Boreal
2023 Islamic Scriptures as They Relate to Current Events
News analysis you will not find anywhere else
[50] Afghan couples marry in mass ceremony in bid to cut costs... The brides-to-be were kept out of sight in a separate wing - it was only after lunch they appeared. BBC Dec. 26, 2023
Left, bridegrooms holding bouquets fronted by rows of cakes. For this august occasion the invisible bride need not be camouflaged in black, but in a flowing floor-length white dress and a blanket size green cloak to complete the obliteration of her feminine form and features. Like the black tent-like garment, the burka, that she will wear when venturing outside the home, this is to avoid, in this instance, arousing male well-wishers during her brief appearance to be lectured to by an official from the ministry for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice reciting verses from the Koran.
The ostentatiousness is strictly for show as a marriage is a done deal once the bride has guaranteed, in writing, unfettered access to her private parts. The marriage of a child to an older man is seldom publically celebrated as was the case with Muhammad’s marriage to Aisha.
During
the brideless lunch with cake at what is, in essence, the bridegroom's wedding, the bridegrooms raised their bouquets in a toast to their good fortune—not forgetting to thank Allah if they know what's good for them—while opening their wedding gifts.
The bride will already have received what could be considered a gift: her dowry,
which she can use to ransom herself if the
marriage is not what she expected and her husband refuses to grant her a
divorce.
And you thought the bizarro world of Islam could not get any more bizarre.
Merry Christmas Boreal Dec. 25, 2023
Jesus’ birth in the Koran. Jesus was one of only three babies to speak shortly after birth.
Stunning new images reveal ‘Christmas Tree
Cluster’ and celestial snow globe in space New images captured by
two of NASA’s space telescopes showcase how the light from young stars can
deck the cosmos with holiday cheer. CNN Dec. 20, 2023
Mount Olympus is only 1,900 meters (6,200 ft.) in height therefore it is safe to assume that someone climbed it and returned with the news that no gods could be found there long before the first official recorded climb in 1913.
That first eyewitness account would have put to rest the myth of the gods of Olympus. The same should have happened to the god who claimed that the Earth was a raft floating on a sea of mud and that Paradise was just above the clouds when Gagarin first orbited the Earth. Further evidence that Allah’s description of the heavens was nonsense was provided on that fateful 1968 Christmas orbit of the Moon by Apollo 8. The Moon and the Sun did not follow each other sinking into and rising from that sea of mud resulting in night and day.
Rex Murphy: An antisemitic menace stalks Canada and Trudeau couldn't care less National Post, Dec 19, 2023
Trudeau’s Islamophilia may explain his equivocal condemnation of anti-Semitism.
Mali's ancient city defies jihadist siege to stage a festival In the shadow of Timbuktu's ivory-coloured Monument To Peace, musicians from across Mali took the stage as the sun set on the sand-coloured houses of the historic city on the edge of the Sahara Desert. BBC Dec. 18, 2023
There is no nudity, unlike at the Hajj when the pagans were in charge, which this festival is refreshingly reminiscent.
Amal Clooney says this company split profits with ISIS CNN's Fareed Zakaria speaks with International Human Rights Attorney Amal Clooney about French cement company, Lafarge, and how the company entered a revenue sharing scheme with ISIS and the al-Nusrah Front that produced millions for the terrorist groups, according to court filings from the plea deal the Justice Department reached with Lafarge. CNN Dec 18, 2023
Lafarge shared millions with ISIS while the Canadian government facilitated the trafficking of teenaged girls to the terrorist state. Whose actions are the more unconscionable?
A Viral Dance and ‘Happiness Campaign’ Frustrates Iran’s Clerics It all started when a 70-year-old fish market stall owner nicknamed “Booghy” was grooving in public, in violation of Iranian law. A video of Sadegh Bana Motejaded, 70, singing and dancing in a small market in Rasht, Iran, has grown into a symbol of civil disobedience and a demand for freedom and happiness. NY Times, Dec. 16, 2023
Why in Iran people can’t be happy without risking running afoul of the law.
Allah did not create man so that he could have fun. The aim of creation was for mankind to be put to the test through hardship and prayer. An Islamic regime must be serious in every field. There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam. There can be no fun and joy in whatever is serious.
Ayatollah Khomeini
Khomeini's Legacy of Obscenities
Taliban imprisoning Afghan women to protect them from gender-based violence. A U.N. report says Taliban officials are sending Afghan women to prison to protect them from gender-based violence. The Associated Press December 14, 2023
Unless a husband beats his spouse(s) about the face, under Sharia law, he cannot be held accountable.
