Author Archives: Grace

On honour killing– writers, experts and readers weigh in

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Since news broke of the tragic Kingston Locks Ontario, honour killings, several articles have been written related to the story and on the broader issue of honour killing itself.  They continue to pour in to a variety of newspapers across the country. Here is a small sample of what has been written:

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This first article written by Marian Scott describes the marked difference between honour killings and domestic violence.

Honour Killings are distinct experts say: from The Vancouver Sun, Gazette.

A distinct kind of violence: experts

Honour killings described as different from domestic violence

By MARIAN SCOTT, The Gazette July 25, 2009

Honour killings are distinct from other kinds of family violence – and to say so does not discriminate against minorities, say two experts on the phenomenon.

“Analysis of more than 50 reported honour killings shows they differ significantly from more common domestic violence,” Phyllis Chesler, emerita professor of psychology at City University of New York, says in the spring edition of Middle East Quarterly.

In her analysis, Chesler acknowledged that her position runs counter to many Muslim advocacy organizations that say honour killings have nothing to do with Islam, and that it is discriminatory to distinguish them from other forms of domestic violence. Continue Reading →

Obama White House: Ahmadinejad elected leader of Iran

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From the Ottawa Citizen

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White House calls Ahmadinejad elected leader of Iran

Iran opposition to keep pressure on

By Parisa Hafezi, Reuters

The White House called Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the 'elected leader' of Iran on Tuesday when asked whether President Barack Obama recognized the Iranian president after the country's disputed election.

The White House called Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the ‘elected leader’ of Iran on Tuesday when asked whether President Barack Obama recognized the Iranian president after the country’s disputed election.

Photograph by: Behrouz Mehri, Getty Images

The White House called Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the “elected leader” of Iran on Tuesday when asked whether President Barack Obama recognized the Iranian president after the country’s disputed election.

“This was a decision and a debate ongoing in Iran by Iranians, they were going to choose their leadership,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. “He’s the elected leader.”

The White House has been careful not to comment on the legitimacy of the Iranian election and has condemned the government for its crackdown on opposition demonstrators.

Meanwhile, two prominent defeated Iranian presidential candidates said they would maintain their campaign against Ahmadinejad’s re-election, which has sparked Iran’s worst unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Ahmadinejad will be sworn in by parliament on Wednesday, and the authorities will want to avoid any repeat of the street unrest after the disputed June 12 poll in which at least 20 people were killed and hundreds were detained.

Leading moderates have accused the government of electoral fraud and have branded the next Ahmadinejad administration as “illegal”.

The wife of Iran’s opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi said on Tuesday he would continue to contest the election result.

“Despite all the hardship, we will continue our path to fight against the result (of the election),” Zahra Rahnavard was quoted as saying by the reformist website Mowjcamp.

Mehdi Karoubi, the most liberal of the presidential candidates, was quoted by the Spanish El Pais daily as saying he too would continue to oppose the government.

“Neither Mousavi nor I have withdrawn. We will continue to protest and we will never collaborate with this government. We will not harm it, but we will criticize what it does,” Karoubi said in an interview.

“Quite honestly, if the authorities had acted in a different way, we would never have had these problems, because the majority of those protesting only did so for that reason.”

U.S. President Barack Obama and the leaders of France, Britain and Germany have all decided not to congratulate Ahmadinejad on his re-election.

“In view of the circumstances of the controversial re-election, the chancellor will not, as usual, write the normal letter of congratulation,” said a German government spokesman.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said: “I don’t have any reason to believe we will send any letter.” The Iranian government says the presidential election was fair and transparent and has accused Western nations, especially Britain and the United States, of being complicit in the bloody post-election unrest, a charge they deny.

Two former presidents, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami, who backed Mousavi’s failed presidential bid, boycotted Monday’s endorsement of the president by the Supreme Leader although they were present at such events in the past.

After the ceremony a witness said hundreds of Mousavi supporters, some of them honking car horns, gathered near a central Tehran square, where riot police and Basij militia were assembled to prevent any demonstration.

Mousavi’s credentials as a loyal servant of Iran’s revolution may help explain why he has escaped arrest for leading protests against an election he says was stolen to keep Ahmadinejad in power.

The 68-year-old moderate may lack charisma, but he has not hesitated from speaking out, castigating authorities for their handling of the election and its tumultuous aftermath. He has even defied his relative, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who backed Ahmadinejad.

“What has endeared him to the public is the fact that, contrary to former President (Mohammad) Khatami who would be reluctant to stand up to Khamenei and others, Mousavi has stuck to his guns,” said Mehrzad Boroujerdi, an Iran scholar at New York’s Syracuse University.

Mousavi has previously demanded the elections in the world’s fifth biggest oil exporter be annulled, but may need a new goal once Ahmadinejad is reinstalled.

“The plan should be to call into question the legitimacy of Ahmadinejad’s administration at every turn, through civil disobedience, and also to press for some revisions to the constitution,” Boroujerdi said.

The president now faces the difficult task of assembling a cabinet which is acceptable to the mostly conservative parliament, which may object if he just picks members of his inner circle. Parliament has in the past rejected some of Ahmadinejad’s cabinet choices.

Mousavi has yet to unveil a promised new political front with his reformist and pragmatist allies, perhaps partly because so many leading figures are in jail, including 100 whose trial for inciting unrest began on Saturday and resumes on Thursday.

Karoubi backs talks with the United States and other Western governments to attempt to open up the channels of communication with Iran, which is locked in dispute over its nuclear program that it says is for energy and the West suspects is for arms.

“The most beneficial thing for the Iranians is negotiations. Nobody benefits from our ongoing problems with the United States,” said Karoubi, highlighting one of the fissures in the clerical leadership that the election has exposed.

Another potential source of friction with the United States arose on Saturday when Iran arrested three American hikers who an Iraqi Kurdish official said had strayed across the border and who were being questioned by the Iranians.

