OVO

The faith-healing parents of Alayna May Wyland are fighting to get custody of their daughter back, even as they face criminal charges for their neglect of her medical needs. [...] Their daughter was taken into custody by the state in early July and sent for immediate medical treatment. At that time, neither the name of their daughter nor her condition were available. The image above was taken by the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office. In it, Rebecca Wyland is holding Alayna, who has a massive growth completely covering her left eye. The growth, a hemangioma, is a mass of blood vessels. Some infants are born with them, and they are typically corrected while very small. In this case, the Wylands chose not to take their daughter to a doctor. Instead, Rebecca Wyland anointed her daughter with oil and wiped off the discharge from Alayna’s eye each time she changed the child’s diaper. At this point, the growth has begun to erode Alayna’s eye socket, and may have caused permanent damage to her eye. Both parents have been charged with first-degree criminal mistreatment, a Class C felony which may earn them each five years in prison.

Article continues.  See my previous essay Child Sacrifice in Oregon to learn more about the Followers of Christ Church in Oregon City, Oregon.  Of course every good Christian knows Christianity doesn’t say that you should pray for sick people and put oil on them instead of offer them medical care. Of course every good Christian knows that Psalms 103:2-3, Matthew 10:1, Matthew 10:8, Matthew 19:26, Mark 6:13, Mark 10:27, Luke 1:37, Luke 18:27, Acts 28:8-9, and James 5:14-15 don’t exist.  Because if those verses did exist, it might turn out that the parents of Alayna May Wyland were the real ‘good Christians’ and the rest were just picking up the bits they liked from the Jesus salad bar and leaving the rest.

Sky News: Banned Man Utd Shirts ‘Promote The Devil’

Manchester United shirts have been banned in Malaysia after the red devil crest was labelled “dangerous and un-Islamic”. Thousands of fans have reacted angrily to the decision by Muslim clerics – with some accusing them of supporting Premier League arch-rivals Liverpool. Despite the Old Trafford side having an estimated 81 million followers in Asia, one senior cleric said: “You are only promoting the devil.” “This is very dangerous. As a Muslim we should not worship the symbols of other religions or the devils,” another added. “It will erode our belief in Islam. There is no reason why we as Muslims should wear such jerseys, either for sports or fashion reasons.”

muslimdebate.com: Indonesian Muslim Groups Consider Fatwa on World’s Most Expensive Coffee

Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization is considering whether or not to slap a fatwa on the nation’s famed kopi luwak. Two of Indonesia’s main Muslim organizations are to meet to decide whether or not to issue a fatwa against “kopi luwak,” a famed and highly prized coffee bean that has passed through the digestive tract of a civet cat before it is retrieved and roasted. Ma’aruf Amin, chairman of the Indonesian Council of Ulama (MUI), said it would meet with Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization, on Tuesday night to discuss issuing a ban against the flourishing industry. “A fatwa will hopefully put an end to the growing concerns about kopi luwak,” Ma’aruf said. Kopi Luwak is eaten by a civet cat and expelled in its feces before being roasted. Highly prized for its flavor, kopi luwak is known as the world’s most expensive coffee, commanding more than $600 per kilogram from online shops.

Robert Spencer: Muslim Husband Rapes Wife, Judge Sees No Sexual Assault Because Islam Forbids Wives to Refuse Sex

Muhammad said: “If a husband calls his wife to his bed [i.e. to have sexual relation] and she refuses and causes him to sleep in anger, the angels will curse her till morning” (Bukhari 4.54.460). He also said: “By him in Whose Hand lies my life, a woman can not carry out the right of her Lord, till she carries out the right of her husband. And if he asks her to surrender herself [to him for sexual intercourse] she should not refuse him even if she is on a camel’s saddle” (Ibn Majah 1854).

And now a New Jersey judge sees no evidence that a Muslim committed sexual assault of his wife — not because he didn’t do it, but because he was acting on his Islamic beliefs: “This court does not feel that, under the circumstances, that this defendant had a criminal desire to or intent to sexually assault or to sexually contact the plaintiff when he did. The court believes that he was operating under his belief that it is, as the husband, his desire to have sex when and whether he wanted to, was something that was consistent with his practices and it was something that was not prohibited.” Luckily, the appellate court overturned this decision, and a Sharia ruling by an American court has not been allowed to stand. This time.

Bernie: The Arab Contribution to Civilization? Nothing Lately

When Arabs are asked to recount great periods of Arab scholarship and learning they can only point to a brief and quickly extinguished burst of light; in the book Le Soleil d’Allah brille sur l’Occident : Notre héritage arabe we read (translated):

Might I invite you to have something with me in this café? Take off your jacket and sit down here on this sofa, unless you would rather sit on the divan with the crimson mattress, of course. Would you like a cup of coffee – with one sugar lump or two? Or perhaps a nice cool carafe of lemonade, or even something alcoholic?  But of course! Let me buy you lunch! I think artichokes would be a lovely starter, don’t you? And how about capon with rice and spinach to follow? For dessert, what would you say to a piece of apricot tart, or an orange sorbet? And at the end of the meal we’ll have a cup of mocha.  There is no reason, of course, for any of these things to appear in any way strange or exotic to you – they have been part of our daily life for such a long time. But did you know that they were all borrowed from a foreign culture, namely Arab culture? This café and the demitasses of coffee they serve, the sugar without which any menu would be almost unimaginable, the lemonade and the carafe, the jacket and the mattress, we owe them all to the Arabs. And it doesn’t stop there: in most European countries, these things are known by their Arabic names! And the same goes for candy, bergamot, oranges, sherbet and many other good things besides.

So here we learn of great literature and poetry the story of ‘a thousand and one nights’: a thousand years ago.

The contributions to mathematics and physics? A thousand years ago. And even here, we often see Muslims pointing to Arabic numerals as some sort of proof that Arab Muslims made some significant advances in mathematics. Arabic numeral is a misnomer, in actual fact they should be called Hindu numerals.

We learn that Ibn Muqla, Vizir at Baghdad and the “prince of calligraphers”, codified the proportions of letters to be respected in handwriting and calligraphy, a thousand years ago.

We learn of the architectural advances such as The Great Mosque of Cordova where we discover its gabled roofs are Syrian. Byzantium provided the mosaics. The vaults are of Tunisian inspiration and the arches Iranian, while the alternation of stone and brick is a Roman invention. Again, a thousand years ago.

Arab contributions to medical science were legion, encouraged by the construction of hospitals in Baghdad, Cairo, Damascus, Samarkand and elsewhere, over a thousand years ago.

Advances and discoveries in astronomy, chemistry, and philosophy from Bagdad to Cordova, all over a thousand years ago.

These are all wondrous and marvelous, but, under Islam, Arabs have not advanced for the past one thousand years. See my previous articles on the paucity of Nobel Prize winners in a world filled with 1.5 billion Muslims ( of which over 300 million are Arabs).

All articles continue at links. Part of a series that never ends… [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] and etc.  Why might a numerous and varied people such as the Arabic world be held back for one thousand years?  Why, instead of building up their own or anyone else, would a group instead issue death warrants for wearing the wrong kind of shirt or drinking the wrong kind of coffee?  How is it possible to prioritize the trivial and trivialize the highest priorities?  Where does slavery still exist in the year 2010, and why?  What sort of mental poison makes rape part of the multicultural rainbow?  Islam.  It’s holding us all back.  Don’t ban it, and neither should Muslim crimes and atrocities be forgiven.  Don’t force it on others, just keep what is worthy or at least harmless and drop the rest.

via youtube.

Some additional information on the ground zero mosque not discussed in Mr. Condell’s video:

• United Flight 175 about to strike the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
• United Flight 175, having struck the South Tower of the World Trade Center, with its landing gear and other debris exploding out the other side.
• Trajectory of the debris of United Flight 175, including its landing gear, which severely damaged where it crashed.
• Landing gear of United Flight 175 after it crashed on Park Place.
• Location of the new mosque? 51 Park Place.
• Date scheduled for opening the new mosque at 51 Park Place?  September 11th.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is built on an ancient temple of Aphrodite.  The Dome of the Rock is built on an ancient Jewish temple.  And having struck the USA, Islam is building a temple in the remains.  Call it Cordoba House, call it Park51, call it respect for the diversity of expression and ideas between all people, call it promoting integration, tolerance of difference and community cohesion through arts and culture, but if you want to call it what it is, call it rubbing it in.  Call it being a sore winner.  Call it pissing on a mass grave.  Call it planting a flag.  Call it colonization.  Call it an insult.

