H -°, L 6° | Tomorrow: 
H 18°, L 6°Attacks on Islam have been escalating over the last few years. It's become a fashionable thing to do, and the fact that these "informed opinions" stem from a complete ignorance of the true teachings of Islam and the Quran isn't making it any better. I've had it with these attacks, and as a Muslim, I feel compelled to set the record straight.
In last Tuesday's paper, Kyle Szarzynski wrote in his article ("Islam no defense for extremist action," Nov. 20) about the Muslim response to the insulting cartoons published by Jyllands-Posten and subsequent republishing by many other newspapers including The Badger Herald. He described the cartoons as merely "unflattering," expressed his inability to understand the Muslim response and why "leftists" were making up excuses for them.
First of all, I deeply regret the actions of some of my fellow Muslims, which lead to the deaths of more than 100 people, and for that I make no excuses. What I'm not sorry for is the protests and the economic and political boycotts of Denmark and other Scandinavian countries that occurred after the publishing of those cartoons. There was nothing "courageous" about publishing those cartoons, and publishing them simply because they were newsworthy was poor justification for bad judgment.
It is one thing to criticize a religion, but it's another thing to deliberately insult its followers. Not only were the cartoons a depiction of the prophet — which approaches an idolatry Muslims have fought since the dawn of Islam — but it also portrays the prophet Muhammad as a terrorist. That is why most of the 1.2 billion Muslims of the world, including myself, were outraged by the cartoons. It is certainly our right to protest in every peaceful way possible. Sadly, those in the West smart enough to distinguish between the violent minutia and the outraged but peaceful majority were treated by most observers as sellouts to the Muslim religious right.
However, Western misconceptions about Islam and Muslims are not limited to this issue, but extend to broader areas of beliefs, practices and representation. They are also often the result of the intentional cherry-picking of facts and a copy-and-paste method of understanding Islamic scripture.
Mr. Szarzynski and others claim Islam sanctions oppression of women and non-Muslims, and they claim the sanction for such acts comes straight from the Holy Quran. I say nonsense. I'm sick of these critics, who know next to nothing about the Quran, making such statements without presenting their proof. I'm also sick of how the rest of us seem to take those statements as fact and leave them unquestioned. Islamic scholars spend their lives poring over scripture in an attempt to fully interpret its meanings, and a person who hasn't read the Quran over once suddenly claims to have sufficient knowledge of it.
It is true that under the current governments of most countries with a Muslim majority, some of the aforementioned oppressions exist. The real question here is whether or not those governments represent Islam. I say no. Most governments in the Middle East are oppressive dictatorships that hold unquestionable power over their people, persecuting anyone who opposes them, especially Islamic Reformists. From Egypt to Algeria to Libya, the list of brutal U.S.-backed dictatorships in the Middle East is too long to mention here.
But if you want to see a model of a modern Islamic government, there is no better example than Malaysia. Malaysia is one of the richest Muslim countries in the world and has a booming economy. Women and minorities in Malaysia have fully institutionalized rights such as suffrage, even though the Malaysian people are mainly conservative Muslims. Malaysians also have a prominent role in the Muslim World Conference, where they have stood for Muslim causes around the world. Truly, the Malaysian experience is a role model for all Islamic countries.
Also, those who claim Islam oppresses women ignore the tremendous privileges a woman enjoys in Islam. Women in Islam have no obligation to work, as their closest male relative or husband has the obligation of fully providing for them, and even if a Muslim woman decides to work, all the money she makes is solely hers. Islam gives mothers an honored position and values their sacrifices tremendously. Even the Hijab (the headscarf), looked upon as a symbol of oppression in the West, is actually, as described to me by a Muslim woman, a form of liberation from the burden of obsessing over external appearance and personal aesthetics. It is a symbol of piety and modesty that has its roots in the Bible (1 Corinthians 11:6).
Mr. Szarzynski also claims there is no such thing as "anti-Islamic racism" and since Islam is not a race, its critics should not be called racists. I agree with only half of his statement. Islam is susceptible to criticism, and its critics shouldn't be called racists. However, since most Muslims in this country are of Arabic or South Asian descent, race is still an issue. Instead of trying to play with words and definitions, we should try to find ways to eliminate racism.
Personally, I believe religion is subject to criticism and only through the process of critical thinking can we reach the truth. However, such criticism should be respectful and objective while avoiding hateful sentiments and patronizing spirits. We should strive to understand the other point of view instead of deeming it evil and unworthy of contemplation.
Ammar Al Marzouqi ([email protected]) is freshman majoring in computer engineering.
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I think killing people over an cartoon is reasonable.
-Muhammad, praise be to me
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Mr. Marzaouqi …
It is not Americans who need to learn the arts of “respectful criticism”. It is the people who bomb, behead, lash, stone and amputate against dissent.
How comfy for American Muslims to lecture their fellow Americans about “politeness” when they are filing malicious litigatiosn against anyone who gets serious about talking about abrogation in Islam and what it means.
