Apostate & Reformer Victims of Kuffarphobia Discussions - The 4 Freedoms Library2024-03-28T11:12:27Zhttp://4freedoms.com/group/reformers/forum?groupUrl=reformers&feed=yes&xn_auth=noNiger: Muslim woman converts to Christianity, her family beats her and plots kill hertag:4freedoms.com,2015-04-10:3766518:Topic:1649362015-04-10T14:50:45.539ZAlmoghttp://4freedoms.com/profile/Almog
Islam, the only religion where it's legal to kill or/and torture a person for converting out of the religion.<br />
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“She Found Jesus in Niger, Faced Horrible Rejection and Violence,” by Mark Ellis, ASSIST News Service, April 9, 2015 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):<br />
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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (April 8, 2015) — After she found Jesus, she left her faith in Islam behind. As a result, she endured physical abuse, divorce and abandonment because she chose Jesus as her Savior and Lord.<br />
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- See more at:…
Islam, the only religion where it's legal to kill or/and torture a person for converting out of the religion.<br />
<br />
“She Found Jesus in Niger, Faced Horrible Rejection and Violence,” by Mark Ellis, ASSIST News Service, April 9, 2015 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):<br />
<br />
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (April 8, 2015) — After she found Jesus, she left her faith in Islam behind. As a result, she endured physical abuse, divorce and abandonment because she chose Jesus as her Savior and Lord.<br />
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- See more at: <a href="http://pamelageller.com/2015/04/niger-muslim-woman-converts-to-christianity-her-family-beats-her-and-plots-to-kill-her.html/">http://pamelageller.com/2015/04/niger-muslim-woman-converts-to-christianity-her-family-beats-her-and-plots-to-kill-her.html/</a> Conference Comparisons: Fundamentalists v. Reformerstag:4freedoms.com,2014-10-10:3766518:Topic:1571722014-10-10T12:05:46.972ZJoehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/38DD
<p>As many of you will know, 19 of the largest muslim organisations in the UK support the Caliphate. Hizb ut Tahrir can get 10,000 to a conference.</p>
<p>How do the muslim reformists fare?</p>
<p>Here's an advertisement at Harry's Place of an appeal for readers to fund muslim secularists to attend a conference in London:</p>
<p><em>Readers might like to consider contributing to this <a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/secularism-today-now">appeal to support overseas speakers traveling…</a></em></p>
<p>As many of you will know, 19 of the largest muslim organisations in the UK support the Caliphate. Hizb ut Tahrir can get 10,000 to a conference.</p>
<p>How do the muslim reformists fare?</p>
<p>Here's an advertisement at Harry's Place of an appeal for readers to fund muslim secularists to attend a conference in London:</p>
<p><em>Readers might like to consider contributing to this <a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/secularism-today-now">appeal to support overseas speakers traveling to this weekend’s secularist conference in London</a></em></p>
<p><a href="http://hurryupharry.org/2014/10/09/5pillarz-draws-a-veil-over-reality/">http://hurryupharry.org/2014/10/09/5pillarz-draws-a-veil-over-reality/</a></p>
<p>Consider what this means:</p>
<p>There are so few muslim reformists in the UK (out of 2 million muslims, and 1000s of muslim organisations) that the muslims who are to attend this conference are coming from abroad. Morover, whilst there are untold £billions sloshing around muslim organisations in the UK, the muslims who are to be shipped in from abroad to populate this muslim reformist conference don't have the money to get here and/or pay for hotel accommodation.</p>
<p>I think we can use this thread to start to record all the different conferences there are. I've no doubt there will be 50 fundamentalist conference for every reformist conference.</p>
<p>But of course, the majority of muslims are moderate/secular/reformist.</p>
<p>Not.</p> Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed & Gay Friendly Mosquestag:4freedoms.com,2014-09-28:3766518:Topic:1568422014-09-28T08:33:48.915ZJoehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/38DD
<p><span>With the story of one of these unicorns opening in Cape Town, and another in Paris a couple of years ago, it sounds like it might be a reform movement sweeping across muslims in the West. Not so. It seems they may be the work of one man.</span></p>
<p><span>Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed opened a "secretive" gay-friendly mosque in Paris two years ago. Inside a buddhist centre. And the location is kept secret to stop it being attacked by muslims.…</span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span>With the story of one of these unicorns opening in Cape Town, and another in Paris a couple of years ago, it sounds like it might be a reform movement sweeping across muslims in the West. Not so. It seems they may be the work of one man.</span></p>
<p><span>Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed opened a "secretive" gay-friendly mosque in Paris two years ago. Inside a buddhist centre. And the location is kept secret to stop it being attacked by muslims.</span></p>
<p><span><a href="http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2012/11/29/secretive-gay-mosque-set-to-open-in-paris/">http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2012/11/29/secretive-gay-mosque-set-to-open-in-paris/</a></span></p>
<p><span>Zahed has moved to Cape Town to live with his husband, commenting that life is less stressful for him there than in Paris. I wonder where that stress was coming from in Paris? From other muslims who want to kill him, perhaps?</span></p>
<p><span>Last week a gay-friendly mosque in Cape Town. It has now been closed down.</span></p>
<p><span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-29373914">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-29373914</a></span></p>
<p><span>Whether or not the Paris "gay friendly" mosque is still open is another matter. Considering it is effectively a covert prayer-room inside an unnamed buddhist centre makes one question in what sense it is "open".</span></p>
<p><span>The media are happy to describe Zahed as a "renowned scholar", when he is nothing of the sort (he's certainly not any islamic scholar recognised by musilms). The media also describe him as an "imam", but it is almost certain that he is no more than the imam of one of these "mosques" he has opened. The media act as if being an imam required qualifications, when in islam any one can be an imam: there is no priesthood, no training. </span></p>
<p><span><a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2014-09-04-faith-and-sexuality-exposed/">http://mg.co.za/article/2014-09-04-faith-and-sexuality-exposed/</a></span></p>
<p><span>If Zahed is an imam of some typical mosque, they never state where this mosque is. Considering that the ex-imam associated with Quilliam was forced to leave the mosque where he worked (a scientist who tentatively stated that evolution might be consonant with islam), it seems certain that Zahed could never be an imam in a typical mosque and be propounding equality for gay people.</span></p>
<p><span>The Libtards seem to think that if they keep on prattling their delusions/deceits, then reality will start to conform to their fantasies.</span></p>
<p><span>Taj Hargey was also involved with this "open mosque" in Cape Town. He's received death threats because of it.</span></p>
<p><span><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/southafrica/11097221/Muslim-academic-gets-death-threats-over-women-and-gay-friendly-mosque.html">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/southafrica/11097221/Muslim-academic-gets-death-threats-over-women-and-gay-friendly-mosque.html</a></span></p>
<p><span>Of course, the media had fairly prominent stories about the "gay friendly mosque opening in Cape Town". They are largely ignoring that it has been closed down within a week.</span></p> Muslim 'Apostate' tortured and executed by ISIStag:4freedoms.com,2014-09-26:3766518:Topic:1567652014-09-26T21:42:26.695ZKinanahttp://4freedoms.com/profile/Kinana
<div class="entry-categories"><span style="font-size: 2em;">Leading Female Iraqi Human Rights Activist Arrested, Tortured and Publicly Executed by ISIS for ‘Apostasy’ After Facebook Post</span></div>
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<div class="entry-meta">Posted on <a href="http://themuslimissue.wordpress.com/2014/09/26/leading-female-iraqi-human-rights-activist-arrested-tortured-and-publicly-executed-for-apostasy-after-facebook-post/" rel="bookmark" title="6:50 pm">September 26, 2014…</a></div>
<div class="entry-categories"><span style="font-size: 2em;">Leading Female Iraqi Human Rights Activist Arrested, Tortured and Publicly Executed by ISIS for ‘Apostasy’ After Facebook Post</span></div>
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<div class="entry-meta">Posted on <a href="http://themuslimissue.wordpress.com/2014/09/26/leading-female-iraqi-human-rights-activist-arrested-tortured-and-publicly-executed-for-apostasy-after-facebook-post/" title="6:50 pm" rel="bookmark">September 26, 2014</a><span class="byline"><span class="author vcard"><a class="url fn n" href="http://themuslimissue.wordpress.com/author/administration01/" title="View all posts by Admin" rel="author"><br/></a></span></span></div>
