Iran bans "tight jeans", tattoos at some universities

Iran has enforced a stricter Islamic dress code at a number of universities including a ban on female students wearing long nails, bright clothes and tattoos, a local news agency reported on Monday.

The semi-official Fars news agency published a list of universities around Iran that were given a note outlining the code but did not say on what basis they were selected.

The new rules ban women from "wearing caps or hats without scarves, tight and short jeans, and body piercing", except earrings, Fars said. It said tattoos, long nails, tooth gems, tight overcoats, and bright clothes were also banned. [Reuters] Read more

How on earth is my religion to blame for Asian gangs and sex abuse?

.... But then I turned to the Daily Mail and, specifically, to Melanie Phillips. The headline?

"While Muslim sexual predators have been jailed, it is white Britain's hypocritical values that are to blame".

My first response? Can you imagine a headline that said, "While Jewish murderers have been jailed . . ." or "While Hindu bank robbers have been jailed . . ."? When was it that we first started classifying crimes and criminals by religious affiliation?

Phillips, of course, has long suffered from a sort of Muslims Tourette's syndrome -- she refers to Muslims 18 times in her column today. [New Statesman] Read more

No sex-education please, we are Muslims

Dr Mobin Akhtar is on a mission to educate Pakistanis in sexual matters, but his latest attempt to do so has caused controversy.

The release of his book - Sex Education for Muslims - aims to teach people about sex in a way that is in keeping with Islamic instruction.

Dr Akhtar, 81, says the fact that sex is not discussed in Pakistan is having serious repercussions. As a psychiatrist, he says he has witnessed them himself, and that is why he felt the need to write his book. "There's a huge problem in our country," he says. [OneWorld South Asia] Read more [via National Secular Society]

Like it or not, we must find common ground with British Muslims who stand up to fanatics

.... Not many rational people would condemn Jack Straw as a racial bigot, but his remarks on the attitude of some young Muslims of Pakistani origin towards white women would until now have come only from spokesmen for the BNP.

Nor, I think would have one expected until recently to find on a New Statesman blog an article like that posted recently by Medhi Hasan in which he quotes extensively from Professor Pervez Hoodbhoy’s article “Why do they pick on us Pakistanis?” which is a plea for Pakistani Muslims to understand the culture of the host society in which they live.

.... There are Muslims out there seeking an accommodation with our society. They may not be able to defeat the Islamist fanatics, but we would be foolish to reject a hand held out in understanding and reconciliation.

There is common ground to be found and the alternative is far from attractive. It must however be made clear that there can be no possibility of any legal status for Sharia. Law is a matter for the state, not the Church nor Mosque. Nor should there be any recognition of polygamy, nor toleration of forced or child marriage. [telegraph.co.uk] Read more

I agree with Inayat

.... The irony here is that Inayat Bunglawala has devoted most of his life to raising the political consciousness of Muslims, as Muslims; to placing a private religious identity firmly in the public sphere in Britain; to championing (what he has described as the Muslim Council of Britain's most signficant achievement) "a greater sense of faith identity among British Muslims in place of the outdated and mostly irrelevant ‘ethnic’ based categories of yesteryear."

What we are seeing in Pakistan - established under Jinnah as a secular country, but one explicitly for Muslims - is precisely what happens when you let religion (above all this particular religion) form the basis of political organisation. [Heresy Corner] Read more

Mecca-based Muslim outfit prohibits depiction of religious figures in movies

FILMS depicting religious characters may have the effect of “denigrating and devaluing” figures such as “holy” prophets, and “may be used to used as an excuse to ridicule them”.

So says The Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence) Council, part of the Muslim World League based in Mecca, which warned that images – not of the prophet himself but of his companions – were creeping into movies and television series.

According to this report, the council reiterated its previous decision banning the production, promotion … and viewing of these films and series. [The Freethinker] Read more

Only religious thugs love blasphemy laws

.... instead of acknowledging our fear we dress up our refusal to speak plainly in woozy therapeutic language. We talk of our "respect" for diversity and our determination to protect "the other" and fail to notice that we are abandoning "the other's" victims and aiding and abetting their enemies. Islamists threatened Ahmadis in Surrey, but the story passed virtually without comment in the British press.

