New Delhi: French documentary maker Diego Bunuel, who spent 21 days at the ongoing Maha Kumbh, the largest gathering of people in the world, in Allahabad, said it was more like a crash course in Hinduism.

Diego, 38, was in the holy city in Uttar Pradesh to shoot an hour-long documentary "Inside The Mahakumbh" that covers the scale, details, quirks and moments of Maha Kumbh. It will be aired on National Geographic Channel March 4 and he will host it for the channel.

Speaking about his experiences at the Kumbh, Diego said "the trip was like receiving a crash course in Hinduism". "Unlike Europe, where religion needs revival, in India it`s very much alive and has a diversity that can encompass everyone," added Diego, who is of Spanish-French origin and grew up in the US harbouring a passion for travel and journalism.

He was also impressed by the logistics of the event, the facilities being provided at the location and the way the authorities managed such huge crowds with promptness. He felt it was "nothing less than a commendable military operation".

The filmmaker also felt that there is no need to revive the religion and culture here because he saw people "living it as part of their daily life". Dubbed in 26 languages, the documentary will be broadcast in 68 countries.

IANS

Source: zeenews.india

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Europe is one of the least religious regions of the world, and yet later this month it will be home to the election of the new Pope. This single man is arguably the most influential of all religious leaders, heading a strictly hierarchical Catholic church of 1.2 billion people.

Despite an image of Catholicism as a white western religion, reflected in a long tradition of a Eurocentric papacy, only 24 per cent of Catholics live in Europe, and this number is falling. Most live in Latin America (41 per cent) and Africa is the only region where it is growing.

The resignation of the current Pope has therefore prompted questions about whether his successor will follow centuries of tradition in the European mould - the last non-European pope is recorded as the Syrian Gregory III in 741 - or whether he will come from the more populous regions like Latin America. Such a departure from a European papacy will demand a re-imagining of the shape and nature of Christianity today.

The politicking over the next Pope's provenance and what this says about Catholicism should make the Muslim world think about its own relationship between the Arab and non-Arab worlds. What does the Muslim world think about the question?

Islam too has a traditional heartland, which naturally is focused around Mecca and Madina. As the language of the Quran, Arabic is the lingua franca of Muslims. And since the early history of Muslims is intertwined with Arab history, Muslims feel a strong affinity with Arab lands.

But, analogous to the heartland and diaspora of the Catholic church, in today's Muslim world most Muslims are not Arab, nor do they live in the Arab world. Nearly 65 per cent of Muslims live in the Asia-Pacific region, and there are nearly as many Muslims in Indonesia alone as the whole of the Arab world. Muslims in the subcontinent outnumber both put together. Yet global Islamic discourse and culture is heavily dominated by Arabic culture. That's not to say this is right or wrong, rather it's a frame for us to ask questions about the cultures, representation, voices, and leadership that are given primacy and legitimacy for the world's 1.8 billion Muslims.

Could we ever imagine that the leading authorities and voices for Muslims might be Asian? With growing numbers of Muslims in America and Europe, could we accept a shift of intellectual, economic and political Muslim leadership from those regions? Could the Muslim world ever imagine African leadership?

Religious authority is undoubtedly tied together with political and economic influence, and so it's no wonder that Muslim majority nations jostle for position in leadership of the Muslim world. Saudi Arabia is undeniably home to the cradle of Islam. Asia-Pacific is seeking to claim commercial leadership through industries like Islamic finance, European and American Muslims believe they will drive modernity and bring Islam into the modern era. Iran asserts its culture and civilisation. Turkey wants to reclaim its historic political power and sees itself as the legitimate leader.

It doesn't need to be a competition. There is space for many voices and representations, and a multiplicity would offer greater value, strength and resilience to the Muslim world. And most of all, it would support the ummah's promise of respect for multiple tribes and nations.

