The translated writings of Necla Kelek, a secular German Muslim, have appeared several times in this space in the past. The opinion piece below, which proposes to remove Islam from the grip of the traditionalists, was originally published in the German MSM and has been translated by JLH.
The translator includes this note:
Necla Kelek is a highly educated, thoroughly assimilated Muslim woman, whose books and articles in various organs of the press speak with common sense and unassailable scholarly command about Islam in Germany.
It is interesting to see how careful she is to explain terms such as “halal,” and supply alternate, clarifying terms for imam and sharia. It argues that her target audience is neither the convinced multiculti, nor the well-informed Islam critic, but the intelligent but naïve middle class who still read and believe the newspapers, but have very little knowledge of the working of the parallel society. Possibly also the “silent majority” of Muslims she implies.
The translated article from Die Welt:
Take off the Headscarf!
by Necla Kelek
May 13, 2013
For years, the Islam Conference has concerned itself with questions of religion. How its functionaries can improve the lives of girls and women is of no interest to them.
It is very telling: the German Islam Conference (DIK) makes no recommendations for advancing the equality of boys and girls. They prefer to work things out by relying on the law of their forefathers. Apparently the DIK is relying on pacifying the Muslims in Germany by strengthening the religious groups. The prevailing conflicts are being moderated — symbolic politics are being practiced. Integration is seen as social work. This attitude is visible in the latest round of the Islam Conference. There should have been a discussion of how the situation for girls can be improved. I consider three aspects decisive.
1. The headscarf is a stigma. Sending girls younger than 14 to school in a headscarf has nothing to do with religious freedom or parental rights in a child’s upbringing, but is a violation of the human dignity guaranteed in the constitution, and is against the law banning discrimination. Strictly religious Muslims and their interest groups misuse the religious freedom guaranteed in the constitution to enforce the Islamic model of differential treatment of men and women. 2. The headscarf is not Islamic. There is no religious obligation to wear a headscarf. I can cite the Koran and traditional knowledge. It is possible for some (men) to act as if the headscarf were religiously required in Islam, but the Koran also allows other interpretations. Anyone who is in favor of the headscarf is a traditionalist and is interpreting the information in his own interests. Because of that, he belongs to the minority of Muslims in Germany, who do not see this religion spiritually, but as a law, and they stand for a “sharia Islam.” 3. I am for the right to childhood. Children have the right to be educated and cared for by the schools for as long as possible. Only if they develop free of the paternalism and restrictions of religious commandments will they become responsible members of society. The right to a school education takes precedence over parents’ religious freedom. Religion is only a part of freedom — it cannot be above the constitution. For me, schools are nothing less than “agents of integration.” It is here that we must create social scope for children. It is here that our society must have the possibility of fulfilling its task of acculturation.
Secular Muslims should resist allowing others to interpret their religion. What this means can be tested in everyday examples, but also in other, extreme examples. An everyday example is whether “religious rules” like the Muslim ban on eating pork affects the menu in school cafeterias. No one is forcing a vegetarian or a Muslim to eat a sausage. In practice, however, it is not that the first does not eat lamb sausage and the other does not eat pork sausage, but rather that the common mealtime is undercut. The presence of the porky sausage contaminates the whole place. As a Muslim, it is not permitted to sit at the same table as a “pork gobbler.” I have seen how Muslim women’s groups refused to attend an Advent coffee in the Christian community, because they would have to eat something that had been prepared in the “impure” community kitchen. There are school cafeterias where only “halal” — i.e., kosher — foods are offered, and all service is halted during the month-long fast of Ramadan. In short, the “religious rules” are not experienced individually, but claimed as a collective right. Should we not rather draw a line between the worldviews of various cultures and the elementary principles of the secular constitutional state? I think so!
A different area is the function of the peace judges in Muslim communities. Their effect has long been ignored by politics and jurisprudence. Not until the television journalist Joachim Wagner published his profound report on the Islamic parallel justice system, “Judges Without Law,” was there some debate. Which, however, degenerated to talking it down. That is, peace judges, or conciliators, are something like mediators who assume the work of the judiciary in doubtful situations and contribute to peace in society. What that argument ignores is that the mediation or judgment is closely tied to Islam. Upon inquiry, the mediation in the mosque allegedly has to do only with family affairs. But there is sufficient evidence that the prayer leaders also intervene in criminal matters, and assure that the concepts of Muslim masculine honor are satisfied. The drama of such a shadowy justice system does not seem to have been noticed in politics. When “religious life,” i.e., sharia is accorded factual, legal standing, it is difficult to defend against the vigilantism of the clans, even though the mantra is intoned that the constitution is valid.
Of the by now more than 4 million Turkish-Muslim citizens in Germany, most do not live in the parallel world. They are an important part of the society. There are writers, film-makers, doctors, business people, crafts workers, etc. Most of them do not agree with the parallel society. Their voices must be heard at last. That does not mean destroying Islam. Every single Muslim can find his or her place as a citizen in German society without relinquishing the meaning and variety of Islamic faith and rituals. I hope that exactly this will happen in Germany.
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“That does not mean destroying Islam. Every single Muslim can find his or her place as a citizen in German society without relinquishing the meaning and variety of Islamic faith and rituals.”
The getting under the skin soft sell.
