Lauren Southern Asks Feminists, "Women's Rights, or Islam?"

Afghan men wear burqas and march to support women's rights

Islamic State: Punishment For Not Wearing Niqab, A Face Full of Acid

Islamic State Disfigure 15 Women With Acid

Al-Khansa, the all-female Islamic State (IS) brigade, have arrested and punished 15 women in Mosul.

Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) official from Mosul Saed Mamuzini told BasNews that al-Khansa arrested the 15 women for failing to wear the niqab.

They were arrested on Sunday in the Salamiya neighborhood of Mosul.

Mamuzini said al-Khansa militants disfigured the women by pouring acid on their faces.

“They have implemented this punishment so that other women in the city will never consider removing or not wearing the niqab,” he said.

Last month members of IS executed a number of women by stoning. They were accused of adultery.

Canada: public school cafeteria allows Islamic prayers

The picture is taken from the back of the cafeteria. In the distance are the boys. They’re male, so they get to sit up front at prayers. Behind them are the girls. They’re female, so they have to sit behind the boys because they’re second-class citizens...

Menstruating girls, at the very back, do not take part.

Segregation in Canada... allowed by the Toronto District School Board...

Australian Niqabi's husband expresses himself on FB

Carnitta Matthews is an Australian niqabi woman who wasn't sanctioned because of reckless driving as the judge considered this a case of "mistaken identity".  Her husband has said she is "very sad" and that she doesn't want to get out of the house, after the process. In his profile on FB he has been showing what he really thinks:

“All the hero’s (sic) and lions of Allah (pictured) whom (sic) had the chance to come to the court and fight for the sake of Allah . . . Allah has granted your oppressed sister victory over his enemies and he granted us a judge that from the word go he was defending your sister where everyone else was determined to see her jailed, but Allah had other plans. They plot, but Allah is the best of plotters.”

(His FB page) also features videos of Osama bin Laden, slurs against infidels and “Kufaars” (non-Muslims), “American pig savages” and “Zionist dogs”.

Those "lions of Allah" attacked the cameramen who were outside the court to cover the news.

Spain: "Extremist" imams' ideology blamed on "disorganized Islam", according to El País

"We can say I worked as shepherd," he smiles. "I was in charge of a herd of goats in northern Morocco." Until he crossed the Straits and settled in the province of Tarragona. Unemployed, handicapped by the lack of training and a chronic disease for many years improvised direction of prayers in several mosques in the vicinity of Valls and Torredembarra. Rachid H. worked as an imam. "Not really, but I know Islam better than others", said after admitting that no studies that Muslim countries call for the task.

What kind of prayers were performed by this improvised imam? "I talked about everything: the relationship between men and women, life's problems," he says. Witnesses say those prayers castigated women and young Muslims who were related to people outside this belief. Rachid denies without elaborating. But at home, he stores magazines, recordings and videos that shed some clue to his speeches. The material supports that an adulterous wife should be punished with death and supports other repressive behaviors on the role of women relative to men, according to the report of the register details of the property conducted by the Autonomous Police in 2009. Rachid, who asked not to reveal his name for his legal situation, only occasionally leads prayers, due to his poor state of health and also because he is on probation after being charged with promoting violence linked to radical Salafism, Islam's ultra-conservative current.

I don't care about his health. If he is Moroccan, he should have been expelled after learning about his sermons.

Rachid's sexist diatribes and repressive tone are common elements between the improvised imams. They are people without religious training that have emerged as leaders of the prayers of their communities, generally in the most precarious and isolated from major urban centers and without the means to hire a minimally trained imam.

Abu Omar Hussein

As Abu Omar Hussein, the president of the Muslim community in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid) (he said that "forbidding the hijab is a crime", last April), who, in an interview with this newspaper goes on to say that killing by stoning an adulteress is fair and in line with Islam and that the ultimate goal is to defend children, stigmatized if they are born out of wedlock. He reflects on this: "God wants you to be clean. Stoning has an objective: that no adulterer has sons. He (will give birth to) a child without a father, with hatred, (as) he has no rights (sic). Islam does not want many children of adulterers in the world."

