A Malaysian model will receive six strokes from a rattan cane after admitting in an Islamic court to the crime of drinking beer in a bar.
Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno’s sentence was confirmed by her lawyer yesterday after she decided not to appeal, making her the first woman to face corporal punishment imposed by a Malaysian Sharia court.
The case has caused controversy in a country that projects an image of moderation to foreign tourists and businesses but imposes stern Islamic justice on its Muslim population.
...“Sharia whipping is more like caning naughty schoolboys,” a “whipping officer” told the New Straits Times. “In Sharia the punishment is not in the force of the whipping but to bring shame. The whipping implement is supposed to be soft and supple, so as to inflict the least pain.”
There is video which you should probably watch. But there is a caveat; I cannot say that every or any statement is correct because each requires verification but I have read about some of these concerns and I think there may be some truth to this video. I plan to add links about these issues as I find them to either support it or disprove it.
An Egyptian cut off his own penis on Sunday in protest at his parents' choice of bride, a police official said.
The 25-year-old laborer from the village of Sheikh Eissa in southern Egypt was taken to hospital in stable condition, the official said, adding that the man had also mutilated his testicles...Doctors were unable to reattach the severed member, the official said.
Today, Pope Benedict XVI made a plea from a mosque in Jordan for the world's religions to get along. He also expressed concern for Christians and other non-Muslims who live in Islamic nations:
"Pope Benedict XVI, speaking at a mosque in Amman, Jordan, also expresses concern about the discrimination that he says Christians and others face in Islamic nations such as Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
Pope Benedict XVI today called on Christians and Muslims to serve mankind with the "light of God's truth" while warning that extremists in nations such as Iraq were exploiting religious differences for political and violent agendas.
...During his speech, the pontiff made note of Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, patriarch of the Chaldean Church, Iraq's largest Christian denomination. Tens of thousands of Christians have fled Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and subsequent sectarianism.
"I urge diplomats and the international community they represent, together with local political and religious leaders, to do everything possible to ensure the ancient Christian community of that noble land its fundamental right to peaceful coexistence with their fellow citizens," the pope said."
A large group of Islamic scholars in secular Turkey have called for reform of their religion. Their project is supported by the Turkish government.
These scholars and the Turkish government should be applauded!
Video:
A group of Islamic scholars in Turkey is attempting to re-interpret some of Islam's most sacred texts. The goal: to give the faith a modern makeover.
"Mehmet Kirbasoglu is passionate about his faith in Allah, the Muslim God. But he believes that his religion needs a fresh interpretation for the 21st Century.
...And so for the past few years, Kirbasoglu, and 80 other Muslim Turkish scholars, have been examining the Hadith -- a collection of some 170,000 sayings attributed to the prophet Mohammed.
The Hadith is the second most sacred text in Islam after the Koran. It is also the basis of all Islamic Sharia law.
The Hadith includes some of the more controversial tenents, such as stoning adulterers, honor killings, female genital mutilation and amputation. The scholars will publish six volumes later this year that will throw out or re-interpret thousands of such practices...
Nahide Bozkurt, a leading Islamic historian, has written extensively on the life of the prophet Mohammed.
She concludes that many of the Hadiths were falsified, while others were made up to exert control over society...
Apr 24, 2008 ... In a sterile, boxy stone building in the shadow of Ankara's central mosque, a group of Turkish scholars is spearheading a reinterpretation ...
Feb 27, 2008 ...Turkey attempts to rewrite basis for Islamicsharia law while ... Sources say the Islamic reform project is so ambitious and so fundamental ...
A controversial London Imam, Anjem Choudary, warned that people who celebrate Valentine's Day will rot in hell:
"The controversial Muslim cleric rants that exchanging cards, sending roses or enjoying romantic candlelit dinners are “sordid acts influenced by the Devil”.
And he slams one of Britain’s favourite traditions as “a futile and evil festival, used to justify sinful actions such as free-mixing, promiscuity, vain sexual talk and even fornication”.
The London-born lawyer, who in his youth was a cider-drinking ladies’ man, penned the rant in his anti-West website The Islamist...."
There is no secret that the public celebration of Valentine's Day is forbidden in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam.
Below are some more references for you to review, if you like about the Islamic perspective on Valentine's Day:
"...Islam goes against blindly imitating the West regarding a special occasion such as Valentine’s Day. Hence, commemorating that special day known as the Valentine’s Day is an innovation or bid`ah that has no religious backing. Every innovation of that kind is rejected, as far as Islam is concerned..."
Sudan call for Valentine boycott BBC News, UK - 2 hours ago Muslim clerics in Sudan have urged young couples to boycott Valentine's Day, saying it is a Western institution that could lead couples astray. ...
Egyptian Cleric Hazem Shuman Warns Muslim Youth Against ... Middle East Media Research Institute, DC - 19 hours ago For Valentine's Day, "Everything Red Will Become More Expensive... Only One Red Thing Will Become Cheaper: The Blood Of Muslims... [Due To] Sins Committed ...
Valentine's Day objections Kuwait Times, Kuwait - 19 hours ago Islam emphasizes that there is only one Almighty God that's Allah, therefore, the Party said that celebrating Valentine's Day violates Islamic way of life. ...
Valentine's Day'haram in Islam' AsiaOne, Singapore - Feb 5, 2009 >JOHOR BARU, MALYSIA: The state Religious Department yesterday reminded Muslims here that Valentine's Daywas "haram" in Islam, which means forbidden. ...
V-Day Termed 'Evil Festival' Oneindia, India - Feb 5, 2009 "The recognition of Valentine's Day opens the door to the Devil to manipulate their behavior, encouraging them to abandon their Islamic identity and to ...
This doesn't speak well for the religion of Islam:
"Egyptian state security released two Christian men who were arrested Sunday at the Cairo International Book Fair for distributing Bibles to passersby.
According to an Egyptian human rights center, the police had filed a report against the two men accusing them of defaming Islam.
Whether the cases will reach the district attorney is yet unknown.
Mina Adel Shawky and Essam Kedees Nassif from Dayrout, in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Assiut, were arrested Sunday after being spotted distributing Bibles to pedestrians.
The men were held under investigation for charges of preaching, an offense that does not explicitly exist in the Egyptian legal code. Yet, the report that was filed against them accused them of defaming Islam.
“Preaching is legally not a crime, so the police had to accuse them of something,” Naguib Gobrael, head of the Egyptian Union for Humans Rights told Daily News Egypt..."
Men are the maintainers of women because Allah has made some of them to excel others and because they spend out of their property; the good women are therefore obedient, guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded; and (as to) those on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them, and leave them alone in the sleeping-places and beat them; then if they obey you, do not seek a way against them; surely Allah is High, Great.
Yet again, another story that doesn't speak well at all for the "Religion of Peace". Naturally, this is a story you will likely not read about in the papers from any Islamic controlled country:
"Martha Samuel, an Egyptian Muslim who converted to Christianity 5 years ago, was arrested at Cairo airport on Wednesday as she and her husband and two sons (4 and 2) were leaving for Russia.
...She has also been beaten and tortured in an attempt to force her to return to Islam. The police have promised to release her if she returns to Islam.
...Martha Samuel, --and her family were trying to travel to Russia using a passport of her Christian name, in order to escape from the continuous persecution -- and her own family, who have been trying to kill her for 5 years as a result of her conversion."
"...The case had been highlighted by spokesman Sam Grace of Coptic News. He praised U.S. District Judge Thomas Vanaskie's ruling -- that Sameh Khouzam "most assuredly has a right not to be tortured."
..."The federal appeals court blocked the federal government's desire to deport Khouzam and clears the way for him to challenge Egypt's assertions he will not be tortured," he continued.
