Free Speech Loses in Finland as Helsinki Councilman is Fined 330 Euroes For Insulting Islam.......

This judgement by the Helsinki District Court violates the very essence of what "Freedom of Speech" stands for; the right to say out loud, that, what people do not want to hear. As an American who has been living in Finland for the past 22 years, I'm appalled at what just took place.

.... From now on, and in no unclear or uncertain terms, the Finnish state makes itself the sole arbitrator of what kind of speech in Finland is permissible and what is not. Big Brother has spoken. [Tundra Tabloids] Read more

A Muslim republic in the Netherlands?

First, we have to explain that Islam does not equate with war, but that it is about peace, solidarity, family issues—and that Dutch Muslims just want to lead normal lives here like everybody else. We intend to mend the rift between Muslims and non-Muslims and to improve the negative image of Islam.

Second, we have to invest in our future, and the most important way and probably the only way to do this is to invest in our youth [Global Arab Network] Read more

Sudanese woman guilty of daring to wear trousers

A Sudanese woman whose arrest on the charge of wearing trousers drew worldwide attention, escaped a public lashing yesterday but now faces up to a month in prison. Lubna Hussein was convicted of indecency but did not receive the typical sentence of 40 lashes as the judge opted to fine her. [independent.co.uk] Read more

Conservatives threaten backlash over student who promoted women's rights

Conservative and religious groups in Afghanistan reacted with fury yesterday to the news that Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, who was sentenced to death for promoting women's rights, has been freed.

After President Hamid Karzai secretly pardoned the 24-year-old student, hardliners called for an urgent ulama, a meeting of Islamic scholars, to organise protests against the decision. [independent.co.uk] Read more

Saudi cleric urges prayer reform

A leading Saudi cleric has called on Muslims not to pray for the destruction of unbelievers. A supplication to that effect is often reiterated at the end of every Friday prayer in Arab countries, something critics say can radicalise youth.

Sheikh Salman al-Awda said such prayers were against Islamic sharia. But he added they were permissible if the interests of Muslims were harmed, so his words may have little effect on radicals who oppose the US or Israel. [BBC] Read more

The West Struggles With Definition of Jihad

Since Sept. 11, few words have been considered more controversial than the term “jihad” in theological, political, and military discussions. Apologists for Islamic radicalism immediately raced after 9/11 to convince the West that “jihad” is predominantly understood in a peaceful way.

Many in the West accepted and relied on this comforting definition without adequate scientific research in Arabic and Islamic literature. For example, John O. Brennan, assistant to the president for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, mentioned that the meaning of jihad is to “. . . purify oneself or to wage a holy struggle for a moral goal” .... [Creeping Sharia] Read more

Not in Line with our Iranian-Islamic Culture

Iran is set to Islamise humanities studies in universities after supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei charged that Western teachings make students question religion, state news agency IRNA reported on Sunday.

"The Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies was tasked by the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council to revise the human sciences curriculum," the agency said. [Mick Hartley] Read more

The terrifying global implications of Islamic Law

Nonie Darwish knows a fair amount about Islam. She was an Egyptian Muslim for the first 30 years of her life. Then she fled to America and is now a Christian. She told her story earlier in her 2007 volume, Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel, and the War on Terror.

In this book she continues her important story, but she does so by highlighting two crucial themes: what sharia law means, and how women are treated under Islam. In 270 pages she spells out in chilling detail what the implications are of Islamic law, and how the West must be very careful indeed about the spread of sharia. [News Weekly] Read more [via Political Correctness Watch]

Boris Johnson urges non-Muslims to fast during Ramadan

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, has encouraged people to undergo a day of fasting to help them gain a better understanding of their 'Muslim neighbour'.

Absolutely right.

And Cranmer exhorts the Mayor to encourage Muslims to go to church, read the Bible, give up something for Lent, meditate on the cross and try the odd bacon sandwich to help them gain a better understanding of their Christian neighbour. [Archbishop Cranmer] Read more

Woman gives evidence wearing niqab

For the first time in Danish legal history, a woman has given evidence in a courtroom wearing a niqab, reports TV2 News.

.... Spokespeople for the government’s Liberal party and their allies the Danish People’s Party both said it was problematic that witness’s faces were not visible during a hearing. Nasar Khader, integration spokesman for the government’s Conservative Party which recently proposed a ban on burqas, stood by the party line and said courtrooms should be free of burqas and niqabs. [The Copenhagen Post] Read more

Reading the Qur'an in the dark

Alas, poor Sebastian Faulks! First he annoys the Muslims by declaring, in a Sunday Times interview, that the Qur'an is "the rantings of a schizophrenic" with "no ethical dimension". Then he upsets the Islamophobes by apologising. The poor sod has been hit by a self-inflicted double whammy.

