Spanish Imam Who Called On Muslim Men To Beat Their Wives Under Investigation

There are obviously some rather evolved members of a mosque in Terrassa, Spain,  because after the local imam encouraged the congregants to "discipline" misbehaving wives through 'physical and psychological violence',  the police are now investigating this unnamed Muslim cleric.

According to police, the imam is under investigation for

“disseminating discriminatory messages and violating the principle of equality and of women’s right to physical and moral integrity."

Apparently, he instructed men on the best way to punish their spouses and

“ provided concrete examples of the manner in which wives should be beaten, how to isolate them inside the family home and how to deny them sexual relations.”

I'd be surprised if the imam received anything more than a reprimand, but at least there are some in that community who aren't buying into the 'it says you should beat your wife in the Quran, so it's okay' mentality, and reporting it to the authorities.

This isn't the first controversy, however, regarding Muslims in that country. Catalonia, where Terrassa is located, has had other troubles with its large Muslim immigrant population.  The last controversy was in Lerida, where dogs were turning up poisoned, and in 2010 an imam was charged for harassing a woman for not wearing a veil.

UPDATE 3/7

Moroccan, Abdeslam Laaroussi, was arrested for promoting violence against women.

According to police, Laaroussi told his followers that it was best to punch women or use a stick on different parts of their bodies "without breaking their bones or making them bleed".

The Catalan police force, subpoenaed the man to give a statement, after complaints were filed that he was trying to encourage gender violence.

While he refused to give a statement, he was charged after investigators found that his speeches and sermons contained elements that promote violence and discrimination.

Way to go, Catalonia! Some jail time will do the oaf some good.

Update- H/T Islam in Europe

Iraqi Women Want Equal Or Tougher Laws For Men In 'Honor Killings'

Gender equality in the Arab/Middle Eastern world is pretty much non-existent. Whether rooted in religion or culture, or a combination of both, females have never fared well in that region, especially when it comes to the law. So, some Iraqi women activists are trying to change that.

A group of female activists, headed by the Minister of State for Women’s Affairs Ibtihal al-Zaidi (al-Maliki's only female cabinet member), are trying to change Article 409 of Iraq's Penal Code. According to Zaidi, Article 409, which is the law applicable to 'honor killings', unfairly favors men. Even though killing someone can land the murderer the death penalty, 'honor killings' are handled differently.  For that, you just get jail time, but women will spend far more time in prison than men.

She [Zaidi] recounted the story of a 12-year-old Iraqi girl who killed her father after she saw him committing adultery. She was sentenced to 15 years in jail.

“If a man saw one of his female dependents committing adultery, how would he be punished? Six months and he’ll get out."

“A woman, even a 12-year-old, got 15 years in jail for an act she committed out of fear and horror of what she saw.

“Definitely, we have brought up this issue and we asked ‘where is the fairness and justice?’. Here the sentence for a woman differs from a man’s. Fairness and equality is required in this issue,” Zaidi told Reuters in an interview on Sunday.

Zaidi said she was planning to present a recommendation to the cabinet to modify Article 409 to require the same sentence for male and female killers. But she believes any proposed changes to the law are likely to provoke a “strong reaction”.

“At the end of the day, we are a Middle Eastern culture where tribal norms dictate affairs,” said Zaidi, an Arabic linguist and independent member of Maliki’s ruling coalition.“We will require some time before these recommendations turn into law ... there needs to be social awareness about this issue.”

As it stands with Article 409 if a man “surprises his wife or one of his female dependents (who is) in a state of adultery or finds her in bed with a partner and kills her immediately, or kills one of them”, he'll get a max of 3 years.


She's also trying to deal with the terrible problem of domestic violence in Iraq.  Although official estimates claim 20 percent of women are abused, Sundus Abbas of  the women's rights organization 'Women's Leadership Institute', believes it's closer to a whopping 73 percent. Unlike Zaidi,  Abbas has a different perspective on Article 409.

Zaidi’s proposed changes to the honor killing law fail to address the issue, she said. Giving female killers the same rights as male killers would still provide “legal cover for violence against women”.

