Category Archives: Irrational religious authority

Beware of Persians bearing gifts.

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Nurses at one Bolivian hospital forced to wear Islamic veils as price for sum of money from Iran.

From Fausta’s blog by way of GOV:

Bolivia: Nurses forced to wear veil

Semanario Verdad Latinoamericana reports that nurses in a Bolivian hospital are forced to wear a hijab veil at their jobs.

The article, Bolivia: enfermeras son obligadas a llevar velo, says that state newspaper Cambio (link to their website here, but no link to their report on the hospital) reported that following a donation of $1.2 million US dollars by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his visit Wednesday last week, the nurses at a hospital in El Alto have to wear a veil due to conditions set by Iran.

Theo Van Gogh, and a fascist Dutch state.

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The Dutch government has so much to be ashamed of in the events described herein.

I have been aware of it since I first read about it on Klein Verzet (The Little Resistance) some time ago. Perhaps two years or more. Where to begin? I would say with the murder of Theo van Gogh, an event which was profoundly hurtful to a good size segment of the Dutch population, perhaps a segment that until then had been unaware of Islam and its true nature.

One man, a Rotterdam artist, Chris Ripke, (who’s studio is right next door to the Mosque in the Insulindestraat [the Turkish Iskender Pasa Camii Mosque)  decided to do a fairly innocuous protest. He went to Rotterdam, and painted a small mural of an Angel, some Koranic text about peace at the bottom, and the words:” Though Shalt Not Kill” in Dutch across the mural.

A man representing the nearby mosque was of course, offended by the Christian sentiment on the mural and called the city and demanded it be removed. In point form, the city obliged and perhaps most horrifying of all, the police told all media present for the removal of the mural they may not film it and had their film taken away in keeping with the Dutch police of ‘non-escalation’. A few days ago, someone sent me a link to a video on youtube of this whole event. Apparently someone decided not to comply with the police request thankfully, and a group of us worked hard to translate and subtitle this as we feel as many people as humanly possible need to see this and understand its importance. Although this event is old, the presence of this tape is new to me and almost certainly new to the English speaking world. Here is the English subtitled video:

Removal of angel Mural, Rotterdam 2004 from Vlad Tepes on Vimeo.

Please pass this link around to anyone who cares about freedom of the press, freedom from Government interference in what we may or may not know, and freedom from what is referred to in s video as ‘The Political Police” something I bet very few Dutch people even know exist but clearly have a massive impact on what they may or may not know that takes place within their own nation and cities.

Here is a link to the Klein Verzet story on this. Below, a segment of it:

From Klein Verzet:

What a difference a few years make. When we started this blog, the Dutch had a reputation comparable to the Danes. But now it seems that the Netherlands has joined the madness of the UK, France, Sweden and Norway, in their mad dash to destroy the spirit of the native people, for diversity’s sake. Or, as Mark Steyn puts it:

In the Netherlands even the most innocuous statement can get you into trouble. To express his disgust at Theo van Gogh’s murder, the artist Chris Ripke put up a mural outside his studio showing an angel and the words “Thou shalt not kill”. But the cops thought this was somehow a dig at the local mosque and so came round, destroyed the mural, arrested the TV news crew filming it, and wiped their tape. The Dutch have determined to commit societal euthanasia, and dislike fellows pointing out it might not be as painless as they’ve assumed.

The staggering injustice of all of this is nicely put into words by Bruce Bawer, in a piece he concluded with these words:

In Dutch Muslim schools and mosques, incendiary rhetoric about the Netherlands, America, Jews, gays, democracy, and sexual equality is routine; a generation of Dutch Muslims are being brought up with toxic attitudes toward the society in which they live. And no one is ever prosecuted for any of this. Instead, a court in the Netherlands—a nation once famous for being an oasis of free speech—has now decided to prosecute a member of the national legislature for speaking his mind. By doing so, it proves exactly what Wilders has argued all along: that fear and “sensitivity” to a religion of submission are destroying Dutch freedom.

