Category Archives: Irrational religious authority

Bomb-sniffing dogs on Vancouver transit worry Muslim leader

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I have an idea! Don’t wear a bomb on to a subway. See that’s the thing. Muslims are objecting to bomb-sniffing dogs cause Muslims have the same pathological hatred for dogs as they do for anything good in this world. But the solution for them is so easy. Don’t wear a bomb or any explosives and no dog will slobber all over you. Then, there is the annoying use of the term ‘have to’ as if people choosing to obey seventh century arbitrary religious edicts actually constitute something one has to do, in a manner that requires others to accommodate them. A person with a heart condition has to take medication or they will die. Tiger Woods has to by an entire orchid farm or greenhouse if he wants to keep his marriage intact. But a Muslim doesn’t HAVE to wash after he is near a dog. He just feels he should or it effects the degree to which his prayers are received, by someone for whom there is no evidence ever existed.

Eeyore for Vlad

From the CBC by way of Gates of Vienna:

Passengers stepping off the SkyTrain could soon be greeted by explosive-sniffing dog patrols.Passengers stepping off the SkyTrain could soon be greeted by explosive-sniffing dog patrols. (Mike Laanela/CBC)Specially trained bomb-sniffing dogs might soon be patrolling Metro Vancouver’s buses and SkyTrains just in time for the Olympics, but that has some Muslims concerned.

The Metro Vancouver Transit Police Service is in the process of selecting the handlers and dogs that will be part of the two-year pilot project, said deputy chief George Beattie.

Once the teams are trained, the dogs will work on the entire transit system, including buses, SkyTrains and SeaBus ferries.

But the idea of being sniffed up and down by a slobbery pooch — no matter how well trained — has already raised concerns among some members of Metro Vancouver’s Muslim community.

Some devout Muslims consider dogs to be unclean animals and try to avoid any contact with them. Some Muslim cab drivers in Vancouver have even refused to take guide dogs in their vehicles and will call for a second vehicle to take the fare instead.

Shawket Hassan, the vice-president of the B.C. Muslim Association, says he wants to make sure the dogs will not touch passengers during searches, which could lead to problems, particularly for Muslims heading to a mosque to pray.

“If they touch the body, then there is a probability they will leave some saliva on the clothes,” said Hassan.

‘If I am going to the mosque and pray … and I have this saliva on my body … I have to go and change or clean.’ — Shawket Hassan, vice-president of the B.C. Muslim Association Continue Reading →

Wahhabist modernity: Saudi t.v. hosts ‘break new ground’ by wearing niqabs

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From BBC News

Saudi women enter Wahhabist ‘modernity’ through a ground breaking move to stay in the 7th century.

Saudi TV presenters break new ground by wearing niqab

Two women TV presenters in Saudi Arabia dressed in the Niqab

Female presenters on the Saudi channel Awtan TV
Amani Fikri
BBC Arabic Service

Until recently you would never have seen women presenting television programmes dressed from head to toe in the niqab or burqa. But on the Saudi religious channel Awtan TV it has now become the norm.

Female broadcasters at the station are draped in the all-enveloping dresses, which are usually black and also cover their faces.

The work environment too is very different. Male technical assistants do not enter the studio while the women are presenting.

There are more than 60 religious channels across the Middle East. Some allow women to present programmes without being fully covered or dressed in black.

Others have no women presenters at all.

Relationship

Awtan TV decided to take a unique approach. The station was launched in 2008, and last month it set a precedent by allowing women to present, but only on the condition that they wear the niqab.

We report from the field in the niqab and it does not stop us from doing anything
Ola al-Barqi
Awtan TV presenter

Ola al-Barqi anchors a breakfast show, as well as a quiz show for girls called Mosabqat Banat.

A key element of the programme is the relationship built between presenter, contestants and the audience – something that might be more difficult if the presenter is totally covered up.

