It Looks Like A Thingie

The Whiteadders show up for a salad during an Arab Spring...

CAIRO: An Islamic cleric residing in Europe said that women should not be close to bananas or cucumbers, in order to avoid any “sexual thoughts.”

The unnamed sheikh, who was featured in an article on el-Senousa news, was quoted saying that if women wish to eat these food items, a third party, preferably a male related to them such as their a father or husband, should cut the items into small pieces and serve.

He said that these fruits and vegetables “resemble the male penis” and hence could arouse women or “make them think of sex.” Bikyamasr.com cannot independently verify the accuracy of the news item at time of writing.

He also added carrots and zucchini to the list of forbidden foods for women.

--Nora

Lies, Damned Lies and Hilali

Sheik 'Cat Meat' Hilali indulges in some taqiyya:

OUTSPOKEN Muslim cleric Taj al-Din al-Hilali says the Bible "mandates" the wearing of the veil by Christian women.

Writing in a new book, Sheik Hilali, who lost his job as mufti of Australia after comparing scantily clad women to uncovered meat, argues that the Bible and the Koran make similar demands of a woman's modesty.

No it doesn't and Anglican Bishop of South Sydney, Robert Forsyth quoted in the story calls it right:

(Forsyth) challenged Sheik Hilali's comments about the veil being "mandated" in the Bible, saying they were misleading.

"The New Testament does call upon people to dress modestly," he said. "But there is no understanding that women are commanded to wear the veil. But it is mandated that you should dress appropriately for your social context."

Could this be the start of a new PR offensive by Islamists?

Hilali seems to be working from the same playbook the the Muslim leaders who wrote "An Open Letter and Call from Muslim Religious Leaders", published late last year which appeared to highlight the similarities between Islam and Christianity.

An Open Call is a text book example of dissimulation and it is incisively dissected in this essay:

While addressed to a specific group of Christian leaders, the fact that it is an open letter widely disseminated by the world media means that world public opinion is another intended audience. Furthermore, certain terminology in the letter, as well as the choice of Qur`anic quotations cited, suggest that the letter is also intended for the global Muslim audience. It is not unusual in Islamic discourse for different messages to be delivered to the different audiences. This is permitted by the Islamic doctrine of taqiyya (dissimulation) which allows Muslims to practise deception in certain circumstances. It appears that the Christian vocabulary of the letter is intended to guide Christian readers to the erroneous conclusion that Islam and Christianity are basically identical religions, focusing on love to God and to the neighbour. The hidden messages for Muslims are contained in the many polemical quotations from the Qur`an.

Another example of the apparent use of taqiyya is the fact that some of the words in the Arabic version of the letter differ in meaning from those in the English version. For example, the word used for "neighbour" in the Arabic version of the letter is jar, a term which carries only a geographical meaning. It is not equivalent to the Biblical Hebrew word for neighbour, which is re`a (denoting kinship, even as close as a brother or sister). Yet there is another word for "neighbour" in Arabic which is closer to the meaning of the Hebrew re`a and which could have been used. This is the word qarib, which is used in Arabic Bibles and which more closely translates the Biblical original. It is also worth noting that Jesus Christ is not given the name used by Arabic Christians (Yasu` al-Masih), but the Islamic version (`Isa al-Masih).

Do read all of it.

The essay is from The Barnabas Fund, which provides aid and other support to persecuted churches around the world, and is an excellent primer on how taqiyya works and how to cut through the subtext to get at the real meaning of propaganda like An Open Call and Cat Meat's latest deception.

-- Nora

Golden Staph, Anyone?

Another day, another British delight:

Muslim medical students are refusing to obey hygiene rules brought in to stop the spread of deadly superbugs, because they say it is against their religion. Women training in several hospitals in England have raised objections to removing their arm coverings in theatre and to rolling up their sleeves when washing their hands, because it is regarded as immodest in Islam.

It's ok though - the solution is accomodation:

...the Islamic Medical Association (suggested) "...produce long, sterile, disposable gloves which go up to the elbows."

-- Nick

Light Dhimming Over England

Bigamy is illegal in Britain but men who go overseas to break the law will be able to get extra spouse support when they return:

Husbands with multiple wives have been given the go-ahead to claim extra welfare benefits following a year-long Government review...

