Author Archives: Oracle

Pakistani politician forced 20 Hindu girls to convert to Islam and marry Muslim men

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Member of the National Assembly (MNA) Mian Mitto has forced 20 Hindu girls in in the province of Sindh to convert to Islam and marry Muslim men, according to the Pakistan Sikh Youth Council (PSYC).

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday PSYC chairman Radesh Singh Tony alleged that “More than 80 Hindu families have already migrated to India” because of the actions of MNA Mitto, “who has tried to compel many Hindu girls to covert them to Islam.”

Forced conversions of Hindu girls occur… read more.

Madrasah involved in kidnap wants to “target” 2,000 Hindu girls to Islam every year

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From People of Shambhala.
Hindu women in Pakistan are being pressured into converting to Islam, says AsiaNews.it. The conversions are forced through “violence and coercion. [And] Looming in the background is the blasphemy law, seen by many as the most serious obstacle to social and cultural equality.”

Forced conversions of Hindu girls and women are nothing new, although they have been getting more attention lately due to the high profile abduction of Rinkle Kumari and the high profile of some of those involved in the crime. Rinkle, a 17-year-old Hindu girl, was violently attacked and kidnapped by a mob of Muslim men, “with the help of a member of the [local government] National Assembly,” reports the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC). Local “Muslim fundamentalist groups” were also involved. “Following her abduction,” says the AHRC, “she was forced to embrace Islam.”

“Naveed Shah, a member of a famous criminal group of Hassam Kalwarh, along with more than dozen persons abducted Kumari from her house on 23 February,” says the AHRC. “They kidnapped her at gunpoint and took her to… read more.

Kidnappings, forced marriages of Hindu girls draw protests in Pakistan

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From People of Shambhala.
Hindu girls are being kidnapped and forced to marry Muslim men in Pakistan, according to a number of largely Pakistani and Indian news sources. Between 15 and 20 Hindu girls are abducted each month and wedded to Muslim men in the province of Karachi. In the province of Sindh the number is even higher, with between 20 and 25 Hindu girls being kidnapped. Most are reportedly no more than 13 or 14 years old.

Radha “was abducted from Karachi about 13 months ago by a group of young men who offered her ice-cream and a ride in their car,” reports Pakistan Today. “Before she knew what was happening, she was dragged into a larger van, and driven to an area she did not know.” She was then forced to sign a number of legal forms and to convert to Islam in front of a Muslim cleric. After that she was… read more.

First non-Islamist Syrian opposition bloc formed

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From People of Shambhala.
“If somebody says ‘I am the only representative of the Syrian people’ they would be no different from al-Assad’s Baath Party,” says Dr. Ommar Qurabi, the leader of a new dissident bloc in Syria. Qurabi, who left Syria last April, is a former Chairman of the National Organization of Human Rights in Syria.

The new bloc, called the “National Change Movement,” is being billed as an alternative to Syrian National Council, or SNC. “Like many other dissidents, I am not in the SNC,” says Qurabi, “SNC is not the only group that represents the opposition.”

According to the Turkish Daily News, Qurabi said his bloc “represented all… read more.

Kalash: White survivalists in Afghanistan?

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From People of Shambhala.
Remember the National Geographic cover of the Afghan woman with pale skin and green eyes? It wasn’t the image that most people had of the peoples of Afghanistan. Razib Khan has been shedding some light on Afghan genes in the science magazine Discover this week. In particular Khan looks at the enigmatic Kalash.

The Kalash, a little-known, largely isolated, and religiously pagan tribe, in Afghanistan claim to be the descendants of Alexander the Great.

Numbering only a few thousand, the Kalash have been pressured by Islamic extremists in Afghanistan to convert to Islam. Female Kalash in particular are targeted for conversion, undermining the small tribal community. Khaliq, a Kalash elder, complained the Guardian that Pakistan had also “treated us like animals, and [the] valley [home of the Kalash] like a zoo.”

But the Kalsh appear to have the… read more.

Islamic fundamentalists attack Ahmadiyya minority

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From People of Shambhala.

A mosque in Cianjur, West Java, was attacked yesterday by about 50 Islamic hardliners, because it was being used by local members of the Ahmadiyya faith for Fridays prayers. Ahmadis regard themselves as Muslims but believe Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (who founded the faith in India during the 19th century) to be the Mahdi or final messenger of Islam.

During the attack the mosque was ransacked, its windows were broken, and its roof was damaged.

The mosque’s caretakers had allegedly been warned not to allow the Ahmadis to use the Arrohim Mosque in Cipeuyeum village. Indonesia Ahmadiyah Congregation (JAI) spokesman Firdaus Mubarik also told the Jakarta Post, “The police warned our congregation on Thursday not to use the mosque for Friday prayers, which means that they… read more.

Bagladeshi Jamaat-e-Islami activists vandalize Hindu temples

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From People of Shambhala.
Authorities in the city of Chittagong, south Bangladesh, banned public gatherings on Friday after several Hindu temples were ransacked and vandalized by Islamic extremists. Footage of the temples shows broken windows, overturned and smashed furniture, and even statues and paintings of Hindu deities thrown to the ground or broken.

Hindu-owned shops were also vandalized and looted, reportedly by students of a nearby madrassa, who had gathered following an announcement over the PA.

According to Bangladesh’s bdnews24, “Local people claimed religious bigots of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Chhatra Shibir incited the vandalism and arson of the temples from… read more.

