"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money. "
— Margaret Thatcher
'a socialist is communist without the courage of conviction to say what he really is'.
Sir Winston Churchill
The Dawning of America’s new era of “un exceptionalism”
See also
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[This article was published in the 19th issue of Nida\'ul Islam
magazine (http://www.islam.org.au), July - August 1997]
Muslim Women in Sport
The benefits derived from sport can not be denied. Not only do they have physical and social benefits, but also essential psychological consequences. Since sport is also a compulsory part of the curriculum in all schools, it is important to address the many Islamic conflicts that us sisters may face.
The Need for Sport
Men and women alike are in need of sport and exercise. Physical fitness is certainly encouraged, just as a balanced diet is endorsed, and harmful substances are prohibited. Exercise is also conducive to a more balanced emotional state, as it aids in the release of harmful free radicals and excess hormones. Mundane routines must also be broken otherwise it could affect a women\'s input into society, as well as her relationship with her husband and family.
The Sahaabah were aware of these issues, and would exhort others for the same. \'Ali bin Abi Talib (r.a.a) said: \"Refresh your minds from time to time, for a tired mind becomes blind.\" Abu Darda` (r.a.a) also commented: \"I entertain my heart with something trivial in order to make it stronger in the service of the Truth.\"
The Prophet (s.a.w) advised his followers to engage in many forms of sport, which even today are considered of the best form of exercise. The Prophet (s.a.w) himself would engage in wrestling, racing, archery and horse races.
While Aisha (r.a.a) was on a journey along with the Apostle of Allah (s.a.w), she had a race with him and outpaced him. As time passed, the Prophet (s.a.w) wished to avenge for his loss, so he raced her again, in which case he outpaced her, and remarked: \"This is for that outpacing.\"
The Etiquette\'s of Sport
The restrictions on women participating in sport or physical activity is more than that of men. All Islamic observances must be followed, regardless of any school policies or social stigmas. Our obedience to our Creator cannot be given preference to a creature of Allah.
When participating in sports, the clothing must be Islamically acceptable. This would therefore exclude shorts, t-shirts, leotards, swimming costumes etc.
It is very important to ensure that there are no males watching. Mixing of sexes is forbidden in normal situations, except in special situations under certain conditions, let alone in a sporting arena or exercise facility. It also restricts your activities, and modesty would not allow this in any case.
Swimming
In most female-only schools, there are always male teachers around. Hence wearing even body suits is not sufficient, therefore to remove yourself from this activity is the only solution. There are some female-only baths or swimming complexes, yet even this is not suitable for the purposes of Muslim women. The following tradition treats this point:
\"Some women from Homs or from Sham (now the area of Damascus) came to \'A\'ishah. She asked, \'Do you enter the public baths? I heard the Messenger of Allah saying that a woman who undresses anywhere else other than in her own house tears off the Satr (shelter) which lies between her and her Lord .\' \" [At-Tirmidhi and Abu Dawud]
It is not only a problem of Satr, but also revealing yourself to disbelievers, an important point which ssisters are ignoranor careless of. Permission for a Muslim woman to reveal her hair, arms etc. is permitted to her husband, father, mother and so on.
Non-Muslim women are excluded from this permission, because contact with them might easily lead to disastrous results. That is why the Khalif \'Umar wrote to Abu \'Ubaidah Ibn al-Jarrah, the Governor of Syria, to prohibit the Muslim women from going to the baths with the women of the Ahl al-Kitab (the People of the Book). [At-Tabari, Ibn Jazir]. According to Ibn \'Abbas \"...a Muslim woman is not allowed to display herself before the women of the unbelievers and non-Muslim poll-tax payers (Ahl al-Dhimmah) any more than she can display herself before other men\" [At-Tabari].
This distinction between women on grounds of character and religion is intended to safeguard Muslim women against the influence of women whose moral and cultural background is either not known or is objectionable from the Islamic point of view.
Gyms
Although many women-only gyms have become popular, we have the same problem as with baths, that being in the presence of non-Muslim women. However, as long as loose clothing is worn along with proper head covering, this problem can be avoided.
Self-Defence
Particularly in Western countries, this is an important form of popular exercise. Sisters must be careful to train only with other women, to maintain loose clothing and head cover, and not to attack at the head, as the Prophet (s.a.w) has forbidden us to hit on the face while training.