Even though bigamy is a crime in Britain, the decision (means) 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.

The extra money will be paid directly into the man's bank account, if the family agrees. Which of course they will.

Sharia law. Coming soon to a country near you.

-- Nick

What's In A Name?

Mohammed will soon be the most popular name in England and Wales:

The high birth rate among Muslim families mean the name is set to overtake the current favourite name for baby boys, Jack.

But whatever you do, don't use it to name your teddy bear.

-- Nick

Guilt By Association

Women have a special, protected role under Islam:

A Saudi woman has been sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in prison after she was the victim of a gang rape. The ... 19-year-old Shia woman ... was in the car of a man who was not a relative at the time of the attack, which contravened strict Saudi laws on segregation..."

But men pay for their crimes too:

... a group of seven Sunni men kidnapped them and raped them both (emphasis added)... The former boyfriend was also sentenced to 90 lashes for being with her in private.

-- Nick

A Punishing Point Of View

Buried in the middle of a pitch for Kevin Rudd on a completely different topic, journalist Samantha Maiden quotes Cardinal George Pell making an astute, if politically incorrect observation (not to mention against Roman Catholic policy):

"I think that this, capital punishment, is one of those issues ... where public opinion is quite at variance with elite opinion. I suspect, and I might be wrong, that there is clear majority approval in Australia for capital punishment in certain circumstances."

Zing!

Pell is no stranger to calling a spade a spade:

... told an American audience the Koran is punctuated with "invocations to violence"... In a speech to leading Catholic businesses in the United States, Dr Pell said the September 11 terrorist attacks had been his wake-up call to understand Islam better. He said there were inconsistencies in claims that Islam was a faith of peace with those that suggested the Koran legitimised the killings of non-Muslims... "In my own reading of the Koran, I began to note down invocations to violence. There are so many of them, however, that I abandoned this exercise after 50 or 60 or 70 pages," he said.

-- Nick

Enemy Issues Statement

Osama bin Laden in making his first public statement in three years has a solution to ending the war on terror:

Give in.

CAIRO, Egypt - Osama bin Laden appeared for the first time in three years in a video Friday released ahead of the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, telling Americans they should convert to Islam if they want the war in Iraq to end.

Is there anyone out there who still doubts that this is a war that the Islamic religion as declared on the rest of the world?

-- Nora

UPDATE:

Guess who's railing against America, globalisation, capitalism, failure to sign the Kyoto agreement.

An APEC protestor?

No. It's Osama-baby thus proving that radical Islam and the left have more in common than anyone thought. Tim Blair describes it as Blair's Law writ large.

UPDATE II:

The question was posed: Is there anyone out there who still doubts that this is a war that the Islamic religion as declared on the rest of the world?

Count amongst the believers, Mohamed el-Sayed, of the Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo:

bin Laden's words are proof the West cannot appease al-Qaeda by withdrawing from Iraq. "The message is much more threatening this time," he said. "It uses iconic language that suggests: 'The only way to get peace is to convert to Islam.' He's in a state of constant, unending war until he Islamises the world."

UPDATE III:
Style guru Manolo The Shoe Blogger offers some fashion advice for Osama bin Metrosexual.

You Are Charged With Reporting A Crime

Earlier this year, a TV documentary called Undercover Mosque exposed Muslim preachers in the UK celebrating the death of a British soldier in Afghanistan and calling for the establishment of sharia law in Britain under which women would be hit if they didn't cover up and homosexuals would be 'thrown off the mountain' or crucified.

As a result of all this, people, including, I believe, local MPs, asked the police to investigate the preachers to see if prosecutions for crimes of racial hatred could be brought against them. C4 (the broadcasting TV station) itself did not ask for these investigations, but co-operated with police inquiries.

But then, on Wednesday, without any warning to Channel 4, the CPS and the West Midlands police issued their fatwa. Not only had they investigated, and decided, as they were entitled to do, that there were no charges to bring against people featured in the programme: they also announced that they had investigated the programme itself for stirring up racial hatred.

Again, they had decided not to press charges. But, said West Midlands police smugly, they had pursued the making of the programme "with as much rigour as the extremism portrayed within the documentary itself". They had concluded that comments had been "broadcast out of context" and so they and the CPS had complained to Ofcom (the UK television regulator).

