Islamic Rules Kick 12 Year Old Female Player Out of Chess Tournament

Are you effing kidding me?  Nope - it really happened.  Other news outlets have reported on the event, which happened at the National Scholastic Chess Championship of 2017 held April 14, 2017 at Putrajaya.   Here's the scoop from The Washington Post:

‘We are disgusted’: Youth chess coach says student kicked out of tournament for ‘seductive’ dress

Marissa Payne, April 29, 2917



Quoted from the Facebook post (includes photo above):

DEAR MALAYSIAN CHESS COMMUNITY,

I heard the most disturbing incident from one of my student’s mother.

At the National Scholastic Chess Championship 2017, in Putrajaya, one of my student, who is a 12-YEAR-OLD GIRL felt harassed and humiliated by the actions of Tournament Director and Chief Arbiter.

In the middle of Round 2, (without stopping the clocks) Chief Arbiter informs my student that the dress she wore was improper and have violated the dress code of the tournament. It was later informed (by Chief Arbiter) to my student and her mother, that the Tournament Director deemed my student’s dress to be “seductive” and a “temptation from a certain angle far, far away”.
We found this statement completely out of line!

Please see attached photo of what she was wearing! Completely ridiculous!

After some discussion, Chief Arbiter had conceded and apologised to my student, personally assuring her that there was nothing wrong with her attire, but due to Tournament Director’s decision, he could not allow this dress to be worn by my student in the tournament. This discussion happened at around 10pm and Chief Arbiter gave them a choice to go to the mall nearby to buy a long slack for the next day 9.00am round. Due to the timing of this incident, it was impossible to get another attire in time for the 9.00am round next day, as all shops were already closed and wouldn’t be open in time.

Before the morning round next day, my student’s mother called Tournament Director regarding this matter, initially he had replied that he was not aware of the situation but after a brief discussion, it was realized that he knew all the details on this incident prior to this phone call. He promised to return the call upon discussion with Chief Arbiter, but this did not happen. He would further not answer or return any calls of my student’s mother.

This situation had led to the inevitable decision of withdrawal from the tournament all together.

We are absolutely DIGUSTED by the treatment of Tournament Director to a 12-year-old girl and her mother. This incident has resulted in loss of time and money which was invested before, during and after the tournament on coaching, registration fees, travelling, accommodation and other incurred cost.

This bright young girl was recently the champion of her district in MSS Kuala Lumpur and has shown tremendous potential in Chess. This incident has left her extremely disturbed, and embarrassed.

I have been playing chess in Malaysia for almost 2 decades and I have never heard this type of issue ever in any tournaments in Malaysia. This should be the first and last time this kind of issue ever appears, I or anyone of us should never accept this in our Chess Community.

We demand a public apology from Tournament Director of National Scholastic Chess Championship 2017. In the event, we do not receive a public apology in the next 5 days, we shall have no choice but to resort to legal proceedings.

Regards,
Kaushal Khandhar
A Malaysian Chess Player & Coach

Article:

A 12 year-old chess champion in Malaysia was forced to withdraw from a youth tournament in the country after tournament organizers deemed her knee-length dress too “seductive,” the girl’s coach said.

The tournament director of the National Scholastic Chess Championship held April 14-16 made the call personally, the coach noted, after finding the dress to be “temptation."

"We found this statement completely out of line!” youth chess coach Kaushal Khandhar wrote on Facebook.

He said the incident left his student feeling “extremely disturbed, and embarrassed."

Dress codes in chess are not unusual, as FIDE, world chess’s governing body, allows tournament organizers to set them before their events to ensure participants maintain a “dignified appearance.” In certain Muslim-majority countries, such as Iran, organizers may require female participants to follow local customs, including covering their hair with headscarves.

Malaysian women, however, do not face the same restrictions, and skirts or shorts that extend to the knee are commonly worn in public spaces.

"I have been playing chess in Malaysia for almost two decades and I have never heard this type of issue ever in any tournaments in Malaysia,” Khandhar added.

Making matters worse, the coach said, was the timing of the incident. The girl apparently was able to play in the dress without incident in the first round of the tournament but was pulled aside in the middle of the second round Thursday and told her attire didn’t conform with the dress code.

Khandhar said tournament organizers gave the girl the option to go purchase a pair of slacks and return to the event the next day, however, Khandhar said by the time that offer was made it was past 10 p.m., and all the shops had closed. They would not open again in time to meet the next day’s call time of 9 a.m., meaning the girl had no choice but to withdraw.

"We are absolutely DISGUSTED by the treatment of Tournament Director to a 12-year-old girl and her mother,” Khandhar continued. “This incident has resulted in loss of time and money which was invested before, during and after the tournament on coaching, registration fees, traveling, accommodation and other incurred costs."

Khandhar said the girl and her family are hoping for a public apology.

The unnamed tournament director has not commented on the allegations specifically, but told the Malay Mail Online on Friday that the would be lodging a police report.  [What?  A police report - for what?  And who, exactly, is allegedly going to be or has already filed this 'police report?'  The word typed in the article is "THE would be lodging a police report."  Is this supposed to be HE - or THEY? And if it is THEY, who is THEY, specifically?]

Meanwhile, the Malaysian Chess Federation told the paper an investigation of the incident is underway. A spokesman for the governing body said it had already reached out to the girl’s mother, whose statement on the incident did not exactly match the coach’s.