Nude painting row at French school sparks teacher walkout
France's education chief has visited a school where some pupils refused to look
at a painting of nude women in class, sparking a teacher walkout. The pupils
also accused their teacher of making racist and Islamophobic remarks, which the
school denies. Teachers at the Jacques-Cartier school near Paris refused to work
in response. A union head said it recalled the brutal killing
of Samuel Paty, who was murdered after he showed caricatures of the Prophet
Muhammad in a class. BBC Dec. 12 2023
First it was showing cartoons in class that might get you killed, now it's paintings from the Renaissance. This is insane. If more Muslim high school students were exposed to artful representation of the female form they might be less inclined, later in life, such as during New Years festivities in Cologne or during the Hajj, to seek to understand with probing hands what their religion has denied their eyes until their wedding night.
What Abdullah Domeini had to say about these blasphemies from the Renaissance that so distressed students raised on Islamic values.
Workers, beware of listening to 'Last Christmas' this Christmas Ariana Grande's cover of the 1984 hit has been deemed the most distracting holiday song. National Post Dec. 11, 20233
Something special about Ms. Grande of which you may not be aware:
Ariana Grande still donates Christmas gifts to child patients years after Manchester attack... Last year, the 29-year-old gifted 1,000 presents to children in Manchester who were patients over Christmas, CNN Dec 28, 2022
As they prepare to accept her Nobel prize, jailed activist’s children believe they’ll never see her again... Now aged 17, the two [twin brother and sister] will be accepting the Nobel peace prize this Sunday on behalf of their jailed mother, renowned Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi. Together they will deliver her Nobel lecture that was smuggled out of the notorious Evin prison. CNN Dec. 9, 2023
Evin was the prison where Iranian-Canadian freelance photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was sexually assaulted and beaten to death. Another of Iran's notorious prisons is that of Bushehr where my friend Sohrab (an alias) was tortured but eventually managed to escape.
See Nov 7, 2023 posting, Jailed Iranian Nobel winner on hunger strike after being denied medical care for not wearing hijab, for a picture of Narges Mohammadi.
Denmark passes law to ban Quran burnings, BBC Dec. 7, 2023
Et tu, Denmark?
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all convictions, while the worst
are full of passionate intensity.
W. B. Yeats, The Second Coming
What are those who value freedom to do in the face of those who are "full of passionate intensity" in their pursuit of the Free World's destruction? Definitely not follow Denmark’s or Britain's example!
That a country would curtail its citizens’ right to freedom of expression to avoid offending those who consider it a sin (and a made-up one at that) to disrespect a violent, sadistic, pitiless, hate-filled text that demands all who refuse to bow down before the Author be enslaved or exterminated is cowardly in the extreme. It is the type of cowardice that is paving the way for the Darkness to triumph.
Attack of the Depraved Boreal, Dec. 5, 2023
Every woman who has taken to the street, or intends to do so, in support of Hamas should read today’s Israel-Hamas war posting.
Philippine president blames 'foreign terrorists' for deadly explosion at Catholic mass 4 killed, dozens others injured in Marawi by what police suspect was a bomb. CBC Dec. 3, 2023
Foreign or domestic, it does not matter. Those who want you dead are everywhere. Remembering two Canadians beheaded by Filipino Islamists.
With anti-Muslim occurrences on the rise, schools in Canada urged to address Islamophobia Just a handful of school boards, all in Ontario, have developed a classroom strategy CBC Dec. 2, 2023
That the Peel school district would be one of the first to implement what is in essence a strategy to raise the profile of Islam in schools on the taxpayer’s dime was to be expected. Having said that, Islamophobia from Boreal Books would make a great propaganda-free textbook.
Six
French teenagers accused of complicity in the
murder of a teacher will go on trial today. The children were aged between
13 and 15 at the time of the killing of Samuel Paty in 2020 at the hands of
a Chechen refugee. The suspects are accused of slander and pointing out the
teacher to the killer at the school. They face a maximum of 2.5 years in
prison. Mr Paty was stabbed and beheaded on 16 October 2020 after reportedly
showing students cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a class on freedom
of expression. BBC Nov. 27, 2023
Why would children want a teacher killed? You can also blame our leaders. When we needed Churchills all we we got were Chamberlains.
Geert Wilders is not anti-Muslim Boreal Nov. 24, 2023
A misconception is that Geert Wilders is anti-Muslim. He isn’t. He is, much like us at Boreal, worried about the message conveyed by the Koran. That is evident in his short film Fitna which “attempts to demonstrate that the Qur'an motivates its followers to hate all who violate Islamic teachings. The film shows selected excerpts from Surahs of the Qur'an, interspersed with media clips and newspaper cuttings showing or describing acts of violence by Muslims worldwide.” Wiki
The visuals convey one message, the soundtrack quite another. Mr. Wilders is worried about the violence that children, who are expected to have mouthed the entire book before the age of seven, are exposed to. We worry about much more than that.
Dutch far-right populist seeks to form government after shock election win… After his victory, he [Wilders] said “the Netherlands will be returned to the Dutch, the asylum tsunami and migration will be curbed.” CNN Nov. 23, 2023
The paradox is that those who vote for politicians who promise to act decisively to stem both legal and illegal immigration, with the exception of Donald Trump, are not doing so to undermine democracy, a pillar of Western Civilization, but to save it. They see the flow of migrants north as the clear and present danger—especially in Europe where the migration includes a significant number whose beliefs are anathema to Western values and who migrate to what their religion consider the Land of War because that is what their god expects them to do given the opportunity.
