Tag Archives: Ramadan

Tariq Ramadan Talks About Jihad, Shariah, and “Infiltration”

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Tariq Ramadan

Tariq Ramadan

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Global Muslim Brotherhood Leader Tariq Ramadan has made some interesting comments relating to the concepts of Jihad, Shariah (Islamic Law), and idea that Muslims are involved in “Infiltration.” The remarks were made at a lecture given March 18, 2013 at the Islamic Association of Greater Detroit entitled “American Muslim Identity: Challenges, Opportunities and Prospects”:

(The GMBDW thanks Point De Bascule for the transcription of the remarks)

Excerpt 1 / Terminology – “Jihad is the way we implement sharia”

0:50:04 The first challenge that we have, that every one of you have here, has here, is terminology. In fact, if you want Islam to depart of the American narrative, we should be able to speak Islam in English, in the English language by knowing what we are talking about and to regain, reshape, redefine the words that we are using. Don’t let anyone make sharia a dirty word. Don’t let anyone speak about jihad as if it’s a holy war. Don’t let anyone speak about the way we, as Muslims, we speak about the values that are ours, in a way which is done by Orientalists and not by ourselves. The first, now, to challenge some definitions when it comes to Islam is us, in the way we speak about our values There is no way to be a Muslim if we don’t understand a deep … if we don’t have a deep understanding of what sharia is and jihad is. Jihad is the way we implement sharia by saying… It has nothing to do with holy war. It’s something which has something to do with resistance and positive presence.

[Quote in Arabic]

0:51:24 We’ll resist the bad and we are here to promote the good. Not only for us, for all the people because the best amongst us is the best for humanity, as the prophet (saw) said. So, this is where it’s important, for us, to have this theoretical challenge is terminology. And I am sorry to tell you that many of you, you might rely on the imams on this but you have to do the job. You should have basic understanding of the Islamic terminology in English. This is the way to resist because language is power.

Excerpt 2 / Tariq Ramadan pushes American Muslims “not to infiltrate”, just to become journalists and “to shape the perceptions”

1:39:58 What is important in our number, our number as Muslims, is not that we are converting people. It’s by having an important number… the more committed Muslims we have, the more witnesses we have and the more we change mindset around us. If we understand. The second thing that we have to understand is that we live in a country where the mainstream media now are powerful but, at the same time, they are not trusted by many people. Listen to the Americans. Listen to the Europeans. They don’t trust them. They go now to internet, they go to alternative media. This is where we have to be present. This is where we have to promote texts, videos, lectures, articles… We have to do the job. We are not going to wait for a mainstream so-called “Islamic media” to appear, to… you know… Many people were very happy with Al-Jazeera… I, myself, from the very beginning was very cautious. Because I don’t want the other side of you know something which is… the tension. It’s to do the same on the other side. I want something which is a bit deeper. But what we have to do as Muslims is to use the alternative media and we have. And then, for example, now you can have hundreds, thousands, millions of people who can just watch some of the things that we are promoting.

So, this is also something that we have to be skilled. Media, journalism is also something… You know, when I was once saying: we need more Muslims and more American Muslims being journalists… One of the journalist who heard that, he said: “Oh! Tariq Ramadan is pushing the Muslims to infiltrate.” I never said that. What I said is not to infiltrate, it’s just to be a journalist. Because the journalist, when you come with your background, of course you should be objective or try to be the most objective but you are coming with a background, and you come with another vision… We have to push our daughters and our sons not only to be medical doctors, not only to be computer scientists but journalists to deal with this, to deal with academia because within academia we have all this business: to shape the perceptions, to help the people…

[…]

1:42:52 I wouldn’t care too much about, you know, the big media. They are changing. It’s going to… It is powerful but we have the power of our presence, we have the power of our principles and we have the power of alternative media. And we should send our children, when they want to do so to… in the field of journalism, to be able to be part of the whole thing and then things are changing.

Last example that I want to give you and I keep on repeating this because we don’t realize this, is… You have trends here who are very much promoting Islamophobia and they are saying, for example: Europe is becoming Eurabia. But why are they saying this? They are saying this because they know something. And once again: don’t work only with emotions and perceptions. Come to facts, figures. Study. Know what is happening. The evolution of history. In less than…

For the full video, go here

Of course, depending upon one’s view of Dr. Ramadan, these remarks can be read either as a goodwill effort to properly communicate Islamic concepts or a deliberate attempt to “shape the perceptions” according to the wishes of the Global Muslim Brotherhood.

