Islamism & Islamophobia Abroad - News & Analysis

[arun]

Mohammadden God and Religion invoked by the attacker in a beheading in London:

“We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone. Your people will never be safe. The only reason we have done this is because Muslims are dying by British soldiers every day.

“We must fight them as they fight us. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. I apologise that women had to witness this today but in our lands our women have to see the same. You people will never be safe. Remove your government, they don’t care about you. Do you think David Cameron is going to get caught in the street when we start busting our guns? Do you think your politicians are going to die?

“No, it’s going to be the average guy like you, and your children. So get rid of them. Tell them to bring our troops back so we, so you can all live in peace.”

From the UK’s Telegraph:

British soldier beheaded on busy London street in terror attack

[Agnimitra]

So Ahmadiyyahs have marketed themselves to Western governments as the new, moderate, true face of Islam.

Promoting U.S.-friendly 'Ahmadi' Islam certain to backfire (Other Views)

America is desperate to find un-Muslim-like allies among the world's Muslims. That is, Muslims who believe as Americans do that no particular religion should have the upper hand in politics and government.

Alas, the Pew Research Foundation polls keep revealing that this search is a chimerical quest. The Pew polling regularly reports overwhelming support in the “Muslim world' for the rule of Sharia, Islamic law, and for Islam-dominated policy and government.

...

At last, however, American politicians of both parties and all ideological stripes — ranging from House minority leader Nancy Pelosi on the left to Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell on the right — believe they've found what America has long been looking for. They've latched onto a group they're eager to certify as acceptable Muslims — Muslims who reject violence and Islamic triumphalism and support separation of church and state.

They're known as “Ahmadi Muslims.' And with both sides of the aisle rallying to their cause, CIA and State Department funds no doubt will be flowing to them in torrents — or maybe already are. Demands are reverberating that the State Department take firm measures to condemn repression of the Ahmadis.

-----------------------------

The Belgian Teen Who Went to Fight in Syria: The Brian De Mulder Story

[arun]

X Posted from the “J&K News and Discussion” thread.

Mohammadden Cleric of the “Sufi” variant involved in running “a residential institution for girls which offered short duration courses in religious studies” accused of paedophilia:

Kashmir's self-styled godman arrested for rape of young girls

Followers of the Mohammadden Cleric accused of paedophilia protest and allege Green on Green Intra-Mohammadden “personal vendetta” by other Mohammadden scholars behind accusation:

“Rapist” Dervishs Followers Protest, Cry Foul In Kashmi

[arun]

X Posted from the TSP thread.

In the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, a country claimed to have been created as a safe haven for the Mohamaddens of the Indian Sub-Continent, Green on Green Intra-Mohammadden violence by way of a demonstration of the IED Mubarak variant of the IEDology of Pakistan is seen yet again on the Mohammadden Sabbath of Friday. This time around Cleric targeted in a seminary in Peshawar:

Suicide Attack In Peshawar Leaves Two Dead

[Prem]

What’s a 'Cultural Muslim'?
http://rationalist.org.uk/articles/4145 ... ral-muslim

