Discuss Islam

Posted: January 25, 2012 | Author: barenakedislam | Filed under: Islamic Britain |29 Comments »

UK DAILY MAIL  (H/T Robin H) Police fear that Islam may have attacked many more. Three of the assaults took place close to his home in Barking, east London, while a fourth occurred in nearby Forest Gate.

Judge Patricia Lees, sentencing him to a minimum of 11 years, said: ‘The harm you have done to your victims is incalculable. ‘The nature and extent of these offences drives me to the conclusion that you represent an extreme and continuing danger to women, particularly those out at night.’

He was traced through the number plate of his girlfriend’s car after he kidnapped and raped the 15-year-old in September 2010. He grabbed her from behind as she walked home with a friend and bundled her into the car at knifepoint before driving to a secluded spot where he raped her twice despite her claiming she was only 11 years old.

 Judge Lees said: ‘you told her you were going to “teach her a lesson”, and similar things were said to the other women. Those words are a chilling indictment of your very troubling attitude towards all of these victims. ’you seem to observe women out at night as not deserving respect or protection.

‘I have no doubt that you were out that night looking for a victim, as you were on each of these occasions.’ 

The teen, who feared she would be murdered, was in court and smiled as her attacker was jailed. In a victim impact statement read to the court, she said: ‘no one will ever understand the flashbacks – they are so real. At night, I lay in my bed and it is like I am there.’It is like a screen in my mind forcing me to relive that night again and again. ’People will say time will heal, but I think time has helped me accept the truth – that I will never escape what has happened to me.’

After his arrest, Islam’s DNA was linked with three other attacks near his home in Barking, prosecutor Sara Lawson told Woolwich Crown Court. 

The judge said on July 8, 2010 he subjected a 20-year-old prostitute to ‘his trademark double rape’ and then tied her up, repeatedly punched her in the face and stole her wallet. Six days later, in Forest Gate, he struck again on a 28-year-old when he dragged her into his car and forced her to commit a sex act.  She managed to kick out the back window of his car and escape despite being throttled.

His fourth victim, also attacked in September, did not come forward until police found the 31-year-old’s blood in the back of the car along with a knife he used to threaten his victims and plastic ties he bound them with. She was repeatedly repeatedly punched in the face until she was bleeding and then tied up and raped twice.

Islam, who told the jury he was a practising Muslim, was convicted of seven charges of rape, one of sexual assault and one of kidnap. Tana Adkin, defending, said: ‘The only piece of mitigation is his age. he was 21 at the time of these offences and comes from something of a strict background.’  (Oh, please) His mother, in religious dress, sat with her covered head bowed throughout and wept as her son was jailed.

ORONO, Maine — The Islamic Center of Maine, 151 Park St., will hold its 3rd annual open house at 5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 4.

The topic will be “The Quran: Learn It or Burn It?” Dr. Mohammed Mir will lead the discussion to explain the revelation, composition, context and basics of Muslims’ holy book. the Quranic view of women, war, Wall Street and the world also will be presented.

The title is intended to be provocative, but not in the way most Americans would define that word.

“Questions provoke thought,” he said earlier this week in an e mail response to questions. “They take us out of our shells, stereotypes and comfort zones. the title is meant to clarify certain misconceptions about Quran and will not focus on recent ‘Quran burning’ events. It is meant to present a panoramic picture of Quran to a curious audience.”

Mir said the word burn was used as metaphor for the hatred of Islam that can flow from ignorance and phobias and not as a jumping off point to discuss recent calls to burn Muslims’ holy book.

“Quran is a universal message of humility and humanity,” Mir said. “Learning Quran is a lifelong endeavor.”

He recommended two English translations of the Quran for people interested in reading it. One is by Dr. Farooq Malik, the other by a Jewish convert named Leopold Weiss, who also is known by Muhammad Asad.

“The former is recommended for ease and contemporary language and the later for deep linguistics and commentary,” Mir said in the email. “The only prerequisite is to study it with an open mind. You cannot judge a book by its cover.

“If you already have an opinion, the pride and prejudice will distort images. Even pure white light divides into colors when viewed through a prism,” he continued. “Ask, do not assume. Reading Quran will generate questions. Most answers are only an email [or] call away.”

The Orono mosque holds classes at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and all are welcome, according to Mir.

“The talk is geared to open doors, heal wounds and not resurrect controversies,” he said. “Quran is not to kill for or die for. It is to be lived by.”

Visitors to the Islamic Center of Maine are asked to observe the following mosque etiquette:

• Remove footwear upon entering the building.

• Bring no food or drink into the prayer hall.

• Place cellphone ringers on silent.

• Both men and women should wear modest, nonrevealing clothing.

• Avoid handshakes or physical contact with the opposite gender.

The open house is part of the mosque’s community outreach efforts, according to Jenan Jondy, outreach coordinator for the center. as interest in learning about Islam has increased, so have education efforts by the Muslims living in Greater Bangor, she said last year.

For more information on the open house at the Islamic Center of Maine, call 866-3410 or visit theicmo.com.

