Category Archives: Sharia Law

Yemeni child bride dies after intercourse

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From The HeraldSun, Australia

Yemeni child bride dies of bleeding after intercourse

  • By AFP
  • From: NewsCore
  • April 08, 2010 8:24PM

A 13-year-old Yemeni girl who was forced into marriage died five days after her wedding when she suffered a rupture in her sex organs and hemorrhaging, a local rights organization said today. Ilham Mahdi al Assi died last Friday in a hospital in Yemen’s Hajja province, the Shaqaeq Arab Forum for Human Rights said in a statement quoting a medical report.

She was wedded the previous Monday in a traditional arrangement known as a “swap marriage,” in which the brother of the bride also married the sister of the groom, it said.

“The child Ilham has died as a martyr due to the abuse of children’s lives in Yemen,” the non-governmental organization said.

Her death was a “flagrant example” of the results of opposing the ban on child marriage in Yemen, which was leading to “killing child females,” it said.

The marriage of young girls is widespread in Yemen, which has a strong tribal structure.

The death of a 12-year-old girl in childbirth in September illustrated the case of the country’s “brides of death,” many of whom were married off even before puberty.

Controversy heightened in Yemen recently over a law banning child marriage in the impoverished country through setting a minimum age of 17 for women and 18 for men.

Thousands of conservative women demonstrated outside parliament last month, answering a call by Islamist parties opposing the law.

A lesser number of women rallied at the same venue a few days later in support of the law, the implementation of which was blocked pending a request by a group of politicians for a review.

Saudi’s prevent Canadian woman from leaving country without father’s permission

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From The CBC

Government wants to help woman leave Saudi Arabia

Last Updated: Thursday, March 18, 2010 | 5:04 PM ET

Conservative and Liberal MP’s told CBC Radio’s Ottawa Morning Thursday that the federal government must continue putting pressure on the Saudi Arabian government to allow an Ottawa woman there to return to Canada.

Nazia Quazi, who graduated from the University of Ottawa and holds dual Indian-Canadian citizenship, alleges she has been unable to leave Saudi Arabia for two years because her father refuses to grant her permission.

Saudi law prohibits an unmarried woman from leaving the country unless she obtains her male guardian’s consent.

“We have to keep talking to both the Saudi government and to the father involved about why this just can’t continue in this way,” said Bob Rae, the Liberal foreign affairs critic Thursday.

Quazi, now 24, entered Saudi Arabia in 2007 on a visitor’s visa to see her family. She claims her father, an Indian national working in Saudi Arabia, sponsored her for a permanent visa without her knowledge, and took away her Canadian and Indian passports. She alleges that he has refused to let her leave because her family didn’t approve of her boyfriend. Continue Reading →

FIFA to Iran: “no hijabs on the field”

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From The Telegraph U.K.

Iran demands Fifa lifts Olympic games football hijab ban

Iran has demanded that Fifa overturn a ban on its girls football team from the Youth Olympic games after the team was kicked out for wearing Islamic scarves that contravene international rules.

by Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Published: 1:15PM BST 06 Apr 2010
Iran's girls football teams banned from Olympics for wearing hijab

Players of Iran’s women national football team Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Iran’s national Olympic committee had called on Fifa, football’s world governing body, and the International Olympic Committee to review the ban on the hijab.

The hijab is worn women beyond the age of puberty to observe Islamic rules on modesty and interaction of the sexes.

“We have asked the heads of these international sports organisations to review and annul Fifa’s decision,” Bahram Afsharzadeh, the Iranian Olympic committee secretary general said. “Hijab is related to the Islamic culture and Muslim women can’t take part in social activities without it.”

The inaugural Youth Olympic games will be held from August 14 to 26 in Singapore and Thailand was nominated on Monday to replace the barred Iranians.

Jerome Valcke, the Fifa secretary general, rejected the Iranian Olympic panel’s request in a letter to the national football federation. Continue Reading →

Benno Barnard, shouted down at Antwerp U, speaks about his new politics

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Ripped wholesale from the Gates of Vienna, this is an important post. A Belgium leftist who openly called Philip Dewinter a racist for years, sings in a different key and a different mode now.

