"Women Are Un-Islamic" Claims Pakistan's Council of Islamic Ideology?

Legitimate mainstream news websites, bloggers and readers often mistake articles posted by fake/satire sites like The Onion and The Daily Currant as truth. I know I've almost been suckered into believing some.  But if it's a little too outrageous, I google. Of course, there are plenty of legitimately outrageous stories from the Middle East and environs that, as unbelievable as they are, turn out to be legit, so one never knows.

So, when I saw someone on Facebook post a link to an article on Pakistan Today titled "Council of Islamic Ideology declares women’s existence anti-Islamic" I checked it out and, yes, Pakistan has its very own satire news site. Who would have thought.

Islamabad - Sharia Correspondent: The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) concluded their 192nd meeting on Thursday with the ruling that women are un-Islamic and that their mere existence contradicted Sharia and the will of Allah. As the meeting concluded CII Chairman Maulana Muhammad Khan Shirani noted that women by existing defied the laws of nature, and to protect Islam and the Sharia women should be forced to stop existing as soon as possible. The announcement comes a couple of days after CII’s 191st meeting where they dubbed laws related to minimum marriage age to be un-Islamic.

After declaring women to be un-Islamic, Shirani explained that there were actually two kinds of women – haraam and makrooh. “We can divide all women in the world into two distinct categories: those who are haraam and those who are makrooh. Now the difference between haraam and makrooh is that the former is categorically forbidden while the latter is really really disliked,” Shirani said.

The rest here.  It's pretty darn funny.

Iran Creates Alternative To Un-Islamic YouTube

There have been several sites, that I know of, that have created an alternative to YouTube, some have come and gone, a few are still around, now Iran is joining the ranks and has created its very own, brand spanking new version called Mehr. Iran's reason, as with all things Internet, YouTube is too un-Islamic.

The site, which today took forever to access, will exclusively feature videos in Farsi since the site is exclusively geared towards Persian-speaking viewers.

“From now on, people can upload their short films on the website and access (IRIB) produced material,” said IRIB deputy chief Lotfollah Siahkali.

A Facebook page dedicated to Mehr is providing links to some of its content, including music clips produced in Iran.

Iran has censored (and sometimes blocked) YouTube for the past three years, the latest was in  response to the anti-Islam film "Innocence of Muslims."  YouTube isn't the only website that Iran runs  scared of.

It has also been trying to stop its population accessing a number of foreign websites authorities see as undermining the Islamic regime, including popular social networking sites Facebook and Twitter, as well as the online pages of many Western media outlets, blogs, and pornographic hubs.

[Snip] 

The announcement came amid first steps by the Islamic republic to establish a walled-off national intranet separate from the worldwide Internet.

Iran is working on rolling out its national intranet that it says will be clean of un-Islamic content. Authorities claim the “National Internet” would not cut access to the Internet.

Regardless of Iran's attempts at controlling its populace, those who want access to the world wide web will continue to access the Internet through software work-arounds like Virtual Private Network (VPN), which is illegal in Iran.

Afghan Woman Shot 9 Times By Taliban For Adultery- Video UPDATE

More from the barbaric Taliban in Afghanistan where a woman is simply another piece of property to be disposed of at will. The only way women will be treated as humans rather than animals is if the Taliban and all of their ilk are wiped off the face of this earth, which sadly will never happen.

The story: One woman, two Taliban commanders fighting over her, so they kill her instead claiming adultery. She had allegedly been involved with both the men, either romantically or through rape. She was shot nine times while the 150 or so men watching the execution cheered on saying it was the will of Allah .

Sickening.

A shot rings out, but the burqa-clad woman sitting on the rocky ground does not respond.

The man pointing a rifle at her from a few feet away lets loose another round, but still there is no reaction.

He fires a third shot, and finally the woman slumps backwards.

But the man fires another shot.

And another. And another.

Nine shots in all.

Around him, dozens of men on a hillside cheer: "God is great!"

Officials in Afghanistan, where the amateur video was filmed, believe the woman was executed because two Taliban commanders had a dispute over her, according to the governor of the province where the killing took place.

Both apparently had some kind of relationship with the woman, said Parwan province governor Abdul Basir Salangi.

"In order to save face," they accused her of adultery, Salangi said.

Then they "faked a court to decide about the fate of this woman and in one hour, they executed the woman," he added.

Both Taliban commanders were subsequently killed by a third Taliban commander, Salangi said.

"We went there to investigate and we are still looking for people who were involved in this brutal act," he said.

It is not clear from the video when it was filmed.

The killing took place in the village of Qimchok, not far north of the capital Kabul.