"The fact is that as a Coptic Christian, Khouzam effectively has no rights in his native Egypt and -- because of his religious beliefs is certain to be denied the most basic of human rights and protections,"
...Grace said since Egypt's constitution concludes laws derive from the Quran, persecution of Christians is not only allowed but endorsed by the government."
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Update 12/27/08: WND Is reporting the young children of this mother are being starved to force her to renounce Christ:
"Authorities in Egypt are starving two children, ages 2 and 4, to force their mother to abandon Christianity and return to Islam, according to reports from several ministry organizations.
The Egypt for Christ Ministry is reporting the woman, who converted to Christianity about five years ago and was arrested as she tried to leave her home country just days ago, also has been sexually assaulted by police officers."
Another comment has been received from the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic supremacy organization that has infiltrated the United States and has global plans for Islamic rule whose headquarters are in Egypt.
Yet again, one more story that doesn't speak well for the religion of peace:
The harassment that Bangladeshi converts from Islam face from Muslim neighbors in this southeastern area near Cox's Bazar can take serious turns - as it did last month, when an attack by about a dozen Muslims left a Christian family with machete wounds.
Confident that no police would side with Christian converts from Islam, the Muslims in Chakaria town, near Cox's Bazar 380 kilometers (236 miles) southeast of the capital city of Dhaka, later filed false charges of assault against the wounded and limping Christians, family members said.
The smallest of claims can serve to provoke such attacks. Laila Begum, a 45-year-old Christian convert from Islam, said she was helping to make disbursements for a local non-governmental micro-credit agency called Darpan in Chakaria town on Nov. 1 when 10 to 15 Muslim neighbors blocked her way and demanded 200 taka (US$3).
Begum, her husband and elder son were admitted to a nearby hospital. Her husband is still hobbled, walking with the aid of a stick.
"Muslim neighbors filed a case against us where they mentioned that we had beaten them - it is a false case," Begum said. "They beat us and they filed a false case against us."
Police Sub-inspector Manjurul Alam confirmed that the Muslim neighbors had filed a case against Rahman's family, and that Rahman had also filed an assault case against the attackers.
"We are investigating it," he said.
Begum said local Muslims threatened to beat the Christians again if they filed a case against them.
"The local council officials also told us that if we file any case in the police station, our houses will be burnt to ashes and we will be evicted from the locality," she said. "The Muslim neighbors are spreading rumors that we beat them, that we borrowed 22,000 taka from them and that we did not pay them back the money. But we do not have anyone to stand beside us and listen to us."
"If we go to the market or any public places, Muslim people push us roughly from behind and use filthy words against us about Christianity," said the oldest son, Salim Rahman.
The entire family is living in isolation due to their conversion, which the female members said is especially difficult for them..."
The Saudi Grand Cleric told pilgrimagers the financial crisis was the fault of not following God's rules. Of course, he is implying Islamic or Sharia law is the only answer. He also called upon the family of Islam to form a protective barrier:
Saudi Arabia's grand cleric on Sunday told Muslims on the hajj pilgrimage that the global financial crisis stems from ignoring God's rules and allowing "riba" or usury, prohibited in Islam.
"Today we watch as this financial crisis enfolds and some companies and banks go bankrupt," grand mufti Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh said at the Namera mosque, where prophet Mohammed prayed while making the pilgrimage.
"This is the result of ignoring God's rules. Muslims must abide by God's rules, and build their economies accordingly," Sheikh told the faithful before midday prayers.
He also called for the Muslim world to unite in the face of terrorism to preserve stability.
"The world must criminalize terrorism... we must be cautious of terrorism and fight hostile criminal gangs that destroy countries and people," Sheikh said, adding that the family of Islam must "form a barrier in front of anyone who threatens its security and stability."
An Open Debate Challenge to Shabir Ally, Jamal Badawi, and Zakir Naik
Arabic Christian Perspective has hosted a number of debates between Christians and Muslims. However, Muslims have often criticized ACP for not arranging debates with Islam’s top debaters: Shabir Ally, Jamal Badawi, and Zakir Naik. Though we at ACP have attempted to set up debates with some of Islam’s strongest proponents, we’ve found that they are extremely reluctant to debate topics that will place Islam under scrutiny. Hence, it is now time to make our challenge public.
Arabic Christian Perspective hereby challenges Shabir Ally, Jamal Badawi, and Zakir Naik to a series of ten debates to take place next September against Christian debaters James White, David Wood, and Sam Shamoun.
I think this story could be an example of Taqiyya which is the deceiving of others by Muslims. This is an unpleasant reality which is condoned in Islam under certain conditions. Watch an interview with a Muslim woman who was hired by a Church of England school, who then waited until after she was hired, to put on her Islamic veil.
First of all, why would a Muslim want to work at a Church of England school anyway? Islam denies the Trinity and that Jesus is the son of God. It doesn't make sense to me.
Did she deliberately deceive her would-be employer at the time of her job interview by not wearing her full face Islamic veil?
Islam permits Muslims to lie anytime they perceive their own well-being, or that of Islam, is threatened.
In the book "The spirit of Islam," by the Muslim scholar, Afif A. Tabbarah it states: "Lying is not always bad, to be sure; there are times when telling a lie is more profitable and better for the general welfare, and for the settlement of conciliation among people, than telling the truth. To this effect, the Prophet says: 'He is not a false person who (through lies) settles conciliation among people, supports good or says what is good." Tabbarah's book is in the catalog of the King Saud University Library in Saudi Arabia, the birth place of Islam.
Muslims are also instructed by the eminent Islamic scholar Imam Abu Hammid Ghazali (Al-Ghazali), one of the most famous and respected Muslim theologians of all time: "Speaking is a means to achieve objectives. If a praiseworthy aim is attainable through both telling the truth and lying, it is unlawful to accomplish through lying because there is no need for it. When it is possible to achieve such an aim by lying but not by telling the truth, it is permissible to lie if attaining the goal is permissible."The Reliance of the Traveler by Naqib Misri/N.H.M. Keller r8.2, pg 745)
And from Abdullah Al Araby: "The Arabic word, "Takeyya", means "to prevent," or guard against. The principle of Al Takeyya conveys the understanding that Muslims are permitted to lie as a preventive measure against anticipated harm to one's self or fellow Muslims. This principle gives Muslims the liberty to lie under circumstances that they perceive as life threatening. They can even deny the faith, if they do not mean it in their hearts. Al-Takeyya is based on the following Quranic verse:
"Let not the believers Take for friends or helpers Unbelievers rather than believers: if any do that, in nothing will there be help from Allah: except by way of precaution (prevention), that ye may Guard yourselves from them (prevent them from harming you.) But Allah cautions you (To remember) Himself; for the final goal is to Allah." Surah 3: 28
In the Qur’an, Allah says: "Allah will not call you to account for thoughtlessness (vain) in your oaths, but for the intention in your hearts; and He is Oft-forgiving, Most Forbearing."Surah 2:225. The principal also has support in 16:106.
And when those who disbelieve plot against thee (O Muhammad) to wound thee fatally, or to kill thee or to drive thee forth; they plot, but Allah (also) plotteth; and Allah is the best of plotters. Surah 8:30
Some claim the word "plotters" is really translated from the word deceivers (مخادعون) in Arabic, but I cannot say this is so, with any certainty.
Hadiths that allow lying following the guidance by Islamic prophet Mohammad:
Sahih Muslim/Hadith: Book 032, Number 6303: ..."Shihab said he did not hear that exemption was granted in anything what the people speak as lie but in three cases: in battle, for bringing reconciliation amongst persons and the narration of the words of the husband to his wife, and the narration of the words of a wife to her husband (in a twisted form in order to bring reconciliation between them)".
