Women call for sharia

Yet another of my faithful readers (without whom I should have long ago abandoned this blog) asked me last week why women agree to veil themselves and accept the other conditions required under sharia law. And, as if by magic, here are a couple of news items that give a little insight into that question.

First is a call by a Kuwaiti woman 'activist' to allow men to buy and sell non-Muslim girls, captured in jihad, as sex slaves "in order to protect Muslim men against seductive sexual immorality." This was the arrangement under traditional sharia and was only abandoned in more recent times when slavery got a bad name. So why would this woman want it? First, she and the other Muslim wives would gain non-Muslim slaves to do the heavy lifting around the house when they weren't 'servicing' the husband. And, since she obviously assumes her husband is not monogamous, keeping his amours all under one roof provides her oversight and control.

Lest you think that far-fetched and remote, consider this recent letter in a local California paper calling for adulterous women to be put to death. As the female writer puts it: "These slut women do not know how to say no. To my judgment, these women who freely sleep with married men must be severely punished and put to death."

The letter may be a fake one ... or it may not be. To put it in context, look at this report about a Toronto mosque that published a list of things that constitute a 'violation of Islam. One of them: "To say that enforcing the punishments prescribed by Allah, such as cutting off the hand of a thief or stoning an adulterer, is not suitable in this day and age."

Next time someone tells you that sharia is an enlightened code and doesn't involve such things as sex slavery or the death penalty for adulteresses, ask them how they would answer these two proposals. And if you want to learn more about these issues, just check out FrontPage Magazine, Atlas Shrugs, or Pajamas Media.

Pat Condell strikes again

Vonnie just sent me this recent video by British commentator Pat Condell. In it, he takes on the United Nations; Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan; and Islamic violations of women's rights - all in just under 7 minutes. He's smart, funny and devastating; enjoy! If you want more of his blistering commentaries, here's a link to one I posted earlier on the Geert Wilders trial in the Netherlands.

A plea from Pakistan

Libby sent me the link to this video, prepared by MEMRI, of an interview in which Pakistani actress Veena Malik responds to charges that she has shamed her family and her country by appearing in an Indian reality show. She challenges her accuser, Mufti Abdul Qavi, to focus on corruption, bribery, and other problems in Pakistan, including sexual abuses committed by the clergy, which are much more serious than the charges he has brought against her. Malik is a very brave and outspoken woman. Let's hope she survives - today's Pakistan is an increasingly dangerous place for someone like her.

Why he did it

You may remember a horrifying crime in 2009 when Muazzamil Hassan, the owner of a Muslim TV station in Buffalo, decapitated his wife. His case recently went to trial; here psychologist Phyllis Chesler analyzes his motivation, based on his own words and on what she knows about how men treat women in Pakistan, where Hassan lived until he was 17.

Hassan's story, as Chesler recounts it, certainly seems crazy: "On February 12, 2009, immediately after stabbing his unarmed wife 40 times with two large hunting knives and then brutally beheading her, he became calm, relieved. For the first time in years, he felt 'peaceful.' Only then did he feel 'safe from the Evil Dragon Terrorist' which is how he referred to Aasiya Zubair Hassan, the wife he had viciously battered for seven years."

This perspective, however, turns out to be normal for Pakistani men. Chesler recounts in detail how women are treated in Pakistan; the story is not for those with weak stomachs. She closes by comparing Hassan's version of how his wife deserved what she got with how jihadi terrorists justify their actions.

Chesler's article is lengthy, but if you have time to read it, please do so - you won't feel you've wasted your time.

Hang in there, Oklahoma!

CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has filed a lawsuit to block implementation of the Oklahoma referendum banning sharia law, and U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange on Monday granted a temporary restraining order.

CAIR argued that the referendum stigmatized Islam; she apparently agreed: "CAIR says the ballot measure would infringe on the constitutional rights of ordinary Oklahomans — including the right to wear religious head scarves in driver’s license photographs, choose Islamic marriage contracts, implement Islamic wills, or to be buried according to one’s religious beliefs."

Some 70% of Oklahomans voted to ban sharia law and CAIR has numerous documented ties to Hamas and jihad but hey, she's a nice lady, isn't she? Too bad she isn't a state judge, or Oklahomans could perhaps follow in the footsteps of Iowans and recall her.

Since Judge Miles-LaGrange thinks Islamic marriage is such a great thing, maybe she should compare notes with British officials. They just closed down Islam Channel for broadcasts promoting marital rape and violence against women, among other things. Gee, isn't Islamic marriage a great institution?