For years I’ve been an ex-Muslim activist.
My transition from being a Muslim to ex-Muslim was sudden. After spending years frustratedly attempting to reconcile my personal and religious beliefs, I realised I was being intellectually dishonest and often bending Islam to fit with my personal ideals. My religious cousin from Pakistan crystallized this perfectly when he came to stay with us.We would often get into long debates about Islam, lasting long into the night. They would often end on a heated note, where he would say something like “You are either Muslim or you are not” or “Either accept everything in Islam is right because it’s been produced by an infallible God, or don’t call yourself a Muslim.”I can’t recall which contentious issue broke the camel’s back, but on one occasion I was not willing to compromise and called his bluff. I conceded that he was right, and that I was no longer a Muslim. His face registered his shock. In an effort to reverse the damage he asked me to write all my arguments down so he could take them to a learned scholar of Islam.I did so in an eleven-page letter. I eagerly anticipated his response and even copied in each of my siblings. After three months my brother received a phone call from the cousin saying that he hadn’t forgotten and was still working on the reply. It’s been eight years, and I still haven’t heard back. I turned the letter into a blog post which has since been viewed 50,000 times. That post morphed into my book The Islamist Delusion.
I now run an online forum, Debating Islam, that has 7,300 members, evenly split between Muslims and ex-Muslims. I took over this group from moderate Muslims, who had originally set it up in support of the Imam of Leyton Mosque, Usama Hasan, on whom a fatwa had been declared for his defence of Darwinian evolution in a mosque lecture. When the forum became overrun with extremists trolls issuing death threats it was dissolved and I took over the carcass and repurposed it as a free speech site dedicated to hosting debates between current and former Muslims. The same extremists tried the trick again, and even hacked the site, but eventually with the help of other ex-Muslims, we chased them off. During these battles I collected 139 death threats, but, for me it’s worth it when I see yet another Muslim embracing humanism. I keep a public record of people who have renounced their faith on the site – the Murtad (Infidel) Register – and there is literally no more space for another name.yet, despite my busy life as an ex-Muslim activist I’m growing less convinced that “ex-Muslim” is always a useful description. It can come across as confrontational and overly simplistic, and has the tendency to close down debate before it starts.Lately I’ve become more comfortable with another term, one which is equally unpopular on both sides of the debate: “cultural Muslim”. Muslims don’t like the term for obvious reason: asking why “Muslim” should need a qualifier or questioning the right of an atheist to use the word “Muslim” at all. For ex-Muslims it can sound too accommodating, like a prevarication about belief when a clear rejection is what is required.
Certainly it’s not perfect. I would much prefer the description “secular agnostic utilitarian rationalist reductionist humanist with cultural Muslim influences”, but that won’t fit on my business card.
The point I am trying to make is that merely describing yourself by your lack of belief in a particular religion does not do justice to the tapestry of different influences and experiences that go to make up a person. Nor to the fact that we are located in particular socio-cultural context.
Of course I did not invent the concept of the Cultural Muslim, but I do maintain author rights to its Wikipedia entry. Here’s how I describe it there:“Cultural Muslims are secular, religiously unobservant or irreligious individuals who still identify with Muslim culture due to family background, personal experiences or the social and cultural environment in which they grew up.”The writer and Islam expert Malise Ruthven has compared this kind of cultural Muslim to a secular Jew, someone who “takes on his or her parents’ confessional identity without necessarily subscribing to the beliefs and practices associated with the faith.”In my view most Muslims are against extremism and deep-down have much more in common with humanists, although they are practising a form of Pascal’s Wager, than they have with Islamists. Subconsciously, many question the traditional interpretations of the Islamic faith, yet remain proud of their religion’s architectural, literary and poetic heritage. They embrace the positive aspects of its culture – its camaraderie, charitability, hospitality and respect for elders – and still enjoy its cuisine, clothing and music. As one ex-Muslim joked to his wife, "I can give up God. I can give up Religion. But I can't give up Sufi music."This raises the million dollar question: can you be a cultural Muslim and a Muslim at the same time? Traditionalist Salafists would scoff at the idea and boot you out of the mosque quicker than you could say “Allah hu Akbar”. Modernists entertain the idea, if only behind clenched teeth, because it still holds you within the throes of Islam.For me the issue is about engagement. I believe we have an opportunity to explore, reflect and engage with our common heritage in a positive fashion, rather than focusing on the dissociative stigma of the ex-Muslim tag for which I am, rather unfortunately, well known. I find believers are more amenable that way, and more importantly, it yields results. For the first time this debate can bring two important and largely ignored groups together; the self-segregated irreligious and the forsaken Muslims liberals. Together they hold the key to lasting bottom-up reform within the Ummah, just as the same groups did with the Church’s Reformation.We can each support and promote our common cause against Islamic extremism. If anything can bridge the existing impasse, negativity and inertia within the today's Islamic World, I’m all for it.

[Prem]

The Apostasy Project aims to provide information and support for those thinking about leaving religion.
http://apostasy.org.uk/

Many people around the world are suffering because they cannot be honest about their lack of belief in the god of their parents, community or country. They are caught between their desire to live honestly and the fear of losing their loved ones or the support of their community. They might even face violent reprisal. The decision to leave your faith behind can be scary, disorienting and lonely.

[Agnimitra]

Q&A: On Turkey's proposed alcohol restrictions

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan defends the legislation passed earlier Friday, that bans advertising alcohol, during an address to his party members in Ankara, Turkey, Friday, May 24, 2013. Tempers flared and scuffles broke out during an all-night legislative session of parliament that passed a bill banning all forms of advertising alcohol. Legislation passed in Turkey's parliament early Friday that would ban all alcohol advertising and tighten restrictions on the sale of such beverages, and how such a law could affect tourists and liquor companies in the mainly Muslim but secular country.

[SS_sharma]

2 child policy for Muslims in Myanmar along with a ban on polygamy

...restrictions imposed on Rohingya Muslims last week...sets a two-child limit for local families...also bans polygamy...

...Last month, a government report claimed that “high population growth” among the Muslim population had contributed to last year’s clashes between Arakanese Buddhists and Rohingyas. It recommended voluntary family-planning measures among the Muslim population...

[anupmisra]

French soldier stabbed while on patrol

A French soldier who was stabbed Saturday on the western outskirts of Paris was targeted because of his military service, France's defense minister said.

The attacker was wearing a robe and appeared to be North African

...France's intervention in Mali earlier this year

The attacker fled, triggering a manhunt

[member_23692]

This is the correct way to deal with Islamists - By Pressuring their cells.

In addition to the tactic below, they also have reportedly offered to grant full citizenship rights to the Muslims in exchange for them converting to Buddhism. The Burmese have a winning strategy against Islamism. They will win.

On the other hand, the Burmese do it to everyone they consider alien, not just the Muslims. They kicked out all Indians in 1950s and 1960s and confiscated their properties. I do wish they have the good sense to distinguish between the Islamists and others and adopt a more "secular" attitude towards non-Islamist "others". They should reserve these tactics solely for the likes of Islamists.

