The Ghettos of Brussels

A couple of weeks ago the leader of the Dutch green party spoke critically of how Islam is affecting her multicultraul neighborhood. Now it's the turn of a Flemish parliament member for the Groen! party, Luckas Vander Taelen, who wrote an editorial in De Staandard about the situation in his own neighborhood.

.... I live next to a neighborhood in Vorst, from the Merodestraat to the Brussels-South station (Gare du Midi/Zuidstation), that even with the most multicultural bias you can't describe as anything but a ghetto.

My daughter long ago gave on on going into that neighborhood. For she's too often just called many bad things. I bike through there every day and experience more and more a different adventure. Double parked cars, drivers who block a junction in order to speak with each other, youth hanging about who look at you as if you've entered their private domain. [Islam in Europe] Read more

Paying for Political Islam

.... The course, which is priced at just under £2000 per person, is aimed at police and civil servants who wish to learn more about Islamism. In the coming years, having police and members of the security services who are well versed on the history and ideology of political Islam will be absolutely crucial and the SOAS course is, in principle, a very important programme.

It is a pity therefore, that the course convenors have wasted this opportunity by showcasing and paying a number of speakers who will be unable to provide an objective view on the subject. [Standpoint] Read more

Cut off welfare benefits if burka prevents getting a job

Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen said in an interview Monday in Dutch newspaper Trouw that a woman who will not take off her burka in order to get work, will not get welfare. National politicians meanwhile support this proposal.

In 2007 the court in Amsterdam said that the Diemen municipality was wrong to cut off welfare benefits for a woman wearing a burka. In response the parliament, with the support of the PVV, VDD, and SP parties, voted to enable cutting down on benefits for burka wearers. The vote to cut off welfare completely was only supported by the PVV and did not pass. [Islam in Europe] Read more

Pure, Unblemished, Menstruation-free

In this fascinating and learned theological disquisition, Syrian-born Saudi cleric Muhammad Al-Munajid, on Al-Majd TV, fills in some of the gaps in our understanding of paradise: Allah said that the black-eyed virgins are beautiful white young women, with black pupils and very white retinas, whose skin is so delicate and bright that it causes confusion. Allah said that they are like hidden pearls. They have wide eyes, and they have not been touched by man or jinn.
[Mick Hartley] Read more

Aceh govt refuses to sign stoning bylaw

The Aceh provincial government will not sign the controversial Islamic bylaw allowing adulterers to be stoned to death, an official said. Hamid Zein, the head of the legal bureau of the Aceh governor's office, said Thursday that the administration had firmly rejected the bylaw passed by the legislative council on Monday.

"As long as the executive and legislative bodies do not settle differences in the application of *capital punishment by* stoning, the Aceh government will not sign the bylaw," Hamid said. [The Jakarta Post] Read more [via Religious Watch]

Committed to free expression? What nonsense Yale has acted cravenly over images of Muhammad

A Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, published 12 cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in September 2005. This seemingly innocuous decision preceded worldwide protests, death threats, trade boycotts and attacks on Danish embassies.

An outstanding scholarly account of these events is published this week, entitled The Cartoons that Shook the World by Jytte Klausen, a Danish academic in the US. Klausen dissects the motives of the main actors and illuminates debates over free speech and the place of religion in Western societies. It’s a murky business, by which, she says, “protests developed from small-scale local demonstrations to global uproar only to subside without a proper conclusion”. [Times Online] Read more

The Sacredness of the Quran, Part 1

The Quran miserably fails the test of its claimed sacredness, i.e. it's the 'word of God'. And how Muslims take recourse to numerous deceptive and silly explanations and ploys to maintain sacredness of the Quran. Interestingly, an alleged 'divine book' needs humans to stretch their efforts to its silly limits to maintain what it claims to be. [Islam Watch] Read more

Muslim women oppose Sharia councils in Britain

.... Issues of custody raise particular problems, but (unlike English law), the Sharia stipulates that male children are permitted to choose between their mother or father at the age of seven. For female children, the age is 14 (when Islam deems them to be ‘responsible’).

Dr Hasan says he would like two further Sharia principles to be incorporated into ‘British law’: The first is the dower. The second is for the 12 existing Sharia councils to be recognised as mediation bodies and for the British courts to ‘enforce their decisions’. He reasons that this ‘would ease the pressure on the British legal system (because) at least one section of the community would be taking a little of the burden upon itself’.

Quite so, Dr Hasan. But what of Muslim women who are not content with your ability to ‘enforce’ rulings in which women are manifestly not treated as equal to me? A very brave Muslim woman, Kavita Ramdya, has written in response: [Archbishop Cranmer] Read more

Muslim women’s right to happiness under threat

Sir, I shudder to think of the repercussions for Muslim women if British law recognises decisions made by Sharia councils (“I’m a Sharia judge”, FT.Com, September 19). Sharia law dictates that when a woman requests a divorce and the husband disagrees, the judge will “emphasise reconciliation” and “she has to return the dower to him”, whereas a man can divorce his wife by simply repeating “I divorce you” in front of two witnesses. [FT.com] Read more

Islam is Misunderstood

Everybody just relax. Islam is badly misunderstood. The negative stereotype of Islam is the usual evil-doings of Zionists in America and their foolish fellow travelers, fundamentalist Christians.

Please don't listen to what these hatemongers say about Islam and hear us out. So implies the nationally-launched campaign of Muslim organizations in the United States. Ads are popping up in newspapers and magazines proclaiming the magnificence of Islam and aiming to refute the "false allegations" of Islam's ill-wishers. [Islam Watch] Read more

Muslim artwork taken down

A work by a young French artist, put up in a display window in Brussels, has caused negative reactions. The display had to be taken down. The work is by Mehdi-Georges Lahlou. It displays a prayer area for Muslims, and in the middle of men's shoes, a pair of women's shoe with high heels. The work caused negative reactions from passers-by. People threw stones at the shop window, spit at it, and the shop window was vandalized. [Islam in Europe] Read more

Abercrombie and Fitch faces religious discrimination lawsuit over hijab ban

US fashion giant Abercrombie & Fitch are renowned for their raunchy ads, as the supersized billboard pictured here serves to indicate. Now sexiness and Islam, as we all know, don’t exactly blend. Which makes one wonder why on earth Samantha Elauf, a 19-year-old Muslim community college student from Tulsa, Oklahoma, would want to work for a company that shamelessly uses sex to peddle its wares. [The Freethinker] Read more

For the IPPR [Institute of Public Policy Research] the world is still flat

.... The latest paper from the IPPR, Building Bridges, Not Walls, offers little new analysis when it comes to advocating engagement with Islamist groups in the Middle East and beyond. Essentially, it is a rehash of the tired ‘Moderate Muslim Brotherhood' argument ....

