The Christian Institute sats, 'The Government has told parents to discuss sex with their children without “trying to convince them” of what is right and wrong. The advice comes in a new booklet, called Talking to your Teenager about Sex and Relationships, which is to be made available at pharmacies nationwide.
It has prompted criticism from family campaigners who say it is “outrageous” for the Government to tell parents not to give children clear moral guidance on sexual relationships.
Although the Government says it is keen for parents to discuss sex with their children, it recently emerged that parents’ views were ignored during consultations on making sex education compulsory in primary and secondary schools.
The new booklet tells parents: “Under the NHS, contraception and condoms are free and there are lots of safe and effective methods that are suitable for young people - encourage your teenager to visit their local clinic or GP so they can make a choice that’s right for them.
“Why not offer to go with your daughter or encourage them to take a friend to support them?
“Or, if you have a teenage son, suggest he talks to his girlfriend about it and visits a clinic with her.”
It cautions: “Discussing your values with your teenagers will help them to form their own.
“Remember though, that trying to convince them of what’s right and wrong may discourage them from being open.”
Children’s minister Beverley Hughes said the Government “doesn’t bring up children” but “does have a role to play in supporting parents and giving them access to advice and information”.
But Simon Calvert of the Christian Institute said: “The idea that the Government is telling families not to pass on their values is outrageous.
“Preserving children’s innocence is a worthy goal. We would like to see more of that kind of language rather than this amoral approach where parents are encouraged to present their children with a smorgasbord of sexual activities and leave them to make up their own minds.”
Author and researcher Patricia Morgan, who is completing a book on teenage pregnancy, said: “All the evidence from the United States is that if parents say they disapprove of underage sex, the teenagers are less likely to do it.
“If parents talk about underage sex and do not disapprove of it, the children go on to do it. It is pretty basic stuff,” she added.
“Parents are not allowed to know if their child is being given contraception or getting an abortion. But they are being told to teach their children about sex in a manner dictated by the State.”'
This is not nanny state but fascism.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Lesbian couple win fertility bid
BBC says,'Julie McMullan and Caroline Harris are now entitled to IVF treatment
A lesbian couple have won the right to NHS treatment to help them have a baby after threatening to sue health chiefs.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (GGC) had denied Caroline Harris and Julie McMullan IVF treatment as they were not classified as an infertile couple.
The health board said it had reviewed its position in light of regulations, including the Equality Act.
The women, who were suing the health board for treatment costs, said they had not yet been offered a settlement. '
Perverts for parents on my taxes. Yuck.
A lesbian couple have won the right to NHS treatment to help them have a baby after threatening to sue health chiefs.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (GGC) had denied Caroline Harris and Julie McMullan IVF treatment as they were not classified as an infertile couple.
The health board said it had reviewed its position in light of regulations, including the Equality Act.
The women, who were suing the health board for treatment costs, said they had not yet been offered a settlement. '
Perverts for parents on my taxes. Yuck.
A Jubilee Year?
The Jubill Centre's Alan White writes on 24 February 2009
A couple of times in the last month or so it's been suggested that we comment on a call for a worldwide Jubilee Year to resolve the current financial crisis.
The first published call seems to have been an article by Niall Ferguson in the Financial Times of 18 December '08. He suggests a conversion of homeowners' mortgage debts 'could be wholly or partly converted into long-term, low and fixed interest loans' and quotes Harvard's Martin Feldstein's proposal that the US government offer 'any homeowner with a mortgage the option to replace 20% of the mortgage with a low-interest loan from the government, subject to a maximum of $80,000. The annual interest rate could be as low as 2% and the loan would be amortised over 30 years'.
Niall points out that this would represent a loss for creditors, 'notably the holders of mortgage-backed securities and bank bonds' but that this would be 'a less extreme solution than the general debt cancellation envisaged in the Old Testament'.
(A much less comprehensive version of the Feldstein approach was announced by President Obama on February 18th when he pledged $75 billion to reduce the mortgage payments of homeowners at risk of default. And the UK government has schemes which offer assistance to some categories of people struggling with repayments.)
Another correspondent with the Jubilee Centre suggested that a year of Jubilee to cancel all debts could also be used to include the cancellation of the 'third world debt'. He queried whether 'surely the cost of giving the poor people in the USA their homes as a gift must be less than the money pledges being considered to overcome the banking problems created'.
Declaring a Jubilee Year in the sense of forgiving all debt would not be the solution to our current crisis. Paul Mills, who wrote the excellent chapters on Finance and The Economy in Jubilee Manifesto and eight Cambridge Papers, commented that the problem 'is that, in a highly-leveraged financial system, it takes very few debt write-offs to lead to the failure of many banks and some insurance companies, and large write-downs in pension fund assets'.
He explains that 'rather than allowing large banks to become insolvent and impose losses on bank creditors (bondholders and depositors), governments are borrowing to inject capital, buy assets, and inflate demand. As a result, total indebtedness is likely to rise (when it would otherwise be falling) because governments believe the economic consequences of immediate loss recognition are too severe'.
The way our debt-based economic system is structured means that from time to time the amount of debt accrued by households, companies and governments exceeds the economy's ability to service the debt. Paul Mills points out that 'bankruptcies, inflation, default or debt:equity swaps (in corporate restructurings) are then needed to rebalance the two (usually in the context of a banking/financial crisis)'.
In contrast, the biblical economic model maintains this balance through reliance on rental and equity contracts ('I share in the risk and get a share of the profit' arrangements) coupled with the periodic and predictable debt cancellation.
To be clear, the provisions of Deuteronomy 15 and Leviticus 25 have debt forgiveness (amongst the people of Israel) every 7 years while the year of Jubilee every 50 years focuses on the return of land to the families that were allotted it on entering the promised land. No matter what economic hardships were got into, even becoming a bondservant, the Jubilee ensured that subsequent generations were not cut off from their roots through the loss of the family land in a particular generation. This safeguarded identity, rootedness and access to the land as means of production. In this sense, loans, selling (or more accurately leasing) land and bonded servitude were last resorts.
Thus the Jubilee is just part (albeit a key part) of the biblical economic model that Will Hutton said 'makes Das Kapital look tame'. Forgiveness of debt might seem a radical suggestion but the truth is we need an even more fundamental and biblical reorientation of our economic principles to avoid another 'credit crunch' in the future.
To explore with us some of what such a reorientation might realistically look like, be sure to join us in Cambridge for our Open Day on Monday 4th May, when Dr Mills will be speaking on 'The Economy in Crisis: A Biblical Diagnosis and Foundation for Recovery' - For further details, visit the News section of our website.
A couple of times in the last month or so it's been suggested that we comment on a call for a worldwide Jubilee Year to resolve the current financial crisis.
The first published call seems to have been an article by Niall Ferguson in the Financial Times of 18 December '08. He suggests a conversion of homeowners' mortgage debts 'could be wholly or partly converted into long-term, low and fixed interest loans' and quotes Harvard's Martin Feldstein's proposal that the US government offer 'any homeowner with a mortgage the option to replace 20% of the mortgage with a low-interest loan from the government, subject to a maximum of $80,000. The annual interest rate could be as low as 2% and the loan would be amortised over 30 years'.
Niall points out that this would represent a loss for creditors, 'notably the holders of mortgage-backed securities and bank bonds' but that this would be 'a less extreme solution than the general debt cancellation envisaged in the Old Testament'.
(A much less comprehensive version of the Feldstein approach was announced by President Obama on February 18th when he pledged $75 billion to reduce the mortgage payments of homeowners at risk of default. And the UK government has schemes which offer assistance to some categories of people struggling with repayments.)
Another correspondent with the Jubilee Centre suggested that a year of Jubilee to cancel all debts could also be used to include the cancellation of the 'third world debt'. He queried whether 'surely the cost of giving the poor people in the USA their homes as a gift must be less than the money pledges being considered to overcome the banking problems created'.
Declaring a Jubilee Year in the sense of forgiving all debt would not be the solution to our current crisis. Paul Mills, who wrote the excellent chapters on Finance and The Economy in Jubilee Manifesto and eight Cambridge Papers, commented that the problem 'is that, in a highly-leveraged financial system, it takes very few debt write-offs to lead to the failure of many banks and some insurance companies, and large write-downs in pension fund assets'.
He explains that 'rather than allowing large banks to become insolvent and impose losses on bank creditors (bondholders and depositors), governments are borrowing to inject capital, buy assets, and inflate demand. As a result, total indebtedness is likely to rise (when it would otherwise be falling) because governments believe the economic consequences of immediate loss recognition are too severe'.
The way our debt-based economic system is structured means that from time to time the amount of debt accrued by households, companies and governments exceeds the economy's ability to service the debt. Paul Mills points out that 'bankruptcies, inflation, default or debt:equity swaps (in corporate restructurings) are then needed to rebalance the two (usually in the context of a banking/financial crisis)'.
In contrast, the biblical economic model maintains this balance through reliance on rental and equity contracts ('I share in the risk and get a share of the profit' arrangements) coupled with the periodic and predictable debt cancellation.
To be clear, the provisions of Deuteronomy 15 and Leviticus 25 have debt forgiveness (amongst the people of Israel) every 7 years while the year of Jubilee every 50 years focuses on the return of land to the families that were allotted it on entering the promised land. No matter what economic hardships were got into, even becoming a bondservant, the Jubilee ensured that subsequent generations were not cut off from their roots through the loss of the family land in a particular generation. This safeguarded identity, rootedness and access to the land as means of production. In this sense, loans, selling (or more accurately leasing) land and bonded servitude were last resorts.
Thus the Jubilee is just part (albeit a key part) of the biblical economic model that Will Hutton said 'makes Das Kapital look tame'. Forgiveness of debt might seem a radical suggestion but the truth is we need an even more fundamental and biblical reorientation of our economic principles to avoid another 'credit crunch' in the future.
To explore with us some of what such a reorientation might realistically look like, be sure to join us in Cambridge for our Open Day on Monday 4th May, when Dr Mills will be speaking on 'The Economy in Crisis: A Biblical Diagnosis and Foundation for Recovery' - For further details, visit the News section of our website.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Polygamy UK
Sue Reid writes in the Daily Mail on 24th February 2009
'He cut a smart figure in his grey suit and crisply ironed shirt. The 6ft tall Somalian bowed to the judge, calling him 'Sir', before begging for his wife, Fatima, and their teenage son to be allowed to stay in Britain.
Fatima, with a black khimar veil covering her hair and shoulders, sat quietly next to her husband.
In her late 30s and wearing open sandals, she lowered her dark eyes as the details of the unconventional life she and her husband, Abdi, led in the West London suburb of Shepherd's Bush unfolded at a busy immigration court.
Multiple marriages in Britain were first declared illegal in 1604
The judge listened in silence. Perhaps he knew from past experience what was coming next. Abdi went on to reveal that Fatima was not his only wife.
Indeed, he was a self-confessed bigamist who had a second, much younger wife and a 13-year-old daughter by her. They both lived nearby.
'I visit them regularly,' said Abdi, 51, who arrived in Britain in the 1990s and works in an old people's home. 'I have done nothing wrong. In Somalia, it is normal to have two wives - even three or four. Fatima is still my wife and she should not be deported.'
He was unable to produce wedding certificates or valid official documents to prove where, or when, he had married both women, therefore raising questions over the validity of the unions, under either Somali or British law.
Yet his story, unravelling at an ordinary weekday hearing at Taylor House, an asylum appeals' centre in North London, is just one example of the growing phenomenon of multiple marriage in Britain.
Officially, such unions are punishable by up to seven years in prison. They were first declared illegal in England and Wales in 1604, when the Parliament of James I took action to restrain 'evil persons' marrying more than one wife. Parliament ruled that anyone found guilty of the crime would be sentenced to death.
In the four centuries since, bigamy (having two wives) and polygamy (more than two) has been frowned on by the state, the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church.
Yet it is clear that officialdom is turning a blind eye to such marriages.
A recent review by four Government departments - the Treasury, the Work and Pensions Department, the Inland Revenue and the Home Office - has concluded that 1,000 men in the United Kingdom are now polygamists, although some say the figure is higher.
Baroness Warsi has warned that politicians have failed to tackle the problem of polygamy because of 'cultural sensitivity'
What is more, the review found, a Muslim man can claim state support of more than £10,000 a year to keep his wives, if the wedding took place in one of those countries where polygamy is commonplace, such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Saudi Arabia and across huge tracts of Africa.
For example, a man can receive &£92.80 a week in income support for wife number one, and a further £33.65p for each of his subsequent spouses.
Therefore, if he has four wives - the maximum permitted under Islamic teachings - he can claim nearly £800 a month from the British taxpayer.
Controversially, a polygamist is also entitled to more generous housing benefits and bigger council houses to reflect the large size of his family. He is also able to claim £1,000 a year in child benefit for each of his growing brood.
The Government insists that polygamy has declined in Britain since the 1988 Immigration Act, which made it harder for men to bring second, third or fourth wives to the UK.
However, it's little wonder that critics claim our generosity simply encourages more Muslim men to keep several spouses. Supporters of polygamy claim the Koran states unequivocally that a Muslim man can marry up to four women so long as he treats them equally.
But the Taxpayers' Alliance, a lobby group, has complained: 'Polygamy is not officially condoned here, so why should British taxpayers have to pay for extra benefits for men to have two, three or four wives?'
Last week, Baroness Warsi, a Tory spokesperson for community cohesion who is British-born of Pakistani parents, waded into the argument, warning that politicians have failed to tackle the problem of polygamy because of 'cultural sensitivity'.
The respected Muslim peer told the BBC: 'We've just avoided either discussing or dealing with the matter head on.'
Baroness Warsi, a Muslim herself, urged the Government to bring in laws demanding the official registration of 'Nikah' or religious Islamic marriage ceremonies, which often take place secretly in private houses with 'an imam and a couple of witnesses there' - and which are used to get round our marriage laws.
So how do the polygamists get away with it here? Firstly, it needs to be understood that the generous benefits system allows any man and the partner he lives with to claim benefits together - even if the woman is not officially registered as his wife.
If they do marry, to avoid breaking Britain's bigamy laws, such men often engage in a ceremony with their second or third wife in a Nikah secretly in their own homes and never register the union officially in this country.
Another technique is for the man to divorce his first wife under British law while continuing to live with her as his spouse under Islamic law. He then gets a visa for a new wife to enter the country and can legally marry her here.
Moreover, our politically correct immigration rules state that if a husband has divorced his first wife under British law - and even if that divorce is actually suspected to be part of a plan to set up a polygamous household - a second wife from abroad must be allowed to come and live here.
During this investigation, I spoke to health workers and benefits officers who have seen at first-hand the scale of polygamy in Britain.
An NHS district nurse working in Tower Hamlets, East London, explained that it was now commonplace. He said he knew of a Bangladeshi-born male patient with two wives and 13 children aged between three months and 15 years.
'The women have council flats, each paid for by the local authority. The elderly husband collects benefits for both women, who are in their 30s. The wives speak very little English, but they are in and out of each other's flats and are friends.
'On more than one occasion when I have been called to the flats to give treatment to the old man, I have heard them talking in the kitchen and even taking each other's children to the park.'
The male nurse said this family set-up was not unusual. 'I know of others that comprise of one husband, a number of wives and numerous children.
'It is not difficult to conclude that if there were no state benefits, a man could not afford to live like this, especially here in London.
'The system is at fault. The men want more wives for their sexual pleasure, but also because it is lucrative.'
Yet there is another issue to be raised. Are the Government figures of around 1,000 foreign men living polygamously a gross underestimate?
Recently, a senior imam in Finchley, North London, said there are at least 4,000 men involved in such marriages.
Meanwhile, to show just how far some men have stretched the teaching of the Koran, another senior Islamist, Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, has revealed a case of a man living here with five wives.
But what, indeed, of the wives living in polygamous marriages themselves?
In an age of supposed sexual equality, how can they accept what many will feel is the degradation that goes hand in hand with polygamy?
Not surprisingly, few dare to speak out publicly for fear that they will be ostracised by their families.
But one 34-year-old mother who lives in the Bangladeshi community of East London rang the Mail because she said she wants to reveal the truth of what is happening.
Sitting in her kitchen in Newham, she reeled off a list of male relatives and friends who have two or three wives.
What is more, the woman - who does not want to be named for fear of attacks on her and her family - said that polygamy is tacitly encouraged by our benefits system, where few questions are asked or checks made.
The woman, whom we will call Kaela, arrived in Britain with her mother and younger brother when she was 11.
They were following her father, who had come to Britain from a poor province called Sylhet, seeking work in the food factories of West London.
Kaela learned English, went to a local comprehensive and, at 19, fell in love with a Bangladeshi-born boy who had also arrived in this country as a youngster.
They married, set up home in a small council flat and soon had two children. Kaela worked hard for her family. With a clutch of GCSEs, she became an adviser to the Bangladeshi community on issues such as welfare, housing and education. She now works as a parttime civil servant.
Yet, two years ago, her husband suddenly disappeared back to Bangladesh and, in an Islamic Nikah ceremony, married a 19-year-old second wife who has since given birth to his son.
'My husband has a British passport and plans to come back into this country with his two-year-old boy and his new wife.
'He has not given me a penny. He knows that the State will provide for us. He has told me to tell the authorities I have been deserted and claim income support, housing benefit and council tax.'
But what of his second wife? Kaela suspects the shy teenager without any English will be brought into Britain on a tourist visa, pretending to be her own son's nanny.
'I have seen it happen before,' Kaela explains. 'I know of one man living in East London who has two wives here, each with a flat, and a third wife in Bangladesh. Between the wives, there are five children under 13, all living in this country.
'The first two women look after the third wife's child. So who pays to keep this enormous family? The State, of course.
'I have an uncle who lives near Heathrow who has two wives. They are all together in a big five-bedroom house, with off-street parking. It is a council flat and the rent is paid from housing benefits because he does not work.
'The first wife, who is 60, claims pension credit and carer's allowance to look after his old mother, whom he has brought here as a dependent from Bangladesh.
'His much younger second wife claims income support for herself and child benefits for their three children of school age. We are talking about hundreds of pounds a week to keep this family going.'
Kaela says there are myriad tricks used to bring second wives into Britain. Apart from the 'nanny ruse', new female partners enter the country using tourist visas, student visas or work permits. They simply overstay the visas, which are normally for six months, and stay in Britain, often hiding away in their husband's home.
But women suffer as a result of polygamy, says Kaela. 'The first wives get depressed because they are so ashamed of their husband taking a second or third wife.
'Many wives have been here for years, but have never been allowed to learn English or even go out of the house alone. They have no one to turn to for help.'
