I hope you can read this very good Facebook post

Dear Non-Muslim Allies, by Sofia Ali-Khan

No one should have to feel this sort of anxiety in America 2015. Or anywhere, for that matter. We had a local Islamic centre sent a death threat via e-mail recently. In Philadelphia, someone desecrated a mosque with a severed pig's head. In my apartment complex, there are many Southern and Central Asian, Middle Eastern, and African immigrants. I'm sure there are Muslims among them. I embrace the diversity of my area. I make a point to say hello and make conversation. Why should I be threatened by the sight of a foreigner because of the actions of a relative few? I don't fear men of European descent just because statistically they are more likely to be mass shooters in our country. But put in the concept of the other, alien culture, and suddenly we're back to the years of trying to keep the Irish, the Eastern Europeans, the Armenians, and the Jews out of our country. That's wrong. The US was founded on the principle of immigrants seeking a better life in a new world. Unless you are completely of American Indian heritage, if you are American you are the result of immigration. So I just don't get the xenophobia I've been seeing. It's wrong. Completely and utterly.

This is great, I hope it happens!

Meriam Ibrahim: Sudan 'to free' death row woman

Ms Ibrahim, 27, was brought up as an Orthodox Christian, but a Sudanese judge ruled earlier this month that she should be regarded as Muslim because that had been her father's faith.

She refused to renounce her Christianity and was sentenced to death by hanging for apostasy.

On Wednesday, she gave birth to a daughter in her prison cell - the second child from her marriage in 2011 to Daniel Wani, a US citizen.

The court said Ms Ibrahim would be allowed to nurse her baby for two years before the sentence was carried out.

The court had earlier annulled her Christian marriage and sentenced her to 100 lashes for adultery because the union was not considered valid under Islamic law.

This woman and her family have been through a horrible ordeal. May they be reunited soon.

So it does, indeed, look like a hate crime

Sikh temple shooting suspect Wade Michael Page was white supremacist

I didn't want to jump to that conclusion, but of course it was my first thought when I heard that a Sikh temple had been targeting for a mass shooting, innocent people going about their activities in preparation for worship and a meal, attacked for being different. Whether the shooter did this because he hated those he perceived as 'other' or if he mistakenly, like many, believed Sikhism to be some off-shoot of Islam (which it isn't at all), I don't know. As he is dead, we may never really know. On the other hand, he will not harm anyone else again. Sadly, though, there are plenty of people like him out there. Fortunately the greater number of people are tolerant and supportive or diversity.

Thinking of those killed or injured, their families and friends, and the Sikh community itself, in this time of sorrow.

UPDATE: On the subject of hate crimes, I saw this while looking at other news:

‘Suspicious’ fire leads to destruction of Joplin mosque

About a month after the Joplin Islamic Society’s roof was damaged in a suspected arson, the entire building burned down in a suspicious early morning fire on Monday, leaving little but charred remains.

People sometimes stay there during Ramadan, which is going on right now. To lose a house of worship during a holy month must be even more bitter, but at least no one was hurt.

Troubling

Thousands of Christians Displaced in Ethiopia After Muslim Extremists Torch Churches, Homes

Thousands of Christians have been forced to flee their homes in Western Ethiopia after Muslim extremists set fire to roughly 50 churches and dozens of Christian homes.

At least one Christian has been killed, many more have been injured and anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000 have been displaced in the attacks that began March 2 after a Christian in the community of Asendabo was accused of desecrating the Koran.

Ethiopia has a long tradition of Christianity, and Christians outnumber Muslims. But in this area, an extreme form of Islam is being used as an excuse for religious intolerance.

Religious extremism is, in my view, very bad regardless of the religion. I'd like to think these are just a very misguided fringe. Yet Muslim extremism seems to abound in many parts of the world. I think it's important for Muslim leaders to use their authority to promote peace between religions, rather than the reverse. Hopefully some sort of sense will prevail in Ethiopia, which has a long history of Christians and Muslims living side by side in peace.

Crazy

Christian woman faces death for blasphemy
Welcome to Pakistan, where you can be beaten and sentenced to death by hanging for insulting the Prophet Mohammed without uttering anything about him, especially if you don't belong to the Islamic faith.

I'm all for giving him asylum

although the fact that the Saudi government has been an ally to the US in many ways may prevent it, depending on how the politics go, we'll see. I will say at this point there's no going back--if his request is denied, things could very badly for him, between Islamic law condemning homosexuality and his threat 'to expose what he describes as politically embarrassing information about members of the Saudi royal family living in luxury in the U.S.'.