“It is not correct to give the husband the right to kill his wife under this pretext and to give the same right to the wife in the same provision,” she told Reuters.

“I believe (Article 409) must be abolished and instead have a law that punishes a crime regardless of the reason.”

Good luck with that. Changing the mindset of  a religiously conservative, tribal mentality, patriarchal society will take a lot more than abolishing or toughening laws, but at least they're making the effort.

Torture In Syrian Military Hospitals By Doctors

Patients in Syrian military hospitals are allegedly being tortured by those who have sworn to save lives.

The Hippocratic Oath, for those in the medical profession, was replaced (for the most part) with the Declaration of Geneva. The oath declares:

I solemnly pledge to consecrate my life to the service of humanity;
I will give to my teachers the respect and gratitude that is their due;
I will practice my profession with conscience and dignity;
The health of my patient will be my first consideration;
I will respect the secrets that are confided in me, even after the patient has died;
I will maintain by all the means in my power, the honor and the noble traditions of the medical profession;
My colleagues will be my sisters and brothers;
I will not permit considerations of age, disease or disability, creed, ethnic origin, gender, nationality, political affiliation, race, sexual orientation, social standing or any other factor to intervene between my duty and my patient;
I will maintain the utmost respect for human life;
I will not use my medical knowledge to violate human rights and civil liberties, even under threat;
I make these promises solemnly, freely and upon my honor.

But according to a worker at the military hospital in Homs, doctors aren't trying to save the lives of the many wounded that the government demands are to be brought there, they are actually torturing the men, most of whom are civilians and many not even anti-regime protesters.  They are being blindfolded, chained to their beds and severely beaten. Concerned at their treatment, over several months the employee videotaped some of the patients and handed over the tape to a French photojournalist who was able to smuggle it out. After his pleas to stop the mistreatment were ignored, the worker claims he was labeled a "traitor",  and finally quit.  In an interview with the French journalist "Mani',  he told him

‘I have seen detainees being tortured by electrocution, whipping, beating with batons, and by breaking their legs. They twist the feet until the leg breaks. They perform operations without anaesthetics. I saw them slamming detainees’ heads against walls. Sometimes they have to amputate limbs and they go gangrenous because they don’t prescribe antibiotics,’ he said.

And it wasn't just the military medical personnel that abused the patients, he saw civilian doctors and staff participate as well, and handed over the names of everyone who was complicit in the torture.
This is apparently the first actual evidence of torture that  many have claimed is rampant, but were unable to provide proof of.  'Mani' claims:

‘Ordinary Syrians now consider it too dangerous to go to state-run hospitals if they’re injured. Most opt for hopelessly under-equipped makeshift backstreet clinics.

‘I met a 15-year-old boy who had been shot in the leg by a sniper. His father told me he was too afraid to bring his son to hospital. Even though he was in danger of losing his leg, the boy was treated in his own home by a nurse.’

According to the worker:

Many of those injured, he said, were kept alive so they could be interrogated.
Others were admitted to the hospital simply to revive them between torture sessions. ‘Some of the detainees used to be taken from the hospital to the prison. They’d bring them back either dead or with a brain haemorrhage.

‘The youngest I saw was 14 or 15 years old. Many detainees’ names were removed from emergency admissions lists so that no one would know where they were. There were no names. Just numbers.’

Anything to stay in power.

More photos at DailyMail.UK

Libyans Desecrate Gravestones Of British Soldiers Over Afghanistan Quran Burnings

In retaliation for the few Qurans that were inadvertently burned in Afghanistan by U.S. soldiers, Libyan thugs purposely smashed and desecrated the gravestones of Jewish and Christian British (and Allied) soldiers in the Benghazi Military Cemetery. Yes, those same Libyans who we helped during the Arab Spring and who have consequently chosen the Islamist route for their country, are as disrespectful, intolerant and violent as their extremist Muslim brothers in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere.

Talk about gratitude.  What a waste of time.

Joke of the day: The Taliban TV Guide

Found this on Facebook. It's obviously been around for a while, given the TV series that are now no longer airing, but it's still good for a chuckle or two. 

