The Harm

Pakistan Taliban leader gives beard warning: residents

KHAR, Pakistan (AFP) — A Pakistani Taliban leader has warned local tribesmen to grow beards within the next two months in accordance with Islamic teachings or face harsh punishment, residents said Monday.

The threat came amid an apparent increase in incidents of militants trying to enforce Islamic Sharia law in Pakistan’s tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, where the new government is trying to make peace with hardliners.

“Men must grow beards and stop shaving within the next two months,” residents quoted senior Taliban commander Maulvi Faqir Mohammad as telling dozens of people at a mosque in Khar, the main town in Bajaur tribal district.

“It is un-Islamic to shave beards. Harsh punishments will be awarded to all violators,” added Mohammad, the central vice chief of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (Pakistan Taliban Movement) and also a Muslim cleric.

Suspected Islamic militants have been meting out vigilante justice in the tribal belt and targeting “un-Islamic” hair salons, music and video shops with explosive devices for the past few years.

So cause there religious rules say shaving is wrong they plan to kill people who shave. How good and just there god must be.

Suspended lashing for Iranian feminist

tehran • Iran has handed a feminist a suspended sentence of 10 lashes and six months in prison, the Kargozaran newspaper reported yesterday, in the fourth such punishment for a women’s rights activist in Iran within weeks.

The sentence for Rezvan Moghadam imposed by Tehran’s revolutionary tribunal is suspended for three years, meaning it will be implemented if she repeats the stated offence within that time.

Moghadam was arrested along with 32 other women activists in front of Tehran’s revolutionary tribunal in March 2007, where five feminists were being tried for taking part in a demonstration in June 2006.

The exact nature of the charges against her was not made clear.

In recent weeks the court has handed three other women’s rights activists — Nahid Jafari, Nasrin Afzali and Marzieh Mortazi Langueroudi — identical suspended sentences for taking part in the same 2007 demonstration.

Iran has exerted mounting pressure on women’s rights advocates, and in recent months several have been arrested for calling for changes to Iranian laws or for taking part in public protests.

The activists have been promoting the “one million signature” campaign backed by Nobel peace prize winner Shirin Ebadi — an attempt to change Iranian laws that discriminate against women by collecting signatures online and in person.

The five feminists tried in March 2007 were accused of acting against national security for the June 2006 demonstration in Tehran’s Haft-e Tir square, where 70 people were arrested amid allegations of police brutality.

Protesters demanded equal rights for women in marriage, divorce, inheritance and child custody.

A feminist gets 10 lashes and 6 months in jail for wanting rights for woman.

Ali seeks control of films

Gov. Mamman Ali of Yobo has called on the state’s Sharia monitoring committee to support the control of local and foreign films with negative influence on youths.

Ali made the call in Damaturu while addressing the state’s and local government Sharia monitoring committees.

He said efforts were being made to control and prevent the show of films that could change the behaviour of youths negatively.

“I will ensure the state radio and television stations broadcast films and programmes that would exhibit virtues of our culture and morality in preference to immoral foreign films,” Ali said.

He urged the committees to support efforts of the state to develop education sector, stressing that his administration would construct boarding primary schools in all the Local Government Areas.

“With your support we hope to ensure that western and religious teachings were used to improve the morality and conduct of youths,” he added.

He lauded the committees for embarking on the campaign to reduce immorality and ensure peaceful co-existence among the people.

The Chairman of the committee, Malam Adamu Mohammed, attributed the reduction in the consumption of alcohol and prostitution to the implementation of Sharia legal system.

The harm? Censorship of movies in the name of religion.

In Padang, Islamic law is now imposed on all

The controversial local laws inspired by sharia are now being applied to non-Muslim citizens. Female students who do not wear the headscarf are suspended, and few have the courage to rebel, because of fear of reprisals from fundamentalists.

