Bashing the Muslim Brothers

Egypt's rulers are giving their Islamist compatriots an even worse time than usual.

Worse than usual? What can be worse? Hanging them like Qutb was?

There are understandable reasons not to love the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt's oldest and largest Islamist group did eschew violence in the 1970s, and now proclaims a belief in freedom, democracy and the rule of law. Yet the Brothers still declare that death in the cause of God is a wonderful thing. Their enthusiasm for violent jihad and their constant framing of Islam as a faith threatened by vicious enemies have helped spawn more radical Islamist groups, from Hamas in Palestine to the suicidal mass-killing zealots of Iraq.

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Violence alone is hardly the reason!!

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This is why quite a few Egyptians nodded agreement when their president, Hosni Mubarak, recently chided the Brothers for “hiding behind religion to turn back the clock”.

Turn back the clock indeed!! Back to the dark ages!

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So the current campaign against the Brotherhood, which remains officially outlawed despite members having won a fifth of seats in the last parliamentary elections as independents, has brought the group widespread sympathy. Aside from the mass arrests, the crackdown has included the transfer of some 40 leaders to trial before military courts, bans on travel for other leaders, confiscation of personal assets, and harassment of Brotherhood-affiliated schools, summer camps and clinics.

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I suppose it is just the panic resulting from them winning all those seats which caused the recent crack-down, but they won them because the voters were grateful for schools, clinics, housing etc in their areas, a void the government can't / wont fill.

New Muslim cartoon protests in Pakistan and Iran

Fears grew of a new confrontation over images deemed blasphemous by Muslims as Pakistan joined Iran in protest over a sketch by a Swedish artist portraying the prophet Mohammed as a dog.

Pakistan's foreign ministry said it had summoned the Swedish charge d'affaires to condemn "in the strongest terms, the publication of an offensive and blasphemous sketch of the Holy Prophet".

A rerun of last year's incidents? Isn't there anything new?

The move adds to a chorus of criticism over the series of drawings, by artist Lars Vilks, one of which was published earlier this month by a regional Swedish newspaper.

Artist Lars Vilks has not confined his provocative cartoons to Islam however. Another drawing, featured on his website, features a giant hook-nosed pig looming over hillside houses.

The caption reads: "Modern Jew sow, swollen by capitalism, on her way to tear apart some peaceful villages".

Looks like he just wants to be in/famous for something and the easiest way is to offend ...

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On another take, artworks depicting Osama bin Laden in a Christ-like pose and a statue of the Virgin Mary covered in a burqa have caused a stir in Australia after they were showcased in a prestigious religious art competition.



Why aren't there any protests about that? And to call this art? Bit far off ...

Israeli soccer fans filmed cursing Prophet Muhammad

Turkish reporter who joined Maccabi Tel Aviv's trip to Turkey records group of fans singing songs against Muhammad, Muslims. TV channel decides to shelve video in order to avoid possible flare-up.

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The network decided to shelve the tape following appeals from senior government officials. The video was filmed by a Turkish reporter of Channel 24, Elif Ural, who accompanied the Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer team on its flight from Israel to the Turkish town of Kayseri, where it is scheduled to play against local team Erciyesstor Thursday evening.

A group of fans who were on the plane with the team were caught on video singing songs against Muhammad and Muslims. Ural, who has been living in Israel for the past three years as the network's Mideast correspondent, was deeply offended by what she witnessed and heard, and by the club's officials' failure to intervene and put an end to the offensive behavior.

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"The decision not to broadcast the video was the right one and I don’t have a problem with it," Ural said. "There is really no need to risk relations between Israel and Turkey because of 10 idiots. I understood that if the incident is published, the potential for a violent outbreak at the stadium and in the city could grow significantly. But what I felt on the plane would be very hard to forget."

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Just what is cursing the Prophet going to accomplish?

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Only 10 idiots?

Obstacles Keep Iraqi Refugees From U.S.

Despite a stepped-up commitment from the United States to take in Iraqis who are in danger because they worked for the American government and military, very few are signing up to go, resettlement officials say.

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The reason, Iraqis say, is that they are not allowed to apply in Iraq, requiring them to make a costly and uncertain journey to countries like Syria or Jordan, where they may be turned away by border officials already overwhelmed by fleeing Iraqis.

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Not allowed to apply in Iraq??? Jeez, what a strange requirement or rather constraint! No wonder!

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This year, for the first time, administration officials began publicly discussing the special dangers faced by Iraqis working with Americans here and acknowledging the need to grant them safety in the United States.

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For the first time??? pecial dangers faced by Iraqis working with Americans??? acknowledging the need to grant them safety??? Doesn't take much to figure that out now does it?

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A spokesman for the United States Embassy In JOrdan said all Iraqis who had worked for the United States would have their refugee applications sped up once they fled Iraq and reached neighboring countries like Jordan or Syria.

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Sure thing! flee first and then Insha Allah everything will be in order!!!

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“The big question mark is for those who can’t reach us here,” said Rafiq A. Tschannen, chief of the Iraq mission for the International Organization for Migration in Amman, Jordan.

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Indeed! What about those who can't / won't leave?

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Well, they are only Iraqis I guess, children of a lesser God!

Muslims celebrate Raksha Bandhan

Forgetting religious barriers, Muslims here have also come forward to celebrate Raksha Bandhan, a Hindu festival that celebrates the bond between a brother and a sister.

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"I do not have a sister. But there are two Hindu girls in my locality who love me like their own brother. I go to their house on Raksha Bandhan and present gifts," said Mohamad Salman.