Well worth going over to Mark Steyn’s article on it as well:

There is an interview with the man who was arrested. I hope to add that transcript in English to the rest of this post as well very soon. In the meantime, I am going to have to ask myself as a Canadian,

What is it I am not allowed to hear or know?

How is whatever law is being used to isolate me from reality being selectively enforced as Mark Steyn so clearly points out in his article related to this? Here is the original youtube link with more information on this incident and links to other interviews and information. This may not be spectacularly violent or sexy as fascist expose’s go. But that is what makes this so important. We must familiarize ourselves with this and humiliate the Dutch government and thereby all western governments that would make it impossible for their own people to make healthy decisions for themselves by effectively blinding and deafening them. While the cop may not have been wearing jackboots, at least that would have gotten some people upset. With the Dutch policy of non-escalation, no one can know enough to be upset. But after all, isn’t that is what ‘non-escalation’ means?

Huge thanks to V.H. for the amazingly fast and excellent work on the translation, and to a flu ridden Baron over at the gates who despite being bed ridden with the rotten flu that is going around, edited the work before I subtitled it. This gives some idea of the importance many of us feel this has. It also is an amazingly rare exception to the Frank Zappa rule of getting work done. 1. Good 2. Fast 3. Cheap. Pick any 2.

Typically this is really true. However our team did everything well fast and free. Thank you again guys and of course to Klein Verzet for sending me the links and to A Certain Amount of Evil for sending me the original Dutch video in the first place a few days ago. Something I did not know existed. But something that by coincidence, did come up in a recent interview a few weeks ago, between The International Free Speech Society and Morten Meserschmidt

ADDITIONAL INFO: Please click here to read the Gates of Vienna post on this matter. He has more information including a transcription of an interview with the man who was arrested and more. Very thorough work by V.H. The translator (I made a mistake in the credits in the video) and The Baron.

___________ COMMENT FROM YOUTUBE WHERE THIS VIDEO IS HOSTED_________

right WHERE Theo was executed in cold blood a portrait of him was painted on a window shutter… not unlike the one in this video. The police painted over it IN THE NIGHT. Then it reappeared and was painted over again and so forth.
People paint THEO just his name, around the neighborhood. And the police paint over it. But they NEVER paint over gang signs!
I’m sorry to say this but the dutch police are nothing but cowards.
You can’t count on them to uphold the law. They bow to islam every time.

Malaysian woman fights against forced Muslim conversion

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From AP

Malaysian woman tries to reverse Muslim conversion

By EILEEN NG,Associated Press Writer – Wednesday, November 25

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – A Malaysian woman is fighting to be recognized as a Hindu after being converted to Islam when she was a child, in the latest interfaith dispute to hit Muslim-majority Malaysia, her lawyer said Wednesday.

The case threatens to further anger non-Muslims who have complained that their religious rights are being sidelined, and could further erode minority support for the government.

Lawyer Gooi Hsiao Leung said Banggarma Subramaniam, 27, and her three siblings were under the care of a government orphanage in northern Penang state when she was converted to Islam by welfare officials in 1989 when she was seven years old.

“The conversion itself from the start (was) illegal. She wants to restore her Hindu faith and practice her religion freely,” he told the Associated Press.

She ran away when she was 16 and got married two years later in 2001 in a traditional Hindu ceremony. When she returned to the home to collect her identity card and other documents, she was given the Muslim conversion certificate which listed her name as Siti Hasnah Vanga-rama Abdullah, said Gooi.

She has been unable to register her marriage or name her husband as the father of their two children in their birth certificates as she is listed a Muslim. Banggarma’s husband must convert to Islam to legally wed her as marriage between Muslims and non-Muslims is not allowed in the country.

The welfare department claims Banggarma was converted in 1983 by her father and that she must go to the Shariah Court to verify her status. Continue Reading →

Man stabs sister to death for wearing make-up, western clothes

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Islam’s answer to brotherly love.

