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Indonesian Man Faces Five Years For Atheist Facebook Post

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

31-year-old Alexander Aan faces a maximum prison sentence of five years for posting “God does not exist” on Facebook. The civil servant was attacked and beaten by an angry mob of dozens who entered his government office at the Dharmasraya Development Planning Board on Wednesday. The Indonesian man was taken into protective police custody Friday since he was afraid of further physical assault.

The posting was made on a Facebook Page titled Ateis Minang (Minang Atheist), which Aan created. At the time of writing, it had over 1,950 Likes. Aan’s posting has been removed, but supporters on the Page are urging police to release him.

Dharmasraya Police Chief Sr. Comr. Chairul Aziz said the district branch of the council and other Islamic organizations believed Aan had defiled Islam by using passages from the Koran to denounce the existence of God and highlight his atheist views. “So it meets the criteria of tainting religion, in this case Islam,” Chairul told The Jakarta Globe.

On Facebook, Aan said he was brought up as a Muslim. In 2008, however, he came to the conclusion that God could not exist. In addition to his comment about the possibility of a deity, he also declared that he did not believe in angels, devils, heaven, hell, as well as other “myths.” He was aware he could lose his job and was prepared to do so to defend his beliefs.

Atheism is a violation of Indonesian law under the founding principles of the country. Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, recognises the right to practice six religions in total: Islam, Protestant, Catholic, Hindu, Buddhism and Confucianism. Atheism is, however, illegal. According to Indonesian criminal law, anyone who tries to stop others believing in a faith could face up to five years in jail for blasphemy.

Aan was charged because he used Facebook to spread beliefs that violate the law. Furthermore, it was pointed out he lied on his job application by saying he was Muslim. Aan asked police investigators: if God really exists and has absolute power, why doesn’t God prevent bad things from happening in this world?

“Like” Ateis Minang on Facebook.

Source: ZDNET

Posted in Atheists | No Responses »

Frence Outlaws Wearing The Burka In Public

Monday, April 11th, 2011

France, home to Europe’s biggest Muslim population, has officially banned women from wearing full-face veils in public places.

Other European countries have drawn up bans on the burka and the niqab, but France is the first to put it into practice.

The law comes into effect at an already fraught moment in relations between the state and France’s Muslim minority, with president Nicolas Sarkozy accused of stigmatising Islam to win back votes from a resurgent far right.

Police said they arrested 59 people on Saturday, including 19 veiled women, who turned up for a banned protest in Paris over the law, while two more were detained as they attempted to travel to the rally from Britain and Belgium.

The new law says anyone refusing to lift his or her veil to submit to an identity check can be taken to a police station. There, officers must try to persuade them to remove the garment and can threaten fines.

A woman who repeatedly insists on appearing veiled in public can be fined 150 euros ($205) and ordered to attend re-education classes.

There are much more severe penalties for anyone found guilty of forcing someone else to hide his or her face “through threats, violence, constraint, abuse of authority or power for reason of their gender”.

Clearly aimed at fathers, husbands or religious leaders who force women to wear face veils, and applicable to offences committed in public or in private, the law imposes a fine of 30,000 euros and a year in jail.

Foreign extremists, including fugitive Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, have used the ban to argue France is at war with Islam and have called for attacks.

- AFP

Posted in Islam | No Responses »

I Found ‘Allah’ In My Potato

Sunday, April 10th, 2011

A Scots Muslim mum has found the word “Allah” inside a potato she was peeling.

Mariam Nadeem told the Record: “It’s like a special blessing has been sent to us.”

Mum-of-two Mariam, 30, of Glenrothes, Fife, discovered the Arabic writing inside the spud as she peeled a batch of potatoes to make samosas.

She said: “This particular potato seemed a little bit mouldy so I cut a chunk off to see if the rest was OK.

“Then I noticed the brown writing in Arabic against the yellow of the potato.

“I couldn’t believe it when I spelled out ‘Allah’.”

Mariam, who has sons aged five and two, showed the potato to her shopkeeper husband Nadeem Aslam.

“He agreed that the writing looked like ‘Allah’,” she said. “I showed it to our neighbours and they too were surprised.”

Nadeem then took the potato to her local mosque.

She said: “Our imam suggested we could try to dry it and put it on show.

“But I don’t want to dry it in case it turns brown so I think we will freeze it or bury it in the garden instead.

“I was very proud when I found it. I think I am very lucky.

“I have heard about messages from Allah on a leaf or an animal, but it is very rare.”

Hundreds of Muslims flocked to a small terraced house in West Yorkshire in 1999 to see a tomato with a “message from Allah” inside.

Housewife Shabana Hussain, 27, was making a meal for her family when she cut the tomato in half and found “Bismillah” – or Allah – written in Arabic.

