From Europe News:
It is impossible for me to provide a complete account of the debate on "Human Rights in Islam: Just or Unjust?” that was held under the auspices of IslamNet, Norway’s largest Islamic organization, on November 7, 2011. The "ideas” that were presented were utterly lacking in logic or intelligence, and the whole thing raced by very fast. It was almost impossible to keep up with it all: claims were made at a tempo out of another world, and were absolutely without substance. It was far more a revival meeting than a debate.
They delightedly applauded the chopping off of hands and feet. And they didn’t raise an eyebrow when executions committed by family agreement were defended as a reasonable ”human right in Islam.”
You would be forgiven for thinking that we were in deepest Saudi Arabia, or in a long-ago century. Far from it. We were in an auditorium at Oslo University College, where our future was being hatched onstage. The place was packed, and the great majority of the young students were wearing clothes that identifed themselves as followers of the Prophet.
The website Fritanke.no reported prior to the "debate” that the participants were sharia expert Fadel Soliman, Lars Gule, and myself, and that Gule would withdraw from the event if IslamNet separated the audience members by sex. But they did. The young women used one entrance to the auditorium, the young men another. The auditorium consisted of four sitting areas. The areas in the back were entirely separated by sex, while one of the areas in the middle contained members of both sexes — though not in the same rows. The sexual separation "just happened — entirely naturally.”
To walk into the Oslo University hall that night was like entering another world — or a past era. The overwhelming majority of the young women had dolled themselves up in full-length hijab; several were in niqab. A few were Norwegian converts. Many of the young men, including Norwegian converts, were strongly inspired in their attire by the clothing styles prevalent on the Arabian peninsula in the time of Muhammed. Some will maintain that superficial appearances don´t count. But that’s not the whole truth. I was not dismayed that the audience applauded when Soliman explained why robbery — but not fraud — should be punished by chopping off limbs. I noticed that it wasn’t just the heavily covered women and uniformed men who clapped; so did the young women without hijab. That was a little surprising. Nor did anyone protest. This is perhaps surprising, but to stand up to the intense pressure for conformity in this community takes guts. And if there was anybody with guts in the Muslim audience that night, we will never know. (...)
Very Little to Debate at ‘Human Rights in Islam’ Discussion
PJ Media 1 December 2011
By Hege Storhaug
By Hege Storhaug
They delightedly applauded the chopping off of hands and feet. And they didn’t raise an eyebrow when executions committed by family agreement were defended as a reasonable ”human right in Islam.”
You would be forgiven for thinking that we were in deepest Saudi Arabia, or in a long-ago century. Far from it. We were in an auditorium at Oslo University College, where our future was being hatched onstage. The place was packed, and the great majority of the young students were wearing clothes that identifed themselves as followers of the Prophet.
The website Fritanke.no reported prior to the "debate” that the participants were sharia expert Fadel Soliman, Lars Gule, and myself, and that Gule would withdraw from the event if IslamNet separated the audience members by sex. But they did. The young women used one entrance to the auditorium, the young men another. The auditorium consisted of four sitting areas. The areas in the back were entirely separated by sex, while one of the areas in the middle contained members of both sexes — though not in the same rows. The sexual separation "just happened — entirely naturally.”
To walk into the Oslo University hall that night was like entering another world — or a past era. The overwhelming majority of the young women had dolled themselves up in full-length hijab; several were in niqab. A few were Norwegian converts. Many of the young men, including Norwegian converts, were strongly inspired in their attire by the clothing styles prevalent on the Arabian peninsula in the time of Muhammed. Some will maintain that superficial appearances don´t count. But that’s not the whole truth. I was not dismayed that the audience applauded when Soliman explained why robbery — but not fraud — should be punished by chopping off limbs. I noticed that it wasn’t just the heavily covered women and uniformed men who clapped; so did the young women without hijab. That was a little surprising. Nor did anyone protest. This is perhaps surprising, but to stand up to the intense pressure for conformity in this community takes guts. And if there was anybody with guts in the Muslim audience that night, we will never know. (...)
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