“The face is not the only way to build a relationship,” explains Ms Barqi, speaking to BBC Arabic.

“We’re always receiving calls from viewers in various countries encouraging us to keep doing what we do.”

And, as Ms Barqi points out, women are not just confined to the studio at Awtan TV.

“We report from the field in the niqab and it does not stop us from doing anything.”

‘Restrictive’

Wahhabism, the strain of Sunni Islam that is officially practised in Saudi Arabia, is considered one of the religion’s most conservative forms.

Some critics say that Awtan TV is restricting women’s freedom by making it compulsory to wear the niqab if they want to be presenters.

The issue recently returned to prominence when a leading Egyptian cleric, Sheikh Mohammed Tantawi, said he would issue an edict stating that the niqab was a “custom that has nothing to do with Islam”.

The majority of moderate Muslim scholars agree with him.

But Ms Barqi says nobody “forced the niqab” on her and she does not intend to force it on her three daughters, who watch their mother on television and feel proud of her.

Women seamstresses in Saudi Arabia dressed in the Niqab

These seamstresses in Saudi Arabia work in the factory completely veiled

However, the presenter thinks that when the time comes, her girls will want to wear the niqab because that is how they were brought up and it is, she argues, part of Shariah – Islamic law.

Advantages

Ms Barqi says there are other good reasons why she wears the niqab.

It helps her to concentrate more on her work rather than anything else, and what she looks like is irrelevant.

“We don’t introduce ourselves as beautiful women who put on layers of make-up. Our audience is focusing on what we present to them, our ideas and our discourse.”

Ms Barqi believes some people work in the media to become famous. But that is not why she became a presenter.

“We don’t need fame,” she explains.

Muslim scholars urged to practice polygamy

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From APF

Malaysian Islamic scholars urged to be polygamists

AFP – Friday, December 11

Malaysian Islamic scholars urged to be polygamists

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – – The spiritual leader of Malaysia’s Islamic party has urged religious scholars to practice polygamy, saying they could rid the practice of its bad reputation, a report said Thursday.

Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, who leads the Pan-Malaysia Islamic Party (PAS) which is part of the opposition alliance, said that ulamas could be model polygamous husbands.

“Normally, when a man likes a beautiful woman, he will take her as his second wife,” he said according to the New Straits Times.

“But after they have children, he will divorce the woman. This is the bad image that I meant which should be cleaned up,” he said. “Ulama can play an important role in clearing this image.”

Nik Aziz said it was important to project a better image of polygamy, “especially in the era of information and communication technology, so that Islamic practices can be emulated by all communities.”

Muslim men in Malaysia are allowed up to four wives. Activists and women’s groups say polygamy is cruel and has deviated from its original purpose in Islam, which was to protect widows and orphans.

Islam is the official religion of Malaysia, where more than 60 percent of its 27 million people are Muslim Malays. Polygamy is illegal for non-Muslims.

More on Sharia law enforced in Spain

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Just in case you thought sharia law meant settling family disputes in a ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ type way, or some sort of My Big Fat Greek Wedding kind of affiar, here is an ANSAMED report on how a pregnant Muslim women in Spain was ‘arrested’ and sentanced to be stoned to death for infidelity.