Read more at The Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Watch

 

CAIR Official Candidate for NY City Council

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Zead Ramadan

Zead Ramadan

By Ryan Mauro:

The board president of the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Zead Ramadan, has announced his candidacy for District 7 City Council and has already raised $47,000. He is a Palestinian that was born in Kuwait but came to the U.S. as a child. In December 2011, he refused to answer a question about whether he’d condemn Hamas.

In May 2012, Ramadan appeared on Iran’s state-controlled PressTV and said “the comments that are being made against [American] Muslims are very eerily echoing the comments that were being made against Jews by Nazis.” Another quote shed some light on why the Iranian regime booked him:

“[W]henever you think that America, the land of the free, is going to grow up and go beyond it [racism], more intolerant, extremist voices come out.”

CAIR was labeled an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorism-financing trial in U.S. history in 2007. The government listed CAIR among entities that “who and/or were members of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee and/or its organizations.” The Palestine Committee was a secret Brotherhood group set up to support Hamas. In 2009, a federal judge upheld the labeling of CAIR as an unindicted co-conspirator because of “ample” evidence tying it to Hamas.

In a 2007 court filing in the case of convicted terrorist Sabri Bekhala, federal prosecutors state: “From its founding by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, CAIR conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorists…the conspirators agreed to use deception to conceal from the American public their connections to terrorists.”

CAIR was founded by members of the pro-Hamas Islamic Association for Palestine. A 1991 U.S. Muslim Brotherhood memo identifies IAP as one of “our organizations and the organizations of our friends.” The memo explicitly states that its “work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within.”

Ramadan served alongside Cyrus McGoldrick, the CAIR-NY leader, who left the organization on January 7. As we reported in December, McGoldrick sent out a flurry pro-Hamas tweets during the latest round of fighting with Israel. But not a word of condemnation was heard by Ramadan.

Read more at Radical Islam

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Did Hezbollah, foreign agents and unions infiltrate the Republican Party?

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Kerry Patton

Kerry Patton

by Kerry Patton:  Republicans are nothing more than Democrats in disguise,” a conservative friend told me recently. More and more conservatives are displeased with the Republican Party. Some believe the party has actually been infiltrated by not only left leaning persons but foreign influencers and Islamists as well.It’s sad that in today’s political arena, a person cannot present sound critical questioning to their own party without being castrated. It appears that more and more self-proclaimed Republicans are playing a game of ad hominem attacks, just as Democrats do. If conservatives favor a two party system, it’s critical we fix a very broken Republican Party. The first step could be to begin vetting members appropriately. This requires asking critical questions and demanding answers.Bearing Drift: Virginia’s Conservative Voice, an online media platform, recently published an article titled Del. David Ramadan Kicks Butt! The author praised Delegate Ramadan (R-87th) for his initiative on passing House Bills 1760 and 2120. Everything sounds good so far. But reading comments on the blog revealed a troubling pattern.One commenter posed a very simple question: Who is Imad David Ramadan? The question should have been more appropriately presented by asking, Who is Lebanese born Imad Afif Ramadan? Yes, the person we know as “David” Ramadan is actually a Shi’ite Muslim born in Lebanon with the birth name Imad Afif Ramadan.

What’s interesting is the fact that the author who wrote “Del. David Ramadan Kicks Butt” is the same author who in August, 2011 wrote Questions Swirl Around David-Imad Ramadan in 87th HOD. This article revealed David Ramadan’s past, including his ties to Lebanese Intelligence, the fact that he was formerly married to a Muslim woman who has gone missing, the fact that he filed bankruptcy, and his breach of the oath of American citizenship by signing a petition with his two brothers called DEMAND[ING] THE RIGHT TO VOTE AS CITIZENS OF LEBANON.

Something just doesn’t seem right about the entire debacle surrounding David Ramadan. Why would any online media outlet expose David Ramadan and then, months later, do everything in its power to act like they are his best friend?

Let me be very clear. I am not saying one way or another David Ramadan is aligned with any international terrorist organization nor am I claiming he has ties to any foreign state. Nor am I claiming the team at Bearing Drift are doing anything wrong. Maybe they just had a sudden “change of heart.”

Some questions about Ramadan’s past do warrant answers, however. We the people deserve those answers without being chastised for posing such questions. I will touch more on Bearing Drift and at least one of its board members.

Some Republicans may believe Ramadan and Bearing Drift don’t matter so long as they continue the conservative path. I disagree. The conservative path is not about lies, deception, and monetary influence. That’s the path of today’s Republicans and Democrats. Again, I am not saying anyone has lied, deceived, used or uses foreign or domestic monetary value to influence duties. I just want answers.

