July 2009

Muslim NHS dentist 'tried to force patients to wear traditional Islamic dress'

Omer Butt, 32, whose brother Hassan used to be spokesman for the banned radical Muslim group Al Muhajiroun, ordered female patients to wear headscarves and forced men to take off gold jewelry before allowing them into the dentists' chair.   He even kept a box full of hijabs at his practice so he could lend them to women before checking their teeth.  Butt enforced his religious dress code despite previously being warned by the General Dental Council for the same offence.  The GDC has ruled Butt imposed a general dress code at his practice, the Unsworth Smile Clinic in Bury, Lancashire, for more than two years from April 2005.  Butt was also found to have confrontations with two patients known as Ms B and Mr C and their families during that period.  The panel will now decide what action to take. (Telegraph, 2 Jul 09)

Resolution backed by CAIR urges closing schools on Muslim holidays - NYC forced to honor Islam Sept. 11?

Will the New York City school system be compelled to commemorate Islam on Sept. 11?  It has been widely reported the New York City Council passed a resolution Tuesday recommending the school system shut down to commemorate two of the most important Muslim holidays, however the reports did not note the holidays fall on Sept. 11 in some years.  The council vote, which was non-binding, is at odds with the opinion of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has said he is opposed to adding any more days off to the school calendar. Bloomberg, however, recently relinquished control of the school system to a newly appointed board of education, which could approve the holiday plan.  The Islamic holidays being considered for commemoration are Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr. The former commemorates the Islamic belief Abraham was willing to sacrifice Ishmail. The latter marks the end of the Islamic fast period of Ramadan. Jewish and Christian tradition relates Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son Isaac, not Ishmail. (World Net Daily, 2 Jul 09)

Government in Netherlands must put an end to Sharia practices

SP Member of Parliament Sadet Karabulut describes as 'unacceptable' the fact that a number of mosques in the Netherlands continue to act in accordance with Sharia principles of justice. The practice was revealed on Tuesday in an edition of popular TV documentary series Netwerk. “Sharia law is in conflict with our system of justice under which women and men are treated equally and discrimination is forbidden," says Karabulut. "The government must act as quickly as possible to put an end to Sharia practices in the Netherlands."  In an edition of the TV program Netwerk, several people confirmed that Sharia law is practiced in a number of Dutch mosques. What this means is that men can marry more than one woman, despite the fact that polygamy is illegal in the Netherlands. Sharia law conflicts with the principle of equal treatment of women and men, because women are treated as unequal in regard to family law and rights of inheritance. Karabulut wants to know in which mosques polygamous marriages are conducted, questions of inheritance settled and divorces regulated according to Islamic rules.   "The equal worth of men and women is an extremely valuable social good in defence of which we must all take a firm stand. Women's rights are human rights and infringement of these rights by people who want to adhere to oppressive mediaeval traditions is an attack on these values. (SP International, 1 Jul 09)

NY Schools Can't Observe Muslim Holidays

New York's City Council has passed a nonbinding resolution asking the Education Department to observe two important Muslim holidays. But Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the city is so diverse schools can't observe every holiday.  The city has the nation's largest school system. A 2008 study by Columbia University's Teachers College estimates at least 10 percent of its 1.1 million students are Muslim.  The resolution was passed Tuesday. It asks the Bloomberg administration to observe the holidays in schools and for the state to require it by amending education law.  The holidays are Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, and Eid al-Adha. Eid al-Adha celebrates the willingness of Ibrahim - known as Abraham to Christians and Jews - to sacrifice his son. It is the most important Islamic holiday.  (Bloomberg, 1 Jul 09)

Sharia law and me

My own experiences and those of my friends show that Sharia judgments can seem arbitrary, unfair, even cruel. Better to trust British law. . . . Having been on the receiving end of Sharia rulings – I must make it clear that Sharia courts are often nothing of the sort and are more likely to be an imam at the end of a phone I can speak about the arbitrary and random nature of these bodies. Contrary to popular belief, there is no central network, no supreme Sharia judge, no Sharia bar, no Sharia AGM, no Sharia ombudsman, no Sharia HQ and no torts.

Sharia law isn't even written down and most Muslims will dip in and out of it when it suits them. They might be very particular about getting a Sharia compliant mortgage but ignore the advice on archery and wrestling. Sharia courts/tribunals/whatever rarely have offices (although they may have websites) and they're certainly not in the habit of swapping notes for best practice. It's a bad comparison but the fluid, almost nebulous nature of Sharia courts is like al-Qaeda without the violence and their ubiquity like a Domino's Pizza franchise. Any topping as long as it's halal.  Sharia is so abstract, yet so everyday, it's hard to ban, (sorry Denis) and you can't really adopt it either because much of it is at odds with British law and society in general (sorry Rowan). It tells Muslims how to live their lives in almost exhaustive detail. It spans everything from hair removal to jihad. To ban Sharia law in the UK would involve banning imams – and we don't know how many of those there are – and to deprogram Muslims to stop their default setting being Channel Sharia. You would also have to block websites and cut off access to phone lines and shut down mosques.  (Guardian, 1 Jul 09)

Rejected Islamic school in NSW court win

AN 800-student Islamic school planned for the middle of a housing estate has been given the final go-ahead.

The new campus for one of the top 10 schools in New South Wales, Malek Fahd Islamic, will be built in Sydney's southwest, The Daily Telegraph reports.   Residents of Hoxton Park led a nine-month campaign of rallies, protests, petitions and letter-drops against the school, but it was given approval by Liverpool Council on Monday night.   Residents said another school would worsen daily commutes as narrow cul-de-sacs became major thoroughfares, but Islamic groups feared there were racist undertones to the objections.  Other Islamic schools have had to struggle against similar protests to get their building projects approved.   A 1200-strong Al Amanah College will be built in Bass Hill after it was twice knocked back by Bankstown Council - a decision later overturned by the Land and Environment Court.   And plans for the 600-student Qaadiri school at Austral, which were knocked back by Liverpool Council, are due to go before the court this week.  (Daily Telegraph, 1 Jul 09)

June 2009

Civil rights complaints have been filed in Greeley, CO

. . . . yesterday about E Coli tainted meat being recalled from this very same meatpacking plant in Greeley.  Seems some people are getting sick around the country.  How safe is our food supply?  The Denver Post this week published another of those puff-piece stories about how Somalis, former refugees,* are blending nicely into Greeley, CO, opening shops and getting along just great with the local people - the same template story (later corrected by city officials) we heard from Newsweek about the Somalis in Lewiston, ME. . . . . Domalis have filed a civil rights complaint with federal and state officials about their supposed mistreatment at the Swift & Co. meatpacking plant which employs about 300 of them.  Complaints center around alleged mistreatment by Hispanic supervisors, while Swift & Co. is scrambling to give the Somalis what they demand.  Apparently bidets for Somalis were not enough to satisfy them!  (Refugee Resettlement Watch, 30 Jun 09)

Sharia courts: are their rulings breaching British law?

Sharia courts operate in Britain in the shadows. Little is known about them or their rulings or how extensive their network is or the reach of their jurisdiction.  A report this week sheds some light. It reveals that there are not just the main five generally acknowledged to exist - in London, Manchester, Bradford, Birmingham and Nuneaton - there are another 85 operating largely out of mosques.   It also concludes that such courts, or tribunals, are handing down rulings that are likely to breach fundamental principles of British law and it urges the removal of their formal statutory recognition under the Arbitration Act 1996.   Sharia Law or ‘One law for all’? comes from Civitas, the independent think-tank. David Green, its director, says in an introduction to the report: “It cannot be accepted that Sharia councils are nothing more than independent arbitrators guided by faith.  “The reality is that for many Muslims, Sharia courts are part of an institutionalized atmosphere of intimidation backed by the ultimate sanction of a death threat.” He adds: “The underlying problem is that Sharia reflects male-dominated Asian and Arabic cultures.  “It cannot therefore be accepted as a legally valid basis even for settling private disagreements in a country like ours where law embodies the equal legal status of everyone, regardless of race, gender or religion.”   Sharia courts are likely to be handing down decisions on matters such as marriage and divorce, custody of children and maintenance, the report finds, but many conflict with UK legal norms, Western liberal principles and human rights law.   (Times Online, 30 Jun 09)

Islamic Face Masks: Banned in Michigan Courtrooms

In 2006, in a small claims matter in Michigan, a Muslim woman, Ginnah Muhammed, refused to take off her face mask (niqab) while she testified. Judge Paul Paruk dismissed her case. Muhammed sued, the ACLU backed her. They argued for a “religious exception” to courtroom attire. Although Muhammed’s small claim case was against a car rental agency, here is what Michael Steinberg, legal director of the ACLU of Michigan stated: 

“The Michigan Supreme Court should not slam the door of justice on a category of women just because of their religious belief…Under the proposed rule, women who are sexually assaulted do not have their day in court if they wear a veil mandated by their religion.” Sexual assault was not at issue nor was the victim afraid that testifying might lead to her death. Leave it to the ACLU to always get it wrong.  Finally, earlier this month, on June 17, 2009, the Michigan Supreme Court, in a 5-2 vote, ruled that a Judge had the power to “require witnesses to remove head or facial covering as (the witness) was testifying.” A Judge has the right to see a witness’s “facial expressions” to determine her “truthfulness” while she testifies.   (Chesler Chronicles, 29 Jun 09)

Sharia Courts Rule Against British Law

At least 85 Sharia “courts” now operate in Britain making decisions that sometimes contradict British law, according to a report by independent think tank Civitas. These Islamic courts, or arbitration tribunals, make rulings on marriage, polygamy and child custody that are illegal, the study shows.  Their decisions are likely to be unfair to women and backed by intimidation, with tribunals taking place behind closed doors, the report said. They keep few records, if any, of what takes place.  Since 2007, the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal (mat) has been running courts in London, Bradford, Birmingham, Coventry and Manchester. The courts’ rulings are legally binding under the 1996 Arbitration Act, as long as both parties choose to use them, and as long as their decisions do not contradict British law.  However, the Arbitration Act specifically excludes rulings on divorce and child-care cases. While the five mat courts deal primarily with disputes between business partners or mosques, the estimated 85 Sharia “courts” operating are exceeding that mandate, according to the Civitas report.  “Some of these courts are advising illegal actions,” said the report’s author, Denis MacEoin, a former lecturer in Arabic and Islamic studies. “And others transgress human rights standards.”  The House of Lords, Britain’s highest court, ruled in a decision last year that Sharia law was “wholly incompatible” with human rights legislation. It prevented the deportation of a woman whose child would have been removed and placed with an abusive father under Sharia law in Lebanon.  (Trumpet, 30 Jun 09)

Civitas Report:  Sharia Law or ‘One Law For All’?    (Civitas, June 2009)

The truth about Sharia courts

The scary revelation that there are at least 85 sharia courts operating in Britain brought this swift response from the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal:

Qamar Bhatti, a member of the governing body of the MAT, said: “We don’t have a court, it’s an arbitration, we don’t have a judge sitting with a gavel in his hand but that’s the image that this report is creating.”  (Telegraph, 30 Jun 09)

Web Link:  Muslim Arbitration Tribunal

The Big Question: How do Britain's sharia courts work, and are they a good thing?

Civitas, an independent research organization, has issued a report saying that there are many more Sharia courts operating in the United Kingdom than we thought. It was known that there were such courts operating in London, Manchester, Bradford, Birmingham and Nuneaton, but no-one knows how many there are. By examining online fatwa sites, the author calculated that there at least 85, most operating out of mosques, but some located in cafes or Muslim schools across the country. What is a Sharia court?  The Muslim writer Tariq Ramadan lamented that "In the West, the idea of Sharia calls up all the darkest images of Islam . . . Many Muslim intellectuals do not dare even to refer to the concept for fear of frightening people or arousing suspicion of all their work by the mere mention of the word."  Sharia is linked with another word, "fatwa", which first entered British public's consciousness courtesy of Ayatollah Khomeini's pronouncement that Salman Rushdie should be killed for writing his novel Satanic Verses. Actually, "fatwa" is a traditional word for a Sharia legal judgment or opinion and need not have such negative connotations, and in the UK Sharia courts are a means of settling marital or financial disputes between Muslims without the expense of going to court.  (Independent, 30 Jun 09)

Muslim pupils and teacher ordered to remove veils

The party were from an Islamic school in Great Harwood, Lancs and were visiting St Mary's College in nearby Blackburn, which was staging its annual open day.  The two schoolgirls agreed to take off their niqab veils, which leave only slits for their eyes.  However, their teacher refused and was taken into an office at the sixth form college and told she would not be allowed on the premises.  St Mary's College yesterday defended the move, claiming that staff had requested that the trio remove the traditional Islamic veils because they are against the school's dress policy.  Its principal Kevin McMahon said: "At the start of one of our 'taster days' for prospective students last week, some visitors did arrive wearing the veil.  "When the policy was explained to them, all except one were willing to remove it. This lady - a member of staff at the school - refused, and opted to leave the premises."  Muslim leaders condemned the college's reaction, saying it threatened to reignite the debate over religious clothing.  (Telegraph, 30 Jun 09)

German court affirms swim compulsion for Muslim girl

The controversial powers of German schools to compel Muslim girls to attend swimming lessons with boys in the pool were affirmed Tuesday by a tribunal.  The ruling came just five days after a federal convention had appealed to German schools to end compulsion on the issue, which has antagonized some of the Muslims who make up 5 per cent of Germany's population.  Judges in Muenster said a school in Dusseldorf was entitled to make entry conditional on a written undertaking from parents that their daughter, 11, would attend mixed swimming lessons.

The parents had contended to the administrative tribunal in Muenster that the undertaking was void, and asked that their daughter, now 12, be excused from mixed classes.  The school said the only acceptable solution was for the girl to wear a full-body swimsuit. (DPA, 30 Jun 09)

Somali refugees take up new roots in Greeley, CO

Somali refugees who flocked to jobs in U.S. slaughterhouses - including plants in Greeley and Fort Morgan - are moving beyond cutting floors to Main Street.   "We want to become Americans," said Mohamed Egal, director of the Somali Aid self-help group in Greeley, where more than 700 Somalis live.   They've established shops offering imported items. An unmarked mosque in central Greeley offers a place for Muslim worship.   Informal "hawala" money-transfer services help reach relatives stranded in war-torn Somalia and refugee camps in neighboring Kenya. A former burrito restaurant now sells plates of rice, lamb and goat. . . . The lure: steady $12-an-hour jobs at Brazilian-owned JBS Swift Beef Co. The plant employs more than 300 Somalis, taking advantage of the legally authorized status of refugees accepted from war zones.  This avoids problems associated with unauthorized migrants from Mexico and Central America.  Somalis also are sinking roots in Emporia and Dodge City in Kansas; Grand Island and Norfolk in Nebraska; and Sioux City, Iowa - all towns with slaughterhouses that depend on assembly-line labor. . . . Wells Fargo hires to match a broadening customer base, said Dunbar, who allows Muslim prayer breaks for Dahir and another Somali employee. Rising from midday prayers last week at the mosque, Dahir said he deeply appreciated the ability to pray on the job. . . . Assimilation issues do exist. Greeley police have held meetings to try to smooth local mixing, although they report no major problems. Spanish- speaking JBS foremen use hand signals to try to bridge language gaps. (Denver Post, 29 Jun 09)

Row after Islam cleric Anjem Choudary converts schoolboy on Birmingham street

Young schoolboy was “converted” to Islam on the streets of Birmingham by a radical Muslim preacher, the Sunday Mercury can reveal.  The bewildered-looking 11 year-old, who gives his name as Sean, was filmed repeating Arabic chants and swearing allegiance to Allah.  The white schoolboy is prompted throughout by controversial cleric Anjem Choudary, a follower of exiled hate-preacher Omar Bakri Mohammed.  The incident was filmed during a demonstration by Choudary’s Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jama’ah group in Birmingham city centre earlier this month.  Choudary, 42, was one of the masterminds behind sick protests at the homecoming parade of heroic British soldiers in Luton back in March.  He praised protesters who branded British troops “murderers” and later appeared at a press conference flanked by thugs who took part in the demo.  When contacted by the Sunday Mercury, Choudary defended the young boy’s “reversion” to Islam - but admitted his parents were not with him and were not consulted.  (Sunday Mercury, 29 Jun 09)

ACLU Sues Over Limits on Muslim Prayers in Prison

Two Muslim inmates held in a special unit at the federal prison in Terre Haute say they aren't allowed to pray in groups as often as their religion commands and have asked a federal judge to ease worship limits imposed by the Bureau of Prisons.
The prison in western Indiana houses several high-security inmates, including American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh, who is serving a 20-year sentence for aiding Afghanistan's now-defunct Taliban government.  The June 16 lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana challenges limits on Islamic worship in the prison's restrictive Communications Management Unit, where about 30 of the 40 inmates are Muslim.  Muslims are required to pray five times a day, but the lawsuit, filed on behalf of inmates Enaam Arnaout and Randall T. Royer, says inmates in the CMU are allowed to pray as a group just one hour a week. The ACLU claims that violates a federal law barring the government from restricting religious activities without showing a compelling need.  The lawsuit echoes a 2007 complaint from convicted shoe bomber Richard Reid that he was denied access to group prayer at the Supermax federal prison in Florence, Colo.  (Corrections, 29 Jun 09)

Catholic school bars Muslim teacher who refused to remove face veil so staff could identify her

A Muslim teacher was barred from visiting a Catholic college after refusing to remove her full-face veil so staff could identify her.  Now the school may face a claim of religious discrimination after the woman left rather than agreeing to reveal her face.  The teacher, who works at an Islamic school, was attending an open day at the sixth form college along with two teenage pupils, all of them wearing veils which left only their eyes visible.

They were asked to remove them as it was against the college policy - but while the girls complied, their teacher refused.  The incident, which happened in Jack Straw's Blackburn constituency, comes as the issue of the full-face veil is once again at the centre of debate, and could see the school plunged into a court battle.  Last week French president Nicolas Sarkozy provoked controversy when he called for the similar, all-enveloping burkha to be banned, branding it a sign of 'subservience and debasement' rather than of religion.  Mr Straw himself said in 2006 that veils could make community relations harder as they were a 'visible statement of separation and difference'.

The incident happened at an open day for prospective students hosted by St Mary's College in Blackburn, Lancashire.  (Daily Mail, 29 Jun 09)

85 sharia courts in UK, says report

Academic Denis MacEoin, the report's author, said the existence of the courts practicing Islamic law could lead to different legal standards being applied to Muslim and non-Muslim citizens.  He said many of the courts operate out of mosques and their rulings are closed off to non-Muslims.  In previous reports it was claimed there were only five sharia courts in the UK, working in London, Manchester, Bradford, Birmingham and Nuneaton.  He said: "This is not a matter of eating halal meat or seeking God's blessing on one's marriage. It is a challenge to what we believe to be the rights and freedoms of the individual, to our concept of a legal system based on what parliament enacts, and to the right of all of us to live in a society as free as possible from ethnic-religious division or communal claims to superiority and a special status that puts them in some respects above the law to which we are all bound."  His report, published by the think-tank Civitas, includes a list of previous Sharia judgments which he believes give an indication of the type of ruling being handed down by the courts working in the UK.

Among the examples quoted are laws banning a Muslim woman from marrying a non-Muslim unless he converts to Islam and the removal of a wife's property rights in the event of divorce.  (Guardian, 29 Jun 09)

The movie “The Stoning of Soraya M.” shakes the foundations of Radical Islam

On Friday night June 26th, the E Street Cinema in Washington, DC hosted a packed showing of the film, "The Stoning of Soraya M." The suffering of the woman portrayed in the movie is based on the story of an actual stoning that took place in Iran in 1986, as described in Freidoune Sahebjam's book "The Stoning of Soraya M." 
This extraordinary movie must raise many questions in the collective conscience of mankind.  The first question is:  Does the Muslim world expect that non-Muslims -after watching such punishment- believe that "Islam is the religion that gave women their rights?" [a sentiment shared by many Muslims]   The second question is: If Islam is truly against the stoning of adulteress, where are the approved Sharia (Islamic law) books that clearly and explicitly say that stoning is obsolete? Further, where are the voices within the Muslim world and Islamic organizations in the West that stand against such inhumane punishment?  To date, all main Islamic schools of jurisprudence -with no single exception -approve stoning for adultery. The difference in views within Islamic Sharia law about stoning is not about the punishment itself but rather over nuances which include the size of stones required for a proper stoning.   If modern Islamic theology continues its support of the stoning of women, Muslims must not expect anything but criticism of their religion. Historically, stoning is mentioned in the Bible; however, both Jewish and Christian scholars unambiguously agree that it cannot be applied anymore. Currently, the stoning of women for the crime of adultery is practiced almost exclusively in the Islamic world.   Instead of providing lectures about how Islam is "tolerant" and "peaceful," Islamic scholars and organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations [CAIR] and the Islamic Society of North America [ISNA] must be clear on their stance against such barbaric practices.  (Tawfik Hamid CI Centre Professor, 28 Jun 09)

“Punished mercilessly” – Is this Islam?

“Annihilate the rioters,” demanded one of Iran’s fundamentalist clerics during Friday prayer. He believes that the opposition “defied the orders” of Iran’s Supreme Leader, who “rules by God’s design.” Therefore, “they should be punished mercilessly.” Either way, his words couldn’t be harsher or more extreme. Some would say those words couldn’t be more un-Islamic.  The word Islam means “surrender.” The entire religion is based on surrendering one’s self, speech, action and thoughts to god. When moderate Muslims hear what this Mullah has called for, they wonder which brand of Islam he is advocating.  The first pillar in Islamic faith is the declaration called “Shahda” that there is no god but Allah and that Mohammed is his prophet.  The first verse of every chapter in the holy Muslim book, the Quran, goes like this, “In the name of God, most merciful, most compassionate.” Devout Muslims start many of their activities or speech with these glorious words.  Where is the compassion in the Iranian mullah’s speech? Where is the Mercy?  He’s directing his wrath at his own people; their only crime was to ask for an honest vote and to insist that their votes counted in a timely presidential election. They are the ones who shouted from their rooftops every night since their demonstrations began, “Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar” –God is Great. They are the ones who were denied their legal right to demonstrate so they had to defy the regime and take to the streets anyway.  (CNN, 27 Jun 09)

Reconsidering Sharia

Sharia laws are being used by terrorists to violate divine human rights.

Great Britain and France, as colonial powers, must share in the blame for not encouraging or allowing democracy to take root in Muslim countries. This is one reason why Sharia features so prominently in the legal systems of Muslim countries as the only acceptable form of justice. Autocratic rule, out-dated customs and lack of education prevented the judiciary in almost every Muslim country to develop a rule of law in which no one is above the law.  Almost every Muslim country except for Turkey has some form of Sharia incorporated into the constitution. Another reason for this inclusion is the legacy of a natural alliance between the clergy and a dictatorship. Both need each other for legitimacy. Even the Burmese military dictatorship had an understanding with the monks.  Through this alliance a dictatorship can suppress rights and freedoms taken for granted in democratic countries. A suffocating environment that stifles human development takes root, which is avoided by all prospective investors and visitors - unless they have no choice – leading to severe economic decline. Sharia is being enforced in Somalia today and the results are not very good.  Enforcers and supporters of Sharia say that things are economically bad because we are not following Sharia and God is angry. It is interesting to recall that some mullahs blamed the 2005 Earthquake in Pakistan on cable television.  Because of cultural and historic reasons and the absence of any women’s movement like the suffrage movement in Europe and America, the male-dominated societies in Muslim countries have used Sharia to target women’s rights in particular.  (Baltimore Sun, 26 Jun 09)

New England’s Largest Mosque Opens, After Years Of Controversy

The Islamist Society of Boston Cultural Center was designed to fit into the landscape of Roxbury. Standing about 100 yards away and looking at the mosque, it’s the same color - brick and tan tilework - as most of the other buildings, including Roxbury Community College.  But the minaret, it’s 140 feet tall, and stands alone among the other squat buildings, and draws the eye, transforming the landscape of this neighborhood.  After nearly 20 years of planning, and intense controversy, the largest mosque in New England is officially opening Friday. Located in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood, the $15.6 million project is still only a scaled-down version of what backers originally hoped for, but they still have large expectations for the center. . . . Eventually, the mosque planners hope to open a full-time school. But they put that plan on hold after running into intense controversy, which made it difficult to raise money for the project. The trouble - and litigation - started because of allegations that people leading and financing the mosque had extremist connections and that the city took an inappropriate role in providing land for the mosque.

The lawsuits were dropped, but the critics are still worried about the mosque and plan to demonstrate outside Friday’s inauguration. . . . About 600 people already come for Friday prayers. The center is expecting an even larger crowd Friday, when a call will be heard throughout Roxbury. Around noon, a man will climb outside of the mosque and up the 140-foot minaret and give the call to prayer for everyone to hear.  (WBUR, 26 Jun 09)

OIC to open office in Brussels to fight Islamophobia

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) will open a representative office and appoint an ambassador to Brussels to fight more effectively against Islamophobia in Europe.  “This office will provide the West and Islam the opportunity to work coherently,” said Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, the Turkish secretary-general of the organization, to Today's Zaman. The office will cooperate with the European Parliament and the European Council to develop the initiatives for interfaith and intercultural dialogue and institute contacts with nongovernmental organizations. The office will also be effective in efforts aimed at preventing discrimination against Muslims and fighting anti-Islam propaganda. “Of course fighting anti-Islam propaganda is one of the main aims of the office. Intercultural and interfaith dialogue constitute the priorities of the office in Brussels,” İhsanoğlu said.  İhsanoğlu, who had talks in Washington this week, will meet with the Belgian minister of foreign affairs in Brussels in the coming days. An agreement regarding the establishment of the OIC office in Brussels will be signed at the meeting.  (Todays Zaman, 25 Jun 09)

Women of Iran: Throw Down Your Headscarves

When the French résistance was fighting the Nazis in 1940, the British and the Americans encouraged them with oratory but withheld any material help. This led the French to say “the British will fight the Nazis to the last drop of French blood.”

 I hesitate to encourage the women to resist to the last drop of their blood, but I am dismayed by a number of stylish, well coiffed, décolleté and manicured “feminists” in America, including Iranian expatriates, who urge the courageous women of Iran to continue their bloody struggle against the regime in Iran without naming the real enemy . . .  .Sharia. It is like telling them to die in vain.  The poster-boy for the rebellion is Moussavi and he and his “reformist” wife, who dresses in hijab, utter not a single word of opposition to Sharia, the cruel, misogynist Islamic law that oppresses women and reduces them to the status of animal.   The women of Iran were led down this path before by their mothers and grandmothers who encouraged them to overthrow the Shah and plunged that nation into the repressive hell-hole ruled by the Ayatollahs.  Revolution cannot be successful if sacrifice brings more Islamic repression and degradation with another face and a new set of Ayatollahs. Their jail is Islam and changing the warden from one thug to another will not set them free.   (FSM, 25 Jun 09)

Maine Fines Group for ‘Inflammatory Anti-Muslim Message’

An organization in the national spotlight recently for producing a documentary identifying several dozen potential terrorist training compounds in the U.S. has offended the sensibilities of Maine bureaucrats, who have fined the organization $4,000, alleging among other things that the group sent out mailings containing an “inflammatory anti-Muslim message.”  The group in question, the Christian Action Network (CAN), received notice of the fines and the fundraising ban in a May 6 letter from Elaine Thibodeau of the State of Maine’s Department of Professional and Financial Regulation. Enclosed in the letter was a prepared consent agreement for CAN to sign agreeing to all of the state’s allegations, waiving all rights to appeal, and agreeing to pay the $4,000 fine. As part of the consent agreement, CAN is required to agree to all of the state’s allegations, including their assertion that their mailing amounted to hate speech. . . . CAN was in the news earlier this year following the release of their documentary, Homegrown Jihad, which details dozens of compounds across the U.S. operated by Pakistani Sheikh Mubarak Gilani, who has previously been identified in State Department reports as a terrorist leader, and his group, Jamaat al-Fuqra. The documentary looks into the past terrorist acts of the group in the U.S., including the assassination of two moderate Muslim leaders, the firebombing of non-Muslim religious facilities, and an investigation by Colorado authorities that led to convictions and lengthy prison sentences. These activities have been covered in several FBI domestic terrorism reports and a more recent assessment by the Center for Policing Terrorism.  (Pajamas Media, 25 Jun 09)

Lebanon's Top Shiite Cleric Slams French President On Burka

Lebanon's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, Wednesday denounced French President Nicolas Sarkozy's criticism of the burka as a violation of freedom of choice.  "The French president is oppressing women and violating their freedom of choice by preventing them from picking what they wear," Fadlallah said in a statement. "This is a violation of freedoms."  Fadlallah, however, added that a Muslim woman is not obliged to wear the garment.  Monday, Sarkozy called the burka a sign of women's "subservience" that was "not welcome" in France.  The burka, a traditional Muslim garment, completely covers a woman's body from head to toe.  Home to Europe's largest Muslim minority, France has been engulfed in debate over whether women's rights and the nation's strong secular tradition are under attack when Muslim women cover themselves fully.
Some ministers have suggested that a law should be enacted banning the burka in public places, but critics argue that a better approach would be to resort to education and outreach.  (AFP, 24 Jun 09)

Why Iran's Women Are Rioting

The current uprising in Iran is not merely about a fraudulent election. The simmering masses of Iran are restless for the freedom and prosperity they once enjoyed, before being straitened for decades by the strictures of religious fanaticism. The people have seized upon this election fraud to push for greater openness and such forgotten notions as women’s rights. Nothing better illustrates the awful injustices Iranian women face than a soon-to-be released film, The Stoning of Soraya M.   The film tells the grisly true story of an innocent woman who was stoned to death in Iran on charges of adultery. The events – which are described in flashback by the title character’s aunt, Zahra – take place in 1986, in the rural village of Kupayeh. Zahra recounts how years earlier her niece Soraya entered a marriage that had been arranged by her parents. She was 14 and her husband, Ali, was 20. Together they had four children, two boys and two girls. Ali was emotionally and physically abusive to his obedient wife, physically beating Soraya and openly cavorting with prostitutes . . . . If the film’s “trial” highlights the injustice of Shari’a law, the stoning underscores the barbarity of the Muslim legal code. Soraya’s father cast the first stone at his daughter’s unprotected face only after declaring she was no longer part of his family. Her husband and sons were next. Islam had destroyed the bonds of blood and kinship integral to every civilized society. Family members were followed by stone-throwing villagers who had known her since birth. . . . If only its subject matter were fiction. After the Islamic revolution in 1979, with the enactment of Shari’a law, stoning became the prescribed penalty for adultery. The law requires that the stones be large enough to cause pain but not large enough to cause instant death. It is predominantly women who are stoned, including those who speak up after being raped. Because they are unable to find sufficient witnesses to the rape, their complaints are construed as confessions of adultery. . . . The film, based on the 1994 book by French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam.  (FrontPage, 24 Jun 09)

ACLU sues over limits on Muslim prayers in prison

Two Muslim inmates held in a special unit at the federal prison in Terre Haute say they aren't allowed to pray in groups as often as their religion commands and have asked a federal judge to ease worship limits imposed by the Bureau of Prisons.

