Stranger: You are an egyptian, right?

Ahmad: Yes. How did you know?

Stranger: I could tell from your accent. I am Mazen.

Ahmad: I am Ahmad. You are palestinian, right?

Stranger: Yes. How did you know?

Ahmad: Two-thirds of the arabs here are palestinians.

Stranger: Right, how is your friend Hosny Mubarak?

I was quite surprised by that question. It is not considered normal among arabs to open political discussions with strangers.

Ahmad: He’s okay, i guess…

Stranger: What do you think of him?

Ahmad: I disagree with much of his views.

Stranger: I hate him and the Egyptians. They are traitors. Our only friends are Hezbollah, Iran and Turkey. They came to our aid when the Egyptians were chickening out!

Ahmad: You are aware that the majority of the egyptians disagree with Mr. Mubarak for his handling of the war in Gaza?

Stranger: Disagree? Come on! How come he is still president then? If you really disagreed with him, he would no longer be president!

Ahmad: Removing him from the post would require nothing less than a revolution. The average Egyptian is working hard to put bread on the table, he is not…

Stranger: (interrupting me): I hope that when world war III begins, it will hit Egypt first of all. That is the reward you will collect for being such bastards!

Ahmad: May God forgive you! Are you aware what we have done for you!? We have waged wars for you! Our soldiers have died on the battlefield for you! Your case was the most important political one in Egypt for decades, and it still is! No nation have ever received as much sympathy from the Egyptians as you!

Stranger: That was the past! Now look! Hezbollah, Iran and Turkey help us while you aid our enemies! How can i respect a country that does that?

Ahmad: Actually that works very well for you, seeing as that Turkey recognized Israel and signed various agreements with it while we were waging war with them!

Stranger: Again, that was the past. Look at the present, we have…

Ahmad: (interrupting him): You cannot ignore the past because it explains why the present is as it is. Look at the time of Sadat – we had been waging 4 wars against israel at that time, two of them totally in vein! We fought those wars for a goal that we never achieved. At that time, the rest of the arab world had one concern: Themselves. That includes the palestinians. How then can you blame Mr. Sadat for claiming only Egypt as his responsibility?

Stranger: So you agree with Mubarak!?

Ahmad: If he had argued that we should not risk our lives for a nation that hates us, i would agree!

At that time, my lebanese friends grew tired of our discussion, and i was outraged because of the rudeness of this fellow! So my lebanese friend asked him to excuse us, and left with me.

Even though i said what i said in anger, i am still surprised that i found myself in a position where i defended Mr. Sadat for drifting Egypt away from the Arab cause and towards the Egyptian cause. I have always been supporting Gamal Abdel Nasser and his policies, and i have always despised Anwar el Sadat for ruining it by turning us away from it. Funny how i react to getting insulted.

Even though i feel that my opinions before the conversation are the same as after the conversation, i do feel a little more sympathy towards those who argue that Egypt should worry about Egypt only.

The new Abu Skander will be blogging mainly about Islam, but at a  basic level. I am not a scholar of Islam, so the conclusions that i reach are my own – my opinion couldn’t be less relevant when trying to understand Islam. Islam is the consensus of the Scholars. What i will be blogging about is my understanding of Islam. Hope that made sense.

Edit: I will not promise that i will never commend on politics again

Salam.

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
الحمد لله الحمد لله ثم الحمد لله
الحمد لله رب العالمين و الصلاة و السلام على سيدنا محمد
ان الله يهدي من يشاء ويضل من يشاء
الحمد لله الذي هدانا لهذا و ما كنا لنهتدي لولا ان هدانا الله

Ama ba’d,
May the be upon he who follow guidance.

Once here at my blog, we had a discussion about the mentioning of “Israel” in the Quran. Now, when it popped up again over at Drima’s, i’ve decided to write a post about the verses, especially the ones that is being used to justify The Holy Land being jewish.

I hope that Allah Almighty will grant me success.