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Well Done! And no bidaa, because Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever believe in Allah and in the Last Day, should be kind to his neighbour." And after all aren't all humans brothers and sisters in humanity?

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Happy Raksha Bandhan to everyone, celebrating or not, Hindu, Muslims, Jews or Christians!

Israeli anger over holy site work

A group of Israeli archaeologists is protesting about fresh excavations at Jerusalem's holiest religious shrine, saying it threatens priceless relics.

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Kind of funny if one considers the history, ranging from accusations of plots to using a third party for verifications after widespread anger in the Muslim world caused by fears that the site is being damaged by Israel's excavations there, which even had the UN getting involved, providing loads of headlines.

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Amusing really if it wasn't so sad!

A Religious Candidate Is Ascendant in Turkey

After being shut out of the presidency last spring, Abdullah Gul, a religious man in the assiduously secular realm of Turkish politics, allowed himself a little soul-searching.

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“Has the government limited women’s rights?” Mr. Gul, 56, asked a panel of newspaper editors on national television, hoping to persuade Turkey’s establishment that it had nothing to fear from his candidacy.

After all, he argued, his party was already in power, but “has the government closed down places where young people or modern people go? Has the government done some secret things and those been disclosed? What happened?”

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As he saw it, he had done everything right.

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But for Turkey’s secular class, all that was beside the point. Mr. Gul came from a party that espoused political Islam, his wife wore an Islamic head scarf and the fear that inspired outweighed his accomplishments. A high court blocked his candidacy at the request of the main secular opposition party.

So Turkey is suffering from its own kind of Islamophobia?

Why doesn't anybody want to give the man a chance? Why is he judged and sentenced before anything happens?

In another article Gul asks to trust in democracy.

"The democratic system within which citizens elect their own representatives is a structure based on the universal principles of law where ways of legal recourse are open and fundamental rights and liberties can be thoroughly enjoyed both individually and collectively," he said. He also said Turkey should set becoming an open society as a priority for itself. "Becoming an open society is the bare minimum for the development of countries and the fulfillment of individuals," the newly elected president said, adding, "The freedoms of thought, expression, religion and conscience stipulated in our Constitution are, at the same time, the guarantee of a dignified life for our people."

He said fundamental freedoms were the most "vital values under all circumstances" and that change and diversity should be celebrated rather than feared. Gül also stated that ensuring complete gender equality and active participation of women in all fields of life should be a primary objective for Turkey. He expressed that "a prevailing sense of justice among citizens is one of the most important elements for ensuring sustainable economic development and continued social harmony."

Does that sound like a fanatic speaking?

So words are cheap and he can say anything and then change his mind later on, but actions speak louder than words, so give the man a chance to become active before branding him a backward Chauvinist Islamist!!

A Small Dictionary of Middle-East Stereotypes

This list of sarcastic definitions is the epitome of phobias, with a definite slant towards appologetics for Zionism, but hey there is nothing on earth that can't be used to laugh about, for example:

Budget: What for? Are you kidding? Are we in Ramallah (Gaza) here?

Occupation: The reason for which this Palestinian has just had his finger jammed in the door. Anyone who does not see the causality is Islamophobic.

Orchard (see also olive grove): A sacred place for journalistic worship of the peasant innocence trampled under foot by army rabble, as in: "The Israeli troops cut down the trees in the orchards".

Muslim-American cartoonist throws his Fez into the Ring

“Muslim American cartoonist launches satirical campaign to make Americans question Islamophobic stereotypes”

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First Muslim American Ever to Run for President by Khalil Bendib.

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Who says there is no humour in the Muslim World?

Anger over 'blasphemous' balls

A demonstration has been held in south- east Afghanistan accusing US troops of insulting Islam after they distributed footballs bearing the name of Allah.
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The balls showed the Saudi Arabian flag which features the Koranic declaration of faith.
The US military said the idea had been to give something for Afghan children to enjoy and they did not realise it would cause offence.
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Mullahs in Afghanistan criticised the US forces for their insensitivity, and around 100 people held a demonstration in Khost.

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Afghan MP Mirwais Yasini said: "To have a verse of the Koran on something you kick with your foot would be an insult in any Muslim country around the world."

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Someone did NOT do their homework!

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Saudi Arabia has complained to the World Cup's ruling body in the past about the use of its flag on footballs.

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A spokeswoman for the US forces in Afghanistan said they made "significant efforts to work with local leaders, mullahs and elders to respect their culture" and distributing the footballs was an effort to give a gift the Afghan children would enjoy.

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So much for winning the hearts and minds! More like an own goal here!!!

Transforming Islam's Holiest Site

A huge project is under way near the Kaaba, in the Grand Mosque, altering the skyline at Islam’s holiest site. The Abraj al Bait Mall will bring an amusement park ride, fast food and a lingerie shop to the neighborhood.

A definitely needed addition ... amusement park ride, fast food and lingerie ... How come the Committee for prevention of vice doesn't object to that?

The Abraj al Bait Mall — one of the largest in Saudi Arabia, outfitted with flat-panel monitors with advertisements and announcements, neon lights, an amusement park ride, fast-food restaurants and a lingerie shop — has been built directly across from Islam’s holiest site. Not everyone considers this progress.

Oh really???

When the project is completed in 2009, it will include the seventh tallest building in the world, its developers say, with a hospital, hotels and prayer halls.

Prayer halls? When the Ka'ba is right there?