The prison in western Indiana houses several high-security inmates, including American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh, who is serving a 20-year sentence for aiding Afghanistan's now-defunct Taliban government.  The June 16 lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana challenges limits on Islamic worship in the prison's restrictive Communications Management Unit, where about 30 of the 40 inmates are Muslim.  Muslims are required to pray five times a day, but the lawsuit, filed on behalf of inmates Enaam Arnaout and Randall T. Royer, says inmates in the CMU are allowed to pray as a group just one hour a week. The ACLU claims that violates a federal law barring the government from restricting religious activities without showing a compelling need.  The lawsuit echoes a 2007 complaint from convicted shoe bomber Richard Reid that he was denied access to group prayer at the Supermax federal prison in Florence, Colo.  The Indiana lawsuit is one of two the ACLU has filed in the past week concerning conditions in the CMU. Its other lawsuit claimed the unit was created in secrecy and keeps its mostly Muslim inmates in virtual isolation.  (AP, 23 Jun 09)

Muslim imams say burka not obligatory in Islam

Days after President Nicolas Sarkozy slammed the burka, or face veil, as "not welcome" in France, Islamic scholars said the burka was not obligatory in Islam and said every state had a right to ban the face veil.  The burka debate has been raging for a while in Europe with countries like the Netherlands banning it in universities and the British press reporting that Muslims and non-Muslims alike are calling for a ban on the face covering attire.   As for the Islamic reaction Egypt's Grand Imam, Sheikh Mohammad Tantawi, said the face veil was not compulsory in Islam and said every head of state had the right to accept or prohibit it. Tantawi added that women who wear the burka have to abide by the rules of the country they live in, especially because it is not an obligation in Islam.  "The traditional headscarf [hijab] is what is obligatory. This means covering the entire body except the face and hands and wearing clothes that are neither tight nor transparent," he said.  (Al Arabiya, 24 Jun 09)

UN: Islamic law is major influence on refugee law, says study

The 1,400-year-old Islamic custom of welcoming people fleeing persecution has had more influence on modern international refugee law than any other traditional source, according to a new study sponsored by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).  High Commissioner Antonio Guterres said that more than any other historical source, Islamic law and tradition underpin the modern-day legal framework on which UNHCR bases its global activities on behalf of the tens of millions of people forced from their homes around the world.
This includes the right of everyone to seek asylum as well as prohibitions against sending those needing protection back into danger, Guterres said in the foreword to “The Right to Asylum between Islamic Sharia and International Refugee Law: A Comparative Study.”   In the study, Professor Abu Al-Wafa, Dean of the Law Faculty at Cairo University, describes how Islamic law and tradition respects refugees, including non-Muslims; forbids forcing them to change their beliefs; avoids compromising their rights; seeks to reunite families; and guarantees the protection of their lives and property.  “The international community should value this 14-century-old tradition of generosity and hospitality and recognize its contributions to modern law,” wrote Guterres.
He said that “racism, xenophobia and populist fear-mongering manipulate public opinion and confuse refugees with illegal migrants and even terrorists.”  (AKI, 23 Jun 09)

France sets up burka commission

France is to set up a commission to study the extent of burka-wearing in the country, after President Nicolas Sarkozy said the veils reduced dignity.  He said the burka - a garment worn by Muslims that covers the body from head to toe - "deprived women of identity".  The French National Assembly has appointed 32 lawmakers on a fact-finding mission to look at ways of restricting its use.   France is home to Western Europe's largest population of Muslims.  In a speech, Mr. Sarkozy said it was unacceptable to have women in France who were "prisoners behind netting".  He said it was not a sign of religion but a "sign of subservience". However, he also called for respect for Muslims . . . . In 2004, France banned the Islamic headscarves in its state schools.  About five million Muslims live in France.  (BBC, 23 Jun 09)

Women 'really messed up' over forced marriages

New legislation has failed to stop forced marriages taking place, according to an Enfield support group.  Ila Bel, from Enfield Saheli, in Fore Street, Edmonton, said her charity was seeing an increasing number of women who were "really messed up” after being forced to marry under Sharia Law.  In September, the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act came into effect making forced marriages unlawful, following a campaign by MP Ann Cryer.  At a conference in Westminster organized by Enfield's South Asian Forum, Mrs. Cryer said she had been prompted to take action to prevent forced marriages when she realized fathers were asking her for help with visas for new husbands to be brought to Britain, against the will of their daughters.  She said: “I'm pleased I did what I did. We've gone from seeing cases every week or two to every six months. There have been 20 successful prosecutions in the courts.”

One problem highlighted at the conference was that of foreign domestic violence victims having “no recourse to public funds” because they had been married in Britain for less than two years.  (Enfield Independent, 23 Jun 09)

French MPs in call to unveil Islamic dress code

France could bar Muslim women from wearing full veils in public, a government minister said at the weekend as parliament took action over concern about an increase in women who are wearing the niqab and burka in big cities.  The latest controversy over dress habits among France's six million Muslims follows public differences this month between presidents Obama and Sarkozy over the merits of legislating on religious clothing.   A group of 58 MPs from Left and Right called on Wednesday for parliament to react to the phenomenon of women who are adopting what they called oppressive head-to-toe Islamic dress that "breaches individual freedoms".  Industry minister and government spokesman Luc Chatel supported the MPs. "If it were determined that wearing the burka is a submissive act, and that it is contrary to republican principles, naturally parliament would have to draw the necessary conclusions," he said. Asked whether that would mean legislation, Mr Chatel replied: "Why not?"   The new debate over Muslim dress is reviving passions that surrounded the 2004 law banning religious headcover in French state schools. Andre Gerin, a Communist MP, led the motion for an inquiry, calling the burka and niqab "a moving prison" for women.   Women's groups, including some Muslim-led ones, back new measures against the practices of a growing but still small minority of radical Muslims. (Australian, 22 Jun 09)

UK: Muslim prisoners complain about sharing cells with infidels, are accommodated

A prison has agreed to give Muslims their own cells after they complained about sharing with other inmates.  They were said to be unhappy at praying and eating near non-Muslims at Birmingham’s Winson Green jail.  It is thought to be the first time inmates have been segregated by religion. Prison bosses have decided to place them with other Muslims, or give them single cells when space is available.  More than 1,400 inmates, including murderers and robbers, are housed at the jail.  So far around 15 Muslim inmates have been accommodated either by being moved to a cell with another Muslim or put on their own,’ said a prison source. ‘They initially asked for their own wing but this was turned down.’  In June 2006, a High Court judge warned that Ministers must find cash to cope with growing prison numbers and called for an end to forced cell sharing. Mr Justice Keith’s concerns were included in his report into the racist murder of Asian prisoner Zahid Mubarek by his cellmate Robert Stewart at Feltham Young Offenders’ Institution in West London.  The judge called for a new concept of ‘institutional religious intolerance’ to combat prejudice against Muslim inmates.  (Daily Mail, 21 Jun 09)

Thailand May Extend Shariah Law in Violence-Ridden Muslim South

Thailand may allow more local autonomy and consider extending Shariah law to defuse a separatist insurgency in Muslim provinces that border Malaysia, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said.  “More decentralization and provisions that respond to specific needs are fine,” Abhisit said in an interview in Singapore yesterday. “We can respond to needs on Shariah law, on the education system.”  Abhisit, 44, is seeking to undermine suspected separatists in four southernmost provinces who have attacked teachers, Muslim worshippers and policemen this month, leaving at least 31 dead and more than 50 injured. The prime minister, who took office in December, has insisted any decentralization of power wouldn’t be tantamount to autonomy, which the government opposes.  “Most of the local Malay Muslims just want a more autonomous, more decentralized administration so that they have political space for their own cultural and religious identity,” said Srisompob Jitpiromsri, a political science lecturer at the Prince of Songkhla University in Pattani province. “So far the local identity has been suppressed by the central government.”  Shariah law is a system that operates under a code of Islamic principles first established in the Arab world by the prophet Muhammad in the seventh century. Under a 1946 law, Thailand allows limited use of Islamic rules in the mostly Muslim provinces for settling family and inheritance issues.  (Bloomberg, 22 Jun 09)

First Muslim daily in Ukrainian language

Ukraine Muslims had recently learned of a new Muslim religious organization, Religious Administration of the Muslims of Ukraine Ummah, which along with Crimean Mufti and 'Kyiv's Muftiyat' entered the newly established Council of Mufties of Ukraine. Thereupon Crimean News Agency (QHA) correspondent has interviewed the spiritual leader of Muslim Religious Administration of Ukraine Said Efendi Ismagilov.  QHA: Would you tell us a little about yourself? Where have you received religious education?  S.E.I.: I was born in Tatar family in Donetsk. I have received religious education at Moscow Higher Spiritual Islamic College, which later received the status of Moscow Islamic University. I graduated Shariah's Department excellently. On graduating from College I came back to Donetsk where I began working as assistant in Ukrainian Islamic University. I also received a secular education I studied at Philosophy and Religion Studies Department of the State University of Informatics and Artificial Intelligence. I am a postgraduate student in the same university now. Since 2001 I worked as Imam of Duslık Donetsk Muslim community. . . . QHA: Would you tell us about this association? When and what is its creating purpose? 
S.E.I.: 25 January this year, representatives of ten religious communities from different regions of Ukraine were in favour of the creation Ummah Muslims Religious Administration of Ukraine. These 10 communities were connected by the joint activities in cooperation with Ar-Raid Association. A kind of depression in religious life of the country has pushed a creation of new religious administration. Ukrainian Muslim community is still young and stagnation may affect adversely. From the pre-existing at the time of spiritual administrations of serious initiatives were not observed except in Crimea. While all the other confessions are developing, building their religious temples, join their people, publish literature, hold conferences, seminars, in Muslims religious life of Ukraine in my opinion the crisis is obvious. Therefore Muslims have come to the decision to establish its association to solve their own pressing problems. As far as a single community is often unable to comply this complex of tasks of Muslims satisfaction needs one or another region it was decided to unite and create their religious administration. Officially we were registered in September 2008.  (World Bulletin, 22 Jun 09)

BBC's appointment of Muslim as head of religion is 'worrying', Anglicans warn

Members of the General Synod, the parliament of the Church of England, are to vote on a motion condemning the decline of religious programming on BBC television, amid complaints that Christians are now only depicted as "freak shows".  In a new report to accompany the motion, the corporation's decision to recruit Aaqil Ahmed from Channel 4 to head its religious and ethical output is singled out for particular criticism.  Hundreds of people have complained to the BBC about the appointment of Mr. Ahmed, who will be the first Muslim and only the second non-Christian in the role.  "Many of the Channel 4 programs concerned with Christianity, in contrast to those featuring other faiths, seem to be of a sensationalist or unduly critical nature," wrote Nigel Holmes, a Synod member and former BBC producer who has tabled the motion.  "From this point of view it is worrying that the Channel 4 religion and multicultural commissioning editor, Aaqil Ahmed, who is a Muslim, is soon to be responsible for all the religious output from the BBC."  The motion is expected to attract the support of senior bishops when it is debated by the Synod next month.  (Telegraph, 22 Jun 09)

Man beheads daughter in Rampur district

In a suspected honor killing, a man allegedly beheaded his daughter who was insisting on marrying her lover in Rampur district.  Shaukat Saifi was arrested after he allegedly beheaded his daughter Naseem with a sharp edged weapon yesterday in village Krimcha, about 250 km from here, police said.  While Naseem wanted to marry Yasin, a resident of the same village, her father was opposed to the alliance.  (Indian Express, 20 Jun 09)

Head scarves in Essex County: Bend the uniform policy for Muslims

A federal court has been asked to decide whether Essex County discriminated against Yvette Beshier, a Muslim corrections officer, when it fired her for refusing to remove her head scarf.  The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit last week accusing the county Department of Corrections of wrongfully dismissing Beshier. She had been suspended and later given the sack for wearing a khimar, a Muslim head covering, on the job. Corrections officials said it violated the department's uniform policy.  Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the job on the basis of race, color, sex, religion or national origin. It also requires that employers make "reasonable accommodation" for religious practices. But when Beshier asked officials to make an exception to the uniform policy to allow her to follow her religious beliefs, they refused.  Undoubtedly, this lawsuit could have been avoided. County officials should be able to come up with a uniform policy that allows for reasonable exceptions. This is particularly important in circumstances of private religious expression.  (Star-Ledger, 19 Jun 09)

Will France Impose a Ban on the Burqa?

Secularism is the religion of contemporary France. And the enforcers of that faith have a new target. "Today... we are confronted by certain Muslim women wearing the burqa, which covers and fully envelops the body and the head like a moving prison," said Andre Gerin, a Communist Party legislator who joined 57 others Wednesday in signing a motion for a parliamentary committee to study possible legislation to ban the wearing of the traditional costume in public. Despite the fervor of Gerin and his allies, however, the burqa remains sufficiently rare in France that even the legislators railing against it are unable to say how many Muslim women in the country actually wear one. All Gerin would say was, "There are more and more of them, not only in big cities, but in rural settings as well. . . . We have to break the silence of this country's political leaders on the matter."  Silence is hardly the word to characterize the matter of France and professions of religious piety. Last year, the country's highest administrative court denied the naturalization request of an otherwise irreproachable Moroccan woman on the grounds that her wearing of burqa was incompatible with French secularity statutes. On Tuesday, French Scientologists raised complaints of religious intolerance when state prosecutors wrapped up their arguments against the church on charges of organized swindling by requesting the organization be disbanded and barred in France.  (Time Magazine, 19 Jun 09)

Brisbane woman raped then jailed for sex in United Arab Emirates

A BRISBANE woman was jailed for eight months in the United Arab Emirates for claiming she was raped by three men after her drink was spiked in a hotel bar.  The woman, identified only as Amanda, said she ordered one drink from the bar in the United Arab Emirates hotel she was staying, but then remembered nothing until waking up the next afternoon.  Amanda, interviewed on ABC radio this morning, said she was arrested after reporting her rape to police and later sentenced to 11 months' jail for having illicit sexual relations and one month for consumption of alcohol.  "I don't remember anything except for having that drink . . . in one way that's a good thing but from what happened following, it's still an extremely traumatizing,'' she said.  She was released five months ago after securing a royal pardon after serving eight months, and is now home in Australia.  She said the jails were overcrowded, inmates were often beaten and the water was frequently turned off.  Amanda said she had extensively researched the customs of the largely Muslim country before living there, but was not aware of the laws surrounding women and sex and drinking.  (Courier Mail, 19 Jun 09)

Council recommends city cancel classes on Muslim holy days

The City Council’s education committee voted today to recommend closing schools on two Muslim holy days observed by as many as 10 percent of the city’s schoolchildren. But the advisory vote is unlikely to change the city schools’ calendar, unless Mayor Bloomberg has a change of heart about slimming down the school year.

Several council members said during the vote this morning that they were conflicted about recommending that schools be closed for any length of time. But only one, Oliver Koppell of the Bronx, voted against the resolution during the main round of voting. Ten council members cast yes votes at that time, and at least three others added their yes votes as the committee continued its main hearing, on high school graduation requirements.  The vote followed a hearing nine months ago on the subject, when dozens of people testified in favor of having the days off and not a single person testified against them, committee chair Robert Jackson said today. Muslim families and religious leaders have been pushing for the holidays since 2006, when students were scheduled to take state tests on the first day of Eid Ul-Adha, one of Islam’s holiest days.  A handful of council members appeared not to struggle with their decision about how to vote today, saying “aye” without offering any explanation or painting their yes votes as a moral obligation.  “The question of religious observance is one that I myself would never want to mess with,” said Helen Diane Foster of the Bronx. “Who am I to say that someone else’s holiday is not just as important to them?”  But most council members said they were conflicted about balancing religious observance with the need to maximize learning time in the city’s schools.  (Gotham Schools, 18 Jun 09)

Sharia Continues to Strangle Free Speech

am being patted down by a female Danish security officer in the basement of the parliament building in Copenhagen and I have a thought. I have just triggered the metal detector -- my heels, I'm sure -- en route upstairs to the Landstingssalen, formerly the parliament's upper house. There, I am scheduled to deliver a speech at the invitation of the Danish Free Press Society, or Trykkefrihedsselskabet.  Indeed, I am holding the text of my 20-minute address inside a folder in one of my hands, now rigidly outstretched as I am being searched. The speech is called "The Impact of Islam on Free Speech in the U.S.," but as I am checked for bombs and knives and whatnot, my thought is of the impact of Islam on free society everywhere.   Such a thought surely tops the heights of "political incorrectness," I know. But what should I do -- not express it? Not think it? Not even notice that Western civilization, in skewing to accommodate the jihad threat of Islam within, has already traded away too much precious freedom?   As the security officer continues patting me down, I follow this forbidden train of thought to the realization that it is only due to the incursions of Islam into the West -- Islam with its death penalty for criticism of Islam -- that I am now standing here under guard.  (Townhall/Diana West, 18 Jun 09)

Polish Muslims call for change in law to recognize Islamic weddings

Polish Muslims want to change a 1936 law that requires them to pray for Poland and the country's president, Polish Radio reported Wednesday. The Muslim community also want days off for Islamic religious holidays, in the predominantly Catholic country, and to recognise weddings in mosques.  The current law requires all Polish Muslims to mention the Republic of Poland and the president during Friday prayers, and regulates relations between the state and the Muslim Religious Association.  "A Muslim religious wedding still doesn't have civil effects," said Pawel Borecki, of the Religious Law faculty at the University of Warsaw. "Followers of Islam also still do not have a guaranteed right to celebrate their holidays."  Poland's Foreign Ministry is currently working with Polish Muslims on a draft bill that will abolish the required prayer for Poland and change the legal status of the country's Muslims.  The new law would allow Muslims to take days off for religious holidays and would make a marriage in a mosque equal to a civil marriage, reported the broadcaster TVP Info.  Settlements of Poland's first Muslims date back to the 14th century, when Tatars made their home in the Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth and practiced Islam freely in exchange for military service.  Today most estimate there are some 30,000 Muslims in Poland including some 2,000 Tatars.  (DPA, 18 Jun 09)

 Al-Muhajiroun: dangerous amateurs

Al-Muhajiroun's first public outing after the Islamist group's reincarnation was supposed to take the shape of a debate between Anjem Choudary and Douglas Murray, the director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, and was billed as The Great Debate: Sharia Law v British Law.  I was rather surprised that Murray had agreed to the debate as it seemed to cement the view that he was the secular equivalent of Choudary but apparently he believed that "his opinions had to be countered". As it happens, Murray did not even make it to the podium and the entire event was overshadowed by a conflict over male-female segregation. I was led upstairs the moment I entered the hall, unaware that there was a gender apartheid policy in effect. I was attending the event with a male friend who promised to save me a seat but a wave in greeting had to suffice as we were confined to two different sections, with the women suspended in a gallery overlooking the men and podium below. I could not help but think that the segregation held a symbolic significance, perhaps an indication of the group's vision of women under Sharia law. . . . Shortly after the disturbance died down two men entered the women's section and deposited themselves next to me. One of the female organizers challenged them and demanded that they leave as they "were not allowed in here". They responded that gender segregation was not enforceable in Britain and that they would not respect it, at one point, one of the men said "did you respect racial segregation in South Africa"? At this juncture, Giles Enders, the chairman of the South Place Ethical Society, the owners of Conway Hall where the meeting was held, came on stage and declared the meeting cancelled as the group had broken the terms and conditions of the hire.  Choudary then launched into a speech branding Murray a coward. His refusal to ascend the platform due to his realization that "the debate was not neutral" was seized upon as evidence of Murray's moral bankruptcy and inability to counter the group's motion. Choudary then declared the debate won by default and managed to sneak in a dig against Jews and Christians. The hall emptied to the chants of the crowd who were met with members of the Metropolitan police outside.  (Guardian, 18 Jun 09)

Police called to maintain order at Al Muhajiroun meeting

Organizers were forced to cancel the 'Sharia law vs British law', meeting in London amid accusations of thuggery.

Giles Enders, chairman of the South Place Ethical Society claimed fundamentalists acting as bouncers on the door had tried to enforce the segregation of men and women.  Scuffles broke out before the meeting even began and police were called to the hall.  Leader Anjem Choudary was heckled by many Muslims as he led chants before saying the night was a 'victory for Osama Muslims'.  In the past Al Muhajiroun have called for Sharia law in Britain and has praised the 9/11 terrorists as the "Magnificent 19."   Mr. Enders took the microphone from Mr. Choudary and ordered everyone to leave. . . . Outside Mr. Choudary criticized British society as "dirty" and predicted that, within one or two decades, Muslims would be the majority.  "We come here to civilize people, get them to come out of the darkness and injustice into the beauty of Islam," he told reporters.  Mr. Choudary said Britons were "filthy" and had lessons to learn from history.  Douglas Murray, director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, was scheduled to debate the issues. (Telegraph, 18 Jun 09)

Burka Inquiry Irks French Muslims

French Muslim leaders lambasted on Thursday, June 18, a proposal to launch a parliamentary probe into the wearing of burka, a loose outfit covering the whole body from head to toe and wore by some Muslim women.

"We are shocked by the idea parliament should be put to work on such a marginal issue," Mohammed Moussaoui, the head of the official French Council for the Muslim Religion (CFCM), told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Communist MP Andre Gerin is spearheading the drive for a parliamentary commission to be set up to look into what he described as a growing number of women donning the burka in France.  His proposal already won the support of some 58 MPs, many of whom are from President Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party.  (Islam Online, 18 Jun 09)

Mich. court gives judges say in witnesses' dress

The Michigan Supreme Court on Wednesday voted to give judges authority over how witnesses dress in court after a Muslim woman refused to remove her veil while testifying in a small claims case.  A statewide court rule letting judges regulate the appearance of witnesses - such as asking them to remove face coverings - was approved by a 5-2 vote. The dissenters said there should be an exception for people whose clothing is dictated by their religion.  Justices heard last month from a Muslim woman who sued because her small claims case was dismissed when she refused to remove her veil.  Hamtramck District Judge Paul Paruk told Ginnnah Muhammad he needed to see her face to judge her truthfulness. The 45-year-old from Detroit kept her niqab on during the 2006 hearing.  Some Muslim leaders interpret the Quran to require that women wear a headscarf, veil or burqa in the presence of a man who is not their husband or close relative.  After Muhammad sued the judge, the Michigan Judges Association and Michigan District Judges Association got behind a court rule giving judges "reasonable" control over the appearance of parties and witnesses to observe their demeanor and ensure they can be accurately identified.  (AP, 17 Jun 09)

Youngstown Muslim prosecutor Bassil Ally charges discrimination

An assistant city prosecutor, who is Muslim, filed a federal lawsuit against the city, the mayor, law director, city prosecutor and co-workers, claiming discrimination and retaliation.  The suit also claims the defendants made a concerted effort to keep him from practicing his religious beliefs.  The city strongly denies the claims made by Atty. Bassil Ally, who’s worked for more than six years for the city, said Law Director Iris Torres Guglucello. . . . Ally attends weekly prayer services at his mosque about 1:30 p.m. each Friday as required by his religion, according to his lawsuit filed by Daniel M. Connell, his Cleveland-based attorney.  The city accommodated the request to worship on Friday afternoons until the end of 2007, when co-workers complained to city Prosecutor Jay Macejko that Ally “was receiving preferential treatment,” the lawsuit reads.    (Vindicator, 16 Jun 09)

Islamic groups want Sharia Law in Germany

. . . . The annual report for the Protection of the Constitution revealed that active groups like 'Milli Görüs' want to be able to live under the strict Islamic rules.

And the secret service's yearly report, which will be revealed today by Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, contains some other shocking warnings:

• Increasing numbers of Islamic fundamentalists - mostly second generation immigrants and radical converts - are travelling from Germany to Pakistan to visit terror camps run by al-Qaeda and other similar groups.

• German interests at home and abroad are in danger. The report reveals that Germany is an 'immediate target' for Islamist terror groups.