The relevant verse

These are the verses in question, i have chosen to use Yusuf Ali’s translation in this post:
(17:101-105):
To Moses We did give Nine Clear Signs: As the Children of Israel: when he came to them, Pharaoh said to him: “O Moses! I consider thee, indeed, to have been worked upon by sorcery! Moses said, “Thou knowest well that these things have been sent down by none but the Lord of the heavens and the earth as eye-opening evidence: and I consider thee indeed, O Pharaoh, to be one doomed to destruction!”
And We said thereafter to the Children of Israel, “Dwell securely in the land (of promise)”: but when the second of the warnings came to pass, We gathered you together in a mingled crowd.
So he resolved to remove them from the face of the earth: but We did drown him and all who were with him. We sent down the (Qur’an) in Truth, and in Truth has it descended: and We sent thee but to give Glad Tidings and to warn (sinners).

{ وَقُلْنَا مِن بَعْدِهِ لِبَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ ٱسْكُنُواْ ٱلأَرْضَ فَإِذَا جَآءَ وَعْدُ ٱلآخِرَةِ جِئْنَا بِكُمْ لَفِيفاً }

Imam Tabari explains what “land” there is in question here:
{ اسْكُنُوا الأرْضَ } أرض الشام 
{Dwell securely in the land}, that is the land of Sham (Greater Syria). (1)

So there remains no question which land it was that Allah (t) suggested the Children of Israel to dwell in. It contained modern Israel/Palestine.

The Allegation
The following is the quote of Andrew Brehm, a german/irish guy who usually comments over at Drima’s:
Both Tanakh and Quran acknowledge that G-d gave the land of Israel to the Jews. (2)
And when asked which verse he referred to, he responded:
As for the Quran, it is indeed true. Sure 17 tells the story of how G-d sent Moses to the children of Israel and commanded them to go and settle in the holy land.

Later, over at Drima’s, he provided us with the following link, confirming that he was referring to 17:104 (3). On that link, i found the following interresting quote:
The Qur’an recognizes the Land of Israel as the heritage of the Jews and it explains that, before the Last Judgment, Jews will return to dwell there. This prophecy has already been fulfilled.

Taking all that together, the allegations seems to be that God – according to the Quran – granted the modern Israel to the Jews, and that modern muslims fail to understand that.

My response to that allegation.
First of all, lets analyse what is actually being said. “Dwell securely in the land”. In Arabic, the phrase is “Uskunu al-Ardh”. “Uskunu” means “Inhabit” and “Ardh” means “earth”.
“Uskunu” derives from the root “S-K-N”, meaning “inhabit, dwell”. An example: When asked where i live (Inta sâken feen?), i reply “Sâken fe Denmark” (I live in Denmark).
What was granted to the Children of Israel was thus to inhabit the land. Should we assume that it meant owning the land, then the following problem arise:

1. The Children of Israel do NOT means “the Jews”. It means the children of Yaqoob (pbuh), son of Ishaaq (as), son of Ibrahim (as). It is important to understand that Ya’qob (as), being an Islamic prophet, according to Islam was a muslim – not a jew and not a christian. According to Islam, he followed the creed of his noble grandfather, Ibrahim (as):

Andrew Brehm, claiming to have read the entire Quran, is ofcourse aware of this. I believe the reason for his confusion is that he reads the verse with a biblical background, using it to stress his own views, as his interpretation only makes sence if you believe that all of the Children of Israel were jews. He believes them to be jews. But as such, the very argument is invalid, because muslims do not believe that the great patrairchs were jews.

2. Andrew Brehm says the following:
Either way, I wasn’t using the Quran as “proof” that Israel must be Jewish (hence my saying “I’m not saying that Israel must be Jewish because G-d said so”), but as proof that Israel predates “Palestine” and that “Palestine” is merely another name for the land, one that wasn’t even acknowledged by Muhammed (who I doubt would acknowledge the pagan name for any territory).

I say:
You actually did, as i demonstrated above, but lets leave it there. Where in the verse to you see the term “Israel” being used for the land? The land remains unnamed in the very verse. The word “Israel” exist only as a reference to Ya’qoob (as) in this verse. Not as a name of the land.

I hope this will suffice.

For a long time, i’ve remained silent on this issue. Now it is too much. I feel that what is happening right here is that what makes Denmark a lovely country is being taken away from us. I dont feel like i am in the samy country i settled in in the early 90′s. I cannot remain silent anymore on this.

