Khatami calls for referendum on election result

Seyed Mohammad Khatami, a former Iranian president, has called for a referendum on whether the result of the June election should be allowed to stand. The election, which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won according to the official results, is seen by a large proportion of Iranians as having been rigged.

Khatami's statement is a direct challenge to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has declared the election result valid.

Khatami is the second ex-president of Iran to speak out vocally on the issue in the last few days. On 17 July, in a Friday prayer sermon, Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani called on the authorities to release eveyrone arrested in connection to the massive demonstrations that Iran has been witnessing since June.

It looks like Ahmadinejad and Khamenei are alone on this. They may still be in control, but there is certainly a realignment of forces on. If Ahmadinejad yields, this may well be remembered as the second Islamic revolution, on the thirtieth anniversary of the first one.

[This post was written in Istanbul.]

Govt-Hizbullah clashes break out in Lebanon

After years of peaceful confrontation, the standoff between the pro-Western Lebanese government and Hizbullah has turned violent. When the government sent in the Lebanese army to dismantle a phone network operated by Hizbullah, the militant movement decided to fight back.

According to the head of Hizbullah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, "This decision was a declaration of war and the start of war on the resistance and its weapons. Our response to this decision is that whoever declares or starts a war, be it a brother or a father, then it is our right to defend ourselves and our existence." However, Nasrallah said that his movement would stop fighting if the army withdrew from the streets.

There is a danger of the armed conflict spilling over into mixed Sunni-Shi'ite neighbourhoods in Beirut. In one such neighbourhood, Sunnis chanted "God is with the Sunnis," while Shi'ites responded with the words "The Shi'ite blood is boiling". Lebanese army soldiers acted as a barrier between the two sides.

This may be the closest Lebanon has come to a new civil war since the last one ended in 1990 (New York Times).

Let's hope it blows over. I think Hizbullah should know that the support it enjoys among Sunni Arabs would evaporate were it to start a real civil war against the government. I don't think it can afford to risk that.

Muslim teacher in NY loses job because of hate campaign

Debbie Almontaser, a Yemeni-American teacher who led the drive to set up a new public school in New York called Khalil Gibran International Academy, was forced to resign her position as principal before the school opened its doors to new students. The reason was a campaign of Islamophobia unleashed by a group that called itself the "Stop the Madrassa Coalition". The group was, in some ways, orchestrated by the Islam basher Daniel Pipes.

The school's mission was to teach Arabic as a foreign language. Almontaser's plan was to have a student body that would be half Arab-American. In all other respects, the Gibran Academy was to be a regular New York public high school. Moreover, in its emphasis in Arabic, the school was similar to dozens of other schools in New York that stress a particular language, such as Spanish or Russian.

The campaign against the Gibran Academy (named after a Lebanese Christian poet) broke out when Pipes wrote an op-ed in the New York Sun, in which he argued that "Arabic-language instruction is inevitably laden with Pan-Arabist and Islamist baggage." He also called the planned school a "madrassa", which is simply the Arabic word for "school" but, as Pipes knows very well, means an "Islamic seminary" in English. More recently, Pipes has admitted that his use of the word "madrassa" was "a bit of a stretch" and a tool he used to "get attention".

Attention he did get: a group of people, including Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, a trustee at City University of New York, gathered around Pipes, and formed the above-mentioned coalition. Having very little information about the planned school to go on, the Coalition to Stop the Madrassa dug into Almontaser's past and her personal activities, and used the information obtained to smear her online and in the media. What motivated them was a desire to stop what Wiesenfeld referred to as "soft jihad", that is, the promotion of "radical Islam", in Pipes's words, through "the school system, the media, the religious organizations, the government, businesses and the like". In other words, the mere teaching of Arabic was construed by the group as equivalent to the promotion of "radical Islam".

What helped the Coalition clinch its case was an interview with the New York Post, in which Almontaser explained that the word "intifada" meant "a shaking off". She was asked about the shirts because some teenaged members of an Arab-American women's group she belonged to had been seen selling T-shirts that said "Intifada NYC" on them. The Post misquoted Almontaser as saying that the girls selling the T-shirts had been "shaking off oppression".

That was too much for the city's Education Department to bear, and Almontaser was asked to resign by Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott, who added that she had until 8:00 am the next day to resign, because Mayor Michael Bloomberg wanted to announce her resignation "on his radio show". Almontaser resigned, but filed a lawsuit to try to get her job back. A panel of federal judges has recently ruled that the New York Post has misreported the comments she had made to the paper.

