Intoxication

Warms up your heart, doesn’t it?

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A 13-year-old girl who said she had been raped was stoned to death in Somalia after being accused of adultery by Islamic militants, a human rights group said.

Dozens of men stoned Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow to death Oct. 27 in a stadium packed with 1,000 spectators in the southern port city of Kismayo, Amnesty International and Somali media reported, citing witnesses.

To all those idiots out there supporting al-Qaeda, this is the kind of shit you’re going to end up with if they ever get to rule your neighborhood.

I understand you may have your own “kinder” interpretation of Sharia, but the kind featured above is precisely what they’ll be busy shoving down our throats. I’m sure you’d love to see your daughters or sisters go through similar “holy” trials if they too get raped and can’t produce four witnesses to confirm that the crime took place, right?

Disgusting.

For the zillionth time, Sharia is NOT holy, and never will be. I speak in practical terms, because Sharia’s enforcement requires an initial interpretation of religious scriptures - both activities ultimately being the product of fallible humans, people just like you and me.

So please dear Muslims, don’t fear criticizing Sharia. Go ahead. Feel free to tear it apart where appropriate if you wish to do so, and if anyone pushes the “hey, how dare you criticize God’s law?” argument in your face, you know what to do.

Even God’s laws or so-called laws require interpretation, something which is inevitably exercised by imperfect, fallible bearded men (rarely women in case you haven’t noticed), many of whom are just power-hungry morons who hide behind a veil of piety to shield themselves from criticism.

Cool?

Now excuse me while I go and continue puking.

UPDATE: There are a number of legitimate questions from fellow (albeit traditionalist) Muslims which have popped up in the comments section. While I responded in a comment, I thought it would be better if I added it here in the post to make it more visible.

[click to continue...]

… too little, too late.

Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari is one of my favorite liberal Arab intellectuals. Believe it or not, he’s also the former Dean of Islamic Law at Qatar University.

Next time you hear people asking you “where are the moderates,” show them this video.

Don’t say they don’t exist. We’re everywhere, but we need to start “shouting” louder.

Enjoy and yaaay to liberalism.

The last bit about Germany is interesting too.

In her first interview, she made numerous valid points even though she wrongly implied that Islam itself is the problem. In this new one though, she’s just outright angry and nasty, making a very passionate anti-Islam rant by suggesting that the terrorism supposedly started 1400 years ago.

Right.

1) Calm down

2) Stop the broad strokes of your brush

The whole thing was one big silly shouting match. These people should learn a thing or two from the Doha debates. If they can’t, I suggest we give them some Xanax pills but I don’t think it will help because it seems to me that al-Jazeera purposely loves holding heated “debates” like this one between passionate individuals from extreme sides of the spectrum.

Very nicely said.

(hat-tip: Lynn)

How comforting:

February 25, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — The walls in the Sudanese capital as well as another major city have been smothered with Graffiti supporting the Al-Qaeda terrorist Islamic militant group, multiple sources told Sudan Tribune.

Residents of Khartoum and Omdurman woke up to paintings showing Islamic symbols such as the crescent with the words “Al-Qaeda Organization in Sudan” on them.

Evil butcher-wannabes. Meanwhile,Sudanese authorities are downplaying the whole thing. I guess they don’t want expatriates working in the oil sector to get freaked out.

Check out this post and have a look at my comment below the one made on “February 28th, 2008 1:16 pm”.

Ah, the joys of running a blog like this one.

“No, the Eskimos did! No wait, you started it first! Aaarrgghhh!”

I almost died with laughter when I saw this cartoon. Hilarious and pure genius! Can’t we all just get along? Why not?

Come on Danes and Jews, we promise to stop but only if you do so first. Cool? Seriously, because if you don’t, I’m telling the UN. Oh and I’m also going to boycott Wikipedia (which is controlled by Zionist CrUSAders in case you didn’t know).

This is a very, very important and serious issue. Forget everything else. Even Kawthar agrees.

… the suffering of countless people usually continues unnoticed and uncared for.

We need Israelis to step into Darfur, because when they do the Arab media will blast the spotlight on the nastiness taking place there… and they’ll blame it on the Jews.

We need a few Zionists to walk around the slums at the outskirts of Khartoum because when they do, people will finally discover and realize the amount of misery that exists there… and then in a fraction of a second, they’ll somehow blame it on the Jews.

At the Altar of Palestine, we sacrifice our issues. Mona Eltahawy isn’t alone in what she thinks because indeed, there can be no denying the obvious.

For decades, successive dictators in the Arab world have sacrificed their respective national concerns on the altar of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, telling us it must be resolved before any kind of progress can be made, whether it’s stopping terrorism, embracing democracy or ending poverty. Unsurprisingly, despite peace with Israel for the past 29 years, Egypt still suffers from all those problems.

As long as Palestinians suffer under the evil Zionists, there cannot be any progress in our nations. As long as Jews are alive, our problems will not go away. We must rid ourselves of this cancer. Must we not?