In the exception that is Canada, all major political parties favour unsustainable immigrations levels (one million last year alone) as they seek the immigrant vote. Their short-sighted self-interest has not only created record homelessness, housing unaffordability and severely compromised public health care but should ultimately prove particularly disastrous for First Nations as the nation fractures under the strain of too many newcomers and a misguided multicultural policy.
China: Human Rights Watch accuses Beijing of closing and destroying mosques… "The Chinese government's closure, destruction and repurposing of mosques is part of a systemic effort to curb the practice of Islam in China," said Maya Wang, acting China director at Human Rights Watch. BBC Nov. 21, 2023
Then there is the Swiss ban on minarets. In Remembering Uzza, a conversation about the Hajj leads to a discussion about China’s treatment of believers.
Obama, Clooney and Gates: 'We can end child marriage in a generation' Three of the world's most influential women have told BBC News they want to end child marriage within a generation. BBC Nov. 20, 2023
Not without confronting the example of Muhammad. Not about to happen!
Fewer cousins marrying in Bradford's Pakistani community (from 60 to 46% in ten years)... But members of the community say there have been inter-generational tensions over this tradition, with some young people firmly rejecting the idea of arranged marriage - and cousin marriage in particular. BBC Nov 18, 2023
A young woman fleeing an arranged marriage was my introduction to the Koran and for that, in particular, I am grateful.
Witness testimony exposes alleged RSF (Arab militia fighting the Sudanese army) campaign to enslave men and women in Sudan CNN Nov 16, 2023
Except for those who have rich relatives willing to pay a substantial ransom to obtain their freedom, holy warriors don’t normally take men as slaves. They kill them, then and there, and enslave their wives and daughters. What ISIS did to the Yazidis is more in keeping with Muhammad's example—at Medina in particular—which, as ISIS pointed out, is enshrined in Islamic law as a legal precedent.
80 Yazidi men from the village of Kawju were shot dead by Islamic State holy warriors and their wives and daughters taken, it is speculated, to the city of Tal Afar, a gathering area for foreign fighters.
BBC Aug 16, 2014
[Islamic State] terrorists explained in a new publication their justification for taking women and using them as sex slaves, saying simply that it’s a practice that’s as old as Sharia law — and allowed by Islamic beliefs.
Washington Times Oct 13, 2014
Where Does Religion Come From? Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an ex-Muslim critic of Islamic fundamentalism and longtime champion of Enlightenment liberalism, has announced that she now calls herself a Christian. NY Times, Nov. 15, 2023
Ali, as an apostate, will not be able to avail herself of the jizya, the tax that People of the Book (Christians, Jews and Sabians) can pay to keep on breathing. Muhammad insisted, in Bukhari 52.260, that apostates be killed on the spot.
Jailed Iranian Nobel winner on hunger strike after being denied medical care for not wearing hijab CBC Nov 7, 2023
A women’s hair, like beautiful flowers, makes the
world a more attractive place and should not be covered by a symbol of backwardness.
Former Egyptian Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni
Narges Mohammadi, 51, 2023 Nobel Peace Prize winner for her ‘fight against the oppression of women in Iran' was sentenced to 30 years in jail. She risks her life by refusing to be a billboard for a religion that has nothing but disdain for her gender while women with nothing to lose dutifully submit to a retrograde tradition in the mistaken impression that it is all about piety.
Aisha's explanation as to why, what she calls the verse of al-hijab was revealed.
Salman Rushdie calls for unconditional defence of freedom of expression Author who survived 2022 stabbing honoured with Peace Prize of the German Book Trade for continuing to write despite threats and violence. Ottawa Citizen, Oct 22, 2023
Your bravery, Mr. Rushdie, will be of no avail. We are destined to be ruled by Islam having failed, and continuing to fail to protect freedom of speech and freedom of expression thereby allowing a militant religion to advance almost unchallenged. The latest example, the condemning by Western governments of the public burning in Denmark and Sweden of its guide on conducting a merciless war in the face of threats from autocrats and theocrats. More legislation curbing hard-won freedoms to mollify free will’s nemesis expected to follow.
Nobel Peace Prize won by Narges Mohammadi for ‘fight against the oppression of women in Iran’ Mohammadi, 51, has been sentenced to more than 30 years in prison, and has been banned from seeing her husband and children. Her name has become synonymous with the battle for human rights in Iran, where nationwide protests broke out last year following the death of Mahsa Amini. CNN Oct 6, 2023
Like those shot in one eye for protesting the death of 22-year-old Amini while in custody of the infamous morality police, she holds on to hope.
Iran protests: Victims shot in eyes hold on to hopes. BBC April 3, 2023
Before Amini, there was Neda.
