Calls in Yemen to end child marriage. Welcome to 21st century
Posted on August 3, 2008
Filed Under Islam, Middle East, News, Religion | 6 Comments
The recent case of 10-year-old girl divorcing her 30 and something husband after rape and beating, probably made its impact (although a small one) on the Yemenite social authorities.
Governmental organization that deals with women rights (as much as it is possible in Yemen) finally calls to end child marriage
SANAA, 3 August 2008 (IRIN) - The National Women’s Committee (NWC), a government body, has called for an end to child marriage, - common in rural areas - by proposing a minimum legal age for marriage.
Horiah Mash-hor, deputy head of the NWC, said the NWC had reviewed Article 15 of the Personal Status Law, and proposed setting the minimum marriage age at 18.
The NWC also proposed introducing punishments - a one-year jail sentence or a 100,000 riyal [US$ 500] fine - for those who marry off youngsters below this age.
“[Setting the minimum marriage age at 18] has been a proposal since 2000, but the Yemeni parliament’s Islamic Sharia Codification Committee has not yet presented the amendments to parliament for discussion,” she told IRIN.
She said the 1994 Personal Status Law set the minimum marriage age at 15. “But amendments to the law in 1999 made it unclear, and the law now fails to mention an exact [minimum] age for marriage. It only authorises the girl’s guardian to decide whether she is physically and psychologically prepared for marriage,” she said.
$500 fine for marrying a child. It is a lot of money in Yemen…In Saudi Arabia child brides the price tag on child brides is much higher - $26,656 for 10-year-old girl
But back to Yemen:
The NWC has appealed to President Ali Abdullah Saleh and parliament to present the proposed law to parliament for discussion. “But there are extreme groups in society and in parliament which are against amending the law,” she said.
According to a 2007 report issued by the International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW), Yemen ranked 13 out of the 20 worst countries in terms of the prevalence of child marriage, with 48.4 percent of women under 18 being married.
And here is the religious - Islamic - aspect of the issue:
According to an unpublished 2007 study on early marriage by Sanaa University’s Gender Development Research and Study Centre, religious, tribal and community leaders were against the idea of setting a legal minimum marriage age, saying it would contradict Islamic precepts.
Conducted in Hadhramaut and al-Hudeidah governorates, the study found that 52 percent of girls under 15 were married.
It said some religious leaders believed Islam had not set a marriage age, thus allowing individuals to determine it, based on individual circumstances. Others thought it restricted “people’s freedom”.
The study said pregnancies at a young age often led to health complications, with “hormone and physical changes… which confuse her body growth and affect her health in the long and medium term”.
Restricted people’s freedom…I guess females are not considered as “people” in Islam. Not much hope there…
And get this: Yemen is a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
I guess that is another indicator of what the real worth of international or any other agreements in the Middle East.
Son of Hamas leader converts to Christianity, denounces Islam
Posted on July 31, 2008
Filed Under Israeli-Muslim Conflict, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Middle East, News, Religion, Terrorism | 12 Comments
“Send regards to Israel, I miss it. I respect Israel and admire it as a country,” - these words are not something you would expect to hear from a Palestinian, let alone someone who grew up in the family that has led the radical and terrorist Islamic ideology of Hamas. But these are the words coming from non other than Masab Yousef - son of one of the leaders of Hamas in the West Bank, Sheikh Hassan Yousef.
Masab Yousef - a Christian convert now living in California - in an interview with Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz talks about the “bottom line” of Hamas and its radical Islamic ideology
A moment before beginning his supper, Masab, son of West Bank Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef, glances at the friend who has accompanied him to the restaurant where we met. They whisper a few words and then say grace, thanking God and Jesus for putting food on their plates.
It takes a few seconds to digest this sight: The son of a Hamas MP who is also the most popular figure in that extremist Islamic organization, a young man who assisted his father for years in his political activities, has become a rank-and-file Christian. “I’m now called Joseph,” he says at the outset.
Masab knows that he has little hope of returning to visit the Holy Land in this lifetime.
“I know that I’m endangering my life and am even liable to lose my father, but I hope that he’ll understand this and that God will give him and my family patience and willingness to open their eyes to Jesus and to Christianity. Maybe one day I’ll be able to return to Palestine and to Ramallah with Jesus, in the Kingdom of God.”
Nor does he attempt to hide his affection for Israel, or his abhorrence of everything representing the surroundings in which he grew up: the nation, the religion, the organization.
“Send regards to Israel, I miss it. I respect Israel and admire it as a country,” he says.
