Monday Post

There is no global warming.


The biggest news is the guilty verdict handed down at the Shafia trial.


What is (sadly) expected is the same self-pitying alleged lack of awareness from everyone's favourite victim group (not the gays this time):

The Shafia murder trial has cast a shadow over Canada's Islamic community, further tarnishing an image that has not yet recovered from the events of 911.

Muslims across the country, however, say the revelations in a Kingston, Ont., courtroom have shone a light on problematic aspects of their culture and illuminated new ways to tackle the issues.

For months Muslims say they've recoiled in horror at testimony alleging three members of the Shafia family plotted the deaths of four others in what prosecutors describe as an attempt to restore family honour.

The crown alleged three teenage Shafia sisters were killed after bringing shame upon the family by dating, shunning traditional religious garb and skipping school. The fourth victim, the family patriarch's first wife in a polygamous marriage, allegedly endured years of abuse and feared for her life in the weeks before she died.

Justice Robert Maranger, who presided over the case, noted Sunday how difficult it is to conceive of a crime more "despicable," "heinous" and "honourless."

"The apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameful murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your completely twisted concept of honour...that has absolutely no place in any civilized society."

Crown attorney Gerard Laarhuis suggested the verdict is a reflection of Canadian values and ultimately a rejection of those where freedom is denied.

"This verdict sends a very clear message about our Canadian values and the core principles in a free and democratic society that all Canadians enjoy and even visitors to Canada enjoy," he said.

Rona Ambrose, Canada's minister for status of women, took to Twitter to comment: #Shafia. Honour motivated violence is NOT culture, it is barbaric violence against women. Canada must never tolerate such misogyny as culture."

While many Muslims blanch at the term "honour killing," believing it to be a misrepresentation of the faith they practice, they say the deaths of the four Shafia women reveal the need to take a stronger stand against domestic violence in the community.

Days before Mohammad Shafia, his son Hamed and his wife Tooba Yahya were each found guilty of four counts of first-degree murder, one Ontario city launched a program meant to stop such slayings from taking place in the future.

The Family Honour Project, launched by the Muslim Resource Centre for Social Support and Integration in London, Ont., is an initiative specifically targeting the sort of violence that allegedly took place in the Shafia home.

Centre board member Saleha Khan said plans for the project were afoot long before the case came to trial, but said the story has given the initiative even more urgency.

Despite the fact that honour-based violence occurs in many different cultures besides Islam, the stereotypes revived by coverage of the Shafia trial could further isolate Muslim women, she said.

"It's really turned into an us vs. them," Khan said in a telephone interview. "It's basically created that kind of divide where...now, because of the kind of savagery that's been painted on that, people who possibly would be victimized won't come forward."

Enough.


First of all, a parent who kills his or her child incurs no penalty under Islamic law:

What's more, a manual of Islamic law certified as a reliable guide to Sunni orthodoxy by Al-Azhar University, the most respected authority in Sunni Islam, says that "retaliation is obligatory against anyone who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right." However, "not subject to retaliation" is "a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring's offspring." ('Umdat al-Salik o1.1-2).

(thank you)



Mohammad himself had a low opinion of women and it is he who is the model of malehood in Islam:

Muhammad beat his wives.

... He (Muhammad) struck me (Aisha) on the chest which caused me pain ... (Muslim: bk. 4, no. 2127)

Muhammad's companions also beat his wives and other women.

... (Umar) found the Prophet sitting sad and silent with his wives around him. ... (Umar) decided to say something which would make the Prophet laugh, so he said, "Messenger of God, I wish you had seen the daughter of Kharija when she asked me for extra money and I got up and slapped her on the neck." God's messenger laughed and said, "They are around me as you see asking for extra money." Abu Bakr then got up, went to A'isha and slapped her on the neck, and Umar did the same to Hafsa. (Mishkat Al-Masabih: vol. 2, p. 690; Muslim: bk. 9, no. 3506, Siddiqui)
Narrated Aisha: A necklace of mine was lost at Al-Baida' and we were on our way to Medina. The Prophet made his camel kneel down and dismounted and laid his head on my lap and slept. Abu Bakr came to me and hit me violently on the chest and said, "You have detained the people because of a necklace." ... (Bukhari: vol. 6, bk. 60, no. 132, Khan)

Muhammad's companions beat their own wives.

