Bin Ladenism – Page 24 – Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)

Egypt: Christian Coptic Blogger in Egypt Threatens Hunger Strike

Compass Direct News reports:

Coptic Blogger in Egypt Threatens Hunger Strike

Authorities deny Christian’s application for release.
ISTANBUL, November 9 (CDN) — A Coptic Christian blogger in Egypt held in prison for more than a year without charge said today he will go on a hunger strike unless authorities grant his next application for release.

Hani Nazeer, a 28-year-old high school social worker from Qena, Egypt and author of the blog “Karz El Hob,” received word today that his latest application for release, sent to the Ministry of the Interior a week ago, was denied. His attorneys said they would re-apply for his release tomorrow.

The interior ministry did not “supply the grounds for refusal” according to Rawda Ahamad, Nazeer’s lead defense attorney.

“He has no charges against him,” Ahamad said. “He is not a criminal. He must be released immediately. He’s an innocent man – anyone exposed to this severe injustice would do the same.”

On Oct. 3, 2008, Nazeer was arrested by Egypt’s State Security Investigations (SSI) and sent to Burj Al-Arab prison. Although police never charged him with any crime, Nazeer has been detained for more than a year under Egypt’s administrative imprisonment law.

Nazeer ran afoul of SSI officers a few days before his arrest when a group of local teenagers visited his website and clicked on a link to an online copy of “Azazil’s Goat in Mecca,” a novel written under the pseudonym “Father Utah.” The book is a response to “Azazil,” a novel by Yusuf Zidane, critical of Christianity.

Insulting religion is illegal in Egypt, but the law is enforced unequally. Zidane’s critique of Christianity garnered him fame and awards throughout the Arab world. Nazeer’s website link cost him his freedom, despite the fact that police have never publicly produced any evidence linking Nazeer to Utah’s work. After Nazeer was arrested, posts continued on Utah’s website.

Nazeer has reported to his attorneys that he has been placed in prison with felons, some of them violent. He also claims that prison authorities have pressured him to convert to Islam.

Gamel Eid, executive director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, the group representing Nazeer, stood by his client’s accusations, saying police have urged inmates to suggest to Nazeer that officers would work to free him if he were to convert to Islam.

Nazeer’s situation is complicated by the fact that his writings upset both Islamic authorities and the hierarchy of the Coptic Orthodox Church. On one hand, he criticized the increasing Islamization of Egyptian civil society. On the other, he lamented the political involvement of the Coptic Orthodox Church. In one post, Nazeer wrote that a gathering of activists at a Coptic church was inappropriate because churches were meant to be venues for prayer, not for politics.

According to Eid, Nazeer was arrested with the complicity of leaders in the Coptic Orthodox Church. In October of 2008, police detained Nazeer’s relatives at a police station and threatened to hold them until he came out of hiding. Nazeer turned himself into the police station on the advice of Bishop Kirollos of Nag Hammadi, Nazeer reported to his attorneys. Kirollos assured Nazeer he would be detained no more than four days and then be released.

Kirollos had denounced Nazeer to security, Nazeer told his attorneys.

All attempts to reach Kirollos about his alleged involvement in Nazeer’s arrest were unsuccessful. Several attempts to reach Bishop Anba Yoannes, authorized to speak about the case on behalf of the Coptic Orthodox Church’s Pope Shenouda III, were also unsuccessful. Egypt’s SSI, a political police force run by the Interior minister, routinely declines to comment on cases.

This week’s application will be sent to a court within the Ministry of the Interior. But under the emergency law, police officials have the power to ignore court orders. When local police execute a court order to release prisoners held under Egypt’s emergency law, security police commonly re-arrest them minutes later.

The law, enacted after the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat, allows authorities to hold people without charge. Eid estimated that there are approximately 14,000 people imprisoned under this law. In 2005, while running for re-election, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak promised to replace the contested law. But in May of 2008, the Egyptian government extended the law for two more years.

