Left Shoe News 30 June, 2002
Prophet Muhammad said, "When one of you puts on sandals, he should first put on the right foot " (Hadith Sahih Muslim 877)
He also said, "He who does not obey Muhammad disobeys God." (Hadith Mishkat 144)
Afghanistan
26/6/02 Afghanistan must have secular laws
Dr. Sima Samar has been replaced as Afghanistan's Minister for Women's
Affairs. She is alleged to have spoken to a Canadian newspaper against Sharia,
Islamic law. On 13 June, Dr Samar was attacked in the newspaper “Mujahed”,
“Holy Warrior”, printed by the Jamiat-e-Islami and called Afghanistan's Salman
Rushdie”.
Sharia was practiced by the Taliban and included whipping, stoning to death ,
amputation of hands and feet and discrimination against women. Dr Samar's outspoken
attacks on the way women are still being treated in Afghanistan have angered
many religious hardliners. She says she fears for her safety.
Dr Samar now heads the newly established Human Rights Commission and we wish
her well in her work for women. An election is due in 2004 and women, who make
up two-thirds of the population of Afghanistan must unite together to get
maximum representation.
Malaysia
30/6/02 Terengganu Malays can become free-thinkers to avoid hudud laws.
Sharia does not apply to non-Muslims so the vicious new hudud proposals of
PAS (Partai Islam se-Malaysia) can be avoided by becoming a free-thinker,
humanist, atheist or agnostic.
Malaysian Sharia does not punish apostasy from Islam, unlike some Islamic
states where it carries the death penalty. To make a woman who alleges she has
been raped and cannot obtain a conviction be whipped 80 times is barbaric.
Rapists must not be protected by Islamic law: the word of a woman must be
accepted as evidence and the Sharia provision that 4 adult, male, Muslim
witnesses to actual penetration not be required.
Many groups and organisations have expressed outrage at the PAS-led move:
Sisters in Islam, Malaysia National Council of Women's Organisations, Women's
Action Association, Women Lawyers Association, National Single Mothers Council,
National Social Workers Association, Wanita Ikram, Pertubuhan BantUan Wanita.
Women's Crisis Centre, Women Development Collective, Wijadi and Women Candidacy
Initiative, Umno Youth, Wanita MCA and the Women and Family Development-
Ministry.
HRAIC says many women complain they are already discriminated against by
Islamic laws which apply nationally and are less stringent than those proposed
in eastern Terengganu state.
DAP Wanita hopes that all parties should refrain from continuing to infringe
the Malaysia constitutional guarantee that this is a plural society which
upholds parliamentary democracy and power-sharing between both genders and all
religious and ethnic communities.
13/3/02 Ismail Mamat, UMNO information chief in Kelantan state was
convicted of polygamy, and sentenced to 4 days jail and fined 1800 ringgit.
While Muslim men are allowed to have up to 4 wives, in Malaysia permission must
be obtained from an existing wife and religious authorities.
Pakistan
6/6/02 Stoning sentence overturned
Two years ago, Zafran Bibi, a village woman from Lohat
district in the North West Frontier Province went to the police to report a
case of rape. Instead she was charged with adultery and sentenced to death by
stoning.
Women's and human rights groups in Pakistan created a furore and President
Musharraf gave the assurance that the sentence would not be carried out. She
was brought to the capital, Islamabad where the sentence was overturned. Human
rights groups demand the repeal of vicious Islamic laws.
14/6/02 Islamists bomb US consulate in Karachi.
Twelve Pakistanis including
five women and 4 policemen guarding the building were killed in a bomb attack
on the US consulate in Karachi.
On May 8, 11 French workers and 3 Pakistanis were killed in a bomb attack
outside the Sheraton hotel in Karachi.
29/6/02 Pakistani police have published photographs of 10 men suspected of
carrying out the Karachi bombings. Most belong to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a banned
Sunni group.
24/6/02 Pakistan's Supreme court has reversed its own ruling that outlawed
charging interest, “riba”, on loans. A number of financial institutions had
warned the government that the new system was not viable and some of the foreign
banks said they might have to shut down their operations in the country.
Actually Allah (Qur'an 3:130) forbade “usury, doubled and multiplied” and not
moderate interest rates.
19/6/02 Up to now Pakistan's mosque schools, madrasas, have been totally unregulated
giving a limited scope of education, with many only offering the recitation of
the Qur'an in Arabic. Now they have been given 6 months to register with the
government or face closure. They will not be able to receive foreign, for
example Saudi, donations and once registered will be eligible for grants to
teach science, maths and Urdu. Many of the madrasas will resist the government
as they are not interested in secular education and see themselves in the
forefront of Jihad.
16/6/02 Islamic militants entered the houses of Hindus in the village of
Balmakote, 60 km from Jammu, Indian Kashmir leaving 5 people dead and 3
seriously injured.
Two civilians died and 3 militants of the Hizbul Mujahideen were killed in a
gun battle with police in Doda district.
Three members of the al-Badr group were killed by police in Kupwara district.
