philosoraptor42

The claim that Europe is being "Islamofied" is a common claim amongst those who are anti-immigration, xenophobic and generally racist. Recently it's been quite commonly claimed that the incorporation of Sharia courts (dealing with civil matters) into the UK legal system is a sign that the UK is sinking into "Islamofication" (ignoring that the big problem is actually the large number of Sharia courts still outside of the UK legal system whose verdicts are not checked against British law and who can enforce their rulings quite adequately through peer pressure alone.)

Plenty of people saw my recent post on Pat Condell and while many did not agree with my accusation of racism, plenty were prepared to accept the accusation of xenophobia (though I still fail to see how they can view racism and xenophobia as unconnected). Since then I've also written a follow-up piece where I point out that the anti-immigration sentiment linked with Islam is also expressed by Britain's nutcase Christian fundamentalists. (The video I provided on that piece got some rather worrying attention.) The fundamentalists actually reckon that the spread of Islam in the UK is going to lead to civil war. (Y'know with over 90% of the country on one side and less than 5% on the other. Ooooh scary!)

Anyway, more recently I've discovered that Europeans aren't the only ones worried about a minority Islamic group taking over their society. The same worries can be found in the middle east!

So yeah, we already knew that there was hatred for minority religious groups in Saudi Arabia. There's clear discrimination against Ismailis (a small Shia group). Also the case of a woman being sentenced to receive lashes after being raped involved a Shia victim and Sunni assailants.

However, breaking the trend, the latest case isn't from Saudi Arabia, but from Jordan and Egypt. In Jordan there's a rather paranoid case that's been started:

Six Shia Muslims have gone on trial in Jordan, accused of "promoting Shia ideology and instigating religious sectarianism". Their case – the first of its kind in Jordan – is being heard behind closed doors in a military court.

Jordan is a Sunni-majority country but has no law that prevents Shias from practising their faith and its constitution says very clearly that there shall be no discrimination "on grounds of race, language or religion".

There is no suggestion that the accused did anything more than a bit of missionary work – holding meetings, issuing membership cards and raising funds – but the case reflects a growing fear of Shia Islam among the Middle East's Sunni regimes.

Meanwhile, in Egypt:

In Egypt last June, Hassan Shehata, a Shia cleric, was reportedly arrested with dozens of his followers and 13 were said to have been detained on charges of spreading Shiism.

One Egyptian magazine warned of "a real danger that Egypt and other Sunni countries might be converted to Shiism".

Shia Muslims make up less than 1% of the population in Egypt.

So yeah, Islamophobia in Jordan and Egypt by Sunni Muslims. What do you think about this?

x-posted to atheism