Polygamy in British Muslim Community "Rife"

According to this BBC article, polygamy is far more prevalent in Britain than most Muslims over there are willing to admit. Dr. Zabina Shahian, a 40-something GP, was "devastated" after she discovered (through detective work) that her husband still had a wife and three kids in Pakistan. She's now doing her best to help other Brit Muslim women who are dealing with the same issue, though many in the community are not looking kindly upon her efforts.

"When I go down to my parents I get all the neighbours looking at me.

"As a Muslim woman I'm supposed to keep a low profile. I feel like I've committed a crime here although I'm the victim.

"You're supposed to keep your mouth shut and you're supposed to just carry on. It is impregnated into our culture."

Her 54-year-old husband, former conservative party politician Pervez Choudhry, claimed that he had no clue his Pakistani marriage would be valid in England. It's doubtful that an educated man would have no idea that if you don't divorce your spouse you are still legally bound to that person regardless of where you wind up living.

Though most women don't have the means to do anything about a suspected bigamist husband, Shahian did. She hired a detective and spent two years and a bundle of money to track down information on Choudhry's second family. They discovered that his first wife was the result of an "arranged" marriage in 1986.

Her case against Choudhry, however, is not the norm, since polygamy in the UK usually goes unpunished.

This is because they are able to avoid having their second or third marriages registered in the UK by having a Nikah ceremony instead - an Islamic non-registered marriage contract not recognised under British law.

For a Nikah wedding to be recognised in the UK, the marriage needs to have an accompanying civil ceremony.

Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, director of think tank The Muslim Institute, said men could exploit the "cruel loophole" of the Nikah, allowing them to have more than one wife under Islamic law but not having to register the marriage in the UK, which means the woman would have no spousal rights if the marriage were to fail.

"They dump their first wife and simply go to Pakistan, Bangladesh or wherever and marry again," he said.

Leading family solicitor Annemarie Hutchinson, who represents Muslim women, said no official statistics were available but that Dr Shahian joined thousands of Muslim women in the UK who were victims of polygamous marriages.

"There are lots and lots of second marriages and second wives - it's rife."

But in cases where prosecution would be possible, she said there would be no case "unless the first or second wife pushes for it".

"It's bigamy but the police won't prosecute because there would be thousands of cases," she said.

Siddiqui says that polygamy

"...is so widely spread they don't blame men having a second wife or a third or fourth wife. They accept this is their lot."

It's hard to believe that it's so prevalent in a Western, non-Muslim country- then again, we are talking about Britain that does allow Shariah law.

Al-Houthis Desecrate Quran, Yemen Sunnis Outraged

Muslims are at each other's throats again, this time in Yemen. The Sunni Salafis over there are infuriated with the Shia al-Houthi militants over the desecration of a Quran. Yes, they desecrate their own holy books, as witnessed in a video of a dead Salafi being dragged by al-Houthi extremists. Apparently, a man in Sana'a saw the video posted somewhere on-line, noticed the Quran dropping from the dead man's pocket, and subsequently being trampled on. According to the Yemen Observer, the man said that

...  he felt utterly disgusted with al-Houthis, stressing further that the move was a declaration of war against every respectful Muslim. “The Quran is our heart and soul, walking on it equates to insulting our beloved Prophet, his teachings and God himself. Surely our clerics will issue a fatwa condemning the culprits. Those men should be tried for apostasy,” said Abdullah Goorgoor.

Hello, the al-Houthis are also Muslims, and the Quran is their heart and soul, as well.

I haven't been able to track down the video, so it's not clear whether the trampling was deliberate or not, though that doesn't seem to matter much to religious fanatics. We know how outraged they became when a few of our soldiers in Afghanistan inadvertently burned some Qurans which had extremist messages written all over them, which is desecration in and of itself. But they're not smart enough to distinguish the difference.