"The claim [Khandhar] posted is different from the official complaint [from the mother],” the MCF told the Malay Mail Online, noting it could not comment further due to legal concerns. “We will take action once the report comes out."  [How is Khandhar's claim different?  Why hasn't anyone asked?  What does this mean - we will take action once the report comes out?  What report - their OWN 'investigation?'  A police investigation?  And what do the police have to do with something like this in the first place?  NONE OF THIS MAKES ANY SENSE!]

WTF?  There's more - DISGUSTING...

Isis Interregnum

Isis has sent me links to several interesting stories this past week - sorry I did not post them last night, I got too involved in watching "Who Do You Think You Are?" and "Kitchen Nightmares."  I just love Gordon Ramsey - minus the vulgarity :)

This first story is absolutely unbelievable - except that it is, unfortunately, true.  Once again Islam demonstrates that it never progressed beyond the Dark Ages - has probably regressed! Disgusting and sad at the same time - killing someone for "telling a fortune" - geez. Talk about a religion with an inferiority complex.  If Allah is the Almighty God, He's not going to be afraid of whatever it is that fortune tellers predict because His Truth will ultimately prevail.  Of course, if Allah is a phoney-baloney god, it's no wonder the Mullahs are upset with the t.v. guy. 

TV presenter gets death sentence for 'sorcery
'By Mohammed  Jamjoom, CNN
March 19, 2010 10:30 a.m. EDT
(CNN) -- Amnesty International is calling on Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to stop the execution of a Lebanese man sentenced to death for "sorcery."

In a statement released Thursday, the international rights group condemned the verdict and demanded the immediate release of Ali Hussain Sibat, former host of a popular call-in show that aired on Sheherazade, a Beirut based satellite TV channel.

According to his lawyer, Sibat, who is 48 and has five children, would predict the future on his show and give out advice to his audience.

The attorney, May El Khansa, who is in Lebanon, tells CNN her client was arrested by Saudi Arabia's religious police (known as the Mutawa'een) and charged with sorcery while visiting the country in May 2008. Sibat was in Saudi Arabia to perform the Islamic religious pilgrimage known as Umra.

Sibat was then put on trial. In November 2009, a court in the Saudi city of Medina found Sibat guilty and sentenced him to death.

According to El Khansa, Sibat appealed the verdict. The case was taken up by the Court of Appeal in the Saudi city of Mecca on the grounds that the initial verdict was "premature."

El Khansa tells CNN that the Mecca appeals court then sent the case back to the original court for reconsideration, stipulating that all charges made against Sibat needed to be verified and that he should be given a chance to repent.

On March 10, judges in Medina upheld their initial verdict, meaning Sibat is once again sentenced to be executed.

"The Medina court refused the sentence of the appeals court," said El Khansa, adding her client will appeal the verdict once more.

The case has been covered extensively by local media. According to Arab News, an English language Saudi daily newspaper, after the most recent verdict was issued, the judges in Medina issued a statement expressing that Sibat deserved to be executed for having continually practiced black magic on his show, adding that this sentence would deter others from practicing sorcery. Arab News reports that the case will now return to the appeals court in Mecca.

CNN has not been able to reach Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Justice for comment.


A new King Tut exhibit at the Met --
Tutankhamun's Funeral - A New King Tut Exhibition at New York's Met
Submitted by Ann on Thu, 03/18/2010 - 11:14
In 1908, more than a decade before the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb, American retired lawyer and archaeologist Theodore Davis made a remarkable discovery. While excavating in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, he unearthed about a dozen large storage jars. Their contents included broken pottery, bags of natron, bags of sawdust, floral collars, and pieces of linen with markings from years 6 and 8 during the reign of a then little-known pharaoh named Tutankhamun. The significance of the find was not immediately understood, and the objects entered the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art as a mystery. It was only several years later, after further excavations and study, that the Museum’s Herbert E. Winlock was able to identify them: the small cache contained the remains from the embalming and funeral of King Tut. These objects now get their own exhibition - Tutankhamun's Funeral - which runs at New York's Met until November 6th.


Wild Horses!  No - not the Rolling Stones' song covered by Susan Boyle and countless other singers -- the real deal - mustangs.  Turns out babies aren't the only ones who respond to rhythms:

Wild Horses Respond to Native American Drumming
Analysis by Jennifer Viegas | Thu Mar 18, 2010 01:44 PM ET
... One sunny afternoon, when they had finished their tasks, the students and a few elders within their group brought a tribal drum to the site, much to the surprise of the instructors and staff.

"It seemed to just be a spontaneous happening," Starr told me.

The students sat around the instrument and began to chant and drum.

"When this happened, the horses followed the drums and, mesmerized, made a semi-circle around the students," Starr said. "Most of the kids were so involved in the drumming that they didn't notice, even though the horses had gathered just 12 to 20 feet away. It was so moving that many of us watching were crying." ...