Regardless, fundamentally, the Burmese survival instincts are alive and healthy. Despite being surrounded by the Chinese and Indians on practically all sides (with the exception of their borders with Thailand and BD), they have managed to stay almost completely independent and intervention free. Even the Chinese dont have much cultural sway there. Others, Indians in particular, will do well to learn from the Burmese.

http://news.yahoo.com/2-child-limit-mus ... 23020.html

[KLNMurthy]

2 child policy for Muslims in Myanmar along with a ban on polygamy

...restrictions imposed on Rohingya Muslims last week...sets a two-child limit for local families...also bans polygamy...

...Last month, a government report claimed that “high population growth” among the Muslim population had contributed to last year’s clashes between Arakanese Buddhists and Rohingyas. It recommended voluntary family-planning measures among the Muslim population...

Read the comments on the article. One (Burmese?) commenter wants to support separation of Assam, Manipur and Chittagong Hill Tracts into an independent country.

[KLNMurthy]

This is the correct way to deal with Islamists - By Pressuring their cells.

In addition to the tactic below, they also have reportedly offered to grant full citizenship rights to the Muslims in exchange for them converting to Buddhism. The Burmese have a winning strategy against Islamism. They will win.

On the other hand, the Burmese do it to everyone they consider alien, not just the Muslims. They kicked out all Indians in 1950s and 1960s and confiscated their properties. I do wish they have the good sense to distinguish between the Islamists and others and adopt a more "secular" attitude towards non-Islamist "others". They should reserve these tactics solely for the likes of Islamists.

Regardless, fundamentally, the Burmese survival instincts are alive and healthy. Despite being surrounded by the Chinese and Indians on practically all sides (with the exception of their borders with Thailand and BD), they have managed to stay almost completely independent and intervention free. Even the Chinese dont have much cultural sway there. Others, Indians in particular, will do well to learn from the Burmese.

http://news.yahoo.com/2-child-limit-mus ... 23020.html

OT but I question this tendency of Indians to jump up and say we must "learn" from this or that country or culture that is barely civilized compared to us. I am not saying that there is nothing to learn, but enthusiastically jumping on a debatable and unimplementable policy of the Burmese and turning it into a big lesson for us Indians should not be the very first reaction that we have. (I know you noted that the Burmese tend to be xenophobic with all, including Indians, so I understand you are making a more nuanced statement, but as you might say, regardless...)

Think about it, we have more than enough in us to give civilizational lessons to all of humanity (not saying that we have answers to everything, but still) but we continue to abet a self- and global perception that we are a lost culture unable to work out any solutions to ourselves.

[member_23692]

Think about it, we have more than enough in us to give civilizational lessons to all of humanity (not saying that we have answers to everything, but still) but we continue to abet a self- and global perception that we are a lost culture unable to work out any solutions to ourselves.

Both of the above that you mentioned are true. We have more than enough in us to give civizational lessons to all of humanity AND we ARE a lost culture unable to work out any solutions to ourselves. Only in India can these seeming contradictions co-exist.

Let me explain.

We have more than enough in us to give civizational lessons to all of humanity, but that does not mean that we are ACTUALLY giving civilizational lessons to humanity at the moment. And it is not because we are modest. Civilizational lessons which are taken note of by others are given not by pontificating or beating the drums about our 5000 year old culture. Lessons which are most effective, civilizational or otherwise, are always given by example. And clearly, without a doubt, we are not an example anyone would like to follow, with or without Indians acting as if they have nothing to offer (and I am not advocating Indians acting in a defeatist manner either, but I dont think that matters much in other's perceptions, given our behavior across the board).

We are not an example that anyone would like to follow, because we ARE a lost culture unable to work out any solutions to ourselves. When we get our act together, we would then be able to effectively leverage the "enough" we have in our treasure chest to be able to work out solutions to ourselves. Then and only then, would we be able to effectively "give" civilizational lessons to others. Right now we are in no position to do so.

So, in the meantime, we can try and improve ourselves without learning from others, by reaching within ourselves and only our own experiences and culture. I have no objections to that. But clearly that is not happening. So, we would do well to learn from examples of others, who may and will be imperfect in many many things. I did not suggest that we learn from others their imperfections. I only suggested that we learn from others what they do right. Even if we are successful in finding our own solutions our way (which I think at this point is a lost cause), but let us entertain that possibility - there is no harm in also learning from others. When we are openly ready to learn from others, it is a sign of our confidence, not a message that we are diminishing ourselves. There is no reason for us to be so defensive that we close ourselves to everything and are afraid to acknowledge qualities in others. In fact, we have no reason to be defensive at all. We can and should acknowledge the goodness in others and still feel, rightly so, that we as Indians are in no way "lesser", even with others having those good qualities.

[jamwal]

Poll reveals rising fears of clashes in wake of Woolwich killing
YouGov poll shows rise in proportion of people who believe British Muslims pose a threat to democracy

Nearly two-thirds of people believe there will be a 'clash of civilisations' between British Muslims and white Britons in the wake of the murder of a British soldier in Woolwich, a new poll shows.

The number of those who believe such a clash is inevitable has increased by 9% from last year.

There has also been a small increase in the proportion of people who believe British Muslims pose a serious threat to democracy, up to 34% on Thursday and Friday from 30% in November 2012, according to the YouGov survey of 1,839 adults.