We must not allow fellow so-called conservatives to jump on Republican bandwagons. Remember, through our party’s history, we have had many sell-outs. It’s time to weed out the fake conservatives wearing a Republican disguise. We cannot afford for our party to be further infiltrated.

And yes, we conservatives have allowed our party to become infiltrated. Let’s not forget the case of one Pakistani agent by the name of Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai who infiltrated our party not long ago in an attempt to influence our elected officials.  The 62 year old Fairfax, VA resident was supported by the Pakistani ISI—the very organization who many believe supported in the aiding and harboring of Osama Bin Laden. [Ed. Note: Nabi Fai's activities dated to the terms President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, served.]

If you believe Nabi Fai is the only foreign agent to infiltrate and influence our party, you are wrong. It happens more often than you could imagine. He just happened to get caught.

Read more at The US Report

Kerry Patton, a combat disabled veteran, is author of Contracted: America’s Secret Warriors.

See also:

Who is Imad “David” Ramadan? (counterjihadreport.com)

Bulletin of the Oppression of Women

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Political Islam:

July 4, 2012 Egypt   A student’s boyfriend was stabbed to death when Islamists found them in a public   park together.

July 5, 2012 Egypt     The first Egyptian satellite channel completely operated by women wearing the   full face veil (niqab) is set to be launched 20 July, which will coincide with   the first day of the holy month of Ramadan.

Egypt   (h/t to RaymondIbrahim)   What is being dubbed as Egypt’s “first sex-slave marriage” took place   mere days after the Muslim Brotherhood’s Muhammad Morsi was made president.   Before making the woman, who had a non-Egyptian accent, repeat the Koran’s Surat   al-Ikhlas after him, instead of saying the customary “I marry myself to   you,” the woman said “I enslave myself to you,” and kissed him   in front of an applauding audience.

July 7, 2012 Afghanistan   (ht/ to JihadWatch)   A member of the Taliban shot dead a woman accused of adultery in front of a   cheering crowd of men near Kabul.

July 13, 2012 India   A predominantly Muslim village in India has banned “love marriages”   in addition barring women under 40 from shopping alone and using cell phones   in public
July 14, 2012 Britain   A Sudanese asylum seeker who raped a 12-year-old girl has been allowed to remain   in Britain – after a judge ruled it would breach his human rights to deport   him.

July 16, 2012 Canada   Canadian laws should be changed to require women to “cover themselves”   to prevent sexual assaults, says an Islamic street preacher in Toronto.

July 18, 2012 Pakistan   Farida Afridi, a 25-year-old women’s rights activist, left her parents’ home   early on the morning of July 4, as she typically did. She was walking to her   nonprofit organization’s office when two men with Kalashnikovs pulled alongside   her on a motorcycle and shot her multiple times, killing her.

July 24, 2012 Sudan (hat tip   to AtlasShrugs)   Earlier this month a Sudanese woman was found guilty of adultery and sentenced   to death by stoning by a court in the capital Khartoum, a regional women’s rights   group said Monday.

July 25, 2012 Britain   Laws against Female Genital Mutilation have been on the books for 80 years but   there but there have been no prosecutions despite significant evidence that   thousands of girls every year in the UK are at risk of this abusive practice.

Balochistan   (h/t to Grendel)   The militant Lashkar-i-Jhangvi has threatened to throw acid on the faces of   women who venture to the bazaars in Mekran’s largest town of Turbat, according   to a radio report.

Jordan   (h/t to thereligionofpeace)   A Jordanian man was charged on Wednesday with killing his divorced sister after   stabbing her and driving his truck over her body several times because of her   alleged “suspicious behavior,” police said.

July 26, 2012 Italy   (h/t islamversuseurope   )   Italian hotel agreed that a Muslim porter won’t have to take orders from a woman.

Pakistan   (h/t thereligionofpeace)   A woman was shot dead by her brother, a police constable, for not withdrawing   a case registered against him in April for assault. He and her brothers had   told her not to wear pants or ride a motorcycle.

July 27, 2012 UK   A devout Muslim grandmother has been jailed for four years for kidnapping and   drugging her own daughter after she refused to marry the man her family wanted   her to.

Egypt   (h/t to thereligionofpeace)   A new report from George Washington University professor Michele Clark and Coptic   rights activist Nada Ghaly has argued that thousands of young Coptic Christian   girls in Egypt are the victim of kidnapping and forced servitude by Muslims   in the North African country

July 29, 2012 India   (h/t to AtlasShrugs)   The failure to give birth to a son and the inability to fulfill her husband   and in-laws’ demand for money cost a woman her life. She was burnt alive allegedly   by her husband and in-laws in front of her minor daughters on Friday night.

