Government's obsession with faith and free schools 'breeds social and racial segregation'

Segregation between different classes and ethnicities in Britain is worsening due to increasing numbers of faith schools and the opening of free schools, a leading campaigner on social equality has warned.

Matthew Taylor, the respected chair of the Social Integration Commission, called on governors to issue regular reports on how their pupils are mixing to prevent serious divisions in society – saying that Muslim schools were of particular concern as their intakes tend to be less diverse.

[TOP RATED COMMENT] Whilst faith and independent schools exacerbate the problems, please do not be distracted by the bigger and far more pressing issues. My white European children have attended central London state schools where the majority of students are Muslim.

Over the years the kids and us (And the same goes for the other non-Muslim families of all races that we do happily socialise and compare notes with - black, white and Asian) have tried hard to socialise with the Muslim kids and their families and, apart from the very rare exception, we have got nowhere.

Most Muslim parents simply will not allow their kids to visit the houses of non-Muslim friends, even if, to accommodate them at parties, we have ensured food is appropriately Halal. Sometimes even the Muslim kids that have made the odd visit in the past will also stop visiting, as if others within their community have frowned upon their behaviour, forcing them to stop.

This is a social tragedy. Some of the Muslim kids are really lovely people, and they are being denied the opportunity to build important life-skills. The few parents we have an opportunity to exchange communication in passing at the school gates with. or, on incredibly rare occasions, to visit for a meal, have been lovely too.

But it is as if, when communicating with us they are forever looking over their shoulder out of fear. The blame for this tragedy lays within the Muslim community. There are some unpleasant forces operating within it.

[ANOTHER] One nation Britain is a thing of the past thanks to short sighted incompetent arrogant conceited politicians.

[ANOTHER] Sadly this division is led by a single grouping. No other religious group is as divisive. When we have examples of the teaching of extremism within these same schools it is a recipe for disaster.

Let us not beat around the bush, this issue is islam and islamic schools and its lack of any real desire to integrate. Other religious schools show no similar traits whether they be RC, CofE or Jewish.

The solution is simple, these islamic schools should be banned or closely regulated.

[ANOTHER] I am a supply teacher and I have worked in numerous schools across London.

In my experience muslim children as well as being the least integrated are also the most bigoted when it comes to religion.

I predict the impact on cohesion will be devastating within a generation in the UK. But try explaining this to your average IPPR liberal lefty....they want multiculturalism at all costs and any dissenting voices are those of 'racists' and 'bigots'!

[ANOTHER] "Faith and free schools breed social and racial segregation".

Of course they do. Anyone with half a brain recognises that.

The depressing fact is that most faiths, and one in particular, are fully in favour of imposing such religious and ethnic apartheid. [The Independent] Read more

Welcome refugees and reject racism, Merkel says after rallies

Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans to turn their backs on a growing grass-roots movement of anti-Muslim protesters, calling them racists full of hatred, and said Europe's biggest economy must welcome people fleeing conflict and war.

In an unusually strongly worded New Year address that also condemned Russia for its actions in Ukraine, Merkel said it was essential for Germany to help the children of persecuted people to grow up without fear.

Many Germans are worried about a flood of asylum seekers, many from Syria, pouring into the country. A new movement, Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA), is holding weekly rallies in the eastern city of Dresden. [Reuters] Read more

The apostasy game

.... The latest victim is Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed, a 29-year-old journalist who was sentenced to death in Mauritania last week after being convicted of apostasy. Mohamed had written an article criticising Mauritania's discriminatory caste system which also discussed similar practices in the time of the Prophet.

On January 2 this year – two days after his article appeared online – Mohamed was arrested and has been in jail ever since.

His family reportedly disowned him, his marriage was dissolved on grounds of apostasy and his lawyer abandoned him. A Mauritanian businessman also offered a substantial reward for anyone who succeeding in killing him. [al-bab.com] Read more

Is the Halal food movement secretly funding TERRORISM? Aussie housewife's campaign to expose industry she claims is a front for extremist groups

An Aussie housewife claims to have discovered ‘deception and corruption’ within the food industry, campaigning to uncover the truth about the relationship between Islam and some of Australia's major food companies.

Kirralie Smith is concerned that Australians are unknowingly funding Islamic bodies every time they do the grocery shopping.

She is seeking full disclosure from food companies so Aussie shoppers are fully informed so they have a choice on whether or not to buy from companies are allegedly giving funds to Islamic organisations. [Daily Mail] Read more

Ahmadi man gunned down in Gujranwala

Gunmen in a Punjab village shot dead a member of the Ahmadi religious minority on Saturday, five days after a Muslim leader denounced Ahmadis on a popular television show.

Luqman Ahad Shehzad was shot in the back of the head near Bhiri Shah Rehman village, a small community of Ahmadis in the Gujranwala district, said Saleemud Din, a spokesman of the community.

He is the eleventh person killed for being Ahmadi in Pakistan this year. [Reuters] Read more

Morocco says Exodus film 'represents God' and is forbidden in Islam

Morocco banned the Hollywood biblical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings because it “represents God” which is forbidden under Islam, its distributor said on Saturday.

The distributor said it had received written notice that Ridley Scott’s blockbuster contained a scene that represents God in the form of a “child who gives a revelation to the prophet Moses”.

Initially, cinema owners were informed verbally that the film had been banned, media reports had said. [Agence France-Presse] Read more

Boycott Halal movement in Australia set to escalate

The virulent Boycott Halal movement in Australia is set to escalate with a petition to federal parliament in the New Year demanding the Corporations Act 2001 be changed to mean only Muslims bear the cost of halal certification on everyday products.

Halal products are those deemed permissible for Muslims to eat or use under religious law. Many mainstream products in Australian stores are halal certified including food from SPC, Nestle, Kelloggs and Kraft. Supermarket chains pay for certification for some products, as do dairy factories and meat processors. [WA Today] Read more

Egyptian writer to face trial for "insulting Islam"

Egypt's prosecutor has referred a female writer to trial for allegedly insulting Islam by criticising the slaughter of animals during a major religious festival, a judicial official said on Saturday.

"Happy massacre," Fatima Naoot wrote on her Facebook page in October during Eid al-Adha, the Muslim feast of sacrifice.

Animals are slaughtered during Eid to commemorate the willingness of Abraham to fulfil God's command to sacrifice his own son, although in the end God provided him with a sheep. [AFP] Read more

Offending a Muslim's feelings - Hate speech, and its consequences, in Pakistan

Gunmen in a Punjab village shot dead a member of the Ahmadi religious minority on Saturday, five days after a Muslim leader denounced Ahmadis on a popular television show.

Luqman Ahad Shehzad was shot in the back of the head near Bhiri Shah Rehman village, a small community of Ahmadis in the Gujranwala district, said Saleemud Din, a spokesman of the community.

He is the eleventh person killed for being Ahmadi in Pakistan this year.

In 1984, a Pakistani law declared them non-Muslims and made it possible to jail Ahmadis for “posing as a Muslim” or “offending a Muslim's feelings”. [Mick Hartley] Read more

Legal opinion revealed after Muslims reject vaccine for children in Kirklees

The flu vaccination of children in Kirklees has been declared “unlawful” for discriminating against Muslims, a patient’s charity has claimed.

Thousands of children missed out on protection from flu this winter because the nasal spray vaccine is not halal.

This year’s only vaccine – Fluenz – contains pork gelatine.

Muslim law prevents the consumption of pig based products unless it is a life or death scenario.

[TOP RATED COMMENT] You have to worry for humanity when a silly religious taboo trumps the health and welfare of children.

[SECOND] If the vaccine offered free by the NHS is not to your liking, then go pay for one that is. Simple.

[THIRD] Parents are needlessly putting their children and others at risk by refusing to have them vaccinated. The parents are forcing their religious beliefs on to their children who are not old enough to make their own decisions or question why they cannot have the vaccine. Common sense should prevail in these circumstances not religion. [Huddersfield Examiner] Read more

Geert Wilders’ Anti-Islamization Immigration Stand Resonates Across Europe

.... Wilders drew attention to that irony in a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) op-ed, “Talking About the Moroccan Issue is not A Crime”. Wilders is exercising free speech, something that Americans take for granted as a right guaranteed under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

Wilders’ message about “fewer Moroccans” reflects the social consequences of permissive mass Muslim immigration undermining the social fabric of foundational Western values of, liberty, freedom and tolerance.

In Holland’s case it is exemplified by the rejection of those values by the Dutch Moroccan émigré community that even Dutch liberal parties have begrudgingly come to recognize. [New English Review] Read more

The Far-Right Marched In Record Numbers Through Dresden On Monday Night

A record number of right-wing protesters stormed through the eastern German city of Dresden for the latest in a series of anti-Islam demonstrations that have alarmed the country's politicians.

Police estimated that some 17,500 people attended Monday's rally, staged by the group calling itself Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the West, or Pegida. This week, the protest was billed as a carol-singing gathering in front of the Semperoper opera house.

Those numbers would make it the biggest gathering since Pegida's weekly protests started in October.

An estimated 4,500 people demonstrated in Dresden against Pegida in a counter-demonstration, while some 12,000 also protested against it in Munich.

