Recently in Dubai Category

What fun the Sharia supremacists will have when they begin to turn on their Leftist patrons and helpers. "Couple jailed for sex outside marriage in Dubai," by Bassam Za’za’ for Gulf News, May 18 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

Dubai: A couple has been sentenced to a year in jail for sex outside of marriage, after the man’s wife reported them to police.

The man’s wife was in the couple’s marital home in Discovery Gardens on November 29 at the time of the incident. She was in the living room while the pair were in the bedroom.

The hotel manager and his partner pleaded not guilty when they appeared before the Dubai Misdemeanour Court. They said they got married in Ukraine on August 1, 2012 and provided the judge with a copy of their marriage contract.

“It is true that we were having consensual sex… but I was not on good terms with my wife and we had marital problems that were leading us to divorce,” the manager said in court.

Records said the manager provided the judge with Sharia court papers certifying that he divorced his wife in December 2012.

“My husband is a Hindu and he is not allowed to have two wives at the same time. We had agreed to divorce but he was supposed to provide me with housing, which he didn’t. I was staying in the house temporarily until we settled things. When he brought his lover with him, I asked him to kick her out. He didn’t,” the man’s ex-wife said.

The Ukrainian woman is believed to be seven months’ pregnant.

Records said the 35-year-old Indian manager started having sex outside of marriage with his 22-year-old Ukrainian girlfriend in March 2012 while still married to his 32-year-old countrywoman.

The manager said that he was not satisfied with his marriage and he asked for a divorce when his Ukrainian girlfriend got pregnant.

The couple claimed that they had consensual sex nearly 60 times since they first met. The defendants asked the court to acquit them because they were married and didn’t have sex outside of marriage.

According to Tuesday’s judgement, the court decided the pair had sex outside marriage as they confessed their relationship blossomed in April 2012, while the manager got divorced in December.

The pair will be deported following the completion of their jail terms, said presiding judge Mohammad Shawqi....

The Qur'an allows for the owning of sex slaves:

If you fear that you will not act justly towards the orphans, marry such women as seem good to you, two, three, four; but if you fear you will not be equitable, then only one, or what your right hands own; so it is likelier you will not be partial. (Qur'an 4:3)

This verse is the basis for Islamic polygamy, allowing a man to take as many as four wives, as long as he believes he is able to “deal justly” with all of them. But justice in these circumstances is in the eye of the beholder. Ibn Kathir says this the requirement to deal justly with one’s wives is no big deal, since treating them justly isn’t the same as treating them equally: “it is not obligatory to treat them equally, rather it is recommended. So if one does so, that is good, and if not, there is no harm on him.”

The verse goes on to say that if a man cannot deal justly with multiple wives, then he should marry only one, or resort to “what your right hands own” – that is, slave girls.

The Qur'an commentator Maulana Bulandshahri explains the wisdom of this practice, and longs for the good old days:

During Jihad (religion war), many men and women become war captives. The Amirul Mu’minin [leader of the believers, or caliph – an office now vacant] has the choice of distributing them amongst the Mujahidin [warriors of jihad], in which event they will become the property of these Mujahidin. This enslavement is the penalty for disbelief (kufr).

He goes on to explain that this is not ancient history:

None of the injunctions pertaining to slavery have been abrogated in the Shari’ah. The reason that the Muslims of today do not have slaves is because they do not engage in Jihad (religion war). Their wars are fought by the instruction of the disbelievers (kuffar) and are halted by the same felons. The Muslim [sic] have been shackled by such treaties of the disbelievers (kuffar) whereby they cannot enslave anyone in the event of a war. Muslims have been denied a great boon whereby every home could have had a slave. May Allah grant the Muslims the ability to escape the tentacles of the enemy, remain steadfast upon the Din (religion) and engage in Jihad (religion war) according to the injunctions of Shari’ah. Amen!

This is by no means an eccentric or unorthodox view in Islam. The Egyptian Sheikh Abu-Ishaq al-Huwayni declared in May 2011 that “we are in the era of jihad,” and that as they waged jihad warfare against infidels, Muslims would take slaves. He clarified what he meant in a subsequent interview:

...Jihad is only between Muslims and infidels….Spoils, slaves, and prisoners are only to be taken in war between Muslims and infidels. Muslims in the past conquered, invaded, and took over countries. This is agreed to by all scholars--there is no disagreement on this from any of them, from the smallest to the largest, on the issue of taking spoils and prisoners. The prisoners and spoils are distributed among the fighters, which includes men, women, children, wealth, and so on.

