I’m an Islamophobe and proud of it. In fact I have a phobia of all religions how does that make me a racist. Belief in god is akin to a belief in fairies at the bottom of the garden how can I hide my derision. Every time I see women in religious uniform be they Muslims wearing a burqa or Plymouth Brethren wearing a head scarf I find it abhorrent– it’s nothing more than suppression of women – something that has no place in our society.

From forcing their women to cover up cutting off their clitorises throwing acid in their faces and murdering their daughters and wives what has the Muslim religion against women

Tulay Goren

How defying family’s wishes sealed Tulay’s fate

When Tulay Goren fell for a man twice her age and embarked on an affair, it was an action that ultimately cost the teenager her life.

Ten years on, the body of 15-year-old Tulay, from Woodford Green, north London, has never been found.

Her former boyfriend, 30-year-old Halil Unal, still lives in fear for his life.

Tulay vanished in 1999 and now her own father Mehmet Goren has been found guilty of murdering her. Anna Browning, BBC.

Clockwise from top left: Caneze Riaz with daughters Sayrah, Alisha and Sophia

Muslim husband who killed his wife and children because of their Western ways

Mohammed Riaz made every conceivable attempt to prevent his wife and daughters enjoying their Westernised lifestyle. He destroyed their clothes – modest by Western standards but tight fitting by his own – when they came out of the wash and he railed against plans to allow alcohol at his terminally ill son’s 18th birthday party – which had been brought forward because of his prognosis.

Increasingly alienated and in despair over the illness of his son, Adam, the labourer killed his wife and four daughters by throwing petrol over them as they slept and igniting it.

At the inquest in Blackburn, Lancashire, the coroner, Mike Singleton, recorded a verdict that Caneze Riaz, 39, and her four daughters, Sayrah, 16, Sophia, 15, Alicia, 10, and Hannah, three, were unlawfully killed at their terrace home in Accrington, and that Mr Riaz, who died in hospital two days after the fire, took his own life. Adam died six weeks later. Ian Herbert, The Independent.

Women Wearing Hiyabs

The Burka: A Taliban Imposed Canvas Prison

On our Iran Air flight from Frankfurt to Tehran, each of the stewardesses wore a “hiyab.” When we entered Iran’s airspace, an announcement over the intercom told the women to put on their hiyab or a head scarf. My wife, as did the other women on the flight, obliged by putting scarves on their heads. My wife wore a scarf covering her hair for our entire Iran visit.

Why do Iran and other Muslim countries require a woman to hide her hair or her entire body? Because they believe God has made it an obligation for believing women. In the Koran, God tells the believing men and women to lower their gaze and to dress modestly. He (God) specifically addresses women when He asks them not to show off their adornment, except that which is apparent, and draw their veils over their bodies. (Koran 24:30-31) Thus, God requires Muslim women to dress modestly and to cover in public or in the presence of men who are not close relatives.

These verses of the Koran are known as the verses of hijab and many Islamic scholars believe that they make the wearing of a hijab mandatory. Some countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar do enforce a dress code. Women there are expected to cover their hair and wear some sort of loose fitting, full-length garment over their clothes. Ralph E. Stone, OpEdNews.

Khamisa Mohammed Sawadi

75-year-old widow to be flogged

The sentencing of a widow to 40 lashes for mingling with two young men has sparked new criticism of Saudi Arabia.

Khamisa Sawadi, who is Syrian but was married to a Saudi, was convicted and sentenced last week for meeting with men who were not her immediate relatives.

The two men, including one who was Mrs Sawadi’s late husband’s nephew, were reportedly bringing her bread. The Independent.

British girls undergo horror of genital mutilation despite tough laws

Female circumcision will be inflicted on up to 2,000 British schoolgirls during the summer holidays – leaving brutal physical and emotional scars. Yet there have been no prosecutions against the practice.

Like any 12-year-old, Jamelia was excited at the prospect of a plane journey and a long summer holiday in the sun. An avid reader, she had filled her suitcases with books and was reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban when her mother came for her. “She said, ‘You know it’s going to be today?’ I didn’t know exactly what it would entail but I knew something was going to be cut. I was made to believe it was genuinely part of our religion.”

She went on: “I came to the living room and there were loads of women. I later found out it was to hold me down, they bring lots of women to hold the girl down. I thought I was going to be brave so I didn’t really need that. I just lay down and I remember looking at the ceiling and staring at the fan.

“I don’t remember screaming, I remember the ridiculous amount of pain, I remember the blood everywhere, one of the maids, I actually saw her pick up the bit of flesh that they cut away ’cause she was mopping up the blood. There was blood everywhere.”