No one knows such anguish better than Sameera, a well-spoken, middle-aged woman living in one of our multi-cultural cities, whose 55-year-old husband found a second wife after 30 years of marriage.
He went on holiday to his homeland of Pakistan where, without Sameera's knowledge or consent, he married a 26-year-old cousin.
'I fainted when I heard,' says Sameera. 'The fact that he's married a girl young enough to be his daughter has upset me so much.
'I cried. I felt like my mind was exploding. The ground had just fallen from me. Why did he do it? It shouldn't happen.'
Astonishingly, though, Sameera has been forced to welcome the new wife into her house.
The alternative, she says, would be the breakdown of her relationship with her husband and, possibly, the loss of her home. In other words, she might be thrown on to the streets.
Yet despite such emotional cruelty, there are those who say polygamy should be legal in multicultural Britain. A leading Muslim academic at Cambridge University has claimed that men are biologically designed to desire more than one woman and that, therefore, polygamy should be legalised.
Meanwhile, a primary school teacher in Birmingham recently spoke publicly about his contented life with two wives and six children, all living in the same house.
Even a prominent female member of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain - set up in 1992 to debate Islamic issues - has claimed that she knows of many very happy polygamous marriages in Britain.
'I am aware that this practice is taking place, and there are couples who are quite satisfied with their relationship, and they would like it to carry on and be protected by law,' she proclaimed.
Back at the immigration appeals centre at Taylor House, which heard the case of Somali-born polygamist Abdi, a Home Office lawyer took me aside and whispered: 'This man's not the only husband doing this.
'Last week, there was one man who was born in Pakistan and arrived to settle here only four years ago. He brought in one wife legally. They arrived as asylum seekers. The next wife came in on a student's visa. The third pretended to be visiting relatives in Southwark, South London. She had a sixmonth tourist visa but overstayed and was about to be deported.
'She ended up here, begging to remain in Britain with her husband.'
As for Abdi, I spoke to his son after the case adjourned as he waited for a bus with his mother, Fatima, while his father went back to work. The polite, intelligent-teenager is studying at college and hopes to become an engineer.
He came to Britain with his mother (who speaks only a few words of English) as asylum seekers from Somalia several years after Abdi had made the journey alone seeking a job, money and a better future.
'I knew my father had a second wife,' the teenager said with a friendly smile. 'That is not unusual in Somalia. I want to stay in Britain, and so does my mother. Our lives should not be shattered because of this.'
But British taxpayers footing the bill may beg to disagree.'
This must be stopped . I do not want to fund the followers of the religion of polygamy.
'He cut a smart figure in his grey suit and crisply ironed shirt. The 6ft tall Somalian bowed to the judge, calling him 'Sir', before begging for his wife, Fatima, and their teenage son to be allowed to stay in Britain.
Fatima, with a black khimar veil covering her hair and shoulders, sat quietly next to her husband.
In her late 30s and wearing open sandals, she lowered her dark eyes as the details of the unconventional life she and her husband, Abdi, led in the West London suburb of Shepherd's Bush unfolded at a busy immigration court.
Multiple marriages in Britain were first declared illegal in 1604
The judge listened in silence. Perhaps he knew from past experience what was coming next. Abdi went on to reveal that Fatima was not his only wife.
Indeed, he was a self-confessed bigamist who had a second, much younger wife and a 13-year-old daughter by her. They both lived nearby.
'I visit them regularly,' said Abdi, 51, who arrived in Britain in the 1990s and works in an old people's home. 'I have done nothing wrong. In Somalia, it is normal to have two wives - even three or four. Fatima is still my wife and she should not be deported.'
He was unable to produce wedding certificates or valid official documents to prove where, or when, he had married both women, therefore raising questions over the validity of the unions, under either Somali or British law.
Yet his story, unravelling at an ordinary weekday hearing at Taylor House, an asylum appeals' centre in North London, is just one example of the growing phenomenon of multiple marriage in Britain.
Officially, such unions are punishable by up to seven years in prison. They were first declared illegal in England and Wales in 1604, when the Parliament of James I took action to restrain 'evil persons' marrying more than one wife. Parliament ruled that anyone found guilty of the crime would be sentenced to death.
In the four centuries since, bigamy (having two wives) and polygamy (more than two) has been frowned on by the state, the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church.
Yet it is clear that officialdom is turning a blind eye to such marriages.
A recent review by four Government departments - the Treasury, the Work and Pensions Department, the Inland Revenue and the Home Office - has concluded that 1,000 men in the United Kingdom are now polygamists, although some say the figure is higher.
Baroness Warsi has warned that politicians have failed to tackle the problem of polygamy because of 'cultural sensitivity'
What is more, the review found, a Muslim man can claim state support of more than £10,000 a year to keep his wives, if the wedding took place in one of those countries where polygamy is commonplace, such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Saudi Arabia and across huge tracts of Africa.
For example, a man can receive &£92.80 a week in income support for wife number one, and a further £33.65p for each of his subsequent spouses.
Therefore, if he has four wives - the maximum permitted under Islamic teachings - he can claim nearly £800 a month from the British taxpayer.
Controversially, a polygamist is also entitled to more generous housing benefits and bigger council houses to reflect the large size of his family. He is also able to claim £1,000 a year in child benefit for each of his growing brood.
The Government insists that polygamy has declined in Britain since the 1988 Immigration Act, which made it harder for men to bring second, third or fourth wives to the UK.
However, it's little wonder that critics claim our generosity simply encourages more Muslim men to keep several spouses. Supporters of polygamy claim the Koran states unequivocally that a Muslim man can marry up to four women so long as he treats them equally.
But the Taxpayers' Alliance, a lobby group, has complained: 'Polygamy is not officially condoned here, so why should British taxpayers have to pay for extra benefits for men to have two, three or four wives?'
Last week, Baroness Warsi, a Tory spokesperson for community cohesion who is British-born of Pakistani parents, waded into the argument, warning that politicians have failed to tackle the problem of polygamy because of 'cultural sensitivity'.
The respected Muslim peer told the BBC: 'We've just avoided either discussing or dealing with the matter head on.'
Baroness Warsi, a Muslim herself, urged the Government to bring in laws demanding the official registration of 'Nikah' or religious Islamic marriage ceremonies, which often take place secretly in private houses with 'an imam and a couple of witnesses there' - and which are used to get round our marriage laws.
So how do the polygamists get away with it here? Firstly, it needs to be understood that the generous benefits system allows any man and the partner he lives with to claim benefits together - even if the woman is not officially registered as his wife.
If they do marry, to avoid breaking Britain's bigamy laws, such men often engage in a ceremony with their second or third wife in a Nikah secretly in their own homes and never register the union officially in this country.
Another technique is for the man to divorce his first wife under British law while continuing to live with her as his spouse under Islamic law. He then gets a visa for a new wife to enter the country and can legally marry her here.
Moreover, our politically correct immigration rules state that if a husband has divorced his first wife under British law - and even if that divorce is actually suspected to be part of a plan to set up a polygamous household - a second wife from abroad must be allowed to come and live here.
During this investigation, I spoke to health workers and benefits officers who have seen at first-hand the scale of polygamy in Britain.
An NHS district nurse working in Tower Hamlets, East London, explained that it was now commonplace. He said he knew of a Bangladeshi-born male patient with two wives and 13 children aged between three months and 15 years.
'The women have council flats, each paid for by the local authority. The elderly husband collects benefits for both women, who are in their 30s. The wives speak very little English, but they are in and out of each other's flats and are friends.
'On more than one occasion when I have been called to the flats to give treatment to the old man, I have heard them talking in the kitchen and even taking each other's children to the park.'
The male nurse said this family set-up was not unusual. 'I know of others that comprise of one husband, a number of wives and numerous children.
'It is not difficult to conclude that if there were no state benefits, a man could not afford to live like this, especially here in London.
'The system is at fault. The men want more wives for their sexual pleasure, but also because it is lucrative.'
Yet there is another issue to be raised. Are the Government figures of around 1,000 foreign men living polygamously a gross underestimate?
Recently, a senior imam in Finchley, North London, said there are at least 4,000 men involved in such marriages.
Meanwhile, to show just how far some men have stretched the teaching of the Koran, another senior Islamist, Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, has revealed a case of a man living here with five wives.
But what, indeed, of the wives living in polygamous marriages themselves?
In an age of supposed sexual equality, how can they accept what many will feel is the degradation that goes hand in hand with polygamy?
Not surprisingly, few dare to speak out publicly for fear that they will be ostracised by their families.
But one 34-year-old mother who lives in the Bangladeshi community of East London rang the Mail because she said she wants to reveal the truth of what is happening.
Sitting in her kitchen in Newham, she reeled off a list of male relatives and friends who have two or three wives.
What is more, the woman - who does not want to be named for fear of attacks on her and her family - said that polygamy is tacitly encouraged by our benefits system, where few questions are asked or checks made.
The woman, whom we will call Kaela, arrived in Britain with her mother and younger brother when she was 11.
They were following her father, who had come to Britain from a poor province called Sylhet, seeking work in the food factories of West London.
Kaela learned English, went to a local comprehensive and, at 19, fell in love with a Bangladeshi-born boy who had also arrived in this country as a youngster.
They married, set up home in a small council flat and soon had two children. Kaela worked hard for her family. With a clutch of GCSEs, she became an adviser to the Bangladeshi community on issues such as welfare, housing and education. She now works as a parttime civil servant.
Yet, two years ago, her husband suddenly disappeared back to Bangladesh and, in an Islamic Nikah ceremony, married a 19-year-old second wife who has since given birth to his son.
'My husband has a British passport and plans to come back into this country with his two-year-old boy and his new wife.
'He has not given me a penny. He knows that the State will provide for us. He has told me to tell the authorities I have been deserted and claim income support, housing benefit and council tax.'
But what of his second wife? Kaela suspects the shy teenager without any English will be brought into Britain on a tourist visa, pretending to be her own son's nanny.
'I have seen it happen before,' Kaela explains. 'I know of one man living in East London who has two wives here, each with a flat, and a third wife in Bangladesh. Between the wives, there are five children under 13, all living in this country.
'The first two women look after the third wife's child. So who pays to keep this enormous family? The State, of course.
'I have an uncle who lives near Heathrow who has two wives. They are all together in a big five-bedroom house, with off-street parking. It is a council flat and the rent is paid from housing benefits because he does not work.
'The first wife, who is 60, claims pension credit and carer's allowance to look after his old mother, whom he has brought here as a dependent from Bangladesh.
'His much younger second wife claims income support for herself and child benefits for their three children of school age. We are talking about hundreds of pounds a week to keep this family going.'
Kaela says there are myriad tricks used to bring second wives into Britain. Apart from the 'nanny ruse', new female partners enter the country using tourist visas, student visas or work permits. They simply overstay the visas, which are normally for six months, and stay in Britain, often hiding away in their husband's home.
But women suffer as a result of polygamy, says Kaela. 'The first wives get depressed because they are so ashamed of their husband taking a second or third wife.
'Many wives have been here for years, but have never been allowed to learn English or even go out of the house alone. They have no one to turn to for help.'
No one knows such anguish better than Sameera, a well-spoken, middle-aged woman living in one of our multi-cultural cities, whose 55-year-old husband found a second wife after 30 years of marriage.
He went on holiday to his homeland of Pakistan where, without Sameera's knowledge or consent, he married a 26-year-old cousin.
'I fainted when I heard,' says Sameera. 'The fact that he's married a girl young enough to be his daughter has upset me so much.
'I cried. I felt like my mind was exploding. The ground had just fallen from me. Why did he do it? It shouldn't happen.'
Astonishingly, though, Sameera has been forced to welcome the new wife into her house.
The alternative, she says, would be the breakdown of her relationship with her husband and, possibly, the loss of her home. In other words, she might be thrown on to the streets.
Yet despite such emotional cruelty, there are those who say polygamy should be legal in multicultural Britain. A leading Muslim academic at Cambridge University has claimed that men are biologically designed to desire more than one woman and that, therefore, polygamy should be legalised.
Meanwhile, a primary school teacher in Birmingham recently spoke publicly about his contented life with two wives and six children, all living in the same house.
Even a prominent female member of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain - set up in 1992 to debate Islamic issues - has claimed that she knows of many very happy polygamous marriages in Britain.
'I am aware that this practice is taking place, and there are couples who are quite satisfied with their relationship, and they would like it to carry on and be protected by law,' she proclaimed.
Back at the immigration appeals centre at Taylor House, which heard the case of Somali-born polygamist Abdi, a Home Office lawyer took me aside and whispered: 'This man's not the only husband doing this.
'Last week, there was one man who was born in Pakistan and arrived to settle here only four years ago. He brought in one wife legally. They arrived as asylum seekers. The next wife came in on a student's visa. The third pretended to be visiting relatives in Southwark, South London. She had a sixmonth tourist visa but overstayed and was about to be deported.
'She ended up here, begging to remain in Britain with her husband.'
As for Abdi, I spoke to his son after the case adjourned as he waited for a bus with his mother, Fatima, while his father went back to work. The polite, intelligent-teenager is studying at college and hopes to become an engineer.
He came to Britain with his mother (who speaks only a few words of English) as asylum seekers from Somalia several years after Abdi had made the journey alone seeking a job, money and a better future.
'I knew my father had a second wife,' the teenager said with a friendly smile. 'That is not unusual in Somalia. I want to stay in Britain, and so does my mother. Our lives should not be shattered because of this.'
But British taxpayers footing the bill may beg to disagree.'
This must be stopped . I do not want to fund the followers of the religion of polygamy.
Tony Blair’s God Thing
Rusty Wright AND and Meg Korpi for Assist News Service say,' Tony Blair has this thing about God and faith.
He thinks they’re important.
Sometimes, this lands him in hot water.
Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC, recently, Britain’s former Prime Minister related an amusing anecdote: During a crisis, he wanted to close an address to his nation with “God bless the British people.” “This caused complete consternation,” recalled Blair. “Emergency meetings were convened. The system was aghast.”
As Blair tried to defend his choice of words, “a senior civil servant said, with utter disdain: ‘Really, Prime Minister, this is not America you know.’”
Blair’s Washington audience roared. Now free to speak his mind, the former PM—whose press secretary once famously told reporters, “We don’t do God”—has been talking a lot about God and faith.
Doing God
Addressing the DC gathering, Blair affirmed faith as a significant force for good in the world. Decrying both religious extremists and aggressive secularists, he commended the billions whom faith inspires to caring, sacrifice, and good works. Said he, “Faith is not…acting according to ritual but…according to God’s will….”
Blair described his “first spiritual awakening” when he was ten. His 40-year-old father had a life-threatening stroke and his mother, seeking to preserve some stability in the crisis, sent young Tony to school.
When his teacher knelt to pray with him, Tony felt obliged to explain that his father, a “militant atheist,” didn’t believe in God. “That doesn’t matter,” replied the teacher. “God believes in him. He loves him without demanding or needing love in return.” Leo Blair survived and now is 85.
“That is what inspires,” commented Blair in Washington, “the unconditional nature of God’s love.…In surrendering to God, we become instruments of that love.”
Advice to Leaders
Blair cautioned the Breakfast’s international audience of leaders: “The 21st Century will be poorer in spirit, meaner in ambition, less disciplined in conscience, if it is not under the guardianship of faith in God.”
Reflecting on his own experience, Blair acknowledged the courage that faith can provide when leadership’s challenges become overwhelming. He wished President Obama faith-strengthened leadership: “Mr. President, you are fortunate, as is your nation, that you have already shown in your life, courage in abundance. But should it ever be tested, I hope your faith can sustain you. And your family.”
A Call to Faith
As we listened to Blair, we were intrigued to hear this seasoned statesman, who currently works to facilitate Middle East peace, call for restoring faith “to its rightful place, as the guide to our world and its future.” Careful to advocate “the correct distinction between…religious and political authority,” Blair seemed to call individuals, not governments, to faith. He explained the need: “there are limits…beyond [which]…only God can work.”
According to Blair, faith engenders humility. “We can forgive, but only God forgives completely in the full knowledge of our sin. And only through God comes grace; and it is God’s grace that is unique.”
Blair’s sentiments reminded us of the biblical Paul, who wrote (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage...), “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast.”
Blair cited British slave-trader-turned-pastor and hymn writer John Newton, who wrote in Amazing Grace, “Twas Grace that taught my heart to fear. And Grace, my fears relieved.”
“It is through faith, by the Grace of God,” claimed Blair, “that we have the courage to live as we should and die as we must.”
Sobering thoughts, capped by his clever DC closing line:
“And by the way, God bless you all.”'
Two things to add. Blair by following his advisers when in office was IMO denying his Lord. Secondly, his voting record shows his faith is either totally pietistic or/and liberal. Look at his voting record. But God is his judge not me.
He thinks they’re important.
Sometimes, this lands him in hot water.
Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC, recently, Britain’s former Prime Minister related an amusing anecdote: During a crisis, he wanted to close an address to his nation with “God bless the British people.” “This caused complete consternation,” recalled Blair. “Emergency meetings were convened. The system was aghast.”
As Blair tried to defend his choice of words, “a senior civil servant said, with utter disdain: ‘Really, Prime Minister, this is not America you know.’”
Blair’s Washington audience roared. Now free to speak his mind, the former PM—whose press secretary once famously told reporters, “We don’t do God”—has been talking a lot about God and faith.
Doing God
Addressing the DC gathering, Blair affirmed faith as a significant force for good in the world. Decrying both religious extremists and aggressive secularists, he commended the billions whom faith inspires to caring, sacrifice, and good works. Said he, “Faith is not…acting according to ritual but…according to God’s will….”
Blair described his “first spiritual awakening” when he was ten. His 40-year-old father had a life-threatening stroke and his mother, seeking to preserve some stability in the crisis, sent young Tony to school.
When his teacher knelt to pray with him, Tony felt obliged to explain that his father, a “militant atheist,” didn’t believe in God. “That doesn’t matter,” replied the teacher. “God believes in him. He loves him without demanding or needing love in return.” Leo Blair survived and now is 85.
“That is what inspires,” commented Blair in Washington, “the unconditional nature of God’s love.…In surrendering to God, we become instruments of that love.”
Advice to Leaders
Blair cautioned the Breakfast’s international audience of leaders: “The 21st Century will be poorer in spirit, meaner in ambition, less disciplined in conscience, if it is not under the guardianship of faith in God.”
Reflecting on his own experience, Blair acknowledged the courage that faith can provide when leadership’s challenges become overwhelming. He wished President Obama faith-strengthened leadership: “Mr. President, you are fortunate, as is your nation, that you have already shown in your life, courage in abundance. But should it ever be tested, I hope your faith can sustain you. And your family.”
