My following article appears in today’s edition of Crikey: The small sign in my bare hotel room in Banda Aceh was clear. “It is forbidden to bring a woman/man who are not husband or wife into the hotel.” I saw similar messages in Iran, Saudi Arabia and Gaza. I was in Aceh [Indonesia] as a…
Showing all posts tagged Islam
Australian commentator loves terrorism trials to prove his point
Sydney Morning Herald’s Gerard Henderson loves tough terrorism laws. He feels protected from terrorists. Governments would never exaggerate that threat. God, no. Their primary aim is to protect citizens from harm. They believe in the rule of law (except, of course, if America breaks that law and then Australia clearly has no choice but to…
Hamas wants to move Gaza in the wrong direction
Everyone knows the greatest threat isn’t Israel but women bearing their dangerous hair, wrists and feet! It began with a rash of unusually assertive police patrols. Armed Hamas officers stopped men from sitting shirtless on the beach, broke up groups of unmarried men and women, and ordered shopkeepers not to display lingerie on mannequins in…
Early days in Aceh
I’m in Aceh, Indonesia, a strongly Muslim area with strict views on gender, politics and religion (ie. here). I’ll be conducting a number of public events and media interviews during my time here, engaging with local Indonesians on issues related to sharia law, the Middle East conflict, gender and resistance to Islamisation. I’ve already been…
The truth of the matter in journalism
The following interview is published this week in the literary journal, Quill: SYDNEY-BASED ANTONY LOEWENSTEIN is the author of the best-selling book,… My Israel Question, a controversial discussion of one of the most important issues of our time, as well as… The Blogging Revolution, a searching examination of the ways the internet is threatening the rule of…
Muslims are breeding very fast, dear
How many Jews get scared when they read this? (I don’t, but hey, who knows how the Zionist mind works, sometimes believing that the Islamic world is simply out to get you): Nearly 1 in 4 people in the world are Muslim, according to a new report. The global Muslim population is 1.57 billion, according…
An Islam that doesn’t cause headlines
Imran Ahmad, author of Unimagined: A Muslim Boy Meets the West, has an Indonesian version of the book that will be launched during his appearance at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival this week. I hope to meet him here in Indonesia. The Jakarta Globe has published a piece by Ahmad that articlates his position…
Is a Shia revolution the best way forward?
The founder of Conflicts Forum, a site that discusses Islamism in all its form, is interviewed by Mother Jones. Alastair Crooke is an intriguing fellow: Crooke understands today’s Middle East as similar to Sarajevo in 1914, where a random event could precipitate a cascade that changes the world. Someone will overreach—Israel, Syria, Lebanon…—and then everything…
What the Zionist mind has become since 1948
Daniel Pipes is loved by the fundamentalist Zionist community, invited, feted and respected for views such as these: The Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people. Charming. His latest essay is introduced to his readers thus: I have written over 300 pieces on…