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<div class="rating-star-icon" id="PDRTJS_6116479_post_30889_stars_1"><strong style="font-size: 1.5em;">Women’s Rights Activist Executed by ISIS in Iraq</strong></div>
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<p>NICK CUMMING-BRUCE, The New York Times<br/>SEPT. 25, 2014</p>
<p id="story-continues-1" class="story-body-text story-content">GENEVA — An Iraqi lawyer known for her work promoting women’s rights has been killed by Islamic State fighters, the head of the United Nations human rights office said on Thursday, continuing a pattern of attacks on professional women.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content">The lawyer, <strong>Sameera Salih Ali al-Nuaimy</strong>, was seized from her home by Islamic State fighters last week and tortured for several days before a masked firing squad executed her in public on Monday, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the United Nations human rights commissioner, said <a title="The statement." href="http://reliefweb.int/report/iraq/un-envoy-condemns-public-execution-human-rights-lawyer-ms-sameera-al-nuaimy-enar">in a statement</a>.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content">Ms. Nuaimy had posted comments on her Facebook page condemning the “barbaric” bombing and destroying of mosques and shrines in Mosul, a northern Iraqi city, by the Islamic State, the militant group also known as ISIS or ISIL. She was convicted of apostasy by a “so-called court,” Mr. Zeid said, adding that her family had been barred from giving her a funeral.</p>
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<p id="story-continues-2" class="story-body-text story-content">The killing follows the execution of a number of Iraqi women in areas under Islamic State control documented by United Nations monitors, including two candidates contesting Iraq’s general election in Nineveh Province, who were killed in July. A third female candidate was abducted by gunmen in eastern Mosul and has not been heard from since.</p>
<p id="story-continues-3" class="story-body-text story-content">United Nations monitors in Iraq have received numerous reports of executions of women by Islamic State gunmen, some after perfunctory trials, the organization said. “Educated, professional women seem to be particularly at risk,” it added.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-30890" src="http://themuslimissue.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/human-rights-activist.jpg?w=610&h=343" alt="human rights activist" width="610" height="343"/></p>
<p id="story-continues-4" class="story-body-text story-content">These killings, together with abductions and the enslavement of women and children, illustrate the “utterly poisonous nature” of the extremist group, Mr. Zeid said, drawing attention to the plight of hundreds of women and girls of the Yazidi religious minority and other ethnic and religious groups sold into slavery, raped or forced into marriage after the group overran large areas of northern Iraq.</p>
<p id="story-continues-5" class="story-body-text story-content">“The fact that such groups try to attract more people to their cause by asserting their acts are supported by Islam is a further gross perversion,” he said.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content">The high commissioner’s statement came as his deputy, Flavia Pansieri, told the Human Rights Council in Geneva that the situation in Iraq had continued to deteriorate even since the start of the month.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content">At least 8,493 civilians are believed to have died in the Iraqi conflict this year, half of them between the start of June and the end of August, she reported, but the United Nations has warned that the real number of casualties could be much higher.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content">Information gathered by United Nations monitors on the situation in areas under Islamic State control “reveals acts of inhumanity on an unimaginable scale,” she said.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content"><a href="http://themuslimissue.wordpress.com/2014/09/26/leading-female-iraqi-human-rights-activist-arrested-tortured-and-publicly-executed-for-apostasy-after-facebook-post/">http://themuslimissue.wordpress.com/2014/09/26/leading-female-iraqi-human-rights-activist-arrested-tortured-and-publicly-executed-for-apostasy-after-facebook-post/</a></p>
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<p></p> Turkey: Turan Dursun - reformist cleric - assassinated by Fasciststag:4freedoms.com,2014-08-31:3766518:Topic:1560712014-08-31T21:18:02.910ZAlan Lakehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<h1 class="post-title single"><a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/08/turkish-ex-mufti-on-muhammad-so-many-people-cant-live-properly-because-of-him" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Turkish ex-mufti on Muhammad: “So many people can’t live properly because of him”">Turkish ex-mufti on Muhammad: “So many people can’t live properly because of him”…</a></h1>
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<h1 class="post-title single"><a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/08/turkish-ex-mufti-on-muhammad-so-many-people-cant-live-properly-because-of-him" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Turkish ex-mufti on Muhammad: “So many people can’t live properly because of him”">Turkish ex-mufti on Muhammad: “So many people can’t live properly because of him”</a></h1>
<div class="meta"><span class="meta-author"><span class="meta-inner"><a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/author/samir" title="Posts by Robert Spencer" rel="author">Robert Spencer</a></span></span> <span class="meta-date"><span class="meta-inner">Aug 30, 2014 at 10:50am </span></span><span class="meta-cats"><span class="meta-inner"><a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/category/apostasy" title="View all posts in Apostasy" rel="category tag">Apostasy</a>, <a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/category/turkey" title="View all posts in Turkey" rel="category tag">Turkey</a></span></span> <span class="meta-comments"><span class="meta-inner"><a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/08/turkish-ex-mufti-on-muhammad-so-many-people-cant-live-properly-because-of-him#comments" rel="bookmark" title="Comments for Turkish ex-mufti on Muhammad: “So many people can’t live properly because of him”">46 Comments</a></span></span></div>
<p><a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/turandursun12.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-57942 alignleft" src="http://www.jihadwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/turandursun12-300x182.jpg" alt="turandursun12" width="300" height="182"/></a>Turan Dursun was “a former mufti and imam and an open critic of Islam who fought for a freer and more humane world despite pressures from the state, the public, and even his own father, whose dream was to see him become a devoted cleric.” He lived in Turkey. He was, as was tragically predictable, assassinated by defenders of the faith.</p>
<p>”Choosing between freedom and Islamism,” by Uzay Bulut, <a href="http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=9759" target="_blank">Israel Hayom</a>, August 26, 2014:</p>
<blockquote><p>“The book you are holding in your hand is a book of a new era marked for a more beautiful world. It is obvious that a more beautiful world cannot be achieved without a freer world. And to achieve a freer world, taboos must be broken. All kinds of chains that bind freedoms must be broken.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This excerpt is from the preface of the first edition of the book “This is Religion,” by Turan Dursun.</p>
<p>Dursun’s father was of Turkish descent, and his mother, of Kurdish descent. Born in Turkey in 1934, he was a former mufti and imam and an open critic of Islam who fought for a freer and more humane world despite pressures from the state, the public, and even his own father, whose dream was to see him become a devoted cleric.</p>
<p>Dursun was a prestigious mufti in the cities where he worked. His progressiveness and hard work were often covered by the national media, and he sometimes wrote columns for national newspapers, as well. He was frequently invited to official state ceremonies and was respected by the public. He regularly visited villages to observe their problems, and tried to offer solutions.</p>
<p>Because Dursun received his education in madrassas (Muslim theological schools) and knew Arabic well, he had a comprehensive knowledge of Islam’s original source documents — the Quran, hadith, biographies and histories. And he had something of crucial importance that most Muslim scholars lack: a critical mind.</p>
<p>The Islamic religious texts did not satisfy the depths of his mind. He had an incredible passion for learning. Aside from his native languages, Turkish and Kurdish, he learned Arabic, Circassian, and some French. He had a strong interest in Greek philosophy, as well, and read Aristotle’s works when he was just 12. </p>
