Halal Sex Shop Opening For Muslims in Mecca, Saudi Arabia

Halal Sex Shop Opening For Muslims in Mecca, Saudi Arabia

Hafeez Ahmed Bhatti, is pictured here with his wife, Khalida Bhatti, and their three-month old son in this undated handout photo

Up To 60 Girls Per Month Committing Suicide Following Vile Islamic State Abuse

The All India Shia Board Hails SC Order on Maintenance Allowance to Muslim Women

Beware Your Wife’s Behaviour, Malaysian Mufti Warns Country’s Leaders

Prostitution Next Target in Indonesia’s Web Censorship

Spokesman: Alabama Woman Left To Join Islamic State Group

Bangla Jihadists Plotting To Kill Me: Taslima Nasreen

Erdogan Divides Turkish Women with Approach to Tackling Violence

17 Year Old Muslimah Represents Youth at 13th Crime Prevention Congress of UN

Muslim Family Seen Being Bullied on Viral Video Speaks Out, Plans to Press Charges

800,000 Children 'Forced to Flee' Nigeria Violence

Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau

URL: http://www.newageislam.com/islam,-women-and-feminism/new-age-islam-news-bureau/halal-sex-shop-opening-for-muslims-in-mecca,-saudi-arabia/d/102582

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Halal Sex Shop Opening For Muslims in Mecca, Saudi Arabia

21 April, 2015

Halal is a lifestyle for many adherents of Islam, and the topic of sexuality is mostly taboo among Muslims. When combining the two, the end result could be quite a toxic mix. But the reported expansion of a brand of sex shops catering to Muslims -- even in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the centre of the Islamic faith -- is proving there is a market for certain kinds of adult-related products. A store called Halal Sex Shop is expected to open soon in Mecca, according to a report on Alyaoum24, an Arabic news portal, which did not specify an opening date.

Abdelaziz Aouragh, the founder of the Mecca shop, said the products sold at his store, while remaining Halal-observant, target married couples trying to enhance their sex lives. “Our products [do] not include inflatable dolls, but products that increase feelings of sensuality and improve the atmosphere between the couple in [their] sexual relationship,” Aouragh told Alyaoum24. While Halal typically refers to food and beverages that are permissible for consumption by Muslims, it also guides the use of objects under Islamic law.

With the help of German company Beate Uhse, one of the largest sex product vendors in Europe, Aouragh is reportedly selling 18 Islam-appropriate sex toys in his Mecca store.

Muslims are typically viewed as not very sexually active, and many people think Muslim women are repressed sexually within their marriages, but Aouragh said he wishes to change the negative stereotypes. “The image of women in the kitchen with Burqa is not a true picture,” he said. “There is a lot of love and respect Islam has for adult women. Our store puts women at the centre, offers information, and provides answers to frequently asked questions on sex.”

Aouragh, a Moroccan Muslim, consulted with an Islamic cleric in Saudi Arabia before receiving permission to sell the Halal sex products that would lead to “the improvement of the sexual relationship between husband and wife,” he said in an interview with Agence France-Presse last year. Aouragh he also founded the Amsterdam-based sex product vendor El Asira several years back, which now has a successful online division, according to reports.

The first Halal Sex Shop opened in Turkey in 2013, Alyaoum24 reported. But previous reports of Halal sex shops in various European cities with large Muslim populations have been discredited.

http://www.ibtimes.com/halal-sex-shop-opening-muslims-mecca-saudi-arabia-report-1888564

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Up To 60 Girls Per Month Committing Suicide Following Vile Islamic State Abuse

21 April, 2015

The shocking assessment, from an aid worker based in Iraq, comes as conditions for minority communities in the war-torn region continue to deteriorate due to intensifying attacks from jihadists.

Islamic State fighters have waged a war of terror on anyone they consider to be 'un-Islamic', including the Yazidi community who follow an ancient religion.

The terror group have taken hundreds of women and children hostage before subjecting their victims to torture and sexual abuse.

Speaking to Express.co.uk, an aid worker wishing to be identified only as ‘Yousif’, said he witnessed traumatised youngsters committing suicide at a rate of one or two a day.

He said: “Everyday between one or two commit suicide.

“There are different methods they use inside there, whether they hang themselves, cut themselves, different ways they do it.

