Jesus and Mo: it’s time to pick a horse

Don’t think you can straddle both sides of the Jesus and Mo argument, arguing in one breath how free speech and free expression are important but in another breath how we have to be “respectful” and not cause offence, like a Hollywood stuntman expertly riding two horses. At some point those horses will go their separate ways. Pick a horse now – while you still have something of a choice.

The events of the last few weeks have demonstrated something that secularists are only too aware of: the urgent need for absolute honesty when it comes to discussing religion.

After we had finished filming The Big Questions a gentleman from the audience came up to speak to me. It’s fair to say we were on different sides of the debate. When I told him I was a secularist he remarked dismissively and mockingly, and almost salivating at his own quick wit, “well I suppose someone has to be”.

Yes, he’s bloody right. Someone has to be. [Lawyers’ Secular Society] Read more

How British the justice system lost out to Islamic extremism

That isn't to say we won't be obliged to turn up. For the time being at least that will probably remain necessary. But we will not need to actually show our face. For a great precedent has now been set.

Earlier this week fanatical Muslim convert Rebekah Dawson made legal history in this country. Up in court on charges of witness intimidation Dawson - who wears the full Islamic face covering - simply refused to show her face.

This was the fanatical 22-year-old convert to Islam who (although she could not be named at the time) made headlines last September when a judge asked her to remove her face-covering in court and she refused. Indeed Dawson's barrister Susan Meek argued at a pre-trial hearing that her client had a right to remain fully veiled in court, revealing only part of her eyes. [Daily Express] Read more

'Don't stop serving pork for Muslims': Minister

"We cannot stop serving pork because Muslims have moved to Norway," Sylvi Listhaug, a politician for the right-wing Progress Party, said this week.

"Those responsible for food in public institutions should put pork on the menu, and then make sure that those who do not eat pork can get something else," she said.

Bjørn-Ole Juul-Hansen, the managing director of the Norwegian meat industry association, told NRK that public institutions in the country were now serving pork less often, although he could provide no statistics to back up the claim.

"Our members feel that many public institutions, nurseries and municipal catering departments often opt out of pork in the interests of a small minority," he said. [The Local] Read more

Second British pensioner faces blasphemy charges in Pakistan for reading from Koran in public

The family of a second British man facing blasphemy charges in Pakistan said yesterday that he is entirely innocent and called for more to be done to allow him to return to the UK.

Masud Ahmad, 72, is currently on bail in Lahore after he was allegedly tricked into publicly reading from the Koran – an act which is forbidden for members of the minority Ahmadi sect to which he belongs. He now faces three years in jail.

Mr Ahmad’s son Abbas, 39, who lives in Glasgow along with a brother and two sisters, said their father had been targeted by powerful figures linked to a right-wing religious group and that he now faced losing the property where he practised as a homeopath. [The Independent] Read more

Why Americans Should Embrace the Veil

.... My sense of being off-balance lasted . . . about seven minutes. Then normal life resumed. Over the course of the semester I noted only one actual effect that Sara's niqab had: at times I couldn't gauge her reactions. In some lighter moments it was quite obvious from her eyes she was smiling, while in others I thought my joke might've flopped with her but couldn't tell.

As a teacher I wasn't bothered by Sara's hidden face. As a bank teller, I might've been. Over the past several years in the U.S. there have been a handful of "burqa bandit" bank robberies--and now a handful of banks require the removal of any face coverings before entry. This seems entirely reasonable.

[A COMMENT] You are a shame for all the Women who fight for their equality and liberty! Specially Muslim one! You are a shame for modernity! No Madame USA is not a country of Liberty! It is France and Europe! Why you have to wear the Tchador (Burqa) when you are in Saudi Arabia and she doesn't have to respect the occidental customs when she is in our countries? It is not a question of threaten it is a question of respect!

[ANOTHER COMMENT] Total BS. Once they step off the plane and step foot on American soil that's when they cease and desist insisting WE the people bend to their culture/religion.....period! Its either OUR way or get your invited butts back on the plane!!! [THE DAILY BEAST] Read more

Top Islamic Leader Calls on U.S. to Wage ‘Jihad for Allah’

A video of Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradawi calling on the U.S. government to wage jihad for Allah in Syria, is currently making the rounds on Arabic media and Facebook, to mockery and dismay.

