Big surprise here. From Iran Focus, with thanks to Mackie: London, Mar. 31 — Iran’s main opposition movement, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), said on Saturday that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) had planned the recent capture of 15 British marines and naval personnel and are holding the group in an […]
Archives for March 2007
Iranian Official: Sailors May Be Tried
The provocations just keep coming. By Naser Karimi for AP, with thanks to Mackie: TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – Iran’s ambassador to Russia renewed a threat Iranian officials made earlier this week, saying 15 British sailors held by Iran could be tried for violating international law, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported Saturday. Gholam-Reza Ansari told […]
Malaysia: Woman fails in bid to renounce Islam
Sharia (Syaria) Alert from modern, moderate Malaysia: you have to apply to leave Islam, and your application may not be accepted. “Woman fails in bid to renounce Islam,” from New Straits Times, with thanks to Teri: KOTA KINABALU: A 24-year-old Muslim woman yesterday failed in her application to renounce Islam on the grounds that she […]
Muhammad Dawood gets 9-month sentence for supporting terrorism
Muhammad Dawood (aka David Hicks) Update: a slap on the wrist. “Hicks gets nine-month sentence,” from Australia’s ABC News Online (thanks to JE): A US military tribunal has sentenced confessed terrorism supporter David Hicks to seven years in jail but he will only have to serve nine months. The tribunal judge accepted Hicks’s guilty plea […]
1 teacher, elderly couple shot dead in Thailand’s restive south
Jihad against retired teachers and elderly couples. This Associated Press , however, stays in passive voice as long as it can, before gingerly identifying the culprits as “suspected insurgents,” who of course just happen to target Buddhists. BANGKOK, Thailand: A retired teacher and an elderly couple were shot dead Saturday while four other civilians were […]
Pakistan: “Creeping Talibanisation is now a reality across the country”
And the creeps are creeping fast. “The creeping coup,” by Zaffar Abbas in Dawn, with thanks to Sr. Soph: ISLAMABAD, March 30: The primary theatre of battle may still be North and South Waziristan, as evidenced by the Pakistani Taliban’s recent bloody assault on the settled town of Tank that borders the tribal areas. But […]
Saudi Arabia: Another Wife for 110-Year-Old Man
The key part of this story is not that a 110-year-old is marrying, but that his present wife no longer “satisfies his needs.” Of course, many in the West think of marriage in this selfish way also, but the traditional understanding of marriage — for worse as well as for better — is still alive. […]
Saudi Arabia: Parental opposition spawns secret marriages
“He felt that women are resorting to ‘secret marriages’ to escape from flogging or torture by their family members, or expulsion from their family homes.” “Parental opposition spawns secret marriages,” by Mariam Al Hakeem in Gulfnews, with thanks to Sr. Soph: Riyadh: Many young Saudi women are finding themselves in a knot after secretly marrying. […]
Imams narrow target of ‘Does’
Now we learn that they’re only going after the “racist” passengers. And “there is no way Mr. Mohammedi can possibly determine whether the John Does ‘knowingly made false reports’ against his clients ‘with the intent to discriminate against them’ without taking their testimony under oath, at least during pretrial discovery.” That in itself will discourage […]
“It’s clear that what Ramadan wants isn’t a modernised, secular Islam, but an Islamised modernity”
In “Squinting at Extremists,” David Thompson exposes the hollowness of Tariq Ramadan’s claims to moderation: “Those willing to trawl through Ramadan’s written and recorded output will find no shortage of material calling into question his supposedly liberal intent. It’s clear that what Ramadan wants isn’t a modernised, secular Islam, but an Islamised modernity.” Over at […]