Jihad Watch

A warning that was not heeded and is not being heeded. "Army warned about jihadist threat in '08," by Bill Gertz in The Washington Times, February 9 (thanks to Doc Washburn):

Almost two years before the deadly Fort Hood shooting by a radicalized Muslim officer, the U.S. Army was explicitly warned that jihadism -- Islamic holy war -- was a serious problem and threat to personnel in the U.S., according to participants at a major Army-sponsored conference.

The annual Army anti-terrorism conference in Florida in February 2008 included presentations on the threat by counterterrorism specialists Patrick Poole, Army Lt. Col. Joseph Myers and Terri Wonder.

The meeting was organized by the Army's provost marshal general and included more than 350 force protection and anti-terrorism professionals who came from major Army installations and commands from around the world, according to participants.

Mr. Poole, a counterterrorism specialist and adviser to government and law-enforcement agencies, said his presentation and that of the other two counterterrorism experts "attempted to instruct these anti-terrorism and force protection professionals not just in the indicators of Islamic jihadism, but also the strategic deficiencies in the military comprehension of the overall jihadist threat."

The shooting at a recruiting center in Little Rock, Ark., in June and the November shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, that killed 13 people have exposed the problem of the Army's deficiencies in understanding the nature of the domestic Islamic terrorist threat, Mr. Poole said.

The incidents have raised questions about whether the Army made any effort to "operationalize" the threat warnings from the 2008 conference and develop policies to counter the threats. "The answer quite clearly is no," Mr. Poole said....

The problem with this ought to be obvious: who decides what constitutes "malicious" criticism? Islamic spokesmen in non-Muslim countries routinely characterize any and every criticism of Islam, including any accurate depiction of the jihad doctrine and Islamic supremacism, as malicious. It is a central element of their playbook: characterize anyone who dares to speak the truth about these matters as driven by hate, as a profiteer, a liar, etc. etc. etc. They know that if they take that stance consistently -- and they are nothing if not consistent in this -- then they will be able to bamboozle many of the naive and unwary and turn them away from the truth and the truth-tellers.

But they also take this stance because they believe it. The idea that all critics of jihad and Islamic supremacism are evil people driven by hatred is also simply a Qur'anic principle -- which is a chief reason why Islamic spokesmen in the West so consistently take this line. The Qur'an assumes that anyone who opposes or rejects Islam is evil, malicious, and motivated by greed or envy or both. There is no notion of the dignity of the human person as regards the unbeliever, or any idea of the free conscience operating in good faith in rejecting Islam.

And so the problem with this court decision in India is that Muslims will use it to characterize any and all criticism of Islam as malicious, and to get it censored as a result.

"Islam Can be Criticised, But Not Maliciously: HC," from OutlookIndia, January 6 (thanks to Natassia):

Islam or any other religion can be criticised, but a malicious criticism aimed at promoting communal hatred and painting the whole community as villainous is not permissible, Bombay High Court held today.

Refusing to interpret Quranic verses, Court however advised that verses must be "correlated", and historical background must be kept in mind when interpreting.

I am all for that. The unfortunate truth of this, however, is that contrary to what this court clearly believes, and contrary to popular belief, the "historical background" of the various Qur'anic teachings on jihad don't mitigate, but rather reinforce, Islamic doctrines involving violence against and the subjugation of unbelievers.

A full bench of the High Court upheld the ban on 'Islam - A concept of Political World Invasion By Muslims', written by advocate R V Bhasin. Bhasin had challenged the ban, saying that it violated right to freedom of speech.

The book was banned in state government in 2007, on the ground that it contained derogatory remarks about Islam and prophet Mohammad and insulted Muslim sentiments....

All right, but you'll notice that this article at least doesn't say anything about the book being banned because it contained false information about Islam or Muhammad. Islamic advocacy groups like CAIR have not hesitated to protest in the U.S. against material about Islam that was perfectly true, but which contained material they didn't like. See, for example, here.

Nothing surprising in what these children were saying: we have seen adult Muslims saying similar things many, many times over the years here at Jihad Watch. Nor is there anything very surprising in the fact that in Absurd Britannia today it is this teacher who suffers for reporting this, while the students aren't disciplined in any way -- nor is there any scrutiny of what is going on in their communities that led them to make these statements.

"Christian teacher 'forced out' after complaining Muslim pupils praised 9/11 hijackers 'as heroes,'" by Lucy Ballinger for the Daily Mail, February 8:

A Christian teacher told today how he lost his job after complaining that Muslim pupils as young as eight hailed the September 11 hijackers as 'heroes'.

Nicholas Kafouris said he was forced from his £30,000-a-year post because he would not tolerate the 'racist' and 'anti-Semitic' behaviour of children.

He said the predominantly Muslim youngsters openly praised Islamic extremists in class, and hailed the terrorists of the 2001 atrocities as 'martyrs'.

Mr Kafouris, 40, told how one pupil said to him, 'Don't touch me, you're a Christian', when the teacher accidentally brushed against him with his arm.

Others said, 'We want to be Islamic bombers when we grow up', and 'the Christians and Jews are our enemies, you too because you're a Christian', he added.

Mr Kafouris, who had taught at Bigland Green Primary School, in Tower Hamlets, East London, for 12 years, said there was a change in attitude of pupils at the school - where the majority of pupils are Muslim - after the World Trade Center attacks....

Mr Kafouris, a Greek Cypriot, said pupils told him, 'We hate the Christians' and, 'We hate the Jews', despite his attempts to stop them....

He had filled out a 'Racist Incident Reporting Sheet' but claimed the headteacher Jill Hankey dismissed his concerns....

'Some children were expressing delight at the death and killing of people of other cultures and religions: In the last week of November 2006 a child was talking about stabbing another child and I told him this was dangerous talk and that a lawyer had recently been stabbed by teenagers; his reply was:, "I'm glad that man died", 'Why?' I asked. "Because he's a Christian and English and we're Muslim".'

During a religious education lesson about Jonah and the whale, he claims one of the pupils asked if Jonah was a Jew, before shouting: 'I hate the Jews, they're our enemies.'

Mr Kafouris said he again tried to speak to the headteacher about it.

He said: 'The head's response was hostile and offensive again. The very first thing she said to me was: "Oh you again! You're the only teacher that reports these things! Nobody else does!".

'Four times she repeated: "It's because of your lack of discipline that they're saying these things".'...

Now there's a new one: lack of class discipline creates Islamic jihad doctrine, Islamic supremacism, and Islamic antisemitism. Expect a brand new white paper from the Nixon Center forthwith!

In the lead story in FrontPage this morning I discuss how Geert Wilders is being denied a fair trial -- although of course the very fact that he is on trial at all indicates that it is not a fair trial.

The Stalinist-show-trial aspect of the Geert Wilders "hate speech" trial in the Netherlands was thrown into sharp relief last week when the Amsterdam District Court refused to allow Wilders to call fifteen of the eighteen witnesses he had hoped to bring forward in his defense. Wilders in response was characteristically direct: "This Court is not interested in the truth. This Court doesn't want me to have a fair trial. I can't have any respect for this. This Court would not be out of place in a dictatorship."

The three witnesses the court allowed Wilders are the Dutch Islamic scholars Hans Jansen and Simon Admiraal, along with the Wafa Sultan. Hans Jansen's work on Islam is superb and groundbreaking, and he will be an excellent witness, as will Admiraal and the exemplary freedom fighter Wafa Sultan.

Nonetheless, this decision indicates the hollowness of Dutch justice and the court's bias against Wilders. For some who would have been Wilders's most effective witnesses were disallowed. He had wanted to call Mohammed Bouyeri, the murderer of Theo Van Gogh.

Why Bouyeri? Wilders, in the bizarre inquisition that has replaced justice in the Dutch courts, is accused of offending Muslims by pointing out that Muslims invoke the Qur'an and Muhammad's example to justify violence. However, Bouyeri quoted the Qur'an in the note threatening Wilders and others that he stabbed into Van Gogh's body, and invoked the Qur'an repeatedly during his trial as well. "Kill them, and Allah will help you and guide your hand," he said. "There's no room there for doubt or interpretation there."...

Read it all.

Here is a useful summary of Louay Safi's checkered past and dubious associations, despite which he was employed as a military subcontractor to lecture on Islam. This report does not mention that, even after the Ft. Hood shootings, Safi was involved in troops' training, and was allowed to meet with victims' families. Those occurrences, of course, were part of the broader knee-jerk reaction in the aftermath of the attack to defend even more vigorously the establishment's dogma that Islam has nothing to do the steady stream of attacks and attempted attacks in Islam's name.

A clear pattern is observable in the military and broader governmental approach to anything related to Islam, and it involves an obsession with image over substance (lest appearances offend), a related fixation with "outreach" and "engagement" for their own sake, and an alarmingly unquestioning dependence on middlemen to feed them soothing interpretations of Islam. Never mind the agendas and affiliations of said middlemen, such as Safi, as long as those in charge hear what they want to hear.

And never mind that the non-engagement with reality consequently costs lives at home and abroad.

"U.S. torn over whether some Islamists offer insight or pose threat," by Brooks Egerton for the Dallas Morning News, February 7:

After the worst military base massacre in U.S. history, officials acknowledged that they failed to "connect the dots" - the shooter had been corresponding with an imam tied to al-Qaeda and had condemned the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as a war against Islam.

But Fort Hood gunman Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan wasn't the only one working on a Texas Army base the day of the shooting who had links to radical Islamists.

At Fort Bliss, an experienced military trainer was teaching soldiers about his Muslim faith. He, too, had denounced government counterterrorism efforts, and public records show he and some of his closest associates had ties to terrorism suspects.

But when The Dallas Morning News first inquired about the instructor, Louay Safi, military officials praised him. Only later did they say that Safi had been suspended from working on military bases pending a continuing criminal inquiry.

The Safi affair reveals the deep divisions within the U.S. government over how to combat terrorism and over what constitutes moderate Islam.

Some believe insight into Islamist thinking can be gained only by engaging a wide range of people in North America's close-knit Muslim community, where leaders may well have ties to extremists - ties that do not necessarily signal alliances or support. Others argue that engagement should be limited or shunned to avoid legitimizing radicals or embarrassing the government.

Safi is a senior official of the Islamic Society of North America, the country's largest Muslim organization. ISNA has been consulted for years by Washington and is described as a partner in the fight against terrorism. In addition to serving as ISNA's communications director, Safi runs its program certifying Muslim chaplains for work in the U.S. military and prison system. He publicly denounces terrorism and advocates peace.

How about jihad?

Safi was also named by government prosecutors as an unindicted co-conspirator in one terrorism case in 2005. His last two employers were implicated in other government terrorism investigations while he worked for them. He was never charged, nor included among the targets of those investigations.

But Safi has called the widespread raids on Muslim organizations after 9/11 "a campaign against Islam" - a term that 9/11 Commission director Philip Zelikow says is part of "the jihadi narrative."

Safi has also complained that Muslims are treated differently from Christians and Jews when they do wrong. They are unfairly identified by and questioned about their religion, he says, treatment that can lead to isolation and aggression.

"The extremist ideology responsible for violent outbursts is often rooted in the systematic demonization of marginalized groups," Safi said in an Internet posting after the Fort Hood shooting. [...]

Lectures suspended

Safi, a 54-year-old native of Syria, is a military subcontractor who has lectured on Islam for the Army since 2005. His relationship with the Pentagon began a year earlier, when he became ISNA's leadership development director, providing Muslim chaplains the religious endorsement they need to work in the military and prison system.

He is one of seven lecturers in the Army's Islamic education program, overseen by the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. Much of the work is contracted out to Huntsville, Ala.-based Camber Corp., the privately held firm that hired Safi.

The training on Islam is part of a broader military educational program for which Camber is paid about $17.7 million annually, Navy Commander Brenda Malone said. Camber spokeswoman Rivka Tadjer declined to comment, citing instruction from the military.

One lecturer not affiliated with Camber who has worked alongside Safi is Michael Rubin, resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., and a staunch ally of Israel.

Safi's presentations stick to religious theory and do little to prepare deploying soldiers for how extremists exploit Islam, said Rubin, an Iran expert who also lectures at the naval school. "There's an element of excusing rather than explaining," Rubin told The News....

Read it all.

Life behind bars, for allegedly damaging a Qur'an. An update on this story. "Christian sentenced to life in prison for blaspheming Islam," from Spero News, February 7:

A court in Faisalabad, Pakistan, sentenced to life imprisonment Imran Masih, a young Christian, for having insulted and desecrated the Koran, according to the Minorities Concern newsletter.

On July 1, 2009 Masih, a shopkeeper by profession, was brutally tortured by a group of Muslims, then arrested by police on charges - allegedly fabricated- that he had burned pages of the Koran.

On January 11, 2010 the judge sentenced him to prison for life, which he will serve in the federal prison in Faisalabad where he is currently confined.

The court also imposed an additional penalty of 10 years' imprisonment and payment of 100 thousand rupees (just over 800 euros), under provisions of the law prohibiting blasphemy against Islam.

Peter Jacob, executive secretary of the National Commission on Justice and Peace, sponsored by the Catholic Church, while not openly criticizing the ruling, speaks of "not a good verdict " and "lack of freedom" of the judiciary.

Abukar Arman is the new special envoy to the U.S. for the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) that leads the Somali Unity government and presided over bloody Sharia rule in Somalia in 2006.

Leftist/Jihadist Alliance Alert: Abukar Arman is also a columnist for the Huffington Post. There he has said of the Rifqa Bary case: "It should surprise no one that this case has attracted the 'who-is-who' among the usual suspects -- the founder of paranoia fueling website JihadWatch, Robert Spencer."

Jihad Watch: Accused by the Taliban of fueling paranoia! Bumper stickers should be issued!

Arman has previously numbered me among people he dubbed "provocateurs," but I think he gives me way too much credit. After all, as far as provocations go, I got nothing on the African Taliban! For other interesting sidelights on Arman, see here and here.

Also, Abukar Arman was (and may still be) the head of the Columbus, Ohio, office of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). You know, CAIR, that moderate civil rights organization so beloved of the mainstream media and all too many government and law enforcement officials.

Revealing -- yet again -- of what CAIR really is, and what it is doing in the U.S.

Many thanks to Rusty over at the Jawa Report for the tip.

I tend to think that those who can, do, and those who can't, rattle sabers -- but you never know. "Iran anniversary 'punch' will stun West: Khamenei," from AFP, February 8 (thanks to Syzygy):

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday that Iran is set to deliver a "punch" that will stun world powers during this week's 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution.

"The Iranian nation, with its unity and God's grace, will punch the arrogance (Western powers) on the 22nd of Bahman (February 11) in a way that will leave them stunned," Khamenei, who is also Iran's commander-in-chief, told a gathering of air force personnel....

Save My Father Hector Aleem
by Mehwish Aleem

At a time that the United Nations calls Switzerland's ban on new minarets "clearly discriminatory and deeply divisive," and the whole world is condemning the Swiss for their vote, I would like to bring to the attention of the world my plight.

My name is Mehwish Aleem and my father (Hector Aleem) is a human rights activist in Pakistan. He has been working as a human rights activist since 1996. He is running an NGO with the name of PEACE WORLDWIDE. Hector Aleem has worked for Christians and Muslims without prejudice. But today he is in jail and could be killed at any time.

My father was working for a church destroyed by CDA (capital development authority) in Islamabad Pakistan. The church was destroyed because according to CDA it was built illegally. The charge was false.

There are many mosques in Islamabad (the capital of Pakistan) that are built with no permit, but no one will dare to touch them. For example, there was a vacant lot near my house and a Maulvi (Muslim leader) started to build a mosque on it. The land belonged to an absentee owner. When the owner learned about it, he started to destroy the illegally built mosque on his property. Hundreds of Muslims rioted and threatened to kill the owner of the land. As the result he give up his land in order to save his life. The government did not intervene. Churches on the other hand are destroyed by the governments' own agents.

When Hector Aleem objected to the destruction of the church he faced with several lawsuits ranging from fraud to criminal charges. He fought all of them in the courts and proved his innocence.

His opponents tried to assassinate him several times. The Maulvies threatened him that if he continues to work for the church they would kill him and his sons, and would force his dughters to convert to Islam.

During this time Hector Aleem received a Peace award by Mr. Yousaf Raza Gillani the prime minister of Pakistan. One month later, on 21st January, 2009 he was arrested by the police. They severely beat him and tortured him mentally and physically. After 24 hours of not knowing what were the charges, we were told that his offence is blasphemy, a charge that caries death penalty in Pakistan.

According to the first information report someone sent a blasphemous message to a leader of Sunni Tehreek (a Muslim extremist organization) and that sender had once contacted my father. So my father is guilty by association. Since they could not find the offender, they arrested my father.

Hector Aleem, is 51 years old and is a heart patient. He is not allowed to take his medication and is denied visitation. During his trial a large mob gathered in front of the court chanting slogans against him and threatened the judge that if he releases my father they will kill him themselves and they will destroy the court and will also kill the judge and the lawyer who defended my father. Under the mob's pressure, the judge refused bail. The lawyer of the plaintiffs, who is a Maulvi, told the judge that if he releases my father, he (my father) will be killed as soon as he steps outside the court.

Then on 24 June 2009, chief justice of Pakistan Mr. Iftikhar Ahmed Chaudry granted my father bail, but the Maulvies lodged many other criminal cases against him so that he cannot come out.

Hector Aleem is still in jail. It is one year since his capture. The police are in cahoots with the Maulvies. Once two policemen went to my father's cell and told him that even if he is granted a bail they will not let a blasphemer out. They will lodge so many cases against him that he will not be able to bear them. Soon after that they proceeded to lodge more charges against my father. They used to take him to the police station every fifteen days, where they beat him and torture him in front of the Maulvies and the Taliban.

I am begging for help. I plead to all those who champion the right of Muslims to build more minarets to also care about the minorities in Islamic countries. We are fighting for our lives. Are Muslim minarets more important than our lives of non-Muslims?

Please sign my petition. Please write to the Pakistani authorities listed bellow and ask them to release my father Hector Aleem as soon as possible. He is not guilty of any crime and the accusations of blasphemy that are made against him are false. They want to destroy him because he objected to the destruction of a church.

Today, all our family is in hiding. All of us have received death threats. My siblings and I have left our studies and hide for our safety. There is no future for us in our country. If my father is released he will be killed by the mob. We need to get out of Pakistan. Please help us if you can. We don't know where to turn and whom to ask for help.

There is so much hoo-ha about the ban of minarets in Switzerland, but will anyone hear our cry?

Please make our cry reach to the ears of those who care more for human life than building minarets. We have done nothing wrong. Our only crime is to be Christians in an Islamic country.

Please contact these authorities and tell them to release my father. They know Hector Aleem is innocent, they are afraid of the mob. Your concern will give them the excuse to act.

Please also sign this petition

Please digg this article so it can be read by more people. The more people know about it and write to the Pakistani authorities, the more are the chances that my father is set free.
Thanks you for your concern.

Some of these addresses have emails; others have fax and phone numbers. Please contact them all and save our lives.

Asif Ali Zardari
President of Pakistan
publicmail@president.gov.pk
ppp@comsats.net.pk

Mr. Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani Prime minister of Pakistan Prime Minister House, Islamabad PAKISTAN Fax: + 92 51 9221596 E-mail: webmaster@infopak.gov.pk

Supreme Court of PakistanConstitution Avenue, IslamabadTelephone: 051-9220581-9220600 Fax: 051-9213452
secretarygeneral@president.gov.pk

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari chairman@ppp.org.pk
Federal Minister of Law Justice and Human Rights S Block, Pakistan Secretariat, Islamabad PAKISTAN Fax: +92 51 920 2628 E-mail: minister@molaw.gov.pk
Mr. Rehman Malik Advisor for Ministry of Interior Room No. 404, 4th Floor, R Block, Pak Secretariat Islamabad PAKISTAN Fax: +92 51 920 2624 Tel: +92 51 921 2026 E-mail: minister@interior.gov.pk
Mr. Mian Shahbaz Sharif Chief Minister of Punjab H-180 Model Town, Lahore PAKISTAN Fax: +92 42 5881383
Minister of Law Government of Punjab Punjab Secretariat Ravi Road Lahore PAKISTAN E-mail: law@punjab.gov.pk
Chief Secretary of Government of Punjab Punjab Secretariat Lahore PAKISTAN Fax: +92 42 7324489 E-mail: chiefsecy@punjab.gov.pk
Dr. Faqir Hussain Registrar Supreme Court of Pakistan Constitution Avenue, Islamabad PAKISTAN Fax: + 92 51 9213452 E-mail: mail@supremecourt.gov.pk

Mr. Syed Hamid Saeed Kazmi Minister for Religious Affairs Islamabad PAKISTAN Tel: +92 51 9214856 / 9206982 Fax: +92 51 9213593 E-mail: mra.hajj@gmail.com

They thought maybe he didn't understand English, but he did. So what was he doing? "Security scare closes airport concourse," from UPI, February 8:

DETROIT, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Part of a Detroit airport terminal was shut down Monday after an Arabic man ignored instructions from security guards, police said....

The man allegedly refused to stop for questions during a security screening process, airport spokesman Michael Conway said.

Security guards at first thought the man didn't understand English and therefore didn't understand their questions, but when he was taken into custody, he began to speak in English, Conway said.

Police, who reported nothing unusual was found when the man's body was searched, were conducting a background check and planned to search his luggage and car, impounded by airport police.

A few days ago - on February 3 - this news item appeared:

TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) - A military strike on Iran could have the unintended consequence of stirring nationalist sentiment to the benefit of Tehran's hard-line government, U.S. General David Petraeus told Reuters....

"It's possible (a strike) could be used to play to nationalist tendencies," Petraeus, head of the U.S. Central Command region, which includes Iran, said in an interview this week.

"There is certainly a history, in other countries, of fairly autocratic regimes almost creating incidents that inflame nationalist sentiment. So that could be among the many different, second, third, or even fourth order effects (of a strike)."

Now there are many in the American government who will do, who are doing, what they can to avoid facing up to their responsibility to deal - forcefully, and at long last - with the nuclear project of not Iran, but the Islamic Republic of Iran. They have various ways of preventing action.

Wage jihad against Jews and Christians? Doesn't he know it's a Religion of Peace™?

"Yemen's al-Qaeda calls for jihad against Jews, Christians," from Reuters, February 8 (thanks to all who sent this in):

The Yemen-based wing of al-Qaeda called on Muslims in the Arabian Peninsula to wage jihad, or holy war, against Christians and Jews in the region.

"The Christians, the Jews, and the treacherous apostate rulers have pounced on you...you have no other way out from this plight other than to wage jihad," the wing's deputy leader, Saeed al-Shehri, a former Saudi inmate at the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, said in an audio tape posted on a website often used by Islamist groups.

Shehri was one of 30 al-Qaeda members that Yemen claimed to have killed in an air strike in December but this was later denied by the global militant network.

"We advise you, our people in the Peninsula, to prepare and carry your weapons and to defend your religion and yourselves and to join your mujahideen brothers," he said.

'US forces killed Yemeni women, children'

Shehri said the Yemen-based wing's failed bomb attack on a US bound plane in December had been carried out in coordination with network leader Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden claimed responsibility for the attack in January, weeks after the al-Qaeda in Yemen first said it was behind the operation.

Shehri said a conference convened in London last month where high-level officials discussed how to stabilize Yemen showed there was an ideological war being waged against Muslims in Yemen by the West.

There again, while Western nations do everything they can to avoid giving the impression that it is waging war against Muslims, jihadists continue to insist that they are waging war against Muslims. And of course the jihadis continue to wage war in the name of Islam against the West.

Shehri said US forces had killed Yemeni women and children with what he termed "espionage planes", an apparent reference to unmanned drones....

Shehri also addressed his call for jihad to a number of Yemeni tribes, including to the sheikhs of the "Houtha", in what appeared to be a reference to the northern Shiite rebels known as the Houthis....

Here is my entry in a National Review symposium today, "Western Civilization on Trial":

The Geert Wilders trial ought to be an international media event; seldom has any court case anywhere had such enormous implications for the future of the free world. The case against him, which has all the legitimacy of a Stalinist-era Moscow show trial, is a manifestation of the global assault on free speech sponsored chiefly at the U.N. by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). If Wilders loses, the freedom of speech will be threatened everywhere in the West.

Even if he wins, a dangerous precedent has been set by the fact of the trial itself: It is a sad day for the freedom of speech when a man can be put on trial for causing another man offense. If offending someone were really a crime warranting prosecution by the civil authorities, the legal system would be opened up to absurdities even greater than the Wilders trial.

But of course what Dutch authorities, Muslim groups in the Netherlands, and the OIC really want to accomplish is to silence Wilders's truth-telling about jihad and Islamic supremacism. The court's railroading of Wilders was clear from that fact that 15 of his 18 requested witnesses were disallowed, including Mohammed Bouyeri, the Koran-inspired murderer of Theo Van Gogh who would have proven Wilders's point immediately. As Wilders himself put it Wednesday: "This court is not interested in the truth. This court doesn't want me to have a fair trial." The darkness descending over Europe, as indicated by this trial, may ensure that there is no fair trial there again for a long, long time.

Other symposium participants include Bat Ye'or, Paul Marshall, Clifford D. May, Daniel Pipes, and Nina Shea. Read it all.

For years now we have seen non-Muslim law enforcement officials gingerly, politely make this request. And yet as year after year passes, no one ever says, "Time's up!" and begins to call the Muslim community to account for its non-support of anti-terror efforts. No one ever asks himself why the Muslim communities in the U.K. and the U.S. don't do more to aid anti-terror efforts. No one ever starts to question the bedrock assumption that these communities are on our side in what used to be called the war on terror, despite the lack of any actual evidence that they really are on our side.

"Police chief calls on Muslims to support terror offensive," from Emergency Services News, February 8 (thanks to Twostellas):

The Muslim community 'could do more' to help identify extremist individuals, a senior officer has said.

Sir Norman Bettison, the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police, said that while he is conscious there is a fine line between winning the support of the Muslim community and alienating it, there was also a need for the community to work with the police.

"I'm looking for the community to work much more closely with the police in identifying young people that they have concerns about in terms of the people that they're mixing with, the sort of websites that they're going on to and the material that they're reading," he said.

"Now that information can only come from the community itself."...

An Afghan policeman? Why, wasn't he a "moderate"? Here again we are confronted with the impossibility of distinguishing a "moderate" from a "radical" Muslim. Given the almost universal acceptance of the iron dogma that Islam is a Religion of Peace™ that has been hijacked by a tiny minority of extremists, this impossibility may come as a surprise. But in reality, there is no mainstream sect of Islam or school of Islamic jurisprudence whose authorities have renounced and rejected violent jihad and Islamic supremacism, and declared that anyone who holds to the idea that Muslims have a collective responsibility to wage war against Infidels and subjugate them under the rule of Islamic law is a heretic.

If there were such a sect or school in Afghanistan or elsewhere where there is an American military presence, one could rely on the peaceful group and shun the group that taught violence. But there is no such group. Contrary to popular belief, not only is the principle of jihad warfare against unbelievers not the province of a "tiny minority of extremists," but it is taught by every mainstream sect and school of Islam.

The U.S. government, of course, denies this fact and bases numerous policies upon the assumption that the vast majority of Muslims share universally accepted notions of human rights, and abhor jihad terrorism. And that is just one reason our policy in Afghanistan is foredoomed.

"Senior Afghan policeman held over planting bombs," from the BBC, February 8 (thanks to Java):

A senior Afghan policeman has been arrested in connection with planting and storing roadside bombs, Nato officials said.

The policeman was held by Afghan and coalition forces in northern Parwan province on Friday.

A Nato statement said that the policeman was "linked to criminal activities, including a murder."

Roadside bombs are frequently used to attack foreign and Afghan forces in Afghanistan, correspondents say....

The BBC seems to think that Poverty Causes Terrorism, a common notion that has been disproven again and again:

Correspondents say policemen in Afghanistan are badly equipped and poorly paid.

Many in the force complain that they are neglected and morale in many police units is low.

But of course if Obama could just sit down and talk with him, they could get everything ironed out. "World Shia Leader: Destruction of Zionist Terrorist Regime, imminent," from the Ahlul Bayt News Agency, February 8 (thanks to Twostellas):

TEHRAN - Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ali Khamenei stated on Sunday that the will of God is set for an end to the oppression in the region and the defeat of the hegemonic powers.

TEHRAN - World Shia Leader, Ali Khamenei stated on Sunday that the will of God is set for an end to the oppression in the region and the defeat of the hegemonic powers.

The Supreme Leader made the remarks in a meeting with Ramadan Abdullah, the secretary general of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement.

Israel is going downhill toward decline and fall and God willing its obliteration is certain, the Leader noted.

He said he was very optimistic about the future of Palestine, underlining the need for continuation of the Palestinian resistance against the expansionist policies of the Zionist regime.

"Today Palestine is the symbol of life, determination, faithfulness, diligence, and dignity," Imam Khamenei explained.

Palestinians have shown that they are spiritually more powerful than Zionists and that is why the Israeli army has not been able to defeat them despite a military superiority, he stated.

"Palestinians' faith is the main factor in their resistance," he emphasized.

The Leader went on to say that the Zionist regime, all through its 60-year-long life, has emerged as a symbol of atrocity, viciousness, and ugliness.

The Supreme Leader also praised the role of the Islamic Jihad Movement in the Palestinian politics.

The Leader added the Western governments' support for the Zionist regime is ineffective.

Iranians will defend Palatinates due to their heartfelt beliefs, he reassured.

Palatinates, eh? I am sure the Rhinelanders will be very glad to hear that.

Welcome to the new, proud, brilliant multicultural Britain. The driver's behavior in this case is perfectly in accord with the Islamic supremacist notion that Islam is the plain truth, and everyone sees that, and thus those who don't believe are perverse and rebellious against God, and have no rights that need be respected. "Muslim bus driver locks passengers aboard as he stops to pray," by Heidi Blake for the Telegraph, February 8 (thanks to Hussein):

A Muslim bus driver knelt in the aisle to pray for five minutes leaving bemused and anxious passengers trapped in ther [sic] seats.

The driver pulled over without warning and rolled out a high-visibility jacket as a makeshift prayer mat before removing his shoes, turning to face Mecca and starting to chant in Arabic.

Passengers said they looked on in stunned silence, fearing the driver may be preparing for a terrorist attack on the bus. No one was able to get on or off the vehicle during the five-minute prayer session.

Gayle Griffiths, 33, complained to Transport for London (TfL) about the incident on the number 24 bus in Gospel Oak, north London, last week.

The mother-of-one from Camden, north west London, who had boarded the bus minutes earlier on her way home from work, said: "Everyone was looking round in a mix of shock and amazement.

"When he had finished, he just got back up and set off again - all without any explanation or apology. It was truly bizarre, ludicrous and aggravating."

"We are delayed often enough as it is in London. We live in a multicultural society but there is a time and a place for prayer and the middle of a journey with a busload of passengers is not it."

The NHS administrator added: "It even went through my mind that this might be some sort of terrorist attack with the bus blown up because I had heard that suicide bombers prayed before attacks."

TfL has apologised to all the passengers for the delay to their journey and the driver has been reprimanded....

UPDATE: Pamela makes an important point: why did everyone just sit there and not take action -- especially if they were afraid that he was about to launch a jihad terror attack?

February 3. Thanks to Occidental Soapbox, where there is a goldmine of good audio and video.

That was bound to happen sooner or later, just as soon as al-Shabaab got strong enough to expand its horizons. The newly minted alliance with al-Qaeda is also significant, as al-Shabaab has access to al-Qaeda's assets in the region to make good on its threats. "Somalia: Al-Shabaab declares jihad on Kenya," from Garowe Online, February 7:

The Islamic administration of Al-Shabaab that controls Somalia's southern regions of Jubba has on Sunday declared holy war on Kenya over reports that Nairobi is training Somali troops.

Sheikh Hussen Abdi Gedi, Al-Shabaab's second in command in the southern port city of Kismayo said his group has received reports of planned offensives from the Kenyan side, urging the regions' residents to prepare for holy war.

"Kenya has prepared troops that comprise of Kenyans and Somalis, who are trained to attack and take over the regions. They are planning to attack us on the land, sea and air. We are urging people to be ready and defend our land," he told Al-Shabaab's Andalus radio on Sunday.

Andalus: We've got your convivencia right here, kuffar.

His sentiments come as Kismayo, the lucrative southern Somali port city that fuels insurgent activities across the war-torn country, witnesses a low flying military planes which raised high tension.

The border between the two countries has also seen the enormous presence of Kenyan troops, who are patrolling with the battle wagons.

It is the first time that the rebel group has declared jihad against Kenya since capturing the bordering region.

However, Kenya denied reports of its involvement in the training of Somali soldiers, saying it has nothing to do with the Somali issues.

Sources quoted by Garowe Online said Nairobi trained in its soil some 2,500 troops, who are ready to join the Somali government's offensive against Al Shabaab rebels.

Does Mohamed Elibiary, who is called in this ridiculous puff piece "the country's leading Muslim deradicalization expert," need to deradicalize himself? After all, he was one of the speakers at a December 2004 conference in Dallas entitled "A Tribute to the Great Islamic Visionary," Ayatollah Khomeini. When Rod Dreher of the Dallas Morning News called him on this, he threatened Dreher, telling him: "Expect someone to put a banana in your exhaust pipe."

I have met Mohamed Elibiary. He is a slick fellow. You can read here his dancing and obfuscation about deception in Islam and other matters, in a long exchange we had here at Jihad Watch. Read it carefully, noting the questions I ask him and the answers he gives to them, and ask yourself whether he really is or ought to be thought of as "the country's leading Muslim deradicalization expert" -- not that there is any more suitable candidate out there.

"Many Muslims quietly working to head off radicalism," by Eileen Flynn for the Austin American-Statesman, February 6 (thanks to Ed):

In 2008, a New York woman feared her brother, a troubled young Muslim man living in New York, might be getting involved in a violent radical group in Pakistan. So she called a cleric in Houston for advice. The cleric in turn called Mohamed Elibiary, head of the Plano-based nonprofit Freedom and Justice Foundation.

Elibiary, who has quietly emerged as the country's leading Muslim deradicalization expert, devised an intervention that played on the young man's familial duties and got him to return to the United States where counselors and mentors steered him away from militant extremism.

That case is detailed in a new report from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank that has compiled stories of other would-be terrorists who abandoned their violent plans.

And it's a reminder that in the aftermath of last year's Fort Hood shootings and the recent terrorism-related arrests of young Muslim Americans, we need people like Elibiary working with government and law enforcement....

Of course, people like Elibiary, and only people like Elibiary, are already working closely with government and law enforcement.

And the world yawns, even as it teeters on the brink. "Iran's leader orders higher enrichment of uranium," by Nasser Karimi for the Associated Press, February 7 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered his country's atomic agency on Sunday to begin the production of higher enriched uranium, a move that's likely to deepen international skepticism about the country's real intentions on the crucial issue of enriched uranium.

Ahmadinejad's latest pronouncement on the issue of enriched uranium coincided with a call Sunday by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates for the international community to rally together to pressure Iran into abandoning its nuclear program.

Speaking to reporters during a weeklong European tour, Gates said that "if the international community will stand together and bring pressure" on Iran, "I believe there is still time for sanctions to work."

This idiocy is astounding.

Farouk Shami is a candidate for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Texas. On his website, he "clarifies" his religious affiliation by making it clear as mud. The statement is notable for its sly obfuscations and detours, which will be familiar to longtime Jihad Watch readers:

"I want to clarify what has been reported in the press concerning my religion. I was born in the land of Abraham, believing in Moses, Jesus and Mohammad, and believing in one God.

While this statement may appear to the ignorant and unwary to be one of religious pluralism and open-mindedness, actually it is a straightforward statement of Islamic faith. For in the Qur'an, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad are all Muslim prophets who taught the same message, the message of Islam. Judaism and Christianity, in this understanding, arose later, out of corruptions of the teachings of Moses and Jesus. So for Farouk Shami to say that he believed in Moses, Jesus and Muhammad is simply to say that he was an ordinary, mainstream Muslim -- although the statement is clearly presented here in an attempt to give readers (and Texas voters) the impression that he was some kind of "all religions are one" multiculturalist or broad-minded ecumenist.

I grew up with members of my family and friends practicing multiple faiths: Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. I was also educated at a Quaker school. All of these things contributes to my relationship with God. To say simply 'I'm a Muslim' or 'I'm a Quaker' is to ignore major parts of my faith. I know it seems complicated that I do not have a pat answer to questions about what religion I am, but without my exposure to many different cultures and religious beliefs I wouldn't be the person I am today.

All right. But here again, none of these statements involve anything that a believing Muslim could not or would not say. So his family and friends include Jews and Christians, and he went to a Quaker school -- none of this necessarily involves his own belief system. And if a Muslim can say that he is a true Christian because he believes in what he believes to be the true Islamic Jesus of the Qur'an, then he can surely say that he is a Quaker -- although Farouk Shami doesn't quite say that, either.

Although I'm not a member of any specific religious tradition, I do begin every day with prayer and meditation and have a strong personal relationship with God. I respect those who practice all faiths because I believe God gave us life to help one another, the poor, the sick and the oppressed. It is through God we can achieve peace, freedom and bring justice to the world. As Governor, I know, with God's help and guidance, I will be able to help every Texan have access to the American Dream just like I did--a good job, access to healthcare, and an excellent education for their children. That's why I feel called to run for office."

He is not a member of any specific religious tradition. That could mean that he is not a Muslim, or that he doesn't believe that Islam is simply a manmade religious tradition, but rather divinely revealed and unquestionable truth. Meanwhile, the statement that "it is through God we can achieve peace, freedom and bring justice to the world" sounds very much like statements from Islamic supremacists the world over, who identify peace, freedom and justice with the imposition of Sharia.

I am not saying that Farouk Shami is an orthodox Muslim who therefore believes in Sharia, dhimmitude, the death of free speech, etc. And I am sure he would deny that he believes those things. All I am saying is that, despite appearances to the contrary, appearances which Shami obviously intended, there is actually nothing in his statement that is inconsistent with mainstream Islam.

And in any case, whether Farouk Shami is a Muslim or not, he has mastered the art of claiming victim status, an art practiced so assiduously by the likes of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and other Muslim advocacy groups in the U.S.: "Shami calls White's political ads 'racist,'" from the Associated Press, February 4:

{...] Farouk Shami, a Houston businessman who was born a Palestinian outside Jerusalem, says former Houston Mayor Bill White makes a "racist" remark by talking about being born in San Antonio....

A spokeswoman for the White campaign called Shami's comment "ridiculous."

Uh, yeah.

There is no indication in this article about what Morris actually said that was so offensive, or whether or not it was true. Actually, it probably was true: as in the Wilders trial, as Pat Condell has said, "Fear of free speech is the symptom of a profoundly neurotic and dishonest society." The jihadist thugs and their Leftist dupes only try to silence people who speak truths they would rather not be known.

Free Speech Death Watch Alert: "Benny Morris talk stirs uproar at Cambridge," by Jonny Paul in the Jerusalem Post, February 7 (thanks to all who sent this in):

LONDON - The Israel Society at Cambridge University has succumbed to pressure and canceled a talk by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev historian Benny Morris after protesters accused him of "Islamophobia" and "racism."

Morris was scheduled to speak to students at the university on Thursday, but following a campaign led by anti-Israel activist Ben White the Israel Society canceled the talk. Instead Morris was invited to speak at an event hosted by the university's Department of Political and International Studies.

White, who graduated from the university in 2005 and authored the book Israeli Apartheid: A Beginners Guide, set up a protest page on Facebook in which he claimed that "on different occasions, Morris has expressed Islamophobic and racist sentiments towards Arabs and Muslims."

He added: "We find it offensive and appalling that an official student society would want to invite such an individual."

Following the Facebook protest, a letter was sent to the student union by the university's Islamic Society, other students and two staff members from the English Department asking it to take a stand and show it is serious "in opposing bigotry and Islamophobia." The 15 signatories said Morris's views were "abhorrent and offensive.

"The issue is hate speech, and the impact of a visit by this individual on the campus' atmosphere for the student body's minority groups... His visit is insulting, threatening to Arab and Muslim students in particular and also goes against the spirit of the student union's stated anti-Islamophobia policy," the letter read.

Last year, Cambridge's Palestine Society hosted Abd al-Bari Atwan, editor-in-chief of the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper. In 2008, Atwan said the terrorist attack on Jerusalem's Mercaz Harav yeshiva, in which eight students were killed and 15 were wounded, was "justified" as the school was responsible for "hatching Israeli extremists and fundamentalists." [...]

Jake Witzenfeld, president of Cambridge University's Israel Society, canceled the Morris talk, apologizing for any "unintended offense."

"I decided to cancel for fear of the Israel Society being portrayed as a mouthpiece of Islamophobia," he said. "We understand that whilst Professor Benny Morris' contribution to history is highly respectable and significant, his personal views are, regrettably, deeply offensive to many."...

A Muslim group accused of publishing anti-Semitic material congratulated the Islamic Society for the cancelation [sic] of Morris's talk.

"Muslim Public Affairs Committee congratulated Cambridge's Islam Society on the success of their campaign and lobbying to stop the Islamophobe Benny Morris giving a speech at their university... A simple Facebook group and a well written letter is all that it takes to defend your religion," the group said.

The 2006 All-Party Parliamentary Report into Anti-Semitism alleged that the anti-Israel Muslim Public Affairs Committee has used material from Holocaust denial and neo-Nazi publications, uses the word "Zionist" as a replacement for "Jew" and engages in the spread of conspiracy theories about Jews. In 2006, it was discovered that MPAC founder Asghar Bukhari make a donation to convicted Holocaust denier David Irving....

Our old friend Raymond Ibrahim discusses what causes young Americans and Europeans to betray their heritage, embrace Islam, and wage jihad war against their fellow countrymen.

According to a recent ABC report, "As many as three dozen criminals who converted to Islam in American prisons have moved to Yemen where they could pose a 'significant threat' to attack the U.S., according to a report on al-Qaeda from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. ... Also of concern to U.S. officials, the Senate staff found, is a group of 'nearly 10 non-Yemeni Americans who traveled to Yemen, converted to Islam, became fundamentalists, and married Yemeni women so they could remain in the country.' ... An American official described them as 'blond-haired, blue-eyed types' who fit the profile of Americans who al-Qaeda has sought to recruit for terror missions."

These, of course, are not the first Americans -- "blond-haired, blue-eyed types" or otherwise -- to convert to Islam and join the jihad: John Walker Lindh wound up fighting fellow Americans alongside Taliban forces in Afghanistan; Adam Gadahn became a major character in al-Qaeda's propaganda machine; Gregory Patterson, Levar Washington, and Kevin James plotted terror strikes against the U.S.; Christopher Paul and Jose Padilla conspired to use weapons of mass destruction.

Then there are the countless European converts, such as the British "shoe-bomber," Richard Reid, who attempted to achieve "martyrdom" by detonating explosives in his shoes while aboard a passenger aircraft; the late Germaine Lindsay, who did achieve "martyrdom" by killing himself and 56 of his fellow citizens and injuring over 700, in the London bombings of 2005; and Abu Abdullah, the native Briton-turned-fiery-Islamist-preacher who makes no secret of his vitriolic hatred of the West (all, of course, while enjoying that unique Western liberty, freedom of speech).

What causes such men, born and raised in the West, often from Christian backgrounds, to abandon their heritage, embrace Islam, and become radicalized to the point that they conspire to kill their fellow countrymen?

As for Islam's intrinsic appeal, it has long been argued that, unlike Christianity, which can be "heavy" on theology, Islam is relatively simple and straightforward. Thus while Christianity may revolve around the metaphysical -- the Trinity, Christology, even the notion of grace -- Islam, in black-and-white terms, commands its adherents to do this and not do that. In fact, the Arabic word "Sharia," that comprehensive body of laws Muslims are to obey, is etymologically related to the word for "pathway" -- as in, "the pathway to paradise."

Yet there is another, more subtle, factor that may entice men to Islam: traditional male roles are highlighted in the religion. This may appeal to non-Muslim men who want to assert their "masculinity" in what they perceive to be gender-free Western societies. Harvey Mansfield's book, Manliness, defines that term as "a quality both bad and good, mostly male, often intolerant, irrational, and ambitious. Our gender-neutral society does not like it but cannot get rid of it."

Indeed, with an ethical code that coalesced in the seventh century -- when the Muslim prophet and "perfect example" walked the earth, enforced his will, and conquered his "infidel" neighbors -- Islamic culture can hardly be deemed "gender-neutral." Even philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who despised Christianity as "effeminate" and preached the need for man to be transformed into an amoral "hyper-man," professed admiration for Islam, describing it as "noble and manly" (The Antichrist).

Of course, traditional masculine roles are not the sole domain of Islam; most civilizations have lived in accordance to such norms; so-called "gender-neutral societies" are, from a historical perspective, aberrant. James Bowman, author of Honor: A History, points out that, when it comes to the West's disregard for notions of honor and masculinity, "we are, in global terms, the odd ones out"; he further asserts that, up until the Victorian era, in the West, "honor was rather closer to the Arab and Muslim idea of it today."

It is in this context, then, that disaffected young men -- who, like Nietzsche, despise what they perceive to be a "gender-neutral" society -- may find a religion which emphasizes "masculinity" appealing.

John Walker Lindh especially seems to fit this paradigm. Precipitating his conversion to Islam was his teenage discovery that his father was homosexual -- an event that appears to have traumatized and alienated Lindh. Islam's masculine ideals and unequivocal condemnation of homosexuality may have lured young Lindh, who, soon after his father left his mother and moved in with another man, converted to Islam at age 16. Shortly thereafter, he went a-jihading.

This is all further exasperated by Muslims mocking Western masculinity -- such as Osama bin Laden, who has ridiculed Western acceptance of homosexuality and characterized the American soldier as "a paper tiger" who is "too cowardly and too fearful to meet the young people of Islam face-to-face" (The Al Qaeda Reader).

Whatever position one may hold regarding these issues, one thing is clear: If traditional masculine virtues are upheld in Islamic culture, so too do traditional masculine vices abound -- for it is often a very fine line that separates hyper-virtue from hyper-vice. Honor, courage, and patriarchic ethics can -- and, in Islamic culture, regularly do -- morph into destructive pride (e.g., "honor killings"), disdain for life (e.g., suicide bombings), and brutal misogyny....

Read it all.

It is unlikely that this will ever change. After all, the Saudi stance toward non-Muslims is based on Muhammad's saying: "I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslim."

Islamic Tolerance Alert from the Kingdom of the Two Holy Places: "Brian O'Connor: discrimination and religious intolerance the evils of Saudi Arabia," by Nirmala Carvalho for AsiaNews, February 6 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

New Delhi (AsiaNews) - In Saudi society, "discrimination and intolerance" are an "evident" matter of fact, exacerbated by the "unlimited powers" enjoyed by the muttawa - the kingdom's religious police - who perpetrate crimes, violence and promote a system of widespread corruption. This is the statement of Brian Savio O'Connor, a Christian of Indian origin, for 7 months and 7 days a prisoner, chained and tortured in a Saudi jail on charges of proselytizing. [...]

Mr O'Connor, where does the problem with corruption begin?

Unless the Saudi kingdom, permit Religious Freedom and respect the Spirit of Reciprocity, corruption will continue to plague the Saudi Kingdom and have disastrous social consequences. The 'muttawas' have unquestionable powers and yield their powers to harras people of other faiths, evidence is planted, prayers in the privacy of the homes are cause for arrests and jail terms, While these are also the ways and avenues for corruption of these 'police.

What was your experience of corruption in jail?

[Prison] is a haven for corruption, any favours could be 'bought for a price' from the jailors, and for the non- muslims, it was even worse, they would be attempts by the jail authorities to subtly get us to renounce my faith and embrace Islam, and this was the case with most who were thrown into jail on fabricated(faith based) cases. The corruption had even stooped to a level that even a change of name to a Mohammedan one sufficed to some fringe benefits inside the jail. It is significant that arbitrary powers of the Muttawas, have spurred the rise of religious fundamentalism which has implications for social development, for social justice and human rights.

Can you describe to readers your days in the Saudi Kingdom?

In Saudi society, discrimination and in tolerance toward non-Muslims is evident and it is worrisome, that all this lacks transparency, to there can be cases of indiscriminate harassment of non- Muslims leading to human rights abuses. In my humble opinion, it is the rigidity of the Saudi society, and denial of religious freedom that, engenders fundamentalisms. However, from recent account, in Riyadh (where I lived), the muttawahs have lessened their vigilance and harassment/intimidation of private worship and this is encouraging.

What according to you can help Saudi emerge from this corruption and extremism?

It is known that in the Saudi Kingdom Freedom of religion is legally not recognized and this opens avenues for legal sanction for corruption. In order to weed out the source of corruption, it is urgent that by Law, the Saudi authorities ensure protection for private worship for all religious groups, curb harassment of religious groups, and promote tolerance toward all religions....

"League of the Righteous"? But...but...don't these righteous ones know that the Qur'an teaches peace and tolerance? Why is it that so many of the most "righteous" Muslims are, according to the propaganda that is fed to us in the West every day, Misunderstanders of Islam? How is it that those most serious about Islam get it so drastically wrong, and always in the same way? And why won't any Western authorities ever address this question?

"Militant Video Shows Abducted American," from AP, February 6:

(AP) A Shiite militant group in Iraq has posted an Internet video showing an American it says it abducted and who appears to be a contractor reported missing by the U.S. military.

The U.S. Department of Defense said Friday that American contractor Issa T. Salomi, 60, went missing Jan. 23 in Baghdad and that search and recovery efforts were under way, but it released no other details. The U.S. military in Baghdad on Saturday confirmed Salomi is missing but would not provide additional information.

In the video, the man - who did not identify himself - says his abductors from the League of the Righteous are demanding the release of militants and the prosecution of Blackwater security contractors accused of killing 17 Iraqis in 2007 in Baghdad.

"The second demand is to bring the proper justice and the proper punishment to those members of Blackwater company that have committed unjustifiable crimes against innocent Iraqi civilians," the man said. "And to bring justice by proper compensation to the families that have been involved in great suffering because of this incident."...

This one's a real jaw-dropper. Who would have thought, after Iran has responded with such warmth to Obama's overtures, that the two great powers would not be close to an accord?

"Gates Says U.S., Iran Aren't Close to Nuclear Accord," by Viola Gienger and Steve Bryant for Bloomberg, February 6:

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he doesn't regard Iran as close to an accord with international powers on the handling of uranium.

"I don't have the sense that we are close to an agreement," Gates said today in Turkey's capital Ankara. He discussed Iran with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said in Munich yesterday that Iran is "approaching a final agreement" on having nuclear fuel produced outside the Islamic Republic. The country is "serious," he said. Mottaki also today said he had talks on a possible deal with International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano at the Munich Security Conference.

The U.S., the other four permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany are working to persuade Iran to give up enrichment of uranium, which could be used to produce fuel or make a bomb. The group, which also includes China, France, Russia, and the U.K., offered a proposal that would allow Iran to swap uranium in return for enriched fuel for a medical reactor.

Iran's response has been "quite disappointing," Gates said. The country continues to resist the IAEA and the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, he said.

Nothing Done

"They have done nothing to reassure the international community that they are prepared to comply with the NPT or stop their progress toward a nuclear weapon," Gates said. "I think that various nations need to think about whether the time has come for a different tack."...

No kidding, really? It is for this incisive analysis that Gates has earned his prominent position.

Aaqil Ahmed says that to give preference to Christian programming would be "living in the past." Clearly he sees an Islamic future for Britain.

"Church of England is 'living in the past', says BBC's head of religion," by Jonathan Wynne-Jones in the Telegraph, February 6 (thanks to Anthony):

The BBC's head of religion has accused the Church of England of "living in the past" and said that the corporation should not give Christianity preferential treatment.

Aaqil Ahmed, a controversial executive whose appointment last year prompted more than 100 complaints, said: "I think all the faiths should be treated in the same way. I don't believe in treating any faith differently."

He dismissed claims that the BBC was marginalising religion as overly simplistic and argued that Christianity, in particular, was already covered well on television....

There has been growing concern at top levels of the Church over the corporation's approach to religion, with warnings that it must not ignore its Christian audience....

Bishops, clergy and lay members of the General Synod will vote this week on a motion calling on the state broadcaster to explain why its television coverage of Christianity has declined so steeply in recent years.

Output has fallen from 177 hours of religious programming on BBC television in 1987/88 to 155 hours in 2007/08 - a period during which the overall volume of programming has doubled.

However, in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Ahmed, an award-winning programme-maker, said that the Church's criticisms were too simplistic.

"I don't believe that we should be basing the debate on 20-year-old figures, the conversation is far more complicated than that," he said.

"It's very easy to live in the past, but we live in the present. In a few years' time the way we're going to view television will change radically, so the conversation will become even more redundant.

"We'll listen to what they say, but we're clear that we know what we're doing and we'll stick to that."...

Mr Ahmed - the first Muslim to hold his post - revealed that BBC One will air two explicitly Christian documentaries during Holy Week....

Mr Ahmed's comment that Christianity should not receive preferential treatment comes despite nearly three-quarters of the population describing themselves as Christian in the last census....

You just never know who might be in there

Ain't multiculturalism grand? And doesn't this open up an intriguing sidelight on the stories about France considering banning the burqa?

"Burqa-clad robbers hold up post office," from AFP, February 7 (thanks to Jockaira):

Two burqa-wearing robbers have held up a French post office using a handgun concealed beneath an Islamic-style full veil, court officials said.

Officials said postal office staff let the pair through the security double doors of the banking branch near Paris, believing them to be veil-wearing Muslim women.

Once inside, the pair flipped back their head coverings and pulled out a gun.

They made off with 4,500 euros ($7,100) seized from the staff and customers of the branch in Athis Mons, just south of Paris, according to the online edition of Le Parisien newspaper....

The Norwegian paper Dagbladet reprinted one of the Motoons, and that's when the fun began. "We wanted to show our opposition to it that makes a mockery of our values," said cab driver Munir Rashad. Great. And so will Norway stand by passively and allow its own values to be mocked? (Probably.)

As Pat Condell says, "Fear of free speech is the symptom of a profoundly neurotic and dishonest society." Will Norway allow that neurosis and dishonesty to stand in Oslo, or will it stand for the freedom of speech? For this cab strike is relatively innocuous, but not all the manifestations of Islamic supremacism will be.

"Oslo taxi drivers protesting against the drawing of the Muhammad cartoons," from Tundra Tabloids, February 6 (thanks to Loganswarning):

A thousand taxi drivers of Muslim background interrupted their work late Friday, early Saturday morning in protest of the Oslo-Prophet Muhammad cartoons.

The Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet released on Wednesday one of the illustrations on its front page.

Spontaneous demonstration was launched on Friday evening, and urged the busy men behind the wheel to park their cars during the period of two and four o'clock. According to police, the protest went peacefully.

Dagbladet used the drawings to illustrate a story, according to which the security police PST's website has a link to the infamous cartoon images that have given rise to such bad blood. In the drivers' view, the publication of the picture, was once again unnecessary.

"We wanted to show our opposition to it that makes a mockery of our values," said the driver Munir Rashad....

"[Religion on the ID] can cost people their jobs. It has been known to affect whether they get a job or not, how people look at them, whether they are accepted for a post or an application of some sort. Therefore I think [the ruling] is a good and appropriate thing."

Islamic Tolerance Alert from modern, moderate, secular Turkey: "European Court Rules Against Turkey's Religion ID," from Compass Direct News, February 5:

ISTANBUL, February 5 (CDN) -- A European court on Tuesday (Feb. 2) ordered Turkey to remove the religious affiliation section from citizens' identification cards, calling the practice a violation of human rights.

Religious minorities and in particular Christian converts in Turkey have faced discrimination because of the mandatory religion declaration on their identification cards, which was enforced until 2006. Since then, citizens are allowed to leave the "Religion" section of their IDs blank.

The ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) "is a good thing," said Zekai Tanyar, president of the Turkish Protestant Alliance, citing prejudices against Christian converts.

"[Religion on the ID] can cost people their jobs," he said. "It has been known to affect whether they get a job or not, how people look at them, whether they are accepted for a post or an application of some sort. Therefore I think [the ruling] is a good and appropriate thing."

Tanyar said the same principles would apply in the case of Muslims living in a country that had prejudices against Muslims. For converts in Turkey having to state their religion on their ID cards, "in practice, and in people's experience, it has been negative."...

A stupendous video from Pat Condell on the Wilders trial -- Dutch authorities have put Wilders is on trial "for the crime of embarrassing them with the truth."

"When the truth is against the law, there is something seriously wrong with the law."

The very first line -- "Father Metyas Mankarios ministers to garbage men" -- flies right by but actually it is telling. Islamic law for dhimmis forbids them to hold authority over Muslims, so they generally occupied the most menial positions in society. Thus this is not just evidence of "discrimination," but of the lingering effects, and new resurgence, of Sharia in Egypt.

"Egypt's Copts fearful amid increasing tensions," by Jeffrey Fleishman in the Los Angeles Times, February 7:

Father Metyas Mankarios ministers to garbage men and runs a newspaper for Coptic Christians from an office crammed with brittle archives above vegetable sellers and fishmongers barking out prices along the muddy roads of a Cairo neighborhood.

Few have it easy here. From dawn until deep into the night, there is the clatter of making a living, no matter how small. But these days, Mankarios, his face engulfed by a graying beard, worries more about the increasing discrimination and resentment from Muslims who attack monasteries and teach their children that Christians are infidels.

"It's dangerous today," he said. "Egypt is going in new directions that are starting to affect the harmony between religions. This attitude is evident not only among ordinary Muslims but among top government and Islamic officials."

Egypt's Copts and Muslims have co-existed for centuries, through spasms of bloodshed and recrimination but mostly in relative peace. In recent years, however, tolerance has ebbed and tensions have multiplied in a predominantly Muslim society that has grown more conservative and inclined to drawing religious distinctions in schools, public offices and in mixed neighborhoods.

They've "co-existed for centuries" as long as the Christians knew their place, and acquiesced quietly to ever-dwindling numbers brought about by the depredations of Sharia for dhimmis.

The atmosphere was further agitated this month after a bishop received death threats and six Christians attending a Coptic Christmas Eve Mass north of Luxor were killed in a drive-by shooting. The Muslim assailants were reportedly seeking revenge for the alleged rape of a Muslim girl by a Copt.

The killings highlighted years of sectarian unease in the village of Nag Hammadi, where riots erupted immediately and shops and businesses were burned.

A human rights group accused a member of President Hosni Mubarak's ruling party of inciting the animosities through his connection to one of the attackers. The group, which filed a lawsuit, alleges that lawmaker Abdel Rahim el Ghoul intervened to have one of the gunmen released from prison days before the shooting. Ghoul has denied wrongdoing, and the prosecutor general's office announced that there was no larger conspiracy.

"We need a parliamentary investigation to find out who was really behind this massacre," said Ashraf Radhi, one of a number of Muslim political activists who condemned the deaths. "It is clear to all of us that the three criminals or mercenaries did not act alone. They were backed by someone with authority."

The shooting roiled deep-seated religious prejudices in a nation where Islamic clerics were outraged by a recent ban on minarets in Switzerland but have been less vigorous in speaking out against abuses or protecting the rights of Copts in their own country.

Nag Hammadi "was not an individual act. It is a political, religious, social and above all a governmental crime," wrote Mohamed Shabba in the independent Nahdet Masr newspaper....

Read it all.

But...but...wasn't Obama supposed to usher in a new era of mutual respect between the U.S. and Iran? Instead, Islam as a "political force ... from Morocco to Malaysia" is more belligerent than ever.

"Ahmadinejad Lauds Iran's Mightiness in Post-Revolution Era," from the Fars News Agency, February 6 (thanks to Mo):

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appreciated the Iranian nation for its resistance and vigilance against the enemies during the three decades after the victory of the Islamic Revolution. "The Iranian nation is now standing against the US more firmly, more powerfully, more revolutionarily and more vigilantly than 31 years ago and they will stand so (in future)," Ahmadinejad said, addressing a gathering of people here in Tehran on Saturday.

Referring to the fall of the former Pahlavi dynasty in 1978, he said the Iranian nation revolted 31 years ago not just to overthrow the cruel monarch but to stand against the arrogant powers and that Iranians have continued the same path of resistance all throughout these years.

Ahmadinejad further praised the Iranian nation for the power and vigilance it has displayed since the onset of the Islamic Revolution, and said that the people have succeeded in defusing all enemy plots in these years.

The Iranian Revolution (Also known as the Islamic Revolution, Liberty Revolution or 1979 Freedom Revolution or Enghel?be Esl?mi) refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy (Pahlavi dynasty) under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic Republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution. It has been called an event that "made Islam a political force ... from Morocco to Malaysia."...

Sabrina Tavernise reports in today's New York Times -- a story that begins on the front-page, and continues at great length inside -- about the rape and beating to death of a 12-year-old Pakistani girl by her employer, a rich and prominent member of the Lahore bar. The story is very long, and I read it, eager at long last to see the Times begin to cover the hideous treatment of Christians in Pakistan. The girl was Christian, and Christian girls frequently find that the only employment they can get are as domestic slaves to Muslim masters.

Here is that story.

By now, like you, I am used to a lot. I have long become inured to all the ingenious or clumsy ways the New York Times, The Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the L.A. Times, and hundreds of other papers, and of course NPR, and the Nightly News as brought to Americans by CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox (the ranters who, when it comes to Islam, always fall noticeably silent, perhaps that silence being silent testimony to the share of Murdoch's News Corporation owned by that Saudi prince with the facial tic), avoid discussing forthrightly what Islam inculcates, or how non-Muslims are treated in countries where Muslims dominate.

But even I was surprised at how Sabrina Tavernise, and her paper, The New York Times, managed to carry this story and not once mention the fact that the girl who was beaten to death was a Christian, that her employer is Muslim, and that the Muslim lawyers of Lahore have refused to take up her case or cause, and have even terrified the handful of Christian lawyers, too, from making her case a cause célèbre.

For this is merely one case among many, of repeated miseries and murders inflicted by Muslim Pakistanis on Christians in Pakistan. If you seek examples in the modern world of the Christian heroes and martyrs to rival those of the ancient world, then surely they are to be found among the Christians in Muslim-ruled lands, and perhaps above all today in Pakistan.

Just so that the Sabrina-tavernises of this world get this straight, let's simply remind her, and her employer, The New York Times, of what it is that Pakistan's Christians must endure. A little - just a minute's worth, from recent stories put up at Jihad Watch:

More prison jihad. How did this man get to be approved as a chaplain? Was his adherence to the Religion of Peace™ enough to allay any concerns about his record?

The New York Post story below is essentially the same story I commented upon here, but the essential detail of Zulqarnain Abdu-Shahid's murder conviction has been added in. The editor, however, did not bother to remove the gratuitous moral equivalence of the mention of the rabbi who got in hot water for an illicit bar mitzvah for an inmate's son. Murder and box cutters equal an under-the-table bar mitzvah in our enlightened new multicultural world.

"Muslim chaplain 'smuggled' box-cutter blades into jail," by Reuven Blau and Dan Mangan for the New York Post, February 4 (thanks to Pamela):

A city Department of Correction Muslim chaplain who served 14 years in prison for murder and robbery was arrested today for carrying three utility blades and a pair of scissors into a lower Manhattan jail, authorities said.

The chaplain, Zulqarnain Abdu-Shahid, had the utility blades and scissors in his duffel bag when he arrived at the Manhattan Detention Complex in the morning, according to the city Department of Investigation.

Read the DOI release here (PDF)

The dangerous items were found after an X-ray machine alerted correction officers to the presence of metal in the bag, the DOI said.

Authorities did not say why Abdu-Shahid was visiting the jail, commonly known as the Tombs, or why he was carrying the scissors and the rectangular blades, which were 1-and-1/2 inches long by three-quarters of an inch wide.

Abdu-Shahid, 58, was arrested at the scene and charged with four counts of first-degree promoting prison contraband -- a felony carrying a maximum 7-year prison term -- and four counts of the same charge in the second degree, a misdemeanor.

The Staten Island resident, who is married with three children, was ordered held in lieu of $30,000 bail during a hearing in Manhattan Criminal Court last night, where he appeared in a long robe and navy blue skull cap.

His lawyer, James McQueeney said the blades were 'injector razor blades from an injector razor," and that when Abdu-Shahid told that to the correction officers who stopped him, "his explanation that he didn't know there were there [in the duffel bag] was accepted."

"He was allowed into the" Tombs after the blades were confiscated," McQueeney said. "Only later were questions raised about this." [...]

Abdu-Shahid was hired as a Muslim imam chaplain by the DOC three years ago tomorrow, and has a salary of $49,471 annually.

State Corrections Department records show that he entered state prison in September 1979 to begin serving a sentence of 15-years-to-life for a second-degree murder and a first-degree robbery committed in Manhattan. He was paroled in August 1993, and finished his parole in August 2001. [...]

But a city Correction source said of Abdu-Shahid's arrest, "It's a disgrace that taxpayers are funding Muslim chaplains who not only have criminal records, but also are promoting violence."

Abdu-Shahid's boss -- head chaplain Umar Abdul-Jalil -- himself was hired by the DOC despite having done a 14-year stint in prison for drug dealing.

Abdul-Jalil who also is a Muslim imam, last year was stripped of two weeks vacation as punishment for signing off on a plan by Tombs chaplain Rabbi Leib Glanz to allow a bar mitzvah party for the son of an inmate in that jail.

After The Post uncovered the bar mitzvah -- which included catered food, a live band, and scores of non-inmate guests, Abdul-Jalil among them -- the politically connected Glanz resigned as chaplain, as did Correction security chief Peter Curcio.

In addition to the party, Glanz had also routinely arranged other preferential treatment for Jewish inmates at the Tombs, including allowing them nearly unfettered use of his office and phone, and bringing them food from the outside, The Post disclosed....

Not surprising at all, given the Leftist/Jihadist alliance that manifests itself in so many areas. "Amnesty International is 'damaged' by Taliban link," by Richard Kerbaj for The Sunday Times, February 7 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

A SENIOR official at Amnesty International has accused the charity of putting the human rights of Al-Qaeda terror suspects above those of their victims.

Gita Sahgal, head of the gender unit at Amnesty's international secretariat, believes that collaborating with Moazzam Begg, a former British inmate at Guantanamo Bay, "fundamentally damages" the organisation's reputation.

In an email sent to Amnesty's top bosses, she suggests the charity has mistakenly allied itself with Begg and his "jihadi" group, Cageprisoners, out of fear of being branded racist and Islamophobic.

Sahgal describes Begg as "Britain's most famous supporter of the Taliban". He has championed the rights of jailed Al-Qaeda members and hate preachers, including Anwar al-Awlaki, the alleged spiritual mentor of the Christmas Day Detroit plane bomber.

Amnesty's work with Cageprisoners took it to Downing Street last month to demand the closure of Guantanamo Bay. Begg has also embarked on a European tour, hosted by Amnesty, urging countries to offer safe haven to Guantanamo detainees. This is despite concerns about former inmates returning to terrorism.

Sahgal, who has researched religious fundamentalism for 20 years, has decided to go public because she feels Amnesty has ignored her warnings for the past two years about the involvement of Begg in the charity's Counter Terror With Justice campaign.

"I believe the campaign fundamentally damages Amnesty International's integrity and, more importantly, constitutes a threat to human rights," Sahgal wrote in an email to the organisation's leaders on January 30. "To be appearing on platforms with Britain's most famous supporter of the Taliban, whom we treat as a human rights defender, is a gross error of judgment."...

This report remarks that "the zigzag reflects the Islamic militants' conflicting objectives," but Hamas has only one objective: destroying Israel in order to impose Islamic rule. It is only the tactics that vary. "Hamas backtracks on missile apology," from the Associated Press, February 6:

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - The Hamas government in Gaza distanced itself Saturday from a statement it made earlier this week in which it expressed regret for harming Israeli civilians in rocket attacks.

The zigzag reflects the Islamic militants' conflicting objectives.

Hamas, which seized Gaza by force in 2007, is trying to reach out to the West in hopes of winning recognition and getting Israel to lift its blockade of Gaza. However, Hamas is also reluctant to discard its violent ideology for fear of losing credibility at home.

The apology for the rockets was part of the Hamas government's response to a U.N. report that alleged both Hamas and Israel committed war crimes during Israel's three-week Gaza offensive last winter.

The U.N. investigators, headed by jurist Richard Goldstone, accused Hamas of firing rockets indiscriminately at Israeli civilians. The U.N. report also said Israel used disproportionate force and deliberately targeted civilians. Some 1,400 Gazans were killed, among them hundreds of civilians, as well as 13 Israelis.

During the war, Gaza militants fired some 800 rockets and mortar shells into Israel, killing three Israeli civilians and wounding about 80. The attacks forced hundreds of thousands of Israelis to seek protection in bomb shelters.

Hamas wrote to the U.N. that its primitive rockets were not intended to hit civilians, but often strayed from their course. Hamas said the rockets were meant to defend Gazans against Israeli military strikes, but also maintained that the Palestinians have a right to resist Israeli occupation.

"We apologize for any harm that might have come to Israeli civilians," the Hamas government wrote.

On Saturday, the government claimed the response to the U.N. was misinterpreted.

"The report that was submitted regarding the Goldstone report does not include any apologies and what took place was an incorrect interpretation of some of its wording," the government said in a statement.

The government did not attempt to explain the contradiction and Hamas officials declined comment.

Hamas likely came under domestic pressure after news of the apology became public, said Gaza analyst Naji Sharrab. "They are addressing two different audiences," Sharrab said of Hamas.

Hamas militants have maintained an informal truce with Israel since the war ended in January 2009, but smaller Palestinian groups continue to sporadically fire salvos.

Israel rejected Hamas' initial apology. Human rights researchers said most of the rockets fired from Gaza hit civilian areas in Israel, suggesting Hamas deliberately targeted civilians....

Now I know why Shakespeare said, "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."

(No, I am not advocating mass lawyercide. Although certainly Pakistan would be perhaps marginally saner without the gentle influence of the Lahore Bar Association.)

"Lahore, Muslim lawyers will "burn alive" anyone who defends murdered 12 year old Christian," by Fareed Khan for Asia News, February 6 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

Islamabad (AsiaNews) - Because of the threats posed by the powerful Lahore Bar Association - an umbrella organization of city lawyers - no Christian or Muslim lawyer is ready to take on the defence in the murder of 12 year-old Shazia Bashir, it was reported yesterday by The Pakistani Christian association that deals with legal assistance.

The girl, of Christian faith, died on Jan. 23 as a result of violence - even sexual - at the hands of her employer, a wealthy and powerful Muslim lawyer in Lahore. The alleged murderess, Chaudhry Mohammad Naeem, is a former president of the Lahore High Court Bar Association. The girl, just 12 years old, had worked as a maid in the home of Naeem in the last six months.

The Center for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS) denounces that access to the courtroom where the court hearings were held against the accused was denied, because a group of Muslim lawyers (pictured) 'prevented' entry. The association is fighting - for free - for the rights of the poorest and marginalized groups has been threatened by thousands of lawyers - friends of the murderer - that promise to burn alive anyone who wants to represent the victim in court. "

M. Joseph Francis, director of Claas, asked members of civil society, political and religious leaders to rise up and take steps to "condemn this new form of terrorism" by lawyers who "should ensure justice." The Pakistani newspaper The News reported that on Feb. 4, the police conducted the accused to the courts amid "tight security. And, as usual, officials prevented journalists and relatives of victims to come into the hall for "security reasons".

Shazia Bashir's family could not access the court not once but three times, a strange fact, regarding the judiciary in Pakistan. Police officials explain that it would "not be possible" to prevent clashes and violence, where "Shazia's relatives and representatives of minorities to enter the courtroom."...

Indonesia's blasphemy law is a case study in why such laws against insulting or defaming religions, as championed by the likes of the OIC, should be flatly rejected in the West.

On the surface, they may sound well-intended and even-handed: indeed, wouldn't the world be a swell place if everybody would just be nice? But, as always, the devil is in the details. One complication arises from the fact that blasphemy laws protect ideas, not people. How, exactly, can an idea suffer hurt feelings? Also, these laws become weapons in the hands of those who are in a position to leverage their having been "offended" to their benefit. Accordingly, such laws become a tool by which to suppress political dissent and free expression -- just ask Geert Wilders.

"Jakarta, the Constitutional Court will consider amendments to the blasphemy law," by Mathias Hariyadi for Asia News, February 5:

Jakarta (AsiaNews) - In the coming days, the Indonesian Constitutional Court will consider whether to include amendments to the law on blasphemy. The debate has already raised controversy among those who want to maintain the text and human rights activists representing various NGOs, who are demanding changes to ensure "full religious freedom." Even the moderate Muslim organizations have deployed in defence of the legislation, to preserve the precepts of faith - they explain - from "deviant interpretations."

In Indonesia, the most populous Muslim nation in the world, only five religions are officially recognized: Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism and Hinduism. Only in 2001 Confucianismwas added, after the battle brought by the former president - who died on December 30 - Adburrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid.

The blasphemy law, in particular, prohibits anyone from expressing - publicly and deliberately - feelings of hostility, hatred and contempt for religions. The sentences in cases of violation provide for up to five years in prison. It is used primarily to target the minority that do not comply with Islamic orthodoxy, including the Ahmadiyya sect, and labels the faithful of other not recognized religions as "heretics."

Human rights activists are seeking amendments to the law which they consider "discriminatory" and "contrary to the democratic spirit" of a country that - as under the Constitution of 1945 - protects religious freedom and equal rights for all citizens. Several members of peace and human rights organizations define the blasphemy law of 1965 as a serious obstacle to freedom of worship and the pluralistic spirit of the nation. That is why in November 2009, the advocacy group Alliance for Freedom of Religion, supported by NGOs and activists for Interreligious Dialogue, has filed a formal request to the Constitutional Court asking for the norm to be amended.

However, the initiative is opposed by activists of the fundamentalist fringe in Indonesia and organizations that promote a usually moderate vision Islam, such as the Muhammadiyah and the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU). In a meeting with students in Jakarta, Kiai Hasyim Muzadi Hajj, president of Nu made clear he opposes "any initiative to amend the current law." He adds that it is necessary to "make a division between democracy and moral deviation". Last week, Muhammadiyah chairman Din Syamsuddin, stressed that a change could "incite social disorder."

Suryadharma Ali, Minister for Religious Affairs, recalls that the law ensures social harmony among different (recognized) faiths in the country and stated: "Islam is open to various interpretations, but you can not touch the fundamental points of faith and doctrine. " A reference, not too implicit, to those which are branded as "deviant interpretations" promoted by some "heretical" sects such as the Ahmadis.