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UAE relaxes Islamic laws to allow alcohol consumption, sex outside marriage & criminalizes ‘honor killings’ – state media
7 Nov, 2020 15:30
Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, in Dubai. © Reuters / Tarek Fahmy
The UAE has moved to revise its Islamic personal laws, loosening restrictions on alcohol and cohabitation of unmarried couples as well as scrapping lenient penalties for “honor killings,” the state media said.
The changes, which were announced on Saturday by the government-run WAM news agency, are intended to “consolidate the UAE’s principles of tolerance” and improve the Gulf nation’s economic and social profile. However, the agency didn’t specify when the new relaxed rules will go into force.
Penalties for alcohol consumption, possession and sales for those 21 and over will be eliminated in the Muslim country, which positions itself as a more Westernized tourist hotspot than other areas in the region. UAE citizens previously required a special license to drink beer and other liquors at bars or at home.
The reform will also allow “cohabitation of unmarried couples.” Such behavior has been considered criminal in UAE for a long time, though the law was rarely enforced against expats living in the financial hub of Dubai and other emirates.
The legal clause which allowed the judges to issue merciful sentences to men who commit a so-called “honor killing” has also been removed. Those crimes will from now be treated as a regular murder.
That's not great, but it's progress.
According to human rights groups, every year thousands of females in the Middle East and South Asia become victims of “honor killings,” which are carried out by relatives against women and girls who somehow violate Islamic laws and bring ‘shame’ on the family.
But murdering your daughters, strangling them, setting them on fire - that brings honor!!!! What madness!
The reform comes amid the US-brokered normalization of ties between longtime regional foes UAE and Israel, which is expected to bring investment and numerous Israeli tourists to the Gulf country.
Dubai is also hosting the World Expo in 2021-22. It’s planned that some 25 million people will visit the country for the major international event, greatly boosting economic activity in the UAE. The expo was initially scheduled to take place this year, but was moved due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Pakistan: Imam defends family of assassinated bank manager
accused of blasphemy
Published: November 07, 2020 18:21
Zubair Qureshi, Correspondent, Gulf News
A local imam is being seen as the savior of an assassinated bank manager’s family after he came to their defence and rubbished allegations of blasphemy. Image Credit: Pixabay
Islamabad: A local imam is being seen as the savior of an assassinated bank manager’s family after he came to their defence and rubbished allegations of the accused murderer, a security guard working in the same bank, that the manager had committed blasphemy.
A court of Khushab sent the accused, security guard Ahmed Nawaz to 14-day judicial remand. Nawaz had shot bank manager Malik Imran Hanif dead inside the bank on charges of blasphemy.
In his short speech after the funeral prayers, Maulana Izhar Hussain the local prayer leader in Punjab’s district Khushab where the incident took place on November 4, made it clear the allegations were baseless and the act of killing could never be justified.
The netizens have also condemned the incident calling it a barbaric act. TV anchor Zarrar Khuhro called it a sad and tragic act and at the same time something ‘inevitable.’
The role of the imam however has been the subject of debate and a number of newspapers have even written editorials on him calling a savior and defender of the poor family.
Maulana Hussain who also led the funeral prayers for the bank manager termed his murder unjust and the act of the security guard unfair having no legal or moral basis.
In his sermon, Maulana Hussain told people to seek God’s forgiveness because the bank manager was an innocent man.
“I have seen him a number of times offering prayers and I have been told by other prayer leaders and common Muslims that they too had seen Hanif offering prayers in mosques and he was a good-natured man,” said Maulana Hussain in his sermon.
And even if he weren't, even if he did blaspheme Mohammed, does that give the security guard the right to kill him? it seems like a step toward civilization for someone to stand up against the spontaneous murder of a man accused of blasphemy.
Unfortunately, this is an exception, not a precedent...
Saudi Sharia Court helps woman to get married without father’s consent
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Saudi women cannot marry without a male guardian’s permission
Published: November 08, 2020 16:30
Khitam Al Amir, Senior Staff Writer, Gulf News
The Saudi Sharia Court has helped a woman to get married without her father’s permission.
Image Credit: iStockphoto
Dubai: The Saudi Sharia Court helped a woman get married without her father’s permission after it found that he refused all men proposed to her.
