Thursday, May 31, 2007

Death for leaving Islam?

A new draft bill before a committee of Pakistan's National Assembly would require men who leave Islam to be put to death. Women convicted of "apostasy" would be sentenced to life in prison.
Under the Apostasy Act 2006, the testimony of two adults that another person has left the Muslim religion — or a confession by the accused — is all that would be needed for conviction if the bill is adopted into law. The accused would be given up to 30 days to renounce the decision and return to Islam, yet even then still could be punished by up to two years in prison. All property belonging to an offender would be forfeited to Muslim relatives as well as custody of their children.

To read more click here

Malaysian Christian convert loses battle in court to have the word "Islam' removed from ID card

Malaysia's best-known Christian convert, Lina Joy, has lost a six-year battle to have the word "Islam" removed from her identity card, after the country's highest court rejected the change.
The court's ruling helps define religious freedoms in multi-racial Malaysia, whose constitution guarantees freedom of worship but deems all ethnic Malays like Joy to be Muslims, subject to Islamic laws that bar her conversion to another faith.
"You can't at whim and fancy convert from one religion to another," Federal Court Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim said in delivering judgment in the case, which has stirred religious tensions in the mainly Muslim nation.
About 200 Muslims, mostly youths, had gathered outside the domed courthouse for the ruling. They welcomed the news with shouts of "Allah-o-Akbar" (God is great).
The three-judge appeal bench ruled 2-1 against Joy. The dissenting judge was the only non-Muslim on the bench.
The chief justice said the country's highest civil court had no jurisdiction in the case and said it should be dealt with by the country's Islamic or sharia court system.
"The issue of apostasy is related to Islamic law, so it's under the sharia court. The civil court cannot intervene," Ahmad Fairuz said.
In practice, sharia courts do not allow Muslims to formally renounce Islam.
They often end up in legal limbo, unable to register their new religious affiliations or legally marry non-Muslims. Many keep silent about their choice or emigrate.

Read full story at The Sydney Morning Herald

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Christian Convert Fights Malaysian Law

Lina Joy has been disowned by her family, shunned by friends and forced into hiding - all because she renounced Islam and embraced Christianity in Muslim-majority Malaysia.
Now, after a seven-year legal struggle, Malaysia's highest court will decide on Wednesday whether her constitutional right to choose her religion overrides an Islamic law that prohibits Malay Muslims from leaving Islam.
Either way, the verdict will have profound implications on society in a country where Islam is increasingly conflicting with minority religions, challenging Malaysia's reputation as a moderate Muslim and multicultural nation that guarantees freedom of worship.
Joy's case began in 1998 when, after converting, she applied for a name change on her government identity card. The National Registration Department obliged but refused to drop Muslim from the religion column.
She appealed the decision to a civil court but was told she must take it to Islamic Shariah courts. But Joy, 42, has argued that she should not be bound by Shariah law because she is a Christian.
Subsequent appeals all ruled that the Shariah court should decide the case until it reached the highest court, the Federal Court, which will make the final decision on whether Muslims who renounce their faith must still answer to the country's Islamic courts.
About 60 percent of Malaysia's 26 million people are Malay Muslims, whose civil, family, marriage and personal rights are decided by Shariah courts. The minorities - the ethnic Chinese, Indians and other smaller communities - are governed by civil courts.
But the constitution does not say who has the final say in cases such as Joy's when Islam confronts Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism or other religions.

If Joy loses her appeal and continues to insist she is a Christian, it could lead to charges of apostasy and a possible jail sentence.

Read on complete article here at Forbes.com

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

The number of Maldivians leaving Islam is increasing...

Ever since 'the great king Gadanaadeethiya the Prosperous" beheaded the last remaining Buddhist monks and drove those who would not embrace islam out of their villages in 1194 AD, Islam has been the state religion of Maldives except for the period reigned by King Monoel (otherwise known as King Hassan IX). Even in recent times in an effort to enforce this conformity, the government of Mullah Maumoon and his Arab ideologues have come up with the "Dhivehi Raiyithunge Deenee Ebbaivanthakamuge Gaanoon".
But the unprecedented access to information is having its effects. More people are choosing to follow the dictates of their conscience. Some are becoming athiests. Others are reverting to Buddhism, religion of our forefathers. And others are accepting Jesus Christ as their Saviour.
Even the Maldivian Muslims are now diverging. While a strong group of Arab educated missionaries are spreading their vision of Islam (Wahhabism, Sakafism, etc) , other Maldivians are beginning to interprete Islam in their own way.
Some Maldivian Muslims are trying to find answers without the use of the Hadiths. They are not restrained by the thought that without Hadiths and Sirat, no one can know anything about Mohammed or the history of Islam. even though you cannot even understand the Quran and its context without the help from Hadiths and Tafseers (Which inturn relies on Hadiths) and you cannot even have Pillars of islam without these sources it is not holding them back.
It is all coming to the point where sooner rather than later, people must be allowed to follow their conscience regarding religion.