[TOP RATED COMMENT] This will be happening in every city in the world soon, unless governments do something about this creeping colonisation of every country in the world.

[SECOND] .... Do you seriously think that this issue does not cross the whole political spectrum,for if you do,you are very much mistaken. People of all classes,all religions,are absolutely sick to death of hearing about what they want, what they are entitled to, and how they should be treated, there is an obvious answer,if you dislike the country you are in, go back to the democratic countries,like Pakistan,Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Iran, Irag, Libya, Syria, where a warm welcome awaits you.

[THIRD] I think there is going to be civil war in many European countries within the next decade. Damn the politicians who led us down this path with their warped multiculturalism ideals. [The Huffington Post UK/AP] Read more

Home Office powerless as legal loophole leaves underage child brides free to join husbands in Britain

Child brides from overseas can legally enter Britain because of a legal loophole.

If the girl is wed lawfully in her homeland her husband cannot be prosecuted under UK law, Theresa May’s Home Office said.

Officials made the admission after the Bishop of St Albans Alan Smith asked the House of Lords what steps the Government was taking to protect girls already in under-age marriages from coming into the UK. [Mirror Online] Read more

Islamic State: Yazidi women tell of sex-slavery trauma

The Yazidi religious minority community in Iraq says 3,500 of its women and girls are still being held by the so-called Islamic State (IS), many being used as sex slaves. A few have managed to escape and here tell their harrowing stories.

One day in August, Hannan woke to find her family frantically packing. She was taken aback: she had not realised the jihadists calling themselves "the Islamic State" were so close.

Outside, the main street in her hometown of Sinjar was choked. Her family joined other Yazidis "running and crying", bullets flying overhead, she says. [BBC] Read more

Record numbers attend German anti-Islamization rally

More than 17,000 protesters rallied Monday in Dresden against the "Islamization of the West," the tenth such demonstration in as many weeks. The far-right movement is becoming a problem for politicians.

German society and the political establishment have for weeks grappled with the emergence of the "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West," or PEGIDA, whose ranks in the city of Dresden have quickly grown from just a few hundred in October.

Around 4,000 counter-demonstrators marched through Dresden under the slogan "Nazi-free," warning there was no place for racism and xenophobia in a country marred by racial hatred during World War II. [Deutsche Welle] Read more

Heroes of 2014: Innes Bowen, the woman who mapped British Islam

Innes Bowen is a Radio 4 producer on current affairs who has spent much of the last eight years doing some serious journalism in her free time. What she has come up with is not sensational, but is enormously important. Her little book on British Islam, Medina in Birmingham, Najaf in Brent, lays out for the first time in terms accessible to a lay audience something of the inner structures and dynamics of Islam in Britain.

[TOP RATED COMMENT 272 votes] No doubt interesting as far as it goes, but I'd like some kind of truth and reconciliation commission to find out from the politicians who oversaw this epoch ending level of migration, just what it was they thought they were doing and why.

Whole cities and regions have changed character, and for the first time in history, this wasn't done as a result of war and conquest, but with the willing cooperation of governments who controlled their borders. I'll never forgive them, but I'd like to know 'why' before I die

[ANOTHER 143] Don't give up hope yet - France is where the next act of this drama will play out. The leftists there are in revolt against faux-leftism and seek to reassert the primacy of French culture. No doubt, much blood will be spilt, but such is life.

[SECOND 234] It would be nice to say that Islam has made positive contributions to Britain but I can think of none. The maladaptations have been all too evident in the news in recent years, especially in 2014, in regards to Islam in the UK.

[THIRD 207] "their continuing closeness to the societies and histories from which the original immigrants came"

You could rephrase this to say: "their reluctance to integrate and accept the values of the host society."

[FOURTH 165] "You can’t understand today’s Britain without reading this."

The more I understand about the ideology known as islam, the more I see the need to oppose the idea that it can ever be said to be part of Britain.

[FOURTH 153] Yawn - another attempt to bury the truth. A Radio 4 producer who thinks islam is fecking brilliant. Who'd have guessed!!

[FIFTH 143] I know how Muslims, at least a lot of them live, and what they believe. Outsiders are not really in a position to judge, as most Muslims pretend to be more tolerant when talking to non Muslim Englishmen. Here are some atitudes:

1. All the world events involving Muslims(in not nice things) are viewed with suspiction.

2. Hardly anybody thinks that in this 21st century any change is needed in original Islamic teachings.

3. Terrorist activties initiated by Islamists are not taken on face value and claim to be done by others to give Islam a bad name.

4. Very few believe in equal rights for women. Most beieve their daugters should accept the choice of their parents. Boys normally have good time with girls of other faiths, but girls are prohibited to have relationship before marriage. Some girls do, but without the knowledge of parents and brothers.

5. Most of get togthers see women and men sitting seperately and they do not talk to to each other. (men and women) [Guardian Cif] Read more

Plans for burka ban win ground

A large majority of citizens is apparently in favour of introducing a nationwide ban on burkas for Muslim women in Switzerland, according to an opinion poll.

More than 60% of respondents said they would outlaw the Muslim religious garment in public spaces, the survey by the Léger Switzerland polling institute found.

The SonntagsBlick newspaper says people of all age groups and both in the German- as well as in the French-speaking parts of the country would vote for a ban. [swissinfo] Read more

Saudi Arabia Grand Mufti says no opposition to underage marriage

Saudi Arabia’s efforts to edge closer to setting a minimum age for marriage have received a blow after the Grand Mufti said there was nothing wrong with girls below 15 getting married.

“There is currently no intention to discuss the issue,” Shaikh Abdul Aziz Al Shaikh said, quoted by local daily Al Riyadh on Sunday.

In a bold attempt to force changes on the grounds, the justice ministry has been pushing for setting up the minimum age.

Two years ago, it submitted an integrated study on the negative psychological and social effects of underage marriages to religious scholars and requested a fatwa that sets a minimum age. [Gulf News] Read more

The Muslim Council of Britain on the Peshawar Massacre

Predictably, in the aftermath of the Islamic slaughter in Peshawar, the MCB has given its own response to the event in a very short piece entitled, 'A Massacre of Children: An Ummah in Shock'. And equally predictably, it quotes the one quote that Muslims always use in such circumstances.

This is a passage from the Koran which even many non-Muslims will recognize. The MCB version goes:

“Whosoever kills a human being, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and whosoever saves the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind.”

.... The relevant point is that the MCB has cynically removed the middle clause knowing full well that it more or less negates the surrounding clauses. After all, the erased central clause isn't long: it's a mere ten words in length. This, I suggest, is classic Islamic taqiyya or deceit. And no Islamic organization does that better than the Muslim Council of Britain.

Here's the passage in full:

“… We ordained for the Children of Israel that if anyone slew a person – unless it be for murder or spreading mischief in the land [my italics] – it would be as if he slew the whole people.” [American Thinker] Read more

The Great Betrayal: How Liberals Appease Islam

.... For years, a dizzying gulf has stretched between the principles most good and responsible liberals say they hold — beliefs in reasoned argument, democracy, and equal rights for women, gays and people of all colours and creeds — and their practical failure to oppose radical Islam. A few of us tried to persuade them to mean what they say and behave accordingly.

Some of us have stayed on the Left. Others have given up on what looks an irredeemably compromised movement and attacked liberal-left orthodoxy from the right. I will not pretend that any of us have had a great deal of success.

"A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light," said Max Planck, "but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it." [Standpoint] Read more

We cannot counter jihadism until we stop denying its ideological origins

.... The first reaction to every Islamist terror attack is the now mandatory chant of ‘this has nothing to do with Islam’ with any attempts to debate being dubbed racist, culturally insensitive and Islamophobic.

The Guardian by one of the most renowned Pakistani writers, virtually hours after the Peshawar attack, which claimed that the massacre isn’t about religion because both the attackers and the victims belonged to the same religion.

And this is precisely the sort of ‘head in the sand’ denialism that has aided the spread of the jihadist ideology in Pakistan.

When the chants of ‘Allaho Akbar’ and the obvious lure of a hedonist afterlife don’t suffice in highlighting the influence of religion on suicidal terrorist attacks, one wouldn’t expect any heed to be paid to the TTP spokesman Mohammed Khorasani quoting a hadith in the immediate aftermath of the school attack to justify the violence in Peshawar. [Left Foot Forward] Read more

Halal and kosher food labelling: shoppers will be told how their meat has been killed

.... There has been growing concern that consumers are unwittingly buying meat that was the result of religious ritual slaughter after it emerged that diners had been unknowingly served halal chicken in Pizza Express and other restaurants.

Early next year, the European Commission is due to report on whether meat sold in the European Union should bear labels detailing how the animal was slaughtered. Mr Eustice appeared to rule out UK products being labelled “halal” or “kosher”, but said meats could in future be sold as “stunned” or “unstunned” – effectively alerting shoppers as to whether their meat was killed according to religious guidelines.

[TOP RATED COMMENT] So it can be Labelled Free range or organic, but not Kosher or Halal? If I didn't know better, I would think our politicians don't have the courage to offend minorities.

