Liberal Canadian Muslims Protest Against Islamism

Canadian/Pakistani Tarek Fatah, a liberal Muslim, uploaded the following video where he leads a small group of fellow liberal and secular Muslims in a protest in front of the Metro Conventionn Centre in Toronto against Islamism, Islamist apologists, Sharia law and burqas.

They were protesting:

20,000 + Muslim youth were being [being] brainwashed by the 'Who is who' of the World Islamist Movement.

Sad thing is how few people were there. At least they're trying.

Secular Parents In Turkey Upset By Rise In Islamic Religious Schooling

More proof that Turkey is hiking the road to Islamization: there has been a huge increase in Islamic religious schooling. This has secular Turks very upset, considering the country was once proudly secular, until President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist AK party came into power.

Almost a million students are enrolled in “imam hatip” schools this year, up from just 65,000 in 2002 when Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted AK Party first came to power, he told the opening of one of the schools in Ankara last month.

The schools teach boys and girls separately, and give around 13 hours a week of Islamic instruction on top of the regular curriculum, including study of Arabic, the Quran and the life of the Prophet Mohammad.

“When there is no such thing as religious culture and moral education, serious social problems such as drug addiction and racism fill the gap,” Erdogan told a symposium on drug policy and public health earlier this year.

But in the drive to create more imam hatip places, parts of schools have been requisitioned, prompting protests from parents who want secular education for their children.

“We are against the governance of education by religious rules,” said Ilknur Birol, spokeswoman for the “Don’t Touch My School” initiative, an umbrella grouping for angry parents. “This system is not rooted in youth with a forward-looking perspective enlightened by science, but in a generation that values obedience.”

Filiz Gurlu, a parent at the Kadir Rezan Has school in Istanbul where two buildings were converted to imam hatip facilities, said primary students were now cramped in a single building.

“The library, laboratory, computer and music rooms were in the confiscated part, so the kids don’t have access anymore."

The rest here.

Tunisian Seculars Claim Victory Over Islamist Ennahda Party In Elections

According to exit polls and Nida Tunis (Tunisia's Call)- Tunisia's secular coalition may have won more parliamentary votes than the Ennahda party- the Islamists who won a majority post Arab Spring.

Votes are still being counted, and the results will not be known until Wednesday, but Tunisia's are voting for 217 members of parliament, and a prime minister.

Beji Caid Essebsi, the 87-year-old leader of Nida Tunis, said soon after polls closed that “there are positive signs we may be first” with a large margin of seats.

His prediction was backed by exit polls conducted by the private Tunisia-based Sigma Conseil institute, which gave his party 37 percent of the 217-seat body, with just 26 percent to Ennahda.

“Based on our observations, we are optimistic,” said Yusra Ghannouchi, a party spokeswoman, who described the Nida Tunis announcement as “irresponsible.”

Good news for Tunisia, if the votes do turn out in Nida Tunis' favor. However, they are predicting a unity government.

Ennahda (which ruled the roost post Arab Spring) seems to have learned its lesson, after they were forced to step down for trying to Islamize the country, and two secular leaders were murdered.

The rest here.

Former Iraqi MP Calls For A Secular Civil State To Defeat ISIS- Video

Former Iraqi MP Ayad Jamal al-Din (and Shiite cleric) claims the only way to defeat the Islamic State and other like-minded groups, is to establish a secular, civil state based on man-made laws not Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) which he says is followed by Sunnis and Shiites alike and is responsible for what happened to the Yazidis and others in northern Iraq. In his opinion, fiqh is more "dangerous than nuclear technology."

He calls ISIS just "the tip of the iceberg," with "extensions all over the world, not just Muslim countries."  He says that even in the U.S. there are many ISIS mosques, and thousands globally "preparing people to join ISIS." Daily they call for the reestablishment of the Caliphate. "School curricula that glorify the Caliphate, saying that the past of the Muslims is better than their present." He disagrees, citing all the modern wonders we avail ourselves of today.  He urges unity between all peoples of Iraq in order to defeat ISIS.

"We must not embellish things, and say that Islam is a religion of compassion, peace, and rose water, and that everything is fine. Brother, your Islamic history is full of wars, raids. From Tunisia alone, one million boys were taken as slaves to Damascus.  "Islam has been politicized and used as a sword."

Brave and enlightened man.

How long do you suppose he'll survive?

No Radicals Or Polygamists Allowed In The First Ever Matchmaking Agency In Tajikistan

No E-Harmony or Match.com for the Tajiki people.  However, there's a new matchmaking agency in the northern city of  Khujand, actually the first ever in Tajikistan, but no radicals or polygamists need apply.  It's targeted towards middle-class, divorced and widowed men and women in their 30s and 40s.

