Fireman Sam and the day freedom went up in smoke

Here are the most sinister and hopeless words I have ever read: ‘I was told that we now live in a different time and some things are not to be said.’ They should be carved on the tombstone of the Country Formerly Known as Great Britain.

They are as near as we will get to an exact moment at which it became clear our free, happy past is gone for ever.

We grew up in another country, and because we did not guard it, or even see the danger, we have lost it, and our children will live in a censored twilight.

.... Mr Jones had been detained for speaking words that only a stone-faced totalitarian, wholly devoid of a sense of humour or proportion, could have objected to.

Here are the words: ‘If I was wearing this scarf over my face, I wonder what would happen.’ [MailOnline] Read more

Olympic mega-mosque opposition campaign relaunched in West Ham

Opposition to 9,500 capacity mosque and Islamic enclave of homes, shops and business units unveiled at recent site exhibition This morning sees the launch of a new campaign against the proposed 9,500 capacity mega-mosque at West Ham, close to the site of the Olympic Stadium and Park.

.... At a recent site exhibition, the Islamic sect behind the proposed mosque Tablighi Jama'at revealed a development that includes an eight-storey high mosque, 45 metre-high minarets, apartments, and retail and business units. Visitors were informed that the formal planning application is to be submitted imminently.

"People think wrongly that the mosque project is dead but it has never gone away," said Alan Craig, leader of the MegaMosqueNoThanks team and a local Newham resident. "It went off the radar for some months but now it's back." [EuropeNews] Read more

Nose job, lies force Egyptian lawmaker to quit

Egypt's ultraconservative Islamic Al-Nour party said Monday one of its lawmakers has resigned from parliament because he got a nose job and then lied about it, claiming he was beaten.

Lawmaker Anwar al-Balkimy told police he was attacked last week during an attempt to steal his car while he was driving on a highway on Cairo's outskirts. He said his attackers also robbed of him more than $16,000.

That led to an outcry against Egypt's government for failing to prevent such crimes, a stream of visitors to the wounded lawmaker in his hospital room and prominent pictures in local newspapers of his heavily bandaged face.

[Associated Press] Read more

Muslim women should not be allowed to hide behind their veils

LAWS forcing women wearing burqas to show their face when asking JPs and lawyers to witness their signature should be imposed in Victoria, the Law Institute says.

It comes as the NSW Government announces its tough stance to "burqa-proof" identity checks to minimise the risk of fraud.

NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith said last year's controversial Carnita Matthews case highlighted the need for change.

Ms Matthews, a Muslim, had her conviction overturned for knowingly making a false statement because the prosecution could not prove that she had signed the statement. [Herald Sun] Read more

Australian Muslim women must show faces for identity checks under new law

Muslim women in the Australian state of New South Wales will be required to show their faces when they have documents witnessed under new identity check laws.

The laws – due to come into force on 30 April – will apply to statutory declarations and affidavits and cover anything that conceals a person's face, including motorcycle helmets, masks, veils, burqas or niqabs.

It follows a court case in which a woman wearing a burqa had a six-month jail sentence overturned on appeal last year because of doubts about her identity. [guardian.co.uk] Read more

Norway: Town's police chief warns of the bad sides of Islam

Threats and pressure on Christian converts show Islam's bad sides, says the newly appointed police chief of Sandnes (Rogaland), Steinar Langholm. Steinar Langholm has previously written letters to the editor to Aftenbladet about Islam, saying that protected dhimmis have less rights than Muslims, while the 'unprotected' will be killed if they don't become Muslims.

.... "Islam is a lot. From one extreme to the other. But there are sides of Islam which are problematic in our democracy."

.... "Without going into concrete cases, for example, Christian converts also in Norway experience threats and pressure from the community," says Langholm, who emphasizes that he has a good relationship with many of the Muslims he has met. [Islam in Europe] Read more

Sarkozy courts French far-right talking about immigration, halal meat, Christian roots

.... Sarkozy appeared to court Le Pen’s supporters by echoing remarks from his hardline Interior Minister Claude Gueant on Saturday rejecting “multiculturalism” and suggesting school canteens should not serve halal meat.

