Lord Justice Wall denied the request and went on from there.

The judge dismissed evidence from a Muslim scholar who argued that continued placement would exacerbate the physical risk to the children by increasing the shame wrought on the family. He said that despite flaws in the care proceedings, placing the children with the non-Muslim family had given correct priority to the physical safety of the children.

The judge went further, however, stating that “the time has surely come to rethink the phrase ‘honour killings’”. He described it as a “wholly inappropriate oxymoron”. He added: “In this case, the family may wish to reflect on the fact that it has lost five of its children: one by death, one by the legitimate flight from gender-based violence inflicted on his mother, and three to the care system.”

h/t: International Campaign Against Honour Killings

Muslim leaders insist that “Allah” must be restricted for usage in Islam, else “young or unsuspecting Muslims” might get confused and convert to Christianity. That “argument” is impossible to take seriously. If some Muslims are confused about the meaning of words used by Islam, the real problem is inadequate teaching by Muslim imams. Why penalise Christians because Islamic clerics can’t or won’t teach their own followers?

This BCC report has it right: This controversy is about religious freedom far more than it is about language.

h/t: Persecuted Church Weblog

A Muslim mother who forced her two daughters to marry their cousins in Pakistan has been jailed for three years and ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register.

She told her elder daughter that if she didn’t have sex with her new husband, she would tie her to the bed, blindfold and strip her, a court heard.

The woman, from south Manchester, also said she would be there to make sure the marriage was consummated. She cannot be named to protect the teenage victims.

She was convicted of inciting or causing a child to engage in sexual activity; two charges of arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence; and two of intending to pervert the course of justice. She had denied all charges.

The mother was convicted last month. Judge Clement Goldstone denounced the woman’s conduct when he handed down her sentence yesterday.

PC SENSITIVITIES must not block efforts to protect women from forced marriage and violence, a leading Muslim peer said yesterday.

Sayeeda Warsi believes “white liberalism” – the belief people cannot talk about such matters because there are sensitive religious and minority group issues involved – has stopped politicians from making it clear that it is unacceptable to force women into marriage.
[…]
“It is the worst form of discrimination because it’s saying that brown and black girls who get taken overseas to be subjected to forced marriage can be overlooked. But if this was happening to young white girls we’d be up in arms about it.”

Baroness Warsi maintains that forced marriage is contrary to civilised society and not a legitimate practice of any religion.

The 38-year-old peer was recently named the most powerful Muslim woman in the UK.

h/t: International Campaign Against Honour Killings

According to [CFI President Jim] Jacobson, “When it comes to human rights and the treatment of minority Christians, Egypt has an extremely poor track record. The president should have a lot to talk about with Egyptian president Muhammad Hosni Mubarak, one of the longest-serving leaders in the Arab world. We hope he uses this as an opportunity to speak out for persecuted, minority Christians in Egypt.”

Most recently, Egypt’s State Council has expressed outrage at the attempt by an Egyptian convert from Islam to Christianity to have his conversion legally recognised, calling the case “a threat to societal order” and a violation of sharia.

Doug Bandow reminds us that Christian persecution is an ever-present reality throughout the Muslim world.

[N]o [interfaith] conversation will have any meaning if it does not address Islam’s brutal reality: the consistent persecution of Christians, Jews, and members of other minority faiths.
[…]
[P]ast Western dialogue with Islam has consistently missed the elephant in the room: Pervasive religious persecution.
[…]
In fact, it is unusual to find an Islamic nation where religious minorities are not discriminated against, both legally and socially. One of the best predictors that a government persecutes, or fails to protect religious minorities from persecution, is that the majority faith is Islam.

We shall see whether Obama cares about “Islam’s brutal reality” and the plight of Christians in Muslim nations when he delivers his speech on 4 June.

Tehran has canceled the Islamic Solidarity Games after Saudi Arabia asked Iran to remove the term Persian Gulf from game medals and brochures.

The Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation (ISSF) Secretary General Saleh Gazdar and Technical Committee Chairman Mohammad Bashir Al-Trabosli said in a Tehran meeting that Arab states would only participate in the event if the term Persian Gulf is replaced with the Arabian Gulf or Gulf.

Tehran, however, said it would never retreat from its stance concerning the use of the Persian Gulf and canceled the games despite spending over 10 million US dollars on the project in the past two years, alef reported.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty adds this tidbit.

Coincidentally (or not), Tehran held a conference today exploring the historical background of the term “Persian Gulf.”

Negotiations are ongoing, so the games may yet go ahead as scheduled in Iran this October.

Although the official website of the Islamic Solidarity Games 2009 says nothing about the controversy, it does have a timetable of sporting events, publicity videos, and a spiffy logo.

At right is a satellite photo of the body of water in question.

In last week’s letter, Mubarak referred to himself as president of all Egyptians and stated that, while religion is a personal matter, the state governs all equally.

My question would be, is Mr. Mubarak using “Taquiah” when he is addressing Copts and non Arabic Muslim states? The reason of my question is based to certain facts occurred in Egypt. The facts reported here represent a very small part of the Copts’ daily dilemma.

Less than ten months ago a barbaric attacked [sic] by Arab Muslims took place in an ancient Coptic monastery, Abu-Fana. The Egyptian government did nothing to protect the unarmed monks or the valuable and historic building. Three monks along with a farmer who was working at the monastery were kidnapped. The monks were released after twelve hours of torture but no word has come out about the farmer.

The important thing is no official statement was released to condemn such a barbaric action.

Girls were kidnapped, raped, and forced to convert with the blessing of Mr. Mubarak’s law enforcement. In these four months of 2009, nine Coptics girls were kidnapped.

More examples follow of persecution and discrimination of Copts that are either ignored or even abetted by Egyptian authorities. These examples are “typical in the daily life of the country”, but it is also important to remember that Copts have been oppressed since the armies of Islam conquered Egypt 1400 years ago.

Another piece recently posted at Voice of the Copts points out that Article 2 of the Egyptian constitution, naming Islam the religion of the state and Islamic jurisprudence the principal source of legislation, was only added in 1980, during the presidency of Anwar Sadat. How can Christians be treated equally, as Mubarak claims, when the constitution grants Islam state privileges?

Voice of the Copts is joining the freedom lovers in Egypt and demanding the removal of the second article of the Egyptian constitution.
[…]
Few days ago, in a letter sent to Copts in the Diaspora, Mubarak indicates that “all citizens enjoy their civil rights and an individual’s faith is a personnel [sic] matter; the country is for all.” I wonder how a citizen could enjoy his civil rights and his personal faith when the constitution indicates the opposite.

Thus, Hosni Mubarak is accused of Taquiah.

ATAA Jewellers in the west end of Glasgow was raided by two Asian men entirely covered apart from their eyes.
[…]
The two girls working at the time were left so shaken there are plans for a sign banning anything covers the face.
[…]
Rukhsana Sadiq was in the shop when it was robbed. She spent hours showing what she thought were the two women gold, but she never saw their faces.

Inevitably, the BBC finds a Muslim to claim the ban would violate her rights.

Madihah [Ansari] wears a Burkha and always has her head and body covered. Sometimes she chooses to wear a Niqab as well, meaning her face is covered.

[...]

“Just because two guys did a crime and they were dressed up in that kind of outfit you can’t prejudice everyone else.

The shop is not prejudiced against “everyone else”, only people who cover their faces. It’s not about Islam as such, for Islam does not require women to wear a veil.

And why isn’t outraged against the men who deceived and terrorised the shop workers and caused problems for innocent Muslim women who choose to veil themselves in public?

Glasgow councillor Hanzala Malik has no problem with the shop’s decision to bar people wearing masks.

“I know in Scotland that banks will not allow their customers coming in with motorbike helmets, I don’t see why it should be different for people wearing the Niqab. It is an issue about identifying people.”

