Raymond Ibrahim : A 1,389 Year-Old ‘Phobia’?

A 1,389 Year-Old ‘Phobia’?

04/07/2017 by Raymond Ibrahim
http://raymondibrahim.com/2017/04/07/1389-year-old-phobia/

A direct correlation exists between Western ignorance of history and Western ignorance of Islam’s “troublesome” doctrines.  It is this connection that allows Islam’s apologists to get away with so many distortions and outright lies meant to shield Islam.

Take Reza Aslan, CNN’s resident “cannibal”: he recently claimed that “Islamophobia”— defined by CAIR and others as “unfounded fear of and hostility towards Islam”—was created by a few “clowns” in 2014.

To be sure, Western fear of Islam is something of a recent phenomenon in modern times.  Because the world was a much bigger place a few decades ago, and Islam was oceans away, the average American hardly knew anything about Muhammad’s creed.  However, as the world has become smaller—as Muslims have grown in numbers in Western societies, as modern technology has made it possible for the weaker to terrorize the stronger, and then broadcast it for the world to see (via Internet)—so has the Western world been hearing, seeing, and experiencing more and more of Islam.

But Aslan’s lament is not that people were once ignorant but now are wise to Islam.  Rather, he accuses a number of writers and activists—the aforementioned “clowns”—of manufacturing a menacing image of Islam, which, in turn, has prompted Western people to develop an “unfounded fear of and hostility towards Islam”—or, in a word, “Islamophobia.”

Such a claim relies on an obscene amount of historical ignorance.  The fact is, Western peoples, including some of their luminaries, have portrayed Islam as a hostile and violent force from the very start—often in terms that would make today’s “Islamophobe” blush.  And that wasn’t because Europeans were “recasting the other” to “validate their imperial aspirations” (to use the tired terminology of Edward Said that has long dominated academia’s treatment of Western-Muslim interactions).  Rather, it was because, from the very start, Islam treated the “infidel” the same way ISIS treats the infidel: atrociously.

According to Muslim history, in 628, Muhammad summoned the Roman (or “Byzantine”) emperor, Heraclius—the symbolic head of “the West,” then known as “Christendom”—to submit to Islam; when the emperor refused, a virulent jihad was unleashed against the Western world.  Less than 100 years later, Islam had conquered more than two-thirds of Christendom, and was raiding deep into France.  While these far-reaching conquests are often allotted a sentence, if that, in today’s textbooks, the chroniclers of the time, including Muslim ones, make clear that these were cataclysmic events that had a traumatic effect on, and played no small part in forming, the unconquered portion of Christendom, which became Europe proper.  As Ibn Khaldun famously put it after describing incessant Muslim raids for booty and slaves all along Europe’s Mediterranean coasts during the ninth and tenth centuries, “the Christians could no longer float a plank on the sea.”  They took to the inlands and the Dark Ages began.

But it wasn’t just what they personally experienced at the hands of Muslims that developed this ancient “phobia” to Islam.  As far back as the eighth century, Islam’s scriptures and histories—the Koran, hadith, sira and maghazi literature—became available to those Christian communities living adjacent to, or even under the authority of, the caliphates.  Based solely on these primary sources of Islam, Christians concluded that Muhammad was a (possibly demon possessed) false prophet who had very obviously concocted a creed to justify the worst depravities of man—for dominion, plunder, cruelty and carnality. 

This view prevailed for well over a millennium all over Europe (and till this day among “Islamophobes”); and it was augmented by the fact that Muslims were still, well over a millennium, invading Christian territories, plundering them, and abducting their women and children.  The United States’ first brush with Islam—the early nineteenth century Barbary Wars—came by way of Muslim raids on American ships for booty and slaves in the name of Allah.

Here is a miniscule sampling of what Europeans thought of Islam throughout the centuries:

Theophanes, the Byzantine chronicler (d.818):

He [Muhammad] taught those who gave ear to him that the one slaying the enemy—or being slain by the enemy—entered into paradise [see Koran 9:111].  And he said paradise was carnal and sensual—orgies of eating, drinking, and women. Also, there was a river of wine … and the women were of another sort, and the duration of sex greatly prolonged and its pleasure long-enduring [e.g., Koran 56: 7-40, 78:31, 55:70-77].  And all sorts of other nonsense.

Thomas Aquinas, one of Christendom’s most influential philosophers (d.1274):

He [Muhamad] seduced the people by promises of carnal pleasure to which the concupiscence of the flesh urges us …. and he gave free rein to carnal pleasure. In all this, as is not unexpected, he was obeyed by carnal men. As for proofs of the truth of his doctrine…. Muhammad said that he was sent in the power of his arms—which are signs not lacking even to robbers and tyrants [i.e., his “proof” that God was with him is that he was able to conquer and plunder others]….  Muhammad forced others to become his follower’s by the violence of his arms.

Marco Polo, world famous traveler (d.1324):

According to their [Muslims’] doctrine, whatever is stolen or plundered from others of a different faith, is properly taken, and the theft is no crime; whilst those who suffer death or injury by the hands of Christians, are considered as martyrs. If, therefore, they were not prohibited and restrained by the [Mongol] powers who now govern them, they would commit many outrages. These principles are common to all Saracens.

When the Mongol khan later discovered the depraved criminality of Achmath (or Ahmed), one of his Muslim governors, Polo writes that that the khan’s

attention [went] to the doctrines of the Sect of the Saracens [i.e., Islam], which excuse every crime, yea, even murder itself, when committed on such as are not of their religion. And seeing that this doctrine had led the accursed Achmath and his sons to act as they did without any sense of guilt, the Khan was led to entertain the greatest disgust and abomination for it. So he summoned the Saracens and prohibited their doing many things which their religion enjoined.

Alexis de Tocqueville, French political thinker and philosopher, best known for Democracy in America (d.1859),

I studied the Quran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction that by and large there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Muhammad. As far as I can see, it is the principal cause of the decadence so visible today in the Muslim world and, though less absurd than the polytheism of old, its social and political tendencies are in my opinion more to be feared, and I therefore regard it as a form of decadence rather than a form of progress in relation to paganism itself.

