Building bridges in Australia: Ads against "Islamophobia" use fabricated George Bernard Shaw quote praising Muhammad

.... Not long after some heated public discussion over the use of a Koran in the swearing-in of a Muslim frontbencher in federal parliament, The Australian publishes the following statement by George Bernard Shaw, on the belligerence of Islam, taken from GBS's rebuke to a Mohammedan da'wa artist:

'"You spoke on Philosophy of Peace, but as a Muslim it would have been more appropriate if you had delivered a lecture on the Philosophy of War, for Islam doubtless was spread at the point of the sword," Shaw is quoted as having said.'

The other quote was even juicier: "You accepted Allah or you had your throat cut by someone who did accept him, and who went to Paradise for having sent you to Hell." [Jihad Watch] Read more

The Question of Islamic Reform

Perhaps the major theological problem confronting the revisionist Muslim community today—i.e., those whom we call “moderates” or “secular-oriented intellectuals”—is the canonical scriptures which define their faith and without which Islam would cease to exist.

The dilemma for these “enlightened Muslims” is the Koran itself, with its ubiquitous summons to warfare, conquest, enslavement and social and economic persecution of vanquished peoples, which is why they are preoccupied, to the brink of obsession, with the twin concepts of re-interpretation and contextualization. [FRONTPAGEMAG.COM] Read more

Poland's parliament reject reinstating religious slaughter of animals

Polish parliament's lower house has voted to reject a government plan to reinstate the religious slaughter of animals. Lawmakers rejected the divisive issue in a 222-178 vote Friday as 38 members of the ruling Civic Platform party joined the opposition to vote against it.

.... Usually, slaughterhouses stun livestock before killing them, while kosher rites demand an animal is killed by slitting its throat while it is alive and allowing it to bleed to death.

The halal meat consumed by observant Muslims is killed the same way.

The government had hoped the proposed law would allow Polish abattoirs to resume production of kosher meat, which was forced to stop last year by the constitutional court. [World Bulletin]

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Mehdi Hasan tries, fails to prove that Islam is a peaceful religion

.... Hasan says that 113 out of the 114 chapters of the Qur'an begin by introducing the god of Islam as a god of mercy and compassion.

He doesn't mention that the one chapter that does not, sura 9, is the one that contains the verse of the sword ("slay the pagans wherever you find them" -- 9:5) as well as the verse calling on Muslims to wage war against and subjugate Jews and Christians (9:29).

He admits that Islam is not a pacifistic religion, and that the Qur'an contains verses that enjoin war and violence, and says that "a minority of Muslims" take those verses out of context.

But he doesn't explain what that context is; instead, he shifts ground to point out that the people who are arguing against his proposition are not experts on Islam. [Jihad Watch] Read more

Muslim Deceit re Supposed Pro-Islam Statements by George Bernard Shaw

'Anti-"Islamophobia" [sic: and I love those scare quotes, which are, for once, exactly where they belong - CM] advertisements due to screen on major free-to-air channels from today rely on a fabricated quote from Irish playwright and avowed atheist George Bernard Shaw, from a book that does not exist, according to the International Shaw Society.

'The 30-second ads have been funded by the Sydney-based Mypeace organisation, which says it hopes to "build bridges" between Muslims and other Australians. [The Iconoclast] Read more

Divine rights - The problem of democracy and Egypt's Islamists

The overthrow of President Morsi has prompted new debate about the future of Islamist movements in Egypt and beyond. To some, it signals the beginning of the end for political Islam. Writing in the London Review of Books, for instance, Hazem Kandil suggests “the country that invented Islamism may well be on its way to undoing the spell”.

In the long run such predictions may prove correct but we are not there yet. What can be safely said, though, is that at present the wind is not blowing the Islamists' way. [www.al-bab.com] Read more

Supreme Court upholds ban on Muslim headwear in schools

A branch of Russia’s Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by a group of Muslims for the right of schoolgirls to wear traditional religious attire, specifically the hijab, in classrooms.

The appeal was made by a group of citizens of Muslim faith from southern Russia’s Stavropol Region.

They complained that a decree by the local administration ordering all schoolchildren to appear in classes only in regular secular clothes, which came into force in January this year, infringes their freedom of faith as guaranteed by the constitution.

Certain denominations of Islam requires that all women wear special headscarves called hijabs, covering their hair and necks. [TV-Novosti] Read more

Women-only tennis sessions launched in Blackburn

Women can play on the private outdoor courts, at Crosshill Tennis Club, Corporation Park, every Tuesday, at 10.30am.

The privacy of the courts makes them suitable for Muslim women, director Waqar Hussain said, although everybody is welcome.

He said: “The local women wanted something to do, and somewhere private, something without a car, and in the local area.”

Mr Hussain said he welcomed the debate on the clash between tennis rules and Islam. The Women’s Tennis Association rules said players should not wear sweatshirts, sweat pants, T-shirts, jeans, or cut-offs. [LANCASHIRE TELEGRAPH] Read more

The Myth of Spain's Islamic Golden Age

We have traditionally been told that the first two centuries of the Spanish Emirate, supposedly founded in 756 by Abd’ er Rahman I, constituted a veritable Golden Age of Spanish history. And indeed the opulence and prosperity of Spain during these years is contrasted very favorably with the poverty and ignorance of Christian Europe in the same period.

