Islamic World News
02 Nov 2009, NewAgeIslam.Com
Olympics is degrading to women: Zakir Naik
Mahabharata from the eyes of Mewat’s Muslims
Fury in Ayodhya over Ramcharitmanas
Militants blow up girls’ school in Pakistan
Good God! Indonesia Bans Hot Babes In Tight Pants
Pants ban for women draws condemnation
SI Muslim woman slashes sleeping husband over religion
Transparent Election Is Not Possible, Says Rival to Karzai
Qaeda Had Role in Attack on U.N. Staff, Official Says
Uighurs Leave Guantánamo for Palau
Clinton Asks Abbas to Return to Talks
South Sudan Leader Calls for Southern Secession
Iran Frees Two Karoubi Allies on Bail - Media
Iran Police to Confront "Illegal" November 4 Rallies
US backs Israel on 'preconditions'
Sudan's Kiir backs independence
Death sentences for Yemen fighters
Female cartoonist's provocative work challenges Saudi society
Iraq election reform troubles UN
Mubarak avoids talk of succession
Clinton urges new Mid-East talks
Iraq calls for security support
Revulsion at bombing in Peshawar, Pakistan
J&K seethes over prepaid ban
Pakistan film industry bombarded by Bollywood
'Islam can benefit all spheres of life'
Thirsty Plant Dries Out Yemen
3 held over under-age weddings
Mosque offended by alcohol & roast pig...in New York City
Muslim Culture vs. Western Culture: Muslims and honour killings
Islamic group seeks 'friendship and understanding'
Cambridge students can wear 'burqas' at graduation ceremony
‘My family was wiped out in front of me’
Ecumenical Anti-Jihad?
Secret op resettles Yemeni Jews in US
UNESCO’s peace waves overwhelm Eicher School
Hizbut Tahrir denounces Israeli aggression on Al-Aqsa
At funeral an Islamic leader killed by FBI, Muslims call for justice
Honour killing not limited to Muslims
Radical Muslims want Queen to be forced to wear burqa
Egypt: Niqab crisis still in full swing
Compiled by Syed Asadullah
URL of this page: http://newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamWarWithinIslam_1.aspx?ArticleID=2033
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Olympics is degrading to women: Zakir Naik
Linah Baliga / DNA
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Mumbai: "Women's rights are protected in Islam. Our Prophet has talked about women being major beneficiaries for social, political, spiritual and legal rights," said Zakir Naik, president, Islamic Research Foundation (IRF).He was speaking at the Somaiya grounds in Sion (E) on Saturday, dispelling myths about the rights of Muslim women in Islam. Naik blamed the media for painting a distorted picture of the Islamic laws for women.
"A hijab doesn't subjugate a woman. The first Corithians Book of the Bible, in chapter 11, verse 7-8, states that if a woman doesn't cover her head, it should be shaved. There is a mention of covering heads in the Vedas too. In Rajasthan, women do not get out of their homes without a veil. So why make a big deal about Islam?"
When asked about women being stopped from entering mosques, Naik said, "Women are not prevented from entering mosques. Unfortunately, unlike the Gulf, in India, there's no separate prayer place for women. The problem is with Indian culture, not Islam. We segregate them because we stand shoulder-to-shoulder. Otherwise, how will one be able to concentrate on God."
Stressing on women's rights in Islam, Naik said, "A woman can own or disown a property without taking permission. Islam gave the right to do that 1,400 years before the Western world did. Islam also permits women to inherit. In Islam, men give dowry to women, called meher. Muslim men are influenced by the Indian culture to accept dowries. It is the culture to be blamed."
"Islam shouldn't be criticised. If at all anything should be criticised, it should be the Olympics, where they show men and women together participating in games in a swimming pool."
Source: http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_olympics-is-degrading-to-women-zakir-naik_1305610
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Mahabharata from the eyes of Mewat’s Muslims
By Neha Tara Mehta in Pushkar
WATER, tourists and devotees have given Pushkar the royal ignore this year, but a charming Class VIII student called Shah Rukh managed to spread cheer in the desert town.
And it’s got nothing to do with the star power his name carries.
Visiting the Pushkar Literature Festival from his village near Bharatpur, Shah Rukh became the star attraction after heavyweights like Meghnad Desai, Pavan Varma, Prasoon Joshi, Jaideep Sahni and Tarun Tejpal dropped out from reasons ranging from date problems to missing their flights to dengue.
Shah Rukh is one of the youngest inheritors of a dying legacy of Mewat’s Meo Muslims, who recite the Mahabharata as a riveting folk narration known as Pandun ka Kada, and consider the epic an inalienable part of their cultural identity.
Shah Rukh was accompanying his father, Gaffaruddin Mewati, in reciting the epic, in a session which had author Namita Gokhale reading excerpts from The Puffin Mahabharata for young readers.
“ I want to grow up and perform like my father all over the country,” a bashful Shah Rukh said after the performance.
Pandun ka Kada was composed in the form of over 800 verses by a Meo Muslim composer called Sadullah Khanhas in the eighteenth century. Very few Muslim jogis can recite this tale of the Pandavas today. Not surprisingly, Mewati vests great hope in the young Shah Rukh.
Commenting on her book reading session with Gaffaruddin and Shah Rukh, Gokhale said, “ I always feel a bit inadequate narrating the Mahabharata in English.
With their local nuances, our oral traditions bring the gods to the mortals.” “ Though a folk tale, Pandun ka Kada has very deep meaning… Very few want to perform it now, and even fewer are interested in listening to it,” Gaffaruddin said.
“ My father didn’t want me to recite it, because he said where there is Saraswati, there is often no Lakshmi. But I still wanted to do it, and I am glad my son wants to take the family tradition forward,” he added.
Mita Kapur, CEO of Jaipur- based literary agency Siyahi which did the programming for the festival, said: “ It’s amazing how the Mahabharata, despite being a story about battles, scheming and intrigues, continues to unify us.”
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Militants blow up girls school in Pakistan
Agence France-Presse
November 01, 2009
ISLAMIST militants blew up a girls school in Pakistan's lawless Khyber tribal district, destroying the building and wounding four people in neighbouring homes, officials said.
Two explosions ripped through the 18-room government high school for girls at Kari Gar village and a boy who watched the premises is missing, possibly kidnapped by the militants, local administration officials said.
"The militants have blown up the school with two blasts and all rooms were demolished," said administration official Shafeer Ullah.
