Civil States Are A Cancer- An Islamist's POV

Insight into why Islamists hate freedom, equality and liberty.

Freedom. Equality. Liberty. These emotive catchwords and slogans shouted from the lips of the infidels have ushered in the greatest attempt of disbelieving man to install himself in the place of the Allah Ta'ala - crowning himself lord, king, judge, legislator, president - a 'god' in his own deformed image. The modern vehicle for this self-destructive endeavour is the civil state.

Predicated upon a rejection of the Source of existence and the Sharia necessary for human sustenance and advancement that is in harmony with the rest of the creation, the civil state has been constructed as a means to try to protect the infidels from having to face their inevitable date with death that all souls will taste. For once Allah Ta'ala, His Message, and His Law are rejected, physical death becomes the greatest fear and the greatest reality to be avoided at all costs. That they have lost all understanding of physical life, death, and the hereafter should be obvious.

The rest on Kavkaz Center

Nun Claims Syrian Rebels Beheaded Christian and Fed Him To Dogs

Everyone is making the Syrian rebels out to be heroes and Bashar al-Assad as a monster (and clearly he is), but some of those rebel fighters are equally monstrous. More than likely it's the Islamist faction, those same extremists that are bucking for a shariah-run Syria once Assad is gone and are quickly gaining power, who are responsible for the following incident. But it demonstrates that Christians will not fare well in a post Assad regime, and that extremist Muslims will continue to act like barbarians in their quest to Islamize the world.

A nun sounded the alarm that the Syrian conflict was becoming sectarian when she said that a Christian man was beheaded by Syrian rebels in the northern town of Ras al-Ayn on the Turkish border, and his body was fed to dogs, a British newspaper reported Monday.

Sister Agnes-Mariam de la Croix speaking from her sanctuary in Lebanon said the newlywed taxi driver, Andrei Arbashe, was kidnapped after his brother was heard complaining that the rebels fighting against beleaguered President Bashar al-Assad were behaving like bandits, The Daily Mail reported.

The 38-year-old Arbashe, who was soon to be a father, was found headless by the side of the road, surrounded by hungry dogs, Sister Agnes-Miriam, who is mother superior of the Monastery of St James the Mutilated, added.

“His only crime was his brother criticized the rebels, accused them of acting like bandits, which is what they are.”

Mid-December, the newly formed Syrian National Coalition obtained wide recognition including from the United States and the European Union. France and British were one of the earliest countries from the Western world that recognized the coalition as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people in November.

But Western powers until now are hesitant on whether to supply the opposition fighters with weapons. Western support so far has been in terms of non-lethal military equipment.

Meanwhile, the 60-year-old nun condemned Britain and the West for supporting anti-Assad fighters in spite of growing evidence showing human rights violations committed by them. She listed murder, kidnapping, rape and robbery as rising crimes.

“The free and democratic world is supporting extremists,” Sister Agnes-Miriam said from her sanctuary in Lebanon. “They want to impose Sharia Law and create an Islamic state in Syria.”

In December, Washington blacklisted the opposition al-Nusra Front group, saying it was linked to al-Qaeda. U.S. officials fear that groups such as al-Nusra Front to hijack the 21-month Syrian uprising. The Syrian conflict killed more than 45,000 people.

Christians in Syria, who many of them still support Assad regime, were previously given concessions by the Syrian regime to appease them. The Christians, a minority , also skeptical over regime change in the country as they fear the rise of Islamists.

There are no winners in this war, other than the Islamists.

Source: Al Arabiya

Egyptian Bishop Claims Attacks On Christians Escalating

Attacks on Coptic Christians in Egypt have escalated, according to Bishop Morcos. He made that statement after an attack on a Church and homes of Christians in a village near Cairo this past Wednesday. 16 people were injured as a result of clashes between Muslims and Christians after a fight between a Muslim man and a Christian resulted in the death of the Muslim from his wounds.

He also complained about Mursi's failed promise to include more Christians in his cabinet. Only one was sworn in- the scientific research minister.

“The general climate is turning against Christians,” said Bishop Morcos. “Assaults on Christians have increased. It’s not just a matter of having one ministry,” he told AFP.

“There is a difference between promises and implementation,” said Morcos. “Perhaps there were obstacles in implementing the pledge, or the promise is one thing, and the actual implementation is another.”

There had always been sectarian strife between Muslims and the minority Coptic Christian population, even during Hosni Mubarak's leadership, but it seems to have increased since the Muslim Brotherhood took over. 

Bishop Morcos isn't the only one worried.