A Call to Faith
As we listened to Blair, we were intrigued to hear this seasoned statesman, who currently works to facilitate Middle East peace, call for restoring faith “to its rightful place, as the guide to our world and its future.” Careful to advocate “the correct distinction between…religious and political authority,” Blair seemed to call individuals, not governments, to faith. He explained the need: “there are limits…beyond [which]…only God can work.”
According to Blair, faith engenders humility. “We can forgive, but only God forgives completely in the full knowledge of our sin. And only through God comes grace; and it is God’s grace that is unique.”
Blair’s sentiments reminded us of the biblical Paul, who wrote (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage...), “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast.”
Blair cited British slave-trader-turned-pastor and hymn writer John Newton, who wrote in Amazing Grace, “Twas Grace that taught my heart to fear. And Grace, my fears relieved.”
“It is through faith, by the Grace of God,” claimed Blair, “that we have the courage to live as we should and die as we must.”
Sobering thoughts, capped by his clever DC closing line:
“And by the way, God bless you all.”'
Two things to add. Blair by following his advisers when in office was IMO denying his Lord. Secondly, his voting record shows his faith is either totally pietistic or/and liberal. Look at his voting record. But God is his judge not me.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Look beyond martyrdom, says Al-Qaeda careers advice head
Newsbuiscuit says,'Radical Muslim youths across the world are dreaming first and last about careers as martyrs, despite falling demand and the wealth of opportunities in other fields according to Samir Al-Mady, head of the Al-Qaeda Careers Advice Board.
Al-Mady revealed that in the board’s annual survey of radicalized 15 and 16-year-olds, ‘Martyr/Suicide Bomber’ was the favourite career choice for the 28th consecutive year. It scored 76%, placing it comfortably ahead of the next choices ‘Radical Preacher’ (13%), ‘Astronaut’ (6%) and ‘Systems Analyst’ (0.1%).
‘People might call it double-standards that the operation that has done so much to promote the glories of martyrdom is now calling for a rethink,’ said Al-Mady. ‘But a modern organisation needs diverse skills in order to flourish in the modern world. Whilst we will always treasure the blood of our glorious martyrs, peace be upon them, we are in desperate need of young men in other areas of our organization – fund raisers, office managers, photocopier service engineers and the I.T. department without whom the heros’ self-immolations could never have happened.’
According to the survey, the main reasons given for the career choice of martyrdom as a career option among disaffected young radicals remains the same as in previous years; ‘want to be famous’, (7%) ‘want to do something for others’ (9%) but with a massive 81% opting for answer C – ‘want to spend eternity lying on cushions in a cool garden repeatedly deflowering a personal collection of 72 doe-eyed virgins.’
The Al Qaeda leadership admit that the situation is becoming desperate; ‘We tried compelling the radicalized school leavers to take ordinary office jobs in the Al Qaeda accounts department; you know, processing data, photocopying, cross-checking accounts’, said Al-Mady, ‘But after a couple of years of that, they were more desperate to blow themselves up than ever…’'
It is good to see a lighter side to Islamism.
Al-Mady revealed that in the board’s annual survey of radicalized 15 and 16-year-olds, ‘Martyr/Suicide Bomber’ was the favourite career choice for the 28th consecutive year. It scored 76%, placing it comfortably ahead of the next choices ‘Radical Preacher’ (13%), ‘Astronaut’ (6%) and ‘Systems Analyst’ (0.1%).
‘People might call it double-standards that the operation that has done so much to promote the glories of martyrdom is now calling for a rethink,’ said Al-Mady. ‘But a modern organisation needs diverse skills in order to flourish in the modern world. Whilst we will always treasure the blood of our glorious martyrs, peace be upon them, we are in desperate need of young men in other areas of our organization – fund raisers, office managers, photocopier service engineers and the I.T. department without whom the heros’ self-immolations could never have happened.’
According to the survey, the main reasons given for the career choice of martyrdom as a career option among disaffected young radicals remains the same as in previous years; ‘want to be famous’, (7%) ‘want to do something for others’ (9%) but with a massive 81% opting for answer C – ‘want to spend eternity lying on cushions in a cool garden repeatedly deflowering a personal collection of 72 doe-eyed virgins.’
The Al Qaeda leadership admit that the situation is becoming desperate; ‘We tried compelling the radicalized school leavers to take ordinary office jobs in the Al Qaeda accounts department; you know, processing data, photocopying, cross-checking accounts’, said Al-Mady, ‘But after a couple of years of that, they were more desperate to blow themselves up than ever…’'
It is good to see a lighter side to Islamism.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
The House of Lords Speech: What Wilders Would Have Said If Britain Allowed Free Speech
From the International Free Press Society website:
Below is the text of the address that Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders was invited to deliver at the House of Lords on Thursday, February 12, 2009. Instead of making this address and showing his film Fitna, he was detained by UK immigration officials on his arrival at London Heathrow airport and sent back to the Netherlands as a risk to “public security.”
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much.
Thank you for inviting me. Thank you Lord Pearson and Lady Cox for showing Fitna [see it here], and for your gracious invitation. While others look away, you seem to understand the true tradition of your country, and a flag that still stands for freedom.
This is no ordinary place. This is not just one of England’s tourist attractions. This is a sacred place. This is the mother of all Parliaments, and I am deeply humbled to speak before you.
The Houses of Parliament is where Winston Churchill stood firm, and warned – all throughout the 1930’s – for the dangers looming. Most of the time he stood alone.
In 1982 President Reagan came to the House of Commons, where he did a speech very few people liked. Reagan called upon the West to reject communism and defend freedom. He introduced a phrase: ‘evil empire’. Reagan’s speech stands out as a clarion call to preserve our liberties. I quote: If history teaches anything, it teaches self-delusion in the face of unpleasant facts is folly.
What Reagan meant is that you cannot run away from history, you cannot escape the dangers of ideologies that are out to destroy you. Denial is no option.
Communism was indeed left on the ash heap of history, just as Reagan predicted in his speech in the House of Commons. He lived to see the Berlin Wall coming down, just as Churchill witnessed the implosion of national-socialism.
Today, I come before you to warn of another great threat. It is called Islam. It poses as a religion, but its goals are very worldly: world domination, holy war, sharia law, the end of the separation of church and state, the end of democracy. It is not a religion, it is a political ideology. It demands your respect, but has no respect for you.
There might be moderate Muslims, but there is no moderate Islam. Islam will never change, because it is built on two rocks that are forever, two fundamental beliefs that will never change, and will never go away. First, there is Quran, Allah’s personal word, uncreated, forever, with orders that need to be fulfilled regardless of place or time. And second, there is al-insal al-kamil, the perfect man, Muhammad the role model, whose deeds are to be imitated by all Muslims. And since Muhammad was a warlord and a conqueror we know what to expect.
Islam means submission, so there cannot be any mistake about it’s goal. That’s a given. The question is whether the British people, with its glorious past, is longing for that submission.
We see Islam taking off in the West at an incredible speed. The United Kingdom has seen a rapid growth of the number of Muslims. Over the last ten years, the Muslim population has grown ten times as fast as the rest of society. This has put an enormous pressure on society. Thanks to British politicians who have forgotten about Winston Churchill, the English now have taken the path of least resistance. They give up. They give in.
Thank you very much for letting me into the country. I received a letter from the Secretary of State for the Home Department, kindly disinviting me. I would threaten community relations, and therefore public security in the UK, the letter stated.
For a moment I feared that I would be refused entrance. But I was confident the British government would never sacrifice free speech because of fear of Islam. Britannia rules the waves, and Islam will never rule Britain, so I was confident the Border Agency would let me through. And after all, you have invited stranger creatures than me. Two years ago the House of Commons welcomed Mahmoud Suliman Ahmed Abu Rideh, linked to Al Qaeda. He was invited to Westminster by Lord Ahmed, who met him at Regent’s Park mosque three weeks before. Mr. Rideh, suspected of being a money man for terror groups, was given a SECURITY sticker for his Parliamentary visit.
Well, if you let in this man, than an elected politician from a fellow EU country surely is welcome here too. By letting me speak today you show that Mr Churchill’s spirit is still very much alive. And you prove that the European Union truly is working; the free movement of persons is still one of the pillars of the European project.
But there is still much work to be done. Britain seems to have become a country ruled by fear. A country where civil servants cancel Christmas celebrations to please Muslims. A country where Sharia Courts are part of the legal system. A country where Islamic organizations asked to stop the commemoration of the Holocaust. A country where a primary school cancels a Christmas nativity play because it interfered with an Islamic festival. A country where a school removes the words Christmas and Easter from their calendar so as not to offend Muslims. A country where a teacher punishes two students for refusing to pray to Allah as part of their religious education class. A country where elected members of a town council are told not to eat during daylight hours in town hall meetings during the Ramadan. A country that excels in its hatred of Israel, still the only democracy in the Middle-East. A country whose capitol is becoming ‘Londonistan.’
I would not qualify myself as a free man. Four and a half years ago I lost my freedom. I am under guard permanently, courtesy to those who prefer violence to debate. But for the leftist fan club of Islam, that is not enough. They started a legal procedure against me. Three weeks ago the Amsterdam Court of Appeals ordered my criminal prosecution for making Fitna and for my views on Islam. I committed what George Orwell called a ‘thought crime.’
You might have seen my name on Fitna’s credit role, but I am not really responsible for that movie. It was made for me. It was actually produced by Muslim extremists, the Quran and Islam itself. If Fitna is considered ‘hate speech,’ then how would the Court qualify the Quran, with all it’s calls for violence, and hatred against women and Jews?
Mr. Churchill himself compared the Quran to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf. Well, I did exactly the same, and that is what they are prosecuting me for.
I wonder if the UK ever put Mr. Churchill on trail.
The Court’s decision and the letter I received form the Secretary of State for the Home Department are two major victories for all those who detest freedom of speech. They are doing Islam’s dirty work. Sharia by proxy. The differences between Saudi Arabia and Jordan on one hand, and Holland and Britain are blurring. Europe is now on the fast track of becoming Eurabia. That is apparently the price we have to pay for the project of mass immigration, and the multicultural project.
Ladies and gentlemen, the dearest of our many freedoms is under attack. In Europe, freedom of speech is no longer a given. What we once considered a natural component of our existence is now something we again have to fight for. That is what is at stake. Whether or not I end up in jail is not the most pressing issue. The question is: Will free speech be put behind bars?
We have to defend freedom of speech.
For the generation of my parents the word ‘London’ is synonymous with hope and freedom. When my country was occupied by the national-socialists the BBC offered a daily glimpse of hope, in the darkness of Nazi tyranny. Millions of my country men listened to it, illegally. The words ‘This Is London’ were a symbol for a better world coming soon. If only the British and Canadian and American soldiers were here.
What will be transmitted forty years from now? Will it still be ‘This Is London’? Or will it be ‘this is Londonistan’? Will it bring us hope, or will it signal the values of Mecca and Medina? Will Britain offer submission or perseverance? Freedom or slavery?
The choice is ours.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We will never apologize for being free. We will never give in. We will never surrender.
Freedom must prevail, and freedom will prevail.
Thank you very much.
Geert Wilders MP
Chairman, Party for Freedom (PVV)
The Netherlands
Below is the text of the address that Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders was invited to deliver at the House of Lords on Thursday, February 12, 2009. Instead of making this address and showing his film Fitna, he was detained by UK immigration officials on his arrival at London Heathrow airport and sent back to the Netherlands as a risk to “public security.”
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much.
Thank you for inviting me. Thank you Lord Pearson and Lady Cox for showing Fitna [see it here], and for your gracious invitation. While others look away, you seem to understand the true tradition of your country, and a flag that still stands for freedom.
This is no ordinary place. This is not just one of England’s tourist attractions. This is a sacred place. This is the mother of all Parliaments, and I am deeply humbled to speak before you.
The Houses of Parliament is where Winston Churchill stood firm, and warned – all throughout the 1930’s – for the dangers looming. Most of the time he stood alone.
In 1982 President Reagan came to the House of Commons, where he did a speech very few people liked. Reagan called upon the West to reject communism and defend freedom. He introduced a phrase: ‘evil empire’. Reagan’s speech stands out as a clarion call to preserve our liberties. I quote: If history teaches anything, it teaches self-delusion in the face of unpleasant facts is folly.
What Reagan meant is that you cannot run away from history, you cannot escape the dangers of ideologies that are out to destroy you. Denial is no option.
Communism was indeed left on the ash heap of history, just as Reagan predicted in his speech in the House of Commons. He lived to see the Berlin Wall coming down, just as Churchill witnessed the implosion of national-socialism.
Today, I come before you to warn of another great threat. It is called Islam. It poses as a religion, but its goals are very worldly: world domination, holy war, sharia law, the end of the separation of church and state, the end of democracy. It is not a religion, it is a political ideology. It demands your respect, but has no respect for you.
There might be moderate Muslims, but there is no moderate Islam. Islam will never change, because it is built on two rocks that are forever, two fundamental beliefs that will never change, and will never go away. First, there is Quran, Allah’s personal word, uncreated, forever, with orders that need to be fulfilled regardless of place or time. And second, there is al-insal al-kamil, the perfect man, Muhammad the role model, whose deeds are to be imitated by all Muslims. And since Muhammad was a warlord and a conqueror we know what to expect.
Islam means submission, so there cannot be any mistake about it’s goal. That’s a given. The question is whether the British people, with its glorious past, is longing for that submission.
We see Islam taking off in the West at an incredible speed. The United Kingdom has seen a rapid growth of the number of Muslims. Over the last ten years, the Muslim population has grown ten times as fast as the rest of society. This has put an enormous pressure on society. Thanks to British politicians who have forgotten about Winston Churchill, the English now have taken the path of least resistance. They give up. They give in.
Thank you very much for letting me into the country. I received a letter from the Secretary of State for the Home Department, kindly disinviting me. I would threaten community relations, and therefore public security in the UK, the letter stated.
For a moment I feared that I would be refused entrance. But I was confident the British government would never sacrifice free speech because of fear of Islam. Britannia rules the waves, and Islam will never rule Britain, so I was confident the Border Agency would let me through. And after all, you have invited stranger creatures than me. Two years ago the House of Commons welcomed Mahmoud Suliman Ahmed Abu Rideh, linked to Al Qaeda. He was invited to Westminster by Lord Ahmed, who met him at Regent’s Park mosque three weeks before. Mr. Rideh, suspected of being a money man for terror groups, was given a SECURITY sticker for his Parliamentary visit.
Well, if you let in this man, than an elected politician from a fellow EU country surely is welcome here too. By letting me speak today you show that Mr Churchill’s spirit is still very much alive. And you prove that the European Union truly is working; the free movement of persons is still one of the pillars of the European project.
But there is still much work to be done. Britain seems to have become a country ruled by fear. A country where civil servants cancel Christmas celebrations to please Muslims. A country where Sharia Courts are part of the legal system. A country where Islamic organizations asked to stop the commemoration of the Holocaust. A country where a primary school cancels a Christmas nativity play because it interfered with an Islamic festival. A country where a school removes the words Christmas and Easter from their calendar so as not to offend Muslims. A country where a teacher punishes two students for refusing to pray to Allah as part of their religious education class. A country where elected members of a town council are told not to eat during daylight hours in town hall meetings during the Ramadan. A country that excels in its hatred of Israel, still the only democracy in the Middle-East. A country whose capitol is becoming ‘Londonistan.’
I would not qualify myself as a free man. Four and a half years ago I lost my freedom. I am under guard permanently, courtesy to those who prefer violence to debate. But for the leftist fan club of Islam, that is not enough. They started a legal procedure against me. Three weeks ago the Amsterdam Court of Appeals ordered my criminal prosecution for making Fitna and for my views on Islam. I committed what George Orwell called a ‘thought crime.’
You might have seen my name on Fitna’s credit role, but I am not really responsible for that movie. It was made for me. It was actually produced by Muslim extremists, the Quran and Islam itself. If Fitna is considered ‘hate speech,’ then how would the Court qualify the Quran, with all it’s calls for violence, and hatred against women and Jews?
Mr. Churchill himself compared the Quran to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf. Well, I did exactly the same, and that is what they are prosecuting me for.
I wonder if the UK ever put Mr. Churchill on trail.
The Court’s decision and the letter I received form the Secretary of State for the Home Department are two major victories for all those who detest freedom of speech. They are doing Islam’s dirty work. Sharia by proxy. The differences between Saudi Arabia and Jordan on one hand, and Holland and Britain are blurring. Europe is now on the fast track of becoming Eurabia. That is apparently the price we have to pay for the project of mass immigration, and the multicultural project.
Ladies and gentlemen, the dearest of our many freedoms is under attack. In Europe, freedom of speech is no longer a given. What we once considered a natural component of our existence is now something we again have to fight for. That is what is at stake. Whether or not I end up in jail is not the most pressing issue. The question is: Will free speech be put behind bars?
We have to defend freedom of speech.
For the generation of my parents the word ‘London’ is synonymous with hope and freedom. When my country was occupied by the national-socialists the BBC offered a daily glimpse of hope, in the darkness of Nazi tyranny. Millions of my country men listened to it, illegally. The words ‘This Is London’ were a symbol for a better world coming soon. If only the British and Canadian and American soldiers were here.
What will be transmitted forty years from now? Will it still be ‘This Is London’? Or will it be ‘this is Londonistan’? Will it bring us hope, or will it signal the values of Mecca and Medina? Will Britain offer submission or perseverance? Freedom or slavery?
The choice is ours.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We will never apologize for being free. We will never give in. We will never surrender.
Freedom must prevail, and freedom will prevail.
Thank you very much.
Geert Wilders MP
Chairman, Party for Freedom (PVV)
The Netherlands
"Heroin Jihad"
"[A] two-pronged attack which peddles death and misery [to infidels] with heroin while netting massive sums to pay for future terror attacks," that is, the jihad. "Asian terror gangs target UK with killer heroin," by Scott Hesketh for the Daily Star, February 22
'TERROR chiefs plan to flood our streets with heroin in a terrifying plot to wage “chemical jihad” on Britain.
And they have been using hate-filled Muslim gangs as their UKdealers.
Pakistani and Afghan-based al-Qaida and Taliban warlords are sitting on a £6billion stash of deadly heroin.
And they have ordered their dealers to sell it only to non-Muslims.
The ruthless racket is a two-pronged attack which peddles death and misery with heroin while netting massive sums to pay for future terror attacks.
A senior security source told the Daily Star Sunday: “The Afghan poppy fields are probably the biggest financial contributor to al-Qaida and the Taliban.
“The UK’s heroin trade is increasing at an alarming rate and most of the cash helps arm terrorists with bombs and guns.”
