'Nobody wants you here': Muslim family complains Virginia hospital staff told them they couldn't visit their newborn baby granddaughter because they looked 'scary'

A Muslim family says a Virginia hospital told them they couldn't visit a newborn baby because they looked 'scary'.

Ahmed Zahr's wife had just given birth to a baby girl in early December at Inova Fair Oaks Hospital in Fairfax, Virginia, where his parents, aunt and uncle went to visit.

When they arrived at the birthing center on the third-floor, they were approached by a security guard, reported News4.

'He screams and he says: "You're not allowed to be here!" And then he said: "You know, you look scary",' the aunt, Arwa Zahr, told the station.

The Zahr family believes the security guard was referring to the long black veils worn by Arwa and her mother.

Both women were wearing a niqab, which is a veil that is worn by some Muslim women for reasons of modesty.

The niqab covers the entire face - unlike the hijab, which just covers the hair - leaving an opening slit for the eyes.

There is no law in the US that bans the wearing of the niqab, though wearers may be required to unveil their face during a traffic stop, for a driver's license photo or at an airport.

[TOP RATED COMMENT 3263 votes] They do look scary. The guards job is to protect the property, how can he do that when he can't tell who or what is coming in.

[2ND 2651] Baby theft is real. No one should be on a neonatal ward without their face visible in security cameras.

[3RD 2437] Hard to argue with the hospitals logic.

[4TH 2083] You need to know who is visiting a mother and baby unit. What if a child went missing. Your face should be on show its security.

[5TH 1923] The hospital needed to do what any bank would do and tell them that disguises aren't allowed for security reasons. [Daily Mail] Read more

Belgium bans halal and kosher slaughter methods which see animals killed without being stunned first

A Belgian region has banned halal and kosher slaughter unless the animal is stunned before it is killed, despite critics saying it violates freedom of religion.

The northern region of Flanders is the first in Belgium to implement the ban, followed by the southern region of Wallonia in September.

When proposed, the law was slammed as 'the greatest assault on Jewish religious rights since Nazi occupation' by the European Jewish Congress.

Both the Muslim halal and Jewish kosher rituals require that butchers slaughter the animal by slitting its throat and draining the blood.

Under the new law, animals will have to be stunned electrically before being killed, which most animal rights campaigners say is more humane than the halal and kosher rituals.

Belgium's Muslim and Jewish communities have expressed their opposition to the law, saying halal and kosher requires the animal to be in 'perfect health' when its throat is cut - which would rule out stunning the animal first.

Some say that the ban is less about animal rights, and more about anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. [Comments 1952]

[TOP RATED COMMENT 8944 votes] Well done Belgium! maybe, just maybe the rest of Europe might follow suit but I wont hold my breath!

[2ND 6168] When will our spineless politicians do the same here? Never, that's when.

[3RD 5902] The West should not have been accommodating this in the first place.

[4TH 4754] Belgium has done the right thing, excellent!

[5TH 4354] The whole of Europe should ban it and also stop it being imported. [Daily Mail] Read more

Muslims and Jews united in anger at ritual slaughter ban

.... Muslim bodies mounted an appeal against the ban in vain in the Belgian constitutional court, calling it a direct onslaught on “one of the most basic alimentary stipulations of the Muslim faith — the obligation that animals must be subjected to ritual slaughter”.

The new law, which requires all animals to be stunned before slaughter, was initiated by Ben Weyts, a hardline Flemish nationalist and minister in the regional government, and approved in 2017. The law was a political response to the activities of unregulated Muslim slaughterhouses.

Defenders of the law say that it is motivated purely by animal welfare and that stunning before the ritual throat-slitting and bleeding does not breach halal or kosher rules. Much of Europe’s halal meat comes from pre-stunned animals, but stricter Muslims and Jews say their faith demands that the animal be in perfect health at the moment of death.

[TOP RATED COMMENT 164 votes] Well done Belgium. Waiting for the rest to catch up.

[2ND 148] Time for us to do the same. If anyone else slit an animals throat and left them to bleed out they would be prosecuted. This is barbaric and must be stopped.

[3RD 80] Bravo Belgium. All civilised countries need to ban these barbaric practices.

[4TH 63] The ban has to stay, otherwise one group will essentially have more rights than others. If Kosher and Halal meat is cruel then it must be banned and /or reformed accordingly. [The Times (£)] Read more

We need to know more about spread of Islam in prisons

How do you solve a problem like Anjem Choudary, the Islamist hate preacher due for release from prison on Friday? Choudary, whose followers included the killers of Fusilier Lee Rigby and one of the terrorists involved in last year’s London Bridge attack, will be tagged and subject to restrictions including a night-time curfew as part of monitoring by the police, probation and security services. But the bigger underlying problem is how to prevent extremists like him radicalising and influencing others during their time behind bars.