.... Over the past sixty years intensive efforts have been made to discover this astonishing civilization - to no avail. Try as they might, archaeologists have found hardly anything, hardly a brick or inscription, for the first two centuries of Arab rule in Spain. Between 711 and 911 there is almost nothing, with substantial remains only beginning to appear around 925 or 930. [The Iconoclast] Read more

Saudi to expel foreigners disrespecting Ramadan

Saudi Arabia threatened on Tuesday to expel non-Muslim expatriates who eat, drink, or smoke in public during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Ramadan begins in the kingdom on Wednesday.

"Non-Muslim residents in the kingdom must not eat or drink in public during Ramadan, in respect to the holiness of Ramadan and the feelings of Muslims," said an interior ministry statement published by the official SPA news agency.

Foreigners caught breaking the fast in public "will be subject to deterrent measures that include terminating their employment contracts and expelling them from the kingdom," the ministry said. [AFP] Read more

Islamist groups: Egypt’s crackdown vindicates use of violence as political tool

The Egyptian army’s escalating crackdown on supporters of the country’s ousted Muslim Brotherhood government is being seized on by many radical Islamists as proof that violence, not democracy, is the only solution to the region’s problems.

In the days since Egypt’s military toppled the country’s first freely elected government, jihadist groups in the region and elsewhere have rushed to assert the futility of elections and Western-style democracy, in statements and in chat forums on jihadi Web sites. [washingtonpost.com] Read more

Bedford dad beat kids while forcing them to read Koran

A father punished his children by making them stand by a window reciting the Koran whilst he assaulted him, a jury was told today.

It was part of 'physical, psychological and emotional abuse' allegedly carried out by the 49-year-old man from Bedford on his wife and six children. [Bedfordshire news] Read more

Temporary marriage becomes popular among young UK Muslims

.... Omar Farooq Khan, president of the Ahlul Bayt Islamic Society at Bradford University, said the practice is on the increase among Shia students on university campuses. He agreed that it was a taboo subject but provides a buffer to the “girlfriend or boyfriend” culture.

Khola Hassan, a spokesperson for the UK Islamic Sharia Council, said the practice is strictly not allowed.Sayyad Fadhil Milani, spiritual leader at the Al-Khoei Centre in Brent, north-west London, said: “Islam does not permit relationships like those between a boyfriend and a girlfriend. So a nikah mut’ah gives them an opportunity to get to know each other before committing themselves to a full marriage.”

Omar Ali Grant, a convert to Islam from London, told the programme he has had around 13 temporary marriages but argued that he was just trying to find the right person to spend his life with. [The News International] Read more

Is Islam a Religion of Peace?

....Watching the Oxford Union debate it felt opponents of the motion were holding something back in their vigour, with the exception of Daniel Johnston who made clear a need to speak against the motion without hesitation.

The real reason may have been the events in Woolwich only the day before, and fear of repercussion for suggesting that Islam was in total not a peaceful religion. Totality matters because just like any other religion Islam makes universal claims on everything and claims absolute authority to be followed.

Adam Deen (Islamic theologian) for the motion made clear that the Koran and Hadith had something to say about just war, social justice and living in peace – with a right to defend itself justly from repression and extermination (pacifism morally wrong he claimed).

He could have said it also covered eating, banking, the bedroom and the art of going to the lavatory as well in how Islam advises in total on all things. [Homo economicus' Weblog] Read more

France: Mayor of Nice Says Islam Not Compatible With Democracy

The MP declared his opposition to a declaration made by François Hollande during his official trip to Tunisia, when he declared that "France knows that Islam and democracy are compatible".

"We can't go around proclaiming secularism everywhere and at the same time say that Islam and democracy are perfectly compatible", he declared.

"In France as soon as you have in a crèche, in a school, in a public place, someone who would display an ostentatious sign of belonging to a religion, everyone starts yelling, which seems to me totally legitimate, because I defend the principles of secularism," declared the mayor of Nice. [Islam versus Europe] Read more

Islamophobia rises in British society

On the 8th anniversary of the 7/7 London bombings, and in the aftermath of the killing of British army soldier Lee Rigby, it is timely to assess how Islamophobia within Britain’s political landscape has evolved since that tragic day in July 2005. Much evidence suggests that Islamophobia has moved beyond small fringe far-right groups to being far more widespread across broad sections of the population.

[COMMENT] The first line of text in this Islamist drivel says it all. After listing the carnage of Islamist terror attacks, the issue is not the savagery of Islamist terrorism. No, the great humanitarian issue of our time is the fact that non-Muslims react to Islamist terrorism in a negative way. This is the best article that I have ever read that so conclusively demonstrates the extent to which Islam destroys the ability of the human mind to reason objectively. [Al Jazeera English] Read more

Venstre to unhappy Muslims: "Find somewhere else to live"

Inger Støjberg (Venstre) thinks that Muslims who are unhappy with Danish values should find somewhere else to

Muslims who show no interest in adopting Danish values ought to think about why they settled in Denmark in the first place, the immigration spokesperson for leading opposition party Venstre argued in an opinion piece published in Politiken newspaper today.