“They are definitely Americans. They were detained four days ago. We don’t know whether they are tourists or not. We are questioning them,” security official Iraj Hassanzadeh told al-Alam state television on Tuesday.

© Copyright (c) Reuters

Ottawa cabbie ‘pleases’ passenger with a ‘friendly’ kiss

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From the Ottawa Citizen

An Ottawa taxi driver who was found guilty of sexual assault in May is to appear in court this month for sentencing. Assistant Crown attorney John Ramsay argues that Hassan Jabar Majli ‘ abused a position of trust when he took advantage of a female passenger in June, 2007. The unidentified victim has testified that the driver, upon dropping her at her destination, followed her into the apartment block, grabbed and kissed her as she tried to get into the elevator. She also testified that Majli put his hands up her skirt and digitally penetrated her as she tried to flee through a stairway.

Majli testified that he believed the woman had asked for a kiss and said he ‘offered’ her a ‘friendly’ kiss when he became worried she would complain to her boss that he didn’t ” please her”. Alan Brass, Majli’s lawyer argued that the cabbie, a married man with a young son, has led a respectable life since arriving in Canada from Kuwait. Majli maintains his innocence. He is to be sentenced August 18.

Vicious honour crime in London: Muslim man victim of attempted honour killing

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A Muslim man of Danish citizenship, lies in a British hospital clinging to life after being savagely attacked in London by seven men. He was stabbed, his body doused in sulphuric acid, was forced to swallow the substance and was severely beaten with bricks. The unidentified man’s injuries are so massive that he is expected to die.

He was the victim of an honour crime for having a friendship with a married Muslim woman. One of two men charged in the attempted murder is the woman’s sixteen year old brother.

While most of us understand that the majority of the victims of these barbaric attacks and murders are women, honour killings against men are increasing. If they continue to rise to the same level as those perpetrated against women, perhaps we will see for the first time the only true example of Muslim equality.

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(thank you to the religion of peace)

A Horrific “Honor” Attack By: Stephen Brown
FrontPageMagazine.com | Tuesday, July 28, 2009

It was as cold-blooded and vicious an honor crime as any the West has seen, but with one difference. This time, the victim was male.

A 24-year-old Asian man is clinging to life in a British hospital after seven men attacked him last week in London for having a friendship with a married Muslim woman.

The unidentified man, who is Muslim himself and has Danish citizenship, was stabbed twice in the back and beaten so severely with bricks that authorities report he is now blind in one eye and will probably lose sight in the other. Acid was also poured down the victim’s throat, damaging his tongue and throat so severely he will probably never speak again.

“The poor man got up and ran straight into a tree, then staggered back to his house, tugging at his burning clothes and banging on doors, shouting for water,” said one woman who witnessed the attack.

The victim’s body was also doused with acid, burning more than 50 per cent and leaving him in critical condition. News reports state he is not expected to survive. His assailants, police say, were all wearing gloves and masks for protection against the sulphuric acid, which was 92 per cent strength.

Police have charged two men in the attempted murder, one of whom is the woman’s 16-year-old brother. Underage male family members are often selected by their families to carry out honor killings in Western countries, since they receive lighter sentences. Some of these teen killers serve as little as three years in jail before being released.

The motive for the attack, British newspapers report, is that the woman’s family, which is from Pakistan, considered the man’s friendship with her “insulting” to the family’s honor. The woman has denied that the friendship was sexual.

The attack occurred almost at the same time police in Canada arrested three members of an Afghan family for the horrific honor killing of three daughters and the father’s first wife. But while the brutal reality of honor murders perpetrated against women, mainly from Muslim countries and India, is now largely recognized in the West, it is less well known that men are also victims. The reason for this probably lies in the fact that the number of females killed for reasons of “honor” is much higher than that for males.

Figures released at the Karachi Press Club in Pakistan earlier this month bear this out. Pakistan, which has the dubious distinction of being a world leader in this barbaric custom, had 79 female honor killings in one province alone between April and June this year, while 38 men were also slain.

A report published by the Pakistani Senate in 2004 stated more than 4,000 people died as a result of honor crimes in the previous six years, of whom about 2,700 were women and 1,300 were men.
And the situation does not appear to be getting better. It was reported last February that a young Pakistani couple, who married against family wishes, have taken up residence in a police station for fear of being killed if they venture outside.

The mainstream media’s liberal outlook constitutes another reason for the lack of attention regarding male honor killings. Some of the victims are murdered because of their caste, race or religion. In the liberal media’s eyes, only white, western cultures can be racist or intolerant and never those of visible minorities. Such an admission would damage the multicultural utopia they have long been advocating.

But what most victims of male honor crimes in the West, which include white males, have in common is that they were involved in a relationship, often secret or outright forbidden, with a Muslim woman. But while women are the ones usually attacked for their involvement in such liaisons, the list of men is growing longer.

Last year, a German teenager was murdered by two Muslim men armed with baseball bats for having had a relationship with a Muslim girl. In Munich, a Turkish father tried to kill both his daughter and her German boyfriend on a busy, downtown street because of their relationship.

Other prominent honor crimes against males reported in Europe in recent years include an Iranian man murdered in southern Sweden in revenge for his relationship with a daughter of an Afghan family. Six members of a Pakistani family in Denmark were also convicted for the shooting death of their daughter, who had married an Afghan man against her father’s wishes. The husband was severely wounded in the incident. A German also died in an “honor” attack from 40 stab wounds, inflicted by a Turkish man angered by the German’s relationship with his divorced sister.

The reason for such murderous rage is that some male Muslims regard female relatives as their property and themselves as the guardians of their “purity”, upon which the family honor depends. If caught associating with a man, such women would be considered “dirtied” and the family dishonoured. Thereafter, only the spilling of the offender’s blood is deemed acceptable for cleansing and restoring of that honor.