Winston Churchill, a leader of the Allied war effort against Hitler during WWII (1965):

How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism [Islam] lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy.  The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.  A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity.  The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.

Lest it seem that these and other historic charges against Islam are simply products of Christian/Western xenophobia that simply cannot tolerate the “other,” it should be noted that many of Islam’s Western critics regularly praised other non-Muslim civilizations, as well as what is called today “moderate Muslims.”   Thus Marco Polo hailed the Brahmins of India as being “most honorable,” possessing a “hatred for cheating or of taking the goods of other persons.” And despite his criticisms of the “sect of the Saracens,” that is, Islam, he referred to one Muslim leader as governing “with justice,” and another who “showed himself [to be] a very good lord, and made himself beloved by everybody.”

Winston Churchill summed up the matter as follows:  “Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities—but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.”

Apologists like Reza Aslan can say whatever they want; they can claim that Islam is forever and perpetually “misunderstood”— and can bank on Western ignorance of its own history to get away with it. 
But fear and dislike of Islam has been the mainstream position among Christian/Western people for nearly 1,400 years—ever since Muhammad started raiding, plundering, massacring, and enslaving non-Muslims (“infidels”) in the name of his god; and it is because his followers, Muslims, continue raiding, plundering, massacring, and enslaving “infidels” that fear and dislike of Islam—what is called “Islamophobia”—exists to this day.
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Building a Church is a 'Sin' Against God, Says Egyptian Muslim Council

AINA News

Building a Church is a 'Sin' Against God, Says Egyptian Muslim Council

Posted 2009-08-31 

 

 http://www.aina.org/news/20090831182120.htm

 

Cairo (AINA) -- A controversial Fatwa (Islamic edict) prohibiting the construction of new churches in Egypt has provoked considerable discussion and spiraled into a crisis, involving the Fatwa Council, Al-Azhar Grand Sheikh, Christian and Muslim religious personalities, and the media. It was also reported on 8/26/2009 that the jurists who issued the Fatwa are under investigation on orders of the Grand Mufti and the Justice Minister.

The Fatwa (Arabic) in question was issued by the Al-Azhar affiliated "Dar el-Eftta" -- Fatwa Council for Islamic interpretations of laws in Islam. It stated "the will of a Muslim towards building a Church is a sin against God, just as if he left his inheritance towards building a nightclub, a gambling casino, or building a barn for rearing pigs, cats or dogs."

It was issued in response to an inquiry sent to the Fatwa Council by Dr. Naguib Gabraeel, President of the Egyptian Union Human Rights Organization (EUHRO), asking its opinion as to what he read in an article written by a prominent writer about what was stated in a textbook taught to third year students, Muslims and Christians, at the Faculty of Law, Cairo University, on Inheritance and execution of wills.

Gabraeel's inquiry pertained specifically to a quotation from the textbook "it is forbidden for a person to donate money for what would lead to sin, such as donating in his will money towards build a church, a nightclub, a gambling casino, towards promoting the alcohol industry or for building a barn for rearing pigs, cats or dogs."

He went on to inquire "So what is the Shari'a position to what was mentioned especially concerning the will of a Muslim to donate for the building of a church or a monk's cell? If the answer is prohibition, aren't these houses where the name of God is mentioned? Is not Christianity a recognized religion according to the Egyptian constitution? There are also a lot of wealthy Copts and Coptic businessmen who donate towards the building of mosques."

The Fatwa Council replied affirming the correctness of what came in the textbook and issued a Fatwa on September 10, 2008 (document number 1809), which is also published on its official website.

To highlight the reason for this "sin" the Fatwa went on to state: "Salvation in the Christian religion is the belief in Jesus as Lord, where Muslims fundamentally disagree on it. Muslims believe that Issa [Jesus in Arabic] peace be upon him, is a slave of Allah and His Messenger, and that Allah is one. He begets not and He is not begotten and there is none like unto Him. So if it is seen that one sect has deviated from this absolute Monotheism, then according to that person's own religion he is forbidden to donate for the erection of buildings where Allah is not worshiped alone."

According to Mohammed el-Maghrabbi, deputy chief of the Faculty of Law, and author of the controversial textbook, what he wrote is a principle agreed upon by all Islamic jurists. He added that a will, if devoted by a Christian for building a Church, is forbidden and sinful and is considered in Islam as separation from God. So it is also illegal if a non-Muslim wills his inheritance towards building a Church or a Synagogue.

This Fatwa has shocked many as it classified churches with nightclub, gambling casinos, and places for rearing pigs and dogs, which are considered 'unclean' animals according to Islam and Muslims.

Christians were angered and considered it a clear and explicit insult to all Christians. The renowned theologian Reverend Abdelmassih Bassit, Professor at the Coptic Orthodox Clerical Institute, called it "a shocking Fatwa."

Gabraeel called on the government and Al-Azhar to state their position clearly on the building of churches, as well as prayer meetings held in premises even if they were 'unlicensed' as churches.

On August 19, 2009, a delegation from EUHRO, headed by Dr. Gabraeel, paid a visit to Al-Azhar Grand Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, who said that the Fatwa was wrong and untrue and that Muslims can make voluntary contributions to build churches, as a church is a house for "worshiping and tolerance" and that "Shari'a does not prevent Muslims from donating to the building of a church, as it is his free money. He also affirmed that Al-Azhar does not object to the "unified law for building places of worship."

Tantawi added that building churches should be left to the Christians and Muslims are not allowed according to Shari'a to interfere in other faiths, "because religion, faith and what a person believes in is a relationship between him and his God." He also called on the Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa to hold the five jurists who issued the Fatwa accountable.

Reactions to Tantawi's statements resulted in a crisis in the Islamic circles. Most Muslim leaders criticized him publicly and supported the Fatwa "as being issued by people qualified in Islamic Shari'a law" or "a Muslim should not donate to the building of a church when Christians do not believe in the religion of Mohammed, or him being a prophet."

Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa gave the excuse that he never ratified the Fatwa. Nevertheless, his answer was not convincing as it was an official Fatwa issued by the authority headed by him, stamped and signed by five of the Council's jurists. He failed to give an opinion about it.

Less than 24 hours after the EUHRO visit, Grand Sheikh Tantawi backtracked on his statements saying it was a misunderstanding on the part of the EUHRO delegation and the newspapers. He commented that what he meant was for non-Muslims to donate in their wills for church building and reaffirmed that it is forbidden for a person to donate money for the construction of "sinful" places, such as bars and nightclubs.

The reason for his change of heart, according to the Egyptian independent newspaper Al-Destour, was that 'high sources' contacted the Al-Azhar Grand Sheikh and the Grand Mufti to resolve the crisis raised over the Fatwa "in order to avoid any sectarian strife or an inconsistency between Al-Azhar and the Fatwa Council."

On his part EUHRO chief Dr. Gabraeel answered the Grand Sheikh saying that it is his right to change his mind but he cannot deny what he said during the visit, and that his statements were caught on the video recording of their meeting. He added that when Grand Sheikh Tantawi was asked by the delegation if a Muslim can donate from his own funds towards building a church, he answered that he is free to do so, and when asked if this was his personal opinion or the Shari'a stand on this issue, Tantawi answered that it was according to Shari'a Law. The video was sent to the media and was uploaded on all Coptic advocacy websites.

Many Christians believe that this Fatwa has exposed the true stance of the religious authorities and the government towards churches, and the reason why it refrains from passing the long awaited bill on the "unified law for building places of worship," which would put an end to all problems related to building and restoring places of worship. It is also believed that since Islam views church building as a sin, passing this bill would therefore be in conflict with Shari'a Law -- which is the main source of legislation as stipulated in the Constitution -- and this would be something that the government would avoid at all costs.

By Mary Abdelmassih

Giulio Meotti : The Vatican Submits to Islam (2006-2016)

The Vatican Submits to Islam (2006-2016)

by Giulio Meotti
October 16, 2016 at 5:30 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9120/vatican-islam

• "[Pope Benedict XVI] has doubted publicly that it can be accommodated in a pluralistic society... and tempered his support for a programme of inter-religious dialogue run by Franciscan monks at Assisi. He has embraced the view of Italian moderates and conservatives that the guiding principle of inter-religious dialogue must be reciprocità. That is, he finds it naive to permit the building of a Saudi-funded mosque, Europe's largest, in Rome, while Muslim countries forbid the construction of churches and missions." — Christopher Caldwell, Financial Times.
• In that lecture, Benedict did what in the Islamic world is forbidden: freely discussing faith. He said that God is different from Allah.
• Since then, apologies to the Islamic world have become the official Vatican policy. Pope Francis denied that Islam itself is violent and claimed that the potential for violence lies within every religion, including Catholicism. Previously, Pope Francis said there is "a world war" but denied that Islam has any role in it.
• "It is clear that Muslims have an ultimate goal: conquering the world...But we find it hard to recognize this reality and to respond by defending the Christian faith (...) I have heard several times an Islamic idea: 'what we failed to do with the weapons in the past we are doing today with the birth rate and immigration'. The population is changing. If this keeps up, in countries like Italy, the majority will be Muslim (...) And what is the most important achievement? Rome." — Monsignor Raymond Burke, US Catholic leader.

If 9/11 was the declaration of jihad against the West, 9/12 will be remembered as one of the most dramatic knee-bends of the Western cultural submission to Islam.
On September 12th 2006, Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) landed in Bavaria, Germany, where he was born and first taught theology. He was expected to deliver a lecture in front of the academic community at the University of Regensburg. That lesson would go down to history as the most controversial papal speech of the last half-century.
On this, the 10th anniversary of the speech, the Western world and the Islamic world both owe Benedict an apology, but unfortunately, the opposite happened: the Vatican has apologized to the Muslims.
In his lecture, Pope Benedict clarified the internal contradictions of contemporary Islam, but he also offered a terrain of dialogue with Christianity and Western culture. The Pope spoke of the Jewish, Greek and Christian roots of Europe's faith, explaining why these are different from Islamic monotheism. His talk contained a quote from the Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Paleologus: "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman".
This keg of dynamite was softened by a quotation from a Koranic sura of Mohammed's youth, Benedict noted, "when Mohammed was still powerless and under threat", and which says: "There is no compulsion in religion."
Pope Benedict's talk was not a surprise. "It is no secret that the Pope worried about Islam", Christopher Caldwell noted in the Financial Times.

"He has doubted publicly that it can be accommodated in a pluralistic society. He has demoted one of John Paul II's leading advisers on the Islamic world and tempered his support for a programme of inter-religious dialogue run by Franciscan monks at Assisi. He has embraced the view of Italian moderates and conservatives that the guiding principle of inter-religious dialogue must be reciprocità. That is, he finds it naive to permit the building of a Saudi-funded mosque, Europe's largest, in Rome, while Muslim countries forbid the construction of churches and missions".

In Regensburg, Benedict staged the drama of our time and for the first time in the Catholic Church's history -- a Pope talked about Islam without recycling platitudes. In that lecture, the Pope did what in the Islamic world is forbidden: freely discussing faith. He said that God is different from Allah. We never heard that again.

The quotation of Manuel II Palaeologus bounced around the world, shaking the Muslim umma [community], which reacted violently. Even the international press was unanimous in a chorus of condemnation of the "Pope's aggression on Islam."

The reaction to Pope's speech proved that he was right. From Muslim leaders to the New York Times, everybody demanded the Pope's apologies and submission. The mainstream media turned him into an incendiary proponent of Samuel Huntington's "clash of civilizations." In the Palestinian Authority area, Christian churches were burned and Christians targeted. British Islamists called to "kill" the Pope, but Benedict defied them.