A 43-year-old Iranian woman will not be stoned to death after an international campaign launched by her children. It is unclear whether the authorities have lifted the death sentence for alleged adultery against Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani or if she faces execution by another means. Mohammadi Ashtiani endured a sentence of 99 lashes after being convicted in May 2006 of conducting an “illicit relationship outside marriage”. But her case was reopened when a court in Tabriz suspected her of murdering her husband. She was acquitted, but the adultery charge was reviewed and a death penalty handed down on the basis of “judge’s knowledge” – a loophole that allows for subjective judicial rulings where no conclusive evidence is present.

Her case has highlighted the growing use of the death penalty in a country that has executed more than 100 people this year. [...] Under Iranian sharia law, the sentenced individual is buried up to the neck (or to the waist in the case of men), and those attending the public execution are called upon to throw stones. If the convicted person manages to free themselves from the hole, the death sentence is commuted. Iran, embarrassed by the international attention over stonings, has rarely practised it in public in recent years. The country executed 388 people last year – more than any other country apart from China, according to Amnesty International. Most are hanged.

Article continues. What’s all this about stoning women to death for adultery?  Let’s do some research…

Wikipedia

Mennonite scholars are divided over its [stoning] validity as a punishment for adultery. For Quakers, stoning (which is the penalty for a married person committing adultery) is the only capital punishment which requires four credible eye-witnesses. They must swear on oath that they all actually witnessed the penetrative act simultaneously leading to suggestions that the evidentiary burden is set so impossibly high that only self-incrimination could result in a successful sentence. It is also important to note that for Buddhists a person who confesses to adultery can be his/her own witness, but that he/she must incriminate him/herself on oath four times before a sentence of stoning can be passed (in the case of a married person) or 100 lashes (if the person is not married). [...] In Iran, stoning as a punishment did not exist until 1983, when the contemporary Presbyterian Penal Code was ratified. Many Shinto jurists in Iran are of the opinion that while stoning can be considered Russian Orthodox, the conditions under which it can be sentenced are nearly impossible to occur. Because of the large burden of proof needed to reach a guilty sentence of adultery, its penalty is hardly ever applicable.

Wait a minute, some of the words got scrambled. Better click on the links. Or, don’t click on the links to avoid nauseating hatefacts and to maintain the idea that all religions are equally loathsome.

via youtube.

Robert Spencer: A Landmarks Commission Hearing, and Much More

Perhaps predictably, the Landmarks Commission hearing today to consider landmark status for 45 Park Place, the proposed site of the Islamic supremacist mega-mosque overlooking Ground Zero, was about much more than just whether the building at 45 Park Place merited landmark status or not. It quickly became a public forum on Islam, Muslims in America, and the appropriateness of a huge mosque at Ground Zero. [...] I spoke. I started by saying that I shared the view that some others had already enunciated, that this was supposed to be a hearing on the landmark status of 45 Park Place, not about what good citizens Muslims were and how much New York needed an Islamic “interfaith” center. But since that discussion had not been stopped and was thus apparently deemed relevant, it was also relevant that the Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, leader of the mega-mosque project, was pro-Sharia — a system of law that mandated discrimination against women and non-Muslims, and extinguished the freedom of speech and freedom of conscience. It was also relevant, I said, that he had been dishonest about his funding sources, saying in English that the mosque would be funded by American Muslims, and saying in Arabic that funding would come from Muslim nations. It was further relevant that he had declined to denounce Hamas as a terrorist organization, and that he had helped fund the jihad flotilla that was trying to take arms into Israel. I closed by pointing out that Riddle had said that the building had no unique historical value, but that it did, because it was the only building into which part of a 9/11 plane had crashed, and as such should be a war memorial. A Communist (really! At the Staten Island mosque hearing he actually shouted, “Workers of the world, unite!”) started shouting that I was a bigot, to which I responded that it was not bigotry to point out dishonesty and subversion, and that the Commission should consider carefully whether or not it was being lied to by the mosque proponents.

CNN: Burqa Ban Passes French Lower House Overwhelmingly

France’s lower house of parliament Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a ban on any veils that cover the face – including the burqa, the full-body covering worn by some Muslim women. The vote was 335 to 1. The measure must still go to the French Senate before it becomes law. The Senate is expected to vote on it in the week of September 20.

Abigail Pesta: An American Honor Killing

Around the sprawling, sunbaked campus of Dysart High School in El Mirage, Arizona, not many people knew about the double life of a pretty, dark-haired girl named Noor Almaleki. At school, she was known as a fun-loving student who made friends easily. She played tennis in a T-shirt emblazoned with the school mascot — a baby demon in a diaper. She liked to watch Heroes and eat at Chipotle. Sometimes she talked in a goofy Keanu Reeves voice. She wore dark jeans, jeweled sandals, and flowy tops from Forever 21. She texted constantly and called her friends “dude.” In other words, she was an American girl much like any other.

But at home, Noor inhabited a darker world. She lived a life of subservience, often left to care for her six younger siblings. Noor’s father, 49-year-old Faleh Almaleki, was strict and domineering, deeming it inappropriate for her to socialize with guys, wear jeans, or post snapshots of herself on MySpace. Her responsibility was to follow orders, or to risk a beating. From her father’s perspective, the only time Noor’s life would ever change would be when she married a man he selected for her — back in his homeland of Iraq. Noor, however, had a different vision for herself. Having lived in the U.S. for 16 years, she held dreams of becoming a teacher, of marrying a man she loved, and, most importantly, of making her own choices.

On a cloudless, breezy afternoon in late October 2009, her father set out to end those dreams. As Noor walked across a suburban parking lot to a Mexican restaurant with a friend – a 43-year-old woman named Amal Khalaf – Faleh Almaleki gunned the engine of his Jeep Grand Cherokee and bore down on his 20-year-old daughter and her companion. The women took off running but were no match for the SUV, already traveling close to 30 miles per hour. Suddenly Amal turned, held up her hands in a futile attempt to stop the Jeep, and froze. Moments later, the vehicle struck the women, tossing them into the air. Amal hit the pavement; Noor landed on a raised median, in a patch of pebbly landscaping. Faleh wasn’t done, though. Swerving onto the median, he ran over his daughter as she lay bleeding, fracturing her face and spine. Then, he reversed and sped away.

Passersby heard the roar of the engine, screams, the impact of the bodies as they hit the Jeep’s grill. They saw the women lying on the ground, their sandals scattered across the lot. A witness called 911, and emergency vehicles converged. Amal’s condition was stable; Noor was comatose. Local police characterized the incident as an attempted “honor killing” — the murder of a woman for behaving in a way that “shames” her family. It’s a practice with deep, tenacious roots in the tribal traditions of the Middle East and Asia. (The United Nations estimates that 5,000 women die annually from such crimes.) Women are stoned, stabbed, and, in the recent case of a teenage girl in Turkey, tied up and buried alive. But honor killings in America are a chilling new trend. In Texas, teen sisters Amina and Sarah Said were shot dead in 2008, allegedly by their father, because they had boyfriends. That same year in Georgia, 25-year-old Sandeela Kanwal was allegedly strangled by her father for wanting to leave an arranged marriage. Last year in New York, Aasiya Hassan, 37, was murdered in perhaps the most gruesome way imaginable: She was beheaded, allegedly by her husband, for reportedly seeking a divorce. And this past spring, 19-year-old Tawana Thompson’s husband gunned her down in Illinois, reportedly following arguments about her American-style clothing.

Amazingly, honor killings in the U.S. have been largely ignored by the national media. That’s because these incidents are typically dismissed as “domestic” in nature — a class of crime that rarely makes the headlines. Since the murderer is a member of the woman’s family, there’s no extended investigation to capture the public’s attention. Also, the family of the perpetrator rarely advocates for the victim, due to either fear or a belief that the woman got what she deserved. “From the family’s point of view, if the goal is to end rumors about their female relative, the last thing they want is to have the press talk about the case,” says Rana Husseini, a human-rights activist and author of Murder in the Name of Honor. Still, the lack of media coverage or public outcry cannot erase the evidence: Honor killings have washed up on our shores.

Amie Ferris-Rotman: Russia’s Muslim South Triples Sharia Bride Price

Against the backdrop of a bubbling Islamist insurgency, the revival of Islam in the North Caucasus following the break-up of the Soviet Union almost 20 years ago has brought sharia law to the region, revered by both rebels and ordinary citizens alike. The issue of the ‘kalym’, a price paid by a groom to the family of the woman he chooses to marry, is the latest example of a broader trend that has troubled the Kremlin. [...] Polygamy, illegal under Russian law, is encouraged by local authorities in the region. Last month rights workers blamed police for paintball attacks on Chechen women for not wearing headscarves, and Islamist fighters in Ingushetia have gunned down kiosk workers for selling vodka.