“Let’s recognise everyone’s right to know what they’re eating, halal or not. I’d like to see, therefore, the ticketing of meat according to its method of slaughter,” Sarkozy said.

“We have to consider our holidays, the church and cathedral towers in our villages and towns, our eating habits, our morality, as aspects of our civilisation not just our religion: the civilisation of the French Republic.” [Reuters Blogs - FaithWorld] Read more

Halal - are non-muslims losing the right to choose?

Halal has become the topic of heated debate as people increasingly feel they are being stripped of the right to make an informed decision over whether they eat meat that has come from animals slaughtered in accordance with Islamic law.

The issue came to my attention this week after I was tipped off a school in London had plans to serve pupils and staff only halal meat.

A furious (non-muslim) parent approached me and said there had been no consultation over a new catering contract specifying all meat served at the school must be halal.

The contract for Burntwood School, in Wandsworth, South London, insists all meat must come from animals bled to death in accordance with Muslim teachings. [Nathan Rao] Read more

What’s inside Muslim minds?

.... The author notes that the efforts of Muslim feminists and the modernist elite to attempt alternative interpretations of Islam to reform women’s rights have been pushed to the margins because of burgeoning and militant Islamism.

Violence against women, including so-called honour killing, derives from the dogmatic and literalist interpretation of the Quran, which permits beating of disobedient wives. On the whole, women were considered sexually too attractive to be allowed a presence in the public sphere.

.... The authority of the Quran is more totalist, covering all phenomena: the physical world, the social world, law, politics, culture and so on. The age-old argument that revelation is perfect, and absolute knowledge and reason and science imperfect, continues to apply to far more social, legal and political matters than is the case in secular-democratic societies.

Such argumentation effectively defeats calls for fundamental change and reform. Vain formulae of so-called spiritual democracy and Islamic human rights have proved to be neither fish nor fowl. [Daily Times] Read more

Berlin fears imminent execution of Iranian pastor

.... “At the request of (Foreign) Minister (Guido) Westerwelle, the Iranian ambassador was summoned yesterday (Friday) to the foreign ministry for the German government to convey its deep concern over the fate of Christian pastor Yusuf Nadarkhani and to demand his immediate release,” a spokeswoman said.

“According to several independent reports, (Nadarkhani) is to be executed soon. Instructions to that effect have been sent by the Iranian judiciary authorities to the central prison in Rasht,” where he is being held, she said. [AFP] Read more

Woman tortured for ‘anti-Islam views’ in Pakistan

A Christian woman was brutally tortured and paraded in the streets of a village in Pakistan's Punjab province by a mob for her alleged "anti-Islam views", local residents and police officials said on Friday.

Some 30 residents of Kot Meerath village of Sialkot district, 80 km from Lahore, dragged Seema Bibi out of her house on February 26 and paraded her in the streets after shaving her head. Following the assault, Seema Bibi and her family left the village to save their lives, local residents said. [THE TIMES OF INDIA] Read more

Campaigning Sarkozy excludes special consideration for Muslims like halal meat in schools

The issue of France’s Muslims moved front and center into the presidential campaign with the incumbent, Nicolas Sarkozy, excluding on Saturday any special indulgences for halal meat or separate swimming hours for Muslim women in public pools.

Echoing his 2007 campaign, Sarkozy insisted that French civilization must prevail in France. He created France’s first Ministry of Immigration and National Identity after being elected, but has since done away with it.

.... There are an estimated 5 million Muslims in France, the largest such population in Western Europe, and the latest generation is making increasing demands that the country accommodate needs set out by their religion or their customs. [Associated Press - The Washington Post] Read more

Minister under fire for 'halal' comment on immigrant vote

French Interior Minister Claude Gueant, a hardliner close to President Nicolas Sarkozy, came under fire again Saturday for the second time in a month for comments deemed racist by liberals.

