Islamic School 'Favours Sunnis'
BBC: An Islamic state school in Britain has been told it is breaking the law by favouring Sunni pupils over Shia ones in giving out places.

England's schools adjudicator says the Madani High School in Leicester was set up in the state sector as a school for all Muslims.

But she says the school's admissions system favours four schools of Islamic law which belong to the Sunni sect.

The school transferred to the state system in 2007.

In her report on the school, schools adjudicator Dr Elizabeth Passmore wrote: "It seems to me to be clear that the school was expected to be a Muslim faith school, equally accessible to all Muslims and not one giving priority to a particular group of Muslims."

The expectation that the school would be accessible to all Muslims may have contributed to the strong support it received, she added.

"The documents I have seen all refer to a Muslim faith school and therefore priority for a place can be given to Muslims and not limited to members of a particular Muslim sect."

Sex discrimination

She also said the school's policy of admitting a fixed proportion of places to boys and girls might breach the Sex Discrimination Act, which prevents pupils from being disadvantaged because of their sex.

Dr Passmore said: "[The school] must allocate places without regard to the gender of the applicant as it is a mixed school." >>> | Thursday, March 25, 2010

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Revealed to Have Jewish Past
THE TELEGRAPH: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's vitriolic attacks on the Jewish world hide an astonishing secret, evidence uncovered by The Daily Telegraph shows.

A photograph of the Iranian president holding up his identity card during elections in March 2008 clearly shows his family has Jewish roots.

A close-up of the document reveals he was previously known as Sabourjian – a Jewish name meaning cloth weaver.

The short note scrawled on the card suggests his family changed its name to Ahmadinejad when they converted to embrace Islam after his birth.

The Sabourjians traditionally hail from Aradan, Mr Ahmadinejad's birthplace, and the name derives from the Jewish for "weaver of the Sabour", the name for the Jewish Tallit shawl in Persia. The name is even on the list of reserved names for Iranian Jews compiled by Iran's Ministry of the Interior.

Experts last night suggested Mr Ahmadinejad's track record for hate-filled attacks on Jews could be an overcompensation to hide his past.

Ali Nourizadeh, of the Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies, said: "This aspect of Mr Ahmadinejad's background explains a lot about him.

"Every family that converts into a different religion takes a new identity by condemning their old faith.

"By making anti-Israeli statements he is trying to shed any suspicions about his Jewish connections. He feels vulnerable in a radical Shia society."

A London-based expert on Iranian Jewry said that "jian" ending to the name specifically showed the family had been practising Jews.

"He has changed his name for religious reasons, or at least his parents had," said the Iranian-born Jew living in London. "Sabourjian is well known Jewish name in Iran." >>> Damien McElroy and Ahmad Vahdat | Saturday, October 03, 2009

New Dark Age Alert! Row over Afghan Wife-starving Law
This is truly disgusting! Imagine treating women in this despicable way! – Mark

BBC: An Afghan bill allowing a husband to starve his wife if she refuses to have sex has been published in the official gazette and become law.

The original bill caused outrage earlier this year, forcing Afghan President Hamid Karzai to withdraw it.

But critics say the amended version of the law remains highly repressive.

They accuse Mr Karzai of selling out Afghan women for the sake of conservative Shia support at next week's presidential election.

The law governs family life for Afghanistan's Shia minority.

Sexual demands

The original version obliged Shia women to have sex with their husbands every four days at a minimum, and it effectively condoned rape by removing the need for consent to sex within marriage.

Western leaders and Afghan women's groups were united in condemning an apparent reversal of key freedoms won by women after the fall of the Taliban.

Now an amended version of the same bill has passed quietly into law with the apparent approval of President Karzai. >>> Sarah Rainsford, BBC News | Sunday, August 16, 2009

Saudi Arabia's Shia Press for Rights
BBC: Underlying tensions between Sunni and Shia in the Middle East have escalated to full-scale crises in the past few years in countries such as Iraq, Lebanon, Bahrain, and, most recently, in Saudi Arabia.

