Police: Man stabs two after asking about religious beliefs

A Detroit man stabbed two people at a suburban bus stop after asking his victims whether or not they were Muslim, according to police. Federal authorities are now looking at the case as a potential hate crime, police said on Tuesday.

Both of the victims were standing at the bus stop outside of Detroit with the suspect on Saturday, Southfield Police Chief Eric Hawkins said. Several people there “engaged in conversation” until the suspect, identified by Hawkins as 39-year-old Terrence Lavaron Thomas, “asked some of the folks there if they were Muslims.”

Two of them answered, the chief told The Post on Tuesday: They were not Muslims.

“[Thomas] was not not happy with that answer,” Hawkins said. Shortly after, “without provocation,” Thomas pulled out a 3-inch folding knife “and attacked one of them,” Hawkins said.

Both victims are in their early 50′s. One was stabbed five times in the attack. The other was stabbed in the hand as he tried to stop the attack, Hawkins said. Both were released from the hospital with “non-life threatening injuries.”

Thomas then fled the scene, Hawkins said. Police arrested him “within minutes.” He was carrying two knives — one of which appeared to be the one used in the attack — and some marijuana, according to Hawkins.

Although authorities have not made a statement on the suspect’s motive, Hawkins added that “we do know that he was not happy that [the victims] indicated that they were not Muslims.” Thomas “said that he was a Muslim,” Hawkins said.

Thomas was charged with two counts of assault with intent to murder, one count of carrying a dangerous weapon, and one count of possession of a controlled substance — all state charges.

Thomas could face a state charge of ethnic intimidation as well, Hawkins said, but county prosecutors were still determining whether it would be added or not.

According to the Detroit Free Press, Magistrate Eman Jajonie-Daman set Thomas’s bond at $1 million and scheduled a preliminary examination for March 4.

Michigan’s hate crimes law defines “ethnic intimidation,” a felony, as when a person acts “maliciously, and with specific intent to intimidate or harass another person because of that person’s race, color, religion, gender, or national origin.”

Hawkins added that the FBI has been contacted about the case, and  are “looking at it as a potential hate crime” to determine whether federal charges are warranted.

Credit to Abby Ohlheiser

Condemning Islam is the wrong course

WASHINGTON – Days after the video appeared of a Jordanian pilot horribly burned to death by an Islamic State death squad, President Obama told the National Prayer Breakfast that all faiths can be “twisted and misused in the name of evil” and that terrorists who profess “to stand up for Islam” are, in fact, “betraying it.” Critics found Obama’s timing offensive and his message about Islam naïve: He should avoid moral equivalence, stop playing the theologian and recognize that Islam has a unique problem with violence and extremism.

Days after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 – in which temperatures inside the collapsing World Trade Center reached 2,000 degrees and the bodies of many passengers on the airplanes were consumed by burning jet fuel – George W. Bush took off his shoes, entered a Muslim prayer room at the Islamic Center of Washington, spoke with Muslim leaders and made a short statement. “These acts of violence against innocents,” he said, “violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith. ... The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam.”

On Sept. 20, 2001, speaking to a joint session of Congress, Bush called the teachings of Islam “good and peaceful.” “The terrorists,” he said, “are traitors to their own faith, trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself.”

Later in his presidency, when the charge came that America was fighting a war against Islam, Bush answered that it was radicals who had “spread the word that this really isn’t peaceful people versus radical people or terrorists; that it is really about America not liking Islam.”

“I believe that Islam is a great religion that preaches peace,” Bush said. “And I believe people who murder the innocent to achieve political objectives aren’t religious people, whether they be a Christian who does that – we had a person blow up a federal building in Oklahoma who professed to be a Christian, but that’s not a Christian act to kill innocent people.”

Those who long for greater clarity in describing the peculiarly Islamic nature of terrorism (see Bobby Jindal: “Let’s be honest here: Islam has a problem”) should also be clear about something else: They are proposing a fundamental shift in the rhetorical strategy of the war against terrorism. In the Bush/Obama approach, terrorism is an aberration that must be isolated. Critics believe it emanates from Islam and must be expiated. And some urge the president to declare that one of the Abrahamic faiths belongs in a special category of menace.

This picture is not real. 

There are, of course, consequential historical differences among faiths. It is harder to separate divine law from positive law in a faith where the founder was also a political and military leader – though it was hard enough even in a faith where the founder was killed by political and military authorities.