By way of TROP

SPAIN: CATALONIA, ISLAMIC MORAL BRIGADES IMPOSE SHARIA LAW**

(by Paola Del Vecchio) (ANSAmed) – MADRID, DECEMBER 8 – The reported capturing of a Muslim women in Reus (Tarragona) and the issuing of a stoning sentence for adultery by religious fanatics are a gauge of a phenomenon that has already appeared in Holland and France, and which is now taking root in Catalonia: the creation of Islamic “moral brigades” by fundamentalists, who claim the role of judges and police officers imposing a strict observance of Sharia, or Islamic law. The theatre of the incursions of these Islamic “moral patrols” are the rural towns where the mosques are controlled by Salafists, a fundamentalist sect of Islam, with a substantial presence in the province of Tarragona. These groups are heavily inspired by the Koran and the rigid regulations applied in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Nigeria. Confirming investigators’ worries are several disturbing episodes reported by police. Specifically, on November 14, nine alleged Islamic extremists were arrested, accused of having captured and sentenced a Northern African woman to death after convicting her of adultery. The investigation, still in the preliminary phases, is classified. However, according to reports in the media, the woman was captured and held for three days in an abandoned factory, and then in the home of the group’s spiritual leader in Reus, where she was tried before an “Islamic tribunal” made up of seven people, who found her guilty of infidelity and sentenced her to death by stoning. The woman, who was pregnant, managed to escape and call the Catalonian police, the Mossos d’Esquadra, for help, and she is currently under their protection. In the meanwhile, the operation against the fundamentalist cell is ongoing. Investigators have warned that the phenomenon of these “brigades”, which could increase, has not only been found in Tarragona, but also in the provinces of Girona and Segarra, where mosques are controlled by Salafites. Many of the victims do not dare report their persecution, and intimidation continues for them. Investigators have confirmed beatings and segregation by their parents or spouses of women who do not wear veils, and the case of a Moroccan teenager who was beaten because he played football with other non-Muslim children. (ANSAmed).

Feminism: what jihadists fear most.

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From The National Post

What jihadists oppose most

Sure, radical Islamists are upset by infidels and the existence of a Jewish state. But their biggest gripe of all? Feminism

George Jonas, National Post Published: Wednesday, December 09, 2009

In an interview made available on the Internet last month ( www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2wvqDfitLY), Dr. Hamid Tawfik, a Cairo-born physician who describes himself as a former jihadist, is asked why he came close to becoming a terrorist. He replies that it was the influence of “a certain [fundamentalist] form of religious teaching” he encountered while at university. “It was not poverty,” he explains. “I came from a wealthy family. It wasn’t lack of education. I was in medical school, my father was an orthopedic surgeon, my mother was a French teacher, so it wasn’t any of this …It was basically a religious form of teaching that instructs us to use violence with non-Muslims or with Muslims who do not conform to our value system.”

Later in the interview, in answer to the question of who is the “enemy” –is it the West, any non-Muslim, the Jews –Dr. Tawfik is unequivocal:

“The West, but in particular, women’s rights. Women’s rights was the first enemy for us.”

He adds that it’s strange feminism should have been the biggest gripe of jihadists, but it was. He is emphatic that this is why, wherever a “radical [Islamist] group” acquires power, the first thing it does is suppress women.

“First thing, before anything else, they tell women not to go out, to wear the hijab …”

If Dr. Tawfik is accurate, as I suspect he is, what lessons can we draw from it?

None, I’m afraid, that we could translate into immediate, practical policies. Since we don’t endow universities just to cut jihadists off at the pass, we won’t stop educating people, or stop trying to make them prosper, just because education and prosperity don’t prevent them from becoming jihadists. By the same token, we won’t exclude women from equal partnership in modern society just to assuage the feelings of Taliban types. Continue Reading →

Islamic law in Socialist Spain. This is critical.

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This is central to the whole issue. So many people still think Islam is some form of Christianity or Judaism. You can bet this machinery exists here today in any nation over 3 or 4 percent Muslims. There are no Jewish or Christian ‘police’ who’s job it is, to beat or kill any members of their own communities who do not conform to the letter of religious law. This is one of the most important articles I have posted in many weeks I think. It speaks to the actual policy and machinery of Islam in the West.

Eeyore for Vlad.

By Martin Barillas on Speroforum and found on the inimitable Sheik Yer Mammi

Sources in Spain’s Ministry of Interior express growing concern over the rise of Islamic law, known as sharia to Muslims, and the increase of Muslim separatism. In Spanish mosques, groups are emerging which promote Islamic judges and policing that have a growing influence over Muslims living in Spain. While this has long been known in the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, and France, it has now been detected in rural areas of Catalonia and in towns such as Tarragona, Gironés and Segarra.

