(Portia Rediscovered is hosting this week's Cotillion Ball - go on over and see what snarky goodness she's summarized from the Ladies of the Cotillion!)
And I call bullshit on it! No, actually, let's be even more insulting: I call PIGshit on it. Just in the past week (and I didn't even try very hard), I collected these stories:
From the Jerusalem Post, 27Oct05:
Chanting Allahu Akbar (God is great), some 3,000 people, including Fatah and Islamic Jihad gunmen, converged on Abu Zeid's home to "congratulate" his family on the success of the attack, which killed five people and wounded more than 30.
They also called for more suicide attacks in Israel.
"With blood, with soul, we redeem Hassan," the crowd chanted. "Oh Jihad, Jihad, give us more [suicide] bombings. Oh [Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon, prepare more coffins."
How about the Reuters article, dated 26Oct05?
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that Israel should be "wiped off the map", the official IRNA news agency reported.
Support for the Palestinian cause is a central pillar of the Islamic Republic which officially refuses to recognise Israel's right to exist.
"Israel must be wiped off the map," Ahmadinejad told a conference called "The World without Zionism", attended by some 3,000 conservative students who chanted "Death to Israel" and "Death to America".
How about the Christian girls killed, part of the ongoing conflict between Muslims and Christians (Update - Want some pictures of the girls' fate? Go see. WARNING: Extremely graphic pictures - not for the faint of heart):
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation, but Central Sulawesi has a roughly equal number of Muslims and Christians. The province was the scene of a bloody religious war in 2001-2002 that killed around 1000 people from both communities.
At the time, beheadings, burnings and other atrocities were common.
A government-mediated truce succeeded in ending the conflict in early 2002, but there have since been a series of bomb attacks and assassinations of Christians.
"Minority rights" in Islam? Not hardly:
A VISION of an Islamic society that bans mixed dancing and sternly disapproves of homosexuality has been given by Mahmoud Zahar, the most senior leader of Hamas in Gaza.
After controversies when a Hamas-led council halted a dance festival and Islamist gunmen stopped a rap band performing in Gaza, Dr Zahar defended the enforcement of a strict interpretation of Islam.
“A man holds a woman by the hand and dances with her in front of everyone. Does that serve the national interest?” Dr Zahar said on the Arabic website Elaph. “If so, why have the phenomena of corruption and prostitution become pervasive in recent years?”
These are incidents typical of militant, fanatical Islam. I realize that not all Muslims condone these actions, but I am gravely disappointed that these "moderate" Muslims do not rise up in fury and outrage at those who are "hijacking" their religion.
There are some excellent sites out there which highlight Islam as it truly is: the Religion of Peace, Always on Watch, Jihad Watch, MEMRI, Islam Undressed, and Dhimmitude.org are all excellent resources for research into the true face of Islam. I strongly urge you to check out their sites and their link pages for more information.
And until the more rational and peaceful factions of Islam rise up and vociferously and vehemently condemn radical Islam, and actively - and PUBLICALLY - work to stamp it out, instead of issuing irrelevant and impotent fatwahs... Well, until then, I suppose I'll have to see Islam as a bunch of mad barbarians intent on destroying everything that is different from them, won't I?
UPDATE - just to add a few more stories to press my point:
Police told to respect traditions -
POLICE are being advised to treat Muslim domestic violence cases differently out of respect for Islamic traditions and habits.
Officers are also being urged to work with Muslim leaders, who will try to keep the families together.
Women's groups are concerned the politically correct policing could give comfort to wife bashers and keep their victims in a cycle of violence."
Terror cell "smuggled missles into Europe" -
An Islamic terror cell has smuggled two surface-to-air missiles into Europe in a plot to shoot down planes at one of France's main airports, it was claimed yesterday.
French and Algerian extremists with links to al-Qa'eda bought the Russian SA-18 Grouse missiles from Chechens in 2002 and smuggled them via Georgia and Turkey, according to French anti-terror sources quoted in Le Figaro.
Islam feminists urge gender jihad -
Islamic Feminism argues that the inferior legal and social status of women in Muslim countries is a result of misogynistic distortions of the teachings in the Koran.
Organisers say they want more collaboration with western feminists but say non-Muslim feminists need to challenge their anti-Islamic stereotypes.
And DhimmiWatch adds this to the above story -
Well, we have been here before. The Qur'an, after all:
1. Likens a woman to a field (tilth), to be used by a man as he wills: "Your women are a tilth for you (to cultivate) so go to your tilth as ye will" (2:223);
2. Declares that a woman's testimony is worth half that of a man: "Get two witnesses, out of your own men, and if there are not two men, then a man and two women, such as ye choose, for witnesses, so that if one of them errs, the other can remind her" (2:282);
3. Allows men to marry up to four wives, and have sex with slave girls also: "If ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly with the orphans, marry women of your choice, two or three or four; but if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one, or (a captive) that your right hands possess, that will be more suitable, to prevent you from doing injustice" (4:3);
4. Rules that a son's inheritance should be twice the size of that of a daughter: "Allah (thus) directs you as regards your children's (inheritance): to the male, a portion equal to that of two females" (4:11);
5. Tells husbands to beat their disobedient wives: "Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them" (4:34).Are these verses capable of a non-misogynistic interpretation?
Slavery is a “crime against humanity” in international law. Most of the returning slaves documented by CSI reported gross abuse by their Arab Muslim masters. Among the most widespread forms of abuse are beatings, death threats, work without pay, forced Islamization and Arabization, and racial and religious slurs. The majority of women and older girls said they were raped or gang-raped while in bondage. A minority of the females claim they were subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM) – a ritual that is the cultural norm for Baggara Arab women.
My dear friend and blog-brother, GM Roper has a wonderful post up about Islam Saudi style -
Saudi Arabia and its people are quite backwards in terms of social progress. They still practice beheading, amputation of feet and hands for theft, lashing, sometimes for months depending on the number of lashes prescribed by the "judge" who is really just a religious figure appointed by the King on the advice of the Supreme Judicial Council. All law is compatible with Shari'a (Islamic law) and is enforced by religious police ("mutaween" police) from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. In fact, these animals (one hesitates to call them police) prevented a number of school children from escaping from a burning dormitory because the girls weren't clad in headscarves and black robes as prescribed by religious law. Nor would these animals allow men to approach the girls to rescue them from certain death because they were unclad. As a result, 15 children died in the fire.
Submitted to the Cotillion for the weekly Ball (published Tuesday) as well as to Cao's Sunday Trackback Party.