At the same time, in Somalia, an Italian nun was shot. In Iraq, a Syrian Orthodox priest was beheaded by al-Qaeda and mutilated after the terrorists demanded that the Catholic Church to apologize for the speech. The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood pledged retaliations against the Pope. A Pakistani leader, Shahid Shamsi, accused the Vatican of supporting "the Zionist entity." Salih Kapusuz, number two in the party of the Turkey's then Prime Minister (now President) Recep Tayyip Erdogan, compared Pope Benedict XVI to Hitler and Mussolini. The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, insisted that the words of the Pope belong to "the chain of US-Israeli conspiracy," and accused Benedict of being part of the "Crusader conspiracy."

Security around Pope Benedict was soon massively increased. Two years later, the Pope had been barred from speaking at Rome's most important university, La Sapienza. After the Regensburg affair, Benedict would not be the same anymore. Islamists and Western appeasers had been able to close his mouth.

A few days after the lecture, exhausted and frightened, Pope Benedict apologized. I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address ... which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims," the Pope told pilgrims at his Castelgandolfo summer residence. The quote did not "in any way express my personal thoughts. I hope this serves to appease hearts."

The Pope may have said that to stop further violence. But since then, apologies to the Islamic world have become the official Vatican policy.

"The default positions vis-à-vis militant Islam are now unhappily reminiscent of Vatican diplomacy's default positions vis-à-vis communism during the last 25 years of the Cold War," wrote George Weigel, a US leading scholar. The Vatican's new agenda seeks "to reach political accommodations with Islamic states and foreswear forceful public condemnation of Islamist and jihadist ideology."

Ten years since the Regensburg lecture, relevant as ever after ISIS's attacks on European soil, another Pope, Francis I, has tried in many ways to separate Muslims and violence and always avoided mentioning that forbidden word: Islam. As Sandro Magister, one of Italy's most important journalists on Catholic issues, wrote: "In the face of the offensive of radical Islam, Francis's idea is that 'we must soothe the conflict'. And forget Regensburg."

The entire Vatican's diplomatic body today carefully avoids the words "Islam" and "Muslims," and instead embraces a denial that a clash of civilization exists.

Returning from World Youth Day in Poland last August, Pope Francis denied that Islam itself is violent and claimed that the potential for violence lies within every religion, including Catholicism. Previously, Pope Francis said there is "a world war," but denied that Islam has any role in it.

In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI (left) said what no Pope had ever dared to say -- that there is a link between violence and Islam. Ten years later, Pope Francis (right) never calls those responsible for anti-Christian violence by name and never mentions the word "Islam." (Image source: Benedict: Flickr/Catholic Church of England | Francis: Wikimedia Commons/korea.net)

In May, Pope Francis explained that the "idea of conquest" is integral to Islam as a religion, but he quickly added that some might interpret Christianity, the religion of turning the other cheek, in the same way.

"Authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence," the Pope claimed in 2013. A year later, Francis declared that "Islam is a religion of peace, one which is compatible with respect for human rights and peaceful coexistence." 

He claimed that it is the ills of global economy, and not Islam, that inspire terrorism. And a few days ago, the Pope said that "people who call themselves Christians but do not want refugees at their door are hypocrites."

Pope Francis's pontificate has been marked by this moral equivalence between Christianity and Islam, which also obfuscates the crimes of Muslims against their own people, Eastern Christians and the West.

But there are brave cardinals who still speak the truth. One is the US Catholic leader Raymond Burke, who is featured in a recent interview with the Italian media, in which he said:

"It is clear that Muslims have an ultimate goal: conquering the world. Islam, through the sharia, their law, wants to rule the world and allows violence against the infidels, such as Christians. But we find it hard to recognize this reality and to respond by defending the Christian faith (...) I have heard several times an Islamic idea: 'what we failed to do with the weapons in the past we are doing today with the birth rate and immigration'. The population is changing. If this keeps up, in countries like Italy, the majority will be Muslim (...) Islam realizes itself in the conquest. And what is the most important achievement? Rome."

Unfortunately, Rome's first bishop, Pope Francis, seems deaf and blind to these important truths. It took five days for Benedict XVI to apologize for his brave lecture. But he opened a decade-long season of the Vatican's excuses for Islamic terrorism.

Pope Francis is still awaited for a visit at the church of St.-Étienne-du-Rouvray, where Father Jacques Hamel was murdered by Islamists this summer. That killing, ten years after the Regensburg lecture, is the most tragic proof that Benedict was right and Francis wrong.

Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il Foglio, is an Italian journalist and author.

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Hakim Haider : It Is How We Become to Jihad

It Is How We Become to Jihad

by Hakim Haider
October 17, 2016 at 4:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9089/how-we-become-to-jihad

• The Boy voice was getting slowly Down and after a few whiles he is silent with no locomotion, then this same soo beautifull girl come close and look up his eyes and fire more bullets onto his face and tell us that he is died.
• My Dears Boys today you are standing here it is a very Good position for you. On Otherside you will have a golden happiness, Paradise! Do not come back without full Fill the Task. You may write your last wish here and after we Go a head for Jihad. This is our First and Last meeting, Takecare.
• One Boy who are aware from this area try to Run away but Man have a pistol he fire on the Boy, and Bullet hit Boy on Forehead and he thud onto the Road.
• Jihadi camps where gives training is just for terror or personal interest, Nothing more. Parents even do not know where is my Son. They thinks One Day he come backs.

Editors' note: To those of you who have enquired, the author is a real man living in the Middle East who sent us these pieces because he is unable to share them with anyone where he lives. At first we tried to tidy up the English, but that seemed to knock much of the soul out of his work. So we made the editorial choice to present his work basically as he sent it; what you are seeing is the result of that choice. It is the way he sees the world from his point of view, unobstructed by editors. Perhaps think of it more as a different kind of article, more as folk art but in words. It is not meant to offend anyone or any religion. It always seemed, living among people from different nations, as if wrongnesses in English were often "righter" than rightnesses. The painter Paul Gauguin reportedly said: "If you see a tree as blue, then make it blue." We apologize to anyone who may not like these postings. "Those who understand, understand."