Hadith Sahih al-Bukhari: Bukhari's collection is recognized by the overwhelming majority of the Muslim world to be one of the most authentic collections of the Sunnah of the Prophet (pbuh):
Volume 3, Book 49, Number 857: Narrated Um Kulthum bint Uqba: That she heard Allah's Apostle saying, "He who makes peace between the people by inventing good information or saying good things, is not a liar."
Volume 4, Book 52, Number 269: Narrated Jabir bin 'Abdullah: The Prophet said, "War is deceit."
Volume 4, Book 52, Number 270: Narrated Jabir bin 'Abdullah: The Prophet said, "Who is ready to kill Ka'b bin Al-Ashraf who has really hurt Allah and His Apostle?" Muhammad bin Maslama said, "O Allah's Apostle! Do you like me to kill him?" He replied in the affirmative. So, Muhammad bin Maslama went to him (i.e. Ka'b) and said, "This person (i.e. the Prophet) has put us to task and asked us for charity." Ka'b replied, "By Allah, you will get tired of him." Muhammad said to him, "We have followed him, so we dislike to leave him till we see the end of his affair." Muhammad bin Maslama went on talking to him in this way till he got the chance to kill him.
Volume 5, Book 59, Number 369: Allah's Apostle said, "Who is willing to kill Ka'b bin Al-Ashraf who has hurt Allah and His Apostle"? Thereupon Muhammad bin Maslama got up saying, "O Allah's Apostle! Would you like that I kill him?; The Prophet said, Yes; Muhammad bin Maslama said, Then allow me to say a (false) thing (i.e. to deceive Kab). The Prophet said, "You may say it"
Volume 9, Book 84, Number 64: Narrated 'Ali: Whenever I tell you a narration from Allah's Apostle, by Allah, I would rather fall down from the sky than ascribe a false statement to him, but if I tell you something between me and you (not a Hadith) then it was indeed a trick (i.e., I may say things just to cheat my enemy). No doubt I heard Allah's Apostle saying, "During the last days there will appear some young foolish people who will say the best words but their faith will not go beyond their throats (i.e. they will have no faith) and will go out from (leave) their religion as an arrow goes out of the game. So, where-ever you find them, kill them, for who-ever kills them shall have reward on the Day of Resurrection."
Naturally, Muslims might lie about lying, if all this is true. But, you might consider asking them politely how can America's Islamic leaders stand for their beloved prophet to be so misrepresented on an American ISLAMIC website (formerly the USC/MSA Compendium of Muslim Text) at the University of Southern California where these verses and hadiths are located?
It's up to Muslim leaders in America to issue declarations or fatwas assuring us these are false and are not part of their religion. Their spoken words aren't enough here. Afterall, we have to go by what is in writing.
Update 10:20 AM: This event happened in 2006 even though the video was just added to YouTube in November. She was later canned, as I understand it from a BBC report. She then filed a discrimination claim against the school but lost.
But get this, the Mail OnLine reports she was connected to a hard-line mosque where the ringleader of the July 7 bombers worshiped!
"...The family of classroom assistant Aishah Azmi, 24, plays a key role at the fundamentalist Markazi mosque in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire - which was attended by suicide bomber Mohammed Sidique Khan.
Reflections of an American Muslim (scroll down to the part Is Lying Ever Justified?)The author, Shahid Athar , M. D. is the former president of the Islamic Medical Association of North America! He lives in Indiana.
"...However, one may choose not to tell the truth when: He is under oppression -- To promote mutual relationship between spouse, -- While making peace between two quarreling parties, -- To make unbelievers realize the truth (21:62-65)
"A top Islamic council in mostly Muslim Malaysia told Muslims on Saturday to avoid yoga because it uses Hindu prayers and encourages a union with God that is blasphemous.
The latest edict from the National Fatwa Council reflects a growing swing towards a conservative brand of Islam in the multi-ethnic country that has prompted worries among non-Muslims.
"There are other ways to get exercise and a peace of mind," council chairman Abdul Shukor Husin told reporters in Putrajaya, the country's administrative capital, on Saturday. "You can go cycling, swimming and eat less fatty food."
"For us, yoga can destroy a Muslim's faith. But this is not a matter for the non-Muslims to be concerned about because its not imposed on them. We are looking out for the Muslim community," he said, noting Egypt and Singapore had issued similar rulings..."
A religious dialogue conference, organized this past summer by the ruler of Saudi Arabia where the strictest form of Islam is practice, seeks to create guidelines for worldwide interfaith dialogues, overseen by the United Nations, This is an attempt to bring Western countries and their freedom of expression under the arm and critique of the U.N. with the goal to stop criticism of Islam.
It is dangerous.
You can call me a skeptic, if you like, but this conference did come up with a declaration calling for the U.N. to oversee ALL religious dialogue even at the local level.
"...To agree on international guidelinesfor dialogue among the followers of religions and cultures through which moral values and ethical principles, which are common denominators among such followers, so as to strengthen stability and achieve prosperity for all humans..."
To work on urging governmental and non-governmental organizations to issue a document that stipulates respect for religions and their symbols, the prohibition of their denigration and the repudiation of those who commit such acts..."
The Saudi ruler will travel to the United States to discuss his proposal further with the U.N. next month.
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See also my post about the Organization of Islamic Conference attempts to stop criticism of Islam here.
The government of Egypt has failed to correct indifferences and practices that discriminate against Christians and other religious minorities:
Freedom of religious belief in Egypt "declined" between July 2007 and June 2008, according to the US State Department's annual assessment of religious freedom throughout the world, the International Religious Freedom Report.
...The report describes legislation and governmental practices which discriminate against Egypt's religious minorities and adherents of Islamic teachings viewed as heretical by the state.
Acts of discrimination against Egypt's largest religious minority, Christian Copts, take up the bulk of the report.
...There are no Christians serving as presidents or deans of public universities, and they are rarely nominated by the Government to run in elections as National Democratic Party (NDP) candidates. Christians, who represent between 8 and 12 percent of the population, hold less than 2 percent of the seats in the People's Assembly and Shoura Council," the report says.
Christians continued to experience problems in obtaining the official permission necessary to construct and repair churches, with security forces blocking the use of permits that had already been issued or denying permits altogether. These delays can last for years.
Another brutal incident of Islamic honor that doesn't speak well, at all, for the religion of peace:
A Saudi man working with the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice recently killed his daughter for converting to Christianity.
...According to the Saudi Al Ukhdoud news website, the victim wrote an article on the blog of which she was a member under the nickname "Rania" a few days before her murder.
...Saudi religious scholars have frequently warned against the dangers of Christian internet websites and satellite TV channels which attract Muslimyoungsters to change their religion.
They decreed that watching these channels or browsing these websites which call for conversion to Christianity by various means is against the teachings of Islam. zawya.com
Moroccan Olympic gold medalist Nawal El Moutawakel has become the first Muslim woman elected to the powerful executive board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
"I feel very honored to be a member of this big family," El Moutawakel said following her election on Thursday, August 7, reported Reuters.
El Moutawakel won her seat unopposed after her two contenders withdrew from the race.
The IOC set a goal in 1996 of having women make up 20 percent of the membership.
As of today, only 16 of the 110 members are women, six short of the target.
MasterCard Worldwide and EonCap Islamic Bank (a member of Malaysia's Eon Bank Group) have jointly launched what they are billing as the world's first Islamic debit MasterCard—the EonCap Islamic Debit MasterCard.
The EonCap Islamic Debit MasterCard is basically a debit card with ATM functions as well. It also works on PayPass systems, which enables a person to swipe it on a terminal without the card leaving the cardholder's hand. It is referred to as blending traditional purchasing power with modern technology and is Shari'ah compliant.