Iraqi Women Treated Worse Than Mad Dogs

Story from The Los Angeles Times: (Photo credit: Alaa al-Marjani / Associated Press A poster at a Najaf rally reads “Stop violence against women.”) In Iraq, a story of rape, shame and 'honor killing' Alaa al-Marjani / Associated Press After prison guards assaulted an Iraqi woman, she turned to her brother for help. But he — and society — failed her. By Tina Susman and Caesar Ahmed April 23, 2009 Reporting from Baghdad -- Sometimes, it's the forbidden stories, the ones people are afraid to tell in full, the ones that emerge only in fragments, that reveal the truth about a place.This is such a story. It's being told now not because the complete truth is known, but because the story nags at those familiar with its outlines, and because it says as much about Iraq's progress as it does about Iraq's resistance to change. This much is known: A young woman imprisoned in Tikrit, north of Baghdad, sent a letter to her brother last summer, appealing for help. The woman, named Dalal, wrote that she was pregnant after being raped by prison guards. The brother asked to visit her. Guards obliged. The brother walked into her cell, drew a gun and shot his visibly pregnant sister dead. His goal: to spare his family the taint of a pregnancy out of wedlock, a disgrace in Iraq often averted through so-called honor killings of women by their relatives. For prison guards, the killing was also a relief. "They believed that her death would end the case," said a lab worker at Baghdad's central morgue, where the victim's body -- still carrying the 5-month-old fetus -- was sent. The case might have ended there were it not for the morgue employee, who was determined to see those responsible held to account. At the employee's insistence, lab workers using freshly acquired DNA-testing equipment drew a sample from the fetus. The prison guards were ordered to submit DNA samples and did so, apparently unaware of the sophistication of the morgue equipment and the people trained to use it. "They thought we were incapable of figuring it out," said the morgue employee. The DNA results showed that the father of the unborn baby was a police lieutenant colonel who reportedly supervised guards at the prison. In another society, the scientific evidence would have led to arrests and prosecution. But this being Iraq, the power wielded by men in uniform and the belief that a raped woman is better off dead combined to cloud the truth. Months passed after word leaked of the killing on a sweltering summer day. Just as it nagged at the morgue worker, it nagged at us. But how to tell a story that nobody wants told? Everyone had different, usually conflicting, versions of what had happened. Only the morgue worker's story remained the same, repeated in phone calls and e-mails as summer turned to fall and then winter. Then, it was time for one of us to leave Iraq. A colleague asked what the reporter's final story would be. There must be one after so long in the country, he insisted. "Isn't there a story that got away?" he asked. It became clear that this was it, even if we still didn't know the truth. About the only thing anyone agrees on is that a young woman was murdered, and that her last days were spent pregnant and worrying about what would happen if she were released into a society that would condemn her for it. According to a judge in the Tikrit court, the lieutenant colonel implicated by DNA and a police captain also accused in the case were arrested on rape charges but then released for lack of evidence. [LACK OF EVIDENCE? AS IF THE DNA EVIDENCE DID NOT EXIST!] The judge said a third defendant, a police lieutenant, remained in custody. (It is not uncommon in Iraq for police officers to serve as prison guards and supervisors.) Another Tikrit court official said the lieutenant colonel and captain remained in custody but were transferred from Tikrit to Baghdad. Col. Hatem Thabit, spokesman for the police in Salahuddin province, where the crime was committed, concurred with this account. Yet other accounts say the matter was settled through tribal justice. The clan of the accused lieutenant colonel paid the woman's family to drop charges, said some people in the area who are familiar with the case but fearful of discussing it openly. The morgue worker said those involved in the lab testing understood that all three of the police officers were freed. "I heard the dispute was solved by a tribal ransom," the employee said. "The issue bothers me a lot. I'm doing my job, and the bad guys are getting back on the street." There are conflicting reports on the brother's status. Some say he was jailed for killing his sister. Others say he was freed as part of the tribal deal. As for the slain woman, several accounts say she was in prison not because she was a convicted or accused criminal, but because police wanted to question her brother about something. They thought he would turn himself in to free Dalal. Nobody has been able to explain why police wanted to talk to the brother. The prison where she was held houses mainly men. There is a small section for female inmates, usually no more than a few at a time. A female guard is supposed to watch over them. No one could explain how the lieutenant colonel was able to do what he did. Nor could anyone say how Dalal's brother got into her cell with a loaded gun. "He was supposed to be searched," said Thabit, the police spokesman. "Where he got the weapon, we don't know." In Iraq, violence against women is a festering but rarely addressed problem. There are no readily available statistics on "honor" killings. The number of rapes reported to police averages five to 10 per month for the entire country, said an official at Baghdad's central morgue, who released the first details of the Tikrit case last summer. "The actual number of rapes is actually more than we know. There are so many rapes in the prisons, for example," he added before going on to cite the Tikrit case to an Iraqi working for The Times. Realizing he was discussing a case not intended for public consumption, the official urged the reporter not to translate the facts for his English-speaking colleague. But minutes later, another morgue official and then the lab worker confirmed the case. All asked not to be identified for fear of losing their jobs. Other workers interviewed during a daylong visit to the morgue, where rape victims are examined, said they had detected an increase in violent crimes against women since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion ushered in a religious conservatism and brought social and economic upheaval. [Oh yeah, blame everything on the Americans, not the cock-eyed culture where male beastiality is taught as the preferred way to have sex over having intercourse with a human woman]. Most are honor killings, said one morgue employee, who a day earlier had received the body of a pregnant woman with her throat slit. Human rights advocates say many of these homicides are made to look like honor killings to gain leniency for the perpetrators. "It's a lot worse now," said Ibtisam Hamody Azzawi, a former engineer who runs a small aid organization for abused women from her home in Baghdad. "Our society witnessed so much war, and this is reflected in the domestic abuse situation."Everything is violence. Even the kids love war," said Azzawi, whose husband, a university dean, was killed by extremists in 2007. [Baloney! This is a direct reflection of a religion that teaches and perpetuates intense hatred for and fear of females]. Much of her time is spent answering knocks on her door or phone calls from women looking for an escape from abusive homes. People find her by word of mouth. She does not tell her neighbors what she does, lest extremists attack her or one of her daughters. [Okay, reporters - how do you think you are protecting this woman by publishing her full name and city of residence in the newspaper? Do you not think Iraqi extremists have access to the internet? DUH! When she and/or her daughers are targeted and killed, will you feel any blood guilt?] Iraq has no shelters for battered or threatened women, and the war has splintered and displaced families who might have taken in female relatives. Amid the turmoil, homicide has become an easy out for husbands wanting to end their marriages, Azzawi said. It's cheaper than divorce. "Women get killed, but often it is reported that they are missing," she said. "It's all part of the chaos. Some husbands kill their wives and say maybe she was kidnapped, maybe she died in a bombing." A husband and wife will have domestic problems. All of a sudden, the wife will disappear. "At the women's prison in Tikrit, Saturday is visiting day. On a summer Saturday, a brother came to see his sister, her stomach swelling with her unborn child. She trusted him. Tina Susman recently returned to the U.S. after a two-year tour in Iraq. Times staff writers Usama Redha and Ned Parker in Baghdad, and special correspondents in Samarra and Tikrit contributed to this report.