In 2013, some Body is asking, am meet my cousins Jowhar & Muhammad near to my Town. So first we have a nice chat, except for Jowhar who are not talk, and after a Few whiles am seeing Skin of right Arm on Jowhar is black with thick lines on the Arm Skin.
So am ask to Jowhar, What happened this?
He reply, This is a Vestige of Torture.
I reply, Torture, which kind of Torture this and why?
He answer, This is a Vestige of Jihad Torture.
I ask, Jihad Torture sorry am not understand this.
He reply, I show to you after.
So we together go to the room of Jowhar & Muhammad where he remove his Shirts and when I look at the Jowhar am Shock His body are full with Lines from Torture.
Am ask, What is this and how it is happen?

He reply, A few years back we join One of the prominent jihad group who is trains the Boys and childrens for Jihad and we take a training there. Here we face the Body Torture, the Mentality Torture, and the Sexuality torture, very High. So at firstly we Lives in a Mosque with many other Boys for listening different type of Quranic Ayaat and Hadith of P.B.U.H. and listening that there is a lot of HOOR (fairy) for you in the Paradise, and that Shahadat, to be killed on ALLAH, is GREAT PRIZE for you! So next day we are all into the Bus and going out on the hills.

I ask, But how is your family members allow you to do this Jihad?
He reply, No we just ran away from House. Our Family do not allow to take part in this. After a Travel, we reach where is jeeps are. So we leaves the Bus and sits onto the Jeeps. Jeep take us in a remote area where no One is there, and every Where just Mountains and hills and A house. When you enter this house, here is many beautifull Girls Welcome Us. When we look to the Girls they is very beautifull and all is wearing black. We very Happy to see these Girls. Then one person come and order us to sit in the Hall for Dinner because at night when we reach there.
Next day, all the girls serve us a nice Dinner and after Dinner she gives us a Tea. Then same person come in and order us go out. So go out and the girls also with us.

Then few persons come and deliver us a speech and say that girls first gives you A training and after that all of you goes to The Next Step of Training. After speech girls Orders us divides into groups.

Next Day morning after Morning Prayer we are all in the Ground and we see that the other corner of the Ground is far for us and do not see the other corner of the wall.

One girls order us to All of you stand in a Line. So we in a Line. Then she order us to run in a line until we can not stop. So we are running a distant time untill some Body suddenly stop. One of the girls is Hit him with a Stick. Then She ask Stop! and order us to removes the shirts. So we removes.
One Boy demand for Water but she is ask, There is no water for you untill the end and after this you may drink .

Then She order us to Laid Down in the Ground. So we laid. Then One girl jump on us with Shoes that is soo pain full, the Shoes was hard and clawing on our Bodies. We shout a lot Release us! but No one is help and the clawing goes on a faraway time.

One boy who is angry all at once Slap the Girl, then all other girls come and they tight the Boy up with A Rope and cover the face and start to Beating soo hardly. The Boy is shouting but all the girls is continuing to beat.
We are all looking this but No one has a Courage to stop any Thing. The Boy is Shouting and call FOR HELP. He is wheeping and say Please forgive me but No One is Listen. He is help Less.
After so hard beating The boy was tight with Piller and Tither. Then One girl come and she beat this boy again on the face untill his face is Full with Blood. We all looking this and shivering. He calling for Help again but we are all stand and just watch. Many girls is beating One by one soo hardly. Then after this One Girls who is holding the revolaver (Pistol) She is fire bullets on the Legs of the Boy. He is Shouting more loudly, then one girl un tight the Boy from piller and Tither and start beating to him again. Then she say, Look at her! If some One do not obey our order then we will give him a pain untill death and now you just sit there and watch how this death.
We sitting there Quietly and looking the Boy. He gush in High pain and every One are praying, ALLAH that release us from this place.
The Boy voice was getting slowly Down and after a few whiles he is silent with no locomotion, then this same soo beautifull girl come close and look up to his eyes and fire more bullets onto his face and tell us that he is died.

We all are wheeping after this, she order us go into the hall that are to Eat. We are hungry that night. She serve us a meal and after this tea and order us again to come to the Ground after Finish. But no one from us really Finish are still shivering.
When we are in the Ground after Dinner a girl is standing there says, Here where you all come for Jihad. Jihad is a Good and easy way to enter in a Paradise . If you kill One jew then in a Paradise you get a 35 HOOR (fairy). And To day one of your Companion not with you he is here under my Feet because not able to enter into a paradise and now his body are just waste. If Next any of you do like this, we kill them too.

After few days we are down half the boys, Other half killed with these girls on torture. New team is come to train to The Next Step of Training and all of these is Foreigner. They start with beating us on electric Wire. One Boy do not bear this and he is died.
After this, they gives us just a One Time for eating. That Day our body are full with Blood and we just laid onto the floor.

A jihadi training camp (illustrative).

Next day they Order us to Removes the full dress and prepare your Self for hard torture. There was a hot water pool and they jostle us into the water but the water was too Hot and also soo many wound on our body that is why we feel too much pain but no one try to comes out because if Some one is come out they kill him.

