EU Immigration Crisis Megathread

[Duque de Bragança]

It is kind of amazing that we are trusting the Serbians to watch over Muslims.

I thought Muslims (capital M) was a nationality in Yugo times, different from the practitioners of Islam (muslims). 

[Liep]

The refugees passing a river to bypass the Macedonian border control, not passing the press unnoticed though

[The Larch]

It is kind of amazing that we are trusting the Serbians to watch over Muslims.

I thought Muslims (capital M) was a nationality in Yugo times, different from the practitioners of Islam (muslims). 

In Yugoslav times, Muslims = Bosniaks.

[Valmy]

It is kind of amazing that we are trusting the Serbians to watch over Muslims.

I thought Muslims (capital M) was a nationality in Yugo times, different from the practitioners of Islam (muslims). 

In Yugoslav times, Muslims = Bosniaks.

Albanians?

[The Larch]

It is kind of amazing that we are trusting the Serbians to watch over Muslims.

I thought Muslims (capital M) was a nationality in Yugo times, different from the practitioners of Islam (muslims). 

In Yugoslav times, Muslims = Bosniaks.

Albanians?

They had their own category in the census.

[Jacob]

What's the point of showing the countries in the insert if using a completely different population comparison? Are they saying those ratios make it in line with what they are showing for Europe?

What do you mean? They're using the same colour scheme (refugees per 100,000 population) and percentage scheme (percentage of refugee population). The only scale that is different is the actual geographical scale.

Right?

[Admiral Yi]

I thought Bosniaks were Serbo-Croats who had gone Muslim, ethnically different from Albanians.

[The Larch]

I thought Bosniaks were Serbo-Croats who had gone Muslim, ethnically different from Albanians.

You thought right.

[Admiral Yi]

I am a right thinker.

[Duque de Bragança]

It is kind of amazing that we are trusting the Serbians to watch over Muslims.

I thought Muslims (capital M) was a nationality in Yugo times, different from the practitioners of Islam (muslims). 

In Yugoslav times, Muslims = Bosniaks.

More complex than that.
Bosniaks were Muslims but there were other islamised Slavs, in the Sanjak, who were not Bosniaks.

[The Larch]

It is kind of amazing that we are trusting the Serbians to watch over Muslims.

I thought Muslims (capital M) was a nationality in Yugo times, different from the practitioners of Islam (muslims). 

In Yugoslav times, Muslims = Bosniaks.

More complex than that.
Bosniaks were Muslims but there were other islamised Slavs, in the Sanjak, who were not Bosniaks.

I was talking about "capital M) Muslims, as you yourself said.  There were other muslim slavic minorities around.

[Duque de Bragança]

It is kind of amazing that we are trusting the Serbians to watch over Muslims.

I thought Muslims (capital M) was a nationality in Yugo times, different from the practitioners of Islam (muslims). 

In Yugoslav times, Muslims = Bosniaks.

More complex than that.
Bosniaks were Muslims but there were other islamised Slavs, in the Sanjak, who were not Bosniaks.

I was talking about "capital M) Muslims, as you yourself said.  There were other muslim slavic minorities around.

Those islamised Slavs are "capital M Muslims too! 
Of course, the Muslim "nationality" was created to avoid the creation and recognition of a Bosniak "nationality".

[Martinus]

So apparently there are tolerant, peace loving Muslim groups in the West. Too bad they are being murdered by other Muslims.

Scottish Muslim groups fail to attend Ahmadi anti-extremism event

Sikh, Jewish and Christian representatives attend campaign launch following death of Glasgow shopkeeper Asad Shah

Ahmadi Muslims in Scotland have launched an anti-extremism campaign following the death of the Glasgow shopkeeper Asad Shah, despite the failure of other prominent Muslims to attend the event.

Representatives of the Glasgow Central Mosque and the Muslim Council of Scotland were invited to attend the launch alongside other faith groups, but the Guardian understands that both sent their apologies at the last minute.

Shah, who lived in the multicultural Shawlands area of Glasgow, was fatally stabbed outside his newsagents on 24 March.

Shah was an Ahmadi, a member of a minority sect of Islam that faces persecution and violence in countries such as Pakistan and is treated with open hostility by many orthodox Muslims in the UK because it differs from their belief that Muhammad is the final prophet sent to guide humankind.

The man charged with Shah's murder is also a Muslim, and recently released a statement through his lawyer saying the killing was justified because Shah had "disrespected" Islam.

As part of the United Against Extremism campaign, posters sponsored by the Ahmadi community will be displayed on buses in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee for two weeks.