The mosques in question are almost uniformly in the control of Salafist jihadis. Such jihadis have espoused separatism and violent struggle with the West at least since the 1980s.

Muslim clerics in Catalonia, for example, call upon the faithful to not befriend native Catalonians nor belong to Catalonian civic organizations. The imams demand that Muslims buy only “halal” food (e.g. meat slaughtered according to Muslim ritual), and that they avoid banks since these ostensibly violate Muslim abhorrence of usury. Muslim parents are warned to not allow their daughters to use the gymnasiums in the schools nor on any account should they use swimming pools. Muslims are told to remove their daughters from school upon the first appearance of menstruation. Continue Reading →

Best example of Muslim tolerance to date perhaps.

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Jewish bride and her father arrested on Temple Mount for uttering non-Muslim prayer. Found on TROP and from Israel national News this has to be the best example yet in defiance of the multi-culti morons who think Islam is an enriching aspect of some utopian mosaic.
by Hana Levi Julian

4344

(IsraelNN.com) A Jewish bride and her father were arrested on the Temple Mount the day before her wedding, after an Arab policeman claimed he saw the father muttering prayers and the bride nodding her head.

The father and daughter were being taken around the site on Wednesday morning by her brother Eli, a volunteer who conducts regular tours at the Temple Mount, when suddenly they were accosted by the Jerusalem policeman.

“We were in the northern part, and I was showing them the archaeological evidence when suddenly a police officer came over to us, Mahmoud Hativ was his name, and h claimed that my father had muttered prayers. “We tried to argue with him and said it wasn’t true, but he said, ‘You can’t fool me,’ and insisted that my father had prayed,” Eli told Israel National News.

“My sister was just standing there silently, not moving at all. She didn’t say a word. It was her first time at the Mount. Other cops came over, Mahmoud said that she had also been involved, and they decided to arrest them both,” he continued. “He let me go right away, because he couldn’t make any claim against me.” His sister and father were taken to the Kishla police station near the Jaffa Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem.

‘Lack of Will to Exercise Israeli Sovereignty’

“The fact that a father comes to the holiest place of the Jewish people and can be arrested simply for allegedly moving his lips is an outrage,” Eli said.

“The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that the holy sites of all religions have to be protected and respected – that explicitly includes the rights of Jews on the Temple Mount. Jerusalem police continue to ignore that ruling.”

Asked if he believes U.S. pressure on Israel to make concessions to the Palestinian Authority had anything to do with the incident, Eli said, ‘No. It is a result of the lack of will of the Jerusalem police to exercise Israeli sovereignty over the Jewish holy places in Jerusalem, not U.S. pressure on Israel. It is unheard of to arrest someone just for praying in their own religion. In the U.S. that wouldn’t fly. There is no public place in the U.S. where a Jew could not pray. It is unfortunate, and sad.”

The family, which immigrated to Israel from New York in 1996, lives in Beit Shemesh.

‘Police Misled Them to Sign Confession’

The two were held for several hours. At approximately 11:30 a.m., the two were ordered to sign a declaration which they were told said they would promise not to return to the Temple Mount for 15 days.

However, the father, who spoke with Israel National News from the courtyard of the police station while waiting to be questioned by the police commander, said that further examination of the paper showed they had been misinformed. The declaration actually said that they were confessing to have violated a law about disturbing the public order.

It was also made equally clear that if they did not sign the paper, they might not be freed for hours – perhaps not even in time for the young woman to make it to her own wedding.

Officers at Jaffa Gate Station Mocked the Bride

“The police officers talked very improperly to my daughter. She was very upset – in tears – and they ridiculed her. ‘What’s the matter, are you baby?’ they mocked her.”  Her father immediately fired back, “That’s how you talk to someone?”

