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CAIRO – Malaysia’s top Islamic council has issued a fatwa banning the celebration of Halloween next Friday, October 31, as haram and contradicting with Islamic law.

“The Halloween celebration is clearly against the values of Shari`ah. It cannot be celebrated by Muslims,” the council said in a blog-post cited by International Business Times on Thursday, October 30.

The council said that Halloween was a Christian festival that honored the dead, urging Muslims to pray for their deceased instead.

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“To remember those who have passed away, Islam suggests the practices of reciting du`aa (prayers) and Qur’an,” the council said.

The edict was issued in reaction to a complaint lodged last week by Muslim residents in Negeri Sembilan state capital Seremban against a private international school which invited students, Muslims included, to attend a Halloween bash it was organizing, Free Malaysia Today reported.

The invitation had caused a furore among some Muslim groups including the Islamist Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia, which urged the state authorities to monitor the event.

“Today Halloween is usually celebrated with activities, with adults and children alike in fancy dress visiting strangers’ houses asking for candy, lighting bonfires, visiting haunted attractions, playing pranks on people with a variety of games, and telling horror stories,” it added.

“Halloween is celebrated with the theme of horror mixed with humor in order to cheer the heart and also against the spirit of dead that affect humans.”

Earlier this month, Abdullah Zaik Abdul Rahman, the president of Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) warned Malaysians against observing Halloween, claiming that these events are planned by non-Muslims to shake the faith of Muslims and turn them godless.

Muslim Malays form about 60% of Malaysia’s 26-million population, while Christians make up around 9.1%.

Jordan Too

The Jordan government announced a similar ban on Halloween in the country.

The decision has been announced in a statement by the Jordian home ministry baning all sorts of activities surrounding Halloween, so as to prevent a repeat of the rioting that the city of Amman had during Halloween for the last two years.

Ministry spokesperson Ziad Al Zoubi confirmed the decision to Jordian daily Al Ghad.
Halloween is an annual Western celebration based on Celtic pagan doctrines and traditionally applied to the evening of October 31st.

Celtics were a group occupying the area known now as Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Northern France about 2,000 years ago.

Halloween has clear connections with the Eve of Samhain, a celebration marking the beginning of winter as well as the first day of the New Year among ancient pagans of the British Isles (2nd century BC).

On this occasion, it was believed that supernatural forces gathered together and that the barriers between the supernatural and human worlds were broken.

They believed that spirits from other worlds, such as the souls of the dead were able to visit earth during this time and roam about.

When Christianity came to the British Isles, the church tried to take attention away from these pagan rituals by placing a Christian holiday on the same day.

The Christian festival, the Feast of All Saints, acknowledges the saints of the Christian faith in much the same way that Samhain had paid tribute to the pagan gods.

These traditions were brought to the United States by immigrants from Ireland and Scotland.

CAIRO – Risking stoking already simmering tensions in occupied Palestinian territories, a right-wing Israeli lawmaker has proposed a new legislation that would silence Muslims’ call to prayer or adhan.

“Hundreds of thousands of citizens in Israel, in the Galilee, the Negev, Jerusalem and other locations in central Israel suffer on a regular basis from noise that is caused by muezzin [prayer caller] calls in mosques,” the bill, sponsored by Robert Ilatov, a parliamentarian with the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party, states, The Telegraph reported.

The bill is also supported by Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli foreign minister who is also the party’s leader.
The Adhan (The Call to Prayer)

A similar proposal, put forward by Yisrael Beiteinu, was shelved in 2011 despite having the explicit support of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister.

The latest bill is expected to be brought before the ministerial committee for legislation in the coming weeks and would give the interior minister powers to decide whether public address systems could be installed in “houses of prayer” – amounting in practice to a veto over whether a mosque is allowed to broadcast prayer calls.

Ilatov claims that freedom of religious worship was trumped by the right to “peace” and “quiet”.

“Freedom of religion and worship is a universal freedom to which everyone is entitled in every democratic state, and of course in Israel,” he told Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

“This does not mean that additional rights can be trampled, such as the right to conduct a normal daily routine that includes peaceful and uninterrupted sleep during the night.”