London Telegraph reporter Charles Moore asks of the West Midlands police and the Crown Prosecution Service:

Are they fit to protect us?

The answer is kind of obvious.

-- Nick

Overcome Evil With Good

Spot the difference:

Christian martyr - 42-year-old pastor Bae Hyung-kyu killed for bringing aid and hope to people in Afghanistan.

The South Korean church that the abductees attend has said it will suspend at least some of its volunteer work in Afghanistan. It also stressed that the Koreans abducted were not involved in any Christian missionary work, saying they provided only medical and other volunteer aid to distressed people in the war-ravaged country.

Muslim martyr - 20-year-old Andaleeb Takafka killed by her own hand in order to murder six and wound 104 Israelis.

In in (sic) an interview prior to her suicide mission, Andaleeb Takafka said "when you want to carry out such an attack, whether you are a man or a woman, you don’t think about the explosive belt or about your body being ripped into pieces. We are suffering. We are dying while we are still alive."

Tell me now which is the religion of peace?

Romans 12 14:21
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"[1]says the Lord. On the contrary:
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."[2]

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

-- Nora

[1]Deut. 32:35
[2]Prov. 25:21,22

Swear To Tell The Truth?

The oddest quote of the week comes from lawyer Peter Russo, defending terror suspect Dr Mohamed Haneef:

"To all the allegations that I've had to put to him - I've spoken to him about the allegation that when he was at school he was part of a banned terrorist group in India - his response to that was that he swore a word that I taught him. Basically, he disagreed with it."

Disagreed with what?

The assertion that he was a member of the banned terror group Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI)?

Or that the Student Islamic Movement of India is a terrorist organisation?

-- Nora

'Poverty' Cause Rooted

A former insider takes a cluebat to those with over-simplified views of the 'root causes' of Islamic terrorism:

Mr Husain, whose book, The Islamist, exposed the workings of Hizb ut-Tahir, is contemptuous of the idea that the latest plots were inspired by the West's intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"This is just an excuse. They reject Western culture full stop, not just 'slags in night clubs'."

And he offers a brutally realistic analysis:

"These are angry men. Accommodation is not an option. It has to be containment or annihilation."

-- Nick

UPDATE: And the 'Iraq war' excuse is in its nadir too:

Osama Bin Laden's second in command issued a warning yesterday that Britain faced fresh terror attacks as ''punishment'' for Salman Rushdie's knighthood.

The threat - addressed directly to Gordon Brown - came in a 20-minute audio-tape posted on jihadi websites by Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Everyone's a critic.

-- Nora

Drive By Doctor

Links to Islamic terror come close to home:

QUEENSLAND Premier Peter Beattie says a second doctor is being interviewed after a Gold Coast doctor was detained in relation to the UK terror plot...

And it's leaving the usual lefties askance - two doctors in Australia arrested, six doctors out of eight people arrested for the London and Glasgow plots - how can this be?

They're not improverished or marginalised, indeed they're well-respected doctors, so what could make such men, subscribers to the Hippocratic principle of 'first, do no harm', want to cause death and destruction?

Well, they weren't touting for business, that's for sure.

Perhaps we should ask a jihadi (well, former jihadi):

How do Islamic radicals justify such terror in the name of their religion?

There isn't enough room to outline everything here, but the foundation of extremist reasoning rests upon a model of the world in which you are either a believer or an infidel.

Formal Islamic theology, unlike Christian theology, does not allow for the separation of state and religion: they are considered to be one and the same.

For centuries, the reasoning of Islamic jurists has set down rules of interaction between Dar ul-Islam (the Land of Islam) and Dar ul-Kufr (the Land of Unbelief) to cover almost every matter of trade, peace and war.

But what radicals and extremists do is to take this two steps further. Their first step has been to argue that, since there is no pure Islamic state, the whole world must be Dar ul-Kufr (The Land of Unbelief).

Step two: since Islam must declare war on unbelief, they have declared war upon the whole world.

Along with many of my former peers, I was taught by Pakistani and British radical preachers that this reclassification of the globe as a Land of War (Dar ul-Harb) allows any Muslim to destroy the sanctity of the five rights that every human is granted under Islam: life, wealth, land, mind and belief.