But the al-Houthis and Salafist Sunnis have been battling for the heart and soul of  northern Yemen for a long time:

Al-Houthi militants, a group of Shia Muslim which advocates a return to the ancestral rule of the Imams have been enthralled in a war with Salafists, a group of hard-liner Sunni Muslims calling for a strict application of the Scriptures; both factions seeking to control Yemen northern territories.
Al-Houthis which famously fought the government back in 2004-2009 in a lengthy and bloody war, used last year’s unrest to awaken its army, finding in Teheran an enthusiastic ally against the Saudis, and hence Sunni hegemony in the Peninsula.

Some are afraid this 'desecration' incident will flame the fires of sectarianism, not that that's a big surprise.  Yemeni political analyst Ahmed al-Sofi said:

“Yemenis do not take lightly to religiously driven insult, especially when it comes to its most sacred and revered book, the Quran. Unless some apologies are formulated, Salafists will retaliate in the most violent manner possible as it constitutes for them a clear call for Jihad [holy war].”

Ironically, the leader of the al-Houthis, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, vociferously condemned the Bagram Quran desecration, calling on all Muslims to  stage anti-American "anger protests", and that accepting a US apology would be "of no benefit." Does that mean they have no intention of apologizing to the Salafists?
If it was indeed desecrated, where are all the violent protests in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Malaysia and Bangladesh? Oh, that's right, it wasn't American soldiers that were responsible.

Religious Talk Radio Host Tells Saudi Man To Divorce Wife and He Does- Live On Air

Chauvinism is rampant in the Muslim world, particularly in countries like Saudi Arabia where women aren't even allowed to drive. Like children and animals, women are expected to be obedient or there are consequences. Severe, at times. Women have been beaten and divorced for as little as putting cheese instead of meat into a samosa. They are even killed for 'disobedience."

And divorcing a woman is as simple as texting from a cell phone or loudspeaker at a mall. So it's not really surprising to hear that a Saudi man divorced his wife over the airwaves, after calling in to a radio talk show hosted by religious scholar, Sheikh Ghazi al-Shammari.   Apparently the man was fed up with his wife disobeying him by working and traveling alone, and this "offended his manhood."

The man phoned the program to complain to that his wife disobeyed him by travelling without his approval from the Saudi port city of Jeddah to the capital Riyadh for a business conference.

He told Shammari that before his marriage he had accepted his wife’s demands to work on condition that work would not interfere with their marital life.

Shammari advised the man to divorce his wife as a punitive measure for “committing such a mistake against her home and husband.”
The husband immediately heeded the advice and divorced her during the live program although Shammari advised him to remarry her if she repents.

Yes, it's that easy.
Shammari defended his advice telling Al Arabiya that

“The husband called me in my program this afternoon and told me that he was financially capable and did not want his wife to work and that he is having problems with her about this issue for more than 10 years and that he has been patient for long. But the issue has developed to the extent that she would travel without his approval,” Shammari said.

“He was surprised that she sent him a text message from the airport telling him that she was traveling alone... and this is why I advised him to divorce her because she was not obeying her husband, a matter that is very important in Islam.”

“I did not make a mistake with my advice to the man, because what the wife did, travelling without his consent from Jeddah to Riyadh, is a serious matter and a cause for doubt,” He said.

“Such a wife is suspicious because she insisted to travel alone to Riyadh and without ample reason,” the scholar said. I did not rush with the advice because I saw that the issue was dangerous and we should not remain silent more about it.”

The woman is obviously better off without a husband that expects blind obedience, because Islam says that's what women should do. I think the Sheikh, as much of an idiot as he is, actually did her a favor. And more than likely, she feels the same way.

Muslim Prayer Rooms For All Australian Football Venues

At the behest of Bachar Houli, the AFL's one Muslim player, all Australian Football venues will eventually have prayer rooms.

Muslims are delighted they'll have somewhere to go for their mandatory 5 prayers per day while attending football games;  others, aren't so thrilled about pandering to a minority religious group.

Egyptian Women Outraged Over Possible Sex-After-Death & Early Marriage Laws

UPDATE:  Apparently not true. Interesting story about how this rumor turned into fact.