<p>”Knowledge is accumulated in your mind to a point, and then a spark is emitted. But if [your religion or ideology] is so deeply rooted in your culture and conscious, it is hard to certainly face up to and distance yourself from it. I always had a nature that revolted against the concept of God and my disengagement from Islam took place in an evolutionary phase. I had always argued with God. Then I repented. I thought, for example, that if the Quran is the word of God, then why does it permit slavery? Why does it tell some people that it is OK if they are slaves? I thought that if [the Quran's author] was really Allah, he should have abolished slavery and that he should not have declared some people slaves and others free. But then I immediately abjured. I had always been in a state of rebellion since my childhood,” Dursun said in an interview.</p>
<p>But his main estrangement from Islam happened when he compared the Quran with other religious books. </p>
<p>”Then I realized how Muhammad transferred some of the writings of the Torah and Bible to the Quran. I was so frustrated and angry. I could not live my childhood and youth properly because of him. So many people can’t live properly because of him. So many people are sufferers of his disasters. So many people know what’s right as wrong and what’s wrong as right because they think the darkness that he chose exists. Human emotions and human creations haven’t progressed in many ways because of him. I have found no disease, neither cancer nor AIDS, and no disaster more horrid than the effects of that religion. And at that moment, I decided to start a fight,” Dursun said.</p>
<p>Dursun also gave up his job as a mufti, which he carried out for 14 years, to dedicate himself better to his cause.</p>
<p>”I gave up my job to be able to fight. I was on top of my career. I was not an ordinary mufti. People knew and respected me. But I had to leave that job. Because I thought that if I was to fight, I could not do that with my current job because that would not be honest. I have always been consistent. I never want a difference between what I think and what I do.”</p>
<p>Dursun said that he first lost his faith in Muhammad, then he deeply thought about it, reading extensively in anthropology, and in a few years time he lost his faith in God, as well. </p>
<p>With these changes, Dursun’s father and brothers were gradually estranged from him.</p>
<p>Then he started writing. His first problem was that no media outlet or publishing house wanted to publish his articles. </p>
<p>In the preface to “This is Religion — Part 1,” he explained that period: “I tried so hard to publish these articles. I rang many bells. My attempts continued for months, if not years. They all turned me down. [These articles] daunted even people known as ‘progressives’ or ’intellectuals.’ Even when my most moderate articles were presented to them, some of them said, ‘They can stone us to death if we publish them.’ Some of them were even scared of being bombed, let alone being stoned. Some of them responded with the same rhetoric of tactician politicians: ‘We respect the religion. We do not support offending religious feelings.’</p>
<p>”Every time I was turned down, I thought: If they can’t risk offending feelings, how can struggle against darkness be possible? Can new steps in the field of civilization be taken without offending feelings? How can changes that aim to reach a more beautiful, civilized, and humane world take place without offending feelings? What novelty or reform has been introduced without offending feelings? Have human beings not offended religious feelings as they have changed themselves and the nature? I always thought about these questions. But still found no entrance to our ‘liberal’ (!) printed press. </p>
<p>”So before our country and the world, I would like to document this (situation) and blame the ’intellectuals’ who function as stern wardens that are not very different from the sovereigns of the oppressive regimes that they accuse and as taps that prevent water required for liberation from flowing,” Dursun said.</p>
<p>Finally, Dursun was able to find a magazine to publish his articles and then a publishing house to print his books.</p>
<p>Among the many subjects he wrote about were violence in Islam, Shariah law, the status of women in Islam, the private life of Muhammad, contradictions in the Quran, “Satanic verses” and the vengefulness of Islamists. He also focused on what he called “the unscientific and irrational matters in the Quran.” He wrote countless books and articles in the 1980s.</p>
<p>His son Abit Dursun said that every single article his father wrote fell like a bombshell. “My father heartily dealt with taboos that no one in Turkey had ever dared discuss,” he said.</p>
<p>Thus, Turan Dursun often received death threats and was exposed to verbal attacks. </p>
<p>”Even a fatwa requiring my father’s execution was proclaimed. Then the magazine for which he wrote made a call to all Islamic scholars to join a debate program on TV with my father. But none of them volunteered because they knew that my father was one of the most outstanding scholars of Islam, not only in Turkey but throughout the world. And my father was fearless,” said Abit Dursun.</p>
<p>Turan Dursun’s knowledge was great and so was his bravery. But he did not write to harm, coerce, destroy or kill anyone. He had a cause, which he believed was to enlighten and liberate people to create a better world, where freedom and humanity would prevail. And his only weapon was the eloquence of his pen. </p>
<p>But his opponents did not share the same human values. As if to prove Dursun right about the violence of Islamic teachings, they did not confine themselves to verbal or psychological attacks. </p>
<p>At age 56, Dursun was brutally assassinated by two gunmen in front of his house in Istanbul on September 4, 1990. </p>
<p>After Dursun’s murder, a book titled “The Holy Terror of Hezbollah” was found on his bed. Family members said that the book did not belong to Dursun and was left on his bed as a message by the people who entered their house. </p>
<p>After Dursun was murdered, plainclothes policemen took away many of his works, which he had been in the process of preparing, including the 2,000 pages of his Encyclopedia of the Quran, many of his manuscripts, articles, letters and the fifth edition of his latest book.</p>
<p>”The police arrived in our house 45 minutes later. The plainclothes policemen who had arrived much earlier ransacked the whole house. As they left after seizing my father’s works, the uniformed policemen came. … We sought help from the prosecutor’s office later, but were not able to get those works back,” his son said.</p>
<p>Dursun was opposed by the police and the state, and was completely vulnerable. But he was also abandoned by many of Turkey’s intellectuals. Not everyone had his courageous heart and his free mind, after all.</p>
<p>Abit Dursun delivered a speech in his father’s funeral: “Turan Dursun always said ‘I am not scared of darkness. I am scared of being scared. Because one who is scared either dreads or becomes aggressive. Those who killed my father viciously fired bullets at his back, without even daring to look him in the eye,” he said.</p>
<p>After Dursun’s assassination, his books sold tens of thousands of copies in Turkey. His supporters have called him a “warrior of enlightenment” — one of the most well-deserved titles in history.</p>
<p>Dursun was killed years ago, but the silence and indifference of the West — the free world — in the face of Islamism remains deafening.</p>
<p>The term “Islamphobia” has been invented to muzzle the critics of Islam so that Islamists’ feelings will not be offended. Even genuine supporters of this term must be well aware of the fact that the slightest, mildest criticism of Islam can cause violent reactions from “peaceful” Islamists.</p>
<p>That is why Alan Dershowitz was so right when he said, “The threat or fear of violence should not become an excuse or justification for restricting freedom of speech.” </p>
<p>Why do we fear a violent reaction from Muslims if we make any substantial critique of Islam? Is Islam not a religion of peace, as many claim it to be?</p>
<p>”Islamophobia” apologists should also answer these questions: What thoughts are included and guaranteed within the scope of freedom of expression? Which thoughts are free and which are banned? To what extent can one criticize Islam and about what subjects must one be silent? Can we get a list of do’s and don’t’s, and if so, how would it contribute to human progress?</p>
<p>The suppression of criticism of Islam and Islamism aims to restrict the capacity of the human mind. But we are no longer living in the seventh century. In the 21st century, one may not demand silence from free thinkers.</p> Rumy Hasan: ‘Islamophobia’ and electoral pacts with Muslim groupstag:4freedoms.com,2013-09-06:3766518:Topic:1371642013-09-06T11:28:27.453ZJoehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/38DD