..... Similarly, despite the repeated protestations of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) that it is the largest - and therefore must representative - body of British Muslims, polling conducted by Populus for Policy Exchange in 2007 revealed that only 6% of British Muslims felt the MCB represented them. I suspect even that figure flatters them more than they deserve. [Standpoint] Read more

New IPPR report: ‘Fuck the Arabs’ During the last few years, the left-leaning Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) think tank has built up an unenviable reputation on the tricky subject of engaging with Islamists. And for good reason. Previous IPPR papers have argued that hard-line British Islamists from groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood are our best allies against al-Qaeda because ’shared interests, if not ideologies, are paramount: it is not in our interests or theirs for terrorists to mount another attack.’ [Harry's Place] Read more See Also: [The Spittoon] Read

IPPR recommends 'Engaging with Islamists in the MENA region' Following on from the New Statesman’s publication last week of an exclusive interview with Khalid Mish’al, head of Hamas’ political bureau, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) today announces the release of a publication, ‘Building Bridges, Not Walls’, which argues that a ‘serious and sustained dialogue with non-violent Islamists across the Middle East and North Africa is essential if progress is to be made towards political reform in the region.’ [ENGAGE] Read more

The right to offend

"Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion," says the Human Rights Act. This freedom includes "the right to manifest his (or her) religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance."

That's a fine aspiration but of course the Human Rights Act (HRA) isn't all it's cracked up to be by its supporters. Take the recent case of a 54-year-old nurse facing disciplinary action for wearing her confirmation cross, she was forced to accept an offer of redeployment to a non-nursing role at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital

..... One of the most disturbing cases I have heard of is the decision by the Crown Prosecution Service to bring a prosecution against a Christian couple that own hotel in Aintree, Liverpool

..... couldn't agree more. this case in particular has tipped the scales for me. in their effort not to offend the muslim community the authorities seem to agree the best way to do that is persecute everyone else. how the hell does this sort of overreaction help 'community cohesion' in fact it just makes things worse. madness. [Guardian Cif] Read more

Muslim woman rebuked on burka by judge in Spain

A Spanish judge yesterday expelled a Muslim woman wearing a burka from his court for refusing to show her face when testifying in the trial of a group of Islamic extremists.

“Seeing your face, I can see if you are lying or not, if you are surprised by a question or not,” Judge Javier Gomez Bermudez told the woman, the sister of an Islamic radical killed in a suicide bombing in Iraq in 2005. [AFP/Gulf Times] Read more

Complaints against Alberta newspapers dismissed by human-rights commission

Alberta's Human Rights and Citizenship Commission has dismissed nine complaints filed against the Edmonton Journal and the Calgary Herald in connection with a controversial editorial published seven years ago.

The complaints were lodged by Muslim and Palestinian organizations and their supporters, who argued the editorial was likely to incite hatred or contempt toward Palestinian Arabs and Muslims, contrary to Alberta's Human Rights, Citizenship and Multiculturalism Act. [Calgary Herald] Read more [via Jihad Watch]

Christians face trial for criticising Islam

Cranmer has said this a million times: Islam is not a race. It is a religio-political construct expounding a doctrine of life in complete submission to the will and purposes of Allah, mediated by the teachings and actions of Mohammed who is believed to be a prophet, and who fought the indigenous tribes of Mecca for eight years, finally defeating them with his 10,000 strong army.

He told his followers to make war on non-Muslims (9:5,29). Sura 9 was one of the last Suras given by Muhammad. Initially, when Mohammed's forces were weak, he ordered his followers to form treaties and engage in diplomacy. When they had attained positions of power and strength, he ordered them to spread Islam by force. Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman continued his wars of aggression.

One of Mohammad’s actions includes the massacre of approximately 800 Jewish male captives (Sura 33:26). Ergo, he was a 'warlord'. In the United Kingdom, one is at perfect liberty to say this or to disagree with it. [Archbishop Cranmer] Read more

The Calais 'jungle' and the Islamic settlement of Britain

How interesting that French police waited until the end of Ramadan before forcibly dismantling the Calais “jungle”. That tells us something we really need to remember about a huge proportion of the illegal immigrants seeking to enter Britain: that they are pious Muslims.

Note that there was a bigger fuss about the taking down of the mosque than there was about the removal of the makeshift houses. And note, too, that the refugees declared their determination to enter Britain (”nothing will stop us”) almost in the same breath as their devotion to their place of worship. [telegraph.co.uk] Read more

Controversy on Campus over Sharia Lecture

At Whittier College in California, the dignity of women and protection of their rights are top priorities – so long as they don't interfere with the political agenda of campus Islamists.....

With this record, one would think the school would have enthusiastically welcomed a speech by Nonie Darwish, a native of Egypt who is scheduled to speak there this afternoon about the persecution of women under sharia. [IPT News] Read more

New Wardrobe Brings Freedom to Women in Swat

When the Taliban took control here in February and forced women into burqas, an epidemic of clumsiness swept this city. Women began banging into lamp posts. Nurses fumbled needles. Many simply stopped going out altogether.

Now the Taliban are mostly gone, driven out by a military operation this summer, and the women of this northern Pakistani city, the largest in the Swat Valley, are returning to public life. Teachers are back at work, maids are commuting to jobs across town and nurses are giving injections without having to squint through a coarse layer of netting. [NY Times] Read more [via Talk Islam]

Iran police 'target mannequins'

Iranian women are often the target of crackdowns on Western-style dress Iranian police have warned shopkeepers not to display female mannequins without a hijab, or showing bodily curves, Irna news agency reports. Display of bow ties and neckties, and the sale of women's underwear by men are also banned, the police said. The move is part of a crackdown on Western influences and enforcement of dress codes in recent years. [BBC] Read more

Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan defends his views

The Swiss-born thinker, who was denied a visa to teach in the U.S., says he is a reformist interested in a 'post-integration discourse' to explore the ways Muslims in the West can contribute. Liberal Muslim or closet fundamentalist? Peaceful intellectual or militant in sheep's clothing?