The poll will fuel concern of an explosion of race hate, with one interfaith charity reporting a huge increase in anti-Muslim incidents since the murder of soldier Lee Rigby in south-east London on Wednesday.

Faith Matters, which runs a helpline, said they had received 162 calls since the attack, up from a daily average of six.

A number of people have also been charged by police after allegedly offensive messages were posted on social media websites. These include a 22-year-old man from Lincoln, a 28-year-old man from London, a 23-year-old woman from Southsea, and a 19-year-old man from Woking.However the YouGov poll provides evidence that Britain does remain a tolerant country and that the far-right support remains at the margins of society. Nearly two-thirds (63%) believe the vast majority of Muslims are good British citizens, up by 1% from last November.

There has also been an increase from 24% to 33% in the proportion who believe Muslims are compatible with the 'British way of life'. Around two-thirds (65%) said on the whole most people tend to get along well with each other.

One in five respondents said they felt positively about demonstrations being held against last week's terror attacks, and half felt negatively.

However, two-thirds said they felt negatively about such protests led by the BNP or English Defence League (EDL). Asked if they would join the EDL, 84% said they would never do so, although there has been a 9% increase in the proportion of respondents who had heard of the far-right organisation.

[SSridhar]

2-child limit in Rohingya towns - The Hindu

Authorities in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State have introduced a two-child limit for Muslim Rohingya families after a spate of deadly violence between Muslims and Buddhists, an official said on Saturday.

Local officials said the new measure — part of a policy that will also ban polygamy — will be applied to two Rakhine townships that border Bangladesh and have the highest Muslim populations in the State. The townships, Buthidaung and Maungdaw, are about 95 per cent Muslim.

The measure was enacted a week ago after a government-appointed commission investigating the violence issued proposals to ease tensions, which included family planning programmes to stem population growth among minority Muslims, said Rakhine State spokesman Win Myaing. The commission also recommended doubling the number of security forces in the volatile region.

“The population growth of Rohingya Muslims is 10 times higher than that of the Rakhine [Buddhists],” Mr. Win Myaing said. “Overpopulation is one of the causes of tension.”

Sectarian violence in Myanmar first flared nearly a year ago in Rakhine state with mobs of Buddhists armed with machetes razing thousands of Muslim homes, leaving hundreds of people dead and forcing 125,000 to flee, mostly Muslims.

Mr. Win Myaing said authorities had not yet determined how the measures would be enforced but the two-child policy would be mandatory in Buthidaung and Maungdaw. The policy will not apply yet to other parts of Rakhine State, which have smaller Muslim populations.

Predominantly Buddhist Myanmar does not include the Rohingya as one of its 135 recognised ethnicities. It considers them to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and denies them citizenship. Bangladesh says the Rohingya have been living in Myanmar for centuries and should be recognised there as citizens.

Muslims account for about four per cent of Myanmar’s roughly 60 million people. — AP

[Anindya]

The data from
Bostom's article in American Thinker is quite interesting - posting some selected elements of it....

Two decades ago, the late respected British scholar of Islam, Dr. Mervyn Hiskett (d. 1994), in Some to Mecca Turn to Pray, warned presciently about the immoderate mindset -- by Western standards -- of Britain's Muslim elites. Hiskett noted then (i.e., in 1993) the prevailing opinion among leaders of the British Muslim community that unless Muslim immigrants to Britain were allowed unrestrained access to Islamic law, sharia, in all aspects, Britain was to be regarded Dar-al-Harb, or the House of War -- that is, the target of jihadism.
.....

Hiskett's foreboding concerns have proven justified, as evidenced by disturbing survey results from British Muslims polled in January 2005 and again shortly after the July 7, 2005 London bombings. These data revealed that 60 percent of British Muslims surveyed prior to the 7/7/05 bombings felt that those who engaged in mere criti­cism of Islam should face criminal prosecution, while one third were brazen enough to admit after July 7, 2005 that "Western society is decadent and immoral and ... Muslims should seek to bring it to an end." Expressing their desire to replace Britain's current liberal democracy with a bellicose, liberty-crushing, sharia-based theocratic model, these 2005 polling data from British Muslims were consistent with a worldview made plain in a statement published August 16, 2005 in the Guardian and signed by 38 prominent British Muslim organizations and individuals:

To equate "extremism" with the aspirations of Muslims for Sharia laws in the Muslim world or the desire to see unification towards a Caliphate in the Muslim lands, as seemed to be misrepresented by the prime minister, is inaccurate and disingenuous. It indicates ignorance of what the Sharia is and what a Caliphate is and will alienate and victimize the Muslim community unnecessarily.
.....

Additional polling data published in 2007 by the British think-tank Policy Exchange indicated that 43% of British Muslims agreed with the proposition that "Muslim conversion is forbidden and punishable by death," while 52% concurred that "a Muslim male may have up to 4 wives and a Muslim female is allowed only 1 husband." Subsequently, a late 2008 poll of six hundred British Muslim college students (John Thorne and Hannah Stuart, "Islam on Campus: A survey of UK student opinions," Centre for Social Cohesion, 2008) revealed that one third supported killing in the name of Islam, while 40 percent wanted sharia to replace British law.

