Part 7 of 8 - Islamic immigrants, demand Muslim privileges as their right, on arriving here.

Islamic protesters demanding more Muslim privileges in Birmingham and London, UK

In part 6 of this series, I provided moderate Islamic views from Muslims now residing in non-Muslim countries.

Here is the counterbalance reporting on the views of Muslims from Muslim majority countries; those with uncompromising interpretations of Islam.

These are the countries we in the west tend to hear most about, which, unfortunately, prejudices our understanding of Islam.

It is also these countries who produce the largest number of terrorists, who luckily for us, kill more Muslims of different sects than they do non-Muslim; we just don’t get to hear about these.

Islamic Republic of Iran: A Theocracy - 99% Muslim.

The Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, is the Head of State AND Highest Religious Authority.

Also, commander in chief of the Armed Forces, the Judiciary, the Legislature, the Executive, and State Radio/Television.  And he makes final decisions on the economy, education, environment, foreign policy, national planning, and other aspects of governance…

Iraq is 98% Muslim: Shia (57%), Sunni (38%) 

The ‘caliphate,’ that ISIS imposed, was defeated and the Muslim communities remaining are remarkably diverse.  Officially a democracy.  As is Syria…

Syria is 90% Muslim: 71% Sunni, 11% Alawite,… 10%  Christian. President must be Muslim. Authoritarian regime.

Theocracies - Afghanistan, Mauritania, Sudan, Yemen, and

Saudi Arabia – 90% Sunni, 10% Twelver Shia (East) and Zaydi Shia (south).  Apparently,

it is not a good example of Islam, as the ruler uses Islam to tyrannise the people; whereas officially there can be no tyranny because everyone is the same.

It may be interesting to note, that in this oil rich country, 26% live in poverty and only 20% of women work. (P.S. over and above these figures, is an additional 30% who are workers from overseas).

ISIS/Daish/Daesh/ISIL… were condemned by mainstream Muslims (which is nice to know).

• ISIS was a terrorist group led by extremist Sunni Muslims from Iraq and Syria. 
• It claimed religious, military and political authority over all Muslims;
• and follows an extremist interpretation of the Qur’an that, among other things, promotes violence, sexual slavery for women and a return to ‘pure Islam’. 

N.B. Muhammad was a warlord, so where different understandings of a Qur’an/Sannah text are possible, extremist Muslims take the more violent, uncompromising interpretation.

But it is concerning that it is the ideology of fanatics at this end of the spectrum that influence others of the faith as the proportion of Muslims in a country grows. 

This is called Islamification, which sees demands for aspects of Islam grow as their numbers increase e.g. call to prayers, calling Jesus Christ ‘God’ is blasphemy…

When politically correct, woke, inclusive, tolerant and culturally diverse societies agree to demands for some initial Muslim religious privileges, then the other components creep in as well, they can’t not.  (As in NZ, we are flightless birds here).

Sharia is practiced in parts of Sweden, the UK and France today...

To bring this series to a close on a more positive note, I always believe there is hope, and there are some encouraging signs coming out of the USA and Canada, with the formation of a largely female organization entitled “Muslims Facing Tomorrow.”  

Its Mission: to reclaim Islam for securing Peace for all people, and to oppose extremism, fanaticism and violence in the name of religion.

Vision: to advance among Muslims the principle of individual rights and freedoms, and for Muslims to embrace the idea of openness, of relating to others as equal and deserving of equal respect, and of defending freedom of speech as the basis of all other freedoms enunciated in the constitutions of liberal democracies.

This is growing its support base and men are joining.

However, real change takes many generations, as the greater community of Muslim males, tend to control what happens in their society.

We don’t have generations.