But those who wish the president to publicly explore these matters are the ones urging him to act as a theologian. Presidential rhetoric on this issue should not be theological but phenomenological. The vast majority of the world’s Muslims – and an almost unanimous majority of American Muslims – believe their faith to be inalterably opposed to putting people in a cage and setting them on fire, or employing the mentally disabled as suicide bombers, or burying children alive. This is the actual division that matters most, and the rhetorical division that best serves American interests: peaceful people versus the terrorists.

Most of those urging Obama to assert that Islam is somehow especially flawed among the great faiths have never been closer to power than a fuse box. There is no possible circumstance in which a president could say such a thing. It would cause a global firestorm, immediately alienating Muslim allies and proxies whom we depend on to help fight the Islamic State and other enemies. How would the king of Jordan, for example – a 41st-generation descendant of the Prophet Muhammad – be forced to react? How would the terrorists use such a critique in their own propaganda? Some of the president’s critics are blithely recommending a massive, unforced geostrategic blunder.

Obama’s speech at the prayer breakfast was cliche-ridden and historically shallow. But its basic framework – pitting true faith against nihilistic violence – will be adopted by every future president. Some of the intense reaction against Obama’s formulation is rooted in a broader fear that he is not serious enough in prosecuting the war against the Islamic State – a concern I share. But the answer is to prosecute that war more vigorously – not complicate it with careless and counterproductive rhetoric.

Credit to Michael Gerson

India bans polygamy for Muslims as 'not fundamental right in Islam'

India's Supreme Court has ruled out the practice of having multiple wives for Muslims arguing that it is not a fundamental right for those who practice Islam.

Judges TS Thakur and AK Goel said that article 25 of the Indian constitution guarantees freedom of conscience and free profession and practice of religion, but does not also guarantee the practice of polygamy.

"What was protected under Article 25 was the religious faith and not a practice which may run counter to public order, health or morality. Polygamy was not integral part of religion and monogamy was a reform within the power of the State under Article 25," they said during the ruling.

The court also upheld the decision of the government of Uttar Pradesh to fire an employee after he tried to marry a second woman while the  previous marriage was still in place.

According to some interpretations of the Quran, Islam allows a man to marry up to four women, only if he is able to deal with them justly. However, it is preferable for him to have only one wife.

Common Ground News Service (CGNS) - which aims to provide constructive articles to promote dialogue on issues such as Muslims in the West and race related conflicts - explains that the Quran discusses polygamy in terms of the needs of women and children "at the time" and never in terms of men's rights.

The Quran refers to polygamy in its fourth chapter, which tells about the migration of Muslims from Mecca to Medina and marks the start of the Muslim calendar.

"[This chapter] builds on the preceding one regarding the Battle of Uhud between early Muslims and the inhabitants of Mecca in which many Muslim men were killed, leaving widows and orphans," CGNS said. "This is the context which is crucial to any discussion of polygamy in Islam; polygamy was allowed in verse 4:3 because of God's concern for the welfare of women and orphans who were left without husbands and fathers."

Credit to Ludovica Iaccino

Florida father furious at school lesson: ‘Muhammad is the messenger of God’

Ron Wagner, a Florida father, said his son’s world history book has gone too far with a lesson that teaches Muhammad is the messenger of God.

One part of the book, for instance, reads: “There is no god, but God. Muhammad is the messenger of God,” he said, quoting from his son’s Lyman High School history book, WFTV reported.

“Students were instructed to recite this prayer as the first Pillar of Islam, off of the board at the teacher’s instruction,” Mr. Wagner said. “For it to be mandatory and part of the curriculum and in the textbooks, didn’t seem right.”

The chapter in the history book is called the “Rise of Islam,” and includes text of the faith’s prayers and scriptures, right from the Koran, WFTV reported.

Mr. Wagner also complained that the first 100 pages of the of the religious-based chapters that deal with Judaism and Christianity are missing — and the school district explains that omission by saying the defect, which impacted 68 books, is due to a manufacturer mistake, WFTV reported.

Credit to Cheryl K. Chumley

Egypt sentences 183 Muslim Brotherhood supporters to death

An Egyptian court sentenced 183 supporters of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement to death on Monday over the killing of police officers during unrest in 2013.

The men were convicted of playing a role in the killings of 16 policemen in the town of Kardasa in August, 2013 during the upheaval that followed the army’s ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi. Thirty-four were sentenced in absentia.