.....
And sharia indoctrination of British Muslim youth begins well before college entry. A BBC Panorama investigation has exposed the presence in Britain of forty "weekend schools" attended by some five thousand Muslim children aged 6-18. These schools teach the British Muslim youth who attend them, for example, traditional Islamic motifs of Jew-hatred and mutilating sharia punishments -- as per the Saudi National Curriculum -- under the rubric of "Saudi Students Clubs and Schools in the UK and Ireland."

.....
Given this toxic British Muslim milieu, and its outward manifestations, the results of a 2010 YouGov poll of 2,152 ordinary non-Muslim adult Britons appear quite rational. The online YouGov survey found that 58% of those questioned linked Islam with extremism, and 69% believed that it encourages the repression of women, while a mere 13% thought the creed was based upon peace, and only 6% associated Islam with justice.

[Anindya]

Interesting courtship practices

SANTA ANA (CBSLA.com) — A 29-year-old Orange County man is accused of trying to abduct a teenage girl out of an Aliso Viejo bookstore, authorities said Monday. KNX 1070′s Mike Landa reports Saif Mohamed Moussa was arrested after the incident in a Barnes & Noble store at 26751 Aliso Creek Road around 2 p.m. Saturday.

A 17-year-old girl was shopping in the bookstore when Moussa wrapped her up in a bear hug and started walking her to the front door, according to Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Jim Amormino.

“He said he intended to marry her,” Amormino said.

Before Moussa was able to exit the store with the victim, the girl broke free and located her father – an off-duty Orange County Sheriff’s deputy – at another location inside the store, said Amormino. The deputy restrained the suspect until other deputies arrived and took Moussa into custody, Amormino said.

Moussa was booked on kidnapping and child annoyance charges, according to Amormino.

[ramana]

Anindya, Re the Bostom article linked above, the Deobandi Madrassa was allowed in British India after they acknowledged that the Indian Muslims under the British were not under kafir rule ie Hindu rule, could practice freedom of religious practice and hence British India was not dar ul harb.

After British left India the consensus broke.

[RajeshA]

Anindya ji,

I think in Turkic Central Asia that was an accepted courtship. I don't know whether the practice is from pre-Islamic times or whether it came later on.

[joygoswami]

Non muslims destined to go to hell, British Police Go To Hell




At 1:45, Veiled Ayesha tells the Gori reporter " I think you look naked in the street in that dress. Whom are you trying to seduce ?? "

[Dipanker]

Anindya ji,

I think in Turkic Central Asia that was an accepted courtship. I don't know whether the practice is from pre-Islamic times or whether it came later on.

It still is in many of these countries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bride_kidn ... Kazakhstan

[member_19686]

Anindya ji,

I think in Turkic Central Asia that was an accepted courtship. I don't know whether the practice is from pre-Islamic times or whether it came later on.

It is pre-Islamic and present in both Central Asia and the Caucuses.

Chingiz Khan's mother Hoelun was kidnapped by his father. The incident is narrated in the Secret History of the Mongols.

He later banned this practice among Mongols.

[Agnimitra]

Anindya ji,

I think in Turkic Central Asia that was an accepted courtship. I don't know whether the practice is from pre-Islamic times or whether it came later on.

It is pre-Islamic and present in both Central Asia and the Caucuses.

Chingiz Khan's mother Hoelun was kidnapped by his father. The incident is narrated in the Secret History of the Mongols.

He later banned this practice among Mongols.

Its still prevalent in Kyrgyzstan and many other Turkic republics or places where Turkic culture is part of their ethic, including Chechnya, Afghanistan, Iran, even parts of the subcontinent:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKAusMNTNnk



Known as Paishaacha Vivaaha in Indic tradition!

[Agnimitra]

^^ In Turkic culture it is certainly pre-Islamic, but it is also part of Arab tribal culture, and so it finds support in Islam.
That's why in Islamic law circles if a woman is kidnapped or raped, the "solution" is often to marry her to her abductor or rapist. A woman has no business being alone or unchaperoned by a male relative in a place where she can be kidnapped. If she is with a male relative, then he will have the "ghairat" to defend her from her abductors, in which case it can be safely covered under other provisions of shariah. But failing that, it is to be understood that there is some tacit complicity on the part of the woman, and so marriage is a safe traditional solution.

[Anindya]

Dutch anxiety over ‘Sharia triangle’ police no-go area in The Hague

Area two kilometres from city centre has become ‘orthodox Muslim territory’ largely ignored by authorities....

There have been calls for an urgent debate in the Dutch parliament about the integration of Muslim immigrants amid claims that one area of The Hague, known locally as “the Sharia triangle”, is being run by a form of unofficial Sharia police.

The claims relate to the district of Schilderswijk, about two kilometres from the city centre, where an almost entirely Muslim population of some 5,000 people surrounds the El Islam mosque, fuelling criticism that the government has failed to ensure a proper ethnic mix in schools and local housing. One recent investigation, in which local people were extensively interviewed, concluded that Schilderswijk had become “orthodox Muslim territory” which was now largely ignored by the city authorities, by politicians and even by the police, on the grounds that it had become self-regulating.

