“The only truly clashing area is the penal code, and no Muslim has the intention of introducing that to America. The penal code is the area that people in the Western world are worried about — but these are things that aren’t even observed today in most of the Muslim world. Apart from the Taliban and a few places like that, where do you see this happening?” — Ground Zero Mosque Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf
The Netherlands! Or at least there it is being advocated. We’re always told that no Muslim in the West supports Sharia punishments and the other aspects of Islam that contradict Western principles and freedoms, but there really isn’t a Western version of Islam that differs from its classic formulations. Ahmet Akgündüz really isn’t doing anything but reflecting Sharia law as it has been formulated by all the Islamic schools of jurisprudence. What is really surprising here is not what he said, but that Dutch authorities assumed that he wouldn’t be saying such things. Their myopia, however, is shared by authorities all over Western Europe and the Americas.
“Islamic University Dean Supports Stoning,” from NIS News, October 18 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
THE HAGUE, 18/10/13 – The rector of the Islamic University of Rotterdam (IUR) values stoning as an appropriate punishment, NRC Handelsblad newspaper reported Thursday. The Lower House is demanding clarification from Integration Minister Lodewijk Asscher.
The rector, Ahmet Akgündüz, has written a pamphlet on the demonstrations this summer in Turkey. He calls opponents of Turkish Premier Erdogan “enemies of Islam.” The demonstrations were the work of “people with a Western lifestyle.” In addition, he is said to characterise stoning as “one of the prescribed punishments within Islam.”
The conservatives (VVD), Labour (PvdA) and the Christian democrats (CDA) are among parties calling for a reaction from the government. They are all the more concerned about the statements because the IUR is recognised by the government as a training institute for Imams.
IUR started Imams with a HBO course this year. A spokesman said the school fully supports the publication.
The parties want to know what action the minister will take against the university. “With this, you will get Imams with hostile views and anti-western values,” said PvdA MP Keklik Yücel.