Wahhabism, the dominant Saudi school of Islam, views the Shia as heretics. Photo courtesy of the BBC
Although they only represent 15% of the overall Saudi population of more than 25 million, Shia are the dominant population, according to the International Crisis Group, in key towns such as Qatif, Dammam, and al-Hasa, which are home to the largest oil fields and processing and refining facilities.

In February, clashes between Shia Muslims and the religious police in Madina, Islam's second holiest city, triggered a wave of unrest, resulting in the arrest of dozens of people.

Tensions were eased by King Abdullah's decision to release all the detainees but the situation remains volatile.

Many Shias in Saudi Arabia relate far more to fellow Shia in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon and Bahrain, than with fellow Saudis who follow the puritan Wahhabi school of Islam. Wahabbis often class the Shia as heretics, or even to have left the faith entirely.

And at a time when many Arab officials point to the predominantly Shia Iran as the most serious security threat they face, there is a general attitude in the Arabic media that suggests Saudi Shia are somehow led by or follow an Iranian agenda.

But Saudi Shias deny this and say they face unfair discrimination.

Accusations of discrimination are backed by many western governments, led by the United States, which repeatedly express their concerns about religious freedom in Saudi Arabia. >>> By Anees al-Qudaihi, BBC Arabic Service | Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Marokko bricht diplomatische Beziehungen mit dem Iran ab
DIE PRESSE: Grund für den Abbruch waren Aussagen einer Politikers, der Iran hätte Souveränität über Bahrain. Marokko hat sich schon in der Vergangenheit solidarisch mit Bahrain gezeigt.

Die Flagge von Marokko dank der Presse
Marokko hat im Zusammenhang mit Äußerungen eines iranischen Politikers zur Souveränität Bahrains die diplomatischen Beziehungen zu Teheran abgebrochen. Dies berichtete die marokkanische Nachrichtenagentur MAP am Freitag in Rabat. Aus dem Iran lag zunächst keine Reaktion vor.



Anfang Februar hatte ein konservativer iranischer Politiker laut Medienberichten erklärt, der Iran habe Souveränität über das Scheichtum und damit eine diplomatische Krise ausgelöst. Verschiedene arabische Länder hatten sich seitdem mit Bahrain solidarisiert. >>> Ag | Freitag, 6. März 2009

CHICAGO TRIBUNE: Morocco Cuts Off Diplomatic Relations with Iran, Accusing Tehran of Spreading Shia Islam

RABAT, Morocco — Morocco cut off diplomatic relations with Iran on Friday, accusing Tehran in a rare public spat of trying to spread Shia Islam in this Sunni Arab kingdom.

The tensions were compounded by recent Iranian comments toward Sunni-led Bahrain that have raised hackles in the Arab world, Morocco's Foreign Ministry said.

The ministry accused largely Shiite Iran's Embassy in Rabat of trying to "alter the religious fundamentals of the kingdom" and threaten Morocco's religious unity.

The ministry, in a statement, called Iran's actions "intolerable interference in the internal affairs of the kingdom." >>> By Alfred de Montesquiou | Associated Press Writer | Friday, March 6, 2009

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Taschenbuch) – Deutschland & Österreich >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Gebundene Ausgabe) – Deutschland & Österreich >>>

The Ayatollah: Proof of God
TAMMY SWOFFORD: He burst onto the world stage to dominate America's television audience in November of 1979. He was Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. We did not know who he was, but for Shi'a he was "the sign of god". "Ayat" means sign, and it is the smaller thought expressed within each Surah of the Qur'an. 



Pegged a revolutionary by Western media this man moved forward from the shadows of history onto the stage of the present in Tehran after our embassy staff were taken as prisoners. This event was not merely a revolt against the Shah of Iran, but it was a resurgence of Shi'a political thought regarding what was considered the natural order of things. As a Shi'a jurist of high standing whose life must be imitated and orders obeyed in the absence of the 12th hidden infallible imam, Ayatollah Khomeini retained a position of guardianship over the Shi'a community (wali) and was indeed considered the proof of God. The heady feelings of putting a thumb in the eye of the "Great Satan" were nothing compared to the national re-identification process underway with Ayatollah Khomeini leading the parade. The Ayatollah: Proof of God >>> By Tammy Swofford | June 18, 2008

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

Iran: Top Shia Cleric Says Unveiled Women Turn Men into Beasts
AKI: Mashad - A top Shia cleric in Iran has said that unveiled women are a serious danger to Iranian society as they cause men to be "transformed into beasts".