Mamdouh Nakhla, an attorney and civil rights activist in Egypt, said oppression of Coptic Christians is common and that many police officers in Egypt are the “agents of persecution.” At best, he said, they are complicit in acts of persecution. At worst, he added, police collude with others hostile to Christianity.

“They give green lights to Islamists, and protect them, and give them the feeling that they are immune from prosecution,” he said.

Canada: Yusef Salam Al Mezel Sentenced to 1 Year for “Honor Crime” Threats Against Daughter Eman Al Mezel — Father Believed Daughter “Dishonored her Muslim Beliefs”

— Ottawa Citizen Reports “Union boss jailed in ‘‘honour’ crime”
— “The head of Ottawa’s taxi union has been sentenced to 12 months in jail for threatening his daughter with an honour crime if she did not obey his wishes.”
— “Ontario Superior Court Justice Lynn Ratushny said the sentence was the minimum penalty that Yusef Al Mezel could serve to address the ‘strong need’ for denunciation and general deterrence after he implied that the actions of his 23-year-old daughter would be met with violence because she had shamed and dishonoured her family.”
— ” ‘They invoke a seriously dangerous belief system that can and has led to violence against women,’ said Ratushny.”
— ” ‘Mr. Al Mezel has threatened his daughter with serious violence and has caused her to fear for her safety in the name of honour. He has committed the crime of harassment against her in the name of honour,’ she said.”
— “The incident occurred after an argument over Eman Al Mezel’s volunteer work. Eman Al Mezel said she moved out of the home after her father arranged for her to marry a 24-year-old Syrian man.”
— Yusef Salam Al Mazel “also wrote of ‘the Sharaf of the family,’ which Eman Al Mezel later explained to police was the belief that she had shamed and dishonoured her family because she had run away from home and shed her hijab and Muslim beliefs.”

— Canadian National Post report: “Taxi union boss jailed for threat of honour crime”

— Ottawa Sun Reports: “Taxi boss jailed for threats against daughter”
— “The city’s taxi union boss was handed a year in jail Tuesday for what a judge deemed an ‘honour crime.’
— “Yusef Salam Al Mezel, 44, had pleaded guilty to criminally harassing his 23-year-old daughter, Eman, over three weeks in July 2007.”
— ” ‘Mr. Al Mezel has threatened his daughter with serious violence and has caused her to fear for her safety in the name of honour,’ Judge Lynn Ratushny wrote. ‘He has committed the crime of harassment against her in the name of honour.’ ”
— “Al Mezel admitted to pushing his daughter, threatening to break her legs and kill her and smashing her computer. When she fled marriage to a Syrian man for a $9,000 dowry, he stalked her to a shelter and a friend’s home.”
— “He sent her e-mails threatening her uncles and cousins would go ‘crazy’ over the family’s honour and to come home before someone got hurt.”
— “Police spirited the young woman — and the family sheltering her — out of Ottawa.”

— August 14, 2009: Canada: Prosecution wants father jailed for “honor crime” threats against daughter
— Ottawa Citizen: ” ‘When she wouldn’t bend to his will … he raised the spectre of violence in the name of honour to scare her into complying with his wishes,’ said Cavanagh, who urged Ontario Superior Court Justice Lynn Ratushny to sentence the 44-year-old president of the Canadian Autoworkers Local 1688 to 18 to 24 months behind bars.”

Uganda: “Muslim Extremists Attack Worship Service in Uganda”

— COMPASS News reports: “Muslim Extremists Attack Worship Service in Uganda”
— “Church member taking photos beaten, building damaged.”
— “About 40 Muslim extremists with machetes and clubs tried to break into a Sunday worship service outside Uganda’s capital city of Kampala on Nov. 1, leaving a member of the congregation with several injuries and damaging the church building.”
— “Eyewitnesses said the extremist mob tried to storm into World Possessor’s Church International in Namasuba at 11 a.m. as the church worshipped.”