The school did open under the direction of a different principal, Danielle Salzberg, who does not speak Arabic and soon made a name for herself with her authoritarian methods. Meanwhile, Almontaser has been assigned to a school inspection job, and has been allowed to keep her principal's pay of US $120,000 (Canadian $121,722) per year. The Coalition to Stop the Madrassa, for its part, continues to protest against the existence of the school (New York Times).

Changing your gender in Iran

In Iran, homosexual acts are a crime punishable by death. However, there is a way out for homosexuals who want to live with members of the same sex: getting a sex change operation. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued an edict allowing sex change operations after coming to power in 1979. Since then, Iran's Islamist government has recognised sex change as legal upon recommendation by a doctor. The government covers upto half the cost, and the change is marked on one's birth certificate. Iran now has the second-highest annual number of sex change operations in the world.

According to Hojjatol Islam Muhammad Mehdi Kariminia, the cleric in charge of sex change in Iran, the procedure is as permissible by Islam as "changing wheat to flour to bread". However, according to Kariminia,

The discussion is fundamentally separate from a discussion regarding homosexuals. Absolutely not related. Homosexuals are doing something unnatural and against religion. It is clearly stated in our Islamic law that such behaviour is not allowed because it disrupts the social order.

Nevertheless, it is often homosexuals who resort to sex change in Iran. They often do so after facing taunts from colleagues and passers-by, and also from a wish to have an open relationship with their same-sex partner, who is no longer same-sex after the surgery.

The Iranians who undergo sex change operations often face opposition from their parents; Iranian society is not nearly as accepting of the procedure as the government is. Negar, a 27-year-old woman who was once a man named Ali Askar, says that her father tried to kill her to keep her from going through with the surgery. She subsequently left home and had to work as a prostitute to make ends meet.

On the other hand, Shahin, the mother of 21-year-old Anahita (formerly a man named Anoosh) is happy with her decision to become female. According to Shahin,

A boy will always just get married and leave his mum, but a girl stays, a girl is always yours and will never leave, and now I will never experience the sadness that occurs when a boy leaves. I always wanted a daughter and I think it's a gift from God that I finally got one.

Anahita's brother Ali Reza is not so sure, though. "I have had a brother for many years. I can't just suddenly accept him as my sister. If I refer to him as my brother he gets upset. But it's hard for me to believe this," he complains. Nevertheless, Anahita is engaged to her boyfriend, and has found that the sex change has enabled her to live in peace. "Now when someone is attracted to me, it is as a girl," she says (BBC).

Taliban threaten mobile phone operators

The Taliban have threatened to destroy mobile phone towers and the offices of mobile phone companies in Afghanistan if the companies don't agree to stop mobile phone calls between 5:00 pm and 3:00 am each day. Zabiullah Mujaheed, a Taliban spokesman, said the movement was giving mobile phone companies three days to comply.

According to the Taliban, US forces in Afghanistan have been using night-time calls to track down members of the mililtant movement.

Mobile phones were first introduced in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban government in 2001 (BBC).

Islamic Jihad militant killed in Gaza

A bomb explosion in the Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip has killed at least seven people, among them Ayman Fayed, an Islamic Jihad leader. Fayed's wife and two of their children were also killed. Hamas, which is in control of the Gaza Strip, said that it was not clear what had caused the explosion, while Islamic Jihad blamed Israel and promised revenge (BBC).

Danish MPs cancel Iran trip over cartoons

A group of nine Danish MPs who were due to visit Iran have called off the trip two days before their scheduled departure, after being asked by the Iranian parliament to apologise over the recent reprinting of a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) wearing a turban with a bomb in it. Villy Søvndal, the head of the Socialist People's Party, said that "If anyone needs to apologise for freedom of speech, human rights, imprisonments, executions and lack of democracy, it is the Iranians" (BBC).

So if one group of people acts in a way that others find offensive, does that mean that those opposed must also try to be offensive? Is that what Søvndal is trying to proclaim?

Turkey legalises headscarves at universities

The Turkish parliament voted earlier this month to lift the ban on the wearing of headscarves on university campuses. The ban was put in place in 1991 through the constitutional court's decision that heascarves worn at state-owned universities violated the separation of religion and the state. The constitutional provision that allowed the court to reach that conclusion has now been repealed. The issues does not seem settled yet, though, since the new constitutional amendment may face a court challenge (Wall Street Journal).

Nevertheless, this is a very important step for Turkey to have taken, and it proves that the country is actually moving towards being a genuine democracy.

Saudis attempt to reeducate militants

The Saudi government is in the process of opening up a new prison system to house inmates convicted of crimes related to terrorism. The goal of the new prisons is to reeducate the inmates and to instill in them the belief that engaging in armed jihad without the approval of one's country and one's parents is haram, or Islamically forbidden. The Saudi interior ministry has involved about 3,000 inmates in the scheme.