“The Islamic ‘law of revenge’ knows as atonement only pain or death in order to wash away the foulness,” said Necla Kelek, a Turkish-German feminist.

Incredibly, London police now expect the Pakistani family to attempt to further wash away more of that “foulness.” The woman, police fear, may be killed next and are trying to figure out how to protect her. But as the evil of honor killings becomes more endemic in the West, security officials will probably conclude the only sure protection for endangered men and women, like in Pakistan, is protective custody.

Stephen Brown is a contributing editor at Frontpagemag.com. He has a graduate degree in Russian and Eastern European history. Email him at al*****@*****il.com.

Islamic ruling on adherence to sharia

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For those out there who deny that fundamentalist Islam is totalitarian and vicious in nature, read the following fatwa from Islam Q&A. There is no mistake; for a Muslim to follow anything other than sharia, the law(s) of Allah, puts he or she ‘beyond the pale’ of Islam and the one who does so becomes a kaafir, an apostate. The required punishment is execution. Of course any Muslim who repents, will be spared. It is by way of such extremism that much of the world has found itself caught.

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Ruling on objecting to some of the shar’i rulings that have been prescribed by Allaah.

Q.  A man says that some of the shar’i rulings need to be re-examined and they need to be changed, because they are not appropriate to the current age, such as the male’s share of inheritance being equal to the share of two females. What is the shar’i ruling on those who say such things?.

A. Praise be to Allaah.

It must be understood that one of the basic principles of faith is referring to Allaah, may He be exalted, and His Messenger (blessings and peace of Allaah be upon him) for judgement, submitting to their ruling and being content with it. Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):

“(And) if you differ in anything amongst yourselves, refer it to Allaah and His Messenger, if you believe in Allaah and in the Last Day. That is better and more suitable for final determination”

[al-Nisa’ 4:59].

“But no, by your Lord, they can have no Faith, until they make you (O Muhammad, judge in all disputes between them, and find in themselves no resistance against your decisions, and accept (them) with full submission”

[al-Nisa’ 4:65]

“Do they then seek the judgement of (the days of) Ignorance? And who is better in judgement than Allaah for a people who have firm Faith”

[al-Maa’idah 5:50]

Every ruling that goes against the ruling of Allaah is a ruling of ignorance (Jaahiliyyah). Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):

“Is not Allaah the Best of judges?”

[al-Teen 95:8]

“The command (or the judgement) is for none but Allaah. He has commanded that you worship none but Him (i.e. His Monotheism); that is the (true) straight religion, but most men know not”

[Yoosuf 12:40]

Thus it is clear that refusing to refer for judgement to Allaah, may He be glorified and exalted, and His Messenger (blessings and peace of Allaah be upon him), or rejecting their ruling, or believing that the ruling of someone else is better than their ruling, constitutes kufr (disbelief) and puts one beyond the pale of Islam.

Shaykh Ibn Baaz (may Allaah have mercy on him) said:

With regard to the rulings which Allaah has prescribed for His slaves and explained them in His Holy Book or on the lips of His trustworthy Messenger (blessings and peace of Allaah be upon him), such as the rulings on inheritance, five prayers, zakaah, fasting and other things which Allaah has explained to His slaves and on which the ummah is unanimously agreed, no one has the right to object to them or to change them, because this is clear legislation that was decreed for the ummah at the time of the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allaah be upon him) and after him until the Hour begins. That includes giving the male more than the female [in inheritance] among children, sons’ children, siblings through both parents and siblings through the father, because Allaah has explained it in His Book and the Muslim scholars are unanimously agreed on that, so it is obligatory to act upon that out of conviction and faith.

Anyone who says that what is better is something other than that is a kaafir, and similarly the one who says that it is permissible to go against that is to be regarded as a kaafir because he is objecting to the rulings of Allaah, may He be exalted, and His Messenger (blessings and peace of Allaah be upon him) and to the consensus of the ummah. The authorities should ask him to repent if he is a Muslim; if he repents, all well and good, otherwise he is to be executed as a kaafir and an apostate from Islam, because the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever changes his religion, execute him.” We ask Allaah to keep us and all the Muslims safe and sound from misguiding turmoil and going against pure sharee’ah. End quote.

Majmoo’ Fataawa Ibn Baaz (4/415).

Profs at Canadian university demand return of colleague accused of Paris bombing

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Hassan Diab a former university professor and accused terrorist in the 1980 bombing of a Paris synagogue which left four people dead and scores injured, is being supported by his colleagues in their call for the reinstatement of his teaching position at an Ottawa university. Born in Lebanon and now a Canadian citizen, Diab is accused in France of the crime and faces an extradition hearing early next year. He is under house arrest, but can leave to work. Mr. Diab was set to teach a summer sociology course until he learned of his termination by university officials. Why he was even hired in the first place is a curiosity. But, in light of the recent events, some professors are pressuring the university to give Diab his job back. Read the full story here in the Ottawa Citizen.

Although the group of roughly thirty professors insist they are motivated by fairness and not politics, the following statement by Peter Gose, chairman of the department at the university, illustrates the opposite:

“It’s not about anyone’s politics. It’s about procedure and it’s about respect”, adding, ” We have a large Muslim student population. There are more people to talk to beyond B’nai Brith. We’re a complex, multicultural society”.

Really–not about politics?

By this statement, do the professors mean asking only Muslim students what they think, or do they intend to ask the larger student body what they think? How about asking the broader public? Last time I checked, Canada’s multicultural society compromised far more than both the Jewish and Muslim student communities and universities were publicly funded institutions.

