There are some people who come under the category ‘brave but stupid’and this female Imam from Germany would certainly fit that description.
Seyran Ates who is the Imam of a liberal mosque in Berlin made her statement about the iniquity of Shariah Courts whilst on a visit to Britain to find a base here for her particular brand of liberal Islam. She should take a tip on this from me and not base her organisation anywhere near mainstream Muslims as they will probably kill her or members of her congregation. Unlike dissenting members of other faiths she and her organisation will not merely be excluded from gatherings of co-religionists but will probably get a significant amount violence from more orthodox Muslims.
The Daily Mail is reporting on her criticisms of Shariah Courts and her probably vain quest to bring liberal Islam to the stubbornly unenlightened British Muslim community. Here’s part of the Daily Mail article. As is usual policy for this blog the original text from the Mail is in italics whereas this blog’s comments are in plain text.
The Daily Mail said:
A controversial female Imam, who received death threats after opening a liberal mosque for all Muslims, says the UK’s Sharia courts breed Islamic extremism and called for them to be shut.
Are we really surprised that this Imam is getting death threats? After all nothing says ‘Islam is a religion of peace’ like a death threat does it.
Seyran Ates, who preaches at the Berlin mosque for women, men, Sunni, Shiite, straight and gay Muslims, said the secretive Islamic courts in the UK are a mistake – and linked them to recent terror attacks in Westminster, Manchester and London Bridge.
She’s probably correct there and the reasons that she gives are sound.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline Ms Ates, 54, said hardline Sharia courts support fundamentalists and are alienating moderate Muslims, adding: ‘Britain has a multi-cultural society and London, especially, is a melting pot.
Agree about the effect of Shariah Courts. They are a hindrance to integration as they promote the most harsh view of Islam possible.
‘But you have made mistakes in the case of Islam. There have been a number of attacks in a very short time. More than any other country, you need to talk about extremism in Islam. You need a more open debate about secularism.
Britain has certainly made mistakes regarding Islam. Some would say that allowing this ideology to fester here in the first place was a mistake of monstrous proportions. Our governments have also made mistakes by pandering to Islam and Muslims and failing to talk about the specific Islamic nature of much of today’s terror attacks. I agree that there is a need for a debate about secularism but it should also be noted that prior to the arrival of Islam there was very little need for such a debate.
‘I don’t accept that terrorism has nothing to do with Islam,’ she said. ‘It has to have something to do with Islam because these people are shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’.
Well you could knock me over with a feather. An honest Imam. She’s correct, there is nothing to be gained by saying ‘nothing to do with Islam’ when Muslims slaughter people to the cry of ‘Allah hu Akbar’.
Britain’s big mistake was to install sharia courts. They have to be forbidden. They are fighting against women. You won’t find an objective judge in a sharia court.’
Strict Sharia courts, of which there are around 85 operating in the UK, working mainly from mosques, settle financial and family disputes according to religious principles.
But they treat women as second-class citizens, a damning report in 2015 claimed.
The parallel justice system runs against the law of the land and is condemning British Muslim women to ‘marital captivity’ while failing to protect them from domestic violence, said the independent study written by Dutch academic Machteld Zee.
Not much to disagree with there. Shariah Courts are discriminatory towards women both in child custody and inheritance cases. Other religions that have internal legal structures such as the Church of England and the Jews, recognise and respect the civil law of the land and only deal with such limited matters such as priestly and rabbinical discipline, conversions, the solemnisation of marriages and where applicable the relevant religious food standards kept by members of a particular faith. Shariah Courts on the other hand both disregard the civil law and deal with matters that they should not be concerned with and also see themselves as superior to the law of the land.
The Imam, a single lesbian, is in London to find a venue where men and women of all Muslim sects and sexuality and can pray side by side.
‘I am proud to be a Muslim, a lesbian, a lawyer and an author,’ she said.
Ates is in the UK with a team of bodyguards, needed because she has received death threats from around the world over her liberal approach to Islam.
Good luck finding a part of London for your mosque that isn’t liable to contain Muslims who hate what you are doing and who you are. It should be noted that Ms Ates needs bodyguards whilst in the UK not because of all the ‘vicious Islamophobes’ that various Islamic grievance mongers say exist, but from the large number of violent followers of mainstream Islam.
The large number of attacks, both physical and verbal that Ms Ates has been subjected to since she started fighting for the rights of women in Islam really does give the lie to the phrase ‘Islam is a religion of peace’ doesn’t it? The Mail continued:
The daughter of Turkish immigrants, Ates has lived in Germany since the age of six. A family lawyer, she has dedicated her adult life to human rights, risking her life for the cause.
When she was just 21 years old, and working for an advice centre for Turkish women, she narrowly survived a shooting – she almost died of her wounds.
Since then, she has faced a series of death threats, being forced to close her legal office in 2006 while she was fighting arranged marriage.
‘The husband of a client tried to kick me and beat me,’ she explained. ‘I got so many death threats that I decided to close my office and give up my licence as a lawyer.
But Ms Ates did not retire. She just transferred her skills to writing, publishing three years later, her controversial book, Islam Needs a Sexual Revolution. This time the threats led her to retire from the public eye.
However, in June this year, she came out of retirement to open the ‘liberal’ Ibn Rushd-Goethe mosque, which is named after the medieval Andalusian philosopher Ibn Rushd and German writer Johann Wolfgang Goethe and housed inside a Protestant church in Berlin.
Nothing says ‘religion of peace’ like having to be surrounded 24/7 by guards does it? Whilst what Imam Ates is doing is admirable and needs doing, the reaction of other Muslims should tell us that the type of Islam that Imam Ates is espousing is nothing like the Islam that is practised throughout the world.
I support what Imam Ates is trying to do but I think that ultimately it is doomed to failure. This is because both the founder and the foundations of Islam are so vile and degenerate that reform may be difficult if not impossible. For a reformed Islam to exist and be compatible with civilised nations Islamic clerics would have to rewrite the life of Mohammed taking out all the rapes and the murders. It would also require a reinterpretation of the beginnings of Islam and of Islamic texts to such an extent that such a reinterpretation would be torturous and would not be accepted by the vast number of Muslims who seem happy with their death cult as it is already.
Link
Original Daily Mail article
