Rise of victimhood culture is the cause of setbacks.

In a recent volume compiled by The Tony Blair Faith Foundation on ‘How to prevent extremism and policy options,’ http://tonyblairfaithfoundation.org/foundation/news/how-prevent-extremism-and-policy-options the analysis provided by decision-makers conclusively suggests constructive measures which have been established after thorough investigation and by collecting  valid data.

Certain unanimity exists on how to combat the menace of extremism. We all agree that the government needs to get involved; extremism has to be eradicated by engaging moderates, under-represented, marginalized sections of societies; the focus should be to remove glamourized perceptions about jihad and Islam’s medieval past and every support should be offered to promote critical thinking in education.  

Judging from the point of view to combat extremism Cameron’s announcement to work towards that aim should be welcomed. However whether the recent move to downgrade schools where Muslim women are allowed to wear veils and to allow authorities to monitor students to detect signs of radicalization in the educational institutes is the outcome of what government aims to achieve will be assessed on the basis of how successfully they will be in implementing these measures. Similar such suggestions have suffered setbacks after backlash occurred from organizations and charities monitoring evidence of Islamophobia—it is obvious the condemnation of acts which are considered targeting and alienating individuals get the most instant response from public outcry.

The backlash from elements keen to spread the idea that Islamophobia is on the rise are not helping the Muslim community because of the failure to address the underlying complicated issues. The ones who are promoting their Islamist ideas take a confrontational stand against those who are highlighting the rise of Islamism. Tommy Robinson is regularly attacked by political leaders, Islamists and journalists for his criticism against Islam, whereas his firsthand experience of witnessing the infiltration of Islamic extremism is a story in its own right and has convinced many who want to confront extremism.

This clash between the pro-Islamists and anti-extremists is already perpetuating a sense of vulnerability among those who have nothing to do with it. Unfortunately the ones who should be resuscitating the Muslim community have taken the cause to defend Islam so close to their hearts that they have literally forsaken the responsibility of supporting individualism. There are Muslims out there who have nothing to do with Islamism and are eager to live along and be concerned with every day lives. But the issues rising from perception portraying Islam as an ideology will demand that Muslims robustly and convincingly demonstrate that diversity, religious and cultural differences are respected and not just tolerated.

The remarks made by Trevor Philips were meant to highlight that for Muslims the religious outlook is important and this will come in the way of integration. The victim card has been used for so long that fear and suspicion will continue to reign in the minds of those who don’t want to be associated with Islamism.

The demographic time bomb ticking—women are not having kids.

Japan has worked it out—women don’t want to salvage their careers for the sake of having a family life. An article published in Business Insider http://www.techinsider.io/how-japan-can-solve-its-sex-problem-2016-1 sighted the country is facing a baby crisis—not many women are having children which is resulting in dangerously low birth rate. By one highly-cited estimation, a full 896 of Japan's towns and villages — or about half the total — are in danger of becoming extinct by 2040, and a disturbing "countdown clock" made by a team of economists is ticking off the seconds until the last Japanese person is born. This type of scenario is a crisis for any country. The irony is if you don't support women working, you end up not having enough kids to support the economy.  Increasingly women are coming under pressure.

Lifestyle choices now mean putting on halt having children or altogether sacrificing the possibility of juggling career and family life. There is too much at risk—long absences from work are not going to take you up the career ladder. Employers and bosses already crippled by the cuts and withdrawal of government support are not going to hire those demanding job security as it is becoming too costly to efficiently manage employees wanting to be given extra benefits.

On the social side of it, you will probably sacrifice plenty for showing preference to get in the comfort zone and minimize the ‘I-come-first,’ bit which gave you the freedom to believe ‘friends matter,’ ‘money can buy happiness,’ or simply be the person ready to do great stuff which distinguish you as ‘eco-friendly,’ ‘savior of humanity,’ ‘kick-ass feminist.’ Freedom allows you to indulge in ideas you are out there to do great service to humanity and the world can do less with superciliously smug feminist power dubbed as ‘yummy mummy,’ ‘millennium mum.’ The wishy-washy world of reality shows like ‘Ladies of London’ and ‘The Real Housewives of New York,’ is just another soap-opera genre that makes us cringe at the worthlessness of mum-power. 

Every woman with children will not fit into the mould of bored housewives with billionaire husbands eager to bankroll money so that they can splash out on expensive clothes, implants and hiring nannies. Most of us are struggling, coping and dealing with day-to-day stresses of how to get it right. We want the best for our children but it is race against time, resources and modern stress to multi-task in order to reach the end goal of successfully rearing and upbringing the future generation.

Dare I question who is out there ready to take up the cause of women eager to give up their ‘I-come-first,’ priorities to stay at home for school runs, make dinner for families, spend their evenings coping with homework. The government, the feminist groups and the media have peddled the savvy, feisty and ultra-modern image of feminism to the point where it is no longer required to give airtime to anyone trying to make a cause for motherhood.

Next time you see the demographics of Islam’s population representing that little peak on the graph to show that the Muslims are multiplying in numbers, try to decipher the real causes of the time-bomb ticking off in the background. Any economic growth and sustainability in the long run will depend on self-reinvention of feminism and where it will be okay to step-off the career ladder to raise children and not get trapped in a guilt-trip.  

Cologne Sex Attack: Let us dig deeper

There is no alternative to the freedom and security West offers to women; however a wave of misogyny is threatening this culture.

Fingers are pointing to suggest that the perpetuated reason behind the rape cases in Cologne is misogyny. If the evidence leads to the suggestion that the men behind the rapes, robbery and assaults on New Year Eve were of North Africa and Arab appearance, then let us get to the root cause of why it took place.