So it is permissible to flatten the historical sites in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere because they are bid'a, but then what is that:

The building will house a total population of 65,000

The towers have a combined floor area of 1,500,000m² and a site area of 34,794m²

The building will cost an estimated US-$ 2 billion

The towers include:

- 6 residential towers (27-33F) 302,000m² 864 units

- 60F 5* 2,000 key hotel

- convention centre for 1,500 persons

- prayer hall for 3,800 persons

- 4 story parking for 780 cars and 10 busses

- 2 heliports

This complex directly across from the main gate of Makkah's mosque features as its centerpiece a hotel geared towards the profitable Muslim pilgrimage business. The hotel boasts direct views into the courtyard of the mosque itself.



Aside from the 5-star hotel itself, there are also apartments, a convention center, an intermodal transit station, and a 4-story shopping mall which features themed areas resembling traditional markets in different parts of the Arab world.



Construction is estimated to cost $1.6 billion US dollars and will be done by the Saudi Binladen Group.

Muslim carnival entry creates controversy

A dispute over an "insulting" carnival procession entry has developed into a row over political correctness. Locals dressed as Muslims took part in the carnival in the Cornish market town of St Columb Major in protest over plans for a mosque. A group of students visiting the area thought the act was offensive to Muslims, and called in police.

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The group, calling themselves the Page Three Beauties from the Ramalamadingdong Times, carried placards with names including "Miss Poppadomistan" and "Miss Reallyamanistan". A home-made banner read "Join the Kernow Mosk drekly and become a Musli" over a picture of a Cornish pasty. Kernow is the Celtic name for Cornwall, while drekly is Cornish slang for "get it done quickly". The group knelt down in mock prayer, using fake compasses to "find" the correct direction to locate Mecca.

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The stunt was apparently intended as a harmless send-up of the Prince of Wales's plan for a mosque in his nearby "Surfbury" model settlement. The plan has been criticised because there are only 33 practising Muslims in a population of 22,000.

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She said the act was "all in good fun" and involved "just a group of local lads, mostly in their thirties". She added: "The crowd seemed to love them. It just offended this small minority."

The Word's Religious Culture and Richness of Faiths

Conflicts among the "Abrahamic faiths" of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have shaped the history and culture of much of the world for centuries. But a new exhibition at London's British Library is highlighting their similarities in a bid to promote mutual respect and understanding.

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"We can remind people just how much they do share in common," says Graham Shaw, the library's head of the Asia, Africa, and Pacific collections and the chief curator of the exhibition. "That the Old Testament of the Christian faith, for instance, largely equates with the Hebrew Bible. And in the case of Islam, in the Koran, we find many of the stories and the characters and the messages from the Old and the New testaments retold. So, they share so much in terms of stories, in terms of message, in terms of ethics, in terms of moral teachings that it's good to remind ourselves of that."

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A good start for understanding one another!

Israel to End Care of Paralyzed Girl

Gravely injured in an Israeli missile attack, a 5-year-old Palestinian girl is at the center of a fight over whether Israel should continue to provide treatment.

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Confined to a wheelchair and paralyzed from the neck down, the Palestinian girl is at the center of a legal fight over whether Israel should continue to take care of her treatment. Back in May 2006, an Israeli missile attack on an Islamic Jihad activist's car in war-torn Gaza left the Aman family, traveling close behind, in ruins. Mariya's mother, brother, grandmother and uncle were killed, and Mariya, thrown out of the car into a ditch, sustained serious injuries. Today Mariya is kept alive by an artificial respirator at the Alyn Children's Rehabilitation Hospital in Jerusalem.

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Collateral damage I suppose!!!

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Although it has never formally accepted responsibility, the Israeli government has largely sponsored her complicated medical rehabilitation for the past 15 months. But now her father has been told by the Israeli Ministry of Defense that his daughter must leave Israel and return to the territory of the Palestinian Authority.

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Guilty feelings? But then you'd have to have a heart!

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A court decision in favor of Mariya Aman could set a precedent and trigger other court appeals from Palestinians injured by similar acts of the Israeli military.

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How many would there be???

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It's not difficult to understand why Mariya's father is so worried. She will need around-the-clock specialized medical attention for the rest of her life. She is catheterized every four hours to avoid the buildup of urine in the kidneys, and her respiratory tract is regularly cleaned of secretions. She will never be able to dress herself in the morning or comb her hair. But since arriving at the hospital, she has learned to use a computer and to deftly steer her wheelchair using her chin. She has also learned to chatter away in fluent Hebrew to her dedicated Israeli therapists. "I have always avoided telling Mariya who aimed that missile at us," says Aman. "How can I explain that the people who hurt us are the same people who are helping us now?"

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And for what I ask?

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An Israeli law passed in 2002 states that in an act of warfare the state has immunity and does not necessarily have to pay compensation to Palestinians, and the Justice Court has ruled that targeted assassinations are normally an act of warfare. Moreover, Israeli Justice Minister Daniel Friedman has long argued that there are no grounds to compensate a people that Israel is in conflict with.

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Nice cop out! How come then the Holocaust is still a means to get compensation, even half a century later!

US Sikhs angry over turban plan

US Sikh organisations have expressed anger over changes allowing airport security staff to "pat down" turbans.

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The Transportation Security Administration insisted the new policy was necessary to counter the threat of improvised bombs and chemical weapons.

In Britain, the government said recently that private searches of turbans might be necessary as part of airport security.

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Now waiting for the reaction by Muslims...

TSA Changes Rules for Headdress Searches at U.S. Airports

Transportation Security Administration has changed its airport screening procedures as of August 4, 2007. The sudden change in policy includes, as we understand it, mandatory secondary screening for all travelers wearing any form of headgear - including religious headdress. In addition, secondary screenings of religious headdress are now permitted even if a passenger has already been cleared by a metal detector.

