Laws like this, carefully defined and stringently enforced to prevent propagation of the idea of Islamic supremacism and attendant ideas, are needed all over. From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:
AMMAN, Jordan - Jordan's parliament moved Sunday to tighten state control over mosque preachers, amending legislation that aims to prevent the kingdom's mosques from being used to propagate extremist ideas.Jordanian lawmakers have approved several pieces of legislation in recent weeks that aim to weaken extremists and prevent terror attacks.
The parliament added a provision to a bill to require prior written approval from the government before someone enters the pulpit. The changes came just three weeks after members of the lower house of parliament approved the law.
The latest changes require that the religious affairs minister approve in writing any new mosque preachers and anyone teaching the Quran, the Islamic holy book, in mosques.
King Abdullah II, the ultimate authority in Jordan, is expected to sign the bill into law soon, replacing legislation enacted in 1986.
Islamic opposition legislators argued Sunday that the law curbed religious freedoms and that the government pressed for the changes to appease the United States and Israel by cracking down on Muslim hard-liners.
Interested to see how this plays out...
Funny how the opposition leaders are not happy with the infringement on "Religious Freedoms." I happen to agree with them... Freedom of Religion is one of the God given rights we are defending, and one most Evil Moslems frown upon, unless ofcourse it is in their interest.
Barely a start, but at least a start.
Every last muslim in Gaza, the West Bank and in Israel should be given the option of going to either Jordan or Saudi Arabia, as well as (unless the English govt. gets a grip), to London.
Heard John Bolton , a person one normally admires, on Rush Limbaugh, refer to "occupied territories"; Rumsfeld never makes this error; if there is an occupation it is by these hating entities called muslims.
One should explain to some fool leftist Israelis: what you paid for in blood, you do not let the effete Europeans or the liberals at Foggy Bottom convince you or try to shame you into giving back; its yours, now control and develop it. Oh yeah, and get rid of that useless fool Olmert, your prime minister, and replace him with a man.
Muslim states, for the survival of their own regimes, monitor the mosques to make sure, for example, at the khutbas on Friday, the name of the Ruler or Regime is properly invoked. Mosques are well understood to be centers of political life and subversion. In Turkey, Ataturk went further. Not only does the state monitor the mosques, but a central government authority vets, and often writes, the sermons -- making sure that all those phrases that whip people into a frenzy, and that lead so often in some countries, to mob attacks on Infidels (where there are Infidels to attack, as HIndus in Bangladesh who make the mistake of being near a mosque when it lets out) are censored. Tunisia, a well-regulated and "secular" state that uses the methods of the police-state when necessary (shall we bring Democracy to Tunisia to, so that the quasi-enlightened despotism there can be overthrown, and something a little more "democratic" and a little more to the liking of Gannouchi can be achieved? What does the Administration that brings "freedom" in the spirit of the Little Engine That Could brings toys and good things to eat to the boys and girls on the other side of the mountain think of that?), also monitors and regulates those khutbas with particular interest.
Abdullah must remember those Sunday services at Deerfield. All that lexicon of love, peace, charity, mercy. It may not always have been taken to heart, especially not by schoolboys eager to go back to bed. But sometimes some of it sticks. Abdullah has started to plan for monitoring the mosques because his life depends on it (and so does the continued existence of "tiny" Jordan, as the newspapers like to call it, even if in the next story they refer to "mighty" Israel, about one-fourth Jordan's size.
The natural vocabulary of Islam, and hence of the sermons of Islam, is quite different, and such words as love, mercy, faith, hope, charity, are not exactly common, in Qur'an or Hadith. Someone should get out his trusty computer, and perform a lexical analysis of key terms in both Bible and Qur'an, and compare, compare, compare.
A muslim population in a Western country is a foreign host despite mosque monitoring and imam control: look at France; they do these things and look at their riots and their political dhimmitude.
To not understand islam as an ideology and a demography is the blindness that can kill us.
To let politicians and civil servants have power in our enclaves without this understanding is for us to commit suicide.
In Maldives, Arab educated Dictator Gayoom personally writes the sermons himself to keep control of the population and to spread the Saudi message and cash in. The vilest stuff comes in sermons to school children as part of "increasing religious awakening" sessions that are held for all schoolchildren. The west "bashing' is now very subtle in the friday sermon.
He also plays up to the west pretending he is the hope for moderation of Islam.
Within a year of his coming to power in a covert coup in 1978 all the ancient shrines and artifacts of Hindhu/Buddhist period were destroyed in accordance to strict Wahhabi interpretation.
It certainly our own responsiblility to take care of our selves. But we wish the west could help us more. With the western civilization in Europe and America under siege, people in places like the Maldives are largely left to fend for themselves unless there is some strategic or financial interest.
On the positive side, some people are waking up to the facts and resisting.
Many Thanks Jihadwatch and friends
Government control of mosques and sermons, when that government is an Islamic one, is meaningless. When they refer to stopping the spread of extremist ideas, they don't mean putting infidels to the sword, as that's not an extreme idea in Islam. This is all taqiyya.
Re. The Pig Loving Maldivian's cooments:
Since we in the West have never been properly educated about Islam we hadn't learned to distinguish properly among the peples of countries such as your own, and India and a few others.
My own experience with these peoples has been highly divers and I couldn't understand why some of them were very well-mannered warm and polite while the rest were harsh and demanding.. acting with an air of superiority.. and usually accompanied by a lack of personal hygiene.
NOW I've come to realize that these latter folks I've mentioned were indeed mooslems.. er.. muftis as we call them.
We MUST indeed reach out beyond the WEST to ally with Hindus and Buddhists and all the other victims of Pislam. [Piss be upon it]
NO JIHAD - JUST SAY NO! WE NEED MORE CRUSADES INSTEAD!
Well well, it's about time SOMETHING is being done in a Muslim country about this insanity. It's not much, but it's a start. I'm sure the king will now have to really watch his back.
This is a short term bandaid treamtment for controlling islam. What they need to do is implement a true democracy, with a full separation of state and church, equal rights for men and women, and therefor end islamaic domination within the middle east. Demcracy will destroy Islam.
...amending legislation that aims to prevent the kingdom's mosques from being used to propagate extremist ideas.
The word "extremist" is meaningless in a society that believes the content of the Qur'an is the unadulterated truth from Allah himself. Would a pious Imam ever concede that Allah had a single "extremist" idea? "Extreme" is a relative term used in the context of human perception, but Muslims believe humans are not equipped to know Allah's reasonings. Allah knows all...humans need only to acknowledge and obey.
A more meaningful term (also used by Robert in the pre-article commentary) should be "supremist". A law that forbid Islam from propagating "supremist" ideas would be better defined and ultimately more effective against Jihad. Similar laws should be enacted in the West.