Since YouTube is in the habit of censoring many videos, should this video be censored, it may also be found here. Be sure to see other videos at David Wood's YouTube channel.
From the YouTube post above:
"If you're thinking about converting to Islam, you might want to gather a little information first, because the standard narrative has holes in it. In this video, David Wood shows that the most common arguments for the authority of Muhammad and the Quran fall apart upon closer inspection. (The video also features clips from Ali Dawah, Sheikh Yasir Qadhi, and Dr. Shabir Ally!)"
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Somali-born research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, founder of the AHA Foundation (which exists to protect women and girls from abuses), author of a February Op-Ed piece, "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sharia?," yesterday wrote an article regarding the International Women's Day saying:
. . . As a moral and legal code, Sharia law is demeaning and degrading to women. It requires women to be placed under the care of male guardians; it views a woman’s testimony in court as worth half that of a man’s; and it permits a husband to beat his wife. It’s not only women’s legal and sexual freedoms that are curtailed under Sharia but their economic freedoms as well. Women generally inherit half of the amount that men inherit, and their male guardian must consent to their choosing education, work, or travel.
In Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sudan, and parts of Nigeria, where Sharia law underpins the judicial system, women’s rights suffer greatly.
There is a growing trend among some feminists to make excuses for Sharia law and claim it is nothing more than a personal moral guide, and therefore consistent with American constitutional liberties. Yet the rules that such “Sharia-lite feminists” voluntarily choose to follow are also invoked to oppress women—to marry them off, to constrain their economic and human rights, and to limit their freedom of expression—who have not consented to them. The moral conflict between Sharia and universal human rights should not be dismissed as a misunderstanding, but openly discussed.
Robert Spencer instructs how the Muslim sex assaults in Cologne [latest report here] involved behavior sanctioned in Islamic teachings in his article, "The Migrant Sex Assaults: Uncovered Meat."
Not a single mainstream news outlet has identified the approximately 1,000 men who congregated by the main train station in Cologne, Germany, on New Year’s Eve and raped and sexually assaulted hundreds of women -- or their counterparts who did the same thing in Zurich, Helsinki, and elsewhere -- as Muslims. But there is little doubt that they were indeed Muslim, since they have been identified as migrants and most of the migrants are Muslims.
Most importantly, identifying the attackers as Muslim leads directly to understanding the attacks themselves, because the attackers were acting in accord with Islamic teachings.
Sexual assault plagues all cultures -- but only in Islam is it given divine sanction.
In 2006, then-Grand Mufti of Australia Taj Din al-Hilali sparked a controversy when he said:
If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat? The uncovered meat is the problem.
He was referring to women who get raped:
If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred.
Al-Hilali further complained that judges in the West were too tough on young Muslims charged with sexual assault and rape, since unveiled Western women “sway suggestively”:
Activists are now working to shine light on what they call Sharia's war on women.
A vast coalition met in Washington, D.C., Thursday, to warn women of the threat Islamic law would pose to their rights if enacted in the U.S.
"Sharia takes an entirely different approach to their rights than would the American Constitution or the Declaration of Independence," explained Karen Lugo, assistant director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence.
The group's national public education campaign includes women who've been affected by harsh Sharia law.
Cynthia Farahat fled Egypt to avoid facing military prison for her human rights work against Islam.
"I'm almost here in America on exile for standing up for basic human rights and basic values under Sharia law," she said. "I lived under Sharia law all my life. I just came to America six months ago."
From her experience, Farahat summed up Sharia's treatment of women as "oppressive" and "violent."
"It does not identify women as citizens. And some jurists in Sharia law do not identify women as human beings," she explained. "Some jurists would go so far as defining them as livestock."
Farahat is a writer and helps with efforts by the Center for Security Policy, the group behind Thursday's panel discussion in Washington.
Participants want America's women to understand the stifling effect Sharia law would have on their unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
"The women living in Sharia are often in polygamous marriages, often in marriages where they do not have freedom to pursue their education or pursue a career if that should interest them," Lugo said.
The panelists also noted that Islam is far more than just a religion, and the Koran commands the whole world must come under Sharia law.
"They say Islam is religion and state," Farahat said.
"It encompasses every aspect of one's life," Lugo added.
Some 5,000 Muslim women die in honor killings every year, which Islamic extremists declare imperative.
Sharia insists women have guardians, and some Islamic countries view them legally as perpetual minors, never as adults.
Sharia law also allows husbands to divorce their wives at any time, without reason.