"Women without the veil are a danger that the authorities underestimate," said Hojatolislam Seyyed Ahmad Elmalhoda, a powerful cleric who leads the Friday prayers in Mashad, a site considered sacred for Shia Muslims as it houses the shrine of Imam Reza.

"This situation is very serious in that if men see these bad women, they will turn into beasts, and then the whole of society will have to pay the consequences."

According to the Shia cleric, women who do not respect conservative Islamic dress rules are "sources of all that is bad in society."

"Respecting the chador (a long, black cloak that covers the arms and legs and is usually worn with a hijab) is the law of the state and the authorities must severely punish anyone who does not respect this law, in the same way that they punish thieves and murderers," said Elmadhoda. Iran: Top Shia Cleric Says Unveiled Women Turn Men into Beasts >>> | April 10, 2008

Hat tip: Dhimmi Watch >>>

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)

Ahmadinejad and the Coming of the 12th Imam
THE TELEGRAPH: Not since the prime minister of the tiny Caribbean island of Grenada presented an address claiming that UFOs posed a mortal threat to the future of mankind has the United Nations been treated to such a bizarre spectacle.

Many people believe the greatest threat to world peace concerns Iran's nuclear programme, so there was understandably great interest at this week's general assembly in New York when the country's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, took the platform.

But instead of seeking to reassure delegates that Iran's nuclear intentions were purely benign, Mr Ahmadinejad took advantage of his official visit to a country deemed – in the lexicon of the Iranian Revolution – "the Great Satan" to embark on a discourse about the wonders of the 12th Imam.

For those unacquainted with the more obscure tenets of Islamic theology, the 12th Imam is held by devout Shi'ite Muslims to be a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammed who went into "occlusion" in the ninth century at the age of five and hasn't been seen since.

The Hidden Imam, as he is also known by his followers, will only return after a period of cosmic chaos, war and bloodshed – what Christians call the Apocalypse – and then lead the world into an era of universal peace.

Rumours abound of Mr Ahmadinejad's devotion to the 12th Imam, and last year it was reported that he had persuaded his cabinet to sign a "contract" pledging themselves to work for his return.

Another example of his messianic tendencies surfaced after 108 people were killed in an aircraft crash in Teheran. Mr Ahmadinejad praised the victims, saying: "What is important is that they have shown the way to martyrdom which we must follow."

For many of the hundreds of delegates who attended Mr Ahmadinejad's speech to the UN this week, his discourse on the merits of the 12th Imam finally brought home the reality of the danger his regime poses to world peace.

Rather than allaying concerns about Iran's nuclear ambitions, Mr Ahmadinejad spoke at length about how a Muslim saviour would relieve the world's suffering.

The era of Western predominance was drawing to a close, he said, and would soon be replaced by a "bright future" ushered in by the 12th Imam's return. "Without any doubt, the Promised One, who is the ultimate Saviour, will come. The pleasing aroma of justice will permeate the whole world."

The really alarming aspect is that – if the world's leading intelligence agencies are to be believed – he is seriously attempting to acquire a nuclear weapons arsenal.

Only yesterday, the opposition group that first revealed the existence of Iran's uranium enrichment facility at Natanz claimed that Iran was building a new bomb-proof underground site for developing nuclear weapons.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said the regime was near to completing a vast underground chamber that was linked by two tunnels to the existing complex at Natanz, and was protected against aerial attack.

As with so many of the allegations relating to Iran's nuclear activities, the NCRI's claims are impossible to verify, not least because Iran continues to impede UN nuclear inspectors.

And even if, as Mr Ahmadinejad claimed in New York, Iran has no interest in developing nuclear weapons, there is every indication that Teheran is preparing itself for war, not least because the clash with Western civilisation that the Iranian president so obviously desires will hasten, or so he believes, the arrival of the 12th Imam. Will the 12th Imam cause war with Iran? (more) By Con Coughlin

Mark Alexander