Iran   An Iranian Islamic cleric says, women should only ride bikes in their own backyards,   where no stranger men can see them cycling!

 

July 30, 2012 Egypt   Egyptian women fear for their future under Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood government.
August 6, 2012 Tanzania   Police in Zanzibar have launched an investigation after a woman claimed she   was beaten up by a group of men at Mwanakwerekwe Market for leaving her head   uncovered during Ramadhan.

Pakistan   (h/t to JihadWatch)   A father along with his two sons axed his wife and daughters among four people   to death in the name of honour and injured three others in Bahawalnagar, police   said.

August 7, 2012 Pakistan     Six armed militants bullied shopkeepers selling women garments and cosmetics   in the Singair Bazaar in Hangu on Monday threatening them to remove curtains   from the doors of the shops or face action.
Sources said certain shopkeepers were whipped by the militants with the lashes   they were holding in their hands and they also vandalized the cosmetics shops.Eyewitness   reports said the militants remained in the market for more than 20 minutes and   then left on their motorbikes hurling threats at the merchants.
August 8, 2012 U.S.   (h/t to AtlasShrugs)   A Florida Muslim man was sentenced to life imprisonment for setting his wife   on fire. Prosecutors played the recording at Wednesday’s sentencing for Khalid   Mohd, 41, who was convicted in June of setting his wife on fire because she   wanted his help staying in the United States. He was sentenced to life in prison.
August 9, 2012 Nepal (h/t to   AtlasShrugs)   Nepal has banned women under the age of 30 from going to work in Middle Eastern   countries amid growing concerns that they are being exploited. Common complaints   include physical and sexual abuse, poor conditions and non-payment of salaries.

August 12, 2012 Tunsia   Tunsian women are worried that changes to the nations’s constitution defining   women’s place in society in terms of their relationship to men will bring back   an inequality in gender.

August 13, 2012 Kashmir   The women of Kashmir, renowned for their grace and beauty, have been warned   by groups affiliated with al Qaeda to cover their faces or risk disfigurement   and even death from acid attacks.   The warning also extended to women using mobile phones in public.

August 14, 2012 U.S.   (h/t to thereligionofpeace)   Colorado Springs police arrested five Iraqi men Tuesday in connection with what   they called a “rare” and “horrific” sexual assault on a   woman early July 22. The arrests included one man who was a central character   in an Army’s sergeant’s memoir of an Iraq deployment.
Sarmad Fadhi Mohammed and Jasim Mohammed Hasin Ramadon were taken into custody   on suspicion of sexual assault. Mustafa Sataar Al Feraji, Ali Mohammed Hasan   Al Juboori and Yasir Jabbar Jasim were arrested on suspicion of accessory to   sexual assault. All are in their 20s. Police said the severity of the attack   made it rare in the city, adding that the woman’s injuries could have been life-threatening.

August 16, 2012 Scandinavia   Statistics on the numbers of rapes committed in Scandinavian countries, including   Sweden, by ‘minority’ men.   UK (h/t to thereligionofpeace)     A judge has said the forced marriage of a Muslim woman with learning difficulties   should be annulled and condemned the “insulated” families who arrange   them.

August 18, 2012 Sweden   A man and a woman have been remanded into custody by Attunda district court   in Sollentuna on suspicion of having subjected their daughter to female genital   mutilation (FGM).
August 19, 2012 Egypt   Muslim women are worried about sexual attacks as the Eid holiday arrives.

August 20, 2012 Iran   (h/t to Jaye)   Female students in Iran have been barred from more than 70 university degree   courses in an officially-approved act of sex-discrimination which critics say   is aimed at defeating the fight for equal women’s rights.
August 24, 2012 Egypt   Volunteer patrols of men are trying to help the rising tide of sexual harassment   to women in public spaces.

Iran   A new report from Iran has revealed a striking rise in the number of child brides   under the age of 10-years-old. The Union for the Protection of Children’s Rights   said that in 2010, at least 713 marriages of girls under 10-years-old were registered   in the country, more than twice as many as registered in the three years before.

August 25, 2012 Egypt, Tunisia,   Libya   This summer, as the dust of the Arab Spring revolutions begins to settle, women   – who stood shoulder to shoulder with men in defying tyranny – are finding themselves   marginalised and excluded from decision-making.

UK   Muslim woman in the UK was attacked by her siblings for kissing a white man   during her 18th birthday celebrations. Shamima Akhtar, now a 19-yr-old, suffered   a sickening assault which culminated in her sisters slapping and punching her   and hacking off her waist-length hair.

