Fashion: Is the birka standard equipment for French Secret Service operatives?

On the 18th November 2005 police officer Sharon Beshenivsky was shot dead during a bungled robbery in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. She didn’t have a chance. Shot at almost point-blank range, she was a very new recruit to the force and was not expecting any firearms to be involved in the altercation. She was dispatched to investigate a disturbance at a travel agent’s shop within shouting distance of her own police station.

"Woof!" erm no I mean "meow!"

One of the men responsible escaped from Heathrow Airport wearing a niqab, an extreme form of female Islamic attire known to you and me as a “black bell tent with peep-hole”. He was allowed to go through customs at the airport to board his plane completely unchallenged. Happily he returned and is now an invite at one of Her Majesty’s correctional institutions.

It was not the first time such a thing had happened. In 1998, Fawzi Mustapha Assi, who was accused of smuggling night vision goggles and other military equipment to Hezbollah in Lebanon, fled from Detroit to Canada, where he was working as an engineer for Ford Motor Company, by wearing a niqab.

It was amusing then, to read the story in the Mail Online today about a French secret service agent, Herve Jaugbert, who supposedly escaped from the Dubai police by using the same sort of get-up. He was able to cover up diving air tanks with the garment and make a clean getaway by walking down to the water’s edge and swimming out to the only patrol boat in the area, disabling it and then making his way by dinghy to outside Dubai’s territorial waters where he was picked up by another French agent in a yacht.

Quite how credible the story is I don’t know. It sounds like it should be stamped with a large warning “Only to be taken with a bucket full of salt”. Funny nevertheless to think that the Dubai authorities may have been hoisted with their own petard. See the original Mail article for some great pictures.

See:
“French 007 tells of great escape from Dubai wearing a wetsuit under a burka”
(Mail Online 24.08.09)

Filed under: Islam, Bradford, Dubai, Fawzi Mustapha Assi, Herve Jaugbert, Mustaf Jama, Muzzaker Shah, Niqab, Sharon Beshenivsky, Yusaf Jama

Ramadan – Is drastically changing the timing of a daily calorie intake any different to depriving one’s self of sleep?

I don’t know about you but I tend to get quite grumpy when I’ve missed a calorie-intake session. I’ve never been a big breakfast fan but by midday the inevitable signals are sent from my stomach to my brain and if I pay them no heed I become less productive and more obsessive about food. If I then go on to miss out on an evening meal as well as lunch I really get ratty.

Ramadan started on Saturday and millions of good Muslims all over the world, this country included, will be observing a daytime fasting ritual as a result. I say “fast” but really it is more like a farce.

Ramadan is not a fast because Muslims are not denying themselves food for long periods. Instead, Muslims do not eat between sunrise and sunset. In the average British summer’s day that leaves a good six hours in which they can stuff themselves to their heart’s content and in fact this is effectively what happens.

No doubt as a result of their “spiritual” concentration on food as well as an internal body-clock disruption to regular calorie intake, many Muslims actually put on weight at Ramadan. In Britain Muslims go all day long with cups of hot lemon tea and then stuff themselves in the evenings when they get home from work.

We are concerned about that great ideal “The British Worker” taking time off to see the dentist because of the number of man-hours that are lost and we have minimum consecutive hours policies for doctors, lorry drivers and for those in any profession where others may be put in danger through a lack of concentration. Why do we allow all these people a choice out of respect for their faith to go for eighteen hours without taking in calories?

Look at it this way. If you were to catch a late bus after a long day at the office and you were asked to choose between a driver who’d been driving solidly for eight hours without a break or one who hadn’t eaten anything for twenty four hours, which one would you choose?

Filed under: Islam, Special Religious Dispensation, Ramadan

Is it really “courting controversy” to say that there is an elephant in the room?

Elephant! What elephant?

There are more negative posts on this blog about Islam than there are about other religions and for this I make no apologies. I dislike all faiths but do have a bias of dislike towards that particular one. At the same time, Islam, unlike most other religions, does not keep itself to itself. It is right “out there” everyday, being pushed into my face like a custard pie every time I turn around. Unlike most of the other major religions, it is not benign and in recent times many of its members have been responsible for more slaughter and mayhem than any other religion. Being a Muslim doesn’t make one a terrorist but these days it’s highly probable that any given terrorist is a Muslim.

In an interesting article published in The Times yesterday author Sebastian Faulks says that “The Koran has no ethical dimension”. He also states that the Koran “is a depressing book… It is very one-dimensional  and unlike the Christian New Testament, it has no plan for life.” Faulks had to read the Koran as part of the research he was doing on one of the characters in his latest book. He says:

“Jesus, unlike Muhammad, had interesting things to say. He proposed a revolutionary way of looking at the world: love your neighbour; love your enemy; the meek shall inherit the earth. Muhammad had nothing to say to the world other than, ‘If you don’t believe in God you will burn for ever’.”

