Articles on Islam

Al Fawzan – a member of the Senior Council of Clerics, Saudi Arabia's highest religious body – says Muslims who contend Islam is against slavery "are ignorant, not scholars."

"They are merely writers," he said, according to SIA. "Whoever says such things is an infidel."

Al-Fawzan's best-known textbook, "Al-Tawheed – Monotheism," says most Muslims are polytheists, and their blood and money are therefore free for the taking by "true Muslims."

SIA said although the Saudi government claims religious curriculum is being reformed, Al-Fawzan's books are still in wide use.

Al-Fawzan is a member of the Council of Religious Edicts and Research, the Imam of Prince Mitaeb Mosque in Riyadh and a professor at Imam Mohamed Bin Saud Islamic University, Saudi Arabia's main center of learning for the strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islam.

SIA noted Al-Fawzan, a leading opponent of curriculum reform, opposes elections and demonstrations as Western influences, is against Arab women marrying non- Arab Muslims and has issued a fatwa forbidding the watching of television.

Al-Fawzan has threatened to behead a Saudi writer and scholar, Sheik Hassan Al-Maliki, for his criticism of Wahhabism, according to SIA. Al-Maliki was fired from his position with the ministry of education after writing a 50- page paper criticizing Al-Fawzan's book "Al-Tawheed."

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http://www.iabolish.com/news/press-coverage/2004/dt05-16-04.htm

Slave Raids Reported in Darfur

The Daily Telegraph
May 16, 2004

Deep in remote northern Darfur, the Sudanese rebel fighters are gathering to talk tactics in the face of genocide. At this desert rendezvous, in the punishing terrain of the Sahara, we are 120 miles from the nearest settlement and 75 miles from the closest reliable water supply, a large reservoir.

There is little to mark Wadi Hawar as a hideout: the "camp" has no huts or tents. Rebels from throughout northern and western Darfur choose to meet here because they know that the brutal Janjaweed - the mounted Arab militia whose men are systematically "cleansing" western Sudan of its 80 black African tribes - will never find them.

It is 47C and the air ripples with heat. The dust creates a persistent, arid fog. The only shade comes from the scrubby trees, their branches stripped of leaves, and the rebels' 25 pick-up trucks. The commanders shelter under the thicker twigs; their men lie out in the sun.

Tattered and filthy, a boy moves among them, bringing water and tea, shying away from any adult who approaches. Aged just 12, Adam Erenga Tribe has more reason than most to shrink from grown men.

A month ago, Adam came home from school to find the government-backed Janjaweed burning his village in western Darfur. He watched more than 20 armed militiamen spur their horses through the inferno, slaughtering any who refused to leave and rounding up their cattle.

Running home, Adam found his two older brothers lying dead in the dirt outside the family's straw shelter. Inside were the bodies of his mother and father, who had been shot in the neck and the stomach.

"They killed my whole family," Adam remembers, shaking as he speaks. "Lots of girls were captured. I lost control and started screaming and crying. And then the Janjaweed snatched me and took me away on horseback. They made me their slave."

Since February, millions of innocent civilians have been caught up in civil war as the Janjaweed work to rid the Darfur region of its 80 black tribes, in the name of suppressing the rebels.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed, villages have been emptied, and traumatised refugees speak of mass murder and rape, of wells being poisoned with the bodies of dead children.

An estimated one million people - one in seven of the Darfur population - have been driven from their homes by the Janjaweed, the one-time nomadic Arab shepherds who have been forcing their way south as the Sahara consumes their traditional grazing lands.

The United Nations has likened the campaign to the Rwanda genocide in 1994, and aid organisations are struggling to tackle the threat of famine.

Last week, senior African diplomats told The Sunday Telegraph that the Arab-dominated and undemocratic Sudanese government was using hunger as a weapon to defeat the rebellion.

Throughout Darfur, residents believe that the government is attempting to split the country along religious and racial lines to hang on to power.

While Khartoum denies ethnic cleansing, it would rather that its progress against the 20,000 rebels went unreported, imposing a media blackout that has lasted more than a year.

Most eyewitness accounts have come from the estimated 110,000 refugees in camps on the Sudan-Chad border.

"The vicious war in Darfur has led to violations on a scale comparable in character to Rwanda," says Mukesh Kapila, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator in Sudan. "All the warning signs are there."

Mohammed Bashir, the political leader of one rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement, says: "It's normal for the government to kill us rebels, but we didn't expect them to kill and bomb civilians. The government and Janjaweed want to kill all the black people in Sudan."

On April 8, the Sudanese government and the rebel groups signed a 45-day ceasefire in N'Djamena, in Chad. The government agreed to disarm the militias but while direct fighting in Darfur, a region roughly the size of France, has stopped, violence against civilians has continued.

The militia spared Adam's life because he was old enough to be useful but too young to be a threat. "I thought they were going to kill me, but they made me look after their herds," he says.

He was held by the Janjaweed for a month until, a fortnight ago, the rebels rescued him during one of their raids on the militia. Adam has now ended up 230 miles from his home village.

The rebels ferry him between their "nerve-centre" at Wadi Hawar and the Hazankariyari dam, 75 miles away, where hundreds of displaced women and their children, plus scores of orphans, have made their homes.

Conditions at the dam are slightly better than in the official refugee camps on the Sudan-Chad border. The Janjaweed are unlikely to strike because they know the rebels mass nearby. The rebels have guns - and people with guns have food.

At the dam, Adam has made friends with two other boys, Tahir Arga, 13, and Mohammed Ahad Adem, 14. Both were at school when government aircraft firebombed the villages - often the precursor to a Janjaweed attack - and the militia arrived.

The boys hope that their families survived, and that they will one day be reunited. Adam is throwing his lot in with his rescuers. "I want to be a rebel," he says, "but they won't let me yet. I'm too young."

That he is still alive is a wonder. Death is everywhere in Darfur. The wadis - dried-up river beds with just a trickle of water left - are the safest places to live but are littered with dead cattle, bloated by the heat. Flies alone thrive, a dark, furious haze.

Ten days ago, Abdu Bahra was herding his family's goats when two Janjaweed stole his animals and water, and stabbed him in the neck.

The family, already homeless following an earlier raid, took Abdu on a donkey to find medical help but the teenager has now succumbed to a virulent infection.

His breathing is quick and shallow. He is filthy and shrivelled by dehydration, covered by a blanket and flies. His shaking is the only movement in the medical tent, although his eyes dart to his father, to the medicine going into his arm, to the sun-drenched sand on which he lies.

When Abdu dies, no one calls out. It is one in the morning and the moment simply passes. His father's head is in his hands and there is nothing to look up for.

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http://www.iabolish.com/news/press-coverage/2004/tuk05-30-04.htm

Arab militia use 'rape camps' for ethnic cleansing of Sudan

By Benjamin Joffe-Walt
May 30, 2004
The Telegraph (UK)

"In the evening, the Janjaweed attacked. The area was full of crying from every direction, and shooting," says Ilham Isaak Abakker Abdullah. Aged 13, and light-voiced, she wears a pink dress and scarf and hasn't shown her face in weeks. "I saw many people killed, then I was grabbed by two men on horses wearing Sudan army uniforms."

My local translator stops, no longer willing to delve into her story. "She is only 13," he says, and walks away. Tentatively, she continues talking to me in Arabic: "They tied me to a tree and raped me all night. I became very ill and fell down. They thought I died, so they left me."

Unable to walk and barely conscious, Ilham crawled out of the "rape camp" near Funu, in northern Darfur, where she was being held. "I was very lucky," she says. She found a relative nearby who carried her just over a mile to a donkey, and they rode together a few hours to Abu Lehah, a village that has become a safe haven for the survivors of this secret rape camp. "I was unconscious and stayed there 16 days," she says. Ilham then set out on a 125-mile trek south to Bahai in Chad, where she eventually found medical help.

After 50 years of conflict that have claimed almost 2 million lives, Sudan is now officially at peace - but unofficially, the war goes on. In Darfur, Sudan's western-most region, the people remain untouched by last week's peace agreement signed between the country's Islamic government and Christian rebels. Sudanese soldiers and the government-backed Janjaweed militia still terrorize, and at the centre of their campaign of "ethnic cleansing" is a policy of systematic rape designed to drive civilians from their settlements.

Ilham is one of countless women, young and old, who have made the journey to Chad after escaping the "rape camps". I was unable to confirm first-hand the existence of such camps, but based on testimony to The Sunday Telegraph of refugees in the area, interviews by human rights organisations and the data, though scant, of aid agencies, it is clear that one such camp exists 10 miles outside Abu Lehah. It is also clear that rape by Janjaweed militias, the Arab soldiers intent on "ethnic cleansing" in the black African-dominated region of Darfur, is prevalent.

"When we arrived in Abu Lehah we saw hundreds of women unable to walk," says Asha Abdara Haman, 25, who helped Ilham and other girls on the long journey to Bahai. "Many girls were under 15 and couldn't walk. We carried them for 16 days."

Asha and her 17-year-old sister, Radiya, were taken by Janjaweed and held as sex slaves for two days. "Five to six people raped each of us," Asha says. "They did everything they wanted with us, our condition was horrible."

To escape, the sisters manipulated the Janjaweed. "We said, 'You Janjaweed, you are very good people, we will not leave you,' so they didn't watch us closely and we escaped into the trees." Unable to walk properly, they almost crawled to Abu Lehah nearby, where they stayed for two days before making the trek to Chad with Ilham and other women.

Asha describes the rape camp as a well organised operation. "There were 35 women taken and they split us up, one for each group of Janjaweed." She says that this is how it generally works. "If women are few, they divide us five or six Janjaweed per woman. If there are enough women after their daily collections then it's one to one."

Asha yells out, calling other girls and women who have survived rape camps to speak to us.

The stories of Asha, Radiya and Ilham illustrate how sexual violence is being used systematically. Such action by the Sudanese army and Janjaweed has created a "post-rape migration". And, because of the humiliation and silence of its victims, it is not being recorded in aid agency statistics. One refugee woman said: "In our culture it is a shame, and women will hide this in their hearts so that the men do not hear about it."

"We try to support each other," says Haloum Hissein Ali, 50, who organised the migration of women from the villages around Karnoi. She is a native of nearby Bajurba, a 26-hut village. "Some of my friends were slaves of the Janjaweed for a long time," she says.

Haloum and her blind friend, Zahara, organised local women to help to find others who had been taken by the Janjaweed. They found only a few, but then travelled together, sharing transport animals and food, on a three-day journey to Tine, Chad. Doctors in Tine report treating dozens of women who have been raped in Karnoi.

Gaetan Mootoo, who is gathering information from refugees in Darfur, said: "We have a large number of testimonies of rape and we have a strong sense that since the beginning of this year it is being used as a systematic weapon against women and girls. We fear that the consequences of this, both for the women involved and for all the people of Darfur, will last for a long time."

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http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=4686

Islam's Wretched Record on Slavery

By Serge Trifkovic
FrontPageMagazine.com | November 20, 2002

Another in a series of excerpts adapted by Robert Locke from Dr. Serge Trifkovic’s new book The Sword of the Prophet: A Politically-Incorrect Guide to Islam

As the recent campaign for reparations has shown, the West is still being taken to task for the fact that it used to permit slavery. But in fact the West, rather than being the origin of slavery in the world, is in fact the only civilization to have created from within itself a successful movement to abolish it. Other civilizations, like Islamic civilization, have not yet achieved this. To this day, the principal places in the world where one can buy a slave for ready cash are Moslem countries.

This should not come as a surprise, for slavery finds explicit positive support in Islam, rather than the mere acquiescence it does in Christianity. Christianity is not explicitly anti-slavery, as the long acceptance of slavery by the various churches shows, but it does not positively endorse it, either. More importantly, it was out of evangelical Christian circles that abolitionism emerged in American and Britain, and no church today countenances it. While both the Old and New Testaments recognize slavery, the Gospels do not treat the institution as divinely ordained. Christianity recognized slavery as a fact of life, as part of how the world works, as indeed it did in New Testament times.

The Koran, by contrast, not only assumes the existence of slavery as a permanent fact of human existence, but regulates its practice in considerable detail, thereby endowing it with divine sanction by revealing God's detailed will for how it should be conducted. Mohammed and his companions owned slaves. The Koran recognizes the basic inequality between master and slave and the rights of the former over the latter. To be fair, it also urges, without actually commanding, kindness to slaves, and considers a Moslem slave to be of a higher order than a free infidel. However, this does not entitle him to be set free.

The Koran explicitly guarantees Moslems the right to own slaves, either by purchasing them or as bounty of war. Mohammed had dozens, both male and female, and he regularly traded slaves when he became independently wealthy in Medina. Some of their names are recorded to posterity. As for the women:

"Whenever Mohammed took a woman as a captive, if he imposed the veil on her, Moslems would say he took her as a wife, but if he left her unveiled they would say, 'He owned her as a slave'; that is, she became a property of his right hand."

In line with the racist views of Mohammed himself about his own people, the Arabs as "the nobles of all races" were exempt from enslavement. More later on the present-day consequences of this in Africa.

The four caliphs or religious rulers who came after Mohammed discouraged the enslavement of free Moslems, and it was eventually prohibited. But the assumption of freedom as the normal condition of men did not extend to non-Moslems. Disobedient or rebellious dhimmis (subject peoples, i.e. Christians, Hindus, Jews, Africans) were often reduced to slavery and prisoners captured in jihad were also enslaved if they could not be exchanged or ransomed. In Africa, Arab rulers regularly raided black tribes to the south and captured slaves claiming their raids to be jihad; in India, many Hindus were enslaved on the same pretext.

The divine sanction of slavery in Islam means that disobedience carries everlasting punishment. The Koran says that:

"There are three whose prayer will not be accepted, nor their virtues be taken above: The runaway slave until he returns back to his master, the woman with whom her husband is dissatisfied, and the drunk until he becomes sober."

Historically, while maltreatment was deplored, there was no fixed penalty under sharia, Islamic law, placing protection of the slave's well-being at the capricious mercy of judges. If, of course, they could even get their day in court: slaves had no legal rights. The Koran mandates that a freeman should be killed only for another freeman, a slave for a slave, and a female for a female. A Hadith or officially-recognized traditional saying says that "a Moslem should not be killed for a non-Moslem, nor a freeman for a slave."

A Moslem slave-owner was entitled by law to the sexual enjoyment of his slave women. Many African slaves were eunuchs. Castration was against Islamic law, but this was massively evaded. For African captives nothing short of "castration level with the abdomen" would do; no mere removal of the cojones, as with Slavic and Greek captives. Only such radically castrated eunuchs were deemed fit to be guardians of the harem.

During its so-called golden age, the slave trade inside the Islamic empire and along its edges was vast. It began to flourish at the time of the Moslem expansion into Africa, in the middle of the seventh century, and it still survives today in Mauritania and Sudan. The Spanish and Portuguese originally purchased black African slaves for their American colonies from Arab dealers. Nubians and Ethiopians, with their slender features and thin noses, were preferred to the equatorial Bantus, who were perceived as crude beings for whom hard toil and lowly menial tasks were appropriate.

There are notable differences between the slave trade in the Islamic world and the trans-Atlantic variety. The former has been going on for 13 centuries and it is an integral feature of the Islamic civilization, while the influx of slaves into the New World lasted less than a third that long and was effectively ended by the middle of the 19th century.

Just over ten million Africans were taken to the Americas during that period, while the number of captives taken to the heartlands of Islam - while impossible to establish with precision - is many times greater. Nevertheless, there are tens of millions of descendants of slaves in the Americas, and practically none in the Moslem world outside Africa. For all its horrors, the Atlantic slave trade took place within a capitalistic context in which slaves were expensive pieces of property not to be destroyed. In the Moslem world slaves were considerably cheaper, far more widely available, and regarded as a dispensable commodity. They were effectively worked to death, and thus left no descendants.

Contrary to the myth that Islam is a religion free from racial prejudice, slavery in the Moslem world has been, and remains, brutally racist in character. To find truly endemic, open, raw anti-Black racism and slavery today one needs to go to the two Islamic Republics in Africa: Mauritania and Sudan. Black people have been enslaved on such a scale that the term black has become synonymous with slave. The mixed-race, predominantly Negroid but self-avowedly "Arabic" denizens of the transitional sub-Saharan zone have been indoctrinated into treating their pure-black southern neighbors with racist disdain. (To this day it can be dangerous to one's life to ask a dark-looking but Arabic-speaking Sudanese or Mauritanian Moslem if he is "black.")

For the pure-black populations of Sudan and Mauritania, independence from colonial rule marked the end of a slavery-free respite. Slavery was "abolished" several times in Mauritania since independence, most recently on July 5, 1980. Yet the Anti-Slavery Society's findings (1982) and those of Africa Watch (1990) point to the existence of at least 100,000 "full-time" slaves and additional 300,000 half-slaves, all of them black, still being held by Arab-Mauritanians. Even the head of state from 1960 to 1978, Mokhtar Ould Daddah, kept slaves behind the presidential palace. The Mauritanian government has not tried to eradicate slavery and failed; it has not tried at all. Even the old Arab practice of forming slave armies is being revived in Mauritania, where thousands of Haratines were forcibly recruited, armed, and sent to take over black African villages in the south, where they massacred the inhabitants.

In 1983, the Arab-controlled government of Sudan instituted strict Islamic law in the entire country and subjected black Christians and other non-Moslems of the south in its decree. Then in 1992 a religious decree was ordered that gave justification to the military onslaught against non-Moslems. Since that time the United Nations and human rights groups have documented countless cases of slavery.

The Moslem world has yet to produce a serious indigenous movement to abolish slavery that was not the consequence of Western prompting.

The Arabian Peninsula in 1962 became the world's penultimate region to officially abolish slavery, yet years later Saudi Arabia alone was estimated to contain a quarter of a million slaves. Thousands of miles away from Africa, in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province, girls as young as five are auctioned off to highest bidders. Afghan girls between the ages of 5 and 17 sell for $80 to $100. The price depends on the colors of their eyes and skin; if they are virgins, the price is higher. The girls are generally sold into prostitution or, if they are lucky, they may join harems in the Middle East.

If they are lucky.

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http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=17888

Group kicks off anti-slavery campaign

Pastors, humanitarians lobby Capitol for action in Sudan

By Julie Foster
© 2000 WorldNetDaily.com

Today, escaped Sudanese slave Francis Bok Bol tells the story of his enslavement by an Arab Muslim at the inaugural event of The Sudan Campaign, an assembly of lawmakers, clergy and humanitarian groups, which today launched a two-week lobbying effort in Washington, D.C., and around the country to stop ongoing genocide and slavery in the troubled African nation.

Enslaved from the age of seven, Bok Bol will be joined at the kick-off by senior members of the congressional Black Caucus who are also on the campaign's advisory board, including Reps. Donald Payne, D-N.J., Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y. and Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C.

Other board members scheduled to attend the event include Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va. and Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo.

According to the group's website, "the campaign is designed to demonstrate nationwide grassroots support among diverse groups that unites national leaders, church groups, students, human rights organizations, and victims of the genocide."

With the help of Christian ministers and humanitarian organizations, ex-slaves will spend the next two weeks appealing to President Clinton to "tell the Pharaohs of Khartoum that they must 'Let My People Go,'" said an advisory from the group.

Khartoum, Sudan's capital, has been controlled by the fundamentalist group National Islamic Front since 1989. The group began funding a Muslim tribe's slave trade of the Dinkas, a cattle-herding, Christian tribe in south Sudan, as well as moderate Muslims and African traditionalists. Groups who do not submit to the NIF's control must overcome tactics such as forced starvation, military bombings and kidnapping raids. Those who are taken are subject to slavery, female genital mutilation and rape.

Nyadeng Malek, shown with her baby, Deng, was enslaved by government forces in 1996. When she tried to resist being raped, her finger was cut off. Picture courtesy of The Sudan Campaign.

In all, the slave trade has cost nearly two million lives and displaced some five million people since 1983.

"The Sudan Campaign has three basic demands," said Jesse Sage, associate director of the American Anti-Slavery Group -- a member organization of the campaign's coalition. First among those demands is leadership from President Clinton.

"The president is the ultimate leader" in America, said Sage. "He has a unique ability to mobilize this abolitionist nation to stop slavery and genocide. We're here today because we don't want to wait five years for an apology. We want an unequivocal and emphatic condemnation of the genocide in Sudan."

Reasserting the American desire for leadership, Sage added, "The president's silence is blunting the grassroots drive for peace and justice in Sudan."

In addition, the group believes the United States should fill the role as the world's leader in putting a stop to the tragic practice of slavery in the African nation.

"The U.S. must exert leadership to implement democratic principles in Sudan," he said.

Third on the campaign's list of demands is monetary assistance for the African victims. "The U.S. must provide direct humanitarian aid to victims now," he told WorldNetDaily.

"We see ourselves as a latter-day anti-apartheid movement. Two million people have been killed," Sage added. "We can't wait any longer."

Sage told WND the campaign is in response to a "challenge" issued by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright during a closed meeting with humanitarian groups in September. Albright reportedly said the suffering in Sudan has not been "marketable" to Americans.

"We're here to correct that impression," Sage declared. "This is a grassroots movement. When Americans learn about this, they're outraged. This is historic. It's the survivors themselves who will be making these demands."

One of those survivors, Bok Bol, will make a special call to blacks and Christians to help end the slavery, man-made famine, ethnic cleansing, religious persecution and the bombing of churches, hospitals and schools currently taking place in his native land.

Reports from humanitarians returning from Sudan show the NIF has focused its bombing of Frontline Fellowship, a Christian missionary organization with a permanent base -- including a high school -- in Sudan. On four days between April 19 and May 9, Frontline's facilities were subjected to attacks totaling nearly 50 bombs.

In order to reduce funding to the NIF, at least one humanitarian group has urged corporations to divest their holdings of oil rights in Sudan, which directly benefit the Khartoum government.

The Congress on Modern Pan-African Slavery, or COMPAS, noted China National Petroleum Corp., the state-owned primary supplier of oil and gas in China, owns 40 percent of the rights to oil found in Sudan in 1978.

As reported by WND, the third largest shareholder of Sudanese oil rights is California's Public Employees Retirement System, which holds 179,000 shares.

COMPAS is a member of the coalition that forms The Sudan Campaign, and its leader, Pastor Chuck Singleton, will attend the campaign's event today.

At noon, attendees of the event will walk to the White House to demand the president launch a vigorous campaign to inform both the American public and the international community of the human rights abuses being perpetrated by the government of Sudan.

The event begins in the Cannon Caucus Room of the U.S. Capitol at 11:00 a.m.

At the conclusion of their two-week lobbying campaign, the group will celebrate what it has designated as "National Sudan Day" on June 9, 2000, in conjunction with celebrations in communities and congregations across the U.S.

Rape and Islamic Law (Shair’ah)

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http://www.iran-bulletin.org/women/RAPE.html

Rape under a fundamentalist regime

The Islamist movement''s "justice" and "liberation" excludes women, who are indeed explicitly discriminated against! A few examples from the Islamic Republic may help.

In the courts evidence of female witnesses is inadmissible unless accompanied by that of a male witness. Even then, the value of a female witness is half that by the male (Article 33 and 99 of the Law of Retribution: Hodoud and Ghesas, Section 2 of Article 237)

The diyeh (blood money) for a Muslim woman in cases of manslaughter and murder is half that of a Muslim man. (Article 300, Law of Retribution). If a male Muslim intentionally kills a Muslim women, he is subject to retribution (an eye for an eye) but only if the guardian of the murdered woman pays him half of the diyeh to the murderer to make up the deficiency (Article 6 of Diyat, Article 209 Law of Retribution). The blood money payable to the murderer amounts to 50 camels or 100 cows or the equivalent (Article 3, Diyat).

A husband can kill his adulterous wife without punishment while a woman is punishable by death for a similar crime.

Before the law, women are not a compete person their testimony is only half that of a man. These absurd efforts to place arbitrary and discriminatory values on women has serious repercussions on how women are thought of and treated by society.

Extramarital sex is prohibited under Islamic law. To this extent Islam recognises rape as a crime. However rape taking place within the home and prisons is not considered rape and is therefore legal. It is this situation which I wish to address.

Upkeep for submission

The Koran (Nesa, 34:34) ascribes to men dominance over, but also responsibility for the women under their care. Women have to be given nafagheh (upkeep money), but in return must submit to their husband's will. If a woman disobeys her husband's will, he is instructed to separate their bed and to talk with his wife. If she continues to thwart his desires, he should hit her. The moment she stops disobeying, the punishment and sanctions for misbehaviour should stop. The Koran thus tells a man to respect his wife's rights, while also instructing him to abuse her.

Moreover women are sex objects. A man is permitted four "ordinary" wives and as many "temporary wives" (concubines) as he wishes. A Muslim woman cannot marry a non-Muslim (Article 1059 of the Civil Law) but a Muslim man can marry a non-Muslim . Together these laws create a permissive environment for legal rape.

I came across Simin in 1979. She was 19 years old and had been pursuing her divorce case through courts for the last four years. One day on returning from school her father told Simin point blank she had to marry a certain man. Simin, being only 15, had no intention of marrying. She was also in love with another man. Simin refused and her father firmly insisted. She ran away three times, hiding with relatives, yet her father found her and forced her to marry. Simin kept running away from her "husband". She could not stand living and sleeping with him and he hit her and raped her.

When I met her she was exhausted and despirited. Her family tried to help her get a divorce but the law did not permit it. The man followed her on the street and beat her. During the anarchy of the revolutionary days we formed a group to help Simin and in this way she was able to regain her freedom.

A man divorces his wife on any pretext (Article 1133, Civil Law). Women, on the other hand, can obtain divorce only under extreme circumstances: if the man is mentally ill, or impotent (Articles 1121 and 1122). Given that women cannot chose their partners and that once married it is near impossible to get divorced, this is clearly legal rape.

The age of marriage has been reduced for women from 18 to 9. All the harsh punishments prescribed under Islamic law are applicable to a 9-year old girl, whereas a 14 year old boy is still regarded underage and will not be subjected to such punishment until he is 15 (Paragraph 2, Article 1210, Civil Law). Furthermore, with the permission of the guardian (father or grandfather) and provided it is in the "best interest" of the ward, a girl can be married to a man even when she has not reached the age of consent, or indeed even when she is a baby girl (Article 1041 of Civil Law). This is legal child rape.

Religious rape

According to Islamic lay the killing of a virgin woman is prohibited. This reflects the objectification of women. In prison, if a virgin woman is to be executed, she is first "married" (raped) by one of the guards before execution. Afterwards the guard goes to the woman's family and declares that she is their son-in-law. It is totally distinct from the process of obtaining confession or to humiliate the prisoner. The prison guards are simply obeying Islamic law.

Nadereh was educated in France and had been in touch with opposition groups against the Shah. On the eve of the revolution she returned to Iran to take part in the anti-dictatorial movement against the Shah. For Naderh, like other Iranian intellectuals, it was vital to be present in this decisive historic struggle. During the revolution she worked for a socialist organisation.

She was arrested three years after the revolution. Although others with her alleged crime normally received a few years imprisonment, she was executed after a few month in prison. That was our first shock.

We discovered the reason later. In prison her interrogator took a fancy to her. She had more than once complained of her interrogator's advances towads her. When her case went to court, which consisted of one mullah as judge and no jury, the interrogator accused Nadereh of attempting to escape during her interrogation. The mullah accepted this obviously false charge and sentenced her to death. Both the mullah as the interrogator knew full well that this also gave the interrogator permission to rape Nadereh. The interrogator got what he wanted and fulfilled his religious duty in the bargain. Thousands of young women were executed in Iranian prisons (1), most of them were raped under Islamic law.

Shukuh Jalalie

1. A list of 1,400 has been collected and published by Iranian Political Prisoners Action Committee. Some were pregnant, many were under 17.

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http://www.faithfreedom.org/Articles/abulkazem/rape_of_unbelievers.htm

Rape of Unbelievers in Islam

Mindset of Pakistanis favouring 1971 Genocide

By Abul Kasem

This re-count starts when I was in Thailand in 1973 to do my post graduate studies in Engineering. The Institution was AIT and being an international institution for post graduate study there were students from many parts of the world, though the majority were from the Asian countries. There was sizable number of Bangladeshi as well as Pakistani and Indian students. Bangladesh was just liberated and most of us still had the fresh memories of the holocaust and never expected the Pakistanis to be friendly with us. But to our surprise, we found that most Pakistanis were quite nice a bunch of friendly helpful people. They were extremely curious about what had happened in Bangladesh during that turbulent nine-month period.

Many a time we used to have lengthy chat sessions with them. These Pakistanis were extremely religious. And they used to preach on us on all aspects of the last revelations of God, that is Islam. They used to think that our knowledge of Islam was incomplete, erroneous and filled with Hindu practices. They used to preach on us like a priest gives sermons on the followers. Their devotion to Islam was so strong that they forced the canteen manager to open counter for Muslim students so that they (the Muslims) can eat the food sanctioned by Islam. Naturally, many Bangalees who are religious minded were greatly impressed by their words and practices. But a sinner like me was very skeptical about their words and actions right from the very beginning.

Then came the topic of creation of Bangladesh. Naturally, they sided with the Pak army although they expressed sorrow for the lives lost. When they heard that 3 million people were massacred and that the action of Pak army cannot be dismissed simply as an act of restoration of peace and order they simply laughed. The reason was that they did not believe what had happened to our people in occupied Bangladesh. When we asked them how many Bangalees were killed, they quoted a figure of 3,000 or to that order. They also insisted that those killed were mostly Hindus so we should not bother too much about the massacre. That was to say that the killing of Hindus was all right. We pointed out that the figure of 3 million was not invented by the Government of Bangladesh but the figure was from reliable foreign sources such as AFP, Reuters, Time magazine, etc. We also told them that a Pakistani journalist by the name of Anthony Mascarenhas has written a book titled ‘The Rape of Bangladesh’ where he had quoted a similar figure. The Pakistanis simply dismissed those facts and said that the foreign journalists were bribed by India to write these figures. When we asked them how did they get the figure of 3,000, they said that that figure was released by the military authorities. And how about the 200, 000 rape cases? They were adamant that not a single woman was raped. Such is the power of Pak oligarchy and Pak military to condition peoples’ mind.

Now, the interesting point was that whenever the atrocities of the Pak army were mentioned to them, they were all adamant that we (the Bangalees) are to blame for that. Why? Simply because we were not good Muslims. How? If we were good Muslims, we should not have voted for the Awami League. They told us that the right parties to vote were Pakistan Muslim League or Jamat-i-Islami. It was no secret to guess that most Pakistanis considered us (Bangalees) as non Muslims as almost all of us voted for Awami League. Therefore they opined that the genocide was not really a genocide! It was getting rid of the non-Muslims. After all, they (the non-Muslims) were not really human beings.

Everyone knows that Thailand and especially Bangkok has plenty of seedy joints to have fun and frolic with young women. I shall admit that I went to one of those joints along with a couple of friends of mine. Being a sinner I did not have serious problem with those things. However, one day we got the shock of our lives when we found these Pakistani Islamists sitting comfortably and blithely at the massage parlour and ogling at the scantily dressed amorous Thai sex kittens. Then they saw us. To our surprise, they expressed no shame or they even did not try to hide their faces. They openly welcomed us and shook hands with us as per Islamic style. We were simply stunned and lost for any word. The Pakistanis even told us which girls were good and sexually attractive, etc. etc. They were not ashamed or afraid to admit that they visited those joints quite frequently. Most of them had their favourite girls with whom they had plenty of erotic fun. Those things were unbelievable to me and I thought that I must have been in Mars or another planet or that God has changed his mind on sins and virtues.

After a few weeks, an opportunity came for me to ask one of these Islamists as to what would happen to them since they have committed the sin of zina. They were very surprised at me for this impertinence. He told me that they have committed no sin. What? No sin! My brain must have failed to work! I simply could not hold my breath any longer to listen to what they had to say. He told me that Thais were not Muslims; so having fun with their girls were all right. In fact, he told me that that had been the practice in Islam for centuries. Whenever the Muslims defeated the non-Muslims, they could do whatever they (the Muslims) wanted with the non-Muslims. The Muslims can use the non-Muslim women as sex slaves and please themselves as they wished. A Muslim even had the right to kill the women if he wished. In simple language the non-Muslims were not really human beings. They (the non-Muslims) were inferior even to cattle and animals. Moreover, the Pakistani told me that the Prophet had allowed to have sex if a man is living overseas. I could not believe of what I was hearing! He then quoted me from his memory many verses from Koran and Hadith to support his views. Then I reminded my Pakistani friend that there was quite a small minority of Muslims in Thailand. So, if by accident he had sex with one of the Thai Muslim prostitutes what will befall him. He answered glibly, “No problem.” When I return to Pakistan I shall have a Milad Mehfil and ask for forgiveness. Finally, the Hajj is there for him to receive the forgiveness. But he said that that might not be necessary because he was very sure that none of the girls he had sex with were Muslims.

If a Pakistani reads this re-count he/she may be greatly offended, no doubt about it. Many Pakistanis will defend that the view by one person does not mean any thing. No apology will be sought. Any Pakistani can form whatever opinion he thinks is suitable. It is up to him/her. Let us look at the wider implications of what my Pakistani Islamists had said. Was it an individual’s wrong interpretations of the holy books of Islam? Was it the mindset of a mentally sick person? Do not be fooled by these thoughts. For when we look back, we see that that was the mindset of Pakistani army recruits who unleashed a reign of terror leading into massacring millions of Bangalees. Pakistanis may differ on many matters but when the question of Islamic superiority comes, they are unanimous. This was the work of the Oligarchy, the army and the clerics of Pakistan. These groups have rigidly programmed the vast majority of Pakistanis with the thought that they (the Pakistanis) have the absolute superiority in Islamic matters. And this thinking got a further boost with the detonation of Islamic bomb in 1998. We Bangalees have no problem with their superior thinking. The only trouble is that these dangerous thoughts have cost 3 million dear lives of Bangalees.

So, to put everything in a simple language, the Pakistani army did not kill any human being in Bangladesh. They only cleared the field from pest; just like a farmer spreads insecticide to free his crops from devastation. So, is the case of the Pak army. They simply eliminated the non-Muslims and the not so good Muslims to protect the good Muslims those who would follow them. The question of remorse or guilt feeling does not arise at all. You see, the Pak army did not rape any women. They simply enjoyed the flesh of non-Muslims. Even if there were some excessive force being applied, there is no need to feel guilty about that. The ubiquitous Milad is there; the Hajj is there too to remove even the slightest trace of culpability. A serial killer is a psychologically sick person. He gets pleasure in seeing the suffering of a dying person in his hands. But deep down, the serial killer knows that what he is doing is wrong. He is surely aware of the eventual punishment if he is caught. That is why, most serial killers readily admit their crime and on many occasions regret of their actions when he recovers from his sickness. How about the perpetrators of a genocide? They are perfectly normal. Most of them are really very nice, polite, and soft spoken (like the Islamic Circle of North America’s leader Ashrafuzzaman Khan). But there is one trait that separates them from the rest of us and that is, the uncompromising faith in the supremacy of what they belief and their inability to accept the existence of others if they do not follow them. Any means is justified to advance their belief even if that means the annihilation of an entire race. That is why no Pakistani has ever condemned the genocide of the Bangalees. That is why they will do that again if an opportunity lends itself. Since no crime has been committed, the question of trial of the perpetrators of genocide does not arise at all. Isn’t it so?