Tariq Ramadan has been called all these things -- and more -- by his friends and foes. Whatever the truth, the Swiss-born Oxford University professor ranks among the most influential thinkers in the Muslim world. [LA Times] Read more See Also: [Jesus & Mo] Read See Also: [Talk Islam] Read

Muslims mass-producing children to take over Africa, says Archbishop

One of the most powerful figures in the Anglican Church believes that Africa is under attack from Islam and that Muslims are “mass-producing” children to take over communities on the continent.

.... “They spend a lot of money, even in places where they don’t have congregations, they build mosques, they build hospitals, they build anything. “They come to Africans and say, ‘Christianity is asking you to marry only one wife. We will give you four!’ [Times Online] Read more See Also [Talk Islam] Read

Christian hoteliers charged with insulting Muslim guest

Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang are charged with breaching Section 5 of the Public Order Act – causing harassment, alarm or distress. If convicted, they face fines of £2,500 each and a criminal record.

The Muslim woman was staying at the Bounty House Hotel in Liverpool, which is run by the Vogelenzangs, when a conversation arose between the hoteliers and their guest about her faith. Among the things Mr Vogelenzang, 53, is alleged to have said is that Mohammad was a warlord. His wife, 54, is said to have stated that Muslim dress is a form of bondage for women. [telegraph.co.uk] Read more See Also: [MailOnline] Read

Christian hoteliers prosecuted for calling Pope 'Catholic' Perhaps you’ve read the shocking story. A couple of Christian hoteliers in Liverpool have been prosecuted by the police for a “religiously aggravated public order offence”, after one of their Muslim guests complained they had told her that the founder of her religion was a “warlord” and that Muslim dress was a form of “bondage for women”. [telegraph.co.uk] Read more

Bye bye free speech Dear Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang, .... My goodness. I’ve read through this story several times now and I still for the life of me cannot figure out what you did wrong. In any religious discussion, people from different religions are clearly going to disagree – this is hardly a surprise.

In a free country I should be able to say to a Muslim that I thought Mohammed was a hooker and traditional Muslim dress makes them look like a set of walking pyjamas without fearing that I would end up in a jail. The fact that someone took offence to something that I say should never be a criminal offence in itself. If expressing an opinion is now illegal and could land you with a criminal record, this country is in serious trouble. [Letters From A Tory] Read more

Denmark drops plans to ban burka over human rights

Denmark's Conservative Party shelved a proposal to ban the burka after lawyers warned it could violate human rights, the justice minister said Thursday. The centre-right party is the junior member in a minority coalition government with the Liberals, which opposed banning the full body garment worn by some Muslim women. [Middle East Online] Read more [via Religious Watch]

Don't eat near Ramadan fasters, Home Office staff told

Home Office staff were officially warned not to eat in front of their fasting Muslim colleagues during Ramadan – in case it made them feel hungry. The advice came in a taxpayer-funded internal document listing do’s and don’ts during the Muslim holy month, which ends this weekend. But the guide is now at the centre of a row with Islamic groups who said it was more likely to incite hatred of Muslims than promote understanding. [MailOnline] Read more

First Person: Dr Suhaib Hasan

Sharia means “the Islamic Law” – how to live according to the Muslim teachings. I have devoted my life to this. I’m a judge with the Islamic Sharia Council, which was set up in 1982 to guide the UK community on Islamic-related matters.

All its scholars and judges are graduates of the Islamic universities throughout Muslim lands, or graduates from dar al uloom, the private institutions that teach Islam in India and Pakistan. I have lived in the UK since 1976. As a judge (qazi) I rule on legal issues that affect the daily lives of British Muslims. We leave criminal cases to the British courts. There is a lot of financial, usually inheritance, stuff; but the overwhelming majority of our work is divorce. [FT.com] Read more

Threats for breaking Morocco fast

A Moroccan man campaigning to change the law banning eating in public during the Muslim Ramadan fast says he has received 100 death threats this week. Radi Omar denied that his group was anti-Islam. "We are in favour of individual freedom," he told the BBC. Six of his colleagues are in custody after planning to eat in public last Sunday and he demanded their release. [BBC] Read more

Young Christian accused of blasphemy is found dead in prison

A 20-year-old Pakistani who was arrested for blasphemy on September 12 in a village in Punjab has been found dead in prison. Police say that the man, Falish Masih, had hanged himself, but Nadeem Anthony, a member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), has accused the authorities of judicial murder. He described the death as: A torture killing …we can see signs of torture on his body in the picture. [The Freethinker] Read more See Also: [AsiaNews] Read

Downward Trend in Extremism Among Muslims, But Don’t Cheer Yet…

A new poll of Muslim attitudes towards terrorism leaves some room for both optimism and pessimism. The poll, like several others, finds an overall downward trend in the percentage of Muslims supporting terrorist organizations and their methods. However, the minority is still large enough to make the hair stand on the back of your neck. [Muslims Against Sharia] Read more

New hypocrisy from Islamic Forum Europe

Abdullah Hasan, an Islamist preacher based in East London, has recently blogged on the website of the Jamaat-e-Islami front-group Islamic Forum Europe about how cross he was about seeing adverts for mobile phone companies which encourage people to “gossip”.

For Hasan, who formerly studied in the Muslim Brotherhood-influenced “European Institute of Human Science” in Wales, such “backbiting and gossiping are among the vilest of deeds known to man and are, unfortunately, very prevalent amongst people today” and adverts promoting these acts are indicative of the sorry state of western society: [The Spittoon] Read more

Malaysia man caned for drinking

A Malaysian Islamic court judge has sentenced a Muslim man to be caned for drinking alcohol. Abdul Rahman Mohd Yunos, a sharia high court judge in Pahang state, ordered Nazarudin Kamaruddin, 46, to be jailed for one year and be caned six times, the New Straits Times reported on Tuesday.

Nazarudin, a permanent resident from Indonesia, pleaded guilty to drinking alcohol on August 27 at a restaurant that was raided by officers from the Pahang religious department. [Al Jazeera] Read more [via Religious Watch]

A Stopped Clock And All That

The Home Office is a secular institution so why does its “Islamic Network” think it appropriate to issue patronising guidance to non-Muslims about what they should and should not do during Ramadan for fear of annoying The Muslims™?

This kind of advice (don’t eat biscuits in front of Muslims during Ramadan) contributes nothing to making Muslim colleagues feel more accepted in the workplace, indeed the only people served by this advice are anti-Muslim bigots who want to complain about Muslim exceptionalism and rant about Eurabia. [The Spittoon] Read more

What is the Quran?