Source: thenational

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Going through many discussions on matters that pertain to Hindu culture, one finds that there are two distinct sets of opinions on the matter of what Hinduism is. There is one school of thought that seeks to ban anything it perceives as un-Hindu or as being ‘against Indian culture’. The group opposed to this line of thought takes a moral high ground and speaks of the universalist nature of Hinduism — it speaks of the accepting Hindu, the spiritual Hindu, the universalist Hindu. It says that people who say something is un-Hindu, are actually un-Hindu themselves because Hinduism accepts all ways of thought.

Hinduism is not amorphous. It is large and has no visible limits, but what gives it shape is its core, which is pluralism. People who castigate others for objecting to something from the Hindu point of view, often take the moral high ground and say that because Hinduism is all-accepting, any idealistic opposition is un-Hindu. They say that because Hinduism is accepting and assimilating, it must accept unquestioningly everything that is thrown at her. This is not valid.

Indiscriminate acceptance makes any organism unhealthy. This is especially true in the case of cultures as cultures survive on values. Hinduism is what it is because it is based on a particular set of values.

One of these values is openness. But openness does not mean swallowing without swallowing. When a new idea comes in, it must be debated, its pros and cons measured, and a place for it must be found in the vast spaces inside Hinduism. The fact that some people’s calls to debate are taken to mean that they are intolerant is unfortunate indeed.

The call for debate is not censorship. It is the exact opposite of censorship. It does not seek to silence voices, it seeks to expand the dialogue.

Source: niticentral

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Muslims often say “sabeel Allah fi-al-sayf,” “the path of God is by the sword,” and this path, which once led to the gates of Vienna, or to Spain, or to France, or Asia, now seems to be leading to Africa. Mali, Morocco, Algeria, Sudan, Libya, Nigeria and Egypt are all experiencing terrific violence at the hands of forces claiming to be carrying the banner of Islam.

The world looks on and acts slowly, if at all. Meanwhile, weapons proliferate, and many die. Hundreds of thousands of refugees stream across Mali, as the UN debates what to do – much as it did when tens of thousands were slaughtered in Sudan.

Egypt’s mostly nonviolent revolution was hijacked by the Muslim Brotherhood, whose leader says Jews and Christians are descended from apes and pigs. Egypt remilitarizes the Sinai Desert, and the US sends it F-16’s and more aid.

Tunisia’s secular opposition leader has been murdered, and the Islamic agenda rises in both Tunisia and Egypt, even as Christians are slaughtered in Egypt and Nigeria. Areas once conquered by Islam and now deemed somehow insufficiently Islamic, as well as areas not completely conquered by Islam are now being targeted by forces who call themselves “true Muslims.” Villages are destroyed in Algeria and Nigeria, their inhabitants often beheaded.

ISLAM HAS been knocking loudly and violently at the gates of the non-Muslim world ever since the prophet-general known as Muhammad sanctified, as jihad, land grabs for his “religion of peace.” In some respects, jihad was a way to sublimate the territorial urges of the Beduin that used to find their outlet in periodic raids known as ghazwa. Jihad, as scholars observed, was a both a religious duty and a pragmatic safety valve.

Jihad is the “sixth pillar” of Islam, whose five basic commandments are known as khamsat arkaan al-Islam – the five pillars of Islam. Jihad, in other words, would be a bit like what Jews and Christians would call “the eleventh commandment” of the Ten Commandments.

This is important information, but it is being studiously avoided by leading Western officials who prefer to take a politically correct approach to Islamic conquest. In his State of the Union speech, US President Barack Obama patted himself on the back for sending some transport planes to help France try to push back against the Islamic terrorists in Mali.

Obama claims to have eviscerated al-Qaida, but the actions of al-Qaida-inspired or linked groups in Africa make a mockery of his claims. Meanwhile, China and Russia, which have their eyes on the minerals of Africa, play the usual diplomatic games of supporting Islamic terror by refusing to countenance “interference in domestic affairs.”