In her piece, Inger Støjberg criticises Danish Muslims who actively try to shield themselves from Danish values and norms and who think that their religious beliefs should not be allowed to be mocked.

Støjberg pointed to a study of Danish Muslims in which 55 percent responded that criticising religion should be banned and 64 percent thought that free speech should be limited in particular circumstances. [The Copenhagen Post] Read more

Egypt’s lesson for political Islam: politics comes first

When the Muslim Brotherhood won power it seemed Egypt’s nascent democracy would allow the movement to realise its dream of making Islam the guiding principle in politics.

The Arab Spring revolts had opened the door to full Islamist participation in politics after decades of oppression or exile.

A year later, Egypt’s first Islamist president, Mohamed Mursi, has been forced out, illustrating the Islamists’ dilemma as they champion faith while newly empowered citizens look more for effective pluralist governance. [Reuters] Read more

The future of political Islam

.... My own concern lies in the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood's short-lived experiment with democratic politics was seen as a barometer for Muslim sensibilities in the Arab world today, which remains in a state of semi-permanent crisis.

The Brotherhood was criticised by some of the more radical and violent Islamist groups of Egypt for "selling out" and transforming themselves into a political party, and by doing so accepting the rules of the democratic game.

Now that they have been deposed, the more radical voices in the Arab world might find themselves in a stronger position to say that democracy cannot be reconciled with religion.

That would be the wrong and dangerous path to follow and one that may end up being self-defeating in the long run. But, for now, the Brotherhood's democratic experiment has come to a halt and the world waits to see if rational voices will be heard again. [Malaysia Chronicle] Read more

Christian Convert Tried in Tehran

Mostafa Bordbar, a Christian convert, was tried in the Revolutionary Court in Tehran. He is one of several Christain prisoners currently being held in ward 350 of Evin prison for their faith.

.... The court announced his charges as "illegal gathering and participating in a house church". As Ms. Shima Qousheh, his lawyer and a member of Iranian Human Rights Commission says, if Mr. Bordbar is found guilty, he can be sentenced to anywhere from 2 to 10 years in prison. However, the court has not issued its final verdict yet. [MohabatNews] Read more

Ofcom fines muslim channel 105K for inciting murder... A little less than Playboy was fined for slightly too sexy babe channels

Ofcom has fined the muslim channel DM Digital £105,000 for 2 transgressions of Ofcom's programme code.

DM Digital is a television channel primarily aimed at an Asian audience in the UK, which features broadcasts in a number of languages including English, Punjabi, Urdu, Sindhi, Kashmiri and Hindi. The service is also received in the Middle East and parts of Asia. The licence for this channel is held by DM Digital Television Limited.

The first fine was £85,000 over the programme Rehmatul Lil Alameen broadcast on 9th October 2011 at 18:30. [Religious Watch] Read more

Egypt overthrow shakes Islamists in the region

The military's overthrow of Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood's fall from power in Egypt have sent Islamist parties around the region scrambling to preserve gains made in the Middle East and North Africa as a result of the Arab Spring uprisings.

The stunning reversal has instilled caution among some Islamists against pushing their agenda too hard, but it has also strengthened hard-liners long opposed to democracy. [AP] Read more

Political Islam now in a state of crisis

.... ‘Emperor with no clothes’. Challenged to rule, however, the organisation has been exposed, as Fawaz Gerges of the London School of Economics puts it, as “an emperor with no clothes”.

“The dismal performance by Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, ” he argues, “undermines the Islamist image, standing and narrative throughout the region, in Egypt, in Jordan and even in Turkey. It raises questions about their competence, their ability to manage.”

The brotherhood slogan “Islam is the solution” is now to many Egyptians empty rhetoric, and there is a demand for real policy ideas. It is facing perhaps the worst crisis in its 80-year history. [THE IRISH TIMES] Read more

Muslim TV station fined for allowing contributor to incite murder

.... The other programme featured comments by Dr Liaqat Malik, DM Digital's chief executive, which breached Ofcom's views on political statements and impartiality, leading to a £20,000 penalty.

Earlier this year Dr Malik said that he was dissatisfied with Ofcom's ruling because there were cultural differences that Ofcom does not understand. He said that the regulator's adjudicating committee should have members picked from the Muslim community.

Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society, said: "Inciting murder is against the law. Why aren't the police knocking on Mr Jilani's door? Why is he not under arrest? Surely he cannot be allowed to get away with such blatant call to kill innocent people? Other people have been sent to prison for far less than this." [National Secular Society] Read more

Muslim television channel fined after preacher of hate incited murder live on air

Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, ordered Manchester-based DM Digital to pay an £85,000 fine for a programme which told Muslims it was their duty to kill anyone who insulted the Prophet Mohammed.

The company was also fined a further £20,000 for other breaches of the broadcasting rules.

Earlier this year The Telegraph revealed how a number of British-based Islamic stations, including DM Digital, were inciting violence and murder on the airwaves. [telegraph.co.uk] Read more