From TROP

Ahmad-Sobair O. in court in February. Photo: DPA

Man gets life after court rejects appeal for sister’s ‘honour killing’

Published: 26 Nov 09 14:02 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20091126-23537.html

A German-Afghan man who stabbed his teenage sister to death in a grisly “honour killing” was sentenced to life imprisonment after a court in Karlsruhe rejected his appeal on Thursday.

In a crime that outraged Germany, the man, identified only as Ahmad-Sobair O. knifed his 16-year-old sister Morsal 23 times as he believed she brought dishonour to their family by wearing Western-style clothes and make-up.

The Federal Court of Justice said it was “convinced that the accused committed the crime because his sister, in his opinion, had ‘stained the family’s honour’.”

The court rejected the appeal that the man was psychologically deranged and upheld the initial judgement by a lower court in Hamburg, in the north of the country.

The killer, aged 24 at the time, had said during his trial that he was “sorry from the bottom of his heart” for his actions. “That was my sister and I loved her,” he told the court, breaking down in tears.

Germany has been shocked by around 50 so-called “honour killings” since 1996, mainly in the country’s large Turkish diaspora.

More from the publicity whore, Anjem Choudery

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While this man is in fact not really worthy of people’s attention, this video has some substance where at least he admits that he seeks an armed struggle. Something he usually is slightly savvy enough to avoid. Frankly I think Choudery is a little twerp with a little fan club that should be ignored like the smell of an outhouse, here one gets a sense of the danger of his general thinking and muslims like him.

H/T gov

Sudan: young girl lashed for knee lenght skirt

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From MSNBC (amazingly) h/t Ted L

updated 8:42 a.m. ET, Fri., Nov . 27, 2009

KHARTOUM, Sudan – A 16-year-old south Sudanese girl was lashed 50 times after a judge ruled her knee-length skirt was indecent, her lawyer and family said in the latest case to push Sudan’s Islamic law into the spotlight.

The mother of teenager Silva Kashif told Reuters on Friday she was planning to sue the police who made the arrest and the judge who imposed the sentence, as her daughter was underage and a Christian.

The case will add fuel to a debate already raging over Sudan’s decency laws after this year’s high-profile conviction of Sudanese U.N. official Lubna Hussein, who was briefly jailed for wearing trousers in public.

Hussein, a former journalist who used her case to campaign against Sudan’s public order and decency regulations, is touring France to publicize her book about the prosecution. She had faced the maximum penalty of 40 lashes but was given a lighter sentence.

‘We all sat and cried’
Kashif, whose family comes from the south Sudanese town of Yambio, was arrested while walking to the market near her home in the Khartoum suburb of Kalatla last week, her mother Jenty Doro told Reuters.

“She is just a young girl but the policeman pulled her along in the market like she was a criminal. It was wrong,” said Doro.

Doro said Khashif was taken to Kalatla court where she was convicted and punished by a female police officer in front of the judge.

“I only heard about it after she was lashed. Later we all sat and cried … People have different religions and that should be taken into account,” she said.

Australian tax payer funded terror. 2005 (oldie but goodie)

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By US rules one wonders whether or not the government of Australia should have its assets frozen according to the various terror financing regulations. Frankly it may not be a bad idea. Could force some rational policies. Same goes for England and Canada. And with near certainty all western nations that allow mass immigration of Muslims and offer welfare payments. Come to think of it, I bet the US itself through government programs pays out more to Islamic terror than many Muslim ‘charities’.

H/T Al Avai of Tundra Tabloid

Profile: Abu Bakr BBC H/T with thanks to dontbendoverforallah

Abu Bakr speaking to Australia's ABC - August 2005
Abu Bakr told ABC he was no threat (picture courtesy ABC)

The man accused of being the spiritual leader of a group planning terrorist acts in Australia first came to prominence in August when he praised Osama Bin Laden as “a great man”. Abdul Nacer Benbrika, also known as Abu Bakr, made the comments in an interview with Australia’s ABC radio, after it emerged that the country’s security services had taken away his passport.