Christians examine damage to their church outside of Kampala, Uganda. (COMPASS Direct News)

Pakistan: Asia News Report on Pakistan Blasphemy Law

Pakistan: Asia News Report on Pakistan Blasphemy Law

— R.E.A.L. reports on blasphemy law

— See Also: Peshawar High Court to hear petition against Non-Shariah sections of Nizam -e-Adl
— “The Peshawar High Court Divisional Bench would be reviewing the petition of local government association against the non-Shariah section 7 of Nizam-e-Adl”

R.E.A.L. Outreach to Public at CNN Washington DC on Extremist “Honor Killings”

On November 9, 2009, a week after the death of 20 year old Arizona woman Noor Almaleki, as a result of a “honor killing” by her father, Responsible for Equality And Liberty’s (R.E.A.L.) Jeffrey and Karen Imm held a public awareness outreach on the issue of extremist ideological violence as the basis for honor killings in front of CNN’s Washington DC Headquarters.

R.E.A.L.'s Public Awareness Outreach at CNN Washington DC Offices (820 First St. N.E., Washington, DC 20002)

We passed out fliers about the “honor killing” of Noor Almaleki stating that “ideological violence against women is terrorism,” and we spoke about the issue to the lunch time crowd in the plaza area around CNN’s DC offices. It was evident that many were completely unaware of her story. We urged the public to demand that CNN reports the entire story about the “honor killing” of Noor Almaleki – not the censored version that has thus far been reported by CNN.

In the case of the “honor killing” of Noor Almaleki, the family repeatedly told members of the Arizona press that the reason her father killed her was because of the Noor’s unwillingness to conform to her father’s extremist views, what they called “traditional Muslim values.”

While this was reported by the Arizona Republic and CBS-5, CNN has repeatedly ignored these reports, instead stating this was only due to the father and daughter’s differences over “Iraqi values.” (Note: the Alamalekis have been in America since the mid 1990s.)

We showed example on posters of the differences between the Arizona press and CNN reporting. We urged CNN to tell the rest of the story – so that the public can be informed and address this ideological threat to women’s freedoms before another American woman is killed for failing to submit to extremist views.

We urged our fellow Americans to remember that our shared freedoms for equality and liberty are the “truths that we hold self-evident,” and that no ideology of supremacism has the right to deny their universal human rights to our fellow Americans and our fellow human beings. We pointed out how Noor Almaleki’s friends were afraid to talk about why her father murdered her for fear that the same thing would happen to them. We made it clear that ideological violence to intimidate, to oppress, to deny freedoms — is nothing less than terrorism.

We urged the public to reject supremacist ideologies that seek to deny our human rights, and seek to terrorize women into submission. We also pointed out that while some wish to view such religious extremist violence against women as “isolated incidents,” they are in fact, all connected by this anti-freedom ideology.

We stated that just as we recognized racial violence and oppression in the 1960s (and even today) were not merely “isolated incidents,” but were all part of a larger ideological threat of racial supremacism — so today we must also report on and recognize the larger ideological threats to humanity today when it comes to extremist threats against freedom.

We said that we came to CNN’s Washington DC office to be a voice for those like Noor Almaleki who no longer have a voice to speak, and also to be a voice for people who are afraid or are being prevented from speaking.

We asked people to remember that these victims of “honor killings” are not just statistics, but are human beings.

Pointing to our poster with Noor Almaleki’s face, we urged the public to remember that all of these victims of ideological violence were special and unique individuals who were loved. Moreover, we stated that our human rights are not simply about vague ideas, but our human rights are the foundation of the lives of Noor Almaleki and so many others. We pointed out that our human rights have a face, an identity, and lives that are precious. We urged the public and the media not to forget the face of human rights, as these faces of human rights are also our faces as well, and those of our families, our neighbors, and our friends. We urged the public never to forget the faces of human rights, and our responsibility to each other to defend equality and liberty.