Ten years ago, this cover story in The Atlantic caused quite a stir. It revealed, researchers were proposing new theories about Islam’s holy book and Islamic history to reinterpret Islam for the modern world.

I believe Muslims will be well served if they read this essay rather than burn it. We do not have to agree with the findings, but we need to know how academia views the Muslim holy book. [The Spittoon] Read more

Prayer and cosmetics containing pork don’t mix, says Canadian Muslim convert

MUSLIMS don’t want to go around and pray five times a day having pork residues on their body. That’s the view of Layla Mandi, a Canadian makeup artist who, after opting to join the Magic Carpet folk, decided that Muslim women should be offered cosmetics free of pork or alcohol products.

Mandi, who now lives in Dubai, added: I came to the Middle East to learn more about people's needs. Most were pretty shocked when I told them there were pork products in their skin care items so they were very interested. [The Freethinker] Read more

Leader of Dutch Leftwing Greens: "Of course Islam is a problem"

Long ago I used to argue that the resistance against the global jihad and Islamic supremacism was not a Left/Right issue, but a national and civilizational defense issue, and that both liberals and conservatives should support it.

I haven't said that in a long time, because so much of the Left is allied with the jihadists -- and for very deep philosophical reasons, as Jamie Glazov shows in his magnificent book United in Hate. But here is at least one woman of the Left on whom the true magnitude of the civilizational challenge that Islamic supremacism represents is beginning to dawn. [Jihad Watch] Read more

Defining Islamophobia today: the state of the art

The emergence of “Islamophobia” as an English-language neologism could be dated to around 1991, although earlier occurrences can be found in Edward Said’s essay “Orientalism Reconsidered” in 1985 and from the early twentieth century in French.

This emergence coincided with the moment when Muslim minorities become politically active in Western Europe, in the midst of religio-political revival in the Muslim world, and at the ending of the Cold War. [Yahya Birt] Read more

Muslims Press for School Holidays in New York City

Muslims groups here are pressing city officials to close public schools on two of the faith's holiest days, just as schools do for major Jewish and Christian holidays. But the groups have yet to persuade the man in charge of New York City schools, Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Muslim groups have asked the city to cancel classes on Eid Ul-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, and Eid Ul-Adha, which marks the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.

New York is one of many public-school systems now struggling with appropriate ways to recognize religious holidays for a diverse population. An estimated 100,000 Muslim children are enrolled in New York City schools, about 10% of the enrollment. [The Wall Street Journal] Read more

Wilders' discrimination case in January

The trial of MP Geert Wilders, who is accused of discrimination and inciting hatred, will begin in January in Amsterdam, two months before the local elections. Wilders has denied the charges and said at the weekend he wanted to put Islam on trial. 'That is why I am considering calling on radical imams and other idiots as witnesses,' he told the Telegraaf. [DutchNews.nl] Read more

Muslims vs. Dutch Reformed

A report on community relations in the Dutch town of Ede was published last week. The report was carried out by the IVA research bureau of Tilburg University. The headlines which followed either talk about the racist Dutch or the Islamist Moroccans.

Dutch newspaper Trouw says that the Moroccans and Dutch Reformed are almost at war (NL), a statement contested (NL) by the local mayor. I skimmed through the report, and it doesn't exactly say any of these things. [Islam in Europe] Read more

Stoning spreads to Indonesia

Here's a truly shocking piece of news from Indonesia. One of that country's provinces, Aceh, is in the advanced stages of introducing stoning to death as a punishment for adultery. According to Reuters, the law was passed unanimously by the local parliament on Monday and could be operative as early as next month.

Indonesia always used to have a reputation for practising one of the most moderate and pluralistic interpretations of Islam. That such savagery should be put into law there - for the first time in its history - speaks volumes about the state the religion has got itself into in many parts of the world.

Doubtless media-friendly imams will be on hand to tell us that such punishments do not represent the true spirit of Islam, and doubtless they are right. Unfortunately there are too many Muslims who seem to disagree, and some of them have got themselves into positions of power. [Heresy Corner] Read more

Aceh passes adultery stoning law Indonesia's province of Aceh has passed a new law making adultery punishable by stoning to death.... Opponents had tried to delay the law, saying more debate was needed because it imposes capital punishment. Sharia law was partially introduced in Aceh in 2001, as part of a government offer to pacify separatist rebels. [BBC] Read more

Adulters can be stoned, and gays jailed under new Islamic laws in Indonesia "We feel that it is time now for people to understand the real meaning of Sharia." These are the words of Indonesian politician Bustanul Arifin, of the Prosperous Justice Party, and secretary of a special committee responsible for imposing harsh new sharia laws on the devoutly Muslim province of Aceh. .... [a] married couple who commit adultery could be stoned to death. It also decrees that homosexuals be caned, and jailed for eight years. [The Freethinker] Read more

Flanders: Reactions to headscarf ban

On Friday the public schools in Flanders decided to ban all religious symbols for both teachers and students. This decision affects about a fifth of all schools in Flanders - 300,000 students. Most of the schools in Flanders belong to the Catholic network which already announced they will not introduce an encompassing ban. (NRC) [Islam in Europe] Read more See Also: [AFP] Read

Islam & the West Conference

The conference theme is "Islam and the West: a Partnership for the Future". However, as every example in this article shows, and as the organization itself professes, it is actually more focused on bringing Islam to the West and on promoting understanding of Islam by the West. [Islam in Europe] Read more See Also: [Arab News] Read

Development of Islamic centers and mosque communities in the United States

An observer of the development of Islamic centers and mosque communities in the United States writes about the “three stages” he has observed: In the first phase of a Center’s development, all categories of people are welcome to join – regardless of their ethnic origin or their particular religious sect.

Arabs, Pakistanis, Turks and all others join together to establish a place of worship – and to start an Islamic Sunday school. All pervading unity and togetherness characterize this first phase. Simple and moderately disposed people who happen to have access to financial or other resources come out to lead the effort. [Talk Islam] Read more

A Yale University Press author complains. Plus: Who are those donors?

But who are these donors? He doesn’t say. I made a few inquiries: Mum’s the word in New Haven. Perhaps Martin Kramer or Diana West, both of whom have made some startling revelations about Yale’s courting of Arab money, can ferret out the source of those generous benefactions.