There was an interfaith conference at Yale University a few days ago. One of the participants, Palestinian chief justice Shaykh Tayseer Rajab Al-Tamimi, blamed Israeli rabbis for giving approval for violence against Palestinians. The stunned audience said nothing. This man used the very rulings Islamic scholars have issued to support violence against Israel, including martyrdom. He appears to have twisted the truth here. It's a classic move of Islamists.
Are you aware there is nothing written in the Quran about Palestine or Jerusalem? Nothing. Their holy book, which they claim are the exact words of Allah, actually references the biblically writings about the Children of Israel and their right to their land. Yet Muslims claim it belongs to the Palestinians. Go figure.
"To Moses We [Allah] gave nine clear signs. Ask the Israelites how he [Moses] first appeared amongst them. Pharoah said to him: 'Moses, I can see that you are bewitched.' 'You know full well,' he [Moses] replied, 'that none but the Lord of the heavens and the earth has revealed these visible signs. Pharoah, you are doomed.'"
"Pharoah sought to scare them [the Israelites] out of the land [of Israel]: but We [Allah] drowned him [Pharoah] together with all who were with him. Then We [Allah] said to the Israelites: 'Dwell in this land [the Land of Israel]. When the promise of the hereafter [End of Days] comes to be fulfilled, We [Allah] shall assemble you [the Israelites] all together [in the Land of Israel]."
"We [Allah] have revealed the Qur'an with the truth, and with the truth it has come down. We have sent you [Muhammed] forth only to proclaim good news and to give warning."
[Qur'an, "Night Journey," chapter 17:100-104]
These interfaith conferences are mostly a joke. While most of the discussions are about fluffy sweet talk, it fails to discuss the Islamic march towards global rule. I find it troubling Islamic scholars from Muslimc countries come here to visit or to live and speak to us of a version of Islam that is most certainly not practiced from where they came. There are no facts that support their version of Islam. None.
Keep in mind, nothing would please Islamists more than having everyone leaving these conferences speaking only of the peace and love of Islam. It will help make Islamists jobs that much easier down the road.
Participants at these conferences should question Muslims why Islam isn't practiced in one Islamic country the way they portray it to us in America. We need some accountability here. But first, be sure to study up on how Islamic countries rule over their citizens and treat other religions, according to Sharia Law. And if they respond to those hard questions that it's a cultural tradition not Islam. Keep in mid, the culture is Islam. This is the hard cold reality that must be confronted.
Prince Ghazi said that Muslim leaders reached out to the Christian world because of its size and influence, but that other religions are welcome to join the dialogue. Several Jewish leaders are observing the conference at Yale, and Rabbi Douglas Krantz of Congregation B'nai Yisrael of Armonk is expected to take part in a closing panel tomorrow.
"These are people who have differences - and they're talking," Krantz said yesterday. "That is significant. And everyone is not necessarily agreeing on everything."
The participants, Krantz said, were showing great civility and respect for one another.
"We all had lunch together today and nobody used their knives - except to eat a meal," he said, smiling. "These are not trivial matters."
Toward the end of the day, the Palestinian chief justice, Shaykh Tayseer Rajab Al-Tamimi, made one of the day's few overtly political statements when he accused Israeli rabbis of giving religious approval to violence against Palestinians. He called Jerusalem the "scene of the most horrible genocide and ethnic cleansing."
He criticized those who use religion to "achieve their own interests, political interests or expansionist interests."What? Isn't this called diversion?
No one in the audience commented on Al-Tamimi's statement.
Here's another report about the religion of peace which involves the Muslim Brotherhood in Indonesia - the largest Muslim-majority country on earth. In a different story a Christian teacher was killed in front of his family near Jarkarta:
Police evacuated the Christian Theological Arastamar Institute (STT SETIA) which is located in an eastern district of the Indonesian capital after it suffered damages during clashes between Christians and Muslims over the week-end. At least 1,500 students were moved to nearby police headquarters and a local Christian-based political party.
...Last night hundreds of residents from the village of Kampung Pulo had taken up arms threatening to storm the school after being instigated by an imam at a local mosque who claimed that a bunch of Christian gangsters were coming to “protect” the school after it was attacked on Saturday by a Muslim mob, causing damage to the building and hurting hundreds.
In an attempt to solve the problem East Jakarta District Chief Murdani held a close door meeting with the warring parties to discuss the issue. At the same time though, he said that police would conduct a thorough investigation and check if the school’s legal status was in order and that it respected all building regulations. In case of violations he would issue orders to demolish the unlawful structures.
...The violence and charges against SETIA are the work of Risman Hadi, chairman of Muslim Brotherhood Forum of Kampung Pulo Village, who in the past opposed the opening and continued existence of the Christian institute.
Once again, another story that doesn't speak well for the religion of peace and Islamic law:
A Pakistani couple has appealed a court decision to award custody of their two daughters, 10 and 13, to the children’s alleged kidnappers. The court based its custody decision on the girls’ conversion to Islam.
Judge Main Naeem Sardar ruled Saturday (July 12) that Saba Masih, 13, and Aneela Masih, 10, had become Muslims, invalidating their Christian parents’ right to legal guardianship.
“He said that because the parents are Christians and because the girls told the court that they adopted Islam, their relationship has ceased,” lawyer Rashid Rehman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) told Compass. Under a common interpretation of Islamic law, a Christian cannot have custody of a Muslim.
The sisters appeared in a Muzaffargarh District and Sessions court in the company of 16 Muslim men and were given five minutes to testify that their conversion was genuine, human rights activist Ashfaq Fateh said. It was the first time that Younis Masih and his wife had seen their daughters since they disappeared on June 26 while traveling to their uncle’s nearby home in Sarwar Shaheed, 150 miles southwest of Lahore.
“The judge did not give me even a minute to speak with my daughters,” Younis Masih told rights activist Ashfaq Fateh. “My girls have been with these men for the last 20 days; they have pressured them to change their minds.”
The children’s parents were neither allowed to testify nor submit birth certificates and school records as evidence of the girls’ true ages.
Today is the first day of the Saudi arranged interfaith dialogue conference in Spain This was the brainchild of Saudi's King Abdullah. It's rather hypocritical that Saudi Arabia is taking the led here, isn't it? This is a country that does not allow open worship for Christians, or any churches and, most importantly, religious freedom for its people. This is a country, which is the birthplace of Islam, and it forces its people to be Muslims by making it near impossible to change one's religion!
So let me see if I got this right. At this conference, they are extending dialogue to the very religious groups they surpress in their own country! This obvious conflict leaves the world no choice but to view this conference with serious skepticism. It doesn't make any sense.
The Council of American Islamic Relations, an outgrowth of the Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas infrastructure in American, calls this a groundbreaking event.
When you dig deeper another troubling aspect emerges. The chief organizer of the conference, the World Muslim League, is apparently connected to terrorism.
The Investigative Project on Terrorism (www.investigativeproject.org ) exclusively reveals today that a major international interfaith conference set to start Wednesday in Madrid was organized by an alleged associate of a senior Al Qaeda financier and vocal supporter of Palestinian suicide bombings - Abdullah al-Turki. The conference is sponsored by the Muslim World League (MWL), which al-Turki heads.
Earlier I also wrote about the Muslim World League and their shady past.
Forgive me, but in that post, I could not over-look a statement made by the king at their preparatory meeting for the conference. He said the world must be made to accommodate Islam. His speech is posted on the Saudi Arabia Embassy website:
...For this reason, this invitation from your brother is to counter challenges of rigidity, ignorance, narrow-mindedness, and to make the world accommodate the concepts and the prospects of the kind message of Islam without enmity and antagonism..."
---part of King Abdullah's statement on interfaith goals
I suspect the ultimate goal of this so-called interfaith meeting is to get a consensus from the group to agree that criticism of Islam or any religion should be forbidden. Once they can get many of the world's religious leaders to buy-into this then one component of an eventual Islamic caliphate has been achieved.
