Monthly Stats

Race Relations had 49 unique hits this month: that's about 1.6 per day. Of these, most were again either from the UK or US, with the latter still leading the way in the overall hit count - although Portugal seems to have made a surge this month, also.

Of these, most were using Windows XP and browsing with Mozilla Firefox.

Three people found me this month by searching for Bukhari, vol. 9, book 88, no.6922 - which, as any good student of Islam knows, is the hadith tradition in which Muhammad says: "Whoever changes his Islamic religion, kill him". Typing the above reference into Google will lead you, on the first page, to this article about Ayaan Hirsi Ali, in which I cited that particular tradition. I also got discovered by two more searches for Muhammad's "raisin-head" quote, and once more by a search for the BNP. Sigh...

Muhammad Bear on eBay

As the British teacher in Sudan is jailed for two weeks for naming a teddy bear Muhammad, some humourous fellow is selling "Muhammad Bear" on eBay. Love the notes from the seller.

Round-up

1. Singer Morrissey has been quoted in NME as saying Britain has undergone an "immigration explosion". The article adds that he wouldn't return to live in Britain because "the gates are flooded". But the singer denies the words are his and his management is calling the story "defamatory".

I'm not bothered whether Morrissey did or did not really say this (although it sounds like him). What bothers me is that these words really aren't all that offensive or provocative (in fact, they are *gasp* true), and yet people are still complaining about the insensitivity of them. Not only has there been an "immigration explosion" in this country, but there has also been a conscious effort by the Left to close down debate. Neither is good.

2. A school canceled its stage performance of Agatha Christie’s “Ten Little Indians” after an NAACP official objected to the novel’s original title, ditched by publishers six decades ago - "Ten Little Niggers".

Yes, the production has indeed been canceled because it was racist 65 years ago. But the kids wouldn't know that. And the title was deliberately changed because of its offensive nature. And yet some oversensitive moron still thinks it's offensive. PC culture MUST DIE.

3. A Belgian woman of Congolese origin recently set herself on fire in the centre of Luxembourg City, Belgium, to protest against racism.

Now why didn't I think of that?

Surprised?

Do I really need to comment on the British teacher in Sudan charged with insulting Islam after allowing her class to name a teddy bear Muhammad?

Stop Honour Killing

I see that my recent Islam 101 article on the oppression of women in Muslim countries has been linked by the blog Stop Honour Killing. Follow the link and check it out; it's a worthy and important cause.

Round-up

1. A good article about "liberal racism"...read it for more details of exactly what this is, as there's more to it than it sounds.

2. The decision to yank a teen soccer player from a match because she was wearing a religious head scarf has outraged a Calgary Muslim leader. Syed Soharwardy, president of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, said Safaa Menhem should be permitted on the field wearing a hijab.

"I don't buy it because a person could also pull a shirt and choke a person. This is not a safety issue. It is just a racist and discriminatory decision against Muslims," Soharwardy said. "Her rights should be respected -- this is her free choice."

Firstly, it is beyond repetition now that Islam is not a race. And secondly...them's da rules. I'm sure the girl was well aware of them before she played the game. It has nothing to do with Muslims; it has to do with health and safety and was not conceived specifically with headscarves in mind. It may be her "free choice" to wear one while playing football - but it is also the free choice of the authorities to then enforce the rules they have set up and ban her from playing.

There is a great quote attributed to the 19th century British General Sir Charles James Napier. When questioned about his tough stance towards the Hindu custom of burning widows at the stake during the funerals of their husbands, Napier said: "You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."

Amen.

Leftists Hate Freedom

I see that the Oxford seminar on freedom of speech featuring guest speakers Nick Griffin and David Irving was delayed after loony leftists stormed the debate chamber and tried to protest.

Liberals don't understand freedom of speech. As a consequence, they despise it. Contrary to their bigoted rants, this talk was NOT about whether the views of these men are legitimate or not (and I don't think they are, either); it was about the freedom for people to say what they like without fear of persecution. But leftists have never supported that - they slam the "bigotry" of these people while themselves engaging in complete intolerance and closing down of views they disagree with.

