All entries by this author

Knowing theocracy when you see it

Apr 4th, 2009 1:04 pm | By

Shiraz Maher gets it – much better than Robert Lambert does. This could be because (or notwithstanding or both) he was once in Hizb ut-Tahrir.

The British state has traditionally predicated its policy on the premise that ostensibly nonviolent Islamists can be part of the solution to al Qaeda violence…The practical effect of this has been to engage and empower nonviolent exponents of Islamism who, while expressing opposition to the terrorism of Osama bin Laden and his cohorts, hold values and views that are antithetical to mainstream British society. This has often meant turning a blind eye to preachers who advocate the killing of homosexuals, the oppression of women and the subjugation of nonbelievers.

Precisely; I’ve been carping at … Read the rest



Shiraz Maher on UK’s ‘New’ Counterterror Policy *

Apr 4th, 2009 | Filed by

Is it right that liberal societies should endorse those whose values we would otherwise find abhorrent?… Read the rest



Jeremy Paxman Confronted Daud Abdullah *

Apr 4th, 2009 | Filed by

Or rather, he didn’t.… Read the rest



MCB’s Daud Abdullah Sues Hazel Blears *

Apr 4th, 2009 | Filed by

They disagree over certain clauses of the Istanbul Declaration.… Read the rest



Robert Lambert is Wrong *

Apr 4th, 2009 | Filed by

Islamists love to employ the idioms of ‘social justice’ and ‘moral obligation’ when confronting their enemies.… Read the rest



A Crappy Week for Women’s Rights *

Apr 4th, 2009 | Filed by

Erased in Israel, flogged in Pakistan, ground into the dirt in Afghanistan.… Read the rest



Chaudhry Calls For Probe of Girl’s Flogging *

Apr 4th, 2009 | Filed by

Chief Justice Chaudhry called the action a cruel violation of fundamental rights; Gilani calls it shameful.… Read the rest



Ultra-Orthodox Papers Edit Women Out *

Apr 4th, 2009 | Filed by

Two ultra-Orthodox newspapers altered photo of Israel’s cabinet; one replaced the two women with men.… Read the rest



Women should be neither seen nor heard

Apr 3rd, 2009 4:51 pm | By

And then there are the reactionary Orthodox newspapers in Israel which can’t stand to show any of those harlot women in positions of power, so they just erase them and replace them with men.

Limor Livnat and Sofa Landver were grouped with the rest of the 30-member cabinet for their inaugural photo. But Yated Neeman newspaper digitally changed the picture by replacing them with two men. The Shaa Tova newspaper blacked the women out.

Couldn’t they just have put little digital bags over their heads? Wouldn’t that do the job?… Read the rest



Welcome to Swat

Apr 3rd, 2009 4:44 pm | By

So here’s how it went down in Swat.

The burka-clad [girl] is heard crying throughout the two-minute flogging and at one point swears on her father that she will not do it again. Relatives of the man involved in the incident told the BBC he had gone to the house of the girl in the village of Kala Kalay to do repairs as an electrician, but militants accused him of having a relationship with her. They dragged him from the house and flogged him before punishing the girl, his relatives said. The Taleban made the girl’s brother hold her down during the flogging, they said. After the incident, the Taleban forced the couple to marry and instructed the man

Read the rest


Voices Against Shariah Apologists *

Apr 3rd, 2009 | Filed by

Resist the Taliban, Shariah Courts and violence against women in Pakistan.… Read the rest



Iowa Supreme Court Unconvinced by ‘Experts’ *

Apr 3rd, 2009 | Filed by

CFI legal department filed amicus brief defending lower court’s exclusion of ‘expert’ opinions by conservative religionists.… Read the rest



Iowa Court Voids Gay Marriage Ban *

Apr 3rd, 2009 | Filed by

Iowa Supreme Court unanimously ruled a 1998 law limiting marriage to a woman and a man unconstitutional. … Read the rest



Guardian Stands Up for ‘Mainstream Islamists’ *

Apr 3rd, 2009 | Filed by

‘British Islamists find themselves under constant scrutiny in Britain from Islamophobes.’… Read the rest



The Finest Tradition of Anglican Humbug *

Apr 3rd, 2009 | Filed by

Compromise depends on people’s willingness not to push their own convictions too far.… Read the rest



No Actually Let’s Not Do God *

Apr 3rd, 2009 | Filed by

There is something crass and nasty as well as vulgar in Blair’s quantitative triumphalism.… Read the rest



Islamists’ ‘devotion to social justice’

Apr 3rd, 2009 11:23 am | By

The Guardian pulls our chain again.

In recent weeks an unnecessary schism has been created between government and British Islamists…Taken together these incidents reinforce concerns that British Islamists are uniquely held out for political attack, and illustrate the power of key anti-Islamist lobbying groups.

Why is it assumed to be wrong for a particular political group to be ‘uniquely held out for political attack’? It is perfectly possible for a particular political group to be uniquely wrong and bad and harmful, so why would it be inherently wrong to single out such a group for special attention and opprobrium? In other words, why shouldn’t British Islamists be ‘uniquely held out for political attack’?

Well because they are such nice … Read the rest



Preferences

Apr 2nd, 2009 6:38 pm | By

Here’s a news flash: Arabs are preferred over other nations.

The fact that Allah Most High has chosen the Arabs over other nations is affirmed in rigorously authenticated hadiths of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and give him peace; related by Bukhari and Muslim in their “Sahih” in the beginning of the chapter of merits, 5897, on the authority of Wathilah ibn al-Asqa` who said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say, ‘Verily Allah has chosen Kinanah from the son of Isma`il, and He has chosen Quraysh from among Kinanah and He has chosen Hashim from among Quraysh and He has chosen me from the Bani Hashim.'”

So that’s that, … Read the rest



A crowd of men stands by, watching silently

Apr 2nd, 2009 1:41 pm | By

Sometimes the red mist of rage just overpowers the ability to say anything judicious or coherent – and one is reduced to impotent vindictive quivering.

Muslim Khan is beginning to do that to me. He’s the Taliban ‘spokesman’ in Swat, and he’s been doing a lot of talking lately. Every fucking word out of his mouth is disgusting bullying crap. (See what I mean? I can’t characterize it any more eloquently than that.)

The two-minute video, shot using a mobile phone, shows a burka-clad woman face down on the ground. Two men hold her arms and feet while a third, a black-turbaned fighter with a flowing beard, whips her repeatedly. “Please stop it,” she begs, alternately whimpering or screaming in

Read the rest


40 Lashes for Using Cloth With ‘Allah’ On It *

Apr 2nd, 2009 | Filed by

Summary Court in Jeddah sentenced an Asian man to 40 lashes for using a cloth with Allah’s name on it to clean his kiosk.… Read the rest