The investigation found that orthodox Muslims had become so dominant that they were dictating what people in the neighbourhood wore and how they behaved.

[Peregrine]

Indian Non-Muslims cannot opt for Non-Halal i.e. Jhatka Meat (except in possibly Punjab),but. the Buddhists of Sri Lanka are up against (1) Halal Meat (2) Cow Slaughter :

Immolation monk’s last rites spark Sri Lanka protest

COLOMBO : About 200 Sri Lankan Buddhists blocked traffic in the capital Colombo on Sunday to protest after authorities rejected a state funeral for the country’s first ever monk to self-immolate.

Bowatte Indaratna, 30, succumbed to his burn injures Saturday after calling for an end to cattle slaughter and proselytisation by Christians in the Buddhist majority nation of 20 million. “We staged a sit-down demonstration near Temple Trees (the official resident of President Mahinda Rajapakse) demanding a state funeral at Independence Square,” monk Akmeemana Dayaratne told AFP. “But, we did not get it.”

He said they decided to disperse, but vowed to keep up pressure on the government to stop the slaughter of animals and ensure there were no unethical religious conversions.

The protesters, including dozens of saffron-robed Buddhist monks, blocked traffic on the main road opposite Rajapakse’s residence, witnesses said.

There was no immediate comment from the government, but police said there were heated arguments with the protesters.

Monk Indaratna died at the National Hospital in Colombo Saturday where he was rushed after setting himself on fire in front of the highly venerated Temple of the Tooth in the central town of Kandy on Friday.

A local television channel showed dramatic images of the monk using a cigarette lighter to set himself ablaze and bystanders, including police throwing buckets of water to put out the flames.

In a leaflet distributed to devotees outside the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, 72 miles (115 kilometres) east of the capital Colombo, the monk said he was against the slaughter of cattle.

His unannounced protest came as the country celebrated Wesak, the commemoration of the birth, enlightenment and the death of the Buddha, with two days of holidays.

Eating meat is common in Buddhist Sri Lanka, although according to the religion killing animals is a sin. The monk’s action came amid rising religious tensions after Buddhist extremists campaigned to boycott halal-slaughtered meat as well as other products that carry a halal certificate. More than 110 Tibetan Buddhists have set themselves ablaze since 2009 to protest China’s rule of the Tibetan plateau, rights groups have said. afp

Cheers

[Brad Goodman]

'Behead' fanatics stab jail warder in attack ‘inspired by Lee Rigby murder’

THREE fanatical Muslim convicts stabbed and battered a prison officer after seizing him for four hours.

They were led by Parviz Khan — in Full Sutton Prison, East Yorks, for plotting to behead a squaddie — and were said to have been inspired by the hacking to death of soldier Lee Rigby.

Full Sutton houses some of Britain’s most dangerous terrorists and criminals and is notorious for its hardline Muslim inmates.

The attackers were believed to include two men who are serving long sentences and a third who converted to Islam in prison. He is said to be a white man jailed for a serious violent offence.

The creep of Islamic extremism in British jails over the past decade is no secret — experts warned of its threat for years.

But this is a chilling warning to those in Whitehall.

[Rajagopal]

A very hard hitting article by an Ex-muslim who has seen Islam for what it truly is.
This article must be emailed to each and every head of state to knock some sense into their thick skulls.
http://frontpagemag.com/2013/bosch-faws ... ed-muslim/

[ramana]

RajeshA et al, The kidnapper is in Los Angles, USA. So what relevance is it to bring in Turkic Central Asia, shariat and eventually ancient Hindu practices into the discussion? Further from his name he sounds Arabic or even Baki.
Even in modern India such practise would land the fellow in jail if he were a Hindu.
So lets keep contextual remarks.

[RajeshA]

ramana garu,

my comment was related to practice in general, rather than the specific incident. If something is not Islam-specific, then that too needs to be pointed out, lest people mistake it for an Islamic practice. A measure of fairness helps the cause of credibility.

[arun]

In Lashio in Myanmar a Mohammadden man sets a Buddhist woman alight setting off a riot in which Mohammaddens come off the worse:

Violence in Burma after Muslim man allegedly 'torches' a women selling petrol

[arun]

X Posted from the "Terrorist Islamic Republic of Pakistan" thread.

In the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), a constitutional body made up of Mohammadden Clerics, has ruled that DNA samples are not acceptable as primary evidence in case of a rape. Guess the pronouncement by the CII means its back to the Mohammadden religious law sanctioned standard of evidence which requires 4 pious Mohammadden adult male to witness the act of rape.

Anyway, I have always been flummoxed by this 4 pious Mohammadden adult male witnesses evidentiary standard for rape as it seems to me that if 4 adult males were actually in a position to witness a rape they would rather than standing about and voyeuristically witnessing, physically intervene to prevent the rape from taking place at all.

DNA not acceptable as primary evidence in rape cases: CII

[Agnimitra]

Trinidad panel taking fresh look at 1990 uprising

The Muslim cleric who led a small army that stormed Trinidad & Tobago's parliament in a blaze of gunfire is a free man. Never convicted of any charges, he cheerfully presides over a mosque and school complex in the country's bustling capital and shares time among his four wives, the maximum Islam allows.

