Sharia Creep in the UK: Muslims Demand Sharia Student Loans Because Paying Interest Goes Against Islamic Law

If Muslim students desire interest-free student loans, maybe they’d be best served by studying in Saudi Arabia instead.  Or Yemen. Or Iran. Or Afghanistan. Or Pakistan. Or any one of many Islamic countries that practices Sharia Law. If the UK placates and begins giving Muslim students interest-free loans because it ‘goes against Islamic law’, then other Muslims will begin asking for interest-free car loans, and interest-free home mortgages, and interest-free credit cards, and whatever else ‘interests’ them …

“Muslim groups are calling for a separate student loan system because the interest due to be charged will conflict with rules of Sharia law.

The changes to tuition fees, which come into force next year, will see students charged higher rates of interest on the loans they take out to pay for university.

Until now they have paid the market rate of inflation but the reforms mean students who go on to earn more than £21,000 will have to pay interest of up to 3 per cent.

But in some interpretations of Sharia law, which is Islam’s legal system and governs every aspect of Muslim life, loans are forbidden.

The National Union of Students has said it could be two years before an alternative system is worked out, leaving some Muslims fearing they cannot go on to further education.

The Federation of Student Islamic Societies told The Independent that the rate increase was a ‘pressing issue’.

A spokesman said: ‘Because the rate of interest is above the rate of inflation, it is quite blatant usury.’

Usury means the practice of lending money and charging the borrower interest, possibly at a very high rate.

Mohammed Ahmed-Sheikh, 17, says the changes will discourage him from applying to university next year.

‘The fees are the reason I’m having doubts. I’m Muslim and loans are against my religion,’ he told The Independent.” Read more.

10,000 Earth Tremors Recorded On German-Czech Border

By MARK DUNPHY – “The Geophysical Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic says it has recorded almost 10,000 earthquakes during the last three days in West Bohemia, a region located close to the Czech Republic’s western border with Germany.

The earthquake swarm started late on Tuesday and continued through Friday. While many have gone unnoticed by the local population some of the larger tremors, including eight quakes exceeding 3 magnitude have been felt in the towns of Chemnitz, Karlovy Vary, Birch, and Luby.

The most recent earthquake measured 3.6 magnitude on the Richter Scale and hit at 0645hrs GMT on Friday at a shallow depth of three miles. The quake epicentre was located 81 miles (129 km) NE of Nürnberg 82 miles (131 km) SW of Dresden, 90 miles (144 km) W of Praha, 128 miles (204 km) NW of Budejovice, 131 miles (210 km) NNW of Schärding, and 227 miles (364 km) NW of Wien.

Commenting on the latest earthquake swarm, the Geophysical Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic stated: “The activity started in the evening of 23 August and is almost continuous till now (26 August morning). Almost 10 000 events were recorded in total up to now. Already eight events M>3.0 and 200 M>2.0 occurred. The location of hypocenters directly below the NKC station, so it appears a new patch of the fault plane is being activated”.

In recent years, scientists have noted an increase in the movement of magma towards the earth’s surface in the Cheb Basin, western Czech Republic. They say rising magma could be one of the causes of the earthquake swarms, which regularly occur in the Vogtland, North-West Bohemia, the Fichtelgebirge and the Upper Palatinate. The last earthquake swarm to occur before this week’s activity was in 2008.” Source.

Malaysia: Rise of Strict Islam Exposes Fears and Tensions, ‘If You Don’t Follow the Mainstream You Will Be Lynched’

By Jennifer Pak – “Muslim women without headscarves are a common sight on the streets of the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.

But engaging them in a discussion about the hijab is difficult.

Norhayati Kaprawi is a Malaysian activist whose recent documentary Aku Siapa (Who Am I) deals with the issue of how women in Malaysia should dress. She found some women unwilling to show their faces in her film – not on religious grounds, but becasue they feared reprisals.

This is a damning reflection on Malaysia’s Muslim society, says Ms Norhayati.

‘It’s full of fear. If you don’t follow the mainstream you will be lynched.’

According to the activist, the pressure to wear the hijab grew after the Iranian revolution in 1979, and it is now the most visible sign of Malaysia’s rising Islamic fundmentalism.

Muslims account for over half the population of 28 million people and are mainly ethnic Malays. Malaysia often prides itself on being a moderate Muslim nation, which allows other religions freedom of worship.

And while there are no laws forcing women to wear the hijab, Ms Norhayati says many Muslims feel compelled.” Read more.