Islam 101

ISLAM OPPRESSES WOMEN

"I have not seen any woman suffering as much as the believing women" (narrated by Aisha: Bukhari, v.7, b.72, no. 715)

If jihadists ruled the world, perhaps the largest demographic to suffer would be women - that is half the Earth's population oppressed in a single stroke.

It is common today to hear Muslim spokesmen and apologists claim that while women are far more oppressed in Islamic countries than in the West, this oppression has little to nothing to do with Islam or the example of the Prophet. Others even go as far as to claim that Muhammad was a historical pioneer in women's rights. But how true is this? Did Muhammad really sanction misogyny and oppression of women? We shall look now at a number of human rights abuses committed against women in the Islamic world, and examine whether they really are consistent with Islam's core teachings.

Polygamy

The Qur'an is very clear in giving Muslim men the right to marry up to four women at one time, and also to have sex with slave girls: "Marry women of your choice, Two or three or four; but if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one, or (a captive) that your right hands possess, that will be more suitable, to prevent you from doing injustice." (4:3)

Meanwhile, if a man is unsatisfied with his wife or wives, Islamic law says that he can divorce them simply by saying "I divorce you". Yet sometimes a man may divorce from his wife in a fit of rage and then want to take her back. This is permissible, but only a maximum of three times. Once the heartbroken woman has been divorced three times, the man cannot take her back a fourth time until she has married and slept at least once with another man. This has led to the phenomenon of "temporary husbands", where some randy Muslim male will "marry" the woman for the night so she can go back to her old husband.

All this is not some ancient custom or confined only to the Middle East. Muslim immigrants are bringing these practices to the West with them. It has been estimated that there are as many as four thousand polygamous families in Britain. Earlier this year it was revealed that Muslim immigrants who engaged in polygamy in Britain would be allowed to claim extra benefits - even though polygamy is illegal in this country.

Polygamy and temporary marriage reduce women to little more than commodities, and reinforce the idea that men and women are not equal partners, but rather women are something a man may accumulate as he wishes.

Child marriage

The Qur'an takes child marriage for granted. Take, for example, this passage, which explains the waiting period required to determine if a woman is pregnant before divorcing her: "Such of your women as have passed the age of monthly courses, for them the prescribed period, if ye have any doubts, is three months, and for those who have no courses (it is the same)" (65:4, emphasis added). Note that last part: here Allah is taking for granted a situation whereby a prepubescent girl is not only married, but is being divorced by her husband.

This may be because, infamously, Muhammad himself was no stranger to child marriage; he married his favourite wife, Aisha, before she hit puberty: "[The Prophet] married 'Aisha when she was a girl of six years of age, and he consummated that marriage when she was nine years old." (Bukhari v.5, b.58, no. 234, and others).

Because Muhammad is seen in Islam as the ultimate model of human behaviour (Qur'an 33:21), his example on this matter is still imitated by Muslims today. Iranian law allows girls to be married at the age of nine. The Ayatollah Khomeini married a girl of ten when he was twenty-eight. UNICEF reports that more than half the girls in Afghanistan and Bangladesh are married before they reach the age of eighteen. Researchers in refugee camps in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, as well other countries, have found over half the girls married by age thirteen. Even in Britain, imams have been caught praising the virtues of imitating the Prophet in this matter, as shown in a recent documentary broadcast on Channel 4.

Wife-beating

The Qur'an explicitly sanctions the beating of one's wife if she is disobedient: "Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them. Lo! Allah is ever High, Exalted, Great." (Qur'an 4:34) Note also at the beginning of the passage the suggestion that women are inferior to men and must be ruled by them.

As with so many things, this not solely an extremist view. In 1984 Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who is highly respected and influential in the Muslim world today, used this verse to justify wife-beating. In Pakistan, over 90% of women have been beaten or otherwise physically abused by their husbands - often for offenses on the order of cooking an unsatisfactory meal or giving birth to a female child. In other Muslim countries there are also alarmingly high levels of domestic abuse. Earlier this year, the President of Al-Azhar University in Cairo - the highest spiritual authority in Sunni Islam - reaffirmed the value and necessity for wife-beating according to this passage.