Yousif, who is based in Canada, said the girls were driven to end their own lives because of “shame and honour”.

Many believe their families will reject them, especially the victims of the worst abuse, after they are released from Islamic State capture.

Yousif added: “They don't have hope that their people will accept them, at the same time they don't want their babies."

The claim is backed up by a report released this week, which details the high levels of suicide in make-shift Yazidi refugee camps established in the Kurdish region of Iraq.

Last summer, as many as 5,000 Yazidi men were massacred in the Iraqi city of Sinjar by the Islamic State while hundreds of women were captured or sold into sexual slavery.

Campaign group Human Rights Watch says women and girls attempted suicide to avoid rape, forced marriage, or forced religious conversion at the hands of the Islamic State.

The report includes accounts of girls trying to electrocute themselves in bathtubs or consuming what they thought was poison.

The sexual abuse carried out by the Islamic State – also known as Isis - led to one nine-year-old child becoming pregnant.

Yousif, who came into contact with the girl, said she had been transferred to Germany to be treated by doctors who fear how her body will cope with pregnancy at such a young age.

He said: “She is very tiny. If she delivers naturally or by caesarean, she will die.

“Her life was in jeopardy, they worry more about her life than the baby she is carrying.”

He added: “Nobody knows after that what is going to happen.

“Isis was the father; she had been raped by more than nine or ten men.”

The aid worker, who withheld his real name for fear of reprisals in Iraq, said many of the women and young girls left pregnant by Islamic State fighters were encouraged to abort their babies, or place their newborns in orphanages.

He continued: “There were different reactions, some of them [among the Yazidi community] said abort the babies, others said we don't want to do anything with them, some of them said they want them [the mothers] to get married to young people.”

He said local communities under the control of the Islamic State did not want ‘Muslim babies’ being adopted by Christian families in the area, leading to a spike in demand for places in local children’s homes.

“Adoption is rejected, because they will be in the hands of Christians,” he said.

“It is considered that these babies are Muslim babies.

“They don't want those babies to be adopted by Christians, adoption is against their religion.”

Aid organisations estimate that hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by the fighting, and Yousif gave a depressing account of the conditions refugees are forced to endure.

He said some families were living in unfinished or abandoned buildings or large camps made up of thousands of tents on the outskirts of towns.

He added that those who managed to make it safely to a city faced the risk of being targeted by Islamic State "sleeper cells" lying dormant until given an order to attack.

"They are inside, they are just waiting for an order to blow up a populated area," he said.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/571713/Islamic-State-60-girls-MONTH-committing-suicide-vile-abuse

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The All India Shia Board Hails SC Order on Maintenance Allowance to Muslim Women

21 April, 2015

Lucknow: The All India Shia Personal Law Board (AISPLB) today said the Supreme Court verdict in connection with granting of maintenance allowance to Muslim women even after divorce has come as a respite to those who are unable to sustain themselves.

"The Supreme Court verdict has come as a respite to women not able to sustain themselves and are forced to live in poverty after divorce," AISPLB President Maulana Mirza Mohammad Athar told newspersons here.

The Supreme Court in its verdict on April 6 said that divorced Muslim women are entitled to seek maintenance from their ex-husbands under the Criminal Procedure Code which provides the same relief to wives, children and parents.

Referring to the apex court verdict in Shamima Farooqui versus Shahid Khan Case, Athar said the Board had made an arrangement for it in its "Nikahnama" prepared in 2007.

"The apex court has upheld an earlier verdict of a family court granting maintenance allowance to Muslim women even after the 'Iddat' period (three months and 10 days after the divorce)," he said.

"The Board in its meeting in 2007 held in Mumbai presented a nikahnama in which the condition of providing maintenance allowance to women even after the iddat period was added," he said, adding that it had been done to ensure there was no clash between the law of the land and Islamic laws

http://zeenews.india.com/news/india/shia-board-hails-sc-order-on-maintenance-allowance-to-muslim-women_1581904.html

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Beware Your Wife’s Behaviour, Malaysian Mufti Warns Country’s Leaders

21 April, 2015

Perlis mufti Datuk Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin has warned the country's leaders of the behaviour and the "trickery" of their wives if they did not want to be scorned by the people, as this could lead to the destruction of their political careers.