“You Jews should be aware: You will never, but never have peace with Hamas. Islam, as the ideology that guides them, will not allow them to achieve a peace agreement with the Jews. They believe that tradition says that the Prophet Mohammed fought against the Jews and that therefore they must continue to fight them to the death.”
Is that the justification for the suicide attacks?
“More than that. An entire society sanctifies death and the suicide terrorists. In Palestinian culture a suicide terrorist becomes a hero, a martyr. Sheikhs tell their students about the ‘heroism of the shaheeds.’“
And yet, in spite of the criticism of the place he left, California can’t make the longings disappear.
“I miss Ramallah,” he says. “People with an open mind. … I mainly miss my mother, my brothers and sisters, but I know that it will be very difficult for me to return to Ramallah soon.”
The full interview will appear in “Haaretz” tomorrow, and we will bring you more from it here on worldivided.com
UPDATE: At first we thought that Ha’aretz won’t be publishing the full interview in online edition. Apparently we were wrong.
The full interview by Avi Issascharoff can be found here.
Olmert out job in September. Good riddance.
Posted on July 30, 2008
Filed Under Israel, News, Politics | Leave a Comment
Israel PM Ehud Olmert has announced he will not participate in the primaries in his party “Kadima” in September, hence acknowledging his political career is finished - finished AT THAT POINT:
In dramatic public address, Olmert announces Wednesday evening he will not seek reelection in upcoming Kadima primaries. Confirming he will step down once new chairman is elected, Olmert pledges fight to clear his name
***
“When a new (Kadima party) chairman is chosen, I will resign as prime minister to permit them to put together a new government swiftly and effectively.”“I want to make it clear – I am proud to be a citizen of a country where the prime minister can be investigated like a regular citizen,” Olmert said. “It is the duty of the police to investigate, and the duty of the prosecution to instruct the police. The prime minister is not above the law.”
“I will step aside properly in an honourable and responsible way, and afterwards I will prove my innocence,” he said.
***
Olmert is currently under two separate criminal investigations. One involves suspicions that he took bribes from American businessman Morris Talansky and the other, dubbed ‘Olmertours’ by the media, charges him with submitting duplicate claims for travel expenses during his former office as trade minister and mayor of Jerusalem.Olmert has denied wrongdoing with respect to the police probes, but has said he would resign if indicted.
Ehud Olmert will be remembered as the least successful, most corrupt (5 open investigations against him - all on corruption) and least popular Prime Minister of Israel.
If (and it is a big “IF”) Ehud Olmert succeeds in clearing his name of corruption charges, we can safely say that he will be back in politics.
End of Ehud Olmert as a PM - definitely yes. End of Ehud Olmert in Israeli politics - definitely no.
Muslims attack Christian school in Indonesia
Posted on July 28, 2008
Filed Under Islam, News, Terrorism | 4 Comments
The attack on the Christian school that have taken place not in one of the remote provinces of this most populated Muslim country, but right in its capital - Jakarta - leaving 256 people wounded:
Jakarta (AsiaNews) – Police evacuated the Christian Theological Arastamar Institute (STT SETIA) which is located in an eastern district of the Indonesian capital after it suffered damages during clashes between Christians and Muslims over the week-end. At least 1,500 students were moved to nearby police headquarters and a local Christian-based political party. The situation remains critical and further violence between opposite factions cannot be ruled out.
“The school foundation urged us to intervene to protect people,” said East Jakarta District Police Chief Senior Superintendent. “For this reason we moved everyone out.”Last night hundreds of residents from the village of Kampung Pulo had taken up arms threatening to storm the school after being instigated by an imam at a local mosque who claimed that a bunch of Christian gangsters were coming to “protect” the school after it was attacked on Saturday by a Muslim mob, causing damage to the building and hurting hundreds.
In an attempt to solve the problem East Jakarta District Chief Murdani held a close door meeting with the warring parties to discuss the issue. At the same time though, he said that police would conduct a thorough investigation and check if the school’s legal status was in order and that it respected all building regulations. In case of violations he would issue orders to demolish the unlawful structures.
At present hundreds of agents are guarding the school and have orders to stop any act of violence and disarm people.
The Arastamar High School for Theology and Biblical Studies, locally known as STT SETIA, was established by Rev Mathew Mangentang in 1987.
The SST SETIA has more than 29 branches school across the country. In Jakarta alone it has thousands of students, including 265 who were injured in latest clashes.
Tensions between Christians and Muslims flared up on Saturday following rumours that a SETIA student had stolen a motorcycle that belonged to a Muslim from a neighbouring village.
