Some say freedom, some say acceptance
June 28, 2009 by ImanK
I’ve been watching this poll on our site closely and I find it interesting to see that there is a major split between two answers:
My guess (and this is just a guess) is that many Muslims chose “religious freedom” and many non-Muslims chose “acceptance into Greek society”.
But this could be problematic.
I mean, how can we solve this problem if we don’t even see eye-to-eye on what the problem is exactly?
Muslims know that the constitution of the European Union guarantees the right of religious freedom, which includes a right to pray in a mosque and be buried in a local cemetery. And the world knows that Muslims are being withheld their basic human rights.
Why are non-Muslim Greeks not able to understand this?
Muslims want what everyone else wants:
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safety
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a place to pray
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a place to be buried
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a job to sustain their families
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peacefulness with their neighbours
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proper education for their children
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to contribute to society
If ‘acceptance into Greek society’ was our end goal, then we would leave our Islam (that we embraced as an intellectual choice) and just assimilate or revert back to the Greek Christian Orthodox identity.
But that’s not what we want.
So, the answer here is not ‘acceptance into Greek society’.
Rather, it’s mutual respect.
I am a Greek Muslim and I respect you for the freedom of your choice. You are a Greek Christian, Buddhist, Agnostic, Atheist, Pantheist and you respect me for the freedom of my choice. We are both humans, both equal, both free to choose our religion and live peacefully together.
The day that people in Greek society realise that the issue is religious freedom and mutual respect is the day that Greeks of all religions can coexist in harmony and enrich its civilisation together.
Asalamu Aleycum,
The way to mutual respect is long
As in science, trying to solve a problem we may need solutions for appearing problems at the inbetween.
As,
1.Tolerance to the otherness of Islam.
2.Acceptance of the presence of your Muslim neighbour.
3.Neutral attitude,eradication of discriminations and equal opportunities,
before mutual respect on an individual basis first and then to a religious and social level.
It looks so remote in the distant future..
Even in UK where tolerance and acceptance are beyond doubt,mutual respect is under question.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1196165/Britain-85-sharia-courts-The-astonishing-spread-Islamic-justice-closed-doors.html
Br Bilal very interesting article. Thanks for sharing. What are your thoughts on this matter of sharia in UK? Are the women unfairly treated? Is this what happens? Do we believe what we read or we take it with a pinch of salt? Jazak Allah Kheir
Doesn’t matter what I personally think about the issue.
Mutual respect at this case is biased both sides.
1.Muslims in UK must obey to the Brittish Law.
2.Brittish legislation must consider the appliance of some aspects of Islamic Law(Civil and Family Law especially) as an alternative for those from the 2.5m Muslim community ,provided they should wish to be judged under Sharia Law.
The head of the Anglican Church made an appeal for the issue a few months ago.
Daily mail is a right wing newspaper with a brilliant pronazi past.
Speaking for Greece the way to tolerance looks even longer.http://www.ethnos.gr/article.asp?catid=11424&subid=2&tag=8777&pubid=4356884