Fellow danes probably already know what i am talking about. I am talking about the two tunisians, who are facing deportation, because they allegedly were planning to kill a man behind the Muhammad cartoons.

Well this case actually illustrates what Denmark is becoming. Before i proceed in explaining why i feel like i feel, i will provide the reader with some basic facts in this case.

Some time ago, two tunisians and a moroccan dane was arrested for allegedly planning to kill Kurt Westergaard – a cartoonist who portrayed the Islamic Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) with a bomb in his Turban. The PET (Politiets Efterretnings Tjeneste = Danish Security Intelligence Service) decided to get the foreigners deportated without any involvements from the danish courts – yes, that is possible in Denmark now! It kinda works this way: If a foreign resident of Denmark is estimated to be a threat to national security, it is not necessary for the danish courts to view the evidences against the suspect – it just takes some signatures from some politicians, and woop – he’s out!

Many people will after this suspect that i’m some kind of hippie. I can almost hear people thinking: “Ahmad, you DO realize that even the Danish state have to provide security for the citizens, right?”. Yes, of course i do. But i also believe in a state of justice, where the courts decides who’s guilty and who’s innocent – not where the police and the politicians does. Quite recently, the PET have released some information about their rock-solid evidences against these suspect to a danish newspaper – accordingly, it consists of a letter that in arabic explains how Kurt Westergaard should be killed, an escape route, a loaded gun and a lot of other stuff like that. What strikes me here is the following:

If these evidences were really in PET’s posession, then why is only the two tunisians facing deportation, while the moroccan with Danish citizenship is facing no punishment at all!? Do you guys really think that if he were THAT guilty and the evidences against were SO rock-solid, then the PET would just let him walk away, while they are willing to create a media-hype all over the country just to expell two tunisians in the very same case? How can the two tunisians be a threat to national security, when their danish parter who allegedly were to participate in the very same crime, is not?

The way i see it, this prooves that there is no sufficent evidence against these three men – if there were, the danish one of them would indeed have been imprisoned.

This opens the door for mistrust against the police and the Danish Security Intelligence Service (PET), as this makes it possible for them to expel everyone without danish citizenship, without evidence.

What is even more sadly is how the danish population surprisingly seems to view these men as guilty per default – no evidence needed when it comes to alleged terrorism, it seems. They are constantly being referred to as ”terrorists”. What happended to “Innocent until proven guilty”, my dear fellow danes? Where did that go? How did you give that up without even noticing it? Or do you really believe that justice should only apply to people with danish citizenship?

I will translate a part of the danish debate into english to give the reader an introduction to the danish climate of debates:
Holger DK writes:
No, they shall not be released (from their imprisonment). These tunisian lads compromise a threat against our society and citizens, so there only one way, and (that way) is out of our country. It cannot go too fast.

Morten Olsen writes:
Out with them and people like them, we have no responsibility towards them whatsoever.

Strangelove writes:
Every country have a right and an obligation to protect its citizens against murder and terror, even when it is tried done in the name of the Islamic prophet.

All the above quotes can be found here:
http://avisen.dk/tunesere-bag-drabsplan-paa-jp-tegner-kan-gaa-fri_12664.aspx

Needless to say, not all danes share these sentiments. What is remarkable is the lack of scepticism towards the PET in this case, which is strange considering the fact that the danes in their nature are very anti-authoritarian.

And of course, foreigners posing a threat to national security, should be expelled. I have no problem with this. But at least give them a fair trial. Merely suspecting someone does not constitute proper evidence.

 O Denmark, where did you go? Where went your healthy scepticism? Did we really end up on a level where we believe everything the police says without even asking for evidence? Are you now guilty pr. default when you are a foreign, muslim man who is being accused for a particular crime?

O Denmark, where did you go?

Yes, dear friend, i would love to.

First of all, i must point out that a relationship between a muslim woman and a non-muslim man remains unlawful in the Islamic shari’ah. The great jurists of Islam never differed about this, and as such, this is a juristic matter that have reached concensus among the scholars of Islam.

