Quote:


Could it be the difference in population between the two countries?
1.2 billion vs 162 million.
I mean Pakistan's population is only approx 12% of India's population.

http://news.smh.com.au/hundreds-of-afghans-protest-cartoon/20080303-1wgn.html

Hundreds of demonstrators set Danish and Dutch flags ablaze in northern Afghanistan to protest the reprinting of Prophet Muhammad cartoons in Denmark and an upcoming Dutch film criticising the Koran.

Clerics and madrassa students gathered in front of Afghanistan's largest shrine in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif to demand the government shut down the Danish and Dutch embassies in Kabul.

"We don't want our government to have any diplomatic relations with these two countries," said Maulawi Abdul Hadi, one of the clerics organising Sunday's protest.

"We don't want Danish and Dutch troops in Afghanistan. They should be kicked out of the NATO forces here."

Britain in crackdown on forced marriages

http://news.smh.com.au/britain-in-crackdown-on-forced-marriages/20080312-1yue.html

Britain investigated 400 cases of forced marriages last year and is looking into whether 30 girls who have vanished from school registers may have been taken out of schools and forced to marry.

The highest incidence of reported forced marriages is in Muslim communities, figures show.

Britain has more than 1.8 million Muslims, the majority of Pakistani origin.

"Forced marriage has nothing to do with religion," said Nazia Khanum, who worked on a report funded by the Home Office that detailed numbers of reported cases.

"It is a part of a patriarchal system where parents believe they know what is best."

A new act is to be introduced this year that will allow judges more power to remove victims of abuses connected with forced marriage from households and issue protection orders. Family members who break the protection orders could be arrested.

Government officials are to also investigate requests for sponsorships on visas. If forced marriages occur overseas, officials can work to return British nationals home and arrange for accommodation and legal help.

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In Oxford, Muslim call to prayer sounds strained note

http://news.smh.com.au/in-oxford-muslim-call-to-prayer-sounds-strained-note/20080316-1zqt.html

Famous for its university and quintessentially English "dreaming spires," the city of Oxford has been plunged into controversy over the sound of Muslim call to prayer from a local mosque.

Those church spires have been joined by a minaret, with a loudspeaker on top which has triggered protests from locals concerned about the influx of a foreign culture.

"I don't have any problem with Islam but don't force it on people," said Oxford University historian Allan Chapman, whose typically English house has a view of both the minaret and the nearby Church of Saint Mary and Saint John.

The Central Mosque was built in the east of the city, the "other Oxford", which is home to a poorer population and more immigrants than the historic centre of ancient, sandstone colleges, libraries and students on bicycles.

Cutting through the area is the main, multi-ethnic thoroughfare of Cowley Road, where Pakistani men in traditional tunics and other immigrants rub shoulders with the city's student intelligentsia going to and from their digs.

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Bin Laden threatens EU over cartoons

http://news.smh.com.au/bin-laden-threatens-eu-over-cartoons/20080320-20lp.html

Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has threatened the European Union with grave punishment over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

In an audio recording posted on the internet, bin Laden said the cartoons were part of a "crusade" in which he said the Catholic Pope Benedict XVI was involved.

Bin Laden's message was entitled "The Response Will Be What You See, Not What You Hear", according to the password-protected Ekhlaas Web, which carries messages and statements from al-Qaeda-affiliated groups around the world.

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Indonesian Internet companies block Web sites over Quran film

http://news.smh.com.au/indonesian-internet-companies-block-web-sites-over-quran-film/20080408-24lw.html

At least three Internet companies say they have blocked access to YouTube and MySpace because of an anti-Islam film by a Dutch lawmaker.

The move Tuesday was in response to an order by the Indonesian government.

IndosatM2, a popular Internet Service Provider, and two other companies said they had temporarily blocked YouTube, MySpace and three other video-sharing Web sites.

It was not immediately clear if the country's other seven or so providers were following suit.