First, the video of his lecture:

Now, the post from Gates of Vienna:

by Baron Bodissey

“I have called Filip Dewinter a fascist for twenty years. I was wrong. The fascists are with the Muslims. Dewinter thus had always been right. And this is from an old leftist boy such as myself.”

— Benno Barnard


Benno BarnardOur Flemish correspondent VH reported on Thursday about the silencing of Benno Barnard at the University of Antwerp. Dr. Barnard was about to give a lecture on the differences between Islam and Christianity, but loud shouting and threats from a crowd of young Muslims forced the cancellation of his talk.

VH has compiled a follow-up report about the incident from miscellaneous Dutch-language sources. First, a translated interview with Benno Barnard from De Standaard.

“This was the best lecture I ever could have given”

by Nikolas Vanhecke

Q: The title of the lecture that you intended to give in the University of Antwerp reads “Long live God, down with Allah.” The lecture is primarily about the Judeo-Christian tradition. Why did you choose that title?
A: Obviously, in the title I make use of the rhetorical technique of the provocation. A characteristic of the Judeo-Christian tradition is debate. This interaction goes back to the Old Testament and led to the Enlightenment, humanism and democracy. Provocation is the clearest form of disagreement. Our entire culture exists because of that.

Islam does not know that debate. To clarify the difference, I switch on the metaphor of Allah.
Q: In other words, the Islam is an undemocratic religion.
A: The real Islam does not know the possibility of democratization. There are democratically sound Muslims, but they do not stick to the strict rules of Islam. Sharia is described in the Quran, and it is those laws the real Islam preaches.

There is a quote from Kemal Ataturk: “Islam, that absurd theology of an immoral Bedouin, is a rotting corpse which poisons our lives.” And I can give you still more such as this from unexpected sources who criticize Islam. Secularization is in violation of Islam, as it emerged from Mecca and Medina.

And all that nonsense about the real Islam, you can study at the University of Antwerp in the context of active pluralism. Some of the members of Sharia4Belgium are studying at the UA. That way they also found out about the lecture. Or did you think it is followed outside the university?
Q: Would you have preferred to have given your reading or do you find the incident stronger than your lecture?
A: That was the best lecture I could give. I speak two sentences and get no further because they start roaring ‘Allahu akhbar’. Welcome to the future! By their action they have formulated a part of my thesis.
Q: In 2004, along with other writers, you called on people not to vote for the (then) Vlaams Blok. Last year you agreed with Filip Dewinter in his criticism of Islam. What has changed you?
A: “I have studied Islam thoroughly, by reading the Koran but also by reading other books. Nowadays I think Filip Dewinter is a prophet. I always called him a racist, but had blinders on then. He understood very early what the true nature of Sharia is. As a Belgicist, though, I am not a lover of Vlaams Belang [VB strives for an independent Flanders—translator].”
Q: What are you then?
A: I have often called myself a left-wing conservative. I advocate a leftist emancipation. Many leftist people are actually right-wing without knowing it. From a misunderstanding of social reality they support Muslims. Then at a certain point you get feminists who defend the burka. Education has been ruined by a mistaken equal opportunities policy of the Social Democrats. I am the opposite of a racist.

This whole story is in theory the most harmful of all for moderate Muslims. One of the police officers yesterday [Wednesday March 31] was a Muslim, and he was abused as a traitor.
Q: Were you actually warned beforehand that protection would be needed?
A: The police had contacted the university. Their safety unit had noticed messages on the website Sharia4Belgium and also knew that the group “Youth for Islam” was calling via SMS for the boycott.
Q: Were you still shocked by the incident?
A: What do you think? At that moment it seems so unrealistic that it is exactly as if you are watching yourself on television. In retrospect it only begins to dawn. Luckily I had bodyguards, otherwise I would not be able to speak to anyone today.
Next, an article from Nieuwsblad:

March by the EDL in Dudley today. A preliminary analysis.