The court ordered the transfer of the father’s guardianship to a Sharia guardian after she filed a complaint against him for refusing all her marriage proposals.
The woman, and the man who proposed to her, attended the court hearing where he told the judge that he wanted to marry her. The father, who was called to attend the hearing, failed to show up.
The Saudi Ministry of Justice announced that the court issued its judgment in five days as per regulations by the Supreme Judiciary Council to speed up the Sharia Court’s rulings on such cases.
Male guardian
Under Saudi customary law, every Saudi woman is required to have a male guardian, often her father. The guardian has the power to make a range of critical decisions for a Saudi woman.
Because in devout Islam, women are not capable of making critical decisions for themselves.
In May, the Judicial Committee of the Saudi Shura Council turned down a proposal submitted by a female council member to allow women to marry without the permission of a male guardian.
According to a Saturday report by Al Riyadh, Eqbal Darandari’s proposal called on the Ministry of Justice to work with the Supreme Judicial Council to amend the necessary laws and permit adult women to marry a partner on their own.
The council, which is the formal advisory body of the kingdom, rejected the proposal, saying a male guardian’s presence is a key condition to legislate a marriage.
Pakistani presence in rights council ‘intolerable’,
says UN-accredited NGO
The NGO’s, that monitors the performance of the United Nations, condemnation comes after Pakistan government defended the beheading of a French teacher in Paris.
Updated: Nov 08, 2020, 16:15 IST
Asian News International | Posted by Deepali Sharma
The NGO had pointed out Pakistan ranks in the bottom 20 per cent of the Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF)
world press freedom index. (REUTERS)
Pakistan’s presence in the United Nations Human Rights Council is “intolerable” given its rights record, said Geneva-based NGO UN Watch, adding that religious minorities in the south Asian country suffer from discrimination, sectarian violence and forced conversions.
The NGO’s, that monitor the performance of the United Nations, condemnation comes after Pakistan government defended the beheading of a French teacher in Paris by an Islamic terrorist by claiming that the blasphemy in the garb of freedom of expression is ‘intolerable’.
French President Emmanuel Macron has been facing criticism from various Muslim-majority countries after he took a tough stand on radical Islam and defended cartoons of Prophet Muhammad.
Macron’s remarks did not go well with Pakistan Prime Minister Khan who slammed the French President, saying that he has “chosen to deliberately provoke Muslims”.
In a reply to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s remark ‘Blasphemy in the garb of freedom of expression is intolerable’, the UN watch said: “Your presence on the U.N. Human Rights Council is intolerable.”
In another tweet, the UN Watch shared a statement dated September 28 where it has presented its views against the election of Pakistan in the rights council. In October, Pakistan was re-elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council despite opposition from activist groups over its abysmal human rights records.
Blasphemy laws are exploited to attack and persecute members of religious minorities, particularly Christians, the document stated.
“Religious minorities in Pakistan suffer from discrimination, sectarian violence and forced conversions. A Christian mother of five, Asia Bibi spent eight years on death row in Pakistan for blasphemy after she got into a dispute with local Muslim women over a cup of water. Two Pakistani politicians were killed for supporting her,” read the document.
The NGO had pointed out Pakistan ranks in the bottom 20 percent of the Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF) world press freedom index.
Pakistani children are subjected to multiple forms of violence and abuse including exploitative labour practices, sexual abuse and child marriage, the NGO had stated in the document.
“According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, Pakistan has the sixth-highest number of child brides in the world. Human Rights Watch (HRW) reports that “an average of 11 cases of child sexual abuse are reported daily across Pakistan,” including of girls as young as 5. Furthermore, child labour remains a serious problem, including the sale of children into domestic servitude and kidnapping,” the NGO stated.
And that's on a good day. Don't forget the frequent gang-rapes and murders of little children, honour killings, and so many other horrible stories that make Pakistan one of the worst places in the world to be a child.
Returning Pakistan to the Human Rights Council is just another example of how ridiculous and absurd the UN has become.
At least 11, including civilians, killed in reported ISIS attack on security post west of Baghdad - report
8 Nov, 2020 22:52
FILE PHOTO © REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani
Five members of a tribal militia and six locals were reportedly killed in an attack on an outpost outside of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. The assault was launched by the ISIS terror group, AFP reported, citing security sources.