I would suggest to all readers that you go to www.jihadwatch.org and read the sections on “Blogging the Qur’an” so that you understand what abrogation is and how it applies in this case. For example, many of those “Islam is peace” verses (surah) are ABROGATED by the War Verses found in the Medinan surah later on. Also to note is that shari’a law is 90% based on the HADITH not the Qur’an, and for those of you who don’t know, the hadith are things Muhammad is PURPORTED to have said, but which are most often written by bloodthirsty misogynist warlords with a lust for power later on.
American Muslims are, basically, preachiing to the choir and transferring the onus for correction of the grievous problems in Islam to its mild, non-Muslims critics instead of having the guts to stand up to Bin Laden, which is far more dangerous, but the only action of real effect.
This cowardice of transference — and the opportunism for special gains and privileges on the part of some Muslims, using the fear generated by 9/11 as a weapon of pressure — is why I believe this generation of Muslims has failed Islam as no other in its history.
Clean house. And stop whining about racism and a whole bunchy of other things that aren’t true.
We have every right to demand that you stand up to the murderers within your midst instead of helping them by greasing their way in non-Muslim countries with this kind of drivel.
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“However, since most Muslims in this country are of Arabic or South Asian descent, race is still an issue.”
Race certainly IS an issue. Just ask the black Muslims in Darfur why they are being raped and murdered by the Arab Muslims.
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Ammar, everything YOU said about Islam is crap! The image of Islam we have is the image that is given to us. Muslims are savages because they behave like savages. In Saudi Arabia, a woman was recently given lashes because she is a rape victim. Tell us that’s not a punishment prescribed by Islam.
Religion should never become law in any country. That’s why we have a separation of church and state in the USA. Don’t like it? Leave. Now. Right now. Go.
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Religion should never become law in any country
What about Vatican City?
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I’ll believe you when, and only when, Andres Serrano can do a “Piss Muhammad” to go along with his “Piss Christ” and not have to live with a death fatwa.
Even “moderate” Muslims seem to think that blasphemy deserves the death penalty. “Moderate” Christians also used to believe that, but that was many years ago. Pehaps the Muslims will someday move into the current century?
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Sura (3:151) - “Soon shall We cast terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers, for that they joined companions with Allah, for which He had sent no authority”
Sura (8:12) - “I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them”
Sura (9:29) - “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.”
Sura (9:30) - “And the Jews say: Ezra is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them; how they are turned away!”
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“What about Vatican City?”
What about it? Anybody can go visit if they want. I think there have already been complaints that there’s no mosque or footwashing stations.
Try to visit Mecca without being a Muslim. If you are discovered I beleive that be-heading is the penalty.
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Remember that Muslims are allowed, even encouraged to lie to the infidels in the jihad to conquer the entire world.
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Who said this?
“Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant, he said. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth, he said”
Um, Omar M. Ahmad, Chairman of CAIR. I only say to show there are some in positions of some power (CAIR is moderately powerful and is considered a major voice of Islam in the US) that believe Islamic law should be forced on all. If the basis for such a belief is not in your scriptures, where is the basis?
Perhaps some have taken the word of the Quran too far, but those people have bombs and guns, and such and are killing many just because they do not believe (and even because the believe in the Quran, but not to the extent of killing anyone who does not). Unfortunately, there is no one in the Muslim community with power that believe these acts are wrong and a disgrace to Islam or they do not have the spine to say so.
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Ammar shrieked: “others claim Islam sanctions oppression of women and non-Muslims, and they claim the sanction for such acts comes straight from the Holy Quran. I say nonsense.”
In the showcase “moderate” state of Jordan, penal code, Article 340 states: “(a) He who discovers his wife, or one of his maharim [female relatives of such a degree of consanguinity as precludes marriage], while committing adultery with another man and kills, wounds, or injures one or both of them, is exempt from any penalty; (b) He who discovers his wife, or one of his sisters or female relatives, with another in an illegitimate bed, and kills, wounds, or injures [one or both of them] benefits from a reduction of penalty.”
The Jordanian Islamic Action Front (IAF) issued a fatwa that declared honor-killings are seen as favorable by Islam; male relatives should punish their female relatives and not leave this duty to the state. Ibrahim Zayd al-Kaylani, head of the IAF’s Ifta committee, said that a man who restrains himself from committing an honor killing, leaving this unpleasant burden to the government, “negates the values of virility advocated by Islam.” Article 340, Kaylani added, is based on “the Islamic principle that allows a Muslim to defend his honor, property, and blood.” Muhammad ‘Uwayda, dean of Zarqa University’s Shari’a College and a member of the lower house, stated that while the Shari’a does prohibit individuals from taking the law into their own hands, “cases where a man catches his wife committing adultery are the exception.” The IAF issued a fatwa to the effect that “canceling Article 340 would contradict the Shari’a.”
Thus, we see the showcase “moderate” state of Jordan has declared that honor-killings are part of Islamic dogma.
I do not wish to go into the range of legal doctrines circumscribing Muslim immorality laws. Suffice it to say, Westerners are well aware of the MSA campaign to hide these (and other) shameful aspects of your religion of mysogyny.
