Month: June 2008

More proof that child marriage is sanctioned in Islam (if you needed proof!)

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday we told you about a UN discussion on the practice, sanctioned by the Islamic ‘faith’, of child marriage that was cut short because critics from Pakistan, Egypt and Iran forced into silence the UN Human Rights Council. 

Now, comes a report from Liveleak in which a Saudi cleric assures listeners that since Mohammad married a child, so could Muslim men today marry a child.  (Hat tip: Bill)

The Prophet Muhammad is the model we follow. He took ‘Aisha to be his wife when she was six, but he had sex with her only when she was nine.

Read the text and see the film clip here.

Spencer: Islamists killing free speech at UN

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Robert Spencer (Jihad Watch), an authority on Islam,  writing today at Frontpage magazine reports that a discussion about practices sanctioned by Sharia law, such as female genital mutilation, child marriage and stoning as punishment for adultery, was squelched at a recent meeting of the UN Human Rights Council. 

As more Muslim immigrants enter the US through refugee resettlement and other immigration programs we have been fearful that brutal practices such as these may creep into America—indeed may already be here!

We have written often about polygamy and honor killings being practiced among immigrants from Islamic countries as well.  See our categories, health issues and women’s issues, for more on all these affronts to human dignity.

Spencer begins: 

The war against free speech is advancing rapidly: Associated Press reported Thursday that “Muslim countries have won a battle to prevent Islam from being criticised during debates by the UN Human Rights Council.” Council President Doru-Romulus Costea explained that religious issues can be “very complex, very sensitive and very intense…This council is not prepared to discuss religious matters in depth, consequently we should not do it.” Henceforth only religious scholars would be permitted to broach them.

“While Costea’s ban applies to all religions,” AP explained, “it was prompted by Muslim countries complaining about references to Islam.” The ban came after a heated session on Monday, when the representative of the Association for World Education (AWE), in a joint statement with the International Humanist and Ethical Union, denounced female genital mutilation, the penalty of stoning for adultery and child marriage as sanctioned by Islamic law. Egypt, Pakistan and Iran angrily protested, interrupting the AWE speaker, David Littman, with no less than 16 points of order, and succeeding in getting the Council’s proceedings suspended for over half an hour. In the course of this contentious discussion, the representatives from the Islamic countries made numerous revealing statements – statements that are well worth examining as Islamic nations and organizations call with increasing insistence for restrictions on free speech in the West.

Imran Ahmed Siddiqui, the representative from Pakistan, echoed the ever-echoing refrain of all Islamic apologists in the West, when he complained that Littman’s initiative on genital mutilation, stoning and child marriage amounted to an “out-of-context, selective discussion on the Sharia law.”

Read the whole Frontpage article here.

Not much news coming out of South Africa

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

You would hardly know that South Africa’s grand experiment in multiculturalism, the “rainbow nation” myth, exploded a month or so ago.   It’s hard to find news to update our readers on the violence that erupted throughout the country—violence against refugees and asylees who local South African blacks claim are taking their jobs and bringing crime with them—that killed scores and caused the creation of makeshift refugee camps.

Here is a small portion of an ‘opinion’ piece from a universtiy professor discussing a report released for World Refugee Day last week.

First, the recent violence is but an extreme sign of how non-nationals are treated as ‘outsiders’ by various elements of South African society, from members of the public, to civil servants, service providers, and government leaders. This report outlines many of the ways non-nationals — refugees, asylum seekers, and other immigrants — are excluded from the services, welfare, and dignity they are guaranteed by South African law and Constitutional commitments.

Second, while South Africa must improve its policing practices and promote tolerance, it must also revisit and fundamentally revise the way it manages migration from the region and further afield. Let us be clear, halting migration is neither possible nor a solution. Are we prepared to follow the United State and Europe in their fruitless, deadly, and hypocritical efforts to halt immigration?

South Africa already deports close to 300 000 people a year. How much further are we willing to go? How can we speak in one breath of promoting tolerance and barricading our borders? Doing so only confirms many South African’s deep suspicion that migrants truly are a mortal threat to South African society. Yes, stop corrupt officials and criminals, but let us not further demonise and criminalise our neighbours.

The gratuitous attack on the United States was laughable especially the hypocrisy charge I’ve highlighted because we aren’t running around calling ourselves the “rainbow nation” and according to all the figures I could find we deport 200,000 illegal immigrants a year.    That figure puts tiny South Africa about 100,000 deportations ahead of us!

