Recently in Islam Category

David Frum reminds us to keep this image below and these others in mind as we struggle to figure out the meaning of Maj. Nidal Hasan's disgusting mass murder. Frum's right:

Did you know that creationism (versus natural selection) is mainstream in the Islamic world -- and that a secretive Turk named Harun Yahya has a lot to do with it? Steve Paulson reports for Slate:

Creationist stories are now popping up in Turkish high-school science textbooks, and some government officials in the AKP, the ruling Islamic party, freely criticize evolution. In Ankara, the government's point man on religious issues, Mehmet Gormez, told me, "All the holy texts say human beings are created by God. I think evolutionary theory is not scientific, but ideological."

The Quran doesn't have a detailed origins story like the six days of creation found in Genesis, but it does say Adam was created out of clay in a heavenly paradise and later banished to earth, along with Eve. Various polls show that many Muslim countries are predominantly creationist, but Turkey has recently emerged as a hub of global opposition to evolution. In 2006 Science magazine found that only 25 percent of Turks accepted the theory of natural selection--the lowest rate among any of the 34 countries surveyed. (The second-lowest was in the United States.)

Why Islamic creationism has exploded in Turkey is a complicated story that may have as much to do with politics as religion. Unlike most Muslim countries, which simply ignore the science of life's origins, Turkey's high schools have taught evolution for decades--the legacy of Ataturk's campaign to secularize Turkey's public culture. Creationism has become a way for political Islamists to attack the secular elite that governed Turkey until the recent rise of the AKP. Oktar's own agenda isn't confined to evolution. He's calling for a "Turkish-Islamic Union," a Turkish super-state that would stretch from Kazakhstan to Indonesia and western Africa--a revamped Ottoman Empire for today's Muslims.

I did not know that. I remember being in Istanbul and seeing an English-language pamphlet or a book, can't remember which, using a photograph of a piece of chewing gum to make some sort of creationist point. It was surreal. I had no idea that creationism was such a big deal in the Islamic world. Though when you think about it, it makes perfect sense.

(Countdown to the deployment of a variation of Manning's Corollary in the combox thread...)

You really need to watch the six-minute video at the end of this post. It's a short interview with Fathima Rifqa Bary, the 17 year old Ohio girl who converted from Islam to Christianity, and who recently ran away from home, claiming that her father will murder her to save the family's "honor" lost when she left Islam.

Fox News reports that a Florida court today is likely to send her back to her Ohio family -- which she fears will kill her for apostasizing. It is impossible to say from afar how much this girl has been manipulated, and how realistic her fears are. Perhaps she's making it up (her family says so). Perhaps she's manipulating others, or being manipulated. What seems clear to me from watching the video is that this teenage girl is scared out of her wits. We know that honor killings happen. Last year in suburban Dallas, an Egyptian Muslim father killed his two teenage daughters, Amina and Sarah (Rifqa refers to them briefly on the video below); he is still at large. He had been threatening them with violence, friends and family say, because he thought they were becoming too Westernized.

Back then, I spoke to a reporter who covered the girls' funeral at a local mosque. The reporter told me it was shocking to hear the imam's funeral sermon focus on how parents need to control their children more. And, I spoke two years ago to a young adult Christian convert from a Southeast Asian Muslim nation, a journalist who lived every single day in fear of his life because of having left Islam. It was not an idle or theoretical threat for him. Rifqa ("Rebecca") Bary may not literally be in danger, but it is by no means out of the question. Honor killings are not a figment of anybody's imagination. You cannot watch this video of her without being deeply impressed by how frightened she is. It would be cruel to send her back to her family, at least at this point. I don't know that the law has any choice, given that she's not a citizen. But I tell you, I would give her the benefit of the doubt, based on what we know now -- and I would give her sanctuary too, in defiance of the law. (See update below -- Bary is safe for now, per court order)

Here's the key portion of the interview. But really, you should watch it yourself. The religion element aside, how can you send a teenager girl this frightened of domestic violence back into a situation in which, mistakenly or not, she fears for her life? I don't get it. Here is a live blog from the hearing going on right now (Friday afternoon) in Florida court.

Reporter: So what do you want at this point now?

Bary (emotionally): I want to be with [the church people in Florida]. I want to be free from my parents. I want ... I want to be free. I want to worship Jesus! I want to go to church on Sundays, and read my Bible, and say Jesus is alive whenever I want to! You guys talk about religious freedom? No! I don't have that. I want to be here, I want to worship Jesus freely. I don't want to die.

UPDATE: Thank God, the Florida court has ordered that Bary stay in Florida while an investigation of her family takes place. She's safe for now.

My former Dallas Morning News colleague Joanna Cattanach describes herself as "not the most educated of Christians." She's married to a Muslim, and for the record, doesn't intend to convert to Islam. But starting Saturday, she's going to begin to observe the Ramadan fast, and blog about it. How come?:

Well, I could learn a little more about myself and my neighbors by sharing experiences. And whether you're polarized on one side of the cross, star or moon, our faiths collide in many ways and I'm interested in exploring something beyond a month of Santa Claus and reindeer. I'll post daily updates, confess if I cheat and offer a "dinner request" form for folks who want to break fast with a very hungry, caffeine deprived Christian.

This should be interesting. I found as a convert to Eastern Orthodoxy, which also observes some fairly strict fasting, that nothing quite breaks one out of one's routine of thoughtless consumption like serious fasting.

Alex Massie takes on anxiety over the Euro-Muslim name game. Excerpt:

Sure as eggs is eggs, you can count on some folk being terribly exercised each time it is "revealed" that lots of boys named Mohammed, or some variation of the prophet's name, are being born in europe. This time it's the revelation that in four Dutch cities Mohammed is the most popular name for boys. Oh no! The Muslims are coming! Never mind that Mohammed is only the 16th most popular boys name in Holland as a whole, better by far to raise the spectre of an Islamic "takeover" of Dutch cities.

Never mind that this sort of fear-mongering has become an annual tradition. Did you know, for instance, that Mohammed was already the second most popular boys' name in Britain? Clearly the Caliphate is on the march! Except, of course, that muslims are much more likely to name their sons Mohammed than Christians are to call their son any single name. That is, there's much greater variance amongst non-muslim families. In other words, unless you're wanting to stoke panic and resentment what kids are called is not a terribly useful metric.

Incidentally, Dutch government statistics find that secularism is on the rise among Dutch Muslims, which would seem to support the point Al-Dhariyat made in the CC combox:

Can we please dispense with the canard that every single Muslim immigrant (whether to Europe or the USA) will automatically be as religiously conservative as their parents might be?

I'm a natural-born American citizen. I'm Muslim. My loyalty is to the USA, not those fools who rule Saudi Arabia or malign Israel at every chance. I like a little lime with my votka on the rock and pepperoni on my pizza. I've dated. I also try to pray everyday. I fast during Ramadan and I read the Qur'an. I have no problem with liberal democracy; in fact, I see it as the best way for allowing me to live as I choose, not according to how some mullah prescribes. And I have a lot of Muslim friends who take the same tact.

There will be always conservative Muslims and liberal Muslims. If we want Europe to keep its essential liberal/libertine character (which I do), if you don't want the mullahs to take over, don't lump me in with the fraking radical fundamentalists.