The reminder from the mufti was uploaded on his Facebook page on Friday under the title "Wanita dan pengaruhnya terhadap lelaki" (Women and their influence on men).

However, it was not clear to whom it was directed although Asri had used the term "first lady" and had mentioned several names of wives of world leaders.

"In certain countries, the behaviour of a woman carrying the title of 'first lady' can destroy the careers and political future of a world leader.

"So it was not surprising when Elena Ceausescu, the wife of Romania's former president Nicolae Ceausescu, was sentenced to death along with her husband because they had wasted away the country's wealth and had abused their power.

"If the husband does not take on the role as a righteous guide and control for their wives, then anything can happen because of the woman's skills in planning," he had written.

Asri said the wife of a leader should also guard her behaviour as this could impact her husband's image.

"A good wife will also make her husband look good."

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/beware-your-wifes-behaviour-mufti-warns-countrys-leaders#sthash.Xp6gN9Ey.dpuf

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Prostitution Next Target in Indonesia’s Web Censorship

21 April, 2015

Jakarta. The National Police say they are going to work with the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology to block Indonesia-based websites facilitating prostitution.

“We will come up with a list of websites … and hand it over to the ministry, which will then block the sites,” National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Anton Charliyan told state-owned news agency Antara on Monday.

Police say blocking websites where sexual services are offered can be a challenging task.

“It will be difficult, since a website might appear under a new guise even after we’ve blocked it,” Anton said.

Authorities have launched a crackdown on online prostitution after a young woman was found dead in her rented room in Tebet, South Jakarta, on April 11, sparking a social media frenzy.

The victim was found with a wire around her neck and a sock in her mouth. Police declined to elaborate on the victim’s profession, but her Twitter account indicated she was likely working in the sex industry.

The government has recently been trying to start blocking websites spreading radical Islamic ideology, leading to protests from both Islamic organizations and rights activists.

http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/online-prostitution-is-next-target-for-indonesias-web-censorship/

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Spokesman: Alabama woman left to join Islamic State group

21 April, 2015

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A spokesman for a Muslim couple in Alabama on Monday said their 20-year-old daughter fled a Birmingham suburb to join Islamic State militants in Syria after being recruited via the Internet.

Hassan Shibly spoke at the mosque on behalf of the parents of the young woman, whom he identified only as Hoda. He said the family has been "extremely traumatized" for months and has been in contact with law enforcement and government officials since she disappeared while also pleading with Hoda to return home.

"For them this is worse than losing the life of a child, to have them join such a horrible, horrible gang of violent extremists," Shibly said, adding the father is worried about the mother's health. "Nothing can describe the pain they are facing."

Shibly, an attorney and chief executive director for the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Hoda left in November.

While he said it's unclear when Hoda made contact with militants, he said she withdrew from the Muslim community in Birmingham more than a year before her disappearance. The woman's whereabouts were not immediately known.

"The reason she withdrew from the community is because the Muslim community is very vocal against groups like ISIS ... she made the decision based on her communication online with them that she wanted to join them," Shibly said.

The family and the Birmingham Islamic Society have spoken out against violent extremism.

The account was first reported by Buzzfeed. There have been other reports of young people leaving or attempting to leave the U.S. for the Islamic State in recent months. In a criminal complaint unsealed on Monday, six Minnesota men were charged with terrorism-related offenses after authorities said they failed in attempts to travel to Syria.

Shibly said he's talked with families who have also lost their children to the Islamic State group have similar stories.

"It's often young, naive, impressionable, ignorant troubled youth who are dissatisfied with their life and are seeking a sense of belonging," he said.

"And it's frankly the same social factors that lead to youth joining various gangs. I think ISIS is just another gang," he said, using an alternate acronym for the militant group.

Members of the Birmingham Muslim community met on Monday evening to discuss how to protect other children from the influence of violent extremists.

http://news.yahoo.com/family-spokesman-alabama-woman-joins-islamic-state-syria-005220571.html

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Bangla Jihadists Plotting To Kill Me: Taslima Nasreen

21 April, 2015

There is no hint of fear in her eyes as feminist writer Taslima Nasreen tells Mail Today that Bangladeshi terror group Ansarullah Bangla Team is plotting to cross over to West Bengal and then travel to the Capital to kill her.