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This is what the religion of Allah teaches: Women are not human beings. Women are worth less than mad dogs and can be exterminated with impunity. Muslim men prefer to have sex with goats and camels rather than women, because women are unclean. A follower of Allah can kill a woman, even a pregnant woman, with no consequences. Kill a woman, it's cheaper than divorcing her. Kill your daughter, kill your sister, who has been raped, and let the rapist go free with no punishment. No one will care - but maybe you can get some money out of the rapist's clan and buy yourself a flat-screen HDTV and satellite reception for a month or two.

Taliban Whips 17-Year Old Girl for Refusing to Marry a Dirty Old Man

Article from the Hindu.com: India's Muslims denounce Taliban whipping of girl as un-Islamic April 4, 2009 New Delhi (IANS): After video clips of a 17-year-old girl being flogged in public by Taliban fighters in Pakistan's Swat valley were shown on TV, India's Islamic scholars denounced it as "un-Islamic" and "satanic" and condemned it as "gross violation" of Quranic codes. Renowned Islamic scholar Maulana Wahiduddin Khan spoke out strongly against the incident and added that if anything, the act was absolutely "un-Islamic - even satanic". "This kind of treatment is neither Islamic nor human. In fact, not only is it un-Islamic and inhuman, but also satanic," Khan, who has authored over 200 books on Islam, told IANS. "The first thing that should be done is to educate people, develop ethical values, sensitivity towards women and treat them equally. Society can be reformed through education - punishment (of the perpetrators) can never be the starting point for any kind of reform or change," he added. Similarly, Mushirul Hasan, vice chancellor of the Jamia Millia Islamia university, condemned the incident saying that it was a wrong portrayal of Islam, which preaches exactly opposite of what the Taliban were seen doing to the hapless young girl. "I am horrified. This (incident) is a gross violation of Islamic and Quranic injunctions which teaches humanity, love, peace and magnanimity," Hasan told IANS. The dangers of imposing Sharia laws in Pakistan's restive Swat Valley were brought into sharp focus Friday with the airing of a two-minute video showing a 17-year-old screaming, burqa-clad girl being whipped by Taliban fighters for coming "out of her house with another man who was not her husband". [That's the charge, but it's a lie. See the link to the Los Angeles Times article below for the real scoop - she refused to marry a much older icky man, and so charges were trumped up against her and she was whipped as a punishment for her faked-up "crimes against Islam."] The grainy video, shot on a mobile phone, showed the girl face down on the ground. Two men held her arms and feet while a third, a black-turbaned man with a flowing beard, whipped her repeatedly. Salima Khan, a student doing her PhD in Delhi University, said that she literally boiled in anger after seeing the video clip on YouTube, the popular video sharing website and then again on TV. "I can't believe how anybody can humiliate and beat up an innocent young girl in the name of religion. And what was her fault - that she was seen with a man who was not her husband! Who in their right state of mind would ever dare to do such a dastardly act? "Such acts just show how Islam has been grossly misinterpreted by a handful of people who are using it as a tool to serve their own cause," Salima said angrily. On YouTube, the video received thousands of hits overnight and a barrage of comments. One of the comments read: "These people (Taliban) should be given a taste of their own medicine. They should be whipped in public for maligning the name of Islam and inflicting torture on poor, helpless women". Another comment from an Indian woman read: "Thank God I was born in India and not there (Swat valley). There they treat women like animals - no, even worse. To live a life like that seems like sheer hell." However, the authorities of Darul Uloom, one of the most renowned seminaries in the Deoband town of western Uttar Pradesh, chose to keep mum. Maulana Abdul Khaleeq Madrasi, pro vice chancellor of the seminary, told IANS: "We cannot give any statement on the matter from the institution as we don't know the details at the moment". India has an estimated 140 million Muslims, the third largest Muslim population in the world after Indonesia and Pakistan.