When Ireland published a law that said it was a crime to "outrage a substantial number of the adherents of [a] religion", the Organisation of Islamic Countries took up Dublin's dangerously vague definition to help in the oppression of their own people's freedom of thought. And it is not only brave politicians and intellectuals such as Taseer and Rushdie who suffer. [Guardian Cif] Read more

In the wake of Taseer's murder, moderate Pakistanis must speak out

Salmaan Taseer's murder is likely to have wider and more cataclysmic consequences than even the murder of his renowned leader, Benazir Bhutto, three years ago. Everyone mourned Bhutto – even her political enemies – because she was a woman, illustrious and a possible solution to what were, even then, seen as Pakistan's insurmountable problems.

Taseer's death has unleashed the mad dogs of hell, inspiring the minority of fanatics to go to any lengths to destroy the democratic, secular and moderate Islamic Republic of Pakistan. [Guardian Cif] Read more

A closer look at reports about the growth of Islam in the UK

Two reports seem to suggest that Islam in the UK is growing faster than anyone realised. The first, published by Faith Matters, looks specifically at conversions to Islam, concluding that between 2001 and 2010 the number of British converts rose from 60,000 to 100,000. Meanwhile, a forthcoming US Pew Forum report estimates that the total number of UK Muslims is 2.9 million (4.6%) compared with 1.6 million (2.8%) in 2001.

The alarming increase of Islam, along with the marginalisation of Christianity, is the constant theme of the conservative media, a wearying vuvuzela drone, though doubtless intended as a trumpet blast. [Guardian Cif] Read more

A Review: Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: UK case studies 2010

A guest contributon by LibertyPhile which merits attention. This report has had very little coverage. Andrew Gilligan gave it a mention, as did Harry’s Place and it was reviewed at Left Foot Forward.

This publication is likely to be thrust in the face of the new All Party Parliamentary Group on Islamophobia, and for that reason, it merits a little analysis.

And perhaps Exeter University should be taken to task for allowing its name to be associated with this kind of political tract. By Robert Lambert and Jonathan Githens-Mazer. Published by European Muslim Research Centre (EMRC), University of Exeter. [Archbishop Cranmer] Read more

Appeal From The Danish Free Speech Society

Free speech is under attack in Denmark. Please help us preserve it.

Those who have been following the Danish cartoon crisis and several subsequent attempts by radical Muslims to kill and bomb Danes and Danish institutions may be excused for believing that Denmark is in the forefront of the battle for free speech. And indeed it used to be that way.

No longer. For the past year the Danish public prosecutor has been waging a lawfare offensive against outspoken critics of Islam and Muslim practices. [The Iconoclast] Read more

Dutch commission says Muslim pupils can wear headscarves

The Equal Opportunities Commission in the Netherlands on Friday said that a Catholic high school in the town of Volendam in Northern Holland is guilty of discrimination on religious grounds for banning a Muslim pupil from wearing a headscarf.

Dutch media reported that the girl started wearing a headscarf (Hijab) this school year and was banned from attending classes.

Her father made a complaint to the commission, which said school pupils should, in principle, be free to wear a headscarf, Jewish skullcap or Christian cross. [Ahlul Bayt News Agency] Read more [via National Secular Society]

Iran arrests dozens of converts from Islam to Christianity

These people could be murdered, for that is the traditional penalty for apostasy in Islamic law.

Islamic apologists in the U.S. routinely deny that Islamic law mandates that apostates from Islam be murdered.

"A Muslim's conversion to Christianity is not a crime punishable by death under Islamic law." -- M. Cherif Bassiouni "It becomes really difficult, in light of this information, to persuasively argue that Islamic Law should permit a death penalty for apostasy." -- Ali Eteraz

Unfortunately for the apostates, the facts are otherwise. [Jihad Watch] Read more

Anti-Christian crimes downplayed

We’ve heard outlandish allegations of Islamophobia sweeping America. Not getting nearly as much attention is the bloody persecution of Christians in parts of the Muslim world.