<p>Apparently, Rumy Hasan was a member of the SWP, until he was driven out in 2003. It appears that the SWP could not tolerate an ex-muslim within its ranks, especially one who stated there was virtually no islamophobia in Britain. See <a href="http://shirazsocialist.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/rumy-hasans-lost-article-on-islamophobia-part-1/">http://shirazsocialist.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/rumy-hasans-lost-article-on-islamophobia-part-1/</a></p>
<p>This is pretty much what I would have expected…</p>
<p>Apparently, Rumy Hasan was a member of the SWP, until he was driven out in 2003. It appears that the SWP could not tolerate an ex-muslim within its ranks, especially one who stated there was virtually no islamophobia in Britain. See <a href="http://shirazsocialist.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/rumy-hasans-lost-article-on-islamophobia-part-1/">http://shirazsocialist.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/rumy-hasans-lost-article-on-islamophobia-part-1/</a></p>
<p>This is pretty much what I would have expected from the SWP. The Left are not interested in the truth, but only in employing slogans in order to extend their reach.</p>
<hr/><p>‘Islamophobia’ and electoral pacts with Muslim groups</p>
<p>by Rumy Hasan</p>
<p>Birmingham Socialist Alliance</p>
<p>Since 11 September 2001, the epithet ‘Islamophobia’ has increasingly become in vogue in Britain – not only from Muslims but also, surprisingly, from wide layers of the left, yet the term is seldom elaborated upon or placed in a proper context. Invariably, it is used unwisely and irresponsibly and my argument is that the left should refrain from using it.</p>
<p>Shockingly, some on the left have, on occassion, even resorted to using it as a term of rebuke against the left, secular, critics of reactionary aspects of Muslim involvement in the anti-war movement. So what does the term mean? Literally, ’fear of Islam’ but, more accurately, a dislike or hatred of Muslims, analogous to ‘anti-Semitism’. Since September 11, there has undoubtedly been an increasing resentment and hostility by some sections of the media towards Muslims in Britain and more generally in the West that, in turn, has also given rise to some popular hostility. But this is rarely made explicitly – rather it is coded as an attack on asylum seekers, refugees and potential ‘terrorists’, above all on Arabs from North Africa and the Middle East. This has been most intense in America, where there has been systematic harassment of Arabs for almost two years.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, however, all sections of the media, including the gutter press, have largely refrained from open attacks on British Muslims. In terms of physical attacks, including fatalities, to my knowledge there have been relatively few. Indeed, in the immediate aftermath of September 11, it was a Sikh man who was murdered in the US because he wore a turban in the manner of Bin Laden. But there certainly were attacks – both on individuals and on mosques – in Britain, especially in northern towns, probably by BNP thugs, and other notorious acts such as leaving a pig’s head outside a mosque. But these largely abated soon after, though such incidents still periodically occur. Hence there is certainly no room for complacency. But does all this amount to Islamophobia? Clearly not: we are not dealing with a situation comparable to the Jews under the Nazis in the 1930s, nor even of Muslims in Gujarat, India, that is currently run by a de facto Hindu fascist regime. Arguably, the situation in the 1970′s, when the National Front was becoming a real menace in Britain, was more dangerous for Muslims and non-Muslim ethnic minorities alike.</p>
<p>Moreover, perhaps as a counter-balance, the more responsible TV and press media have, in fact, been portraying a number of, if anything, over-positive images of Islam and Muslims (examples include the BBC’s series on Islam – which was a whitewash: a highly sympathetic week-long account of Birmingham Central mosque; and a 2-week long daily slot on the Hajj by Channel 4 that downplayed the appalling death toll which occurs there every year). An establishment paper such as the Financial Times has had front-page photos of the Hajj and of anti-war placards of the Muslim Association of Britain. Soon after September 11, both political leaders and the media – out of concern for the backlash this was likely to generate, dropped the term ‘Islamic fundamentalism’ from usage. In the same vein Bush invited an imam to the special religious service held soon after S11 in Washington and Blair met Muslim leaders in Britain. This was a symbolism that went down well with Muslim leaders in these countries.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, many Muslims still believe that the US-led ‘war on terror’ is in fact a war against islam and therefore is the clearest expression of Islamophobia. But such reasoning overlooks some uncomfortable realities. The country at the forefront of this ‘war’ is of course the US. Let us, therefore, summarise briefly its relations with the ‘Islamic’ world:</p>
<p>i. The US has long propped up the Saudi regime, a crucial ally in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia has the most sacred sites of Islam. But there has never been a squeak of protest by the US government against the brutality and oppressiveness of this barbaric society – rather, the US has gone out of its way not to criticise it out of ‘respect for Islamic values and culture’. This, of course, is humbug, but the fact remains;</p>
<p>ii. The second largest recipient of US aid (after Israel) is Egypt – a Muslim country;</p>
<p>iii. In 1991, the US-led coalition ‘liberated’ Kuwait, a Muslim country – with the help of practically all the Muslim Gulf states;</p>
<p>iv. In 1999, the US and its NATO allies ‘liberated’ Kosovo – a predominantly Muslim province, from ‘Christain’ Serbia. The ex-Serb president Milosevic is undergoing a show-trial in the Hague for ‘crimes against humanity’ (specifically, against Kosovar Muslims);</p>
<p>v. The US armed, trained and funded the Islamic fundamentalists of the Afghan Mujahideen in the fight against the Russians. This included nurturing one Osama Bin Laden;</p>
<p>vi. The US had no problems of the takeover of Afghanistan in 1996 by the Taliban – the creation largely of Pakistan, a strong ally of the US and an avowedly ‘Islamic Republic’;</p>
<p>vii. The US has been strongly pushing for Turkey’s membership of the EU -though Turkey is a secular state, most Turks are, nominally at least, Muslims.</p>
<p>The list could go. One might, therefore, wonder whereris the ‘war on Islam’ or (the) ‘Islamophobia’ of US foreign policy? It is not for nothing that leaders of Muslim countries rarely talk about ‘Islamophobia’. Moreover, it is a rarely stated fact that Muslims say from the Indian sub-continent or East Asia are likely to experience much harsher treatment and discrimination at the hands of ‘fellow Muslims’ in Arab (especially Gulf) countries than they are in the West. So, woe betide those who parrot the ‘Islamophobic’ argument against the Western right – those foolish enough to do so will surely be in for a serious hammering. Moreover, by so doing, they will let the imperialists off the hook. In reality, US imperialism does not give a damn about the religion of a country as long as its economic and strategic interests are served. It has long supported the most reactionary, dictatorial regimes in the Muslim world – as long as they do its bidding. If they fall out of line, as with Iraq, then they are subjected to the full imperial onslaught. At most, we could say that there has been a degree of anti-Arab hostility that has spilled over into anti-Muslim sentiment as one of the justifications for this. But this does not alter the fact that, both domestically and internationally, there is simply no material basis to ‘Islamophobia’.</p>
<p>The term Islamophobia seemed to first appear in Britain during the Rushdie affair in the late 1980′s. This was an attempt by fundamentalist Muslims to silence critics such as Rushdie and his supporters for free speech by arguing that only the wider ‘Islamophobia’ of British society and state allowed this to pass unpunished. The implication was clear: criticism of Islam is tantamount to ‘Islamophobia’ and is therefore out of bounds. This is a position that progressives cannot and should not accept. For those on the left who are not convinced by this analysis, some crucial questions need to be posed: what is your position on, for example, the stance of thousands of women in Pakistan who courageously demonstrated against the Islamic hudoo ordinance in the mid-1980′s that the dictator General Zia (a key islamic fundamentalist US ally at the time) was imposing -whose aim was to reduce women , in law, to second-class status? These women were clearly acting in an Islamophobic manner – any mullah would have told you that. Similarly, what is your position on those protesting against the Sharia law in Northern Nigeria that recently saw the imposition of a death-by-stoning sentence on a Nigerian woman for adultery? These demonstrators are clearly acting in an Islamophobic manner, as any mullah must tell you. Or, your position in regard to the ex-Muslim Dutch MEP who has been witch-hunted by Muslims for asserting that Muslim men oppress women?</p>