August 26, 2012 The   World   The Taliban misogynist mentality is alive and well, and in fact it is thriving   and mushrooming globally.

Australia   (ht/t to Tundra Tabloids)   Rape victim Alicia Gali is still traumatised three years after she was raped   and jailed for adultery in United Arab Emirates.

Pakistan   (h/t to thereligionofpeace)   Rimsha, a fifteen year old girl, was picked up by two men on motorcycles and   taken to an unknown location. She was kept in a room and subjected to rape for   five consecutive days, the victim said in an FIR registered at the Gomel police   station.

August 27, 2012 Pakistan   (h/t to thereligionofpeace)   A Christian girl was gang raped by five Muslim men.

India   A girl was critically injured when a two youths threw acid on her face and body.

Germany   (h/t to IslaminEurope for translation of German article)   A Somali broke his wife’s fingers because she wanted to give food to their children   during Ramadan.
Produced by Politicalislam.com   Publisher: Bill Warner; Editor: Asma Marwan Permalink

Islam’s ‘Holy Month’ of Christian Oppression

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Egyptian Christian, Maher Rizkalla Before and After Ramadan

by Raymond Ibrahim

The month of Ramadan, which ended earlier this week, proved to be a month of renewed Muslim piety on the one hand, and renewed oppression of non-Muslim minorities on the other. In Nigeria, for example, Islamic militants are living up to the assertion that “Ramadan is a month of jihad and death for Allah,” proving that killing Christians is not only reserved for Christian holidays like Christmas and Easter – when militants bombed churches killing dozens – but is especially applicable during Islam’s Ramadan.

Usually, however, Ramadan-related oppression has to do with Muslim perceptions that Christians do not “know their place”—either because the latter openly do things forbidden to Muslims during Ramadan, or because they dare object to the things Muslims do during Ramadan.

When it comes to these aspects of dhimmitude, Egypt offers countless examples, past and present, simply because it houses the Middle East’s largest Christian minority, the Copts, and thus offers more opportunities for the intolerant face of Ramadan to reveal itself. Two recent examples follow:

First, according to Coptic websites, on July 27, a diabetic man in Egypt was driving his car in Maadi, a suburb of southern Cairo, when he was struck with great thirst, “which he could not bear” (a side-effect of diabetes, further exacerbated by Egypt’s July weather). He pulled over near a public water source and started drinking water. Soon three passers-by approached him, inquiring why he was drinking water (among the many things forbidden to Muslims during daylight in Ramadan). The diabetic man replied, “Because I am a Christian, and sick,” to which they exclaimed “you’re a Christian, too!” and begun beating him mercilessly. Other passers-by began to congregate to see what was happening, but no one intervened on behalf of the diabetic non-Muslim until he managed to make a dash for his parked car and fled the scene.

Though not forbidden to him, this infidel Christian openly violated a principle of Islamic Ramadan, which was deemed a great affront and was punished accordingly. This idea that non-Muslims must show respect for Islamic observances is commonplace. Around the same time this story took place, for instance, a Christian Lebanese singer was taken to police while in Algeria for smoking in public, and “failing to show due respect to Muslims.” She was released after police warned her that “she was not allowed to smoke in public during Ramadan in Muslim Algeria, even though she was a Christian.”

The second story from Egypt concerns a young Christian doctor, Maher Rizkalla Ghali, who was shot by riotous Muslims, including easily-identified Salafis, resulting in the loss of one eye and the likely loss of the other. According to Watan Voice, the perpetrators live downstairs and regularly fired bullets in the air while feasting during sahur (the time before dawn when Muslims are permitted the things they are forbidden in daylight, including food, water, and sex). One night the raucous was so unbearable that the Copt spoke to them from his window, saying that their actions were disturbing to the children and elderly.

Their response was to “insult his religion” and open fire at him, severely disfiguring him. The Muslims then tried to break through the door to attack and plunder the Christian household. Although the family filed a police report, “security forces have not taken any action towards the perpetrators.” Likewise, though they tried to admit the blinded Christian man to several hospitals, they were refused admission until Kasr Hospital accepted them.

Read more at IPT News

Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum

From The Religion of Peace:

Afghan police chief kills US soldiers invited to dinner

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By Ben Farmer in Kabul

Three American special forces soldiers were shot dead by a man in Afghan uniform in what appeared to be the latest incident of local forces turning their weapons on their foreign allies.

French soldiers of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and an Afghan policeman Photo: EPA/S. SABAWOON

The Americans were killed after being invited to dinner to discuss security in Sangin district of Helmand on Thursday evening.

The shooting was at least the third incident this week where Afghan forces have opened fire on foreign forces.

