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JEDDAH, 22 November 2005 — A woman demanded from a man who asked her hand in marriage to memorize the holy Qur’an as a condition of accepting to marry him, Al-Watan reported. The 21-year-old woman said that she is not interested in money as much as she is interested in a good religious husband. The woman said that she would hold a test in which she will ask them to recite the Qur’an without a mistake.

Columnist charged with domestic battery October 1, 2005 BY SHAMUS TOOMEY Staff Reporter Chicago Sun-Times columnist and editorial board member Neil Steinberg was arrested at his home late Wednesday and charged with striking his wife during an argument. Steinberg was charged with domestic battery and interfering with the reporting of domestic battery, both misdemeanors, Northbrook Police Sgt. Tony Matheny said. The second charge stemmed from Steinberg taking the phone away from his wife to prevent her from calling police, Matheny said. Steinberg appeared in court Thursday morning and was released on a recognizance bond. "I'm deeply humiliated to have brought...

MADRID -- An imam who wrote a book on how to beat your wife without leaving marks on her body has been ordered by a judge in Spain to study the country's constitution. The judge told Mohamed Kamal Mustafa, imam of a mosque in the southern resort of Fuengirola, to spend six months studying three articles of the constitution and the universal declaration of human rights. Mr. Mustafa was sentenced to 15 months in jail and fined about $2,600 last year after being found guilty of inciting violence against women. A judge released him after 22 days in jail on...

Husband beats wife to death for defying 'orders' By Samir Salama, Bureau Chief Abu Dhabi: A man beat his wife to death because he says she "disobeyed his orders and looked out of the balcony", a police source said. The incident occurred at midnight on Friday. The Syrian man has been arrested and charged with the 20-year-old woman's murder. The man, a hairdresser, was returning home from his shop at around 10.30pm, when he saw his second wife, also Syrian, looking out of the balcony of his flat on the first floor. He got angry, rushed to his flat and...

A Dearborn man was taken into custody after police said he beat his wife and teenage daughters with a crowbar early Tuesday. The incident occurred at a home in the 8700 block of Shaddick Street during an argument over the family van, Local 4 reported. Police said when the man's wife refused to give him the keys to the vehicle, he picked up a crowbar and started hitting her with it. The man then turned the weapon on his 14-year-old daughter, Yesmeen, and his 16-year-old daughter, Sanah, when they attempted to break up the fight, police said. Officers who arrived...

'Honour killing' shocks Germany By Ray Furlong BBC News, Berlin An impromptu shrine has been created at the place where Hatun Surucu was gunned down. There are flowers, candles, messages of support and photographs of the 23-year-old Turkish woman, who died of multiple bullet wounds to the head and chest. The police have arrested her three brothers, in the belief that Mrs Surucu was the latest victim in a series of so-called "honour killings" that have taken place in Berlin in recent months. "She had no other enemies. This murder bears all the hallmarks of an honour killing," says police...

International Women's Day Special    #590 - International Women's Day Special - Arab TV Channels Debate Wife-Beating in Islam and the Arab World (Compilation) 00:12:59    #589 - International Women's Day Special - Arab TV Channels Debate the Status of Women in the Arab World (Compilation) 00:09:03    #588 - Wife-Beating Debated on Lebanese TV Channels Heya TV - 12/30/2004 - 00:04:42    #587 - Saudi Cleric Sleiman Al-Odeh Explains Why He Supports Jihad in Iraq Al-Jazeera TV (Qatar) - 3/2/2005 - 00:02:32

In a hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., lives a young woman who is quite alive, yet quite unlike most of you reading these words. Since 1990, she has not been able to swallow or to communicate as most of us do. However, she smiles and cries, kisses her parents and utters a few simple words. She is not on life support. She receives nutrition through a tube instead of chewing and swallowing. She is not in a coma. She is not in a persistent vegetative state as defined by Florida law. She is much loved by her loyal parents and...

raqi women eye Islamic law The majority United Iraqi Alliance supports sharia. By Jill Carroll | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor BAGHDAD – Covered in layers of flowing black fabric that extend to the tips of her gloved hands, Jenan al-Ubaedy knows her first priority as one of some 90 women who will sit in the national assembly: implementing Islamic law. She is quick to tick off what sharia will mean for married women. "[The husband] can beat his wife but not in a forceful way, leaving no mark. If he should leave a mark, he will pay," she...

The Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is, in a word, professional. MEMRI links to Canada Free Press and it’s a source of pride that they sometimes pick up and post some of our stories. That’s how I rate MEMRI on a professional basis. But it is in my personal life that the Institute, albeit unknowingly, shed light and understanding on something that has been plaguing me. About a year ago, I discovered that someone close to me was being beaten by her husband. "Someone close to me" is the only way I can identify this young Muslim bride,...

