Islam And The West

Well you have now !

Popularity: 2% [?]

Under new proposals by the ruling party in France, Muslim women who wear face veils in public will be liable to pay a fine of upto 750 Euros ($1,000). Jean-Francois Cope the leader of the ruling party in the National Assembly says the proposals will address a “security issue”:

“Muslim women who wear the full Islamic veil in France will face a possible 750-euro ($1,000) fine, according to a draft bill unveiled Thursday by the leader of the parliamentary majority.”

Jean-Francois Cope, who heads the governing UMP party in the National Assembly, told Le Figaro newspaper’s weekly magazine that men who force their wives to wear the burka or niqab could face an even heavier fine.

“The law will address an issue of security,” Cope said in an interview with the magazine.

“The proposed measure would prohibit the covering of the face in public places and on the streets, with the exception of special cultural events or carnivals.”

The draft legislation will be presented in the next two weeks and should come up for debate in parliament after the March regional elections, he said. ” [Source: Al-Arabiya]

[Read the rest of this entry...]

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Michael St John, a general practitioner from the United Kingdom,  is in prison serving a three year sentence. The 59 year old medic’s crime was to sexually assault one of his patients. His victim, a 28 year old hijab wearing Muslim woman, was   seven months pregnant at the time of the attack.

St. John is coming up for release after being given a 3 year jail term and is determined to return to work as a doctor. His wife is leading his cause by representing him at a General Medical Council hearing to determine his future career status:

“A DOCTOR jailed for sucking the breasts of a mum-to-be begged a tribunal not to strike him off yesterday.

Perverted GP Michael St John, 59 – also convicted of intimately groping the patient aged 28 – made the plea to continue his 30-year career in a letter from his cell….

..St John wrote of his “regret and remorse”. He sexually assaulted the Muslim woman, who was seven months pregnant, after telling her to remove her hijab at Stepney Health Centre in East London.

The tribunal heard the GP sucked her breasts “like a baby”….” [Source: The Sun]

Popularity: 4% [?]

Back in November 2007 I wrote a post entitled “Christian Churches In Muslim Countries- A Blatant Western Lie Exposed“. The main thrust of the article was to prove that Christian churches do exist in the Muslim world. The post gained a little traction in the blogoshpere and I was inundated with e-mails labelling me a  dishonest propagandist amongst other things.

This was not the first time that blatant inaccuracies concerning the Muslim world have been exposed here. Earlier in July 2006 I exposed another series of claims, this time by Barbara J. Stock,  concerning the Muslim world. That post can be accessed by clicking “Refuting A Western Hate-Monger“.

Which all brings me to the subject of this of this post. Much is written about the Muslim world and a lot of it is mere speculation. Some of it is written by ignoramuses while a lot of it is written by people with a definite political agenda. The reality of the Muslim world especially for the western observer is lost between these two poles. For the most part the everyday existence of millions in the Muslim world is mundane dare I even say normal.

Much is made of the fact, especially in the west, that Muslim countries don’t allow Christians to build churches. In reality this is not true, while it is  true for Saudi Arabia, Saudi is not the be all and end all of the Muslim world.

The reality is that Christians and churches exist throughout the Muslim world. As this report from The National shows Christians have found not only religious tolerance but support also in Oman:

“….Christians in Oman say they enjoy tolerance and a number of privileges in this deeply conservative Muslim society and that the country’s ruler has made a point of supporting the diverse community.

“We are lucky that His Majesty the Sultan has placed a special interest in Christianity in Oman. In our church, the Sultan of Oman has bought us a new organ, imported from Britain, after the original one was destroyed by Gonu,” 52-year-old Father John Fernandaz, the head of the Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Muscat, said….

…Christians in Oman pray regularly for the long life of Sultan Qaboos, and say he has always been their greatest supporter.

“We hope that we will always enjoy the same freedom of worship we have today, thanks to His Majesty. It is not only his moral support but his financial donations as well that we appreciate,” Patrick Mascarenha, a 50-year-old Indian plumber, said. [The National]

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• “The Christian God encourages freedom, love, forgiveness, prosperity and health. The Muslim god appears to value the opposite. The personalities of each god are evident in the cultures, civilizations and dispositions of the peoples that serve them. ~ Ted Haggard (National Association of Evangelicals).
• “The persecution or elimination of non-Muslims has been a cornerstone of Islamic conquests and rule for centuries. The Koran provides ample evidence that Islam encourages violence in order to win converts and to reach the ultimate goal of an Islamic world. Conversions from Islam to any other faith are often punishable by death ~ Franklin Graham.
• “I wish fervently that the Turkish barbarians be chased away immediately out of the country of Xenophon, Socrates, Plato, Sophocles and Euripides. If we wanted, it could be done soon but seven crusades of superstition have been undertaken and a crusade of honour will never take place. We know almost no city built by them; they let decay the most beautiful establishments of Antiquity, they reign over ruins.” ~ Voltare.
• Mohammedanism was a [heresy] : that is the essential point to grasp
  before going any further. It began as a heresy, not as a new religion. It
  was not a pagan contrast with the Church; it was not an alien enemy. It
  was a perversion of Christian doctrine. It vitality and endurance soon
  gave it the appearance of a new religion, but those who were contemporary
  with its rise saw it for what it was_not a denial, but an adaptation and a
  misuse, of the Christian thing. ~ Hilaire Belloc – The Great and Enduring Heresy of Mohammed.

Popularity: 2% [?]