The Adhan is the call to announce that it is time for a particular obligatory Salah (ritual prayer).

The Adhan is raised five times a day.

Anger

According to Ilatov, the legislation to silence adhan was justified on the ground of “noise pollution”.

Yet, it was seen as bound to prompt accusations of religious intolerance and prejudice against Muslims.

“Israel is increasingly becoming a project of ethno-religious purity and exclusion. Religious Zionist and ultra-Orthodox parties occupy 30 of the 120 seats in the Knesset, and the coalition government includes members of Jewish Home, a religious Zionist party, and Yisrael Beiteinu, a right-wing nationalist party,” Rula Jebreal, an outspoken Palestinian Israeli commentator, wrote in New York Times of the increasing hardships for Arab minorities within Israel.

“Central to their politics is a program of discriminatory legislation, designed to curtail the civil rights of Palestinian Israeli citizens.”

Israel occupied the holy city of Al-Quds, the West Bank and Golan Heights in the 1967 war and later annexed them in a move not recognized by the international community or UN resolutions.

Since then, Israel has adopted a series of oppressive measures to force the Palestinians out of Al-Quds, including systematic demolition of their homes and building settlements.

There are more than 164 Jewish settlements in the West Bank, eating up more than 40 percent of the occupied West Bank.

The international community considers all settlements on the occupied land illegal.

Sweden officially recognized the state of Palestine on Thursday, the first EU country in Western Europe to do so, reflecting growing international exasperation over the moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

BERLIN – German officials have pledged to ban anti-Islam rally planned next November 15 by new-Nazis and soccer hooligans, following last Sunday’s rioting in Cologne which left scores of police officers injured.

“We will do everything we can to ban the demonstration,” Berlin’s senator for interior affairs Frank Henkel told ARD television, Reuters reported on Thursday, October 30.

“We are experiencing a new quality, a new dimension of street violence and militancy. (In Cologne) it was clear from the start that it was not about a political statement but seeking physical clashes, especially with the police.”

Hooligans Anti-Salafists Rally Turns Violent

The rally was announced by self-styled soccer hooligans to protest Islamic Salafists at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate on November 15, a week after the capital celebrates the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Henkel said he had heard talk of 10,000 people wanting to attend.

The authorities concern followed rioting that erupted last Sunday during a similar rally in Cologne that was attended by an estimated 4000 members.

The clashes erupted when some 4,000 hooligans, many drunk, and neo-Nazis hurled objects at police who responded with pepper spray and water cannons.

The incidents raised fears of violent youths with no political agenda joining forces with a racist group.

Salafis are believed to number about 4,000 in Germany, which has a total Muslim population of some four million.

Salafis has come under scrutiny in Germany following a campaign to hand out free copies of the Noble Qur’an to educate Germans about Qur’an last year.

The campaign has sparked fury from German politicians, who accused Salafis of seeking to spread radicalization in the country.

Last year, clashes erupted between Salafis and far-right Pro NRW party supporters in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia over a contest to draw cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him).

Soccer Hooligans

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the BfV, monitors neo-Nazis and the far left but does not currently keep watch on football hooligans, perceiving most as apolitical.

“They see their values, Western values, if I can put it like that, as beer drinking and beating people up,” said BfV president Hans-Georg Maassen.

“We have, however, established that there were a lot of right-wing extremists trying to mix in with the hooligans (in Cologne).”

The marchers in Cologne bellowed “Hooligans against Salafists” and “Foreigners out!”

In Sunday’s rally, some 49 officers and one protester were injured in the clashes that erupted in Sunday’s demonstration in Cologne organized by the “Hooligans against Salafists” group also known as Ho.Ge.Sa.

Hooligans’ HoGeSa, which has neo-Nazi elements among its members, is also being closely monitored by the authorities.

Although German courts regularly ban marches by neo-Nazi groups, Henkel said this should be decided on a case-by-case basis rather than trying to impose a long-term ban.

HALIFAX – Leaders of Canadian Muslim community in Halifax city, in the eastern Canadian province of Nova Scotia, have released a statement to condemn all terrorist attacks, warning Muslims to be vigilant about their safety after the latest attacks.

