Trevor Blake: Islam in the News

BBC News, Danish Police Shoot Intruder at Cartoonist’s Home:
The man had entered Mr [Kurt] Westergaard’s house armed with a knife and axe and had shouted in broken English that he wanted to kill him. Mr Westergaard ran to a specially designed panic room where he raised the alarm.
KR News, Charity cartoon rejected over terror fears:
TV2’s morning lifestyle programme Go’morgen Danmark was the latest in a long line of those trying to help the victims of the Haitian earthquake. The show organised an auction through auctioneers, Lauritz.com, and asked well known politicians and personalities to donate personal items for the charity fundraiser. A signed copy of Bill Clinton’s book dedicated to the head of the Social Democrats, concert and sports events tickets and a porcelain doll owned by Pia Kjærsgaard, head of the Danish People’s Party, are already listed in the auction. However, when cartoonist Kurt Westergaard – forever to be associated with the Mohammed cartoons and terror threats – was asked to submit a new drawing for the auction, the auctioneers refused to accept it. According to Mette Jessen of Lauritz, the decision was taken because of the latest attempt on Westergaard’s life when an alleged assassin broke into his house on New Year’s Day. ‘We must recognise that the terror threat is still of such a character that we can’t predict the consequences of a sale. We value the safety of our employees quite highly, which is why an eventual risk assessment was used in our consideration,’ she said. Westergaard was disappointed in Lauritz’s decision, saying it was just another example of how his name creates fear. ‘The drawing was in no way controversial, but it seems my name is. I’m sorry for the fear it causes people. When even my hairdresser, who is Muslim, told me with sadness that she didn’t dare keep me on as a customer for fear of reprisals, then there’s reason to be sad about this development,’ he said.
VOA News, Death of Gay Activist Brings Turkey’s Attitude Toward Gays Into Focus:
For 26-year-old Ahmet Yildiz, the choice to live openly as a gay man in Turkey proved deadly. Prosecutors say his father, charged with allegedly killing his son in what is being dubbed as the first gay honor killing, traveled more than 900 kilometers from his hometown to shoot his son in an old neighborhood of Istanbul.
FOXNews.com, Saudi Teen Sentenced to 90 Lashes for Cell Phone in School:
Saudi Arabia is the world’s leading country in the use of torture-by-flogging, and religious police keep a close watch over public behavior.
RFI, Playwright Petrol Attack Handed to Terrorist Police:
The 45-year-old was attacked on Tuesday night outside the theatre in Paris where her play is showing. Two men insulted her in Arabic and poured petrol over her. They then threw a cigarette at her, which failed to ignite.
MetaFilter, Malaysian Churches Attacked Over “Allah”:
Malaysian Catholic newspaper Herald was recently involved in a major lawsuit against the Malaysian government, stating that their constitutional rights were violated when they were stripped of their license to publish in East Malaysian indigenous language Kadazandusun. The ruling was overturned, amidst support by state ministers and protests by the Government, the Islamic Opposition party, and Muslim activists – some of whom have spent the past week attacking churches and convents through firebombs, Molotov cocktails, paint, and bricks thrown at glass.
MetaFilter, The Women of Afghanistan:
87 percent are illiterate. 44 years is their average life expectancy. 70 to 80 percent face forced marriages.
Sam Harris, Liberals Have More to Fear than Cheney (circa 30 January 2008):
Liberals need to realize that there are people in the Muslim world far scarier than Dick Cheney.
NYPOST.com, Art Therapy for Terrorists:
“There is no criteria for evaluation,” John Horgan, a Department of Homeland Security consultant, told the New York Post.
Times Online, Iranian Dancer Afshin Ghaffarian Describes Ordeal at the Hands of Basij:
Ghaffarian is a dancer – an activity banned by Iran’s Islamic rulers and punishable by long prison terms. “If he had known that he would have beaten me even harder,” Ghaffarian said.
Robert Scheer, Bush’s Faustian Deal with the Taliban (22 May 2001 via archive.org):
Enslave your girls and women, harbor anti-U.S. terrorists, destroy every vestige of civilization in your homeland, and the Bush administration will embrace you. All that matters is that you line up as an ally in the drug war, the only international cause that this nation still takes seriously. That’s the message sent with the recent gift of $43 million to the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, the most virulent anti-American violators of human rights in the world today.
All articles continue at links. Part of a series that never ends… [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] and etc. “They’re making the last film… “
