Tag: islam

Gay imam who performed same-sex marriages in South Africa murdered in suspected hate crime

A South African imam known advocating LGBTQ+ inclusion within Islam was shot and killed in what some suspect to be a hate crime. The imam had performed same sex marriages and was reportedly the world’s first openly gay imam.

Imam Muhsin Hendricks, an imam who had performed same-sex marriages in South Africa, according to Breitbart, was fatally attacked on Saturday near Gqeberha, formerly known as Port Elizabeth. Authorities say unknown assailants in a pickup truck blocked his vehicle before two masked individuals opened fire.

According to the BBC, local police said, “Two unknown suspects with covered faces got out of the vehicle and started firing multiple shots at the vehicle.”

The Muslim Judicial Council condemned the killing, stating, “While police are still investigating the motive, speculation suggests it may be linked to Hendricks’ views on same-sex relationships.” The organization emphasized that “the sanctity of human life is a fundamental tenet of Islam” and denounced violence against any community.

Executive director at the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association Julia Ehrt is calling on authorities to investigate “what we fear may be a hate crime.”

“He supported and mentored so many people in South Africa and around the world in their journey to reconcile with their faith, and his life has been a testament to the healing that solidarity across communities can bring in everyone’s lives,” she said.

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Greg Abbott Says All Construction Halted for Muslim ‘EPIC City’

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said the state has stopped all construction on “EPIC City,” a proposed Muslim-themed development backed by the East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC).

EPIC officials have repeatedly denied claims that the town would violate state law, or operate under Islamic legal systems. Despite that, the project is under scrutiny from multiple agencies, with Abbott saying the development faces “a half dozen investigations”.

Newsweek contacted the East Plano Islamic Center for a response to the governor’s comments via email.

The Context

The development proposal, dubbed “EPIC City,” covers 402 acres in Collin and Hunt counties. It has drawn backlash from Texas officials, including Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton, who have accused organizers of potential legal violations. Abbott previously wrote in March that “legislators are considering laws to restrict it, as well as laws to prevent foreign adversaries from buying land in Texas.”

What To Know

On Sunday, Abbott said that his office had suspended the construction of EPIC City, which gets its name from the acronym of the East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC).

The governor wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “Texas has halted any construction of EPIC City. There is no construction taking place. The state of Texas has launched about a half dozen investigations into this project. That includes criminal investigations.

“And, the US Department of Justice is also investigating. This matter, and similar matters, are taken very seriously, and actions are being taken to address all concerns.”

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DOJ Launches Investigation Into Planned ‘Sharia City’ with Mega Mosque and Sharia Compliant Schools Near Dallas

The Justice Department on Friday opened an investigation into the planned Sharia City near Dallas, Senator Cornyn said.

Last month Texas Governor Greg Abbott launched a campaign against a planned Islamic “mega-city” outside Dallas.

The East Plano Islamic Center, via its affiliate Community Capitol Partners, is seeking to construct a 1,000-home settlement around 40 minutes from Dallas.

The “Sharia City” would come complete with a mega mosque, Sharia adherent Muslim schools, community college, and sporting facilities.

KHOU reported:

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has opened an investigation into EPIC City, a Muslim-centric development proposed in Collin County, following calls from Sen. John Cornyn, among others, Cornyn announced Friday.

EPIC recently bought just over 400 acres of property north of Josephine near the intersections of County Roads 850 and 695 for the proposed development that includes more than 1,000 homes, a school, retail areas, parks and more centered around a mosque.

Conservative talk radio legend Mark Levin recently discussed the Islamic, Sharia Law compliant city being planned near Dallas and cited The Gateway Pundit’s report.

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Bangladeshi Islamists March in Protest at ‘Western’ Laws Guaranteeing Freedom, Equal Rights for Women

Thousands of angry Islamist men marched Saturday across the streets of the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, to protest against proposals guaranteeing equal rights for women in the Muslim-majority country.

“Men and women can never be equal: the Koran outlines specific codes of life for both genders,” protester Mohammad Shihab Uddin, 53, told AFP. He is leader of a women’s madrassa, a religious school.

“There is no way we can go beyond that.”

AP reports leaders of the Hefazat-e-Islam group said the proposed legal reforms – ensuring a range of freedoms for women – are contradictory to Sharia law and an affront to Islam.

More than 20,000 followers of the group rallied near the Dhaka University, some carrying banners and placards reading “Say no to Western laws on our women, rise up Bangladesh.”

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Gavin Newsom Awards Antiterrorism Grant to Mosque Linked to 9/11 Hijackers, Pro-Hamas Cleric

California governor Gavin Newsom (D.) recently awarded taxpayer funds under a state antiterrorism program to a San Diego mosque that has been linked to 9/11 hijackers and whose imam defended the Hamas attack on Israel.

Newsom, considered a top 2028 presidential contender, awarded nearly $200,000 to the Islamic Center of San Diego in March as part of a program to help religious institutions and nonprofits beef up security to protect against potential terrorist attacks, according to state records.

“Today more than ever, our state stands together to support our communities. Californians deserve the right to worship, love, and gather safely, without fear of violence,” said Newsom, whose administration has given another $500,000 to the San Diego mosque in previous years.

The Islamic Center of San Diego, led by Imam Taha Hassane, has condoned anti-Israel violence over the years. Hassane, who joined the center in 2004, defended Hamas’s slaughter of Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, saying in a sermon weeks later that “resistance [against Israel] is justified,” the Washington Free Beacon previously reported.

“We cannot accuse somebody who is fighting for his life to be a terrorist. The terrorist is the one who started the occupation, not the one who is defending himself,” said Hassane, whose remarks prompted his removal from San Diego’s Human Relations Commission.

Hassane’s wife, Lallia Allali, resigned from her job with the San Diego school district after she posted a cartoon following the Oct. 7 attacks that showed a Star of David beheading five children. She currently teaches courses on “Islamophobia” at the Islamic Center of San Diego.

The Islamic Center of San Diego gained notoriety in the wake of 9/11 after revelations that two of the al Qaeda operatives who flew the plane that hit the Pentagon—Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar—prayed regularly at the mosque. An official at the mosque also allegedly helped the terrorists receive a $5,000 wire transfer from the nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11. Other mosque leaders hosted a welcoming party for the hijackers when they arrived in San Diego in 2000, according to the 9/11 Commission report.

Newsom awarded the grant as California faces a steep budget shortfall. State leaders acknowledged in a press release regarding the antiterrorism program that it comes amid “significant budget challenges” for the state.

The office that oversees the grant program—the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services—is the same one that oversees the state’s wildfire mitigation program. Newsom faced criticism following a Free Beacon report that he shut down a highly trained volunteer firefighting force called Team Blaze a year before the Los Angeles wildfires devastated the city in January.

Newsom has awarded grants to other mosques that preach anti-Israel and anti-Semitic hate, the Free Beacon previously reported.

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Is the Jihadist Trojan Horse Winning?

Thirteen years ago, Daniel Greenfield pointed out that

Murfreesboro, a city in the heart of Tennessee, and, Marseille, France’s second-largest city and its largest city on the Mediterranean coast, have few things in common. The two cities are separated by nearly 5,000 miles, and by equally wide divisions of language and culture. And yet Murfreesboro and Marseille are connected by a common challenge. Both cities have struggled against the creeping rise of the mega mosques.

The mega mosque business is booming around the world. The Marseille mega mosque has a proposed capacity of 7,000 seats which would make it the largest mosque in France, overshadowing the Ervy mosque which has a mere 5,000 seats. Both of these French mega mosques would have been dwarfed by a proposed London mega mosque with 12,000 seats and usability targets as high as 40,000. If the London mosque is ever built, it will dominate the Mosque of Rome, currently the most mega of all the mega mosques of Western Europe.

At that time, Eric Allen Bell questioned why it was such a big deal “that a Muslim community [was] simply trying to build a house of worship.”  But Bell did wonder “why … a 53,000 square foot mega mosque” was needed for 250-plus Muslim families living in the area at that time.  And, he asked, “where is all this money coming from?” 

Most puzzling, why is it that after the horrific 9-11 attacks, mosque construction in America has nearly doubled?

A bit of history is important to answer the previous question.  Amy Mek explains that

for those unfamiliar with the term, Hijrah refers to Islamic migration meant to spread Islam into new territories — a strategy as old as Muhammad himself. This is how Islam has expanded for 1,400 years, and it’s happening right now in Texas.

Hijrah remains the model to this day for jihadists who seek to populate and dominate new lands. To emigrate in the cause of Allah is considered in Islam to be a highly meritorious act. The Qur’an makes this clear.

Moreover, as far back as 2012, the question was asked: “Is Hamas building a 53,000 square foot facility in America?”  Given that Hamas has engaged in countless acts of Islamic terrorism, it was a logical question.   

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The Persecution of Nigeria’s Christians by Muslims is Medieval in its Horror

The persecution of Nigeria’s Christians by Islamising Muslims is medieval in its horror, says Tom Goodenough in the Spectator. “Villages are surrounded in the dead of night by bandits who rape and kill the inhabitants. No one is spared: women and children are among those butchered.” Here’s an excerpt.

The Makurdi Diocese, in Nigeria’s Middle Belt Benue state, has been hit badly by this savage violence. In 2024, 549 locals in this diocese alone were murdered and dozens more kidnapped. Over 3,700 people in Makurdi have been killed since 2015. Villages have been effectively wiped off the map. Over a million Nigerians, terrified of what might await them, have chosen instead to live in Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps.

