Jihad Watch

Still more misunderstanders of the Religion of Peace

Will the Islamophobia never end? "Terrorists admit plot to bomb London Stock Exchange and US Embassy," by Duncan Gardham for the Telegraph, February 1 (thanks to David):

Four al-Qaeda inspired terrorists have pleaded guilty to plotting a Christmas bomb attack on the London Stock Exchange, the American embassy and the home of London Mayor Boris Johnson.

Two of the men conducted a surveillance trip around central London and also talked about launching a Mumbai-style attack on Parliament.

A “target list” was found at the home of the ring-leader which listed the names and addresses of Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, as well as two Rabbis and the American Embassy. It had on it the letters ‘LXC’ for London Stock Exchange.

Torn pieces of paper showed a sketch of what is believed to be a car bomb.

Three other men met with the plotters and planned to travel abroad to get more training before returning to launch further attacks. Another two men pleaded guilty to associated charges.

The men, from London, Stoke and Cardiff, were inspired by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular (AQAP) and used their English-language magazine Inspire as a guide.

In Stoke the gang talked about attacking local pubs and clubs but decided to travel abroad to get more training.

In East London, Mohammed Chowdhury, 21, the ring leader, and Shah Rahman, 29, were under surveillance as they toured central London sites for six hours between 3.30pm and 9.30pm on November 28 2010.

They got off a bus in Trafalgar Square and walked along Whitehall towards Westminster. They were observed looking at Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, Blackfriars Bridge and the Church of Scientology on Queen Victoria Street.

After visiting a McDonalds restaurant on Cannon Street in the City of London, the two men boarded a bus back towards East London.

In the bedroom at Chowdhury’s flat in the Isle of Dogs, police found a handwritten target list on a folded piece of A4 paper on the computer desk.

The Stoke group have their origins in Pakistan, while the London and Cardiff groups were originally from Bangladesh.

The three groups were inspired by Anwar al-Awlaki, one of the leaders of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular, who died in a drone attack last year.

The defendants made contact with each other through dawah – proselytising - or by Paltalk or other internet messaging.

Meetings took place in November and December 2010 at which the defendants planned to use explosive devices to attack significant locations in London and around the country.

Their plans could be carried out without much preparation and were very difficult to intercept, sources said.

The London and Cardiff groups were keen to act quickly, at first talking about sending mail bombs through the Royal Mail and then deciding on a plan to set off bombs in the toilets of the stock exchange.

The Stoke group talked about persuading others to take bombs into pubs in their area so that they would explode.

Abdul Miah, 25, said to be at the centre of the Cardiff gang, and his brother Omar Latif, 28, pleaded guilty to taking part in the Stock Exchange plot. Gurukanth Desai, 30, pleaded guilty to attending meetings.

Mohibur Rahman, 27, from Stoke pleaded guilty to possession of a document containing information useful to a person preparing an act of terrorism.

The charges relate to two editions of al-Qaeda’s English language Inspire magazine.

Usman Khan, 20, Mohammed Shahjahan, 27, and Nazam Hussain, 26, all from Stoke pleaded guilty to preparing acts of terrorism....

If the Western intelligentsia takes notice of this at all, it will be to excoriate the "bigotry" and "provocation" by the Christians at the carnival, and to call for restrictions on the freedom of speech to guard against "denigration of religion." No one will call on the Muslim community to stop reacting with violence to mockery, but to accept the fact that in a pluralistic society, some people will do things to which they object, and the proper response is genuine tolerance, not arson and riots.

"Church set on fire after carnival," from the UKPA, January 31:

An Orthodox Christian church famed for its valuable icons was set alight in southern Macedonia overnight amid religious tension between Christians and minority Muslims over a carnival in which Orthodox Christian men dressed as women in burkas and mocked the Koran.

Firefighters extinguished the fire on Monday night in the two century-old Sveti Nikola church, near the town of Struga. The church's roof was destroyed but its icons were not damaged, the fire service said.

Hours before the fire, Muslim leaders had appealed for calm among community members.

The January 13 Vevcani festival prompted angry, sometimes violent demonstrations by Muslims, who are nearly all ethnic Albanian and make up 33% of the country's 2.1 million population and accuse the majority of stoking hatred against them.

Maybe if they cut back on the violent demonstrations and church burnings, they'd find the majority hating them less.

Ethnic tension has been simmering in this small Balkan country since the end of an armed rebellion in 2001, when ethnic Albanian rebels fought government forces for about eight months, seeking greater rights for their community. The conflict left 80 people dead, and ended with the intervention of Nato peacekeepers.

The Vevcani carnival, said to have been held for some 1,400 years, attracts thousands of visitors. Local residents traditionally wear elaborate, frequently sarcastic masks, with some of the most common costumes including devils and demons.

But this year's perceived mockery of the Koran and the burka costumes caused outrage.

On Saturday, protesters attacked an inter-city bus heading from Struga to Vevcani, throwing rocks at the vehicle but injuring nobody. They also defaced a Macedonian flag outside Struga's municipal building, replacing it with a green flag representing Islam. On the same day, perpetrators attacked a church in the nearby village of Labunista, destroying a cross standing outside.

Macedonian Muslim leaders called for restraint but also accused the government of promoting Islamophobia.

Deputy Prime Minister Musa Xhaferi said such incidents "create discord" and "violate mutual respect and trust."

When the uprising was useful to them, they did not hinder it, and they supported it. Now they've got a good thing going and the usefulness of the revolution and of public dissent as a means to an end has run its course, unless the Ikhwan decides to leverage it against the military in its own power struggle. "Egypt Islamists stop protesters on way to parliament," from Agence France Presse, January 31:

CAIRO — Hundreds of Egyptian protesters demanding the end of military rule were prevented on Tuesday from reaching parliament by backers of the Muslim Brotherhood, which holds the majority in the assembly.

"We are standing here as a human shield, because if the protesters go any further, they will clash with the police. They want to enter parliament, what do you expect me to do?" Muslim Brotherhood member Hamdy Adbdelsamad told AFP.

Behind him, anti-military protesters chanted against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces that took power when Hosni Mubarak was ousted by a popular uprising last year.

Activists had called for a march from Cairo's Tahrir Square -- the symbolic heart of the Egyptian uprising -- to parliament to press the newly-elected MPs to implement the goals of the revolution.

They want the ouster of the military junta, an end to the military trials of civilians, the restructuring of the interior ministry and a guarantee of freedoms and social justice.
Islamist and secular protesters stood side by side in Tahrir Square during the 18 days of protests that toppled Mubarak in early 2011.

But tensions have risen between them since parliamentary elections propelled the long-banned Muslim Brotherhood to the centre stage of politics, with its Freedom and Justice Party now controling 47 percent of the assembly.

Secular protesters accuse the Islamists colluding with the ruling military to maintain their new-found power.

"Badie, you are selling the revolution!" the anti-military protesters chanted, in reference to Mohammed Badie, the Islamist movement's supreme guide.

"The Muslim Brotherhood youth are blocking all roads to the parliament, preventing the anti-military protesters... There are huge numbers of them standing in rows like militias," one anti military protester told AFP....

Muhammad said: "I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslim." - Sahih Muslim 19.4366.

Of course, it would be bad for business for the Saudis to say they're giving them the boot for daring to gather in prayer and worship, so they have invoked another rule, against the mingling unrelated men and women. Not that they look any less ridiculous for it.

Once again, just for fun, someone should tell authorities that a man of Jewish background has slipped into the country and, according to local reports, is in the habit of joining these gatherings "wherever two or three" come together. It could make for a good all-points bulletin, not to mention the subsequent headline: "Saudis desperate to find Jesus."

An update on this story. "Ethiopian Christians to be deported from Saudi Arabia," from BBC News, January 31:

Some 35 Ethiopian Christians face deportation from Saudi Arabia for "illicit mingling", the global rights body Human Rights Watch (HRW) says.

Police arrested the group - including 29 women - after raiding a prayer meeting in the second city of Jeddah.

The women were subjected to strip searches and the men beaten and called "unbelievers", according to HRW.

In 2006, the Saudi government promised to stop interfering with private worship by non-Muslims.

The group was arrested in a private home as they gathered to pray during the run-up to Christmas, celebrated by Ethiopian Orthodox Christians on 7 January.

HRW spoke to a man and two women by telephone from the prisons where they are being held.

They say they have been charged with mixing with unmarried persons of the opposite sex - even though HRW says Saudi Arabia has no law defining "illicit mingling".

Mixing of the sexes is not allowed in public - but normally permitted in private unless for "the purpose of corruption", according to the religious police.

The ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom bans the practice of any religion except Islam - but in recent years pledged to leave people of other faiths alone if they worshipped in private homes....

Talk is cheap, and "war is deceit."

It won't be the Afghan government that fills the security vacuum. As became the template for the decade to follow in other countries, the U.S. greatly underestimated the Afghan population's support for the Taliban, for Sharia, and for jihad for the sake of imposing it. That is in large part because the U.S. greatly underestimated the content of Sharia, accepting a sugar-coated, vapor-ware Sharia -- what is at best an academic, drawing-board conception of what Sharia, could, would, or should be according to agenda-driven apologists, and at worst an outright lie -- as what it really has been in practice all these centuries.

"Taliban "poised to retake Afghanistan" after NATO," by Hamid Shalizi and Mirwais Harooni for Reuters, February 1:

KABUL (Reuters) - The U.S. military said in a secret report that the Taliban, backed by Pakistan, are set to retake control of Afghanistan after NATO-led forces withdraw, raising the prospect of a major failure of Western policy after a costly war.

Lieutenant Colonel Jimmie Cummings, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, confirmed the existence of the document, reported on Wednesday by Britain's Times newspaper and the BBC.

But he said it was not a strategic study.

"The classified document in question is a compilation of Taliban detainee opinions," he said. "It's not an analysis, nor is it meant to be considered an analysis."