For that reason, Omar Hussein, referring to the Iranian Sakineh Ashtiani, sentenced to death, should be stoned: "That woman and her lover killed her husband. They should kill that woman one by one, man for man (...) Islam respects human rights and women. Islam does not attack a very clean woman. "

The imam of Alcalá believes that in Europe sexual promiscuity is promoted: "Changing partners is offered. Is this is civilization? Six people make love in the same bed, without shame. It allows two women or two men marry . The nude beaches ... If Jesus son of Mary, arrived today would be ashamed. "

Another one who is in the same situation: he is Egyptian, so if he doesn't like Spain, he can go back there or be expelled, because he clearly isn't integrated in Spanish society.

What he considers as "sexual promiscuity", means only that people are free to take decisions about their life. No one is obliged to marry another human being of their own sex, no one is obliged to go around naked on beaches and also no one is obliged to change partners. But if someone wants to do it, he can. That's not "promoting sexual promiscuity", that's just freedom to choose. And there are also people who are not the least "promiscuous", because that's their choice, and not because some barbaric imam tells them that they should be stoned if they are. But this guy doesn't know about this other people, because they aren't on TV 24/7 and they give no scandals.

"Illegitimate" childs don't exist, either. They have the same rights as the children from married couples. So no hatred and no tales to support stoning.

These are examples of the improvisation with which Islam has been installed in Spain: there are no rules, standards or criteria in relation to ministers of religion to Islam. They are not properly Islamic radicals (sic): mixed religion with repressive traditions imported from their country of origin and spread as sacred mandates. This enables that cases such as the Cunit's imam, who is awaiting trial and sentence for coercing and threatening a Muslim because she lived a Western lifestyle, that generate social alarm against Islam and demonize the figure of the imams inside Spanish society. In Cunit, the imam is actually a worker who lost his job after suffering a leg injury and went on to lead the prayer of his group even though he only knows the Koran by heart, by his own account.

You see: for El País, someone who is supporting stoning in the name of religion is not "properly an Islamic radical".

However, experts warn that it's greater the risk of social exclusion that a hypothetical terrorist threat. What messages are disseminated by imams without proper training and considered radical? "If a Muslim is mixed with a Western, if only to shake hands, is contaminated by their sins." "Women can not leave home except to attend the funeral of the husband." "Children should learn the Koran and you must not associate with other children are not Muslims." "The West is against Islam, would pervert and threatens us because we are noble." These are excerpts from the prayers that magnets on Fridays, according to some followers of the mosques in the area of Reus and Tarragona. After being consulted on these statements, the imams who led the prayers have categorically denied.

Riad Tatary

"The possibility that any imam can lead prayers is a problem but controversial cases are exceptional," defends Riad Tatary (born in Syria although now he's a Spanish national), secretary general of the representative body of Islam with the Government since 1992, the Islamic Commission of Spain (CIE). "But the media generalize these cases and have created a very dangerous Islamophobia" he notes. Controversial cases are, in effect, a minority among the thousand imams is estimated that lead prayers in Spain. "But they can't be considered as exceptions from the rule because no one has set this standard. The Islamic Commission should impose criteria to control who can and who can not exercise as imam. For their own good: untrained imams are the ones who spread the most radical and dangerous messages, "argues Jordi Moreres, sociologist expert in Islam. But they aren't so exceptional, according to other experts. "After 15 years living in Spain, I have not seen in the whole country, a single valid imam," says Hesham El Sadr, founder of the Islamic Cultural Association Attawwhid.

The indefinite figure of the imam is the main obstacle to the normalization of Islam in Spain: 1.3 million people follow this belief in the country and it is not immigrants only but a growing majority has or is in the process of achieving Spanish nationality.

Abdelwahab Houzi

Nevertheless, anyone able to convince their fellow Muslims, can be constructed into an imam, whether he is liberal-leaning, conservative or just a visionary. It is a reality that has taken root among the Muslim communities in impoverished areas, with virtually illiterate immigrants who barely know the language, laws or Spanish customs. This cocktail caused cases of imams that encourage isolation and rejection of Western people or situations such as Lleida's imam, Abdelwahab Houzi, monitored by the National Intelligence Center as one of the most dangerous because of his radicalism and that according to several faithful advocates polygamy in his prayers, a tradition alien to Islam (sic). Others promote criticism and attacks on Western values that lead to suspicion of terrorism.

