Pakistan to Blame for Its Own ‘Bad Name’ - Malala Yousafzai

Yousafzai made the comments in a Facebook video. © Darren Ornitz / Reuters

Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai hit out at Pakistan following the lynching of a university student accused of blasphemy. Mashal Khan was stripped naked and beaten to death with planks on a campus in the city of Mardin after a reported religious debate.

“No one is maligning the name of your country or religion…we ourselves are bringing a bad name to our country and religion,” Yousafzai said in a video posted to Facebook following a conversation with Khan’s father.

A caretaker at the college told Reuters that journalism student Khan, 23, who described himself as a Humanist on his Facebook page, was involved in a religious debate before he was killed on Thursday.

Khan allegedly brought up the issue of incest in relation to the offspring of Adam and Eve, the first ancestors of all humans according to Islamic, Christian and Judeo-Christian texts.

The debate intensified before attracting a mob of several hundred people, who descended on the dorm where they stripped and beat Khan before caving his skull in with planks, reports Reuters. 20 suspects have been arrested in connection with the murder.

In the video posted to Facebook following the victim’s funeral, Yousafzai said the Holy Prophet did not tell his followers to “be impatient and go around killing people,” claiming some followers have forgotten the message of peace and were not representing their religion.

'Impatient' is a bit of an understatement. 'Hysterical' is more accurate. And there are lots of references in Islamic scriptures where Mohammed tells people to go around killing infidels. I accused Malala, whom I believe to be a genuine heroine, of naivety yesterday. I still think she is deceived by the myth of 'the religion of peace'.

“This was not just the funeral of Mashal Khan, it was the funeral of the message of our religion Islam,” she said. “This is an incident filled with terror and fear.”

Insulting the Prophet Mohammed is a capital crime in Pakistan punishable by anything from a small fine to death, depending on the severity of the slight. Last month, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif issued an order for the removal of blasphemous content online, adding that anyone found guilty of the offence would face, "strict punishment under the law."

Muslim Mob Parades Elderly Christian Woman Through Streets of Cairo - Naked

Armed Muslim mob in Egypt attacks elderly Christian woman, parades her naked through streets of Cairo 

Coptic Christians walk outside St. Markos Church in Minya, south of Cairo, Egypt. A Muslim mob ransacked and torched seven Christian homes in a province south of the Egyptian capital, Cairo, after rumors spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman, according to a statement by the local Orthodox Coptic church. (ROGER ANIS/AP) 

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CAIRO — An armed Muslim mob stripped an elderly Christian woman and paraded her naked on the streets in an attack last week in which seven Christian homes were also looted and torched in a province south of the Egyptian capital.

According to the local Orthodox Coptic church and security officials, the assault in the Minya province village of Karma on Friday began after rumors spread that the elderly woman’s son had an affair with a Muslim woman — a taboo in conservative Egypt.

Police have arrested six men suspected of taking part in the violence and are looking for 12 more, the security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi called for the culprits to be held accountable and gave the military a month to restore property damaged during the violence, at no cost to the owners.

In a statement issued Thursday by his office, el-Sissi said Egypt appreciates the role of “glorious Egyptian women” and that “the rights and the protection of their dignity are a humanitarian and patriotic commitment before being a legal and constitutional one.”

Anba Makarios, Minya’s top Christian cleric, told a talk show host on the private Dream TV network that the 70-year-old woman was dragged out of her home by the mob who beat her and insulted her before they stripped her off her clothes and forced her to walk through the streets as they chanted Allahu Akbar, or “God is great.”

Yeah, because that's how you glorify God, right?

The woman reported the incident to the police five days later, said Makarios, adding that she had initially found it too difficult to “swallow the humiliation” she suffered and go to the police.

Attiyah Ayad, a 58-year-old farmer from a nearby village who witnessed the attack, described how the mob chanted “we must drive the infidels out” as they looted and burned the Christian homes, one of which belonged to his relatives. He said they were armed with firearms, knifes and sticks.

The religion of peace in action again. Can't you just feel the calm?

“They emptied magazine after magazine, firing in the air to terrorize us,” said Ayad, who suffered a head injury from being hit by a rifle butt and his son Ayad, 30, sustained a deep knife wound in his left shoulder.

The incident, intensely publicized since Wednesday night, has unleashed a flurry of condemnations on social media networks where users blamed the influence of ultraconservative Salafi Muslims for the attacks and derided authorities for not reacting quickly.

The hashtag “Egypt stripped naked” on Twitter gained traction shortly after it was introduced.

Extramarital affairs or sex between unmarried couples are taboo among Muslims and Christians in Egypt. They often attract violent reactions in rural areas, where questions of honor can lead to deadly family feuds that endure for years or result in ostracizing the perpetrators.

