The strange alliance between the left and reactionary Muslims has taken center stage in the campaign leading up to tomorrows national elections for a new parliament in Denmark.
Asmaa Abdol-Hamid, a 25 year old social worker and islamist, is running for the extreme left wing party Enhedslisten. Last year she was behind a lawsuit against Jyllands-Posten trying to have the newspaper indicted for blasphemy after the publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed.
I wonder how many leftists since the birth of socialism as a political movement have been involved in lawsuits against people offending the Christian faith? Not many, I gather.
If elected, Asmaa Abdol-Hamid will be the first Muslim woman wearing the veil to address Denmark’s parliament. At the same time, citing her faith, she refuses to shake hands with individuals of the other sex. When a female leader of the party was asked how she would react if a man refused to shake hands with her, she insisted that she would welcome it. Fortunately, this kind of hypocricy is obvious to quite a few people on the left, and in opinion polls the party has dropped below the minimum 2 pct. of the votes required for representation in parliament.
Asmaa Abdol-Hamid hasn’t been very clear in denouncing undemocratic practices in the Muslim world, so several spin doctors have been allocated to her campaign in order to prevent her from saying what she actually thinks.
The imam Abdul Wahid-Pedersen, who used to defend the practice of killling adulterous women by stoning, but nevertheless has been labeled “moderate”, has called on his fellow believers to vote for Asma Abdol-Hamid.
Here is what he wrote back in 2002 about the practice of stoning in Nigeria:
”The people has by majority decided to implement Islamic law, and the rest of the world therefore has to accept it. I agree that stoning is a cruel punishment, but it doesn’t change the fact that according to Islam the practise has been ordained by our Creator. We are not in a position to change this. Things that are stated unambigiously in the Koran or by the Prophet Mohammed are not open to debate among Muslims. The moment we would accept to discuss these matters, we at the same time would have declared that we do not believe in Allah and his messenger and in doing so we would have put ourselves outside Islam.”
Nice quote. What a moderate, what a liberal!
Abdul Wahid-Pedersen endorses the candidacy of Asmaa Abdol-Hamid this way:
”I am going to vote for her because I know her personally. With her in parliament we will get a totally new situation in the political life of Denmark. A woman wearing the veil in parliament will send a strong message about tolerance, both to the Muslim minority of Denmark and to the rest of the world, where we are perceived as mistreating minorities.”
Speak for yourself, imam. I wonder what the women of Nigeria, Iran or Saudi-Arabia will say to your call for tolerance?
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