BBC sitcom Citizen Khan 'Islamophobic', says MP

Labour's Rupa Huq criticised Citizen Khan's depiction of a "quite backward" family of Muslims.

The show was accused of stereotyping Muslims when it started in 2012 and its creator, Adil Ray, has told the Radio Times he had received death threats.

The BBC said the award-winning show had received much positive feedback.

But Ms Huq, MP for Ealing Central and Acton, whose sister Konnie is a former Blue Peter presenter, said: "I feel as if I didn't know what the year is ... you would think it's an everyday tale of a Birmingham family of Muslims but they're really quite backward.

"Again, the Islamophobic point [Labour MP Chuka Umunna] made, it's a beardy weirdy chap and they're not quite cutting off people's hands but I can imagine that being in a future episode."

Citizen Khan prompted complaints when it launched in 2012 and Mr Ray has previously said he had received abuse from people who believed it was making fun of Islam or stereotyping Muslims. [BBC] Read more

Kuwait academic charged with blasphemy over TV interview

A prominent female academic and human rights activist in Kuwait has been charged with blasphemy.

Sheikha al-Jassem was summoned to the public prosecutor's office after legal complaints were filed against her over a recent interview she gave on TV.

She asserted that the constitution of Kuwait should be above the Quran and Islamic law in governing the country.

The public prosecutor still has the discretion to decide whether or not Ms Jassem will be put on trial.

The interview was broadcast on Kuwaiti Al-Shahed TV on 8 March. Its theme was the rise of Islamic extremism.

During the interview, Ms Jassem was asked about radical Islamists who said that religion was more important than the Kuwaiti constitution.

She responded by saying that this was dangerous and that, in her opinion, politics and religion should be kept apart. [BBC] Read more

Multiculturalism remains a force in our society whether we like it or not

.... A final major complaint about multiculturalism is the change that has been imposed on the white working class by a liberal elite without asking for their consent about changing the nature of their local communities. Immigration has been a boon to the middle class who benefit from cheap builders, cleaners and nannies but it has been harder for the white working class who have had their wages undermined and are at the sharp end of the competition for scarce state resources in housing, healthcare, education and transport.

Migration Watch pointed out that the New Labour government admitted 3.6 million immigrants to the UK but at no stage did it highlight this policy to the electorate or ask consent for it. Critics of the policy were routinely denounced as racist – ‘Oh, some bigoted woman,’ as Gordon Brown memorably described the lifelong Labour supporter Gillian Duffy.

So multiculturalism has been a contentious ideology but it will continue to shape the future of modern British society and of the world in this globalised age – no matter how many documentaries Channel 4 makes about it. [ConservativeHome] Read more

Saudi Arabia strips religious police of arresting power

New cabinet decision orders religious officers to report violators to police or drug squad unit.

Saudi Arabia has stripped its religious forces of their powers to arrest, urging them to act "kindly and gently" in enforcing Islamic rules.

Under changes approved by the Saudi cabinet on Wednesday, religious officers will no longer be allowed to detain people and instead must report violators to police or drug squad officers, the official Saudi Press Agency said.

Officers of the Haia force, also known as the Mutawaa, must "carry out the duties of encouraging virtue and forbidding vice by advising kindly and gently" under the new rules, it reported.

"Neither the heads nor members of the Haia are to stop or arrest or chase people or ask for their IDs or follow them - that is considered the jurisdiction of the police or the drug unit," the regulations say. [Al Jazeera English] Read more

Sadiq Khan says there is 'question to be asked' about use of hijabs in London

Sadiq Khan, the Labour candidate for London mayor, has said there is “a question to be asked” about why some Muslim women in the capital wear hijabs and niqabs.

Khan, who became the first Muslim cabinet minister in Gordon Brown’s government in 2009, warned of an “insidious” development if people thought it was right to treat women differently to men.

In an interview with the London Evening Standard, the frontrunner in next month’s mayoral contest contrasted the way Muslim women dressed when he was growing up in London in the 1970s and 80s with the way many women dressed today.

Khan, 45, said: “When I was younger you didn’t see people in hijabs and niqabs, not even in Pakistan when I visited my family. In London we got on. People dressed the same. What you see now are people born and raised here who are choosing to wear the jilbab [a loose gown] or niqab. [The Guardian] Read more

Tackling Extremism Amongst Muslims While Respecting Freedom of Religion

Holding extreme religious views is harmful in itself. It also makes it more likely that the holder or others influenced by him will become terrorists. Extremism can be addressed without infringing freedom of religious belief, and some concrete proposals are set out.

