Cahaya’s Rants

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Protesters already have torched Dutch flags in Afghanistan ahead of a new Dutch film portraying Islam’s holy book as a “fascist” text that incites violence and preaches the oppression of women and homosexuals.

A Dutch Cabinet minister postponed his trip to Somalia on Friday due to “specific threats” linked to the film, and the Dutch government has urged lawmaker Geert Wilders to scrap his film for the safety of its citizens abroad.

But Wilders said Monday he has begun negotiations with Dutch broadcasters about airing the 15-minute film, “Fitna.” He said he will only allow them to show it in its entirety, and if they refuse, he plans to show it to the media and post it on the Internet.

“We have never learned to be intolerant toward people who are intolerant toward us, toward cultures that are intolerant toward us,” he said in a recent Associated Press interview.

Full story here.

One can only hope that the TV stations in the Netherlands will have the balls to allow the film be aired.

BAGHDAD — After almost five years of war, many young people in Iraq, exhausted by constant firsthand exposure to the violence of religious extremism, say they have grown disillusioned with religious leaders and skeptical of the faith that they preach.

In two months of interviews with 40 young people in five Iraqi cities, a pattern of disenchantment emerged, in which young Iraqis, both poor and middle class, blamed clerics for the violence and the restrictions that have narrowed their lives.

“I hate Islam and all the clerics because they limit our freedom every day and their instruction became heavy over us,” said Sara, a high school student in Basra. “Most of the girls in my high school hate that Islamic people control the authority because they don’t deserve to be rulers.”

Atheer, a 19-year-old from a poor, heavily Shiite neighborhood in southern Baghdad, said: “The religion men are liars. Young people don’t believe them. Guys my age are not interested in religion anymore.”

The shift in Iraq runs counter to trends of rising religious practice among young people across much of the Middle East, where religion has replaced nationalism as a unifying ideology.

While religious extremists are admired by a number of young people in other parts of the Arab world, Iraq offers a test case of what could happen when extremist theories are applied. Fingers caught in the act of smoking were broken. Long hair was cut and force-fed to its wearer. In that laboratory, disillusionment with Islamic leaders took hold.

It is far from clear whether the shift means a wholesale turn away from religion. A tremendous piety still predominates in the private lives of young Iraqis, and religious leaders, despite the increased skepticism, still wield tremendous power. Measuring religious adherence, furthermore, is a tricky business in Iraq, where access to cities and towns far from Baghdad is limited.

But a shift seems to be registering, at least anecdotally, in the choices some young Iraqis are making.

Professors reported difficulty in recruiting graduate students for religion classes. Attendance at weekly prayers appears to be down, even in areas where the violence has largely subsided, according to worshipers and imams in Baghdad and Falluja. In two visits to the weekly prayer session in Baghdad of the followers of the militant Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr this fall, vastly smaller crowds attended than had in 2004 or 2005.

Such patterns, if lasting, could lead to a weakening of the political power of religious leaders in Iraq. In a nod to those changing tastes, political parties are dropping overt references to religion.

Full story here.

About time the young Iraqis speak up against their religious leaders. About time they realized they have been pawns in the the sectarian violence perpetuated by their religious leaders.

The former mufti of Jerusalem, Ikrema Sabri, has made the claim that there never was a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount, and the Western Wall was really part of a mosque.”There was never a Jewish temple on Al-Aksa [the mosque compound] and there is no proof that there was ever a temple,” he told The Jerusalem Post via a translator. “Because Allah is fair, he would not agree to make Al-Aksa if there were a temple there for others beforehand.”

Sabri rejected Judaism’s claim to the Western Wall as part of the outer wall of the Second Temple.

“The wall is not part of the Jewish temple. It is just the western wall of the mosque,” he said. “There is not a single stone with any relation at all to the history of the Hebrews.”

