Author Archives: Houriya

British hostage killed by al-Qaeda

By Houriya | Published: June 3, 2009

In a disgusting act of ‘jihadi’ terrorism, UK national Edwin Dyer was killed in the Mali border after being kidnapped by an al-Qaeda group in North West Africa, the al-Qaeda Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

Announcing the killing on a militant website, the barbarians said:

“The British captive was killed so that he, and with him the British state, may taste a tiny portion of what innocent Muslims taste every day at the hands of the Crusader and Jewish coalition to the east and to the west.”

Edwin Dyer, along with one German and two Swiss tourists, were kidnapped in Niger, North West Africa, in January. AQIM wanted the British government to release Abu Qatada – described as  ‘Osama bin Laden’s right hand man awaiting extradition to Jordan – from prison, and warned that they would kill Dyer if the government refused, giving the government 20 days to comply. The men were kidnapped by tribesmen and sold to the militants in Mali. Later the German and one of the Swiss nationals were released but the other is still being kept hostage.

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Posted in Democracy, Terrorism | Tagged | 5 Comments

What is and isn’t Islam?

By Houriya | Published: May 27, 2009

This is interesting. Found in The Asian News

What is and isn’t Islam?

By Dr. Nikolaos van Dam

IT is not only important to explain what Islam really is, but it is also important to make a distinction between what Islam involves, and what people have incorrectly associated with and attributed to it.

What is the relation between Islam and the actions of people that practice the Muslim faith? In my opinion there are many things which have very little to do with Islam as a religion, but are nevertheless ascribed to it because the people who are linked to it happen to be Muslims.

Certain radical actions have been carried out by Muslim individuals or groups in the name of Islam, but those actions are not supported by the majority of Muslims, and are generally disapproved of by them, although sometimes their disapproval is not explicit enough to create the impression that the radical Muslims that carry out these actions do not in any way represent any Muslim majority.

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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

She forced her daughters to marry, so she was jailed for three years

By Houriya | Published: May 24, 2009

Last Thursday a 39-year-old mother was sentenced to three years in jail for forcing her two teenage daughters to marry their first cousins in Pakistan in July 2007. This is the first case where someone has actually been convicted of a forced marriage – and it is about time.

The 14 and 15-year-old girls thought they were visiting Pakistan on holiday. Instead, they were married off in a joint ceremony. The mother married her children off in order to ‘defend’ the family’s honour within Muslim and Pakistani communities, as her eldest daughter supposedly had an affair with an older man, got pregnant and then had an abortion. When the same daughter got married, the mother told her that if she did not consummate the marriage, she would ‘tie her to the bed, blindfold her and strip her’, and then watch to make sure her daughter had sex with her new husband.

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Posted in Crime, Human Rights, Sharia | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

What the Boys have been up to so far…

By Houriya | Published: May 21, 2009

Recent punishments handed down by the al-Qaeda linked group al-Shebab (lit. The Youth) in areas they control in Somalia:

‘Thieving’ in Kismayo
Earlier this month, a local court run by the Shebab found Mohamed Omar Ismail guilty for stealing “10 pairs of trousers, 10 shirts, eight other items and a bag” worth approximately $90. A vehicle summoned residents through loudspeakers to witness Ismail’s punishment. He was brought into a park and had his hand chopped at the wrist. The severed hand was held up to the crowds. Ismail insists he did not steal.

‘Adultery’ in Kismayo
In October last year, Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow, a 13 year old girl was forced into a hole in a stadium, buried up to her neck and then stoned to death by more than 50 men in front of 1,000+ people for allegedly confessing adultery in a Shebab run court. Amnesty says the victim was actually gang raped. She approached the court, run by the Shebab militia, for justice.

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Posted in Human Rights, Islamism, Sharia | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Prabhakaran is dead

By Houriya | Published: May 19, 2009

Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran has been killed, according to the Sri Lankan government. The government is claiming victory after 26 years of war with the Tigers.

I wonder if the Tamils will still protest in front of Parliament…

Posted in Politics, Terrorism | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Hizb-ut Tahrir and the ‘butcher of Buner’

By Houriya | Published: May 18, 2009

Hizb-ut Tahrir (HT) Britain, a global Islamist revolutionary group calling for the establishment of an Islamic state (Khilafah), has recently issued a press statement titled ‘Brown welcomes the butcher of Buner to Downing Street’ – denouncing Pakistani President  Zardari’s visit to the UK. Taji Mustafa HT Britain’s media representative said:

“The whole reason why the British, American and other Western governments sponsor brutal tyrants such as Zardari is because they fear the growing call in the Muslim lands such as Pakistan for Islam and the re-establishment of the Khilafah. Their strategy revolves around the simple objective of preventing Muslims from controlling their own political destiny…”

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Posted in Human Rights, Islamism | Tagged , , | 10 Comments

The Taliban’s perversion of sharia law

By Houriya | Published: May 15, 2009

(This article of mine was originally published in the Guardian’s Comment is Free: Belief, 3 May 2009)

In the Malakand region of Pakistan, the Taliban have started correcting the “moral wrongs” of society by banning women from shopping in public areas, as it is believed to be obscene. They have have punished men by shaving their hair and moustaches for listening to music, seen as un-Islamic. As non-Muslims living under sharia law, the Sikh community in Orakzai Agency is being forced to pay 15m rupees, approximately £130,000, in tax to live in peace. If Sikhs refuse, then the Taliban will occupy their properties.

The Taliban are, of course, not the first to attempt to implement sharia law. Governments in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and northern Nigeria have implemented “Islamic” laws that have resulted in systematic human rights abuses by employing medieval punishments for transgressing God’s “boundaries”, such as death for apostasy and stoning for adultery. The implementation of such sharia laws leads people to question the compatibility of Islam and human rights.

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Posted in Human Rights, Islamism, Sharia | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Forced into Hijab: a response to Katharine Quarmby

By Houriya | Published: May 15, 2009

(This article of mine was originally published in First Draft, the Prospect Magazine blog, 18 March 2009)

In Britain, freedom of consciousness and liberalism thrive. Women can choose to wear the hijab (headscarf) or not, and so Katharine Quarmby can ponder at will its aesthetic and fashion implications. In Iran, however, such a luxury is unimaginable. A woman’s worth and modesty is dictated by misogynist Islamist clerics who force women to wear the hijab and throw feminists in jail for daring to protest for equal human rights.

Unfortunately, some do not appreciate the freedoms held in Britain. In a recent talk I attended, Alastair Crooke, a former MI6 agent, labels what we see in Iran as ‘Muslim values’, praising Iran’s leaders for using their ‘creative imaginative faculties’ to construct a society based on collective ‘Islamic’ norms. Most Iranian women recognise this as Khomeini’s politicisation of religion. Crooke rejected the idea that the Iranian regime abuses a woman’s human rights, as these are a ‘Western’ construct – Christian, capitalist and rooted in individualism.

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Posted in Democracy, Fashion, Human Rights, Islamism, Secularism | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

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