2 Moderates & Liberals on: from Islamism to Honorcides

A Palestinian woman wearing a hijab veil.

The deadly face of Muslim extremism
Tarek Fatah and Farzana Hassan, National Post
Published: Wednesday, December 12, 2007

The tragic death of a Mississauga, Ont., teenage girl -- allegedly at the hands of her own traditionally minded Muslim father -- has sent shock waves across the world. Canadians are justified in raising concerns as to whether this is a sign of the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in their own backyard.

Aqsa Parvez, a sprightly 16-year-old, beloved of her friends and peers at Applewood Heights Secondary School, was only trying to be herself, was only wishing for a normal adolescence amid Canada's rich cultural mosaic. Her father has now been charged with murder, and his son with obstruction, while a young life has been snuffed out -- likely in the name of honour and Islam.

Radical Muslim men consider themselves ultimately responsible for the conduct of the womenfolk. This outlook is rooted in a medieval ethos that treats women as nonpersons, unable to decide for themselves what they should wear, where they must go and what they must accomplish in life. If their conduct is seen as contravening this austere religious outlook, they are invariably subjected to abuse.

The hijab in particular has become a thorny issue among Muslim families. It has been elevated as a sort of "sixth pillar of Islam" among militant sects. Young teenage girls are often lectured over the virtues of the hijab by their family members. Once they hit puberty, compliance is deemed a non-negotiable religious requirement.

Go on reading here: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=162281

Islamic group slams 'out of touch' imams for causing drift towards extremism

Imams are accused of being out of touch and
pushing young Muslims towards extremism

Young Muslims are being pushed towards extremism because their mosques are run by elderly and out-of-touch cliques, a report by an Islamic think-tank said yesterday.

The Quilliam Foundation, an anti-extremist Islamic organisation, accused imams of failing to teach and preach in English and of shutting women out of their mosques.

Only about 3 per cent of Muslim clerics were born in this country and most do not have full command of English, the study said.

The report said that mosque leaderships did not promote British values and allowed young people to drift towards jihadists who speak their own language.

The group called on the Government for stricter limits on visas for Islamic clerics coming to Britain and for an end to state grants for mosques that do not have at least one imam who preaches in English and supports the principles of democracy.

The Quilliam Foundation - which has been backed with almost £1million of taxpayers' money and attacked by some Islamic groups as being a mouthpiece for the Government - also said madrassas, mosques' equivalent of Christian Sunday schools, should be fully inspected by local children's services officials.

The survey was based on responses to five questions given by 512 mosques last autumn.

It found 97 per cent of imams were born overseas and 92 per cent were trained abroad, while more than half of the Muslims in Britain were born here.

'The religious leadership in the vast majority of Britain's mosques are not in full command of the English language, and are likely to be ill-equipped to address the real concerns and everyday experiences of young British Muslims,' the report found. Read more ...

Source: Daily Mail

Imams to help police in bid to keep young Muslims away from gang culture

By David Leask

A NEW weapon will be unveiled this week in the war on teenage gangs: Muslim Imams.
Scotland on Sunday can reveal that several Islamic clerics will join police and youth workers in an innovative new scheme to wean young Muslims away from trouble.

The Imams – most Scottish-born – will take to the streets starting this week, target

ing a dozen teenagers believed to be on the edge of the embryonic Asian gang culture on Glasgow's Southside.

Their allies, including workers from Youth Counselling Services Agency (YCSA), a support group for young Asians, reckon the clerics will be able to command more respect from youngsters than other professionals, including the police.

They will launch their programme just days after the first serious youth disorder in Pollokshields, home to Scotland's biggest Muslim community, since last summer. Four Asians – three young men and a youth – were last week charged with assault after an alleged attack on white men when a snowball fight reportedly escalated into serious violence. Read more ...

Source: Scotsman

6,000 Muslim Clerics Endorse Anti-Terrorism Fatwa

HYDERABAD, India, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- About 6,000 Muslim clerics from around India approved a fatwa against terrorism Saturday at a conference in Hyderabad.

Maulana Qari Mohammad Usman Mansoorpuri, president of the Jamaiat-Ulama-i-Hind, called terrorism the most serious problem facing Islam, The Hindu reported. He blamed Islamic radicals for their actions and the news media for failing to distinguish between the radicals and the majority of Muslims.

"We have no love for offenders whichever religion they might belong to," he said. "Our concern is that innocents should not be targeted and the career of educated youth not ruined. The government should ensure transparency in investigation."