Another Christian in Pakistan has been murdered, and the local Catholic Church is calling her a “martyr of the faith.”
The 18-year-old Amariah Masih (also reported as Mariah Manisha), a Catholic girl from the village of Tehsil Samundari, near Faisalabad, in Punjab province, was shot dead on November 27, after putting up resistance when a Muslim man abducted her with the intent to rape her. Fr. Khalid Rashid Asi, General Vicar of the Catholic diocese of Faisalabad told Fides, the Catholic news agency, that “cases like these occur daily in Punjab. It is very sad; Christians, often girls, are helpless victims.”
The girl’s mother, Razia Bibi, 50, told the Catholic media outlet AsiaNews that she and her daughter were riding on a motorbike on their way to pick up drinking water, which is not available in their village, when a man seized the motorbike, grabbed the young woman, and tried to drag her away at gunpoint. As she tried to pull away, the man opened fire, killing her instantly. According to AsiaNews, the 28-year-old Muslim Arif Gujjar, the son of a wealthy local landowner, is in police custody for questioning for the murder of Amariah.
Amariah’s funeral was presided over by Fr. Zafal Iqbal, who said to Fides: “She is a martyr. . . . The girl resisted, she did not want to convert to Islam and she did not marry the man, who killed her for this.” He explained to AsiaNews: “Wealthy and influential landowners often take aim at those who are marginalized and vulnerable, for their dirty interests.” In Pakistan, a rape victim is often imprisoned for unlawful sex and released on the condition that she marry her rapist. Because, under sharia, a Muslim cannot be married to a Christian, the women in such cases are also forced to convert to Islam. In its sharia courts, the testimony of a Christian is worth less than that of a Muslim, and a Christian woman’s is worth less yet. The whole system is rigged against the Christian woman.
More information on Amariah can be found on the website of the Permanent Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations.
Meanwhile, Ruqqiya Bibi, a Christian woman, was sentenced in Pakistan in late October to a 25-year prison term for blasphemy on accusations that she defiled a Koran after handling it with unclean hands. Mrs. Bibi is not to be confused with Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of five who was convicted of blasphemy following a dispute with other Muslim women with whom she had been working as a field hand, and who remains imprisoned after being sentenced to death a year ago.
Pakistan’s minister of minority affairs, Shahbaz Bhatti, also a Catholic, was murdered earlier this year, as was Punjab governor Salman Taseer, a Muslim, for calling for the repeal of the nation’s blasphemy law. Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy law is notoriously vague and ever expanding to include new applications.
The BBC reported on November 17 that the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority has told mobile-phone companies to begin blocking text messages containing “obscene” and otherwise “offensive” words. The name “Jesus Christ” was listed among them.
The discriminatory blasphemy law, which protects only Islam, generally encourages targeted violence against Christians, as well as against Ahmadiyas, Hindus, non-Sunni Muslims, and Sunni Muslim dissidents.
- (Original post) News outlets have shown little interest in investigating why (and by whom) CNN reporter Lara Logan was physically and sexually attacked in Egypt. The truth may be a bit stunning for Western sensibilities, but Andy McCarthy supplies the answer.
[...] As Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer has detailed, al-Azhar University endorses a sharia manual called Umdat al-Salik. It is quite clear on the subject of women who become captives of Muslim forces: “When a child or a woman is taken captive, they become slaves by the fact of capture, and the woman’s previous marriage is immediately annulled.” This is so the woman can then be made a concubine of her captor.
That’s from the avuncular Muslim cleric Sa’d Arafat, from an interview on Al-Nas TV in Egypt last February, featured by the invaluable MEMRI. You can watch the interview excerpt here. And, since we certainly wouldn’t want to take the sheikh out of context, here’s a transcript (presented without further comment because, well, what more can you say?):
Interviewer: Wife beating is a serious accusation [leveled against Islam]. Let us examine this matter bit by bit.
Sa’d Arafat: Allah honored wives by instating the punishment of beatings.
Interviewer: Honored them with beatings? How is this possible?
Sa’d Arafat: The prophet Muhammad said: “Don’t beat her in the face, and do not make her ugly.” See how she is honored. If the husband beats his wife, he must not beat her in the face. Even when he beats her, he must not curse her. This is incredible! He beats her in order to discipline her.
In addition, there must not be more than ten beatings, and he must not break her bones, injure her, break her teeth, or poke her in the eye. There is a beating etiquette. If he beats to discipline her, he must not raise his hand high. He must beat her from chest level. All these things honor the woman.