Flashback: Muslim Group in Malaysia Declares Jihad Against Christians Who … Disagree With Them – “An umbrella coalition of Muslim groups held a protest today and declared bloodshed against ‘extremist’ Christians that insult and ridicule the position of Islam in the country. The Muslim Organisations in Defence of Islam (Pembela), comprising 20 groups, protested after Friday prayers at the National Mosque against Putrajaya’s release of Malay-language bibles and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s promise to never impound the Alkitab again.” Read more.

Flashback: Non-Muslims in Malaysia Who Recite Quranic Verses ‘Insincerely’ Can Be Charged With Blasphemy – “The government can take action against people who abuse Quranic verses for certain interests and dispute all forms of worship by Muslims in this country. Minister in the Prime Minister”s Department Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom said this followed the special conference of the National Fatwa Council on Dec 3 last year to discuss issues including abuse of Quranic verses. ‘The muzakarah agreed that non-Muslims who cite Quranic verses according to their own understanding without sincerity is an affront to the sanctity of al-Quran and can cause doubt and slander in society,’ he told Dewan Rakyat today.” Read more.

Losing Malmo: Sweden Surrenders Their Third Largest City … to Muslims

By ANDREW C. McCARTHY – “Do you remember the jihadist terror campaign that ravaged Malmo, Sweden’s third largest city? Do you recall the bombings, the suicide-hijackings, and the random assassinations that finally coerced the city to surrender to Islamization?

No? Funny, I don’t remember them either. Yet there is no question that Malmo has surrendered. Large enclaves of the city, like similar enclaves throughout Western Europe, have earned the dread label ‘no-go zone.’ They are unsafe for non-Muslims, particularly women who do not conform to Islamist conventions of dress and social interaction. They are especially perilous for police, firefighters, and emergency-medical technicians.

Why would a community discourage the so-called first-responders? After all, the top priority of law-enforcement officers is to assist crime victims. In an Islamic enclave, a high percentage of these will be Muslims. And obviously, the fire department and the ambulances are dispatched to save lives — here, Muslim lives. Yet, the community is hostile. The police and other emergency personnel are viewed as agents of the non-Muslim state. Their presumptuousness in entering the Islamic enclave and acting under the color of Swedish law is taken as an affront to Islamic sovereignty.

An Islamic enclave in the West may as well be the West Bank, and the authorities the IDF. They are regarded no differently. That is why, as Soeren Kern of the Madrid-based Strategic Studies Group notes, “Fire and emergency workers . . . refuse to enter Malmo’s mostly Muslim Rosengaard district without police escorts.” And sensibly so: When firefighters attempted to extinguish a blaze at the city’s main mosque, local Muslims pelted them with stones.

There is a simple reason why this has happened to Malmo, and why it is happening in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, etc. The European Union forced on its member states the same approach to their swelling Muslim populations that the Obama administration is now trying to strong-arm American cities and states into adopting. It is a suicide theory, holding that the only threat to our security is ‘violent extremism.'” Read more.

Occupation Without Tanks or Soldiers: European ‘No-Go’ Zones for Non-Muslims Proliferating – “Islamic extremists are stepping up the creation of ‘no-go’ areas in European cities that are off-limits to non-Muslims. Many of the ‘no-go’ zones function as microstates governed by Islamic Sharia law. Host-country authorities effectively have lost control in these areas and in many instances are unable to provide even basic public aid such as police, fire fighting and ambulance services.” Read more.

Egypt: Protesters Call for the Destruction of Jews and Americans, Demand Egypt’s Peace Treaty with Israel be Cancelled

By Elad Benari – “The demonstrators who gathered for protests outside the Israeli Embassy in Cairo on Friday not only called for the cancellation of Egypt’s peace agreement with Israel and for the expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador, but also called for the destruction of the Jews.

The protesters shouted the following:

‘Jews, remember the Battle of Khaybar (an oasis north of Medina which was inhabited by Jews who were murdered by the forces of Muhammad –ed.), the Army of Muhammad is already here’; ‘Oh Zionists, please be patient, there’s an Egyptian digging your grave,’; and ‘There is no god but Allah, Zionism is the enemy of Allah and so are the Americans’.

The protesters also demanded to ‘open the borders (for Jihad) to the Egyptian people.'” Read more.

Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood Threatens to Kill Israel’s Ambassador to Cairo If He Does Not Leave the Country – “The Muslim Brotherhood has threatend to kill Israel’s ambassador to Cairo if he does not leave the country. The radical Muslim group has been leading daily protests at the Israeli embassy in Cairo, demanding the expulsion of the envoy and a break in relations between Egypt and Israel.” Read more.

