Excerpts: Palestinian chaos.Muslims in Denmark. 10 January 2006

+++THE DAILY STAR (Lebanon) 10 Jan.'06:

"ABBAS one year on:security chaos, political uncertainty"
By Agence France Presse (AFP)

QUOTES FROM TEXT:
"the euphoria of the pullout over, armed groups, mainly those loyal to
Abbas'
crisis-ridden ruling Fatah movement have engulfed the terrirory in
shootings,
raids against public buildings and ... foreign kidnappings"

"he has been hamstrung by Sharon's insistance of making any further
progreaa conditional on the Palestinian Authority dismantling armed
groups"

" 'certain circles' within Fatah and the Palestinian Authority are to
blame for
Abbas' failure to assert control over the security situation and
implement the
entirety of his promised reforms"

"Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat lays all blame with Israel"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\
EXCERPTS:
RAMALLAH, West Bank: One year after his election ... Abbas faces an
increasingly uncertain future with the demise of ... Sharon and a spiraling
security crisis. ...Abbas was elected Palestinian Authority president by a
comfortable margin on January 9, 2005, to succeed ... Arafat ... vowing to
restore order, end corruption and create a Palestinian state.
... his greatest achievement ... was to convince the principal armed
Palestinian groups to observe, more or less, an informal truce in
anti-Israeli attacks.
He also introduced tentative reform to the ... badly organized wings of the
Palestinian security service, but ultimately he has been largely powerless
in the face of the armed anarchy ... .
The truce, which officially expired at the end of 2005, ensured that
Israel's withdrawal of its army and settlers from the Gaza Strip over the
summer did not take place under fire.
...the euphoria of the pullout over, armed groups, mainly those loyal to
Abbas' crisis-ridden ruling Fatah movement have engulfed the territory in
shootings, raids against public buildings and ... foreign kidnappings.
The ... chaos has provided a gloomy backdrop to parliamentary elections
scheduled on January 25 ... .
Fatah faces a ballot-box showdown with ... Hamas, riding high after good
performances at local council elections ... .Abbas had intended to use the
Gaza pullout as a springboard to exact Israeli pull backs from the larger
occupied West Bank, multiplying his visits overseas in order to rally
support.
But he has been hamstrung by Sharon's insistence of making any further
progress conditional on the Palestinian Authority dismantling armed groups.
"What Abbas has achieved during his first year in power is minimal compared
to the program he announced ...," said analyst George Giacaman, director of
the Mowaten institute for democracy studies.
He believes "certain circles" within Fatah and the Palestinian Authority are
to blame for Abbas' failure to assert control over the security situation
and implement the entirety of his promised reforms.
"Abbas had good intentions but Sharon as well as various Palestinian parties
put obstacles in his way," he said.
Deputy Speaker of Parliament Hassan Khreisheh similarly charges that
"certain President Abbas associates within the Palestinian leadership" have
handicapped his margin of operations.
"I believe Abu Mazen [Abbas] is an honest man but some of his colleagues in
the leadership are trying to compete with him. That never happened in the
Arafat era because no one would dare think of standing up to him."
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat lays all blame with Israel ...
[IMRA: Naturally--it symbolizes PA's intentional blindness.].
"The Sharon government has not helped us and has given nothing to President
Abbas, giving the impression he has achieved nothing on the political
front," Erakat said.
[IMRA: Gaza is zero?]
. . .
Trying hard to put a positive spin on Abbas' first year in power, Erakat
said he had enjoyed some successes at home.
"President Abbas embarked on several reforms in the last year, particularly
modernizing the judiciary, reorganizing the diplomatic corps and pensioning
off officers from the security services," he said. - AFP

+++BITTERLEMONS-Int.Org.Dec.25 '05: "Stoking the fire" by Zubair Butt
Hussain
QUOTE FROM TEXT:
":Danish Muslims will eventually emmigrate to otehr European countries
where attitudes are less harsh"
FULL TEXT
Since September 30, the debate in Denmark over 12 published drawings of the
Prophet Muhammad has yet to abate. These charicatures, as they are better
described, caused anger among Muslims and non-Muslims both in and out of
Denmark where tehnews has slowly spread...

The project behind the drawings was, ostensibly, inspired by the
intimidation some artists felt vis-a-vis Islam, and the feeling that, as a
result, freedom of expression was under threat. In the subsequent
controversy, many opinion-shapers have spoken of their bemusement over the
reaction of Muslims and why they should be so sensitive over something that
poked fun at religious figures. There was even a not-so-hidden wonderment
that Muslims didn't find the derision and laughter directed at their
religion somehow edifying.

But long before these drawings came into the public domain, there was
widespread apprehension among Danish Muslims over the way they and their
religious affiliation were presented in the media. The image projected in
the Danish media of Islam has been one of a faith that did not undergo a
reformation and renaissance similar to Christianity and is thus stuck in the
middle ages. The drawings are simply a culmination of several years of media
persecution of the Muslim minority in Denmark.

Even worse is the role elected politicians have played in stoking this fire.
It is not unusual for certain politicians to make the ill-willed and
mistaken but common equation that Muslims are immigrants, and immigrants are
badly integrated and therefore the root of all evil in Danish society.
Beyond the prejudice against immigrants in general this belies, it also
contradicts the fact that most Muslims in Denmark have been here for 30-40
years and many are born here. But if that is pointed out, they are simply
called second or third generation immigrants. Even ethnic Danish Muslim
converts are described by the derogatory "ersatz-immigrants"; one politician
has gone so far as to compare these converts to Nazis, and, in all
seriousness, advocate that they be placed under surveillance as they
constitute a threat to society. A politician from the same party described
Muslims as a spreading cancer, while others have suggested criminals of
non-Danish ethnic background should be interned or exiled with their closest
family.

The fact that elected politicians can make such statements and at the same
time claim to be standard bearers for democracy, freedom of expression and
human rights is a serious indictment of the degeneration of public morals.

Just as in any other community, Danish Muslims have their share of bad
apples. But only for the Muslim community is it seen fit to mention a
religious affiliation when someone is suspected or convicted of any criminal
or unseemly behavior. This amounts to blaming the community as a whole and
demonizing Islam. The stigmatization and general lack of acceptance of
Muslims in Denmark as equals has as a consequence led especially the younger
generation to create an identity in opposition to their surroundings.

The persecution of Muslims in public fora serves only to dig trenches in
society and lessens the chance of conducting any constructive dialogue. I
personally predict that Danish Muslims will eventually emigrate to other
European countries where attitudes are less harsh--some well-educated
members of the community have already left and others are ready to follow if
presented with the opportunity. Of course, those who leave will be those
with the qualifications and necessary economic ballast, and Denmark will be
left with those from the lower socio-economic strata. That in turn will
reinforce the perception of Muslims as simply constituting a drain on the
welfare system.

Just as it is now so in the future our responsibility is to make this
multi-ethnic society function. In this context, a lack of sensitivity in the
way we Danes express ourselves in public constitutes a threat to peaceful
co-existence. I hope that in the future we will be able to frame our public
debate on this issue in a less divisive manner to avoid further
polarization.

The right of freedom of expression comes with a burden of responsibility.-
Published 22/12/2005 © bitterlemons-international.org

Zubair Butt Hussain is a regular commentator in Danish media.

Dr. Joseph Lerner, Co-Director IMRA