The girl and the mullah

Shabana Rehman is a Norwegian-Pakistani stand-up comedian, who is known for making fun of Islam's medieval view of women.

For his reason, a new Danish union, Kvinder for Frihed (women for freedom) wanted to hire Ms. Rehman for the International Women's Day this Wednesday. The director of the Betty Nansen theatre, Henrik Hartmann , liked to idea to begin with, but then he got cold feet and rejected the offer. He later told Politiken (Danish text) that it was neither censorship nor self-censorship, but that "it was an artistic decision to say no thanks".

According to the mail Henrik Hartmann sent to Kvinder for Frihed, he regards Shabana Rehman as a both interesting and fantastic stand-up comedian, and his refusal has nothing to do with her artistic level. But she cannot stand as the only voice in connection with an arrangement at the theatre. The Theatre's performances are based on »as wide a richness of nuances of attitudes as possible«.

Apparently the message is that whenever an artist ridicules Islam's view on women, it must be followed by another artist with a positive point-of-view. Jyllands-Posten (Danish text) chides Henrik Hartmann for not being able to call a spade a spade, but instead calling the spade an "artistic decision".

One person, who might take umbrage at Shabana Rehman's performance, is the Norwegian Mullah Krekar whom she lifted on television two years ago: Krekar furious after lift-up stunt. According to Politiken (Danish text) Rehman's argument was that a man lifted by a women cannot be a fundamentalist. The mad Mullah got madder, grabbed the microphone and and exploded: »Just as I don't have the right to lift her, she hasn't the right to lift me or grab me. She displays contempt for me, Why doesn't she kiss me, now that she's started? My wife is here in the audience - what will happen if these pictures are shown to an imam?«"

Mullah Krekar then demanded that all photographers should destroy their photos - and some of them complied. The Mullah then reported the incident to the police, attacked a journalist, forgave Rehman and the police dropped the case

Mullah Krekar is sentenced to 15 years prison in Jordan for his connections with al-Qaeda. Last summer, the Norwegians considered expelling Krekar for security reasons. He was quoted for calling bin Laden "Islam's jewel", but Krekar defended himself by claiming that he called all true believers for "Islam's jewel".

It would appear the Krekar was not expelled. One month ago he was still enjoying Norwegian protection and presumably living on Norwegian welfare, while he declared war against Denmark and Norway: "The war has begun, [. . .] It does not matter if the governments of Norway and Denmark apologize, the war is on."

Click the mouse and let Rehman lift Krekar. More details about the Mullah's up-lifting experince at Dhimmi Watch and Faith Freedom.