For myself, I wonder whether it’s Sheikh So-and-So or Prince What’s-his-name from Saudi Arabia, perhaps. We’ll know in the fullness of time. But it would be interesting, to say the least, if Yale’s financial woes were eased by some oil-rich Middle East potentate just at a moment when the Yale administration forced the Yale University Press to bowdlerize a book because they feared it might be “offensive” to Muslims. [Pajamas Media] Read more

We need to confront Islamist extremists, not conciliate them

Organised hatred, separatism, and extremism were present in Britain's cities and campuses long before July 7, often cloaked in the guise of moderation. But very few people understood the complexities of extremist ideology, while many politicians had Muslim constituents they did not want to upset.

The toughest task has been convincing Muslim leaders of the need to end denial, and stop playing politics with Islamist extremism. At a recent meeting with a Muslim grandee, I was stunned to learn that he thought the British government had carried out the July 7 bombings, to give it an excuse to spy on us. [telegraph.co.uk] Read more

A Sight You Don’t See Every Day

While watching the Last Night of the Proms a moment ago, I’m pretty sure that I saw a woman wrapped in what looked like either the Iraqi or Syrian flag, waving the Union Jack and singing “God Save The Queen”. [Harry’s Place] Read more

Interior minister accused of racism after remark

AFP - France's interior minister sparked a storm of protest and accusations of racism Thursday after a video showed him making an apparently derogatory joke about French citizens of Arab origin. "When there's one, it's OK," Brice Hortefeux, a key minister in President Nicolas Sarkozy's government, said in the film posted on Le Monde newspaper's site that rapidly became an online hit on a host of video websites.

"It's when there are a lot of them that there are problems," he said in the film Le Monde said shows him getting ready to pose for a photo with a young man from France's large community of Arab origin. [FRANCE 24] Read more

Bahraini feminist launches an all-out attack on sharia courts

Ghada Jamshir, a Bahraini feminist went on an Arab TV station and launched an uncompromising, no-holds-barred broadside against sharia courts and their treatment of women. This video speaks — loud and clear — for itself. [National Secular Society] Read more

The cost of immigration: answering a loaded question

Is it possible or even desirable to make a cost-benefit analysis of immigration? This is the awkward debate being waged in Dutch politics after the far-right Freedom Party demanded to know the impact immigration has on the nation's budget.

The government answered most of the questions but refused to address non-Western immigrants specifically, as the Freedom Party has demanded. Integration Minister Eberhard van der Laan says the government does not compile figures on specific groups in society.

The Freedom Party argues the government is failing to fulfil its duty to provide information to the electorate. RNW's political editor John Tyler explains: [RNW - Radio Netherlands Worldwide] Read more

Release of Pervez Kambaksh brings relief for some, blood-lust from others

The pardoning and release of Pervez Kambaksh, the young Afghan journalism student, who was jailed in Afghanistan for “blasphemy”, has sparked sighs of relief from his family and howls of outrage from Islamist fanatics. Pervez was jailed in 2007 after asking questions in his class about the rights of women under Islam.

For this, he was originally sentenced to death, but this was reduced to 20 years imprisonment after an international outcry. Now it has emerged that he was pardoned several weeks ago by the Afghan President Hamid Karzai and has fled the country. [National Secular Society] Read more

Halal search engines for Muslims – a bad idea on so many levels!

EARLIER this month The Telegraph reported that a new search engine – I’m Halal – had been launched to protect Muslims from “offensive” and “inappropriate” websites. I’m Halal’s founder, Reza Sardeha, said he got the idea after friends complained that the more popular search engines, including Google and Yahoo!, were flagging up naughty stuff. [The Freethinker] Read more See Also: [Islam in Europe] Read

Ramadan Arrests in Egypt Called Unconstitutional

An Egyptian clampdown on religiously prohibited eating and drinking during Ramadan is producing human rights abuses, advocates say. They claim moves by the country's Interior Ministry to arrest those who eat and drink in public during daytime fasting hours of the Islamic holy month are unconstitutional. [Assyrian International News Agency] Read more

Devout Muslim dies after savage beating by 'race-hate' gang

A devout Muslim pensioner attacked by a race-hate gang of schoolboys died yesterday. Ekram Haque, 67, lost his fight for life a week after he was battered to the ground in front of his three-year-old granddaughter, Marian.

As revealed in yesterday's Daily Mail, he suffered horrific head injuries in the assault outside a mosque in Tooting, South-West London, where he had just prayed. [MailOnline] Read more

Jack pips Mohammed to be most popular boys' name

.... If taken together the various different spellings of Mohammed make the name the second most common name in England and Wales - and by far the most popular in both London and the West Midlands. Jack was the most chosen name for boys for the 13th year running but is being pushed hard by Mohammed and its various alternative spellings which are expected to reach the top spot soon. [telegraph.co.uk] Read more

Muslims Widely Seen As Facing Discrimination

Eight years after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Americans see Muslims as facing more discrimination inside the U.S. than other major religious groups. Nearly six-in-ten adults (58%) say that Muslims are subject to a lot of discrimination, far more than say the same about Jews, evangelical Christians, atheists or Mormons.

In fact, of all the groups asked about, only gays and lesbians are seen as facing more discrimination than Muslims, with nearly two-thirds (64%) of the public saying there is a lot of discrimination against homosexuals. [Pew Research Center] Read more See Also: [Time] Read See Also: [altmuslim] Read

Further Revelations of PVE Funding Mismanagement

Yesterday, I blogged about how public funds intended to prevent extremism (PVE) have been handed over to the Muslim Brotherhood. Today, David Rich, of the Community Security Trust, has picked out further examples of the mismanagement of the PVE fund. Rich informs us that the recently published Tax Payer's Alliance report on the disbursement of PVE money also shows a £20,000 endowment to the North London Central Mosque (NLCM) in 2007. [Standpoint] Read more

Insult to Injury

In the Netherlands one may badmouth or lampoon a group's god or prophets, just not the group itself. Many European Muslims, however, would prefer to have it the other way around, and see this as a prime example of how secular Europeans place man before God. Europeans, conversely, see the Muslim reaction as an example of how Muslims have failed to adapt to Western ways of thinking. This distinction is at the crux of a case presently before a Dutch court.

The case involves a cartoon published on a pro-Arab European website depicting two Jewish men poking around in a pile of bones next to a sign that reads Auschwitz. One man says, "I don't think they're Jewish. The other responds, "We have to get to six million somehow." [The American Spectator] Read more [via Political Correctness Watch (2)]

Netherlands: Salafism stagnating

The growth of Salafism, an ultra-orthodox movement in Islam, is stagnating in the Netherlands, the intelligence service AIVD concludes. Followers of Salafism want to go back to the 'pure' Islam of the beginning (around 600 AD) and live strictly by the law of this time.

