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08 November 2011

This is Why - Part 6

A continuous survey of causes of “Islamophobia”. Conflicts in Muslim countries and terrorism are excluded. See here for explanation of survey.

Up to 22 October 2011

Egyptian sentenced to 3 years for insulting Islam in his Facebook postings

Islamists seek to introduce ‘Sharia zones’
A fundamentalist Islamic group wants to set up zones in Copenhagen where Islamic Sharia Law should be upheld.

Islamist prefer male candidates in first vote of Arab spring

UCL student society announces event with hate preacher

Muslim mayor shows his true colours
.... large sums of council money are diverted to IFE front organisations, a man with close links to the IFE is made the council’s assistant chief executive despite being unqualified for the job.

Saudi "Propaganda Center" Sets Up Shop in Vienna
The Green Party, which governs Vienna in a coalition, said the center glorified a country "where freedom of religion and opinion are foreign words."

Imam's on-air death threat 'not hate speech'

Hertz fires 25 Muslim drivers who refuse to clock out
Hertz has sent termination letters to 25 drivers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport after they refused to agree to clock out for daily breaks, during which they normally pray.

"The Western understanding of human rights is against that which is sacred to us"
The Shaykh of al-Azhar, the Grand Imam Dr. Ahmad al-Tayib, by many considered to be the foremost authority in Sunni Islam, issued a statement yesterday condemning attempts to bring Western notions of human rights and freedom to the Middle East.

Muslims Rage Against Offending Filmmakers
Bollywood filmmakers were ordered to either change the name of a film that “hurt Muslim feelings” or face thousands of angry demonstrators across Mumbai

Child abuse claims at UK madrassas 'tip of iceberg'

Headscarf rule keeps girl from parade, spurs bias claim
When you voluntarily enroll in a course, you are .... accepting the ground rules .... for that class. .... haircut, wear of uniform, and other particulars were well defined .... The rules for wear of the uniform mirror those for the actual military department.

Why Islam is Not a Religion
Islam is a total system of life and contains within itself a particular social system, judicial system, and political system which includes geo-political aspirations.

The Lingerie Shop Problem - Or, getting your knickers in a twist
.... women are not allowed to work as cashiers in supermarkets and the like, because they will then be interacting with unrelated men.

Muslims face negative perception in Canada, study suggests

Extremists firebomb home of 'blasphemous' TV station head

Bashir says Sudan will adopt entirely Islamic constitution

Salman Rushdie is not afraid
.... Why is it always Muslims? Why didn't Martin Scorsese have to run for his life after making "The Last Temptation of Christ"?

Saudi Arabia and Austria defend plan for interfaith dialogue centre in Vienna
You cannot bring a Bible into Saudi. You cannot practice any religion other than Islam in Saudi Arabia. They are happy to spread their religion in other countries, yet they have no religious tolerance in their own country.

Pakistani Islamic extremists march in support of assassin Mumtaz Qadri
Mumtaz Qadri, the bodyguard and self-confessed murderer of the Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, who was killed for asking for changes to the blasphemy laws.

Modern Muslim marriage fails to take off

Muslim Hijab Sparks New Islam-Related Controversy in Spain
The school has a policy that prohibits the wearing of head coverings, particularly those that cover the ears, due to the increase in cases of students who use electronic devices to cheat on tests.

12 year old Christian girl beaten and raped until she converted to Islam

The Trouble with Muslim Democracy
Women can vote in Iran, they just can't vote to change their status. Christians can vote in Egypt, they just can't vote themselves equal rights.

Saudi Women Receive Husbands' Explicit Permission To Celebrate Right To Vote

Pakistan court suspends death sentence of governor's killer
A Pakistani court has suspended the death sentence of Mumtaz Qadri, a security guard who killed a liberal politician over the latter's remarks on the nation's controversial blasphemy law.

Hopes dim to change Iraq laws to protect women

Muslim Life of Brian? - That would be frightening
Terry Jones has admitted that he and his Monty Python colleagues would be “frightened” and “think twice” before poking fun at Muslims in today’s politically correct climate.