Arranged marriages for young ones are commonplace in the secular, predominately Islamic country, but no-one wants to arrange marriages for the divorced, so Shuhrat Ayomov stepped in to take care of that demographic. He took over a failed, bankrupt matchmaking company, and turned it around.  Yusuf and Zulaikha is doing gangbusters business arranging love matches for a mere $4.00 a pop, plus commission if the match turns into a marriage.

"We have received more than 200 applications from men and women looking for a potential spouse, and the number is growing as more people are hearing about our service," Ayomov says. "So far, eight people we introduced to each other have gotten married."

An electrical technician and nursery-school teacher, both divorced, were the first to get hitched a few weeks after their first date. Firdavs and the unveiled Nigora both have a child from their previous marriages.

 "In our traditional society you don't go out and socialize with the opposite sex when you're a divorced man in your mid-30s," Firdavs says.

It was Firdavs's grandmother who "heard some gossip about a matchmaking agency in the neighborhood" and encouraged him to check it out. "I didn't know what to expect and it didn't seem like a good idea at first," says Firdavs, speaking outside the electronics repair shop where he works in downtown Khujand.

As for the requirements for those looking for permanent love:

"We have three major requirements," Ayomov says. "An applicant has to be physically and mentally healthy. If they have some kind of disease, we tell them to get medical treatment first. We don't accept people affiliated with illegal extremist groups. And we don't accept applications from married men looking for a second wife, because polygamy is illegal."

But that's not the only requirement.

Clients are required to attend workshops on how to manage a household budget and how to deal with in-laws, and female applicants are offered cooking and sewing classes. "Most of our male clients are looking for a fairly good-looking, intelligent woman who is a good homemaker and has strong moral values," Ayomov says. "Female customers as a rule want a good husband who is financially capable of looking after his family."

Ayomov has four employees.  He predicts matchmaking will become the norm throughout Tajikistan, but no mention of taking it to the Internet.

Video: Why The Turks Are Protesting

In less than four minutes, this video pretty much sums up what the Turkish people are currently protesting.

It started off as a demonstration against turning Taksim Square and one of the few small sections of green in Istanbul- Gezi Park- into a 19th century Ottoman barracks which would house a shopping mall, possibly a museum and luxury apartments, but has escalated into something far bigger: anti-government protests. Dissatisfaction with the conservative ruling leadership which, under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has been attempting to turn secular Turkey into more of an Islamic state. The secular in that country are not happy about this.

The video outlines some of their gripes.

It doesn't help matters that protesters have been met with  violence.

The Dangers of Islamism: Documentary Film "Freedom, equality and the MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD"

If you haven't watched "Freedom, equality and the MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD" (Frihet, likhet og Det muslimske brorskap), you should.

This eye-opening Norwegian documentary- narrated by Walid al-Kubaisi- aired November, 2010. Al-Kubaisi is a Baghdad-born Norwegian/Iraqi writer who fled his country for Norway when Saddam Hussein and Ayatollah Khomeini were battling it out during the Iraq/Iran War in the 1980s. Al-Kubaisi, a secular Muslim, raises the alarm regarding the true goal of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB): to conquer Europe (and  the rest of the Western world) through the thing we hold most dear 'democracy'. The MB will achieve that goal not through violence but rather through double talk, freedom of religion and over-populating host countries. With much higher birth rates than Europeans, Muslims will become a majority in the not too distant future, and that is how they will influence politics.

Al-Kubaisi places full blame on the Muslim Brotherhood for changing " Islam from [a] religion to a political ideology." The documentary tracks al-Kubaisi to different countries as he speaks with various like-minded Arab/Muslim intellectuals, and several Islamists, who shed light on the end goal of the MB and how that will be achieved.

Some comments from some of those people:

The largest Islamist organization in the world, they have managed to deceive many Western politicians. "Their only aim is to control the world with Islam, and establish Islamic governments throughout the world."

Women in Egypt, between 1920 and 1970, dressed like their modern Western counterparts, with no hijab.

 "Why hijab? It is first and foremost a way to suppress women. Putting reins on her. You put her under a variety of  conservative and rigid attitudes- which contradicts her inherited values,- like tolerance openness,- ability to include, the modern, urge to explore. Both hijab and niqab is a way to suppress women,- through the way the raise new generations. If you control the way women dress- you control future generations.

