Court hears that Afghan man strangled his wife after complaining she was 'becoming Australian'

AN Afghan man strangled his wife with her veil after complaining she was "becoming Australian", a jury has heard.

Mother of five Marzieh Rahimi, who was said to be trying to escape a violent arranged marriage, was killed in front of her baby and toddler.

Soltan Ahmad Azizi, 45, has pleaded not guilty to her murder at their Hampton Park home in November 2007.

The Supreme Court heard yesterday that Ms Rahimi, 33, had told social workers her husband had branded her a slave with no rights.

Prosecutor Peter Rose, SC, told the jury Ms Rahimi had complained her husband punched her and said her only purpose was to have babies and raise children.

Ms Rahimi, who spoke little English and communicated through an interpreter, had told a family violence officer and a health worker that she wanted to leave the marriage, but that she felt powerless, unsupported and fearful.

In his opening address, Mr Rose told jurors that when Mr Azizi learned she'd talked to outsiders he told her she was shaming him and must stop.

"I'll kill you because I can't carry the shame," he allegedly said when she spoke of separation or divorce.

The jury heard that about a week before his wife's death, Mr Azizi complained to his sister-in-law that she was "becoming Australian and had changed her religion".

The cousins wed in an arranged marriage and came to Australia as refugees in 2005. Their eldest children were aged 11, nine and six.

Mr Azizi told police he didn't plan to kill Ms Rahimi. He said he punched her, then "choked her with her veil"; he then rang 000, telling the operator, "I killed my wife ... come see. You come. My kids are only little."

Police found Ms Rahimi on the floor with her baby, three months, and toddler, 22 months, nearby.

"I'm ready for the handcuffs," he allegedly told them.

Defence lawyer Stratton Langslow urged the jury to consider whether Ms Rahimi's claims of domestic violence were prompted by post-natal depression.

He said they should examine the source of the abuse complaints and whether there was any independent evidence of ill-treatment.

Mr Langslow said Mr Azizi admitted killing his wife, but the issue was whether he'd meant to.

The jury heard that after one incident, in which she said Mr Azizi repeatedly punched her, she locked herself in a room for several days with her youngest children. He then began to treat her better, she'd said.

The trial, before Justice Betty King, is continuing.

Herald Sun

Massachusetts college alters policy banning face coverings

A Massachusetts college has modified a controversial security policy after criticism it infringed on the religious rights of students, a school official said Friday.

The policy originally banned any head covering that obscured the student's face while engaged in student activities.

The Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences e-mailed students about the initial changes this week, saying, "Any head covering that obscures a student's face may not be worn, either on campus or at clinical sites, except when required for medical reasons."

School officials said the policy was intended to ensure that all students would be identifiable "for reasons of safety and security."

But on Thursday, the policy was changed to include an exception "for medical and/or religious reasons."

The original policy had prompted questions and concerns among Muslim students and organizations, particularly because it meant Muslim women at the college could no longer wear the niqab, or face veil.

The college -- with campuses in Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts, as well as Manchester, New Hampshire -- stated that the initial modification was "based on a constructive dialogue with our extended community, and an intensive review of safety and security measures with advisors."

College spokesman Michael Ratty said, "We will achieve our objective of campus security while allowing for a medical and/or religious accommodation. As always, our primary concern is the security and safety of all our students, faculty and staff."

Ratty stressed that Muslims were involved in the original policy decision saying, "Prior to implementation, the college discussed it with several officials within the Muslim community."

Muslim students had mixed reactions to the original ban.

Aisha Bajwa, president of the Muslim Students Association at the college, called the unmodified policy "unjustified and unconstitutional."

Bajwa, who does not wear the niqab, said that having to wear student IDs at all times keeps students safe.

Ibrahim Hooper, communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, thinks the policy targeted Muslim students and filed a third-party complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Writing to the commission, the Council invoked Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employers from discriminating based on religion.

Hooper acknowledged that the college's policy focuses on students but said it will inevitably target Muslim employees in the future.

After the complaint, George Humphrey, the vice president for College Relations, e-mailed Hooper, announcing the new policy.

"We have reviewed our ID policy and made an accommodation for religious reasons," the e-mail said. "Thank you for your input on this matter."

Hooper then stated, "We are pleased that the religious rights of all students and staff will now be protected. This is a victory for religious freedom and tolerance."

Ratty said, "The complaint was not the sole reason for the reversal but rather an ongoing discussion this week with our community."

Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, supported the original policy.

Though Pipes acknowledged the larger cultural debate, he said the college is focusing on security.

"I have documented dozens and dozens of cases about criminality and terrorism that have been abetted by burqas and niqabs," he said. "It is sensible to ban these, and there are a number of these bans in institutions such as banks or jewelry stores."

With increasing concern about terrorist attacks, religious practices will have to be weighed against security, Pipes said.

"In Turkey, the hijab has been banned from government offices, so this is not something that is just an American concern," he added.

CNN

France Imposes Designer Priced Fines for Bastille-like Burkas

This is very smart. Yes indeed. Because Muslims will not want to pay this fine. Collecting these fines will be interesting to watch as well. There will be social unrest for sure BUT, if given a choice, Muslims will migrate elsewhere. They like easy pickins.

