Archive for the “Islamism” Category
You can read these news in The News International and Nasdaq.com:
Far-right Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders lost a legal bid Wednesday to stop his pending trial for inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims.
“The attorney general is of the opinion that there are no grounds” for a further appeal, the Dutch Supreme Court said in a statement.
Lawyers for Wilders had sought to overturn a ruling by the Amsterdam Court of Appeals in January that he should be prosecuted for a series of public anti- Muslim statements, particularly for comparing Islam to Nazism.
Well, this is nothing that we can consider as surprising. But anyway it something truly interesting that they want this to go to trial. Mr. Wilders has stated:
“I am being prosecuted for saying about Islam what millions of Dutch think. Freedom of expression is at risk of being offered at the altar of Islam.”
The real reason (at least for me) of this trial is that he considers Islam as equal to Nazism. Whatever our special ideas on the subject, this process is judging the personal idea of someone about an ideology/religion. Of course, I count with a just trial (consider me an optimist), in which he can express his own reasons about this. But I don’t know if, being realistic, we can count with that just trial. I fear he is going to be fried.
Just notice that he is labelled as “far-right” everywhere you read about him. Even if he has no link with Nazi parties, with actual far-right parties, etc etc.
NOTE: I really can’t blog often now. I am truly busy, I am sorry for this but life is like it is. Thanks to you all for your interest.
Tags: Fitna, Freedom of expression, Geert Wilders, Islam, Netherlands
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The UN’s human-rights body approved a proposal by Muslims nations Thursday urging passage of laws around the world to protect religion from criticism.
The proposal put forward by Pakistan on behalf of Islamic countries – with the backing of Belarus and Venezuela – had drawn strong criticism from free-speech campaigners and liberal democracies.
A simple majority of 23 members of the 47-nation Human Rights Council voted in favor of the resolution. Eleven nations, mostly Western, opposed the resolution, and 13 countries abstained.
The resolution urges states to provide “protection against acts of hatred, discrimination, intimidation and coercion resulting from defamation of religions and incitement to religious hatred in general.”
“Defamation of religions is the cause that leads to incitement to hatred, discrimination and violence toward their followers,” Pakistan’s ambassador Zamir Akram said. (Heyyy, Zamir, so what about discrimination against non-Muslims in Islamic countries? Are they going to be protected against discrimination? No, right?)
“It is important to deal with the cause, rather than with the effects alone,” he said.
via UN approves religious criticism proposal | International | Jerusalem Post. tx to O Insurgente.
I had written before about this really worrying (at least for me) subject. It’s curious though: there are NO Spanish MSM which have published something about this, that I know of.
But you know what’s curious too? That the Organization for the Security and the Cooperation in Europe has alerted of the discrimination that Christians are suffering in Europe:
Last March 4th, for the 1st time in its history, the office of the Organization for the Security and the Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), for the Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), organised a debate in Vienna specially focused in the risks the right to religious liberty regarding Christians, experiment in Europe.
The intervention of Mario Mauro, VicePresident of the European Parliament, was the most interesting of all. He is also the personal representative of the OSCE Presidency against racism, xenophobia and discrimination. the MEP explained that the “examples show that that discriminations against Christians do not only exist in the countries where the Christians are a minority but also in those in which they are a majority of the population, not considering the persecutions that strike these communities outside the OSCE’s area”.
(…) But, why does the Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) worry now about the abused rights of Christians? The answer was pointed out in the same debate, remembering that hate and intolerance do not only affect the people’s security but also to country’s stability. That’s why the Organization has decided lately to intensify the efforts to counter these discriminative cases more efficiently in the future.
It seems that Christians are mainly discriminated even in Christian countries. Something which is really worrying…
NOTE that they are NOT worried about the discrimination considerated as an unlawful and unethical fact, but because it can affect country’s stability. Specially in this economic crisis…
Anyway where are the riots? Where the enraged statements made by Governments about Christian persecution? Where the Pope’s statements calling for the murder of those insulting Catholicism/Orthodox/etc.? Where the cartoonists are obliged to live in hiding because they draw a cartoon mocking Jesus Christ or the Church (whatever Church it is)? So, now tell me who did all these things and what religion the belong to now, in this very same moment. Just in case someone begins speaking about “Christian extremism” or something like that…
Tags: Belarus, Freedom of expression, Pakistan, UN, Venezuela
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If we read the statement made by the secretary general of the Moroccan Community Abroad Council (a consultive bureau created by Moroccan King Mohammed VIth), Abdellah Boussouff, we can really consider that as a reality. He nearly goes as far as considering Moroccan as equal as Spanish Muslim.