“most do not live in the parallel world. They are an important part of the society. There are writers, film-makers, doctors, business people, crafts workers, etc. Most of them do not agree with the parallel society.”
Same fake islam in the U.K. but when there is an incident and the real islam needs defending the JIM regression is astonishingly swift.
Excellent post……and here……..watch this video as a footnote, watch as the truth falls from the mouths of those who provide rudder for the murderous ship of Islamic conquest, fanaticism, deviance and lunacy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPu6-iZQgaI
Regards, Don Laird
Dogtown, Crankville County
Alberta, Canada
“Somwhere between here and there………..”
Don’s video is a “Must” see.
Great woman, but what’s a secular Muslim?
A secular Muslim is not a Muslim who is engrossed in their religion. That Muslim doesn’t live and breathe Islam. In a Muslim country, that person would probably be branded an apostate and killed. In a place like the US, their role is to create a path for the devout Muslims to enter and populate this land. They are Trojan horses.
That’s making her not a Muslim, wouldn’t you think?
FTA: “I am for the right to childhood. Children have the right to be educated and cared for by the schools for as long as possible. Only if they develop free of the paternalism and restrictions of religious commandments will they become responsible members of society. The right to a school education takes precedence over parents’ religious freedom. Religion is only a part of freedom — it cannot be above the constitution.”
Children cared for by the state? Education takes precedence over parents’ religious freedom?
Germany forbids homeschooling. Right now there is a Christian German family who sought asylum in the United States over the right to homeschool their children. They are now facing deportation because the Supreme Court ruled against them (and yes, I think this is a harbinger of things to come under the Obama administration with respect to home schoolers here). The parents will have their children taken away from the by the German state if they return.
Sorry, Ms. Kelek, but you sound like a leftist.
If children are home-schooled or sent to a school organised by a faith-driven organisation you run the risk of letting them grow without the smallest idea on who the others are.
I do not pretent that all state schools are good nor that all faith-driven schools are bad, what I mean is that the Western culture is made by many components (Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, …), and children should grow up knowing which are the main historical roots of the Western world, not only the root to which their parents belong.
By the way today 26 May 2013 a poll is taking place in Bologna (Italy) on whether Catholic schools can be financed by the state (even if an article in the Italian consitutions clearly says that private schools cannot be financed by the state).
If this lady recognises the horrors of islam, why hasn’t she converted to Christianity?
So now they tell us the Koran (the exact word of Allah, herself) is open to interpretation? The Koran tells us it is clear and easy to understand.
But even if the Koran is open to expalanation– Islam is what Mohamed said, did, or permitted, nothing more or less. And he wanted scarves and body tents. End. Of. Discussion.
Necla Kelek makes some interesting observations. This one says it all:
I have seen how Muslim women’s groups refused to attend an Advent coffee in the Christian community, because they would have to eat something that had been prepared in the “impure” community kitchen. There are school cafeterias where only “halal” — i.e., kosher — foods are offered, and all service is halted during the month-long fast of Ramadan. In short, the “religious rules” are not experienced individually, but claimed as a collective right. Should we not rather draw a line between the worldviews of various cultures and the elementary principles of the secular constitutional state? I think so!
It’s too bad the majority of the Muslims living in the Middle East and Western nations are imposing their totalitarian, religious rules as a collective right!
Jews have kosher foods and their own celebrations. Yet they are not imposing their culture onto non-believers and infidels. Devote Muslims keep pushing and pushing for their totalitarian ideology. Independent butchers in Europe are being put out of business because of the Halal meat requirements. Fast food chains are buckling under pressure of Islamic groups demanding Halal meats be served everywhere. Mixing of meats or food is prohibited. Imagine a house guest or neighbor moving into your residence, demanding changes be made to fit his/her wants, needs, desires. You would throw them out within a few days or hours, depending upon your sanity & anger levels.
Now is the time for indigenous Europeans, Americans, Canadians, Australians, and New Zealanders to say “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”.
Muslims, whether they be moderate, radical, or devout….must adapt and assimilate to Western society. No exceptions. If second and subsequent generations don’t agree, they can join their parents and relatives in their original homelands. Let the deportations begin today!
It will take each business owner, educator, butcher, baker, candlestick maker to say “No” to Islam. Replace the word Islam with *Nazi* and the picture becomes much clearer. By tolerating the intolerant and dictatorial, you give in to tyranny. One political decision at a time. One bite of food, one hate speech, one swim class, one twitter at a time.
I would laugh if it wasn’t so bloody pathetic, a muslim is a muslim, is a muslim period. I am beyond the point of discusing the semantics of this God forsaken heathen so called religion. You muslims are in our western lands, you adhere to our ways and that is the final word, end of discussion. There is no longer any interfaith dialogue or understanding your desert savage ways, we in the west have had enough. I am now at the point of saying to the muslim savage get out or let the chips fall where they may. The Serbs let us know what is in store for us.
I would say rather that we DO understand their savage ways: their “interfaith dialogues” are simply taqiyya to buy time and confuse us, while their savage cult tells them to prepare to slaughter us, halal fashion (slow beheading while reading verses of the murderous sick kuran).
Islam, we DO understand you. And we DON’T like you. We’re done with you: we intend to drive you back to the Saudi Arabian desert.