Two years ago the AIVD warned of the increasing influence of Salafist imams on Dutch Muslims. Not because they call to violence, but because by prevent the integration of Muslims by rejecting Western society. The AIVD feared that that Salafism would grow into a movement. [Islam in Europe] Read more

£48,000 Goes to the Muslim Brotherhood

The Tax Payer's Alliance (TPA) has released figures today on every local authority that has received Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) funding and what organisations have benefited from it. The PVE fund has so far given out £12 million in tax payer money to projects aimed at preventing radicalisation.

One organisation, the Muslim Welfare House (MWH), has received just under £50,000 in PVE funds over the last two years. The MWH is a member of the Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe (FIOE), which represents the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in Europe. [The Centre For Social Cohesion] Read more

Europe is changing to accomodate Islam, says US author

In Germany the number of immigrants grew from 3 million in 1971 to 7.5 million in 2000, but the number of immigrants with jobs remained more or less equal, at around 2 million.

Caldwell, an American writer and a journalist, has written a polemic book about the issue: Reflections on the revolution in Europe: Can Europe be the same with different people in it? In a nutshell: the economic benefits of immigration were short-lived and marginal while the social consequences have been far-reaching and have led to a watering-down of traditional European values. [NRC Handelsblad] Read more

Indonesia's Aceh to stone adulterers under Islamic law

Indonesia's staunchly Muslim Aceh province is set to enforce a strict form of Islamic criminal law, including stoning to death married adulterers, a lawmaker said on Wednesday. "Unmarried people who commit adultery will be caned one hundred times and married persons will be stoned to death," Raihan Iskandar, a provincial lawmaker from the Islamic-based Prosperous Justice Party, told AFP

..... Sharia was implemented under a broad autonomy package granted by the central government in 2001 to pacify the hardline Muslim region's demand for independence. [AFP] Read more

Swiss basketball player to challenge headscarf ban

A Swiss basketball player said she was set to fight a ban on her Islamic headscarf which would force her to either remove the covering or quit the sport, local media reported Wednesday.

Sura Al-Shawk who plays for the team STV Luzerne, was informed by the regional basketball association that International Basketball Federation rules banned headscarves. [Monsters and Critics.com] Read more [Via EuropeNews]

Muslim woman presses French panel for burqa ban

Her voice trembling with emotion, the leader of an advocacy group for Muslim women and girls urged a French parliamentary panel on Wednesday to press for laws that would ban the wearing of Islamic body- and face-covering veils.

Sihem Habchi appeared as the first witness before a newly created parliamentary group studying Islamic clothing such as burqas and niqabs — part of France's effort to integrate its growing Muslim population while preserving its heritage and secular roots. [Associated Press] Read more

Patronising Advice Won't Mend Society - Mayor Boris has got it wrong

NO, Mr Mayor, I shall not be fasting from sunrise until sunset for a day in Ramadan in order “better to understand” Muslims any more than I will be urging friends to circumcise their children in order better to understand Jews or to stand at Stonehenge in order better to understand druids.

I think it important that people understand about religion but there is a difference between understanding and active participation in rites just for the sake of it. [Daily Express] Read more

Switzerland debates minarets and Muslims

The debate over the integration of the Muslim community into Swiss society is not new and has long been the subject of considerable political tension.

.... It is worthwhile to note that Switzerland has only four minarets throughout the country even though Islam is the country's second largest religion after Christianity. The UDC is actively mobilising public opinion against what it labels the "Islamisation" of Switzerland, claiming that the percentage of Muslims – 5 percent – has grown too rapidly since the 1980s. But people have been speaking out against this view. [altmuslim] Read more

Beating the extremists

The government's strategy of funding moderate Muslim groups is flawed, but it's the right step towards winning the battle of ideas.

The Taxpayers' Alliance's new report on the government's Prevent programmes sheds much-needed light on the cost and effectiveness of the government's counter-terrorism strategy. At first reading of the report, it seems that many Muslim groups are receiving money merely for not being extreme, rather than for actively doing or saying anything to challenge and roll back extremism.

This is clearly wrong. Most importantly, however, the report also reveals that many groups that have received handsome grants of taxpayers' funds are groups whose leading members include supporters of hardcore Islamist ideologies. Such organisations include the Islamic Society of Britain (with some exceptions), the UK Islamic Mission, the Islamic Foundation, the London Muslim Centre and Da'watul Islam. [Guardian CiF] Read more

It is Sudanese law that is offensive, not women wearing trousers

The case of Lubna Hussein was not just about the right to wear an ordinary garment worn by billions of people on the planet. The courageous Sudanese journalist was fighting against laws that objectify and seek to control women. While the court’s decision to fine and not flog Hussein is not a victory for her, she has successfully exposed Sudan’s misogynistic record to international scrutiny. And she has repeatedly told journalists that "whatever happens I will continue to fight for women's rights." [telegraph.co.uk] Read more

Free Speech Loses in Finland as Helsinki Councilman is Fined 330 Euroes For Insulting Islam.......

This judgement by the Helsinki District Court violates the very essence of what "Freedom of Speech" stands for; the right to say out loud, that, what people do not want to hear. As an American who has been living in Finland for the past 22 years, I'm appalled at what just took place.

.... From now on, and in no unclear or uncertain terms, the Finnish state makes itself the sole arbitrator of what kind of speech in Finland is permissible and what is not. Big Brother has spoken. [Tundra Tabloids] Read more

A Muslim republic in the Netherlands?

First, we have to explain that Islam does not equate with war, but that it is about peace, solidarity, family issues—and that Dutch Muslims just want to lead normal lives here like everybody else. We intend to mend the rift between Muslims and non-Muslims and to improve the negative image of Islam.

Second, we have to invest in our future, and the most important way and probably the only way to do this is to invest in our youth [Global Arab Network] Read more

Sudanese woman guilty of daring to wear trousers

A Sudanese woman whose arrest on the charge of wearing trousers drew worldwide attention, escaped a public lashing yesterday but now faces up to a month in prison. Lubna Hussein was convicted of indecency but did not receive the typical sentence of 40 lashes as the judge opted to fine her. [independent.co.uk] Read more

Conservatives threaten backlash over student who promoted women's rights

Conservative and religious groups in Afghanistan reacted with fury yesterday to the news that Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, who was sentenced to death for promoting women's rights, has been freed.