The United States warned on Monday that despite gestures by Egypt’s interim military leaders towards greater inclusiveness, sectarian tensions and violence had increased.

Washington’s 2011 International Religious Freedom Report expressed concern over “both the Egyptian government’s failure to curb rising violence against Coptic Christians and its involvement in violent attacks.”

Did Morcos really expect that under an Islamist majority government things would get any easier for the 10 percent of Christians that still live in Egypt?

Turkish Atheist Pianist Faces Jail Time For Insulting Islam

It's not surprising when Muslims become atheists, and there's definitely a multitude of them. Not the route I would take, since I firmly believe in God, but I can certainly understand why they might turn their backs on Allah and their religion in its current incarnation. But atheists in Muslim countries are as persecuted as any other non-Muslim minority, and as liable as any other 'infidel' of being prosecuted for "explicitly insulting Islam.

And since the once secular Turkey has gradually become more like its Islamist-leaning cousins elsewhere in the Middle East, people over there now need to be very careful what they say about Islam- or they could wind up like 42-year-old Fazil Say. Say is a famous, world renowned Turkish classical pianist- who also happens to be an avowed atheist- who is facing an 18-month jail term for insulting "Muslim religious values."  Apparently Say (who has performed with orchestras all over the world) uses Twitter, and religious conservatives took offense to some quotes from a poem by Omar Khayyam (11th Century Persian poet of  "Rubaiyat" fame) that he posted.

“You say rivers of wine flow in heaven, is heaven a tavern to you? You say two hours await each believer there, is heaven a brothel to you?”

He also made fun of a muazzin:

someone who makes the Muslim call to prayer.

“The muazzin finished the evening prayers in 22 seconds ... Why are you in such hurry? A lover? A raki table?” he asked, referring to the aniseed-flavored spirit popular in Turkey.

His trial is set to commence on October 17 in Istanbul, and according to his attorney, Meltem Akyol, Say will be attending.

In the meantime he is contemplating getting the heck out of dodge.

The multiple award-winning artist said in April in an interview with the Hurriyet daily that he felt completely ostracized by Turkish society since he declared that he was an atheist and that the criticism he had received had highlighted a growing culture of intolerance.

“I think it’s time for me to move to Japan,” Say told the daily.

“When I said that I was an atheist, everyone insulted me and the legal authorities jumped on everything that I wrote on Twitter. I am perhaps the first person anywhere in the world to be the object of a judicial inquiry for declaring that they are an atheist.”

Ironically, Al Arabiya mentions that conservative Islamist Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was jailed in 1998,

...for reciting a poem that a court ruled was an incitement to religious hatred.

Erdogan, the then mayor of Istanbul, had belonged to an Islamist party that had been banned after the military forced its leader to resign as prime minister a year earlier. He served six months in jail. The poem he had read contained the verses;“The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers.”

You'd think Erdogan would be more understanding, then again, maybe it's his payback time. Besides, Islamists have little to no tolerance or understanding of anything other than their own ultra rigid beliefs.

Moroccan Islamist PM Snubs Visiting Female Belgium Minister

Some more Muslim male chauvinism, this time out of  Morocco. 
On a recent visit to Rabat, two Belgian ministers met with newly elected (11/11) Moroccan PM Abdelilah Benkirane. Benkirane happens to be the head of  the  Islamist 'Justice and Development Party' which swept into victory thanks to the Arab Spring. As we know, Islamists have little to no respect for women, so he made a concerted effort to snub Justice Minister Annemie Turtelboom by pretty much ignoring her throughout the whole meeting. God forbid he should have to deal with a woman. Of course he had no problems dealing with Minister of Foreign Affairs Didier Reynders, who he praised for his flawless French.

Turtelboom displayed tremendous self-control for biting her tongue and not dealing with Benkirane's incredible rudeness- apparently she did not want to cause a 'diplomatic row'. But some were outraged by the whole incident.

Moroccan-Belgian MPs say her reaction is unblievable, and that Belgium should respond.

Yamila Idrissi (sp.a) and Nadia Sminate (N-VA) say that Turtleboom should have walked out of the meeting. But Idrissi says it's not too late for a response. "Belgium shouldn't leave things like that and make a point of it," she told Het Laatste Nieuws. "This is outrageous and unacceptable."

Sminate agrees. "This is disappointing from a strong woman like Annemie Turtelboom. If this isn't worth a row, than what is? Turtleboom should have responded .. this is a bad message for Moroccan women in Belgium."