Karen Imm spoke about other American victims of extremist “honor killings,” who are other women who could not speak for themselves today. Karen and Jeffrey spoke about extremist “honor killings” of Amina and Sarah Said in Dallas, of Sandeela Kanwal in Georgia, in of Methal Dayem in Cleveland, in Tina Isa in Indianapolis, and of suspected “honor killing” of Aasiya Zubair Hassan in Buffalo.

Amina and Sarah Said - Victims of "Honor Killings" in Texas

Sandeela Kanwa - Victim of "Honor Killing" in Georgia

Methal Dayem - Victim of "Honor Killing" in Cleveland, Ohio

Tina Isa - Victim of "Honor Killing" in Indianapolis

Aasiya Zubair Hassan - Suspected Victim of "Honor Killing" in Buffalo, NY

All of these American victims of extremist “honor killings” or threats of such ideological violence are the result of our nation’s and our media’s unwillingness to address the religious extremist ideological basis behind such violence, instead of viewing such terrorism against women as merely “isolated incidents.”

Jeffrey Imm also spoke of those who report that they have been threatened with harm, such as Rifqa Bary, in Columbus.

Rifqa Bary, 17 - reports say she is threatened with death by her family in Ohio for converting from Islam to Christianity

He asked the public if our media and our nation continues to ignore such terrorist threats and violence against women, who will be next?

Jeffrey Imm asked “How many more have to die before we decide to be responsible for our fundamental human rights and freedoms, and before we decide to be responsible for equality and liberty of women in America and around the world?”

Other Reports:

Why Religious Extremist Honor Killings Represent Ideological Violence Against Women

Facebook Page: “R.I.P Noor Faleh Almaleki”

Arizona: Terrorism Against Women — Noor Almaleki Just Wanted To Be Normal

Arizona — Noor Almaleki “Honor Killing”: Hassan Almaleki Arraignment Delayed, On Suicide Watch

Arizona — Noor Almaleki Honor Killing: Father To Be Arraigned, Face New Charges

Arizona: Woman in Suspected “Honor Killing” Dies — 20 Year Old Noor Almaleki

Arizona — Noor Almaleki Case: Arizona Jails Father in ‘Honor Killing’ Try

Arizona: Noor Almaleki Case — Father in “Honor Killing” Attempt Captured in UK — Extradited Back to US

Arizona — Noor Almaleki case: Family Says Noor Almaleki “Failed to Live by Traditional Muslim Values” — Woman in Critical Condition in Alleged “Honor Killing” Attempt

Arizona: Noor Almaleki’s Lifestyle may have put woman in hospital

Arizona: Father runs down daughter in Peoria parking lot — Noor Faleh Almaleki attacked for being “too westernized”

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Rifqa Bary Support Web Site

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)

R.E.A.L. Blog Reports on Extremist Oppression and Violence Against Women

R.E.A.L. — Save Women Now

R.E.A.L. Petition on Extremist Violence and Oppression of Women

World Gender Gap Worst in Islamic Nations — Survey Shows Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Yemen, Egypt, Turkey at Bottom of List

U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report 2009 and Gender Imbalance in Human Trafficking

R.E.A.L. Blog Reports on Extremism

Why Honor Killings Represent Ideological Violence Against Women

In Arizona, a week ago today, 20 year old woman Noor Almaleki died.

Some have reported that her murder by her father was another instance of unfortunate domestic violence. But the fact is that her murder was another instance of an ideological violence against women that we must challenge as a threat to our universal human rights here and around the world.

: 20 Year Old Noor Almaleki – Died on November 2, 2009 – A Victim of An Ideological Violence Against Women

Such acts of violence against women based on an ideology are more than “isolated incidents.” Such ideological violence is a human rights challenge that defies our universal human rights. Many seek to dismiss an ideological femicide to oppress women by explaining away such violence based on ignorance, cultural backwardness, or “tribal traditions.” Moreover, others point to the fact that “honor killings” are also performed by other identity groups around the world, which is absolutely true.

But in the case of the murder of Noor Almaleki on November 2, the family repeatedly told members of the Arizona press that the reason why her father murdered her had to do with his religious extremist views on what they called “traditional Muslim values.” This was the reason explained for her father’s willingness to murder her.

While the Arizona Republic and CBS-5 specifically and repeatedly quote both Noor Almaleki’s family and brother as explaining her death based on her failure “to live by traditional Muslim values,” CNN has repeatedly ignored these reports and reports her death due to “Iraqi values.” It ignores such reports by Arizona media, even when the Almalekis moved to the United States 15 years ago.

We ask CNN to review this story and report all of the facts so that the public can be informed, and so that others can challenge the Almaleki family’s allegations that “traditional Muslim values” prohibit freedom for women, including Noor Almaleki.

Extremist-rationalized “honor killings” are different than other domestic violence and violence against women, and until the basis for such ideological violence against women is recognized and discussed, we cannot prevent such violence from continuing and spreading. We must call for the mainstream media to start connecting the dots and doing the research on the ideological basis behind such violence and report this to the American people.

There is a distinct and global misogynist extremist challenge to women that we repeatedly see from those who rationalize such misogyny with an extremist ideology towards human rights. We cannot continue to ignore the ideological basis behind such extremist violence. Over and over, the perpetrators and those involved with such violence make reference specifically to extremist views towards human rights.

Noor Almaleki is not the first such ideological “honor killing” in the United States. There have been others in Dallas, in Georgia, in Cleveland, in Indianapolis, and one suspected in Buffalo. There are others who report that they have been threatened with harm, such as Rifqa Bary, in Columbus. Such ideological violence against girls and women in the United States is the tip of the iceberg of thousands of such women murdered with such ideological rationalization around the world as we have reported.

Such ideological “honor killings” are just one more link in a larger extremist rationalized ideological chain that seeks to oppress women around the world, not only to deny them equality, but to intimidate and subjugate them to being less than human – not entitled to human rights at all, but only granted privileges to serve those who would oppress them. We see this not only in the ideological “honor killings,” but also in the recent Global Gender Gap index which illustrates the hundreds of millions of women in predominantly Islamic countries that live under oppression today – many of the same countries that are the worst offenders of human trafficking. At our blog, we have endless reports of one abuse after another and another based on an ideological oppression of women rationalized by extremism.

Such ideological “honor killings” are not crimes of passion or crimes of tribal tradition. They are acts of ideological violence intended to remind women of their position of servitude and submission to those extremists who believe they are women’s “masters.” As we call for the improvement for human rights for all women around the world, as Americans we must also demand that the truth be told about those who seek to promote ideological hate and oppression against women in our country today. We must continue to demand that our media report on this issue to inform our citizens and to put pressure on our government to take action – to demand that such ideological violence against women ends.

When we see other ideological violence intended to provoke fear and intimidate others, we have a name for it: “terrorism.” We won’t see such ideological violence and oppression against women addressed by counterterrorism organizations – that focus on who, what, where, and when – but have decided to leave the issue of why regarding ideological violence occurs… to someone else.

That someone else is us. That is our challenge in being Responsible for Equality And Liberty – to speak for those who can’t speak any more and to speak for the oppressed who live in fear to speak out for their universal human rights — including those in America today. Noor Almaleki’s friends feared speaking to reporters for fear of what would happen to them. That is the terrorism against women – too common around the world – that continues to find its way to America. This is the same terrorism against women that our news media refuses to effectively report on. The is the same terrorism against women that our government refuses to act on. We must demand that our media recognize such terrorism against women for what it is and to recognize and defy those extremist ideologies that seek our silence.