Mr Bakr, 45, was charged on Tuesday with being a member of a terrorist organisation between July 2004 and November 2005. Continue Reading →

Radical Muslim books widely available, enjoy influence and popularity in Canada

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From The National Post

Radical muslim books too easily available: report

Stewart Bell, National Post Published: Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Members of the Toronto 18, seen here in a courtroom sketch, were found with radical Muslim books that encouraged terrorism. Kagan McLeod/National Post Members of the Toronto 18, seen here in a courtroom sketch, were found with radical Muslim books that encouraged terrorism.

TORONTO — When police rounded up 18 terror suspects around Toronto in 2006, they found cash, detonators and videos that showed some of them yelling “God is Great” as they trained in the snow with guns.

Police also found copies of manifestos with titles such as The Book of Jihad, The Virtues of Jihad, Fundamental Concepts Regarding Al-Jihad and 39 Ways to Serve and Participate in Jihad.

Such reading materials now enjoy “influence and popularity” in Canada, says a secret government study that identifies the ideologues whose writings it says are promoting “violent jihad” among Canadians.

The report by the Integrated Threat Assessment Centre names Sayed Qutb, Abdullah Azzam and Ibn Taymiyah as the “key ideologues whose works have contributed to Islamist radicalization in Canada.”

All three are dead. Qutb was a controversial Egyptian executed in 1966. Azzam was Osama bin Laden’s sidekick, killed in a 1989 car bombing, and Taymiyah was a 12th century scholar from what is now Turkey.

“In the context of this assessment, radicalization is defined as the process by which an individual progresses to an Islamist extremist viewpoint where violence is a justifiable means to achieve ideological objectives,” the study says.

“One of the key radicalizing elements in this process is exposure to Islamist extremist messaging which promotes violent jihad. A relatively small number of Islamist extremist authors are the source of this type of messaging, which includes literature, speeches and statements.”

These materials “can be obtained from newspapers and other publications, public audio and video broadcasts, and extremist forums on the Internet,” the report says. It does not mention, however, that they can also be purchased from online booksellers and borrowed from libraries.

The Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and Winnipeg public libraries list Qutb’s works in their catalogues, and his most radical books are posted in their entirety on a website for young Canadian Muslims.

“Syed Qutb’s books and Ibn Taymiyah’s doctrines are widely available in Canada, but more accessible on the Internet,” said the Canadian Muslim writer and activist Tarek Fatah, an opponent of Islamist extremism.

The “Toronto 18” group circulated extremist literature in electronic form. Some of the materials were found on a laptop seized during the arrest of Saad Gaya, whose sentencing begins today in Brampton. He has pleaded guilty to participating in a plot to detonate truck bombs in downtown Toronto.

The classified intelligence report, released under the Access to Information Act, is one of dozens of studies that analyze why some Canadians participate in al-Qaeda-inspired terrorist activities.

Previous studies have focused on the role of extremist fathers like Ahmed Khadr, spiritual mentors, the Internet and foreign paramilitary training camps but part of the answer was apparently on the bookshelf.

A common thread among the targets of counter-terrorism investigators was that they were consumers of extremist literature that portrays the West as the enemy and advocates violence as a duty.

“Radicalizing literature in the possession of individuals of interest to Canadian authorities indicates the ongoing influence and popularity of the works of Islamist extremist ideologues,” the report says.

The police search of the Ottawa home of terrorist Momin Khawaja in 2004 turned up not only military rifles, wooden ammunition crates and electronic detonator components but also copies of Taymiyah’s The Religious and Moral Doctrine of Jihad and Azzam’s Defence of the Muslim Lands and Join the Caravan.

A 2006 study by the Combating Terrorism Centre at West Point concluded that Azzam was among the modern authors most cited by Islamist terrorists. Qutb ranked number one. Taymiyah was the most commonly cited pre-modern author.

