Cherie Blair wins misconduct claim. No reasons given

In a terse statement released today, the Office for Judicial Complaints dismissed a complaint brought by the National Secular Society against Cherie Booth, QC. Mrs Blair, you may recall, told a convicted assailant - a supposedly devout Muslim - that she was giving him a non-custodial sentence "based on the fact you are a religious person". "You are a religious man and you know this is not acceptable behaviour." [Heresy Corner] Read more

Shari'a experiment disrupted by right-wing activists

The extreme right-wing group Voorpost disrupted an experimental session of a Shari'a court in the Amsterdam cultural and political centre De Balie on Tuesday evening. Footage shown on Wednesday by local TV station AT5 shows activists occupying the stage with a banner reading "Stop the Islamisation of the Netherlands".

The session was intended as a one-off experiment to gain insight into the development and operation of a court based on Islamic Shari'a law. Members of the public were invited to put cases while qualified judges passed judgement. [Radio Netherlands] Read more [via EuropeNews]

Muslim community leader 'made up story he was kidnapped by BNP', court told

The 36 year-old falsely claimed he was abducted at knifepoint by racist thugs from the far-right wing political party after being subjected to hate mail and an arson attack, Chelmsford Crown Court was told.

He had told police he had feared for his life when he was kidnapped in broad daylight from his home in Loughton, Essex on August 24 last year and bundled into a car, it was claimed. [telegraph.co.uk] Read more

Suspected Muslim polygamist charged with welfare fraud

A French Muslim butcher at the centre of a firestorm over polygamy was charged on Wednesday with welfare fraud and his four companions will also face charges, a prosecutor said. Lies Hebbadj, who runs a halal butcher shop in the western city of Nantes, made headlines after his wife was fined for driving in her full-face veil in April.

Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux had threatened to strip the Algerian-born man of his French passport after accusing him of polygamy, which is illegal in France. Following a nearly two-month investigation, Hebbadj has been charged with welfare fraud and violating labour laws, Nantes prosecutor Xavier Ronsin told a news conference. [AFP] Read more [via Jihad Watch]

Irish woman sentenced to seven years for religious row in Qatar

AN Irish woman has been sentenced to seven years in prison after she ignited a religious row in a mosque in Qatar. Sheena Sharma (39) was charged with "insulting the Koran" when she visited the Arab state last September.

Witnesses explained that Sharma walked into the airport's female-only mosque where a number of cleaners were working and proceeded to flip the Islamic holy book upside down. A head employee said that she tried to intervene and flip the book upwards, but Sharma reportedly flung it to the ground. [Herald.ie] Read more [via National Secular Society]

Muslim teens enraged by pop star’s name

It must have seemed like a good idea at the time. Denmark’s answer to Lady Gaga, decided to put on a free concert in the southern Copenhagen suburb of Ishøj, home to one of Denmark’s largest minority communities.

But Medina, whose real name is Andrea Fuentealba Valbak, didn’t get to sing more than a few notes before a hail of eggs began to rain down upon the stage. The perpetrators, reports tabloid B.T., were a gang of between 10 and 20 youngsters between the ages of 14 and 17 all ‘with an immigrant background’.

Their reason for attacking the songstress? Apart from taking exception to Medina’s hot pants and sexually suggestive song lyrics, it appears that the gang were provoked by the singer’s stage name which is also coincidentally the name of the second holiest city in Islam and the burial place of the Prophet Mohammed [The Copenhagen Post] Read more [via Religious Watch]

Libyan Leader Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi: The Muslims Will Inherit Europe; Turkey will Join the EU as a Trojan Horse

In a recent speech, Libyan leader Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi said that the Muslims, who currently constitute a minority in Europe, would become a majority and would "inherit the continent," despite attempts by the new imperialism to eradicate the Muslims from the world.

Al-Qadhafi told heads of delegations of the Islamic People's Leadership and of Muslims from the Balkans – including scholars, sheikhs, young people, and women's rights activists – that Turkey's joining the European Union would be a Trojan horse. [MEMRI] Read more [via The Iconoclast]

Prisoners convert to Islam to win perks and get protection from powerful Muslim gangs

Prisoners are converting to Islam to win benefits and gain the protection of powerful Muslim gangs inside jails, the Chief Inspector of Prisons has warned.

Up to a third of Muslim prisoners adopted the religion while serving their sentence, a new report by inspectors has found. Inmates say their reasons for converting include the protection of belonging to a gang and perceived material perks offered to Muslims. [MailOnline] Read more

Niqab: Religious right or step backward?

.... Was the Toronto Muslim woman angry, pleased, dismayed by arguments made on her behalf before the Ontario Court of Appeal? We certainly couldn’t tell as she sat listening to lawyers debate a lower court ruling that she must remove her veil when testifying against two relatives charged with sexually abusing her as a child.

Arguing for her right to testify from behind her niqab was her lawyer, David Butt, as well as the Ontario Human Rights Commission, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and, wait for the irony, the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund. [Toronto Sun] Read more [via National Secular Society]

Canadian court to rule on 'veil' testimony

An Ontario court is considering whether an alleged rape victim may testify with her face covered, which defendants say would call her truthfulness in question.

