For all of you who are not soccer fans, Seydou Keita is a soccer player from the Barcelona FC which will play the final of the Champions’ League against Chelsea. Here is an excerpt from an interview:
Q: Does your family advise you?
A: They are always behind me. They really educated me that we have to suffer to make a living. We are Muslims and for us, everything is decided by Allah.
Q: So, has Allah already decided the result of the final in Rome?
A: Yes, sure, Allah has already decided it, it’s already written, but we have to do everything in our power to win, as we don’t know which one is going to be the champion.
It’s a pity Allah has not told him… and the rest of the people… so we can just rest so people can use that time to other tasks.
NOTE: Even if you are not a soccer fan, we are in peril of dying after the amount of time they spend on TV or on the radio explaining the preliminaries of the final.
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.
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.
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.”
“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.
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).
“[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.
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.”
Morocco has cut diplomatic links with Iran, the Moroccan Foreign Ministry said on Friday, in the wake of an outcry in the Sunni Muslim world over a statement by an Iranian official questioning Sunni Bahrain’s sovereignty.
Rabat also criticised Iran for its efforts to spread its Shi’ite brand of Islam in Morocco, a move the ministry said it saw as threat to the North African country’s moderate Sunni religious identity.
“The Kingdom of Morocco has decided to break its diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran beginning this Friday,” the ministry said.
Sunni scholars in Morocco and elsewhere have denounced what they see as Iran’s efforts to convert Sunni Muslims to Shi’ism, arguing the drive would create strife similar to the often bloody Shi’ite-Sunni divides in Iraq and Pakistan.
According to media reports, Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, an adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said last month Shi’ite-ruled Iran had sovereignty over Bahrain.
In response Morocco’s King Mohammed sent the Bahraini monarch, King Hamad Bin Isa al-Khalifa, a message of support, calling the Iranian remarks “absurd” and a contradiction of international law.
The reason for this is that inside Morocco, there are shia muslims (most of them living in the North and East parts of the country) who, in an important part, had studied in Lebanon, are supporters of Hizbullah and “don’t act secretly as before” says Ahmed Abadi, an Islam’s teacher. “They even publish magazines where they say that Morocco is a country with a Shia past and it has to go bacj to its origins”.
So Shiites are trying to end Mohammed’s regime, eh?
Why not claiming too that Morocco’s own remarks about Ceuta and Melilla are too “absurd” and a contradiction of international law?
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.
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.
Fallujah, Iraq February 15, 2009 An al-Qaeda terrorist implicated in the rape of four Jordanian women has been arrested.
Paris, France Feb 10, 2009 (Reuters) A Pakistani man is on trial in France for setting his ex-girlfriend on fire after she refused to marry him. Update February 13. My post on the subject here.
Jedda, Saudi Arabia February 11, 2009 Saudi judge sentences pregnant gang-rape victim to a year in jail and 100 lashes for committing adultery. My post on the subject here.
Buffalo, NY February 17, 2009 The founder and CEO of Bridges TV, a Muslim TV channel, is charged with a gruesome murder, the beheading of his wife.
Ankara, Turkey February 12, 2009 A daily Hurriyet website poll shows that four out of ten Turkish women are victims of physical abuse by their husbands and only a fraction report it to authorities.
Amman, Jordan AP, February 11, 2009 A Jordanian man has been arrested for stabbing to death his elder sister because he thought she was having an affair.
Queens, NY February 14, 2009 Afghan diplomat Mohammed Fagirad was charged with beating his wife “like a dog” for more than 15 hours. My post on the subject here. More in Findalis’ blog.
Murrieta, Calif. February 13, 2009 Muslim polygamist Mansa Musa Muhummed gets life terms for torturing his families. My post on the subject here. More information here.
Watford, UK January 12, 2009 Ibrahim Mansouri has been sent to jail for repeatedly raping and stabbing a pregnant teenager.
Hamburg, Germany February 13, 2009 A German Afghan man was sentenced to life in prison for an ‘honour killing’ of his 16 year old sister. More information here.
Somerset, UK February 14, 2009 A Muslim girl who wanted to be baptized a Christian was fleeing an arranged marriage in Pakistan.
Sana,Yemen The new law that moves to reduce child marriages is not consistent with Islamic Sharia law contends Yemini deputy. Just remember Nojoud’s case (here, here and here).
