November 2003 Archives

Is Saudi Arabia coming to its senses? According to IMRA, "on November 30, 2003, Dr. Muhammad Talal Al-Rasheed, columnist for the English language daily The Saudi Gazette, wrote an article titled 'Senseless Violence, Senseless Death.' The article is in reaction to the murder of Saudi Prince Talal Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Rasheed of Hail by 'Islamists' in Algeria. The following are excerpts from the article:

"We have bred monsters. We alone are responsible for it. I have written as much before my personal tragedy and will continue to do so for as long as it takes. We are the problem and not America or the penguins of the North Pole or those who live in caves in Afghanistan. We are it, and those who cannot see this are the ones to blame.

"Castrated as we are, we look to America. Why? Because they went into Iraq and made a difference. Better or worse is another point. Once America has demonstrated its willingness to do something, the moral imperative is that it should not stop at the first station along the road. The majority of us are sick and tired of this carnage and President Bush, wrong on just about everything else, is right on this one. Does he have the (courage) to finish the job? I wonder.

"I don't think this will be published in the Arab News, as it should be. If not, I understand their point of view and their perpetual selectiveness. But one thing is sure, we are here to stay even if it takes giving our best to the madness of religion and the wrong of fanaticism. Nothing, but nothing, is worth the life of an innocent... may the Americans add Talal to their list of loved ones lost to the same indiscriminate madness that took 3,000 on a certain day in September."

The conflict in France between Islam and secularism has so far centered around the hijab, the headscarf that Muslim women and girls wear.

It has become symbolic of a larger challenge to France's secular society: "A French school yesterday expelled a 12-year-old girl who refused to remove her headscarf in class, a family acquaintance said. The girl of Moroccan origin was the latest pupil caught in a wide-ranging debate in France over the nation's separation of state and church and rules that forbid 'ostentatious' symbols of religion in public schools." This from AP.

"Thomas Milcent, a convert to Islam who has been advising the girl's parents, said a disciplinary commission at the Charles-Walch school in Thann, in eastern France's Upper Rhine region, expelled her for 'aggravated proselytizing and disturbing public order.'

"The girl, who had been suspended from classes since Oct. 13, and her parents were informed of the decision at a disciplinary hearing, Milcent told journalists. The clash between the girl's family and the school again highlighted a long-running row in France over Islamic headscarves in schools.

"School authorities refused to comment. The school's regulations forbid pupils from wearing headgear, including berets and caps. Several girls have been expelled from public schools this year for wearing the scarves.

"Politicians are divided on whether France needs a law to enforce bans on wearing headscarves in schools and public offices.

"Some proponents argue that Islamic fundamentalists are encouraging women and girls to wear headscarves, chipping away at France's secular foundations. But opponents fear a law would marginalize France's estimated 5 million Muslims, the largest Muslim community in Western Europe.

"A panel studying the issue, set up by President Jacques Chirac, is to report its findings by the end of the year. Chirac's party, the Union for a Popular Movement, is expected to make public on Friday its official position on whether a new law is needed to regulate headscarves.

"In October, two sisters at a Paris high school were suspended for refusing to remove their scarves. The girls' father, a Jewish human rights lawyer married to a non-practicing Muslim, has been fighting that decision with the help of an anti-racist organization. While virtually all politicians have declared themselves in favor of upholding the country's secular tradition in state institutions, they are split over whether a law should be imposed which expressly bans headscarves and other religious wear, such as Jewish skull caps or Christian crosses.

"Last month, Chirac hinted strongly that he supported a ban on headscarves when he told an audience in the northern town of Valenciennes that secularism was 'not negotiable.'"

"A student from Manchester University who has been on Stop the War marches in London and Tony Blair's Sedgefield constituency has been arrested in northern Iraq amid concerns that he may have been fighting coalition forces in Iraq." This from The Observer via The Guardian.

"Urslaan Khan, 21, originally from the prosperous Teesside town of Yarm near Middlesbrough, was taking an Arabic Studies degree at the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at Manchester University. Khan was spending his third year of the course at the University of Alexandria in Egypt where he was learning Arabic."

Now what would compel a young man from a "prosperous town" leave his university studies to become a soldier? Might Urslaan Khan's journey parallel that of Abu Zobayer?

His father was incredulous. "Khan's father said: 'He used to call us every Saturday or Sunday from Egypt to tell us he was OK and send his love.' He could not believe his son would have joined a radical Islamic group to fight American troops. 'Urslaan is a bit of an adventurer, a bit impulsive, and may have travelled out to Iraq to see firsthand what was going on. He was political and strong-minded like most of his family and we had been on anti-war marches together but we are strong believers in democracy.'"

The Chicago Tribune carries a story today on the demonstration by the American Middle East Christian Association (AMECA) against the Ramadan assignment given in a California public school. You may have read about it here last Tuesday. The Trib story is a classic media treatment. Although it says that "a 7th-grade world history teacher in California outraged Christian groups by offering extra credit to students who fasted in the tradition of Ramadan to learn about Islam," it never gives the name of any of thoseb groups.

Instead, it mentions only "evangelical radio show host Bob Morey of KPLS-AM," who responded to parents' complaints by helping to "organize a rally last week that drew several hundred people." In other words, there was no mention of AMECA, with its significant contingent of Egyptian Coptic Christians. That might have aroused sympathy for the demonstrators. Instead, they name just one man from that perennial media bogey, the evangelicals.

Also, imagine you are reporter David Pierson, and you have this quote from Morey: "What would Muslim parents feel if their students came home with a letter from their public school teacher [saying] that next Thursday they're bringing in a priest to baptize all the Muslim children?" And you also have this quote from a student: "Eighth-grader Nicole DeWitt said: 'I think it was stupid that they were protesting. They're just trying to make kids understand other religions. They teach us about everybody.'" As the reporter you can put these quotes and your other material in any order you choose. By placing Nicole's quote as the last element in the article, you give her the last word. (That is in fact how the article ends.) Imagine how different the effect of the article would be if Morey's quote had been at the end.

Pierson also provides a platform for Sabiha Khan, a spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, who said: "It goes to show how irrational some people's fears are and how deep ignorance of Islam is." Of Morey, Khan says: "He's part of the new `bash Islam' industry." Then comes the inflammatory statement: "Morey has said that the more than 6 million Muslims who live in the U.S. should be registered." But Morey is given no chance to defend himself against Khan's charges, and no mention, of course, is made of CAIR's own shadowy ties to Islamic extremism.

That is how the press works today.

Just as India's BSF charges that Pakistani intelligence is working with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, Abdullah Al Madani of Gulf News writes that in fact, "Pakistan, through its madrassah, fundamentalist parties, and Inter-Services Intelligence, ISI, is helping the Taliban remnants return to power, repeating exactly what was done in the mid-1990s." And all this despite the Musharraf regime's claim to be "doing everything it can to fight terrorism."

Madani says that "observers today do not need to do much to prove that Taliban figures and leaders are moving freely in Pakistan and plotting without hindrance. According to some Pakistani newspapers, they openly preach at mosques, travel around collecting donations, hold meetings at recognisable addresses in Quetta, and recruit new fighters for the jihad against the International Security Assistance Forces, ISAF, and what they call 'the infidel regime' of Hamid Karzai. All these take place at the time when Pakistani troops are searching the mountains for the Taliban and Al Qaida's activists."

Yet "in spite of the above facts, the US shows no concerns, refusing to take a decisive action against Islamabad or even criticise the Musharraf regime. Washington still maintains that the latter is doing everything it can to fight terrorism.
"It argues that further pressure on General Musharraf's regime to curb the resurgence of the Taliban to clamp down on the madrassah (the incubators for fundamentalist militants), or to stop cross-border infiltration into Afghanistan will damage his political position and could lead to further complexities and chaos in the entire region."

Madani isn't buying: "The counter argument should be that the insistence on protecting an undemocratic regime that hesitates to impose law and order in parts of the country and plays games to prolong its stay in power is what could have a devastating impact on both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"Unlike the Bush administration, the Democrat opposition is now the only force in the US that openly calls for action against Islamabad for its double stance towards the Taliban.

"Democrats have recently showed strong opposition to the $3 billion aid package for Pakistan announced by Bush in June. They are against sending money to Islamabad unless the latter controls its provinces bordering Afghanistan and curbs the Taliban and like-minded groups.

"Such a stand by the Democrats, however, must not lead to the conclusion that they are concerned about Afghanistan more than the Bush Administration. As the presidential election nears, it is merely a game to embarrass Bush.

"In fact, Democrats played a role in bringing the Taliban to power in 1996 by accepting and endorsing the ISI's creation and installation of the latter.

"Democrat figures holding prominent position in the Bill Clinton administration, such as assistant secretary of state for South Asia Robin Raphel, her successor Karl Inderfurth, deputy secretary of state for political affairs Thomas Pickering, and ambassador to the UN Bill Richardson, were among the first Americans to visit the Taliban state, meet mullah Omar's assistants, and forge friendly relations with them in 1996,1997, and 1998."

India's Border Security Force is charging that "the Inter Services Intelligence of Pakistan is backing Northeast-based militant groups having camps in Bangladesh with the help of al-Qaeda and Taliban terrorist organisation." This comes from India's Manorama Online.

"'The Northeast-based terrorist outfits, including the ULFA, NDFB and other groups, are aided by the ISI in their camps in Bangladesh through the al-Qaeda and Taliban and the BSF is on alert,' M N Sajjan, the additional deputy inspector-general of BSF, said on the occasion of the para-military force's 38th raising day here."

I know that Pakistan is our friend and ally, and that India is no friend of Pakistan at all, but it still seems prudent to check out such reports, given numerous other reports that Islamic radicals are working within Pakistan.

What would make a "middle-class university student from Jordan" decide to go to Iraq and become a soldier, even though he was never in the military before? He says it was the Qur'an.

This comes from a story in the San Francisco Chronicle, with thanks to LGF.

"In a rare interview with a foreign fighter battling U.S. troops in Iraq, a middle-class university student from Jordan described this week how he has spent months launching attacks on American soldiers, after being smuggled across the Jordanian border during his summer recess, and trained at a guerrilla camp in central Iraq.

"The well-dressed, slight-built mechanical engineering student from the University of Jordan said he was drawn to fight in Iraq purely by religious conviction -- not because of any link to al Qaeda or other terror organizations, and despite his intense dislike for Saddam Hussein's supporters."

In Onward Muslim Soldiers I explained that Muslims were traveling to Iraq for religious reasons. It's good to see the Chronicle, at least, doing a bit of catching up.

"'There's no way for al Qaeda to contact us, and we don't need al Qaeda to bring us here,' he said during a 90-minute interview, sitting in a tiny village on the outskirts of Ramadi, about 70 miles west of Baghdad.

"'If you read the Koran closely, it says you must fight against infidels who occupy your country,' said the student, 25, who asked to be named in print as Abu Zobayer. 'This is clear. There is no choice.'"

Now wait a minute. Moderate Muslim spokesman Jamal Badawi recently insisted that "a careful reading of the Qur’an leaves no doubt" that "Islam is a religion of peace and nonviolence." How did Abu Zobayer get it so wrong? What can people like Badawi do to convince Abu Zobayer that he is misunderstanding the book?

The article also says that "for months, the Bush administration has said it believes American soldiers are facing terror operatives from seasoned organizations, including al Qaeda, who are now using Iraq as their main staging ground. A top U.S. military official told reporters in Baghdad last Sunday that about 300 foreign passport holders were in custody, among the 5,000 or so detainees arrested by coalition forces.

"At least for this urban transplant and his friends, that description did not appear accurate. Dressed in a patterned sweater with a pressed blue shirt collar peeking out, Abu Zobayer, who speaks a smattering of English, said he had had no military experience before arriving in July, and no experience in the rural living into which he has been thrust.

"He needed a weeklong crash course in combat before picking up a weapon. 'I was never in the military,' Abu Zobayer said. 'I didn't know how to fight.'

"He insisted that he and many intensely religious Muslims from neighboring countries supported the anti-American fight simply on Koranic grounds.

"Although U.S. officials have said the foreign fighters are not a serious threat, the prospect of a religious call to jihad could draw in many others, Abu Zobayer said.

"He said he wanted to dispute claims by U.S. officials that foreign fighters were paid to attack American soldiers: 'We are not paid money,' he said. 'We are guests of Iraqis, staying in their homes.' . . .

"He said he had been assigned to a cell of 15 men by an Iraqi trainer. Of those, two others were foreigners: one from Saudi Arabia, the other from Kuwait. . . .

"Abu Zobayer also said that it had become a growing challenge to smuggle foreign reinforcements into Iraq.

"'Just in ... the last one or two months, it has become much more difficult to cross the borders, with all the Iraqi police and border guards,' said Abu Zobayer, who crossed over with four university friends, helped by a Jordanian intermediary in contact with Iraqi insurgents.

"Gen. John Abizaid, head of the U.S. forces in the region, told reporters in Baghdad on Tuesday that foreign fighters continued to infiltrate the borders.

"'It is not correct to say that there are floods or thousands coming in. The numbers are small,' Abizaid said, adding that they had captured some fighters from as far afield as Sudan.

"Abu Zobayer said he and his friends had met a Jordanian recruiter at their mosque in Amman during their summer university recess. He said he did not think the man was affiliated with a terrorist organization.

"'He told us people in Iraq needed help,' he said.

"Abu Zobayer said he had been inspired to fight by watching accounts of the occupation on television from the comforts of his family's living room in the Amman neighborhood of Jabal Al-Hussein.

"'I saw on the news the American treat Iraqis like animals, like slaves,' he said. 'We are Muslim brothers.'" . . .

"In a living room hidden from the road, the student sat huddled over a gas heater, nursing a heavy cold that had turned his voice hoarse. When the prayer call began from the mosque next door, he excused himself, and stood in a corner of the room praying for 10 minutes, before resuming the interview.

"Over the months, Abu Zobayer said he had come to believe he would not return home -- or at least not alive.

"With increasing risk of being arrested by Iraqi police or American soldiers while trying to cross back into Jordan, he said he was determined to stay in Iraq.

"'I don't need to return,' he said. 'I'll stay here until the Americans leave or until we become shaheeds (martyrs). If they are here for years, God willing, we will be here too.'"

Mullah Omar?*

"Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said Taliban supremo Mullah Mohammed Omar was spotted last week in Pakistani city of Quetta and charged Islamabad with 'turning a blind eye' to terrorism in its border areas." (Thanks to Fanabba.)

"'We have received information that Mullah Omar was seen praying in a mosque ten days ago,' Karzai said in an interview to The Times, London.

"Identifying the mosque as one in Quetta, Karzai accused Pakistan of 'turning a blind eye' to terrorism in its border regions.

"Mullah Omar, who has a $ 25 million bounty on his head, comes after Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein on the US most wanted list.

"There have been no confirmed sightings of the one-eyed cleric since the end of the Afghan war, but he has periodically taunted the West with taped messages urging attacks on coalition forces.

"Karzai described Quetta as the 'terrorists' stronghold' and urged President Pervez Musharraf to stop hard-line Islamic groups from providing sanctuary and support to those responsible for the recent surge in violence in Afghanistan, which has left over 400 people dead in the last four months."

"Pakistan government should take immediate action, particularly, against clerics who, he said, were openly recruiting volunteers from madrasas in Baluchistan and North West Frontier Province, which are governed by pro-Taliban parties. 'The recruitment is being carried with the connivance of local authorities in border provinces,' he said."

However, "brushing aside Afghan President's claim that Mullah Omar was witnessed in Quetta ten days ago, [Pakistan's] Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad Saturday categorically denied the claim, urging Kabul to refrain from slapping blame on the neighboring country in a bid to conceal its lapses."

*UPDATE: As reader Vilmos Soti has alleged that the photo I had up of Mullah Omar was not the genuine article, I have discarded it in favor of the one above, which has the advantage of depicting a man who is in fact blind in one eye, which is one of the few things we know for certain about Omar. But as I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting the man, I cannot vouch for the accuracy either of the earlier photo or of this one.

This Economist article would like us to think that enthusiasm for jihad among British Muslims is waning: "These days, though, long-faced Islamists are surprisingly subdued. 'Even the collections and the preaching feel more restrained,' moans an Afghan war veteran."

Nonetheless, buried at the end of the piece is this detail: "the supply of bombers exceeds demand."

Why would that be? Why would it be so easy to recruit suicide bombers, even for money?

This recruitment is international in scope: ". . . and British bombers are too expensive. 'For the cost of equipping and transporting a British fighter into Iraq—about $2,000—we can shift 20 guerrillas into Iraq from neighbouring Arab states and Chechnya,' says a retired jihadi field officer."

Where did the Economist find a "retired jihadi field officer"? Did the Economist reporter track him down through his pension plan or something?

"Arabs, he says, are also less likely to have visa problems. Yemenis, like Wail, need no visa to enter Syria, although, according to the retired jihadi, at least one Arab embassy is doing its best to accommodate by issuing passports to other nationals willing to thwart America's war in Iraq." (Thanks to Cormac.)

Pakistan's Daily Times reports: "Shadhra Town police arrested a Christian labourer Anwar Masih for blasphemy on Friday, after a case was registered by his acquaintance Naseer Ahmad, who converted to Islam about three months ago. While registering the case against Mr Masih, the police ignored the fact that his accuser gathered other people and attacked his house. Zulfiqar Ahmad, police sub-inspector (SI) and investigating officer (IO) in the case, told Daily Times that he arrested Anwar Masih on Friday evening. The complainant Naseer, who lived in Paracha Colony in Shahdara, was visiting his mother at her Paracha Colony home on Friday when Mr Masih, Naseer’s mother’s neighbour, stopped him in the street and began discussing Islam. During the discussion, the sub-inspector said, Mr Masih got angry and blasphemed. Naseer related the discussion to two other neighbours of his mother, Attaullah and Younas Salfi. The three subsequently gathered other locals and pelted stones at Mr Masih’s house, on which police reached the scene and taking no notice of the attack on his home, arrested Mr Masih."

It is good to see this kind of report in the Daily Times. Most of the time Islamic media sources never acknowledge that this kind of thing can ever happen.

Muhamad Ali, a lecturer at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN) in Jakarta, writes on religious freedom in Indonesia in the Jakarta Post: "Religion has become part of not only private but also public life in Indonesia as elsewhere. The question about how the state should deal with religious pluralism remains unresolved and therefore needs to be rethought.

"The Indonesian Constitution clearly states that every person has the right to worship according to his or her own religion and beliefs. The government has so far given official recognition in the form of representation at the Ministry of Religion to five major religions and indigenous beliefs (aliran kepercayaan). In January 2000, the ban on the practice of Confucism that had existed since 1967 was lifted. While only five religions are officially recognized, the law also states that other religions are not forbidden.

"However, there are still some restrictions on certain types of religious activity and civil administration that are felt by Confucians and the adherents of other minority religions.

"For example, many Confucians still have difficulties with civil registration. The National Identity Card (KTP) should state the religion of the holder. Confucians have not been legally allowed to state their religion on their identity card. Accordingly, Confucians are precluded from renting venues to hold services.

"Because they cannot register they are forced to find alternative means to practice their faith, to be hypocritical by stating an official religion other than their own -- for example, by identifying themselves as Buddhists -- or run the risk of not being issued with an identity card. The failure to state a religion would mean being refused an ID card, something that is required for employment and other purposes.

"Some groups have urged the government to abolish the need to state one's religion on one's ID card. However, little if any progress has been made. Activists have noted bureaucratic resistance to change and say that the Muslim majority see no need to remove the requirement. They say that stating a person's religion on his ID card is necessary so that if he dies and his body is not claimed by relatives, the authorities will be able to ensure appropriate treatment for the remains.

"Such resistance shows a lack of understanding about the principle of equal citizenship.

"Certain policies, laws and official actions restrict religious freedom, and the police and military occasionally tolerate discrimination against and abuse of religious groups by private organizations. Although the Constitution does not discriminate, there is de facto discrimination that limits the access of minorities to government jobs and places in public universities.

"Although the adherents of minority religions are able to obtain police permits to hold meetings in hotels and other public places, there are still some difficulties registering marriages, enrolling children in schools and concerning other civil matters in some areas. They are unable to register their marriages at the Civil Registration Office because they do not belong to one of the five recognized religions. Also it is difficult to obtain official recognition for interfaith marriages between Muslims and non-Muslims. These difficulties result in some persons converting, often superficially, in order to get married and some others going abroad to get married.

"Some leaders of religious minorities have also expressed concerns that the onset of decentralization and enhanced regional autonomy in the country, which is designed to empower provincial and district governments, might result in the issuance of regulations by local officials that could erode the rights of minorities to practice their religions. This worry has become more pronounced in some areas where Islamic Law is being or is to be applied. The implementation of Islamic Law is rejected by minorities as it will undermine religious tolerance and pluralism.

"The state should serve as an agent of religious pluralism in that it should pursue the politics of recognition. All men and women should have equal religious and civil rights -- private rights and public rights. No religion should be excluded from state recognition. Everyone should be recognized because everyone is authentic, unique, and equal.

"The government should be aware that they have mistakenly left minorities unrecognized or misrecognized. A person or a group could suffer real damage and real distortion as a result. Nonrecognition or misrecognition can inflict harm, can be a form of oppression, imprisoning someone in a false, distorted and reduced mode of being.

"Misrecognition shows not just a lack of due respect. It can inflict a grievous wound, saddling its victims with a crippling self-hatred. Due recognition is not just a courtesy we owe people. It is a vital human need. As the philosopher Rousseau put it 'le sentiment de l'existence' should be respected.

"Every one shares the dignity inherent in human beings, or the dignity of the citizen. Universalism emphasizes the equal dignity of all citizens, and the state should be concerned about the equalization of rights and entitlements. The state should avoid the existence of 'first-class' and 'second-class' citizens.

"For some, equalization affects concerns religious rights; for others, it concerns civil rights and voting rights, and even the socio-economic sphere. But despite all the differences of interpretation, the principle of equal citizenship has come to be universally accepted and any violation of this principle constitutes a violation against human dignity.

"The politics of equal dignity should be tied to the politics of recognition. With the politics of recognition, everyone should be recognized for his or her unique identity. With the politics of equal dignity, what is established is meant to be universally the same, an identical basket of rights and entitlements. Both politics are manifestations of the principle of equal citizenship.

"The government should ensure that all laws and regulations are in accordance with the principle of religious freedom, increase religious harmony and interfaith dialogue, encourage comparative religious education and increase the role and function of religious institutions in overcoming the difficulties of social change, and strengthen interreligious and interethnic harmony." (Thanks to Nancy Block.)

"The University of Toronto is allowing a pro-Palestinian conference to proceed this weekend after student organizers agreed participants do not have to agree with a mandatory list of beliefs such as the rejection of the right of Israel to exist and a refusal to condemn Palestinian suicide attacks."

So much for hopes of a negotiated settlement.

So says the National Post. Thanks to Steve, who sent me an email message he received from conference organizers, the Al-Awda student group. It informed prospective conference-goers that "there is a political basis of unity for the conference which serve as political principles which all participants at the conference must respect in order to attend.

"The Basis of Unity is as follows:
1. We support the Palestinian right of return. It is non-negotiable.
2. It is becoming increasing clear that a two state solution is not a viable or acceptable option for the Palestinian people.
3. Israel is a racist apartheid state.
4. Our activism is imbued with an anti-colonial feminist practice.
5. We support the right of the Palestinian people to resist Israeli and colonialism by the means of their choosing. [I.e., suicide bombing]
6. Actions that we organize out of this conference will be developed under the framework of respecting a diversity of tactics."

The Post says that "university officials called off the Toronto Palestinian Solidarity Conference a week ago after learning conference participants were required to sign a six-point Basis of Unity, also stating Israel is a racist apartheid state and calling for a non-negotiable acceptance of the Palestinian right of return.

"The university said the statements fall within the boundaries of free speech, but the Al-Awda student group contravened university policy protecting dissenting opinions by forcing conference participants to agree with its views.

"The clash led to a week of campus protests that saw one student arrested and a student newspaper closed.

"'It's scary,' said Ashleigh Morton, president of the University of Toronto Students' Administrative Council. The engineering student has spent much of this week mediating arguments between Jewish and Arab students.

"'I am hoping everything will calm down. Students are capable of expressing strong opinions without resorting to violence.'

"Conference participants will still have to sign a copy of the Basis of Unity, but do not have to agree with the statements. The advisory, 'Please be advised that the organizers of this conference subscribe to these principles and the event has been planned in the manner that subscribes to these principles,' will appear next to the statement.

"Hazem Jamjoum, a 22-year-old University of Toronto student and member of the Arab Students' Collective, is expecting Jewish protesters to attend the conference and is concerned for the safety of Arab students.

"'People are going to come solely to provoke,' he said.

"A spokeswoman for the Jewish student group Hillel said she had no plans to attend the weekend conference at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. 'I respect their right to freedom of speech,' said Johanna Herman, a fourth-year art history student.

"Another Jewish student, Ben Bach, who is on the university's student council, said he respects the Al-Awda group's right to freedom of speech but is concerned about increasing anti-Israel propaganda on campus.

"He is considering filing a human rights complaint against the Mississauga branch of the Students' Administrative Council for posting a cartoon on its office wall depicting an Israeli soldier, with a grotesquely large nose, holding a smoking rifle and standing on top of a dead Palestinian man, talking to George W. Bush. Dollar bills and coins bulge out of his pockets."

And this in Canada, where even your tone of voice can get you in hot water if you dare to speak about radical Islam.

"A majority of the Turkish people and its media believe that the [Istanbul] bombings were carried out by some Western intelligence agencies to push Turkey into the crisis created by them in the region. Many Turkish newspapers have also made comments that the real culprits behind the bombing were some other people and not the Al-Qaeda."

This bit of paranoia and willful blindness comes from Khilafah.com, a Muslim website that may be tied to Hizb-ut-Tahrir. This site shares the goal of Osama bin Laden and others like him around the world: to unify the Islamic world under one ruler, the caliph, who will then wage offensive jihad to spread Islamic rule into what are now non-Muslim areas. This story is attributed to the "Balouchistan Post."

The article contains quotes from Turkish papers:

"I wonder if this terror is the terror that the US and the UK are fighting against, or the terror that they have produced?"

"Especially after yesterday's events, some countries condemn terror with no shame ... They deceive us. They are sending us a monster which they feed inside them. And they have crocodile tears. What about the US? Is not the US, which always declares it is against terror, in league with the Kurdistan Workers' Party terrorists who are settled in Northern Iraq?"

"We believe that the possibility of Hezbollah, al-Qaeda or Jihad ve't Takfir having done this is quite remote. It seems that it is an extension, or another link in the chain of the games that well known international intelligence organisations have been playing over Turkey."

Islamic law views Christians and Jews as renegades, guilty people (dhimmis) by virtue of their rejection of the Prophet Muhammad, and subject to numerous statutes that enforce their humiliation and subjugation.

Muslims therefore traditionally have not regarded Christians as equals, but as inferiors. If there were ever evidence of this, it is in the new bumper sticker war in Egypt.

Remember when atheists began responding to the Christian fish symbol in the U.S. by printing up stickers depicting a fish with legs, labeled "Darwin"? The message was, "We have moved beyond all that religious superstition." Not a Christian-friendly message, but not a particularly threatening one, either. Contrast that to the Islamic response to the same fish stickers in Egypt: they have created a Muslim shark.

"War of Stickers: Christian Fish, Muslim Shark," by Maggie Michael for AP:

First came the fish bumper stickers, imported from the United States and pasted on cars by members of Egypt's Coptic minority as a symbol of their Christianity. Before long, some Muslims responded with their own bumper stickers: fish-hungry sharks.

It's not exactly war at sea, but the competing symbols that have cropped up on Cairo streets are a tiny reminder of the tensions between Egypt's Copts and majority Muslims. Some Christians are annoyed at the Muslim response.

"All I wanted to say is that I am a Christian, kind of expressing my Coptic identity," said 25-year-old Miriam Greiss, who has a fish sticker on her car. "I think choosing a shark doesn't make sense, as if someone is saying, 'I am a violent, bloody creature, look at me.'"

Emad, a Muslim, laughed when asked about the competing symbols but was unapologetic about the two shark stickers on his car.

"The Christians had the fish so we responded with the shark. If they want to portray themselves as weak fishes, OK. We are the strongest," said Emad, who would give only his first name. . . .

Relations are generally calm between Copts, an estimated 10 percent of Egypt's more than 70 million people, and the Muslims who make up virtually all the rest. But tensions do occasionally erupt into violence, and Copts complain of job discrimination and being shut out of a share of political power.

The complaints, though, are spoken softly. Copts -- who trace their history to St. Mark's bringing Christianity to Egypt soon after the death of Christ -- didn't survive Roman persecution and Arab conquest by being overly assertive.

That is the iron law of how to survive as a dhimmi: shut up and take it.

Copts often wear gold cross pendants or have tiny crosses tattooed on the inside of their wrists, but the stickers seem a more public step. Karl Innemee, a specialist in Coptic studies at the American University in Cairo, said the arrival of the fish could reflect a new desire by Egyptian Christians "to express themselves openly."

Still, the Coptic businessman who began importing the fish stickers two years ago refused to give his name when contacted by The Associated Press at the Maria Group -- the company name on the stickers. He said discussing religion could be asking for trouble.

The fish stickers are sold in churches or Christian bookstores for about 8 cents. The Maria Group owner said sales of the fish, which come plain or with the word "Jesus" inside, have picked up in recent months -- soon after the shark stickers first appeared in August.

Muslims apparently copied or adopted the symbol of an Egyptian sporting goods company to create their shark symbol. The stickers are sold in Islamic bookshops and also come plain or fancy -- some with the Arabic phrase "No god but Allah" printed in the shark's body.

(Thanks to nicolei.)

"Opposing the Indo-Pak ceasefire, Pakistan-based militant outfit Hizbul Mujahedin has announced a new recruitment and training schedule of militants in spite of the governments recent crackdown against extremist groups.

"Hizbul, which announced its opposition to the ceasefire on Friday issued a schedule for 'jihad' training in Pakistan's North West Frontier town of Peshawar."

The quotation marks were around the word jihad in the headline as well, but I removed them. I suppose the writer of this story is aware that jihad is a spiritual struggle and that these terrorists are misusing it. Everyone in the world seems to know that except radical Muslims themselves.

"The militant group publicly distributed a four-page pamphlet at an Eid Milan hosted by Islamist party Jamat-e-Islami at Peshawar, Pakistan daily The Nation reported on Saturday.

"In the pamphlet, Hizbul published its training schedule, which included 21-day preliminary training and three-month guerilla training, the newspaper said.

"It further stated that durng training, food, accommodation, medi-care and arms would be provided by Hizbul while the Mujahidin fighters would bear the travelling expenditure up to the training centre.

"Flaying the ceasefire, Hizbul spokesman Salim Hashmi said that 'the ceasefire is by the two armies and not by the Mujahidin.'

"'In the absence of a permanent solution to the festering issue, all such steps will prove to be cosmetic and transitory,' Hashmi told reporters at Muzafarbad, the capital of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK)."

"Already facing allegations that Muslim extremists have obtained Venezuelan identity documents, President Hugo Chávez has put the country's passport agency in the hands of two radicals -- one a supporter of Saddam Hussein." So says the Miami Herald. (Thanks to rru.)

"Hugo Cabezas and Tareck el Aissami were appointed last month as director and deputy director of the Identification and Immigration Directorate, in charge of border controls and issuing passports and national ID cards. The agency also works with electoral authorities on voter registration. . . .

"Allegations that Chávez's leftist government issued ID documents to Islamic radicals surfaced most recently in the newsweekly U.S. News and World Report. 'Venezuela is providing support -- including identity documents -- that could prove useful to radical Islamic groups,' the magazine reported last month, quoting senior U.S. military and intelligence officials.

"Chávez has strongly denied previous opposition allegations of links to Islamic radicals and leftist guerrillas from neighboring Colombia. Following the U.S. magazine's report, he accused the U.S. 'extreme right' of trying to justify his ouster by 'anything: an assassination, a coup d'etat, an invasion.' . . .

"Chávez was the only head of state to visit Hussein in recent years -- in 2000. He bitterly opposed the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and tried to have a postwar Iraqi delegation banned from OPEC meetings. . . .

"Born in Venezuela of Syrian parents, El Aissami is the son of the president of the Venezuelan branch of Hussein's once-ruling Baath Party, and nephew of Shibli Al Aissami, a top-ranking Baath Party official in Baghdad whose whereabouts are unknown.

"Tareck El Aissami's father, Carlos, defended him in an interview with The Herald as an outstanding student and said he was not a member of the Baath Party.

"In an article the father wrote after the Sept. 11 terror attacks and showed to The Herald, he called President Bush 'genocidal, mentally deranged, a liar and a racist,' and al Qaeda's leader 'the great Mujahedeen, Sheik Osama bin Laden.'"

Middle East Newsline says that "European intelligence and security agencies are concerned that Al Qaida has been recruiting youngsters to fight against the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.

"European officials said security agencies in countries such as Britain, France and Germany have detected signals of Al Qaida recruitment of volunteers to fight the U.S. military in Iraq. The officials said the recruitment effort targets both young Muslims as well as those as those who oppose the U.S. presence in Iraq."

Hmm. Is the implication here that European non-Muslims are being recruited by Al-Qaeda?

"So far, information on the Al Qaida recruitment has been sketchy, officials said. But they said Iraq could become the magnet for Western youngsters and a focus for Islamic discontent.

"'It's incontestable that Iraq has become a factor of crisis, like other zones,' Jean-Louis Bruguiere, France's leading counter-insurgency judge, said. 'In the long term, an Islamic movement that may try to head to a land where there are clashes between Muslims and non-Muslims.'"

I'm continually impressed by how news item after news item can illustrate the global extent of Islamic terrorism, and yet most in the public sphere still claim that terrorists are a tiny, marginalized minority in the Islamic world. Why, just yesterday I heard about an address on terrorism by an FBI agent in which he emphasized: "Terrorism has nothing to do with Islam." That kind of knee-jerk political correctness leaves us blind to the root causes of the present problem, and thus unable to respond to it properly.

Here is more evidence that radical Islam is an enormous, multinational movement, which germinates in mosques and madrassas: "Police hunting Islamic militants across Europe capped a dramatic series of anti-terror raids in three countries with the arrest of a suspected Algerian extremist in the German port of Hamburg on Friday.

"Abderrazak Mahdjoub, 29, was held at the request of Italian authorities investigating an alleged network involved in recruiting Islamists to carry out suicide attacks in Iraq."

Where do you go to find and recruit "Islamists"? Three guesses.

"A copy of an arrest warrant, obtained by Reuters, showed that one of the recruits was suspected of complicity in an October rocket attack on a Baghdad hotel where U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was staying.

"Separately, British police were questioning a suspected would-be suicide bomber arrested in southwest England on Thursday. The government has said the 24-year-old Muslim man may have links with al Qaeda.

"The European police operations coincided with the charging of three Kenyans in connection with a previously undisclosed plot to blow up the U.S. embassy in Nairobi -- the same mission that was destroyed by suspected al Qaeda bombers in 1998.

"While described as breakthroughs, the developments highlighted the fact that Islamic radicals and al Qaeda sympathizers, suspected of carrying out deadly suicide attacks in Saudi Arabia and Turkey this month, apparently remain active across a wide variety of other fronts.

"In the latest alert, the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo said on Friday it had stepped up security in response to a 'specific threat' against international organizations in the U.N.-run province.

"Two years into the U.S.-led war on terror, some European security officials are expressing concern that Islamic militants may be drawing new strength from Muslim anger over the U.S.-led war in Iraq."

Maybe they are, but it is just more wishful thinking if the conclusion here is supposed to be: "Then let's withdraw from Iraq, and terrorism would cease." I know that millions believe that, but consider: today's radical Muslim groups can mostly be traced back to the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in the 1920s. These Muslims consider themselves to be jihadis, in a direct martial continuity with the Prophet Muhammad's battles and those of Muslims throughout history. This war didn't begin with Iraq, and it will not end with Iraq. (Thanks to LGF.)

In the New York Times, of all places, Mansour al-Nogaidan of the Saudi newspaper Al- Riyadh acnowledges what the rest of the world has known for quite some time: that the House of Saud is now reaping what it has sown for many years. It has played a large role in the present worldwide proliferation of Islamic terrorism, and now it is striking within the Kingdom as well.

A week ago yesterday I was supposed to appear at the Sahafa police station to receive 75 lashes on my back. I had been sentenced by a religious court because of articles I had written calling for freedom of speech and criticizing Wahhabism, Saudi Arabia's official religious doctrine. At the last minute, I decided not to go to the police station and undergo this most humiliating punishment. With the nation at a virtual standstill for the holiday Id al-Fitr, the sentence remains pending. I will leave this matter to fate.

Even before the attacks on foreign housing compounds in Riyadh in May, many writers and intellectuals in the kingdom, myself included, were being bombarded with letters and e-mail and telephone messages full of hate. We still receive death threats from Al Qaeda sympathizers. I have informed the Saudi authorities of the threats and provided them with the names and numbers of some of the people involved, against whom I have also filed a lawsuit. So far, no official action has been taken.

The most recent government crackdown on terrorism suspects, in response to this month's car-bombing of a compound housing foreigners and Arabs in Riyadh, is missing the real target. The real problem is that Saudi Arabia is bogged down by deep-rooted Islamic extremism in most schools and mosques, which have become breeding grounds for terrorists. We cannot solve the terrorism problem as long as it is endemic to our educational and religious institutions.

Yet the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Islamic Affairs have now established a committee to hunt down teachers who are suspected of being liberal-minded. This committee, which has the right to expel and punish any teacher who does not espouse hard-core Wahhabism, last week interrogated a teacher, found him 'guilty' of an interest in philosophy and put on probation.

During the holy fasting month of Ramadan, imams around the country stepped up their hate speech against liberals, advocates of women's rights, secularists, Christians and Jews — and many encouraged their congregations to do the same. I heard no sermons criticizing the people responsible for the attacks in Riyadh, in which innocent civilians and children were killed. The reason, I believe, is that these religious leaders sympathize with the criminals rather than the victims.

I cannot but wonder at our officials and pundits who continue to claim that Saudi society loves other nations and wishes them peace, when state-sponsored preachers in some of our largest mosques continue to curse and call for the destruction of all non-Muslims. As the recent attacks show, now more than ever we are in need of support and help from other countries to help us stand up against our extremist religious culture, which discriminates against its own religious minorities, including Shiites and Sufis.

But we must be aware that this religious extremism, which has been indoctrinated in several Saudi generations, will be very difficult to defeat. I know because I once espoused it. For 11 years, from the age of 16, I was a Wahhabi extremist. With like-minded companions I set fire to video stores selling Western movies and even burned down a charitable society for widows and orphans in our village because we were convinced it would lead to the liberation of women.

Then, during my second two-year stint in jail, my sister brought me books, and alone in my cell I was introduced to liberal Muslim philosophers. It was with wrenching disbelief that I came to realize that Islam was not only Wahhabism, and that other forms preached love and tolerance. To rid myself of the pain of that discovery I started writing against Wahhabism, achieving some peace and atonement for my past ignorance and violence.

Unfortunately, he doesn't name the philosophers in question. If they are all that he says they are, they should be given immediate worldwide distribution. (Thanks to LGF.)

"A Muslim convert to Christianity narrowly escaped death when he was attacked by a Muslim fanatic on September 15 in the city of Jos, central Nigeria."

The "fanatic" no doubt believed in this statement of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad: "Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him" (Sahih Bukhari, volume 9, book 84, no. 57).

"'It was around 5 p.m. on Monday in my store,' Mr. Lucky Kadri told Compass from his hospital bed, where he is recovering from injuries. 'I decided to pack up my things because it was already getting late. As I bent down, I felt a blow on my head and I fell down. My assailant was tearing at my stomach with a sharp object. Before I knew it, I saw my intestines spilling out.' Police arrested Kadri’s assailant. 'I have not seen him before, but I have been told that he confessed that he was sent to kill me because I left Islam to become a Christian,' he told Compass. A Christian since 1984, Kadri said Muslim leaders regularly visited his shop to convince him to renounce Christianity and return to Islam. He believes his refusal to recant provoked the attack."

"Suspected al Qaida operative Sajid Badat was described today as a bright, well- educated man from a deeply religious family." So says The Scotsman.

He was, of course, "quiet" (has any suspect in a newspaper report ever not been quiet?): "Neighbours said the 24-year-old, arrested yesterday under the Terrorism Act, was softly spoken and respectful, while his former headteacher said he was a quiet teenager who took his religious beliefs seriously."

Indeed, he seems to have taken some parts of the Qur'an, such as the Verse of the Sword ("slay the unbelievers wherever you find them" Sura 9:5) so beloved of Osama bin Laden, altogether too seriously

But this article, which is otherwise a perfectly ordinary news article, does a strange thing: twice it says that Badat was studying to be a "priest":

"Born in Gloucester to a strict Muslim family who moved to England from Malawi, he is said to have been an active member of his community and had hopes of becoming a Islamic priest, according to reports."

And again: "Locals have spoken of how the devout Islamic scholar and teacher had recently returned home after spending five years in Pakistan to train to become a priest."

Maybe the locals did use the word, but in fact there is no priesthood in Islam. Badat "recently led prayer sessions during the month of Ramadan," which makes him an imam. Isn't the word "priest" is much more commonly associated with Christianity (at least Catholicism and Orthodoxy) than it is with Islam? Why call this guy a "priest" twice in the space of a few paragraphs?

I am not saying that there was necessarily any malicious intent here, but to use this word is a curious species of carelessness. It implies (particularly in versions of this story where "priest" was in the headline, all of which seem to have suddenly vanished) that Badat was associated with groups that in reality he would have had nothing to do with. Maybe it's nothing, but remember: journalists choose their words (and pictures) very, very carefully, in order to try to create certain opinions in the reader.

This AP profile of Istanbul suicide bomber Gokhan Elaltuntas says that

his path to radicalism began four years before he blew himself up in front of a synagogue, part of what appeared to be a coordinated chain of deadly suicide attacks.

The article goes to Bingol, Elaltuntas's Turkish hometown, to inform us that

while devoutly Muslim, many in this town in Turkey's overwhelmingly Kurdish southeast harshly condemned the attacks after learning that two of the four suicide bombers grew up in Bingol and a third was from the area.

One Bingol resident even made the obligatory crime story "He was always quiet" statement:

"We went partridge hunting together. I still cannot believe how such a quiet person could have been involved in an incident like this."

Indeed, how could it have happened? A clue comes from the fact that

a illegal Islamic group, Hezbollah, has a presence in Bingol, a town of 100,000 people where crowds of jobless men kill time at cafes sipping tea. . . . Bingol was where Elaltuntas met two Islamic extremists, Azad Ekinci and Mesut Cabuk, about four years ago while in his late teens, the childhood friend said. The friend said the three opened an Internet cafe on the town's main street. The cafe is now a focal point of the investigation into the twin attacks on Istanbul's Neve Shalom and Beth Israel synagogues on Nov. 15.

Another friend of Elaltuntas said that the bomber was

withdrawn and religious - but not a radical until he met Cabuk and Ekinci. The three wore beards, common among fundamentalists but conspicuous in this moderate Muslim country, where many men are clean-shaven.

How did Cabuk and Ekinci recruit him? Referring to another Bingol radical Muslim, a Bingol resident said:

Azad traveled to Afghanistan ... in 1995 or 1996," he said. "When he came back he looked very Islamic, he wore Islamic clothes and had grown a beard. Whenever he spoke he was giving examples from the Quran."

Remember also that according to another Bingol resident,

"Because families in Bingol bring up their children from a young age according to Islamic principles, once they reach a certain age they join Islamic groups and they take part in acts of terror."

Examples from the Qur'an? Islamic principles? How could these people have missed all the peaceful passages? Dr. Badawi, call your office. It is these men you must convince that Islam is peaceful; as crucial as this task is, you will find it considerably more difficult than convincing Westerners who know little of Islam.

While American soldiers fight and die in Afghanistan and Iraq, students on the home front praise their murderers. During the Third Annual National Student Conference On Palestine Solidarity, held from November 7 to 9 at Ohio State University, "Islamist radicals gathered in America's heartland to openly call for the destruction of Israel, the overthrow of the U.S. government and to take the side of the murderers in the War on Terrorism." The report is from FrontPage, with thanks to Ruth S. King. The whole piece is illuminating.

"Fatima Ayoub, a female graduate student at Johns Hopkins University, spoke glowingly of 'freedom fighters' in 'Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq and Chechnya.' These are all locations where al-Qaeda has been active, two of them areas where Americans are being killed. Most people would question if the Taliban and al-Qaeda are freedom fighters and ask about the 3,000 murdered on 9/11, but this crowd did not give it a thought. Trying desperately to maintain the multicultural flavor of the day, Ayoub pledged to fight for the 'freedom of the Palestinian people and social justice with the Iraqis, Native and Black Americans.'" . . .

More: "Henry Hershkovitz, himself a 'Jew For Palestine,' lamented the arrest of Sami al-Arian as a 'setback' for the movement. Al-Arian is the North American leader of the terrorist organization Palestine Islamic Jihad, which has murdered more than 100 people, including some Americans."

And: "the foremost 'token Jew' at this event was Ora Wise, a rabbi's daughter and Hebrew teacher at Kol Chayeinu Synagogue in Brooklyn, New York. Ora chanted, 'Zionism is racism,' and called for the end of Israel, an 'apartheid' state. Ora spreads Palestinian propaganda around the U.S., providing an invaluable Jewish spokeswoman to the enemies of the Jewish state.

"Wise points to her own ethnicity as proof that there is no anti-Semitism in the movement. She did her job well at the conference, calling upon the 'mainstream Jewish community to reject unfounded accusations of anti-Semitism against the Palestine Solidarity Movement.' However, she admitted to a colleague of mine she is aware that the Palestinians' ultimate goal is to wipe out Israeli Jews and appropriate Jewish homes to themselves. . . .

"As the conference drew to a close, Ora Wise read the principles that the inner circle had privately drawn up for the next conference. The P.C. document demanded adherence to 'democratic procedures,' even allowing a 'transgendered' person on every organizing board. Of course, the Palestinians these people support do not share any of their high-sounding democratic principles and, given the chance, would liquidate transgendered people. This conference hastened the day they can do precisely that, scripting the radical Islamists' strategy for an American campaign to weaken Israel through divestment campaigns and campus protests until calls for the 'Right of Return' can finish her off. Then, just as Vietnam fell to Communism after America's withdrawal, democratic Israel can fall to Islamofascism the same way. In this way, Americans - even Jewish/Americans - can be fooled into thinking they are supporting 'human rights' and 'peace.' Meanwhile, the suicide bombers and terrorists can ply their trade with the knee-jerk support of those Americans they would most like to kill: pampered college students and Jews from all walks of life."

UPDATE: In a comment here, one of the conference organizers denies many elements of the story above and threatens legal action. Of course, intimidation and legal threats are a common tactic of many groups, so the jury is still out. I will keep you posted as to any response from author Lee Kaplan or FrontPage magazine.

"When Imam Mahdi al-Jumeili of the small Hudheifa mosque in Baghdad's Shurti neighborhood met three American officers to resolve a dispute over soldiers entering the grounds of his mosque, his first question to them was 'are any of you Jews'? When he was satisfied that none were, he allowed the meeting to proceed. Prior to the arrival of the Americans, he made his prejudices about them clear: 'We are sure they came here to steal the country and protect Israel,' he said, adding that 'Judaism and Masonism are at war with Islam'."

This insight into radical Muslim hatred of Jews, and anti-Semitic paranoia, in Iraq comes from Asia Times, with thanks to Ruth S. King.

"These views are common in Iraq, where references to 'al-Yahud', or 'the Jews', are made everywhere and they demonstrate the degree to which the outside world is misunderstood and feared by Iraqis whose views were shaped by years of authoritarianism, control and fear, with little access to information not dictated by Ba'athist or religious sources.

"And the prejudices appear to still flourish. For a journalist, not a day goes by without mention of Jews and Israel. Even taxi drivers talk about the Jews when they grumble about the occupation. 'We are Muslims!' one declared proudly during an evening ride to a hotel, 'and Jews come to our land?' When asked who he was referring to, he said, 'They are all Jews. The Americans are all Jews and mercenaries. We know their religion.' When asked if he wanted a Sunni or Shi'ite leader in Iraq, this driver said. 'We are all Muslims, it makes no difference. Only the Jews want to separate Sunnis and Shi'ites, they are non-believers.'

"Another taxi driver explained that 'America and the Jews are one. We know this from their interests, their relationships and America's defense of the Jews. They don't give rights to Arabs, only Jews. America and Jews are the same because they have the same goals and the same faith.' A third taxi driver explained that the Jordanian embassy was bombed because Jordan was organizing the migration of Jews into Iraq.

"In the market of Abu Ghraib, a town west of Baghdad, when asked about the Americans, one angry man replied: 'Saddam was better. At least he was a Muslim. Isn't that better than Jews?' When pressed on the issue, he explained that 'the Americans are Jews, their work is Jewish. Nobody accepts them'. The prayer leader of Abu Ghraib's local mosque agreed. 'They are all Jews and Christians, these occupiers,' he said.

"Signs on the walls of the Abu Hanifa mosque warn Iraqis that Jews have come to the Ekal Hotel and they plan to purchase land, just as they did in Palestine, to drive Iraqis out of their country. 'Do not stab your fellow Iraqis in the heart' by selling land to the Jews, exhorts the sign. A visit to the Ekal Hotel proves that it is closed for renovations and has no guests. The same signs warning of Jewish real estate agents invading Iraq are distributed by university students.

"On the walls of the mosque in Maalef, a Shi'ite slum in Baghdad, large spray-painted graffiti says, 'Kill the Jews'. In Baghdad's Mansour district, at the Rahman mosque, faithful Shi'ites heard Sheikh Ali al-Ibrahimi condemn a recent decision by the Iraqi Governing Council to permit certain non-Iraqi citizens to obtain Iraqi citizenship. Ibrahimi warned that 'if Jews reside in Iraq then they will become Iraqi citizens and they will own Iraq and we will be their guests'. He explained that the founders of the US initially feared letting the 'owners of money' enter the country, but that 'this happened when the Jews came. The Americans and others became their guests'.

"In the large slums of Sadr City, Seyid Hasan Naji al-Musawi, the leader of the Muhsin mosque in this Shi'ite neighborhood declared that the Mahdi, Islam's version of the Messiah, 'will be coming soon and when he comes he will kill the Jewish leadership', which he equated with the Americans, adding that Julius Caesar was Jewish, and the Jews were the Romans. Al-Musawi quoted a verse from the Koran prognosticating the eventual defeat of the Jews."

A verse from the Qur'an! That book of peace prophecies the eventual defeat of the Jews?

"A common belief in Iraq and the Arab world in general is that when held to a mirror and reversed, the Coca-Cola logo says 'No Mecca No Mohammed'. This is attributed to the alleged Jewish ownership of Coca-Cola. It is said that all night long trucks smuggle Iraqi oil through Jordan into Israel. And the rumors continue ad nauseam. The fact that the Old Testament contains references to Jewish hegemony over the lands between the Nile and the Euphrates does little to ease concerns.

"Works purporting to be scholarly are available in every book market, elaborating on themes of the Jewish threat. The ubiquitous Protocols of the Elders of Zion detailing a Jewish plot to rule the world, long proven in the West to be a fabrication written at the behest of a Russian czar, is sold in Arabic. Volume one and volume two. Another book called The Crimes of the Jews is on display on Baghdad streets alongside a book about Drugs and the Sons of the Devil. On further reading, the book reveals that the Jews are the 'sons of the devil' the title refers to. A book in Kurdish is also available, its cover bearing a Star of David, and inside it a monster with blood dripping down its fangs. The book is called In the Jaws of the Jews.

"The Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a member of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, sells a book called Jewish Nights, refuting various Jewish claims about their history, and in Najaf, the office of the cleric Seyid Muqtada Sadr sells a book called Ali and the Jews,detailing Ali's conversion of Jews to Islam.

"Iraqis are clearly very concerned about Jews. Islam is traditionally ambivalent to the Jews, condemning them often in the Koran but mandating a modus vivendi with them at the same time, relegating them to an inferior and protected status called dhimi. Hostility between different religions is a normal phenomenon, resulting from their competition for the same market of believers and their inherent belief that their religion purveys the truth and therefore the others are necessarily false.

This article then goes into some needless and irrelevent disparagement of Christianity, never mentioning the repudiations of anti-Semitism by the Pope and other Christian leaders, and suggesting, against all the evidence presented above in the same article, that Islam is more hospitable than Christianity toward Jews: "As the oldest of the three monotheisms, Judaism was viewed with derision by the other two for its rejection of their newer prophets. In the Christian West, this led to anti-Semitism, the belief that Jews are a race or nation to be disparaged. Judaism was a stain that could not be removed by mere conversion. Martin Luther lamented the existence of Jews whom he viewed as a 'damned, rejected race'. In Islam, with its explicit rejection of races, it led only to anti-Judaism, the belief that the Jewish religion was the problem and if individual Jews became Muslims and recognized Mohammed, then they were no longer Jews and these individuals would be treated just like any other Muslim.

"With the creation of Israel, the Jewish state, and with its successful defeat and occupation of Arabs and Muslims, as well as its oppression of occupied populations, Jews became a threat rather than an anachronistic and vestigial relic. Arab and Muslim authors incorporated European racist and anti-Semitic theories about Jewish conspiracy theories to explain the existence and strength of Israel, as well as its influence over American policy. While the Koran is a vast book with statements that can lead to variegated interpretations, those seeking them can find many verses in the Koran to give these theories religious blessing and validity."

This is historically inaccurate. See Onward Muslim Soldiers and the writings of Bat Ye'or for many examples of Islamic anti-Semitism predating the creation of Israel.

Those examples stem ultimately from elements of the Qur'an that the article does cite: "'Strongest among men in enmity to the believers wilt thou find the Jews and pagans' instructs the Koran in 5:85, implying that Jews and pagans are of equal stature and that Jews are the enemies of Muslims, leading to the conclusion that they are therefore God's enemies as well since they are the enemies of those who believe in him. In 2:97-8 God declares that he is the enemy of whoever is the enemy of the Angel Gabriel. And this is generally interpreted to refer to the Jews.

"The Koran, the Old Testament and the New Testament are all quoted to prove the treachery of the Jews."

This is false. The Old Testament and New Testament are never quoted as such in the Qur'an. The Qur'an contains some stories from the Old and New Testaments, but all are altered and seem much more likely to come from oral tradition rather than from actual readings or quotations of the texts themselves.

"The Jewish worship of the golden calf after God had made a covenant with them (2:92-3) and their recurring violations of pacts made with the Prophet Mohammed (8:56-8) prove that Jews are not to be trusted. In 2:96 Jews are unfavorably compared with idolaters. 'Of all people the most greedy for life - even more than the idolaters' are the Jews. In Verse 88 of 'the Cow' chapter [Sura 2], the Koran describes Jews as follows: 'They say our hearts are the wrappings (that keep God's words) nay God's curse is on them for their blasphemy. Little is it they believe.' Verse 2 of this chapter asks 'is it not that every time they make a covenant, some party among them throw it aside?' In 2:58 the Koran attributes punishments wrought on the Jews for their blasphemy: 'and abasement and poverty were pitched on them, and they were laden with God's wrath; that because they had disbelieved the signs of God and slain prophets unrightfully; that because they disobeyed, and were transgressors'.

"Jews are viewed as unbelievers, disobedient and treacherous, rejecting God and his messengers. In 2:87 the God states 'and we gave Moses the book and followed him up with a succession of messengers; we gave Jesus the son of Mary clear signs and strengthened him with the holy spirit. Is it that whenever there comes to you a messenger with what you yourselves desire not, you are puffed up with pride? Some you called imposters and others you slew.' In 4:157 it is stated that 'they boasted "we killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the messenger of God".' In verse 58 of 'the Table' chapter [Sura 5] the Koran states that God himself has cursed the Jews. Verse 86 of that chapter implies that Jews 'shall be the companions of hell fire'. Verses 79 and 80 describe the 'evil' works and deeds of Jews. Verse 51 of the chapter 'women' [Sura 4] accuses Jews of believing in evil.

"In 5:66, God scolds the Jews for not obeying their Torah and therefore rejecting both Jesus and Mohammed. Verse 56 of 'the Spoils' chapter [Sura 8] describes how Mohammed fought and defeated the Jews at the battle of Khaybar. In 5:78 both David and Jesus curse the Jews for 'disobedience' and 'excesses'."

In light of all these Qur'anic verses, how can Islamic anti-Semitism be eradicated? But instead of an answer to this question, most Muslim "moderates" try to ignore or deny that these passages and others like them exist at all.

"Thus the basis exists, for those who choose to use it, to promote the hostility and palpable fear of Jews that confront journalists in Iraq on a daily basis. The many Iraqis who now have access to satellite television can also watch a Syrian Ramadan series aired on the Lebanese Hezbollah-owned channel 'Al-Manar' that provides a tendentious version of recent Jewish history. 'Al-Shatat' or 'the Diaspora', as the series is called, tells the story of Zionism from 1812 until the establishment of Israel. The series contains familiar themes of Jewish plots to dominate the world. The first episode began with a description of a 2,000-year-old Jewish creation of a world government and attempts by Jews to provoke wars among non-Jews. Subsequently, Jews are shown plotting to kill non-Jews, dominate various countries, oppose other religions, and incite Germany to enter a succession of wars. Actors play famous Jewish figures, such as the wealthy Rothschild dynasty, the founder of Zionism Theodore Herzl and the falsely-accused Alfred Dreyfuss. