Sharia Law is Coming to America
’The Chicago Tribune’ has described the Muslim American Society, or MAS, as the American arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, a worldwide Islamist movement

Cleric Urges Islamic Rule in Yemen
THE NEW YORK TIMES: SANA, Yemen — As thousands of demonstrators for and against President Ali Abdullah Saleh took to the streets on Tuesday, a cleric accused by the United States of having links to Al Qaeda joined the protesters for the first time to call for the replacement of the government with an Islamic state.

The call by the cleric, Sheik Abdul Majid al-Zindani, seemed a marked contrast to the upheaval that brought down the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt and threatens the rulers of Libya, Bahrain, Oman and, to this point, Yemen, where uprisings have been seen as secular and inspired by democratic goals.

Mr. Zindani’s appearance coincided with an unusual display of anti-American sentiment by Mr. Saleh, who accused Washington and Israel of fomenting unrest to destabilize the Arab world — an accusation that seemed more remarkable because the United States has been Mr. Saleh’s most powerful Western backer during his three decades in power.

“From Tunis to the Sultanate of Oman,” Mr. Saleh said, the wave of protest is “managed by Tel Aviv and under the supervision of Washington,” he said. >>> Laura Kasinof | Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Egypt's Brotherhood No. 1
HINDUSTAN TIMES: "We are not fighting for an Islamic state," declares Rashad Al-Bayoumi, Brother No. 2 at the Jama'a Al-Ikhwan Al-Muslimeen. And with that, the first deputy to Brother No. 1 El Morshed (the murshid, or guru) Mohammad Badie, directly addresses the gravest concern western nations harbour over Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.

There are reasons to take the words seriously. The Ikhwan is the best-organised social and political outfit in the most populous Arab nation. Its leading ideologue of the 1950s and 60s, Sayyid Qutb, inspired the top leaders of Hamas and al Qaeda (though Qaeda No. 2, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, later broke with the Brotherhood's moderate, non-violent stance). In 1992 the Ikhwan proved its social strength by delivering the most efficient medical help following Cairo's devastating earthquake.

And, though the party itself is banned politically, 88 of its members independently made it to Egypt's 2005 parliament - the largest ever opposition group, representing a fifth of the legislature. Many expect them to re-emerge as a large political force in a free election.

Al-Bayoumi doesn't give out membership numbers but says the Hosni Mubarak government overstated in its claim of 1.5 million. Alaa Al-Aswany, novelist and opposition leader of the once-popular Kefaya movement that included the Ikhwan, says it wouldn't be larger than 300,000-400,000.

But the declamation of a religious state isn't the entire picture. "We do want to implement the sharia in its truest form," adds Al-Bayoumi, a 76-year-old doctorate of geology.

Sobhy Saleh, a lawyer and former MP, explains with the help of the country's soon-to-be-amended constitution. My translator Hamdy Kenawy reads out the second article: "Islam is the religion of the state, Arabic its language, and the sharia is its main source of legislation." Sitting in his Alexandria office behind a glass plaque bearing the Ikhwan's banned logo of a Koran and two crossed swords, the feisty 57-year-old member of the Brotherhood's 115-member central shura (consultation) council says, "We do not have to amend this bit of the constitution - we just have to implement it properly."

Given that the sharia has been implemented variously in different countries, which model should Egypt follow? "We have comments to make on each one of them," says Saleh. What about Saudi Arabia, the richest of the Sunni states? "It's the worst, the most corrupt," spits Saleh. >>> Amitava Sanyal, Hindustan Times | Saturday, February 12, 2011

Stakelbeck on Terror: The Muslim Brotherhood

Islamic Sharia: The Law Of God Will Dominate!

Miracles of Quran: A Message to the Atheists

Pakistan: Between Two Rocks
Watch Journeyman Pictures video here | Monday, November 02, 2009

Muslim Lovers to Be Caned for Trying to Have Sex in a Car
MAIL ONLINE: An engaged Muslim couple who tried to have sex in a car have been sentenced to be caned by a Sharia court in Malaysia.

Islamic religious police caught Mohamad Shahrin Abdul Majid, 29, and Nadiah Najat Hussin, 24, wearing only their underwear in a car at an office parking area in May.

They pleaded guilty to trying to have sex out of wedlock and were sentenced to six strokes of the cane. They were also fined £1,000 each.

The couple, who plan to marry soon, are appealing against the caning but they have paid the fines.

The maximum sentence for the offence under Islamic law is three years in jail. >>> | Friday, September 18, 2009

The Harsher Face of Islam

Archbishop or Archdhimmi? Sharia Law in UK Is 'Unavoidable'

In England, Girls Vulnerable to Islamic Law
BRUSSELS JOURNAL: In March of last year a severely autistic man with the mental age of three married a woman in Bangladesh, via the telephone. Three of Britain’s most senior judges intervened, ruling the marriage could not be legal under English law, as the man was unable to give his consent.

This marriage, said Lord Justice Thorpe, was “sufficiently offensive to the conscience of the English court that the court should refuse to recognise it and should refuse to give effect to the law of Bangladesh and sharia law.”

Only six months later, sharia courts that had formerly operated illegally in Britain were reclassified as “tribunals” under the Arbitration Act, allowing them to pass effectively legally binding judgments in many civil matters.

However, with sharia law incompatible with English law and modern human rights norms, concerns were rightly raised that the sharia court system in Britain would grow into a parallel legal system. The disparity between English and sharia law was highlighted only a month later, as the House of Lords passed judgment in the case of a Lebanese woman who had claimed the right to remain in the UK with her son. An earlier Lebanese court decision, under sharia law, meant that, despite a history of abuse, her former husband would get automatic custody of the child when he turned seven.

Lord Hope of Craighead observed that under the sharia judgment, “[…] there is a real risk of a flagrant denial of their article 8 rights [of the European Convention on Human Rights] if the appellant and her child were to be returned to Lebanon.” Lord Bingham of Cornhill added, rather triumphantly, that her case was supported “[…] by JUSTICE and Liberty.”

Justice and liberty, Lord Cornhill appeared to say, are not supported by sharia. Not even in civil cases. For, in sharia, the rights of the man supersede the rights of the woman and children, Muslims are privileged over non-Muslims, and – where sharia is the dominant or sole form of law – cruel punishments, including death by stoning, hanging, etc., are meted out for adultery, homosexuality, apostasy, etc.

Although it has generally been thought that five sharia courts were operating in Britain, just over a week ago Civitas revealed that there are now at least 85 sharia courts operating across the country.

Troublingly, Civitas says that some sharia rulings it looked at, “[…] advise illegal actions and others that transgress human rights standards as they are applied by British courts,” and that, “[…] for many Muslims, sharia courts are in practice part of an institutionalised atmosphere of intimidation, backed by the ultimate sanction of a death threat.” >>> A. Millar | Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Taliban-Style Justice Stirs Growing Anger
THE WASHINGTON POST: Sharia Being Perverted*, Pakistanis Say

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, May 9 -- When black-turbaned Taliban fighters demanded in January that Islamic sharia law be imposed in Pakistan's Swat Valley, few alarm bells went off in this Muslim nation of about 170 million.

Sharia, after all, is the legal framework that guides the lives of all Muslims.

Officials said people in Swat were fed up with the slow and corrupt state courts, scholars said the sharia system would bring swift justice, and commentators said critics in the West had no right to interfere.

Today, with hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Swat and Pakistani troops launching an offensive to drive out the Taliban forces, the pendulum of public opinion has swung dramatically. The threat of "Talibanization" is being denounced in Parliament and on opinion pages, and the original defenders of an agreement that authorized sharia in Swat are in sheepish retreat.

The refugees are the "victims of ignorant cavemen masquerading as fighters of Islam," columnist Shafqat Mahmood charged in the News International newspaper Friday. He said that the "barbarian horde" that invaded Swat never intended to implement a sharia-based judicial system and that they just used it as cover. "This is a fight for power, not Islam," he wrote. >>> By Pamela Constable | Sunday, May 10, 2009

*Not so perverted! The Taliban are merely following the straight path (of Allah) – as-Sirat al-Mustaqim! – Mark

Somali Man Has His Hand Amputated By Al Shabab
SOMALILAND PRESS: Kismayo — A man convicted of robbery by a court in Somalia’s Islamist strong hold port-town of Kismayo had his right hand cut off. Mohamed Omar Ismael stole $90 from a saving account, local reports said.

Mohamed was sentenced to the amputation of his right-hand, and the punishment was carried out in public in the city center where a large crowd of people watched on as Islamists carried out the sentence.

This is not the first time the Islamic group known as Al Shabab, who introduced strict form of Sharia, or Islamic Law, carried out this sort of incident, it was just last year when they amputated a young man named Yusuf.

Under strict Sharia law, theft is sentenced by severing their hand. The death penalty is meted out for murder, rape, armed robbery, apostasy and drug trafficking. >>> Somalilandpress | Saturday, May 9, 2009

New Dark Age Alert! Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: Who'd Be Female under Islamic Law?
THE INDEPENDENT: In Muslim states, violence against women is validated. A dark age is upon us

I am a Muslim woman and, like my late mother, free, independent, sensuous, educated, liberal, contrary and confrontational when provoked, both feminine and feminist. I style and colour my hair, wear lovely things and perfumes, appear on public platforms with men who are not related to me, shake their hands, embrace some I know well, take care of my family.

I defend Muslims persecuted by their enemies and their own kith and kin. I pray, fast, give to charity and try to be a decent human being. I also drink wine and do not lie about that, unlike so many other "good" Muslims. I am the kind of Muslim woman who maddens reactionary Muslim men and their asinine female followers. What a badge of honour.

Female oppression in Islamic countries is manifestly getting worse. Islam, as practiced by millions today, has lost its compassion and integrity and is entering one of the darkest of dark ages. Here is this month's short list of unbearable stories (imagine how many more there are which will never be known):

Iranian painter Delara Darabi, only 22 and in prison since she was 17, accused of murdering an elderly relative, was hanged last week even though she had been given a temporary stay of execution by the chief justice of the country. She phoned her mother on the day of her hanging to beg for help and the phone was snatched by a prison official who told them: "We will easily execute your daughter and there's nothing you can do about it." Her paintings reveal the cruelty to which she was subjected.

Meanwhile Roxana Saberi, a 32- year-old broadcast journalist whose father is Iranian, is incarcerated in Tehran's Evin prison, accused of spying for the US. She denies this and says she has been framed because she was seen buying a bottle of wine. This intelligent, beautiful and defiant woman is on hunger strike. Over in Saudi Arabia, an eight-year-old child has just divorced a 50-year-old man. Her father, no doubt a very devout man, sold his daughter for about £9,000.

I have been reading Disfigured, the story of Rania Al-Baz, a Saudi TV anchor, the first woman to have such a job, who was so badly beaten up by her abusive husband that she had to have 13 operations to re-make her once gorgeous face. Domestic violence destroys females in all countries, but in Muslim states, it is validated by laws and values. As Al-Baz writes, "It is appalling to realise that a woman cannot walk down the street without men staring at her openly. For them she is nothing but a body without a mind, something that moves and does not think. Women are banned from studying law, from civil engineering and from the sacrosanct area of oil." >>> Yasmin Alibhai-Brown | Monday, May 4, 2009

Taliban Justice in Swat Valley: Sharia Law Takes Over

Oil-rich Nigeria Will Become Islamic Soon, Warn Dutch MPs
DIGITAL JOURNAL: Oil-rich Nigeria, population 140-million, now is very close to an all-out"Islamic takeover', warn two Dutch MPs. And this would have a massive impact: from Nigeria, Africa's islamisation would spread fast -- resulting in hundreds of millions of refugees.


This would have a massive impact on the future of all of Africa and of the West, warn Dutch parliamentarians Geert Wilders and Martin Bosma of the Party for Freedom, writing in an editorial in the Dutch religious daily, the Reformatorisch Dagblad. >>> Adriana Stuijt | Monday, March 16, 2009

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback) – Free delivery >>>

Arlington's Islamic Center Is Building a Mosque, Making Sure It Adheres to Islamic Law and Tradition
STAR-TELEGRAM.COM: Mosque is being built in strict keeping with Islamic law and tradition

ARLINGTON — Mouffa Nahaas walked through a construction site he helps oversee and pledged that it would not be a typical construction project.

"From the outside it’s going to give you the impression it’s something different, it’s not just a building," Nahaas said. "It’s important for us to be not just a building. We want to add to the diversity of the city."

Nahaas is overseeing the construction of a mosque on Road to Six Flags near the intersection of Cooper Street in north Arlington.

Expected to be completed by June, this will be the new home of Dar El Salam. Muslims in north Arlington currently use rented space that was once a drugstore for their mosque.

"When you have rented property you think of getting your own," said Nahaas, vice president of Dar El Salam.

The new mosque will be an unmistakable break from the unassuming building they use now. Careful attention is being paid to building the house of worship in keeping with the laws and traditions of Islam. >>> By Patrick McGee | Saturday, January 31, 2009

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>

Sudan Enjoys Cool Beer Thanks to SAB Miller after Long Dry Season
TIMESONLINE: Since the imposition of Islamic law 25 years ago, having a cool beer in Sudan meant running the risk of 40 lashes. Today SAB Miller is preparing to open a brewery in the south of the country.

The company, one of the largest brewers in the world, plans to create a new beer and is investing £25 million in the plant, in Juba, the capital of south Sudan, which is governed by mainly Christian former rebels.

“We will not only be consuming but producing alcohol,” Samson Kwaje, the Agriculture Minister of south Sudan, said at the launch.

Tension is running high between north and south over disputed oilfields, with both sides apparently arming for war. To the southern politicians, who have an eye on full independence, the new beer is a statement of identity as much as a thirst-quencher.

When the Government in Khartoum introduced Sharia in 1983, alcohol was banned throughout the country. The imposition of Islamic law sparked an uprising in the south, which turned into a 20-year civil war, pitting the Christian rebels against northern Muslims.

In a peace deal concluded in 2005, the rebels won the right to a semi-autonomous secular government. Freed from the shackles of Khartoum's Islamic regime, beer lovers were the first to notice a peace dividend.

Entrepreneurs on bicycles would ride the rutted roads to Uganda, bringing back as many crates of alcohol as they could carry. Today restaurants in Juba offer wines, beers and spirits. >>> Rob Crilly in Nairobi | December 15, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>

Europe's Sharia Question
ISN: ETH: ZÜRICH: In recent weeks, the European Commission and the UK have made apparent concessions to Islamic law, and with confrontations in Cologne over a proposed mosque, the role of Muslims in a future Europe is again in the spotlight, writes Simon Roughneen for ISN Security Watch.

Princeton University historian Bernard Lewis made his famous prediction in 2004: "Current trends show that Europe will have a Muslim majority by the end of the 21st century at the latest […]. Europe will be part of the Arab West-the Maghreb."
 


Similar claims have been made by other authors, with European countries featuring below-replacement birth rates, while Muslim immigrants and their descendants predicted, in some quarters, to reach over 20 percent of the population of Europe by 2020.



A low fertility rate of 1.47 babies per woman, according to the 2005 estimates for the EU as a whole, is far below the 2.1 needed to keep a population constant, and with newspapers reporting "Muhammed" as the most popular baby's name in London, the swing toward Mecca has some popular culture branding to match the statistics. Europe's Muslim population has tripled in the past 30 years, fuelled by immigration from North Africa, Turkey, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
 


No one knows whether or not he reads Lewis, but not to be outdone, Libya's Colonel Muammar Gadhaffi speculated in February 2006 that "we have 50 million Muslims in Europe. There are other signs that Allah will grant Islam victory in Europe, without swords, without guns, without military conquests. The 50 million Muslims in Europe, will turn it into a Muslim continent within a few decades." Europe’s Sharia Question >>> By Simon Roughneen for ISN Security Watch | September 26, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>

Sharia Courts Are Extending Their Reach
TIMESONLINE: The longer we acquiesce in the spread of Islamic law in Britain, the more it will happen

There are only seven basic plots in literature. One of them, surely, must be “cry wolf”. Last week, a variation on the “cry wolf” story emerged which, in its long-term impact, threatens to be far more dangerous to Western civilisation than any banking collapse.
Reports emerged that Sharia had been enshrined in English law. According to one newspaper: “Five Sharia courts have been set up in London, Birmingham, Bradford and Manchester and Nuneaton, Warwickshire. The Government has quietly sanctioned that their rulings are enforceable with the full power of the judicial system, through the county courts or High Court.”

Cue outrage and condemnation. But Muslim organisations dismissed the story as nonsense. And they were backed by the Government. As the Ministry of Justice and Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform put it in a joint statement: “Sharia law is not part of the law of England and Wales and the Government has no intention of making any change that would conflict with British laws and values.”

So can we all breathe easily again? If only. Sharia may not be enshrined in English law, but the real impact of Sharia is just as worrying. Sharia Courts Are Extending Their Reach >>> By Stephen Pollard | Septemebr 22, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>

Shariah Law May Result in ‘Legal Apartheid’
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Senior religious leaders attack multiculturalism and sharia law today, warning that they are "disastrous", socially divisive and are destroying Britain's culture and values.

Lord Carey and Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor rebut the call of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, for Islamic law to be recognised in Britain.

Lord Carey, the former archbishop of Canterbury, said: "His acceptance of some Muslim laws within British law would be disastrous for the nation. He has overstated the case for accommodating Islamic legal codes.

"His conclusion that Britain will eventually have to concede some place in law for aspects of sharia is a view I cannot share.

"There can be no exceptions to the laws of our land which have been so painfully honed by the struggle for democracy and human rights."

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, said that the Government's promotion of multiculturalism had destroyed the unity that used to hold society together. Immigrants must "obey the laws of this country".

Writing in this newspaper, Lord Carey condemns multiculturalism as "disastrous", blames it for creating Islamic ghettos and says that Dr Williams's support for sharia law will "inevitably lead to further demands from the Muslim community". Sharia law may result in 'legal apartheid' >>> By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)