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For the REAL REASON for this supposed "punishment", see the Los Angeles Times April 4, 2009 article (includes link to video) by Mubashir Zaidi and Laura King, with contribution from Special Correspondent Zulfiqar Ali in the city of Peshawar: "This is intolerable," prominent human rights activist Asma Jahangir told journalists in the eastern city of Lahore. Jahangir said the girl was believed to have been punished after refusing to marry a Taliban commander in the Swat Valley, where the government in February struck a truce with Islamic militants to stem violence. The militants then accused her of immoral behavior and ordered 34 lashes, Pakistani news reports said. The video, shot with a cellphone, initially shows the girl, clad in an all-enveloping black burka, being held by men while another begins striking her. She can be heard shouting for help in the Pashto language, spoken by most people in Swat. She is then dragged to another location, held down and flogged. Several dozen people can be seen watching. "For God's sake, please stop, stop it," the girl pleads as the whip falls. "I am dying." Off-camera, another militant gives orders: "Hold her feet tightly. Lift her burka a bit."

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You can bet your bippy that there were no women in that circle of spectators savoring every single delicious lash and the girl's screams, heh. Now the Taliban is saying the video was FAKE, created by its enemies to discredit it. Yeah right. The assholes who blew up the Swat Valley Buddha would not hesitate for a second to whip a defenseless teenage girl for refusing to marry a man she doesn't want. How many of them held her down? How many men were tightly packed in that circle around the girl and her tormentors, no doubt salivating over every single lash and scream of the helpless victim? PERVERTS! A pox on them all. I hope they all die a horrible death, but not before their penises falling off from a dread disease, and that they all rot in Hell for ever.

Taliban Terrorists - Allah Will Spit in Their Faces for This

From The New York Times: 10 Arrested for Afghan Acid Attack By ABDUL WAHEED WAFA Published: November 25, 2008 KABUL, Afghanistan — The police in Kandahar Province arrested 10 Taliban militants they said were involved in an attack this month on a group of Afghan schoolgirls whose faces were doused with acid, officials in Kandahar said Tuesday. The officials said that the militants, who were Afghan citizens, had confessed to their involvement in the attack on the schoolgirls and their teachers on Nov. 12 and that a high-ranking member of the Taliban had paid the militants 100,000 Pakistani rupees ($1,275) for each girl they managed to burn. The girls were assaulted by two men on a motorcycle who were apparently irate that the girls had been attending high school. The men drove up beside them and splashed their faces with what appeared to be battery acid. Zalmay Ayobi, the spokesman for Gen. Rahmatullah Raufi, the governor of Kandahar, said the orders to carry out the attack had been given from a foreign country, although he did not identify it. The militants were arrested by the police last week. Mr. Ayobi said a joint delegation from the Interior Ministry and the office of the attorney general in the capital, Kabul, had arrived in Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan, on Monday to evaluate the cases of the suspects. The delegation, led by the deputy interior minister along with the governor of Kandahar, announced today that the suspects confessed their involvement in the attack, Mr. Ayobi said. He said Afghanistan’s courts would decide the attackers’ fate after the investigation was completed. At least two of the girls were hospitalized by the attack, their faces blackened and burned. The attack was condemned at the time by Laura Bush, who described the Taliban as “cowardly and shameful” for carrying out the attack. “The Taliban’s continued terror attacks threaten the progress that has been made in Afghanistan,” the first lady said in a statement, adding, “These cowardly and shameful acts are condemned by honorable people in the United States and around the world.” Mrs. Bush has been an advocate for the women of Afghanistan during her husband’s tenure. She has visited Afghanistan three times to put a spotlight on development and women’s issues, most recently in June, a trip cloaked in secrecy so she would not become a target of terrorists.