Iyas b. Abdullah reported God's messenger as saying, "Do not beat God's handmaidens;" but when `Umar came to God's messenger and said, "The women have become emboldened towards their husbands," he gave licence to beat them. Then many women went round God's messenger's family complaining of their husbands, and he said, "Many women have gone around complaining of their husbands. Those are not the best among you." Abu Dawud, Ibn Majah, and Darimi transmitted it. (Mishkat Al-Masabih: vol. 2, p. 692)

In the Qur'an Muhammad commanded that beating was part of the process for controlling a rebellious wife.

And those (wives) you fear may be rebellious admonish; banish them to their couches, and beat them. (Qur'an 4:34, Arberry)
`Umar reported the Prophet as saying, "A man will not be asked about why he beat his wife." Abu Dawud and Ibn Majah transmitted it. (Mishkat Al-Masabih: vol. 2, p. 693)

A woman has the right not to be hit in the face.

Hakim b. Mu`awiya al-Qushairi quoted his father as telling that he asked, "Messenger of God, what right can any wife demand of her husband?" He replied, "That you should give her food to eat, clothe her when you clothe yourself, not strike her on the face, and do not revile her or seperate from her except in the house." Ahmad, Abu Dawud and Ibn Majah transmitted it. (Mishkat Al-Masabih: vol. 2, p. 691)

The husband's right to beat his wife is Shariah law in every school of Islam.

Honour killings are well-documented:

A June 2008 report by Turkey's Human Rights Directorate says that in Istanbul alone, there is one honour killing every week and over 1,000 were killed during the last five years.

In the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, it is believed that three-four women are killed every month in the name of saving honour. The Palestinian Authority follows the Jordanian law, which gives men reduced punishment for killing wives or female relatives if they have brought dishonour to the family.

Similarly, Article 548 of Syria's Penal Code states that if a person catches his wife or sister "committing adultery (called flagrante delicto) or illegitimate sexual acts with another and if he kills or injures one or both of them", he should benefit from a reduced penalty which should not be less than two years in prison.

In Morocco, Article 418 of Penal Code grants "extenuating circumstances" to a husband who murders or injures his wife for "flagrante delicto". About 200 women are killed each year in such fashion in the country, as per private estimates.

According to IRIN, the news branch of the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, as many as 133 women were killed in the Iraqi city of Basra alone in 2006 -- of them 47 were honour killings and 79 for violation of "Islamic teachings".

Now that we have these incredibly pertinent facts in full view, let's dispense with the constant state of victimhood the Muslim community likes hiding in whenever they are caught and must face the- how shall we say?- less comfortable aspects of their seventh century culture. The coverage of the Shafias won't isolate women but bring to the fore what we have known all along and refuse to talk about- that these "honour killings" (for lack of a better term) are ugly and accepted practices and are going on as we speak. Hiding it, as Miss Khan suggests we do, isolates women from getting the help they need and keeps hidden this barbaric practice. The more we shed light on this, the more we force ourselves to admit that so-called honour killings are disgusting and the more we are likely to make (hopefully) the Muslim community face them and force them to ask what kind of lives they want to live in this (ostensibly) liberal democracy where plotting and carrying out murders is horrific. Imagine turning a blind eye to spousal abuse next door. Could we do that? Where, then, is our courage now? Perhaps we can question our cowardice and moral equivalence while we're at it.


Moving on....



PLEASE contact Vic Toews, Minister of Public Safety, and have him refuse to sign the prisoner transfer agreement that would have Omar Khadr back on Canadian soil and eventually freed.



China and Japan need oil:

The shutdown in Sudanese oil supply could drive up already record premiums on spot crude markets as top Sudan customers China and Japan scramble for alternatives even as they weigh the impact on oil flows of international sanctions on Iran.