In point of fact, it is the Ammar’s co-religionists (not Americans) who remain unaware of American Muslims’ moderate/rejectionist views forbidding “honor killings”— as evidenced by the ubiquity of this practice in Muslim cultures globally.
Ammar can chew the carpet and mutter the Koran until he’s blue in the face, hoping to discern truths from the illiterate, psychotic babblings of his dead false prophet. But don’t expect Westerners to waste our time convincing your co-religionists.
Ammar should initiate a campaign to refute his jihadist brethren— which shouldn’t be difficult in light of his insistence that Islam is fundamentally peaceful and the Koran forbids “honor killings.”
But despite a great deal of bluster, there is no large-scale organized movement of Muslims countering the jihadist doctrines— and no coherent moderate Muslim theology that teaches against jihad or the subjugation of women on Islamic grounds— with the possible exception of that tiny courageous minority of Muslims who’ve signed the St. Petersburg declaration.
So, I ask pointedly: Is Ammar willing to publicly endorse the St. Petersburg Declaration?
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Gosh, Ammar, you really made a lot of friends today, didn’t you!
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I must point out the real problem with this author’s assertion about the freedoms of women and non-Muslim minorities in Malaysia.
I will give one example, that of Lina Joy. This clip is from Gracen Intelligence, of which I am a senior fellow, and references an original article:
Prayer Vigil for Lina Joy
Gracen Intelligence Commentary: Either there’s “no compulsion in religion” or there’s not. It is indicative of the turmoil surrounding this apostasy case that while the story has lost impetus in the Western press it is still daily front page news in Malaysia. This prayer service was attended by the Malaysian Consultative Council on Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST), the women's rights group Women’s Action Society (AWAM), and, most poignantly, Sisters in Islam (SIS), whose courage in standing up is incredibly inspiring. The “re-education” in question here is a form of incarceration involving “Manchurian Candidate”—style psychological pressure and mind control, and should thus be considered a form of torture. It is the position of Gracen Intelligence that it violates absolutely every extant human rights convention on this planet as the cruel and unusual punishment it is — and that the government of Malaysia should be sanctioned by the United Nations for crimes against humanity in allowing religious authorities to punish people out of the freedoms of conscience and religion that are their inalienable rights. — Morgaan Sinclair for Gracen Intelligence
06/15/2007 12:55 MALAYSIA
A Hindu Lina Joy, subjected to Islamic "re-education" Source: http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=9564&size=A
Some civil groups in Malaysia have organised a prayer vigil Revathi: and Indian Hindu who January last was condemned to 180 days of "rehabilitation" in a centre lead by Muslim authorities.
Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews) — Malaysian civil society is rising against the continued interference of Islamic law in the lives of non Muslim citizens. On June 9 in Kuala Lumpur a night time prayer vigil will be held to draw public attention to the case of Ravathi, a woman of Indian origins who is currently being held in a detention centre after the state refused to recognise her religious status as a Hindu.
Organizers include the Malaysian Consultative Council on Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST) women's rights groups Women’s Action Society (AWAM) and Sisters in Islam (SIS).
Revathi was born to Indian parents who had converted to Islam before her birth. She claims she was raised by her grandmother as a Hindu. She and Suresh were married according to Hindu rites in March 2004. Revathi was advised by the Malacca Islamic Religious Department to make an application at the Malacca Syariah High Court to confirm her status as a Hindu. She did as she was told. However, the Syariah Court ordered her detained in a rehabilitation centre in Ulu Yam, Selangor under Melaka’s Syariah criminal laws for 100 days. This detention was extended in Revathi’s absence for a further 80 days supposedly because she had not “repented”. In the meanwhile, Revathi’s Muslim mother obtained a Syariah Court order granting her custody of Revathi and Suresh’s 15 month old baby. That order was enforced on Suresh’s Hindu family with the assistance of the police. The family is now torn apart - with the mother in detention, the child with the grandparents and the father in limbo without his family.
After the Lina Joy case — the Malay women whose conversion to Christianity was not recognised by the Federal Court, who judged it to be an issue for the "Islamic tribunal" — increasing doubts about the existence of freedom of belief and faith in the country. In fact in multi-racial Malaysia two legislations exist: Islamic and Constitutional, and they are often conflicting. For example Constitutional law grants freedom of religion, while Islamic law prohibits conversion from Islam. Organizers of the prayer vigil Revathi, seek to underline that "Federal law supremacy over Sharia needs to be reaffirmed".
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Ammar crowed: “if you want to see a model of a modern Islamic government, there is no better example than Malaysia”
Malaysia, 50, turns back morals clock http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22329219-2703,00.html
Dimming the Lights in Malaysia http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2280503.ece
(Graphic Video) Malaysia Defends Caning http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?inarticleid=472442&inpageid=1811
History of Jihad: Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines http://www.islam-watch.org/HistoryOfJihad/Jihad-against-Malaysia-Indonesia-Thailand-Philippines.htm
Malaysia Today: Muslims Stereotype Themselves http://malaysia-today.net/blog2006/holds.php?itemid=2916
Malaysia: Another Secular State Bites the Dust http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/08/28/news/letter.php
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A thought experiment: How long before Salvador Dali’s “blasphemous” caricature of Mohammed is expunged from art history classes? How about Auguste Rodin? or Gustave Dore?
