A Pakistani Muslim cleric has become an online laughing-stock after claiming that women wearing jeans are to blame for devastating earthquakes, acts of terrorism and rising levels of inflation. Maulana Fazlur Rehman (pictured above), who is also leader of the junior party in Islamabad’s ruling coalition, said ‘immodest women’ are responsible for a whole host of recent disasters around the world.
The hardline politician – who reportedly described the Taliban as ‘our brothers’ – went on to compare women who do not fully cover their bodies in robes to weapons of mass destruction, before urging Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to carry out a military operation against women who wear jeans. He also said ‘immodest women’ are responsible for a whole host of recent disasters around the world
The comments made by Rehman – who leads the conservative Assembly of Islamic Clergy political party – were reported by the International Business Times, citing Pakistani news outlets. The religious leader reportedly compared women to ‘sacks of flour’ and WMDs, adding that modern clothing is responsible for everything from earthquakes to rising inflation in the south Asian country.
Sheikh Bandar al-Khaibari
In February a Saudi cleric told students that the Earth is a static object which is orbited by the sun, adding that centuries of evidence to the contrary is little more than fabrication
Asked whether the Earth rotates or is stationary the Islamic scholar quickly replies ‘stationary and does not move’, before launching into a long-winded and confusing explanation that appears to the suggest that if the Earth was moving, airliners would never be able to reach their destination.
You really couldn’t make this story up if you tried, and is it any wonder that we in the west treat Islam with such disdain and contempt when we hear of senior Islamic clerics spouting such bilge. What is even worse is the implicit mysoginy contained in these ridiculous utterings about women in society. One day Islam will come to understand that women have an equal role in society and are not there just to satisfy the sexual needs of men or function as baby making machines.
Kindadukish's Blog - I am not a number, I am a free man (The Prisoner) 
There are numerous examples of fundamentalist Christian preachers, Buddhist, and Hindi teachers who make equally dumb and irrational statements – and even agnostics and atheists making dumb and dumber remarks.
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You may well be right about other faiths making stupid comments but the difference is that Islam seems to have a propensity for dishing out punishment, usually sanctioned by the koran and the hadiths, of a wholly disproportionate nature. Yes, we get the occasional fundamentalist “christian” who kills someone e.g. abortion centre doctors, but Islam approaches this on a mass scale e.g. IS, Taliban, Boko Haram who seem to take a sadistic delight in raping and killing those who do not “agree” to convert to Islam. Islam is a cretinous religion based on subjugation of people and whose major prophet would be considered a paedophile by anyones standards.
I would also be interested in examples of agnostics and atheists “dumber remarks” as I would put myself in the latter group.
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There are many examples of the Christian Right in the US making similar comments…..
To say that Islam is the most extreme religion is somewhat insulting to all of those out there that do not subscribe to extremism.
Also, Richard Dawkins has said some extremely offensive things about rape recently…… But here are a couple of examples for you:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/jeb-bush-ethan-czahor-twitter-rant-sluts
http://thinkprogress.org/election/2015/06/20/3672153/faith-and-freedom-women/
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Just as a late afterthought, you might like to have a look at the front of most British newspapers today to see the atrocities in Egypt, Kuwait and Syria committed by the “religion of peace”, a religion you seem keen to defend. These fanatics murder holidaymakers simply because they are from the west and non-muslims, they murder people in mosques because they belong to the wrong strain of islam and they murder innocent people because they are in the wrong place and will not convert to islam.
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I’m keen to defend against massive generalisations and I tend to not take the right wing British press too seriously…. The west has spent the last few decades murdering innocent people all over the world. Just as an afterthought, your tone is somewhat patronising and righteous.
I’m certainly not defending right wing Muslims, it is simply my opinion that they are not the only ones and to generalise against one particular religion is playing into the hands of the West who seem to think their way is the only way when it clearly isn’t.
Spend time with some ‘normal’ Muslims and you’ll see they ain’t so bad.
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“The west has spent the last few decades murdering innocent people all over the world”, my goodness that wouldn’t be a sweeping generalisation would it? (which you accuse me of).
As I guessed you fall back on the old excuse of “the right wing press”……….it would seem that you read the only newspaper or magazine that does not report many (if any) of these islamic atrocities. Have you tried a little on line research?
Perhaps you could explain how my tone is patronising and righteous, I have stated facts and it is these, that defenders of islam find uncomfortable.
As regards your patronising “spend some time with normal muslims……..” well I worked in Bradford, Dewsbury and Batley in the North of England which have very high muslim populations and worked in a public sector service that brought me into contact (and still does) with what you refer to as “normal muslims.”
I have muslim friends and colleagues and I try to judge then on the value of their character rather than whether they subscribe to such a dreadful religion.
I have nothing personal against muslim people, but don’t expect me to accept the cultural differences of misogyny, rape in marriage, FGM, honour killings, grooming of young white girls, killing of apostates, killing of gays as part of my cultural heritage.
Final point, I still note that you have not addressed there two questions I posed to you!
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I don’t remember saying anything about a small minority, in answer to a previous post.
The reason I said patronising was your wake up and smell the coffee comment and just your general tone which seems like you are trying to educate me. All I’ve done is give you my opinion about a dislike of that kind of generalisation. I don’t have time right now to find the statistics that demonstrate the huge number of innocent civilians killed by US drones and by the invasion of Iraq because I’m on holiday but I certainly don’t dispute your figures. I’ll say that I simply believe that many other religions are just as bad, but we in the West are currently choosing to demonise Islam.
Yes there are some cultural differences but FGM is definitely not Islam based, many cultures across the world have this barbaric practice.
Right wing Christians hate gays, rape women and the fact that abortion is illegal in Ireland and parts of the US prove that point as far as I’m concerned.