But on the other hand, i must condemn legal self-help on a general level, and especially in this case on thge specific level, as the womans murderers here have taken their self-help so far as to comitting homocide. I believe they are punishable both under iraqi law and under the islamic shari’ah.

In general, we muslims are under the obligation of “Amr bil Ma’roof wa Nahi ‘an Almunkar” (Enjoining what is good and forbidding what is wrong), much worried about what other muslims – especially women – are doing with their lives. This case and many others prooves that many muslims are not even afraid of comitting serious sins just to enjoin what is good among other people. When it comes to such a level, we need to ask ourselves if we are really enjoining the good when we are comitting a wrong action?

While the concept itself is a genuine Qur’anic concept, i disgaree with such peoples interpretation of it – like, for example, when one of the arab locals in our neightborhood is seen smoking marihuana, many of us grown up muslims approach him and comdemn him, yelling at him, telling him what do to and what not to do. The intention behind such an act is pure – it is worrying for a fellow muslim and wishing him to do good and abstain from wrong. But when one is realizing that the young teen most probably already know that this is a bad action he is doing, are we then really forbidding the wrong when we approach him like that? Is’nt it also possible to enjoing what is good by being a good role-model for such a kid, as long as one in no way approves of his bad actions?

If we are worried about enjoining the good and forbidding the wrong, we should also be worried about how the best way to do so is. Just think about it…

http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?HD=1&ID=1778&CATE=91 

To me, their arguments seem like a baloon – it looks big, but it is really nothing – just air. This can be realized only by touching it.

Sadly enough, their rejection of the Sunnah (which, along with the Quran, is the Prophets pbuh legacy to the people after his demise!) seems to fit into many western muslims, who instead of figuring out what the sunnah is really all about, goes out to reject it entirely – by which they seek to comfort non-muslims and challenge the view that “Islam is oppressing women”, again and again brought forward. “Islam is not degrading the woman – that is something that was brought into Islam by the corrupt scholars in Islamic history”. A major conspiracy theory, and somewhat hypocritical, because their only reason for doing so is that the modern, Western ideal differ from what is found in the sunnah. If the western ideal was something else, they would seek to alter Islam to fit that ideal.

If only you would just say “Islam is wrong – the western ideal is the correct one”, i would not blame y’all, because this is only your view. But dont start altering Islam in order to make it fit with the Western Ideal! Your method for doing so is actually rejecting what is the second-most fundamental part of Islam.

I am not a scholar and do not posses the level of Ijtihad, this is not a fatwa, so the following is nothing but my own view. If someone have anything from the scholars of Islam that opposes my view, feel free to let me know.

Do i approve of democracy? Not an easy question. Approval of democracy is of four kinds in my opinion:
1) Believing in Western Democracy as the ultimative truth
2) Believing in some kind of democracy as the ultimative truth
3) Approval of Western democracy in some contexts, not as the ultimative truth
4) Approval of some kind of democracy in some contexts, not as the ultimative truth

I have no doubts regarding the first one. I oppose it. Western democracy cannot be the ultimative truth – saying this means accusing the pious Sahaba (ra) of filing to implement a fair system, because their method of ruling was far from Western democracy. This cannot be the case, for in a hadith citet in Musnad Ahmad and Sunan Abi Dawood, the prophet (saw) described the first 30 years after his death as “Caliphate of the Prophethood”:

الخلافة في أمتي ثلاثون سنة ثم ملكا بعد ذلك

 My translation:

“The Caliphate in my Ummah (will last) thirthy years, then (there will be) Kingdon after this”.
Source: Musnad of Imam Ahmad, under Musnad al-Ansar, hadith #20918

And in the Sunan of Abu Dawood:

‏قال رسول الله ‏ ‏صلى الله عليه وسلم ‏ ‏خلافة النبوة ثلاثون سنة ثم يؤتي الله الملك ‏ ‏أو ملكه ‏ ‏من يشاء

My translation:
The Prophet (s) said; The Caliphate of the (or: on the method of) Prophethood will last thirty years, then Allah will give the rule or his kingdom to whoever he wills. (source: Sunan Abi Dawood, Kitab al-Sunnah, bab “Fi al-khulafaa”)

The first thirty years was the years of Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali and al-Hasan (May Allah be well pleased with them all). This epoch was the caliphate of the Prophethood, and they did not rule with western democracy.