Polygamy is a tradition alien to Islam? In what world?

And if you fear that you cannot act equitably towards orphans, then marry such women as seem good to you, two and three and four; but if you fear that you will not do justice (between them), then (marry) only one or what your right hands possess; this is more proper, that you may not deviate from the right course.

Ye are never able to be fair and just as between women, even if it is your ardent desire: But turn not away (from a woman) altogether, so as to leave her (as it were) hanging (in the air). If ye come to a friendly understanding, and practise self-restraint, Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful. (Verses 3 and 129 from Sura An-Nissa, Women).

Those two verses state that:
1. Polygamy is allowed.
2. It's limited to four wifes.

The article ends:

"It's possible that extremist imams living in Spain are spreading this type of message, as an attempt to assert the traditions of their country of origin. We need time and quiet to contact them and make them understand," claims Tatary. ICE, on paper, is the referee that should regulate and account for the activity of the imams, and it's engaged in a reform to settle the current crisis of representation that encourages lawlessness. There are a thousand of Muslim communities in Spain, about 800 of them registered. More than 400 are not represented in this body.

"It's possible...". It seems Mr. Tatari doesn't believe that these cases really exist. And no, these extremist imams are not waiting for Tatari and friends to reform anything (if that's their intention indeed), they are spreading this message now.

Source.

Cross-posted from T&P.

(Translation: T&P).

Interview: Burqa'd 18-year-old Sumaya can't listen to music, her husband says

The interview was made by a Spanish newspaper to her husband, who says she has wore a burqa all her life. When the photographer took her photo, Sumaya didn't utter a word.

Q: Does your wife like her life in Navarra? What is the kind of life she leads here?

A: (He is silent) She is religious. She likes very much to read the Koran. We go to the mosque. I have brothers here who come to help. She is with me.

Q: Does Sumaya have any hobbies?

A: She likes to cook, especially fish and tortilla.

Q: And the music?

A: No. .. she can not hear music. It's prohibited because most of the songs express bad words.

Q: Do you walk together down the street?

A: When she was pregnant almost every day. Yes, arm in arm.

Q: Isn't Sumaya lacking nature's experience with all senses? For example, fresh air in the face ...

A: The burka has small holes. The air can enter through them. For example, if we are in the country alone, she goes behind and discovers herself.

Q: Can she go out alone?

A: (He doubts for a few seconds.) If she wants to buy something, of course she can, but must be accompanied by her husband, father or son when she travels. The husband is the one who orders here. We are those who bring money home. In our religion we all have our work. And our women are to be at home. They have to explain to our children the religion. So we leave our wives at home.

The rest of the interview here.

Germany: Feminist writes book on Islamic veil

And supports its prohibition:

The headscarf is more than just a piece of fabric, more than just another article of clothing, and definitely not some hip lifestyle accessory that heavily made-up girls should use to add a little color to their wardrobe. No, the head scarf is a "flag and symbol of Islamists" which "followed a crusade all the way to the heart of Europe by the 1980s." Or so says iconic German feminist Alice Schwarzer in her new book, "The Great Cover Up: For Integration, against Islamism".

The book was recently published in German under the name "Die grosse Verschleierung: Fuer Integration, gegen Islamismus," and its strong statements been an injection of yet more fuel into the already burning integration debate in Germany.

Teachers are no longer allowed to wear the head scarf in German public schools, and now Schwarzer has demanded the next step: Girls should be forbidden to wear it as well.

"Only this forceful act would finally give the young woman from a fundamentalist orthodox family the chance to move with freedom and equality, at least within the confines of the schoolyard," Schwarzer writes.

Many readers are likely to react negatively to this demand for a headscarf ban. In themselves, bans clash with freedoms and rights that are supposed to be self-evident in Germany: the right to individual self-determination, the freedom of religion.

OUTRAGE -- UN Elects Iran to "Women's Status" Commission

Breaking news from FOX:

EXCLUSIVE: U.N. Elects Iran to Commission on Women's Rights
By Joseph Abrams
- FOXNews.com

NEW YORK — Without fanfare, the United Nations this week elected Iran to its Commission on the Status of Women, handing a four-year seat on the influential human rights body to a theocratic state in which stoning is enshrined in law and lashings are required for women judged "immodest."