By criticising the Koran, Sebastian Faulks has joined the ranks of blasphemers (like me) who, if hard-line Muslims had their way, would be punished with death for what they have said. Thank God we don’t live in a Muslim country.

By the way, just for the record, I don’t believe there is any such thing as “Islamaphobia”. As Pat Condell has so eloquently said:

“Just because somebody offends you with their opinion it doesn’t give you the right to saddle them with a clinical condition. There is no such thing as Islamophobia. It simply doesn’t exist and most people now realise just what a cynical manipulative lie that word really is. Suspicion of or dislike of Islam is not a phobia. It’s an honest, healthy reaction to the evidence that’s been provided.”

“These words are being used quite shamelessly to try and engineer an artificial sense of guilt in western society, to redefine our values as prejudices and to silence legitimate opinion and the free exchange of ideas that have made us what we are.”

See:
“Sebastian Faulks: Koran has ‘no ethics’”
(The Times 23.08.09)
Pat Condell – “Apologists for Evil” (Video & Transcript)

Filed under: Islam, books, Koran, Sebastian Faulks

“I do get depressed when I see children coming out as evolution deniers. I don’t think they would have 30 years ago.” (Richard Dawkins)

The Greatest Show on Earth

I’m looking forward to reading Dawkins’ new book “The Greatest Show on Earth” when it hits the bookshelves in October but I can’t help thinking that it will be difficult for him to achieve one of his stated goals; to change Islam. He says:

“While most non-fundamentalist Christian traditions have largely accepted evolution, Islam was still much more hostile … It’s the fact that Islam teaches the Koran is the literal word of God, unlike most Christian sects, which say the Bible is largely symbolic.”

While he admits to the uphill battle when it comes to a change of Islamic consciousness, he does nevertheless have high hopes of roping in a significant Islamic audience.

“To be a best-seller in a Muslim country would be a personal triumph … anybody who reads it should no longer be capable of thinking that the world is 6,000 years old, [and] should no longer be capable of thinking evolution isn’t a fact…”

A general rule is that most people read books that have a viewpoint with which they already agree and I must admit that I’ve enjoyed Dawkins and Hitchens largely for that reason. I am already one of the “choir”.

I really do hope that his new book has the desired effect of making some people question their religious beliefs more critically but I’m essentially pessimistic about that. I suspect that the truth is this. Although “The Greatest Show on Earth”  is likely to achieve high sales, most will be reading it because they already agree with it. Few will approach it with open minds, including the atheists like myself.

See:
“Professor Richard Dawkins wants to convert Islamic world to evolution”
(The Times 22.08.09)

Filed under: Atheism, Evolution, Richard Dawkins, books, The Greatest Show on Earth

“Surprise” hero’s welcome – My arse!

So much for the Scottish government’s first real attempt at foreign policy. Did anyone really believe that he wasn’t going to get a hero’s welcome? What more is there to be said. “Sorry” perhaps.

Filed under: Libya, News, Terrorism, Al Megrahi, Barak Obama, Kenny MacAskill, Libya, Lockerbie, Prostate Cancer, Tripoli

Self-censorship – Does Yale University need to take a leaf out of Pat Condell’s book

No Cartoons Here

Yale University Press have just published a book about the Danish cartoons that caused such a fracas among Muslims several years ago – without showing the cartoons.

“The Cartoons That Shook The World” by Danish-born professor Jytte Klausen, is a serious book examining the protest campaign against the caricatures first published in the Danish newspaper “Jyllands-Posten” in 2005. Its publishers, Yale University Press, have said  that having consulted a panel of (anonymous) “experts” it has decided not to include the actual cartoons in the book.

This shameful capitulation, to a threat that has not even been made yet, is a fine example of a disastrous decision having been made by people who Pat Condell would no doubt refer to as “multicultural appeasement monkeys”. Or, to use more of his words, “the kind of people who’d put their own mothers and daughters in birkas to avoid being called intolerant and who occupy such high moral ground that you can hardly see them up there through the clouds of self-righteousness.”

All of these so-called “experts” need to watch his latest video entitled “Apologists for Evil” which was posted on his YouTube channel three weeks ago. I was unable to find a transcript of this video on-line but felt that what he said was so prosaic that one deserved to be made for the benefit of the internet community. So here it is. Are you pathetic pseudo-intellectual idiots at Yale sitting comfortably? Then hit the link below and we’ll begin.

Video and Full Transcript

See also:
“Yale Press Bans Images of Muhammad in New Book” (New York Times)
“Yale Surrenders” by Christopher Hitchens

Filed under: Appeasement for Islam, Islam, News, Special Religious Dispensation, Stupidity, Jyllands-Posten, Jytte Klausen, Pat Condell, The Cartoons That Shook The World, Yale University Press

Afghanistan: “We have a saying here – If she doesn’t fall down when you hit her with your cap, she’s old enough to marry”

Child Bride in Afghanistan

Stephanie Sinclair, a journalist  for the Economist, has been in Afghanistan since 2003 investigating child marriages and when she heard that a 13-year-old girl was to be married to a 40-year-old man she went to interview both of them.