Nevertheless, it could be interpreted as a damning assessment of the war, dragging into its 11th year and aimed at blocking a Taliban return to power.

It could also be seen as an admission of defeat and could reinforce the view of Taliban hardliners that they should not negotiate with the United States and President Hamid Karzai's unpopular government while in a position of strength.

The U.S. military report could boost the Taliban's confidence and make its leaders less willing to make concessions on demands for a ceasefire, and for the insurgency to renounce violence and break ties to al Qaeda.

But Britain's Kabul Ambassador William Patey wrote on his Twitter feed that "if elements of the Taliban think that in 2015 they can take control of Afghanistan they will be in for a shock." He did not say if he was referring to the document.

Hours after the Times report, the Afghan Taliban said that no peace negotiation process had been agreed with the international community, "particularly the Americans."

More on this story.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement that prior to any negotiations, confidence building measures must be completed, putting pressure on Washington to meet demands for the release of five Taliban in U.S. custody.

The hardline Islamist movement also said it had no plans to hold preliminary peace talks with Afghanistan's government in Saudi Arabia, dismissing media reports of talks in the kingdom.

The U.S. military said in the document that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) security agency was assisting the Taliban in directing attacks against foreign forces.

Reasserting control over the country would be more difficult a second time for the
Taliban, however, with Afghan police and soldiers expected to number about 350,000 beyond 2014 and some foreign troops likely to remain, including elite forces.

It seems all but miraculous that no one has claimed "Pakistanophobia" as the root of these reports of Pakistan's double game. "Secret NATO Taliban report revives Pakistan fears," by Nick Paton Walsh for CNN, February 1:

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Pakistan continues to support the Taliban in Afghanistan, a secret NATO report says, according to a journalist who has read it, despite years of Pakistani denials and American pressure to stop backing the insurgency

The Taliban depend on Pakistan for support, even though they do not necessarily welcome it, Times of London reporter Jerome Starkey said Wednesday, citing the report.

The leaked NATO document revives the longstanding accusation that elements in Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence agency are aiding the insurgency in Afghanistan.

It says the ISI knows the whereabouts of all senior Taliban commanders, Starkey said.

"It is a marriage of convenience," he said. The Taliban see Pakistan as manipulative, but they see no alternative to accepting its support, he said.

The Taliban are absolutely confident of victory, he said the report found, based on 27,000 interviews with more than 4,000 detainees ranging from senior Taliban commanders to Afghan civilians.

They also include mid- and low-level Taliban, al Qaeda, and foreign fighters, he said.

NATO downplayed the importance of the report Wednesday, after it was leaked, while Pakistan rejected key conclusions entirely....

Pakistan's number-one export in 2011 was angry denials.

Just days ago, it had sounded like this plan had faltered when the Taliban refused to agree to a cease-fire before starting talks. These are no small fish, either; some are prominent detainees considered "high-risk." It is less clear from this report whether their release would be part of a quid-pro-quo exchange of actions for actions, or closer to earlier reports that spoke of nebulous "confidence building" measures and appeared to offer U.S. actions in exchange for pledges from the Taliban.

"US confirms possible release of Taliban from Gitmo," by Ann Gearan and Kimberly Dozier for the Associated Press, January 31:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. intelligence officials acknowledged Tuesday that the United States may release several Afghan Taliban prisoners from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as an incentive to bring the Taliban to peace talks.

Meanwhile, Afghan officials told The Associated Press that a plan to give Afghanistan a form of legal custody over the men if they are released satisfied their earlier objection to sending the prisoners to a third country.

Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper told Congress Tuesday that no decision had been made on whether to trade the five Taliban prisoners, now held at Guantanamo Bay as part of nascent peace talks with the Taliban. He and CIA Director David Petraeus did not dispute that the Obama administration is considering

transferring the five to a third country.

U.S. officials and others had previously spoken only vaguely, and usually anonymously, about the proposal to send the prisoners to Qatar, a Persian Gulf country that has asserted a central role in framing talks that might end the 10-year war in Afghanistan. The lead U.S. negotiator trying to coax the Taliban into talks had also publicly acknowledged the possibility of a release, but said there was no final decision.

The prisoners proposed for transfer include some of the detainees brought to Guantanamo during the initial days and weeks of the U.S. invasion that toppled the Taliban government in Afghanistan in 2001. At least one has been accused in the massacre of thousands of Shiite Muslims in Afghanistan, according to U.S. and other assessments, but none are accused of directly killing Americans.

"I don't think anybody harbors any illusions about it, but I think the position is to at least explore the potential for negotiating with them as a part of this overall resolution of the situation in Afghanistan," Clapper said during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.

The Obama administration has recently embraced the possibility of negotiation with the Taliban much more openly, saying that although they remain cautious they are also encouraged that the militants may be ready to bargain. Peace talks, if they come to pass, would include the elected Afghan government and, at least at the outset, representatives of the U.S. government. With nearly 100,000 troops in Afghanistan and a war and development budget in the billions of dollars, the U.S. remains the largest power broker in Afghanistan.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai supports a prisoner release as a means to build confidence among the Taliban militants that talks are worthwhile, but he had balked at the U.S.-backed plan to send them to Qatar instead of home to Afghanistan. That plan appeared to undercut his authority and offend Afghan sovereignty, Afghan officials said. Karzai yanked his ambassador from Qatar, saying Qatar had not kept him properly informed....

Mohammmad Shafia murdered his daughters and his first wife and then raged about his daughters: "God's curse on them for generations....There can be no treachery, no violation more than this. They committed treason from beginning to end. They betrayed humankind. They betrayed Islam."

Midday Monday I got this email, with the subject line "URGENT: NBC Nightly News Request":

Message: Hi there—

My name is Shannon Urtnowski and I work with NBC Nightly News. We are working on a spot for tonight about honor killings, and I understand this is on the rise in American, among other countries. We were hoping to speak with an expert who can tell us more about this today. IF you can please reach out to me just as soon as possible, I would
appreciate it.

Many thanks--

Shannon Urtnowski
NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams

I emailed her back, and she responded: "We'd like to try to see if we might be able to set up a camera interview with you in a bit." We spoke on the phone, and I explained to her the information that you can find here: that Islamic law stipulates no penalty for a parent who kills his child, and several Muslim countries have relaxed penalties for honor killings, with Islamic clerics resisting attempts to stiffen those penalties. I also gave her information on other Islamic honor killings in the U.S. and Canada: Noor Almaleki, the Said sisters, Aqsa Parvez, Jessica Mokdad, etc.

Urtnowski took it all in and told me she would set up studio time for me to be interviewed on this. She even asked me for contact information for a nearby studio, which I gave her. But shortly thereafter, Urtnowski called me back and said that NBC had decided to go with an expert closer to the correspondent's Chicago location, and so I wouldn't be appearing after all.

I was not at all surprised by that, of course. Nor was I surprised when NBC's story aired and it contained no mention of Islam, despite Mohammad Shafia's own words, but instead spoke about "patriarchal societies" and the Shafias' "strict religious family," religion unspecified. See the Newsbusters report here.

There was nothing surprising in NBC's coverage of the Shafia murders at all. It was just another example of how the mainstream media routinely whitewashes Islamic violence, and essentially lies to the public about the nature, extent and magnitude of that violence. It is no wonder that the public is thereby rendered largely clueless and complacent, and that Islamic honor killings are occurring with increasing frequency in the West, with no one daring to challenge the Muslim community to work against the beliefs that give rise to them.

In FrontPage this morning, I discuss the Taliban's recent efforts to present a kinder, gentler face to the West:

Apparently the Taliban are softening, even allowing girls to get an education. Clearly this heralds an opening to the West, a heady indication that their most repressive days are past them, and that soon they will take their place among the free people of the earth. Soon they will be following the teachings of Naomi Wolf and Thomas Paine.

Yaroslav Trofimov, in a piece that ran Sunday in the Wall Street Journal, noted that Maulvi Qalamuddin, who headed the Committee to Protect Virtue and Prevent Vice back when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, has completely changed his tune regarding the education of girls. Where once he oversaw the shutting-down, sometimes violently, of girls’ schools, now he says: “Education for women is just as necessary as education for men. In Islam, men and women have the same duty to pray, to fast—and to seek learning.”

Anyone who believes this, or believes that Maulvi Qalamuddin believes it, should contact me, as I have a lovely bridge to sell you. “War is deceit,” said Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, according to a famous hadith, and the Taliban are listening. But the Taliban are to be forgiven for thinking that this sort of thing would play well in Washington, for it very likely will. After all, Joe Biden is still the Vice President – the amiable dunce who recently said: “Look, the Taliban per se is not our enemy. That’s critical. There is not a single statement that the president has ever made in any of our policy assertions that the Taliban is our enemy because it threatens U.S. interests. If, in fact, the Taliban is able to collapse the existing government, which is cooperating with us in keeping the bad guys from being able to do damage to us, then that becomes a problem for us.”

In other words, the Taliban might win, so we have to surrender and act as if we’re just fine with that. And the alternative? Hamid Karzai, who got so annoyed with his American patrons last year that he threatened to join the Taliban himself. The Karzai government, that has been so helpful in “cooperating with us in keeping the bad guys from being able to do damage to us” that an increasing number of American and allied soldiers have recently fallen victim to surprise attacks from Afghan army forces that are supposed to be on our side....

Read it all.

Yesterday afternoon Human Events posted my piece about recent shameful events in New York:

The mainstream media, led by the New York Times, and the Islamic supremacist Hamas-linked hate group the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) are doing all they can to whip up a frenzy about the NYPD’s showing of a relatively tepid but accurate counter-terror film, The Third Jihad, to police officers.

Lost in the hysteria is the question of whether there is anything inaccurate or false in the film – yet those who are demanding apologies and reeducation from the NYPD have demonstrated not one inaccuracy in it. No one who is protesting against this film is going beyond the claim that it is “Islamophobic.”

