Magic Statistics

Islamists in Pakistan and Gaza have gone berserk against all kinds of unIslamic stuff.  The list of targets is very long.

In Gaza today, jihadists shot up a children’s school sporting event.

Muslim extremists attacked a children's festival at a U.N.-run elementary school Sunday, killing a politician's bodyguard and wounding seven people in the latest incident of lawlessness engulfing the Gaza Strip.

The gun and homemade bomb attack on the U.N. school in the southern Gaza refugee camp of Rafah began with a protest by Muslim extremists in long robes, who said a sports festival the school was hosting was un-Islamic. One protester's sign said the U.N. "is turning schools into nightclubs."

Children’s school festivals can be added to their litany of pet peeves: music shops, restaurants, pharmacies, internet cafes, pool halls, and women.  They disapprove of women don’t wear the hijab and women who behave “immorally”—i.e., appear in public without a male relative as an escort.

In Pakistan, Islamic extremists set up a roadblock, searched cars, destroyed electronic gadgets, and intimidated clean-shaven passengers.

Some 200 gun-toting Islamist militants smashed car cassette players and mobile phone cameras yesterday and ordered tribesmen in a Pakistani region to grow beards, part of a drive to impose Taliban-style values.

The militants took up positions beside a road near Khar, the main town of Bajaur tribal region in northwestern Pakistan, and stopped and searched passing vehicles.

"They smashed cassette players running music and mobile phones fitted with cameras," a driver said.

These folks really hate music.

Militants attacked music shops with explosive devices in the town of Charsadda in neighbouring North West Frontier Province, destroying at least five.

Some young Muslim women hate moderate Islam, blaming it for the spread of obscenity.

Female students from the Jamia Hafsa or ‘red’ madrassa in the Pakistani capital yesterday called upon the prayer leader of the Grand Mosque to issue a fatwa or religious decree against the “spread of obscenity in the name of enlightened moderation” of some Muslims.

The request was made in a letter submitted to Religious Minister Ejazul Haq. In it the young fundamentalist women ask the government to help obtain this decree and criticise a female minister in President Pervez Musharraf’s cabinet for jumping with a parachute, an action they consider “un-Islamic.”

Add parachute jumping to the index of unIslamic activities.

What next, you ask?  Check out this conversation outside the court where Azerbaijani journalists Rafik Tagi and Samir Sadagatoglu were sentenced to prison for “insulting Islam”.

Outside the courtroom, a journalist covering the trial and an Islamist had a heated discussion.

"I'm a Muslim," the journalist said. "Look, I'm holding a Koran in my hand. I listen to the Prophet."

"You call yourself a good Muslim? You're chewing gum," the Islamist replied.

h/t for Gulf Daily News link: Dhimmi Watch

Previous related posts:

• Hunting women in Gaza
• Anonymous Islamists threaten schoolgirls
• Tonsorial Taliban beard Pakistani barbers
• Pakistan’s beard police are on the job
• New dress code for women in Gaza
• Pope discusses relationship between reason and faith; Muslims go berserk

Two Azerbaijani journalists have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms for an article published last November that Islamists considered critical of Islam and Mohammed.  The two were originally sentenced to two months each, but that was not enough for the fanatics.

A district court in Baku today sentenced two journalists to jail terms for an article that was deemed to be critical of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad.

Correspondent Rafik Tagi received a three-year prison sentence, while his editor, Samir Sadagatoglu, received a four-year sentence.

Chaotic Courtroom

The scene inside the courtroom was chaotic, with Islamists chanting prayers in an attempt to prevent the lawyer representing Tagi and Sadagatoglu from addressing the court.
. . .
The issue has dominated the front pages of Azerbaijani newspapers and divided the country's society for months. There are two competing issues: on the one hand, freedom of expression; on the other, religious sensitivities in a secular country with a majority Muslim population and a growing number of radical Islamic groups.

In his address to the court after sentencing, Mr Tagi maintained that the verdict was unconstitutional because Azerbaijan’s constitution mandates separation of religion and state.

The two have been told that they will be killed in prison.

Previous related posts:

• Iran calls for death of “blasphemous” journalist
• Azerbaijan’s baby-name police are on the job

Elizabeth May promises to follow a different path than the existing political parties.  Some might wonder whether the path she describes is viable, if not imaginary.

Federal Green Leader Elizabeth May says her party is prepared to do the right thing despite the political consequences.

“The Green party isn’t afraid to be different from the old-line parties," Ms. May said in an interview Saturday at the provincial party’s convention in Cold brook, Kings County.

“There will be a willingness to form alliances and a willingness to tell the truth, even if it hurts you politically, and being inclusive rather than divisive and co-operative rather than competitive — holding on to a level of partisanship that exceeds sense."

Reality check: Politicians who tell unpopular truths are always considered divisive, not inclusive.  The latest example of this political truism is French president-elect Nicolas Sarkozy.

The charismatic but divisive 52-year-old reached out to all French citizens in his first speech as president-elect.

Ms May might also reflect on the career of former Ontario Conservative Premier Mike Harris.  Mr Harris left office over five years ago, but his memory still causes apoplexy among Ontario Liberals.

Ontario Liberals are calling yesterday's nomination of "right-wing radical" Randy Hillier to the Lanark, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington riding as the provincial Conservative candidate a return to the "divisive" Mike Harris days.

Mr Hillier insists he’s only telling the truth.

"There is nothing divisive about equality and freedom and justice," Hillier responded. "Is it radical to stand up and defend prosperity, to defend justice?"

Well, sorry, Mr Hillier, but Liberals perceive any challenge to their political supremacy as divisive.  Ms May, take note.

Jean Chrétien’s political career was hugely successful precisely because he placed inclusivity above truth-telling—indeed, above saying much of anything at all.  He was ultimately brought down by personal flaws—hubris and corruption—not by his policies.

What Elizabeth May proposes is in fact self-contradictory.  It is not possible to be considered “inclusive” and “co-operative” if one tells politically costly truths.

(Note: This post takes no position on whether what Elizabeth May or any other politician says actually qualifies as truth.  They think it does, and that’s what matters here.)

h/t: National News Watch and small dead animals

Previous related posts:

• Canada’s policy on abortion is not to have a policy
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• Judy Rebick pillories Elizabeth May over abortion

The collect for today, The Fourth Sunday After Easter, from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer:

O Almighty God, who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men; Grant unto thy people, that they may love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise; that so, among the sundry and manifold changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed, where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: St James 1:17-21
The Gospel: St John 16:5-15