They will choose to go to dhimmified infidel countries like the UK that quiver in fear of their Muslim population and acquiesce to their every demand.

Good on Sarkozy but his enthusiasm for the Euromed project (and the resulting tsunami of Muslim immigrants) is uh .....

puzzling.

France imposes £700 fine for wearing burkhas in the street

Women who wear burkhas in public face a fine of £700 under new laws being drafted in France.

(Metro UK hat tip Steven Gash)

The penalty will be doubled for men who force wives or other female relatives to dress in the Islamic veils.

The proposal aims to protect the ‘dignity’ and ‘security’ of women, said Jean-Francois Cope, president of the ruling Union for Popular Movement party.

The fine will apply to ‘all people on the public street whose face is entirely covered’ and also include people in public buildings, he added.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy has said before that the veils are ‘not welcome’ in secular countries such as France because they intimidate and alienate non-Muslim people.

He also described them as ‘a sign of subservience and debasement that imprison women’.

However, Mr Cope conceded that a complete ban on burkhas in France faced legal obstacles, including a possible challenge before the European Court of Human Rights on the grounds that it would limit religious freedom.

France has more than 5 million Muslims – the highest number of any European country – and in 2004 passed a law forbidding veils and other religious symbols in schools.

However, a recent police report said only about 400 women in the country dress in Muslim veils.

They are worn widely in countries such as Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia but not in north African nations, where many of France’s Muslim immigrants are originally from.

A draft law on the proposal to ban the veils in public is due to go before France’s National Assembly.

With thanks to Atlas

French Lawmaker Plans Legislation Banning Muslim Veil

A French parliamentarian said Tuesday he would file legislation to bar Muslim women from wearing veils that hide their faces in public.

President Nicolas Sarkozy has said that burqa-like veils are "not welcome" in France, and a parliamentary panel has been gathering information on the subject to release in a nonbinding report expected next month.

Lawmaker Jean-Francois Cope, who heads the president's UMP party in the National Assembly, the lower chamber, suggested Tuesday that he would submit his bill before the panel issues its report. He said he wants the veil banned not just from public buildings but also in the streets of France.

"We want a ban in public areas," Cope said.

Only a tiny minority of Muslim women in France wear the extreme covering — not required by Islam. Authorities worry such dress may be a gateway to extremism, and say it amounts to an insult to women while also going against the deeply secular nature of France.

However, the speaker of the lower chamber, Bernard Accoyer, said he felt his UMP party colleague's plan risks "appearing premature" before the parliamentary panel issues its report.

"On such a societal question that (concerns) the fundamental principles of our Republic, the search for a large consensus is a priority," Accoyer said.

Muslim leaders and secular experts have told the panel that a full ban could stigmatize all Muslims and would pose enforcement problems.

Cope said after a meeting of Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement that he planned to file two distinct texts in January, one of which would ensconce the ban in a larger bill forbidding people from covering their faces on security grounds.

The other text would be a resolution regarding respect for women's rights. A resolution approved by lawmakers does not carry the weight of law, but solemnly affirms a principle.

Cope suggested a fine could be levied against anyone breaking the ban. However, he also suggested a period of mediation lasting several months "with the women in question and their husbands ... to explain" and discuss the issue.

Such a mediation period was put in place after France banned Muslim headscarves from classrooms in 2004 after a marathon parliamentary debate. Other "ostentatious" religious symbols were included in the ban but it targeted headscarves.

FoxNews

Activists: Harassment Across Arab World Drives Women to Seek Cover

The sexual harassment of women in the streets, schools and work places of the Arab World is driving them to cover up and confine themselves to their homes, said activists at the first-ever regional conference addressing the once taboo topic.

Activists from 17 countries across the region met in Cairo for a two-day conference ending Monday and concluded that harassment was unchecked across the region because laws don't punish it, women don't report it and the authorities ignore it.

The harassment, including groping and verbal abuse, appears to be designed to drive women out of public spaces and seems to happen regardless of what they are wearing, they said.

Amal Madbouli, who wears the conservative face veil or niqab, told The Associated Press that despite her dress, she is harassed and described how a man came after her in the streets of her neighborhood.

"He hissed at me and kept asking me if I wanted to go with him to a quieter area, and to give him my phone number," said Madbouli, a mother of two. "This is a national security issue. I am a mother, and I want to be reassured when my daughters go out on the streets."

Statistics on harassment in the region have until recently been nonexistent, but a series of studies presented at the conference hinted at the widespread nature of the problem.

As many as 90 percent of Yemeni women say they have been harassed, while in Egypt, out of a sample of 1,000, 83 percent reported being verbally or physically abused.

A study in Lebanon reported that more than 30 percent of women said they had been harassed there.

"We are facing a phenomena that is limiting women's right to move ... and is threatening women's participation in all walks of life," said Nehad Abul Komsan, an Egyptian activist who organized the event with funding from the U.N. and the Swedish development agency.

Open discussion of the harassment issue first emerged in Egypt three years ago, after blogs gave broad publicity to amateur videos showing men assaulting women in downtown Cairo during a major Muslim holiday.