• The internet is the most important communication and propaganda instrument – and terror groups are getting more professional    (Bild, 16 Jun 09)

The Status of Women in Iran

. . . . Women’s education rates and legal rights before and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution are essentially unchanged in Iran.  The West has it in its collective conceptualization of women’s rights in the Middle East that when governments were sympathetic to the West, somehow it meant the lives of women were better.
Under the American-backed Shah, Sharia Law was implemented in 1970. While each country that implements Sharia Law does so with its own interpretation, just as western nations interpret democracy differently, all forms of the law put men well ahead of women. . . . Reports from around the world have shown women have taken a front seat in the protests. It makes sense that female students would be at the forefront of these protests as they comprise a majority of the student body in some faculties. The University of Tehran is a bastion of relative equality in a country where women’s rights go no further than having their husband ask permission before he takes additional wives.   In 1963, Prime Minister Assadullah ‘Alam issued a decree giving women the right to vote. As a result, eight women were elected to office and a woman was appointed ambassador to Algeria . . . . Today, women in Iran live in a perpetual state of rights acquisition and disillusion. The Iranian government has created female police brigades, allowed for female news reporters and have female government representatives at English news conferences.  At the same time, since the conservative resurgence in 2004 and the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a woman can still receive 74 lashes for going out in public without a Hijab. (Digital Journal, 15 Jun 09)

Thai PM favors admin zone for South - Self-rule is out, but room for Shariah Law

The government is exploring the idea of proclaiming the South's three predominantly Muslim provinces a special administrative zone as a solution to the region's unrest.  But even before the idea has been fully explored, Buddhist organizations yesterday came out in opposition.  Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva yesterday said during his weekly television talk show that turning Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat into a special administrative zone would be acceptable to the government. However, the proposal must be in line with the constitution.  He also warned that the proposed term "special administrative zone" must not create a misleading impression.  "The term could lead to confusion," he said. "Some even go so far as to call it a self-rule area, which is not so," Mr. Abhisit said.  "The primary requirement is that it [the special zone] must come under the constitution. Thailand is an indivisible kingdom."  The prime minister said some forms of special administration in terms of the economic and financial management would be acceptable.  He said the application of certain Islamic Shariah laws regarding inheritance and other family affairs in the proposed area was possible, although Islamic laws regarding criminal offences would not be considered.  (Bangkok Post, 16 Jun 09)

Czech's Growing Muslims

Not so long ago the words Czech and Muslim were two polar opposites and it would be almost unthinkable to use them together. But now, two decades after the fall of the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia, Muslims are increasing in numbers, becoming more active and founding new organizations to represent them.  "About 300 come to the main mosque and at least 200 come to the prayer hall in the centre," Vladimir (Umar) Sanka, one of the managers of the main mosque and prayer hall in Prague, told IslamOnline.net.   . . . . The increase of Muslims is linked to the growing number of Czechs embracing the Muslim faith.  "In our mosque in Prague we are honored and happy to witness a new conversion almost every week," says Sanka.  The last recorded number of Muslims was around 12,000 in 2007, but the latest estimate is around 20,000, including 400 converts.  The first official Muslim organization, the Islamic Foundation, was established in 1991.  (Islam Online, 16 Jun 09)

Revealed: Risqué Facebook picture of Muslim waitress who won £3,000 compensation for wearing 'indecent' dress

A Muslim cocktail waitress who won £3,000 for sexual harassment after refusing to wear an ‘indecent’ dress for work has posted pictures of herself wearing a low-cut top on the internet.  Fata Lemes, 33, told a tribunal that she was ‘not used to wearing sexually attractive clothes’ and that the bright red dress made her feel ‘she might as well be naked.’   But today she appeared to contradict herself by posting pictures of herself on the social networking website Facebook, in which she is wearing a revealing top.   The tribunal concluded the Bosnian Muslim 'holds views about modesty and decency which some might think unusual in Britain in the 21st century' but rejected her claim that the dress, which she was asked to wear at the Rocket bar in London’s Mayfair was ‘sexually revealing and indecent.’  However it accepted that Miss Lemes genuinely believed that the short, low-cut dress was 'disgusting' and made her look 'like a prostitute'.  Her bosses should have made allowance for her feelings and their insistence that she wear the dress amounted to sexual harassment, the tribunal ruled.  The panel at Central London Employment Tribunal found that Miss Lemes overstated her trauma at being asked to wear the sleeveless dress that was open at the back. . . . But it awarded her £2,919.95 for hurt feelings and loss of earnings..  (Mail Online, 15 Jun 09)

Sikhs challenge US Army's ban on turbans, beards

Military service is in Capt. Kamaljit Singh Kalsi's blood.  His father and grandfather were part of India's Air Force. His great-grandfather served in the army in India under the British. So when U.S. Army recruiters talked to him during his first year of medical school, he readily signed up.   But his plans to go on active duty in July are now on hold. An Army policy from the 1980s that regulates the wearing of religious items would mean he would need to shave his beard and remove the turban he wears in accordance with his religious precepts.  Kalsi and another Sikh man with the same concerns, Second Lt. Tejdeep Singh Rattan, are the centerpieces of an advocacy campaign launched by the Sikh Coalition as it tries to persuade the Army to let them serve without sacrificing their articles of faith.  "I'm an American, there's no reason why I can't serve," Kalsi, 32, said.  The Army has a long-standing interest in how its members carry themselves, with policies that ban exotic hair colors, long fingernails or certain colors of lipstick. Army officials declined to comment on the reasoning behind its policy that would force the Sikh men to give up their religious displays. Sikhs who were active-duty military when the policy was adopted were allowed to continue serving without shaving their beards or removing their turbans.  (AP, 14 Jun 09)

Calls for Red Cross symbol to be axed over links to the Crusades

A Labor minister has sparked controversy by claiming that an alternative symbol is needed for the Red Cross because of the logo's supposed links to the Crusades.  Foreign Office minister Chris Bryant said that the historic emblem risked undermining the work of the humanitarian organization.  His intervention came as MPs debated the adoption of the 'red crystal' - a diamond-shaped badge - to avoid the religious connotations of the cross and crescent symbols currently used by the international body.  But critics said the new insignia was a sop to political correctness and warned that it may be the first step towards it replacing cross and crescent. Others fear that it may not be as widely recognized on the battlefield.  'It is, in an effort not to be contentious, possibly too anodyne to serve its purpose,' Tory MP John Hayes said.

Philip Davies, a Tory backbencher, said: 'At face value to the layman it seems at best a solution looking for a problem and at worst another example of extreme political correctness.  (Daily Mail, 12 Jun 09)

Muslim charities, mosques get lessons on fundraising - Goal is to reassure U.S. officials that money will never end up in terrorists' hands

In an auditorium at Elmhurst College, more than 100 leaders of area mosques and Muslim non-profits looked to an unusual mix of sources for help with one of their primary dilemmas since Sept. 11 -- how to fulfill the Islamic obligation to do charitable works, especially abroad, without drawing the attention of the FBI.
The Internal Revenue Service, the MacArthur Foundation and a group of lawyers called Muslim Advocates were on hand late last month to instruct the Chicago-area leaders in proper ways to report the collection of foreign funds, keep bookkeeping transparent and otherwise reassure U.S. officials that the money they raise never will end up in the hands of terrorists.   It was part of an effort among some Muslim groups to avoid the missteps of the past and do some housecleaning after a period in which a series of federal crackdowns led to a chill in charitable giving.  (Chicago Tribune,12 Jun 09)

Religious Studies Scholar Publishes Volume on Islam

Juan E. Campo, associate professor of religious studies at UC Santa Barbara, has published the "Encyclopedia of Islam" (Facts on File, 2009). It is part of a six-volume set titled "Encyclopedia of World Religions." The series explores the major religions of the world, emphasizing the living faiths and their historical and social backgrounds. Other volumes cover Buddhism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Judaism, and Protestantism.   "The challenge was to figure out what to include in a single-volume work," Campo said of the project. "An encyclopedia is based on the ideal of comprehensiveness, but you have to draw lines about what to include even if you have a multi-volume project in mind." Equally challenging, he noted, was the task of thinking beyond academic contexts and cultures and imagining what a reader who does not have significant background in Islam would find interesting. While he wrote the majority of the articles, he did solicit contributions from a number of faculty and advanced graduate students involved with Middle Eastern studies at UCSB.  The series is designed to appeal to high school and community college students, as well as to the general public, and each volume includes approximately 600 entries that explore the theological concepts, personalities, historical events, institutions, and movements that helped shape the history of each religion and the way it is practiced today. In the volume on Islam, Campo covers topics as varied as Akbar, anti-Semitism, colonialism, fatwa, Malcolm X, Sufism, and women. He has separated his study into four areas: Islam as the religion of Muslims; Islam as it relates to other religions, such as Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Hinduism; Islam as a civilization; and Islam and the contemporary world.  (UCSB, 11 Jun 09)

Blind passenger hounded off bus because of his dog

A driver told a blind cancer sufferer to get off his bus when a woman and her children became hysterical at the sight of his guide dog.  George Herridge, 71, told how the mum flew into a rage and shouted at him in a foreign language. A passenger explained she wanted him to get off the bus during the incident on May 20.   Mr. Herridge, from Tern Close, Tilehurst, said: “Her child was kicking and screaming and someone off the bus told me her child was frightened of my dog. The driver said, ‘Look mate, can’t you get off?’  “I stood my ground. I had not done anything, my dog had not done anything and I was getting off the bus for no one.”  The retired NHS worker claimed he was forced off a bus by a driver after a similar encounter last summer.  And a day after the latest bus incident an lady began screaming “I don’t like dirty dogs” at Mr. Herridge at the Royal Berkshire Hospital.  A week earlier he faced further animosity from a couple at Asda in The Meadway, he said  (Reading Post, 3 Jun 09)

Muslim ban on Peppa Pig

Muslim extremists have banned Peppa Pig dolls from a shopping centre claiming the children's cartoon character breaks Islamic laws.  Hardline religious leaders told shopkeepers in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, that because the dolls were based on pigs they breached muslim food laws which ban pork, reports local news website Bljesak.info.  Muslim leaders have denied trying to impose sharia law on the shopping centre but have already managed to ban alcohol and pork from all restaurants.  (Croatian Times, 11 Jun 09)

How the intellectuality of Political Islam turned into the brutality of faithful fascism

In Pakistan even the traditional Muslim practice of reasoning in matters of religion - originally introduced by the 9th century Mutazilites - is at times treated like some kind of an abomination to be feared, discouraged and repressed.  It is easy to accuse the proverbial mullah for this. And it is equally easy to blame him for being anti-intellectual and regressive.  However, over the years the conventional mullah has already lost a lot of face and respect. But this seemingly anti-mullah trend didn’t always mean the opening up of society to a more enlightening and pluralistic alternative.  On the contrary, the gap created by the conventional mullah’s gradual downfall was filled by religious scholars who only seemed to have intellectualized, modernized and politicized obscurantism. . . . There are a number of progressive Muslim scholars, especially in Turkey, Egypt, Malaysia, Algeria and Indonesia, who seem to be making deeper inroads in the 21st century Islamic reformist psyche. In Pakistan Javed Ahmed Ghamdi, the London-based Ziauddin Sardar and respected intellectual, Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy can be named.  In their work on Islam they have taken a scientific and a strictly academic approach, and are not immune to openly question the historicity of the Laws of Islam that have been handed down to us from the 8th century onwards; or a history and versions of the Shariah that started to appear almost two centuries after the demise of the Prophet.   To them the Muslims need to have an interpretative relationship with the Holy text.   (Dawn, 11 Jun 09)

'Third Jihad' Documentary Warns Against Homegrown Terrorism, Creeping Sharia

Media coverage of successful counter-terrorism operation operations has been lacking and suggests that there remains an overall lack of awareness toward well-funded, well-coordinated Jihadist efforts inside the U.S., a prominent Muslim-American has warned. Hatred of the West and the U.S. in particular was the primary drive force behind a plot that involved the potential use of explosives and missiles, according to a complaint filed in New York this past May.  The four suspects had planned to discharge explosives outside Jewish community centers and to attack U.S. military aircraft with missiles, authorities claim. This follows on the heels of a planned Jihadist assault on the Fort Dix military base in New Jersey last year that was also thwarted. “The arrest of these four individuals in New York, three of whom appear to be U.S. citizens shows that the homegrown Islamist-inspired terrorist threat is a clear and present danger,” Jasser said. “It also important to note several of the suspects had previously been in prison, which is fertile ground for Islamic radicalization.”  Jasser serves as a narrator for a new film entitled “The Third Jihad,” which explores some of the techniques sophisticated Islamists have used to exploit America’s legal system and civil liberties. The documentary’s title invokes the history and roots of the religious war known as Jihad and its role in radical Islam.   (News Busters, 10 Jun 09)

Exclusive: ‘The Third Jihad’ – An Interview with Peter Connors

The Third Jihad is a documentary about the threat of radical Islam that faces the United States and the world. Featuring interviews with many prominent individuals, including a number of contributors to FamilySecurityMatters.org, the film is being shown around the nation in an effort to educate Americans about the very real danger of Jihad.   FSM recently had the opportunity to interview Peter Connors, the Executive Director of the Clarion Fund, a non-profit, non-political media company educating the public about national security threats. Connors oversees strategic development, film distribution, screenings, and all marketing and media activities from their home office in Portsmouth, NH.

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 FSM: The brutal treatment of women under Sharia law should be a rallying cry for Western feminists – and for a time, the treatment of women in Afghanistan under the Taliban was given a lot of attention. And there have been documented cases of honor killings right here in the U.S. However, it seems as though after America under George Bush went in to Iraq, the attention given to this appalling situation seems to have gone away. Do you think there’s a connection? 

 PC: Wife beating and "honor killings" are accepted under Sharia Law and in radical Islamic societies around the world. It is especially concerning – but not surprising – that such behavior has made its way to America.  (FSM, 10 Jun 09)

Pakistani-Americans to Address State of U.S.-Pakistan Relations With Elected Officials on June 10, 2009

On Wednesday, June 10, 2009, at 4:30 p.m., at Rayburn Building, Room 369B, the Pakistani American Congress, its affiliates and community at large will come together to address the developing situation in Pakistan. Renowned scholars, elected representatives and public officials are invited to share their perspectives on "Pakistan, Taliban and the Sharia Law." We will hear from reliable sources about the realties on the ground and the daunting challenges faced by the people of Pakistan. Experts will discuss Sharia Law and its place within the Pakistani Constitution.  "For the devolvement and stability of South Asia including India and Bangladesh it is absolutely essential for the American public and their representatives to understand the realities on the ground so we don't end up making the same mistakes in Pakistan as we did in Iraq," said Faizan Haq the Senior Vice President of Pakistan American Congress.  The forum will be opened for comments and questions for journalists and community representatives.   (Press Release, 9 Jun 09)

Muslim school thrives in Nashville

Ali's daughter is one of 84 students at the preschool through sixth-grade academy, housed in a newly dedicated building on Charlotte Pike. School officials hope their new $1.25 million building will allow it to double in size.  "We are ambitious," said Amiri Yasin Al-Hadid, a former Tennessee State University professor who serves as the principal. "We want to offer a world-class education."  Al-Hadid envisions the site as a hub for a thriving Islamic community in Bellevue. About 1,500 Muslims live in the area, and that number is expected to grow, Al-Hadid said.  "The mosque is going to be the capstone," Al-Hadid said. "We have to grow the school at the same time so that the next generation will be one that attends the mosque. You can't grow a mosque or a church with senior citizens."  (Tennessean, 9 Jun 09)

Citing 9/11, more students study in the Middle East

Many students spend their Friday afternoons downing drink specials downtown. Sarah Chughtai, a UI senior, encountered closed shops and people praying in the streets.  She spent her spring semester in Egypt experiencing the Muslim culture.  Although people have expressed a greater interest in studying abroad in the Middle East, Chughtai still remains one of the few students who actually pursue the experience.  Though numbers remain low, Janis Perkins, the director of the UI Office for Study Abroad, said student interest is increasing. In the 2000 academic year, prior to the 9/11 attacks, only three UI students studied abroad in the Middle East.  But in recent years, this number soared to more than 50. Preliminary numbers for 2008-09 school year show between 50 and 60 UI students traveling to the Middle East.  According to a 2008 report from the Institute of International Education, study abroad to the Middle East increased by 7 percent nationally. But of all U.S. students studying abroad, those going to Middle East added up to only 1 percent of the total.  (Daily Iowan, 9 Jun 09)

Justice Department Files Religious Discrimination Lawsuit Against Essex County, New Jersey

The Department filed a lawsuit today against Essex County, N.J., alleging that it discriminated against a Muslim corrections officer on the basis of her religion in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The suit alleges that the county refused to permit Yvette Beshier to wear a religiously mandated headscarf while working as a corrections officer.  Title VII prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin and religion. Its religious discrimination provisions require employers to make a reasonable accommodation of employees’ religious observances and practices. The Justice Department enforces Title VII’s prohibitions against employment discrimination with respect to state and local governments.  According to the complaint, the Essex County Department of Corrections (DOC), first suspended Beshier and then terminated her on the ground that her wearing of a khimar (a head scarf) violated its uniform policy for corrections officers. The complaint alleges that Beshier had requested a religious accommodation that would permit her to wear her khimar, but the DOC denied her request.  The suit filed in U.S. District Court in Newark seeks a court order requiring Essex County to adopt a policy that reasonably accommodates the religious observances and practices of employees and prospective employees subject to the Essex County DOC’s uniform policy for corrections officers. The suit also seeks monetary damages and other relief for Beshier.  "Employees should not have to choose between their religious beliefs and their economic livelihood," said Loretta King, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. "Federal law requires all employers, even those having policies regarding the wearing of uniforms, to reasonably accommodate the religious observances and practices of their employees."  (DOJ-PR, 8 Jun 09)

Turkish language fest shows Muslim preacher’s global reach

The 700 children who have come to Turkey for the Turkish Language Olympics — an annual event described in my feature “Turkish language fest shows preacher’s global reach” — will know little if anything about the controversy here over the powerful socio-religious community behind their schools. . . . The children attend schools run by individuals or associations inspired by the teachings of Muslim preacher Fethullah Gülen. He is revered by many Turks as a tolerant, moderating force in Islam, but suspected by some secularist Turks of harbouring a covert political agenda. Gülen groups are active in publishing, inter-faith dialogue, charity and above all education. A look at the invited audience here to watch the Olympics reveals where the Gülen community fits in the social fabric of Turkey. The vast majority of the women wear the Muslim headscarf and elegant ankle-length coats. These are the same observant professionals who vote for the ruling AK Party. (Reuters, 8 Jun 09)

FM: Iran welcomes French president's remarks on Muslims' Hijab

Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki Monday welcomed the recent remarks of French President Nicholas Sarkozy on Muslim women's veil (Hijab), the official IRNA news agency reported. "His (Sarkozy's) remarks had positive impacts on the public opinion including those of the Muslim World," Mottaki told IRNA.  "The practice of discriminatory laws against Muslims in public places in several European countries including France has always been one of the issues of concern in the Muslim world, particularly those living in Europe," Mottaki was quoted as saying. Following a meeting with the U.S. President Barack Obama in Paris last week, Sarkozy said: "In France, any young girl who wishes to wear a veil or a headscarf may do so, it's her free choice." Mottaki expressed hope that the "continuation of such a process based on mutual understanding would pave the way for the constructive dialogue," IRNA said. France put ban on religious symbols and apparel in public schools in 2004.  (Xinhua, 8 Jun 09)

Religious garb open to security searches, Md. attorney general says

Muslim women and others who wear face coverings for religious purposes can be required to remove the garb to enter courthouses, Maryland's attorney general has determined in a legal opinion, raising concerns among civil liberties advocates about how the practice will be carried out.  The opinion addresses a sensitive issue that has sparked debate and outcry in recent years, including protests over the French government's ban several years ago on the Muslim hijab, or head scarf, or any religious apparel in public schools, and questions raised in the United States about the right of Muslim women to wear head coverings in driver's license photos and in courtrooms.  Responding to questions from the Prince George's County sheriff, Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler's office said it weighed the First Amendment right to freedom of religion against the state's interest in securing courthouses. It found that for security or identification, law enforcement could require individuals to temporarily remove masks, veils and other face coverings at security checkpoints if the policy is applied consistently.  To minimize potential conflicts, Gansler's office suggests that security details have male and female officers and that a private space be set aside at courthouse entrances for those whose religion discourages them from removing a head covering in public or in front of a member of the opposite sex.  While Gansler's opinion deals specifically with facial coverings, Rocah raised concerns that it could be interpreted to apply to other kinds of head coverings, such as turbans worn by Sikhs or habits by nuns. "From the perspective of religious adherents, they don't care whether it is a law of general applicability," Rocah said. "All they know and experience is that something for them that's a religious tenet is suddenly illegal or not allowed."  (Baltimore Sun, 5 Jun 09)

Lord Tebbit compares Sharia law with Kray twins' arbitration system

Lord Tebbit, the former Conservative chairman, has compared Sharia law with the system of arbitration run by the Kray brothers in London's East End.  The former Cabinet minister used the example of the twins - Ronnie and Reggie - who ran an underworld empire in the 1950s and 60s, to highlight the problem of women precluded from access to British law by some cultures.  At question time in the Lords, Lord Bach had told peers that individuals have "the option to use religious councils or any other system of alternative dispute resolution" but that English law would prevail if there was any conflict.  But Lord Tebbit said: "A few years ago in the East End of London there was a system of arbitration of disputes that was run by the Kray brothers.

"Are you not not aware that there is extreme pressure put upon vulnerable women to go through a form of arbitration that results in them being virtually precluded from access to British law?  "That is a difficult matter, I know, but how do you think we can help those who are put in that position?"   Responding, Lord Bach acknowledged that the problem "undoubtedly exists", but added: "The fact is any decision made by anybody that is in fact outside English law cannot stand against English law. So if consent is sought, for example, for some issue around children or to do with family assets, then the English courts decide. "Other councils - not courts - can, if the parties themselves want to make that agreement, make that agreement and that applies across the board. But always behind that is the fact that those agreements can't be enforced except by an English court."

Lord Bach later said that Sharia law is "not part of the law of the United Kingdom" and the Government he "no intention" of changing the position.  (Telegraph, 5 Jun 09)

May 2009

Court allows Mich. man’s AIG suit over Islamic insurance to go forward

The U.S. District Court hearing a challenge by a Michigan man against the federal government for bailing out insurance giant AIG because the company sells Shariah-compliant insurance policies to Muslims in the U.S. and abroad has denied a motion to dismiss (PDF) the suit and allowed the case to move forward.
The case, Murray v Geithner, was filed last December by the Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center, founded by Domino’s creator Tom Monaghan. The TMLC calls itself the “sword and shield for people of faith,” but in this case, the group argues that because the U.S. government now owns a substantial piece of AIG after the bailout, the fact that the company markets products to Muslims that comply with their faith makes the bailout unconstitutional.

The complaint filed in the case argues that the funds given to AIG by the federal government as part of the financial bailout “are being used to finance Shariah-based Islamic religious activities in violation of the Establishment Clause.” The government immediately moved to dismiss the case, arguing that the plaintiff lacks standing to bring the suit. They base this on a series of Supreme Court rulings limiting the standing of plaintiffs to bring Establishment Clause suits merely because they are taxpayers and some tax money may be used wrongly.

Judge Lawrence Zatkoff, a Ronald Reagan appointee, ruled that the plaintiffs do have standing to bring the suit. He did not rule on the merits of the case, only concluding that the plaintiff’s allegations “raise a question of whether the Government’s involvement with AIG has created the effect of promoting religion and sufficiently raise Plaintiff’s claim beyond the speculative level, warranting dismissal inappropriate at this stage in the proceedings.”

When the suit was filed late last year, one of the foremost legal experts on the First Amendment, Eugene Volokh of the UCLA Law School, wrote that the legal theory the case was based on was exceedingly weak   (Michigan Messenger, 29 May 09)

Muslim marriage law case: Judgment reserved

Judgement was reserved yesterday in an application to the Constitutional Court to force Parliament and the President to enact a law recognizing Muslim marriages.

The court narrowed its argument to whether it could tell Parliament or the President what to do in terms of law- making, and whether it should be the first court to hear the matter.  Andrew Breitenbach, lawyer for the Women’s Legal Centre Trust, was hoping to convince the court to order the President and Parliament to enact the Muslim Marriages Bill, which the trust claims has been sitting unattended since 2003.

He said that currently, for example, if a Muslim woman married under sharia law – which sets out the way Muslims should live their lives – wants to get divorced, she has to argue in a court whether this can be done under the Divorce Act, or whether she must seek a solution under religious laws.  There were also disputes over what the rules were that governed a marriage in terms of Islamic law. He said that taking a dispute to a high court was expensive and difficult to manage for women who may not be well educated.  Breitenbach said he and his client did not want the Constitutional Court to tell Parliament and the President what should be in an Act, but just that they should pass an Act.  This would be to have a law that was in line with the Bill of Rights, which ensured equality and dignity.  However, the court asked if it was entitled to tell Parliament to pass a law. “Only the Constitutional Court can decide whether Parliament or the President has failed to provide a constitutional obligation,” submitted Breitenbach.  (Dispatch, 21 May 09)

Muslim mother who sent her school age daughters to Pakistan to marry their cousins is jailed for 3 years

A Muslim mother who forced her two daughters to marry their cousins in Pakistan has been jailed for three years and ordered to sign the Sex Offenders' Register.

She told her elder daughter that if she didn't have sex with her new husband, she would tie her to the bed, blindfold and strip her, a court heard.

The woman, from south Manchester, also said she would be there to make sure the marriage was consummated. She cannot be named to protect the teenage victims.

She was convicted of inciting or causing a child to engage in sexual activity; two charges of arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence; and two of intending to pervert the course of justice. She had denied all charges.

Judge Clement Goldstone QC ordered that she sign the Sex Offenders' Register for life and told her: 'You have absolutely no idea of the enormity of what you have done or its effect upon your daughters. 

'Forced marriage is cruel - it deprives children, your children, of their basic human rights. It must, and will, be distinguished by the courts from arranged marriage, which is conventional in many religions and societies.'

She was found guilty in April and sentenced at Manchester Crown Court yesterday. . . . The mother took her daughters to Pakistan in 2007 for a family wedding, the court heard. But within a month, both were engaged to their first cousins.  Judge Goldstone said: 'Everyone is entitled to his or her beliefs... but those who choose to live in this country and who - like you - are British subjects, must not abandon our laws in pursuit of those beliefs and that culture.   (Daily Mail, 21 May 09)

Welcome to Faith Complex - First Guest: Asra Nomani

Today marks the launch of Faith Complex--a show about the collision of religion, politics and art. Faith Complex is a joint production of Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs and Program for Jewish Civilization. We are delighted to be teaming up again with our old ale-house cronies at the Washington Post "On Faith" page.   Today we invite you to view Part I of our interview with Asra Nomani, entitled "A Bad Girl of Islam." This is the prelude to Part II, "Take Back Your Mosque!," which airs this Friday.   (Newsweek, 21 May 09)

Video: A Bad Girl of Islam

BBC: “Just Another Fatwa Machine”

The BBC has a new religious programming director, and he is a Muslim. An undercurrent of not-quite-articulated consternation seems to flow through many Brit media accounts of this “first,” most of which exempts the new director, Aaqil Ahmed, himself. This main line of argument sticks to the plain statistical fact that Britain remains a Christian country, with 70 percent of the population C of E, and only 2 to 3 percent Muslim — so why should the Beeb put such a post in Muslim hands? The main exception is a piece titled “Hire a Muslim, Just Not This Muslim,” but even this piece is a little oblique as to Ahmed’s career. That is, what has Ahmed actually done at his previous post directing religious programing at Britain’s Channel 4?   Just for fun I Googled Ahmed’s name plus the word “sharia” and actually came up with a Channel 4 series called, on the level, Sharia TV. Here is a 2007 discussion on it from a site called Asians in Media:  

When it was first launched three years ago, Channel 4 commissioner Aaqil Ahmed told AIM magazine: “Shariah TV might not be the first series about the Muslim community, but it will be the first program to give the Muslim community ownership of their own show.  “I always ask that question, who owns that program? Do the kids in Bradford, Blackburn or Oldham have any say in British media? We want it to be informative, but we also want them to feel that it was made for them,” he added at the time.  (Canada Free Press/Diana West, 21 May 09)

Curriculum of hatred

An article in The Guardian focuses on a matter that our academics have been trying to highlight for at least a decade. It has been observed that the texts used in state-run schools foster religious extremism in a less blatant but more ubiquitous way than the infamous madressahs. By propagating concepts such as jihad, the inferiority of non-Muslims, India’s ingrained enmity with Pakistan, etc., the textbook board publications used by all government schools promote a mindset that is bigoted and obscurantist. Since there are more children studying in these schools than in madressahs the damage done is greater. A lot of research has been conducted on the contents of textbooks by teachers and sociologists who have compiled voluminous reports to persuade the education authorities to take corrective measures. Thanks to their efforts the dangerous implications of having such books in the school curricula are now being recognized.  But the process of change is not easy to initiate and implement when obscurantist forces are so firmly entrenched in every walk of life, especially in the education sector. In 2004 when an attempt was made to slightly modify a biology textbook that contained a Quranic verse on jihad, it backfired leading to the resignation of the education minister Zubeida Jalal. Once again, the government has announced that all textbooks are being revised to purge them of inflammatory material. When the changes will be made is anyone’s guess. The education policy, which should normally set the guidelines on curricula development and textbook policy, has been put on the back burner.  The fact is that the minds of generations of schoolchildren are being perverted by our public school system. It is not just the textbooks that are preaching hatred, violence and intolerance. The teachers who are the products of this system can teach no better. With a few noble exceptions, they make their students swallow hook, line and sinker what the books say without even attempting to moderate the ideas conveyed.   (Dawn, 20 May 09)

Europe’s Helping Hand To Female Genital Mutilation

Frontpage Interview's guest is Ines Laufer, founder of the Task Force for Effective Prevention of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), a network of Human-Rights-organizations and activists that is committed to measurable, broad prevention of genital mutilation among migrant girls in the EU. With the Task Force's prevention-program, for the first time true protection of minor girls from this violence comes into reach.  Laufer: European governmental and non-governmental development-policy widely undermines and hinders the efforts to eradicate FGM in African/Arab/Asian countries.