Women in Egypt are getting quite worried about the Islamists who swept into power (overwhelmingly) after the Arab Spring. Along with their fundamentalism come some very bizarre edicts and laws, and females over there are very concerned about having them implemented.

Egypt’s National Council for Women (NCW) has appealed to the Islamist-dominated parliament not to approve two controversial laws on the minimum age of marriage and allowing a husband to have sex with his dead wife within six hours of her death according to a report in an Egyptian newspaper.

The appeal came in a message sent by Dr. Mervat al-Talawi, head of the NCW, to the Egyptian People’s Assembly Speaker, Dr. Saad al-Katatni, addressing the woes of Egyptian women, especially after the popular uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.

She was referring to two laws: one that would legalize the marriage of girls starting from the age of 14 and the other that permits a husband to have sex with his dead wife within the six hours following her death.

It's not quite clear whether the issue of  'necrophilia' ('Farewell Intercourse' draft law) is actually up for vote in Egypt, or whether the women are just afraid that it might be. Apparently Zamzami Abdul Bari, some whacked out Moroccan cleric, in 2011 was the first to encourage husbands to have one last go with their newly dead wives, adding that it was okay for women to do the same thing.  This is the same guy who claimed women could drink alcohol while pregnant. So we can assume this is just some pervert's dream, since alcohol is forbidden in Islam, and I am going to assume so is necrophilia. Then again, there are some pretty bizarre things in the Quran.

Talawi is also concerned about other issues that could negatively impact women under an Islamist-led parliament including legislation that could rid them of their right to education and employment, among other things.

Many members of the newly-elected, and majority Islamist parliament, have been accused of launching attacks against women’s rights in the country.

They wish to cancel many, if not most, of the laws that promote women’s rights, most notably a law that allows a wife to obtain a divorce without obstructions from her partner. The implementation of the Islamic right to divorce law, also known as the Khula, ended years of hardship and legal battles women would have to endure when trying to obtain a divorce.

Egyptian law grants men the right to terminate a marriage, but grants women the opportunity to end an unhappy or abusive marriages without the obstruction of their partner. Prior to the implementation of the Khula over a decade ago, it could take 10 to 15 years for a woman to be granted a divorce by the courts.

Islamist members of Egyptian parliament, however, accuse these laws of “aiming to destroy families” and have said it was passed to please the former first lady of the fallen regime, Suzanne Mubarak, who devoted much of her attention to the issues of granting the women all her rights.

Check out the responses on the alarabiya link, it's quite clear many of the Muslims who commented were equally disgusted by the sex-after-death laws.

Who voted these Islamists in?!

Saudi Grand Mufti Says Okay For 10-Year-Olds To Marry

If marrying a child is good enough for the Prophet Mohammad it's good enough for Muslims so says Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Al al-Sheikh (Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti). Well, he didn't quite put it that way, but it was certainly implied when he stated (in response to some woman's question about forcing underage girls to marry) that according to Islam 10 and 12 year-olds are ready for marriage.  Mohammad married his prized child-bride Aisha at the tender age of 9. He probably thinks 10 is ancient, in comparison. And he definitely does not support those who are trying to make the legal age for marrying 25.

"Those who call for raising the age of marriage to 25 are absolutely mistaken," al-Sheikh said in a lecture he gave at the faculty housing mosque of Imam Mohamed bin Saud Islamic University in Riyadh.

"Our mothers and grandmothers got married when they were barely 12. Good upbringing makes a girl ready to perform all marital duties at that age."

Good upbringing? More like ignorance and lack of education.

Of course it matters not that Saudi Arabia is a party to the UN Child Rights Treaty which prohibits child marriages. Their religious laws and interpretations of those laws take precedence over anything else. At least young girls have a reprieve of one year.

Pakistan Girls' School Blown Up By Al-Qaeda Linked Militants

Women haters in Pakistan blew up a girls' school in Khyber agency (a tribal region bordering Afghanistan) because  they obviously think the woman's role is in the home making their men samosas and popping out future suicide bombers. Thankfully there were no girls at school at the time, and no-one was injured. But I'm sure if they continue to try to educate themselves, the next thing will be acid.