At a meeting late Friday in support of Sarkozy's bid for a new term as president, Gueant condemned proposals by the president's socialist opponent Francois Hollande to give the vote in local elections to immigrants.

"We don't want foreign town councillors making halal food obligatory in canteen meals .... or regulating mixed bathing in swimming pools," Gueant told an audience near Nancy in eastern France. [AFP] Read more

Saudi culture to blame

The Times again, and Janice Turner (£) takes up the issue of female athletes in Saudi Arabia, which I posted about a couple of weeks back:

It seems that when the green flag of Saudi Arabia is paraded at the London Olympic Games opening ceremony, it will be followed by men alone. The number of nations that have never sent a woman competitor has declined over the years: from 35 in Barcelona to 10 in Sydney to a handful in Beijing. In London it seems that there will be just one. What is to be done about Saudi Arabia?

Clearly the more publicity this gets the better. But, oddly, she insists that this Saudi obsession with keeping women in their place and denying them access to sports - denying them any aspect of an independent life - is not religious, but cultural: [Mick Hartley] Read more

Integration study author criticizes interior minister

German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich has come under attack from the key author of “The Daily Life of Muslims in Germany” study, published by the Bild newspaper on Thursday. Some editorial writers have also questioned why Bild was able to obtain the study and release it first.

In an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung published Saturday, the study’s main author Wolfgang Frindte said, “After the publication in a tabloid newspaper there was a lot of outrage and even despair in our team.”

He said the findings were published in such a way that the Muslims who were interviewed for the study “could have felt misused, and that’s sad.”

Bild highlighted a part of the study that showed that nearly one in four non-German Muslims don't want to integrate. [The Local] Read more

How taxpayers are still funding the extremists

People associated with one “extremist” group whose grant was terminated after the Prime Minister’s pledge are now being used to induct new staff into the Government’s own Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism (OSCT), the Home Office division responsible for directing Britain’s anti-terror efforts. Only last week the same individuals were awarded thousands of pounds of fresh public funding.

Meanwhile, the Civil Service has solicited “fast-stream” recruits for the top ranks in Whitehall from a group which has hosted numerous extremists and terrorist supporters, including the al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was linked to a number of international plots before his death last year. [telegraph.co.uk] Read more

Sharia Law Campaign Begins As Muslim Group Fights Bans

After heated debates in two dozen states over banning Sharia law, the legal code of Islam, a national Islamic group is beginning a multi-million dollar effort to explain how Sharia applies to the lives of American Muslims.

The Islamic Circle of North America, a New York-based group, is spending $3 million on its Defending Religious Freedom campaign, which kicks off Monday and explains Sharia law and common misunderstandings.

The effort includes billboards, TV and radio ads in 25 major cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, in addition to town hall meetings and seminars on university campuses led by Muslim academics and activists. Each directs audiences to a website and manned hotline, 1-855-Shariah. [The Huffington Post] Read more

Paved with Good Intentions

“Sharia law compatible with human rights, argues leading barrister” was the headline in The Guardian (16 January, 2012).

The article continued “Sadakat Kadri told the Guardian that so-called "sharia courts" …. were good for "the community as a whole" by putting Sharia on a transparent, public footing and should be more widely accessible to those who want to use them.”

“…. they played a role in safeguarding human rights: "It's very important that they be acknowledged and allowed to exist. So long as they're voluntary, which is crucial, it's in everyone's interests these things be transparent and publicly accessible. If you don't have open tribunals, they're going to happen anyway, but behind closed doors." See here.

One’s first reaction might be if something is wrong, it is wrong, and the fact that it might go on behind closed doors is no excuse for allowing it. No doubt fewer people would be involved and in time they too might be stopped.

Sadakat Kadri, the barrister in question, is of half-Finnish, half-Pakistani origins, and his book “Heaven on Earth – A Journey Through Sharia Law” had just been published by Bodley Head. See here.