 Since the early 1980’s, there have been numerous initiatives, networks and organizations on the African continent that are committed to the eradication of FGM in their countries. The largest network - that is still active today - is the InterAfrican Committé (IAC) which was  founded in 1984. At that time, the majority of development-agencies, as well as the World Health Organization, UNICEF and other UN-agencies, refused to put the problem of FGM on their agenda and to support initiatives like the IAC, because they did not want to “interfere into a cultural custom.”. . . . to UNICEF Germany, the German people donated more than half a million D-Mark alone in 1994, for a FGM-project in Ethiopia – after a TV-broadcast and big article in STERN-magazine witnessed the live-mutilation of an Ethiopian girl-victim.   Today, 15 years later, UNICEF Germany still requires money for this project – that is likely to have yielded a few million Euros over the time (which is only an estimation, because UNICEF refuses to disclose the true amount). Only recently asked for measurable results of this concrete project – within such a long time - UNICEF is not able to give concrete answers. Obviously, because there aren’t lasting results. This would not even be a big surprise – because so-called “education-campaigns” which are destined to teach the mutilating families and mutilators about the devastating effects of FGM, generally widely failed. (FrontPage, 20 May 09)

Somali justice - Islamist-style

The dusty streets of Kismayo in Somalia echoed to the sound of a vehicle with loudspeakers summoning residents to a new form of public "entertainment" earlier this month.  People were being invited to see a man have his hand chopped off in a public park in the city.   The young man, Mohamed Omar Ismail, had been found guilty of stealing goods from another man's house.   That afternoon, hundreds of local people flocked to Freedom Park in order to see the amputation.  After a long wait, Mr Ismail was brought out in front of the people and an official started to read out the court decision from a piece of paper.  "The Islamic Sharia court of Kismayo district confirms that Mohamed Omar Ismail has been found guilty of stealing," the official announced.  "Mr Ismail stole 10 pairs of trousers, 10 shirts, eight other items and a bag. The value of all the items is estimated to be $90."  The official quoted a chapter from the Koran known as Surah Maida, verse 38, which is about stealing and relevant punishment.  He said that the verse decreed that punishment for stealing was that the right hand of the thief should be cut off.   (BBC, 20 May 09)

Islam and hip-hop

.. . . .mark your calendars for June 21. That’s when PBS will be airing “New Muslim Cool,” which is a documentary that takes a look at the fusion of Islam and hip-hop. Here’s a synopsis of the show:

Puerto Rican-American rapper Hamza Pérez pulled himself out of drug dealing and street life 12 years ago and became a Muslim. Now he’s moved to Pittsburgh’s tough North Side to start a new religious community, rebuild his shattered family and take his message of faith to other young people through hard-hitting hip-hop music. But when the FBI raids his mosque, Hamza must confront the realities of the post-9/11 world, and himself. “New Muslim Cool” takes viewers on Hamza’s ride through streets, slums and jail cells - following his spiritual journey to some surprising places in an America that never stops changing.  (Matter of Faith, 20 May 09)

Eurabia Has A Capital: Rotterdam

One of the most indisputable results of Benedict XVI's trip to the Holy Land was the improvement in relations with Islam. The three days he spent in Jordan, and then, in Jerusalem, the visit to the Dome of the Mosque, spread an image among the Muslim general public – to an extent never before seen – of a pope as a friend, surrounded by Islamic leaders happy to welcome him and work together with him for the good of the human family.  But just as indisputable is the distance between this image and the harsh reality of the facts. Not only in countries under Muslim regimes, but also where the followers of Mohammed are in the minority, for example in Europe.  In 2002, the scholar Bat Ye'or, a British citizen born in Egypt and a specialist in the history of the Christian and Jewish minorities in Muslim countries – called the "dhimmi" – coined the term "Eurabia" to describe the fate toward which Europe is moving. It is a fate of submission to Islam, of "dhimmitude." . . . . Holland is an extraordinary test case. It is the country in which individual license is the most extensive – to the point of permitting euthanasia on children – in which the Christian identity is most faded, in which the Moslem presence is growing most boldly. . . . There is one city in Holland where this new reality can be seen with the naked eye, more than anywhere else. Here, entire neighborhoods look as if they have been lifted from the Middle East, here stand the largest mosques in Europe, here parts of sharia law are applied in the courts and theaters, here many of the women go around veiled, here the mayor is a Muslim, the son of an imam.   (Chiesa, 19 May 09)

Islamic groups want Sharia law in Germany

The annual report for the Protection of the Constitution revealed that active groups like 'Milli Görüs' want to be able to live under the strict Islamic rules.

And the secret service's yearly report, which will be revealed today by Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, contains some other shocking warnings:

• Increasing numbers of Islamic fundamentalists - mostly second generation immigrants and radical converts - are travelling from Germany to Pakistan to visit terror camps run by al-Qaeda and other similar groups.

• German interests at home and abroad are in danger. The report reveals that Germany is an 'immediate target' for Islamist terror groups.

• The internet is the most important communication and propaganda instrument – and terror groups are getting more professional at using it.

The report for the Protection of the Constitution gave several other warnings:

• There was a marked rise in the number of radical right-wing crimes - up 15.8 per cent to 19,894, of which more than 1,000 were violent.   (Bild, 19 May 09)

Muslim Row

The Bible-belt state of Tennessee is not known to have been targeted by Al-Qaeda or any other radical Islamic terrorist group, but the Volunteer State may be becoming a hotbed for the growth of extremism. Reports from Nashville, Shelbyville, and Dover indicate that Tennessee has gradually become a stronghold for radical Islamic forces that are transforming parts of the state.  On May 13, I reported on the discovery of extremism at the Al-Farooq Mosque in Nashville by award-winning counter-terrorism expert Dave Gaubatz, an individual that once held top-secret security clearance as an agent for the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations. The library carried extremist texts and audio tapes by known radicals such as Syed Maududi and Ali Al-Tamimi, who was convicted for his role in terrorism. One calls for the killing of homosexuals, and another describes how Muslims not engaged in taking up an armed jihad must “strengthen the capability of those fighting on the front line.” Other texts were found  by his female researcher when a member of the mosque brought her to a Somali store in Nashville that was well hidden because of what the mosque attendee described as “government problems.”  . . . . Al-Farooq Mosque is attended by many Somali immigrants, and Islamic websites say that services are offered in Somali. Nashville alone is home to about 5,000 such immigrants, and their lack of assimilation is becoming a common complaint in Tennessee. The town of Shelbyville is the most dramatic example of this problem.  Brian Moseley of the Shelbyville Times-Gazzette has written an award-winning series about the impact of these refugees on the town of 17,000.   Moseley says that the local authorities described being frequently disrespected by the Somali immigrants, which number between 400 and 1,000, and are noticing that many become involved with gangs. 

. . . . The presence of a radical Islamic compound in Dover makes the potential for radicalization among these Somalis much more dangerous. According to unconfirmed reports received by the Christian Action Network, where I serve as a national security researcher, some of these Somalis have moved to this compound, run by a group called Muslims of America, a front for Jamaat ul-Fuqra. The residents here are followers of a radical Muslim cleric named Sheikh Mubarak Gilani, who currently lives in Lahore, Pakistan.  (FrontPage, 19 May 09)

Are Somali Jihadists in Nashville?   (FSM, 17 Mar 09)

US scholars planning Islamic college

A group of American Muslims, led by two prominent scholars, is moving closer to fulfilling a vision of founding the first four-year accredited Islamic college in the United States, what some are calling a "Muslim Georgetown."  Advisers to the project have scheduled a June vote to decide whether the proposed Zaytuna College can open in the fall of next year, a major step toward developing the faith in America.  Imam Zaid Shakir and Sheik Hamza Yusuf of California have spent years planning the school, which will offer a liberal arts education and training in Islamic scholarship. Shakir, a California native, sees the school in the tradition of other religious groups that formed universities to educate leaders and carve a space in the mainstream of American life.  "As a faith community our needs aren't any different than the needs of any other faith community," Shakir told the Council for the Advancement of Muslim Professionals, as he sought donations at a recent conference near Princeton, N.J. "As Muslims, we need to develop institutions to allow us to perpetuate our values."

. . . . Shakir, an African-American Air Force veteran, and Yusuf, a native of Washington state, are converts who spent years studying with Islamic scholars in North Africa and the Mideast. They speak flawless Arabic and have become widely respected teachers. Yusuf draws thousands of people to his talks and tens of thousands of viewers to his online lectures.  In 1996, Yusuf founded Zaytuna Institute, now based in Berkeley, Calif., which is dedicated to classical Muslim scholarship. Zaytuna means "olive tree" in Arabic.  (AP, 17 May 09)

Angry planners approve Handsworth pub’s conversion into mosque

The conversion of a derelict inner-city pub into a mosque, carried out without planning permission, has been given the green light by councilors.  The Planning Committee was furious that owners of the former Bulls Head pub in Birchfield Road, Handsworth, had carried out the building work and extensions before securing their approval.  But they decided that the mosque was better than a boarded-up pub and reluctantly agreed to allow it.  Committee member Coun Margaret Waddington (Con, Sutton Trinity) said: “They know they had to have planning permission before they did anything, and yet here we are looking at an application retrospectively.

“I would not be inclined to support this for that reason, but looking at the site, the mosque would be better for local people than a derelict building attracting vandalism and anti-social behavior.”  The committee decided to approve the mosque, but has ordered visitor numbers to be monitored to ensure they do not exceed the limit of 100.  They also warned other developers that retrospective permission would not be tolerated and they are to launch a campaign to ensure people are aware they need to get planning permission.  (Birmingham Mail, 18 May 09)

Islamic Idol: Music spreading message of faith

Flames burst from the stage for a grand entrance, and fake fog swirls around a young man in a white robe. He clutches the microphone, gazes seriously into the camera and then, accompanied only by drums, he sings.

"I accept Allah as my God, His religion as my religion, and His Messenger as my Messenger," he intones, as the audience, divided into men's and women's sections, claps along with the rhythm.  The singer is a contestant on a new Islamic version of "American Idol," launched to promote and drum up talent for one of the Arab world's newest Islamic pop music video channels.   The satellite station, 4shbab - Arabic for "For the Youth" - is the brainchild of an Egyptian media worker, Ahmed Abu Heiba, who says his mission is to spread the message that observant Muslims can also be modern and in touch with today's world.  "We have failed to deliver this message," Abu Heiba said in an interview on the sidelines of the contest, aired in late April. "What I am trying to do is to use the universal language of music to show what Islam looks like."  (AP, 17 May 09)

RADICALISM: Americans can’t grow complacent to threat of stealth jihad

Dorrie O’Brien of Grand Prairie, a chapter leader for ACT! for America, gave a presentation May 4 in Fort Worth that was reported in an article titled "DFW Muslims offended by speech at Republican Women’s meeting."  O’Brien’s presentation was a warning about Islamic radicalism and the Muslim Brotherhood’s infiltration of America.  One local Muslim was reported as accusing her of "hate speech." Another sent an e-mail to political officials comparing O’Brien to the Nazis.  But none of those engaged in the name-calling and character attacks on O’Brien rebutted her factual presentation about the Muslim Brotherhood and the threat of "stealth jihad."

So who is the Muslim Brotherhood and why is ACT! for America so concerned about it and why you should be as well?  The Muslim Brotherhood, the world’s oldest and most sophisticated Islamic terrorist group, was created in Egypt and boasts 70 off-shoot terrorist and front organizations operating throughout the world, including Hamas and al Qaeda.  In 2001, a Muslim Brotherhood document was found detailing a 100-year plan for radical Islam to infiltrate and subvert the West and "establish an Islamic government on earth." In counterterrorism circles this document became known as "The Project."  The Muslim Brotherhood Project includes methods other than violence to implement cultural jihad and establish a world Islamic Caliphate. It gives specific tactics and relies on the non-Muslim population of the West to unsuspectingly endorse and embrace it in the name of multiculturalism, tolerance and freedom of religion.   (Star-Telegram, 14 May 09)

Muslim doctor blames prayers for dismissal

A Muslim doctor who was dismissed from her job claims she was discriminated against on religious grounds because she wanted to attend a mosque for prayers every Friday, a tribunal heard yesterday.  Dr Musarrat Syed-Shah, 31, is alleging religious discrimination and victimization against four partners from the North Leeds Medical Practice after her partnership agreement was terminated on August 8 last year.

The employment tribunal in Leeds heard that Dr Syed-Shah claims the other doctors were "unhappy" about her attending the weekly prayers.  Michael McDonough, for Dr Syed-Shah, told the tribunal: "They were unhappy with her attending the mosque for Friday prayers and they applied a condition to her which was not applied to anyone else by saying they were not allowed to leave the surgery between sessions."
Mr. McDonough continued: "Following the notice of termination on August 8, she was expressly forbidden from going to the mosque from August 8 till the end of her contract." 

. . . . On being given the job, Dr Syed-Shah said she requested Fridays off but was told it was not convenient.

However, she believed her sessions could be arranged to allow time in between to visit the mosque for Friday prayers, and said the practice manager, Sharon James, and one of the other partners, Dr Manjit Purewal, agreed there would be no problem with this.    (Yorkshire Report, 15 May 09)

New religious affairs directorate office to work to dispel misunderstanding of Islam in Europe

Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate next month will open an office in Brussels to educate Europe about Islam, in line with a decision made during Pope Benedict XVI's 2005 visit to Turkey. During the visit, it was decided that Turkey's presence in Europe proves the possibility of Islam and Christianity's peaceful coexistence. It was also concluded that Turkey, with its secular state and Muslim identity, could be a good reference for Muslims living in Europe. In order to block efforts to sow misunderstandings about Islam and stir up Islamophobia in the continent, the directorate decided to open a bureau in the European capital. This decision was also supported by the pope. It is hoped that the office will counter efforts to inflame Islamophobia. Work to make the idea a reality was accelerated in light of the Alliance of Civilizations project, co-chaired by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Spanish counterpart, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. The bureau, which will work as a research center, will be opened by directorate head Ali Bardakoğlu. Its establishment has been closely followed and supported by the European Union. Primarily targeting Turks living in Europe, the office will also organize interfaith dialogue activities. Five secretaries and 30 theologians will be employed in Brussels for these purposes.   (Dunya Gazetesi, 14 May 09)

Documentary Warns Against “Cultural Jihad” Operating Within the U.S.

Radical Islam is coming to America in subtle, sophisticated ways as part of a cultural jihad set up to undermine democratic traditions from within and to make way for a new theocratic state in the U.S.

This is the central message of “The Third Jihad: Radical Islam’s Vision for America” a documentary that was screened at the National Press Club Wednesday night. The film suggests that the current struggle between the west and international terrorist networks is actually the third in a series of jihads that date back to 630 AD and 1453 AD . . . . Although the threat of radical Islam is not as front and center in the U.S. as it is in Europe ,it could gain a significant foothold over the next few decades if certain cultural and political trends go unchecked, Jasser and other commentators warn.  The film focuses on the discovery of a Muslim Brotherhood memo called “a Grand Jihad Manifesto” that calls for the destruction of the U.S. and the establishment of a radical Islamist Theocracy in its place. This same document spells out the strategies and techniques that are folded into the “cultural jihad” now at work in the U.S. and in other western societies.  Jasser and other speakers featured in the documentary call on American Muslims to take a firm stand against radical elements and to resist the imposition of parallel societies where Sharia law holds sway over prevailing customs.  (Washington Examiner, 13 May 09)

YouTube Video: Muslim Demographics  

Muslim veils removed for ID

Observant Muslim women in Denmark will have to remove their face veils when their travel passes are being checked, one of the country's leading transport operators, Arriva, said on Wednesday.  Danish bus companies have introduced the rule after two incidents where Arriva drivers refused to allow passengers wearing the face veil, or niqab, to travel on their buses.  'All bus companies have recently come to an agreement on this point as it is normal that passengers holding photo travel passes should identify themselves to the driver or the conductor,' Arriva spokesman Martin Wex said.  Those passengers who refuse to show their faces will be forced to buy another ticket to get on board.  (Straits Times, 13 May 09)

Somalia President signs Islamic sharia bill into law

Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed on Wednesday signed into law a parliament-passed bill introducing the Islamic Sharia law in Somalia as eight people were killed and fifteen others were wounded in fresh fighting that erupted in Mogadishu between government forces and Islamist fighters.  President Ahmed said since Somalia has an Islamic law he sees no reason for the continuation of hostilities in the country where nearly a week of clashes raged between the government forces and allied Islamist fighters from the hardline Al-Shabaab movement and Hezul Islam faction.  The Somali parliament unanimously endorsed the implementation of the Islamic Sharia law in the war-torn country last month. The introduction of the sharia law has been a key government promise and a demand of the armed opposition groups who rejected the passing of the Sharia bill by parliament as a plot.  In Mogadishu, refresh fighting broke out between Somali government forces Islamist insurgent fighters after a day of relative lull in the fighting that lasted for nearly a week. Witnesses and hospital sources said almost eight people including three children were killed while more than fifteen others were wounded in the artillery and mortar shell duel between government forces backed by African Union peacekeepers and Islamist fighters.  The fighting between the two sides broke out last Thursday and escalated over the weekend claiming the lives of nearly 150 and wounding more than 400, according to a local humanitarian organization.  (Xinhua, 13 May 09)

Debate in Saudi Arabia over Women in Media

In a recently issued communiqué, 35 Saudi clerics called on the country's newly appointed culture and information minister, 'Abd Al-'Aziz Khoja, to improve the moral standards of the Saudi media. The clerics' main complaint was that the visibility of women in the media contravened shari'a as well as Saudi law. They also complained that the media was contaminating Saudi society with secular and "perverted" ideas.  In response to the communiqué, Saudi columnist 'Ali Sa'd Al-Moussa published a satirical open letter to the minister, in which he parodied the clerics' appeal and condemned their religious extremism. Another response was published by liberal Saudi writer Sami Jassem Al-Khalifa, who called to increase women's visibility in the media, and to promote pluralism in Saudi society. . . . The communiqué, which appeared in the Saudi press and websites, stated: "[Minister Khoja,] we have high hopes that you will reform the media in accordance with Allah's will. We have become aware of a deviant tendency that has taken root in the culture ministry, [and which is apparent] in TV, radio and the press, in literary conferences and at book fairs: The culture ministry is promoting a campaign of Westernizing the Saudi woman, [encouraging her] to remove her veil, wear jewelry, and mingle with men, and is [generally] opening the door to liberal ideas. [The ministry permits the airing of] music and songs and the publishing of images of women. It is also training women and female singers, and making an effort to allow men and women to mingle in the ministry building [itself]. In addition, it permits the circulation of licentious papers and magazines, which contain perverted ideas and [present] sensuous pictures of women on their pages and covers.

"These things are undoubtedly forbidden. They violate official Saudi laws and royal decrees pertaining to the media, from which nobody is exempt. Among the laws [and regulations] it violates are the following   (MEMRI, 12 May 09)

Wife-slapping not OK in Islam

Qanta Ahmed is the author of "In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Journey in the Saudi Kingdom." An M.D., she is an attending physician based in the Division of Pulmonary, Sleep and Critical Care Medicine at Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola, New York, and a fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.  A judge in Saudi Arabia has said husbands are allowed to slap their wives if they spend lavishly, a Saudi newspaper reported this past weekend. In one fell swoop, the judge debased Islam, vilified the kingdom and disregarded the ideals the Saudi monarch himself embraces. Islam is very clear on this issue: Both a husband physically chastising his wife for "overspending" and a judge "upholding justice" by sanctioning this abuse would be acting counter to Islam's ideals of compassion and justice.  There is no basis in Islamic theology to support domestic abuse of any kind and specifically none pertaining to the matter of a wife's spending pattern. What is critically important to note is that the judge is flagrantly in opposition to King Abdullah's very public stance against both domestic violence and myopic clerics.  The stark abasement of Islam that such a puritanical, backward-thinking judge would exact by issuing ridiculous decisions invites special scorn from the royal camp.  (CNN, 12 May 09)

Children Indoctrinated with Antisemitism on an Egyptian-Saudi Koran-Memorization Channel

Following are excerpts from a TV program for children, which aired on Al-Hafez TV, an Egyptian-Saudi Koran-memorization channel, on April 27, 2009:

. . . . TV host: One of the tribes of the Jews in the Arabian Peninsula lived in Khaybar. We said we would devote a special program to Khaybar, because it is very similar to what is going on in Palestine with the Jews.

Some of the Jews who used to live in Al-Madina... We've talked about them before, right? Who were they?

Children: Bani Nadhir.

Host: That's right. Who else?

Children: Bani Qaynuqa'.

Host: Bani Qaynuqa' and Bani Qurayza. So there were three Jewish tribes living in Al-Madina. They violated one treaty after another, and the Prophet Muhammad banished them from Al-Madina. Where did they all gather, Muhammad? They all gathered in Khaybar. Where?

Muhammad: In Khaybar.

TV host: Khabyar become a center that was dangerous to the Muslims. There was discord coming from Khaybar. From Khaybar, they would instigate disagreement among the Muslims. All the bad stuff was coming from which den?

Muhammad: From Khaybar.

TV host: So the Prophet Muhammad had to put an end to the anarchy coming from there. Of course, the Jews, by their nature, know that their confrontation with the Muslims will come for sure. For sure. Why Maryam? Because our hatred towards the Jews is perpetual and continuous. When the Jews realized that Muhammad is the Prophet, they acknowledged that their hatred of him is forever – that they would be his enemies all their lives.

This is happening to this day. It is even said in the Koran: "You shall find the strongest people in enmity to the believers to be the Jews and the polytheists." The Jews. They are. . . Who is the greatest enemy of Islam? The Jews. They use any possible means. They cast doubt on the Koran and the sirra of our Prophet Muhammad. They try to distort the Koran, but our God protects it: "We have revealed the message, and we will most surely be its guardian." They do all they can to hurt the Muslims' feelings and to harm their holy places.  (MEMRI TV, 27 Apr 09)

BBC names first Muslim head of religious programs

The BBC has appointed its first Muslim head of religious programming, in a move likely to further raise concerns within the Church of England that Christian views were being sidelined.  Aaqil Ahmed will join the state-funded broadcaster from privately run Channel 4 television and take up a new joint role of Head of Religion and Ethics and Commissioning Editor for Religion TV, the BBC announced Monday.  Ahmed commissioned programs examining both Christianity and Islam for Channel 4, as well as the BAFTA-winning documentary "Saving Africa's Witch Children" about children in poor parts of Nigeria being blamed for witchcraft.  The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, the leader of the world's Anglicans, was reported last month to have told BBC Director-General Mark Thompson that he feared the "Christian voice" was being marginalized.  A spokesman for the archbishop declined to comment on Ahmed's appointment.  But another senior cleric, the Bishop of Manchester, Nigel McCulloch, said the church would closely monitor the BBC's religious output under its new chief . . . . It is only the second time in the BBC's 87-year history that a non-Christian has held the position. Alan Bookbinder, an agnostic, filled the role from 2001 to 2006. (AFP, 12 May 09)

Denounce Muslim group, UC Irvine chancellor urged

Nearly 2,700 people have signed an online petition encouraging a California university chancellor to publicly condemn an annual Muslim student event.  The document urges University of California, Irvine's Michael Drake to denounce the Muslim Student Union's "Israel: The Politics of Genocide" event, which began May 5 and runs through May 21.  "As an American, you have the right to speak out and explicitly denounce anti-Semitism, especially when it occurs on your campus," the petition reads. "As an educational leader, you have the moral obligation to speak out."  The petition also calls on Drake to condemn the Muslim group as a whole, alleging that it consistently violates a campus pledge to create "a learning climate free from expressions of bigotry."

The Irvine campus has been a hotbed of pro-Palestinian activism, and Drake himself has drawn fire in the past from some Jewish groups who have urged him to publicly denounce activity that is said to cross the line into anti-Semitism. Drake thus far has declined to denounce specific activities, speaking out only against hate speech in general.  The two-week program features lectures from noted Palestinian activists such as British Parliament member George Galloway and former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, among other events.  (JTA, 12 May 09)

Reduced to Pulp -  British Publisher is persuaded that an Encyclopedia of Christianity with Christian Content Not a Good Idea

It is now a commonplace under our governing rubric of multiculturalism to worry about discrimination against any and all religions except Christianity. The irony is, of course, that actual hate speech and actions directed against other religions are extremely rare, while Christianity is considered fair game for criticism and even denigration. In short, Islamophobia is a no-no, but Christophobia is a yes-yes.  A fascinating case of Christophobia is detailed in the March, 2009, edition of the monthly arts review, The New Criterion. In their Notes & Comments section, the editors chronicle a cautionary tale that recalls in its implications the Nazi book-burnings of works by Jewish writers in the 1930s . . . . Four (please note: only four of many editors and the aforementioned 400 contributors) of the encyclopedia's editorial board members wrote a litany of complaints to Harkin and Kurian. They objected to the "highly negative, even racist characterization of Islam" in the encyclopedia's introduction. They felt Kurian's "malignant assumptions" did "nothing to advance scholarly understanding" and demanded Kurian modify his introduction "to remove the offence thrust at Islam and other religions and to moderate the tone of confrontation and polemic." . . . . Sociologist Alvin Schmidt, author of about 70 articles in the encyclopedia, told The New Criterion that never before in his academic life had he "run into this kind of politically correct nonsense." I am sure that from now on, we will all be seeing "this kind of politically correct nonsense" amongst publishers with greater and greater frequency.  Christophobia, and by extension, hatred of Western civilization, is on the march.  (Mercatornet, 11 May 09)

Stealth Jihad and Dhimmitude – growing apace at the UN Castle: Durban II, Human Rights Council ‘Rules’ and a Kangaroo Court

Comments by David G. Littman, NGO Representative of the Association for World Education (AWE) and World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ) to the United Nations in Geneva:

. . . . To really taste the Kafkaesque ambiance that is seeping into Geneva’s ‘Castle’ of Human Rights, it is necessary to follow in depth some of these ‘inner sanctum mysteries’ and ‘rules’. My promised point by point documentation follows. Thanks to the efforts of a friendly ambassador and a senior UN official – they have my heartfelt appreciation – my UN badge was only “suspended” for one month, but, shamefully, the Kangaroo Court’s “decision” was announced in writing by NGO Liaison Officer Ricardo Espinosa, on behalf of “the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights”, but probably unknown to the HCHR herself.  (Jihad Watch, 11 May 09)

UN sanctions human-rights activist David Littman

The United Nations human-rights office on Friday banned for a month an accredited human-rights activist who was at the centre of a recent controversy involving Canada's top diplomat in Geneva.  David Littman of the World Union for Progressive Judaism said he is convinced his protest over the incident involving Canada's Ambassador Marius Grinius provided impetus for the UN to move against him.

In a March 6 debate in the UN Human Rights Council, Grinius used his position as chair to prevent Littman from completing a statement describing bias in Islamic books against Israel and Jews. The office of Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon said Grinius had acted on advice from the UN secretariat, but added the ambassador had been wrong to cut Littman short.  Insiders said a number of UN officials were embarrassed over the matter, which contrasted the relatively limited criticism in the Council of controversial Islamic practices compared to the number of harangues against Israel by the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) states.  A letter informing Littman of the suspension lists several rules governing activist participation in council debates, but says the sanction against him is based on an "understanding" reached at a meeting April 30 to which senior UN officials had summoned him.  "I came to no understanding at the meeting, nor did I confess any guilt," Littman said from Geneva.  (CanWest, 8 May 09)

Muslim chef sues Britain’s largest police force over cooking pork request

A Muslim chef is suing Britain’s largest police force, claiming he suffered religious discrimination because he was expected to cook bacon and pork sausages for breakfast.  Hasanali Khoja is due to put his case against the Metropolitan Police to an employment tribunal, which starts a 10-day hearing in London tomorrow.  The case has caused outrage in the British press and has been seized on by far right political parties, being branded “the madness of multiculturalism” by the British National Party.  Mr. Khoja, 60, whose claim is being backed by both the Association of Muslim Police and the National Black Police Association, says he was refused permission not to handle pork when he took a job as catering manager at a police headquarters in west London.  Instead, he said his supervisor suggested he wear gloves when preparing a “999 breakfast” – a policeman’s favorite that includes bacon, pork sausages and black pudding, which is made from pigs’ blood.  “I felt very unhappy about it. I was very upset and angry because it is not permissible in my religion,” said Mr. Khoja, who is an adviser on Muslim food issues on the government’s Foods Standards Agency.  “I was threatened that management would sack me if I did not follow instructions. But I never enrolled to cook pork. I refused to do it. I never did it and I never would.  (National, 10 May 09)

Michigan Supreme Court weighs control over witness attire

The Michigan Supreme Court is considering adopting a guideline that would give judges wide discretion to control the appearance of witnesses testifying in state courts, but civil rights advocates said an exception should be made for religious attire, such as the face veils of Muslim women.  The court proposed the rule following a lawsuit filed in 2006 by a Hamtramck woman against a car rental company. District Judge Paul Paruk dismissed the case when Ginnah Muhammad, a Muslim, declined to remove her face veil in order to present her complaint.  Paruk said he needed to see Muhammad's face to judge her truthfulness, but Muhammad said her faith requires her to keep her face veiled in public.  (Detroit News, 11 May 09)

Muslim Women May Defy Fathers' Wishes and Go to University, Legal Authority Rules

Muslim women should be free to pursue a higher education no matter what their fathers say, according to a fatwa recently issued by the grand mufti of Egypt, a leading authority of Sunni Islam, according to The National, an Abu Dhabi-based newspaper.  The fatwa, which is similar to a nonbinding legal opinion, was issued last week by the mufti, Ali Gomaa. It states that Muslim women whose fathers forbid them to attend university or college may disobey their fathers as long as it is in their best interest.  “If a father wanted to prevent his daughter from seeking an education and she wanted otherwise, then she is not obliged to obey his wishes in this matter … because obeying the father is an obligation but only under the condition that no harm comes of it to the child,” according to Mr. Gomaa’s reasoning, which is derived from Islamic jurisprudence.  “The harm that befalls a girl for not receiving an education is clear and known. If she abandons her college education, then she will miss a great deal of enlightenment about her religion and about everyday knowledge,”  (Chronicle, 11 May 09)

Saudi judge says OK to slap wife: report

A Saudi judge has told a seminar on domestic violence that it is okay for a man to slap his wife for lavish spending, a local newspaper reported on Sunday.  Jeddah judge Hamad al-Razine gave the example of overspending to buy a high-end abaya, the head-to toe black shroud Saudi women have to wear in public, as justifying a smack for one's wife, Arab News said.  "If a person gives 1,200 riyals (320 dollars) to his wife and she spends 900 riyals (240 dollars) to purchase an abaya from a brand shop, and if her husband slaps her on the face as a reaction to her action, she deserves that punishment," he said.  The judge's remarks sparked an outcry at the seminar on the role of judicial and security officials in preventing domestic violence, the paper reported.