"Four people in neighbouring houses were also wounded and their homes slightly damaged. We're still trying to find out what happened to the office boy," Ullah told AFP.
Another of Khyber's administrators, Farooq Khan, confirmed the incident.
Islamist militants, who have carved out a strong presence in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt on the Afghan border, have destroyed hundreds of schools, mostly for girls, in the northwest of the country in recent years.
Nearly 200 schools were destroyed in the Swat valley alone during a two-year Taliban uprising to enforce sharia law in a district once favoured by Western tourists for its ski slopes and bracing mountain air.Following up a similar offensive in Swat this summer, Pakistan has been fighting against homegrown militants in Khyber and pressing a major assault designed to crush Taliban sanctuaries in South Waziristan.
Authorities last month shut schools across Pakistan following a suicide attack on a university campus in Islamabad, although most have since reopened.
Source: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26289622-23109,00.html
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Good God! Indonesia Bans Hot Babes In Tight Pants
By Robert Paul Reyes
November 1st, 2009
You are a bad bad Mrs.
In them skin tight britches
Runnin` folks in ditches
Baby about to bust the stitches, yeah
I love The Ohio Players` ode to girls in tight jeans, good music, good times and good-looking women in tight pants, that`s what I`m talking about
You won`t find any red-blooded American males who don`t appreciate a sexy lady wearing tight britches, but in less enlightened parts of the world a woman wearing tight pants isn`t exactly welcomed with open arms.
"Women may soon be banned from wearing tight trousers in parts of an Indonesian province that practices strict Islamic law, and offenders could see their attire cut up.
Aceh is the only province in predominantly Muslim Indonesia to use Islamic sharia for its legal code. The previous provincial government passed a controversial law in September allowing adulterers to be stoned to death."Reuters
All organized religions, especially Islam, are an abomination! I can guarantee that no secular nation will ever ban females from wearing tight slacks. The simple pleasures are always the best, and after a hard day at the office, nothing brings a smile to a man`s face faster than ogling a babe in tight pants.
Source: http://thesop.org/religion/2009/11/01/good-god-indonesia-bans-hot-babes-in-tight-pants
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Pants ban for women draws condemnation
Sunday, November 1, 2009
The sharia regulation prohibiting women from wearing pants in West Aceh regency drew strong condemnation from public circles in Aceh province.
"The enforcement of the regulation is an accumulation of the negative views against women from the perspective of Islamic sharia," said Norma Susanti, the women and children's division head of Aceh Human Rights NGO Coalition. She added that the regulation, issued by the West Aceh regent, was very discriminative in nature and very detrimental to women.
"Islamic sharia is not discriminative against women, but it's different when it is used as a political means by men to restrain women's movements.
"There are many important issues the government should be handling rather than dealing with dress codes or someone's sins," Norma said.
Although Aceh has enforced Islamic sharia law, social problems have instead upset society further, such as the crime rate that has continued to rise, with increases in robbery, murder, rape and abduction cases.
"We are accused of being people who are against God when we criticize such policies. These accusations have made us tired of continuing the struggle," Norma said.
Legal expert Saifudin Bantasyam from Syiah Kuala University said the ban on women wearing trousers was not legally strong enough to be enforced.
"The ordinance is merely a circular which has no legal standing, except for the internal interests of the regency administration."
He added the bylaw could not be implemented because Aceh already had a provincial ordinance regulating the dress code in accordance with Islamic sharia.
"The ordinance doesn't regulate on the types of clothing women should wear, but only a dress code that is decent and in accordance with sharia, and only that," he said.
Aceh Ulema Assembly (MPU) chairman Muslim Ibrahim similarly criticized the regulation, urging it to be reviewed. "We should not be arrogant and force others not to wear pants," he said.
Also slamming the regulation was Taufik Riswan, director of West Aceh Women and Child Protection Research Institute, who said the regent was "overreacting".
"The regulation is against the principles of human rights and the 1945 Constitution," Taufik said.
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/10/31/pants-ban-women-draws-condemnation.html
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SI Muslim woman slashes sleeping husband over religion
By JAMIE SCHRAM, LIZ SADLER and LUKAS I. ALPERT
October 29, 2009
A devout Muslim woman from Pakistan who wed a fellow countryman who did not share her faith tried to stab him to death as he slept in their Staten Island home because she claimed he forced her to drink alcohol, eat pork and dress provocatively, officials said today.
Rabia Sarwar, 37, climbed onto her husband Sheikh Naseem’s chest around 3 a.m. yesterday and repeatedly slashed at his neck as he slept, officials said, screaming, "It’s time for you to die!"
Naseem, a 41-year-old high school math teacher who goes by the name Eddie, said he woke up with the knife to his neck and as he wrestled with his wife – whom he wed five months ago in an arranged marriage — for the weapon.
He begged her to consider his two children from a previous marriage.
"She just screamed, ‘They are going to be orphans now!’" he said. "She kept on coming after me with the knife and I grabbed it and broke it into two pieces and ran out of the room."
He then realized that Sarwar had hidden all the phones, so he ran into the hall and pounded on a neighbor’s door for help. Police were called, and Sarwar arrested. Naseem suffered only surface wounds to his neck, face and hands and was later released from a local hospital.
Full Report at: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/staten_island/si_muslim_woman_slashes_sleeping_qJgubCi5s53rYHBlON6RlL
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November 2, 2009
Transparent Election Is Not Possible, Says Rival to Karzai
By DEXTER FILKINS and ALISSA J. RUBIN
KABUL, Afghanistan — Abdullah Abdullah, the chief rival to President Hamid Karzai, announced on Sunday that he would withdraw from the Nov. 7 Afghan runoff election, effectively handing a new term to Mr. Karzai but potentially damaging the government’s credibility.
Speaking at a news conference, Mr. Abdullah said that the Afghan people should not accept the results of an election run by the country’s Independent Electoral Commission, which has been accused of favoring Mr. Karzai.
“I will not participate in the Nov. 7 election,” Mr. Abdullah said, because a “transparent election is not possible.”
Mr. Abdullah said that Mr. Karzai’s government had not been legitimate since May, when the initial round of balloting was originally to have taken place.
Before Mr. Abdullah’s announcement, American and other Western diplomats said they were worried that a defiant statement by Mr. Abdullah could lead to violence and undermine Mr. Karzai’s legitimacy, and they were urging him to bow out gracefully. Obama administration officials have scrambled for weeks to end the deadlock, trying to ensure a smooth government transition as President Obama weighs whether to increase the American military presence in Afghanistan.