Thursday night’s shooting appeared to be a carefully planned attack, Afghan officials said.

American special forces soldiers had been invited to break the Ramadan fast at a house in the Sarwan Qala area by a police commander called Assadullah.

During the meal they came under fire.

“During dinner, the police commander and his colleagues shot them and then fled. The commander was Afghan National Police in charge of local police in Sangin,” a senior Afghan official told the Reuters news agency.

“It looks like he had drawn up a plan to kill them previously,” the official said.

Read more at the Telegraph

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Halal Games and Anti-Jihad War Apparatus in Islamized London

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Jihad Watch:

Halal Games and Anti-Jihad War Apparatus in Islamized London
by Enza Ferreri

London is the most Islamic city to have hosted the Olympic Games ever. There are at least 1 million Muslims thought to live in London, although the figure is likely to be higher.

And these Olympics will be dominated by Islam in more than one way.

London 2012 are the first Games to which every participating country has sent female athletes. Saudi Arabia, Brunei and Qatar had never sent women to the Olympics before. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), under pressure from human rights groups, wanted female athletes from Muslim countries to participate, and threatened Saudi Arabia with a ban in order to achieve that result.

However, the International and the London Olympic Committees had to make many concessions. Behind the conspicuous hijab-wearing women in the Opening Ceremony Athletes’ Parade, and the amazing IOC decision to allow a Saudi woman to compete in hijab against judo rules banning fighters from wearing a head covering on safety grounds, there is much more, hidden from public view.

After the UK-based Islamic Human Rights Commission’s request to have Olympic dates changed so that they would not overlap with Ramadan was rejected, the organizers have bent over backwards to accommodate Muslims.

London will make Olympic history by having for the first time an Olympic Village with areas designated for Muslim prayers. A team of Muslim clerics is available to athletes and officials, and there are faith rooms at the rowing and canoe sprint village and the sailing village. All restaurants and dining facilities at the Athletes’ Village will be open 24 hours to allow Muslims to eat in the permitted hours during Ramadan.

Halal meat and meals are available at all times in the athletes’ dining facilities, and are very likely to be served to non-Muslims too outside the Olympic Village.

Ramadan and the Olympics overlapped before, but never once had the Committee changed anything to pander to Muslim participation. Even volunteers have been trained absolutely not to hurt Mohammedan sensitivities, albeit inadvertently, and to answer questions in Islamically correct ways. Everyone is to be reminded that within the Olympic site food can be eaten before dawn and after dusk.

And, as The Daily Mail reports:

Ramadan is set to add to London’s Olympic traffic woes as thousands of Muslims squeeze into non-Games lanes to worship at the many mosques that surround the Olympic Park.Every year during the month of August, vast crowds of worshippers descend on east London — one of the most concentrated Muslim communities in the country — for nightly prayer.

Local councillor Abdal Ullah said the influx of people to the area, between central London and Stratford, will play havoc with Games road links and traffic hotpsots.

The district surrounding the Olympic Park is home to more than 250,000 Muslims and almost 100 mosques.

The Olympic Park is in East London, an area which has had more Islamic terror suspects arrested in recent years than any similar-sized area not just in Britain, but in the whole of Europe.

The BBC reported that a senior security services official had told the TV
channel that the biggest threat to the Olympics comes from British Muslim extremists, and intelligence services are taking the threat of “a homegrown terror attack” during the Olympics very seriously.

Adding to their concerns, the intelligence official continued, is that for the first time in many years the Games are taking place during Ramadan, so they have to be particularly “sensitive and effective.”

In a video interview, a former extremist explained to the BBC that Muslim terrorists may strike during the sacred month of Ramadan thinking that it will be an opportunity for going to heaven.

Foiling attacks has occupied the police and security services for months, the BBC said, and the threat is very real.

And this leads to another record: the most security-conscious, heavily guarded Olympics. The greatest mobilisation of military and security forces in the UK since the Second World War, with more troops deployed than in the war in Afghanistan, and the most heavily secured event in London’s history, are still more records.

Eleven miles of electric fencing charged with 5,000 volts of electricity and topped with razor wire separating the Olympic site from the rest of London; entrances to major venues guarded by soldiers, and surrounding streets patrolled by police heavily armed with automatic weapons, a rare sight in Britain; one of the Royal Navy’s largest warships docked on the river Thames as a staging post for military helicopters, some carrying snipers and special forces personnel ready to take out dangerous elements; another of the world’s most advanced warships also stationed on the river; 6 missile sites dedicated to intercepting hostile aircraft; surface-to-air missile systems, scanning the skies to down any airborne threats, installed on the roofs of residential buildings; advanced fighter jets patrolling the sky above London; 4 of the most advanced aircraft developed by the European Union enforcing a strict no-fly zone around the city; unmanned drones flying above London to provide surveillance for security forces; helicopters with powerful imaging equipment to identify faces, clothes, even the smallest detail on any suspect individuals; thousands of street cameras feeding data to face-recognition software to spot any known hostile person from the crowds.