The seminar was attended by officials as well as activists on domestic violence, including representatives of the National Family Safety Program.  (AFP, 10 May 09)

Taliban-Style Justice Stirs Growing Anger - Sharia Being Perverted

When black-turbaned Taliban fighters demanded in January that Islamic sharia law be imposed in Pakistan's Swat Valley, few alarm bells went off in this Muslim nation of about 170 million.  Sharia, after all, is the legal framework that guides the lives of all Muslims.   Officials said people in Swat were fed up with the slow and corrupt state courts, scholars said the sharia system would bring swift justice, and commentators said critics in the West had no right to interfere.   Today, with hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Swat and Pakistani troops launching an offensive to drive out the Taliban forces, the pendulum of public opinion has swung dramatically. The threat of "Talibanization" is being denounced in Parliament and on opinion pages, and the original defenders of an agreement that authorized sharia in Swat are in sheepish retreat.   The refugees are the "victims of ignorant cavemen masquerading as fighters of Islam," columnist Shafqat Mahmood charged in the News International newspaper Friday.  (Washington Post, 10 May 09)

Muslim dentist 'refused to treat female patients unless they wore Islamic dress'

A Muslim dentist refused to treat patients unless they wore traditional Islamic dress, it was alleged today.  Omer Butt, 32, ordered women to put on head scarves or he would not register them or their families at his NHS-funded clinic, it was claimed.  At least two patients were left in pain after they declined to follow his self-imposed rules, the General Dental Council heard.  It is the second time that the dentist - who is the brother of a former spokesman of the radical Islamic group al-Muhajiroun - has appeared before the council's disciplinary panel on similar allegations.  Two years ago he was reprimanded for telling an Asian mother-of-two he would not register her unless she wore the Muslim hijab.  The GDC heard how Butt believed it was his duty to stop Muslim patients committing what he believed was a religious sin.  He even put a laminated sign on the wall of his waiting room telling patients they would have to adhere to his strict dress code or find another dentist.  John Snell, for the GDC, said: 'He sought to impose a dress code on patients attending his practice.  'He required that women cover their hair with a head scarf, or hijab, and that male patients remove any gold jewelry.  'If he had simply expressed a preference, without imposing any compulsion to adhere to this dress code, there may be no cause for complaint.  'However, he insisted - and those who did not comply were refused treatment.  'He made compliance with Islamic dress code a condition of treatment, which is entirely inappropriate under the auspices of the National Health Service.   (Daily Mail, 8 May 09)

Queen's medal 'unlawful' for being too Christian

A distinguished medal awarded by the Queen has been declared unlawful because of its Christian overtures after a legal case launched by Muslims and Hindus from a Caribbean island.  The Privy Council has ruled in favor of non-Christians from Trinidad and Tobago saying that the Trinity Cross of the Order of Trinity was unconstitutional because of its associations with Christianity.  Despite the award for distinguished service and bravery being instituted 40 years ago the decoration will now be withdraw. But the 62 recipients, who include the novelist VS Naipaul and the cricketers Sir Garfield Sobers and Brian Lara, will not be stripped of their medal, which took precedence over all other decorations bar the Victoria Cross and George Cross.

The right to equality and freedom of conscience and belief was breached by the Trinity Cross, five British law lords ruled. In the Privy Council judgment Lord Hope of Craighead, said the Trinity Cross was "perceived by Hindus and Muslims living in Trinidad and Tobago as an overtly Christian symbol both in name and in substance". He said that it breached the islands' Constitution of 1976.   (Telegraph, 8 May 09)

Video Clips: "She Has No Right To Be Speaking"

"She Has No Right To Be Speaking"  Those are the words of Muslims or Muslim supporters shouting down Nonie Darwish as she spoke about the dangers from Islam (which she knows firsthand as an apostate and the daughter of a Muslim was considered a martyr for Islam) and about the evils of Sharia law.  And frankly, the "religion of peacers" gave her the perfect setup for her message:

"No right to be speaking? In America. That is Sharia," she responds.

This is a really excellent piece below, with a few words on Darwish's personal story, plus the details on jihad culture.  (Mens News Daily,  7 May 09)

Confronting Jihad on Campus

Parcbench`s Chris Yogerst had the recent opportunity to interview David Horowitz.

 CY: Last year you spoke at UW-Milwaukee, my undergraduate alma mater, and you were able to point out how radical the Muslim Student Association (MSA) was there.   How does this school rank as far as the MSA is concerned?
DH:  It was actually one of the worst.  The Muslim Student Association at most schools is a front for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.  Because it is a front organization in the classic communist sense, it poses as a cultural religious group (non-political) in order promote a false image, which has political advantages and to recruit activists to its more sinister causes.  Many innocent students and university administrations get fooled.  In fact the MSA sponsors pro-jihad, pro-terrorist speakers and campaigns that promote Jew-hatred. The majority of Muslim governments in the world, in fact all of them, appear to be on board for the destruction of the Jewish state and are generally anti-Semitic as well as anti-Christian.  There are Imams all over the world calling for the extermination of the Jews and the obliteration of America, and not too many condemning them.  On college campuses the Muslim Student Association is treated as a persecuted minority, although there is nobody actually persecuting Muslim students. In fact the MSA groups are quite privileged getting generous helpings of student activity fees and special favors from the administrations. Muslim students of all kinds are recruited to the pool from which more radical groups like Students for Justice in Palestine recruit them for more anti-Jewish and anti-American activities. The MSA works hand in hand with Students for Justice In Palestine.
. . . . CY:  When you were here in Milwaukee, you asked all of the offended Muslim students if they would condemn Hamas and suicide bombing.  Only one person stood up.  The rest remained silent and that really scared me.
DH:  Well the girl who stood up was a Mexican-American student who was willing to condemn Hamas.  She was one of the innocents.  She was a member of the MSA but obviously didn’t understand that the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamaas created it and that pro-jihadist activists ran it.
I was at the University of California-Santa Barbara and there were 50 members of the Muslim Students Association in the audience and throughout my speech I asked them to condemn Hamas and they wouldn’t.  When the Q & A period began, the president of the MSA stood up and I asked him if he would condemn Hezbollah.  He said the question was too complicated for a yes/no answer.  I said, “Put it this way: I am a Jew, and the head of Hezbollah has stated the he wished we would all gather in Israel so he wouldn’t have to hunt us down globally.  Are you for or against that?”  He wouldn’t answer.  That shocked the College Republicans who had invited me.  Individually MSA members are fairly intelligent.  It isn’t like they’re skinheads. But Jew-hatred is their inner mentality.  They are very personable and get along with most people even the Jews whose destruction they seek.  The only time they bare their teeth is when they feel they have to fight a jihadist cause on campus. 
. . . . CY:  What is your message to those Muslim students who don’t identify with terrorist organizations or hate groups and may not be aware of the kind of associations the MSA has.
DH:  If they really care about the well-being of Muslims, most of whom are probably decent people (Jew-hatred, which seems to be endemic in the Muslim community notwithstanding), they really need to stand up and condemn Hamas and Hezbollah, and Islamic Nazism generally. You may get members of the Muslim Students Association to condemn terrorism, for example, but then they will go on to say that the United States is a terrorist state. So it’s not really terrorism they’re against. It’s us. The greatest service a Muslim can do for the Muslim community is to condemn the hateful acts committed in Islam’s name.  The fact that the Muslim who will do this is rare, tells you how big the problem is.    (FrontPage, 7 May 09)
 

Unraveling the Unraveling

Many idealistic thinkers are coming to believe that “radical Islam” is a passing phenomenon, that large numbers of Muslims are turning against the more “militant” organizations, such as al-Qaeda, which have arrogated to themselves the doctrine of takfir (the practice of deciding who is a fit Muslim and who isn’t), and that Islam is only going through a violent cultural spasm as it belatedly enters the modern age.   Such is the gist of a long essay in The New Republic (June 11, 2008) by Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank, entitled “The Unraveling.” The scholarship on which these assumptions are based is rather flimsy - newspaper articles, the vaporings of the blogosphere, the confessions of former al-Qaeda operatives and supporters who have experienced a certain revulsion against its methods but have not given up on its ideological goals.   Nor is there any understanding of the “stealth jihad” pursued by the Muslim Brotherhood (which receives favourable mention) and its multiple offshoots, or the svelte ruminations of Western-seeming Islamic intellectuals such as Tariq Ramadan who work like sappers beneath a mantlet of calming assurances and exquisite manners. Bergen and Cruickshank cite, almost with relief, Saudi religious scholar Sheikh Salman al-Ouda who has repudiated al-Qaeda, but do not dwell on the fact that he continues to embrace violent jihad against America and the West. The substance of their essay brims with a kind of quiet jubilation: al-Qaeda is on the downalator.   The problem with scholars like Bergen and Cruickshank is that, like so many in the field, they are prone to the occupational hazard of seeking reductive symmetries. In their case, they blithely equate violent jihad with al-Qaeda which, despite its prominence in the Islamic world, is only one among many such groups and does not necessarily speak for the millions of Muslims who wish to bring down the civil societies of the democratic West and ultimately to establish an Islamic state. Europe and America are Swiss-cheesed with Muslim advocacy groups, sleeper cells, online radical networks and lone wolves, orbiting around the same central cause. All these groups, despite their internal differences, are essentially cladistic, that is, they descend from a common ancestor.   (FrontPage, 7 May 09)

Hawaii Lawmakers Pass Bill to Create 'Islam Day'

Hawaii's state Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill Wednesday to celebrate "Islam Day" -- over the objections of a few lawmakers who said they didn't want to honor a religion connected to Sept. 11, 2001.  The Senate's two Republicans argued that a minority of Islamic extremists have killed many innocents in terrorist attacks.  "I recall radical Islamists around the world cheering the horrors of 9/11. That is the day all civilized people of all religions should remember," said Republican Sen. Fred Hemmings to the applause of more than 100 people gathered in the Senate to oppose a separate issue -- same-sex civil unions.  The resolution to proclaim Sept. 24, 2009, as Islam Day passed the Senate on a 22-3 vote. It had previously passed the House and now goes to Republican Gov. Linda Lingle.  The bill seeks to recognize "the rich religious, scientific, cultural and artistic contributions" that Islam and the Islamic world have made. It does not call for any spending or organized celebration of Islam Day.  (Fox, 6 May 09)

Sharia law enters France

. . . . The term ‘Islamic finance’ pertains to the ways that business and personal financial matters are handled while respecting Sharia law. Sharia forbids gambling and interest and so many of the transactions which are regarded as normal to conventional financial institutions – ranging from mortgages to interest bearing savings accounts to insurance – have to be structured differently and can in the process attract a tax penalty.

One of the first companies to benefit from France’s radical reform to its stance on Islamic banking is Islamic Finance Advisory and Assurance Services (IFAAS), a UK-based consultancy specializing in providing advisory & training services to financial institutions in Sharia compliance.  Managing director of IFAAS, Mohammad Farrukh Raza, says: “France, with its Muslim population and its particularly strong ties to the Arab world, provides a vast opportunity for organizations looking to develop their Islamic Finance offering. In addition to this, France is one of the world’s leading economies and is an attractive place for investment from around the world.”  France has a Muslim population of six to seven million people, the largest in Western Europe.  (Home Overseas, 7 May 09)

Open Meeting with Fath Al-Islam's Shari'a Officer

On May 3, 2009, the Islamist website Shumukh Al-Islam posted a 62-page document by Abu 'Abd Allah Al-Maqdisi, Fath Al-Islam's shari'a officer, in which he answered questions addressed to him by members of the Islamist forum Shumukh Al-Islam, referring, to among other things, to the use of an airplane for terrorist attacks. MEMRI was not able to verify the authenticity of this document, and stresses that the March 14 Forces as well as the Lebanese government have in the past accused Syria of having created Fath Al-Islam as a tool for harming Lebanese sovereignty.   (MEMRI, 7 May 09)

Motives of American Muslims debated at Republican meeting in Fort Worth

What are the intentions of Muslims in America? A local activist told a Republican club Monday night that Muslims are intent on overthrowing America. But the Tarrant County medical examiner, who is Muslim, denounced such remarks as hate speech.   Dorrie O’Brien was booked months ago to speak to the North Tarrant Republican Club. She riled local Muslims last month when she delivered a speech to a Republican club in Hurst in which she said most or all American Muslims support terrorism.  After hearing that O’Brien was going to give a similar presentation to another Republican club, Medical Examiner Nizam Peerwani requested time to deliver a rebuttal, North Tarrant Republican Club president Paul Enlow said.  In her presentation to about 80 people, O’Brien said that Muslims are intent on converting the Western world to Islam. She described as "stealth jihad" a malicious effort by Muslims to subvert schools, local governments and banks throughout the country.  O’Brien reviewed the five pillars of Islam, noting that one of them is zakat, which means to give a percentage of one’s income to charity. "There is a tremendous amount of proof out there that the zakat is now funding terrorism," she said.  O’Brien also compared the Quran to the Bible and dismissed any suggestion that atrocities committed by Christians in the past were relevant to a debate about the present . . . . O’Brien left the meeting before Peerwani’s talk. He spent part of his speech correcting factual errors in O’Brien’s presentation and reminding the audience of the history of religious persecution, including the Holocaust. "We need to be vigilant because hate speech can destroy our country," Peerwani said. "I find out today I am part of a sleeper cell and some day someone is going to wake me up and I am going to declare jihad. That is news to me."  (Star-Telegraph, 4 May 09)

Transcript: Afghan Taliban spokesman discusses goals of war

Zabiullah Mujahid, one of two spokesmen for Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, spoke recently with CNN's Nic Robertson about the war in Afghanistan and the Taliban's relationship with al Qaeda.

Mujahid almost never gives TV interviews and he initially said the interview with CNN would last 15 minutes, but spoke to Robertson for 45. Here is an edited transcript.

CNN: Can you tell me what the Taliban strategy is in Afghanistan?

Zabiullah Mujahid: The policy is quite clear. We ask from the beginning and we say once again to enforce the sharia law and Islamic government in Afghanistan, to remove foreign forces from our country. This is our country; we have to govern it.

CNN: Do you want to take over the government in Kabul or do you want to work with others?

Mujahid: I want to tell you clearly when we rose up in Afghanistan in 1994 we did not rise up to be the government ... you know the mujahadeen government ... and when the Russians flee Afghanistan. But the mujahadeen were fighting each other, the people were being killed. So we rose up not for power and government we rose up just ... to force Islamic law and to help our widows in Afghanistan. We did jihad for the Islamic government. And No. 2 I want to tell you clearly our Afghan nation is held hostage by foreign troops. We don't fight the government. We fight for the sake of our country, for the sake of our nation, for Islamic law and also to rescue our country from the crusader.  (CNN, 5 May 09)

Germany: Manifesto Against Sharia - Joint Statement of Muslim Organizations in Germany

Cologne: along with the German Central Council of Muslims (ZMD), the declaration was signed by ten other organizations. According to the ZMD, this would ease dialogue between Muslims and other religious communities and the mainstream.

OUR AIMS:

• To explain to Muslims the dangers contained in the Islamic religious texts, as well as the necessity of a reform of Islam
• To explain to non-Muslims the differences between moderate Muslims and Islamists (a.k.a. religious fanatics, radical Muslims, fundamentalists, extremists, Islamo-fascists)
• To inform both Muslims and non-Muslims that they are both the targets of Islamic terrorism

Acknowledging mistakes:

The majority of terrorist attacks during the last three decades, including the 9/11 attacks, have been carried out by fundamentalists in the name of Islam, specifically based on the Koran. For us as Muslims it is despicable that Islam is being used to murder millions of innocent people, non-Muslims as well as Muslims.
Contradictions in the Koran:

There are unfortunately religious texts in the Koran, as well as in the Hadith, that call for Islamic supremacy and incite violence against non-Muslims. It is time to change this. Islamic fundamentalists believe the Koran is the literal word of Allah. But could Allah the Compassionate really order the mass murder of people just because they are not Muslims?   (Europe News, 5 May 09)

Muslim Youth in Germany: Aggressive Machos

Finally, someone has dared to publicly talk about Muslim youth in Germany and their reckless, aggressive behavior.   The German radio, WDR5, broadcast a two-hour live talk show called “Hallo Ü-Wagen” on April 25, 2009, to find out why Muslim youth are so aggressive and fanatic. Julitta Münch, the moderator of this program, invited several specialists to discuss the topic.   Over two hours, the majority of the participating specialists and the public depicted an egregious picture of Muslim youth – in particular, the males among them.   Ms. Münch, noted at the outset of her show that she had invited many teachers, especially female ones, but none turned up. She assumed they were scared to speak up against their Muslim youth.    Mansour Ahmed, a Palestinian social worker in Berlin who daily deals with Muslim youth and their families, said that more than 30% of Muslim young men are “very violent.” They do not allow their sisters to talk to other boys, especially German boys. Mansour also said that Muslim boys would never approve of their sisters marrying a German man. A Muslim boy told Mansour, he would kill his sister if she marries a German infidel, or has sex with a man before she is married. “More than 60% of Muslim girls are forced to marry a man of their parents’ choice.” Mansour added. He concluded that the majority of Muslim young and older men in Germany interpret and apply a kind of Taliban Islam . . . . According to various studies, more than 70% of young Muslims in Germany drop school before reaching the 10th grade. Later many of them join the “army of jobless” and live on “Harz-Vier,” the welfare system.   Both mosques and affiliated centers fill the brains of young male Muslims with hatred toward the German society and blame it on their misery. These indoctrination centers, and the fact that schools and state authorities shy off confrontation with young Muslims, have simply emboldened these youth and encourage them to stay defiant. . . . The truth of the matter is German politicians and mainstream media have ignored and suppressed for decades the fact that Muslims must also abide by local laws. After 9/11 the Germans received a wake-up call. They got scared and have all the time been trying to appease Muslims out of fear, not conviction.   (FSM, 4 May 09)

A Defining Moment in History: Civilians Unite Against Radical Islam

On Sunday, May 3rd, at noon, in Times Square, in New York City, a gathering of eagles and of angels will take place. Come rain or come shine, the Human Rights Coalition Against Radical Islam is holding a rally. Please join us. The coalition is composed of Muslim, ex-Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, atheist, and human rights leaders who are “calling for the defeat of radical Islam.”  Note: I have not written that the coalition opposes “Islam” (although some may—they view it as a totalitarian, imperialistic, and apartheid political force, not as a “religion of peace”). Nor have I written that the coalition opposes “Muslims” (no one does).   The groups who are sponsoring this rally include, but are not limited to: Hindu Human Rights Watch, Indian American Intellectual Forum, 911 Families for A Secure America, American Coptic Union, Americans for a Safe Israel, Damanga (Darfur Muslim Council), R.E.A.L. (Responsible for Equality and Liberty), AMCHA, Chinese Community Relations Council, Muslims Against Sharia, Namdhari Sikh Foundation, Women United, Sudan Freedom Walk, Center for Security Policy, International Foundation of Bangladeshi Hindus, ACT for America, Foundation of Nepalese, Alliance for Interfaith Resistance, Stand With Us, etc. There will be many speakers, myself included.   (Chesler Chronicles, 4 May 09)

NYC: A Rainbow in a Storm Human Rights Coalition Against Islamic Supremacism & Violence

The Rainbow coalition protested the violation of human rights by political Islam and shariah law. Though drenched in the rain, 300-500 decent and good people made their way to Times Square in NYC and stood up to the Islamic violence and oppression of free men across the world. Spectacularly diverse but unified in our purpose - life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and an absolute end to jihad.  (Atlas Shrugs, 3 May 09)

Freedom of speech conference delayed again

Worries about inviting Dutch politician Geert Wilders to Denmark leads to further delays for troubled freedom of speech conference.  The government will not be inviting controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders to Denmark anytime soon.  Conservative MP Naser Khader, previously of Liberal Alliance, secured funding last year for an international freedom of speech conference, which was due to be held in February.  Late last year it was decided to push the conference back until this June and according to information received by Berlingske Tidende newspaper, the conference has been delayed again because of government’s concern over Geert Wilders.  The integration minister, Birthe Rønn Hornbech, has sent out a memo saying that the free speech and anti-radicalisation conference will not be held before the autumn, ‘in spite of intense work and exploration’ that has gone into preparations.  The Danish People’s Party (DF) had wanted Wilders to attend. The politician has been subjected to death threats and banned from entry into Britain due to his outspoken views on Islam.  (Copenhagen Post, 1 May 09)

Jihad propaganda billboard in Albuquerque

In reality, Hamas tries to provoke civilian casualties so as to use them for propaganda purposes. See here, and here, and here, and here, and here.

But in Albuquerque, it's jihad propaganda. And here is the list of its sponsors, from the website of the group that put up the billboard. Note the Leftist/Jihadist alliance and the suicidal Jewish group:

* Amnesty International Chapter 101, Albuquerque
* Muslim Women Outreach
* Another Jewish Voice (Albuquerque)
* Stop The War Machine
* Middle East Peace and Justice Alliance
* The Social Concerns Committee of the Albuquerque Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
* United Nations Association, Albuquerque Chapter
* Irish Freedom Committee
* New Mexico People's Weekly Forum
* Another Jewish Voice - Santa Fe (AJVSF)
* Veterans For Peace - Santa Fe (VFPSF)
* Veterans for Peace - Albuquerque (VFPA)

(Jihad Watch, 1 May 09)

April 2009

Religious discrimination case settled with Tennesee hospital

Southern Hills Medical Center in Nashville has agreed to pay a former employee $70,000 in damages after denying him time off to make a pilgrimage to Mecca but admitted no wrongdoing when it settled the religious discrimination case on Monday.  In late 2007, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit on behalf of Wali Telwar, a Muslim former Southern Hills medical technician who lives in Nashville.  The hospital refused to allow Telwar to use just over 20 days of accumulated vacation time to take a trip to Mecca. Every Muslim is required to make the hajj — a pilgrimage to the Saudi Arabian birthplace of the Islamic religion and its prophet — in their lifetime.  Telwar, who had worked at the hospital for three years, also claimed he was told that if he insisted on attending the hajj he would have to quit his job and reapply when he returned.   (Tennessean, 30 Apr 09)

Denmark: 18% of Muslims want to see Sharia law implemented

Close to a fifth of Muslims in Denmark want to see Sharia law implemented in Denmark. A study conducted by analysis institute Capacent for DR news shows that 18% of Muslims in Denmark declare they 'agree' or 'completely agree' with the statement: "Sharia law should be integrated into Danish law".  Sharia legislation is several hundred years old and built on principles from the Koan and report of the Prophet Muhammad's life.  But the notion of what sharia is, is interpreted very different by Muslims round the world.  In countries like Sudan, Nigeria and Iran sharia law means that adultery or stealing can lead to cutting off of hands or whipping.  At the same time, there are laws which considerably place women worse off than men, which means that women can be refused the right to a divorce.   (Islam in Europe, 30 Apr 09)

Video: Time to Wake Up, Time to Procreate

When the video says that 25% of the population and 50% of all newborns "in Belgium" are Muslims, this applies to Brussels and not yet to Belgium as a whole.  (Brussels Journal, 30 Apr 09)

Sharia divorce law rejected

Muslims in the GTA are monitoring the case of a Toronto woman whose bid to sponsor a new husband to Canada was nixed because a religious "talaq" divorce of her first spouse is not recognized in Ontario. Hoda Hussein Hazimeh claims a "talaq" divorce with ex-husband Ali Hammoud conducted under Sharia law and registered in Lebanon should be recognized here so she can sponsor her second husband, Hafez Farhat. But federal court disagreed and ruled against her.  A talaq divorce under Sharia law can be performed on the telephone. In it, the couple repeat "I divorce you" three times in front of community leaders and witnesses.   "This decision can have a huge impact on those who practice Sharia law or religious marriages," said Hazimeh's lawyer, Edward Corrigan.  "Many people will be impacted if these divorces are not recognized in Canada."   Federal immigration officials have been getting tough on those practicing talaq marriages and divorces, Corrigan said.  "They (immigration) have been challenging religious divorces much more vigorously than in the past," Corrigan said.   MAY APPEAL.  (Toronto Sun, 30 Apr 09)

Young Saudi girl's marriage ended

Media reports say an arranged marriage between a Saudi girl aged eight and a man in his 50s has been annulled, in a case attracting worldwide criticism.  The Saudi Gazette says the divorce was agreed in an out-of-court settlement after a judge rejected two attempts to grant the girl a divorce.  The case prompted Saudi officials to say it would start regulating the marriages of young girls.  Rights groups say some Saudi families marry off young daughters for money.  The judge who first heard the case in the town of Unaiza refused to end the marriage at the request of the girl's mother , but he stipulated the groom could not have sex with the girl until she reached puberty.   The girl's father is said to have married her off against her mother's wishes to a close friend in order that he could pay off a debt.   A new judge was appointed to oversee the case, who issued the annulment after the husband finally gave up his insistence that the marriage had been legal, reports say.

Saudi Arabia implements an austere form of Sunni Islam that bans free association between the sexes and gives fathers the right to wed their children to whomever they deem fit.

. . . . On 15 April, after this case generated considerable negative publicity, Justice Minister Muhammad Issa said he wanted to put an end to the "arbitrary" way in which parents and guardians could marry off their young daughters.  However, he he did not say that the practice would be banned.  (BBC, 30 Apr 09)

Europe unfriendly to Muslims, Princeton scholar says

Many Muslims today struggle to integrate into Western society, but those in the U.S. are better off than those in Europe, said Islamic scholar Ralph Ghadban during a lecture Monday at Ohio State.  "Many of the millions of Muslims that have moved to the West wish not to integrate into society," Ghadban said.  As a member of the Institute for Advanced Studies of Princeton University, Ghadban spoke in a small conference room in Hagerty Hall, with only 15 people in attendance. The lecture, "Islamic Law of Muslim Minorities in the West" was sponsored by the Middle East Studies Center and the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures.  "[Ghadban] is not a traditional scholar," said Arabic professor Georges Tamer. "He has practical experience that combines Islamic studies with political science and philosophy."  Ghadban said that during their integration to the West, Muslims are confronted with new norms and customs, as well as a new structure of society.  Most importantly, they must abide by a secular law system, which they have never or barely been confronted with in their home countries, he said. . . . Ghadban said that European law discriminates against Islam. Ghadban, who has lived in Germany for most of his life, said his country does not legally recognize Islam like it does Christianity and Judaism. . . . Much of Ghadban's lecture focused on specifics in Islam, and several audience members disagreed with Ghadban's views on Ramadan and on the Sharia Law.  (Lantern, 29 Apr 09)

Jesus vs. Mohammed? Video Game Upsets Islamic Group

An influential Islamic group branded an online video game depicting religious figures fighting each other as offensive to Muslims and Christians and successfully demanded Tuesday that it be taken offline.   In the game "Faith Fighter," caricatures of Jesus, the Prophet Muhammad, Buddha, God and the Hindu god Ganesh fight each other against a backdrop of burning buildings.  God attacks with bolts of lighting and pillars of fire while the turbaned Muhammad can summon a burning black meteorite.

The Saudi-based Organization of the Islamic Conference, which represents most Muslim nations, said it should be removed from the Internet.  "The computer game was incendiary in its content and offensive to Muslims and Christians . . . The game would serve no other purpose than to incite intolerance," an OIC statement said.

. . . . "This was meant to be a game against intolerance and against the one-way Islamophobic satire of the Danish Muhammad cartoons," Molleindustria said in an e-mail message. "So if a respectable organization didn't understand the irony and the message, we failed."