“On behalf of Canadian Muslims in Nova Scotia, our mosques in Halifax and its surroundings, we will address the Muslim community members to stand shoulder to shoulder with their Canadian colleagues and give assurances that we are united today more than ever and should not be intimidated or scared by the actions of a few criminals,” said the statement released by eight Muslim leaders in Nova Scotia and cited by CBC News on Tuesday, October 28.

“We also advise to our fellow Canadian Muslims to be vigilant for their safety.”

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Last week, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau stormed the Parliament building purportedly in the name of Islam after killing soldier Nathan Cirillo, 24, at the War Memorial.

The events followed the incident in which Martin Couture-Rouleau, who had reverted to Islam last year and took the name Ahmad Rouleau, rammed his car into two Canadian Forces members.

The statement, released yesterday, condemned all terrorist attacks, going on to ask for strengthening efforts to protect Muslim institutions from vandalism or attacks by others.

Expecting reprisal attacks against the community, Adam Esse, the imam at the Nova Scotia Islamic Community Centre, said security is at the top of his mind these days.

Among security measures taken, the imam said cameras have been ordered for the Bedford property. Until they’re installed, he intends to make sure all the windows and doors are locked.

Esse said the recent radicalism has put all Muslims at risk, including “the Islamic institutions or the ladies who have veils that have covered themselves, or the youngsters who are going to Islamic school and have the Islamic uniform or the elderly.”

Police Assurances

Assuring Canadian Muslims, Halifax Regional Police said they have been monitoring Muslim properties closely.

“We need to keep the lines of communication open so if somebody feels that they’ve been wronged or they feel that something’s not right, that they should be able to go to their police force and we’re the ones that are sworn to serve and protect,” said Const. Shaun Carvery.

Carvery met with Halifax Regional Police Chief Jean-Michel Blais on Friday for a meeting to hear concerns from Muslim leaders.

“One, I’d like to see a Muslim police officer, at least one, join our ranks within the next two to five years,” Blais said.

“Two, that we’d like to be able to have a member of the Muslim clergy join our ranks as a chaplain.”

Blais added that more meetings should be held with the Muslim community, a suggestion approved by Esse.

“I’d love to see that, outreach for police to come to the Islamic institution, Islamic schools, Islamic centres and to give that kind of assurance,” he said.

BRUSSELS – Living for decades in Belgium, a growing number of Muslim women have been complaining about being excluded from the society because of their veil, blaming recent anti-niqab law for adding to their turmoil..

“I’m looking for a job … and here in Belgium there is a new law we cannot work with our veil,” Hind, a 31-year-old Moroccan woman living in Brussels, told Anadolu Agency.

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“We have to take it off to work,” Hind, who did not want to reveal her last name, added.

Women in Belgium risk a maximum fine of 150 euros if they wear a full face veil in public. Belgium and France both banned the wearing of full veils in public last year.

Belgium banned the wearing of face-veil in public places in 2011.

In 2012, the Belgian Constitutional Court rejected appeals and ruled that the niqab, or face-veil, ban did not violate human rights.

As a result on the new law, if any woman failed to comply with the law, she will be punished with a penalty of 137.50 euros ($195) and up to seven days behind bars in jail as a punishment.

For many Muslim women, the restrictions on niqab and even hijab resulted in excluding them from the Belgian society.

“When you graduate from any studies and you want any job, they ask you to not wear it,” Esma, a 31-year-old Moroccan doctor who wears a traditional hijab, said.

“It’s not allowed in many activities to wear the headscarf,” she said.

Belgian Muslims are estimated at 450,000 – out of a 10-million-population – about half of them are from Moroccan origin, while 120,000 are from Turkish origin.

Yet, a very small portion estimated to 200 to 300 of the country’s hundreds of thousands of Muslims wear the face veil in public.

While hijab is an obligatory code of dress for Muslim women, the majority of Muslim scholars agree that a woman is not obliged to wear the face veil.

Scholars believe it is up to women to decide whether to take on the niqab or burqa, a loose outfit covering the whole body from head to toe and wore by some Muslim women.

