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Dubai all the places that you ought to visit

Subsequent to purchasing cheap flights to Dubai, your subsequent thought is to coat the utmost tourism venues in the bare smallest time. But whatever you do, do not forget to avail Dubai flights offers

So, sketch your trip by keeping few milestones in wits. First of all, Hydropolis Underwater Hotel forms Dubai's foremost opulence marine inn and offers a fully only one of its kind pleasure to its guests. The inn formation is separated into three components - the first is the ground position, where the visitors are greeted; second is the linking channel, all the way through which guests are taken to the real inn; and the third is the most important inn core. Secondly, the out of the ordinary leisure characteristic of Wild Wadi Waterpark is that a variety of amusing actions are based on the Sinbad the sailor, and his adventures of how he faced troubles. Therefore, you acquire the experience of very old Arabian being here. Thirdly, Grand Mosque is an eminent attraction and significant place of reverence in the metropolis. Located on the Bur Dubai part, this place of reverence was reconstructed in the late 90s. It is very tall and measured as the highest place of worship in the metropolis. Next, Dubai Museum is an ancient fort, made adjacent to overseas invasion in 1800, has been renewed to this place. It consents guests to contain a gaze at the prosperous civilization and inheritance of Dubai. The museum in addition delivers a fundamental journey to arid region life, traditional Arabian house, worship places, very old rivalry and buy and sell. Last, but certainly not the least,  Burj Khalifa is the highest structure in the planet, composed of hundreds of levels. There is an open-air surveillance floor at the highest level, faceting a telescope that lets guests to scrutinize the entire metropolis from this unbelievable tallness. If you do not visit these, consider the trip futile.

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Hate Crime Law Timetable Pushed Back

After preposterously claiming that waving the Scottish or British flags, singing Rule Britannia or the Flower of Scotland or making the sign of the cross could be a criminal offence, the SNP has now postponed the introduction of their proposed new hate crime legislation.

Opposition MSPs, both Old Firm clubs and the Church of Scotland had all opposed the speed at which the new laws were being pushed through parliament.

Alex Salmond announced today at First Minister's questions that the legislation would not be in place for the start of the football season in July and would instead be delayed for six months.

The Scottish Parliament's justice committee had expressed concern over the speed with which the bill was to go through.

Source

Muslims to Break Away From Scottish Education System

MUSLIM leaders are planning to break away from the Scottish education system and create their own schools because the current curriculum does not include enough about Islam.

The Sunday Express has learned parents are angry their children are not being given schooling according to their religious beliefs and claim teachers are even promoting “unIslamic principles and behaviours”.

Some have even threatened legal action to force councils to open state-funded faith schools at taxpayers’ expense.

Others want the “relatively affluent” Muslim community to take matters into its own hands, starting with Scotland’s first Islamic high school.

Parents and supporters are being rallied on an Internet chat room called glasgowmuslims.com. One father explains the plan is to “form a steering group of individuals who wish to contribute towards the creation of an Islamic Secondary School for Girls in Glasgow”.

The anonymous man – TariqM – adds: “I have spoken to a number of Imams representing the primary Masjids (mosques) in Glasgow and in principle everybody agrees the ideal solution to education for Muslims would be within an environment that has at its core an Islamic ethos.”

Another member proposes legal action over the city council’s refusal to fund an Islamic state school, stating: “There is a case to be made by the Muslim community against Glasgow Council claiming religious bigotry and discrimination.”

Sajid Quayum, president of the Glasgow branch of the Islamic Society of Britain (ISB), said he was aware of the group and its plans.

“Education is something close to the heart of all parents,” he said. “They are venting their frustration over not being able to ‘play the system’ as other religious groups have in the past.

“There is a lot of disagreement in the wider community whether having an Islamic state school is what we want. Some say it would be a good thing but others say there is enough separation from the main community as there is.”

Mr Quayum, a TV producer, also claimed children of all religions and backgrounds are not learning enough about Islam in school.

He said: “A lot of teachers are a little bit worried about trying to cover Islam because it has so many social and political issues.

“We have set up a teacher training programme called Islam Information Scotland. When we have approached RE teachers, they say they will often focus on a particular religion for a year, such as Hinduism, but it will rarely be Islam because they are worried about offending Muslims.