Friday, May 25, 2007

Head of the Al-Azhar Hadith Department explains how Breastfeeding Allows a Woman to Be With a Man in Private

Dr. Izzat Atiyya explained his fatwa in an interview with Al-Watani Al-Yawm, the weekly of Egypt's ruling National Democratic Front party. He said: "The religious ruling that appears in the Prophet's conduct [Sunna] confirms that breastfeeding allows a man and a woman to be together in private, even if they are not family and if the woman did not nurse the man in his infancy, before he was weaned - providing that their being together serves some purpose, religious or secular...
"Being together in private means being in a room with the door closed, so that nobody can see them... A man and a woman who are not family members are not permitted [to do this], because it raises suspicions and doubts. A man and a woman who are alone together are not [necessarily] having sex, but this possibility exists, and breastfeeding provides a solution to this problem... I also insist that the breastfeeding relationship be officially documented in writing... The contract will state that this woman has suckled this man... After this, the woman may remove her hijab and expose her hair in the man's [presence]...
Dr. Atiyya further explained that the breastfeeding does not necessarily have to be done by the woman herself. "The important point," he said, "is that the man and the woman must be related through breastfeeding. [This can also be achieved] by means of the man's mother or sister suckling the woman, or by means of the woman's mother or sister suckling the man, since [all of these solutions legally] turn them into brother and sister...
"The logic behind [the concept] of breastfeeding an adult is to transform the bestial relationship between [two people] into a religious relationship based on [religious] duties... Since [this] breastfeeding takes place between [two] adults, the man is still permitted to marry the woman [who breastfed him], whereas [a woman] who nursed [a man] in his infancy is not permitted to marry him...
"The adult must suckle directly from the [woman's] breast... [This according to a hadith attributed to Aisha, wife of the Prophet's Muhammad], which tells of Salem [the adopted son of Abu Hudheifa] who was breastfed by Abu-Hudheifa's wife when he was already a grown man with a beard, by the Prophet's order... Other methods, such as [transferring] the milk to a container, are [less desirable]...
"[As for the possibility of using a breast-pump, which] increases the production of the milk glands... that is a matter for doctors and religious scholars who must determine if the milk [thus produced] is real milk, i.e., if its composition is identical to that of the [woman's] original milk. If it is, this method is permissible...
Dr. Atiyya also said: "The fact that the hadith regarding the breastfeeding of an adult is inconceivable to the mind does not make it invalid. This is a reliable hadith, and rejecting it is tantamount to rejecting Allah's Messenger and questioning the Prophet's tradition."


Note: In response to the uproar caused by the fatwa, Al-Azhar university formed a committee of several experts on hadiths to investigate the matter. After examination, Al-Azhar has suspended Dr. Atiyya.

Question: Does anyone know if Dr. Atiya has been among the missionaries from Al-Azhar who visit Maldives every year and if he has given "waul" at Islaamee marukaz?

Thursday, May 24, 2007

More of Great Muslim Scientific Inventions

The womens bicycle with a cabin which conceals half of the cyclist's body is now scheduled to appear in Maldives very soon. To this list we are today proudly adding the - Auto Wudu Washer. Read on.....













An automated Wudu (ablution) system that promises Muslims a time-efficient performance before each prayer has won qualified approval from scholars in the UAE.
The Auto Wudu Washer, developed by a Malaysian and endorsed by the Islamic Council of Qatar and Islamic Council of New South Wales, claims to be the world's first automatic pre-prayer washing and drying system.
"It has inbuilt washing units for ear, face, hands and foot, which allows a person to perform all functions without water spillage," said Anthony Gomez, chairman of AACE Worldwide and developer of the system, which will be displayed in Dubai this month.
Shaikh Ahmad Zu Al Nourain, member of the Iftaa Committee, said the device can be used provided it completely washes the body parts. Shaikh Mohammad Al Hakami, a religious scholar, said any technology that helps Muslims perform their religious duties properly is welcome.


With thanks to Dina Aboul Hosn, Staff Reporter, Gulfnews.

Azhar University professors fatwa allows "BREASTFEEDING COLLEAGUES"

The only way to remain in private with a female colleague in the workplace is to let her breastfeed you, according to a fatwa (Egyptian religious decree) of two theologists from al-Azhar which has sparked scandals and polemics in the Egyptian media over the past days. The Islam bans a person from being in private in one and the same room with a person from the opposite sex - unless they are married or have close relations (parents and children, brothers and sisters, and so forth).
The fatwa in question was issued recently by Izat Atiyah and Abd el-Mahdi Abd el-Kader, professors at the Cairo-based al-Azhar University, the world's most important centre of Sunni theology. According to them, a woman can lift her veil and remain in private with a male colleague at their workplace only if she had breastfed him five times already.
"Entering a public office you should not be surprised if you one day happen upon a 50-year-old employee who is sucking milk from his colleague," ridiculed the al-Distur independent newspaper. A theologian from al-Azhar judged as "senseless" the discussion of a topic of the kind. "If the al-Azhar Mufti himself said such things, he would be a non-respected person and would be considered crazy," theologian Malika Yussef said, quoted by the independent daily al-Karama.
Another al-Azhar theologian, Mabruk Attia, believes that the fatwa in question is a wrong interpretation of a "particular case" from the times of Prophet Mohammed. The latter is believed to have advised a woman to give milk to her adopted son, already grown up, in order to become his milk mother, after adoption was banned by the Islam. The woman gave him her milk to drink from a container, and not via direct breast feeding.
With thanks to ANSAmed

When will Nasheed stop blabbering about Golhaabo and answer my question?