Islamic law generally opposes physical depictions of the prophet.  (AP, 29 Apr 09)

Outlook: The Taliban Gains Strength in Pakistan - A Disquieting Acceptance of the Inevitability of the Taliban's Claim to Power

Mohammed Hanif, special correspondent for the BBC's Urdu service and author "A Case of Exploding Mangoes," a novel that skewers the Pakistani military and intelligence infrastructure, was online from Karachi on Monday, April 27, at 11 a.m. ET to discuss his Outlook article about how the Taliban insurgency is gaining strength in his country.   (Washington Post, 27 Apr 09)

Afghan's Karzai says will amend controversial law

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Monday the Justice Ministry was amending a controversial law which contains harsh provisions on women that critics have called a step back toward Taliban-era controls.  The law, which applies to Shi'ite Muslims who make up about 15 percent of Afghanistan's population, requires women to satisfy their husbands' sexual desires. Opponents say this could be used to justify marital rape.  Other controversial passages require wives to get permission when leaving the home unless for employment, education or medical reasons, and allow a man to order his wife to wear make-up.  Karzai said the law would be changed to bring it in line with the constitution, which guarantees equal rights for women, and international treaties the country has signed.  "The law is under review and amendments will take place," Karzai told a news conference with visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.  "I assure you that the laws of Afghanistan will be in complete harmony with the constitution of Afghanistan, and the human rights that we have adhered to in our constitution and in the principles of the international treaties," he added.  (Reuters, 27 Apr 09)

My Country, Caving to the Taliban

The day after Pakistan's government signed a peace deal with the Taliban allowing them to implement their own version of sharia in the Swat Valley, there was a traffic jam at a square in downtown Mingora, the main town in the region. The square, Green Chowk, has acquired the nickname Khooni Chowk, or Bloody Square, because the Taliban used to string up their victims there. "Look at this." A shopkeeper pointed to the hubbub. "This is what people wanted, to get out and do business. Take the security forces away, take the Taliban away, and we can get on with our lives." He, like many Pakistanis, believed that the deal with the Taliban was the only way to stop bullet-riddled bodies from turning up at Khooni Chowk.  Mingora is not a backwater, not part of the Wild West that foreign journalists invoke whenever they talk about the Taliban. It's bursting with aspiration; it has law schools, a medical college, a nurses' training institute. There is even a heritage museum. Yet when peace arrived on Feb. 16, all the women vanished. They were not in the streets or in the offices, not even in the bazaar, which sells nothing but fabric, bags, shoes and fashion accessories.  The music market vanished, too. All 400 shops. The owner of one had converted it into a kebab joint. "This is sharia," he spat at his grill, which hissed with more smoke than fire. Across from his stand, a barber had hung the obligatory "No un-Islamic haircuts, no shaves" sign and was taking an early morning nap, his face covered with a newspaper.   This, I was told, was the price of peace. . . . Among the women of Swat, the fear and resignation is even stronger. The Taliban have blown up girls' schools and dumped bodies of professional dancers in Bloody Square. Women told me their stories behind closed doors, from under their newly purchased burqas, and always after extracting solemn promises of anonymity. "We have become prisoners in our own houses. We can't even go out to buy groceries. It's all over for us," one told me. (Washington Post/Mohammed Hanif, 26 Apr 09)

Israeli official: Swine flu name offensive to Muslim and Jews

The outbreak of swine flu should be renamed "Mexican" influenza in deference to Muslim and Jewish sensitivities over pork, said an Israeli health official Monday.  Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman said the reference to pigs is offensive to both religions and "we should call this Mexican flu and not swine flu," he told a news conference at a hospital in central Israel.  Both Judaism and Islam consider pigs unclean and forbid the eating of pork products.  Scientists are unsure where the new swine flu virus originally emerged, though it was identified first in the United States. They say there is nothing about the virus that makes it "Mexican" and worry such a label would be stigmatizing.  (AP, 27 Apr 09)

Afghan women's law highlights rift

It was an extraordinary scene. Dozens of young women recently gathered in the centre of Kabul to demonstrate against a new law.  The legislation states that a woman from the country's Shia minority must have sex with her husband whenever he desires.  It also says that a woman must wear make-up when her husband demands as well as placing restrictions on women's movements.  Following an international outcry, Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed to review the law.  Critics say the reason President Karzai signed the legislation last month was to shore up support among conservative clerics ahead of this summer's presidential election.

On Sunday, women activists said he had told them he signed it without reading it properly.  The issue highlights not only the divisions in Afghan society but challenges Western expectations.  When the Taleban were overthrown almost eight years ago it was regarded as a major victory for women.  Under the rule of the Islamic fundamentalists, women were effectively barred from education and leaving their homes.  Many in the West thought that the burkhas - the Islamic garment that covers a woman from head to toe and is regarded by some as a symbol of oppression - would come off. That did not happen.  Yes, there has been progress. Young girls go to school and women go to university. Access to health care for women has improved. Women now work outside their homes. Some choose to wear the headscarf instead of the burkha.  And on paper at least, women have power.  (BBC, 27 Apr 09)

EU judges want Sharia law applied in British courts

Judges could be forced to bow to Sharia law in some divorce cases heard in Britain.

An EU plan calls for family courts across Europe to hear cases using the laws of whichever country the couple involved have close links to.  That could mean a court in England handling a case within the French legal framework, or even applying the laws of Saudi Arabia to a husband and wife living in Britain.  The Centre for Social Justice think tank today attacked the so-called Rome III reform as ludicrous.

It warned it would slow down cases, increase costs and lead to unjust results.
However, in a report it says existing arrangements are 'anti-family'.  Currently, a couple from different EU states can have their divorce heard in the first country where one of them files divorce papers.  Because different states offer varying financial advantages to spouses in terms of division of wealth, the resulting 'race to court' in the best jurisdiction discourages couples from trying to save their marriage, it says. . . . At least nine EU states - not including the UK - are said to want to push ahead with the Rome III plan.  (Daily Mail, 27 Apr 09)

BMI told stewardess to wear Muslim robe

A British air stewardess was sacked for refusing to fly to Saudi Arabia after she was ordered to wear a traditional Islamic robe and walk behind male colleagues.  Lisa Ashton, a £15,000-a-year stewardess with BMI, was told that in public areas in Saudi Arabia she was required to wear a black robe, known as an abaya. This covers everything but the face, feet and hands. She was told to follow her male colleagues, irrespective of rank.  Ashton, 37, who was worried about security in the country, refused to fly there, claiming the instructions were discriminatory. She was sacked last April.  “It’s not the law that you have to walk behind men in Saudi Arabia, or that you have to wear an abaya, and I’m not going to be treated as a second-class citizen,” Ashton said last week.  Saudi experts and companies that recruit women to work in the country say it is a “myth” that western women are required to walk behind men. There is no requirement for them to wear the abaya in public, though many do.

Earlier this year an employment tribunal in Manchester ruled that BMI was justified in imposing “rules of a different culture” on staff and cleared it of sexual discrimination. Ashton has consulted Liberty, the human rights organization, and may seek a judicial review of the decision.  (Sunday Times, 26 Apr 09)

Gyms for Saudi women face shut-down  
 Increasingly popular sports clubs and gyms for women in Saudi Arabia face shut-down because the government only licenses men's clubs, a Saudi newspaper reported on Sunday.  Dozens of privately-established women-only gyms around the country, which strictly separates men and women outside family venues, could be closed because there is no regulatory authority for them, the Arab News said. While the General Presidency for Sport and Youth Welfare has the authority over men's gyms, it has not been allowed to regulate those for women, according to the report.  That means that the women's gyms springing up in major cities are unlicensed and illegal, according to the report.  Female Saudi fitness fans frequently complain of the lack of places to exercise outside the home, since they cannot go to men's clubs. Saudi Arabia's conservative brand of Islam strictly forbids the mixing of unrelated members of the opposite sex, and women in the presence of men not from their families must remain completely covered in the black abaya shroud. Some investors have opened women-only gyms calling them beauty salons or, in one case, a "natural treatment clinic," Arab News said. Lawyer Abdulaziz al-Qasim told the newspaper that no government department wants to take responsibility for the issue, lest they be attacked by conservative Islamic clerics, many of whom oppose sports activities for women. The result, he said, is a move by the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs to shut down the existing gyms.   (Middle-East-Online, 26 Apr 09)

The Islamic Center of Hate in the U.S.A.

     Gaubatz: . . . . I have not released to anyone my schedule of the states/Islamic Centers I would visit as part of my research, and on 17 April 2009, I drove to Raleigh, NC. I visited the Islamic Center of Raleigh, next door to UN State University, and only a few blocks from Senator Shaw’s Legislative office. Readers can view some photographs of my visit at www.daveg.us./

FP: What were the results?

Gaubatz: This Islamic Center is predominately Sunni and considers itself “Pure Muslim.” Essentially they follow no Islamic school of thought, and follow Islam as it was practiced 1400 years under Prophet Mohammed. The leadership of the Islamic Center of Raleigh advocates an Islamic Ummah (Nation) worldwide, and under Sharia law. Violence against innocent men, women, and children to achieve these goals is strongly advocated in Sudan, and also at the Islamic Center of Raleigh. Materials published in Saudi Arabia and Sudan is used by the Center’s leadership to educate the worshippers.

Based on my U.S. government training, travels throughout the Middle East, years of self study of Islam/Sharia law, and professional CT training by people associated with Islamic terrorist groups, I believe before Senator Shaw begins focusing on Sudan, he should first “clean” his own house in Raleigh, NC. Shaw informed me he had introduced a NC bill as stated above to “divest from companies operating in Sudan,” yet he allows violent Islamic material from Sudan to be taught to the children in Raleigh, NC.

FP: Can you be more specific as to what is taught at the Islamic Center of Raleigh?

Gaubatz: It is important for not only Raleigh citizens to be concerned, but all citizens throughout America that the leadership of this Islamic Center follows the teachings of Atlanta’s cop killer, “Imam, Jamil Al-Amin, convicted terrorist supporter Ali Al Timimi, Sheikh Ghassan Al-Barqawee, Dr. Bilal Phillips (who has tried to justify in prior lectures why marrying six year old children as the Prophet Mohammed did 1400 years ago is still a noble trait for Muslim men), and by the founder of the terrorist group Jamaat-e-Islami (Abul Maududi).

During my visit at the Islamic Center of Raleigh, I obtained several hours of Jihadist lectures by Jamil Amin and others calling for Muslims worldwide to unite and use physical Jihad to implement Sharia law not only in Sudan, Somali, Pakistan, or Afghanistan, but in America as well.   (FrontPage, 24 Apr 09)

Netherlands: Muslim orgs want separate rooms in hospitals

Muslim organizations in Breda (Netherlands) insist on separate rooms for men and women at Amphia Hospital.  "Many Muslim women don't think it's nice based on religious conviction to have a half-naked man in the bed next to them," says Driss Siraji, who spoke with the hospital on behalf of the Immigrant Council and the Aarahman mosque.  Separate rooms were common in  Dutch hospitals until ten years ago.  At Amphia they're aware of the wish of the Muslim community, but keep to mixed rooms.  "If people have a principle objection to mixed care, they can make it known at admission, we then try to take that wish it into account.  But mixed care gives the possibility of making optimal use of the bed capacity and prevents unnecessary transfer of patients to other rooms," says spokesperson Truus de Bruijn.   She says that in practice there are few requests to get care in a woman's room and that if they get such a request it's generally from a Muslim woman or a nun.  Other hospitals in the region also get requests for separate care.  "If it's possible, we arrange it.  People can also book a Comfort Class room.  They you lie alone, but that does cost extra money," says a spokesperson for the Lievensberg hospital in Bergen op Zoom.  Sirajij says that he often meets women who want to be cared in a separate room.  "Not in emergency cases, but by regular admission."  In 2006 there were plans to build a Muslim hospital in Rotterdam, but nothing came of it yet.  (Islam in Europe, 23 Apr 09)

Extreme Position in Pakistan

What is happening in Pakistan today is strange by all counts. Here is a state with a large army, an extensive police network, and a parliamentary system with representatives elected through the electoral system, and a working judiciary. However, the state has suddenly caved in to demands from a group of alleged militants to have their way in selected areas of the country. This is the same state which has been carrying out indiscriminate military operations, irrespective of the civilian death toll. And yet, now it is suddenly very respectful of the lives of those leading a campaign which, if left unchecked, will destabilize the country. What is happening in Swat right now is unacceptable on all terms. To approve Sharia law for a region is response to public demand is one thing, but to give in to such demands out of pressure from certain armed groups is quite another. Further, it is an entirely different story when the state does not only allow Sharia law but also seems to concede authority to regulate law and order to those armed groups. To have Qazi courts is one thing, to allow selected groups to be fully armed and take over the running of a region is totally another. There is simply no justification for moving from one extreme to another.  The fact that people in certain parts of Pakistan might prefer Shariah law is not difficult to believe. Islam is an important force in Pakistani society and in certain regions more than in others. However, in no region of the country has the Pakistani public a taste for violence, for looting and for having people tell them how to live their Islam. The burning of girls' schools, meting out of severe punishments, calling democracy un-Islamic is clearly not the precepts that the ordinary Pakistani public associates with Islam. To have certain groups take over a region and impose their version of the Sharia on the basis of the gun is completely unacceptable. Apart from the difficulty it poses for people in that particular region, such actions give other dissident groups in the country (secular or religious) ideas to use force to make the state concede to their legitimate as well as illegitimate demands. Why is, then, the state allowing this?

. . . . If the judiciary has not been utilized, the politicians have also played no active role. Where are the political parties? Where are the political representatives of Swat region? Why have they not tried to play a more active role in countering the militant forces in the regions? Why have we seen no state effort to reach out to the people of Swat? There has been no high-profile visits to the area. There has been no attempt to hold discussions with the community to get their perspective of the events developing in the region. Why can't President Zardari or Prime Minister Gillani take a group of parliamentarians and have wide-ranging consultations with the ordinary communities? If the argument is that the Taliban are everywhere, then clearly the seven years of military strategy has had unforeseen consequences.  (News International, 24 Apr 09)

Key talks on Pakistan Sharia deal

Officials in North West Frontier Province in Pakistan are meeting to discuss a peace deal with the Taleban that has sparked deep US concern.  The peace deal was intended to introduce Sharia law in some north-west districts in return for an end to the Taleban insurgency.  However, the Taleban have not laid down their arms and are expanding influence.  The US has accused officials in Pakistan of abdicating control to the Taleban in the north-west.  The peace deal covers the six divisions of Malakand, including the troubled Swat region.   The Taleban have almost full control of Swat and this week have been consolidating operations in Buner, just 100km (62 miles) from the capital, Islamabad.  Separately, the army said it had killed 11 militants in the Orakzai agency, said to be home to groups loyal to South Waziristan's Taleban leader Baitullah Mehsud.  (BBC, 24 Apr 09)

Video: Women submit to Sharia in the Swat valley

This video is a fake! That's the outcome of an investigation undertaken a fortnight after pictures of a public flogging of a teenage girl were broadcast, causing outrage across much of the world.   According to research carried out in the area, the 17-year-old girl was not flogged in this village in the Swat valley. But this is not an unusual scene by any means in this Taliban-held valley. Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan is angry because these pictures - whose origin he neglects to mention - were broadcast without their permission.

 Khan says: “Foreign media like CNN, like France 24, from now on they will show the real thing, the real news. This way we’ll see that the people accept Taliban punishments, because they are under the rule of Islam and under the rule of our prophet Mohammed. We must accept this because we are Muslims.”  Beaten 20 times by the Taliban, Shazia has just escaped the Swat valley. Originating from Afghanistan, she lives a happy life with her husband and eight children in a two-bedroom apartment near Islamabad. Shazia explains: “The Taliban hit me in the street because I went out alone, without my husband. But I didn’t have a choice. My husband was very sick and I had to go to get him medicine and also to feed my children. Each time, they beat me with a baton on my legs and my feet. The neighbors looked at me and I didn’t feel anything. I didn’t feel humiliated; I just thought ‘I’m going to die’”.   . . . . In her new house, Shazia is well aware of what she has escaped. “I am scared of the Taliban. I’ll never leave now, because I feel free and safe”, she says. More than 1.5 million inhabitants of the Swat valley have succumbed to the Taliban’s strict and arbitrary interpretation of Sharia.  (France24, 23 Apr 09)

Floggings weigh heavily on Saudi Arabia

. . . . Two thousands lashes for the theft of a battering ram, 3000 strokes for causing the death of three children, and better yet 40,000 blows for attempted rape and manslaughter: Saudis are increasingly questioning the legitimacy of these excessive figures, and are demanding reforms to their judicial system, which has frequently been censured by human rights organizations. . . . Saudi Arabia is currently facing fierce criticism before the Human Rights Council in Geneva, for practicing of corporal punishment as well as for its high rate of executions. Some countries, notably Switzerland and Italy have demanded that they be abolished.   Inside the Kingdom, there are growing numbers of voices denouncing corporal punishment and proposing that punishments applied to minor offences should be replaced by alternative punishments, such as community work.  These punishments, or “Ta’zir” (less serious than the “hudud” or “Qiyas”, which are punishable by death penalty”) are left to the discretion of the judge who can prescribe penalties based on knowledge of Qur’an. . . . A sociology lecturer at the Faculty of Letters in Riyadh’s King Saud University, Jibrin Al-Jibrin, has spoken out in favor of alternative punishments. “If the flogging is absolutely necessary, it should not exceed the 100 blows (as set by the sharia) and it should not be executed in a public place”, added Mr. Jibrin.  In an unprecedented move in the Kingdom, where beheadings with swords, amputations of hands and floggings are executed in public, Saudi writer Abdul Rahman Al-Waabli, has drawn up a searing indictment of this form of execution, which according to him “is completely outdated”.  (Middle-East-Online, 24 Apr 09)

Malaysia tackles child conversion

Malaysia has banned the religious conversion of children without both parents' consent, local media reports.  The announcement by new Prime Minister Najib Razak is being seen as a major step in easing ethnic tensions in the predominately Muslim country.  It follows a string of legal rows in which converts to Islam changed their children's religion despite protests by their estranged non-Muslim spouses.  Malaysia has a two-tier secular and Sharia court system for family matters.  Non-Muslims - who make up about 40% of Malaysia's population - have complained of discrimination, saying the Islamic Sharia courts tend to assert their greater power over minorities when disputes arise.  Meanwhile, the secular courts that preside over family disputes for non-Muslims say they have no jurisdiction over such cases.  (BBC, 23 Apr 09)

Jailed British mother fights for children

A British mother of two jailed for adultery in Dubai and stripped of custody of her sons with her Egyptian ex-husband is fighting deportation to stay close to her children.  Marnie Pearce, 40, has been serving a three-month jail sentence since late February in the Muslim Gulf emirate, which is home to a large community of non-Muslim expatriates.  Although famed worldwide as a popular destination for Western tourists and foreign workers thanks to its plush lifestyle and relative tolerance, Dubai still seeks to preserve certain Islamic traditions through tough rulings. . . The petition was launched online on March 25, a week after Dubai's highest court upheld her jail sentence and subsequent deportation after she was convicted of cheating on her husband.  The same day, a Dubai family court, which applies Islamic Sharia law, ordered the divorce and stripped Pearce of all custody rights over her sons Laith, seven, and Ziad, four. . . . Under Islamic law, a Muslim mother may be given custody of daughters under the age of nine and sons under seven, after which custody goes to the father.  But mothers can lose such rights if they are deemed incompetent to raise children, according to a legal website offering advice on international custody rights.  (Maktoob, 22 Apr 09)

What are US students learning about Islam?

Most Americans understand history as an objective accounting of past events. In recent years, however, textbook publishers have come under increasing criticism for rewriting history. Claims are presented as facts while controversial material is whitewashed or omitted.  Today these trends are quite apparent in the way public school history books address Islam. In his 2008 study "Islam in the Classroom: what the textbooks tell us," Gilbert Sewall, director of the American Textbook Council (ATC), reviewed 10 of the nation's most widely used junior and senior high school history textbooks. The results should disturb anyone interested in conveying to our children a truthful history of the religion whose extreme adherents drive so many of today's tragic headlines.  At a time when America is locked in a battle of ideas with Islamic extremists and other enemies of freedom, accurate knowledge is indispensable. Yet, Sewall's findings underscore how political correctness is distorting the next generation's understanding of this battle. . . . Sewall found that many textbooks gloss over or delete important facts. For example, in the 1990s, "jihad" – which has many meanings, among them "sacred" or "holy" struggle but also "holy war" – was defined in the Houghton Mifflin junior high school book only as a struggle "to do one's best to resist temptation and overcome evil."   The many acts of violence committed on behalf of Islam in the past decade have made that definition incomplete, to say the least. Yet, as ATC notes, "by 2005, Houghton Mifflin apparently had removed jihad from its entire series of social studies textbooks."   

In discussing sharia law, the Islamic code that can be used to subjugate women and deal death to wayward believers, many textbooks are intentionally vague. Holt Rinehart Winston's 2006 "Medieval to Early Modern Times" junior high textbook states simply, "[Sharia] sets rewards for good behavior and punishments for crimes." Another popular history textbook states, "Muslim law requires that Muslim leaders offer religious toleration." (Christian Science Monitor, 22 Apr 09)

Swat Shariah Must be in Line with Council of Islamic Ideology: Fazl

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has criticised the manner in which Shariah is being implemented in Swat.  “The process of enforcing Shariah in Swat is incorrect. It must be implemented on the basis of recommendations of the Council of Islamic Ideology,” Fazl said while addressing a news conference in Lahore at the end of a two-day meeting of the party’s central executive committee on Monday.

Fazl said that whatever Tehrik-e-Nifaz Shariat-i-Muhammadi chief Sufi Mohammed had been saying about the constitution, democracy and Islamic ideology were his personal views and did not represent those of others belonging to his school of thought.  Fazl said that Sufi had limited knowledge of democracy, adding that the JUI accepted the present democratic system which guaranteed legislation under the Holy Quran and Sunnah.  The JUI, a religio-political party, is part of the ruling coalition at the centre. It ruled the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) while heading a six-party alliance of country’s main religious parties and groups under the banner of the Muttahida Majlise Amal (MMA) for five years in 2002-2007.  Fazl said that the failure of the democratic institutions to enact necessary Islamic legislations has led to the present situation otherwise there would have been no complaints and problems.  He said the JUI had formed a committee to review the resolutions adopted by the National Assembly for implementing Shariah in 1994, 1999 and 2009. (Khaleej Times, 22 Apr 09)

Netherlands: US Islam-critic cancel trip due to death threats

Mark A. Gabriel, ex-Muslim and Islam-critic has gotten death threats and must cancel speaking appointments in the Netherlands.  The American terrorism fighting unit, the FBI, advised Gabriel to drop all public appearances in the Europe due to these death threats.  He was escorted to the Schiphol airport by his contact person in the Netherlands, Jewish-Christian pastor Ben Kok. Gabriel had planned to be in the Netherlands till April 25.
Gabriel (51), his pseudonym for years, grew up as a Muslim in Egypt.  He was a teacher at Al-Azhar University and an imam as well, but was disappointed with Islam, in particular due to its violent character.  When he crossed over to Christianity, he had to flee.  He now has asylum in the US.   (Islam in Europe, 21 Apr 09)

Women in Somali city must cover up or go to jail

Women in Somalia's third-largest city, Baidoa, have been ordered to wear Islamic dress starting this week or face jail time, according to a resident and Somali media reports.  The order -- issued last week by Al-Shabaab, the radical Islamist militia that controls the city -- also warns business owners to close their shops during daily prayers, or they will be temporarily shut down, a local journalist said.

The militia has ordered women to cover their bodies and heads from view, according to a resident of Baidoa who did not want to be identified for security reasons. The clothing must be black, red or white, and women in the impoverished city are concerned that they will not be able to purchase clothing that conforms to the order, the resident said.  He said women would be jailed if they violated the order after it goes into effect Tuesday. Somalia's Shabelle Media, quoting an Al-Shabaab spokesman, said they would spend 12 hours in jail. (CNN, 20 Apr 09)

MQM to move Pak Supreme Court against pro-Taliban cleric

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement on Tuesday threatened to move Pakistan's Supreme Court to take up "suo moto" the attack on country's judiciary by hardline pro-Taliban cleric Sufi Muhammad.   "Non acceptance of the superior courts of the country is tantamount to contempt of court," Federal minister for Ports and Shipping Babar Ghauri told The News, on Tuesday.   Taking a strong exception to Muhammad's earlier statement that Pakistan's existing judicial system was un-Islamic and vowing to impose Sharia across the country, Ghouri, said "The MQM has serious reservation about the statement of Maulana Sufi Muhammad, which have already been expressed."   The MQM, an ally of the ruling coalition government, said "We will raise this issue at every forum".   (Hindu, 21 Apr 09)

Taliban refuse to leave Pak's Buner district

Taliban militants from Pakistan's Swat valley are refusing to leave the Buner district which they forcibly occupied and have established a big base in the town, located just 100 km from the federal capital.   The continued presence of the Taliban has forced the leaders of the Awami National Party, which rules the North West Frontier Province, to leave the region and the intervention of the tribal peace jirga to make them vacate the area has failed, The News daily reported on Tuesday.   The Taliban from Swat moved into Buner district about two weeks ago. They have occupied a three-storey bungalow owned by a businessman in Sultanwas village and are using it as their headquarters, the newspaper said.   Taliban commander Fateh Muhammad is calling the shots in Buner and Taliban have appointed Mufti Bashir as the local 'Qazi' or judge to address the complaints of the people.   (Times of India, 21 Apr 09)

Swat Taliban vow to extend sharia law to other areas

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Muslim Khan has said sharia law would not be restricted to Malakand division, and that the Taliban will not lay down weapons unconditionally, a private TV channel reported on Monday.  Asked whether the Taliban would extend sharia law to other areas of Pakistan, Khan said: “Sure, because [the holy] Quran is not only for Malakand division. It is for all humanity, for all Muslims and we will go for the implementation of sharia in other parts of Pakistan as well. ”  He said Taliban would not lay down their weapons unconditionally. “We are Pakhtuns and every Pakhtun has a gun. We have no tanks, no helicopters or jets,” he said. Muslim Khan said the Taliban would keep their weapons if the qazi courts allowed them to.

. . . . Separately, NWFP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti said his government would take all possible measures to uphold its writ in the troubled areas. He also said that the government would not allow a parallel system of governance to be established in Swat, and that the implementation of the Nizam-e-Adl was the responsibility of the NWFP government.  (Daily Times, 21 Apr 09)

Islam a political target in Norway

With less than six months to go until Norway's general election, increasing tensions over immigration and Islam appear likely to play a significant role in the vote.  The leader of the country's main opposition party has warned that it is facing "sneak-Islamisation", while some prominent Muslims say they face growing "persecution".

The heated debate is a sign that Norway, renowned as one of the most peaceful and tolerant nations in the world, is facing the same issues with its Muslim minority as are now familiar in other parts of Europe.

Siv Jensen, the 39-year-old leader of the opposition Progress Party, has objected to moves to introduce special measures in order to accommodate Muslims' religious sensitivities, traditions and rules.  (BBC, 20 Apr 09)

After Reaching Deal in North Pakistan, Islamists Aim to Install Religious Law Nationwide

A potentially troubling era dawned Sunday in Pakistan's Swat Valley, where a top Islamist militant leader, emboldened by a peace agreement with the federal government, laid out an ambitious plan to bring a "complete Islamic system" to the surrounding northwest region and the entire country.  Speaking to thousands of followers in an address aired live from Swat on national news channels, cleric Sufi Mohammed bluntly defied the constitution and federal judiciary, saying he would not allow any appeals to state courts under the system of sharia, or Islamic law, that will prevail there as a result of the peace accord signed by the president Tuesday.