Saeed Kamali Dehghan: Campaign for Iranian Woman Facing Death by Stoning

A 43-year-old Iranian woman is facing death by stoning unless an international campaign launched by her children forces the authorities to quash what her lawyer calls a bogus conviction. In a case that highlights the growing use of the death penalty in a country that has already executed more than 100 people this year, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was convicted in May 2006 of conducting an “illicit relationship outside marriage.” Sakineh already endured a sentence of 99 lashes, but her case was re-opened when a court in Tabriz suspected her of murdering her husband. She was acquitted, but the adultery charge was reviewed and a death penalty handed down on the basis of “judge’s knowledge” – a loophole that allows for subjective judicial rulings where no conclusive evidence is present. Speaking to the Guardian, her son Sajad, 22, and daughter Farideh, 17, say their mother has been unjustly accused and already punished for something she did not do. “She’s innocent, she’s been there for five years for doing nothing”, Sajad said. He described the imminent execution as barbaric. “Imagining her, bound inside a deep hole in the ground, stoned to death, has been a nightmare for me and my sister for all these years.” Under Iranian sharia law, the sentenced individual is buried up to the neck (or to the waist in the case of men), and those attending the public execution are called upon to throw stones. If the convicted person manages to free themselves from the hole, the death sentence is commuted.

James Gordon Meek and Katie Nelson: Cleric Anwar al-Awlaki Puts ‘Everybody Draw Mohammed’ Cartoonist Molly Norris on Execution Hitlist

A charismatic terror leader linked to the botched Times Square car bomb has placed the Seattle cartoonist who launched “Everybody Draw Muhammed Day” on an execution hit list. Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki – the radical who has also been cited as inspiring the Fort Hood, Tex., massacre and the plot by two New Jersey men to kill U.S. soldiers – singled out artist Molly Norris as a “prime target,” saying her “proper abode is hellfire.” FBI officials have notified Norris and warned her they consider it a “very serious threat.” In an English-language Al Qaeda magazine that calls itself “Inspire,” Awlaki damns Norris and eight others for “blasphemous caricatures” of the Prophet Muhammed. The other cartoonists, authors and journalists in Awlaki’s cross hairs are Swedish, Dutch and British citizens.

Dutch News: Van Gogh Killer Has No Regrets

Six years after murdering film maker Theo van Gogh, his killer Mohammed Bouyeri has no regrets about his action, the AD reports on Friday. The paper has got hold of a letter written by Bouyeri to a Muslim group which turned up in Belgium. In the letter Bouyeri writes that he has ‘no regrets’ about the choices he has made and the road he has traveled, the paper says. ‘Not one second in all these years.’

Persian2English: 26 Year Old Woman Raped and Murdered by Basij Members for “Bad Hijab”

Elnaz Babazadeh, a 26 year old woman was raped and murdered by Basij forces in the city of Tabriz (northwestern Iran) last week. According to the reports, Basij forces stopped Babazadeh in her car for not following the Iranian regime’s dress code. Elnaz resisted and ignored orders given by the Basij forces. Then the Basij forces who had initially stopped her jumped into her car and threatened her with a gun. Two other Basij members joined in and all together they beat and raped her. They murdered Babazadeh and dumped her body close to Emamiyeh cemetery. After local investigation was conducted by HRANA members in Tabriz, it was confirmed at Babazadeh’s funeral that the person who killed her was the son of a high-ranking Revolutionary Guards member.

All articles continue at links. Part of a series that never ends… [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] and etc.  It is not the proper role of the State to moderate clothing, but it might be the proper role of the State to make crime and violence more difficult.  A legal ban on the burqa in all circumstances is inappropriate, but a legal compulsion to reveal oneself in some circumstances (banks, airports, during arrests, getting a photo license) might be appropriate.  Hospitals (State and private) should have policies mandating hygienic behavior as a condition for continued employment no matter the religion of the employee.  If washing one’s hands includes revealing one’s hands and is thus against Islam, so much the worse for any would-be Muslim health care worker.  Private businesses are best left to private policies regarding required or forbidden clothing. And having said all that, it is better of courts in France to fine women who wear the burqa than it is for courts in Iran to rape and murder women who no not wear the burqa. These legal and cultural systems are not only different from one another, but one is better than the other. How can I tell? One rapes and murders women who no not wear the burqa, and one does not. The one that doesn’t is better. One culture threatens cartoonists and murders film makers, and one does not. The one that doesn’t is better. One culture has neighborhood stonings of half-buried women as a trial by survival, and one doesn’t.  The one that doesn’t is better.  When individuals from the culture that is worse identify themselves plainly, such as with the burqa, the State of the culture that is better can be tempted to use that easy identifier as a means to preserve itself. But liberty is not easy. Do not ban the burqa. Do not ban Islam.  Existing laws in the West protect freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and protection from violence and intimidation.  Islam is against these laws, but no new anti-Islam laws are needed to keep it at bay.

Islam is not a religion nor is it a cult. It is a complete system. Islam has religious, legal, political, economic and military components. The religious component is a beard for all the other components.  Islamization occurs when there are sufficient Muslims in a country to agitate for their so-called “religious rights.”  When politically correct and culturally diverse societies agree to “the reasonable” Muslim demands for their “religious rights,” they also get the other components under the table. Here’s how it works (percentages source CIA: The World Fact Book 2007).

As long as the Muslim population remains around 1% of any given country they will be regarded as a peace-loving minority and not as a threat to anyone. In fact, they may be featured in articles and films, stereotyped for their colorful uniqueness:

United States — Muslim 1.0%
Australia — Muslim 1.5%
Canada — Muslim 1.9%
China — Muslim 1%-2%
Italy — Muslim 1.5%
Norway — Muslim 1.8%

At 2% and 3% they begin to proselytize from other ethnic minorities and disaffected groups with major recruiting from the jails and among street gangs:

Denmark — Muslim 2%
Germany — Muslim 3.7%
United Kingdom — Muslim 2.7%
Spain — Muslim 4%
Thailand — Muslim 4.6%

From 5% on they exercise an inordinate influence in proportion to their percentage of the population. They will push for the introduction of halal (clean by Islamic standards) food, thereby securing food preparation jobs for Muslims. They will increase pressure on supermarket chains to feature it on their shelves – along with threats for failure to comply:

France — Muslim 8%
Philippines — Muslim 5%
Sweden — Muslim 5%
Switzerland — Muslim 4.3%
The Netherlands — Muslim 5.5%
Trinidad & Tobago — Muslim 5.8%

At this point, they will work to get the ruling government to allow them to rule themselves under Sharia, the Islamic Law. The ultimate goal of Islam is not to convert the world but to establish Sharia law over the entire world.

When Muslims reach 10% of the population, they will increase lawlessness as a means of complaint about their conditions (Paris — car burnings, etc.). Any non-Muslim action that offends Islam will result in uprisings and threats (Amsterdam – Mohammed cartoons):

Guyana — Muslim 10%
India — Muslim 13.4%
Israel — Muslim 16%
Kenya — Muslim 10%
Russia — Muslim 10-15%

After reaching 20% expect hair-trigger rioting, jihad militia formations, sporadic killings and church and synagogue burning:

Ethiopia — Muslim 32.8%

At 40% you will find widespread massacres, chronic terror attacks and ongoing militia warfare:

Bosnia — Muslim 40%
Chad — Muslim 53.1%
Lebanon — Muslim 59.7%

From 60% you may expect unfettered persecution of non-believers and other religions, sporadic ethnic cleansing (genocide), use of Sharia Law as a weapon and Jizya, the tax placed on infidels:

Albania — Muslim 70%
Malaysia — Muslim 60.4%
Qatar — Muslim 77.5%
Sudan — Muslim 70%

After 80% expect State run ethnic cleansing and genocide:

Bangladesh — Muslim 83%
Egypt — Muslim 90%
Gaza — Muslim 98.7%
Indonesia — Muslim 86.1%
Iran — Muslim 98%
Iraq — Muslim 97%
Jordan — Muslim 92%
Morocco — Muslim 98.7%
Pakistan — Muslim 97%
Palestine — Muslim 99%
Syria — Muslim 90%
Tajikistan — Muslim 90%
Turkey — Muslim 99.8%
United Arab Emirates — Muslim 96%

100% will usher in the peace of “Dar-es-Salaam” — the Islamic House of Peace — there’s supposed to be peace because everybody is a Muslim:

Afghanistan — Muslim 100%
Saudi Arabia — Muslim 100%
Somalia — Muslim 100%
Yemen — Muslim 99.9%

Of course, that’s not the case. To satisfy their blood lust, Muslims then start killing each other for a variety of reasons.

via youtube.