Probably never.
I asked the questions of the esteemed Minister-Blogger in his comments box a few days back. I tried today again to get a response out of him by writing another comment. But this was the answer - Too many comments have been submitted from you in a short period of time. Please try again in a short while.
Maybe I have been relegated to the one-stupid-question-a-week category. I will not be surprised if I am banned altogether-
Soon after I visted Nasheed, a Subhaanahoo Watha Aala Team (SWAT) was there from the Maldives Islamic Blog Police (or Men In Buruga People as I call them). Their agent, a Mr. Sameeu promptly classified me as a Christian missionary and accused me of supporting Israel and Western Imperialism among other things. He is wrong on everything except my support for Israel.
I asked serious questions regarding Maldivian culture, history and the dissemination of information.

Has the traditional "rumaa falhi" been officially replaced by the black burugaa in the womens national costume?
Do you think that wearing the Arabic black burugaa instead of the "rumaa falhi" is an accurate depiction of Maldivian traditional costume and culture?

Mr. Nasheed is too busy blabbering about the Golhaabo nickname to answer me. He is also conveniently forgetting all the slander, libel and dehumanizing of Jews that Maldivians are practising. It is almost impossible to go through a day without hearing that the Jews are this or that or they are to blame for all the troubles of this world.
I am still hoping that the esteemed Minister-Blogger will find the time and inclination to respond to my query and not cave into the intimidation of the MIBP.

Monday, May 21, 2007

'My father sold me'

SHABANA, A pretty Afghan teenager with a modern haircut, was 12 years old when she was forced to marry a man 38 years her senior to settle her father's 600-dollar gambling debt. Two years later, she is unhappy and angry. She doesn't like her husband, 52-year-old farmer Mohammad Asef.
"He is wild - he destroyed my hopes," she said in their humble mudbrick home in the northern province of Balkh, speaking out only when Asef went into another room to take a call. She doesn't get on with her husband's first wife, who is aged 42 and lives with them. And she is disgusted with her father. "He sold me," she told AFP.

Read the full story at WomenOne.org.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Chicks with Sticks

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Coming to Dhivehistan soon - A bike with a cabin that will encourage women's sports...

Iran is to start manufacturing "Islamic bicycles" for women that conceal their figure.
"This bike has a cabin which conceals half of the cyclist's body," said Elaheh Sofali, an architect of the project. "It would encourage women's sports."
Faezeh Hashemi, a daughter of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, was instrumental in encouraging women to take to the saddle in the 1990s when she was in charge of women's participation in the Olympics.
But she was opposed by Islamic hardliners.

From Gulf Daily News

Thursday, May 17, 2007

OIC: ‘Islamophobia Worst Form of Terrorism’

The worst form of terrorism. Worse than flying commericial airliners into high-rise office buildings. Worse than beheading preteen Christian girls on their way to school. Worse than launching attacks from civilian areas in order to use retaliatory actions to score propaganda points. The worst form of terrorism.

And with Ban Ki-Moon vowing to do the OIC's bidding more zealously than ever, watch for the UN to call for muzzling of all "criticism of Islam," i.e., exploration of the elements of Islam that the jihadists are using to encourage violence. And that will allow the jihadists to operate unhindered.

"‘Islamophobia Worst Form of Terrorism,’" by Siraj Wahab for Arab News, with thanks to LGF:

ISLAMABAD, 17 May 2007 — Foreign ministers of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) yesterday expressed grave concern at the rising tide of discrimination and intolerance against Muslims, especially in Europe and North America. “It is something that has assumed xenophobic proportions,” they said in unison.
Speaking at a special brainstorming session on the sidelines of the 34th Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers (ICFM), the foreign ministers termed Islamophobia the worst form of terrorism and called for practical steps to counter it.
The ministers described Islamophobia as a deliberate defamation of Islam and discrimination and intolerance against Muslims. “This campaign of calumny against Muslims resulted in the publication of the blasphemous cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in a Danish newspaper and the issuance of the inflammatory statement by Pope Benedict XVI,” they said. During a speech in Germany last year, the Pope quoted a 14th Century Christian emperor who said the Prophet had brought the world only “evil and inhuman” things. The Pope’s remarks aroused the anger of the whole Islamic world.
“The increasingly negative political and media discourse targeting Muslims and Islam in the United States and Europe has made things all the more difficult,” the foreign ministers said. “Islamophobia became a source of concern, especially after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, but the phenomenon was already there in Western societies in one form or the other,” they pointed out. “It gained further momentum after the Madrid and London bombings. The killing of Dutch film director Theo van Gogh in 2004 was used in a wicked manner by certain quarters to stir up a frenzy against Muslims,” the ministers pointed out. Van Gogh had made a controversial film about Muslim culture.
The OIC foreign ministers deplored the misrepresentation in the Western media of Islam and Muslims in the context of terrorism. “The linkage of terrorists and extremists with Islam in a generalized manner is unacceptable,” they said. “This is further inciting negative sentiments and hatred in the West against Muslims,” they said. The ministers also pointed out that whenever the issue of Islamophobia was discussed in international forums, the Western bloc, particularly some members of the European Union, tried to avoid discussing the core issue and instead diverted the attention from their region to the situation of non-Muslims and human rights in the OIC member states.
Of course, it is the "terrorists" and "extremists" who keep linking their actions with Islam, not the Westerners who dare to speak openly of the link they make. But the OIC, like so many, would not have you noticing that.

With thanks to Robert Spencer from JihadWatch.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Buddhist couple beheaded in front of 3-year old daughter

After gunning down Praphan Ponlarak, 36, and his wife Chaddakan, the assailants decapitated Praphan, making him the 29th victim to be beheaded in Thailand's troubled deep South since the region's separatist insurgency took a turn for the worse in January 2004.
Their daughter was admitted to Bannang Sata hospital, 780 kilometres south of Bangkok, for treatment .

Read it all at Monsters and Critics

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Saudi Arabia Web Cam Girls Stripping On Line For Free

We posted the text to this story earlier. Now here is the video.

Why are you here?

The purpose of life.

"Television productions that do not have prayer scenes will not be allowed to air,"

Iranian state television programs must include prayer scenes or else they will not be broadcast. The decision taken by the head of the country’s state television was made public on Monday.

Teheran (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Prayer scenes must be included in programs screened on Iranian state television. The decision, taken by the conservative head of state television, was issued on Monday by the ILNA news agency. "Television productions that do not have prayer scenes will not be allowed to air," said Ezatollah Zarghami.
The new directive appears to be aimed at soap operas and films, but it is not clear whether game shows and sitcoms will be affected. Referring to a scene of a famous Iranian series, in which a man who is suspected of murder prays, Zarghami said: "Prayer scenes should not be confined to positive and leading characters, the elderly, and the clean-living types” but also to bad and negative elements.

Read it all here at AsiaNews.

"convert to Islam or leave the area within 10 days"

Policemen in uniform and plainclothes have been deployed at churches and houses of Christians here following the distribution of threatening letters on Monday, asking the minority community to convert to Islam or leave the area within 10 days, a police official said on Friday.
“We have taken all security measures to protect the Christians living in Charsadda,” Headquarters DSP Sajjad Ali told Daily Times on the telephone. Ali denied that Christians were migrating to other areas due to security fears.
Local Christian leader Chaudhry Saleem backed Ali’s statement, saying no Christian had moved from Charsadda district. “We are frightened, but no Christian family has moved to any other place,” he told Daily Times.
Saleem said that DSP Sajjad had assured the 600 Christians living in the district that the police would protect them against any harm.

From the Daily Times. To read the complete article click here

Friday, May 11, 2007

Summit on religious harmony killed ...because the situation in Malaysia is "delicate"

"Christian and Muslim scholars from around the world had bought air tickets, written papers and begun to pack their bags for the Building Bridges conference, the sixth in a series intended to foster dialogue between the two religions. It was cancelled with just two weeks notice.
The three-day conference was set up in the wake of September 11 and meant to be an annual get-together of Christian and Muslim academics in an attempt to find theological understandings that might help prevent future terrorist attacks.
At the first conference, at Lambeth Palace in London six years ago, Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, fêted Tony Blair. In return, the Prime Minister invited the Muslim and Christian scholars to a high-profile reception at Downing Street.
Since then the scholars have met in New York, Qatar and Sarajevo. This year’s seminar in Malaysia was to signal a breakthrough in Muslim-Christian relations in a region where they are particularly delicate.
However, it is understood that some influential Muslims believe that Christianity is “not a heavenly religion” and therefore they frown on interreligious dialogue.
Although the Malaysian Government allowed Dr Williams into the country to preach at the consecration of a new Anglican bishop, it said that it would not permit the interfaith dialogue to take place.
Instead Dr Williams is taking part in a hastily convened visit to Sri Lanka. Preaching a sermon there yesterday, he outlined the “terrible consequences” of fear caused by division. He said: “We must keep our bridges in good repair, the bridges for listening and sympathy, hearing the truth from one another, learning what the other’s experience is like.” "