She is in need of discipline. How should the husband discipline her? Through admonishment. If she is not deterred, he should refuse to share the bed with her. If she is not repentant, he should beat her, but there are rules to the beating. It is forbidden to beat her in the face or make her ugly. When you beat her, you must not curse her. Islam forbids this.
Interviewer: With what should be beat her? With his bare hand? With a rod?
Sa’d Arafat: If he beats her, the beatings should not be hard, so that they do not leave a mark. He can beat her with a short rod. He must avoid beating her in the face or in places in the head where it hurts. The beatings should be on the body and should not come one right after the other. These are all choices made during the process, but beatings are allowed only as a last resort. [...]
The honoring of the wife in Islam is also evident in the fact that the punishment of beating is permissible in one case only: when she refuses to sleep with him.
Interviewer: When she refuses to sleep with him?
Sa’d Arafat: Yes, because where else could the husband go? He wants her, but she refuses….
It is impossible to view Time magazine's cover photograph of Aisha,
an 18-year-old Afghan girl whose nose and ears were severed by her
husband and brother-in-law on the order of a Taliban commander, without
shuddering in recoil. Her "crime" was nothing more than fleeing the
hellish home of in-laws who had beaten and enslaved her. That Aisha's
only recourse in the face of such abuse was to run and hide is testimony
to the reality that, in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Muslim world
that Sharia law prevails, women are at best second-class citizens.
Sharia is the vehicle by which the most oppressive tenets of extreme
Islamic religion become the civil law of any society on which it is
imposed. In many such places, daily life for women and girls remains
today much
. . . Imams and mosques are performing marriage ceremonies that are not
registered under English law.
As a direct result, about two-thirds of Muslim marriages are not
registered. Consequently, women in such marriages have no choice but to
go to sharia tribunals.
A more disturbing result of affording marriage arbitration to sharia
courts is forced marriage. 2008 (the year after the establishment of the
Muslim tribunals) saw an 80 percent increase in forced marriages. A
government unit reported 8,000 forced marriages that year, including
girls as young as 13. . . [more...]
Pamela Geller today published Fjordman's devastating review of Wafa Sultan's new book, "A God Who Hates." I thought I knew a lot about Islam, but learned a lot more from the review.
Fjordman writes:
The bookA God Who Hates:The Courageous Woman Who Inflamed the Muslim World
Speaks Out Against the Evils of Islam was written by Wafa Sultan, a
Syrian-American ex-Muslim. Breaking with Islam takes tremendous courage,
as the traditional death penalty
for leaving Islam is still upheld today. The only good byproduct of
Muslim immigrationto the West is that it has allowed a
handful of such former Muslims to publish their thoughts about leaving
Islam. One of these titles is Leaving
Islam: Apostates Speak Out, edited by Ibn Warraq. Another is
So now look at these two pictures:
First, the Cairo University class of 1978, with every woman
bare-headed; second, the Cairo University class of 2004, hijabed to the
hilt.
Steyn again:
Whenever I give a speech on Islam, some or other complacenik always
says, "Oh, but they haven't had time to Westernize. Just you wait and
see. Give it another 20 years, and the siren song of Westernization
will work its magic." This argument isn't merely speculative, it's
already been proved wrong by what's happened over the last 20 years.
Compare the Cairo University class of 1959
with those of the 21st century, and then see if you can recite your
inevitablist theories of social evolution with a straight face. The
idea that social progress is like the wheel or the internal combustion
engine — once invented, it can never be uninvented — is one of the
laziest assumptions of the Western Left.
Me: This phenomenon is not being noted in the West! Nor is the increasing Islamization of Turkey, etc. etc.
Yet another honor killing in the United States. An update on this story. A press release from the Peoria, Arizona, police department (thanks to Lee):
Victim run down by her father dies Noor Faleh Almaleki dies from injuries received on October 20, 2009. [more ..]
UNBELIEVABLE: Judge Dawson has ordered Rifqa Bary back to her home state. This despite the horror described in her testimony in the FDLE report (here). The welfare of this child had nothing to do with the submission to sharia in this case. It was apostasy, and yet Islam was never put on trial. But it should have been.
This girl is not safe in Ohio. Period.
Me: This is terrible news. Officials in the United States are unbelievably ignorant about Islam and honor killings. For the history of the case and continual updates, see Pamela Geller.Her post today includes photos of victims of honor killings from around the globe.
Update 10/24/09:Audio of Rifqa Bary's interview to FDLE (Florida Department of Law Enforcement) is available here.
