MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Anbarasan Ethirajan, BBC News – “Police in Bangladesh are looking for a teacher from a Muslim religious school who allegedly placed burning hot iron rods on the legs of her students for failing to offer prayers regularly.

They say 14 girls, aged between eight and 12, received burn injuries.

The school has been temporarily closed following the incident, while the ‘hellish experience’ of the girls has been widely reported in newspapers.

Their injuries are not thought to be serious.

The Bangladeshi government banned all corporal punishment in all educational institutions, including religious schools – or madrassas – in 2010.

‘I was shocked to see the burn injury of my daughter,’ Jumur Akhter, mother of one of the affected students, told the BBC.

The girls were learning Arabic and Bengali at the Talimul Koran Mahila madrassa at Namashyampur in Dhaka. The incident is said to have happened on Tuesday.

‘It was the first day of the madrassa after our holidays. Our teacher got angry when she heard that we were not offering regular prayers during our vacation,’ said Ferdousi Akther, aged eight.

‘Then she asked her servant to heat up the rod and then she pressed it on our legs. The pain was unbearable.’

Pupils say that the teacher asked the students whether they knew the severity of the fire in hell.

They were allegedly told that if they did not offer prayers regularly, they would experience a similar punishment.” Read more.

I knew there was a good reason I didn’t like watching many of these so-called “news” networks …

By Chris McGreal, The Guardian – “Osama bin Laden pondered the merits of US television news channels as he considered how to extract the best propaganda benefit from the tenth anniversary of 9/11 last year, and concluded that CBS was ‘close to being unbiased’.

But an American-born media adviser for al-Qaeda warned Bin Laden to beware of the broadcasters’ ‘cunning methods’ as he described Fox News as a channel in the ‘abyss’ that should ‘die in anger’, CNN as too close to the US government and MSNBC as questionable after it fired one of its most prominent presenters, Keith Olbermann…

A US-born al-Qaida spokesman, Adam Gadahn, wrote back to Bin Laden laying the merits or otherwise of using US news stations to mark the ‘Manhattan battle’ as it is referred to in the memo.

Fox News is dismissed because it ‘falls into the abyss as you know, and lacks neutrality too’.

“I used to think that MSNBC channel may be good and neutral a bit, but is has lately fired two of the most famous journalists – Keith Olbermann and Octavia Nasser the Lebanese,” wrote Gadahn.

In fact, Nasser was sacked from CNN after she sent a tweet mourning the death of a Hezbollah leader. Olbermann was dismissed for making financial donations to Democratic party politicians.

CNN is questioned, although its Arabic ‘version brings good and detailed reports’.

‘As for the neutrality of CNN in English, it seems to be in cooperation with the government more than the others (except Fox News of course),’ he said.

Gadhan describes ABC as ‘all right’:

‘Actually it could be one of the best channels, as far as we are concerned. It is interested in al-Qaida issues, particularly the journalist Brian Ross, who is specialised in terrorism. The channel is still proud for its interview with the shaykh (Bin Laden),’ he said. ‘CBS channel was mentioned by the shaykh. I see that it is like the other channels, but it has a famous programme (60 Minutes) that has some popularity and a good reputation for its long broadcasting time. Only god knows the reality, as I am not really in a position to do so.'” Read more.

By Anna Mahjar-Barducci, Gatestone Institute – “Islamist Members of Parliament in Egypt are trying to deprive Egyptian women of their basic rights by introducing several controversial draft laws that, if passed, will bring Egypt back to the Middle Ages:

— The website Ahram Online reports that Islamists wants to cancel Law 1 of the year 2000, known as the Khula Law, which acts as an alternative route for women whose husbands refuse to grant them a divorce. Through the Khula Law, courts grant women a divorce so long as they return the dowry paid by her husband prior to the marriage. Law 1 of the year 2000 was considered a step forward in women rights. Before that, Egyptian women did not have the right to divorce their husbands on their own terms.

Khula Law’s opponents argue that a woman should not be able to ask for divorce, as it is against Islamic Sharia law. As reported by the news agency AINA, the Islamist lawmaker and main Khula Law’s opponent, Mohamed El-Omda, has argued that the process is an offense to the Sharia and that is a poorly hidden attempt to Westernize Egypt.

— According to media reports, Islamist parties are also preparing a draft law for early marriage that would permit girls to get married at the age of 14 instead of 18. As reported by Ahram Online, in the past few months, Salafist MPs have argued that there should be no minimum age for marriage for either sex, explaining that in the Sharia Law, an age for marriage is not specified.

Women activists are trying to campaign against this draft. ‘A license to drive, and to even vote, requires you to be 18 years old or older. Are those things more important than being a parent and forming a family?’ said Azza Soliman, a legal assistant at the Centre for Egyptian Women. As reported by Ahram Online, she added she believes it is wrong to set the age of marriage below 18, or even ’12, as some imply.’