The young girl’s father owed a gambling debt that he couldn’t pay and when he went with the debtor to their tribal council it was agreed that his young daughter should marry the man as payment.

Afghanistan is a man’s world and women are regarded as property. Thousands of child brides die each year in childbirth because their bodies are not developed enough to have children while at the same time there are insufficient medical facilities to help with any birthing complications that might occur.

The following video by Stephanie Sinclair exposes this very everyday practice of parents selling their daughters into marriage. It is shocking to see the regularity of child marriages and to realise that our soldiers are in Afghanistan right now effectively fighting and dying to defend this way of life.

Filed under: Afghanistan, Child Marriages, Economist, Stephanie Sinclair

Act of God – Domestic fridge explodes for no apparent reason. What has the Almighty got against fresh food?

The Mail Online is reporting about a domestic fridge that blew up for no apparent reason. According to the West Yorkshire owner, the doors just blew off and ripping a radiator off the wall, blowing out the windows and breaking objects in the kitchen.

Mrs. Cullingworth, the home owner, called the fire brigade but they couldn’t explain why the fridge had blown up. Experts were also at a loss. There was no alcohol or fizzy pop in the fridge and it seems that it just contained ordinary foodstuffs.

The story is given a humorous slant in The Mail but I wonder if it might have been approached from a the same angle had the house occupants been Muslim students with goatee beards rather than an ordinary white middle class family.

See the whole story and photos of the devastation at The Mail Online website.
“Something’s gone off in the fridge! Mother’s terror after mysterious kitchen explosion turns house into ‘bomb site‘”

Filed under: News, Exploding Fridge, Kathy Cullingworth

Jihad Watch warns of imminent terrorist “spectaculars” in the UK

On the 20th of July the official UK government’s terrorism threat level was lowered from “Level 4 – Severe – An attack is highly likely” to “Level 3 – Substantial – An attack is a strong possibility” but on Monday of this week the “Jihad Watch” website reported that home-grown terrorists in are plotting to attack targets in Britain.

Their source is is Express India whose own source is just described as “an internet magazine run by supporters of deported hate preacher Abdullah al-Faisal who was booted out of Britain after serving a jail sentence for being found guilty of three charges of soliciting the murder of Jews, Americans, and Hindus, and two charges of using threatening words to stir up racial hatred”. Not actually naming the source seems a bit suspicious however.

Jihad Watch reports:

“Al-Qaeda has labeled Britain and Europe as a bigger enemy than the United States [and] the strikes are being planned by terrorists living in Britain and others overseas, and warns of ‘spectacular attacks'”

Britain’s own intelligence services are saying nothing about this and the current threat level remains at “Level 3 Substantial”. Let’s hope that Jihad Watch have got it wrong and our own spies been have right not to have raised the bar.

See:
Jihad Watch “Al-Qaeda boasts that “spectacular attacks” are coming to UK”
Home Office Current Terrorist Threat Level

Filed under: Al-Qaeda, Islam, News, Terrorism, Jihad Watch, Terrorist Threat Level

Richard Dawkins joins the campaign for an apology from the UK government for the prosecution of Alan Turing

In June, Blogger John Graham-Cumming wrote about the injustices done to one of the most famous men in the computer sciences field and to date 3,219 people have signed his on-line petition at the Number Ten website asking that the British government apologise for it’s treatment of the famous scientist.

Alan Turing

Alan Turing is often regarded as the father of modern computing and played a major part in helping to break the German Enigma codes with his “Ultra” team from Bletchley Park but his prosecution in 1952 for being gay led to his chemical castration in a misguided attempt to turn him into a heterosexual man. In 1954 he committed suicide and a great mind was forever lost. Had he lived Turing would  have celebrated his 97th birthday in June.

Richard Dawkins, who has lent his voice to the campaign and who is due to present a program for Channel 4 on Turing said:

“Turing arguably made a greater contribution to defeating the Nazis than Eisenhower or Churchill. Thanks to Turing and his ‘Ultra’ colleagues at Bletchley Park, Allied generals in the field were consistently, over long periods of the war, privy to detailed German plans before the German generals had time to implement them.

“After the war, when Turing’s role was no longer top-secret, he should have been knighted and fêted as a saviour of his nation. Instead, this gentle, stammering, eccentric genius was destroyed, for a ‘crime’, committed in private, which harmed nobody,”

The deadline for the on-line petition is set for January of next year so there is still plenty of time in which to sign it  do so should you wish to do so. (See links below)

See:

On-line Petition at the No.10 website
John Graham-Cumming’s original post on June 23rd (Turing’s birthday)
Bletchley Park website homepage
Alan Turing at Wikipedia

Filed under: Death by Belief, Homosexuality, Stupidity, Alan Turing, Bletchley Park, John Graham-Cumming, Petition, Richard Dawkins