Each of these artists caricatured Mohammed’s suffering in Hell— as related in Dante’s trilogy “The Divine Comedy” [Inferno XXVIII, 19-42]. http://www.zombietime.com/mohammedimagearchive/dantes_inferno/
The same forces that plotted to destroy the fresco of Dante’s Inferno in Bologna’s Church of San Petronio last year remain at work today. http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1217873,00.html
And if academia and journalism remain unwilling to fight this battle, what’s to stop the global Taliban from silencing any and every expression Muslims deem “offensive”?
Archived depictions of Mohammed serve as a poignant reminder that such imagery has been part of Western AND ISLAMIC culture since the Middle Ages— and serve as a resource for those interested in defending free expression. http://www.zombietime.com/mohammedimagearchive/
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Let’s put a global ban on religion. Seriously, I sick of talking about this shit.
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Islam has racism of its own to deal with, as exemplified by the writers’ non mention of Black Muslims.
Further, the writer neglects to refute the “intentional cherry-picking of facts and a copy-and-paste method of understanding Islamic scripture.” but only manages to decry them.
Additionally, why should Muslims boycott an entire nation when it was a private entity, the name of which most who heard of this offense could probably not even pronounce, that published the offending cartoons. Idolatrous and incredibly disrespectful depictions of the Christian Messiah worldwide do not provoke such reactions.
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Attacks on islam have been increasing? Not according to FBI statistics. The attacks that have been dealt out upon muslims have been primarily from other muslims, around the world! The examples you give of Middle Eastern countries, run by dictators, they are run by shar’ia courts, according to islamic law. Homosexuals being hung from cranes, young girls having their reproductive organs mutilated, women given prison and 200 lashes for the horrible act of being raped? All under shar’ia law, which is straight from the Quoran. Perhaps some housecleaning is in order, and entering the 21st century, before demanding people treat your religion as if it’s actually in the 21st century.
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12:01pm: That’s the most intolerant comment imaginable. I’ll fight you right after I fight Islamofascism.
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For the author …
Can you please explain how the following is “Islamic tolerance” of other religions?
An Egyptian Christian woman, Shadia Nagui Ibrahim, 47, stated Christianity as her religion on her marriage certificate, unaware her father’s brief conversion to Islam in 1962 had made her officially a Muslim. She was sentenced last week to three years in jail due to the misunderstanding. Shadia was two-years-old when her father left home and converted to Islam. Three years later, he reconciled with his wife, moved home and re-converted to Christianity. Authorities recently informed his daughter that on paper, Ibrahim was still a Muslim and therefore so was she. She was charged with “providing false information on official documents” because she stated she was Christian on her marriage certificate in 1982. Under Egyptian law it is also illegal for a Muslim woman to marry a Christian man. (Sources: News 24/IHC)
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I apologize in advance for the length of this. I include this article by USAToday as an example of two things:
(1) The origin of the headscarf is among the prostitutes in the Sumerian temples that initiated young men into sex, not with Islam. A second point is that the author’s reference of Corinthians is disingenuous because it does not acknowledge that Paul’s admonitions to women about a veil were only about her presence in church. Not that it matterse. He was a total chauvinist who used male dominance as a PR tactic to spread Christianity in the same way that author of bogus ahaditha used male dominance as a way to spread Islam. In fact, the Prophet (pbuh) NEVER asked women to veil in the way their “tented” today. And, in fact, only the Prophet’s wives wore the kinds of veils Muslim women are encouraged or blugeoned into wearing today. It was a sign of their SUPERIORITY that they did so. It begs the question as to why Muslim women today want affect such a pretense, especially given the origin of the veil was among whores.
(2) This is also another example of Islamic intolerance of both women and truth. The lawsuit talked about below was brought by a conservative Islamist who is completely intolerant of scientific fact and anything that even whispers of liberation among women.
(3) And also, the author needs to be aware that his “survey” of “a Muslim woman” doesn’t get it on any kind of journalist integrity level at all. In fact, WHEN THERE IS NO CHOICE, AS THERE IS NOT IN ARABIA AND IN IRAN AND IN BASRA AND ELSEWHERE, THIS SPURIOUS, INSULTING PABLUM IS INFURIATING ON EVERY LEVEL.
SEPARATE IS NEVER EQUAL … AND VEILING CREATES SEPARATION. IT IS BIGOTED AND OF OFTEN HOSTILE, AND THESE DAYS IT IS MOST OFTEN POLITICALLY, NOT SPIRIITUALLY, MOTIVATED AND SUCCUMBED TO BY EXACTLY THE KIND OF WOMEN WHO PANDERS TO MEN FOR APPROVAL INSTEAD OF TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR HER OWN LIFE AND THINKING AND SPIRITUALITY. IT IS AN INSULT TO WOMEN LIKE KONCA KURIS, WHO WAS TAKEN BY TURKISH HIZBOLLAH FOR HER FEMINIST ACTIVITIES, TORTURED FOR 38 DAYS, AND THEN SLAUGHTERED.