Obama and his CIA director-designee John Brennan take a benign view of some of the Islamist movements, even helping the Brotherhood in Egypt, much as Jimmy Carter once helped the ayatollahs in Iran. Brennan, who speaks Arabic (badly), has publicly called jihad a “spiritual journey,” and both he and Obama believe that they know where Islam is headed.

They think it is headed to Indonesia – the most populous Islamic country in the world. Obama and Brennan both spent part of their youth in Indonesia. They think Indonesia is an example of what Islam is and should be. But the Indonesia of their youth is not the model for most Muslims, who prefer to look to Mecca. Indeed the Islam of east Asia – Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines – is itself becoming much more violent and anti-Western.

The more radical Islamic forces are on the march, and they are not really impressed by Western solidarity, by speeches by Obama and Brennan. Many of the victims of jihad are now in Africa, but they will probably not be the last.

The writer, an expert on Arab politics and communications, was a strategic affairs adviser in the Ministry of Public Security and is the author of Battle for Our Minds: Western Elites and the Terror Threat published by Threshold/Simon and Schuster.

Source: jpost

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Yoram Hazony is one of the founders of the Shalem Center in Jerusalem, an academic research institute dedicated to the sustenance of the Jewish People and Israel. This scholarly book is about the extended narrative of the ancient Hebrew Scriptures. It covers not only the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses, but all the additional biblical texts that make up the comprehensive History of Israel.

The author is attempting to convince readers that by including the context of the Mosaic Law, the biblical covenant between God and the Children of Israel and their proselytes, we can get an understanding of the philosophy behind the Hebrew Bible. But above all this book allows us to read the Hebrew Bible as a work of reason just like the great Greek philosophers.

Hazony sets off with the genuinely Christian and therefore post-biblical dichotomy of reason and revelation - reason being the product of man exercising intellectual capabilities in order to grasp the good, the beautiful and the true. In contrast, God's revelation aims at accomplishing the same by giving us a somewhat common sense or narrative version, ie the literal stories of the Hebrew Scripture.

In the history of ideas, namely through the German-American political philosopher Leo Strauss, this dichotomy has been addressed as esoteric or elitist versus esoteric or everyman's knowledge. Politically speaking, this split comes at the price of creating a dualism that separates a spiritual from the physical realm.

Just as Philo of Alexandria in the first-century CE attempted to synthesize Greek Philosophy and Judaism, so Christianity can be depicted as quite a different attempt to accomplish this, resulting in a consequential Hellenization.

The original motive of the Christian fathers might have been to fend off all sorts of Gnostic rivals. By contrast, as Hazony makes clear, the Hebrew Bible, written 500 years before the dualism appeared, did not really need to. Judaism always lacked any missionary drive and was firmly moored at the harbor of Jewish particularism or even naturalism with an additional universalist touch to it. It is against this historical background that Hazony's book can be best understood.

Other Christian tenets that flow from the reason-revelation split, such as the healing power of faith and the concept of eternal life, were also conspicuously absent from the core tenets of Judaism. So much so that the philosopher Immanuel Kant did not even acknowledge ancient Judaism as a religion. This backfired during the 18th century, when the philosophers of the Enlightenment used the reason-revelation dichotomy to specifically attack the philosophical underpinnings of the Christian doctrine, rendering it as superstitious. "Fideists and heretics alike", Hazony tells us, "have thus had ample reason to insist on this distinction, and many continue to do so even today".

However, the Hebrew Bible was ill-served historically by being interpreted within the Christian framework of revelation versus reason. Read as revelation, the Hebrew Scripture is being completely distorted and its message destroyed. In addition, this forceful misreading had huge consequences, diminishing the scripture's general standing and ultimately leading to it being banned from universities and public education.

Hazony therefore wishes the original Hebrew narrative to be read entirely as a work of reason. His book aims at persuading readers of the usefulness of the Hebrew Bible as a philosophical source for answering questions about the nature of the universe and the right or just life of man. To do this, he needs to dismantle prejudices and obstacles of methodology.