[SECOND] .... it's easy to understand where these ideas came from and why they were a good idea at the time. However here in Europe, we are relatively modern and relatively civilised. We no longer burn witches. We no longer practice religious torture to release the devil from deviants. We've also managed to develop modern methods to slaughter animals, where pain and suffering is minimised. We also have refrigeration. There is no place for religious claptrap trumping the rights of animals to end their lives as painlessly as possible. In short, NO!

[THIRD] Why does the British Government want to cover up whether an animal has had a prayer said over it by a 'minority' religion, whether marked 'stunned' or 'unstunned'?

I do not want to eat meat that has been 'blessed' by a religion I don't subscribe to, yet successive governments and all of this Parliament think this is acceptable. Why?

[FOURTH] Buy your meat from a traditional British butcher's shop that puts the beef and pork side-by-side in the display.

[FIFTH] Halal/Kosher unstunned slaughter should be made illegal. Unspeakable animal cruelty has no place in these islands. It's just another example of where our culture has been permitted by the gutless establishment to be overturned by immigrants. Enough. [The Telegraph] Read more

Of course religion plays a part in terror

Dr al Qutob claims that the Sydney gunman was a criminal, not a Muslim. This brings to mind the words of Tony Blair in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks when he claimed that the perpetrators were not Islamic terrorists, just “terrorists pure and simple”.

But by the time London was attacked in July 2005, Blair had changed his tune. In a speech to the Labour Party conference, and recounting by then 26 al-Qaeda episodes, he noted that the terrorists’ motivation was “a religious ideology, a strain within the worldwide religion of Islam, as far removed from its essential decency and truth as Protestant gunmen who kill Catholics or vice versa are from Christianity. But do not let us underestimate it or dismiss it. Those who kill in its name believe genuinely that in doing it, they do God’s work; they go to paradise”.

.... If Dr Al Qutob wishes to persuade the world that Islam is a peaceful religion he might do better to address the substantial number of his co-religionists around the world who clearly take a very different view to his on aggression and terrorism, rather than berating the media. [The Independent] Read more

Survey: About one third of Germans supportive of anti-Islam rallies

.... Asked if it was "good that someone draws attention to mistakes in political asylum policies and opposes Islamists," which is how Pegida presents its stance, 36 per cent of easterners and 33 per cent of westerners agreed.

The pollsters interviewed 1,025 Germans and adjusted the findings to be representative of the whole German population over 18.

Government officials have repeatedly denounced Pegida as a rightist movement, saying Germany is not being "Islamized." Muslims make up far less - 4 per cent - of German society than popularly believed, and the bulk of current refugee arrivals from Syria are Christians. [Europe Online] Read more

Death threats for Saudi cleric after wife shows face on TV

A prominent cleric has caused uproar in Saudi Arabia by bringing his wife on national television with her face uncovered, in an open challenge to conservative traditions of dress.

Sheikh Ahmad al-Ghamedi has been receiving death threats since his wife, Jawaher, accompanied him on a popular chat show earlier this week, delighting reformists and scandalising conservatives. [The Times (£)] Read more

Should We Allow Mentally Ill 'Lone Wolves' To Call Themselves A Terrorist?

.... Lone wolf attackers like Monis portray themselves as terrorists or freedom fighters, demanding to be thought of as part of the global jihadi cause, associating themselves with big headline-grabbing groups, from Al Qaeda to Islamic State. But is there a danger to giving them the attention they crave.

"Islamic State is the biggest brand around," Raffaello Pantucci, director of International Security Studies at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) told HuffPost UK. "It's a big anti-establishment brand, that has eclipsed all else. It's a brand that other people want to be associated with, they want to catch that spotlight.

[TOP RATED COMMENT] Why get into a semantics argument over whether the Huffington Post wants to call him a terrorist or not?

Moreover, there is no clinical evidence that this murderer in Australia was any more or less mentally ill than those who behead innocent care workers in Iraq because they happen to be American or British.

It was a criminal act, yet another atrocity committed in the name of Islam.

[ANOTHER] I think a better question would be - 'Should we allow a violent, intolerant, backward ideology to be called a Religion?'

[ANOTHER] More to the point, should we allow the HuFF to blacken the name of millions of people with mental health issues in order to divert attention from the common factor in most terrorist crimes against humanity?

Time and again it is ISLAM [The Huffington Post UK] Read more

A seriously flawed document - The GCC Human Rights Declaration

But it’s on freedom of thought and expression that the GCC document most seriously diverges from the Universal Declaration. Article 18 of the UNDHR says:

“Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”

The corresponding article in the GCC document (Article 6) says:

“Freedom of belief and the practice of religious rites is a right of every human according to the system (law) without prejudice to public order and public morals.”

Once again, the GCC has deleted the word “conscience” but, more importantly, it also makes freedom of belief subject to law, public order and morals.

This is fundamentally at odds with international standards which regard freedom of “thought, conscience and religion” as an absolute and unconditional right which cannot be modified by individual states. [al-bab.com] Read more

Islamist call for Algerian author's death stirs outrage

An Islamist call for author Kamel Daoud to be condemned to death for alleged apostasy has stirred outrage in Algeria, reviving dark memories of the country's brutal civil war.

Salafist activist Abdelfatah Hamadache Ziraoui has called on his Facebook page for authorities to impose the death penalty against the author and to execute him in public.

The call came after Daoud, in an appearance on French television, criticised the relationship between Muslims and their religion. Ziraoui, who campaigns for bans on alcohol and bathing costumes on the beach, accused the author of apostasy for "waging war on Allah, his prophet, the Koran and the values sacred to Islam". [Daily Mail - AFP] Read more

After the Pakistan school attack, we need to talk about Islam

"There is nothing in Islam that justifies acts of terror." (Prime Minister David Cameron reacting to the beheading of British soldier Lee Rigby by two Islamists who shouted “Allahu Akbar" and quoted 22 verses from the Koran.)

"They don’t represent Islam or Muslims in Britain or anywhere else in the world." (David Cameron’s reaction to the massacre by Islamists in Nairobis’s Westgate shopping centre of anyone who failed to name the mother of the founder of Islam or recite verses from the Koran.)

"This hateful ideology has nothing to do with Islam... Let the message go out that we know Islam is a religion of peace." (Theresa May’s speech to Conservative Party Conference, 2014.)

Islamic State has "nothing to do with the great religion of Islam, a religion of peace." (David Cameron, denying any connection between the creation of an Islamic caliphate and Islam.) [The Telegraph] Read more

Before he flew the black flag, Monis was just a desperate man with a violent past

.... Monis’s use of the flag was detached from the reality the symbols of Islam ought to represent. It was detached from the communities who own these symbols. It was detached from knowledge, detached from debates, detached from Islamic law. It was detached even from his own life.

Perhaps most tellingly, it was detached from Isis itself, who would never have accepted him, and need not accept him to carry out violence in their flag’s name.

[TOP RATED COMMENT 146 votes] There is no modern Islam, Islam needs a reformation but will not get it. .... there is a worldwide Islamist movement running along the lines of their war Lord prophet where people have to be conquered and subjugated by the sword. Muhammad lived that way, and they wish to lead their lives the same, trying to spread Islam by violence if they must. Loners or groups, they all use scripture to justify their acts.

[SECOND 145v] ISIS asked people to commit lone wolf attacks in Australia,.... That was what Manis did. Fair enough he had issues, but at the end of the day it was done in the name of Islam, very similar to the gentleman that tried to kill the two policeman in Victoria.

[THIRD 94v] "and like all of those who are convinced that they are right and the rest of the world is wrong he took actions that unjustly hurt others".

What!? I've met quite a few people who think they are right while everyone else is wrong, but they didn't go around deliberately hurting or killing people.

[FOURTH 87v] The thing is we know this guy was a nutter, and we know most Muslims are perfectly decent people, but it's impossible to ignore that right now, around the world from Nigeria, to Libya, to Syia, to Iraq, to Pakistan, Afghanistan etc, SOME Muslims are doing some pretty unspeakable things in the name of Islam. [Guardian Cif] Read more

Pakistan’s sickening massacre isn’t about religion – it’s about intimidation

.... barely a week later, we are weeping as we see the images on our televisions of schoolchildren being carried out an army school in Peshawar in their blood-spattered uniforms, victims of a Taliban attack which has so far killed 126 people.

Most of the children killed were between 10 and 16 years old, children of army officers who were listening to a speech being given by a senior military officer when the gunmen struck.

[TOP RATED COMMENT 833 votes] "Pakistan’s sickening massacre isn’t about religion – it’s about intimidation"

Of course its about religion and one religion's desire to dominate and exert its will with extreme violence. Denying it is akin to burying your head in the sand.

[SECOND 627v] "Pakistan’s sickening massacre isn’t about religion – it’s about intimidation"

Indeed: "Follow my religion, or else..."

[THIRD 537v] If there is one thing I have learned from reading the Guardian it is that Islam is never at fault for anything

[FOURTH 417v] "To survive as a country Pakistan needs to map out a road to peace, with the army, politicians and the people rallying under a unifying cause."

But who are the 'people'? Your state persecutes Christians, Ahmadis, the Shia, the secular, anyone who does not subscribe to the hard line Sunnah.

Your state is a disaster - you have no law and order. When Christians are murdered and their butchers make accusations of blasphemy, your worthless police issue a statement taking the accusation as fact.

