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Headlines
Iran and Russia’s friendship is more complicated than it seems... The White House said that Iran is expected to supply Russia with “hundreds” of drones – including weapons-capable drones — for use in the war in Ukraine and that Iran is preparing to begin training Russian forces on how to operate them as soon as this month. CNN July 20, 2022
Khamenei will burn in Hell. "Helping the oppressors" is the 30th of the fifty grave sins, sins where the sinner is guaranteed to spend eternity on fire.
Islamic veil: Why fewer women in North Africa are wearing it One of the most obvious ways to assess that is by looking at the most potent symbol of the impact of Islamism: the hijab. Young Moroccan women have spoken to local media about the social pressure, even harassment, they have to endure when they take off the hijab. But that has apparently not deterred them... Merely criticising the hijab in Western democracies has also become almost synonymous with "Islamophobia" or attacks on minority rights. But in Muslim-majority societies it [criticising the hijab] is still regarded as part of a legitimate campaign for the liberation of women from stifling tradition. BBC, July 19, 2022
In Canada, except for the Province of Québec, the hijab is welcomed everywhere even in places you least expect as is the niqab which Québec has partially banned and the Federal Government wholeheartedly endorsed in spite of opposition from Muslims who argued that new citizens taking the oath of citizenship incognito was a niqab too far.
Chelsea teacher reassigned due to her hijab overwhelmed by public support Ottawa Citizen, Dec 9, 2021
It's about teaching your children well | What is happening in English Canada
More in Topics: Women's Wear
"Not wearing the hijab does not make the woman a renegade, but simply a woman who disobeyed God." Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb
Muslim mothers and daughters celebrating Canada Day while remaining of God's good graces.
India state on alert after Prophet Muhammad row beheading. The victim, a tailor named Kanhaiya Lal, was killed in Udaipur district on Tuesday by two Muslim men, who filmed the act and posted it online. They claimed the act was in retaliation for the victim's support for controversial remarks made by a politician on the Prophet Muhammad. BBC June 29, 2022
Why the tailor had to to die:
The controversy began with comments made by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokeswoman Nupur Sharma on the TV station Times Now on May 27. Sharma was commenting on the Gyanvapi mosque controversy. The mosque in northeast India was built on the site of an earlier Hindu shrine. Some Islamists have reportedly claimed that there actually was no shrine at the site. During the TV segment, Sharma rhetorically asked if she should "mock" some parts of the Muslim holy book, the Quran. She specifically mentioned "flying horses," a likely reference to the buraq creature. She also brought up the Prophet Muhammad's marriage to Aisha, describing her as 9 years old at the time the marriage was consummated, according to local media.
After Sharma’s comments, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s spokesman for the Delhi region Naveen Kumar Jindal accused Muhammad of rape in a tweet.
Al-Monitor, Explainer: India BJP Party spokesperson's comments on prophet spark backlash, June 6, 2022
Al-Burak is the winged horse that Muhammad rode to Paradise for a meeting with God during which the five daily prayers were negotiated. This is an article of faith. It should not have caused offence.
That would not have been the case with Aisha’s marriage to a man old enough to be her grandfather, details of which Islam would like to keep under wraps so as not to further tarnish the reputation of a man revered as the personification of the perfect human being whose every action is to be emulated as closely as possible. The Western media has been more than happy to oblige, refusing to report on what was said and whether it was factual.
What Aisha and others had to say about the blessed event!
What about the rape accusation? In Love, Sex and Islam I speculate as to how it all went down in reminiscing about Jasmine. You be the judge.
Sharma also "specifically mentioned" that, in the Koran, the Earth is flat. The less said about that the better.
Supreme Court further erodes separation between church and state in case of praying football coach… The court said coach Joe Kennedy’s prayers amounted to private speech, protected by the First Amendment, and could not be restricted by the school district. The decision lowers the bar between church and state in an opinion that will allow more religious expression in public spaces. CNN June 27, 2022
Islam is the big winner from this Supreme Court decision which further blurs the line between Church and State. Islam is all about the public demonstration of your faith; the five daily prayers which must be performed at a specific time—war being the only exception—no matter where you are being the most conspicuous. It all begins with the call to prayer which this decision will make impossible to deny. After this decision, Islam, with its unabashed, in your space (not a typo), proselytizing will have the Christian’s lunch, and the law will be on their side.