“There is a perception that we are consistently getting offended, but there are only a few groups out there who do that. Unfortunately, it is them who always appear in the news.

“This is not about pushing our religion into schools, just a feeling that there is not enough understanding of the issues.”

Scotland currently has one Islamic primary school, the private Qalam Academy in Glasgow. Two other private primaries, in Glasgow and Dundee, closed after damning inspection reports.

There are Catholic, Episcopalian and Jewish state schools and First Minister Alex Salmond has backed plans for an Islamic state primary in Glasgow.

However, councillors refused permission because of fears it would lead to isolation of young Scottish Muslims.

Source

In Scotland, Pakistanis Can Now Marry Strangers From Pakistan Over the Phone

That is the implication of this story:

A doctor who got married by telephone to a car dealer in Pakistan has failed in her bid to have the wedding declared a sham.

The woman asked the Court of Session in Edinburgh to grant a decree of nullity because she suspected her husband of staging the marriage to dodge immigration rules.

But Lord Stewart, in a written decision, said the ceremony appeared to be valid under Pakistani law and he therefore had no power to quash the marriage.

The woman had argued that the court had the authority to act because she made the nuptial phone call from Scotland.

She told the court she met her husband on the internet in about 2004, when he told her he was a 27-year-old manager of a car showroom in Dubai.

However, he gave a postal address in Karachi. The woman's mother then travelled to Pakistan to meet him and returned saying he was not suitable as a husband.

Nevertheless, her daughter stayed in touch with her fiance and agreed to marry him on January 12, 2005.

She told the court she thought the groom was in Pakistan and also spoke to someone she thought was a priest. She also signed a marriage certificate which she took to the Pakistani consulate in Glasgow.

In a statement sent to the court, she explained: "I was going through a lot of pressure at the time and I was feeling bad about myself. I had just failed first year of university and I was getting a lot of hassle from my parents about it.

So we now have a Pakistani doctor, presumably practising in Scotland, who failed her first year at university and has such a retrograde mindset that she marries strangers over the phone? What an inspiring thought.

"It was a very difficult time for me. I was vulnerable at the time. I knew that I should not have done it but, at the time I was sincere."

Maria Clarke, counsel for the woman, admitted that an expert on Muslim and Pakistani law said that telephone marriages were valid and increasingly common in Pakistan and, according to the laws of that country, the wedding seemed to be legal.

But she argued that there was a "key question" about where the wedding had taken place because the bride was in Scotland during proceedings, and the telephone wedding did not comply with the requirements of Scots law.

Lord Stewart said in his judgment that previous court decisions had established the principle that if a marriage was legal in one country it could not be overturned in another.

He quoted the case of an Irishman and a Ghananian woman in England who sent a bottle of gin and some cash to Ghana where a ceremony was held according to tribal custom, even though neither bride nor groom attended.

"The Court of Appeal recognised the union on the basis of expert opinion to the effect that a marriage in absentia was formally valid according to the customary law in question," he said.

Source

So Scotland simply accepts foreign marriage law unquestioningly? This means that elements of the Sharia are de facto accepted in Scotland, since legal systems in Islam-dominated countries are often based on the Sharia. Presumably the stranger married over the phone would then be entitled to immigrate to the UK and access a range of benefits?

Or even strangers rather then stranger? Since these foreign legal systems accept polygamy, what's to stop a Pakistani resident in Scotland setting up a conference call with his entire extended family and marrying them en masse, securing them immigration and benefits rights in the UK? This is utter madness.

At Last Some Voices of Reason on the Religious Hatred Law

Both the Herald and Scotsman have stories quoting various people expressing reservations about the upcoming Religious Hatred bill the SNP is planning to introduce. It's particularly interesting that some of the reservations are coming from the churches themselves.

After meeting Community Safety Minister Roseanna Cunningham, who is piloting the Bill, the Right Reverend David Arnott, moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, said: “The speed at which it is being rushed through means it appears to lack scrutiny and clarity. The Government is rightly asking for support from across civic Scotland, but is not giving civic Scotland much time to make sure they are happy with the content.”

Catholic Church spokesman Peter Kearney said the “truncated timescale” reinforced the need for close scrutiny. He added: “Equally, however, the timetable does suggest that urgent political attention is being given to a high-profile problem. Tackling incidents of football-related intolerance in this way will allow a wider and longer debate to take place on sectarianism and its underlying causes, without the constant distraction of football-related incidents, which statistically account for less than 15% of sectarian offences in Scotland.”