More at FoxNews

Al-Shabaab Orders Women To Wear Veils in Somalia

Mogadishu, Somalia 10th Dec, 2009 – The Al-qaeda linked Islamist rebels Al-shabaab have ordered Somali women in the border town of Dhobley close to Kenya to wear veils or face punishment, the top rebel commander in the town declared late on Wednesday.

During a press conference yesterday afternoon, Al shabab’s security chief in the town Sheik Da’ud Hassan Ali said that all women in Dhobley and surrounding villages are told to wear veils and cover all their bodies otherwise they will be punished for neglecting the Islamic orders.

“According to the holly Quran Allah had obligated Muslim women in all over the world to have veils, that is a religious article and any woman who doesn’t obey will be dealt with in accordance with Islamic sharia law” the Islamist official told reporters.

Al-shabaab also banned cigarettes and Kat {the green narcotic leafs grown in the neighbouring Kenya} to be used in the city.

Dhoble, a key border town close to Kenya is about 695 kilometres south of the capital Mogadishu and it fell into the hands of Al-shabaab late last month when militias belonging to their former ally Hezbal Islam fled from the city toward Kenyan border.

This week, Kenya said that its security forces have been put on a high alert to intercept Islamists from entering in its territories as they are getting very closer to Kenyan side of the border.

On may 7 this year, both groups united in combating against Somalia’s world-backed transitional government and launched a big offensive to topple it, but later they disagreed over the administrative power of the key port town of Kismayo, about 500 kilometres south of Mogadishu.

Al-shabaab Islamists, Al-qaeda’s proxy in the horn of Africa say they are fighting to establish Islamic state in Somalia, while the Somali government accuses them of wanting to make Somalia a safe haven for international terrorists running from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere in the world.

Thanks to Women Against Sharia

Kuwaiti Liberals Criticize Islamist Demand That Women MPs Wear Veil

Introduction

In May 2009, four women were elected to the Kuwaiti parliament, for the first time in this country's history. Two of these women – Dr. Asil Al-'Awadi and Dr. Rola Dashti – do not wear the veil, and since their election, Islamists in the country have been demanding that they be required to wear it.

MP Muhammad Hayef appealed to the Minister of Endowments and Minister of Justice, Rashed Al-Hammad, with a demand to give a formal expression to the Kuwaiti law which states that "a condition for women to vote and be elected is to abide by the rules and terms of shari'a law."

In response, the Religious Endowments Ministry issued a fatwa stipulating that the MPs must wear a veil like all other Muslim women. The fatwa stated that "when appearing in front of men not related to her, a Muslim woman must abide by the shari'a requirement to wear a veil hiding her entire body, except for the face and hands. [Furthermore], the veil must not be sheer so as to reveal any part of the body, must not be narrow so as to reveal her figure, and must not attract men's looks in any way."[1]

Islamist MPs treated the fatwa as binding, stating that "the veil is [both] a legal and a religious duty."[2] Liberals, on the other hand, including the women MPs themselves, argued that the fatwa contravenes Kuwait's democratic character, and that fatwas like these threaten to turn Kuwait into a Taliban state. They also pointed out that the fatwa is at odds with Kuwait's constitution, which upholds individual freedoms, and therefore cannot be binding, since the constitution is the supreme legal source of authority.[3]

On October 11, 2009, woman MP Dr. Rola Dashti proposed abolishing the clause in the Election Law requiring parliamentary candidates to abide by shari'a.[4]

On October 28, 2009, the Constitution Court rejected a lawsuit filed by attorney Hamad Al-Nashi against the two women MPs who do not don the veil, in which he demanded to revoke their membership in the parliament for violating the shari'a.

The court ruled that "the laws of the Islamic shari'a do not have a binding force like the basic laws [of the state], unless the legislator has intervened and so stipulated... The Kuwaiti constitution does not stipulate that the shari'a – that is, Islamic law – is the sole source of legislation, nor does it preclude the legislator from utilizing other sources [of legislation], out of consideration for the people's [needs]. Moreover, the constitution guarantees complete religious and personal freedom and forbids discrimination... based on [an individual's] religion or gender."[5]

MP Asil Al-'Awadi welcomed the court's ruling, stating that it represents a triumph for Kuwait's constitution and will end the debate on the veil which has been taking up parliament's time.

MP Rola Dashti said: "We four women MPs will continue to represent the Kuwaiti people in the best possible manner... This is not a triumph [only] for two women MPs or [even] for the Kuwaiti woman – it's a triumph for democracy."

She explained that even though the parliament is not a holy place or a house of worship, the women MPs would be careful to dress modestly and elegantly. She added that the court's ruling put an end to the attempts of "those who wish to bring Kuwait back [to an earlier era]." [6]

MP Muhammad Hayef, for his part, said that he planned to appeal again to the Constitutional Court in this matter, and called on MPs Dashti and 'Awadi to "abide by Allah's law... in order to turn over a new leaf and quell this storm that has pitched the country into a crisis [caused by] disobedience to Allah's laws."[7]

The Endowment Ministry's fatwa and the court ruling reignited the debate between two prominent camps in Kuwait, that is, the Islamists and the liberals, over the character of the Kuwaiti state and over which is the ultimate source of authority – shari'a law or the statutory laws.

