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Trevor Blake: Sentenced to Death [LINK-ZUM]

According to the Institute on Religion and Public Policy, the Islamic Republic of Iran is considering a revision of their laws to sentence anyone promoting apostasy, heresy or witchcraft on the Internet to lashes, life in prison or death.

Article 225-1: Any Muslim who clearly announces that he/she has left Islam and declares blasphemy is an Apostate.
Article 225-2: Serious and earnest intention is the condition for certainty in apostasy. Therefore, if the accused claims that his/her statement had been made with reluctance or ignorance, or in error, or while drunk, or through a slip of the tongue or without understanding the meaning of the words, or repeating words of others; or his/her real intentions had been something else, he/she is not considered an apostate and his/her claim could be heard and justified.
Article 225-3: There are two kinds of apostates: innate (Fetri) and parental (Melli).
Article 225-4: Innate Apostate is someone whose parent (at least one) was a Muslim at the time of conception, and who declares him/herself a Muslim after the age of maturity, and leaves Islam afterwards.
Article 225-5: Parental Apostate is one whose parents (both) had been non-Muslims at the time of conception, and who has become a Muslim after the age of maturity, and later leaves Islam and returns to blasphemy.
Article 225-6: If someone has at least one Muslim parent at the time of conception but after the age of maturity, without pretending to be a Muslim, chooses blasphemy is considered a Parental Apostate.
Article 225-7: Punishment for an Innate Apostate is death.
Article 225-8: Punishment for a Parental Apostate is death, but after the final sentencing for three days he/she would be guided to the right path and encouraged to recant his/her belief and if he/she refused, the death penalty would be carried out.
Article 225-9: In the case of a Parental Apostate, whenever there appears to be a possibility of recanting, sufficient time would be provided.
Article 225-10: Punishment for women, whether Innate or Parental, is life imprisonment and during the sentence, under the guidance of the court, hardship will be exercised on her, and she will be guided to the right path and encouraged to recant, and if she recants she will be freed immediately.
Note: The condition of hardship will be determined according to the religious laws.
Article 225-11: Whoever claims to be a Prophet is sentenced to death, and any Muslim who invents a heresy in the religion and creates a sect based on that which is contrary to the obligations and necessities of Islam, is considered an apostate.
Article 225-12: Any Muslim who deals with witchcraft and promotes it as a profession or sect in the community is sentenced to death.
Article 225-13: Assistance to the crimes in this chapter, in case there is no other punishment assigned to it by law, is punishable by up to 74 lashes in proportion with the crime and the criminal.

Are these laws in agreement with or in disagreement with the Holy Quran? Why not read it yourself and see. Do you live in a country where you are free to encourage people to question and abandon their religion? I do. If these laws are in agreement with the most basic beliefs of Islam, what does it mean to encourage tolerance?

Labels: atheist, islam

Randi Kaye: Atheist soldier sues Army for 'unconstitutional' discrimination [LINK-ZUM]

[Army Spc. Jeremy] Hall said he met some atheists who suggested he read the Bible again. After doing so, he said he had so many unanswered questions that he decided to become an atheist. His sudden lack of faith, he said, cost him his military career and put his life at risk. Hall said his life was threatened by other troops and the military assigned a full-time bodyguard to protect him out of fear for his safety. [...] Two years ago on Thanksgiving Day, after refusing to pray at his table, Hall said he was told to go sit somewhere else. In another incident, when he was nearly killed during an attack on his Humvee, he said another soldier asked him, "Do you believe in Jesus now?" [...] He also said he missed out on promotions because he is an atheist. "I was told because I can't put my personal beliefs aside and pray with troops I wouldn't make a good leader," Hall said.

[Article continues at link. I have a strong personal interest in soldier cults such as Sol Invictus, the Mithraic mysteries and (most recently and especially) the Tatenokai. But it should go without saying that what I am interested in and knowledgeable about are not necessarily what I consider good. I am dead against a Christian military in the United States (or anywhere else). Atheists should not need bodyguards. The military has much more important uses for its men and materials than providing bodyguards for atheists. Any religious discrimination in the military should be dealt with swiftly and harshly, including discrimination against the non-superstitious. And to the soldier who says surviving an attack is proof of Jesus I ask why Jesus caused / allowed that attack to occur in the first place. If Jesus can use Muslims practicing Islam to serve His purposes then there is no particular reason to value being a Christian over being a Muslim as they are working toward the same end. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: christianity, fight, islam, theocracy

Trevor Blake: Rand Abdel-Qader and Leila Hussein [LINK-ZUM]

Sadie Gray - Girl, 17, killed in Iraq for loving a British soldier: A 17-year-old Iraqi girl was murdered by her father in an honour killing after falling in love with a British soldier she met while working on an aid programme in Basra [...] Rand Abdel-Qader was stamped upon, suffocated and stabbed by her father, then given an unceremonious burial to emphasise her disgrace. Police released her father without charge two hours after his arrest. 'Not much can be done when we have an honour killing case,' said Sergeant Ali Jabbar of Basra police. 'You are in a Muslim society and women should live under religious laws. The father has very good contacts inside the Basra government and it wasn't hard for him to be released and what he did to be forgotten.'"

Afif Sarhan and Caroline Davies - 'My daughter deserved to die for falling in love': "For Abdel-Qader Ali there is only one regret: that he did not kill his daughter at birth. 'If I had realised then what she would become, I would have killed her the instant her mother delivered her,' he said with no trace of remorse. Two weeks after The Observer revealed the shocking story of Rand Abdel-Qader, 17, murdered because of her infatuation with a British soldier in Basra, southern Iraq, her father is defiant. Sitting in the front garden of his well-kept home in the city's Al-Fursi district, he remains a free man, despite having stamped on, suffocated and then stabbed his student daughter to death. Abdel-Qader, 46, a government employee, was initially arrested but released after two hours. Astonishingly, he said, police congratulated him on what he had done. 'They are men and know what honour is,' he said. [...] Though her horrified mother, Leila Hussein, called Rand's two brothers, Hassan, 23, and Haydar, 21, to restrain Abdel-Qader as he choked her with his foot on her throat, they joined in. Her shrouded corpse was then tossed into a makeshift grave without ceremony as her uncles spat on it in disgust. 'Death was the least she deserved,' said Abdel-Qader. 'I don't regret it. I had the support of all my friends who are fathers, like me, and know what she did was unacceptable to any Muslim that honours his religion,' he said."