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The EDL got some predictably bad press in todays mainstream UK media. There is a great deal however that is not said. First of all, the people who rushed the barriers where fully masked while the EDL had clearly stated that people show up without doing that. Also, the marshals of the march fought with those who attempted to create problems, where none existed. Also, the number of people who did rush the barriers and caused all that negative ink to be spilled appear to have been something like twenty out of three to five thousand people. (estimates based on several people who where there, and the fact that the BBC quoted two thousand people, and they typically half the number if it is a group they do not agree with. Canadian listeners to CBC should be very familiar with this tactic although the CBC typically will underestimate the number by often 90%)

Gates of Vienna has this eye witness report from reliable and known people who attended the rally:

by Baron Bodissey

EDL header
Here’s the first eyewitness report from today’s English Defence League demonstration in Dudley, from Gaia:

The crowd in Dudley was the biggest so far, possibly 3,000 to 5000.

Guramit Singh, one of the leaders of the EDL, gave a speech. also A little Russian girl also gave a speech in Russian about the Moscow bombings.

I’m not sure why the barriers were knocked over, and I didn’t see any UAF.

For the story about the barriers being knocked over, see The Birmingham Mail. I’ve included excerpts from that article and another from the BBC at the bottom of this post.

This is the speech given by Guramit Singh in Dudley:

The English dictionary says “a wish is a hope or desire for something”. We all know, we all wish everyday. 20,000 members of the Dudley public have made a wish. They have petitioned against a super mosque being built in their town.

This proposed mosque is the size of three football pitches with minarets built to such a height they generally impose on a large scale on Dudley. Not only will this eyesore pose a visual threat for the people of Dudley, it has the potential to threaten their lives as well, The mosque is being funded by Saudi Arabia which believes in Wahhabi Islam, the same interpretation Osama bin Laden bases his worldwide jihad on.

So in what way would this be a benefit to the Dudley community, when it has the common attributes for being a breeding ground for radical Muslims? It also has clustered around it a community which will be only for Muslims. Segregation, if proposed by myself or any other member of the British public, would be classed as a act of racism and ethnic cleansing. So how will this benefit this city?

The majority have stood and petitioned, but yet again this is completely ignored by the local government. The people of Dudley do not wish to have this enormous threat on their doorstep. They have a basic human right to be protected from this nightmare construction project and the potential nightmare cannot be allowed to manifest itself here.

20,000 wishes were overlooked by Dudley council.

Well, people of Dudley, on this day April 3rd 2010, 3000 members of the English Defence League are here to make your wishes come true, for this is England, and we will not tolerate it!

We, the English Defence League, will march every four weeks until the Outline Planning Permission has been overturned. We will make sure the voices of the people of Dudley are heard, and not put on a back bench to appease local Muslims. There is no need for this super mosque to be constructed, and the morale of the people of Dudley be demolished.

We will stand, we will fight and the English Defence League will grant them of their wish, for this is England and our voices will not be dismissed!

I can quite easily give you a brief outline of what the female Muslim population of this country wish for. They wish for their husbands to not commit acts of bigamy, they wish not to be suppressed and forced to wear burkhas. These are illegal under Common Law, but yet again the government give special treatment to the same militant Muslims, that recently killed 40 and injured 87 in the suicide bomb attacks in Russia, for they fear being called racist. Why don’t the government do something about the female Muslim issues we have happening right now in this country?

Cases of forced marriage of schoolgirls are rife in this country. Many girls are attending school one day and then, after a seasonal holiday, are never to be seen again. I can tell you their wish. It is to come home, to be safe, to enjoy the privilege of living in this country, the same as the rest of us. Another massive problem they face is undergoing the procedure of FGM, female genital mutilation, about which I will not go into a description, but which leaves these poor girls physically and mentally scared for life. All done in the name of their religion.

Why not invest and deal with these problems in your community rather than building breeding grounds for terrorism? This would never be a wish for some of these girls. It is their basic human right under Common Law to be protected, but still no one listens.