This is the mindset of the planners and executioners of Bangladesh genocide. This is the mindset of Yahya Khan, Tikka Khan, Golam Azam, Ayatollah, Ashrafuzzaman -------. This why we have Auswitcz, Kosovoo, Bosnia, Palestine, East Timor -----.

Is Islam the only religion responsible for the genocide? Surely not. Every organised religion on earth has sanctioned murder, rape loot, plunder ---etc. as long as that is directed towards the non-believers. Religion has a cousin to go with it. That is racism. Religion and racism go hand in hand. That is why we have Hitler, Radovan Karadzic, Slobodan Milosevic, Ratko Mladic and so on.

Karl Marx said, “Religion is the opium of the masses.” In today’s world that is a very understatement. If people take opium they become addicted and ruin their health. There should not be any problem for humanity on that. Today, religion has become a vermin (read pest) for humanity. This cancerous virus has spread in every human being on this planet. I am not sure if we will find an antidote for this disease in our life time or not.

Why did I write this essay after all these years? It can be summed up by a quotation from Shakespeare. The famous bard wrote, “A little fire is quickly trodden out;

Which, being suffered, rivers cannot quench. ( Shakespeare, ‘Henry VI, Part Three,’ IV, viii,7. (A fire ‘suffered’ is one permitted to burn.). The fire is still burning inside me although the events of 1971 may be more like some specks of dust in the minds of Bangalees who till this day would not admit that Pakistanis have done excess all in the name of religion.

Abul Kasem Is an academic and writes from Australia.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3791713.stm

Sudanese tell of mass rape

By Alexis Masciarelli and Ilona Eveleens
Darfur

The pro-government Janjaweed Arab militia has been accused of using systematic rape, as well as killing and destroying the villages of black Africans, in the conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region.

Women fetching water

The women are most at risk when they fetch water

Behind the closed door of a classroom, in the school compound where she has been living for the last two months, 35 year-old rape-victim Khadija, spoke of her ordeal.

"The Janjaweed arrived one evening in February in our village near Kaileck, they had guns," she says in a quiet voice.

"They followed us when we tried to escape. The group of people I was with was forced back to Kaileck. They had surrounded the whole town."

"They separated men and women. Then the Janjaweed selected the prettiest women."

"Four men raped me for 10 days."

"Every day, women were picked up, taken to the bush where they were raped and brought back to Kaileck. The next day it would start again."

Hostage population

Khadija is one of some 40,000 people to have found shelter in the town of Kass, in the south of Darfur.

In the past 16 months, the conflict opposing the Sudan government and its militia allies to the rebels of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), has killed at least 10,000 people and displaced more than one million across the large western Sudanese region.

Kaileck

Kaileck is now a ghost town

"Rape appears to be a feature of most attacks in Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa areas of Darfur," says the latest Human Rights Watch report on the Darfur conflict.

"The extent of the rape is difficult to determine since women are reluctant to talk about it and men, although willing to report it, speak only in generalities."

Many witnesses say the population of Kaileck was held hostage by the Janjaweed for two months, despite repeated appeals to the commissioner of Kass.

Men were also picked up daily and killed.

The accounts are difficult to verify, but accord with the findings of human rights workers in recent months.

Kaileck is now an empty desolated town, with every single house and hut burnt or destroyed.

Ethnic choice

"It is very difficult for me as I am a Fur women and these are Arab men", says Khadija, covering herself with an orange scarf.

"These are my only clothes. My sister gave them to me, because the Janjaweed abandoned me naked."

"Now I am three-months pregnant. It will be a child from the Janjaweed. But I won't reject this baby. He will be my baby."

"When he grows up, he will decide whether he wants to be a Fur or an Arab. If he chooses to be an Arab, he could go with them. If he decides to be a Fur, he will be welcome to stay with us."

In the same classroom, a much younger woman listens.

Fifteen-year-old Aziza says she was also raped by the Janjaweed back in February.

"When Kaileck was attacked, I fled towards the mountains, but five horsemen caught me and took me far away in a field," she says.

"All five of them raped me twice. They kept me for 10 days. They whipped me."

"I could not say anything because they were armed. All I could do was to cry."

"They tied up my arms and my legs and would only release me when they raped me. They called me Abeid (slave in Arabic)."

"Eventually they abandoned me. Someone told my mother where I was and she came to take me back. I could not walk by myself."

Pain

But the ordeal did not stop then.

Women getting water from a well

The women now venture out in large groups for protection

"When I arrived in Kaileck, I learnt that the Janjaweed had killed my father."

"I am still in pain and I can't really control myself. But I have not seen any doctor."

In Kass, like many other towns and camps in Darfur, women are still at the risk of being rape when they go out to gather firewood or fetch water.

Their best protection, they say, does not come from the army or local police force, but by going in large groups which are more able to defend themselves.

The names of the two women have been changed to protect their identity.

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http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=5676

Rape in Islam: Blaming the Victim

By Robert Spencer
FrontPageMagazine.com | January 23, 2003

"For almost a year," observes Edward Said in this week’s edition of Cairo’s
Al-Ahram Weekly, "American politicians, regional experts, administration officials, journalists have repeated the charges that have become standard fare so far as Islam and the Arabs are concerned. . . . To today’s practically unanimous chorus has been added the authority of the United Nation’s Human Development Report on the Arab world which certified that Arabs dramatically lag behind the rest of the world in democracy, knowledge, and women’s rights."

Said has no more patience for this sort of thing than he did when he wrote Orientalism and Covering Islam, the twin towers of today’s academic Islamophilia. He acidly dismisses the criticisms as "vague re-cycled Orientalist clichés of the kind repeated by a tireless mediocrity like Bernard Lewis."

Yet just as Said’s lament appeared, the French businesswoman Touria Tiouli went to court in the United Arab Emirates. Heedlessly risking the recycling of vague Orientalist clichés, Dubai officials have turned her charge that she was raped by three men on its head and accused her of zina, sexual activity outside marriage. In Dubai, a bastion of moderate Islam, this charge isn’t punishable by stoning, as it is in more hard-line Muslim countries — it only carries an 18-month jail sentence.

Tiouli continues to fight: on Sunday she entered a not guilty plea. To the claims of her attackers that she was a willing participant and, in fact, a prostitute whom they duly paid, she replied simply, "My lawyer will prove I did not consent. If I had consented, I would not have brought the case."

Indeed, it’s hard to imagine a prostitute in Dubai going to the police willingly under any circumstances. For Sharia courts all over the Islamic world seem only too willing to reinforce the stereotypes of Islam that Said deplores, particularly where women are concerned. In Nigeria, a woman named Sufiyatu Huseini suffered through circumstances remarkably similar to Tiouli’s. She said she was raped, but the man she accused denied it, and instead Huseini was charged with adultery.

Nigeria is no moderate Dubai: Huseini faced death by stoning until the verdict was overturned under international pressure. Countless other women in similar situations have already been stoned to death or jailed. According to Sisters in Islam, a Malaysian advocacy group for Muslim women, in Pakistan "three out of four women in prison . . . are rape victims."

This blame-the-victim mentality should be the worst nightmare of American feminists, were it not for the fact that they view it through rosy multiculturalist glasses. But does it really represent the hijacking of the Religion of Peace on a grand scale?

Not quite. These cases all unfolded according to the classic directives of the Sharia.

Traditional Islamic law, which is still very much in force in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran, Sudan, most (if not all) of post-Taliban Afghanistan, and elsewhere, completely disregards the testimony of women in cases of a sexual nature. Aside from physical evidence, the only way to establish rape is by the testimony of four male witnesses (who, by the way, must be Muslims in good standing) who actually saw the act itself. Without these witnesses and a confession from the accused rapist, the victim will stand condemned by her very accusation: she wasn’t raped, so she must be guilty of zina.

Moreover, the prosecution has been careful to point out that Tiouli didn’t call for help. "According to Islamic Sharia," says the Nigerian Imam Mallam Muhammad Sani Isa, "it cannot be considered rape unless you asked for help."

According to Aliyu Abubakar Sanyinna, the attorney general of Nigeria’s Zamfara state (where Huseini went through her ordeal), this codified miscarriage of justice is "the law of Allah. By executing anybody that is convicted under Islamic law, we are just complying with the laws of Allah, so we don’t have anything to worry about."

If like minds prevail next week in Dubai when the court issues a verdict in Tiouli’s case, she should resign herself to spending the next eighteen months behind bars.

There is yet hope. International indignation resulted in the overturning of Huseini’s death sentence and the commutation of a similar ruling against an 18-year-old Christian girl in Sudan, Abok Alfa Akok, to 75 lashes. Facing another worldwide outcry, the Nigerian government promised in October to end stonings for adultery. Also bowing to internal and external pressure, even the Islamic Republic of Iran declared early this year that it too was ending the practice.

All this is good, but it isn’t enough. Rape victims in these newly enlightened nations may not have to fear stoning but they still may face lighter sentences, as does Tiouli. They will continue to receive no sympathy for their ordeal or any honest investigation of the charges they have made.

Until the Sharia itself undergoes a thoroughgoing reevaluation, this is probably the best we can hope for. Thus — however much Edward Said and his ilk may gnash their teeth — those who traffic in "vague re-cycled Orientalist clichés" about women’s rights in the Islamic world must keep up the pressure.

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http://www.iabolish.com/news/press-coverage/2004/tuk05-30-04.htm

Arab militia use 'rape camps' for ethnic cleansing of Sudan

By Benjamin Joffe-Walt
May 30, 2004
The Telegraph (UK)

After 50 years of conflict that have claimed almost 2 million lives, Sudan is now officially at peace - but unofficially, the war goes on. In Darfur, Sudan's western-most region, the people remain untouched by last week's peace agreement signed between the country's Islamic government and Christian rebels. Sudanese soldiers and the government-backed Janjaweed militia still terrorise, and at the centre of their campaign of "ethnic cleansing" is a policy of systematic rape designed to drive civilians from their settlements.

Asha yells out, calling other girls and women who have survived rape camps to speak to us.

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http://www.iabolish.com/news/press-coverage/2004/rsc04-31-04.htm

Captives Recount Boy Rape in Sudan

March 31,2004
By Maria Sliwa

SUDAN — As he began speaking, Majok lowered his small cocoa-colored eyes and stared intensely at the ground. I had just flown thousands of miles deep into the war zone of Sudan, the largest country in Africa, to interview former slaves.
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Majok, then 12, tightly hugged his long, bony legs, as we sat on the parched termite-infested earth. His ragged black shorts and ripped oversized T-shirt hung loosely on his spindly, dust-covered body. A continuous flow of tears poured down his face as he spoke of the way he was repeatedly raped and sodomized by gangs of government soldiers.
“They raped me,” Majok cried. “And when I tried to refuse, they beat me.”

After taking care of his master’s cattle all day, Majok said he was often raped at night. He told me that his rapes were very painful and he would rarely get a full night’s sleep.

He also spoke about the other slave boys he saw who suffered his same fate. “I saw with my eyes other boys get raped,” Majok said. “He [the master] went to collect the other boys and took them to that special place. I saw them get raped.”

Yal, another adolescent, had multiple scars on his arms and legs that he said came from the numerous bamboo beatings he received while in captivity. He told me he saw three slaves killed and one whose arm was hacked off at the elbow because he tried to run away. Yal also said he saw other boys raped by his master at his master’s house.

“At the time they were raped they were crying the whole day,” Yal said. He then told me that he, too, was raped.

Since 1989, Sudan’s extremist government, which is seated in the North, has been waging war against its diverse populace. The battle is over land, oil, power and religion, by a government that is made up of some of Africa’s most aggressive Arab Islamists, says Jesper Strudsholm, Africa correspondent for Politiken.

Animist and Christian black Africans in Southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains have paid a steep price for refusing to submit to the North. More than two million have been killed as a result of the war, according to the U.S. Committee for Refugees. Often trapped in the fray are surviving victims the government soldiers capture as slaves.

Human rights and local tribal groups estimate the number enslaved ranges from 14,000 to 200,000.

Though thousands remain enslaved in the North, since 2003 the genocide and slave raiding in South Sudan and the Nuba Mountains has been suspended because of a ceasefire. Amnesty International, however, reports that the government continues to attack black African Muslims in Darfur, Western Sudan.

According to Sudan expert, Eric Reeves, more than a thousand people are dying every week in Darfur because of government attacks.

"The numbers are sure to rise,” Reeves added.

Amnesty also reports that surviving victims have been raped and abducted by government soldiers during these raids. International law recognizes both slavery and rape in the context of armed conflict as “crimes against humanity.”

As I questioned the former slaves, village leaders, my translators, and many Sudanese immigrants living in the United States, it became apparent that the tribal society in which Majok and the other slaves were born has strict taboos about sex — especially male-to-male sex. I was told that although many villagers are aware that young male slaves are raped while in captivity, it isn’t discussed because of the cultural prohibitions on all forms of male-to-male sex — including rape.

In fact, male-to-male sex is considered such an egregious act in South Sudan that if two males are found guilty of having consensual sex with each other they are killed by a firing squad, according to Aleu Akechak Jok, an appellate court judge for the South. If a male is found guilty of raping a male or female, only the perpetrator is shot to death, Jok said.

Jok’s description of Southern Sudan’s punishment for consensual male-to-male sex is not too different from Sharia law in Northern Sudan, which imposes a death penalty on those found guilty of homosexuality.

Village leaders told me that male rape victims, who are able to escape slavery in the North and return to their villages, often consign themselves to a life filled with guilt, suffering silently and alone.

“This affects their minds badly,” Nhial Chan Nhial, a chief of one of the villages in Gogrial County said angrily. “When they return to us, many of these boys have fits of crying, mental problems, and are unable to marry later on in life.”

I worried about Majok and the other boys I had interviewed. These boys were all adolescent and pre-adolescent ages. Many of them told me that their violent experience of rape was their very first introduction to sex.

When captured, Ayiel, 14, said he was forced to watch the gang-rape of his two sisters and says he too was raped numerous times. He described his experience as “very painful,” and said he never saw his sisters again after that incident.

Perhaps the most graphic account of male rape was given by Aleek.

"I watched my master and four Murahaleen [soldiers] violently gang-rape a young Dinka slave boy,” Aleek said. “The boy was screaming and crying a lot. He was bleeding heavily, as he was raped repeatedly. I watched his stomach expand with air with each violent penetration. The boy kept screaming. I was very frightened, and knew I was likely next. Suddenly the boy's screams stopped as he went completely unconscious. My master took him to the hospital. I never saw him again."

Many of the boys told me that in order to avoid rape some of the male slaves tried to escape, but were quickly hunted down by their captors. They said that the punishment for resisting rape is severe beatings, limb amputation or death. Mohammed, a Bagarra nomad, who has helped to free slaves, broke down in tears as he spoke.

“What they are doing in the North is against the Koran,” he explained. “Allah says that no man should be a slave to another man, but all should be a slave to Allah.”

Mohammed said that as a Muslim he was heartbroken the extremists have perverted his religion into a political weapon to torture and oppress people.

When I arrived in Sudan, Ngong — one in a group of five former female slaves that I interviewed — told me that children were raped while in captivity.

“Yes, I saw with my eyes them raped, boys and girls,” Ngong said.

Though I knew about the rape of slave girls, I did not know this could also be happening to boys. I decided to investigate this further when two females from the same group said they had seen slave boys taken away at night to the “special place” for rape.

I interviewed a total of 15 male slaves, for one to two hours each. Six of the boys interviewed said they were raped and the majority of these six said they were eyewitnesses to other boys being raped. Most of these six boys said they were raped numerous times, by more than one perpetrator. Some of the boys gave the full names and the home towns of the men they said had raped them.

Though five in this group of 15 boys said they were not raped, they did say they were either sexually harassed or were eyewitnesses to other slave boys being raped. Only four of the 15 boys interviewed said they were not raped or sexually harassed, and were not eyewitnesses to the rape of other boys. All of the boys said they were never sexually abused or raped prior to their enslavement.

The rape of boy slaves is not unique to young Sudanese males, as recently exposed in a “CNN Presents” documentary “Easy Prey: Inside the Child Sex Trade.” Sadly, the ugly arm of slavery reaches far beyond Sudan and shockingly touches every continent except Antarctica. Slavery expert Kevin Bales of Free the Slaves (FreeTheSlaves.net) says there are approximately 27 million slaves worldwide. To date, however, there has been no comprehensive report on how many male slaves have been traumatized by rape.

© RAW STORY CONTRIBUTOR

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http://www.iabolish.com/news/press-coverage/2004/bbcn03-19-04.htm

Mass Rape Atrocity in West Sudan

BBC News
March 19, 2004

More than 100 women have been raped in a single attack carried out by Arab
militias in Darfur in western Sudan.

Speaking to the BBC, the United Nations co-ordinator for Sudan, Mukesh
Kapila, said the conflict had created the worst humanitarian situation in
the world.

He said more than one million people were affected by "ethnic cleansing".

He said the fighting was characterised by a scorched-earth policy and was
comparable in character, if not in scale, to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

"It is more than just a conflict. It is an organised attempt to do away with
a group of people," he said.

Arab militias, backed by the government, have driven hundreds of thousands
from their homes, in retaliation for a rebellion launched a year ago by two
armed groups.

They accused the Arab-dominated government of ignoring the black African
inhabitants of Darfur.

More than 100,000 people have fled across the border into Chad, but have
continued to face cross-border raids.

Attack

Mr Kapila said 75 people were killed in the attack on the village of Tawila
at sunrise by Arab militiamen two weeks ago.

"All houses as well as a market and a health centre were completely looted
and the market burnt. Over 100 women were raped, six in front of their
fathers who were later killed," he said.

A further 150 women and 200 children were abducted.

This attack a fortnight ago is one of many across the arid territory.

Village after village is being razed to the ground by the militias, he said.

To compound the problem, aid agencies can only reach small parts of Darfur
and are subject to attacks.

Mr Kapila called for more aid and for urgent international intervention to
bring about a ceasefire in the war.

Shock

"I was present in Rwanda at the time of the genocide, and I've seen many
other situations around the world and I am totally shocked at what is going
on in Darfur," he told the BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"This is ethnic cleansing, this is the world's greatest humanitarian crisis,
and I don't know why the world isn't doing more about it."

The fighting in the west of Sudan has intensified as government peace talks
to resolve the 20-year war with southern rebels are nearing an end.

But the UN is concerned that this conflict could undermine the peace talks
in Kenya.

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http://www.hraic.org/rape_and_islam.html

Prophet Muhammad and Rape

Rapists are protected by islamic law. The word of a woman, or any number of women, is not taken. For a conviction, four adult, male, muslim witnesses are needed. In many muslim countries the woman is punished instead; because she has claimed rape she has admitted to sex and can be punished. For example there are about 500 women imprisoned in Pakistan under these hudud laws.

HRAIC considers sex with prisoners, sex with slaves and small children as rape.

Rape of women prisoners
In December 626 CE at the well of Muraysi the muslims surprised the army of the Banu l-Mustaliq. The muslims lost one man dead and the unbelievers ten. The booty was excellent: two thousand camels, five thousand sheep and goats and two hundred women. A very beautiful captive was Juwayriyya, daughter of the chieftain. Muhammad saw her and she became wife number six.
The victors wanted to have sex with their captives but the women were to be ransomed and not kept as slaves. Muhammad agreed that his men could use azl, that is to go into the women but withdraw before ejaculation. When a jew called coitus interruptus ~the lesser child-murder" the Prophet said: "The Jews lie."25

Narrated Abu Said Al-Khudri:
We got female captives in the war booty and we used to do coitus interruptus with them. So we asked Allah's Apostle about it and he said, "Do you really do that?" repeating the question thrice, "There is no soul that is destined to exist but will come into existence Sahih Bukhari, Volume 7, Book 62, Number 137:

Abu Sa'id al-Khudri said:
The Apostle of Allah sent a military expedition to Awtas on the occasion of the battle of Hunain. They met their enemy and fought with them. They defeated them and took them captives. Some of the Companions of the Apostle of Allah were reluctant to have intercourse with the female captives in the presence of their husbands who were unbelievers. So Allah, the Exalted, send down the Qur'anic verse: "And all married women (are forbidden) unto you save those (captives) whom your right hand possess."[Surah 4:24] ...Sunan Abu Dawud, Book V, Chapter 711, Number 2150

Are sex-slaves consenting partners?

(We agree that all this happened in the Seventh Century, but unfortunately the Qur'an and Sunnah, sayings and actions of the Prophet, are still the basis for islamic law today.)
The women, children and property (of the Banu Qurayzah) were divided amongst those who had taken part in the siege. The Bani Nadir ransomed many of their kin but Muhammad kept for himself, as concubine, a beautiful jewess named Rayhanah.

The Prophet agreed to kill none of the jews provided that they vacated Khaybar leaving all possessions behind. For concealing treasure two jews, Kinana and his cousin were executed. Kinana's beautiful seventeen year old widow, Saffiyah was attractive to Muhammad and he married her. "He was as thirty men." (Hadith Bukhari Book 1, Vol 5, Number 268)

The ruler of Egypt replied to the Prophet's letter. As far as converting to islam was concerned, he was non-committal but he did send some fine presents including two Christian slave girls. One of these, Mariyah, the Prophet kept as a concubine and he visited her several times a day. His wives became so jealous that he was forced to swear that he would not see her again.
A Revelation now known as "The Forbidding" rebuked the Prophet for submitting to the pressure of his wives. It was quite lawful for him to take a concubine and "perhaps if he divorces you, God will give him in exchange better wives than you... penitent, obedient... both known of men and virgins. O believers, save yourselves... from the Fire whose fuel is men and stones" (66:5-6)

Hadith Abu Dawud, Book 11, number 2153
The Apostle of Allah said: “it is not lawful for a man who believes in Allah and the Last Day to have intercourse with a captive woman till she is free from a menstrual course.”

Hadith Malik 496:1540 A man went on a journey with the slave-girl of his wife and went into her. The envious wife reported it to Umar who said the husband would be stoned unless the slave girl was owned by him. The wife spoke out to save him: "I had given her as a gift."
The Holy Prophet Mohammad condoned slavery ( even practised it as he owned concubines). Mohammad had two concubines Mariyah the Coptic, and Raihanah bint Zaid An-Nadriyah or Quraziyah.

Treatment of Female Slaves, Concubines and victims of rape :
"Slave-women of many ethnic origins were recruited in enormous numbers to staff the harems of the islamic world -- as concubines or as menials, the two functions not being clearly differentiated.

“A slave is the property of his/her master. He/She is subject to the master's power, insomuch that if a master should kill his slave he is not liable to retaliation. With female slaves a master has the mulk-i-moot at, or right of enjoyment, and his children by them, when acknowledged, have the same rights and privileges as his children by his wives. A slave is incompetent to anything that implies the exercise of authority over others. Hence a slave cannot be a witness, a judge, or an executor or guardian to any but his master and his children. A slave cannot inherit from anyone, and a bequest to him is a bequest to his master.” p. 367_Digest of Islamic Law_ N. Bailli e, Premier Book House (Pakistan).

Slaves can be genitally mutilated (probably rape as laying a finger on the vulva appears to be current law)

February 8, 1998 Web posted at: 1:03 p.m. EST (1803 GMT) MADHOL, Sudan -- Stacks of money pass from the Christian outsider to the muslim trader, an exchange anxiously watched by a 13-year-old girl with diamonds of sweat on her brow. The Sudanese trader, his lap buried by currency worth $13,200, waves carelessly to free his merchandise -- 132 slaves. Akuac Malong, the young Dinka girl, is among them. She has spent seven years -- more than half her life -- enslaved by an arab in northern Sudan. Her brilliant smile belies the beatings, near-starvation, mutilation [ the holy Prophet Mohammad SAW condoned and highly recommended Female Genital Mutilation or circumcision of women] and attempted brainwashing she endured. "I thought it would be better to die than to remain a slave," Akuac says.
Her master also tried to make her a muslim -- taking her to mosque and giving her the arabic name of Fatima. But Akuac says she maintained her Christian faith, praying and singing hymns in secret and never forgetting her true name. "My name is my name and nobody can change that."

Another returnee, Akec Kwol Kiir, who is in her 40s, says she was repeatedly raped by four soldiers who took her north. She ended up in a camp where slaves were bought and sold. "They treated us like cattle," she says. Her arab master insisted that she, too, be circumcised. She refused, and was brutally slashed. Her ear is notched and her chin and neck scarred. Kwol finally submitted. "Otherwise, they would have killed me. Because I was a slave, they had the right to do whatever they wanted to me," she says.

[slaves can be used for sex in islam ; i.e. one can sleep with slave women without marrying them ]
(John Eibner of Christian Solidarity International)]

Indentured Servitude in the heart of the Islamic World (Saudi Arabia):
"Foreign Women drawn into the racket are provided with documentation and air travel, and told they will have to repay the costs out of future earnings. When they arrive in the foreign country, their passports are taken away and they are coerced into working as prostitutes , slaves and concubines. Often the debt to employers continues to grow, trapping the women in an endless cycle of abuse and dependence. Traffickers and pimps routinely use threats and violence to prevent women from going home or contacting authorities for help, the report says. "Even when they are deported or return home voluntarily, trafficked women may face serious danger from criminal rings with links to their hometowns if they have not repaid their debts. Such are the conditions of indentured servitude that is epidemic in Saudi Arabia. Poor women and men from third world countries are told they'll have good jobs in Saudi. They have to pay large fees to get paperwork finalized, and upon arrival they're told they can't start work immediately, or there is some trouble with their paperwork, so they need to borrow money from the Sponsor, or can't get their income for a while. By being in debt to a Saudi you CANNOT LEAVE SAUDI ARABIA because the sponsor must sign papers in the Exit Visa process saying there is no obligation. Consequently, once a worker enters Saudi he/she is at the mercy of the Saudi sponsor. It has been shown repeatedly by human rights organizations, journalists, social scientists that this indentured servitude often expands to include sexual exploitation of the workers. It has been shown that it is common for the Saudi males of the household to regard the foreign "maid" as their sexual outlet, fathers and sons often using the same maid for their pleasure. Indeed, the case, along with other horrendous human rights abuses in Saudi. It is a fact that upon arrival all female workers must undergo a pregnancy test. What is shocking is the number of women who go to clinics to receive contraception, or to have pregnancy tests later.

Trade in children in Saudi Arabia : Children are snatched off the streets, and sometimes right out of the arms of the mother (see Saudi Ministry of Health Emergency Bulletins of 1994) and sold into slavery, used as sex slaves, servants, OR -- used as ORGAN DONORS. In the very protected Ministry of Health documents you would find numerous records of children being kidnapped for their organs (e.g. kidneys) and *sometimes* dumped on the street where they were taken several days later, with their incisions infected, and the children close to death.

Can small girls be consenting sex partners?
Hadith Abu Dawud
Book 41, Number 4915:
Narrated Aisha, Ummul Mu'minin:
The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) married me when I was seven or six. When we came to Medina, some women came. according to Bishr's version: Umm Ruman came to me when I was swinging. They took me, made me prepared and decorated me. I was then brought to the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him), and he took up cohabitation with me when I was nine.
Volume 7, Book 62, Number 64: [THIS IS MOHAMMED'S SIX YEAR OLD WIFE?]
Narrated 'Aisha:
that the Prophet married her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old, and then she remained with him for nine years (i.e., till his death).

Rights of the Child (contd)
10 Aug. '00 Reformers in the Iranian parliament are seeking to raise the age of marriage for girls from 9 to 14 and boys from 15 to16. Currently the girl's age is determined by the A'isha/Muhammad marriage. She was six and he was fifty - he did "wait" until she was nine to consummate the marriage
Penetration of young girls can seriously damage their reproductive organs, let alone any psychological harm it can do. The high maternal mortality rate can be directly attributed to this practice. Also children need time to have a childhood and also study.
For more on pedophilia "Sayings of Khomeini" . Warning the words of this "holy" man may cause you to vomit. Their authenticity has been verified. (See links on article.)

Some Sayings of Ayatollah Khomeini

Ayatollah Khomeini:
A man can have sexual pleasure from a child as young as a baby. However he should not penetrate, sodomising the child is OK. If the man penetrates and damages the child then he should be responsible for her subsistence all her life. This girl, however does not count as one of his four permanent wives.
The man will not be eligible to marry the girls sister. …

It is better for a girl to marry in such a time when she would begin menstruation at her husband's house rather than her father's home. Any father marrying his daughter so young will have a permanent place in heaven.
From Khomeini's book, "Tahrirolvasyleh", fourth volume, Darol Elm, Gom,
Iran, 1990

Rape In Pakistan (from “The Wrath of Allah”)
Unfortunately, since Pakistan has reverted to an islamic state, rape against women has increased dramatically. Of course, official figures would say the opposite as, under Shariah, it is almost impossible to prove that rape has taken place. Rape is often used as revenge against a woman's husband, father, brother or son. When it is used against a political opponent it is called "power rape". The rapists often cut off the noses of their victims to show that they are "fallen women
Rape can only be proven if there are four adult male witnesses. (A female's testimony is not even taken as half-value in the case of capital crimes.) If the case is unproven, the woman can be charged with fornication which carries the death penalty. There are thousands of women in jail in Pakistan charged with zina. Even if the crime is not pursued, relatives may expect the woman to commit suicide, preferably by burning herself. Alternatively the husband may divorce her or, if he has to pay back too much dowry, have her committed to a lunatic asylum. "Human Rights Watch estimates that Pakistani police abuse 70 per cent of the women in their custody, though no officer has ever been penalized. "(18)

Rape of a non-muslim woman
A 20 year-old Sydney woman was raped 25 times by a gang of 14 muslim youths in August 2000. They called her an “Aussie pig” and “Christian shit” and hosed her down. Non-muslim women are considered “fair game” by some muslim men. As we saw Prophet Muhammad did not try to stop his men using their non-muslim captives.

Prophet Muhammad promises women to his warriors
"You see, God will soon make you inherit their land, their treasures and make you sleep with their women" (Lit: make their women's beds for you).
These plain, disgraceful words are recorded by Ibn Hisham on page 182 Vol. II, of his famous book, "Al Rod Al Anf", which all the researchers regard as a reliable reference

Islamic Beheadings

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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/25/world/main626196.shtml

Saudi Arabia’s Beheading Culture

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, June 25, 2004

(AP) The Saudi government beheaded 52 men and one woman last year for crimes including murder, homosexuality, armed robbery and drug trafficking. But Saudis say that while Islam condones the punishment in one context, it condemns militants who decapitated hostages here and in Iraq.

Islam permits the death penalty for certain crimes, but few mainstream Muslim scholars and observers believe beheadings are sanctioned by Sharia, or Islamic law.

The Saudi government says the punishment is sanctioned by Islamic tradition. State-ordered beheadings are performed in courtyards outside crowded mosques in major cities after weekly Friday prayer services.

A condemned convict is brought into the courtyard, hands tied, and forced to bow before an executioner, who swings a huge sword amid cries from onlookers of "Allahu Akbar!" Arabic for "God is great."

On Friday, outside the main mosque in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, a policeman standing in the scorching summer heat declared to worshippers: "There are no qisas today." Qisas is the Arabic word for Islamic-law punishments — which in the kingdom could mean beheadings or the amputation of limbs.

But Saudi clerics insist beheading is only allowed in the case of criminal convictions — not in the killing of innocents.

"No religion condones these acts," Abdul Muhsen al Obaiqan, a senior Islamic cleric in Riyadh, told The Associated Press. "They are against Islam and they tarnish the image of Muslims. No Muslim should show any sympathy for them."

Last week, al Qaeda-linked militants in Saudi Arabia decapitated American engineer Paul M. Johnson Jr. after warning they would kill him if the Saudi government did not release jailed comrades.

In Iraq this week, militants beheaded Kim Sun-il, a South Korean translator for a U.S. military supplier, and dumped his body between Baghdad and Fallujah. American businessman Nicholas Berg met a similar fate last month in Iraq. Both killings are blamed on the al Qaeda-linked movement of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The beheadings were videotaped, photographed and posted on the Internet — a new tactic apparently aimed at increasing the shock value of the militants' campaign against Westerners.

Al Qaeda is thought to be trying to drive out foreigners, depriving the kingdom of a vital work force and undermining the rule of the Saud royal family.

Beheading has been nearly unknown in previous Middle East violence. The militants may have been seeking to give an Islamic veneer to the slayings — or they may have been taking a page from Islamic militant groups elsewhere. Beheadings have occurred in Algeria, Kashmir, Chechnya and the Muslim-dominated southern Philippines.

The beheadings of Johnson, Kim and Berg drew condemnations from Saudi officials, Islamic leaders and scholars throughout the Middle East.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud denounced Kim's decapitation as "inhumane and cruel."

Columnist Qenan al-Ghamdi wrote in the Al-Watan daily of Johnson's death, "Saudis were saddened by this crime because it was perpetrated in the name of Islam by some of their sons against a resident in their country and in such an ugly and despicable way."

Badr bin Nasser al Badr, a theology professor at Riyadh's Imam University, told the AP: "Our guests are protected by our faith, Islam. Their lives and property should be protected. Their blood and lives are as precious as ours."

"The killing of foreigners who are working and feel secure in Muslim countries ... is not sanctioned by Islam," said Lebanon's top Shiite Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah.

Egypt's foremost religious leader, Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, told an Islamic conference in Yemen that "such beheadings and (the) mutilation of bodies stand against Islam and have nothing to do with Sharia."

But in Kuwait, Osama al-Menawer, a lawyer who defends fundamentalists, said beheading is "the least painful method (of execution)."

"Killing is killing. Incendiary bombs dropped on Palestinians and Iraqis are much worse," he said. "This is a state of war. Americans are invaders and they kill every day."

And on Islamic Internet forums, mostly used by radicals, beheading has been a popular topic in recent weeks, with many participants describing it as the "easiest" way to kill an American or a Saudi from the ruling family.

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http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39130

Saudi Arabia – beheading capital of the world

Posted: June 25, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Mike Evans
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

The execution-style murder of Paul Johnson has been condemned by the Organization of the Islamic Conference. The OIC chief, Abd al-Wahid Bilqaziz, labeled Mr. Johnson's death as a "barbaric act," and went on to reassure the world in general and the American public in particular that "Islam recommends the protection of foreigners … and prohibits the killing of innocent people." How magnanimous of Mr. Bilqaziz!