Wilfred Anagbe, the Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Makurdi, home to about a million people, says the massacres are a systematic attempt to kill Christians and Islamise the region – and that the authorities are turning a blind eye to the killing of Christians:

The quest to Islamise the land is high on the agenda of some of the most powerful and influential Muslims in Nigeria. There is a campaign to take land to spread Islam. Militant Fulani herdsmen are destroying society. They steal and vandalise. They kill and boast about it. They kidnap and rape – and they enjoy total impunity from the elected authorities.

The militiamen responsible for these attacks often target non-Muslims in isolated communities who are far from help. Anagbe says that these jihadists are, as with Isis, motivated by the spoils of war, and use their religion as an excuse. The rewards are certainly rich: Benue is Nigeria’s bread basket. The farms are fertile and well-tended. For years, Christian farmers have looked after these lands. But many now face an impossible choice: stay put and risk their lives, or flee – abandoning their farmland to the herdsmen.

“When they attack, they destroy churches and burn houses and schools,” Anagbe tells the Spectator. Several of the priests he is responsible for have been gunned down – so, too, have dozens of worshippers at churches in his diocese. …

“The experience of the Nigerian Christians today can be summed up as that of a Church under sustained Islamic emasculation and persecution,” [Anagbe] told a reception in [the UK] Parliament last month. ‘We must mobilise to ensure that we roll back this dark cloud of rabid religious intolerance and accompanying violence by radical Islam in Nigeria.”

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Muslims Threaten to Sue Spain in Strasbourg Over Holy Week Processions, Claim They “Offend Islam.”

A group of British Muslims of Iranian origin, led by Anjem Choudary, is threatening to file a lawsuit before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

They allege that Spain’s traditional Holy Week processions are an “offense to Islam” and to the Prophet Muhammad, demanding their immediate ban.

The Muslim group intends to sue Spain in Strasbourg over these Catholic processions, with Choudary arguing that these religious events, rooted in Catholic tradition since 1978, are a “provocation” against Muslims.

“It’s an offense to the thousands of Muslims forced to live in secrecy ,” declared the leader, known for his history of radical statements. The legal challenge seeks to have Spain suspend these centuries-old celebrations, triggering a strong backlash throughout the country.

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Controversial mosque planning to build Islamic city already has sprawling neighborhood in Texas

A Texas mosque that has sparked controversy over its plans to build a city for Muslims outside of Dallas already has an existing neighborhood, The Daily Mail can reveal.

The Islamic community in Plano is already home to hundreds of Allah’s followers, and features expensive, two story homes, a shopping center and a clinic. 

The East Plano Islamic Center or EPIC, intends to break ground on a town for its followers near the City of Josephine- about 40 minutes away from the existing mosque. 

EPIC City, as the project is known, would be anchored by a brand new mosque and include 1,000 homes, green spaces and schools for the people of that faith.

However, the future of the EPIC City is in jeopardy, after hundreds of locals have fiercely spoken out against the mosque’s efforts- storming a public meeting where officials were considering whether to grant EPIC building permits. 

Additionally, Gov. Greg Abbott has promised the development will ‘never see the light of day‘ while accusing EPIC of breaking the law and practicing Sharia law. 

Even though not a single person has been arrested or charged in connection to Abbott’s many accusations about what he claims is happening at EPIC, hysteria is at a fever pitch, with mosque-goers getting death threats.

But even before a single brick of the planned city is laid, EPIC already has a sprawling neighborhood around it in Plano. 

The green domed house of worship is massive, large enough to accommodate 3,200 worshippers, making it one of the largest mosques in the Lone Star State.

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Taliban morality enforcers arrest men for having the wrong hairstyle or skipping mosque, UN says

The Taliban morality police in Afghanistan have detained men and their barbers over hairstyles and others for missing prayers at mosques during the holy month of Ramadan, a U.N. report said Thursday, six months after laws regulating people’s conduct came into effect.

The Vice and Virtue Ministry published laws last August covering many aspects everyday life in Afghanistan, including public transport, music, shaving and celebrations. Most notably, the ministry issued a ban on women’s voices and bare faces in public.

That same month, a top U.N. official warned the laws provided a “distressing vision” for the country’s future by adding to existing employment, education, and dress code restrictions on women and girls. Taliban officials have rejected U.N. concerns about the morality laws.

Thursday’s report, from the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, said in the first 6 months of the laws’ implementation, over half of detentions made under it concerned “either men not having the compliant beard length or hairstyle, or barbers providing non-compliant beard trimming or haircuts.”

The report said that the morality police regularly detained people arbitrarily “without due process and legal protections.”

During the holy fasting month of Ramadan, men’s attendance at mandated congregational prayers was closely monitored, leading at times to arbitrary detention of those who didn’t show up, the report added.

The U.N. mission said that both sexes were negatively affected, particularly people with small businesses such as private education centers, barbers and hairdressers, tailors, wedding caterers and restaurants, leading to a reduction or total loss of income and employment opportunities.

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