Yasin Abu Bakr and his followers were jailed for two years after the 1990 attempt to overthrow the government of one of the Caribbean's most prosperous countries. But they were freed under an amnesty and attempts to prosecute them failed even though 24 people were killed. More than 50 people were taken hostage, including the prime minister, who was bound and shot in the leg.

After years of lingering questions about the attempted coup by Bakr and 113 armed rebels, a commission appointed by the government in 2010 has been taking a fresh look into the only Islamic revolt in the Western Hemisphere. The commission has held more than a dozen sessions over three years in an effort to understand better how and why the violent upheaval occurred. But the panel has no subpoena power and the findings are unlikely to lead to any arrests.

And Bakr isn't hurrying to provide any answers.

The towering 72-year-old, who dresses in a white robe and skullcap, recently gave The Associated Press a rare interview. Bakr said he hasn't decided if he'll testify before the five-member commission, which is expected to finish collecting testimony by year's end. He said the panel won't learn anything important unless he agrees to help.

"I am the architect; I am the leader of the coup," Bakr told the AP at the Jamaat al Muslimeen group's compound, where youngsters carried their books from a two-story school and a group of men chatted outside a spacious domed mosque. "I know everything that happened. If I don't testify to all the things that happened everybody is just guessing."

Against this backdrop, Vice President Joe Biden is visiting Trinidad Tuesday for trade and security talks with Prime Minister Kamala Kamla Persad-Bissessar and other Caribbean politicians. The commission's work is not on the agenda, even though the failed rebellion by the Islamic group still looms large for the region in a post 9-11 world.

For some people in Trinidad, Bakr's group remains a painful reminder of the deadly uprising that staggered the Caribbean country's sense of itself as an easygoing land of calypso, cricket and British-style democracy.

"We need to unearth all the facts if only from the point of view of recording history, but perhaps we can also suss out any strategic weaknesses that may still remain," said Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Dookeran, who was held hostage on the first day of the coup attempt launched July 27, 1990, and who was instrumental in launching the inquiry.

There is no evidence linking Bakr and his group of mostly black converts to Islam to international terrorism. U.S. authorities scrutinized the group after discovering a failed 2007 plot to blow up jet fuel tanks at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. Federal investigators reported that a Trinidadian imam and a U.S. citizen from Guyana who were convicted in the case had earlier visited Jamaat's Trinidad compound, but no definitive connection was found.

Some researchers say that Islam isn't the group's central focus.

Jamaat "may be Islamist in its pedigree in that it relied and continues in some respect to use Islamic discourse and symbols ... but it was always more of a revolutionary, pan-Africanist movement than anything else," said Chris Zambelis, a Washington-based risk management consultant who specializes in the Middle East but has researched Jamaat and interviewed members in Trinidad.

Bakr's reasons for attempting to take over the government have never been fully clear.

A former policeman who converted to Islam while living in Canada and who drew followers mainly among poor urban blacks in Trinidad's slums, Bakr has blamed the islands' government in the past for increasing hardship after world oil prices collapsed in the 1980s. He told AP that he also blamed then-Prime Minister Arthur N.R. Robinson's administration for the slaying of a female police constable who he insists had witnessed a cocaine transaction involving a government minister. The group was also in a dispute with the government over the compound's land.

Whatever Bakr's motivation, the rebellion in the resource-rich republic off Venezuela's coast was among the more bizarre events in the history of the English-speaking Caribbean.

It started with a car bomb that gutted a police station near parliament, and continued with the takeover of the legislature.

After the rebels had held Robinson and others hostage for six days, officials promised the insurgents amnesty, then immediately arrested them when they surrendered. Trinidad's High Court later upheld the amnesty on the grounds that Jamaat members were the beneficiaries of a presidential pardon, even though the state argued it was made under duress. Shocking many, Bakr and his followers were freed after two years in lockup and never re-arrested.

Among those killed were lawmaker Leo Des Vignes, a policeman, and security guards. Others died during clashes between security forces and looting mobs that swarmed commercial districts to load up on television sets and other consumer items. Scores were wounded and blocks burned.

Political analysts believe Jamaat members have escaped convictions in part because from the 1980s until at least 2002 they were hired by both major political parties to get out the vote for their factions during elections in poor, politically contested communities. Some experts believe Jamaat currently counts just a few hundred members.

"All the parties used the Jamaat, all," said Selwyn Ryan, a leading Trinidadian political scientist who wrote about the siege in his book "The Muslimeen Grab for Power."

Zambelis, the Washington-based analyst, said Bakr managed to carve out an enduring niche for himself and his movement that cut across political party lines. "I also think that Jamaat al Muslimeen's ties to criminality may also be playing a role in its longevity and survivability over the years," he said.