What Muhammad may have looked like at 58 years old. Boreal, Oct 6, 2023
Khalid Shaikh
Mohammed is accused of being the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, but the
case has yet to reach the trial phase as defense lawyers seek to suppress some
evidence that they say was derived from torture. New York Times, Oct 6, 2023
Narrated Nafi:
Ibn Umar said, The Prophet said, "Do the opposite of what the pagans do. Keep the beards (as it is) and cut the moustaches short."
Bukhari 72.780
But, what's with the orange beard and raccoon eyes?
Liberating Islam from the Islamists Boreal, Oct 3, 2023
In ISLAMOPHOBIA: What Holy Warriors and Islamists Have To Do With It I provided evidence that Islamists now control the message in furtherance of an agenda that should worry both mainstream Muslims and non-Muslims.
A few days ago, while perusing books at Ottawa’s Librairie du soleil on what is happening in France, I stumbled upon Liberating Islam from the Islamists (my translation of Libéron l’Islam de l’Islamisme) by French imam Hassen Chalghoumi. France (and Germany) are the bellwethers of what happens when you take in a large population of immigrants from another world without addressing what award-winning Algerian author Kamel Daoud calls “the cultural gulf separating the Arab-Muslim world from Europe.”
In Fade to Black, my follow up work-in-progress to ISLAMOPHOBIA, I will be offering a solution that is in keeping with imam Chalghoumi's defense of secularism.
At least 50 people have been killed and more than 50 injured in a suicide attack in Pakistan, police say. The blast happened near a mosque in the south-western Balochistan province on Friday as people gathered to celebrate the birth of the Prophet Muhammad. BBC Sept 29, 2023
Muhammad was against celebrating the birth and life of even pious men like him. He considered it a distraction from worshiping Allah and slandered the builders of shrines as "the worst creatures in the Sight of Allah."
Death toll rises to 25 after suicide attack in Somalia. RDI (my translation) Sept 25, 2023
If instead of telling lies about what is in the Koran we told the truth; for example, that sex in the Hereafter is not all it's cracked up to be, we could seriously reduce these almost weekly mass murders by gullible young men.
Panic in Nagorno-Karabakh but Azerbaijan rejects fears of ethnic cleansing BBC, Sept 23, 2023
Nothing to worry about if you have the means, should the situation arise, to pay the jizya, the right-to-live poll-tax when asked to pay up or die. The Armenian genocide of 2015-16 was an aberration. Under Islamic law, mass murder on a genocidal scale is normally reserved for polytheists societies that refuse to convert and communities of believers who would abandon Islam, Revelation 2:191 "Sedition is worse than slaughter."
"Canada [has] a growing reputation as a safe place for terrorists [and] extremists." Arindam Bagchi India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesperson, Sept 21, 2023
That Canada is a haven for terrorists is old news. In 2004, Stephen Bell published in Cold Terror: How Canada Nurtures and Exports Terrorism to the World. Since then, things have only gotten worse with Canada embarking on a reckless massive immigration program that saw, in 2022, a record number of people on the US Customs and Border Protection’s Terrorist Screening Dataset trying to enter the United States from Canada.
As to Canada, not only harbouring extremists but giving them a voice, believe Fatima Houda-Pepin.
Indonesia jails woman who recited Muslim prayer before trying pork on TikTok. CNN Sept 21, 2023
33-year-old Lina Lutfiawat, like every good Muslim, recited a short prayer thanking Allah for what she was about to eat: fried pork skin in the shape of a chip. Unfortunately, pork is not on Allah’s Jewish-inspired menu; the reason for the two years in jail. Yes, it’s madness, but not as insane as jailing women and girls for not completely covering their hair because of another of those convenient irrational motives emblematic of Islam, that even a stray strand could cause men to become aroused and entertain thoughts of illegal intercourse, i.e., sex outside marriage for which, women in particular, the punishment is severe.
Iran hijab bill: Women face 10 years in jail for 'inappropriate' dress (such as not completely covering their hair when going out in public) BBC Sept 20, 2023
The law is expected to get the approval of the Guardian Council of the Constitution which is responsible for ensuring that all legislation is consistent with what Allah revealed in His Koran and the example of His spokesman, the Prophet Muhammad.
Before the Council, which also decides who can run for Parliament, completely compromised the institution, it passed a law that made it next to impossible for men to marry and have sex with children. The Council disallowed the legislation because it was not in keeping with the example of a man who married and had sexual intercourse with a nine-year-old.
London fashion designer apologizes after
Saudi-flag miniskirt controversy London-based Nigerian fashion designer Mowalola Ogunlesi has apologized after stirring a backlash online
for showcasing a miniskirt with a print of the Saudi Arabian flag CNN Sept 18, 2023
How dare he associate a flag that is an invitation to violence with a garment that is anything but!
Muhammad: "I have been made victorious with terror."
Boreal, September 11, 2023
9/11, and subsequent mass murders in England, Spain and France proved that terrorism works if you are willing to be brutal enough—except in Canada, where two murders were sufficient.