Millions of Sikh, Muslim, South Asian, and Jewish passengers worldwide will be affected by the new process. Still, the TSA not only sprung this on our communities without warning, but now refuses to inform the public of what the new policy entails, on the grounds of security concerns. It took Sikh Coalition staff members almost 36 hours simply to get a confirmation that the policy had indeed been changed, let alone details of the new procedure.

The possibilities are endless ...

Nigerian Islamic court tries 18 for cross-dressing

Eighteen Nigerian men accused of dressing up as women during a party at a hotel went on trial on Tuesday before an Islamic sharia court in the northern state of Bauchi.

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Dozens of residents shouted abuse and hurled stones at the men as they were escorted into an armoured prison vehicle after the hearing, prompting police to fire tear-gas at the crowd.

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The men, mostly in their 20s, were arrested in a Bauchi hotel on Aug. 4. Police say they were dressed as women, which is illegal under the state's sharia penal code.

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The offence is punishable by up to a year in prison and 20 lashes by cane.

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Following from that, any male (terrorist or criminal or jihadi) who hides under a burqa or niqaab is also a cross-dresser and should be punished for doing something illegal?

West underestimates the 'evil of Islam'

The West was still underestimating the evil of Islam, an influential Muslim thinker has warned, insisting that Australia and the US have been duped into believing there is a difference between the religion's moderate and radical interpretations.

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Influential Muslim Thinker?

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On a two-week "under the radar" visit to Australia, Syrian-born Wafa Sultan secretly met both sides of federal politics and Jewish community leaders, warning them that all Muslims needed to be closely monitored in the West.

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So Wafa Sultan is an influential Muslim Thinker????

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In an interview with The Australian, Dr Sultan - who shot to recognition last year following an interview on al-Jazeera television in which she attacked Islam and the prophet Mohammed - said Muslims were "brainwashed" from an early age to believe Western values were evil and that the world would one day come under the control of Sharia law.

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So if one attacks Islam one becomes an influential Muslim thinker? Influencing whom exactly? And recognition seems hardly the correct word here!

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The US-based psychiatrist - who has two fatwas (religious rulings) issued against her to be killed - warned that Muslims would continue to exploit freedom of speech in the West to spread their "hate" and attack their adopted countries, until the Western mind grasped the magnitude of the Islamic threat.

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So a degree in psychiatry elevates one to being a thinker? And renouncing the faith makes one an influential Muslim thinker?

Devout Muslim closer to Turkish presidency

To me the headline sounds bad. It sounds as if the word "devout" suddenly became an insult.

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The first sentence reads: "Abdullah Gul's candidacy is causing discomfort in nation that stresses secular values over religion."

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That too bothers me, because if it really did cause such a discomfort he wouldn't have managed almost two thirds of the votes, just a few short of what would have elected him president.

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Detractors say Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul threatens to undermine secular principles enshrined in the constitution, while allies – including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan – say he's a reformer who has worked hard to bring Turkey into the European Union.

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Tried and sentenced already?

Islam’s war on sin dims bright lights in a nation torn between cultures

Over a drink of green coconut at what used to be called the Passionate Love Beach until his Islamist party came to power and scrapped the name, state minister Takiyuddin Hassan outlines the victories in the war on sin.

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War on sin? New one!

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To the south, in Kuala Lumpur, the capital, celebrations are starting for Malaysia’s 50th year as an independent state. Its proud achievements are modern universities, a buoyant economy and a respected place in the world as a moderate Islamic nation.

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State minister Takiyuddin Hassan's party boasts a different set of achievements: banning mini-skirts, chastising unmarried couples and renaming Kota Bharu’s favourite beauty spot. They also closed down nightclubs, banned nearly all bars except a few Chinese restaurants, where no Muslims are allowed, and refused to let a proposed cinema open unless there were separate sections for men and women.

In a sign of their clout, the American pop diva Gwen Stefani has agreed to wear traditional costumes in her Malaysian concert next week after conservative Muslim youths protested at the “indecent dressing and obscenity” of her skin-baring act. An Islamic opposition party demanded that her show next Tuesday should be cancelled.

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As it celebrates 50 years of independence on August 31, Malaysia is once again debating just how Islamic it should be. Older Malays bemoan a younger generation that has become puritanical, self-righteously declining to attend social functions where alcohol is served. Headscarves, rare 20 years ago, are worn by almost all Malay women now, although often in combination with tight jeans.

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Some of the comments say it all: I would just like to point out one misrepresentation. It is true that religions lay down rules and regulations which they apply to their own members and - unfortunately - often enough attempt to inflict on other people as well.

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I wonder what Mahatir would say to this ...

Reforming Islam or Reforming Muslims?

However, many Muslims have long believed that Islam itself does not need to be "reformed," but that Muslims' attitudes toward their faith are what must be changed.

I wholeheartedly agree.

The compelling need facing Islam today is for Muslims to regain their collective self-confidence and learn to deal effectively and constructively with the demands and challenges of the real world around them.

In fact, the Qur'an insists time after time that Muslims cannot expect God to support them utterly, and it points to the example of ancient nations who disappeared before them.

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Thus, we Muslims need not search for new principles of conduct from outside, but have only to apply our old and forsaken ones in order to launch a modern and moderate reformation movement. We certainly may use new methodologies gained from the experience of others, but we must not displace the essential fabric of Islam, as some commentators seem intent on doing. They are trying to address a so-called "crisis of modernization" by blaming Islam instead of Muslims.

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A reformation there must be: but it should be a reformation of Muslims from within, not of Islam itself.