Instead, they rules with various forms of Shura (council). Abu Bakr (ra) was elected at Saqifah and the nominated ‘Umar as his successor after coulsultation with the prominent Sahaba of his time (they agreed with his nomination). Before his death, ‘Umar (ra) sent down a comitee to nomiate his successor, and they elected ‘Uthman (ra). After ‘Uthman’s (ra) martyrdom, Ali (ra) was elected by the people and in the vakuum after his death, Al-Hassan (ra) rules temporarily until he handed over power to Mu’awiya (ra). This is where the thirty years end.

But however, if you consider Shura a kind of democracy, then they ruled with democracy, so option #2 would be acceptable.

Personally, i am both #3 and #4 – i approve of western democracy and the rights it provides for the people in Denmark, while i doubt that this has any future in Egypt. Here i support the movements that seek to implement more democracy for the people (who would probably never reach the western standards), hence #4.

The reason that i support these movements (such as the Hizb al-Tagamo3) is perhaps in lack of a moderate islamic alternative in Egypt.

I find it hard to believe in #2, because it is hard for me to see a real political system utilized in an islamic country anno 2008 on the method of the rightly guided caliphs (ra). I do not know how that would happen, as it is hard for me to see the very same electing system (as stated above) be realized without the Sahaba’s (ra) presence. And perhaps the world will never reach such a level of justice and fairness again until the return of Jesus (as).

As for what is the ultimate truth, only what comes from above is the ultimate truth to me. Man made laws can – if not derived from above – never be the ultimative truth to me. I am not saying that it cannot be good, but it cannot be the ultimative truth.

My conclusion is that i do not believe that approval of democracy is necessarily kufr, if we stick to the last three kinds of “approval of democracy”.

Here is a summary of a dialogue that have taken place inside my head for years now.

Well i’m split between two:
A) Our pride and patriotism
B) My wish for peace and a better future for both arabs and jews.

My pride do not allow me to support what it regards as Arab land being splitted up in two halfs. What is rightfully ours is ours, my pride says, and it should not be divided. This is a duty for all Arabs.

But my wish for a better peace and a better future disagrees. “We have fought Israel for decades”, it says. “And look what it brought us: Losses of egyptian soldiers en masse and yet the future for palestinians looks darker than ever”.

Because it is about the Palestinians, really, not about us! It hurts my pride everytime I in reference to the Holy Land say “Israel” and not “Palestine”. I do not mean to hurt anyone but i am just being honest. But it is not about my pride and the pride of the arabs, is it? It is about what is best for the Palestinians (of course i do not want a solution that humiliates them, placing them all as second-rank citizens in Israel even though certain issues COULD improve this way, like health issues. Such a solution will never be acceptable).

So what do i believe should happen? Again, i am split. When i try to reconcile our pride and my wish for a better future, then i come forward to a one-state-solution: The holy land that is both ”ours” and “theirs”, producing equality between Christians, Muslims and Jews. Something similar to the “Isratin”-idea of Moammar al-Gaddafi (no i do not support all aspects of his idea and no i do not support HIM). A country that is OURS – us being arabs and muslims – and on the same times, THEIRS – they being jews, christians and druze. That is what i believe is the right thing and the most beautiful thing indeed.

But suddently, my logic start working and interrupts this dream of mine (don’t you guys just hate when that happens?). It will never work this way. We are dealing with two people that share a very troublesome past, that have seen each others as enemies for decades – and most important, view themselves as two different national entities. I believe that the vast majority of the Israeli citizens with arab ethnicity feel more Palestinian that Israeli, if given the choice. I have spoken to some, and none of them held the opposite view. Besides, how many Israelis feel “Palestinian”? We are not talking about ”jews and arabs”, but “Israelis” and “Palestinians”: Not only two different ethnicities, but two different NATIONALITIES. That will never work, Ahmad. Besides, should it happen, somebody is going to ruin it for sure! If not arab radicals (yes – they have a tradition for ruining stuff), then israeli extremists (yes – they do exist, guys) and if neither, then i’m sure some muslim countries would do what they can to mess things up. Keep in mind the support Iran draws from muslims because they “stand up against Israel” – thats basically what keeps them and Syria alive - if things should end up like this, i’m sure Iran or others would find a way to ruin it. No doubt.