JAMRUD: Militants planted explosives in the boundary wall of a government girls’ middle school, destroying the building in the Ghundai area of Jamrud, Khyber Agency on Saturday.

“The explosive material was planted in the boundary wall of the school, which destroyed the building,” said officials of sub-district Jamrud.

The owner of the school, Malik Haji Zewar Khan, told The Express Tribune that he heard a sound but took it as thunder due to heavy rain the previous night. But after few minutes, his son Khalid, who was a watchman of the school, informed him of what had happened.

Soon after the explosion, locals started rescue work by gathering the debris of the damaged building.

Assistant Political Agent (APA) Jamrud, Mohammad Jamil, employed sniffer dogs and successfully arrested a suspect, Sher Haider, who lived near the school, and arrested three other armed suspects.

APA Jamrud also issued orders for the arrest of the school watchmen.
While talking to media from an undisclosed location, Abdullah Azzam Brigade spokesperson Abu Zarar claimed responsibility for the attack.

Surprisingly, or maybe not, Khyber Agency is considered to be the most literate of all 8 tribal regions of Pakistan.

Pakistani Police Raid Marriage of 5-Year-Old Girl to 18-Year-Old

Chalk it up to supreme ignorance and a religion whose prophet married an underage girl and you have people pawning off their own pre-pubescent daughters, in some cases no older than a toddler.

In Peshawar, Pakistan police raided the wedding of 5-year-old Ajwa to 18-year-old Amir Khan.

“They were informed that marriage of underage girls is illegal and they were shocked,” a policeman, who was part of the raid, told The Express Tribune. “They said we’re illiterate and do not know about the law.” The girl’s parents have been arrested.   [snip]

While the police arrested only the girl’s parents and not the boy’s, DSP Riazul Islam said that an FIR will be registered against not just the girl’s but the boy himself and his parents as well for attempting to marry an underage girl.

The marriage of underage boys and girls is a crime under the Marriage Restrict Act of 1929 as well as against the UN Conventions on the Rights of the Child, said Imran Takkar, the operations manager at NGO the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child. Pakistan has ratified and signed the UN charter.

“Under the marriage act, no girl below the age of 16 can be married off. The UN convention says that any boy or girl below the age of 18 is a child,” Takkar explained.

5 years old? Whether they are just claiming ignorance of the law, or actually had no clue, is debatable. What isn't debatable is their stupidity.

The Media's Whitewashing of Muslim Persecution of Christians by Raymond Ibrahim

A very interesting article by Raymond Ibrahim (Gatestone Institute) about the mainstream media's shameful whitewashing of Christian persecution by Muslims.

While the MSM may report the most frugal facts concerning Christian persecution, they utilize their entire arsenal of semantic games, catch phrases, and convenient omissions that uphold the traditional narrative—that Muslim violence is anything but a byproduct of the Islamic indoctrination of intolerance.

When it comes to Muslim persecution of Christians, the mainstream media (MSM) has a long paper trail of obfuscating. While they may eventually state the bare-bone facts—if they ever report on the story in the first place, which is rare—they do so after creating and sustaining an aura of moral relativism that minimizes the Muslim role.

[snip]

In short, while the MSM may report the most frugal facts concerning Christian persecution, they utilize their entire arsenal of semantic games, catch phrases, and convenient omissions that uphold the traditional narrative—that Muslim violence is anything but a byproduct of the Islamic indoctrination of intolerance.

Read the rest of the article here.

Oxford Muslim Sex Trafficking Gang Child Victims More Than Double

Victims of the Muslim sex trafficking gang in Oxford, England have more than doubled. There are now 50 girls from the ages of 11 to 16 who allegedly were drugged and then sold into prostitution.

An Oxford police sting, Operation Bullfinch, netted 13 men- 6 of whom were Asian. In several cases it was a family affair: two sets of brothers. Sickeningly, several of the men are fathers themselves.