Other Reports:

Facebook Page: “R.I.P Noor Faleh Almaleki”

Arizona: Terrorism Against Women — Noor Almaleki Just Wanted To Be Normal

Arizona — Noor Almaleki “Honor Killing”: Hassan Almaleki Arraignment Delayed, On Suicide Watch

Arizona — Noor Almaleki Honor Killing: Father To Be Arraigned, Face New Charges

Arizona: Woman in Suspected “Honor Killing” Dies — 20 Year Old Noor Almaleki

Arizona — Noor Almaleki Case: Arizona Jails Father in ‘Honor Killing’ Try

Arizona: Noor Almaleki Case — Father in “Honor Killing” Attempt Captured in UK — Extradited Back to US

Arizona — Noor Almaleki case: Family Says Noor Almaleki “Failed to Live by Traditional Muslim Values” — Woman in Critical Condition in Alleged “Honor Killing” Attempt

Arizona: Noor Almaleki’s Lifestyle may have put woman in hospital

Arizona: Father runs down daughter in Peoria parking lot — Noor Faleh Almaleki attacked for being “too westernized”

Arizona – Noor Almaleki “Honor Killing”: Arraignment Delayed Again, Friends Start to Speak

— Arraignment in ‘honor killing’ postponed again
— Friends speak out after apparent West Valley ‘honor killing’

Indonesia: 1500 Sharia Police Harrass Men, Women in Aceh

— Jakarta Post: “Aceh Shariah Police Chase the ‘Immoral'”
— Jakarta Post reports: “The young couple is totally busted. They sit at a beach-side park, near signs forbidding teens from sitting too close. He has his arm around her shoulder. She isn’t wearing her jilbab , the traditional Islamic head scarf.”
— “Just like that, the morality cops are in their face.”
— ” ‘You two aren’t married, right?’ asks Syafruddin, the rail-thin leader of the six-man patrol, standing stiffly, one hand behind his back. ‘So you shouldn’t sit next to one another.’ ”
— “He separates the two and confiscates their IDs. Later, he says the team will open an investigation of the couple, especially given that the young man lied, at first insisting the girl was his sister.”
— ” ‘We want to see how far this relationship has progressed,’ Syafruddin says. ‘What they were doing could have led to something sexual.’ ”
— “The team is known as ‘the vice and virtue patrol,’ on the beat in Aceh, the only province in Indonesia to employ Islamic law for its criminal code. The laws were introduced in 2002 after the Indonesian region was granted autonomy as part of efforts to end a decades-long guerrilla war.”
— “The Shariah police consider themselves the community’s public conscience. And on their weekly patrol, they take seriously their role of enforcing the religious strictures.”
— “Now their mission may become more deadly serious.”
— “In September, Aceh’s provincial legislature passed a law saying married people who commit adultery can be sentenced to death by stoning. It also toughened public caning laws, adding more lashes for gays, pedophiles and gamblers.”
— “The new law, which still requires the approval of the provincial governor, has outraged human rights groups, who say the code unfairly targets women and violates international treaties. Under the guidelines, the Shariah police can even raid hotel rooms in search of violators. They develop informants and work undercover.”
— “Norma Manalu wistfully runs her colorful purple silk jilbab through her fingers. She has a love-hate relationship with the elegant garment.”
— ” ‘It’s hot. It’s not appropriate for the climate,’ the 35-year-old director of Aceh’s Human Rights Coalition says. ‘It’s something I choose because it’s beautiful, not because a man tells me to do so.’ ”
— “Manalu is a rebel. Often, to make a point about women’s rights she walks in public wearing jeans, her head uncovered, ignoring the taunts and ridicule. She is sickened at the sight of men and women being publicly caned by a tormentor in a mask.”
— “Manalu contends that women get the worst of the bargain. Many are treated as outcasts after their punishment, while men are welcomed back into society.”
— ” ‘It amazes me that in a modern world with sophisticated law and order, we even consider doing this,’ she says. ‘It’s barbaric.’ ”
— “She dismisses the Shariah police, who she believes enjoy harassing young women.
— ” ‘“Men make these rules based on some misguided image of how women should look,’ she says. ‘Here in Aceh, women must accept it or suffer harassment.’ ”
— “A mile away, at religious police headquarters, Abdullah dismisses the uproar over the stoning law. And he says the harsher caning laws also have been overblown. Since 2003, he says, only nine people have been caned in Aceh.”
— ” ‘Men take their lashes like the women,’ he says. ‘They’re equal.’ ”
— “Abdullah is angered each time he sees couples holding hands or a woman without her veil. He favors a proposed ordinance in one Aceh area that would ban women from wearing pants, including jeans.”