(He) stated to the Spanish news agency Europa Press during a meeting about Islam in Europe which took place in Fez, that Moroccan nationals living in Spain “need a strong organization that defends the fulfillment of the religious freedom” in the country and for the “full practice of their rights”.
(…) (He also) added that some of the points that were included in the cooperation aggreement between Spain and the Islamic Commission in 1992 “are not fully applied”, pointing to the need of a “really representative and democratic organism because a lot of Muslims do not feel represented by the Islamic Commission” (name which are not fully applied and why a lot of Muslims do not feel represented by the Islamic Commission. I am not saying the latter is “moderate”, I’m saying that it would be interesting to know what is the future Morocco wants for Spanish Muslims, as pointing out what Spain lacks of in this respect would underline what they like Spanish Islam to be).
He maintains that they are “optimistic with Moroccan community’s progress in Spain”, because “all processes need time” and “both Spain and Morocco have a lot of things in common” (name a few… because except the Spanish-Moroccan war of late XIXth century and early XXth century and the Strait of Gibraltar, I just can’t really see what more).
As a special measure, Boussouff considers that the Islamic Council must create a census of Muslims in Spain that could chose their representatives directly, as it’s already done in France and Belgium (countries where there is NO radicalization of Muslims, is there? Ironically speaking, that is...).
But it’s not me the only one who thinks this is meddling in other State’s affairs:
These statements have been regarded by the Spanish Islamic Communities’ Union as a Moroccan meddling in Islam’s management inside Spanish territory.
The president of this Union, Riay Tatary, stated that the “Moroccan Government is not the indicated entity to speak about the management of the Muslim community inside Spain and how their leaders should be elected” (so, Tatary, are you feeling your chair moving under you?).
Anyway, this must be the first time I agree with Tatary in something, although of course, not for the same reasons: I am not the president of any Muslim organization  There is something to consider,though: the growing number of Moroccan nationals in Spain (after Hispanic-American, they are the main immigrant group in Spain) makes this reaaaaaaaaally interesting for Morocco, who already wants Ceuta, Melilla and the Canary Islands in a expansionist policy, seen always not very disgustedly by France, a traditional Moroccan ally, and by UK, because of Gibraltar (of course, Spain does not have one thousand million Chinese menacing Hong Kong, does it? In that case, the results would have been truly different  ).
Meddling in other State’s affairs does not make a country trustworthy. Trying to meddle over an entire community to use it as an assault weapon to break into the fortress is even more untrustworthy. But considering the degree of Zapatero’s alliance with Morocco, this meddling is not completelly unexpected.
(I’m sorry for not posting, but the spring, the flowers and me are not the best of friends ).
Tags: Foreign Policy, Islam, Islam in Spain, Morocco, Spain, Zapatero
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This interview appeared in Spanish newspaper El Ideal de Granada. You know I am not a specialist translating things but this is sufficiently important not to make an effort to traslate it. So I beg your pardon for any mistranslations the piece could have:
Arabist Pedro Martínez Jontávez (born in Jódar, 1933) was yesterday in Granada, to give a conference on Huntington, the US politologue and adviser of the last US President in Arab matters. He has just been awarded by United Arab Emirates as Cultural Personality of the Year, one of the highest awards from the Islamic world. Among other institutions, it was the Department of Arab Literature from the University of Granada, who proposed his name to the award, together with the University of Santiago de Chile. The arabist has the highest distinctions in his profession, and yesterday he received with pleasure the news of his appointment as honour associate of the Granada’s Ateneo.
-What is your own take on having been named as Cultural Personality of the Year by United Arab Emirates?
- I’m truly honored and it’s a great recognition of my works, they insist a lot in that I, personally, and through my works, have tried to build bridges of communication between the Arab world and Spanish and Latinamerican ones. They also say that I have succeeded in uniting the Spanish Arabists and the Hispanist Arabs.
-Are there still any prejudices about the Arab past?