A 2007 paper by Carleton University’s Canadian Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies singled out the same trio as the foundation of al-Qaeda ideology.

In his writing, Azzam appealed to Muslims around the world to join the fight in Afghanistan, claiming that an hour spent fighting for Islam was worth more than 70 hours of prayer.

“He brought modern warfare to the concept of ‘global jihad’ and passed on his acquired skills to his many protégés, including UBL [bin Laden],” the government report says.

Of the three authors, Qutb is arguably the most influential. Qutb studied in the United States but returned to Egypt after two years and wrote disparagingly about Americans, decrying their freedom, racism and “animal-like” mixing of races. He also began advocating for the global dominance of Muslims.

“He sought to transform Islam into a political movement in order to create a new society based on ancient Koranic principles,” reads the intelligence report. “Qutb is also known for articulating the concept of ‘global jihad.'”

In Milestones, he wrote that those who resist the worldwide spread of Islam must be fought until they are either killed or submit.

“Sayed Qutb defined jihad as a call to unremitting warfare against the forces of unbelief in order to ‘open the nations for Islam,” Angela Gendron of Carleton University wrote in “Al Qaeda: Propaganda and Media Strategy.”

A report by the RCMP National Security Criminal Investigations Section calls Qutb “the ideological father” of al-Qaeda. “Qutb validated extreme violence in the cause of faith, so ‘Islamic terrorism’ could more accurately be called ‘Qutbian terrorism,’ the RCMP report says.

National Post

sb***@**********st.com

——


British schools entertain Islamic hate preachers. KKK strangely absent.

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Here is a fine example of selective enforcement and why nothing like the fairness doctrine should ever exist in a free nation. Hell one could define a free nation practically by simply not having a fairness doctrine.

From Harry’s place by way of The Religion of Peace

“Kill gays” preacher feted at City University

Your View, November 22nd 2009, 4:36 pm

“The Vice Chancellor of City University London, Julius Weinberg, should resign. He is refusing to take any action after the Islamic Society hosted a fundamentalist preacher, Abu Usamah, who advocates the murder of gay people and of Muslims who give up their faith,” said human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell.

Abu Usamah was recorded on Channel Four’s television documentary, Undercover Mosque, as saying: “Do you practice homosexuality with men? Take that homosexual man and throw him off the mountain.” On Muslims who leave the faith he said: “If the Imam wants to crucify him, he should crucify him. The person is put up on the wood and he’s left there to bleed to death for three days.”

Abu Usamah was also filmed deriding women as “deficient”, inferior to men and intellectually “incomplete.”

Another speaker given a platform at the same City University event on 4 November, Murthadah Khan, was also caught on the Undercover Mosque documentary calling Jews and Christians “enemies” and “filthy”.

“It is utterly disgraceful that the student’s union has defended the
hosting of these two hate preachers, and that the Vice Chancellor has
not responded to complaints from students. These responses violate the equal opportunities policies of the university and the student’s
union,” added Mr Tatchell.

“They would never tolerate a white surpemacist who used racist abuse and advocated the murder of black people. Why the double standards?

“The Vice Chancellor seems unwilling to uphold the university’s equal
opportunities policy. He has failed to defend Muslim, Jewish, Christian, gay and women students and staff against this vile hatred. Having neglected to ensure that the university is a safe, welcoming place to work and study, Julius Weinberg should stand down,” said Mr Tatchell

Speeches from Rifka Barry Rally

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A rally for Rifqa Bary held in Dorrian Commons Park in Columbus, Ohio, on November 16, 2009. Speakers included Pamela Geller, Simon Deng, Nonie Darwish, James Lafferty, Robert Spencer, and Jamal Jivanjee.

Some excellent speeches here by some people who the western world needs to pay a lot more attention to than they are. Simon Deng, Nonnie Darwish and others are amongst this illustrious group of speakers who deal with very important issues of apostasy in Islam and Islam and Western Civilization.