People close to Mr. Abdullah said that his representative met with Mr. Karzai on Saturday but that they were unable to make any progress on the issue that brought the two campaigns to loggerheads: Mr. Abdullah’s demands that the Afghan election system be overhauled to head off more fraud in the second round. After the first round of voting, a United Nations-backed panel threw out nearly a million of Mr. Karzai’s ballots — one-third of his total — on the ground that they were fake.
Full Report at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/world/asia/02afghan.html?_r=1&ref=global-home&pagewanted=print
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Qaeda Had Role in Attack on U.N. Staff, Official Says
By DEXTER FILKINS
KABUL, Afghanistan — The deadly suicide attack at a United Nations guesthouse here last week was a joint operation directed by an Afghan warlord based in the tribal areas of Pakistan and by an operative of Al Qaeda, the Afghan intelligence director said Saturday.
The attack was carried out by three men at dawn on Wednesday. Dressed as Afghan police officers, they went over the walls around the guesthouse and began shooting and attacking with grenades. They killed eight people, five of them foreigners who worked for the United Nations.
The attackers wore suicide belts, but only one of them managed to detonate his explosives. The other two were shot and killed.
The attack could have been much more deadly, but United Nations guards and the Afghan police kept the attackers away from the other United Nations workers inside, security officials said.
The intelligence official, Amrullah Saleh, said at a news conference here that six Afghan suspects had been arrested, including an imam who had provided a hideaway for the attackers. He said the suspects had said that the three suicide attackers were all from the Swat Valley in Pakistan, a region under Taliban control earlier this year.
Full Report at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/world/asia/01kabul.html?pagewanted=print
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November 1, 2009
Uighurs Leave Guantánamo for Palau
By DAVID JOHNSTON
WASHINGTON — Six Chinese Muslims were flown from the United States military detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to Palau, the island nation in the Pacific Ocean, as part of the Obama administration’s effort to close the prison, an administration official said Saturday.
The transfer leaves seven of the Chinese detainees, known as the Uighurs, still confined at the naval base, along with 208 other men.
The Uighurs have been at the heart of a long-running legal, political and ethical debate about the detention center since their incarceration there more than seven years ago. The prison has become an international symbol of American excesses in the war against terrorism, and an increasingly frustrating problem for the White House.
The release of the men had been announced by the Justice Department, but the timing was kept a secret for security reasons until the detainees were safely in Palau, where they are expected to remain while seeking a permanent home elsewhere.
Wells Dixon, a lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights who represents three of the men, said, “Palau is courageous to offer our Uighur clients a temporary home. We are hopeful that other countries like Australia and Germany will resettle them permanently.”
In a news release late Saturday, the Justice Department identified the men as Ahmad Tourson, Abdul Ghappar Abdul Rahman, Edham Mamet, Anwar Hassan, Dawut Abdurehim and Adel Noori. “As we near the completion of our review of detainees at Guantánamo Bay, we will continue to work closely with the Department of State to implement transfer decisions,” Matthew Olsen, executive director of the Guantánamo Review Task Force, said in the release.
Full Report at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/world/asia/01uighurs.html?ref=global-home&pagewanted=print
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November 1, 2009
Clinton Asks Abbas to Return to Talks
By MARK LANDLER and ETHAN BRONNER
JERUSALEM — Dealing a blow to the Obama administration’s efforts to restart Middle East peace talks, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton failed Saturday to persuade the Palestinian leader to accept an Israeli proposal that would slow but not stop the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, insisted that Israel must halt all construction of housing units before broader negotiations could begin. He rebuffed an Israeli proposal — developed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and relayed by Mrs. Clinton — to complete about 3,000 units and temporarily freeze other construction, the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said after the meeting.
“This is a nonstarter,” Mr. Erekat said. “Mr. Netanyahu has a choice, settlements or peace, and he has chosen settlements.”
Mrs. Clinton’s meetings, which came after a three-day trip to Pakistan, followed on President Obama’s pledge last month to redouble American efforts to revive the peace process. But on a marathon day of diplomacy that took her from the Persian Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi to Israel and then on to Morocco, she discovered that if anything, the hurdles to a peace negotiation have grown larger.
American officials insist Mrs. Clinton did not push Mr. Abbas to accept the Israeli proposal in her two-hour meeting with him, which was hastily arranged and took place in Abu Dhabi,. But she made clear later she was eager to narrow the gap between the two sides.
Full Report at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/world/middleeast/01clinton.html?ref=global-home&pagewanted=print
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November 1, 2009
South Sudan Leader Calls for Southern Secession
KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) -- The leader of southern Sudan called on his people to vote to secede from the country if they do not want to end up as second class citizens, as voter registration began Sunday for elections across the country.
Salva Kiir's first-ever call for the mostly Christian south to split off from the Muslim north could increase tension with the Arab-led northern government and further strain the fragile 2005 peace agreement that ended a 20-year north-south civil war that killed 2 million people.
''When you reach your ballot boxes the choice is yours: you want to vote for unity so that you become a second class in your own country, that is your choice,'' he told worshippers Saturday at the cathedral in the southern capital of Juba.
''If you want to vote for independence so that you are a free person in your independent state, that will be your own choice and we will respect the choice of the people,'' he added, according to a recording of the event obtained by the Associated Press.
More than two decades of north-south civil war ended with the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that set up a national unity government, established a semiautonomous south and stipulated the holding of a 2011 referendum to determine the future of the south.
The agreement also calls for all Sudanese parties to work for unity prior to the referendum.
Last week, Kiir, who is part of the unity government, accused the Khartoum of never making ''unity an attractive option'' for the southerners and of failing to fully implement the peace agreement.
Full Report at: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/11/01/world/AP-ML-Sudan-Southern-Secession.html?ref=global-home&pagewanted=print
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November 1, 2009
Iran Frees Two Karoubi Allies on Bail - Media
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has freed two prominent allies of pro-reform cleric Mehdi Karoubi on bail, Iranian media said on Sunday, including a female journalist who reportedly went on hunger strike last week.
Hengameh Shahidi, who worked for Karoubi's Etemad-e Melli newspaper, was released on bail of around $90,000 (54,479 pounds), ISNA news agency reported.
Last week, reformist website Norouz said she went on hunger strike in Tehran's Evin prison and that she suffered from heart disease and depression.