Some 500 to 2,000 British schoolgirls will be genitally mutilated over the summer holidays. Some will be taken abroad, others will be “cut” or circumcised and sewn closed here in the UK by women already living here or who are flown in and brought to “cutting parties” for a few girls at a time in a cost-saving exercise. Tracy McVeigh and Tara Sutton, The Observer.

Shamsia Husseini, right, was among 15 girls and women in Kandahar, Afghanistan, who were splashed with acid in November 2008

Afghan Girls, Scarred by Acid, Defy Terror, Embracing School

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — One morning two months ago, Shamsia Husseini and her sister were walking through the muddy streets to the local girls school when a man pulled alongside them on a motorcycle and posed what seemed like an ordinary question.

“Are you going to school?”

Then the man pulled Shamsia’s burqa from her head and sprayed her face with burning acid. Scars, jagged and discoloured, now spread across Shamsia’s eyelids and most of her left cheek. These days, her vision goes blurry, making it hard for her to read. Dexter Filkins, The New York Times.

And the question to my original question? Hatred what else can the answer be?

Ridiculous religious belief:

Promiscuous women are responsible for earthquakes, a senior Iranian cleric has said.

Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi told worshippers in Tehran last Friday that they had to stick to strict codes of modesty to protect themselves.

“Many women who do not dress modestly lead young men astray and spread adultery in society which increases earthquakes,” he said. Source: The BBC.

Is there a religion in the world that doesn’t denigrate women? I thought so – not one.

Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens are paying lawyers to investigating the possibility of convicting the pope for crimes against humanity.

Dawkins described the pope as a “leering old villain in a frock … whose first instinct when his priests are caught with their pants down is to cover up the scandal and damn the young victims to silence.”

“This former head of the Inquisition should be arrested the moment he dares to set foot outside his tinpot fiefdom of the Vatican, and he should be tried in an appropriate civil – not ecclesiastical – court. That’s what should happen. Sadly, we all know our faith-befuddled governments will be too craven to do it.” Source: Helen Pidd, The Guardian.

I watch with great interest – sadly I suspect Dawkins and Hitchens will fail – they shouldn’t.

England is a “cesspit” and breeding ground for fundamentalist Muslims, the Nobel laureate and political activist Wole Soyinka has said in an interview in which he also accused Britain of allowing the existence of “indoctrination schools”. James Meikle, The Guardian.

“England is a cesspit. England is the breeding ground of fundamentalist Muslims. Its social logic is to allow all religions to preach openly. But this is illogic, because none of the other religions preach apocalyptic violence. And yet England allows it. Remember, that country was the breeding ground for communism, too. Karl Marx did all his work in libraries there.” Wole Soyinka, The Daily Beast.

Soyinka defies logic – I fail to see how any democracy could have stopped Marx – if indeed stopping him was desirable. What Soyinka does highlight in my mind is religious schools – historically the UK has had and still does have a large number of schools run by either the Church of England or the Catholic Church. In the interests of equality the government has allowed other faiths to set up schools – this was and is a mistake history was no reason to expand religious interference in the education of children – religion is but an act of faith comparable to a belief in fairies at the bottom of the proverbial garden – religion is hokum. The government should be investigating ways to break the link between religion and education not reinforcing it.

Does this make England a Cesspit – No – in the UK mainstream there is no question that Darwin is right and intelligent design is but hogwash unlike in the USA – here in UK religion isn’t able to change the way science is taught.

The Christian right is making a fresh push to force religion onto the school curriculum in Texas with the state’s education board about to consider recommendations that children be taught that there would be no United States if it had not been for God.

Members of a panel of experts appointed by the board to revise the state’s history curriculum, who include a Christian fundamentalist preacher who says he is fighting a war for America’s moral soul, want lessons to emphasise the part played by Christianity in the founding of the US and that religion is a civic virtue.

Opponents have decried the move as an attempt to insert religious teachings in to the classroom by stealth, similar to the Christian right’s partially successful attempt to limit the teaching of evolution in biology lessons in Texas.

One of the panel, David Barton, founder of a Christian heritage group called WallBuilders, argues that the curriculum should reflect the fact that the US Constitution was written with God in mind including that “there is a fixed moral law derived from God and nature”, that “there is a creator” and “government exists primarily to protect God-given rights to every individual”.

Barton says children should be taught that Christianity is the key to “American exceptionalism” because the structure of its democratic system is a recognition that human beings are fallible, and that religion is at the heart of being a virtuous citizen.

Another of the experts is Reverend Peter Marshall, who heads his own Christian ministry and preaches that Hurricane Katrina and defeat in the Vietnam War were God’s punishment for sexual promiscuity and tolerance of homosexuals. Marshall recommended that children be taught about the “motivational role” of the Bible and Christianity in establishing the original colonies that later became the US.