More at MEMRI

Swiss vote on proposal to ban minarets

By ELIANE ENGELER

GENEVA — The campaign posters are inflammatory: Minarets rising like missiles from the national flag.

A proposal championed by right-wing parties to ban minarets in Switzerland goes to a nationwide vote on Sunday in a referendum that has set off an emotional debate about national identity and stirred fears of boycotts and violent reactions from Muslim countries.

With tensions running high, the Geneva Mosque was vandalized Thursday by unidentified individuals who threw a pot of pink paint at the building's entrance.

It was the third incident against the mosque this month: earlier, a vehicle with a loudspeaker drove through the area imitating a muezzin's call to prayer, and vandals threw cobble stones at the building, damaging a mosaic.

Business leaders say a minaret ban would be disastrous for the Swiss economy because it could drive away wealthy Muslims who bank in Switzerland, buy the country's luxury goods, and frequent its resorts.

The vote taps into anxieties about Muslims that have been rippling through Europe in recent years, ranging from French fears of women in body veils to Dutch alarm over the murder by a Muslim fanatic of a filmmaker who made a documentary that criticized Islam.

Polls indicate growing support for the proposal submitted by the anti-immigrant Swiss People's Party, but it was doubtful it will gain enough momentum to pass. Muslims in Switzerland have kept a low profile, refraining from a counter-campaign.

"Switzerland's good reputation as an open, tolerant and secure country may be lost and this would bring a blow to tourism," said Swiss Hotel Association spokesman Thomas Allemann.

The nationalist Swiss People's Party has led several campaigns against foreigners, including a proposal to kick out entire families of foreigners if one of their children breaks a law and a bid to subject citizenship applications to a popular vote.

The party's controversial posters have shown three white sheep kicking out a black sheep and a swarm of brown hands grabbing Swiss passports from a box.

The current campaign posters showing missile-like minarets atop the national flag and a fully veiled woman have drawn anger of local officials and rights defenders.

The cities of Basel, Lausanne and Fribourg banned the billboards, saying they painted a "racist, disrespectful and dangerous image" of Islam.

The U.N. Human Rights Committee called the posters discriminatory and said Switzerland would violate international law if it bans minarets.

More at AP

Phyllis Chesler: Muslim Women Disfigured By Acid

These photos show what happens to real women who wear the Islamic Veil. The photos depict horrifying hate and the unbearable suffering it inflicts upon female innocents.

The photos were taken by Emilio Morenatti of the Associated Press. The text is based on work done by Nicholas Kristof—one of the few people at the New York Times whose work I am proud to quote. You may find them HERE. (Thanks to Yehuda for calling this to my attention).

What are we seeing?

The Arabization or the Saudi-ization of Muslims in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan is the hidden hand behind these acid attacks upon women. These poor girls and women have had their lives ruined; some have been forced to undergo surgery 20-30 times in order that they may see a little, or breathe a bit, hear something, perhaps in order to eat or make themselves understood. They look like…monsters. That was what their attackers wanted to accomplish. To render their faces into self-portraits of their attackers.

Why was acid thrown into their faces? The main reasons are because they dared to reject someone in marriage or because they wanted a divorce.

The “jilted” suitors (or husbands) took their revenge in this fashion. If he can’t have her, no man will; I will make sure that no man will ever want her.” One young girl was gang-raped aftger which her rapists threw acid on her face. Another committed the “crime” of disappointing her father by being born female, not male. Many were disfigured as a result of a “family dispute.”

Thus, the punishment for being born female, for exercising any will of one’s own is, Saudi-style, the most horrible punishment. The men tried to make the women loathsome to humanity, to sentence them to painful surgeries, self-hatred, perhaps to lives lived in isolation.

Make no mistake. This tendency to disfigure women–even those who wear the Islamic Veil–is real. And, it might be coming our way if we do not stop the Wahhabi and Salafi influence which is funding our universities in North America as well as the Islamic religious schools.

For once, I will leave aside the question of what must be done and allow the photos to speak to you.

To continue reading this article, click here.

More at FPM

France: 'National pride' measures to ensure integration

France is to adopt a series of measures to 'reaffirm pride' in the country and combat Islamic fundamentalism.

They include everybody receiving lessons in the nation's Christian history and children singing the national anthem.

Using words which infuriated ethnic minority groups and Socialist opponents, immigration minister Eric Besson also said he wanted 'foreigners to speak better French'.

He called for all recent arrivals to be monitored by 'Republican godfathers', charged with helping immigrants to integrate better.

His proposed measures contrast sharply with the situation in Britain where 'citizenship education' centres on multicultural diversity.

M Besson, who was born in the former French protectorate of Morocco, suggested a debate on national identity' entitled 'What does it mean to be French?'

He also reignited the debate about face and body-covering Muslim veils, saying they should definitely be banned.

Making clear that radical Islam was a threat, Mr Besson said: 'In France, the nation and the republic remain the strongest ramparts against ... fundamentalist tendencies. France is diversity, and France is unity.'

Mr Besson defended a decision to send illegal Afghan immigrants - all of them Muslim - back to Kabul on charter flights organised in conjunction with the British government last week, saying there would be many more.

More than 21,000 people have been deported from France this year - with 27,000 the ultimate target, said Mr Besson.

