Devvy Alerts: Comments by Tennessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey suggesting that Islam might be a cult and that Muslims might not qualify for constitutionally guaranteed religious freedoms drew criticism from Islamic groups Tuesday and an eruption of national media attention.

http://content.usatoday.net/dist/custom/gci/InsidePage.aspx?cId=floridatoday&sParam=39460414.story

By Michael Cass, The Tennessean

NASHVILLE — Comments by Tennessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey suggesting that Islam might be a cult and that Muslims might not qualify for constitutionally guaranteed religious freedoms drew criticism from Islamic groups Tuesday and an eruption of national media attention.

Ramsey, a Republican candidate for governor, said at a mid-July campaign event in Chattanooga that he is “all about freedom of religion,” which is guaranteed by the First Amendment.

“But you cross the line when they start trying to bring Sharia law into the United States,” he said. “Now you could even argue whether being a Muslim is actually a religion, or is it a nationality, a way of life or cult, whatever you want to call it? We do protect our religions, but at the same time, this is something that we are going to have to face.”

There are approximately 1.2 billion Muslims in the world and 7 million in the United States, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Ibrahim Hooper, that organization’s national communications director, called Ramsey’s comments “part of an unfortunate trend in our society.”

“There’s a vocal minority promoting the idea that if you can delegitimize Islam, you can deny American Muslims their religious and constitutional rights,” Hooper said Tuesday.

The flap, which caught the eye of several national blogs and news organizations Tuesday, comes one week before the Republican gubernatorial primary on Aug. 5 during a Tennessee campaign season in which opinions on Islam have at times dominated the debate.

Opponents of a new mosque planned in Murfreesboro, Tenn., including GOP congressional candidate Lou Ann Zelenik, have said it shouldn’t be allowed because they believe Muslims are dangerous. But the land is zoned for religious use, and the building plan is moving forward. Public opposition forced the withdrawal of a rezoning plan for a mosque proposed in Brentwood, however, and an Antioch mosque proposal is facing resistance.

Rest at link

Sharia Law in Iran

http://mehr.org/Islamic_Penal_Code_of_Iran.pdf

Free speech?

Chapter 2 – Insulting the Religious Sanctities or State Officials

Article 513- Anyone who insults the Isla mic sanctities or any of the imams or her excellency Sadigheh Tahereh should be executed if his insult equals to speaking disparagingly of Prophet Muhammad. Otherwise, should be imprisoned from one to five years.

Article 514- Anyone who somehow insults the founder of Isla mic Republic of Iran – Khomeini, or the Supreme Leader of the country should be sentenced to imprisonment from six months to two years.

Chapter 3: Types of Punishments for Adultery

Article 82:  The penalty for adultery in the following cases shall be death, regardless of the age or marital status of the culprit: (3) Adultery between a non-Muslim man and a Muslim woman, in which case the adulterer (non-Muslim man) shall receive the death

Afghanistan: 20 Years in Prison for Questioning Sharia Law

http://middleeast.about.com/b/2009/03/11/afghanistan-20-years-in-prison-for-questioning-sharia-law.htm

March 11, 2009

Here’s the Afghanistan American, Canadian, French, British, German and other Western soldiers, not to mention innumerable enlightened Afghans, are dying for:

Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh was a journalism student at Balkh University in Mazar el Sharif. He was also a reporter for a newspaper called New World (Jahan-e-Naw). On Oct. 27, 2007, he was arrested on a charge of “blasphemy and distribution of texts defamatory of Islam.”

His crime: downloading and distributing an article off the Internet by an Iranian questioning tenets of Sharia law regarding women’s rights (or the lack thereof), such as why men may marry four wives but women may marry only one husband. He didn’t write the article. He didn’t editorialize about it. He downloaded it and distributed it.

In a one-day trial on Jan. 22, 2008, he was tried in secret, without a defense lawyer, and sentenced to death. He got a lawyer and appealed. A Kabul court “reduced” the sentence to 20 years in prison last October. He appealed to the Afghan Supreme Court. Turns out that court one month ago upheld the 20-year sentence and didn’t bother telling his lawyer, Mohamad Afzal Nuristani.

“I went to the supreme court to hand in the defense arguments,” Nuristani told Reporters Without Borders. “There, I was told that the court confirmed the 20-year sentence a month ago and that the case has been already passed back to the prosecutor. How can they reach such a decision without even waiting to hear what the defence has to say?”

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has it in his power to pardon Kambakhsh. But Karzai is impotence incarnate, a president in name only. He may not be corrupt. His brothers, his associates, his cabinet, his government oozes corruption. He can’t afford magnanimity in the face of mullahs. So Kambakhsh is going to spend 20 years in prison. For daring to distribute an article questioning the inequality of the sexes in Islamic law.

This is the Afghanistan western soldiers and Afghans are dying for.

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