I AM SO OFFENDED BY THIS REFERENCE THAT IT IS HARD EVEN TO WRITE THIS POST.
Court acquits Turkish archaeologist charged for her view on head scarves Updated 11/1/2006 12:37 PM ET ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A court on Wednesday tried and immediately acquitted a 92-year-old archaeologist for claiming in a book that Islamic-style head scarves were first worn more than 5,000 years ago by priestesses initiating young men into sex.
The case is one of dozens brought against writers and academics for expressing opinions — and again raises questions about whether Turkey is ready to embrace European values on freedom of expression.
In a trial that lasted less than an hour, the court in Istanbul acquitted Muazzez Ilmiye Cig, an expert on the Sumerian civilization of Mesopotomia of around third millennium B.C., and her publisher of charges of insulting religious feelings. The panel of three judges ruled that Cig’s actions did not constitute a crime.
The diminutive, staunchly pro-secular former academic, who was born in 1914 — the waning years of the Ottoman Empire and the start of World War I — was the latest person to go on trial in Turkey for expressing her views, despite intense European Union pressure on the country to expand freedom of expression.
She joins a long list of writers, journalists and academics who have been prosecuted, including this year’s Nobel prize-winner, Orhan Pamuk, and novelist Elif Shafak, although Cig was prosecuted on different charges to the other two authors.
Charges of insulting Turkishness against Pamuk were dropped over a technicality earlier this year, and Shafak was acquitted.
Those two were tried under Turkey’s now infamous Article 301, which sets out punishment for insulting the Turkish Republic, its officials or “Turkishness.” Cig was accused of inciting hatred by insulting people based on their religion.
Cig faced 1 1/2 years in prison had she been convicted.
The trial came a week before a EU report assessing Turkey’s progress toward membership, which is expected to chide the country for slipping in its reform program and not acting to change laws that have been used to curb freedoms — in violation of EU human rights standards.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government is resisting change, arguing that no one so far has ended up in prison for expressing opinions despite the trials.
Critics say the trials and threat of prosecution act as a deterrent to free speech and are unacceptable.
Cig’s trial was initiated by an Islamic-oriented lawyer who was offended by claims made in her recently published political work, “My Reactions as a Citizen,” in which she says that the earliest examples of head scarves date back to Sumerian times, when veils were worn by priestesses who engaged in sex to distinguish themselves from other priestesses.
Cig rejected the charge in court saying: “I am a woman of science. … I never insulted anyone,” private NTV television reported. Twenty-five lawyers crammed into the small courtroom to defend her.
In what some said was a move to avoid endangering Turkey’s EU bid, the prosecution supported dropping the charge, saying Cig’s actions had not in any way “endangered public safety.” It is not unusual for the prosecution to drop or change charges in the course of a trial.
The judges then acquitted Cig and publisher Ismet Ogutucu of the Kaynak publishing house.
Secular groups who turned out to the trial in a show of support celebrated the acquittal, with cheers and applause.
“Live for a thousand years,” one supporter cheered, according to an Anatolia news agency report. The former academic, who retired in 1972 and has written 13 books, responded by asking supporters to continue promoting secularism when she is gone.
Cig gained public attention earlier this year when she wrote to Emine Erdogan, asking the Turkish first lady to remove her head scarf and set an example to women in this predominantly Muslim and secular country. Turkey has strict secular laws and regulations that bar head scarves in schools and in public offices.
An increasing number of women however are veiling themselves in a show of religious piety to the dismay of secularists who view the head scarf as a symbol of political Islam and of female oppression.
Erdogan, whose party has roots in Turkey’s Islamic movement, has made no secret of his desire to relax the laws on head scarves. Cautious of sensitivities of pro-secular circles, including the powerful military, however, he has said that he would wait until the time was right. Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Find this article at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-11-01-turkey_x.htm
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The author wants to “find ways to eliminate racism”, while holding Malaysia up as “a role model for all Islamic countries”. Yet Malaysia’s OWN track record on race relations are quite dubious at best, which even al-Jazeera acknowledges….
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/1A70BC9F-153D-4553-9B6C-2310BD395A80.htm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp6z80CBJfE http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/53685CBD-40D4-4AC3-B354-73BBC2DA7D51.htm
So is the Malaysian “Bumiputra” system the Islamic role model or not? Or does the author also want to blame this apartheid policy on being “U.S.-backed” as well, since he can’t bear to concede his beloved Islam’s powerlessness to overcome such blatant racial discrimination?
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Let’s not forget the school teacher facing 40 stripes of the lash for allowing her pupils to name a teddy bear mascot, Mohammed.
Now, that’s tolerance for ya!