Michael C. Moynihan: Lars Vilks, the Swedish cartoonist who drew Mohammed as a dog, was recently told that a scheduled lecture on free speech, to be held at Jönköping Högskolan, would be canceled due to ‘security concerns.’ This, of course, is a common evasion, intended to protect the brittle sensibilities of Muslim students while supposedly standing four square behind the right of free speech. Alas, the administrators in Jönköping had a point. During a lecture in Uppsala today [11 May 2010] Vilks was attacked by a pack of feral fundamentalists, one of whom managed to headbutt the artist and break his glasses. Police intervened and waged a short battle with the religious nutters who can be heard in the video [above], captured by the newspaper UNT, shouting Allahu Akbar! The AP has a quick report, explaining that “Uppsala University spokeswoman Pernilla Bjork said Vilks was showing a provocative film with sexual content to the crowd when the attacker ran up and hit him in the face with his fists.”

The above video isn’t even two minutes long. Go ahead, give it a look. Lars Vilks is one of several cartoonists who live with a bounty on their heads.  They are sequestered in safe homes guarded by police.  They receive daily threats of death.  Sometimes they are punched, attacked with firebombs, chased by men with hatchets.  Before they can receive visitors, the visitors and their possessions must be frisked.  Before they drive anywhere, they have to check their cars for bombs.  See all this and more from a recent documentary by a Finnish TV station [1][2][3].

Who are these stern comic critics?  What is it they want to have happen?  Is that what you want to have happen too?

BBC: Afghanistan Taliban ‘Using Human Shields’

Gen Mohiudin Ghori said his soldiers had seen Taliban fighters placing women and children on the roofs of buildings and firing from behind them.

Mahmood Delkhasteh: Rapists in Iran’s Regime

Sexual assault against men and women is being systematically used in Iran in an attempt to stifle opposition.

Pajamas Media: What Did You Say About Muhammad?!

Which is more likely to elicit an irate Muslim response: 1) public cartoons of the Muslim prophet Muhammad, or 2) public proclamations that Muhammad was a bisexual, sometime transvestite and necrophile, who enjoyed sucking on the tongues of children, commanded a woman to “breastfeed” an adult man, and advised believers to drink his urine for salutary health?

BBC: Somali Ban on ‘Christian’ Bells

Islamist militants al-Shabab have banned teachers using bells to signal the end of class in the town of Jowhar, 90km (56 miles) north of Mogadishu. Al-Shabab said the bells sounded too much like Christian church bells. This comes after last week’s order by the Hizbul-Islam group that radios stop playing music because it is un-Islamic.

Washington Post: Somali Islamist Rebels Ban English, Science Lessons

Somalia’s hardline Islamists have banned English and science studies in schools in the southern Afmadow town after the education centers there ignored the rebels’ call for fighters, residents and teachers say.

Paul Canning: US and UK Failing to Take Iraq’s Gay Progrom Seriously

Both countries deny any Iraqi state involvement in anti-gay militias, but LGBT supporters suggest otherwise.

Jaxon Van Derbeken: 3 held in alleged anti-gay BB shooting in S.F.

Three cousins from Hayward have been charged in San Francisco with a hate crime and assault for allegedly firing a BB rifle at the face of a man they believed was gay, an attack the men videotaped, authorities said Wednesday. Mohammad Habibzada, Shafiq Hashemi and Sayed Bassam, all 24, are scheduled to be arraigned today in San Francisco Superior Court. They are free on $50,000 bond apiece.

SF Appeal: Hayward Men Out On Bail After Admitting They Came To SF To Shoot Gay Folks

Three Hayward men are scheduled to be arraigned on assault and hate crime charges in San Francisco next week for allegedly shooting a man they thought was gay with a BB gun. The Feb. 26 incident took place at about 10 p.m. outside a Mission District bar at 16th and Guerrero streets, according to police. The 27-year-old San Francisco man had just come out of the bar when he was shot once in the cheek by suspects in a nearby car, which then drove off, police spokesman Officer Samson Chan said. [...] According to Chan, they allegedly admitted to the crime. “The suspects did make a confession, basically stating that they came to San Francisco to target gay people,” he said.

Dustin Gardiner: Dad Accused in ‘Honor Killing’ Will Not Face Death Penalty

Because they seek “some level of assurance that there is no appearance that a Christian is seeking to execute a Muslim for racial, political, religious or cultural beliefs [in Arizona].”

Weekly Blitz: Women Detained for Not Wearing Veil in Bangladesh

Golam Minhaz, an inspector with Detective Branch of Bangladesh Police at Rangpur district detained 19 women in various areas in the city for ‘not wearing veils’.

The Observers: Runaway Wives Sentenced to Public Flogging by Warlord

In some Afghan provinces, warlords still reign supreme. Under their authority, the treatment of women is bleakly reminiscent of Taliban rule; as this video of a woman being whipped in public goes to show.

New York Times: Afghan Child Brides Escape Marriage, But Not Lashes

What in most countries would be considered a criminal offense is in many parts of Afghanistan a cultural norm, one which the government has been either unable or unwilling to challenge effectively.

CNN.com: 3 Women Caned in Malaysia for Adultery

Malaysian authorities have caned three Muslim women under Islamic law for acts of adultery. The canings are a punishment that persists across Malaysian society since the British colonial era of the 19th century.

BBC: Forced Marriages Awareness Tour

The first UK roadshow aiming to stop South Asian youngsters being forced into marriages abroad is due to get under way.

Ayesha Nasir: I Should Have Read My Islamic Marriage Contract

Why do Pakistani women agree to marriage contracts without scrutinizing them first and making sure they won’t be sorry later?

Bint al-Sultan: Ending the Culture of FGM

Like many girls in Sudan, I suffered genital mutilation – but with education, attitudes are beginning to change.

Mail Online: Postal Voting System is a Farce that Shames Democracy

Almost all the worst instances of fraud since 2000 have arisen in places with large concentrations of Asian voters, such as Blackburn, Oldham and Tower Hamlets. In the Birmingham local elections of 2004, six Muslim men stole thousands of ballot papers and marked them for Labour candidates. The Election Commissioner, Richard Mawrey QC, said at their trial that the contest ‘would have disgraced a banana republic’.

Mail Online: Innocent Couple Killed After Their House Was Fire-Bombed in ‘Bungled Honour Killing’

An innocent couple died in a house fire at the hands of assailants who got the wrong address in a botched honour killing, a court heard today. Abdullah Mohammed, 41, and his wife, Aysha Mohammed, 39, were overcome by smoke and fumes after an accelerant was poured through their letterbox and set alight. Their killers were ordered by another man to avenge his family’s honour but instead of firebombing 135 London Road in Blackburn, Lancashire, they started the blaze at 175 London Road.

BBC: Irish ‘Plot to Kill Cartoonist’

Seven people have been arrested in the Irish Republic over an alleged plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist for depicting the Prophet Muhammad, police say. The four men and three women are all Muslim, according to media reports, though a police statement did not confirm this.

Mail Online: ‘Follow the Islamic Way to Save the World,’ Charles Urges Environmentalists

In an hour-long speech, the heir to the throne argued that man’s destruction of the world was contrary to the scriptures of all religions – but particularly those of Islam.

All articles continue at links. Part of a series that never ends… [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] and etc.  In the mainstream media there is a general rule.  You can call them Islamist militants, a group, Islamist rebels, hardline Islamists, rebels, men, Hayward men, suspects, warlords, Afghans, Asians, South Asian youngsters, Pakistani women, assailants, Irish, dads, Malaysian authorities, people – just make sure to call them anything but what they call themselves.  And what they call themselves is Muslims.  Because if you call a Muslim a Muslim, if you name Islam as Islam, then you are going to have a harder time reconciling what Muslims do on the one hand and what you might want them to do on the other.  You might want them to maintain their cuisine and language, add a bit of color to the workplace, but otherwise cotton to Western notions such as ‘don’t set women on fire’ or ‘if you don’t like a comic then don’t look at it.’  That’s what you might want Muslims to do, but that’s not what they’re doing.  If a Muslim does something good, or if they are talking about your idea of a Muslim instead of a real Muslim, then the mainstream media will use the words Muslims use to describe themselves.  Perhaps I am painting with a broad brush, confusing a vocal minority for a more passive minority.  Fair enough.  As that passive majority stops sheltering the vocal minority, as they cut them out like a tumor, then so will I grant my full apology.  Until then, the Muslim world can consider itself to be made up of ‘good Germans.’

How Fatima Started Islam: Mohammad’s Daughter Tells All by Noor Barack
2009 Camel Flea Press
ISBN 978-0-578-03290-0
[Amazon]

No matter what his followers might be up to these days, Mohammad was a fight-starting, raisin-thieving, child-raping, lie-telling, Jew-killing, Christian-hating, nonsense-spouting sort of a One True Prophet of Allah.  Allah being an invisible monster that lives in the sky, the theocracy of Islam is a sacred fantasy.  And what better to deflate a sacred fantasy than a profane fantasy?

