Category Archives: Irrational religious authority

Muslims Threaten Breslin Owner After He Laughs Off Bar Demand

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H/T Diana West:

102809breslin.jpg
Katie Sokoler/Gothamist

The lovely-looking restaurant and bar The Breslin begins lunch service tomorrow, and co-owner Ken Friedman (The Spotted Pig) is planning on serving alcohol despite objections from the Masjid Ar-Rahman mosque across the street. Earlier this month the mosque’s leaders called a meeting with Friedman at The Ace Hotel, where The Breslin is located, and asked, “Can you move the bar?” Friedman’s response makes us want to hurry over to The Breslin right now for a dram of Laphroaig to show our support (and drown out the voices):

I laughed. And the guy said, “Oh, you think that’s funny?” And I said, “Yeah, that is funny, that is really funny, because we’re not going to move the bar just because you discovered we’re serving booze.” Can you name one restaurant in New York that doesn’t serve booze? I said, “This is the United States of America and we’ll do whatever the fuck we want.” He said the mosque had suggested it couldn’t control the behavior of “a few bad eggs”; i.e., we could get a brick through our window.

Friedman notified police of the threat, but just to show he’s not a hard-hearted man, that it’s not all dollars and cents, he agreed to put a curtain over the windows so devout Muslims wouldn’t be corrupted by the sight of infidel inebriation. But the curtain hasn’t arrived yet, so over the weekend he actually taped paper over the windows to hide a gay wedding. A volunteer at the mosque says city law forbids serving liquor within 200 feet of a place of worship and that “not more than 200 feet is between the mosque and the bar.”

But Ace Hotel developer Andrew Zobler tells The Observer, “The law is clear that in order for that to apply it has to be an exclusively dedicated house of worship, and at their space they have both residences and a restaurant, so basically, because of those uses the law allowed there to be a bar within 200 feet. Everyone was aware of that when the liquor license was granted.” And Friedman adds, “They can threaten, but they can’t really stop us.” Yeah, heh, what are these devout, pissed-off Muslims gonna do?

Another article on the same story below the fold. I believe this is a much more important story than perhaps even terrorism as we are more familiar with it, as this type of extortion and intimidation wide spread can collapse a culture and civilization such as ours much much faster than occasional attack.

Eeyore for Vlad

Mosque ‘unhappy’ with booze served at New York resto-bar, threatened brick toss

By Grace | October 30, 2009

From The New York Observer

Spotted Piglet Hiccups: Boozy Breslin Clashes With Mosque

October 27, 2009 | 8:00 p.m
Ken Friedman.

The much-hyped, soon-to-open Breslin restaurant, situated in the 12-story Ace Hotel on Broadway and 29th, is giving members of the Masjid Ar-Rahman mosque across the street some agita. “Five times a day, there’s a hundred cabs on the street—the good news is you can always get a cab,” co-owner Ken Friedman told the Transom the other evening. He said some mosque visitors “object to seeing people drink alcohol.” Continue Reading →

Buckingham Masjid on Masjid Road; U.K. lunatic Choudary wants Buckingham Palace for Islam

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Is anyone else getting tired of this fanatic and resident mental case Choudary? Every week his group Islam4UK attempts to promote or impose some new sharia based Islamic ‘answer’ for British society. This week he claims that the Queen is squatting in Buckingham Palace, according to his ‘historical evidence’. He would fancy re-naming it Buckingham Masjid……..

From The Daily Express U.K.

BUCKINGHAM MOSQUE …WHAT FANATICS WANT TO CALL THE PALACE

Story Image

Extremists website show how Palace would look with a dome

Thursday October 29,2009

By David Pilditch

A FANATICAL Muslim group campaigning to impose sharia law on Britain wants to turn Buckingham Palace into a mosque, it was revealed last night.

Days before a potentially incendiary rally in central London, the hardline Islam4UK group claims to have uncovered historical evidence which challenges the right of the Queen to live at the royal property.