LA Times: "The Sharia police stop three veiled teenage girls at a beach in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, a city where Islamic religious codes of public behavior are strictly enforced. The girls' crime: wearing tights. They were told to go home immediately and change into proper attire."

— “The morality cops are on the move. They crouch in military formation, closing in on their prey.”
— “Beneath a row of gracefully bending palms, they’ve spotted several shady characters at a lonely beachside youth hangout. They could be unmarried young men cavorting with girls not wearing a proper jilbab. They could be holding hands, kissing or, well, who knows what.”
— “Waves breaking at their feet, the officers round a rocky promontory. They confront six baffled men casting nets into the water.”
— ” ‘They were just fishing,’ says a disappointed Syafruddin.”
— “And so it goes. All afternoon, they chase down suspects, like the college girls caught without their jilbabs.”
— “As Syafruddin launches into his lecture, a woman wearing a black T-shirt reading ‘Lucky Girl’ examines her shoes.”
— ” ‘For women,’ the officer says, ‘wearing a veil is like a motorcycle rider wearing a helmet. It’s for your own protection.’ ”
— “When the police move on, the woman shrugs. ‘I wear a veil at work,’ she says. ‘I didn’t think it mattered here. It’s the beach.’ ”
— “Within moments, the team stops three girls on a motorcycle, all wearing veils. This time, Syafruddin has another problem. Their leggings are too tight, too revealing, he says. They should go home and change them at once.”

— LA Times: Aceh’s morality police on the prowl for violators
—- “The only Indonesian province with Sharia, or Islamic law, has a 1,500-member force whose job is to go after women not properly covered and couples engaging in public displays of affection.”
— Los Angeles Times Photographs: “PHOTOS: Morality police – Keeping Aceh on the straight and narrow”

Indonesia: Sharia Bill Calling for Stoning, Now Officially Law in Aceh

Indonesia’s Aceh passes law on stoning to death — death for adulterers, steep prison for homosexuality

Indonesia: Students demand harsher sharia law implementation

Kansas City: Arranged “Marriage Contract” of 14-year old Girl Reportedly Based on “Islamic” Views

— Kansas City Star: Man charged with statutory rape in ‘marriage’ to 14-year-old girl
— Kansas City Star reports:
— “The stepfather, Mosby and the teen had several ‘sit downs’ before the stepfather arranged for a religious ceremony on Aug. 4 at her home, not far from the stepfather’s mosque.”
— “Two members of the mosque attended, but the bride ‘was not allowed to be present,’ court records said. She waited in her room upstairs. Her stepfather allegedly came upstairs after the ceremony, which consisted of prayers and a contract signing, to announce that she was married.”
— “Police say they have the ‘marriage contract’ with the signatures of Mosby, the girl and the stepfather.”
— “In Islam, boys and girls are considered adults based on when they hit puberty, and people in some parts of the world do marry young, said Mahnaz Shabbir of Stilwell, a past president of the Heartland Muslim Council.”

Arizona: Terrorism Against Women – Noor Almaleki Just Wanted To Be Normal

— Arizona Republic/AP: “Glendale ‘honor killing’ victim, 20, just wanted to be normal”
— second AP web link to story
— Facebook Page: “R.I.P Noor Faleh Almaleki”

— Other R.E.A.L reports on Noor Almaleki “honor killing”

Arizona Republic/AP: “Glendale ‘honor killing’ victim, 20, just wanted to be normal”

Noor Faleh Almaleki just wanted to be a normal American woman

The striking 20-year-old from Iraq, who’d lived in the Valley since she was a young girl, wanted her hair and makeup to be perfect, her clothes to be fashionable. She wanted a job, a degree and a husband of her choosing.