The Law Society has also urged caution.

However, the Law Society of Scotland said the Bill is being pushed through Parliament too quickly and that the resulting lack of scrutiny may create legislation that is open to successful challenge.

Bill McVicar, convener of the society's criminal law committee, said: "We understand the importance of tackling sectarianism. This is a very serious issue and one that needs both attention and action from our political leaders. However, it is because of the importance of this issue that the Scottish Government needs to allow adequate time to ensure the legislation can be properly scrutinised.

It's good that there are now some prominent naysayers in this debate.

The actual text of the proposed bill has now been published here. Looking at it, it does seem less worrying that I feared it might be. I still don't agree with the restrictions on free speech, but it looks as though it won't have much effect on criticisms of Islam. First, the part of the bill that requires physical presence is specifically limited to "in relation to a regulated football match". Second, the part that relates to communications rather than physical presence requires an element of threat to be present and includes a reasonableness defence. Either Condition A or Condition B below must be fulfilled for the act to constitute an offence.

Condition A is that—
(a) the material consists of, contains or implies a threat, or an incitement, to carry out
a seriously violent act against a person or against persons of a particular
description,
(b) the material or the communication of it would be likely to cause a reasonable
person to suffer fear or alarm, and
(c) the person communicating the material—
(i) intends by doing so to cause fear or alarm, or
(ii) is reckless as to

...

Condition B is that—
(a) the material is threatening, and
(b) the person communicating it intends by doing so to stir up religious hatred.
(6) It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under subsection (1) to show that the communication of the material was, in the particular circumstances, reasonable.

The official press release about the bill also says this:

The offence will NOT:

Stop peaceful preaching or proselytising

Restrict freedom of speech including the right to criticise or comment on religion or non-religious beliefs, even in harsh terms

Criminalise jokes and satire about religion or non-religious belief

I still wish the bill would go away but it at least seems to be not as bad as I expected.

Humza Yousaf Attacks the Government's New Anti-Terror Strategy

Humza Yousaf has an article in the Scotsman today in which he attacks the (London) government's new anti-terror strategy.

The article carries the headline "If extremism is to be conquered, the Muslim community must be given tools for the job" but he never actually explains what these tools are. His view seems to be that Muslims should simply be left alone. Interestingly, he speaks up in favour of free speech (for Muslims, of course).

The strategy of empowerment must be underpinned by the belief that good speech will always defeat bad speech, something I think we have demonstrated many a time in Scotland.

In 2010, the Scottish Defence League announced they would be marching through Glasgow. Instead of badgering the government to ban such a group, the voices of reason took to the streets under the banner of "Scotland United". Whereas the extremists numbered around 70, the Scotland United group was more than 3,000. While not being complacent, the spectre of the SDL has since dwindled and is almost out of sight.

Somehow I think that his support for free speech won't extend to getting rid of the laws that currently restrict it.

Furthermore, Westminster's attack on university Muslim associations across Britain is also in danger of alienating the moderate majority, who will now be reluctant to put their head above the parapet and challenge extremist ideology should it rear its ugly head.

Ah, ye old Muslim classic argument. "Give us what we want or else we'll kill you" dressed up as something moderate and reasonable.

He endorses our friend Mona Siddiqui and someone called Shaykh Amer Jamil, who I've never heard of but will now need to research.

Dr Mona Siddique at Glasgow University to Shaykh Amer Jamil of the Solas Foundation we are lucky to have some extremely well qualified and moderate voices that are established and respected within the Muslim community in Scotland.

Be sure and leave your comment on his article as unlike the pitiful Herald, the Scotsman doesn't do "prior restraint" censorship. I'm sure some comments will be deleted, but they can't delete them all. All in all, the article is poorly written and structured. He demands that Muslims be given "the tools for the job" without ever explaining what they are. It almost reads like a stream-of-consciousness piece that a not-too-bright student would fling together one morning when he realised he had an essay to hand in that day but had forgotten all about it. This shows his meagre intellectual calibre, but then the Scottish Parliament isn't exactly a highly competitive environment in that respect, is it?

[UPDATE: Actually I see this was actually published a week ago. I missed it at the time.]