The father said that the officer in charge threatened to keep them longer in response. “Be careful,” the cop warned. “If you talk to me that way, I can keep you here for a few more hours.”

“So I asked them: ‘How would it be if we arrested a young lady for praying anywhere else in the State of Israel? Or maybe a Muslim woman for praying in Mecca? This is about police enforcement – so enforce the law! And they answered me, ‘It’s a very sensitive issue. This is the law.’ That’s what they answered me,” said the father. “So I shut up, because I wanted to get out of there, and he would have kept us for hours. We signed the paper, and we will deal with it in the court of public opinion.”

The father was not praying although he was, in fact, moving his lips. “They asked me if my daughter was nodding her head. I said I didn’t know – but if she can now be arrested for nodding her head… well, anyway, in the end, that’s what they got her for. Nodding her head. That’s the nature of the public order.”

Honour murders: surge of 60% across Britain

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From The Telegraph U.K.

Police tackle more ‘honour’ cases

Police are tackling more suspicious incidents motivated by so-called ”honour” than ever before, according to new figures released today.

Published: 12:11PM GMT 07 Dec 2009

The Metropolitan Police recorded 256 incidents, of which 132 were criminal offences, in the year 2008-9.

This was a surge of 60% from the 161 incidents recorded in the previous financial year, of which 93 were criminal offences.

The latest figures revealed the upward trend is continuing with 211 incidents reported in the six months until October, of which 129 were offences.

Police define honour violence, including murder, rape and kidnap, as crimes motivated by a desire to protect the honour of a family or community.

Women are the most common victims of honour violence which is linked to some interpretations of cultural and religious beliefs.

But ”non-crimes”, where no offence has been committed, were also recorded, particularly where police believe the incident could be part of a wider picture.

These could include incidents in which an attempt has been made to force someone into marriage.

Detectives continue to probe the murder of mother-of-two Geeta Aulakh, 28, who was hacked to death with a sword in Greenford, north west London, last month.

In July a young Danish man of Asian origin suffered horrendous injuries when acid was poured down his throat in Leytonstone, east London.

Police believe he was targeted by a group of men because of a personal relationship with a Muslim woman.

One of the most high-profile cases is that of Banaz Mahmod, of Mitcham, south London, who was murdered by family members and buried in a Birmingham garden.

Independent investigators criticised officers for failing to take her seriously after she contacted them four times to say she was in fear for her life.

Earlier this year, police were issued with new guidance telling them to assume honour crimes have been committed in more circumstances.

Senior officers anticipated that the move would drive up figures as in many cases only limited information is available or a potential victim refuses to help police.

In London, each of the 32 boroughs has a dedicated unit staffed by officers trained to investigate all kinds of hate and domestic violence crimes.

There is also a central team reviewing all cases daily and flagging up incidents where people may be immediately at risk.

Detective Chief Inspector Gerry Campbell, of the Metropolitan Police, said the new figures could be revealing the true extent of the problem.

He said more work is being done to collect up-to-date information about people at risk and emerging patterns.

Mr Campbell said: ”The description of this type of crime is misplaced. There is no honour in these crimes.”

Up to 12 people are murdered every year in the name of ”honour” and police fear a further 500 people are forced into an arranged marriage or attacked.

The Forced Marriage (civil protection) Act 2007 strengthened the law on forced marriage and other forms of honour-based violence.

A Home Office spokesman said: ”Forced marriage and honour-based violence are appalling crimes and the government is working with partners across the voluntary sector to support victims.”

India set to rid itself of annual baby-tossing festival

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Annually during the first week of December in rural districts of India, hundreds of infants are thrown from the high roof tops ( some of which are as high as 50 feet) of mosques and temples by Hindu and Muslim villagers. The babies are to hopefully land in the safety of sheets and blankets held by the awaiting, celebratory crowd below. If the child survives the fall, it signals a life of good luck, well health, prosperity and a long life (unless you happen to be a baby girl, in which case a long life may or may not be in your future, but that is entirely another story). Singing and dancing abound.