When a slave market is erected, which is a market in which are sold slaves and sex-slaves, which are called in the Qur’an by the name milk al-yamin, “that which your right hands possess” [Qur’an 4:24]. This is a verse from the Qur’an which is still in force, and has not been abrogated. The milk al-yamin are the sex-slaves. You go to the market, look at the sex-slave, and buy her. She becomes like your wife, (but) she doesn’t need a (marriage) contract or a divorce like a free woman, nor does she need a wali. All scholars agree on this point--there is no disagreement from any of them. [...] When I want a sex slave, I just go to the market and choose the woman I like and purchase her.

Right around the same time, on May 25, 2011, a female Kuwaiti activist and politician, Salwa al-Mutairi, also spoke out in favor of the Islamic practice of sexual slavery of non-Muslim women, emphasizing that the practice accorded with Islamic law and the parameters of Islamic morality.

...A merchant told me that he would like to have a sex slave. He said he would not be negligent with her, and that Islam permitted this sort of thing. He was speaking the truth….I brought up (this man’s) situation to the muftis in Mecca. I told them that I had a question, since they were men who specialized in what was halal, and what was good, and who loved women. I said, “What is the law of sex slaves?” 

The mufti said, “With the law of sex slaves, there must be a Muslim nation at war with a Christian nation, or a nation which is not of the religion, not of the religion of Islam. And there must be prisoners of war.”

“Is this forbidden by Islam?,” I asked.

“Absolutely not. Sex slaves are not forbidden by Islam. On the contrary, sex slaves are under a different law than the free woman. The free woman must be completely covered except for her face and hands. But the sex slave can be naked from the waist up. She differs a lot from the free woman. While the free woman requires a marriage contract, the sex slave does not--she only needs to be purchased by her husband, and that’s it. Therefore the sex slave is different than the free woman.”

While the savage exploitation of girls and young women is an unfortunately cross-cultural phenomenon, only in Islamic law does it carry anything approaching divine sanction. Here is yet another human rights scandal occasioned by Islamic law that the international human rights community and the mainstream media cravenly ignore.

"Five men jailed for sexually exploiting maid," by Bassam Za’za’ for Gulf News, May 4 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

Dubai: Five men were jailed for five years for human trafficking after they left a critically injured woman at a hospital entrance and absconded.

The 30-year-old Bangladeshi woman fell and fractured her back and legs while she was escaping from a third-floor flat, where she said that the five Bangladeshi men confined and forced her into prostitution.

The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the five men of sexually exploiting the 30-year-old woman, abusing her neediness and forcing her into the sex industry.

“The defendants will be deported following the completion of their imprisonments,” said presiding judge Maher Salama Al Mahdi.

According to the judgment, a 29-year-old defendant, A.A., and a 24-year-old, S.M., were accused of sexually exploiting the woman and coercing her into the sex industry with beatings and threats. The court also convicted 26-year-old N.H., a 32-year-old S.A. and a 28-year-old A.H. with aiding and abetting A.A. and S.M. to commit a human trafficking crime.

A.A. and S.M. locked the woman in a flat in Naif where she was forced to have sex with strangers. The suspects were also accused of running a brothel. The defendants pleaded not guilty. The 30-year-old woman said she came to work as a housemaid for an Emirati family in Fujairah after she was hired through a manpower supply company in 2011.

“I worked for my sponsor for nearly 17 months and when their treatment worsened I absconded. My Ethiopian coworker provided me with A.A.’s contact details. He picked me up from Fujairah and promised to help me find a job in Dubai.

“He kept me in a studio in Naif. When he told me that I would work in prostitution, I refused. … I was beaten and coerced to have sex with up to ten men per day.”

If only we had turned over our ports to them. "British teacher faces a year in jail for having lunch with married man in Abu Dhabi," from the Daily Mail, March 29 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

A British woman could be locked up for a year in an Abu Dhabi jail for having a glass of wine with a married man.

The ex-pat teacher, whose first name is believed to be Lisa, says she was introduced to the Syrian man by a male colleague.

He is understood to have eaten with the pair but then left them alone at the man’s house – where the woman was arrested.

She has now appeared in court in the strict Arab emirate, charged with being alone in the company of a man other than her husband or a close relative, and drinking alcohol without a licence.

