Libya: Muslims accused of being violent — kill four innocent victims to show they’re not

An armed mob protesting over a film they said offended Islam, attacked the US consulate in Benghazi on Tuesday and set fire to the building, killing one American, witnesses and officials said…

Abdelmonoem al-Horr, spokesman for the Libyan interior ministry’s security commission, said rocket-propelled grenades were fired at the consulate from a nearby farm. Security forces and the interior ministry were trying to contain the situation, he added…

The film at the centre of the protests was made by an Israeli-American who describes Islam as a ‘‘cancer’’, the Wall Street Journal says.

SMH

That’s silly. Cancer kills people slowly and can usually be cured.

Update: the death toll has now risen to four, including the US Ambassador to Libya.

Update: They’re at it in Yemen, too, and one protester has been shot dead. Quote of the week:

The low-budget movie “Innocence of Muslims,” in which actors have strong American accents, portrays Muslims as immoral and gratuitously violent.

And they’ve just killed four people to show they’re not.

Middle East: Misogyny, thy name is Islam

Why Do They Hate Us? – By Mona Eltahawy | Foreign Policy

But let’s put aside what the United States does or doesn’t do to women. Name me an Arab country, and I’ll recite a litany of abuses fueled by a toxic mix of culture and religion that few seem willing or able to disentangle lest they blaspheme or offend. When more than 90 percent of ever-married women in Egypt — including my mother and all but one of her six sisters — have had their genitals cut in the name of modesty, then surely we must all blaspheme. When Egyptian women are subjected to humiliating “virginity tests” merely for speaking out, it’s no time for silence. When an article in the Egyptian criminal code says that if a woman has been beaten by her husband “with good intentions” no punitive damages can be obtained, then to hell with political correctness. And what, pray tell, are “good intentions”? They are legally deemed to include any beating that is “not severe” or “directed at the face.” What all this means is that when it comes to the status of women in the Middle East, it’s not better than you think. It’s much, much worse. Even after these “revolutions,” all is more or less considered well with the world as long as women are covered up, anchored to the home, denied the simple mobility of getting into their own cars, forced to get permission from men to travel, and unable to marry without a male guardian’s blessing — or divorce either.

I’m guessing that Mona is not an accommodationist.

Iraq: Religious differences more important than preventing mayhem and death

Co-operation? What’s that mean?

SMH

Sunni Muslim rulers have largely shunned an Arab League summit hosted by Shiite-led Iraq, illustrating how powerfully the sectarian split and the rivalry with Iran define Middle Eastern politics in the era of the Arab Spring.

The crisis in Syria is the epicentre of those divisions. Thursday’s one-day summit closed with a joint call on the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, to stop his bloody crackdown on an uprising seeking his ouster. But the final statement barely papered over the differences among the Arab nations over how to deal with the longest-running regional revolt….

In a snub to Iraq, only 10 heads of state from the Arab League’s 22 members attended, with the rest sending lower-level officials.

Especially notable were the absences of the rulers of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and most other Persian Gulf countries, as well Morocco and Jordan – all of them headed by Sunni monarchs who deeply distrust the close ties between Baghdad’s Shiite-dominated government and their top regional rival, Iran.

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Myself and my cousins against the world!
Myself and my brothers against my cousins!
Myself against my brothers!

— Bedouin Arab saying

Libya: Islamic tyrant reported dead

SMH

Muammar Gaddafi – the dictator who ruled Libya with an iron fist for nearly 42 years before being driven from power in a bloody uprising – has been killed as he tried to flee his hometown of Sirte.

There were conflicting reports of how he was killed – there were initial reports that he was killed in a gun battle, but NATO has since confirmed it hit a convoy of Gaddafi loyalists fleeing Sirte on Thursday. It could not say whether the former Libyan leader was in the convoy, Associated Press reported.

Libya: Three women murdered by Muslim father

SMH

A LIBYAN father killed his three daughters after pro-Gaddafi soldiers raped them, in an attempt to rid the family of the shame, a human rights group says.

Soldiers raped the sisters aged 15, 17 and 18 , in the town of Tomina, east Libya, US-based Physicians for Human Rights said.

When they returned home, their father slit their throats in what the rights group said was most likely an honour killing.

And is he rotting in jail? Because he should be.

 

Libya: Another Islamic theocracy targets its citizens

SMH

Muammar Gaddafi’s government appears to be preparing for a violent final showdown after it emerged his beleaguered regime had fired a Scud missile at rebel territory as opposition forces closed in on the capital, Tripoli.

The rebels were attempting to identify the trajectory of the missile, fired from Colonel Gaddafi’s stronghold of Sirte, even as his envoys headed for new talks with the opposition and a United Nations special envoy in Tunisia.

Libya: As the stomach turns — life under a lunatic

SMH.

Investigators have evidence that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi ordered mass rapes and bought containers of sex drugs to encourage troops to attack women, the chief ICC prosecutor says.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo said he may ask for a new charge of mass rape to be made against Gaddafi following the new evidence.

How different from the home life of our own dear queen…

US: What would Jesus do in Egypt? Consume, be silent, die

The Christian Post.

Macarthur: I’m not saying that Mubarak is a great, benevolent and just leader, not when he’s got $70 billion in his own pockets at the expense of people. But what I am saying is that whatever the government would be, even if it was Caesar in the New Testament, that the believers are commanded to live orderly lives, peaceful, quiet lives, subjecting themselves to the powers that be because they’re ordained of God.

Hmm.. If Gadhafi is God’s ordained, what does that tell us about God?

Libya: Islamic murderers take advantage of anti-regime protests

SMH.

…In eastern Libya, Islamist gunmen stormed a military depot and the nearby port of Derna on Wednesday and Friday and seized weapons and vehicles after killing four soldiers, a security official said.

They also took hostages, both soldiers and civilians, and are “threatening to execute them unless a siege by security forces is lifted” in nearby Al-Baida, the official said, asking not to be named.

Italy: Gaddafi invites ‘hundreds’ of women to convert to Islam: three silly enough to consider it

SMH.

… the mercurial leader attracted most attention earlier in the day by summoning busloads of young women hired by a hostessing agency to a meeting at a Libyan cultural centre near the Vatican and urging them to convert to Islam.

Media reports said three women had converted, although it was not possible to verify if that was true.

Rent-a-Convert; the natural successor to Rent-a-Crowd.

Libya: Beatings and traffic violations: ‘normal’ life in a theocracy

SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International.

SPIEGEL: According to the Swiss authorities, something entirely different happened in Geneva. They say that your son beat up two people there.

Gadhafi: No, no. Nothing like that happened. Switzerland has not said that to me nor to anyone else. I’m hearing this now for the first time.

SPIEGEL: But similar things have also happened elsewhere. Your sons have also run into trouble with the police in London, Paris and Germany. What do you say to them when something like this happens?

Gadhafi: These are cases of youthful exuberance. In France, for example, my son allegedly drove through a red light. That is normal and nothing out of the ordinary.