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Ban Islam?
Philadelphia
N
on-Muslims occasionally raise
the idea of banning the Koran,
Islam and Muslims. Recent
examples include calls by a political
leader in the Netherlands, Geert Wilders,
to ban the Koran — which he compares
to Hitler's Mein Kampf and two
Australian politicians, Pauline Hanson and
Paul Green, demanding a moratorium on
Muslim immigration.
What is one to make of these initiatives?
First, some history. Precedents exist from
an earlier era, when intolerant Christian
governments forced Muslims to convert,
notably in 16th-century Spain and others
strongly encouraged conversions, espe-
cially of the elite, as in 16th- and 17th-
century Russia. In modern times, however,
with freedom of expression and religion
established as basic human rights, efforts
to protect against intolerance by banning
the Koran, Islam, or Muslims have failed.
In perhaps the most serious contem-
porary attempt to ban the Koran, a Hindu
group argued in 1984-85 that the Islamic
scriptures contain "numerous sayings,
repeated in the book over and over again,
which on grounds of religion promote dis-
harmony, feeling of enmity, hatred and ill-
—
will between different religious communi-
ties and incite people to commit violence
and disturb public tranquility."
The taking of this demand, known as
"The Calcutta Quran Petition:' to court
prompted riots and deaths in Bangladesh.
The case so alarmed New Delhi that the
attorney general of India himself took part
in the proceedings to oppose the petition,
which, not surprisingly, was dismissed.
Pim Fortuyn (1948-2002) led the most
consequential effort so far to end Muslim
emigration, in his case, to the Netherlands.
This early petition set the standard in
terms of collecting objectionable Koranic
verses. Other efforts have been more
rhetorical and less operational. The most
consequential was by Pim Fortuyn in the
Netherlands to end Muslim emigration.
Had he not been assassinated in 2002, he
might have ridden his issue to the prime
ministry.
The coordinator of Italy's Northern
League, Roberto Calderoli, wrote in 2005:
"Islam has to be declared illegal until
Islamists are prepared to renounce those
parts of their pseudo political and reli-
gious doctrine glorifying violence and the
oppression of other cultures and religions."
A British Member of Parliament, Boris
Johnson, pointed out in 2005 that passing
a Racial and Religious Hatred Bill "must
mean banning the reading — in public
or private — of a great many passages of
the Koran itself." His observation
impossible to fulfill." In France,
prompted a Muslim delega-
an anonymous writer at the
tion to seek assurances, which
Liberty Vox Web site wishes to
it received, from the Home
ban Islam, as does Warner Todd
Office that no such ban would
Huston in the United States.
occur. Patrick Sookhdeo of the
The 2006 movie V for
Institute for the Study of Islam
Vendetta portrays a future
and Christianity in 2006 called
Britain in which the Koran is
for prohibiting one translation
banned.
Danie I Pipes
of the Koran, The Noble Koran:
My take? I understand the
Sp ecial
A New Rendering of its Meaning
security-based urge to exclude
Comm entary
in English, because "it sets out
the Koran, Islam, and Muslims,
a strategy for killing the infidels and for
but these efforts are too broad, sweeping
warfare against them."
up inspirational passages with objection-
Other Western countries witnessed
able ones, reformers with extremists,
lesser efforts: Norway's Kristiansand
friends with foes. Also, they ignore the
Progress Party sought to ban Islam in
possibility of positive change.
2004 and Germany's Bundesverband der
More practical and focused would be
BUrgerbewegungen sought to prohibit the
to reduce the threats of jihad and Shariah
Koran in 2006, arguing for its incompat-
by banning Islamist interpretations of the
ibility with the German constitution. "Stop Koran, as well as Islamism and Islamists.
the Islamification of Denmark" demanded Precedents exist. A Saudi-sponsored Koran
in early 2007 the prohibition of parts of
was pulled from school libraries. Preachers
the Koran and all mosques, calling them
have gone to jail for their interpretation of
unconstitutional. Australia's Catch the Fire the Koran. Extreme versions of Islam are
Ministries argued in 2004 that because
criminally prosecuted. Organizations are
"The Koran contradicts Christian doctrine outlawed. Politicians have called for
in a number of places and, under the blas- Islamists to leave their countries.
phemy law, [it] is therefore illegal."