Maintaining an emphasis on philosophical argument, he furnishes examples of the pre-Socratic philosophers such as Parmenides, Empedocles and Heraclitus, who, in the fifth century not long before the prophet Jeremiah (647-572), all framed their ideas as being revealed.

Even Socrates, as related by his disciple Plato, had prophetic power and heard voices delivering divine commands that prevented him from doing certain untoward things. What rightly puzzles Hazony is that modern historians such as Bertrand Russell unambiguously read these works by founders of the Western philosophic tradition as words of reason.

Hazony blames the different reading of Jeremiah and the pre-Socratic philosophers on simple prejudice rooted in the Christian dichotomy. Since the Enlightenment, this same dichotomy has also been upheld by the modern research of universities. Originally developed in Germany by Wilhelm von Humboldt, the interpretation was adopted and implemented in the United States in the last third of the 19th Century. From there originates the exclusion of the Hebrew Bible from works of reason.

Not for nothing was Greek philosophy the main currency in continental post-Enlightenment France and Germany. Thus, the history of Western thought was rewritten with Kant and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel gazing though a Greek lens, with a rich Jewish tradition marginalized as superstitious and rendered as utterly worthless.

Hazony is quick to assert that the Hebrew Bible does not offer one single point of view, given that dozens of authors have contributed at times contradictory accounts to it. It is for this reason, he writes, that the "heart" of the Bible is not easily accessible, but has to be sought.

"Having been assembled to embrace and heal a broken people after the loss of its land and freedom, the Hebrew Bible could not afford the parochialism of a narrow religious sect, because it was consciously assembled to serve as the basis for the thought of an entire nation." Hazony goes even further, saying the ambiguity and uncertainty of the biblical narrative reflects the limits of human intelligence or, as the author puts it, "ultimate knowledge of God's thoughts is beyond the powers of man, which are by nature weak and fallible".

For this reason, to get the full picture, it is necessary to extend the reading of the Hebrew Scripture beyond the five books of Moses, the traditional halachic core depicting Jewish Law sensu stricto. Only the complete narrative all the way to the end of the Book of Kings gives us the reading intended by the authors of the scripture.

The complete narrative of the History of Israel is altogether about 150,000 words and consists of nine works: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings. The second half of the history is then included in the anthology of the Prophets. Hazony also notes that many editions of the Hebrew Bible divide Samuel and Kings into smaller works, but this is certainly a post-Talmudic (ancient Rabbinic) innovation. This brings us back to the starting point: the reason-revelation dichotomy which is the book's central argument.

The author concludes: "In the New Testament, revelation is unapproachable to reason because that which is revealed appears in the world in the form of bare contingent facts - facts that stand alone, without relation to anything that has come before in human experience. Such a revelation is, by definition, opposed to human reason, and can be accepted only as a secret and a mystery."

The purpose of the Hebrew Bible couldn't be more different. For its authors are anonymous - precisely the opposite of bearing witness. It also does not deal with secrets or predominantly with miracles. The History of Israel in all its embarrassment if you will, lies open before our eyes. The destruction of the Jewish Kingdom, of the Temple for instance, those are horrible facts, not doubted by anyone.

The importance of the Hebrew Scripture lies in it framing for the first time of the History of the Jews. This provided a broken people with a lasting self-understanding intended to facilitate their survival.

Hazony explains in accessible language how the seemingly contingent and particular narrative of the Hebrew Bible works as an outlet of universal reason. After finishing this book I was reminded of the late Leo Strauss, who early on observed that the thinkers of the Enlightenment never did their homework, such as a thorough critique of the Holy Scripture, and simply resorted to mockery about religion. Hazon's book will give them pause by demonstrating that the Hebrew Bible can be read as a work of reason.

Source: atimes

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Jain religion’s mainstay is non-violence. Hence, they do not harm cow or any other animal or bird. When Jainism flourished, they were active in cow protection. They built huge cowsheds and made cow rearing part of their lifestyle. Cruelty against cows, starving them, overloading, mutilating their body were all prohibited by law.