Arab media, particularly the state-owned kind, are equally discouraged from focusing on national issues — such as the desperate state of our slums — and instead devote most newsprint and airtime to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or Iraq. The latter never got much attention when Saddam Hussein was filling mass graves with Shi’ites and Kurds, but catapulted to the top of the news bulletins when the Arab world’s other bete noire — the United States — invaded Iraq in 2003.

Ah, how could I forget those Americans — the Big Satan? Once we’re done with the Little Satan, we’ll turn our sights to the Big one — the land of alcohol, porn, Las Vegas and the root of all evil.

Let’s shelter our oppressed Palestinian brothers. Let’s put them first before any of those living a few feet away from us. They deserve more help. The problems in our own backyards don’t matter, and for many they don’t even exist, but those that are miles and miles away from us do — through our television screens, the radios’ shouts and screams, opinions of the Arab streets, and our schools’ books and distorted dreams.

Oh Lord, destroy the sons of pigs and apes. They are our wonderful leaders’ deadly Weapons of Mass Distraction.

What the…

Omar — one of bin Laden’s 19 children — raised a tabloid storm last year when he married a 52-year-old British woman, Jane Felix-Browne, who took the name Zaina Alsabah.

… Omar lived with the al-Qaida leader in Sudan, then moved with him to Afghanistan in 1996.

There, Omar says he trained at an al-Qaida camp but in 2000 he decided there must be another way and he left his father, returning to his homeland of Saudi Arabia.

“I don’t want to be in that situation to just fight. I like to find another way and this other way may be like we do now, talking,” he said in English.

Erm, you mean dialogue. But it’s okay, doesn’t matter. So far so good.

… Omar doesn’t criticize his father and says Osama bin Laden is just trying to defend the Islamic world.

Raaaight!

… Omar is convinced a truce between the West and al-Qaida is possible.

Oh yeah? Good luck!

This is sad. Last year, around this same time, it was Saddam Hussein. Most rejoiced. Now, we have this shit.

May she rest in peace.

For information and updates, I recommend checking out Ali Eteraz.

Finally! I’m glad she’ll soon be reunited with her loved ones.

While watching this video of the Sudanese minister of foreign affairs speaking about the pardon (yeah, as if she did something wrong), he made an interesting comment which caught my ears.

He was basically saying that they expect to be treated back in the same manner in regards to Muslim Sudanese citizens all over the world locked up unfairly without trial. It’s a hint to Sami al-Hajj and other Sudanese locked up in Guantanamo. Clever.

It looks like al-Bashir could manage to deflect the anger of the hardliners quite well by positioning his act as one supposedly made on the condition for a potential future exchange for the release of Sudanese like Sami al-Hajj.

NOTE: Scroll down for the post on the Teddy Bear Crisis.

NOTE II: Expect a follow-up article about this issue very soon. 

Ah, how I love the internet and the freedom of expression it provides. I discovered three Facebook groups dedicated to opposing the imprisonment of Ms Gibbons. Two are started by Sudanese. The following is a representative quote from one of them:

To the Sudanese government: SHAME ON YOU! YOU HAVE INSULTED MY RELIGION , ISLAM BY DETAINING GILLIAN, YOU HAVE LOWERED MY PROPHET’S STATUS BY BEING SO PATHETIC AND YOU CONTINUE TO CAUSE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE IN DARFUR TO SUFFER. YOU CALL YOURSELVES MUSLIMS?, FOR SHAME! YOU TERRORISE YOUR OWN PEOPLE, AND DO THEM WRONG WHERE WILL YOU HIDE FROM ALLAH ON JUDGEMENT DAY?

… puts us in the headlines again and boosts our supreme notoriety. Spare some time and read the story here.

A British schoolteacher has been arrested in Sudan accused of insulting Islam’s Prophet, after she allowed her pupils to name a teddy bear Muhammad… the charge could lead to six months in jail, 40 lashes or a fine.

The incident is getting major coverage in the blogosphere and I find myself not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Check out the results in Google Blog Search and Technorati for the keywords “teddy bear sudan”. There are hundreds!

The whole thing is just so unbelievably pathetic. Clearly it’s an honest and innocent mistake. Oh no, how stupid can I be, she’s a white British infidel so it must be a freaking Zionist CrUSAde and Jewish conspiracy. Right? Raaaight!

I don’t think she’ll get lashed or imprisoned. I believe (hope?) she’ll get away with paying a fine - a fine which she doesn’t deserve to pay in my opinion.

Unity School where Ms Gibbons teaches is one of the most prominent international schools in Khartoum. Relatives and many friends of mine studied there. The school has a British curriculum and those who graduate receive an O’Levels certificate.

This isn’t the first time the school finds itself in the midst of a controversy, albeit one surely not as big as this. Back in the 90’s when beloved al-Turabi was still in power and his version of Sharia was being shoved down our throats, the school came under pressure to change the girl’s uniform. Many Islamists hated the fact that girls wore skirts and mixed with boys. Now we have this. And meanwhile, British Keefieboy is confused:

why is it ok for many thousands of men, some of whom have IQs appoaching zero, to be named after him?