Father of two Kamar Jamil, aged 26 years, of Summertown, Oxford, who is charged with four counts of rape, two counts of arranging the prostitution of a child, one count of making a threat to kill and one count of possession with intent to supply class A drugs, has since been granted conditional bail by the court.

Zeshan Ahmed, 26, is charged with ten counts of engaging in sexual activity with a child.

Anjum Dogar, 30, is charged with one count of conspiring to rape a child, one count of arranging prostitution of a child and one count of trafficking.

His brother, Akhtar, 31, is charged with three counts of rape, one count of conspiring to rape a child, three counts of arranging the prostitution of a child, one count of making a threat to kill and one count of trafficking.

Mohammed Karrar, 37, has been charged with two counts of conspiracy to rape a child and one count of supplying a Class A controlled drug to a child.

His brother Bassan, a 32-year-old father of two, is charged with one count of raping a child in 2006.

Several others have been arrested, a man (39) and woman (40) who were thought to have been involved in 'grooming' the young girls, but they were both released-the woman, without being charged. The man was released on bail and expected to return in May.

This isn't just about trafficking, this is also pedophilia.

So much for Muslim piety.  Hypocrites.

Welcome To Belgistan: Shariah4Belgium Demands Shariah Law

Those promoting global shariah are still at it. Anjem Choudhary's Shariah4UK and Shariah4america websites might no longer be up and running, banned in their respective countries, but they're still advocating for shariah law. India's Shariah4hind was also banned, but they still have their  twitter account.  However,  Shariah4belgium and Shariah4holland are still going strong. [Update:4/18/13- Shariah4belgium is no longer up and running.]

Those who want to establish Islamic law around the world might be a small group, but they are vocal and intimidating and they will do anything to replace your laws with theirs.

This is what Shariah4hindu posted in a press statement, when it was still active:

It includes paying Jizya (as compensation to Muslims who will protect them), not building any temples as Islam prohibits 'bad things', ban on celebrating Diwali, Christmas etc., ban on holding public meetings, wearing different clothes, not raising houses above muslim houses etc.

Europe is pretty much doomed. We need to make sure the same thing doesn't happen in the U.S.

Kuwait Parliament Approves Death Penalty For 'Cursing God'

Jail time for insulting Islam isn't enough for the Kuwaiti government, they now want your head, so the parliament just passed a provisional amendment that mandates the death penalty for blasphemy. Now if you curse God, Mohammad or his wives you'll pay with your life.

Forty-six MPs, including cabinet ministers, voted for the key amendments that will come into effect only after another round of voting and government approval. The second and final vote will take place in two weeks.

Four Shiite MPs voted against the law, a pro-Shiite Sunni lawmaker abstained, while two MPs refused to vote.

Shiite MPs have demanded that the new amendments also enforce the death penalty for anyone who curses their sect’s 12 revered Imams, but the Sunni- dominated parliament rejected their requests.

Apparently, they want to take major steps backwards by joining their Saudi and Pakistani brothers in instituting the death penalty.  The move was prompted by the arrest of a Shiite man, Hamad al-Naqi, who allegedly cursed Mohammad (and others) on his twitter account, although he denies it. Al-Naqi has yet to go to trial, but I'm sure those MPs would be pretty darn happy to get this law in place before he gets his day in court.

Moroccan Teen Forced To Marry Rapist Did Not Commit Suicide, Was Forced To Drink Poison

Last month Moroccan rights activists were outraged after it was discovered that 16-year-old Amina al-Filali (aka Aminah al Fillaly) committed suicide by drinking rat poison as a result of being forced to marry her rapist.  In Morocco (and other Islamic countries), rapists can choose to marry their victims to avoid prosecution and jail time. This is what the rapist chose to do, and the family was forced to comply.

But now the mother has come forward claiming it wasn't a suicide but murder.

Emirates 24/7 reports the teen's mother said “My daughter told me just before her death that someone made her drink the rat poison." She did not name the person who forced the poison on her daughter, but went on to say “My daughter suffered greatly during her marriage with that man….he had not lived with her as a husband nor had he carried out his duty for her…..her husband had always mistreated her."