.... The terrorists who carried out the 7 July 2005 London bombings, who killed Drummer Lee Rigby, who attacked the offices of Charlie Hebdo, and who rampaged through Paris in November 2015 had something essential in common, apart from being Muslims.

All of them believed that what they were doing met with God’s approval. That is clear from the London bombers’ suicide videos. It is also obvious from a moment’s reflection, since people who believe in God don’t do things which they expect will cause them to be sentenced to Hell for all eternity.

Some terrorists die in action. However, others survive and can be interrogated after arrest, and of course the views of many would-be terrorists emerge during their trials. There is a relatively consistent set of beliefs (space does not allow detailed coverage) which mark them out as religious extremists. Obviously other parts of their religious beliefs are shared by most Muslims, including the writer: e.g. Muslims should not gamble or drink alcohol because God does not want us to.

As a rule of thumb, Muslims can be trisected: [Mohammed Amin] Read more

This Arab youth survey highlights the dangers of desperation

.... Even Tunisia, considered the most successful example, and awarded the 2015 Nobel peace prize for its civil society’s efforts to avoid civil war through implementing dialogue between rival political parties, is challenged by terror and the exapansionism of Isis. It is claimed that the country is the biggest exporter of jihadis to Syria and Iraq. The rapid spread of the terrorist group suggests that the vast majority of young Arabs are poised and ready to join Isis.

But the Arab Youth Survey refutes that claim. Conducted to explore attitudes among Arab youth in 16 countries in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region, the survey found that an overwhelming majority of young Arabs reject Isis and believe that the group will fail in its aim of establishing an Islamic state.

Rather, the group surveyed believes that the biggest obstacles facing the region are unemployment, lack of democracy, rising living costs and civil unrest. Only 13% of the 3,500 interviewed agreed with the statement: “If Isis did not use so much violence, I could see myself supporting it”; 78% rejected it while 9% were unsure about their position. And the majority of those interviewed perceive the lack of jobs and unemployment as the top reason for joining Isis. [707 comments]

[TOP RATED COMMENT 208 votes] A "world dominated by exploitation"? Really Guardian? Is that really the cause of Islamic terrorism, and the economic and social malaise affecting the Muslim world? What about stifling religion, bad leadership, lack of democracy, lack of transparency, lack of protection for fundamental rights, lack of respect for religious minorities, lack of respect for women, and a tendency to blame problems on others? Those are the real problems, not some unnamed rapacious capitalists.

[2ND 162] A part of this seemingly perpetual state of economic decline and stagnation in Arab countries might have something to do with the fact that companies and people don't want to do business there. Who in their right mind would want to take their family to a region where wives and daughters are seen as second class citizens and people are executed for saying they don't believe in God? Arabs should look at themselves first and foremost and put their own house in order.

[3RD 148] I'm all for fighting poverty, but it's not the main reason for islamism.

[4TH 137] So, one in every 10 young Muslims DOES support Isis.

And who do the other 9 support ? el-nusra?

India is very poor and has plenty of corruption, yet they don't blow up air ports.

Vietnam is poor as dirt, and when it comes to foreign intervention, they had more then their fair share, yet they too don't seem to be running around the globe shooting up places.

Desperation is not causing their situation, it is the result of it. [Guardian Cif] Read more

French PM backs Muslim headscarf ban at universities

In a lengthy interview with France’s Libération newspaper published Tuesday, the Socialist prime minister was asked directly if a ban on headscarves already in place at French state schools and public-sector workplaces should be extended to universities.

“It should be done,” said Valls, though he admitted that "there are rules in the constitution that would make such a ban difficult”.

France, where the strict separation between church and state is seen as a fundamental part of the country’s values, has some of the toughest secularism laws in the world.

The government banned the wearing of overtly religious symbols, including headscarves and crosses, in state primary and secondary schools in 2004, while decades old laws requiring public sector workers to be impartial mean they too cannot wear any clothing or accessories that express their religious beliefs. [France24] Read more

60-year-old Christian woman caned for selling alcohol in unprecedented Sharia law case

An elderly Christian woman has been caned in Indonesia, the first time a Sharia law punishment has been meted out to a non-Muslim.