Saudis Ban Pet Dogs and Cats

Isis sent me this article. Unbelievable! Unbelievable. Next up on the agenda: banning women. Yep, I expect the Saudi government to start culling females soon. Saudi Arabia bans sale of dogs, cats in capital By DONNA ABU-NASR, Associated Press Writer Thu Jul 31, 2:26 PM ET RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Every single man knows: Walking a dog in the park is a sure babe magnet. Saudi Arabia's Islamic religious police, in their zeal to keep the sexes apart, want to make sure the technique doesn't catch on here. The solution: Ban selling dogs and cats as pets, as well as walking them in public. The prohibition went into effect Wednesday in the capital, Riyadh, and authorities in the city say they will strictly enforce it — unlike previous bans in the cities of Mecca and Jiddah, which have been ignored and failed to stop pet sales. Violators found outside with their pets will have their beloved poodles and other furry companions confiscated by agents of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the official name of the religious police, tasked with enforcing Saudi Arabia's strict Islamic code. The commission's general manager, Othman al-Othman, said the ban was ordered because of what he called "the rising of phenomenon of men using cats and dogs to make passes at women and pester families" as well as "violating proper behavior in public squares and malls." "If a man is caught with a pet, the pet will be immediately confiscated and the man will be forced to sign a document pledging not to repeat the act," al-Othman told the Al-Hayat newspaper. "If he does, he will be referred to authorities." The ban does not address women. The Saudi-owned Al-Hayat announced the ban in its Wednesday edition, saying it was ordered by the acting governor of Riyadh province, Prince Sattam, based on an edit from the Council of Senior Islamic Scholars and several religious police reports of pet owners harassing women and families. Commission authorities often do not formally announce to the public new rules that they intend to implement. Officials from the commission and Riyadh city government could not be reached for comment Thursday, which is a weekend day in Saudi Arabia. The English-language Arab News reported on the ban Thursday. So far, the prohibition did not appear to have any effect in Riyadh. It's extremely rare, anyway, to see anyone in the capital walking a dog — much less carrying a cat in public — despite the authorities' claims of flirtatious young men luring girls with their pets in malls. Salesmen at a couple of Riyadh pet stores said Thursday they did not receive any orders from the commission banning the sale of pets. Cats and dogs were still on display. "I didn't hear of the ban," said Yasser al-Abdullah, a 28-year-old Saudi nurse, who was at one pet store with his 3-month-old collie, Joe. Al-Abdullah, who also owns an 8-month-old Labrador, said a couple of Western friends had been told to get off the streets by the religious police for walking their dogs. "I won't allow the commission to take my dogs from me," he said. The religious police prowl streets and malls throughout the kingdom, ensuring unmarried men and women do not mix, confronting women they feel are not properly covered or urging men to go to prayers. They also often make attempts to plug the few holes in the strict gender segregation that innovations bring. In 2004, for example, they tried to ban cameras on cell phones, fearing that men and women would exchange pictures of each other — though the prohibition was quickly revoked. There was no word whether commission authorities intend to expand the dog and cat ban beyond the capital. The prohibition may be more of an attempt to curb the owning of pets, which conservative Saudis view as a sign of corrupting Western influence, like the fast food, shorts, jeans and pop music that have become more common in the kingdom. Although it has never been common to own pets in the Arab world, it's becoming increasingly fashionable among the upper class in Saudi Arabia and other countries such as Egypt. In Islamic tradition, dogs are shunned as unclean and dangerous, though they are kept for hunting and guarding. In large cities around the Middle East, stray dogs are considered pests. [This may be because the most ancient association of dogs is with Goddesses - death goddesses and huntress goddesses. Islamic scholars ignore their religion's own expropriation and incorporation of ancient Saudi goddess symbols and rituals and seek, instead, to stamp out all religious association of god with the Divine Feminine. Foolish men. They can never stamp out the Goddess. In many of the earliest board games we know about, the gaming pieces were called "dogs." In many areas throughout the world where chess was/is played by "natives," dogs replaced some of the playing pieces in hand-carved chess sets.] The ban on cats is more puzzling, since there's no similar disdain for them in Islamic tradition. One of the Prophet Muhammad's closest companions was given the name Abu Huraira, Arabic for "the father of the kitten," because he always carried a kitten with him and a number of traditional stories of the prophet show Muhammad encouraging people to treat cats well. [Guess Muhammad had a soft spot for the ancient goddess Sekhmet, depicted as a lioness; or perhaps the goddess Bast, depicted as a sleek cat with long curving tail].

Ancient Persian Bridge Destroyed by Islamic Regime

CAIS reports: Islamic Regime have Finally Destroyed 2200-year-old Parthian Bridge of Khoda-Afarid (Negin) December 8, 2007 LONDON, (CAIS) -- Islamic regime's authority have destroyed the remains of 2200-year-old Khoda-Afarid bridge also known as Negin, in Shiniyar district of Masjed-Soleyman in Khuzestan province. The destruction of the bridge was began in September under the guise of construction of a new bridge, and despite all the oppositions from cultural figures and the Iranian nation, the Khuzestan Governor office went ahead and removed the last stone of the ancient bridge. The ancient bridge of Khoda-Afarid (Xodā-āfarīd) which is known to local Bakhtiari population known as Negin, was one of the best preserved and intact bridges of its type remained in Iran-proper from Arsacid dynasty (248 BCE-224 CE). "The 60 meters in length was the best survived Parthian water engineering example in the country, which was demolished despite the 100-meter legal protection boundary, imposed by Khuzestan Province Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization [KCHTO]" said Mojtaba Gahstooni, the spokesman for the Khusestan’s Friends of the Cultural Heritage Association (Tariana) in September 2007. Since 1979 and the rise of Islamic regime to power, the ruling clerics have been devoted themselves to destroy and erase all the pre-Islamic Iranian culture and civilisation, under the guise of construction projects. Since then, the regime have destroyed large number of major cultural landmarks associated with the ancient Iranian civilisation.