Notorious hate preacher Anjem Choudary is calling for the palace to be renamed Buckingham Masjid, the Arabic word for mosque.

The Mall, which approaches the palace, would become Masjid Road.

Choudary, the right-hand man of exiled cleric Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, spoke out as he urged Muslims across Britain to join Saturday’s rally to demand a complete overhaul of the British legal system and the introduction of sharia courts.

The protest is due to begin at 1pm outside the Houses of Parliament and end at Trafalgar Square, less than a mile from Buckingham Palace, raising concerns over security.

Last night angry politicians and fellow Muslims condemned Choudary’s comments.

Tory MP Philip Davies compared Choudary to the leader of the BNP, saying: “This man’s a complete idiot. He’s the Muslim equivalent to Nick Griffin. I’m all for free speech and people having the right to have their say but, equally, there are all these ridiculous laws the Government has introduced about inciting racial hatred. Quite clearly, that’s what he is doing.

“If these laws are in place, they have to work both ways – they can’t apply to just one group of people.”

In a rambling diatribe, Choudary wrote on the Islam4UK website: “There is a spark that has ignited and its flame has become unstoppable.

“In recent years the world has witnessed an Islamic resurgence which continues to grow in strength.

“We find ourselves in the year 2009, waiting for Rome to fall, waiting for the White House to fall and indeed waiting for Buckingham Palace to fall.”

Choudary said that under sharia law the Queen’s official residence in London would have a dome fitted and a tannoy system to call followers to prayer.

The Palace would be used as a judiciary court for handing down sharia punishments and a detention place for “prisoners of war”.

In addition, the building would become the headquarters of the Islamic States’ supreme leadership and the Department of Information and Culture.

Choudary also called for the Crown Jewels to be melted down into “more appealing jewellery, free from idolatrous engravings or symbols such as crosses or human beings”.

Islam4UK’s website shows mock-up images of the Palace as a mosque and the Crown Jewels being melted.

Choudary added: “At present, Buckingham Palace is nothing more than a hollow building exploited by the rich and withheld from any real use.

“Under the sharia this would never happen, rather the British community would see it converted into a flourishing mosque which would be of a great benefit, not only for those residing in London but also the country as a whole.”

The Islam4UK movement is made up of leading members of the banned radical al-Muhajiroun group which was once led by Choudary. Around 15 per cent of people convicted in the UK of terrorism-related offences in the last decade were either members of the group or had links to it.

The Centre for Social Cohesion last night warned of the dangers of Choudary’s preachings.

Houriya Ahmed, a researcher for the independent think-tank , said: “I think they are just doing this for publicity.

“Anjem Choudary is a ridiculous man. But that does not mean his ideology is not dangerous.”

Muslim leader Abdul Hamid Qureshi, chairman of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, said: “The sad fact is that this organisation is driving the agenda. What they are saying is totally wrong. They are only a small bunch of people. There is no sense in it – it is not Islam.”

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “We are discussing the potential demonstrations on October 31.”

Bibles in Malaysia seized; Islamist fundamentalism grows

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From CNN; courtesy TROP

Bibles seized as Malaysia minorities fear fundamentalism

By Saeed Ahmed, CNN
October 29, 2009 — Updated 1254 GMT (2054 HKT)
Non-Muslims in Malaysia fear that Islamism is seeping into the moderate nation's fabric. Non-Muslims in Malaysia fear that Islamism is seeping into the moderate nation’s fabric.

(CNN) — Authorities in Malaysia have seized more than 20,000 Bibles in recent months because they refer to God as “Allah,” Christian leaders said Thursday.

The seizures have fed fears among minority groups, which see signs of encroaching Islamic fundamentalism in the predominantly Muslim but multi-racial country.

“There is a growing sense of Islamic assertion, yes,” said the Rev. Hermen Shastri, general-secretary of the Council of Churches of Malaysia. “There is some concern.”