Disrobing the Left

Professor Fred Gottheil of the University of Illinois performed an unusual experiment. He researched the backgrounds of some 900 academics who signed a petition against Israel, and discovered that many of them were in gender or women's studies departments.

Gottheil then prepared a petition protesting human rights violations in Middle Eastern countries, primarily those against women, gays and lesbians and emailed 675 signatories of the original petition, asking them to sign his. Almost none did so.

His explanation: these academics are primarily anti-US or anti-capitalist, with the defining issue being opposition to Israel. They are interested in their academic specialities primarily because those fields allow them to criticize the status quo here. Actually caring about women or minorities is in last place.

Louisiana pushes back

Earlier this year, the State of Louisiana passed a law requiring Louisiana courts to base their decisions on American and Louisiana law, not Islamic sharia law. The goal is to pre-empt judges who seek to make exceptions for Muslims - usually at the expense of a woman, in spousal abuse or divorce cases.

As the Louisiana statute puts it: "The legislature finds that it shall be the public policy of this state to protect its citizens from the application of foreign laws when the application of a foreign law will result in the violation of a right guaranteed by the constitution of this state or of the United States, including but not limited to due process, freedom of religion, speech, or press, and any right of privacy or marriage as specifically defined by the constitution of this state."

Oklahoma may follow suit. Let's hope the other 48 states do the same; sharia law is incompatible with our laws and no amount of political correctness can disguise that fact.

Turkish honor killing

Rachel sent me this story about a 16-year-old Turkish girl buried alive by her family because she was talking to boys. She was found in a sitting position, hands tied, and lungs and stomach filled with soil, indicating that she was alive and conscious when buried.

There are an estimated 200 honor killings each year in Turkey.

More on women and earthquakes

I see now that I was far too flippant about the Iranian cleric's charge that provocatively dressed women cause earthquakes. A young female scientist in Indiana took a more serious approach and performed an experiment on April 26 to test his thesis. Thousands of women, whom she organized via the internet, dressed 'immodestly' that day. She then compared earthquake activity for April 26 to the average since February 5.

No, I won't tell you the results - you have to click on the above link and find out for yourselves! (Thanks to Clemens.)

Another attack

Two Arabic-speaking men poured gasoline over Rayhana, an Algerian actress and playwright, and tried to set her afire outside a theater in Paris. Presumably they were unhappy with her play, which focuses on the treatment of women in Algeria. She nevertheless appeared on stage that night. French police are treating the attack as an act of terrorism. (Thanks to Jihad Watch.)

Defending Muslim women is a dangerous pastime, as Norwegian Hege Storhaug well knows. The first step to fix this is for society to support those who do speak out. In Rayhana's case, the French Minister of Culture and the Secretary for Urban Affairs have done so, as well as a Muslim association, Foi et Pratique (Faith and Practice) and the French Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers.

The next step is to for the authorities to take the problem seriously. Again, the French appear to be doing so, as they have classified this as a terrorist act.

The third step is to arrest and punish the perpetrators - I wonder if the French could deport them, as they do imams who preach violence?

Women's rights in Norway

Author Bruce Bawer recounts here the saga of Hege Storhaug, an outspoken defender of the rights of immigrant Muslim women in her native Norway. She was beaten unconscious in her home on January 1, 2007, three years to the day before an assassin tried to kill Kurt Westergaard, the Danish cartoonist who drew the Mohammed-in-a-bomb-turban cartoon.

In Westergaard's case, the assailant was a Somali suspected of links to Al Qaeda. Storhaug believes her attackers may have been far leftists who make common cause with the Islamists. Certainly, the media hate frenzy against her has created an environment that inspires such acts.

You can argue about whether these incidents mark the coming of Eurabia (a Europe dominated by Islam) but you can't argue that, in Europe, thugs increasingly call the shots.

Rifqa and Noor

Thanks to Jihad Watch, here's an update on Rifqa Bary, the Ohio girl who ran away from home because she feared for her life after converting to Christianity. She isn't out of the woods yet. If you want to send her a Christmas card, just click on the links as indicated and you can get her address.

And, if you think she was exaggerating, here's another story, also from Jihad Watch, about an Iraqi immigrant in Arizona who ran over and killed his daughter Noor because she was becoming too Westernized.

UK honor killings on the rise

Some time ago I reported that the British government was taking steps to stop honor killings. Well, according to this story, they'd better hurry; unspecified 'fundamentalists' have committed 40% more honor crimes this year than last. Reports of forced marriages have jumped 60%; incidents of female genital mutilation and polygamy have also risen.