Devotees at a shrine in Harangal village of Parbhani in western India's Maharashtra dangle the frightened looking baby 50 feet above the cloth sheet below

Devotees at a shrine in Harangal village of Parbhani in western India’s Maharashtra dangle the frightened looking baby 50 feet above the cloth sheet below.

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The good news is India is set to ban this sacred, ceremonial gang baby toss with the hope of enlisting Hindu and Muslim villagers to become residents of the 21st century. I predict hard work ahead.

Turkey cries fowl on Swiss ban while Churches denied permits

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From The Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey

Turkish Parliament speaker speaks out against Swiss ban

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News

Turkish Parliament Speaker Mehmet Ali Sahin says he opposes the minaret ban passed in Switzerland on Sunday, adding that basic freedoms cannot be put to a vote.

Parliament Speaker Mehmet Ali Sahin voiced his opposition to the Swiss ban on minarets on Wednesday, saying that it was wrong to put a basic freedom to a vote.

His remarks came during a meeting with his Finnish counterpart, Sauli Niinistö, in Parliament.

“In fact, it should have been expressed more loudly before the referendum that such a basic right cannot be the focus of a referendum. What were we going to discuss if the ‘yes’ vote emerged from the referendum instead of ‘no’ vote?” Sahin said. “Were we going to say, ‘Such a basic right cannot be the focus of a referendum’? I believe it is necessary to pursue a consistent policy toward this issue.”

The referendum put forth by the nationalist Swiss People’s Party labeled minarets as symbols of rising Muslim political power that could one day transform Switzerland into an Islamic nation. The initiative was approved 57.5 percent to 42.5 percent on Sunday.

“As far as I can see, Swiss government officials are also uneasy. The [Swiss] justice minister pointed to the European Court of Human Rights,” said ?ahin, hoping the situation, which worries Muslims living in Switzerland, would be corrected in the future.

The Finnish parliament speaker said this was not a usual issue for Finland, which believes that human rights and the freedom of expression should be respected. Such an issue cannot be submitted to a vote in Finland, he said.

In an interview with private broadcaster NTV, Swiss Ambassador to Turkey Raimund Kunz said the referendum result was a decision made by the Swiss people, not by the state. He made clear that the Swiss government was against the initiative and called on voters to say “no” in the referendum.

“This is not a vote against Islam and Muslims,” he was quoted as saying. “This is not a vote against their religion and praying. There are mosques in Switzerland. Muslims will be able to perform what their religion requires. This will not change in the future.”

The ambassador said the reactions would not cause the Swiss government to change its foreign policy, making clear that their policy of dialogue with Muslim countries would continue.

“I understand Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s reactions,” he said. “I hope we’ll continue our dialogue with Turkey.”

On Tuesday, Erdogan spoke out against the ban, calling it a reflection of increasing racist and extreme nationalist waves in Europe.

Meanwhile, as the Turkish Prime Minister likens the ban to European intolerance and extreme nationalism…………

Churches Impossible to Build or Restore in Turkey

Father issued fatwa against son, letter says

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From The National Post by way of The Religion of Peace:

Lamine Yansane, outside Mary Queen of the World Cathedral.

MONTREAL — In Lamine Yansané’s hometown of Boké in Guinea, his father is a revered imam who sometimes leads Friday prayers. But after Mr. Yansané married a Catholic woman and abandoned Islam for Christianity, his father disowned him, and Friday prayers have featured a call for his death, the Federal Court heard yesterday.

Mr. Yansané, who has been denied refugee status, is seeking a last-ditch reprieve on the grounds that he faces certain harm if he is deported from Canada. “If you return him to his country, he is going to die,” Mr. Yansané’s lawyer, Stewart Istvanffy, told the court. He called his client “a victim of radical Islam, who is threatened by the imam of his town, his own father.”