Does Koran contain the Big Bang Model as the Origin of the Universe? part 2

FFI Contributing Editor Dr Radhasyam Brahmachari

Creation by God and Allah:

In the first part of this article, we have observed a few controversies regarding the Koranic description of the Universe and the Big Bang (BB) model of its origin. Firstly, the Koran says that Allah has created the earth and the seven heavens from nothingness. but the Big Bang model speculates an initial fire-ball, containing the entire matter of the Universe and the creation began with an explosion of that fire-ball. secondly, according to BB model, the explosion of the initial fire-ball took place 14 to 16 billion years ago, but Koranic Allah and Biblical God have created the heaven and earth only a few thousand years ago.

So, the creation ex nihilo by Allah and the Christian God and the BB theory of creation are mutually exclusive. The devout Muslim scholars may argue that, Allah is the creator and none else and He accumulated entire matter of the Universe for creating the initial fireball and then initiated its explosion. but they will fail miserably to find evidence in the Koran – they will not find even a single verse in the Koran that says that Allah had collected the entire matter of the Universe to produce a fireball. The argument also applies for the Biblical God. Christian pundits would also fail to produce a single verse in the Bible that says that God collected the entire matter of the Universe for producing the initial fireball which He then exploded. then comes the question of antiquity of the explosion of the fireball.

James Ussher, (4 January 1581 – 21 March 1656) was the Archbishop of Ireland between1625–56. He was a prolific scholar, most famously published a chronology, based on Biblical facts, that purported to establish the time and date of the creation of the heaven and earth by God. In fact, the Holy Bible clearly says that from the first man Adam to Abraham, there were 19 generation [Exo 5:1–32,11:10–32] and from  Abraham to Jesus 42 generations [Mat 1:1–17]. so, Jesus was the 61st descendant of Adam. His calculations, based on these Biblical data, Ussher concluded that God finished the creation on Sunday, 23 October, 4004 BC, according to the Julian calendar. so, the Christian theology says that God created this heaven and earth 6015 years ago from today.

The Islamic scriptures say that Allah started his creation on a Thursday and finished His creation on the next Friday. on that day, after the Asar (Evening) prayer, He created Adam with clay. and Prophet Muhammad was the 90th Descendant of Adam [1]. there are several incoherent descriptions of creation of heavens and the earth by Allah. one of them says that at first Allah created water and spread soil over the water. but the land mass He thus created became very shaky and unstable. so, He created mountains as pegs to fix the land. some versions say that He created the mountains in the heaven and threw them on the earth. so, the mountains, according to Islam, are made of extra-terrestrial matter.

According to another version, Allah created water first and at the center of water surface appeared a large bubble. then Allah created the land mass taking the bubble as the center. Today’s Kaaba in Mecca stands exactly at the spot where the bubble appeared. so, Kaaba is at the center of the flat earth. Allah did the incomprehensive task of placing land on water to expose His extraordinary miraculous power or qudrah. then He created a solid roof, called the sky, over the earth and successfully fixed it without any pillar, also using His extraordinary miraculous power or qudrah. but He will destroy this solid roof on the day of last judgment (qiyamah) and the debris will fall upon the earth.

After that, Allah created the sun and the moon compelled them to rise in the east and set in the west. but on the day of qiyamah, He will raise the sun in the west. Just above the solid roof (sky), Allah created seven heavens and the center of the heavens lie just above the Kaaba in Mecca. at that central point of the heavens, Allah erected a divine Kaaba. so, if someone drops a plumbing chord from the divine Kaaba, its other end would touch the mundane Kaaba at Mecca. If anyone starts climbing that plumbing chord, he will definitely reach the divine Kaaba, but it will take 200 years. Allah took two days to create all these things and for the rest six days He created means for human subsistence. [2]

We hope that the above description is more than sufficient to comprehend how scientific is the story of Islamic creation. From the above narration, it becomes evident that the seven heavens, created by Allah, above the solid roof sky, is nothing but a seven storey housing complex created by Allah to accommodate the Muslims, who will reside in that housing complex forever after qiyamah. In his article “Destination: Allah’s brothel”, this author has given a detailed description of Allah’s paradise and from that narrations it becomes evident that, Allah’s paradise is no more than a first class, five star super luxury brothel. but, it is really unfortunate that, a group of deceptive Western scientists, due to their greed for acquiring sweet gold of the Arab world, equated this Islamic heaven or paradise to the Universe and thus discovering modern science in the Koran. It is a world renowned paralytic scientist, who has done this mischief and presently he has deserted Christianity and embraced Islam.

However, if we consider 30 years to be the age difference between two generations, one finds that Allah created the heaven and earth only 4141 years ago. but it has been mentioned in the previous article that the Big Bang occurred 14 to 16 billion years ago. This shows that Allah is extremely lazy. He started the creating heaven and earth after 16 billion years; He initiated the creation through Big Bang. as a matter of fact, the pastoral and illiterate people of the place, where Islam and Christianity originated, were unable to contemplate, count and write mathematical figures larger than thousands. that is the reason, Muhammad could estimate that the number of his followers would be, at best, 70,000 and hence the Islamic scriptures say that, Prophet Muhammad would be the first man to enter the Allah’s paradise, with 70,000 followers.

Why these people so crazy to discover science in the Koran?