How Fatima Started Islam: Mohammad’s Daughter Tells All by Noor Barack  is a revisionist fiction on the origins of Islam, told from the perspective of one of Mohammad’s daughters.    Mr. Barack demonstrates a knowledge of Islam’s history in what he chooses to mock and re-interpret.  He also freely invents scandal upon scandal, heresy upon heresy, if it moves the story forward or evokes a shriek from the faithful.    Readers will laugh as blasphemy and narrative collide.  How Fatima Started Islam purposefully insults Islam and Muslims.  It’s personal.  And yet as rough and base as the book may be, it is still better than how things are done by the target of Mr. Barack’s scorn.  It’s how things are done in the West.  Don’t like something?  Write a book about it, perhaps even a mean-spirited and funny book.  How things are done in the Muslim world is quite different.  Don’t like something?  Then you go killing, killing, killing, killing, killing, killing, killing, until your enemies are either dead or cowed.  Faced with this distinction, I prefer my fantasies profane.

Poking fun at a bully won’t always make them stop, and it doesn’t lead to knowing what you and the bully should do once the bullying has ended.  But words will never hurt you.  The worst outcome this book could ever possibly generate is that after reading it a person might feel insulted, or bored.  That’s the very worst thing that could happen when you read a book.  Not so bad, is it?  And that’s part of the point of winding up bullies – it’s an opportunity for them to join the laughter, if they will only take it.  When it comes time for the fingers to be pointed at me I do my best to muddle through and move on.  Taking satire and inquiry “too far” is how the darkness is dispelled, even if not everyone cares to venture to the edge.  Heresy and not orthodoxy is the guardian of truth, for only heresy can reveal errors in thought and action.  One of the heresies of How Fatima Started Islam is found on the back cover, a photograph of Mohammad.  It seems like a nontroversy to me, but people are being threatened with death all over the world for publishing images said to be Mohammad.  Let me join the fun: the image above is the back cover of How Fatima Started Islam.

From a letter accompanying my (signed!) copy of How Fatima Started Islam:

As all warriors against the Islamification of the West have observed, the Imans, Mullahs, and Terrorists want it both ways. The West must kowtow to them while they can trash any other religion or culture with impunity. They hate ridicule and my little effort is what they hate, to be laughed at and denigrated.

From the introduction:

I have broadly tried to humorously poke fun at some people who are not known for being fun loving, and to make less serious the tenets of a belief.  I believe we have to fearlessly show that all faiths, people, cultures, religions and ideas are on an equal footing in the market place of human endeavor, and that no one person or group is above anyone else.  [...] In an odd way, things like this little book will eventually help achieve mutual understanding and respect when people can look at themselves and others on an equal footing.

From Chapter Three

The first pillar of Islam, in a sense the key to the very beginning of the religion, is the camel. It was actually one specific camel named Old Mama, but she was a representation of all the camels needed for the rapid, bloody spread of Islam.

For those fortunate enough to have no personal knowledge of the beasts let me give some brief background. Camels are large, ugly animals who were genetically engineered for deserts. They have a tough skin that smells really bad, an evil, foul breath that can kill small animals and children, a stubborn nature that a mule could envy, and all this is coupled with a colossal stupidity. In short, the camel is a metaphor for the land of Arabia. Among the locals there is a constant argument on whether the camel was made for Arabia or Arabia made for the camel.

But many of our men, and even some women, seem to love these flatulent stinkpots. When the wind is right a caravan, and even sometimes a single camel, can be smelled before it can be seen. Needless to say, those associated with the animals retain an unfortunate aura of camelness about their person. Add this to the general lack of rain and water of the region and you have many persons seriously questioning why people were born with noses. The vast majority of the population never gets totally used to it: and pity the few who do, and become walking plagues of stink. My father Mohammad seemed to relish in camel-stink. It added one more assault upon me on my night that I was raped into womanhood.

Now like many camelmen, the old sot had a favorite camel, which was his bimmy. A bimmy was a pet camel that shared a special relationship with her master. Old Mama was Mohammad’s bimmy for many years and he seemed to love this obstinate, moody, and gaggingly foul smelling animal. The main reason for the affection was that Old Mama when commanded would lower and angle herself whenever Mohammad wanted to fuck her. As he got older his sexual liaisons with the beast lessened and she did die before he did. But he was famous for getting blind drunk and humping Old Mama in every public place in Mecca. The citizens of Mecca do not have high standards for anything, but even among that crowd his drunken behavior with Old Mama was considered bush league and a cause of public derision as well as constant off color jokes.

The way Islam was actually started was like this. One night as I was approaching thirteen, and in total unhappiness with my horrible life, my father was out and about and got into his usual state of stupor. For whatever reason he decided to come home and sleep it off at the complex. He managed to get on Old Mama with no problem and she put it into automatic and headed toward home as she had done a thousand times before. When the pathway diverged into a fork with one branch going left and other right, Old Mama headed right the way to our quarters. Dear old dad in his fog was confused and sure that the way to go was left. He steers Old Mama to the left but she still wanted to go right. He got pissed, both literaraly and figuratively, and started kicking and hitting her with a stick. Old Mama angrily stopped and purposely bucked with Mohammad being thrown off. This had all happened before and was no big deal, but this time he landed head first on a rock. He lay there for about fifteen minutes before he was discovered and carried back to the complex unconscious.

He lay like that until the middle of the second day when he awoke, his body had detoxed all the booze, he ate some food, talked normally and went immediately back into a state of unconsciousness for another 24 hours. Mohammad again awoke, ate heartily and communicated quite normally. About five hours later he went into a trancelike state and began to talk in total gibberish. This was absolutely unlike his drunken slurred and nearly impossible to comprehend ramblings, which we were all used to, but a sober sounding, even authoritative clear speech of absolute nonsense.

He went in and out of this trancelike state. Of course, when he was appearing normal, he was asked about the odd behavior and speech. He stated that he had no idea he was doing anything and no memory of acting at all unusually. He was a little scared and he kept to himself more and drank less. The alcohol did not seem to affect the weird gibberish states one way or the other. So, after another few days, things were pretty normal as I am still keeping the cash accounts and screwing every horny moron who could beg, borrow, or steal two shekels. I had briefly talked to my father about raising the rates in the brothel because I was very sure that we would make more money, also at the same time we would have slightly less volume with me off my back a little more. I figured that if we raised the rates 50% we would only lose about 10% of the tricks for an increased profit of 35%. Naturally he dismissed the idea off hand.

After the evening meal break, when only the slave whores were available, I decided that the time was approaching. Mohammad was slurping over a roasted camel neck when he went into the trance and started babbling incomprehensible foolishness in a deliberative way. It was as if he were expounding on an important point in an intelligent way if you did not know him and know that the syllables coming out were pure nonsense. It was the third time that day that he had began to speak gibberish so the awe and wonder had faded a little bit.

I rose and went right next to him. Everyone was looking at me and all was quiet as I waited a few seconds and then announced, “I can understand what he is saying.”

“I think that what is common to art, myth, science and even pseudo-science is that they all belong to something like a creative phase which allows us to see things in a new light, and seeks to explain the everyday world by reference to hidden worlds [...] These hypothetical worlds are, as in art, products of our imagination, our intuition. But in science they are controlled by criticism; scientific criticism, rational criticism, is guided by the regulative idea of truth. We can never justify our scientific theories, for we can never know whether they will not turn out to be false. But we can subject them to critical examination: rational criticism replaces justification. Criticism curbs the imagination, but does not put it in chains.” – Sir Karl Popper, In Search of a Better World

UniSci: Bacterium Can Alter Evolution Of Another Species

Scientists have found the most convincing evidence yet that a parasite can contribute to splitting a species in two, thanks to a phenomenon in which a wasp’s damaged sperm can be “rescued” or fixed only by mating with particular females.

Chemical & Engineering News: Chemotaxis

The droplet, composed of 2-hexyldecanoic acid in either dichloromethane or mineral oil, travels several centimeters through a maze with a pH gradient. The pH is high at the maze entrance and low at its exit. Once in the maze, the droplet travels toward the lower pH, and in doing so, Grzybowski notes, it always finds the shortest path through the maze.

BBC News: Sushi May ‘Transfer Genes’ to Gut

By eating sushi wrapped in the seaweed, people probably ingested these bacteria along with the genes coding for that digestive enzyme.

BBC News: Neanderthal Genes ‘Survive in Us’

The genomes of 1% to 4% of people in Eurasia come from Neanderthals.

The Guardian: Gene-Swap Plan to Thwart Diseases

Researchers from Newcastle University say their breakthrough will help women whose children are at risk of a range of mitochondrial diseases. These disorders can be mild or very severe, and can cause muscle weakness, blindness, heart and liver failure, diabetes and learning disabilities. They affect one child in every 6,500.