The group takes its ideology from Anwar Al-Awlaki, a Yemen-based al-Qaeda activist, and has been involved in the murders of America-based writer Avijit Roy and blogger Washiqur Rahman last month for "criticising Islam". Taslima, if Indian intelligence agencies are to be believed, may very well be their next target.

"Members of the Ansarullah Bangla Team are so brazen that they post online hate messages before they attack. They had done that before killing Avijit and Washiqur and now they are posting hate messages targeting me. It is scary. But as long as I live, I will not be silenced," says Taslima.

Intelligence agencies suspect sleeper cells of Bangladeshi jihadist groups are already active in West Bengal.

"The radical Islamists in Bangladesh are definitely after Taslima. She has been on their radar for a while now. There is a renewed threat perception after the murder of bloggers in Bangladesh. The Burdwan blast conspiracy is a case in point that extremist groups like Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh have made West Bengal a safe haven," an intelligence officer told MAIL TODAY.

Interestingly, one of the reasons why Washiqur was attacked was for wishing Taslima on her birthday. On his Facebook page, Rahman also reposted a cartoon depicting Prophet Mohammed from French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo. And he 'liked' a picture of sausages wrapped in crescent rolls that someone had captioned, "Pigs in burqas". Posts threatening him were instant and numerous.

"Get ready for the afterlife," one person commented on one of his posts.

"See you in hell," said another.

"Washiqur's murderers are madrasa students. They were brainwashed by the Ansarullah Bangla Team. They were ordered by their madrasa teacher to kill Washiqur. Madrasas and mosques are breeding ground for terrorists. But governments still continue to build more madrasas and mosques all over the country to get votes from ignorant masses. I am not surprised when I hear freethinkers are getting murdered in Bangladesh," says 52-year-old Taslima.

Jugantor newspaper in Dhaka reported on April 2 that Dhaka Mahanagar police detective department has come across startling revelations while interrogating Washiqur's killers. They have reportedly confessed that members of the Ansarullah Bengali Team are infiltrating into West Bengal with a plan to assassinate Taslima in Delhi.

When MAIL TODAY asked Trinamool Congress leaders how they are planning to tackle this menace, they avoided a direct answer to the question.

While party MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay refused to comment on the matter, another party MP Saugata Roy said, "She is under central government protection. Her security is the central government's responsibility."

The Mamata Banerjee government has come under repeated attack from the Opposition for going soft on cross-border illegal immigration from Bangladesh, which has led to Islamists shifting base to various parts of West Bengal.

Taslima, the author of controversial book Lajja, is at present staying in India with a resident permit. She has been continuously renewing her Indian visa since 2004. She has been living in exile since 1994 and has lived in the US, Europe and India in the last two decades.

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/taslima-nasreen-bangladesh-blogger-killed-jehadist-islamists/1/431239.html

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Erdogan divides Turkish women with approach to tackling violence

21 April, 2015

ISTANBUL/ANKARA (Reuters) - When 20-year-old Ozgecan Aslan was stabbed and beaten to death after trying to fight off a man bent on raping her on a minibus, Turkey's president called violence against women the country's "bleeding wound".

But two months after her murder, groups that have campaigned for years on women's rights complain that President Tayyip Erdogan is still sidelining them, preferring to work with newer organizations including one in which his daughter has a prominent role.

Women's groups and opposition politicians have criticized Erdogan, a devout Muslim, for slamming abortion, calling birth control "'treason", telling women how many children to have and dismissing the Western idea of gender equality.

He in turn says his detractors seek to impose Western liberal values on a religious country, railing against feminists for failing to understand Turkish culture, in which - he said soon after Aslan's murder - "God entrusted men with women".

Erdogan has been Turkey's dominant politician for well over a decade and his ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party plans to change the constitution to boost his powers if it wins a sufficient majority in a parliamentary election on June 7.

"Excluding independent women's organizations has been the government's strategy for a long time because our aim is not the same as theirs - (which is) just to make women have babies," said Tanja Volker, a social worker at domestic violence charity Mor Cati.

Elif Safak, one of Turkey's best known female authors, said she saw a hardening of Erdogan's tone.

"Feminists are now being vilified in politics," Safak said.