Watching Sport
Many sisters find themselves in situations where they will be watching sports on TV, at school carnivals, or going to matches. Stadiums are not advisable places for Muslims in general, because of the language, drinking and scenery. Allah has commanded the believing women to lower their gaze, and sport comes as no exception, especially with guys in shorts.
Other Points
Sports and exercise should be judged according to the level of modesty involved. Games such as netball played in a public arena is not befitting to the honour of a Muslimah. No compromises can be made in terms of clothing or mixing. Public showers at female schools is totally forbidden. Many sisters will also apply deodorants after a work-out. What must be kept in mind is the Prophet\'s warning on a fragrant perfumes: \"The woman who perfumes herself and passes through a gathering is an adulteress.\" Some fragrant-free deodorants are available, otherwise apply enough so that the fragrance is not apparent.
A married woman must also have the permission of her husband beforehand, and must ensure that non of her duties as a wife are being sacrificed as a result of her activities.
To keep in line with today's excessive and unwarranted demands for women to have a \"supermodel\" physique, many sisters will exercise for this sole purpose, only adding more stress and anguish to themselves. Keep it as a fun activity, involve your husband with it and make it an intimate part of your marriage life. Keep in mind that over-exercising can result in unrepairable tissue damage, and will turn you off it. Bodily exhaustion is not called for, as Allah (s.w.t) tells us: \"Allah burdens not a person beyond his scope.\" [2: 286] .
By Sister: Hikmat Beiruty
Back to Articles Sorted by Topic or to Articles Sorted by Issue
John Masanauskas
Herald Sun February 11, 2011 12:00AM
RATEPAYERS could be stung up to $45,000 to install curtains at a public pool so Muslim women can have privacy during a female-only exercise classes.
The City of Monash has won an exemption from equal opportunity laws to run the sessions outside normal opening hours.
The council says the privacy screen is needed for "cultural reasons".
It follows moves by other councils to introduce women-only sessions for the Muslim community, such as Greater Dandenong asking a tribunal to approve a ban on uncovered shoulders and thighs for those attending a family event at a pool.
Special exercise classes for women will be held at the Clayton Community Centre every second Sunday evening after VCAT gave the green light this week.
Ross Buscemi, director of refugee charity group the New Hope Foundation, said his organisation had lobbied for the sessions on behalf of Muslim women, mostly from African countries including Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan.
Mr Buscemi said the women had sought separate classes for cultural reasons and curtains or blinds were needed to protect their privacy because the centre had glass walls.
"At night, when the lights are on inside, everybody in there can be seen - it's a broader privacy issue, not just for the women," he said.
"It's stopping anybody perving on anybody in there really."
But Ratepayers Victoria president Jack Davis said it was disgraceful for councils to subsidise programs that segregated people.
"People come to Australia because it's a better place," he said.
"So then you should become Australian and abide by the customs of Australia, not change Australia to suit your customs from another country."
Monash councillors accepted that the women couldn't use the pool in normal hours for cultural and religious reasons.
They were told the special classes would address issues such as "obesity, social isolation and lack of physical strength".
Monash mayor Greg Male said the council sought funding from the Victorian Multicultural Commission to help meet the $45,000 cost of curtains or blinds for the pool.
Similar women-only programs at public pools are run at Monash University, Dandenong Oasis recreation centre and the Don Tatnell Leisure Centre in Parkdale.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
A Dozen Bad Ideas for the 21st Century
“Here is a list of false beliefs and modes of thought which make it hard for people in the West to come to terms with the challenge of Islam today. If you are deeply attached to any of these ideas or ways of thinking, you will have difficulty accepting the truth about Islam's teachings and their impact.
Example # 7 The belief that everyone is good and decent, and if you just make a sincere effort to get to know another person, you will always come to respect them. This is not universally true. Holding this view is a luxury. Those who have experienced life under evil governments or in dysfunctional societies are shocked at the naivety of this assumption.”
Read the other Eleven bad ideas at The Brilliant Mark Durie
Underage rape victims could face charges due to legal loophole
Gemma Jones
The Daily Telegraph
February 09, 2011 12:00AM
UNDERAGE girls could be charged with being an accessory to their own rape due to a legal loophole.
Police said prosecuting men for statutory rape was difficult because they could be compelled to charge the vulnerable child victim as an accessory to the crime.
The offence of statutory rape is known in Australia as the sexual assault of a child under 16. The revelation to Parliament came after Opposition community services spokeswoman Pru Goward questioned why a 25-year-old man had not been charged over an alleged relationship with a pregnant 14-year-old girl.