Mark Lilla, professor of the humanities at Columbia University is wrong; it is not the Muslims who will be responsible for the demise of the fragile exception, but Christians.
After centuries of strife, the West has learned to separate religion and politics – to establish the legitimacy of its leaders without referring to divine command. There is little reason to expect the rest of the world – the Islamic world in particular – will follow.
We in the West find it incomprehensible that theological ideas still inflame the minds of men, stirring up messianic passions that can leave societies in ruin. We had assumed that this was no longer possible, that human beings had learned to separate religious questions from political ones, that political theology died in 16th-century Europe. We were wrong. It's we who are the fragile exception.
Abortion bans trample on the religious freedom of Muslims, too. There is not just one sharia rule on abortion. There are many. As Islamic law expert Abed Awad and Imam Omar Suleiman have pointed out, different Islamic schools of thought have different rules on whether and when one can have an abortion. Among them are: abortion is permissible through the first 120 days of pregnancy*... an exception exists in every Islamic legal school (if the life or health of the mother is at risk,) regardless of the timing. Asifa Quraishi-Landes, San Francisco Chronicle June 23, 2022
The Koran has nothing to say about aborting a fetus. Schools of Islamic Law that allow abortion after fertilization, such as the 120 days quoted, rely on what the Prophet said about when a fetus is ensouled.
Narrated Abdullah:
Allah's Apostle, the truthful and truly-inspired, said, "Each one of you collected in the womb of his mother for forty days, and then turns into a clot for an equal period (of forty days) and turns into a piece of flesh for a similar period (of forty days) and then Allah sends an angel and orders him to write four things, i.e. his provision, his age, and whether he will be of the wretched or the blessed (in the Hereafter). Then the soul is breathed into him."
Bukhari 77.593
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* There are four Sunni Islam schools of thought: Hanafi, Shafi‘i, Hanbali and Maliki. The Hanafi, the school which allows abortions "through the first 120 days of pregnancy" has the most adherents, an estimated one third of Muslims worldwide. The Maliki, the second largest with an estimated 25% following, does not permit abortion at any stage after fertilization, except if the mother's life is at risk.
Shia Islam
"The Iranian Parliament, in 2003, approved therapeutic abortion before 16 weeks of gestation under limited circumstances, including medical conditions related to fetal and maternal health." National Library of Medicine
Buzz Lightyear film featuring same-sex couple will not play in 14 countries In the film, Buzz's close friend is a female space ranger who marries another woman. A scene showing milestones in the couple's relationship includes a brief kiss. CBC June 14, 2022
There might be some wiggle room for some countries where the Koran is the guide as the Book has nothing to say about female same-sex relationships, and when it comes to condemning illicit sex it is always full blown intercourse.
And in the hadiths where Muhammad orders a man to be stoned for illegal intercourse he goes to great lengths to confirm that there was actual penetration.
Grenoble: topless bathing and burkini authorised in municipal pools. The Mayor, May 17, 2022
Women of Grenoble will now be able to bathe in the city's public pools fully dressed or with nothing on except for a bikini bottom in a controversial decision that avoided making the issue about religion but about a women's right to show as much or as little skin as she wants when bathing in public. Barring your breasts in public was something Arab women used to do before Islam.
Bob: WOW! Arab women showing their boobs in public.
Uzza: Arab women, before Islam, were not the dominated prudes you see today. Before Islam, Arab women were very much spirited partners of the men they married.
Gerry: What a modern outlook.
Uzza: The Arab men and women of what Islam calls the Age of Ignorance, before Allah sent the Book to Muhammad, were modern before modern became a dirty word.
Archie: From women who bared their breasts in defiance, to women who won't bare their nose to sneeze.