The 60-year-old, who was convicted of selling alcohol, was whipped nearly 30 times with a rattan cane, before a crowd of hundreds, in Aceh province on Tuesday, according to reports.

A couple who had been found guilty of adultery received 100 lashes at the same time.

Aceh is the only province in Indonesia that applies Sharia law, with public canings, often in front of huge crowds, commonplace.

Under Aceh's strict Islamic code, introduced after it was granted special autonomy from Jakarta in 2001, corporal punishment is imposed on adulterers, gays, drinkers and even those who speak to unmarried members of the opposite. [The Independent] Read more

British Muslims aren't foreign invaders. They are building a liberal, home-grown faith

In the debate about the isolation or otherwise British Muslims, as accusations fly that there is an Islamic “state within a state”, it is important to get right what our common citizenship demands. A liberal society should not police freedom of thought or freedom of expression, nor insist that citizens sign up to every aspect of a secular worldview.

What we do need agreement on is the equal status of our fellow citizens. People can hold religiously conservative views – like my mother – but they must accept the equal status of their fellow Britons. Indeed, what matters most in “British values”, is accepting the freedom of speech of those we disagree with.

The Channel 4 poll presents a mixed picture of integration. People will be worried that almost a quarter of those surveyed would like to see Sharia law implemented. Clearly, that isn’t going to happen – the rule of law depends fundamentally on one law for all. And put another way, more than three-quarters of British Mulsims don’t want sharia. [The Telegraph] Read more

'German should be language of mosques': conservatives

A leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel's sister party is pushing for a so-called "Islam law" that would make German the official language of mosques and impose harsh consequences for Muslims who don't integrate.

Christian Social Union Secretary General Andreas Scheuer told newspaper Die Welt on Wednesday that he wanted to enact an "Islam law" that would stop the financing of mosques from abroad and better integrate Muslims.

"We must more vigorously and critically come to terms with political Islam, because it prevents people here from being integrated. Therefore we need an Islam law," the conservative Bavarian politician said.

He especially called for an end to the "financial support of mosques and kindergartens" from places like Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

Scheuer went on to explain how imams should be educated in Germany and "share our fundamental values". [The Local] Read more

Germany Islam: CSU head Scheuer calls for German in mosques

Senior German conservative politician Andreas Scheuer has said German must become the language of the country's mosques and that foreign funding from Turkey and Saudi Arabia must stop.

The general secretary of the CSU, sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU, said political Islam was undermining integration.

His remarks came amid a German freedom-of-speech row involving Turkey.

The Turkish president has filed a legal complaint against a German satirist.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was angered by an obscene poem read out by Jan Boehmermann on public broadcaster ZDF.

The comedian explained that what he was saying broke German laws on free speech before going on to accuse the Turkish leader of having sex with goats and sheep. [BBC] Read more

French PM calls for ban on Islamic headscarves at universities

The French prime minister, Manuel Valls, has sparked controversy by suggesting the Muslim headscarf should be banned in universities and that a majority of French people think Islam is incompatible with the values of the Republic.

The Socialist, under pressure over contested labour reforms and growing street protest movements, reopened the divisive question of whether students could be banned from wearing headscarves at French universities.

In a long interview with the daily Libération, he was asked whether headscarves should be banned by law from universities and replied: “It should be done,” conceding that the constitution made it difficult.

But other Socialist ministers immediately contradicted him. “There is no need for a law on the headscarf at university,” said Thierry Mandon, the higher education minister. He said students were adults, and as such they “have every right to wear a headscarf. The headscarf is not banned in French society.” [The Guardian] Read more

French doubt Islam is compatible with values of the Republic, claims prime minister

A majority of French people see Islam as incompatible with the values of the Republic, Manuel Valls, the French prime minister, controversially claimed on Wednesday, while backing a Muslim headscarf ban in universities.

In an interview with Libération newspaper, Mr Valls said: “I would like us to be able to demonstrate that Islam, a great world religion and the second religion of France, is fundamentally compatible with the Republic, democracy, our values and equality between men and women."

Asked if he was suggesting that Islam had not to date proved to be compatible with French society and values, he said: “Certain people don’t want to believe it, a majority of French citizens doubt it, but I’m convinced that it’s possible.”