The court heard that the Syrian threw his wife out of their home last week after an argument.

After she complained to police about her husband’s behaviour, officers visited him the next day and found him enjoying an after-lunch glass of wine with the British woman, who has not been officially named.

The man’s wife insisted that officials press charges when she was told that her husband had been drinking with another woman.

If found guilty under the country’s strict legislation, which is influenced by Islam’s sharia law, the teacher could be imprisoned for as long as 12 months.

Police arrested the British teacher and her host for being alone together and drinking alcohol illegally.

'She is looking at anything between a month in jail or a year for being alone with a man who is not her husband,' a UAE legal expert told the Sun.

'As in so many alcohol cases, it only becomes a problem if someone makes a complaint to the police and they are obliged to act.'

The case highlights the paradoxical nature of life in the United Arab Emirates, which has a reputation as the party capital of the Middle East despite its strict Islamic culture.

The Syrian man will not be punished for being with the Briton, as it is not a crime for men to socialise with women, but has been detained on a separate drugs charge.

It's a grand thing how Dubai police are on the job, looking out for jihad terrorists witches and sorcerers.

"Gulf: Clampdown on sorcerers and witchcraft," from ANSAmed, June 11 (thanks to Lachlan):

(ANSAmed) - DUBAI, JUNE 11 - In the shadow of the enormous skyscrapers in Dubai, symbols of modernity and innovation, old superstitions and black magic are still popular in the Emirate's intricate multicultural social web. At least according to the amount of ''material for witchcraft'' impounded by the border police: 92 cases in one year. Witchcraft is punishable with imprisonment in the United Arab Emirates, but in other Gulf states, like Saudi Arabia, culprits can even get the death penalty. Yesterday two Asian men were arrested at the airport when some bizarre and illegal objects were found in their luggage: texts containing magic spells and rituals, talismans, animal hides and bones, containers holding blood and other liquids, strings and strange rings: 1200 objects, classifiable in 28 categories, in total. ''Magic and witchcraft are dangerous practices that jeopardise society, manipulating the minds of people with problems,'' commented Ali Al Maghawi, director of customs operations, underlining that people's credulity is often used for fraud.

Women are often the easiest victims according to statistics. Islam explicitly forbids ''learning, teaching and practicing magic'' as well as consulting magicians, fortune-tellers, wizards and the likes because they go against the will of Allah, the only one to decide on the destiny of each individual, the Gran [sic] Mufti for Islamic Affairs, Ali Ahmad Masha'al, explains in newspaper Gulf News.

Saudi Arabia carried out two death sentence for witchcraft in 2011: a man from Sudan and an Arab woman were beheaded in a period of a few months. The year before, a Lebanese sorcerer, well-known from television, was arrested when entering the oil state. He was brought to trial and sentenced to death. The sentence was not carried out in the end because of strong international pressure. Despite the arrests and the severe penalties, many people are still seduced by magic. In March Saudi Arabia counted more than 580 cases, causing the country to form a special police team to fight ''all sorcerers and charlatans'' in the Kingdom, investing half a million euros and launching a large-scale national campaign. (ANSAmed).

He didn't go there to repent: “He slit her throat three times…he stole two mobile phones and Dh200 from the victim and fled…he showed no remorse as he just headed for a mosque and prayed.” We have seen this phenomenon in the past with some honor murderers and jihadists: they apparently believe that they have done something pleasing to Allah, and so are almost serene after the murders.

Muhammad Parvez called 911 to tell them he had killed his daughter Aqsa after he murdered her for not wearing the hijab. His calm after the killing, and his turning himself in, is common with Islamic honor murders and other killings and attempted killings: one notable example came in February 2009, after moderate Muslim leader Muzzammil Hassan beheaded his wife. He went to a police station, shook an officer’s hand, and then shocked the unsuspecting policeman by telling him: “I want to tell you that I just killed my wife and I’m here to turn myself in.” Similarly, when Mohammed Reza Taheri-Azar drove an SUV onto the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and attempted to run over and kill as many students as possible (he killed none but injured nine), he appeared serene and even happy after the attack. Seattle jihad shooter Naveed Haq was calm during a traffic stop just twenty minutes before he starting murdering Jews for Allah at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.

"Man slashes woman's throat then goes to pray," from Emirates 24/7, February 22 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

An Asian man claiming a European woman stole his money broke into her apartment and slashed her throat before heading for the mosque to pray. The man was who seized later was sentenced to death in Dubai on Tuesday.