"Erdogan used to speak more embracingly, saying he was the leader of everyone, whether they voted for him or not. He sounds as if he puts a distance between himself and half the nation."

HEADSCARVES ALLOWED

While Turkey is officially secular, the president's traditionalist views appeal to millions of conservative Muslim voters who have repeatedly backed the AK Party he founded.

Nurgul, 23, a student of mathematics in the southern city of Antakya, says that for millions of pious women like her, life is far better under the AKP.

"Before, covered women could not go to university and now they can and they can have good careers," said Nurgul, referring to a ban on headscarves overturned by the AKP in 2013.

Many activists acknowledge that the AKP made progress, but say that has recently stalled.

"Our laws are better than tens of countries," says Zelal Ayman, co-ordinator at Women for Women's Human Rights, an anti-discrimination group active since the early 1990s.

"But the problem is implementation and the mentality of the law."

She said Erdogan's rhetoric promoting a rigid role for women exacerbated the problem, while the penal code lessens jail sentences for men who say they were "provoked" into violence.

HIGH MURDER RATE

According to a 2011 U.N. report, non-sexual physical violence committed by intimate partners was 10 times more likely in Turkey, which aspires to join the European Union, than in some European countries. Monitoring group Bianet says 281 women were murdered in 2014, up 31 percent from the previous year.

Last December the government held a meeting at which it chose three non-government organizations (NGOs) to help tackle violence against women. But a majority of mainstream NGOs walked out and dozens of organizations issued a statement complaining that their input had been ignored.

One of the groups selected was KADEM, or the Women and Democracy Association, whose deputy head is Erdogan's daughter Sumeyye. In a speech last month she said it was normal for women to inherit less because men are the breadwinners.

KADEM says it provides support for women to be productive within their families and society. Its president, Sare Aydin, told Reuters it was independent of the government and accused feminist groups of failing to support religious women.

"Those NGOs who claim to be supporting women's representation ... were silent when thousands of girls wearing the hijab (headscarf) were banned from universities," she said.

But a senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, acknowledged that women's rights had become politicized.

"The government has turned its back on the mainstream women's movement. They're acting very politically, they ask the opinion (of established women's groups) when they have to, but that doesn't mean they're going to listen to what they say," the official told Reuters.

"The organizations the government are working with now just have no idea - they're so new, they have no idea about the women's movement."

Asked about Erdogan's views, the official said: "He is sincere in his efforts to tackle domestic violence, but perhaps he doesn't understand gender equality."

The ministry of family and social policy did not respond to requests for comment. Erdogan's office declined to comment.

(Additional reporting by Ayla Jean Yackley in Istanbul and Orhan Coskun in Ankara; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Gareth Jones)

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-erdogan-divides-turkish-women-with-approach-to-tackling-violence-2015-4#ixzz3XvQIqhgO

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17 Year Old Muslimah Represents Youth at 13th Crime Prevention Congress of UN

21 April, 2015

Reem Shaikh is a 17-year-old Muslimah from Houston. She finished memorizing Qur'an when she was seven and then travelled to Egypt to learn Arabic. She was homeschooled until the age of 12, and then she moved to Qatar with her family. She earned her ijaazah at the age of 16 and also graduated from high school early. Despite achieving high academic grades in her A Levels, she chose to pursue her first bachelors in Islamic Studies, specifically in Sharee'ah (Islamic Jurisprudence) at Qatar University.

Children who are homeschooled or who grow up with conservative upbringing are often erroneously stereotyped as being either socially awkward or those who can't really pursue higher goals in life. The fact is that Reem, by Allah's Mercy and His Will, has been able to maintain a completely normal social life and now taking up a role as an activist at such a young age.

She joined Doha Youth Forums last year. DYF is the first forum created by UN to give youth an opportunity to voice their opinions. This year she was invited to speak at one of the UN workshops during the 13th Crime Prevention Congress of UN. Qatar's national news agency, also highlighted her participation, “Experts Laud Doha Youth Forum's Draft For UN Congress“.

Among the older panellists from all over the world, she was the only teenaged Muslim female who addressed the UN delegates, and later answered their questions regarding youth's role in fighting crimes around the world. Here we asked Reem to address#MuslimYouthRISING questions and her thoughts on female leadership.