We need desperately to listen to people like Dr. Wafa Sultan. Political correctness and multiculturalism have dismantled and rendered inoperable the "baloney detectors" of Western culture's elites. Dr. Sultan, a Syrian-born certified psychiatrist, human rights activist, & author of the forthcoming book A God that Hates, laments this fact and has written about it in the article that follows.
As
an Arab woman who suffered for three decades living under Islamic
Sharia, it is clear to me that Islam’s political ideology and Sharia
must be fought relentlessly by Western civilization to prevent its
application in a free society.
However,
I have found myself fighting on two fronts. The first front is against
Islamists, a daunting fight indeed. But the other front is one shaped
by too many uninformed individuals who like to view themselves as open
minded “progressives”. They seem to somehow claim superiority on
compassion, on peace, on open-mindedness and on appreciation of other
cultures. Regarding themselves as tolerant, free thinking individuals,
they avoid questioning Muslims’ harmful intentions. They restrict themselves to self-criticism, and make politically-correct excuses for Islamism. Regrettably,
they show their indisputable acceptance of ‘others’ at the expense of
the public’s responsibility to learn the truth about Islam’s
detrimental tenets.
To remind, both garments are designed for the modesty of Muslim
females; the niqab covers all but the eyes and the burqa covers the
entire face. In "Ban the Burqa – and the Niqab Too," two years ago, I documented how these two items pose criminal and terrorist dangers.
Is that still the case?
Criminality: Jordan
offers a glimpse into the potential for niqabs and burqas as illegal
accessories: one news report indicates that 50 people committed 170
crimes using Islamic garments during the past two years, or roughly one
incident every four days, a crime wave that has prompted some
Jordanians to call for restricting or even banning these Islamic head
coverings.
No other country reports nearly so many head-garment-related crimes, but Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
boasts multiple robberies (3 banks and 1 real estate leasing office) in
a sixteen-month period in 2007-08, including the murder of a police
officer. . .
Pipes goes on to cite incident after incident of crimes and terrorist attacks occurring around the world. Pretty fascinating, if dismaying, reading.
Pipes concludes:
(For greater detail on all these incidents, see my weblog entry, "The Niqab and Burqa as Security Threats.")
I have previously called for a ban on "these hideous, unhealthy,
socially divisive, terrorist-enabling, and criminal-friendly garments"
from public places. Now joining with fed-up Jordanians, I reiterate
that call. Islam requires that women wear neither niqab nor burqa,
while public welfare emphatically requires their public prohibition.
How many more cases of robbery and terrorism must occur for this
common-sense stricture to be applied from Afghanistan and Jordan to the
United Kingdom and Philadelphia?
Update: On a somewhat different theme, Phyllis Chesler takes Naomi Wolf to task for supporting the burqa. Update 2: Jamie Glazov demolishes Naomi Wolf who had objected to Chesler and Glazov's representations. It's a devastating, stunning response.
I already knew a great deal of what Judy Bachrach describes in the Summer 2009 issue of World Affairs (HT: NRO Corner), but it was still poignant to be reminded of the treatment women receive in Muslim lands. It's a substantial article, and the few excerpts I offer below, represent only a taste. Read the whole article for yourself. Excerpts:
. . . In Turkey, a nation often cited as “moderate,” wife beating is so
common that 69 percent of all female health workers polled (and almost
85 percent of all male health workers) said that violence against women
was in certain instances excusable. In April, a new epidemiological
study in the European Journal of Public Health revealed that
one out of every five homicides
Pamela Geller, whose blog, Atlas Shrugs, has been covering Rifqa Barry's story more extensively than any other, answers questions from Jamie Glazov of FrontPageMag. It's a great introduction to an important story largely ignored by the MSM!! It's the story of a an American teenage girl of Muslim background (Rifqa Barry) who became a Christian four years ago but who has had to flee her family because her life is in extreme danger due to the "honor killing" teachings of Islam. Read Pamela Geller's explanation of Rifqa Barry's story here, and be sure to view the heart-rending video of Rifqa Barry. Read the archives and keep following the story every day at Atlas Shrugs.
In a dramatic session before the revolutionary court today in
Tehran, Maryam Rustampoor (27) and Marzieh Amirizadeh (30) were told to
recant their faith in Christ. Though great pressure was put on them,
both women declared that they would not deny their faith. Maryam and
Marzieh were originally arrested on March 5, 2009 and have suffered
greatly while in prison, suffering ill health, solitary confinement and
interrogations for many hours while blindfolded.