This is why the Ministry of Justice is wrong to block academics who want to study why prisoners convert to Islam, including how it can lead to radicalisation. Apparently those behind the decision think that new research wouldn’t tell them anything helpful, which serves to highlight a bureaucratic culture more intent on burying its head in the sand than considering fresh approaches.

[TOP RATED COMMENT 64 votes] We already know that: 1. The extremist sect called the "Deobandi" are in control of the Islamic prison clergy; 2. The Deobandi are the largest group in the vocal MCB an organisation that will try to frustrate any attempt to deal with the issue; 3. Labour and then May as home secretary allowed the Deobandi take over to happen; 4. The Deobandi were founded as an anti European movement that eventually led to the Taliban; etc.

If the politicians do not know these things then they should not be home secretary or shadow, PM, or leader of the opposition. Perhaps a read of "Londistan" would help them. Start with how the Deobandi are legal, and why they control nearly all Sunni Cleric training in the UK. The prison impact is one of many.

[2ND 28] Either keep Islamist prisoners in solitary confinement (obviously out of the question), or have prisons solely for Islamists. The idea that there are 'powerful Muslim gangs' in prisons is also worrying.

[3RD 26] This is a major social problem, the proposed study should not be closed down but expanded. For instance it would be worth knowing how prison converts to Islam compare in terms of reoffending to those who convert to Christianity. It would also be useful to uncover why Muslims of imprisonable age constitute only 4% of the population but occupy 15% of prison places, as well as dominating the terrorism statistics.

Also how 900 British Muslims, including many 'ordinary' Muslims, according to family and friends, could be tempted to join a group whose recruitment videos featured the beheading of aid workers. To simply put all this down to being a religious/ethnic minority, racism etc, ignores the fact that we do not have problems on this scale with other minority groups.

Our Hindu community for example is significantly underrepresented in our prisons and non-existent among terrorist prisoners, and must be upset at being included by implication in the media's deflective description of "Asian" grooming gangs (another area of specific criminal behaviour that the study could encompass). One wonders if the authorities are uncomfortable with such a study because the results might impact adversely on their preferred "It's nothing to do with Islam" narrative. [The Times (£)] Read more

Secular Society gives view on Halal meat row

THE National Secular Society has written to all Lancashire County Councillors urging them to end the supply of meat from un-stunned animals to 27 schools.

On Thursday, the authority's fill meeting will take a final vote on the issue.

NSS cheif executive Stephen Evans, writes: "The primary issue at stake is animal welfare. Slaughtering animals without pre-stunning causes avoidable pain and suffering, and it is entirely unnecessary. "There is nothing anti-Muslim about wanting the council to only supply meat from animals farmed, including at the point of slaughter, to the highest standards of animal welfare."

[TOP RATED COMMENT] Unfortunately it appears that the Muslim 'community' see so called Islamophobia whenever they feel the need to. All slaughter by design inflicts pain, but to cause unnecessary suffering and stress to an animal about to die just to satisfy some religious claptrap that has no basis in science, hygiene or whatever is appalling.

The sooner it (halal slaughter) is stopped in this country, the better. If the men with beards at the council of mosques and all those who - like them - have such an issue with non halal slaughtered meat, might I suggest they become vegetarian or failing that depart for one of their beloved Muslim lands they are so fond of. But check if the country chosen provides free school meals for their children first... [Lancashire Telegraph] Read more

‘Disturbing’ number of Britons open about Muslim prejudice

An official inquiry into prejudice and discrimination in Britain has revealed a backlash against equal opportunities for immigrants and Muslims.

The report for the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), a statutory body, found that 37 per cent of adults believed that efforts to provide equal opportunities to immigrants had gone “too far”.

In the case of Muslims, the figure was 33 per cent. By contrast, nearly two thirds of the public felt that more help was needed to support those with a mental health condition, as 63 per cent said that efforts had not gone far enough. The figure for those with a physical impairment was 60 per cent.

The report, which could be the first of an annual “barometer” testing public opinion, also found that significant numbers of people openly expressed negative feelings towards Gypsies, Roma and Travellers (44 per cent), Muslims (22 per cent) and transgender people (16 per cent). There was much greater sensitivity towards gay, lesbian and bisexual people (with 9 per cent expressing negative feelings), people aged over 70 (4 per cent) and disabled people with a physical impairment (3 per cent).

[TOP RATED COMMENT 124 votes] I am a university lecturer. I am also partially deaf. I spoke to my university's diversity officer regarding how I should treat the issue of a student wearing a niqab, meaning that I couldn't see her facial expressions, making it much harder for me to understand her when she spoke.