Even more bizarre, Gose views this past week’s firing of Diab a ‘continuation’ of this past winter’s Israeli anti-apartheid week when a poster depicting an image of an Israeli helicopter bombing a Palestinian child was banned from campus. One would have to have the brain of a tuberous begonia not to see that this has everything to do with ugly politics. Some wonder; if this had been a man accused of blowing up a Muslim mosque, would these same professors be similarly inclined to demand his teaching position be reinstated? Or a man accused of rape or child molestation?

This shouldn’t have anything to do with politics and Gose and his colleagues should pull their pointed fingers out of their collective, ignorant arses. Diab is accused of targeting a Paris synagogue out of sheer hate, murdering four innocent people and injuring scores of others. Pure and simple. He may or may not be innocent of this crime; that is indeed up to a Parisian court to decide. Regardless, this has nothing to do with Canada’s complex, multicultural society or the Muslim student body at Carleton. It also has nothing to do with Israeli anti-apartheid week or bureaucratic, university procedure. It does however have everything to do with respecting the value of the law and of lives lost which is not something reserved for B’nai Brith or Muslims or professors, but for all of us. Until Hassan Diab is extradited to France to stand trial, he does not belong on any Canadian university campus.

Calgary concert cancelled mid-way as Sikh kirpans not welcome

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A concert by Punjabi singer Gurdas Mann was shut down mid-way Sunday night in Calgary leaving hundreds of angry concert goers wondering why security guards are not better educated in the importance of the Sihk kirpan. The kirpan is a ceremonial dagger worn on the hip by observant Sikhs and is considered a central requirement of their faith. Obviously, security guards believe the safety and security of hundreds gathered trumps the religious belief of hipping a sword. How refreshing.

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from the Calgary Herald

Cancelled Calgary concert raises kirpan questions

Calgary HeraldAugust 3, 2009
Concert goers mass on Stephen Avenue after a concert by Punjabi singer Gurdas Maan was called off.

Concert goers mass on Stephen Avenue after a concert by Punjabi singer Gurdas Maan was called off.

Photograph by: Ted Rhodes, Calgary Herald

CALGARY — Hundreds of upset concertgoers spilled onto the streets of downtown Calgary after a show by a popular Punjabi singer on Sunday night was shut down in mid-performance.

It wasn’t immediately clear why the concert by Gurdas Maan at the Telus Convention Centre ended so suddenly, but many patrons alleged security guards were refusing entry to those wearing the kirpan — a ceremonial dagger carried by observant Sikhs.

Considering Maan’s Punjabi heritage and his wide popularity in India and abroad, some concertgoers were incredulous that security staff wouldn’t have been better educated about the kirpan’s importance to Sikhs.

Wearing the kirpan is considered a central requirement of the Sikh faith. It is worn ceremonially and not intended to be a weapon.

“We respect Canadian laws,” said Amarjit Singh, who was wearing a kirpan underneath his blazer.

Singh said he couldn’t understand why kirpans were being barred from the convention centre when Sikh parliamentarians have long been allowed to wear them inside the House of Commons.

Maan, often called India’s Michael Jackson, attracted a family-heavy crowd made up parents, children and grandparents.

At about 9:30 p.m., the show was ended and police were called to help empty the concert hall.

Police officers ringed the entrances to the convention centre. The crowd dispersed largely without incident, but officers were seen making arrests.

© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service

Islamic supremacist group Hizb ut-Tahrir promotes event with a beheaded Lady Liberty

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Close to one week ago, Vlad reported details concerning the Islamist Supremacist group Hizb ut-Tahrir and it’s global, conference initiative. Now the group has beefed up it’s visual promo campaign with a poster image out of Malaysia of a beheaded Statue of Liberty accompanied by New York City left in dust rubble and smoking ruin. Consider following the instructions given in the previous post ‘ Canada: Hizb ut-Tahrir to meet this week in Ontario’ to contact officials expressing concern regarding this group.

From R.E.A.L.

(thanks to www.thereligionofpeace.com)

Islamic Supremacist Hizb ut-Tahrir Event Promoted with Beheaded Statue of Liberty

By R.E.A.L. Organization • on July 31, 2009

Islamic Supremacist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir’s branch in Malaysia promoted its July 26, 2009 conference for a global Islamic Supremacist Caliphate with an image of a “beheaded” Statue of Liberty and NYC in smoking ruins.   The HT web site refers to democracy as “perverted.”

Hizb ut-Tahrir promotion for Islamic Supremacist Caliphate conference shows "beheaded" Statue of Liberty and "burning" NYC Hizb ut-Tahrir promotion for Islamic Supremacist Caliphate conference shows “beheaded” Statue of Liberty and “burning” NYC

The Hizb ut-Tahrir blog promoting such Islamic Supremacist conferences, such as those in Canada, U.S., and other countries, also promoted this image of violence against the United States on its blog as well.  The Hizb ut-Tahrir blog promoted this as part of “Hizb ut-Tahrir’s Global Rajab Campaign.”

This is the same Hizb ut-Tahrir blog promoting their Islamic Supremacist conference at a government-managed public facility in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada and the Hizb ut-Tahrir blog that promoted a link to the Hizb ut Tahrir America conference in Oak Lawn, Illinois at the Hilton Hotel.

This same Hizb ut-Tahrir blog promoting the July 31 event in Canada also promotes a pamphlet (page 62) that supports killing those individuals who leave Islam as guilty of “treason and a political attack on the Khilafah.”

The Chicago/Oak Lawn, IL Hizb ut-Tahrir conference against democracy and freedom at the Hilton Hotel was challenged by pro-freedom, pro-democracy protesters, and the protest was covered by local and national media.   The response thus far to the Canadian Hizb ut-Tahrir conference in a government-managed facility on July 31 has mostly been indifference by the Canadian media, with vague promises of an “investigation” by Canadian government offices.

On Monday, July 27, Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) contacted the Mississauga mayor’s office, the entire city council, Recreation and Parks department, and Mississauga law enforcement regarding the Hizb ut-Tahrir event planned at a government-managed facility for July 31.  The mayor went out of town; the manager of the Recreation and Parks department we spoke to also went out of town once we spoke to her.  Our discussions with mayor’s office were that the “mayor’s office has asked for an investigation on how this happened,” but the mayor’s office representative expected no further action.  A member of the Mississauga Recreation and Parks department indicated that the matter was forwarded to their regional police department for an investigation.  In discussions with the Peel regional law enforcement, they indicate that the Hizb ut-Tahrir activity is “being investigated,” and that there will be a police presence at the [Hizb ut-Tahrir Canada] event” on Friday, July 31.

Iran’s show trial and Iranian police tear gas, arrest Neda mourners

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More on Iran from the National Post.

Khatami denounces ‘show trial’ of Iran protesters

Parisa Hafezi, Reuters Published: Sunday, August 02, 2009

Iranian cleric Mohammad Ali Abtahi (C), a member of the Assembly of Combatant Clerics, gives testimony at a revolutionary court in Tehran on Aug. 1, 2009 during the first hearing in the trial of 100 people accused of rioting. FARS NEWS/STR/AFP/Getty Images Iranian cleric Mohammad Ali Abtahi (C), a member of the Assembly of Combatant Clerics, gives testimony at a revolutionary court in Tehran on Aug. 1, 2009 during the first hearing in the trial of 100 …

TEHRAN – Iranian authorities have tightened pressure on their opponents by staging what former president Mohammad Khatami condemned on Sunday as a “show trial” of 100 reformists accused of trying to instigate a “velvet revolution”. Continue Reading →

Muslims and Hindus drop infants in ceremonial baby-dropping ritual

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Forget genies in a bottle, ghost-busters, yoga, crystal balls and cartoons. The New Zealand Herald covers the story of  hundreds of infants being dropped from the rooftop of a mosque in Sholapur, western India about 450 miles south of Mumbai, in the belief that the fall, hopefully ending in the lucky catch of the child in a bed sheet, signals eventual good fortune for the family.

The ritual at the Baba Umer Durga, a Muslim shrine, has been followed for close to 700 years with hundreds of people both Hindu and Muslim taking part. Local television channels showed babies screaming while being shaken before being dropped while parents and other believers stood aground holding open bed sheets. With high child mortality rates, particularly in India’s rural areas, people view the ritual a guarantee of their child’s health.

Child welfare advocates continue to express outrage at the event. ” This shows the complete failure of the local administration to prevent this practice and to create awareness about children’s health” New Delhi civil right’s activist Ranjana Kumari said, adding ” it may be a reflection of a lack of access to health services leading people to behave in this irrational manner”.

Dishonourable Muslim Mass Murder in Canada; Phyllis Chesler on Kingston murders

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“Mainstream media should be linking Islamic, terrorist jihad and the subordination of women far more closely; the behaviour of some Muslim immigrants in the West may often conform more closely to the culture in which they were raised than to the Western culture in which they now live- especially where women are concerned”.  From the Chesler Chronicles.

Pajamas Media.

July 27th, 2009 8:36 am

Dishonorable Muslim Mass Murder in Canada

An Ongoing Cultural Autopsy

The information is so overwhelming and so awful that even the mainstream media has increasingly been forced to describe the plight of women in Muslim lands. Over the weekend, Nicholas D. Kristof (who has always been good on this) tells the story of a new Pakistani hero: Sixteen-year-old, Assiya Rafiq, who was kidnapped, sold, beaten and raped for a solid year—and then raped again when she went to the police to press charges. She, her supportive parents and siblings now live in hiding as she prepares to prosecute both the gang-members and the police.

Today, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal both have articles about the return of the Taliban to the Swat Valley in Pakistan and about what that means: The increased kidnapping and indoctrination of children into becoming jihadic warriors and the parallel brutalization of women, infidels, and civilians through beheadings, acid attacks, forced, harsh veiling, and bans on women shopping.

Islam Watch has just reported an increase in the caning of women in Bangladesh (a dangerous and crippling punishment). The same article also discusses the typical nightmare of one battered Afghan wife whose husband and in-laws kept trying to kill her—and whose own brothers are now trying to kill her because she dared flee and divorce the human monster. This one particular woman has lost custody of her nine children and lives in hiding with the help of an American charitable NGO. This is a picture of Afghanistan today.

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Which brings me to the Afghan-Canadian family which has just been charged with the mass murder of four of its female members. We in the West had better start factoring in the international and cultural realities that govern the histories and psychologies of immigrants from Muslim countries.

When a story is breaking and I’m on deadline, I try to do the best I can—but sometimes, I get important details, as well as minor details, wrong. And, I do not always draw certain conclusions right away.

For example, the Canadian Kingston police did not describe the cold-blooded murder of three innocent Afghan-Muslim girls (Zainab, Sahar, and Geeti Safi) and one innocent Afghan-Muslim woman (Rona Amir Mohammed) as a “Muslim honor killing.” The Canadian radio announcer did so as did other journalists. The police were very careful, and rightly so, to refrain from explicitly saying this.

National Post photoNational Post photo

However, according to all accounts, the police are on record as saying that they have evidence that the submerged car, in which all four victims were found drowned, had been driven or tampered with by the three Safi family members now under arrest; and that a female relative of Rona’s who lives in France told the media and the police about credible “death threats” that were leveled against Rona, who was Mohammed Safi’s first wife, (a fact that Mohammed did not disclose to the police or to his neighbors). Implied, but not yet clear, were possible death threats against Zainab Safi, the oldest of the three murdered daughters, who was becoming too “western.”

It is my guess that Rona supported the girls in their desire to become “Canadians” and that no love was lost between her and Mohammed’s second wife, Tooba Mohammed Yahya, also charged with her murder. Please understand: This is a wild, intuitive guess on my part, subject to change.

Westerners—perhaps it is only me—often have a problem with the Muslim names. No, it is not because I am a “racist Islamophobe” but rather because everyone seems to be named Mohammed or Mumammed; it becomes quite confusing. In this one case, we have Mohammed Safi, Rona Amir Mohammed, Tooba Mohammed Yahya. Also, the spelling of names (shades of Ellis Island and all our ancestors!) is also subject to change. Thus, this Mohammed’s last name is spelled Safia, or Safii or Safi.

Another mea culpa. Safi and his second wife have seven children altogether. Three are now in state care and one, Hamid Mohammed, (another Mohammed!) is now in police custody.

Here’s a small but important detail that I did not develop. Initially, the family members put on quite a performance. Mohammed Shafi, his second wife, Tooba Mohammed Yahya, and the biological mother of the three murdered girls, went to the police to report that their family members and second car were missing. They wept, appeared distraught, seemed in shock, carried on like mourners. But it all may have been an act.

Now, where else have we seen such behavior? Ah yes: The iconic Mohammed al-Dura’s father was also distraught about his son’s death—presumably at Israeli hands. That death turns out to have been staged by Palestinians. The world was sold a bill of Pallywood goods. Read Philippe Karsenty, Richard Landes, Nidra Poller, and Pierre Rehov on the al-Dura case and on other instances in which Palestinian Muslim propagandists and terrorists have tricked the world media into believing that Israel was the “Nazi” aggressor—all the while diverting attention from Palestinian crimes against their own people, as well as from their considerable aggression towards Israelis, Jews, and Christians.

The entire world also believed that the Israelis committed a “massacre,” a “genocide” in Jenin—when the truth was quite the opposite; to avoid world condemnation, Israel chose to send soldiers in on foot, (24 angels died), to heavily booby-trapped streets and to buildings which hid expert Palestinian snipers dressed as civilians who, in turn, held real Palestinian civilians hostage. Palestinians subsequently spoke to the media on camera weeping about the “genocide,” claiming false injuries at Israeli hands, alleging that Israeli hospitals would not treat them. I wrote about this in my book The New Anti-Semitism. The Current Crisis and What We Must Do About It.

My points: Mainstream media should be linking Islamic, terrorist jihad and the subordination of women far more closely; the behavior of some Muslim immigrants in the West may often conform more closely to the culture in which they were raised than to the western culture in which they now live—especially where women are concerned.

Also of interest: A number of Canadian newspapers from Vancouver and Montreal to Toronto have cited my study on honor killings which appeared in the spring issue of Middle East Quarterly. To a lesser extent than usual, the media also found people who said that this may not be an honor killing (I agree, the case has not yet been proven in a court of law); that dishonorable honor killings are rare and certainly not as epidemic as western-style domestic violence (not true—not all domestic violence ends in femicide); that honor killings have nothing to do with Islam (alright, but if so, why are so many—mainly–Muslims murdering their daughters, sisters, and wives?)

A final point: My piece about the Kingston mass murders/dishonorable killings has drawn yet another Islamist to my site. For those who are interested, take a look. One fellow (maybe it’s a woman, who can tell?) first tried to convert the other commentators to Islam; then dismissed any and all criticism of Islam/Islamism by “unbelievers”; and finally ended by cursing the non-believing Kufar infidels.

Who could make this up?

Who wears the pants in Sudan? Muhammed, of course.

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This coming Tuesday, Sudanese born Lubna Hussein, a former journalist, could receive forty lashes if found guilty of breaching Article 152 of  Sudanese criminal law. The Article prohibits dressing indecently in public. Ms. Hussein and thirteen other women, one as young as fourteen, were all charged under the law for wearing--trousers. Most of the accused pleaded guilty and paid a fine to avoid the brutal punishment, but Hussein standing alone and resolved, has chosen to challenge those willing to impart the radical sharia law that has been imposed upon her. Journalist James Copnall covers Lubna Hussein’s story in The Guardian/Observer, U.K.

” I’m not afraid of being flogged. It doesn’t hurt. But it is insulting” Hussein defiantly states.

She goes on to say, ” Islam does not say whether a woman can wear trousers or not. The clothing I was wearing when the police caught me- I pray in them. I pray to my God in them. And neither does Islam flog women because of what they wear. If any Muslim in the world says Islamic law or sharia law flogs women for their clothes, then let them show me what the Qur’an or Prophet Muhammed said on that issue. There is nothing. It is not about religion. It is about men treating women badly”.

Predictably, the Sudanese embassy in London has tried to avert media and international attention away from Ms. Hussein’s very public case focusing on a landmark ruling involving the Sudanese region of Abyei. Rather unsuccessful in this attempt, and desperate to shift media focus, they have resorted to the predictable accusation of Islamophobia and racism, issued here in an official statement. It reads:

“The floodgates of expert and non-expert comments on Sudan opened suddenly on 29 July in the wake of an indecency and antisocial behaviour case in Khartoum involving journalist Lubna A Hussein,” the statement read. “The case is still ongoing and it wouldn’t be appropriate to comment on it. The real question, which is relevant to the deep-rooted Islamophobic and anti-Arab prejudice, is th selective spotlight on Ms Lubna Ahmed Hussein and determined neglect of Abyei dispute’s result for eight long days.”

With all due respect to Ms. Hussein, I do not agree with her stance that this indecency/antisocial behaviour law has nothing to do with religion. Of course it does, at least by way of those who on insist that sharia has legal legitimacy through divine authority. I do agree with her though, that at this basis, it is a conduit for absolute misogyny and gender apartheid. One thing we must all agree upon is that her sheer defiance in the face of such brutality is a sign of a deep respect for herself, of her bravery and her willingness to help bring human dignity to all Muslim women.

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Lubna Hussein: ‘I’m not afraid of being flogged. It doesn’t hurt. But it is insulting’

Lubna Hussein could receive 40 lashes if found guilty on Tuesday of being indecently dressed – by wearing trousers. In her first major interview, she tells James Copnall in Khartoum why she is determined to fight on, whatever danger she faces.

Lubna HusseinLubna Hussein pictured in the Khartoum cafe where she was arrested. Photograph: Observer

Sitting in the restaurant where her ordeal began, Lubna Hussein looks at the offending item of clothing that caused all the trouble and laughs softly. “In Sudan, women who wear trousers must be flogged!” she says, her eyes widening at the thought. The former journalist faces up to 40 lashes and an unlimited fine if she is convicted of breaching Article 152 of Sudanese criminal law, which prohibits dressing indecently in public.

What exactly constitutes “indecent” is not clear. Last month Lubna was among a crowd listening to an Egyptian singer in a restaurant in a swish area of Khartoum when policemen surged in. They ordered Lubna and other women to stand up to check what they were wearing, and arrested all those who had trousers on. Lubna, who was wearing loose green slacks and a floral headscarf, was taken to the police station.

“There were 13 of us, and the only thing we had in common was that we were wearing trousers,” Lubna says. “Ten of the 13 women said they were guilty, and they got 10 lashes and a fine of 250 Sudanese pounds (about £65). One girl was only 13 or 14. She was so scared she urinated on herself.”

Lubna asked for a lawyer, so her case was delayed. Despite the risks, she is determined that her trial should go ahead. Before her initial hearing last Wednesday, she had 500 invitation cards printed, and sent out emails with the subject line: “Sudanese journalist Lubna invites you again to her flogging tomorrow.”

The court was flooded with women’s rights activists, politicians, diplomats and journalists, as well as well-wishers. During the hearing, Lubna announced that she would resign from her job as a public information officer with the United Nations, which would have provided her with immunity, to fight the case. The judge agreed, and adjourned the trial until Tuesday.

Lubna says she has no fear of the punishment she might face. “Afraid of what? No, I am not afraid, really,” she insists. “I think that flogging does not hurt, but it is an insult. Not for me, but for women, for human beings, and also for the government of Sudan. How can you tell the world that the government flogs the people? How can you do that?”

She is determined to face prosecution in order to change the law. “It is not for me. It is my chance to defend the women of Sudan. Women are often arrested and flogged because of what they wear. This has been happening for 20 years. Afterwards some of them don’t continue at high school or university, sometimes they don’t return to their family, and sometimes if the girls have a future husband, perhaps the relationship comes to an end.”

Lubna, a widow in her 30s, says women have faced similar punishments, mainly in silence, ever since President Omar el-Bashir seized power in 1989. For much of the time since then, Sudan has been at loggerheads with the west. It provided shelter for Osama bin Laden in the 1990s, and is still on an American list of countries that sponsor terrorism, although a senior US official said recently that there was no justification for this.

But Lubna says her concerns are not political. Her frustration stems from what she believes is an erroneous interpretation of her religion.

“Islam does not say whether a woman can wear trousers or not. The clothes I was wearing when the police caught me – I pray in them. I pray to my God in them. And neither does Islam flog women because of what they wear. If any Muslim in the world says Islamic law or sharia law flogs women for their clothes, let them show me what the Qur’an or Prophet Muhammad said on that issue. There is nothing. It is not about religion, it is about men treating women badly.”

Since news of the case broke, Lubna has been celebrated in the western press. She is bemused by the thought of being seen as a heroine, and even more by the idea – suggested by some British newspapers – that she was targeted because she is a Christian. “I am a Muslim, and a good Muslim,” she says.

In response to the articles about her case, the Sudanese embassy in London pointed out there had been next to no coverage of a recent landmark arbitration ruling on the region of Abyei, which is contested by the north and the south following two decades of civil war. Despite fears that it might spark renewed conflict, both sides announced they would respect the ruling.

“The floodgates of expert and non-expert comments on Sudan opened suddenly on 29 July in the wake of an indecency and antisocial behaviour case in Khartoum involving journalist Lubna A Hussein,” the statement read. “The case is still ongoing and it wouldn’t be appropriate to comment on it. The real question, which is relevant to the deep-rooted Islamophobic and anti-Arab prejudice, is th selective spotlight on Ms Lubna Ahmed Hussein and determined neglect of Abyei dispute’s result for eight long days.”

Sitting in the Khartoum restaurant as the fierce late-afternoon sun intrudes through the windows, Lubna dismisses the notion that western praise might be a drawback in a country like Sudan. “In Sudan, we like the west,” she exclaims, apparently agitated by the idea that people might not realise this. “For many Sudanese, our dream is to go to the west.” But the government doesn’t always give that impression. “The government thinks differently to the people. The government hopes to be friends with the west, but sometimes they try to look tough, that’s all.”

Nevertheless, she is worried that the foreign attention on her case could lead to further cultural misunderstandings. “The west really doesn’t understand Islam,” she says. “Because as Muslims we know that, if the police catch girls and arrest and flog them, we know this is not Islam. But when the government of Bashir does that, the west says: ‘Oh, that is Islam.’ It presents a bad face of Islam.”

Since her initial hearing, Lubna has been bombarded with messages and phone calls from all over the world. Her family has been supportive, she says, perhaps in part because they are used to it: she was first arrested 15 years ago as a campaigning university student, and has been called in by the police on many subsequent occasions, often after writing satirical articles for the newspaper her husband set up, Sahafa

But one phone call from within the country touched her most. “I talked to my colleagues in the court, the 10 who have already been flogged. At the beginning they were very sad, and one of them was in a bad psychological state. But when she saw me on TV and in the newspaper, she called me to say that this was good. In the beginning, her neighbours and her family didn’t believe she was flogged just for the clothes she was wearing. So she called me to say thank you.”

The issue is rapidly becoming politicised. The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, which represents the mainly non-Muslim south in a coalition government, has called for the law to be changed. Under a 2005 peace deal, sharia law is not supposed to apply to non-Muslims, and not the least controversial among Lubna’s statements is that several of the 10 women she says were flogged were non-Muslims.

But, for Lubna, the heart of the case goes beyond the north-south divide and its ramifications. She says nothing in Islam justifies flogging a woman for wearing trousers. “I am not a hero, I just don’t have a choice,” she says, fiddling with her pale gold headscarf.

When she spoke to the Observer, Lubna was wearing trousers again, this time blue jeans. Will her experience change the way she dresses? “I have trousers, I have dresses, I have traditional Sudanese clothes – I wear what I like. I won’t change.”

And what will happen if the judge decides, as is still possible, that she was indecently dressed, and sentences her to 40 lashes?

“I will take my case to the upper court, even to the constitutional court,” she insists, measuring her words. “And if they find me guilty, I am ready to receive not only 40 lashes, I am ready for 40,000 lashes. If all women must be flogged for what they wear, I am ready to be flogged 40,000 times.”

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Father chains daughter to ‘mend’ her ways

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Wow, those crazy kids. In some parts of the world, mainly those with a western flair, parents and children often settle disputes through reasonable conversation–you know, questions, answers, the odd crying  jag followed by a slammed bedroom door. If things get particularly rough, maybe a good old fashioned grounding or the confiscation of a cell phone if said parent sees fit.  Apparently parenting  in Hyderabad, India has a slightly different approach.

(From The Religion of Peace).

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Hyderabad: A 17-year-old girl was chained by her stepfather to a TV stand for more than a week as her mother was fighting sickness.

Henna limped into a Hyderabd police station on Monday night, chained to a TV stand. Her stepfather Mohammed Akbar allegedly tied her with iron chains for more than a week, while her mother battled sickness.

Repeated pleas by Henna’s mother, Begum, went unheard, after which she decided to approach the city police. The girl said her stepfather beat and verbally abused her almost daily.

“My mother used to take an injection to sleep after which I used to be scared so I tried to run away,” said Henna.

The step father though claims it was only to mend Henna’s ways. The police have now registered a case of illegal confinement against Akbar and are questioning him.

“He used all of his criminal force to control the girl, so she resisted it,” said Sub-Inspector Nagendra Rao.

While the police has rescued the girl for now, the case throws light on the inhuman punishments still being meted out in by-lanes of Hyderabad.

Lawyer for Mohammed Shafia challenges police to prove polygamy

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The lawyer representing Mohammed Shafia has challenged the police to either prove Shafia was in a polygamous marriage and charge him with a Canadian Criminal Code offense or drop the allegation. Shafia, his wife Yahya and their son Hamed Shafia have each been charged with four counts of first degree murder and four counts each of conspiracy to commit murder in the deaths of Rona Muhammed and three of Shafia and Yahyas daughters in the Kingston Locks murders. Both Shafia and his wife Yahya contend that one of the deceased, Rona Muhammed was a cousin or an aunt??- a claim that Muhammed’s relatives in Europe say is totally false. According to her relatives, Shafia married Muhammed thirty years ago in Afghanistan only to later marry Yahya, as Muhammed was unable to have children. Two marriages, two wives, countless lies and four dead.

“Polygamy is a criminal offense in Canada. Why don’t they charge him. If they don’t have proof, they should stop talking about it” says lawyer Waice Ferdoussi.

I agree with him–Shafia should be additionally charged with polygamy and prosecuted for it. Likewise, I suspect that proof will be easy enough to obtain and, no shortage of public discussion will follow. I’m hoping that the polygamy aspect is brought to the forefront in this case so Canadians can suss-out those Islamists in the sharia business of securing multiple wives for horny Muslim men and admonish yet another sick practice in addition to the twisted tradition of  honour killings– why not try to kill two birds with one stone?, so to speak.  But as this strange case becomes more bizarre with each passing day, I would suspect at present Kingston police have their hands full. Nevertheless, Shafia entered Canada from Dubai two years ago with a sizable chunk of  cultural Afghanistan in his coin lined pockets and most probably was well aware that polygamy is a criminal offence in Canada. Could I be so bold as to  speculate that perhaps he was counseled of this fact by Islamists well versed in sharia on how to lie to Canadian authorities before he even set foot on Canadian soil?

Last year The Star published a story detailing Toronto’s secret world of polygamy and it’s devastating effects faced by the women who find themselves sharing their husbands with multiple wives. I believe that much of sharia is firmly rooted in feminine sexual obsession, and polygamy is just one more manifestation of this perversion where women are abused and treated little better than a dog. Take Islamist Imam Ali Hindy for example. Besides hamming it up with Canada’s First Family of Terrorism the Khadr’s, he openly officiates polygamous marriages in the greater Toronto area. Boasting an Islamist agenda, he brands sharia as superior, openly thwarting Canadian law. His secret to the success of polygamy in Canada lies within his advice to criminal and/or would-be criminal husbands:  hide subsequent wives from the first one, lie, cheat and go for the maximum booty that Allah has granted you. Here’s Hindy at his best:

” This is our religion and nobody can force us to do anything against our religion. If the laws of the country conflict with Islamic law (sharia), if one goes against the other, then I am going to follow Islamic law, simple as that.”

As Barbara Kay so simply puts it in her column; ‘what Ali Hindy did is a crime. Prosecute him. Put him in prison. Then deport him. And good riddance’. I hope for the same for the Shafia trio if found guilty of these gutless, shameful honour murders. Aunt, cousin, wife, baker or candle-stick maker, whatever. Four innocent women lost their lives at the hands of people who share Hindy’s sentiment that sharia law takes precedence over Canadian law. Wrong country folks.