The US has already been targeted in the evil campaign which mirrors a terror plot in the new James Bond novel Devil May Care.
Between 1990 and 2005 Taliban-linked drug peddler Haji Baz Mohammed raked in a staggering £17billion by pouring heroin into North America.
He told a US court that “selling heroin was a jihad because they were taking Americans’ money and the heroin was killing them”.
Now the fanatics have made the UK their top target. A whopping 30 tonnes of heroin is being smuggled into Britain every year.
The drug is grown in the Afghan badlands and bought for £1,500 a kilo in neighbouring Pakistan.
It’s finally sold on Britain’s streets, often in the backs of cabs or over kebab shop counters, at between £30 and £50 a gram.
Asian gangs are operating in South London, Luton, Preston, Manchester, Leeds, Oldham, Birmingham and Bradford.
Our investigators went on the hunt for heroin in Luton and did a deal in the back of a taxi.
Pulling out a handful of wraps, the driver said: “I’ll sort you a fix for £10 but a gram’s £50. It’s knockout gear.” Asked where the drugs came from he said: “Poppy fields between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“The big bosses have Taliban and al-Qaida connections and we’re often told only to deal it to non-Muslims. They call it chemical jihad and hope to ruin lives while getting massive payouts at the same time.
“I’m more interested in the money. I knock it out to anyone, whatever their beliefs.
“But there are lots of big-hitters who only sell to non-Muslims – to poison them.”..'
It is an interesting fact the Muslim youths are a dispoportionately large part of the prison population.
'TERROR chiefs plan to flood our streets with heroin in a terrifying plot to wage “chemical jihad” on Britain.
And they have been using hate-filled Muslim gangs as their UKdealers.
Pakistani and Afghan-based al-Qaida and Taliban warlords are sitting on a £6billion stash of deadly heroin.
And they have ordered their dealers to sell it only to non-Muslims.
The ruthless racket is a two-pronged attack which peddles death and misery with heroin while netting massive sums to pay for future terror attacks.
A senior security source told the Daily Star Sunday: “The Afghan poppy fields are probably the biggest financial contributor to al-Qaida and the Taliban.
“The UK’s heroin trade is increasing at an alarming rate and most of the cash helps arm terrorists with bombs and guns.”
The US has already been targeted in the evil campaign which mirrors a terror plot in the new James Bond novel Devil May Care.
Between 1990 and 2005 Taliban-linked drug peddler Haji Baz Mohammed raked in a staggering £17billion by pouring heroin into North America.
He told a US court that “selling heroin was a jihad because they were taking Americans’ money and the heroin was killing them”.
Now the fanatics have made the UK their top target. A whopping 30 tonnes of heroin is being smuggled into Britain every year.
The drug is grown in the Afghan badlands and bought for £1,500 a kilo in neighbouring Pakistan.
It’s finally sold on Britain’s streets, often in the backs of cabs or over kebab shop counters, at between £30 and £50 a gram.
Asian gangs are operating in South London, Luton, Preston, Manchester, Leeds, Oldham, Birmingham and Bradford.
Our investigators went on the hunt for heroin in Luton and did a deal in the back of a taxi.
Pulling out a handful of wraps, the driver said: “I’ll sort you a fix for £10 but a gram’s £50. It’s knockout gear.” Asked where the drugs came from he said: “Poppy fields between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“The big bosses have Taliban and al-Qaida connections and we’re often told only to deal it to non-Muslims. They call it chemical jihad and hope to ruin lives while getting massive payouts at the same time.
“I’m more interested in the money. I knock it out to anyone, whatever their beliefs.
“But there are lots of big-hitters who only sell to non-Muslims – to poison them.”..'
It is an interesting fact the Muslim youths are a dispoportionately large part of the prison population.
Bauchi, Nigeria - New attacks on Christians despite curfew
Michael O'Rourke N. Msc sent a message to the members of Christian Solidarity World Wide.
Dear friends,
Attacks on the Christian community of Bauchi State in central Nigeria are continuing despite the declaration of a comprehensive curfew in the state capital.
At least eleven people were killed and over 1,500 displaced, while 14 churches, eight vicarages, one mosque and numerous Christian homes were razed to the ground during a weekend of violence that centred on seven neighbourhoods in predominantly-Muslim Bauchi Town.
The violence erupted after the burning of a mosque in the Railway suburb during the early hours of Saturday 21 February that was blamed on Christians. It is now believed to have been the work of militants seeking a pretext for violence in retaliation for events in November 2008, when rioting Muslims were shot dead for defying a government-imposed curfew in Jos, the capital of Plateau State.
CSW has been informed by local sources that on 13 February, a COCIN (Church of Christ in Nigeria) Church in the Railway suburb of Bauchi Town had requested that worshippers at a nearby newly-erected mosque cease using the church’s premises as a car park. This angered the Muslims, who reportedly threatened to return in large numbers the following weekend “to avenge events in Jos”. CSW was also informed that two weeks prior to the violence, a Cherubim and Seraphim Church was razed to the ground, and that two days prior to the outbreak, a Faith Mission International Church had also been burnt down.
As the violence raged, the Reverend Turde, Secretary of the Bauchi Chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), requested the urgent imposition of a comprehensive curfew in Bauchi Town. However, before leaving for Borno State to pay respects for the death of the Shehu of Borno, Governor Isa Yuguda imposed a curfew limited to seven neighbourhoods, consequently allowing the looting and burning to continue elsewhere in the town. Reports indicate that throughout Saturday and Sunday attackers continued to move from church to church and house to house, setting them on fire and attacking their occupants. Despite the eventual imposition of a comprehensive curfew, local sources claim security personnel have not been drafted into the area in sufficient numbers. At least one person is known to have been killed on Monday 23 February, and as reports circulate of “armed men gathering in the bush,” the Christian community fears further attacks.
Many Christians are reported to be fleeing to Jos, in predominantly Christian Plateau State, for safety. Other displaced people are said to be streaming into camps in the army and police barracks in Bauchi Town, where numbers will soon exceed 1500. CSW Nigeria has confirmed that the humanitarian needs in these camps are “significant”.
Chief Executive of CSW Nigeria, Rev Yunusa Nmadu, said: “Christians in parts of northern and central Nigeria are increasingly insecure as it appears that elected officials may be more concerned with serving the interests of one religious group to the detriment of others than with ensuring that every citizen of Nigeria enjoys the rights and freedoms to which we are constitutionally entitled. The continuing killing in Bauchi Town, and the silence of elected authorities in the face of it, does little to dispel this anxiety. It is vital that the state government takes immediate steps to ensure the safety of the Christian community by drafting enough troops to the area to bring an end to the violence, and provides for the pressing needs of those who have lost everything”.
Tina Lambert, CSW’s Advocacy Director in the UK said: “It is of deep concern that despite the imposition of a comprehensive curfew, deaths continue to occur. Most worrying are reports of armed groups that are allegedly gathering for renewed attacks on Bauchi’s Christian community. CSW joins in the call for an immediate increase in the number of security personnel currently assigned to Bauchi Town, and urges the state government to track down and bring the perpetrators of the violence to justice. CSW also calls on both state and federal authorities to ensure that the needs of those who have been displaced by the violence are met and that they are adequately compensated for their losses”.
Keep praying for the persecuted Church.
Yours in Christ,
CSW Advocacy Team
Michael O'Rourke
CSW Church Rep
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) www.csw.org.uk
PO Box 99
New Malden
Surrey
KT3 3YF
United Kingdom
CSW is a human rights organisation which specialises in religious freedom, works on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs and promotes religious liberty for all.
Dear friends,
Attacks on the Christian community of Bauchi State in central Nigeria are continuing despite the declaration of a comprehensive curfew in the state capital.
At least eleven people were killed and over 1,500 displaced, while 14 churches, eight vicarages, one mosque and numerous Christian homes were razed to the ground during a weekend of violence that centred on seven neighbourhoods in predominantly-Muslim Bauchi Town.
The violence erupted after the burning of a mosque in the Railway suburb during the early hours of Saturday 21 February that was blamed on Christians. It is now believed to have been the work of militants seeking a pretext for violence in retaliation for events in November 2008, when rioting Muslims were shot dead for defying a government-imposed curfew in Jos, the capital of Plateau State.
CSW has been informed by local sources that on 13 February, a COCIN (Church of Christ in Nigeria) Church in the Railway suburb of Bauchi Town had requested that worshippers at a nearby newly-erected mosque cease using the church’s premises as a car park. This angered the Muslims, who reportedly threatened to return in large numbers the following weekend “to avenge events in Jos”. CSW was also informed that two weeks prior to the violence, a Cherubim and Seraphim Church was razed to the ground, and that two days prior to the outbreak, a Faith Mission International Church had also been burnt down.
As the violence raged, the Reverend Turde, Secretary of the Bauchi Chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), requested the urgent imposition of a comprehensive curfew in Bauchi Town. However, before leaving for Borno State to pay respects for the death of the Shehu of Borno, Governor Isa Yuguda imposed a curfew limited to seven neighbourhoods, consequently allowing the looting and burning to continue elsewhere in the town. Reports indicate that throughout Saturday and Sunday attackers continued to move from church to church and house to house, setting them on fire and attacking their occupants. Despite the eventual imposition of a comprehensive curfew, local sources claim security personnel have not been drafted into the area in sufficient numbers. At least one person is known to have been killed on Monday 23 February, and as reports circulate of “armed men gathering in the bush,” the Christian community fears further attacks.
Many Christians are reported to be fleeing to Jos, in predominantly Christian Plateau State, for safety. Other displaced people are said to be streaming into camps in the army and police barracks in Bauchi Town, where numbers will soon exceed 1500. CSW Nigeria has confirmed that the humanitarian needs in these camps are “significant”.
Chief Executive of CSW Nigeria, Rev Yunusa Nmadu, said: “Christians in parts of northern and central Nigeria are increasingly insecure as it appears that elected officials may be more concerned with serving the interests of one religious group to the detriment of others than with ensuring that every citizen of Nigeria enjoys the rights and freedoms to which we are constitutionally entitled. The continuing killing in Bauchi Town, and the silence of elected authorities in the face of it, does little to dispel this anxiety. It is vital that the state government takes immediate steps to ensure the safety of the Christian community by drafting enough troops to the area to bring an end to the violence, and provides for the pressing needs of those who have lost everything”.
Tina Lambert, CSW’s Advocacy Director in the UK said: “It is of deep concern that despite the imposition of a comprehensive curfew, deaths continue to occur. Most worrying are reports of armed groups that are allegedly gathering for renewed attacks on Bauchi’s Christian community. CSW joins in the call for an immediate increase in the number of security personnel currently assigned to Bauchi Town, and urges the state government to track down and bring the perpetrators of the violence to justice. CSW also calls on both state and federal authorities to ensure that the needs of those who have been displaced by the violence are met and that they are adequately compensated for their losses”.
Keep praying for the persecuted Church.
Yours in Christ,
CSW Advocacy Team
Michael O'Rourke
CSW Church Rep
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) www.csw.org.uk
PO Box 99
New Malden
Surrey
KT3 3YF
United Kingdom
CSW is a human rights organisation which specialises in religious freedom, works on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs and promotes religious liberty for all.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Britain's Anti-Christian Kulturkampf
Hal G.P. Colebatch on 2.20.09 in The American Spectator writes,'Things seem to be moving faster in Britain, and not in a nice direction. In the area of religion, here are five incidents reported in the course of barely a week.
A foster mother has been struck off by a council after a teenage Muslim girl in her care became a Christian. Interviewed by the Daily Mail, the carer, who has looked after more than 80 children, said she was devastated: "This is my life. It is not just a job for me. It is a vocation. I love what I do. It is also my entire income. I am a single carer, so that is all I have to live on." She said she had recently bought a larger car and had been renting a farmhouse, with a pony in a field, so that she could provide more disadvantaged children with a new life.
"That was always my dream. I am now in a one-bedroom flat." The girl, now 17, is understood to be back with members of her family, who have not been told of her conversion. (There have been quite a number of cases about what has happened to girls in Muslim families who convert.) A second girl the woman was fostering has been moved to another carer. The woman insisted that she had put no pressure on the girl, who was 16 at the time, to be baptized, but council officials allegedly accused her of failing to "respect and preserve'" the girl's faith and tried to persuade her to reconsider her decision.
Caroline Petrie, 45, a Christian nurse in Somerset, was suspended without pay for offering to pray for an elderly woman patient. She was reinstated only after thousands of people protested to the National Health Service. The patient had not complained about the offer of prayer, but had merely mentioned the matter to another nurse, who reported it.
School head Julia Robinson was forced to resign after replacing separate school assemblies for Muslim pupils with a single gathering for all faiths at which, it was claimed, hymns were sung.
A primary school receptionist, Jennie Cain, whose five-year-old daughter was told off for talking about Jesus in class, is facing the sack for seeking support from her church. According to the Daily Telegraph:
Mrs Cain sent a private email to close friends to ask for prayers for her daughter after she was called into the school where she worked in Crediton, Devon, to be reprimanded.
Her daughter Jasmine had been overheard by a teacher discussing heaven and God with a friend and had been pulled to one side and told off.
Mrs Cain contacted 10 close friends from her church by email but the message fell into the hands of Gary Read, the headmaster of Landscore Primary School where she works. …Mrs Cain has been told she may be disciplined and was warned she could face dismissal…Mrs Cain, who has worked part-time at the school for two and a half years, describes herself as a "quiet Christian" who would never force her beliefs on others. But she said she was angry about the way she had been treated: "I felt embarrassed that a private prayer email was read by the school--it felt like someone had gone through my personal prayer diary."…
On January 22, Mrs Cain went to pick up her children…"My daughter burst into tears, her face was all red and she was clearly upset. She said, 'my teacher told me I couldn't talk about Jesus' -- I couldn't believe what I was hearing."
Mrs Cain said she decided to wait until she wasn't working to discuss the issue with the teacher, Sharon Gottelier, as a parent rather than an employee. But she was called into Mr Read's office the next day over another matter before he started discussing Jasmine. "He started talking about my daughter and about how he wasn't happy about her making statements about her faith. At that point I froze, I felt very small and I felt trapped as I was a junior member of staff."
That weekend, she emailed a prayer request from her personal computer at home to 10 friends from her church. "I asked them to please pray for us, please pray for Jasmine, please pray for the school and pray for the church."
A few days later she was called back into Mr Read's office. "I didn't think at this point I could be more stunned. He had in his hand a copy of my private, personal email and it was highlighted all the way through. He said that he was going to investigate me for professional misconduct because I had been making allegations about the school and staff to members of the public." Mrs Cain, who was not suspended, said he refused to tell her where he had got the email but said two independent governors would be taking statements and calling witnesses. He said the investigation could be followed by disciplinary action up to and including dismissal because of this private email.
The Telegraph quoted Read as saying: "An investigation by the governors of the school is being held into the conduct of a member of staff and at this stage I cannot comment any further."
The Archbishop of York, Ugandan-born Dr. John Sentamu, one of the notably few senior Anglican clergymen to speak out against what is happening, said of the Petrie and Cain cases in an article headed "The intolerance towards Christians in the public sector is an affront":
In their actions, they were as far away as it is possible to be from the caricature of a proselytising fundamentalism that seems to lie behind the views of those seeking to discipline them.
However, the suspension of one of these women and the continued disciplinary action faced by the other leads us to questions about how it is that those who share or express a trust in God -- or more precisely, in these cases, in the Christian faith -- are deemed worthy of discipline … There is a deep irony at work here, and not simply because the first free schools and hospitals operating in this nation were run by the churches.
Those who display intolerance and ignorance, and would relegate the Christian faith to just another disposable lifestyle choice, argue that they operate in pursuit of policies based on the twin aims of "diversity and equality"… "diversity" apparently means every colour and creed except Christianity, the nominal religion of the white majority; and "equality" seemingly excludes anyone, black or white, with a Christian belief in God.
A cricket team, the Middlesex Crusaders, has been forced to change its name to The Panthers because of the Christian associations of the word "Crusaders."
One need not be paranoid to see that a deliberate war is being waged in Britain to destroy Christianity and Britain's Christian identity.
The actual intelligence directing this war is not so easy to see, however. None of the agencies responsible for the above cases is directly part of the national government, which answers ultimately to electors, whose Members sit in Parliament and comprise the Ministries and Cabinet. The apparatchiks responsible for these and countless similar acts tend to inhabit not in the Parliament of Westminster but local authorities and quasi-governmental agencies, hard to pin down, hard to call to account, and very hard indeed to tip out at elections.
This is not to say the government has not condoned them -- the Prime Minister or other ultimately responsible ministers could in each case have intervened with a telephone call or word to their departmental head, but did not. Certainly the allegedly highly religious (and now Catholic convert) Tony Blair did nothing that one could detect to stop such things -- and there were already then hundreds of such incidents -- when he was Prime Minister. The links with the Government are there, but they are fudged and deniable.
Shortly before Christmas a leading Labour Party-aligned think tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research, recommended that Christmas, if it cannot be obliterated, should be down-graded to promote multiculturalism. It said that because it would be hard to "expunge" Christmas from the national calendar (although this would apparently be desirable), public organizations must be made to give non-Christian religious festivals equal footing.
The report was commissioned when Nick Pearce, who became head of public policy in the Prime Minister's Office, was the Institute's director. He has been described as "One of the leading policy-makers in Great Britain." Much of this activity, such as attempts to ban calling certain well-known holidays "Christmas" and "Easter," has been carried on by Labour-controlled councils, though many other councils involved are under the control of the trendy-left Liberal Democrats, such as Islington, where a Church of England school was ordered to drop the word "Saint" from its name. Some councils involved are even under Tory control.
Plainly there is more to it than Christianity. But here Christianity is the canary in the coal-mine. Non-believers also have cause to be deeply alarmed (certainly, too, Jews have cause -- anti-Semitism is increasingly tolerated and legitimized, but that is another story). There is really no longer even a pretence that what is under way under the slogan of Celebrating Diversity is anything but a massive kulturkampf aimed at creating a new Homo Britannicus. Traditional political processes of Parliament, votes, and even parties seem barely relevant.
So far, while many people are plainly angry and protesting, much of the reaction seems to be bewilderment. "Political correctness gone mad!" is a description used beyond the point of cliché for countess such outrageous incidents -- but if it is madness it is a very clever, cunning and strategically-conscious madness.
In 1922 Nikolai Bukharin claimed one of the Bolshevik Revolution's principal tasks was "to alter people's actual psychology," and in 1928, in a special edition of Izvestia on the subject, said: "One of the first priorities is the question of the systematic preparation of new men." When, 10 years ago, I wrote of the election of the British Labour Government with foreboding, I never looked to anything like this.