Senny Manafe, a spokesperson for the school, rejected the accusation, claiming instead that the attacks were triggered by a trivial incident. In an attempt to chase a mouse in the street, a student threw a slipper against a house owned by a local Muslim. Outraged by the deed, the latter kicked and punched the student as people gathered drawn by the rumour that a Christian student had tried to steal the Muslim’s motorbike.
“Many students suffered various injuries to the head. Others were burnt by Molotov cocktails,” Manafe said.
The violence and charges against SETIA are the work of Risman Hadi, chairman of Muslim Brotherhood Forum of Kampung Pulo Village, who in the past opposed the opening and continued existence of the Christian institute
At each other’s throats
Posted on July 27, 2008
Filed Under Middle East, News, Terrorism | 1 Comment
Exemplary demonstration of unity and brotherly love in the Midde East:
Palestinians in Gaza. When they don’t plot and execute terrorist acts against Israel, they’re busy killing each other:
Gaza: Bomb blasts rocked a cafe and a Hamas politician’s home in the Gaza Strip on Friday, killing at least one Palestinian in one of the biggest flare-ups in internal violence since Islamists seized the enclave a year ago.
The first bomb went off outside a popular cafe in the centre of Gaza City, killing a passer-by whose identity was not immediately known, according to Hamas security forces.
Hamas blamed unidentified “gunmen” for the bombings, suggesting the involvement of a Palestinian faction.
An Israeli army spokesman said he was not aware of any Israeli activity.
Gaza has been calm since an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took hold last month.
But the truce has stoked some tensions between Palestinian factions as Hamas has sought to prevent other groups from firing cross-border rockets at Israel.
Same goes for the northern neighbor of Israel - Lebanon - whose terrorist groups entertain themselves by killing one another in internal feuds, despite the truce that was signed between the several Lebanese factions earlier this year in Doha, Qatar:
Tripoli - Nine people including a boy of 10 were killed in fierce sectarian clashes which raged through the night in the northern Lebanese port city of Tripoli, a security official said on Saturday.Lebanese army tanks patrolled the streets after militants from the rival Sunni Muslim and Alawite communities fought with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons in the latest bout of violence to rock the Mediterranean city.
Among the dead were a 10-year-old boy and two women, while over 50 people were injured, the security officials said
Lebanon has been hit by sporadic outbreaks of violence despite a power-sharing deal between rival political factions in May which led to the election of Michel Sleiman as president and the creation of a unity cabinet.
The latest unrest comes after the new cabinet hit snags in deliberations aimed at drawing up a policy agenda ahead of a parliamentary vote of confidence which would enable the government to be officially installed.
Despite a ceasefire that went into effect at 1500 GMT on Friday, intense fighting raged through the night but by Saturday morning the situation was calm as the army sent in reinforcements.
Dozens of tanks and armored vehicles were patrolling the streets to keep the peace between fighters in the mainly Sunni Bab al-Tebbaneh district and the neighboring largely Alawite area of Jabal Mohsin.
Oh well, just another day (or two) in the Middle East.
Lagoon Nebula
Posted on July 25, 2008
Filed Under News | 1 Comment
Nothing is superior to the beauty of the nature here on Earth, and of the Universe beyond!
A few questions to the Sudanese president Bashir
Posted on July 24, 2008
Filed Under Africa, Islam, News, Religion | Leave a Comment
Earlier today news agencies reported about some of the latest rants of the Sudanese president Omar al Bashir.
As cynical and ruthless as it sounds, apparently, he sees himself as peacemaker and swears that nothing will distract him from bringing peace to Darfur. Yeah, I can understand his desire to bring peace there, especially, as he perfectly demonstrated, one of his methods (which rendered him the ICC warrant) was to simply wipe out the indigenous tribe that populates this region - this definitely brings “peace”, since there will be no one to fight against.
Something else that caught my attention was Bashir saying:
“…we [Sudanese government, - WD] will only bow to God, who is the sole provider“.
According to Islam, God is behind everything in this world. If this is so, don’t you, Omar Al Bashir, think that the ICC warrant is the sign from God, directly to you? After all, you cannot accuse God of not being behind the ICC’s decisions, thus neglecting the actions of this “infidel” body against such an exemplary and devout Muslim such as yourself? Wouldn’t that be a sheer blasphemy on your part, Omar al Bashir, to claim that God had nothing to do with it (since God is behind everything)? And wouldn’t it be just the same shear of a blasphemy to defy God’s will, delivered to you by ICC?
Give it a thought, Omar al Bashir, and if you’re truly devoted to your religion, please bow to God, pack your bags and go to Hague.
Peace in Darfur - Bashir’s style:
