Pakistan Wants U.N. Campaign To Counter Religious Defamation

Imran Khan, who used to be a cricket player and philanthropist but is now Pakistan's 22nd Prime Minister, seems to have his heart set on dragging the rest of the world into Pakistan's blasphemy hell. Pakistan still has barbaric blasphemy laws with the death penalty as punishment. And if the country's laws don't get you, vigilante hard-line Muslims will. Politicians have been killed for trying to bring Pakistan into the 21st century. In 2011, Punjabi governor Salmaan Taseer was murdered by his bodyguard for speaking out against blasphemy laws. His killer was hailed a hero. Now his son is a target of Islamists. And all it takes is for someone with a grudge to claim you have blasphemed. Mobs have taken the law into their own hands before it even gets to the court, like this poor Christian couple who were beaten to death for allegedly desecrating a Quran.

Khan now wants the U.N. to institute a global initiative against defaming religions. We know that really means Islam.

Speaking at the Eighth Global Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilization, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN, Maleeha Lodhi, said the premier had made a major announcement to counter Islamophobia and incitement to hatred being witnessed in some parts of the world.

“Hate narratives are spreading in several parts of the world; Islamophobia is on the rise and diversity is being seen not as a source of enrichment but as a threat, and politics of fear seem to be replacing politics of hope,” she asserted

So basically this post would be subject to whatever initiative they came up with. In other words, criticisim of blasphemy laws could get people in trouble.

Scary times ahead.

More on Tribune.pk

Head of Tunisia's Islamist Ennahda Wants Blogger Who Exposed His Son-In-Law's Affair Flogged

The daddy-in-law of Tunisia's Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem, whose embezzlement of public funds and extramarital affair were exposed by a female blogger, wants those charged with slander flogged. In other words, flog that blogger. Daddy-in-law also happens to be Rachid Ghannouchi, the leader of the Islamist Ennahda Party that now rules Tunisia with an overwhelming majority, so he could get his way.

The Islamist leader said during a Friday sermon that the content published by Tunisian blogger Olfa Riahi reflects “values of hypocrites” punishable according to the Shariah law.

Female blogger Riahi had published what she said were authentic documents accusing Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem of having paid for nights he spent with a woman in Sheraton hotel from the government’s coffers.

Riahi said the hotel receipts and billing information she obtained beat the names of the minister and his alleged mistress. In an interview with alchourouk.com, Riahi said it took her two and half months to verify the authenticity of the documents and trace the bill payments.

“I have the bank account of the foreign ministry and I am certain the documents are authentic,” calling on the authorities to open a probe into the “scandal.”

The minister appeared in the state television dismissing the allegations as part of a plot against his Islamist government. He said he expects similar accusations to be leveled against other ministers.

But he admitted staying at the Sheraton hotel “because he does not own a house in the capital and because the hotel was near his office.” He also admitted that the woman mentioned in Riahi’s documents was true, but said she was a “relative” who came to see him at the hotel.

Mondir Thabet, a Tunisian political analyst said Ghannouchi’s statement was a rejection of the country’s civilian status and “a clear call for imposing Shariah.”

Ziad Krichan, editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper “al-Maghrib” said Ghannouchi’s call reflects the Islamists unable to separate religion from politics.

Of course, the first thing Islamists do is claim that any accusations of corruption are just evil plots to defame their party, whereas it turns out their pious posteriors are simply just as corrupt as other politicians.

Chechnya's Kadyrov Condones 'Honor Killings'

The one thing that can be said for communist rule under the Soviets was the fact that they managed to maintain control over the Islamist elements in their midst. No forced veils for women, no gender separation, women had equal rights. Yes, there were other major issues regarding lack of freedom (including religious), but that lack was not imposed by religion.  But as is happening in Africa and the Middle East, the rise of hardline Islam in Muslim-majority countries that used to be secular, like Chechnya (when it was part of the former Soviet Union),  is becoming problematic.

In fact, over the past five years, things have gotten dire for women in Chechnya under the leadership of President Ramzan Kadyrov, whose Mufti, former pro-separatist father, Akhmad Kadyrov, was president for a year until he was blown up in 2004. Women are being forced to wear the hijab (veil), there is government support for polygamy, alcohol is banned and now the Chechen government has formally condoned 'honor killings' against women. In fact they are advocating it. Women are turning up dead all over Chechnya, and Kadyrov's response: they had "loose morals" and so they deserved to die. That's because Kadyrov believes women should remain barefoot and pregnant (a typical fundamentalist Muslim belief) since women are the property of their husbands.
According to Human Rights Watch (HRW) Kadyrov has been quoted as saying:

I have the right to criticize my wife. She doesn’t [have the right to criticize me]. With us [in Chechen society], a wife is a housewife. A woman should know her place. A woman should give her love to us [men]… She would be [man’s] property. And the man is the owner. Here, if a woman does not behave properly, her husband, father, and brother are responsible. According to our tradition, if a woman fools around, her family members kill her… That’s how it happens, a brother kills his sister or a husband kills his wife… As a president, I cannot allow for them to kill. So, let women not wear shorts…

Here in Chechnya if a woman is running around, if a man is running around with her, then the both of them are killed. According to the information available, there was a woman who was “working” with the killed [women] – she wanted to take them away from the [Chechen] Republic, [she] was in the process of obtaining travel passports for them in order to sell them to brothels [abroad]. It’s being said that the women’s relatives [found out and] killed them… I’m simply talking about [our] customs. Ask anyone, even the youngest boy, “What are you gonna do if your sister starts running around?” Anyone will tell you, “I’ll kill her!”

He has also been quoted as saying he wants to make Chechnya “more Islamic than the Islamists.”

Even though Kadyrov is credited with bringing some stability to Chechnya, and was actually nominated by Vladimir Putin for president, he obviously has no respect for Russian law.

Some observers say Mr. Kadyrov’s attempt to impose Islamic law violates the Russian Constitution, which guarantees equal rights for women and a separation of church and state.

“We are a traditional, conservative society, but the government has gone overboard,” said Lipkhan Bazaeva, head of the Women's Dignity Center, a nongovernmental organization promoting women’s rights in Grozny. “They are declaring unacceptable limits on women — as an individual, she has no rights even if her husband beats her, despite Russian laws.”

And the human rights violations that are rampant in Chechnya will remain so, since most activists are too afraid to do anything about it after Natasha Estemirova was murdered.

“You hear about these cases almost every day,” said a local human rights defender, who asked that her name not be used out of fear for her safety. “It is hard for me to investigate this topic, yet I worked on it with [human rights activist] Natasha [Estemirova] for a while. But, I can’t anymore. I am too scared now. I’ve almost given up, really.”

Estemirova, who angered Chechen authorities with reports of torture, abductions and extrajudicial killings, was found in the woods in 2009 in the neighboring region of Ingushetia with gunshot wounds to the head and chest. Her killer or killers have not been found.

But it hasn't stopped the young ones from flouting the strict rules.

Milana, a ninth-grader in Grozny, wears thick eyeliner, dons tight miniskirts, smokes cigarettes and dates boys: all things a proper Muslim girl is forbidden to do in Chechnya.

She said she has heard it from her father countless times: A Chechen girl who loses her virginity before marriage is a prostitute, and Allah will punish her.

“If only my parents knew some of the things I did,” she said with a giggle. “My parents are too strict with me, but it is like that here.”

Analysts say dating can be an escape for teenagers such as Milana who often live double lives.

“It is a great temptation to break from tradition when they are away from their family, said Ms. Bazaeva. “They have a good time, but it is not without consequences, not in Chechnya.”

Some kids marry early to get around the strict rules, like 20-year-old Abu-Khadzh Idrisov who got married at age 14 so he could have sex. Divorced a year later, he remarried at 18 to a girl he kidnapped- a common tradition in Pakistan.

He spotted his future wife at a park in Grozny and, with the help of his friends, kidnapped her.

“When I married her, I honestly knew only two things: her name and the school she studied at. We talked together once,” he recalled. “But we have traditions and extremely strict rules in Chechnya, and you can’t just ignore them. I carry my family’s name, and if I tarnish it, I will have problems.”

I suppose it's easy for a family belonging to a religion that encourages having lots of babies to pop off one of its own. What's the loss of one or two children when they probably have plenty more.

Source: Washington Times

Divorce Islamic Style: Egyptian Divorce Rates Spike With Women's Divorce Law (khula)

There are state laws governing divorce in this country and it can be very complicated, especially with children involved. This is a good thing considering the divorce rates have increased substantially over the past 50 plus years.  And depending on the reasons for the dissolution of a marriage, and the competence of the  lawyers involved, men and women  are treated fairly equally.  Not so for Muslims.  As with most things in Islam, the woman does not fare as well as the man.  If  a Muslim man wants to divorce his wife, he simply has to give talaq and tell her "I divorce you", as long as she's not unclean (i.e. menstruating). There is a three stage process they are supposed  to go through, with a short waiting period in between, but many men out of anger will perform triple talaq without bothering to wait, and the woman is out on the streets. Text-messaging and emailing triple talaq has become so commonplace, some countries like Tajikistan have actually banned it.

Although women are supposed to be allowed to ask for a divorce (khula), it's not quite the same thing.  Unlike men who have very little obligations when they divorce, women are forced to give back everything.  And in countries like Egypt, wives were banned from seeking a divorce until 2000.  Now that it is so easy for both parties to part ways, Egypt's divorce rates have skyrocketed. And the ones suffering the most are the children.


If it's true that divorce cases have increased with the "khula" law, that's a pretty damning indictment against the Egyptian male if so many women are willing to leave their husbands with virtually nothing.
Of course, not only are the women being blamed (as they usually are), fingers are being pointed at the evil West:

According to the statistics presented in the conference, the unconditional divorce law, which allows the woman to end the marriage provided that she waives her financial rights, has contributed to a remarkable hike in divorce rates in Egypt.



With the “khula” law, divorce cases have amounted to 5.4 million and around seven million children ended up in orphanages or in the streets especially after one of the parents or both remarry, said Sameh Mekhlef, head of the Association for the Rescue of the Egyptian family and member of the Egyptian Family coalition.

