Islam's Rosa Parks moment?
Islam's Rosa Parks moment?
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None dare speak its name
This is a real shame. Just compare how often Islam is connected to terrorism and how seldom it is linked to women's rights. The discussion is certainly skewed.
-- Dutch parliament member--and fugitive from Isalmist death threats--Aayan Hirsi Ali, on the fact that the parliament of Strasbourg, France, omitted references to "Islam" from printed material accompanying its debate on women's rights.
(Raphael Minder, Financial Times)
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I've written about this issue before, now here's a supporting view on the worrisome trend in Iraq militias.
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Damned if you do, damned if you don't
Why don't they realize that once America makes a case for something, the Middle East will go in the opposite direction? Hezbollah is a terrorist organization, but now its hand is strengthened because of American opposition.
-- an unnamed Arab diplomat, speaking about a perceived "backlash" to U.S. demands that Syria withdraw from Lebanon and the Hezbollah disarm.
Somehow, it seems unlikely that if Washington began encouraging the nations of the Middle East to drive Israel into the sea, subject women to shari'a and blame the Western world for all their problems, peaceful co-existence, equal rights and a spirit of Muslim self-criticism would sweep the region. Just a hunch on my part.
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Number One with a bullet
Turkish people love this stuff.
-- Ankara book store manager Rukan Binerbay, explaining the appeal of a surprising best-seller in his country called Kavgam, which has sold an estimated 100,000 copies We in the West know this book by another name: Mein Kampf.
(Vincent Boland, Financial Times)
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Overpriced tickets. Oppressive commercials. Overloud and over violent trailers. Michael Moore. Sequels. Whoopie Goldberg. The Oscars. "Not in Our Name." Did I mention Michael Moore? Well, here's another reason to boycott the movies.
And here's a visual.
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"Majority of Iranians want to emigrate," via Regime Change Iran.
This comes as no surprise. The Iranians have long wearied of the theocratic despotism they so fervently welcomed 25 years ago. "We live in a nation where to survive you must be dishonest with people and yourself," our guide told Warrior Woman and I when we spent a month in the country in 2000. During that time, numerous Iranians approached us to ask in halting English, "Can you help me get to the United States?"
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Children beheaded in Iraq. A cri de coeur from Hammorabi.
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Our friends the Uzbeks.
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Taking it to the streets
Hundreds of people braved freezing temperatures on Saturday [March 5] to march through the streets of Berlin's Turkish community, in a rare public protest at the rise in "honour killings" in the city.
The protesters, including many Turkish women and a few Turkish men, took the streets following the killing last month of Hatun Surucu, a 23-year-old Turkish woman shot dead in a south Berlin street.
And here's another street demonstration, this one in Kuwait.
Hopefully similar protests will take place here.
(Credit: WLUML)
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Cross-dressing, Saudi-style.