Covering up

For some reason, many people in the West seem to have assumed that the burqa was invented by the Taliban or some other such radical Muslim group. But in fact, it was also mandated by Muhammad: "Asma, daughter of Abu Bakr, entered upon the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) wearing thin clothes. The Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) turned his attention from her. He said: 'O Asma, when a woman reaches the age of menstruation, it does not suit her that she displays her parts of body except this and this,' and he pointed to her face and hands." (Abu Dawud b.32, no.4092)

While this symbol of Islamic oppression is not strictly followed in all parts of the world, in some areas women have been brutalised and even killed for not adhering to it. One infamous example took place in Mecca in 2002. Fifteen girls died in a fire at their school when the Saudi religious police refused to let them out of the building, because in the female-only environment of the school they had shed their concealing outer garments. The muttawa preferred that the girls die rather than show themselves to men in public, and even battled with emergency services who were trying to open the doors.

Rape laws

One of the most appalling Islamic abuses of women concerns rape, and is a direct result of Muhammad's own behaviour.

Islamic tradition tells how Aisha was once accused of adultery. Muhammad was outraged by the accusations and refused to believe that they could be true (which they probably weren't, in any case). Eventually he received a new revelation from Allah which absolved Aisha of all guilt and scolded the accusers for failing to bring forward four witnesses to testify to the crime: "Why did they not produce four witnesses? Since they produce not witnesses, they verily are liars in the sight of Allah." (24:13)

Indeed, Islam discriminates against women by stating that their testimony is worth half that of a man's: "And call to witness, from among your men, two witnesses. And if two men be not (at hand) then a man and two women, of such as ye approve as witnesses, so that if the one erreth (through forgetfulness) the other will remember." (2:282). The Islamic legal manual Umdat al-Salik says women can only testify in "cases involving property, or transactions dealing with property, such as sales". Otherwise only men can testify.

The consequence of this is that it is virtually impossible to prove rape in Islamic countries. As long as the man denies the charges and there are no witnesses, he gets off scot-free because the victim's account is inadmissible. Even worse, if a woman makes an accusation of rape but cannot prove it with appropriate testimony, she may be incriminated on charges of adultery. This accounts for the fact that up to 75% of women in jail in Pakistan are there because they were the victims of rape. In Nigeria women have also been sentenced to death for being raped.

So are there any malpractices which aren't sanctioned by Islam? Well, yes, actually there are a couple:

Genital mutilation

Female genital mutilation, or circumcision, is designed to reduce a woman's sexual drive so that she will be less likely to commit adultery. There is little to nothing in Islamic tradition to justify this horrific and painful act, and it is also practised outside of Islam, but in any case it is still disturbingly common in an Islamic context, and is supported by some Islamic authorities. Umdat al-Salik says that circumcision is required "for both men and women". Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi, the grand imam of Al-Azhar University, says that female circumcision is "a laudable practise that [does] honour to women".

Honour killing

Honour killings are extremely common in the Islamic world. Women are killed by their own families for being raped or for being seen in public with a man who was not related to them, because they are viewed as having brought shame to the family or having compromised its honour. Justification for this in Islamic texts is scant, and once again it is not solely an Islamic custom; yet it could be said that these actions are the result of a culture that concentrates far more on shame and honour than on individual responsibility - and Islam has in many ways fostered this culture in many of its followers.

The bottom line

The fact is that adhering to Qur'anic literalism will inevitably result in more and more women suffering - whether it be by physical abuses or the heartbreak of multiple instantaneous divorces, they will suffer. As long as men continue to read the Qur'an and take it literally, women will be at risk. And given that the current global jihad network does indeed take the Qur'an very seriously, we should all hope that they never succeed in their mission to impose this system on us. In the mean time, we should give sober consideration to the suffering women are already going through in lands where such laws and behaviour hold sway.

Next time: What Islamic law mandates for dhimmis - that's most of you unless you convert with haste

The N-Word..."No"

Renault has withdrawn an ad over fears that its use of the term "the N-word" could cause offence.
The car manufacturer decided to withdraw the ad after the Advertising Standards Authority received two complaints from members of the public who felt that the term carried racist connotations. Even though the ASA decided not to investigate the ad, which appeared in newspapers, Renault chose to withdraw it. The print ad was to promote a limited period during which Renault dealers promised not to use the word "no" to customers.