Islamophobia

The recent Muslim concerns were expressed during a Sunday rally protesting the mysterious death of a Muslim in his prison cell.

Youssef Tahriki, a 42-year-old father of eight was arrested Sept. 14 after an alleged family argument.

He was found dead in his cell the next day. Police have not revealed the details of his death, which is being investigated by the Charlevoix district attorney in Belgium.

Tahriki’s death highlights rising tensions in a country in which Muslims say they feel stereotyped and discriminated against.

According to the Organization for Security and Cooperation, 614 racist and xenophobic crimes were recorded by law enforcement in the first six months of 2012.

Sixty-six people were sentenced to prison for such crimes.

Moreover, the recent atrocities committed by the so-called Islamic State (ISIL) have put Muslims under pressure of biased stigmatization of the whole Muslim community.

Elodie, a French-speaking Belgian who attended Sunday’s protest, said the Western media needs to change the way it portrays Muslims in the news and “try to understand that being a Muslim is not a problem for anybody.”

Esma agreed, noting that those who leave the country to fight took such decision for feeling not accepted in the society they live in.

Western media need to be more objective and talk to more people, Esma said.

“They have to give the voice to the voiceless,” she said.

SYDNEY – A new national survey has found that a quarter of Australian population has a negative attitude towards Muslims, amid increasing racial attacks against the religious minority.

“What we’re finding is negativity towards Muslims is five times higher than towards Christians and Buddhists, so there’s quite a significant issue there,” Professor Andrew Markus, of Melbourne’s Monash University, told ABC on Tuesday, October 28.

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“In a period of increased tension, those who are very negative may, more likely, act out their negativity.

“They might abuse people on the street and so on. So we’re really just talking of a very small proportion who act out their negativity, but that’s the concern.”

The poll results have been announced after recent atrocities committed by the so-called Islamic State (ISIL) militants.

Published annually by Monash University and the Scanlon Foundation, the social cohesion report is based on a survey conducted on 2,596 people during June and July.

The survey found that people over 65 and educated to year 11 are the most likely to be highly intolerant towards Muslims, unlike young people, between 18 and 44, who have the least negative opinion.

Younger residents of Victoria are among the groups that have positive attitude towards Muslims, according to the survey.

“We have seen an increase in the number of reports in relation to those people targeting [mainly] Muslim women,” Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Andrew Crisp told SBS.

Attitudes towards multiculturalism, immigration, trust in politicians and discrimination were also measured by the national survey, showing tendency towards multiculturalism by 85%.

‘Not Surprising’

Commenting on the troubling results of the survey, leaders of the Muslim community said they were not surprised by the report.

“There has been so much negativity from the media, from the government,” Silma Irham from the Australian Muslim Women’s Association, said.

“Until the Federal Government changes its rhetoric and stops using Muslims as the cause of hardships facing the population, things aren’t going to improve.

“The Muslim community is a minority here but it is established, there are far more Australian-born Muslims, but it is like it still has to sell itself to the [rest of the] community,” she added.

Muslims, who have been in Australia for more than 200 years, make up 1.7 percent of its 20-million population.

In post 9/11-era, Australian Muslims have been haunted with suspicion and have had their patriotism questioned.

The anti-Muslim sentiments further increased following last week’s anti-terror raids, deemed the biggest in Australian history, in which 15 people were arrested from north-western Sydney.

The raids were followed by a huge number of anti-Muslim attacks, including a mosque being defaced in Queensland and direct threats issued against the Grand Mufti of Australia.

“The level of Islamophobia directed towards Australian Muslims has grown and it’s a result of the current public discourse, where the Muslim community here is linked to what’s happening overseas,” she said.

“This is not boat-people overtaking us, it’s not the hoards from Vietnam bringing communism. There isn’t anyone new coming in here.”

Despite the soaring number of the anti-Muslim attacks, Muslims believe that raising awareness about their faith would help in changing their negative image.

“We might be in the trough at the moment but the community will rise from that, and the Muslim community will be a far more valued member of society in the future,” she said.

“Get to know Muslims. Let’s get a bit of understanding about Islam.

“People will realize they’ve got some good reasons for what they do, they’re a pretty good faith.”