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In this mailing:
- Soeren Kern: How Many Muslims
in Europe? Pew's Projections Fall Short
- Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians:
Arab Rulers are Traitors, Cowards
- A. Z. Mohamed: Islamic Terrorism
vs. Political Correctness
by Soeren Kern • December 14,
2017 at 5:00 am
- Pew's baseline
estimate of the number of Muslims currently in Europe — the
estimate upon which its future projections are calculated —
has been undercounted by at least five million Muslims.
- The UCIDE figures —
which posit that there are roughly 750,000 more Muslims in
Spain today than the estimate proffered by Pew — are widely
recognized in Spain as the most accurate assessment of the
Muslim population in that country. It remains unclear why Pew
failed to mention the UCIDE report in its source appendix.
- In Germany, Pew
"decided not to count" the one million plus Muslim
asylum seekers who arrived in the country in 2015/2016 because
"they are not expected to receive refugee status."
- The Pew report
entirely ignores the key issue of how Europe will integrate
tens of millions of Muslim migrants whose values — including
anti-Semitism, polygamy, female genital mutilation and honor
violence — cannot be reconciled with those of Europe's
Judeo-Christian and liberal-democratic heritage.
(Photo by
Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)
Europe's Muslim population is set to double — and
possibly triple — between now and 2050, according to new
projections by the Pew Research Center.
The projections, contained in a report,
"Europe's Growing Muslim Population," confirm what has
long been common knowledge: decades of declining European
birthrates, coupled with mass migration from the Muslim world, are
fast-tracking the Islamization of Europe.
by Khaled Abu Toameh • December
14, 2017 at 4:30 am
- The decision to
boycott a visit later this month by US Vice President Mike
Pence comes in the context of absorbing the anger of the street.
Abbas and his Palestinian Authority have also made it clear
that they no longer consider the Trump administration an
"honest" and "unbiased" broker in any
peace process with Israel. As such, the Palestinian Authority
leadership announced that it will reject any peace plan
proposed by the Trump administration, even if the plan gains
the support of Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
- The Palestinian
strategy now is to work hard to thwart any peace plan coming
from the Trump administration. The Palestinians are convinced
that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other Arab leaders
are cooking up a new "conspiracy" behind their backs
-- with the aim of "liquidating" the Palestinian
cause by imposing an acceptable solution on them. This, of
course, has nothing to do with Trump's announcement on
Jerusalem. This has been the Palestinian position even before
Trump made his announcement, and it is unlikely to change
after.
- The question now is:
How will the Arab regimes respond to this latest charge of fratricide
leveled against them by their Palestinian brothers?
Mahmoud
Abbas and his Palestinian Authority have made it clear that they
will reject any peace plan proposed by the Trump administration.
Pictured: Abbas speaks during the U.N. General Assembly on
September 20, 2017. (Photo by Kevin Hagen/Getty Images)
Once again, the Palestinians are disappointed with
their Arab brothers.
A declaration of war on the US, in the Palestinians'
view, would have been the appropriate response to US President
Donald Trump's December 6 announcement recognizing Jerusalem as
Israel's capital.
For the Palestinians, the anti-US demonstrations
that took place in some Arab countries such as Egypt, Jordan,
Tunisia, Iraq and Lebanon were a welcome development.
But the protests have evidently failed to satisfy
the appetite of the Palestinians, who were banking on the Arab
heads of state and governments to take more drastic measures
against the US.
The Palestinians are not expecting the Arab and
Islamic armies to march on the White House or bomb New York and Los
Angeles.
by A. Z. Mohamed • December 14,
2017 at 4:00 am
- Religion (in this
instance, Islam) plays a smaller part in what makes terrorists
tick than "the [human] need for... personal significance...
Especially when it comes to violence that is shunned by most
religions and most cultures, you need validation from a group
of people that would then become your reference group. So the
group component is very important, particularly when it comes
to antisocial activities that are forbidden or
shunned...." — Arie W. Kruglanski, distinguished
professor of psychology at the University of Maryland and
former co-director of the National Consortium for the Study of
Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism
- It seems as if many
analysts gloss over the role of Islamic teachings -- the
Quran, the Sunna, and fatwas -- by minimizing them while
highlighting matters such as the need for personal
significance and validation. By minimizing the content of the
Islamic literature, what they overlook is that Islamic
teachings actually justify many activities that they would
label antisocial.
- The validation
jihadists get from their reference group is mainly Islamic in
words and meanings and that reference group has no significance
without referring to the Islamic texts. What seems a universal
dismissal or whitewashing -- intentionally or not -- of what
is written in the texts, has become so prevalent, that it
undermines our ability to recognize, let alone rectify, it.
- Even relatively
"moderate" Muslims, as hard as it is for a Westerner
to comprehend it, deeply believe that we are here just for an
insignificant instant, and that the really important
life is yet to come in the afterlife.
Responding to findings of a recent study on what
motivates both ISIS fighters and those who combat them, Arie W.
Kruglanski -- distinguished professor of psychology at the
University of Maryland and former co-director of the National
Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism --
said:
"The ideology component addresses individuals'
need to matter and feel significant. ... It tells people what to
do, such as fight and make sacrifices, in order to gain respect and
admiration from others."
Kruglanski, whose 2014 article, "Psychology Not
Theology: Overcoming ISIS' Secret Appeal," argues that
religion (in this instance, Islam) plays a smaller part in what
makes terrorists tick than "the [human] need for ... personal
significance." He added:
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