Q: What's your age?

A: I'm 17 years old.

Q: How do you identify ethnically?

A: I identify as an American with Pakistani origins.

Q: What has been your involvement or leadership in the community?

A: I live in Qatar and there isn't really a “Muslim community” per say, let alone leadership opportunities for youth. However, I try to be as active as I can whenever I'm in Houston during summers.

I get a lot of opportunities in the local mosque there to attend and organize events for Muslim youth. For instance, I organized a flash mob for Syria two summers ago. During Ramadan, we have youth locks and I get to give short talks. I am also asked to lead girls only Qiyam during Ramadan. But Houston Muslim community is a lot more active and open to youth than many other communities in US and I hope that all Muslim youth get opportunities to get involved within their mosques.

Q: Do you think our Muslim community is very supportive of female youth or leadership?

A: Our Muslim community wants female youth to stand out and speak but they do not really facilitate it or make it easy for females to do so.

Q: What are some challenges you have faced as a female Muslimah?

A: People don't really understand why I am studying Islamic Studies and why I have ambition to become a female scholar. It is looked at as a 'man's job'. Also, there are more leadership opportunities for men and the scholars nowadays give preference and more attention to men rather than women.

Q: What is a message that you would like to give to the Muslim girls?

A: If you have a dream and you have ambition, go and achieve it. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't because it's not a 'girl's thing.' Make du'a that Allah helps you and have trust in him that He'll guide you in the right direction.

Q: What are your thoughts on the future Muslim inter-ethnic relations? What would you like to see? What are some possible solutions?

A: I think as immigrants move into second generation or even third and forth, we will see the inter-ethnic walls melt. This is a natural consequence of being “raised together as Americans” as opposed to immigrants who have usually been raised in foreign cultures.

Already you see marriages across racial and cultural lines becoming more and more common and “normal”. In fact I see myself as American with more common elements to another Arab-American or African-American than a Pakistani raised in Pakistan.

Of course Muslim immigrant communities from Asia and Arab world still carry some racism against darker skinned individuals among themselves and African Americans and this is something that really needs to heal.

One important element of healing is to have Masajid that are more mixed versus what we see today as predominantly immigrant and predominantly black mosques. Since mosques are the primary place of socialization for Muslims in America, I truly believe that we need to overcome racial barriers within our mosques first and than in community at large.

Q: Who has been a most positive influence in your life?

A: The most influential person in my life has been my mom. She's always been the perfect role model for and has constantly made me aspire to become a better Muslim. It was her who sacrificed years of her life to make me memorize the Qur'an and to make sure we were raised with the best values possible.

http://muslimmatters.org/2015/04/20/positively-muslim-17-year-old-muslimah-represents-youth-13th-crime-prevention-congress-un/

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Muslim Family Seen Being Bullied on Viral Video Speaks Out, Plans to Press Charges

21 April, 2015

A Muslim family, who was captured on video being bullied by a passenger on a train from Sydney, Australia, has come forward and said they're working with police to identify the woman who allegedly harassed them, and they plan on pressing charges against the woman if she's found.

Cellphone video uploaded to Facebook Wednesday showed Hafeez Ahmed Bhatti, wife Khalida and their 3-month-year-old son being picked on by a woman in a red shirt sitting across from them. The video was uploaded by passenger Stacey Eden, who can be heard trying to stand up for Bhatti's family.

Though Eden has been widely praised for her defence, Hafeez Bhatti told ABC News today he wants people to know that before Eden began recording, he tried "calmly" educating and "politely" talking to the woman in red, who can be heard associating Bhatti's family with ISIS and accusing Bhatti's kids of "beheading people."

"Before Stacey recorded that video, I tried to educate the woman across from us and say she should not generalize all Muslims based on a minority of terrorists and extremists," Bhatti, 33, said. "And though I appreciate Stacey standing up for us, I want the world to know why we stayed calm. If you try to control yourself and be calm, you can control the situation."

Bhatti, a Brisbane resident originally from Pakistan, said he was on a Sydney Airport line train from Sydney, where he was getting his baby's passport done.

"At some point, a lady in a red shirt came into the train in and just put her hand on my wife's head," Bhatti said. "She asked my wife, Khalida, why she was wearing that scarf, saying it was too hot. Then she sat across us and kept going."

