Sharia in the Hood

It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood,
A beautiful day for a neighbor.
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?...

Taliban Reign Of Terror Inside
Pakistan
9:09am UK, Monday March 23, 2009
Stuart Ramsay, Chief correspondent in Pakistan

The streets are packed with traders and shoppers.

No mercy: Taliban enforcers hold a man down in the street and flog him.

Roads clogged with tuk tuk taxis, cars and lorries, but the word "Taliban" starts as a whisper then spreads through the crowds; black turbaned out-runners wield wooden sticks to clear a path and a convoy of four wheel drive cars and pick-up trucks pass though - the Taliban are back.

They are in charge. This time it is Pakistan.

It's a neighborly day in this beauty wood,
A neighborly day for a beauty.
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?...

Taliban begin enforcing Islamic Law
Indian Express
Posted: Sunday , Apr 12, 2009 at 0255 hrs IST

Islamabad:
The Pakistani Taliban have begun enforcing Shariah in the Bajaur tribal region even as scores of militants consolidated their hold on Buner district, located 100 km from Islamabad.

Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, the militant commander in Bajaur Agency and a deputy of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud, announced the decision to enforce Shariah in the region during a broadcast on his illegal FM radio station on Friday.

Mohammad also barred women from stepping out of their homes without male relatives, banned shaving of beards and warned people against availing assistance from the Benazir Income Support Programme, a Government project to provide financial aid to women.

During a 40-minute speech on radio, Mohammad said he and his fighters would spare no effort to strictly implement Islamic laws in the region. The Taliban have formed an “action group” to ensure the enforcement of Shariah and to punish people who violate their edicts.

I've always wanted to have a neighbor just like you.
I've always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.

Saudi judge refuses to annul 8-year-old's marriage
(CNN) -- A Saudi judge has refused for a second time to annul a marriage between an 8-year-old girl and a 47-year-old man, a relative of the girl told CNN.

The most recent ruling, in which the judge upheld his original verdict, was handed down Saturday in the Saudi city of Onaiza, where late last year the same judge rejected a petition from the girl's mother, who was seeking a divorce for her daughter.

The relative said the judge, Sheikh Habib Al-Habib, "stuck by his earlier verdict and insisted that the girl could petition the court for a divorce once she reached puberty."

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The girl's father, according to the attorney, arranged the marriage in order to settle his debts with the man, who is "a close friend" of his. At the time of the initial verdict, the judge required the girl's husband to sign a pledge that he would not have sex with her until she reaches puberty, al-Jutaili told CNN. The judge ruled that when the girl reaches puberty, she will have the right to request a divorce by filing a petition with the court, the lawyer said.

So, let's make the most of this beautiful day.
Since we're together we might as well say:
Would you be mine?

Afghan cleric defends 'rape' law
Rahim Faiez
Heidi Vogt
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

KABUL – A key backer of an Afghan family law that critics say legalizes marital rape and rolls back women's rights rejected an international outcry as foreign meddling yesterday and insisted the legislation offers women many protections.

The law, which applies only to the Shiite minority, says a husband can demand sex with his wife every four days unless she is ill or would be harmed by intercourse, and regulates when and for what reasons a wife may leave her home alone.

Could you be mine?

The Free World Bars Free Speech
By Jonathan Turley
Sunday, April 12, 2009; Page B03
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Late last year, two Afghan journalists were sentenced to prison for blasphemy because they translated the Koran into a Farsi dialect that Afghans can read. In Jordan, a poet was arrested for incorporating Koranic verses into his work. And last week, an Egyptian court banned a magazine for running a similar poem.

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Afghan journalist Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh was sentenced to death under Sharia law last year just for downloading Internet material on the role of women in Islamic societies that authorities judged to be blasphemous. The provincial deputy attorney general, Hafizullah Khaliqyar, has been quoted as saying: "Journalists are supporting Kambakhsh. I will
arrest any journalist trying to support him after this."

Won't you be my neighbor?

Iran: Christian Convert Couple Arrested, Tortured, Threatened
Scarlett Crusader

LOS ANGELES, June 25 (Compass Direct News) – Security police officials in Tehran this month tortured a newly converted couple and threatened to put their 4-year-old daughter in an institution after arresting them for holding Bible studies and attending a house church.

A Christian source in Iran said that 28-year-old Tina Rad was charged with “activities against the holy religion of Islam” for reading the Bible with Muslims in her home in east Tehran and trying to convert them. Officials charged her husband, 31-year-old Makan Arya, with “activities against national security” after seizing the couple from their home on June 3, forcing them to leave their 4-year-old daughter ill and unattended.

Authorities kept them in an unknown jail for four days, which left them badly bruised from beatings, with Rad “very ill” and unable to walk, said the source. Rad was released on bail of US$30,000 bail, and her husband was freed on payment of US$20,000.

“The next time there may also be an apostasy charge, if you don’t stop with your Jesus,” a female security police officer told Rad during interrogation, according to the source. Under Iran’s strict Islamic laws, Muslims who convert from Islam to another religion can be executed.

A draft law before the Iranian parliament would make the death penalty mandatory for “apostates” who leave Islam.

Won't you please,
Won't you please?

The War Within Islam
Euronews
By Jim Hoagland

WASHINGTON -- "Leave me for the moment -- you can beat me again later," a 17-year-old woman begs between sobs in a video airing on Pakistan's private television networks and now posted on the Internet. But the local Taliban commander continues to flog her without mercy as a group of village men watch in silence.

These images were described in a recent New York Times dispatch, which noted that the alleged transgressions of the woman could not be definitively established. The range of possible violations of the Taliban's version of Islamic law -- from stepping outside her house without a male escort to having an illicit affair -- is appallingly vast.

The video, apparently shot on a cell phone and given to a human rights activist, is not surprising in itself. The brutal subjugation of poor, uneducated women in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan is widely if incompletely known in the West.

But the brief, blurry images are revealing.




Please won't you be my neighbor?