He also reignited the debate about face and body-covering Muslim veils, saying they should definitely be banned.

'For me, there should be no burqas on the street,' said Mr Besson. 'The burqa is against national values - an affront to women's rights and equality.'

Explaining the apparent shift to the extreme right by President Nicolas Sarkozy's government, Mr Besson evoked the legacy of Jean Marie Le Pen's anti-immigration National Front party, which is struggling massively with huge debts and low electoral support.

Mr Besson said: 'We should never have abandoned to the National Front a number of values which are part of the Republic's heritage. I think that the political death of the National Front would be the best news for all of us.'


(more)


Source: Daily Mail (English), h/t Weasel Zippers

Thanks to Islam in Europe

The secret behind the veil: Saudi women find solace in ‘safe love’

Robert Lacey

Caught in a rigid society that stifles affection even within marriage, women in the kingdom are turning to lesbianism.

In theory, Saudi Arabia should not exist — its survival defies the laws of logic and history.

Look at its princely rulers, dressed in funny clothes, trusting in God rather than man and running their oil-rich country on principles that most of the world has abandoned with relief.

Shops are closed for prayer five times a day, executions take place in the street — and once we get started on the status of women . . .

Mashael (not her real name) got married when she was 18. “I’d been seeing my husband secretly for about a year and a half,” she remembers. “His sister was a good friend of mine, and she helped us get together away from the world. We spent hours on the phone. I was crazy about him. I forced my family to agree. It was so romantic.”

But the romance melted within months of the couple getting married.

“I could not believe how quickly it happened. After the second day, I thought, ‘This man is weird.’ He was so incredibly possessive. I was no longer my own person. He expected me to build every detail of my life around him while he kept the right to do whatever he liked. He told me what to wear, how he wanted me to cut my hair — even what I should think and feel. That was his right. I was his new piece of property.”

The world is full of possessive and domineering husbands, but in Saudi Arabia the law actually enshrines the principle that the male knows better than the female.

A woman may not enrol in university, open a bank account, get a job, or travel outside the country without the written permission of a mahram (guardian), who must be a male blood relative — her father, grandfather, brother, husband or, in the case of a widow or separated woman, her adult son.

“I had to agree completely with his opinions, what he felt about our family and friends. If I disagreed, he’d fly into a temper, use ugly words and threaten me. I knew that I had made a terrible mistake. I wanted to go back to my family, but my pride would not let me. I knew that they would blame me.”

Mashael had been unwilling to accept the ancient tradition of family-arranged marriage, with its modest, not to say pessimistic, expectations of personal happiness. Like a growing number of young Saudis, she had been tempted by the western fantasy of fulfilment through “love”, which Saudi TV and popular culture promote today as enthusiastically as any Hollywood movie.

But Saudi taboos rule out the rituals of courtship and sexual experimentation by which young westerners have the chance to make their mistakes and move on. Open dating, let alone living together, is unthinkable in a society ruled by traditions that judge families by their ability to keep their daughters virginal.

“My husband and I simply did not know each other,” says Mashael, today a stylish woman in her late thirties, whose long black hair tumbles over the black silk of her abaya, an outer garment. “I’m not blaming anyone but myself. We married too young.”

Having fallen victim to a common Saudi problem, she adopted what turns out to be a common Saudi solution. “I found love with a woman. Before I was married, I never knew that a relationship between woman and woman could happen. I did not dream it was possible. Then I went to university, and I had my first love affair with a woman. It was soft. It was warm. It was like a painkiller.”

Lesbianism is not hard to find on Saudi female campuses, according to numerous Saudi and western women, with crushes and cliques and superclose friendships.

These relationships may not always be sexual, but they are marked by the heightened emotions described by Jane Austen and other chroniclers of early 19th-century England, where the industrial revolution was creating the world’s first “modern” society, bringing new concepts of “romance” and individual choice into conflict with traditional family rules and rigidities.

Read more here,,,

Source: Times Online

Man on trial for stabbing 'veil martyr'

A MAN accused of killing a pregnant Egyptian woman in a frenzied anti-Islamic attack goes on trial in Germany today in a case that inflamed tempers throughout the Muslim world.

Prosecutors say the defendant, identified according to German legal practice only as Alex W, stabbed Marwa al-Sherbini at least 16 times in three minutes on July 1, in the same courthouse where his three-week trial will be held.

Some 200 police officers will guard the proceedings this time in the eastern city of Dresden, as German media reported Internet death threats against the defendant, who will appear in court behind bulletproof glass.

The 28-year-old Russian-born German allegedly plunged an 18cm kitchen knife into the chest, back and arm of Sherbini, 31, who was three months pregnant at the time with her second child.

She bled to death at the scene in the presence of her three-year-old son Mustafa, in what prosecutors say in the charge sheet was a killing motivated by "a pronounced hatred of non-Europeans and Muslims''.

Egyptian media quickly dubbed her "the veil martyr''.

The accused is also charged with attempting to kill her husband, Elwy Okaz, who tried to come to her aid.

Court psychiatric experts say they found no evidence of diminished responsibility.

The Egyptian Government yesterday demanded the maximum sentence for Alex W, which is life in prison under German law - the penalty prosecutors are seeking.

