Jail and flogging for Saudi who mocked religious extremists

.... At a hearing before Jeddah District Court on December 17, a judge reportedly ordered Badawi to "repent to God". When he refused, the judge referred the case to a higher court, recommending that it try Badawi for apostasy – a charge that carries the death penalty.

The threat of execution appeared to be lifted in January when a court rejected the apostasy charge. Part of the evidence for Badawi's supposed apostasy was that he had pressed the "Like" button on a Facebook page for Arab Christians.

Badawi had been harassed for several years, Human Rights Watch says: [www.al-bab.com] Read more

Cambridge dinner lady sacked for accidentally serving pork to Muslim pupil

A Cambridge primary school dinner lady has reportedly been sacked for accidentally serving pork to a Muslim pupil.

Alison Waldock, 51, claims she served 7-year-old Khadija Darr the gammon after the youngster pointed to the dish on the lunch menu.

It is understood the mistake was spotted by the school’s headteacher who swept the plate away from the youngster before she had chance to eat it, and the girl’s parents were then informed who complained to the school’s catering firm. [Cambridge News] Read more

Egyptian Muslim cleric instructs European Muslims on how best to beat their wives

"Men are the managers of the affairs of women for that God has preferred in bounty one of them over another, and for that they have expended of their property. Righteous women are therefore obedient, guarding the secret for God's guarding. And those you fear may be rebellious admonish; banish them to their couches, and beat them." (Qur'an 4:34)

I am sure that all the Muslim spokesmen in the U.S. who constantly assure us that only greasy Islamophobes think that that verse actually means beat them are jetting over to Egypt right now, to explain to Mahmoud Al-Denawy how he is getting the wife-beating verse all wrong, wrong, wrong. [Jihad Watch] Read more

Syrian sharia committee issues fatwa against croissants

While the croissant-doughnut or “cronut” is all the rage in New York, some in Syria have pushed back against the famous French component of the trendy new pastry.

A sharia committee in a rebel-controlled part of Aleppo has issued a fatwa condemning croissants due to their “colonial” origins, according to the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat.

The fatwa, which declared croissants “haram” or forbidden under Islamic law, said the pastries’ trademark crescent shape celebrates European victory over Muslims. Restrictive fatwas have recently proliferated in areas of Syria under Islamist influence. [THE DAILY CALLER] Read more

Pakistan's Sectarian Meltdown

.... Sectarian strife is most often associated with the Middle East, but Pakistan is rapidly becoming one of its deadliest new fronts.

According to estimates, roughly four hundred Pakistani Shias were killed in sectarian violence last year—the highest number since the 1990s. There were more than five hundred overall deaths from sectarian strife in 2012, more than double the 2011 figure.

A new U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom report concludes that large numbers of attacks have targeted Pakistani religious communities over the last eighteen months.

Shias and other minority communities are assaulted in their homes, at their centers of worship, in recreation centers and on public buses. In 2011, Pakistan’s minority-affairs minister, a Christian, was gunned down in his car in broad daylight. [The National Interest] Read more

Banned scholar's texts in Woolwich Library

"Divisive" works by an Islamic scholar barred from the UK because his presence was ruled not conducive to the public good are available at Woolwich Library.

Dr Zakir Naik was banned in 2010 by the Home Secretary, who found his comments amounted to "unacceptable behaviour".

BBC London has now discovered three of his works in a public library. They contain controversial statements on women, Jews and terrorism. [BBC] Read more

Saudi website editor gets seven years in prison and 600 lashes for liberal forum

The editor of a Saudi Arabian social website has been sentenced to seven years in prison and 600 lashes for founding an Internet forum that violates Islamic values and propagates liberal thought, Saudi media reported on Tuesday.

Raif Badawi, who started the “Free Saudi Liberals” website to discuss the role of religion in Saudi Arabia, has been held since June 2012 on charges of cyber crime and disobeying his father – a crime in the conservative kingdom and top U.S. ally.

Al-Watan newspaper said the judge had also ordered the closure of the website. [Reuters] Read more

Leading imam during Cartoon Crisis regrets involvement

.... Akkari’s days as an imam are now behind him and he says that he is “no longer a part of the Islamic mission". He further claims that many of his former colleagues are hypocrites with a mindset that is “horribly wrong”.

“The world doesn’t need a lid on human expression. That also goes for people you might disagree with. There was something deep-seated in the mentality of the group I belonged to, which I just didn’t notice. There was this fundamental idea that people were not allowed to express themselves freely, and that is just wrong,” said Akkari.

Were the cartoons misused?

“The way I see it today, yes. Behind all the talk of protecting religious imagery, there is always power and abuse," he said. "It is simply revolting.” [The Copenhagen Post] Read more

A Frank Debate about Identity and Islam - A young Sudanese author explores his fraught relationship to religion

.... Amir's quest for his "truth" is one that focuses on empiricism and sound reasoning. As Amir puts it, one of the first and toughest questions is: "How did Islamdom really lose its virtue?"