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All these anonymous comments about someone’s faith.Morgan got any thing else better to do instead of posting numerous responses. Listen Islam may have its problems but its with the people who practice it instead of the religion itself! If you ask me Christianity sucks! But its mainly because of the people who tell me I am going to hell…..! Christianity talks about fathers selling their daughters into slavery if they are not virgins, has been used to justify the treatment of African Americans and Native Americans, and treatment of gays. Truthfully, no religion should rule any country….look at some of the Asian countries….no main religion and no one cares! Christians in this country wants everyone to be Christians and if we let that happen the same shit happening in the Middle East will happen here! The Dark Ages…read your history!
And the next time people want to talk shit about a person's religion or race…be bold put your name out there! Mine is Jessica! Last name not needed…can't get into contact with anyways!
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Islam should be carefully separated from the political struggles that many of its practitioners are engaged in; such struggles, insofar as they are anti-imperialist efforts, are to be supported. Islam itself, however, is just another absurd Abrahamic mythos, and there are no compelling reasons for rationalists to accord it even a modicum of respect.
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“Islam itself, however, is just another absurd Abrahamic mythos”
Didn’t it more get it’s start with moon worshippers? There’s that cresent thingy and all.
Check out the Chick tract - it’s hilarious:
http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0042/0042_01.asp
here’s more:
http://www.chick.com/information/religions/islam/
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The absurdity of this article speaks for itself, but would be more obvious if it was written by a Christian or Jew. Imagine an opinion piece in the Herald advocating a boycott of Germany because a privately owned media company (German MTV) aired a cartoon program with Catholic Church characters that depict the Christian institution “unflatteringly.” (This program appropriately began preview right around the time of the cartoon controversy. The Christian response was nonexistent).
Most of the comments do a good job of showing the falsities of this piece, like the notion of Malaysia being a liberal democracy (What!?) and the Koran being a purely altruistic document (has the writer, who claims to be a Muslim, ever actually read this book?).
But beyond that, the right-wing religious extremism that permeates from this piece is what I find most revolting. It is the author’s opinion, for example, that not just Denmark, but its Scandinavian neighbors as well, shuold be boycotted - economically and politically (whatever that means) - all because a small Danish newspaper, not afilliated with any of the govrenments the writer wants to target, printed a few cartoons. Am I the only one who finds this sickening? Notice how not even Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell called for a boycott of Germany over a much more cruderer form of entertainment. So, congrats, Ammar, on officially placing yourself to the right of these less than admirable individuals.
His presentation of the treatment of Muslim women would be laughable if it wasn’t so despciable. Even in the most “liberal” Muslim countries, women face the type of oppression that hasn’t existed for centuries in the West. (But conveniently, he falls back on the line that this isn’t “real” Islam. I guess he knows the faith better than the vast majority of the faith’s adherents). I also find his own interpetation of how Muslim women should be treated particularly backward. His thoughts are undoubtedly more tolerant than 98% of the world’s Muslims, but to speak of any manner in which women and men should be treated differently is an anitiquated view among tolerant Americans (not to mention the very definition of sexism). Why not just treat both sexes equally and stop pinning your own views down on a book written 1400 years ago?
It is alos curious how Ammar believes that Muslims are somehow entitled to an aggressive reaction to insults to their faith. Because a small, insignificant newspaper prints a cartoon in a small, secular, liberal country, Muslims should protest and boycott? How absurd! Ammar and his fundamentalist ilk can side with primitivism, but I think the more intelligent and rational among the readers are on the side of Jyllands-Posten and their courageous stand for free speech (a concept that Ammar apparently doesn’t hold in much esteem).
This article is, without question, the most egregious (published) response to any of my columns this year. I hope the type of backwardness Ammar is defending is not found any less revolting among leftists just because the relgion he is defending happens to be Islam.
[email protected]
IP hash: 3c318f36
Islam teaches that moslems have a right and a duty to forcibly convert, enslave or kill to spread their “religion”. And as their “holy” koran is eternal and directly dictated from heaven (rather than being an inspired history of God’s dealing with man, as is the Bible) then it is unlikely that we will ever see a softening of reinterpretations of the texts that justify seeing all nonmoslems as less than human. It is therefore NOT a problem with the people who practice the religion-the religion ITSELF is the problem. Nor is it “ignorance” that causes islam and moslems to be held in disdain : The ignorant think it’s just another religion, a religion of peace (BTW, islam means submission, NOT peace), and that “it’s the people who practice it, not the religion that’s the problem”. Those who have read the koran SEVERAL times (Dawood, A.Y. Ali versions) and read the news and can see how islam is being used to justify atrocities worldwide on a daily basis are the ones who have come to despise islam.
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4:15, excellent point and my thoughts exactly.
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Hey douche bags, if you can’t keep it short, it’s not worth writing. Otherwise, I always enjoy reading cut-and-paste crap from zombie-slime.com
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“It is certainly our right to protest in every peaceful way possible”
Yes Ammar, it is certainly in your right in this country to protest peacefully. However, in most Muslim countries in the world, this would not be allowed. Being against liberalism (as you seem when you clearly display your hatred for the 1st Amendment) it is completely hypocritical when you state that something is “certainly” within your “rights.”
I advise you first, read the Quran before publishing your next article about it. Second, go visit a Muslim country where you would certainly NOT have the rights that you seem to take for granted in America and many do all over the Western world.