And your politicians are cowards and bigots.

[FIFTH 385v] "Pakistan’s sickening massacre isn’t about religion – it’s about intimidation"

Really. I would argue it's all about inadequate men fuelled by the cancer of religious fanaticism. Just adherants of the religion of peace doing what they like best. [Guardian Cif] Read more

Germany’s ‘pinstripe Nazis’ show the immigration debate is overheated

Rightwing parties are on the rise across Europe. Should we worry? Such movements have come and mostly gone for decades. They draw strength from immigrant surges and economic woes. The Pegida rallies – Germany’s “pinstripe Nazis” – now drawing thousands of marchers to German cities, are specifically anti-Muslim. But are they different from similar movements in France, Sweden, the Netherlands or Britain?

Any expression of racial hatred from Germany is bound to be alarming, but every nation has its political fringe.

[TOP RATED COMMENT 206 votes] It's disturbing that legitimate fears about islam are dismissed as 'racism'. In my working life, I have worked alongside many, many people of, shall we say, 'muslim heritage'. I have to say that, the more 'islamic' they were, the harder they were to get on with. Those who didn't bother, or who only paid lip-service, included many splendid people I'm proud to have known.

The problem is islam, not race.

[SECOND 198v] "Somehow the temperature has to be reduced before the lid blows." At last someone on the Guardian gets it.

We need to drastically reduce immigration, and aggressively promote integration, by asserting a common set of core enlightenment values. No more pandering to minority cultures, and the liberals' beloved multicultural experiment must be thrown down the toilet.

[THIRD 126v] If it's overheated, it's only because the bloody minded mass migration brigade have refused to listen when people say they simply do not want this happening to their countries.

[FOURTH 107v] "The temperature has to be reduced".

I suspect Jenkins means that we should criticise Muslims less, rather than Muslims should, you know, DO something about problems in their community. [Guardian Cif] Read more

Anti-Islam 'Pegida' march in German city of Dresden

About 15,000 people have taken part in a march against "Islamisation of the West" in the east German city of Dresden.

A large counter-demonstration of more than 5,000 people was also held. No major incidents were reported.

Dresden is the birthplace of a movement called "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West" (Pegida), which staged a big rally a week ago.

Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Germans not to be exploited by extremists.

"There's freedom of assembly in Germany, but there's no place for incitement and lies about people who come to us from other countries,'' Mrs Merkel said in Berlin. [BBC] Read more

New FBI Hate Crime Stats: Another Blow to Islamist Fictions

The FBI's newly released hate crime statistics for 2013 offer a fresh example of how reality refuses to conform to the dubious narrative of widespread Muslim victimization at the hands of American bigots.

As in previous years, most hate crimes were not religiously motivated, most religiously motivated hate crimes were anti-Jewish, and Muslims suffered fewer total incidents than many groups and fewer per capita than gays or Jews. Anti-Islamic crimes did not involve greater violence than others and have not become more frequent. A glance at the details: [Islamist Watch] Read more

Saudi School threatened with closure

Mathias Meissner, press spokesman for the School Board, told The Local that the school failed to give names for its staff and management by a December 1st deadline, which it is legally obliged to do.

The school can appeal the board’s decision within four weeks.

The school has been under review since November after a report in News magazine alleged that conspiracy theories and anti-Semitism were being taught at the school. Meissner said that these allegations still have to be proved, and the board plans to carry out inspections in the near future. [The Local] Read more

Saudi Arabia: 10,000 Twitter accounts closed and users arrested over 'religious violations'

Saudi Arabia's religious police have closed at least 10,117 Twitter accounts in 2014 over religious violations.

Turki Al-Shulail, spokesman of The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (Haia), explained that some users were also arrested.

"Users were committing religious and ethical violations," he told Arab News.

"Haia blocked and arrested some of their owners. However, it was hard to follow all the accounts due to the advanced security used in this kind of social media." [International Business Times] Read more

Merkel in dilemma as German anti-Islam marches gain support

German Chancellor Angela Merkel faces challenges from allies and rivals to confront a rising tide of anti-immigrant sentiment driving increasingly popular anti-Islam marches in the city of Dresden every Monday.

With thousands expected at the next march, Merkel is in a dilemma. Her security officials are warning of an increase in hate crimes, while opinion polls show support for the marchers' calls for a tougher German immigration policy.

"There is a visible rise in xenophobic crime countrywide," police chief Holger Muench told Welt am Sonntag, which like most German Sunday newspapers focused on Monday's march by a group calling itself PEGIDA - an acronym for "Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West". [Reuters] Read more

New 'Islamic doll' launched in Britain has no facial features

A new ‘Islamic doll’ with no facial features has been launched in Britain.

The ‘Deeni Doll’ has no eyes, nose or mouth whatsoever in a bid to comply with Islamic rules governing the depiction of faces.

The doll was manufactured in China and designed in the UK by Ridhwana B. She told us: “I came up with the idea from scratch after speaking to some parents who were a little concerned about dolls with facial features.

“Some parents won’t leave the doll with their children at night because you are not allowed to have any eyes in the room.

“There is an Islamic ruling which forbids the depiction of facial features of any kind and that includes pictures, sculptures and, in this case, dolls.

“I spoke to a religious scholar in Leicester who guided me through what was and what was not permissible when producing the product. [Asian Image] Read more

Germans want tougher stance from Merkel on immigration - poll

A majority of Germans think Angela Merkel's government is paying too little attention to concern about immigration and asylum seekers that has prompted weekly marches in the city of Dresden, according to a poll.

In the survey by TNS for Spiegel magazine, to be published on Sunday, 65 percent said the chancellor's right-left coalition was not taking current record levels of immigration and asylum seekers seriously enough.

More than a third believe Germany is undergoing a process of "Islamisation". Dresden has seen increasingly popular Monday marches under the slogan PEGIDA, which stands for "Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West". [Reuters] Read more

Girl disguised as man caught in Saudi stadium

Saudi Police arrested a local girl disguised in man’s clothes during a football match at a sport stadium in the conservative Gulf kingdom, a newspaper said on Saturday.

Policemen rushed to the place after the girl was exposed by security cameras while seated among men at the stadium in the Western Red Sea port of Jeddah.

Women are banned from entering sport stadiums in Saudi Arabia but there have been reports about plans to allow them into separate places assigned only for females.

[Emirates247.com] Read more

The evangelical giftwrapping of Islamophobia marches on

.... And here we come to the heart of the purpose of OCC. For, according to the boss and guiding force of OCC, Franklin Graham – son of the evangelist Billy Graham – Islam is not just wrong, it is “a very wicked and evil religion”.

And by that he does not mean that Islam has been taken over by dangerous radicals, but that Islam itself is intrinsically evil. He recently told the British journalist Ruth Gledhill that Islam has been the same for 1,500 years. It “has not been hijacked by radicals” but is essentially a “religion of war”.

[TOP RATED COMMENT 298 votes] Still, at least they aren't crucifying anybody, which is more than could be said of Isis.

[SECOND 274v] The fundamentalists of both Islam and Christianity are equally absurd but there is one difference:

you can lampoon, satirize, cartoonize, seriously critique and question the history and mythology of one lot without having to go into hiding.

[THIRD 263v] “There is only one way to be friends with God.” In many places these boxes are distributed, this is thinly disguised code for: Islam is wrong."

Yes, why thinly disguise it rather than be upfront as the Qu'ran is when it declares Christianity to be wrong. [Guardian Cif] Read more

House of Lords debates FGM and Sharia Law in the UK

.... Baroness Cox then drew attention to the situation of women trapped in Islamic 'marriages', and discussed a new report on that subject. The report detailed the concerns that Lady Flather raised, that women in Islamic 'marriages' are left without legal protection in the event of a 'divorce' and that many Muslim women are unaware of their legal rights.

Lady Cox said: "several Muslim women have told me that men in their communities may each have up to 20 children," adding that this leads to children growing up in "dysfunctional families." Citing information from the report, Lady Cox said: "Two-thirds of those who are married are in polygamous marriages.

Some say that they did not know that they were a second or third wife when they were married. Of these, almost all said that their husbands fail to provide them with financial support, in contravention of Islamic teaching. Many of these women are desperately unhappy." [National Secular Society] Read more

How Pakistan's women are punished for love

In a country fighting to preserve patriarchal and tribal traditions, Pakistan's women can face brutality - and even death - if they fall in love with the wrong person.

Arifa, 25, dared to stand up to her family, running away with the man she fell in love with and secretly marrying him.

The following day in a busy street in Karachi, Pakistan's most populous city, her male family members surrounded the newlyweds and, at gunpoint, dragged Arifa away. [BBC] Read more

Top judge calls for rules which force women to take off veils when giving evidence in court

Women in veils should be compelled to show their faces when giving evidence in court under “tougher” new rules to ensure that justice is done, Britain’s most senior female judge said today.

Baroness Hale, deputy president of the Supreme Court, said “ways have got to be found” to ensure that face coverings are removed for key parts of court hearings and added that there “must come a point” at which judges insist veils are lifted.

