous effect of excluding pious Muslim women from society.

"My experience in Turkey in relation to the headscarf is the main reason behind the book," Elver said in a prepared statement. "My mother was an educated woman, and a devout Muslim, and when I was growing up, I witnessed the difficulty she experienced in trying to fit into the Turkish secular environment."

As a law professor in Ankara, Turkey's capital, Elver saw many women who did not pursue jobs or university educations when the ban was implemented either because of their own religious beliefs or those of their fathers and brothers. The ban was part of Turkey's effort to secularize, democratize, and assimilate to the Western world, so it seems counterintuitive that it would violate human rights, said Elver.

Elver's legal background, particularly her focus on international human rights, puts a unique lens on this long-contested issue. For those who adamantly believe that headscarves are detrimental to the well-being of Muslim women, this book may provide interesting food for thought.

Santa Barbara Independent, 4 July 2012

See also USCB press release, 21 June 2012

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