Rarely a week goes by that somewhere in the world men, women and children are not slaughtered or horribly mutilated by so-called holy warriors. Young men, for the most part, commit these atrocities on a god’s promise of an eternity of assembly-line sex with purpose-built female facsimiles for killing and dying on His behalf. Islamists would like us to believe that this is perfectly normal and nothing to be concerned with.
ISLAMOPHOBIA: What Holy Warriors and Islamists Have To Do With It is now available on Amazon.
France to ban schoolgirls from wearing abayas in school Female pupils will be banned from wearing abayas, loose-fitting full-length robes worn by some Muslims, in France's state-run schools. BBC Aug 27, 2023
From a woman's health perspective, this may be a good thing.
Iraq bans media from using term ‘homosexuality,’ says they must use ‘sexual deviance’ CNN Aug 9, 2023
Who is the deviant one?
Arab-Muslim world full of sexual misery, with its sick relationship towards woman, the human body, desire.
Kamel Daoud
Sinead O’Connor’s road to Islam serves as an inspiration. And when she converted, Mr. Al-Qadri allowed her to give the adhan in his mosque; a recording of her prayer shows women, children and men of different races entranced, some weeping upon hearing her call. I wept too, when I watched it. Sheema Khan, Globe and Mail, July 31, 2023
The words of the call to prayer, the adhan, are fairly innocuous. Not so for prayers sung a capella.
Nouhaila Benzina [Morocco] becomes first player to wear hijab at World Cup. BBC July 30, 2023
Promoting, in front of millions, a religion that has nothing but contempt for her sex.
Iran sex tape scandal: Government says no prior knowledge of alleged behaviour A sex tape in Iran has led to the suspension of an official in charge of promoting Islamic values... A video posted online allegedly shows the head of culture and Islamic guidance in Gilan province, Reza Tsaghati, having sex with another man. BBC July 29, 2023
I doubt if the promoter of Islamic values will face the punishment recommended by the embodiment of such values:
The Holy Prophet (S) has prescribed three methods of dealing with the situation (male sodomy), you may choose any one of the three deaths - by having the arms and feet tied and thrown from the cliff, being beheaded or being burnt alive.
From Marriage and Morals in Islam by Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi.
Rizvi's book was on the recommended reading list of Ottawa's largest madrassa.
Homosexuality: Crime and Punishment
Denmark Quran burning: Muslim nations condemn far right group's action... Muslims consider the Quran to be the word of God and view any intentional damage or show of disrespect towards it as deeply offensive. BBC, July 24, 2023
Of the forty grave sins identified by a revelation or a saying of Muhammad there is nothing about desecration of the Koran. God obviously did not care about what was done to a book that should not even exist. Desecration of the Koran is a made up transgression. In fact, Korans in circulation today are an early twentieth century transcription of an eight century oral recitation and should have remained an oral tradition as was the Prophet's wish.
Sweden allows protest burning Torahs and Bibles outside Israeli Embassy... “I unequivocally condemn the permission granted in Sweden to burn holy books. As the President of Israel, I condemned the burning of the Quran, sacred to Muslims world over, and I am now heartbroken that the same fate awaits a Jewish Bible, the eternal book of the Jewish people,” Herzog tweeted. CNN July 14, 2023
Which book is more deserving of being burnt for the violence it contains: the Koran or the Torah?
Ottawa Muslims should think twice about criticizing Pride at schools... They, like Muslims elsewhere, have a right to defend their religious beliefs, but they must be careful to not become part of the rising tide of intolerance against the LGBTQ+ community. Ottawa Citizen, July 7, 2023
They have no choice:
33:36 It is not up to any believer, man or woman, when Allah and His Messenger have passed a judgement, to have any choice in their affairs. Whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger have gone astray in a manifest manner.
Allah's Judgement concerning homosexuals.
Taliban order Afghanistan's hair and beauty salons to shut BBC, July 5, 2023
Women might be getting hair extensions in such places, or God-forbid, get fitted for a wig.
Canada Day, Boreal, July 1, 2023
A great day to be Canadian | A not so great day to be Canadian
Sweden Quran burning: Protesters storm embassy in Baghdad Salwan Momika, said to be an Iraqi living in Sweden, set fire to a copy of Islam's holy book outside Stockholm's central mosque on Wednesday. BBC, June 29, 2023
Is desecrating a book in protest ever justified?
Eid al-Adha: 'This is a huge day for the Muslim community' One of the most important festivals in the Muslim calendar, Eid al-Adha is marked by special prayers and feasts. BBC June 28, 2023
The
feast of Eid al-Adha, the Festival of Sacrifice occurs during the Hajj pilgrimage (see previous entry). The festival celebrates Abraham’s
willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael. On that day, in countries that allow it, fathers and sons, as part of the celebration, do to goats, sheep,
even cows, what Abraham would have done to his son, making the feast of Eid
al-Adha the day when more animals are tortured to death then at any other time of the year.
Muhammad not only demonstrated how God allegedly wanted an animal slowly put to death while fully conscious but also made eating meat an obligation.