Lawmaker Fawzia Koofi called it a huge backward step for women's issues in Afghanistan.

"I think we will have to do something serious about this, we will have to do something as women, but also as human beings," she said. "She didn't even say one word to defend herself."

Koofi wept on Saturday as she watched the video of the execution.

There were the usual obligatory condemnations, including  NATO and the U.S., but the world is still willing to pledge money to a country that has seen a tremendous increase in violence against women and does absolutely nothing about it.

Read the rest here.

See the news video report here.

UPDATE:
The victim was 22-year-old Najiba, and Afghans are now calling the extra-judicial execution "Un-Islamic", and that the trial and execution were not per Shariah law guidelines.

In a case of adultery, there must be four witnesses, and these witnesses must testify that they actually saw the woman and a man together engaged in sexual intercourse," he said. "The judge should take all of this testimony to another judge and put all the evidence on the table. It is the second judge who checks that all of these procedures were done properly. "The second judge must then take all of the evidence to the higher Shari'a Supreme Court. The accused has the right to appeal against the verdicts issued by the lower courts. It is the Shari'a Supreme Court that makes the decision on the punishment."

Read more here.

Bye Bye Barbie and Ken- Iran Cracks Down On Sale of Un-Islamic Barbie Dolls

Barbie dolls have been banned in Iran since 1996, not because oftheir unrealistic, anorexic, cinch-waisted, long-legged, blond-headed perfection but because they represent Western culture in all its hated glory.

But that fatwa hasn't stopped shop owners from selling those evil dolls in their stores. The mullahs might find Barbie and Ken dolls distasteful, but the average Iranian is just as taken with the cultural icons as people in the West. But the Iranian Jane-Q might have a harder time finding Barbie as a result of a recent crackdown by the Iranian morality police.

Iran’s morality police are cracking down on the sale of Barbie dolls to protect the public from what they see as pernicious western culture eroding Islamic values, shopkeepers said on Monday.

As the West imposes the toughest ever sanctions on Iran and tensions rise over its nuclear program, inside the country the Barbie ban is part of what the government calls a “soft war” against decadent cultural influences.

“About three weeks ago the morality police came to our shop, asking us to remove all the Barbies,” said a shopkeeper in a toy store in northern Tehran.

As a replacement for the un-Islamic Barbie and Ken, the Iranian government in 2002 approved of Sara and Dara: plump, modestly and traditionally dressed female and male dolls that were deemed kosher for Iranian consumption. 

But that hasn't quite work out as planned, because people still want their Barbies.

“My daughter prefers Barbies. She says Sara and Dara are ugly and fat,” said Farnaz, a 38-year-old mother, adding that she could not find Barbie cartoon DVDs because she was told they were also banned from public sale.

Though they were openly sold in shops in spite of the ban, the Iranian government's latest Barbie clampdown has the shop owners scuttling to hide those harbingers of Western cultural decadence behind Iranian-sanctioned toys.

Pointing to a doll covered in black long veil, a 40-year-old Tehran toy shop manager said: “We still sell Barbies, but secretly and put these in the window to make the police think we are just selling these kinds of dolls.”

I wonder if Barbie wore a veil would she be state-approved? 

Oh, and remember that U.S. spy drone that Iran claims it allegedly shot down, although there is debate as to whether it actually crash landed?  Replicas available in a slew of different colors will be available in toy stores soon.

Iranian Cleric Claims Facebook Is Un-Islamic and Membership a Sin

According to Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi-Golpaygani, a senior Iranian cleric, Facebook is un-Islamic, because, you know, they had the internet back in Mohammad's time and the Quran specifically states that the social networking empire was haram (forbidden).  Or maybe it's in the hadiths somewhere. At any rate it's a no-no.

And since he deems it un-Islamic to own a Facebook page, it's therefore a sin:

"Basically, going to any website which propagates immoralities and could weaken the religious belief is un-Islamic and not allowed, and membership in it is therefore haram (a sin)," the ayatollah replied.

"Only the use of websites propagating religious criteria and not leading to any kind of ethical immoralities is of no problem," he added.

As of October last year, the official estimate of FB users was 17 million, though that figure is probably inaccurate given the fact that many young Iranians have found ways to get around the severe restrictions placed on internet use in that country. 

Over 5 million websites are reportedly blocked in Iran, but Iranians use proxy software and virtual private networks (VPN) to access them.

Iranian officials have, for over three decades, been waging what they call a "battle against the invasion of Western culture."

This has led to blockades of "immoral" internet sites and banned Western music and movies. However, pirated versions of those are easily available on the black market.

Where there's a will, as they say.

So, with a population of about 70 million people, approximately 25% or so of Iranians are sinners.