The 29-year-old man, identified only as AKB, told police he decided to murder the woman after she stole Dh6,000 from him while having sex for Dh100.

Police nabbed the killer after he made the mistake of his life by leaving the knife he used in the murder at the victim’s flat.

“He had bought the knife from a shop before heading for the victim’s flat…police found the knife and located the shop through the barcode printed on the knife….at the shop, police saw his face on the camera,” Alkhaleej daily said.

“He slit her throat three times…he stole two mobile phones and Dh200 from the victim and fled…he showed no remorse as he just headed for a mosque and prayed,” the paper added, quoting the prosecutor....

This is the kind of law that the OIC is working through the UN to pressure Western states to adopt. Sharia Alert from modern, moderate Dubai: "Briton fined AED3,000 for insulting Ramadan," by Claire Ferris-Lay for ArabianBusiness.com, July 20 (thanks to Twostellas):

A British expat has been fined AED3, 000 for insulting Ramadan on a social networking site and calling her colleague a dictator, it was reported Wednesday.

The 31-year old woman, who admitted posting a status update on her Facebook page expressing her dislike for Ramadan, was charged at the Dubai Court of Misdemeanours on Tuesday, according to The National.

The colleague of the accused, an Egyptian woman, said in a statement to the court that she had seen a “disrespectful” status update about Ramadan on September 4 last year.

“I told her to not say such things about the holy month as she was in a Muslim country,” she was quoted as telling prosecutors by the paper.

The accused responded by calling the woman stupid and ignorant and saying she was a closed-minded dictator and a follower of bin Laden, said the newspaper.

Police referred the accused to prosecutors eight months later on charges of insulting a religious creed. That charge was dismissed before being referred to the court on insult charges.

Judge Mohammed Ahmed Shoaib fined the accused AED3,000.

Dubai police officials warned last month that non-Muslims risk arrest if they are caught eating during Ramadan, when consuming food and drink is banned under UAE laws between sunrise and sunset.

He allegedly "called the Prophet Mohammed a terrorist."

"I have been made victorious with terror..." -- Muhammad (Bukhari 4.52.220)

You can tell they're moderates in Dubai because they didn't simply murder this tourist.

In any case, such fines (and stiffer penalties) will be coming West with Sharia and Islamization. Watch for them.

An update on this story. "British tourist fined for insulting Islam in shop," by Awad Mustafa in The National, June 10:

DUBAI // A 40-year-old tourist who insulted Islam and called the Prophet Mohammed a terrorist was fined Dh3,000 yesterday.

That's about $816.

AG, a Briton, was charged on May 18 in the Dubai Court of Misdemeanours.

In his court appearance last month he was sent away after appearing in shorts. He was ordered to be suitably dressed before being allowed to enter a plea and deny the charges.

The tourist visited the Emax store in Mall of the Emirates on March 3 and uttered insulting remarks to the salesman HH, 21, from Pakistan.

"I spoke with him about the problems between the Pakistani government and Taliban, and when I understood from his responses that he was a supporter of the Taliban, I told him he was crazy because they were terrorists and they kill people and carry out bombings," AG told police. "I didn't say anything bad about Muslims and the Prophet."

HH also told investigators that he told AG he was a Muslim and that the greeting he received in response was "namaste", which is Hindi.

Horror of horrors! An insult!

HH said he saw AG back in the mall again on March 11 and called security as well as police.

"Proselytising for religions other than Islam is prohibited in the UAE." How odd! Does the entire UAE governing establishment misunderstand Islam's expansiveness and openness to other religions? Shouldn't Hamas-linked CAIR be issuing Action Alerts calling on the UAE to change this law so as to avoid besmirching Islam's sterling record of tolerance? Honest Ibe? Brave Ahmed? Slick Nihad? Anyone? Anyone?

Islamic Tolerance Alert from modern, moderate Dubai. "Dubai to remove end of world billboards: Report," from AFP, April 12 (thanks to Twostellas):

DUBAI - HUGE billboards posted by fundamentalist American Christians across Dubai proclaiming that the world will end next month are to be taken down, a local newspaper reported on Monday.

'A billboard advertisement claiming that May 21, 2011 will be the 'judgment day' according to the Bible, and which shocked many and dismayed others, will be removed,' the Gulf News daily said, quoting a senior official.