<p>What is clear is that such questions and implications have been blatantly ignored. Much of the left has simply been unwilling to critically engage with the reactionary belief-system of its new-found allies. Not only that, but there has also been an extraordinary indulgence – as, for example, in the toleration of Muslim Association of Britain’s (MAB) members and spokespersons at anti-war demonstrations in London and elsewhere to incessantly chant the “takbeer” (“Allah-o-akbar”). Absolutely no such indulgence was allowed for members of other faiths (so, for instance, no chance of the Lord’s Prayer or Buddhist chants) or of no faith (no singing of the Internationale or Red Flag). Instead, in the aftermath of the Iraq war, there is talk by some of an electoral pact between the Socialist Alliance and Muslim groups and mosque leaders along the lines of a “Peace and Justice Coalition”. It appears that those who have decried against “Islamophobia” have gone further and are now engaging in a kind of “Islamophilia”. Matters are at an early stage but this really seems to be about converting the Stop the War Coalition into an electoral body. Were this, by hook or crook, to materialise, it would be a strange creature indeed: an electoral grouping of atheistic progressives and religious zealots who, on many core issues, are profoundly reactionary. Before any such fiasco begins to take shape, some more sobering facts need to be pointed out. One presumes that there would be attempts to deepen links with the MAB – the key Muslim organisation in the anti-war movement. Now the MAB is clear and proud of where it stands: it takes inspiration from the ideas of Maulana Maududi, the founder member of the Jamaat-I-Islami in Pakistan (Tariq Ali exposes his ideas in Clash of Fundamentalisms). Let us remind ourselves that the Jamaat and fellow Islamist reactionaries have won a large number of seats in Pakistan’s elections and are already making life hell not just for women and progressives but for anyone with even the remotest semblance of modernist thinking in the North West Frontier Province which they now control.</p>
<p>But what appears also to be driving this move for some is the election of the first and only Socialist Alliance councillor in Preston (North England). This was achieved, in part, by the local SA gaining the support of Muslims and the imam of a mosque with whom they had worked closely with in the anti-war movement. There is the belief that this provides a good recipe for success in at least those constituencies with large Muslim populations. The argument is that Muslims radicalised by the war will be willing to vote for left candidates. But the reasoning has grave flaws. First, true there has been a radicalising of Muslims – but it is clear that the vast majority have been radicalised by Islam (and not by socialist, Marxist, or even, anti-imperialist arguments). Hence, for Muslims, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Palestine are, above all, about Islam (be it the “industrial strength” or “softer” version) – hence also why they are so keen to espouse the “Islamophobic argument”. Though we may be thankful that only a small number of Muslims have been won over to fundamentalist organisations, it is still sadly the case that even a fewer number have been won over to left, secular, politics. In the same vein, one should never forget that most Muslims supported the US and NATO attack on Serbia in 1999. We can therefore be assured that if the US decides to attack say North Korea or a Latin American country, Muslims are likely to be conspicuous by their absence at demos against these. Second, uniting with imams in an electoral organisation is something socialists should not give even a single thought to. Indubitably, mosques are bastions of sexism and gender segregation. As such, they are an affront to any meaningful notion of democracy. Indeed for some Muslims (with good reason), the very idea of democracy is un-Islamic (as laws made by humans are an insult to already-existing God’s Law). Crucially, however, imams are required by their faith to espouse the Sharia law. Though it is impossible for them to enforce this in the outside world in the West, nonetheless, it is possible to make the attempt within the confines of mosques, and many undoubtedly do precisely this.</p>
<p>If this were not enough, there are two further powerful arguments against the formation of such a coalition, which concern the wider Asian community. First, religious elements will inevitably be strengthened within “Muslim” communities at the direct expense of secular, progressive forces. Consequently, overtly reactionary ideas and practices (for example, over the question of women’s and gay rights) will continue to go unchallenged (a prospective coalition will require the left to keep silent over these). Second, there will inevitably be a massive alienating effect on non-Muslim Asians. Indeed, the indulgence of Muslim organisations and trumpeting of “Islamophobia” has already had an alienating effect on them for it has been amply evident that in the anti-war movement, their presence has been minimal. Any electoral pact with imams and Muslim groups is bound to accentuate such alienation and reinforce the resistance to their involvement.</p>
<p><strong>In conclusion, therefore, the left needs to avoid using the term “Islamophobia” (and absolutely not use it as a stick against secular critics) and should reject forming electoral pacts with Muslim groups. The reasoning to justify these is false, highly divisive, and an intolerable sop to reactionary forces.</strong> Instead, the left needs to stick to what it excels at: exposing and fighting racism – be this directed at Muslims and non-Muslims alike, and ceaselessly struggling against imperialism. Finally, rather than Preston, it is the success of the Scottish Socialist Party in Scotland that provides a far more powerful and appropriate example of what can be achieved by socialists in England and Wales and elsewhere.</p>
<p><strong>July 2003</strong></p> Taj Hargey - they will probably kill himtag:4freedoms.com,2013-05-17:3766518:Topic:1253022013-05-17T00:41:59.562ZJoehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/38DD
<p>I suspect that if this man continues "reforming" islam, then he will probably be the first muslim that the "extremists" assassinate.</p>
<p>It's not clear from this report if the libel was over the claim that he was ahmadi/sacked from Cape Town university. It may well be that the court refused to judge whether or not he was a true muslim. </p>
<p>It would be interesting to see what the courts would do in the case of an Ahmadi who sued for someone saying he was not a true…</p>
<p>I suspect that if this man continues "reforming" islam, then he will probably be the first muslim that the "extremists" assassinate.</p>
<p>It's not clear from this report if the libel was over the claim that he was ahmadi/sacked from Cape Town university. It may well be that the court refused to judge whether or not he was a true muslim. </p>
<p>It would be interesting to see what the courts would do in the case of an Ahmadi who sued for someone saying he was not a true muslim.</p>
<hr/><p><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/5126155/Imam-wins-landmark-battle-against-Muslim-McCarthyism.html">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/5126155/Imam-wins-landmark-battle-against-Muslim-McCarthyism.html</a></p>
<div class="byline"><div><h1>Imam wins landmark battle against 'Muslim McCarthyism'</h1>
<h2>An imam who supports women not wearing a full veil has won a landmark legal battle against "Muslim McCarthyism" after being accused of holding non-Muslim beliefs.</h2>
<p class="bylineBody">By Tom Whitehead, Home Affairs Editor</p>
</div>
<p class="publishedDate">5:35PM BST 08 Apr 2009</p>
<div class="cl"></div>
</div>
<div id="mainBodyArea"><div class="firstPar"><p>Dr Taj Hargey won substantial damages from the Muslim Weekly newspaper in a High Court libel case after it accused him of not being a true Muslim.</p>
</div>
<div class="secondPar"><p>Dr Hargey, who previously backed a school's legal battle over its refusal to let a pupil wear the niqab in class, claimed the attack reflected tactics by the "Muslim Establishment" to smear those who question their authority.</p>
</div>
<div class="thirdPar"><p>In what is believed to be the first case of its kind in the UK, Dr Hargey sued and won a five-figure sum from the newspaper.</p>
</div>
<div class="fourthPar"><p>Dr Hargey said: "This historic case highlights the right to freedom and dissent within the British Muslim community and represents a crushing defeat for Muslim McCarthyism in this country.</p>
</div>
<div class="fifthPar"><p>"Just as US politicians terrorized the American electorate by unfairly labelling their foes as communists or communist sympathisers, the Muslim clergy uses the same intimadatory tactics to impose theological uniformity and cultural compliance in the community.</p>
</div>
<div class="body"><p>"Iconoclastic thinkers, liberals and non-conformists who dare to challenge this self-assumed religious authority in Islam by presenting a rational or alternative interpretation of their faith are invariably branded as apostates, heretics and non-believers."</p>
<p>Dr Hargey, chairman of the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford (MECO), had brought proceedings in London's High Court against the publisher and editor-in-chief of The Muslim Weekly, a leading newspaper within the community.</p>