Lahore, Pakistan February 14, 2009 Each year an estimated one million pregnant Pakistani women are physically abused at least once during pregnancy by their partners says Prof. Unaiza Niaz, president of the Women Section of World Psychiatric Association and director of the Institute of Psycho-Trauma Pakistan.
Karachi, Pakistan February 23, 2009 A man gave himself up after axing his sister to death in an honor killing. He accused his elderly sister of having illicit sexual relations.
Kuala Lumpur February 15, 2009 Muslim women around the world are facing a crisis over violence against them.
Yemen October 23, 2008 Yemini Muslim cleric Abd Al-Majid Al-Zindani defends the inferiority of women. More here.
So this guys says: the Surah begins with “men are better than women” and it finishes with “you can beat here” Ohh, what a beautiful verse ( ). Then he goes on saying that the men should pay the bills and that the women shouldn’t. So, he is paying the bills to be allowed to beat her!!! After he goes on ranting why women are not equal to men (the latter can’t give birth to a son!!) to finish saying that women tell him that “it’s marvellous that Islam recongizes our different condition”.
Hmm, yeah, definitely marvellous…
NOTE: Yesterday I posted about Honor Killings but I forgot to translate it to English. It is now up in English. Sorry for the inconveniences.
An education expert is warning that some American textbooks present a biased view of Islam and offer a sugarcoated picture of Islamic extremism, a trend that has parents worried about what’s being taught in public schools.
In numerous history textbooks, “key subjects like jihad, Islamic law, the status of women are whitewashed,” said Gilbert T. Sewall, director of the American Textbook Council, an independent group that reviews history books and other education materials.
Cindy Ross, the mother of a junior high school student in Marin County, Calif., said she couldn’t believe her eyes when she read her son’s textbook last school year.
“I was very shocked by what I saw, looking through the book,” she said — shocked at how Islam was portrayed in her son’s seventh grade history text.
“What did strike me was that all the other religions seemed to be lumped together, where there is an inordinate emphasis on Islam specifically,” Ross said.
Well, this is not stricking at all, specially after knowing that both the Catholic Church (Ohhh, Myyyy) and the Muslims have agreed to erase everything which portraits them in a bad light from history books.
Absolutely shameful. Hiding people’s defects is not the best way to promote peace and justice. It’s just the opposite. Inquisitions, witch hunting, etc have existed, whatever the textbook says.
(UPDATE): Always on Watch has more about the US textbooks whitewashing Islamic extremists.
In the latest hearing of a Muslim-born Egyptian’s effort to officially convert to Christianity, opposing lawyers advocated he be convicted of “apostasy,” or leaving Islam, and sentenced to death.
More than 20 Islamic lawyers attended the hearing on Sunday (Feb. 22) in Maher Ahmad El-Mo’otahssem Bellah El-Gohary’s case to obtain identification papers with Christianity designated as his religious affiliation. Two lawyers led the charge, Ahmed Dia El-Din and Abdel Al-Migid El-Anani.
The Malaysian government will issue a new decree restoring a ban on Christian publications using the word “Allah” to refer to God, officials said Sunday.
Home Affairs Minister Syed Hamid Albar said a previous Feb. 16 decree that allowed Christian publications to use the word as long as they specified the material was not for Muslims was a mistake, the national Bernama news agency reported.
The about-turn came after Islamic groups slammed the government and warned that even conditional use of the word by Christians would anger Muslims, who make up the country’s majority. (blackmailing and menacing with violence as ever…).
A senior ministry official confirmed Syed Hamid’s comments, saying there were “interpretation mistakes” in the Feb. 16 decree that led to the confusion.
“‘Allah’ cannot be used for other religions except Islam because it might confuse Muslims. This is the ministry’s stand and it hasn’t changed,” the official, who declined to be named citing protocol, told The Associated Press.
There is something I don’t understand though: what Christian would indeed call God Allah? Well, there is a little problem: in Malaysian language there is no word for God other than Allah…
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). Then he goes on saying that the men should pay the bills and that the women shouldn’t. So, he is paying the bills to be allowed to beat her!!! After he goes on ranting why women are not equal to men (the latter can’t give birth to a son!!) to finish saying that women tell him that “it’s marvellous that Islam recongizes our different condition”.
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