Read the entire report here at TimesOnline

New apostasy bill to impose death on anyone who leaves Islam

A draft bill adopted in first reading by Pakistan’s National Assembly is now before a standing committee. Tabled by a six-party politico-religious alliance, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal or MMA, the Apostasy Act 2006 which the government sent to the committee would impose the death penalty on Muslim men and life in prison on Muslim women in case they leave Islam. It would also force them to forfeit their property and lose legal custody of children.
During the same session, lawmakers rejected another draft bill moved by minority MNA Bhandara which sought to amend the existing blasphemy law.
“This situation is unfortunate and sad. We demand freedom of conscious, religion and expression in Pakistan, and this bill is contrary to the principle of freedom of choice”, said Archbishop Lawrence John Saldanha, head of National Commission for Justice and Peace and chairman of the Pakistan Catholic Bishops’ Conference.
“Because international human rights charters give every individual the right to change his or her religion according to his or her conscience, we hope and pray that this bill will not be passed,” Mgr Saldanha said.
Should the bill become law anyone who leaves Islam for another religion can be sentenced to death (if male) or life in prison ‘until repentance occurs’ (if female).

To read on click here

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Cloned Palestinian Mickey Mous teach Kids RACISM

Cloned Mickey Mous teach Kids RACISM

Palestinian children are being entertained and indoctrinated on television by a Mickey Mouse-knockoff who teaches them to fight for Israel's destruction and Islam's domination over the entire world.

Al-Aqsa TV, run by the Palestinian Territories ruling party Hamas, features a squeaky-voiced Mickey Mouse look-alike named Farfur in the weekly children's program "Tomorrow's Pioneers."

Farfur and his co-host, a young girl named Saraa', take every opportunity to indoctrinate young viewers with teachings of Islamic supremacy, hatred of Israel and the U.S. and support of "resistance" – the Palestinian euphemism for terrorism, reports the Israel-based Palestinian Media Watch.

Farfur tells children they must pray in the mosque five times a day until there is "world leadership under Islamic leadership."

With thanks to WorldNetDaily


Saudi Author On The Saudi Society relation to Allah

A recent post on a prominent MV blog titled "The Demons of Discipline" inspired me to post this video from youtube. The author of the blog said "I believe using such inhuman concepts against a child causes mental anguish and trauma by the sheer wickedness of the mental imagery that it inspires. It is akin to wearing a terrifying horror-mask and jumping at them from the darkness of the closet in the dead of the night. Although not as immediately startling, the mental imagery is just as everlasting."


Hirsi Ali's challenge to humanity

"Ayaan Hirsi Ali is arguably the bravest and most remarkable woman of our times.
To understand why this 37-year-old woman is extraordinary, she must be assessed in the context of the forces pitted against her in her twin struggles to force the Western world to take note of Islam's divinely ordained enslavement of women, and to force the Islamic world to account for it.
A series of incidents this week placed the forces she battles in stark relief. Sunday Muslims shot up the Omariyah elementary school in Gaza. One man was killed and six were wounded in the onslaught. The murderers attacked because the UN-run school in Rafah had organized a sports day for the children, in which little boys would be playing with little girls.
The idea that that boys and girls might play sports together was too much for the righteous believers. It was an insult to Islam, they said. And so they decided to kill the little boys and girls. On May 3, in Gujrat, Pakistan, Muslims detonated a bomb at the gate of a girls' school. Their righteous wrath was raised by the notion that girls would learn to read and write. That too, they felt, is an insult to Islam.
On April 28, US soldiers in Iraq discovered detonation wires across the street from the newly built Huda Girls' school in Tarmiya, north of Baghdad. They followed the wire to its source and discovered the school had been built as a deathtrap. The pious Muslims who constructed the school had filled propane tanks with explosives and buried them beneath the floor. They built artillery shells into the ceiling and the floor. To save the world for Allah, they decided to butcher little girls.
And the brutality is not limited to the Middle East. Last month in Oslo, Norway, Norwegian-Somali women's rights activist Kadra was brutally beaten by a crowd of men piously calling out "Allah Akhbar." She was attacked for exposing the fact that inside their mosques in Norway, Norwegian imams praise female genital mutilation in the name of Allah.

LATE LAST year Hirsi Ali published her memoir, Infidel. In describing her own life, what she actually explains are the two competing human impulses - conformity and individualism. In her own life, the clash of the two has been played out on the stage of Islamic ascendance and Western cultural collapse."
Hirsi Ali was born in Somalia to a politically active father who sought to free his country from Said Barre's Marxist dictatorship. Forced to flee the country with her family, Hirsi Ali's childhood in Arabia and Africa revolved along the axis of Islamic ascendance at the hand of the Saudi-financed Muslim Brotherhood and Khomeini's Iran.
Hirsi Ali's rebellion against Islam was personal, not political. As a young girl and later as a young woman, she found herself abused and stifled by the dictates of Islam just as her youthful spirit wished most to take flight. As a five-year-old in Somalia, she screamed in pain and shock when her grandmother tied her down and had a man with a knife mutilate her genitals."