Hassan Al Fillaly, Aminah's father, said he objected to his daughter’s marriage to the man who raped her at knife-point, but that he bowed to tribal pressure which puts pressure on a family's honor to be preserved. Under Moroccan law the rapist was granted immunity from prosecution by marrying his victim.

Following Aminah's death there were calls for a change in the law. According to al-Akhbar, Morocco's Democratic League for Women's Rights organized a demonstration calling for a reform of the criminal code. Additionally Bassima Hakkaoui, Minister for Women and Families in Morocco's Islamic parliament, called for a debate to reform the law which protected the rapist at the expense of the raped child.

Whether the young girl committed suicide or was actually murdered by being forced to drink rat poison, she was the victim of a draconian religious law that re-victimizes women and allows men to get off  scot-free.

Will those laws change?  Probably not, at least until Islam somehow evolves and modernizes, which is doubtful.

Shaima Alawadi- Hate Crime, Honor Killing Or Just Plain Murder?

Shaima Alawadi is the 32-year-old Iraqi immigrant mother of five who was found beaten to a pulp in her home in El Cajon, along with a note that said  ‘Go back to your country, you terrorist.’ She died a few days later, and most everyone immediately jumped to the conclusion that it was a hate crime- that she was targeted because she was a hijab-wearing Muslim. Outraged people even created a Facebook page 'One Million Hijabs For Shaima Alawadi.

Well, it's now looking more like it was an honor killing or just plain murder, with several possible scenarios. Was it the 17-year-old daughter Fatima who was the one who found her bleeding, dying mother and called 911; the daughter who was caught 'possibly' having sex in a car with a 21-year-old male, and was very upset about a pending forced marriage to her cousin? Or was it Shaima's husband,  Kassim Alhimidi, who she was apparently planning to divorce and then getting the heck out of dodge by moving to Texas? 

Then there's the fact the note was a copy, not the original, and a witness who claims they saw

a skinny dark-skinned male running west from the area of Alawadi’s house. He was described as being in his late teens to early 20s, 5 feet 7 inches tall, 150 pounds, wearing a dark blue or black hooded sweatshirt and carrying a brown doughnut-shaped cardboard box.

And Fatima's story doesn't quite add up:

Fatima and her mother were the only ones at their El Cajon home on Skyview Street when the attack occurred about 11 a.m. on March 21.

Alawadi’s husband, Kassim Alhimidi, had reportedly left to take the couple’s other younger children to school, although police state in the March 27 affidavit that his whereabouts had not yet been confirmed.

Fatima told El Cajon police that she heard her mother squeal, and 10 seconds later heard the sound of glass breaking, the affidavit said. She told police she thought her mother had dropped a plate. Ten minutes later, the daughter discovered her mother lying unconscious on the ground, near a computer, and called 911.

She didn't hear her mother's screams? According to the autopsy, the attack was "extremely violent”. Alawadi had four fractures to the skull, and she was hit in the head at least six times.  If I had my head bashed in with a tire iron, or whatever weapon was used, they'd hear me down the street.

Then there's that odd text message:

A search of Fatima’s cellphone records shows that while she was being interviewed by investigators hours after the attack, While she was being interviewed by police hours after the attack, a text was sent on Fatima's cellphone, “The detective will find out tell them (can’t) talk,” the affidavit states.

If it was indeed an honor killing, planting that note was a clever way to hide the fact by diverting attention from honor to hate crime.

Too bad they don't create a Facebook page One Million Hijabs For Honor Killings.

Kuwaiti Writer Gets 7 Years Jail For Insulting Shi'ite Minority

Mohammad al-Mulaifi, a Sunni Muslim Kuwaiti writer, will spend seven years of his life in jail for allegedly insulting the Shi'ite minority via Twitter. He has also been fined around $18,000.

The court said Kuwaiti Mohammad al-Mulaifi posted falsehoods about sectarian divisions in the Gulf Arab country and insulted the Shi’ite faith and its scholars with comments that damaged Kuwait’s image.