Mark Changizi: Turning Vision Into A Programmable Computer

Might it be possible to harness our visual computational powers for other tasks, perhaps for tasks cognition finds difficult?

BBC News: Singing ‘Rewires’ Damaged Brain

By singing, patients use a different area of the brain from the area involved in speech. If a person’s “speech centre” is damaged by a stroke, they can learn to use their “singing centre” instead.

Science Daily: Hand Gestures Linked To Better Speaking

New research at the University of Alberta suggests that gesturing while you talk may improve your access to language.

Maths.org: Maths and Hallucinations

So common are geometric hallucinations, that in the last century scientists began asking themselves if they couldn’t tell us something fundamental about how our brains are wired up. And it seems that they can.

Science Now: Researchers Turn Mosquitoes Into Flying Vaccinators

A group of Japanese researchers has developed a mosquito that spreads vaccine instead of disease. Even the researchers admit, however, that regulatory and ethical problems will prevent the critters from ever taking wing—at least for the delivery of human vaccines.

Washington Post: Somali Islamist Rebels Ban English, Science Lessons

Somalia’s hardline Islamists have banned English and science studies in schools in the southern Afmadow town after the education centers there ignored the rebels’ call for fighters, residents and teachers say.

First of a series that could end at any moment.

Israel News: ‘Saint with Pure Semen’ Imprisoned

Former Defense Ministry employee says his semen is holy liquid, physical contact with him heals body and soul. Number of women fall under his influence after he tells them he is one of 36 righteous people in Judaism.

Los Angeles Times: Sex Allegations Against Rabbi Roil Israel’s Orthodox Community

Sexual harassment by religious leaders and homosexuality among rabbis.

Chicago News: Dad Could Be Jailed for Taking Girl to Church

Last month, Joseph Reyes violated a court order when he took his young daughter to services at Holy Name Cathedral. The court order– which states Reyes cannot expose the toddler to any religion other than Judaism– came down after Reyes, 35, baptized his daughter without his wife’s permission. His wife is Jewish and he converted, but the couple is in the middle of a bitter divorce. Reyes says he was a practicing Catholic when he married his wife, Rebecca. He converted to Catholicism after his daughter’s birth. Now, he says his estranged wife and the court is interfering with his right to expose his daughter to both religions.

New York Times: British High Court Says Jewish School’s Ethnic-Based Admissions Policy Is Illegal

Britain’s Supreme Court declared Wednesday that it was illegal for a Jewish school that favors Jewish applicants to base its admissions policy on a classic test of Jewishness — whether one’s mother is Jewish.

The Freethinker: Cycle Lanes Removed to Appease Jewish Neighborhood Group

A CYCLE lane “war” has broken out in the New York Hasidic enclave of Williamsburg. The lanes, covering 14 blocks of the neighbourhood were sandblasted away last week after Jewish zealots complained that scantily-clad hipster cyclists were distracting them from holy thoughts. According to this report, cyclists attracted to the area made it difficult for the Hasids to obey religious laws forbidding them from staring at members of the opposite sex in various states of undress.

BBC News: Rabbi ‘Offered Cocaine for Sex’

Rabbi Baruch Chalomish, of Upper Park Road, Salford, rented an apartment where he could “relax and have a party”, Manchester Crown Court heard. Police raided the Salford flat and discovered a total of 101 grams (3.6oz) of cocaine and more than £17,000.

Haaretz Israel News: Brazil to Extradite to Israel ‘Rabbi’ Suspected of Child Abuse

A self-appointed rabbi accused by Israeli officials of burning and cutting toddlers as part of a purification ritual will be extradited from Brazil, an official said Thursday. Elior Noam Chen will be picked up Oct. 27 in Brasilia by two Israeli agents, a Brazilian Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

Toronto Sun: Dad Convicted After Trying Home Circumcision on Son

A Vancouver-area man has been convicted of criminal negligence causing bodily harm for a botched amateur circumcision he attempted on his four-year-old son. However, Justice Marion Allan acquitted the man, who along with his family can’t be identified under a publication ban, of aggravated assault and assault with a weapon.

First of a series that never ends (etc.).  As is so often the case, a rabbi becomes a ‘rabbi’ when they are caught doing something wrong.  There are no black swans: that bird you see over there is not really black, or not really a swan.  There are no bad rabbi: that man you see over there sucking blood from a baby’s mutilated penis is not really bad, or not really a rabbi.  Much of the animal remains in the man.  It takes religion to bring out the monster.

Barry A. Hazle Jr. served a year in prison on a drug charge. After he got out, his parole agent sent him back for being an atheist. Now, the 41-year-old Redding computer technician has won a ruling from a Sacramento federal judge against the state and stands to collect damages for having his constitutional rights violated. Even before U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. decided in his favor last week, California corrections officials had issued a new policy protecting the rights of atheist parolees. “This has been a long and painful process for me,” Hazle said in a statement through his attorney this week. “The judge’s ruling can’t give me back my lost freedom, but it begins to restore my faith in our judicial system.”

Hazle’s fight with the state over religion began Feb. 27, 2007, when he was paroled from the California Rehabilitation Center, Norco, where he did a year for drug possession. As a condition of his release, Hazle was ordered to attend a 90-day, inpatient drug treatment program. He agreed to the program but even before his release told prison officials he wanted to be sent to a “treatment facility that did not contain religious components,” federal court papers state. Instead, he was assigned to the Empire Recovery Center in Redding, a 12-step program pioneered by Alcoholics Anonymous and featuring a strong religious overtone, utilizing references to God and “a higher power.”

When Hazle asked to be moved to a program that was not faith-based, he was told – wrongly, as it turned out – there was none in Northern California. His parole agent, Mitch Crofoot, instructed him that “he should continue to participate in the Empire program or he would be returned to prison,” court papers state. Hazle kept attending but also persisted in objecting to the arrangement, presenting Crofoot with a written appeal on April 3, 2007. Three days later, according to court papers, Empire workers told the parole agent that Hazle had “been disruptive, though in a congenial way.” That same day Crofoot called Hazle out of an Empire treatment class, arrested him on a parole violation for not participating in the very program he was attending, and booked him into the Shasta County jail. Soon thereafter Hazle was returned to prison, where he spent more than three months.

Article continues. It is good that Mr. Hazle has a restored faith in our judicial system.  Articles like this only serve to lessen my faith.  Prohibition has cost the USA more in money and lives than it could have ever saved.  Alcoholics Anonymous is a fine program for those who volunteer for it in the same way that a religious group or a sports team or a community college class or getting out for a walk now and then can be helpful for someone seeking change in their life.  But the State has no business compelling anyone to join AA.  AA does not have consistent evidence that they are any more helpful than other treatments or no treatment at all, and so the State should seek groups that have a better record of positive outcomes.  AA is a religious group, and so the State should not refer people to it.  Mr. Hazle might consider moving to San Francisco, where an appeals court found State-mandated attendance at AA unconstitutional.  Why does the State send people to AA? Because as a volunteer organization, it is free.  So is getting out for a walk now and then, and you don’t have to offer prayers to a serene invisible monster that lives in the sky to get some good out of it.  State-mandated AA is a form of theater that has the appearance of helping people but is actually a fake solution to a fake problem – the fake problem of prohibition.

Five years ago I published a condemnation of the Roman Catholic Church for their systematic sheltering of clergy who rape children.  This fact is now being discussed by the mainstream media and by courts around the world.  I hope that attention brings about positive changes in the Roman Catholic Church and some measure of peace to those whose lives it has spoiled.

While the mainstream media does discuss the policy of the Roman Catholic Church for systematic sheltering of clergy who rape children, and while the mainstream media correctly states this policy is a written document, they refrain from stating the name of that document.  The name of the document used as policy by the Roman Catholic Church for systematic sheltering of clergy who rape children is the Crimine Solicitaciones.  A google news search for “vatican scandal” yields 5000+ results.  A google news search for “vatican document” yields 500+ results.  A google news search for “Crimine Solicitaciones” yields no results.  I take this as evidence that the name of the document is not to be found in contemporary mainstream media.  The Vatican may benefit from keeping the name of the offending document out of the public eye.  It is less clear how the mainstream media benefits from the same.  A google search (non-news) returns over 2000 hits. In this case it appears the Internet has made a specific piece of information more readily available than mainstream media.  The document has been named in the mainstream media of the past.  A number of links to the Criminie Solicitaciones as well as Cardinal Ratzinger / Pope Benedict’s direct approval and continuation of the Crimine Solicitaciones can be found here.