South Sudan has shut down its oil output, estimated at around 350,000 barrels per day (bpd), as it and neighbour Sudan row over how to disentangle their oil industries, borders and debt.

Before the shutdown, China imported most of that volume, bringing in around 260,000 bpd in 2011, according to Chinese customs data. That loss, in addition to cuts China has made in imports from Iran as Beijing and Tehran bicker over contract terms, has left China looking for alternatives equivalent to around 10 percent of its imports, or around 545,000 bpd.

"It will be a challenge to try to meet the shortfall in supply due to this sudden disruption as the overall quantity is not really that small," said Victor Shum, senior partner at oil consultancy Purvin & Gertz said.

"Overall this is a tighter supply situation for Asian refiners."

The regional spot market is unlikely to provide much relief because of limited availability due to a spurt in demand from Japan for power generation after a devastating earthquake crippled nuclear facilities last year.

Japan is more than welcome to our oil because they don't do this:

Critics of the Sudanese regime contend that Chinese money is also supporting the country's military and its militia allies in Darfur. Human Rights First argues that, in return for access to oil fields to help motor its growing economy, China provides Sudan with Chinese weaponry such as assault rifles, heavy machine guns, and mortars. China not only is Sudan's largest economic partner, but also its "military mentor, advising its army and giving it guns," says the report. Citing U.N. and Sudanese government data, the report states that China sold $3 million in small arms to Khartoum in 2003; that number reached more than $55 million by 2006. 

Or this:

China’s censorship system is complex and multilayered. The outer layer is generally known as the “great firewall” of China, through which hundreds of thousands of websites are blocked from view on the Chinese Internet. What this system means in practice is that when one goes online from an ordinary commercial Internet connection inside China and tries to visit a website such as hrw.org, the website belonging to Human Rights Watch, the web browser shows an error message saying, “This page cannot be found.” This blocking is easily accomplished because the global Internet connects to the Chinese Internet through only eight “gateways,” which are easily “filtered.” At each gateway, as well as among all the different Internet service providers within China, Internet routers — the devices that move the data back and forth between different computer networks — are all configured to block long lists of website addresses and politically sensitive keywords.

Or maybe this:

The diplomatic sources pointed out the possibility that the attempted export of chemical weapons reagents was conducted through China, as in past smuggling cases involving North Korea. [….] As long as Beijing does not stop neutralizing the sanctions against Pyongyang, it will be impossible to prevent arms smuggling by North Korea, the sources said,...

No blood for oil.



Visit Israel. Iraq wouldn't like it. 



Because he's Ezra Levant:

And so, despite conclusive evidence of Khadr's crimes, including video footage of Khadr assembling terrorist bombs, the Obama administration offered Khadr a plea bargain. He would be sentenced to eight years for his terrorist crimes but need serve only a single year in a U.S. prison.

After that, he could be returned to Canada, where he would be eligible for full parole immediately.

That deal was accepted by Khadr on Oct. 13, 2010, but its terms were kept secret from the U.S. jury at Guantanamo Bay that still met to sentence Khadr. They handed him a forty-year sentence.

Forty years, pled down to one year. That's a 97.5% discount.

But the deal wasn't just between Obama's prosecutors and Khadr.

Canada played an essential part in issuing the get-out-of-jail-free card. Without Canada's diplomatic assurances, the promise of a transfer back to Canada, and to freedom, would have been meaningless.

Without Ottawa's nod at allowing a confessed and convicted al Qaeda terrorist back on to Canadian soil, Khadr wouldn't have accepted the plea and Obama's prosecutors wouldn't have offered it. In fact, the deal specifically promised that the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs would give Khadr a "diplomatic note" confirming their support for the plea deal.

So, Canada's Conservative government, which had for years so vigorously fought off court challenges to compel them to bring Khadr back to Canada, battling a full court press of public attacks from Khadr's personal lobby in the media, the legal profession, and opportunist politicians throughout, suddenly gave everything away in a fire sale.

Just disgusting.



Oh look- the Occupests (TM) are anti-semites. Did not see that coming.



(With thanks)



And now, a T-Rex with a lot of gumption.