We face a lot of pain and torture and after heavy months we are all most no Boys Left. We see soo many boys for dying. One Day we standing in the hall and a person come out and say To Day Our Leader come to meet you and He is deliver a speech to Jihad and After this all of you tell us your last wish and then we go in fight Against the Enemy For Jihad! So To Day is your Rest day and to Night was a special night for you because Tonight you may enjoy with girls. We surprized. At night time girls came out wearing a beautifull dress we Shocked to see these girls that are the same who is giving us a training and they torture us. But tonight we do a Sex. We all Boys afraid but that night we looks first time towards the face of this girls All of girls is soo beautifull and first these girls behaviour like a maid of us. We enjoy all the night. And Morning we are in the Same hall and a Man come who was a Leader with a Black Coat and have a Grizzled. He say:

AS SALAM-O-ALIKUM All of you boys. I am a Leader and Arranger of this camp I know more than a HALF Boys are not here, these are Unlucky but all of you Very Lucky because now You are going for Jihad and for fight for Islam. My Dears Boys today you are standing here it is a very Good position for you. On Oneside you have a Courage for the Shahadat and on Otherside you will have a golden happiness. You may Died, but on Secondside you may Alive after death in the Paradise! Now you are soo strong and am very happy to tell you that am may Hugg you to death but am hope you will never come back until you wins. You may died but Jihad is Alive. Here islam is again A live after your Death. My beloved Sons, am know you face too much pain here and you are Lucky because this pain give you a New Life, the Life that is for ALLAH and for Islam! Now you may Go Hurry-up and Fight against the Enemy who are very weak and Short hearted but your training make you Strong and you are Soo Brave. I know you are ready I know you never run away. I know you are able to fight against the Enemy. We do not choose you but ALLAH choose you for this great Jihad! Now my Child you are able to use the weapons and Now you are soo powerfull I know you may gives Life but do not come back without full Fill the Task. There was a lot of people who helps you in this fighting. Now your body full with the remains of Wound and this is your MEDAL OF HONOUR. Now you may write your Last wish here and after full Fill last wish, we Go a head for Jihad. This is our First and Last meeting, Takecare.

After he is a Way. We write the last Wish to Go to the city where we buy a New dress to use on Final Day, so they are happy to listen. Than we Comes out from this building after serverile Months and sit again in the jeeps. After tall journey jeeps drop us near the Bus and we sit onto the Bus with many persons who look after us so that No One can make a Disabling. After this, Bus drop us into the market, One boy Know better to this area because he is Visit here many Times Before. So we all are in the Shop where we Buy a One piece of Cloth. And after this a Man tell to us Shoping is Over, now into the Bus for go Back. One Boy who are aware from this area try to Run away but Man have a pistol, he fire on the Boy and Bullet hit Boy on the Forehead and he thud onto the Road.

We Sits silently onto the Bus and when Bus leave the Market they Stop to the Bus and Tight us up with the seat of the Bus so that No one of us can runs. After more too far Journey the Bus again stops and they un tight us and tells Go In side the jeep One by one. So we full fill the order. This time there was Only One jeep and we are many Boys so we are sit into the jeep Smally. They never Tight us up In the jeep when big Men is standing there but we all is free here because Mountain are every Where and No one from us know the way any Where. Then when sees a road Muhammad and me jumps outside from the jeep and is run a Way. After serverile day we reach toward the city.

Jowhar sits while Muhammad put the shirts back up over the Vestige of torture skin of the Jowhar arm.
At night, Jowhar say, when asleep still are shivering. If girls is tell to you to come a Way from here and Go to Jihad for me, do not listening. Is just terrorists. All Jihadi camps where gives training just for terror or personal interest, Nothing more. Parents even do not know where is my Son. They thinks One Day he come backs.

Hakim Haider is a (real) Muslim based in the Middle East.

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Maria Polizoidou : Refugees or an Occupation Army?

Refugees or an Occupation Army?

by Maria Polizoidou
October 11, 2016 at 5:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9071/greece-refugees-migrants

• "Allah requires from the believers to be masters of the land where they live, and only they can have property, and only we will be able to own the land." — Muslim migrants in Crete, Greece.
• The migrants were ready to wage jihad because they believed a rumor about an event for which, even had it been true, the Greek State and its inhabitants had no responsibility.
• The establishment in Greece is a miniature of the American establishment: politicians and institutions of government corrupted to the bones.
• We Greeks have already been crushed by Islam, by the twentieth century genocide in Turkey and the more recent Turkish occupation of Cyprus, again with the world's complicity.
• What is happening in Greece, as in much of Europe, is actually a massive replacement of its population, its values and its way of life.
• The mainstream political parties obey the self-destructive EU policies on immigration that could eventually cause the end of the Hellenic-Judeo-Christian values of Europe, such as individual freedom, critical thinking and dispassionate inquiry.

What does an occupation army do when it is installed in a country? It occupies the land, forcing residents to follow its own way of life. It implements measures against the country's inhabitants, it propagandizes its beliefs and uses force to have them imposed.

This, sadly, is what has been happening in Greece from the migrants who seem to "forget" that they are hosted in Greece and force the Greeks to feel like guests in their own country.

If someone is a war refugee or his life is in danger in his homeland, it would seem appropriate, when he arrives in the country which offers him asylum, to be grateful to this country, respect its history, its people its values and its laws. The same would hold true for an immigrant who wants to go to a country where he hopes he will find a better future.

In Greece, conversely, illegal immigrants -- all of whom the media call "refugees," apparently trying artificially to legalize them in the moral consciousness of citizens -- have been occupying spaces that do not belong to them, using violence, blocking roads, committing crimes against public property, acting aggressively toward residents and the police, and saying that they feel offended when they see symbols that represent Christianity. The guests seem to be trying to take over the house.

A few weeks ago, 200 North Africans and Pakistanis rioted in the middle of the night, demanding to leave Mytilene Island. They were chanting, "Jihad! Jihad!", smashing the residents' cars in the center of the island and disrupting the local community. The migrants claimed that someone told them about the death of seven migrants on a ship, so they rose up against the authorities. The police and NGO workers explained that this was misinformation, but the 200 migrants were evidently not interested in hearing that. The migrants were ready to wage jihad because they believed a rumor about an event for which, even had it been true, the Greek state and its inhabitants had no responsibility. The authorities were unsuccessful at calming them down and trying to make them return to their living area.

As it turned out, there were no dead migrants; the uprising was a "mistake," but the police and the locals had to spend the night tracking down refugees and migrants on the streets of Mytilene.

The illegal immigrants stated that the information about the seven dead migrants came through phone calls to them during the night. Police sources say, off the record, that this incident has all the hallmarks of covert "black operations."