Apparently in an attempt to assuage world outrage, Saudi security launched a search for the body of the beheaded American. Why has that outrage not extended to the hundreds, perhaps thousands, who have been beheaded and tossed into unmarked graves over the past 30 years?

According to Amnesty International, more than half of those beheaded between 1990 and 1999 were foreign nationals, and some were Christian missionaries. Why has the Saudi government not returned those bodies to their loved ones for proper burial?

In Saudi Arabia, heads roll for sodomy, armed robbery, murder, and for being a Christian. Some Christians were beheaded after having been falsely accused of drugs or other crimes reportedly as benign as leading a Bible study or offering prayers. Saudis that convert to Christianity, or "desert Islam," are subject to the death penalty, as well.

Those condemned to death are taken to a public square blindfolded after midday prayers, hands tied behind their backs and forced to kneel facing Mecca. The police clear the square of all traffic and lay a blue plastic sheet 16-feet square on the ground. The executioner swings the sword two or three times before jabbing the poor soul in the back to force him to raise his head. More than 100 people have been beheaded in Saudi since 9-11, and the vast majority were not members of al-Qaida!

We are told that the militants and extremists who committed the horrendous murder of Paul Johnson have been killed. Why are murderers, who have no regard for the sanctity of human life, called "militants"? Why not label them exactly as what they are: terrorists? And, if these so-called militants and extremists are going to be hunted down and killed or arrested, what awaits the entire House of Saud?

I, too, am outraged, not only by the beheading of Paul Johnson, but by the Saudi PR-machine that has hypocritically expressed its disgust over this barbarism. It is, indeed, the theater of the absurd and a festival of hypocrisy.

In 1991 during the Persian Gulf War, I preached the gospel in the center of Dhahran. U.S. military police grabbed me and screamed, "Are you nuts? They will cut your head off, you fool!" Days later, I shared Christ with Gen. Khalid. He looked at me and asked, "Are you trying to convert me? We cut off heads for that."

Any thinking person knows that the House of Saud is the principal financier of the terrorists on whom President Bush has declared war. They export more than oil. About 25 percent of all those in the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are Saudi nationals. No country in the world has spent more to export bigotry and hatred than Saudi Arabia.

Islam is portrayed as a religion of tolerance. How ignorant can we be? Women cannot drive cars in Saudi Arabia, girls are still circumcised, political parties and trade unions are outlawed, the church and state are one in Saudi Arabia. Do not hold your breath while searching for a Christian church or Jewish synagogue in that country; you will suffocate. Television is censored to the degree that if Mickey Mouse gives Minnie Mouse a peck on the cheek, poor Mickey will be banished from the kingdom!

Several years ago, I interviewed a U.S. Aramco employee. He told me he was tortured for having a video of "The Love Boat" in his suitcase. He was accused of possessing pornography. While in jail, he feared he might be beheaded.

The Holy Grail of understanding is that there is nothing tolerant about Saudi Arabia. Shariah (Islamic law) shows no tolerance. No, it is no coincidence that 15 of the 19 terrorists who attacked America on 9-11 were Saudi Arabian. All were Wahhabists, as is the Taliban, and the majority of the population of Saudi. If democracy were to come to tolerant Saudi Arabia, Osama bin Laden would be elected in a landslide.

We have been assured that Saddam Hussein was not involved in 9-11; on the other hand, we know with certainty that Saudi nationals were. For the House of Saud to try to distance itself from Islamic fundamentalism would be tantamount to Osama trying to distance himself from terrorism.

The same can be said of al-Qaida. The general Muslim population thinks the evil empire of communism was not defeated by Ronald Reagan and the crusaders, but rather, it was Osama bin Laden and Islam that caused the Soviet house of cards to crumble in Afghanistan. They also believe there is just one "evil empire" in the world, and that Iraq will be to America what Afghanistan was to the Soviets.

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http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39130

Chopping Heads

By Amir Taheri

May 14, 2004 -- THE murder of Nick Berg, a 26-year-old American businessman, by a group of Islamist terrorists in Iraq continues to send shock waves through much of the West. What has impressed most people is the fact that the terrorists cut Mr. Berg's head in the way that sheep are beheaded at the annual Feast of the Sacrifice.

Berg is, of course, not the first to be murdered in such a gruesome manner. Nor, alas, is he likely to be the last. For the cutting of heads (in Arabic, qata al-raas) has been the favorite form of Islamist execution for more than 14 centuries.

In the famous battles of early Islam, with the Prophet personally in command of the army of believers, the heads of enemy generals and soldiers were often cut off and put on sticks to be shown around villages and towns as a warning to potential adversaries.

In 680, the Prophet's favorite grandson, Hussein bin Ali, had his head chopped off in Karbala, central Iraq, by the soldiers of the Caliph Yazid. The severed head was put on a silver platter and sent to Damascus, Yazid's capital, before being sent further to Cairo for inspection by the Governor of Egypt. The Caliph's soldiers also cut off the heads of all of Hussein's 71 male companions, including the one-year-old baby boy Ali-Asghar.

Islamic history is full of chopped heads being sent around by special delivery to reassure rulers, to terrorize foes and to impress the common folk. In 1821, the Qajar king of Persia ordered a week of celebrations when he received the severed head of a Russian general who had been captured in a battle near Baku. In 1842, the Afghans massacred the British garrison in Kabul, a total of 2,000 men and their wives and children, chopping off their heads and putting them on sticks to decorate the city. (They allowed one man to leave to report to the British.)

In 1885, it was the turn of British Gen. Gordon to have his head chopped off and put on a stick in Khartoum after it had fallen to the forces of the Mahdi. Slightly later, Mullah Hassan, the Somali rebel known to the British as "the mad mullah" but to his fanatical supporters as "the Shah," made a habit of chopping Western heads in what is now Somalia. At one point he had a large collection of severed Italian and British heads.

Iran's Khomeinist mullahs also love severed heads. In April 1980, Ayatollah Sadeq Khalkhali wanted to cut off the heads of eight American soldiers who had died in a failed hostage rescue mission in the Iranian desert. He was prevented from doing so thanks to a last minute intervention by the Swiss government. In 1986, the Khomeinist mullahs cut off the head of William Buckley, the CIA's Beirut station chief who had been kidnapped by the Hezbollah and sent to Tehran for interrogation.

And in 1992, the mullahs sent a "specialist" to cut off the head of Shapour Bakhtiar, the shah's last prime minister, in a suburb of Paris. When the news broke, Hashemi Rafsanjani, then president of the Islamic Republic, publicly thanked Allah for having allowed "the severing of the head of the snake."

In 1993, Fereidun Farrokhzad, one of Iran's most famous pop stars, had his head chopped off in Germany by a Khomeinist hit squad after the mullahs issued a fatwa for his murder.

Chopping off heads was widely practiced throughout the Afghan wars of the 1980s. An estimated 3,000 Soviet soldiers, many of them Muslims, had their heads cut off by the Mujahedeen, who at the time enjoyed U.S. and other Western support. (In other cases the Mujahedeen cut off the testicles of the Soviet soldiers and fed them to other Soviet prisoners.)

Needless to say, rival Mujahedeen also chopped off each other's heads. The group led by one Haji Akbari was especially notorious in that respect. One of its members was Osama bin Laden.

Throughout the 1990s, head-chopping was routinely carried out by the Army for Islamic Salvation (AIS), the Islamic Armed Group (GIA), the Salafi Group for Preaching and Armed Jihad (GSPAJ) and other Islamist terror outfits.

One Algerian specialist in slitting throats and cutting off heads was known as Momo le Nain (Muhammad the Midget). He was a 20-plus-year-old butcher's apprentice recruited by the GIA for the purpose of cutting off people's heads. In 1996 in Ben-Talha, a suburb of the capital Algiers, Momo cut off a record 86 heads in one night, including the heads of more than a dozen children.

In recognition of his exemplary act of piety, the GIA sent him to Mecca for pilgrimage. Last time we checked, Momo was still at large somewhere in Algeria.

Four years ago, Iran was shocked by the murder of the well-known dissident leader Dariush Foruhar and his wife Parvaneh. The couple, in their 70s, had their heads chopped off and displayed on their mantelpiece. The regime blamed "rogue elements" within its Ministry for Intelligence and Security. But no one was punished.

Cutting heads is frequently practiced against clerics from non-Islamic faiths or even rival Islamic sects. At least four Christian priests and nine Sunni Muslim muftis have been murdered in that way in Iran since 2001.

In Pakistan, rival Sunni and Shiite groups have made a habit of sending cut-off heads of each other's activists by special delivery. By one estimate, over 400 heads have been chopped off and mailed since 1990.

Chopping heads is also practiced by Muslim militants on the Indonesian island of Borneo as a means of driving the Christian majority out. It has been effective in forcing nearly half of the island's Christians packing.

At one point in the 1980s, the Abu-Sayyaf Islamist group in Mindanao, The Philippines, used the tactic of severing heads as a means of terrorizing the security forces.

Americans should also remember Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was brutally murdered in the same way in Pakistan over two years ago.

Although head-chopping is now seen as a mode of communication between Islamist militants and the Western world, the overwhelming victims have been Muslims.

Mankind has a natural propensity to become used to the worst atrocities and factor in the cruelest facts of life. But the sight of a severed head will continue to shock even the most blasé of the cynics. This is why those who are defying the whole of humanity in this war on terrorism are certain to continue to employ people like Momo le Nain.

E-mail: [email protected]

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http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=13371

The Sacred Muslim Practice of Beheading

By Andrew G. Bostom
FrontPageMagazine.com | May 13, 2004

Reactions to the grotesque jihadist decapitation of yet another "infidel Jew," Mr. Berg, make clear that our intelligentsia are either dangerously uninformed, or simply unwilling to come to terms with this ugly reality: such murders are consistent with sacred jihad practices, as well as Islamic attitudes towards all non-Muslim infidels, in particular, Jews, which date back to the 7^th century, and the Prophet Muhammad's own example.

According to Muhammad’s sacralized biography by Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad himself sanctioned the massacre of the Qurayza, a vanquished Jewish tribe. He appointed an "arbiter" who soon rendered this concise verdict: the men were to be put to death, the women and children sold into slavery, the spoils to be divided among the Muslims. Muhammad ratified this judgment stating that it was a decree of God pronounced from above the Seven Heavens. Thus some 600 to 900 men from the Qurayza were lead on Muhammad’s order to the Market of Medina. Trenches were dug and the men were beheaded, and their decapitated corpses buried in the trenches while Muhammad watched in attendance. Women and children were sold into slavery, a number of them being distributed as gifts among Muhammad’s companions, and Muhammad chose one of the Qurayza women (Rayhana) for himself. The Qurayza’s property and other possessions (including weapons) were also divided up as additional "booty" among the Muslims, to support further jihad campaigns.

The classical Muslim jurist al-Mawardi (a Shafi’ite jurist, d. 1058) from Baghdad was a seminal, prolific scholar who lived during the so-called Islamic "Golden Age" of the Abbasid-Baghdadian Caliphate. He wrote the following, based on widely accepted interpretations of the Qur'an and Sunna (i.e., the recorded words and deeds of Muhammad), regarding infidel prisoners of jihad campaigns:

“As for the captives, the amir [ruler] has the choice of taking the most beneficial action of four possibilities: the first to put them to death by cutting their necks; the second, to enslave them and apply the laws of slavery regarding their sale and manumission; the third, to ransom them in exchange for goods or prisoners; and fourth, to show favor to them and pardon them. Allah, may he be exalted, says, 'When you encounter those [infidels] who deny [the Truth=Islam] then strike [their] necks' (Qur'an sura 47, verse 4)”....Abu’l-Hasan al-Mawardi, al-Ahkam as-Sultaniyyah." [The Laws of Islamic Governance, trans. by Dr. Asadullah Yate, (London), Ta-Ha Publishers Ltd., 1996, p. 192. Emphasis added.]

Indeed such odious “rules” were iterated by all four classical schools of Islamic jurisprudence, across the vast Muslim empire.

For centuries, from the Iberian peninsula to the Indian subcontinent, jihad campaigns waged by Muslim armies against infidel Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, Buddhists and Hindus, were punctuated by massacres, including mass throat slittings and beheadings. During the period of “enlightened” Muslim rule, the Christians of Iberian Toledo, who had first submitted to their Arab Muslim invaders in 711 or 712, revolted in 713. In the harsh Muslim reprisal that ensued, Toledo was pillaged, and all the Christian notables had their throats cut. On the Indian subcontinent, Babur (1483-1530), the founder of the Mughal Empire, who is revered as a paragon of Muslim tolerance by modern revisionist historians, recorded the following in his autobiographical “Baburnama,” about infidel prisoners of a jihad campaign:

"Those who were brought in alive [having surrendered] were ordered beheaded, after which a tower of skulls was erected in the camp." [The Baburnama -Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor, translated and edited by Wheeler M. Thacktson, Oxford University Press,1996, p. 188. Emphasis added.]

Recent jihad-inspired decapitations of infidels by Muslims have occurred across the globe- Christians in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Nigeria; Hindu priests and "unveiled" Hindu women in Kashmir; Wall Street Journal reporter, and Jew, Daniel Pearl. We should not be surprised that these contemporary paroxysms of jihad violence are accompanied by ritualized beheadings. Such gruesome acts are in fact sanctioned by core Islamic sacred texts, and classical Muslim jurisprudence. Empty claims that jihad decapitations are somehow "alien to true Islam," however well-intentioned, undermine serious efforts to reform and desacralize Islamic doctrine. This process will only begin with frank discussion, both between non-Muslims and Muslims, and within the Muslim community.

Andrew G. Bostom, MD, MS is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Brown University Medical School, and occasional contributor to Frontpage Magazine. He is the editor of a forthcoming essay collection entitled, "The Legacy of Jihad".

Women Under Islamic Law

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http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;sessionid=MVLAPL2I50LTZQFIQMGSM5WAVCBQWJVC?xml=/news/2004/07/11/ncleric11.xml

For her to be absolved from guilt, a raped woman must have shown good conduct

By Rajeev Syal and Julie Henry

(Filed: 11/07/2004)

Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim cleric currently on a controversial visit to Britain, believes that female rape victims should be punished if dressed "immodestly" when assaulted.

The 78-year-old Egyptian-born scholar, allowed into the country despite his open support of Palestinian suicide bombers and his extreme views on homosexuality, says that women can be guilty of provoking a sexual attack if their dress or behaviour arouses a man.

Dr al-Qaradawi's views on rape appear on a website called IslamOnline, which purports to give a modern interpretation of Islam. He is the website's chief scholar and leader of a group of Islamic academics who provide answers to questions posed by Muslims on moral issues.

One question asked: "Are raped women punished in Islam?" A panel, headed by Mr al-Qaradawi, replied: "To be absolved from guilt, the raped woman must have shown some sort of good conduct . . . Islam addresses women to maintain their modesty, as not to open the door for evil.

"The Koran calls upon Muslim women in general to preserve their dignity and modesty, just to save themselves from any harassment.

"So for a rape victim to be absolved from guilt, she must not be the one that opens . . . her dignity for deflowering."

The disclosure of Dr al-Qaradawi's views follows controversy over his public support for suicide bombers in Israel and his extreme interpretation of Islam on the subjects of wife beating and homosexuality.

Dr al-Qaradawi, who is based in Qatar and is the head of the European Council for Fatwa and Research, has stated that wife beating is allowed under Islam. "It is permissible for him [the husband] to beat her lightly with his hands, avoiding her face and other sensitive parts," he said.

The website describes homosexuality as perverted, abominable and a corruption, and states that homosexuals can be executed by either burning or stoning.

But Dr al-Qaradawi's comments were condemned as "appalling" by rape victims and support groups yesterday.

Jill Saward, who was raped in 1986 in a vicarage in Ealing, west London, when she was 21, said that the cleric's attitude allowed men to escape responsibility for their actions. She told The Sunday Telegraph: "I do not condone what Dr al-Qaradawi is saying at all.

"Men are very quick to condemn and shift the blame but invariably they know what they are doing and that it is wrong.

"Blaming women for rape is not facing up to the problem at all. It is men who are in charge and according to his view of the world they have a wonderful situation where they never lose and it is always going to be the woman's fault."

Ms Saward, 38, who is married with two children, said that what women wore and how they behaved should not have any bearing on whether a man was guilty of rape.

"We have got to the point where our society says 'take what you want'. Men feel like they can do that, regardless of what the woman wants and then argue that 'No does not really mean No'."

Lynne Harne, the spokesman for the Truth About Rape campaign, said: "I think that Dr al-Qaradawi's comments are absolutely appalling. Such an attitude should not be tolerated."

She added: "These kind of views simply promote violence against women, which is prevalent enough."

Jenny Jones, a London Assembly member who has campaigned against Dr al-Qaradawi's visit, said that he should not have been allowed to speak in Britain.

"His views are appalling and are deeply offensive," she said. "I've spoken to many Arab women who believe that he should never have been allowed here and certainly does not represent Muslims."

The Crown Prosecution Service was sent a dossier of evidence last week from Sir John Stevens, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, outlining the cleric's extreme views ahead of his visit, but he will not face prosecution.

"We have advised the Metropolitan Police that there is insufficient evidence that a criminal offence has been committed," the CPS concluded.

Henry Grunwald QC, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said that he regretted the decision not to prosecute. He said: "Al-Qaradawi's past speeches and statements show the true nature of the man and we stand by our view that he should not have been permitted to enter the UK."

Dr al-Qaradawi yesterday attended a conference of the Muslim Association of Britain in Kensington, west London, where delegates voiced their support for the cleric.

Yusra Khreegi, a spokesman for the association, said that Dr al-Qaradawi's views had been distorted and misinterpreted deliberately by the "media and Zionist organisations".

"It has been very unfair and upsetting to see what has happened over the last few days," she said.

"Mr al-Qaradawi is actually a modest and open man and very well respected within our community. He is also one of the most open-minded Muslim clerics in the world. If the media destroy him then we'll be left with only extremists like Sheikh Abu Hamza."

Peter Tatchell, the leader of Outrage, the gay campaign group, said: "Mr al-Qaradawi blames women who are raped for provoking the sexual assault. Giving a platform to him is an insult to women as well as to Jewish and gay people because he endorses wife beating and sanctions the killing of homosexuals and Jews."

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http://www.homa.org/Details.asp?ContentID=2137352747&TOCID=2083225413

Torture of women under the Islamic Republic regime

This picture was sent to Dr. Homa Darabi from a woman in Iran.This picture was taken 20 days after she was lashed fifty times for being present at a family gathering where men other than her father and brother were present. Her crime? She is a single woman. It is forbidden for women to be present under the same roof with men other than their close relatives (father, brother and son) without proper hijab.

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http://www.secularislam.org/women/shame.htm

Islam’s Shame - Lifting the veil of tears

by Ibn Warraq

Islam is deeply anti-woman. Islam is the fundamental cause of the repression of Muslim women and remains the major obstacle to the evolution of their position.(1) Islam has always considered women as creatures inferior in every way: physically, intellectually, and morally. This negative vision is divinely sanctioned in the Koran, corroborated by the hadiths, and perpetuated by the commentaries of the theologians, the custodians of Muslim dogma and ignorance.

Far better for these intellectuals to abandon the religious argument, to reject these sacred texts, and have recourse to reason alone. They should turn instead to human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (adopted on December 10, 1948, by the General Assembly of the United Nations in Paris and ratified by most Muslim countries) at no point has recourse to a religious argument. These rights are based on natural rights, which any adult human being capable of choice has. They are rights that human beings have simply because they are human beings. Human reason or rationality is the ultimate arbiter of rights—human rights, the rights of women.

Unfortunately, in practice, in Muslim countries one cannot simply leave the theologians with their narrow, bigoted world view to themselves. One cannot ignore the ulama, those learned doctors of Muslim law who by their fatwas or decisions in questions touching private or public matters of importance regulate the life of the Muslim community. They still exercise considerable powers of approving or forbidding certain actions. Why the continuing influence of the mullas?

The Koran remains for all Muslims, not just "fundamentalists," the uncreated word of God Himself. It is valid for all times and places; its ideas are absolutely true and beyond all criticism. To question it is to question the very word of God, and hence blasphemous. A Muslim’s duty is to believe it and obey its divine commands.

Several other factors contribute to the continuing influence of the ulama. Any religion that requires total obedience without thought is not likely to produce people capable of critical thought, people capable of free and independent thought. Such a situation is favorable to the development of a powerful "clergy" and is clearly responsible for the intellectual, cultural, and economic stagnation of several centuries. Illiteracy remains high in Muslim countries. Historically, as there never was any separation of state and religion, any criticism of one was seen as a criticism of the other. Inevitably, when many Muslim countries won independence after the Second World War, Islam was unfortunately linked with nationalism, which meant that any criticism of Islam was seen as a betrayal of the newly independent country—an unpatriotic act, an encouragement to colonialism and imperialism. No Muslim country has developed a stable democracy; Muslims are being subjected to every kind of repression possible. Under these conditions healthy criticism of society is not possible, because critical thought and liberty go together.

The above factors explain why Islam in general and the position of women in particular are never criticized, discussed, or subjected to deep scientific or skeptical analysis. All innovations are discouraged in Islam—every problem is seen as a religious problem rather than a social or economic one.

Profoundly Anti-Woman

Islam took the legend of Adam and Eve (2) from the Old Testament and adapted it in its own fashion. The creation of mankind from one person is mentioned in the following suras:

4.1. O Mankind! Be careful of your duty to your Lord who created you from a single soul and from it created its mate and from them twain hath spread abroad a multiple of men and women.

39.6. He created you from one being, then from that (being) He made its mate.

7.189. He it is who did create you from a single soul and therefrom did make his mate that he might take rest in her.

From these slender sources Muslim theologians have concluded that man was the original creation—womankind was created secondarily for the pleasure and repose of man. The legend was further developed to reinforce the supposed inferiority of women. Finally, the legend was given a sacred character so that to criticize it was to criticize the very words of God, which were immutable and absolute. Here is how Muhammad describes women in general: "Be friendly to women for womankind was created from a rib, but the bent part of the rib, high up, if you try to straighten it you will break it; if you do nothing, she will continue to be bent."

God punishes Adam and Eve for disobeying his orders. But there is nothing in the verses to show that it was Eve (as in the Old Testament) who led Adam astray. And yet Muslim exegetists and jurists have created the myth of Eve the temptress that has since become an integral part of Muslim tradition. Muhammad himself is reputed to have said: "If it had not been for Eve, no woman would have been unfaithful to her husband."

The Islamic tradition also attributes guile and deceit to women and draws its support from the Koran. Modern Muslim commentators interpret certain verses to show that guile, deceit, and treachery are intrinsic to a woman’s nature. Not only is she unwilling to change, she is by nature incapable of changing—she has no choice.(3) In attacking the female deities of the polytheists, the Koran takes the opportunity to malign the female sex further.

4.1 17. They invoke in His stead only females; they pray to none else than Satan, a rebel.

53.21-22. Are yours the males and His the females
That indeed were an unfair division!

53.27. Lo! it is those who disbelieve in the Hereafter who name the angels with the names of females.

Other verses from the Koran also seem of a misogynist tendency.

2.228. Women who are divorced shall wait, keeping themselves apart, three (monthly) courses. And it is not lawful for them that they should conceal that which Allah hath created in their wombs if they are believers in Allah and the Last Day. And their husbands would do better to take them back in that case if they desire a reconciliation. And they (women) have rights similar to those (of men) over them in kindness, and men are a degree above them. Allah is Mighty, Wise.

2.282. But if he who oweth the debt is of low understanding, or weak or unable himself to dictate, then let the guardian of his interests dictate in (terms of) equity. 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 I f the one erreth (through forgetfulness) the other will remember.

4.11. Allah chargeth you concerning (the provision for) your children: to the male the equivalent of the portion of two females.

4.34. 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 (beat) them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them Lo! Allah is ever High Exalted, Great.

Equally, in numerous hadiths on which are based the Islamic laws, we learn of the woman’s role—to stay at home, to be at the beck and call of man to obey him (which is a religious duty), and to assure man a tranquil existence. Here are some examples of these traditions:

1. The woman who dies and with whom the husband is satisfied will go to paradise.

2. A wife should never refuse herself to her husband even if it is on the saddle of a camel.

3. Hellfire appeared to me in a dream and I noticed that it was above all peopled with women who had been ungrateful. "Was it toward God that they were ungrateful?" They had not shown any gratitude toward their husbands for all they had received from them. Even when all your life you have showered a woman with your largesse she will still find something petty to reproach you with one day, saying, "You have never done anything for me."

4. If anything presages a bad omen it is: a house, a woman, a horse.

5. Never will a people know success if they confide their affairs to a woman.

It will be appropriate to include two quotes from the famous and much revered philosopher al-Ghazali (1058-1111), whom Professor Montgomery Watt describes as the greatest Muslim after Muhammad. In his "The Revival Of The Religious Sciences," Ghazali defines the woman’s role (4):

She should stay at home and get on with her spinning, she should not go out often, she must not be well-informed, nor must she be communicative with her neighbours and only visit them when absolutely necessary; she should take care of her husband and respect him in his presence and his absence and seek to satisfy him in everything; she must not cheat on him nor extort money from him; she must not leave her house without his permission and if given his permission she must leave surreptitiously. She should put on old clothes and take deserted streets and alleys, avoid markets, and make sure that a stranger does not hear her voice or recognize her; she must not speak to a friend of her husband even in need. ... Her sole worry should be her virtue, her home as well as her prayers and her fast. If a friend of her husband calls when the latter is absent she must not open the door nor reply to him in order to safeguard her and her husband’s honour. She should accept what her husband gives her as sufficient sexual needs at any moment.... She should be clean and ready to satisfy her husband’s sexual needs at any moment.

Such are some of the sayings from the putative golden age of Islamic feminism. It was claimed that it was the abandonment of the original teachings of Islam that had led to the present decadence and backwardness of Muslim societies. But there never was an Islamic utopia. To talk of a golden age is only to conform and perpetuate the influence of the clergy, the mullas, and their hateful creed that denies humanity to half the inhabitants of this globe, and further retards all serious attempts to liberate Muslim women.

What Rights?

The inequality between men and women (5) in matters of giving testimony or evidence or being a witness is enshrined in the Koran: sura 2.282 (quoted above).

How do Muslim apologists justify the above text? Muslim men and women writers point to the putative psychological differences that exist between men and women. The Koran (and hence God) in its sublime wisdom knew that women are sensitive, emotional, sentimental, easily moved, and influenced by their biological rhythm, lacking judgment. But above all they have a shaky memory. In other words, women are psychologically inferior. Such are the dubious arguments used by Muslim intellectuals—male and, astonishingly enough, female intellectuals like Ahmad Jamal, Ms. Zahya Kaddoura, Ms. Ghada al-Kharsa, and Ms. Madiha Khamis. As Ghassan Ascha points out, the absurdity of their arguments are obvious.

By taking the testimony of two beings whose reasoning faculties are faulty we do not obtain the testimony of one complete person with a perfectly functioning rational faculty—such is Islamic arithmetic! By this logic, if the testimony of two women is worth that of one man, then the testimony of four women must be worth that of two men, in which case we can dispense with the testimony of the men. But no! In Islam the rule is not to accept the testimony of women alone in matters to which men theoretically have access. It is said that the Prophet did not accept the testimony of women in matters of marriage, divorce, and hudud. Hudud are the punishments set down by Muhammad in the Koran and the hadith for (I) adultery—stoning to death; (II) fornication—a hundred stripes; (III) false accusation of adultery against a married person—eighty stripes; (IV) apostasy—death; (V) drinking wine—eighty stripes; (VI) theft—the cutting off of the right hand; (VII) simple robbery on the highway—the loss of hands and feet; (VIII) robbery with murder—death, either by the sword or by crucifixion.

On adultery the Koran 24.4 says: "Those that defame honourable women and cannot produce four witnesses shall be given eighty lashes." Of course, Muslim jurists will only accept four male witnesses. These witnesses must declare that they have "seen the parties in the very act of carnal conjunction. Once an accusation of fornication and adultery has been made, the accuser himself or herself risks punishment if he or she does not furnish the necessary legal proofs. Witnesses are in the same situation. If a man were to break into a woman’s dormitory and rape half a dozen women, he would risk nothing since there would be no male witnesses. Indeed the victim of a rape would hesitate before going in front of the law, since she would risk being condemned herself and have little chance of obtaining justice. "If the woman’s words were sufficient in such cases," explains Judge Zharoor ul Haq of Pakistan, "then no man would be safe." This iniquitous situation is truly revolting and yet for Muslim law it is a way of avoiding social scandal concerning the all-important sexual taboo. Women found guilty of fornication were literally immured, at first; as the Koran 4.15 says: "Shut them up within their houses till death release them, or God make some way for them." However this was later canceled and stoning substituted for adultery and one hundred lashes for fornication. When a man is to be stoned to death, he is taken to some barren place, where he is stoned first by the witnesses, then the judge, and then the public. When a woman is stoned, a hole to receive her is dug as deep as her waist—the Prophet himself seems to have ordered such procedure. It is lawful for a man to kill his wife and her lover if he catches them in the very act.

In the case where a man suspects his wife of adultery or denies the legitimacy of the offspring, his testimony is worth that of four men. Sura 24.6: "If a man accuses his wife but has no witnesses except himself, he shall swear four times by God that his charge is true, calling down upon himself the curse of God if he is lying. But if his wife swears four times by God that his charge is false and calls down His curse upon herself if it be true, she shall receive no punishment." Appearances to the contrary, this is not an example of Koranic justice or equality between the sexes. The woman indeed escapes being stoned to death but she remains rejected and loses her right to the dowry and her right to maintenance, whatever the outcome of the trial. A woman does not have the right to charge her husband in a similar manner. Finally, for a Muslim marriage to be valid there must be a multiplicity of witnesses. For Muslim jurists, two men form a multiplicity but not two or three or a thousand women.

In questions of heritage, the Koran tells us that male children should inherit twice the portion of female children:

4.11-12. A male shall inherit twice as much as a female. If there be more than two girls, they shall have two-thirds of the inheritance, but if there be one only, she shall inherit the half. Parents shall inherit a sixth each, if the deceased have a child; but if he leave no child and his parents be his heirs, his mother shall have a third. If he have brothers, his mother shall have a sixth after payment of any legacy he may have bequeathed or any debt he may have owed.

To justify this inequality, Muslim authors lean heavily on the fact that a woman receives a dowry and has the right to maintenance from her husband. It is also true that according to Muslim law the mother is not at all obliged to provide for her children, and if she does spend money on her children, it is, to quote Bousquet, "recoverable by her from her husband if he is returned to a better fortune as in the case of any other charitable person. Therefore there is no point in the husband and wife sharing in the taking charge of the household; this weighs upon the husband alone. There is no longer any financial interest between them." (6)

This latter point referred to by Bousquet simply emphasizes the negative aspects of a Muslim marriage—that is to say, the total absence of any idea of "association" between "couples" as in Christianity. As to dowry, it is, of course, simply a reconfirmation of the man’s claims over the woman in matters of sex and divorce. Furthermore, in reality the woman does not get to use the dowry for herself. The custom is either to use the dowry to furnish the house of the newly married couple or for the wife to offer it to her father. According to the Malekites, the woman can be obliged by law to use the dowry to furnish the house. Muslim law also gives the guardian the right to cancel a marriage—even that of a woman of legal age—if he thinks the dowry is not sufficient. Thus the dowry, instead of being a sign of her independence, turns out once more to be a symbol of her servitude.

The woman has the right to maintenance but this simply emphasizes her total dependence on her husband, with all its attendant sense of insecurity. According to Muslim jurists, the husband is not obliged under Islamic law to pay for her medical expenses in case of illness. Financial independence of the woman would of course be the first step in the liberation of Muslim women and thus it is not surprising that it is seen as a threat to male dominance. Muslim women are now obliged to take equal responsibility for looking after their parents. Article 158 of Syrian law states "The child—male or female—having the necessary means is obliged to take responsibility for his or her poor parents." The birth of a girl is still seen as a catastrophe in Islamic societies. The system of inheritance just adds to her misery and her dependence on the man. If she is an only child she receives only half the legacy of her father; the other half goes to the male members of the father’s family. If there are two or more daughters, they inherit two-thirds. This pushes fathers and mothers to prefer male children to female so that they can leave the entirety of their effects or possessions to their own descendants. "Yet when a new-born girl is announced to one of them his countenance darkens and he is filled with gloom" (sura 43.15). The situation is even worse when a woman loses her husband—she only receives a quarter of the legacy. If the deceased leaves more than one wife, all the wives are still obliged to share among themselves a quarter or one-eighth of the legacy.

Muslim jurists (7) are unanimous in their view that men are superior to women in virtue of their reasoning abilities, their knowledge, and their supervisory powers. And since it is the man who assumes financial responsibility for the family, it is argued, it is natural that he should have total power over the woman. These same jurists, of course, totally neglect changing social conditions where a woman may contribute her salary to the upkeep of her family—power over women remains a divine command and "natural" or "in the nature of things." Muslim thinkers continue to confine Muslim women to the house—to leave the house is against the will of God and against the principles of Islam. Confined to their houses, women are then reproached for not having any experience of the outside world!

According to theologians (8), the husband has the right to administer corporal punishment to his wife if she

1. Refuses to make herself beautiful for him;

2. Refuses to meet his sexual demands;

3. Leaves the house without permission or without any legitimate reason recognized by law; or

4. Neglects her religious duties.

A hadith attributes the following saying to the Prophet: "Hang up your whip where your wife can see it." There are a number of other hadiths that contradict this one. In those, Muhammad explicitly forbids men to beat their wives—in which case the Prophet himself is contradicting what the Koran, enshrining divine law, permits.

Case Histories: The Women of Pakistan

In Pakistan in 1977, General Zia al-Haq took over in a military coup declaring that the process of Islamization was not going fast enough. The mullas had finally got someone who was prepared to listen to them.

Zia imposed martial law, total press censorship, and began creating a theocratic state, believing that Pakistan ought to have "the spirit of Islam." He banned women from athletic contests and even enforced the Muslim fast during the month of Ramadan at gunpoint. He openly admitted that there was a contradiction between Islam and democracy. Zia introduced Islamic laws that discriminated against women. The most notorious of these laws were the Zina and Hudud Ordinances that called for the Islamic punishments of the amputation of hands for stealing and stoning to death for married people found guilty of illicit sex. The term zina included adultery, fornication, and rape, and even prostitution. Fornication was punished with a maximum of a hundred lashes administered in public and ten years’ imprisonment.

In practice, these laws protect rapists, for a woman who has been raped often finds herself charged with adultery or fornication. To prove zina, four Muslim adult males of good repute must be present to testify that sexual penetration has taken place. Furthermore, in keeping with good Islamic practice, these laws value the testimony of men over women. The combined effect of these laws is that it is impossible for a woman to bring a successful charge of rape against a man; instead, she herself, the victim, finds herself charged with illicit sexual intercourse, while the rapist goes free. If the rape results in a pregnancy, this is automatically taken as an admission that adultery or fornication has taken place with the woman’s consent rather than that rape has occurred.

