A God Who Hates: The Courageous Woman Who Inflamed the Muslim World Speaks Out Against the Evils of Islam
Cruel and Usual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law
As American citizens and officials engage in a muddled public debate about how to deal with indicted Fort Hood murderer Malik Hasan and his ilk, they would do well to consult these two books, which examine the Islamic system in practice. A God Who Hates explores the nature of Islam, viewed through Wafa Sultan’s personal experiences growing up in Syria, working there as a doctor, and then immigrating to the United States, where she became a psychiatrist. Cruel and Usual Punishment, published early last year, is the second book by Nonie Darwish, the daughter of an Egyptian officer killed by the Israelis in the 1950s. Her first, Now They Call Me Infidel, offered extensive autobiographical detail; the more recent book is an in-depth probe of what she sees as key problematic aspects of Islam.
Both Sultan and Darwish document how traditional Islamic law, or sharia, underpins Islamic life. Darwish argues that under Islam’s golden period of conquest and imperial rule, sharia’s most important aspect was “total control of the large and diverse Muslim empire—everyone’s behavior, loyalty, mind and even soul.” The system was all-encompassing and punishments were strict, but the caliphs, or rulers, were exempt from penalty for theft, adultery, killing, or drinking; in addition, they alone could have an unlimited number of wives. Their subjects were not allowed to revolt against them unless the caliphs acted in an “un-Islamic” way. Indeed, the fate of the learned imams who had written the sharia law demonstrated the extent of the caliphs’ immunity: they all wound up imprisoned, punished, exiled, or poisoned.
This system, Darwish writes, continues today in the tyrannical—and broadly accepted—behavior of most Muslim rulers. And the behavior cascades downward through Islamic society: those in positions of authority, whether in business or government, often act in repressive ways toward subordinates or the public at large. For many Islamic men, the home is the only place where they can assert their authority; yet even there, Darwish suggests, that authority is less than it seems. She analyzes the corrosive impact of polygamy, practiced or merely hypothetical, on all family members. She also notes its contribution to societal tension: since women do not greatly outnumber men, richer, older men acquire numerous wives at the expense of poorer young men. Caught between exclusion from a normal family life and brutal behavior in the public sphere, the best outlet for many young men is jihad: “The bottled-up sexual rage of the Muslim male,” Darwish argues, “must explode in the faces of the foreign infidel.” Jihad is thus essential for the maintenance of sharia law.
For her part, Sultan emphasizes the fear inherent in Islam, where the Koran’s 99 attributes of God include “The Harmer,” “The Compeller,” “The Imperious,” “The Humiliator,” and “The Bringer of Death.” . . . .
Daily Telegraph, 28 Jan 10: An imam in northeastern Spain has been charged with threatening a woman who refused to wear an Islamic headscarf or abide by certain Islamic customs, prosecutors said on Thursday. The prosecutors are seeking a five-year jail sentence for Mohammed Benbrahim, a Moroccan, on charges of slander, coercion and menacing behaviour against fellow Moroccan Muslim Fatima Ghailan. The two live in Cunit, a town in Catalonia, a region with a sizable Muslim population. The court filed similar charges against the president of the Islamic Association in Cunit and lesser ones against Mr Benbrahim’s wife and his daughter.
In a statement to the court in the nearby town of Vendrells, Mrs Ghailan, 31, said Benbrahim had harassed her and campaigned to have her removed from her job in the town hall’s cultural department purely because she had a job, dressed in a Western style, drove a car and associated with non-Muslims. She said the imam and his supporters also pressured her husband and children.Mrs Ghailan filed a complaint in December, 2008, after she said she and her husband were accosted in the street by the imam, who told them they would be run out of the town. . . .
Reuters, 30 Jan 10: An interpreter in Afghanistan shot dead two U.S. soldiers, a U.S. military official said on Saturday, adding that the attacker appeared to be a disgruntled employee rather than a militant. The NATO-led force in Afghanistan said earlier that two U.S. service members and one “U.S. employee” had been killed in an incident in the east of the country on Friday, without giving further details. . . . An Afghan provincial official, who also asked not to be named, said the interpreter had quarrelled with the soldiers over pay and treatment, before opening fire. The interpreter was shot dead by other soldiers after killing the two. . . .
[Wasn't Nidal Hasan initially called 'disgruntled' by officials? What would make a Muslim Afghani interpreter feel he can just easily kill US soldiers (aka 'infidels') who trusted him to interpret for them and to them what other Afghanis are saying? Why is there not more news articles on this incident where US soldiers were potentially the victims of an ideology which does not value the lives of non-Muslims?]