I was told "That's your problem, not hers."

In other words, my physical disability (which I can do little about) is of lesser importance than her choice to wear a style of dress that actually isn't required by her religion. Yes, support of Muslims at the expense of those with physical disabilities has gone too far.

[2ND 119] A quarter of British Muslims sympathised with the Charlie Hebdo massacres.

A couple of hundred of trans activists believe that their right to self identification trumps the rights and protections - and even the dictionary definition - of 30 million women.

These are equally ‘disturbing’ statistics.

[3RD 97] If people hide their faces be it by burka or balaklava, or hoody or motor cycle helmet I will judge them the way I deem fit.

[4TH 92] Equal rights? The problem is that many of the cultural/racial groups highlighted as suffering from 'negative perceptions' have special rights. All over summer we had story after story of travellers setting up in beauty spots, business parks, schools etc. and when finality moved on leaving the tax payer with a huge clean up bill. Of course this says nothing off the massive spike in crime, animal stealing (including pets) and piles of excrement. Crimes non-travellers would be held accountable.

There was no epic backlash to the mostly Muslim gangs rapes of boys and girls in places like Oxford and Rotherham. The local councils and police departments knew it was going on and did nothing so not to disrupt 'community relations' while girls and boys were suffering from disgusting physical and sexual violence. Special treatment, even Sharia law is starting to make its inroads. I have an Indian friend whose biggest peeve is people thinking that he is a Muslim. Hindu, Chinese and many other groups that have settled here have made a serious effort to be good friends and neighbours with no high crime rates and continuous demands for special rights. That is really what this is all about.

[5TH 75] Two polls in the last two years showed that 40% of British Muslims wanted to introduce some aspects of Sharia Law into the UK, and 50% thought homosexuality should be illegal in the U.K.

No wonder the indigenous non Muslim population is unhappy with Islam’s influence in Britain. [The Times (£)] Read more

Jihad Roadshow: Banned Islamist group is using children as young as 13 to peddle books supporting suicide bombing and jihad in Britain

An extreme Islamist group banned in more than a dozen countries is using British children as young as 13 to peddle books supporting suicide bombing and jihad.

Hizb ut-Tahrir, which wants to establish an Islamic state with Sharia law, has been holding a series of ‘roadshows’ across the country.

An undercover reporter who attended a number of the meetings was sold books suggesting suicide strikes are acceptable, and others saying jihad was ‘compulsory’ to spread the message of Islam.

The group allowed a 13-year-old to sell pamphlets comparing Westerners to animals over their ‘filthy promiscuity’ and urging followers to shun British culture. [487 comments]

[TOP RATED COMMENT 4313 votes] And everyone who has complained about this, in the public arena, has been viIified and taken to court by the government. Why do they keep doing that? What are successive governments hiding...?

[2ND 3734] Time this government stood up and did something about this. Just turn a blind eye all the time.

[3RD 3432] Those in power who allow this are just as culpable!!

[4TH 3352] Why do we accept this?

[5TH 3241] Any other country would arrest these scumbags who are distributing threatening material, but in Britain we don't protect the innocent just the scum. [Daily Mail] Read more

Muslims push for two public holidays for Eid and want the day to be taken more seriously by people who don't follow Islam

Muslims in Australia are asking for two public holidays for their two annual Eid celebrations.

A petition has been submitted to the Parliament of Australia asking for Eid Ul-Fitr and Eid Al Adha to be publicly recognized.

The petition says the Muslim community would like more time to celebrate. Thus far it has 2,468 signatures and is expected to be presented on October 15.

'The community feels they need more time to celebrate and want it recognized within the wider community,' the petition says.

The public holiday would fall on the Mondays following Eid Ul-Fitr and Eid Al Adha.

They also want the celebrations be recognized by the wider Australian community - not just people who follow Islam.

The Eid-al-Fitr is one of only two major festivals in the Islamic faith and sees Muslims give money to the poor and needy as an obligatory act of charity.

[TOP RATED COMMENT 588 votes] There 24 million people that have NOT signed so NO.

[2ND 506] How about getting a petition going to make Easter a public holiday in Saudi Arabia?

[3RD 458] Eid is irrelevant to me....I won't be celebrating it.

[4TH 455] So they work over Christmas? Just asking

[5TH 417] Never [Daily Mail Australia] Read more

The bright new smiling faces that preach radical Islam

With its smiling activists and bright orange T-shirts, the organisation could be mistaken for a local campaign to keep errant youths in line. The name of the youth movement, “If you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything”, reads like the chorus in a pop song.