In trying to find an answer, his quest takes him to the ninth century and the war of ideas between two schools of theological philosophy: One that advocated reason, free will, and an allegorical reading of sacred texts (al-Mu'tazila); and another that advocated tradition, predestination, and a more literal reading of the Quran (al-Ashariya).

Eventually al-Ashariya's school of thought prevailed because it was supported by the stronger political establishment of the time; and eventually it became the predominant mode of thinking about and interpreting Islam. [Foreign Policy] Read more

Police force university to cancel Muslim feminist lecture

A scheduled lecture by an Islamic scholar from the United States was forcibly cancelled by police who cited possible law and order problems in view of opposition by Muslim groups.

Amina Wadud, an Islamic feminist, was due to deliver a lecture on ‘Gender and Reform in Islam’ at the University of Madras in Chennai, India, when she was informed by the unversity’s vice chancellor that local police had informed him to cancel the event.

It has been reported that the news was delivered to the vice chancellor via a text message that read, “Police cannot allow this (the lecture) considering law and order (sic). Please take action to suspend / cancel the programme.” [Trending Central] Read more

Former Lancashire county leader is criticised over animal stunning motion

LANCASHIRE Council of Mosques chairman Salim Mulla has criticised former county leader Geoff Driver for imposing his animal welfare views on the Muslim community.

He spoke out after the Tory urged the giant authority to pre-stun all animals killed for meat in school meals.

Coun Driver put a motion to this month’s county council meeting calling for this to become official policy despite the view of some Muslims that such meat was not ‘halal’ as defined under Islamic law. [Lancashire Telegraph] Read more

Sharia Law In The USA 101: A Guide To What It Is And Why States Want To Ban It

North Carolina lawmakers on Wednesday (July 24) approved a bill to prohibit judges from considering “foreign laws” in their decisions, but nearly everyone agrees that “foreign laws” really means Shariah, or Islamic law.

North Carolina now joins six other states — Oklahoma, Arizona, Kansas, Louisiana, South Dakota, and Tennessee — to pass a “foreign laws” bill. A similar bill passed in Missouri, but Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed it, citing threats to international adoptions.

The bills all cite “foreign laws” because two federal courts have ruled that singling out Shariah — as Oklahoma voters originally did in 2010 — is unconstitutional.

So what’s the big deal with Shariah?

[A COMMENT] In case you've been secreted under a rock for the last 200+ yrs. you might know that this country was predicated on a separation of church and state, no state religion. You will not explain, I'm certain, why under sharia law a rapist goes free and the poor, unfortunate victim receives a 12 yr. sentence. [The Huffington Post] Read more

France is suffering from a 'crisis of authority'

In an interview with Le Parisien newspaper on Monday, France’s Interior Minister Manuel Valls said France was faced with a “crisis of authority” following the riots earlier this month in the Paris suburb of Trappes.

The violence erupted after a man was detained for allegedly attacking a police officer who had stopped his wife for wearing a full-face veil – a practice that is banned in France - outraging many in the Muslim community. However many said it had nothing to do with Islam and was more to do with the tense relations between France's youth and its forces of order. [The Local] Read more

My sacking is an attack not just on journalism, but on Turkish democracy

.... Turkey's media has always suffered from not having enough qualified journalists; this is now more of a problem than ever. But there is more at stake here than just the future of individuals.

Turkey's democratic development is being observed with high hopes by the world. Its success or failure will have defining consequences for the region and beyond.

The country needs freedom of expression and an independent media more than ever. But Erdogan is moving the country in the opposite direction: instead of enhancing media freedom, he and his media mogul allies are trying to suffocate it. A media under a political yoke will bring Turkey's transformation to a dead end.

[A COMMENT] Erdogan is being careful, patient and methodical in replacing democracy with oppressive Islamist theocracy -- quite the opposite of Morsi in Egypt. Ataturk was no saint, but he understood the incompatibility of fundamental Islamic ideology and democracy very well. RIP Turkish secularism. [Guardian Cif] Read more

Tunisia on the Brink

.... Ennahda is described as “moderate” in almost every single article published by wire agency hacks, but the only reason it’s relatively moderate is because it’s forced to share power.

Tunisia’s Islamists conceded to building a civil state instead of an Islamic state because they face massive resistance and they don’t have enough seats in the parliament to do anything else. Since the police and the army are loyal to the country and not the party, that’s that.

If Ennahda had won a majority and had the strength to muscle everything through, we would be looking at a different Tunisia—an Egypt in the Maghreb. [World Affairs] Read more

Saudi Website Founder to be Imprisoned, Lashed

Free Saudi Liberals website founder Raif Badawi was sentenced to seven years in prison and 600 lashes earlier today. Badawi was arrested on 17 June, 2012 in Jeddah and was charged with “setting up a website that undermines general security” and ridiculing Islamic religious figures.

