Sifaoui: Danish Imams are extremists



He is rather reluctant to say the words because he has the greatest respect for the Danes - but Mohammed Sifaoui feels that it is necessary to tell us that we are “naive”.

“All you good and well-meaning people at Politiken, in the rest of Denmark and Europe, you hurt your and moderate Moslems’ cause when you let extremists call the tune,” he says.

“They’re not bombers - they’re worse”
And for Sifaoui there’s no doubt the Danish Imams such as Ahmed Akkari and Abu Laban are just that, extremists but disguised as moderates.

“Actually, I was sort of seduced by Abu Laban the first day. He seemed both friendly and tolerant. But it was lucky that I stayed with them for some days, because then all of the extremist ideology was revealed,” Sifaoui says about his travels in Denmark this February which, i.a., revealed Ahmed Akkari’s famous ‘bomb threat’ against the Social Liberal politician Naser Khader.

“I have never suggested that Abu Laban or Ahmed Akkari are terrorists themselves - in the sense that they’re bombers. They’re something much worse: They’re the the ideologues which give the young mad-man the necessary excuse - the ideological grounds - for carrying out an act of terror in Denmark.”

Lives with Death Threats
The Algerian-French journalist and writer Mohammed Sifaoui has spent 18 years revealing and criticising the extremist movements which in his opinion slowly but surely have infiltrated a naive Europe.

He hasn’t been lacking in death threats. He lives under police guard and our meeting at a Parisian café is set up at the last minute.

“I do know with who I am dealing. I know the millieu and take my precautions,” as he says.

A Man with a Mission
Sifaoui is both loathed and admired, a controversial man with creative journalistic methods who refuses to be afraid. He doesn’t hide that he is a man with a mission.

“I have never wanted to condemn or hurt anyone and I have never attacked the Koran or Islam. I am a practising Moslem myself. But I have a mission and it is journalistic: To reveal the truth about extremists and terrorists.”

But don’t they know this about you - why do they let you into their confidence and say that sort of thing in your presence?

“I didn’t mention my surname and nobody asked . My first name, Mohammed, is what everyone and his cousin is called in the Arab world and I also used a middle name. They accepted me as a ‘brother’”

Don’t you have any reservations about not presenting yourself as yourself?

“If I have to steal information, I will. I have no scruples about that with these people. Besides, they knew very well that I was a journalist.”

Has no Concrete Knowledge of an Attack

"Mohammed was a Feminist"

When Asra Nomani became the first woman in her mosque in West Virginia to insist on her right to pray in the male-only main hall, she invited a barrage of criticism from Islamic leaders. But her actions also got her invited to the first International Congress on Islamic Feminism, held in October 2005 in Barcelona.

The conference signaled a shift in Nomani’s activism. From small-town marches in Morgantown, W.V., to a national campaign throughout the U.S., Nomani is now taking her place within the international movement for Muslim women’s rights. Having been raised in the U.S. she says, has given her privileges of education and access to resources that she can bring to a world-wide movement, but she’s quick to point out that these privileges do not set her apart from Muslim women in Africa and the Middle East: “There are different degrees of threat, but the dynamic of subordination that we face in our traditional communities is the same. In Nigeria, women face physical stoning; here they face psychic shaming and intimidation that can be just as brutal.”

But this movement will not follow in the footsteps of other feminist movements from history. Rooted in religion, the efforts of Islamic feminists are focused on reclaiming sacred texts by means of a progressive, contemporary interpretation that includes women’s rights. “Mohammed was a feminist,” Nomani says. She intends to prove the point through her newest project, the Islamic Dream, a web site devoted to Koranic analysis and interpretations from the leading Islamic scholars of the day, men and women, to create a go-to source for Muslims grappling with contemporary issues. “I’ve gotten hundreds of emails from people,” – from a Muslim woman in the U.S. in love with a Christian man to a man in Pakistan who is struggling with being gay – “asking what can I do?”