Every report of an Islamist terrorist plot is accompanied by a chorus of warnings against Americans hating or attacking Muslim Americans. Yet, that much-ballyhooed bigotry almost never seems to arise.

The latest FBI hate crime statistics, for 2009, found that 8.4 percent of the 1,575 victims of anti-religious crimes were attacked because of anti-Islamic bias. In contrast, 71.9 percent of the victims were Jews.

No doubt acts of intolerance against Muslims can be found, and they should be condemned. But Muslims aren’t fleeing America in fear of their lives like Christians are leaving some Islamic nations.

.... eight of the top 10 countries that are the most dangerous for Christians to practice their religion are nations with Islamic majorities, including Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen. [Chigago Sun-Times] Read more [via Jihad Watch]

Somalia's al-Shabab bans mixed-sex handshakes

Men and women have been banned from shaking hands in a district of Somalia controlled by the Islamist group al-Shabab.

Under the ban imposed in the southern town of Jowhar, men and women who are not related are also barred from walking together or chatting in public.

It is the first time such social restrictions have been introduced. The al-Shabab administration said those who disobeyed the new rules would be punished according to Sharia law. [BBC] Read more

Bad Poetry

Any number of reliable oral traditions of the Prophet, or hadith, exist which show Muhammed’s absolute intolerance of criticism of the nascent Islamic faith and of himself by his contemporaries.

The collection of hadith in the text that follows shows that Muhammed had a particular antipathy towards the poets and satitrists of Arabia who criticised the new religion of Islam and its Prophet resulted in their death, usually by the command of Muhammed himself.

Is it possible that the humourless intolerance notorious of Muslims throughout and the total lack of a scholarly tradition of textual criticism is the result of a culture of intolerance that has been embedded into the faith by the Prophet’s own example? [The Spittoon] Read more

Egypt's Muslims attend Coptic Christmas mass, serving as "human shields"

Egypt’s majority Muslim population stuck to its word Thursday night. What had been a promise of solidarity to the weary Coptic community, was honoured, when thousands of Muslims showed up at Coptic Christmas eve mass services in churches around the country and at candle light vigils held outside.

From the well-known to the unknown, Muslims had offered their bodies as “human shields” for last night’s mass, making a pledge to collectively fight the threat of Islamic militants and towards an Egypt free from sectarian strife. [Ahram Online] Read more [via Harry’s Place]

Muslims and Truth

.... Or a spokesman for the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, Munim Abu al Fattouh Abdel: It could not have been Egyptians. Perhaps it was the Mossad or someone else interested in sabotaging Egypt.

Iranian TV put it more definitively: the Mossad. "It goes without saying that no Muslim . . . will ever commit such an inhuman act." (Surely, this one must have been said tongue in cheek?)

These accusations are, of course, risible. But they raise a serious question. What are the bounds of credulity in the mendacity-ridden Muslim societies of the Middle East?

Can preachers and spokesmen say anything, however outlandish, and expect the masses to eat it up? Is there no limit to what the infidel can be accused of—and to the expectation that the charge will stick? [The National Interest] Read more [via Mick Hartley]

What we Muslims can learn from converts

.... A report this week suggested the number of converts had doubled in the past 10 years from about 60,000 in 2001 to up to 100,000 with around 5,200 people converting to Islam in the UK last year. These figures come with a health warning – they are estimates derived from extrapolations – but if we accept that increasing numbers of British men and women are turning to Islam, it does lead to questions of why: why are people voluntarily signing up to a faith that is, if you believe what you read, a cesspit of misogyny, violence and hate?

[COMMENT] Just out of interest, how many people in the Uk left Islam or converted to Christianty. how many Christians dropped they're faith. How many people became atheists

I would suggest that the only meaningful analysis of convert numbers would have to be in relation to all relgions. Otherwise one runs the risk of being accused of trumpeting on about a single relgions "conversions" when, in fct they might be terrible numbers compared to another or compared to the numbers that have ditched religion altogether. [Guardian Cif] Read more

In denial about campus extremism

There is an interesting article on campus extremism at the Times Higher Education website that is well worth reading.