Spectator
A foster mother has been struck off by a council after a teenage Muslim girl in her care became a Christian. Interviewed by the Daily Mail, the carer, who has looked after more than 80 children, said she was devastated: "This is my life. It is not just a job for me. It is a vocation. I love what I do. It is also my entire income. I am a single carer, so that is all I have to live on." She said she had recently bought a larger car and had been renting a farmhouse, with a pony in a field, so that she could provide more disadvantaged children with a new life.
"That was always my dream. I am now in a one-bedroom flat." The girl, now 17, is understood to be back with members of her family, who have not been told of her conversion. (There have been quite a number of cases about what has happened to girls in Muslim families who convert.) A second girl the woman was fostering has been moved to another carer. The woman insisted that she had put no pressure on the girl, who was 16 at the time, to be baptized, but council officials allegedly accused her of failing to "respect and preserve'" the girl's faith and tried to persuade her to reconsider her decision.
Caroline Petrie, 45, a Christian nurse in Somerset, was suspended without pay for offering to pray for an elderly woman patient. She was reinstated only after thousands of people protested to the National Health Service. The patient had not complained about the offer of prayer, but had merely mentioned the matter to another nurse, who reported it.
School head Julia Robinson was forced to resign after replacing separate school assemblies for Muslim pupils with a single gathering for all faiths at which, it was claimed, hymns were sung.
A primary school receptionist, Jennie Cain, whose five-year-old daughter was told off for talking about Jesus in class, is facing the sack for seeking support from her church. According to the Daily Telegraph:
Mrs Cain sent a private email to close friends to ask for prayers for her daughter after she was called into the school where she worked in Crediton, Devon, to be reprimanded.
Her daughter Jasmine had been overheard by a teacher discussing heaven and God with a friend and had been pulled to one side and told off.
Mrs Cain contacted 10 close friends from her church by email but the message fell into the hands of Gary Read, the headmaster of Landscore Primary School where she works. …Mrs Cain has been told she may be disciplined and was warned she could face dismissal…Mrs Cain, who has worked part-time at the school for two and a half years, describes herself as a "quiet Christian" who would never force her beliefs on others. But she said she was angry about the way she had been treated: "I felt embarrassed that a private prayer email was read by the school--it felt like someone had gone through my personal prayer diary."…
On January 22, Mrs Cain went to pick up her children…"My daughter burst into tears, her face was all red and she was clearly upset. She said, 'my teacher told me I couldn't talk about Jesus' -- I couldn't believe what I was hearing."
Mrs Cain said she decided to wait until she wasn't working to discuss the issue with the teacher, Sharon Gottelier, as a parent rather than an employee. But she was called into Mr Read's office the next day over another matter before he started discussing Jasmine. "He started talking about my daughter and about how he wasn't happy about her making statements about her faith. At that point I froze, I felt very small and I felt trapped as I was a junior member of staff."
That weekend, she emailed a prayer request from her personal computer at home to 10 friends from her church. "I asked them to please pray for us, please pray for Jasmine, please pray for the school and pray for the church."
A few days later she was called back into Mr Read's office. "I didn't think at this point I could be more stunned. He had in his hand a copy of my private, personal email and it was highlighted all the way through. He said that he was going to investigate me for professional misconduct because I had been making allegations about the school and staff to members of the public." Mrs Cain, who was not suspended, said he refused to tell her where he had got the email but said two independent governors would be taking statements and calling witnesses. He said the investigation could be followed by disciplinary action up to and including dismissal because of this private email.
The Telegraph quoted Read as saying: "An investigation by the governors of the school is being held into the conduct of a member of staff and at this stage I cannot comment any further."
The Archbishop of York, Ugandan-born Dr. John Sentamu, one of the notably few senior Anglican clergymen to speak out against what is happening, said of the Petrie and Cain cases in an article headed "The intolerance towards Christians in the public sector is an affront":
In their actions, they were as far away as it is possible to be from the caricature of a proselytising fundamentalism that seems to lie behind the views of those seeking to discipline them.
However, the suspension of one of these women and the continued disciplinary action faced by the other leads us to questions about how it is that those who share or express a trust in God -- or more precisely, in these cases, in the Christian faith -- are deemed worthy of discipline … There is a deep irony at work here, and not simply because the first free schools and hospitals operating in this nation were run by the churches.
Those who display intolerance and ignorance, and would relegate the Christian faith to just another disposable lifestyle choice, argue that they operate in pursuit of policies based on the twin aims of "diversity and equality"… "diversity" apparently means every colour and creed except Christianity, the nominal religion of the white majority; and "equality" seemingly excludes anyone, black or white, with a Christian belief in God.
A cricket team, the Middlesex Crusaders, has been forced to change its name to The Panthers because of the Christian associations of the word "Crusaders."
One need not be paranoid to see that a deliberate war is being waged in Britain to destroy Christianity and Britain's Christian identity.
The actual intelligence directing this war is not so easy to see, however. None of the agencies responsible for the above cases is directly part of the national government, which answers ultimately to electors, whose Members sit in Parliament and comprise the Ministries and Cabinet. The apparatchiks responsible for these and countless similar acts tend to inhabit not in the Parliament of Westminster but local authorities and quasi-governmental agencies, hard to pin down, hard to call to account, and very hard indeed to tip out at elections.
This is not to say the government has not condoned them -- the Prime Minister or other ultimately responsible ministers could in each case have intervened with a telephone call or word to their departmental head, but did not. Certainly the allegedly highly religious (and now Catholic convert) Tony Blair did nothing that one could detect to stop such things -- and there were already then hundreds of such incidents -- when he was Prime Minister. The links with the Government are there, but they are fudged and deniable.
Shortly before Christmas a leading Labour Party-aligned think tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research, recommended that Christmas, if it cannot be obliterated, should be down-graded to promote multiculturalism. It said that because it would be hard to "expunge" Christmas from the national calendar (although this would apparently be desirable), public organizations must be made to give non-Christian religious festivals equal footing.
The report was commissioned when Nick Pearce, who became head of public policy in the Prime Minister's Office, was the Institute's director. He has been described as "One of the leading policy-makers in Great Britain." Much of this activity, such as attempts to ban calling certain well-known holidays "Christmas" and "Easter," has been carried on by Labour-controlled councils, though many other councils involved are under the control of the trendy-left Liberal Democrats, such as Islington, where a Church of England school was ordered to drop the word "Saint" from its name. Some councils involved are even under Tory control.
Plainly there is more to it than Christianity. But here Christianity is the canary in the coal-mine. Non-believers also have cause to be deeply alarmed (certainly, too, Jews have cause -- anti-Semitism is increasingly tolerated and legitimized, but that is another story). There is really no longer even a pretence that what is under way under the slogan of Celebrating Diversity is anything but a massive kulturkampf aimed at creating a new Homo Britannicus. Traditional political processes of Parliament, votes, and even parties seem barely relevant.
So far, while many people are plainly angry and protesting, much of the reaction seems to be bewilderment. "Political correctness gone mad!" is a description used beyond the point of cliché for countess such outrageous incidents -- but if it is madness it is a very clever, cunning and strategically-conscious madness.
In 1922 Nikolai Bukharin claimed one of the Bolshevik Revolution's principal tasks was "to alter people's actual psychology," and in 1928, in a special edition of Izvestia on the subject, said: "One of the first priorities is the question of the systematic preparation of new men." When, 10 years ago, I wrote of the election of the British Labour Government with foreboding, I never looked to anything like this.
Spectator
Islamic fundamentalism promoted on websites at some Muslim schools
Daily Telegraph'sTom Whitehead, reports on20 Feb 2009
'.....warns the messages are threatening social cohesion and could fuel
"ghettoization" and segregation. A site linked to one primary school
said playing Monopoly or chess was forbidden and likened the latter to
"one who dips his hands in the blood of swine". Another warned children
in Britain were being exposed to a culture that was against everything
Islam stands for, while a third school's website had electronic links to
alleged extremist sites. Others had links to other sites or chatrooms
that contain fundamental views such as forbidding the playing of cricket
or even reading of Harry Potter books. Many of the messages, sites or
links mentioned in the report have since been taken down, but the
Department for Children, Schools and Families last night said it would
investigate the allegations it contained. Representatives of Muslim
schools angrily dismissed the study, labelling it "misleading,
intolerant and divisive", but the report will reignite the debate over
the growth of religious schools in the country. In a foreword to Music,
Chess and other Sins, Civitas director David Green said: "The schools
that give cause for concern are being run by religious fundamentalists.
"Their aim is to capture the next generation of Muslims for
fundamentalism and to turn children away, not only from Western
influence, but also from liberal and secular Muslims, whom they despise
perhaps with greater vehemence than non-Muslims." The report said there
are around 166 Muslim schools in the UK, which are a mixture or private
or state funded, as well as around 700 part-time madrasas. But it found
some were promoting anti-Western views actively on their website. The
Madani Secondary Girls' School in East London said on its website: "Our
children are exposed to a culture that is in opposition with almost
everything Islam stands for." The school was unavailable for comment but
the sentence has since been removed from the site. The Feversham College
in Bradford had links on its website for two other sites, one of which
allegedly advocated jihad. A spokeswoman for the college said the two
links have now been removed and insisted the college was "unequivocally
committed to community cohesion and promoting strong responsible
citizenship". "Our website pages have for some time had links with other
sites which are generally informative," she said. "It has been brought
to our attention that some of the content now on two of those sites
could be misinterpreted. We have therefore reviewed the position and
have removed any links to those websites." A third school, a primary,
had links with a site which said games such as Ludo, Monopoly, draughts
and chess should be forbidden. The site added: "The Holy Prophet stated
the person who plays chess is like one who dips his hands in the blood
of a swine (pig)." The site was not working last night and the school
was unavailable for comment.
The report also found evidence of sites saying a woman who is raped is
"jointly responsible" for the crime, that women should remain at home
rather than study or that the greatest form of veiling for a woman was
to stay indoors and keep herself hidden."'
In one respect I have some sympathy with the Muslims. To adapt their words, ' "Our
children are exposed to a culture that is in opposition with almost
everything Christianity stands for." This is the case in state schools. So I favour cChristian schools but want the Muslims ones rigourously inspected to see they teach the national curriculum not Islamism.
'.....warns the messages are threatening social cohesion and could fuel
"ghettoization" and segregation. A site linked to one primary school
said playing Monopoly or chess was forbidden and likened the latter to
"one who dips his hands in the blood of swine". Another warned children
in Britain were being exposed to a culture that was against everything
Islam stands for, while a third school's website had electronic links to
alleged extremist sites. Others had links to other sites or chatrooms
that contain fundamental views such as forbidding the playing of cricket
or even reading of Harry Potter books. Many of the messages, sites or
links mentioned in the report have since been taken down, but the
Department for Children, Schools and Families last night said it would
investigate the allegations it contained. Representatives of Muslim
schools angrily dismissed the study, labelling it "misleading,
intolerant and divisive", but the report will reignite the debate over
the growth of religious schools in the country. In a foreword to Music,
Chess and other Sins, Civitas director David Green said: "The schools
that give cause for concern are being run by religious fundamentalists.
"Their aim is to capture the next generation of Muslims for
fundamentalism and to turn children away, not only from Western
influence, but also from liberal and secular Muslims, whom they despise
perhaps with greater vehemence than non-Muslims." The report said there
are around 166 Muslim schools in the UK, which are a mixture or private
or state funded, as well as around 700 part-time madrasas. But it found
some were promoting anti-Western views actively on their website. The
Madani Secondary Girls' School in East London said on its website: "Our
children are exposed to a culture that is in opposition with almost
everything Islam stands for." The school was unavailable for comment but
the sentence has since been removed from the site. The Feversham College
in Bradford had links on its website for two other sites, one of which
allegedly advocated jihad. A spokeswoman for the college said the two
links have now been removed and insisted the college was "unequivocally
committed to community cohesion and promoting strong responsible
citizenship". "Our website pages have for some time had links with other
sites which are generally informative," she said. "It has been brought
to our attention that some of the content now on two of those sites
could be misinterpreted. We have therefore reviewed the position and
have removed any links to those websites." A third school, a primary,
had links with a site which said games such as Ludo, Monopoly, draughts
and chess should be forbidden. The site added: "The Holy Prophet stated
the person who plays chess is like one who dips his hands in the blood
of a swine (pig)." The site was not working last night and the school
was unavailable for comment.
The report also found evidence of sites saying a woman who is raped is
"jointly responsible" for the crime, that women should remain at home
rather than study or that the greatest form of veiling for a woman was
to stay indoors and keep herself hidden."'
In one respect I have some sympathy with the Muslims. To adapt their words, ' "Our
children are exposed to a culture that is in opposition with almost
everything Christianity stands for." This is the case in state schools. So I favour cChristian schools but want the Muslims ones rigourously inspected to see they teach the national curriculum not Islamism.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
America as the last man standing
Here is the speech of Geert Wilders, Chairman, Party for Freedom, the Netherlands , at the Four Seasons, New York
Dear friends,
Thank you very much for inviting me.
I come to America with a mission. All is not well in the old world. There is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very difficult to be optimistic. We might be in the final stages of the Islamization of Europe. This not only is a clear and present danger to the future of Europe itself, it is a threat toAmerica and the sheer survival of the West. The United States as the last bastion of Western civilization, facing an Islamic Europe.
First I will describe the situation on the ground in Europe .. Then, I will say a few things about Islam. To close I will tell you about a meeting inJerusalem .
The Europe you know is changing. You have probably seen the landmarks. But in all of these cities, sometimes a few blocks away from your tourist destination, there is another world. It is the world of the parallel society created by Muslim mass-migration. All throughout Europe a new reality is rising: entire Muslim neighborhoods where very few indigenous people reside or are even seen. And if they are, they might regret it. This goes for the police as well. It's the world of head scarves, where women walk around in figureless tents, with baby strollers and a group of children. Their husbands, or slaveholders if you prefer, walk three steps ahead. With mosques on many street corners. The shops have signs you and I cannot read. You will be hard-pressed to find any economic activity. These are Muslim ghettos controlled by religious fanatics. These are Muslim neighborhoods, and they are mushrooming in every city across Europe . These are the building-blocks for territorial control of increasingly larger portions of Europe, street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood, city by city.
There are now thousands of mosques throughout Europe . With larger congregations than there are in churches. And in every European city there are plans to build super-mosques that will dwarf every church in the region. Clearly, the signal is: we rule.
Many European cities are already one-quarter Muslim: just take Amsterdam , Marseille and Malmo in Sweden. In many cities the majority of the under-18 population is Muslim. Paris is now surrounded by a ring of Muslim neighborhoods. Mohammed is the most popular name among boys in many cities. In some elementary schools in Amsterdam the farm can no longer be mentioned, because that would also mean mentioning the pig, and that would be an insult to Muslims. Many state schools in Belgium and Denmark only serve halal food to all pupils. In once-tolerantAmsterdam gays are beaten up almost exclusively by Muslims. Non-Muslim women routinely hear 'whore, whore'. Satellite dishes are not pointed to local TV stations, but to stations in the country of origin. In Fran ce school teachers are advised to avoid authors deemed offensive to Muslims, including Voltaire and Diderot; the same is increasingly true of Darwin . The history of the Holocaust can no longer be taught because of Muslim sensitivity. In England sharia courts are now officially part of the British legal system.. Many neighborhoods in France are no-go areas for women without head scarves. Last week a man almost died after being beaten up by Muslims in Brussels , because he was drinking during the Ramadan. Jews are fleeing France in record numbers, on the run for the worst wave of anti-Semitism since World War II. French is now commonly spoken on the streets of Tel Aviv and Netanya, Israel . I could go on forever with stories like this. Stories about Islamization.
A total of fifty-four million Muslims now live in Europe . San Diego University recently calculated that a staggering 25 percent of the population in Europe will be Muslim just 12 years from now. Bernhard Lewis has predicted a Muslim majority by the end of this century.
Now these are just numbers. And the numbers would not be threatening if the Muslim-immigrants had a strong desire to assimilate. But there are few signs of that. The Pew Research Center reported that half of French Muslims see their loyalty to Islam as greater than their loyalty to France. One-third of French Muslims do not object to suicide attacks. The British Centre for Social Cohesion reported that one-third of British Muslim students are in favor of a worldwide caliphate. Muslims demand what they call 'respect'. And this is how we give them respect. We have Muslim official state holidays.
The Christian-Democratic attorney general is willing to accept sharia in the Netherlands if there is a Muslim majority. We have cabinet members with passports from Morocco and Turkey .
Muslim demands are supported by unlawful behavior, ranging from petty crimes and random violence, for example against ambulance workers and bus drivers, to small-scale riots. Paris has seen its uprising in the low-income suburbs, the banlieus. I call the perpetrators 'settlers'. Because that is what they are. They do not come to integrate into our societies, they come to integrate our society into their Dar-al-Islam. Therefore, they are settlers.
Much of this street violence I mentioned is directed exclusively against non-Muslims, forcing many native people to leave their neighborhoods, their cities, their countries. Moreover, Muslims are now a swing vote not to be ignored. ,.
The second thing you need to know is the importance of Mohammed the prophet. His behavior is an example to all Muslims and cannot be criticized. Now, if Mohammed had been a man of peace, let us say like Ghandi and Mother Theresa wrapped in one, there would be no problem. But Mohammed was a warlord, a mass murderer, a pedophile, and had several marriages - at the same time. Islamic tradition tells us how he fought in battles, how he had his enemies murdered and even had prisoners of war executed. Mohammed himself slaughtered the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza. If it is good for Islam, it is good. If it is bad for Islam, it is bad.
Let no one fool you about Islam being a religion. Sure, it has a god, and a here-after, and 72 virgins. But in its essence Islam is a political ideology. It is a system that lays down detailed rules for society and the life of every person. Islam wants to dictate every aspect of life. Islam means 'submission'. Islam is not compatible with freedom and democracy, because what it strives for is sharia. If you want to compare Islam to anything, compare it to communism or national-socialism, these are all totalitarian ideologies.
Now you know why Winston Churchill called Islam 'the most retrograde force in the world', and why he compared Mein Kampf to the Quran. The public has wholeheartedly accepted the Palestinian narrative, and sees Israel as the aggressor. I have lived in this country and visited it dozens of times. I support Israel . First, because it is the Jewish homeland after two thousand years of exile up to and including Auschwitz, second because it is a democracy, and third because Israel is our first line of defense.
This tiny country is situated on the fault line of jihad, frustrating Islam's territorial advance. Israel is facing the front lines of jihad, like Kashmir, Kosovo, the Philippines , Southern Thailand, Darfur in Sudan , Lebanon , and Aceh in Indonesia . Israel is simply in the way. The same way West-Berlin was during the Cold War.