Afif Sarhan and Caroline Davies - Mother who defied the killers is gunned down: "Leila Hussein lived her last few weeks in terror. Moving constantly from safe house to safe house, she dared to stay no longer than four days at each. It was the price she was forced to pay after denouncing and divorcing her husband [...] Though she feared reprisals for speaking out, she really believed that she would soon be safe. Arrangements were well under way to smuggle her to the Jordanian capital, Amman. In fact, she was on her way to meet the person who would help her escape when a car drew up alongside her and two other women who were walking her to a taxi. Five bullets were fired: three of them hit Leila, 41. She died in hospital after futile attempts to save her. [...] It was two weeks after Rand's death on 16 March that a grief-stricken Leila, unable to bear living under the same roof as her husband, found the strength to leave him. She had been beaten and had had her arm broken. It was a courageous move. Few women in Iraq would contemplate such a step. Leila told The Observer in April: 'No man can accept being left by a woman in Iraq. But I would prefer to be killed than sleep in the same bed as a man who was able to do what he did to his own daughter.' [...] Mariam [a woman who had been helping Leila escape] has moved out of her home. But within hours of speaking to The Observer a close friend went to her new address to deliver a message that had been left for her at her front door. It read: 'Death to betrayers of Islam who don't deserve God's forgiveness. Speaking less you will live more.' She believes it was sent by Leila's killers. 'They want this story to be buried with Leila,' she said. 'But I cannot close my eyes to all this.'"

[Much of the Muslim world is skilled at closing its eyes to these stories. Muslims around the world will riot in the streets for weeks if a newspaper prints the wrong sort of cartoon, but laugh and shrug if an outsider is shocked at how they brutalize real live human beings. Whatever Islam may have been, it has lost its way. Islam must be secularized or abandoned. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: islam, sex, theocracy

Trevor Blake: Muslim Priorities [LINK-ZUM]

One great equalizer among all humanity is our mortality. All of us have limited time on this Earth. If something is going wrong, we need to step up and protest it. Let's take a look at the protest priorities of the Muslim world...

Protest! "Shueisha Inc, a Japanese publisher involved in the production of the cartoon 'JoJo's Bizarre Adventure' and its animation version, suspended sales of some of the original comics and the DVD series Thursday, but said the material was not intended to be offensive. At issue is a 90-second segment from 'JoJo's Bizarre Adventure,' which depicts Dio Brando, a villain, picking up a Quran from a bookshelf and apparently examining it as he orders the execution of the hero and his friends." [Apparently the Quran doesn't contain any directives to kill people].

No Protest! "This woman's breast was cut off by the soldiers as a reminder to her and her small child of what lies ahead for those who refuse to convert to the Muslim faith."

Protest! "Police in Halifax are investigating a complaint about a political cartoon that some members of a local Islamic group claim is a hate crime."

No Protest! "Women were sometimes executed for the vague charge of doing something 'un-Islamic.'"

Protest! "A Pakistani Taliban leader has warned local tribesmen to grow beards within the next two months in accordance with Islamic teachings or face harsh punishment, residents said Monday."

No Protest! "Muslim villagers in Mymensingh district eager to rid the area of the Christian work of a local pastor have gang-raped his 13-year-old daughter, the girl's father said."

... for what it's worth, my priorities seem to be at odds with the Religion of Peace. On the one hand I do not kill or rape or mutilate women. On the other I enjoy comic books and keep clean-shaven. What are your priorities?

Labels: comics, islam

AP: Afghan teacher killed after speech condemning suicide bombings [LINK-ZUM]

A teacher was shot to death in northern Afghanistan after he gave a speech condemning suicide bombings, officials said Wednesday. Abdul Hadi criticized such attacks as un-Islamic and un-Afghan during a speech Tuesday in the Archi district of Kunduz province, said Khair Mohammad Subat [...] Hadi spoke at a gathering of about 700 people, including the Kunduz governor and was on his way home when he was killed [...] According to UNICEF, there were 236 school-related attacks last year. In central Logar province, meanwhile, education department director Kamaluddin Zadran said three girls schools have been set ablaze in the past three weeks. Girls were barred from schools under the Taliban regime.

[Article continues at link. Exactly where are the tens of thousands of Muslims marching in the streets to demand that such atrocities end, and that they are not carried out in their name? Perhaps they are busy instead protesting editorial cartoons. But setting little girls on fire for going to school, shooting a man dead because he said in public that killing people was wrong... we have to celebrate the diversity of those murderers by not talking about it (much less doing more than talk), right? I predict that the silence will be deafening from most Muslims. Is Islam capable of reform? Not if they keep killing the reformers and the children. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: islam, theocracy

Trevor Blake: Islam in Australia [LINK-ZUM]

Natalie O'Brien: Hilali tells Christian women to wear veils. "Outspoken Muslim cleric Taj al-Din al-Hilali says the Bible 'mandates' the wearing of the veil by Christian women. Writing in a new book, Sheik Hilali, who lost his job as mufti of Australia after comparing scantily clad women to uncovered meat, argues that the Bible and the Koran make similar demands of a woman's modesty."

Sian Powell: Honour killing's Aussie link. "Mortally wounded and bleeding profusely, Pela Atroshi covered her head with her hands, pleading 'please don't shoot me, please don't shoot me'. As her sister and her mother screamed, her uncle Rezkar Atroshi raised his gun and killed her. The family's honour had been cleansed. Rezkar had already shot Pela twice in the back in the upstairs room. Helped downstairs by her mother and her younger sister, the 19-year-old Kurdish Swede was confronted by four resolute men - her father and his three brothers. The men pulled the women apart. Her youngest uncle then finished the job, shooting Pela in the head. The bullet went through one of her fingers and into her brain. The decision to kill her was made by a council of male relatives, led by Pela's grandfather, Abdulmajid Atroshi - a Kurd who lived in Australia."

[Articles continue at link. Credit to Dhimmi Watch for links. Islam could be a welcome neighbor to the West, should it secularize as Christianity has. Until such time, I find it a bully and a bore. Individual Muslims are always to be judged as individuals. The religion as a whole is loathesome. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: islam

BBC: Saudi women 'kept in childhood' [LINK-ZUM]

Saudi women are being kept in perpetual childhood so male relatives can exercise "guardianship" over them, the Human Rights Watch group has said. The New York-based group says Saudi women have to obtain permission from male relatives to work, travel, study, marry or even receive health care. Their access to justice is also severely constrained, it says.

The group says the Saudi establishment sacrifices basic human rights to maintain male control over women. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women are not allowed to drive. Saudi clerics see the guardianship of women's honour as a key to the country's social and moral order.

[Article continues at link. When the author(s) of this article mention 'Saudi clerics' they of course are referring to Seventh Day Adventists. Or perhaps Theravada Buddhists. Maybe they are Asatru Free Assembly. Well, whatever sort of clerics they are, the BBC doesn't say. Maybe because they don't say what sort of clerics run a country such that women are kept as perpetual children then that sort of cleric won't feel victimized and targeted and disrespected. Because they are the real victims, oh yes, those poor clerics need our understanding. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: islam, theocracy

Yemen Times Staff: Yemen's MPs debate female circumcision, pre-marriage tests [LINK-ZUM]

Preventing female circumcision and pre-marriage medical tests evoked turmoil and disagreement among Parliament members (MPs) in last week's session. The session ended with a unanimous agreement to cancel the term 3, which would prevent female circumcision, and delay the discussion of pre-marriage tests. [...]