Google mansplaining 🙂
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1 The number of people killed by drones is very small which does not diminish the fact that sometimes innocent people are the casualties of war (a bit like the British holiday makers in Egypt)
2 There were far more muslims killed in Iraq by other muslims
3 There is no other religion that I know of that sets out to systematically eradicate those who will not convert to their ideology or kill any one who wishes to leave (apostates)
4 No one is demonising islam they are doing an exceedingly good job of that themselves
5 Virtually all cultures that practice FGM are islamic
6 Right wing christians do hate gays BUT they don’t systematically throw them off the top of building or hang them
7 If right wing christians rape women they will be prosecuted and jailed as it is against the law, unlike in islamic societies (a woman must submit to her husbands sexual needs at all times……..we call it rape)
8 Abortion is still illegal in some countries as you rightly point out but again people are not killed should they commit such a “sin” (sometimes the doctors and nurses are)
Finally, islam is not a religion, it is a political ideology that seeks to control the people and impose a dictatorship on them. There is no room in islam for democracy said an imam recently, it is incompatible with the teachings of the prophet.
The reason the west disparages islam is because many of these nations fought long and hard to develop and preserve their democratic rights, the people can kick the government out if they don’t like them. Try attempting to do that in an islamic state where everything is controlled by islamic clerics e.g. Iran.
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I understand where you’re coming from, truly, but I don’t agree with much of what you say.
Aside from the fact that Islam is, as far as I’m concerned, a religion and is currently being used as a tool for oppression by a load of hard line, right wing, misogynistic men, much like other religions since the dawn of time.
A friend of mine believes that Islam is simply where Christianity was 500 years ago which I find an interesting point.
The crusades, the slaughtering of protestants by Mary 1, etc etc etc. There are plenty of examples of Christians slaughtering each other and others, same with Buddhists (polpot), Hindus and Sikhs.
The west has been demonising Islam for a very long time, it’s in plenty of history books.
I don’t like any organised religion at all so this is not about simply defending one of them. But if we criticise one, we should criticise all. The Bible is just as bad as any holy book; there’s a charming passage in deuteronomy where it states that as punishment, a rapist has to marry his victim and pay her father 40 shekels…!
And I don’t call ignoring the one million people who marched against the second Iraq war democratic…
But that’s just me! Take care.
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This debate could go on and on but your inability to see the mass slaughter taking place in the name of islam is breathtaking. Of course chistianity has a chequered history and I, as an atheist would be the last to defend some of the atrocities committed in its name. Fortunately, christianity has moved on and has disowned many of the things done in its name in the past…………but not so the islamists.
As regards your “1 million marched against the Iraq war” I understand that the population of UK is around 64 million people, so that is not a big per cent age of the whole population who did march. The number you quote has also been disputed by many commentators as the “lefties” have a propensity for exageration e.g Own Jones claimed 250,000 people were on the anti-austerity march recently when in fact the actual figure was 20,000 which was backed up by aerial photographs of the gathering.
So forgive my cynicism when you start quoting “1million people”
As a final comment “where were the 1 million muslims marching with banners saying “not in my name” after 9/11, 7/7, Madrid, Bali………..” need I go on?
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Christianity has a chequered history?! Are you kidding?!
You need to start looking at your history a bit better and accepting that there are many many different religions who have committed atrocities in the name of whatever god(s) they believe in.
Dude, you’re clearly a closet racist and I won’t be reading any more of your comments/articles. Reply away and be as deluded and patronising as you like, they’ll stay unread.
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I note you have still chosen to ignore the two questions I posed to you……………..but then that is what the lefties do when they have no answers. Come back when you can engage in an intellectual debate with facts.
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A little light reading for you from the right, left, centre and a muslim……….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3140454/Tourists-run-lives-Tunisian-beach-gunman-carries-attack-outside-hotel-packed-Britons.html
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/27/francois-hollande-manuel-valls-decapitation-yassin-salhi
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/27/kuwait-shia-mosque-attack-several-arrests
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/tunisia-attack-the-aftermath-of-bloody-friday–live-updates-10349661.html
http://alibhai-brown.com/asian-grooming-gangs/
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I’d also be interested in why you refer to ‘christians’ in inverted commas! Fascinating.
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I put christians in inverted commas for impact as I would for any other religion that believes in a mythical deity.
I take your point about non muslims saying some stupid things, but a quick question for you, how many people have they slaughtered in the last year?
Another quick question how many people have been slaughtered by muslims in the last year”……….here are a few hints, try starting with IS (slaughter of Yazidis),Taliban (murder of schoolchildren in Pakistan) and Boko Haram (rape of hundreds of young girls and slaughter of whole villages who would not convert to Islam).
There are a lot of muslim apologists out there……..wake up and smell the coffee.
As a matter of interest, after the 7/7 bombings and killing of 56 people in London a poll conducted amongst muslims in the UK found that 37% said the bombers were justified in what they did………so please spare me the “very small minority” argument.
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How about all the drones killing innocent civilians and the amount of black people that white cops have killed?
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You have to distinguish from the accidental casualties of war (in every war that there has ever been) which no one denies, and the systematic and deliberate extermination of people simply because they don’t worship the same mythical deity. I would also suggest that the numbers killed by drones is infinitesimal compared to the slaughter of hundreds of thousands killed because they are non muslims.
As regards there “white cops” argument you might want to have a look at the statistics about “black on black” murders in America.
You are doing the usual “blame everyone else” when the problem is with the teachings of a lunatic belief system, have a look at this which may enlighten you http://www.wordpress.com/2004/11/20/the-religion-of-peace/
As a final comment, I notice you conveniently fail to address the two questions I posed to you!
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Which I find “fascinating”……………in inverted commas!
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