Ms Goward had no further details of that case but she yesterday said the refusal by police to lay charges in those circumstances had set progress in rape cases back years. "It is the footballer's defence," she said. "In high profile cases that have involved young girls, they always say the girl asked for it. "The prospect that a young woman who is underage could be charged as an accessory after the fact because she initiated the man to have sex with her or she hid her age, none of these statutory rape cases would ever succeed."
Police Minister Michael Daley was provided general advice from police which stated there were a number of difficulties in bringing statutory rape charges against an adult male. "One of which is that the underage female in such a case may be liable as an accessory to the offence and may not co-operate with the investigation," the advice read.
Police said other factors such as the "stress and trauma of a trial on the wellbeing of the underage female would also need to be weighed up against the psychological harm that may have arisen from the relationship."
Mr Daley last night said he was unaware of any cases where child victims had been charged with accessories and he said it would be "against police prosecutorial policy."
"In the majority of these cases I would expect that they would lay charges against the adult offender," Mr Daley said. "Police have not requested further laws in this area, but if they did the Government would be happy to consider them."
DOCS has also admitted they are sometimes powerless to prevent men living with children in intimate relationships. Cases of girls younger than 16, the legal age of consent, were complex.
Is this yet another concession to the Multicultural / Progressive / Deviant community by the "Progressive" Australian Labor Party?
Ethnic divide a rising threat, say senior Liberal MPs
Steve Lewis
The Daily Telegraph
February 09, 2011 12:00AM
AUSTRALIA risks becoming a nation of "ethnic enclaves" with meat slaughtered "in the name of Allah", senior Liberal MPs have warned.
Opening up a new political faultline, former immigration minister Kevin Andrews has lashed out at political leaders who fail to speak on the rise of extreme Islam, saying this silence contributes to the rise of One Nation-type groups.
Liberal frontbencher, Mitch Fifield, also warned of the danger of "parallel societies" as in Europe where hardline Muslim groups preach sharia law rather than Western values.
Their comments follow attacks by British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the "failure" of multi-culturalism in their respective countries.
Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett also bought into the debate by saying migrants needed to accept the Australian way of life.
Mr Andrews described the British prime minister's comments as "fairly sensible" and relevant to Australia.
"I think there is a risk [of ethnic enclaves] in Australia," Mr Andrews said.
"What actually concerns me the most is that we can't have a discussion about it," he said, as he pushed for a public debate on the issue.
Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi has warned of a growing "cultural divide" as hardline followers of Islam turn their backs on mainstream values.
He cited Muslim-only toilets at a Melbourne university and the slaughtering of meat "in the name of Allah" as two cultural practices that should be opposed.
"I, for one, don't want to eat meat butchered in the name of an ideology that is mired in sixth century brutality and is anathema to my own values," Senator Bernardi said.
Their concerns were dismissed by the Government and the Greens, who instead want to focus on the "positive" aspects of Australia's diverse ethnic heritage.
Parliamentary secretary on immigration, Kate Lundy, said the "Australian community is uniquely diverse and we have a proud record of successfully leveraging the benefits of migration".
Greens' immigration spokeswoman, Sarah Hanson-Young, wants MPs to focus on the positive aspects of Australia's rich ethnic mix.
Please Sarah two names, and Kate Lundy please tell Australians just what are the positive aspects of Multiculturalism? apart from the Harmony Day Festivals,handouts and wimmins / ethnic collective co operatives,clearly YOU have not been gang Raped or bashed …. yet.
Mohamed Geele jailed for axe attack on Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard
From correspondents in Aarhus, Denmark
Daily Telegraph
February 04, 2011 11:08PM
"Mohamed Geele is sentenced to nine years in prison and expulsion from Denmark for life," judge Ingrid Thorsboe told the court in the central Danish city of Aarhus.
The 29-year-old Somali "must also pay damages amounting to 10,000 Danish kroner ($1800) to Kurt Westergaard, as well as cover the costs of the trial", she added.
The court had earlier found Geele guilty of attempted terrorism and attempted murder for his 2010 New Years Day attack on the 75-year-old cartoonist.
Prosecutors had requested he serve 12 years in prison before being deported back to his war-torn homeland and banned from ever returning to Denmark, while the defence asked that he only serve six years and not be forced to leave the country.
Westergaard, who has faced numerous death threats since the publication of his drawing of Mohammed in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten in 2005, said he escaped "certain death" by rushing into a bathroom-turned-panic-room to call police.