North Sudan Church Still Too Fearful to Rebuild as Muslim Extremists Seek to ‘Cleanse’ Christianity From the ‘Land of Islam’

“More than seven months after Muslim extremists burned its church building, a Presbyterian Church of the Sudan (PCOS) congregation is still afraid to meet for worship, according to Christian sources.

The Rev Maubark Hamad said his church in Wad Madani, 138 kilometers (85 miles) southeast of Khartoum, has not been able to rebuild since the January 15 devastation due to the congregation’s meager resources.

‘Nothing has been done for the burned church building; so far it has not been rebuilt,’ he told Compass.

Christian sources said they are increasingly fearful as Muslim extremists pose more threats against Christians in an attempt to rid what they call Dar al Islam, the ‘Land of Islam’, of Christianity.

According to Rev Hamad, another church leader who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: ‘The increased challenges now faced by many Christians in North Sudan are something for which we need to pray very hard for the Lord to intervene.'” Read more.

Somalia: Islamic Militants Behead 11 Civilians in Mogadishu, ‘We Wake Up With Beheaded Bodies on the Streets Every Day’

“Mogadishu— Somali Islamist rebels have beheaded at least 11 civilians in the capital in the past two weeks, a campaign of terror that residents said Friday is designed to show the insurgency can still act in Mogadishu after withdrawing from their bases there earlier this month.

‘We wake up with beheaded bodies on the streets every day,’ said Abdinur Marwan, who lives in a district of Mogadishu called Hewila. ‘They call themselves Muslims while doing what Allah banned! Everyone is trying to leave here because people are being killed like goats.’

The Islamist al-Shabab militia withdrew from their bases in the Somali capital after being steadily pushed back by more heavily armed African Union forces supporting the U.N.-backed Somali government. The Islamists described the withdrawal as a ‘tactical retreat’ and said they would still carry out operations in the capital.” Read more.

Flashback: 4 Christian Orphanage Workers Beheaded in Somalia – “Somali Islamic extremists beheaded four Christians recently after kidnapping them last month, according to eyewitness accounts reported to International Christian Concern (ICC). Members of the Islamic extremist organization Al-Shabaab had kidnapped Fatima Sultan, Ali Ma’ow, Sheik Mohammed Abdi, and Maaddey Diil on July 27 from their coastal town of Merca, 56 miles from Mogadishu, and eventually beheaded the Christians after they refused to renounce their faith in Jesus Christ.” Read more.

Flashback: Somali Rebels ‘Behead Spies And Christians’ – “Somalia’s hard-line Islamist rebels beheaded seven people for being ‘Christians’ and ‘spies’, witnesses have said. The al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group, which controls large tracts of south Somalia and parts of the capital Mogadishu, has carried out similar executions before. But the beheadings in the south central town of Baidoa were believed to be the largest number of killings at one time, Somalis said. ‘Al Shabaab told us that they were beheaded for reasons they described as being Christian followers and spies’…” Read more.

Flashback: Christian Aid Workers in Somalia Beheaded for Converting from Islam – “Muslim extremists from the al Shabab group fighting the transitional government on Sept. 23 sliced the head off of Mansuur Mohammed, 25, a World Food Program (WFP) worker, before horrified onlookers of Manyafulka village, 10 kilometers (six miles) from Baidoa. The militants had intercepted Mohammed and a WFP driver, who managed to escape, earlier in the morning. Sources close to Mohammed’s family said he converted from Islam to Christianity in 2005.” Read more.

UN Representative Prosor: Israel Has No Chance of Stopping Recognition of Palestinian State

By Barak Ravid – “Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, sent a classified cable to the Foreign Ministry last week, stating that Israel stands no chance of rallying a substantial number of states to oppose a resolution at the UN General Assembly recognizing a Palestinian state in September.

Sources in the Prime Minister’s Office, meanwhile, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering not participating in this year’s General Assembly. Instead President Shimon Peres is likely to represent Israel.

Under the headline ‘Report from the frontline at the UN,’ Prosor – considered one of the most experienced and senior Israeli diplomats – offered a very pessimistic estimate as to Israel’s ability to significantly affect the results of the vote. Even though he did not state so explicitly, Prosor implies that Israel will sustain a diplomatic defeat.

‘The maximum that we can hope to gain [at the UN vote] is for a group of states who will abstain or be absent during the vote,’ Prosor wrote, adding that his comments are based on more than 60 meetings he held during the past few weeks with his counterparts at the UN. ‘Only a few countries will vote against the Palestinian initiative,’ he wrote.” Read more.