Yes, "the N-word" has racist connotations...but who gives a flying ****? I'll tell you who: politically correct wet liberal types who get a fantastic ego trip when showing their superior sense of morality by complaining about something which clearly isn't meant to be racist or offensive in any way. Whoever those two people were who complained about the ad...I pity you.

Happy Thanksgiving

To any American readers I just want to say, Happy Thanksgiving from across the pond. Today is the day to think of all the great things your great country has achieved over the years, and all the good that it has yet to achieve. And perhaps, in these times, it is also a time to think about what you have that is worth defending from the threat of Islamic jihad that seeks to take it away.

Happy holidays from a Limey who is proud to be a friend and ally of the United States of America.

England 2; Croatia 3

So there we have it, then. England defeated once more and failing to qualify for Euro 2008.

And what is the sole cause of this? Simple: gutlessness. All round, from top to bottom, gutlessness. Our gutless FA made the easy decision after Sven left by appointing a gutless manager, and he is residing over a bunch of gutless players who mostly do not have the bottle to take games like this by the scruff of the neck.

There are exceptions to the latter, of course. Wayne Rooney, had he been playing, would have played his heart out. And David Beckham, when he came on, was the only one who looked bothered. He actually RAN to take corners only a couple of minutes into the second half. Because he WANTED to achieve something. The rest couldn't have cared less.

And as for the manager: his own gutlessness was clear in the overly negative, counter-productive system he played from the outset. When he did grow the balls to do something at half-time, he brought on the right players - but took off the excellent Gareth Barry instead of the hopeless and non-existent Frank Lampard, whose converted penalty hardly makes his contribution worth anything more. And his inclusion of Lampard at all was laughable, given that everyone knows by now that he and Gerrard simply can't play together, and Barry and Gerrard had already proven to be a respectable partnership.

The FA, of course, should be ashamed of their own role in all this. They took the most convenient route in appointing McClaren after Eriksson left, when there were other managers available, proven World Cup winners, in the running. They scared Scolari off with unreasonable demands, and even recently had the chance to get Jose Mourinho in. But Mourinho didn't want the job if we failed to qualify, so the chance is now gone.

It goes without saying that they should sack McClaren immediately, but the problem is that there is no one to replace him with. Mourinho no longer wants it, and the only to other managers capable of the job - Wenger and Ferguson - are obviously not even in contention. The bottom line: they should have sacked McClaren weeks ago and appointed Mourinho to get us to the finals. But they would never do that, because they're cowards.

England didn't deserve to go through. And the blame can be placed at every level of the hierarchy.

Round-up

1. A US college is pulling out all the stops with a full-scale discussion on racism after a white couple showed up at a campus party last week in black face. According to information supplied by the college, a Smith student and a male friend attended a theme party Friday night dressed as singer Whitney Houston and her husband Bobby Brown, who are black. The theme of the party was celebrity rehabilitation. Houston has done several stints in rehabilitation facilities for substance abuse problems. According to accounts, some party-goers were offended that the couple was in black face. The Smith student left the party and has since apologized for her actions.

Obviously this is not racist and those who were "offended" by this need to grow up, get a new hobby and stop being such losers. How does one portray Whitney Houston without actually making herself LOOK like Whitney Houston through "blacking up" her face? That some people found this offensive is ridiculous and shows how far PC culture has infiltrated Western society. It must die.

2. For ACTUAL racism, however, check this out: Highly offensive racial content attacking Aborigines who live in the Perth suburb of Maddington has appeared on the online encyclopedia website Wikipedia.

The racist material has been been entered under the suburb of "Maddington.'' The entry refers to Aboriginal people as "vermin of the earth'’ "who smell and use their centrelink payments to drink at the skate park."

Victim Status More Apt For...Jews

Check out this table at the website of the FBI.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, blacks were the victims of the most hate-related offenses in 2006. But second to them comes...the Jews. And I think we can guess which group many of the perpetrators of those crimes belonged to...