"I suggested canceling term number three, about preventing female circumcision, for many reasons. First, the term, which was written in the draft, included inappropriate and shameful sentences. Second, female circumcision exists in few regions in Yemen, like in Hodeidah and Hadramout, so it not common practice. And finally, there is still religious debate regarding the issue, so as we have no directives by the heads of religion to forbid female circumcision, we do not have the right to ban it," [MP Zid Al-Shami] explained.

[Article continues at link. Emphasis added. The next time you read that female genital mutilation is not an Islamic practice, remember that Yemen had the chance to outlaw fgm, and did not do so, and why they did not do so. Remember that tens of thousands of Muslims have rioted in the streets all over the world for years (these riots have included many deaths) to protest a few cartoons, and compare that to how many Muslims are having peaceful demonstrations anywhere at any time against fgm. These are the priorities of Islam. This is what the West is expected to 'respect.' NON SERVIAM! LAN ASTASLEM! - Trevor Blake]

Labels: islam, theocracy

Trevor Blake: Two Ways of Funding the Taliban [LINK-ZUM]

I can think of two ways to fund the Taliban. First, you can do it by accident. The Evening Echo reported on 13 April 2008: "Afghanistan's intelligence chief said today a coalition helicopter accidentally dropped food and weapons in a remote area of southern Afghanistan where Taliban fighters recovered the supplies. Amrullah Saleh, the head of Afghanistan's intelligence service, told members of parliament the supplies were intended for police at a checkpoint in the southern province of Zabul." That's one way to fund the Taliban, by accident.

The other way to fund the Taliban is to do so deliberately. The Los Angeles Times reported on 22 May 2001: "Enslave your girls and women, harbor anti-U.S. terrorists, destroy every vestige of civilization in your homeland, and the Bush administration will embrace you. All that matters is that you line up as an ally in the drug war, the only international cause that this nation still takes seriously. That's the message sent with the recent gift of $43 million to the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, the most virulent anti-American violators of human rights in the world today. [...] Never mind that Osama bin Laden still operates the leading anti-American terror operation from his base in Afghanistan, from which, among other crimes, he launched two bloody attacks on American embassies in Africa in 1998."

Say now, didn't something happen involving Osama bin Laden a few months after the Bush administration gave the Taliban $43 million? I can't remember. Anyway, there are at least two ways to fund the Taliban. The Bush administration has been involved in both.

Labels: 9/11, fascism, islam, prohibition

Malcolm Moore: Pope will pray for terrorists at Ground Zero [LINK-ZUM]

The Pope will pray for the redemption of Islamic terrorists when he visits the site of the September 11 attacks in New York next week. The pontiff will call for terrorists to convert to Christianity, saying: "Turn to Your way of love those whose hearts and minds are consumed with hatred. God of understanding, overwhelmed by the magnitude of this tragedy, we seek your light and guidance".

The prayer is likely to further incense the Muslim world, which has already attacked the Pope for publicly converting Magdi Allam, a journalist and one of Italy's most high-profile Muslims, at Easter.

[Article continues at link. I don't whisper magic spells to an invisible monster that lives in the sky. But for lack of a better word, my prayer at the site of the World Trade Center would be for all of humanity to abandon religion. And as pointed out at JihadWatch, Muslim apologists will have to juggle the contradictory claims that the Pope has insulted Muslims yet the 9/11 hijackers weren't really Muslims because Islam is the Religion of Peace. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: 9/11, christianity, islam

Trevor Blake: World-Wide Protest to Islamic Videos [LINK-ZUM]

Hamas has broadcast an episode of a puppet-based television show for children in which President Bush is stabbed to death and the White House is converted into a mosque. Understandably, Muslims and non-Muslims alike around the world have protested against this film. The Iranian envoy to the Netherlands has been summoned to the Dutch embassy. Jordinians are protesting the film, the filmmakers have been banned from entering Indonesia, many in Malaysia are calling for a boycott against the nation where the film came from, the film's Web site has been hacked, Iran has called the film horrible, Afghanistan has expressed concern....

Ha ha, April fools! Actually the film encouraging children to kill Americans is okay, no worries. It's the film made up of videos shot by Muslims of Muslims acting on the orders of Muslims to carry out their duties as Muslims that is the problem. The film Fitna could have been made by Osma bin Ladin. It says little that the Muslims don't say about themselves. It's only when someone in the West says that killing people for thinking differently is not acceptable that the protests begin. Killing people is okay, but other people saying 'don't kill people' - why...

Labels: film, islam, video

Trevor Blake: Fitna and the United Nations [LINK-ZUM]

From Wikipedia: "Fitna is a film by Dutch politician Geert Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV) in the Dutch parliament. The movie offers his views on Islam and the Qur'an." The film is available online from Wikileaks, Google Video, and via bittorrent.

Jorge Sampaio is the UN High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations. Mr. Sampiao issues a call for respect and calm:

The recent release of an insulting film on the Holy Qur'an seems to serve no other purpose than to cause offence. The film may provoke and prompt social unrest, and encourage extremist groups within European societies whose agenda is to discriminate against and marginalize Muslim immigrants. Similarly, this offensive film may add to tensions between different cultures and may give rise to the idea that Europe or the West as a whole are hostile to Islam. So let us always remember that misrepresentation fuels extremism and extremism appears to validate misrepresentation. That is the vicious circle we have to firmly oppose and avoid. We will all be the losers if we fail to immediately defuse this potential crisis, which will only serve to entrench already polarized opinions and to feed stereotypes and misconceptions that deepen patterns of hostility and mistrust among peoples and societies.

At the core of this situation is a trend towards extremism in many of our societies. We should indeed beware of overemphasizing it, because extremism anywhere is extremism everywhere, thanks to new media technologies. Few people think of themselves as extremists, but many can be pushed towards an extreme point of view, almost without noticing it, when they feel that the behavior or language of others is extreme. We therefore deeply regret this offensive film.

Mr. Sampaio's statement continues and may be read in full here. Fitna presents the words of the Qur'an as text, then shows Muslims and Muslim leaders reading that text and explaining what it means, then shows Muslims and Muslim leaders acting on that explanation. If the words, explanation and acts are murderous, it is not the fault of a film that reports such murders that is to blame.

The tension between different cultures presented in the film are as follows. In the West there is a pluralism in which filmmakers can make films and cartoonists can make cartoons without the threat of State-sanctioned death; a pluralism in which homosexuals can be homosexuals without the threat of State-sanctioned death; a pluralism in which women can be women without the threat of genitals mutilation. In the Muslim world, there is a monoculture in which filmmakers and cartoonists and authors and people in buildings and people on buses and people on trains and people just about anywhere can be put to death; a monoculture in which homosexuals can be put to death; a monoculture in which women can have their genitals mutilated. The pluralism of the West tries to include the monoculture of the Muslim world, tries to greet as friends those who are murdering them. The Muslim world contains no such contradiction. Mr. Sampaio uses ideas of culture, race and religion interchangeably. To condemn Islam is to be racist, he seems to say. It is not the case that culture, race and religion are so interchangeable, and to make that claim is deceptive.

