Monday, March 26, 2012


Book tells Muslim men how to beat and control their wives; Controversial guide sold in Toronto

A local bookstore has “sold out” of a controversial marriage guide that advises Muslim men on how to beat their wives.

The 160-page book, published by Idara Impex in New Delhi, India, is written by Hazrat Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi, who’s described in the book’s foreword as a “prolific writer on almost every topic of Islamic learning.”

The store’s manager, who didn’t give his name, said the book had been sold out for some time, and the store’s owner, whom the manager identified as Shamim Ahmad, refused to comment for the story.

It wasn’t clear whether the shop has ordered more copies of the book, but it’s available at online Islamic bookstores and even through eBay.

In the book’s opening pages, it is written that “it might be necessary to restrain her with strength or even to threaten her.”

Later, its author advises that “the husband should treat the wife with kindness and love, even if she tends to be stupid and slow sometimes.”

Page 45 contains the rights of the husband, which include his wife’s inability to leave “his house without his permission,” and that his wife must “fulfil his desires” and “not allow herself to be untidy ... but should beautify herself for him ... ”

In terms of physical punishment, the book advises that a husband may scold her, “beat by hand or stick,” withhold money from her or “pull (her) by the ears,” but should “refrain from beating her excessively.”

Moderate Muslim voice Tarek Fatah says the shopkeeper should be charged for selling such a book.

“I wouldn’t say it’s hate, but it is inciting men to hit women,” said Fatah, who identified the book’s author as a prominent Islamic scholar. “This is new to you, but the Muslim community knows that this is widespread, that a woman can be beaten. Muslim leaders will deny this, but... ”

Male dominance over women has been making headlines for some time, with the recent lengthy trial and conviction of the Shafia family.

Mohammad Shafia, 59, his second wife, Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son, Hamed, 21, were each convicted in January on four counts of first-degree murder in what was characterized as an honour killing of four female family members as punishment for disobedience. They were handed life sentences with no chance of parole for 25 years.

Shafia’s three daughters and his first wife were found drowned in a car at the bottom of the Rideau Canal in Kingston, Ont., in June 2009.

Eric Brazau says he was flipping through the marriage guide while in the bookstore around a month ago.

Brazau bought it out of curiosity but was taken aback when he found dozens of chapters and passages giving Muslim husbands advice on controlling, restraining, scolding and beating their wives.

“At first, I thought that it is incredible that this kind of thing can be found in Canada,” said Brazau. “And then I thought, radical Islam is not coming to Canada, it is already here.”

SOURCE





British council worker faces sack for flag tribute to soldiers... just weeks after it flies the rainbow banner for gay rights

Flying a flag at half mast is a normal sign of mourning. Attacking someone for doing so is incredibly crass

A council worker could face the sack after he lowered the town hall flag in memory of six British soldiers who died in Afghanistan - despite it proudly flying a rainbow banner in support of gay rights just weeks before.

Having seen Bassetlaw District Council in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, show its support for good causes and agreeing to fly the symbolic rainbow flag last month, the unnamed worker lowered the council's own flag to half mast as a gesture to the soldiers.

But the employee, an ex-serviceman himself, was served with disciplinary papers alleging 'gross misconduct'.

It is thought he is also being quizzed for failing to carry out a 'thorough health and safety assessment' before lowering the flag on Tuesday, the day in which the bodies of the six soldiers killed in a car bomb were flown home.

Those close to the employee, who is said to suffer from post traumatic stress disorder following his own deployment, are now concerned about the impact of his reprimand. Speaking to the Sun a friend of the employee, said: 'This is an outrage. 'The council knows about his stress disorder.'

Decisions about when it is appropriate to lower the flag continue to be shrouded in confusion as the flag of the local Mercian Regiment was at half-mast over the town hall yesterday - in honour of a soldier killed on Wednesday.

The deaths of Sgt Nigel Coupe, 33, Cpl Jake Hartley, 20, Pte Anthony Frampton, 20, Pte Christopher Kershaw, 19, Pte Daniel Wade, 20, and Pte Daniel Wilford, 21, were the single biggest loss of British life in Afghanistan since 2006 and took the total number of British military fatalities since 2001 to more than 400.

Their bodies were flown back to Britain early this week and in Oxon more than 2,000 people turned out to pay their respects.
Five of the men were from 3rd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment and a sixth was attached from 1st Battalion the Duke of Lancaster’s regiment.

A spokesman for the council wouldn't be drawn on the incident but said: 'We have a strong association with the Mercians.
'It is policy to lower the flag in the tragic event of loss of life.'

SOURCE





Britons are ignorant of Christianity and the Classics, says Sister Wendy



Sister Wendy, the nun-turned-television-presenter, has warned that modern-day ignorance about Christianity and the Classics has left people unable to appreciate much of Western art.

She says she regrets the public's lack of understanding of the Gospel stories, and adds that as a consequence they cannot grasp the meaning of much of the canon of European painting.