Here are some sample cases.(9)

In a town in the northern province of Punjab, a woman and her two daughters were stripped naked, beaten, and gangraped in public, but the police declined to pursue the case.

A thirteen-year-old girl was kidnapped and raped by a "family friend." When her father brought a case against the rapist, it was the girl who was put in prison and charged with zina, illegal sexual intercourse. The father managed to secure the child’s release by bribing the police. The traumatized child was then severely beaten for disgracing the family honor.

A fifty-year-old widow, Ahmedi Begum (10), decided to let some rooms in her house in the city of Lahore to two young veiled women. As she was about to show them the rooms, the police burst into the courtyard of the house and arrested the two girls and Ahmedi Begum’s nephew, who had simply been standing there. Later that afternoon, Ahmedi Begum went to the police station with her son-in-law to inquire about her nephew and the two girls. The police told Ahmedi they were arresting her too. They confiscated her jewelry and pushed her into another room. While she was waiting, the police officers shoved the two girls, naked and bleeding, into the room and then proceeded to rape them again in front of the widow. When Ahmedi covered her eyes, the police forced her to watch by pulling her arms to her sides. After suffering various sexual humiliations, Ahmedi herself was stripped and raped by one officer after another. They dragged her outside where she was again beaten. One of the officers forced a policeman’s truncheon, covered with chili paste, into her rectum, rupturing it. Ahmedi screamed in horrible agony and fainted, only to wake up in prison, charged with zina. Her case was taken up by a human rights lawyer. She was released on bail after three months in prison, but was not acquitted until three years later. In the meantime, her son-in-law divorced her daughter because of his shame.

Was this an isolated case? Unfortunately no. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said in its annual report that one woman is raped every three hours in Pakistan and one in two rape victims is a juvenile. According to Women’s Action Forum, a woman’s rights organization, 72% of all women in police custody in Pakistan are physically and sexually abused. Furthermore, 75% of all women in jail are there under charges of zina. Many of these women remain in jail awaiting trial for years.

In other words, the charge of zina is casually applied by any man who wants to get rid of his wife, who is immediately arrested, and kept waiting in prison, sometimes for years. Before the introduction of these laws the total number of women in prison was 70; the present number is more than 3,000. Most of these women have been charged under the Zina or Hudud Ordinances.(11)

The Western press naively believed that the election of Benazir Bhutto as Pakistan’s prime minister in November 1988 would revolutionize women’s role not just in Pakistan, but in the entire Islamic world. Under Islamic law of course, women cannot be head of an Islamic state, and Pakistan had become an Islamic republic under the new constitution of 1956. Thus, Benazir Bhutto had defied the mullas and won. But her government lasted a bare 20 months, during which period Nawaz Sharif, who was the prime minister briefly in the early 1990s, is said to have encouraged the mullas in their opposition to having a woman as the head of an Islamic state. Benazir Bhutto’s government was dismissed on charges of corruption, and her husband imprisoned in 1990.

The lot of the Muslim woman was harsh before Benazir’s election, and nothing has changed. She has pandered to the religious lobby, the mullas, the very people who insist that a woman cannot hold power in an Islamic state, and has repeatedly postponed any positive action on the position of women.

Pakistan shows the same grim picture. Pakistan is one of only four countries in the world where female life expectancy (51 years) is lower than the male (52 years); the average female life expectancy for all poor countries is 61 years. A large number of Pakistani women die in pregnancy or childbirth, six for every 1,000 live births. Despite the fact that contraception has never been banned by orthodox Islam, under Zia the Islamic Ideology Council of Pakistan declared family planning to be un-Islamic. Various mullas condemned family planning as a Western conspiracy to emasculate Islam. As a result, the average fertility rate per woman in Pakistan is 6.9. Pakistan is also among the world’s bottom ten countries for female attendance at primary schools. Some people put female literacy in the rural areas as low as 2% (Economist, March 5, 1994). As the Economist put it, "Some of the blame for all this lies with the attempt of the late President Zia ul Haq to create an Islamic republic.. .. Zia turned the clock back. A 1984 law of his, for instance, gives a woman’s legal evidence half the weight of a man’s" (Economist, January 13, 1990).

Indeed a large part of the blame lies with the attitudes inculcated by Islam, which has always seen woman as inferior to man. The birth of a baby girl is the occasion for mourning. Hundreds of baby girls are abandoned every year in the gutters and dust bins and on the pavements. An organization working in Karachi to save these children has calculated that more than five hundred children are abandoned a year in Karachi alone, and that 99% of them are girls.(12)

Little did Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, realize how literally true his words were when he said in a 1944 speech (13): "No nation can rise to the height of glory unless your women are side by side with you. We are victims of evil customs. It is a crime against humanity that our women are shut up within the four walls of the houses as prisoners."

But we do not need to leave with a completely pessimistic picture. Pakistani women have shown themselves to be very courageous, and more and more are fighting for their rights with the help of equally brave organizations such as Women’s Action Forum (WAF) and War Against Rape. WAF was formed in 1981 as women came onto the streets to protest against the Hudud Ordinances, and to demonstrate their solidarity with a couple who had recently been sentenced to death by stoning for fornication. In 1983, women organized the first demonstrations against martial law.

Excerpted from Why I Am Not a Muslim by Ibn Warraq (Prometheus Books, 1995).

Notes:

1. Ghassan Ascha, Du Statut Inferieur de la Femme in Islam (Paris: 1989) p. 11.

2. Ibid., pp. 23f.

3. Ibid., pp. 29f.

4. Ibid., p. 41.

5. Ascha, op. cit., pp. 63f.

6. G. H. Bousquet, L'Ethique sexuelle de L'Islam (Paris: 1966) vol. 1, p. 120.

7. Ascha, op. cit. p. 89.

8. Ibid., pp. 108.

9. Kurt Schork, "Pakistan's Women in Despair," Guardian Weekly, September 23, 1990.

10. Jan Goodwin, Price of Honor (Boston: 1994) p. 49-50.

11. Schork, op. cit.

12. Goodwin, op. cit., p. 64.

13. R. Ahmed, ed., Sayings of Quaid-I-Azam (Jinnah) (Karachi: 1986) p. 98.

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http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/04/19/saudi.batteredhost.ap/index.html

TV host goes public with abuse

CNN.Com / World - Monday, April 19, 2004

Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- A popular Saudi television host
publicly showed her bruised and bloodied face and has shocked her
compatriots into openly talking about one of the kingdom's long-hidden
problems: violence against women.

Rania al-Baz before and after her beating (Arab News)

Rania al-Baz suffered multiple fractures (picture: Arab News)

Rania al-Baz has been hailed as a hero for letting newspaper
photographers snap pictures of her face and for frankly discussing her
case after she said a beating by her husband earlier this month left
her unconscious.

Her story has been widely reported in the Saudi media. A Saudi
princess stepped forward to pay al-Baz's medical bills.
Representatives of the new Saudi National Human Rights Association
visited her in the hospital.

Al-Baz told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Sunday that
once she is back at work, she will press a violence-against-women
awareness campaign.

"I know many women in Saudi Arabia are badly beaten and when I recover
I will do a program addressing that," she said.

She said she also will try to tackle other topics, like rape, that are
usually not publicly discussed in conservative Saudi Arabia.

Al-Baz is well know throughout the kingdom for her chatty, magazine
style show, "The Kingdom This Morning." The program usually offers
lighter fare and is shown on state-run Saudi Channel One.

Al-Baz's television persona -- warm smile wrapped in a stylish
headscarf -- made the photographs of her wrecked face after the April
10 beating all the more startling. Al-Baz suffered 13 facial fractures
required 12 operations.

"Though the photo was too gory for some people -- blood was dripping
from her face -- she wanted her case to be publicized so that other
battered women would be encouraged to speak up," columnist Raid Qusti
wrote in the Arab News.

Qusti said that all Saudi women should salute al-Baz.

"She knew the story was going public, and she did not do that for
publicity, she did it to help other women -- because no man has the
right to beat a woman," said Arab News' editor, Khaled al-Maeena.

Al-Baz, in her 30s, said her husband of six years, singer Mohammed
Bakr al-Fallatta, had beaten her before. But she said the April 10
attack was especially vicious, and that she thought he wanted to kill
her.

After banging her head on the floor and the wall until she lost
consciousness, al-Baz said her husband drove her to the hospital and
left her at the front doors, claiming she was a victim of a traffic
accident and that he was going to pick up others who had been hurt.

He then drove off and has not been seen or heard from since.

Al-Baz said she is not sure what triggered the attack. But al-Fallatta
had been out of work for nearly three years and was depressed, she
said. And days before the beating, he got angry when he found her
watching a Lebanese TV show that featured his sister, a singer who
lives in Beirut.

Ethnic Cleansing, War

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3613953.stm

Sudan's shadowy Arab militia

More than 100,000 refugees have fled western Sudan's Darfur region, the victims of what UN officials have described as an "ethnic cleansing" campaign by a small group of Arab militiamen.

The BBC's Alfred Taban in Khartoum examines the shadowy Janjaweed militia.

Janjaweed fighter on horseback in Darfur region, 25 April

The Janjaweed often fight on horseback, or use camels

The atrocities the Janjaweed have committed on the civilian population of Darfur are well documented, not just by the people of Darfur but also by international aid agencies.

The Janjaweed, these groups claim, have attacked black Africans from the Fur, Massaleet and Zagawa tribes with a ruthlessness that has not been seen in the region for some time.

They have killed, raped, maimed, looted and burned down tens of thousands of village homes, displacing hundreds of thousands of people.

The number of the Janjaweed is reported to be very small, maybe a few thousand, but they are well armed with automatic weapons and ride well-fed horses and camels.

Resources battle

Even before the rebellion erupted in Darfur more than two years ago, the Janjaweed, known then as Arab tribesmen, had been raiding African villages.

Map of Sudan highlighting Darfur

The objective then, as it is probably still now, is to drive the African tribesmen from their homes and force them to abandon valuable water points and pasture.

The Janjaweed are pastoral and they have been hard hit by desertification, which has greatly diminished water resources and pasture in Darfur.

The government has been at pains to disassociate itself from the Janjaweed.

It has described the Janjaweed as a gang of criminals.

Minister of Defence Bakri Hasan Salih said on Friday that all arms would be collected from all groups in Darfur and handed over to the armed forces and other regular forces.

Government strategy

But, whether that would indeed be done is another issue.

The African tribesmen have supplied the bulk of the fighting forces for both the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem), the main rebel groups in Darfur.

By scuppering the African tribesmen, the Janjaweed are able to disrupt the two movements' recruitment drives.

This fits well in the government strategy of beating the rebels militarily.

The Africans of Darfur and relief agencies say that, far from stopping the Janjaweed, the government is providing them with weapons, training and uniforms.

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http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=4649

Islam’s Other Victims: India

By Serge Trifkovic
FrontPageMagazine.com | November 18, 2002

Adapted from The Sword of the Prophet: A Politically-Incorrect Guide to Islam by Dr. Serge Trifkovic.

The fundamental leftist and anti-American claim about our ongoing conflict with political Islam is this: whatever has happened or does happen, it’s our fault. We provoked them into it by being dirty Yankee imperialists and by unkindly refusing to allow them to destroy Israel. But two things make crystal clear that this is not so:

1. The political arm of Islam has been waging terroristic holy war on the rest of the world for centuries.

2. It has waged this war against civilizations that have nothing to do with the West, let alone America.

This is why the case of Moslem aggression against India proves so much. Let’s look at the historical record.

India prior to the Moslem invasions was one of the world’s great civilizations. Tenth century Hindustan matched its contemporaries in the East and the West in the realms of philosophy, mathematics, and natural science. Indian mathematicians discovered the number zero (not to mention other things, like algebra, that were later transmitted to a Moslem world which mistaken has received credit for them.) Medieval India, before the Moslem invasion, was a richly imaginative culture, one of the half-dozen most advanced civilizations of all time. Its sculptures were vigorous and sensual, its architecture ornate and spellbinding. And these were indigenous achievements and not, as in the case of many of the more celebrated high-points of Moslem culture, relics of pre-Moslem civilizations that Moslems had overrun.

Moslem invaders began entering India in the early 8^th century, on the orders of Hajjaj, the governor of what is now Iraq. (Sound familiar?) Starting in 712 the raiders, commanded by Muhammad Qasim, demolished temples, shattered sculptures, plundered palaces, killed vast numbers of men — it took three whole days to slaughter the inhabitants of the city of Debal — and carried off their women and children to slavery, some of it sexual. After the initial wave of violence, however, Qasim tried to establish law and order in the newly-conquered lands, and to that end he even allowed a degree of religious tolerance. but upon hearing of such humane practices, his superior Hajjaj, objected:

"It appears from your letter that all the rules made by you for the comfort and convenience of your men are strictly in accordance with religious law. But the way of granting pardon prescribed by the law is different from the one adopted by you, for you go on giving pardon to everybody, high or low, without any discretion between a friend and a foe. The great God says in the Koran [47.4]: "0 True believers, when you encounter the unbelievers, strike off their heads." The above command of the Great God is a great command and must be respected and followed. You should not be so fond of showing mercy, as to nullify the virtue of the act. Henceforth grant pardon to no one of the enemy and spare none of them, or else all will consider you a weak-minded man."

In a subsequent communication, Hajjaj reiterated that all able-bodied men were to be killed, and that their underage sons and daughters were to be imprisoned and retained as hostages. Qasim obeyed, and on his arrival at the town of Brahminabad massacred between 6,000 and 16,000 men.

The significance of these events lies not just in the horrible numbers involved, but in the fact that the perpetrators of these massacres were not military thugs disobeying the ethical teachings of their religion, as the European crusaders in the Holy Land were, but were actually doing precisely what their religion taught. (And one may note that Christianity has grown up and no longer preaches crusades. Islam has not. As has been well-documented, jihad has been preached from the official centers of Islam, not just the lunatic fringe.)

Qasim’s early exploits were continued in the early eleventh century, when Mahmud of Ghazni, "passed through India like a whirlwind, destroying, pillaging, and massacring," zealously following the Koranic injunction to kill idolaters, whom he had vowed to chastise every year of his life.

In the course of seventeen invasions, in the words of Alberuni, the scholar brought by Mahmud to India,

"Mahmud utterly ruined the prosperity of the country, and performed there wonderful exploits, by which the Hindus became like atoms of dust scattered in all directions, and like a tale of old in the mouth of the people. Their scattered remains cherish, of course, the most inveterate aversion toward all Moslems."

Does one wonder why? To this day, the citizens of Bombay and New Delhi, Calcutta and Bangalore, live in fear of a politically-unstable and nuclear-armed Pakistan that unlike India (but like every other Moslem country) has not managed to maintain democracy since independence.

Mathura, holy city of the god Krishna, was the next victim:

"In the middle of the city there was a temple larger and finer than the rest, which can neither be described nor painted." The Sultan [Mahmud] was of the opinion that 200 years would have been required to build it. The idols included "five of red gold, each five yards high," with eyes formed of priceless jewels. "The Sultan gave orders that all the temples should be burnt with naphtha and fire, and leveled with the ground."

In the aftermath of the invasion, in the ancient cities of Varanasi, Mathura, Ujjain, Maheshwar, Jwalamukhi, and Dwarka, not one temple survived whole and intact. This is the equivalent of an army marching into Paris and Rome, Florence and Oxford, and razing their architectural treasures to the ground. It is an act beyond nihilism; it is outright negativism, a hatred of what is cultured and civilized.

In his book The Story of Civilization, famous historian Will Durant lamented the results of what he termed "probably the bloodiest story in history." He called it "a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precious good, whose delicate complex order and freedom can at any moment be overthrown by barbarians invading from without and multiplying from within."

Moslem invaders "broke and burned everything beautiful they came across in Hindustan," displaying, as an Indian commentator put it, the resentment of the less developed warriors who felt intimidated in the encounter with "a more refined culture." The Moslem Sultans built mosques at the sites of torn down temples, and many Hindus were sold into slavery. As far as they were concerned, Hindus were kafirs, heathens, par excellence. They, and to a lesser extent the peaceful Buddhists, were, unlike Christians and Jews, not "of the book" but at the receiving end of Muhammad’s injunction against pagans: "Kill those who join other gods with God wherever you may find them." (Not that being "of the book" has much helped Jewish and Christian victims of other Moslem aggressions, but that’s another article.)

The mountainous northwestern approaches to India are to this day called the Hindu Kush, "the Slaughter of the Hindu," a reminder of the days when Hindu slaves from Indian subcontinent died in harsh Afghan mountains while being transported to Moslem courts of Central Asia. The slaughter in Somnath, the site of a celebrated Hindu temple, where 50,000 Hindus were slain on Mahmud’s orders, set the tone for centuries.

The gentle Buddhists were the next to be subjected to mass slaughter in 1193, when Muhammad Khilji also burned their famous library. By the end of the 12^th century, following the Moslem conquest of their stronghold in Bihar, they were no longer a significant presence in India. The survivors retreated into Nepal and Tibet, or escaped to the south of the Subcontinent. The remnants of their culture lingered on even as far west as Turkestan. Left to the tender mercies of Moslem conquerors and their heirs they were systematically destroyed, sometimes—as was the case with the four giant statues of Buddha in Afghanistan in March 2001—up to the present day.

That cultivated disposition and developed sensibility can go hand in hand with bigotry and cruelty is evidenced by the example of Firuz Shah, who became the ruler of northern India in 1351. This educated yet tyrannical Moslem ruler of northern India once surprised a village where a Hindu religious festival was celebrated, and ordered all present to be slain. He proudly related that, upon completing the slaughter, he destroyed the temples and in their place built mosques.

The Mogul emperor Akbar is remembered as tolerant, at least by the standards of Moslems in India: only one major massacre was recorded during his long reign (1542-1605), when he ordered that about 30,000 captured Rajput Hindus be slain on February 24, 1568, after the battle for Chitod. But Akbar’s acceptance of other religions and toleration of their public worship, his abolition of poll-tax on non-Moslems, and his interest in other faiths were not a reflection of his Moslem spirit of tolerance. Quite the contrary, they indicated a propensity for free-thinking in the realm of religion that finally led him to complete apostasy. Its high points were the formal declaration of his own infallibility in all matters of religious doctrine, his promulgation of a new creed, and his adoption of Hindu and Zoroastrian festivals and practices. This is a pattern one sees again and again in Moslem history, down to the present day: whenever one finds a reasonable, enlightened, tolerant Moslem, upon closer examination this turns out to be someone who started out as a Moslem but then progressively wandered away from the orthodox faith. That is to say: the best Moslems are generally the least Moslem (a pattern which does not seem to be the case with other religions.)

Things were back to normal under Shah Jahan (1593-1666), the fifth Mogul Emperor and a grandson of Akbar the Great. Most Westerners remember him as the builder of the Taj Mahal and have no idea that he was a cruel warmonger who initiated forty-eight military campaigns against non-Moslems in less than thirty years. Taking his cue from his Ottoman co-religionists, on coming to the throne in 1628 he killed all his male relations except one who escaped to Persia. Shah Jahan had 5,000 concubines in his harem, but nevertheless indulged in incestuous sex with his daughters Chamani and Jahanara. During his reign in Benares alone 76 Hindu temples were destroyed, as well as Christian churches at Agra and Lahore. At the end of the siege of Hugh, a Portuguese enclave near Calcutta, that lasted three months, he had ten thousand inhabitants "blown up with powder, drowned in water or burnt by fire." Four thousand were taken captive to Agra where they were offered Islam or death. Most refused and were killed, except for the younger women, who went into harems.

These massacres perpetrated by Moslems in India are unparalleled in history. In sheer numbers, they are bigger than the Jewish Holocaust, the Soviet Terror, the Japanese massacres of the Chinese during WWII, Mao’s devastations of the Chinese peasantry, the massacres of the Armenians by the Turks, or any of the other famous crimes against humanity of the 20^th Century. But sadly, they are almost unknown outside India.

There are several reasons for this. In the days when they ruled India, the British, pursuing a policy of divide-and-rule, whitewashed the record of the Moslems so that they could set them up as a counterbalance to the more numerous Hindus. During the struggle for independence, Gandhi and Nehru downplayed historic Moslem atrocities so that they could pretend a facade of Hindu-Moslem unity against the British. (Naturally, this façade dissolved immediately after independence and several million people were killed in the religious violence attendant on splitting British India into India and Pakistan.) After independence, Marxist Indian writers, blinkered by ideology, suppressed the truth about the Moslem record because it did not fit into the Marxist theory of history. Nowadays, the Indian equivalent of political correctness downplays Moslem misdeeds because Moslems are an "oppressed minority" in majority-Hindu India. And Indian leftist intellectuals always blame India first and hate their own Hindu civilization, just their equivalents at Berkeley blame America and the West.

Unlike Germany, which has apologized to its Jewish and Eastern European victims, and Japan, which has at least behaved itself since WWII, and even America, which has gone into paroxysms of guilt over what it did to the infinitely smaller numbers of Red Indians, the Moslem aggressors against India and their successors have not even stopped trying to finish the job they started. To this day, militant Islam sees India as "unfinished business" and it remains high on the agenda of oil-rich Moslem countries such as Saudi Arabia, which are spending millions every year trying to convert Hindus to Islam.

One may take some small satisfaction in the fact that they find it rather slow going.

Serge Trifkovic received his PhD from the University of Southampton in England and pursued postdoctoral research at the Hoover Institution at Stanford. His past journalistic outlets have included the BBC World Service, the Voice of America, CNN International, MSNBC, U.S. News & World Report, The Washington Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Times of London, and the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He is foreign affairs editor of Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture. This article was adapted for Front Page Magazine by Robert Locke.

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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,125392,00.html

Kashmir Rebels Mutilate Girl

Monday, July 12, 2004

SRINAGAR, India — Guerrillas on Monday chopped off the ears, nose and tongue of a teenage girl they suspected of helping police, while at least nine other people were killed in separate violence in Indian-controlled Kashmir (search).

The girl was held captive for eight days before the rebels abandoned her in a field outside the village of Manoh, 190 miles southwest of Srinagar, the capital of India's Jammu-Kashmir state, police said.

Also, five schoolchildren — riding a bus to a school picnic — were wounded in crossfire between Indian soldiers and suspected rebels who attacked an army convoy on a highway outside Srinagar, Army spokesman Lt. Col. Mukhtiar Singh said. Three soldiers also were wounded.

A powerful blast Monday night at Nishat, a neighborhood near Kashmir's famous Nishat Garden (search), killed one man and wounded eight others, police said.

Several of the injured were workers who had come from outside Kashmir. The explosive was placed along the wall of a house rented by the workers, he said.

Also Monday, border guards killed three suspected Islamic rebels before they could cross a barbed wire fence about a mile inside Indian territory in Kashmir, an army spokesman said.

India plans to complete the fence — which stretches along 360 miles of the 465-mile boundary — by September to keep Islamic fighters from Pakistan (search) out of Indian territory.

Insurgents also exploded a grenade outside a mosque in Handwara, a town close to the disputed border with Pakistan, killing one civilian and one policeman, police said. Eighteen civilians and a policeman were wounded.

Also Monday, two suspected rebels were killed in a clash with government soldiers in Dogarpora, 65 miles north of Srinagar, while another suspected insurgent died after a shootout with the Indian army in the village of Kangan.

Dozens of rebel groups have been fighting for Kashmir's independence from India or its merger with Pakistan since 1989. More than 65,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the conflict.

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http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-13154917,00.html

Gaza’s Killing School

Children as young as 10 are being recruited to fight for the Palestinian cause.

Sky News has gained access to a young people's camp in Gaza, where the only lesson taught is how to kill Israelis.

Sky's Middle East Correspondent Emma Hurd said the camp, at an undisclosed location, had been set up to drill children in the ways of war.

The recruits, some of whom are dwarfed by their AK-47 assault rifles, are taught how to carry out ambushes.

They are also made to do an obstacle course, crawling under barbed wire and leaping through hoops of fire while their instructors fire live bullets overhead.

Children brandish weapons

Hurd witnessed one training session in which a militant, dressed as a Jewish settler complete with yarmulke skull cap, was ambushed in his car.Gunmen pulled the "settler" from his vehicle and Hurd was told if this had been real he would have been killed.

She spoke to two 10-year-old recruits.

One of them, Mustafa, said he wanted to shoot down Israeli aircraft and blow up tanks.

The camp is run by a group called the Popular Resistance Committee, which said the next generation of Palestinians needed to know how to fight the Israeli "occupation".

The boys even "graduate" at the end of their training, receiving a certificate from the camp commander.

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http://www.satribune.com/archives/feb17_23_03/opinion_bertil.htm

Ethnic Cleansing & Rise of Islamic Militancy in Bangladesh

Bertil Lintner

IMAGINE how it would be like when 25 million people vanish from a projected population of 39 million. Imagine how it would be like when two and a half million acres of prime land is grabbed from a country smaller in size than the State of Wisconsin.

Imagine how it would be like when one is subjected to rape, unending torture, forced conversion, discrimination in education and employment, intimidation to practice one's own religious faith, loot, arson and other savageries of worst kind.

This is the story of the Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, and the ethnic minorities of Bangladesh -- a story of slow genocide, a story of violence and betrayal by their own government, a testament of hard-line Islamic politicking designed to minority cleansing, a continuing saga that has played out since 1947 to the present day Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has been a fertile ground for bigoted Islamic idealism for a long time. Especially, since 1975 with the assassination of the country's founding father and altering of the constitution, the Islamic Radicalism has been thrust into the political landscape of the country. With enormous financial help from branded terrorists, outlawed regimes, and proponents of Wahabism such as Saudi Arabia, Libya, Iraq, Iran and other renegade terrorist networks.

Bangladesh has built hundreds of thousands of Mosques and madrassahs that constantly foment violence against non-Muslims and country's progressive groups and cultural institutions. There are 64,000 madrassahs or so called religious schools where the unsuspecting Muslim youths are recruited and trained to be the foot soldiers for a Taliban style Bangladesh. They espouse hate and bigotry against anyone that does not conform to their brand of militant Islam. The infamous American Taliban, John Walker Lindh, was a graduate from one such Madrassah in Pakistan.

Persecution of minorities in Bangladesh has been a lingering issue for past sixty years with some intermittent reprieves that came along with the changing hands of power. But the aura of minority cleansing never fully subsided. October 2001, when the coalition of Islamic hard-liners swept into power trumpeting their goal to make Bangladesh a pure Islamic Country as their election themes-- brought a new momentum to their hostility towards minorities. They marked their victory with unprecedented and unprovoked attacks on innocent men, women and children belonging to the minority communities.

The government not only shamelessly failed to provide the country's 15 million ethno-religious minorities any protection against these attacks, but also showed its utter indifference to human life by cowardly aiding in the history's worst savagery. Since then, hundreds of thousands of young girls and women have been abducted and raped, tens of thousands of minority owned homes and businesses have been looted and razed, hundreds of places of worship have been burnt down all across Bangladesh. Women as old as seventy and girls as young seven have not even been spared of their brunt of rape and terror. Abduction of young girls from homes at gunpoint, gang rape, and forced conversions to Islam have been endemic in Bangladesh.

Prime Minister Khaleda Zia is responsible for this latest cycle of crimes against humanity.
She has personally orchestrated each and every recent dreadful terror against the minorities with a clear and unambiguous purpose of cleansing the country's minorities to transform it into a Pure Muslim Country. She has used every resource of the government at her disposal to intimidate, terrorize and torture people into either leaving the country or submitting to convert to Islamic extremism. Today, forced conversion to Islam has become a corrosive fodder to the fundamentalists, courtesy of Begum Khaleda Zia.

It may recall the massacre that took place back in April 1992. The then Prime Minister of the country, Begum Khaleda Zia used her army to systematically murder 600 tribal residents of Logang in Chittagong Hill Tracts, and burned the entire village to the ground. Seven months later, she orchestrated another wave of minority persecution in which 15 minorities were killed, 2,600 women raped, 10,000 injured, 40,000 dwelling houses destroyed, 3, 600 temples damaged/razed and 200,000 rendered homeless. Begum Zia, like her Islamic fundamentalist predecessors has been a mortal danger to pluralistic democracy and the rule of law.

Recently, while she has deployed armies on the streets to curtail the rights of citizens, to take prisoner of political rivals and human rights activists, to stifle the voices of progressive thinkers and journalists on vital national issues such as human rights, freedom of religion. she has allowed Bangladesh to become a cocoon of terror, a hub for international terrorism.It is an established fact that Bangladesh now harbors and supports international terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and Harkat-ul-Jihad. Fighters trained and given new identities in Bangladesh routinely find their ways to conflicts throughout the world and are wrecking havoc everywhere.

These are worrisome developments for Bangladesh, the world and for the entire humanity.

With the government's active encouragement the fundamentalists have often revealed their ugly fangs by perpetrating terrors on Bangladesh's most vulnerable citizens, the minorities. We believe the initiative to correct the great miscarriage of justice, to right the decades of wrongs committed by the Islamic Zealots must come, first and foremost, from the citizens of Bangladesh who believe in peace, freedom and justice by forming a united resistance against militant Islam in the country.

In the same vein I remind the International Community that Bangladesh has willfully violated all International Laws and Conventions that specifically address the Human Rights and Freedom of Religion Issues. Today, throughout the world terror has cast its ugly spells on life and liberty- the very things the civilized world pride itself upon. And persecution of minorities in Bangladesh is certainly an inseparable phenomenon of global terror because the terrorist networks responsible for this are also global.

They are linked together with a common purpose to exterminate anyone not subscribing to their brand of religion. History has taught us, time and again, that cowering into inaction when terror manifest itself is at civilization's own great peril. It challenge the civilized nations to heed the history's call to actions against the plague of Islamic Jihad.

All along it has demanded retribution and justice for all sufferings, to repatriate and compensate victims of forced exodus. In 2001, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, promised the nation to investigate the carnage and to rehabilitate the victims. Two years elapsed since she has predictably failed to deliver on her promise, for she is a player in that "axis of terror". It has demanded the government to restore the original constitution of Bangladesh by repealing the 5th (Introducing Islam to the Constitution) and 8th (Declaring Islam as the State Religion) Amendments the two very divisive issues that took away 'Equal Rights' and destroyed the moral fabric of the nation.

Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has shown no indication of changing course, let alone acting on this. Rather she has partnered with the Islamic hard-liners and the proponents of these discriminatory laws and publicly professed her desire to make Bangladesh a pure Islamic Country. Her newfound majority in the parliament is only an added incentive for her and her partners in Islamic Jihad to make their bigoted dream come true. It has also demanded the repeal of "Enemy Property Act" or "Vested Property Law" of 1965 from the constitution, under which the country's minorities have been dispossessed of more than 2.5 million acres of prime land. Legislation was passed in the parliament by the Awami-League Government, providing a ray of hope, to end this dreaded episode of grabbing of our lands. But the new government of Khaleda Zia, scuttled the entire legislation through various administrative maneuvers even before the law took effect. She failed this time too. Trusting her again would further jeopardize the minorities of Bangladesh.

It is time to place BD minority demand to the world community. It is no longer can accept this continuing saga of being treated as aliens, hounded and hunted by Islamic radicals, in our own land. It has endured enough pain and sufferings, sustained huge loss of lives to warrant the world's attention toward a just, equitable and permanent solution to the tone of what was worked out in Bosnia and East Timor for its' minorities.

Today, It is confronted with a grave challenge, a challenge to BD minority own existence, a challenge to the world community as to what kind of civilization it will usher in for the generations that will follow us. We are confident about our resolve to meet this challenge and any challenge head on. We remain hopeful that the world community will take up the issue and adequately respond to this human rights crisis.

Finally, the rise of militant Islam in Bangladesh is a 'menace' to our lives and an 'overcast' on our civilization. We must defeat this menacing face of terror and fundamentalism and defeat we will. So long there is violation of human rights, anyone's rights.We will continue to inform and challenge the world community. To that end, as a Nobel Laureate, the bravest of all, our pride, Rabindra Nath Tagore proclaimed more than a hundred years ago, we say: "Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake".

The writer is a seasoned journalist specializing in South East Asian Affairs. He reports for Far Eastern Economic Review and has written 5 books on Burma. This paper was presented by him at a conference in New York on February 9, 2003

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http://www.hinduism-today.com/archives/2000/2/2000-2-07.shtml

February 2000

SOCIAL CHANGE

A Bleak Future for Bangladesh Hindu's

In the last fifty years, more than ten million of the country's Hindu's have fled to India in the face of sustained persecution and periodic riots

With its poverty and frequent cyclones, Bangladesh is major news each year. But the unfolding fate of Hindus in the country rarely makes headlines. The numbers tell the story. In 1872, 53% of the people in what is now Bangladesh were Hindus. In 1900, it was 32.7%, and by 1947, 22%. Today it has dropped to 10%. Conceivably, by 2050 Bangladesh will have achieved the status of Pakistan: no significant Hindu population. Ishani Chowdhury, a New York university student, was commissioned by Hinduism Today to report on one of the most heartless persecutions and forced migrations of modern times. Be advised, this is a gut-wrenching story of a people systematically hounded out of their ancestral land because of their religion, a story largely ignored by the world.

My mother saw with her own eyes trainloads of Hindus crossing over to Bihar, the state in which she lived. They were part of the ten million that fled to India from Bangladesh during the 1971 revolt. Their arms were slashed so they would not be able to work, their eyes were gouged out, breasts of women were severed, on their chests the words "Pakistan Zindabad" ("Long Live Pakistan") were branded with a hot iron rod. People went insane from all the horrors they had seen and experienced.

One day a Hindu refugee had managed to come to my mother's house in hopes of finding shelter. She had not eaten in days, was dirty, her simple cotton sari ripped, her hair disheveled, her shoeless feet bleeding from the long journey. There was a look of hopelessness and fear in her eyes, like something was haunting her or about to attack her. All she could say was, "Save me! Save me! They are going to come after me! Save me!"

Days later, when she regained her senses, Laxmi Rani told her tale. Her father and her husband were respected doctors in their community. One day her husband went to the local pond but never returned. They found his dead body floating in the water. A while later, when she was feeding her small child, local Muslims stormed into the house and snatched her child from her arms. She pleaded with them as she followed them outside. The child was taken to a bonfire and tossed in. It was not an isolated incident, she said. Across the country, Hindu men were being indiscriminately butchered and the women grabbed and taken away by force. Little children were made to eat beef and forcibly converted to Islam. Somehow, Laxmi Rani managed to escape and boarded a train headed for India. Our family sheltered her and later took her to the refugee camp at the local temple. My mother related many such heart-wrenching stories.