Just days after Iran abandoned a high-profile bid for a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council, it began a covert campaign to claim a seat on the Commission on the Status of Women, which is "dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women," according to its website.

Buried 2,000 words deep in a U.N. press release distributed Wednesday on the filling of "vacancies in subsidiary bodies," was the stark announcement: Iran, along with representatives from 10 other nations, was "elected by acclamation," meaning that no open vote was requested or required by any member states -- including the United States.

The U.S. currently holds one of the 45 seats on the body, though the position is set to expire in 2012.

Egypt: cleric speaks about women

So romantic:

Using stories from the early days of Islam to support his argument (complete video inside), Al-Sawsawi said that when there are marital problems, ‘the solution is to give the man a free hand to discipline his family members and to control them. By no means can a woman be the head [of the family].’”

– “In the sermon, aired January 7, 2010 on the Egyptian Islamic channel Al-Nas TV, Al-Sawsawi recounted the story of Said Ibn Al-Musayyib, a 7th-century Muslim scholar known for his piety, who married off his daughter to his student, Abu Wada’. Al-Musayyib imparted to his son-in-law advice on how to deal with his new wife: ‘If she bothers you – if something annoys you, or if you suspect anything – beat her on the spot with the rod. Break her head.’”

– “He continued with another story – that of Asmaa, the daughter of the Caliph Abu Bakr, whose husband Zubeir would tie her to his other wife by their hair and beat them both. When Asmaa complained to her father about this unfairness, (’he beat me black and blue, even though I didn’t do a thing”), Abu Bakr’s response was: ‘Go back to Zubeir. He is a good man, and he may become your husband in Paradise.’”

– “Al-Sarsawi blamed modern media  – television and the movies – for fomenting ‘a revolution in domestic leadership,’ such that today ‘in many homes, the woman is the man. She tells her husband what to do, and he says: ‘Yes, ma’am.’” He warned that handing over the leadership to women, who “cannot drive a car, let alone head a home, or anything beyond that,’ is destroying Muslim homes.”

– “Al-Sarsawi also lashed out at women’s rights supporters, saying that they hate women and “bring them down to sin.” He said that women who go out to work expect equality and want to discuss everything – with the result that the home is turned “into a parliament.” “Women’s rights supporters in Europe and America are all swindlers,’ he said.”

Via.

People like this must be the reason why Tari Ramadan considers that Islam has been a champion of women's rights...

Cross-posted from T&P.

Egypt: Two brothers "honor killed" their sister

A young man in Egypt goes to a party seeking drugs and prostitutes, discovers his sister there. He later beats her to death with his younger brother, then stabs and burns her. The brothers were sentenced to a year in jail.

Alliance of Civilizations and gender equality, of course. Specially when the brothers have been sentenced to one year in jail. Just to have an idea of proportions: blogger Abdul Karim Soliman was sentenced to 4 years in prison because he allegedly insulted Islam and Mubarak.

Cross-posted from T&P.

Spain: Moroccan man arrested for having his wife locked in an appartment in Viladecans

Image via Wikipedia

Catalan Autonomous police, Mossos d'Esquadra, have arrested a 39-year-old man as an alleged author of an illegal detention crime after having his wife locked in during more than a year, in a property in Viladecans (Barcelona), according to policial sources.

The victim, of Maghrebi origin, lived in the bottom floor of a property at Joan Fivell st. She only had access to a bedroom and a bathroom, where he leaved the wife alone and defenseless for days, according to Spanish newspaper ADN.

The Mossos received a call on Thursday informing that there was a woman who could be locked in an appartment there. Where they arrived at the scene, they discovered that the room had locks and ranges. The 27-year old woman, who was freed, told the officers, using an interpreter, that she has been locked for more than a year in that room.

The victim was evacuated to the Viladecan's Hospital because she suffered from anxiety and the social services took her to a shelter home. The Mossos arrested last Saturday night 39-years-old Mohammed K., on illegal detention charges.

via Detenido un hombre por encerrar a su mujer en casa durante más de un año - 20minutos.es.