Anti-Islamic offenses just happen to be bottom of this particular table. So next time you hear some taqiyya-practising Muslim spokesman whinging about "Islamophobia" and the persecution Muslims face in the West, just bear this table in mind.

Also note that anti-white offenses were the third most common, with more offenses committed against them than against homosexuals. And yet we never hear from our gutless media about these particular hate crimes.

Coming Next Week!

Hopefully those who read the "Islam 101" articles I wrote a while back - exposing the elements within Islam that promote and encourage violence - found them to be interesting and informative.

Well, get ready, because there's a new series coming very soon! Beginning next week, I'll be posting four new articles detailing the oppression that Islamic sharia law mandates for various groups of people - women, non-Muslims, etc. It's essentially a look at what the world would be like if jihadists were victorious in their efforts, and they instituted Islamic law everywhere in the world.

Note, however, that I probably won't be able to get the articles out weekly like I did last time. But I will try to crank them out as quickly as possible.

Tune in next Monday to read the first part: "Islam Oppresses Women".

ConAir

This was the only reasonably interesting racism story I could find today, and it is in fact a non-story, but there you go.

Airline Comair has hit back at the South African department of labour, after an allegation in the media that Comair did not hire black cabin crew because they cannot swim.

Joint Chief Executive office (CEO) of Comair Erik Venter says the allegations are not only blatantly false but also defamatory.

He says the airline has over 850 black staff representing more than half of the staff personnel. Venter says Comair was in fact the first airline to hire black cabin crew over 30 years ago.

He says Comair is the only airline to run a swimming training programme for cabin crew recruits. The ability to swim and as well as life-saving skills are mandated as safety requirements by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

Chutzpah Alert

An illegal immigrant has demanded to be flown home after saying he was fed up with British people - because they are "rude and unfriendly".

Aside from his comments themselves, I find it amusing (well, not really) that the government needs an illegal immigrant to demand to fly him home for them to actually take such action in the first place. However, while I'm not usually a fan of caving in to the demands of illegals, I think I can make an exception in this case.

"Blacks Are Responsible For Their Own Condition"

A US opinion poll purportedly shows that blacks are blaming the poor within their own community for their lack of economic advance, rather than racism and discrimination.

It seems to me that the poll could have been conducted in a better fashion with more options given and less ambiguous answers, but even so I am inclined out of the goodness of my heart to take this as an encouraging sign that black people are becoming more willing to take responsibility for the fortunes of their community rather than playing the race card all the time. I shall give them the benefit of the doubt for now.

MCB: "Mealy-Mouthed Scum"

This is another brilliant rant by ex-Catholic atheist Pat Condell, in which he takes the Muslim Council of Britain to task for claiming that the British government fosters anti-Muslim sentiment. Condell has in the past issued a number of videos launching scathing attacks on Islamic hardliners, as well as on people of other religions who just refuse to listen to reason. As usual, this is a belter; Condell has a way of wording things which is eloquent yet ferociously cutting to the people he is addressing; he puts things we're all thinking into words in a way we would never be capable of doing. Fantastic stuff:

RAW Watch

Racism There And Here - The journalistic insight is astounding.

Zionist Death Booty

This is brilliant.

The Palestinian Authority newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida carried a story this week about IDF tactics that surpassed all previous accusations of supposed Israeli deviousness - poisoned candies, hormone-laced gum, poisoned wells, magnetized belts - in its bizarreness.

According to an Al-Hayat Al-Jadida front page report, the IDF has turned to using armed, female strippers in its war on upstanding Palestinian boys. The newspaper reports that when the Arab rock-throwing begins, IDF soldiers run for cover. Then, the story continues, after some time of hiding, an Israeli woman stands up on top of a barricade and begins to perform an alluring strip tease. Innocent Arab teenage boys, distracted from the business of rioting, are enticed to approach, when, according to the newspaper, the woman - an IDF soldier - shoots them with a pistol she had hidden in her underwear.

Round-up

1. Racism Is Underlying Cause of War On Terror

You won't believe the demented rhetoric of this one. It reads like Osama bin Laden's own talking points. Once again the writer, Chris Elliot, confuses Islam with an entire race of people, probably the Arabs. That's racist. And this line is classic:

The fact is that only about 10 percent or 15 percent of Muslims could be described as fundamentalists, that is to say, desirous of Islamic law in the nations in which they live.