15/6/02 Three children died when Hindu pilgrims making their way from a remote
mountain shrine in Kashmir were attacked.
27/6/02 Suspected Islamic militants threw a grenade into a crowded market at
Anantnag town in Jammu-Kashmir injuring 20 Hindu civilians.
11/6/02 Several thousand hardline Muslims took part in a rally in Muzaffarabad,
Pakistani Kashmir to denounce the ban by President Musharraf of the movement of
armed militants across the Line of Control. Qazi Hussain Ahmed, leader of
Jamaat-e-Islami said the people of Pakistan were not afraid of a holy war with
India.
Nigeria
27/6/02 Nigerian man faces death
penalty for adultery
For the first time a man, Yunusa
Rafin Chiwaya, has been sentenced to death in northern Nigeria (Bauchi state)
to death by stoning for adultery. He may have been depressed and suicidal for
he voluntarily confessed to the authorities. His case is reminiscent of that of
Ma'iz bin Malik who went to Prophet Muhammad to confess his adultery. (Hadith
Malik 493:1520)
His partner, the wife of a neighbor, was acquitted after swearing on the Koran
that she had been hypnotised at the time.
23/6/02 Birth risk for “circumcised” women
The WHO (World Health Organization) conducted a study of almost 2000
Nigerian women who had suffered FGM (female genital mutilation) of various
types. They found that women who had part or all of the clitoris and/or skin
tissue of the vulva removed had a higher risk of tearing because of their
extensive scar tissue. Also they could suffer long-lasting reproductive health
problems and stillbirths.
Prophet Muhammad did not have his daughter, Fatima “circumcised” but did not
come out against the practice which many Muslims regard as Sunnah. In total it
is estimated that 2M women a year are subjected to genital mutilation. The aim
of the process is to ensure the woman is faithful to her future husband and
some communities consider girls ineligible for marriage if they have not been
circumcised. Razor blades, scissors, kitchen knives and even pieces of glass
are used, often on more than one girl, which increases the risk of infection.
Some girls die as a result of haemorrhaging, septicaemia and shock.
Iran
22/6/02 Sympathy for Iranian
earthquake victims
We wish to express our sympathy to
the victims of the earthquake in north-western Iran. The quake which was 6.0 on
the Richter scale devastated 70 villages, killing about 230 people, injuring
1500 people and leaving 25,000 homeless. Many survivors accuse the government
of being too slow to help.
Allah (Qur'an 64:11) claims responsibility for all calamities but scientists
say the area is crossed by fault-lines which cause millions of tons of rock to
crush together.
1/6/02 The parliamentary speaker, Mehdi Karubi, has called for the
release from house arrest of a leading dissident cleric, Ayatollah Hossein Ali
Montazeri. Montazeri who is 80 years old was placed under house arrest in Qom
in 1997 after he criticized the power of the country's supreme leader,
Ayatollah Ali Khameini.
9/6/02 The reformist parliament has had a bill banning torture to obtain
confessions rejected by the Guardian Council, who says it is un-Islamic. The
latter is a 12-member unelected body of 6 clerics appointed by Khameini and 6
lawyers selected from a list submitted by the head of judiciary himself
appointed by Khameini. The Guardian Council thwarts practically all bills
passed by the elected parliament.
Russia
25/6/02 Wahhabists arrested over
Dagestan bombing
A Dagestan Islamist, Kazim
Abdurakhmanov and seven others have been arrested for carrying out the bomb
attack in the town of Kaspiysk on the Victory (WWII) Day Parade on May 9. The
attack killed 43 people, including children, veterans and musicians, and
injured more than 150 people. The attack was ordered by Dagestan Wahhabist
religious leader, Rapani Khalilov who is in hiding in neighboring Chechnya.
Khalilov is alleged to have taken part in an attack on Dagestan by Chechen
rebels which sparked Russia's intervention in Chechnya.
17/6/02 Russia has asked Georgia to extradite 3 men involved in the
bombing of a block of flats 3 years ago in the southern city of Volgodonsk.
Nearly 20 people were killed in the explosion and a number of men have already
been convicted of the bombings. However the group may be in the Pankisi Gorge
which is a no-go area for Georgian police and soldiers. The gorge is used for
R&R by Chechen fighters and has become a center of drug-smuggling and
gun-running. Aid workers have been taken hostage and some Russians forced to
work as slaves.
30/6/02 Chinese consul killed in Kyrgystan
A high-ranking Chinese diplomat and his driver have been shot by Uighur
separatists. Neighboring Xinjiang contains about 9 million Muslims some of whom
want an Islamic state.
Philippines
14/6/02 Hostages of Abu Sayyaf
killed
Filipina nurse, Ediborah Yap and
American missionary, Martin Burnham were shot dead during an attempt to free
them. His wife, Gracia Burnham was shot in the thigh but now has returned to
her home in Wichita. Nurse Yap is considered a heroine as she had turned down
several chances for freedom during the past year so she could care for the
Burnhams who were in bad health.