The book reveals why he thinks as he does but ironically it provides some of the best reasons why he is talking through his hat (or should that be his wig?). [Islam Surveyed] Read more

Uproar over mosque at Markham council meeting

Controversies surrounding the planned 16th Avenue mosque continue to plague Markham town hall, with the latest uproar resulting in the mayor and some residents pointing fingers at each other and losing their cool Tuesday night.

The group that has been protesting against the mosque stormed council chambers again without having made it on to the agenda — group leaders said they tried to get on the agenda with no luck.

However, Markham council fired back this time with a nine-page PowerPoint counter presentation, which wasn’t on the agenda, either.

“You continue to put out misinformation (about the mosque) and we’ll continue to put out the correct information,” Mayor Frank Scarpitti told members of the Markham Residents for Responsible Community Planning (MRRCP). [YorkRegion.com] Read more

Why Did Several Islamic News Agencies Suddenly Target the Thomas More Law Center?

.... The news agencies, which decried the lack of religious accommodations for Muslims in U.S. public schools focused on comments by Thompson. The story published by the International Islamic News Agency stated in part:

"Some also say providing Muslim students with prayer rooms and special food constitutes an organized attempt to push Islamic law in public settings. In fact, some of the most outspoken critics of accommodation for Muslim students are Christian groups. "What (school officials) are doing ... is to give Muslim students religious benefits that they do not give any other religion right now," Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel at the Thomas More Law Center, a Christian advocacy group, told USA Today. [Christian Newswire] Read more

Egypt jails Christian for six years for religious contempt

An Egyptian court has sentenced a Christian man to six years in prison on charges of showing contempt for religion and insulting the Prophet Mohammed, reported the semi-official newspaper Al-Ahram on Thursday.

The court, in the southern Egyptian province of Assiut, said that Makram Diab, a school employee, had made offensive remarks against Islam's prophet, according to the report. [Monsters & Critics] Read more

Muslims in Germany - Study Hints that Mutual Suspicion Is Slowing Integration

.... This year's discussion was kicked off on Thursday with the publication of a study carried out by Germany's Interior Ministry, which sought to gauge how Muslims living in the country view German culture and their attitudes to integration. The result? A significant minority encompassing 20 percent of Muslims in the country are skeptical when it comes to integration.

Perhaps more concerning, among Muslims in the age group between 14 and 32, "there exists a subgroup that could be described as 'strictly religious' with strong antipathy to the West, a tendential acceptance of violence and no willingness to integrate,'" the study says. Among Muslims with German citizenship, this group encompasses 15 percent, among non-citizens, it is 24 percent. [Spiegal Online] Read more

Many German Muslims 'refuse to integrate'

Nearly every fourth non-German Muslim rejects integration, questions western values and tends to accept violence, according to a study commissioned by the German Interior Ministry and released late Thursday morning.

“Germany respects the background and cultural identity of its immigrants. But we don’t accept the importation of authoritarian, anti-democratic and religiously fanatical points of view,” Friedrich told the Bild newspaper. [The Local] Read more

Florida House passes bill aimed at cracking down on Sharia law in courts

A measure aimed at restricting the “application of foreign law,” specifically Sharia law, in courts in Florida passed the state House today in a 92-24 vote.

The measure is aimed at outlawing “foreign law” in family court cases, despite no real evidence that such a problem exists. The measure, and past incarnations of it, have been touted by right-wing activists as an attempt to “stop the spread of Sharia in Florida.” [The American Independent News Network] Read more

Moroccan Muslim sentenced for beating his wife for not wearing her hijab

.... Neighbours called the police when they heard the girl screaming. Her husband had beaten her when she tried to leave the house without the hijab. She had lesions to her face, a broken nose and bruising.

I think the reference on Muslima media watch to 'bitten' is meant to be 'beaten'. The dozy bints there are more concerned that the newspapers have not reported other domestic violence cases not involving Muslims than that one of their number has suffered. [The Iconoclast] Read more