The Bibles were written in the country’s official language, Malay — in which the word for God is “Allah,” as it is in Arabic.

However, Malaysia’s government says the word is exclusive to Islam.

Its use in Christian publications is likely to confuse Muslims and draw them to Christianity, the government says. So it has banned use of the word in Christian literature.

“Malay has borrowed from Arabic, just as it has from Sanskrit and Portuguese,” Shastri said. “We have maintained the community has the right to use the word.

“But I think this has ignited a cause in the Muslim communities, who are interpreting it as a siege on Islamic beliefs.”

A Home Ministry official directed requests for comment to the ministry’s Publications and Quran Text Control Department, which enforces the ban. An employee there redirected calls to a spokeswoman, who in turn asked CNN to call the Home Ministry back. Calls to other departments were similarly redirected.

A Roman Catholic weekly newspaper, The Herald, is challenging the ban in court after the government threatened to revoke its license for using the word in its Malay edition. Hearings on the case have gone on for two years.

“We quote it as it is. We cannot change the text of the Scripture,” Herald editor Father Lawrence Andrew told CNN last year. “I cannot be the editor of the Bible.”

Among the Bibles confiscated were Malay-language ones that the Bible Society of Malaysia said it had imported from Indonesia. About 10,000 others also were confiscated from Gideons International, which places free copies in hotel rooms and other places.

The Malaysian constitution provides for freedom of religion. The country has a dual-track justice system, in which Islamic courts operate alongside civil ones.

Rulings by the Islamic, or sharia, courts are directed toward the country’s Muslim, who make up 60 percent of the population. But they worry non-Muslims who see them as Islamism seeping into the moderate nation’s fabric.

In November, the National Fatwa Council — the country’s top Islamic body — banned Muslims from practicing yoga. It said elements of Hinduism in yoga can corrupt Muslims.

The council also bans short hair and boyish behavior for girls, saying they encourage homosexuality.

In northern Malaysia’s Kelantan state, authorities have forbidden bright lipstick and high-heeled shoes, saying the bans will safeguard Muslim women’s morals and dignity, as well as thwart rape.

And last month, an Islamic court judge in the eastern state of Pahang upheld a verdict to cane a Muslim woman for drinking beer in public.

The country has been mired in inter-faith disputes as well in recent months. In those cases, many non-Muslims complain that the civil courts generally cede control to Islamic courts.

Muslims cannot convert to other religions without the permission of the Islamic courts, which rarely approve such requests.

In relationships in which a Muslim parent has converted children to Islam over the objection of a non-Muslim parent, the sharia courts usually have upheld the conversions.

And earlier this year, a Sikh family lost a court battle to cremate a relative after officials said the man had converted to Islam years before his death, though the family said he hadn’t.

Sharia law: Coming to a city near you. 100 cops Vs. 10 sandwiches

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Where a picnic is against the law

Moroccan assnic

Moroccan protests against the Ramadan fast provoke arrests and angry threats.
By Erik German – GlobalPost
Published: October 26, 2009 06:51 ET

RABAT, Morocco — Death threats, police interrogations and a media firestorm aren’t typical upshots of a decision to enjoy an afternoon picnic.

But that’s just what happened after a circle of Moroccan activists tried meeting for an outdoor lunch during Ramadan last month.

The activists planned the meal to protest a national law that punishes those who break the Islamic holy month’s mandatory daytime fast. Their stated aim was to spur debate on religious freedom.

The resulting brouhaha has observers debating the sway fundamentalists hold in a country that has a 98 percent Muslim majority and which, despite travel advertisements that make its society appear modern and secular, is actually quite traditional. Continue Reading →

Saudi journalist to receive 60 lashes

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From The Ottawa Citizen

Saudi court orders 60 lashes for female journalist

Woman sentenced for being employed by network that broadcast man’s sexual confessions

By Paul Handley, Agence France-PresseOctober 25, 2009

A Saudi female journalist said Saturday that a court has ordered her to receive 60 lashes for working at a television network that aired the sexual confessions of a man.