Mr. Yansané, 37, arrived in Canada from Guinea in the fall of 2005. He told the Immigration and Refugee Board that he fled the West African nation after his father and uncle tracked him down in the country’s capital of Conakry, confronted him about his church attendance and threatened him as a traitor to Islam. His wife and three children remain in Guinea.

The board member who heard his case called his testimony “devoid of credibility.” She did not believe that a family of religious fanatics would have permitted his marriage to a Christian in the first place. (Mr. Yansané said he was allowed to marry on the condition he convert his wife to Islam, a project he abandoned.) And she found it far-fetched that his family would tolerate the couple’s presence in Boké for the 10 years they lived there before moving to Conakry. Continue Reading →

Burqa Barbie: you’ve gone the wrong way baby.

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I have to admit, at first thought I felt this story of no great shakes and decided not to report on it. Barbie’s makeover seemed a bit pithy compared to the stack of Islamist horror stories that circulated through the media at the time (and continue to do so).  But  it is in fact important to weigh in on Barbie’s new wardrobe malfunction and those who would advertise her latest armoire addition as progressive, sensitive, inclusive and culturally relative. The only comment worthy of any real note, is the refusal by many including Mattel, to acknowledge the mockery of freedom that Barbie is now bestowed. Here is the initial story as reported by the Daily Mail U.K. Phyllis Chesler urges us to boycott Burqa Barbie and below, Barbara Kay of Canada’s National Post delivers an honest assessment of Islamist misogyny in full swing.

Burka Barbie

Why is the world’s favourite fashion doll wearing a symbol of oppression?

Barbara Kay, National Post Published: Wednesday, December 02, 2009

One of the world's most famous children's toys Barbie has been given a fundemental make over -- wearing a Burka. Handout/CATERSNEWS/IBERPRESS

One of the world’s most famous children’s toys Barbie has been given a fundemental make over — wearing a Burka.

In the process of conveying a general idea or a cue to an emotional response, we often seek instinctive recourse in a linguistic device called antonomasia. We’ll substitute an antonomastic placeholder like “Solomon” for a wise person or “Hitler” for an evil one, “Pearl Harbor” for an ineluctable casus belli, and so forth.

The words “Barbie doll” used to elicit the image of a ditzy blonde bimbo. No longer. Since Nov. 20, the 50th anniversary of this iconic doll and beloved plaything of little girls everywhere, 500 Barbies –including various Barbies wearing chadors and full burkas — have been on show at the Salone del Cinquecento in Florence, Italy.

The exhibition is sponsored by toy company Mattel, Barbie’s owner. Dolls wearing “traditional Islamic dress” — the burkas and chadors — were chosen to be auctioned off by Sotheby’s as a fundraiser for the Italian branch of Save the Children.

A Barbie collector attending the exhibition from England opined: “Bring it on, Burka Barbie … I think this is really important for girls. Wherever they are from, they should have the opportunity to play with a Barbie that they feel represents them.”

I have seen some pretty tawdry advertising campaigns in my time, but I must say this one takes the cake for insensitivity. What’s next in dolls that are “important for girls” to play with? “Illiterate Barbie”? “Forced-Marriage Barbie”?

One has to wonder what was going through the heads of these people. Mattel is a gigantic company with, one would presume, the cream of the advertising world’s crop at its beck and call. Save the Children has for many decades been in the business of rescuing children from poverty, despair and injustice. And yet neither the world’s biggest advertising brains nor the world’s most child-sensitive hearts saw the impropriety of “clothing” the world’s most instantly recognizable toy in the world’s most instantly recognizable symbol of oppression.

The dolls make a mockery of disempowered women who have been stripped of all human dignity, women with no means of challenging their forced depersonalization. There can be no parallel between these travesties of multiculturalism and other “diversity” Barbies — brown Barbies, native-dress Barbies, pilot Barbies — avatars that reflect the natural appearance and truly traditional garb and career choices of free women.