<p>His advocate, David Price, told Mr Justice Eady that the May 2006 article alleged that Dr Hargey held himself out as the chairman of MECO and a practising Muslim when he was a Qadiani and therefore a non-Muslim - a matter that he sought to conceal.</p>
<p>It also alleged that he was misleading the public by holding himself out as the chairman of a Muslim organisation and arranging events in that capacity, notwithstanding his true non-Muslim beliefs.</p>
<p>Mr Price said that it also claimed that Dr Hargey was sacked from his post teaching Islamic studies at the University of Cape Town as a result of the fact that he was a closet Qadiani.</p>
<p>He added that the truth was that Dr Hargey was not a Qadiani but had always been a devout and observant Muslim.</p>
<p>He spoke and lectured widely about Islam and had at no stage misled the public or represented himself as anything other than a committed mainstream Muslim.</p>
<p>In fact, Mr Price said, Dr Hargey was well known as a passionate believer of orthodox Sunni Islam and regularly appeared as a key representative of the Islamic faith in academia and the media, including regional and national television and radio programmes.</p>
<p>He was not dismissed from his post in Cape Town, where his academic responsibility was history and not Islamic studies, but left the university of his own accord at the end of his fixed-term appointment contract because he had been offered a better research position elsewhere which he chose to take up.</p>
<p>Afterwards, Dr Hargey said the settlement would also have significant repercussions for those calling for the imposition of Sharia law in Britain.</p>
<p>He said he has been a "thorn in the side of Muslim hierarchy" because he has openly endorsed non-niqab and non-beard-wearing Muslims, sanctioned marriages of Muslim women to men of other faiths, actively promoted mixed congregations in mosques, arranging for the first ever female-led Muslim congregational prayers to be held in the UK last October.</p>
<p>In 2007, he offered to help fund a school's legal battle over its refusal to let a pupil wear the niqab in class.</p>
<p>The settlement was revealed in a statement read out in the High Court. Muslim Media Ltd and Ahmed Malik have apologised and agreed to pay Dr Hargey substantial damages and his legal costs.</p>
</div>
</div> Islam and Violence: the Double Bindtag:4freedoms.com,2013-05-09:3766518:Topic:1233452013-05-09T14:45:52.396ZJoehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/38DD
<p>If non-muslims say "islam is violent", muslims threaten to kill them.</p>
<p>If muslims say "islam is NOT violent", muslims threaten to kill them.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/05/morocco-muslim-cleric-condemns-violence-in-islams-name-is-declared-an-apostate-and-threatened-with-d.html">http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/05/morocco-muslim-cleric-condemns-violence-in-islams-name-is-declared-an-apostate-and-threatened-with-d.html…</a></p>
<p>If non-muslims say "islam is violent", muslims threaten to kill them.</p>
<p>If muslims say "islam is NOT violent", muslims threaten to kill them.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/05/morocco-muslim-cleric-condemns-violence-in-islams-name-is-declared-an-apostate-and-threatened-with-d.html">http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/05/morocco-muslim-cleric-condemns-violence-in-islams-name-is-declared-an-apostate-and-threatened-with-d.html</a></p>
<h1 id="page-title" class="asset-name entry-title">Morocco: Muslim cleric condemns violence in Islam's name, is declared an apostate and threatened with death</h1>
<div class="asset-content entry-content"><div class="asset-body"><p>From modern, moderate Morocco comes yet another example of why we don't see more sincere Muslim reformers. Ahmed Assid said: "To call [upon people] to follow Islam by the use of violence and constraint is an act of terrorism." For that, he has been condemned, declared a non-Muslim, and threatened with death.</p>
<p>Now wait a minute. We're constantly told that the overwhelming majority of Muslims condemn violence and terror and abhor the violence done in Islam's name. So why isn't Ahmed Assid celebrated as a hero, instead of fearing for his life?</p>
<p>Tiny Minority of Extremists Update: Morocco: Comments About Islam Spark Firestorm," by Mohamed Saadouni for <a href="http://magharebia.com/en_GB/articles/awi/features/2013/05/07/feature-04" target="_blank">Magharebia</a>, May 7 (thanks to Twostellas):</p>
<blockquote>Casablanca — Moroccan activist Ahmed Assid has unleashed a torrent of criticism, including a takfir fatwa from a leading salafist preacher, for making controversial comments about Islam.<p>During a three-day seminar at the 10th national congress of the Moroccan Association of Human Rights (AMDH) in Rabat, which ended on April 21st, Assid suggested that religious school textbooks lured youths to violence.</p>
<p>To call [upon people] to follow Islam by the use of violence and constraint is an act of terrorism," he said.</p>
<p><strong>Assid should be sued for insulting the prophet and ridiculing Islam, salafist preacher Sheikh Mohammed Fizazi said during a lecture at Ibn Tofail University in Kenitra.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Yet the strongest reaction came from Sheikh Hassan Kettani, who accused Assid of kufr. In describing him as a "criminal" and "enemy of God", Kettani issued a call for "silencing his voice".</strong></p>
<p>In a statement posted on Facebook, Kettani said that Assid had "crossed all lines in provoking Moroccans in particular and the ummah of Islam in general by deliberately <strong>insulting</strong> and desecrating each and every one of their sanctities".</p>
<p>"In his <strong>impudence</strong>, he [Assid] went as far as to claim that the Quran contains no eloquence, ridiculing and underestimating the language of Quran," Kettani's statement went on.</p>
</blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>By this Kettani apparently means that the Qur'an teaches violence, and so Assid is ridiculing the Qur'an by rejecting violence.</p>
<blockquote>Assid later defended his comments.<p>"The thing that attracts attention is the violent, uncivilised nature of this campaign that lacks the simplest values of dialogue and right to different opinions, and thus seeks to consolidate a culture that we don't need here in Morocco, that is the culture of confiscation, of trial, incitement and threats, et cetera," Assid told Magharebia.</p>
<p>"These are very negative matters that we as viable forces believing in democracy have to fight," he said. "There will always be differences, but we nevertheless must continue to engage in dialogue, debates and rapprochement,"</p>
<p>He said his words at the AMDH seminar were distorted and <strong>taken out of context</strong>.</p>
<p>"The words of anyone may not be construed so as to destroy him and incite others against him in such a serious manner," Assid said. " We have to refute arguments with arguments, which is the best option for the Moroccan experience."...</p>
</blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>Refute arguments with arguments? I have never known an Islamic supremacist to do that. From Reza Aslan to Omid Safi to Haroon Moghul to Caner K. Dagli and all the rest of them, Islamic supremacists content themselves with smearing and insulting those whom they fear and hate. They <em>never</em> deal with pro-freedom advocates' arguments.</p>
</div>
</div> Muslim in Denial asks "Why are Muslims in Denial?"tag:4freedoms.com,2013-02-24:3766518:Topic:1191722013-02-24T23:36:44.465ZJoehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/38DD
<div class="widget storyContent article widget-editable viziwyg-section-507 inpage-widget-8099193 articleContent voicesArticleLayout"><p>I guess she is unaware of Surah 9 of the koran, commanding muslims to kill those who don't believe.</p>
<p>I assume The LIfe of Mohammed is just too big a book for her to finish to the end.</p>
<p>I guess that there weren't 542 islamic crusades vs. 9 christian crusades.</p>
<p>I suppose that the muslim armies were invited into Spain, the Balkans, Austria,…</p>
</div>
<div class="widget storyContent article widget-editable viziwyg-section-507 inpage-widget-8099193 articleContent voicesArticleLayout"><p>I guess she is unaware of Surah 9 of the koran, commanding muslims to kill those who don't believe.</p>
<p>I assume The LIfe of Mohammed is just too big a book for her to finish to the end.</p>
<p>I guess that there weren't 542 islamic crusades vs. 9 christian crusades.</p>
<p>I suppose that the muslim armies were invited into Spain, the Balkans, Austria, Persia, India, etc.</p>
<p>The millions who were taken as slaves from Africa just had a bad dream. Ditto the million white christians taken as slaves in europe.</p>
<p>Yes, the problem only began with the creation of Israel. You keep on telling yourself that, dear.</p>
<p>She can't help herself with her deliberate misrepresentations of the history of islam being equal to a history of jihad. She seems to actually be hedging round the idea that most of the evil done by islam in history has been morally justified war. </p>
<p>And she can't help but try and turn Burma into another Palestine or Kashmir. </p>