One’s wealth was assessed by the number of cows he possessed. One Vraja/Gokula = 10,000 cows. Ten citizens who owned maximum cows were named “Rajagriha Mahashataka” and “Kashiyachulanipita.”Mahaveera had ordered his disciples to rear 60,000 cows. When Ananda became a disciple of Mahaveera, he vowed to run 8 Gokulas.

Source: eng.gougram

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Once a year since 1950, India tries to convince the world (and itself) that it is indeed a superpower, with an epic show that takes over the grandest road in India, the Rajpath in New Delhi. The Republic Day parade celebrates India's nationhood with pomp and circumstance. This year, however, there has been a flurry of calls to boycott the event. For the first time, the Indian middle class is disassociating itself from this hoopla. The barbaric Delhi gang rape in December may have been the trigger, but, beyond that, there is widespread disappointment with law and order and the political class.

The appeal for a boycott started on social media. It was soon labelled anti-national by traditionalists. Not surprising in a country riven down the middle, but the fault lines are not Hindu-Muslim, class or gender based; the breach is between two Hinduisms.

Hinduism is an odd religion. It works very well as a way of life but no longer works as a faith. It's too old, too corrupt, has moved too far from its raison d'être. For the educated urban Indian, Hinduism is a cultural rather than religious identity. They embrace all that's enjoyable about the Hindu way of life: the festivals, the food, the colourful mythology, sophisticated classical music and dance. They may go through the motions of worship on occasions but have no real faith in their pantheon of gods and goddesses, some of whom are decidedly strange. Nor do they follow the proscriptions that have crept into Hinduism over the centuries. Practised thus, Hinduism is the most laidback and accommodating of religions.

But there is the "other" Hinduism thriving in the small towns and villages of India, a harsh, religion that oppresses women and the "lower castes". The dark side of India's economic boom is that the largely uneducated adherents of this form of Hinduism are pouring into every corner of India. They are on a collision course with the laissez-faire middle-class Hindus of the cities. These often "upper caste" Hindu men of the hinterland pour into the cities in droves, where they find themselves disabused of their fondest beliefs, such as their superiority over women. That's when atrocities against women – such as the recent outrages that have shaken India – happen. And the resurgent Hindu fundamentalist parties and publicity-hungry self-styled holy men manipulate these zealots for their own ends.

Hinduism as a way of life works; it is inclusive and fun. It could knit the nation together but, in the face of the orthodox onslaught, it lacks bite. Enter the Brahmo movement. The Brahmos were 19th-century reforming crusaders, Hindus who sought inspiration from global liberal philosophies as well as the best traditions of Christianity and Islam to weed out the corruption that had crept into Hinduism. They were monotheistic and women were at the core of their crusade. Brahmo women were ordained as priests and became literary lights in Bengal. Together with their men, they agitated successfully for an end to the funeral practice of "sati" (the burning of the widow on her husband's funeral pyre. Like all reforming movements, there was a zeal about the movement that could, if resurrected in India now, combat the rise of the uglier face of Hinduism.

My family is a microcosm of this principle in practice. With an atheist Hindu (entirely possible in India) father and a Brahmo mother, our family prized girls: we were educated thoroughly and brought up to be equal (if not ever so slightly superior) to men. Four generations of women from our family excelled at university, learned to question everything, yet also embraced the energy and exuberance of myriad Hindu festivals.

But Brahmos, for all their progressive qualities, were puritanical and censorious about some of the things that define India: colour, gaiety and sensuality. Stamping out all that's joyful about India would not cure its ills, but a large dollop of Brahmo liberality into the larger cauldron of Hinduism would help make it a more equitable society.

This fusion of exuberance and tolerance has been practised for scores of years by the educated Indian middle class, but without real awareness of what's in the mix. The apathetic middle class has just begun stirring from a decades-long sleep, but if it could harness the energy of the independence-era reformers to stem the rot, could real change be far behind?