The first great outflow of Hindus from Bangladesh occurred at Independence in 1947 with the creation of West Pakistan and East Pakistan (as Bangladesh was then known) on opposite sides of the Indian subcontinent. Among those fleeing were most of the Hindus in the British administrative services. Their posts were filled by West Pakistanis with little respect for the local Bengali people of East Pakistan, who did not speak the Urdu language used in the West. It was the beginning of a hostile relationship that would culminate in the 1971 revolt in which Bangladesh, with India's help, broke with West Pakistan and became an independent nation. West Pakistan sent troops to quell the rebellious territory, believing the unrest to be the result of "a few intellectuals." West Pakistan President Khan predicted, "A few thousand dead in Dhaka, and East Pakistan will be quiet soon."

For nine months the West Pakistan army tried to secure the area by the most brutal means. Possibly three million people, mostly Hindus, died; and ten million Hindus and many Muslims fled to India. Finally, in December, 1971, India, unable to ignore the flood of refugees across her borders, intervened and defeated the West Pakistan army in a matter of days. Bangladesh, shattered by war and with much of its educated class dead, became the world's 139th country.

Two incidents from 1971 will help to convey the war's terror. According to the Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Unity Council, an organization which monitors the condition of minorities in Bangladesh, on June 13, 1971, 400 Hindus were loaded into a train that they believed would take them to India. Instead, they were taken to Syedpur where all were murdered by Pakistan army personnel. In the second incident, the Pakistan army attacked the Dhaka University, raping girls and killing at least 500 students, as well as many faculty. Similar killings and rapes took place across the country. Time magazine reported on August 2, 1971, "The Hindus, who account for three-fourths of the refugees and a majority of the dead, have borne the brunt of the Muslim military hatred."

While the 1971 war impacted all Bangladeshis, pogroms against Hindus have occurred time and again in the country's history. For example, 50,000 Hindus in and around Dhaka were killed in 1964 when a holy relic was stolen from a mosque in Kashmir--compare this to a few thousand deaths in East Timor or Bosnia. After the 1975 assassination of President Sheik Mujibar Rahman by military coup, the constitution was, in phases, amended to make Islam the state religion of Bangladesh. In celebration, Muslim radicals attacked Hindus. India noticed, once again, an exodus of refugees at her borders. Following the destruction of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992 by Hindu militants, dozens of Hindus were killed in riots across Bangladesh and approximately 3,000 temples were damaged or destroyed. Who can imagine 3,000 American churches destroyed within days? "There were riots in East Pakistan almost every year, and severe killings in 1944, 1947, 1950, 1954, 1958, 1960 and 1963," states SK Bhattacharyya in Genocide in East Pakistan/Bangladesh.

Added to the long list of mass attacks is the daily harassment of Hindus. The Dhaka newspaper Sangabad reported on September 24, 1989, the story of Mrs. Birajabala Debnath of Nidarabad. She became a widow after her husband was murdered because he refused to give up his land to his Muslim neighbor. Then she and her five children were abducted in the middle of the night and murdered.

At New York's Bangladeshi Hindu Mandir (www.hindumandir.nu), nearly everyone has a somber tale to tell. This simple building has provided a safe haven of peace and prayer to the Hindus who managed to escape the ravages of Bangladesh. The weekly temple program I visited draws hundreds and is enlivened with the sounds of kirtan, Gita classes and tabla lessons. However, a sudden silence befalls the crowd when the topic turns to their native land. "We are all refugees. We cannot be Hindus there. They kill us whenever they get the chance. And the police do not do anything. Remember Dhaka University's Jagannath Hall?"

Mr. Shankar Das goes on to detail Amnesty International's 1996 report (www. amnesty.org/ailib/aipub/1996/ASA/31300496.htm) which stated nearly 700 law enforcement personnel raided the University's only Hindu hall in 1996, firing teargas, stealing valuables and raping and beating students. The raid, which lasted three hours, saw many deaths and injuries. "What can you do when even the law is against you?" As he fights back his tears, these once joyous temple devotees hang their heads in hopelessness. "We are lucky we are here where we can pray in peace. That is not possible in Bangladesh. The historic Ramna Kali Bari Temple in Dhaka, hundreds of years old, was destroyed. President Sheik Rahman further leveled the area. If you go there now, all you will see is a park".

Ratan Dasgupta told me, "Harassment of womenfolk is all too common in Bangladesh. We are persecuted. That is why we have come here. Living there is impossible. Nearly ten years ago my cousin's sister was abducted from our house by a group of 25 neighborhood boys. They came with sticks and started breaking everything in the house. We were too afraid to do anything. Then they demanded my cousin. My uncle was hit when he tried to stop them. They grabbed her and took her away. God only knows what happened to her. Since she was very pretty, they either forced her to marry some Muslim boy or sold her to a brothel."

"Violence is random and without cause," a man from Montreal told me. "A Hindu woman will be taunted in public, her sari tugged at, her hand grabbed, all this in her husband's presence. And what will the police do when a complaint is received? Either dismiss it or join in the action." "If there is a fight between two Muslims, somehow they will resolve it," he went on, "but to vent the anger, they will go to a Hindu home and just start throwing rocks at the window."

In the midst of this crowd sits a small elderly woman in a simple white sari, her tear-filled eyes beckoning me. In a trembling voice she says, "I am an old woman. I have seen many things in my lifetime. In my village, we cannot hold Durga puja [see page 24]. Every year they come and destroy the deity. The temple was smeared with cow's blood and urinated upon. The pujari was beaten and his house set on fire. We were told to stop doing puja. Everywhere around us people were screaming and crying. I lost my husband there. Even though my son has managed to bring us here, I worry about home. No one is safe there."

Muslims who protest the situation around them do so at great peril. Taslima Nasrin, spurred by the horror of atrocities against Hindus from 1990-92, wrote a novel, Lajja ("Shame"). Her act brought her a fatwa (death sentence, the same as meted out to Salman Rushdie) by Islamic extremists and has forced her to go into hiding in Europe.

There have been legal assaults against the Hindus as well, most especially the Vested Property Act, formerly called the "Enemy Property Act." It allows for the lands of a person who has fled the country to be seized and redistributed. The US State Department said in its 1997 Human Rights report, "Many Hindus lost landholdings because of anti-Hindu discrimination in the application of the law." Millions of acres have been so confiscated.

Resident Hindus who try to sell their homes will often get no more than 50 percent of the market price, according to the man from Montreal. "Sometimes a fake deed will be used to claim his land," he said. "And most of the time, the Hindus lose the case in court despite all the evidence."

"In front of your eyes, you will see madrasas (Islamic schools) being built," I was told, "while the remaining Hindu centers are closing down. There is no pujari (priest) to teach, and whoever is there is afraid for their life. The remnants of our past are being lost, our new generation will not know anything about our religion or history."

Five decades of harassment in Bangladesh is exacerbated by the world's capacity to ignore the situation. As massive and horrific as the happenings are, you never see this on CNN or in Newsweek. The three-page 1999 US State Department report on International Religious Freedom in Bangladesh does detail discrimination against Hindus, but in only one sentence: "Intercommunal violence reportedly has caused some members of religious minorities to depart the country, primarily Hindus emigrating to India where many have relatives." In such casual terms is written off one of the greatest forced human migrations of the 20th century, involving more than ten million people. Other reports regard the expulsion of Bangladeshi Hindus as a "done deed," and don't even list them as refugees any more, but as "resettled."

State Department reports on religious freedom have been criticized for being concerned only with Christians, who are few in Bangladesh (hence its three-page report). India, on the other hand, got a ten-page report, with five pages devoted to alleged discrimination against Christians (resulting in three deaths); just three paragraphs deal with Muslim attacks against Hindus in Kashmir (resulting in 139 deaths). The word Kashmir occurs nine times, Christian 90 times; and there is nothing on the millions of Bangladesh Hindus now living in India.

Bangladesh Prime Minister, Sheik Hasina, said in New York recently that Bangladesh Hindus "have one foot in India, and the other in Bangladesh" and asked, given this divided loyalty, what they should expect and how much the local Muslims will listen to her government. And she is considered "pro-Indian" in Bangladesh.

Despite the discounting of atrocities, Bangladeshi Hindus in America cannot easily forget. While the second generation of Bangladeshi Hindus in America may take for granted the simple act of performing anjali (flower offering), parents are quick to remind them of the privilege of being able to worship in peace. "It's not just prayer. It's at every level. In Bangladesh, if you are not a Muslim, then you cannot get a job. They will not let you get admission to good colleges. Our children must know this. It's their homeland. What we have not been able to do, they must carry out," remarks Mrs. Dey.

As the evening program draws to a close in New York, Mrs. Sen's tear-choked words darken the once joyous atmosphere. "Everyone is against us. Other Hindus don't help us. We cannot do anything. If we speak out, our family members back home will be tortured if word spreads. But we have to take a chance, this cannot go on forever. How much longer do we have to hide?".

Contacts: Hindu, Boudhwa and Christian Oikya Parisad: Dr. Nim Chandra Bhoumick, Secretary, c/o Department of Physics, University of Dhaka, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh

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A million facing death in Darfur, say aid teams

SAUL HUDSON

Key points
• Senior US aid official warns one million could die from malnutrition in Sudan
• Colin Powell arrives in Sudan to pressurise Khartoum government
• 1.2m have fled Sudan for refugee camps in Darfur and Chad

Key quote
"If nothing changes we will have one million casualties. If things improve we can get it down to about 300,000 deaths" - Andrew Natsios, head of US Agency for Innternational Aid

Story in full UP TO one million African refugees could die this year in Sudan’s Darfur region due to government-supported ethnic cleansing, a senior United States aid official warned yesterday.

International donors and relief organisations are racing to beat the rainy season to get food and medicine to camps for those driven from their villages in the worst humanitarian crisis facing the world today.

Earlier this month, journalists from The Scotsman reported the harrowing tales of burning villages and murder from African refugees that had made it across the border to nearby Chad.

Aid workers now believe that the best case scenario is hundreds of thousands of deaths from malnutrition.

"If nothing changes we will have one million casualties. If things improve we can get it down to about 300,000 deaths," Andrew Natsios, the head of the US Agency for International Aid, said during a stopover in Turkey en route to Sudan. "Because a lot of the kids are already so malnourished, you just cannot bring them back."

The US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, arrived in Sudan last night in the highest-level US visit for more than two decades to pressurise the Khartoum government to allow aid access and stop supporting the Arab militia who have killed thousands of their African neighbours.

In a conflict affecting about two million people in the western region of Africa’s largest nation, 1.2 million black Africans have fled their homes to live in temporary camps in Darfur and Chad.

A measles epidemic has erupted in one camp, there has been a case of polio and the rains will probably bring mosquitoes and malaria, Mr Natsios said.

The Janjaweed militia have razed scores of villages and destroyed the water systems of three black African tribes. Neighbouring Arab villages remained intact after the raids, sometimes only hundreds of yards away. Sudan denies it supports the Janjaweed.

• For UN information on Sudan click here

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3875277.stm

France opposes UN Sudan sanctions

France says it does not support US plans for international sanctions on Sudan if violence continues in Darfur.

The UN Security Council is debating a US draft resolution imposing sanctions on militias accused of "ethnic cleansing" against non-Arabs.

The US also hinted that the sanctions could be extended to the government.

Meanwhile, African leaders have urged Khartoum to stop bombing Darfur and say their proposed 300-strong force will have a mandate to protect civilians.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell says promises to reign in the pro-government militia, known as the Janjaweed, have not been kept by Khartoum so far.

"Only action not words can win the race against death in Darfur," he said.

'Civil war'

Some one million people have fled their homes and at least 10,000 have been killed in what the UN calls "the world's worst humanitarian crisis."

A rebellion broke out in Darfur early last year, when two groups took up arms, accusing the government of ignoring the region.

'World's worst humanitarian crisis'

"In Darfur, it would be better to help the Sudanese get over the crisis so their country is pacified rather than sanctions which would push them back to their misdeeds of old," junior Foreign Minister Renaud Muselier told French radio.

France led opposition to US moves at the UN over Iraq. As was the case in Iraq, France also has significant oil interests in Sudan.

Mr Muselier also dismissed claims of "ethnic cleansing" or genocide in Darfur.

"I firmly believe it is a civil war and as they are little villages of 30, 40, 50, there is nothing easier than for a few armed horsemen to burn things down, to kill the men and drive out the women," he said.

Human rights activists say the Janjaweed are conducting a genocide against Darfur's black African population.

Those who have fled their homes say the Janjaweed ride on horses and camels into villages which have just been bombed by government aircraft, killing the men and raping the women.

Sudan denies backing the militia and, under strong international pressure, has promised to disarm them.

Travel ban

Chairman of the African Union Commission Alpha Oumar Konare said that the 300 troops would arrive in Sudan by the end of July.

He said they would intervene if they saw civilians being killed.

The government of Sudan is clearly on a short leash

John Danforth
US Ambassador to the UN

"We have called for a halt to the bombings... We received promises today from Khartoum," he said.

Analysts say that at least 15,000 troops would be needed to bring peace to the vast area of Darfur.

The BBC's Barnaby Phillips says the African Union is determined to be taken seriously as a body devoted to solving the continent's problems, but is severely hampered by a lack of resources.

African leaders say they hope richer countries will also do their bit to help.

A draft UN resolution proposed by the US envisages travel and arms sanctions on Janjaweed.

A previous Security Council statement on Darfur failed to criticise Khartoum directly, after resistance from Pakistan and China, instead urging cooperation and the disarming of the Janjaweed.

Question of time

The Security Council met in closed session for several hours on Wednesday and the draft resolution is being discussed again on Thursday.

Council members disagree over how long the Sudanese government should be given to resolve the situation itself, says the BBC's Stephen Gibbs in New York.

Some countries, including Pakistan, say that Sudan should be allowed sufficient time to demonstrate that it means what it says.

But the US remains sceptical over Sudan's commitment to act.

The US draft resolution threatens to escalate the sanctions within 30 days if results are not evident.

But diplomats hope that tough talking will force Sudan to act, our correspondent says.

They admit that imposing such a resolution on the largest country in Africa is fraught with difficulty, he says.

Islam and Anti-Semitism

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http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=10581

Symposium: Islamic Anti-Semitism

By Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com | October 31, 2003

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir's recent comments at the Organization of the Islamic Conference, in which he claimed Jews run the world, powerfully crystallized the issue of Islamic anti-Semitism. So did the fact that 57 leaders from the Muslim world applauded Mahathir's Nazi lie. Is there something inherently anti-Semitic within the Islamic religion itself? Can Muslims shed themselves of anti-Semitism and remain devout Muslims?

To discuss these and other questions relating to Islamic anti-Semitism with Frontpage Symposium today, we are joined by:

Kenneth R. Timmerman, an investigative reporter and author who has spent twenty years reporting on Europe and the Middle East. His latest book, Preachers of Hate: Islam and the War on America, raises serious questions about Saudi government funding of terror and Saudi funding of radical Wahhabi preachers and schools that are training new generations of Muslims to hate Jews and hate America. He is also the author of Shakedown: Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson, and The Death Lobby: How the West Armed Iraq, and writes regularly for Insight Magazine. Information on his latest book and recent articles are available at preachersofhate.com;

Bat Ye’or, the author of three major books on dhimmis, jihad, and dhimmitude (www.dhimmitude.org and www.dhimmi.org). On May 1, 1997-- after the publication of The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam. from Jihad to Dhimmitude (1996) -- she testified at a Hearing of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs on 'Religious Persecution in the Middle East' ("An Historical Overview of the Persecution of Christians under Islam. PAST IS PROLOGUE: The Challenge of Islamism Today"). Her latest study is Islam and Dhimmitude. Where Civilizations Collide (2002); see “Eurabia: The Road to Munich.” National Review Online, October 9, 2002; "European Fears of the Gathering Jihad." FPM, Feb. 21 2003;

Walid Phares, Professor of Middle East Studies and Religious Conflict at Florida Atlantic University and a Senior Fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. He serves as an Analyst on Terrorism and Conflicts with MSNBC;

and Robert Spencer, the director of Jihad Watch and the author of Onward Muslim Soldiers: How Jihad Still Threatens America and the West (new from Regnery Publishing), and Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions About the World’s Fastest Growing Faith (Encounter Books).

Interlocutor: Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Frontpage Symposium. Let's begin with the crucial question: is anti-Semitism rooted in the Qur'an and Islamic tradition? Is it possible to be a devout Muslim and not to be anti-Semitic?

Bat Ye'or: If one reads the Qur'an and the Islamic tradition literally, it is clear that they contain very severe judgements on Jews, but not only on them, but also on Christians and others. There are two periods in the Qur'an, the verses pronounced in Mecca and those recited in Medina from 622. The first period is characterized by a deep religious feeling, a call to justice and for recognition of Allah's supreme power. The second part is linked with Muhammad battles in Medina to impose his new religion on the pagans, the Jews living in Medina who refused conversion, and on the Christians. The Qur'an is very much linked to Muhammad's life and it contains several contradictory verses, hence the principle that later verses abrogate the previous ones. The verses abrogated are uncertain even for scholars.

As the Qur'an speaks abundantly of Jews, Christians and pagans, it is important for these people to know what is said about them. Today a few Muslim scholars try to contextualise the Qur'an in order to eliminate theological hatred. The Islamist war against the West, against Israel and Hindus in Kashmir, is based on this traditional reading of Islamic religious scriptures. Whether a devout Muslim can avoid Judeophobia will depend on the person and how he interprets the texts.

Spencer: Muslim anti-Semites often appeal to several Qur’anic verses castigating Jews. In Suras 2:65 and 7:166 Allah says to a group of Jews, “Be ye apes, despised and rejected.” Muslim anti-Semites worldwide today refer to Jews as “apes” and “pigs” because of this verse and 5:60. Also, in authentic Islamic tradition there is much grounds for antagonism, such as these notorious hadiths: “Allah’s Apostle said, ‘The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say, ‘O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him’” (Sahih Bukhari, vol. 4, book 56, no. 2926, and many other places). Another hadith also strikes a chilling note: “When judgment day arrives, Allah will give every Muslim a Jew or Christian to kill so that the Muslim will not enter into hell fire” (Mishkat Al-Messabih, vol. 2, no. 5552.).

Phares: Let me redefine anti-Semitism within the Arab-Islamic context. The right concept would be anti-Judaism. For Arabs are Semites too but rarely identify as such. In Arabic it would come as Mua'di lil Yahood (anti-Jewish) instead of Mu'adi lil Samiya (anti-Semite). It is not about pure faith (Judaism) as much as it is about the carriers of that faith (Jews). As far as texts goes, including the Qur'an, most experts would refer to two types of verses. The Meccan ones, which came when Mohammed was struggling against the Pagan establishment. The Jewish tribes were sympathetic to his struggle. The verses of that era were tolerant towards the Jews, defined as people of the Book.

Then came the Medina verses which corresponded to the Hijra (emigration) of early Muslims out of Mecca. As the Muslim state developed and sought conversion of others, including Jews, to the new religion, tensions grew between the two groups. The Medina verses had a number of paragraphs negative towards the Jews. Those particular ones are part of Muslim theology and could be used by Fundamentalists to mobilize against Jewish entities in modern times. A devout Muslim theoretically can reject anti-Semitism as a form of Human abuse. But for that to happen, a reform must take place, so that devout Muslim can exist without being Fundamentalist. That's the challenge. In a sum, Islamic Fundamentalists can trigger anti-Jewish reactions from religious Muslims as long as religious authorities within Islam haven't developed a historic reformation.

Timmerman: I dedicated my latest book, Preachers of Hate, to a dissident Iranian Shiite muslim cleric, Ayatollah Mehdi Rouhani, who no one could accuse of not being a devout Muslim. Ayatollah Rouhani met repeatedly and open with Jewish leaders in Europe and America, and was received by Pope Paul VI in the Vatican. What we’re seeing is a region-wide frenzy, backed by governments in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and elsewhere, to transform reverence of the Qu’ran into hatred of Jews and Americans. Just one example: the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Ikrama Sabri, went to great pains to explain to me in an interview that Jews were the “sons of monkeys and pigs” – an outrageous insult that is being repeated throughout the Arab Muslim world as if it were Holy writ.

Interlocutor: In terms of this issue, what I could never figure out was that Muslims acknowledge Abraham as one of the great fathers of their tradition. They acknowledge the prophets of the Old Testament as the founders of their own religion. They say they have great respect for Jesus. But Abraham, the prophets, Jesus etc. were all Jews. How do Muslims reconcile their supposed great respect for the Jewish origins of their religion with their anti-Semitism?

Bat Ye'or: According to the Qur'an, Ibrahim (Abraham), the biblical figures, the prophet and Jesus were all Muslims prophets who preached Muhammad message, Islam (i.e. "submission to Allah"). They were not Jews and they are respected as Muslims, not as Jews. Here is the source of conflict. Muslims do not accept the Judeo-Christian interpretation of history. They do not see their religion as the third, but as the first, the religion of Adam and Eve. This is why they do not recognise the historical legitimacy of Israel today. Israel has no roots in the Holy Land because its biblical history is considered to be a Muslim history. David and Salomon were Muslim kings, and the Israelite prophets Muslims, as well as Jesus. It follows that Jews and Christians have no history and their beliefs are wrong. The only true version of biblical events is the qur'anic one - which is very different from the Bible - because the Qur'an is declared to be verbatim the word of Allah. This is the interpretation of Islamists, but not all Muslims share this view.

Spencer: In the traditional Muslim view, everyone is born a Muslim. Said Muhammad: “The mother of every person gives him birth according to his true nature. It is subsequently his parents who make him a Jew or a Christian or a Magian” (Sahih Muslim, Book 033, Number 6429). The prophets were not Jews, but Muslims: “Abraham was not a Jew nor a Christian but he was an upright man, a Muslim, and he was not one of the polytheists” (Sura 3:67). Muslim anti-Semites exploit such passages to deny any Jewish origin for their religion; rather than considering Jews and Christians their Abrahamic brethren, they claim to be the only legitimate children of Abraham. The teachings of the prophets, in this view, were perverted by Christians and Jews to form the teachings of those religions, but the real, untwisted teachings of Moses, Jesus, etc., were identical to the teachings of the Qur'an.

Phares: Muslim scholars, both mainstream and Fundamentalists ironically have one common argument with regards to the relationship to Judaism. They draw a line between the Judaic faith as descended by God on them, and Jews as a people. While they assert that the first is a component of the Islamic faith, they maintain that the people who carried it have strayed away from the right path. According to Islamic Fundamentalist thinkers, one of whom is Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi, the Jews have subverted the sense of Judaism. In other words, the Islamists argue that Islam and Judaism are basically one, the latter being an early form of the new religion. They accuse the Jews of rebelling against God and his Prophets, including Mohammed. Hence, to be anti-Jewish is not in contradiction with Islam's self perceived roots in Judaism. Besides, and for the sake of clarifying the debate on the issue, Muslim theology does not "acknowledge the Prophets" of others religions as the founders of Islam, rather it consider these particular Prophets as Muslims and therefore consider those other groups as non-capable of understanding that perception. For example Abraham is considered as a Muslim Prophet, and Jesus is considered as a Prophet not as a Messiah. So, it is not about accepting the beliefs of   other communities through honoring their Prophets in as much as it is claiming those Prophets for Islam itself. The nuances seem to be minimal but an iota of difference in theology could bring about dramatic differences in History. But here again, a reformation can end this saga to the advantage of religious coexistence. Till then, the theology of Islam can be easily used by Islamic Fundamentalists against Jews.

Timmerman: I’d love to believe the notion, spread by the Wahhabi lobby and other apologists of radical Islam, that Islam has “nothing against the Jews” and accepts them as “people of the Book.” The reality, on the ground, is quite different. Here is what Abdelaziz Rantissi, a top Hamas leader, told me in Gaza: “There is no room for Jews and Muslims in Palestine… Let the Jews go to America and make Israel there.”

Interlocutor: What impact does Islamic anti-Semitism have on relations between Israel and the neighboring Arab states?

Bat Ye'or: Islamism represents a majority trend in Arab states and it determined their policy which is influenced by: (1) the negative opinion of Jews expressed in the Qur'an and the tradition (Sunnah); (2) the Islamization of the biblical history; and (3) the jihad ideology toward non-Muslim people among whom Jews are only a very small minority. For the Islamists, the position of Israel is the same as that of China, Russia, India, and the Christian countries. Israel is just more vulnerable. Judeophobia in Islam is not like anti-Semitism in Christianity. It is not one separate element but a component of a whole. It is those three elements mentioned above that determine Arab policy toward Israel. The PLO should never have been imposed by the Arab League and the EU upon Israel as a partner for peace negotiations because the PLO is a terrorist organization fighting for Israel destruction.

Spencer: Along with the jihad ideology that I explain in my new book Onward Muslim Soldiers (Regnery), Muslim anti-Semitism poisons possibilities for a negotiated peace between Israel and the neighboring Arab states. Not only is Israel an illegitimate government, but as explained above, the Jewish people themselves are renegades who have denied and falsified Allah’s words and thereby earned his curse: “Allah's curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth!” (Sura 9:30). Bashir Assad has spoken of “guilty” Jews who killed Jesus, tried to murder Muhammad, and kill Palestinian children now. The foremost authority in Sunni Islam, Sheik Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi of Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, relies on Suras 5:59-60 to refer to Jews as “the enemies of Allah, descendants of pigs and apes.” It is hard for any Muslim government to negotiate an equitable peace with the “enemies of Allah” and simultaneously save face with its people.

Phares: Islamist anti-Semitism, or technically anti-Jewish trends within the Muslim world are a major reason for the decline of the Peace Process between Israel and a number of Arab countries. Although realist leaders such as Sadate were able to sign the Camp David agreement with Israel, strong anti-Jewish ideologies within Egypt froze those agreements and reduced their ability to normalize, hence endangering their future. Similar doctrinal trends within the larger Wahabi-Salafi movement worldwide made it impossible for the Islamist-based movements to accept the principle of a Jewish state in the Middle East.

While secular Arabs and Muslims were (and would be) able to accommodate to the concept of coexistence with Israel, the Jihadist paradigm cannot by essence accept that idea. Hence forces as diverse as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hizbollah, the Khumainists and the two Baath parties had the anti-Jewish doctrine in common. An agreement regulating Peace and normalization between Israel and its Arab neighbors is constantly jeopardized by this doctrine. Even after a full withdrawal from the 1967 territories, it is expected that the so-called anti-Semitism would continue to thrive. Here again, only a historic reformation can undue this doctrine.

Timmerman: Despite hundreds of billions of dollars of income from oil, the Arab oil Kingdoms have yet to create a single monument to civilization. So what is their answer to the backwardness of their societies, the inexplicable unemployment and lack of industry and culture? “It’s the Jews.”

Anti-Semitism is the single greatest threat facing America today. It is the swamp from which Osama Bin Laden emerged.

Interlocutor: How come there are Jews who work to perpetrate anti-Israeli policies and cry out in defense of the Palestinians, but you never hear about Muslims crying out in defense of Israel? How come there is no organization Muslims for Israel?

Bat Ye'or: It goes against the Islamic religion that Muslims side with non-Muslims against other Muslims. Moreover it is dangerous. There are Muslims who are not anti-Israelis but very few will have the courage to say it. Muslim societies tend to have monolithic totalitarian mass opinion. There is no political debates where different opinions are democratically accepted. As for the anti-Israelis pro-Palestinian Jews, there can be many reasons for their behavior. Many just follow the general trend because it is easier and professionally more rewarding, others are just ignorant or they hope that by defending their enemies they will win their tolerance. One can notice the same attitude among Christians.

Spencer: There are many reasons why Jews might support the Palestinians, including a simple desire that Israel live in peace with its neighbors. This is not often reciprocated because what ultimately counts for many Muslims is that Israel is the Jewish State. Radical Muslims want to restore Islamic law in Israel. They consider that since Israel occupies part of the Dar al-Islam the House of Islam then it cannot by rights be home to a non-Muslim government. It is not enough for Israel to set aside land for a Palestinian state; Israel must be subsumed within and the Jews subjugated to an Islamic state. The Hamas charter asserts that “Islam, Christianity and Judaism to coexist in safety and security” but adds that “safety and security can only prevail under the shadow of Islam.” Hamas wants to enforce the stipulations of Islamic law that mandate second-class status for Jews and other non-Muslims.

Phares: When such organizations would develop in the Arab world , anti-Semitism would have receded. It is a chicken and the egg. Who would come first? Jews who are critical of Israel are not so different from Americans who are critical of the United States or Westerners who are critical of the West. Because of the social and intellectual revolutions in the West, such criticism is possible and accepted within these societies. Many Israelis took that right to support the claims of the Palestinians. Some of them went as far as supporting Hizbollah.

The stretching of freedom of expression reached as far as the crushing of the freedoms of others, that is when many in the Israeli media refused to acknowledge the suffering of Lebanese communities in south Lebanon, just because those Israeli intellectuals hated their own state and wished victory to Hizbollah. That is an end product of legitimate freedom on the one hand and of loss of identity on the other hand. But such phenomenon doesn't exist - or wasn't allowed to exist on the other side. Not one demonstration for Peace was ever registered in the Arab-Islamic Middle East. No "Salaam Now" movement ever existed, or was allowed to exist. Reasons abound. 1) The dominant ideologies (Baathism, Jihadism, Khumainism) have suppressed the basic freedoms to start with. 2) The dominant political culture still rejected the idea of a non-Arab and non-Muslim state therefore nullifying the idea of Peace with such non legitimate entities. 3) It is to note that the anti-Peace attitude was also predominant vis a vis other minorities. For example, not one single expression of solidarity was ever noted with regards the sufferings of the Kurds, Berbers, Southern Sudanese and Lebanese Christians when under attack by regimes. However, there are spasms of change taking place in the underground. One can see it on some revolutionary web sites in Arabic. Very limited though.

Timmerman: This question begs the question: Does anyone in the Muslim Arab world truly want peace with Israel? As I examine the behavior of the governments in region, who continue to teach their children in schools and in the mosques to hate Jews and to hate Americans, I can only conclude that there must be no rush to peace. We cannot force two peoples to make peace when one side has never accepted the very existence of the other. Arab leaders, even today, are telling their peoples that they can re-fight the 1948 war and that this time they can win and eradicate the state of Israel.

Interlocutor: The Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir's recent speech brought back memories of some of Hitler's basic themes. What common denominators do Islamic and Nazi anti-Semitism share?

Bat Ye'or: Both have a racist pathological obsession with Jews, which they see as the embodiment of evil. For both, Jews focus hatred, envy and frustrations. Both share the same inhumanity and contempt for life, human rights and dignity. They spread lies and defamations that subvert the truth.

Spencer: Nazi anti-Semitism was, of course, a farrago of fanciful conspiracy theories and racist mythology, while Muslim anti-Semitism has a theological basis. But the two groups share a taste for those fanciful conspiracy theories; Muslim anti-Semites today buttress their positions with a great deal of material that the Nazis also used. The notorious forgery about the Jewish plot to rule the world, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, is a prime example: it circulated widely both in Nazi Germany and in the Muslim world today. Its influence may be seen in the recent remarks of Malaysia’s Mahathir Muhammad. Mein Kampf also circulates in the Muslim world, and it must be remembered that during World War II, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, met with Hitler to ask for German help in exterminating the Jews of the Muslim world.

Phares: One, they both claim that the main problems of their nations are produced by the Jews. Two, that the Jews are a world problem. Three that Jews have diverted from Judaism . And four that a solution must be found to that problem. While under Nazism, Jews were to vanish, in the context of the Jihadist ideology, the Jewish state is the one to vanish.

Timmerman: I was stunned to learn the story of Haj Mohammad Amin al-Hussein, which I tell at great length in Preachers of Hate. Not only did he meet with Hitler in Berlin in 1941: he became the Arabic voice of Nazi Germany in all their broadcasts to the Arab world, exhorting Muslims to murder Jews and enact Hitler’s final solution. Not by coincidence, one of his greatest students is Yasser Arafat, who in moments of weakness claims (wrongly, I believe) that he is Haj Mohammad Amin’s nephew.

Interlocutor: Robert Spencer, Kenneth Timmerman, Bat Ye'or and Walid Phares, thank you, we are out of time. It was an honor to have you here and to listen to your wisdom. We hope to see you again soon. Take care.