Jakarta (AsiaNews) - In Padang, capital of the province of West Sumatra, the atmosphere is increasingly that of an Islamic state. Female students who do not wear the headscarf (hijab) are frequently suspended from school. The requirement to observe Islamic customs, sanctioned by the controversial regional law of 2005, is also imposed on non-Muslim girls, and has generated an atmosphere of strong pressure on religious minorities. The proliferation of local laws inspired by sharia (perda syariat) is a growing phenomenon in Indonesia, but the central government has chosen not to intervene for now, in spite of protests from religious minorities and human rights NGO’s.

The situation is not limited to Padang alone, where the most active promoter of Islamic laws is the mayor himself, Fauzi Bahar. In this province, which has an overwhelming Muslim majority, since 2002 more than 19 districts have ratified the so-called “perda syariat”, norms that are, however, supposed to be applied only to Muslim citizens: some of them criminalise behaviours prohibited by Islamic law, like adultery, prostitution, games of chance, and consumption of alcohol, while others restrict the freedom of women. Men as well are required to wear Islamic dress: the traditional white robe called the “koko”.

Imposing religious laws on people not in that religion, why not just not impose religious law on anyone? Why not treat every one equal under a secular system? Wouldn’t that be better?

Muslim mob attacks Christians in Kano State, Nigeria.

A report from Compass Direct News says hundreds of Muslims went on a rampage burning Christian shops and vehicles on claims that a Christian had blasphemed the Islamic prophet Mohammed. Thousands of Christians were trapped in churches until police dispersed rioters.

Voice of the Martyrs’ Todd Nettleton explains, “There has been tension in Kano, and across Northern Nigeria between Muslims and Christians. So, just hearsay that Mohammed had been blasphemed against was enough to stir people to violence.”

The Compass report went on to say that the Muslim mob went to the police station, threatening to burn it down unless officers released the Christian to be stoned to death in accordance with Sharia law. Police were able to disperse the mob.

Although the violence and the riots haven’t seen many headlines as of late, that doesn’t mean the sectarian troubles have disappeared. In fact, Nettleton says, the the push to implement Sharia law in the region may be inflaming the attacks.

With jittery nerves, Christians, particularly those involved in outreach, are laying low. Nettleton says, “It is dangerous to be a Christian in northern Nigeria, particularly if you’re involved in outreach. Hundreds of Christians have now gone to the police station, they’ve gone to the military bases saying, ‘we believe this attack is not over, we believe there will be more violence. Protect us from that!’”

Attacks against minority a religion cause of religious law. That what you get when people take religion seriously.

Dozens hurt as Bangladesh Islamists battle police

DHAKA (AFP) — Dozens were injured in the Bangladeshi capital Friday as police fired tear gas at thousands of Islamic activists protesting against the emergency government’s bid to ensure equal rights for women, police said.

The roads in front of Dhaka’s main mosque became a battleground as about 5,000 men armed with bamboo sticks and bricks clashed with police, who responded with tear gas and batons, deputy police commissioner Mazharul Islam said.

“They attacked the policemen with bricks and sticks immediately after the weekly Friday prayers. We shot tear gas shells and baton-charged the unruly activists,” Islam said, adding that dozens were injured in the clashes.

Witnesses said at least 100-150 were injured including three photo-journalists as police let off scores of tear gas canisters, some inside the country’s biggest mosque complex called Baitul Mukarram.

The activists belonging to the Committee to Resist Anti-Koran Laws, a coalition of Islamic parties, chased police with bamboo sticks and bricks, Islam said. Several policemen were among the casualties.

The protests were against a women’s development policy adopted in March by the government advocating equal property rights for women.

Muslim clerics and parties have warned of nationwide demonstrations saying they will not tolerate any laws that contradict sharia, or the Islamic legal code.

Soon after the new policy was announced, the government backed down, explaining it had not been passed into law. No legislation would be passed “that goes against the Koran and the traditions of Prophet Mohammed,” the government said.

Cause there religious laws oppress woman when some there government wants to implement equal rights between men and woman, they protest violently?

Nigerian Sharia court punishes lesbian couple

Two women in Kaduna, Nigeria have been sentenced to six months in prison and 20 lashes each for having a lesbian relationship.