So we will march, we will demonstrate and we will highlight these issues wherever necessary because this is England and we will not give up on ourselves, and as one of my fellow leaders Tommy Robinson once said in Stoke, “from Land’s End to John o’ Groats,

We will not surrender!”

From The Birmingham Mail:

English Defence League and UAF Dudley Protests: Seven Arrested

A Seventh person has been arrested in Dudley, where two events by the EDL and UAF are ongoing.

The seventh arrest was for possession of an offensive weapon.

Police at the EDL venue quickly restored calm after a brief outbreak of disorder among protesters at around 3.20pm.

Police have now contained a group of EDL supporters who broke away from the main section of their party as they were being taken back to their coaches.

Officers responded rapidly to the incident near the EDL protest venue shortly after the event’s 4pm deadline had passed.

Officers dealt with sporadic incidents within the protest group after barriers were knocked over.

Meanwhile a seventh person has been arrested, for possession of an offensive weapon.

Two people were arrested late yesterday for criminal damage to a wall beneath a bridge in the town.

A further four have been arrested today on suspicion of possessing an offensive weapon. Two of them were also arrested for possessing a Class A drug.

Chief Insp Mark Payne, of West Midlands Police, said at 2.30pm: “Many of the protesters and people attending the multi-faith event are now in place and at this stage are getting their messages across peacefully.”

The BBC (which disagrees on the crowd size) has a bit more to say:

The two groups organised demonstrations in Dudley, West Midlands, which resulted in the market closing and shops being boarded up.

[…]

About 2,000 people took part in the demonstrations.

Five people were arrested on suspicion of possessing an offensive weapon.

Two more people were arrested on Friday evening on suspicion of causing damage to a wall beneath a bridge in the town.

‘Additional heat’

Ch Insp Mark Payne said police knew who some of the main protagonists were.

“As part of the preparation we have made some arrests overnight to deal with some people who might be placing additional heat on the demonstration.

“We look very closely at who we think it is going to cause trouble and we have people on the ground who will be able to indentify them to local officers,” he said.

Police said they had met with organisers from both groups prior to the demonstrations.

Unite Against Fascism began its protest during the morning with the EDL one getting under way in the afternoon.

The EDL said one of its issues was the building of a “mega mosque” in Dudley which the council had opposed on planning grounds but which was permitted by the government.

The council said it had closed the market following discussions with traders.

Police said it did not welcome the EDL protest in Dudley, but was committed to making sure it was peaceful.

“Disorder and violence will not be tolerated,” a spokesman said.

Here is another speech by an EDL spokeswoman. Worth the watch:

Interview with EDL’s Trevor Kelway

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by Baron Bodissey From Gates of Vienna:
EDL header
Later this morning the English Defence League will be staging a demonstration in Dudley, a borough near Birmingham in the English Midlands. The EDL is protesting the proposed building of a large mosque.

We’ll be reporting the news from Dudley as it trickles in later today. In the meantime, below is an interview with Trevor Kelway, one of the leaders of the English Defence League, by our EDL correspondent “G”:

Interview with Trevor Kelway
02 April 2010

Q: Let’s start with who the EDL are. Your website says: “The EDL was formed on the 27th of June, 2009 due to frustration at the lack of any significant action by the British Government against extremist Muslim preachers and organisations such as Islam4UK, Hizb ut-Tahrir, the Islamic Forum of Europe, the Muslim Council of Britain — the list goes on”.

Is the EDL still primarily about pushing back the influence of extremist Muslim preachers and organisations? Have you developed any additional aims over the last nine months? A: This is still our primary aim: to reverse the trend of Islamic extremism and its promoters. We are supportive of the wider aims within the UK — removing sharia law, prohibiting halal slaughter, and banning the burka.

Q: What are the EDL’s methods? Continue Reading →

David G. Littman UN-HRC on female genital mutilation

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FGM: ‘traditional practice’ in 32 countries, of which 29 are OIC States — 3 million girls mutilated worldwide each year, 95% of Egyptians

Comments by David G. Littman, NGO Representative at the UN in Geneva:
Association for World Education and World Union for Progressive Judaism
Oral statement (from UN webcast below the fold) reproduced verbatim below Continue Reading →

Sold, raped and jailed, a girl faces Afghan justice

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Reuters:

Deepa Babington
KABUL
Tue Mar 30, 2010 5:22pm EDT

Afghan girls escape home, not prison

Tue, Mar 30 2010

A prison guard (R) watches inmates from behind a fence during a media event at a women's prison in Kabul March 30, 2010. U Reuters/Tim Wimborne

KABUL (Reuters) – For the shy Afghan girl who sat quietly in a detention center with a pale blue headscarf, teenage rebellion had come at a heavy price: seven years in prison.

World

Engaged to an older man who had offered $5,000 to her father but in love with a boy she spoke to on the phone, the 16-year-old girl was hauled before a court that found her guilty of running away from home, according to an account she provided.

“I was engaged to an older man and I was not happy. He was painting his beard black,” said the girl, who cannot be named because of rules protecting juvenile detainees.

Now pregnant, she said she did not know who the baby’s father was, adding she had slept with both the boy she was in love with and the man she was engaged to. She also said she had been raped while in detention before being sent to the Kabul facility. The girl’s story offers a glimpse into the nature of Afghanistan’s rudimentary justice system, underscoring the uphill task ahead as U.S. President Barack Obama calls for improving the rule of law to match military gains in the country.

Obama has ordered an extra 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan to beat back a resurgent Taliban, but officials also recognize progress on civilian issues like corruption, governance and justice will be essential to bringing stability to the country.

“I’ve seen travesties in court,” said Kimberly Motley, a U.S. lawyer who interviewed 348 detainees, judges and others for a report on the juvenile justice system and also represents the pregnant Afghan girl in an effort to win her freedom.

“I’ve seen kids not even being brought into court for their hearing. Cases without any witnesses. And more times, no evidence than any evidence. And the verdict is always guilty.”

Young girls usually fare the worst within the system, she said. In a deeply conservative Muslim society where women were banned from education during Taliban rule, anything from trying to escape a forced marriage to walking down the street with a boy who is not a relative can land them in jail.

NO-WIN SITUATION

About half the young girls locked up in Afghan detention centres are charged with “moral crimes” like running away from home and adultery, Motley said. At times, runaways are booked on the surreal charge of “kidnapping” themselves, she said. Continue Reading →

Feminists today mostly, should be deeply ashamed of themselves.

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Somehow, feminists, who once marched to get equal rights before the law for women, for genuine autonomy and so on, have allied themselves with the most misogynistic cult in the history of mankind. All those amazing women who marched for the vote, for reproductive rights, for equality in law, they must be sick not just to see how fast governments and cultures are submitting to Islam, but to see the very feminist groups they founded taken over by Marxists more interested in destroying Western Civilization than preserving the brilliant gains made by women over the centuries.

Belgium set to ban burqa.

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From The Telegraph U.K.

Belgium could be first country to ban the burka

Belgium is on course to become the first European country to ban the burka after a parliamentary committee backed proposals to make it illegal on the grounds of national security and women’s rights.

By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels
Published: 5:21PM BST 31 Mar 2010

Belgium could be first country to ban the burka

Muslims who ignore the ban could face fines of £22 and a jail sentence of up to seven days unless they have written police permission to wear the garments Photo: REUTERS

The unanimous decision by senior home affairs legislators, with the support of Belgium’s main political parties, has paved the way for a full Belgian parliament vote on a ban to be held in three weeks.

The proposed legislation would ban any clothing or veils that do not allow the wearer to be properly identified, including the full-face niqab and burka that is worn by a small minority of Muslim women.

Those Muslims who ignore the ban could face fines of £22 and a jail sentence of up to seven days unless they have written police permission to wear the garments.

Denis Ducarme, a Belgian MP for the liberal Reformist Movement party that drafted the ban, predicted that legislation would receive full parliamentary backing on April 22.

“This is a very strong signal being sent to Islamists,” he said. “I am proud that Belgium would be the first country in Europe which dares to legislate on this sensitive matter.”