'The great and terrible day, who shall be able to stand?' read the billboards set up by a group which runs a religious radio network named 'Family Radio'. 'The municipality will remove these advertisements as soon as possible,' Ms Mona Khamis Ebrahim, who oversees advertising campaigns in Dubai, told the English-language daily.

'This was an unintentional mistake... the section receives and licenses thousands of advertisements daily. Anything in contradiction with the Islamic religion is not permitted to be advertised,' Ms Ebrahim said.

Proselytising for religions other than Islam is prohibited in the UAE....

Pretty soon European women along the Mediterranean beachfronts will need to invest in burqinis -- i.e., hazmat suits for beachcombing subjects of Sharia.

Sharia Alert from modern, moderate Dubai: "British woman arrested for walking through Dubai shopping mall in a bikini," by Laura Roberts in the Telegraph, August 5:

A British woman has been arrested and charged with indecency after walking through a Dubai shopping mall wearing a bikini, according to reports.

She was initially fully dressed in the Dubai Mall, the world's largest shopping centre, when she was criticised by an Arabic woman for wearing revealing clothing.

Following an argument between the pair the British woman responded by stripping down to her bikini, according to the Daily Mail.

Security teams at the mall called the police and the woman was arrested.

A source from the Dubai police told the Daily Mail that the woman was revealing much of her legs as well as wearing a low cut top but that she decided to take off the rest of her clothing after the Arabic woman stopped to criticise her.

The Dubai Mall contains a number of signs asking women to wear "respectful clothing"....

Irony of ironies: if he had dressed in a burqa and blown himself up in a crowd of Infidels, he'd be hailed as a martyr of Islam.

"Acquittal sought for cross-dressed man in Dubai," by Bassam Za'za' for GulfNews, July 7 (thanks to Miss Kelly):

Dubai: A lawyer is seeking to win the acquittal of his client, an Emirati student [nicknamed Hamdan British] who is serving a three-year sentence for wearing bikinis and posting his pictures on the internet.

"My client, M.S., [22-year-old Emirati student] was unlawfully arrested and detained... He has pleaded not guilty and we are seeking to clear his charges," M.S.'s lawyer Jasem Al Naqbi argued before the Dubai Court of Appeal on Tuesday.

After the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted M.S. and jailed him for three years, he appealed the primary judgment and is seeking innocence before the Appeal Court.

Al Naqbi contended before Presiding Judge Mustafa Al Shennawi: "Law enforcement officers claimed that there were indecent pictures of my client cross-dressed. Meanwhile, M.S. claims that the pictures were stolen from his mobile phone. The case lacks concrete evidence that he published his photos on the internet." [...]

According to the primary judgment, M.S. was found guilty of posing as a male prostitute and posting on the internet, indecent pictures of him wearing bikinis in an attempt to seduce men.

The 22-year-old student had pleaded not guilty. [...]

The suspect claimed [in his civil lawsuit] that when he took snapshots of the 22-year-old wearing women's wear, he was unaware that the latter will post them on internet.

According to records, he was also charged with allowing the other Emirati suspect to have consensual sex with him. The latter was convicted and sentenced to one year by the Dubai Misdemeanours Court.

Prosecutors additionally charged him with dressing as a woman and taking pictures of himself wearing make-up before posting photographs.

Records said these pictures were also emailed to potential male clients.

According to the charge sheet, Chief Prosecutor Hamad Juma Al Khalafi charged M.S. with offending Islam by taking a picture of himself dressed as a woman wearing a hijab and make-up while pretending to read the Quran. He deemed his act as a violation of the Quran's sanctity slandering Islam.

Haram

There's a very mild content warning on the video above, but the point of it is that a jihad against love and ordinary human interaction is very much a part of Sharia. Modern, moderate Dubai, the hope of Dinesh D'Souza, is becoming ever more strict in its Sharia adherence.

There Is No Fun In Islam* Alert: "Dubai kissing couple lose appeal," from the BBC, April 4:

A British couple jailed in Dubai for kissing in public have lost their appeal against their conviction.

Ayman Najafi, 24, and Charlotte Adams, 25, were sentenced to a month in prison with subsequent deportation and fined about £200 for drinking alcohol.

The couple were arrested in November after a local woman accused them of breaking the country's decency laws by kissing on the mouth in a restaurant.

The pair said they would make a second appeal against the judge's decision.

The couple decided not to start their sentence immediately, but the Dubai authorities are holding their passports so they are unable to return to Britain.