Many suggest that the religion of the perpetrator should not be questioned. Rape is a horrific crime and can take place anywhere. But the overwhelming evidence leaves you uncomfortable especially when here in UK reports suggest that Rotheram grooming gangs was not one off incident and there are gangs out there within the community who are exploiting young white girls. Political correctness and the fear of being labelled Islamophobia hinders the idea to be fearlessly blunt about the real reasons which have allowed these monstrosities to occur.

I should have thought that Islam and Mohammad’s legacy is far superior in understanding how to treat women with respect and equality. The Islamic culture lays down the significance of Purdah, Hijab and the importance of segregation to safeguard women. And yet we are seeing men from Muslim backgrounds involved in degrading womanhood.

Far too long Muslims have gone on to believe that women are subordinate to men. A culture that seeks to impose restrictions on women is less likely to defend their rights of freedom, their choices and their independence.   

Clash between Sunni and Shiite now political

Because Islam is a global religion and America has significant strategic interests in the region, the escalating tensions between the two countries are going to have global repercussions. Where once the clash between Sunni and Shiite was religions, now it is more political.

In lots of hotbed places the conflict is between Sunni and Shiite majorities.

In Iraq, the Shiite-dominated army has been seen as a strong-arm of former Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and an oppressive force by majority Sunnis in the north. That’s why many were happy to have the Sunni-dominated Islamic State group make gains across the north. And as the Islamic State group grows in strength and numbers — experts say would-be jihadis have flocked to its forces in northern Syria since the declaration of the caliphate — the Sunni-Shiite conflict will intensify and spread.

Syria is a majority-Sunni country, but the regime of President Bashar Assad is a close ally of Shiite-dominated Iran.

The declaration by the Islamic State group, known as ISIS stated that it was establishing a “new caliphate” through its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The Islamic State is a Sunni group and its stated goals are to create a territory run by a caliph and Shariah, or Islamic law. In a video announcing the caliphate last June, the group described al-Baghdadi as “descendant from the family of the Prophet, the slave of God” — perhaps an attempt to legitimate him in the eyes of Shiites. If they — or any other Muslims — fail to recognize the new caliphate, they will be considered apostates and can be killed under Shariah.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is much more challenged on the economic front, more isolated regionally and globally, and beset with succession issues, given the King's controversial decision to empower the 30-year old son Mohammed bin Salman. They hate the international attention on them given the growing ISIS concerns and want to make regional tensions an Iran story, which helps them domestically. All of which leads toward escalation.

On Sunday, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir said at a news conference, ‘We are determined not to let Iran mobilize or create or establish terrorist cells in our country or in the countries of our allies. We will push back against Iran's attempts to do so.’ On Monday, Saudi Arabia moved to cut off all commercial ties with Iran and bar its citizens from travelling there.

Dawkins criticism of winged horses makes sense

Richard Dawkins is not far from being the cause of controversies labelling him an ‘Islamophobe.’ Recently he stormed out of an interview when a Muslim journalist confirmed he personally believed that the Prophet flew to heaven on a winged horse. In response Dawkins told the New Statesman journalist Emad Ahmad that his ‘belief’ was pathetic before angrily storming off.

While Ahmad went on to explain his shock at the reaction of the scientist to the media, Dawkins took to Twitter to defend his actions. Though much of what happened occurred due to PR mismanagement, Dawkins made it known that his comments about the belief on Mohammad were meant to deflate the concept that there is any logic into believing he travelled on a winged horse to heaven.

For the critics of Dawkins, the whole incident is evidence of his condemnation for everything that Islam stands for. The belief in the winged horse story is central to the Islamic tenets upholding Mohammad’s legitimate status as a Prophet of God. The widespread plausible argument can be gathered from the opinions of Al-Jazeera’s journalist Mehdi Hasan who interviewed Dawkins at the Oxford Union in 2012 and expressed his absolute belief in winged horses.

The interview which can be watched on Youtube is good piece of evidence how religion can down play logic. While Dawkins made an effort to be mild and polite in reasoning against the fallacy of religious supremacy, his argument was pitted against well-researched, data ridden, factually sound reasoning by Mahdi Hasan who made a case to convince that religion is essentially good and makes no appeal to people wanting to commit acts of extremism.

Who can argue against the charitable Mother Teresa and believe that the Communist regimes who did away with religion were trying to uplift humanity! It is easy to defend religion and agree it does well for mankind in the face of the obvious evidence that atheist scholars and scientists who never go along with what the masses say are always outnumbered against God-fearing people. For that matter Muslims know about Ibn Hanbal, Imam Shafi, Al-Ghazali and of their endeavours to establish the primacy of orthodox belief that the revealed truth should be accepted without questioning.

Against such illustrious men the teachings of the 8^th century Mutazilite school of theology, established in Baghdad, is almost certainly lost. The greatest contribution of the men who formed this school of thought included their reasoning that revelations are limited by time and Quranic injunctions can be modified according to the changing circumstances. Their belief in rational freedom and Quran as created word gained acknowledgement during the middle of the ninth century. But as the authority of the Ulema became absolute in establishing that man cannot attain knowledge of God through reason and so he must follow revelation unquestionably, then reason became subordinate to revelation. Rationalism in religion for which the Mutazillites stood culminated after conformism of the orthodox theologians and the Sunni Ulemas triumphed. Persecution and rigid conservatism of voices disliking reasoning and research silenced liberal tolerance of the Mutazillites and to this day no fresh thought or movement have managed to free the Muslims from intellectual decline.

The defence for Islamic teachings is now an apologetic defence or justification with no originality to appeal intellect and mind that can unhinge the Muslims from rigid conservatism.

Hopefully in this day and age, when man has superseded all barriers against logic and reasoning, the blind belief in winged horses will not triumph.