But this is not a small community initiative. Instead it is the latest organisation launched by the pro-caliphate Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Unwelcome in many Muslim communities for sowing division, Hizb ut-Tahrir’s new campaign has ditched its traditional logo bearing an Islamic State flag. Its leaflets and T-shirts make no reference to the group, despite being run by its members and listed as a “Youth Roadshow” on its website.

[TOP RATED COMMENT 51 votes] Ban it.These folk wish to destroy the way of life of the indigenous population. Tolerate the intolerant and you will perish.

[2ND 40] An ominous development.

[3RD 38] Why don't MPs look at the history of hostility between the west and Islam. Our forefathers could see that the two cultures were not compatible and actually fought to keep Islam out of the West. But all our leaders do is punish anyone who stands up for western values. It can only end in trouble. Look at what happened in Bosnia. Two opposite cultures cannot live peacefully side by side in the long run. [The Times (£)] Read more

Use mosque visits to tackle Islamophobia, schools told

Schools should take pupils on trips to mosques in an attempt to tackle Islamophobia among their parents, the faith minister has said.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth also said that all churches, mosques, synagogues and temples should be twinned with places of worship from other faiths and should work together to serve as community hubs for all residents rather than only as prayer spaces for their own congregations.

Many non-Muslims were afraid to enter a mosque, he said. “Occasionally you find that parents are saying, ‘We’re not sure we want our kids to go to the local mosque.’ They are then persuaded by the school that it’s a good idea and the kids come back and tell them about it and the parents then say, ‘Oh, that’s interesting, perhaps we’ll visit ourselves.’ ”

[TOP RATED COMMENT 41 votes] As this country has a Christian heritage and culture, the correct move would be to ensure every Muslim child visits a Christian Church. Muslims like other migrants have to integrate into the host country’s culture not the other way round.

[2ND 38] Now I have seen the light! Islamaphobia in the general population is all about our ignorance of Islam! It has nothing whatsoever to do with the insular ghettoisation of many of our towns and cities ( and associated problems such as Rotherham, Rochdale and countless others), it has nothing to do with the preponderance of wars and terrorism in certain countries across the world of that persuasion, it has nothing to do with the extremist clerics and their followers etc etc.....it is all down to our own dumbness!

Thank you Lord Bourne, I am grateful for your insightful input. Are you intent upon arranging for our kids to visit Synagogues, Hindu and Sikh temples etc? ... No! I wonder why? [The Times (£)] Read more

Tories need to promote and elect more Muslims, Ruth Davidson says in swipe at Boris’s burka row

The ex-Foreign Secretary sparked a furious party row after he compared women wearing burkas to bank robbers and letter boxes.

But tonight Ms Davidson, who is seven months pregnant with her first child, will say she will make sure more candidates from diverse backgrounds stand for office.

She will say at an event in Glasgow to mark the Muslim festival of Eid-al-Adha: "If I am to be the next First Minister of Scotland, we need to fill the Holyrood benches with the brightest talent and greatest experience we can find, support, promote and elect from every community in this country.

"That includes the Muslim community.

[TOP RATED COMMENT 29 votes] Another f'kin snowflake handing over the keys

[2ND 24] She has lost the plot, we want the exact opposite!

[3RD 23] Can Davidson name ANY three: Stable, progressive, democratic, Islamic countries? Bit of a trick question really, as there are NONE on this planet. Congratulations must go to Blair; dragging the UK backwards a few centuries certainly took some balls. [The Sun] Read more

Unstunned halal meat back on school menu - for now

The county council has decided to suspend its ban on beef and lamb from animals which are not rendered unconscious before Islamic religious slaughter until its full meeting on October 18.

This will give all Lancashire's county councillors the chance to reconsider the authority's ban on halal meat from unstunned animals.

The county council's cabinet took a decision in July to provide only stunned halal meat, except poultry, to schools.

But the Lancashire Council of Mosques, which has a strict definition of halal meat as coming from only unstunned animals, objected and threatened to ask Muslim families across the county to boycott all school meals.

[TOP RATED COMMENT 31 votes] Why should the minority rule over the majority, its cruel and inhumane. Why do we pander to these people? The decision has been made and should be upheld.

[2ND 23] Lancashire Muslim leaders yet again show themselves to be inward looking and self obsessed. Koran allows Muslims to eat non halal if they are in a non Muslim community. Cruelty is cruelty and religion should not be used as a mask for cruelty.

[3RD 20] The bigger picture is - muslims DO NOT want to fit into the societies they migrate to. They EXPECT their hosts to conform to their ways. Lots of Chinese, Italian & Polish people have made the UK their home. You don't hear them making demands all the time.