Egypt has mounted one of the biggest crackdowns in its modern history on the Brotherhood since the political demise of Morsi, the country’s first democratically elected president.

Thousands of Brotherhood supporters have been arrested and put on mass trials in a campaign which human rights groups say shows the government is systematically repressing opponents.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who as army chief toppled Morsi, describes the Brotherhood as a major security threat.

The movement, however, says it is committed to peaceful activism.

Muslim cleric declares selfies a sin under Islamic law… and criticises women in particular for being so 'shameless'

Indonesian cleric Felix Siauw posted tweets about why selfies are so sinful. 

He said that those who take selfies are succumbing to pride and arrogance.

There was a huge Twitter backlash against his messages by Indonesians.

Hundreds have posted selfies using the hashtag #Selfie4Siauw

A Muslim cleric has declared selfies sinful, claiming that those who take them are succumbing to pride, ostentation and arrogance.

Popular Indonesian cleric Felix Siauw posted a series of tweets explaining why selfies should be avoided – but reserved most of his exasperation for women, who he said were being ‘shameless’ and ‘unpure’.

Siauw, who has over a million Twitter followers, wrote: ‘These days many Muslim women take selfies without shame. There are usually nine frames in one photo with facial poses that are just – My Goodness – where’s the purity in women?’

He also said that because selfie-takers are desperate for social media views, they’re being ostentatious, and because taking a selfie makes people feel ‘cooler’, we’ve ‘fallen into the worst sin of all – arrogance’.

However, there was a huge Twitter backlash against his messages by Indonesians. Hundreds have posted selfies on the social media site using the hashtag # Selfie4Siauw, Quartz reported.

Many were taken by women, dozens by men – and some purely for comedy purposes, with a camel and great white shark uploaded with the hashtag.

It follows a prominent religious scholar in Saudi Arabia giving the cold shoulder to snowmen – by issuing a fatwa against them.

A snowfall in the middle eastern country saw Saudis eagerly building snowmen and even snow camels.

However, Mohammed Saleh Al Minjed decreed that building snowmen – or indeed creating any living creature out of snow – was an insult to the Islamic religion.

He declared that inanimate objects such as ships and buildings could be imitated – or food – but not animals, according to Gulf News.

He wrote: 'God has given people space to make whatever they want which does not have a soul, including trees, ships, fruits, buildings and so on.'

The fatwa - or religious ruling - was given a frosty reception on social media sites by some people.

Blogger Mishaal complained that the ruling took the joy out of the unusual weather.

He said: 'We have snow for fleeting days, maybe even hours, and there is always someone who wants to rob us of the joy and the fun. It seems that the only thing left for us is to sit down and drink coffee.'

On Twitter users writing in Arabic and identifying themselves with Arab names joined in the debate.

'They are afraid for their faith of everything ... sick minds,' one Twitter user wrote.

Another posted a photo of a man in formal Arab garb holding the arm of a 'snow bride' wearing a bra and lipstick. 'The reason for the ban is fear of sedition,' he wrote.

A third said the country was plagued by two types of people: 'A people looking for a fatwa for everything in their lives, and a cleric who wants to interfere in everything in the lives of others through a fatwa,' the user wrote.

Sheikh Munajjid had some supporters, however. 'It (building snowmen) is imitating the infidels, it promotes lustiness and eroticism,' one wrote.

'May God preserve the scholars, for they enjoy sharp vision and recognise matters that even Satan does not think about.'

And blogger Al Marsad wrote: 'It has no value in our traditions… those fascinated by the West should emulate their inventions and sciences, not their culture,' according to Gulf News.

Snow has covered upland areas of Tabuk province near Saudi Arabia's border with Jordan for the third consecutive year.

Last year the General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowment (GAIAE) in the UAE issued a fatwa against living on Mars.

The committee argued that an attempt to dwell on the planet would be so hazardous as to be suicidal and killing oneself is not permitted by Islam.

The astronauts, the committee said, would end up dying for no 'righteous reason' and would face the same punishment in the afterlife as someone who'd committed suicide.

The GAIAE has issued around two million Fatwas through its Official Fatwa Centre since its inception in 2008.

In Malaysia, meanwhile, Muslim clerics have issued fatwas banning everything from yoga to Valentines Day in a bid to stop the influence of Western culture.

To ensure Muslims can keep pace with the rules, an 'e-fatwa' site has been started the Globalpost reports. The issue recently came to a head at a dog-petting festival for Muslims, with the organiser receiving threatening phone calls.