Seven-year-old Muslim boy stopped in US three times on suspicion of being a terrorist

For seven-year-old Javaid Iqbal, the holiday to Florida was a dream trip to reward him for doing well at school.

But he was left in tears after he was stopped repeatedly at airports on suspicion of being a terrorist.

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The security alerts were triggered because Javaid shares his name with a Pakistani man deported from the US, prompting staff at three airports to question his family about his identity.

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His father Nadeem Iqbal, 48, a consultant anaesthetist, said: "My son is psychologically traumatised by this experience and said he doesn't want to fly to America again.

"They really should have known he was only a seven-yearold child. I do understand the reasons but this was over the top. I can understand the safety aspect but it doesn't help relationships with different faiths."

International airports will not discuss security policies and anti-terrorism measures and all those involved refused to comment on this case.

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Does this look like a terrorist to you?

With friends like these…

WAS it George Bernard Shaw who argued that Islam is the world’s best religion and the Muslims are the worst followers?

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I have often wondered what might have prompted Shaw, a diehard socialist with a life-long affair with Islam, to reach this conclusion.

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But you don’t have to be Bernard Shaw to know that if Islam is constantly under fire around the world, it is not entirely because of some elaborate Zionist conspiracies or Western machinations.

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If Islam faces an acute image crisis today with every imaginable atrocity attributed to it, you need not look too far to see who really is responsible for this state of affairs. Trust me, we Muslims are as responsible as Islam’s enemies, if not more, for discrediting our noble faith.

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This is what we do to Islam day after day, from one end of the Muslim world to another. We dump all our insecurities, our wretchedness, our sins and all our crimes in Islam’s account.

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Islam suffers daily at the hands of its followers.

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This distortion and misrepresentation of Islam and Muslims has been going on for years. But Muslim intellectuals and leaders have been mostly silent, except for some lone and feeble voices here and there, over this continuing atrocity against their faith.

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Do Muslim leaders and Ulema realise what our silence means to the rest of the world? It means we implicitly support and justify what is being perpetrated in our name by desperate and self-seeking men.

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This is no time to remain silent. If we care for Islam and genuinely believe in what it stands for, then we must speak out and speak out now. We can take on the enemies of Islam by presenting the true face of this great faith. We must fight the falsehood being purveyed in the name of Islam by taking the true message of the religion to the world. As the Quran suggests, let us “Repel evil with what is better,” — not with greater evil.

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No further comment required!

Taslima undeterred, writing sequel to 'Lajja'

Undeterred by the attack on her by radical Muslim fundamentalists in Hyderabad and a fatwa against her, exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin is busy penning the sequel of "Lajja", 14 years after the book annoyed clerics in her country.

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"Sharam, the sequel of Lajja (Shame), has the principal characters of the first novel who came over to India from Bangladesh in 1993 and is set in the backdrop here," Taslima told PTI here.

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Speaking about the attack on her at Hyderabad, Taslima said "I had seen demonstrations against me in India. I have heard people issuing fatwas for beheading me and to blacken my face.

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"But this was the first time here that I saw some people trying to harm me physically. I could read their murderous intention in their expressions. For some time when I hid in a room in the press club as they banged the door from outside. I saw death staring at me."

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While expressing gratitude to the Andhra Pradesh government for ensuring her safety, she said the threats by MIM leaders would not deter her as a writer.

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I guess we should all be looking forward to the new "literary" work of hers then!

In an article in the Times of India we learn that the Taslima attack un-Islamic! I liked that line: "All this in the name of Islam, as though Islam stands for such hooliganism."

Gwen Stefani to cover up

There will be no revealing costumes at US singer Gwen Stefani's concert in Malaysia this month, a newspaper said on Saturday, after a Muslim student group demanded that the event be cancelled as being too obscene.

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Although Malaysia is a moderate Muslim country with sizeable non-Muslim minorities, conservative groups often frown upon departures from strict Koranic injunctions.

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Cover up!! Halal Costume?

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This is how she normally dresses up (un?) on the stage:

Risks in a Muslim Reformation

Diana Muir writes: 'Salman Rushdie, Thomas Friedman, Nicholas Kristof and Mansour al-Nogaidan are among the well-intentioned people who have called for an Islamic Reformation. They should be careful what they wish for."

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Wow! What an interesting selection she picked! And to talk about their "niyyat" just like that, more interesting!

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And yet, even as some hope for such a turn of events -- presuming, it seems, a certain conclusion -- a Reformation is sweeping through the Muslim world.

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Depends really on "what" one sees as refore. Wahhabism is considered a reform in some places!

In some European countries, the Reformation or the Counter-Reformation produced a rigid orthodoxy that stifled development for generations. In other countries the wars of religion were followed by the Enlightenment. Muslims might not follow a European course. They will choose whether they prefer societies shaped by Sayyid Qutb, who advocated closing the Islamic mind to everything but the ancient texts, or Ibn Rushd (also known as Averroes), who preferred the open embrace of all knowledge.

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Interesting selection again, Sayyid Qutb, 20th century figure standing opposed to Ibn Rushd! I wish everything was as simple as that! Comparing apples and oranges just does not cut it because everything is different from historical, to social, to political, to economical conditions. Plus there were plenty reformers in the late 19th century to draw on. Muhammad Abduh, Jamal Eddin Al Afghani etc etc

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In the near term, though, the Islamic Reformation will divide Muslim society as the Reformation divided Europe.