“In light of the overwhelming historical evidence of the influence of the Christian faith in the founding of America, it is simply not up to acceptable academic standards that throughout the social studies (curriculum standards) I could only find one reference to the role of religion in America’s past,” Marshall wrote in his submission.

Marshall later told the Wall Street Journal that the struggle over the history curriculum is part of a wider battle. “We’re in an all-out moral and spiritual civil war for the soul of America, and the record of American history is right at the heart of it,” he said. Chris McGreal, The Guardian.

As I said American politics is full of religious nutters.

HIV/Aids is a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which can even increase the problem. Pope Benedict XVI (Source: BBC).

I guess the Pope is entitled to an opinion, much as I disagree with him, however he can’t invent the facts – CONDOMS DON’T INCREASE THE RISK OF HIV/Aids – the Pope’s a bloody madman, whose words will condemn millions to death.

Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice has reported an atheist campaign claiming “There’s probably no God” to the advertising regulator (ASA) saying:

‘According to one national newspaper, ‘some atheist supporters of the campaign were disappointed that the wording of the adverts did not declare categorically that God does not exist, although there were fears that this could break advertising guidelines.’

‘Well, I believe the ad breaks the Advertising Code anyway, unless the advertisers hold evidence that God probably does not exist.

‘The ASA does not just cover goods and services, it covers all advertising. The advertisers cannot hide behind the ASA’s ‘matters of opinion’ exclusion, because no person or body is named as the author of the statement. It is given as a statement of fact and that means it must be capable of substantiation if it is not to break the rules.

‘There is plenty of evidence for God, from peoples’ personal experience, to the complexity, interdependence, beauty and design of the natural world. But there is scant evidence on the other side, so I think the advertisers are really going to struggle to show their claim is not an exaggeration or inaccurate, as the ASA code puts it. Source: Christian Voice.

Hanne Stinson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association which is backing the campaign, said:

“I’ve sought advice from some of our key people here, but I’m afraid all I’ve got out of them so far is peals of laughter.

“I am sure that Stephen Green really does think there is a great deal of evidence for a God (though presumably only the one that he believes in), but I pity the ASA if they are going to be expected to rule on the probability of God’s existence.” Source: The BBC.

Peels of laughter here too!

Yes that’s swearing – read and you won’t disagree with me.

An eight-year old Saudi Arabian girl who was married off by her father to a 58-year-old man has been told she cannot divorce her husband until she reaches puberty.

Lawyer Abdu Jtili said the divorce petition was filed by the unnamed girl’s divorced mother in August after the marriage contract was signed by her father and the groom. “The judge has dismissed the plea because she [the mother] does not have the right to file, and ordered that the plea should be filed by the girl herself when she reaches puberty,” lawyer Abdullah Jtili told the AFP news agency.

The case was handled by a court in Qasim province, north of the Saudi capital Riyadh. The girl does not know she is married, said Jtili, adding that he will appeal.

In many child marriages, girls are given away to older men in return for dowries or following the custom by which a father promises his daughters and sons to marriage while still children. But the issue is complicated by different interpretations of sharia law and a lack of legal certainty.

“There is confusion in Saudi Arabia over the fundamental question of what constitutes adulthood,” said Clarisa Bencomo of Human Rights Watch. “There is also vast judicial discretion.” The case appears to fit a pattern of divorced fathers using their children to take revenge against their ex-wives. Mothers usually only have custody while the children are young.

Relatives said the marriage had not been consummated and that the girl was still living with her mother. They said that the father had set a verbal condition by which the marriage was not to be consummated until the girl turns 18 – although it was unclear how this could be enforced. The father agreed to marry off his daughter for a dowry of 30,000 riyals (£5,400) as he was facing financial problems.

Bencomo dismissed the idea that the girl would be able to file for divorce once she reached puberty since there was no standard definition of this. In addition, Saudi judges often insist that even adult women speak to them through a male guardian or lawyer.

No figures are available for the number of arranged marriages involving pre-adolescents in Saudi Arabia, where the strictly conservative Wahhabi version of Sunni Islam holds sway and polygamy is common. But human rights groups say they are aware of many such cases.

Senior clerics, including Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Al-Sheikh, the kingdom’s grand mufti, have denounced child marriage. But it is still prevalent in conservative areas. The Shura council recently defined adulthood as starting at age 18 but objections prevented it from being ratified as required by the council of ministers. Source: The Guardian.

I’m lost for words – unlike millions of Muslim women who aren’t allowed words.