They're right, of course. She had every right to walk out, and should have. But it just shows the tremendous lack of respect that Islamists have for women, and their lack of class.

I wonder how Hillary Clinton would have handled the situation, had it been her?

H/T: IslamInEurope

7 Years In Jail For Blasphemy For Two Tunisian Men

 Since the Arab Spring, and the resulting rise of Islamism in the region, there seem to be more cases of jail time for 'blasphemers'.

Yesterday, a young Egyptian Christian teen was sentenced to three years in prison for mocking Islam on his Facebook page.  Now we hear of two Tunisians,  Ghazi Beji and Jabeur Mejri (both late twenties) who were fined approximately $800.00 each and sentenced at the end of March to seven years in jail.  According to the justice ministry spokesperson Chokri Nefti,

“They were sentenced, one of them in absentia, to seven years in prison, for transgressing morality, defamation and disrupting public order.”

Disrupting public order?

What's most troubling is that Mejri  and Beji (an atheist), like the young Egyptian, had posted their 'blaspehmous content'  on social networking sites. 

Beji wrote a book called “the Illusion of Islam”, discussing his views about Islam and religion. Mejri, also wrote a book. “Dark Land”, where he “cursed the government, Islamists, and expressed his hatred towards Arabs.“

Beji, a biotech food engineer, lucked out and fled to Greece, seeking asylum. When interviewed by Tunisia Live, Beji said,

  “After the Revolution, in March 2011, I said to myself Tunisia is a free and democratic country now and I should try to publish my book. I contacted several book publishers in Mahdia but they all refused to publish it. So I opted to upload it online.”

Not sure why he thought that a country that is now predominantly Islamist would not take offense to his writings, but I suppose hope springs eternal.  Not so, unfortunately, when you are dealing with religious fanatics. But it is interesting to note how many ex-Muslims there are who are atheists.  Plenty of them on Facebook.

On the other hand, Mejri, who is an English teacher, wasn't so lucky and is currently in police custody waiting to serve his seven years.

Human Rights Watch in Tunisia made their obligatory statement- that the sentencing was  “an attack on freedom of expression and freedom of belief.”   Not that any of the officials would care what HRW has to say about 'freedom', since there is no freedom of expression or belief in non-secular Muslim majority countries.

Sharia For Egypt If Muslim Brotherhood Presidential Candidate Al-Shater Is Elected

Another battleground for secular democracy versus Islamism is Egypt. Until the actual elections take place on May 23 and 24 of this year, we won't know if an Islamist will be elected president or not. But with an overwhelming majority of Islamists in parliament, an Islamist president will seal the deal. If the Egyptian people are foolish enough to elect Khairat al-Shater, the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate, they'll all be living under Sharia law, since Shater has stated that it's  “his first and final goal.” This is not something that those young, secular students who fought hard during the revolution expected.  But enough Egyptians were responsible for voting in so many Islamists in the parliamentary elections, so I wouldn't be surprised if al-Shater wins.

Liberals and secularists are very troubled about this, and so they should be. 

Shater, who stepped down as the Brotherhood’s deputy leader to run, said “he would work to form a group of scholars to support parliament in achieving that goal,” according to a statement on the group’s website.

When asked by AFP, a senior official with Shater’s campaign did not deny the statement, but clarified that the presidential candidate shared his electoral program with the Brotherhood’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party.

The FJP calls for an “Islamic, constitutional and democratic” state, but not a “theocracy,” which it defines as rule by religious men. The Muslim Brotherhood advocates an Islamist state achieved through peaceful means.
 
The official said Shater, who has refused interview requests, would prioritize “democratic institution building and an economic renaissance” if elected.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, he added that Shater “is committed to the constitution and Article 2, which all Egyptians agree on.”

The constitution was suspended by the military after an uprising overthrew president Hosni Mubarak last year. Article 2 stipulates that the principles of Islamic law are the main source of legislation.

But there is no universal interpretation of Sharia.
 
Many Coptic Christians, who comprise about 10 percent of Egypt’s 80-population, worry about the growing power of Islamists in the country, but Shater’s campaign official said he would guarantee them their rights.

[snip]

Mainstream Islamic scholars say the Sharia offers Christians and Jews protection under an Islamic state. But they believe that only Muslim men can rule. 

The FJP already dominates the senate and parliament, which appointed a mostly Islamist constituent assembly to prepare a new constitution.

The Coptic Church, the prestigious Sunni Muslim al-Azhar institution and liberals have pulled out of the panel because of their meager representation.