I welcome all of our readers to get in touch with me if they have a good idea for a symposium. Email me at [email protected]

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http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=subjects&Area=antisemitism&ID=SR01102

Based on Koranic Verses, Interpretations, and Traditions, Muslim Clerics State: The Jews Are the Descendants of Apes, Pigs, And Other Animals

Special Report - No. 11
November 1, 2002	No.11

Based on Koranic Verses, Interpretations, and Traditions, Muslim Clerics State: The Jews Are the Descendants of Apes, Pigs, And Other Animals By Aluma Solnick* Introduction Depicting Jews – and sometimes also Zionists – as "the descendants of apes and pigs" is extremely widespread today in public discourse in the Arab and Islamic worlds. For example, in a weekly sermon in April 2002, Al-Azhar Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, the highest-ranking cleric in the Sunni Muslim world, called the Jews "the enemies of Allah, descendants of apes and pigs."[1] In one of his sermons, Saudi sheikh Abd Al-Rahman Al-Sudayyis, imam and preacher at the Al-Haraam mosque – the most important mosque in Mecca – beseeched Allah to annihilate the Jews. He also urged the Arabs to give up peace initiatives with them because they are "the scum of the human race, the rats of the world, the violators of pacts and agreements, the murderers of the prophets, and the offspring of apes and pigs."[2] "Read history," called Al-Sudayyis in another sermon, "and you will understand that the Jews of yesterday are the evil fathers of the Jews of today, who are evil offspring, infidels, distorters of [others'] words, calf-worshippers, prophet-murderers, prophecy-deniers... the scum of the human race 'whom Allah cursed and turned into apes and pigs...' These are the Jews, an ongoing continuum of deceit, obstinacy, licentiousness, evil, and corruption..."[3] In a sermon at the Said Al-Jandoul mosque in Al-Taif, Saudi sheikh Ba'd bin Abdallah Al-Ajameh Al-Ghamidi explained that "the qualities of the Jews" were present at all times and in all places: "The current behavior of the brothers of apes and pigs, their treachery, violation of agreements, and defiling of holy places... is connected with the deeds of their forefathers during the early period of Islam – which proves the great similarity between all the Jews living today and the Jews who lived at the dawn of Islam."[4] In an August 2001 sermon, Sheikh Ibrahim Madhi, Palestinian Authority official and imam of the Sheikh Ijlin mosque, Gaza City's main mosque, called on the Palestinian people to forget their internal disagreements and turn all weapons against Jews: "lances must be directed at the Jews, the enemies of Allah, the nation accursed in Allah's book. Allah described [them] as apes and pigs, calf-worshipers, idol-worshippers..."[5] Seeing Jews as "descendants of apes and pigs" is common also in Shi'ite Islam. Such statements appear, for instance, in a 1998 speech by Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah on the occasion of the Shi'ite 'Ashoura holiday. Nasrallah regretted that the holiday fell "on the 50th anniversary of the bitter and distressing historical catastrophe of the establishment of the state of the grandsons of apes and pigs – the Zionist Jews – on the land of Palestine and Jerusalem." He closed his speech with these words: "... We reaffirm the slogan of the struggle against the Great Satan and call, like last year: 'Death to America. To the murderers of the prophets, the grandsons of apes and pigs,' we say: ... 'Death to Israel...'"[6] These statements are made not only by clerics and preachers. Following their lead, public opinion leaders in the Arab world also call the Jews "the descendants of apes and pigs." The image has pervaded the public consciousness, even in child-rearing. In May 2002, Iqraa, the Saudi-Egyptian satellite television station, which according to its website[7] sets for itself the goals of "highlighting aspects of Arab Islamic culture that inspire respect," "highlighting the true and tolerant picture of Islam and refuting the accusations directed against Islam," and "planting a spirit of mutual understanding and dialogue among members of the nation and opening channels of cultural connection with the cultures of other nations," interviewed a three-and-a-half-year-old "real Muslim girl" about Jews. On "The Muslim Woman Magazine" program, the girl was asked whether she liked Jews; she answered, "no." When asked why she didn't like them, she said that Jews were "apes and pigs." "Who said this?" the moderator asked. The girl answered, "Our God." "Where did He say this?" "In the Koran." At the end of the interview, the pleased moderator said: "No [parents] could wish for Allah to give them a more believing girl than she... May Allah bless her, her father and mother. The next generation of children must be true Muslims. We must educate them now while they are children, so that they will be true Muslims."[8] In April 2002, a weekly talk show on the Al-Jazeera satellite television station, "The Opposite Direction" which claims to have tens of millions of viewers across the world, addressed the question "Is Zionism worse than Nazism?" The moderator, Dr. Faisal Al-Qassam, included in the discussion the opinion of a viewer who wrote in from the station's website: "The sons of Zion, whom our God described as the sons of apes and pigs, will not be deterred unless there is a real holocaust, that will destroy all of them at once, together with the traitors – those who collaborate with them, the scum of this [Islamic] nation."[9] *Salim 'Azzouz, columnist for the Al-Ahrar* Egyptian opposition daily, affiliated with the religious Liberal Party, described Israel's May 2000 withdrawal from Lebanon: "They fled with only the skin on their bodies, like pigs flee. And why say 'like,' when they actually are pigs and apes?"[10] This paper aims to place these references to Jews as apes and pigs in their religious and historical context and show their roots in Muslim religious sources. Chapter One: Islamic Religious Sources on the Jews - The 'Descendants of Apes and Pigs' According to Islam, the ancient Jews were turned into animals for transgressing the word of God.[11] This divine punishment is mentioned in the most important sources of Islamic religious law, in both the Koran's recounting of the divine revelation, and in the extremely reliable Hadiths (traditions of the Prophet Muhammad) compiled by the leading ninth-century sages Muslim and Al-Bukhari,[12] which mention also mice, lizards, and other animals in the same context. The divine punishment of Jews is mentioned in three Koranic verses: "... They are those whom Allah has cast aside and on whom His wrath has fallen and of whom He has made some as apes and swine..." (5:60); "...You have surely known the end of those from amongst you who transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath, in consequence of which we condemned them: Be ye like apes, despised" (2:65);[13] and "when, instead of amending, they became more persistent in the pursuit of that which they were forbidden, we condemned them: Be ye as apes, despised" (7:166).[14] Arab literature (Adab) also discussed Jews' transformation into animals. In his 9^th century treatise The Book of Animals, the greatest of these authors, Al-Jahiz,[15] mentions that it is generally thought that the cheetah, eel, white ant, mouse, and lizard were originally Jews. He mentions the tradition telling how a sage saw a man eating a lizard and said to him: "Know that you have eaten one of the sheikhs of the sons of Israel." He does not mention why they were changed into animals, but does say that proof of this is that "the lizard's foot resembles the human hand."[16] Chapter Two: Koranic Commentary: Christian and Muslim Sinners Were Also Transformed into Apes and Pigs Although in the Koran, transformation into apes and pigs is connected only with Jews, Koranic commentary links transformation into apes and pigs with Christians as well. Verse 5:112-115 relates that the Apostles wanted to know whether God could bring down a table laden with food from the heavens. Jesus directed this request to God, and it was answered. However, God warned him that anyone who ate at the table and would then commit blasphemy would be punished in a way that no one had yet been punished. In his commentary on this verse, the renowned 10^th century commentator Al-Tabari[17] says, that despite God's warning, some did commit blasphemy and were punished by being turned into apes and pigs – or, in another version, only into pigs.[18] Another verse linking Christians with apes and pigs is 3:61; according to the commentary on this verse, a deputation of Christians from Najran came to Al-Madina to debate the Prophet about the question: Was Jesus the son of God, as the Christians claimed, or flesh and blood, with no mother or father, like the first man, as the Muslims claimed? After finding that they could not agree, they decided to meet again and curse each other, thinking that God's curse would apply to whichever of them was lying. When the Christian deputation saw that the Prophet brought with him his relatives from the 'Ali bin Abu Taleb family, they were frightened, and acknowledged his prophetic mission and decided to make peace with him, recognize his rule, and pay jizya [poll tax paid by non-Muslims under Muslim rule]. According to a Hadith of the Prophet, cited mostly in Shi'ite sources, had they instead cursed him they would have been turned into apes and pigs.[19] In the Islamic traditions, Muslims too were threatened with being turned into apes and pigs. However, for Jews and Christians this punishment was a thing of the past, for Muslims it would be meted out on Judgment Day. In his article "Apes, Pigs, and the Islamic Identity," the researcher U. Rubin indicates that the Muslims threatened with being turned into animals were not ordinary sinners, but those whose sin had a Jewish or Christian nature. The use of a punishment connected to Jews and Christians was aimed at fighting Jewish and Christian influence in Islamic society that threatened the unique Islamic identity. Islamic identity was supposed to be based on unity and morality; thus, any Muslims imitating Jews or Christians constituted a threat to it. Muslim unity was threatened by Muslims who had rejected orthodox ideas and were suspected of following the Judeo-Christian example. Thus, most traditions on Muslims who were to be punished on Judgment Day by being transformed into animals related to the Qadaris. The Qadaris rejected the idea of predestination (Qadar) and their views were perceived by those who opposed them to be of Judeo-Christian origin; thus, they were stigmatized in the way highly typical for Jews and Christians by being associated with transformation into apes and pigs. Moreover, the ideas of the Qadaris were significantly widespread in the city of Basra; thus, Basra is described in the traditions as the place where such transformation was particularly likely to come about. Danger to Muslim morality came from Muslims who adopted profane aspects of Judeo-Christian culture. Thus, eschatological transformation into apes and pigs was associated also with Muslims who committed sins such as drinking wine, playing instruments in the company of singing slave girls, and, sometimes, wearing silk; other sins were giving false testimony, usury, and homosexuality. Some of these sins were linked with Jews and Christians (usury, wine, music); others were connected with all non-Arabs (silken garments). These deeds were thought to pose a threat to Islamic identity; thus transgressors were threatened with this classical Judeo-Christian punishment.[20] The idea of transformation into animals was also used by both of Islam's two major factions, the Sunnis and Shi'ites, in their claims against each other. According to Shi'ite tradition, the second Muslim Khalifah, Omar bin Al-Khattab, who is particularly admired by the Sunnis, wanders the earth in the form of an owl. Another Shi'ite tradition is that the murderer of the Prophet's grandson Hussein bin 'Ali, admired by the Shi'ites, was punished by being turned into a four-eyed dog. The murderer was also sentenced to desperately seek water and not be able to get to it even when he found it, because he had prevented Hussein's family from reaching a water source at the Battle of Karbala.[21] In contrast, Sunni tradition has it that some of the Shi'ites in Al-Madina and other places were turned into apes and pigs, and that their hearts and faces would change their form at the time of their death. This is in the context of the charge that the Shi'ites greatly resemble Jews, "which should not be wondered at," as Dr. Abu Muntasir Al-Baloushi explains on a Sunni Web site,[22] "because the Jews invented the Shi'a [the Shi'ite religion] and [the Shi'a] is pervaded by [the Jews'] beliefs and principles, from the day it was created." Chapter Three: The Historical Roots of the Punishment The belief that people were transformed by supernatural intervention – usually divine punishment – into animals, statues, or stars was common among the Arabs and other peoples before Islam. In the Jewish and Christian sources (Genesis, 19:26) Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt when she violated the divine prohibition against looking back at Sodom.[23] Another familiar story from the pre-Islamic period is that of Isaf and Na'ila – two lovers who made a pilgrimage to Mecca. When they found themselves alone in the Ka'abah, they fornicated, and were immediately turned into stone. Al-Jahiz said that the shrimp was originally a dressmaker who stole thread and was turned into a threaded creature, to remind her of her crime. Al-Jahiz also said that the snake once had the form of a camel, but God punished it by forcing it to crawl on the earth. Iranian legends link some animals – bears, elephants, tortoises, vulture, crows, owls, hornets, hoopoes, apes, pigs, dogs, and lizards – with transformations that occurred after Islam began. The planet Venus was purportedly a prostitute who ascended to the heavens and became a star by virtue of her knowledge of the greatest name of Allah. In The Thousand and One Nights, people are frequently changed into animals and back again, usually by having water sprinkled on them.[24] Various researchers have attempted to explain the origin of the punishment of transformation mentioned in the Koran. The researcher F. Viré maintains that the Koranic punishment originates from the well-known legend mentioned in the Talmud, that some of the builders of the Tower of Babel were cursed by God and turned into apes. He bases this story on a Talmudic tractate of Sanhedrin,[25] in which the builders who sought to reach the sky "were divided into three groups. One said, 'Let us ascend and dwell there;' one said, 'Let us ascend and worship the stars;' and one said, 'Let us ascend and make war.' The ones who said, 'Let us ascend and dwell there,' God dispersed. The ones who said: 'Let us ascend and make war,' were turned into apes and ghosts and demons and evil spirits. And the ones who said: 'Let us ascend and worship the stars,' for them God confused the languages of all the earth."[26] Ilse Lichtenstadter explains that these verses were part of Prophet Muhammad's attempt to gain the support of the Jews of Mecca, by threatening with severe punishment if they persisted in refusing to join him. She identifies two ancient sources for the punishment of transformation into apes mentioned in the Koran. Apes played a role in legend or ritual in two ancient cultures. In India, the monkey-god Hanuman was widely known, and tales about him reached the Arabian Peninsula via the spice trade between India and southern Arabia. The ancient Egyptians had the baboon god Thoth, usually depicted as a monkey with a dog's head. The stories of a race of people with dogs' heads, associated with the baboon, also reached Christianity. According to a Greek legend, St. Christopher had once belonged to a race of dog-headed people, and upon his conversion to Christianity he was given the ability to speak like a human instead of barking. He was martyred, (possibly) during the rule of the Roman Emperor Decius, in the 3rd century; his symbol is a dog's head. The influence of Christian-Syrian culture reached the Arabian Peninsula; the legends of men with animals' heads could have reached the Prophet. Lichtenstadter also describes the attitude towards the animals connected to the punishment. Pigs are linked with idol-worship, as they were offered as idolatrous sacrifices; therefore the Koran prohibits eating them. The ape is identified in ancient sources with evil, demons, and the devil; thus, those who were transformed into apes were banished from human society and thrust into the sphere of the devil.[27] The influence of the idea of transformation into animals on the Muslim consciousness is marked throughout history. In Spain, for example, during periods of friction between the various religious communities Muslims called Jews "apes" and Christians "pigs and dogs." In North Africa under the Muslim Aghlabid dynasty (9^th through 11^th centuries), Jews were forced to wear a shoulder patch with a picture of a monkey and Christians had to wear a patch with a picture of a pig. These images also had to be affixed to the doors of their respective homes.[28] Furthermore, the concept of transformation influenced Islamic dietary law. Generally speaking, Shi'ites enlarged the number of animals thought to be of human origin and forbade their consumption. Thus, for example, the hare was also included in this list. In contrast, the Sunnis tended to cut down the list; although there are Sunni traditions on people being transformed into animals, they are not commonly cited by Sunni jurists when they determine dietary laws.[29] Chapter Four: Islamic Commentary on the Transformation of the Jews into Apes and Pigs A. The Circumstances of the Punishment In his comprehensive treatise on the Koran, 10^th century commentator Al-Tabari explains that Jews were transformed into animals because they refused to accept Friday as the day of rest. Jews, he said, like the other nations, were ordered to consider Friday their holiday "because of its virtues, and its importance in the heavens and in the eyes of the angels, and because Judgment Day would come on Friday." The Muslims agreed to accept Friday as the most important day, while the Jews refused, claiming that Saturday was the best day, as Allah created the heavens, the earth and everything else in six days and rested on the seventh. The Christians, too, refused to follow God's command to honor the sixth day, saying that Sunday was the best day. Allah instructed Jesus to allow them to take Sunday as their day of rest, provided that they did so according to certain precepts; however, the Christians did not follow these precepts and their insubordination is mentioned in the Koran. Allah also told Moses to allow the Jews to take Saturday as their day of rest, upon the condition that during it they would refrain from fishing and from all work permitted on weekdays. However, the Jews did not meet these conditions, and therefore, they were punished. Jews who were transformed into animals are largely identified by Koranic commentary as residents of the village of Iliya,[30] situated on the Red Sea coast. The Koranic commentary tells the story of how Allah made great schools of fish appear on Saturday and disappear before nightfall, to test the Jews' faith and obedience to His commandments. This was too much to bear for the Jews, and they found ways of getting around the divine prohibition against fishing on Saturday. Ibn Abbas, a cousin of the Prophet Muhammad and one of the first Koran commentators, wrote that one Jew secretly caught a fish on Saturday, tied it with a string, and threw it back into the water after tying the string to a stake in the ground. The next day, he pulled the fish in and ate it. When he saw that he was not punished, he repeated his actions on the following Saturday, and on the Saturday after that. Eventually, the neighbors noticed the smell of the fish from his cooking, and began following his example. For a long time they ate in secret, and Allah did not hasten to punish them, but when they began to fish openly and sell their prohibited catches in the markets, they were punished. Al-Tabari mentions another tactic used by Jews to circumvent the prohibition. One Jew who craved fish dug a pit with a channel leading from it to the sea. On Saturday, he opened the channel so the waves would wash the fish into the pit. On Sunday, the man cooked the fish. The aroma of the cooking fish reached the neighbors, who followed his example, and it soon became common for the Jews to eat fish caught on Saturday. When the sages warned them, they claimed they were fishing on Sunday, when they removed the fish from the pit, and not on Saturday, when they opened the channel.[31] Not all the Jews acted in the same way. The Koran commentators identify three groups in this context: some of the Jews sinned and violated the divine precept not to fish on Saturday; some warned the sinners of Allah's punishment and forbade them from continuing to do so. The others held their tongues; although they did not eat the fish that the sinners caught on Saturday, they also did not forbid the sinners from sinning.[32] In such a situation, when the sinners refused to stop sinning, those who followed the divine precept decided that they were unwilling to live in the same village with the sinners and built a wall between them. One day, the sinners were not seen leaving their gate. Those who observed the divine precept climbed the wall and went to check the houses, and found them locked. When they opened the doors, they found that everyone – men, women, and children – were turned into apes. "They locked their houses at night, when people lock themselves in, and awoke as apes."[33] The 13^th century Andalusian Koran commentator, Al-Qurtubi,[34] said that the apes identified their human relatives, approached them, smelled their clothes and cried. The humans, in contrast, could not identify their relatives, but told them: "'Didn't we forbid you [from violating the word of God]?' The apes nodded their heads in assent." According to some commentators, the young people of the village became apes while the elderly became pigs.[35] In his doctoral dissertation "The Sons of Israel in the Koran and in the Muslim Hadith Tradition," Al-Azhar Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi** explains the Jews' transformation into apes and pigs in the Koran in another way. Tantawi devotes a chapter to the various ways in which Allah punished the sons of Israel, among them changing their form. In explaining Koran verse 5:60, Tantawi says that the Jews asked the Prophet Muhammad what prophets he believed in. The Prophet enumerated Abraham, Ishmail, Isaac, Jacob, the tribes [sic], Moses, and Jesus, and said that he did not differentiate between them. At the mention of Jesus, the Jews denied his prophecy, saying: "We do not believe in Jesus or anyone who believes in Him [that is, Muhammad himself], and we do not think our religion is worse than yours." Against this backdrop, the Koran clarified the evil of the religion of the Jews, whom "Allah cursed and against whom He was wroth, and He turned some of them into apes and pigs."[36] In his treatise The Life of Animals, the 15^th century Egyptian scholar, Al-Damiri,[37] mentions another tradition linking Jews' attitude towards Jesus and the punishment meted out to them. According to this commentarial tradition, Jesus encountered a group of Jews who slandered him and his mother, saying, "Here comes the magician, son of the sorceress." When Jesus heard them he cursed them, and then Allah turned them into pigs.[38] Al-Tabari also presents the Koranic story about Jesus' cursing Jews[39] as explanation for the punishment of turning them into apes. In his commentary, Al-Tabari provides another explanation for why Jews were turned into pigs. He describes a woman from among the sons of Israel who believed in Allah and fought a holy war against the king of the sons of Israel "for the religion of Allah." Three times she waged war, with people who believed in her and followed her, and three times she was defeated. Her men were wounded and killed, but she managed to escape. After the third attempt, she despaired, and called to Allah: "Had this religion a shield and a savior, You would have already revealed him." It is aid that the woman fell asleep in sadness, and that during the night Allah answered her pleas and turned the villagers into pigs.[40] B. The Punishment in Practical Terms Most of the commentators take the writings literally and maintain that the Jews were physically changed into apes and pigs, as explicitly stated in the Koran. Only one Koran commentator, Mujahid,[41 cited by various other interpreters, wrote that the Jews were not physically transformed, but that change was metaphoric, as in Koranic adage about the Jews being like "an ass carrying books"[42] (62:5). According to Mujahid, it was not their external form that was changed; rather their hearts were changed [and their souls came to resemble those of apes]. However, according to the commentators, Mujahid is alone in this view.[43] Recently, the Hamas monthly *Falastin Al-Muslima* published a series of articles on how Allah punished Jews. One chapter was devoted to the punishment of transforming them into animals. The series' author, Ibrahim Al-'Ali, takes the approach of most Koran commentators, explaining that the change was actually physical. He writes: "Allah did not mete out the punishment of transformation on any nation besides the Jews. The significance of the punishment is actual change in the image of the Jew, and the perfect transformation from a human condition to a bestial condition – an actual change from human appearance to the form of genuine apes, pigs, mice, and lizards... The transformation was actual, as it is not impossible that the omnipotent Allah, who created man in his human form, would not be capable of changing the Jew from human into animal..." Al-'Ali cites the tradition in which the Prophet's wife 'Aisha called the Jews "the brothers of apes and pigs." As the tradition goes, "the Jews came to the Prophet and said to him 'Poison be upon you' [which in Arabic sounds close to 'peace be upon you']. The Prophet answered, 'Poison be upon you,' and 'Aisha added, 'Poison be upon you, brothers of apes and pigs, and the curse of Allah and his wrath too be upon you.'"[44] C. The Logic Behind the Punishment As the 14^th century Koran commentator Ibn Kathir[45] says, every deed has its appropriate recompense. He goes on to explain why Jews were punished by being transformed into apes and pigs: the Jews conspired to fish on Saturday, preparing hooks, nets, and poles ahead of time. When the schools of fish appeared near the shore on Saturday, they were caught by the nets, which the Jews had cleverly devised so that they could not escape that day. In the evening, the Jews came to collect the fish; when they did, Allah turned them into apes, which most closely resemble humans but are not really human. The Jews' actions and subterfuges were outwardly like the truth, but in essence opposed to it – and their reward was thus suited to their deeds.[46 In a chapter of the Hamas monthly Falastin Al-Muslima that discusses the punishment of turning the Jews into animals, Jordanian researcher Dr. Sallah Al-Khaledi explains: "Perhaps the logic of this transformation is that Allah wanted them to be humans who would live as real people and actualize their humanity in the best possible way. But when they rebelled against Allah's laws, they rejected the divine grace, and thus relinquished their humanity and honor and turned spiritually into animals. Then Allah [also] changed their form into apes, and turned them into real animals, [thus] creating a correlation between the spiritual and physical images..." "Adherence to divine law is one of man's dignified qualities, while rebellion against divine law is the abolition of man's human qualities... Accordingly, an aggressive, oppressing and sinning man relinquishes human qualities in favor of the bestial qualities [within him], and he [becomes] an animal in his soul, in his emotions, and in his traits, even if he is human in his external form... The aggressive and rebellious Jews were apes spiritually and emotionally, in their souls, in their behavior, and in their traits. They are not part of the human race except in their external form, body, senses, and voices. Their transformation by Allah into apes created a correspondence between their real essence and their fo rm."[47] D. Did the Jews Who Were Transformed Have Offspring? Another issue on which the Koran commentators and authors of the Adab prose literature focused was whether the Jews who were changed into animals had offspring. Al-Qurtubi explains that two approaches developed among clerics on this matter. According to the first, all apes today are the offspring of the sons of Israel. This was also the view of Ibn Qutaiba,[48] the important ninth-century scholar and author of famous Adab works, who thought that apes who were originally Jews do reproduce.[49] According to the second approach, the apes who used to be Jews left no offspring. Therefore, today's apes, pigs, and other animals are the offspring of animals in existence before the divine punishment. Ibn Abbas, for example, maintained that anyone whose form was changed lived for no more than three days and did not eat, drink, or propagate. Those who believe that today's animals are the offspring of the sons of Israel base their belief on some reliable traditions from the Prophet Muhammad, in which he warned against eating particular animals out of fear that they were originally the sons of Israel. In the tradition in the reliable compilations of Muslim and Al-Bukhari, the following is attributed to the Prophet Muhammad: "A group of the sons of Israel, and it is not known what they did, was lost, and I fear that they are mice. Don't you see that when mice are given camel's milk they don't drink it, and when they are given sheep's milk they drink it?" As the 13^th century Hadith commentator Al-Nawawi[50] explains, "The flesh and milk of camels are forbidden to the sons of Israel, while the flesh and milk of sheep are not. Therefore, the mice's refraining from drinking camel's milk and their not refraining from drinking sheep's milk proves that they are the sons of Israel in animal form."[51] Al-Qurtubi also mentions the tradition in Muslim's compilation, according to which a lizard was brought to the Prophet but he refused to eat it, saying, "Perhaps it is of the [people] of the generations whose form was changed." In Falastin Al-Muslima, Ibrahim Al-'Ali also cites traditions in which the Prophet is wary of eating lizards. According to one of the traditions, for example, in the compilation of traditions accepted as reliable by the ninth-century sage Abu Daoud,[52] people in the company of the Prophet caught lizards, roasted them and ate them. One of the roasted lizards was offered to the Prophet, who took a palm frond and with it counted the fingers of the lizard [which looked like a human hand], saying: "A group from among the sons of Israel turned into reptiles, and I do not know, perhaps the [lizard] is of this group." In the tradition appearing in Muslim's compilation, the Prophet was firmer about the origin of lizards. It is said that a Bedouin entreated the Prophet to clarify his position on eating lizards, and the Prophet said: "Allah was angry at one of the tribes of the sons of Israel and turned them into reptiles crawling on the earth. I think that these are them [the lizards]; I don't eat them and I don't prohibit it." Al-Qurtubi notes that the 12^th century Andalusian judge Ibn Al-Arabi[53] adopted the approach that today's animals are the offspring of the sons of Israel, and mentions another tradition underpinning Ibn Al-Arabi's opinion. Some of the versions of Al-Bukhari's compilation of traditions mention the words of Amer bin Maimoun[54]: "During the *Jahiliya* [pre-Islamic period] I saw a female ape who had committed adultery, and [apes around her] stoning her and I joined them and stoned her too." In Ibn Al-Arabi's view, the animals passed the knowledge of the religious laws [including the law about stoning adulterers] from generation to generation, down to the time of bin Maimoun. He adds that the Jews changed the [law] of stoning and Allah wanted them to uphold it while they were in a different form [i.e. apes].[55] The Prophet's fear, in various traditions, that mice, lizards and other animals are humans who were transformed, is explained by Al-Qurtubi: This was a hypothesis raised by the Prophet before he received the divine inspiration that made it clear to him that Allah did not give offspring to such humans in changed form. After he got this inspiration, he was no longer fearful, and stated: "Allah did not destroy people or torment them [and at the same time] give them offspring. The apes and the pigs [we see today] existed before." According to Al-Qurtubi, this tradition is most reliable, and it appears in Muslim's compilation of traditions. He adds that the tradition about eating lizards in the Prophet's presence and at his table without [the Prophet's] condemnation proves that they are not the offspring of the sons of Israel.[56] Like Al-Qurtubi, Ibrahim Al-'Ali prefers the approach according to which Jews punished by transformation to animals had no offspring. In Falastin Al-Muslima, he writes that Jews who were turned into apes, pigs, lizards, and mice were also punished by not being able to reproduce. "They existed in the world for as long as Allah wanted, and then he made them extinct without their leaving offspring. Remaining [in the world] were the apes, pigs, and other animals which had existed before [the divine punishment]... and it is they who propagated and left offspring..." But, Al-'Ali goes on to explain, "the extinction of Jews punished with transformation does not mean that their punishment had ended. The punishment left its impression in the souls of the Jews who came after them: their spirit, their opinions, their feelings, and their ways of thought – which are reflected in face and external appearance – became like their nature and like the appearance of apes and pigs, and this profoundly affected their ways of behavior." In Falastin Al-Muslima, Ibrahim Al-'Ali presents "scientific" proof for the claim that Jews were punished in this way by Allah. He states that Jews invented the theory of evolution in order to rid themselves of the shame of the ancient punishment: "... Since Jews felt disgrace and shame because of this special punishment, that changed them into the brothers of apes and pigs, they attempted to dispel this accusation from themselves, with the help of the satanic thought that guided them in despising the entire human race by saying that [man's] origin was in animals, and that it developed over time from an ape to human form, by means of the theory... of the Jewish ape Darwin."[57] Conclusion Associating Jews with apes, pigs, and other animals, which is widespread in the Arab and Muslim world among both Shi'ites and Sunnis, is firmly grounded in the most important Islamic religious sources, and also has roots in the folklore of other, ancient peoples. This idea has been used not only in religious writings but also in prose and fiction, both in the past and today. Aluma Solnick is a Research Associate with MEMRI. Note: All links provided were accurate at the time of publishing but may no longer be so. [1] www.palestine-info/arabic/palestoday/readers/mashhoor/22_4_01.htm. [2] http://www.alraialaam.com/20-04-2002/ie5/frontpage.htm#03. www.palestine-info.info/arabic/palestoday/dailynews/2002/apr02/20_4/detail1.htm. [3] www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=5544, April 19, 2002. [4] www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=4331, Undated. [5] Palestine Television, Palestinian Authority, August 3, 2001. [6] www.nasrollah.org/arabic/hassan/khitabat/khitabat08.htm. [7] see www.iqraatv.com. [8] Iqraa Television, Saudi Arabia/Egypt, May 7, 2002. [9] From official transcript, Al-Jazeera TV, Qatar, May 15, 2001. [10] Al-Ahrar* (Egypt), May 30, 2000. [11] The Arab term for this kind of physical transformation is maskh, meaning "change of external form to a more abhorrent form." See Lissan Al-Arab, "Maskh." [12] Muslim bin Al-Hajjaj (died 875) and Muhammad bin Isma'il Al-Bukhari (died 870). [13] According to Koran commentators, this is a reference to the punishment of transformation into apes banished [from the divine] good, humiliated and despised. [14] Elsewhere, the Koran speaks in general of the transformation of the infidels (non-Muslims): "If we so will, we may change them (la masakhnhum) where they are…" (36:67) It should be noted that this is the only place in the Koran where the term maskh is used, and that this term refers to a change in form that takes place on Judgment Day. This concept was not always linked to the idea of punishment by transformation into apes and pigs. The first Koran commentators were divided regarding the maskh awaiting sinners, offering a number of possibilities such as transformation into stones, laming, or crippling in the legs and arms. In the Hadith literature, too, there is a tradition depicting an eschatological maskh with no mention of apes and pigs. Most of the traditions concerning future maskh describe a threefold catastrophe heralding Judgment Day: the earth will split open and swallow the sinners (hasf), [rocks] will be thrown [from the sky] (qadhf), and there will be transformation into a lower life form (maskh). Sometimes there are also mentions of an earthquake (rajf) in this context. An examination of the historical background of the appearance of these traditions shows that they emerged during the civil wars among the Muslims in the Umayyad period. The great distress of that time cultivated a sense of impending apocalypse, which in turn gave rise to traditions that anticipated the end of the world and Judgment Day. See Uri Rubin, "Apes, Pigs, and the Islamic Identity," Israel Oriental Studies XVII (1997), pp. 89-93. [15] Omar bin Bahar Al-Jahiz (died 869). [16] Al-Jahiz, Omar bin Bahar, Kitab Al-Hayawan. [17] Muhammad bin Jarir Al-Tabari, died 923. [18] Al-Tabari, 5:115. Other sources tell that an Israelite tribe that manifested undue skepticism when the miracle of the table was vouch-saved to Jesus, was turned into lizards. See: M. Cook, "Early Islamic dietary law," in Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam (JSAI) 7(1986), 223. [19] A tradition mentioned, for example, in the book by Fakhr Al-Din bin Muhammad Al-Tarihi (died 1087) Majma' Al-Bahrain. See www.islam4u.com/almojib/4/0/4.0.2.htm [20] Uri Rubin, "Apes, Pigs, and the Islamic Identity," pp. 93-102 It should be noted that even today, Islamic preachers deter their congregations from transgressions such as drinking wine, singing and playing music with Hadiths threatening the sinners' that they will be transformed into apes and pigs. Sermons of this kind are not as common as sermons mentioning Jews as the offspring of these animals, but are more common than sermons referring to Christians in this context. See for example the sermon of the Sudanese preacher Muhammad Abd Al-Karim on singing, www.alminbar.net/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=3124 [21] At the battle of Karbala (680), the grandson of the Prophet and his men were murdered. This gave the Shi'ite movement its aura of martyrdom. The tradition of the four-eyed dog is taken from "Maskh," Encyclopedia of Islam, Second Edition, 737. [22] See the Web site of the Iranian Sunni League: www.isl.org.uk/article.php?sid=11. [23] It is interesting that the case of Lot's wife's transformation is not mentioned in the Koran's version of the story of Lot (Koran 11:81). [24] See Ch. Pellat, "Maskh," Encyclopedia of Islam, Second Edition, 736-738 [25] Sandedrin tractate, 11:109a. [26] See F. Viré, "Kird," Encyclopedia of Islam, Second Edition. [27] Ilse Lichtenstadter, "And become ye accursed apes," in Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam (JSAI), 14 (1991), pp. 162-175. [28] F. Viré, "Kird," Encyclopedia of Islam, Second Edition. [29] M. Cook. "Early Islamic dietary law," JSAI 7(1986), 223-233. [30] Ibn Kathir (7:166) explains that Iliya is situated on the coast between Egypt and Al-Madina. According to Al-Damiri, Iliya is between Midian and Al-Tur. Other places identified in the commentary with "the village on the coast" are "Median" situated between Iliya and Al-Tur (see Al-Tabari 2:65, Ibn Kathir 2:65 or Tiberias. [31] Ilse Lichtenstadter identifies two Jewish folklore motifs that apparently influenced Al-Tabari's explanation of the punishment. One is the legend of the Leviathan and the Sambation River: In the Torah, God uses the Leviathan to defeat the enemies of his people, and in the Talmud, the Baba Batra tractate (746) tells how the Leviathan was slaughtered by God for food for the righteous in the Hereafter. With regard to the Sambation River, it is told that it is a river full of sand and rocks that rushes and surges during the week but is quiet on Saturday. According to another version, the river is quiet during the week and rises on Saturday. It would seem that it is the version in which the river rises on Saturday which underpins Al-Tabari's commentary, because the schools of fish arrived on Saturday but not during the week. See Ilse Lichtenstadter, "And become ye accursed apes," in JSAI, 14(1991), pp. 159-161. [32] Two commentator positions emerged on the matter of what happened to the Jews who neither fished nor prevented the others from fishing. According to one view, only the actual sinners were changed into animals, and they were then destroyed; the other two groups that did not sin, whether actively or passively, were not. According to the second view, only those who explicitly spoke out against and forbade the sin were saved, and those who remained passive were also transformed. See, for example, 7:166. [33] Al-Tabari 2:65, Ibn Kathir 2:65. [34] Ibn Farrah Al-Qurtubi (b. 1273). [35] Al-Qurtubi 2:65. [36] Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, "The Sons of Israel in the Koran and Muslim tradition," Cairo: Dar Al-Shurouq, Second Edition (2000), pp. 695-697. [37] Kamal Al-Din Al-Damiri (b. 1405). [38] Al-Damiri, Kamal Al-Din, Hayat Al-Hayawan, Vol. I, 386. [39] According to Al-Tabari's commentary on 5:78: "Those of the children of Israel who disbelieved were cursed by David and by Jesus, son of Mary; that was because they disobeyed and were given to transgression..." See Al-Tabari 2:65. [40] Al-Tabari 5:60. [41] Mujahid bin Jaber Al-Maki (died circa 718-722). [42] "The case of those who were made subject to the Law of the Torah, but did not carry out their obligations under it, is like that of a donkey carrying a load of books. Evil is the case of the people who reject the Signs of Allah, and Allah guides not the wrongdoing people." (62:5). [43] Al-Tabari, 2:65, Ibn Kathir, 2:65, Al-Qurtubi 2:65. [44] Falastin Al-Muslima (London), September 1996, pp. 54-55. [45] Isma'il bin Amer Ibn Kathir (died 1373). [46] Ibn Kathir, 2:65. [47] Falastin Al-Muslima (London), September 1996, pp. 54-55. [48] Muhammad bin Abdallah Ibn Qutaiba (b. 889). [49] "Maskh," Encyclopedia of Islam, Second Edition , 737. [50] Yahyah Al-Nawawi (b. 1277). [51] This interpretation appears in Ibrahim Al-'Ali's article in Falestin Al-Muslima, September 1996, pp. 54-55. [52] Abu Daoud Al-Sijistani (b. 889). [53] Abu Bakr Ibn Al-Arabi (b. 1148). [54] One of the important men of the second generation of supporters of the Prophet in the city of Kufa. [55]Al-Qurtubi expresses reservations about this tradition, claiming that perhaps it "is one of the things that was attributed forcibly to Al-Bukhari." He says that some scholars doubt that anyone not obligated by the religious precepts can commit adultery [that is, apes], and thus God's punishments apply also to animals. He adds that "If this is true, [and the female ape was stoned by the other apes], she was from among the demons [jinn], because the ritual precepts apply to man and Jinn alone." [56] Al-Qurtubi, 2:65. [57] Falastin Al-Muslima (London), September 1996, pp. 54-55.

