Face the enemy – wrong information

I stumbled upon a book review. It’s a review of the book ‘While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam Is Destroying the West from Within’, and the title of the review is ‘Europe must awaken, face the enemy — itself’. One paragraph caught my eye:

Some individuals, Bawer says, have indeed recognized the truth — and have been assassinated for speaking it. He tells us about the effort of people like Theo van Gogh, Pim Fortuyn and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, all of whom were murdered.

Yes, according to the reviewer, one John F. Fink, Ayaan Hirsi Ali was murdered. Mister Fink is apparently an ‘Indianapolis author and journalist’. Now I don’t know whether the book itself also claims that Ayaan Hirsi Ali was murdered, but the journalist nevertheless should have checked the facts. I doubt Ayaan Hirsi Ali enjoys reading she was murdered.

Truth is she has received dead threats. Now, even though personally I think the way in which she tries to achieve her goals, might perhaps not always be the most efficient way, and personal issues seem to interfere on more than one occasion, no one deserves getting death threats, not to mention getting murdered.

On the other hand, the Muslim community shouldn’t be seen as a homologous entity. There the review is wrong, again.

Unlike immigrants to the United States, Bawer says, Muslims in Europe do not integrate themselves into society. They insist on following sharia, or Islamic law, and they go to extremes.

Without a doubt there are certain Muslims that would love for the shari’a to be followed and the separation between church and state abolished. Question is what shari’a entails. There is tremendous variance in the interpretation and implementation of Islamic law in Muslim societies today. Like Jewish law and Christian canon law, Islamic law is interpreted differently by different people in different times and places. In the hands of moderates, religious law can be moderate and even liberal. In the hands of post-Enlightenment readers of philosophy, religious law becomes associated mainly with ritual, theology, or history and no longer regulates society or the state. In the hands of fundamentalists, however, it is legally binding on all people of the faith and even on all people who come under their control. All Muslims might follow Islamic law, yet their view of the law varies as much as individual Muslims vary.

There are other mistakes as well.

Muslim girls are often forced to undergo female genital mutilation and to enter into arranged marriages.

I’ve written my thesis about female genital mutilation (or, with a less negative connotation, female circumcision) and the practise certainly isn’t part of mainstream Islam on an international scale.is It is performed by Muslims and non-Muslims alike across East Africa and the Nile Valley, as well as parts of the Arabian peninsula and Southeast Asia. In both areas, the custom predates Islam. Many African Muslims believe that female circumcision is required by Islam, but a large number of Muslims believe this practice has no basis in Islam. Nevertheless it is justified on religious grounds (among possible other justifications) both by Muslims and Christians who practise it, mostly in parts of Africa.

Arranged marriage is still the most common form of marriage in several countries in South Asia, in particular India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. It crosses boundaries of religion, culture and caste, practiced by Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Jew and Muslims alike. It is practiced to a lesser extent in tribal and rural areas in parts of the Middle East. It used to be the norm in urban areas as well, but is vanishing quickly from there. It was also common in South Korea, China, and Japan, but is now rapidly diminishing in these countries.

In Europe some marriages are still arranged. The notion that a marriage should be based on love isn’t universal. Arranged marriages operate on the notion that marriages are primarily an economic union or a means to have children. It sees relationships as defined on the basis of economic dimensions on which social-sexual relationships would be based and defined. Be careful though not to confuse an arranged marriage with a forced marriage. The two aren’t necessarily the same !

Victims of rape are sometimes killed in “honor killings” because of the attitude that girls are at fault; over a six-month period in 2004-2005, 11 women were victims of honor killings in The Hague alone.

The above, again, is wrong information. Yes, honour killings do happen. But to my best knowledge not 11 in a 6 month period in the city of The Hague alone. A report by the Hague police unit ‘Haaglanden’ revealed that each month at least one person in the Netherlands died as a consequence of violence by family members. Due to honour killings 11 people died in the previous year. (Source)

Anyway, if you want to read the article for yourself, I made a screenshot, just click the image below. I think the point of view of both the reviewer and the author of the book, is perfectly clear.