Egypt's move to democracy threatened by attack on Coptic community

Marriage-led immigration creates ghettos

Exposed to other faiths, Malaysian Muslims are ordered to receive counselling

Decades of Multiculturalism have created many problems

The attacks on Egypt’s Copts reflects situation for Christians throughout the Middle East

Tunisia Salafists 'attack private TV station'

Dress modestly: Masked men enter girls’ school, thrash students

Iranian actress sentenced to a year in jail and 90 lashes

Richard Dawkins attacks Muslim schools for teaching 'alien rubbish'

PAS willing to discuss hudud (e.g., stoning, amputation)

Hertz: Muslim workers failed to follow break rules Hertz said the Somali Muslim employees were suspended not for praying but for failing to clock in and out for 10-minute breaks as required under a collective bargaining agreement.

Salafi leaders reiterate demands for Islamic Sharia

Czech University Bans Islamism Debate

Muslims in Spain Declare Jihad on Dogs

Social rules clash with reality for Iran's youth
Iran is governed by a version of sharia law which in theory prohibits any mingling between members of the opposite sex outside marriage or close family.

Georgia City Agrees to Adapt Courthouse Security Screenings to Accommodate Religious Head Coverings

French Islamic suburbs becoming 'separate communities in a divided nation'

A council is spending ratepayers' money to make Muslims feel more at home

Algerian Islamists call for bars to close, saying drinking perverts youth

Ohio's response to Muslim lawsuit over prison meal preparation riles state pork industry
A decision by Ohio officials to remove all pork products from prison menus in response to a lawsuit by Muslim inmates is not sitting well with the state's pork producers and processors.

Political correctness stifles debate on multiculturalism

In Aceh, Enforced Sharia Law Has Outsized Impact
.... Sharia police break up a game of dominos. Despite the players' protests that they are not gambling, the police confiscate the game and leave them this time with a warning.

Saudi women should not drive "If you start now to let women drive, let them go wherever they want, let them do whatever they want, we will be in the same position some day. Then Saudi Arabia will be like New York.

Pakistan's blasphemy laws – even judges live in fear

Iran Threatens To Kill Evangelical Christians Unless They “Repent”

Unhappy clerics: Saudi sheikhs backlash at king's women's rights move

Canadian Muslim author speaks out – Islam needs modernizing

Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani now accused of rape, extortion, and being a Zionist
The Iranian authorities are manifestly attempting to force him to renounce that faith, which violates the religious values they claim to defend, crosses all bounds of decency and breaches Iran's own international obligations.

Muslim Mob Torches Coptic Church in Egypt

Thousands say no to mosque

September 2011

Austrians see high multiethnic conflict potential

Why Are British Muslim Leaders Silent About Yusuf Nadarkhani's Death Sentence?

Bombing bikini-clad women to enforce Islamic dress codes

A Rational Fear of Islamism - Not all fears are irrational, nor criticism unwarranted

Pastor Nadarkhani: NO ANNULMENT of the death sentence

Muslim Polygamists Exploiting British Welfare System

Christian pastor facing execution in Iran after refusing to recant his faith

The contradictions faced by Saudi women
The restrictiveness of the guardianship system, gender segregation and a persistently sexist culture add up to create an exotic and mysterious lifestyle that is difficult to not only explain but also to comprehend.

Islam’s History of Forced Conversions

Egyptian Christian Girl Banned From School For Not Wearing a Veil

Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani to be hanged in Iran - for converting to Christianity

Saudi woman driver's lashing sentence 'revoked' by King Abdullah

Turkish cartoonist to be put on trial for renouncing God

Attackers destroy nightclub near mosque

Saudi woman who defied drive ban to be flogged

Ofcom fines Islamic TV channel in cash for prayers ruling

100,000 Christians Have Left Egypt Since March

More religious pamphlets for government workers
.... A “Ramadan: the Muslim Month of Fasting” guide was issued to 67,000 Ontario government workers last July telling them to be “sensitive” to Muslim co-workers because they are fasting and praying from dusk to dawn.