Cross-posted from T&P.

Two Words: Pandora's. Box.

Does anyone else get the feeling that the Mufti of Dubai may not have taken sufficient time to think this through? At Theo Spark:

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, March 6 (UPI)

Women who have sufficient knowledge of Islamic teachings can become mufti and issue fatwas, the chief mufti of Dubai says.

Dr. Ahmed al-Haddad, the head of the Dubai fatwa department, made the ruling in a fatwa that said becoming a mufti depends on knowledge, not gender, al-Arabiya reported. He cited a Koranic verse that urges those with knowledge of the law to share it.

"If a woman reaches the level of education that enables her to issue fatwas, then she has the right to work as a mufti and issue fatwas on all possible issues," Haddad said.

Mufti apply the Koran and the teaching of Mohammed to modern issues.

The Islamic scholars who met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in January for the Mecca International Conference on Fatwa and Its Regulations did not specifically say that women can become mufti but did not rule it out. They issued a Fatwa Charter with 41 articles and no reference to gender.

Article 8 detailed the requirements for issuing fatwa: "Islam, justice, maturity, intelligence, and deep knowledge in Islamic rules."


Muffy may be so focused on "Islam" and Islamic law" that it has not yet occurred to him what women of "justice, maturity, intelligence" might be able to accomplish towards draining that particular swamp. Until the boys catch on, of course.

International Women's Day (March 8th)

TODAY, March 8, 2009, is International Women's Day, an appropriate time to bring up the most plentiful source of women's rights violations around the world: Shari'a law. The human rights organization, REAL, is holding a rally today in Washington, D.C. to address the challenge of the women oppressed and killed, even in America, because of Shari'a law.

Something can and should be done about it. And you can help. Here's more about the event from REAL's web site (as well as a petition you can sign):

We will be holding a Washington DC rally on March 8 at the front of the Capitol Reflecting Pool beginning at 1 PM to address the global challenge of women oppressed and killed in the name of Islamic supremacism. We will demand that our legislators recognize the threat to women around the world by this supremacist ideology. (Note that Daylight Savings Time begins on Sunday, and the rally is at 1 pm DST.)

Sign the Save Women Now Petition demanding that U.S. government and United Nations representatives recognize the ideology of Islamic supremacism as a source of oppression and violence to women in America and around the world.

Sunday, March 8 is International Women’s Day, and we seek to make a public statement that calls for our representatives and world bodies to acknowledge that Islamic supremacism threatens women today and that its leaders and supporters use Islamic supremacism as an institution to legitimize violence and hate against women. We call for national and international action against Islamic supremacism to Save Women Now, and defy those who believe that mutilation, oppression, and murder of women is an Islamic supremacist “right.”

For directions to the March 8 Save Women Now rally, see the map of the Capitol compound and nearby Washington DC metro stops. Federal Center SW and Capitol South subway stops are the closest to the Capitol reflecting pool, but the Smithsonian subway stop walking along the national mall is also a pleasant stroll. This weblink provides a 360 degree view of the area in front of the Capitol reflecting pool; you can move the image by clicking on it and dragging it with your mouse.

Read the rest of the article here: Save Women Now Rally.

In an article about the rally, WorldNetDaily had this to say:

A human rights organization says it's not enough for Americans to adopt "resolutions" opposing violence when Islamic girls are stoned for being victims of gang-rapes and warns that such violence already has moved into the United States, with beatings and murders – including a recent beheading – documented.

The result is a plan for a public rally on March 8, International Women's Day, at the Capitol Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., according to the organization Responsible for Equality and Liberty.

"Every day, women are under attack by Islamic supremacism that supports and approves of oppression, mutilation, and murder of women. According to leaders and followers of Islamic supremacism, they have the right to commit violence against women. Islamic supremacism views oppression of women as a legitimate 'right,' violence against women as a legitimate 'right,' and murdering women as a legitimate 'right,'" the organization announced.

On the same subject, CSPI has just started a new bulletin called Bulletin of the Oppression of Women. Here's the latest issue:

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.

Jedda, Saudi Arabia February 11, 2009 Saudi judge sentences pregnant gang-rape victim to a year in jail and 100 lashes for committing adultery.

