Free Republic

The Taliban returned to power last year - but have since failed to live up to their promises when it comes to women's rights.Large crowds gathered in Afghanistan to watch the first public flogging gathered at a football stadium in the country since the Taliban were ousted more than two decades ago. In scenes described by one commentator as “just history repeating itself”, three women and nine men were beaten in front of hundreds of spectators at the orders of the religious extremist organisation, which returned to power in August. The office of the governor of Logar province, south of...

Kabul (AFP) – Three women and 11 men were flogged Wednesday on the orders of an Afghan court after they were found guilty of theft and "moral crimes", a provincial official said. The lashings are the first to be confirmed since the Taliban's supreme leader ordered judges this month to fully enforce Islamic law, or sharia, saying corporal punishment was obligatory for certain crimes. Qazi Rafiullah Samim, head of information and culture for Logar province, told AFP the lashings were not administered publicly. "Fourteen people were given discretionary punishment, of which 11 were men and three were women," he said,...

Brutality and Injustice Islamist Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum, defends the freedoms and liberties of Western society against "stealth jihad," a campaign by Islamists to slowly and methodically implement a Sharia-compliant theocracy in the West. Sharia is Islamic law, based on the Koran and the teachings and personal actions of Mohammad (known as The Sunnah, noted and reported in Hadiths). Below, very personal examples of life under Sharia in Islamist societies. The intolerance, the brutality, the inhumanity. The extreme lack of religious pluralism, women's rights, free speech and equality under the law. 1. Sudanese Woman Lashed (Video)...

Residents carried their own signs Wednesday evening calling for "peace not hate" in response to a northwest Gainesville church that recently posted a sign with an anti-Islamic message. At least 80 people gathered on both sides of Northwest 37th Street in front of the Dove World Outreach Center for a prayer vigil organized after the church recently erected a sign proclaiming "Islam is of the devil." Participants held up their signs and listened to words from Eve MacMaster, pastor of the Emmanuel Mennonite Church, and Saeed R. Kahn, president of the Muslim Association of North Central Florida. The group maintained...

TEHRAN, Iran — Two men convicted of adultery were stoned to death in northeastern Iran last month but a third convicted man managed to escape, Iran's judiciary spokesman said Tuesday. Ali Reza Jamshidi said the stoning took place in the city of Mashhad in late December but did not provide the names of the convicted men. Under Iran's Islamic law, adultery is punishable by stoning, but such sentences are rare. International human rights groups have long criticized stoning in Iran as a cruel form of punishment.

Muslim leaders summoned to talks with the Government on tackling extremism in their midst called for public holidays to mark their religious festivals. The Whitehall meeting was set up in response to last week's airline bomb plot discovery. Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly had prepared an uncompromising message on the need to tackle dangerous radicalism. But, in what she admitted were 'sharp' exchanges, some senior Muslim figures turned the tables yesterday and made a series of demands which also included the introduction of Sharia law for family matters. Dr Syed Aziz Pasha, secretary general of the Union of Muslim Organisations of...

A new Jihad-oriented reality-style TV show called “Heads You Win, Tails the Blasphemers, Heretics & Infidels Lose” made its debut on the al-Jazeera network this week. The show featured footage of men being murdered in a variety of bloody ways. The images broadcast showed the decapitated heads of three men being held up in front of a crowd of chanting onlookers. They also showed several bodies being dragged behind a pick-up truck. In other scenes mutilated bodies and severed heads are placed on display in various positions and locations. “This is better than American Idol,” said Rahid Punjahnt, member of...

On August 27, Amina Lawal, a 32-year-old Nigerian single mother, sat in an Islamic sharia court in Katsina state in northern Nigeria and nursed her two-year-old daughter, Wasila. Wasila had been born over nine months after Amina was divorced and, in Nigeria's Islamic courts, this is taken to be prima facie evidence that Amina committed adultery. If her appeal of this conviction is denied, she will be buried up to her chest, and the surrounding throng will throw stones at her until she is dead. The stones used must not be so small that they will inflict no damage, nor...