To read the story of Ayaan Hirsi Ali click here

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Arab colonialism is alive and well

"At destinations such as Heathrow, Changi and Suvarnabhumi, Maldive travellers are usually greeted with a friendly “welcome to Great Britain”, “welcome to Singapore” or “sawadee”.
The entry at Jeddah is usually not that friendly. Indeed many Maldive travellers have their passports thrown on the floor and spat on by customs officials for no sensible reason.
The social standing of the passengers or the purpose of their travel does not seem to matter at all. On one occasion a very important Maldive ruling mullah who was indoctrinated in Egypt and Saudi Arabia was locked up in a glass cage at Jeddah airport for hours on end. Admittedly, in that particular instance, the mullah deliberately overlooked to arrange a visa. He claimed that he would be exempt from immigration formalities in any Arab country because of his dedication as a collaborator to the colonialist cause. That was not to be the case for this diminutive individual with a grey beard. The government-designated heads of the annual pilgrimage contingents known as emir el-haj (commander of the pilgrimage) also face more or less the same fate. The fact that they hold letters of introduction from the Maldive authorities and letters of invitation from the custodian of the two shrines and the governor of Mecca seems to be of little consequence. Occasionally they are yelled at, just like any common-o-garden Maldive pilgrim, and have their passports thrown on the floor and spat on.
Until recently there was also another cause for abuse at the hands of Saudi Arab customs officials. Older Maldivians still have traditional Divehi names. This in spite of Maldvians being forced to take Arabic or Arabic-sounding names for years by the ruling mullahs. To the great chagrin of the fascists a few people still remain, who have Divehi language names.
One such person, a well-known sports personality in his youth, was yelled at and had his passport thrown on the floor and spat on at Jeddah airport. His only crime was having the insubordinate audacity to enter the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a pilgrim using his own name. He was accused of being an infidel attempting to defile holy sites that are strictly out of bounds to najis (unclean) sub-humans.
Saudi Arabia operates an apartheid-like system in which najis infidels are segregated away from certain locations and have to keep to certain roads. The reaction of customs officials at Jeddah to the Maldive pilgrim who had an indigenous name was the result of this discriminatory policy.
Following this incident Maldive authorities have strictly prohibited the few remaining Maldivians who have native Divehi names from using their real names in their passports. These people are assigned colonialist "Islamic" names that they had never used in their lives.
To compound this insult, Maldivians travelling to the Islamic pilgrimages now have to have three Arabic names in order to conform to the Arab naming convention. Any deviation from this is not tolerated by, what I call, the Maldive name Nazis. We are now in phase two of the transformation process. In phase one, indigenous names were forcibly wiped out. In phase two, any hint of deviation from colonislist norms are being outlawed.
Some of today’s ruling mullahs themselves had their already-Islamic names adjusted to colonialist conventions when they were students in medrassas in the Middle East. A certain Abdulla Maumoon was renamed Maumoon Abdul Gayoom; Mohamed Zahir was renamed Mohamed Zahir Hussain; Mohamed Rasheed adopted the name Mohamed Rasheed Ibrahim and Fathulla Jameel aquired the name Fathulla Gamil Abdulla. The latter reverted to his old name later.
These are yet other examples of the Maldive mullahs pandering to the dictates of their colonialist masters."

To read this interesting article click here

Slavery in Sudan

"The BBC reported in March 2007 that slave raids “were a common feature of Sudan’s 21-year north-south war, which ended in 2005….According to a study by the Kenya-based Rift Valley Institute, some 11,000 young boys and girls were seized and taken across the internal border -- many to the states of South Darfur and West Kordofan….Most were forcibly converted to Islam, given Muslim names and told not to speak their mother tongue.” One Sudanese Christian slave, James Pareng Alier, was kidnapped and enslaved when he was twelve years old. Religion was a major element of his ordeal: “I was forced to learn the Koran and re-baptised Ahmed. They told me that Christianity was a bad religion. After a time we were given military training and they told us we would be sent to fight.” Alier doesn’t know his family’s whereabouts. While non-Muslims are enslaved and often forcibly converted to Islam, their conversion does not lead to their freedom. Mauritanian anti-slavery campaigner Boubacar Messaoud explains: “It’s like having sheep or goats. If a woman is a slave, her descendants are slaves.”
Besides being practiced more or less openly today in Sudan and Mauritania, there is evidence that slavery still continues beneath the surface in other majority-Muslim countries also -- notably Saudi Arabia, which only abolished slavery in 1962, Yemen and Oman, both of which ended legal slavery in 1970, and Niger, which didn’t abolish slavery until 2004. In Niger, the ban is widely ignored, and as many as one million people remain in bondage. Slaves are bred, often raped, and generally treated like animals."

To read the full article by Robert Spencer author of the critically acclaimed book The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion go to Human Events

Monday, May 07, 2007

Palestinian security member killed and seven people wounded because boys and girls were mixed in school..

