THE MUSLIM OBSESSION WITH CARTOONS

From this source in Canada:

Police in Halifax are investigating a complaint about a political cartoon that some members of a local Islamic group claim is a hate crime.

The cartoon, published April 18 in the Chronicle Herald newspaper, depicts a woman in a burka holding a sign that reads, "I want millions," and she says, "I can put it towards my husband's next training camp."

The cartoon by Bruce MacKinnon is a reference to Cheryfa MacAulay Jamal, a woman from Nova Scotia whose husband was arrested in 2006 in an anti-terrorism raid. Qayyum Abdul Jamal was released from jail after charges against him were stayed on April 15.

Zia Khan, director of the Centre for Islamic Development in Halifax, said the cartoon goes beyond what can be considered free speech.

[...]

Dan Leger, the Herald's director of news content, said the cartoon does not take aim at all Muslims.

"The whole purpose of that cartoon was to comment on the outrageous demands of this individual for compensation long before any hearing into her case had ever been held," he said.

In an interview with the Herald before the cartoon ran, Jamal said she wanted to sue the federal government for what her family has gone through and told the reporter, "I want millions," Leger noted.

"[MacKinnon] depicted her exactly the way she looks and used her own words, and that's the genius of cartooning that you're able to do that," he said.

Leger said he first heard of the Islamic group's concerns when the newspaper was contacted by police.

What would Muslims have thought of Thomas Nast?

His engravings chronicled the American scene from the Civil War period to the turn of the century. They highlighted every major national event and issue, the political process, elections, and scandal in the government. The American scene was ripe in subject matter for Nast. The country was fast becoming an industrial nation; railroads were spreading, factories were being built, and cities were fast becoming crowded with immigrants that supplied cheap labor. Scandal was everywhere. Elections were being rigged. One of his most famous political cartoon attacks was aimed at Boss Tweed.

If Nast had turned his attention to caricaturizing and satirizing Muslims, they'd have started another cartoonifada.

ISLAMIC DIVORCE DENIED IN MARYLAND

The information below is an encouraging development that provides some anti-dhimmitudinal satisfaction. Nevertheless, the case may not have larger significance in the greater counter-jihad.

Excerpt from the May 7, 2008 edition of the Baltimore Sun:

Saying "I divorce thee" three times, as men in Muslim countries have been able to do for centuries when leaving their wives, is not enough if you're a resident of Maryland, the state's highest court ruled yesterday.

Yesterday, the Court of Appeals rejected a Pakistani man's argument that his invocation of the Islamic 'talaq', under which a marriage is dissolved simply by the husband's say-so, allowed him to part with his wife of more than 20 years and deny her a share of his $2 million estate.

The justices affirmed a lower court's decision overturning a divorce decree obtained in Pakistan by Irfan Aleem, a World Bank economist who moved from London to Maryland with his wife, Farah Aleem, in 1985. ...

Irfan Aleem had lived for nearly twenty years at the top echelons of the bankings in the West. But when his wife filed for divorce in Montgomery County, Maryland, in 2003, Mr. Aleem decided to pursue a shari'a avenue to limit the cost of the settlement terms:

But before the legal process could be completed - and without telling his wife - Aleem went to the Pakistani Embassy in Washington and invoked the 'talaq', in effect attempting to turn jurisdiction of the case over to a Pakistani court that later granted him a divorce.

The Maryland Court of Appeals nullified his Aleem's plan, although

Muneer Fareed, secretary-general of the Islamic Society of North America, said that if Aleem had traveled to Pakistan and invoked his talaq there, it might have been recognized in a U.S. court under the concept of comity, under which nations accept the premise of a law in another country "whether or not we agree with the law or its spirit."

Read the entire article. Additional information about the case is here and here.

The above small victory for anti-dhimmitude, apparently achieved because Irfan Aleem didn't physically travel to Pakistan to invoke 'talaq', is encouraging. But, at the same time, another form of shari'a law — shari'a banking — continues to gain ground within Western nations.