On Saturday August 8, Maryam and Marzieh were summoned to appear in
court on Sunday August 9 in order to hear a verdict on their case. The
chief interrogator had recommended a verdict of ‘apostasy.’ However,
when they arrived, no verdict was actually given. Instead, the court
session focussed on the deputy prosecutor, Mr Haddad, questioning
Maryam and Marzieh about their faith and telling them that they had to
recant in both verbal and written form. This made it clear that in the
eyes of the court, Maryam and Marzieh’s only crime is that they have
converted to Christianity.
Mr. Haddad, asked the two women if they were Christians. “We love
Jesus,” they replied. He repeated his question and they said, “Yes, we
are Christians.”
Mr. Haddad then said, “You were Muslims and now you have become Christians.”
“We were born in Muslim families, but we were not Muslims,” was their reply.
Mr. Haddad’s questioning continued and he asked them if they
regretted becoming Christians, to which they replied, “We have no
regrets.”
- On the suffering of women under Islam (including honor killings), Phyllis Chesler remains a good source. She comments on the Muslim mass murder in Canada currently under investigation.
- As for the movie, "The Stoning of Saroya M." good background video can be found here. Article excerpt:
The creator of The Stoning Soraya M. hopes the film will open the world's eyes to a brutal practice that is still taking place today.
Zahrais an
Iranian woman who meets a French journalist and exposes a brutal
tradition in her village. Her niece Soraya was stoned to death.
The gripping story is the focus of the feature film directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh.
"In modern-day Iran, the victim is accused of a
crime. Usually it's adultery or sex-related crime, for which stoning
is the punishment," he explained. "And it is usually women who are the
victim."
In this film the victim is Soraya.
Her husband, Ali, wants to dump her and marry a
14-year-old. He then falsely accuses Soraya of cheating. The
punishment is being buried waist deep while the men in the village
throw stones at her.
And this is a true story based on an international best-seller first published in 1994.
Zahra is the brave woman standing up to the men.
She's portrayed by Shoreh Aghdashloo -- who actually left Iran 30 years ago, shortly before the islamic revolution.
Turning the light on a dark injustice is what moved big name stars like Jim Caviezel to be a part of the independent film.
Some reports suggest 1,000 women have been stoned
in the last 15 years in a number of countries including Iran, Nigeria,
Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Facebook is one of the top social networking sites, and probably sees millions
of invitations posted each day, but one put up by a journalist in the
Sudan probably is unique: It invites her friends and the public to her
flogging.
According to a report today from the Middle East Media Research Institute, Lubna Ahmad Hussein posted the invitation to her friends and supporters to "stir up a scandal around her case."
In a shocking and unprecedented interview,
directly exposing the inhumanity of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's
religious regime in Iran, a serving member of the paramilitary Basiji
militia has told this reporter of his role in suppressing opposition
street protests in recent weeks.
He
has also detailed aspects of his earlier service in the force,
including his enforced participation in the rape of young Iranian girls
prior to their execution. . .
In the Islamic Republic it is illegal to execute
a young woman, regardless of her crime, if she is a virgin, he
explained. Therefore a "wedding" ceremony is conducted the night before
the execution: The young girl is forced to have sexual intercourse with
a prison guard - essentially raped by her "husband."
"I regret that, even though the marriages were legal," he said.
Why the regret, if the marriages were "legal?"
"Because," he went on, "I could tell that the girls were more
afraid of their 'wedding' night than of the execution that awaited them
in the morning. And they would always fight back, so we would have to
put sleeping pills in their food. By morning the girls would have an
empty expression; it seemed like they were ready or wanted to die.
"I remember hearing them cry and scream after [the rape] was
over," he said. "I will never forget how this one girl clawed at her
own face and neck with her finger nails afterwards. She had deep
scratches all over her." [more . .]
There's been a lot of talk about this new movie. Charles Colson offers a valuable introduction.
A woman is marched out of her small
Iranian village, her arms are bound behind her back, and she is buried up to
her waist in the sand. The villagers—including her own father, husband, and
sons—fling stones at her, showing no sympathy or compassion as the blood runs
down her face and soaks through her clothes. They stone her until they’re certain
she’s dead, and then they leave her body on the ground for the wild dogs.
This is what audiences will see in the
film The Stoning of Soraya M., made
by the filmmaking team behind The Passion
of the Christ. It opens in limited release on June 26. I haven’t given away
any plot twists or surprises—the title of the film tells you all you need to
know.