Armed FBI, CIA and Interpol officers in their hundreds are in London to help Scotland Yard.

Londoners do not forget the tragic link between Islamic terrorism and these games: London won its bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games on 6th July 2005, the day before the 7/7 bombings.

Welcome to the Halal, Ramadan, Jihad Games.

Enza Ferreri is an Italian-born, London-based author and journalist. She has been a London correspondent for several Italian magazines and newspapers, including Panorama, L’Espresso, La Repubblica.

 

The Ramadan Olympics and Islam’s “Law of Necessity”

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by Mark Durie

Because Islam’s “Law of Necessity” fully permits Muslims to find creative ways to adapt when Sharia Law conflicts with practical life, the argument that societies are obliged to make concessions to privilege all the demands of strict Sharia Law is considerably weakened.

Islam is a flexible religion: religious obligations allow exceptions, subject to circumstances. Muslim religious scholars balance countervailing obligations to determine when exceptions apply. Understanding such balancing of necessities in Islam is not only important for public policy, but also for understanding how an identical set of religious beliefs can be used to justify war or peace, terrorism or peaceful coexistence.

Fasting During a Ramadan Olympics

As the London Olympics are underway, London organizers of the Olympics, according to a report in the New York Times, are supporting the needs of Muslims athletes, “with more than 150 Muslim clerics on hand to assist athletes, as well as fast-breaking packs including dates and other traditional foods.”

As it is also the month of Ramadan, during which Muslims are obligated not to eat or drink, even their own saliva, from sunrise to sunset, spare a thought for the more than 3,500 Muslim competitors, who, if they strictly observed Ramadan, would be abstaining from food and drink from the first prayer of the day (Fajr) at 2.44 am through to the dusk prayer (Maghrib) at 8.53 pm (as at July 29, 2012, see Islamicfinder.org).

Optimum sporting performance cannot be expected from athletes who go without food or drink for over 18 hours — a circumstance which would not be fair to them.

Many Muslim Olympians now in London will therefore not be fasting. Some may rely on religious rulings (fatwas) which exempt sportspeople from the Ramadan fast, such as a ruling issued in 2010 by the German Central Council of Muslims, that Muslim professional footballers, because they depend upon football for their living, need not fast during Ramadan.

The United Emirates, using a different approach stated that players may omit the fast as long as they do not stay in one place for more than four days. This is based upon a standard exemption for travelers during Ramadan (Sahih Bukhari, 3:31:167). Another exemption, following advice from imams in Morocco, is being used by English Olympic rower Moe Sbihi, who announced that he will donate 60 meals to poor people in Morocco for each missed fast day. Many Olympic athletes are postponing their fasts until their sporting commitments are completed. However, the Moroccan football team are fasting and trusting that Allah will help them to victory. All Muslims agree that fasting is obligatory during Ramadan; they differ in the exceptions they make.

“Necessity”: Balancing What Is Forbidden with What Is Permitted

There is a powerful principle in Islamic jurisprudence, the “Law of Necessity,” that permits what is forbidden — the end justifying the means. If a goal is obligatory, then the means can also be obligatory, even if otherwise they might be forbidden.

Read more at Gatestone Institute

Dubai police chief warns of Muslim Brotherhood, Iran threat

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Dubai Cheif of Police Dahi Khalfan

Yahoo News

DUBAI (Reuters) - Dubai’s chief of police has warned of an “international plot” to overthrow thegovernments of Gulf Arab countries, saying the region needs to be prepared to counter any threat from Islamist dissidents as well as Syria and Iran.

The comments by, one of the most outspoken security officials in the United Arab Emirates, follow the detention in the UAE since April of at least 20 dissidents, according to relatives of the detainees and activists.

“There’s an international plot against Gulf states in particular and Arab countries in general…This is preplanned to take over our fortunes,” Khalfan told reporters at a gathering late on Wednesday marking the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

“The bigger our sovereign wealth funds and the more money we put in the banks of Western countries, the bigger the plot to take over our countries…The brothers and their governments in Damascus and North Africa have to know that the Gulf is a red line, not only for Iran but also for the Brothers as well.”

Most of the detainees since April are Islamists, targeted by an official clampdown amid concern they may be emboldened by the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in other Arab countries such as Egypt.