At a preliminary hearing last year, a judge ordered the 32-year-old woman to remove her niqab, or burqa, so defense lawyers could assess her claims of being molested. She resisted, saying her religion bars her from exposing her face to non-family members, the Globe and Mail reported Tuesday. [UPI] Read more [via Islamophobia Watch]

How papers feed bigotry about Islam

At the last census, High Wycombe’s population was 92,300, of whom 10,838 were Muslim (11.7 %). If you prick them, do they not bleed? Like the rest of us, Muslims die. Therefore it can come as no surprise that there is a demand for Muslim burials in High Wycombe.

The Local Authority has to meet this. Population is growing, and room running out. It would suit Hysterical Islamophobics to be able to say space had been clawed back from consecrated ground in the local graveyard; but that would be barmy because the other 88% of the population also continue to die, so there's absolutely no sense in not extending the graveyard, and land is available. [Bishop Alan's Blog] Read more [via Islamophobia Watch]

Campaign Launched To Improve Image Of Islam

"Inspired by Muhammad" aims to promote Islam as a faith which contributes positively to British society. Posters of Muslims with captions like: "I believe in rights for women... so did Muhammad" will feature at bus stops, Tube stations and on London cabs.

It is a reaction to a YouGov poll which found that 58% of the British population surveyed associated Islam with extremism, 50% associate it with terrorism and 68% feel the religion encourages the repression of women. [Sky News] Read more

Britons link Islam with extremism, says survey Most people in the UK associate Islam with extremism and the repression of women, a survey has suggested.

The online YouGov poll was conducted for moderate Muslim organization the Exploring Islam Foundation. Some 58% of those surveyed said they linked Islam with extremism. Asked if Muslims had a positive impact on British society, four out of 10 disagreed with the statement while seven out of 10 said the religion encouraged the repression of women. [BBC] Read more

Is Gravity 'Shirk'?

At the 2010 Vienna Forum hosted by EICEE and the Hudson Institute, a very interesting session held by Robert R. Reilly, ”Status of Reason in Islam and Christianity”, illuminated the differences between Islamic and Western logic, differences that has significant implications for the respective world views, and as to what is considered heresy ('Shirk') in Islam. This essay is inspired by that session. [EuropeNews] Read more

Dutch anti-Islam party set to double in election

"The sluice gates are wide open," Dutch anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders says in a campaign video that shows planes landing in Holland as women in headscarves outnumber natives in shopping street scenes.

"Every day we are confronted with mass immigration: headscarves, burqas, minarets, social security dependence, crime ... it never ends," Wilders laments as dramatic music plays in the background of the clip released ahead of June 9 parliamentary elections. [INQUIRER.net - Agence France-Presse] Read more [via Islamophobia Watch]

Oslo: Little girls in hijab

Traditionally the tight, religious garment is worn in several countries to cover a women's head and hair from the teenage years. But now it's steadily little girls aged five or six who come to school in Norway with a hijab - in fact earlier than what's common in the parent's homeland.

This is documented in a survey VG conducted in elementary schools in Oslo. The principals of 45 of the schools in Oslo said that hijab is worn in primary school. In total, 58 of the elementary school in the capital answered VG's survey. [Islam in Europe] Read more

Study finds young, devout Muslims in Germany more prone to violence

A study conducted by the German authorities has found that the more devout young Muslims become, the more prone to violence they get. The study says the phenomenon is not due to Islam itself, but to the way it is taught.

The willingness to commit violent crimes grows among young Muslim immigrants in Germany the more religious they become, according to a joint survey by the German interior ministry and the Institute for Criminology Research of Lower Saxony (KFN). [Deutsche Welle] Read more [via The Iconoclast]

The Gadfly

.... Now Hirsi Ali is working on antagonizing even more people in yet another memoir. “Nomad” argues that Islam creates dysfunctional families — like her own — and adds that these distorted families constitute “a real threat to the very fabric of Western life.”

Western countries, she says, should be less tolerant of immigrants who try to preserve their lifestyles in their new homelands. It might seem presumptuous to write another memoir so soon, but Hirsi Ali is a remarkable figure who has plenty of memories to record. [NYTimes.com] Read more [via Butterflies & Wheels]

Nick Kristof's Unhinged Attack on Ayaan Hirsi Ali .... If one is looking for overheated and overstated rhetoric, consider Kristof’s assertion of modern Islam that the reason that it is “one of the fastest-growing religions in the world today” is not simply that Muslims statistically have more children than Christians and non-Orthodox Jews, but instead because of ‘the warm hospitality toward guests, including Christians and Jews” (tell that to the Christian and Jewish communities that have been expelled from all too many Middle Eastern countries over the past six decades), “charity for the poor” (easy enough in oil-rich plutocracies without social security), and "the sense of democratic unity as rich and poor pray shoulder to shoulder in the mosque” (but can’t vote shoulder to shoulder in the non-existent polling booths). [The Daily Beast] Read more [via Butterflies & Wheels]

Always look on the bright side of FGM Nicholas Kristof tells off Ayaan Hirsi Ali because of course he knows far more about Islam than she does. "To those of us who have lived and traveled widely in Africa and Asia, descriptions of Islam often seem true but incomplete."