Someone should come up with something more contemporary.

The Taliban TV Guide

MONDAYS
8:00 Husseinfeld
8:30 Mad About Everything
9:00 Monday Night Stoning
9:30 Win Bin Laden's Money
10:00 Eye for an Eye Witness News


TUESDAYS
8:00 Wheel of Terror and Fortune
8:30 The Price is Right if Osama Says It's Right
9:00 Children are Forbidden from Saying the Darndest Things
9:30 Afganistan's Wackiest Public Execution Bloopers
10:00 My Mullah the Car


WEDNESDAYS
8:00 Beat The Press
8:30 Whose Jihad Is It Anyway?
9:00 Married With 139 Children
9:30 Just Shoot Everything
10:00 Veil Watch


THURSDAYS
8:00 Osama and Grace
8:30 Who Wants to Marry a Terrorist Millionaire?
9:00 Veronica's Closet Full of Long, Black, Shapeless Dresses and Veils
9:30 Sponge Bob Square Turban
10:00 My Favorite Martyr


FRIDAYS
8:00 Judge Omar
8:30 TeleTalibans
9:00 Captured Taliban Soldiers Say the Darndest Things
9:30 Cave and Garden Television
10:00 Allah McBeal


SATURDAYS
8:00 Death or No Deal
8:30 No Sex in the City
9:00 Supernatural Djins
9:30 Being Inhuman
10:00 The Sharmutas


SUNDAYS
8:00 koranimal Minds
8:30 Sunday Night Beheadings
9:00 Law & Order - koranimal Intent
9:30 Arselifter Roadshow
10:00 Kabul 5-0

 

Moroccan Man Gets 6 Months In Jail For Raising Israeli Flag Over His Home

42-year-old Moroccan Mohammed Jadidi had a plan to get the authorities to reconnect his water and electricity which had been switched off: so he decided to paint the Israeli flag on a piece of white cloth and hoist it over his home to get their attention, but all it got him was 6 months in jail.  The house,

...which belonged to the Auxiliary Forces and occupied by his family since the death of his father, who was part of the paramilitary forces.

Morocco’s Auxiliary Forces supplement the military, gendarmerie and the police when needed.

Jadidi was arrested last Monday and was charged with “sacrilege” through “undermining the national flag.”

His mother had appeared on a video circulated on Moroccan websites appealing King Mohammad VI to release her son. She said he only raised the Israeli flag to attract the attention of the senior officials to look into the conditions of his family.

The local Rif Association for Human Rights blasted the court’s decision as baseless and said there was nothing in raising a foreign flag that undermines the national flag.

Only in a Muslim country.

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.

Conservative Icon Andrew Breitbart Passes Away At 43

What a shocker.  Conservative icon, Andrew Breitbart, passed away early this morning at age 43.  According to Breitbart's editor-in-chief, Joel B. Pollak, he died of natural causes  after collapsing while on a walk in Brentwood yesterday. He leaves behind his wife, Susannah Bean, and four children.

Not without controversy, he was vilified by the left, and despicable comments about his death on left-wing blogs is a testament to that unbridled hatred.

He was most noted for his:

The undercover ACORN videos
The Shirley Sherrod resignation
The Anthony Weiner sexting scandal

He was also unustly criticized by some fellow conservatives for welcoming a gay conservative group GOProud to CPAC. 

Although I didn't approve of  his use of selective editing to make a point- especially in the Sherrod scandal (that's a tactic the left uses), he was an admirable, powerful voice for conservatism. He will be sorely missed.

The new conclusion from his book "Righteous Indignation":

I love my job. I love fighting for what I believe in. I love having fun while doing it. I love reporting stories that the Complex refuses to report. I love fighting back, I love finding allies, and—famously—I enjoy making enemies.

Three years ago, I was mostly a behind-the-scenes guy who linked to stuff on a very popular website. I always wondered what it would be like to enter the public realm to fight for what I believe in. I’ve lost friends, perhaps dozens. But I’ve gained hundreds, thousands—who knows?—of allies. At the end of the day, I can look at myself in the mirror, and I sleep very well at night.

RIP Andrew.