2 million Muslim pilgrims expected in Saudi Arabia for hajj as pandemic restrictions ease... All Muslims are required to make the five-day hajj at least once in their lives if they are physically and financially able to do it. CBC June 26, 2023
Two and half million is about the maximum number of pilgrims that can be accommodated for the Hajj because of the limitations of the finite space that is the Ka'ba and its surroundings. If every Muslim alive today wanted to do the Hajj, it would take more than 750 years to accommodate them all. For practical purposes, this means that an estimated 80% or so could end up in Hell for not fulfilling one of the mandatory five pillars of Islam For a solution read to the end of The Hajj.
[22-Year-Old] Hamza Taouzzale became the first Muslim and youngest ever Lord Mayor of Westminster, a ceremonial post that outranks many of the capital’s most powerful and privileged... Being the first Muslim to hold the role required some negotiating, as part of the lord mayor’s job includes speaking regularly at the Abbey, an Anglican church. “Whenever I did a reading at the Abbey, we had to spend a lot of time with the dean to figure out what the right reading was,” he said. “I am a devout Muslim, I’m not going to hide my faith to read something that I don’t agree with, or don’t think is right. So we always had to find a verse somewhere in the Bible, or a reading, that would match my religious understanding.” NY Times, June 23, 2023
It could not have been easy, the New Testament being very much the antithesis of what Islam preaches.
Creeping Shariah Has Nothing on the Woke Mob, NY Times, June 16, 2023
The religious right is seeking rapprochement with people they wanted to stop from immigrating to the United States during Trump’s Presidency thinking that Sharia law is as narrow-minded as they are about exposing children and young people to sex education in school. Little do they know? Muslim children who have yet to attend school know more about sex, including gay sex, than evangelicals on their wedding night.
Southern Baptists Vote to Keep Out Churches With Female Pastors, NY Times June 14, 2023
Islam and Southern Baptists, two peas in a pod when it comes to female preachers; but, you would not get that impression from watching this episode of Little Mosque on the Prairie, the storyline.
Turning the Tide on Animal Suffering, At least nine states and the European Union now ban veal crates, hen cages or tight stalls for sows. New York Times June 10, 2023
In Canada, the tide is going the other way.
A Rapper's detention Shows Iran's Crackdown is Failing. New York Times, May 31, 2023
I wouldn't be too sure about that. Rapper Toomaj Salehi has been charged with "corrupting the land" which carries the death penalty. Khamenei is doing what Muhammad did to successfully silence the wordsmiths of his time. I wouldn't bet against the example of the Prophet.
A Pillar of Erdogan's Victory: Devout Conservative Women, New York Times, May 30, 2023
Pink and Gwen Stephani song lyrics may hold a clue as to why women in their tens of thousands voted for the man who, in 2021, withdrew Turkey from an international treaty on preventing violence against them.
Thousands of ethnic minority Muslims defy Chinese authorities in defense of mosque CNN May 30, 2023
The Chinese simply want to reduce the mosque's profile by removing its minarets (not unlike the Swiss) and altering its dome.
Swiss Ban Building of Minarets on Mosques In a vote [by referendum] that displayed a widespread anxiety about Islam … the Swiss on Sunday overwhelmingly imposed a national ban on the
construction of minarets, the prayer towers of mosques... New York Times, November 29, 2009
What about restricting "religious practices of Hui Muslims across China, including the shuttering of Islamic schools, Arabic classes and barring children from learning and practicing Islam"? Not doing doing so would make the government complicit in teaching adult and often subversive material to children. As to not allowing the teaching of Arabic in conjunction with the Koran, ostensibly to read the text in the original when such a text does not exist, it is limiting the power of language to sow disunity.
Iran will face consequences, Ukraine warns. Russia launched dozens of Iranian-made drones at Ukraine overnight. CNN May 28, 2023
Khamenei will definitely have to answer to Allah. "Helping the oppressors" is the 30th of the fifty grave sins; sins where the sinner is guaranteed to spend eternity on fire.
SpaceX mission lifts off with former NASA astronaut,
three paying customers... the mission is making history as stem cell
researcher Rayyanah Barnawi becomes the first woman from Saudi Arabia to travel to space CNN May 22, 2023
Her namesake in Muhammad's household would be proud. Ali AlQarni, another Saudi astronaut on this historic mission (the first Muslim in space was Saudi), at a news briefing said: "We are holding hands, we are working together for the betterment of humanity and just trying to innovate.” WOW!
‘No one feels safe’: The Taliban promised to provide security to Afghans. New data shows threat from ISIS is growing CNN May 19, 2023
Mother's Day, Boreal, May 14, 2023
Sadly, based on an analysis of observations made by Muhammad, most mothers will be spending Mother's Day (and every other day) in Hell.