The event's organiser Ahmed Owusu-Konadu said: "We are undertaking this campaign as part of our stand on the rejection of all forms of extremism and as a message of solidarity with all who have been its victims, including Asad Shah, and others in Paris, Turkey, Brussels, Pakistan, Nigeria."

Abdul Abid, president of the Ahmadiyya community in Scotland, admitted he was disappointed that other Muslim leaders had not attended the launch. Representatives of Glasgow's Sikh and Jewish communities and the Church of Scotland's inter-faith group were all present, alongside local politicians, representatives of Police Scotland and Glasgow's lord provost.

The Guardian has reported on how Ahmadis across the UK face shunning and discrimination by Muslims of Shia and Sunni faiths.

Abid said: "We are not asking them to stand united in faith with us but to stand united against extremism. If Glasgow Central Mosque is against extremism, they should be here today."

Independent of the murder investigastion, Police Scotland are investigating alleged links between the head of religious events at Glasgow Central Mosque and a banned sectarian group in Pakistan. A recent BBC investigation claimed that Sabir Ali was president of Sipah-e-Sahaba, a militant political party that has accepted responsibility for deadly sectarian attacks against Shia Muslims and Ahmadiyya minorities in Pakistan, and was banned by the Home Office in 2001.

Following Shah's death, Aamer Anwar, one of Scotland's most outspoken Muslim reformers, helped to broker a unique event where representatives of Sunni, Shia, Ahmadi and Pakistani Christian communities shared a platform for the first time, and vowed to stand shoulder to shoulder against extremism.

At the time, Anwar said: "A very small minority of the community may think it's OK to meddle in the cesspit of violent extremist politics in Pakistan, but we are united in saying that we do not want to import sectarian violence that has caused so much division and so much bloodshed to our community or to our streets."

He has since received death threats himself, which are under investigation by the police.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/apr/18/scottish-muslim-groups-ahmadi-anti-extremism-campaign-launch-glasgow

[The Brain]

Had he disrespected Islam or not?

[jimmy olsen]

The numbers are just getting higher and higher, for both those who manage to arrise and those who don't make it.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/04/20/500-feared-dead-mediterranean-shipwreck/83274644/

U.N.: Up to 500 feared dead in Mediterranean shipwreck last week

Up to 500 migrants may have drowned when a large boat sank in the Mediterranean Sea, according to the United Nation's refugee agency, citing witness reports. If confirmed, it would be one of the worst tragedies of Europe's migrant crisis in the past year.

The incident occurred last week as smugglers tried to move a group of migrants traveling in a boat from the Libyan city of Tobruk to a larger boat crowded with hundreds of people on its way to Italy, according to the U.N. The larger boat capsized at an unknown location between Libya and Italy, according to a statement by the refugee agency.

The 41 survivors — 37 men, three women and a 3-year-old — were rescued by a merchant ship and taken to Kalamata, Greece on April 16. Those rescued include 23 Somalis, 11 Ethiopians, six Egyptians and a Sudanese, the U.N. said.

The survivors told agency staff they were part of a group of 100 to 200 people who left on a 90-foot boat from a place near Tobruk.

The survivors include people who had not yet boarded the larger vessel, as well as some who managed to swim back to the smaller boat. They drifted at sea possibly for three days before being spotted and rescued.

The refugee agency visited the survivors at a stadium in Kalamata, where they have been housed by local authorities "while they undergo police procedures," according to the U.N. report.

Barbara Molinario, a Rome-based spokeswoman for the U.N.'s refugee agency, told the Associated Press that details remained unclear, and staffers didn't want to press the survivors too hard "as they are still very tried by their experience."

The statements offered the most official comment yet following repeated news reports about the incident in recent days.

Somalia's president, prime minister and speaker of parliament issued a condolence statement to the nation April 16, after unconfirmed report circulated among families and on social media that some 400 Somalis had drowned at sea, the AP reported.

"It's a painful tragedy which reminds us all how important it is for us to discourage our youth from embarking on such high risk journeys," the leaders' statement said.

So far this year, 179,552 migrants arrived in Europe via the Mediterranean from North Africa and Turkey, a number that dwarfs the 23,425 migrants who arrived during the same period in 2015, according to the U.N.'s refugee agency.

More than 1 million migrants traveled to Europe by sea last year. Most were refugees from war in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria fleeing to Greece, and the European Union, via Turkey. However, the longer Libya-Italy route has traditionally seen more deaths.

Facing internal divisions, the EU has struggled to cope with the influx, and the refugee agency on Wednesday reiterated its longstanding call for more "regular pathways" to Europe such as with resettlement and humanitarian admission programs, family reunification, private sponsorship and student and work visas.