Jamaat members have been charged with murders, kidnappings, and gun and drug smuggling but few have been convicted. In 2005, one man who took part in the failed coup was sentenced to more than 12 years in a U.S. prison for trying to smuggle guns into the country from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Bakr himself was acquitted in Trinidad in 2006 on charges of conspiracy to murder two former Jamaat members. Also in 2006, Trinidadian prosecutors dropped weapon charges against Bakr after authorities raided the compound, bulldozed his office and seized a rifle, hand grenade and 500 rounds of ammunition. He currently is fighting sedition charges related to a sermon he gave in 2005.
The imam has rejected charges that his group engages in criminal activities and describes Jamaat as solely a religious and charitable organization.

Bridget Brereton, an emeritus professor of history at Trinidad's campus of the University of the West Indies, said she's hopeful the commission can provide the full truth about the coup attempt, which she believes has contributed to the country's ongoing problems with gang violence and crimes committed with guns.

"It introduced the notion of violent, extremist behavior, and helped set the tone for the spiraling murder and crime rate," Brereton said.

Commission members, led by Barbadian jurist David Simmons, said they will not comment until the probe ends.

Although some Trinidadians believe the inquiry into long ago events is a waste of time, others wonder why it took the government so long to examine the crisis. "In the U.S., something like this would have been interrogated immediately because it's a matter of record. But in societies such as this a lot of things go a-begging," said Ryan, the political scientist.

For his part, Bakr asserts that the armed uprising against what he terms Trinidad's "corrupt government" was preordained.

"I am not any mastermind because I led the coup, nor am I any brilliant strategist or nothing. It has nothing to do with that," Bakr told the AP. "I mean, God wanted some justice in this matter and he just took the people who were best, just 114 of us."

------------------

Islam's rule of numbers and the beheading in London
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The Guantanamo Bay prison guard who converted to Islam: Traitor -- or Patriot?

[Agnimitra]

X-posting from Iran news thread:

Argentine prosecutor accuses Iran of establishing Latin America terrorist networks

[Anindya]

French firms see rising religious demands at work

Close to half the staff managers at companies in French urban areas have seen problems arising from religious demands by employees and expect them to increase in future, according to a new study issued on Tuesday.

Listing faith-related problems, the new study said some men refused to take orders from a woman boss or shake hands with women and some refused to handle alcohol or pork products.

Other problems include employees wanting to pray or wear religious garb at work. Some employees try to impose their religious standards on colleagues, such as preventing non-observant Muslims from eating at work during Ramadan.....

Sociologists say most religious demands at work come from the large Muslim minority, with some also from orthodox Jews and evangelical Christians. These groups mostly live in or around big cities rather than the traditionally Catholic rural areas.

Many demands concern Muslim women's headscarves, a sensitive issue in France where full-face veils are banned in public and women public servants and girls in state schools are not allowed to cover their hair.

[Anindya]

Muslim advocates urge reduced FBI anti-jihad role

Politically influential Muslim activists are pushing to reduce the FBI’s role in countering Islamic terrorism and are seeking greater federal reliance on hard-line orthodox Imams.

...
Elibiary’s new call for reduced policing of Islamic communities, such as Boston’s immigrant Muslims, was echoed by other speakers at the panel, which was hosted by the progressive New American Foundation in Washington D.C.

“Imams and counselors need to be given some leeway” by police, said Suhaib Webb, Imam of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center.
...
Muslims in America have grievances, and “the way to address these grievances is not with violence, but with the way Islam prescribes… that way is best prescribed by Imams, not necessarily by the U.S. government,” said Rashad Hussain, President Barack Obama’s ambassador to the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Muslims in America “are concerned that terrorists are killing innocent people,” Hussain said. Killing people who are innocent is “totally repulsive to their religion,” he said.

‘“Conservative and Salafi Imams are going to produce the most credible alternatives to al Qaeda” said panelist Peter Bergen

[ramana]

....
‘“Conservative and Salafi Imams are going to produce the most credible alternatives to al Qaeda” said panelist Peter Bergen....

Is this an oxymoron or what!

Its the Salafi imams that feed the AlQ IEDology.

This guys is master of double speak.

[RCase]

^^^
A wolf in sheep's clothing will make for better sheep! The wolf is peaceful onlee and believes that having one sheep slaughtered is like slaughtering the entire flock. It is better to have the wolf take care of the errant sheep in a tolerant manner.

[Garooda]

....
‘“Conservative and Salafi Imams are going to produce the most credible alternatives to al Qaeda” said panelist Peter Bergen....

Is this an oxymoron or what!

Its the Salafi imams that feed the AlQ IEDology.

This guys is master of double speak.

Needless to say that extensive use of consumer technology by the Imams (mostly for bad purposes) has led them to the software vendor mentality to come up with a 'ALQ Version 2.0' or 'AAQ 1.0 (Alternative Al Qaeda)

[arun]

X Posted from the “Terrorist Islamic Republic of Pakistan - May 13, 2013” thread.

A Kaafir Dhimmi, Crusader, Hanood and Yehudi plot to malign the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and Mohammaddenism ?

BBC reports that in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan a "begging mafia" operating in and around Mohammadden shrines “forces thousands of children into a life of slavery”:

The BBC then goes on to say that “if a child isn't disabled, a disability can be inflicted upon them” citing a Mohammed Ali, who is identified as founder of the Roshni Helpline charity:

Child victims of Pakistan's 'begging mafia'