The war against Israel is not a war against Israel . It is a war against the West. It is jihad. Israel is simply receiving the blows that are meant for all of us. If there would have been no Israel , Islamic imperialism would have found other venues to release its energy and its desire for conquest. Thanks to Israeli parents who send their children to the army and lay awake at night, parents in Europe and America can sleep well and dream, unaware of the dangers looming.
Many in Europe argue in favor of abandoning Israel in order to address the grievances of our Muslim minorities. But if Israel were, God forbid, to go down, it would not bring any solace to the West. It would not mean our Muslim minorities would all of a sudden change their behavior, and accept our values. On the contrary, the end of Israel would give enormous encouragement to the forces of Islam. They would, and rightly so, see the demise ofIsrael as proof that the West is weak, and doomed. The end of Israel would not mean the end of our problems with Islam, but only the beginning. It would mean the start of the final battle for world domination. If they can get Israel , they can get everything. So-called journalists volunteer to label any and all critics of Islamization as a 'right-wing extremists' or 'racists'. In my country, the Netherlands , 60 percent of the population now sees the mass immigration of Muslims as the number one policy mistake since World War II. And another 60 percent sees Islam as the biggest threat. Yet ther e is a danger greater danger than terrorist attacks , the scenario of America as the last man standing. The lights may go out inEurope faster than you can imagine. An Islamic Europe means a Europe without freedom and democracy, an economic wasteland, an intellectual nightmare, and a loss of military might for America - as its allies will turn into enemies, enemies with atomic bombs. With an Islamic Europe, it would be up to America alone to preserve the heritage of Rome , Athens and Jerusalem ..
Dear friends, liberty is the most precious of gifts. My generation never had to fight for this freedom, it was offered to us on a silver platter, by people who fought for it with their lives. All throughout Europe American cemeteries remind us of the young boys who never made it home, and whose memory we cherish. My generation does not own this freedom; we are merely its custodians. We can only hand over this hard won liberty to Europe 's children in the same state in which it was offered to us. We cannot strike a deal with mullahs and imams. Future generations would never forgive us. We cannot squander our liberties. We simply do not have the right to do so. '
I read no hate speech here only fair comment. The only real criticism is his failure to say most western Muslims are better than the religion of jihad.
Dear friends,
Thank you very much for inviting me.
I come to America with a mission. All is not well in the old world. There is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very difficult to be optimistic. We might be in the final stages of the Islamization of Europe. This not only is a clear and present danger to the future of Europe itself, it is a threat toAmerica and the sheer survival of the West. The United States as the last bastion of Western civilization, facing an Islamic Europe.
First I will describe the situation on the ground in Europe .. Then, I will say a few things about Islam. To close I will tell you about a meeting inJerusalem .
The Europe you know is changing. You have probably seen the landmarks. But in all of these cities, sometimes a few blocks away from your tourist destination, there is another world. It is the world of the parallel society created by Muslim mass-migration. All throughout Europe a new reality is rising: entire Muslim neighborhoods where very few indigenous people reside or are even seen. And if they are, they might regret it. This goes for the police as well. It's the world of head scarves, where women walk around in figureless tents, with baby strollers and a group of children. Their husbands, or slaveholders if you prefer, walk three steps ahead. With mosques on many street corners. The shops have signs you and I cannot read. You will be hard-pressed to find any economic activity. These are Muslim ghettos controlled by religious fanatics. These are Muslim neighborhoods, and they are mushrooming in every city across Europe . These are the building-blocks for territorial control of increasingly larger portions of Europe, street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood, city by city.
There are now thousands of mosques throughout Europe . With larger congregations than there are in churches. And in every European city there are plans to build super-mosques that will dwarf every church in the region. Clearly, the signal is: we rule.
Many European cities are already one-quarter Muslim: just take Amsterdam , Marseille and Malmo in Sweden. In many cities the majority of the under-18 population is Muslim. Paris is now surrounded by a ring of Muslim neighborhoods. Mohammed is the most popular name among boys in many cities. In some elementary schools in Amsterdam the farm can no longer be mentioned, because that would also mean mentioning the pig, and that would be an insult to Muslims. Many state schools in Belgium and Denmark only serve halal food to all pupils. In once-tolerantAmsterdam gays are beaten up almost exclusively by Muslims. Non-Muslim women routinely hear 'whore, whore'. Satellite dishes are not pointed to local TV stations, but to stations in the country of origin. In Fran ce school teachers are advised to avoid authors deemed offensive to Muslims, including Voltaire and Diderot; the same is increasingly true of Darwin . The history of the Holocaust can no longer be taught because of Muslim sensitivity. In England sharia courts are now officially part of the British legal system.. Many neighborhoods in France are no-go areas for women without head scarves. Last week a man almost died after being beaten up by Muslims in Brussels , because he was drinking during the Ramadan. Jews are fleeing France in record numbers, on the run for the worst wave of anti-Semitism since World War II. French is now commonly spoken on the streets of Tel Aviv and Netanya, Israel . I could go on forever with stories like this. Stories about Islamization.
A total of fifty-four million Muslims now live in Europe . San Diego University recently calculated that a staggering 25 percent of the population in Europe will be Muslim just 12 years from now. Bernhard Lewis has predicted a Muslim majority by the end of this century.
Now these are just numbers. And the numbers would not be threatening if the Muslim-immigrants had a strong desire to assimilate. But there are few signs of that. The Pew Research Center reported that half of French Muslims see their loyalty to Islam as greater than their loyalty to France. One-third of French Muslims do not object to suicide attacks. The British Centre for Social Cohesion reported that one-third of British Muslim students are in favor of a worldwide caliphate. Muslims demand what they call 'respect'. And this is how we give them respect. We have Muslim official state holidays.
The Christian-Democratic attorney general is willing to accept sharia in the Netherlands if there is a Muslim majority. We have cabinet members with passports from Morocco and Turkey .
Muslim demands are supported by unlawful behavior, ranging from petty crimes and random violence, for example against ambulance workers and bus drivers, to small-scale riots. Paris has seen its uprising in the low-income suburbs, the banlieus. I call the perpetrators 'settlers'. Because that is what they are. They do not come to integrate into our societies, they come to integrate our society into their Dar-al-Islam. Therefore, they are settlers.
Much of this street violence I mentioned is directed exclusively against non-Muslims, forcing many native people to leave their neighborhoods, their cities, their countries. Moreover, Muslims are now a swing vote not to be ignored. ,.
The second thing you need to know is the importance of Mohammed the prophet. His behavior is an example to all Muslims and cannot be criticized. Now, if Mohammed had been a man of peace, let us say like Ghandi and Mother Theresa wrapped in one, there would be no problem. But Mohammed was a warlord, a mass murderer, a pedophile, and had several marriages - at the same time. Islamic tradition tells us how he fought in battles, how he had his enemies murdered and even had prisoners of war executed. Mohammed himself slaughtered the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza. If it is good for Islam, it is good. If it is bad for Islam, it is bad.
Let no one fool you about Islam being a religion. Sure, it has a god, and a here-after, and 72 virgins. But in its essence Islam is a political ideology. It is a system that lays down detailed rules for society and the life of every person. Islam wants to dictate every aspect of life. Islam means 'submission'. Islam is not compatible with freedom and democracy, because what it strives for is sharia. If you want to compare Islam to anything, compare it to communism or national-socialism, these are all totalitarian ideologies.
Now you know why Winston Churchill called Islam 'the most retrograde force in the world', and why he compared Mein Kampf to the Quran. The public has wholeheartedly accepted the Palestinian narrative, and sees Israel as the aggressor. I have lived in this country and visited it dozens of times. I support Israel . First, because it is the Jewish homeland after two thousand years of exile up to and including Auschwitz, second because it is a democracy, and third because Israel is our first line of defense.
This tiny country is situated on the fault line of jihad, frustrating Islam's territorial advance. Israel is facing the front lines of jihad, like Kashmir, Kosovo, the Philippines , Southern Thailand, Darfur in Sudan , Lebanon , and Aceh in Indonesia . Israel is simply in the way. The same way West-Berlin was during the Cold War.
The war against Israel is not a war against Israel . It is a war against the West. It is jihad. Israel is simply receiving the blows that are meant for all of us. If there would have been no Israel , Islamic imperialism would have found other venues to release its energy and its desire for conquest. Thanks to Israeli parents who send their children to the army and lay awake at night, parents in Europe and America can sleep well and dream, unaware of the dangers looming.
Many in Europe argue in favor of abandoning Israel in order to address the grievances of our Muslim minorities. But if Israel were, God forbid, to go down, it would not bring any solace to the West. It would not mean our Muslim minorities would all of a sudden change their behavior, and accept our values. On the contrary, the end of Israel would give enormous encouragement to the forces of Islam. They would, and rightly so, see the demise ofIsrael as proof that the West is weak, and doomed. The end of Israel would not mean the end of our problems with Islam, but only the beginning. It would mean the start of the final battle for world domination. If they can get Israel , they can get everything. So-called journalists volunteer to label any and all critics of Islamization as a 'right-wing extremists' or 'racists'. In my country, the Netherlands , 60 percent of the population now sees the mass immigration of Muslims as the number one policy mistake since World War II. And another 60 percent sees Islam as the biggest threat. Yet ther e is a danger greater danger than terrorist attacks , the scenario of America as the last man standing. The lights may go out inEurope faster than you can imagine. An Islamic Europe means a Europe without freedom and democracy, an economic wasteland, an intellectual nightmare, and a loss of military might for America - as its allies will turn into enemies, enemies with atomic bombs. With an Islamic Europe, it would be up to America alone to preserve the heritage of Rome , Athens and Jerusalem ..
Dear friends, liberty is the most precious of gifts. My generation never had to fight for this freedom, it was offered to us on a silver platter, by people who fought for it with their lives. All throughout Europe American cemeteries remind us of the young boys who never made it home, and whose memory we cherish. My generation does not own this freedom; we are merely its custodians. We can only hand over this hard won liberty to Europe 's children in the same state in which it was offered to us. We cannot strike a deal with mullahs and imams. Future generations would never forgive us. We cannot squander our liberties. We simply do not have the right to do so. '
I read no hate speech here only fair comment. The only real criticism is his failure to say most western Muslims are better than the religion of jihad.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Strangers - christiansquoting.org.uk
In our attempt to overcome estrangement and to make ourselves a home in the world, we have made ourselves, more than ever, strangers. - A J Conyers, The Eclipse of Heaven,, Inter Varsity Press, 1992 p.71.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Bible report - funny even if American
" A child was asked to write a book report on the entire
Bible.
I wonder how often we take for g ranted that children
understand what we are teaching???
Through the eyes of a child:
The Bible , in a nutshell, as seen in the eyes of a child .
In the beginning, which occurred near the start, there was
nothing but God, darkness, and some gas. The Bible says,
'The Lord thy God is one, but I think He must be a lot
older than that.
Anyway, God said, 'Give me a light!' and someone
did.
Then God made the world.
He split the Adam and made Eve. Adam and Eve were naked,
but they weren't embarrassed because mirrors hadn't
been invented yet.
Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating one bad apple, so they
were driven from the Garden of Eden.
Not sure what they were driven in though, because they
didn't have cars.
Adam and Eve had a son, Cain, who hated his brother as long
as he was Abel.
Pretty soon all of the early people died off, except for
Methuselah, who lived to be like a million or something.
One of the next important people was Noah, who was a good
guy, but one of his kids was kind of a Ham. Noah built a
large boat and put his family and some animals on it. He> asked some other people to join him, but they said they
would have to take a rain check.
After Noah came Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob was more
famous than his brother, Esau, because Esau sold Jacob his
birthmark in exchange for some pot roast. Jacob had a son
named Joseph who wore a really loud sports coat.
Another important Bible guy is Moses, whose real name was
Charlton Heston. Moses led the Israel Lights out of Egypt
and away from the evil Pharaoh after God sent ten plagues on
Pharaoh's people. These p lagues included frogs, mice,
lice, bowels, and no cable.
God fed the Israel Lights every day with manicotti. Then
he gave them His Top Ten Commandments.
These include: don't lie, cheat, smoke, dance, or covet
your neighbor's stuff.
Oh, yeah, I just thought of one more: Humor thy father and
thy mother.
One of Moses' best helpers was Joshua who was the first
Bible guy to use spies. Joshua fought the battle of Geritol
and the fence fell over on the town.
After Joshua came David. He got to be king by killing a
giant with a slingshot. He had a son named Solomon who had
about 300 wives and 500 porcupines. My teacher says he
was wise, but that doesn't sound very wise to me.
After Solomon there were a bunch of major league prophets.
One of these was Jonah, who was swallowed by a big whale
and then barfed up on the shore. There were also some minor
league prophets, but I guess we don't have to worry
about them.
After the Old Testament came the New Testament. Jesus is
the star of The New. He was born in Bethlehem in a barn.
(I wish I had been born in a barn too, because my mom is
always saying to me, 'Close the door! Were you born in a
barn?' It would be nice to say, 'As a matter of
fact, I was.')
During His life, Jesus had many arguments with sinners like
the Pharisees and the Democrats.
Jesus also had twelve opossums.
The worst one was Judas Asparagus. Judas was so evil that
they named a terrible vegetable after him.
Jesus was a great man. He healed many leopards and even
preached to some Germans on the Mount.
But the Democrats and all those guys put Jesus on trial
before Pontius the Pilot. Pilot didn't stick up for
Jesus. He just washed his hands instead.
Anyways, Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life
again.
He went up to Heaven but will be back at the end of the
Aluminum. His return is foretold in the book of Revolution.
Bible.
I wonder how often we take for g ranted that children
understand what we are teaching???
Through the eyes of a child:
The Bible , in a nutshell, as seen in the eyes of a child .
In the beginning, which occurred near the start, there was
nothing but God, darkness, and some gas. The Bible says,
'The Lord thy God is one, but I think He must be a lot
older than that.
Anyway, God said, 'Give me a light!' and someone
did.
Then God made the world.
He split the Adam and made Eve. Adam and Eve were naked,
but they weren't embarrassed because mirrors hadn't
been invented yet.
Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating one bad apple, so they
were driven from the Garden of Eden.
Not sure what they were driven in though, because they
didn't have cars.
Adam and Eve had a son, Cain, who hated his brother as long
as he was Abel.
Pretty soon all of the early people died off, except for
Methuselah, who lived to be like a million or something.
One of the next important people was Noah, who was a good
guy, but one of his kids was kind of a Ham. Noah built a
large boat and put his family and some animals on it. He> asked some other people to join him, but they said they
would have to take a rain check.
After Noah came Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob was more
famous than his brother, Esau, because Esau sold Jacob his
birthmark in exchange for some pot roast. Jacob had a son
named Joseph who wore a really loud sports coat.
Another important Bible guy is Moses, whose real name was
Charlton Heston. Moses led the Israel Lights out of Egypt
and away from the evil Pharaoh after God sent ten plagues on
Pharaoh's people. These p lagues included frogs, mice,
lice, bowels, and no cable.
God fed the Israel Lights every day with manicotti. Then
he gave them His Top Ten Commandments.
These include: don't lie, cheat, smoke, dance, or covet
your neighbor's stuff.
Oh, yeah, I just thought of one more: Humor thy father and
thy mother.
One of Moses' best helpers was Joshua who was the first
Bible guy to use spies. Joshua fought the battle of Geritol
and the fence fell over on the town.
After Joshua came David. He got to be king by killing a
giant with a slingshot. He had a son named Solomon who had
about 300 wives and 500 porcupines. My teacher says he
was wise, but that doesn't sound very wise to me.
After Solomon there were a bunch of major league prophets.
One of these was Jonah, who was swallowed by a big whale
and then barfed up on the shore. There were also some minor
league prophets, but I guess we don't have to worry
about them.
After the Old Testament came the New Testament. Jesus is
the star of The New. He was born in Bethlehem in a barn.
(I wish I had been born in a barn too, because my mom is
always saying to me, 'Close the door! Were you born in a
barn?' It would be nice to say, 'As a matter of
fact, I was.')
During His life, Jesus had many arguments with sinners like
the Pharisees and the Democrats.
Jesus also had twelve opossums.
The worst one was Judas Asparagus. Judas was so evil that
they named a terrible vegetable after him.
Jesus was a great man. He healed many leopards and even
preached to some Germans on the Mount.
But the Democrats and all those guys put Jesus on trial
before Pontius the Pilot. Pilot didn't stick up for
Jesus. He just washed his hands instead.
Anyways, Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life
again.
He went up to Heaven but will be back at the end of the
Aluminum. His return is foretold in the book of Revolution.
More terror?
From The Sunday Times:
Terrorists linked to Al-Qaeda may be planning to buy former NHS ambulances and police cars to mount suicide bomb attacks in Britain, MI5 has warned.
They may import a tactic already used in Iraq and Israel, according to a report by MI5’s Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre to chief constables.
In a statement to The Sunday Times, the Association of Chief Police Officers also warned of the risk of such an attack. It said ministers must legislate to stop the sale of such vehicles.
Its move has been backed by Lord Carlile of Berriew, the government’s terrorism watchdog. He said he feared terrorists could exploit a loophole which did not allow police sufficient powers to stop and search the drivers of suspicious vehicles.
Interestingly, the British Home Office asked eBay to quit selling used emergency vehicles, equipment and uniforms but were denied. Management at eBay said they won't act unless a new law is passed.
Terrorists linked to Al-Qaeda may be planning to buy former NHS ambulances and police cars to mount suicide bomb attacks in Britain, MI5 has warned.
They may import a tactic already used in Iraq and Israel, according to a report by MI5’s Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre to chief constables.
In a statement to The Sunday Times, the Association of Chief Police Officers also warned of the risk of such an attack. It said ministers must legislate to stop the sale of such vehicles.
Its move has been backed by Lord Carlile of Berriew, the government’s terrorism watchdog. He said he feared terrorists could exploit a loophole which did not allow police sufficient powers to stop and search the drivers of suspicious vehicles.
Interestingly, the British Home Office asked eBay to quit selling used emergency vehicles, equipment and uniforms but were denied. Management at eBay said they won't act unless a new law is passed.
Speak up on behalf of apostates from Islam
CSW says,'Over the last year Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) has carried out a special investigation into the human rights abuses suffered by apostates from Islam. The research included interviews with twenty eight apostates in six different countries. One apostate spoke of when he was subjected to torture in a Middle Eastern country. His torturer told him he could scream as loud as he wanted, but no one would hear or save him. When he realised this was true, he broke down and has never really recovered from the damage caused by his detention.