Source: Jerusalem Post

To people like this former mufti, History is just an inconvenience. Worse. History can be ignored totally, and you can give your version of History. A version that has no basis, no foundation, not based on reality.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Muslim women in niqabs or burqas will no longer be allowed to stay veiled when voting in Canada, under government legislation introduced on Friday. The bill seeks to force the hand of Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand, who rebuffed a request by a parliamentary committee that he require the lifting of veils to prove voters’ identities. He had insisted the existing law did not require this.The new legislation would allow an exception only for someone whose face is bandaged after surgery or covered for other medical reasons.

The issue has become a hot potato especially in the province of Quebec, which is debating how far to accommodate minorities, and where the provincial electoral officer reversed course last March and required the unveiling of voters.

If everybody else has to show his or her face to prove his or her identity, why should some people be exempted? If these burqa clad women object to males seeing their faces, then find a female voting worker verify if they are who they claimed themselves to be on voting day.

A Dutch MP suggested that the Qur’an should be banned. The reason? The Qur’an (Koran) is a fascist book which promotes violence and is similar to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

The leader of the Netherlands’ right-wing Freedom Party, Geert Wilders, has called for a ban on the sale and distribution of the Qur’an. He would also outlaw the book’s use in the mosque and at home. Mr Wilders says the Qur’an (Koran) is a fascist book which promotes violence and is similar to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

In a letter-to-the-editor in today’s de Volkskrant newspaper, Wilders argues that the Qur’an should only be permitted for research at an academic level.

However, the MP - who is known for his controversial statements about Islam - says he knows his proposal doesn’t stand a chance of being approved by parliament. His Freedom Party has nine seats in the 150-seat Dutch lower house of parliament.

Geert Wilders says he wants his proposal to serve as a warning to radical Muslims who misuse the Qur’an to justify the use of violence. His statement comes in response to the recent attacks on Ehsan Jami, founder of the Committee for Former Muslims. He says the perpetrators use the Qur’an as an excuse for the attacks. Wilders writes that “The book incites hatred and killing and therefore has no place in our legal order.” The jurist, commentator and co-member of the Committee for Former Muslims, Afshin Ellian also thinks that the Qur’an “possesses extremely violent passages with regard to women, Jews and non-believers”. However, he is against a ban. Mr Ellian says you should take measures against the people who abuse the Qur’an, not the book itself:

“It’s a religious book which of course can be read and discussed. What we really should fight are the radical imams and mosques which use the Qur’an to spread hatred. We must take firmer measures against them.”

Geert Wilders compares the Qur’an with Mein Kampf, which was written by Adolf Hitler in 1924. In his book, Hitler explained his theories about National Socialism, anti-Semitism and the superiority of the Aryan race.

The sale of Mein Kampf is outlawed in the Netherlands, but owning or trading old copies is permitted. However, Mr Wilders’ proposal to ban the Qur’an is more drastic than the ban on Mein Kampf because it would also outlaw the possession of the book.

Source: Radio Netherlands Worldwide

(CNN) — U.S. Embassies and American interests “at home and abroad” are prime targets for terrorist attacks, American al Qaeda member Adam Yahiye Gadahn said in a newly released al Qaeda-produced video.

“We shall continue to target you at home and abroad just as you target us at home and abroad … ,” Gadahn — also known as Azzam the American — says in the video provided to CNN by www.LauraMansfield.com, a Web site that analyzes terrorism.

Later in the video, which is about an hour long and takes the form of a documentary, the self-proclaimed American jihadist makes explicit threats against the United States and U.S. interests, singling out embassies and consulates.

“These spy dens and military command and control centers — from which you plotted your aggression against Afghanistan and Iraq and which still provide vital moral, military, material and logistical support to the crusade — shall continue to be legitimate targets for brave Muslims … until and unless you heed our demands: Stop the crusade and leave the Muslims alone,” he said. More on CNN.com

Here’s one American convert to Islam who wants the Caliphate to rule the world. Hope he meets the same fate as Abu Musab al Zarqawi, and meets his 72 virgins really soon!.