23% of the world's population is Muslim

According to a new report issued by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, Muslims number 1.57 billion, which is 23% of the world population of 6.8 billion people.

According to the study, Indonesia has the largest Muslim population (203 million), followed by Pakistan with 174 million, India with 161 million, Bangladesh with 145 million and Egypt with 79 million.

Over 300 million people, representing a fifth of all Muslims, live in non-Muslim-majority countries (India being the prime example).

Russia has the largest Muslim population in Europe, with 16 million. In the Americas, the United States has the largest Muslim population, with 2.5 million (0.8% of the US population), followed by Argentina (0.8 million; 1.9% of the population) and Canada (0.7 million; 2% of the population).

The Pew study is based on approximately 1,500 sources.

----------------
Now playing: Dan Gibson - Breton Children's Song
via FoxyTunes

Murder in Dresden

Egypt has recently witnessed a wave of demonstrations over the Islamophobic murder in Dresden of Marwa el-Sherbini, a 32-year-old Egyptian pharmacist who had been living there with her graduate student husband and her son.

Last year, in a dispute over a swing in a public park, of all things, the murderer, a Russian immigrant from Perm named Alex W., yelled out "terrorist" and "Islamist whore" at Marwa, the reason being that she was wearing a headscarf. She took him to court for the insults, and, in November 2008, Alex was fined €780 (TL 1,687 / US$ 1,087) for his actions. There are different versions of what happened next. According to the Guardian, Alex appealed the verdict; according to Wikipedia, it was the public prosecutor who lodged the appeal, since he considered the penalty meted out to Alex to have been too light.

Then, on 1 July, the appeal was heard. Marwa was called to the witness stand to testify, following which the 28-year-old Alex grabbed a knife, approached her, and stabbed her 18 (!) times, killing her on the spot in front of her three-year-old son. When her husband, Elvi Ali Okaz, ran over to help his stricken wife, a policeman shot at him, critically wounding him. Apparently, the policeman couldn't tell which one was the husband, and which the attacker. Marwa was three months pregnant when she was killed.

The most mind-bogglingly unbelievable fact in this tragedy is that Alex was not prevented from bringing his knife into the courtroom, even though he was the defendant! You'd think that, at an appeal, a defendant could possibly have a grudge against the plaintiff, wouldn't you? You'd think that the state would want to ensure the plaintiff's safety, wouldn't you? Well, in this case, no such thing was done. The result is a family destroyed.

The second thing is this. Even after such a clearly horrific case of murderous hatred against an innocent Muslim, the only motivation being that she was a Muslim, the German government is reluctant to treat it as such. According to the Guardian, Thomas Steg, the vice-spokesman of the German government (apparently, the spokesman is too important to be making a comment on this matter) said that "In this case... the circumstances are not sufficiently clear enough to allow a broad political response. Should it be the case that this was anti-foreigner [and] racially motivated, [the government] would condemn it in the strongest possible terms."

So there you have it. IF it were to be proved that Alex hated Marwa for being different, ONLY THEN would the government condemn her murder "in the strongest possible terms". And do notice how Steg mentioned the hatred of foreigners and people of other races as potential (though apparently unproven) motivating factors, but did not say a word about the actual cause, proven by Alex's words: the hatred of Islam and Muslims, that is, Islamophobia. Alex had been taken to court not for calling Marwa a "dirty foreigner" or a "dirty black" or anything of the sort. No, he called Marwa (who was actually quite fair-skinned) an "Islamist whore" a few months before killing her. The fact that the Merkel government refuses to admit this simple fact is unconscionable.

The lack of clear, unequivocal condemnation of the murder not only by the German government, but also by other German politicians, as well as the German media, has led Aiman Mazyek, the secretary general of the Central Council of Muslims (of Germany) and Stephen Kramer, the secretary general of the Central Council of Jews, to issue a joint statement calling for more attention to be given to the murder.

Marwa has been dubbed Shahidat al-Hijab (the Headscarf Martyr) in Egypt. Some people have scoffed at the title, saying it's divisive and not reflective of reality, since Marwa's life should not be reduced to her clothes. Personally, I think "Headscarf Martyr" is, in fact, a very appropriate title for her. She was a woman with a diverse range of interests, but she was killed for one thing: for being a Muslim who was not afraid to stand up for herself. She was killed for wearing a headscarf and refusing to bow to fear. And that makes me proud to be her brother in faith.

That is not to say, though, that anger should be allowed to carry the day. At Marwa's funeral in Alexandria on 6 July, mourners chanted things like "Germans are the enemies of God." That is going way too far. I can understand the distress that something like this brings, but we should always distinguish between people with blood on their hands and the society those people come from or live in. Just as the existence of Muslim murderers does not make everyone in Muslim countries the "enemies of God", so equally the existence of a German or, in fact, a Russian murderer does not make Germans or Russians into God's enemies. This much should be obvious.

However, just as many in the West call for introspection in Muslim societies (and sometimes rightly so) when a terrorist calling himself a Muslim kills innocent people, so should Germany and Russia, Dresden and Perm, take a deep breath and think for a minute about where things have gone wrong, and what could be done to improve them, starting, perhaps, from trying a bit harder to see your neighbour for the human being she is.