No religion should ever be above criticism. Especially one whose history is full of violent conquests to expand and place people under a growing Islamic state where religious freedom is stopped.
The King previously announced plans to turn over the recommendations to the U.N.
Am I too skeptical?
Update 7/18/08: Saudi's interfaith conference seeks UN oversight over all religious dialogue!!
Update 11/13/08: Saudi king seeks global interfaith respect (at the UN) while public practice of non-Islamic faiths in own country banned!
"...How great this nation is, how difficult the challenges it faces in a time where its enemies – extremists from its sons and others – join forces to change its fair approach. They are gathered with blatant aggressiveness to target the tolerance, justice and noble purposes of Islam.
For this reason, this invitation from your brother is to counter challenges of rigidity, ignorance, narrow-mindedness, and to make the world accommodate the concepts and the prospects of the kind message of Islam without enmity and antagonism..."
---part of King Abdullah's statement regarding the interfaith goals the Islamic nations
Did King Abdullah say they should make the world accommodate Islam without complaining? Call me skeptical, if you will, but I get the uneasy feeling the upcoming international conference on interfaith dialogue has a hidden agenda. I suspect the Imams and Islamic scholars with seek to gain consensus not to allow any criticism of Islam. Oh, it won't be worded so directly but the effect will be the same.
The Islamic world has already managed to shut down any criticism of Islam in the UN Human Rights Council. The more international bodies they can conform in this regard, the easier it will be for Islamists to go about their business of spreading Islam and laying the foundation for Islamic rule because using the words that describe this movement will be prohibited.
Do people who plan to attend this event know about the Muslim World League, the main organizer of the event? Seriously, do they know about their connections to terrorism?
The proposals of the international interfaith conference, which will be opened by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah in Madrid on July 16, will be submitted to the United Nations for further action, informed sources said.
King Juan Carlos of Spain will address the opening session.
“The proposals will be presented to the UN General Assembly in September,” one source said. “There is a possibility that this will become an annual forum.”
Abdullah Al- Turki, secretary-general of the Muslim World League, the main organizer of the conference, said the three-day event would focus on common values of different communities and explore ways to achieve peaceful coexistence, understanding and cooperation.
“The conference will try to isolate those forces that try to promote hatred and create conflicts,” Al-Turki told the Saudi Press Agency yesterday before leaving for Madrid at the head of an MWL delegation. “By holding this major gathering of religions, ideologies and civilizations, the MWL wants to emphasize the importance of religion for humanity.”
...Osama bin Laden privately identifies the three most important charity fronts used to finance al-Qaeda. He names: The Muslim World League (MWL), a Saudi charity closely tied to the Saudi government...
...The Saudi government has also done little to rein in influential radical religious leaders who openly encourage their followers to attack US interests in Iraq and elsewhere in the world. US officials claim that at least five organizations, including the Muslim World League (MWL), the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WML), “are headquartered in Saudi Arabia but continue to engage in highly suspect activity overseas.”
7/17/05: Muslim World League responds to U.S. charges of funding terrorism Arab News
Muslim World League: Hatred's Kingdom: How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism (book)
Al Jazeera television said on Wednesday it had appointed a cameraman held for six years without charge at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay as producer at its new freedoms and human rights programs department.
"I will do my utmost to reveal to the world the violations committed against humans," Sudanese-born Sami al-Haj, who was handed to Sudanese authorities in May, said in a Jazeera statement announcing the appointment.
"I hope Jazeera, through creating this department would be able to help those who suffer quietly due to such violations.
Jazeera, known best for its leading Arab news network, has said Haj was seized by Pakistani intelligence officers while travelling near the Afghan border in December 2001, despite holding a legitimate visa to work for Jazeera in Afghanistan.
Haj, who had been accused of making videos of Osama bin Laden, was handed to the U.S. military in January 2002 but was never charged or brought to trial, the network says.
I just saw this picture over at Little Green Footballs. He got it from a newspaper which identifies the woman covered from head to toe in black as Iran's first lady. Fake? Somehow I don't think so but what do I know?
One more report that doesn't speak well, at all, for the religion of peace:
Despite the Pakistan government's tall claims of enhanced protection to the minorities, a group of over 20 Christians were kidnapped and savagely beaten by armed Islamic militants on Saturday.
Christians who were congregating for a religious prayer in Banarasabad, Peshawar, were held at gunpoint by the militants, who took the believers in more than six vehicles to an undisclosed location.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani said on Sunday that the government had secured the release of 16 members of the minority Christian community who were abducted in the restive North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).
"We condemn this act and, despite the recovery of the abductees, an enquiry will be held to uncover the faces behind the incident," Gilani said, accoridng to a state-run Pakistan television news channel.
I'm not sure what to make of a interfaith dialogue conference in Saudi Arabia, organized by the Saudi-based Muslim World League. Some of their statements already show their unwillingness to accept or talk to other religions. The "interfaith" conference was closed to non-Muslims.
King Abdullah said Islam is greatest of all the religions, which ensures human values, justice and wisdom and there is need to preach it in the best possible manner. "How great the status of the Islamic Ummah is but how difficult time it is when the enemies of Islam are attaching extremism, militancy and terrorism with the Muslim!" King Abdullah exclaimed, according to the Pakistan Tribune.
An international appeal was launched yesterday urging Muslims around the world to learn about non-Muslims and their cultures for the sake of peaceful coexistence.
The call was made in a communique issued at the end of the International Islamic Conference for Dialogue, a three-day event that brought together more than 600 influential scholars and academics.
The plea, one of many in the 18-page document, aimed to encourage Muslims to reach out to people from other monotheistic faiths in order to diffuse conflict and restore tolerance. The appeal was careful to make the distinction between integration and assimilation: "Coexistence and cooperation do not mean concessions regarding the fundamental principles nor harmonising among religions."
The initiative has the support of the Saudi monarch King Abdullah, who is seen as a bridge between the west and the Muslim world. An ally, Dr Ezzedin Ibrahim from the Ministry of Presidential Affairs in the United Arab Emirates, said: "Saudi Arabia is the cradle of Islam and only King Abdullah could be effective in calling Muslims from all parts of the world."
In addition to the emphasis on dialogue, there was renewed commitment to fight terrorism, with a pledge to study the phenomena and causes of violence and fanaticism, a tacit acknowledgment that the negative perception of Islam stems from events such as suicide bombings.
There were signs that dialogue with other believers, specifically Jews, would be problematic. Several clerics, including the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, said it was almost impossible to talk to them because of the situation in the occupied territories. "How can you negotiate with someone who is against you all the time? They seem to be against us in every way so I don't know how we're supposed to have dialogue."
Egyptian cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi said he would only talk to Jews who denounced Zionism and he urged Muslims to talk to Buddhists, Hindus and atheists. His impromptu speech, lasting 15 minutes, garnered the loudest applause, proving his popularity among fellow clerics even if the west views him with suspicion.
Another source of tension was the refusal to consider building a Catholic church in Saudi Arabia. Currently, the open worship of other faiths is severely restricted, even though the Catholic population is rising because of migrant workers, mostly from the Philippines.
The March inauguration of Qatar's first Christian church - a small chapel with no bells or visible crosses - was welcomed as an improvement in relations between Catholicism and Islam. Soon after, the Vatican confirmed it was negotiating for permission to build the first church in Saudi Arabia. But there remains opposition to a formal Christian place of worship, with some fearing that one church will lead to the construction of others.
I first became aware of Ezra Levant when he testifed before the Canadian Human Rights Commission. He was brilliant. If you haven't had a chance to watch his testimony before I hope you can now. Below is a blog post from him that you may find most interesting regarding a delegation from Pakistan that will try to convince the EU to restrict free speech or else:
Like many of you, my Internet home page is the newsy Daily Times of Pakistan.