From this source, an article entitled "The Silent Jihad Against the West" (Hat-tip to Infidel Bloggers Alliance):

Islamic Sharia banking is coming to the United States and other western nations, thanks to global banks such as Citigroup, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. Great Britain is now pledging to become the Islamic banking center of the world. Clearly the headlong rush by all global banks to enter the world of Islamic banking is well underway. Why do western banks seek to participate in Sharia banking; because it gives them a chance to enter the Islamic banking industry which has over $1.5 trillion available today and is growing at a steady and explosive rate of over 15% per year.

The implications for the west, and especially for the United States, are staggeringly destructive. Islamic banking working through global banks is doing for Islam what it could never do on its own: giving legitimacy to Sharia law and infiltrating it into the fabric of western society.

For those not familiar with Sharia Banking; it is a system which creates and sells services and products that are in strict accordance with Sharia law. Sometimes it is referred to in the Islamic culture as "Sharia finance". It dictates how the practices of banking, investment, bonds, loans, brokerage, etc, are to be conducted.
To insure compliance and to become "Sharia banking" compliant, banks must hire Sharia experts to review and approve each product and practice of the bank....There is a shortage of such Sharia experts so there is competition among banks to find such experts to sit on their boards of directors. By having an "expert" involved in banking decisions, this provides the legitimacy to each banking decision because it is made at the director rather management level. However, most of these Sharia experts" are from the radical Wahhabi school of Islam in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, and they hold views diametrically opposed to the basic values of Western civilization.

Read the entire article.

For current developments in shari'a banking, please visit Shariah Finance Watch.

THE BIBLE IS "UNCLEAN"

Excerpt from this January 15, 2008 article in the UK's Daily Express, via this posting at Infidel Bloggers Alliance:

A MUSLIM store worker refused to serve a customer buying a children’s book on Christianity because she said it was “unclean”.

Shopper Sally Friday felt publicly humiliated at a branch of Marks & Spencer when she tried to pay for First Bible Stories as a gift for her young grandson.When she put the book on the check-out counter, the young assistant refused to touch it, declared it was unclean and summoned another member of staff to serve instead....

There's been an outcry, of course, and from several sides:

Last night politicians and religious leaders supported her in condemning the high street giant and reigniting the debate over religious beliefs in the workplace.

Conservative MP Philip Davies said the refusal to serve Mrs Friday, 69, was “unacceptable” and “damaging” to community relations.

Inayat Bunglawala, assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, described the assistant’s comments as “offensive” and called for Marks & Spencer to carry out a thorough investigation.

The sensitivities of Muslim employees are not limited to Marks & Spencer:

Mrs Friday’s treatment is just the latest example of Muslim staff refusing to serve customers on religious grounds.

In October 2006, Lloyds chemist was forced to apologise to mother Jo-Ann Thomas after a Muslim pharmacist refused her a morning-after contraceptive pill on religious grounds in Rotherham.

A smoker was refused cigarettes at a Cambridge store in January last year because the Muslim shop assistant said it was against her religion to sell tobacco.

Islamic checkout staff at Sainsbury’s who refuse to sell alcohol are allowed to opt out of handling bottles and cans of drink by calling other staff to take their place.

Other staff have refused to work stacking shelves with wine, beer and spirits and have been found alternative roles in the company.

Odd that these incidents involving Muslims' sensitivities keep cropping up in Western countries: a UK dentist who refused to treat a female patient if she didn't wear a hijab, UK doctors demanding alcohol-free germicides, Minneapolis cab drivers who refuse to transport liquor in their taxis, a clerk who refused to check out bacon at her cash register in an American grocery store. A more detailed list is HERE, at The Amboy Times. And the list keeps growing.

Could it be that Muslim sensitivities are becoming more and more obvious because firm stands against such self-righteous behavior exhibited by some Muslim employees? Or is there another reason?