Muslim extremists in long white robes attacked a children's festival at a U.N.-run elementary school with guns and homemade bombs Sunday, killing a politician's bodyguard in plain view of terrified youngsters — just the latest incident of lawlessness engulfing the Gaza Strip.
The new Palestinian unity government, formed two months ago, appeared powerless to end growing clan fighting, kidnappings and attacks by shadowy extremist groups on foreigners, music shops and Internet cafes.
..................
Sunday's attack on the U.N. school in the southern Gaza refugee camp of Rafah began with a protest by Muslim extremists in long robes, who said a sports festival the school was hosting was un-Islamic. The U.N. "is turning schools into nightclubs," read one sign held up by the protesters.
At one point, the group tried to enter the school. Palestinian security fired in the air to keep them away. In the ensuing chaos, at least one bomb was thrown into the school, and a gun battle followed.
A senior Fatah official, Majed Abu Shamaleh, was leaving the school when his bodyguard was killed. Seven people were wounded, most by bomb fragments. Some children hid under their chairs during the fighting.
The top U.N. official in Gaza, John Ging, was in the school at the time of the attack. He was not hurt. The protesters accused him of leading a movement to weaken people's Islamic faith.
More here on at FOX News -

" I have to congratulate you, Madam, I think you are the first woman to swim in public in all Saudi Arabia"

"But as I prepared for my first trip to Saudi Arabia, I was bristling at the thought of having to wear an abaya - the all-enveloping black cloak that turns the women of the Gulf into mournful ghosts.
Perhaps that is why I called the hotel before I arrived, to ask a question I already knew the answer to - will I be able to use the swimming pool?
The response was a small silence, and then an embarrassed laugh. "Er, No madam. The pool is, of course, for men only. I am so sorry."
The women of Saudi Arabia are not just folded away behind swathes of hot black cloth, they live segregated lives, ushered out of the all-male public spaces into so called "family" areas, escorted everywhere by husbands or male relatives, and expected to ask for male permission to travel."

Read the full story at BBC News

Saturday, May 05, 2007

Saudi Women, Oppressed by Husbands, Turn to Stripping in Internet Chat Rooms in Search of "Admiration"

Reporter: Behind closed doors and far from any supervising eyes, they remove their shame and turn their backs on all customs and traditions. Girls display their bodies in chat rooms on the Internet, in most cases, free of charge. As soon as one of these girls places the camera in front of her, she begins to strip, displaying her seductive charms to more than 300 young men of different ages. Some believe that the phenomenon of stripping over the Internet may be understood within the framework of social hypocrisy, especially since they believe that our religious and educational discourse does not attribute importance to the strengthening of self-restraint, and prefers the appearance over the essence. This drives some people to play several roles and wear several masks.
Commentator: Women are seeking emotions and admiration. This way, she gets words of admiration for her personality and even her body. She might remove one piece of clothing after another, in order to gain this admiration.

Above are excerpts from a TV report on Saudi women and web cams, which aired on LBC TV on April 18, 2007. To read the full transcript got to MEMRI TV

"I fled police in my mother-in-law's burka"

"A man accused of detonating a bomb on a London Underground train told a court yesterday how he fled the capital disguised in a burka.
Yassin Omar said he escaped 24 hours after he set off a rucksack device on July 21, 2005, as he was terrified the police would shoot him.
Omar was giving evidence for a second day on charges of being in a gang which plotted to explode bombs across London's transport network two weeks after 7/7.
He said he took one of his mother-in-law's black burkas because she "had lots of them".
She used to sell them so there was one which was big enough to fit his 6ft 2in frame, Woolwich Crown Court, South London, heard.
He smiled as he was shown CCTV footage of himself in the burka and holding a handbag, walking to get a coach with his wife. "

Another story from our popular Men In Buruga series. To read all go to the Daily Mail

Stoned to death for loving a boy of the wrong religion

A 17-year-old girl has been stoned to death in Iraq because she loved a teenage boy of the wrong religion.
As a horrifying video of the stoning went out on the Internet, the British arm of Amnesty International condemned the death of Du’a Khalil Aswad as "an abhorrent murder" and demanded that her killers be brought to justice.
Reports from Iraq said a local security force witnessed the incident, but did nothing to try to stop it. Now her boyfriend is in hiding in fear for his life.
Miss Aswad, a member of a minority Kurdish religious group called Yezidi, was condemned to death as an "honour killing" by other men in her family and hardline religious leaders because of her relationship with the Sunni Muslim boy.
They said she had shamed herself and her family when she failed to return home one night. Some reports suggested she had converted to Islam to be closer to her boyfriend.
Miss Aswad had taken shelter in the house of a Yezidi tribal leader in Bashika, a predominantly Kurdish town near the northern capital, Mosul.
A large crowd watched as eight or nine men stormed the house and dragged Miss Aswad into the street. There they hurled stones at her for half an hour until she was dead.
The stoning happened last month, but only came to light yesterday with the release of the Internet video.
It is feared her death has already triggered a retaliatory attack. Last week 23 Yezidi workmen were forced off a bus travelling from Mosulto Bashika by a group of Sunni gunmen and summarily shot dead.
An Amnesty International spokesman in London said they receive frequent reports of honour crimes from Iraq – particularly in the predominantly Kurdish north.
Most victims are women and girls who are considered by male relatives to have shamed their families by immoral behaviour.