Here is their report that six high-ranking Pakistani officials will fly to Brussels today to "ask" the European Union to restrict freedom of speech
Pakistan will ask the European Union countries to amend laws regarding freedom of expression in order to prevent offensive incidents such as the printing of blasphemous caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and the production of an anti-Islam film by a Dutch legislator, sources in the Interior Ministry told Daily Times on Saturday.
My favourite part of the story is the last two sentences. They fit together perfectly, almost like a Shakespearian rhyming couplet:
...the delegation would also tell the EU that if such acts against Islam are not controlled, more attacks on the EU diplomatic missions abroad could not be ruled out.
Sources said that the delegation would also hold discussions on inter-religious harmony during its meetings with the EU leaders.
Egyptian actor Omar Sharif — best known for his film roles in Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago — reportedly blasted U.S. policy in Iraq and said Americans are ignorant.
According to The Middle East Media Research Institute, Sharif said the "East" will never have a democracy because people like him "prefer to go to the neighborhood sheik." MEMRI —a Middle Eastern press monitoring organization — posted an interview of Sharif that aired on the Al-Hayat TV network.
"I lived in America for a long time. Only 10% of all Americans have a passport. In other words, 90% never left America," said Sharif. "They don't know anything."
Sharif said that he spoke with President Bush before the beginning of the Iraq War and told him that Arab nations are made up of sects resistant to becoming democratized.
"I said to Bush, even before he entered Iraq: Forget about all that. We, the Arabs... We are not like [regular countries]," said Sharif. "You will drown there.
After being asked what Bush's response was, the actor stated: "He didn't believe me."
Sharif, who was born Michel Demitri Shalhoub and raised a Roman Catholic, converted to Islam and changed his named when he married Egyptian actress Faten Hamama in 1955.
Read the full transcript and watch the video at MEMRI
"Fatawa on Palestine" was written by Shiek Yusef Qaradawi, who chairs a number of Islamic organization of which Jamal Badawi is a board member. Badawi, as you may recall, was the chosen Islamic scholar to represent the Islamic Society of Tulsa in a debate last January in Oklahoma.
Badawi's association with terror-supporter Qaradawi reveals his true Islamic believes which don't match up with wonderful version of Islam he tries to push in America which, by the way, is not practiced in any Islamic country in the world.
This book has been translated into English for the first time. Below are some highlights of a book review by Mark Gardner and David Rich:
A new book, published for the first time in English and distributed in Britain for British Muslim readers, allows us to do just this with Qaradawi's views on Israel, Palestine, Jews and Zionism. It is a book that promises a battle 'between the collective body of Muslims and the collective body of Jews i.e. all Muslims and all Jews' (p.77). Originally published in Arabic as Fatawa Min Ajl Falastin (Wahba Library, Cairo 2003 [1]), and now translated into English, it is a compilation of fourteen rulings by Qaradawi on various aspects of the conflict, including 'Peace with Israel', 'The Legitimacy of Martyrdom Operations in Occupied Palestine', 'Ruling on Accepting Compensation for the Land of Palestine', 'Hadith: "The Judgment Day Will Not Occur Unless You Fight Jews"' and 'Discussing the Verses on Banu Israel and Their Mischief'. Highlights:
Qaradawi's classification of 'every Jew in the world' (p. 42) as an enemy
Israel should be removed from Muslim land.
it obligatory upon every Muslim wherever he is to defend Jerusalem and al-Aqsa Mosque. This is an obligation upon all Muslims to participate in defending Jerusalem with their souls, money, and all that they possess, otherwise a punishment from Allah shall descend on the whole nation ... (p.24)
Suicide bombings are, in Qaradawi's words, '[O]ne of the greatest types of Jihad … valid heroic martyrdom operations and very different from suicide.' (p. 6) The suicide bomber '[H]as sold his soul to Allah and placed his heart on gaining martyrdom and purchasing Paradise' (p. 7) Women suicide bombers '[A]re doing a remarkable deed that is blessed by Almighty Allah and considered an act of Jihad for the sake of Allah.' (p. 21)
Here's another report that doesn't speak well, at all, for the religion of peace. This also flies in the face of the often quoted verse in the Quran that there is no compulsion in religion by Muslims who want to convince Americans about a version of Islam that is not practiced in any Islamic country:
According to International Antioch Ministries (IAM), callers from Iran are threatening their workers with disfigurement, injury and death.
Farzaneh, an IAM telephone counselor taking phone calls from Iran during IAM’s daily broadcasts into Iran, was threatened by someone who identified himself as Heydar Amiri:
“One day you will see that the building of this church will collapse on all of you, we know your address very well and know where you are located. We do not let you continue your programs like this anymore. Shedding your blood in Islam has a reward for me.”
Bahnoosh, another telephone counselor, relayed this threat:
“One day a bomb will go off in your church and will make you all vanish, because you are all blasphemers.”
IAM believes that these terrorist threats are being fueled by the success of IAM’s satellite broadcasts into Iran. As a result of these broadcasts, according to IAM, the number of Muslims embracing Christianity in Iran is growing dramatically.
Dr. Hormoz Shariat, president of IAM and senior pastor of The Iranian Christian Church said, “Our broadcasts are a benefit to the people of Iran. During our daily two-hour, live, call-in TV broadcasts, we often receive callers from Iran who have severe personal problems and we offer them comfort, healing and hope. Some are suffering from drug addiction, depression, contemplating suicide or are trapped in a life of prostitution all of which are epidemic in Iran. Every day, we get calls from Iran from people who report that their lives have been changed, they have been set free from addictions, and their families have been restored. We are making a positive difference in Iran and are saving lives.
“We are very careful to show respect to Islam and to Mohammad. So we are doubly concerned about these threats since we have done nothing to merit these terror tactics in all our broadcasts except to hold up Jesus, which all Muslims honor. These terror threats will only increase our resolve to continue and expand our good work in our beloved Iran.”
A while back I heard Wafa Sultan speak for the first time on TV. One thing she said still runs through my mind from time to time. She said, America gave me my humanity. What a beautiful statement to make about our country. Truly beautiful.
She says Islam has never been misunderstood and she is fighting against it. Her story is compelling.
Oh dear, the religion of peace is showing the world how intolerant it really is towards just about anyone in the Middle East who believes in another religion or dares to criticize Islam. Funny how this doesn't match the version of Islam we hear about in America.
Pakistani police have jailed a Christian doctor after “blasphemy” charges incited a mob attack on his home last week in Punjab province. Officials said Dr. Robin Sardar is being held in Punjab’s Gujranwala Central Jail, and his wife and six children have left their home in the town of Chak Chatta, 200 miles southeast of Islamabad. “This is the house of a blasphemer,” reads a sign on the gates of Sardar’s now empty home where a crowd of angry villagers gathered on May 5, Union of Catholic Asia News reported. Carrying sticks and kerosene, the group chanted “The punishment of the blasphemer is death,” family members told Sharing Life Ministries Pakistan. Sardar denied having said anything against Muhammad. Under article 295-c of Pakistan’s penal code, blasphemy against Islam’s prophet Muhammad merits death. Now in hiding with relatives at an undisclosed location, Sardar’s wife Veenas said she could not return home for fear of new attacks. Neighbors have told her that members of local Islamist groups have threatened to kill Sardar if he is acquitted.
Author of "American Alone", Mark Steyn was interview on TVO TV, Ontario's public educational channel, a couple days ago.