Personally I do not have an opinion on the Rifka Barry case, other than of course she has the absolute right to change her belief howsoever she likes and should be safe from the state, her family and community. There is much I do not understand however about the details. But I do know the people who have chosen to rally behind her and offer her massive support in many ways are far wiser and more experienced than I on these matters so I post this also for that reason. These speakers are excellent. The community represented here in this video is significant so in solidarity also I post this video, even if I have not been a strident voice on this particular individual and issue. One hopes that she turns 18 soon, and becomes a free agent within the US to live her life with the same rights and responsibilities as all Americans. If she is one.

Eeyore for Vlad.

More nonsense from Anjem Choudery and his band of mirthless men

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I couldnt resist adding Winston Churchill’s profound insights about Islam at the start of this little documentary about Choudery’s little cult of personality he has going in England. For an actually important story about how England is being infiltrated with truly dangerous Muslims please see the link below the video.

From Front Page Mag. On England and its race to sharia

CNN on the UN resolution on blasphemy

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This is much more important than most people are aware of. The UN General assembly is considering a binding resolution on member nations (nearly all countries in the world) making it a criminal matter to say anything which may cast Islam in a bad light. This can actually include accurately reporting Islamic terrorists when they themselves expose their motives for their attack.

Upcoming ‘Life of Muhammed’ flick filmed without Muhammed

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From Times Online

Life of Muhammad to be filmed, but don’t expect to see him on screen

However, the press conference held to unveil the project demonstrated the risks inherent in any attempt to package the “true story” of the Prophet’s life for a global audience today.

Alnoor Holdings, a media company that has created a $200million film production fund to invest in Hollywood and international projects, has hired the cleric Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi as their lead theological consultant for the film.

Sheikh al-Qaradawi is one of the Sunni Islam’s most high-profile theologians thanks to his popular slot hosting a television show on al-Jazeera. He is admired by many moderate Muslims and was recently described by the government’s senior counter-terrorism official as “one of the most articulate critics of al-Qaeda in the Islamic world”.

He is also a highly controversial figure who was refused entry to Britain last year because of his views. He has reportedly condoned the Holocaust, supported the stoning of homosexuals and praised suicide bombers in Iraq, not to mention telling an interviewer that he considered Shia Islam a heretical branch of the faith.

According to the Gulf Times newspaper he told journalists in Doha that the film was a response to “the crusader-styled distortion of Islam [that] continues to influence [the] world population today.”

“I will say we Muslims have not exerted sufficient efforts to correct the fake tales as Christians have used [in] the media. The life of the Prophet Muhammad is richly documented from the cattle he raised to the weapons he used to his private life.”

The Qatari Tribune, which was also present, said that he described the world in milder language as a small village where people must know each other better and learn about other religions.

“We think that our religion is universal. Unfortunately, many people do not know about Islam and have misconceptions about it.”

Mr Osborne, who said that he was “keen to inspire and enlighten the world by bringing the story of one of history’s greatest figures on screen”, admitted that when he was first approached by Al Noor in August 2008 he was not ready to join them.

“I did not have enough knowledge about Islam, but now I have read two books and watched two movies about the religion.”

However much additional research Mr Osborne and his team undertake between now and the scheduled start of shooting for the as-yet-untitled picture in 2011, they are expecting that there will be groups who take offence at their take on the Prophet’s life.

There has been one substantial attempt at tackling the same subject matter before. The Message, a 1977 film about the Prophet starring Anthony Quinn, sparked riots in the US in which two people died, even though it respected the tradition of not representing the Prophet himself. The film is currently being remade as The Messenger of Peace.

More recently, satirical cartoons of the Prophet published in Denmark in 2006 provoked violent protests in many parts of the Muslim world and last year the planned UK publication of a novel about the Prophet Muhammad’s child bride was postponed over fears it might incite violence.

Islamist preacher inspired Hasan, other terrorists

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From The Telegraph U.K.