You don't hear about 'The Grand Council of Chinese this and that' or 'Italian community leaders' placing demands on the UK to change things to their liking. They quietly fit in, get on with their lives & enjoy the hospitality & freedoms the UK has to offer.

[4TH 18] This is cruel and not part of British culture. When people talk about integration it means sometime giving up parts of your culture and accepting the culture of the country you now live in.

For example, if I was to move to Saudi Arabia where alcohol is not permitted I couldnt expect to go out on the lash and disrespect their culture. Those would be the rules and I would have to abide by them OR move to a country that had different rules.

Its the same with halal meat. Its not part of British culture. So either accept that or move. Its not racist. Its not divisive. Its living within the culture of this country. [Lancashire Telegraph] Read more

Women defiant as Denmark's full-face veil ban comes into effect

DENMARK’S CONTROVERSIAL BAN on the Islamic full-face veil in public spaces came into force today as women protested the new measure which fines anyone wearing the garment.

Human rights campaigners have slammed the ban as a violation of women’s rights, while supporters argue it enables better integration of Muslim immigrants into Danish society.

Protests against the ban were planned in the capital Copenhagen and the second-biggest city Aarhus, with several hundred people expected to attend, some of them wearing the full-face veil.

A spokesman for the Copenhagen police said they did not plan to fine the protesters who violated the ban.

[TOP RATED COMMENT 2443 votes] Should be banned here too

[2ND 1864 ] If we go to Saudi Arabia etc we abide by their rules. If we Europeans welcome these people to our shores they should abide by our rules. Or else they are free to return from whence they came.

[3RD 987 ] I’m not for banning things but let’s not pretend the face veil has not come from a very misogynistic religious culture. Fenminsts defending the face veil are hilarious.

[4TH 857 ] Stopped reading after “Human rights campaigners have slammed the ban as a violation of women’s rights”.

[5TH 543 ] Well done Denmark [TheJournal.ie] Read more

Inside Britain's secretive sharia courts: Veil is lifted on the religious tribunals where downtrodden women plead with judges to dissolve their marriages

What strikes you first is the squalid nature of the women’s stories. Their husbands have beaten and abused them, they claim; lied and cheated, cavorted with prostitutes, become addicted to drugs.

One weeping wife even accuses her spouse of molesting her infant child.

Wearing colourful headscarves and robes, and often clutching handbags stuffed with banknotes to pay the £300 fee for their cases to be decided, this procession of downtrodden women have come before a panel of three judges to plead for their miserable marriages to be dissolved.

.... his claim to offer a modern alternative to the brand of sharia handed down in Dewsbury is rather undermined by the shockingly patriarchal posts I found on his council’s Facebook page.

‘The rights of the husband upon his wife are greater than the rights of the wife upon the husband,’ began one, said to have been taken from the Koran. ‘Man is caretaker of his wife and household. He is responsible for all her affairs. He is responsible for training, direction and discipline if needed.

‘It is an essential right of man over his wife to be obeyed so long as his comments do not conflict or contradict the commands of Allah the Almighty . . . righteous women are devoutly obedient.’

[TOP RATED COMMENT 5432 votes] As a muslim woman, I married under UK law and Islamic marriage. If my marriage broke down - I only need to seek a UK divorce. The problem arises when you marry under Islamic law only. This should not be happening! Sharia courts should not function in the UK as it clashes with the law of the Land i.e british laws. I am glad I dont live in a country where old men decide I should obey my abusive husband! [Daily Mail] Read more

The wind in my hair: one Iranian woman’s courageous struggle against being forced to wear the hijab

Masih Alinejad unties her hair, and a sea of corkscrew curls cascades down her shoulders. It looks amazing, but the significance of Masih’s hair isn’t looks – it’s politics. Masih is an Iranian activist who has spent her life fighting for women’s rights in her country through one simple battle: a campaign against the law that says they have to wear a veil, or hijab, over their hair when they’re in public.

.... Her ambition, of course, is to return to Iran, and she says that in her heart she believes she will. “But for now, though I am not inside Iran, I am there every day via social media. When I was a child my mum would say: ‘If you get thrown out of the room, you always find a window to get back in.’ And now social media is my window. The authorities are watching me, and my campaign, because they know how powerful it is that ordinary women are protesting. We’re like the suffragettes, we’re risking breaking the law for something we absolutely know is right.”

[TOP RATED COMMENT 199 votes] Here, she reveals why all she wants is to give women the choice to wear the hijab or not

That's the whole point - for many women it's not a choice. So, to read piece after piece in the Guardian about how hijab is a sign of feminism is a slap in the cheek for women like Masih.