In Dar ul-Harb, anything goes, including the treachery and cowardice of attacking civilians.

The notion of a global battlefield has been a source of friction for Muslims living in Britain.

For decades, radicals have been exploiting the tensions between Islamic theology and the modern secular state - typically by starting debate with the question: "Are you British or Muslim?"

But the main reason why radicals have managed to increase their following is because most Muslim institutions in Britain just don't want to talk about theology.

They refuse to broach the difficult and often complex truth that Islam can be interpreted as condoning violence against the unbeliever - and instead repeat the mantra that Islam is peace and hope that all of this debate will go away.

Go, read the rest now.

-- Nora

UPDATE: Quote of the day regarding Dr Mohamed Haneef, the Gold Coast-based doctor arrested over alleged links to the 'Doctors of Death' terror plot comes from Royal Australasian College of Physicians cheif Executive Craig Patterson:

"What's scary ... about this, if these people are found to be guilty, is they are good quality doctors."

Hmm.

UPDATE II: If you can't get Chuck Norris to save the world, how about John Smeaton?

Tossed By Every Wind

If anyone had any doubts of some Anglican/Episcopal communicants commitment to Christianity, then take a look at this story from The Seattle Times:

Shortly after noon on Fridays, the Rev. Ann Holmes Redding ties on a black headscarf, preparing to pray with her Muslim group on First Hill.

On Sunday mornings, Redding puts on the white collar of an Episcopal priest.

She does both, she says, because she's Christian and Muslim.

Riiiiight.

She says she felt an inexplicable call to become Muslim, and to surrender to God — the meaning of the word "Islam."

"It wasn't about intellect," she said.

Damn straight.

Maybe Ms Redding needs to do a bit of reading to find out what it is she really believes in.

-- Nora

Sands Through The Hour Glass

Blogger Tiberius, writing at A Western Heart has a few sage things to say about Nine's A Current Affair story about a woman whose daughter was abducted by her Muslim ex-husband:

Of course that begs the question of what the f**k is wrong with you women? Why the f**k are you still marrying these muslim savages and then wondering why they ‘change’ on you. Here’s a hint, you stupid molls – THEY DON”T CHANGE! That is how they really are and you are either too f**king blind to see through their bullshit act or you are too f**king stupid to understand what islam really is.

Colourful, but accurate.

Also from Egypt comes reports on the persecution of secular bloggers.

-- Nora

Not Just Because There's Footage

How come this:

Doaa Khalil Aswad was a member of northern Iraq's Yazidi religious sect but, according to local officials, was murdered on April 7 by her brothers and uncles after she allegedly converted to Islam.

...gets on the front page of new.com.au but this:

If they are found guilty, Mrs Sürücü's murder will be the sixth "honour killing" within Berlin's 200,000-strong Muslim community in four months.

...doesn't?

Nor this:

Humaid contends his Muslim beliefs should be a factor because he killed his wife after she hinted she was having an affair with a business associate.

or this:

Two men murdered a six-year-old girl by setting fire to her house to warn her brother off a relationship he was having...

or this:

Ayesha Baloch was dragged to a field, her brother-in-law held the 18-year-old down, her husband sat astride her legs and slit her upper lip and nostril with a knife.

or this:

Having eloped, Zena was told by relatives that she and Jack had so besmirched the family name that they were 'walking corpses'. So seriously was the threat taken that in the intervening years they have received protection from Special Branch, two new identities and have moved house no fewer than 30 times.

or this:

Ajmal Butt Aziz, 24, is accused of murdering his 20-year-old wife Khudeja because she refused to follow Islamic tradition and wear a headscarf, according to the charge sheet published by the Corriere del Ticino newspaper.

-- Nick

On Your Marx, Get Set...

What's the difference between Mohammed and Karl Marx?

No, it's not the beginning of a joke but rather a very insightful piece by author Theodore Dalrymple.