Shahidi, a women's rights activist who advised Karoubi in Iran's disputed June election, was detained for several months. Etemad-e Melli was shut down by the authorities in August.
Karoubi came fourth in the presidential poll, which the opposition says was rigged in favour of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and which triggered huge opposition protests.
Thousands of people were detained after the vote, though most have since been released.
Earlier on Sunday, Iranian newspapers said senior Karoubi adviser Morteza Alviri was released almost eight weeks after he was detained, without giving details on the bail amount.
Full Report at: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/11/01/world/international-uk-iran-election-bail.html?ref=global-home&pagewanted=print
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November 1, 2009
Iran Police to Confront "Illegal" November 4 Rallies
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian police will confront any "illegal" gatherings on November 4, when the Islamic Republic marks the 30th anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, a semi-official news agency reported on Sunday.
Mehr News Agency reported the warning by deputy police chief Ahmadreza Radan a day after opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi appeared to urge supporters to take part in rallies on that day.
In a statement posted on his www.kaleme.com website, Mousavi said he would press ahead with his efforts for political change in Iran following a disputed June presidential election, which he says was rigged in favour of incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Opposition supporters clashed with police and government backers on September 18, at the annual demonstrations in support of the Palestinians.
"The duty of the police is to protect public order, and based on the law we are obliged to prevent any move disturbing the public order," Radan said.
An Iranian MP, Hasan Malek-Mohammadi, also issued a stern warning to the opposition, IRNA news agency reported.
"Those individuals and groups that act against the revolution's pillars and the views (of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei), will be considered as Mohareb (fighting against God) and corrupt on earth," said Malek-Mohammadi, referring to a crime which could be punishable by death in Iran.
"On this day, political groups ... should act in line with the country's national interest," he said.
Full Report at: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/11/01/world/international-uk-iran-police.html?ref=global-home&pagewanted=print
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US backs Israel on 'preconditions'
The US has called for the resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians as soon as possible and without preconditions, an apparent climbdown on earlier demands for Israel to halt settlement building.
The settlement issue should be considered as part of peace negotiations, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said at a news conference in Jerusalem late on Saturday.
"There has never been a precondition. It's always been an issue within the negotiations," she said.
She said Israel has made "unprecedented" concessions on settlement building.
For his part, Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, speaking at the start of a weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, said: "I hope very much that the Palestinians will come to their senses and enter the peace process. The peace process is an Israeli interest as much as it is a Palestinian one."
'Preconditions' opposed
Netanyahu criticised the Palestinians for what he called "setting preconditions".
"We have shown a willingness to do unprecedented things to relaunch the process," he said.
"But we are encountering the opposite from the Palestinians. We are encountering preconditions from the Palestinians that haven't been set in all the 16 years of the peace process."
The administration of Barack Obama, the US president, had previously demanded that Israel halt all settlement building before negotiations could resume, a move that was applauded by the Palestinians but which brought the US and Israel to loggerheads.
Full Report at: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/10/2009103121332825958.html
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Sudan's Kiir backs independence
The south will vote in a referendum scheduled for 2011 as part of a landmark peace agreement [AFP]
The president of South Sudan has backed independence for the semi-autonomous region in a referendum scheduled for 2011.
Salva Kiir has also warned that unity would make southerners "second-class" citizens.
The south will vote in the referendum as part of the 2005 peace deal that ended the country's 22-year civil war.
Voter registration was due to start on Sunday.
"You want to vote for unity so that you will become a second-class in your own country, that is your choice," Kiir said on Saturday.
"If you would want to vote for independence so that you are a free person in your independent state, that will be your own choice."
Kiir, a former guerrilla fighter who battled the government in Khartoum for over two decades, said "the choice of the people" will be respected.
The comments will add pressure to the already troubled relationship between Kiir's Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the north's dominant National Congress Party (NCP).
Both sides promised to build up a campaign to make the unity of Sudan attractive to voters when they signed the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that settled the civil war.
Perfect time
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Ahmed Haroun, a member of the Sudanese National Council representing the NCP, said: "Starting from today [November 1], the entire Sudanese people start to register their names in the voters' records, which ends in April.
"We believe that this is a perfect time in the history of Sudan - because of its free democratic approach - for the people to elect their governors."
Full Report at: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2009/11/2009111115645238465.html
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Death sentences for Yemen fighters
A Yemini court has sentenced four al-Houthi rebel fighters to death for their role in clashes against the military.
Another 11 people were also given 15 years in prison, while one person was released for serving out his sentence, on Tuesday.
The trial was the third involving men who had fought the military at Bani Husheish, about 30km north of Sanaa, the capital, in September.
In the past two weeks, 12 other al-Houthi fighters were sentenced to death for participation in the same battle.
Additionally, on Monday, a court began proceedings in absentia against Yahya al-Houthi, the brother of the al-Houthis' leader, Malik al-Houthi, on charges of spying for an undisclosed nation.
he charges, which al-Houthi denies, carry a maximum sentence of the death penalty.
'Unlawful'
Yahya al-Houthi, who lives in exile in Germany, told Al Jazeera that the court cases were unlawful, and the Houthis could put captured Yemeni soldiers on trial in retaliation.
"First of all, it is not an ordinary court of law. It was established to apprehend and prosecute those who oppose the dictator," he said.
Full Report at: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/10/20091027141524268498.html
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Female cartoonist's provocative work challenges Saudi society
LONDON, England (CNN) -- For Saudi Arabia's lone female cartoonist drawing is more than just satire, it's "a duty."
"I think men have put women in an unfavorable position in this part of the world. They've put women in an oppressive situation," said Hana Hajjar, who works for the English-language newspaper Arab News.
"I feel it is my duty towards women to speak out on their behalf, because I have the tools and venue to do so," she told CNN.
Hajjar's drawings both challenge gender roles and critique political policy, often depicting inequality between the sexes and support for the Palestinian people, but she is careful not to push too far.
"I like to draw thought-provoking and argument-provoking caricatures. I like to see how much I can push people to think, but am mindful never to cross societal red lines," she said.
For a woman in the conservative kingdom of Saudi Arabia to be dealing with such issues represents a significant break in cultural convention.
"The general attitude in Saudi about caricaturists is that women don't have the stamina and inspiration to last long in this field, unlike their male counterparts," Hajjar explained, adding that luckily her parents had always been supportive of her career.
"Caricature is regarded as a man's profession, which has discouraged women in the past from entering the field but I hope my presence is a dent in that armor and will open up the path for others."