A few days later, on September 19, 2016, on Mytilene Island again, there was a new eruption from migrants in the Moria district. This time, the information the migrants heard, which again turned out to be false, was that they were about to be returned to Turkey. Immediately they set fire to 16 acres of olive trees, as well as to the camp in which they were living.

Now 300 migrants, who had earlier escaped from their camp and tried to protest in the center of the island, were burning everything in the camp and the area around it, until the police stopped them and made them to return to the camp, where again they tried to burn everything.

Residents saw their groves of olive trees turn to cinders as well as much of the migrant camp, three shipping containers, clothing and footwear.

Some of the illegal immigrants were taking selfies during the burning and chanting, "Allahu Akbar" ["Allah is the Greatest"].

The Port of Mytilene Island was turned into a battlefield, where migrants and many Greek "leftists" tried to prevent the military contingent from lowering the Greek flag in front of the town's old port. Many Greeks hate the national flag. They appear to prefer multinational states without any references to the state's national foundations. They were chanting slogans and provoking both the military contingent and the people of Mytilene Island, who watched amazed from the opposite side of the road. It was a demonstration of power from behalf of "leftists" and illegal immigrants. Many citizens of Mytilene Island evidently could not stand to see the illegal immigrants and other Greeks provoke them and try to halt the lowering of the flag. So some citizens moved aggressively against them and engaged them in street fights.

Every Sunday morning on Mytilene Island, soldiers hoist the flag and in the evening, an hour before sunset, soldiers lower the flag. A week after this incident, thousands of Greeks gathered around the soldiers and the flag in Mytilene Port and were singing Greek National Anthem, showing their faith and honoring the national symbol. People are scared. They are gathering around the flag and the Army apparently because they feel they are losing their homeland and their sovereignty to the thousands illegal immigrants who have occupied their island.

On September 26, 2016, in the Tympaki region of the island of Crete, people found all over the streets quotes from the Quran. The text, signed by the "Muslim Brotherhood of Crete Island", stated among other things:

• "You are the senior people of the whole world, Only your faith counts and no one else has the right of life and death and ownership over every other person who dares to challenge your leadership and will not embrace your faith.
• "Allah requires from the believers to be masters of the land where they live, and only they can have property, and only we will be able to own the land.
• "Allah said that we should conquer all the planet, and the faithful ones should own the land and the crops.
• "Unbelievers cannot have land and crops because it belongs only to us – the believers.
• "Unbelievers will have from us – as the holy Quran assures us – only alms."

On the same day, September 26, in the Asprovalta region near the city of Thessaloniki, a 49-year-old man from France who came to Greece through Turkey was followed by police officers because he was suspected of being a jihadist. The moment he saw the police car, he rammed it, while chanting "Allahu Akbar". [Allah is the greatest"] The attacker was arrested and the district attorney ordered his deportation.

A month ago, the inhabitants of Vavilon, a small village in Chios, another island that received a large number of illegal immigrants, decided to take the law into their hands, because, it seems, the state was not protecting them. The residents set up a militia to protect their families and their property from illegal immigrants. Within a week, they had recorded more than ten burglaries and vast property damage.

The media covers these disruptions only when they are like earthquakes, when one large one causes major disasters; the small ones are evidently not interesting. The same indifference of the media can also be seen regarding daily problems caused by the illegal immigrants. The media covers drug trafficking, conflicts between migrants of different Islamic doctrines, rebellions in migrant shelters, conflicts between countries and races, and underage boys and girls being raped. On September 24, in the Moria area of Mytilene Island, four 17-year-old migrants from Pakistan raped an underage Pakistani migrant, age 16, and recorded the rape with their phones. The police arrested the perpetrators, who had been blackmailing the boy before they raped him.

Illegal immigrants have also been blocking roads in many cities; halting traffic for hours. They occupy the roads whenever they feel like it; the police do not stop them and there are no arrests.

The Greek government has been friendly to the migrants. Illegal immigrants have, in an apparent demonstration of power, been asking Greek drivers to show their IDs and driver's licenses. They have established checkpoints as an occupation army does. The government and the police did nothing to stop them. People showed their documents because of the great numbers of migrants; the drivers were evidently scared for their lives and their cars, and did not want things to get nasty. If you consider that the police were just watching all this passively, the drivers did not have much choice.

Another day, illegal immigrants blocked a road because they apparently did not have a good enough internet connection in the "refugee shelter."

How would Americans feel if Muslim illegal immigrants living in America said that they were offend by the Statue of Liberty because she was not wearing a burqa?
The Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, Hieronymus, last March removed his cross, the symbol of Christianity, from his vestments during his visit to the Port of Piraeus, in order, he said, not to "offend" the Muslim migrants.

Archbishop Hieronymus of Athens and All Greece is pictured distributing food to migrants at the Port of Piraeus. The Archbishop removed his cross from his vestments during the visit to Piraeus, in order, he said, not to "offend" the Muslim migrants. (Image source: HellasNewsTv video screenshot)

Who warned him that Muslim migrants would be offended by his cross? What would they do if the Archbishop visited them while wearing his cross? Would they kill him? Would they burn the city of Piraeus? They would wage jihad against the Greek people?

Why are we hiding the symbols of our faith from people who come illegally and uninvited into our countries? What power could make an Archbishop remove the symbol of his faith, apart from a country's political power?

The problem in Greece is not only the government or the mismanagement of illegal immigration. All traditional mainstream political parties in Greece, directly or indirectly, have been encouraging illegal immigration and the transfer of huge Muslim populations into Greek society. They obey the self-destructive EU policies on immigration that could eventually cause the end of the Hellenic-Judeo-Christian values of Europe, such as individual freedom, critical thinking and dispassionate inquiry.

We Greeks have already been crushed by Islam, by the twentieth century genocide in Turkey -- that even now targets anyone not Muslim such as Christians, Alevis and Kurds -- and the more recent Turkish occupation of Cyprus, again with the world's complicity.

In spite of that, the mainstream political parties clearly do not care about protecting the nation, its identity or the safety of its citizens.