Islamic Jihad targets Jerusalem for the first time in current conflict as it fires barrage of rockets at Israel CNN May 12, 2023
Hard to believe that Muslims once prostrated themselves in the direction of Jerusalem. Like Jerusalem before it, Mecca, in 680 or thereabouts, was besieged during which the Ka'ba was burned to the ground.
Iran executes two men convicted of blasphemy Iran has executed two men who were convicted of "burning the Quran" and "insulting the Prophet of Islam", the country's judiciary says. BBC May 8, 2023
The Prophet of Mercy's way of dealing with critics serves as an example to this day.
Businesses Caught in Cross-Fire as Iran Enforces Hijab Law As more Iranian women go without the head scarves mandated by law, efforts by the government to force businesses to promote compliance... In the first days of the Iranian New Year holiday in March, the police showed up at a cafe in Tehran with orders to shut it down for two days. The cafe had run afoul of Iranian law by serving women who were not covering their hair with head scarves, they said. New York Times. May 5, 2023
Secret Service says it turned away Muslim NJ mayor from WH Eid reception. In a statement, CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relation)-New Jersey called the move “an affront to the Muslim community.” CNN May 2, 2023
The Secret Service obviously owes Mayor Khairullah an explanation. That CAIR would elevate this incident into “an affront to the Muslim community” is typical. Expect more of this type of intimidation as militant organisations like CAIR press for more accommodations that, if granted, would, in effect, make Islam the dominant religion in accordance with God's standing order and mission statement:
61:9 It is He Who sent His Messenger forth with the guidance and the religion of truth, to make it triumph over every religion.
The perils and pitfalls of accommodating Islam is a central theme of my next book Between a Pillar and a Hard Place. Bernard P.
Welsh teen forced to take virginity test before marriage. It wasn't just being forced to marry that Farah was against, she also didn't want the test to show she was a virgin. BBC April 26, 2023
Under Islamic Law a virgin cannot be married without her "permission." But, there is a catch.
Tarek Fatah November 20, 1949 - April 24, 2023
The Muslim who saved us from ourselves.
Supreme Court hears appeal of postal worker who didn’t work Sundays in dispute over religious accommodations CNN April 18, 2023
The beginning of the end of a secular state.
IS truffle picker attacks: At least 26 killed in Syrian desert ambush At least 26 people searching for valuable truffles in the Syrian desert have been killed by the Islamic State group, IS militants have repeatedly preyed on those searching for the fungus, with more than 150 people killed this year. A kilogram (2.2lb) can fetch more than the country's average monthly wage. BBC April 17, 2023
IS is not afraid to get its hands dirty. Remember Islamic State? It's making a comeback.
The Young Muslims Challenging Islam's Status Quo. A conservative religious movement spreads through social media has taken hold among Indonesian youth. NY Times April 12, 2023
The most visible part of the challenge are young women who, unlike their counterparts in Iran, insist on wearing the hijab and demand that a reluctant government rein in their stupid, lying, evil, lascivious selves.
'SNL' imagines former President Trump at the Last Supper James Austin Johnson poked fun at Trump loyalist comparisons to Jesus on "Saturday Night Live". CNN April 10, 2023
Allah catered the Last Supper.
Quebec Muslim associations denounce government ban on prayer rooms in schools A group representing Muslim associations in Quebec wants the provincial government to rescind a directive prohibiting the presence of prayer spaces in elementary and high schools. CBC April 8, 2023
Unlike the province of Ontario, Québec will not compromise its public school system. Education Minister Bernard Drainville issued a directive to that effect, prohibiting the presence of prayer spaces in elementary and high schools. The Minister said that they could always "pray silently."
That's not going to happen and a round table of Islamic organizations across the province (Table de concertation des organismes musulmans) is threatening to take the government to court if believers are not allowed to say their prayers so as to be heard in the public school system or in whatever space they find themselves.
Via Rail is apologizing after a video surfaced online of a Muslim man being told he couldn't pray inside the Ottawa train station, but the National Council of Canadian Muslims says an apology isn't enough. CBC March 22, 2023.
That the whole thing appears to have been a setup did not matter. In the video the man says: "Go ahead. You're going viral right now, no worries," as the guard walks away from him. Of course, if the aggrieved party had prayed silently, none of this would have happened. But, that was not the point.
Afghanistan’s women-run radio station vows to fight closure by Taliban: ‘Not afraid of jail or death’... Sadai Banowan, which means “women’s voice” in the Dari language, was ordered to shut down on 30 March by the hardline Islamist regime, which accused it of playing music during the holy month of Ramadan. Independent, April 5, 2023
How this teen memorized the Qur'an by age 10, Every Ramadan, Muslims have a goal of deepening their relationship with the Qur'an, spending more time reciting the holy book and pondering its teachings... some have mastered the difficult task of committing all of it to memory, earning them the title "hafiz." CBC April 4, 2023
Children memorizing the Koran is not a good thing, CBC!
New capital's lavish mosque angers Egyptians facing poverty Egypt has opened a record-breaking mosque in its new administrative capital city - but has been widely criticised for the costs involved. The government has been building a new city in the desert, to try to move people away from heavily-congested Cairo. BBC April 2, 2023
What’s with all the mosques anyway?