"The Koran says that supporting an infidel system is a great sin," Mohammed said, referring to Pakistan's modern democratic institutions. He declared that in Swat, home to 1.5 million people, all "un-Islamic laws and customs will be abolished," and he suggested that the official imprimatur on the agreement would pave the way for sharia to be installed in other areas.  Mohammed's dramatic speech echoed a rousing sermon in Islamabad on Friday by another radical cleric, Maulana Abdul Aziz, who appeared at the Red Mosque in the capital after nearly two years in detention and urged several thousand chanting followers to launch a crusade for sharia nationwide.  (Washington Post, 20 Apr 09)

Schools may close for Ramadan and other non-Christian festivals to avoid pupils missing classes

Some schools in Britain could soon be allowed to close for non-Christian religious festivals, it has emerged.  The move comes as figures reveal a big increase in absences from city classrooms for 'religious observance'.  Under new council guidelines currently being drawn up, schools in Manchester where more than 40 per cent may be absent for a religious festival could decide to close.  Parents are legally entitled to take their children out of school for non-Christian religious festivals, such as Ramadan.  But because academic holidays are largely based on the Christian calendar, they can't do it without missing lessons.  Now head teachers could soon be timing teacher training days to coincide with holy dates such as Eid ul Fitr, Eid ul Adha, Yom Kippur and Diwali.  Schools must still be open for the legally-required 190 days a year so that no pupil misses out on teaching time.   Meanwhile, the traditional school calendar, with Easter and Christmas holidays, stays the same.  (Daily Mail, 20 Apr 09)

Islamic Radicals New Tactic - Dare To Be Different

American counter-terrorism organizations believe they have discovered a new form of Islamic terrorism. It's basically intimidation via staged controversy. One tactic has Islamic clerics boarding an aircraft as a group and deliberately acting suspiciously, but legally, hoping to attract the attention of security officials and being removed from the aircraft. In one case, three years ago, the six clerics involved then sued, claiming discrimination. They also tried to sue other passengers who had pointed out the odd behavior to flight crew. A year before, a similar incident occurred at a football stadium in New Jersey.  The tactic may seem strange to Westerners, but Islamic radicals discuss among themselves the need to create fear and confusion in Western nations they plan to convert to Islam. Many Islamic radical leaders living in Western nations openly speak of somehow converting Western nations to Islam, as part of the plan (a favorite of al Qaeda) to turn the entire planet into an Islamic state. Using the Western legal system to harass the local population and government, and creating situations where Moslems can claim discrimination and oppression, are two tactics often mentioned.

A third benefit of these methods is to make non-Moslems reluctant to report odd activity by Moslems, especially terrorists or activists. Since the Islamic radicals believe it is a sure thing that they will succeed, they believe any attention is good for their cause. The reality is that it does not work out that way. The attention makes most Westerners hostile to the demonstrative and combative Moslems. It's basically mutual incomprehension. Islamic radicals believe that this hostility towards Moslems will make it easier for the radicals to recruit, and make security forces more reluctant to oppose violent behavior by Moslems.  (Strategy Page, 18 Apr 09)

Somalia To Implement Strict Sharia Law To Appease Islamist Rebels

Somalia's leaders have unanimously voted in transitional parliament today in favor of implementing the Islamic law in the country.  The approval of the Sharia law in the country is expected to boost Somalia's new Islamist-led government efforts to placate Islamist rebels engaged in a civil war over the last 18 years.  "There were 340 members at the session, and they voted unanimously for the implementation of Islamic sharia in Somalia," Al Jazeera quoted parliamentary deputy speaker, Osman Elmi Bogore, as saying today.  He added, "The bill . . . is approved by the parliament. . . We have an Islamic government."  The bill was introduced by new moderate Islamist President Sharif Ahmed after a truce was agreed between the Somali government and Islamist rebels.  Under the truce terms, the rebels' leader had asked the government to introduce the strict Sharia law throughout the country.  The government took the step as the rebels have already implemented the Islamic law in the areas they control including southern and central parts of the nation.  "They all hope that this will leave Somalia to recover from years of destruction and setback," Mohamed Sheikh Nor, a Somali journalist, told Al Jazeera.  (All Headline News, 18 Apr 09)

New Afghan law does not allow marital rape... but lets men refuse to feed wives who deny them sex, says cleric

A new Afghan law that has drawn Western condemnation for restricting women's rights does not allow marital rape as its critics claim, but lets men refuse to feed wives who deny them sex, the cleric behind it says.

Ayatollah Mohammed Asef Mohseni's Shi'ite personal status law sparked controversy abroad because of a provision that 'a wife is obliged to fulfill the sexual desires of her husband'.  This was read by some as an open door to marital rape, and together with clauses restricting women's freedom of movement denounced as reminiscent of harsh Taliban-era rules.  The law has been criticized by Western leaders with troops fighting in Afghanistan, including U.S. President Barack Obama, who called it 'abhorrent'.  Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, who signed the law last month, has since put it under review.   But Mohseni said the law - which only applies to the 15 percent of Afghans who are Shi'a Muslims - has been misinterpreted by critics.  Its sexual clauses aimed only to ensure men's sexual needs were met within marriage, because Islam prohibited them seeking satisfaction with other women.  (Daily Mail, 17 Apr 09)

DNA swab taken from Muslim-American Muzzammil Hassan - accused of beheading Wife

Muzzamil S. "Mo" Hassan, accused of decapitating his wife two months ago, underwent a court-ordered DNA swab test this morning moments after prosecutors obtained the court order with no opposition from him or his chief attorney.  Indicted March 12 for the murder of his estranged wife, the native of Pakistan underwent the procedure to extract saliva from his mouth while in the ante-chamber of Erie County Judge Thomas P. Franczyk's courtroom.  Homicide prosecutor Colleen Curtin Gable told the judge the district attorney's office is still awaiting word from defense attorney James P. Harrington on the nature of the defense that will be used in the case.  Harrington told the judge "collateral" matters in his investigation of the alleged Feb. 12 beheading of Aasiya Zubair Hassan, 37, have delayed the defense filings. Harrington did not disclose the nature of those trial preparation problems.  The judge scheduled further proceedings for June 4.  Hassan, 44, cofounded the Orchard Park-based Bridges TV cable network along with his slain wife. The network is dedicated to American Muslims and their lifestyles. (Buffalo News, 16 Apr 09)

Muslim Accused Of Beheading Wife Gives DNA Swab

The co-founder of a Muslim-American television station accused of beheading his wife submitted to a court-ordered DNA swab after a procedural hearing in advance of his trial.  Muzzammil Hassan did not speak during a brief appearance Thursday in Erie County Court in Buffalo, where he is expected to be tried later this year for murder. He has pleaded not guilty.  A judge ordered the saliva swab at the request of prosecutor Colleen Curtin Gable. His lawyer, James Harrington, did not object.  Hassan, a 44-year-old native of Pakistan, is due back in court June 4.   Hassan is accused of killing Aasiya Hassan in February at the offices of the Bridges television network.  (AP, 16 Apr 09)

Afghan Women Demonstrate in Kabul. Dangerous Times, Heroic Women.

When I lived in Kabul, women simply did not rise up, take to the streets, and mount brave demonstrations. Hell no. Wealthy women wore decorous long headscarves, long coats, and gloves, and were driven around by chauffeurs in expensive European cars. Poor women wore the full burq’a and were forced to sit separately from men on public buses; they were also kicked to the back of the line in the bazaar when the male servants of wealthy families came to make their purchases. Occasionally, if a country girl or woman was out working or walking and a male non-relative chanced by, she would swiftly, shyly turn her face away and simultaneously cover it with her headscarf. This was a practiced, perhaps terrified motion.  Imagine my joy today, nearly fifty years later, when I read that Afghan women just took to the streets to protest a new law which legalizes rape within marriage, requires a husband’s permission in order for his wife to be able to work, and requires wives to “dress” as their husbands desire.  The heroic women faced down an angry, dangerous mob of men who called them “whores.” “Death to the enemies of Islam” chanted the men. “We want our rights,” the women responded. This is not the first time Afghan women have demonstrated such extraordinary bravery. In January, 2008, when the American teacher, Cyd Mizell, was kidnapped (she has never been found), within weeks, six hundred of her Afghan female students took to the streets of Kandahar to protest this.  (Chesler Chronicles, 17 Apr 09)

Egypt launches campaign against the niqab

In a bid to curb the surge in donning the niqab (a full-face veil), among its female employees, the Ministry of Waqfs (Religious Endowments), has embarked on a controversial campaign to discourage wearing this garb.  "We are not asking the niqab wearers to take it off. The aim of our campaign, based on awareness-raising seminars, is to prove to them that the niqab was originally an Arabian costume in pre-Islamic times," said Selim Abdel Gelil, an aide to the Minister of Waqfs and the one responsible for the campaign.  The campaign got off the ground this week at the premises of the ministry in Cairo and is planned to cover other cities and provinces of this predominantly Muslim country, according to the same official.  "Islam requires women to be decently dressed without obliging them to cover their faces and hands,"   (Gulf News, 16 Apr 09)

Islamists order Somali women to wear full veils

Hardline Islamists in the southern Somali town of Baidoa have ordered women to wear full body veils and businesses to close for prayers, a spokesman said Wednesday.

"We are giving a three-day deadline to all women living in the region to cover their body with thick veils," Sheikh Abdiasis, a local spokesman for the Shebab group, said at a press conference.  "If they fail to comply with that order, they will be sentenced to 12 hours of imprisonment," he said, complaining that many women in Baidoa were still seen without a "jalabib", the local head-to-toe Islamic garment.

Baidoa, 250 kilometres (155 miles) south of Mogadishu, is officially the seat of Somalia's transitional federal parliament but was conquered by Islamist insurgents in late January.  The Shebab official also said that businesses should close five times a day for prayers and that owners ignoring the order would face five days in jail.

Similar measures have already been enforced in Merka and Kismayo, the two other major southern cities controlled by the Shebab and their hardline allies.  (AFP, 16 Apr 09)

Sharia Creep in Harvard Yard

From the Internet to the media, slowly: Yesterday's Harvard Crimson carried a story on the Harvard Islamic chaplain's support for capital punishment for Muslims who leave Islam as revealed in an email the chaplain "allegedly" wrote. (We're still at "allegedly"--although no one, including the chaplain, has disputed the authorship of the email.) I posted the story here on April 4. What caught my eye in this week's Crimson story was the "clarification" flagged at the bottom of the following Crimson paragraph:

“I believe he doesn’t belong as the official chaplain,” said one Islamic student, who asked that he not be named to avoid conflicts with Muslim religious authorities. “If the Christian ministers said that people who converted from Christianity should be killed, don’t you think the University should do something?”

Scrolling down, I found it:

. . . . . CLARIFICATION: The April 14 article "Chaplain's E-mail Sparks Controversy" included a quotation from a named Harvard student, who was later granted anonymity when he revealed that his words could bring him into serious conflict with Muslim religious authorities.

Got that? For opposing death for apostasy, for opposing the Islamic chaplain's continued tenure based on said chaplain's support for death for apostasy, a Harvard Muslim student felt compelled to call up the Crimson to seek post-publication anonymity to avoid coming into "serious conflict with Muslim religious authorities."

This isn't the Swat Valley. This isn't Taliban-controlled Afghanistan--or, for that matter, Karzai-controlled Afghanistan. This isn't Iran. This isnt Iraq. This is what sharia creep looks like  in America...in Harvard Yard.   (Diana West, 15 Apr 09)

We'll impose sharia across Pak: Taliban

Radical cleric Sufi Muhammad-led Tehrik Nifaz-I-Shariat-I-Muhammadi (TNSM) and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan have welcomed imposition of sharia in NWFP’s Malakand division, saying the ‘‘struggle’’ would continue to implement Islamic law in other parts of the country. Talking to journalists in his native town of Maidan in NWFP’s Lower Dir area on Tuesday, Sufi Muhammad said the Taliban and TNSM would work with the government for the enforcement of sharia and maintain peace in the region. He said his party would keep an eye on the steps government takes for the promulgation of Sharia and the independence of Qazi courts. . . . Talking to TOI from an undisclosed location, Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan echoed Sufi Muhammad’s call for implementation of sharia across Pakistan. ‘‘Our demand for Sharia wasn’t Swat-specific. We’ll continue our struggle for implementation of sharia outside the Pashto-speaking areas,’’ he said. Khan said Taliban would ‘‘make Swat a model of good governance and soon people in other areas will also demand the same set-up’’. He said Swat people had sacrificed for the sharia cause. ‘‘People who opposed sharia were neither sincere to Islam nor the nation.’’  Khan contradicted Sufi Muhammad’s pledge to disarm. ‘‘Taliban will neither abandon their organization nor weapons. Laying down arms wasn’t part of the peace deal,’’ he said. Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari approved sharia law for Malakand division on Monday after the national assembly passed it.  (Times of India, 15 Apr 09)

Pakistani Taliban in Swat say won't give up guns

Pakistani Taliban will not lay down their arms in a northwestern valley as part of a deal that included the introduction of sharia law but will take their "struggle" to new areas, a militant spokesman said on Wednesday.  President Asif Ali Zardari, under pressure from conservatives, signed a regulation on Monday imposing Islamic sharia law in the Swat valley to end Taliban violence.  The strategy of appeasement has alarmed U.S. officials, while critics say the government has demonstrated a lack of capacity and will to fight the Taliban and al Qaeda.  Details of the deal have not been made public but government officials backing the pact have said part of it was that militants would give up their arms.  But a Pakistani Taliban spokesman in the scenic valley, a one-time tourist destination 125 km (80 miles) northwest of Islamabad, said they would be keeping their guns.  "Sharia doesn't permit us to lay down arms," Muslim Khan said by telephone. "If a government, either in Pakistan or Afghanistan, continues anti-Muslim policies, it's out of the question that Taliban lay down their arms."   (Reuters, 15 Apr 09)

Pakistani cleric: Swat deal gives Taliban immunity

Pakistan's imposition of Islamic law in a cease-fire deal to blunt a gathering Taliban rebellion will protect militants accused of brutal killings from prosecution, a hardline cleric who mediated the deal said Tuesday.

The assertion highlights the dilemma facing Pakistan's beleaguered government as it seeks to halt 18 months of bloodletting in the Swat Valley while convincing the U.S. and other foreign sponsors that it is not capitulating to allies of al-Qaida. . . . The terms of the agreement remain murky, fueling concern that it cedes effective control over the region to the private army of Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah, the cleric's son-in-law. Officials have said radical groups allied with al-Qaida have helped fight security forces in Swat.  Asked Tuesday in a television interview if the new courts would hear complaints from Swat residents about Fazlullah or his followers, Muhammad said they could not.  "We intend to bury the past," Muhammad told the ARY channel, sitting off-screen because he considers photographic or TV images to be against Islam. "Past things will be left behind and we will go for a new life in peace."  Asked if the Taliban would enjoy such immunity, a provincial government minister only pleaded for calm so that peace could take hold.  AP, 15 Apr 09)

Afghan men hurl stones at 300 women protesting law that allows husbands to rape their wives

Some 300 Afghan women have been pelted by stones as they gathered to protest a new law that critics say legalises marital rape. Police struggled to keep counter-protesters away.  The law says a husband can demand sex with his wife every four days unless she is ill or would be harmed by intercourse. It passed last month.  Women's rights activists scheduled a protest today attended by about 300 mostly young women.  But the group was swamped by counter-protesters who shouted down the women's chants.  Some of the protesting men picked up gravel and stones and threw them at the women.  The men shouted 'Death to the slaves of the Christians!'  (Daily Mail, 15 Apr 09)

Harvard Muslim chaplain sees "wisdom" of Islamic death penalty for apostasy

Harvard Islamic chaplain Taha Abdul-Basser ’96 has recently come under fire for controversial statements in which he allegedly endorsed death as a punishment for Islamic apostates.   In a private e-mail to a student last week, Abdul-Basser wrote that there was “great wisdom (hikma) associated with the established and preserved position (capital punishment [for apostates]) and so, even if it makes some uncomfortable in the face of the hegemonic modern human rights discourse, one should not dismiss it out of hand.”   The e-mail was forwarded over Muslim student e-mail lists and later picked up by the blogosphere, sparking debate and, in many cases, criticism of Abdul-Basser from those who have interpreted his statement as supporting the execution of those who leave the Islamic religion.   “I believe he doesn’t belong as the official chaplain,” said one Islamic student, who asked that he not be named to avoid conflicts with Muslim religious authorities. “If the Christian ministers said that people who converted from Christianity should be killed, don’t you think the University should do something?

According to the student, many of Abdul-Basser’s other views are “not in line with liberal values, such as notions of human rights. He privileges the medieval discourse of the Islamic jurists, and is not willing to exercise independent thought and judgment beyond a certain limit,” the student said.   Samad Khurram ’09-’10 said Abdul-Basser’s remarks conflicted with the Harvard United Ministry’s support of freedom of religion.  (The Crimson, 14 Apr 09)

Link:  Abdul-Basser’s e-mail to Student

Saudi Arabia to regulate girls' marriages

Saudi Arabia plans to regulate the marriages of young girls, its justice minister was quoted as saying on Tuesday, after a court refused to nullify the marriage of an 8-year-old to a man 50 years her senior.

The justice ministry aims "to put an end to arbitrariness by parents and guardians in marrying off minor girls," Justice Minister Mohamed al-Issa told al-Watan newspaper, partially owned by members of the royal family.

Saudi Arabia is a patriarchal society that applies an austere form of Sunni Islam that bans unrelated men and women from mixing and gives fathers the right to wed their sons and daughters to whoever they deem fit.

The minister's comments suggested the practice of marrying off young girls would not be abolished. The regulations will seek to "preserve the rights, fending off blights to end the negative aspects of underage girls' marriage," he said. . . . The minister added that any new regulations would be made under the provision that the requirements of universal laws were not binding to religious commandments. . . . Financial considerations could prompt some Saudi families to wed their underage daughters to much older men. Many Saudi clerics, including the kingdom's chief cleric Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdelaziz Al al-Sheikh, endorse the practice. "For them this is allowed by Islamic Sharia law," lawyer Abdul-Rahman al-Lahem said.  (Reuters, 14 Apr 08)

Afghan women want West to back off 'rape law'

As Afghanistan's Parliament debated ways Monday to protect female politicians from assassination, young women attending Kabul University expressed surprise and bewilderment at the debate raging in Canada and Europe over a proposed law that seems to allow men from the Shiite Hazara minority to sexually enslave their wives and imprison them in their homes.  The nearly unanimous view on the campus - arguably the most progressive institution in Afghanistan - was that the West should not involve itself in the country's cultural and religious affairs.

"This is not a good law. Women should be allowed to do what they want," said Hamida Hasani, 18, a Hazara architecture student at Kabul University. She said she was familiar with the controversial legislation, which President Hamid Karzai has pledged to urgently review in the face of strong complaints from western governments.  "But we do not want total freedom. We wanted it to be limited and to be within Islam."  (Global TV, 13 Apr 09)

Pakistan Signs Sharia Bill into Law

The Pakistani government has approved the controversial bill that will allow for the implementation of sharia, or Islamic law, into a large region of northwestern Pakistan.  President Asif Ali Zardari signed the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation into law today after a majority of the Pakistani Parliament passed the bill. The regulation allows for the establishment of sharia courts in the Malakand Division, an administrative region that encompasses more than one-third of the Northwest Frontier Province and includes the districts of Malakand, Swat, Shangla, Buner, Dir, Chitral, and Kohistan.  The sharia law was referred to the Pakistani government after the government negotiated an agreement known as the Malakand Accord with the Taliban in Swat. The agreement calls for the withdrawal of the Pakistani Army from Swat, the release all Taliban prisoners, the withdrawal of any criminal cases against Taliban leaders and fighters, and the imposition of sharia. The government agreed to the terms of the Malakand Accord after the military suffered its third defeat against the Swat Taliban in two years.  The Taliban had threatened to renew the violence in Swat if the sharia law was not signed by President Zardari. Amir Izzat, a spokesman for the pro-Taliban Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammed [TNSM or the Movement for the Enforcement of Mohammed's Law] threatened to declare any member of parliament as a non-Muslim if they voted against the law. Sufi Mohammed, the leader of the TNSM, which serves as a front for the Taliban in northwestern Pakistan, walked out on the peace agreement after bashing Zardari for not signing the sharia regulation into law.  (Long War Journal, 14 Apr 09)

Text of the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation 2009

Following is the Text of the Nizam‑e‑Adl Regulation 2009 to provide for Nifaz‑e‑Nizam‑e‑Sharia’h through Courts in the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas  (APP, 14 Apr 09)

For Afghani Women, Freedom’s Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Choose

. . . . Thus Afghani Shiite cleric Mohammad Asif Mohseni, a principal drafter of a new law whose Article 132 effectively subjects Shiite women to forcible rape by their husbands--"It is essential for the woman to submit to the man's sexual desire"--responding Saturday to the outrage of Western leaders (President Obama called the law “abhorrent”) and human rights groups.  Mujtahid Mohseni did not understand why, as rural women are illiterate and unable to find work and it therefore falls to men to provide for their families, “[we can’t] at least give the right to a husband to demand sex from his wife after four nights."  But the law’s brutality doesn’t stop with sex. In addition to the notorious Article above, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) takes note of several other repressions of women: 

Article 122: Tacitly accepts child marriage by laying out mahar (dowry) provisions for marriage between minors.

Article 133: Subjects a woman’s right to work, education, access to health care and to other services to her husband’s authority/permission.  Article 226: Regulates inheritance rights between couples. Men inherit both moveable and immovable property from a deceased spouse, while women inherit only moveable property from a deceased spouse.

Article 47: Grants guardianship of children to fathers and grandfathers.

Article 177: Denies a woman the right to leave her home without her husband’s permission.

"In Shariah law,” explained the cleric, “it states that a woman cannot go out without the permission of her husband." Adds the AP: “He argued that the law is permissive because it allows a woman to go out for a medical emergency or other urgent reason without asking.”  (Weekly Standard, 14 Apr 09)

Pakistan parliament approves Islamic law in Swat valley

Pakistan's parliament on Monday passed a resolution on enforcing Shariah, or Islamic law, in the restive northwestern Swat valley. The resolution will be followed by the signing of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari. The Taliban militants have been fighting for the enforcement of Shariah law in Swat since 2007 by burning down girls' school, outlawing entertainment and clashing with security forces.  The Pakistani government and a Muslim cleric, a mediator for peace talks between the government and local Taliban, signed a peace deal in March in the Swat valley.  The accord was signed by the security forces and Sufi Muhammad, founding chief of a religious group Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-i-Muhammadi(TNSM).   Sufi Muhammad has been mediating peace talks in a bid to persuade the Taliban to lay down arms on the condition of the implementation of Shariah, or Islamic laws, in the region.   (Xinhua, 13 Apr 09)

 Taliban using mosques as 'recruitment centres'

Having forcibly taken over Buner district adjoining Swat Valley, Taliban militants have begun using mosques in the area as "recruitment centres" to attract youths to join their ranks.  Almost all mosques in villages in Buner district are being used by the Taliban to recruit local residents for their cause of enforcing Sharia or Islamic law in the Malakand division, which includes Swat, and the rest of the country, media reports said today.  The entry of Taliban into Buner, which is just about 100 km from the federal capital, has raised alarm throughout Pakistan as to the intentions of the Taliban. Armed bands of Taliban poured into Buner from neighbouring Swat and took control of the district after overcoming resistance from local tribesmen and officials.
The militants yesterday placed villages in Chamla sub-district of Buner "under their protection and faced no resistance from law enforcement agencies. Despite assurances to a tribal jirga last week that they would leave Buner, the militants have instead strengthened their hold on the district.  Maulana Khalil, a Taliban leader from Swat, addressed a congregation in a mosque in Malakpur village where he was welcomed by clerics and a large number of local residents. He urged youths to come forward and shoulder the responsibility for enforcing Sharia in their areas.   (PTI, 13 Apr 09)

Bajaur Taliban ban shaving of beards

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Bajaur Agency chief Faqir Muhammad on Friday announced ban on several activities in the agency, including the shaving of beards.
Other activities banned by the Bajaur Taliban are drug pushing, bare headedness of males, non-government organizations working in the agency and the grants under the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP). The Taliban also banned women from getting their national identity cards (ID) made or leaving their houses.
In his weekly speech broadcast through his FM radio channel, Muhammad said violators would be punished in accordance with sharia.  Punishment: He said the Taliban had arrested some people for their involvement in the BISP and would punish them according to sharia.  ID cards: The TTP leader said the Taliban would also arrest the people assisting women in getting ID cards made and distributing BISP money among them.  Meanwhile, the Taliban dumped the beheaded body of Awami National Party Bajaur senior leader Muhammad Islam Khan in the agency’s Ghundo area.  (Daily Times, 13 Apr 09)

Afghan law seemingly allowing rape spits on global women's rights

Back in the 1990s, when they had an international conference on women in Beijing, a cartoonist over here depicted a Chinese ruler saying he was "proud of our stand on women."   Behind the lectern, he was, in fact, standing on a woman.  The international status of women has hardly improved since then and, in fact, has deteriorated in some areas. Where Islamic sharia law has taken over, women have been treated as chattel -- cloaked from head to foot, whipped for being seen without a male relative, blamed for dishonoring the family by being gang-raped.  Now, a new sharia-inspired law in Afghanistan -- a country supposedly liberated by the United States in 2001-02 -- seems to allow men to rape their wives.  The law came just in time for the first visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- and as the United States sends in more of its men and women to defend Afghanistan against terrorists.  "As long as the husband is not traveling, he has the right to have sexual intercourse with his wife every fourth night," the law says in part. "Unless the wife is ill or has any kind of illness that intercourse could aggravate, the wife is bound to give a positive response to the sexual desires of her husband."  (Augusta Chronicle, 12 Apr 09)

Banned Cleric of Hate Invited to Rant in UK

ANGER was growing last night after it was revealed that an Islamic extremist linked to Al Qaeda and the September 11 hijackers is to address a UK conference by video.  Muslim cleric Sheikh Anwar al-Awlaki has been banned from the United States after he was accused of using taped lectures to encourage terrorist attacks.

But the preacher of hate has been given the go-ahead to speak to an audience of hundreds at the three-day event in east London which is being held at a taxpayer-funded venue starting today.  Tower Hamlets council granted permission for the pre-recorded video message to be broadcast despite admitting it “obviously had some concerns”.  Last night the council released a statement saying the decision had been made after consultations with police and Home Office officials. But politicians accused Home Secretary Jacqui Smith of failing to take action to crack down on extremists.  American-born al-Awlaki has been banned from returning to the US following accusations he acted as a spiritual adviser to three of the 9/11 terrorists.   (Express, 11 Apr 09)

Afghan cleric defends contentious marriage law

A key backer of an Afghan law that critics say legalizes marital rape and rolls back women's rights rejected an international outcry as foreign meddling on Saturday and insisted the law offers women many protections.

The law, passed last month, says a husband can demand sex with his wife every four days unless she is ill or would be harmed by intercourse, and regulates when and for what reasons a wife may leave her home alone.

"It is essential for the woman to submit to the man's sexual desire," the law says. . . . Mohammad Asif Mohseni, a top Afghan cleric and one of the law's main drafters, said the legislation cannot be revoked or changed because it was enacted through a legislative process — passed by both houses of parliament and signed by Karzai.  "The Westerners claim that they have brought democracy to Afghanistan. What does democracy mean? It means government by the people for the people. They should let the people use these democratic rights," Mohseni told reporters in the capital, Kabul.  (AP, 11 Apr 09)

Muslim Army Chaplain Divides Holland

The Dutch defense ministry and parliament went into a collision course on Friday, April 10, over the appointment of a Muslim imam as an army chaplain.  The defense ministry appointed Wednesday two Muslim imams of Turkish and Moroccan origins as army chaplains.  The swearing-in of the two chaplains, Soud Aydin and Ali Eddaoudi, were supposed to be held Thursday.  But the swearing-in ceremony was postponed after the parliament objected the Eddaoudi's appointment, citing his "radical" views.  The defense ministry says the Muslim chaplains could be sent on missions outside the Netherlands, in particular to Afghanistan where 1,600 Dutch troops are based.  (Islam Online, 10 Apr 09)

The Freedom to Choose a New Faith

. . . .  The right to convert is often threatened along with the right to practice a particular religion. Take the case of Lina Joy, born Azlina binti Jailani, a Malay woman who converted from Islam to Catholicism in 1990 at the age of 26. In order to marry her Catholic fiancé, which, according to Malaysian law, Muslims are forbidden to do, Ms. Joy petitioned the Malaysian government in 1998 to remove "Islam" from her national identification card. The Malaysian Federal Constitution defines ethnic Malays as Muslim by birth, which erects a de facto bar against their conversion from Islam. Her petition was denied unless she obtained an order of the Sharia courts officially labeling her an apostate. She took the issue to court, and after a series of trials, the state declined to alter her identification card. Nineteen years after her conversion, Ms. Joy is still in hiding, afraid her children will be taken from her because they would be considered Muslim and born of an illegitimate marriage.  Ms. Joy is not alone. In 2006, Abdul Rahman was arrested and put on trial for converting from Islam to Christianity in Afghanistan. The Afghani high court that heard his case, dominated by judges sympathetic to Sharia law, gave him a death sentence. After enormous international pressure, the government stayed his execution and allowed him to flee to Italy. The Afghan constitution still criminalizes converting from Islam, and the crime is still punishable by death.  (Wall Street Journal, 10 Apr 09)

Interview: Ex-Muslim Women on Life Under Sharia Law

For 30 years, Nonie Darwish lived under sharia law as a Muslim in Egypt. After moving to the United States, she became a follower of Jesus Christ and quietly lived the American dream.  But the 9/11 terrorist attacks awakened her to the threat of Islamic terrorism and spurred her to research what the Quran, sharia law, and Muslim religious literatures actually teach its followers.  Her latest book, Cruel and Usual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implication of Islamic Law, dives into the history of sharia law and what it calls for, and examines the global campaign that aims to install the legal system in Western countries, including the United States.  The following are excerpts from a recent Christian Post interview with Darwish.