“We should also steer away from Western values that have a negative effect on the unity of the family and that promote ideas which are strange to our society."

Right.  Islamic values are so much more egalitarian and family friendly.  I think Mekhlef should take a deep, hard look at why women are so willing to leave their husbands if the Muslim life is so perfect.  It has far more to do with the oppression and abuse of women under Islam, than Western values.

Afghan Widow and Daughter Stoned To Death For Adultery

Nothing has changed much in Afghanistan. Women are still severely oppressed, and as long as the Taliban remain there, life will continue to be hell for them. 

The latest atrocity:  According to Bilal Sarwary of the BBC, a young widow and her daughter were stoned and then shot to death after the mother was accused of "moral deviation and adultery"  in Ghazni province. And this all happened within earshot of

..  the governor's office, the police chief's office and a Western-backed Provincial Reconstruction Team.

According to an official, the woman and her daughter were dragged into the yard, but no-one bothered to help or call the police in time to save them. That's probably because the neighbours were either too afraid to intervene, or the ones who reported the woman to the Taliban in the first place; since there have been fatwas issued by the Taliban asking people to tattle on adulterers. But was she even guilty of adultery? With Shariah law, all it takes is a jealous neighbour to falsely claim someone has done something wrong and they can end up dead. That's justice Shariah-style. And how could she be guilty of adultery if she was a widow?

And what about the daughter- what did that young girl do to deserve to die?

Even though the Taliban is not in control of the Afghan government, they still hold sway over much of the country.  Sarwary says of Ghazni:

There are 18 districts in Ghazni. Seven are in government control. In 11 the government only exists inside the district headquarters.


In much of the region, the Taliban are taxing people and banning girls from schools. Joint weddings have been banned - the bride and groom are not allowed to be together as it is thought the woman makes too much noise walking to the wedding hall, disturbing the men.


The Taliban are killing and imprisoning people who work for the government. They control all of the major roads. Drivers are regularly beaten. There are instances where district officials have been beheaded. The Taliban have banned mobile phones, video cameras and music apart from Taliban radio stations playing hypnotic chants.

I don't hold much hope for that country, especially when we pull out.

U.N. Report Claims Secret Executions Rampant In Iran

China and Iran are battling it out for top honors in the amount of state sponsored executions per annum.  According to Human Rights Watch in 2010 the Islamic Republic of Iran executed 388 people, Amnesty International claims it was only 252. That, of course, doesn't account for all those that no-one is aware of, and apparently there are plenty.

The United Nations just released a report about an increase in human rights abuses in Iran [like this is something new] including a huge surge in the amount of executions.  It also asserts that Iran has been executing people on the q.t. [also not a surprise.]

Highlighting a jail in Mashhad, in eastern Iran, the report said "authorities reportedly conducted more than 300 secret executions at Vakilabad prison in 2010".


"It has also been reported that at least 146 secret executions have taken place to date in 2011," it said.


"Vakilabad officials, in violation of Iranian law, allegedly carried out the executions without the knowledge or presence of the inmates' lawyers or families and without prior notification to those executed."

The 'official' count  to date (for 2011) is a mere 200.  Who knows how many more have actually been executed. And January was a busy month for them with 83 executed, 3 of whom were political prisoners.

Ahmed Shaheed, the one responsible for the UN report also said that:

four per cent of executions stipulated no charges, that 100 juveniles were on death row, and that more than 100 executions this year alone were for drug-related offences.

China might lead the world in executions (no-one knows the exact number but it's estimated to be in the thousands), but Iran wins hands down for the amount of juveniles who have been executed every year and currently waiting their turn.

With Shariah law, Iranians can receive the death penalty for everything from drug trafficking to adultery to political dissidence  to homosexuality. Oh wait, there are no homosexuals in Iran.

And Iran calls the U.S. the Great Satan.

Click for video.

Iran's National Sport- Public Hangings

When I think of public executions I think of past centuries, certainly not something a civilized society in the 21st century would participate in. But Iran still hangs people in public squares, and they're attended by huge crowds.

In, fact, those hangings are a good time for daddies to bond with their kiddies.

And it provides great photo ops. The official Iranian Fars News Agency posted 25 of those gruesome pictures on their website for posterity. And check out the spectators' cell phones and point and shoots. 

The 'Iranian Human Rights' website claims that public executions have surged over the past few months and that

Iranian authorities announce the executions and broadcast them through the state media.

They've also called on the United Nations to help end public executions.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson of IHR, asked the international community to act immediately in order to stop these barbaric acts. He said: Public executions are not only inhumane and degrading for those executed, but also for those watching including the children". He added: "We ask the UN to take serious steps in order to put an end on this inhumane and brutalizing punishment".

 Of course, the useless U.N. is more interested in censuring Israel and promoting events like Durban 111, than dealing with barbaric practices that still exist in so many countries with Sharia law, like public hangings and stonings. Don't expect them to do anything about it!  And with Iran's track record for being the world's leader as far as executing people goes, I'm sure they won't lose that title any time soon.