Fort Hood shooting: radical Islamic preacher also inspired July 7 bombers

The Islamic preacher who gave email advice to Major Nidal Hasan, the gunman in the Fort Hood massacre, also inspired the July 7 bombers and a number of other British terrorists.

By Philip Sherwell and Duncan Gardham
Published: 6:30AM GMT 23 Nov 2009

Imam Anwar al-Awlaki

Imam Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen October 2008,

An Islamic preacher who gave email advice to Major Nidal Hasan, the gunman in the Fort Hood massacre that left 13 dead, also inspired the July 7 London bombers and a number of other British terrorists, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

Lectures by Anwar al-Awlaki were found in the Iqra bookshop in Leeds, where the July 7 bombers held meetings. His lectures were also found among the material seized from a jihadist recruiter, Aabid Hussain Khan, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, who groomed Britain’s youngest terrorist, schoolboy Hammaad Munshi, then 15.

Al-Awlaki , 38, a US citizen, fled from the country to live in Britain after it was disclosed that three of the September 11 hijackers had worshipped at two different mosques where he preached.

He moved to Yemen in 2004, where he was arrested and then went underground, but he has been invited to give video lectures, most recently at East London Mosque in January, and his videos are still on sale in Britain.

Major Hasan, an army psychiatrist, worshipped at a mosque in Virginia where al-Awlak was imam at the same time as two Sept 11 hijackers.

Hasan, 39, has been charged with 13 murders. He shouted “allahu akbar” (“God is great”) and shot dead unarmed soldiers awaiting vaccinations before or after deployment. He is lying in a military hospital bed, paralysed from the waist down, after civilian police officers shot him to end the rampage.

It has since emerged that US intelligence monitored email correspondence during the past two years between the officer and the imam.

Hasan asked advice on jihad and whether it was permissible to kill innocent people in a suicide attack.

Al-Awlaki’s most influential lecture, Constants on the Path to Jihad, is based on a 2005 book by Yousef al-Ayyiri, the founder of
al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia.

According to Evan Kohlmann, a US terrorism consultant, the sermon was “a ‘virtual bible’ for lone-wolf Muslim extremists”.

Earlier this year, al-Awlaki also published 44 Ways to Support Jihad, a practical point-by-point guide to pursuing or supporting holy war.

“Constants spells out al-Qaeda’s home-grown terror strategy,” said Mr Kohlmann.

“Al-Awlaki didn’t just translate it, he applied its teachings for a Western audience. So when Ayyiri stated ‘jihad is everywhere’, al-Awlaki explained that meant jihad was in Europe too. This is a very clever individual who understands the power of the Internet to radicalise people. Had al-Awlaki not translated Constants, then most of the Western Muslims who were inspired by it would never have even heard of it.”

Al-Awlaki ‘s lectures were also found on a CD belonging to Mohammed Atif Siddique, 22, from Glasgow, an aspiring suicide bomber, who was found guilty of possessing bomb-making instructions.

Canada to rule on polygamy

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From The Ottawa Citizen

“When there is evidence of damage to women and hurt to children, we don’t have to tolerate it any more than we would tolerate suttee (a woman burning to death on her husband’s funeral pyre) or infant sacrifice.” Dr. Susan Stickevers, assistant clinical professor, State University, New York.

I can only hope that Canada gets it right in the 2010 ruling and rejects the argument that polygamy holds any benefit and should find a safe place as a legitimate religious/cultural right.

——

Polygamy on trial

By Daphne Bramham, Citizen SpecialNovember 22, 2009 5:06 AM

British Columbia Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Bauman has taken it on himself to be the one who rules on the ground-breaking constitutional case involving polygamy when it goes to trial sometime next year.

Bauman, who was appointed in September, will decide whether banning polygamy is a justifiable limitation on religious freedom. Regardless of what he decides, it’s almost certain that this case will be appealed first to the B.C. Court of Appeal and then the Supreme Court of Canada.

Lawyers for both the B.C. and Canadian governments will argue that polygamy should not be allowed because of its inherent harm to women and children.