<hr/><p><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/how-did-modern-islam-become-so-intolerant-8508732.html">http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/how-did-modern-islam-become-so-intolerant-8508732.html</a></p>
<div class="widget storyContent article widget-editable viziwyg-section-507 inpage-widget-8099115 TopArticleWidget"><h1 class="title">How did modern Islam become so intolerant?</h1>
</div>
<div class="widget storyContent article widget-editable viziwyg-section-507 inpage-widget-8099118 TopArticleWidget"><p>Israel's occupation of Palestine, Islamophobia, and disastrous Western interventions all create grievance. But no injustice can excuse or explain the rise of brutal Islamicists</p>
</div>
<p><strong>In Allah’s name, what is wrong with us Muslims? And why do we find it so hard to ask that question of ourselves? What will it take to break the heavily curtained window of denial?</strong></p>
</div>
<p>The beardy jihadists convicted in Birmingham last week were incompetents; hard to distinguish, for many Britons, from the hilarious boneheaded fantasists in Chris Morris’s <em>Four Lions</em>.</p>
<p>I don’t find them funny and nor do most British Muslims. The ringleader, Irfan Khalid, and his henchmen Irfan Naseer and Ashik Ali meant to cause bloody mayhem, as did all those previous bombers from Glasgow to London, some of whom succeeded while others were discovered before they could bomb themselves off to hell. Sexual permissiveness disgusted them, as did most values of the country they were born in.</p>
<h1>Grievance</h1>
<p>The gang frequented the Darul Ihsan gyms in Sparkhill, an inner city enclave in Birmingham. These “places of excellence” repudiated “inappropriate behaviour” and banned “non-Islamic” hairstyles and clothes. And it was in these enlightening joints that the thwarted three recruited others. Some went off to Pakistan and were made to come home by their families. There will be more and we can but hope they are stopped before they get the violent glory they crave. </p>
<p><strong>I have met smart Muslim undergraduates and post-graduates at some of our top universities who offer perfectly honed theses to justify the actions of men like the Birmingham three. In sum, they give three key reasons: Palestinian rights denied by Israel, Islamaphobia, and Western interference in Muslim countries. These exact points were raised by a Muslim letter-writer to The Independent last week.</strong></p>
<p>I sympathise with this position and have written with deep conviction on all those thorny issues. I am just reading Shadow Lives by the veteran journalist Victoria Brittain, on the unseen and unheard victims of our state’s iniquitous war on terror – the wives and children of men who have been incarcerated without charge for years.</p>
<p>I cry as I read – as many must when reminded of the chemical warfare used against Iraqis and the suffering of Palestinians. In Burma, Muslims are subjected to terrible persecution and Aung San Suu Kyi, now part of the establishment, expresses only tepid concern. </p>
<p>But no injustice can excuse or explain the rise of brutal Islamicists. Palestine is their cynical, moral pretence. Racism? Black Afro-Caribbean men who suffer the worst discrimination in this country don’t set up terrorist cells. Muslim foreign policy rage is questionable too. Over many decades, Western meddling in, say, Zimbabwe or Kenya has led to some of the intractable, current problems in those nations. Again, Kenyans and Zimbabwean migrants to the UK aren’t cooking carnage in pots in their kitchens.</p>
<h1>Fig leaf</h1>
<p><strong>Religion is another fig leaf used by millions of Prophet Mohamed’s followers. Islam, they rightly contend, does not sanction the killing of civilians by hobbyists or leaders.</strong> However, by focusing on what the good texts say, Muslims avoid the reality of what Muslims do. I doubt even the most virtuous imam can point this out without being subjected to threats.</p>
<p>And while ever alert on Islamaphobia, organisations like the Muslim Council of Britain assiduously avoid looking at the willed ignorance and barbarism within Muslim communities around the world in states controlled by Muslims. </p>
<p>Take this last week, when Bangladesh erupted with anger and competing protests led to five deaths. Secularists demand punishment for the Bangladeshi men who committed atrocities in the 1971 war for independence from Pakistan. Some of the perpetrators were militant Muslim militia and are defended by an alliance of powerful Islamicist parties.</p>
<p>In Egypt, human rights groups claim children are being detained and tortured. The government has spent £1.7m on tear gas. In Tunisia, after the assassination of the popular secular leader Chokri Belaid, Ennahda, the hardline Islamic party, takes charge. Fifty-three more died in an explosion in Syria where over 70,000 have been killed in two years.</p>
<p>Islamic rebels in Mali, Nigeria and elsewhere carry on their nefarious, destabilising activities. Eighty-nine Shias were killed in Pakistan, whose first leader, Muhammad Jinnah, was a Shia, as am I. They want to obliterate us there, in Afghanistan, Kashmir, Bahrain, and Iraq too, where bombs go off routinely to kill these worshippers. Other minority Muslim groups are also targeted and often murdered.</p>
<h1>Change you can believe in</h1>
<p>Internal and external intolerance is now Islam’s brand. Those great past Muslim civilisations famous for diversity, humanity, science, extraordinary achievements have died. Education, the arts, photographs, television, sports, even work are denounced by crazed imams online and in mosques worldwide, including the UK. In Brittain’s book, some women took on these values, and in effect, imprisoned themselves.</p>
<p>Polymath Ziauddin Sardar has met “countless Muslim scholars, thinkers, writers and activists” who are impatient for change and reform. That can’t happen while there is an aversion to criticism and self-criticism.</p>
<p><strong>Thoughtful and honest Muslims stay silent because they fear ostracisation or inciting more racism against Muslims – both real perils. But silence now is cowardly, and collusion with the corrupters of our faith. True believers have a duty to speak out against that corruption.</strong></p> "Justice for Victims of Genocide" = Blasphemytag:4freedoms.com,2013-02-23:3766518:Topic:1191592013-02-23T15:53:27.756ZJoehttp://4freedoms.com/profile/38DD
<p>When muslims in Tower Hamlets held a demonstration in support of those in Bangladesh demanding that those in Jamaat e Islami be punished for crimes against humanity, hundreds of religious muslims poured out of East London Mosque and assaulted the demonstrators (I heard that 6 of those protesting against the genocidal Jamaat e Islami were hospitalised). Of course, this demonstration & attack in Whitechapel was ignored by both the mainstream media and the local media.</p>
<p>One of the…</p>
<p>When muslims in Tower Hamlets held a demonstration in support of those in Bangladesh demanding that those in Jamaat e Islami be punished for crimes against humanity, hundreds of religious muslims poured out of East London Mosque and assaulted the demonstrators (I heard that 6 of those protesting against the genocidal Jamaat e Islami were hospitalised). Of course, this demonstration & attack in Whitechapel was ignored by both the mainstream media and the local media.</p>
<p>One of the few to report on the events in Whitechapel was Nick Cohen. <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/17/bagladeshi-protests-reflected-londons-east-end">http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/17/bagladeshi-protests-reflected-londons-east-end</a></p>
<p>As Tower Hamlets Watch points out, the East London Advertiser has completely ignored what happened in their area. <a href="http://towerhamletswatch.wordpress.com/2013/02/19/violence-against-protestors-in-altab-ali-park-february-9th-2013/">http://towerhamletswatch.wordpress.com/2013/02/19/violence-against-protestors-in-altab-ali-park-february-9th-2013/</a></p>
<hr/><p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/23/protest-death-penalty-bangladesh/print">http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/23/protest-death-penalty-bangladesh/print</a></p>
<div id="article-header"><div id="main-article-info"><h1>Protest demanding death penalty for 1971 war criminals divides Bangladesh</h1>
<p id="stand-first" class="stand-first-alone">Gulf widens between those who think Shahbag Square rallies are righting historical wrong and those who see them as anti-Islam</p>
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<li class="byline"><div class="contributor-full"><span><span><a class="contributor" rel="author" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/syed-zain-al-mahmood">Syed Zain Al-Mahmood</a></span></span></div>
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<li class="publication"><a href="http://observer.guardian.co.uk">The Observer</a>, Saturday 23 February 2013 15.30 GMT</li>
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<div id="article-wrapper"><div id="main-content-picture"><img src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Business/Pix/cartoon/2013/2/23/1361628670178/Shahbag-square-protest-008.jpg" alt="Shahbag square protest" height="276" width="460"/><div class="caption">A Bangladeshi boy waves a liberation war flag as ruling party supporters and others gather during a protest against the Jamaat-e-Islami party in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photograph: Pavel Rahman/AP</div>