Including, apparently, descriptions by people who grew up immersed in Islam, genitally mutilated under Islam, beaten up by their teachers of Islam, issued death threats from adherents of Islam. The descriptions are true – but Kristof wants more. He wants to hear about the pretty calligraphy. [Butterflies & Wheels] Read more

Should the West Ban the Burqa?

.... In my view, the burqa and niqab function as isolation and sensory deprivation chambers. Such garments do not allow the wearer to interact freely with others. Wearing the burqa (and niqab) may also lead to health hazards. Lifetime burqa wearers may suffer eye damage and may be prone to a host of diseases which are related to sunlight deprivation, e.g. osteoporosis, heart disease, hypertension, and depression.

Religious headgear and garments that do not cover the five senses are obviously permissible .... all allow the wearer to breathe, hear, see, smell, and speak. Those who wear such attire are easy to recognize and identify. They can move freely, see clearly, and are easy to identify. This is not true of the niqab or burqa wearer.

For such reasons, I suggest that we begin a national conversation about whether Americans should ban the burqa. [FOXNews] Read more

No, I don't believe in God

I am an atheist. I imagine that the typical Cif belief reader may not think this is a particularly big deal, but it is for me, because I'm not just an atheist – I'm an apostate from Islam. Apparently there are people who would happily kill me for making such a statement.

But I'm not expecting to be killed, or even threatened; despite what the BNP and certain elements of the press might want you to think, the overwhelming majority of Muslims are not rabid fundamentalists who respond with violence to every perceived slight. [Guardian Cif] Read more

Group jolts Sweden's tolerant self-image

From his party's office in the basement of a Stockholm parking garage, Jimmie Akesson is running for Parliament, preaching sharp cuts in immigration and calling Islam the greatest threat to Swedish society.

That message until now has gained little traction in Sweden, but polls are predicting gains for Akesson's far-right Sweden Democrats that could give them a king-maker role in national elections this year if neither mainstream bloc wins an outright majority. [Associated Press] Read more

Muslim group alleges 'misuse of religion'

A precedent-setting case that could determine whether a woman can wear a niqab while testifying in Canadian courts has a leading feminist group and a national Muslim organization on opposite sides of the contentious debate. But their respective positions, outlined in written arguments filed with the Ontario Court of Appeal, may come as a surprise.

The Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) is arguing that an alleged victim of sexual assault must be permitted to wear the Muslim veil if it is part of her religion. [National Post] Read more [via National Secular Society]

French Muslim Council warns government on veil ban

France's official Muslim council has warned the government not to expect it to impose a planned ban on full face veils for women that legal experts argue will be unconstitutional and police predict will be unenforceable.

Mohammed Moussaoui, head of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), said his group opposed the full veil and would try to convince the tiny minority of veiled women that it was not a religious obligation and was out of place in France.

But Muslim leaders could not act as agents of the state during a six-month "mediation period" during which veiled women will be stopped and informed about the law but not fined. [Reuters] Read more

Pat Condell - No Mosque At Ground Zero

[COMMENT] People involved asked (they were not required to) local politicians first who approved and now it will be built. If you can't distinguish between different groups within muslims and want to punish them all, you are just an ignorant extremist (when you try to punish all muslims, you alienate moderates and increase number of extremists). [Atheist Media Blog] Read more

Sharia law, courts likely on 2010 ballot

EDMOND — State lawmakers say it’s a pre-emptive strike against Sharia law, needed to prevent here what has happened in the United Kingdom. An Islamic leader says it’s another example of a rising tide of anti-Islamic bigotry in America.

State Question 755, which likely will be on the ballot in November, would make in-state courts rely on federal and state laws when deciding cases and forbid courts from using international law or Sharia law when making rulings. [The Edmond Sun] Read more [via Islamophobia Watch]

Has al-Jazeera changed its style?

Al-Jazeera's Arabic channel takes pride of place among Middle East's satellite news outlets. It was the first of its kind, broadcasting – ostensibly with an unprecedented level of editorial independence – to a pan-Arab audience.

It broke taboos and shocked audiences by hosting guests on debate shows who attacked the hitherto unassailable: the Saudi royal family, the Palestinian Authority and the Muslim clergy. In 2006, the channel even helped launch the infamous Wafa Sultan's career when she was a guest on The Opposite Direction. [Guardian Cif] Read more

Al-Jazeera presenters quit over 'modesty' dress comments In a row which has split the channel, the five complained about harassment from a senior editor, whom they accused of making "offensive remarks" about their appearance.

After the channel refused to back them, the five women, some of the best-known faces in the Middle East thanks to the channel's popularity, quit. Three others have registered protests while staying with the station. [telegraph.co.uk] Read more