[This post was written in Istanbul.]

Hamas wants joint control of Gaza-Egypt border

While Egypt starts placing restrictions on the movement of Palestinians into its territory through the breaches in the Gaza-Egypt border fence, talks are underway between Egypt and Hamas, which is in control of the Gaza Strip, over longer-term control over the border. Egypt is also simultaneously negotiating the border issue with the administration of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Hamas has been cooperating with Egypt over stemming the flow of Palestinians into Egypt, but wants joint control over the border with Egypt in return. Meanwhile, Abbas does not want Hamas to play any role at the border, and is refusing to enter into direct dialogue with the movement. According to Abbas, "Hamas has to end its coup in Gaza, accept all international obligations, and accept holding early elections" before any talks can begin between it and the Palestinian government.

Egypt would like Abbas's government to control the Palestinian side of the border under supervision from Israel and the EU, under a multi-sided agreement reached in 2005 (BBC).

Court abolishes AUC niqab ban

Iman al-Zainy, who sued the American University of Cairo (AUC) in 2001 after not being allowed to enter its campus while wearing a niqab, has won her case against the university. The High Administrative Court has ruled that the AUC had no right to stop people wearing the niqab from entering its grounds, as such a policy was a violation of the religious freedom of the people involved.

AUC had claimed that its ban on the niqab stemmed from security concerns. The court's decision leaves the door open for the university to require women wearing the niqab to show their face to a female security officer.

One of Zainy's lawyers, Hossam Bahgat, said the decision affirmed "women's autonomy over their body and dress code" (BBC).

It seems that reason has won the day.

[This post was written in Toronto.]

UK govt. promises funding for Islamic studies

The British government has promised to spend £1 million (Canadian $2.1 million) in support of the teaching of Islamic studies at British universities. The announcement came while Tony Blair was attending a University of Cambridge conference on Islam, which has also drawn figures such as the grand muftis of Egypt and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Blair has called on "people in the country and wider to listen to" the participants of the conference, as "they are the authentic voices of Islam" (BBC).

A good initiative on the part of the British government, but how far can £1 million go?

Egyptian court rejects military trial for Muslim Brothers

An Egyptian court has found a presidential order calling for a group of Muslim Brethren to undergo trial in a military court to be invalid. The group has been charged with supporting terrorism, as well as membership in a banned organisation (BBC).

The court has displayed an impressively independent spirit, for which it must be commended. The Muslim Brotherhood is a fact of life in Egypt, and the government knows this as well as anyone. To selectively prosecute some people for belonging to the group, while 88 out of Egypt's 454 MPs are known Brethren, is sheer hypocricy. Furthermore, military courts ought to have no place in civilian life.

However, I don't think the courts can achieve much by themselves until the executive decides to liberalise the system. It would be appropriate for Egypt's ally, the United States, to put some pressure on it to do so, but, unfortunately, the US doesn't have many cards left to play because of the Iraq fiasco.

American students meet Muslims worldwide

Four students at Washington, D.C.'s American University, among them three non-Muslims and one Muslim, have accompanied Prof. Akbar Ahmed on an "anthropological excursion" around nine countries with large Muslim populations, from Egypt to Indonesia.

Ahmed (a former Pakistani diplomat) and the students met Muslim students, preachers and political activists, some of them with anti-Western views. They were surprised to find even the Muslims opposed to Western policies to be warm and welcoming on a personal level, and open to discussion and debate. For their part, many of the Muslims they met were astounded at the visitors' descriptions of the freedom of worship Muslims enjoy in the United States (Christian Science Monitor).

Of course, this tour was not entirely unique: a substantial number of American students go on study abroad programmes in Muslim countries; other young Americans work as interns with local NGOs with these countries, or serve with organisations such as the Peace Corps. However, this "excursion" was rather unique in its scope: nine countries visited, a large number of Muslims encountered, a large number of meaningful conversations and exchanges entered into.

I hope more such exchanges take place, in both directions. Muslim students would also have a great deal to learn from touring Western countries and having discussions of this sort with Western students, as well as political and civil society leaders.

Star Academy winner unites Iraqis

Shada Hassoun, a 25-year old Iraqi woman of Iraqi and Moroccan parentage has sparked raucous celebrations in Iraq by winning the Star Academy Middle East TV show, one of the myriad imitators of the British show Pop Idol. Sunni and Shi'ite Iraqis were united in celebrating Hassoun's victory in the final stage of the competition, where she defeated participants from Egypt, Lebanon and Tunisia (BBC).

If a pop-song competition on TV is enough to give Sunni and Shi'ite Iraqis a sense of unity, not much divides them. This response indicates to me that the majority of Iraqis are not keen on observing the sectarian differences that political groups and militias are reminding them of everyday. Let's hope the unity displayed by Hassoun's audience can be translated into other spheres of Iraqi life.

Mubarak goes after Muslim Brothers

Several members of the Muslim Brotherhood have been arrested in Egypt, after opposition (mainly Brotherhood) MPs voted against a bill reducing the judiciary's powers to oversee elections (BBC).