Exactly right.

Afghanistan’s Shias, most of whom belong to the Hazara ethnic group, are typically among the most religiously moderate of Afghans. Hazara women appear in public with their faces uncovered. They are disproportionately represented, he notes, in national singing competitions.

The problem is their religious leaders, he says. “They are mostly trained in Iran, so they have a different thought. I separate what they think from what the people think. This law was decided among some mullahs and ulemas [senior Islamic scholars], not the people.”

Ramoz says that during the years of Taliban rule and the civil war before that, many Shia clerics studied in Iran’s holy city of Qom. Following the overthrow of the Taliban—which had brutally persecuted and on occasion massacred Afghan Shias—these clerics returned and took up positions on religious councils or in the Afghan parliament. From there they played a powerful role in drafting the controversial legislation, which Ramoz says is actually not popular with most Shias.

“We have a very conservative and very jihadi parliament that in a sense disagrees with human rights and democracy,” he says. “In Afghanistan, unfortunately, the relationship between MPs and their constituents is not as accountable and transparent as in the West.”

So, Iran’s influence on the actions of Afghan parliamentarians far outweighs that of the Afghan people? That does not bode well for the future of democracy in Afghanistan.

Following domestic and international protests, the law is under review.

h/t: The Canada-Afghanistan Blog

What’s more, the police carried out the arrest even though they don’t have a copy of the marriage contract.

Christian convert Raheal Henen Mussa and her Coptic husband are hiding from police and her Muslim family for violating an article of Islamic law (sharia) that doesn’t exist in the Egyptian penal code.

Police arrested Mussa, 22, on April 13 for marrying Sarwat George Ryiad in a customary marriage (zawag al ‘urfi), an unregistered form of matrimony in Egypt made without witnesses. It has gained popularity among Egyptian youth but is not sanctioned by most Islamic scholars.

The two signed a marriage contract between themselves. Only Ryiad and their attorney have a copy. Police have not obtained a copy of the contract, but they used its existence as a pretext for arresting Mussa.

So, under Egyptian law, no crime was committed, and Islamic scholars don’t even recognise the marriage. Why exactly was Raheal Henen Mussa arrested?

This is the latest in a long series of incidents of official persecution of Christian converts by Egyptian authorities.

Ex-Muslim Martha Samuel was arrested in December as she was about to leave Egypt with her family. She was reportedly raped and tortured while in custody. In January, she was granted bail by a judge who told a lawyer he wanted to kill her.

In November, a Coptic priest was sentenced to five years for marrying a Christian man and a woman who had converted from Islam to Christianity. In March 2008, a Christian husband and his wife were sentenced to ten years for getting married. She was a convert from Islam.

Exactly what law did these people violate?

Most astonishing (to me, anyway) is that one of the Christians leaders is Anglican.

Calling the religion an ideology driven by world domination, a submission to the Land and Environment Court yesterday said a proposed school at Camden was a “beachhead” in Islamic takeover of southwestern Sydney, threatening the Australian way of life.

The attack, co-signed by local heads of Baptist, Anglican, Presbyterian and the Evangelical Sisters of Mary churches, formed the spearhead of Camden City Council’s defence to a court challenge over its rejection of a development application for the Muslim school.

“Islam is not simply a private religion. It is driven by a powerful political agenda, it is an ideology with a plan for world domination,” the letter said.

“The Quranic Society application to establish an Islamic school in Camden is typical of a regularly repeated pattern to form a beachhead in an area for the development of a sub-culture which, for the most part, regards its own legal system as superior to the current Australian law.”

True Christian ecumenism in action.

Whitehall officials will train pro-West Islamic groups to manipulate their Google search ranking in an attempt to drown out extremist voices online, The Register has learned.

The policy is being developed despite recent warnings from a group of international experts on radicalisation that such strategies are likely to be “largely ineffectual”.

But when has lack of effectiveness ever stopped a government programme?

The Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism (OSCT), a 200-strong Home Office unit created 18 months ago, has said in meetings it wants to “flood the internet” with “positive” interpretations of Islam. It plans to train government-approved groups in search engine optimisation techniques, which it’s hoped will boost their profile online and battle radicalisation.

A recent study found that young Muslims looking for extremist information online are unlikely to resort to conventional search engines.  Such materials are usually discovered via web forums and online associates.

h/t: Faith Central

Easter ‘with Taliban blessing’

EASTER DAY passed off without a hitch in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, thanks to the Taliban’s support

To read the rest, you need a subscription.

Fortunately, Andii Bowsher has a subscription and provides some astute analysis. He smells a rat.

The thing may look at first encouraging: “The Taliban, who are very visible and easy to contact, had been contacted in advance, about a week before Easter, by a group representing the churches, and they said: ‘Go ahead with the services. We totally want you to have your services.’” It could be read as a commendable step in the right direction by a hardline Muslim organisation. But, recall, this is in line with Qur’anic and sharia principles: the Christians are regarded as dhimmi -a protected minority. We’re not told whether these Christians are yet being ‘asked’ to pay a jizya (tax on dhimmis)The ominous indicator of what is really going on is here: “Dr Gosling said that the Taliban had told them: “Have your services, and give us a list of anybody who doesn’t attend.” “. In other words, the taliban are quite willing to work at their version of religious apratheid [sic]. The dhimmi status, historically speaking erodes the ‘protected’ communities because they are prevented from making disciples from outside their own community and the social and marriage rules of dhimmitude tend to attract the less committed to convert to at least nominal Islam. However, once through that religious boundary, the rules make it nigh on impossible for a person, a family, to return. It’s a semi-permeable membrane allowing osmosis in an Islamic direction, but not in reverse. So while it’s nice that Christians have been able to celebrate Easter in this part of Pakistan, the longer term implications are that this is the ‘sweetener’ for the osmotic Islamic religious membrane.

Church Times bills itself as “the world’s leading Anglican weekly newspaper”.

Eklemeddin İhsanoğlu, the OIC Secretary-General, stressed in a statement Monday that “human rights and man’s dignity are an integral part of Islam and core components of Islamic culture and heritage.”
[…]
“An OIC human rights commission would promote tolerance, and fundamental freedoms, good governance, the rule of law, accountability, openness, dialogue with other religions and civilizations, the rejection of extremism and fanaticism, and the strengthening of the sense of pride in the Islamic identity,” he said.

In view of the following, it’s impossible to take any of that seriously.

[O]f the 57 [OIC member states], only six – Benin, Guyana, Indonesia, Mali, Senegal and Suriname – are deemed “free” according to Freedom House assessment. The democracy watchdog scores all nations annually for political rights and civil liberties, classifying them as either “free,” “partly free” or “not free.”

More reasons not to trust the OIC when it comes to human rights:

• Muslim women around the world face crisis over violence
• Afghan Christians worship in secret
• Two imprisoned Iranian Christians in poor health
• Systematic persecution campaign against Palestinian Christians
• Sabatina James at centre of conflict between Islam and human rights
• Regulation of Muslim marriages needed to protect women
• Ladies, cover your entire body, except one eye: Saudi cleric
• Easter for secret believers

Last week in court, according to Mr Athanasius’ lawyers, state attorneys demeaned Christians and Christianity and insisted that Islam is a superior religion.

“In their contempt of Christianity they argued that Islam is the ‘better’ religion and therefore, it is better not to move from Islam to Christianity for the sake of public interest. The true religion for Allah is Islam”, commented [attorney Howaida] ElOmda.

One of the plaintiff’s attorney team objected to the judge by saying: “I am an Egyptian citizen and a lawyer like him, stand beside him in the street and in the Bar Association and also here in court; he wants to make me feel I am inferior to him, just because I follow an ‘inferior’ faith to his, according to his thinking. Why is he demeaning me and my religion?