Mohammed al-Beltagui, a prominent FJP parliamentarian, warned on Tuesday that the Brotherhood was overreaching by appointing Shater.

“It harms the Brotherhood and the nation, to have one faction assume all the responsibility under these conditions,” he wrote.

What they say they will do (no theocracy) and what eventually happens, remains to be seen.  I certainly wouldn't trust them.  And we know what happens to non-Muslims under Islamic law- the blasphemy laws and the jizya (taxes for non Muslims in Islamic states).

If Shater is elected, what the Egyptians will have done is replace one form of oppression with another, far worse.

Veils For Women in Timbuktu- Islamists Take Over More Than Half of Mali

A struggle between secular democracies and Islamism is on the rise in the Middle East, parts of Asia and Africa. The latest country to succumb to the battle is Mali. The West African nation (of Timbuktu fame), was recently subjected to a military coup, after 21 years or so of a constitutional democracy. Considered relatively stable (until now), Mali has a population that's 90% Muslim. And though a secular state with a constitution that allows for freedom of religion, that's rapidly changing.

Troubles began in early 2012 in the north with a separatist group, comprised of the Tuareg (Berber nomad) peoples, who want to liberate the Azawad region of northern Mali (where Timbuktu is located) from the Mali government. The Islamists, Ansar Dine, want Mali to become an Islamic state. The coup was in response to President Amadou Toumani Touré's  failure to handle the insurgency,  but that in itself has made the situation in the African nation ten times worse.  In fact, the coup has allowed Tuareg rebels and Islamists in the north to take over half of the country, and the Islamists are working rapidly to establish their religious agenda, including forcing women in Timbuktu to wear veils.

Islamists seized control of the ancient trading hub Timbuktu over the weekend alongside Tuareg rebels and have since chased out their allies and declared to residents and religious leaders that they were imposing sharia law.

This sparked alarm abroad ahead of an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting on Mali, with Paris expressing concern over the Islamist threat in a country considered a democratic success until the coup.

The Tuareg rebels want an independent state while Ansar Dine which has seized Timbuktu wants to impose Islamic law and has linked up with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told AFP the two were “closely tied” and Ansar Dine’s “goals are not clear, but it may be to install an Islamic regime across the whole of Mali.”

Three of the four leaders of al-Qaeda’s north Africa branch, Abou Zeid, Mokhtar Belmokhtar and Yahya Abou Al-Hammam, were in Timbuktu on Tuesday, security and religious sources in the city said.

Residents reported women in the normally secular city that hosted a major music festival in January were on Tuesday wearing headscarves.

In spite of sanctions and calls for the junta to relinquish power immediately, no-one's budging, yet.  The coup leaders claim they don't want to stay in power forever, and are calling for a "national convention" set for April 5, to discuss the transition back to civilian rule. But the longer they wait to settle things, the worse the situation will get.  The rise of Islamism in Mali wasn't the result of a thirst for democracy that turned sour, like the Arab Spring; the country already had a democratic, secular society, and President  Toure' wasn't a Mubarak.   In this case, the military facilitated the takeover by Islamists through their coup d'etat, and any further delay will allow the Islamists to claim more territory.

UNESCO (the U.N.'s cultural agency) is worried about what might happen to Timbuktu's "outstanding architectural wonders”,  and though that is worrisome, what I fear the most is the loss of freedom, for women in particular, in an Islamic state.

Al-Qaeda's al-Zawahri Says U.S. Defense Cuts and Talks With The Taliban A Sign Of Defeat

According to al-Qaeda's new leader Ayman al-Zawahri, Obama's decisions to make nice with the Afghan Taliban, and to cut our  defense budget by a substantial amount are a sign of weakness.  He also stated that the Arab Spring was primarily Islamist in nature.  But those of us with any sense don't need al-Zawahri to tell us that. We knew where the uprisings would lead, and even Afghanistan's Karzai gave up on dealing with the Taliban at one point in time, although who knows where he stands today. Zawahri believes that Obama's attempts to reach out to the Taliban is simply a sign of defeat. 

In an audio recording entitled "So Why Did We Revolt Against Him" posted on the Internet, he said:

“One of the latest signs of its shrinking (power) is the reduction in the U.S. Department of Defense's budget,” and that the U.S.  “military arrogance” had brought it nothing but losses.

“The biggest factor that forced America to reduce its defense budget is Allah’s help to the mujahideen to harm the evil empire of our time."

“America ... is about to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan, and then not only accept, but insist upon requesting negotiations with the Islamic Emirate (Afghan Taliban), which it used to consider as a terrorist group that must be annihilated."