She said that seeing faces could be “important” and “necessary” when women were testifying and on other occasions, such as when the issue of identity or recognition was at stake. [Evening Standard] Read more

Jakarta Post’s editor faces blasphemy charge for cartoon mocking Islamic State

Indonesian police have declared the editor-in-chief of a prominent English-language daily newspaper a suspect in a blasphemy case over the publication of a cartoon mocking the jihadist group Islamic State.

Jakarta Police Spokesman Rikwanto told reporters on Thursday that The Jakarta Post Chief Editor Meidyatama Suryodiningrat, 47, was named a suspect, citing witness testimonies and evidence, for his responsibility over all products of the Post.

The chief editor issued a statement late on Thursday, saying the newspaper did not commit a criminal act as accused, while a journalists’ group said the case threatens the country’s press freedom. [South China Morning Post] Read more

Indonesia's Jakarta Post rejects blasphemy claim over IS cartoon

The Jakarta Post has defended the publication of a cartoon criticising Islamic State (IS) militants, after its editor was named in a defamation case.

The cartoon shows a flag similar to ones used by IS with the words "there is no God but Allah", and a skull and crossbones.

The phrase is considered sacred by Muslims and the cartoon was seen by some as offensive.

The newspaper called the cartoon a "journalistic piece". [BBC] Read more

Muslim 'wives' discover that they have no marriage rights

Report is ‘tip of the iceberg’, says Baroness Cox

A report by Aurat:Supporting Women, a West Midlands charity which supports victims of honour-based violence, seeks to expose the vulnerability which, it says, Muslim women living in Islamic 'marriages' in the UK are experiencing.

The report - Equal and Free? 50 Muslim Women's Experiences of Marriage in Britain Today - states that the widespread practice of polygamy has left Muslim women without legal rights upon 'divorce', entirely dependent on their 'husbands' for financial support, and often unable to leave sham 'marriages' for fear of social ostracism or bringing shame to their family.

According to the report, many Muslim women are unsure of their legal rights and some women were even left believing that 'marriage' ceremonies were valid simply because they had taken place in the UK.

The report cites examples from women who told their stories to Aurat, including many women who were married, by their parents, to men who later turned out to have as many as three 'wives' living in different households.

In her foreword to the report, Baroness Cox writes that the shocking situation described in the research is "just the tip of the iceberg". She says that "there are, literally, countless more women in similar predicaments" as the women who volunteered their testimony. [Family Law Week] Read more

Islamophobia is racism, pure and simple

The Dresden protests are illegitimate and the attitude of German politicians towards false fears of ‘Islamisation’ needs to change.

Islamophobia is on the rise in Germany. That is troubling enough. But what’s even more concerning is that many of those whom I would define as Islamophobic feel very good about it. They see themselves not as racist or xenophobic, but as defenders of democracy and human rights against the adherents of a religion they believe is incompatible with both.

.... This needs to change – now. It needs to be made clear that Islamophobia in Germany is no legitimate expression of anger or frustration and most certainly nothing to be proud of. It’s racism, plain and simple.

[TOP RATED COMMENT 843 votes] You may well argue that it is a bigotry, or a prejudice, but it is not racism, since muslims come in all colours.

[SECOND 704v] Right, so the sole premise of the argument is that Islamophobia is wrong because Islamophobia is racism.

Since that statement is quite clearly false, the argument is junk.

[THIRD 672v] Islam is a belief system, I believe that this belief system is largely regressive, if I want to criticise it then that doesn't make me a racist. People shouting racist and islamaphobe and trying to shut down any debate are damaging democracy.

[FOURTH 671v] Islam is not race.

[FIFTH 606v] If it were my faith I would want to know why the word 'phobia' never seems to be attached to any other of the worlds religions.

[SIXTH 535v] "Islamophobia is racism."

It isn't. And labelling it as such feels like an attempt to shut down any criticism of Islam - reasonable or not - by simply yelling 'RACIST!'

[SEVENTH 498v] Sigh. Islam is not a race. [Guardian Cif] Read more

'It's pork or nothing', French mayor tells pupils

Another week in France and another row has broken out surrounding secularism or laïcité as it’s is called.

After town halls were told to remove nativity scenes because they were against the principle of “laicïté” one mayor in the south of France has used the same argument to justify “a pork or nothing” policy in his school.

From January 1st pupils in the little town of Sargé-lès-Le Mans in the Sarthe department of north-western France will not be offered a substitute meal if they don’t eat pork. [The Local] Read more

New report on UK sharia ‘marriages’ exposes “tip of the iceberg”

A report by a human rights group has exposed the vulnerability of Muslim women living in Islamic 'marriages' in the UK.

The report finds that the widespread practice of polygamy has left Muslim women without legal rights upon 'divorce', entirely dependent on their 'husbands' for financial support, and often unable to leave sham 'marriages' for fear of social ostracism or bringing "shame" to their family.

According to the report, written by AURAT, a charity which supports victims of honour-based violence, many Muslim women are unsure of their legal rights and some women were even left believing that 'marriage' ceremonies were valid simply because they had taken place in the UK. [National Secular Society] Read more

Mass polygamy in UK Muslim community – claim

Polygamy is being practised on an “enormous” scale within the British Muslim community without any official attempt to stop it, it has been claimed.

A new study of the lives of Muslim women concludes that large numbers are being denied basic legal rights by being trapped in religiously sanctioned “marriages” which are not recognised in British law.

In some cases the women, often born abroad and brought to the UK for arranged marriages, are unaware about their true status for years on end.

The findings come from a study being presented to the House of Lords by the peer Baroness Cox, who has spearheaded attempt to impose new regulations on informal sharia courts. [The Telegraph] Read more

Damning Ofsted report reveals 'radicalisation' of pupils remains key concern at some Birmingham schools

The radicalisation of pupils remains a “key concern” in Birmingham, education watchdogs have revealed in a damning report on the state of West Midland schools published today.

And the report by Ofsted outlining its findings at the region’s schools over the last academic year has warned that there is “no room for complacency”.

It comes after a turbulent 12 months in which the Trojan Horse scandal has gripped the city, with hardline Muslims found to be attempting to take control of governing bodies at some Birmingham schools.

Ofsted put five schools in special measures in April after snap inspections sparked by the controversy. Re-inspections in September found the schools were not improving quickly enough. [Birmingham Mail] Read more

Statement of Geert Wilders during His Interrogation by the State Police

.... Our freedom is being threatened. Threatened by a violent totalitarian ideology – Islam – that brings with it death and devastation. Threatened by a politically correct elite that does not tolerate criticism of Islam and mass immigration, and that nurtures cultural relativism.

I rise up against this.

As a democratically elected politician I name the problems that I see. I name the dangers and disadvantages that we experience in the Netherlands as a result of cultural relativism, mass immigration and the ongoing Islamization.

That is my task. That is my duty. That is why I have been elected. That is the reason why I am in politics and why I founded the Party for Freedom (PVV). [Gatestone Institute] Read more

Persecution of Pakistan's religious minorities intensifies, says report

Violence and discrimination against Pakistan's religious minorities such as Ahmadis, Christians and Hindus have intensified to a level where many live in daily fear of violence or harassment, a report by rights groups said on Tuesday.

It said the government's failure to protect these communities was encouraging perpetrators to act with impunity.

"Despite some recent signs of progress in Pakistan, there continues to be high levels of religious discrimination in the country," said the report by London-based Minority Rights Group and Islamabad-based International and Sustainable Development Policy Institute. [Thomson Reuters Foundation] Read more

Far Right Numbers Swell As 10,000 Germans March Against 'Extreme Islam'

German extremists converged on Monday night for one of the biggest far-right rallies the country has seen in years, with so-called "anti-Islam" marches now becoming a near-weekly occurrence.

Thousands descended on downtown Dresden in a march organised by a group calling itself "Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West", known by its German acronym PEGIDA.

But the 10,000-strong demonstration was matched almost to the man by counter-demonstrators, who came out in solidarity with the city's minority population, though the state of Saxony, where Dresden is located, has comparatively few Muslims.

[TOP RATED COMMENT] Just the beginning methinks and not just in Germany. The politicians have a lot to answer for with their failed multicultural policies.

[ANOTHER] Islam is a cancer spreading through the world and will eventually have to be dealt with just like any cancer.

[ANOTHER] Its not the far right in Germany, no swastikas, its the ordninary people. I've talked to some German friends, its just the ORDINARY PEOPLE. [The Huffington Post UK] Read more

Geert Wilders defends ‘fewer Moroccans’ chant, quotes Martin Luther King

PVV leader Geert Wilders is sticking by his ‘fewer Moroccan’ statements made earlier this year, the anti-Islam campaigner said in a statement on Monday. ‘I am not taking back a single word I said,’ Wilders said in the statement he gave to police investigating claims he incited racial hatred.

Wilders was interviewed on Monday morning on the orders of the public prosecution department. The department said in October Wilders is ‘suspected of having insulted a population group with respect to their race and of incitement to discrimination and hatred’. [DutchNews] Read more

Trojan Horse school former head: "I was pushed out for teaching kids British values"

The former head teacher of a Birmingham school at the heart of the Trojan Horse plot claims he was forced out after a campaign of “emotional harassment” by Muslim governors.

Balwant Bains, a Sikh who was sent on ‘gardening leave’ from Saltley School in October last year, claims he was pushed out for refusing to stop teaching pupils British values.

