Islamic Party gearing up for municipal elections

Group wants to change sex education in Finnish schools

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The Islamic Party, which is currently working to get the necessary signatures to register as an official political party in Finland, predicts that it will win two seats on the Helsinki City Council and one seat on the councils of Espoo and Vantaa in the municipal elections later this year.
      The party also plans to run in Turku, Tampere, and Oulu.
      To register as a political party, an organisation must collect the signatures of 5,000 supporters by the end of the summer. According to Islamic Party chairman Abdullah Tammi, 1,000 signatures have already been collected. Tammi presented the party's municipal election themes in Helsinki on Thursday.
     
In the party's view, schools should teach Islamic family values and sex education in the spirit of Islam.
      According to Tammi, the present situation is too stimulating for children, and promotes casual relationships. The party's spokesman Imane Bellamine would replace the present type of sex education at school with the Muslim way of passing down matters related to love and family life from father to son, mother to daughter, and from mother to son.
      The party says that Muslim children should be allowed to read the Koran during music classes and school festivities.
      The party also wants to promote the construction of mosques, allow male circumcision at public health clinics, permit Halal slaughter of animals in all municipalities, and encourage the use of domestic organic food.
      Another goal is a ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages in grocery stores, and outlawing the advertising of alcohol.
      In addition to municipal election goals, Tammi outlined the party's foreign policy line. He called the United States a "Satanic" occupier of Afghanistan, and feels that Finland should not take part in the occupation.
     
Present at the press conference was Dr. Marko Juntunen, an expert on Finnish Islam at the University of Helsinki. He sharply criticised the working methods of the Islamic Party.
      Juntunen called on the group to declare openly which fatwas, or Islamic interpretations, it bases its views on. He said that unless it does so, it will not be possible to evaluate the party's aims.
     
Also at the press conference was Yosif Haddad, an Iraqi writer and expert on Islam, who said that he the emergence of an Islamic party in Finland worries him. He notes that the party is in favour of Sharia law, which, he says, goes against democracy.
      "They don't know what they're doing", Haddad said.
      "Nobody can claim to follow pure Islam, as they say, because there is no such thing", Haddad said after the conference.
      He noted that rules governing family life vary considerably from one Muslim country to another.
      "Religion is a matter between man and God. Politics is between people", Haddad noted.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Islamic Party still has long way to go to be officially registered (8.1.2008)
  Moves made to establish Islamic party in Finland (7.9.2007)

Helsingin Sanomat