This film may cause offense. The ten thousand men, women and children killed by Muslims since 11 September 2001 causes me more offense. How can it be that murder is a matter of culture while art is a criminal offense? The pluralism of the West has been perverted into cultural relativism.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has made the following statement about Fitna:

I condemn, in the strongest terms, the airing of Geert Wilders' offensively anti-Islamic film. There is no justification for hate speech or incitement to violence. The right of free expression is not at stake here. I acknowledge the efforts of the Government of the Netherlands to stop the broadcast of this film, and appeal for calm to those understandably offended by it. Freedom must always be accompanied by social responsibility.

The United Nations is the centre of the world's efforts to advance mutual respect, understanding and dialogue. We must also recognize that the real fault line is not between Muslim and Western societies, as some would have us believe, but between small minorities of extremists on different sides with a vested interest in stirring hostility and conflict.

This reads to me like nothing so much as a man encouraging his neighbors to continue paying 'protection money' to the gang that controls his neighborhood. The plain words of the Qur'an, the recorded speeches of Muslims and Muslim leaders, the video of Muslims using a hand knife to saw off the head of kidnap victims... somehow these are worthy of mutual respect, understanding and dialogue. It is a film that accurately portrays these that is hateful, not the acts themselves. It is a film that is to blame for inciting violence, not what the film portrays. This film should be banned by law, but somehow that is not a violation of the right of free expression. And once again we are offered the claim that the pluralism of the West is to be found in the Muslim world if the West will only keep quiet about the Muslim world's vested interest in stirring hostility and conflict. Once again we are told that the extremists are to found on both sides. But from where I'm sitting one side made films and cartoons and books, the other side kills people.

I am disappointed by these two statements by United Nations representatives regarding the film Fitna and regarding Islam.

Labels: art, books, comics, film, islam, theocracy, video

Klintron: Tragic story of the malign effects of religious ignorance [LINK-ZUM]

Believe it or not, I'm not much of one for atheist evangelism (for lack of a better word). I'm just not that concerned with changing other people's personal beliefs (but of course I'm always willing to offer my opinions, and always trying to promote accurate information). I think there's a case to be made for religion as mental illness idea (and have pushed that idea myself), but when it really comes down to it most religious people (at least in the US) are mostly harmless. My friend and colleague Trevor Blake often points to a correlation between religious belief and committing violent acts. To paraphrase him, you never hear about atheists burning down Christian stores for sex, but you frequently hear about Christians burning down sex stores for Jesus. However, correlation and causation are not the same thing. We can learn from this that religion is not a necessary or sufficient source for morality, but little else.

So my main concern, with regards to religion, is theocracy: when one group's superstitions become law. So I've stopped taking much note when an individual Buddhist priest is found guilty of molesting a woman, or someone commits a murder in the name of their religion. There are laws against these sorts of things, and I'm not sure someone commits these sorts of acts because they’re religious, or if their attraction to religion stems from the same source as their attraction to rape and violence. In other words, I'm not sure religion is a symptom or a disease. I'm more concerned with sovereign nations that organize child-rape syndicates and the institutional oppression and murder of women and homosexuals in countries like Saudi Arabia.

Sometimes it's not so cut and dry, though. One kicker is parents and their children. I was raised Christian, and I think I turned out ok. I could have done without the paranoia inspired by the notion of an invisible monster watching everything I did, but I don't hold it against my parents. So I'm generally inclined to believe that parents should be free to teach their kids whatever sort of nonsense they want, and that if the kids are smart they'll grow out of it eventually.

But what happens when parents take it too far? Recently, an 11 year old girl died of a treatable form of diabetes because her parents choose to pray instead of seek medical help (via Pharyngula). This obviously crosses the line between believing something crazy and behaving in a malicious way. What is the response of the local police?

The girl has three siblings, ranging in age from 13 to 16, the police chief said. "They are still in the home," he said. "There is no reason to remove them. There is no abuse or signs of abuse that we can see." The girl's death remains under investigation and the findings will be forwarded to the district attorney to review for possible charges, the chief said.

At least the case is being investigated, but how can the police chief say there is no abuse? I know people who have had their kids taken away from them temporarily for far less. Sadly, this is not without precedent. Trevor wrote last year about parents who withhold medical treatment for religious reasons. None of the parents of children who died preventable deaths were charged with a crime.

This is not a case of religious freedom, or of individual belief. It's theocracy. If the parents had let their children die for any reason other than religion, they would be charged with crimes and their other children would be taken into state care.

Labels: buddhism, christianity, islam, libertarian, theocracy

Western Resistance: UK Rapist Protected By Mosque Members [LINK-ZUM]

Abdul Makim Khalisadar, aged 26, pleaded guilty to raping a woman at knifepoint and was jailed for 10 years. [...] At first Khalisadar said to police that there had been no rape and that the woman had consented to sex. Then he changed his story and said that he had been at East London Mosque. He said that he had been preaching there during Ramadan, giving a talk on the subject of repentance. He managed to get seven men from the mosque to give him a fake alibi, backing up his story that he had been at the mosque when he had been raping the woman. Last month, [the seven men] admitted lying to the police in their statements. They were sentenced on Monday to 12 months' jail for perverting the course of justice.

It appears that the reason which had brought Khanasadar to the attention of the police was his apparent involvement with former Al Muhajiroun member Kazi Nurur Rahman. Rahman was linked to the terrorists of Operation Crevice, and had been studied by police since July 2005. [...] While Khalisadar was under police investigation, he was arrested for downloading images of child abuse from the internet. As a result of this arrest, he was given a DNA test, which matched the sample from the woman's rape.

Khanisadar was given a ten year jail sentence by Judge Timothy King, who condemned Khanisadar's "hypocrisy". He was given a seven and a half year sentence for the rape, with an additional two and a half years for perverting the course of justice. Somewhat surprisingly, in none of the news reports are there any comments from Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari condemning the activities of the seven males from the East London Mosque who plotted to support Khanisadar's lies. Nor is there any comment from Bari explaining how young people are allowed to be in the mosque at 3.30 am, and whether or not he claims any responsibility for allowing a young thug like Khanisadar to preach on mosque premises. The Sun states that on Monday, when the trial concluded, women wearing burkas in the courtroom's "public gallery yelled abuse at the judge - and one screamed that the victim was a prostitute." Eleven charges which were formerly brought against Khanisadar for possessing pictures of child abuse are not being pursued at present.

[Article continues at link. When you have an invisible monster that lives in the sky on your side, anything you so or say is automatically right. When you want to cover up your buddy's rape, you can do it. When your buddy goes to prison, you can verbally abuse his victim. God-given certainty is the bedrock for all immorality, be it that of shameful superstitions such as Islam or the 'material concept of history' in socialism. I thank my lucky stars every day that I know how prone to error I am. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: islam, socialism

Rukmini Callamachi: Defame Islam, get sued? [LINK-ZUM]

The Muslim world has created a battle plan to defend its religion from political cartoonists and bigots. Concerned about what they see as a rise in the defamation of Islam, leaders of the world's Muslim nations are considering taking legal action against those that slight their religion or its sacred symbols. It was a key issue during a two-day summit that ended Friday in [Dakar, Senegal]. The Muslim leaders are attempting to demand redress from nations like Denmark, which allowed the publication of cartoons portraying the Prophet Muhammad in 2006 and again last month, to the fury of the Muslim world.

