Muslims, integration, and the rejection of Western society

 

The Portuguese President visiting the Islamic School of Palmela

The best way to get to know some of the "new Portuguese" – namely the Muslims who today live among us and form communities similar to those that have settled across Europe – is to look at the data collected on what they think," states lawyer João Pereira dos Santos, in one of the texts he recently published on the topic of Muslim inclusion in Western society (and to whom I apologize for having "borrowed" his texts for my blog – with authorship duly credited).

This is something I agree with – we need to know who those are who settle among us and, in many cases, hold values and principles completely opposed to our own; one need only compare the values of the Muslim religion with the content of the Portuguese Constitution. Or who build parallel judicial systems where Sharia, Islamic Law, is applied, in flagrant violation of the legal principles upon which our society is structured. Such is the case, in fact, of the Islamic Court that has been operating for over 20 years at the Lisbon Mosque, presided over by Sheikh David Munir.

A recent episode involved the leader of the Bangladeshi community in Portugal, Rana Taslim Uddin, who, in a speech that brought together several other leaders of that community, stated that "those who found a new society here, those who are here today, ask me what I did for society. Brothers, I did it to make my God happy, not for society. If God is happy, He will bring a solution for society and lead this society to the right path. If He is not happy, then He will destroy this society (*). So we try to please God and at the same time build a friendship with the people of this society."

In times gone by – June 2004 – I published an article in the weekly newspaper "O Independente" entitled "Radicalism for sale at the Lisbon Mosque." The main theme of the article had to do with an extremist group, the Tablighi Jamaat, with a growing presence in the Portuguese Islamic community. At the time, I had access to what was the "Bible" of the Tablighi Jamaat ("Faza'il-e-Amaal" / "The Virtues of Actions").

It was essentially a collection of texts narrating the heroic battles of the Muslims in the early days of their expansion. The translation into Portuguese was the responsibility of Sheikh David Munir and Sheikh Daud Ismael. The imam of the Lisbon Mosque himself, David Munir, recommended its reading during the usual Friday prayer. The last chapter of the book "The Virtues of Actions," titled "Muslim Degradation and Its Only Solution," calls for a "strong counterattack" aimed at recovering Islam's dominion over the world, within the limits and guidelines of the "Shariah."

To situate this movement "ideologically," suffice it to say that Saudi Arabia itself banned the organization from the country, classifying it as "an anteroom to terrorism." The son of Abdul Karim Vakil, president of the Islamic Community of Lisbon and a professor at King's College, warned of the danger of the Tablighi Jamaat, who even at that time constituted the majority of the Portuguese Muslim community:

"The extremist group Tabligh Jamaat 'represents, on the one hand, and incontestably, the most dynamic force of Islam among Muslims in Portugal. On the other hand, its strict traditionalism, expressed in the prescription of clothing itself, in the strict separation between the sexes, in an attitude of detachment from the outside society, represents, as I have already mentioned, a factor of rupture in the historical trend towards integration in the attitude of Muslims in Portugal," states Abdool Karim Vakil (son) in a study entitled "From the Other to the Diverse – Islam and Muslims in Portugal: history, discourses, identities."

The rejection of Western values by the Tabligh Jamaat is clearly revealed in an article published in 2001, in the Islamic magazine Al-Madinah, edited by the Islamic Community of South Tagus. According to that article in Al-Madinah magazine, "in ordinary schools (...) it becomes impossible to safeguard the faith. The solution to this lies in the creation of Islamic institutions, where children can grow up in an Islamic environment" – with the Islamic School of Palmela being a pioneering example of this strategy.

In the article I published at the time in "O Independente," among other aspects, I highlighted the extremism of the magazine "Al-Furqán," a Portuguese Islamic magazine, which had published, in 1988, an article with a front-page headline entitled: "Are Jews endowed with humanity?" On the inside pages, the author of the article, Sheikh Aminuddin Mohamad, at the time spiritual adviser to the Islamic Community of Lisbon, wrote that "Jews proper are not human beings." The article ended with lavish praise for Hitler: "Jews are enemies of all those who are not, and seek to do them all possible harm. Perhaps that is why Hitler wanted to annihilate this accursed people."

The Tabligh Jamaat are responsible for the annual organization of the largest gathering of Muslims, after the pilgrimage to Mecca. About four million members gather in the Pakistani city of Raiwind, with similar and equally large gatherings taking place in Bangladesh and India.

The Tabligh Jamaat Islamic movement also gathers annually at the Lisbon Mosque, in an international meeting that takes place in a seemingly calm and relaxed atmosphere, according to Lusa news agency. Besides the movement's leader, Esmael Loonat, several officials from the Islamic Community of South Tagus and the Islamic School of Palmela are members of the movement.

Besides Saudi Arabia, more than a dozen countries have banned the Tabligh Jamaat: Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Russia. In addition to these countries, others in Central Asia have also taken the same decision, due to their disagreement with the puritanical position and extremism of this movement: Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan.

(*) – Translation by Jayanti Dutta, professor and researcher at the Center for Lusophone and European Literatures and Cultures (CLEPUL) at the University of Lisbon, published by the television program "Polígrafo," regarding what was stated by Rana Taslim Uddin in that intervention:

"Those who found a new society here, those who are here today, ask me what I did for society. Brothers, I did it to make my God happy, not for society. If God is happy, He will bring a solution for society and lead this society to the right path. If He is not happy, then He will destroy this society. So we try to please God and at the same time build a friendship with the people of this society."