As for his homeland, Zawahri went on to say that things would remain status quo in Egypt, in spite of the revolution and subsequent regime change, unless the peace treaty with Israel was rescinded and Shariah (Islamic) law became the law of the land.

“The popular Arab uprisings have proved they are mainly Islamic in orientation and have sparked a revolution against the mercenaries of America."

“Egypt is not a free trade zone, nor an agent for America nor a middleman for Israel nor a tourist resort. It is the citadel of Islam. The fortress of pan-Arabism; the land of garrison, jihad, knowledge, and preaching."

As if Egypt could survive without its tourism.

But he's absolutely right about showing weakness.  Those who are embroiled in the jihad mentality have an enormous amount of patience, and you can rest assured that they will strike when our defences are down, and we will have Obama to thank for that.

Islamist University Students In Egypt Shut Down TV Production Because Of "Indecent" Attire

Islamist college students were actually able to shut down production on a TV series based on a novel about student union activism in Egypt in the early 1970s!  The novel "Zat" was written by Sonallah Ibrahim and

 focuses on the sit-in staged by Faculty of Engineering students in 1972 and the demonstrations they led in Tahrir Square.

Why were  students at Aim Shams University in Cairo so outraged?  They took offense to the "indecent" tight costumes the actresses were wearing. Of course, it didn't matter to them that this was simply a representation of the times.  And even though the production company had a 6 month permit to shoot on campus, the dean of of the Faculty of Engineering told the director Kamla Abu Zikri that they had to leave.

No-one involved with the production is happy about what they call a major violation of  'freedom of expression'.

Gabi Khouri, the producer has called out the university for pandering to the Islamist students. He said,

“By being passive towards the students’ action even though we were granted permission to shoot, the university is contributing to this clampdown on art and this kind of thuggery that has been prevalent since the revolution."

Apparently, Egypt recently created  an organization- the Egyptian Creativity Front-

which aims at protecting the rights of artists and freedom on artistic expression, as well as all art-related syndicates.

The production company has appealed to the ECF to ensure that this kind of situation is not duplicated, but in the meantime, they are scouting new locations.

The university was wrong to allow a few rabble-rousers to dictate how they run their establishment. Appeasing the Islamists will only serve to empower them.

Human Rights Watch Tells The West To Stop Hating On Islamists

Human Rights Watch has just told the West to stop hating on Islamists, because political Islam is so much more palatable than the autocracies it's replaced in the Middle East.

In its annual report, HRW's Kenneth Roth, executive director, said

“The international community must ... come to terms with political Islam when it represents a majority preference,” he said. “Islamist parties are genuinely popular in much of the Arab world, in part because many Arabs have come to see political Islam as the antithesis of autocratic rule.”

“Wherever Islam-inspired governments emerge, the international community should focus on encouraging, and if need be pressuring, them to respect basic rights ─ just as the Christian-labeled parties and governments of Europe are expected to do,” he said in the introduction to the report.

He added that the international community “should adopt a more principled approach to the region than in the past. That would involve, foremost, clearly siding with democratic reformers even at the expense of abandoning autocratic friends.”

Yes, we have to come to terms with Islamism because the West has no other choice when stupid people choose one equally if not more repressive/oppressive system over another, but we don't have to like it. Nor should we.

He advises the international community to encourage or pressure Islamist-led governments to respect basic rights?  Well Mr. Roth, that's worked very well in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan (to name a few), hasn't it.

The Arab Spring movement in the Middle East gave those people who fought so fiercely for major change the perfect opportunity to usher in democracy, but it's something they've obviously squandered.  The Tunisian and Egyptian majority Islamists have said they will remain moderate, but what guarantee is there that they will.

I'm not saying that autocratic/totalitarian leaders are preferable, but Islamic theocracies are far worse. 

Pakistani Police Rescue 54 Chained Students Found In Madrassa

Acting on a tip, Pakistani police rescued 54 students from the Zakariya Madrassa (Islamic School) near Karachi, where they were kept like animals in the basement. Both the young and old students were chained, beaten and given very little food by those oh-so-pious clerics. Although the Telegraph says they ranged between the ages of 15 and 45, some of those kids looked much younger, and another news source claims some were as young as 7. The head cleric fled, but several others were arrested.

I wonder if those parents feel guilty, or if they even care. But since some of those madrassas provide free room and board and an education (if you can call learning Arabic, memorizing the Quran and studying Islam an education), I'm sure it's appealing to those who can't afford anything else. Not that everyone there was on a free ticket. One father sent his son to get help with the teen's behavioral problems and was paying $34.00 a month.