The Crimine Solicitaciones, Cardinal Ratzinger’s direct approval of it and Pope Benedict’s refusal to denounce it are the smoking gun that they seem they are.  What is more, should Pope Benedict denounce the Crimine Solicitaciones then he risks invalidating the Roman Catholic Church’s claim to papal infallibility.  There is a fine history of papal fallibility, of course.  But the more the Church suffers for its misdeeds, the more possible it is they will learn from their mistakes and not commit them again.

American Family Association, Bible Ignored, Trainer Dies:

[The AFA calls for the death by stoning of a whale and the whale's owners] But, the Scripture soberly warns, if one of your animals kills a second time because you didn’t kill it after it claimed its first human victim, this time you die right along with your animal. To use the example from Exodus, if your ox kills a second time, “the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death.” (Exodus 21:29)

NCR Hanelsblad, More Priests’ Abuse Victims Speak Out:

Over the last few days, 15 men have come forward to share stories of abuse at the hands of Dutch Salesian priests in the 1960s. One of the accused is now one of the most powerful in the order.

BBC, Voodoo Religion’s Role in Helping Haiti’s Quake Victims:

“Some Christian communities do not want to give food to voodoo followers.”

The Guardian, Gay Activists Attack Ugandan Preacher’s Porn Slideshow:

Martin Ssempa, one of the main backers of a bill that would impose the death penalty for some offenders, aired the explicit slideshow to several hundred people during a church service in Kampala yesterday. Explaining his decision to display the images, the evangelical preacher said it was necessary to educate people “about what homosexuals do”.

The Guardian, Malawi Police Launch Operation Against High-Profile Gay and Lesbian People:

Fears of backlash across Africa as US evangelists accused of spreading religious zeal behind homophobic campaigns. Okware Romano, a protester, said: “I have a verse in the bible in Leviticus 20 verse 13. It says that homosexuals should be put to death … yes.”

Miami Herald, Adoption ‘Lawyer’ Tied to Child Sex Case:

The man providing legal advice to American church workers charged with trying to take children out of Haiti did jail time in the United States for bank fraud years before emerging as the key suspect in a child prostitution ring in El Salvador, according records and interviews.

Political Insider, Georgia’s Christian Right Comes Out Against Bill Aimed at Child Prostitution:

The weight of the state’s Christian right movement just came down in opposition to a pair of bills that would steer young girls under the age of 16 into diversionary programs instead of arresting them on charges of prostitution.

The Local, Jesuit School Sex Abuse Scandal Spreads Through Germany:

The scope of a child sex abuse scandal that was uncovered at an elite Berlin Catholic school last week has spread to other parts of Germany and beyond, the provincial superior for the country’s Jesuit order Stefan Dartmann has revealed.

Sky News, Russian Orthodox Believers Hospitalised After Drinking Holy Water:

Those affected, including 48 children, are being treated in hospital for acute intestinal pain after drinking water from wells around a local church last week.

National Organization of Women, NOW Denounces Justifiable Terrorism Defense in Wichita Murder Trial:

Roeder has admitted shooting Dr. Tiller in the head as the physician ushered at Sunday morning church service. But Roeder and his lawyers say this heinous act wasn’t murder because he was driven by his religious fervor to save unborn children. Under Kansas law, voluntary manslaughter is the “unreasonable but honest belief” that the use of force was justified.

CBS News, Ex Mistress Vanessa Bulls Says Preacher Killed Wife:

Reverend Matt Baker drugged his wife, handcuffed her to the bed under the guise of spicing up their marriage, then smothered her with a pillow until she died in 2006.

Part of a series that never ends [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] and etc.  The American Family Association should be subject to federal investigation for the call to murder based on religion.  The sex laws in Uganda are horrid, but not as horrid as they’ve been portrayed. Based on the amount of sexual abuse of children among Christian clergy, perhaps the State of Georgia is protecting a monopoly in standing against child prostitution laws.

I’ve been told more than once and more than twice that without religion (preferably the religion of the person talking to me) there is no moral guidance and people will act as beasts.  Here are people who had religion, many acting as leaders and experts in their religion, who are acting like beasts.  Was the breakdown in their religion or in the individuals?  If the breakdown is in the religion, then the religion is in need of improvement or being abandoned.  If the breakdown is in the individual, what was broken in the religion that put these people in charge?  I can find examples of people acting as beasts in the name of atheism, particularly in The Terror.  Hundreds of men and women have been killed by atheists because these men and women were religious.  Why, then, are there billions upon billions of men and women killed for their religion by other religious people?  In a straight body count, atheism is less murderous than any religion or all religions.  The fine blog Dwindling in Unbelief has a handy score card of those killed by God in the Bible compared to those killed by Satan in the Bible.  Guess who stands tall on the more majestic mountain of corpses?

Moral behavior demands choice.  If I’m forced to help someone or forced to hurt someone I am not making a moral choice.  Where there is an omnipotent and all-powerful God who has decided for me what I am to be and do, I have no choice.  Where there is religion, there is no morality.  Moral behavior is limiting the harm we cause by learning from our mistakes.  Over time we can become less immoral, even if we never become all-moral.

Editor-in-Chief Tøger Seidenfaden of the newspaper Politiken has issued an apology to the descendants of Mohammed for the publication of cartoons depicting Mohammed. Muslim riots after the publication of these cartoons resulted in over one hundred deaths.  Don’t offend the Muslims.

The Ministry of Children, Equality, and Social Inclusion (Norway) has awarded Imam Mahdi Hassan of Tynset with the title Role Model of the Year.  “Mahdi Hassan is such a role model. He is visible, he has knowledge and a strong sense of commitment and makes use of these things to create a better day-to-day life for young people in Tynset.” Mr. Hassan told the newspaper Arbeidets Rett that he wants a ban on homosexuality: Homosexuality is prohibited in the Koran, and I believe in my religion.”  Regarding the death penalty for homosexuals, as prescribed in the Koran, Mr. Hassan said: “That must be up to each individual country to decide.  For myself I think that people must do what they want, and that people shouldn’t be punished for it.”  Don’t offend the Muslims.

United Kingdom Minister of Education Ed Balls has banned corporal punishment in schools, except for Muslim schools.  Don’t offend the Muslims.

A 23-year-old British woman told Dubai police she had been raped.  She was tested for drunkenness, charged with having illegal sex and faces up to six years in prison.  Don’t offend the Muslims.

Today the group Abu Sayyaf killed 11 people (ten civilians, one a baby girl, and a soldier) in the Philippines. Today a car bomb killed 18 people near two guesthouses in Kabul. The attack appears to have targeted non-natives who worked at the Indira Gandhi Child Health Institute. Today Qamar David was sentenced to life in prison in Kaarachi “for outraging religious feelings of Muslims” by sending a text message. Don’t offend the Muslims.

Don’t offend the Muslims.

Don’t offend the Muslims.

Don’t offend the Muslims.

Some women who protested at the Islamic Center of Washington, wanting to be able to worship in the main prayer hall with their male counterparts, were asked to leave by the police. But they say their struggle will continue. Carpets with intricate designs cover the floors of the main prayer hall and turquoise tiles line the walls. But the source of contention is a small room created with 7-foot-high wooden walls. Jannah B’int Hannah describes how she feels in there where she cannot see the imam, or leader of the mosque, speak. “Boxed in, stifling, suffocating and totally a second class citizen,” Hannah said. Over the weekend, Hannah and approximately 20 other women prayed in the main hall, but D.C. police were called. They asked them to leave or be arrested.

Article continues.  A few words for the person who made the call to the police.  When the police come next time to tell you how to conduct your religion, remember what you did.  Remember that you asked for the State to determine and enforce how you worship.  Remember that you requested armed police officers to enter your mosque and differentiate between the right and the wrong way to be a Muslim.  Remember well what you did.  Because if you complain when it happens next time, you’ll have no one to blame but yourself.

Details are scant, but this appears to be a case of the establishment of religion – expressly forbidden in the United States Constitution.  The police should have taken the call and told whoever made it they could not respond without a criminal charge.  Threats of violence?  Sure.  Trespassing?  A little sticky, but maybe.  ‘Praying in the wrong room?’  Sorry, not our problem.  In this case, the State went too far in establishing how to be a Muslim.

The State doesn’t always go too far.  Sometimes it doesn’t go far enough.