Islamic Sociopaths Inc. Member, Mohamed Geele.
Great work Judge Ingrid Thorsboe, I suppose this piece of craps co Religionists will place you on their Holy Islamic Assassin squad hit list now, however stay strong and keep locking up and deporting these swine.
Mass brawl closes Westfield shopping centre, Mt Druitt
By Katherine Danks
The Daily Telegraph
February 04, 2011
SOCIAL networking sites like Facebook helped tip-off police about a planned brawl in Mount Druitt last night.
Police intercepted online chatter between two gangs and learned of their plans two days before the pre-organised fight, Acting Assistant Commissioner Wayne Cox said.
Mt Druitt police also received a number of tip-offs from elders in the Pacific Islander community and called in the Public Order and Riot Squad, Dog Unit, mounted police and commuter crime unit.
Up to 100 teenagers and young men armed with crude weapons made with glass descended on the Westfield Shopping Centre about 7pm.
There were general scuffles and fights between individual persons or one person on six people or vice versa,'' Mr Cox told reporters.
There was a whole range of different incidents occurring at the one time. Police were able to pull those incidents apart and grab the main offenders and then arrest and charge them.''
The fight began over ``general insults'' traded between the groups, one of which is linked to Mount Druitt and the other from the Granville area. He said both groups have Pacific Islander backgrounds.
There has been some banter between the two groups in relation to insults being traded and this is obviously turned in to a ridiculous outcome for them,'' he said.
Mr Cox said police were waiting and prepared for the fight when it broke out. Thirteen people were arrested at the scene and police believe they will make more arrests after looking at security vision from the shopping centre
When you have large groups like that, they have that mob mentality where they really don't care about other people and that's why we were there,'' he said. We read the situation correctly and certainly had the resources to deal with it affirmatively.''
Police seized two baseball bats and a number of home-made weapons from the scene.
Those arrested ranged in age from 16 to 22 and they have been charged with a combination of affray, assault police and resist arrest offences.
One of the juveniles, aged 16 will appear in Parramatta Children's Court today, while three of the men, aged 20 and 19, will appear at Mt Druitt Local Court later today.
Love, loyalty and loss of our Digger Richard Atkinson
Gemma Jones and Ian McPhedran
The Daily Telegraph
February 04, 2011
"I MET this really amazing girl."
Corporal Richard "Rich" Atkinson had a shy "little boy" look on his face as he told his friend about meeting karate instructor and school teacher Dannielle Kitchen.
"He was cute, he had that cute little boy look on his face. He was so in love. I thought, 'This is the best thing.' They were perfect together. They couldn't wait for the wedding," his friend Stephanie Heazle- wood recalled.
Shortly before the 22-year-old was deployed to Afghanistan in October with the Darwin-based 1st Combat Engineer Regiment, Cpl Atkinson asked Ms Kitchen to marry him. The answer was "Yes".
His family said he was looking forward to starting a family.
But an insurgent bomb ended those dreams at 9.25am on Wednesday in a cold valley in Afghanistan, a long way from the balmy Darwin sunsets the couple enjoyed before he went to war.
One of his sapper mates from Darwin was badly wounded by the blast.
Ms Kitchen was yesterday devastated, along with his parents Dr Ross Atkinson, a Launceston GP, his wife Kate and their son James.
"We are just so sad," Mrs Atkinson said from the family's home in Tasmania.
Mr Atkinson said his son loved the army and had a real knack for adventure.
"He enjoyed being deployed," he said.
"He was just a lovely boy. He was funny. He loved playing sports. He was a much-loved son and a loved brother to James."
He was a family man who was very close to all of his relatives and was looking forward to coming home at the end of his tour about June to spend time with them in Tasmania.
The young sapper joined the army in 2007 and his natural leadership skills took him quickly through the ranks.
"He was a dedicated soldier with career aspirations," his family said.
"He shared a strong mateship with those he left behind in Afghanistan and all his mates in Australia. He will be missed by all and not a day will go by that he won't be thought of."
Mr Atkinson said the family was in shock and still battling to come to terms with their loss.
"We're just getting our heads around that he's not coming back. It's hard. It's all pretty unreal," he said.
Acting Defence Chief Lieutenant-General David Hurley said it was unclear whether the blast had been remotely detonated, but he conceded the area had become a "hot spot" for Australian soldiers.
"It's a difficult area for us, yes," he said yesterday.
Cpl Atkinson was the 22nd Australian soldier to die in the bloody war in Afghanistan.