Islamic Barbarians Destroy Ancient Buddha

From the Times of India. What is the problem with these people? Allah never decreed this kind of thing. Of course, most of these people can't read the Koran and they have no idea what it really says. Barbarians. I suggest we put enough estrogen in their water supplies to turn them all into enuchs during the next 5 years. You don't see women acting like this. Shadow of terror looms over Buddha 18 Nov 2007, 0000 hrs IST, Shobhan Saxena,TNN Every piece of rock tells a story. The monks of Gandhara knew this. Hundreds of years ago, when Swat Valley was not yet soaked with the bloodstains of history, Buddhist monks walked through the haze, leaving their footprints in the dust. Climbing steep rocks burning under a fiery sun, they worked on the hills with their little iron tools. Days turned into weeks and months into years, and the monks’ skin turned into sunburnt leather, but, chanting mantras under their breath, they kept cutting and carving the rocks. And one day, as the tools stopped playing music on the rocks and layers of dust dissolved into crisp air, the Buddha emerged on the mountain. With eyes half closed and a half-smile on the face, He was there - immortalised in rock; stored for posterity. That’s how this valley was, with thousands of statues, hundreds of rock-cut images and even the footprints of the Enlightened One spread all over. But that was Gandhara - a flourishing culture under the Kushan kings. Now, Swat is a godforsaken valley in a failed state on the brink of collapse. In this corner of Pakistan, history is being reduced to great heaps of dust with Kalashnikovs and mortar fire. In this valley, under control of Mullah Fazlullah, a hardcore Taliban commander, things have turned bizarre. The mullah, who commands a heavily-armed militia, preaches hate from the radio and forces girls to wear burqa. He has banned Hindi films, music and even polio drops. And this week, following in the footsteps of the Taliban, the ‘Radio Mullah’ turned his attention to the Buddha when his band of thugs drilled holes into a 130-foot-tall and 1,300-year-old rock-cut image of the Buddha, filled it with explosives, and blew it up. A few weeks earlier, his men had riddled the Buddha - sitting in a meditating posture - with a hail of bullets, reducing his face to a bowl of dust. It’s the tragic tale of Bamiyan being replayed all over again. The Buddha of Swat was second in importance in South Asia only to the Bamiyan Buddhas. Now, it’s gone. And, as the mullah’s men spread their net of hate and terror across the valley, there is a threat that some of the most important Buddhist sites in the world, including the remains of stupas built over the ashes of the Buddha, may vanish forever. The process has already begun, as large parts of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan fall to the militants and undergo Talibanisation. Vishakha Desai, director of the Asia Society in New York, saw this dangerous trend recently. ‘‘In 1995, I was able to travel through the region without any fear and received warm support from local residents....Today, little more than a decade later, the atmosphere is so poisoned that neither local community leaders nor the local police came forward to protect these monuments,’’ she wrote after the destruction of Sawt statue, where the Pakistani forces have been reduced to spectators as the mullah calls the shots. ‘‘There are vast numbers of Buddhist sites in Swat and other areas of northwest Pakistan. At this point, all of them are under threat,” Desai warns. On its birth, Pakistan carried away with it a vast historical and cultural heritage ranging thousands of years. Some of the most important Buddhist, Indus Valley Civilisation, Vedic and Mauryan Empire sites were situated in Pakistan. Though as a nation, Pakistan has been struggling with its history, it has done pretty well to preserve ancient art and culture in its archaeological museums. As the mullah’s men trained their guns on the Buddha, the deputy curator of the museum made frantic calls to the police. But Pakistan’s forces, locked in a battle with militants, failed to react. And this is the real problem. Pakistan is not in a position to save its heritage and the militants are raring to wipe them out. ‘‘Once historical evidence is destroyed, it cannot be recreated. It’s gone forever. They should take care to preserve the historical sites,’’ says G T Shende, director (antiquities) at the Archaeological Survey of India. But even though parts of Pakistan are now in exactly the same situation as Afghanistan when it fell to the Taliban, the world is watching the drama in silence. When Mullah Omar’s men destroyed the Bamiyan Buddhas in 2001, there was a global outrage. But thanks to Pakistan’s role in the war on terror and the West’s nervousness about the fate of its ally, the destruction in Swat has been met with silence. Even India has failed to react. Historians know that this vandalism is not an ‘‘internal matter of Pakistan’’. But many of them are quiet. If the world watches quietly and the militants increase their area of influence and destroy ancient relics, important links with our history will be reduced to dust forever. And when a rock turns into dust, it tells no story.

Oh oh - no no!

I don't like this, I don't like this at all. This could be the beginning of the slippery slope - the start of "political correctness." If the famous and fabulous bust of Nefertiti goes back to Egypt, you KNOW it will be the target of fascist Islamic radicals who would like nothing better than to destroy what they consider to be a "pagan" symbol of grace, beauty, dignity and sovereignty of the ancient Egyptian empire, which was the ANTIPATHY of all things Islamic. That Nefertiti is female makes her all the more a target, because Islamic radicals FEAR all things female, and HATE females above all other things. Bust of Queen Nefertiti may return to Cairo November 19 2007 at 02:02AM Cairo - Germany is willing to consider whether an ancient Egyptian statue at the centre of a row between the two countries can be returned to Cairo for display, Egypt's antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said on Sunday. Berlin has proposed to set up a joint committee with Cairo to examine whether the controversial bust of Queen Nefertiti currently housed in Berlin's Altes Museum can safely make the trip to Egypt for display within two years, he said." The letter that we received from Berlin says that the statue is very fragile," and that a joint Egyptian-German committee should decide if it can travel in the next two years, Hawass said. "The statue, in my opinion, is in good condition and should travel to Egypt within two years," Hawass said during a ceremony to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the German archaeological institute in Egypt. Cairo and Berlin have frequently clashed over the 3 400-year-old limestone bust, which was unearthed by German archaeologists on the banks of the Nile and taken to Germany under a 1913 agreement. Nefertiti, renowned as one of history's great beauties, was the wife of Pharaoh Akhenaton, remembered for having converted his kingdom to monotheism with the worship of one sun god, Aton. Hawass, the director of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, threatened earlier this year to ban future exhibitions of its ancient artifacts in Germany if Berlin refused to return the statue.Herman Panzinger, head of the German archaeological insitute, meanwhile told reporters that research was now under way in Berlin to determine "if one can transport Nefertiti or not". "When they have this result, they will discuss this with the Egyptians," he said. Hawass wants to display Nefertiti at the opening of the Akhenaton Museum in Minya, Upper Egypt. - Sapa-AFP