Mr Valls' comments came as the authoritarian prime minister's popularity ratings have dropped to a record low amid controversial labour reforms and a string of street protests - including nightly gatherings in Paris' Place de la République called "Nuit Debout" (Rise Up At Night). [The Telegraph] Read more

A woman takes on triple talaq, underlines gender justice issue

Shayara Banu had convinced herself that if she was docile enough, her husband would not carry out his oft-repeated threat of divorcing her. The mother of two, a sociology postgraduate, says she tried not to argue when she was told she could not work or visit relatives.

Not even when she was routinely beaten, and forced to go through six abortions that made her a physical and mental wreck. Then, a year ago, when she was very sick, her husband sent her away from their home in Allahabad to her parents’ place in Uttarakhand. “Within months, he sent me a letter that had the word talaq written on it thrice, ending our 15-year marriage. I have not been allowed to see my children ever since,” Shayara says.

The 35-year-old has approached the Supreme Court seeking not just justice for herself, but a ban on triple talaq, polygamy and halala, the custom that mandates that if a woman wants to go back to her husband following divorce, she must first consummate her marriage with another man. [The Indian Express] Read more

What do Muslims really think? This skewed poll certainly won’t tell us

.... the question here implies that, whatever your Muslim neighbours may tell you, don’t believe them. Phillips, formerly head of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, said as much in a Sunday Times article last weekend: apparently the pollsters wanted to ensure the respondents did not “disguise the answer that you think will be all too disturbing for people from a different culture to hear”.

Phillips, who also wrote in yesterday’s Daily Mail, claims this poll, undertaken by ICM, supports his belief that there is “a chasm” opening between Muslims and people of other faiths, and therefore that Muslims are different and apart from the rest of society. He claims it reveals “the unacknowledged creation of a nation within the nation, with its own geography, its own values and its own very separate future”. In his view, this means “we have to adopt a far more muscular approach to integration than ever, replacing the failed policy of multiculturalism”.

This is not the first time polls have been used to paint a picture of Muslims as at variance with British culture

But when there are 13 Muslim MPs, a British Muslim candidate for mayor of London, a Muslim dragon in the Dragons’ Den, and a Muslim winner of the Great British Bake Off, it seems that in reality, Muslims are very much part of British society. There is a fringe minority, as is the case with all communities, but Phillips chooses a distorted interpretation of the UK’s diverse Muslim communities. [Miqdaad Versi, 2130 comments]

[TOP RATED COMMENT 587 votes] The finding come as no surprise at all for very many of us at the sharp end, but probably horrify the Guardianista class who seem so keen to foist their multi-culti 'vision' down the troats of those who were never consulted in the first place.

[2ND 502] As the author suggests the poll may be skewed to a certain extent but it is still disheartening to discover that over half the Muslim population wishes homosexuality to be declared a criminal offence!

[3RD 485] And no mention of sharia courts. If Muslims truly have a sense of belonging then why the insistence on a parallel legal system?

In no other segment of British society do so many people define themselves primarily by their religion. It is that which is driving division and cannot be laid at the door of the rest of the population.

[4TH 463] When I walk around Manchester and see women in the Niqab and Burka the truth of this self-segregation becomes apparent.

[5TH 457] Frankly I don't give a damn about what muslims think. They either obey our laws, or remove themselves to another country.

[6TH 445] "But when there are 13 Muslim MPs, a British Muslim candidate for mayor of London, a Muslim dragon in the Dragons’ Den, and a Muslim winner of the Great British Bake Off, it seems that in reality, Muslims are very much part of British society."

I'm not sure a Muslim winning Bake Off is of much statistical significance, and much of this article suggests the author has his head firmly in the sand. I take the point that poorer and more religious communities may have been over-represented in his polling, but even if the attitudes Phillips found are only representative of these areas, then we still have a major problem.

[7TH 441] So varied that the MCB declared that no Muslim should have to refer to the Ahmadi as Muslim? How reasonable, how liberal?! [Guardian Cif] Read more

Our survey of Muslims was as thorough as can be

Miqdaad Versi (What do Muslims think? This skewed poll won’t tell us, 12 April) undermines his own arguments. This poll, in my view – and confirmed by one of ICM’s high-profile competitors, no less – is the most rigorous survey of Muslims that has been produced for many years. The president of the British Polling Council has confirmed that ICM followed the standard methods for polling ethnic minorities in the UK. The poll comprises over 1,000 interviews, selected using classic and orthodox random-location face-to-face techniques that are the bedrock of the highest-quality research undertaken in the UK.