Sherbini's family will appear in Dresden as co-plaintiffs, represented by lawyers hired by Cairo, the foreign ministry said, adding that it was "confident in the German justice system's impartiality''.

The shocking attack, and a slow reaction by the German media and political class, left the country open to accusations of neglectful handling of hate crimes against Muslims.

Berlin moved to deflect criticism, with Chancellor Angela Merkel expressing her condolences to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit later that month.

Thousands rallied in Dresden in Sherbini's memory.

"Many people in and outside Germany are looking to Dresden and hoping to see this murder punished,'' said Nabil Yacoub of the Dresden Immigrants Council.

The case triggered anti-German protests in Egypt and Iran and sparked fears of an escalation on the scale of the bloody riots touched off by the publication in Europe of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in 2005.

Sherbini and Alex W met in August 2008, when she asked him to clear a playground swing where he sat smoking a cigarette so Mustafa could use it.

He refused, calling Sherbini an "Islamist'', a "terrorist'' and a "whore''.

She pressed charges for defamation and he was fined $US780 ($846).

His appeal against the conviction brought them together again in July.

After Sherbini testified and left the witness stand, he allegedly pulled the knife he had smuggled into the courtroom and stabbed her and then Okaz, who was shot in the leg by a confused guard who apparently took him for the attacker.

Sherbini worked as a pharmacist while her husband was a geneticist working on his doctorate in Dresden.

Alex W, who arrived in Germany from Perm in the Urals in 2003, was on the dole and reportedly struggled with bouts of depression.

Yesterday, the Dresden Culture and Educational Centre, which now bears Sherbini's name, held a memorial in her honour calling for "respectful treatment of differing social groups''.

A verdict is expected November 11.

Source: The Australian

Muslim student, 18, banned from college because she refuses to remove her burkha

By Liz Hull

A Muslim student has been banned from enrolling at a college because she refused to remove her burkha.

Shawana Bilqes, 18, wanted to wear the garment - which covers her body and face, leaving only her eyes visible - during lessons.

But staff at Burnley College refused to enrol her, claiming the burkha was a barrier to 'safety and communication'.

In a strongly worded statement, the college said 'unimpeded' face to face contact between teachers and students was vital.

Miss Bilqes, who wanted to study an access course for a diploma, has now been forced to abandon her plans and is looking elsewhere to complete her studies.

Yesterday she said: 'It is my choice to wear the veil.

'I live around the corner from the college in an area where there are so many practising Muslims.

'I tried to compromise but they wouldn't. The college sent me a letter to say I could continue with my course if I stopped wearing the veil.

'We are in the 21st century and we get people from all walks of life. I'm in the police cadets as well and yet it's not a problem wearing the veil there.'

John Smith, principal of the college, in Burnley, defended the actions of his staff.

He said that a student's face must be fully visible to maintain high standards of teaching between staff and pupils, adding that it was crucial to wear photo ID around the campus for security reasons.

'We do require all students of Burnley College to have their faces visible when at the college,' he said.

'We are determined to maintain the highest standards of teaching and learning. To do this effectively requires unimpeded communication from the teacher to all students, from the students to the teacher and between student and student.

'It is not possible to maintain this essential full communication if the face of any student is not fully visible.

'We are also determined to provide a safe environment for all our students. Central to this is that all members of the college community should be identifiable at all times.

'To this end we require students and staff to wear a security card which displays their photograph.

'Where individuals decline to comply, then I am afraid we cannot accommodate them.'

Read more at Mail Online

H/T: WeaselZippers

Veiled Iranian women suspected of drug smuggling

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - A group of 10 alleged Iranian drug smugglers, including eight veiled women, were caught with $12.5 million worth of methamphetamines at Indonesia's main airport, the customs chief said Wednesday.

The group was picked up at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta airport with 60 pounds (27 kilograms) of crystal methamphetamine and 5 gallons (23 liters) of the drug in liquid form, said customs chief Anwar Suprijadi.

It is the largest drug bust in the airport's history, he said, describing how the group had arrived on flights from Malaysia, Syria and Qatar on Monday and Tuesday.

Indonesian authorities have never seen veiled women used as drug runners, he said.

The drugs, wrapped in plastic food containers and cleaning fluid bottles, were packed into hand luggage. But the oddly-shaped packages were picked out by officers operating scanners.

"We believe they are part of an international syndicate," he said. By wearing conservative Islamic clothing the women tried to "fool officers in a country like Indonesia, where women in black veils are generally considered to be good women."

Nine suspects were paraded in front of the media at an airport detention facility Wednesday, while a tenth is said to have attempted suicide and was in a hospital. A 26-year-old man, who allegedly carried the liquid drug from Doha, tried to sever an artery with a razor blade. Police said they were trying to uncover a possible link to the arrest on Monday of another Iranian and an American in raids that netted more than 12 pounds (5.6 kilograms) of methamphetamines at an apartment and a hotel room in the nearby capital.

Deputy chief of investigations Dikdik Maulana Mansyur estimated the seizure was worth $950,000. He said the 35-year-old American, who posed as a tourist to make deliveries to local hotels, faces up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $20,000.

The Iranian, 40, has a previous drug conviction from 2002 and can expect a tougher sentence, he said.