Muslims are taught that canines are unclean.

Malaysian activist Zainah Anwar, recently wrote that Muslims are 'sick and tired of being told, yet again, of more categories of Muslims and practices to be denounced, hated and declare deviant'.

Her women's rights group, Sisters in Islam, has also been targeted. It was issued with a fatwa for pushing 'liberalism'. It had pushed for Muslim women to be able to enter beauty pageants.

The group were challenging the ruling.

The list of fatwas now includes, Halloween, which is said to be too Christian and black metal because it is 'powerful enough to force a Muslim to forsake his faith'.

Botox is banned, but can be used if medically necessary. 

Credit to DailyMail

Rock concert, rallies overwhelm Germany's anti-Islam group

Germany's anti-Islam PEGIDA movement was overwhelmed by opponents of the far-right group at a rock concert for tolerance in Dresden on Monday and enormously popular counter-demonstrations in cities across the country.

More than 22,000 cheered German rock stars at an anti-PEGIDA rally in Dresden, where the movement that argues the country is being overrun by Muslims and refugees began in October. In Frankfurt 70 PEGIDA backers were outnumbered by 15,000.
"It's great that you're all here with us to send a signal tonight," said Herbert Groenemeyer, one of Germany's best-selling rock artists at the hastily organized free concert under the motto "Open and colorful -- Dresden is for everyone."
"It's horrible and sad what's been happening in some people's minds lately -- creating an atmosphere of hysteria where one religious group is being targeted as the scapegoat. It's absurd, mean, unjust, undemocratic and completely unacceptable."
PEGIDA, already reeling after its leader Lutz Bachmann quit for posing for a picture looking like Hitler and calling refugees "scumbags", normally holds its rallies on Mondays but switched to Sunday to make way for the parade of rock stars.
"There are 4 million Muslims in Germany and they are just as much a part of our 'economic miracle' as all the other religions in Germany," said Groenemeyer to the crowd, which braved heavy rain and chilly January temperatures for three hours.
In Munich, more than 2,300 anti-PEGIDA demonstrators outnumbered the 800 who took part in the PEGIDA rally there while, in Berlin, 500 supporters of the local BAERGIDA group were met by more than 1,000 counter-demonstrators.
Earlier on Monday, on the eve of Tuesday's 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germans had an everlasting responsibility to fight all forms of anti-Semitism and racism.

In what appeared to be an indirect reference to PEGIDA, Merkel told a memorial for the victims of Auschwitz: "We've got to fight anti-Semitism and all racism from the outset."
"We've got to constantly be on guard to protect our freedom, democracy and rule of law," she said. "We've got to expose those who promote prejudices and conjure up bogeymen, the old ones as well as the new."
Merkel said it was a disgrace that some Jews or those expressing support for Israel had been threatened or attacked in Germany, which was responsible for the Holocaust, and that protecting the growing Jewish community was a national duty.
 

German Footballer Reverts to Islam

Germany's young footballer Danny Blum has announced his reversion to Islam, describing it as a religion of hope and strength.

"Islam gives me hope and strength. Prayer calms my soul," Blum told Bild newspaper on Monday, January 26.

"I was short-tempered, erratic and did not know where I belong," he added.

Blum joined 1. FC Nürnberg in Bavaria last July. The team plays in the he Second Division of professional football in Germany, the Bundesliga.

Shortly after joining the team, he injured his knee and was forced eventually to take six months off.

A few weeks ago, he took the decision to revert to Islam, joining the world’s fastest growing religion.

"Living in the lap of luxury. Every weekend make alarm. No responsibility for anything. And what actually comes after retirement?” the questions came to Blum as he sat at home.

Talking with his friends about religion, he landed in Islam.

"I have visited a mosque and I immediately risen the heart. I felt this is something for me and wanted to know more," Blum told Bild.

Ever since, he prays five times a day and eat halal food. Informing his parents with his decision, the 24-year-old player said they were scare at first.

"They are devout Christians. But soon they said that I have to go that route if I believe that it is right," he said.

“Islam is a peaceful religion. My faith says: never force anyone to do what he does not want. If you think, it has to come voluntarily from the heart!"

Germany is believed to be home to nearly 4 million Muslims, including 220,000 in Berlin alone. Turks make up an estimated two thirds of the Muslim minority.

Dear Eric Pickles – why single out Islam for this patronising treatment?