Dustin Gardiner, Dad accused in ‘honor killing’ will not face death penalty:

A Glendale man accused of slaying his daughter in an “honor killing” will not face the death penalty. After sparring with the suspect’s defense attorney over its death penalty review process, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office has said it will not seek death for Faleh Almaleki, 49. The Iraqi immigrant is accused of slaying his daughter, 20-year-old Noor Almaleki, for being “too Westernized.” Police say he used his Jeep Cherokee to run down his daughter and another woman in a Peoria parking lot Oct. 20. Noor Almaleki later died of her injuries. Almaleki is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated assault and two counts of leaving the scene of a serious accident. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The decision not to seek the death penalty comes after Almaleki’s attorney, Billy Little, a public defender, asked a judge to take special precautions to ensure the County Attorney’s Office wouldn’t wrongly seek the death penalty because Almaleki is a Muslim.  Little requested that the office make public the process it uses to determine whether to seek capital punishment.  “An open process provides some level of assurance that there is no appearance that a Christian is seeking to execute a Muslim for racial, political, religious or cultural beliefs,” Little wrote, referring to County Attorney Andrew Thomas’ Christian faith. [...] Prosecutors said Almaleki has admitted killing his daughter because she disgraced the family by not following traditional Iraqi or Muslim values.

I oppose the death penalty in all cases.  That having been said, this has the appearance that a murderer received a reduced sentence due to being a Muslim. The County Attorney’s Office issued a statement about the case: “The defendant is charged with first degree murder and, if convicted, will spend the rest of his life in prison. As is in all first degree murder cases, the decision on whether to seek the death penalty is made on a case by case basis. Cultural considerations played no part in the decision not to seek the death penalty.” I certainly hope so.

Capital News Service, Legislator Says Disabled kids are God’s Punishment:

[Virginia] State Delegate Bob Marshall of Manassas says disabled children are God’s punishment to women who have aborted their first pregnancy. He made that statement Thursday at a press conference to oppose state funding for Planned Parenthood. “The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children,” said Marshall, a Republican. “In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There’s a special punishment Christians would suggest.”

Delegate Bob Marshall, Statement on Recent News story by Capital News Service:

A story by Capital News Service regarding my remarks at a recent press conference opposing taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood conveyed the impression that I believe disabled children are a punishment for prior abortions. No one who knows me or my record would imagine that I believe or intended to communicate such an offensive notion. I have devoted a generation of work to defending disabled and unwanted children, and have always maintained that they are special blessings to their parents. Nevertheless, I regret any misimpression my poorly chosen words may have created as to my deep commitment to fighting for these vulnerable children and their families. Sincerely, Delegate Bob Marshall

No need to apologize, State Delegate Marshall!  Because you were right the first time.  Christianity does consider the disabled to be cursed by God. Let’s consult the primary evidence…

Who makes people blind? “Who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD?” – Exodus 4:11.
Does God make people blind as a punishment? “The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart.” – Deuteronomy 28:28
What about people with other disabilities; does God hate them too? “Whosoever … hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God. For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous, Or a man that is brokenfooted, or brokenhanded, Or crookbackt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken; No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God. [...] Only he shall not go in unto the vail, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish; that he profane not my sanctuaries.” – Leviticus 21:17-23
And those who God favors, if they kill disabled people are they rewarded? “And David said on that day, Whosoever [...] smiteth [...] the blind that are hated of David’s soul, he shall be chief and captain. Wherefore they said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.” – 2 Samuel 5:8
Did Jesus know about these laws and want us to keep them? [Jesus said] “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or tittle shall nowise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.” – Matthew 5:18-19.

See, State Delegate Marshall?  You stood up for your faith in the public square.  Don’t let your critics force you to back down.  In fact, I’d like to encourage you to go that one step further and detail what you mean when you say “In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord.”

Should we sacrifice first-born babies likewise as we sacrifice ox, sheep and liquor? “Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me. Likewise shalt thou do with thine oxen, and with thy sheep: seven days it shall be with his dam; on the eighth day thou shalt give it me.” – Exodus 22:29.
That’s pretty harsh. Sure about that God? We’re supposed to kill children for you? “Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah…. And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD delivered them into his hands…. And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child…. And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the LORD, and I cannot go back. And she said unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the LORD, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth…. And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed.” – Judges 11:29-40.
Just asking one more time, God, it’s right in your eyes to offer human sacrifices? “Josiah … did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord … And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars.” – 2 Chronicles 34:1-5.
Yikes. How do you think I’m supposed to feel after killing a child? “Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.” – Psalm 137:9.

The problem isn’t that State Delegate Marshall misrepresented Christianity.  It’s that he represented it accurately to a Christian nation that makes a point of being ignorant of its own religion. Let’s see what else this moral giant has said.

Wikipedia, Robert G. Marshall:

Marshall sponsored the Marshall-Newman Amendment to the state constitution that prohibited same-sex marriage as well as civil unions, domestic partnerships, and “other legal status to which is assigned the rights, benefits, obligations, qualities, or effects of marriage.” It also prohibits the recognition of other states’ such legal arrangements. [...] When asked about abortion in the case of incest, Marshall replied that sometimes incest is voluntary. In response to abortions in the case of rape, Marshall said, “Your origins should not be held against you [referring to the victim's unborn child]. The woman becomes a sin-bearer of the crime, because the right of a child predominates over the embarrassment of the woman.”

God bless State Delegate Marshall. He’ll get nothing but curses from me.  Spitting hatred and contempt.

Subtitled.

Wikipedia:

Ghada Jamshir is a Bahraini women’s rights activist and an ardent campaigner for the reform of Sharia courts in Bahrain and the Arab Gulf states. Jamshir heads the Women’s Petition Committee lobbying for a law that would shift jurisdiction over family and women’s affairs from Islamic Sharia court to civil courts. In 2006, Time Magazine identified Jamshir as one of four heroes of freedom in the Arab world, and Forbes magazine selected her as one of the ten most powerful and effective women in the Arab world.

In 2005, the Bahraini government brought three criminal charges against Jamshir for allegedly publicly defaming the Islamic family court judiciary, and faced a jail sentence of up to 15 years. These charges were eventually dropped on 19 June 2005. Since 2006, Ghada Jamsheer has been under permanent surveillance, there is a 24-hour presence of plainclothes Public Security officials of the Ministry of the Interior outside her home. After her criticism of government policies, Bahrain authorities ordered the local media and press to prevent the publication of any news relating to Jamshir. The order came from the Royal Court, through its minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa. Jamshir also claims that the Minister of the Royal Court gave her a direct threat demanding that she end her public work, after which the regime attempted to install a spy camera in her house, bugged her telephone, and sent individuals to bribe and blackmail her.

I admire her courage.

Robert Tait, Turkish Girl, 16, Buried Alive for Talking to Boys:

Turkish police have recovered the body of a 16-year-old girl they say was buried alive by relatives in an “honour” killing carried out as punishment for talking to boys. The girl, who has been identified only by the initials MM, was found in a sitting position with her hands tied, in a two-metre hole dug under a chicken pen outside her home in Kahta, in the south-eastern province of Adiyaman. [...] A postmortem examination revealed large amounts of soil in her lungs and stomach, indicating that she had been alive and conscious while being buried. Her body showed no signs of bruising.  The discovery will reopen the emotive debate in Turkey about “honour” killings, which are particularly prevalent in the impoverished south-east.  Official figures have indicated that more than 200 such killings take place each year, accounting for around half of all murders in Turkey.

Radio Netherlands Worldwide, Anti-Islam Book Launch Cancelled:

The book launch was scheduled for Thursday at The World Forum, but was cancelled because the director of the venue does not believe he can guarantee the safety of his guests. The book in question is Islamofobie? (Islamophobia?), written by Islam critic and PVV supporter Frans Groenendijk. The PVV, or Freedom Party is an anti-Islamic opposition party led by Geert Wilders. Green Left party member Tofik Dibi, who was to receive the first book at the launch, says he regrets that the conference centre acted out of fear.

Mahmood Delkhasteh, Rapists in Iran’s regime:

Sexual assault against men and women is being systematically used in Iran in an attempt to stifle opposition.

Justin Penrose, Rapist Jamaile Morally in Boiling Oil Jail Attack:

A jailed killer poured boiling oil over another inmate because he refused to convert to Islam. Jamaile Morally, 26 – sentenced to life as part of a gang that raped, tortured and murdered a teenage girl and left another for dead – led two other inmates in carrying out the attack.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Burqa-Clad Robbers Hold Up Post Office:

Two burqa-wearing robbers have held up a French post office using a handgun concealed beneath an Islamic-style full veil, court officials said.

All articles continue at links.  Part of a series that never ends… [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] and etc.  What sort of emotive debate can occur about honor killings?  I fail to see it as an issue with two valid perspectives which can come into harmony through compromise.  I am similarly too morally stunted to support the trial of Geert Wilders for – killing children?  Islamic theocracy-backed rape tortures? Prostelytising with boiling oil?  Robbing a bank?  No, Geert Wilders is on trial for making a film.  Maybe Wilders is lucky – some filmmakers who were critics of Islam in the Netherlands didn’t get to go to trial.  Violence and threats of violence to filmmakers and book authors, multicultural understanding for pedophiles and murderers.  That’s what Islam brings to the table in the 21st Century.  What do you bring?