Source: guardian

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Renowned writer Farzana Hassan’s voice is being heard loud and clear following the Mississauga launch of her latest book. Hassan chose Lakeview's Promenade Gallery as the venue to introduce Unveiled: A Canadian Muslim Woman’s Struggle Against Misogyny, Sharia And Jihad, at an event hosted by the Muslim Canadian Congress.  

The gallery’s small room was filled with people of varied faiths and backgrounds, ranging in age from grandparents to the author’s own baby granddaughter. Tahir Aslam Gora, Secretary General of the MCC, welcomed the audience and introduced the speakers who joined Hassan. Hassan already has three published books under her belt, as well as an array of articles in publications including the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail and the Huffington Post. She has also received a Diamond Jubilee Medal for opposing radicalism.

First up was Munir Pervaiz Saami, Director of the Progressive Writers Association of Canada. He told a story shared by Hassan in the early pages of her book, about a nickname she acquired as a child. "Bazurg bacha" was what her grandfather came to call her, after she innocently answered his question of “What do you want to be when you grow up?” She replied by saying she wanted to be a saint, and so the nickname of “saintly child,” (bazurg bacha) was born.

“It’s not easy to just try to be a saint, you have to have certain qualities in you to be a saint,” said Saami about Hassan. He explained that a saint spends his or her life searching for the truth, learning about religion or philosophy — something Hassan has clearly been doing.

In her book, Hassan discusses her own journey with her faith. She challenges Islamic doctrine in an effort to adapt the religion she holds dearly to today’s society. While sharing her life story, Hassan covers many Islamic issues, though there is a focus on equality for women and the issue of terrorism.
Saami explained these are issues currently facing the Muslim community, not just in Canada but around the globe.  In her book, Hassan draws attention to and analyzes the problems, and also offers potential solutions.  

Saami described the book as an eye-opener. The second speaker was Tarek Fatah, founder of the MCC and a well-known writer. With a combination of humour and sharp observation, Fatah talked about the stereotypical view many people have of Muslims. He encouraged the audience to give Hassan’s book to their MPs, explaining the need to open the closed minds some politicians have toward Muslims.

Following the speakers, who Hassan considers her mentors, she shared some of her story. “I almost gave up Islam,” Hassan told the group, remembering the tough time she had with her faith when she was around 20 years old. “And then I came back to it. There was a spiritual yearning,” she said.

After summarizing how the book details her journey with her religion, Hassan read some poignant excerpts. Then, eager to get a discussion flowing, she opened the floor to questions from the audience. Comments and queries poured out, adding to the debates Hassan says many Muslims are already having on their own. Her book will no doubt educate, reassure and spark even more discussion.

Source: mississauga

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ISLAMABAD: Eid Milad-un-Nabi (Peace Be Upon Him) is being observed today (Friday) with religious reverence and fervour, renewing the pledge to follow the true teachings of the Holy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH).

The day began with special prayers for development, safety, peace, unity and brotherhood amongst the followers of Holy Prophet (PBUH). The army fired 21-gun salute to mark the day. The government has announced a a public holiday.
 
Special security arrangements have been made to maintain law and order across the country on the occasion of 12th Rabi-ul-Awwal. Newspapers and magazines would publish special supplements, while television channels and radio stations would arrange special `Naatia Mushairas’ and quiz programmes on Seerat-e-Mustafa (PBUH).
 
All major government and private buildings, residential plazas, markets, mosques, roundabouts have been tastefully decorated.Mahafil-e-Milad and public meetings will be held in different parts of the country, while faithful would actively participate in the programmes organised by different local, religious and social organisations.  Processions are being taken out in all the cities and towns all across the county on the eve of Eid Milad-un-Nabi (PBUH).

Source: thenews

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Prejudice and the fear of too many foreigners is especially prevalent in Germany. With the growing number of Muslims, distrust of Islam is rising. Why are Germans afraid of the "foreign"?
The cashier at the supermarket wears a headscarf, copies of the Koran are handed out on the streets, and mosques have become part of some cities' landscapes. Islam appears to be encroaching on life in Germany and that bothers a lot of people.