[2ND 177] When I see small girls wearing the Hijab on their way to school in the UK whilst their similar age brothers wear western clothes I cringe. I could understand it if the modesty rules apply to both boys and girls and men and women but to simply apply it to the female gender is discrimination of the highest order.

Why feminists in this country don’t stand up against this extreme form of discrimination is beyond me. Anyone who thinks it is acceptable for young girls to be fully covered (how uncomfortable they must be in this hot weather) with only faces showing whilst young boys are allowed to wear what they like are also guilty of supporting discrimination. It is nothing to do with religion but purely subjugation of girls and women from the moment they are born.

[3RD 157] I am Iranian and totally agree with masih. majarity of women in Iran dont want to wear hijab and want to be free what to wear, is it to much to ask in 21 century?

[4TH 145] I'll accept the hijab as a choice when I see it mixed up as a part of a varied wardrobe; hijab on a Monday, slumming it in a t-shirt and jeans on Tuesday to go get bread and milk, a summer dress on Wednesday because it's 90 degrees in the shade... But no. Remarkably, it's hijabs 7 days a week, no matter the weather or the activity. Odd, innit?

If a bunch of priests and a significant percentage of menfolk in this country were proclaiming the virtue of 'modesty' (whatever the fuck that is) for women, we'd have bare tits in Parliament Square. The hijab is an obscenity in 2018 but it gets a free ride from some quarters because of cowardice, quite frankly.

[5TH 116] Great work Masih, I'm going to buy your book. The only thing that makes me angrier than the forced covering up of women and little girls in the name of a fictional being, is it being defended by a once liberal newspaper in the name of cultural correctness.

If I made my son my son wear a tent every time he left the house, re-arranged his genitalia and then forced him to marry a stranger because the fairies at the end of the garden told me to, I would quite rightly be in prison. [The Guardian] Read more

US fantasies of Islamised Britain do matter

Thanks to the internet, loony American views of a UK lost to radicalism, Sharia and crime are gaining ground here too.

There is a western country that terrifies the American right. Its capital city is already lost to Islam, and has a mayor transparently in league with Islamic State. Its second city is a lawless hell, long abandoned by white people.

Sharia courts are taking over, but the secular courts are not much better, dominated as they are by Muslim-loving Bolsheviks, which might seem an odd sort of Bolshevik to you, but don’t blame me. When not jailing dissidents for thought crimes, the tyrannical government tells hospitals, which are already knee-deep in blood, which children they have to kill. Where is this dystopia? Surprise! You live in it.

[TOP RATED COMMENT 313 votes] I don't care what pretend friend in the clouds people believe in but I have yet to find a single website in the world that can explain to me the benefits of an influx of people with a medieval view on life and the rights of women.

[2ND 260] As a black man who is on the centre right, I feel that I have to look to the right wing press in the USA such as Candace Owen, Larry Elder, Thomas Sowell, in order to get away from the all-pervading view that black people are all victims and cannot achieve anything substantial because of white racism. Sadly their are many left wing commentators ‘of colour’ who are more concerned with pulling statues down then dealing with real black issues such as the lack of fathers figures in the home and education.

[3RD 219] Bravo Hugo!

For your next column can you please include your cartoon of Mohamed to demonstrate that the British tradition of exposing hypocrisy and inequality and idiocy through satirical cartoons is alive and well and not under the thumb of Mohamedic prohibition.

[4TH 158] .... Given the huge demographic shifts currently sweeping across Europe which is it so inconceivable that we might undergo a similar cultural and demographic shift over the next century or so? The birth-rates in Europe are very low, the birth-rates in large chunks of the Islamic world are very high.

Many of these countries have low-standards of living and cannot support their current populations. There are now extremely well-established migration routes from Africa, the Middle East and South Asia into Europe and the continent is currently subject to enormous migration flows. Why is it so inconceivable to so many that the world is not static, and that the present may not last forever. Just because a problem is exaggerated or overstated does not mean it is not real.

[5TH= 142] Excellent post.

That cultures change over time is a truism.

If the Muslim share of the UK was 2.7% according to 2001 census and 4.4% according to 2011 census, & latter census notes that average age of White Irish and White British is 56 & 49 respectively, compared with 32 & 34 for Bangladeshi & Pakistani respectively - you do not have to have an “agenda” to see that the Muslim % is going to increase sharply.

The question is - is it realistic to expect people not to have an opinion?

Are people who are anxious about this trend racist?

[5TH= 142] .... We are not Islamic in this country but a process appears to have begun in this country and critics are silenced.

You are right in so far as hysteria from some elements doesn’t help the case, but ignoring the influence of any religion over out way of life is dangerous. [The Times (£)] Read more

All hail Ms Marvel, a young, female Muslim superhero for our times

At long last, Hollywood is planning a blockbuster film in which a Muslim will not be a threat but a kickass heroine.

When news circulated on Tuesday that Marvel was going to bring a Pakistani-American 16-year-old girl, Kamala Khan (aka Ms Marvel), into its much-loved cinema universe, I was pleased on a number of counts.

I was pleased for myself, to now have a reference for when people ask me how to spell my name, other than “like Genghis”. I was pleased for all my Pakistani actor friends who finally have parts to audition for that aren’t “wife of terrorist No 3” (a speaking part, no less, with three-dimensional lines saying something more than “I love Allah” or “shall I make dinner?”).

[TOP RATED COMMENT 560 votes] When considering a new superhero movie, my primary concern is always the question of what religion they are.

[2ND 472] Surely every one of them is atheist! How do their superpowers fit in with ANY religious narrative? The irony of a Muslim superhero is superb, bearing in mind in a lot of Muslim countries she'd be tried and executed for heresy. [Guardian Cif] Read more

Islamophobia is real. Stop the obsession with semantics

.... most people of good faith understand that Islamophobia as a concept or social phenomenon also goes beyond a literalist dictionary definition.

The term was first popularised by the Runnymede Trust in a report published in 1997. The term had emerged following the need for a specific word to focus minds and lead to substantive action against growing anti-Muslim prejudice. It was initially defined as “unfounded hostility towards Muslims, and therefore fear or dislike of all or most Muslims” with the “phobia” element based on the common “xenophobia” framework in a similar way to homophobia.

From the outset and in that Runnymede report, it has always been made clear that Islamophobia does not encompass disagreement, criticism or even condemnation of Islam. It is complete hogwash to pretend otherwise. [Miqdaad Versi, 480 comments]

[TOP RATED COMMENT 718 votes] Islamophobia is used to silence any and all criticism of an ideology. Which, like any other ideology, should be open to perfectly legitimate criticism.

[2ND 637] In my opinion there are some things about Islam (as well as other prosletising religions) that we in the modern, liberal world SHOULD fear.

Therfore there can be no such thing as "Islamophobia"; there is reason to fear it.

[5TH 384] The distinction between legitimate criticism and 'phobia' is purely in the mind of the beholder. Britain is certainly a more tolerant society than many of those based on Islamic beliefs.[Guardian Cif] Read more

Islamophobia is a fiction to shut down debate

Now consider Islamophobia. Anyone who calls out Islamist extremism as a fanatical or primitive interpretation of Islam currently dominant in the Muslim world is called an Islamophobe. Anyone who says the Muslim Brotherhood is a conspiracy to Islamise the world is called an Islamophobe. Yet evidence abounds to support such observations. Numerous Islamic religious authorities have upheld the uncompromising precepts behind Islamic fundamentalism and holy war.

Muslim Brotherhood documents relating to Britain, Europe and America talk about changing “the very infrastructure of society, its institutions, its culture, its political order, and its creed from ignorance to Islam” and “eliminating and destroying the western civilisation from within”.

Yet anyone sounding the alarm about this is called Islamophobic. These include the former Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somalian victim of genital mutilation and prominent critic of Islam who lives under police guard because of Islamist threats to her life. [Melanie Phillips, 510 comments]

[TOP RATED COMMENT 300 votes] Interesting points made, as a black man I have found that I have not received racism or prejudice from white people but I have from other ethnic communities. This is never mentioned in the media as they seem to like to make it seem only white peoples can be racist.

[2ND 253] I was brought up in an Islamist household, as a Salafi Muslim, and I can tell you with much assuredness that everything Melanie says here is utterly correct.

[3RD 218] The pervasive Islamaphobia narrative suggests that an inordinate and violent hatred of Muslims is manifested within our non-Muslim demographic. In the present century 88 people have been murdered in the UK by Muslims in hate and terror attacks targeting non-Muslims. If the propensity for murderous violence against Muslims had been manifested at the same rate from within the non-Muslim cohort, allowing for the fact that it is 20 times larger, then over 1,700 Muslim fatalities could have been anticipated. In fact the figure is 1: Finsbury Park.

If there really is such an inordinate, violent hatred of Muslims as the proponents of Islamophobia allege how do they square that with the fact that in respect of the propensity for the most serious (ie murderous) attacks the depredations caused by Islamophobia are miniscule compared to those caused by Kuffarphobia (for want of a better word).