Rozana al-Yami said a judge in the Red Sea coastal town of Jeddah dropped all charges that she had been directly involved with the episode of a program on LBC, a Saudi-owned Lebanese network, in July.

However, Yami said the judge sentenced her to 60 lashes for having been a part-time employee for LBC’s Saudi operations. The judge mentioned LBC had lacked the appropriate operating licence, she said.

“It’s a punishment for all journalists through me,” Yami told AFP by telephone.

“They just said the channel was illegal. But the Saudi minister of information himself appeared on LBC a couple of weeks ago,” she said.

Saudi judges base their rulings on strict Islamic sharia law, but it was not immediately clear how the judge in this case reached the verdict.

Yami, 22, until recently a reporter for the Arabic women’s magazine Roaa, said she did not know when her sentence would be carried out. She does not plan an appeal, saying she feared she could end up with a harsher sentence.

Her sentencing comes after Saudi airline sales clerk Mazen Abdul Jawad was convicted of offensive behaviour and sentenced to five years in jail and 1,000 lashes on Oct. 7 for his appearance on the LBC show Bold Red Line, in which he talked about picking up girls and having sex with them.

Abdul Jawad’s lawyer Sulaiman al-Jimaie expressed shock at Yami’s sentence because she had nothing to do with him or the episode of the program he appeared in.

Jimaie said the court produced evidence that Yami had helped solicit people to appear on other episodes of Bold Red Line.

“It’s an incredible decision,” he said, comparing it to the recent trials in Sudan of female journalists for wearing “indecent” trousers.

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

Islamists out to destroy Britain beneficiaries of large funding

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From The Telegraph U.K.

Islamists who want to destroy the state get £100,000 funding

Members of a group regarded as an ‘organisation of concern’ by the Home Office has secured large government grants for schools , reports Andrew Gilligan.

Published: 6:00AM GMT 25 Oct 2009

Leading members of a group that wants to bring down the British state and replace it with a dictatorship under Islamic law have secured more than £100,000 of taxpayers’ money for a chain of schools.

Accounts filed at the Charity Commission show that the Government paid a total of £113,411 last year to a foundation run by senior members and activists of Hizb ut-Tahrir — a notorious Islamic extremist group that ministers promised to ban.

The public money helped run a nursery school and two Islamic primary schools where children are taught key elements of Hizb’s ideology from the age of five.

Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, last night described the disclosure as “astonishing and outrageous” and accused the Government of “sleeping on the job”.

Hizb regards integration as “dangerous” and says that British Muslims should “fight assimilation” into British society. It wants to create a global Islamic superstate, or “caliphate”, initially in Muslim-majority countries and then across the rest of the world.

It says that “those [Muslims] who believe in democracy are Kafir”, or apostates. It orders all Muslims to keep apart from non-believers and boycott “corrupt” British elections and political processes. It has a tiny following and its views are rejected by most British Muslims. Continue Reading →

Coren discusses the Toronto imam with Tarek Fatah

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You have to endure about 40 seconds of the imam ranting on but then a good analysis of what he said and more importantly what he meant by Tarek.

Toronto Imam who spewed damnation of infidels attempts spin speech

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“Allah protect us from the fitna [sedition] of these people; Allah protect us from the evil agenda of these people; Allah destroy them from within themselves, and do not allow them to raise their heads in destroying Islam.”

Two days ago we posted the story of Toronto Imam Said Regeah of the Huraira Centre, in which he delivered a hateful, 35 minute speech to a full, 800 male congregation. The speech was nothing more than a diatribe, an attack, on those who have called for a ban on the burqa and niquab in Canada complete with derogatory language leveled against Jews and Christians, a damnation of the infidels, and a call upon Allah to destroy the enemies of Islam.