Although most of the younger kids were sent for religious education, some of the older 'students' were drug addicts brought there by relatives who saw it as a cheap drug rehab opportunity. Why they had the young kids living with the older druggies is unclear.

Since many of those madrassas are prime breeding ground for would-be-terrorists, police are investigating the possibility of a militant extremist connection.

Christianity, Judaism or Hinduism anyone?

Click here for video news report.

Egyptian Copt Blames Obama For Facilitating Creeping Shariah In The U.S.

Egyptian-born Dr. Ashraf Ramelah, Founder and President of the Voice of the Copts, has some interesting things to say about creeping Shariah in America, and how Barack Obama is facilitating that.

Will we ever know the extent to which President Obama’s most recent submission to the pressured demands of Islamists has endangered American national security? When the Obama administration yielded to the outcries of Muslim-American citizens and Islamic organizations recently with the removal of FBI training manuals containing certain anti-terror material deemed “offensive,” the President was either ignorant of the goals of Islam, complacent about what he knows, or notching up another win for appeasement and promotion of Islam ─ for now a mystery.

He ends with:

Will Americans settle for a repressed society governed by political correctness waiting for Islam to build a stronghold inside our country? Immigrants living in America having once been subject to Islamic law are much more cautious than those who were born into freedom and have only known the freedom of the West. Take the word of the Copt living in America; the signs of Jihad are everywhere, seeking to dismantle our liberty and way of life. It is the Copt living in America who will speak the truth having lived it never allowing the falsehoods of Islam to dominate.

The rest of his article is worth the read.

Punk Rockers In Indonesia Detained For Rehabilitation Have Mohawks Shaved

Who would have thought Indonesians were into punk-rock and mohawks.  I certainly had no idea that you could find a punk-rock concert in a country with the world's largest population of Muslims. Granted, most of Indonesia is considered to be relatively moderate and secular, with a constitution that allows for freedom of religion- though only 6 major religions are actually recognized by the government and persecution of non-Muslims is still rampant.  But there are provinces in Indonesia that are ultra conservative, like Banda Aceh, where punk rockers might exist, piercings and all, but they're definitely not tolerated, and often harassed. Here, in Banda Aceh, many modern Western things are considered un-Islamic, including body piercings and mohawks. 

Now, I find excessive body piercing unappealing and mohawks gape-worthy, but the Shariah police in Banda Aceh decided they needed to take action against a bunch of punk rockers at a concert they raided on Saturday. Out of a 100 or so fans, they singled out 59 male and 5 female punk rockers who were taken to a police detention center where the police shaved the mohawks off the men, chopped off the women's hair, confiscated their piercing bling, and stripped them of their "disgusting" clothing. They were then shoved into water for "spiritual" cleansing. According to police chief Iskandar Hasan, they were also given a tooth brush and were told to "use it". What for? Who knows.

The poor kids will spend 10 days at the center,

 for rehabilitation, training in military-style discipline and religious classes, including Qur'an recitation.

Of course, Hasan sees nothing wrong with his actions.

"We're not torturing anyone," the police chief said. "We're not violating human rights. We're just trying to put them back on the right moral path."

Nur Kholis, a national human commissioner would beg to differ, since no crime had been committed, and he insists that the police explain what laws might have been broken.

"Otherwise, they violated people's right of gathering and expression," Kholis said, promising to investigate.

When Shariah is the law of the land, as it is in Aceh, the police don't have to prove anything, and people's rights will continue to be violated.

Saudi Arabia Beheads Old Woman Convicted Of 'Sorcery and Magic'

The preferred method of execution in Saudi Arabia is beheading. No, I'm not talking about some random terrorist chopping the head off  some captured infidel, I'm talking about the method in which the Saudi Arabian government executes those sentenced to death. And they happen to enjoy making many of those executions a public spectacle, like Abdul Hamid, the Sudanese man who was beheaded in a parking lot this past September for allegedly agreeing to cast a spell for a man who was working for the Saudi religious police. Entrapment or not, it is thought that Hamid was coerced into admitting to sorcery after he was arrested and then beaten.  You see, thanks to Shariah Law, witchcraft, sorcery and fortune telling, are punishable by death in Saudi Arabia, along with apostasy, adultery, drug use and the usual murder, rape and armed robbery. But in the not-so-magic Kingdom, you are more likely to have your head chopped off  with a charge of witchcraft and sorcery (or stoned to death for adultery) than for murder or rape.  Take this Saudi man who raped his young daughter for 7 long years- he got to keep his head, and will be out after a 13 year jail sentence plus 2,080 lashes to be meted out throughout his prison stay.