— A controversial statement was instead made by Azza El Garf, a woman and a parliamentarian belonging to the Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing of the ruling Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood ruling . Al-Garf clearly points out that she disagrees with the Egypt’s 2008 ban on genital mutilation, to which she referred as a barbaric practice as beautification plastic surgery.

– Egyptian media recently reported about a draft law that would allow a husband to have sex with his dead wife within six hours after her death. Members of the Egyptian parliament said that the draft does not exist and that it was a story made up by the media. However, as reported by Al-Arabiya, the ‘Farewell Intercourse’ is not a new proposal. Last year Read more…

Oh, the wonders of Islamic logic. If earthquakes are caused by women’s clothes, maybe nail polish is responsible for Iran’s lack of rain. Considering how hot and bothered the Iranian authorities are over what women wear and how they look, you’d think that this is all somehow contributing to global warming …

Hurriyet Daily News – “Some 70,000 female police officers will be on the lookout for women dressed inappropriately on the streets of Iran in the rising summer heat, daily Vatan reported.

Female police officers will be responsible for detecting and warning women who fail to dress in line with the moral code of the Iranian authorities. Officers too will be dressed in black burqas, and will be instructing Iranian women on how to cover themselves the right way. Routine hand checks will also be conducted to prevent any use of nail polish.

The entire police force on dress code duty will be working overtime to cover every street in Iran, daily Vatan reported.

Similar regulations have been applied in previous years as well, under which women could be released from custody upon signing a paper agreeing to dress “properly.” Several incidents of violent confrontations have taken place during patrols, according to media reports, including incidents where officers used force against women who objected to their claims.

A woman can even face a prison sentence for refusing to change her dress following an official warning.” Source – Hurriyet Daily News.

Don’t be surprised if Chechen President Ramzan “Misogynov” Kadyrov begins demanding death to women if they go anywhere near bananas, cucumbers, carrots and zucchini, or if they wear high heels, or dare to have ‘alluring eyes’, or if Chechnya feels another earthquake …

“When I stood on the door of hell, I saw most of its inhabitants were women” – Prophet of Islam, Mohammed, Sahih AlBukhari, 5196

By Diana Markosian, The Washington Times – “ACHXOY-MARTAN, Chechnya — Chechnya’s government is openly approving of families that kill female relatives who violate their sense of honor, as this Russian republic embraces a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam after decades of religious suppression under Soviet rule.

In the past five years, the bodies of dozens of young Chechen women have been found dumped in woods, abandoned in alleys and left along roads in the capital, Grozny, and neighboring villages.

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov publicly announced that the dead women had ‘loose morals’ and were rightfully shot by male relatives. He went on to describe women as the property of their husbands, and said their main role is to bear children.

‘If a woman runs around and if a man runs around with her, both of them should be killed,’ said Mr. Kadyrov, who often has stated his goal of making Chechnya ‘more Islamic than the Islamists.’

In today’s Chechnya, alcohol is all but banned, Islamic dress codes are enforced and polygamous marriages are supported by the government.” Read more.

Top 10 Qur’an Quotes Every Woman Must See – “Islam in its purest form honors and elevates women, we are often told. But does it? All too often, textual reality (the Quran) matches up with the historical reality of seventh—century Arabia. Gender inequality and oppression in the Quran reflect the culture of seventh century desert nomads. If Allah and Muhammad improved on this patriarchy, then they did not go far enough for a religion with a claim to universality. Here are the top ten rules in the Quran that oppress and insult women.” Read more.

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service – “In a 15-minute hearing yesterday afternoon (25 April), Judge Tahira Asadova of Administrative Economic Court No. 1 in the Azerbaijani capital Baku ruled to liquidate the Greater Grace Protestant Church, the judge’s assistant Parviz Zalyshov told Forum 18 News Service on 26 April. This is the first known enforced liquidation of a religious community since Azerbaijan’s harsh new Religion Law was adopted in 2009. When the ruling comes into force, any religious activity the Church or its members engage in will be illegal and subject to heavy punishment. The Church – which has had legal registration for 19 years – told Forum 18 it will appeal against the decision.

Asked how Judge Asadova could have taken a decision which means that any activity the Church engages in would be illegal and subject to punishment, her secretary Sevinj Ahmedova told Forum 18: ‘The court has decided.’ She said the decision will enter into force a month after the written verdict is issued, unless the Church lodges an appeal…

The 25 April hearing took place in the absence of any Church representatives. The lawyer had sent a telegram to the court asking for the hearing to be postponed because of illness…

However, both she and Zalyshov insisted the Judge had no choice but to go ahead. ‘There is a deadline of three months to complete a case,’ Zalyshov told Forum 18. ‘Yesterday was the last day. The Church knew that.’…

In defiance of its international human rights commitments, Azerbaijan has banned all exercise of freedom of religion or belief without state permission, imposing heavy penalties…

As of 26 April, only 570 religious communities are listed as registered on the State Committee website. Of these, 550 are of the state-backed Caucasian Muslim Board.” Read more.