Miss Kelly

Friday Miscellania

Andrew Bostum to speak tomorrow night on Islamic Antisemitism at Temple Beth Am, 871 North Main Street, Randolph, MA. The talk will be a full hour, starting at 9 P. Dr. Bostum recently edited The Legacy of Antisemitism - from Sacred Texts to Solemn History, which was reviewed at City Journal by Bruce Thornton.

As Kathy Shaidle succinctly puts it, "Tests for Down Syndrome actually kill healthy babies." A British study shows that "for every three babies found through prenatal testing to have Down syndrome, two babies without the condition are lost through miscarriage as a result of the mother having had the test, a new study in Britain estimates. About 660 babies each year in England and Wales are found through testing to have Down syndrome, say the authors. In most cases, parents choose to have an abortion. An estimated further 400 babies who are tested but found not to have the condition die as a result of a miscarriage." Grotesque.

The persecution of Christians in India: "If you were asked to name a country where it is dangerous to be a Christian, you would probably name an Islamic country or a dictatorship like China. You probably wouldn't name the largest democracy in the world, India. Yet some of the most horrific persecution of Christians is taking place in its state of Orissa."  Attacks on Christians, burning down their churches and homes, passing laws that make it illegal to convert from Hinduism to any other faith- it's all going on in parts of India.  Read the whole article here.

Instapundit's Odd Relativism About Religious Violence

I don't get it.

Instapundit has linked a couple of times to examples of threats of violence made by Islamists (or in this case, their dhimmi apologists), and then he remarks that it's only a matter if time before other religious groups do the same thing.  But, with very few exceptions, other religious groups don't.  It's pretty obvious that in the Western world, religiously inspired violence or threat of violence is almost completely owned by Islamic fundamentalists.  Not Buddhists, Catholics, Protestants, Bahai, Hindus, atheists or anybody else. 

Why the repeated question from Glenn? "Will other religious groups take the lesson that violence works?" Who's he talking about here?  Lutherans?  In May 2007, he wrote: "Sooner or later, you know, fundamentalist Christians are going to pick up on this lesson, engage in similar behavior, and make similar demands. Because, apparently, it works fine."  No, other religious groups won't, because other religions aren't that intolerant and brittle, nor do their leaders sanction or incite such violence.  Not gonna happen.   

Asra Q. Nomani wrote an op-ed for the WSJ today about the decision by Random House to halt publication of a historical novel about Aisha, the Muslim prophet Muhammed's young bride (a child bride, actually). The novel's author, journalist Sherry Jones, came to admire the courage of Aisha.  Random House said they decided "to postpone publication for the safety of the author, employees of Random House, booksellers and anyone else who would be involved in distribution and sale of the novel."

Who started this brou-ha-ha?   "This time, the instigator of the trouble wasn't a radical Muslim cleric, but an American academic."  Denise Spellberg, an associate professor of Islamic history at the University of Texas in Austin, to be exact.  Spellberg contacted Shahed Amanullah, a guest lecturer in her classes and the editor of a popular Muslim Web site, saying the novel "made fun of Muslims and their history."  She asked him to "warn Muslims", which he did, sending an e-mail to a listserv of Middle East and Islamic studies graduate students.  Things escalated from there, and within a few weeks, Random House withdrew  the book, citing "fear of a possible terrorist threat from extremist Muslims" and concern for "the safety and security of the Random House building and employees."  The real threat here seems to be from Spellberg, Amanullah and Random House, none of whom seem to respect freedom of speech or the tradition of historical fiction. 

As Nomani writes in the WSJ:

"The series of events that torpedoed this novel are a window into how quickly fear stunts intelligent discourse about the Muslim world....This saga upsets me as a Muslim -- and as a writer who believes that fiction can bring Islamic history to life in a uniquely captivating and humanizing way."

Peeling a Banana from the Bottom Up - Haram?

Very funny piece by Khalid Hasan for the Friday Times (Pakistan).  As the expression goes, you can't make this stuff up.  Enjoy Khalid Hasan's article on the wacky religious gatekeepers (comments at the end):

* * * * *

God's self-declared gatekeepers
by Khalid Hasan


A young woman in Houston, who should go by the initials FV, says that given what she has been reading on a South Africa-based fatwa site, it might be straight to hell for her because she is or does all of the following: disobedient wife; meets men; does not press husband's legs. When I asked her for more of her black marks, she said she had already transgressed the limits by exchanging emails with a na-mehram .
I think she is perfectly justified in believing that she is blazes-bound, because that is where Mufti Ibrahim Desai - no kin to Morarji one hopes, which would make his fate in the hereafter problematic - would send women who do not press their husbands' legs. He runs something called the Fatwa Department on his site, which going by the number of fatwas he hands out, gets more hits than the sinful will get from the fiends pushing them towards the eternal bonfire. Mufti Desai has pontificated that when a wife presses the legs of her husband without being asked, she gets the sawaab of giving seven ounces of gold in charity. And if she presses his legs after he asks her to do so, she receives the sawaab of giving seven ounces of silver in sadqa. If she refuses to press her husband's legs, asked or unasked, she is in big trouble, both here and in the hereafter. FV wants to know why nothing has been said about the husband offering to press his wife's legs, considering that she has been toiling all day at home, polishing floors, dusting furniture, washing clothes and cooking three different dishes including her husband's favourite Qorma Jalfrezi .

I am less amazed at Desai and more at those who send him the questions troubling their souls. One woman wants to know if it is permitted to peel a banana from the bottom up. Answer: No.

They Need to Quit This

Ughhh.  These guys are no better than these guys. Enough with the self-mutilation already.  At least it's adults choosing to be sado-masochists in the Phillipines.  Still not good.  Time to leave some practices behind.