But fortune telling and sorcery (as undefined as it is in Shariah law) is obviously far more un-Islamic than rape, given the amount of people who have been sentenced to death and executed for it.  One of the more celebrated cases was the famous Lebanese TV psychic, Ali Sibat, who on a pilgrimage to Medina in 2008 was arrested in his hotel room after religious police recognized him from his show. Sentenced to death in November, 2009 after a secret trial, he was scheduled to be beheaded on April 2, 2010. But after a major outcry from the international human rights community, the sentence was eventually overruled, and a retrial in Medina was ordered, along with a recommendation for deportation.  But there has been no news regarding the outcome, other than a small mention in this September 2011 NPR article that claims he was deported.

Amina Bint Abdulhalim Nassar, a 60-something year-old woman, wasn't so lucky. Nassar was just beheaded for "practicing witchcraft and sorcery". No specific details were mentioned regarding the nature of her 'crimes', but according to British-based al-Hayat daily, the head of the Saudi religious police, Abdullah al-Mohsen, said the old woman had been bilking people out of $800 with claims she could treat their illnesses. $800 is a lot of money for quackery, but does a person deserve a death sentence for fraud?

The Salem Witch Trials took place in the late 1600s in this country.  Saudi Arabia is still stuck there, thanks to Shariah law.

Was There Really A Muslim Fatwa Aimed At Women Against Bananas and Cucumbers?

There have been some pretty asinine fatwas issued over the years by Muslim imams who have never evolved out of 6th century-thinking.  I've made fun of them all, but I questioned the most recent one allegedly made by some European cleric who said women should stay away from cucumbers, bananas and any other phallic-shaped fruits or veggies, for the rather obvious reasons. Admittedly, I groaned at first even though the source was the mainstream though non-liberal Fox News, but they too had questions about its validity. As it turns out, after a little research, the veracity of the banana ban is questionable, at best. 

Muna Khan over at al Arabiya claims that the information regarding the origins of said fatwa is unverifiable. It seems it's a question of one news site referencing another, with no verifiable source.  According to Khan:

"Egyptian newspaper Bikya Masr on Thursday which was quoting the website El-Senousa in which an unnamed cleric in Europe said that women shouldn’t touch fruit/vegetables like bananas, cucumbers, carrots and courgettes because they resembled male genitalia.



The only way women could eat these fruit was if there presented to them by “a third party, preferably a male related to them such as their father or husband should cut the items into small pieces and serve it to them” the newspaper quotes the cleric as saying. "

The problem is, no-one knows who this bozo cleric is nor can they find the original article on El-Senousa that Bikya Masr used as its source. 

This kind of  nonsense isn't beyond the realm of believability, considering past religious fatwas, but until we get a definitive source behind the ban, I'll just thank someone for the good laugh. Although I wouldn't be at all surprised if it were true.

UPDATE:
I think this might be the source article on assawsana.com but it's in Arabic, and the bing translator doesn't clarify much.

Photo source: Banana Museum

Islamists Win Majority In Morocco- Is Egypt next?

Islamists are gaining in popularity in Muslim-majority North African countries.  The Ennahda Party won a majority of assembly seats in the recent Tunisian elections, mostly thanks to the poor.  Now, according to the Moroccan government, the Justice and Development Party (PJD) won the majority of assembly seats over there, capturing at least 80 out of 395. With a low voter turnout (many boycotted the elections), the so-called 'moderate' Islamist party was heavily supported, like Tunisia, by poor folk.

And for all their claims of being 'moderate', these are the same people who wanted to ban an Elton John concert because he was homosexual, and were trying to ban alcohol. Apparently, they are now focused on combating  high unemployment and corruption in that country; but who knows what will happen down the line.

With the continuing trend towards Islamism in the Middle Eastern and North African regions, was it any surprise that they won? I think not. 

Next up, Egypt?

Video- Message From Iranian Women To Tunisian and Egyptian Women

Interesting YouTube video showing the journey from freedom to oppression (in photos) of Iranian women. Iran was certainly different pre-revolution. I'm sure they had no idea what would eventually happen to them. However, the Egyptians, Tunisians and Libyans have no excuse. If they choose Islamism over democracy, they will suffer the same fate as the Iranians, and it will be their fault.

