The Balkan Chronicle

Bulgaria's Muslim minority are not deeply religious, although they enthusiastically practise traditional rituals, a study showed Friday.
 
Only 28.5 percent of respondents said they were deeply religious, a negligible 0.5 percent believed that disputes should be resolved using Islamic Sharia law and as many as 79.6 percent said that wearing a veil in school was "unacceptable." "People who evoke the scarecrow of Islamic fundamentalism in Bulgaria are wrong," said Evgenia Ivanova of New Bulgarian University, the study's author. "Religion is not of primary importance to Bulgaria's Muslims." Muslims make up 13 percent of the southeastern European nation's population of 7.3 million.

Whilst the European is mainly making the news for its strenuous efforts of cancelling even the pretence of democracy to preserve the interest (pun intended) of the bankers, they have not entirely taken their eyes off the "Muslim menace" within their midst, maybe because the Islamic faith remains the last and final obstacle in the secularists dream of technocratic government unhindered by conscience or reference to divine commandments.

As I am preparing for a talk at Greenwich Islamic Centre (my "Greenwich Mean Talk") on Friday, 9 December, about whether Fortress Europe will ever accept full Muslim integration, I am stumbling across yet another article on the BBC News website giving publicity to the Dutch campaign for outlawing Jewish and Islamic slaughter methods. If it wasn't for the Jews fighting their corner, we Muslims would already be on a hiding to nowhere, but luckily they have picked holes in the argument of the so-called scientific and humane method of stunning animals prior to slaughter as well as the associated terminology. Dutch chief rabbi Benjamin Jacobs is quoted as taking issue with the term "ritual slaughter", saying that "it's not dancing around a cow". "In my opinion", he says, "stunning is torture. Just because it can't say 'moo' or move anymore, it's very nice for the human eye, but the animal is alive and the scientists don't actually know if it's suffering or not."

“There is a better Turkey with European standards,” is a remark made by Norwegian Minister of Defense Espen Barth Eide to Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu at the European Congress of Socialist Parties held in Brussels.

Because he is a main opposition leader, the CHP leader concludes that this remark that praises Turkey also praises the ruling party. For this reason, at the panel on the Arab Spring, he argues with the Norwegian minister at the event, saying, “Our leaders want to imitate the Arab leaders.” Acting more like a conservative politician than a socialist minister, the Norwegian minister drives Kılıçdaroğlu into a corner by saying, “A Turkey reconciled with its history and Muslim heritage is more European than the Westernization initiative based on Kemalist authoritarian methods.”

The Greek debt crisis and the fear of contagion in a number of European countries has resuscitated old controversies over the depth of the European integration and latent tensions that have been cumulating over the lifetime of the European Union.

Over the last months different scenarios have been suggested, from the disintegration of the monetary Union to the creation of a federal core of countries with tightly connected economic and fiscal policies. The recent developments seem to be giving the right to those who have been all along suggesting that the result of the current crisis will be more integration among some of the EU member states.

America's ever-growing Latino-Muslim population has yet to be estimated statistically. However, it is indisputable that with exponential growth Latino-Muslims find increasing presence and voice in the American Muslim public square.

Latino paths to Islam are as diverse as Hispanic countries of origin and roots: from the Caribbean, Central and South America or even Spain. The conduits to their new spiritual journeys derive from a variety of life experiences that range from the sublime appeal of accidentally listening to Quranic recitation or from a close encounter with a Muslim performing one of his five daily prayers.

UNESCO, the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation has a number of objectives including: attaining education for all; mobilising science knowledge and policy for sustainable development; addressing emerging social and ethical challenges; fostering cultural diversity, intercultural dialogue and a culture of peace; and building inclusive knowledge societies through information and communication.

It can now add state making to its list of objectives. As has been reported: "A state which doesn't officially exist was granted membership of a UN body." UNESCO voted 107 votes to 14 (with 52 abstentions) to admit Palestine as the 195th member state to U.N organisation. Because Palestine is not a member of the U.N. admission to UNESCO required a recommendation by the Organisation's Executive Board and a two thirds majority vote in favour by the General Conference of Member States present and voting (abstentions are not considered as votes). Australia voted with America (and 14 other countries) against Palestinian membership.

Some of you may know the book "The 100 ranking of the most influential Persons in history", written by Michael Hart.

In his book Michael Hart, an American, a Christian and a University professor, ranked popular people from history according to their importance to mankind, based on their achievements. No surprise, Ranked number one, the most important person in the history of all mankind is the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh); but just a few people know that there is another Muslim within the top 100.

Umar Al Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), the second caliph of the Muslim Ummah, is also named one of the "top performers" of mankind, as we would say today!

Bozkir said the Arab Spring is transforming Turkey into a regional power: "We don't see the US [dominant] in the Middle East anymore. No one has confidence in the UN. So who is going to fill this gap? Turkey. When our prime minister visits these regions, people really welcome him. They wave Turkish flags in the streets."

Turkish EU affairs minister Egemen Bagis said the question is not what the EU can do for Turkey but vice versa: "The EU was never seen as economic project by us, but as a peace project and we are working to turn it into a global project."