[Article continues at link. It is tempting to chide the leaders of the world's Muslim nations for their skewed priorities. Rather than express concern and make plans of action to prevent further murders in the name of Allah, they express concern and make plans of action to prevent further political cartoons. It is tempting to note the contradiction of these leaders seeking to limit other's ability to criticise them while maintaining their ability to criticise others. Or to point out the shameful contradiction found in some Muslims citing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a reason to ban art while not citing the same as a reason to stop killing people. But the more important comment to be made is that this is a step toward the secularization of Islam, and this is a step that I support. Their religion states quite clearly that they are compelled to kill those who blaspheme. This is what the Muslim world has always done, and what it does in many quarters even today. These leaders, as confused as their priorities are, have made a step towards the rule of secular law rather than theocracy. They have made a step toward resolving conflicts by debate and money rather than murder. Where Muslims submit to the secular, I greet them as a friend. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: comics, islam, theocracy

Robert Verkaik: Now Iranian lesbian who fled to Britain faces deportation [LINK-ZUM]

[Pegah Emambakhsh,] an Iranian lesbian who fled to Britain after her girlfriend was arrested and sentenced to death faces being forcibly returned after losing the latest round in her battle to be granted asylum. [...] Ms Emambakhsh came to the UK in 2005 fearing for her life after her partner had been arrested by Tehran police. Iranian gay rights groups have reported that that partner is in custody under sentence of death by stoning. Speaking through her asylum representative in Sheffield yesterday, Ms Emambakhsh said: "I will never, never go back. If I do I know I will die." Under the Iranian Islamic Punishment Act, lesbians found guilty of sexual relations can be sentenced to 100 lashes. But, for a third offence, the punishment is execution. [...] In turning down Ms Emambakhsh and Mr Kazemi's asylum applications, the Home Office has said that, provided Iranians are discreet about their homosexuality, they will not be persecuted.

[Article continues at link. It is wrong to consider homosexual discretion to be the solution to threats against Ms. Emambakhsh. The problem is not homosexual indiscretion. The problem is Islam. Britain and the West should not join or accommodate this cruel and foolish superstition nor its apologists. Where are the tens of thousands of moderate Muslims marching in the streets to say such acts of barbarism are not done in their name? As Irshad Manji points out, those the West calls extremists are the majority in Islam. The reasons you see tens of thousands rioting and murdering against cartoons but remaining silent about real human lives in peril is because that's what Muslims do, that's who they are, and that's who we need to confront. In plain and direct terms. Islam must be secularized or abandoned. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: islam, theocracy

Associated Press: Saudi's top cleric warns against giving money to al-Qaida linked charities [LINK-ZUM]

Saudi Arabia's top religious authority warned Saudis against giving money to charities and organizations financing "evil" groups, a top local daily reported Saturday. The warning by Grand Mufti Sheik Abdul-Aziz Abdullah al-Sheikh comes just days after police found an audio from al-Qaida No.2 Ayman al-Zawahri, exhorting his followers to collect money for needy families in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"It is bad to give funds to just anyone who asks, and to parties with shabby reputations or unknown backing," the mufti said in a statement published in the daily al-Okaz, which is deemed close to the government. "It's even worse to give it to an organization that's known for its evil and for hurting Islam and its followers," he added in an apparent reference to al-Qaida, which has carried out attacks on foreigners in Saudi Arabia.

[Article continues at link. All praise to those Muslims who seek to clean their own house before complaining about the disarray in another's house. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: islam

Pajamas Media: Iranian Shoppers Riot Against Modesty Police [LINK-ZUM]

It happens every day on the streets of Tehran: a police squad grabbed a young woman for dressing immodestly. But this time, the young woman fought back, and a crowd defended her and attacked the police. [...] At approximately 7 pm on Saturday, February 23, the Ershad patrol, or modesty police assigned to enforce clothing regulations, accosted and attempted to arrest a young woman at Goldis Shopping Mall, located in western Tehran, presumably because her dress was not sufficiently modest. In recent weeks, the police squads charged with enforcing modesty have become more rigorous in their enforcement, with thousands of women detained, questioned, and arrested for violating hijab standards.

Instead of meekly submitting to her fate, the woman fought back. A young man - it is unclear whether he was accompanying her - came to her defense and joined her in fighting the police. In an attempt to subdue - and humiliate him - the police grabbed the young man and threw him into the garbage can nearby. That was when the large crowd, predominately made up of young people, rose up against the police and attempted to liberate the young woman themselves. Faced with a full-blown riot - complete with angry crowds with garbage cans being set on fire - the frightened police jumped into the van and fled the scene, except for one unfortunate officer who was left behind. The policeman was reportedly attacked and beaten by the mob. [...]

Among the calls coming from the angry crowd after the police were first driven away: "You have put us on since 1979 until now," the crowd cheered after repeating the slogan multiple times. Another slogan was chanted repeatedly and accompanied by boos: "We do not want the Islamic regime."

[Article, with still and video images, continues at link. This is exactly the sort of article I spend many hours searching for on the Internet, usually without success. The Muslim world seems to be full and brimming over with anger and riots and violence. For once, that energy was aimed at those who actually do oppress Muslims instead of imaginary infidels. Keep up the good work! - Trevor Blake]

Labels: islam

Trevor Blake: Islam in the News [LINK-ZUM]

Danish Caricaturist of Muhammad Fame Now Homeless: He was booted from his police-protected hotel room on Feb. 15 for being "too much of a security risk." And now the 73-year-old cartoonist and his wife are without a place to live.

Danish police arrest almost 30 people in 8th night of youth violence: Some observers say the youth are frustrated over police harassment and the reprinting of a cartoon lampooning the Prophet Muhammad.

Man burnt alive in Thailand: A 46-year-old Buddhist man was shot and then set ablaze as he tried to escape an attack by suspected Islamic separatists on Tuesday in Thailand's Muslim-majority south, police said.

Father stones 14-year-old daughter to death: "I suspected that my daughter had a relationship with a man and I had to stone her to death as she had besmirched my honour. I had no other choice."

Secret papers reveal threats from Saudi prince: Saudi Arabia's rulers threatened to make it easier for terrorists to attack London unless corruption investigations into their arms deals were halted.

Violations of 'Islamic teachings' take deadly toll on Iraqi women: As many as 133 women were killed in Basra last year - 79 for violation of "Islamic teachings" and 47 for so-called honor killings.

Briton jailed for four years in [Islamic] Dubai after customs find cannabis weighing less than a grain of sugar under his shoe: A father-of-three who was found with a microscopic speck of cannabis stuck to the bottom of one of his shoes has been sentenced to four years in a Dubai prison.

Religious police in Saudi Arabia arrest mother for sitting with a man: a day in prison after she was strip-searched, threatened and forced to sign false confessions by the Kingdom's 'Mutaween' police.