The attack took place in the area of al-Radhwaniya late Sunday, as militants attempted to take control over a monitoring outpost, overlooking the outskirts west of Baghdad, the agency reported, citing security sources.
The militants who descended on the tower in four vehicles targeted the outpost with grenades and rained down fire on the members of tribal Hashed forces, affiliated with the Iraqi government. The showdown apparently prompted locals to come to help fend off the onslaught.
"ISIS attacked the monitoring tower, killing five members of the tribal Hashed and six local people who had come to help repel the attack," it cited a security source as saying.
Apart from 11 people that were killed in the assault, eight others were injured and taken to hospital, according to health officials. The Iraqi army and police have launched a manhunt for the attackers, Reuters reported, citing sources.
The site of the attack is located some 22 km (14 mi) to the south of the Baghdad International Airport.
The Iraqi government declared a victory over the Islamic State as far back as in December 2017 after three years of fierce fighting with the self-proclaimed “caliphate,” which seized around a third of the Iraqi territory in 2014.
While by the end of 2017 the Iraqi government managed to recapture the swathes of territory once held by the militants, the occupation by the militants and the bombing campaign by the US-led coalition has left a trail of destruction, with the northern city of Mosul, once home to about 1,8 million people, turning into a pile of ruins and a symbol of devastation suffered by the Iraqi people after it was “liberated” by the international coalition together with the Iraqi military in July 2017.
Israel Bars Terror-Praising Muslim Cleric From Temple Mount
Top Palestinian imam called terrorist beheading of French teacher a “great honor” for all Muslims
November 8, 2020 | TPS
Palestinian Muslims atop the Temple Mount Sliman Khader/Flash90
Islamic scholar Sheikh Issam Amira was issued a ban from the Temple Mount on Saturday after he called the beheading of French teacher Samuel Paty last month by a Muslim terrorist a "great honor for all Muslims" during his weekly sermon at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
"When a Muslim of Chechen origin beheaded an infidel who slandered the Prophet Muhammad, people called this 'terrorism'… Well, it is a great honor for him and all Muslims that there was such a young man to defend the Prophet Muhammad. He is like the men and women who, throughout history, defended the Prophet Muhammad, his sanctity, and his honor. All these terms will be re-engineered, once the word of Allah reigns supreme over the word of the infidels," Amira declared.
The Jerusalem Police summoned Amira for investigation after he praised the terrorist who beheaded the French teacher. He was released at the end of the interrogation and was banned from the Temple Mount.
The police summoned the cleric following an official complaint submitted on Friday by the Arab Desk of the Zionist watchdog Im Tirtzu, which learned of Amira's remarks from the Middle East Media Research Institute that publicized a translation of the sermon the previous day.
Im Tirtzu also noted in its police complaint that Amira's presence on the Temple Mount was in violation of a six-month ban that was issued to him by the police in September.
Amira has a long history of inciting violence during his sermons at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which have included praise for the Islamic State (ISIS), encouragement of honor killings, and urging Jihad, Islamic holy war, against the Jews.
Why is he even allowed in the country?
Amira is a leader of the extreme Tahrir movement which espouses ISIS-like ideas and has black ISIS-styled flags hanging in his office.
Amira has called for the establishment of a caliphate, a Muslim state ruled according to Sharia law, which would "deliver the call for Islam to the whole world," and said that the enemies of Islam are America and Europe.
ie Christian countries.
The establishment of an Islamic state "requires destroying all the [foreign] entities in the Islamic world. Make no exception. Show no mercy or compassion to any of those entities," he stated during a sermon at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem in July 2015.
Amira has called for the killing of "anyone who is not Muslim and also a Muslim who does not adopt such an approach," and those who are not Muslim "do not deserve a comfortable life and we must kill them."
Im Tirtzu's Arab Desk called the cleric a "radical and dangerous person who regularly incites against Israel and against the free world."
"We welcome the response of the police and expect that this sheikh will be prosecuted and held accountable for his radical and illegal actions. The blood of the citizens of Israel is not cheap," added Im Tirtzu.
Do the Israelis have the courage to prosecute this war-monger? I doubt it.
