Archives: Posts From May 2008

Minnesota Tortilla Maker Says ‘No Más' to Islamic Garb
By David J. Rusin | Fri, 30 May 2008 at 11:33 AM | Permalink
Excerpt: Minneapolis-St. Paul has seen more than its share of conflict over Islam in the workplace. Muslim taxi drivers were recently involved in a protracted row after refusing to serve passengers with alcohol or seeing-eye dogs. Last year it was reported that a ...

Gender Segregation at Thirty Thousand Feet
By David J. Rusin | Tue, 27 May 2008 at 11:44 AM | Permalink
Excerpt: Calling for the separation of men and women is an increasingly common tactic of lawful Islamists. Earlier this year, Muslim students succeeded in persuading a popular Harvard gym to set aside female-only hours. Their counterparts on Australian campuses ...

Prominent Catholic Priest Ready for Shari'a Law in Britain
By David J. Rusin | Thu, 22 May 2008 at 12:47 PM | Permalink
Excerpt: Pope Benedict XVI exhibits a keen awareness of the challenges posed by Islam in Europe and regularly speaks out in defense of Western values. It was thus no surprise that the Catholic Church reacted quite negatively when Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan ...

Shari'a Chic Struts Its Stuff on Virginia Campus
By David J. Rusin | Mon, 19 May 2008 at 11:16 AM | Permalink
Excerpt: The oppression of women under Shari'a law has no clearer embodiment than the apparel that renders them formless, if not faceless, in public. When the Western fashion sector embraces such attire, it sets a poor precedent for society as a whole. Examples ...

Cartoon Chaos!
By David J. Rusin | Thu, 15 May 2008 at 1:01 PM | Permalink
Excerpt: Islamists can be rather sensitive about cartoons. In early 2006, worldwide riots erupted in response to caricatures of Mohammed that had been published by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten several months prior. Recent cases in Canada and the U.S. ...

UK Firms Place a Premium on Shari'a-Compliant Insurance
By David J. Rusin | Mon, 12 May 2008 at 9:26 AM | Permalink
Excerpt: Two years ago Gordon Brown outlined a plan to make Britain a world center of Islamic trade and finance. While his government maneuvers to become the first in the West to issue a Shari'a bond, the UK's private sector is already cashing in on the Muslim ...

"Divorce me once, shame on you…"
By R. John Matthies | Fri, 9 May 2008 at 4:39 PM | Permalink
Excerpt: The big news out of Maryland this week concerns a 21-page opinion on Islamic divorce, decided unanimously by the state Court of Appeals. And herein lies the rub: The justices have refused to recognize the talaq break-up, which requires that the husband ...

Netherlands Trying to Ban Burqas Yet Again
By David J. Rusin | Thu, 8 May 2008 at 1:41 PM | Permalink
Excerpt: The Dutch cabinet has moved to prohibit women in public sector jobs from donning the most extreme Islamic-inspired garments — the niqab, which covers one's face except for the eyes, and the burqa, which covers the entirety of one's body and head: The ...

Gora! Gora! Gora!
By R. John Matthies | Wed, 7 May 2008 at 12:30 PM | Permalink
Excerpt: It's not terribly difficult to locate opinion and commentary by moderate and reform-minded Muslims – provided, that is, one knows where to look. Pakistani-Canadian journalist Tahir Aslam Gora is one who fits the above description, and whose opinions ...

Stop the Pandering, Say Secular Muslims
By David J. Rusin | Tue, 6 May 2008 at 11:33 AM | Permalink
Excerpt: Frustrated by governments bending over backwards to accommodate Islam in the public square? Some Muslims are fed up with them as well, and a group in the UK has recently stepped forward to speak out on behalf of this "silent majority": The government's ...

Separatist Islamic Group Can't Be Called 'Separatist Islamic Group' on BBC
By David J. Rusin | Fri, 2 May 2008 at 10:09 PM | Permalink
Excerpt: While seeking to highlight the extremist sponsor of London's proposed mega-mosque, Britain's Christian Choice Party discovered that certain phrases are verboten on the nation's major television networks: A Christian party has begun legal action after the ...