For starters, burkas are not “traditional Islamic dress,” because they are not “dress” at all. Burkas are not a sartorial multicultural counterpoint to Dallas Cheerleader Barbie. Thrown over clothes, they are, in the words of an Afghanistan woman to a visiting Canadian journalist, “walking coffins.”

The teeth of burka clad women fall out because their faces never get any Vitamin-D-rich sunlight. Is this a suitable object of play?

Neither are burkas “traditional.” They were invented quite recently by fanatically misogynistic fundamentalists who make a habit of beating or killing or disfiguring any woman insufficiently self-extinguished by this suffocating tent. These women and girls are wearing chadors and niqabs and in many circumstances hijabs for reasons that have nothing to do with their own wishes or choices. Some even die for a failure to meet the draconian standards of the “modesty” police, as 15 Saudi girls did when forced back into a burning school because their hair was uncovered in flight. Having fun yet?

Many moms won’t let their little girls play with any dolls. Many won’t let their little boys play with guns. Their stance represents an extreme, but not illogical, extension of Western cultural ideals. In the eyes of the majority who do consider both dolls and guns natural objects of play, however, there should be no moral distinction between Burka Barbie and a putative G.I. Joe figure in a suicide vest for essentially they both represent a medieval Islamist worldview that flies in the face of the West’s most cherished values: equality of men and women and respect for human life, including one’s own.

Antonomastically speaking, there’s a loss in this story. As a symbol of obliterated femalehood, Barbie has shed her cultural innocence.

bk**@*******on.ca

Huffington Post: The real reasons why the Swiss voted to ban minarets

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From The Huffington Post:

The Swiss voted to ban the construction of new minarets — against all expectations and although their government and most political parties had rejected a ban. But this referendum had, in truth, little to do with minarets.

The surprising vote reveals rather a growing unease in Switzerland, which traditionally has been one of the most open and most tolerant countries of the continent: Many Swiss are worried about the rise of political Islam and religious rules in Europe that are threatening hard-won rights such as equal rights for women and men, the secular rule of law above religion or the right of each individual to decide for him — or herself.

A majority of Swiss voters obviously feels that there are problems with Muslim integration into civil society at the moment. This vague sentiment was fueled by a number of incidents over the last years: The former Imam of a mosque in Geneva, Hani Ramadan, a Swiss citizen by the way, publicly justified the stoning of adulterers or the punitive amputation of the hand of a thief. Muslim parents prevented their daughters from attending swimming classes, gymnastics or summer camps in public schools because they didn’t want their girls to be together with boys. Media reports about forced marriages, female genital mutilations and “honor killings” of Muslim women – all confirmed by authorities or in court — came as a shocking surprise. A university professor even went as far as to suggest in an official publication of a federal commission to introduce elements of the Sharia, the Muslim legal system, into Switzerland.

The nationalist and conservative Swiss People’s Party knew to take advantage of the wide-spread feeling that the government, the courts and the politicians do too little to defend Western values and basic rights. The party warned — highly exaggerated — of a “creeping islamization” of Switzerland. It skillfully chose the question of minarets as a very symbolic target and demanded a ban for the construction of new ones. As it is possible in Switzerland for everyone, the party collected 100,000 signatures within 18 months from eligible voters supporting the motion to force a referendum. A clear majority of 57.5 percent of the Swiss population and 22 out of 26 cantons (states) favored the ban.

It would be utterly wrong — and dangerous — to think that this was primarily a racist vote. I’m convinced that the post-electoral analysis will show that a significant part of the (anti-racist) left and an overwhelming majority of the women supported the ban — not because they are afraid of minarets, but because they are worried about the role (some would say: about the oppression) of women in Islamic societies and about the role of religion in public life. This is, in my opinion, an entirely legitimate discussion that we have to have and must not suppress. Continue Reading →