Mr Bains, who eventually decided to quit the job, said he was accused of Islamophobia and racism after he tried to expel a Muslim pupil who allegedly threatened other students with a knife.

And the teacher, who helped the school get record GCSE results in 2013, said he was belittled for opposing plans by Muslim governors to scrap sex education lessons and introduce Halal-only meat for school dinners. [Birmingham Mail] Read more

Germans take to the streets to protest against 'Islamisation'

A new type of anti-immigration protest is sweeping across Germany, as thousands take to the streets against what they say is the growing “Islamisation” of the country.

The new protests, which began in the city of Dresden in the former East Germany, feature no neo-Nazi slogans and have nothing to do with the traditional far right.

Instead the demonstrators have adopted the old rallying call of the protests against the East German communist regime that brought down the Berlin Wall 25 years ago, “Wir sind das Volk”, or “We are the people”. They say they want to preserve Germany’s Judeo-Christian Western culture. [The Telegraph] Read more

ISIS behead four children in Iraq after they refuse to convert to Islam

Barbaric Islamic State militants have beheaded four Christian children in Iraq for refusing to convert to Islam, according to a British vicar based in Baghdad.

Cannon Andrew White claims the beheadings took place in a Christian enclave close to Baghdad which has been recently overrun by Islamic State.

Cannon White, who has been ordered by the Archbishop of Canterbury to leave Iraq for his own safety, is one of only a handful of Christian leaders in the country. [Mirror Online] Read more

Why does Islam beget violence?

.... ABC reporters and commentators, especially on Radio National, babbled how this unfortunate episode had nothing to do with Islam, given Monis was clearly crazy.

Islamic groups claimed nothing in their faith licensed this ghastly attack and Monis’s former lawyer, Manny Conditsis, summed up this deep evasion in an interview with the ABC: “Yes, he said he was of the Islam faith but he could have been any other damaged individual that did what he did.”

Except, of course, we rarely get damaged individuals killing people in chocolate shops in the name of Buddha. We don’t get damaged individuals beheading a British soldier in the name of Christ.

We didn’t get damaged individuals shooting a Canadian soldier guarding Canada’s cenotaph, or plotting bombings of our MCG, or trying to blow up jets with the explosives in their shoes or their underwear in the name of any faith other than Islam. [The Courier-Mail] Read more

A Sikh Principal, Too English for a Largely Muslim School

As a Sikh and second-generation Briton running a public school made up mostly of Muslim students, Balwant Bains was at the center of the issues facing multicultural Britain, including the perennial question of balancing religious precepts and cultural identity against assimilation.

But in January, Mr. Bains stepped down as the principal of the Saltley School and Specialist Science College, saying he could no longer do the job in the face of relentless criticism from the Muslim-dominated school board.

It had pressed him, unsuccessfully, to replace some courses with Islamic and Arabic studies, segregate girls and boys and drop a citizenship class on tolerance and democracy in Britain. [NYTimes.com] Read more

Dilly Hussain and the Islamophobic media conspiracy

Dillly Hussain asserts in his latest post that there is a ’systematic and coordinated effort by the mainstream media to criminalise Islam’. This claim is based on research demonstrating that most stories which mention Muslims do so in a negative context. He then complains about the use of the term ‘moderate Muslim’:

"The use of “moderate Muslim” is used in every positive article, and it appears that “moderate Muslims” are conveyed as good for not being “fully Muslim”. [Harry’s Place] Read more

Lord Mayor walks out of Islamic charity lunch after his lady consort was told she had to sit downstairs at the event

A Lord Mayor walked out of an Islamic charity lunch after discovering that he would have to be segregated from his female consort.

Labour councillor John Thomas, 70, arrived at the function last Sunday with consort Margaret Corley, 72.

But Councillor Thomas, the Lord Mayor of Leicester, was said to be upset at being told he would have to dine in an upstairs function room with male guests, while his consort would be seated downstairs with the other women.

The lunch was held to mark the end of Charity Week – an annual fundraising event supported by around 20 university Islamic societies in the UK, and others in Canada and Qatar. It took place at a wedding and conference venue near Leicester railway station.

[TOP RATED COMMENT 17031 votes] Well done. This is stand for English culture and the respectful way we treat our ladies if they are not happy with this they are free to return to their own country

[SECOND 13040v] Well done Mayor.

[THIRD 11726v] Unbelivable they thought they could still get away with this sort of thing!

[FOURTH 10274v] MP Jim Fitzpatrick faced a similar situation and walked out with his wife. Good man, Jim!

[FIFTH 9171v] In this country, in which you live, men and women are not segregated. We find it insulting to regard women as inferior, unclean, or unbearably tempting. Perhaps it's about time you caught on to this the better. [Daily Mail] Read more

Women driving takes a new turn: Activists advised to undergo counseling

There has been mixed reaction to the attempt by a Saudi woman to drive home across the border from the UAE, with some urging a less confrontational manner to highlight the issue.

Lojane Al-Hadhlul has a driver's license issued in the UAE. Saudi border control officers stopped her from entering Saudi territory in her car on the Saudi-UAE border on Monday.

.... Chief of the Hadhlul clan, Abdul Rahman Al-Hadhlul, deputy chairman of the Riyadh Charity Society for the Memorization of the Holy Qur'an, said the women's driving campaign is part of a Western anti-Saudi initiative.

“Any conservative society committed to its values will stand up against these Western attacks with the help of its wise sons especially when the campaigns violate the country's rules,” he said.

He said he supports counseling for women driving activists so that they change their attitude. [Arab News] Read more

Islam Is Not The Problem

I was appalled by Bill Mahers and Sam Harris' coverage of Islam and terrorism several weeks ago. I am appalled as someone who is not a Muslim, rather someone who is an atheist and does not believe in a higher power.

I am not a religious scholar by any means, and never make claims to such, yet this Islamophobia that is professed is dangerous and leads to disenfranchisement toward so many in the Muslim community. Muslims are no different than anyone else, they have the same goals and aspirations as anyone else.

Islam is not the problem, and has never been the problem. We must ask ourselves, what is religion?

[TOP RATED COMMENT] Islam is certainly the problem, as it and its followers promote ideology that leads to violence and the subjugation of women.

[ANOTHER] I agree wholeheartedly with Bill Maher attitude towards Islam, I took a course in grad school on religions of the world. Believe it or not the course was being taught by an ex Muslim. He was extremely against the religion he was taught, he quoted passages of the Koran which basically said if your Islamic, its your duty to deny, and hate other religions. He said that radical groups take this even farther by executing defectors, and women who go against Islamic Law.

[ANOTHER] If the Koran explicitly tells you to kill the infidel that does not convert to Islam then I think it is a problem! [The Huffington Post] Read more

Gunmen target Pakistan lawyer defending blasphemy accused

Gunmen opened fire at the residence of a Pakistani lawyer defending a university lecturer accused of blasphemy and dropped a letter warning him to withdraw from the case, police said Thursday.

Shahbaz Gormani escaped unhurt after gunmen riding motorbikes attacked his residence in the central city of Multan late Wednesday.

Gormani had been appointed defence lawyer in the case after gunmen shot dead Rashid Rehman, a defence counsel for Junaid Hafeez in May. [MailOnline] Read more

Iran moves forward with death penalty over Facebook posts

A 30-year-old blogger and photographer has been sentenced to death in Iran for "insulting the prophet of Islam" on Facebook, drawing renewed attention to the country's notorious human rights record.

The man, Soheil Arabi, was convicted in a Tehran criminal court in August after admitting to posting the defamatory content. His lawyers argued that he had done so while "in poor psychological condition," according to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, and that he was merely sharing views held by others.

But Iran's Supreme Court upheld the conviction late last month and went a step further by adding a charge of "sowing corruption of Earth." This charge is also punishable by death and cannot be pardoned, according to Arabi's lawyer. [The Verge] Read more

#BBCtrending: Saudi woman driving blog 'arrest'

The name of a woman who live-tweeted her attempt to drive across the Saudi Arabian border has become an international trend, as rumours of her arrest circulate online.

On 30 November Saudi activist, Lujain Al-Hathlool, filmed herself driving in the United Arab Emirates with the intention of crossing the border back to her home country as a part of the ongoing '26 October' campaign, which challenges the Saudi ban on female drivers. The video has had over 800,000 views and over 3,000 comments on YouTube. [BBC] Read more

A very harsh religion

....Islam is a very harsh religion, and what ISIS is now doing is, perhaps, a physical manifestation of this religion.

The Quranic texts are crystal clear. When the Quran says "strike their necks," it is very clear. When it says "Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day, and who do not consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful, and who do not adopt the religion of truth from those who were given the Scripture – until they give the jizya willingly while they are humbled" it is very clear, and ISIS understands and implements it in Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere. [Mick Hartley] Read more

Religious leaders unite to end modern slavery – with one Islamic amendment

.... By demurring from the affirmation that it is God who affirms that “each human being is a free person, whether girl, boy, woman or man, and is destined to exist for the good of all in equality and fraternity”, the Grand Imam of Al Azhar sends out a very clear message about his interpretation of Sunni Islam, namely that: “In the eyes of religions, each human being is a free person, whether girl, boy, woman or man, and is destined to exist for the good of all in equality and fraternity. But in the eyes of Allah, it ain’t necessarily so.”