No Place to Call Home is the title of the report on this investigation. It identifies that the application of the death penalty for apostasy is rare, even though most people associate this as a punishment for apostasy. Only Sudan and Malaysia make explicit mention of the death penalty for apostasy in their legislation, although there is still a very real risk of facing the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, Mauritania and Iran under their strict applications of Shari’a law.
However, the report identifies the gross and wide ranging human rights abuses that apostates suffer at the hands of the state, their communities and their families. Egypt’s laws, for example, can be used to annul the marriages of apostates and remove custody and inheritance rights. In countries such as Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Yemen, shari’a is used to govern personal status matters. Apostates can face serious penalties, such as the annulment of marriage, termination of citizenship, confiscation of identity papers and the loss of further social and economic rights, even though there are no specific regulations on apostasy. Many of these punishments may render the apostate legally ‘dead’. Even more widespread are extra-judicial attacks by state security services and angry mobs.
A current example of the trauma faced by apostates is that of Egyptian convert Mohammed Hegazy. Having been tortured by the police shortly after his conversion, he sought to make his conversion official to allow his children to grow up as Christians. The consequent furore surrounding his court case to do so led to his first lawyer’s withdrawal following death threats, and Hegazy’s flat was also broken into and the contents set alight. His case was rejected by the court.
As the number of apostate communities has significantly increased in the Islamic world, human rights abuses have been more regularly reported. This is despite the fact that most Muslim nations are members of the UN and have ratified international human rights treaties. Even a resolution passed in March by the UN Human Rights Council on the defamation of Islam may make it far more difficult to defend the abuses of those who choose to leave Islam. Consequently many apostates suffer in crushing silence.
No Place to Call Home aims to move discussion about apostasy away from debates about Islamic theology and the death penalty, and encourage individual governments and the international community to protect the rights of apostates.
What can you do?
Pray
Please pray for all those like Mohammed Hegazy, who are considered apostates. Pray for their continued safety and that they will be granted the right to freedom of religion and conscience.
Protest
For MPs:
Please write to your MP, drawing their attention to the report.
In your letter, ask your MP to raise the findings of the report in the House of Commons by tabling a parliamentary question or an Early Day Motion based on the recommendations of the report; ask your MP to write to the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, asking him to ensure that the issue of apostasy is addressed in appropriate bi-lateral and multi-lateral fora and to clearly communicate the UK’s concern over the human rights abuses suffered by apostates; encourage your MP to engage in dialogue on this issue with any Muslim communities and organisations in his or her constituency. Ask your MP to write to the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, to urge that immigration case workers and translators are properly briefed on the issue of apostasy and to request that any inappropriate conduct towards apostate asylum seekers is properly addressed. Ask your MP to further request that information used in the consideration of asylum applications by the home office includes specific information on the situation of apostates.
The address for all MPs is:
The House of Commons London SW1A 0AA
You can find the details of your MP by calling 020 7219 3000 or logging on to http://www.parliament.uk
For MEPs
Please also write to your MEP to draw their attention to the serious issues raised by this report. Please ask your MEP to put a question to the Commission asking them to provide orientation and training to human rights officers in Commission delegations in countries where apostasy is a serious human rights concern; to ask the Commission and Council to actively engage with majority-Muslim nations to encourage the implementation of the recommendations given in the report, to regularly highlight concern for the treatment of apostates within the EU and with Muslim nations and to ensure that the issue of apostasy is addressed in appropriate bi-lateral and multi-lateral fora; to raise the findings of the report with Muslim community leaders and organisations in the EU and to encourage these groups to address the human rights abuses suffered by apostates and to issue statements condemning the persecution faced by apostates.
The address for all MEPs is:
Rue Wiertz B-1047 Brussels
Belgium
You can find the details of your MEP by calling 020 7227 4300 or logging on to www.europarl.org.uk
For more information, or to download a copy of the report, please visit: http://dynamic.csw.org.uk/article.asp?t=report&id=94&search
Yours in Christ,
CSW Advocacy Team
Michael O'Rourke
CSW Church Rep
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) www.csw.org.uk
PO Box 99
New Malden
Surrey
KT3 3YF
United Kingdom
CSW is a human rights organisation which specialises in religious freedom, works on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs and promotes religious liberty for all.'
No Place to Call Home is the title of the report on this investigation. It identifies that the application of the death penalty for apostasy is rare, even though most people associate this as a punishment for apostasy. Only Sudan and Malaysia make explicit mention of the death penalty for apostasy in their legislation, although there is still a very real risk of facing the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, Mauritania and Iran under their strict applications of Shari’a law.
However, the report identifies the gross and wide ranging human rights abuses that apostates suffer at the hands of the state, their communities and their families. Egypt’s laws, for example, can be used to annul the marriages of apostates and remove custody and inheritance rights. In countries such as Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Yemen, shari’a is used to govern personal status matters. Apostates can face serious penalties, such as the annulment of marriage, termination of citizenship, confiscation of identity papers and the loss of further social and economic rights, even though there are no specific regulations on apostasy. Many of these punishments may render the apostate legally ‘dead’. Even more widespread are extra-judicial attacks by state security services and angry mobs.
A current example of the trauma faced by apostates is that of Egyptian convert Mohammed Hegazy. Having been tortured by the police shortly after his conversion, he sought to make his conversion official to allow his children to grow up as Christians. The consequent furore surrounding his court case to do so led to his first lawyer’s withdrawal following death threats, and Hegazy’s flat was also broken into and the contents set alight. His case was rejected by the court.
As the number of apostate communities has significantly increased in the Islamic world, human rights abuses have been more regularly reported. This is despite the fact that most Muslim nations are members of the UN and have ratified international human rights treaties. Even a resolution passed in March by the UN Human Rights Council on the defamation of Islam may make it far more difficult to defend the abuses of those who choose to leave Islam. Consequently many apostates suffer in crushing silence.
No Place to Call Home aims to move discussion about apostasy away from debates about Islamic theology and the death penalty, and encourage individual governments and the international community to protect the rights of apostates.
What can you do?
Pray
Please pray for all those like Mohammed Hegazy, who are considered apostates. Pray for their continued safety and that they will be granted the right to freedom of religion and conscience.
Protest
For MPs:
Please write to your MP, drawing their attention to the report.
In your letter, ask your MP to raise the findings of the report in the House of Commons by tabling a parliamentary question or an Early Day Motion based on the recommendations of the report; ask your MP to write to the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, asking him to ensure that the issue of apostasy is addressed in appropriate bi-lateral and multi-lateral fora and to clearly communicate the UK’s concern over the human rights abuses suffered by apostates; encourage your MP to engage in dialogue on this issue with any Muslim communities and organisations in his or her constituency. Ask your MP to write to the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, to urge that immigration case workers and translators are properly briefed on the issue of apostasy and to request that any inappropriate conduct towards apostate asylum seekers is properly addressed. Ask your MP to further request that information used in the consideration of asylum applications by the home office includes specific information on the situation of apostates.
The address for all MPs is:
The House of Commons London SW1A 0AA
You can find the details of your MP by calling 020 7219 3000 or logging on to http://www.parliament.uk
For MEPs
Please also write to your MEP to draw their attention to the serious issues raised by this report. Please ask your MEP to put a question to the Commission asking them to provide orientation and training to human rights officers in Commission delegations in countries where apostasy is a serious human rights concern; to ask the Commission and Council to actively engage with majority-Muslim nations to encourage the implementation of the recommendations given in the report, to regularly highlight concern for the treatment of apostates within the EU and with Muslim nations and to ensure that the issue of apostasy is addressed in appropriate bi-lateral and multi-lateral fora; to raise the findings of the report with Muslim community leaders and organisations in the EU and to encourage these groups to address the human rights abuses suffered by apostates and to issue statements condemning the persecution faced by apostates.
The address for all MEPs is:
Rue Wiertz B-1047 Brussels
Belgium
You can find the details of your MEP by calling 020 7227 4300 or logging on to www.europarl.org.uk
For more information, or to download a copy of the report, please visit: http://dynamic.csw.org.uk/article.asp?t=report&id=94&search
Yours in Christ,
CSW Advocacy Team
Michael O'Rourke
CSW Church Rep
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) www.csw.org.uk
PO Box 99
New Malden
Surrey
KT3 3YF
United Kingdom
CSW is a human rights organisation which specialises in religious freedom, works on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs and promotes religious liberty for all.'
Brutal murder of a Somali convert from Islam
CSI report,'Footage has emerged of a mobile phone video showing the tragic and brutal murder of a Somali convert from Islam.
In September 2008, members of the al-Shabab militia intercepted 25-year-old Mansour Mohammed, a humanitarian aid worker and convert from Islam, along with his driver.
Mansour’s driver managed to escape, but later that day at a nearby village the militiamen asked villagers to gather around as they had prepared a “celebration” for them. Five masked men armed with guns and large traditional daggers dragged a handcuffed Mansour to the area where the villagers had gathered, forcing him to kneel.
The militia men declared that Mansour was a “Murtad,” who spied for the Ethiopian Army and began reciting from the Qur’an. One militia pulled back his head, occasionally turned it from side to side, and at one point scraped a large dagger against his hair several times as if sharpening it - it seemed he wanted to force some reaction from Mansour. However, the video of his death shows Mansour remained calm and impassive throughout the ordeal. He did not shake or utter a word as militia men denounced him and shouted “Allah u Akbar”.
He offered no resistance when they threw him to the ground, twisted his neck and set about severing his head, which they triumphantly displayed to the gathered crowd, before placing it on his stomach and walking away.
Background
The al-Shabab militia was responsible for killing Somali converts Daud Hassan Ali, a 64 year-old aid worker from Birmingham, 32 year-old, Rehana Ahmed, also from Birmingham, and Kenyan teachers Gilford Koech and Andrew Kibet. They were shot dead in April 2008 in Beledweyne at a school built by Daud’s charity.
The militia also organised the stoning to death in the southern port of Kismayu of a thirteen-year-old Muslim girl named Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow. Her family had approached them for justice after she was raped by three armed men. Instead, Aisha was taken into custody a few days later and accused of flirting and committing adultery. Then on 27 October, a bound, gagged and struggling Aisha was carried to a public stadium, buried to the neck and stoned to death.
What you can do
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pray
- For Mansour’s family and friends as they cope with the aftermath of this tragedy. Pray that God would comfort and strengthen them in every way during this difficult time.
- That the hearts of the perpetrators would somehow be changed, and that they would no longer be able to initiate, justify or take part in such brutal violence.
- For other converts from Islam in Somalia, that God would give them courage, strength and endurance in light of these brutal attacks.
- That the discrimination faced by converts worldwide would be brought to the attention of the international community, and that lobbying by human rights organisations would be effective
follow the following link to find out more about CSW’s report about the discrimination faced by apostates
http://dynamic.csw.org.uk/article.asp?t=report&id=94&search
Protest to government officials.
Yours in Christ,
CSW Advocacy Team
Michael O'Rourke
CSW Church Rep
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) www.csw.org.uk
PO Box 99
New Malden
Surrey
KT3 3YF
United Kingdom
CSW is a human rights organisation which specialises in religious freedom, works on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs and promotes religious liberty for all.'
In September 2008, members of the al-Shabab militia intercepted 25-year-old Mansour Mohammed, a humanitarian aid worker and convert from Islam, along with his driver.
Mansour’s driver managed to escape, but later that day at a nearby village the militiamen asked villagers to gather around as they had prepared a “celebration” for them. Five masked men armed with guns and large traditional daggers dragged a handcuffed Mansour to the area where the villagers had gathered, forcing him to kneel.
The militia men declared that Mansour was a “Murtad,” who spied for the Ethiopian Army and began reciting from the Qur’an. One militia pulled back his head, occasionally turned it from side to side, and at one point scraped a large dagger against his hair several times as if sharpening it - it seemed he wanted to force some reaction from Mansour. However, the video of his death shows Mansour remained calm and impassive throughout the ordeal. He did not shake or utter a word as militia men denounced him and shouted “Allah u Akbar”.
He offered no resistance when they threw him to the ground, twisted his neck and set about severing his head, which they triumphantly displayed to the gathered crowd, before placing it on his stomach and walking away.
Background
The al-Shabab militia was responsible for killing Somali converts Daud Hassan Ali, a 64 year-old aid worker from Birmingham, 32 year-old, Rehana Ahmed, also from Birmingham, and Kenyan teachers Gilford Koech and Andrew Kibet. They were shot dead in April 2008 in Beledweyne at a school built by Daud’s charity.
The militia also organised the stoning to death in the southern port of Kismayu of a thirteen-year-old Muslim girl named Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow. Her family had approached them for justice after she was raped by three armed men. Instead, Aisha was taken into custody a few days later and accused of flirting and committing adultery. Then on 27 October, a bound, gagged and struggling Aisha was carried to a public stadium, buried to the neck and stoned to death.
What you can do
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pray
- For Mansour’s family and friends as they cope with the aftermath of this tragedy. Pray that God would comfort and strengthen them in every way during this difficult time.
- That the hearts of the perpetrators would somehow be changed, and that they would no longer be able to initiate, justify or take part in such brutal violence.
- For other converts from Islam in Somalia, that God would give them courage, strength and endurance in light of these brutal attacks.
- That the discrimination faced by converts worldwide would be brought to the attention of the international community, and that lobbying by human rights organisations would be effective
follow the following link to find out more about CSW’s report about the discrimination faced by apostates
http://dynamic.csw.org.uk/article.asp?t=report&id=94&search
Protest to government officials.
Yours in Christ,
CSW Advocacy Team
Michael O'Rourke
CSW Church Rep
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) www.csw.org.uk
PO Box 99
New Malden
Surrey
KT3 3YF
United Kingdom
CSW is a human rights organisation which specialises in religious freedom, works on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs and promotes religious liberty for all.'
Politicians 'ignoring' polygamy
BBC says,' Baroness Warsi says more needs to be done to prevent polygamy in the UK
Cultural sensitivity has prevented politicians from discussing the issue of polygamy in the UK, a leading Muslim peer has told the BBC.
Baroness Warsi, shadow minister for community cohesion, told Radio 4's Today programme it was time policy makers took the issue seriously.
She said she wanted registering all religious marriages to be considered to stop men marrying more than one wife.
Baroness Warsi said politicians had been ignoring the issue.
"There has been a failure on the part of policy makers to respond to this situation," she said.
"Some of it has been done in the name of cultural sensitivity and we've just avoided either discussing or dealing with this matter head on.
"There has to be a culture change and that has to brought about by policy makers taking a very clear stance on this issue, saying that in this country, one married man is allowed to marry one woman," she added.
Manzoor Moghal, chairman of the Muslim Forum, said polygamy is "the most misunderstood subject in the West" with a lot of "invective" unfairly directed at it.
(snip the erroneous)
"Why would you not allow Muslims to conduct their affairs in their cultural, religious framework, without interference from the state?
"Why should we take them to task for having a second, third and a fourth nikah [marriage] which is compatible with their religion?"
Professor Haleh Afshar, of The University of York, said it is a "sad reality" that polygamy is increasing in Britain because there is no requirement by the state to register every marriage.
She said: "Sadly it is increasing on the part of British-born men who... sometimes marry British-born girls, but more often... someone in the sub-continent then go back and abandon wife number one and take wife number two." '
Britain has serial polygamy called easy divorce. That may be one reason for not facing the issue. Another is that multiculturalism has its limits. But'she wanted registering all religious marriages to be considered '. What about African native law and custom? That allows unlimited polygamy. Does she want benefits for registered wives?
Cultural sensitivity has prevented politicians from discussing the issue of polygamy in the UK, a leading Muslim peer has told the BBC.
Baroness Warsi, shadow minister for community cohesion, told Radio 4's Today programme it was time policy makers took the issue seriously.
She said she wanted registering all religious marriages to be considered to stop men marrying more than one wife.
Baroness Warsi said politicians had been ignoring the issue.
"There has been a failure on the part of policy makers to respond to this situation," she said.
"Some of it has been done in the name of cultural sensitivity and we've just avoided either discussing or dealing with this matter head on.
"There has to be a culture change and that has to brought about by policy makers taking a very clear stance on this issue, saying that in this country, one married man is allowed to marry one woman," she added.
Manzoor Moghal, chairman of the Muslim Forum, said polygamy is "the most misunderstood subject in the West" with a lot of "invective" unfairly directed at it.
(snip the erroneous)
"Why would you not allow Muslims to conduct their affairs in their cultural, religious framework, without interference from the state?
"Why should we take them to task for having a second, third and a fourth nikah [marriage] which is compatible with their religion?"
Professor Haleh Afshar, of The University of York, said it is a "sad reality" that polygamy is increasing in Britain because there is no requirement by the state to register every marriage.
She said: "Sadly it is increasing on the part of British-born men who... sometimes marry British-born girls, but more often... someone in the sub-continent then go back and abandon wife number one and take wife number two." '
Britain has serial polygamy called easy divorce. That may be one reason for not facing the issue. Another is that multiculturalism has its limits. But'she wanted registering all religious marriages to be considered '. What about African native law and custom? That allows unlimited polygamy. Does she want benefits for registered wives?
Thursday, February 19, 2009
TALK OF THE SOOKHDEVIL
'British Evangelical Author Attacked For Exposing Militant Islam - taken from VirtueOnline.org
This article was taken from VirtueOnline [link] as posted by an anonymous Western missionary.
Background
Were you shocked by this headline? Perhaps you were, especially if you are familiar with that gracious Christian leader Patrick Sookhdeo. Perhaps as shocked as I was to see a headline on blogistan.co.uk reading "Review of rotten book by the Sookhdevil" - quite an attention-grabber.
Indigo Jo, the blogger who coined that headline, is certainly good with words. He is also a convert to Islam, known as Yusuf, original name Matthew Smith. A self-confessed truck driver with a degree in politics who lives with his parents in Surrey, Matthew Smith has become not just a Muslim but an Islamist. This he makes clear on his website where he describes himself as pro-madhhab Le. pro-sharia.
His blog reviews a review of Patrick Sookhdeo`s respected work "Global Jihad: The future in the face of militant Islam". The book was published back in 2007, which raises the question of why Matthew Smith a.k.a Yusuf a.k.a Indigo Jo should on 31 January 2009 post a damning comment about it on his blog. Conveniently he gives us the answer: "Ben White of Fulcrum, a website for evangelical Anglican Christians, has drawn my attention to a review he has written of Patrick Sookhdeo`s 2007 book Global Jihad."
The plot thickens. Why should an evangelical Christian go out of his way to point out to a radical Muslim a negative review of another evangelical Christian`s book? Was he put up to it by the evangelical group Fulcrum? If so, what was their purpose? To destroy the Sookhdevil and his ministry?