Daniel Bacquelaine, MR’s leader, said the proposed legislation would liberate Muslim women.

“Even if it’s on a voluntary basis, the burka is contrary to the dignity of women. It’s a walking prison,” he said. “We have to free women of this burden.”

But the Belgian ban is likely to face opposition and judicial challenges following Monday’s ruling by the French Council of State that a full burka ban in France was “unconstitutional”.

Fouad Lahssaini, a Green MP, warned that Belgian legislation was “judicially unsafe” because Belgium’s own Council of State, which acts as a supreme court, had not given its opinion on a ban.

“Speed is sometimes necessary in a democracy, but precipitous haste is the megaphone of populism,” he said.

Isabelle Praile, the vice president of the Muslim Executive of Belgium, warned that the ban would damage civil liberties.

“Today it’s the full-face veil, tomorrow the veil, the day after it will be Sikh turbans and then perhaps it will be mini skirts,” she said.

The ban will be imposed on all streets, parks, sports grounds or buildings “meant for public use or to provide services”, with exceptions allowed for religious festivities if municipal authorities decide to grant them.

The ban comes amid controversy over the wearing of Muslim religious symbols in public places and as a high-profile trial of nine alleged al-Queda terrorists takes place in Brussels.

Belgium has been alarmed by the case of Malika El Aroud, a veiled Islamist radical and Belgian national, charged with leading the recruitment of young Brussels Muslims for suicide bombing missions. She was required to remove her burka in court when her trial opened earlier this month.

National debate has also raged over a protracted legal battle by Muslim mathematics teacher who demanded the right to wear a veil while teaching in her classroom.

She has been given until the middle of next week to return, unveiled, to her Charleroi school or to lose her job.

Mastercard goes for the sharia banking market

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From The National Post

MasterCard offers card aimed at Muslims

Tim Shufelt, National Post Published: Tuesday, March 30, 2010

A March 2010 handout of MasterCards new credit card for Muslims, iFreedom

A new interest-free credit card, the first of its kind in North America, aims to reconcile Islamic canonical and Western consumer culture.

Until now, observant Muslims have been precluded from owning credit cards on which they pay interest, a violation of shariah law.

The iFreedom Plus Mastercard, set to be available in the coming days, promises no bills, no interest and no credit card debt.

“Everyone living their day-to-day lives, they need a credit card. You can’t rent a car, you can’t travel if you don’t have a card. Everyone wants one in their pocket,” said Omar Kalair, president of UM Financial, a Toronto-based Islamic financing firm that is launching the card with the Mastercard brand.

But banks have little incentive to offer products that don’t bear high interest rates, causing a dilemma for Muslim consumers in Canada, he said.

With the iFreedom Plus Mastercard, holders load up their card with cash in advance, up to $6,000. Each purchase draws down on the account without accruing interest.

The concept follows the Islamic principle that finance should be backed by owned assets. It was approved by a panel of Muslim religious scholars, Mr. Kalair said.

“You’re spending money you actually own,” he said. “There’s a certain degree of stress when you use a credit card. On this one there isn’t.”

Cardholders pay $50 for two years of use and each transfer of cash on to the card costs 95 cents.

And since the new product doesn’t actually involve credit, applicants are approved without a credit check.

The card, which is primarily aimed at younger newcomers, was launched at the inaugural conference of the Usury-Free Association of North America in downtown Toronto.

“As soon as you hit university, all the banks start sending you $500 credit cards,” Mr. Kalair said. “People start using them and start getting in debt. It’s better to start someone on a prepaid.”

Card accounts will be managed by Mint Technology, which operates other prepaid card programs. But unlike other prepaid cards, the iFreedom card is personally embossed and draws on the pervasiveness of the Mastercard brand, Mr. Kalair said.

And on purchases of more than $100, cardholders earn 1% cash back.

Also, Abu Dhabi-based carrier Etihad Airways is offering a 10% discount for customers booking a flight with the card.

“And our community travels a lot,” Mr. Kalair said.