Indonesia has extremely strict drug laws and traffickers are regularly sentenced to death.

By the end of 2008, about 140 people were on death row, including more than 40 foreigners, most of them for drug-related crimes.

Customs offices across Indonesia, a vast Muslim-majority nation of 235 million people, were warned to be on the lookout for other possible smuggling attempts. Poor law enforcement, corruption and high demand make Indonesia an attractive location for drug producers.

Source: Asharq Alawsat

Muslim says full veil is a door to radical Islam

ELAINE GANLEY

PARIS (AP) — The head of France's Muslim council said Wednesday that the full-body veil worn by a minority of Muslims in France is an "entry way" to radical Islam, but that a national debate over whether to ban the garment in public is stigmatizing the entire Muslim community.

Mohammed Moussaoui told a panel of lawmakers that any decision to outlaw the veils that cover the body and face risks feeding a sense of discrimination.

The debate "has taken on unexpected proportions" and "Muslims are increasingly finding themselves confronted with stereotypes whose consequence is the stigmatization of an entire religion," Moussaoui said, referring to what many Muslims say is a tendency to group them into a single unit be they moderate or radical.

Moussaoui heads the French Council of the Muslim Faith, or CFCM, which groups the various tendencies of Islam in France and serves, among other things, as a conduit for dialogue with French authorities.

The council, which includes some Muslim fundamentalists, was called to testify before parliamentarians holding hearings that could lay the groundwork for an law banning Muslim women from wearing head-to-toe and face-covering veils in public.

Some claim the number of women — and girls — covered by niqabs or burqas is rising.

President Nicolas Sarkozy has said that such robes make "prisoners" of women and won't be welcome in France, a position that spurred the parliamentary inquiry.

Islam is the second religion in France after Roman Catholicism. With an estimated 5 million Muslims, France has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe.

Moussaoui said the council agrees the wearing of full-body robes is not required by Islam but is instead a religious practice of an "extremely marginal" minority of Muslim women.

Still, he said in a prepared speech approved by all factions in the Muslim grouping, such a garment "should not be a motive for incriminating those who wear it."

The Muslim grouping said it preferred to try to dissuade women from wearing the veil through dialogue, saying any law could prove counterproductive, raising sympathy for those who wear the garment and feeding radical agendas.

The council asked lawmakers to form a commission to inquire about what it said was a rise in Islamophobia and find ways to fight it even such anti-Islamic prejudice, like the full-body veil, "is marginal."

Some lawmakers took exception to what the said was the "timid" approach of the five-man Muslim panel, saying the full veil has implications for a range of issues from women's rights to public safety and terrorism.

"It is an extreme practice and we don't want it to install itself on the national territory," Moussaoui then said.

He later told The Associated Press that he considered the wearing of the full-body veil to be an "entry way" to a radical interpretation of Islam, "and there is a risk of falling further."

Source: NewsOK

Miss Indonesia criticised for not wearing veil

Qori Sandioriva, 18, won the title on Friday, beating 37 other contestants for the crown.

However, clerics in the region were outraged that an Acehnese woman won the title of Miss Indonesia.

They said that by failing to wear a veil during the competition she had brought shame to the province. Qori Sandioriva was born in Jakarta but has an Acehnese mother so she was eligible to enter the contest as Miss Aceh.

Islamic clerics said that she was not representative of her region because she had not followed partial Sharia law which is present in the autonomous Indonesian province.

They said that only by wearing a veil during the competition would she have followed Aceh's traditions.

Teung-ku Faisal Ali, the secretary general of Aceh's Ulama Association, told the BBC that anyone who represented Aceh must uphold the province's values.

He said Qori Sandioriva did not wear a veil during the competition and therefore did not represent the Acehnese people, who have strong Islamic faith and values.

Ms Sandiorova dismissed the importance of the veil to the competition saying that she believed hair was the key to beauty, the BBC reported.

Next year Ms Sandiorova will enter the Miss Universe contest where she will have to wear a swimsuit as part of the pageant.

Source: Telegraph

H/T: WomenAgainstSharia

Somalia: Islamists Order Women in Bardere Town to Take Veils Quickly

The Islamic administration officials in Bardere town in Gedo region have Thursday ordered the women there in south Somalia to take a veil or else will be taken legal step by the Islamist fighters in the town.

The Islamist administration had ordered all the women in the town to take coverings once again since their announcement which was 15 days ago saying that they will take a right step the women who refuse to take the order of the administration adding that they will also be sentenced with the Sharia law.

Mo'allin Mohumed Osma'il, head of the advice and education for the Islamic administration in Bardere town told Shabelle radio that Thursday was the last day of their ultimatum order with in the 15 days which stated all the women in the town to have veils through the town.

The official lastly said that the Islamist forces will conduct operations against the women who have not the coverings through in the town adding that they were completely ordered to arrest the women in the jails of Bardere town in Gedo region in southern Somalia.

Source: AllAfrica

Top Egyptian Cleric Bans Face Veils in Some Schools

CAIRO — Egypt's top Islamic cleric said Thursday that students and teachers will not be allowed to wear face veils in classrooms and dormitories of Sunni Islam's premier institute of learning, al-Azhar, part of a government effort to curb radical Islamic practices.