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A NEW ANTISEMITIC MYTH IN THE MIDDLE EAST MEDIA: The September 11 Attacks Were Perpetrated by the Jews

Special Report - No. 8
September 10, 2002	No.8

A NEW ANTISEMITIC MYTH IN THE MIDDLE EAST MEDIA: The September 11 Attacks Were Perpetrated by the Jews Foreword by Congressman Tom Lantos One of the most shocking and upsetting developments of recent decades has been the emergence of full-blown, old- European-style antisemitism in the Arab world. As a holocaust survivor, I am particularly saddened — indeed sickened — by this phenomenon, for it occurs during a half-century when antisemitism in Europe has been mainly in decline. Indeed, it is tragic that the Arab world, which has rejected Europe’s freedoms and democratic institutions, imported only the worst ideas Europe had to offer. Writing in 1986, Middle East scholar Bernard Lewis explained contemporary Arab antisemitism as a reaction to the sense of humiliation Arabs feel at repeated military defeats at Israel’s hands, blows made all the more painful because they were inflicted by a people, Jews, long presumed to be inferior. According to Lewis, Arabs were accustomed to viewing Jews as no better than "a tolerated subject minority, and ... by appearing as conquerors and rulers the Jews [in Arab reckoning] have subverted God’s order for the universe."[1] Whatever its cause, the cancer of antisemitism has metastasized and spread throughout the Arab world. Jews, both as Israelis and simply as Jews, are demonized daily in the Arab press, electronic media, and textbooks, often with ugly illustrations and "political" cartoons on a par with the worst of Julius Streicher’s Die Sturmer. Indeed, Nazi-style imagery and conspiracy-thinking abound in the Arab world, and all the ills of the world are attributed to "the Jews." As a recent article in the New York Times noted, "Stay in a five-star hotel anywhere from Jordan to Iran, and you can buy the infamous forgery Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Pick up a newspaper in any part of the Arab world and you regularly see a swastika superimposed on the Israeli flag."[2] This worsening problem carries dire implications for the Arab-Israeli conflict, adding a racist and religious-warfare dimension to an already exceedingly difficult political problem. Moreover, in an obscenely bizarre twist, the Middle East may now be exporting to Europe the antisemitism it originally imported from there. Since the latest phase of Arab violence against Israel began in September 2000, there have been hundreds of antisemitic incidents reported in Europe, particularly in France. Some of the ugliest examples of Arab antisemitism came in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States, as detailed in this important publication. The Arab media reaction to the September 11 horror reflected all the elements of Nazi-style defamation — particularly, Jewish conspiracy. Here we can read the now-famous claims that Mossad organized the September 11 attacks; that 4,000 Jewish employees, forewarned, avoided work at the World Trade Center that day; and that Jews exploited their foreknowledge of the tragedy to profit from the stock market. We observe the shocking sense of cultural inferiority — self-serving but nonetheless real — of Arab commentators who "prove" Jewish complicity in the September 11 murders by pointing out that "only the Jews are capable of planning such an incident, because it was planned with great precision of which Osama bin Laden or any other Islamic organization or intelligence apparatus is incapable." And we learn of the grisly, Nazi-type punishment one Egyptian cleric wishes on the Jews of America. But the totality of what is presented in the following pages also reflects a sad reality: the Arab world’s inability, first, to come to terms with the fact that Arabs planned and carried out the evil deeds and, second, to reflect productively on how and why that happened. Such is the classic utility the antisemite finds in his antisemitism: scape-goating Jews for problems of his own making. I am full of admiration for the work MEMRI has done in putting together this book and, more generally, in its dedicated exposure of Arab antisemitism. Until MEMRI undertook its effort to review and translate articles from the Arab press, there was only dim public awareness of this problem in the United States. Thanks to MEMRI, this ugly phenomenon has been unmasked, and numerous American writers have called attention to it. To cite one interesting example: A recent series of articles in a Saudi newspaper invoked the ancient "blood libel" against Jews, claiming Jews use human blood (non-Jewish, of course) to prepare their holiday delicacies. MEMRI translated and disseminated the series, which evoked widespread outrage, including a Voice of America editorial condemning Arab antisemitic incitement. The surprising result? The editor of the paper was embarrassed by the exposure and felt compelled to acknowledge publicly that the accusations in the articles are "not based on scientific or historical facts" — a rare victory for truth in the Arab world. One can only hope that publicizing and embarrassing the Arab media about their prejudiced provocations will more often have a salutary effect. I congratulate MEMRI for its pioneering work in bringing Arab antisemitism to light, and I commend it for this fine book. For laymen, diplomats, and scholars of the Middle East and conflict resolution, this book highlights like few others one of the most troubling phenomena of our time, how antisemitism has come to pervade Arab culture. By the Honorable Tom Lantos Ranking Democrat, International Relations Committee U.S. House of Representatives May 1, 2002

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The False Holocaust - The Greatest of Lies Funded by the Zionists

Special Dispatch Series - No. 558
August 27, 2003	No.558

Hamas Leader Rantisi: The False Holocaust - The Greatest of Lies Funded by the Zionists *Dr. 'Abd Al-'Aziz Al-Rantisi,* a top Hamas activist in the Gaza Strip, wrote an article titled "Which is Worse – Zionism or Nazism?" *[1]* for the Hamas weekly Al-Risala. The following are excerpts from the article: The False Holocaust: The Greatest of Lies "The Zionists, who excel at false propaganda and misleading media, have had phenomenal success in changing the facts. To do this, they relied on the rule of 'lie and lie until everyone believes you.' They have managed to present themselves to the world as the only victims of the Nazis, excelling at misleading until they turned the greatest of lies into historical truth. I do not mean that they have succeeded in misleading the West and making it believe in the false Holocaust, but that they succeeded in persuading the Western world of the need to market these lies. The West is convinced of this because its interests intersect with those of the Zionist enterprise. "Many thinkers and historians have exposed the lies of the Zionists, thus becoming a target of Zionist persecution. Some have been assassinated, some arrested, and some are prevented from making a living. For example, Jewish associations and organizations have filed lawsuits against famous French philosopher Roger Garaudy, who in 1995 published his book 'The Founding Myths of Israeli Politics' in which he disproves the myth of the 'gas chambers,' saying, 'This idea is not technically possible. So far, no one has clarified how these false gas chambers worked, and what proof there is of their existence. Anyone with proof of their existence must show it.' British historian David Irving was also sued, while Austrian author Gerd Honsik was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment because he wrote a number of articles denying the existence of the gas chambers in the Nazi detention camps." [2] The Nazis Received Over $100 Million from the Zionists "It is no longer a secret that the Zionists were behind the Nazis' murder of many Jews, and agreed to it, with the aim of intimidating them [the Jews] and forcing them to immigrate to Palestine. Every time they failed to persuade a group of Jews to immigrate [to Palestine], they unhesitatingly sentenced [them] to death. Afterwards, they would organize great propaganda campaigns, to cash in on their blood. "The Nazis received tremendous financial aid from the Zionist banks and monopolies, and this contributed to their rise to power. In 1929, the Nazis received $10 million from Mendelssohn and Company, the Zionist bank in Amsterdam. In 1931, they received $15 million, and after Hitler rose to power in 1933, they received $126 million. "There is no doubt that this great financial aid helped the Nazis build the military and economic force it needed to destroy Europe and annihilate millions. [Former World Jewish Congress president] Nahum Goldmann wrote these words in his autobiography. "The German researcher Prof. Frederick Toben [3] believes there was no animosity between the Nazis and the Jews, whether politically, ideologically, or philosophically. He said, 'There is no historical scientific evidence proving such [animosity]. On the contrary – there is proof of collaboration between the Jews and the Nazis…'" Comparing Zionism and Nazism Insults the Nazis "While the world has realized that the Zionists, with the support of the West, carried out the most abhorrent massacres against the helpless Palestinian people in order to expel them from their homeland; while the Palestinian people still lives out the tragedy and catastrophe of the Jews' occupation of Palestine in 1948, of the expulsion of our helpless people, and of their being prevented from returning to their cities and towns; and while the Zionists still use against our Palestinian people various methods of terror unknown in history, even in its darkest eras - the Zionists present themselves as victims of the Palestinian 'terror!' "When we compare the Zionists to the Nazis, we insult the Nazis – despite the abhorrent terror they carried out, which we cannot but condemn. The crimes perpetrated by the Nazis against humanity, with all their atrocities, are no more than a tiny particle compared to the Zionists' terror against the Palestinian people. While disagreement proliferates about the veracity of the Zionist charges regarding the Nazis' deeds, no one denies the abhorrent Zionist crimes, some of which camera lenses have managed to document. "The entire world witnessed the assassination of the Palestinian boy Muhammad Al-Dura … [but] the cameras that immortalized this sight failed to immortalize similar sights, of some 1,000 Palestinian children murdered in cold blood by the Jews. The world has seen the Zionists pulverizing the bones of Palestinian boys with a stone as they shrieked in pain, to carry out the orders of Rabin and Sharon… and there are thousands whose bones were pulverized, but the cameras ignored them… "One of the Zionist murderers expressed his feelings by saying, 'I enjoy hearing the cries of the Palestinian children groaning from under the heaps [of rubble] of the houses destroyed over their heads.' "The Zionists have specialized in torturing the relatives of Shahids and prisoners. How often have they killed a boy before the eyes of his parents… "It is impossible to conduct a [full] count of the crimes of Zionism in [a single] article. We have mentioned some of their crimes - which, had they been attributed to Nazism - would have greatly insulted the Nazis." [1] Al-Risala, August 21, 2003. [2] Gerd Honsik has numerous convictions in Austria and Germany for his actions and publications, including his 1988 book 'Freispruch far Hitler? 36 ungehoerte Zeugen wider die Gaskammer' [Acquittal for Hitler? 36 Unheard Witnesses Versus the Gas Chamber] and Nationalist Socialist reactivation activity. In 1992 Honsik fled to Spain. http://www2.ca.nizkor.org/hweb/people/f/funke-hajo/Irving-09.02.shtml For more details see http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.idgr.de/lexikon/bio/h/honsik-gerd/honsik.html&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2522Gerd%2BHonsik%2522%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8 [3] German-born Frederick Toben has lived in Australia for most of his life and is an Australian citizen. In 1999, German courts sentenced him to 10 months in prison for distributing leaflets in Germany stating that the Holocaust never happened, and for maintaining a website claiming the same. http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/6063.html. For more details see http://www.nswscl.org.au/journal/50/Seeto.html.

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Special Report - No. 10 September 26, 2002 No.10

Friday Sermons in Saudi Mosques: Review and Analysis

Part I - 'The Christians and the Jews are "Infidels," "Enemies of Allah"'
Part II - 'Jews - The Descendants of Pigs and Apes'
Part III - 'It is Impossible to Make Peace With the Jews'
Part IV - 'Muslims Must Educate Their Children to Jihad… and to Hatred of Jews and Christians'
Part V - 'The Palestinian Struggle Must be An Islamic Jihad'
Part VI - 'Muslim Women's Rights are a Western Ploy to Destroy Islam'
APPENDIX - About Al-Minbar

Friday sermons delivered in the main mosques of Saudi Arabia are available on the Saudi-based website www.alminbar.net.[1] The following is a review and analysis of the major themes featured in these sermons:

Part I - 'The Christians and the Jews are "Infidels," "Enemies of Allah"'
The majority of sermons discuss Christians, Jews, or the "Camp of Kufur"[2] concurrently. However, some sermons specifically target Christians and Christianity. In a sermon delivered at the Al-Salaam mosque in 'Al-Unayzah, Sheikh Abd Al-Muhsin Al-Qadhi said: "Today we will talk about one of the distorted religions, about a faith that deviates from the path of righteousness… about Christianity, this false faith, and about the people whom Allah described in his book as deviating from the path of righteousness. We will examine their faith, and we will review their history, full of hate, abomination, and wars against Islam and the Muslims."

"In this distorted and deformed religion, to which many of the inhabitants of the earth belong, we can see how the Christians deviate greatly from the path of righteousness by talking about the concept of the Trinity. As far as they are concerned, God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost: three who are one…"

"They see Jesus, peace be upon him, as the son of Allah… It is the Christians who believe that Jesus was crucified.[3] According to them, he was hanged on the cross with nails pounded through his hands, and he cried, 'My God, why have you forsaken me?' According to them, this was so that he would atone for the sins of mankind…"

"Regardless of all these deviations from the path of righteousness, it is possible to see many Muslims… who know about Christianity only what the Christians claim about love, tolerance, devoting life to serving the needy, and other distorted slogans… After all this, we still find people who promote the idea of bringing our religion and their's closer, as if the differences were miniscule and could be eliminated by arranging all those [interreligous] conferences, whose goal is political…" [4]

While Islam considers both Jews and Christians "People of the Book" - i.e. non-Muslims with special status under Islamic rule - Sheikh Abd Al-'Aziz Qari discussed the differences between the religions in a sermon delivered at the Qabaa mosque in Al-Madina: "Two groups - the Jews and the Christians - are the main elements constituting the 'Camp of Kufur' and will continue to be its two foundations until Allah allows their downfall and annihilation at the end of days..."

"When the Prophet Muhammad was sent out, the 'Camp of Kufur' declared war on his message. At the center of this war were these groups, particularly the Jews. These two groups will continue to serve as the grindstones of the conflict and the war between belief and Kufur until eternity comes… The conflict will end when Jesus the son of Mary, peace be upon him, arrives to break the cross and wipes it off the face of the earth, and kills the blind [false] Messiah, the leader of the Jews and the tyrant whom they await. Until that day, the conflict between us, the Muslims, and the Jews and Christians will continue, and it will ebb and flow, one day ours, another day theirs…"

"The Jews are the objects of Allah's [promised] wrath, while the Christians deviate from the path of righteousness… The Koran described the Jews as a nation cursed by Allah, a nation at which he was angry - some of whom he turned into apes and pigs…"[5]

International initiatives aimed at promoting interreligious harmony have been condemned by many Saudi preachers. In a sermon at a Mecca mosque, Sheikh Adnan Ahmad Siyami said, "[Islam] believes that only Islam and the 'Camp of Kufur' exist, and that there is no way to reach Paradise and to be delivered from Hell except by walking in the path of our Prophet Muhammad and joining Islam. Any other way leads to Hell… In light of this, my believing brethren, how can it be claimed that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are all paths leading to Allah?!…"

"Several years ago, a sinful call arose, which unfortunately garnered support from some clerics and preachers of this religion, Islam… [a call] for the unification of the monotheistic religions. They flaunted an empty and false slogan of 'religious harmony,' Christian-Islamic friendship, and uniting the three religions into a global religion'…"

"The call for the unification of the religions is a call for the abolition of religious differences among people: No more Muslim and infidel. All will come under the unity of human harmony… This accursed call has ramifications that most certainly will shake Islam in the hearts of its people, leading them to the lowest of the levels of Hell. This call will lead… to presenting the infidels' schools of thought as correct, and to silence regarding them; to permitting conversion to Judaism and Christianity with no shame whatsoever; to the abolition of the vast difference between the Muslims and others - a difference underpinning the conflict between truth and falsehood; to the transformation of the religion of Islam into a religion like the other, false religions, into a religion that has no advantage over the other religions…; to refraining from calling [people] to join Islam, because if the Muslim wants to do so, he must tell the truth about the infidels… This will also facilitate the conversion to Christianity in Muslim lands."

"The Pope's recent visit to Syria, to the Al-Umawi mosque is, without a doubt, another manifestation of that call. The call by [the Pope] - may Allah punish him as he deserves - to the people of the [different] religions in Syria to live in peaceful coexistence is nothing more than an audacious call for the unification of religions, in accordance with the principle of human religious harmony… This Pope, the head of the Catholic Church, and those behind him calling for the unification of the religions, are the descendants of the Spanish inquisitors who tortured the Muslims most abominably… They are the descendants of those who led the Crusades to the Islamic East, in which thousands of Muslims were killed and their wives taken captive in uncountable numbers. They are the perpetrators of the massacres in Bosnia-Herzegovina… in Kosovo, in Indonesia, and in Chechnya… Can we expect compassion from these murderous wolves? What made the Pope go on his visit was his dissatisfaction with the robbing of the Muslims' lands; he wanted also to rob their religion, so that they lose both this world and the Hereafter…"

"[This is]… a call to dismantle the pact among Muslims in all the corners of the Islamic world and to replace it with an accursed alternative harmony - the 'Harmony of the Jews and Christians.' This is, in truth, a call to Muslims to stop accusing Jews, Christians, and other non-Muslims of being infidels…"

"There can be neither an agreement nor a meeting point between the people of Islam and the Jewish and Christian People of the Book… How can we allow the Catholic Pope's talk of a need to find meeting points and agreement between Islam and Christianity, so that there will be peaceful coexistence between the two religions and harmony between the two communities? Is it conceivable that there should be agreement and a meeting point with those who fabricate terrible falsehoods about Allah… claiming that Jesus, peace be upon him, is his son?!…"[6]

Sheikh Mustafa Bin Sa'id Aytim was also agitated by the Pope's Syrian visit. In a sermon at a Mecca mosque, he cited it as proof that "Christian missionaries are invading the Islamic world."[7]

Sheikh Aytim also objected to the concept of interreligious harmony, saying: "It is no surprise that the Jews and Christians deny the Koran. What is amazing is that some ignoramuses and traitors from among the Muslims say: 'The Jews and Christians are our brothers...' It is quite amazing that anyone claiming he believes in the Koran says that the Jews and Christians love us and feel no loathing and hatred for us!!... The People of the Book's hatred of Muslims is certain and absolute. This is a solid belief, which Allah has proven in the Koran, and there is also historical evidence of it… And lo, today we see that they lie about security and peace - a security council here, a peace emissary there; a security plan here, a prayer for peace there. By Allah, who told you that wild animals can become human? Can wild animals give birth to anything other than wild animals?"[8]

In a sermon delivered at the Manar Al-Islam mosque in Mecca, Sheikh 'Ali Muhammad Al-Baroum said: "The idea of intertwining religions and the claim that the Jews and the Christians believe in religions of truth… are sinful claims and deceitful ideas unacceptable to the religion [of Islam]… It is forbidden to bring together Islam and the infidels, monotheism and polytheism… Allah's path of righteousness and Satan's path of Kufur."[9]

At Al-Rahmah mosque in Mecca, Sheikh Marzouq Salem Al-Ghamdi spoke against interreligious harmony: "For some time, we have been hearing calls for bringing the religions together, and for unification of the religions. This call is aimed at uniting falsehood with truth, good with abomination… The Jews and Christians are infidels, enemies of Allah, his Messenger, and the believers. They deny and curse Allah and his Messenger… How can we draw near to these infidels?… They deny even the messengers sent to them. They do not believe in Moses, they do not believe in Jesus - because if they really believed in them, they would join Islam, because every prophet heralded to his nation the coming of the Prophet Muhammad and the need to believe in him …"

"Some may say: 'How can the inventor of electricity be placed in Hell - he illuminated the world for us.' Others may say, 'How can we be hostile to the Jews and Christians when they invented and manufactured even the items we use in our mosques?' Yet others may say, 'The messenger of Allah left his shield with a Jew and went to visit his sick Jewish neighbor. Why do you preach to us to do differently?' The truth is that this is an inversion of the facts, and deception. The Jew whom the Prophet considered a citizen had accepted the agreement [that the Prophet Muhammad had concluded with the Jews of Al-Madina]… and when his people violated that pact, and supported the polytheists instead of the Muslims, their punishment was death, captivity, and the expropriation of their assets."

"If the infidels live among the Muslims, in accordance with the conditions set out by the Prophet -there is nothing wrong with it provided they pay Jizya[10] to the Islamic treasury. Other conditions are… that they do not renovate a church or a monastery, do not rebuild ones that were destroyed, that they feed for three days any Muslim who passes by their homes… that they rise when a Muslim wishes to sit, that they do not imitate Muslims in dress and speech, nor ride horses, nor own swords, nor arm themselves with any kind of weapon; that they do not sell wine, do not show the cross, do not ring church bells, do not raise their voices during prayer, that they shave their hair in front so as to make them easily identifiable, do not incite anyone against the Muslims, and do not strike a Muslim… If they violate these conditions, they have no protection."[11]

While Arab intelligentsia generally object to the concept of the "clash of civilizations" between the East and the West, preachers in Saudi mosques are stressing that it is precisely this - the struggle between Islamic and Western civilizations - that is the true and eternal struggle for the leadership of the human race.

Sheikh Abd Al-Rahman Al-Sudayyis, Imam of the Al-Haraam mosque in Mecca, told worshipers: "The most noble civilization ever known to mankind is our Islamic civilization. Today, Western civilization is nothing more than the product of its encounter with our Islamic civilization in Andalusia [medieval Spain] and other places. The reason for [Western civilization's] bankruptcy is its reliance on the materialistic approach, and its detachment from religion and values. [This approach] has been one reason for the misery of the human race, for the proliferation of suicide, mental problems… and for moral perversion…"

"Western civilization's credibility as the one capable of leading the world to happiness and man to stability - is shaken… Only one nation is capable of resuscitating global civilization, and that is the nation [of Islam]… No decent man in the world will deny that there has never been a culture more merciful towards [all] creatures, with more supreme values, and which rules with greater justice than [Islam]… While the false cultures sink in the swamp of materialism and suffer moral crises… our Islamic nation is the one worthy of grasping the reins of leadership and riding on the back of the horse of pioneering and world sovereignty."

"When this happens, our nation will not use cultural progress as a tool for exploiting the peoples, exhausting their resources, and dishonoring them. It will not use [scientific] inventions and discoveries to spread secularism and support terror... It will not use military equipment and war technologies as an excuse to threaten the security of countries and peoples, or for barbaric and wild operations, and it will not recruit the media to mislead public opinion… The Islamic message, whose aim is to save the human race and to bring about happiness for man who is today lost in the dark tunnels of injustice and misery… takes this burden upon itself…"[12]

In a sermon at the Al-Nabawi mosque in Al-Madina, Sheikh Sallah Bin Muhammad Al-Budeir concured with this line of thought: "What is the use of [Western] culture, in which the value of man has shrunk to the level of slavery to anything but Allah? Man becomes a slave to his money and his desires… It is distressing that some of our people who speak our own language [serve] as procurers of the West, glorifying and extolling it, and calling for its imitation…"

"[Only] Islam is worthy of delivering the human race from its misery and despair. Only Islam is capable of bringing happiness to the human race."[13]

Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti Sheikh Abd Al-'Aziz Aal Al-Sheikh addressed the matter at the Nimra mosque in 'Arafa: "Those who attack Islam and its people - what have they given to the human race?! What have they to be proud of?! They gave a false, contemptible culture; they gave various kinds of damage to [human] freedoms and rights on the pretext of preserving these values; they gave discrimination among people by color, gender, language, and race; they gave technology to create weapons of mass destruction for the destruction of the human race; they gave forms of deceit and falshood…"[14]

One issue that is frequently discussed when comparing Islamic and Western civilizations is 'Western permissiveness.' Sheikh Sa'd Bin Abdallah Al-'Ajameh Al-Ghamdi discussed this subject in a sermon which focused on homosexuality; the sermon was delievered at the Sa'id Al-Jandoul mosque in Al-Taif: "This act is not alien and uncommon to the brothers of monkeys and pigs [i.e. Jews] and the debased among the infidels…"

"It shocked me to read and hear about the audacity of the 'Betrayer-General' of all nations [a reference to the U.N. Secretary-General], who by affiliation and loyalty is a combination of a Jew and a Christian and leads the people to Hell. He called to stop the incursion of this disease called AIDS - although two months earlier he had contradicted this call when, in stupidity and brazenness, he led the nations calling for permissiveness that causes this disease. He called for permitting adultery and spreading acts of abomination and homosexuality, which is a sexual perversion, and even invited this kind of people to a conference in order to call for premitting them marriage of the third kind…"[15]

Part II - 'Jews - The Descendants of Pigs and Apes'
"The Jews" are the central issue of many sermons delivered in Saudi mosques. When discussing Jews, preachers base their sermons on Koranic history, as well as on pseudo-historic events which affirm the Koranic view. In addition, many preachers refer to the Jews as "apes and pigs," a Koranic reference. "When will the sleepers awake?" asked Sheikh Bandar bin Khalaf Al-'Utaibi, in a sermon at the Abu Bakr Al-Saddiq mosque in Al-Damam. "Is there any kind of humiliation we have not tasted from the brothers of apes and pigs?!"[16]

"Oh Muslims, see the state of the nation today, after it deviated from the path set out by the clerics," said Sheikh Mustafa Bin Said Aytim in a sermon given at a mosque in Mecca. "[The nation] has made the offspring of apes and pigs its stars; the hangers-on of the apes and pigs have become the centers of influence and power… The Jews, Christians, and the hypocrites gnaw away at the body of the nation and then carry out raids on it with the knights of the destructive media and with the deadly weapon of globalization…"[17]

Although the preachers base their claims about the Jews on the Koran and the traditions (Hadith), many also borrow classic European antisemitic motifs. Numerous sermons refer to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. In a sermon at the Al-Jafali mosque in Al-Taif, Sheikh Muhammad Al-Hakmi stated: "We live in an era in which we are facing a cruel attack planned by the Jews and their hangers-on. Dr. Oscar Levy said, We the Jews are masters of the world, and its corrupters; we set off civil strife in it, and we are its hangmen…"[18]

Islamic traditions regarding three Jewish tribes of Al-Madina's violation of their agreement with the Prophet Muhammad and the Jews' attempts to kill him, and their treaty with the Prophet's enemies, the polytheists, recur in various forms in many sermons. Sheikh Abd Al-Muhsin Al-Qassem discussed the matter in a sermon at Al-Nabawi mosque in Al-Madina: "When our Prophet Muhammad was sent, the Jews incited the people and fought against him. Again and again they conspired to betray him and kill him. [The Jewish tribe] Banu Nadhir tried to drop a large rock on him from the roof of a house under which he sat, but he was warned by the heavens. They gave him poisoned roast mutton; he was saved [from death] but suffered from injury until he died…"

"They killed some of the prophets… sometimes by slaughtering them and sometimes by sawing them in two. They spilled the blood of [the prophet] Yahya, sawed Zacharia in two, planned to kill Jesus, and tried several times to kill Muhammad… The Jews are ingrates, whoever treats them well they harm, and whoever treats them with honor they rebel against. Allah saved them from drowning with Moses [at the Red Sea]; they did not thank Allah, but arrogantly and haughtily asked Moses to make another god for them instead of Allah, so they could worship it as they wished…"

"They annihilated people and nations with usury… They consume the Muslims' resources by destroying their economy, and introduce prohibited things into trade. They harm Muslims so as to bankrupt them. They seek to cause them poverty. … In their own eyes, they are Allah's chosen people, and they see others as slaves created to meet their needs."

"Their tongues never cease lying, [disseminating] abomination and obscenity. About Allah they said: 'His hands are tied… He is poor and we are wealthy.' They brought great disasters upon Jesus and his mother, and of the Prophet Muhammad they said: 'He is a trickster and a liar.' Curses were laid upon them, one after another, and punishments too… The Jews preached permissiveness and corruption, as they hid behind false slogans like freedom and equality, humanism and brotherhood. They kill Muslim youth, entice the [Muslim] woman with shameful deeds, and act to lure others through her… They defile the minds of adolescents by arousing their urges… they are envious of the Muslim woman who conceals herself and protects her honor; for this reason, they preach to her to expose herself and throw off her values… Their goal is to destroy the Muslim family, to shatter religious and social ties and foundations… They are cowards in battle… they flee from death and fear fighting… They love life…"[19]

Sheikh Muhammad Al-Saleh Al-'Athimein related the story of the three Jewish tribes in a sermon at the Great Mosque in Al-'Unayza: "The perverse nature and base temperament of the Jews caused them to violate [the treaty with the Prophet Muhammad] and betray [him]. [The Jewish tribe] Banu Qaynuqa' showed treachery after Allah caused the victory of His Prophet in the battle of Badr [624 AD], so the Prophet exiled them from Al-Madina…"

"The Banu Nadhir [tribe] showed treachery after the battle of Uhud [625 AD] and the Prophet besieged them, and Allah cast fear into their hearts, until they asked the Prophet to exile them and allow them to take what property they could carry on their beasts, except for weapons…"

"The [Jewish tribe of Banu] Qurayza violated the agreement in the Battle of Al-Ahzab [626 AD], and the Prophet besieged them. They were brought to trial before Sa'd Ibn Mu'adh [head of the Aus tribe, an ally of the Jews] who ruled that the men among them would be executed, their property divided, and their women and children taken into captivity. Accordingly, 600 to 700 of the men among them were executed…"

"Oh Muslims, the Jews are treacherous and deceitful people over whom lies the curse and anger of Allah. They permitted what Allah forbade, with the lamest of excuses; therefore, He cursed them and turned them into apes and pigs. Allah sentenced them to humiliation anywhere they might be…"[20]

Saudi preachers often speak of "the Jews' traits," passed down from generation to generation. They claim that the Jews of today are the same Jews "who murdered the prophets" and "violated agreements with the Prophet Muhammad." The Koran's statements on "the Jews," they claim, are valid for all times and all places: "The current behavior of the brothers of apes and pigs, their treachery, their violation of agreements, and their defilement of places of worship… are connected to their forefathers' deeds in the early time of Islam. This proves the great similarity between every Jew living today and the Jew living during the dawn of Islam," stated Sheikh Sa'd bin Abdallah Al-'Ajameh Al-Ghamdi in a sermon at the Sa'id Al-Jandoul mosque in Al-Taif.[21]

Sheikh Abd Al-Hamid Al-Daghastani explained at the Bin Hassan mosque in Mecca that "to disseminate moral or ideological corruption ... the Jews hand these traits down from father to son."[22] As the Imam of the Al-Harram mosque in Mecca, Sheikh Abd Al-Rahman Al-Sudais explained in one of his sermons: "Brothers in faith, what do our Koran and our Sunna say? What does our belief say? What does our history prove…? They show clearly that the conflict between us and the Jews is one of belief, identity, and existence…"

"Read history and you will understand that the Jews of yesterday are the evil forefathers of the even more evil Jews of today: infidels, falsifiers of words, calf worshippers, prophet murderers, deniers of prophecies… the scum of the human race, accursed by Allah, who turned them into apes and pigs… These are the Jews - an ongoing continuum of deceit, obstinacy, licentiousness, evil, and corruption…"

"Oh nation of Islam, today our nation is at the height of conflict with the enemies of yesterday, today, and tomorrow - the offspring of [the three Jewish tribes of Al-Madina] Banu Qurayza, Banu Nadhir, and Banu Qaynuqa, upon whom Allah's curse rests until Judgment Day. Do the sons of our people realize the truth about the nation of wrath and deceit…? The insult to and contempt of Arabs, Muslims, and their holy places reaches its height at the hands of the rats of the world, the violators of agreements, in whose minds abide treachery, destruction, and deceit and in whose veins flow occupation and tyranny… They are indeed worthy of the curse of Allah, of the angels, and of all people…" [23]

In a sermon delivered at the Al-Nour mosque in Al-Khobar, Sheikh Nasser Muhammad Al-Ahmad said: "In the Jews, an astonishing quantity of moral abomination and corrupt behavior has accumulated. These cannot exist in any other nation. What is amazing is that this corruption in all things concerning morality, and this impudent behavior, are not limited to a specific generation of Jews, or to a specific group of Jews, but are manifest in the distorted Jew everywhere. Every Jew, except for the prophets and the believers among the [ancient] Children of Israel, is a human model of the same moral traits, from which the contemptible Jew who lived in the time of Pharoah or the liberated Jew who lives today on the land of Palestine, is not spared."

"Moral corruption is a general trait of the Jews, all the Jews. [These are] stable hereditary genes [found] in the Jew in every time and in every place. If you want to know the Jew through and through, imagine a group of perverse moral traits…"

"The Jews are liars …in their religious life, in their ritual, in the way they see Allah. The Jews lie to their enemies and friends alike… What is strange is that they have turned the lie into a religion, a faith, and a ritual through which they draw closer to their god… If we say that they speak the truth this time [regarding the peace process], it would mean that we are denying the Koranic text - a very serious matter…"

"Similarly, the Jews are treacherous… If they smile, their smile is perverted… The Jews are miserly, and enslaved by money… The Jews disseminate corruption in the land; this is one of their salient moral traits, even in the time of their prophet Moses… Most of the world's wars, particularly the great modern wars, were planned and started by the Jews so as to disseminate corruption in the land, and to achieve their goals on the ruins of the human race… I will conclude the matter of these moral traits with something else connected to the Jews: The Jews are an accursed nation. This is part of our belief. We believe that the Jews are accursed…"[24]

"The desire to corrupt the people is present also in the Jews of our time," explained Sheikh Mushabbab Fahd Al-Qahtani in a sermon at 'Ubad Al-Rahman mosque in Al-Zahran: "See the great interest-charging banks, the cinemas, the alcohol factories, the drugs, the tobacco companies, the fashion houses, the sex networks, the secret organizations - the Jews are behind them."[25]

In a sermon at the Qaaba mosque in Al-Madina, Sheikh Abd Al-'Aziz Qari addressed the matter: "In ancient times, the Jews, the enemies of Allah, killed the prophets unjustly… Afterwards they became the enemies of all humanity and they [termed] non-Jews 'gentiles,' and used all means to destroy them by starting wars among these gentiles, destroying their beliefs, and corrupting their moral values…"

"See for example, how they show the woman on television and on the front pages of the newspapers. They show her without modesty or shame, made up and exposing her curves, with the aim of destroying and corrupting the nation's general moral values… They exploited the woman in the most abominable way. And this is a known Jewish conspiracy… "[26]

Part III - 'It is Impossible to Make Peace With the Jews'
Saudi preachers urging Jihad are opposed, obviously, to the peace process. Sheikh Nasser Muhammad Al-Ahmad said in a sermon at Al-Nour mosque in Al-Khobar: "There is no doubt that the [Muslim] nation is today reaping the fruit of agony because of its renunciation of its honor on the day it begged [peace] at the negotiating tables, chasing after a false peace that could never be. Because, in all honesty, these are people with whom no agreement or pact can be made…"

"[Muslims] should have never been led under any pressure of any kind towards the so-called peace process, which is in effect a process of surrender. The Muslims should have acted… as their forefathers did when they faced the Crusader's occupation of Palestine for over 90 years, and nevertheless did not surrender…" "The events proved that no one has the authority to make Palestinian decisions except for the Palestinian masses, and that these crimes [against the Palestinians and the Muslims] will be stopped only by Jihad. The sites holy to Muslims will be regained only by Jihad for the sake of Allah… When true Islamic Jihad is declared, the balance of power will shift. What frightens the West more than anything else is the word Jihad, because they understand what it means…"

"Humiliation and misery will be the lot of the ones who anger Allah, who cursed them and turned them into apes and pigs… There is no solution to this problem, and to any problem to which the infidel enemy is party, except by waving the banner of Jihad."[27]

Sheikh 'Adel Bin Ahmad Bana'ma said in a sermon at the Muhammad Al-Fatih mosque in Jiddah: "For the thousandth time, the [Islamic] nation is losing its memory and sits with its enemy to discuss peace, agreements, and treaties… The Jews themselves do not forget their hatreds. Today, they disseminate everywhere the lie of the Holocaust and claim that Hitler killed six million Jews in gas chambers. Although this is pure falsehood, they have made it part of their history of trials and tribulations, disseminated it with their mighty propaganda machine, and extorted the countries of the world with it. They obtained huge reparations from Germany with it, and still accuse everyone who denies it of antisemitism, and incite the world against him. [The French Holocaust denier] Garaudy's story happened not long ago!"