Excerpt from Remembering Uzza: Overkill Becomes the Norm
The pros and cons of swimming fully clothed.
Taliban to force Afghan women to wear face veil Any woman who refuses to comply and ignores official warnings to male members of her family could see a male guardian jailed for three days. BBC May 7, 2022
The women of Afghanistan are not only to become invisible but also TO BE BRUTALIZED LIKE NEVER BEFORE. Their guardian (husband, father, brother, uncle), to avoid jail, will beat them into submission, as is their God-given right.
4:34 Men are in charge of women, because Allah has made some of them excel the others, and because they spend some of their wealth. Hence righteous women are obedient, guarding the unseen which Allah has guarded. And those of them that you fear might rebel, admonish them and abandon them in their beds and beat them. Should they obey you, do not seek a way of harming them; for Allah is Sublime and Great!
The head covering, e.g., hijab may be about piety but the face-covering veil means nothing of the kind. It was decreed by Muhammad to conceal a woman's identity when she had to answer the call of nature in a common area of Medina frequented by both men and women.
Maamoul: A sweet celebration for Christians and Muslims. Maamoul is made at the end of both Lent and Ramadan, leading up to Easter and Eid al Fitr. But this year, the biscuit is extra sweet as both religions celebrate it at the same time. BBC, April 14, 2022
If Muslims cannot enjoy a nice glass of white wine with their maamoul, don't blame Muhammad, blame Umar.
CANADA
ZARQA tells the story of a Muslim divorcee looking for revenge. Little Mosque on the Prairie creator is back with a web series many can relate to. CBC May 13, 2022
Little Mosque was both an insider joke and a polished piece of propaganda. Expect no less from Zarqa. Before watching Zarqa I would recommend you read Remembering Uzza - If Islam Was Explained To Me in A Pub, a play about a dystopian future where a young Muslim woman goes to a bar to reflect on her impending arranged marriage and ends up explaining what Islam is all about to patrons and a no-nonsense bartender (all based on real people) so that you will know when you are the butt of a joke.
Dozens arrested at Sweden riots sparked by planned Quran burnings Saudi Arabia has condemned what it called the "deliberate abuse of the holy Quran by some extremists in Sweden, and provocation and incitement against Muslims". BBC April 18, 2022
People in Canada have never burnt, to my knowledge, the Koran but have trampled its pages in protest at what is contained in the Saudi sponsored translation of the Koran.
National Muslim charity launching legal challenge of CRA audit [of its operations], calling it Islamophobic The Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) plans to serve the government with its formal legal challenge today. CBC April 13, 2022
Islamophobia: an accusation for all occasions.
RCMP forms task force to create national hate crimes policing standards... Mohammed Hashim the executive director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation [and advocate for Canada’s Muslim communities] will co-chair the task force. Globe and Mail, Mar 22, 2022
Islam is not a race but a religion. That distinction is increasingly being blurred by Islamists who see it to their advantage to label criticism of Islam as being racially motivated therefore subject to official scrutiny and prosecution. I trust the RCMP will appreciate the difference should recommendations be made that have more to do with protecting Islam from criticism than improve policing of race related offences.
OFF-TOPIC
Immigration minister says he's working on a faster path to permanence for temporary residents The federal government set a goal of accepting 432,000 newcomers this year alone. Fraser said his department is ahead of schedule, despite the pandemic. CBC June 12, 2022
An uncomfortable truth:
U.S. Senator: Canada's a freeloader on defence and it's getting tiring
CBC May 10, 2022
Freddy the Freeloading Country
A Willful Ignorance
In my writings on the Koran, Muhammad and Islam I have tried to explain the seemingly complicated in terms we can all understand in what has become, with Lucette's passing, a solitary campaign against the willful ignorance that will be our undoing.
Why the Pessimism? | Stopping the Draining of the Light
Biographies
Shooting the Messenger- Till Death Do Us Part
Love, Sex and Islam - A mix of reality and scriptures - Adults Only