UAE Interior Ministry officials have not been available to comment on the arrests. Last week, UAE officials announced that authorities were investigating a foreign-linked group planning “crimes against the security of the state”.

“I had no idea that there is this large number of Muslim Brotherhood in the Gulf states. We have to be alert and on guard because the wider these groups become, the higher probability there is for trouble,” Khalfan said on Wednesday.

“We are aware that there are groups plotting to overthrow Gulf governments in the long term.”

(Reporting by Mirna Sleiman; Writing by Andrew Torchia; Editing by Pravin Char)

 

Ramadan Ding-Dong

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As is customary, President Obama and wife Michelle released their annual Ramadan greetings last Friday. Also customary for Obama, it was full of platitudes about Islam’s supposedly invaluable contribution to American culture, and devoid of any acknowledgement of the dark reality of the Arab Spring that he helped facilitate.

The statement began:

Michelle and I extend our warmest wishes to Muslim Americans and Muslims around the world at the start of Ramadan. For Muslims, Ramadan is a time of fasting, prayer, and reflection; a time of joy and celebration. It’s a time to cherish family, friends, and neighbors, and to help those in need.

In ironic response, CNN posted this headline two days later: “Iraq Bombs Kill 25 People as Muslims Celebrate Ramadan.” Similar headlines followed: “Ramadan Fails to Curtail Syrian Violence.” “Muslims Begin Ramadan Fast; Bombs Hit Thai South.” “7 Shot Dead in Karachi on First Day of Ramadan.” So much for reflection, joy, and celebration.

Even if many Muslims around the world weren’t respectful of Ramadan, at least American officials in Guantanamo were. In deference to the Muslims who are vacationing – sorry, I meanincarcerated – there, they graciously postponed any court hearings to allow the murderous 9/11 plotters their time of contemplation and joy.

Ramadan is also a reminder, the Obamas’ statement went on, “to people of all faiths of our common humanity and the commitment to justice, equality, and compassion shared by all great faiths.”

Not according to a group by the name of “Qaedat al-Jihad,” a branch of al Qaeda that has been described as one of the “affiliates of the Global Jihad movement.” This is their take on Ramadan, delivered in their statement claiming responsibility for last Wednesday’s terror attack against Israeli tourists in Bulgaria that killed seven and wounded dozens more:

The month of Ramadan is a month of holy war and death for Allah. It is a month for fighting the enemies of Allah and God’s messenger, the Jews and their American facilitators… The holy war is not confined to a particular arena and we shall fight the Jews and the Americans until they leave the land of Islam.

So much for our common humanity, “shared by all great faiths.” Holy war? That’s odd – Western academics and Muslim Brotherhood front groups here in America keep insisting that jihad is about “inner striving” and has nothing to do with holy war. Studying for a college exam is jihad. Raising your children well is jihad. Quitting smoking is jihad. Qaedat al-Jihad clearly didn’t get that memo.

In any case, Obama continued his Ramadan statement:

This year, Ramadan holds special meaning for those citizens in the Middle East and North Africa who are courageously achieving democracy and self-determination and for those who are still struggling to achieve their universal rights.

He’s referring off course to the Arab Spring, that glorious flowering of democratic freedom which has led to Islamic fundamentalists toppling regimes in Libya, Egypt, and elsewhere, threatening to create new Irans. Apparently this unsettling news hasn’t reached George Clooney’s house or golf courses, where Obama spends most of his time, because his rosy perspective on the Arab Spring doesn’t seem to align with its ugly reality.

Obama again:

The United States continues to stand with those who seek the chance to decide their own destiny, to live free from fear and violence, and to practice their faith freely.

Really? This hollow claim will come as something of a bitter surprise to the Iranian Green Revolutionaries he ignored three summers ago, and to dwindling Christian communities all across the Middle East who are now being targeted in the genocidal wake of the Islamist Winter he praises so lavishly.

Also in his Ramadan greeting, Obama noted that

Here in the United States, Ramadan reminds us that Islam is part of the fabric of our Nation, and that—from public service to business, from healthcare and science to the arts—Muslim Americans help strengthen our country and enrich our lives.

There may indeed be individual Muslim-Americans who are serving this country in those arenas, but how exactly is Islam “part of the fabric of our nation”? A Washington Times editorial two years ago demolished that multiculturalist trope after Obama expressed a similar sentiment in his 2010 Ramadan speech:

Most puzzling is the president’s claim that “Islam has always been part of America.” Islam had no influence on the origins and development of the United States. It contributed nothing to early American political culture, art, literature, music or any other aspect of the early nation.

Read more at Front Page