The National Post attempted to reach Regeah several times for comment before publication of the article but was unsuccessful. But now, from his ” little corner of the beautiful city of Toronto where he contemplates the course of his life” the Imam responds. Notice the attempt to whitewash his remarks as benign ‘ operational definitions” and the invitation to ‘share’ faith.

“May God’s peace and blessings be upon us all” he concludes.

(Addition by Eeyore)

I have taken a 10 minute excerpt of his diatribe for those without the patience to listen to the whole ‘sermon’ where he attacks the Jews, the secularists, and of course foams with indignation that in Canada, infidels do not avert their gaze when a muslim passes. I think that’s my favorite part.

——–

From The National Post Holy Post

Imam Said Rageah responds

Posted: October 23, 2009, 6:30 PM by Ron Nurwisah

Oct 23rd, 2009 –5 Dhul Qa’dah, 1430

Dear Congregants and Visitors of Other Faiths,

Recently, there was a news article describing my sermon and my practice of Islam as one that seeks to incite hatred.  Usually, seeking to answer agenda-driven critics would only serve to distract me from my work of proclaiming the Shahadah, applying what it means in my personal life and also attempting to teach others in a practical and appropriate manner in an environment where practicing Islam can sometimes be portrayed unfairly as a threat.

In my little corner of our beautiful city of Toronto, I sometimes sit back and contemplate the course of my life. I live in a multicultural melting pot with a personal reality that is unique and diverse in many ways. For example, my father-in-law and mother-in-law are Christians, with whom I have a very respectful and loving relationship.  When I talk with them, I reflect and ponder on the nature of the lives of my children and their development.  Our unique Canadian montage will allow them to live in a society, where in spite of the circumstances of their birth or their heritage, they will find their own footing in the Canadian mosaic.  They will carve out their own Islamic identity, an identity that will be free from persecution and enslavement of thought.

As stated in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law. And among the fundamental principles which are the cornerstones of this society are the right to free speech, free thought, free expression and the ability to practice one’s own religious beliefs, all within reasonable, justifiable limits. I share and promote these values as they are also Islamic values.

I will be delivering a sermon today that will touch upon these issues and the recent controversies.  What can be explored in 30 minutes cannot be easily compressed into a one-page statement, but let me try:

1. The expression “kuffar” is based on an operational definition, of what people do to hide something, like the truth about God (“Allah” in Arabic).  In Arabic/Islamic terminology, it does not categorically refer to Christians and Jews, nor does it exclude Muslims.

2. Muslims are closer in belief and practice to observant Christians and Jews than they are to each other and Muslims respect each people as having received Revelation from the same God, and are correctly referred to as “People of the Book”.

3. Men and women in Islam are required to act and dress modestly.  There are a range of interpretations, including hijab and niqab for women.  The choice whether to veil, and the type of veil, should be entirely for each individual Muslim woman to make of her own free will.

4. Politics are shaped by public opinion and public opinion is shaped by the media.  Rather than leaving ignorance to fill the vacuum, Muslims must fully engage in Canadian society with wisdom and the best of speech, to foster mutual respect and understanding and shape an even better country.

I invite you all to learn and share more about your faith and yourselves.

May God’s Peace and Blessings Be Upon Us All

Said Rageah

No place in Canada for polygamy, feds set to defend law

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From CTVNews.

Polygamy has ‘no place in Canada’: justice minister

CTV.ca News Staff

Date: Fri. Oct. 23 2009 4:31 PM ET

The federal justice minister says polygamy has “no place in Canada,” after calls for clarity on the issue from the British Columbia attorney general.

“The prohibition on polygamy is certainly consistent with Canadian values,” Justice Minister Rob Nicholson told reporters Friday at a news conference

He said the federal government is prepared to defend the law, which prevents people from being married to more than one person at one time.

His comment comes the day after B.C.’s attorney general said Canadians and the justice system need clarity on whether or not polygamy is a crime.