Here's a taste:

Curiously, though, Qutb’s thought has many parallels with Marxism. Where Marx has Historical Inevitability, Qutb has God‘s Law. Marx, you remember, envisages a time when the state will wither away and history will end. In Marx’s vision, political power will have dissolved, and the exploitation of man by man will have ceased, to be replaced by the mere administration of things. (How anybody of minimal intelligence could have believed such a thing beats me.) In Qutb’s vision, all political power will have dissolved, replaced by man’s spontaneous obedience to God’s law. Just as the administration of things in Marx’s utopia will not confer power on the administrators, presumably because everything will be so plentiful that no one will be tempted to appropriate more than the next man, so in Qutb’s utopia no one will have to interpret the law and gain power from doing so. God’s law will be as evident as thing will be abundant in Marx’s classless society.

-- Nora

Contradictions

AN Iraqi Muslim man allegedly raped a Muslim woman as "punishment" for her reading the Bible, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Campbelltown District Court in Sydney's west yesterday heard Abdul Reda Al Shawany twice sexually assaulted the woman, a practising Muslim, and then said to her: "Let your Jesus help you."

The heinous act speaks for itself but there are four things to note:

1. I thought a hajib was supposed to protect women from rape?

2. Muslims are encouraged in the Koran to read The Bible.

3. Jesus is supposed to be a revered prophet in Islam.

4. Al Shawany's barrister Chris Pike told the court his client was a hardworking businessman with close ties to the community who strenuously denied the charges.

"My client is not a zealot," Mr Pike said.

Oh yes he is. And he's not alone.

-- Nora

Nothing Worse Than A Reformed Smoker

Good news:

FIREBRAND Islamic convert Yvonne Ridley... believes Australian attitudes to Islam are hardening faster than any other nation.

Ridley is a British journalist and 2003 convert to Islam who discourages British Muslims from co-operating with anti-terrorism police and refers to suicide bombings as "martyrdom operations".

She is in Australia for the First Annual Australian Islamic Conference:

Organisers laughed off suggestions the First Annual Australian Islamic Conference was staged over Easter to insult Christians. "We certainly meant no insensitivity," organiser Adel Salman said. "We weren't making any particular statement or any religious statement. It was purely a convenient time to schedule the conference."

Yeah, right, whatever.

In other news from the Religion of Peace:

A PAKISTANI mullah has set up a Taliban-style Islamic court at his mosque in the capital and pledged "tens of thousands" of suicide attacks if the government tries to shut it down.

...while:

THE Australian Federal Police has seized documents and will question key Islamic community figures after widening its investigation into allegations Australia's mufti Sheik Taj al Din al-Hilali gave charity funds to supporters of al-Qaeda and Hezbollah terrorist outfits in Lebanon last year.

...and:

Dallas police and federal terrorism officials are investigating two women, both dressed in camouflage pants under their traditional Muslim robes and scarves, who were seen conducting what appeared to be surveillance and acting suspiciously at Dallas Love Field (Airport)... "I'm a trained sniper and proud of it," Ms. Al-Homsi said in an interview Thursday... "I am not a dangerous individual." Ms. Al-Homsi (and Aisha Abdul-Rahman Hamad were spotted at Love Field wearing Muslim robes and camouflage pants and "acting suspiciously,"... The surveillance video shows one of the women walking back and forth, apparently pacing off distances. When confronted, the women told officials they were looking for the Frontiers of Flight museum. They left in a red Honda. Descriptions of the incident and the car were circulated at the airport.

Two days later, the museum executive director was leaving for the evening when he noticed the Honda parked facing the runway. A woman, later identified as Ms. Al-Homsi, was sitting on the hood, looking through binoculars at the airplanes. He told the women the museum was closing, and they left. Dallas officers stopped the car nearby, but the women refused to let police search their car...

-- Nick

Update: Grandma Rudd sniffs the wind and tries to look tough:

THE Government must explain why a British Muslim who has praised suicide bombers as martyrs was allowed into the country, Labor leader Kevin Rudd said today.

Of course, it was Labor that imported the problem in the first place.

This Desolate Shore

A predictable reaction from the Religion of Peace:

On Friday, a man had telephoned Allan Lotfizadeh, the CDP candidate for the western Sydney electorate of Auburn, and said: "You Christian pig. You are dead", Mr Nile said. Yesterday, Mr Nile said, a man approached a CDP election worker at Granville and asked her where he (Mr Nile) lived, and what he had against Muslims. She had then said: "Tell Fred Nile I am going to act out my faith on him".

-- Nick