Category Archives: Irrational religious authority

Father, brother threaten Harry Potter star’s life over Hindu boyfriend

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Thanks to regular commenter OxAO for tipping us to this story.

Related: ‘Harry Potter’ Star in Family Feud Over Hindu Beau.

From The New York Post

Family of ‘Harry Potter’ actress charged with threatening to kill her over boyfriend

Muslim fury over beau

By ANDY SOLTIS

Last Updated: 6:37 AM, July 3, 2010

The strict Muslim father and brother of “Harry Potter” actress Afshan Azad have been charged with threatening to kill her because she has a boyfriend.

Azad, 22, fled the suburban English home she shared with her father, Abdul, 54, mother, Nilofar, and three brothers after the bizarre incident on May 21, authorities said.

A spokesman for prosecutors said her brother Ashraf, 28, physically attacked her and both he and their father threatened to kill her because of her relationship with an unidentified Hindu man.

They confronted her in her bedroom and left her “badly bruised” when she refused to stop seeing the man, the Daily Express said.

Afshan, who appeared in four Potter movies is believed to have taken refuge at the London home of friends.

Both of the accused men appeared in Manchester Magistrates’ Court and were ordered not to travel to London while the case was adjourned until July 12. Their bail conditions also required them to observe a curfew of 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. and not to contact an unnamed man, believed to be the boyfriend.

No other details of the incident were disclosed. But Ashraf told the Daily Telegraph that the family will suffer as a result of the scandal.

“We are going to get trouble from the community now,” he said. “It is bad news for our safety, her safety.”

“Her career could be ruined. When she goes to a premiere or something, they are going to ask her about this, not the film,” he added.

“My younger brother is going to get harassed at college,” Ashraf said. “All our family is going to be harassed by the community because of this.”

Afshan, who had never acted before, was a student in Manchester in 2005 when she auditioned as a “laugh” for the film “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.” She won the role of Padma Patil, one of Harry’s witch classmates and later his girlfriend.

She appeared again as Padma, the twin of Parvati Patil, who is played by 22-year-old Shefali Chodhury, in three more films and will appear in the final installment, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows,” next year.

The arrests were the latest misfortune for a Potter cast member. In 2008, Rob Knox, who played Marcus Belby in “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” was stabbed to death when he tried to break up a fight involving his 17-year-old brother.

Lashes and stonings abound in Iran as it slams Canada for human rights abuse

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From PressTV, DailyMail U.K.

Iran has described the arrests of protesters at the recent G20 summit in Toronto as an inhuman act and has warned against the ” new and dangerous” approach adopted by Canada toward the civil rights of it’s citizens. Meanwhile, the country with the highest execution rate in the world is set to stone a woman to death for adultery.

‘Help us save our mother’: Pleas from the children of ‘adulterous’ Iranian woman who faces death by stoning

By Michael Theodoulou
Last updated at 4:12 AM on 2nd July 2010

An Iranian woman faces death by stoning after being convicted of adultery.

Amnesty International yesterday called on the Iranian authorities to halt the imminent execution of mother-of-two Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani and the hanging of another woman said to be a political activist.

Ashtiani was convicted of having an ‘illicit relationship’ with two men in May 2006 and received 99 lashes as her sentence.
Despite this, she has also been convicted of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning.

The 43-year-old has retracted a ‘confession’ she said was made under duress.

Appealing for help to the international community, her daughter, Farideh, 16, and son, Sajad, 20, said yesterday: ‘Please help end this nightmare and do not let it turn into a reality. Help us save our mother.’

Under Iran’s Islamic penal code, adultery is punishable by stoning to death or flogging, while hanging is the penalty for murder and other crimes such as drug trafficking.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani faces death by stoning after being convicted of adultery Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani faces death by stoning after being convicted of adultery

Stoning sentences were widely carried out after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, but have been rare in recent years.

Men killed in this way are buried to the waist, while women are buried deeper, to stop the stones hitting their breasts.

If a prisoner manages to pull free during a stoning, he or she is acquitted or jailed, but is not executed. It is easier for a man to drag himself free because he is not buried so deeply.

In December 2008 a man convicted of adultery escaped death by stoning by dragging himself out of the pit he had been buried in for the punishment.

But two other alleged male adulterers were killed by the barbaric method in the same incident, which took place in the north-eastern city of Mashhad.