.... If Faulks had given a moment's thought to his position, a plethora of basic questions would have emerged. If the Qur'an has "no new plan for life", how come it laid the foundations of one of the great civilisations of the world?

Given "the barrenness of the message", how could it motivate the believers to develop science and learning, promote reason and experimental method, establish universities and research-based hospitals, and advance philosophical inquiry? [Guardian CiF] Read more

See what Guardian Cif readers think of this post here.

See here for Sebastion Faulks' interviews concerning the Qur'an

My mother hired a hitman to kill me: The shocking story of a Muslim woman whose parents disapproved of her Western lifestyle

The text message forwarded to me from my younger sister Saira was concise and chilling: 'Mum's sent a hit man to kill you,' it read. 'Be careful.' As I read those words, my first instinct wasn't fear or even shock, but simply survival.

I'd become accustomed to behaviour like this from both my parents - behaviour that anyone else would find abhorrent - and I was emotionally numb to their threats. But I also knew that my sister's warning was deadly serious and my life was in real danger. I'd been in hiding for several weeks when I received the text. [MailOnline] Read more

Belgian school terms begins amid protests over veil ban

Dozens of protesters sported party hats, colanders and other unlikely headgear in protests Tuesday at schools in the Belgian city of Antwerp where authorities have banned girls from wearing the Muslim veil.

Around 60 people turned up for the start of the school year outside the gates of the Athenee Royal of Antwerp school, where most students are Muslims, carrying banners calling for "freedom of choice," television pictures showed. [Agence France-Presse] Read more

To Highlight a Double Standard

Dutch prosecutors said Wednesday they will charge an Arab cultural group under hate speech laws for publishing a cartoon that suggests the death of 6 million Jews during World War II is a fabrication.

The public prosecutor's office in the city of Utrecht said the cartoon insults Jews as a group and is therefore an illegal form of discrimination. Prosecutors plan to press charges for "insulting a group and distributing an insulting image". [Mick Hartley] Read more

Feminists and Islam: a reply to my critics

I don't claim that feminists are unaware of issues disproportionately affecting parts of the Muslim community, both in this country and worldwide: issues such as forced or forcefully-arranged marriage, under-age or inappropriately young marriage, sexual segregation, removal from education, genital mutilation (in extreme cases), "honour" crime, domestic servitude, sexist religious assumptions and cultural pressures of various kinds. It's just that they don't seem to be very high up the agenda. [Heresy Corner] Read more
See Also: [The Bleeding Heart Show] Read See Also: [Heresy Corner] Read

Ramjanally charged with making false report

Noor Ramjanally, the Muslim community leader in Loughton who claimed he had been kidnapped at knifepoint by BNP-inspired thugs and told to stop his religious activities, has been arrested on charges of perverting the course of justice. [Harry’s Place] Read more

Trying to pep up the opposition

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, seems rattled by the prospect of student unrest—and has hinted that the regime may purge universities of professors suspected of “unIslamic” tendencies.

On August 30th he complained that the study of social science “promotes doubts and uncertainty”, telling a meeting of students and teachers that the study of liberal arts and other humanities had led to a “loss of belief in godly and Islamic knowledge.” [Economist.com] Read more See Also: [NYTimes.com] Read

A Question of Priorities and a Question for Inayat

…. Why does Bungle attack the Quilliam Foundation so vehemently for their role in organising an event with Martin Bright yet not bother to mention that it’s being held at the Labour Party Conference and Quilliam’s co-hosts are Progress, a Labour party organisation. [The Spittoon] Read more

Free speech wins huge victory in Canada

At issue here was not true hate speech -- racial slurs, etc. -- which are indefensible. Rather, the aim of such laws is to crush political dissent. The Organization of the Islamic Conference is trying to strong-arm Western nations into imposing hate speech laws that will restrict speech about Islam they don't like, including explorations of the motives and goals of jihad terrorists. [Jihad Watch] Read more

Netherlands: Moroccans, Turks not marrying Dutch

Highly education Turks and Moroccans of the second generation prefer not marrying a Dutch person. The cultural difference are yet too great..... Tolsma shows in his study that they are still distant from ethnic Dutch, just as their parents who emigrated to the Netherlands as guest workers. [Islam in Europe] Read more

[islam] uninformed perceptions and strategic misdirection

August 20, 2009 …. What Islam condones, in its extreme form, is deeply disturbing and I would suggest that it has absolutely no place in western society. It is polarizing in a society which has already become polarized in so many other ways and while the right to worship as one wishes is a cornerstone of the libertarian stance .... , I believe …. that the extent to which the repugnant aspects of this world view and its practices come to the fore is proportional to the population percentage which embraces it in any given community.