In the modern era of developed science and technology, a few Muslims who have the opportunity to study modern science, have been able to comprehend that their religious theology is not only shoddy, but ridiculous as well. so, they have frantically started to find any clue in their holy book that could match with modern science. but if they themselves propagate such scientific discoveries in the Koran, that would not cut much ice. so, they have engaged famous scientists of the West to propagate the lies of discovering science in the Koran, in exchange of fabulous money.

So, they engaged a famous embryologist to discover human embryology in the Koran. In the entire Koran, Allah says that He creates a human baby from a clot of blood or “alaq”. but a translator, according to his knowledge and experience, wrote “a leach like thing” within bracket, after the word “alaq”. The scientist immediately grabbed this opportunity and equated that comment “a leach like thing” to the human embryo. He could also find a few other verses in the Koran and treacherously twisting those verses could develop a full scale theory of human embryology in the Koran. Similarly, another scientist, by twisting or deducting the first as well as the second derivative of a verse in Koran, discovered mentioning the speed of light in the Koran. By adopting similar method, another scientist discovered mentioning the black holes in the Koran. at last, these despicable scientists claim to discover the Big Bang model of the creation of the Universe. but these scientists do not care, how dangerous could be the consequence of propagating such lies.

It is well known that most of the Muslims gather in the mosques during the midday prayer on Fridays, called Jumma prayer. after the prayer, they listen to the “khutba” or the religious lecture of the clerics or imams. When the imams tell these blockheads that such and such scientists have discovered such and such scientific theories in the Koran, it adds fuel to their supremacist notion of Islam. there is no doubt that this supremacist attitude would emboldens and encourages them for carrying out jihadi or terrorist activities. there is no doubt that the day is coming when these scientists, who are propagating such lies in lieu of money, would have to feel the heat of these jihadi attacks.

The risk of molding religious theology for accommodating science:

Common people, who are not intimately connected with science, generally believe that science can do everything and explain everything. but they will be amazed to know that modern science is an outcome of the efforts of the scientists to manage somehow the observed experimental facts. a few examples would make the point clear. The real nature of light is still unknown to the scientists. sometimes they treat light as a stream of electromagnetic waves and sometimes they treat it as a stream of tiny corpuscles of energy called photons, and they accomplish their tasks by considering it either a stream of waves or a stream of corpuscles as and when they feel it necessary.

So, according to John Dewy, the American philosopher, the traditional notion of truth is nothing but instrumentalism and there is nothing like truth that is static and final, perfect and eternal. He derived this view of truth from science which, according to him, has no fundamental basis and said that, scientists generally take a proposition to be true if it is found to work. If it does not work, they reject it outright and start looking for a new truth. one finds this view of John Dewy absolutely correct.

When Newton succeeded to explain the planetary motion with the help of his theory of gravitation, scientists readily took it as a fundamental truth of nature, even though it failed to explain the complex motion (or perihelion) of Mercury. at the beginning of the twentieth century, Albert Einstein, by his General Theory of Relativity, could show that nobody attracts any other body and when a body moves with constant acceleration, it seems that it is being attracted by another body, and with the help of his new theory he could succeed to explain the planetary motion including the said complex motion of Mercury, scientists at once rejected Newton’s theory and accepted Einstein’s theory as a fundamental truth of nature.

Up to the end of nineteenth century, Newton’s laws of motion found to be absolutely true and the scientists believed that Newton’s Laws of Motion and Maxwell’s Electro-magnetic field equations were sufficient to explain any physical phenomenon. but later on, it was found that, although they were capable of explaining crude facts, failed miserably to explain microscopic phenomena like   structure of the atom, its interaction with energy and so on. In 1920s and 1930s, Heisenberg with his Matrix Mechanics and Shrodinger with his Wave Mechanics could attain partial success in explaining atomic phenomena but at the expense of the notion of causality, which had so far been considered the essence of science.

About fifty years ago, scientists used to believe that an atomic nucleus is made up of protons and neutrons, commonly known as hadrons, and they also believed that these hadrons were elementary particles. but to satisfy some theoretical considerations, M. Gellemann and G. Zweig in 1964, postulated that hadrons are made up of still smaller particles called quarks. They also predicted the existence of six types of quarks in nature which were said to be a thousand times smaller than the hadrons. but nobody has yet been able to isolate a quark. Today, some of the nuclear scientists apprehend that quarks are made up of still smaller particles because some theoretical investigations lead to such a possibility. To explain some nuclear phenomena scientists are in need of a very small particle called neutrino. but the real nature of this particle is awfully perplexing to them as a neutrino must have to possess angular momentum but no mass.

So, there lies a great risk to mold one’s religious books to accommodate science. For example, Muslim and some other scientists are trying to twist the so called divine words of Allah to accommodate the Big Bang model of the origin of the Universe. but there is a good chance that the scientists, in future, reject the Big Bang model and accept another model instead. In such a position, the religious theologians would have to remold their divine books to suit that new truth.

Problems of the Big Bang model:

The cosmological theory of Big Bang discussed above have some serious shortcomings. as mentioned above, the Big Bang model says that this Universe began as an intensely hot and extremely dense mass that began to inflate very rapidly. but the infinitely high values to which the density and temperature of the primordial fire-ball are speculated to have reached are simply incomprehensible. The proponents of the model have no plausible reply to the questions like: What was the physical state of the primordial fire-ball just before the expansion had started? Why and how the entire mass of the Universe could concentrate into a single fire-ball? how was the matter created before the Universe was born? and finally, what triggered the explosion at a particular instant of time?