Iranian activists against stoning say it is not prescribed in the Koran.

Iran has the highest execution rate in the world.

Amnesty International has recorded 126 executions between January and June – among them five political prisoners.

Two very different parties celebrated for Canada’s birthday.

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Happy Canada Day!

http://westnoble.k12.in.us/hs/website/_notes/CanadianFlag.jpg

So while millions of Canadians will celebrate Canada’s 143rd birthday, a celebration recognizing it’s  history, values and traditions, 10,000 Muslims will flock to the “Journey of Peace Conference” in Toronto to celebrate misogyny, homophobia and jihad. Of course ‘ace’ speaker Dr.Zakir Naik’s ban from entering the country has many upset, claiming it a ‘slap in the face for Canadian values’. The web site of the Journey of Peace Conference says:

” The conference will go on as planned and Dr. Zakir Naik will be joining us via live video conferencing along with all the other speakers already scheduled. Join us this Canada Day weekend for a journey towards understanding our Divine Manual: The Holy Qur’an.”

The only slap in the face here is that so many would celebrate anti-Canadian values, perfectly timed for Canada Day weekend.

‘Hatemonger’ barred by Ottawa to speak via video link

Dr Zakir Naik gives a comprehensive answer regarding the Beating of Wife in Islam in accordance to Holy Qur'an and Sahih Hadith. This question was posted in the program 'Dare to Ask' of Peace TV.

YouTube

Dr Zakir Naik gives a comprehensive answer regarding the Beating of Wife in Islam in accordance to Holy Qur’an and Sahih Hadith. This question was posted in the program ‘Dare to Ask’ of Peace TV.

Kathryn Blaze Carlson, National Post · Tuesday, Jun. 29, 2010

An Indian Muslim televangelist recently banned from Canada for his inflammatory statements about Jews, gays, and the West, will still headline a massive Islamic conference in Toronto this weekend, addressing upwards of 10,000 attendees via video satellite.

The Journey of Faith Conference — billed as North America’s largest Islamic conference, and featuring personalities such as Abdur Raheem Green, who has advocated “fighting jihad” and Sheikh Hussein Yee, who once said Jews are the extremists of the world — will “go on as planned” — despite Dr. Zakir Naik’s exclusion from Canada, according to the event website.

“The organizers of the 3rd Annual Journey of Faith conference, regret to announce that Dr. Zakir Naik will be unable to attend this year’s conference due to the uncertainty of his admission to Canada,” the event homepage says. “The conference will go on as planned and Dr. Zakir Naik will be joining us via live video conferencing along with all the other speakers already scheduled.”

The National Post first reported last week that Dr. Naik, president of the Mumbai-based Islamic Research Foundation, has been denied a visa to enter Canada because of past comments such as “every Muslim should be a terrorist,” Jews are “our staunchest enemy,” and “If [Osama bin Laden] is fighting the enemies of Islam, I am for him.”

The 44-year-old medical doctor has also said that a man is within his right to beat his wife “lightly,” though in a July 2009 YouTube video he cautioned against hitting her on the face or leaving a mark.

Dr. Naik will join others who have been banned from Canada but who, through the means of technology, still manage to address large audiences here. British anti-war MP George Galloway, for example, was banned from delivering a speech in Canada last year because of his support of Gaza’s Hamas government, but nonetheless delivered a high-profile speech to hundreds of supporters in a downtown Toronto church via live-feed.

Bernie Farber, CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress, said Dr. Naik’s upcoming virtual appearance at the Journey of Faith Conference is a slap in the face to Canadian values.

“Given that the Canadian government has sent a strong message that this person is unwelcome in this country, it would have been appropriate for the organizers to keep him from speaking at the conference — period,” Mr. Farber said. “If this is the way they want to operate, then I think that sends a very clear message.”

Dr. Naik, who was also recently banned from entering the UK and whose 16-year-old son is still slated to speak at the conference, did not respond to requests for an interview yesterday.

Conference chairman Imam Saed Rageah — whose Toronto mosque, the Abu Huraira Centre, made headlines last fall after a group of young worshippers vanished and were feared to have joined a Somali militant group — also declined to comment yesterday.

Meantime, Dr. Naik’s supporters were vocal, flocking to the Journey of Faith Conference Facebook page, which has 2,245 fans, to voice their disappointment over the organizers’ June 24 announcement that Dr. Naik will not set foot on the conference stage.

Another supporter was more pronounced in her indignation: “Allah will never let his religion die, it’s just another test. If we produce more people like Dr Zakir naik and spread Islam. Nothing and no power in this world is stronger than Allah.”

Tarek Fatah, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, said that while Dr. Naik has a right to speak via satellite, the government’s decision to ban him from Canada “highlights the fact that this man is a hatemonger.”

“Now it is up to those who attend this event to justify why they are going to a conference where a misogynist, homophobic, Jew-hater will be speaking,” Mr. Fatah said. “That’s the burden these 10,000 young Muslim men and women will have to carry.”

According to a second Journey of Faith Conference website — posted under the banner of Peace TV, which was founded by Dr. Naik and is the event’s main media partner — this weekend’s exhibition at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre will touch on ‘Women in Islam,’ including the “status of women in accordance with the Qur’an,” and the issue of “What non-Muslim personalities say about Islam and Prophet Muhammad.”

Dr. Naik — who has spoken several times at the annual Reviving the Islamic Spirit convention in Toronto — has garnered headlines in Canada in the past. In 2006, the National Post reported that one of the Toronto 18 terrorist suspects had urged Muslim youth to seek out the televangelist’s teachings.

“I own like 5 of his video cassettes,” the suspect told his online friends in November, 2003.

However, Mr. Fatah said Canadians should not expect to hear anything “nasty” from Dr. Naik this time around, because he knows his words will be scrutinized.

“Expect a very lovely speech about brotherhood and amity,” Mr. Fatah said. “He will want to prove that the ban on his entry into this country was wrong.”

Citizenship and Immigration Canada declined to comment yesterday, citing the Privacy Act.

National Post

Son of hate preacher Abu Hamza jailed for attacking police at London demonstration

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From UK Daily Mail:

By Mail Online Reporter
Last updated at 4:03 PM on 30th June 2010

Yasser KamelJailed: Yasser Kamel, pictured arriving at court, threw missiles at police officers during violent protests outside the Israeli embassy

The student son of radical cleric Abu Hamza was today jailed for a year after confessing to throwing missiles at police officers during violent protests outside the Israeli embassy.

Yasser Kamel, 20, disguised his face with a scarf and used a stolen police riot shield for protection during the ‘peak time of violence’ at the demonstration against Gaza sanctions.

Kamel was caught on camera throwing four missiles at police during a 45-minute period he spent ‘at the front-line’ as hundreds of protesters confronted officers in January 2009.

A total of £50,000 of damage was done to shops and cafes on Kensington High Street during the rioting, Isleworth Crown Court heard.

Most of the money was needed to repair a Starbucks coffee shop which had its entire front window smashed to pieces and which Kamel was later seen to enter. Continue Reading →

Gazanians attack UNRWA summer camp for not being Muslim enough

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H/T Tundra Tabloids

From Israel national News:

Gaza Terrorists Burn Down Second UN Camp, Handcuff Guards

Masked terrorists stormed into a United Nations children’s camp in Gaza early on Monday morning, attacked and handcuffed the camp guards, and set the place on fire. UN workers said the facility sustained heavy damage.

The attack was the second of its kind this summer. In late May terrorists set fire to the United Nation’s’ largest Gaza summer camp and left behind bullets and a note threatening to kill John Ging, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) head in Gaza.

Ging responded to Monday’s attack by calling to “change the circumstances on the ground that are generating such extremism.” He complimented Hamas’ emergency responders for responding quickly to the incident.

Ging made similar remarks following the May attack. At that time, Fatah blamed Hamas for the incident, accusing the Islamic terrorist group of “targeting the education process and the UNRWA curriculum.” Continue Reading →

UN Watch and American Dad

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As usual, UN Watch does a fantastic job speaking truth to power as was intended for that less-than-august body, the UNHRC. However, the HRC has become the power that needs to be exposed for the corrupt despotic body it is and it takes tiny NGO’s like UN Watch to try and show the world its true nature. Below is the newest example of this. However I can’t help but think that pop-culture really could do so much more to de-ligitemetize aberrations like the HRC like American Dad did so well in the clip right below. Enjoy.

And now,something the UNHRC really needs to hear:

Tit for tat: Saudi breast-feeding revolt

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From The National Post

Saudi women threaten breast-feeding revolt

Kelly McParland June 23, 2010 – 9:51 am

Hassan Ammar / AFP / Getty Images

The world’s strangest revolt may soon see Saudi women burning their breast pumps.

The Los Angeles Times ran this story originally, and you’re going to have to read it there, because it’s not possible to summarize in any manner that makes sense, as far as I can see.

But the gist is this: One of those clerics we’re always hearing about has issued a fatwa that urges Saudi women to share their breast milk with foreigners, because it would provide a means to bypass a stricture against the mixing of the sexes. Breastfeeding would create a familial bond, even a symbolic one, thus making the mingling kosh…well, let’s call it acceptable.

I know, I know: “Whaaaa?”

But strange as that is, it’s just the start. The real story is that Saudi women have seized on the fatwa as a way to campaign against a ban that prevents them from driving cars.  According to the Times, “If they’re not granted the right to drive, the women are threatening to breastfeed their drivers to establish a symbolic maternal bond.”

You can’t make this stuff up folks.

National Post

Schools of thought: 26 Darul Ulooms in Britain prepping boys to lead the world to Islam

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From The Daily Mail U.K.

Inside the Muslim Eton: 20 hour days starting at 3.45am with the aim of producing Muslim elite of leaders

By Edna Fernandes
Last updated at 10:53 AM on 20th June 2010

The clock strikes 11am and boys spill out of classrooms into the corridor to move on to their next lesson.

There is no noise and no jostling. Instead they walk in an orderly manner, heads bowed respectfully and eyes downcast to avoid my gaze. The boys, all aged between 13 and 19, are dressed in ankle-length white salwar kameez and white skullcaps.

Their feet are bare. For this is no ordinary school. This is Darul Uloom, a Muslim madrassa or religious school, set in the pretty Kent village of Chislehurst. It is one of 166 Muslim schools in Britain today.

Muslim EtonSchool of thought: Writer Edna Fernandes outside madrassa

Of those, 26 are Darul Ulooms, religious seminaries rooted in the Islamic orthodoxy of sharia. According to an ICM poll, almost half of British Muslims wish to send their children to Muslim-only schools.

‘Our parents represent the cross-section of British Muslim society,’ the mufti – an Islamic scholar – of one leading school in northern England told me. These parents include teachers, doctors and shopkeepers.

Secretive and protective, Darul Uloom schools have been operating in Britain for 25 years. But since 9/11 they have faced closer scrutiny by police who fear they may be academies of radicalism – something the headmasters deny.

Now, for the first time, a Darul Uloom has opened its doors to a British newspaper and allowed The Mail on Sunday exclusive access. Most Britons may have never heard of such schools. But their significance in the Islamic world is paramount and it is shaping young Muslims in Britain today.

Islamic experts regard Darul Uloom as the second most important Islamic academic institution in the world after Cairo’s Al Azhar university. The schools aim to create new leaders of the Islamic world.

In terms of its significance, Darul Uloom is no less than the Eton of Islam. The first Darul Uloom or ‘House of Knowledge’ was set up in Deoband, northern India, in 1866.

‘No iPods or Facebook… we’re here to teach the boys morality’

Nine years after the Indian Mutiny, when Muslims and Hindus lost their first battle for independence against British rulers, a group of Islamic leaders retreated to the Indian village to build a school that would eventually become a global movement in the Muslim world.

A haven of Islamic purity where they could live unpolluted by other faiths. Today Darul Uloom is more than just a school. It is a global school of thought based on Deobandi Sunni Islam.

Its purpose is to see a return to the ways of the Prophet Mohammed, to when Islam was born in the 7th Century AD. Continue Reading →

Something’s rotten in Denmark and it’s not cheese.

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From 9MSN News, courtesy TROP

Anti-Muslim Danish MP faces charges.

The Danish parliament voted on Wednesday to remove a far-right politician’s immunity from prosecution so he can face charges over anti-Muslim comments, parliamentary sources said.

Jesper Langballe, a veteran member of the Danish People’s Party (PPD), a crucial ally of the centre-right government, wrote in a newspaper column published in January that “Muslims kill their daughters (over crimes of honour) and turn a blind eye while they are raped by their uncles”.

The column, which discussed the status of women in Islam and the “Islamisation of Europe”, triggered a political storm and his comments were condemned by Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen.

The Crown Prosecutor decided to pursue Langballe on the grounds that his comments broke anti-racism laws, and sought the lifting of his parliamentary immunity.

The PPD, with the exception of Langballe, abstained from Wednesday’s vote, split between a desire to respect the law and its opposition to the anti-racism provisions, which it says go against freedom of expression.

Langballe himself voted for the lifting of immunity, as he wishes to prove the truth of his comments in court, according to Danish parliamentary television.

The date of the trial has not been set.

Another example of the superior moral values dictated by the Islamic world.

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From R.E.A.L., courtesy TROP

UAE: Court Sentences Teenage Gang Rape Victim to 1 Year in Prison

By R.E.A.L. Organization • on June 17, 2010

A court in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has convicted an 18 year old girl (”LH”) to one year in prison for “consensual sex.”  The UAE court convicted her because she agreed to be alone in the car with a man “YM.”

As previously reported, the teenage girl had previously alleged that she was gang raped by six men.  the UAE “The Nation” newspaper reported that LH had “12 bruises ranging from 1cm to 7 cm long on her upper lip, hands, thighs, knee, and behind her left ear.”  LH indicated that her brother had beaten her, although the beatings happened at different times.

However, after the teenage girl “LH” filed charges of rape, according to the “The Nation” on May 25, “LH” was then charged with the crime of “extramarital sex,” which could have led to a penalty of “lashes and a maximum sentence of life in prison,” with a minimum of three years in prison.  LH then pleaded with the court to allow her to withdraw the rape charges, while one of the accused rapists laughed at her in court.  According to the LA Times, LH appeared before the court “shackled and clothed in an inmate’s uniform of hunter green and a black headscarf” and “she rescinded the allegations ‘to get out of’ jail, Bloomberg Businessweek reported.”

The UAE court had reportedly considered the lesser criminal charge of “deception” against “LH,” but chose to convict of “consensual sex,” with a sentence of  1 year in prison. Continue Reading →

See Spot ??? Iranian cleric issues fatwa against…..dogs.

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From The Toronto Sun

Iran cleric bans dog ownership

By Robin Pomeroy, REUTER

Last Updated: June 19, 2010 5:42am

TEHRAN – A senior Iranian cleric has decreed dogs are “unclean””and should not be kept as pets — a move aimed at discouraging Western-style dog ownership in the Islamic state, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

Dogs are considered “unclean””under Islamic tradition but, while relatively rare in Iran, some people do keep them as pets.

By issuing a fatwa — a religious ruling — Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi has sent a clear message that this trend must stop.

“Friendship with dogs is a blind imitation of the West,” he was quoted as saying in Javan daily. “There are lots of people in the West who love their dogs more than their wives and children.”

http://www.freefoto.com/images/01/07/01_07_1---Pair-of-Dogs_web.jpg

Guard dogs and sheep dogs are considered acceptable under Islamic law but Iranians who carry dogs in their cars or take them to public parks can be stopped by police and fined.

The Koran does not explicitly prohibit contact with dogs, Shirazi said, but Islamic tradition showed it to be so. “We have lots of narrations in Islam that say dogs are unclean.”

The interpretation of religious rules on personal conduct is a constant source of debate and potential conflict in Iran which has been an Islamic republic since a revolution ousted the Western-backed Shah in 1979.

In a television interview last week, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad weighed in on the issue of the Islamic dress code, saying women who fail to cover their hair completely should not be harassed by the police.

Morality police are conducting their annual crackdown and women who reveal strands of hair are liable to be stopped in the streets for failing to respect the dress code, or “hijab”.

Ahmadinejad’s surprisingly liberal view was condemned by fellow hardliner politicians and senior clerics “I wish he had not said those words about the hijab,” Grand Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati told the faithful during the week’s Friday prayers, in a rare criticism of the president.

“We are grappling with many problems including economic and political ones but the issues of morality and ethical security are among the important issues that cannot be ignored,” he said.

Tehran University has set up a thinktank “to investigate the problems related to hijab”, the representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to the university announced on Monday.

One more case of the pot calling the tea towel black.

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From The Calgary Herald

Worst human rights offenders condemn West

By Licia Corbella, Calgary Herald June 19, 2010 4:03 AM

“Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.” — Adolf Hitler.

In what can only be described as Orwellian double-speak, the Organization of the Islamic Conference told the United Nations Human Rights Council — made up of many of the world’s worst human rights violators — that Muslims in western democracies face unbearable racism and discrimination, and demanded that the UN do something about it.

“People of Arab origin face new forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance and experience discrimination and marginalization,” an Egyptian delegate said on Wednesday.

Pakistan, speaking for the 57-nation OIC, tabled a resolution instructing the council’s special investigator into religious freedom to look into such racism, “especially in western societies” to “work closely with mass media organizations to ensure that they create and promote an atmosphere of respect and tolerance for religious and cultural diversity.”

Mahfooz Kanwar, a professor emeritus at Mount Royal University and author, said these resolutions — which are expected to pass owing to the over-abundance of “Islamist and other dictatorial states” that sit on the oxymoronically named UN Human Rights Council — would be funny for their sheer audacity and hypocrisy if they were not so potentially harmful and disturbing. Continue Reading →

Islamic countries press UN to ‘root out’ Islamophobia in Western nations

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From The National Post

Muslim states push for UN action on ‘Islamophobia’

A woman demonstrates outside the Saudi government-funded Islamic Saudi Academy on Jun. 17, 2008 in Alexandria, Virginia.

Win McNamee/Getty Images

A woman demonstrates outside the Saudi government-funded Islamic Saudi Academy on Jun. 17, 2008 in Alexandria, Virginia.

Steven Edwards, Canwest News Service · Wednesday, Jun. 16, 2010

UNITED NATIONS — Muslim governments on Wednesday pressed the United Nations to step up investigations of Western countries to root out what they call “Islamophobia” — defined by them as discrimination against people of the Muslim faith.

Delegates from Islamic countries, such as Egypt, Iran and Pakistan, drafted new guidelines for the UN’s freedom-of-religion investigator that say Western diplomats aim to shield Islam from commentary Muslims might deem derogatory.

During a debate in front of the UN Human Rights Council, they also charged that the UN’s anti-racism investigator — in a report he tabled about his activities — had not focused enough on what they called the rising incidence of discrimination against Muslims in Western countries.

According to the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the anti-racism investigator should focus on what it called “contemporary” racism, “particularly in Western societies.”

The group said Islamophobia was growing “particularly in the countries of the North.”

Egypt and Libya also charged that Muslims were targets of racism and discrimination in Western countries.

“People of foreign descent, such as Africans, Arabs, Muslims and Asians, do face derogatory stereotyping and stigmatization in an environment of victimization and xenophobia and, at times, violence,” said Ahmed Ihab Gamaleldin, the Egyptian delegate.

From Ottawa, Canada called for a “constructive approach” to ensuring the right of freedom of religion.

But the OIC is likely to see their new guidelines for the freedom-of-religion investigator approved, since Muslim countries and allies — such as Cuba, Russia and China — form a voting bloc in the Geneva-based body that overshadows that of the Western democracies.

Once passed, the new mandate is likely to see Western countries come under increased UN pressure to prevent criticism of Islam, even if that means overriding traditional freedom-of-speech protections.

One provision calls on the UN investigator to “work closely with mass media organizations to ensure that they create and promote an atmosphere of respect and tolerance for religious and cultural diversity,” according to the draft that Pakistan tabled on behalf of the OIC.

Many human-rights groups have argued that Islamic countries seek enhanced “protections” against religious discrimination in order to justify crackdowns in their own countries against apostates and others deemed to be working against the Islam religion.

“UN Watch is alarmed by the Islamic bloc’s attempt to turn an international shield for religious freedom into a sword for religious-motivated state censorship,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based watchdog group. “It’s part of a larger campaign to invert the real danger of Islamist extremism into an imagined narrative of Western victimization of Islam and its adherents.”

Veteran UN-accredited activist David Littman highlighted that the focus on the West appeared out of place when the council has “yet to address” a charge made in the chamber last week by Syria that Israeli children are taught to sing about drinking the blood off Arabs.

The claim recalls an ancient blood libel claiming that Jews use human blood in their religious and other rituals.

Related reading: ” Eight years after 9/11, where’s the Islamophobia” by Barbara Kay

Bacon Slices expelled from debit card

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Here is a machine translation from http://epn.dk/brancher/finans/bank/article2095054.ece

It would seem that in the order of forbidden images on a VISA card, having bacon is right after a naked girlfriend. I wonder if I could put a big ham roast on mine.