Islam is not the enemy, but Islamism is.
Elsewhere, writers have made the same
Tolerate moderate Islam, but eradicate its
demands. Switzerland's Main Jean-Mairet
radical variants.
is the strategist of a two-part plan, popu-
lar and juridical, with the goal that "all the
Daniel Pipes (DanielPipes.org ) is director
Islamic projects in Switzerland will prove
of the Middle East Forum.
Opportunity For Change
Los Angeles
undeniably the province of a select
few. Home of the free and the brave?
he summer of 2007
Maybe. But liberty and justice for
was witness to a
all? Not a chance.
full-scale unravel-
Any analysis of the mortgage
ing of the sub-prime mort-
meltdown would be incomplete
gage market. Much has been
without an examination of what
written about the evolution
caused people to apply for sub-
of the credit crisis, and econ-
primes
in the first place — the
H. Eric
omists will undoubtedly ded-
human
side
of the story. In some
Schockman
icate themselves to its study
cases,
these
loans were taken out
Special
for many years to come.
by
people
looking
to game the
Commentary
In the discussion that has
system — irresponsible borrowers
ensued about the securitiza-
with lousy credit resulting from
tion of mortgages and its impact across a
negligence, misconduct or worse. But for
range of business sectors, something cru-
millions of low-income Americans raised
cial has been lost in the shuffle. Articles
to believe that home ownership was the
mention the tremors felt from Wall Street
surest path out of poverty, sub-prime
to Main Street, as if to suggest that all
mortgages were their only hope for a life
pains are equal and every consequence
beyond suffering and despair.
fairly distributed. But equating the col-
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 37
lapse of a hedge fund with, literally, the
million Americans live in poverty; the U.S.
loss of a roof over one's head is to miss
Department of Agriculture reports that
the basic point that ours is a nation at war more than 35 million of them experience
with itself, one in which prosperity and
low food security, government-speak for
opportunity are inextricably linked and
hungry or close to it. Many of these people
T
46
September 13 • 2007
are served by the federal Food Stamp
Program, an important hand-up that helps
them put meals on their family table. But
the current food stamp benefit is a paltry
$1 per person per meal, and you can bet
this isn't because the federal government
thinks a hungry person will be able to put
the money he saves on food into a tradi-
tional home mortgage.
We have become a nation that celebrates
wealth and relegates the rest of us to an
afterthought.
Our poverty policy is one big unfunded
mandate: We value accountability and
hard work, but shirk our responsibility
to retrain people affected by jobs moving
overseas; we place a premium on good
nutrition, but provide multiple job-hold-
ing, minimum wage-earning parents bare-
ly enough support to buy their children
a bag of Fritos; we emphasize the desir-
ability of home ownership, and encour-
age people to get there by signing up for
hopelessly complex, high-risk gambits
whose consequences they are only now
beginning to understand. Never before
have low-income Americans been so well
advised to heed the doctrine of caveat
emptor let the buyer beware.
This week marks the beginning of the
Jewish High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah
(the Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur
(the Day of Atonement). During these, the
most sacred days of the Jewish calendar,
we ask each other for forgiveness and
recommit ourselves to change.
Of course, rebirth and redemption are
universal themes that speak to all of us.
I urge all Americans, not just Jews but
Christians and Muslims and all people
of faith and sound principle, to come
together in support of a society that looks
out for its many members, regardless of
their station in life. Until then, the sub-
prime mortgage debacle will go down as
just another failure, noteworthy more for
the inequities it revealed in the American
economy than for its attempt to do any-
thing about them.
—
H. Eric Schockman is president of MAZON: A
Jewish Response to Hunger (www.mazon.org ).