"For decades, woman fought for equal rights, and we have attained something. And now, women are choosing to wear headscarves. I don't want that and it scares me," a unversity-educated woman from Cologne says. Her attitude is not uncommon. In the long debate over the new Cologne Central Mosque, which will be one of Europe's largest, fear and distrust of Islam have come to light and are widespread.

Islamism a "real threat"
Christian Democrat (CDU) politician Wolfgang Bosbach sees no general fear of Islam within the society, however, but rather a justifiable fear of Islamists who are ready to commit acts of violence. An estimated 40,000 Islamists live in Germany. A small, but significant, number of them are prone to violence. "Those [who are ready to be violent] out of religious motivation, out of religious extremism, are a real threat to security in Germany," Bosbach said.

Eight foiled and failed terrorist attacks have made it clear that the threat is real in Germany, Bosbach says. Security agents say these people represent a very small group of people - less than one percent of Muslims are Islamists. But they shape the obviously negative image of Islam and Muslims, which leads to widespread prejudice and fear that can lead to Islamophobia.

Fear of foreigners widespread
Over a period of ten years, the University of Bielefeld carried out a survey, which dealt with different aspects of bigotry. The survey showed that the fear of Islam is relatively widespread in Germany. Only 19 percent of Germans believe that Islam is compatible with German culture. "That is the lowest (figure) that we found in Europe," says social psychologist Andreas Zick, who led and evaluated the study.
The survey also showed that 46 percent of all Germans are afraid of the infiltration by foreigners, and around 30 percent had specific fears, for example, terrorist attacks.

The overwhelming majority of Muslims who live in Germany are peaceful. Some major events have played a role in shaping the overwhelmingly negative image of Islam. After the September 11 attacks, certain stereotypes, opinions about the attitudes of Muslims, became deeply rooted in society, says Zick.
"Even so many years after the terrorist attacks (...), many people still associate Islam or Muslims with terrorism, with Sharia law, with a foreign religion, which doesn't fit in Germany,"  he adds, noting that that is a problem.

Some people actually feel something akin to fear and have the feeling that it's coming to something that cannot be controlled, he said. Many people become influenced by populism. "Since the terrorist attack, we have new politicial movements, which agitate against  the alleged threat of Islam and Muslims," he said.

Populism fuels phobias
An example of right-wing parties are "Pro NRW" and "Pro Deutschland," which have campaigned against the construction of the mosque in Cologne and elsewhere with aggressive posters and borderline language. The message between the lines is clear: Islam is dangerous and there is no place for Muslims in Germany. But not only Islamists are taking advantage of Islam as a religion, right-wing populists are also using it for political purposes.

Detlef Pollack, a University of Münster religion sociologist, advises to differentiate between "Islamophobia" and "hostility toward Islam." That's because the fear of Islam is essentially a very vague feeling, while hostility toward Islam is based on a judgement. Pollack sees parallels between xenophobia in the early 1990s and the Islamophobia today in that both are based on social structures.

Has fear been turned into a taboo issue?
It is important to try to understand why the fear of Islam is more widespread in economically well-placed Germany than in other European countries. Detlet Pollack believes that it could have something to do with how German society works.

"A lot of what is seen as the problems of living with different ethnic or religious groups isn't actively discussed in the open," he adds. It would be typically German, in order to behave properly, to have the tendency not to address problems directly. This leads to a tendency to sweep some things under the carpet.

"And then someone is surprised that there is a high degree of prejudice, of fear, the fear of being threatened," Pollack notes. But if fears are not clearly articulated, then they cannot be dealt with. Dealing with fears constructively can help by potentially influencing people with rational arguments, which can help tackle fear. And information and education are just as important as the contact between people from different backgorunds and religions. The imminent opening of the mosque in Cologne, early this year, could to some degree contribute to reducing fear if it takes place in an environment of openness and trust.

Source: dw

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