Top Islamic Authority Sulks Over Pope's Comments

Al Azhar: bastion of Islamic supremacist hypocrisy

But they really want peace and harmony!

Al-Azhar has decided to indefinitely freeze all dialogue with the Vatican over what it called Pope Benedict’s repeated insults towards Islam, the institution announced on Thursday.

Al-Azhar is Egypt’s [and the world's ~ Ed] top Sunni authority.

Suspending interfaith dialogue with the Vatican on Thursday came in response to Pope Benedict XVI’s remarks on the status of Christians in the Middle East.

Pope Benedict condemned attacks on churches that killed dozens of people in Egypt, Iraq and Nigeria this month, saying they showed the need to adopt effective measures to protect religious minorities....

On Wednesday, Arab leaders at a summit in Egypt voiced their “total rejection” of foreign interference in Arab affairs over Christian minorities.

So it is unacceptable for "foreigners" to interfere in Muslim persecution of Christians. Got it. But what about this, from an Islam Online article about the Swiss minaret ban back in December 2009:

Egypt's Al-Azhar, the highest seat of religious learning in the Sunni world, also denounced the ban.

"This will have negative impacts on Muslims and we urge the Swiss government to abolish it," Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi told Swiss Ambassador in Cairo.

We'll stop "interfering" when you do, guys.

"Moderate" CAIR's Anti-Anti-Jihadist Agenda Further Exposed

The Hamas-supporting Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said it will remove a poster from the group's website promoting an upcoming conference that encourages people (i.e. Muslims) not to talk to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The poster, which appeared on the website of CAIR’s California chapter, features a sinister-looking FBI agent with the headlines “Build a Wall of Resistance” and “Don’t Talk to the FBI.”

Nothing says "moderate Muslims" quite as well as that.

Of course, CAIR were quick to find the REAL culprit in all this - Islamophobia:

[CAIR spokesman Ibrahim] Hooper conceded the poster “crosses the line,” but refused to renounce the artwork and blamed critics for fomenting what he called a manufactured controversy.

“The entire American-Muslim community is under the microscope right now with a cottage industry of Muslim bashers,” he said. “We’re used to this kind of attack by the Islamophobic hate machine and in this case there is some justification in terms of the possibility of misinterpretation of this poster.”

Because "Don't talk to the FBI" is a statement that is easily misinterpreted. And in any case, hate crimes against Muslims in America are actually relatively rare.

As for the content of the conference, Hooper said if anything negative is said about the FBI, it won’t come from their group.

“We have a consistent policy of positive and constructive engagement with law enforcement officials,” he said.

Of course you do, Ibe! Who other than an Islamophobe would dare to say otherwise?

The Good Sort Of Human Shield

It's not all about doom and gloom here at Eye On Islam. Occasionally I like to feature some more uplitfting stories that provide a small amount of hope that the totalitarian strictures of orthodox Islam aren't all-pervasive.

This story is certainly one of those occasions:

Muslims turned up in droves for the Coptic Christmas mass Thursday night, offering their bodies, and lives, as “shields” to Egypt’s threatened Christian community.

Egypt’s majority Muslim population stuck to its word Thursday night. What had been a promise of solidarity to the weary Coptic community, was honoured, when thousands of Muslims showed up at Coptic Christmas eve mass services in churches around the country and at candle light vigils held outside.

From the well-known to the unknown, Muslims had offered their bodies as “human shields” for last night’s mass, making a pledge to collectively fight the threat of Islamic militants and towards an Egypt free from sectarian strife.

There is a hell of a long way to go in Egypt, as well as throughout the Muslim world. For as many thousands of Muslims that may seek to protect the embattled Christians of their countries, there are just as many, if not more, who will happily attack those Christians' churches and call for their execution under draconian blaphemy laws. These tough realities, however, should not dissuade us from applauding those Muslims who have now probably put their own lives in danger by standing up for the human rights of non-Muslim minorities in their lands.

The "Peaceful Tableau" of Sufism?

"Does all that mean that Islam is a religion that prevents men from waging war? I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim.” ~ The peaceful Sufi, Ayatollah Khomeini

This article at the NY Times presents Sufism as a totally moderate, peaceful form of Islam that is being persecuted by "hard-liners".

The piece describes this idyllic picture:

In Pakistan’s heartland, holy men with bells tied to their feet close their eyes and sway to the music. Nearby, rose petals are tossed on tombstones. Free food is distributed to devotees.

This peaceful tableau is part of Sufism, Pakistan’s most popular brand of Islam, which attracts millions of worshipers at about a dozen major festivals throughout the year. Each day, thousands visit shrines dedicated to Sufi saints.

Unfortunately, the authors leave a few things out. While it is certainly true that many orthodox Muslims regard Sufis - who make up only a small percentage of the world's Muslims - as heretics and persecute them accordingly, it is also true that Sufism has never been particularly separable from what is often termed "radical Islam". For starters, despite Sufism apparently being "Pakistan's most popular brand of Islam", there is widespread support among Muslims in the country for harsh blasphemy laws, and a Pew poll in 2009 found "broad support for harsh [sharia-based] punishments: 78% favor death for those who leave Islam; 80% favor whippings and cutting off hands for crimes like theft and robbery; and 83% favor stoning adulterers."

Sufism is more "mystical" than other forms of Islam, but there is nothing intrinsic to it that denies the violence and intolerance that is a hallmark of orthodox Islam. The greatest Sufi of all time, Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d.1111), was an avid proponent of the same offensive, expansionist jihad favoured by the majority of orthodox Islamic jurists of his era:

“One must go on jihad (i.e. warlike razzias or raids) at least once a year...one may use catapults against them [non-Muslims] when they are in a fortress, even if among them are women and children. One may set fire to them and/or drown them...If a person of the ahl al-kitab [People of the Book, that is Jews and Christians] is enslaved, his marriage is automatically revoked...One may cut down their trees...One must destroy their useless books. Jihadists may take as booty whatever they decide...they may steal as much food as they need...”

He also promoted the oppressive subjugation of non-Muslims as dhimmis under Islamic rule:

“The dhimmi is obliged not to mention Allah or his Apostle...Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians must pay the poll tax...on offering up the jizya, the dhimmi must hang his head while the official takes hold of his head and hits the dhimmi on the protuberant bone beneath his ear...They are not permitted to ostentatiously exhibit their wine or church bells...their houses may not be higher than the Muslim's, no matter how low that is. The dhimmi may not ride an elegant horse or mule; he may ride a donkey only if the saddle is of wood. He may not walk on the good part of the road. The dhimmis have to wear an identifying patch on their clothing, even women, and even in the public baths...dhimmis must hold their tongue.”

Sufi clerics such as Sirhindi (d.1624) were influential in fomenting and leading vicious, fanatical jihad campaigns in India that resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of Hindus. In the modern day, many influential Muslim leaders who are deemed by most people to be profoundly "radical", including Hasan al-Banna and the Ayatollah Khomeini, also had a great interest in Sufism. In modern times, a Sufi jihadi squadron was formed in Iraq in 2005, and the 2004 Beslan massacre, in which over 300 schoolchildren were murdered by Islamic jihadists in Russia, was orchestrated by a Naqshbandi Sufi, Shamil Basayev.

In short, aside from the beautiful tableau of men with bells tied to their feet, Sufi Islam is not much different from mainstream Islam in any way that should comfort non-Muslims who don't want to be slaughtered like cattle for their mere unbelief.

(Not) Mourning Salman Taseer In Pakistan

Ignore the first half of this article from Associated Press, which is devoted to the Pakistani economy. Skip to paragraph ten, where we learn that as the man who assassinated Punjabi governor Salman Taseer for opposing the country's draconian blasphemy laws arrived at the court for his trial, "Around 100 Islamist students chanted slogans praising Qadri as he arrived at the court in an armored vehicle that had been showered with rose petals. 'Bravery, bravery! Qadri, Qadri!' they shouted."

Also:

An influential group of Muslim scholars affiliated with a historically moderate strain of Islam has also come out in support of the suspected killer and proclaimed that nobody should mourn Taseer's death.

That "moderate" group is Jamaat-e-Ahl-e-Sunnat Pakistan, which consists of over 500 Islamic scholars, who described the policeman who gunned down Taseer as a "Ghazi", or Islamic warrior, and have warned against any expression of sympathy for the slain PPP leader, saying it would in itself be tantamount to an act of blasphemy.

During Taseer's funeral yesterday, the imam of Lahore's Shahi Masjid and the cleric of the mosque at Governor's House refused to lead the prayer, apparently in protest against the governor's moderate views.

Isn't it odd that so many adherents of the Religion of Peace, including the most learned scholars and clerics, keep forgetting how wonderful and tolerant Islam is? Why is that?

Pakistani Governor Assassinated For Opposing Blasphemy Law

"...this is the punishment for a blasphemer."

Stick this one in the bulging file entitled, "One reason why there aren't that many moderate Muslims":

The influential governor of Pakistan's Punjab province, Salman Taseer, has died after being shot by one of his bodyguards in the capital, Islamabad.

Mr Taseer, a senior member of the Pakistan People's Party, was shot when getting into his car at a market.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the guard had told police that he killed Mr Taseer because of the governor's opposition to Pakistan's blasphemy law.

Many were angered by his defence of a Christian woman sentenced to death....

At a news conference, Mr Malik said: "The police guard who killed him says he did this because Mr Taseer recently defended the proposed amendments to the blasphemy law."....

Mr Taseer made headlines recently by appealing for the pardon of a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, who had been sentenced to death for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

Friends of the governor say he knew he was risking his life by speaking out....

The interior minister later identified the murder suspect as Malik Mumtaz Hussein Qadri, who he said had escorted the governor from the city of Rawalpindi on Tuesday as he had done on five or six previous occasions.

Mr Qadri was 26 years old and from Barakhao, a town on the outskirts of Islamabad, he added. He was recruited as a police constable, and transferred to the Elite Force after commando training in 2008.

"Salman Taseer is a blasphemer and this is the punishment for a blasphemer," Mr Qadri said in comments broadcast on Dunya television....

Indeed it is. Take, for example, this scholarly opinion by the influential Qadi Iyad (d.1149):

Know that all who curse Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, or blame him or attribute imperfection to him in his person, his lineage, his deen [religion] or any of his qualities, or alludes to that or its like by any means whatsoever, whether in the form of a curse or contempt or belittling him or detracting from him or finding fault with him or maligning him, the judgement regarding such a person is the same as the judgement against anyone who curses him. He is killed [emphasis added] as we shall make clear. This judgement extends to anything which amounts to a curse or disparagement. We have no hesitation concerning this matter, be it a clear statement or allusion.

The same applies to anyone who curses him, invokes against him, desires to harm him, ascribes to him what does not befit his position or jokes about his mighty affair with foolish talk, satire, disliked words or jies, or reviles him because of any affliction or trial which happened to him or disparages him, because of any of the permissible and well-known human events which happened to him. All of this is the consensus of the 'ulama' [scholars] and the imams of fatwa from the time of the Companions until today."

Most Islamic legal theorists and scholars agree. The only major school of thought that does not is the Hanafi school, but this is not because of any kind of "Islamic tolerance". Rather, the assumption is that blasphemy is an inherent part of disbelief, and since unbelievers are already being punished by being made dhimmis, further punishment is not necessary. Hardly open-minded, really.

These are the realities of Islam, and it's not just Christians who are suffering because of them. As this story demonstrates, Muslims are as well. But that probably won't stop them from blaming the Jews anyway.

Aid For Rights

European Union funds going to ''countries which do not collaborate'' in protecting Christians and in preventing attacks ''should be reduced if not eliminated entirely''.

Did a European politican really say that?

Yes, and it wasn't Geert Wilders either. It was Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, speaking in the wake of the murderous attack on a church in Egypt that killed 21 Christians on New Year's Day.

Of course, it's not just the Muslim world's treatment of Christians that we should be dealing with. Aid should also be cut off from any Muslim country that teaches its children to hate Jews on its regional TV stations (as does Palestine), and executes those who "blaspheme" against Islam (as does Pakistan). But to hear a senior European politician propose something this outlandishly sensible and morally admirable is still very welcome.

Whether anyone will listen to Frattini - who added that "'Italy cannot stand alone, isolated in the worldwide battle in the world to make sure that Christians are not persecuted" - is another matter. Bat Ye'or has chronicled how the EU long ago sold its soul to the Devil - or, analogously, the Arab League, in her must-read book Eurabia. Still, Signore Frattini's moral clarity and straight-talking has to be commended.