What to do then? A two-state solution? The sentiments among Israelis and Palestinians kinda demands that. But what about the jewish settlers in West Bank and Arabs in Israel? The jews of Al-Khalil will remain “ISRAELI” even though they are palestinian by nationality, and the Israeli-Arab’s will remain “PALESTINIAN” even though they are Israeli by nationality. And should the millions of refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Khaleeg and Europe suddently return to Palestine, which in many cases is far away from where they belong (like a family from Akka returning to Nablus)? And most important: Would the newly independent Palestine be able to handle all those?

And what about Jerusalem? Ours or theirs? Or the West for them and the East for us?

It’s too complicated for my head to handle.

So instead, i will draw the sharpest of all swords: The prayer. And pray for a better future for both israelis and palestinians. I don’t know what to do about a palestinian boy growing up an orphan in poverty, his parents being killed in an IDF-action (yep – that happens!), and i do not know what to do about an israeli girl who is afraid to get killed by a bomb every time she is on her way to school. I cannot imagine what that would be like. All i know is that i want it to STOP as soon as possible and i pray that it will stop soon..

O Allah, to you all my prayers belong
All praise is for you, who guides and judges mankind
Who created us, our hearts and minds,
the earth we stand on,
the air we breathe.
All praise is for you, who’ve send unto us the mercy to the worlds,
our Master and our Beloved,
Muhammad Al-Mustafa, peace and blessing upon him.
O Allah, have mercy upon us
And save the people of the Holy Land, jews,
Muslims and christians
From their state of fear and free them from the threats they face.
O Allah, guide us all to the truth and grant to their people
peace, smile and laughter.
O Allah, grant the believers the intercession of your beloved,
our master from his birth to the day of judgement
Muhammad al-Mustafa.

Amin.

 However, according to Mehmet Gormez, the duputy director of the Turkish waqf, they do not intend to reform the hadith or Islam:
“No Muslim in the right mind would dare delete any hadith or tamper with the Prophet’s heritage,” Gormez told IOL.

“What we are actually doing is re-classifying, re-categorizing the Hadith and translating it into Turkish, no more no less.”
A hadith literally means “saying,” but in the Islamic technical sense, a hadith refers to the sayings of the Prophet, the Prophet’s acts, the Prophet’s tacit approval of an action or practice, or the Prophet’s attributes, whether physical or moral.
Gormez said the three-year project has to do with a new understanding of the Sunnah and Hadith and accordingly making them more understandable to today’s Turks.
He added that Turkish scholars working on the project, which will be completed by yearend, are taking early Muslim scholars, who had already revised the Hadith, as their basic reference.
“We have compiled all hadiths and read them to reclassify them anew,” he explained.
“We have also taken into account the unauthentic ones or those attributed falsely to the Prophet because to understand the true Hadith, you really need to (understand) the unauthentic sayings.”

http://www.islamonline.com/news/newsfull.php?newid=95001

 Lets see how it turns out. At least, it sounds interresting, and if they intend Islam then may Allah Almighty reward them and if they intend to turn away from it then may Allah Almighty guide them.

 Dear fellow muslims and fellow arabs. Dear non-muslim and non-arab readers. I hope you read this in good health.
In Denmark, many rumors flourish about what the Arab world is like. People tend to get their information from what they see in the news and a few vacations to Hurghada. The Arab World seems very far away from the average danish man.

But the same is also true for you, my dear arab and muslim brethen. You get your information about Denmark from what you have heard and perhaps about few things you’ve heard in the news – among them being the cartoons and the way the danish government handled it, along with romours about xenophobia, islamiphobia, racism and so on.

Therefore, as an arab muslim living in Denmark, i will write about this subject, so that we all may understand. And may Allah (tt) grand us succes in understanding.

