Turkey in radical revision of Islamic texts

Most of my posts have the link in the title, above. Click the title above(Turkey in radical revision of Islamic texts) to go to the page that has this article.

Turkey is preparing to publish a document that represents a revolutionary reinterpretation of Islam - and a controversial and radical modernisation of the religion.

The country's powerful Department of Religious Affairs has commissioned a team of theologians at Ankara University to carry out a fundamental revision of the Hadith, the second most sacred text in Islam after the Koran...

It says that a significant number of the sayings were never uttered by Muhammad, and even some that were need now to be reinterpreted...

The argument is that Islamic tradition has been gradually hijacked by various - often conservative - cultures, seeking to use the religion for various forms of social control...

According to Fadi Hakura, an expert on Turkey from Chatham House in London, Turkey is doing nothing less than recreating Islam - changing it from a religion whose rules must be obeyed, to one designed to serve the needs of people in a modern secular democracy.

He says that to achieve it, the state is fashioning a new Islam...

Wow, this is a brave step. It would be great if Islam would get more modernized, but the pessimist in me feels that most Muslims won't accept this.

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A, not muslim anymore

Jordan king in Palestinian plea

Jordan's King Abdullah has urged the world to act to end what he described as the continuing suffering of Palestinians under Israeli occupation...

"This suffocating situation has brought poverty, malnutrition, frustration and radicalization," King Abdullah said.

I do not defend what the Zionists do. When I lived in Jordan we saw them bombing civilians in Lebanon almost every day. They don't show that much in the West. I believe that how they treat the Palestinians is how the blacks were treated in South Africa. It's apartheid.

HOWEVER...what about him telling the Palestinians to stop killing civilians and doing suicide bombings? Even women are doing them now! I think the fault isn't just on one side, both sides need to change. I'm sure the King won't say that though. About half (or more, depending on who you ask, Palestinians say more) of Jordanians are Palestinian, including his wife! Part of me doesn't blame the Israelis for not trusting the Palestinians.

A., Peace (and war) aren't one sided

Saudi woman Sues Moral Police

Wow, you go girl! It's about time! Some excerpts from the article:

A Saudi civil court is to hear the first ever case brought against the kingdom's religious police, commonly known as the Muttawa.

The unnamed woman is seeking compensation after she and her daughter were allegedly wrongfully arrested in a shopping centre car park in 2004 for "not wearing decent clothing", Abderrahman al-Lahm, her lawyer said...

The woman's family is bringing the case before a civil court in Riyadh on Sunday after an Islamic court rejected the complaint, ruling that "a member of the religious police cannot be judged".

Al-Lahm said he hoped his client's case would help consolidate the role of justice in defending individual freedoms and human rights...

The interior ministry issued a decree in May 2006 aimed at reining in the religious police by requiring them not to interrogate detained suspects, as they had previously done, but to hand them over to the regular police instead.

It probably won't go anywhere, but I am glad that someone is trying.

A.,

Iran Cracking Down!

I guess they think they can't trust people to make decisions for themselves, they must tell them how to dress, how to have their hair cut, and even what to text each other!

50 women barred from boarding flights over un-Islamic dress

Tehran: Iranian police have prevented 50 women from boarding flights in their ongoing crackdown on dress styles deemed to be out of line with Islamic dress rules, officials said yesterday.

"Fifty badly-veiled women were prevented from boarding domestic and international flights for failing to respect Islamic dress rules," said the head of airport police Mamoud Bot-Shekane, according to the Fars news agency.

So they're not only telling them what to wear in Iran, but in other countries as well. Do they think they are going to obey them once they leave the country?

Now Iran bans Western Hairstyles.

Tehran: Iranian police have warned barbers against offering Western-style hair cuts or plucking the eyebrows of their male customers, Iranian media said on Sunday.

The report by a reformist daily, later confirmed by an Iranian news agency, appeared to be another sign of the authorities cracking down on clothing and other fashion deemed to be against Islamic values...

Iranian young men have in recent years started paying more attention to the way they look and dress, especially in affluent parts of the capital Tehran. Spiked up hair, by using gel, is known as the khorusi (rooster) style and some also use make-up...

Barbers who do not follow these rules might be closed down for a month and even lose their permits to operate, Etemad quoted him as saying...

"Currently some barber shops apply make-up and use hair styles that are in line with those in European countries and America," Eftekharifard said.

He added: "An official order has been sent to the union ... not to apply make-up on men's faces (or) do eyebrows ... and hence the barbers are not allowed to do these things."

Oh no, we must not have men with plucked eyebrows or makeup, that's a sure-fire way to go to hell! They must be MANLY men!

Iran to Filter Immoral Mobile Messages

Tehran: Iran's Telecommunications Ministry will start filtering "immoral" video and audio messages sent via mobile phones, state television reported on Saturday.

The Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, a body set up after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, has instructed the ministry to buy the equipment needed to prevent any misuse of Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), it said.

How ridiculous it this?!? They should just take away cell phones, and make people pass notes to each other like we did in school. Of course, then they'd have to have "official" note readers to make sure there was nothing immoral in the notes, or that they did not *GASP touch hands when they passed the notes. Are they going to be monitoring phone calls next? Or maybe they already do that. I'm sure email is next.

We mustn't have free speech. That's a Western concept!

A., don't look at my unplucked eyebrows!

Crackdown in Iran over Dress

Thousands of Iranian women have been cautioned over their poor Islamic dress this week and several hundred arrested in the capital Tehran in the most fierce crackdown on what's known as "bad hijab" for more than a decade...

Can't have "bad hijab", can we? It might make men actually look at women, then the country would implode.

Police cars are stationed outside major shopping centres in Tehran.