Over the past five years, Saudi society has made some modest progress toward greater gender equality. There are now a handful of prominent women sitting in the Chamber of Commerce, working in the media and there is even a woman in government, the Deputy Minister of Education. Hajjar has one female colleague at the newspaper where she works.
Nonetheless social change is slow and resistance is strong. The opening of an elite new university in September caused uproar for offering mixed-gender classes and allowing women to drive on the campus.
Full Report at: http://www.printthis.clickability.com
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Iraq election reform troubles UN
By Jim Muir
The UN special representative in Iraq has expressed concern at the failure of the Iraqi parliament to approve a revised election law.
The country faces a general election in January that is widely seen as crucial.
But political differences have so far held up agreement on a revised legal framework for the poll, and time is running out.
With three months to go until the poll, there was still no clarity in the law, the representative, Ad Melkert, said.
In an unusual intervention, Netherlands-born politician Mr Melkert said his mission was concerned that there was still confusion in the law which he described as a "vital milestone" in the process of democratising Iraq.
Both the UN and the Iraqi Higher Election Commission, which are working together to administer the poll, are urging the Iraqi parliament to approve an amended election law by the end of this week.
Otherwise, they say it will be necessary to postpone the elections for some time, a step that would be unconstitutional and might also mean a delay to President Obama's plans to have all US combat forces out of Iraq by the end of next August.
The Americans are watching the January elections closely, seeing them as a step towards stabilising the country further and consolidating its institutions.
Competing interests
But there are many problems holding up agreement in parliament on changes to the existing election law.
Full Report at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/8331437.stm
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Revulsion at bombing in Peshwar, Pakistan
November 1, 2009
Nicola Smith in Islamabad and Daud Khattak in Peshawar
Shredded burqas and veils lay smouldering on roofs and scattered among severed limbs as the choking black dust settled after Peshawar’s worst terrorist atrocity last week. The anguished wails of trapped women and children echoed in the blazing rubble of a once bustling marketplace.
As the death toll of Wednesday’s car bomb in the northwestern Pakistani city reached 117, it became clear that women have now become key targets in the militants’ twisted strategy of creating mayhem across this volatile, nuclear-armed country.
Such was the revulsion at the deaths of so many women and children that even the Taliban and Al-Qaeda tried to distance themselves from the atrocity, although few believe their denial of responsibility.
The bomb was planted in a pick-up truck in the narrow lanes between the Meena and Koochi bazaars, famous for their women’s dresses, cosmetics, jewellery and household items. Its victims included brides preparing for their weddings and housewives browsing through the latest fashions.
shopkeepers said they had received threatening letters warning the market was a “den of immorality” because it catered for women. “We’ve received threats and there was a bomb blast around four months ago to harass the women,” said Sher Shah, who saw three women vaporised outside his shop by the explosion.
Witnesses spoke of hellish scenes: blood seeped out of a pipe at one damaged building, alerting rescuers to the presence of victims. Inside they found two young children, their bodies in pieces.
Full Report at: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6898221.ece
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J&K seeths over prepaid ban
M Saleem Pandit
1 November 2009
SRINAGAR/JAMMU: The home ministry’s decision to pull the plug on prepaid cellular phones in J&K, citing security reasons, has provoked outrage across the state.
The ruling National Conference called it an ‘‘unwise’’ move while opposition PDP sought PM’s intervention to revoke the ‘‘ill-advised’’ decision.
Residents of the Valley and Jammu, when asked to react, said the decision flies in the face of PM Manmohan Singh’s assertion that ‘‘the era of violence is coming to an end’’.
The PM addressed a rally in Anantnag without a bulletproof shield to buttress his point on Wednesday. College student Muzaffar Ahmad (23) said it was strange he should be punished ‘‘because someone somewhere could be misusing the facility’’.
In the Valley, doctors said they were heavily-dependent on pre-paid cell phones since the documentation for a permanent cell connection was often tedious and cumbersome. Most of the state’s four million mobile phone subscribers have pre-paid connections.
Full Report at: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/JK-seeths-over-prepaid-ban/articleshow/5185153.cms
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Pakistan film industry bombarded by Bollywood
Bharati Dubey
1 November 2009
This year, the Pakistani film industry produced only nine films. The reasons for this dwindle are many but most fingers point to one culprit who, they claim, has killed their industry: Bollywood.
In the recent past, almost every film released in India has simultaneously been released in Pakistan and done business of about Rs 2 crore to Rs 5 crore. Salman Khan starrer Wanted, reported to be a mega hit in Pak metros, has earned about Rs 5 crore till now; Wake Up Sid grossed Rs 1.5 crore; New York made Rs 3 crore while Love Aaj Kal earned Rs 2.5 crore. Most cinema halls in Pakistan are found playing only Indian movies, leading to a paucity of venues for local films: a source from the Pak film industry points out that there are four Pakistani films ready for release but no cinema halls available to screen them.
But while this swamping has angered many members of the Pakistani film and television industry, there are some who feel it is unfair to point a finger at Bollywood alone. Says Jahanzaib Baig, chairman of the Pakistan Film Exhibitors Association, “Local films, which, at 15 to 20 per year, were already in scarce supply, have dropped to around nine. But it’s not only because of Bollywood—the real issue is the lack of infrastructure and skilled workforce in the Pakistani film industry as also the government’s unwillingness to offer a concrete support policy. Unless quality films are produced in the country, you can’t expect the local populace to root for them.’’
Full Report at: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Pakistan-film-industry-bombarded-by-Bollywood/articleshow/5185159.cms
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'Islam can benefit all spheres of life'
November 1, 2009
Mumbai: The popular notion is that Muslims who hold on to their identities are the ones who get isolated. However, Islamic scholars across the globe are trying to deal with this issue.
That a true Muslim needs to follow ideals set down by the Prophet is unquestionable, according to the scholars. "Islam is very clear about the identity of Muslims. We have been stopped at airports because of our identity, but that doesn't mean I will shave off my beard. Let the world realise that there are truly good Muslims, even if they wear long beards, or carry the Muslim identity on them," said Ather Khan.
Muslim scholars feel that the western and non-Islamic world needs to understand the true meaning of Islam. A few jihadis seem to have sent a wrong message and Islamophobic people are adding to the worry by propagating wrong perceptions, they said.
