MSNBC’s Submission: Don’t Expose Muslim Atrocities, It’ll Make Islam Look Bad

To understand how truly ridiculous such a mindset is, simply go back to 1944 and change out “Muslim” and “Islam” for “Nazi” and “Germany” …

By Colin Flaherty, WND – “MSNBC’s new golden girl was in a pickle: If someone sees a black person committing rape or domestic violence, should he report it if it makes black people look bad?

Or if Muslims see wife-beating, genital mutilation and childhood sexual abuse, should they just keep it to themselves, because saying something gives ammunition to the ‘Islamophobes’?

The questions appear to be simple. But they posed a challenge for the host of the new ‘Melissa Harris-Perry’ show when guest Mona Eltahawy talked about her Foreign Policy magazine cover story about abuse of women by men in the Muslim world.

Eltahawy speaks from experience: She had her arms broken in a demonstration in Egypt and was tortured and raped in an Egyptian jail cell.

So she seemed surprised to find Harris-Perry questioning her right to draw attention to ‘traditions’ such as involuntary female circumcision, wife-beating and childhood sexual abuse.

‘I start with a little bit of trepidation in this conversation,’ the host said, ‘in part because I know some of the critiques of this. The very idea that Western press, those that are not from these nations, who are not Muslim ourselves, who are not part of these traditions can look at your article and say ‘ahhh, look at how horrible those men, or those societies, or that religion is.’

‘And that is part of the reason why, for example, we have an under-reporting of rape and domestic violence in African American communities,’ Harris-Perry continued. ‘Because we know the violence enacted on black men by police, so we often don’t call. Right?’

Then the MSNBC host brought in Harvard professor Leila Ahmed, who questioned whether Eltahawy should have written the article at all. Not because it was false, but because it made Muslims look bad.” Read more.

Turkey: 40% Of Turks Do Not Want To Live Next To Christians, 58% Do Not Want A Jewish Neighbour

I hereby introduce to you the so-called “useful model for new Arab regimes“ …

Times.am – “Today [the] head of the Armenian science department of ‘Noravanq’ educational foundation, expert on Turkey Alistakes Simavoryan and expert of the same foundation Vahram Hovyan met journalists and referred to the topic of religious intolerance against Christians in Turkey.

According to A. Simavoryan now 120,000 Christians live in Turkey now and 59,000 of them are Armenians. There are also sects in Turkey, for example, [Jehovah’s Witnesses] and Mormons. There are Armenians among them as well.

As the expert noted Turks are afraid that their country may become a Christian state, but according to him [this] is not possible. According to the speaker Turkey will lead anti-Christian politics in coming 30-40 years as well and it will be especially directed to the Armenian Community.

‘The social inquiries in Turkey show that 40% of the population does not want to live with [a] Christian neighbor. And 58% of [the population] does not want to live with [a Jewish] neighbor’, Simavoryan noted.

Expert also noted that [the] Armenian community is on the eve of vanishing in Turkey as a result of [Christian intolerance]. According to him [the] media is very active in this issue. ‘Every action by the Christian Church is presented as [a] negative action. Even the churches are presented as terrorist organizations’.

Expert of the ‘Noravanq’ foundation Vahram Hovyan announced … that the attacks and pressure against Christians are held both by the government and by the Turk extremists.” Source – Times.am.

Flashback: Turkey, Key US Ally, Added to List of Worst Religious Freedom Offenders – “Yes, you’ve read that right. The country that has become ‘a useful model for new Arab regimes’ has now been added to the list of worst religious freedom offenders in the world. Alongside Egypt who now vows to one day kill all Jews, this is a nation that the Obama Administration is now actively arming, a nation that now makes verbal attacks against Israel ‘a central feature’ of its political discourse. Welcome to the ‘new’ face of ‘moderate Islam’ …” Read more.

Yemen Food Crisis Reaching ‘Catastrophic Proportions’

By Sam Jones, The Guardian – “Yemen is facing a food crisis of ‘catastrophic proportions’, with almost half the population going hungry and a third of children in some areas severely malnourished, aid agencies have warned.