According to Mustafa Alani of the Gulf Research Centre, inmates released from the special jails have a re-arrest rate of upto 7%, while in a similar scheme in Yemen, about 70% of the released convicts have re-offended (BBC).

Hamas wants joint control of Gaza-Egypt border

While Egypt starts placing restrictions on the movement of Palestinians into its territory through the breaches in the Gaza-Egypt border fence, talks are underway between Egypt and Hamas, which is in control of the Gaza Strip, over longer-term control over the border. Egypt is also simultaneously negotiating the border issue with the administration of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Hamas has been cooperating with Egypt over stemming the flow of Palestinians into Egypt, but wants joint control over the border with Egypt in return. Meanwhile, Abbas does not want Hamas to play any role at the border, and is refusing to enter into direct dialogue with the movement. According to Abbas, "Hamas has to end its coup in Gaza, accept all international obligations, and accept holding early elections" before any talks can begin between it and the Palestinian government.

Egypt would like Abbas's government to control the Palestinian side of the border under supervision from Israel and the EU, under a multi-sided agreement reached in 2005 (BBC).

Al-Qaeda commander reportedly killed

According to a pro-militant website, a top-level Al-Qaeda commander, Abu Laith al-Libi, was killed earlier this week in the North Waziristan Agency of Pakistan. According to a Pakistani newspaper, Libi died in a US air strike. The US suspected Libi of being behind several suicide bombings in Afghanistan (BBC).

Suicide bomber kills 50 worshippers in Pakistan

A suicide bomber detonated his weapon in the midst of worshippers celebrating Eid al-Adha at a mosque near Peshawar, Pakistan on 21 December, killing at least 50 people and injuring around 100. He was apparently to be targeting the Aftab Ali Sherpao, a former interior minister unpopular in some quarters in Pakistan due to the military campaign he waged against Islamist rebels (BBC).

If the perpetrators bomb fellow-Muslims on Eid, what remains to be said about the state of their morals?

Afghans oppose the Taliban, want NATO to stay for now

The results of a poll conducted in Afghanistan between October and November 2007 indicate that Afghans oppose the Taliban and support both President Hamid Karzai and his American backers, along with their NATO allies. The poll, commissioned by the BBC World Service, ABC News and the German network ARD, involved interviews with 1,377 Afghans from different parts of the country.

Some results (taken from this PDF):

54% of Afghans believe their country is headed in the right direction. The biggest factor in this view is "good security". For those who believe Afghanistan is headed in the wrong direction, the biggest reason is problems with the economy.

According to 30% of Afghans, the biggest problem currently facing Afghanistan is "security/warlords/attacks/violence". According to 26%, the Taliban is the biggest problem.

"Security from crime and violence" was the biggest priority for the largest number of Afghans (28%). "Getting U.S. troops out of Afghanistan" was the topmost priority for only 3% of Afghans.

15% of Afghans rate work done by the current Afghan government as excellent, and 44% rate it as good.

26% of Afghans rate work done by Karzai as excellent, and 37% rate it as good.

8% of Afghans rate the role of the US in Afghanistan as excellent, and 35% rate it as good. 21% rate it as poor.

84% of Afghans want the current government to continue ruling the country. 4% would rather have the Taliban rule.

52% of Afghans believe that the Taliban is the biggest danger to the country. 10% think the US is.

Asked their opinion about the 2001 US invasion which toppled the Taliban government, 35% of Afghans rated the intervention as very good, and 40% rated it as mostly good.

20% of Afghans strongly support the presence of US troops in Afghanistan today, while 51% support it somewhat.

25% of Afghans strongly support the presence of NATO and ISAF forces in Afghanistan today, while 42% support it somewhat.

1% of Afghans strongly support the presence of foreign "Jihadi fighters" in Afghanistan, while 13% support it somewhat.

1% of Afghans strongly support Taliban fighters, while 4% support them somewhat.

Asked whom they blame the most for the violence seen in Afghanistan today, 36% fo Afghans named the Taliban, 22% named al-Qaeda and "foreign jihadis". 16% named the US or George Bush, and 3% blamed NATO and ISAF member-states.

42% of Afghans think the Taliban have grown stronger over the past year.

60% of Afghans believe that the government should negotiate a peace settlement with the Taliban.

74% of Afghans think that attacks against US forces in Afghanistan are not justified.

77% of Afghans think that attacks against non-American NATO or ISAF forces are not justified.

91% of Afghans think that attacks against the Afghan police or army are not justified.