.... Shari’a is a complex contextual system of religious laws and a political mindset which approves of inter alia death for apostasy, the amputation of limbs as punishment, stoning to death for adultery, the belief that a woman’s evidence is worth less than a man’s, blood money and polygamy.

Might not any of these inequalities generate or perpetuate a state of slavery? And what about the Jizya? For it is written in the Qur’an (9:29): “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.” [Archbishop Cranmer] Read more

Vicar of Baghdad: Four Iraqi Christian Kids Beheaded After Refusing to Convert to Islam, Telling ISIS Militants 'No, We Love Jesus'

Four Iraqi Christian children, who were all beheaded by the Islamic State, refused to betray Jesus and graciously died in his name when the ISIS militants gave them one last chance to say the Islamic words of conversion, the Rev. Canon Andrew White revealed in a recent interview.

In an interview last week with the Christian Broadcast Network published on the Orthodox Christian Network, White, who is the only Anglican vicar in Iraq and is know as "The Vicar of Baghdad," detailed the plight of Christians in Iraq and recounted two instances when Islamic State's forceful conversions directly pulled the strings of his heart.

Speaking on ISIS' brutal mistreatment of religious minorities, White recounted the recent incident when ISIS militants beheaded four kids, all of whom were under the age of 15, when the kids refused to say that they would follow the Prophet Muhammad and told the ISIS fighters that they will always "love" and "follow" Jesus. [The Christian Post] Read more

No sign of pardon for Iran blogger sentenced to death

On Dec. 1, the deputy head of Iran’s judiciary, Gholam Ali Mohseni Ejei, responded to a reporter’s question about Soheil Arabi, who was sentenced to death for Facebook posts deemed insulting to the Prophet Muhammad. Ejei said, “Currently, there is no pardon, and he’s been convicted of ‘corruption on Earth,’ but there has been a request for his case to be reviewed again.”

According to the transcript provided by Islamic Republic News Agency, Mohseni Ejei did not elaborate further.

Many Iranian Facebook users became aware of Arabi’s case on Nov. 24, when Iran's Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for Arabi, who was convicted in a Tehran criminal court with insulting the prophet. A Facebook page against Arabi's execution was set up to spread awareness about the case. [Al-Monitor] Read more

Trojan Horse: six more suspensions at Park View Educational Trust

.... The entire governing board of the Trust, which runs Park View School, Golden Hillock and Nansen Primary, resigned earlier this year following damning reports into Trojan Horse by Ofsted, the city council and former terror chief Peter Clarke.

The latest disciplinary action follows the suspension of Monzoor Hussain, then Park View School acting principal, and Nansen deputy head Razwan Faraz in July.

The teachers were both reportedly part of a WhatsApp group which suggested the killing of Drummer Lee Rigby and the bombing of the Boston Marathon were faked.

Mr Hussain and Mr Faraz – a former teacher at Park View School – were said to have been two of the “most prolific” contributors to the group called the Park View Brotherhood, according to the Clarke report. [Birmingham Mail] Read more

CDU state politican calls for banning burkas in Germany

On Monday, Julia Klöckner, deputy chief of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Rhineland-Palatinate, spoke in favor of banning the burka, a head-to-toe veil worn by women in some Islamic cultures that covers the whole body other than the eyes.

She told the German newspaper Rheinische Post that, for her, burkas "did not stand for religious diversity, but for a degrading image of women." She said that the German constitution emphasized that women and men were of equal value and that "looking at people's faces" also belonged to the culture of an open society.

According to Klöckner, burkas suggest that women needed to be under the veil because they would otherwise cause offense. Klöckner asserted that the "male observer" was the problem in this case and not the woman. [Deutsche Welle] Read more

Birmingham trust 'set up Pakistan school with public cash'

Claims £1m in taxpayers' cash was used to set up a faith school in Pakistan are being investigated by a local authority.

The Al-Hijrah Trust, which runs the Al-Hijrah Islamic school in Birmingham, allegedly used the cash to fund a "sister school".

Birmingham City Council said it was working with relevant statutory agencies to investigate the claims

The trust has not yet responded to BBC requests for comment.

A Birmingham City Council statement said: "We have gathered enough information to warrant further investigation into the use of public funds and we continue to work with the relevant statutory agencies.

"If we find anything criminal it will be referred to the police." [BBC] Read more

Veena Malik denies blasphemy charges

A leading actress has been caught up in a blasphemy row in Pakistan - after being sentenced to 26 years in prison, following an appearance on a TV show.

As well as convicting Veena Malik, the court in the Gilgit-Baltistan region also gave sentences to her husband, and the owner of Geo News, the network which broadcast the programme. Correspondents say there are questions over the court's jurisdiction and arrests are unlikely.

The show caused outrage amongst some Pakistanis because it showed people dancing to a religious song about the wedding of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad's daughter. [BBC] Read more

Inspectors 'failing to spot signs of extremism' at private Muslim schools

A watchdog set up to vet standards at private Muslim schools is failing to identify the “warning signs of extremism and radicalisation”, according to Ofsted.

The Bridge Schools Inspectorate was found to be relying “too heavily” on assurances from head teachers without making an informed judgment about schools.

In a report, Ofsted said some inspectors working for the watchdog failed to demonstrate ways to “root out extremist behaviour, views and practices”. [The Telegraph] Read more

Al-Hijrah Trust facing probe over claim £1m of public cash was spent on school in Pakistan

Council bosses are investigating claims that a Trust running a failing Birmingham school used £1 million of taxpayer cash to fund a new school in Pakistan.

Al-Hijrah opened in Burbidge Road, Bordesley Green, in 1999 and was at that time the city’s only Islamic school.

It is run by the Al-Hijrah Trust but was placed in special measures in May after a damning Ofsted report branded it “inadequate”.

A month later the entire governing body was sacked after financial troubles, including a £900,000 budget deficit, were revealed and a new interim board was parachuted in to take over.

Now it is understood the council is investigating claims that the Trust used public money to help fund a £1 million state-of-the-art school in the city of Ziarat in Pakistan. [Birmingham Mail] Read more

Islam and the Context Argument

As such the “fix” for the beheading passages in the Koran cannot rely on the distinction between prescription and description or testimony. The fix, as such, is a context argument. Here is a prototypical passage and the fix:

Quran 8:12. When your Lord revealed to the angels: I am with you, therefore make firm those who believe. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.

The explanation from Muslim apologists is that the background for this command is within an actual battle situation. The Battle of Badr in the year 624 is the time and place where Muslim warriors were called to defend their people.

So, indeed, context is everything. And context follows the historical development of Islamic power: [New English Review] Read more

Pope and patriarch condemn expulsion of Christians from Middle East

Pope Francis has condemned the persecution of Christian communities in the Middle East, blaming the fanaticism of terrorist groups such as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).

The Pope warned that Christians were in danger of being wiped out in the region on the final day of his visit to Turkey, which has been accused of failing to stop Islamist extremists from crossing its borders into Syria and Iraq.

His position put him at odds with Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had earlier blamed the emergence of Isil on “rising Islamophobia” in the West. [The Telegraph] Read more

British Muslims face worst job discrimination of any minority group, according to research

Muslims experience the worst discrimination of any other minority group in the UK when it comes to job prospects, new research has found.

The research, revealed by The Independent, found that Muslims are seen by employers as "disloyal and threatening" which results in followers of Islam being far less likely to be employed than Christians.

Muslim men are up to 76% less likely to have a job than white British Christian men of the same age, with the same qualifications.

[TOP RATED COMMENT] There is far more discrimination in Muslim countries than here. There is also much more equality too. I know of no Muslim country where women are treated as equals as they are here. I love my country and I object to people running it down. If it is such a bad place to live, why are so many Muslims living here?

[ANOTHER] Perhaps because the law discriminates too positively toward that group,requiring employers to make allowances for prayers, Ramadan, other festivals, even not handling packaged pork products etc. It's perhaps seen as less hassle to not have to battle with their needs?

[ANOTHER] It's Islam and all it's rules that's the problem, wanting to stop work five times a day to prey, not allowed to touch certain things, wanting to eat at different times for things such has Ramadan. No it is Islam that makes too hard to employ Muslims. That is why they are a drain on the economy. [The Huffington Post UK] Read more

Real Madrid and the offence of the cross

It was a really tiny cross. Honestly, it was barely noticeable in all that pearly pizzazz and gaudy gold. The Crown of Alfonso XII has been a sacred symbol of the Spanish Monarchy for more than 300 years, and that symbolism is reified by the Christian cross which sits at the crest of majesty. God has appointed; Christ is the source of wisdom; the Church proclaims its earthly sovereign. Europe still resonates with the echoes of Christendom: our history is undeniable; the fons et origo of our law, morality, freedom and fraternity are irrefutable.

But not for Spain’s supreme football team Real Madrid, who, despite proudly bearing the ‘Royal’ epithet, have excised the cross of Christ’s regency from their iconic crest after securing a sponsorship deal with the National Bank of Abu Dhabi.