On Thursday, the B.C. government said it decided to seek an opinion rather than appeal a court ruling that quashed polygamy charges against Winston Blackmore and James Oler. Both are leaders of breakaway sects of the Mormon Church in Bountiful, B.C. The mainstream church banned polygamy more than 100 years ago.

Blackmore was accused of having 19 wives and Oler three. Continue Reading →

“God made me do it” :no jail time for Canadian in U.S. stabbing

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From CTV News

Like so many others who pull out the God card to justify their violent and despicable actions, Harmit Bhangu is no exception.

No prison time for Canadian resident in U.S. stabbing

Slideshow image

This photo provided by the Clay County police via The Forum, shows Harmit Bhangu. (AP Photo/Clay County police via The Forum)

The Canadian Press

Date: Friday Oct. 23, 2009 7:24 AM ET

MOORHEAD, Minn. — A 33-year-old man from Canada won’t face prison time after being found not guilty by reason of insanity for stabbing a Montana trucker at a Moorhead rest stop.

Harmit Bhangu will instead be deported after he’s sentenced to jail time already served on a separate assault charge. He’ll go to either Canada, where he’d been working, or to his native India.

Clay County Attorney Brian Melton did not oppose a doctor’s determination that Bhangu didn’t know what he was doing last Jan. 11 when he stabbed Dale Morigeau, a truck driver from Ronan, Mont. Morigeau survived the attack.

Psychologists testified in April that Bhangu believed he heard God order him to kill Morigeau.

Repost: Burn Koran, a tribute.

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I posted this in June of 2009. However, given the horrifying new information (to me at least) that Obama and Egypt slipped a bill through the U.N. eliminating the crucial right to criticize or attack irrational religious authority, I thought Vlad was due to re-post this short little video. Please enjoy the music, but read the captions as they go by. This video now in many countries is punishable by death for having made it and perhaps even for having watched it and now, thanks to Obama and others, the legitimacy to persecute those who would question or even ridicule the irrational, the tyrants who operate under the guise of religion, the true purveyors of hate, may now find themselves on the wrong side of the law, in nations which formerly represented progress, freedom, and logical thought.

Link: Burn Koran a tribute 2

Video on women in Islam.

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Here is another video from STOPshariaLAWnow, the same person who brought us the stunning History of the Arab Slave trade Vlad Tepes subtitled.

English schools to close for Muslim, Hindu and Sikh holidays

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Move over Christmas and Easter, it’s time for Eid-Ul-Fitr, Diwali and Guru Nanak’s birthday. Curiously, schools have not been told to close for Jewish holidays. It’s good to know that English school councils understand the priorities of education.

From The Telegraph U.K.

Row over school closures for Muslim, Hindu and Sikh holidays

Two councils have instructed all schools under their control to shut for the annual celebrations of Eid-Ul-Fitr, Diwali and Guru Nanak’s Birthday, in addition to the Christian festivals of Christmas and Easter.

By Jonathan Wynne-Jones and Ian Johnston
Published: 9:45PM BST 17 Oct 2009
Primary school: Row over school closures for Muslim, Hindu and Sikh holidays

Parents and teaching unions have joined in the criticism of the Waltham Forest policy Photo: PA

The directive, by Waltham Forest and Newham councils, in east London, even affects schools where very few pupils are Muslim, Hindu or Sikh.

After concerns were raised, a review of the policy has been launched in Waltham Forest, with some criticising the closures as inappropriate, unnecessary and “political”.

Headteachers have argued that they should be given discretion in deciding which days to mark, as happens in big multi-ethnic cities including Manchester, Birmingham and Bradford.

Whereas one in six Waltham Forest residents is Muslim, according to the last census, Hindus make up only 1.8 per cent of the borough’s population, and Sikhs only 0.6 per cent. Jews outnumber Sikhs in the borough, according to the census, yet schools have not been told to close for any Jewish holidays. Continue Reading →