Two Women Stoned, Feminists Mum: The Islamic Republic of Iran is an oppressor of women. So far American feminists have failed to support their Muslim sisters.

Female Muslim medics 'disobey hygiene rules': Muslim medical students are refusing to obey hygiene rules brought in to stop the spread of deadly superbugs, because they say it is against their religion.

Muslim Woman In Bangladesh Planning Conversion Burned By Unknown Attackers: 70-year old woman is in critical condition with burns over 70% of her body after unknown Muslim extremists set fire to her house to prevent her from being baptized in February as a Christian.

Honor killings - When the ancient and the modern collide: Not once have I heard these upstanding Muslims say that whatever the 'family dynamics,' killing is not a solution. Ever. How's that for basic morality?

Muslim Prayer at Iowa Statehouse: The prayer asked of "Victory over those who disbelieve," and "Protection from the great Satan" among other things.

Afghan Journalist Sentenced to Death: An Afghan court on Tuesday sentenced a 23-year-old journalism student to death for distributing a paper he printed off the Internet that three judges said violated the tenets of Islam, an official said.

Labels: islam, theocracy

Trevor Blake: Baljinder Badesha of Brampton [LINK-ZUM]

In September 2005, Baljinder Badesha was charged with the crime of riding a motorcycle without a helmet. Mr. Badesha countered by saying that as a Sikh he is required to wear a turban whenever he leaves his home and that nothing can touch his turban, therefore he is unable to comply with the law in this matter. The State hired a professional engineer to simulate wearing a turban while riding a motorcycle. This was done by placing a turban on a mannequin head and subjecting the mannequin head to 300 kph winds in a wind tunnel. The turban in a turbine unwound, which the State used as evidence that it was a danger to Mr. Badesha and to other riders. Mr. Badesha then rode his motorcycle on a close speedway at 110 kph to demonstrate that his turban would not unwind. The State has further claimed that since it will pay the medical bills of Mr. Badesha should he be injured in a motorcycle accident, the State has a reason to insist on his safe use of a motorcycle. The case continues to make its way through the courts.

Many of my favorite topics are woven into this story. Ancient superstition is trumping common sense and personal safety. The State is demonstrating it can't demonstrate justification for its laws. No simple answer appears in accomodating public safety versus individual choice, or superstition versus the secular state, or socialized medicine versus un-asked-for 'care' from the State. My view counts for nothing here, but perhaps a suitable compromise might be that Mr. Badesha should be allowed to ride without a helmet and the State should be relieved of providing him medical care should be be injured while riding without a helmet.

Labels: islam, theocracy, transportation

Associated Press: Minister calls for death prayers over IRS complaint [LINK-ZUM]

A California minister who used church stationery and an Internet radio program to endorse former Gov. Mike Huckabee for president is asking his followers to pray for the deaths of those who filed a complaint against him with the Internal Revenue Service. The Rev. Wiley S. Drake of First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, Calif., called for "imprecatory prayer" targeting Barry Lynn, Joe Conn and Jeremy Leaming of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "The prayer does call for serious, serious punishment on people. But I didn't call for that, God did," said Mr. Drake, who completed a term in June as second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention. [...]

On his Internet show, in a news release on ChristianNewsWire and in an e-mail to Americans United, Mr. Drake called on others to pray that the Americans United officials be punished. He gave as examples of imprecatory prayer: "Persecute them. Let them be put to shame and perish. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg."

Americans United, a nonpartisan group based in Washington, D.C., asked the IRS on Tuesday to investigate whether Mr. Drake violated federal law by endorsing the Republican candidate on church stationery Saturday and on his Internet program Monday.

[Article continues at link. What the Christian world has to answer for is the fact that Rev. Drake is not twisting the Good Book to bad ends. He is doing exactly what the Bible says he should do. There is no getting around the fact that the Bible commands Christians to kill non-Christians. Rev. Drake is the real Christian here, and those who don't take up the sword as Jesus Christ Himself commanded (not once but twice) are the imposters. Ask yourself, or a Christian close to you, how an infallible God who authored/inspired an infallible Bible can be ignored when His divine commandments are at odds with secular morals such as 'do not kill.' The answer is an important one. The answer is that Christianity is largely secular and retains only the trappings of the superstition it came from. Islam is the main practitioner of old time religion in the modern world. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: christianity, islam

Alexander Cockburn: I am an intellectual blasphemer [LINK-ZUM]

In magazine articles and essays I have described in fairly considerable detail, with input from the scientist Martin Hertzberg, that you can account for the current warming by a number of well-known factors - to do with the elliptical course of the Earth in its relationship to the sun, the axis of the Earth in the current period, and possibly the influence of solar flares. There have been similar warming cycles in the past, such as the medieval warming period, when the warming levels were considerably higher than they are now.

Yet from left to right, the warming that is occurring today is taken as being man-made, and many have made it into the central plank of their political campaigns. For reasons I find very hard to fathom, the environmental left movement has bought very heavily into the fantasy about anthropogenic global warming and the fantasy that humans can prevent or turn back the warming cycle.

[Article continues at link. I have a suggestion as to why large groups of people are supporting the athropogenic global warming theory, but it is one I read long ago by an author I sadly cannot remember and credit. Ask yourself where the largest environmental movements are, and where the most radical / violent environmentalists are. The answer is, roughly, the USA, Canada, England and Germany. All of these countries are, among other things, largely Protestant countries. Compare the environmental movement in these Protestant countries with the environmental movements in largely Catholic countries, such as Italy or Mexico. Compare it also with the environmental movements in Islamic countries. It seems that Christianity co-occurs with environmentalism more than with Islam, and more with Protestant Christianity than Catholicism. Protestant Christianity is heavy with stories of the original purity of humanity and our harmony with the Earth, but through our wickedness in taking on the powers of God we have brought about great suffering and destruction - including the any-day-now destruction of the entire Earth. Compare this to environmentalism, which is heavy with stories of the original purity of humanity and our harmony with the Earth, but through our wickedness in taking on the powers of God we have brought about great suffering and destruction - including the any-day-now destruction of the entire Earth. Environmentalism is in part an echo of Protestant Christianity, which was relegated to ceremonial reverence as the West adopted secular values. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: B12, christianity, islam, science

Cinnamon Stillwell: Honor killings [LINK-ZUM]

Throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe, young Muslim women are being targeted for violence. Lest it be thought hate crimes are to blame, it is, in fact, their own relatives who are the perpetrators. So-called honor killings, whereby a Muslim male family member, typically the father, murders his daughter in order to defend the family's honor, is a growing problem. While statistics are notoriously hard to come by due to the private nature of such crimes and the fact that very few are reported, the United Nations Population Fund approximates that as many as 5,000 women are murdered in this manner each year worldwide. Undoubtedly that's a low estimate, as reports from Turkey, Jordan, Pakistan and the Palestinian territories, among other locales, are filtering in at an alarming rate. Add to the list Germany, Sweden, other parts of Europe, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States, and it's clear that young Muslim women in the West are becoming increasingly vulnerable.