British Islamist launches anti-Hindu Shariah4India group

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From People of Shambhala.
Anjem Choudary, a British Islamist who described himself as “in the camp” of Osama bin Laden, has founded Shariah4Hind (India). Choudary has headed several radical Islamist organizations in Britain, including Islam4UK. All of these organizations were proscribed by the UK Government in 2010. However, despite swearing allegiance to Osama bin Laden on CNN, he has been able to continue his propaganda activities with virtual impunity.

Choudary’s new website comes in the wake of a failed coup in Bangladesh, one of India’s neighbors, by members of the radical pan-Islamic party Hizb ut Tahrir, as well as a successful coup in the nearby republic of the Maldives.

On the Shariah4Hind website, the people behind it say that they are calling the region back to the “period under the divine [i.e., Islamic] law […]. This involves a call for all those in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to come out of the darkness of man made law […]” and to sharia.

Another page on the website, entitled “the need for Muslim rule in India,” says that there is broad consensus among Muslim clerics that “it is not permitted for non-Muslims to have… read more.

Muslim hardliners smashes Buddhist statues in national museum

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From People of Shambhala.
On the same day as the Maldives President resigned, after a coup by police, Islamic hardliners burst into the national museum and smashed Buddhist statues.

Police spokesman Ahmed Shiyam told police that “A mob entered the museum yesterday (Tuesday). They smashed many statues. This included some statues of Buddha,” reports Al Arabiya News.

Former President, Mohamed Nasheed, blamed the attack on… read more. 

Does resignation of Maldives President foreshadow Talibanization?

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From People of Shambhala.
The Maldives’ first elected president, Mohamed Nasheed, resigned today after a “coup” by police. Nasheed has been under pressure for some weeks, largely by Islamic hard liners, who have been demonstrating against the Democratic Party Government, and for the implementation of sharia as state law.

The opposition Dhivehi Qaumee Party also accused Nasheed of being under the influence of Jews and Christians, partly because the Transport Ministry recently allowed direct flights to and from Israel.

Early Tuesday morning between several dozen and two hundred police officers refused orders to… read more.

War crimes trial raises specter of mass rape in 1971 Liberation War

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From People of Shambhala.
The 1971 Liberation War between East and West Pakistan saw the Pakistan army commit countless atrocities, mostly against Hindus. Hundreds of thousands of Hindu women were raped.

The war was sparked when East Pakistan seceded, declaring itself the independent nation of Bangladesh.

To call the war brutal would be an understatement. Mass graves were still being discovered decades later.

The ghost of the 1971 war still refuses to disappear. Over the last few months… read more.

Police arrest young Muslim man in acid attack on Hindu girl in Mumbai

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From People of Shambhala.
Railway police in northwest Mumbia arrested a male youth after hew threw acid on a a young woman’s face at a suburban railway station on Tuesday.

“The accused, identified as Pintoo Sheikh, has been arrested by the railway police. He had thrown acid on the victim, identified as Aarti Thakur, at Goregaon railway station yesterday,” an officer at the Borivli Railway Police Station is reported as saying.

The incident occurred just before 7 p.m. on Tuesday when Aarti was talking on her cellphone at the railway station. She was on her way… read more.

Islamists dominate post-Gaddafi Libya, make it unwelcome to Sufis

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From People of Shambhala.

Remember how we ousted Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi so that the Libyan people could be free? Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad Gaddafi’s gone. The man was a bully and a psychopath that terrorized his own people. And Gaddafi funded every oddball political and militant group he could find, including Islamist, neo-fascist, and militant Left-wing.

Like you, probably, I was more than a little concerned by the appearance of al-Qaeda-types among the anti-Gaddafi militias. And I was pretty much certain that it would lead to a very troubled post-Gaddafi Libya when the Western governments — who were actively engaged in ousting the dictator — chose to ignore the emergence of the armed Islamist ranks.

Not everyone was convinced, of course. Stephen Schwartz saw Sufism as the moral and ethical foundation of the revolution. “Libya stands as one of the distinguished centers of a Sufism opposed both to unquestioning acceptance of Islamic law and to scriptural absolutism,” said Schwarts. This Islam, he said, was “dedicated to freedom and progress.”

With Gaddafi gone, Schwartz believed, it would “be necessary to analyze whether and how Libya’s Sufi past can positively influence its future.”

Not a bad plan, but it hasn’t exactly panned out. In the new Libya, Islamists have… read more.

The Middle East, women, sex, and the awful double standard

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From People of Shambhala.
What to conclude when an Egyptian newspaper is condemned for reporting gang rapes and sexual assaults on women in Tahrir Square? Or that a self-appointed “morality police” now patrols Egypt’s streets with rods to beat any woman dressed in normal, causal clothes? Should we conclude that, in the Middle East, it is acceptable for men to rape, but not okay for a woman to show the least bit of skin?

A few days ago Egyptian newspaper Bikya Masr reported that an Arab-American woman had been “stripped of her pants, assaulted and beaten by a mob of men in the center of the square.”

“Surprisingly,” says Bikya MAsr, “this led to a… read more.

Mob rape of foreign woman exposes scale of sexual violence in Egypt

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From People of Shambhala.
Tahrir Square became synonymous with Egypt’s pro-democracy revolution and the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.

Now, however, it is acquiring an altogether more sinister and shameful reputation as a place where women are cannot visit without being sexually harassed or worse.

On Wednesday evening a foreign woman was reportedly attacked by several dozen men. Some of the men raped her.

Her husband was unable to protect her from the mob, and a number of other people that came to her aid were also… read more.