Online polls depend on people voluntarily signed up to a panel to receive questionnaires. If we’re being generous, fewer than 0.5% of the total Muslim population are signed up to such panels. Yet Mr Versi cites the value of one such survey, while deriding ours which represents 51% of the Muslim population.

Telephone polls of Muslims depend on people previously researched and willing to be recontacted, while “snowball” techniques seek additional interviews from their friends and family – hardly delivering much in the way of legitimate representation. [The Guardian] Read more

iERA Responds to ICM Survey: ‘What Do British Muslims Really Think?’

.... It is understandable that a significant number of Muslims would hold normative views enshrined in the Islamic source texts, the holy Qur’an and the Prophetic teachings but this should not be conflated with indicators to radicalisation or terrorism.

Numerous academic studies and analysis by security officials have proven that religion is not the sole driver to violence, rather it is found to be a contributing factor to a host of personal grievances and external realities.

iERA would like to take this opportunity to remind Muslims living in the UK, that as adherents of Islam, we have a duty to carry the compassionate, rational, and peaceful message of Islam to the wider society, and not isolate ourselves from non-Muslims, who have a right for this message to be conveyed to them correctly.

Muslims are a people who desire for humanity what they desire for themselves, and that is attaining the Divine love and mercy of Allah by enjoining in all that is good and forbidding evil in its entirety. [iERA] Read more

SO, WHAT DO BRITISH MUSLIMS REALLY THINK?

.... Much of the debate around the poll, and Phillips’ own commentary, has confused three issues: social conservatism, integration and jihadism.

We should be rightly concerned with the degree of illiberal social attitudes within Muslim communities, especially as it was very different just a generation ago. We should not simply shrug our shoulders and say ‘That’s what happens in a plural society’.

We should combat illiberal attitudes, from whichever group, and support those struggling for a progressive future, including within Muslim communities. Too often liberals betray such progressives in the name of ‘tolerance’ or ‘pluralism’. But holding illiberal views is not necessarily the same as failing to integrate – and this poll does not reveal a link between the two.

We should also be concerned with the more fragmented nature of British society today, with people inhabiting their own identity silos, and with the lack social contact between different groups (some evidence for which is revealed in this poll). We should be concerned, too, with the growth of sectarianism within Muslim communities.

There is a good argument to be made that silo-building has helped create the well of social conservatism within Muslim communities, and has encouraged sectarianism. The problem is not so much a lack of integration as the view, promulgated by many politicians and policy makers, that it is through identity groups that such integration should take place. We need to challenge the social and multicultural policies that have, over the past three decades, helped entrench identity politics and encouraged silo-building. [Pandaemonium - Kenan Malik] Read more

Why the ICM poll of British Muslims shows we need to defend our values more than ever

.... The task is urgent because ICM found a direct correlation between Muslims who don’t want to integrate and sympathy for extremism and violence. Trevor Phillips advocates a much more muscular approach to “active integration”.

The Prime Minister is on the right track, insisting that Muslim women learn English so they’re not prisoners of their men. School segregation must end with state schools prohibited from admitting more than 50% of one ethnicity.

To Phillips’s list, I would add closing down Islamic schools which teach contempt for women and non-Muslims. Ban all Sharia courts immediately and insist on British law for everyone.

As for Muslims who think that white girls are fair game or who don’t want to fit in, I can recommend a really good airport.

This is serious. Unless we succeed, the live-and-let-live attitude which makes Britain such a great place could end up being its death warrant. [The Telegraph] Read more

Birmingham has failed to integrate Muslims, says MP Khalid Mahmood

A Birmingham MP has backed warnings that some Muslims have struggled to integrate into British society - and said both central government and local councils must take a share of the blame.

Khalid Mahmood, Labour MP for Perry Barr and the first Muslim MP to represent an English constituency, spoke out following the publication of a survey which found some Muslims held negative views about homosexuals and the place of women.