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg immediately apologized, saying that showing the film to New York police officers manifested “terrible judgment.” Police commissioner Raymond Kelly apologized also: “I offer my apologies to members of the Muslim community, in particular, who would find the film inflammatory and its airing on department property, though unauthorized, to be inappropriate.”

In a sane world, Kelly and Bloomberg would not be apologizing at all. They’d be saying, “Yes, we showed the film, and we’re going to keep showing it, and what of it? If the Muslims in New York are upset about it being inaccurate, let them demonstrate its inaccuracy by taking positive steps to fight in their own community against the stealth jihad activity that the film documents.”

For the whole controversy is predicated on the assumption that The Third Jihad is whipping up hysteria about a non-existent threat. In reality, it covers much the same ground that I cover in my book Stealth Jihad, in which I show that the agenda of infiltration and subversion on the part of the Muslim Brotherhood and its allied groups is very real.

In a captured internal Muslim Brotherhood document, Brotherhood operatives in the U.S. are told that they “must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and “sabotaging” its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”

And at a Muslim event in California in 1998, CAIR cofounder and longtime Board chairman Omar Ahmad was quoted as saying: “Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth.”

Nor are these isolated statements. Yet the initial New York Times article about the showing of this film, as well as all the coverage that has followed, was based on the assumption that no Muslim in the U.S. believes or acts upon such ideas. And the Times deplored that “at least 1,489 police officers, from lieutenants to detectives to patrol officers, saw the film.” Apparently they will all need to be reeducated.

Instead of considering whether or not the film is accurate, the mainstream media has scolded Bloomberg and Kelly for their failure to reach out to New York’s Muslim community. But here again, in a sane world, the Mayor and the NYPD would not be expected to reach out to the Muslim community and prove their good will. The Muslim community would be reaching out to the Mayor and the NYPD, eager to prove its good will. And the Mayor and the NYPD would be telling Hamas-linked CAIR that its counterterror cooperation was not enough, instead of letting this execrable Islamic supremacist Hamas front dictate New York City’s counterterror operations.

But now CAIR smells blood, and is going in for the kill. They’ve announced that Kelly’s apology was not enough, and are calling for his resignation. They’ve already succeeded, courtesy of Barack Obama’s compliant Justice Department, in eliminating any truth about Islam and jihad from national FBI training, and are now trying to eliminate it everywhere.

The outcome will be a cadre of agents and police officers full of politically correct nonsense that will render them clueless, complacent, weak and supine in the face of jihad activity. And so the jihad in the U.S. will advance unimpeded.

And so New York, by means of this controversy, is on the verge of taking yet another decisive step toward completely banning the truth about jihad and Islamic supremacism, thereby rendering New Yorkers, and all Americans, more vulnerable than ever to that jihad.

I appeared tonight on the Michael Coren Show on Sun TV and discussed the Shafia honor killings and the media whitewash of Islam's role in them.

Video courtesy Blazing Cat Fur.

No doubt it never entered their mind that he was anything but a "moderate."

An update on this story. "US, UN Helped Colo. Man Now Accused of Terrorism," from the Associated Press, January 31 (thanks to Kenneth):

A man from Uzbekistan that the United States and the United Nations helped relocate to Colorado now faces a terrorism charge.

Jamshid Muhtorov opposed his home country's dictator following a 2005 massacre, endured a brutal detention, and saw his sister arrested on a false murder charge. The 35-year-old fled his country by night dressed as a woman, and the U.S. and the U.N. helped bring him to Aurora in 2007.

Now, he's accused of providing material support and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic Jihad Union. The violent group opposes the Uzbek government and has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.

Authorities arrested Muhtorov in Chicago on Jan. 21, the Denver Post reported Tuesday ( http://bit.ly/yHsRIF ).

Federal authorities say the Islamic Jihad Union has claimed responsibility for attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan, including a March 2008 suicide attack on a U.S. base. The group is also blamed for carrying out simultaneous suicide bombings of the U.S. and Israeli embassies and a prosecutor's office in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

"It is a crime, and has been a crime for many years, to provide material support for a designated terrorist organization, the IJU," said Dean Boyd, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington. "Our job is to enforce the law."

The FBI said Muhtorov communicated with a contact with the IJU by email using code words, asking to be invited to the "wedding." He also told the contact that he was "ready for any task, even with the risk of dying," the FBI said.

Authorities said there was no evidence that Muhtorov planned any attacks within the U.S....

American officials had described Muhtorov as a human rights worker whose activism began while he was trying to make a living in his home city, Jizzak. He ran up against corrupt officials expecting payments, which is common in Uzbekistan, and spoke out....

During this time, he worked closely with Human Rights Watch....

Muhtorov and his family resettled in Aurora, a Denver suburb, and obtained a job as a truck driver....

Muhtorov's colleagues at the UZ Auto Trans company, where he hauled cars for dealers to destinations across the country, knew that he opposed the Uzbek regime.

"I knew him as a good guy. Praying. He never talked bad about the U.S. Maybe he was angry with the regime back in Uzbekistan," said Ishmael Abdubafour, a former truck driver with the company. "He had the long beard and stuff, but that doesn't mean anything. We see a lot of people who have the beard. He was very gentle."

A decent fellow.

Another defeat for the freedom of speech and another victory for Hamas-linked Islamic supremacist thugs -- courtesy the U.S. Military. "CAIR pressures retired general, critic of Islam, to back out of West Point event," by Caroline May for the Daily Caller, January 31 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

The Council on American-Islamic Relations announced Monday night that it had successfully prevented retired Lieutenant General William G. “Jerry” Boykin from speaking at an upcoming prayer breakfast at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

“We welcome Mr. Boykin’s withdrawal from this event and hope that the speaker who replaces him will offer cadets a spiritual message that promotes tolerance and mutual understanding,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad in a statement.

West Point initially balked at the calls to remove Boykin — a former military intelligence officer — from the event.

Lt. Col. Sherri Reed of West Point told The Associated Press that cadets are “purposefully exposed to different perspectives and cultures.”

“The National Prayer Breakfast Service will be pluralistic with Christians, Jewish, and Muslim cadets participating,” Reed said. “We are comfortable and confident that what retired Lt. Gen. Boykin will share about prayer, soldier care and selfless service, will be in keeping with the broad range of ideas normally considered by our cadets.”

Boykin backed out of the event on his own volition, according to a report from Fox News.

The retired lieutenant general has been on CAIR’s radar for casting Islam in a poor light, specifically in speeches in which he analogizing the War on Terror to a war against Satan....

I recently spoke at a conference sponsored by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), held at the Sheraton hotel in Framingham, Massachusetts. Titled “The Persecuted Church: Christian Believers in Peril in the Middle East,” Part 1 of my talk follows:

Click for Part 2 and Part 3.

I just received an email from a friend who lives in Egypt, which ends with the following anecdote:

I went to the veggies market last Friday, I usually go on Friday anyway, but this time for the first time the merchants stopped selling anything when they heard the call for prayer!!! Most of them left their young kids to watch over the goods and they went to pray. Most of the customers also disappeared and the few like me who were oblivious to the “New Misrstan” had to wander around aimlessly and wait for those idiots to return! It was unbelievable, suddenly we are living in Saudi or Afghanistan without the need for a passport or a visa.

“Misrstan” is a play on words meaning “Egyptistan” — as in, “Afghanistan,” “Pakistan” — you know, all those extra “pious” Muslim nations. And of course, where Muslim prayers are practiced with rigidity, you can rest assured any number of other “pious” practices — such as hatred for infidels, including in the prayers — are also being upheld. Anyway, this is but another subtle example, directly from the ground, of how Egypt continues to change.

This is about control, and maintaining dependence. Al Shabaab wants no challenges from any entity operating independently of its control that may in any way facilitate a challenge to its authority.

Hungry people can't fight back. "Somalia's al-Shabab militants ban Red Cross aid work," from BBC News, January 30 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

Somalia's al-Shabab militants have banned the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from operating in parts of the country it controls.

The Islamist group said the ICRC had falsely accused them of blocking aid and had been handing out unfit food.

Al-Shabab controls large parts of south and central Somalia, which is suffering its worst drought in decades.

The ICRC, one of the few aid agencies operating there, said it had not heard about the ban.

The agency had suspended food distribution earlier this month saying militants had blocked supply routes, but it was still providing emergency care and water programmes.

Al-Shabab had already halted the work of several aid agencies working in the famine-hit region, including some from the UN. It accused them of exaggerating the scale of the problems for political reasons, and trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.

In a statement, it said the ICRC had "repeatedly betrayed the trust conferred on it by the local population and, in recent weeks, falsely accused the mujahideen [al-Shabab fighters] of hindering food distribution".

The group said 70% of food it had inspected in ICRC warehouses was unfit for human consumption, and that it had since destroyed nearly 2,000 tonnes of "expired" rations.

Baloney. Aid work depends on non-perishable, shelf-stable rations. And even if this were the case, if you were starving, if the date said, say, "Best before November 2011," would you care? If Al-Shabaab were starving, would they care?

Somalia is said to be one of the world's most dangerous places for aid workers to operate. It has not had a functioning central government for more than 20 years and has been wracked by fighting between various militias.

The UN-backed government runs only a few areas, including the capital, Mogadishu, which al-Shabab withdrew from in August.

The UN says the areas worst affected by famine are in the southern and central areas, which are under the control of the al-Qaeda linked group.

In recent weeks, al-Shabab has lost ground to both Kenyan and Ethiopian forces, which have moved onto Somali territory.

No one can claim this one was taken out of context. This is from Iran's own English-language propaganda outlet. "'ME nations battling Zionist autocracy'," from PressTV, January 30:

Ayatollah Khamenei said the Zionists, US, and Western powers feel weak in the face of Islamic Awakening and “this feeling of weakness and defeat will grow by the day.”

The Leader said humanity is standing at a critical juncture and is on the verge of a “grand development.”

“Humanity has passed all material and ideological schools such as Marxism, Liberal Democracy and Secular Nationalism and is at the beginning of a new era,” the Leader said.

Ayatollah Khamenei further urged the revolutionary youths to vigilantly guard the fruit of their efforts and not allow arrogant powers to “hijack” and “derail” their revolutions.

The Leader stressed that despite social, historical and geographical differences, Muslim nations are “everyone is against the satanic US and Israeli dominance and cannot tolerate the cancerous tumor of Israel.”

Ayatollah Khamenei made the remarks in a meeting with foreign guests participating in the "Islamic Awakening and Youth Conference" in Tehran. The two-day event kicked off on Sunday with some 15-hundred participants from 73 countries.

The conference mainly focuses on the pivotal role of the youth in the wave of Islamic Awakening that is sweeping through the Middle East and North Africa.

Probably. "Brotherhood would cancel Camp David Agreement, says Hezbollah official," by Haitham Dabbour for Al Masri Al Youm, January 30:

Tehran — Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood will eventually cancel the Camp David Agreement, despite the group’s announcement that it respects international agreements Egypt has signed, said Amin al-Sayed Ibrahim, head of Hezbollah’s political council.

Speaking to the “International Conference on Islamic Awakening and the Youths,” Ibrahim said that the Egyptian military, so as not to lose its clout, would never allow the Brotherhood to write the constitution or even form a constituent assembly to write the constitution.

Following their electoral victories in Parliament, Egypt's most organized political group has offered assurances that it would respect the 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

When asked early this month whether Washington believed that the Islamist party would uphold the treaty, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that the party "has made commitments to us in this regard.”

That and 50 cents will get you... 50 cents. They may have noticed that the Ikhwan's message changes with its audience.

Ibrahim said that the current unrest in Syria is a conspiracy and not a revolution, as western media claims. The Egyptian delegation clashed with him over the remarks.

“The Syrians transfer arms to the Palestinian resistance,” he said.

Over 1,200 young people from Iran as well as 73 other countries are participating in the two-day conference, Iran’s Fars news agency reported on Monday.

The Islamic Spring is spreading its message. Translated from The World Today, January 23: "Iranian converts stabbed in Norway":

Two Iranians who converted from Islam to Christianity was stabbed by masked men in Norway Haugesund last week. The attackers shouted "kuffar" -- an Arabic invective for unbelievers -- during the attack. The attack occurred on Tuesday evening when the two Christian Iranians were out for a walk in Haugesund. They were attacked by three masked and knife-armed men, who reportedly shouted "kuffar" as they stabbed the two. ...

The two assaulted men want to be anonymous and have not spoken out afterwards. They have lived in Norway for several years. One of them has become a Christian in Norway, the other left Islam and became a Christian in Iran and fled to Norway a couple of years ago after being beaten and imprisoned for his Christian faith in Iran. Both are involved in a mission church in Haugesund.

"Dear Muslim Brotherhood. I think you're swell. I hate infidels. Do you? [ ] Yes [ ] No."

"Tehran in 'constant contact' with Brotherhood, says Iranian FM," by Gomaa Hamdala for Al Masri Al Youm, January 31:

Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood maintain close contact, Iran's foreign minister has said in an interview with Al-Masry Al-Youm.

"Tehran is in constant contact with the Muslim Brotherhood," said Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.

He said Iran is ready to promote its diplomatic relations with Egypt to the ambassadorial level, paricularly in light of the Muslim Brotherhood's recent ascendancy to power. The group's party, the Freedom and Justice Party, controls 43 percent of parliamentary seats.

Salehi told the paper that Iran would immediately send an ambassador to Cairo if Egypt agreed.

Some countries "are not happy about improving relations between Egypt and Iran," he said, adding that if Egypt, Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia cooperated, all would benefit.

Egypt and Iran severed official ties in 1979, when Iran underwent an Islamic revolution and Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel. However, relations have improved since a popular uprising forced former President Hosni Mubarak from power early last year.

The West keeps trying wish into existence modern, moderate, model Islamic states in Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya. It keeps not working as advertised. "Iraqi bill to ban travels to Israel," by Roi Kais for YNet News, January 30:

The Iraqi parliament is planning to pass a new bill banning Iraqis from traveling to Israel, Al Jazeera online reported Monday.

The bill was proposed following a number of incidents at the Bagdad airport. A local security officer working there said the passport had caught a number of Iraqi officials carrying passports with Israeli entry visas. The officer, speaking on a condition of anonymity, reported that the passports of some nine high-profile Iraqi politicians were clearly marked with Ben-Gurion Airport stamps as well.

According to the source, the politicians made their first trips to Israel after the Iraqi elections, held on January 2010, until around October that same year. The officer claimed that during questioning of the Iraqis, it was discovered that they were operating as envoys to Israel on behalf of Iraqi politicians.

In response to the report, Iraqi Parliament Member from the National Iraqi Alliance Mohammad Redha al-Khafaji declared that some 50 parliament members have already put their John Hancock [Irony -ed.] to a bill proposing to ban such trips to Israel. Khafaji emphasized that in the past, Iraqi senior officials had visited Israel secretly.

Meanwhile, a member of the parliament's judicial committee said these signatures do not necessarily mean that such a law should be passed.

Forbidding a citizen from traveling is against the Iraqis' right to freedom, as written in the constitution. However banning travel to Israel has nothing to do with politics, she told Al Jazeera, explaining that Iraq has never had any diplomatic or political relations with Israel, nor has it acknowledged the State of Israel.

One may argue it is against the constitution's guarantees of personal freedom, but the same constitution holds that no law may contradict Sharia. The spirit of the latter provision overrules the former.

Israel classifies Iraq, as well as most Arab countries, as an "enemy state." However, over the years senior Israeli officials have hinted on numerous occasions that despite having no official diplomatic relations with such countries, many times there are economical and security ties.

Pamela Geller has background on this important free speech case in a piece that ran at the American Thinker yesterday: "The Civilized Man vs. the MTA Savages." As she says there, "The very idea that the MTA would censor free speech in defense of the blasphemy laws under the sharia speaks volumes as to the success of the stealth jihad in America. I hope the MTA is prepared to go to the Supreme Court, because we are."

From the American Freedom Law Center:

American Freedom Law Center (AFLC), on behalf of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), Pamela Geller, and Robert Spencer, filed a request today for a preliminary injunction in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), seeking to halt MTA’s censorship of AFDI’s pro-Israel / anti-Jihad bus advertisement.

AFLC Senior Counsel Robert Muise commented, “Here, the MTA would rather violate a law-abiding, private citizen’s right to freedom of speech than offend those who support violent jihad against Israel and others. The American Freedom Law Center is committed to fighting this pernicious form of civilization jihad that undermines our fundamental rights.”

At issue in the lawsuit is AFDI’s pro-Israel / anti-Jihad advertisement, which states, “In Any War Between the Civilized Man and the Savage, Support the Civilized Man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad.” This advertisement was offered as a direct response to an anti-Israel advertisement that was run previously by a pro-Palestine group. The MTA approved the anti-Israel advertisement. However, it rejected AFDI’s advertisement, claiming that it violated its policy against displaying “images or information that demean an individual or group of individuals on account of race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, gender, age, disability or sexual orientation.”

AFLC Senior Counsel David Yerushalmi commented, “The MTA’s ‘demeaning speech’ policy is operating here as a viewpoint-based restriction on our clients’ speech. Viewpoint discrimination is the most egregious form of content discrimination under the First Amendment.”

According to the papers filed this morning in federal court, the MTA, by policy and practice, has intentionally dedicated its advertising space on its vehicles, including its public buses, to expressive conduct. Pursuant to this longstanding policy, MTA has permitted a wide variety of commercial, noncommercial, public-service, public-issue, political, and religious advertisements on the outside of its vehicles.

For example, MTA permitted a religious group, Muslims for Peace, to run an advertisement on 90 public buses. The advertisement stated, “Muslims for Peace, Love for All, Hatred for None . . . WHY ISLAM.” The MTA permitted an atheist group, the Big Apple Coalition of Reason, to display an advertisement stating, “A million New Yorkers are good without God. Are you?” Recently, and as noted previously, the MTA permitted the display of a pro-Palestine / anti-Israel advertisement which stated, “Be on our side. We are the side of peace and justice. End U.S. military aid to Israel.” This advertisement was displayed at MTA subway stations throughout the City.

This past September, AFDI submitted its proposed advertisement to CBS Outdoor, which acts as the advertising agent for MTA. AFDI’s pro-Israel advertisement is political speech that directly responds to the pro-Palestine / anti-Israel advertisement. The anti-Israeli advertisement suggests that Israel’s military is the impediment to peace between the Israelis and Palestinians and that U.S. military aid to Israel also acts as an impediment to peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. In other words, the anti-Israel advertisement blames Israel, its military, and U.S. military aid to Israel as the cause of Palestinian terror directed against innocent civilians in Israel and abroad.

AFDI’s advertisement presents the message that there is no comparison or equivalence between savage civilian-targeting violence and Israel’s civilized struggle for survival in a part of the world where civilized behavior is overshadowed by terrorism, despotism, and brutality.

On September 21, 2011, CBS Outdoor, acting on behalf of MTA, informed AFDI by email that MTA had rejected the advertisement on the grounds that it violated its demeaning speech policy. The MTA’s rejection concluded with an invitation to AFDI to modify its message in some way so as to be acceptable to MTA.

By email on September 22, 2011, AFDI, through legal counsel, rejected MTA’s invitation to censor its speech and requested a “formal and final determination.” AFDI’s response made clear that the pro-Israel advertisement did not violate MTA’s demeaning speech policy and that MTA’s use of the policy to prohibit AFDI’s message violated the First Amendment.

On September 23, 2011, CBS Outdoor, acting on behalf of MTA, informed AFDI that MTA had formally and finally rejected AFDI’s advertisement on the grounds that it violated MTA’s demeaning speech policy. AFDI promptly filed this civil rights lawsuit.

Through the lawsuit and the recently filed preliminary injunction motion, AFDI is challenging the constitutionality of MTA’s censorship, which is suppressing the viewpoint AFDI is attempting to express in its message. That viewpoint is that U.S. foreign policy supporting Israel in the face of savage violence is the correct moral, political, and strategic choice for the leader of the Free World.

Muise concluded, “The Constitution does not permit the government, in this case the MTA, to take sides on political issues by silencing one-side of the debate. Here, the MTA is siding with the savage and silencing the civilized man, in violation of the First Amendment.”

The American Freedom Law Center is a Judeo-Christian law firm that fights for faith and freedom. It accomplishes its mission through litigation, public policy initiatives, and related activities. It does not charge for its services. The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations, and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization. Visit us at www.americanfreedomlawcenter.org.

A pack of about 40 Muslims gathered in front of the Norwegian parliament, shouting "Allahu akbar" while the bearded speaker, a known criminal named Arfan Qadeer Bhatti, in perfect Norwegian told the Norwegians:

We therefore demand that Norway immediately decide to withdraw her forces from Afghanistan before the war comes back to Norway. ... The Norwegian people should also know that their security will continue to be threatened as long as the Norwegian government continues its aggression against the Muslim people, and takes part in the occupation of Muslim countries. If security is dear to you, dear Norwegians, you should collectively demand that the Norwegian government withdraw Norwegian forces. And I stress: this is not a threat; it is a warning for your own good. (Crowd cheering 'Allahu akbar').

This is an extremely important case, as it touches on the nature of Sharia and the U.S. Government's role in promoting it, which gallops ahead in other areas today. I was one of the experts who testified for the plaintiff. "AFLC Attorneys to Argue Before Federal Appellate Court that AIG Bailout Was Unconstitutional," from the American Freedom Law Center, January 30:

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has announced that it will hear oral argument in Cincinnati, Ohio on April 20, 2012, in an appeal challenging the AIG bailout.  The case, which is captioned Murray v. United States Department of Treasury, et al., was brought by American Freedom Law Center attorneys David Yerushalmi and Robert Muise, representing the plaintiff, Kevin Murray, a taxpayer and former combat Marine who served in Iraq.  The federal lawsuit alleges that the U.S. government’s takeover and financial bailout of AIG was in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

Specifically, at the time of the government bailout (beginning in September 2008 and continuing to the present), AIG was (and still is) the world leader in promoting sharia-compliant insurance products.  Sharia is Islamic law, and it is the identical legal doctrine that demands capital punishment for apostasy and blasphemy and provides the legal and political mandates for global jihad followed religiously by the world’s Muslim terrorists.  By propping up AIG with taxpayer funds, the U.S. government is directly and indirectly promoting Islam and, more troubling, sharia.

In May 2009, U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Zatkoff, who presides in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, rejected a motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought by the Obama administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) and later rebuffed their efforts to stay the proceeding so they could avoid discovery and take an extraordinary appeal to the Sixth Circuit.

After a year of document requests, depositions of current and former government witnesses, and three separate subpoenas issued to AIG and the New York Federal Reserve Bank, Yerushalmi and Muise filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that the undisputed facts demonstrate that the government, through its absolute control and ownership of AIG, and with tens of billions of taxpayer dollars, has directly and indirectly promoted and supported sharia as a religious legal doctrine in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

What makes this case all the more egregious is that this doctrine — sharia — also happens to be the underlying legal and military doctrine animating jihad against the West by Muslims from the Middle East, Asia, Russia, Africa, and even right here at home, as evidenced by the tragic Fort Hood massacre.  Each and every one of the domestic and foreign jihad terrorists has proclaimed allegiance to sharia and its call for “jihad against apostates and infidels.”

Two experts on sharia, sharia-compliant finance, and jihad testified at length through affidavits in support of the plaintiff’s case.  The government could not — and did not — oppose this expert testimony with any contrary evidence....

Read it all.

Be sure to listen in tonight: "Fired For Islamophobia — on The Jamie Glazov Show," and hear about how and why the Daily Kos said, "So long, Eric":

Join the Jamie Glazov Show on Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 8-9 pm Pacific (11-12 pm EST) on Blog Talk Radio. This week’s guests are:

Eric Allen Bell, a regular blogger for the “Daily Kos” — where he was recently banned for the crime of writing three articles that ran afoul of the mindset there, specifically naming “Loonwatch.com” as a “terrorist spin control network.” He is currently producing a documentary entitled “Not Welcome” that is about the backlash against construction of a 53,000 square foot mega mosque in America’s Bible Belt.

and

Dr. Tim Furnish, an author and Muslim world analyst who holds a PhD in Islamic history from Ohio State and who learned Arabic in the US Army; his areas of expertise are Islamic eschatology, Mahdism, sects and transnational movements. He has lectured at Joint Special Operations University, the Army War College, Ben Gurion University and the annual Mahdism Conference in Iran.

To read Robert Spencer’s report on the developments surrounding Eric Bell’s firing at the Daily Kos, click here.

To listen to the program, click here.

Or go to: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/radio-jihad/2012/02/01/the-jamie-glazov-show

Phone in #: (347) 857-1380

See you Tuesday night!

The superb Kamala has an excellent piece about a drearily typical whitewash of Islam and jihad that is going on today at the Santa Clara County Office of Education Library Materials Fair, and in all sorts of other places these days as well. "Silicon Valley Reads...a book of lies," by Kamala, January 22:

About three years ago, I stumbled upon a book called The Muslim Next Door. Written by Sumbul Ali-Karamali, an American-raised, Stanford-educated Muslim woman, this book aims to "clear away the misconceptions about Islam." The back cover effuses: “What if you could sit down at a kitchen table with an American Muslim mom and ask anything you wanted about her faith and religious practice?”

After reading the book, I was left with only more questions. The Muslim Next Door is filled with patently false, wildly misleading, and fully unsubstantiated claims about the very concerns many Americans have about Islam. Taking her at her word, that she would be open to answering questions about Islam, I prepared ten detailed questions regarding problematic aspects of her book. Perhaps, I thought, these were honest mistakes or omissions. Perhaps she would acknowledge and address the flaws in her book. The ten questions can be read here. They cover a wide range of topics, including:

• Ali-Karamali’s claim that Muhammad had sex with his favorite wife Aisha only when “she was well past puberty … somewhere between twelve and sixteen,” even though the most respected scholars of Islam – including one that she herself calls a “highly respected luminary” – quote Aisha as having said that her marriage was consummated at age nine.

• Her claim without citation that Muslims make up 3% of the US population, a grossly inflated figure in comparison to even the most optimistic credible estimates.

• Her explanation that one of Islam’s definitions is “peace,” a falsehood that even the Muslim Student Association of the University of Southern California labeled the “#1 Misconception” about Islam.

• Her argument that female genital mutilation and honor killings are antithetical to Islam, despite mountains of contradictory evidence, including rulings in an Islamic manual of law certified by Al-Azhar University in Egypt, which Ali-Karamali herself calls “one of the great centers for Islamic studies.”
  

At the time, author Robert Spencer was kind enough to post a link to these questions at his web site, Jihad Watch.

I politely asked Ms. Ali-Karamali several times – via both her publisher and another mutual contact who assured me that the message was personally delivered – to respond to the questions. Each time, I got no response. One person who had read my questions and also wanted some answers went to one of Ali-Karamali’s numerous promotional San Francisco Bay Area appearances and asked her, face-to-face, to address these questions: "I spoke with Karamali following her Commonwealth Club speech yesterday. She said she's familiar with this article but that it's affiliated with Jihad Watch, which is a hateful organization, so she won't answer the questions."

So much for getting the questions answered. At least, I thought at the time, Ali-Karamali didn’t seem to be getting increasing levels of exposure – unlike some other truth-challenged apologists for Islam.

Fast forward to 2012.

Sumbul Ali-Karamali’s book is about to become the centerpiece of a four-month-long, government-sponsored initiative called “Silicon Valley Reads.” An annual program in the San Francisco Bay Area, 2012 is the 10th anniversary, and its sponsors “are celebrating with an outstanding selection of books and events focused on the theme, 'Muslim and American: Two Perspectives.’” Ali-Karamali’s three-year-old book is featured as (ostensibly) one of those perspectives.

(The second “perspective” is delivered from another American Muslim woman, Willow Wilson, who converted to Islam and wrote a book called The Butterfly Mosque. While not even an attempt to address non-Muslim concerns about Islam, Butterfly Mosque’s view of Islam is hardly inconsistent with Ali-Karamali’s or those of other contemporary apologists for Islam. For Wilson, the “parts of Shari’a law that were premodern and problematic” were “no more so than the Old Testament. Islam had all the hang-ups, along with all the potential for resolution, of any ancient faith.” Wilson pins any negative impressions of Sharia on the Wahhabis, a common response from apologists unwilling to admit to the vast agreement among Muslim scholars (and Islamic schools of jurisprudence) about the most despicable aspects of Sharia. Wilson also dishes out disdain for “self-righteous” apostates who risk death to leave Islam, denigrating “the Ayaan Hirsi Alis and Wafaa Sultans who had made their fortunes by rejecting Islam.")

Back to Ms. Ali-Karamali, just look at the publicity and exposure that this program will bring her:

• January 25: On-stage interview with columnist Mike Cassidy (mcassidy@mercurynews.com) of the San Jose Mercury News, to be recorded and broadcast on KLIV Radio February 1

• January 31: Guest of the Santa Clara County Office of Education (a government organization) Materials Fair, open to all teachers and school librarians

• February 2: Discussion of her book at the Saratoga Library

• February 12: Discussion of her book at the India Community Center

• February 22: Television interview on CreaTV Channel 30 in San Jose with Janice Edwards (janice@creatvsj.org)

• March 3: On-stage interview with De Anza College President Brian Murphy (murphybrian@deanza.edu)

• March 10: Discussion of her book at the Morgan Hill Library

• March 16: Interview with Dale Bryant (dbryant@svcn.com), Executive Editor of Silicon Valley Community Newspapers, at the History Club of Los Gatos
  

• March 29: Presenting “What I’d like Teachers to Know about Islam and Muslims” at the Santa Clara County Office of Education

• April 29: On-stage interview with columnist Sal Pizarro of the San Jose Mercury News (spizarro@mercurynews.com)

Read it all.

Why shouldn't Mohammad Shafia have been arrogant and hubristic? It would have been more surprising if he had not been. Just look at how Islamic supremacist spokesmen in the West always deal with anti-jihadists: not with legitimate discussion, not with honest engagement with legitimate concerns, but with exceeding and almost incredible arrogance, endless torrents of abuse, and reflexive charges of "bigotry," "racism," and "Islamophobia." Just look at how the mainstream media and Western governments are endlessly compliant, endlessly accommodating to Islamic supremacist demands, endlessly turning a blind eye to Islamic jihad activity, violent and stealthy, with endless gullibility swallowing the ever more fantastic claims that underneath the behavior of Islamic jihadists who quote Qur'an to support their views and position themselves within the Islamic community as the exponents of Islamic authenticity, it really is a Religion of Peace.

If Mohammad Shafia had not been arrogant and hubristic, it would have been a miracle.

Join us for the first annual AFDI/SIOA Jessica Mokdad Human Rights Conference on Honor Killings.

"How arrogance and mistakes led to Shafia’s murder conviction," by Timothy Appleby for the Globe and Mail, January 29 (thanks to Mark):

Even after murdering his daughters and his first wife a few hours earlier, the millionaire businessman haggled over the motel bill.

One view of the guilty verdicts in the Shafia “honour killings” trial is that they were the final act in a kind of morality play that pitted 21st-century technology against ancient, twisted concepts of right and wrong.

The other connecting thread in the police investigation was the almost unfathomable, small-minded stupidity and arrogance of the three Afghan-Canadian defendants, borne out of a lifelong sense of entitlement.

Mohammad Shafia, 59, was wealthy and had essentially bought his residency in Canada under the federal investor-immigrant program. He owned a $1.6-million mall in Laval, Que., and was having a big, custom-designed home built in Brossard, a Montreal suburb. He had cars, property, assorted business projects, and had travelled widely.

In sum, he belonged to a tiny minority of privileged middle-class Afghans, both before he and his family fled the advancing Taliban in 1992, and later abroad.

From the trial testimony emerged a portrait of the man he was at home: A crude, brutal patriarch who terrified his children including those he’s convicted of murdering.

He, his co-accused second wife and their eldest son Hamed were not only clumsy killers. They were also bad liars, offering the jury wildly conflicting accounts of what happened on the night the four victims died.

From the first hours of the investigation, the trio struggled to dig themselves out of the hole they were in, weaving an ever-less credible tangle of lies and obfuscation. Steadily the hole got deeper.

And yet, in his hubris, Mr. Shafia appeared convinced they could get away with it.

“You guys aren't hit men, you don't know how to cover your tracks,” Kingston Police detective Mike Boyles told 18-year-old Hamed Shafia, shortly after he and his parents were charged with the four murders in July, 2009....

Seldom has any mainstream media outlet ever presented such a full and honest presentation of Islamic honor killing. Bravo, Coren.

Join us for the first annual AFDI/SIOA Jessica Mokdad Human Rights Conference on Honor Killings.

Video courtesy Pamela Geller.

Also of interest in this story is the coincidence of Saudi investment in the company and the potential curtailment of Twitter as a platform for political dissent. It was, for example, instrumental in the Iranian "Green Revolution" a few years back. "Saudi grand mufti: Twitter is full of lies," from the Jerusalem Post, January 29:

The Saudi grand mufti on Friday called social-networking website Twitter full of lies, a day after the site announced that it would begin restricting Tweets in specific countries.

The news from the social media platform is renewing questions over how it will handle issues of free speech as it rapidly expands its global user base.

Until now, Twitter had to remove a tweet from its global network if it received a takedown request from a government.

But the company said in a blog post published on Thursday that it now has the ability to selectively block a Tweet from appearing to users in one country.

“Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country while keeping it available in the rest of the world,” the Twitter blog said.

Twitter gave as examples of restrictions it might cooperate with, such as pro-Nazi content in France and Germany, where it is banned. It said that even with the possibility of such restrictions, Twitter would not be able to operate with some countries.

“Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there,” it said.

“As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression.”

In the interest of transparency, Twitter said, it has built a mechanism to inform users in the event that a tweet is being blocked. A Twitter spokeswoman declined to elaborate on the blog post.

Saudi Grand Mufti Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh said in his Friday sermon in Riyadh that Muslims should avoid being a “source or feeding” Twitter, the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper reported.

Twitter was a place “in which people are invited to throw charges between them, and to lie in a manner that brings fame to some,” he said.

The 71-year-old cleric called on those present to warn people about such sites, adding that positive sites do exist on the Internet concerning science, business and God.

Despite the grand mufti’s caution over the website, Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s Kingdom Holding Company announced in December that it would invest $300 million in the social-media site.

“Our investment in Twitter reaffirms our ability in identifying suitable opportunities to invest in promising, high-growth businesses with a global impact,” Alwaleed said, according to BBC.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, critics question whether the site has succumbed to pressure from certain governments or even its new Saudi investors, with some activists tweeting for a one-day Twitter boycott against the company.

Twitter’s acknowledgment that it will censor content represents a significant departure from its tone just one year ago, when anti-government protesters in Tunisia, Egypt and other Arab countries coordinated mass demonstrations on the social network and, in the process, thrust Twitter’s disruptive potential into the global spotlight....

One bit of good news in this is that the U.S. actually demanded substantive action from the Taliban and not just words, as prior reports implied. An update on this story. "US, Taliban talks on prisoner swap falter," by Mustaf Yusufzai for NBC News January 29:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Talks between the Afghan Taliban and the United States in Qatar almost failed as the Taliban leadership reportedly refused to accept the U.S. demand of a ceasefire before swapping prisoners.

Sources in the Afghan Taliban said the Taliban had set up an office in Qatar hoping that it would help in a prisoners' swap, especially for their five top commanders held at the Guantanamo Bay base since 2002.

The Taliban sources said their talks with the U.S. had been going for the past few years in exchange for an American soldier, Bowe Bergdahl, captured by Taliban militants in Afghanistan's Paktika province in June 2009, bordering Pakistan's South Waziristan.

Maulvi Sangeen, a senior commander of the powerful Haqqani terror network, had initially claimed responsibility for kidnapping the U.S. soldier.

The Taliban sources said U.S. officials had earlier promised them they would exchange prisoners and later start peace talks.

However, according to the sources, the U.S. demanded that the Taliban announce a ceasefire in Afghanistan before any prisoner swap, which they said their central leadership had turned down.

"Our stance is the same. We will announce a ceasefire when the foreign forces start their withdrawal from Afghanistan," a Taliban source said.

The Afghan Taliban leadership is also worried about the reaction from their field commanders and fighters if a ceasefire were announced without getting anything to show in exchange.

Some members of the 140-strong Taliban delegation that went to Qatar had started leaving after no breakthrough was seen in talks with the U.S.

But deep down, they really want peace! Once again, the "moderate" guys are caught acting less than moderately. In the case of the PA, "moderate" means "not as bad as Hamas," but the distinction is often shown to be largely wishful thinking. "Palestinian TV airs show praising Fogel family murderer," by Avi Issacharoff for Haaretz, January 30:

Palestinian television aired an interview with the relatives of the Fogel family murderers earlier this month, praising the two cousins convicted with the brutal attack as "heroes."

The broadcast was aired as part of a weekly show on the Palestinian state-run station called "For You," which focuses on Palestinian prisoners incarcerated in Israel.

The show featured the aunt and mother of Hakim Awad, who along with his cousin Amjad was convicted of brutally stabbing to death five Fogel family members in an attack on their home in the West Bank settlement of Itamar on the night of March 11, 2011.

Hakim Awad's mother sent her regards to her son, proudly describing him as the perpetrator of the Itamar attack and that he was sentenced to 5 consecutive life sentences.

Awad's aunt then proceeded to describe her nephew as a "hero and a legend."

The unusual broadcast was reported by the Israel-based media watchdog organization Palestinian Media Watch

Late last year Amjad Awad was convicted of the murdering Ehud and Ruth Fogel, along with three of their young child-ren, Yoav, 11, Elad, 4, and Hadas, 3 months old, before fleeing the scene. His cousin Hakim was convicted a month earlier. Both men were sentenced to five consecutive life sentences by an IDF court.

In a way, it's kind of a compliment. In his conspiracy paranoia, he is ascribing all kinds of foreknowledge to the West. For example, the Balfour Declaration on a Jewish homeland occurred in 1917. Oil prospecting in the Mideast gained momentum in the 1930s, with especially spectacular oil fields discovered in the late '30s. When the State of Israel was established, U.S. oil production was still going strong, and would not reach peak production for about another 22 years.

But if it was all about the oil, one would think that we in our nefarious conspiring would plunk a Jewish state where, you know, there's actually oil. "'West implanted Israel into ME to control oil'," from the Jerusalem Post, January 29:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday that western powers had implanted the Israeli regime into the Middle East as part of a scheme to gain control of the region and its resources.

“Why did they install the Zionist regime (Israel)? To gain control over oil, as well as the popular and revolutionary uprisings in the Middle East,” Iranian news agency Press TV quoted Ahmadinejad as saying during a speech at a youth conference in Tehran.

“It is clear that this was a historical scheme,” he added.

Ahmadinejad's comments came as UN nuclear inspectors arrived in Iran on a visit aimed at shedding light on suspected military aspects of Tehran's atomic work.

Iran said on Sunday it was very optimistic over the visit, but warned it would curb cooperation if the experts became a "tool" for outside powers....

The moment they feel uncomfortable, that is what they will claim.

But... but... that's where the "moderate" guys are. "Climate of intolerance in West Bank, activists say," by Diaa Hadid for the Associated Press, January 30 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — A Palestinian atheist who was jailed and beaten last year for expressing anti-Muslim views on Facebook and in blogs says Palestinian security forces are harassing him again, despite government pledges to respect human rights.

The blogger's renewed ordeal is part of a persistent climate of intolerance of dissent in the territories controlled by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, say human rights activists. They say they've seen improvements, including a marked decrease in the mistreatment of detainees, but that Abbas' security forces, who are partially funded by the West, must halt harassment and arbitrary detention.

Government spokesman Ghassan Khatib acknowledged occasional lapses, but said that in the past two years, "there's been great progress and success in reducing abuses."

Such promises mean little to atheist blogger Walid Husayin, who has lived in fear of the security forces since being released from a nine-month prison stint last summer.

"I'm sick and tired. My life has come to a halt," the 28-year-old Husayin said in a phone interview from his home in the northern West Bank town of Qalqiliya.

Since his release on bail, he has been picked up several times by security agents and held for days at a time. In one of those detentions, he was beaten with cables and forced to stand in a painful position on empty cans, said Husayin, the son of a Muslim preacher.

Interrogators smashed his two computers and demanded that he stop expressing his views, he said.

Activists from three rights organizations said they witnessed an increase in arbitrary detentions in recent months, including calling in "troublemakers" for repeated interrogation, but said they hadn't yet collated 2011 figures.

Those targeted include loyalists of the Islamic militant Hamas, Abbas' political rival, and supporters of Hezb al-Tahrir, or the "Liberation Party," a puritan Islamic movement considered apolitical.

The increased pressure on dissent coincides with pro-democracy uprisings of the Mideast Arab Spring, but it's not clear if there is a direct link. Anti-government demonstrations in the West Bank usually draw just a few dozen or few hundred people, tiny compared to protests that toppled rulers in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia over the past year.

There appears to be little popular sympathy for those targeted in the crackdown, said Jamil Rabah, an independent Palestinian pollster.

In Gaza, ruled by the Islamic Hamas since a violent takeover in 2007, the Islamists appear to dealing even more harshly with critics, particularly on religious matters.

In both territories, those who violate social norms find themselves in the crosshairs. In Gaza, Hamas recently banned a televised amateur singing contest on modesty grounds because it included female contestants.

In the West Bank, Palestinian-American comedian Maysoon Zayid said her husband was roughed up and lightly hurt last fall after she mocked Palestinian officials in a skit.

Witnesses identified the assailants as plainclothes security men, said Zayid, a contributor to "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" on Current TV, a U.S. cable show.

She said it was the first attempt at intimidation after years of West Bank performances.

"I feel like the Palestinian Authority is going backward," said Zayid, a resident of Cliffside Park, New Jersey. "That is not the state I am fighting for."...

Once again, wherever Sharia experiences a resurgence or increases its encroachment upon a society, tolerance decreases, and harassment increases. Indeed, as also seen in Tunisia, a sense of entitlement to harass and mind others' business emerges, even short of the formal establishment of morality police. "'Are you married?': Pakistani TV host dubbed the 'vigil-auntie' sacked after haranguing couples for 'immoral behaviour' in parks," by Daniel Miller for the Daily Mail, January 30:

A Pakistani TV host has been sacked after an episode of her morning TV programme showed her ambushing young couples and demanding to know whether they were involved in immoral behavior.

Samaa TV host Maya Khan was filmed charging around a park in Lahore, Pakistan, asking youngsters what they were up to, whether they were married or engaged and if their parents knew where they were.

In one particularly cringeworthy scene the 31-year-old host - who has been dubbed the 'vigil-auntie' - demanded to see a couple's wedding certificate after they told her they were married.

The show sparked outrage with viewers branded it - a 'witch hunt' and taking to the internet in their thousands to register their disgust.

Within hours of the broadcast on January 17th, several online petitions had sprung up demanding that Khan be sacked.

At first the controversial host remained defiant describing her critics as 'an elite class that don’t even watch my show,.'

But the following day Samaa TV showed a clip of her sitting on a bed in which she seemed to apologise saying: 'I never intended to make you teary-eyed or hurt you.'

According to the station, Khan, along with members of her production team, were sacked after refusing to give an unconditional apology.

The host later blamed ‘a vicious media campaign by rival groups’ for her sacking.

Now four non-governmental organisations have announced they are filing a civil suit against Samaa TV in Pakistan's supreme court.

Adnan Rehmat of Intermedia, a media development organization who were behind one of the petitions, said: 'Journalists don’t have the right to become moral police.

'We need to draw a line.'

Some viewers claimed the show brought back bad memories of 1980s when Pakistan was ruled by the Islamist dictator Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq and police could demand to see a couple’s wedding papers under threat of imprisonment.

Others accused Khan and her team of picking on poor Pakistanis while ignoring the rich and powerful whose western lifestyles are potentially far more morally dubious.

Let us see if the Norwegians will blame these Muslims' manual for terror as much as they blamed anti-jihadists for Breivik's murders. Translated from Jyllands-Posten, January 30: "Seven years in prison for terror plans against Jyllands-Posten":

The case has been called historical in Norway, because it is the first time that someone has been convicted for planning terror.

The Chinese Uighur and Norwegian citizen Mikael Davud was the main man behind the terror plans against Jyllands-Posten's premises at the Town Hall Square in Copenhagen. So he got a sentence of seven years in prison.

"The Court finds no doubt that Davud took the initiative and that he also was the main man. He was himself responsible for the implementation of the terrorist attack," said Judge Oddmund Black Berg.

It was ruled that the preparations were characterized by professionalism, but that the attack was not imminent. It appeared that there would only have been a small bomb, which probably would not cost lives. The defenders demanded acquittal. ...

According to the indictment, Mikael Davud was acting on behalf of Al Qaida. He admitted in court that he received bomb training from a terrorist group in Iran. The prosecutor argued that Davud instead traveled across the border into Pakistan, where he trained with Al Qaeda. Mikael Davud acknowledged that he had contacts with Al Qaida, but not that he was on a mission for the terrorist network. He acted on his own, he said. ...

The Iraqi Kurd Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak has argued that the goal was Jyllands-Posten and Kurt Westergaard, a goal that both he and Davud allegedly agreed on. And this was the charge that the court found was proven.

I recently posted a couple of articles about the Muslim area Vollsmose in Odense, Denmark ("Denmark: More Muslim violence against non-Muslims" and "Danish police: Immigrant criminals target Danes to make them move out of the (Muslim) area").

The latest development is that the major Danish insurance company GF-Insurance no longer offers comprehensive insurance on cars in the area. Translated from Fyens Stiftstidende (notice the newspaper's use of "discriminate" in the header), January 30, 2012: "GF-Insurance discriminate against Vollsmose citizens":

GF will no longer insure cars if the owners live in zip code Odense NE. ... Chairman of the GF-Insurance on Funen, Knud Nielsen confirms that the company will no longer offer comprehensive insurance for cars that are located in 5240 NE.

"We have found that there are more burglaries and burned cars in Vollsmose than other places. Therefore we will not insure cars hull in Vollsmose," he says to Fyens Stiftstidende.

Other big insurance companies may well have comprehensive car insurance, even if you live in NE 5240, but the price may vary compared to other areas.

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 29 — Datuk Seri Anifah Aman insisted tonight that despite supporting a “two-state solution,” Malaysia has never supported Israel in its conflict with Palestine.

The foreign minister said this differed from Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that he “supports all efforts to protect the security of the state of Israel.”

“His statement clearly shows his acceptance and support for actions taken by Israel against Palestinians up to now.

“Actions interpreted as security measures by Israel include military attacks on Gaza causing the death of thousands of innocent Palestinians including women and children,” the Kimanis MP said in a statement sent to The Malaysian Insider.

Anifah stressed that Malaysia has never supported these actions but joined the global community in condemning Israel that clearly breaches international law.

“Malaysia calls for all parties to find a comprehensive solution that is fair and just based on the ‘Roadmap’ and United Nations (UN) Security Council resolutions whereby both nations can live side-by-side in a peaceful and safe manner,” he added.

Anwar came under heavy fire from Umno and its media after his statement was published by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday.

But the international business daily said Anwar stopped short of saying he would open diplomatic ties with the Jewish state, a step the former deputy prime minister said remains contingent on Israel respecting the aspirations of Palestinians.

And we should all well and truly know by now what those 'aspirations' are.

The opposition leader was forced to defend himself last night by stressing that his remarks in the newspaper meant that he supported a two-state solution as mentioned by Anifah when the latter addressed the UN general assembly in September last year.

But Anifah said today Anwar’s interview “clearly shows full support for all actions taken by Israel to protect its security, unless he is accusing the Wall Street Journal of making a mistake.”

Muslim-majority Malaysia is a staunch supporter of Palestine and has no diplomatic ties with Israel.

Muslim politicians have long vied for support from Malays by denouncing what they say are inhumane acts of aggression by Israel towards its neighbour.

Anwar has previously been attacked as a supporter of the Zionist movement due to his interaction with prominent Jewish figures in the West.

When we look closely at the current situation in the Middle East and the Iranian issue, we can see some parallels with the situation of the world community before the Second World War.

At that time, the Nazis, without any significant resistance, had seized power in Germany and Austria, and Italy was their Fascist ally. Islamic supremacists are now also easily seizing power in North Africa, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Then, and today, Turkey adopted a wait-and-see attitude. During World War II, Turkey signed a non-aggression treaty with Hitler, and only in 1945, when it was clear that the Nazis were defeated, did it declare war on Germany. Today, Turkey is friendly with Iran and the jihadists, as if she is waiting to share in Ahmadinejad's nuclear achievements.

The proof of Turkey's loyalty to Iran and the jihadists is the recent speech of the Prime Minister of that country, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, about the State of Israel. In addition to denouncing Israel for possessing a nuclear bomb, he accused Israel of state terrorism.

Also noteworthy were his words about the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire. Erdogan, foaming at the mouth, insisted before the global community that the killing and expulsion of 1.5-million Armenians in modern Turkey was not an act of genocide.

Long ago, after the Islamic revolution in Iran, its leaders chose the path of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, the Koran and Sharia. They are threatening to destroy the U.S., Israel and the Jewish people. If we compare the Ayatollah Khamenei and other leaders of Iran to Adolf Hitler and other Nazis, we will find similar words and phrases -- and not only similar words, but similar actions.

Many of us ask ourselves: when will the war start? Is it even going to begin? Maybe the international sanctions will help the world and civilization, and bring the Iranian mullahs and president to their senses, so that they will give up their nuclear ambitions. Maybe they will move jihad terrorist organizations to take up the path of the genuinely righteous, such that they will renounce violence.

Those were the same kinds of things that our ancestors were thinking in the thirties, when the Nazis gained power in Europe. And we all know what sacrifices humanity had to make in order to eradicate Nazism.

Do we really need to wait for the coming of the new Fuehrer, the caliph, to understand what is wrong with our analyses and hopes today?

It is certain that the leaders of Muslims worldwide, a significant number of them, are praying and working for one and the same goal: a jihad against the infidels. The Mufti of Jerusalem during World War II called for the destruction of Israel and Jews. Abu Mazen wants to expel Jews from the so-called east Jerusalem, and from Judea and Samaria. Muslim leaders around the world supported the Mufti and support the "Palestinians" now.

Once, at a regular meeting with the leader of the Jihad in the Caucasus, I asked the question: how are you going to win the war, when there are so many differences among various sects in Islam? He replied: "Allah loves diversity. We have our differences, but we all believe in Allah and the Prophet Muhammad and recognize Sharia, and we know that we are waiting for the terrible meal, if we abandon jihad." He was referring to the Koran's description of the people in hell being tortured with, among other things, food that is disgusting and painful to eat.

I hope that the administration of President Barack Hussein Obama will remember the story of Pearl Harbor: that slowness and hesitancy in the face of a regime that is willing to use brutal force, such as the Iranian regime, only plays into the hands of the enemy.

There are many means of jihad, they note. Or in other words, a way to stick it to the infidel is a way to stick it to the infidel.

Scholars differ on circumstances for acceptable use, and its position in the pecking order of means of jihad, but are in agreement in principle that it can and ought to be used as a weapon of war. Electronic jihad is ultimately familiar destructive behavior, only applied to an electronic medium instead of detonating a truck bomb. Imagine if that ingenuity, resourcefulness, and planning were actually applied to something constructive. "Scholars speak out in favor of “electronic Jihad” against the enemy," from Al Arabiya, January 29:

In light of the increasing support of “the electronic Jihad” and the divergence of views regarding this subject, Islamic scholars have underlined their support for this new phenomenon, arguing that “any attempt to spite the enemy and endorse religion is legitimate”. They consider that Muslim youth involved in this phenomenon are in fact leading a jihad”.

But what do those who refuse to support this phenomenon have to say? They believe that “bringing down the enemy’s electronic devices could help in realizing certain objectives in some instances, but it can also be harmful if done at the wrong time.”

They noted that there is “a large number of people in the world who sympathize with Israel and might get involved in this battle, which would widen the circle of damage.”

On the other hand, Sheikh Fahd Bin Saad Al Jahni, a professor of sharia graduate studies, says that “in Islam, the Jihad is a broad concept that could be defined according to the interpretation of the and texts that cite the jihad. There are many types of jihad: the personal jihad, the jihad by money, and verbal Jihad. The last type includes the intellectual jihad, jihad by composition and by the call to God”.

Al Jahni added that “any attempt to spite the enemy and empower the religion must be conducted by legitimate means and according to Muslim rules. Therefore, religion could be widely empowered through electronic websites. This is what some people call “the electronic Jihad”. Thus, the terminology is correct, but it is the definition that matters as well as the extent to which the concept respects the legitimate procedure.”

“Therefore, I believe that the young Muslims who are striving to take advantage of this wide electronic window and fight the perverted ideology or shut down obscene websites and the websites of those who offended and dishonored the people of Islam and put hand on their holy sites like the Zionist aggressors, are using all legitimate means and are indeed leading a jihad provided they don’t exceed the limit of God in their rivalry,” Al Jahni said.

Moreover, Abdullah Al Aalwit, a Muslim law researcher, pointed to the fact that electronic jihad means “destroying the enemy’s electronic devices or surreptitiously taking valuable information from these devices.” He confirmed that “the electronic jihad, like any other type of ihad, is legitimate in determined instances and might be harmful if used at the wrong time and in the wrong circumstances.”

“However, it is clear that the nation’s condition does not allow any type of Jihad against any of its enemies because our enemies are way more advanced than we are in all kinds of fields. If an electronic war shall erupt, it is expected to have serious repercussions due to the big number of those who sympathize with Israel in the world and who might enter this battle, which would widen the circle of damage,” he added.

Al Aalwit advised that people should “take this factor in consideration because sympathizers with Israel exceed us in number and in their scientific and technological skills. We are not discouraging this type of jihad because the true original jihad is led by fight and struggle and any other attempt is simply a means to exert pressure and strangle the enemy rather than a jihad. The term “jihad” here is used as a metaphor, and since electronic wars are means of pressure, they do not conform to the known provisions of jihad”.

“In addition, the electronic Jihad is immoral because it is similar to theft, spying and embezzlement. Jihad is not fought in this manner, as if we are spreading drugs in the enemy’s society. Electronic jihad only serves in times of war when fighters want to disrupt the enemy’s communication devices. However, we are not in war and electronic battles under these circumstances are considered as a type of corruption.”

The Saudis in particular know they can only encourage freelance jihad so much, lest it be turned against the Saudi establishment, electronic jihad included.

On a larger scale, supporters of the electronic jihad have raised their tone. Newspapers reported the announcement of Sheikh Jamal Kotb, chairman of the Fatwa Committee in Al Azhar, who advocated for the confrontation of the Israeli piracy “to prevent them from attacking us,” although he refused “to harm them if they did not attack first”. Dr. Mustafa Mourad, professor at Al Azhar University, said that “the electronic jihad is a type of jihad because jihad is not limited to military weapons or any other type of painful means. Under jihad, it is possible to use any tool that might fulfill the goal behind the attack against the enemies of God in response to their attempts to violate our rights and seize our holy sites.”...

Mohammad Shafia has previously said: "I would do it again 100 times"; "May the devil shit on their graves. Is that what a daughter should be? Would a daughter be such a whore?" And "God's curse on them for generations. ... They betrayed Islam."

"Shafias all found guilty of first-degree murder," by Timothy Appleby for the Globe and Mail, January 29 (thanks to Mark):

Three Afghan-Canadians charged with murdering four relatives in a so-called "honour killing" have been convicted on all charges.

The verdict was reached shortly after 1 pm Sunday afternoon and delivered about an hour later to a packed courtroom.

In all, the seven-woman, five-man jury had deliberated just over 15 hours, spread over two days, sequestered on the second floor of the historic Frontenac County Court House in downtown Kingston.‬

Tooba Mohammad Yahya, husband Mohammad Shafia and son Hamed Mohammed Shafia are escorted to court in Kinston last month.

A police officer stands outside the Frontenac County Courthouse, where Mohammad Shafia, his wife Tooba Mohammad Yahya and their son Hamed were undergoing trial for the murder of four family members, in Kingston, Ontario January 26, 2012.

‪The defendants face an automatic penalty of life imprisonment with no chance of parole for at least 25 years.

There have been other murder charges involving so-called "honour killings" – homicides of women slain out of a perverse desire to "purify" families of disgrace created by supposedly immoral conduct – but not on this scale, and not involving parents who were willing to wipe out half their family for the sake of their honour, and then lie about it.‬

‪Charged with four counts of first-degree murder were businessman Mohammad Shafia, 59, his second wife Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 42, and their eldest son, Hamed, 21.‬

‪They stood accused of drowning sisters Zainab, Sahar and Geeti Shafia, aged 19, 17 and 13, whose bodies were found in a submerged car at a Rideau Canal lock, just east of Kingston, in June, 2009.‬

The fourth person in the vehicle was Mr. Shafia’s first wife, Rona Amir Mohammad, 53, who had entered Canada illegally, posing as his cousin, but who in fact was part of a polygamous marriage and who by every indication wanted to escape from it.

‪ All three defendants briefly addressed the court and proclaimed their innocence in what Mr. Justice Robert Maranger described as a “heinous crime.”

“We are not criminal, we are not murderer, we didn't commit the murder and this is unjust,” Mr. Mohammad said through a translater.

Ms.Yahya responded: “Your honourable justice, this is not just. I am not a murderer, and I am a mother, a mother.”

Their son said, in English: “Sir, I did not drown my sisters anywhere.”

But the judge was unmoved.

“You have each been convicted of the planned and deliberate murder of four members of your family...(A verdict) clearly supported by the evidence presented at this trial,” said Judge Maranger.

“It is difficult to conceive of a more despicable, more heinous crime...the apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameful murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your completely twisted concept of honour ... that has absolutely no place in any civilized society.”...