Saudi diplomat seeking asylum: 'My life is in danger': Envoy says he fears persecution if he leaves the U.S. and returns home

A ranking Saudi diplomat told NBC News that he has asked for political asylum in the United States, saying he fears for his life if he is forced to return to his native country.

The diplomat, Ali Ahmad Asseri, the first secretary of the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles, has informed U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials that Saudi officials have refused to renew his diplomatic passport and effectively terminated his job after discovering he was gay and was close friends with a Jewish woman.

A well done public-service message

but it's sad that it has to be done in a country which was founded on freedom of religion and which supposedly embraces diversity.



Via Joe.My.God.

Hah hah hah hah

Rush likens NYC Islamic center to building a Hindu temple next to Pearl Harbor
Of course, as oppositeofprogress points out:

Limbaugh sarcastically suggests that we build a Hindu Temple next to Pearl Harbor and a Mosque next to the Pentagon... without realizing that Shinto, not Hinduism, is the most common religion in Japan, and there is already a Mosque inside the Pentagon and a Shinto temple next to Pearl Harbor.

Okay, I don't think there is really a mosque inside the Pentagon, but they're dead right as to Shintoism, not Hinduism being Japan's main religion (and India did not bomb Pearl Harbour). [What there is in the Pentagon is a chapel, just like any other military installation, that is non-denominational.

"We have a wide variety of services," says Wright. "Protestant, Catholic Jewish, Hindu, Mormon, Episcopalian and Muslim. It is not unlike any other military chapel in any other military instillation around the world."]

The mosque-in-the-Pentagon thing was the result of comments made by Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., who represents the Ground Zero neighbourhood, on CNN. But still...Rush Limbaugh is a loud-mouth, hate-spewing idiot, in my humble opinion.

Brandon pointed me to this one

Ground Zero Mosque: Digging a Hole in the Soul of America

It is not insensitive to put a cultural center of any sort, that has a place of worship, anywhere in our city. This is what makes our country and our city great. As a nation that was founded by men and women who were being persecuted for their particular faith, we should know that the best path to finding freedom is finding freedom for others. We were formed as a pluralistic society and this means we welcome all religions. Islam did not attack the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, sick and twisted men did, who not only hijacked four airplanes but also hijacked a religion. Let us not stereotype the over one billion Muslims around the world because of the evil acts of a few. A decision like this one, to support or not support the construction of this center, defines who we are as a nation. It's at the essence of our values, our freedom of expression, freedom of religion and religious tolerance.

What he said...

I can't believe this is even a debate. Oh, wait, yeah, I forget, there are lots of paranoid yahoos out there.

Sigh.

In related news...

New York's Mayor Suggests To a Reporter That He Visit the Library (to read the Bill of Rights, that is). Birdie of LISNews.org included a great comment on the story in the New York Times City Blog: "As someone who lives and works in lower Manhattan, I’ve noticed that one’s hysteria over Park51 seems to be inversely proportional to one’s proximity to it."

:)

That's nice to see

Jews back Muslims on minaret ban

Citing religious discrimination, a diverse coalition of Jewish organizations is objecting to Switzerland's ban of minarets on local mosques.

A model of a minaret, burning candles and a banner that reads "This is not my Switzerland" are seen on the Bundesplatz square in front of the governments building in Bern, Switzerland, to protest the acceptance of a minaret ban initiative on Sunday.

Swiss voters this week approved by a strong majority a referendum outlawing the construction of minarets. The measure, pushed by the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP), was supported by 57 percent of the population.

However, Jewish organizations, realizing that a crackdown on Islam could have repercussions for Jews as well, have come to the defense of Muslim worshipers, arguing that the Swiss's move was unjustifiable.

The French ambassador very rightly points out that in terms of concerns against radical Islam, the best way to deal with it is to moderate it, and such measures do nothing but aggravate the situation, although France has its own issues with its ban of the birka. The Swiss government, citing religious freedom concerns, did not support the vote. A party in Italy is considering bringing a similar vote there.

One of the scariest quotes came from Hegumen Filaret (Bulekov), a Moscow Patriarchate representative at the Council of Europe:

The issue of minarets is not an issue of religious freedom, but it is an issue of political presence of people of a certain faith and ethnic background in a country. Taking into account a rapid rate of Islamization, visible signs of Muslims' presence would have, in particular, a political tint.