Special Coverage of Saudi Counter-Terrorism Conference and Jihad on Saudi TV    #558 - Iranian President Khatami: Difficult to Distinguish between President Bush and Bin Laden Iran Ch.1 - 2/13/2005 - 00:01:54    #557 - Iranian President Khatami Presents His Perception of Democracy Iran Ch.1 - 2/13/2005 - 00:02:43    #556 - Al-Azhar Sheik Farhat Al-Munji Explains Wife-Beating in Islam Dream2 TV (Egypt) - 2/10/2005 - 00:02:41    #555 - Iranian TV Reports a Missile Attack in Iran 2/16/2005 - 00:00:38  

Does the Quran permit husbands to hit their wives, or not? Summer Hathout is a prosecutor in Los Angeles, an activist for women’s rights, and a Muslim. She denies that Islam promotes domestic violence, concluding in her short article: To those of us who know Islam and the Quran, violence against women is so antithetical to the teachings of Islam that we look at those who use our religion against us as misguided, misinformed or malevolent. On the other hand, Saudi television aired a talk show that discussed this issue. Scrolling three-fourths of the way down the link, the readers...

MADRID-The Spanish deputy prime minister has attacked the decision to free a controversial imam who was jailed for writing a book which advised readers how to attack women without leaving any marks. María Teresa Fernández de la Vega strongly criticised release of Mohamed Kamal Mostafa, who was freed after only serving 20 days of a 12-month sentence. In an interview with the programme 'Ruedo Ibérico' on Spain's Antena 3 channel, the deputy prime minister said "this did not help to reinforce the line which Spanish society had adopted to domestic violence: zero tolerance". She criticised the decision of the court...

BARCELONA – The imam who was jailed for writing a book about how to hit women without leaving marks has been released after just 20 days behind bars. Mohamed Kamal Mostafa, the imam of Fuengirola in Andalusia, was jailed last month for one year. But he has been released and must go on a training course to learn about human rights. Legal sources said he was released early because his imprisonment would not help his reintegration into society. The course would be more likely to reform his ideas, they added. But womens' groups were expected to object to the early...

French Scholar Urges Training Courses for Imams PARIS, December 2 (IslamOnline.net) - Most French imams lack the necessary religious, social and legal background to carry on with their duties, said a French Muslim scholar. “No more than 10 per cent of imams are religiously qualified for the job,” Daw Meskine, Secretary General of the French council for imams, told IslamOnline.net. He also admitted that some imams are unfamiliar with the social culture and laws of the French society. Meskine said he proposed, in his capacity as a member of the state-supervised committee on training imams, upgrading existent imams schools. “Institutes...

Muslims seek ban on 'Submission II' 2 December 2004 AMSTERDAM — Several Muslims in the Netherlands are seeking a court injunction to prevent MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali making a sequel to the short film "Submission". Lawyer Robert Moszkowicz said Tuesday that the group he represents also want Hirsi Ali banned from making hurtful remarks about Muslims and Islam. Moszkowicz noted Hirsi Ali recently described Islam as "deadly dangerous" without making a distinction between fundamentalist Islam and Islam in general. It is expected the case will be heard by a court in The Hague, but it is unclear when this will...

   #392 - Sheik Al-Qaradhawi: Wife Beating Yes, Homosexuality No. Al-Jazeera TV (Qatar) - 11/28,2004 - 00:04:39    #391 - A Documentary and a Discussion about Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi LBC (Lebanon) - 11/28/2004 - 00:05:59    #390 - Fatah Leader Faruq Qaddumi: Two-States A Temporal Solution Al-'Alam TV (Iran) - 11/29/2004 - 00:02:25    #389 - Palestinian Historian 'Issam Sisalem: What Temple and What Shtemple?! The Jews Are Like Marine Worms Palestinian Authority TV - 11/21/2004 - 00:02:45  

The following are excerpts from a discussion on wife beating on Qatar TV: Dr. Ibrahim Elias, a lawyer: There is a difference between instilling discipline and aggression. Likewise, there is a difference between wife beating as a phenomenon, as a right, as a duty, or as a rule. The phenomenon of beatings is widespread, but does religion support beatings? No, religion is a means of therapy. When Allah said in the Koran "and beat them," he didn't establish it as a rule, but as a means of therapy. Does a surgeon wield a knife from the outset in order to...

Archie Bunker and Islam's Magic Electricity Cable!

LYON, France - France on Tuesday expelled an Algerian-born Islamic prayer leader who condoned wife beating, part of a French campaign to punish Muslim clerics preaching violence. Abdelkader Bouziane boarded an Algeria-bound flight from the southeastern city of Lyon, Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin told parliament. "I salute this decision that today allows us to pursue, to expulse foreign citizens who insult or call for violence against women," he said. Bouziane, who was an imam or prayer leader in the Lyon suburb of Venissieux, was first deported to his native Algeria in April on orders from the Interior Ministry. But...