So, before the case even gets to trial, Bauman will have to decide whether to appoint someone to argue that the practise of polygamy is protected by the guarantee of religious freedom.

Until six years ago, the B.C. government held the view that the polygamy law was unconstitutional. As a result, for more than a decade it refused to lay charges against fundamentalist Mormon leaders in Bountiful.

In law, harm doesn’t have to be imminent. In two disparate cases — Malmo-Levine, where the criminal offence of marijuana possession was upheld, and a child pornography case involving Vancouverite John Robin Sharpe — the Supreme Court of Canada said it was enough that both generally cause harm. Still, government lawyers need to show harm. They might start by looking at the medical research.

Dr. Susan Stickevers, an assistant clinical professor and residency program director at State University of New York with a longstanding interest in ensuring that polygamy remains criminalized, is certain the evidence is there. Based on her reading of more than 50 peer-reviewed studies, she doesn’t buy the argument that polygamy is a justifiable religious or cultural practice.

“When there is evidence of damage to women and hurt to children, we don’t have to tolerate it any more than we would tolerate suttee (a woman burning to death on her husband’s funeral pyre) or infant sacrifice,” she said in a telephone interview.

Stickevers’s interest in polygamy was first piqued in the mid-1980s when several of her students were “Sullivanians,” followers of psychiatrist Henry Stack Sullivan, who forced them to sleep with one another on a rotational basis. But it was only 12 years ago that she began to study the research when a patient’s health suddenly declined after her Muslim husband took a second wife. Since then, Stickevers has had a number of Muslim plural wives as patients. Their experiences mirror the research conclusions: Polygamy is bad for most women, particularly the first or senior wives.

The focus of the peer-reviewed studies varies widely — among people who immigrated to the American Midwest in the 1970s, fundamentalist Mormons, Bedouin Arabs, Nigerian Christians, African animists, Muslims in the United Arab Emirates.

Of those studies, 90 per cent conclude that women suffer some harm. The harm ranges from low self-esteem to mild depression to significant psychiatric problems.

Of the studies of children in polygamous families, 70 per cent found they are more likely to have poorer academic performance, greater behavioural problems and more difficulty adjusting in social situations compared to children of monogamous families.

The studies suggest it’s because the families are poorer, less educated and more prone to marital conflict and family violence.

There is also general agreement that polygamy is a risk factor for both incest and abuse.

All of the studies examine what is more properly called polygyny since, worldwide, polygamy is almost exclusively men with multiple wives and not women with multiple husbands.

The largest study of children in polygynous families was done in 2008 by Alean Al-Krenawi of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, who has done more research on the subject than anyone else. He and his colleague Vered Slonim-Nevo surveyed 352 Bedouin Arab children in Grades 7 to 9. Of those, 174 were from monogamous and 178 from polygamous families.

Children from polygamous families had higher levels of chronic and persistent pain with no identifiable physical origin, obsession compulsion, depression, interpersonal sensitivity, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation (a milder form of paranoia) and psychosis.

They also had significantly more problems in peer relationships, significantly poorer relationships with their fathers and lower school achievement than did those from monogamous families.

Their study concludes with an indictment of polygamy. They warned of a “bleak future for children from polygynous families … The many difficulties these children suffer may lead to a sense of hopelessness and cause them to seek other activities (e.g. pleasure-seeking). Furthermore, in adolescence and adulthood, these difficulties may put them at risk for delinquency, drug abuse and unemployment.”

Al-Krenawi’s research suggests the average polygamous family has five more children than the average monogamous one.

Unsurprisingly, children spend less time with their polygamous fathers. Children of the less-loved wife or wives suffer most and, usually, they are the children of the first wives whose marriages were arranged and not the subsequent wives whose marriages are often love matches.

Oddly missing from all of the studies, however, is the most obvious harm of all: The simple arithmetic of polygyny denies many men the possibility of ever marrying and having children.

Daphne Bramham writes for the Vancouver Sun.

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