One person who has read the article and felt compelled to respond is the ‘Rev Stan Brown’, who identifies himself as ‘a chaplain at a London University’. There is a Revd Stan Brown in the Kingston University Chaplaincy, so I’m guessing this is the commenter in question.

Revd Brown is all too typical of the kind of wooly-minded individuals who can be found on campuses up and down the country. He begins his response by questioning the veracity of Quilliam Foundation and Centre for Social Cohesion reports cited in the article .... [Harry’s Place] Read more

Riding the Wave of Islamophobia - The German Geert Wilders

A former member of Chancellor Merkel's Christian Democrats has formed a party to attract voters enthralled by Thilo Sarrazin and disappointed by Germany's existing parties. Berlin politician René Stadkewitz's new Freedom Party aims to leverage fear of Islam for political ends.

The 52 men and women meeting in a conference room at the Hotel Maritim in Berlin's Tiergarten district were determined to remain undisturbed. No one else was privy to the location and time of the meeting, in a deliberate attempt to prevent protestors and journalists from showing up at the scene.

The only outsider present was Daniel Pipes, an American author, critic of Islam and advisor to former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who happened to be in the city. [SPIEGEL ONLINE] Read more

Muslim girls are covertly prepared for forced marriage. Yet the feminists stay silent

YOU really can take your pick from the interconnected headlines of the past fortnight: the church-massacres of Christians in Egypt and Iraq by al-Qa'ida, and the murder of the governor of the Punjab, followed by a petition of support for his killer from 500 "moderate" Islamic scholars in Pakistan.

Closer to home there were the terrorist conspiracies in Denmark, Sweden and Britain, and the revelation that while the Christian population in Britain fell by two million in four years, the Muslim population there increased by 74pc to 2.9 million since 2001 (yes, the very year when Islamophobia supposedly became endemic).

But surely the most pathetic headline of all was the one announcing the Greek government's decision to build a 128-mile wall to keep out "illegal immigrants". [Independent.ie] Read more [via The Iconoclast]

The Pope Is Furious

.... Bibi’s tale of religious intolerance, injustice and outright persecution and violence is not an anomaly. As Muhammad Salim, one of the Muslim clerics responsible for having Bibi locked away, stated: “Any Muslim, if given the chance, would kill such a person” as Bibi.

To the outside observer, the hatred among many Pakistanis for Bibi is astonishing. Across Pakistan, hard-line clerics have promised riots and protests if the president releases Bibi.

One cleric in nearby Peshawar has offered 500,000 rupees, about $6,000, to the person who kills Bibi, should she be released from jail by the federal government. [theTrumpet.com] Read more [via National Secular Society]

Muslim group praises burqa ban rebel police chief

Orthodox Dutch Muslim organisation As-Soennah has welcomed remarks by Amsterdam police chief Bernard Welten that he would not enforce a proposed ‘burqa ban’.

A ban on wearing the full-face veil in public as proposed by the anti-Islam Freedom Party is included in the coalition agreement. But in a TV interview Mr Welten said his force would not arrest women for wearing the burqa or niqab. He admitted this was a form of “civil disobedience”.

On the website Al-yaqeen.com, the Salafist As-Soenna group praises Mr Welten's “courageous” remarks, adding “Evidently the Netherlands still has people in prominent positions whom it can be proud of.”

However, Mr Welten has come in for fierce criticism from the coalition parties, the VVD and Christian Democrats. A majority of MPs agree that he should withdraw his remarks and offer an apology. [RNW - News] Read more

To see Muslim discourse in politics as a vicious anachronism is to see very little

.... Most of us have an instinctive understanding of how our own societies work: how differences in ability, income and status play out in public life, how material interests are negotiated and racial-religious conflicts managed, or how Lib Dems come to work with Tories.

It may not be asking too much to credit other societies with at least some internal complexity while acknowledging that they might do things differently out there. The only other option seems to consist of an unattractive moral narcissism, and a rather weird obsession with headscarfs.

[COMMENT] There is a weird obsession with headscarves, but it's not coming from Western liberals... [Guardian Cif] Read more