The beginning of the Cell Phone video shows a woman in red asking Khalida, who is wearing a Hijab, "Why do you wear it for a man that marries a six-year-old girl?"

So i sat there for a good 10 minutes before i started recording this, while i listened to this woman bad mouth Muslims and call the lady sitting opposite me an ISIS supporter because she wore a scarf, then she told me to go join ISIS because i was sticking up for her. People like this make me sick. People who are so ignorant and disrespectful to other people who were clearly sitting there minding their own business. She was saying some pretty horrible and hurtful things before i spoke up then as soon as i started defending them she stopped. People need to stop judging and putting others down over religion! EVERY RELIGION HAS GOOD AND BAD but if you take it back to the foundations, every religion is also built on LOVE. To LOVE one another. The purpose of religion is to control yourself, not to criticise others.

Eden can then be heard chiming in.

"She wears it for herself, OK?" Eden says. "She wears it because she wants to be modest with her body, not because of people like you who are going to sit there and disrespect her."

The woman in red continues, telling the Bhatti's wife, "Your kids behead people," but Eden quickly interrupts her.

"That's not her doing it," Eden says. "That's a minority of people."

When the woman in red then starts ranting about "148 Christians murdered in Kenya" and Muslims murdering each other in Syria, Eden asks, “What’s that got to do with this lady?"

At the end, Eden says, "If you've got nothing nice to say, don't say anything, it's simple."

Bhatti said he and his wife were able to connect with Eden via Skype Friday, and they’ve invited her to come visit his family and local mosque in Brisbane.

He added he's working with the New South Wales Police Force, which is apparently working to obtain surveillance video footage and identify the woman allegedly making the racial comments.

The New South Wales Police Force told ABC News today the department was aware of "an incident which occurred on a train traveling on the Airport, Inner-West and South Line involving alleged racial comments" on Wednesday and that an investigation was now underway. The department added it could not confirm or reveal the names of the victims of the alleged crimes.

Once the woman is identified and found, Bhatti said he will "go through the proper channels" to press charges to make sure “this woman doesn't hurt any other Muslim women and families again.”

http://abcnews.go.com/International/muslim-family-bullied-viral-video-speaks-plans-press/story?id=30368945

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800,000 Children 'Forced to Flee' Nigeria Violence

21 April, 2015

Almost 800,000 children have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the conflict in northeast Nigeria between Boko Haram, military forces and civilian self-defence groups, according to a new report from UNICEF.

More than 1.5 million people have fled their homes due to the violence in Nigeria, including 800,000 children. This includes 1.2 million displaced inside Nigeria and around 200,000 who have crossed to neighbouring countries.

The majority of those displaced are staying with host communities with little access to humanitarian support.

Since 2009, when Boko Haram made a marked turn towards violence, at least 15,000 people have been killed, with more than 7300 killed in 2014 alone.

In recent months, Boko Haram attacks have increased in frequency and brutality, killing more than 1,000 civilians since the beginning of the year.

Children have become deliberate targets, often subjected to extreme violence - from sexual abuse and forced marriage to kidnappings and brutal killings.

Released one year after the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls in Chibok, The UNICEF's Missing Childhoods report reveals that the number of children running for their lives within Nigeria, or crossing over the border to Chad, Niger and Cameroon, has more than doubled in just less than a year.

"The abduction of more than 200 girls in Chibok is only one of endless tragedies being replicated on an epic scale across Nigeria and the region," says Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa.

"Scores of girls and boys have gone missing in Nigeria- abducted, recruited by armed groups, attacked, used as weapons, or forced to flee violence. They have the right to get their childhoods back".

The figures come as UNICEF draws attention to the devastating impact of the conflict on children across the region using the hashtag #bringbackourchildhood.

Missing Childhoods outlines how the conflict is exerting a heavy toll on children in Nigeria and across the region in an increasing number of ways:

Children are being used within the ranks of Boko Haram- as combatants, cooks, porters and look-outs.

Young women and girls are being subjected to forced marriage, forced labour and rape.

Students and teachers have been deliberately targeted, with more than 300 schools damaged or destroyed and at least 196 teachers and 314 schoolchildren killed by the end of 2014.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201504200359.html

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