From Jihad Watch/Robert Spencer: As I have pointed out many, many times, there is no reliable way to distinguish a peaceful Muslim from a potentially violent jihadist. It isn’t as if there is one sect of Islam that has renounced and rejected violent jihad and Islamic supremacism, and another that upholds such things. If that were the case, one could rely on the peaceful group and shun the group that taught violence. But contrary to popular belief, every mainstream Islamic sect and school of Islamic law teaches the necessity to subjugate unbelievers, by force if necessary, under the hegemony of Islamic law. The U.S. government, of course, denies this fact and bases numerous policies upon the assumption that the vast majority of Muslims share universally accepted notions of human rights, and abhor jihad terrorism. This is the fruit of that false assumption.
Poet and scholar Abdelwahab Meddeb calls the niqab the “ideological sign of radical Islam.” Fadela Amara, French Undersecretary for Urban Affairs calls the niqab “the visible, physical expression of fundamentalists.” More
Dr. Tawfik Hamid, born in Egypt, a former Jihadist who was radicalized under Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, and who now Muslim reformer and author of Inside Jihad, says, “Experience over the last few decades in many Muslim countries shows that the proliferation of the hejab has been pivotal in spreading Islamism and the desire to implement Shariah law.” Hamid talks about the more women in a country are seen wearing the hejab, the more the country is becoming extremist, radical Islamists. He has cautioned it is a very serious security issue for US intelligence and military agencies if an employee is seen wearing the hejab.
♦ CI CENTRE BRIEFING: Inside Jihad: Recruited and Radicalized Into Terrorism
From The Steady Erosion of Women’s Rights in Egypt: A Photographic Story, Chesler Chronicles:
1959:
Cairo University in Egypt, Class of 1959
1978:
Cairo University Class of 1978
1995:
Cairo University Class of 1995
2004:
Cairo University Class of 2004
Ynet, 1 Feb 10: The Shin Bet arrested two east Jerusalem residents suspected of being recruited by Hamas during their time in Jordan and Saudi Arabia, and gathering information on potential terror targets in Israel, it was cleared for publication. An indictment was filed against the pair with the Jerusalem District Court on Monday. The two were charged with espionage, membership in a terror organization, contact with a foreign agent and aiding the enemy during wartime.
The two are suspected to have collected the videos, photographs, charts and information on a USB flash drive which they transferred to their handlers in Saudi Arabia. They were then meant to receive explosives. They also prepared a cave near Sataf, in the Judean Hills, and expanded it to use as a hiding place for weapons.
Murad Kamal, 24, from Wadi Joz in Jerusalem, and Murad Nimer, 24 from Tzur Baher, also in the capital, both carry Israeli IDs. They were arrested on January 3 at the central bus station in Beersheba. A third person was arrested with them, but suspicion that he was aware of their activity was refuted.
According to the Shin Bet, at the request of their Hamas handlers, Nimer and Kamal began collecting information which included photographs and sketches of potential terror targets, including the central bus station and Malcha Mall in Jerusalem, the central bus station in Beersheba, the hotel area on the Tel Aviv coast, bus stops in Jerusalem and Mevasseret, and the area surrounding the Tel Hashomer military base, where many soldiers are concentrated. . . .
. . . The two returned to Israel in 2009, and upon their return, began work on their mission – to collect information on locations in Israel. The two traveled the country seeking crowded sites. They filmed videos, took photographs, and prepared maps and sketches of malls (at the central bust station and Malcha Mall in Jerusalem). . . . .The two photographed the sings along the roads and Nimer transferred the images to his laptop, along with a description of each route, including its length, the signs on the road, and more. The suspects also examined how many Jews and soldiers could be found at each site, and took note of the security measures in the various locations. The information collected was saved on a USB flash drive. Last August Nimer visited Saudi Arabia with the processed information, and transferred it to Hamas operatives whose identities are unknown.
According to the Shin Bet, the cell’s members used their rights as holders of Israeli IDs to collect the information and seek out weaknesses in security in Israel’s crowded sites. The Shin Bet said this affair points to yet another case of the terror organizations’ efforts – Hamas in particular – to recruit students, with emphasis on those that specialize in chemistry and engineering, for military activity.
♦ CI CENTRE COURSE: 220–Israeli Intelligence Services: Operations & Methodologies