Sharia at work - Al-Qaeda cut off Yemeni boy's hand

Festival is hit by anti-Islam claim ORGANISERS of a cultural event have blamed a poor turnout on posters telling people not to attend as the festival was "against Islam."

Excuses for Polygamy?

Women in Saudi Arabia suffer numerous problems
.... huge numbers of rapes go unreported because of women's fears of punishment (the woman could be found to have flouted sex segregation rules) and bringing "shame" on their family.

Pakistan school expels girl for blasphemy

Attitudes of polygamous British Muslim men
The number of polygamous relationships among British Muslims is increasing, according to British Muslim groups.

Blinding in one eye for Iranian waiter for hurling acid in man’s face five years ago

Indonesia suicide church bomber kills at least one

Girl accused of blasphemy for a spelling error

The Islamization of British Police
.... this is a pressure group working to introduce Islamic rules into the police force, promoting the strange concept of “religious needs”, changing the working environment to be in line with Islamic demands.

Exploitation of the benefits system by polygamous Muslim men is a big problem

The Persecution of Music and Musicians in the Islamic World

Danish Mega-Mosque Funded by Iran

When Muslims Are More ‘Radical’ than ‘Islamists’

Malaysia is not ready for the implementation of hudud law .... He said explanation and understanding of theses laws needed to be extended to cover all the people in the country so that they truly understood them.

Extremism and the East London Mosque

Somali Islamic radio gives an AK-47 kids first prize!

Islamism's war on women
.... In the name of "tolerance," we permit the sort of degradation of Muslim girls women that would be completely unacceptable if perpetrated against whites.

Facebook to be blocked
The court issued this order while hearing a petition seeking a permanent ban on the access to American social networking website “Facebook” for hosting competition featuring blasphemous caricatures.

Stop Amputation Now
.... in 2000, Zamfara’s first amputation of Buba Jangede attracted widespread international condemnation. Amputation is an inhuman and degrading form of punishment.

Brussels: Muslim youth 're-Islamizing'

Saudi Arabia beheads Sudanese “sorcerer”

Muslim Supremacism Leads, Even Within Muslim Countries, To An Inability To Compromise

UK's First Free Muslim School Criticised for Fostering Segregation

Acid attacks: 7 women burned in two days
.... both men had said she ‘deserved for her face to be ruined because she had not covered her head’

Men banned from Oz council to prevent mixing with Muslim women

How Islamic polygamy is used to exploit welfare benefits

New law needed as French firms facing religious demands from employees
.... Most cases concern Muslims seeking time off for prayers or halal food in company cafeterias.

Islamic Sharia Law Court Opens in Belgium

Converts must die: imam to Swedish radio
Swedish public service broadcaster Sveriges Radio (SR) has been reported for hate speech after featuring a programme in which a Somali imam called for all converts from Islam to be killed.

Accused of proselytising, American family attacked by Indonesian extremists
Muslim fundamentalists were incensed by charges that the head of the family was engaged in proselytising in the predominantly Muslim area.

French ban praying in streets

Imam calls to kill converts on Radio Sweden

Christian-Muslim tensions simmer in Malaysia, minorities worried about rights

"Denmark, as we know it, can be destroyed in 10-15 years" In Nørrebro there are some places where you have a parallel society, where religious dogmas run things next to the Danish.

Iran bans half-naked men, love triangles on TV

School prayer protests heat up
Local imams lead a 40-minute service — non-Muslims are banned from the cafeteria during that time — to prevent about 400 students from leaving the school in the middle of the day to go to prayers, during which boys sit in front of the girls.

Ten Years On: Saudi Textbooks Yet to be Cleaned of Violence!