They are stopping pedestrians and even cars - warning female drivers not to show any hair - and impounding the vehicles and arresting the women if they argue back.

Why the heck does a woman showing her hair merit this? Why do they blame all ills on women?

Thousands of women have been cautioned by police over their dress, some have been obliged to sign statements that they will do better in the future, and some face court cases against them.

All over a scarf? And we wonder why the world doesn't take the Middle East or Islam seriously?

Here's an article talking to 3 Iranians about their views.

ZAHRA ANSARI, 36, MOTHER OF TWO CHILDREN said:

I believe in personal choice but also in modesty, as modesty is a virtue that our religion advocates - for both from men and women.

I am all for modesty, but modesty cannot be imposed by force.

Hmmm, soo which is it, personal choice or modesty? What if it is someone's personal choice Not to be modest? Does personal choice go out the window then?

HS, BUSINESSMAN, TEHRAN said:

For women, since we live in an Islamic country, they should wear something polite and modest and respect Islamic rules. But I do not believe in police enforcing these rules!

Oh, so only women should be modestly dressed? But who is to enforce this, if not the police? If they don't enforce it, the women will go wild and all dress naked!

A., glad she lives in a country without the fashion police.

Ahmadinejad accused of indecency

Iran's president has come under fire from a conservative newspaper after he publicly kissed the hand of a woman who used to be his school teacher.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a conservative by the standards of Iranian politics, was attacked by the Hezbollah newspaper for acting "contrary to Sharia law".

It accused him of "indecency and violating religious values".

The elderly woman at the centre of the controversy was wearing thick gloves, a headscarf, and a long black coat.

Ahmadinejad, better known in the west for his fiery anti-Israel rhetoric and his staunch defence of Iran's nuclear program, has been criticised in the past by ultra-conservative elements in Iran.

He once suggested that women should be allowed to watch football matches. This proved highly controversial and was turned down.

How ridiculous is this? Indecency for kissing an elderly lady's hand that had a heavy glove on it? And ohh, can't let women watch soccer ("football") matches. It might make us attack the men. They are half naked ya know! It's inappropriate!

A, who will be inappropriate if she wants to!

Wife’s petition to leave hubby is rejected

Wife’s petition to leave hubby is rejected

ABU DHABI — The Federal Supreme Court has ordered a woman not to leave her husband and travel abroad without his permission.

Court records show a woman filed a lawsuit at the Abu Dhabi Shariah Court of First Instance seeking divorce and the payment of her deferred dowry. She alleged that her husband assaulted her.

The husband filed a counter suit, requesting the court to ask his wife not to leave his house or travel abroad without his permission. He also wanted to keep her passport and other official documents in his possession.

The Abu Dhabi Shariah Court of First Instance dismissed the wife’s petition and ordered her not to leave her husband and travel abroad without his permission.

The wife contested the verdict at the Abu Dhabi Shariah Court of Appeal, which ruled in her favour.

The husband approached the Federal Supreme Court, contending that the previous ruling should be declared null and void since it was based on his wife’s claims, which she failed to substantiate with evidence.

The court rejected his wife’s plea and ordered her to live with her husband and asked her not to travel abroad without his permission. The court said the woman failed to prove that her allegations were true.

This is a VERY idiotic way of treating women. We're just property to keep under lock and key, unless the court (staffed by men judges, I am sure) says otherwise? Umm, short answer: NO! Long answer: Hell No! And what chance is there of that? Probably very small. Just one of the many reasons I left Islam.

A., who doesn't let any man tell her what to do and is proud of it!

Jordanian women face an unequal fight for equal rights

Jordanian women face an unequal fight for equal rights

This an interesting article. I lived in Amman, Jordan for about 1 1/2 years (from January 1999-May 2000). The more religious people seem to get, the less rights women seem to have, le sigh. I'm very glad I am not raising my kids in any Muslim country. With all the problems the US has, you still have the right to practice your religion of choice, or not to follow any religion.

A couple of excerpts from the article:

24/03/2006: During the past 10 years, there have been attempts to amend laws related to the rights of women in order to enhance their status and social and economic role, and protect them from violations and violence, including what are known as "honor crimes." (The Daily Star Lebanon).

Yet these efforts have shown very limited progress, meeting strong resistance from traditional and religious actors who control the Jordanian Parliament and impose their cultural and behavioral practices upon wide sectors of Jordanian society. These campaigns have also encountered political obstacles that can be traced in part to Jordan's demographic structure.

Continuous efforts by Jordanian women's organizations, supported by human rights activists and the Jordanian political leadership, have produced some amendments to marriage and divorce laws. The legal minimum age for the marriage of girls was raised to 18 years, and women obtained the right of divorce, or kholu, by which they could start divorce procedures based on certain conditions such as restitution of all dowry money.

During the past few years, several attempts to amend Article 340 of the Penal Code have failed. This article sometimes provides a "lawful" excuse for criminals who assault women or murder them to protect "family honor." The murderer in an honor crime, usually one of the victim's closest relatives, receives a commuted sentence or several months' imprisonment. The result is that 15-25 women continue to be murdered annually in Jordan. Despite civil and religious campaigns against such crimes, Jordanian society, yielding to traditional and religious influence, continues to sympathize with honor crime murderers and finds excuses and justifications for their act.

There can be no doubt that the spread of Islam in Jordanian society over the past two or three decades has contributed to the formation of a sociopolitical front opposing legislative initiatives by Jordanian civil society and its active women's organizations. The Muslim Brotherhood has grown stronger and has come to control a large number of active non-governmental organizations, such as professional unions and student councils. Its infrastructure of educational, service, cultural and other social institutions extends to cover a broad section of society, including those people living in the poorest areas.

A.