Full Report at: http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_islam-can-benefit-all-spheres-of-life_1305611
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Thirsty Plant Dries Out Yemen
By ROBERT F. WORTH
October 31, 2009
JAHILIYA, Yemen — More than half of this country’s scarce water is used to feed an addiction.
Even as drought kills off Yemen’s crops, farmers in villages like this one are turning increasingly to a thirsty plant called qat, the leaves of which are chewed every day by most Yemeni men (and some women) for their mild narcotic effect. The farmers have little choice: qat is the only way to make a profit.
Meanwhile, the water wells are running dry, and deep, ominous cracks have begun opening in the parched earth, some of them hundreds of yards long.
They tell us it’s because the water table is sinking so fast,” said Muhammad Hamoud Amer, a worn-looking farmer who has lost two-thirds of his peach trees to drought in the past two years. “Every year we have to drill deeper and deeper to get water.”
Across Yemen, the underground water sources that sustain 24 million people are running out, and some areas could be depleted in just a few years. It is a crisis that threatens the very survival of this arid, overpopulated country, and one that could prove deadlier than the better known resurgence of Al Qaeda here.
Water scarcity afflicts much of the Middle East, but Yemen’s poverty and lawlessness make the problem more serious and harder to address, experts say. The government now supplies water once every 45 days in some urban areas, and in much of the country there is no public water supply at all. Meanwhile, the market price of water has quadrupled in the past four years, pushing more and more people to drill illegally into rapidly receding aquifers.
“It is a collapse with social, economic and environmental aspects,” said Abdul Rahman al-Eryani, Yemen’s minister of water and environment. “We are reaching a point where we don’t even know if the interventions we are proposing will save the situation.”
Full Report at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/world/middleeast/01yemen.html?pagewanted=1
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3 held over under-age weddings
2009-10-31 21:14
Cairo - Three Egyptian officials have been arrested for conducting weddings in which the brides were under age, a judicial source said on Saturday.
The officials from Daqhiliya province married three girls to adults, the official said, without giving the girls' ages.
In 2008, Egypt's child protection law was amended to raise the legal age of marriage for both males and females from 16 to 18.
The move was criticised by Egypt's sizable Islamist opposition, who said it went against Islamic and Egyptian norms.
The arrest of the three earlier this week came after a court sentenced two officials to two years in prison for under age marriages. One of the men sentenced had married a minor to a 55-year-old man.
Source: http://www.news24.com/Content/Africa/News/965/5ea16830c09a40f6a82ad3142e2595b5/31-10-2009-09-14/3_held_over_under-age_weddings
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Mosque offended by alcohol & roast pig...in New York City permlink
October 31, 2009
by Razib Khan
The much-hyped, soon-to-open Breslin restaurant, situated in the 12-story Ace Hotel on Broadway and 29th, is giving members of the Masjid Ar-Rahman mosque across the street some agita. "Five times a day, there's a hundred cabs on the street--the good news is you can always get a cab," co-owner Ken Friedman told the Transom the other evening. He said some mosque visitors "object to seeing people drink alcohol."
After the recent FergusStock, a festival during which famed British chef Fergus Henderson cooked whole pigs for a rapt crowd of New York chefs and foodies, Mr. Friedman said the mosque's leaders called a meeting with the hotel. "They said, 'Can you move the bar?'" he said. "And I laughed. And the guy said, 'Oh, you think that's funny?' And I said, 'Yeah, that is funny, that is really funny, because we're not going to move the bar just because you discovered we're serving booze.' Can you name one restaurant in New York that doesn't serve booze?"
Mr. Friedman and his partner, Spotted Pig chef April Bloomfield, did agree to nix plans for a dive bar in a townhouse next door, but as for the restaurant, "I said, 'This is the United States of America and we'll do whatever the fuck we want.'" He said the mosque had suggested it couldn't control the behavior of "a few bad eggs"; i.e., "we could get a brick through our window." Mr. Friedman said he made the police aware of this threat.
Full Report at: http://scienceblogs.com/gnxp/2009/10/mosque_offended_by_alcohol_and.php
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Muslim Culture vs. Western Culture: Muslims and honor killings
October 31, 2009
In response to the positive reaction that was received from yesterday’s article entitled, “Muslim culture vs. Western culture: "Police arrest Muslim man in honor killing attempt of daughter”, the decision to write a follow up article in order to givie our readers a clearer explanation of what “honor killing” means to most Muslims who live in a Muslim country, was not a hard decision to make. As the Muslim population in the United States increases, it would be irresponsible for non Muslim Americans to ignore a Muslim tradition that under U.S. law is considered at best man slaughter and at worst murder.
Honor killings a Muslim tradition
Honor killings, which occur with shocking regularity in certain parts of the Middle East and South Asia, target women whose actions – actual or suspected – violate the honor of their family, an honor which is thought to be partially based on the sexual purity of female family members. Victims are always killed mercilessly by their own family members.
Since this terrible inhumane practice mainly exists in the Muslim world, most countries that are non Muslim, blame Islam as being the catalyst that motivates its faithful to kill. Muslims generally do not agree with this accusation against Islam and quickly put the blame on tribal / cultural practice, and do not consider Islam in anyway responsible for the cultural phenomenon that finds honor in killing as a means to uphold family honor.
Full Report at: http://www.examiner.com/x-21743-St-John-the-Baptist-Parish-Progressive-Examiner~y2009m10d31-Muslim-Culture-vs-Western-Culture-Muslims-and-honor-killings
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Islamic group seeks 'friendship and understanding'
By ALICIA NOTARIANNI
October 31, 2009
HAGERSTOWN — Dr. Mohammad Haq said there is a common concern expressed among the Muslim community.
“The media choose a representative for Muslims who actually do not represent them,” said Haq, of Hagerstown. “We feel very frustrated,”
That fallacious representative, he said, is the Taliban.
In an effort to promote a better understanding of Islam, Haq said, the Islamic Society of Western Maryland hosted an interfaith event. Nearly 100 people with varying ideas on faith gathered Saturday at Beaver Creek Country Club for breakfast, a lecture and a question-and-answer session.
Haq, a member of the Islamic Society and the group’s Interfaith Committee chairman, said people in the Muslim world and people in the West receive a lot of misinformation about one another.
“We are making this attempt to get to know each other and help each other to develop friendship and understanding,” he said.
Haq said he tries to convey a positive vision of the United States when he visits Pakistan.