In the recorded speech, Qaradawi—one of the most influential Islamic clerics in the world, spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, author of over 100 books on Muslim doctrine, and head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars—sarcastically thanks the U.S. for supporting the “freedom fighters” in Syria, adding that “Allah willing, your [U.S.] aid will increase.” [Front Page Magazine] Read more

Illegal mosque finally shut down

.... Southend Council has received hundreds of complaints about noise, parking and rubbish since the group began using the bungalow as a place of worship without planning permission in 2010.

Nasser Hussein, chairman of the centre, said: “We haven’t been a problem to anyone. The council says there have been 200 complaints, but there aren’t 200 houses around here.

“We could have made another appeal, but it would have gone on and on. That’s not the way out. [Southend Standard] Read more

Maajid Nawaz's with-us or against-us mindset is out of touch with reality

.... Nawaz is correct when he says that Muslims are not a homogeneous tribe that needs comical Citizen Khan-like leaders. Yet his simplistic analysis has those who are rational and tolerant agreeing with the posting of the picture; with anyone who doesn't portrayed as irrational and intolerant.

This is clearly not the case. In Nawaz's with-us or against-us mindset, it is inconceivable that a British Muslim could disagree with the posting of the picture, as I did, yet come to the aid and assistance of a British citizen facing blasphemy charges in Pakistan.

[A COMMENT] He didn't invent Mohammed Shafiq, or his nasty little comments, which most people would see as rather more offensive and which you can't bring yourself to express an interest in. [Harry’s Place] Read more

Pakistan's rulers are too afraid of Islamist extremists to pardon the 'blaspheming' Briton

.... One of the people on Baroness Warsi's call list was the chief minister of Punjab. He will need no reminder of what happens to Pakistani politicians who get involved in cases like these.

Three years ago the governor of Punjab – the president's representative in the province – was shot dead for taking up the cause of a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy, a case revealed by The Telegraph.

His killer was showered with rose petals as he arrived in court and today remains in Adiala Jail, the same prison where Mr Asghar is detained in a fragile mental and physical state. Ironic? More like tragic. [The Telegraph] Read more

Censoring 'Jesus and Mo' establishes UK sharia blasphemy code

.... The fact that both BBC Newsnight and Channel 4 News are censoring images of Mohammed establishes a narrow Sunni-sharia compliance: it is, effectively, a blasphemy code adopted by the state broadcasters. His Grace observed this development as far back as 2007.

The UK now has a de facto blasphemy law which protects Allah, Mohammed and mosques more than it does the names of Jesus, YHWH or the Church of England.

It is ironic that while Parliament has abolished the crimes of blasphemy and blasphemous libel as they relate to Christianity, the vacuum has been filled by politicians, police, the judiciary and media increasingly taking the view that Islam has to be treated with kid gloves, and blind eyes have to be turned to those professing Muslims who threaten murder or call for ‘Jihad’ against the apostate and the infidel. [Archbishop Cranmer] Read more

Who represents Sweden's Muslim voters?

Why can a Moderate get away with supporting Muslim polygamy, while the Social Democrats get accused of playing the religion card when promoting a Muslim within the party. A new report about Sweden's Muslim voters prompts more questions than it answers.

.... But if Mustafa had been kicked off the scene for being diffuse about women's and men's rights, as well as having presided over the Islamic Association when it invited speakers accused of rather flagrant anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, why had Moderate MP Waberi not been asked to leave for saying that men were allowed to hit their wives, that he's open to a state run by sharia laws, and that women and men should not be allowed to be alone in the same room together.

[A COMMENT] When you start worrying about whether every special interest group is being represented, you give away Democracy for political correctness. [The Local] Read more

Cardinal offends with Muslim birth rate remark

Cardinal Joachim Meisner was speaking on Friday to members of a conservative Catholic group famous for their large families when he said: "I always say, one of your families to me makes up for three Muslim families."

Muslim organizations and politicians from the Social Democrat and Green parties said they were "stunned" by the comments – which came a month before Meisner, 80, was due to retire.

The Cardinal said in a statement on Wednesday he regretted that his comments had caused such "irritation". [The Local] Read more

On the importance of the right to offend

‘Thank you @Channel4News you just pushed us liberal Muslims further into a ditch’. So tweeted Maajid Nawaz, prospective Liberal Democratic parliamentary candidate for Hampstead and Kilburn, last night.