After President Hamid Karzai secretly pardoned the 24-year-old student, hardliners called for an urgent ulama, a meeting of Islamic scholars, to organise protests against the decision. [independent.co.uk] Read more

Saudi cleric urges prayer reform

A leading Saudi cleric has called on Muslims not to pray for the destruction of unbelievers. A supplication to that effect is often reiterated at the end of every Friday prayer in Arab countries, something critics say can radicalise youth.

Sheikh Salman al-Awda said such prayers were against Islamic sharia. But he added they were permissible if the interests of Muslims were harmed, so his words may have little effect on radicals who oppose the US or Israel. [BBC] Read more

The West Struggles With Definition of Jihad

Since Sept. 11, few words have been considered more controversial than the term “jihad” in theological, political, and military discussions. Apologists for Islamic radicalism immediately raced after 9/11 to convince the West that “jihad” is predominantly understood in a peaceful way.

Many in the West accepted and relied on this comforting definition without adequate scientific research in Arabic and Islamic literature. For example, John O. Brennan, assistant to the president for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, mentioned that the meaning of jihad is to “. . . purify oneself or to wage a holy struggle for a moral goal” .... [Creeping Sharia] Read more

Not in Line with our Iranian-Islamic Culture

Iran is set to Islamise humanities studies in universities after supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei charged that Western teachings make students question religion, state news agency IRNA reported on Sunday.

"The Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies was tasked by the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council to revise the human sciences curriculum," the agency said. [Mick Hartley] Read more

The terrifying global implications of Islamic Law

Nonie Darwish knows a fair amount about Islam. She was an Egyptian Muslim for the first 30 years of her life. Then she fled to America and is now a Christian. She told her story earlier in her 2007 volume, Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel, and the War on Terror.

In this book she continues her important story, but she does so by highlighting two crucial themes: what sharia law means, and how women are treated under Islam. In 270 pages she spells out in chilling detail what the implications are of Islamic law, and how the West must be very careful indeed about the spread of sharia. [News Weekly] Read more [via Political Correctness Watch]

Boris Johnson urges non-Muslims to fast during Ramadan

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, has encouraged people to undergo a day of fasting to help them gain a better understanding of their 'Muslim neighbour'.

Absolutely right.

And Cranmer exhorts the Mayor to encourage Muslims to go to church, read the Bible, give up something for Lent, meditate on the cross and try the odd bacon sandwich to help them gain a better understanding of their Christian neighbour. [Archbishop Cranmer] Read more

Woman gives evidence wearing niqab

For the first time in Danish legal history, a woman has given evidence in a courtroom wearing a niqab, reports TV2 News.

.... Spokespeople for the government’s Liberal party and their allies the Danish People’s Party both said it was problematic that witness’s faces were not visible during a hearing. Nasar Khader, integration spokesman for the government’s Conservative Party which recently proposed a ban on burqas, stood by the party line and said courtrooms should be free of burqas and niqabs. [The Copenhagen Post] Read more

Reading the Qur'an in the dark

Alas, poor Sebastian Faulks! First he annoys the Muslims by declaring, in a Sunday Times interview, that the Qur'an is "the rantings of a schizophrenic" with "no ethical dimension". Then he upsets the Islamophobes by apologising. The poor sod has been hit by a self-inflicted double whammy.

.... If Faulks had given a moment's thought to his position, a plethora of basic questions would have emerged. If the Qur'an has "no new plan for life", how come it laid the foundations of one of the great civilisations of the world?

Given "the barrenness of the message", how could it motivate the believers to develop science and learning, promote reason and experimental method, establish universities and research-based hospitals, and advance philosophical inquiry? [Guardian CiF] Read more

See what Guardian Cif readers think of this post here.

See here for Sebastion Faulks' interviews concerning the Qur'an

My mother hired a hitman to kill me: The shocking story of a Muslim woman whose parents disapproved of her Western lifestyle

The text message forwarded to me from my younger sister Saira was concise and chilling: 'Mum's sent a hit man to kill you,' it read. 'Be careful.' As I read those words, my first instinct wasn't fear or even shock, but simply survival.

I'd become accustomed to behaviour like this from both my parents - behaviour that anyone else would find abhorrent - and I was emotionally numb to their threats. But I also knew that my sister's warning was deadly serious and my life was in real danger. I'd been in hiding for several weeks when I received the text. [MailOnline] Read more

Belgian school terms begins amid protests over veil ban

Dozens of protesters sported party hats, colanders and other unlikely headgear in protests Tuesday at schools in the Belgian city of Antwerp where authorities have banned girls from wearing the Muslim veil.

Around 60 people turned up for the start of the school year outside the gates of the Athenee Royal of Antwerp school, where most students are Muslims, carrying banners calling for "freedom of choice," television pictures showed. [Agence France-Presse] Read more

To Highlight a Double Standard

Dutch prosecutors said Wednesday they will charge an Arab cultural group under hate speech laws for publishing a cartoon that suggests the death of 6 million Jews during World War II is a fabrication.

The public prosecutor's office in the city of Utrecht said the cartoon insults Jews as a group and is therefore an illegal form of discrimination. Prosecutors plan to press charges for "insulting a group and distributing an insulting image". [Mick Hartley] Read more

Feminists and Islam: a reply to my critics

I don't claim that feminists are unaware of issues disproportionately affecting parts of the Muslim community, both in this country and worldwide: issues such as forced or forcefully-arranged marriage, under-age or inappropriately young marriage, sexual segregation, removal from education, genital mutilation (in extreme cases), "honour" crime, domestic servitude, sexist religious assumptions and cultural pressures of various kinds. It's just that they don't seem to be very high up the agenda. [Heresy Corner] Read more
See Also: [The Bleeding Heart Show] Read See Also: [Heresy Corner] Read

Ramjanally charged with making false report

Noor Ramjanally, the Muslim community leader in Loughton who claimed he had been kidnapped at knifepoint by BNP-inspired thugs and told to stop his religious activities, has been arrested on charges of perverting the course of justice. [Harry’s Place] Read more

Trying to pep up the opposition

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, seems rattled by the prospect of student unrest—and has hinted that the regime may purge universities of professors suspected of “unIslamic” tendencies.