Writing on the other half of the vegetable said “la illaha illala” – or “there is no God but Allah”.

Shabana said: “I was shocked.”

Source: Daily Record

Posted in Islam | No Responses »

Pastor Terry Jones Says He Will Put Mohammed ‘On Trial’

Tuesday, April 5th, 2011

Despite clear evidence that his actions have led to multiple murders and widespread violence in the Middle East, controversial Florida pastor Terry Jones has vowed to step up his provocative campaign against Islam.

The radical pastor said that he was considering putting Islamic prophet Mohammed ‘on trial’ for his next ‘day of judgement’ publicity stunt.

His last, in which he oversaw the burning of a copy of the Koran after a six-hour mock trial, has been directly responsible for a wave of violence that began last night and has left 30 people dead and more than 150 injured.

The defiant stance has led General Petraeus, the head of NATO forces in Afghanistan, to join international condemnation of pastor Jones.

The General urged Afghans to understand only a small number of people had been disrespectful to the Koran and Islam.

He said: ‘We condemn, in particular, the action of an individual in the United States who recently burned the Holy Koran.

‘We also offer condolences to the families of all those injured and killed in violence which occurred in the wake of the burning of the Holy Koran.’

The call comes after a third day of violence in Afghanistan saw at least ten deaths, 78 injured and at least 17 arrests as protesters clash with security forces in Kandahar.

There were also reports of attempted suicide attacks on a U.S. military base in Kabul, but these were not directly linked to Mr Jones’s actions.

The vilified pastor remains unrepentant about his actions, and has even hinted that he will take his provocative stance further.

He said in an interview: ‘It is definitely a consideration to stage a trial on the life of Mohammed in the future.’

Such a move would trigger further violent protests in the Muslim world – even in more moderate Islamic states.

But Mr Jones shows no signs of backing down, refusing to admit the violence is his fault, and apparently proud of his actions.

In an interview at his Dove World Outreach Center, the pastor at least admitted that he was saddened by the Afghan attacks – but added that he would burn the Koran again if given the chance.

He told the New York Times: ‘It was intended to stir the pot; if you don’t shake the boat, everyone will stay in their complacency.

‘Emotionally, it’s not all that easy. People have tried to make us responsible for the people who are killed. It’s unfair and somewhat damaging.

‘Did our action provoke them? Of course. Is it a provocation that can be justified? Is it a provocation that should lead to death?

‘When lawyers provoke me, when banks provoke me, when reporters provoke me, I can’t kill them. That would not fly.’

It is not surprising that Mr Jones should mention lawyers, banks and reporters as his tormentors.

The pastor, whose church membership has dwindled and who is a hate figure in his own community, is also near broke.

Click to continue »

Posted in Islam | No Responses »

Sam Harris – Do We Have the Right to Burn the Koran?

Saturday, April 2nd, 2011

The New York Times reported today that at least ten UN aid workers have been murdered by a Afghan mob. This senseless savagery occurred in Mazar-i-Sharif, “one of the most peaceful places in Afghanistan,” in response to news that a Florida pastor, Terry Jones, finally made good on his threat to burn a copy of the Koran. Pastor Jones and the members of his tiny congregation in Gainesville appear to be religious crackpots of the first order, but anyone tempted to condemn them for provoking this violence has lost the plot. As I wrote previously in defense of the Dutch politician Geert Wilders (“Losing Our Spines to Save Our Necks”):

Wilders, like Westergaard and the other Danish cartoonists, has been widely vilified for “seeking to inflame” the Muslim community. Even if this had been his intention, this criticism represents an almost supernatural coincidence of moral blindness and political imprudence. The point is not (and will never be) that some free person spoke, or wrote, or illustrated in such a manner as to inflame the Muslim community. The point is that only the Muslim community is combustible in this way. The controversy over Fitna, like all such controversies, renders one fact about our world especially salient: Muslims appear to be far more concerned about perceived slights to their religion than about the atrocities committed daily in its name. Our accommodation of this psychopathic skewing of priorities has, more and more, taken the form of craven and blinkered acquiescence.

There is an uncanny irony here that many have noticed. The position of the Muslim community in the face of all provocations seems to be: Islam is a religion of peace, and if you say that it isn’t, we will kill you. Of course, the truth is often more nuanced, but this is about as nuanced as it ever gets: Islam is a religion of peace, and if you say that it isn’t, we peaceful Muslims cannot be held responsible for what our less peaceful brothers and sisters do. When they burn your embassies or kidnap and slaughter your journalists, know that we will hold you primarily responsible and will spend the bulk of our energies criticizing you for “racism” and “Islamophobia.”

Will moderate Muslims defend Pastor Jones’s right to burn the Koran?

Source: Sam Harris.org

Posted in Atheists, Islam | No Responses »