Here's a quick background: In December 2007, complaints were filed against Macleans Magazine after the Canadian weekly news magazine published a cover article by Steyn, "The Future Belongs to Islam". A complaint to the Ontario Human Rights Commission was made by Osgoode Law School students associated with the Canadian Islamic Congress. Further complaints to the British Columbian and the federal Human Rights Commissions were lodged by Mohamed Elmasry and Naiyer Habib of the Canadian Islamic Congress. The complaints claimed that Macleans published a series of nineteen articles (eight by Steyn; seven by Barbara Amiel) with characteristics that promoted Islamophobia and that Maclean's simultaneously refused to allow representative Muslim organizations and voices to rebut the anti-Muslim and Islamophobic content of its articles, particularly Steyn's “The Future belongs to Islam”.
On May 9th, Canada.com reported:
The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has agreed to hear a complaint brought against Maclean's magazine by a consortium of Muslim law students.
The complaint originates from a Maclean's article that quotes from columnist Mark Steyn's bestselling book, America Alone -- The End of the World as We Know It. It is alleged that the passages in question defame Muslims.
The Ontario Human Rights Commission acknowledged it lacked jurisdiction to hear the case, then issued a press release declaring Maclean's and Steyn guilty anyway.
There was no hearing, no evidence presented and no opportunity to offer a defence -- just a pronouncement of wrongdoing.
A complaint was also laid with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, one that has yet to be ruled on.
In the first video he discusses the Western's failure to reproduce as part of our downfall in the world. Aa sad and, unfortunately, true statement, if there ever was one. Starting in the 3rd video, some of his Muslim critics join the discussion for a discussion/debate.
MEMRI TV has posted a video clip and transcript of a May 2nd interview on Al Aqsa TV, a Hamas-run television station, with a former Jordanian minister who declared Islam will rule the world:
Following are excerpts from an interview with Sheik Ali Al-Faqir, former Jordanian minister of religious endowment, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on May 2, 2008.
Sheik Ali Al-Faqir: We must declare that Palestine, from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea, is an Islamic land, and that Spain – Andalusia – is also the land of Islam. Islamic lands that were occupied by the enemies will once again become Islamic. Furthermore, we will reach beyond these countries, which are lost at one point. We proclaim that we will conquer Rome, like Constantinople was conquered once, and as it will be conquered again.
Interviewer: Allah willing.
Sheik Ali Al-Faqir: We will rule the world, as has been said by the Prophet Muhammad.---We will face a battlefront that is broader and stronger. Its beginnings were in Palestine, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and in Chechnya. What has begun will be completed. It will not stop.---The Zionist entity reached completion, and it is beginning to decline, until it will wane and come to its end.
Similarly, America has occupied, thundered, and foamed with rage, and proclaimed, like Pharoah, I am your supreme God, but it will come to its end, and they have begun to realize that their end is near. We have begun to read in American and European newspapers that "our glory is on the wane, and there is nothing we can do about it. This morning on Al-Jazeera TV, I saw American scientists and strategic theoreticians, who said that America would soon come to its end. They said it before about the USSR, and, indeed, it has come to its end, and we say now that America and the EU will come to an end, and only the rising force of Islam will prevail.
A young teenager or older child speaks to the women of the world in English to wear the Islamic uniform, the hijab.
My sisters in Europe, in America, in the whole world, I would like to advise you the hijab protects you from this false freedom---Westerners---destroying their humanity.
Ah, the religion of peace sure has a never ending supply of violent followers and the Islamic world cannot seem rein these offenders of Islam in. More likely they are encouraging them.
Wake Up America!
Danish embassies in Algeria and Afghanistan have been evacuated because intelligence officials have warned of an "aggravated" terrorist threat.
...The decision followed a series of protests against the reprinting of a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad in Danish newspapers in February.
The evacuation took place because the threat was serious, the ministry said.
"We have new information and we have to take that into serious consideration. We decided it would be better to move our staff, although the embassies are up and running," said spokesman Erik Laursen.
...The Danish Security and Intelligence Service is said to have highlighted risks in Northern Africa, the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The leading source of Islamic rulings in Egypt, the Al-Azhar Institute has ruled non-Muslim sons get stiffed from their inheritance from their Muslim father.
Now, why should that interest us here in the U.S.? Well, let me give one recent example. The Oklahoma Chapter of the Council of American Islamic Relations invited a professor from this institution to represent Islam at a recent forum.
There are a number of Islamic organizations in America who actually align themselves more with the Middle East Islamic world than with America. This is important to know because they do try to promote a form of Islam that's not practiced in any Islamic country. The more you know about this, the more you can questions these organizations at public forums, in letters-to-the-editor and so on.
This ruling is another great example how Islamic countries try to make it quite hard for non-Muslims:
Al-Azhar Institute: Non-Muslim Sons May Not Inherit From Father Who Converted To Islam
Members of Al-Azhar University's Academy of Islamic Studies have declared that non-Muslim sons cannot inherit from a father who converted to Islam.
The decision was made after a Coptic Egyptian citizen sued to inherit his father's property, arguing that his father's conversion to Islam was not complete.
I hope a similar study will be completed for the U.S. but it would make sense the findings would be similar. I'd also like to see a comparison of how much money is spent on Islamic studies versus Christian studies in America.
Cash from international Muslim entities is funding Islamic studies programs in universities throughout the UK. A recent study has revealed the vast extent of these donations, which dwarf grants provided to schools by the British government:
Prof. Anthony Glees, director of Brunel University's Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, claims that eight universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, have accepted more than £233.5 million from Saudi and Muslim sources since 1995, with much of the money going to Islamic study centers.
Glees' report, which is to be published by the Centre for Social Cohesion, part of rightwing think tank Civitas, says this is 200 times the amount the government is putting into Islamic studies and will allow one-sided views of Islam and the Middle East, and anti-democratic propaganda to prosper.
Many Muslims only relate to the rest world from an Islamic-only frame of reference. Here's another good example:
Muslim scientists and clerics have called for the adoption of Mecca time to replace GMT, arguing that the Saudi city is the true centre of the Earth.
Mecca is the direction all Muslims face when they perform their daily prayers.
The call was issued at a conference held in the Gulf state of Qatar under the title: Mecca, the Centre of the Earth, Theory and Practice.
One geologist argued that unlike other longitudes, Mecca's was in perfect alignment to magnetic north.
He said the English had imposed GMT on the rest of the world by force when Britain was a big colonial power, and it was about time that changed.
Mecca watch
A prominent cleric, Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawy, (aka, Yusef Qaradawi) said modern science had at last provided evidence that Mecca was the true centre of the Earth; proof, he said, of the greatness of the Muslim "qibla" - the Arabic word for the direction Muslims turn to when they pray.
This news sure doesn't reflect well on the religion of peace.
A BRITISH teacher killed in Somalia was targeted because he had converted from Islam to Christianity, his widow claimed yesterday.
Daud Hassan Ali, 64, was shot in the early hours of Monday outside a school his charity had just finished building.
A British colleague, Rehana Ahmed, 33, and two Kenyan teachers were also killed in the attack on Hiran English School, in Beled-Weyne, central Somalia, about 190 miles north-west of the capital, Mogadishu. All four were reportedly shot in the head.
The Islamist al-Shabab Movement, the armed youth-wing of the Council of Islamic Courts movement, has admitted attacking the town, but it has not accepted responsibility for the killings. Mr Ali's widow, Margaret, 64, said her husband had been targeted by Islamists who, she said, "believe it is OK to kill any man who was born into Islam and left the faith".
She said her husband knew it was a risk going back to Somalia as a Christian, but said he was there to teach, not convert others to his faith.
From Jihad Watch there's a good article about the Islamist's imperative to conquer the world.