Approaching zero indeed.

How is an educated non-Muslim supposed to know what the rules are (answer to last question: you’re not - the rules are made up as we go along). And why is everyone assuming that the bear is named after the Prophet - I believe the caretaker at that school is called Muhammed and everyone really likes him.

Once more, Islamic hardliners are making their religion look ridiculous. How sad.

Make that depressing!

Takhalllllllluf 3ajeeeeeeb ya nas!!

UPDATE I: The Teddy Bear “Crisis” Gets More Attention

Oh dear, it just hit CNN! I watched it five minutes ago. The British Prime Minister commented on the incident and already high ranking British government officials are engaging Sudanese ones in the… ah so very, very important matter.

Freelance journalist Rob Crilly is reporting from Khartoum with a post on his blog, followed by an article in Times Online elaborating the updates.

I hate the stupidity of this. More attention will hopefully mean the release of Ms Gibbons without getting jailed or lashed so bring it please! Of course we may fully expect to see local hardliners politicizing the incident for their own advantage and trying to mobilize anger with it which shall complicate matters further. They’ll squeeze its juices until the last drop. Fingers crossed.

At the moment, some pro-government newspapers are making it seem that the teacher named the teddy bear Muhammad on her own and on purpose. Here are posts from my fellow annoyed Sudanese bloggers on the issue:

• Kizzie
• Amjad
• Rara Avis

The school has been shut down until January for fear of reprisals. Wow, surprise of the century!

UPDATE II: The Teddy Bear “Crisis” Continues - Teacher Sentenced To 15 Days In Jail Followed By Deportation

I can’t believe the ridiculous amount of attention this is getting. I guess it happens when we have depressingly pathetic incidents like this. People! We should be talking about Darfur instead! But… it looks like we won’t. So here I go, while doing my best not to fill up this post update with profanities.

Ms Gibbons will unfortunately be spending the next two weeks in a tiny room after which she will head back home to her country. The bright side? At least she’s not getting lashed 40 times. At the start I was honestly expecting she’ll get away with a fine but when the noisy hardliners got louder and began making their usual super sensible statements, I got skeptical.

I can’t really say I’m surprised over how this turned out. These people live in a world of conspiracy theories where everything a Westerner does might be a plot against Islam.

However, influential Muslim hard-liners sought to raise outrage over the case. The semi-official Assembly of the Ulemas, or Islamic clerics, said Wednesday that Gibbon’s action was “another ring in the circles of plotting against Islam.”

They’re so bored out of their minds, they need to imagine themselves as characters in a video game. This is entertainment to them. They thrive on this. And you know what? I say Islam’s biggest enemy is in fact people like them.

Imams are going to order people to demonstrate after Friday prayers today.

Wednesday night, a pickup truck drove through Khartoum calling for Sudanese to hold protests after Muslim prayers Friday.

But Maj. Gen. Abdeen al-Tahir of the Khartoum police, vowed security would prevent any protests. “Nothing will happen tomorrow,” he said.

Good luck Mr. Abdeen. It should be fun. Damn, I’m so jealous, I wish I could join them. There will be shouting, and screaming, and jumping, and a big crowd of furious people. Seriously, what’s there not to like? The only thing missing is a heavy metal band. Now that would be cool. We’ll make a mosh pit, head bang together and proclaim “down with the infidel teacher”. Oh and then we’ll start burning some American flags! Yaaay!

Al-Bashir’s NCP doesn’t want this to escalate. Hardliners could very well inflame strong sentiments against Westerners in the city which will obviously be bad, hence the wonderful “balancing act”. Bleh. And some people wonder why I adore cute Islamists.

A teddy bear named Muhammad? Oh, very, very insulting. An Islamic media company releasing a DVD featuring a stuffed toy named Adam? Let’s just ignore it. Lovely butchers like him YES! Oh yeah, now THAT’S what I’m talking about. No problem at all. None whatsoever.

Oh and for all you Brits putting the blame on her, SHAME ON YOU! As for the Commenters, tone down your derogatory language. Alright?

UPDATE III: Demonstrators Call For Teacher’s Execution.

Maj. Gen. Abdeen al-Tahir of the Khartoum police failed. There were angry protests. No surprise there really.

KHARTOUM, Sudan - Thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and knives, rallied Friday in a central square and demanded the execution of a British teacher convicted of insulting Islam for allowing her students to name a teddy bear “Muhammad.”

… They massed in central Martyrs Square, outside the presidential palace, where hundreds of riot police were deployed, although they did not attempt to stop the rally.

I gotta tell you, the mixture of religious dogmatic views and culture of honor displayed in this case is appalling.

… The women’s prison where Gibbons is being held is far from the site, as is the Unity High School where she taught, which is under heavy security protection.

I just got off the phone a while ago. A close friend of mine has younger siblings who study in Unity High School where Ms Gibbons taught. Some people did in fact want to burn down the school.

The “crisis” continues.