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.

Murrieta, Calif. February 13, 2009 Muslim polygamist Mansa Musa Muhummed gets life terms for torturing his families.

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.

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.

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.

What can you do? The first and most important thing that needs to be done is to raise awareness. Most people do not know this is going on. If more people were aware of it, international pressure would follow naturally. So one thing you can do right now to make a difference is send this message to everyone you know. And sign the Save Women Now petition and urge everyone you know to sign it too.

Let's end the oppression of women. Everywhere.

Working with sharia

There’s a lot happening behind the scenes – but you probably already knew that – to ensure that foreign laws are enshrined into our way of life here in the UK, and no doubt elsewhere in the Western world, just to comply with people’s superstitions.

If you demanded a change in your workplace practices to accommodate the fact that you like to spin round seven times widdershins in a chalked pentagram while wearing a chicken suit and bellowing, “I am the master of the universe, so you can all fuck off!” five times a day from the middle of the reception area, your bosses might raise an eyebrow.

“Ah, but, it’s my religion,” you’d protest.

“Oh, all right, then,” they’d say.

Or not.

But, then, you never know these days in politically correct Britain, which bends over backwards to accommodate the ever-increasing demands of Muslims (others, too, but it’s Muslims who seem to do the most demanding and moaning and for whom most changes are made).

I came across a piece in a journal that doesn’t often come my way, Personnel Today. It examines how changes in the workplace are needed to accommodate Islamic beliefs, even changing bonus schemes and pension plans if they don’t comply with sharia law – instead of simply telling them, “You can take it or leave it.”

In the article, Georgina Fuller talks of a law firm who give seminars on sharia (there’s money in it for them, of course), “as it is an increasing concern for organisations”. It then quotes a representative of the firm, Paul Griffin, as saying, “We’re helping more businesses and advising them on how far they should go in complying with Shariah law in the UK.”

Griffin goes on, “If, for example, you offer a discretionary bonus scheme, you can’t earn or charge interest under Shariah. This can make finance a tricky area for firms to manage. Employers have also got to be aware of loans and share options as Muslim employees can’t be owed something in financial terms.”

How much does it cost the firm to do all the twiddling of financial knobs to be compliant with superstition? Does this affect the amount other employees, who don’t feel they have to comply with some religious mumbo-jumbo, get in their bonuses? No doubt the knob twiddling won’t be done for free.

See more on this article, with a couple of interesting links, here at Pink Triangle, including talk of demands for prayer rooms and time off to pray.

When will they ever learn?

As if we actually needed proof that Islam was slowly but surely creeping further and further into our way of life in the UK, we learn from today's Sunday Times (UK) that sharia courts now have official sanction, and that there are five of them operating in the country, including one I blogged about last week (see "How do you solve a problem like sharia?").

It's a frightening situation, and one I certainly wasn't aware of, and presumably most people were not, either, given that the paper has seen fit to publish the fact as a news story.

It says the British government has "quietly sanctioned" the powers of these "courts" so that "sharia judges [can] rule on cases ranging from divorce and financial disputes to those involving domestic violence".

Rulings issued by any of the five sharia courts are enforceable "with the full power of the judicial system, through the county courts or High Court".

Now you might argue that there's nothing to worry about, since they're just arbitration assemblies, and sharia "courts" are able to set themselves up as such under the Arbitration Act of 1996, which Muslims have taken advantage of.

But what happens when one of these kangaroo "courts" decides to "try" a case involving homosexuals or women?

There are rumblings of disquiet in the UK about it, and rightly so. Read more at my regular blog.

Three Female Rights Activists Speak Out re Islam

1.Bahraini women's rights activist Ghada Jamshir attacks Islamic clerics for fatwas authorizing sexual abuse of children



2. Wafa Sultan's powerful speech on al-Jazeera



3. Somali-Dutch human rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali panel discussion with Bill Maher & others: ''Is Islam a Religion of Peace?''



Related Video: A Message From Wafa Sultan to Muslims- Change or be Crushed

(Cross-posted on A Deeper Look)

Newsvine Link Aggregator: Anti-Semitism, Islam, Islamic extremism, Women's rights, More videos.