Despite the fact that several death threats have been made against Mr Athanasius, presiding judge Hamdi Yassin ordered him to appear in court in person.  At one point in the session, he declared: “I am a Christian, my brothers, and you could also kill me!”

Peter Athanasius is 56 years old, has been a Christian for almost 35 years, and raised his daughter in the Christian faith.

One of the plaintiff’s attorneys says that the outcome of the case is eagerly awaited by “thousands of Muslim-born Egyptians who have converted to Christianity” and want to have their religious affiliation officially changed.

A ruling is expected within two months.

“They are in a cell with 27 other women and the terrible living conditions have caused both to suffer ill health. They have not been allowed to see a doctor. However, they are very encouraged that Christians around the world are praying for them.”

Elam Ministries says: “There is a possibility that they can be released on bail soon. If this happens they will still have to face a court case with the possibility of being sentenced to life imprisonment.”

The only crime these two brave women have committed is to be disciples of Jesus.

Please pray for the health and safe release of Maryam and Marzieh.

Speaking in Kano, while delivering lecture on challenges of shariah implementation, Fagge said, ” the commissioner of police is posted to Kano to protect the state laws. Therefore, as a Muslim, you should remember that you can die or retirement could force you out of office. However, Sharia legal system would remain in the state forever.”

That sounds like a threat.

For good measure, Kano’s Ulama Council also ripped into the police commissioner.

The Council of Ulama in Kano yesterday warned the Commissioner of Police, Muhammad Aminu Yesufu, to stay clear of the way of full implementation of sharia or face the wrath of the people.

The Chairman, Kano Council of Ulama, Sheik Ibrahim Umar Kabo, accused the police of sabotaging the effort of Hisbah to curb “evils” in the state.

Kabo stated that the police boss turned several offers from the Hisbah Board to train the Hisbah corps on the rudiment of maintenance of law and order.

He added that the police boss also rejected other complimentary services rendered by the sharia corps.

Beware sharia corps bearing “complimentary services”.

Sara, a 32-year-old mother of three children, has been trying to secure a divorce from her husband.

“My case has been in the court for three months,” she said. “My husband is demanding SR50,000 while all I received from him as a dowry was SR30,000.”
[…]
Sara’s brothers offered to help out with the cash, “but it is not fair, they all have families and responsibilities,” she said.

“Some men use the khula system to make money on account of women who are willing to pay off their husbands in order to end a troubled marriage,” said Noha, a 28-year-old mother of a four-year-old.

In effect, these Saudi women are forced to pay their husbands to make them go away.

Khula divorce is another example of systemic discrimination faced by Saudi women.

h/t: Mission & Justice

On March 5th 2009, two Iranian Christian women, Miss Marzieh Amirizadeh Esmaeilabad (30), and Miss Maryam Rustampoor (27), were arrested by the Iranian security forces. Their only crime is that they are committed Christians who follow the teachings of Jesus.  They are being unfairly labeled as ‘anti-government activists’, because of the hostility of the government towards practising Christians.

After several interrogations and a court appearance, bail was set at the absurdly high amount of US$400,000.  They are being held without charge in the notorious Evin Prison.

FCNN also reports the two women are in serious need of medical attention.

h/t: BosNewsLife

A rape victim has told a city court that she wants to marry her violator. Almost four years after Sheila was allegedly raped by Ali (both names changed), she has converted to Islam and is ready to accept him as her husband.
[…]
Sheila, who had earlier identified the accused and deposed against him in court, pleaded that after registration of the case in 2005, people in her locality were constantly maligning the image of her family. “The rape case has made my life hell and jeopardised my future prospects of leading a happy married life. I want to marry Ali, as our marriage would end my ordeal,” Sheila told the court.

She even requested the court to release the accused on bail, so he could marry her.

The court agreed with the prosecution that bail was inappropriate in a case involving such a violent crime.

An advocate for rape victims said that Ali’s mother had pressured Sheila into agreeing to marry in hopes of getting her son out of jail.