Western, Muslim societies ‘irreconcilable’: poll

Muslims Blockade Christian Village in Egypt, Demand Demolition of Church

Sharia court sentences two to amputation for theft

New Libya should be governed by sharia: imam

Germany: 'The problem is with the Muslims'

Extremists exploit taboos
''Whereas anyone interested in free speech would say people should be protected but ideas should not be protected; that religions should be open to scrutiny and sometimes should be mocked … but now a new 'right not to be offended' comes into play.''

Three Men Hanged For Having Gay Sex In Iran

The recipe for successful multiculturalism – inequality, subservience & duplicity!

The trouble with multiculturalism
.... “Some of the practices allowed in the name of multiculturalism are fundamentally in contravention of western values,” says Muslim activist and scholar Farzana Hassan.

How Sharia Undermines Western Justice

Indonesia's SCTV blasted for pulling religion film
The Indonesian Broadcasting Commission criticised a major television station for giving into Islamists' demands that a film on religious tolerance be pulled.

Islamic fury erupts over an Indonesian movie, and a colouring book in the US

Which "Defamation of Religion" Does the UN Human Rights Commission Dislike?
.... In the West, unlike in Muslim countries, religious criticism is part of our dialogue; critics are not murdered. But the Muslim prohibition against defamation of religion applies only to defaming Islam, not defaming Judaism or Christianity, which are fair game.

Banning halal slaughter the right thing to do

Norway: "You can't oppose capital punishment and be Muslim"
.... In a discussion forum on Islamnet.no, Qureshi writes: "a person who says that he's principally opposed to capital punishment, is opposing principles prescribed by Allah.

Islamic Justice in Europe - 'It's Often a Dictate of Power'

August 2011

Muslims, police scuffle at Rye Playland over amusement park’s head scarf ban; 15 arrests made
"Part of our rules and regulations, which we painstakingly told them over and over again, is that certain rides you cannot wear any sort of headgear," Tartaglia said. "It's a safety issu”.

Publisher Calls FBI Over Muslim Backlash From 9/11 Coloring Book

One in five US Muslims knows of extremist support in community

Domestic Islamic threat to German justice system
The author examines several recent cases in which crimes within Muslim communities have been settled by Islamic arbitrators at the request of the families involved.

Ground Zero imam gives Scotland his recipe for successful multiculturalism
.... greater integration between Islam and the West depends on the incorporation of Sharia law into the legal systems of the UK and the United States ....

‘Anti-Muslim’ author beaten

Norway: Christian convert attacked in asylum center
'If you don't return to Islam, we'll kill you' "Ali" was told by fellow residents at the center. He doesn't want his name or picture published for fear of the other residents.

Pakistani slain governor Salman Taseer's son abducted
The son of assassinated Punjab governor Salman Taseer, who was killed in January for opposing the blasphemy law, has been abducted, Pakistan police say.

Morocco Blocking Integration of Muslim Immigrants in Spain

Egypt’s Brotherhood declares war on the bikini

Finns now more critical of Islam
Only six percent of the survey respondents thought of Islam in positive terms, with the vast majority clearly holding negative impressions.

More arrests and Bibles seized in Iran

British campaigner battles media's cone of silence on sharia law
.... Ikebal Patel, president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, called for Australia to "compromise with Islam" and introduce "legal pluralism".

European 'No-Go' Zones for Non-Muslims Proliferating

Muslims demand Sharia student loans because paying interest goes against Islamic law

Egypt police arrest man for Facebook 'Islam insults'

Meatpacking plant strives, struggles to accommodate Muslim workforce
"We know that some of our employees would like a guaranteed prayer time every day," said Cargill spokesman Michael Martin. "That is not the legal requirement, and it would be impractical to accommodate this without shutting down the production line."

Islamic Republic Of Iran Steps Up Persecution Of Christians

Viacom withholds South Park ‘Muhammad’ episodes in all foreign territories

Don't watch Diary of a Badman, or you'll go to Hell .... who persist in telling the Ummah that the 'kuffar' (non-believers) are 'less than animals'.