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<div id="article-body-blocks"><p>Najmul Hossain had never been to a <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/protest" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Protest">protest</a> before. But for the past fortnight, the 45-year-old Bangladeshi banker has regularly made the short journey to Shahbag Square, a broad, tree-lined thoroughfare in the heart of Dhaka, the capital, to call for the hangings of Islamist politicians accused of war crimes during the country's 1971 war of independence.</p>
<p>On Saturday, Hossain took his six-year-old son with him to the protest, holding a banner with the message, "Razakars [Islamist collaborators] must be hanged". The child carried a toy gun. "My uncle was killed in 1971 by the Pakistan army," Hossain said. "I cannot forgive those who killed and stood with the killers."</p>
<p>On the other side of town, Shamsuz Zaman, a 58-year-old timber trader, is equally fired up but for different reasons when discussing Shahbag. "War crimes are just an excuse," he said. "<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/bangladesh" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Bangladesh">Bangladesh</a> has so many problems. The people who are leading these mobs are atheists who insult Islam, God and the prophet." The gulf between those who think the Shahbag protests – the largest in two decades, that some are calling the Bangladesh spring – is a movement for righting a historical wrong and those who consider it to be a veiled, government-sponsored attempt to curb the influence of Islam has never been wider.</p>
<p>At least five people have been killed since Friday in countrywide violence, including two opposition activists who were shot dead by police on Saturday morning, local police officials confirmed. The violence began when conservative Islamists clashed with police after Friday prayers, protesting against what they said were blasphemous online posts by bloggers at the forefront of the Shahbag protests.</p>
<p>An alliance of Islamist parties called for a general strike on Sunday to protest at what they see as the use of excessive force against opposition activists. The police said they were trying to maintain law and order.</p>
<p>Much of the mistrust is rooted in Bangladesh's tumultuous past. Bangladesh declared independence from Pakistan in 1971. The Pakistani army fought and lost a brutal nine-month war with Bengali fighters and Indian forces that had intervened. Hundreds of thousands of civilians died, many of them at the hands of Islamist militia groups who wanted the country to remain part of Pakistan.</p>
<p>In 2010, Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister, and daughter of wartime political leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, set up a war crimes tribunal to investigate atrocities committed during the 1971 conflict – a move she said would bring closure for victims and families and heal the rifts of war.</p>
<p>The leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Khaleda Zia, the widow of the independence war's best-known military commander, has accused Hasina of politicising the tribunal and conveniently using it to hound her political enemies. All of the 10 people indicted for war crimes by the tribunal are opposition politicians, eight of them from the Jamaat-e-Islami, the country's largest Islamist party and an ally of Zia's BNP.</p>
<p>Despite <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/02/14/bangladesh-post-trial-amendments-taint-war-crimes-process" title="">criticism from human rights groups</a> about politicisation and procedural flaws, the war crimes tribunal has remained broadly popular. Last month the tribunal sentenced a former member of the Jamaat-e-Islami to death for his role in the 1971 war. On 5 February, a verdict of life imprisonment was delivered against Abdul Quader Molla, a senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, sparking the Shahbag protests. Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have converged on Shahbag, the hub of protests, adamant that all of the men on trial for war crimes must receive the death penalty.</p>
<p>This week President Zillur Rahman signed into law an amendment to the statute that governs two functioning war crimes tribunals, giving prosecutors the power to seek stiffer sentences on appeal, a key demand of the protesters. The new law also gives the government the power to charge entire organisations with war crimes, another Shahbag demand.</p>
<p>The protesters, however, have ratcheted up the pressure, saying they will remain camped out in Shahbag until all of the accused currently before the war crimes tribunal are given the death sentence. They have pushed a broader set of demands, including banning the Jamaat-e-Islami and confiscating businesses linked to Islamist groups.</p>
<p>"We are protesting 40 years of injustice," said Lucky Akter, 23, a student and member of a leftwing political party who has become one of the faces of the protest with her fiery slogans. "We want those who collaborated with the Pakistan army hanged and their finances cut off."</p>
<p>Analysts say the broader demands from the Shahbag gathering show how the rifts of the past continue to play a major role in Bangladesh's present. "There is an ideological basis to protests," said Muhammad Musa, a political commentator and former newspaper editor. "There is the widespread perception that the Jamaat-e-Islami supported Pakistan during the war and should answer for this."</p>
<p>On Saturday a crowd in the thousands gathered in Shahbag, joining a hardcore group of activists, waving flags and chanting slogans such as, "Hang, hang, hang them all!" and, "The weapons of '71 must fire again!"</p>
<p>The Jamaat-e-Islami, whose activists have waged violent street agitations against the tribunal, says it is being scapegoated. Shafiqul Islam Masud, a party leader, said many people were blurring the difference between a political position and war crimes. "There are only about 50 people active in the party now who took any kind of a political position 42 years ago," he said. "It's possible some of them did not want to secede from Pakistan, but that's a far cry from war crimes. The party accepted the sovereignty of Bangladesh and is a registered political party, represented in parliament."</p>
<p>Sam Zarifi, the Asia director for the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), a Geneva-based legal advocacy, said a fair trial process was necessary to heal the wounds of the war. "It is very important that victims of 1971 get justice," he said. "But justice must be ensured through a fair and transparent trial process. Unfortunately, if judges are intimidated by mass protests into handing out death sentences, that's not justice and may unleash yet another cycle of violence."</p>
<p>Such words of caution are dismissed by Shahbag protesters as intellectual posturing. The crimes of 1971, which have been thrust into the spotlight by the tribunals, have dominated Bangladeshi newspapers, airwaves and websites, uniting the youth of Dhaka in an unprecedented manner.</p>
<p>"The people have spoken," said Akter. "Now it is up to the courts and the politicians to implement."</p>
<p>Analysts say the protests have worked to the government's advantage and distracted attention from economic and governance issues the opposition had been agitating about. Last year, Hasina scrapped a constitutional provision under which a non-partisan caretaker government oversees elections, leading to the opposition threatening a boycott of parliamentary elections due in early 2014.</p>
<p>"Had it not been for the protests, now we would all be focusing on next year's elections and looking at the government's record in office and the opposition's pledges," said Zafar Sobhan, editor of the <em>Dhaka Tribune</em>, an English daily. "Now, all bets are off and elections seem a distant concern. It is hard to see how things will revert to politics as usual after this."</p>
<p>Asif Mohiuddin, a co-ordinator of <a href="http://www.somewhereinblog.net/blog/realAsifM" title="">the bloggers' network</a> that called for the Shahbag protests, is keen to point out the group's struggle did not start with Shahbag. "We have been waging war on religious fundamentalists on the blogs for years," he said. "Shahbag has been successful because people are so outraged by the war crimes."</p>
<p>Yet some analysts say the narrative of a secular revolution leading the country towards a democratic future may be simplistic. The protests have polarised the country and led to tensions between those who identify themselves as progressive.</p>
<p>"Many are worried about the Shahbag protest's aggressive tone and narrow focus on the death penalty," said one of the editors of <a href="http://alalodulal.org/" title="">alalodulal.org</a>, an English language blog. "I wish the unique energy of Shahbag could be channelled into the energy and desire to do thorough research, digging out solid evidence that can result in fair trials that do not require government contortions."</p>
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