The Sharia court said that Malama Hauwa and Hajiya Ai’sha were violating the tenets of Islam and the teachings of Sharia law.

The women claimed in court to have been married for five years. Ai’sha said she had paid a dowry of 5,000 Nigerian naira (£21) to her ‘wife’ at the start of their relationship.

And the Christan right here in the US wants to institute similar laws.

Proposal to apply sharia to non-Muslims also

Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews) - Lawyers, minorities, but also women and religious Muslims in Malaysia are expressing their strong concerns about the proposal to apply sharia to non-Muslims as well, which has emerged in a recent seminar of Islamic scholars and jurists. The chorus of condemnation was unleashed by the declaration of a judge of the Islamic court of appeal, Mohamed Asri Abdullah, who said that during the meeting there were discussions about applying the penalties for the crime of khalwat (excessive closeness between two persons) to non-Muslims well as well, through civil tribunals.

In fact, in Malaysia there exist two forms of law: Islamic and constitutional, and the two often are in conflict. One example is religious freedom, which is guaranteed by the constitution but violated by sharia, which punishes those who “abandon” Islam by converting.

According to the president of the lawyers’ council, Ambiga Sreenevasan, “we are facing a violation of the federal constitution, and the proposal is unacceptable”. In an official statement, the council expresses its concern about other proposals as well: a sharpening of penalties and the institution of a rehabilitation centre for Muslims condemned of crimes of “morality and faith”.

Why is it that very religious people always want to impose there religious rules onto everybody? heres an idea, why not get extent constitutional law to every body and get rid of sharia law?

and minimum marrying age
EGYPT: A battle over female circumcision

Islamists and conservative clerics are fighting proposed legislation in the Egyptian parliament that would criminalize female circumcision and raise the minimum age of when a girl can marry. The Islamists view the bill as an affront to Sharia law.

The legislation drafted by the government-backed National Council for Motherhood and Childhood would impose a prison sentence of as long as two years and a maximum fine of 5,000 Egyptian pounds, or about $1,000. The proposal would raise the minimum age of marriage from 16 to 18. The bill has been met with a storm of anger by a number of delegates from both the majority and the Islamist opposition led by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Opponents say the new restrictions are an attempt by the government to impose a Western agenda on an Islamic society. Some clerics, in opposing the bill, state that Islamic Sharia law condones female circumcision and imposes no minimum age of marriage. “Religion does not prohibit or criminalize female circumcision,” prominent Islamic scholar Mustafa al-Shaka said to the local press this week.

Islamic scholars have been divided over the religious validity of female circumcision. One camp holds that Islam opposes it, while the other argues that this procedure, in which parts of the female genitals are removed, is necessary to tame a woman’s sexual desires and ensure decency.

The bill’s architects hold that there is a national consensus on the criminalization of female circumcision. “Nobody can deny that the Egyptian society resents the negative health effects caused by [female] circumcision,” said Moushira Khattab, secretary-general of the National Council for Motherhood and Childhood. “Thus, the punishment of those who conduct that practice is a must.”

Female circumcision remains a widespread practice in Egypt, despite having been illegal for years. About 70% of Egyptian girls are believed to be victims of the practice. Last summer, the death of a 12-year-old girl in Upper Egypt in a clinic where she was undergoing the procedure reignited calls to impose harsher penalties on practitioners of the surgery.

Islomists oppose a bill cause there religion “doesn’t prohibit it”?

Bangladesh Retreats on Women’s Rights After Muslim Protes

DHAKA (AFP) — Bangladesh’s military-backed government has backed down from a policy to ensure equal property rights to women amid angry protests by Muslim clerics that the move would override Islamic law.

The country’s law minister Hasan Arif said the government “does not have any plan to enact any laws that goes against the Koran and the traditions of Prophet Mohammad,” a government statement said.

Arif gave the assurance to top Islamic clerics and scholars late on Tuesday, after Islamic groups warned of nationwide protests, saying they would not tolerate any law that went against sharia, the Islamic law code.

So cause of Islam and its law woman may not have equal property rights.