These difficulties arising out of the initial singularity or Big Bang are collectively known as the ‘singularity problem’. It has been mentioned earlier that the existing physical laws are believed to be operative only when the Universe was 10-43 seconds old.

Though the field equations of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity (GTR) are consistent with an expanding Universe, they forbid any local motion and hence local heating. Moreover, according to this theory the temperature of the Universe should have been as low as 0 degree Kelvin (or -273o Celsius)  for all time. so the question arises, how did the initial Universe become so intensely hot? even if we accept the initial Universe to be very hot, the ordinary laws of physics predict that the high pressure resulting out of high temperature would have been subsided by the tremendous gravitational pull. so, instead of expansion, the initial Universe should have undergone contraction. then why did it start expanding? For these reasons, a section of cosmologists consider the era of cosmic inflation entirely speculative.

Both Special and General Theory of Relativity state that no causal agent can move faster than light. so, one can imagine an edge or horizon of the Universe from beyond which no light or any other particle has yet been able to reach our eyes. This horizon distance is also going on increasing with the passage of time as the Universe is expanding. According to the Big Bang model, this horizon distance is simply the age of the Universe multiplied by the speed of light. The portion of the Universe lying within the horizon distance is called the Observable Universe, since only this portion of the Universe can be studied by our astronomers.

The cosmologists have divided this observable universe into 100,000 equal parts of more or less equal volume with radii varying from 100 to 1000 million light years. It is really surprising that almost all such volumes so far examined have been found to contain almost equal number of galaxies and hence almost equal amount of matter. so it can be said that the distribution of matter in the Universe is perfectly isotropic and homogenous except having some small-scale fluctuations. This means that the Universe does not possess any privileged position or direction. This isotropic distribution of matter is further evidenced by the isotropy of the CMB discovered by Penzias and Wilson as mentioned earlier.

Such an isotropic Universe has been predicted by a few other scientists, e.g. Milne, Bondi, Gold, Hoyle and Lemaire. In fact, the isotropy of distribution of matter in the Universe is believed to be of the order of 1 part in 105.  It is really inconceivable that such a precisely isotropic Universe has originated from an initial singularity like Big Bang. It is really surprising how the different portions of the Universe are so isotropic and similar even when they are moving away from each other at high speeds. The problem is generally known as the ‘horizon problem’.

In 1922, Alexandre Friedmann has shown that, three types of solutions are possible if Einstein’s field equations are applied to the Universe and these are related to three possibilities of the curvature of space, positive, zero and nagative. furthermore, the said curvature of space is related to the average density of the Universe. If this average density exceeds a critical value, the curvature is positive and the resulting Universe is spherical. If the average density is equal to the critical valu, the Universe is flat and if the average density is less than the critical density, the resulting Universe is hyperbolic.

A spherical universe must have a finite volume and hence such a universe is known as a ‘closed universe’, while the volume of a flat or hyperbolic universe may become infinite and hence such a universe is called an ‘open universe’. It should be mentioned here that the Friedmann model assumes a universe that is isotropic and homogenous.  Calculations show that a spherical universe should attain a maximum volume, then begin to shrink and ultimately collapse. It obviously means that if our Universe is spherical, the Big Bang should be followed by a Big Crunch, and if it is hyperbolic, it would continue to expand forever. a flat universe, on the other hand, is supposed to expand to a certain limit and then become stationary. Calculations also show that our Universe is extraordinarily flat.

On the other hand, had our Universe been hyperbolic, within 10 to 20 billion years after Big Bang, it would have expanded to such an enormous volume that it would have been more or less empty. If it was a spherical one, it would already have started to shrink and hence the galaxies would have come closer. so, the question arises – Why is our Universe so perfectly flat. The problem discussed above is called the ‘flatness problem’.

During the discussion of the horizon problem, we have seen that this Universe is perfectly isotropic and homogenous. but according to Sir James Jeans, such an isotropic universe would be highly unstable due to gravitational attraction. Any chance concentration of matter would attract surrounding matter and the process would continue forever and this is known as Jeans’ gravitational instability. so, according to Jeans’ instability, our Universe should contain much more larger clumping of matter than it is found today. This problem, pointed out by Peebles and Yu in 1970, is known as the ‘smoothness problem’.

A magnet has two poles, the north pole and the south pole, and in ordinary cases these two poles cannot be separated. An isolated north pole or south pole is called a molopole. The calculations predicts that quite a large number of monopoles were produced when the Universe was 10-35 seconds old and the subsequent process of expansion is supposed to have preserved that monopole population. so the abundance of monopoles would have been vastly large in the Universe than what is observed today. The problem is known as the ‘monopole problem’. It should also be mentioned here that, along with the above mentioned problems, the standard Big Bang model is also unable to explain the ubiquity of dark matter in the Universe.