-There are a lot and there is a lingering feeling of animosity which was bigger in past times. Bit by bit, the past from Al-Andalus is being known and valued in a more adequate and accurate way. There is an opinion tide which tries to build a myth of Al-Andalus and against it, there are also tentatives of ending with the myth.
-What concept people widely have of Islam?
-There is an idea growing of a much more monolithical Islam, which represents it through violence, fright and an absolute feeling of submission to religion, something which is an exaggeration and constitutes a prejudiced vision.
-Is there a mistaken idea of Islam?
- Arabic Islam is still a great unknown thing in a world where it’s seen through ignorance, mistrust and prejudices. We don’t know to distinguish between Arab and Muslim and we call them all “moros”. In Spain, a great public intelectual debate about what is and what was Al-Andalus is needed, what means the “Spanish” identity (well, they would say everything except the Catholic Church which is very bad and including Islam of which nearly nothing remains, except some buildings, which were so civilised as not to destroy them, something which is the opposite to what Iran is doing with Dario’s tomb and other pre-Islamic buildings). Al-Andalus is a treasure, a mine of values that we haven’t been able to take advantage of.
-What do you think about the project of the Alliance of Civilizations?
-As an idea and project, it’s useful, justified and necessary, although “alliance” is not the most accurate term for it. Moreover, it’s linked to political objectives. There’s no plan, no strategy, and they have not taken into account the Spanish Arabism, something that I consider an affront. And I speak from the independent and free position of not belonging to any political party (but from a position of someone who has been awarded a highest Arabic award in cultural affairs).
-Why Western countries try once and again to impose their democratic models to the Arab world? (Arab world has never tried to impose anything on others, not even by the sword… )
-Because that’s what they have tried to do ever. Studying the relationship between West and East through history, you can see that there were not only conflicts, but those were the more important times at all. Another reason is linked to the new power strategy, that of the new world order after the fall of the communist enemy and the creation of the enemy “Islam”. The activity of radical islamic minor groups can’t be ignored (wow, what a concession!! That can be acknowledged by reading the newspaper), but Western countries only allow one kind of terrorism, the islamic one, but no one can speak about State terrorism or make the error of saying that Israel is performing State terrorism (Gee, see? no mention to Iran with Hamas or Hizbullah or to Yemen and United Arab Emirates and the “grants” given to several Sept. 11 terrorists). Moreover, they are not islamic movements (now, they are not islamic, but before they were radical islamic…) but islamist, just the same that we should distinguish between popular and populism.
-What importance has García Lorca’s books in the Arab poetry?
-They consider him as a reknown Andalusian poet. Lorca is for Arabs an icon, an angel, a night confidant, a refuge, and with him, the Andalusian iconography recovers the references to the Mediterranean. Lorca is not only a treasure for the left but also for the entire humanity. All his works have been translated to Arabic, including his plays.
Any comments?
Tags: Al-Andalus, Arabism, Israel, Montávez, terrorism, United Arab Emirates
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Posted by: Nora in terrorism
The five detainees at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison camp charged with plotting the September 11 attacks have filed a document expressing pride at their accomplishment and accepting responsibility for the deaths of nearly 3,000 people, The New York Times reported on Monday.
The five detainees at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison camp charged with plotting the September 11 attacks have filed a document expressing pride at their accomplishment and accepting responsibility for the deaths of nearly 3,000 people, The New York Times reported on Monday.
The document, which the newspaper said may be released publicly on Tuesday, describes the five men as the “9/11 Shura Council,” and says their actions were an offering to God, according to excerpts of the document read to a reporter by an unidentified government official, the report said.
“‘To us,’ the official read, ‘they are not accusations. To us they are a badge of honor, which we carry with honor,’” the paper said.
The document is titled “The Islamic Response to the Government’s Nine Accusations,” the military judge at the U.S. Naval base said in a separate filing, obtained by the Times, that described the detainees’ document.
via Guantanamo detainees say they planned September 11: report | Reuters.
Christopher has posted more about this:
“Your intelligence apparatus, with all its abilities … failed to discover our military attack plans before the blessed 11 September operation … Why then should you blame us, holding us accountable and putting us on trial?”
They criticize the U.S. for fighting “from behind roadblocks, trenches and warplanes” rather than face-to-face and describe Islam as “a religion of fear” for Jews, Christians and pagans.