Yes, you see that right. Elliot is apparently satisfied in the knowledge that there are absolutely no more than 150 million Islamic "fundamentalists" in the world today.

2. I assume this is a joke, a spoof. Even if it isn't; it's extremely funny to me.

Lost In Translation

The distributor of a new translation of the Qur'an has been arrested in Afghanistan after complaints from religious scholars that the new edition was un-Islamic, and misinterprets verses about alcohol, begging, homosexuality and adultery.

Unsurprisngly, the BBC doesn't actually mention HOW these verses were misrepresented; I think it wants the reader to assume that the translator made these passages more "radical" than they really are. I mean, let's take a passage like 24:2, for example: "The woman and the man guilty of adultery or fornication,- flog each of them with a hundred stripes: Let not compassion move you in their case, in a matter prescribed by Allah, if ye believe in Allah and the Last Day: and let a party of the Believers witness their punishment." I'm sure these scholars are outraged that he made that more extreme than it really is...

Then again, given that these passages are ALREADY extreme, and given the angry comparisons to Salman Rushdie, I'd say it's actually far more likely that the reason this man has been arrested is because he made the Qur'an TOO SOFT on such matters.

Round-up

1. Employers across Northern Ireland are being urged to stamp out racism in the workplace. About 13,000 packs containing posters, stickers and leaflets carrying the anti-racism message have been sent out to workplaces.

See, this is my problem with initiatives such as this one: How much is it going to cost to send all these packs out? And what benefit are we likely to see from it? Virtually none, as far as I'm concerned. Do you really think a racist is going to open a passage that says "Stop being racist" and suddenly change his ways? It's like expecting a terrorist to stop what he's doing because you tell him it's bad. No attempt is being made to actually look at the underlying causes of racism and prevent those, and to examine the legitimate concerns people might have about immigration and so on. These kinds of costly campaigns simply won't get us anywhere.

2. In the Pathetic Racial Controversy of the Week, a prospective Conservative MP has withdrawn his candidacy after a race row followed comments he made praising Enoch Powell's controversial "Rivers of Blood" speech. Nigel Hastilow wrote in a newspaper column that Mr Powell's warnings about uncontrolled immigration were right.

Now ain't this just pathetic? Neither Powell nor Hastilow said anything racist; they only voiced concerns about uncontrolled immigration - that topic that the Left refuse to talk about rationally without using smear words like "racist". It is a truly sad day when a man has to forgo his ambitions because of the PC crowd. I HATE political correctness.

3. And speaking of political correctness, here is a short letter about racism to the Fayette Observer. Particularly poignant to me is the last line:

Sadly, it is politically correct to say, “I’m black and I’m proud.” but quite politically incorrect to say, “I’m white and I’m proud.” That, in itself, is all that is needed for me to condemn political correctness.

Don't Call It Racism

Earlier this year residents of the small Quebec town of Hérouxville declared that immigrants were welcome there regardless of their race, colour of skin, language spoken, sexual orientation or religion. When they added, however, that newcomers who came to live there should also be prepared to accept certain basic standards reflecting the traditions and culture of the townsfolk, they were branded as xenophobes and racists.

This article about the controversy is a generally good and well-balanced one; give it a read.

The Force is Strong In This One...

Brilliant: as the Saudi King arrived in Britain, a marching band greeting him with the famous Darth Vader theme tune from Star Wars:



Also check out the assistant Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain refusing to condemn Saudi-funded books which call for the violent punishment of homosexuals and the oppression of women. Do we trust the MCB as "moderate"?

Note also the constant referral to Wahabbism as the lone form of "extremism" within Islam. But in fact, the Wahabbis did not invent Islamic violence and oppression. Al Qaeda, for example, are not Wahabbis, and the same Qur'anic teachings were being used to justify atrocities long before Wahabbism even existed.

(P.S. Sorry about the underlining...Blogger seriously sucks. It put it there by itself and I can't get rid of it. There are so many flaws in the Blogger posting system it's untrue.)