Sister Wendy Beckett, who presented a popular series on art during the 1990s, says: "In the past everybody knew these stories, although they didn't necessarily live the spirit of them. "Everybody used to know the Greek myths and most people had a smattering of Latin, now they don't."

She adds that the widespread lack of knowledge meant art historians were forced to fill in basic gaps, without which many paintings – such as those portraying the annunciation of Christ's birth to the young Mary, or Christ washing the disciples' feet on the eve of his execution – lose the central part of their meaning.

She points out that this phenomenon has coincided with a huge increase in the number of people attending art galleries, and says she fears that their experience is poorer because of their lack of religious understanding.

"This country has been built on the Christian faith – it's our heritage, whether people believe it or not. They have a right to know what happened and it does sadden me [that they don't]," she says.

Sister Wendy speaks about the issue in an Arena television documentary, extracts of which were shown for the first time at the Oxford Literary Festival yesterday.

The BBC programme shows how she now uses the great religious paintings to retell the Gospel stories, in the hope of reacquainting her audience with their true meaning.

She also tells how an early experience led the young Wendy Beckett to devote her life to her religious faith. Sitting under the kitchen table at her parents home in South Africa at the age of just four, she says, she felt the overwhelming presence of God. "I felt protected by him. It happened just once, but that was enough to last a lifetime," she says.

Now aged 82, and unable to attend the Oxford festival in person because of ill health, she says she is looking forward to her death.

In one particularly touching scene of the documentary, to be broadcast later this year, Sister Wendy visits the monastery graveyard where she hopes to be buried. "I've had the most incredibly happy life," she says.

SOURCE





Disagreement vs. 'Gay-Bashing' and Hate Speech

Chuck Colson

When I was going through Watergate, my life was threatened repeatedly. And in the early years of my ministry with Prison Fellowship, the authorities had to monitor various individuals who had made threats against me.

In 1983, on my way to Prison Fellowship International's convocation in Belfast, Northern Ireland, I learned at a press conference that I had been placed on the hit list of the Irish Republican Army. The IRA was threatened by the work of Prison Fellowship there, because we were reconciling Catholics and Protestants prisoners in the midst of a very hot war euphemistically called "the Troubles."

In fact, when Patty and I arrived in Belfast, we were accorded special protection. So I am no stranger to hit lists and threats.

But, it seems like I've made another list - and frankly, I'm surprised, though, as I'll explain, I guess I shouldn't.

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, with the misleading acronym GLAAD, has placed 36 commentators, yours truly among them, on its Commentator Accountability Project list. GLAAD claims, and I quote, that it is seeking to "educate the media about the extreme rhetoric of over three dozen activists who are often given a platform to speak in opposition to LGBT people and the issues that affect their lives."

Uh, okay. GLAAD's press release goes on to say that everyone on the list has expressed an "extreme animus towards the entire LGBT community." Its website accuses those on the list of "violent anti-LGBT rhetoric."

So, yes, I'm surprised that Princeton's Robert George and I, two of the three co-authors of the Manhattan Declaration, made the list. When we wrote the Declaration, we went to enormous lengths to be sensitive to homosexuals, to proclaim that homosexuals possess "profound, inherent, and equal dignity," and to call upon the church to resist "disdainful condemnation" of homosexuals.

And in my 35 years of ministering behind bars, I've embraced, and prayed with numerous men and women dying of AIDS. We have called all sinners - gay and straight - to repentance in Jesus Christ.

So, yes, I'm surprised I made the list. But sadly, I realize I shouldn't be. For one thing, this type of intimidation is par for the course for many in the so-called gay-rights movement. Not interested in dialogue, they seem more interested in demonizing and shouting down their opponents.

For another, their definition of "gay-bashing" is skewed. For them, anything short of renouncing the historical Christian teaching on sexuality is akin to hate. If I say that homosexual sex is a sin, they say I'm hateful. Yet I also say that pre-marital sex is a sin, as is drinking too much. Is that hateful, too?

Over the years I have been very careful not to involve in gay-bashing. I can't think of a single time I have. I seek to honestly discuss the issues. So if any reporter has evidence of gay-bashing on my part, I'd like to hear it. But again, I reject the notion that disagreement - even strong disagreement - is gay-bashing or hateful.

I can't speak for the others on this latest list, but I for one, will not be intimidated into silence. No matter what list I make!

SOURCE

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Political correctness is most pervasive in universities and colleges but I rarely report the incidents concerned here as I have a separate blog for educational matters.

American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of other countries. The only real difference, however, is how much power they have. In America, their power is limited by democracy. To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges. They show there the same respect for free-speech and political diversity that Stalin did: None. So look to the colleges to see what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way. It would be a dictatorship.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN (Note that EYE ON BRITAIN has regular posts on the reality of socialized medicine). My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here. For readers in China or for times when blogger.com is playing up, there is a mirror of this site here.

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