Some of the increase may because women are coming forward as they realize that such acts violate British law, but the rise also seems to reflect increased Islamist fundamentalism. (Thanks to Jihad Watch.)

Child bride in Kansas City

Here's a slightly confusing story about a mother and stepfather who 'married off' a 14-year-old girl to a 23-year-old man. The man is now charged with statutory rape. The article doesn't mention until the 7th paragraph that it was Muslim family, of course - no one could possibly want to appear Islamophobic, after all.

There is one useful quote, from Mahnaz Shabbir of Stilwell, a past president of the Heartland Muslim Council who says that Islam says followers should live by the laws of the land. That is indeed the crux of the matter - and this 'marriage' was anything but legal. (Thanks to Jihad Watch.)

More on honor killings

Here's a link to an article from the New York Post, with, as Jihad Watch notes, the first reasonably accurate discussion in a mainstream publication about Muslim honor killings in the United States. It notes: "Over the past two years, there have been about a dozen attempted or successful honor killings committed in the US."

And here, from the comment section of that blog entry, is a German website that lists the known honor killings in Germany. Even if you can't read German, you can easily get the idea just by scrolling through it.

Bottom line: honor killings may be more common in Europe, but they're happening here too.

Mushrooming sharia courts in Britain

A new report by the Civitas think tank estimates that some 85 sharia courts currently operate in the United Kingdom, usually in mosques and behind closed doors. Many of their cases have to do with marriage or divorce. According to fatwas on websites of UK mosques, the courts are supposed to forbid Muslim women to marry non-Muslim men unless the latter convert. They are also supposed to grant custody of any male children over the age of seven to the father, regardless of other circumstances.

The Civitas report urges that sharia courts no longer be recognized under British law. A number of Tory politicians are on record opposing the use of sharia courts, as reported here, but the Labour Minister of Justice last year said "if, in a family dispute ...the parties to a judgment in a sharia council wish to have this recognised by English authorities, they are at liberty to draft a consent order embodying the terms of the agreement and submit it to an English court."

I wonder if there are any cases in which English courts have rejected sharia settlements. (Thanks to Rachel.)

Iranian women

President Obama is proud that the U.S. government supports the right of Muslim women to wear head scarves. In Iran, thousands of women have been out demonstrating for their rights, appearing without a head covering to show how they feel. (Thanks to Jihad Watch.)

Do you somehow feel we're on the wrong side of history?

FGM in Europe

In this round-up, David Rusin of Islamist Watch lists recent efforts in Britain, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden to stop the illegal practice of female genital mutilation (FGM). Thousands of these operations are estimated to have been carried out on young Muslim girls in Europe; sometimes the girls are sent abroad, and sometimes the operation is performed in the European country of residence.

The good news is that public awareness of this problem is finally catching up, and European governments are seeking to stop it.

Muslim divorce in the US

Here's another case in which a Muslim man residing in the United States tried to obtain a traditional Muslim divorce overseas. A court in Oakland County, Michigan, accepted the validity of a divorce obtained in India, granted when the man certified that he had said "I divorce thee" three times. The wife wasn't even present. (Thanks to Jihad Watch.)

Needless to say, a woman has greater rights under U.S. divorce law than under sharia law. Fortunately, the state appeals court recognized this fact and overturned the decision, stating: "To accord comity to a system that denies equal protection would ignore the rights of citizens and persons under the protection of Michigan's laws."

This outcome is similar to a Maryland court decision last year involving a couple originally from Pakistan. That's the good news; the bad news is that the Oakland County court let itself become confused. Wider publicity of these cases would help reinforce existing law.

Creeping sharia in Germany

Dr. Sami Alrabaa, an ex-Muslim professor of sociology, describes the ways in which sharia is creeping into German law, schools and the Foreign Office. (Thanks to Jihad Watch.)

He recounts the case of a German woman, married to an Egyptian, who sued for divorce and asked for protection for herself and her 17-year-old daughter. She claimed her husband wanted to kill her daughter because the daughter had been raped - in his eyes, rape is equivalent to adultery. The judge ruled last January that the woman could not be legally divorced for at least a year, because time was needed to re-educate the husband. "Muslims have a different understanding of rape than Europeans, and this must be taken into account."

In another case, last February, a German judge ruled that a man could beat his daughter for refusing to wear a headscarf, quoting the Koran to make his point. These, according to Alrabaa, are just examples of numerous recent cases in which German courts have used sharia in their judgments.

Some Germans have protested, as Alrabaa reports. Sounds like there need to be a lot more of them.