Despite all the above mentioned failures, the hot Big Bang model has however achieved four outstanding successes. Firstly, its prediction of lighter elements produced during the cosmological nucleosynthesis agrees with observations. secondly, the CMB is naturally explained as a relic of the initial hot thermal phase. Thirdly, it obviously accounts for the expansion of the Universe and, finally, it provides a framework within which one can understand the formation of the galaxies and other cosmic structures.

Epilogue:

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST), conceived by the astrophysicist Lyman Spitzer of Princeton University in 1945, was put into space in 1990 and it started sending photographs of distant stars and galaxies in 1993. these pictures are at least ten times sharper than those obtained by telescopes stationed on earth. Most importantly, these pictures have served a death blow to the Big Bang model. Firstly, the HST has discovered some stars which are believed to be much older than the Big Bang. secondly, it has sent photographs of vast cosmic clouds extending over several hundred times bigger than our solar system and are believed to be made up of light neutral atoms and molecules.

The existence of these cosmic clouds prove that the ‘era of nucleosysthesis’ and the ‘era of recombination’ are still prevalent in those parts of the cosmos. but according to the Big Bang model, the Universe has undergone these phases billions of years ago, just after the primordial explosion. Surprisingly enough, these photographs provide evidence in favour of the continuous creation of matter predicted by the Steady State model. more importantly, these pictures of large cosmic clouds support Hindu conception of creation as described by the Samkhya School of Indian philosophy.

References:

[1] Hadis Sharif,(a compilation of Hadiths by Rafik Ullah) in Bengali, Haraf Prakasani, Kolkata. The author has also provided the names of the 89 ancestors of Muhammad. The author says that he has collected the list of ancestors of Muhammad from Sirat-Rasulullah by Ibn Ishaq.

[2] Koran: (7.55), (7.171), (10.3), (11.7), (13.2), (31.10), (32.4), (50.38), (57.4) Tafseer Hosieni (as quoted by Girish   Chandra sen in his translation of the Koran in Bengali..

• Sunny Islam, 23, kidnapped and raped girl, 15
• Subjected victims to his ‘trademark double rape’
• Attacks took place over 2 months in east London
• Jailed indefinitely due to danger he poses to women

By Nick Enoch

Last updated at 4:53 PM on 25th January 2012

Sunny Islam, 23, has been jailed indefinitely because of the dangers he poses to women

A Muslim man who raped women to ‘teachthem a lesson’ for being on the streets at night was jailed indefinitely todaybecause of the danger he poses to women.

Sunny Islam, 23, who comes from a strictMuslim family, dragged his terrified victims – including a 15-year-old – fromthe street at knifepoint, bound and assaulted them during a two-month reign ofterror.

Police fear that Islam may have attacked many more.

Three of the assaults took place close to his home in Barking, east London, while a fourth occurred in nearby Forest Gate.

Judge Patricia Lees, sentencing him to aminimum of 11 years, said: ‘Theharm you have done to your victims is incalculable.

‘The nature and extent of these offencesdrives me to the conclusion that you represent an extreme and continuing dangerto women, particularly those out at night.’

He was traced through the number plate ofhis girlfriend’s car after he kidnapped and raped the 15-year-old in September2010.

He grabbed her from behind as she walkedhome with a friend and bundled her into the car at knifepoint before driving to asecluded spot where he raped her twice despite her claiming she was only 11years old.

Judge Lees said: ‘You told her you weregoing to “teach her a lesson”, and similar things were said to the other women. 

‘Those words are a chilling indictment of your very troubling attitude towardsall of these victims.

‘You seem to observe women out at night asnot deserving respect or protection.

After his arrest, Islam’s DNA was linked with three other attacks near his home in Barking, east London

‘I have no doubt that you were out thatnight looking for a victim, as you were on each of these occasions.’

The teen, who feared she would bemurdered, was in court and smiled as her attacker was jailed.

In a victimimpact statement read to the court, she said: ‘No one will ever understand theflashbacks – they are so real. at night, I lay in my bed and it is like I amthere.

‘It is like a screen in my mind forcing meto relive that night again and again.

‘People will say time will heal, but Ithink time has helped me accept the truth – that I will never escape what hashappened to me.’

After his arrest, Islam’s DNA was linkedwith three other attacks near his home in Barking, prosecutor Sara Lawson toldWoolwich Crown Court.

‘Hetreated me like an animal and made me feel worthless. I thought I was going todie’

The judge said on July 8, 2010 he subjecteda 20-year-old prostitute to ‘his trademark double rape’ and then tied her up,repeatedly punched her in the face and stole her wallet.

She said: ‘Hetreated me like an animal and made me feel worthless – I thought I was going todie.’

Six days later, in Forest Gate, he struck again on a28-year-old when he dragged her into his car and forced her to commit a sexact.

She managed to kick out the back window of his car and escape despitebeing throttled.

His fourth victim, also attacked inSeptember, did not come forward until police found the 31-year-old’s blood inthe back of the car along with a knife he used to threaten his victims andplastic ties he bound them with.

She was repeatedly repeatedly punched inthe face until she was bleeding and then tied up and raped twice.

Islam, who told the jury he was a practising Muslim, was convicted of seven charges of rape, one of sexual assault and one of kidnap at Woolwich Crown Court

Islam, who told the jury he was apractising Muslim, was convicted of seven charges of rape, one of sexual assaultand one of kidnap.