He was arrested in February and his comments triggered protests by Shi’ites, according to Kuwaiti media. His lawyer was not immediately available for comment.

But Shi'ites are also targets.  Last month a man was arrested for blasphemy, though he denies it, for insulting Mohammad, Aisha et al, also via Twitter. He claims his account was hacked, and that he would
"....never attack the Holy Prophet." 

Blasphemy is punishable in Islam, but being critical of fellow Muslims?  Where is that in the Quran? And seven years for that?  I realize there is no freedom of speech in Muslim-majority countries, but come on.

This just makes it even more imperative that the push for global anti-blasphemy laws NEVER gets any traction.

15 Years For "Stealing" Teddy Bear In Dubai

Only somewhere like Dubai would an individual be sentenced to 15 years for stealing a teddy bear. I suppose the kid, a 20 year-old student from the Comoros Islands (off the coast of Africa), is lucky he won't actually lose one of his appendages, since under Shariah law thieves can lose both hands. But 15 years?  And since he claimed he was innocent, the courts could have showed some mercy since they had the option of sentencing him from 3 to 15,  but 15 years it is.

Apparently he stole the bear from a booth in a shopping mall, and then attacked a Pakistani worker who attempted to detain him. But according to the young man's lawyer, he was simply walking to his car when he saw a teddy bear on the ground and grabbed it.

Whether he did indeed willfully steal the teddy bear is irrelevant. What's notable is the severity of the sentence for a relatively harmless action.  And what if he is innocent?  Fine the kid, deport him (which is also a possibility), but 15 years is overkill.

On April 24, the student will find out his fate when the judge passes his verdict.

His lawyer argued that it made no sense for a person to steal an object worth 25 dirhams when he is able to afford a car.

Growing A Beard "Cures" ED- So Says Islam

According to the fellows below, growing a beard increases testosterone levels, so men with problems in bed are being told to grow one (and leave it there).

Uh, that would be the opposite, but Islam often seems to get things backwards.




Thank you BlazingCatFur

The "Love Hotel" - Evading The Morality Police In Banda Aceh

There's no stopping people in love from 'getting together', even in ultra-conservative Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Apparently there's a military-owned motel, called the 'love hotel', which is off-limits to the morality police, so it's doing a booming business amongst the not-so-overly-religious types (although there is a prayer mat in a cupboard for those who might feel a little guilty).

According to a soon-to-be divorced 45-year-old man named "Fauzi", who's a regular there with his 25-year-old girlfriend until they can get married,

"Everyone comes here. Married, not married, military, police, civilians."

Although the hotel looks like one of those flea-bag, rent-by-the-hour cheapo hotels, Fauzi doesn't seem to care.

"All I need is a bed, air conditioning and a toilet."

Unfortunately for the majority of people in Aceh, Sharia Law was instituted in 2001 as a concession from the central government to quell a rebellion in that region of Indonesia. Fauzi claims only about 10 percent of the people there want Sharia,

"and they would all be over 50."

Unmarried people caught by the Sharia police being in "close proximity" (drinking, or gambling) face public caning, fines and in some cases prison time, but a law to implement death by stoning for adultery was shot down by the governor Irwandi Yusuf.

But that won't stop young people in love.

As they say, where there's a will, there's a way.


Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

7 Years In Jail For Blasphemy For Two Tunisian Men

 Since the Arab Spring, and the resulting rise of Islamism in the region, there seem to be more cases of jail time for 'blasphemers'.

Yesterday, a young Egyptian Christian teen was sentenced to three years in prison for mocking Islam on his Facebook page.  Now we hear of two Tunisians,  Ghazi Beji and Jabeur Mejri (both late twenties) who were fined approximately $800.00 each and sentenced at the end of March to seven years in jail.  According to the justice ministry spokesperson Chokri Nefti,

“They were sentenced, one of them in absentia, to seven years in prison, for transgressing morality, defamation and disrupting public order.”

Disrupting public order?

What's most troubling is that Mejri  and Beji (an atheist), like the young Egyptian, had posted their 'blaspehmous content'  on social networking sites. 