The initial complaint against them was made by a 38-year-old woman who said she was offended by their behaviour at the Jumeirah Beach Residence, where she was dining with her daughter.

The couple's defence lawyers said the woman - who did not appear in court - had not seen the kiss herself, but had been told by her two-year-old child that the girl had seen the couple kissing....

They were fined 1000 dirhams, which is about £200....

Professor John Strawson, an expert in Islamic law, told BBC Radio 5 Live he was not surprised by the judge's decision.

He said: "The problem in this particular case is that one of the British citizens is of Muslim origin.

"And I think that the combination of the alleged kissing and the consumption of alcohol in an illegal place, meant that this was a case that the authorities really wanted to pursue, and they are probably sticking to their rigid interpretation of the law." [...]

In March, an Indian couple in their 40s were sentenced to three months in jail in Dubai after sending each other sexually explicit text messages.

In 2008, two Britons accused of having sex on a beach in Dubai were sentenced to three months in jail, though the sentences were later suspended.

* The Ayatollah Khomeini said that.

Modern, moderate Dubai, the hope of Dinesh D'Souza, steps up its Sharia adherence. "Farewell flambe: Dubai to hunt for booze in food," from Associated Press, March 22 (thanks to all who sent this in):

[...] Media reports today say Dubai authorities plan to step up enforcement of a 2003 law prohibiting restaurants from using booze in food preparation.

Alcoholic drinks are widely available in Dubai and the 2003 law has been mostly disregarded.

But the latest move appears aimed at easing worries from Muslim restaurant goers that no wine or liquor were used in preparing their meals. Fines for violators can run nearly $5,500.

Several Dubai chefs have argued that strict enforcement of the ban would compromise their dishes. They are in talks with the municipality for less severe regulations.

Good luck with that.

Dubai is a place, and a symbol.

As a place, it has no claim on our attention. Voltaire once described French Canada as "quelques arpents de neige." Dubai, like the rest of the Emirates, like Saudi Arabia, could with more justice be dismissed, as "quelques arpents de sable." It also happens to be in a place, on the globe, convenient for airplanes travelling from Europe to Asia to set down, and perch, and rest and refuel, during their transcontinental trips. Other than that, Dubai has no significance.

But it became, over the past decade, a symbol of the rich Arab states, that is, those states that have acquired great wealth not from any entrepreneurial flair, or hard work, but rather from the fact of an accident of geology: they are the beneficiaries of the sale of oil (and in some cases natural gas). That oil and gas was discovered by, lifted by, transported by, distributed by, non-Muslims who have done everything, including writing those checks to those who happen to possess those oil and gas reserves. Those owners have received, as a consequence, more than twelve trillion dollars since 1973 alone. Dubai became a symbol. The ruler of Dubai, the people of Dubai, the investors in Dubai, the breathless commentators on the Wonder That Is Dubai, saw it as a symbol of all that was impressive, all that was so wonderful, all that bespoke of a Bright Future For The Gulf.

Why? Because the book was called "Friends Forever," and thus seemed to suggest that Muslims should become friends to Jews. From the Khaleej Times, with thanks to Teri:

DUBAI -- Education authorities here have promised to review a book taught in an international private school that features a photograph of two Jewish children sporting plaited hair and yarmulke.

Dr Obaid Butti Al Mohiri, the Director of Curriculums Centre at the Ministry of Education, said he would order the withdrawal of the book for primary Class I of the Dubai International School if the complaints raised were found genuine.

Several teachers of the school telephoned Khaleej Times, complaining against the picture, captioned 'We play together; we stick together', featured in the book Friends Forever. The teachers said that of all the pictures in the book, the students reacted sharply to only this picture.

"O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for friends. They are friends one to another. He among you who taketh them for friends is (one) of them. Lo! Allah guideth not wrongdoing folk." -- Qur'an 5:51

Sharia alert. There will be a lot of poor people in Italy when Sharia comes to that dhimmi land. From the BBC, "Italian fined for kiss in Dubai," with thanks to Sharon:

A drunken Italian tourist has been fined more than $3,000 (£1,566) for hugging and kissing a woman in public in the United Arab Emirates.

Police took the couple in for questioning after seeing them embracing in the back of a taxi near Dubai airport, said local paper Gulf News.

Officers say the pair confessed to kissing and hugging, and the Italian also admitted to being drunk.

The woman, an Egyptian national, had to pay $500 for lewd behaviour in public.