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NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

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A fervent minority in many countries is already pressing for narrow interpretations on issues such as veiling, whether to listen to music and replacing secular laws with religious codes. As we have seen in Europe and more recently in Afghanistan, Muslim Puritans are likely to take over communities where they are far from being the majority. Meanwhile, the majority has yet to construct an effective ideological defense of moderation.

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Back to calling Wahhabism reform! I think that people need to familiarize themselves first with the topic they intend to write about! And then they are most welcome to write instead of ramble!

Brussels banned protest against Islam

Brussels mayor Freddy Thielemans has banned a planned protest against the so-called "Islamisation of Europe" on September 11, the 6th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States.

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Thielemans said that the planned September protest would alienate Muslims in the city. "The danger to public order is too high," to allow the Brussels protest to go ahead, said the mayor's spokesman Nicolas Dassonville, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP) late last Thursday.

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But the SIOE hit back at the mayor's stance. "The mayor in Brussels is not fully aware of his responsibility," it said on its website. "For as a mayor at EU’s capital you cannot simply forbid ordinary European citizens to express their constitutional freedoms."

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No comment!

First Victims of Freedom

For someone who faces death threats, swaps apartments regularly and hides the location of her organization from authorities, Yanar Mohammed, one of Iraq’s leading feminists, hasn’t lost her sense of humor. Even during a recent conversation about the demise of women’s rights and safety in post-war Iraq, her wry perspective asserted itself in small ways, revealing her humanity and suggesting a certain defiance. She laughed at her English on the rare occasions that it proved faulty, and poked fun at Islamist attire as worn by women in Baghdad’s fundamentalist neighborhoods, likening the all-black, body-concealing uniform to radioactive protective gear.

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In 2003, Mohammed founded the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), which shelters Iraqi women targeted in honor killings and sectarian violence (both on the rise since the war and occupation). It also monitors women in jail and assists formerly detained women, such as prostitutes. And, most visibly, OWFI speaks out loudly and insistently for women’s legal rights and secular law in opposition to Iraq’s growing Islamism. Her demands shed light on the precarious position of women under radical Islamism but, perhaps more to the question at hand, they confirm the disastrous consequences of the Iraq war and the political repercussions of occupation, which, according to Mohammed, has unleashed militant fundamentalism that is proving impossible to subdue.

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Read the interview with Iraqi feminist Yanar Mohammed.

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For a good analysis about the demise of women’s rights and safety in post-war Iraq see here.

Yazidis fear annihilation after Iraq bombings

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Estimates of the death toll varied from 175 to 500.

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"Their aim is to annihilate us, to create trouble and kill all the Yazidis because we are not Muslims," said Abu Saeed, a grey-bearded old man in Kahtaniya.

What can I say? Doesn't the Quran say:

[2.256] There is no compulsion in religion;

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[10.99] And if your Lord had pleased, surely all those who are in the earth would have believed, all of them; will you then force men till they become believers?
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[18.29] And say: The truth is from your Lord, so let him who please believe, and let him who please disbelieve;
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[109.6] You shall have your religion and I shall have my religion.

When you can't go home

I think the best line in this article is :

God is right there, right now, with each refugee.

Millions of displaced persons today can't go home, or they have no home to return to. Political situations and wars, as well as floods, droughts, and similar conditions abruptly force people into refugee camps or make them seek refuge in what is to them a foreign country.

U.S. set to brand Iran's Revolutionary Guard as terrorists

A U.S. decision to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a foreign terrorist organization fuelled speculation Wednesday the White House is laying the groundwork for air strikes against the hardline Islamic nation before President George W. Bush leaves office.

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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

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Foreign policy analysts were surprised Wednesday by the reported White House decision, which would mark the first time in history that the U.S. has formally declared the armed forces of a sovereign nation to be terrorists.

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Whatever next?

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The Revolutionary Guard operates its own naval, land and air forces independently from the Iran's regular armed forces, but has expanded its domestic operations recently to include commercial ventures ranging from oil production to infrastructure.

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Did I imagine the word domestic here? How does that make them terrorists?

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In another article it said: “Maybe the Revolutionary Guards have done certain things in their own backyard,” said Saeed Leylaz, an economist and a reformist political analyst, referring to Afghanistan and Iraq. “But they have also cooperated with Americans there.”

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So cleaning up your own backyard to sort out your business is terrorism? Helping out in the process is also terrorism? What about invading other countries miles away just on a flimsy excuse which proves later to be a lie?

Shakes my head!

Ben-Eliezer: Nasrallah has never lied

Forget the rest of the news item, but this bit threw me:

"Nasrallah has never lied. He is cocky, he is arrogant, but at least from our experience with him, to my regret, what he has said, he has done. And when he says 'I have 20,000 missiles' I believe him," Ben-Eliezer told Army Radio on Wednesday.


John Milton once said: "Praise from an enemy smells of craft." But I think that there can be no better compliment to Nasrallah than that.

Halal Flying!!

The other day I joked about Halal Flying and apparently someone heard me and initiated it. Well not exactly Halal Flying but close!

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The Guardian reports that the Vatican plans airways to heaven and will be launching its first charter flights for pilgrims from Rome to Lourdes, with some of the world's top religious destinations to follow, including the shrine of Fatima in Portugal and the shrine of the Madonna of Guadalupe in Mexico.

Egyptian Police Tortures a CHILD to death

There is nothing that one can say about the latest sadistic barbaric and inhuman action by the Egyptian police which resulted in the death of a 12 year old accused of petty theft.

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The body was said to have been stolen by the police and buried secretly to prevent any further investigation.

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Thankfully the news somehow made it's way to Al Masry Al Yom's Front page so a cover up will no longer be possible!

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If you can stomach it you can see more pictures here!