India has the world's second-largest Muslim population after Indonesia, although Hindus outnumber Muslims. The meeting was also expected to address issues like national integration.

"Islam rejects all kinds of unjust violence, breach of peace, bloodshed, murder and plunder and does not allow it in any form. Cooperation should be done for the cause of good but not for committing sin or oppression," the fatwa written at the Darul Uloom Deoband, India's foremost Islamic seminary.

Source: UPIJamaiat-Ulama-i-Hind
Latest recipient of The MASH Award

Imams fail in their desired role: Naif

Prince Naif

MAKKAH: Imams of Saudi mosques have failed in guiding young Saudis away from extremist ideologies that pose a serious threat to the security and stability of the country, according to Interior Minister Prince Naif.

“The more than 15,000 mosques in the country constitute the best forums for guidance, but the imams have failed miserably in discharging their duties,” Prince Naif said after opening a seminar on Human Rights in Higher Education and Intellectual Security at Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah on Wednesday night.

“Frankly speaking, I would like to say that the imams of mosques, with the exception of the two holy mosques, have not played their desired role (in the fight against extremism),” Prince Naif said.

“The introduction of topics related to human rights in the education or any other area of life does not mean that our society is ignorant or deficient in human values as some quarters have been portraying,” Prince Naif told an audience that included Minister of Higher Education Khaled Al-Anqari and Rector of Umm Al-Qura University Adanan Wazzan.

The prince stressed the significant role universities had to play in keeping the young Saudis away from the dangers of destructive ideologies. “Since universities are centers of research, it is their duty to study ways to root out ideas that distort religion and defame the nation,” he said. Read more ...

Source: Arab News

Case study: 'For many imams speaking against rape is embarrassing'

Richard Kerbaj

It wasn't love that brought Aliya and Hassan together, but a couple of childhood photos he'd seen of her. For Hassan, Aliyah - then a 20-year-old from Manchester - was a ticket out of Pakistan to join his brothers in England in the hope of kick-starting a lucrative career in medicine.

As for what Aliyah thought of Hassan? Well, no one cared. Not her mother, who threatened to kill herself if Aliyah didn't go through with the marriage. Not her father, who had routinely molested Aliyah in her formative years, and not her siblings, who desperately wanted to uphold their parents' honour and obey their demands.

For three years after her wedding in Pakistan in 1998 Aliyah - a practising Muslim raised in northern England, who wears the hijab - was raped and emotionally abused by her husband. “He wanted to do things in the bedroom that I didn't want to do,” she told The Times. “And in the end he forcefully got what he wanted.”

Aliyah, who worked as a factory-hand to support her unemployed husband, went to her local cleric to raise her concerns of being subjected to sexual abuse after her mother refused to listen to her complaints.

“I told my imam that I was suffering and that my confidence was broken,” she said. “The imam told me to be patient. And I couldn't say no to him because I was raised to fear men and put up with their decisions.” Read more ...

Source: Times Online
H/T: Shariah Finance Watch

Saudis to retrain 40,000 clerics

By Magdi Abdlehadi

Saudi Arabia is to retrain its 40,000 prayer leaders - also known as imams - in an effort to counter militant Islam.

Details of the plan were revealed in the influential Saudi newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat.

The plan is part of a wider programme launched by the Saudi monarch a few years ago to encourage moderation and tolerance in Saudi society.

The ministry of religious affairs and new centre for national dialogue will carry out the training, the paper said. Read more ...

Source: BBC

Imam's Declare War on West

Just so that everyone understands this perfectly I have to make something crystal clear.

(I myself did not really comprehend the full implications of the statement I am about to make at first and it took a while for me to come to terms with it in my heart and not just in my head.)

The Radical Islamic Imam's in the Middle-East have declared WAR on not only the West, but also on every other sect of Islam that is not completely in line with their ideas and beliefs on how things should be! Period.

These guys have been in a position of power and authority for over a thousand years and make all the decisions as far as the average Ali is concerned. They control the politicians, the population and especially those evil, scheming, subversive WOMEN!

Why would they want to give that up?

THEY DON'T!

We don't have a problem with Islam kids. No! Normal, decent people know the difference between right and wrong and act accordingly.

The problem is with the radical, fundamentalist clergy, and the only way to deal with them is to take this WAR they have declared and shove it down their throats. (Or up their ass!)

After the Christian Reformation the Catholic Church had to be dragged into what was then the modern world (A job still not finished!) and much the same needs to be done with Islam.

End of story.

Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site www.God-101.com

Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com