Hassan Fathollahpoor: “I studied law at the University of Teheran, but I noticed that I could learn everything through religion, that I would have learned studying law. That is why I decided to study religion.”The Iranian imam “with smiling eyes” (that’s how he’s depicted in the article) is the religious leader of the Shia Muslim organisation in Finland called Resalat, and has been leading that community since September 2007. Also included in his resume is his participation in the Iranian revolution which overthrew the Shah in 1978.
But lets return to the quote by Fathollahpoor, where he says “that everything can be learned through religion“. What he is alluding to here, is exactly what the spokesman for the Finnish Islamic Party, Abdullah Tammi, has been openly stating (naively) since he and his Islamist movement hit the front pages, that Islam covers every aspect of human living…and its wonderful!
Islam is first and foremost a political, social, economic, legal and military entity wrapped in a religious robe, so in a “true believer’s” point of view, to understand all of the above perfectly, one must be an avid student of Islam. He goes on further to say:
“Families call me to discuss problems related to their marriages, or generational conflicts, for instance. I advise them from a religious angle”
And if PC multi-culturalists in Finland have their way, his role in dispensing just marital advice or solving generational disputes will be greatly expanded to deliberating over cases under sharia law. Abdullah Tammi couldn’t be happier, as well as the Shi’ite Imam.
Fathollahpoor continues: “I have goals for developing the community, and I need time for it”, Fathollahpoor says, but does not specify what those goals are. His wife and two sons are still in Iran, waiting for a visa to Finland.”
These goals may very well be the same as Abdullah Tammi’s but with a Shi’ite twist to them. The Sunnis in Finland have so far not condemnded the FIP’s overt message of bringing sharia to Finland, choosing to label the Islamist intitiative as being “not the right time”. Yeah right, that’s as harsh as they can get about being against sharia in Finland, yet the Finnish state allows more Islamists into the country like Hassan Fathollahpoor. Great.
But there’s more! “One problem that he (Fathollahpoor) sees is a lack of grave sites for Muslims, and attitudes toward the use of scarves by women. “It is often hard for a woman wearing a scarf to get work.”
The issue of a graveyard is being resolved by the city of Helsinki where most Muslims reside. Of course they should be allowed to bury their dead according to their religious customs, as long as it doesn’t mean forcing non-Muslims (being buried in the same area) into conforming to their religious edicts. Like having to be buried in a direction so that all the graves allow the deceased to have their heads turned towards Mecca.
As for the headscarves, the hijab, Fathollahpoor once again reveals his hand…or better yet,…his goals, or at least one of them. The scarf to the non-Muslim world, that is ignorant about Islam, would deem the issue of the hijab to be a non-issue. But the proverbial fly in the ointment, is the fact that the hijab is a very political piece of garment, as was mentioned in the recent symposium about the niqab at Front Page Mag.
“The veil is about control/domination vis-à-vis submission of the female and her subjugation. The headscarf is the beginning of the slippery slope of subjugation that slides into the burqa and/or the niqab. Because it is such a sexually repressed culture, men shroud the female to avoid being sexually aroused by her essence. When exposed they feel not only highly aroused, but threatened and vulnerable, an emotional state not to be tolerated in Islam except in the presence of Allah. (personal communication, J. Lachkar)”
The Shi’ite Imam comes fully out of the closet with the admission about wanting the hijab to be accepted by western society. Secular Turks know fully well what the hijab stands for, with millions of them demonstrating in the streets of Instanbul and Ankara against its re-introduction in to Turkish universities. The political ramifications cannot and must not be overlooked to satisfy so called religious sensibilities.