Oh, and as for the “deadly” part, professor,  I don’t recall any riots in the US where immigrants were targeted by mobs of citizens and beaten or set on fire.  Last I saw the South African asylee and refugee death toll was around 60.

Canada rejects Christian Iraqi refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

While Canada is busy taking Muslim refugees with no links to Canada like the Rohingya, it is also busy rejecting applications from Christian Iraqis with extended family living there according to this article in the Toronto Star:

Azad Sarkissian’s Armenian great-grandparents settled in Iraq more than a century ago, and none of their descendants has stepped on Armenian soil since.

His sister and her family fled the violence in Iraq and are living precariously as United Nations-recognized refugees in Jordan. Sarkissian, in Toronto, has tried and failed three times over the past six years to bring them to Canada through a refugee resettlement application sponsored by the Assyrian Methodist Church of Canada.

But they were startled and angered by the latest response by a Canadian visa officer in Damascus, who said the family should go to Armenia instead.

 Since when do refugee officials tell people to go back to where their ancestors came from?

Rohingya suffering human rights abuses and slavery in Muslim countries!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

You are going to get weary of me saying I can’t believe what I am reading.  Earlier today it was about the Russians teaching Christianity in public schools and now a Rohingya Muslim organization is condemning Muslim countries for abusing Muslim refugees and enslaving them.  Yikes!  What is happening to the religion of peace!

Here is the entire statement from the Rohingya Youth Development Forum [editor: emphasis below is mine]:

Today, the 20th June 2008, refugees in all over the world are celebrating the World Refugee Day in order to show their solidarity with African refugees. In this day, refugees get opportunity to express their feeling and views in order to seek sympathy from concerned quarters to have a home for them.

There are over 50 million refugees in the world. Most of them are religiously Muslim from different Muslim countries or Muslim minority states of the world but all possible measures are taking by non-Muslim organizations, states and parties. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is the main actor for the protection of refugees and doing its utmost for the betterment of refugee communities of the world. But, sometimes, we find that some of its staffs play a kind of discriminatory role in treating the refugees, which is merely based of religious on cultural background.

On the other hands, almost all of the Muslims states are not party to the UN’s 1951 refugee convention relating to the status of refugees and its additional protocol of 1967. Due to lack of their ratification, concerned refugee agencies face problem to share refugee burdens with Muslim countries.

It may be noted that most of the refugees in Muslim states are the worst victims of human rights violation and constantly facing maltreatments in the hands of authorities, as they do not recognize refugees in their legislation.

We are sure that all of the Muslim countries are the member States of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) that is considered as an alternative United Nations for Muslim population of the world. All of these states are bound to practice Islamic Obligation to respect the rights of Muslim refugees who take shelter in their countries for a time being.

Rather playing an obligatory role for the protection of refugees (Muhajireen), they deny the acknowledgement of refugee recognition. Due to their irresponsibleness, refugees from Muslim communities are facing brutal human rights abuses.

Being main body of Muslim, OIC would pave a vital role for the protection of refugees that accorded in the peaceful religion of Islam.

We find that Muslim Rohingya refugees from Burma are scattered in many different parts of the world. Most of them are now languishing in Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Middle East and Malaysia. They are passing their lives under modern slavery. These refugees do not have chance to escape from the inhumanities and so seeking international supports to find durable solution.

Based on the irresponsibleness of Muslim world, UNHCR dare to marginalize some groups of Muslim refugees, particularly the Rohingyas of Burma, as OIC does not pay attention to the matter of suffering Rohingyas.

Nevertheless, the UNHCR has its mandates to find permanent solution to refugee crises through repatriation, local integration and resettlement. As both of repatriation and local integration of the Rohingya refugee becomes impossible, the only option of resettlement in a third country is left for the unfortunate Rohingya refugees.

In these circumstances, we appeal to the member states of Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) to take effective measures for the protection of Rohingya refugees and to end slavery, while negotiating with the UNHCR and refugee resettling countries to make paces for them. We appeal OIC to take step to ratify refugee convention and other international instruments in order to improve human rights in the countries.

We also appeal to the UNHCR and other concerned quarters, particularly the Government of United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Finland and etc. to kindly extend more assistance for the resettlement of Rohingya refugees in order to find a permanent solution to their long-standing problems and miseries of modern slavery

Central Executive Committee

Rohigya Youth Development Forum (RYDF)

I have to give this group credit for being truthful.   Of course, in light of the fact that the Rohingya are not being taken care of by their fellow Muslims (some very rich countries like Saudi Arabia could do more), they are looking to benevolent non-Muslim countries like the US, Canada, Australia etc. for resettlement.