You question our loyalty for no reason other than our spiritual beliefs. Will you ever sit down with the diverse peoples who make up Britain and really listen to us?
Eric Pickles, the communities secretary, wrote a letter to Muslim leaders in which he asked them to ‘explain and demonstrate how faith in Islam can be part of British identity’

Dear Eric,
Walaikum salam warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu.
Serious question. Will you be sending a letter any time soon to members of the Roman Catholic church following the child-abuse scandals in Catholic institutions? Or a letter to the Board of Deputies of British Jews on the subject of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank?
No?
Thought as much.
Ten years on from 9/11 and you’re still asking the same questions, questions that have proved worse than useless in the intervening years. Still wondering aloud about the loyalty of British citizens based on their spiritual beliefs. Still demanding that these people prove themselves compatible with the “British way of life”, as defined by you.
In your letter this week, you say that you “know acts of extremism are not representative of Islam”. You mention that “British values are Muslim values”. Yet you insist on asking us to speak to our young people, telling them that “extremists have nothing to offer them”. Do you really think that little of our young people? That they can’t tell the difference between right and wrong? Do you imagine that they are already that different, that set apart from British society, simply because they’re Muslim? Do you think that little of our ability to bring them up to know that taking life is a sin?
To accept the terms of your argument for a moment, we already know that 83% of Muslims living in the UK say they identify with British values. Others are as free not to identify with them as any non-Muslim might be – the right to be disaffected isn’t limited to Christians. That a tiny number of Muslims are also lost to violent extremism says as much about other members of our faith as the conduct of abusers in the Catholic church does about theirs. But still you require our religious leaders do more in “demonstrating how faith in Islam can be part of British identity”.
Rather than send a patronising letter telling Muslim leaders what to do, maybe you should actually sit down with Muslim leaders and listen to them, really listen. You’ve been in the job for nearly five years. They would tell you that since 9/11 we have condemned, apologised and worked tirelessly to expose the incompatibility of the terrorists’ ideology with Islam. We have done what you have asked us to do. But we are like any other citizens of the UK today. We are anxious. Anxious about an increase in intolerance towards minorities, including but not limited to our own. Anxious about the economy. Anxious about whether the NHS can continue to meet our needs. Anxious about whether our children will be able to afford higher education. In general, it seems our fears are not listened to.
You are communities secretary. You have a duty of care to the diverse peoples who make up Britain and define British values. Sadly, it seems the only time you engage with us is under the rubric of counter-terrorism. With attacks against Muslims taking place across the country, more than ever before we need your reassurance and protection.
Instead we get a letter suggesting we’re not doing enough.
I would say it’s you, communities secretary, who hasn’t done nearly enough. I’m afraid your letter will be received respectfully, but with disappointment, up and down the country.
Yours sincerely,
Areeb Ullah

 

Ex-MI6 Boss Warns West Not To Insult Islam

Those who insult Islam should expect to be attacked, suggests ex-MI6 boss as he agrees with the Pope's Charlie Hebdo comments.

The former chief of MI6 has warned that anyone insulting Islam can expect to provoke a reaction and that "there will be another terrorist attack in this country."

Sir John Sawers was delivering his first speech since leaving office. He stepped down as 'C' in November 2014 after five years at the helm of the Secret Intelligence Service.
Sir John picked up on comments made by the Pope in reference to the provocative cartoons published in the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, where 12 were killed in a terror attack. Al Qaeda said the attacks were revenge for the depiction of Mohammed.
Pope Francis told crowds in The Philippines that a friend who had cursed his mother could "expect a punch" in return.
Sir John said: "There is a requirement for restraint from those of us in the West.

"I rather agree with the Pope that, of course, the attacks in Paris were completely unacceptable and cannot be justified on any basis whatsoever, but I think respect for other people's religion is also an important part of this.
"If you show disrespect for others' core values then you are going to provoke an angry response. That doesn't justify anything, but I think we just need to bear it in mind."
Sir John praised the work of the intelligence and security agencies but reiterated the threat to the UK from terrorists: "If I was to sit here and say will the goalkeepers of the security services and the police keep every single attempt to get the ball into the net, out? No. At some point these threats will get through and there will be another terrorist attack in this country."
Sir John said there cannot be any "no-go areas" either in the physical or virtual world and said there cannot be a trade-off between security and privacy.
"If the technology companies allow to be developed, areas that are simply impenetrable, you're inviting problems," he warned.







Credit to Alistair Bunkall,