Tana Adkin, defending, said: ‘The onlypiece of mitigation is his age. He was 21 at the time of these offences andcomes from something of a strict background.’

His mother, in religious dress, sat withher covered head bowed throughout and wept as her son was jailed.

Judge Lees said: ‘The fact that you haveattacked these women not withstanding your background must represent your ownwholly warped personality.’

After the trial, Det Chief Insp JohnSandlin, of the Homicide and serious Crime Command who investigated theoffences, said they believed there may be other victims who had not comeforward, but Islam has not been charged with any further offences.

I have seen references to this around the web, and don’t really know if I can believe this, because the details are so disturbing to consider. So I’ll pass it on, You can expect threats if you discuss Sharia:

My One Law for All Co-Spokesperson Anne Marie Waters was to speak at a meeting on Sharia Law and Human Rights at the University of London last night.

It was cancelled by the Queen Mary Atheism, Secularism and Humanism Society organisers after police had to be called in due to Islamist threats. one Islamist filmed everyone at the meeting and announced he would hunt down those who said anything negative about Islam’s prophet. outside the hall, he threatened to kill anyone who defamed the prophet. Reference was made to the Jesus and Mo cartoon saga at UCL.

The University’s security guard – a real gem –arrived first only to blame the speaker and organisers rather than those issuing death threats. he said: ‘If you will have these discussions, what do you expect?’ Err, to speak without being threatened with death maybe?

A crazy British Muslim threatening to kill someone for defaming the prophet isn’t too surprising. ~3 percent of British Muslim university students think apostates should be killed. What is disturbing is that the establishment institutions are accepting this sort of disproportionate response as normal behavior. As in centuries past it is now the atheists who are by their nature offensive, and disturbing public order.

In the Netherlands the Dutch Muslim Party is going to contest for parliament. it already has some purchase in major cities with large Muslim minorities. Naturally one of its planks is to prosecute those who give offense to religion and religious people. Just jump to article 2.2. Welcome to multiculturalism!

In other news, an atheist has been charged with blasphemy in the world’s largest Muslim nation, where Islam is a moderate religion of peace. Dismay After Indonesian Atheist Charged with Blasphemy:

Police on Friday confirmed that they had charged a man with blasphemy after he was reported by the Indonesia Council of Ulema.

Dharmasraya Police Chief Sr. Comr. Chairul Aziz told the Jakarta Globe on Friday that the district branch of the council, known as MUI, and other Islamic organizations believed Alexander, 31, had defiled Islam by using passages from the Koran to denounce the existence of God.

Alexander, a civil servant, is facing five years in jail for writing “God does not exist” on a Facebook page he moderated called “Ateis Minang” (“Minang Atheists”).

Chairul said the issue was that Alexander had used the Koran to highlight his atheist views.

“So it meets the criteria of tainting religion, in this case Islam.”

Blasphemy, which carries a five-year sentence, is defined under the Criminal Code as publicly expressing feelings or doing something that spreads hatred, abuse or taints certain religions in Indonesia in a way that could cause someone to disbelieve religion.”

A member of a 600-strong atheist organization in Jakarta, meanwhile, said the case was a clear breach of human rights.

He would not be identified because of fears for his safety.

“If MUI thinks that there’s an imaginary friend up there, it doesn’t mean people should believe it,” he said. “Why is it that we cannot criticize religion? this is against freedom of expression and human rights.”

He was, naturally, attacked by a mob on his way to work.

Finally, 72 percent of the seats in Egypt’s parliament went to Islamists. The Salafists nabbed 25 percent. This is absolutely not surprising to me.

NEW MANDALA

Whenever reports on the state of inter-religious relations in Malaysia find their way into the world media, the tenor is worrying. one reads of “body snatching,” ominous places called “faith rehabilitation centres,” attacks on houses of worship, and the atrophying ties of friendship and trust between the country’s Muslim and non-Muslim communities.

Tellingly, whereas media reports from the 1970s and 1980s depicted Malaysia as a plural country marked by “racial” divides, these now appear eclipsed by religious differences. Editorials on Malaysian politics paint a similarly bleak picture, highlighting the cynical manipulation of religious sentiment by an increasingly authoritarian state, the “radicalisation” or growing conservatism of Malaysia’s Muslim majority, and the ensuing resentment, even intellectual “ghettoisation” among some in the country’s non-Muslim minorities.

Whose responsibility?

Reading media coverage of Malaysia, one might be forgiven for thinking that one man alone is responsible for this situation: Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Prime Minister of Malaysia between 1981 and 2003. the complex legacy of his twenty-two year long premiership cannot be dealt with at the requisite depth in an essay of this length, but I would argue that the overall failure of an inter-religious dialogue culture to take root in Malaysia has less to do with elite machinations than with widespread, if misplaced, misgivings over such dialogues.

Nonetheless, as such encounters are thankfully becoming increasingly normal around the world, inter-religious dialogue appears to be gradually finding greater acceptance in Malaysia, too. this will also be helped greatly if the spirit necessary for such dialogical encounters, the attitude of “come as you are, not as I want you to be,” is respected. Because while many Malaysian Muslims appear convinced by the need to engage more substantively with their Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, animist or atheist compatriots, many others are put off by what they perceive to be unwarranted meddling in theological matters by forces hostile to their religion.

It is thus intellectual dishonesty to use fictitious, disingenuously arabicised terminology such as “ummat kitab” to seek theological legitimation for out-conversion from Islam. Of course, many learned scholars have argued that the act of leaving Islam must be distinguished from the act of treason, and such a debate is an important one for Muslim communities to have. However, foisting a discussion of so-called “apostasy” on calls to strengthen the much needed inter-religious dialogue in Malaysia is counterproductive. I wish to steer clear of the “apostasy” question that featured in some of the previous contributions, and focus instead on the actual instances of inter-religious dialogue in Malaysia – or rather the impediments such dialogues face.

The ‘resurgence’ of religion

No religious community speaks with a singular voice – including, of course, Malaysian Muslims. But that there are a couple of hundred, perhaps even as many as tens of thousands who have left the religion of their birth, should not detract us from the fact that for many millions of others, Islam matters more than ever before. their turn to religion was of course cleverly utilised by the Mahathir government, which portrayed itself as a spirited defender of Muslim interests. But it was not public policy that led so many Malaysian Muslims, along with co-religionists elsewhere and, in fact, people of religion around the world, to become more observant of their religious duties.

Although he never had much time for public displays of piety, Prime Minister Mahathir had in his own ways strong sympathies for the abstemious and yet tolerant, open-minded kaum muda-suffused interpretation of the Islamic message which he had imbibed in his childhood and youth. He appreciated earlier than most of his contemporaries the rallying and motivating power inherent in Islam, and he understood that his vision for modernisation was best realised with rather than against the faith.

An Abrahamic dialogue

Although his detractors in PAS (The Islamic Party of Malaysia) employed various unsavoury epithets to highlight Mahathir’s opposition to the establishment of Islamic rule, at no point of his career can he be described as someone opposed to religion or even as a secularist in the received meaning of seeking to separate the religious from the social and relegate the sacred to the private sphere alone.

It is important to remind ourselves that Mahathir’s positive predisposition towards religion extended beyond his own. in many of his speeches, he stated that human relationships in situations marked by a retreat of religion from society – a condition which Mahathir had detected in the predominantly Christian countries of the modern West – become brittle and ultimately unravel under the burden of materialism and selfishness.

Humankind, Mahathir often stated, was unable to order its universe without reference to a higher being. It was thus, Mahathir averred, post-Christian and not Christian Europe that had “lost its spiritual anchor” and was confronting meaninglessness and decline on account of its “spiritual emptiness.”

While one must remain mindful of the many discriminatory effects of the government’s “Islamisation” policy on the country’s non-Muslim communities, it is important to acknowledge the deep respect for religion, in particular the Abrahamic faiths, which Mahathir expressed in this and many similar instances. some of his views on Hinduism and Buddhism, on the other hand, are deeply problematic, but must be explored elsewhere.

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THE Muslim leader at the centre of police raids in Cardiff has denied being part of a banned group which glorifies terrorism.

Abu Hajar was quoted as a spokesman for the group “Islamic Path” in 2009 when the group tried to arrange a meeting at Cardiff’s County Hall.

Islamic Path appears on a list of “proscribed terrorist groups”, which the Home Office describes as “terrorist organisations [which] are currently proscribed under UK legislation and therefore outlawed in the UK”.

The Home Office says Islamic Path “should be treated as [an] alternative name for the organisation which is already proscribed under the names Al Ghurabaa and The Saved Sect”.

It describes The Saved Sect as “a splinter group of Al-Muajiroon [which] disseminates materials that glorify acts of terrorism”.

Al-Muajiroon was founded by Anjem Choudary, a former lawyer best known for threatening to march through Wootton Bassett, where Britain’s war dead are repatriated.

In 2009, Cardiff council pulled the plug on the planned Islamic Path meeting because of proposals to seat men and women separately at an event called “Islam – from revelation to implementation”.

Yesterday, Hajar, now heading an organisation called Supporters of Tawheed, confirmed he was involved.

He said: “There were a few events up and down the UK, including the one I participated in that was cancelled on the grounds of segregation.”

The 29-year-old said it was “shocking” the group was banned by the Home Office.

“It was really shocking because they [Islamic Path] were just some people that were community based and they organised conferences for events here and there and the next thing… they were not even established before they were proscribed.”

However, he then appeared to distance himself from being part of the banned Islamic Path, saying groups in London of that name were “completely independent” from those in Cardiff. he added: “my personal feeling is that name had been taken up by other organisations.”

In 2009, protesters contacted the Echo because they thought Choudary was rumoured to be speaking at the meeting. This has always been denied.

But yesterday, Hajar confirmed he was connected with the former solicitor, a known supporter of Osama bin Laden.

“I’ve had some conversations with him regarding judicial things, cases he was dealing with in some Sharia courts,” he said.

Yesterday, Choudary took to Twitter to criticise the Wales Extremism and Counter Terrorism Unit raid on Hajar’s meeting last Thursday in Cardiff, referring to “brutal British police”.

In Tuesday’s Echo, Hajar denied he was linked to Muslims Against Crusades.

Chairman of the Muslim Council of Wales, Saleem Kidwai, said: “they keep changing their organisations but they are all the same group. It’s the same people, different name. Islamic Path was proscribed so they cannot [use that name].”

Hajar, of Grangetown, also defended his right to pray for Osama bin Laden in Riverside’s Despenser Gardens after his death in May.

“we were asking God to forgive him for the mistakes that he had made,” he said.

Afghan calligrapher Mohammed Sabeer Hussani, center, and nine student apprentices work on a page for the world's largest Quran – the Islamic holy book – at the Hakim Nasir-e-Khusraw Balkhi Cultural Center in Kabul, Afghanistan.

(Credit:Hakim Nasir-e-Khusraw Balkhi Cultural Center)

The world’s largest Quran has been unveiled in the Afghan capital, Kabul. the cultural center that commissioned the work wanted more than just to own the largest Muslim holy book — it wanted to show the world that despite more than 30 years of war, Afghanistan’s rich cultural heritage has not been destroyed.

Afghan calligrapher Mohammed Sabeer Khedri Hussani, 52, and nine student apprentices spent five years working 18 hours a day, seven days a week, to create the enormous masterpiece. Hussani, a devout Muslim, tells CBS News it was a labor of love, and he is proud of his accomplishment.

“My happiness is when I see each and every group of people coming everyday to see my calligraphy, it makes me feel proud,” he says.

The lavish holy book, with pages measuring more than seven feet tall and five feet wide, has been certified as the world’s largest Quran by the Afghan Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs, according to the cultural center which houses it.

It weighs 1,102 pounds, and has 218 pages of cloth and paper bound inside an embossed leather cover made from the skins of 21 goats. Hussani says the book cost a million dollars to create, and was paid for by Islamic spiritual leader Alhaj Sayed Mansoor Naderi.

The Quran combines gold script with millions of tiny colorful dots, forming highly symbolic decorations around the giant pages.

“I wanted to use as many tasteful colors as possible to make this holy book look beautiful,” Hussani says. the book was completed in 2009, but a room at the cultural center had to be built to house it.

The cultural center was originally founded in the 1980s, and was once home to 50 thousand books, a medical center and schools teaching traditional Afghan crafts like carpet weaving, but it was largely destroyed in the 1990s during the Civil War that followed the Soviet pullout.

The founders have been reviving the center since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001, and the new Quran is its showpiece.

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The time it takes to complete a loan modification depends on a number of issues, includingfrom how long the mortgage servicing company takes and how easily the debtors can get necessary documents together. The first is how much time it takes the debtors to get back on their feet economically and be able to afford any amount of monthly mortgage bill. The mortgage company will not modify a loan that will not be paid even at a reduced monthly rate.

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It also takes time to contact the mortgage company and work out what options are available, and get the forms for a modification. This may take days to sit on the phone and then get the info from the mortgage company. Debtors then need to spend time obtaining personal documents including financia statements and tax paperwork, and send this and other material information to the mortgage company.

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The complete ordeal may take from a few weeks to half a year for some debtors. those working with private companies, government counselors, or lawyers may be able to reach an agreement more quickly than debtors negotiating on their own.

Paul Tan Chee Ing, the Catholic prelate, says that prime minister Najib Razak is merely paying lip service when he talks about fostering moderation in Malaysia but leaves “demagogues unchallenged” when they make irrational claims.

Commenting on Najib’s speech at an international convention earlier this week, Tan said that the past year had seen Christians being “unjustifiably accused of a host of deeds that contravene inter-religious harmony,” in an obvious reference to sacked Selangor exco Dr Hasan Ali’s tirade against groups who were allegedly bent on converting Muslims.

Hasan was then a member of PAS, part of the Pakatan Rakyat opposition, but was accused of working for Umno to destabilise his own party by creating religious dissatisfaction in Selangor, a key state in which Najib has bowed to re-take in the coming 13th general election.

Najib told the convention that Malaysia “has always striven for moderation and harmony” in the country’s diversity.

“you have to excuse me for the use of what may seem an oxymoronic expression that the prime minister has to be immoderate in his push for moderation.”

“This way he will correct a deficit in our existing status as a people and a nation of moderates. We were once that way, but not now,” Tan said.

Cosmetics PM

Tan, who is also president of the Conference of Catholics Bishops of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, said Najib was “papering over current” and that this was a “poor way of boosting moderation and combating extremism.”

“A better way to go about promoting moderation is to candidly admit that the country has lost its previous moderate ways and retrace its steps towards restoration of the status quo ante,” said Tan.

Tan also added that Malaysia’s founding fathers knew the difficulty of uniting a country composed of different races and belief systems.

He lamented that over time “gross deviations in policy implementation have resulted in great inequalities in wealth and in opportunity, causing discontentment.”

Rise of Racial demagogues

He warned that racial and religious demagogues have risen to “fracture our society into its constituent factions so as to enhance their power and privileges.”

He urged Najib to be “immoderate in his push for moderation, by setting his face unequivocally against the demagogues which would then encourage the people of goodwill and moderation to come to the fore.”

Tan said that Najib has to match “unequivocal deed to his moderate word to overcome present realties which he say “is now beyond retrieval.”