CP: In the North West Frontier Province, Pakistan, sharia law was recently enacted in exchange for terrorist groups to stop their violent campaign in the region and to establish what the local government is claiming to be “peace.” To many westerners unfamiliar with sharia law, the system appears to be just strict Muslim laws and seems like a good bargain for an end to terrorist-instigated violence. What don’t Westerners understand about sharia law and what do they need to understand about the dangers of imposing sharia in Pakistan?

Darwish: Unfortunately, sharia - even in Muslim countries - is so against human nature that it has to be imposed by force because often it is rejected. So wherever you see sharia being practiced, it has always come and existed in that society through violence.

So the same dynamic is happening in Western Europe now. Muslims always use the word “impose” sharia. They never say let’s pass sharia, no, they say let’s impose sharia. The word impose is used.  (Christian Post, 9 Apr 09)

Iran hangs three for 2008 mosque bombing

Iran Friday hanged three people convicted of being involved in a bomb explosion in a mosque in the southern city of Shiraz in 2008, Iranian media reported. Mohsen Eslamian, Ali-Asghar Pashtar and Rouzbeh Yahyazadeh - all members of Tondar, a previously unknown terror group - had been arrested last year and convicted by a revolutionary court, state-run IRIB television reported.  Fourteen people were killed and about 200 injured in a bomb explosion during a speech by a local cleric in a Shiraz mosque in April last year.  An appeals court upheld the verdict by Tehran's revolutionary court which found all three guilty and convicted them to death, the station reported on its website.  Under Iran's sharia law armed robbery, murder, adultery, drug smuggling and involvement in "terrorist acts" are punishable by death.  (DPA, 10 Apr 09)

Alleged Child Killer's Mug Called Insult to Islam

The police booking photo of alleged child killer Nour Hadid released Tuesday is an "insult against our religion," says Hadid's husband, Alaeddin.  Orland Park police detectives say the 26-year-old Muslim woman was treated as any other suspect in a murder probe would be, and they did not intend to humiliate her when they photographed her Sunday without her headscarf and wearing only a skimpy top.   Nour Hadid is accused of beating her 2-year-old niece Bhia Hadid to death over four days at her home on the 9000 block of West 140th Street. The child had 55 separate bruises and was beaten "from head to toe," according to prosecutors, who say Hadid confessed.  But Alaeddin Hadid -- who insists his wife is innocent -- said Orland Park police are "really going to be in big trouble" for releasing the woman's booking photo to the news media after she was charged with first-degree murder.

. . . . Orland Park police Cmdr. Chuck Doll said the mug shot was taken "for identification purposes" before Hadid made her confession. Her headscarf was handed back to her after the photo was taken, Doll said.
"A matron was with her at all times while she was in our custody," Doll said. A matron is a law enforcement official who works with women held in custody. "She was wearing a tank top, and she had the headscarf when she was interviewed."   The headscarf later was taken from her after she made suicide threats, he said.  (CBS2, 10 Apr 09)

CAIR-MN wants schools to provide Somalis legal support

. . . . The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR-MN, says it's received an increasing number of reports from students who say they have been interrogated by the FBI on Minnesota campuses. The group says the interviews focus on allegations that Somali men have left Minnesota to go to Somalia and fight in that nation's civil war. According to CAIR-MN, federal agents have approached students in campus libraries or while walking to class.  The group says it received one report of a campus police officer who invited a Somali student leader to what she understood to be an outreach program. The student told CAIR-MN, the officer accompanied her to the meeting with FBI officials. She reported she did not have a lawyer present.  (KTSP, 9 Apr 09)

Saudi man divorces wife by text message

A Saudi man has divorced his wife by text message, a newspaper said on Thursday.

The man was in Iraq when he sent the SMS informing her she was no longer his spouse. He followed up with a telephone call to two of his relatives, the daily Arab News reported.  A court in the Red Sea city of Jeddah finalised the split -- the first known divorce in Saudi Arabia by text message -- after summoning the two relatives to check they had received word of the husband's intention, the paper said.

Saudi Arabia practises a strict form of Islamic Sharia law, and clerics preside over Sharia courts as judges. Under the law a man can divorce his wife by saying "I divorce you" three times.  The Saudi man was in Iraq to participate in "what he described as 'jihad'," according to the Arab News.  (Reuters, 9 Apr 09)

Pakistan's religious parties demand extension of Islamic law

Pakistan's decision to turn the Swat Valley's courts over to Baitullah Mehsud's Taliban insurgency has emboldened mainstream religious parties to push for Islamic law throughout the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and eventually the entire country.  Mehsud also has launched terrorist attacks beyond the tribal areas, including an assault on a police academy in Lahore last week that killed 18 people, and threatened to strike the United States. The United States then reportedly targeted Mehsud in a remote region of Pakistan's tribal areas with missiles fired from a drone.  The push for Shariah illustrates a dilemma for the Obama administration, which is seeking to shore up U.S. relations with Pakistan and bolster Pakistan's fragile secular government: Militant fighters and mainstream Islamist political leaders share not only personal ties but a common goal of imposing Islamic law throughout the country.

So far, Shariah has been extended to the Malakand region, which includes the Swat Valley and comprises eight of the 24 districts of the NWFP. The imposition of Islamic courts there was one of the foremost demands of Mehsud and his outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which openly battled and badly defeated Pakistani forces in Swat in the year before the truce.  (Washington Times, 9 Apr 09)

Muslim man claims discrimination

A developer is seeking $25 million from the Kootenai County commissioners and a local fire district, contending his building application was denied because of religious and racial discrimination.  Haitham Joudeh, owner of Jordan International Trade and Contracting in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, filed a claim against both entities on Monday.  He contended commissioners in February denied his application to build 141 storage units in Mica Flats because of his Islamic faith and Middle Eastern descent. He contended the fire district made arbitrary requirements for the same reasons.  Commissioner Rick Currie said the claim against the county is bogus.  (AP, 8 Apr 09)

Duke opens new Muslim Life at Duke Center

The Muslim community at Duke University now has a place to gather on campus, as the school celebrates the opening of the Muslim Life at Duke building.  The center is located on Swift Avenue, which is just off Highway 147. Officials say they want to use the Muslim Life at Duke facility to welcome everyone who considers themselves Muslim as well as those who are curious about the faith.  Duke’s Muslim chaplain says students will be able to participate in book clubs, weekly gatherings and cultural events. There will also be classes for music, dance and cooking ethnic cuisine.  The grand opening will begin with a reading from the Koran followed by a call for prayer recited by Muslim students. The event starts at 3 p.m. and is free and open to the public.  (News 14, 8 Apr 09)

International Peer Pressure Works

. . . . Mere days after word got out about a horribly oppressive law in Afghanistan, the public outcry was so great that President Hamid Karzai promised to revise it.  The law in question forbade women from refusing their husbands sex or from leaving the house without permission. . . . the international community was quick to express their complete condemnation of the law. President Barack Obama referred to the law as “abhorrent,” and Canada, Italy and the United Kingdom threatened to withdraw troops from Afghanistan if the law was not overturned.
By April 5, Karzai succumbed to the international peer pressure and abandoned the law.  In the comfort of our cushy college lifestyle, half a world away from the women of Kabul, Kandahar and Herat, it is easy to be complacent upon hearing news such as this. After all, what can we possibly do?  Afghanistan is an Islamic Republic and draws some of its legal system from Sharia law.  By its nature, Sharia law is religious, steeped in a long cultural history and about as foreign to American eyes as it gets. How can we possibly understand it or influence change when we disagree?  Yet the events of last week prove that we can affect change, even to distant lands.  (Indiana Daily Student, 8 Apr 09)

The chapel without a crucifix

The home of God at Royal North Shore hospital has fallen victim to a higher power - the State Government bureaucracy.   The Mosman Daily has learnt that crucifixes, Bibles and all other Christian symbols are banned inside the hospital’s chapel when it is not being used for a church service.   The move, ordered by senior staff, is to avoid offending Muslims, Hindus or other non-Christian believers who may want to pray in the chapel.   Hospital staff say that while the chapel was built for Christians, they now want the chapel to be completely non-denominational. An inspection of the chapel last week by the Daily found no trace of a crucifix or any other religious symbol inside the chapel.  (Mosman Daily, 8 Apr 09)

Mich. court overturns ruling in Muslim divorce

Declaring "I divorce thee" three times is not a legal way to end a marriage in Michigan.   The state appeals court on Wednesday overturned a ruling in Oakland County that recognized a divorce ritual that is common among Muslims in India.
The appeals court says the woman, Saida Tarikonda, was deprived of her rights. She wasn't present in India in April 2008 when her husband returned there to declare what's known as the "triple talaq" (TA'-lock).  They were married in India in 2001 and lived together in Michigan for two years until January 2008.  Tarikonda lives in Madison Heights, a Detroit suburb. She has filed for divorce in Oakland County and, under Michigan law, would be eligible for a share of marital property.  (AP, 8 Apr 09)

Muslim Girl Gets $400G From Nevada School District in Head Scarf Bully Case

. . . . The Washoe County School District in the Reno area will give Egyptian former student Jana Elhifny $350,000 and her non-Muslim friend and supporter Stephanie Hart $50,000 as part of the civil settlement.  Elhifny and her family came to Reno from Egypt in 2003, and the girl enrolled as a freshman at North Valleys High School.

She didn't finish the year after she told teachers and administrators that someone had threatened to kill her in the stairwell because of her Muslim hijab or head scarf, the district's independent attorney in the case, Robert Cox, told FOXNews.com.

Shortly afterwards, Cox said, Elhifny filed the lawsuit and returned to Egypt, where she married her fiancé.  The lawsuit, handled by U.S. District Court in Reno, alleges that Elhifny faced death threats and harassment and school administrators did nothing to stop the abuse.  Cox said that wasn't true, and the teen was unable to give any description of her tormenter — including his or her gender, size and tone of voice.  He said the high school tried to investigate her claims but was unsuccessful because of the lack of information.  "The district did an incredibly thorough investigation," Cox told FOXNews.com in a phone interview. "They could never identify the person who perpetrated these acts. ...The district did everything it could do to try to help this young woman who is an Egyptian and of the Islam faith."  Cox said school officials couldn't confirm the stairwell death threat story.  (Fox, 8 Apr 09)

Court upholds Philly police ban on Muslim scarf

A federal appeals court has upheld the Philadelphia police department's ban on an officer wearing a Muslim head scarf on the job.  Kimberlie Webb, who has been on the force for more than a dozen years, filed a discrimination lawsuit in October 2005 after the department said the religious symbol violated uniform regulations. A federal judge ruled in the city's favor in 2007.  The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday sided with the police department, which said accommodating Webb would severely damage the department's appearance of "religious neutrality."  Webb's attorney, Jeffrey Pollock, said Wednesday he is considering an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, but he said "that's obviously a long shot." (AP, 8 Apr 09)

Belgium: Top court upholds headscarf ban in schools

Belgium's top administrative court, the Council of State has ruled that schools may ban girls from wearing the Muslim headscarf. The court said the ban was not discriminatory and reinforced the principles of equality and solidarity.  The Movement against Racism, anti-Semitism and Xenophobia (MRAX) however slammed the ruling as "ideological, factious and anti-democratic".  It said the group was considering whether to appeal the ruling at the European Court of Human Rights or the United Nations' Human Rights Council. It will decide on its course of action later this month.  MRAX had sought to outlaw a rule at two Belgian schools prohibiting pupils from wearing 'any type of head-covering or political or religious symbol'.  Muslim women in the neighboring Netherlands last month formed a group to fight for the right to wear the headscarf at work, after numerous employers told them it was against company policy.  (AKI, 8 Apr 09)

Liberal imam wins libel claim against Muslim newspaper

A progressive Muslim imam from Oxford has won a libel action against a Muslim newspaper in what he claims is a "watershed moment" in the battle between liberal and extremist Muslims in Britain.  Dr Taj Hargey, who provoked controversy last year when he invited the first ever woman to lead and preach at Friday prayers in Britain, has been awarded a "substantial" five-figure sum in libel damages against the Muslim Weekly, which takes a conservative line on community issues.  In its latest edition, the newspaper urges the Government not to play a "divide and rule" policy over the Muslim Council of Britain. The Government has threatened to cut ties with the council after it refused to sack its deputy leader, Daud Abdullah, who signed a pro-Hamas declaration at a conference on Gaza in Istanbul.  Dr Hargey, who is originally from South Africa, describes himself as a "thorn in the side of the Muslim hierarchy" as a result of his liberal theology and his "integrationist, non-sexist views."  The Oxford institute he founded, the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford (Meco), preaches that women should not wear the niqab or face-covering and that men should not wear beards. He sanctions marriages of Muslim women to men of other faiths and promotes mixed congregations in mosques, where men and women are usually strictly segregated and women are sometimes not allowed at all.  (Times Online, 8 Apr 09)

Afghan women's law under review

President Hamid Karzai is committed to a thorough review of a controversial new law that critics say legalizes marital rape, his spokesman said Tuesday.  Humayun Hamidzada said Karzai has consulted with the country's leading clerics and his Cabinet over the new law that regulates family life inside Afghanistan's Shiite communities, and that the measure has been sent to the Ministry of Justice for review.  "The president is committed to upholding our constitution that provides equal rights for men and women, and he's committed to the rights of minorities and all rights and privileges provided in our constitution to our citizens," Hamidzada said.  The law, quietly passed and signed last month, has stirred international outcry amid accusations the legislation sets back women's rights. Some of the provisions say that a husband can have sex with his wife every four days unless she is ill, and it regulates when and for what reasons a wife may leave the house by herself.  The law would apply only to the country's Shiite population, between 10 percent and 20 percent of Afghanistan's 30 million people. The Justice Ministry has said the law, which has not been published in the official registry, is not being enforced while it is under review.   (AP, 7 Apr 09)

Pakistani Teen Purportedly Shown in Flogging Video Now Says It Never Happened

Pakistani teenage girl at the center of national outrage over a video purporting to show her public flogging by the Taliban reportedly told an Islamic judge and a provincial official that the incident never happened.  The video, shown last week by Pakistani television and widely posted on the Web, shows the crying 17-year-old girl being held down by several men - including a man identified as her brother - as a member of the Taliban beats her.  The incident reportedly took place between two and five weeks ago in the Swat Valley village of Kala Killay. The video has sparked nationwide condemnation and demonstrations challenging the government's decision to allow Shariah law into the Taliban-controlled region.  Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani called for an immediate inquiry and Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry - recently restored to office - ordered police and government officials from the north-western territory to bring the girl to court for questioning.  But the girl, identified as Chand Bibi, instead was interviewed at her home by an Islamic judge and a local government commissioner, and reportedly told them that the beating never happened. . . . Hussain said that upon questioning by the Islamic judge, she denied neighbors' claims that she had been dragged from her home, held down and flogged. She also denied reports that she had been charged with having an illicit relationship with a local man — who witnesses claim also was beaten — or that the Taliban forced the two to marry, the Times reported.

Instead, Hussain said, the girl told the judge the man was her husband, and that the video was a fake distributed to disrupt the peace process in the region. . . . Meanwhile, the man who videotaped the flogging told Pakistan's Dawn News that the girl was being punished for refusing a marriage proposal from a Taliban militant. (Fox, 6 Apr 09)

Husband chops off wife’s nose on alleged infidelity

A husband cut her wife’s nose on allegations of having illicit relations with another man here in Kashmor.
According to police, a man named Jalnar Mamdani chopped off his wife Asia Mamdani’s nose with a sharp edged tool after blaming her of having illicit relations with another man. Following the incident, the man took his two children along and escaped.  Asia Mamdani was first admitted to Kashmor Hospital and later she was shifted to Sukkur Hospital where her surgery was carried out.  Injured Asia has appealed the police for providing her security.  DCO Kashmor Syed Abid Ali Shah hoped that Jalnar Mamdani would soon be arrested.  (The News, 6 Apr 09)

Jordanian man charged with killing sister in honor crime

Jordan's Criminal Court has charged a 19-year-old man with stabbing to death his sister in what is believed to be an honor killing.  Judge Jihad al-Dridi charged the man Monday with premeditated murder and the possession of a dangerous weapon.  Al-Dridi said the man confessed to repeatedly stabbing his 22-year-old sister to cleanse the family honor because she left the house too often.  The victim is the eighth person to be killed in honor crimes this year.  About 20 women are killed annually in Jordan by male relatives. The conservative society tolerates the killings and perpetrators often receive light sentences.   (AP, 6 Apr 09)

Textbook Lies About Islam

In recent House hearings dedicated to examining Islamic extremism, I stressed that the fundamental stumbling block to effective policy-making is educational and epistemological. What people are taught about Islam needs a serious overhaul before we can expect to formulate strategies that make sense.  Worth heeding is former top Pentagon official William Gawthrop’s 2006 lament that “the senior service colleges of the Department of Defense had not incorporated into their curriculum a systematic study of Muhammad as a military or political leader. As a consequence, we still do not have an in-depth understanding of the war-fighting doctrine laid down by Muhammad, how it might be applied today by an increasing number of Islamic groups, or how it might be countered.”  Three years later, the situation appears worse. After the War College published something of an apologia for the terrorist organization Hamas, defense analyst Mark Perry concluded, “It’s worse than you think. They have curtailed the curriculum so that their students are not exposed to radical Islam. Akin to denying students access to Marx during the Cold War.”  Why, at a time of war, are students at top U.S. military schools denied an objective treatment of Islam’s war doctrines? A report by the American Textbook Council sheds light by showing how these academic failures have much deeper roots.  After reviewing a number of popular textbooks used by American junior and senior high schools, the report found that, due to political correctness and/or fear of Muslim activists, “key subjects like jihad, Islamic law, [and] the status of women are whitewashed.”  Regarding the strikes of 9/11, one textbook never mentions Islamic ideologies, referring to the 19 al-Qaeda hijackers as “teams of terrorists” — this despite the fact that al-Qaeda has repeatedly articulated its hostile worldview through an Islamist paradigm, with a stress on hating “infidels” and waging holy war.  (Pajama Media, 5 Apr 09)

Report: ISLAM IN THE CLASSROOM – What Textbooks Tell Us

Good News: First U.S. Based Pro-al Qaeda Magazine Released

It's called Jihad Recollections and is a production of Charlotte, NC al Qaeda supporter Samir Khan's self-styled jihad media company, as-Fursan. You can download a PDF version at the links provided by Sammy here.

The magazine is 70 pages of the same kind of garbage that you'd expect from al Qaeda itself, and certainly not from an American living in North Carolina. It seems to be imitating several other jihad magazines, which started with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's Voice of Jihad.  In addition to links to al Qaeda produced videos all within a clear context of support (note to Sammy: many of your links don't work. Better luck embedding them next time) It includes two English feature length articles by al Qaeda's #1 and #2: Four Practical Steps to Expand the Global Jihad, by Osama bin Laden, and Have We Forgotten Who Is America?, by Ayman al-Zawahiri and Nasir al-Fahd.

Hirsi Ali says Islam cannot be reformed

Ayaan Hirsi Ali presented “Ladies First” in an extremely crowded Trout Auditorium as the second part of the new Bucknell Forum series, “Global Leadership: Questions for the 21st Century.”  “Most Muslim women who get the opportunity to write to me or to talk to me and who recognize the problems or acknowledge the problems that I talk about, say, ‘Will you please talk about these problems and be our voice; but will you not criticize Islam,’” said Hirsi Ali in a press event before the speech. “I tell them that I will.”  Hirsi Ali began her speech by telling the audience it could not understand Muslim women’s plight unless it first understood the basics of Islam.  She then split perceptions of Islam into two theories.  “There’s one school of thought that defends the position that Islam is a great and peaceful religion. It’s a religion that’s hijacked by a small number of bandits,” Hirsi Ali said.

. . . . Hirsi Ali then contrasted this view of Islam with the one to which she adheres.  “The idea is that Islam is not a religion of peace but one of conquest. It seeks world dominance by all means it can. Islam is seen … as a political theory that stipulates a form of government and this form of government is totalitarian,” Hirsi Ali said.
For the sake of her argument, Hirsi Ali then grouped all Muslim theology together under the belief in Sharia law.
“Sharia, or Islamic law, is founded on … four sources of Islamic jurisprudence,” Hirsi Ali said. “Al Qaeda, the 57 member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference and all Muslims believe in the moral teachings of all four sources of jurisprudence.”   (Bucknell, 3 Apr 09)

Cartoon strip aimed at under-12s depicts Christian boy as Islamaphobe thug

A Government-funded charity was at the centre of a row last night after a magazine it publishes for children appeared to depict Christians as Islamaphobes who regard Muslims as terrorists.  In a cartoon strip, a boy wearing a large cross around his neck is shown telling a friend that a smiling Muslim girl in a veil looks like a terrorist.  He later confronts her and shouts: ‘Hey, whatever your name is, what are you hiding under your turban?’  She replies that the garment is called a hijab and it is part of her religion, ‘like that cross you wear’.  The girl is then shown standing up for another boy, who is being  bullied, and her behavior is  contrasted with that of the boy wearing the cross.  The cartoon story, entitled Standing Up For What You Believe In, appears in the latest issue of Klic!, a quarterly magazine aimed at children in care aged from eight to 12.  Published by the Who Cares? Trust, a charity set up in 1992, it is described on the cover as ‘the best ever mag for kids in care’ and is widely distributed by town halls. . . . Although the cartoon does not specifically refer to the boy’s religion, it has angered Christian groups and MPs who fear it sends out the wrong message.  Mike Judge, of the Christian Institute, said: ‘What about Christian children in care who received this magazine? How will they feel to see themselves mocked as narrow-minded Islamaphobes?  ‘It is a clumsy caricature, symptomatic of a culture which says it is OK to bully Christians in the name of diversity.’  (Daily Mail, 6 Apr 09)

Do We Justify the Most Brutal Murders by Calling Them 'Honor Killings'?

Islamic groups in the U.S. are actively trying to discourage use of descriptive terms like "Jihadi" to describe an Islamic terrorist and war Americans against "Islamophobia" should they use the "wrong" words to talk about Islam or Muslim terrorists. Yet Americans have already succumbed to using an Islamist phrase, "honor killing" to describe the brutal, pre-meditated murders of Muslim women (often wives or daughters) by Muslim relatives (often fathers or brothers).    There are thousands of these killings overseas (many under-reported and perpetrators unpunished) in countries ranging from Bangladesh to Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Pakistan and in Western societies like Great Britain where Muslims have emigrated. Many more Muslim women are beaten and abused. While Muslims account for less than 6% of the Dutch population, Muslim women constitute 60% of those seeking refuge in battered women's shelters.   Somali exile and former Muslim, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who became an outspoken Dutch Parliamentarian, told the New York Post (July 23, '08) that honor killings are a misnomer:  "The killing occurs because these girls have allegedly brought shame on their family. The paradox is that these are individuals who have emancipated themselves. "These girls embody the American dream. They want to become self-reliant – deciding who they marry, when they marry and how many children they will have." Hirsi Ali, who left her homeland to escape an arranged marriage, was forced to flee the Netherlands for voicing criticism of Islamic extremism and has been subjected to death threats. 

 On March 21st, in Jordan, a man beat his daughter to death for wearing makeup, according to the Canadian press. In Basra, Iraq last year, a Muslim teenager was murdered by her father and brothers. Her sin was flirting with an infidel – a British soldier.  (FSM, 6 Apr 09)

Sharia Infiltrates German Courts, Schools, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Once again a German court ruled by referring to Shrai’a (Islamic law), which predominantly incites to denigration of women, hatred, violence.   Most recently, Lisa, a German woman (46) married to an Egyptian, called the police seeking protection for herself and her 17-year-old daughter from assaults by her husband. Magdi, Lisa’s husband, threatened to kill their daughter who had been raped by a man. Magdi, a practicing Muslim, believes that his daughter committed “Zena” (adultery). He told his wife that he was always suspicious of his daughter who clandestinely had a German boyfriend. Lisa filed a divorce case against her husband, and requested deporting him.

 The judge, Matthias Rau, at a court in Hanover, Germany, ruled (January 21, 2009), Lisa had to wait for at least one year before she is legally divorced. Her husband cannot be deported. “He must be re-educated, in hopes he would renounce his Islamic understanding of ‘Zena,’” the judge said.    The German judge argued, “Muslims have a different understanding of rape than Europeans, and this must be taken into account.”  In an interview with a German radio, NDR on February 18, 2009, Rau said, “Sharia aligns rape to adultery, Zena, and victims – women – are often punished instead of prosecuting the perpetrators and convict them.”  (FSM, 6 Apr 09)

Flogging probe begins in Pakistan

Pakistan's newly reinstated chief justice has ordered a police committee to investigate the controversial flogging of a teenage girl.  A video has been circulating of the public flogging in the north-western Swat valley which has sparked outrage.  Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry said the probe should determine the victim and the perpetrators.  The film shows apparent Taleban members holding the girl down and hitting her with a strap as she cries out in pain.  Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has condemned the incident as "shameful".  The BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad says that the video has strengthened fears that the provincial government has capitulated to militants in Swat by agreeing to implement Islamic Sharia law there.   (BBC, 6 Apr 09)

JUI-F minister terms Swat flogging a Jewish plot

Federal Minister Senator Azam Khan Swati of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) said on Saturday that the flogging of the 17-year-old girl in Swat was a Jewish conspiracy aimed at destroying peace in Swat and distort the image of those Islamists who sport beards and wear turbans. Speaking at a reception hosted by the JUI-F Karachi Chapter in his honour, Swati said that the JUI-F may part ways with the PPP-led coalition government if drone attacks continue to violate the sovereignty of Pakistan. “We shall not tolerate the violation of our country’s sovereignty through drone attacks,” he said, adding that under a deep-rooted conspiracy, the Pakistan Army was being defamed. He said that the ISI might be modernized on the lines that they bring a bad name to its reputation among Pakistanis. He said that the US administration has declared Baitullah Mehsud as its enemy and approved financial aid for the Pakistan government for actions against people such as Mehsud. “There are apprehensions that the US administration may turn Pakistan into the next Afghanistan on the pretext of an operation against terrorists as they did with Afghanistan in the name of Osama Bin Laden,” said Swati.  (Daily Times, 5 Apr 09)

Pakistan's Swat valley seen as a test case for strict Islamic law

A hundred miles northwest of Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, the Swat valley offers a chilling vision of what much of the country could become.  Where tourists once frolicked, extremists are laying the groundwork for religious courts to dispense brutal punishments under their harsh interpretation of Islamic law. The leader of the group, Sufi Mohammad, said penalties including flogging, chopping off hands and stoning to death must be available to Swat's Islamic courts.  Floggings are the proper punishment for sexual intercourse between unmarried people, drinking alcohol and slander, Mohammad said. Thieves should have their hands chopped off, except for poor people who steal to feed themselves. The punishment for adultery is death by stoning. "These punishments are prescribed in Islam. No one can stop that. It is God's law," said Mohammad, sitting on the floor in his makeshift headquarters in Mingora, the regional capital. Mohammad, the head of the Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariaht-e-Mohammadi, or Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Law, spoke in a rare interview with McClatchy Newspapers.  An aide, Ameer Izzat, hurriedly added that tough criteria must be met for such sentences. For adultery, there must be four witnesses who saw the act of penetration, he said. . . . All that it takes to introduce the new system is for Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari to sign off on it. Zardari has hesitated, however, possibly under pressure from Western countries, which have been highly critical of the deal.  Mohammad said time was running out for Pakistan to implement the deal. He warned that if the promised new courts aren't fully operational soon, he'll abandon Swat. That would leave the area once more to the marauding Taliban, who announced a cease-fire in response to Mohammad's deal with the authorities.  (McClatchy Newspapers, 5 Apr 09)

Afghan President Backtracks on Law Legalizing Rape in Marriage

Responding to criticism from around the world, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Saturday that a new law that critics say makes it legal for men to rape their wives will be studied and possibly sent back to parliament for review.  Karzai said he ordered the Justice Ministry to review the law, and if anything in it contravenes the country's constitution or Shariah law, "measures will be taken."  The law, signed by Karzai last month, is intended to regulate family life inside Afghanistan's Shiite community, which makes up 10 percent to 20 percent of the country's 30 million people.  But the United Nations Development Fund for Women has said the law "legalizes the rape of a wife by her husband.". .