"…How many times have the Jews bitten the hand stretched out to them for peace? How many times have the Jews violated the agreements they have signed? Didn't they betray the Prophet…? Didn't they betray the Ottoman state and cause its downfall…? Haven't they violated all the modern agreements, from Oslo through Sharm Al-Sheikh? Isn't this enough for those misled by illusions of peace to awaken?"[28]

According to the Saudi preachers, the only way of solving the problems of the Islamic nation is by espousing the "missing precept" - Jihad. "Who would have believed it?!" cried Sheikh Sultan Al-'Uweid in a sermon at the Prince Tareq mosque in Al-Damam, "a handful of brothers of apes and pigs torments a billion [Muslims]… There is no other way, oh Muslims, but restoring the missing precept - Jihad for the sake of Allah… There is no other way but educating to Jihad…"[29]

Sheikh Muhammad Saleh Al-Munajjid also discussed the matter in his sermon at a mosque in Al-Damam, saying: "The issue is historic, religious, and ideological. It is impossible ever to make peace with the Jews; we must not [enter into] a pact with them, we must not [sign] a treaty with them - despite those [among us] who maintain otherwise, who are Jews just like the Jews. There is no hiding from the evil of the Jews; there is no concealment from their deception. The Jews are defiled creatures and satanic scum. The Jews are the helpers of Satan. The Jews are the cause of the misery of the human race, together with the infidels and the other polytheists. Satan leads them to Hell and to a miserable fate. The Jews are our enemies and hatred of them is in our hearts. Jihad against them is our worship… "[30]

Part IV - 'Muslims Must Educate Their Children to Jihad… and to Hatred of Jews and Christians'
Sheikh Muhammad Saleh Al-Munajjid also discussed education to Jihad, stating: "Muslims must… educate their children to Jihad. This is the greatest benefit of the situation: educating the children to Jihad and to hatred of the Jews, the Christians, and the infidels; educating the children to Jihad and to revival of the embers of Jihad in their souls. This is what is needed now…"[31]

While educating Muslim children to Jihad, elements of "manliness" must be developed in their souls, maintained Sheikh Majed 'Abd Al-Rahman Al-Firian, in a sermon at the Suleiman Bin Muqiran mosque in Al-Riyadh: "One of the ways of developing manliness in the personality of the children is to tell them of the heroic deeds of our forefathers; of the Islamic battles; and of the Muslim victories, so that courage will develop in their souls - as courage is one of the most important traits of manliness."

"Zubeir Bin Al-'Awwam had two children… One of them would play with the scars of his father's wounds after the battles… His [other] son, Abdallah participated with his father in the battle of Al-Yarmouk, and when the polytheists were defeated he… completed the killing of anyone he found wounded - which attests to the courage of his hearrt, even in his youth."[32]

Many preachers seek to dismiss Western claims that their education to Jihad is education to terrorism. In his sermon at the Al-Manshawi mosque in Mecca, Sheikh Wajdi Hamza Al-Ghazawi[33] said: "The [kind of] terror [in Arabic, "striking of fear"] that Islamic religious law permits is terrifying the cowards, the hypocrites, the secularists, and the rebels by imposing punishments according to the religious law of Allah…"

"The meaning of the term 'terror' used by the media… is Jihad for the sake of Allah. Jihad is the peak of Islam. Moreover, some of the clerics… see it as the sixth pillar of Islam. Jihad - whether Jihad of defense of Muslims and of Islamic lands such as in Chechnya, the Philippines, and Afghanistan, or Jihad aimed at spreading the religion - is the pinnacle of terror, as far as the enemies of Allah are concerned. The Mujaheed who goes out to attain a martyr's death or victory and returns with booty is a terrorist as far as the enemies of Allah are concerned… Accordingly, the believer must not use this word… Jihad, oh believers, is an integral part of our religion. The word 'terror' is used to damage this mighty and blessed foundation…"[34]

Part V - 'The Palestinian Struggle Must be An Islamic Jihad'
In Saudi sermons, preachers place special emphasis on the Islamic nature of the Palestinian cause. The national Arab movement is often ridiculed and condemned by Saudi preachers, who insist that the only way to liberate Palestine is through Jihad.

Sheikh 'Abd Al-'Aziz Qari expanded on this issue in a sermon at the Qabaa mosque in Al-Madina: "What has the national Pan-Arab movement been doing for the past 40 years? What has it done in the conflict with the Jewish nation? The national movement [based on] land, and the racist pan-Arab movement, have been defeated by the apes and pigs [referring to the Jews]. Furthermore, the repeated defeats of the past 40 years have become the trademark of the national land movement and the movement of Pan-Arab racism. They go on fighting in the name of the olive and orange groves and the watermelon [fields]. The nationalist men of the soil and of the Pan-Arab racism have been wandering for the past 40 years, refusing to return to their religion, to their Islam. They are reluctant [to consider] the battle between them and the nation of the Torah, the nation of Israel - an Islamic battle. The Jews are fleeing to their religion, seeking [roots] for unity and power, while the Arabs flee from their religion, from their Islam…"

"They feed their nation and their people's false, useless slogans that will never give them the power to confront the Jews who wave the banners of Torah and Israel. The war between us and the Jews is, in truth, a religious war, and only Islam can wage it in the path of truth… It is a divine decree, a military-political decree, a religious decree, but it is not directed at those who still fight in the name of the olives, the oranges, and the watermelon. It is a divine decree directed at the nation of Jihad, the Islamic nation, the Muslims… "[35]

In a sermon delivered at an Al-Damam mosque, Sheikh Muhammad Saleh Al-Munajjid said: "The [Palestinian] cause is exploited by hypocrites, the secular, polytheists, and pan-Arabs… They must be silenced, disregarded. We must unite around those who talk of the Islamization of the cause… If we say that the cause is an Arab cause, there are among us Christian Arabs, and infidels… and Socialists. What do all these have to do with Al-Aqsa Mosque?!"[36]

Sheikh 'Abd Muhsin Al-Qadhi addressed the matter in a sermon at the Al-Salaam mosque in Al-'Unayza, saying: "We must recognize that one of the reasons for our defeat by the Jews is that the [Islamic] nation was not allowed to confront them… Our nation must know that our defeats by the Jews were the defeats of regimes that did not wave the banner of Islam. They waved any banner except for the banner of Islam…

"If those who have gone astray return to the truth, the Jews will return to the humiliation and misery to which they were sentenced [by Allah]… Then, nothing will help the Jew… They will not see victory as long as they persist with misleading concepts, heretical curricula, and a shameful 'peace of the brave.' All this is the seed of Satan and the seedling of the infidels, and it is this which prevents the victory of Allah and throws a lifeline to the Jews."[37]

In a sermon at the Suleiman Bin Muqiran mosque in Al-Riyadh, Sheikh Majed 'Abd Al-Rahman Al-Firian said: "The modern countries of Kufur [that is, Western countries] have realized that the [Palestinian] Authority that speaks today on behalf of the Palestinian cause has not waved the banner of Islam, and its goal is to establish a secular state. Therefore, they protect it and prohibit attacking it, as [this authority] is the one that will give them concessions when they pressure it. In contrast, the alternative to this authority arouses fear in their hearts. This is a deep-rooted solution to the conflict: Intifada and Jihad for the sake of Allah, not for the sake of pan-Arabism, and not for the sake of protecting the homeland and the soil. Today, the Islamic nation already knows that the Holy Land will not be liberated by dallying at vacation sites or sitting around the negotiating table with infidels. The solution is to do what the Prophet did to the Jews when they violated the agreements… The solution regarding the Jews is as the Prophet Muhammad said: 'I have brought slaughter upon you'…Yes, the solution for these is not peace and harmony… Jihad, not peace, is the solution."

"The one who retreated and surrendered to Judaism and Christianity is not Islam, but secularism. The one who threw down its weapon and sought to surrender was not Islam but secularism. Islam was not defeated by Judaism and Christianity in the ideological battle because it was prevented from entering it."[38]

Part VI - 'Muslim Women's Rights are a Western Ploy to Destroy Islam'
One major point of conflict between Islam and the West discussed by Saudi Imams is the status of women, which is perceived as a matter of life and death for Muslim society. The Saudi preachers see the West's preoccupation with the status of women in Islamic countries as an attempt to undermine and topple Islamic society.

In a sermon at the Al-Huweish mosque in Al-Taif, Sheikh Muhammad Al-Nimr explained, "The enemies of Islam… know that the woman is a double-edged sword, and that she can be transformed into the most dangerous weapon of destruction [of Islamic nations]. Thus, the woman has suffered from most of the conspiracies to shatter the Islamic nation - because the woman has a group of traits allowing her to either build or destroy the nation…"

"The enemies of Islam have decided to distance the Muslims from their religion. Therefore, they have made the woman the most important weapon in this destruction. Ostensibly, they are showing her mercy and defending her rights. Many among the Muslim women have been misled by this, because of their ignorance about their religion, which sees the woman as the man's partner and as possessing rights and obligations appropriate to her nature and character..."

"Permitting women to leave the home, so that they rub up against men in the marketplaces and talk with people other than their chaperones - with some even exposing parts of their bodies prohibited from exposure - are forbidden acts, a disgrace, and lead to destruction. The first crime perpetrated by the Israelites was letting their women loose when they were adorned, so that they would stir up Fitna [inner strife]. For this, Allah punished them with the plague."[39]

In a sermon at the Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq mosque in Al-Taif, Sheikh Mansour Al-Ghamdi said: "The Muslim who is aware of what is happening can connect the prodigious attack on men's and women's modesty and morals… with the Jewish plan to destroy their humanity and make them look like animals - that is, exposed and naked."[40]

To illustrate the danger of female permissiveness, the preachers often cite "historical" examples of societies that collapsed in its wake. Sheikh Mansour Al-Ghamdi said, "The enemies realized that the woman is a mighty and important fortress of the Muslim nation, and that for centuries this fortress protected the strength of Islamic society…"

"The enemies learned the lesson of what happened to the Greek and Roman societies, which collapsed because of the woman's corruption. When these cultures began, the woman was protected and modest, and engaged in housework… Then [the Greeks and Romans] succeeded in their conquest, establishing mighty empires. When the woman began to beautify herself, and to go out to clubs and public places… she corrupted the moral values of the men, weakened their combat skills - and their civilization collapsed. Yes, tthese two mighty cultures collapsed, and [the enemies] maintain that the Muslim nation must collapse in such a way that will make it incapable of recovery. This is the strategic goal towards which the enemies of the Muslim nation strive, as is written in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion… The enemies of the Muslim woman are the Jews, the Christians, the hypocrites, the secular, and the opportunists trailing behind them."[41]

Another illustration was provided by Sheikh Muhammad Abdallah Al-Habdan in a sermon at the Al-'Izz Bin Abd Al-Salaam mosque in Al-Riyadh: "I warn of the danger [inherent] in the woman if she deviates from the divine path. The man can be steadfast in many battles, but surprisingly the same giant man often founders in the face of the woman and her enticements… The main reason for the downfall of Paris and the French army's swift surrender to the German armies, as historians have acknowledged, was overindulgence in urges and immersion in pleasure…"

"Why do the West and the secular Westernizers focus on the [Muslim] woman? The answer is that they grasped the status of the woman and her role in the building of the nation, and her influence on society, and therefore realized that if they corrupt the woman and manage to entice her into deviating from the path of righteousness, it will facilitate their infiltration of the Muslim strongholds… The satanic Jews say in their Protocols: 'We must get the woman. The day she stretches out her hand to us is the day of our triumph'…"[42]

Another way preachers illustrate the imminent danger to Islamic women is by showing the "downfall" of the Western woman. Speaking at an Al-Riyadh mosque, Sheikh Fahd Bin Abd Al-Rahman Al-'Abyan said: "Some people have been influenced by the putrid ideas spread by the infidel West about the [Islamic principle of] man's custodianship over the woman. On the face of it, these ideas appear to protect the woman's rights. But in truth, their goal is to push the people into sinful liberty that has caused the downfall of [entire] societies. [In the West] this false liberty has engendered a society with crime as its hobby, adultery as its entertainment, and murder as its means of sublimating rage; a society in which the number of illegitimate children approaches and sometimes even surpasses the number of children from permitted unions… a society in which the woman does as she pleases even if she is married... a society in which underage girls know and do what married women know and do, and even more… These putrid ideas - no more than conceptual trash disseminated by the West - have begun to appear in the whorish journals and on the [Arab] satellite channels…"

"[In the West] the woman leaves the home whenever she feels like it, goes where she wants, and wears what she wants, without her husband's permission. Furthermore, in some homes the situation has reached the point where the woman gives the orders, and that is that… It is no wonder, then, that the [Western] women have become masculine. But what is amazing is that some men have become feminine. You can see some husbands with nothing in common with men except external appearance, while the woman calls the shots and controls the children's fate without asking her husband's opinion, even without consulting him or informing him of her intentions…"[43]

Sheikh Saleh Fawzan Al-Fawzan discussed the situation of Western women in a sermon at the Al-Basateen` mosque in Al-Riyadh: "In [Western] societies, the woman has become cheap merchandise, displayed naked or half-naked before the eyes of men… Women are servants in homes, clerks in offices, nurses in hospitals, hostesses on airplanes and in hotels, teachers of men in schools, film and television actresses. If they do not succeed in presenting the woman in these ways, they present her voice on the radio, as an announcer and a singer… As is known, the number of women in society surpasses the number of men. Nevertheless, they have limited marriage to a single wife, abandoning the rest of the women to corrupt and be corrupted…"

"They travel unsupervised and live as strangers among strangers, with danger threatening from all sides. Thus, the enemies of Allah and of humanity have stripped the miserable woman of all the elements of a happy life and of all her social rights, so that she serves as a tool of corruption and destruction. You will be surprised to hear that in spite of these crimes, they claim that they are protecting the woman's freedom."[44]

According to the preachers, the status of the Muslim woman is far better not only than that of Western women, but also than that of women in any other culture. "In India," said Sheikh Mansour Al-Ghamdi in a sermon at the Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq mosque in Al-Taif, "the woman has no right to independence from her father, husband, or son… She must die the day her husband dies, and be burned alive, together with him, on the same pyre. In China, a man has the right to sell his wife as a slave. If a Chinese woman is widowed, her husband's family has the right to her, as property. A Chinaman has the right to bury his wife alive…"

"Western culture waves around empty slogans about women's liberation, women's equality with men, and no controlling of women. In the wake of these slogans, the woman has left her home… lives a life of misery, and is burnt in the fire of this false liberty… Acts of abomination have proliferated in an unprecedented manner… and they are no longer restricted to the brothels, but are also committed in hotels, cafes, dance clubs, and even on the roads. It is no longer considered strange or perverse for a father to lie with his daughters, or a brother with his sister…"

"To the woman, the man has become a predatory animal treating those weaker than himself with cruelty... On the other hand, the man sees the woman as a wildcat. [Even] Sylvester Stallone said: 'I have all the reasons [in the world] to hate women.'"[45]

At the same time, many sermons instruct women how to behave so as not to slide down the slippery slope of the "moral degradation" pervasive in the West. The sermon of Sheikh Hamad Ibrahim Al-Hariqi at Al-Basateen mosque in Al-Riyadh is one example of many: "One of the mistakes made by women with regard to their husbands is to avoid [joining] the husband when he calls her to bed claiming that she is fatigued, or simply because she wants to anger him, or because she is ignorant and does not know that by doing so she denies her husband the greatest of his rights and places herself under serious threat… As it was said: 'If a man calls his wife to his bed and she refuses to come, the angels curse her until she wakes up'…"

"Another mistake is deficient service to her husband. If she does not fulfill his needs, such as cooking, laundering, keeping the house clean, and the like, it is because she is lazy and for no other reason. There is no doubt that this is a grave thing. [These tasks] are the woman's right and obligation towards her husband… The wise Muslim woman must take care of and serve her husband, in a way that will gladden him and cast happiness between them."

"Another mistake is to allow entrance to anyone whom the husband does not permit to enter the home. The husband has the right to bring only the people he likes into his home, and the woman must obey him. She has no right to bring in anyone he hates, even if it is her relatives … When the husband takes other wives, some women behave with exaggerated jealousy, ignorance, and stupidity."[46]

APPENDIX - About Al-Minbar
The website Al-Minbar (www.alminbar.net)[47] - "Direct From Mecca" - was founnded by Wajdi Al-Ghazzaawi, who is also the website's executive director. According to Al-Ghazzawi, "Alminbar (The Pulpit) is a site for every Muslim who seeks knowledge and more specifically for every Imam looking to improve his speech and enhance the knowledge level of his congregation." According to VeriSign, Al-Minbar.net was created on July 13, 1999 and is registered to Wajdi Alghazzawi. All phone numbers and other contact information provided by Wajdi Alghazzawi and listed on VeriSign and on Al-Minbar.net list the website as Saudi-based.[48] [49] ,

According to Al-Minbar's introduction page, Al-Ghazzaawi created the website in an attempt to "provide [Imams] with the educational support they need, similar to the support other professionals have in their fields." Al-Ghazzaawi considered the Internet a perfect vehicle for accomplishing his objective, and despite facing a level of resistance from Imams who proclaimed that they "do not even have computers let alone internet access," the site was formed.

The website, which contains "thousands of written and audio khutbas [i.e. sermons]," was initially staffed by a team of "three sincere brothers" and has since grown to require a staff of "fifteen professional brothers." Al-Minbar apparently receives, or at least seeks to receive, funding from "prosperous Muslims," as in the site's introduction, Al-Ghazzaawi mentioned the difficulty of soliciting Muslims who were accustomed to donating to "traditional forms of charitable projects such as building Masjids or schools."

Al-Minbar states that the website is visited by "about three thousand Imams on [a] weekly basis," representing "sixty two countries and territories."

The following are listed as Al-Minbar.com's "education" staff:

"The site is being supervised by a distinguished team of students of knowledge. They are graduates of Islamic universities and Institutes of Hadeeth from Saudi Arabia, and specialized in different fields of knowledge. The following is a summarised introduction to the educational team."

Dr. Munqith Saqqaar, Monotheism (Tawheed), Ummul-Quraa University.
Mustafaa Aitiem, College of Hadeeth, University of Medinah.
Adnan Siamie, Hadeeth, Daarul-Hadeeth.
Adnan Safa Khan, Hadeeth, Daarul-Hadeeth.
Abdur Rahmaan Qaaid, Hadeeth, Daarul-Hadeeth.
Zahir Balfaqieh, The Advanced Academy For Imams and Du'aat.
Abdul Khaaliq Juma'aan, The Advanced Academy For Imams and Du'aat.
Tariq al-Wahidie, Islamic University of Madinah.

Notes
All links provided were accurate at the time of publishing but may no longer be so.

[1] Some sermons are undated. There may be also be slight inaccuracies in the dates given, due to conversion from the Muslim to the Gregorian calendar.

[2] An umbrella term for the ideologies and actions of infidels.

[3] According to Muslim belief, Allah delivered Jesus from crucifixion at the last minute.

[4] www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=1455, September 13, 1997.

[5] Undated. www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=1220.

[6] www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=4141, May 11, 2001.

[7] Undated. www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=4142.

[8] Undated. www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=4142.

[9] www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=2761, September 2, 2000.

[10] A poll tax levied on non-Muslims under Islamic rule.

[11] Undated. www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=4068.

[12] www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=5942 , February 1, 2002.

[13] www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=4450 , August 3, 2001.

[14] www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=5979, February 22, 2002.

[15] Undated. www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=4341.

[16] www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=4954, April 27, 2001.

[17] Undated. www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=3246

[18] www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=2188, July 10, 1998.

[19] www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=6071, April 12, 2002.

[20] Undated. www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=920.

[21] Undated. www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=4331.

[22] Undated. www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?media*URL=1810.

[23] www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.qasp?mediaURL=6086, April 19, 2002.

[24] www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=2773, April 21, 1995.

[25] Undated. www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=3174.

[26] www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=1370. February 13, 1986.

[27] www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=3047. October 7, 2000.

[28] www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=4367. October 22, 2000.

[29] Undated. www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=3094.

[30] Undated. www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=3095.

[31] Undated. www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=3095.

[32] Undated. www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=5948.

[33] Wajdi Al-Ghazzaawi is also the editor of the website Al-Minbar.

[34] www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=5628, October 6, 2001.

[35] Undated. http://www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=1216.

[36] Undated. www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=3095.

[37] www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=6057, March 22, 2002.

[38] Undated. www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=5949.

[39] www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=1845, February 12, 1999.

[40] www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=1620, June 5, 1999.

[41] www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=1628, May 22, 1999.

[42] www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=2699, June 13, 1998.

[43] Undated. www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=4096.

[44] Undated. www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=1069.

[45] www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=1633, May 1, 1999

[46] www.alminbar.cc/alkhutab/khutbaa.asp?mediaURL=4461, September 4, 1999.

[47] Al-Minbar maintains three web addresses: www.alminbar.com, www.alminbar.net, www.alminbar.cc.

[48] http://www.alminbar.com/aboutus.asp.

[49] http://www.alminbar.com/intro.asp.

Punishment Under Islamic Law

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Cutting off of hands, feet, etc…

Qur’an 5:33 The only reward of those who make war upon Allah and His messenger and strive after corruption in the land will be that they will be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled out of the land. Such will be their degradation in the world, and in the Hereafter theirs will be an awful doom;

Image from www.rawa.org
More at http://www.rawa.org/gallery.html

From http://www.homa.org

Nyadeng Malek, shown with her baby, Deng, was enslaved by government forces in 1996. When she tried to resist being raped, her finger was cut off. Picture courtesy of The Sudan Campaign.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=17888

From http://www.homa.org
From http://www.homa.org

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Hanging

Image from www.faithfreedom.org
More at http://www.faithfreedom.org/Gallery/1.htm (The link provided is page 1 of 8 in the gallery).

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Execution by Stoning

From http://www.homa.org
From http://www.homa.org

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Execution by the Gun

Public execution of women with 7 children (http://www.rawa.org/murder-w.htm)

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Abuse Towards Women

Qur’an 38:44 And take in your hand a green branch and beat her with It and do not break your oath; surely We found him patient; most excellent the servant! Surely he was frequent in returning .

From www.rawa.org & www.faithfreedom.org
Note: This women is being beaten for removing her burqa in public (http://www.rawa.org/beating.htm)
Qur’an 4:34 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.

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Killing Nonbelievers (kafirs) by Means of Brutal Beatings

From www.faithfreedom.org
A Hindu being beaten by Muslims in a mosque in Bangladesh. He was captured outside the mosque while going home. After Friday prayers were over, the Muslims came out and grabbed the first Hindu they could. Mr. Vimal Patak a Bangladeshi born Hindu was beaten to death with sticks as the Muslim mullas (priests) chanted "kill the Kafir!" (non-muslim). With folded hands he begged for his life and died a brutal death. It clearly shows the cruelty of Islam.

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Brutal Butcherings

From www.faithfreedom.org

Palestinian crowd waves interior body parts of but cheered human victim in Ramala

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Flogging

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http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE130242000?open&of=ENG-2MD

AI INDEX: MDE 13/024/2000 8 September 2000 AI Index: MDE 13/24/00

To: Health professionals
From: Medical office / Gulf Team
Date: 8 September 2000

MEDICAL LETTER WRITING ACTION

''Eye-for-an-eye'' sentence
Fear of punitive surgery: Gholamhossein Aryabakhshahyesh Iran

Summary

Amnesty International fears that Gholamhossein Aryabakhshahyesh may be at risk of punitive surgery in Tehran. According to press reports on 21 August 2000, a Tehran court has ordered one of his eyes to be removed in accordance with the law of retribution, part of the Iranian penal code, after he had blinded Mohammad Ali Qorbani in one eye in a traffic argument in the middle of a Tehran street which reportedly took place in April 1997.

Recommended actions

Please write politely worded letters:

expressing grave concern at reports that Gholamhossein Aryabakhshahyesh has been sentenced in a Tehran court to have one of his eyes removed as a punishment;
asking for verification of these reports and asking for information about how such a punishment would be carried out;
expressing concern that such punitive surgery would be contrary to international law, including the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and to international codes of medical ethics such as the UN Principles of Medical Ethics and the World Medical Association's Declarations of Geneva and Tokyo;
urging the authorities to abolish punishments which constitute cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, amounting to torture.

If you receive no reply from the government or other recipients within two months of dispatch of your letter, please send a follow up letter seeking a response. Please check with the medical team if you are sending appeals after 31 October 2000, and send copies of any replies you do receive to the International Secretariat (att: medical team).

Addresses
Leader of the Islamic Republic
His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed `Ali Khamenei,
The Presidency, Palestine Avenue,
Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Telegrams: Ayatollah Khamenei, Tehran, Iran
Salutation: Your Excellency

President
His Excellency Hojjatoleslam val Moslemin Sayed Mohammad Khatami
The Presidency, Palestine Avenue
Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Telegrams: President Khatami, Tehran, Iran
Salutation: Your Excellency

Head of Judiciary
His Excellency Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahrudi
Ministry of Justice, Park-e Shahr,
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Telegrams: Head of the Judiciary, Tehran, Iran
Salutation: Your Excellency

Copies

Minister of Foreign Affairs
His Excellency Kamal Kharrazi
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Abdolmajid Keshk-e Mesri Avenue
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran

Minister of Health
H.E. Mohammad Farhadi
Ministry of Health
Jomhouri-e Eslami Avenue
Tehran, Islamic Repubic of Iran

Mr Mohammad Hassan Zia'i-Far
Secretary, Islamic Human Rights Commission
PO Box 13165-137, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Faxes: + 98 21 204 0541

and to diplomatic representatives of Iran accredited to your country.

AI Index: MDE 13/24/00
Date: 8 September 2000

MEDICAL CONCERN
''Eye-for-an-eye'' sentence
Fear of punitive surgery: Gholamhossein Aryabakhshahyesh
Iran

Amnesty International fears that Gholamhossein Aryabakhshahyesh may be at risk of punitive surgery in Tehran. According to press reports on 21 August 2000, a Tehran court has ordered one of his eyes to be removed in accordance with the law of retribution after he had blinded Mohammad Ali Qorbani in one eye in a traffic argument in the middle of a Tehran street which reportedly took place in April 1997.

Background information

According to a report in the Iranian newspaper Entekhab, Gholamhossein Aryabakhshahyesh had stopped his car in the middle of a street in central Tehran when Mohammad Ali Qorbani, travelling with some family members, asked him to park the car elsewhere. In the ensuing argument, Gholamhossein Aryabakhshahyesh allegedly became angry and hit Mohammad Ali Qorbani in the eye with a stick. Qorbani reportedly no longer has sight in the eye which was hit by Gholamhossein Aryabakhshahyesh.

A Tehran Court reportedly ordered one of Aryabakhshahyesh's eyes to be removed in accordance with the Iranian penal code which includes the law of retribution, also known as the ''eye-for-an-eye'' rule. Amnesty International believes that, if these reports are confirmed, this punishment would constitute a form of torture and be contrary to international human rights standards which Iran has ratified. In addition, the surgeon's participation in the punishment would be contrary to the Hippocratic Oath, the UN Principles of Medical Ethics and the World Medical Association's Declarations of Geneva and Tokyo.

In January 1998 a man was also sentenced by a court to be blinded for blinding another man in an acid attack, the daily newspaper Iran reported. The victim of the attack said that officials had informed him that the sentence had to be carried out under medical supervision and no doctor had agreed to carry out this punishment. Amnesty International has not been able to independently establish if the punishment was ever carried out.

Medical ethics and human rights

Iran continues to impose a number of punishments contrary to international law. The punishment of surgically removing an eye is in contradiction with both international law and international codes of medical ethics.

Iran is party to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights which includes a prohibition of torture:
Article 7

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (..).

The UN Principles of Medical Ethics(1) address the issue as follows:

Principle 2
It is a gross contravention of medical ethics, as well as an offence under applicable international instruments, for health personnel, particularly physicians, to engage, actively or passively, in acts which constitute participation in, complicity in, incitement to or attempts to commit torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Principle 4
It is a contravention of medical ethics for health personnel, particularly physicians, to (..) participate in any way in the infliction of any treatment or punishment which is not in accordance with the relevant international instruments.

The World Medical Association's Declaration of Geneva, a modern equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath first adopted in 1948 and most recently amended in 1994, includes the following:

''I solemnly pledge myself to consecrate my life to the service of humanity(..);
The health of the patient will be my first consideration (..);
I will maintain the utmost respect for human life from its beginning even under threat and I will not use my medical knowledge contrary to the laws of humanity.''

In 1975 the World Medical Association adopted the Declaration of Tokyo, which is the most comprehensive statement produced by the medical profession on the question of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees. It states that:

1. The doctor shall not countenance, condone or participate in the practice of torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading procedures, whatever the offence of which the victim of such procedures is suspected, accused or guilty (..).

2. The doctor shall not provide any premises, instruments, substances or knowledge to facilitate the practice of torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or to diminish the ability of the victim to resist such treatment.

****
(1) UN Principles of Medical Ethics Relevant to the Role of Health Personnel, particularly Physicians, in the Protection of Prisoners and Detainees against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

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http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE130102004?open&of=ENG-IRN

PUBLIC AI Index: MDE 13/010/2004
13 February 2004
UA 65/04

Flogging / legal concern

IRAN Mohsen Mofidi (m), aged 35

Mohsen Mofidi has been sentenced to be flogged, and the sentence could be
carried out at any time.

He and his three sisters were arrested by the morality police in July 2003, at
their home in Tehran. All were released on bail, and ordered to attend court
for trial on 28 July. Mohsen was sentenced to four months' imprisonment, to be
followed by 80 lashes, on charges including possession of a medicine containing
alcohol, consuming alcohol 20 years previously, possession of a satellite dish,
and aiding and abetting his sisters' "corruption" (having boyfriends, to which
they allegedly admitted after being beaten in custody). He has also reportedly
been fined US$239. Mohsen apparently did not have access to adequate legal
representation during his trial, as the person appointed to act as his lawyer
lacked legal qualifications. His sisters were sentenced to 80 lashes and 130
lashes respectively on charges of 'corruption' for having boyfriends.

He and his sisters were summoned to appear on 10 January 2004; only Mohsen
attended, and began his jail sentence. His sisters did not attend, and fled the
country before their own flogging could be carried out.

On 11 February, the 25th anniversary of the 1979 revolution in Iran, his prison
sentence was suspended, and he is scheduled to be released imminently. It is
believed that his flogging sentence will be carried out on his final day of
detention. Prison officials are alleged to have told him that he will be able
to keep his shirt on during the lashing in return for a bribe.

Mohsen Mofidi is reported to be in Qasr prison in Tehran, where he has been
denied access to his family. He has reportedly been told by prison officials
that for a payment of $4,000, $1000 of which is to be paid immediately, he will
be transferred to a better part of the prison and be allowed to receive
visitors.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Amnesty International considers the punishment of flogging to constitute cruel,
inhuman and degrading treatment amounting to torture, in contravention of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which Iran is a
state party. In 2003 the organisation recorded 197 floggings as having been
carried out in Iran, although many more may in fact have taken place. In 1997
the United Nations commission on human rights stated that "corporal punishment
[such as flogging] can amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment, or
even to torture".

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Articles on Islam

Islamic Slavery

Saudi sheik: 'Slavery is a part of Islam'

Slave Raids Reported in Darfur

Arab militia use 'rape camps' for ethnic cleansing of Sudan

Islam's Wretched Record on Slavery

Group kicks off anti-slavery campaign

Rape and Islamic Law (Shair’ah)

Rape under a fundamentalist regime

Rape of Unbelievers in Islam

Mindset of Pakistanis favouring 1971 Genocide

Sudanese tell of mass rape

Rape in Islam: Blaming the Victim

Arab militia use 'rape camps' for ethnic cleansing of Sudan

Captives Recount Boy Rape in Sudan

Mass Rape Atrocity in West Sudan

Prophet Muhammad and Rape

Islamic Beheadings

Saudi Arabia’s Beheading Culture

Saudi Arabia – beheading capital of the world

Chopping Heads

The Sacred Muslim Practice of Beheading

Women Under Islamic Law

For her to be absolved from guilt, a raped woman must have shown good conduct

Torture of women under the Islamic Republic regime

Islam’s Shame - Lifting the veil of tears

TV host goes public with abuse

Ethnic Cleansing, War

Sudan's shadowy Arab militia

Islam’s Other Victims: India

Kashmir Rebels Mutilate Girl

Gaza’s Killing School

Ethnic Cleansing & Rise of Islamic Militancy in Bangladesh

A Bleak Future for Bangladesh Hindu's

A million facing death in Darfur, say aid teams

France opposes UN Sudan sanctions

Islam and Anti-Semitism

Symposium: Islamic Anti-Semitism

Based on Koranic Verses, Interpretations, and Traditions, Muslim Clerics State: The Jews Are the Descendants of Apes, Pigs, And Other Animals

A NEW ANTISEMITIC MYTH IN THE MIDDLE EAST MEDIA: The September 11 Attacks Were Perpetrated by the Jews

The False Holocaust - The Greatest of Lies Funded by the Zionists

The False Holocaust: The Greatest of Lies

Friday Sermons in Saudi Mosques: Review and Analysis

Punishment Under Islamic Law

Cutting off of hands, feet, etc…

Hanging

Execution by Stoning

Execution by the Gun

Abuse Towards Women

Killing Nonbelievers (kafirs) by Means of Brutal Beatings

Brutal Butcherings

Flogging

''Eye-for-an-eye'' sentence Fear of punitive surgery: Gholamhossein Aryabakhshahyesh Iran

Flogging / legal concern

''Eye-for-an-eye'' sentence
Fear of punitive surgery: Gholamhossein Aryabakhshahyesh Iran