The establishment in Greece is a miniature of the American establishment: politicians and institutions of government corrupted to the bones, mainstream media and oligarchical fans of globalization. Greece is, in fact, being paid 198 million euros for the refugees.

The Greek establishment suffers from the same symptoms as Western European and American regimes. They no longer believe in the foundations of the Republic: "Vox Populi, Vox Dei": the voice of the people is the voice of God.

The political establishment, when the public does not agree with their policies about illegal immigration and the protection of national identity, prefers to blame the voters for immaturity, stupidity or fascism. 

So as the voters persist in retaining their views for national identity and against illegal immigration, the elites in Greece are replacing the native population by giving the illegal immigrants citizenship.

That is their solution to the migration crisis and Greece's economic meltdown, from failed authoritarian policies of the unelected, unaccountable and untransparent EU. What is happening in Greece, as in much of Europe, is actually a massive replacement of its population, values and way of life. There is only one way now to save what is left of Greece: The British way. Exit. Now.

Khadija Khan : Sharia Councils and Sexual Abuse in Britain

Sharia Councils and Sexual Abuse in Britain

by Khadija Khan
April 14, 2017 at 5:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10191/sharia-councils-sexual-abuse

• As bad as this is, there is an even darker side to the story: Under sharia law, the second husband is under no obligation to give his wife a quick divorce – allowing him to keep her as his virtual sex slave for as long as he wishes.
• If one asks how all of this jibes with British law, the answer is that it does not.
• The UK-based NGO, Muslim Women's Network, penned an open letter -- with 100 signatories -- to the British government and Home Affairs Select Committee demanding that the Sharia Council be investigated to determine whether its practices adhere to British law. In response, the Sharia Council declared the letter to be "Islamophobic" and accused the Muslim Women's Network of being an anti-Muslim organization.
• It is British law, not sharia, law that protects Muslim individuals and couples, as it does any other citizen. Contrary to what apologists for this travesty say, the plight of Muslim women should be treated as an issue of human rights.

The most recent scandal surrounding the sexual exploitation of Muslim women by Islamic religious leaders in the UK is yet further proof of the way in which Britain is turning a blind eye to horrific practices going on right under its nose.
A BBC investigation into "halala" -- a ritual enabling a divorced Muslim woman to remarry her husband by first wedding someone else, consummating the union, and then being divorced by him -- revealed that imams in Britain are not only encouraging this, but profiting financially from it. This depravity has led to many such women being held hostage, literally and figuratively, to men paid to become their second husbands.

This ritual, which is considered a misinterpretation of Islamic sharia law even by extremist Shi'ites and Saudi-style Salafists, is practiced by certain Islamic sects, such as Hanafis, Barelvis and Deobandis. When a husband repeats the Arabic word for divorce -- talaq -- three times to his wife, these sects consider a Muslim marriage null and void. For such a woman to be allowed to return to the husband who banished her, she must first marry someone else -- and have sex with him -- before the second husband divorces her.

These divorce rites, despite the laws of the land, are common in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and other Asian countries, where a majority of the people belong to the Hanafi, Barelvi or Deobandi sects. Nevertheless, local seminaries, mosques and online services openly advertise and promote halala with impunity; it is accepted by society and rarely monitored by state authorities.

In Britain, halala has emerged as a booming business, with websites and social media sites offering to provide women with second husbands for exorbitant sums of money. As bad as this is, there is an even darker side to the story: Under sharia law, the second husband is under no obligation to give his wife a quick divorce -- allowing him to keep her as his virtual sex slave for as long as he wishes.

One Muslim woman, who changed her mind about going through with halala after looking into the process, told the BBC that she knew others who did undergo the process, and ended up being sexually abused for months by the second husbands paid to marry them. According to a report in The Guardian, the Sharia Council of Britain says it deals with hundreds of divorce cases annually.

This infamous council is indirectly responsible for what essentially has become a rape pandemic, since it does nothing to stop or refute halala. In fact, it declares that the practice is completely legal under sharia law. The only caveat, the council states, is that the imams presiding over it are not following the proper guidelines, according to which the second marriage and divorce should not be premeditated, but rather happen naturally.

If one asks how all of this jibes with British law, the answer is that it does not. But young Muslims in the UK are discouraged by their communities from marrying through the British system, and are told to have imams perform their weddings and sharia councils register their marriages. Couples who comply end up being at the mercy of Islamic authorities in family matters, including divorce.

Due to its often unethical practices conducted in the name of religious law, the Sharia Council has come under scrutiny a number of times. Last November, for instance, the UK-based NGO, Muslim Women's Network, penned an open letter -- with 100 signatories -- to the British government and Home Affairs Select Committee demanding that the Sharia Council be investigated to determine whether its practices adhere to British law.

In response, the Sharia Council declared the letter to be "Islamophobic" and accused the Muslim Women's Network of being an anti-Muslim organization. In addition, Labour MP Naz Shah jumped to the defense of the Sharia Council, rejecting the idea of an inquiry, on the grounds that shutting down such councils could mean that more women would be stuck in abusive marriages.

While acknowledging that these councils could be used as a tool to deny women their rights, Shah said that they also serve as valuable arbitrators in marital disputes.

Her claims are totally baseless. It is British law, not sharia, law that protects Muslim individuals and couples, as it does any other citizen.

Haitham al-Haddad is a British shari'a council judge, and sits on the board of advisors for the Islamic Sharia Council. Regarding the handling of domestic violence cases, he stated in an interview, "A man should not be questioned why he hit his wife, because this is something between them. Leave them alone. They can sort their matters among themselves." (Image source: Channel 4 News video screenshot)

Had the British government addressed Sharia Council malpractice when it was first revealed, we would not be facing this pandemic today. Contrary to what apologists for this travesty say, the plight of Muslim women should be treated as an issue of human rights.

It is time for the British government to wake up and take a tough stand on such unethical, and probably illegal, system. And the sooner the better, lest the whole sharia council system go "underground" and out of reach to protect thousands of women from abuse.

Khadija Khan is a Pakistan-based journalist and commentator.