Churches Can’t Be Built in Streets with Islamic Names

Jail for refusal to remove burqa in Australia

Female Genital Mutilation "An Obligation" According to Iraqi Muslim Cleric

Policing Ramadan undermines its principles
Pakistan's Ehtram-e-Ramzan (respecting Ramadan) law makes eating, drinking and smoking in public places during the fasting hours of the holy month illegal.

Iran Seizes 6,500 Bibles to Stop 'Deceiving' Christian Missionaries

Liberal intellectuals are frightened of confronting Islam's honour-shame culture
.... they seem more worried about “us” provoking Muslim violence than about exploring the sources of Muslim violence. And often they attack those defending democratic principles with a shrill and contemptuous tone that they would never dream of using with Muslims.

Victim of Indonesian mob attack sent to jail
An Indonesian man wounded when Islamic hard-liners launched a deadly attack on his minority sect was sentenced Monday to six months in prison.

Iran arrests youths for playing with water
But the fun ended when photos of water-fighting youths, laughing and dishevelled, came to the attention of Iranian authorities. Ten young men and women were arrested a few days after the first fight took place, and accused of breaking Islamic law.

European Concerns Over Muslim Immigration Go Mainstream
Europeans are waking up to the consequences of decades of mass immigration from Muslim countries.

Radio Host Michael Smith's Comments on Muhammad's Marriage to Aisha
The circumstances of Muhammad's marriages provide a fundamental point of reference for sharia law. They determine, for example, the marriage age for girls in societies which seek to comply with the Islamic sharia.

Remarks on prophet investigated

Debate on whether Islam guarantees equality of rights for women
.... here is the hadith in which Muhammad speaks both of hell being filled with mostly women and women being deficient in intellect and religion:

Family loses appeal over swimming lesson fine
A court says that fines imposed on Muslim parents in canton Basel-City for keeping their children out of mandatory school swimming lessons were correct.

Australia must fight calls for sharia law

FOSIS Angry at Qaradawi Ireland Exclusion
He thinks that Hitler was sent by Allah to punish Jews and looks forward to a time in which ‘the believers’ will finish what Hitler started.

Seven out of 10 Austrians back burka ban

Sharia law in the West goes against fight for reforms
ATTEMPTS to introduce sharia family law into Western societies run against the tide of reforms spearheaded by female activists in the Muslim world.

Do critics actually read the Koran?

There is no compulsion in religion, but...
.... no one is forced to enter Islam (or so he says). However, after they choose to enter Islam, they cannot be allowed to leave it.

Sharia: a law unto itself?
After being beaten repeatedly by her husband – who had also threatened to kill her – Jameela turned to her local Sharia council in a desperate bid for a way out of her marriage.

Dad forbids daughter to play with non-Muslim children

Islam and democracy - Uneasy companions

Assaulted for wearing a sleeveless shirt

Muslim woman attacked for having relationship with non-Muslim

25 jailed for eating in public during Ramadan

Letter on Sharia Law to Justice Ministry
.... marital rape is deemed “impossible” and violence against women is permissible provided it does not leave any marks.

Perspectives on Sharia law in Britain
Their rulings are not in line with the Children Act 1989, which is supposed to protect all children in the country.

Muslim Countries Financing Jihad in Spain

Teacher suspended for 'insulting' Muhammad in Bangladesh

Family of albino Muslims terrorised after one of them marries a Christian man

Iranian youths arrested for public water pistol fight in Tehran

Italy approves draft law to ban burqa

Two legal systems, and two choices. Which do we want?
God (or Allah, or whoever) only knows how we've got ourselves into this position, where a big chunk of our population waits for the edicts of men schooled in a medieval interpretation of a 1,500-year-old religion, with medieval views on freedom of expression, homosexuality and women's rights.

"Sharia Controlled Zones" for UK cities

Spray-painted burkas and religious freedom
The most serious incident of religious intolerance in Tower Hamlets came back in April. I brought you the story of a 31-year-old Asian shop assistant in fear of her life because she refused to hear a headscarf’.