The
Stoning of Soraya M. is based on a true story; in fact, you may have
read the bestselling book when it came out in 1994. Journalist Freidoune
Sahebjam was traveling through Iran
when he
I'm actually amazed a British newspaper would publish this story. Maybe things are changing in England, though publishing the story is a small step at best. I strongly urge you to click through and read this story. (HT: HotAir)
- You hadn't heard that? Hmmm... I wonder why not? Could it be that the American Press, like the European press, tries to downplay anything negative about Islam? To read more about the Buffalo crime and the murder of Aasiya Z. Hassan, 37read Michelle Malkin's article, "The barbaric Muslim beheading in Buffalo." Read also Pamela Geller's coverage. Read also Robert Spencer's response to the brief February 13th, Buffalo News article. Spencer also says:
The courageous warrior Pamela Geller has just posted at Atlas Shrugs
a harrowing collection of photographs of honor killing victims. Scroll
and scroll, and it just keeps going -- so many victims, and still these
photographs represent only the tiniest fraction of honor killing
victims worldwide. I've posted three here; there are many, many more.
Note that the vast majority of the victims pictured were living in
America or elsewhere in the West. Yet the West, with all its humane
values, did not save them -- it was too busy sacrificing at the altar
of multiculturalism to waste its time with a few murdered women.
Even though bigamy is a crime in Britain, the decision by ministers
means that polygamous marriages can now be recognised formally by the
state, so long as the weddings took place in countries where the
arrangement is legal.
The outcome will chiefly benefit Muslim men with more than one wife, as is permitted under Islamic law. . .
News of the Islamization of Britain comes thick and fast. In the last
few days, the children’s story of the three little pigs who built a
house against the Big Bad Wolf has been forbidden for fear of offending
Muslims. . . According to a government
program, British schools
Update 12/13/07 - Mark Steyn notes the Canadian news reporting evasions and contortions to avoid saying anything negative about Islam in reporting the story. He concludes:
Honor killings" were something we assumed took place on the fringes of
the map - the Pakistani tribal lands, Yemen, Jordan. They now happen in
the heart of western cities, and western feminist groups are silent,
and western media rush to excuse it as just one of those things,
couldda happened to anybody. The underlying message the press coverage
communicates is horrible and heartless: the murder of Aqsa Parvez is an
acceptable price to pay for cultural diversity.
Friends and classmates of a 16-year-old girl who police say was murdered by her devout Muslim father in a Toronto suburb told local media Tuesday she was killed for not wearing a hijab.
Police said in a statement they received an emergency call at 7:55 am local time Monday from "a man who indicated that he had just killed his daughter." (more . .)
Amazingly, today the New York Times published Ayaan Hirsi Ali's op-ed, "Islam's Silent Moderates." Good for them! Also amazing is the courage of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, but we've become used to it. She begins her op-ed with a quote from the Koran
The woman and the man guilty of adultery or
fornication, flog each of them with 100 stripes: Let no compassion move
you in their case, in a matter prescribed by Allah, if you believe in
Allah and the Last Day. (Koran 24:2)
And continues:
IN the last few weeks, in three widely publicized episodes, we have
seen Islamic justice enacted in ways that should make Muslim moderates
rise up in horror. . . [She relates the incidents] But while the incidents in Saudi Arabia, Sudan and India have done more
to damage the image of Islamic justice than a dozen cartoons depicting
the Prophet Muhammad, the organizations that lined up to protest the
hideous Danish offense to Islam are quiet now. . . But take a look at the verse above: more compelling even than the order
to flog adulterers is the command that the believer show no compassion.
It is this order to choose Allah above his sense of conscience and
compassion that imprisons the Muslim in a mindset that is archaic and
extreme. . . If moderate Muslims believe there should be no compassion shown to the
girl from Qatif, [earlier described] then what exactly makes them so moderate?
The daughter of a British imam is living under police protection after
receiving death threats from her father for converting to Christianity.
The 31-year-old, whose father is the leader of a mosque in Lancashire,
has moved house an astonishing 45 times after relatives pledged to hunt
her down and kill her.
The British-born university graduate, who uses the pseudonym
Hannah for her own safety, said she renounced the Muslim faith to
escape being forced into an arranged marriage when she was 16.
She has been in hiding for more than a decade but called in
police only a few months ago after receiving a text message from her
brother.
In it, he said he would not be held responsible for his actions if she failed to return to Islam.
Also from the article:
A study this year found that 36 per cent of British Muslims between 16
and 24 believe those who convert to another religion should be punished
by death. (more)