He had every right to be incandescent. Channel 4 News had just held a debate about the Jesus and Mo cartoons and about the campaign to deselect Nawaz for tweeting one of the cartoons, not finding them offensive.

Channel 4 decided that they were offensive and could not be shown. It would have been bad enough had the channel decided simply not to show the cartoon. What it did was worse.

It showed the cartoon – but blanked out Muhammad’s face (and only Muhammad’s face). In the context of a debate about whether Nawaz had been right to tweet the cartoon in the first place, or whether his critics were right to hound him for ‘offending’ Muslims, it was an extraordinary decision.

The broadcaster had effectively taken sides in the debate – and taken the side of the reactionaries against the liberal. [PANDAEMONIUM] Read more

Censorship on Channel 4 News: an open letter to the editor

.... We were surprised and extremely disappointed to see that Channel 4 News took the decision to cover up the image of Mohammed when showing the Jesus & Mo cartoon, and we are thus keen to elicit the rationale behind that particular editorial decision.

During the report, it was noted that this decision was taken so as not to cause offence to some viewers; however we would like to point out that by your making this decision you have effectively taken a side in a debate where a Muslim man has suffered violent death threats after he explicitly said he did not find the cartoons offensive.

You have taken the side of the reactionaries - the side of people who bully and violently threaten Muslims, such as Mr Nawaz, online. [National Secular Society] Read more

Blasphemy law used against minorities in Pakistan

The elderly man’s troubles started when two young men milling inside his homeopathic clinic casually asked him about his religion. He thought they were merely curious. In fact, they belonged to an outlawed militant group and were carrying hidden tape recorders.

Within hours, police officers showed up at Masood Ahmad’s clinic and played back the tape in which he explained the tenets of the minority Ahmadiyya sect, rejected by mainstream Muslims because it disputes the basic tenet of their faith that Muhammad is Islam’s last prophet. [The Washington Post] Read more

Protest against Usama Husan lecture at Plymouth University

A PROTEST against a speaker specialising in Islamism and counter-extremism has taken place at Plymouth University tonight.

Around 30 people gathered to show their anger at Sheikh Dr Usama Husan giving a lecture at the uni.

It comes after he failed to condemn an image from the online cartoon 'Jesus and Mo' showing Jesus and Mohammed saying 'hey' and 'how ya doin' to each other.

Dr Hasan is a senior researcher in Islamic Studies at Quilliam was speaking at the Jill Craigie cinema tonight on the topic of Islam and democracy in the wake of the Arab Spring.

[A COMMENT] Unfortunately, Islamic people do not generally have a sense of humour - or reality for that matter.

[ANOTHER] The concept of free speech and freedom of thought is obviously lost on these people. This is not an Islamic country thank god.

[AND ANOTHER] So they are offended because he hasn't condemned one of his friends, who tweeted a link, to a cartoon that shows two men, "Jesus" and "Mo". What a ridiculous thing to get upset about. [Plymouth Herald] Read more

Pakistan and the Arab-Muslim Culture of Denial

.... We are witnessing in the politics of the Muslim world what Ibn Khaldun recorded and explained in his own time. In an undivided India, Jinnah and his supporters drew upon the "asabiyyah" of Muslim culture to demand a separate state for Muslims.

The politics of Muslim separation from Hindu majority in order to preserve the "purity" of Muslim religious-based tribal identity soon unfolded in demanding others within Pakistan to embrace this identity by renouncing their own, and with that requirement began the exodus of non-Muslims from the country, followed by the repression of those Muslims considered heretics, such as the Ahmediyya Muslims.

There then followed the genocide in Bangladesh, and yet, in what remains of Pakistan, there is no sign of an end to tribal and sectarian conflicts. Further, the example of Pakistan is writ large across the contemporary Arab-Muslim world. [Gatestone Institute] Read more

Saudi Arabia Jails Palestinian Poet for ‘Atheism and Long Hair’

Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayadh is in a Saudi prison, allegedly for spreading atheism – and having long hair. The poet, raised in Saudi Arabia, was arrested five months ago, when a reader submitted a complaint against him saying that his poems contain atheist ideas. The accusations were not proven and he was released, only to be arrested again on the 1 January 2014.