Christian men cannot marry Muslim women in Egypt unless they convert to Islam first, but Muslim men can marry Christian women. An affair between a Christian man and a Muslim woman takes such sectarian sensitivities to a much higher and dangerous level and often lead to violence if found out.

According to a statement Wednesday by Makarios, police arrived at the scene of Friday’s violence two hours after the attack began. The family of the Christian man had notified the police of threats against them by Muslim villagers the day before the attack, he added.

“No one did anything and the police took no pre-emptive or security measures in anticipation of the attacks,” the cleric said, speaking in another TV interview, also Wednesday night.

Is there any chance the police were Muslim? 

“We are not living in a jungle or a tribal society,” he told Ahmed Moussa, a prominent, pro-government talk show host on the private Sada el-Balad television.

Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s population of more than 90 million people, have long complained of discrimination in the mostly Muslim nation.

El-Sissi, in office since 2014, has sought to address some of their grievances, changing election laws to allow more Christians into the national legislature and easing restrictions on building new churches and renovating old ones. But many Christians say they are still treated unfairly and are often the victims when in disputes with Muslims.

Discrimination against Christians is somewhat subtle in big cities like Cairo or Alexandria on the Mediterranean, but becomes much more pronounced in provinces where they are a sizable minority like Minya, where they make up about 35 percent of the population, the largest in any of Egypt’s 27 provinces. Minya, like Assiut province farther south, is a traditional stronghold of militant Muslims.

Makarios, in unusually candid comments, said he predicted the crisis in the Minya village will most likely be handled through a government-sponsored meeting of the two sides in which the Christians will be forced to accept “humiliating” conditions for reconciliation.

‘Stone Women! Kill Apostates!’ Denmark’s Pro-ISIS Mosque in New Controversy

The Grimhojvej Mosque. © Yasmine Hassan / YouTube

A leading preacher at a mosque in the Danish city of Aarhus has been filmed advocating death to adulterers, infidels and apostates. Authorities have repeatedly failed to shut down the mosque, which has supplied more ISIS recruits than any other in Denmark.

Filmed for the documentary ‘Mosques behind the Veil’, broadcast on the state-funded TV2 channel, the hidden-camera footage shows a room, in which the bearded imam Abu Bilal Ismail is holding a lesson in front of a blackboard.

“If a married or divorced women engages in fornication, and she is not a virgin, she should be stoned to death. If someone violates their marriage, either man or woman, they commit adultery and they should be killed by stoning. If the woman is a virgin, what should the punishment be?” asks Ismail.

“The lash,” replies a chorus of high-pitched voices. Later footage shows that the preacher is addressing a room of women, with their small children playing, and sat at their feet.


Almost 40 percent of Danish Muslims would like to see the country’s laws based partly on the Koran, according to a poll for Jyllands-Posten. Anti-immigration supporters say the results show “the number of Muslims in Denmark is a problem.”

The survey, conducted by Wilke for Jyllands-Posten, found that over 10 percent of Muslims asked said that Danish law should be solely based on the Koran, while over one-quarter believe the country’s legislation should be a mixture of the Islamic holy book and the Danish constitution.

Ismail then moves onto the treatment of apostates and non-Muslims.

“Anyone who leaves the religion, becomes an apostate, must be killed. If someone does not believe, if he is stubborn and refuses guidance, he must be slain,” continues Ismail. “An infidel who kills a Muslim, deserves to die.”

The man giving the Sharia lesson is no stranger to the authorities. Last year, Ismail, who has given sermons all over Europe, was fined 75,000 Danish Krone ($10,900) for an incitement to “kill the Zionist Jews” in Berlin back in 2014. He has explained that he was “misunderstood,” and that he merely called for “Allah to smite them.”

Meanwhile, the Grimhoj mosque, where the footage was shot, is the most notorious in the country. Out of 100 Danes who have been confirmed as Islamic State fighters in Syria and Iraq, more than 20 were regular worshipers at the nondescript yellow-brick building in Denmark’s second city.

Its chairman Oussam El-Saadi also repeatedly came out in support of Islamic State’s actions in the Middle East, saying that he “hoped that it would come out on top” and that “Muslims deserve to have their own state in the world, without interference from the West.”

Hmmm. There aren't any Muslim states with autonomy? Seriously! What you mean is that all of Europe and the middle east should be an autonomous Muslim state.

When confronted with the latest footage, before the program was broadcast, El-Saadi accused the reporters of entrapment, and claimed that Ismail was exercising his right to free speech.

“When the spy asks him about Sharia, he has to tell the truth. He cannot lie about our religion. But we are Danes, so we follow Danish law. So, the passages about stoning and flogging do not apply here,” reassured El-Saadi.

The police department of East Jutland, the region where the mosque is located, has promised to examine the videos for possible violations of the law.

Politicians have also piled in with criticism.