So I guess the idea is to erase the visible signs of Islamic presence. How would they feel about taking away churches and synagogues while they're at it?

I am very concerned with the growth of nationalism in both Europe and here. Right-wing politics tend to be very clear about those seen as foreign as being an undesirable presence and somehow dangerous. This sentiment obviously worked in Switzerland. Look at the British National Party, or some of the fringe parties in America as well, some bordering or downright embracing a neo-Nazi-like agenda. Likewise, I am concerned about the fringe groups within Islam that amount to the same sort of mentality, but tend to be more violent, at least for now. It all seems ripe for isolationalism (I give you: Isolationism among Americans is at highest level in 40 years), fascism, even genocide, if taken to an extreme. Anyone remember what happened last century, say in the 20s and 30s? Or that there were plenty of supporters of nationalism and fascism (in part fueled by the immigration of Jews and Eastern Europeans in the first couple of decades of the 20th century) here in the US before we went to war?

That, coupled with the erosion of rights I see in the US and beyond, makes me more than a little worried at what direction the world (and history) are taking today.

The rights of women seem to be among the first to fall in Chechnya

Chechen leader imposes strict brand of Islam: Critics fear dictatorship in region where Russian laws will not apply

Ramzan Kadyrov insists seven young women shot in the head and found alongside a road were the victims of Islamic honour killings for having loose morals, even though the facts and quite a bit of public opinion do not agree. It's just one aspect of a move towards a stricter form of Islam that has some worried about the loss of separation of church and state that Russian law ensures.

There is a Jewish prayer where a man thanks G-d for not being born a woman. I thank the Gods I was not born a woman under Islam. I don't have trouble with Islam itself--but the strict forms are hell on women's rights. Lots of religions have problems in terms of how they treat women--how they should dress, how they should behave, etc. I fortuantely don't have that problem in my own religion, which is actually rather female-centric, but all it would take is a change in religious freedom and that could go out the window. Also, the rights I enjoy as a US citizen are not portable through the world, and that's certain true in many Muslim areas, among others. It seems to me that most Fundamentalist faiths seem to share the desire to control women, and any faith focussed on controlling half of the population in favour of the other half is just wrong, no matter what faith it is--Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or non-Biblical religions that relegate women to traditional roles and ideals.

And whilst headscarves can be pretty, and it's certainly any woman's right to wear them should she choose--it shouldn't be imposed on women on pain of punishment. It often seems to start with headscarves, doesn't it? Then it's a birka, or who you can talk to, and what you can talk about. Then it spins downward from that. Other religions have their own versions of headscarves, too, so I'm not just picking on Islam.

Speaking of religion

Here is Graham's (somegreybloke) latest video post:
'Choosing My Religion 2'


I love the Jesus-headed pigeon with God's thunderbolt. :) What can I say, you have to watch. My favourite line, 'It depends if you favour the words of Jesus or the words of Paul. Most Christians seem to go with the latter. Which is odd, because you would think Jesus would outrank Paul. Apparently not.'

Star-crossed lovers

Forced Annulment Keeps Couple Apart

Fatima and Mansour al-Timani were married with her father's blessing, even though his clan did not have as much prestige as hers. But her relatives convinced her father to give them power of attorney, and after he died they filed to annul the marriage. The police came and informed them of a divorce in abstentia granted by a judge. According to Saudi law, they cannot live together. In fact, when they did reunite they were found by the police. Fatima was given the choice to return to her mother or go to jail. She chose jail. She was imprisoned along with her two children. Eventually her daughter was allowed to return to her father. The boy, who was an infant, remained with her. She is now out of jail. Her husband has been taking the case through the system. An appeals court upheld the original annulment, but studies of Islamic law showed that since her legal guardian gave permission and attended the wedding, the other relatives should not have any right to request an annulment. A request has been made for the case to go before the highest court in the land. Also, Fatima holds out hope that the king of Saudi Arabia could pardon her and recognise the marriage. If not, she is prepared to commit suicide rather than be separated from Mansour.

I hope they are able to be together again. I know it's a different culture, but it seems to me that if her father gave permission--which is required for a woman to marry--then the legalities were observed and her relatives shouldn't be able to change things, especially after they have had children together.

At least the relatives didn't kill her like that awful story of the Indian family where the father killed his pregnant daughter, son-in-law, and grandson because she'd married without his permission to someone of a lower caste.