Fayadh's case is making the rounds in media and on social networks, with condemnations coming from Arab writers from across the region. Some of his friends wrote online that the real reason behind his arrest might be due to the video he filmed five months ago of Abha's religious police lashing a young man in public. [Global Voices Advocacy] Read more

Malala Yousafzai: Concern as Peshawar book launch cancelled

An event in north-west Pakistan to launch activist Malala Yousafzai's memoir was cancelled after pressure from local officials, organisers say.

Tuesday's book launch in Peshawar could not go ahead after "direct intervention by the provincial government", Dr Khadim Hussain told BBC Urdu.

Police and provincial officials said it was halted over security concerns.

But Imran Khan, whose PTI party runs the province, said he was at a loss to understand the decision. [BBC] Read more

Why I'm speaking up for Islam against the loudmouths who have hijacked it

.... in the final analysis, my intentions are irrelevant. What matters is this simple truth: I am free not to be offended by a cartoon I did not draw. If my prospective constituents do not like me not being offended, they are free not to vote for me.

Other Muslims are free to be offended, and the rest of the country is free to ignore them. I will choose my policies based on my conscience. As such, I will continue to defend my prophet from those on the far right and Muslim extremes who present only a rigid, angry and irrational interpretation of my faith.

I will stand for fairness, as Amnesty International once stood for me when I was a prisoner in Hosni Mubarak's Egypt. Because I believe that the difference between fairness and tribalism is the difference between choosing principles and choosing sides. [Guardian Cif] Read more

Deemed to be respectful

.... “We recognise that, when it comes to this question, some Muslims of various persuasions may take different views. However, we also recognise that there are many Muslims who have taken offence, and we assert that images of the spiritual leaders of all religions should be deemed to be respectful.

We also respect the freedom of every member of the Liberal Democrats on either side of this debate who feels offended by tone or language to make representations to the Liberal Democrats as is their democratic right. [Mick Hartley] Read more

No more Muslims, say DF leaders

Senior members of Dansk Folkeparti espoused the opinion that there are enough Muslims in Denmark and border controls should be established to stop more from entering the country.

DF’s defence spokesperson Marie Krarup said that the time has come to completely halt Muslim immigration.

“We should limit the size of the Muslim minority in Denmark,” Krarup wrote in a blog for Berlingske newspaper.

Anders Vistisen, number two on DF’s list of candidates for the European Parliament, agreed that the number of Muslims in Denmark should be limited. [The Copenhagen Post] Read more

Tunisia passes progressive constitution

.... "Egyptian constitutional politics has been a winner-take-all game; Tunisian politics has been more consensual — though consensus has been difficult to achieve," said Nathan Brown, an expert on Egyptian law at George Washington University. "The Tunisian experience is one that is more likely to give birth to a functioning democracy."

The overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt by the military in July and subsequent violent repression was a stern warning to Tunisia, said Yahyaoui of Bawsala, and it helped the various parties find a compromise.

"The only people who won something out of what happened in Egypt was Tunisia," she said. "Ennahda saw what happened to the Brotherhood and they didn't want to see the same scenario in Tunisia." [The Associated Press] Read more

34% of women say men are justified in hitting wives if they argue back: Pakistan survey

.... The most widely accepted reason for wife beating among women in Pakistan is arguing with the husband (34%). 28% of women agree that a husband is justified in beating his wife if she neglects her in-laws and 18% agreed that a husband is justified in beating his wife if she burns the food.

Similar to the pattern among women, men are least likely to agree that burning the food is a valid reason for wife beating.

The majority of men (19.8%) felt that the most justified reason for beating their wife was the wife going out without telling him.

They also show similar levels of support for the other five reasons (16-20%), although at much lower levels than among women. [The Express Tribune] Read more

Muslims Vote Labour, Anglicans Are Tories, New Study Into Religion And Politics Concludes

Catholics are left wing, Anglicans are Tories and the Muslim vote is 'Labour's to lose', according to a new poll.

Think tank Theos claims to have carried out the first in-depth analysis into the relationship between religion and politics in Britain.

Catholics were found to be the most left-wing of Christian groups and more pro-welfare than Anglicans, who were said to be more authoritarian in their political values.

Non-religious people are most consistently libertarian, taking a strong line against censorship and are sceptical about management and the fair distribution of wealth. [The Huffington Post UK] Read more