National Post

KitmanTV Christian Persecution video mix

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Here is an excellent collection of some important documentaries on the treatment of Christians in the Islamic world. Some of the early footage is from a staggering documentary on the Zabaline people of Egypt, a Christian sect that has to live as slaves if slaves had to pay for their own servitude.

Thanks again to KitmanTV for doing this:

The Zabaline of Egypt:

Saudis fund Balkan Muslims spreading hate of the West

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TIMESONLINE… SAUDI ARABIA is pouring hundreds of millions of pounds into Islamist groups in the Balkans, some of which spread hatred of the West and recruit fighters for jihad in Afghanistan.

According to officials in Macedonia, Islamic fundamentalism threatens to destabilise the Balkans. Strict Wahhabi and Salafi factions funded by Saudi organisations are clashing with traditionally moderate local Muslim communities.

Fundamentalists have financed the construction of scores of mosques and community centres as well as handing some followers up to £225 a month. They are expected not only to grow beards but also to persuade their wives to wear the niqab, or face veil, a custom virtually unknown in the liberal Islamic tradition of the Balkans.

Government sources in traditionally secular Macedonia (official title the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), said they were monitoring up to 50 Al-Qaeda volunteers recruited to fight in Afghanistan.

Classified documents seen by The Sunday Times reveal that Macedonian officials are also investigating a number of Islamic charities, some in Saudi Arabia, which are active throughout the Balkans and are suspected of spreading extremism and laundering money for terrorist organisations. Continue Reading →

Tolerating the intolerant

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From The Montreal Gazette

Tolerating the intolerant

Canadians jump through hoops trying to accommodate Muslims from countries that refuse to accept other religions

By SHERIF EMIL, FreelanceMarch 28, 2010 4:10 AM
Villagers look at the bodies of Christians killed in fighting with Muslims in Dogo Nahawa in central Nigeria.

Villagers look at the bodies of Christians killed in fighting with Muslims in Dogo Nahawa in central Nigeria.

Photograph by: AKINTUNDE AKINLEYE, REUTERS, Freelance

The Copts, Egypt’s indigenous Christians, like many other Eastern Orthodox Christians, celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7, according to the Julian calendar. The midnight mass and Christmas day are joyous celebrations for Egypt’s Christians, as they are for Christians around the world.

But there was no joy among Christians in Egypt at the start of this new decade. As celebrants were leaving a Coptic church in Nagi Hammadi shortly before midnight on Jan. 6, a hail of machinegun fire abruptly changed the giggling of children and the well-wishes of adults into screams of pain and agony.

Six people, aged 16 to 26, were murdered on the spot. Two others died later in hospital. A Muslim guard at the church was also killed.

Over the next two days, more Christian families were attacked by Muslim mobs, resulting in widespread destruction of property and businesses.

When I shared the event with my colleagues on Jan. 8, hardly anyone had heard the news. There was very little coverage in the Western media. And in the days that followed, hardly anyone was concerned when five churches were destroyed in Muslim Malaysia or when a Protestant church had burned to ashes in Muslim Algeria. A massacre of Christians in the Muslim part of Nigeria soon followed. Vicious attacks on Christian minorities occurred in three supposedly moderate Muslim countries within a single week. But not an eyebrow was raised. Continue Reading →

We’re selling our hotel, say Christian couple in row with Muslim guest

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By Jonathan Petre The Daily Mail UK

Last updated at 10:00 PM on 27th March 2010

The two Christian hoteliers cleared last year of insulting a Muslim guest are being forced to sell up because their business has collapsed.

Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang are putting their nine-bedroom hotel up for auction in May because they can no longer pay the mortgage.

Despite donations sent to them by Christian supporters from around the world, they still have debts of well over £400,000.

Business lost: Hoteliers Ben and Sharon VogelenzangBusiness lost: Hoteliers Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang

They are also considering a civil action against the police who brought the prosecution.

Mrs Vogelenzang, 54, said last night it was ‘devastating’ that they could be left with nothing as the result of a case that should never have come to court. Continue Reading →