Full Report at: http://www.herald-mail.com/?cmd=displaystory&story_id=233321&format=html
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Cambridge students can wear 'burqas' at graduation ceremony
Kilts, saris and kimonos to be allowed at the discretion of colleges
November 1, 2009
London: Cambridge University will allow female Muslim students to wear burqas at graduation ceremonies, it has emerged.
By tradition, students are required to wear dark suits and white shirts under their graduation gowns.
Cambridge has clamped down on breaches of the rules after officials complained students were increasingly wearing casual clothes to ceremonies.
They warned the code "is strictly enforced at ceremonies, and if you do not observe it, you may not be permitted to graduate on a particular occasion". Last week it clarified that clothing linked to religious observance, such as burqas, would still be allowed.
Scottish students who want to wear kilts instead of the regulation dark suits and white bow-ties have already challenged the rules. After an outcry, the university said the wearing of kilts, saris and kimonos would be allowed at the discretion of individual colleges.
Full Report at: http://gulfnews.com/news/world/uk/cambridge-students-can-wear-burqas-at-graduation-ceremony-1.521652
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‘My family was wiped out in front of me’
Manisha Jha
For victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, justice is still far away
Together IN GRIEF: Bhagi Kaur (left) and her niece Pappi Kaur who lost 11 family members during the riots.
NEW DELHI: Fifty-four-year-old Bhagi Kaur and 45-year-old Janki Kaur have just one thing in common: both lost their husbands in the anti-Sikh riots of 1984.
Revisiting the tragedy stirs up choked emotions and stifled tears that tell the story of their trampled aspirations. Apart from her husband, Bhagi Kaur also lost 10 other members of her family that fateful night in 1984.
“To everyone else, the riots took place 25 years ago, but for me it just feels like it all happened yesterday. Almost my entire family was wiped out in front of my eyes and even after so many years we haven’t got any justice with the culprits still roaming free,” she adds.
Her niece Pappi Kaur says all festivals and happy occasions like weddings feel so incomplete and dull without their family members.
Janki Kaur with her grandson.
Victims who had migrated from Trilokpuri to Tilak Vihar following the riots have a similar tale to narrate.
Full Report at: http://www.hindu.com/2009/11/01/stories/2009110159720800.htm
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Fury in Ayodhya over Ramcharitmanas
Manjari Mishra & V N Arora
1 November 2009
LUCKNOW: Nearly 387 years after his demise here comes an editor who claims to have removed anomalies from Goswami Tulsidas’s magnum opus ‘Ramcharitmanas’. It has taken nearly eight years of intensive research for the head of Tulsi Peeth, Chitrakoot, Jagadguru Ramanadacharya Swami Ram Bhadrachaya, to come up an improved version of a grammatically and linguistically flawless ‘Ramcharitmanas’.
The “blasphemous act of challenging the mighty pen of the Goswami” however has led to holy fury in Ayodhya. A meeting of top seers from the temple town has demanded the Jagadguru’s personal appearance on November 8 and also an unconditional apology, or face de-canonisation from the chair. The sixty-year-old blind swami flatly refuses to buckle down.
Heading the campaign against him is the high profile Mahant Gyandas, head of All India Akhada Parishad and the president of Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas, Nritya Gopal Das. Das is shocked at the sheer audacity of spotting 3,000 mistakes in ‘Ramayana’. “How dare he ...he has committed an pardonable sin and must own it up,” he told TOI. The duo have also accused the swami of deleting certain verses and arbitrarily substituting news words — a charge hotly denied by the seers disciples.
Full Report at: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Fury-in-Ayodhya-over-Ramcharitmanas-/articleshow/5185147.cms
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Ecumenical Anti-Jihad?
October 31st, 2009
By Daniel Larison
I’m at the Madrid airport with just a few minutes before boarding begins, but I wanted to say something about Ross’ last column and Noah Millman’s response to it. My impression is that Ross wanted to discuss Pope Benedict’s outreach to conservative Christians, whether they are tradtionalist Catholic or Anglican, and he would usually settle for seeing these moves in terms of Western culture wars, but perhaps he wanted to be a bit provocative and make more out of the outreach than it requires. Just as the Pope’s Regensburg address was frequently misconstrued as principally anti-Islamic rather than a meditation on the Christian understanding of reason, Ross seems to be making forthright Catholic proselytism into something other than what it is to make it seem relevant to non-Catholic readers. I would take the same event and see it as another step in the progression of pan-conservative ecumenism in which political-cum-cultural issues carry more weight than theological ones. Of course, Pope Benedict is engaging in this consistent with his obligations as pontiff, so it is not quite that watered down, but it is these political/cultural issues that are the fault lines that have created the opportunity to lure conservative Anglicans away from the Communion.
Full Report at: http://www.amconmag.com/larison/2009/10/31/ecumenical-anti-jihad/
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Secret op resettles Yemeni Jews in US
1 November 2009
WASHINGTON: About 60 Yemeni Jews have moved to the United States since July under a clandestine operation by State Department officials to escape
anti-Jewish attacks in their homeland, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.
Only 200 to 300 Jews still live among Yemen’s 23 million Muslims. The murder of a Jew last year, a Shia revolt in northern Yemen and the growth of Sunni Islamist fervor have fueled their desire to leave the Arabian Peninsula country. “The operation followed a year of mounting harassment, and was plotted with Jewish relief groups while Washington was signaling alarm about Yemen,” the Journal said.
State Department officials were not immediately available to comment on the story.
The journal said a first group of 17 arrived in New York on July 8, a day after leaving the Yemeni capital Sanaa on a flight for Frankfurt. “In all, about 60 Yemeni Jews have resettled in the US since July; officials say another 100 could still come,” the paper said. “An undisclosed number of people have reached Israel,” it added.
The Journal quoted Yair Yaish, head of the Yemenite Jewish Federation of America, as saying he was barraged with “desperate calls from the community here saying we have to do something to get our families out”. The US ambassador in Sanaa urged Yemeni ministers to facilitate the departure, and the government eventually agreed to issue exit permits, it said.