I will arrange the following into 3 sub-categories:

• Everyday life experience in Denmark
• Government politics of Denmark
• The problem and its solution

  The below is nothing but my view on the situation.

Everyday life experience in Denmark

The following is of course my own experience.

I have lived in Denmark since the early 90′s, and i have not regretted that i came here ever since. I can with ease recall one of my first cultural experiences with a native dane. I were taking danish lessons, and one day my teacher invited me home for a coffee. He introduced his wife to me, and with arab politeness and a portion of embarassment too, i lowered my eyes and did not look into her eyes as i spoke – the attitude of a chivalrous, arab gentleman But she took it as a matter of disrespect that i did not look into her eyes, as this appearently is not something nice to do here in Denmark. I felt that she was offended, and i asked her husband whispering, “what did i do wrong?”. And when i found out the answer and i informed him about why i did what i did, he began laughing and he told his wife. She also understood and they were so happy that i tried to offer respect that they invited me to come again the next day.

It might seem like nothing but an old mans memories, but the point of this is that even though she felt offended, she was open to the fact that in my culture this is a signal of respect for her husband. In fact every danish people i met were happy to have me around, they all wanted to do their best to welcome me into their folds. And then the questions began: “What is your food like in Egypt?” and so on, everybody was very interested in hearing about my upbringing and my culture and what made me move to their country.

It started nice, but soon i also experienced discrimination. Not everybody were that nice. But what really surprized me was that when i was harassed by one dane, the other dane would stand up and defend me.

Overall, my everyday experience was pleasant, and when i met discrimination it was always based on my ethnicity, never on my religion.

But then, 9/11 and the war on terror came around. Since then, discrimination based on ethnicity have been on the decline, and since it has been all about Islam. I am no longer a “fucking perker” (perker is a danish insult towards middle-easterners, like the english “nigger”), i am a “fucking muslim”.

Even though i rarely meet discrimination, when i meet it, it is based on religion now, which is not taken so seriously in our society by the native danes. “Religion is something you choose”, many argue. “Ethnicity is not”.

This does not meen that the average dane discriminates muslims.

 However, the whole picture changes when one engage in online debates or in the debate in newspapers in general. The tone is VERY harsh against Islam and Muslims, and many young muslims do not know how to respond to such a tone.

On the other hand, too, the tone is getting more and more harsh among the religious muslim community against the native danish one.

This is of course only when one enters the debate. On the everyday basis, it is absolutely possible to live a life without any kind of discrimination, even as an arab muslim in Denmark.

Another issue that i have noticed is that every time a muslim does something, people expect us to condemn it. I have many time experienced at work that when there is a bomb in Iraq, my collegues confront me ans say “So what do you think about that, Ahmad?”. Silence appearently means acceptance, and it is annoying really to have to have an opinion on everything, but compared to all ive got from Denmark (a good job and a pleasant life with future possibilities for my children), i believe it is a price that i am ready to pay.

The Government politics of Denmark

Is the government politics in Denmark against muslims? I dont think so, but i have mixed feelings. I believe one of the main problems is that the Danish government is in a political alliance with the Danish Peoples Party (Dansk Folkeparti), and i do believe that this party is discrimiative towards muslims and islam. A member of the parliament and a member of the government coalition, Martin Henriksen (Danish Peoples Party) refers to Danish muslim converts as “ex-danes” on his website. Other members or former members of the party have been famed for saying things like “Muslims is cancer-cells in Europe”.

Besides the Danish Peoples Party, i do admit that i have sometimes shaken my head over Islam-related things said by danish politicians, but i believe that this is rather misconceptions than anything else. In general, there is freedom of religion in Denmark, and can we afford it, we are allowed to have our own mosque build for the propose.

Yes, it is true. There is no building in Denmark who were build for the propose of being a mosque. In Odense a house were rebuilt for the propose, but the original building was not. Instead, we have a lot of houses who serves as mosques, which works fine i must admit.

So besides the unfortunate that Danish Peoples Party is a member of the government coalition and thereby have a lot of power, i do not believe that the government is discriminative towards muslims. In fact, many state-sponsored institutions (like Kindegartens and so forth) buys and serves halal meat for muslim children, and many with a muslim majority serves only halal meat.