In the film, he speaks with the now deceased reform-minded younger brother of the founder of the MB, Gamal al-Banna:

"The Muslim mind is rusty. It has done nothing the last thousand years. A thousand years ago the innovation ended. What does it mean? It means that you act without thinking. Muslims have become like monkeys, only imitating others. [snip] I once said: "Thank God that we walk on two legs.We could have crawled on all fours." It says in the Quran: "they are like cattle. No, they are even less aware of the right way to live." "There are those who truly are the mindless."

Al-Banna believes the hijab issue in Europe is an example of just how wrong Muslim thinking can be.  Al-Banna's own sister did not wear the hijab. It is not tradition-based, but a modern phenomenon.
Cairo University students in 1959 did not wear hijab. Or in 1978. In 1995 things started to change: 1/3 of the female students were wearing hijab. In 2004: 90%.  Al-Kubaisi blames that on MB indoctrination and influence over the years.  Al-Banna goes on to claim that there is nothing in the Quran that states a woman must cover her hair. Her breasts, yes, but not her hair. They agree that Muslims in Europe use the hijab to show they are different.

The hijab is being used as a tool. As one interviewee puts it: it's "the logo" of Islamism; the more veiled women there are, the more impact they have as a political entity.  Another man discusses the real reason women wear the hijab :

 " It's not just a sign, as the Jewish cap, it means "I am a Muslim woman. I'm better than you, you naked, Western woman! You follow Satan. While I follow the great Allah, since I'm covered."

He says they are, in essence, increasing their own sense of superiority.

Some even equate the Muslim Brotherhood with Nazism and fascism.

Al-Kubaisi is also highly critical of Tariq Ramadan, grandson of MB founder Hassan al-Banna who is touted as a liberal, moderate Muslim reformer, but who al-Kubaisi and others believe is not. The subject of Islamic duplicity is then discussed. In other words, when Islamists' talk of freedom and democracy, what they really mean is a democratic state with an "Islamic twist" including Shariah law.

"There is no Islamic authority that respects freedom, or democracy." 

The MB uses many organizations with "familiar names" as fronts in order to influence policies in Western countries.

Note: the documentary was filmed prior to the fall of Hosni Mubarak and the rise of the MB in Egypt, and Islamists elsewhere in that region. A haunting comment at the end of the film is made by Socialist Rafit al-Said, who was imprisoned for 14 years under Mubarak along with Mahdi Akef of the MB who was jailed for 17. They became friends while in prison. Of Akef, al-Said says:

"When he became leader, he came to me. In an attempt to open communication channels, etc. Once I whispered to him: "You will never rule this country, don't think about it." He answered: "You are naive. I don't want to be the leader. But when all the women wear hijab, and all men wear beards, they will plead with me to lead them."

Secular Parties In Egypt Claim U.S. Endorsed Muslim Brotherhood Candidate

Egypt's liberal and secular political parties claim the U.S. administration endorsed Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood in the recent Egyptian presidential election.

Is that at all surprising?

No.

Egyptian secular and liberal parties sounded dissatisfaction over the reported support of the US for Muslim Brotherhood's presidential candidate, Mohamed Mursi, but affirmed they would accept the results of the elections due to be announced Sunday.

During a press conference Saturday, representatives of the Free Egyptians Party, the Democratic Front Party, the Revolution Continues Coalition, the Tagammu Party and the Kifaya Movement opened fire on the Brotherhood, voicing suspicion over the group's sudden change of stance towards the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF).

The conference came after the Brotherhood announced Friday its concessions to revolutionary movements, guaranteeing their representation in both the government-to-be and the Constituent Assembly, in order to form a unified front against SCAF's alleged attempt to hold onto power.

The speakers, mostly parliamentarians, condemned the current scene in Tahrir Square, where tens of thousands of Islamists together with other revolutionary movements are staging a sit-in against SCAF's addendum to the March 2011 Constitutional Declaration, which gives the military council unprecedented authorities, and against the dissolution of parliament's lower house, the People's Assembly, describing the scene as "the monopolisation of the revolution."

"Those who are now attacking SCAF were the first to embrace an alliance with them," said Ahmed Said, a member and co-founder of the Free Egyptians Party, confirming that liberal parties have refused military rule since day one.

Said further blamed the current "dilemma" on the Brotherhood approved Constitutional Declaration announced by SCAF on 30 March 2011, that put elections before the drafting of a new constitution.

Speaking also at the press conference was politician and co-founder of the Democratic Front Party Osama Ghazali Harb who attacked the Muslim Brotherhood's attempt to gather people in Tahrir Square, describing it as "a behaviour that only reflects their fear and an attempt to manipulate the election result by force."