On August 30th he complained that the study of social science “promotes doubts and uncertainty”, telling a meeting of students and teachers that the study of liberal arts and other humanities had led to a “loss of belief in godly and Islamic knowledge.” [Economist.com] Read more See Also: [NYTimes.com] Read

A Question of Priorities and a Question for Inayat

…. Why does Bungle attack the Quilliam Foundation so vehemently for their role in organising an event with Martin Bright yet not bother to mention that it’s being held at the Labour Party Conference and Quilliam’s co-hosts are Progress, a Labour party organisation. [The Spittoon] Read more

Free speech wins huge victory in Canada

At issue here was not true hate speech -- racial slurs, etc. -- which are indefensible. Rather, the aim of such laws is to crush political dissent. The Organization of the Islamic Conference is trying to strong-arm Western nations into imposing hate speech laws that will restrict speech about Islam they don't like, including explorations of the motives and goals of jihad terrorists. [Jihad Watch] Read more

Netherlands: Moroccans, Turks not marrying Dutch

Highly education Turks and Moroccans of the second generation prefer not marrying a Dutch person. The cultural difference are yet too great..... Tolsma shows in his study that they are still distant from ethnic Dutch, just as their parents who emigrated to the Netherlands as guest workers. [Islam in Europe] Read more

[islam] uninformed perceptions and strategic misdirection

August 20, 2009 …. What Islam condones, in its extreme form, is deeply disturbing and I would suggest that it has absolutely no place in western society. It is polarizing in a society which has already become polarized in so many other ways and while the right to worship as one wishes is a cornerstone of the libertarian stance .... , I believe …. that the extent to which the repugnant aspects of this world view and its practices come to the fore is proportional to the population percentage which embraces it in any given community.

There is no hatred in this for fellow citizens who are Muslim and I'll continue to befriend any Muslim who's a nice guy. My beef is with the system, which is obviously not benign in what it has on its books, allows and even encourages in the Mosques. [Nourishing Obscurity] Read more

[islamicization] london school of islamics replies again August 26, 2009 …. quite a few people had their say. I then ran a poll and the poll results were predictable. One blogger said it was hardly a big enough sample, a point I conceded and yet, in terms of Muslims having their own schools, it was 100% against. On the question of Sharia Law being allowed into Britain, it was 95% against. Read more

See here for other statistics on the Sharia question.

[islamic agenda] in the steps of the prophet, peace be upon him August 28, 2009 …. There is no one enemy. It is Them, it is the Muslim leadership, it is our own ASBOs and the new youth sub-culture, which in the 60s was for peace, man, turn on, tune in, drop out but now is considerably nastier....

.... The enemy is coming from different directions. This post is about one particular section of the inimicable forces arrayed against us. To wind up, Douglas Adams was quite apt when describing the planet of Krikkit and I think it is not irrelevant in the context of this discussion: The people of Krikkit believed in "peace, justice, morality, culture, sport, family life and the obliteration of all other life forms." Read more

[british politicians and people are racist] says muslim authority September 02, 2009 .... Globalisation is here to stay, Muslims are here to stay and so are other communities. Those idiot British ministers need to learn that the world is made up of different people and the British society and its Establishment need to learn to accept and tolerate every culture for what it is and most importantly respect and tolerate the values of each and every religion.

…. There are hundreds of state and church schools where Muslim children are in majority. In my opinion, all such schools may be designated as Muslimcommunity schools. A Muslim is a citizen of this tiny global village. He/she does not want to become notoriously monolingual Brit. Read more

New report on young Muslims, missing a trick

.... This undertone runs through the report unfortunately. Muslims are no doubt unfairly maligned in the media all the time. But the way to get over that isn’t through education about Islamic history and outreach specifically to Muslim groups – but to tie their struggles with those of other communities.

As a narrative, it is far better for Muslim researchers and commentators to keep comparing Muslims to, say, white working class Britons, and illustrating how they have similar struggles (on poverty, lack of access to power etc). That also makes it easier for policy-makers to sell ideas to the public since anything seen as pandering to just one minority will not be popular. [Pickled Politics] Read more

Young Muslims speak up .... The young people described their modern life as surrounded by communication gaps, particularly when it came to generational splits within their own communities.

Several young women spoke of having felt compelled to find out about Islam for themselves, but, in living out their new religious confidence, found the expectations of their parents' generation difficult terrain. Others, from both sexes, admitted to being faced with two starkly different lives – one life inside and one outside the home – as a way to negotiate the intergenerational challenges. [Guardian CiF] Read more See Also: [Policy Research] Read

Wiping gays off the site-map…

…. burying your head in the silicon. That seems to be the point of a new “Halaal” search engine that blocks things Muslims apparently shouldn’t want to see or hear about.

The first thing I searched for was “gay” and of course I hit the Code Red - Level 3. I was informed: Oops! Your search inquiry has a Haram level of 3 out of 3! I would like to advise you to change your search terms and try again. [Harry’s Place] Read more

Turning a Blind Eye to Misogyny

.... For at the root of the weird twists in liberal opinion I have been arguing against lies physical fear: the fear of provoking accusation of racial or religious prejudice; the fear of provoking trouble; the fear of provoking violent retribution. Generally, people do not own up to cowardice. They prefer to dress up it up in fine clothes and call it "respect for difference" or "a celebration of diversity".

.... They smugly declare that ‘we haven't got the right to impose our values on another culture' and think themselves liberal when they do it." I accept that this may seem an odd thing to wish for, but what the world needs now is an uncompromisingly militant feminist movement. [Standpoint] Read more

A Veil of Silence Over Murder .... The immediate spur to Pamela Bone's article had been the piercing silence from Western feminists on the subject of Ayaan Hirsi Ali's condemnation of how women were being treated in Islamic culture. In asking her question, Pamela Bone already knew why the Western feminists were saying so little.

They were saying little not just about Islam, but about Hinduism or any other culture which, when the behaviour of its more extreme groups towards women attracts criticism, bridles as if it is being attacked as a whole. [Standpoint] Read more

Hasan al-Banna: Brotherhood, Jihad and Nazism

The Muslim Brotherhood is the largest Islamist party in the world today. It also claims to be a democratic party. In this article I look at its founder Hasan al-Banna, the reasons why he established the Muslim Brotherhood, and his Nazi sympathies.

Hasan al-Banna was born in 1906 to a poor family in Southern Egypt. During his teenage years he took part in demonstrations against British Rule. He later went on to become a school teacher and in 1928 founded the ‘The Muslim Brotherhood’ (MB), the world’s largest Islamist group. [Harry’s Place] Read more