FSTDT

Iraqi Parliament #fundie #sexist middleeasteye.net

A "sectarian" bill that could potentially legitimise child marriage in Iraq has passed into law reportedly without a vote in the parliament

The parliamentary website said "the proposal to amend the Personal Status Law" and "the second amendment of the general amnesty law" were both passed on Tuesday[…]
The new law will require a Muslim couple to choose either the Sunni or Shia sect when concluding a marriage contract

They can then choose that sect to represent them in "all matters of personal status" rather than the civil judiciary

Previous versions of the bill - typically shelved after public outcry - explicitly called for nine-year-olds to be legally married, something legal experts have warned could be permitted under Jaafari jurisprudence, an interpretation of religious law followed by some Shia[…]
MP Mohamed Anouz told AFP that a revised version of the bill reinstated clauses of the old law that set the age of marriage at 18 or 15, with the consent of legal guardians and a judge[…]
Women's and civil rights campaigners have warned about the impact of the legislation on women and families[…]
Previous versions of the bill have included rules preventing Muslim men from marrying non-Muslims, the legalisation of marital rape and banning women from leaving the house without their husband's permission

The latest version is considerably less explicit, but campaigners fear its passage would allow religious authorities to introduce new rules through their establishment of the Personal Status code

The draft requires Shia and Sunni endowments to submit a "code of legal rulings" to parliament six months after ratifying the amendments, stipulating the Shia code would be based on Jaafari jurisprudence

"All marriages have to be registered as Sunni or Shia by this amendment. Thus, sectarian division enters all households," said Yanar Mohammed, president of the Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq, another group within Coalition 188

Allahiyah movement, unnamed adherents and Abdul Ali Munim al-Hasani #fundie #psycho middleeasteye.net

Since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the country has been mired in instability, war, corruption and economic stagnation - a situation that has left many young people with little hope for their futures and or sense of purpose in their lives[…]
The Allahiyah movement, also known as the Qurban ("sacrifice") group, is thought to have formed in Basra and Dhi Qar in early 2020 and has as many as 2,500 adherents

According to local media, the head of the movement is a cleric named Abdul Ali Munim al-Hasani, currently residing in the city of Mashhad in Iran

Their initial activities sparked little attention, seemingly consisting of rituals and practices at least superficially akin to other Shia Islamic movements[…]
That began to change in 2021, when the first reports emerged of young men associated with the group hanging themselves in Husseiniyahs, buildings designed for Shia religious, spiritual and social gatherings[…]
The word Allahiyah, an amalgamation of the word Ali and divine in Arabic, stems from the same root as the Alawite and Alevi sects in Syria and Turkey due to a similar mystical veneration of Ali; neither of the other two sects, however, practice ritual suicide

"We believe that Imam Ali bin Abi Talib, peace be upon him, is God incarnate on Earth, and that sacrifices must be offered to him in order to gain his satisfaction and forgiveness," a member[…]told HuffPost Iraq[…]
"We hold a draw among the members of the group, and whoever’s name comes up has the honour of offering himself as a sacrifice to Imam Ali, which is the highest goal of existence," they said, adding they had plans to spread their message to "young people in schools and universities" and even outside the country

They also denied rumours that they carried out murders

However, on 16 June security forces arrested an official of the movement in Dhi Qar Governorate[…]
After being interrogated he confessed to having killed two family members as "sacrifices"

Ali Khan Mohammadi #fundie #sexist middleeasteye.net

Iran's headquarters for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice, a powerful religious organisation responsible for defining regulations relating to the hijab and Islamic attitudes in Iran, has said it will not ease laws on the wearing of the clothing despite protests calling for it to no longer be obligatory

In an interview with Khabar Online, Ali Khan Mohammadi, the organisation's spokesman, said: "In our constitution, removing the hijab is a crime, and [our] organisation will not step back from implementing the [wearing of the] hijab"

Commenting on mass protests by Iranians against the wearing of the hijab, Khan Mohammadi said that new methods would soon be deployed to implement hijab regulations

"The enemy is attempting to bring down the headscarf, which is a symbol [of Sharia law]," he was quoted as saying

"If they bring down this symbol, then nudity and other things will come afterwards

"Officials have been rethinking the lack of hijab and taken that as a serious matter

"This is contrary to what people think, that now there is freedom regarding the hijab and they can remove their headscarves," he concluded

Al-Nusra Front supporters #fundie middleeasteye.net

[Link in original]

Supporters of al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, have broken with other Syrian opposition groups to express support for Friday's deadly attacks in Paris, despite the group's official hostility to the Islamic State (IS).

"We are happy if a deviant sect successfully executes an operation against the Kufaar (infidels)" read a statement released by one member (from a Twitter account since deleted) over the weekend, adding it would have preferred that al-Nusra had carried out such an attack.

"Scholars like Ibn Taymiyyah have explained this topic: we choose the most guided from two sides."

Another al-Nusra spokesperson also praised the earlier attacks in Beirut, while cautioning against support for IS.

"I am still saying that ISIS are a riding mount of the tyrants and that they are the dogs of hellfire," wrote a spokesperson, Sheikh Abu Mariyah al-Qahtani, on Monday, using an alternative acronym for IS.

"And that they are the ones who ruined the jihad in Iraq and Syria. And that they kill the Sunnis. But I was happy with their strikes against Hizbu Shaytaan," he said, referring to Hezbollah - members of whom were based in the Beirut district that was bombed on Thursday - with the Arabic word for Satan.

"If ISIS killed one hundred Frenchman then they have killed from Jabhat Nusra and the rest of the factions thousands of Mujahideen," he added.