What about the way they handled the Cartoon crisis, then? First, Jyllands-Posten (who were behind the cartoons) is an independent media, and as such, the Danish government cannot do anything about what they write. But that been said, I also believe that the Danish government did wrong in rejecting a meeting with Muslim ambassadors, that do not signal any good. It signals nothing but “we dont care about you”-mentality. But one should know that this was something that the Danish prime minister regretted later on, so i do not believe that this diplomatic move – or any diplomatic moves during the Cartoon crisis – was motivated by hatred against Islam or muslims.

The Problem and its solution

Is Denmark xenophobic? My answer is no, not at all. Islamophobic, then?

My answer would still be that in their essence, they are not. As i understand the danes, they are afraid of religion. They are afraid of something that is “dictated” from above, which the people cannot change should they like it. The reason why Islam is so much in focus is because it plays a MUCH larger role in our identity than christianity does in theirs. Yes, it is true – christianity by name is the majority religion in Denmark, but plays only a small role in danish society.

If asked if they are Christian, many people would respond “well i am a member of the Danish Peoples Church”, which means that they are christians pr. culture, not necessarily by personal belief. And even among more religious christian danes, it is normal just to reject one part of christianity’s theology, which for example among us Muslims would be heretical and heresy pr. definition!

A few years ago, i began frequently visiting a church with a danish friend of mine who in return visited our mosque frequently. I talked to the priest and asked him; “Do christians also belief that Jesus, peace be upon him, was born without a father?”. And his answer was: “Not without a father, his father is God according to traditional christian theology. But if you ask me, i do not believe that Mary was a virgin, i believe that Jesus was born just like everybody else”. And this is fully normal in Denmark, only a few very conservative christians would even mention this deviance from Christian theology!

What would the reaction of us Muslims be, if an Imam said that “Jesus peace be upon him acutally had a father and his name was Yosef!”? We would tell our youth not to take knowledge from him, we would call him a deviator and a heretic, and many would even call him an apostate.

And i think that this actually pretty well demonstrates the difference between our relation to our religion and their relation to their religion.

Of course, the danes needs to understand Islam, and i believe that they are ready to do that, but they also have to understand – and accept – that religion really plays this role in our identity. And of course, dear arabs and muslim living abroad of Denmark, we should understand and accept that their religion do not play this role in their identity at all.

So the main problem, i believe, here in Denmark is that danes do not understand religion, and we fail to understand how they do not understand religion.

Perhaps that gap between us will never close.

But what should be done now, in Denmark anno 2008, where the PET (Intelligence service of Denmark) come up with a new terror-case every third month, where young muslims make riots in the streets, where crime and ethnic polarisation is increasing?

I do not believe that we have to agree on everything. Instead of just focosing on what divides us, we should focus on making sure that as much citizens as possible contribute to the society and work and are generally happy. After all, thats what i find important among us immigrants – many of us actually do not have a job.

Society is doing what they can, but we as muslims should also take a responsibility. I mean look, every time someone does something stupid, we are expected to condemn this act. And we do! We do nothing but condemn. We condemn terror, crime, riding a bus without a ticket, lying, rioting.. there is no limits for what we do condemn. But know that no problem gets solved this way, dear fellow muslims in Denmark.

There is a man behind every crime. In this case, this man is a muslim. If we, as muslims along with the rest of the society, keep condemning him, condemning his acts, how do we expect him to come back on the right track? No one is saved this way. Believe me. Resocializing criminals is what i do for a living.

Instead, our actions should be based on love for our fellow muslim. Do remember that we are brothers and sisters in Islam, and that does not mean that we should just refer to each other as such! No, we should really see this man as our brother, and if asked we do not accept of his acts, but we will never have anything but love to offer our brother, no matter if is he is criminal or not.

So fellow muslims: Right now, the danish are doing more for your muslim brethen than you are. Living as a criminal is not a life of joy. Its a life of sorrow. Do not neglect your responsibility.

May God’s peace and blessing be upon Muhammad and his family and his companions,
May God grant us succes in imitating his noble Prophet, the mercy to the worlds,
And may God grant us succes in encouraging others to do the same.

Amin.