Posted on 02/13/2008 4:41:34 AM PST by SJackson
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If the practice of stoning (lapidation) exists across the Islamic world—most visibly in Afghanistan, Iran, Nigeria, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates—it speaks much to Western forbearance that this same penalty, though reviled, can make the fortune of one who commends the practice. Consider the case of Hani Ramadan and the state of Geneva.
Hani Ramadan—director of the Islamic Center of Geneva (CIG), grandson to Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna, and brother to Islamist superstar Tariq Ramadan—was dismissed from a public teaching post in suburban Geneva in 2003 for publishing a defense of stoning in France’s Le Monde. (Brother Tariq, who sought to distance himself from his brother on this point, lamely proposed a “moratorium” on the practice.) This was not his first brush with the teaching establishment and the civil authorities: Ramadan’s colleagues blasted him for tasteless remarks on the place of women in 1996 and 1998; and Hani and brother both were refused passage to France for alleged ties to terror groups (in 1997 and 1996, respectively; Hani was also denied an Egyptian visa in 1999). But the most recent affaire Ramadan began in the Fall of 2002, when the teacher drafted an opinion editorial on stoning, punitive amputation, and AIDS for the September Bulletin (posted to and since removed from the Islamic Center’s website) of the Committee for Respect of Muslim Rights (CRDM). In it the author (1) claims “the punishment fits the crime: the severed hand for theft, stoning for illicit pleasure. This represents not only retribution, but a form of purification” and deterrence; (2) he demonstrates an odd compassion, writing: “While it’s true that stoning is a difficult spectacle […], reports reveal that the condemned is not long to suffer: the hail of stones dispatches the individual in the space of several seconds”; (3) and finally, he admits that while AIDS is certainly spread through transfusions of contaminated blood, “only those guilty of deviant comportment expose themselves to contagion.” Also curious were his assertions that “the penalties that govern theft and adultery may only find application in a society respectful of Islamic practice and principle.” For example, he writes: “It is forbidden to remove the thief’s hand in a state that does not deliver […] the means to lead a dignified existence.” An abridged version of the same document appeared shortly thereafter in France’s Le Monde (edition dated September 10, 2002), under the title La charia incomprise, or “Misinterpreting Shari’a.” The saga continues as follows:
Geneva admits it made the largest allowable payout, for reason that the state was eager to close the case on “Mr. Stoning.” And to sweeten the pot, Geneva further agreed to reimburse his legal costs, of $80,000. Add to this five years’ wages, of $633,000, and one describes a settlement of some $1 million. News of Ramadan’s reward caused Geneva’s Matin to gush: “it pays to praise stoning.” Such are the spoils of “lawfare” (legal wrangling designed to punish opinion). And such are the goals of lawful (or non-violent) radical Islam: to hinder efforts to query the faith, and establish a regime wherein nothing “Islamic” is subject to censure. The city of Geneva offers guests the spectacle of the Reformation Wall, constructed a century ago. Here one reads the phrase that sings Geneva, the Reformation, and the confidence of the age: Post Tenebras Lux, “After Darkness, Light.” It may well be that Ramadan’s guiding phrase, as published in a clarifying remark, instead reads: “Human Rights are relative to culture.” A phrase that speaks both the diversity we prize and the censure we reject—and testifies to the squishiness of our time. A wise man remarked: “If all values are relative, then cannibalism is a matter of taste.” Another dish, like Ramadan’s, we’d do well to return to the kitchen. |
>>And such are the goals of lawful (or non-violent) radical Islam: to hinder efforts to query the faith, and establish a regime wherein nothing “Islamic” is subject to censure.<<
Great article, thanks for posting it.
High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]
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These “Ramadans” and their familes that infest the West are NOT SELF-SUPPORTING. They depend on the Welfare State in order to exist, much less thrive.
Cutting off their funds is a critical FIRST STEP in solving the Muzzieproblem.
Its not that definitive. Unless Gordon Brown has annexed Switzerland, Geneva is not in Great Britain.
I don’t worry so much about the Swiss, they still have their guns!
“And such are the goals of lawful (or non-violent) radical Islam: to hinder efforts to query the faith, and establish a regime wherein nothing “Islamic” is subject to censure.”
Just one way by which the Islamofascists push the bounds of our liberties to establish their caliphate, under which they will abolish those same freedoms.
Time for the world to wake up to this clear and present danger.
Islam is a cult and must be eradicated.
Lock and Load.
Oh fair enough, I can’t blame you for reflecting on the weirdness of our Govt!
Are all European Muslim welfare bums? Very few over here are who are not black Muslims. I once had an Arab Muslim brag about it to me and it seems true
Though we have high rates of Muslim criminality in tax evasion. Just ask Debbie Schlussel
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