I have never heard a Muslim commentator address the yawning discrepancy; I have rarely heard anyone in the media question it. It is as if the Islamaphobia narrative is self-justifying by dint of constant repetition. [The Times (£)] Read more

Young British Muslims are becoming much more liberal – but they aren’t less religious as a result

Muslims, especially second generation Muslims, seem to be finding ways to reconcile British culture with religion. It's only natural that, when Islamic thought has adapted to the context in Malaysia, in Pakistan and in Egypt, it can do so in Britain as well

.... So when Ipsos MORI released a review last month of all the major polling data on Muslim social attitudes to date, it’s surprising that no one picked up on the significance of its findings. Delve into the detail and what you find is something completely new.

What it showed is that Muslims are becoming more liberal. But what was surprising was that they’re not becoming less religious; if anything, the data suggests the opposite. The report noted rising religious observance over the 2005-2009 period, saying “this rise was particularly evident in the younger (16-29) age group (from 68 per cent to 80 per cent)” compared to 73-79 per cent for all Muslims.

And yet, these Muslims are more likely to want to fully integrate into all aspects of British life, have ethnically diverse friendship groups and think it correct that homosexuality is legal in Britain.

What is happening? Muslims, especially second generation Muslims, seem to be finding ways to reconcile British culture with religion. It’s only natural that, when Islamic thought has adapted to the context in Malaysia, in Pakistan and in Egypt, it can do so in Britain as well. Apparently, it can do so without becoming less Islamic.

[TOP RATED COMMENT] Whilst this can only be good news, if true, it is a bit of a PR article that glosses over many of the issues the Muslim community and Islam, as too often practiced, has.

There is fair agreement as to the issues with Islam and these have been discussed at length by people who have fundamental opposition to Islam, like Murray, to reformers, like Nawaz.

The near universal and unyielding view that the Koran is the literal word of Allah, that Mohammed is a perfect human and beyond question and the less universal but still common belief that Islamic law, Sharia, is a perfect legal system leads to an ever present intolerance amongst a disturbingly large minority/majority.

Being decentralised doesn't help either, leaving latitude for extremism even if the majority become liberal.

All of this is self evident in the Islamic world today with 14 nations believing that leaving Islam or being an atheist should be punished by death, the prevalence of widespread sectarian violence and the continued existence of extremity groups like Isis.

Certainly, the increase of liberal imams in the UK will help but it's worth pointing out that almost half of all British mosques are run by conservative/extreme Islamic sects and MI5 say ~1% of the British Muslim populations are a threat to safety and security. Social attitude surveys suggests and 10-30% hold extreme views. So, there's a long way to go.

[ANOTHER] "It’s only natural that, when Islamic thought has adapted to the context in Malaysia, in Pakistan and in Egypt,"

The latter two being among the most misogynistic countries in the world; 90% of women have been genitally mutilated in Egypt.

So maybe there is a little more adapting to do, I reckon.

[ANOTHER] Having visited Malaysia let me assure you they take their Islam seriously there. The Chinese areas are laid back and liberal but Malay areas are every bit as strict as their Middle Eastern counterparts.

[ANOTHER] Far be it from me to denounce the slowest kid in the class when they demonstrate minor but positive incremental changes especially as the fact is that the overwhelming majority of UK Muslims lead peaceful lives.

What’s concerning is that this survey shows little or no improvement in the majority views regarding the more alarming findings shown in the extensive poll of Muslims in the UK in April 2016 conducted by ICM and reported in the Guardian and by Channel 4. Here are just three results with the approximate population numbers included, based on the known 3 Million Muslims in the UK.

52% Muslims agree that homosexuality should illegal in Britain.

38% believe it is not the responsibility of Muslims to condemn terrorist acts carried out in the name of Islam.

6% Muslims say they would not report activities supporting violent extremism to the police.

[ANOTHER] Turkey was relatively secular for 100 years under Ataturk but that hasn't stopped the rise of a virulent strain of Islam there. Nor does it changes the fundamentals of islam one iota.

ECHR Judgement Summary: "sharia law is incompatible with democracy and human rights"

Source: “Annual Report 2003 of the European Court of Human Rights, Council of Europe”

Noting that the Welfare Party had pledged to set up a regime based on sharia law, the Court found that sharia was incompatible with the fundamental principles of democracy as set forth in the Convention. It considered that “sharia, which faithfully reflects the dogmas and divine rules laid down by religion, is stable and invariable. Principles such as pluralism in the political sphere or the constant evolution of public freedoms have no place in it”.

According to the Court, it was difficult to declare one’s respect for democracy and human rights while at the same time supporting a regime based on sharia, which clearly diverged from Convention values, particularly with regard to its criminal law and criminal procedure, its rules on the legal status of women and the way it intervened in all spheres of private and public life in accordance with religious precepts. [The Independent] Read more