Has provoked the ire of a Muslim – who really should get out more:

A MUSLIM leader has blasted a pub for using the name of holy city Medina – branding it an insult to his religion.

The boozer in Dundee changed its name from Bar Rio to Medina Bar and Grill after a renovation.

But this has sparked outrage – as Saudi Arabian city Medina is the second-holiest site in Islam behind Mecca.

Medina is also a term used for a market or trading centre in north African cities.

But Mohammed Bashir Chohan, chairman of the Dundee Islamic Society, last night said: “People are upset about it because Medina is a holy city. It does hurt when somebody misuses the name, especially if they are going to sell liquor.”

Medina is also the name of, among other things, a café in Vancouver, a food quality control company, a Rotary club, a board game, and a conspicuously burkaless singer.

And there’s at least one dog named Medina.

According to a Pakistani Muslim scholar, Dr. Tahir ul-Qadri, blowing innocent people up in the name of Islam earns you a ticket to hell not to nuptial bliss with 72 virgins:

An influential Muslim scholar has issued a global ruling against terrorism and suicide bombing.

Dr Tahir ul-Qadri, from Pakistan, says his 600-page judgement, known as a fatwa, completely dismantles al-Qaeda’s violent ideology.

The scholar describes al-Qaeda as an “old evil with a new name” that has not been sufficiently challenged.

The scholar’s movement is growing in the UK and has attracted the interest of policymakers and security chiefs.

In his religious ruling, delivered in London, Dr Qadri says that Islam forbids the massacre of innocent citizens and suicide bombings.

“They [terrorists] can’t claim that their suicide bombings are martyrdom operations and that they become the heroes of the Muslim Umma [global brotherhood]. No, they become heroes of hellfire, and they are leading towards hellfire,” he said.

Anjem Choudary, living in the UK courtesy of British taxpayers, is unconvinced:

CBN News traveled to London to talk with Anjem Choudary, a leading Muslim radical who says Islamic teachings are what shaped his pro-jihad message.

Although both George W. Bush and Barack Obama have declared that Islam is a religion of peace, Choudary begs to differ.

A Religion of Peace?

“You can’t say that Islam is a religion of peace,” Choudary told CBN News. “Because Islam does not mean peace. Islam means submission. So the Muslim is one who submits. There is a place for violence in Islam. There is a place for jihad in Islam.”

Choudary is the leader of Islam4UK, a group recently banned in Britain under the country’s counter-terrorism laws. He wants Islamic Sharia law to rule the United Kingdom and is working to make that dream a reality.

While Islamic radicals in the United States usually prefer to speak in more moderate tones while in public, masking their true agenda, Choudary has no such inhibitions.

He has praised the 9/11 hijackers and has called for the execution of Pope Benedict. He also stirred controversy recently when video emerged of him converting a 10-year-old British boy to Islam.

Dr. Qadri is a Muslim who likes to promote interfaith dialogue and to play down extreme forms of Islam. He concentrates on the social and cultural teachings of Islam, and would like to portray Islam as rational and scientific.

In other words he is Islam’s Rowan Williams and, one presumes, has just about as much influence on the course of Islam as Rowan does on Christianity.

Malcolm Muggeridge said something to the effect that Western Civilisation will eventually be overrun by barbarians that it has produced in its institutions of higher learning. He was right.

It was only a matter of time:

Two burqa-wearing robbers have held up a French post office using a handgun concealed beneath an Islamic-style full veil, court officials said.

Officials said postal office staff let the pair through the security double doors of the banking branch near Paris, believing them to be veil-wearing Muslim women.

What is needed is an Islamic equivalent of Burn Your Bra: Burn Your Burqa. It could raise money to buy vitamin D for all burqa beleaguered ladies who never feel sun on their skin.

Sheikh Yassin was killed in an Israeli air strike in 2004; I just came across an old photo of him:

I knew I had seen him before: Saruman with a tea-towel on his head:

I wasn’t sorry to see he met an untimely end since he not only resembled Saruman (well, the film version) physically, but theologically.

From the London Free Press:

OTTAWA — The Conservative government will not follow France’s lead to consider banning the burka.

“In an open and democratic society like Canada, individuals are free to make their own decisions regarding their personal apparel and to adhere to their own customs or traditions of their faith and/or beliefs,” said a spokesperson for Justice Minister Rob Nicholson. “We have no plans to introduce justice legislation in this matter.”

The Muslim Canadian Congress is calling on the feds to impose limits on the wearing of the full veil, suggesting “political correctness” is preventing politicians from tackling the sensitive subject.

“It’s a control thing, identifying with Muslim brotherhood,” said senior VP Salma Siddiqui. “Basically it is a subserviant tool.”

Her group plans to lobby politicians from all parties in May.

Liberal MP Marlene Jennings said Canada’s charter rights protect religious freedom, and the Supreme Court has consistently ruled not to impose any limits.

“Canadian women have the right, if they want, to wear a burka,” she said. “As a woman, clearly it makes me a little uncomfortable. But then there are other practices that are perfectly legal and acceptable that make people uncomfortable.”

Every person does have the right – within legal limits – to wear what he or she wishes in a democratic society; that is why the government should intervene when women are forced to wear a burka by their husbands. The solution is obvious: the government should do what it always does when it is trying to discourage activities that it disapproves of: tax them. There should be a burka tax; tax the buying of burkas, tax the income of husbands of women who wear burkas; impose annual licensing fees on burkas along with number plates – paid for by the husbands; track burkas with street cameras and impose a burka surcharge tax on burka wearers entering public places where people may be traumatised by second-hand burka claustrophobia.

That should sort it out.