The high-speed train that zooms across the Saudi desert In the distant past, Muslim pilgrims came to the holy city of Mecca on foot. Now, though, they can come via high-speed train. CNN March 30, 2023
Pilgrims may be able to get to Mecca faster but, for the vast majority, there is no point. That God did not anticipate the obstacles to performing the Hajj after the end of the world was postponed is a real head-scratcher.
Afghanistan
girls' education: 'When I see the boys going to school, it hurts' Habiba [is] among hundreds of thousands of teenage girls who have been
barred from attending secondary school in most of Afghanistan by the Taliban. BBC March 27, 2023
Dear Habiba,
The Taliban is not about to waste money to further educate a sex whom God and His Spokesman consider mentality deficient. You have a received an education sufficient for you to recite the Koran to your eventual children. Return to reading the Koran and the sayings of the Prophet and you will stop feeling sorry for yourself for you will know your place in their universe and the hurt will stop.
Sincerely
Bernard
Inside Somalia's hidden world of sex work. BBC March 23, 2023
Unlike her counterpart in Muslim countries like Bangladesh where a prostitute can safely practice her profession in government-approved establishments, which includes the largest brothel in the world, working girls in Somalia are very much on their own.
How medication management can help you fast safely this Ramadan. CBC March 23, 2023
If fasting during Ramadan was observed from sunrise to sunset everywhere in the world, in some jurisdictions no medication management could help to fast safely. For example, Ramadan in the land of the midnight sun.
The Fast of Ramadan is a misnomer. It is not as much a fast, which done in moderation can be beneficial, but a changing of your eating schedule from three balanced meals during the day to one large meal on which you gorge yourself after nightfall. It is not only diabetics and people who must take their medicine with food at a specific time during the day who are effected, but healthy individuals who will have to depend on laxatives as such an unhealthy regiment puts the digestive system under considerable strain and who may develop chronic constipation from gorging themselves at night, before turning in, for 30 days straight.
Fasting during Ramadan was not much of a health issue during Muhammad’s lifetime when the vast majority of believers were desert dwellers who called the sizzling sun-drenched Arabian Peninsula home. You did not eat much during the day and conserved your energy during the hottest part of it, often by enjoying a long siesta waiting till the sun went down and the heat of the day started to dissipate to linger over a hearty meal in the company of friends and family before retiring for the night.
There is no consensus as to the impact on dreaming of eating, especially a substantial amount of food just before going to bed but, as pointed out in a Health Alert from Harvard Medical School, “nocturnal eating can interrupt your sleep in various ways, prompting recall of disturbing dreams… [and] trigger night sweats because the body generates heat as it metabolizes the food.” Much of the Koran was revealed, supposedly during Ramadan, during what Muhammad recalled as vivid dreams from which he would often wake up in a sweat.
I'm a biracial Muslim woman in the beer industry. I live in the space between your expectations CBC March 11, 2023
God was initially comfortable with worshippers enjoying an alcoholic beverage, as long as they did not show up for prayers under the influence, until a close collaborator of Muhammad convinced Him otherwise. Read Let me Rephrase That! for the more than 240 times Allah changed His mind.
Manchester bomber friend known to MI5, BBC reveals BBC March 1, 2023
The bomber's friend was Kuwait-born preacher Mansour Al-Anezi. All the more reason for Canada to certify imams, in spite of Elghawaby's opposition. Another reminder on how we could reduce, if not end, the scourge of young men committing mass murder on a god’s promise of an eternity of debauchery for killing and dying on His behalf .
The United Arab Emirates will soon become the first Arab nation to teach the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust in its schools, CNN Jan 13, 2023.
Without the cooperation of the Jews of Medina Islam would have been stillborn. Muslims and Jews used to respect each other and lived together in harmony until an unfortunate misunderstanding which, unless resolved, can only lead to another holocaust. This history too should be taught, in both Jewish and Arab schools, with a view to remedying that misunderstanding and avoiding the worst.
Iran executes two more protestors over the weekend. Two young men, one a karate champion, the other a volunteer children's coach, were executed in connection with nationwide protests. CNN Jan 9, 2023
And Judgement Day is not even imminent when the murder of young people by old men will be the order of the day. This is not to make light of young men being hanged on orders from men closer in age and temperament to Muhammad who wanted to ensure his legacy remained intact after he died.
Alabama woman who joined IS hopes to return to U.S. from Syria camp Associated Press, Jan 8, 2023.
Many young women, including two teenaged girls from Montreal who are presumed to have died whose transit to Syria was facilitated by CSIS would have never joined a terrorist organisation like the Islamic State if they had known what awaited them.
Jerusalem: Palestinian anger over far-right Israeli minister's holy site visit... The hilltop site is the most sacred place in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam. It is known to Jews as the Temple Mount... and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, the site of Muhammad's ascent to Heaven. BBC Jan 3, 2023