For the full story go to the Daily Mail.

Aishath Aniya facing the Inquisition by The Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs


In 1632 Galileo Galilei, an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher published his book "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems". Pope Urban VIII stopped its distribution and reffered the case to the Inquisition.
In 1633 Galileo was summoned to Rome and formally interrogated for 18 days. Galileo confessed that he may have made the Copernican case in the Dialogue too strong and offered to refute it in his next book. Unmoved, the Pope decided that Galileo should be imprisoned indefinitely. Soon after, with a formal threat of torture, Galileo was examined by the Inquisition and sentenced to prison and religious penances. In a formal ceremony Galileo recanted. He was then put in house arrest in Sienna. Galileo remained under house arrest until his death in 1642.
In 1983 the Church finally accepted that Galileo might be right.

I am not comparing Aishath Aniya in any way to Galileo Galilei. What I am saying that The Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs is like the Papacy of the 15th century. Aishath Aniya is now facing an Inquisition by The Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs for writing an article criticising the buruga. She has been arrested and dragged before the inquisitors. If Aniya broke any laws, she should be prosecuted in a court of law. Why this "Inquisition"?
After her article was published in Minivan Daily, Aniya was told to “repent or resign” from her post as Deputy Secretary General for the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), and chose to resign. Now she has to hide for her own safety- there are too many elements within the public at large who will carry out some violence that they believe she should undergo because some 7th century Arab ideology says so.
Thirty years ago what is now The Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs used be a small office called the Department of Religious Affairs in the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Aniya arrested and taken to Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs

Aishath Aniya was arrested on Thursday morning in connection with an article she wrote criticising the wearing of the veil.
She was apprehended by police at around 9:40am outside the offices of Minivan Daily newspaper as she parked her motorcycle. Aniya was lifted into the back of a police van and taken to Police Headquarters, before being transferred to the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs for questioning.
She refused to answer questions without a lawyer present and arranged to return to the Supreme Council on Sunday at 10:30 with a lawyer.
Religious scholars at the Supreme Council told her that the article, which objected to the concept that a veil must be worn because men cannot control their temptations, was “against Islam,” and “against Islamic principles.”
The Supreme Council has been seeking to question Aniya since publication of the article on March 20.

With thanks to Will Jordan. Full article here on Minivan News

"I know how these terrorists are inspired"

"I recall my Islamist days when my mind was closed to an alternative argument: there was only one way - my group's way. All others, including fellow Muslims, were wrong and heading for hell. To argue that dialogue will win over extremist Islamists is a myth; theirs is a mindset that is not receptive to alternative views, and does not recognise the sacred nature of all human life.
Wahhabism and segments of Islamism are defined by their rejection of mainstream Muslim teachings and age-old spiritual practices, literalist readings of scripture devoid of scholarly guidance, and a hell-bent commitment to confronting the West. Moderate Muslims have common cause with the West to extinguish extremism in our midst."

To read the whole article by Ed Husain go to Telegraph

Norway imports "female cicumcision"

The police fear that women from Somalia and Ethiopia come to Norway on tourist visa to perform illegal circumcision on young girls, and have already investigated two concrete cases. The Labour Party demands health checks of young girls.
Somali and Ethiopian sources confirm that such illegal circumsicison is taking place, NRK reports.
- Investigations into such cases are very difficult. Persons who have been here on a visitor's visa, have left again before we have been able to prove anything, says Chief Inspector Finn Abrahamsen of the Oslo Police.
However, most parents still chose to send their daughters to private clinics abroad, in France, England and the Netherlands, or to countries in the Middle East. Against these, Norwegian police can do very little.
- School nurses, teachers or others close to the child say nothing. The police cannot examine the girls on their own initiative, Abrahamsen says.
Labour Party spokesman for immigration policy, Arild Stokkan-Grande, says the Government must introduce a health check for young girls in order to reveal cases of illegal circumcision.
With thanks to Islam in Europe

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Britain under siege."We definitely want to see Sharia law in place here"

Islamic supporters of six Muslims arrested in London earlier this week today staged a rowdy demonstration outside the top security police station where they are being held.
Dozens of angry demonstrators branded Tony Blair a "terrorist" while carrying banners stating "Sharia Law - the future, free our Muslim brothers" and "Crusade against Islam".
More than 100 Muslim men, women and children gathered outside Paddington Green Police Station in west London where the six suspected Islamic extremists - including firebrand Abu Izzadeen - are being detained on suspicion of inciting terrorism and raising funds for terrorism.
The group, dressed in traditional Muslim clothes including veils, chanted in Arabic: "God is the greatest! There is only one God, Allah, and Mohammed is the final messenger of Allah!"

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