94% of Afghans think that attacks against officials of the Afghan government are not justified.

42% of Afghans believe that US forces should leave the country only after security is restored there.

43% believe that non-US NATO and ISAF forces should leave only after security is restored in Afghanistan.

Only 3% of Afghans think the Taliban have a "very strong presence" in their area, while 7% think they have a "fairly strong presence".

By contrast, 11% of Afghans think that US/NATO/ISAF forces have a "very strong presence" in their area, and 39% think they have a "fairly strong presence".

3% of Afghans think that "foreign jihadis" have a "very strong presence" in their area, and 11% think they have a "fairly strong presence".

35% of Afghans are very confident and 47% are fairly confident that the Afghan government can provide security in their area.

1% of Afghans are very confident and 7% are fairly confident that the Taliban can provide security in their area.

12% of Afghans are very confident and 40% are fairly confident that US/NATO/ISAF forces can provide security in their area.

2% of Afghans are very confident and 10% are fairly confident that "foreign jihadis" can provide security in their area.

69% of Afghans believe the Pakistani government allows the Taliban to operate from its territory.

62% of Afghans believe the cultivation of opium is "unacceptable in all cases".

84% of Afghans think their government should "kill off" the poppy crop.

69% of Afghans have a very unfavourable view of the Taliban, while 15% have a somewhat unfavourable view of them.

76% of Afghans have a very unfavourable view of Osama bin Laden, while 11% have a somewhat unfavourable view of them.

48% of Afghans have a somewhat favourable view of the US, while 17% have a very favourable view of it.

38% of Afghans have a somewhat favourable view of the UK, while 11% have a very favourable view of it.

49% of Afghans have a somewhat favourable view of Germany, while 22% have a very favourable view of it.

38% of Afghans have a somewhat favourable view of Iran, while 14% have a very favourable view of it.

63% of Afghans have a very unfavourable view of Pakistan and 16% have a somewhat unfavourable view of it.

Muslim peers hope to secure teacher's freedom

The British Muslim peers Lord Ahmad and Lady Warsi are planning to visit Sudan on a private initiative to try to secure the release of Gillian Gibbons, a British teacher currently serving a 15-day sentence for insulting religion over the permission she gave her students in September to name a teddy bear Muhammad. The pupils named the bear Muhammad after one of their own number. The affair went to court after a member of the school staff complained to the Sudanese education ministry. The peers hope that President Omar al-Bashir and the chief justice of Sudan will find it possible to hand Gibbons over to their fellow Muslims, without appearing to bow to pressure from the British government.

The student named Muhammad, whose name landed his teacher at the centre of the controversy, has spoken out in support of Gibbons. He admitted that naming the bear Muhammad had originally been his idea. His family described Gibbons as "very nice".

Nevertheless, there was a demonstration against Gibbons in Khartoum after Friday prayer today. The protesters demanded a harsher punishment than the 15-day prison sentence Gibbons is serving. In fact, some of them chanted slogans such as "No tolerance -- execution" and "Kill her, kill her by firing squad" (BBC).

I sincerely hope that Lord Ahmad and Lady Warsi's mission to Khartoum will succeed. They're wise to have come up with a face-saving exit strategy that will hopefully allow Gibbons to go back home and put the ordeal behind her.

For the people who want Gibbons dead, though, I can't find the right words. Their ignorance and lack of human empathy is simply astounding. This whole sordid story reminds me of the plight of the Bangladeshi cartoonist Muhammad Arifur Rahman who got in serious trouble both with noisy Islamists and with the interim government after authoring a cartoon in which a little boy gives his cat's name as "Muhammad the Cat" after being told by a mullah to place Muhammad before any name. There, too, some demonstrator's bayed for Arif's blood, even though the poor guy was just making fun of overzealous preachers who'd like all men in Bangladesh to present themselves as Muhammad So-and-So.

Muhammad the Cat, Muhammad the Bear... are these attacks on the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)? A moment's reflection would tell us they're not. And yet there are plenty of people in various Muslim countries who jump at the opportunity to holler and shout until they're blue in the face, demanding the death of one person, the imprisonment of another, etc. etc. Why so much insecurity? Do they think the Prophet Muhammad can be hurt by someone naming a toy bear after him, even intentionally? The Prophet refused to invoke God's punishment on people who had their children throw stones at him until he bled. Instead, he prayed for the guidance of those people. So what have these noisy crowds, who claim to be defending the Prophet, learned from his life and deeds?

The Prophet (pbuh) was gentle even to a man who urinated in the middle of the mosque in Medina. We have to take a long and hard look at ourselves and ask whether we live up to the Prophet's example, or even try to live up to it.