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Nice response Kyle.
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I knew when I read this article this morning that there would be a ton of comments on it. Unfortunately everyone has already pretty much covered everything I was going to say.
I think this article is pretty enlightening as well: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/10/16/artist.controversy/index.html It details how a Swedish man recently drew a picture of Mohammad as a dog, provoking death threats and a price on his head from Al Qaeda.
An excerpt, in which a woman in Sweden explains…well you’ll see when you read it:
“Muslims in Sweden demanded an apology from the newspaper, which has stood by Vilks on his freedom of expression stand. Pakistan and Iran also lodged formal protests with Sweden.
One Swedish Muslim woman who lives just an hour-and-a-half drive from Vilks said she hopes to make good on the al Qaeda threat and slaughter Vilks like a lamb.
“I can do this in the name of Allah, and I will not fail. I could slaughter him in the name of Allah,” says the woman who identified herself only as Amatullah.
She adds, “If I get the opportunity.”
Dressed in a black burqa from head to toe and uttering death threat after death threat, the woman — a wife and mother — says she is defending her religion and her prophet if she manages to kill Vilks.”
The cartoonist has also drawn Jesus as a pedophile, for which he received no death threats or hate mail, or any christian backlash of any kind. What a messed up world we live in, huh?
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Kyle is an dick…just an college student who watches too much Fox News…Chirstanity is the same thing….less argressive (but only recently!) I know plently of people who practive Islam and they are NOT like that! The practice is a good one….its sad when a few bad apples spoil the entire crop…have Kyle been to an Middle Eastern Country..understand the history…No! Just a college kid with too much time on his hands..But that thing about Black Muslims is correct..Arab Muslims don’t accept Black Muslims even though whites don’t care for them either…but even in Chirstanity…Whites beleive that Blacks where from Hell and doom to be apart of the damned so i see no difference!
I am an Buddhist …lets all be Buddhist! And stop posting links to other websites…really no one cares….Finals are coming up…focus there! Not on something that you don’t even beleive in!
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Now, I can’t to claim to have any knowledge of the Quran, but there’s nothing wrong with admitting that there are some things very wrong with the it. Also, I don’t think Islam is a bad religion. However, Christianity, has improved itself by moving away from things that are stated in the Bible that sanction things like slavery and mistreatment of women. Now, I still think Christianity is full of hypocrisy and lies, but it has improved itself moving away from ancient shameful beliefs and practices. To some extent it has been accepted some of the things stated its religous text should be pushed away, moving towards a more reasonable, pragmatic, humanistic religion.
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I’m no big fan of organized religion, but many of these comments are just plain awful. If you’re so sick of “anti-Semitism” and “Christophobia” then do yourself a favor and don’t propagate the hate speech.
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douchebag @ 5:50pm: What exactly is “crap” in the zombietime image archive? Looks like a perfectly cogent rebuttal to me. http://www.zombietime.com/mohammedimagearchive/dantes_inferno/
Why does the evidence of your eyes threaten you?
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Call in and check out our interview tonight at 8PM EST with Dr. Paul L. Williams, author of The Day of Islam at thirdrailradio.com
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There are many this I’d like to say about this column, but instead I’ll focus on one quote from the author.
“Also, those who claim Islam oppresses women ignore the tremendous privileges a woman enjoys in Islam. Women in Islam have no obligation to work, as their closest male relative or husband has the obligation of fully providing for them, and even if a Muslim woman decides to work, all the money she makes is solely hers. Islam gives mothers an honored position and values their sacrifices tremendously. Even the Hijab (the headscarf), looked upon as a symbol of oppression in the West, is actually, as described to me by a Muslim woman, a form of liberation from the burden of obsessing over external appearance and personal aesthetics.”
Wow. If I were a woman, I would be extremely offended by this quotation.
Here’s the gist of the author’s argument- “Women have freedom because they don’t have to work. They can get a man to take care of them! And if a woman does decide to work, she gets to keep the money! You go girl! Also, the hijab is freedom, too! Since we tell you what to wear, you don’t have to worry your precious little mind. Picking out clothes to wear is obviously too difficult for women, so let’s let the men decide.”
If wearing the hijab is so liberating, why don’t the men do it too? Why are women held to a different standard? The answer is obvious.
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@9:25
That is not an Islamic punishment. It historically isn’t and has no roots in religion. That punishment is for adultery, only punishable with the existence of 4 eye witnesses, only ever punished during the Prophet’s time with confession, and never ever applicable to non-consensual sex.
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Adam Sitte @ 4:05pm
In the showcase “moderate” state of Jordan, penal code, Article 340 states: “(a) He who discovers his wife, or one of his maharim [female relatives of such a degree of consanguinity as precludes marriage], while committing adultery with another man and kills, wounds, or injures one or both of them, is exempt from any penalty; (b) He who discovers his wife, or one of his sisters or female relatives, with another in an illegitimate bed, and kills, wounds, or injures [one or both of them] benefits from a reduction of penalty.”
The Jordanian Islamic Action Front (IAF) issued a fatwa that declared honor-killings are seen as favorable by Islam; male relatives should punish their female relatives and not leave this duty to the state. Ibrahim Zayd al-Kaylani, head of the IAF’s Ifta committee, said that a man who restrains himself from committing an honor killing, leaving this unpleasant burden to the government, “negates the values of virility advocated by Islam.” Article 340, Kaylani added, is based on “the Islamic principle that allows a Muslim to defend his honor, property, and blood.” Muhammad ‘Uwayda, dean of Zarqa University’s Shari’a College and a member of the lower house, stated that while the Shari’a does prohibit individuals from taking the law into their own hands, “cases where a man catches his wife committing adultery are the exception.” The IAF issued a fatwa to the effect that “canceling Article 340 would contradict the Shari’a.”
Thus, we see the showcase “moderate” state of Jordan has declared that honor-killings are part of Islamic dogma.
I do not wish to go into the range of legal doctrines circumscribing Muslim immorality laws. Suffice it to say, Westerners are well aware of the MSA campaign to hide these (and other) shameful aspects of your religion of mysogyny.
In point of fact, it is the MSA’s co-religionists (not Americans) who remain unaware of American Muslims’ moderate/rejectionist views forbidding “honor killings”— as evidenced by the ubiquity of this practice in Muslim cultures globally.
MSA members can chew the carpet and mutter the Koran until they’re blue in the face, hoping to discern truths from the illiterate, psychotic babblings of their dead false prophet. But don’t expect Westerners to waste our time convincing your co-religionists.
The MSA should initiate a campaign to refute their jihadist brethren— which shouldn’t be difficult in light of their insistence that Islam is fundamentally peaceful and the Koran forbids “honor killings.”
But despite a great deal of bluster, there is no large-scale organized movement of Muslims countering the jihadist doctrines— and no coherent moderate Muslim theology that teaches against jihad or the subjugation of women on Islamic grounds— with the possible exception of that tiny courageous minority of Muslims who’ve signed the St. Petersburg declaration.
So, I ask pointedly: Are members of the MSA willing to publicly endorse the St. Petersburg Declaration? http://www.secularislam.org/blog/post/SI_Blog/21/The-St-Petersburg-Declaration
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Freedom for women in Islam? Please.
Don’t piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining.
Muslim men can divorce a woman simply by declaring it to be so. Do women have the same right?
Who is presumed to have custodial rights over the children, especially if a muslim man marries an infidel?
Can a woman in Saudi Arabia travel on her own, independent of a husband or male relative? Can she leave the country on her own without ‘permission’?
What happens to a woman who is caught cheating on her husband? What happens to women who are active lesbians?
Don’t tell me the hijab is to lessen the pressure on my make-up choices.
It is to make me invisible. Separate and unequal.
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Hello, Sorry my friends.. I do not agree about your statements.. 1-I am a Muslim man 2-[I could not got my dream wives] 3-but I have to marry 4-I do not have right to divorce them 5-you figure it out [what happen in our ‘new world’] P/S:in reality Cheers..
IP hash: c8736248
Adam Sitte:
“That is not an Islamic punishment. It historically isn’t and has no roots in religion. That punishment is for adultery, only punishable with the existence of 4 eye witnesses, only ever punished during the Prophet’s time with confession, and never ever applicable to non-consensual sex.”
This makes it acceptable? It is being used in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan (the infamous “huddud” laws) among other places. You fail, too, to add that the absence of four eyewitnesses results in conviction for “zina” or “illicit sex”. This is every bit an islamic punishment; moreso if if was used in Mohammed’s time, this insan-al-kamil, this “perfect man” to be emulated for all time.
GeoffP
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well, I see that most people went outragous about two things in Islam…
First of all, TERORISM (excuse my bad spelling)..
before I say my point, I want to drive your attention to what terorism is: from hundreds of years ago, Palestine (Israel nowadays) was the land of palestinians. By time, jews started migrating to there and started killing the palestinians to get their land. Every single day, they kill tens of innocent muslims using banned weapons and nobody calls them teroricst. BUT, when a palestinian guy starts to revenge for his family and people and fight back they call him a teroricst!! What is Terorism then !!!!
In Islam, we as muslims have to distribute this religion to all nations. And to whichever country that doesnt accept this religion, they have to pay Jezya for us so that we protect them all and especially the muslims in that country without any war. In case they refused to pay the jezya, we are ordered to fight the country’s army and ONLY the army in order to rule the country. So, we NEVER obligate anyone to enter Islam nor do we kill or fight citizens (especially women, old people and children)…
Point understood!
Secondly, there is the women issue…
Well, most of the problems regarding women issues are culture originated. So, it is muslims not applying islamic rules that causes these problems. In fact, many muslim women are known in Islamic history for the leading roles they had in Islam and for the shari’a (religous) knoweldge they taught to the people.
Islam in its correct form is the best religion. It is just people who dont apply it correctly that causes these problems.. as Ammar said, the arabian governments do NOT reflect the true islam. It is true muslims who reflect it.