Apparently it’s only the sponsored credit card which carries the theologically-emasculated emblem. But that credit card doubles as the Real Madrid club membership card, so escaping sharia sensitivities censorship would appear to be impossible. [Archbishop Cranmer] Read more

'Terror link’ charities get British millions in Gift Aid

Charities accused of supporting jihad in Syria and other forms of terrorism have been paid millions of pounds by British taxpayers.

Groups under investigation for allegedly aiding Syrian militants have used the Gift Aid system to claim large sums from the public purse.

Among them is Al-Fatiha Global, a Midlands-based charity which is being investigated by the Charity Commission after the chief executive’s son was apparently pictured in Syria with his arms round two masked men holding AK47s. He denies the photograph is of him. [The Telegraph] Read more

More from MEND: Islamophobia Awareness Month

.... A MEND Islamophobia Awareness event on demonising Muslim youth depicts a Muslim girl with horns. Alongside the picture is a tendentious Daily Star headline, a report of disgraceful vandalism at a Muslim cemetery – and this assertion:

"Muslim faith schools and Muslim run state schools are characterised as educating Muslim children to hate Western values and culture."

This is not some kind of completely unfounded slur. It’s rather starkly put, but some of the evidence arising from the ‘Trojan Horse’ investigation would support this allegation.

By smearing secularists and liberals (including many Muslims) as ‘Islamophobes’, and seeming to delegitimise even measured criticisms of anything associated with Islam, organisations such as MEND only feed the fears of genuine bigots. [Harry’s Place] Read more

Faith schools told: judiciary comes before religious law

Faith schools face being penalised for placing religious laws ahead of the British judicial system under plans to promote respect for other cultures.

New guidance from the Department for Education says all pupils must be made aware of the difference between the “law of the land” and moral codes such as Christian canon law and Islamic sharia.

Schools should not "teach anything that undermines" the civil and criminal law, it says. [The Telegraph] Read more

Muslim duo’s refusal to stand is ‘a slur on court’

TWO Muslims have refused to stand for a District Court judge, with one claiming they are not “at the behest of any authority other than Islam”.

Under NSW law an accused is required to stand to hear the charge against them and respond with a plea of guilty or not guilty.

Wassim Fayad and co-accused Milad Bin Ahmad-Shah Al-Ahmadzai both defied the law yesterday and remained seated during their arraignments on an aggravated break and enter charge in Parramatta District Court. [The Daily Telegraph] Read more

Islamic women’s groups welcome call for imams to denounce domestic violence

Islamic women’s groups have welcomed a call by the peak body for Australia’s Muslim clerics that imams around the country should use their sermons this Friday to denounce domestic violence.

The president of the Australian National Imams Council, Imam Abdel Aziem, has appealed to Islamic religious leaders to speak out against family violence in their khutbah, a sermon usually delivered before prayers on Friday, Islam’s holiest day of the week.

.... “Islamically, it’s very clear that violence against women is very much forbidden.”

Imams play an important role in contextualising passages within the 1,400-year-old religion’s holy book that appeared to subordinate women or condone their physical abuse, she said.

[TOP RATED COMMENT] If they're serious then they should start by denouncing the old Surah 4:34. You know the one, when God says it's ok to beat disobedient women. Can't see it happening though.

[SECOND] You beat me to it ... Sura 4:34 (Pickthall translation): Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women).

So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them. Lo! Allah is ever High, Exalted, Great.

Good luck getting a cafeteria ... sorry, "moderate" interpretation of the sura from the imams. [The Guardian] Read more

British Muslims face worst job discrimination of any minority group, according to research

Muslims are facing the worst job discrimination of any minority group in Britain, according to new research which found that they had the lowest chance of being in work or in a managerial role.

Muslim men were up to 76 per cent less likely to have a job of any kind compared to white, male British Christians of the same age and with the same qualifications. And Muslim women were up to 65 per cent less likely to be employed than white Christian counterparts.

Muslims were the most disadvantaged in terms of employment prospects out of 14 ethno-religious groupings in the UK, researchers Dr Nabil Khattab and Professor Ron Johnston found using data from the Office for National Statistics' Labour Force Survey of more than half a million people. Skin colour made little difference to the figures.

[TOP RATED COMMENT] You have a section of society that does not want to integrate, wants to use its own language, dress, social practises, even when they are illegal in this country, even when they are 2nd or 3rd generation born here, and they are surprised they are not treated equally.

Time off to pray multi times a day that we will all die so they can take over the world, time off to take there kiddies 'home' to marry them off once they are nearly 10.

The ones who get on have integrated. The ones who want to live as if it was 1200 years ago will not be welcome until they do integrate. Or they could go 'home' rather than living in their enclaves here.

[SECOND] Try getting a job with a Muslim employer if you are not a Muslim. It ain't gonna happen. These essentially anti-white headlines sicken me.

[THIRD] Under no circumstances whatsoever would I employ a Muslim of whatever nationality, whatever age or qualification. They are enemies of democracy and enemies of Christianity and we have made a serious mistake in allowing them into the country. Whatever they might tell you publicly they all support the Muslim extremist organisations.

[FOURTH] Should we perhaps learn tolerance from how Muslims treat Christians in Islamic countries?

[FIFTH] "They are perceived as disloyal and as a threat rather than just as a disadvantaged minority" Here we go; the muslim as victim. Again. Nothing to do with their attitude, e.g. taking jobs in British supermarkets but refusing to sell alcohol or pork to the customers, or turning up for work with their faces covered? Who would have guessed that an attitude like that might have deterred companies from employing them? Amazing! [The Independent] Read more

Dutch MP calls for removal of all mosques in Netherlands

A Dutch right-wing political party has demanded Netherlands be cleared of mosques, amid an ongoing row over the integration of Muslim and Turkish minorities in the country.

Machiel de Graaf, a member of Dutch anti-immigration and anti-Islam Party for Freedom (PVV), asked all mosques in the country to be shut down while speaking during a debate on integration in the House of Representatives.

Emphasizing that a Netherlands without mosques would be better, the parliamentarian said “We want to clean Netherlands of Islam.”

In addition to not being integrated into Dutch society and refuse to be assimilated, Muslims living in the country threaten Dutch identity and culture by giving more birth, according to de Graaf.

De Graaf’s remarks drew harsh criticism from members of social democratic parties attending the debate. [Hürriyet Daily News] Read more

'British values' or universal rights?

.... Veerman, if I've understood the article correctly, is not saying that all Muslims are equally bad but that we should stop trying so hard to categorise them. A better way forward, Veerman suggests, would be to focus on "certain key concepts that are commonplace throughout most of the Islamic continuum" – including sharia and jihad which, in the way they are most commonly interpreted, are clearly at odds with universal rights.

This kind of concept-based approach could be a lot more fruitful in identifying precisely where the problems lie. [al-bab.com] Read more

Iran Upholds Death Sentence for Photographer Who Insulted Prophet on Facebook

An Iranian photographer and blogger has seen his death sentence upheld by the country's Supreme Court for insulting the Prophet Mohammed in several Facebook posts, according to local reports.

The photographer, 30-year-old Soheil Arabi, was arrested in November 2013 by the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) in his home in Tehran, over allegations of "insulting the Prophet of Islam" (sabbo al-nabi).

Arabi was jailed for two months in solitary confinement in the feared section 2A of Evin Prison, which is under the rule of the IRGC.

.... But his lawyers had hoped that the Supreme Court would dismiss the charges based on Article 263 of the Islamic Penal Code. According to International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, the article "explicitly states that if a suspect claims in court that he said the insulting words in anger, in quoting someone, or by mistake, his death sentence will be converted to 74 lashes".

However, the top court not only confirmed the death sentence, but also added a new charge - "corruption on earth" - which cannot receive a pardon under Iranian law. [International Business Times] Read more

Veena Malik and the modern witch-hunt of Pakistani blasphemy laws

It’s hard to read about the blasphemy convictions handed down to Pakistani actress Veena Malik and her husband Asad Bashir, media owner Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, and television presenter host Shaista Wahidi without a sense of frustration and confusion over the arbitrary application of the country’s blasphemy laws.

Malik and Bashir took part in a restaging of their wedding on a programme on Geo TV, owned by Shakil-ur-Rahman. Playing in the background was a song about the marriage of one of Mohammad’s daughters. That, apparently, was enough to trigger a prosecution.

[A TOP RATED COMMENT] Has David Cameron said "This has nothing to do with Islam" yet? I hope I haven't missed it because it cracks me up every time. One of the funniest catchphrases ever.

It's like Tommy Cooper and "Just like that!" You know it's repetitive nonsense and not really even funny at all - but the sheer unadulterated, predictable daftness of it always has you in stitches. Theresa May has taken to using it but it doesn't have the same effect. It's the way Dave tells 'em!

[ANOTHER] And the lesson is - don't let any more followers of the Prophet into this country!

[ANOTHER] In other news, "men of Somali heritage" (i.e. Muslims) have been convicted of "sexual abuse" of vulnerable non-Muslim girls in Bristol.

Pursuant to the Koran (4.3), some Muslim men consider "sex with vulnerable non-Muslim females" to be their "entitlement".

So, there have now been groups of "men of Pakistani heritage" and "men of Somali heritage" convicted of "sexual abuse" of non-Muslim females. [The Telegraph] Read more