Beji wrote a book called “the Illusion of Islam”, discussing his views about Islam and religion. Mejri, also wrote a book. “Dark Land”, where he “cursed the government, Islamists, and expressed his hatred towards Arabs.“

Beji, a biotech food engineer, lucked out and fled to Greece, seeking asylum. When interviewed by Tunisia Live, Beji said,

  “After the Revolution, in March 2011, I said to myself Tunisia is a free and democratic country now and I should try to publish my book. I contacted several book publishers in Mahdia but they all refused to publish it. So I opted to upload it online.”

Not sure why he thought that a country that is now predominantly Islamist would not take offense to his writings, but I suppose hope springs eternal.  Not so, unfortunately, when you are dealing with religious fanatics. But it is interesting to note how many ex-Muslims there are who are atheists.  Plenty of them on Facebook.

On the other hand, Mejri, who is an English teacher, wasn't so lucky and is currently in police custody waiting to serve his seven years.

Human Rights Watch in Tunisia made their obligatory statement- that the sentencing was  “an attack on freedom of expression and freedom of belief.”   Not that any of the officials would care what HRW has to say about 'freedom', since there is no freedom of expression or belief in non-secular Muslim majority countries.

Sharia For Egypt If Muslim Brotherhood Presidential Candidate Al-Shater Is Elected

Another battleground for secular democracy versus Islamism is Egypt. Until the actual elections take place on May 23 and 24 of this year, we won't know if an Islamist will be elected president or not. But with an overwhelming majority of Islamists in parliament, an Islamist president will seal the deal. If the Egyptian people are foolish enough to elect Khairat al-Shater, the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate, they'll all be living under Sharia law, since Shater has stated that it's  “his first and final goal.” This is not something that those young, secular students who fought hard during the revolution expected.  But enough Egyptians were responsible for voting in so many Islamists in the parliamentary elections, so I wouldn't be surprised if al-Shater wins.

Liberals and secularists are very troubled about this, and so they should be. 

Shater, who stepped down as the Brotherhood’s deputy leader to run, said “he would work to form a group of scholars to support parliament in achieving that goal,” according to a statement on the group’s website.

When asked by AFP, a senior official with Shater’s campaign did not deny the statement, but clarified that the presidential candidate shared his electoral program with the Brotherhood’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party.

The FJP calls for an “Islamic, constitutional and democratic” state, but not a “theocracy,” which it defines as rule by religious men. The Muslim Brotherhood advocates an Islamist state achieved through peaceful means.
 
The official said Shater, who has refused interview requests, would prioritize “democratic institution building and an economic renaissance” if elected.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, he added that Shater “is committed to the constitution and Article 2, which all Egyptians agree on.”

The constitution was suspended by the military after an uprising overthrew president Hosni Mubarak last year. Article 2 stipulates that the principles of Islamic law are the main source of legislation.

But there is no universal interpretation of Sharia.
 
Many Coptic Christians, who comprise about 10 percent of Egypt’s 80-population, worry about the growing power of Islamists in the country, but Shater’s campaign official said he would guarantee them their rights.

[snip]

Mainstream Islamic scholars say the Sharia offers Christians and Jews protection under an Islamic state. But they believe that only Muslim men can rule. 

The FJP already dominates the senate and parliament, which appointed a mostly Islamist constituent assembly to prepare a new constitution.

The Coptic Church, the prestigious Sunni Muslim al-Azhar institution and liberals have pulled out of the panel because of their meager representation.

Mohammed al-Beltagui, a prominent FJP parliamentarian, warned on Tuesday that the Brotherhood was overreaching by appointing Shater.

“It harms the Brotherhood and the nation, to have one faction assume all the responsibility under these conditions,” he wrote.

What they say they will do (no theocracy) and what eventually happens, remains to be seen.  I certainly wouldn't trust them.  And we know what happens to non-Muslims under Islamic law- the blasphemy laws and the jizya (taxes for non Muslims in Islamic states).

If Shater is elected, what the Egyptians will have done is replace one form of oppression with another, far worse.