Full Report at: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Secret-op-resettles-Yemeni-Jews-in-US/articleshow/5184729.cms
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UNESCO’s peace waves overwhelm Eicher School
1 November 2002
A seminar on “Peace and Value Education” was organised on October 26 at Eicher School (Sector 46) under the auspices of UNESCO and World Association of Value Educators (WAVE). In Faridabad, it was the third seminar in the series; the earlier two were held at St. John’s Public School (Sector 7A) and DAV Public School (Sector 14). Since the Supreme Court’s judgement on the saffronizaion of education by NCERT, the subliminal need for value-based education in schools has come to the surface and the Founder President of WAVE, Bodhpriya Jaibharti, who is located in Faridabad, is flooded with requests to hold similar seminars in other schools. The key-note lecture of the seminar at Eicher School was delivered by Prof. V.N. Arora on “Value Education for a Secular India in the context of the Supreme Court Judgement”. Other speakers were Maj.General S.K. Dutt (on Positive Thinking), I.S. Asthana, Senior Executive Officer with the National Institute of Open Schooling (on Human Values in Indian Culture), Dr. Rita Bagchi from Hamdard University (on Gandhian Approach to Value Educaiton), S.K. Verma (on Personality Development), Journalist J.B. Sharma (on Learing to Live Together) and Dr. Navneet Arora of IIT Roorkee (on Dev-atmic Approach to Education). Sr. Omkar Singh Sekhawat (principal, Vidya Niketan, NIT 2) was the chief guest. At the end of the lectures, an interactive session between the speakers and the participants was a novel feature of the seminar. Principal Rita Kohli, highlighted the speeches and evaluated them.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/city/delhi/UNESCOs-peace-waves-overwhelm-Eicher-School/articleshow/27650150.cms
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Hizbut Tahrir denounces Israeli aggression on Al-Aqsa
November 1, 2009
Makassar, S Sulawesi (ANTARA News) - Some 1,000 Muslims took to the streets in the South Sulawesi provincial capital of Makassar on Sunday to protest against Israel`s aggression on Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
The demonstrators who claimed to be members of the Islamic organization Hizbut Tahrir marched about seven kilometers from the West Irian Liberation Monument on Sudirman Street to the Mandala Monument and later to Al Markaz Al Islamic Mosque compounds in the city.
In the rally, the demonstrators, most of them women and children, set fire to a number of Israeli flags and expressed concern about the inability of the UN Security Council to face Israel and its allies.
Full Report at: http://www.antara.co.id/en/news/1257068714/hizbut-tahrir-denounces-israeli-aggression-on-al-aqsa
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At funeral an Islamic leader killed by FBI, Muslims call for justice
Nov. 1, 2009
BY NIRAJ WARIKOO
Upset yet content with God's will, Muslims called for justice Saturday at the funeral of an Islamic leader who was killed by FBI agents in a shootout last week.
More than 1,000 packed the Muslim Center of Detroit in a spillover crowd that was at times teary-eyed over the fatal shooting of Luqman Ameen Abdullah, a Muslim leader -- or imam -- who led another Detroit mosque.
Muslims from metro Detroit, Virginia, New York, Philadelphia and Atlanta attended the hour-long ceremony followed by a burial at Knollwood Memorial Park in Canton.
"We are looking for justice," Imam Mohammad Elahi, head of the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights, told the crowd Saturday. "We hope for a fair and just investigation in this case ... because the closest road to Allah," the Arabic word for God, "is justice."
Full Report at: http://www.freep.com/article/20091101/NEWS05/911010462/1318/At-funeral-Muslims-call-for-justice-
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Honor killing not limited to Muslims
Nov. 1, 2009
How you could be so correct and yet so off-base in Wednesday's editorial "Appalling practice must be condemned" about honor killing is incomprehensible to me.
I fully and completely agree with you in your strong condemnation of the practice as an outrageous, barbaric and inhumane act. But I'm dumbfounded you would also use the same editorial for a gratuitous slam at Islam and people of the Muslim faith.
Granted: Honor killing is practiced by some Muslims, perhaps including the misguided man from Glendale who is accused of running down his too-Westernized daughter with his car.
The practice is by no means limited to Muslims. If you wish to categorize those who kill women as a means of preserving their own (supposed) honor, then you should include members of any authoritarian, patriarchal or rigid and absolutist belief system - whether religious or secular!
To specifically name, and thereby castigate and condemn, Muslims for this practice is analogous to blaming Blacks for welfare fraud, young people for drug abuse or women for adultery. - Charles Sobieski, Scottsdale
Source: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2009/11/01/20091101sunlets016.html
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Radical Muslims want Queen to be forced to wear burqa
1 November 2009
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II would be forced to wear a burqa under sharia law, radical Muslim campaigners said.
The Daily Express quoted Abu Rumaysah, spokesman for pro-sharia campaigners Islam4UK, as saying that she would also be stripped of all authority under the sharia system.
They have already said that Buckingham Palace would be renamed “Buckingham Mosque”.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/uk/Radical-Muslims-want-Queen-to-be-forced-to-wear-burqa/articleshow/5184806.cms
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Egypt: Niqab crisis still in full swing
Bikya Masr Staff
1 November 2009
CAIRO: The full veil, or niqab, crisis in Egypt and the debate over the phenomenon continues as law experts, media and human rights activists and religious leaders met at a symposium organized by the One World Association in Cairo, where they addressed the niqab issue and Al-Azhar’s decision to ban the attire at Egyptian universities. The leaders also looked into and debated the reasons behind the niqab’s continued spread throughout Egyptian society.
Yehia el-Gamal, a law professor and Constitutional Expert, denounced the deterioration of Egyptian society, especially in terms of dialogue and debate, pointing out that “Egyptian society suffers from schizophrenia in regards to the question of the veil, which contrasts with the behavior of most of the girls who wear it.” Gamal called for “modesty” and for women not to don the higab, covering of the hair, or the niqab, stressing that Islamic jurisprudence does not refer to the veil in any manner. He cited Sheikh Mohamed al-Ghazali, who has never been a proponent of higab, or veil, but only called for “modesty” when women dress.
Soad Saleh, a prominent Egyptian female religious leader and Professor of Comparative Jurisprudence at Al-Azhar University, said during the symposium that “the crisis of niqab niqab between Egypt and the world” is in need of purifying “the books of the Sunnah of the Prophet [sayings and deeds] and legislation from the weak Hadith [sayings], which are inconsistent with the essence of the Qu’ran.”
She stressed that the niqab is a “habit” and not a “fard,” or obligation, citing many of the Prophet’s statements and situations that women faced in the era of the Prophet when they were uncovered. Saleh added that the era of Prophet Mohamed was the era of “the emancipation of women and that the wrong treatment of women afterward is a matter that led to this deteriorated status that women suffer from.”
Full Report at: http://bikyamasr.com/?p=5405
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Friday, December 18, 2009
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