The Abu Sayyaf is fighting for a Muslim state and carried out a string of
kidnappings last year. Most hostages were released for ransom, but several
including an American man were beheaded.
21/6/02 A senior leader of Abu Sayyaf, Abu Sabaya is thought to have
been killed when special forces intercepted a boat carrying armed men off the
coast of Sibuco.
Algeria
30/6/02 Over 100 people have been
killed by Islamists in Algeria this month.
28/6/02 Thirteen people were killed
when GIA (Armed Islamic Group) attacked a bus in the Algiers suburb of
Eucalyptus with machine guns.
23/6/02 Islamic extremists killed 6 youths playing football in Zeralda.
Two policemen and an Islamist were killed in a clash in Relizane. A child
wounded in a bomb attack in Chlef on Friday died of injuries.
14/6/02 Eleven villagers, including two children aged three and four,
have been killed in attacks near the slum village of Douera. The Salafist Group
for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) may have been responsible on this occasion.
12/6/02 Eleven bus passengers were killed in the town of Medea when it
was attacked with machine guns.
The GIA and GSPC are fighting for an Islamic state where Allah reigns supreme.
Saudi Arabia
29/6/02 About 100 Saudis are among the 500 Taliban and
al-Qaeda prisoners at the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Fifteen
of the nineteen September 11 hijackers were Saudi nationals. Bin Laden was
stripped of his Saudi citizenship after calling for the overthrow of the ruling
Saudi dynasty.
10/6/02 Eau de Cologne kills 19 in SA
Nineteen people have died in Saudi Arabia from drinking cologne laced with
poisonous methanol. Alcohol is banned under the kingdom's strict Sharia,
Islamic law.
Syria
24/6/02 A Syrian state security court has sentenced opposition
dissident Habib Saleh, 52, to three years jail for voicing criticism of the government.
Journalists and diplomats were barred from the trial.
Indonesia
About a dozen Indonesian and
Malaysian Islamists were trained in how to make bombs and other military
activities in a village near Jakarta last year. The instructor was Syekh Saharani
who belonged to the banned Malaysian group KMM, Kumpulan Mujahiddin Malaysia.
Two militants who trained in the camp, Malaysian Taufik bin Abdullah Hakim and
Indonesian Edi Setyono have been sentenced to death for bombing a shopping mall
last year.
Sri Lanka
29/6/02 Eight people have been killed and scores injured in
clashes between Muslims and Tamils in Batticaloa district. Ninety six shops
were set ablaze.
Egypt
16/6/02 Nabil Soliman convicted in
absentia following the assassination of President Sadat has been extradited
from the US to Egypt. Soliman was a member of Islamic Jihad which opposed
Egypt's peace deal with Israel in 1979.
Sudan
23/6/02 Sudan government bombs
Christian town
The town of Malual-Kan, a center for
a number of international aid agencies, was bombed by government planes killing
four people. The SPLA (Sudan People's Liberation Army) says it has no presence
in the town.
9/6/02 The SPLA says it has captured the key garrison town of Kapoeta
near the Kenyan border.
Somalia
17/6/02 Rival Muslim militias
clash
Nineteen people were killed when
supporters of Dahir Dayah clashed with forces loyal to warlord Mohamed Dhere.
The two sides started exchanging gunfire outside the village of El-Baraf after
morning prayers.
America
10/6/02 US citizen arrested for
“dirty bomb” plan.
US citizen Abdullah al-Mujahir, 31, aka Jose Padilla was arrested
on his arrival from Pakistan on May 8. He converted to Islam in 1998 and went
to Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda thought that, as a US citizen he would be able to
travel freely throughout the country. The plans involved exploding a
conventional bomb containing radioactive isotopes. Radiation sickness would be
spread over a wide area.
5/6/02 Kuwaiti-born Khalid Shaikh Mohammed has been identified as one of
the terrorists who masterminded the September 11 attacks on New York and
Washington. He transferred the funds for the training of the hijackers and
costs. He was indicted in the US in 1996 for his role in a plot to blow up US
civilian airlines over the Pacific, and the government is offering a reward of
$25m for his capture.
22/6/02 Two Lebanese brothers, Muhammad and Chawki Hammoud, have been
convicted of channeling funds to the Lebanese Islamic group Hezbollah (Party of
God). They were among 18 people arrested in July 2000 in the Charlotte area and
in Michigan who bought cigarettes in North Carolina where tax is 5c a pack and
selling them in Michigan where tax is 75 cents a pack. The profits went to the
terrorist group Hezbollah.
Palestine
28/6/02 Baby bomber photo a shocker
This photo was found during the
search of a house belonging to a Hamas militant in the West Bank town of
Hebron. It shows an 18-month baby boy wearing a pretend explosives belt and a
head band of the extremist Islamic group Hamas.
Israeli forces have occupied large parts of the West Bank and say they will
remain until there is an end to Palestinian suicide bombings which have killed
dozens of Israelis in recent weeks. Palestinians cannot expect statehood
until they show a willingness to live alongside Israel.
Islam conquered Palestine in 638 CE (16AH)