There is no hatred in this for fellow citizens who are Muslim and I'll continue to befriend any Muslim who's a nice guy. My beef is with the system, which is obviously not benign in what it has on its books, allows and even encourages in the Mosques. [Nourishing Obscurity] Read more

[islamicization] london school of islamics replies again August 26, 2009 …. quite a few people had their say. I then ran a poll and the poll results were predictable. One blogger said it was hardly a big enough sample, a point I conceded and yet, in terms of Muslims having their own schools, it was 100% against. On the question of Sharia Law being allowed into Britain, it was 95% against. Read more

See here for other statistics on the Sharia question.

[islamic agenda] in the steps of the prophet, peace be upon him August 28, 2009 …. There is no one enemy. It is Them, it is the Muslim leadership, it is our own ASBOs and the new youth sub-culture, which in the 60s was for peace, man, turn on, tune in, drop out but now is considerably nastier....

.... The enemy is coming from different directions. This post is about one particular section of the inimicable forces arrayed against us. To wind up, Douglas Adams was quite apt when describing the planet of Krikkit and I think it is not irrelevant in the context of this discussion: The people of Krikkit believed in "peace, justice, morality, culture, sport, family life and the obliteration of all other life forms." Read more

[british politicians and people are racist] says muslim authority September 02, 2009 .... Globalisation is here to stay, Muslims are here to stay and so are other communities. Those idiot British ministers need to learn that the world is made up of different people and the British society and its Establishment need to learn to accept and tolerate every culture for what it is and most importantly respect and tolerate the values of each and every religion.

…. There are hundreds of state and church schools where Muslim children are in majority. In my opinion, all such schools may be designated as Muslimcommunity schools. A Muslim is a citizen of this tiny global village. He/she does not want to become notoriously monolingual Brit. Read more

New report on young Muslims, missing a trick

.... This undertone runs through the report unfortunately. Muslims are no doubt unfairly maligned in the media all the time. But the way to get over that isn’t through education about Islamic history and outreach specifically to Muslim groups – but to tie their struggles with those of other communities.

As a narrative, it is far better for Muslim researchers and commentators to keep comparing Muslims to, say, white working class Britons, and illustrating how they have similar struggles (on poverty, lack of access to power etc). That also makes it easier for policy-makers to sell ideas to the public since anything seen as pandering to just one minority will not be popular. [Pickled Politics] Read more

Young Muslims speak up .... The young people described their modern life as surrounded by communication gaps, particularly when it came to generational splits within their own communities.

Several young women spoke of having felt compelled to find out about Islam for themselves, but, in living out their new religious confidence, found the expectations of their parents' generation difficult terrain. Others, from both sexes, admitted to being faced with two starkly different lives – one life inside and one outside the home – as a way to negotiate the intergenerational challenges. [Guardian CiF] Read more See Also: [Policy Research] Read

Wiping gays off the site-map…

…. burying your head in the silicon. That seems to be the point of a new “Halaal” search engine that blocks things Muslims apparently shouldn’t want to see or hear about.

The first thing I searched for was “gay” and of course I hit the Code Red - Level 3. I was informed: Oops! Your search inquiry has a Haram level of 3 out of 3! I would like to advise you to change your search terms and try again. [Harry’s Place] Read more

Turning a Blind Eye to Misogyny

.... For at the root of the weird twists in liberal opinion I have been arguing against lies physical fear: the fear of provoking accusation of racial or religious prejudice; the fear of provoking trouble; the fear of provoking violent retribution. Generally, people do not own up to cowardice. They prefer to dress up it up in fine clothes and call it "respect for difference" or "a celebration of diversity".

.... They smugly declare that ‘we haven't got the right to impose our values on another culture' and think themselves liberal when they do it." I accept that this may seem an odd thing to wish for, but what the world needs now is an uncompromisingly militant feminist movement. [Standpoint] Read more

A Veil of Silence Over Murder .... The immediate spur to Pamela Bone's article had been the piercing silence from Western feminists on the subject of Ayaan Hirsi Ali's condemnation of how women were being treated in Islamic culture. In asking her question, Pamela Bone already knew why the Western feminists were saying so little.

They were saying little not just about Islam, but about Hinduism or any other culture which, when the behaviour of its more extreme groups towards women attracts criticism, bridles as if it is being attacked as a whole. [Standpoint] Read more

Hasan al-Banna: Brotherhood, Jihad and Nazism

The Muslim Brotherhood is the largest Islamist party in the world today. It also claims to be a democratic party. In this article I look at its founder Hasan al-Banna, the reasons why he established the Muslim Brotherhood, and his Nazi sympathies.

Hasan al-Banna was born in 1906 to a poor family in Southern Egypt. During his teenage years he took part in demonstrations against British Rule. He later went on to become a school teacher and in 1928 founded the ‘The Muslim Brotherhood’ (MB), the world’s largest Islamist group. [Harry’s Place] Read more