The 'Arab Spring' Gives Rise To The Dark Days of Islamism

What many had hoped would happen with the advent of what eventually was coined the "Arab Spring" was a journey towards democracy for those who fought hard to rid themselves of  their ruthless autocratic leadership. Others, however, feared that with the removal of these dictators those mainly secular governments would give rise to fundamentalist Islamist political parties and they, in essence, would be replacing one evil for another.  Those concerns, it turns out, were entirely warranted.

Tunisia, a mostly secular nation that encouraged freedom of religion and gender equality, will now have a Moderate Islamist majority leadership.  The Ennahda Party is predicted to have won almost 40 percent of the 217 assembly seats with a 90 percent voter turnout.  Opposition groups claim that it was mostly the poor who voted for the party, which seems to confirm that it is mostly the ignorant, uneducated that are drawn to Islamist ideology.   In an effort to allay the fears of many Westerners and secular Tunisians, party members told the press that

“We would like to reassure our trade and economic partners, and all actors and investors, we hope very soon to have stability and the right conditions for investment in Tunisia."

“We respect the rights of women ... and equality between Tunisians whatever their religion, their sex or their social status.”

Sure, their elections were democracy in action, but Shariah law is the polar opposite of a democratic system of law. Women have very few, if any,  rights under Shariah, and minority religions (including minority Muslim sects) are persecuted and marginalized in countries that adopt Shariah as their rule of law.  And although Rachid Ghannouchi has vowed not to change the cultural fabric of society by imposing Islamic values on the Tunisian population, who knows if he will keep his word.

Then there's Libya.  They too claim the country will be a moderate Islamist state, but Shariah will be the law of the land. According to Interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil :

"Any law that violates sharia is null and void legally. The law of divorce and marriage... This law is contrary to sharia and it is stopped."

That was in reference to laws during Ghadaffi's reign that placed restrictions on polygamy, which is allowed under Sharia. They also intend on establishing Islamic banking in Libya.  They too are trying to reassure the world that they are moderates, but as is well documented there is no moderation in Islam  unless it is secular.

Next up Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood whose founder Hassan Al Banna  admired Adolf Hitler and whose slogan is "Islam is the solution" and "jihad is our way" is poised to win a majority, as well.

The West needs to come to terms with the fact that our idea of democracy is a far cry from what Muslim majority countries view as democracy. Shariah law is as backwards as it gets, and any country that adopts it as its main form of legislative law, is taking major steps back towards the dark ages.

What amazes me most is that these people have been given an historical opportunity to rise up out of the shackles of oppression, and yet they have opted to replace one form of domination with another far worse. All they had to do was look at Iran or the Gazans in Palestine to see the outcome of voting for a religious leadership.  The Iranian people voted in the mullahs during their revolution in the late 1970s and are now suffering terribly the consequences of that decision, with no hope of gaining freedom in the foreseeable future. The Gazans voted overwhelmingly for Hamas, and they too are suffering under the governance of a hard-line, extremist group.   While Libya and Tunisia might start off as so-called moderate Muslim countries,  that will more than likely change over the years.  Only time will tell.

Sources: AlJazeera, AlArabiya, TelegraphUK,

The Crisis In Egypt- A Path To Democracy or a Path To Destruction

It's not surprising that the situation in Egypt has escalated into violence. The whole region is volatile, and given the anger and resentment that so many Middle Easterners (particularly the disenfranchised youth) harbor towards everything from poverty and lack of jobs, to the West and the Palestinian/Israeli issue - did anyone really expect this to resolve itself peacefully? Factor in a president cum dictator who has ruled the country for 30 plus years doing what he needed to retain power, and Egypt was a disaster waiting to happen. Simply criticizing President Hosni Mubarak could land you in jail. Kareem Amer spent 3 plus years in prison for insulting President Hosni Mubarak along with some anti-religious commentary he posted on his blog.

Although he ranked in Parade Magazine's Top Ten Worst Dictators in 2009 he also happens to be a U.S. ally, pro-West, is one of the few friends Israel has in that region and has managed to keep Egypt as secular as one can get in that neck of the woods. Therein lies the problem.

Who will fill the void when Mubarak steps down, which is inevitable? The Muslim Brotherhood, although banned in Egypt, is still the largest opposition group in the country, and people are still ignorant enough to be drawn towards a group that will be itching to get into power once Mubarak is gone, and will also do anything to ensure that happens.  Will they then replace authoritarianism for islamism?

I fear for Egypt, and even more so for Israel if the Egyptians make the wrong choice.