Rape victim faces 200 lashes in Saudi Arabia

A Shi'ite Saudi woman who was raped 14 times by a group of seven Sunni Saudi men has been herself sentenced to six months in prison and 200 lashes. The rapists, meanwhile, were given prison sentences ranging from two to ten years.

The woman's crime, according to the appeals court that doubled the number of lashes she was originally sentenced to receive, was that she had ridden in a car with an unrelated man. The reason the court doubled her sentence and added a jail term is that, according to them, she had tried to manipulate the judicial system through the media. The appeals court also doubled the rapists' jail sentences. Originally, the perpetrators were supposed to serve between a year and five years in prison.

The appeals court has also withdrawn the licence of the victim's lawyer, which means he that he is now barred from practising his profession (BBC).

The only word that occurs to me is "disgusting". On second thought, there are many choice words you could describe the actions of the Saudi court with, including "deranged", "apalling" and "highly, exceptionally un-Islamic".

According to the Qur'an, someone who has been found guilty of adultery should be flogged a hundred times. Now, the person who is to be flogged has to be found guilty of actually having engaged in extra-marital sex, not of merely being in the same enclosed space as an unrelated member of the opposite sex. So to sentence the victim of rape to twice the punishment prescribed by God for a confirmed adulterer or adulteress simply defies belief. On the other hand, this is Saudi Arabia we're talking about.

Pro-Jewish Iranian TV show depicts Holocaust

"Zero Degree Turn", a mini-series airing on Iranian state TV, has come as a revelation to both Iranians and foreigners. It is set in Paris during World War II, and shows a fictional employee of the Iranian embassy there forging Iranian passports in order to save a number of Jews from the Holocaust. The character is based on a real-life Iranian who rescued 500 Jews in France using this tactic.

While President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has declared the Holocaust a fabrication, it seems higher-up authorities, such as the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, would like to make it clear that they do not share Ahmadinejad's position. Since Khamenei controls the state TV network, the show had to have his approval in order to air (AP).

Once again, Ahmadinejad has proven to be a bit of a wildcard even as far as the conservative Iranian clerical establishment is concerned, and so they're pushing back, but in a way that is both subtle and likely to gain Iran new friends or at least sympathisers.

Two women beheaded in Pakistani tribal area

The bodies of two beheaded women have been discovered near the city of Bannu in Pakistan's North Waziristan Agency. A note found nearby accused the women of "acts of obscenity", a reference to prostitution. The district police suspect Islamist militants of having carried out the attack (BBC).

Once again, this sort of brazen act highlights the need for the Pakistani government to take charge in areas like North Waziristan. At present, the government seems incapable of protecting its own citizens; what is needed is not a bloodbath like at the Red Mosque, but a step-by-step strategy to integrate the so-called Federally Administered Tribal Areas into the rest of the country, in a way that preserves the quasi-autonomy of the region while making it hard for militants to operate there with impunity.

Israelis kill ten Palestinian militants

Israeli forces have killed six Palestinian militants belonging to Islamic Jihad and the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades as they were approaching the Israeli border in two cars.

Earlier, the Israelis killed four Palestinian militants in a fight near Khan Younis. The militants were responding to an incursion into the Gaza Strip by Israeli tanks and bulldozers (BBC).

So the low-intensity strike and counter-strike continue. As long as this continues, there is a pretext for some (including Hamas and Edud Olmert) to refuse to accept peace with their neighbours. They cling to power, while their foot soldiers (and, often, innocent bystanders) suffer the consequences.

German police pursues ten terror suspects

After arresting three Muslim men accused of plotting terrorist attacks on several targets in Germany, the German authorities are looking for ten more people suspected of helping the three with their planning.

According to Monika Harms, a German federal prosecutor, the three men, who include two Germans and a Turk, had trained in Pakistan, and obtained 700 kg of explosives. They were allegedly planning to attack locations used by Americans, including the Frankfurt Airport (BBC).

As it is, many Germans don't have a very high opinion of Muslims. And now this. What were those three thinking (if indeed the accusations have some merit to them)? It is precisely this sort of thing that gives ammunition to those who would restrict the civil liberties of minorities, so these three people, as well as the other ten, if they are guilty, were endangering innocent people in more ways than one.

Suicide bombing in Algeria

An unknown group has carried out a suicide bombing in the Algerian city of Batna, killing at least 15 people. The attack seemed to be aimed at crowds waiting for President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

Although there has been no claim of responsibility for the attack, Bouteflika blamed Islamist militants, adding that "terrorist acts have absolutely nothing in common with the noble values of Islam" (BBC).