Jailed Nigerian Was Learning Arabic to Propagate Islam

The dream of Ibrahim Mohammed Lawal, a Nigerian convert to Islam who has been in Malaz prison for the last two months, to learn Arabic and propagate Islam in southeastern Nigeria has been shattered.

Remember him?

Speaking to Arab News from prison, Lawal said he was hoping to promote Islam in the predominantly Christian part of southeastern Nigeria where he comes from. With that end in view, he was learning Arabic at the Badiya Islamic Center.

I wonder what he will be promoting now!

He said officials from the Nigerian Embassy contacted him to inquire about his welfare. They are also believed to have written to the Saudi Foreign Ministry to secure his release from prison. A response is still awaited.

Too bad it's difficult to see when they turn blue in the face - that's how long they will be waiting I guess ...

Lawal was imprisoned in June this year when the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice found him inside an apartment with a 63-year-old woman, who he had admitted earlier at the Badiya Hospital. Lawal said he had gone to her apartment to inquire about her welfare.

“Such an action on their part sends a wrong message about Islam, the religion of humanity,” he said. However, the commission contests his claim and says that it was more than a courtesy call.

And the aforementioned Commission for the Promotion of Vice and the Prevention of Virtue surely knows everything about courtsey!!!!

Meanwhile, the publication in Arab News of Ibrahim Lawal’s detention has raised concerns among people in the Kingdom about whether they should help neighbors in distress. Shahid Hussain, a teacher at the Bangladesh International School, told Arab News that a close friend of his telephoned him from Dammam, where he had gone on an urgent visit, and requested him to bring medicine for his wife who had suddenly become ill.

Talk about something that backfires!! Is this the intention then? To create a community where nobody gives a toss about anyone else?

“Knowing what happened to Lawal, I didn’t want to take any risk. So I went to her house along with my daughter who had come here on a visit visa. Now my daughter has left,” he said.

Can't blame him really, can one?

“Next time, God forbid, if I receive another call from my friend or someone else, I cannot do anything. Such restrictions prevent us from helping our neighbors in an emergency situation. They go against the teachings of our Prophet (peace be upon him) who said a good Muslim should help his neighbors irrespective of religious or other considerations,” Hussain said.

He is absolutely correct. Check out Islam Online's Q&A page on neighbours.

Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever believe in Allah and in the Last Day, should be kind to his neighbour." (Reported by Al-Bukhari). In another hadith, it is reported that he said: "Jibril has recommended me to be kind to my neighbour until I thought I should include him or her among the people entitled to my inheritance."

He pointed out that Islam permits even the eating of pork to save one’s life in an emergency and that the kind of restrictions enforced by the commission mean that a humanitarian act is ruled out under any circumstances if it contravenes the Kingdom’s local traditions.

Perhaps the members of aforementioned commission need to go back to learn about Islam 101!

Yet more on Taslima

India to charge writer Nasreen with 'hurting Muslim feelings'

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Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen will face criminal charges in India after being accused of stirring up religious enmity.

The charges come after Nasreen was attacked at a publication party because of opposition to a translation of her latest book, Shodh, in Hyderabad last week. Several lawmakers and members of a conservative Muslim political party threw flowers and other items at her and called for her death.

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Under Indian law, promoting "disharmony or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill will" between religious groups is punishable by up to three years in jail.

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So several members threw things at HER and attacked HER and SHE will be facing charges? In the worst of cases shouldn't THEY face the same charges as well for displaying the feelings of enmity, hatred and ill will and causing disharmony and disrupting a book signing event?

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And last I heard Taslima was Muslim too, so where did this "between religious groupS" come from?

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See also this article by Asghar Ali Engineer.

Guess who’s coming to dinner in Toronto and Montreal this September?

You may remember the name Yvonne Ridley. She was the journalist captured by the Taliban in 2001. A textbook case of Stockholm Syndrome, she converted to Islam and took up the cause of her captors. Now a talking head on the Islam Channel in England, where she is responsible for political issues, she is also a founder and frequent candidate for the Respect Party (the political party of choice for fundamentalist Muslims, and terrorist-supporting left wing political scoundrels like George Galloway).

ooooops! Don't hold back!!

Ridley supports radical Islam’s objectives and its spokespeople (she has stated, for example, that Abu Hamza al-Masri, the infamously radical and openly jihadist Finsbury Park Mosque imam is “quite sweet really” and has designated as “martyrs” such monsters as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Chechan devil Shamil Basayev, who perpetrated the horrific Beslan school massacre), and to this day defends the Taliban in Afghanistan, where Canadian soldiers are risking (and losing) life and limb to defeat them.

Ouch!!!

Ridley has also recently become the London correspondent for a new TV channel created by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – Press TV – which, according to Ridley, offers “a different perspective than that of conventional media.”

What's conventional about Yvonne Ridley?


In a post, it was announced that a "Radical Islamist invited back to Canada" and it reports: Banned from speaking in Australia, radical Islamic convert Yvonne Ridley had no problems attending a Muslim youth conference held in Calgary this past May. She has praised the Chechen leader of the Beslan school massacre and has described suicide bombings as martyrdom operations. When she last visited our country she wasn’t even described as controversial.

President: Rule of Islam only way for salvation of mankind

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Tuesday that rule of Islam on mankind is the only way for salvation of human beings.


Maybe he can then apply to Hizbut Tahrir ....

'God's warriors' - CNN's Amanpour looks at 'zealots'

They've been called radicals, militants or zealots. Christiane Amanpour calls them "God's Warriors."

The CNN reporter's three-part series on the subject, scheduled to air next week on the cable news channel, looks at Jews, Christians and Muslims who have aggressively brought their religious faith into the political arena.

Shock!! Horror!!

Islam is NOT singled out???

Confused by the Veil

On July 23 millions of Turks will wake up into a new, post-elections Turkey. What will happen is hard to foresee.
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Turkish politics is full of surprises that only foreigners find surprising . Today, and this seems to surprise most people outside Turkey, it is women, not men, who are at the heart of political debate. Indeed, in these elections the number of women candidates from all parties has visibly increased and so has female political overall activism.

This election is taking place because when the AKP party, the conservative party now in power, designated Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as its candidate for president, the country’s secular elite cringed. Gul was not the issue; the issue was his wife. Had Gul been chosen as president, Turkey would have had its first headscarf wearing First Lady.

Gul’s wife’s headscarf was interpreted as the symbol of darker changes to come. If the First Lady wears a headscarf, maintained the secular-minded elite, the whole secular system could be undermined.

What's the connection?

But then in other instances moans about freedom of speech and freedom of choice are heard very loudly. (Rightfully so in the case of Taslima) But why shold Mrs. Gul be forbidden the freedom of choice?

But all in all a good article!

Week 'not to push Islam'

Muslims are still contending with people questioning their intentions during Islam Awareness Week, Muslim leaders say.

Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand (Fianz) president Javed Khan said the association had convinced some of its critics that the week was simply for education, but others remained sceptical.

"There are some people who may genuinely think that we are trying to promote Islam which we are not," Khan said.

NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

After five years of holding the event, Khan said many people now understood its intention was to engage with people of other faiths and have "full and frank discussions" about what Islam was.

Was? So it ceased to be that? Then why promote it? Make aware of it?

"There's a lot of misconception about Islam and Muslims and there has been a lot of negative reporting in the media, and as a result people make their decisions and judgments," he said.

Oh? SO people only make up their minds reading newspapers?

Diversity heading down a rough road, conference told

The public school system is going to fracture. Psychological integration of people in Canada's pluralistic society will be a tough and maybe impossible goal. The sons and daughters of immigrants in particular will be resistant to integration and the defining of collective identity will be maddeningly elusive with not only Canadians, but all inhabitants of the Western democracies asking: "Who are we?"

Good question?

That's the bad news portrait of multiculturalism presented by academics and other social scientists and commentators at a four-day conference on diversity, social cohesion and citizenship put on by the Couchiching Institute on Public Affairs.

What's the good news?

As Oxford University Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan put it, multiculturalism is going to travel a bumpy road over the next two generations.

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It's a road Canadians will survive, said Queen's University philosopher Will Kymlicka, if they understand that so-called Canadian values and pluralistic diversity are not a trade-off - you have to sacrifice one to get the other - but rather that one is the reason for the other.

So that's the good news then!!

Prof. Ramadan, who has pressed Muslims in Europe and North America to create a Westernized culture for themselves that fits the cultural framework of where they live, said the globalized world is pushing people toward a reduction of themselves, transforming the world into a small village but one paradoxically where landmarks and identities are lost.

The result is not a clash of civilizations, but a clash of perceptions among diverse peoples now living close up to one another. "No one is wrong to be scared," he said. "But you have to accept this and try to go beyond it - and respect people's fears on both sides"

Not bad!

"Let's just say we're scared of Muslim men," Prof. Macklin, University of Toronto law professor, told the conference. "Let's have a conversation about that. It may be troubling, but it's certainly better than putting it in code language."

At least a conversation ...

German State Court Upholds Headscarf Ban for Teachers

A court in Germany's most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia has upheld a ban on female Muslim teachers wearing headscarves in schools.

Wearing a headscarf violated a state regulation against religious symbols in public schools, the administrative court in the western city of Düsseldorf ruled on Tuesday.

The case was brought by a 52-year-old secondary school teacher, who said she would appeal Tuesday's ruling. The teacher had argued that her headscarf was a "fashion accessory à la Grace Kelly" that was in line with Christian-Occidental values.

That's a new argument! "fashion accessory à la Grace Kelly"!! Nice one!

The judges did not accept the argument, pointing out that since the teacher always wore the scarf, it was a symbol of her religous beliefs.

Too bad isn't it? It was a nice argument!

In Bavaria, on the other hand, teachers may wear hats in school.

Perhaps she needs to relocate to Bavaria and then start wearing hats, "fashion accessory à la HRH Queen Elizabeth II"

Nude Video Sparks Outcry Among Nigeria's Muslim Community

A mobile phone video of a popular actress and her boyfriend in the nude has sparked public outcry among the nation's large Muslim community and caused 17 actors to be expelled from the state filmmaker's association, a Nigerian Web site reported.

So where did the other 17 come from?

Nigeria’s Leadership for God and Country Web site reported that the thespians’ expulsion comes after the actress was shown in a provocative clip with her boyfriend, Bobo.

How does a provocative clip between 2 people end up with 17 people being expelled? And love the term "thespians' expulsion" though it would have been much better had it been thespian expulsion ...

More actors were expected to be discharged from the association and the unnamed actress in the video reportedly had gone into hiding.

More than 17? Whyif the reason for the expulsion of those first 17 is not very clear?

The eight-minute clip has evoked strong criticism from Muslim clerics in mosques and on radio and TV.

A film association said those expelled were forced out for allegedly fornicating and drinking alcohol and that future members would need a witness to attest to their good character.

And how did they arrive at those charges or accusations if the clip was between the actress and her boyfriend? Unless he suffers from MPD those 17 remain unexplained ...