The Free Saudi Liberals website was an online forum for public discussions. It was shut following Badawi's arrest, and it had been blocked within the country for years. In today's sentence, the judge also ordered the permanent shutdown of the website: [Global Voices] Read more

Caught on video: Indian Mufti enjoys music despite calling it ‘un-Islamic’

A video clip of the Grand Mufti of Kashmir enjoying Kashmiri ghazals, musical poems and Punjabi folk tunes, has gone viral on YouTube this week, after it was revealed that it was the same man who branded muslic as “un-Islamic.”

Bashiruddin Ahmad was recently filmed in a houseboat on the scenic Dal Lake, in the company of several other people, including women, according to India Today.

Political figures and commenters accused the Grand Mufti of hypocrisy following his earlier condemnation of an all-girl rock group. [Al Arabiya] Read more

Muslim Persecution of Christians: April, 2013

Before Egypt’s President Muhammad Morsi was ousted, April was one of the worst months for Christian Copts there. On April 5 near Cairo, a longstanding feud between a Christian family and a Muslim family—based on male Muslims sexually harassing Christian girls—culminated in the violent deaths of six Christians.

After two of the participants, a Christian and a Muslim, were set on fire, local Muslims went on another “collective punishment” spree, resulting in the injury of at least 20 more Copts, an Evangelical church being set on fire and an attack on a Coptic church. [Clarion Project] Read more

Bristol Jamia Mosque concerned about residents' parking zone

People using a mosque in Bristol have said a possible residents' parking scheme could risk its future as a place of worship for the Muslim community.

Bristol Jamia Mosque, in Totterdown, is in one of 18 parking zones identified by the mayor. Plans for eight of the zones are on hold after criticism.

Mosque chairperson Wazir Ali said people used the mosque throughout the day, all week and needed free parking. Mr Ali said people came to the mosque about seven times a day. He said he was also concerned elderly and disabled people needed to be able to park close by. [BBC] Read more

Those who want secularism in Iran are 'seditionists', judiciary chief warns

Iranians claiming to be moderates who seek 'western democracy and secularism' are guilty of sedition and have no future in the regime, the country's head of judiciary chief has warned.

Sadeq Larijani described those who took part in the 2009 anti-regime protests was 'rising again like pythons that have been struck by the heat'. [NCRI] Read more

Trouble in Trappes - Violence erupts over the controversial burqa ban

.... Although outsiders may see the burqa ban as a constraint on freedom of expression, France’s belief in laïcité, a tough form of secularism born of its historical fight against authoritarian clericalism, enjoys cross-party support.

A ban on the wearing of all “ostentatious” religious symbols, such as the Muslim headscarf, in public schools was passed with Socialist support in 2004.

Many French Muslim women approved of the burqa ban, on the grounds that the covering has no tradition in the northern African countries with historic ties to France, and had become a political statement, if not a tool, of those trying to impose hardline Islam. [The Economist] Read more

What Happens When You Hire Muslims

.... Some of my readers will protest that they have Muslim co-workers and that those co-workers haven't made any demands for accommodation on the job. So far, but one day they will.

Imane Boudlal worked for a few years for the Walt Disney Company without a headscarf before she decided she absolutely had to wear one in front of customers.

And even if they make no demands directly, just hiring Muslims means more will come for jobs until they start demanding municipal and educational demands: [Planck's Constant] Read more

The storm in the kebab shop: The great halal debate returns

.... Danish animals are stunned before slaughter, but that is not always the case in Europe. Per Clausen of far-left party Enhedslisten (EL) argues that this is problematic.

“The problem is that we don’t have the opportunity to label meat from other EU countries, either by its nationality or any other method," Clausen told Berlingske.

"It means that we are importing meat into Denmark that is probably slaughtered in cruel ways. I don’t know how many EU countries have these sorts of rules and I have asked the [agriculture] minister to address this. But there is no doubt that there are many countries in which anaesthetics are not used.”

Clausen said EL would rather have a debate about overall animal welfare rather than an insignificant prayer made as a stunned animal dies. [The Copenhagen Post] Read more

‘Save animals from distress’

Calls have been made to look at the way animals are slaughtered before being served as meat in Lancashire’s schools.

A motion put forward at a meeting of Lancashire County Council has asked for only meat where the animal is stunned before being killed to be provided.

The move has caused ‘confusion’ among Muslim leaders in Lancashire, saying the practice could go against Halal rules. [Lancashire Evening Post] Read more

For INSULTING ISLAM, pageant contestants may be next in line to be charged

The four Muslim women who disputed the National Fatwa Council decision banning Muslim women from participating in beauty pageants can be charged in the Syariah Court.

Deputy president of Pahang Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council (Muip) Datuk Seri Wan Abdul Wahid Wan Hassan said they could be charged under Sharia law if they participated in the beauty pageant. [Malaysia Chronicle] Read more