Hamas MP and Cleric Yunis Al-Astal in a Friday Sermon:
"We Will Conquer Rome, and from There Continue to Conquer the Two Americas and Eastern Europe""Rome is the capital of the Catholics, or the Crusader capital, which has declared its hostility to Islam, and has planted the brothers of apes and pigs in Palestine in order to prevent the reawakening of Islam"
As Jimmy Carter plans to meet with Hamas, this Hamas MP explains that it is an Islamic imperative to subjugate the world "thorough da'wa and military conquests."
As the EU President insists that there is no link between Islam and terrorism, this Islamic cleric explains that the conquests he dreams of are "Islamic," and that Muslims need to be prepared to carry out these conquests "by means of the mosques and the Koran books, and the history of our Prophets."
Has the world ever before witnessed cognitive dissonance on this grand a scale? read the rest at Jihad Watch
I wonder if this Hamas Imam will meet with Jimmy Carter this week? Idiot.
Turkey's democratic future appears to be at stake. Who is going to win out here, eventually - the Islamists or the secularists?
Thousands of secularist Turks rallied in Ankara on Saturday against the ruling AK Party, which is facing a high court challenge by a prosecutor who wants it shut down for alleged Islamist activities.
Demonstrators waving red Turkish flags and pictures of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, chanted slogans against the AK Party and the European Union, criticised by many Turks for perceived meddling in Turkey's domestic politics.
Turkish TV put the numbers at roughly 20,000 people, with many coming from faraway cities.
The Constitutional Court last month agreed to hear the case calling for 71 AK Party officials, including Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, to be banned from politics for five years.
"It must be closed down, the danger is that great," protester Aysun Ozarman, 55, said of the AK Party. Ozarman works in tourism and travelled from the southern province of Antalya to attend the protest near Ataturk's mausoleum.
The case is the latest escalation of tension between the religious-leaning government and a secularist establishment made up of judges, army officers and professors.
It comes soon after the AK Party moved to lift a ban on headscarves in universities, an issue also being challenged in court.
In the Rocky Mountain News today there was a very one-sided opinion piece written about Palestine. I had to add my two-cents. I'm quite sure it will not get posted so I added it below:
"It is important to note Palestine is not mentioned in the Bible or the Quran, at all. Why? Because it didn't exist until sometime during the Islamic Ottoman Empire which expanded their Islamic hegemony into that region. This empire collapsed and gave the outside world opportunities to right some wrongs.
Israel, on the other hand, is mentioned in the Bible and the Quran. Their right to their land is also mentioned in both books. To ignore this is quite disrespectful.
Most Christian Americans support Israel out of their biblical obligation. Do not underestimate this obligation as it runs very deep. Christians make up roughly 85% or so of this fine and beautiful country.
In 1948, when the UN created a two state solution it was the Middle East who refused to recognize Israel's right to land and to also create a separate state for Palestine, at the same time. Let me say it again, the Middle East refused to create a separate state for the Palestine people. They have lived in a poor state of existence as a result. But it is not Israel's fault. This is solely the Middle East's fault for failing to recognizing Israel's right to exist.
It is the Middle East who does not respect our biblical text and the Children of Israel. They also are ignoring the Quranic text that supports Israel and their land.
It is the nature of the Islamic world to seek to rule over that what is sacred to Christians and the Jewish people and all religions, for that matter. Islam claims to be the final religion, Jesus is not the son of God, and the Jewish people are wrong. The Islamic world only see events through Islamic eyes - to the exclusion of all others. There is no room for compromise.
Christianity and the Jewish religion and their land of origin far pre-dates Islam.
You need to do more homework here.
Shame on you.
Update: April 16: I just checked and as I suspected by comment was not added to the article.
Update 12/24/08: I got an interesting comment today. I thought you would like to know where it came from:
Islamists see world events only from an Islamic mindset. Sheikh Yusek Qaradawi is a prime example. He is the Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader and chairs a number of Islamic organizations whose North American board members seek to change views about Islam (example: Jamal Badawi) using a version of Islam that is practiced nowhere in any Islamic country.
Qaradawi, banned from the U.S. and Britain for his support of terrorism against Israel, recently called the baptism of a Muslim by the Pope and act of hostility against Islam because the conversion was made public. Now, he statement about the insult agaist Islam the Pope has committed ought to get some Islamists really riled up.
Do you see the problem for the entire world if theses Islamists and their influence continues to grow? Keep in mind, in America, most Islamists are hiding in sheep's clothing. That is, they are blending in and presenting themselves as followers of the theology of Islam and not as followers of the total package of Islam as a governing system that should rule over all others. They are hiding their true beliefs for the sake of gaining the trust of Americans. Not all Muslims fall in this category, of course, but a good number do. The problem is most Americans simply do not have the time to research who is an Islamist in their own community.
PROMINENT scholar Sheikh Yousuf al-Qaradawi has denounced Pope Benedict’s baptism of a Muslim-born journalist during the last Easter Mass at the Vatican as a “provocative and hostile act against Muslims”. Sheikh Qaradawi, who is the head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) and the European Council for Fatwa and Research, said the public baptism of Majdi Allam has provoked Muslims around the world. “We do not feel regret over the conversion of that person. He has been a Catholic for more than five years. He was always attacking Islam, the Qur’an and me. The problem is that he was baptised by the Pope in public and in front of satellite TV cameras. This is a hostile act against Islam,” he told Doha-based Al Jazeera television.
“It is not strange that Allam, who betrayed his country and supported Israel, left his religion. We know that he is an agent of Israel. He would not contribute to Islam if he were a Muslim,” he said. Qaradawi said the public baptism has worsened relations between the Vatican and IUMS. “We were looking for a different approach from the Pope after his anti-Islam remarks two years ago. But the Pope’s baptism of a person who was known for his enmity to Islam and the Qur’an made us stick to our previous decision to suspend the IUMS relationship with the Vatican,” he told Al Jazeera. The scholar also blamed the West for worsening relations with Islam. “We try to seek peace with the Vatican and the World Council of Churches but in vain. They keep provoking us by their hostility.”
Would you want to see an Isalmic prayer tower like the one pictured here in or near your neighborhood?
Well, the people living near the Islamic Center in St. Louis see this one everyday.
Aren't you curious how they paid for it?
In an article featuring this prayer tower we see the Islamic propaganda that CAIR and others spread in the U.S. is about a form of Islam that is not practiced in any Islamic country in the world but if we bring this out they are quick to say we are ignorant. But Americans, who are beginning to see the light, will not stand down:
...For Dr. Khaled Hamid, a private physician who has volunteered for CAIR in the past, the perception of difference expressed in the Pew Poll and other public misconceptions of Islam are the result of willful deception. He said it would be difficult to comprehensively address this ignorance, which is compounded by emotional reactions to issues of war and terrorism, but began with some disputed terms.
“The phrase holy war has no root in Islamic culture,” Hamid said. “The word infidels has no root in Islamic culture. These two terms actually evolved and appeared for the first time as Christian terminology during the time of the Crusades and even later amongst fighting factions within Christianity itself.”
...Hamid believes that issues of religion are overplayed in the media...
Regarding the prayer tower:
...“It’s kind of symbolizing the freedom of religious expression in America, which is very important for the refugees”. “They’re building identity and they feel they are part of the society.”
“To me, Islam says that there is one humanity,” Ansari said...
What if most of the media has a biased agenda and spoon feeds you a point of view that's slanted and omits important facts? In 2006, I started studying why there was such a division between Dems and Repubs a few years after 9/11. We face the same enemy - which we still haven't defeated, right? Yet, the Dems made Bush the enemy. First, don't confuse Islamism with spiritual Islam or secular Islam - they are not the same. Research is linked to articles, reports and/or legal documents. If you find a mistake, contact ztruth@ymail.com and include a credible proof source.
The Muslim World League (MWL), a Saudi charity closely tied to the Saudi government...
Would you want to see an Isalmic prayer tower like the one pictured here in or near your neighborhood?
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