Ghazali Harb recently announced his support for Ahmed Shafiq in the elections second round run-off.

Several speakers at the press conference further condemned what they believe to be US intervention in Egypt's domestic affairs. Harb claimed the US was pressuring SCAF to hand over power to the Muslim Brotherhood.

"We refuse that the reason someone wins is because he is backed by the Americans," said Harb demanding that the Brotherhood should refuse US intervention.

"The revolution will continue until we break free of military rule," added parliamentarian Mustafa El-Gendy.

Founder of the Kifaya Movement, George Ishak, however, expressed his optimism over the coming period, adding that "a third political current, neither affiliated with religious groups nor the military, will pave its way."

Ishak claimed that an appeal against the Constituent Assembly will be looked at Tuesday, underlining the need to form a "real" constituent assembly that will replace the current "disappointing" Constitutional Declaration and write a constitution that "truly represents Egypt's identity."

Tajikistan Imams Warn Women About Temporary Marriages

At least Tajikistan is doing something right. The Sunni Muslim-majority (albeit secular) country is trying to educate its women about those bogus Islamic temporary marriages so popular in Iran. The ones used to legitimize sleeping around. Approved and legal in Iran, it's not legal in Tajikistan and the Mosques are trying to warn women about the inherent problems- like they have no legal rights to anything once that temporary marriage contract is over.
It's a relatively recent phenomena, and becoming more prevalent.

Recently, at a gathering following Friday Prayers on June 8, prominent Dushanbe Imam Eshon Abdul-Basir Saidov warned women against entering into temporary marriages, which religious leaders say have become a trend in Dushanbe over the past two or three years.

Echoing concerns voiced by his fellow imams, Saidov says dozens of Tajik women have fallen victim to "Iranian-style temporary marriage," known as mut'a.

Fairly widespread, and legally approved in predominantly Shia Iran, mut'a is a fixed-term marriage in Shi'a Islam which automatically dissolves upon the completion of a term agreed upon by both parties prior to the marriage.

Mut'a is not recognized by Sunni Islam, which is followed by the majority of Tajik Muslims.

Nevertheless, says Zurafo Rahmoni, the head of the Culture Department of Tajikistan's Islamic Revival Party, "nowadays we increasingly hear about Tajik women entering into mut'a matrimony with Iranian citizens living here."

Tajikistan has a sizeable Iranian community, the majority of which reside in Dushanbe and other major cities.

"These women are ultimately being left with no rights or protection both during and after their so-called marriages," Rahmoni says. "In all cases, the men eventually leave the country, leaving their temporary wives behind. The most painful part is that sometimes children are born into such unions."

Rahmoni blames the trend on the "dire" economic situation that prevails in Tajikistan.

"Many Tajik men have left the country for migrant work," he says. "There are foreign men coming to work in Tajikistan, and that's why the [mut'a] practice is on the rise in Tajikistan. Social and economic hardship are contributing factor to the rise of this phenomenon in recent years."

Imams have gone so far as to call it 'legalized prostitution', "un-Islamic" "contradictory to Tajik religious beliefs and traditions."

"Mut'a is an attempt to legalize prostitution," says Imam Saidov. "It shouldn't be recognized as a religious matrimony, and we consider it a sin."

In his Friday sermon, religious leader Saidov said Tajik women's "naivety and lack of awareness of their religious and civil rights" was to blame for their falling victim to temporary marriages.

Since these women are unfamiliar with temporary marriages, they are ignorant participants.

For Maya, a 25-year-old hairdresser from Dushanbe, her temporary marriage was initially "love at first sight" with a man from a foreign culture.

Maya, who declined to give her full name, said she met her former partner -- an Iranian businessman -- a year ago in a city restaurant popular with well-to-do foreigners.

A marriage proposal came "surprisingly swiftly," and Maya accepted. She says the religious marriage ceremony was conducted by a friend of the groom, with two others attending as witnesses.

"He mentioned something about short-term marriages, but I didn't quite understand it, I thought he was just being cautious," Maya admits. "But he left six months later. I live with my baby daughter. I don't get any support from him, financial or moral."

The women are being told to register those marriages with the secular authorities, and to sign a prenuptial agreement. That's pretty darn progressive or a Muslim country.

In addition to not recognizing religious marriages in any form, they also ban polygamy, SMS-text message divorces, and underage marriages. In fact, they want to raise the legal age to marry (for women) to 22. Currently, the legal age to marry is 18.