The Nahmias Cipher Report

To all of our Muslim readers we would like to wish you a very Happy Ramadan.  Having just broken the fast with our dear friends from Tunisia, we are privileged to have had the opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to diversity and the values of religious tolerance that we espouse. “Toleration isn’t much. But it [...]

Ayanna Nahmias, Editor-in-Chief Last Modified: 02:12 AM EDT, 15 June 2011 BAHRAIN – This post is about Meriam Al Khalifa who is a young Saudi Arabian woman who eloped with an American serviceman and left her home in Bahrain during the night without the consent or knowledge of her family. The picture to the right [...]

After the release of information by the American government which claims that pornography was discovered on Osama Bin Laden’s computer, the idea of pornography in Islamic nations shouldn’t be strange. In fact, I wrote a post titled “Sex for Sale from Moldova to Dubai,” which deals with the topic of human trafficking and sex slaves from former Eastern Bloc countries who end up working across Europe and the Middle East.

But even researching these abuses I had never heard of “Granny Porn.” The term evoked an image of an elderly frail grandmother with white hair engaged in non-consensual sex. In fact, because of the lead-in I thought that Dr. Drew was going to focus on the issue of the rape of elderly women in nursing homes.

In front of the White House and at Ground “0″ in New York, crowds gathered in jubilation and celebration of the fact that after ten years and two presidencies the most reviled man in Western American history was dead. To the victor goes the spoils and according to Winston Churchill, “history is written by the victors. But in the joy and ebullience of the vanquishment of this iconic figure, Americans must remember to guard against the promises of “war………as it makes the victor stupid and the vanquished revengeful.” ~ Frederick Nietzsche.

Hello. I read your recent article about stoning to death. Reading your article reminded me of the bleeding bruises in my heart once again.

You wrote about murdering by stoning?

Have you ever held a bloody tool in your hands with which they have murdered your mother?
Have you ever touched the bloody skin and hair of your mother who has just been killed in a deep hole?
Have you ever followed the line of your mother’s blood in order to find her corpse thrown at the back of a truck?

This year observant Muslims will celebrate Ramadan at sunset Tuesday, 10 August 2010 and will continue for 30 days until Thursday, the 9th of September. The Islamic calendar is lunar and each new day begins at sundown of the day before. Although many of the world’s one billion Muslims are celebrating Ramadan tonight, here in North America it will begin on Thursday, 12 August 2010.

Ramadan is the ninth and holiest month in the Islamic calendar. For the next 30 days, believers will abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and having sex from dawn to dusk. For Muslims, Ramadan marks the month during which God, through the angel Gibril (Gabreal), revealed the Qur’an to the Prophet Muhammad. This in itself is reason enough to write a post; however, I would like to combine this joyous occasion with a brief commentary on the disturbing trend toward xenophobia by the American public and media.

I am speaking about the latest furor surrounding the construction of a New York City cultural center which will also include a mosque which is being erected at the former site of the World Trade Center known as ‘Ground Zero.’

Of course silence is an option, but is it moral? “From woman, man is born; within woman, man is conceived; to woman he is engaged and married. Woman becomes his friend; through woman, the future generations come. When his woman dies, he seeks another woman; to woman he is bound. So why call her bad? From her, kings are born. From woman, woman is born; without woman, there would be no one at all.” ~ Guru Nanak, 15th Century Founder of Sikhism

Ever wondered how Arabic women seem to possess the most beautiful eyes? Well, turns out that it is an art used to enhance their most visible feature. For traditional Muslim women who choose to wear the Hijab, Burqa, or Bui Bui, eye makeup provides the means for dramatic expressiveness.
It is a way for these beautiful women to communicate their unique individuality. Sometimes in the West we view these women as oppressed victims devoid of creativity or freedom. The beautiful eye makeup featured in the video above contradicts this gross generalization, because these are not objects of derision, they are women; and if we diminish and define them by an outer garment, then we are no better than the men we criticize.

Ayanna Nahmias, Editor-in-Chief Last Modified: 23:25 PM EDT, 29 May 2010 IRAN – Five Kurdish political prisoners were executed 9 May 2010 in Iran. One of the prisoners was a young woman named Shirin Alam Holi. Arrested in May 2008 in Tehran, the twenty-eight year old was sentenced to death for her alleged support of [...]