“What is so shocking is that there are so many cases involving this mosque and that they just keep coming. That is almost the worst thing – that they haven’t learned anything and still practise these types of things and encourage this Stone Age behavior,” said Marcus Knuth, from the center-right Venstre party, which since last year has been leading a minority coalition, with the help of the anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim Danish People's Party.

“These statements I have seen and heard so far over the line that there must be strong action against this. This calls for reactions here and now. The police is a central part, but we must also have the key ministers play their part. This should not take place in Denmark,” said Trine Bramsen, of the center-left Social Democrats.

But practical efforts to shut down the mosque have failed, with Aarhus council saying “the closure will just confirm among the young attendees that democracy is only for the majority.”

A year ago, East Jutland police also publicly congratulated Grimhoj mosque for no longer “saying it is a personal choice whether to go fight in Syria, but instead warning worshipers against it.”

Migrant Crisis: Why Syrians do not Flee to Gulf States

Arab countries, Muslim countries, some of the richest in the world, refuse to take Muslim migrants

By Amira Fathalla
BBC Monitoring
From the section Middle East

Is there something sinister going on here?

Syrian and Afghan refugees demanded the right to travel to Germany at
Keleti (East) railway station in Budapest Getty Images

As the crisis brews over Syrian refugees trying to enter European countries, questions have been raised over why they are not heading to wealthy Gulf states closer to home.

Although those fleeing the Syrian crisis have for several years been crossing into Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey in huge numbers, entering other Arab states - especially in the Gulf - is far less straightforward.

Officially, Syrians can apply for a tourist visa or work permit in order to enter a Gulf state.

But the process is costly, and there is a widespread perception that many Gulf states have unwritten restrictions in place that make it hard for Syrians to be granted a visa in practice.

Syrian refugees standing next to tents at the UN-run Zaatari refugee camp,
north east of the Jordanian capital Amman Getty Images

Most successful cases are Syrians already in Gulf states extending their stays, or those entering because they have family there.

For those with limited means, there is the added matter of the sheer physical distance between Syria and the Gulf.

Not welcome?

This comes as part of wider obstacles facing Syrians, who are required to obtain rarely granted visas to enter almost all Arab countries.

Without a visa, Syrians are not currently allowed to enter Arab countries except for Algeria, Mauritania, Sudan and Yemen.

The relative wealth and proximity to Syria of the states has led many - in both social and as well as traditional media - to question whether these states have more of a duty than Europe towards Syrians suffering from over four years of conflict and the emergence of jihadist groups in the country.

Twitter users have posted powerful images to illustrate the plight of Syrian refugees, with photos of people drowned at sea, children being carried over barbed wire, or families sleeping rough.

A Facebook page called The Syrian Community in Denmark has shared a video showing migrants being allowed to enter Austria from Hungary, prompting one user to ask: "How did we flee from the region of our Muslim brethren, which should take more responsibility for us than a country they describe as infidels?"

Another user replied: "I swear to the Almighty God, it's the Arabs who are the infidels."

Now you're beginning to understand!

'Let them in!'

The story has also attracted the attention of regional press and political actors.

Cartoon originally published in Saudi Makkah newspaper, seen here on Twitter

The caption says, "Why don't you let them in, you discourteous people?!"

The Saudi daily Makkah Newspaper published a cartoon - widely shared on social media - that showed a man in traditional Gulf clothing looking out of a door with barbed wire around it and pointing at door with the EU flag on it.

"Why don't you let them in, you discourteous people?!" he says.

The commander of the opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA), Riyad al-Asaad, retweeted an image of refugees posted by a former Kuwaiti MP, Faisal al-Muslim, who had added the comment: "Oh countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, these are innocent people and I swear they are most deserving of billions in aid and donations."

But despite the appeals from social media, Gulf states' position seems unlikely to shift in favour of Syrian refugees.

The Cayan tower (C), the world's tallest twisted tower stands at Dubai's Marina
Getty Images

In terms of employment, the trend in most Gulf states, such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE is towards relying on migrant workers from South-East Asia and the Indian subcontinent, particularly for unskilled labour.

While non-Gulf Arabs do occupy positions in skilled mid-ranking jobs, for example in education and health, they are up against a "nationalisation" drive whereby the Saudi and Kuwaiti governments in particular are seeking to prioritise the employment of locals.

Non-native residents may also struggle to create stable lives in these countries as it is near impossible to gain nationality.

In 2012, Kuwait even announced an official strategy to reduce the number of foreign workers in the emirate by a million over 10 years.

I could be getting paranoid here, but I wonder if their refusal to take Syrian refugees is a deliberate attempt to populate Europe with a flood of Muslims. In fact, I wonder if some of the unrest in so many Muslim countries is also part of the plot. Just thinking out loud.