“We are terrorists to the bone. So, many thanks to God,” they write.
Gee, so, the culprit of an attack is not the terrorist but the policemen who didn’t prevent it.
Islam = religion of fear for Jews, Christians and pagans. WOW!!! Even Wilders wouldn’t have said something soooo striking. Are they also going to punish them for “Islamophobia”?? You know, for hating Islam, presenting it as something different from the mantra-logo-slogan “Islam is Peace, Islam is the Religion of Peace”. 
So, what is going to do Obama now? I don’t think these guys want to have a normal civilian life and I really don’t believe want to be a part of US society. Sooo?
Tags: GITMO, Islamic terrorism, Obama, September 11 terrorist attacks, terrorism
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This is an update on this story.
El-Gohary was not present at the hearing, as attendance would put him at extreme personal risk. He had planned to obtain papers authorizing attorney Nabil Ghobreyal to act as his proxy representation in court, but staff members at the registry office swore at and beat him, lawyers said.
Judge Hamdy Yasin was forced to adjourn the case until March 28 because El-Gohary did not obtain the necessary proxy representation documents.
“I am now in a position where I can’t do anything else,” El-Gohary, who has been in hiding, told Compass. “I have to go [to court] despite the danger. I believe God will protect me. It’s a very hard decision, but I have to go.”
Copts and Christian converts have to face such systemic prejudice daily in the battle for their rights, he said.
“Our rights in Egypt, as Christians or converts, are less than the rights of animals,” El-Gohary said. “We are deprived of social and civil rights, deprived of our inheritance and left to the fundamentalists to be killed. Nobody bothers to investigate or care about us.”
El-Gohary, 56, has been attacked in the street, spat at and knocked down in his effort to win the right to officially convert. He said he and his 14-year-old daughter continue to receive death threats by text message and phone call.
But he also has received text messages, he said, of encouragement from other Muslim-born converts too fearful to take a similar stand.
“Everyday I get calls from people who have converted but are secret,” said El-Gohary. “They ask me every day about what is happening, because it affects their future.”
via Compass Direct News : EGYPT – ISLAMIC LAWYERS URGE DEATH SENTENCE FOR CONVERT.
BosNewsLife adds:
“His legal challenge is motivated by concerns for his daughter. About one year from now, at age 16, she will be issued her national Identity Card and the religious registration will follow that of her father,” advocacy group Middle East Concern told BosNewsLife.
“At present she must attend Islamic classes at school despite having been raised as a Christian. Also, [El-Gohary] does not want her to be subject to Islamic family law, which would include denying her the right to marry a Christian,” MEC said.
El-Gohary was reportedly in hiding after receiving death threats from Muslim extremists. Another Muslim-born Christian, Mohammed Hegazy, who also tried to have his new religion registered, was also forced to flee to safety, rights activists said.
More:
El-Gohary also has charged that his nephew was denied a position in state security agencies because of his uncle’s religious “double life.”
(…) Hegazy, who filed his case on Aug. 2, 2007, was denied the right to officially convert in a Jan. 29 court ruling that declared it was against Islamic law for a Muslim to leave Islam.
The judge based his decision on Article II of the Egyptian constitution, which enshrines Islamic law, or sharia, as the source of Egyptian law. The judge said that, according to sharia, Islam is the final and most complete religion and therefore Muslims already practice full freedom of religion and cannot return to an older belief (Christianity or Judaism).
This type of reasoning has also been used again El Gohary:
“[El-Din] started to talk about the Quran being in a higher position than the Bible,” one of El-Gohary’s lawyers, Said Fayez, told Compass. “[El-Din said] people can move to a higher religion but not down, so people cannot move away from Islam because it is highest in rank.”
Memos submitted by opposing lawyers asserted that cases such as El-Gohary’s form part of a U.S. Zionist attack on Islam in Egypt, that Christianity is an inferior religion to Islam and that Copts protect and defend converts from Islam at their own peril.
Related links: BBC, European News, Berean Christian, Religion News Blog.
- Egyptian mother will appeal court’s decision: Madre egipcia apelará la decisión del tribunal: the woman lost custody of her twin sons on September 24 last year, after the Appeals Court in the coastal town of Alexandria issued a final decision “granting custody over them to their father who had converted from Christianity to Islam.”