Who will endorse Palestine? – “On September 20th, the Palestinian Authority will submit its statehood bid at the United Nations General Assembly; the process will culminate with the UN’s 193 member states voting on recognizing a Palestinian state. What can we expect at the vote? Officials in Jerusalem presume that should a vote indeed take place, the Palestinians will win an automatic majority thanks to the guaranteed support of the 116 ‘non aligned states,’ which tend to vote as a bloc and promote joint interests. Hence, Foreign Ministry officials are focusing their efforts at what they refer to as the ‘moral majority,’ that is, large, influential states – this list includes the 27 members of the European Union, global powers, and several other key states.” Read more.

Independent Scientist Lauren Moret: Japan, U.S., Canadian Governments Complicit in Covering Up Fukushima Radiation

Moret: “People on the west coast of the United States, and even in Arizona, have been reporting a metallic taste in their mouths, and in the pacific Northwest around Seattle they reported salty tasting rain.  These are indications of radioactive particles in the air just as they are in Japan and the salty rain, and probably the main cause of new increases in asthma reported in Japan and in the northwest, is cesium chloride which … is a compound that forms from the radioactive cesium released into the atmosphere from nuclear sources …”

Japanese Government Approves Over $900,000 in Funds to Combat ‘Erroneous Information’ About Fukushima

By Madison Ruppert – “The crisis at Fukushima was not only a crisis for the people of Japan and the nuclear industry as a whole; it was also a public relations disaster for the Japanese government.

TEPCO, the Japanese utility company that operated Fukushima Daiichi, along with the Japanese government were consistently exposed telling blatant lies or misrepresentations of the truth.

Now, in an attempt to mitigate the public relations fallout that has ensued from their deceit of the Japanese people and those around the globe, the government is devoting roughly 70 million yen or $913,000 to combating what they bill ‘erroneous information’ about the disaster.

The contract was awarded to a Tokyo advertising company who will likely continue their efforts until March.

While the agency will not demand that original postings be taken down or that the poster’s identity be revealed; they will identify the allegedly “erroneous information” in order to carry ‘correct information’ on their website.” Read more.

Government’s move to monitor online sparks public outcry – “While the government defends its new monitoring program of online postings concerning the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant to stem the spread of ‘inaccurate’ information, critics say it harkens back to Big Brother… The agency said it is trying to ‘track down inaccurate information and to provide correct ones instead.’ But critics are skeptical about the agency’s motive, especially because the government has been under fire for failing to provide an accurate picture of what has been occurring at the plant and the spread of radioactive contamination.” Read more.

New, Convincing Evidence Indicates Global Warming is Caused by Cosmic Rays and the Sun — Not Humans

By Lawrence Solomon – “The science is now all-but-settled on global warming, convincing new evidence demonstrates, but Al Gore, the IPCC and other global warming doomsayers won’t be celebrating. The new findings point to cosmic rays and the sun — not human activities — as the dominant controller of climate on Earth.

The research, published with little fanfare this week in the prestigious journal Nature, comes from über-prestigious CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, one of the world’s largest centres for scientific research involving 60 countries and 8,000 scientists at more than 600 universities and national laboratories. CERN is the organization that invented the World Wide Web, that built the multi-billion dollar Large Hadron Collider, and that has now built a pristinely clean stainless steel chamber that precisely recreated the Earth’s atmosphere.

In this chamber, 63 CERN scientists from 17 European and American institutes have done what global warming doomsayers said could never be done — demonstrate that cosmic rays promote the formation of molecules that in Earth’s atmosphere can grow and seed clouds, the cloudier and thus cooler it will be. Because the sun’s magnetic field controls how many cosmic rays reach Earth’s atmosphere (the stronger the sun’s magnetic field, the more it shields Earth from incoming cosmic rays from space), the sun determines the temperature on Earth.

The hypothesis that cosmic rays and the sun hold the key to the global warming debate has been Enemy No. 1 to the global warming establishment ever since it was first proposed by two scientists from the Danish Space Research Institute, at a 1996 scientific conference in the U.K. Within one day, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Bert Bolin, denounced the theory, saying, ‘I find the move from this pair scientifically extremely naive and irresponsible.’ He then set about discrediting the theory, any journalist that gave the theory cre dence, and most of all the Danes presenting the theory — they soon found themselves vilified, marginalized and starved of funding, despite their impeccable scientific credentials.” Read more.

Al Gore Says Anyone Who Disagrees With Him Are No Different Than Racists