The study was commissioned by Channel 4 and forms the basis of a television documentary called What British Muslims Really Think, which is due to be broadcast on Wednesday and presented by Trevor Phillips, the former head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

But Mr Mahmood said he did not believe the poll was accurate.

The survey also found that the overwhelming majority of British Muslims had a positive view of life in the UK.

But speaking to the Birmingham Mail, Mr Mahmood said politicians had made a series of mistakes which meant some Birmingham Muslims from poorer families were “isolated”. [Birmingham Mail] Read more

Norway officials reject Muslim school in Oslo

A foundation that applied to establish a Muslim primary school in the Oslo district of Grønland was rejected by the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training (Utdanningsdirektoratet), Kommunal Rapport reported.

The Muslim organization behind the denied request is now considering an appeal to the Education Ministry

“We have three weeks to decide what to do. We think it is about time that there is a Muslim school in Oslo but the formalities must of course be in place,” Siri Helene Derouiche, the leader of the group behind the application, said.

The Oslo City Council also rejected the school’s application last autumn.

The foundation Den Muslimske Grunnskole wants to establish and operate a private Muslim primary school in Oslo. Its plan calls for some 200 students between first and tenth grades. [The Local] Read more

Yes, we Muslims must be braver and do more to integrate says Labour MP after former equalities chief's call provokes furious backlash

Urgent calls for Britain to adopt a more ‘muscular’ approach to integrating Muslims into society triggered a furious row last night.

Former equalities watchdog Trevor Phillips urged Muslims to change their values and behaviour, saying the UK risks ‘sacrificing a generation of young British people’ if hardline Islamic values are not challenged

His call, in yesterday’s Daily Mail, was backed by MPs, although it also provoked a backlash from community groups who accused him of ‘stigmatising and scapegoating Muslims’.

Labour’s Khalid Mahmood, England’s first Muslim MP, said: ‘A lot of people are challenging unacceptable attitudes.

'There are women’s groups doing this. I only wish more men in some communities were able to be as brave.’

But he said successive governments going back to the 1980s had pursued policies which had led to the ‘ghetto-isation’ of Muslim communities.

‘Trevor Phillips is right in terms of saying we must get the community to integrate far more,’ he said. [Daily Mail] Read more

Muslim ghettos and the “muscular” approach to integration

When, a decade ago, the Bishop of Rochester Michael Nazir-Ali was warning of Muslim ‘no-go areas‘, where sharia police stalk the streets and the real police fear to tread (and where Christians were threatened with arrest for handing out gospel tracts), he was vilified by politicians and rebuked by the Church of England.

You couldn’t easily hurl ‘Islamophobe’ at him, not least because of his ethnicity and cultural heritage. His learning never seemed to count for much, but brown skin and Muslim forebears qualified him to pitch a tent in the national debate on multiculturalism, which, then, was no kind of debate at all, for its precepts were absolute and its prophets infallible.

Scroll forward a decade, and now no less a personage than Trevor Phillips, former head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, is sounding the very trumpet that Michael Nazir-Ali had been blasting till he was blue in the face. Apparently, many British Muslims are creating a nation within a nation.

The solution, he avers, is a “muscular approach to integration“, which will demand, for example, such policies as “schools limiting the presence of any ethnic minority group to no more than 50 per cent.. It will mean strict monitoring of the ethnic composition of housing estates to prevent them becoming ‘ghetto villages’..” And you can’t easily hurl ‘Islamophobe’ at him, either: his ethnicity and EHRC dignity nullify such disgrace. [Archbishop Cranmer] Read more

Saudi Arabia Cleric Argues Driving Is ‘Dangerous And Exposes Women To Evil’

Saudi Arabia‘s most senior cleric has voiced his support for the kingdom’s ban on women driving, arguing it is “a dangerous matter that exposes women to evil.”

The kingdom adheres to an ultraconservative interpretation of Islam and is the only country in the world where women are not allowed to drive.

Though no laws ban women from driving in Saudi Arabia, authorities do not issue them licenses, the Associated Press reports.

Women’s rights activists have faced detention for trying to defy the ban.

Speaking on the religious satellite channel al-Majd, Mufti Sheikh Abulaziz Al Sheikh said men with “weak spirits” who are “obsessed with women” could cause female drivers harm and that family members would not know the whereabouts of women.

His comments were published on Sunday on the state-linked Sabq news website. [The Huffington Post UK] Read more