Gang Rape Victim Sentenced by Saudi Court

More Islamic "justice." Barbarians, they are, quite simply, barbarians. Isis brought the story to my attention. From Yahoo news Fri Nov 16, 12:27 AM ET RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - A Saudi court sentenced a woman who had been gang raped to six months in jail and 200 lashes — more than doubling her initial penalty for being in the car of a man who was not a relative, a newspaper reported Thursday. The decision by the Qatif General Court came in a case that had sparked rare debate about the kingdom's justice system when it surfaced more than a year ago. In its decision Wednesday, the court also roughly doubled prison sentences for the seven men convicted of raping the 19-year-old woman, the Arab News reported on its English-language Web site. According to Arab News, the court said the woman's punishment was increased because of "her attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media." She had initially been sentenced to 90 lashes after being convicting her of violating Saudi's rigid laws on segregation of the sexes. Under Saudi Arabia's interpretation of Islamic Sharia law, women are not allowed in public in the company of men other than their male relatives. The initial sentences for the men convicted of the gang rape ranged from 10 months to five years in prison. Their new sentences range from two to nine years, the paper said. The attack took place in 2006. The woman has said that it occurred as she tried to retrieve her picture from a male high school student she used to know. While in the car with the student, two men got into the vehicle and drove them to a secluded area. She said she was raped there by seven men, three of whom also attacked her friend. Reports of the story triggered debate about Saudi Arabia's legal system, in which judges have wide discretion in punishing a criminal, rules of evidence are shaky and sometimes no defense lawyers are present. The result, critics say, are sentences left to the whim of judges. The judges, appointed by the king, have a wide discretion in handing down sentences, often said to depend on their whim. A rapist, for instance, could receive anywhere from a light or no sentence, to death. The woman was identified in the media only as the Girl from Qatif. The case was referred back to the General Court by an appeals court last summer, after the woman's attorney argued the verdict was too lenient for the rapists and unjust for the victim. The court also banned the lawyer from defending her, confiscated his license to practice law and summoned him to a disciplinary hearing later this month. "I explained to them that it was my job to do everything legal in order to serve my client. But they did not listen," the lawyer, Abdul Rahman al-Lahem, was quoted by the paper as saying. ****************************************************************************** Shame, shame on these "judges." Shame, shame on a system that calls this justice - punishing the victim because their pagan religion does not teach respect for fellow human beings and grant all people equal rights. Shame, shame on these people who pretend to be civilized. And shame on the United States government for being "allied" with these morally bankrupt barbarians.

Islamic Fascist Barbarians Target Women in Iraq

Oh yes, such an enlightened religion. Well, maybe they'll end up killing all their own women and end up self-genociding - and cleaning up the gene pool. In Basra, vigilantes wage deadly campaign against women By Jay Price and Ali Omar al Basri, McClatchy Newspapers 2 hours, 42 minutes ago BASRA, Iraq — Women in Basra have become the targets of a violent campaign by religious extremists, who leave more than 15 female bodies scattered around the city each month, police officers say. Maj. Gen. Abdel Jalil Khalaf , the commander of Basra's police, said Thursday that self-styled enforcers of religious law threatened, beat and sometimes shot women who they believed weren't sufficiently Muslim. "This is a new type of terror that Basra is not familiar with," he said. "These gangs represent only themselves, and they are far outside religious, forgiving instructions of Islam." Often, he said, the "crime" is no more than wearing Western clothes or not wearing a head scarf. Before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Iraqi women had had rights enshrined in the country's constitution since 1959 that were among the broadest of any Arab or Islamic nation. However, while the new constitution says that women are equal under the law, critics have condemned a provision that says no law can contradict the "established rulings" of Islam as weakening women's rights. The vigilantes patrol the streets of Basra on motorbikes or in cars with dark-tinted windows and no license plates. They accost women who aren't wearing the traditional robe and head scarf known as hijab. Religious extremists in the city also have been known to attack men for clothes or even haircuts deemed too Western. Like all of southern Iraq , Basra is populated mostly by Shiite Muslims, so sectarian violence isn't a major problem, but security has deteriorated as Shiite militias fight each other for power. British troops in the area pulled out last month. Khalaf, who has a reputation for outspokenness in a city where that can get you killed, scoffed at the groups, calling them no better than criminal gangs. He said he didn't care if some were affiliated with the militias, he planned to crack down on them. "If there is a red line related to the insurgents and militias, we will pass it over, because it's one of the factors that destroy the society," he said. The violence is displacing the few members of religious minorities in the area. Fuad Na'im , one of a handful of Christians left in the city, said Thursday that the way his wife dressed made the whole family a target. "I was with my wife few days ago when two young men driving a motorbike stopped me and asked her about her clothes and why she doesn't wear hijab," he said. "When I told them that we are Christians, they beat us badly, and I would be dead if some people nearby hadn't intervened." That was enough, he said. "I'm about to leave the city where I was born and where my father and grandfather were buried, because I can't live in a place where we're asked about our clothes, food and drink."