Can Islam Be Reformed?
Few believing Muslims think that Islam needs to be reformed; the suggestion would strike most religious Muslims as absurd, if not insulting and ultimately blasphemous.

July 2011

Iranian sentenced to blinding for acid attack pardoned

Be warned: Real courage is being ready to step on a few 'cultural' toes
The local Imam .... had steely eyes which bored through me. ‘In the not too distant future,’ he intoned, ‘all British girls will be circumcised when Islam rules this country.’

War for the furtherance of Islam and against non-believers is considered ethically acceptable

Over half of Dutch say Wilders anti-Islamic rhetoric fine - poll

Probe into secretive Sharia law courts scrapped as Muslim leaders close ranks

Light sentence for Muslim extremists sends 'chilling message'

There is no place for Sharia law in British Society

'No porn or prostitution': Islamic extremists set up Sharia law controlled zones in British cities

Slander and lies from the East London Mosque

Protesters oppose Muslim prayer in public schools

How sexual apartheid works with children - in photos
The third photo finally satisfied the censors - it was perfect. Girls nicely covered up and in the back where they belong...

BBC Promotes "Radical" Preacher in Documentary
He has argued that men are responsible for the guidance of women and supports a husband’s ‘use of physical force’ for a ‘light beating’.

Egypt women work to protect rights from Islamist groups

European Muslims: ‘Refusal to integrate the root of most problems’

New Saudi Fatwa Defends Pedophilia as ‘Marriage’

Oklahoman gets $20,000 in lawsuit against retailer
If I try to wear shorts at my work I would be sent home and fired if I refused to change to long pants. When did a business loose the ability to have a dress code?

Muslim woman forced to flee for marrying a Christian

Iran's supreme leader attacks 'harmful' books

Polygamous Sharia marriages don't belong in Britain

Female illiteracy: 41% of Pakistani girls fail to complete primary school

Sharia Law is a code of despair; a code obsessed with women
Just because the Sharia courts in Britain and Europe are dealing primarily (but not exclusively) with implementing Sharia’s civil or family code rather than its penal code, it doesn’t make it any more acceptable.

Sharia whipping case: Sydney man's $60,000 bail order
One of four men who allegedly held a man against his bed and whipped him with a cord as a religious punishment for drinking has been granted strict bail.

Turning school into a mosque victimizes minorities
For those who might otherwise support secularism they need to realize that by once again opening public schools to religion they are ultimately doing religious minorities a major disservice.

Sharia in Toronto: the Muslim Girls on Their Period Have to Sit in the Back
In the front were the praying boys. Behind them were the praying girls. Way in the back were the girls who were menstruating, and thus forbidden from participating in prayer.

The BBC: falsifying art and history in the name of respect
The BBC's decision to make a series about Mohammed without showing his face - a concession to what are said to be Muslim sensibilities - struck many observers as reasonable.

A Craze for Pooches in Iran Dogs the Morality Police
Iranians have turned to the Internet to organize antigovernment protests. Now they're flocking online to defy another Islamic Republic edict: buying and selling dogs

Morality police hit Tehran streets
Iran's morality police unit commenced its annual campaign last month to uphold the Islamic dress code and raise "moral security" in the streets of Tehran, leading to many arrests and fines

Breast-feeding mother 'told to leave council headquarters because she would offend Muslim visitors'

Egyptian Shaykh: "We still kill him, even if he repents!"
Shaykh Abu-Ishaq al-Huwayni on the Egyptian satellite television station al-Hikma .... here explains that whoever insults Muhammad, even if he later repents, must be killed.

Iranian Pastor Sentenced to Death Could Be Executed if He Doesn’t Recant, Says Verdict

Lingerie shops in Riyadh fear fresh Haia raids
The Haia is opposed to women sales clerks interacting with male customers, as it is considered illegal mingling of women with unrelated men.

End gender apartheid in U.S. mosques

Girls should not be segregated on public school property
I’m referring to the female students who participate in Friday prayers at Valley Park Middle School, relegated to the back on the cafeteria and not permitted to participate when menstruating.