The decision announced by Sheik of al-Azhar Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi came days after he said the face veil, or niqab, "has nothing to do with Islam."

His comments and actions have sparked an outcry from Islamists who see them as an attack on their religion and some rights organizations who believe banning the niqab violates constitutional freedom.

The explosive issue of how much of a Muslim woman's body should be covered remains contested among Islamic scholars.

The majority of scholars say the face veil is not required but is merely a custom that dates back to tribal, nomadic societies living in the Arabian desert before Islam began.

While a vast majority of Egyptian women wear headscarves, few wear the niqab, which is common in Saudi Arabia where the more conservative form of Wahhabi Islam is practiced. The trend seems to be gaining ground in Egypt, leading to government attempts to ban the face veil from public institutions.

Tantawi, who was appointed by the Egyptian government, first attacked the niqab Sunday during a field visit to a middle school where he asked a student to remove her face veil, according to local media.

Read more here,,,,

Source: FoxNews

Al-Azhar face-veil ban questioned

Muslim scholars have questioned plans by the head of Egypt's most famous university to ban female students from veiling their faces on its premises and affiliated educational establishments.

Shaikh Ali Abu al-Hasan, the former head of the Fatwa Council at the Islamic Studies Institute (ISI) in Cairo, said although it was not required by Islam for women to cover their faces, Al-Azhar University should allow women to chose what they want to wear.

"No official has the right to order a young lady to remove a form of dress that was sanctioned by none other than Umar ibn al-Khattab, except for the purposes of identification for security reasons," he said.

"The niqab [face veil] is not in contravention of the sharia or Egyptian law."

Shaikh Safwat Hijazi, a scholar and preacher, said he would personally sue anyone who prevented his daughter or wife wearing full niqab from going about her daily life, including entering government offices.

"Preventing a woman from wearing what she wants is a crime," Hijazi said. "Whoever says the niqab is a custom is not respectable."

Husam Bahgat, of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, said the series of government decisions against the niqab are "arbitrary" and while designed to combat extremism, only end up being discriminatory against women.

"[Veiled female students] are barred from government subsidised housing and nutrition because they are considered extremists," he said.

But other Egyptian scholars, such as the ISI's Abd ul-Hamid al-Atrash, said there would be nothing wrong with such a ruling at a time when the anonymity afforded by the face veil was being abused by people intent on causing trouble.

"There have even been instances of men entering [schools for girls] under cover. So there is no reason why a ruling that benefits the people and the nation cannot be issued", al-Atrash said.

And Abd ul-Moati Bayumi, a scholar in an al-Azhar affiliated research centre, said most scholars would back Tantawi if he issued the order.

"We all agree that niqab is not a religious requirement," Bayoumi said.

"Taliban forces women to wear the niqab ... . The phenomena is spreading" and it has to be confronted.

"The time has come."

Read more here,,,,

Source: Al Jazeera English

Wolf Finds Support in the Muslim World

No, the debate between Naomi Wolf and Phyllis Chesler isn’t dead yet.

Quick link summary for those just jumping in:

On August 31 Phyllis Chesler wrote a piece at Pajamas Media challenging an article Naomi Wolf wrote about veiled Muslim women for the Sydney Morning Herald. Jamie Glazov, FrontPage’s managing editor and a blogger for NewsReal, wrote a post in support of Chesler here. Wolf didn’t care for either Chesler or Glazov’s characterizations of her position. She left a comment demanding that David Horowitz, NewsReal’s Editor-In-Chief, remove Glazov’s blog. She also contacted Chesler. Glazov had an additional rebuttal here, Horowitz weighed in here, Robert Spencer commented here, and the other day Salon sided with Wolf here, prompting further rebuttals from Chesler here, and Glazov here. (And there are two feminists in support of Chesler here.)

Now to this summary one can add two defenses of Wolf and one somewhat neutral observer who takes some shots at both side:

AltMuslim claims that Wolf’s defense of the veil is “rational culture”:

Finally, there is an unusually vociferous face-off over the veil occurring in the blogosphere – but it’s not among Muslims. Celebrated author and activist Naomi Wolf (who we interviewed at the start of the economic crisis) penned an article entitled, “Behind the veil lives a thriving Muslim sexuality” in which she documented her experiences in Morocco, Jordan, and Egypt. She found that in typical Muslim households, “It is not that Islam suppresses sexuality, but that it embodies a strongly developed sense of its appropriate channelling — toward marriage, the bonds that sustain family life, and the attachment that secures a home.” There was “demureness and propriety” outside of the home, “but inside, women were as interested in allure, seduction and pleasure as women anywhere in the world.” When walking through a bazaar with a Pakistani-style shalwar kameez and headscarf (hardly a burqa), she “felt a novel sense of calm and serenity” and even, “in certain ways, free.” That was too much for conservative activist Phyllis Chesler, who is rallying the troops (including David Horowitz and Ann Coulter) to savage Wolf, saying that “most Muslim girls and women are not given a choice” about covering “and those who resist are beaten, threatened with death, arrested, caned or lashed, jailed, or honor murdered by their own families” (though Wolf had said along, “Choice is everything”). Read more ...

Source: NewsReal Blog

Naomi Wolf
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award