As a matter of fact this kind of betrayal of one Christian by another to a Muslim is not as uncommon as you might think, especially if - as in this case - the betrayer is white and the betrayed is not. Let me give you another example.
In December 2005, Pastor Daniel Scot was speaking in Australia to Christians about Islam. Scot, originally from Pakistan, had moved to Australia because of persecution in his home country, where his bold defence of the Christian faith had led to him being accused under Pakistan`s "blasphemy law". In Victoria, Australia, he had fallen foul of the new state law on religious "vilification", in a case brought by the Islamic Council of Victoria. (Incidentally, Gary Bouma, a white Anglican priest, gave evidence for ICV against Scot because he did not like charismatic Christians.) White Christians who attended the 2005 meeting - which was not in Victoria - took Scot`s material to the Islamic Council of Victoria to get him into still more trouble. Imagine the distress this betrayal caused him.
More recently, and back in the UK, consider the case of CRIB (Christian Responses to Islam in Britain), a body which appears to be administered by the umbrella mission organisation, Global Connections. An invitation-only meeting was called by Bryan Knell of Global Connections, on behalf of a group which included Tim Green, Howard Jones, Steve Bell and Colin Chapman. The 22 participants, who met at All Nations Christian College 21-22 July 2008 and included someone from the college, were sworn to secrecy. At the meeting a document was drafted called "Gracious Christian Responses to Muslims in Britain Today". It is embargoed until the CRIB conference this summer in London, but various prominent Christians in the UK are being approached privately to sign up to it.
So what was this secret meeting for? What is this secret document about? Believe it or not, a main aim of both was to discredit two British Christian leaders who are converts from Islam (one being Patrick Sookhdeo) and a British Christian ministry not connected to either of them. What do the three intended victims have in common? Simply that they all draw attention to the ongoing Islamisation of the UK. In a classic case of shooting the messengers, or rather stabbing them in the back, CRIB condemns these timely warnings for instilling a fear of Islam. It almost beggars belief, yet a number of sources have confirmed it. Ben White, whose foolish, ignorant and spiteful review of "Global Jihad" was prominent on the Fulcrum website for some time, claims to have lectured at All Nations Christian College. Do we detect a pattern emerging? A pattern of victimisation? A pattern of betrayal? And it is all tinged with the age-old evil of racism, not to mention the C hurch`s besetting sin, contempt for converts from Islam.
Maybe you are tempted to comment, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me. Why such a fuss?" The fuss is because, in the context of Islam, words can all too easily lead to broken bones - or worse. Daniel Scot received death threats in Pakistan and was threatened by an armed mob on one occasion. Another time he would have been thrown off a balcony by an angry mob of students, except that a professor intervened just in time to save him.
The Bishop of Rochester, Rt Rev. Michael Nazir AIi, of Pakistani origins, now has to have a body guard, not just for himself but also for his Englishborn wife and their two sons. His forthright comments on Islam in Britain have led to death threats from the British Muslim community, threats which the police take very seriously. Furthermore, good ministries are being undermined, and might even be destroyed. Ben White`s review of "Global Jihad" soon appeared on the Church Mission Society, and also on the website of Richard Sudworth, one of their missionaries, who urged people to read the review and see what really underpins the ministry of Barnabas Fund.,Barnabas Fund, headed up by Patrick Sookhdeo, is an aid agency sending practical help to persecuted Christians. If Sudworth`s comment damages its work, he will have reduced the support available for faithful Christians living courageously in hostile contexts. But of course, they are mostly non-white and ma ny of them are converts, so their wellbeing is perhaps of little interest to him.
What could be of more interest to him is the evangelical culture of betrayal which might, just might, affect him too one day. Suppose the habit of betrayal spreads, and the betrayers are themselves betrayed. Sudworth was at one time a missionary in Tunisia, who naturally wanted to keep his own material secret. What if he now seeks to return there, and his activities are reported to radical Muslims in the region? Steve Bell, involved in calling the CRIB meeting at All Nations, heads up Interserve, which also sends white missionaries to the Muslim world. The venue itself, All Nations Christian College, exists to train missionaries to share the Gospel with Muslims amongst others. Global Connections, the home of CRIB, exists to link missionary agencies together. Elaine Storkey, chair of Fulcrum, is also president of Tearfund, a vast relief and development agency which sends Christian workers to many.different countries, some of them extremely sensitive. What if they were denounced to local Muslims, followed and killed? The tentacles of treachery can spread far. Canon Graham Kings, the theological secretary of Fulcrum and also vicar of Islington, north London, who seems to have a personal vendetta against Patrick Sookhdeo, might find that missionaries from his church were betrayed as they served God overseas. He himself might be threatened, or his family.
But putting these possible future scenarios aside, what on earth is going on in the evangelical camp right now? Not only have they turned on each other, but they have even enlisted the aid of a radical Muslim in their attempts to destroy one of their own. Is this a series of unconnected events which coincidentally revolve around the same few people and organisations? Or is there a plan? Was young Ben White officially representing Fulcrum when he contacted Indigo Jo? Or is White a na.ivecat`s paw, who was manipulated into taking this outrageous action? Is he linked through All Nations Christian College to CRIB? Was he chosen for his known hatred of Israel, bordering on anti-Semitism? From anti-Israel to pro-Palestinian to pro-Muslim to anti-convert is not a difficult path to follow. Whoever was behind it, did they hope, expect or know that Indigo Jo would literally demonise their fellow- Christian with the epithet "Sookhdevil"?
----I am white Western missionary. I am writing this because of my concern about what I see happening, in particular the attacks on and betrayal of Christian converts from Islam and other non-white Christians by white Western Christians. I have been in full-time Christian ministry, including evangelism amongst Muslims, for many years. I am concerned at the growing divide between missionaries and converts from Islam. February 2009 '
I have met Patrick. I was impressed by him. I have read criticism of him by former associates but when I offered to mediate they declined.It is hard to stand against islamisation and to also evangelise. Both need to be done lest we become a dhimmi nation.
This article was taken from VirtueOnline [link] as posted by an anonymous Western missionary.
Background
Were you shocked by this headline? Perhaps you were, especially if you are familiar with that gracious Christian leader Patrick Sookhdeo. Perhaps as shocked as I was to see a headline on blogistan.co.uk reading "Review of rotten book by the Sookhdevil" - quite an attention-grabber.
Indigo Jo, the blogger who coined that headline, is certainly good with words. He is also a convert to Islam, known as Yusuf, original name Matthew Smith. A self-confessed truck driver with a degree in politics who lives with his parents in Surrey, Matthew Smith has become not just a Muslim but an Islamist. This he makes clear on his website where he describes himself as pro-madhhab Le. pro-sharia.
His blog reviews a review of Patrick Sookhdeo`s respected work "Global Jihad: The future in the face of militant Islam". The book was published back in 2007, which raises the question of why Matthew Smith a.k.a Yusuf a.k.a Indigo Jo should on 31 January 2009 post a damning comment about it on his blog. Conveniently he gives us the answer: "Ben White of Fulcrum, a website for evangelical Anglican Christians, has drawn my attention to a review he has written of Patrick Sookhdeo`s 2007 book Global Jihad."
The plot thickens. Why should an evangelical Christian go out of his way to point out to a radical Muslim a negative review of another evangelical Christian`s book? Was he put up to it by the evangelical group Fulcrum? If so, what was their purpose? To destroy the Sookhdevil and his ministry?
As a matter of fact this kind of betrayal of one Christian by another to a Muslim is not as uncommon as you might think, especially if - as in this case - the betrayer is white and the betrayed is not. Let me give you another example.
In December 2005, Pastor Daniel Scot was speaking in Australia to Christians about Islam. Scot, originally from Pakistan, had moved to Australia because of persecution in his home country, where his bold defence of the Christian faith had led to him being accused under Pakistan`s "blasphemy law". In Victoria, Australia, he had fallen foul of the new state law on religious "vilification", in a case brought by the Islamic Council of Victoria. (Incidentally, Gary Bouma, a white Anglican priest, gave evidence for ICV against Scot because he did not like charismatic Christians.) White Christians who attended the 2005 meeting - which was not in Victoria - took Scot`s material to the Islamic Council of Victoria to get him into still more trouble. Imagine the distress this betrayal caused him.
More recently, and back in the UK, consider the case of CRIB (Christian Responses to Islam in Britain), a body which appears to be administered by the umbrella mission organisation, Global Connections. An invitation-only meeting was called by Bryan Knell of Global Connections, on behalf of a group which included Tim Green, Howard Jones, Steve Bell and Colin Chapman. The 22 participants, who met at All Nations Christian College 21-22 July 2008 and included someone from the college, were sworn to secrecy. At the meeting a document was drafted called "Gracious Christian Responses to Muslims in Britain Today". It is embargoed until the CRIB conference this summer in London, but various prominent Christians in the UK are being approached privately to sign up to it.
So what was this secret meeting for? What is this secret document about? Believe it or not, a main aim of both was to discredit two British Christian leaders who are converts from Islam (one being Patrick Sookhdeo) and a British Christian ministry not connected to either of them. What do the three intended victims have in common? Simply that they all draw attention to the ongoing Islamisation of the UK. In a classic case of shooting the messengers, or rather stabbing them in the back, CRIB condemns these timely warnings for instilling a fear of Islam. It almost beggars belief, yet a number of sources have confirmed it. Ben White, whose foolish, ignorant and spiteful review of "Global Jihad" was prominent on the Fulcrum website for some time, claims to have lectured at All Nations Christian College. Do we detect a pattern emerging? A pattern of victimisation? A pattern of betrayal? And it is all tinged with the age-old evil of racism, not to mention the C hurch`s besetting sin, contempt for converts from Islam.
Maybe you are tempted to comment, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me. Why such a fuss?" The fuss is because, in the context of Islam, words can all too easily lead to broken bones - or worse. Daniel Scot received death threats in Pakistan and was threatened by an armed mob on one occasion. Another time he would have been thrown off a balcony by an angry mob of students, except that a professor intervened just in time to save him.
The Bishop of Rochester, Rt Rev. Michael Nazir AIi, of Pakistani origins, now has to have a body guard, not just for himself but also for his Englishborn wife and their two sons. His forthright comments on Islam in Britain have led to death threats from the British Muslim community, threats which the police take very seriously. Furthermore, good ministries are being undermined, and might even be destroyed. Ben White`s review of "Global Jihad" soon appeared on the Church Mission Society, and also on the website of Richard Sudworth, one of their missionaries, who urged people to read the review and see what really underpins the ministry of Barnabas Fund.,Barnabas Fund, headed up by Patrick Sookhdeo, is an aid agency sending practical help to persecuted Christians. If Sudworth`s comment damages its work, he will have reduced the support available for faithful Christians living courageously in hostile contexts. But of course, they are mostly non-white and ma ny of them are converts, so their wellbeing is perhaps of little interest to him.
What could be of more interest to him is the evangelical culture of betrayal which might, just might, affect him too one day. Suppose the habit of betrayal spreads, and the betrayers are themselves betrayed. Sudworth was at one time a missionary in Tunisia, who naturally wanted to keep his own material secret. What if he now seeks to return there, and his activities are reported to radical Muslims in the region? Steve Bell, involved in calling the CRIB meeting at All Nations, heads up Interserve, which also sends white missionaries to the Muslim world. The venue itself, All Nations Christian College, exists to train missionaries to share the Gospel with Muslims amongst others. Global Connections, the home of CRIB, exists to link missionary agencies together. Elaine Storkey, chair of Fulcrum, is also president of Tearfund, a vast relief and development agency which sends Christian workers to many.different countries, some of them extremely sensitive. What if they were denounced to local Muslims, followed and killed? The tentacles of treachery can spread far. Canon Graham Kings, the theological secretary of Fulcrum and also vicar of Islington, north London, who seems to have a personal vendetta against Patrick Sookhdeo, might find that missionaries from his church were betrayed as they served God overseas. He himself might be threatened, or his family.
But putting these possible future scenarios aside, what on earth is going on in the evangelical camp right now? Not only have they turned on each other, but they have even enlisted the aid of a radical Muslim in their attempts to destroy one of their own. Is this a series of unconnected events which coincidentally revolve around the same few people and organisations? Or is there a plan? Was young Ben White officially representing Fulcrum when he contacted Indigo Jo? Or is White a na.ivecat`s paw, who was manipulated into taking this outrageous action? Is he linked through All Nations Christian College to CRIB? Was he chosen for his known hatred of Israel, bordering on anti-Semitism? From anti-Israel to pro-Palestinian to pro-Muslim to anti-convert is not a difficult path to follow. Whoever was behind it, did they hope, expect or know that Indigo Jo would literally demonise their fellow- Christian with the epithet "Sookhdevil"?
----I am white Western missionary. I am writing this because of my concern about what I see happening, in particular the attacks on and betrayal of Christian converts from Islam and other non-white Christians by white Western Christians. I have been in full-time Christian ministry, including evangelism amongst Muslims, for many years. I am concerned at the growing divide between missionaries and converts from Islam. February 2009 '
I have met Patrick. I was impressed by him. I have read criticism of him by former associates but when I offered to mediate they declined.It is hard to stand against islamisation and to also evangelise. Both need to be done lest we become a dhimmi nation.
Bible moved to library top shelf over inequality fears
Lucy Cockcroft in The Telegraph writes,'Officials have issued guidance that libraries should keep all holy books, including the Bible, on the top shelves
Muslims have complained that the Koran is often displayed on the lower shelves, which is deemed offensive as many believe the holy book should be placed above "commonplace things".
Now library officials in one city have been told to keep all holy books, including the Bible, on the top shelves in the interests of equality.
It has caused concern from Christian charities that this will put the Bible out of the reach and sight of many people.
The situation was brought to light in guidance published by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, a quango answering to Culture Secretary Andy Burnham, on how to handle controversial materials.
It said some Muslims in Leicester had moved copies of the Koran to the top shelves of libraries, because they believe it is an insult to display it in a low position.
The city's librarians consulted the Federation of Muslim Organisations and were advised that all religious texts should be kept on the top shelf to ensure equality.
A short case study on the situation has been written into the appendix of the guidance, available on the MLA website.
It states: “Some libraries in Leicester have received complaints about the Koran not being placed on the top shelves in libraries. Some customers go along the shelves and place the Koran so it is shelved higher than other books.
“This action arises from the practice in many Muslim homes of the Koran being placed on a high shelf above commonplace things, as it is the word of God.
“The authority consulted the Federation of Muslim Organisations in Leicester about this matter, and they advised that all religious texts should be kept on a top shelf together.
“This meant that no offence is caused, as the scriptures of all the major faiths are given respect in this way, but none is higher than any other.”
Some critics have expressed concern that the books will now just be treated as objects to revere rather than books to read.
Robert Whelan of the Civitas think-tank told The Daily Mail: "Libraries and museums are not places of worship. They should not be run in accordance with particular religious beliefs.
"This is violating the principles of librarianship and it is part of an insidious trend.
"One of the central planks of the Protestant Reformation was that everybody should have access to the Bible."
Simon Calvert of the Christian Institute said: "It is disappointing if the policy of libraries is dictated by the practices of one group.
"It is particularly disappointing if this is done to put the scriptures beyond reach.
"I hope there will be a rethink. I understand that Muslims revere their own text, but in public libraries there should not be a policy of putting religious texts out of reach."
Inayat Bunglawala, of the Engage think tank, which encourages Muslims to play a greater role in public life, said that there should not be a "one size fits all" rule.
He said: "If Muslims wish to see the Koran placed on a higher shelf, and library rules say it should be there, then that is a welcome and considerate gesture.
"But one size does not fit all. If Christians do not want to see the Bible treated in the same way, I do not see why it has to be dealt with the same."
An MLA spokesman said there were no rules to say other libraries must follow suit with Leicester.
He said: “Different libraries can legitimately treat religious texts in different ways – there is not a one size fits all solution and no group has asked for there to be one. The key is to show understanding, respect and equality to all local library users.” '
No the key is Muslims learning to fit into a different culture and the British to stop being dhimmis.
Muslims have complained that the Koran is often displayed on the lower shelves, which is deemed offensive as many believe the holy book should be placed above "commonplace things".
Now library officials in one city have been told to keep all holy books, including the Bible, on the top shelves in the interests of equality.
It has caused concern from Christian charities that this will put the Bible out of the reach and sight of many people.
The situation was brought to light in guidance published by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, a quango answering to Culture Secretary Andy Burnham, on how to handle controversial materials.
It said some Muslims in Leicester had moved copies of the Koran to the top shelves of libraries, because they believe it is an insult to display it in a low position.
The city's librarians consulted the Federation of Muslim Organisations and were advised that all religious texts should be kept on the top shelf to ensure equality.
A short case study on the situation has been written into the appendix of the guidance, available on the MLA website.
It states: “Some libraries in Leicester have received complaints about the Koran not being placed on the top shelves in libraries. Some customers go along the shelves and place the Koran so it is shelved higher than other books.
“This action arises from the practice in many Muslim homes of the Koran being placed on a high shelf above commonplace things, as it is the word of God.
“The authority consulted the Federation of Muslim Organisations in Leicester about this matter, and they advised that all religious texts should be kept on a top shelf together.
“This meant that no offence is caused, as the scriptures of all the major faiths are given respect in this way, but none is higher than any other.”
Some critics have expressed concern that the books will now just be treated as objects to revere rather than books to read.
Robert Whelan of the Civitas think-tank told The Daily Mail: "Libraries and museums are not places of worship. They should not be run in accordance with particular religious beliefs.
"This is violating the principles of librarianship and it is part of an insidious trend.
"One of the central planks of the Protestant Reformation was that everybody should have access to the Bible."
Simon Calvert of the Christian Institute said: "It is disappointing if the policy of libraries is dictated by the practices of one group.
"It is particularly disappointing if this is done to put the scriptures beyond reach.
"I hope there will be a rethink. I understand that Muslims revere their own text, but in public libraries there should not be a policy of putting religious texts out of reach."
Inayat Bunglawala, of the Engage think tank, which encourages Muslims to play a greater role in public life, said that there should not be a "one size fits all" rule.
He said: "If Muslims wish to see the Koran placed on a higher shelf, and library rules say it should be there, then that is a welcome and considerate gesture.
"But one size does not fit all. If Christians do not want to see the Bible treated in the same way, I do not see why it has to be dealt with the same."
An MLA spokesman said there were no rules to say other libraries must follow suit with Leicester.
He said: “Different libraries can legitimately treat religious texts in different ways – there is not a one size fits all solution and no group has asked for there to be one. The key is to show understanding, respect and equality to all local library users.” '
No the key is Muslims learning to fit into a different culture and the British to stop being dhimmis.
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