- Apostasy in Islam: Wikipedia.
- Apostasy: current issues in Iran and in Egypt.
- Political Islam: Bulletin of Christian Persecution.
Tags: Christianity, Egypt, Islamism, Maher Ahmad El-Mo’otahssem Bellah El-Gohary, religious persecution
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another group of army soldiers also clashed with Jemaah Islamiya militants at around 4.40 a.m. in the village of Napnapan in Pantukan town in Compostela Valley province and capturing a Filipino bomb expert, Giovanni de Ocampo.
He said the captive admitted during interrogation that he is a member of the Indonesian militant group Jemaah Islamiya and is also an alleged commander of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
“Initial report revealed that he is a trainer and an expert in manufacturing of improvised explosives which has caused the death of many innocent civilians and destruction of properties in this part of Mindanao,” Bautista said without further elaborating, saying, security forces were still hunting down other Jemaah Islamiya militants in the province.
via The Mindanao Examiner: Troops clash with NPA, JI in southern Philippines.
Before: The Philippines government will push for the creation of a federal Islamic state in the country’s troubled south as part of efforts to forge a peace agreement with Muslim separatist rebels, an official said Wednesday (Jan. 2008).
Related: Jemaah Islamiyah in Wikipedia.
Tags: Al-Qaeda, Jemaah Islamiya, Philippines, terrorism
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A Saudi Arabian court sentenced a 75-year-old Syrian woman to four months imprisonment, 40 lashes, and deportation from the country for having two men not related to her in her home.
This incident occurred last year, but the woman, Khamisa Mohammed Sawadi, was sentenced only recently. She was dining with two unrelated men, “Fahd” and “Hadian.” She nursed Fahd when he was young, while Hadian accompanied Fahd and brought her bread.
Because she was with two men not related to her, the country’s religious police arrested both men (and sentenced both of them to several lashes and prison terms).
According to Islamic law, if a woman nurses a boy then he is considered to be a son. However, this interpretation didn’t sway the “Mutaween” or “The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” religious police.
via Saudis order 40 lashes for elderly woman for mingling with men – Digital Journal: Your News Network.
Unbelievable… except for the fact that we are speaking about Saudi Arabia… What a bunch of idiots!! What do they think this 75-year-old woman (in fact, an OLDIE) was doing with this two guys? Having sex? They were bringing her bread, you frigging idiots.
What dirty minds these guys have! 
Tags: Saudi Arabia, the Muttawa, Wahabbism, Women in Islam
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An Australian film about Lebanese gangs has been pulled from Greater Union cinemas in Sydney after violent outbursts at early screenings.
The Combination is the first Australian film release of the year and has been receiving rave reviews for its gritty portrayal of life in Sydney’s west.
via Local film pulled from cinemas after brawls – ABC News Australian Broadcasting Corporation. via Bivouac.
Here, here and here what I read back then.
The reviews show the film was very good:
Set in Sydney’s western suburbs, The Combination follows the story of a Lebanese Australian who gets out of jail, only to find his little brother is following in his footsteps – he’s becoming caught up in the murky world of crime. With a lot of hand-held digital camera work, first-time film director David Field explores the world of the Lebanese-Australian communities of Guildford and Parramatta in a no-frills way; he advertised in local Parramatta papers for some of the young actors. Scriptwriter George Basha, who’s from the area, has also crafted a love story that works well as a central part of the film. Overall, critics are lapping up this local film, saying it’s deep and challenging.
This is a tough film but a good one, reflecting a facet of Australian life not often seen on screen – Margaret Pomeranz, ABC’s At the Movies
The most courageous and affecting ending from an Australian film in a long time – Jason Di Rosso, ABC Radio National’s Movietime
There’s a strong whiff of spaghetti about the lurid climax – obviously conceived with Sergio Leone in mind. So strong is the momentum generated by the rest of the film, however, that you can almost swallow it – Sandra Hall, Sydney Morning Herald
But the film won’t be seen in Australia because of the riots from Muslim gangs:
A fictional account of a brother trying to dissuade his sibling from joining a Muslim gang has been pulled because of Muslim gang violence.
“Islam is not a violent religion. I’ll kill you to prove it“.
Tags: Australia, immigration, Islam, The Combination, violence
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