About Marital Rape . . .

I am absolutely disgusted with this latest declaration by a female scholar on Islam online.

Forcing Wife to Make Love

Zienab Mostafa (IslamOnline.net)

… Of course if the husband insists on sleeping with his wife by force, it would not be considered rape since this is a right granted to him, but it is also not in accordance with Islamic teachings ….

Soooooooooo … it’s “not nice” to sexually assault your wife, but it’s your right to do so if you want to.

According to her IslamOnline bio…

Zienab Mostafa is a well-known Da`iyah based in London. She is distinguished in clarifying the Islamic rulings pertaining women’s issues.

I’m fairly sure that marital rape NOT legal in the UK where this woman is based and I urge women who are living under these violent and humiliating conditions to seek help from law enforcement.

A more rational view on the evil of sexual violence within marriage is offered here from Debra Mubashshi (ProgressiveIslam.org):

Islam and Sexual Violence: Marital Rape

Egypt: Persecuting Muslim Dissidents

Egypt persecutes Muslim moderates

Ahmed Subhy Mansour (International Herald Tribune)

Many Americans do not realize that there is a war being waged in Egypt against Muslim reformers. These reformers call themselves “Koranists” because they focus solely on the Koran and advocate a modern interpretation of Islam that rejects Shariah law….

The rejection of the Hadiths as a source of Muslim law leads traditionalists to claim that “Koranists” (often referred to as Submitters) are not really really practicing Islam and are “deviant” or, even, apostates. As such, if they are persecuted by authoritarian governments, they can count on little or no sympathy from other Muslims.

Pakistan and Afghanistan: Taliban Thugs in Action

Radio Spreads Taliban’s Terror in Pakistani Region

Richard A Oppel, Jr. (New York Times)

Every night around 8 o’clock, the terrified residents of Swat, a lush and picturesque valley a hundred miles from three of Pakistan’s most important cities, crowd around their radios. They know that failure to listen and learn might lead to a lashing — or a beheading….

Afghan students back in class after acid attacks

Noor Khan and Heidi Vogt (Associated Press)

Teenage girls in blue and green burqas pour into the schoolyard, where they pull off their coverings, stuff them in their book bags and head to class. It almost seems as if the acid attacks never happened.

But though classes have resumed, the students, their parents and the school’s principal remain on edge two months later. The principal says better security promised by the government hasn’t come. Some girls are too afraid to tell reporters their names or let their pictures be taken….

Taliban demands end to music on Pakistan buses

Riaz Khan (Associated Press)

Bus drivers in northwest Pakistan have begun removing audio and video equipment from their vehicles after Taliban militants threatened suicide attacks against those who played music or movies for their passengers, an industry official said Tuesday….

… The militants said they would check the buses and that suicide attacks would be carried out against vehicles that still had audio and video equipment — prompting union members to act quickly …

Pakistan: Military Resorts to Torture and Sex Slavery to Break Prisoners

Young women forced into Sexual Slavery

Article: Asian Human Rights Commission
Pakistan: Young Women Held In Military Torture Cells And Forced Into Sexual Slavery

… It has been asserted that women who are fighting for the greater autonomy of Balochistan are being arrested by the state agencies and being forced into sex slavery in their custody….

Get Afghanistan Right: Brave New Foundation Needs Your Help

Name: Myra
Email: myra@bravenewfoundation.org
Website: http://bravenewfoundation.org

We are looking for progressive Muslim allies in the US and elsewhere who believe
that planned military escalation in Afghanistan is a disastrous legacy of the
failed Bush wars and counter to the interests of the Afghan people. At Brave
New Films, we are a part of a joint online awareness campaign effort launched
today at http://getafghanistanright.com/ . We are interested in hearing from
people who have an informed opinion on this topic including Afghan citizens,
members of the Afghan diaspora community, Afghan-Americans, Muslim spiritual
leaders, and current or former diplomats, aid workers, military personnel and
any others who would like to see an end to US military intervention in the
region. Please feel free to contact me at: myra@bravenewfoundation.org if you
would like to be part of this effort.

Gaza: Scholasticide — the Deliberate Destruction of Educational Institutions

In Gaza, the schools are dying too

Ameera Ahmad in Gaza and Ed Vulliamy (The Guardian UK)

Gaza & Sderot: Some Palestinian and Israeli Neighbors Still Strive to Keep Communication Open

Email and text keep neighbours in Gaza and Sderot in touch

Hazel Ward (Agence France Presse)

USA, NY: Another Buttafuoco in Long Island Hot Water – Disrupted Jewish Wedding

Cops: Waiter fired for playing Arabic tape at Jewish wedding

MATTHEW CHAYES (Newsday)

A waiter at a Jewish wedding who is considering converting to Islam interrupted the celebration’s final prayers with recorded Arabic chants of “God is great,” sparking fear among the 700 guests of a terrorist attack, Nassau County police said Friday.
Stephen Buttafuoco, who police say was fired “on the spot” from the catering service at the Woodbury Jewish Center, had attended a pro-Palestinian rally in Manhattan opposing the Israeli campaign last weekend, where he made the recording on his cell phone……

Stephen Buttofuoco, the waiter, says his intention was to privately “disrespect” the Jewish faith. He says he did not know that his recording could be heard outside the private room he was in. (Yeah, sure). Now he’s out of a job.

I do wonder what sort of dinner chit-chat the waiter might have overheard during the course of his duties that evening. He clearly sympathizes with the Palestinians, whereas some of the wedding guests might have been happily discussing Israel’s ongoing slaughter-fest in Gaza. (At a pro-Israel rally in New York City last week, the demonstrators were laughing and smiling over the carnage. It was very disturbing.)

Well, hopefully Buttafuoco has learned the following:

* when waiting tables, pay attention to the diners’ food and comfort and tune out everything else about them;

* get a different job if you can’t do the above;

* if you are considering converting to Islam (as Buttafuoco says he is), please understand that “disrespecting Judaism” is not a requirement and if someone told you it was, find another teacher/mentor.

Afghanistan: Populace Not Sure How to View Female Police Officers

In a society where the sexes are habitually segregated, the need for female police officers seems to be obvious. They can search and interrogate other females. And female crime victims can feel more comfortable confiding to a female officer. However, because of the perception that women should stay home, these officers are often met with distrust and bewilderment.

Female cops test traditional gender roles in Afghanistan
Policewomen are promoting better community relations, but face discrimination in their own career advancement.
MARK SAPPENFIELD (The Christian Science Monitor)

Gaza: Dear Mister Bush…

Letter to Bush on Gaza Crisis

Ralph Nader (Nader.org)

Dear George Bush…

…The deliberate suspension of your power to stop this terrorizing of 1.5 million people, mostly refugees, blockaded for months by air, sea and land in their tiny slice of land, is in cowardly contrast to the position taken by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956. That year he single handedly stopped the British, French and Israeli aircraft attack against Egypt during the Suez Canal dispute.

Fatalities in Gaza are already over 400 and injuries close to 2000 so far as is known. Total Palestinian civilian casualties are 400 times greater then the casualties incurred by Israelis. But why should anyone be surprised at your blanket support for Israel’s attack given what you have done to a far greater number of civilians in Iraq and now in Afghanistan?…

USA: Muqtedar Khan Skewers Hypocrisy of Modern Democracies

World’s democracies are facing a moral recession

MUQTEDAR KHAN (Delaware Online)

…Tony Blair, George Bush and Dick Cheney invaded a country and caused death and destruction in the face of opposition by millions of their own citizens. The invasion of Iraq was a grotesque war crime that democracy could not prevent. Over a million Iraqis died as a direct consequence of the war. Today, many thousands of families would be intact and we would not have a quarter million Iraqi refugees, if the U.S. and U.K. — both democracies — had not invaded Iraq.

Today thanks to our “democracy promotion,” there are hundreds of Iraqi women forced into prostitution to feed their children. They surely have been liberated. Now they meet “new people” for $8 a day!…

… Today, citizens of democracies cannot even distinguish between a war criminal and a statesman. In India, Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat, orchestrated a genocide of minorities in 2002. The state machinery worked with thugs to kill over 2,000 people, destroyed thousands of businesses and rendered over a hundred thousand homeless. Modi was condemned worldwide by human rights organizations, but in India, the world’s biggest democracy, he was re-elected. In fact an Indian-American, Sonal Shah, who was closely associated with him and his group, is on President-elect Obama’s transition team….

… This week, the Holy Land saw one of the most deadly of days in its recent history as Israel massacred over 200 Palestinians in Gaza….

… As I listen to the statements from the Bush administration, which blames Hamas alone for all the violence, and the Messiah himself holidaying in Hawaii, I am amazed at the complete lack of humanity in their response. There is absolutely no iota of sympathy, or regret or grief for those who died. It is as if their hearts are made of stone.

Gaza: Johann Hari on the Story Behind the Story

The True Story Behind This War is Not the One Israel is Telling

Johann Hari (Huffington Post/London Independent)

… To understand how frightening it is to be a Gazan this morning, you need to have stood in that small slab of concrete by the Mediterranean and smelled the claustrophobia. The Gaza Strip is smaller than the Isle of Wight, but it is crammed with 1.5 million people who can never leave. They live out their lives on top of each other in vast sagging tower blocks, jobless and hungry. From the top floor, you can often see the borders of their world: the Mediterranean Sea, and the Israeli barbed wire. When bombs begin to fall — as they are doing now with more deadly force than on any day since 1967 — there is nowhere to hide….

Pakistan: Women Disappearing From Swat Landscape

As Taliban influence in Swat increases, the social roles and opportunities (economic and educational) for females are disappearing.

PESHAWAR: Swat women fading into oblivion

Sadia Qasim Shah (The Dawn)

… Taliban in Swat have also threatened women of dire punishment if they are found outside their homes without company of a male family member and identity cards. Couples should also carry ‘Nikah Naama’ or marriage certificate along with them when they venture out or they will be in trouble.

“I have heard that Taliban have announced that if a girl above the age of seven is found outside her house she would be slaughtered,” Salma [a local female teacher] says. She tells this scribe how terrified she was when she recently took risk of going to hospital along with her three children for treatment as she had no male family member….

… Recently Taliban’s announcement of banning girls’ education has not only upset Salma and her primary level girl students but also her colleagues – most of them are sole bread-earners of the poor families….

… A local social worker says on condition of anonymity for his safety that more than a dozen women have been shot dead for their involvement in allegedly ‘immoral activities’. Women who go out for work especially social work are tagged as ‘immoral’ and eliminated by the militants controlling the area, he adds…