A coalition of seven humanitarian organisations – Care International, International Medical Corps, Islamic Relief, Mercy Corps, Merlin, Oxfam and Save the Children – is urging the international community to step up aid before Yemen slides further into poverty and political instability.

The Middle Eastern country’s already precarious state was highlighted on Monday when a suicide bomber attacked a military parade, killing more than 90 people and wounding at least 220. The bombing, one of the deadliest in recent years, was a setback in Yemen’s battle against al-Qaida-affiliated Islamists and has heightened concerns over a country in the frontline of the US global war on militants.

The aid agencies – which point out that the UN’s humanitarian appeal has received only 43% of the funding it needs – are urging delegates at Wednesday’s international Friends of Yemen conference to do more to tackle the food crisis.

The agencies say hunger in Yemen has doubled since 2009 and was exacerbated by last year’s political upheaval, which saw the dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh ousted from power after 33 years and replaced by President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

Penny Lawrence, Oxfam’s international director, said that although donors were concentrating on politics and security, they had to focus on more basic and pressing issues. ‘Yemeni families are at the brink and have exhausted their ways of coping with the crisis,’ she said.” Read more.

Ahmadinejad: ‘Islam Forbids Atomic Weapons’ (Wink, Wink)

The Qur’an calls the god of Islam, among other things, “the best of deceivers”. Surely, Islamic radicals like the Iranian President and the Ayatollahs could never mimic such an example …

“Yes, We Can!”

By Al Arabiya with AFP – “Islam forbids atomic weapons and other arms of mass destruction, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted on Wednesday ahead of his country’s nuclear talks with world powers in Baghdad, as Israel urged world powers not to waver in key talks with Iran.

‘Based on Islamic teachings and the clear fatwa (edict) of the supreme leader, the production and use of weapons of mass destruction is haram (forbidden) and have no place in the Islamic Republic of Iran’s defense doctrine,’ he said.

Ahmadinejad’s message was read out at a conference in the western city of Borujerd to commemorate Iranian victims of chemical weapons during a 1980-1988 war against Iraq, the official news agency IRNA reported.

World powers were to hold crunch talks in the Iraqi capital on Wednesday with Iran to try to persuade Tehran to suspend sensitive nuclear work.

Ahmadinejad’s mention of a fatwa against nuclear weapons by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, referred to an edict which officials say he laid down in either 2004 or 2005.

Though no published fatwa exists, Iranian scholars point out that declarations by prominent ayatollahs can later take on the weight of a fatwa.

Khamenei has spoken out against nuclear weapons on several occasions, most recently on Feb. 22 when he said that possessing an atomic bomb “constitutes a major sin.”” Read more.

Flashback: Iran: Nuclear Weapons Will Prepare Us For The Emergence Of Islamic Messiah – “New evidence indicates Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, wants nuclear weapons and he created a religious-based ruse to deceive the world into joining new talks. The leader intends to use those talks to buy more time to harden his weapons program, prevent an attack, and persuade world powers to lift sanctions… President Khamenei explained ‘This [possessing nuclear weapons] was the only way to secure the very essence of the Islamic revolution from the schemes of its enemies … and to prepare it for the emergence of Imam Mehdi [messiah],’ who would bring the world under Islamic rule.” Read more.

Flashback: Iran: Spiritual Leaders Declare Use Of Nuclear Weapons As Lawful Under Sharia – “‘The spiritual leaders of the ultra-conservatives [in Iran] have accepted the use of nuclear weapons as lawful in the eyes of shari’a. Mohsen Gharavian, a disciple of [Ayatollah] Mesbah Yazdi [who is Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s spiritual mentor], has spoken for the first time of using nuclear weapons as a counter-measure. He stated that ‘in terms of shari’a, it all depends on the goal.’… [T]he IraNews news agency published recent remarks by Mohsen Gharavian regarding the nuclear issue. Gharavian is a lecturer at the religious schools of Qom, and is a disciple of [Ayatollah] Mesbah Yazdi. In his recent remarks, he said for the first time that the use of nuclear weapons may not constitute a problem according to shari’a. He further said that ‘when the entire world is armed with nuclear weapons, it is permissible to use these weapons as a counter-[measure]. According to shari’a, too, only the goal is important…’” Read more.