On her Facebook page, Noor posted photos of herself and wrote: “I am spectacular,” punctuated with a smiley face emoticon. But Noor’s father had a much different ideal for his daughter: a life in strict line with traditional Iraqi culture.

He made her quit her fast-food restaurant job and arranged for her to marry a man in Iraq she didn’t know, according to friends and family.

Finally, police say, 48-year-old Faleh Hassan Almaleki put an end to what he perceived to be his daughter’s rebellious life. Using his Jeep as a weapon, he allegedly ran her down in a parking lot Oct. 20 in what prosecutors are calling an “honor killing” to cleanse what he considered were indiscretions to the family’s honor.

Noor underwent spinal surgery and was in a coma until her death on Monday. Another woman struck by the Jeep, the mother of Noor’s boyfriend, was expected to survive. Marcella Andregg, a friend for seven years, described Noor as independent, but far from rebellious and always respectful of her parents. She said Noor just wanted to live her own life, but that her father wouldn’t let her.

“His whole persona was very controlling, very strong-minded in the ways he wanted it for her,” Andregg said. “He talked down to her very much, made sure she knew she wasn’t good enough and brought a lot of dishonor to the family.”

Meanwhile, she said, Noor “just wanted to be a normal teenager,” and later, wanted to finish college, marry the man she loved, and have children.

Almaleki, who fled after the attack, was stopped at London’s airport and sent back to the U.S. on Oct. 29. He was on suicide watch in a Phoenix jail and has declined requests for comment. It’s unclear whether he yet has a lawyer.

Noor and her family moved to the U.S. in the mid-1990s and lived in Glendale.

In 2008, friends say Almaleki took Noor to Iraq under the guise of visiting family. Actually, he had picked out a husband for her and told her she couldn’t return to Arizona unless she married him. Noor married the man and returned, and friends say he was in the process of trying to move here, too.

But Noor fell in love with another man, friends say, and was living in his home with his mother when she was killed.

About 50 friends and family attended a candlelight vigil Thursday night for Noor in the parking lot where she was run down. Her mother and several others wept as they stood in a circle holding candles, hugging each other and remembering the young woman.

“This was the last place that Noor was herself,” said Andregg, who helped organize the vigil. “It’s a hard place to be, especially for her mom, I know. I just think it was appropriate to be here instead of at a park or a cemetery.”

Despite all her family troubles, Andregg and several other friends say Noor rarely if ever spoke about them.

“She always had a smile on her face,” said Niki Nia, 18, of Scottsdale. “When people weren’t getting along, she would always try to bring peace between them, and I think a lot of that had to do with what was happening at home. She wanted her social life to be peaceful.” Nia said Noor might be in a better place now. “She never would have been able to escape,” she said.

Jim Heinrich, who was Noor’s yearbook teacher at Dysart High School, said Noor affected many students’ lives.

“One of them told me, We had everything we wanted and she had a lot of difficulties and she never complained.’ She always knew her life would be OK,” Heinrich said. “She was one of those people — it’s like her spirit was bigger than her body. You were just very aware that she was there in a good way.”

Phillip Pimentel, another friend of Noor’s living in Japan, wrote in an e-mail that Noor never spoke to him about her troubles at home.

“What I’ll remember and miss most about her is that she seemed happy,” wrote Pimentel, 21. “Worry-free, full of hopes and dreams of the future. Such a shame that such a good person with so much going for herself was taken at such an early age.”

Noor now has a second Facebook page, started by the people who are mourning her death. More than 1,600 had joined as of Friday.

On the page, underneath a photo of Noor shown with a soft smile and her hair blowing, is a message that reads:

“May Noor Almaleki and all other victims of senseless honor killings rest in peace. And may God be the guardian of others who are in danger of sharing that fate. And may we all do something to end honor killings once and for all.”