[The Council on American-Islamic Relations Canada], like its American counterpart, is part of the problem, not the solution. Working to further acceptance of Sharia (or Islamic) law in the United States and Canada and trying to silence - either through accusations of "Islamophobia," libel lawsuits or boycotts - voices of criticism and reform, CAIR's agenda would seem to be working against the advancement of Muslim women's rights.

Accordingly, representatives of other allegedly mainstream Muslim groups, instead of taking the opportunity to address the scourge of honor killings, downplayed the religious and cultural angle. Shahina Siddiqui, president of the Islamic Social Services Association, claimed that "The strangulation death of Ms. Parvez was the result of domestic violence, a problem that cuts across Canadian society and is blind to color or creed," while Sheikh Alaa El-Sayyed, imam of the Islamic Society of North America in Mississauga, came to the following conclusion: "The bottom line is, it's a domestic violence issue." In contrast, Canadian Muslim reformer Irshad Manji, in addressing Aqsa Parvez's murder, put it like so: "Moderate Muslims have warned that we shouldn't leap to conclusions. Who knows what other dynamics infected her family, spout hijab-hooded mouthpieces on Canadian TV. Not once have I heard these upstanding Muslims say that whatever the 'family dynamics,' killing is not a solution. Ever. How's that for basic morality?" [...]

Honor killings are not, as the apologists would have us believe, simple acts of domestic violence akin to those that take place in all communities. They are specific to Muslim religion and culture and must be addressed as such if ever honest debate about the matter is to ensue. Regrettably, silence is the more typical reaction to these crimes. Fearful of giving offense or being branded with the ubiquitous "Islamophobia" label, law enforcement, journalists, social workers, government officials and, most of all, Western feminists are allowing a grave threat to women's rights go unaddressed. The misguided purveyors of multiculturalism - an ideology that holds that all cultures or religions are equivalent and none (save for the dominant, or Western, culture) worthy of condemnation — have rendered the West incapable of addressing evils where Third World cultures are to blame. But the truth is Western culture offers the greatest boon to women's rights and must therefore be vigorously defended, even if that means stepping into the realm of the politically incorrect.

Feminist groups such as the National Organization for Women, which put out an occasional press release decrying honor killings, need to make combating this practice as high a priority as defending choice and railing against "glass ceilings." Instead, it is a precious few who are telling it like it is when it comes to the oppression of women in Muslim culture.

[Article continues at link.]

Labels: islam

Sara Corbett: A Cutting Tradition [LINK-ZUM]

When a girl is taken - usually by her mother - to a free circumcision event held each spring in Bandung, Indonesia, she is handed over to a small group of women who, swiftly and yet with apparent affection, cut off a small piece of her genitals. Sponsored by the Assalaam Foundation, an Islamic educational and social-services organization, circumcisions take place in a prayer center or an emptied-out elementary-school classroom where desks are pushed together and covered with sheets and a pillow to serve as makeshift beds. The procedure takes several minutes. There is little blood involved. Afterward, the girl's genital area is swabbed with the antiseptic Betadine. She is then helped back into her underwear and returned to a waiting area, where she's given a small, celebratory gift - some fruit or a donated piece of clothing - and offered a cup of milk for refreshment. [...] These photos were taken in April 2006, at the foundation's annual mass circumcision, which is free and open to the public and held during the lunar month marking the birth of the prophet Muhammad. [...] According to Lukman Hakim, the foundation's chairman of social services, there are three "benefits" to circumcising girls. "One, it will stabilize her libido," he said through an interpreter. "Two, it will make a woman look more beautiful in the eyes of her husband. And three, it will balance her psychology."

[...] As Western awareness of female genital cutting has grown, anthropologists, policy makers and health officials have warned against blindly judging those who practice it, saying that progress is best made by working with local leaders and opinion-makers to gradually shift the public discussion of female circumcision from what it's believed to bestow upon a girl toward what it takes away. "These mothers believe they are doing something good for their children," [Laura Guarenti, an obstetrician and WHO's medical officer for child and maternal health in Jakarta] told me. "For our culture that is not easily understandable. To judge them harshly is to isolate them. You cannot make change that way."

[Article continues at link. Ihave three comments on this article. First, female genital mutilation is an Islamic practice. To attack FGM is to attack Islam. I am in favor of attacking Islam. This practice should be outlawed in every nation and those who practice it should be punished to the full extent of the law. That doing so will tred an ancient sacred traditional Islamic practice underfoot does not matter, at all. These women should be judged most harshly, isolated (to keep them from continuing the practice), and no regard whatsoever should be given to the practice because it is part of a culture. Second, it is (as far as I know) always adult women who practice female genital mutilation on girls. What does this mean for the Western notion of feminism and its idea of who oppresses who? Third, let me propose a thought experiment. This is something to think about, not to actually do. Really, don't do this. Get a large piece of wood and strike as many Muslim women in the face with it as you can. This will break their noses. There will be a little blood. Very, very few will die from the process. It will change how they look and breathe, but they will survive. Say that you needed to do it as part of an ancient, sacred tradition. Muslim women do not need to volunteer to have their faces smashed in, any more than girls need to volunteer to have their genitals mutilated before they can understand the consequences of that proceedure. If you object to my thought experiment, you must object to female genital mutilation. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: islam, sex, theocracy

Christine Clarridge: Phony psychic sentenced for bilking woman of savings [LINK-ZUM]

A phony psychic who fled prosecution in Seattle and ended up on a wanted-fugitive list in Canada was sentenced Friday to 1 1/2 years in prison nearly nine years after tricking a lovesick woman into turning over her life savings to win back her boyfriend.

[Article continues at link... but the first sentence alone fills me with questions. If 79-year-old Sophie Evon was a 'phony psychic,' does that mean there are non-phony psychics? What law did Sophie Evon break in accepting money to cast magic spells? Is that law being equally applied to the leaders of every Christian church, Jewish temple, Muslim mosque, and every other spook house in town? The mainstream superstitions also accept money to cast magic spells. Sometimes the spells are supposed to work 'after death,' but sometimes they are supposed to work right here and right now. These are the kinds of court cases that the megachurches should be pouring their millions into winning, because if the state can decide that one brand of hokus-pokus is a crime, the state can decide another brand of hokus-pokus is also a crime. Theirs may be next. And while all my sympathies lie with the victim, who seems to have learned her lesson the hard way, I think the state has no business sanctioning superstitions. If people want to throw their money into the magic hat, that's their concern. When the state makes some superstitions illegal and allows others to remain legal, it establishes a state religion. The foundation documents of this country rightly forbid this. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: christianity, islam, judaism, magick, theocracy

Jo-Ann Goodwin and David Jones: The unspeakable practice of female circumcision that's destroying young women's lives in Britain [LINK-ZUM]

It is known by a variety of names, the most common of which are female genital mutilation (FGM), female circumcision, or simply "cutting" - a word which somehow conveys the raw pain its prepubescent victims suffer. Most people will be unfamiliar with this practice, which involves removing part or all of the clitoris, the surrounding labia (the outer part of the vagina) and sometimes the sewing up of the vagina, leaving only a small opening for urine and menstrual blood. [...] During a highly disturbing, four-month investigation, however, we uncovered evidence that thousands of British-African girls, in towns and cities throughout the country, have been forcibly "cut". By conservative estimates, 66,000 women and girls living in Britain have been mutilated. [...] And thousands more girls are at imminent risk as families club together to fly professional "cutters" from Africa to Britain. These women "elders" perform the crude operation for up to 40 [UK Pounds] a time, often on kitchen tables or floors, without anaesthetic, using filthy, blunt knives, razor blades or scalpels.

[Article continues at link. The authors go on to explain that every religion practices female genital mutilation equally - Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, etc. - but culturally insensitive Islamophobes exclusively criticise Muslims. Just kidding. Everybody knows that Islam corners the market on mutilating girl's genitals, leaving the mutilation of boy's genitals largely to Christians and Jews. Every religion has a place at the table when it comes to mutilating the genitals of infants and children. The more we tolerate superstition in the 21st Century, the more infants and children can have their genitals mutilated. Not just in the 'backwards' countries, but right here in the West. In Britain, in Canada, in the United States. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: buddhism, christianity, hindu, islam, judaism

Maged Thabet Al-Kholidy: There must be violence against women [LINK-ZUM]

This title may sound strange, but it's actually not just a way to attract readers to the topic because I really do mean what it indicates. Violence is a broad term, especially when used regarding women. In this piece, I want to shed light on those instances where violence against women is a must. [...] In some cases, violence is necessary, but there must be limits. Those "good human rights organizations" don't make any exceptions in their solutions because their aim is to serve society. Will it be a better society once we see wives, mothers, sisters and daughters going from one police station and one court to another, complaining against their husbands, fathers, brothers and even sons?

As the proverb goes, "If the speaker is mad, the listener should be mindful." This proverb is good advice for every man and woman not only to keep their ears open, but also to avoid the misleading propaganda of such organizations, whose surface aims hide other destructive ones to destroy society's religious, social and moral norms. This matter requires consideration.

[Article continues at link. Excellent commentary on this article here. 'Cultural sensitivity' and 'honoring diversity' toward Islam can start when Islam stops beating, mutilating and killing women. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: fight, islam, theocracy

Trevor Blake: NOW and Muslim Women, 19 December 2007 [LINK-ZUM]

Previously, in Where Are You Now? and NOW and Sharia, I asked why the National Association of Women had made no comment about a woman who was sentenced to 200 lashes by an Islamic court for the crime of being outside unaccompanied by a male relative (this after she was gang raped). After global protest, none of it from NOW, the King of Saudi Arabia gave her a pardon. As far as I know, NOW continues to remain silent on her fate. But NOW has (as of 19 December 2007) placed a link to Muslim Women: Damsels in Distress? by Soumaya Ghannoushi on their Web site. NOW precedes the link with a disclaimer reading "NOW recognizes the importance of the information conveyed in the links below, but does not necessarily endorse the content." Weak praise offered after others fought their fight for them.

From Ghannoushi's essay: "It seems that Muslim women - particularly those living in western capitals- are destined to remain besieged by two debilitating discourses, which though different in appearance, are one in essence. The first of these is conservative and exclusionist, sentencing Muslim women to a life of childbearing and rearing, lived out in the narrow confines of their homes at the mercy of fathers, brothers, and husbands. Revolving around notions of sexual purity and family honour, it appeals to religion for justification and legitimisation. The other is a 'liberation' discourse that vows to break Muslim woman's bondage and free her of the oppressive yoke of an aggressive, patriarchical, and backward society. She is a mass of powerlessness and enslavement; the embodiment of seclusion, silence, and invisibility. Her only hope of deliverance from the cave of veiling and isolation lies in the benevolent intervention of this force of emancipation. It will save her from her hellishly miserable and bleak existence, to the promised heaven of enlightenment and progress. It is a game of binaries that pits one stereotype against another: the wretched caged female Muslim victim and her ruthless jailer society against an idealised 'west' that is the epitome of enlightenment, rationalism, and freedom. Those escapees who leave the herd are held up as living testimonies to the arduousness of transition from the twilights of tribe, religion and tradition, to the dawn of reason, individualism, and liberation."

I suggest that there is a world of difference between the West and the Muslim world, and that it is not at all 'one in essence.' Even if I were to grant in full Ghannoushi's claim that women in the West are patronized, this is not the same at all as women being stoned to death, having their genitals mutilated, or being subject to honor killings - all part of the Muslim day to day world. If Ghannoushi can't tell the difference between being belittled and being beheaded, let her try both on for size and see if direct experience counts for more than abstract politics. Or perhaps Ghannoushi might care to comment on how Nazia and her husband Mumtaz celebrated Eid ul Adha, the Islamic ritual of sacrifice, this past week. Is there a difference between what Nazia experienced and, say, a woman getting passed by in a promotion for a job due to her gender? I say yes, Ghannoushi says no. In their cultural relativism and abstract politics, Ghannoushi and NOW have a hands-off policy of women getting their hands cut off.

NOW has lost any standing it may have once had as an advocate of women's rights.

Labels: islam, sex

Abul Taher: Muslims break taboo to allow guide dog into mosque [LINK-ZUM]

A retriever is in training to become the first dog in Britain to be permitted to enter a mosque, acting as a guide for its blind Muslim owner. The animal has been chosen because it salivates less than usual, thus reducing the risk of flicking spittle onto other worshippers at the Al Falah

Keeping pet dogs is considered "haram" (the Arabic word for "forbidden") in Islamic teaching, because they are regarded as unclean, particularly their saliva. The mosque took its decision after advice from imams and scholars at the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), who carried out a full review of Islamic teaching on dogs. [...] Ibrahim Mogra, a senior imam at the MCB, who has overseen the review of teaching on guide dogs, said they could be justified as they served an "urgent practical purpose". He said: "We found the Koran allows Muslims to use dogs for hunting. So if Muslims can eat a prey bitten by dogs, then there should not be a problem using them to guide you if you are blind."

[Article continues at link. This is an example of how religion tries to have it both ways. On the one hand, keeping dogs is haram - an eternal, unchanging, infallible, supreme, all-knowing Allah told us so! On the other hand, we can talk about it and change the rules if it suits our urgent practical purpose. It might have helped the 'revelation' along that in June a UK Muslim cab driver was fined for refusing a blind couple with a guide dog access to his cab. Just as the 'revelation' to allow Black men to lead Mormon Boy Scout troops miraculously came at around the time lawsuits against the Mormons were being filed. Or the 'revelation' that Mormon polygamy was for heaven and not Earth miraculously came at around the time Utah wanted to join the United States. It is good that theists try to have it both ways. Debating religion and making changes are both steps toward secularization, in which human reason and compassion trumps tradition. Secular humanists, like atheists, just get on with things. Religious humanists, as these Muslims are whether they want to be or not, may cloak their reason and compassion in superstitious garb. But at the end of the day they recognize themselves and not an invisible monster that lives in the sky as the true active moral agent. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: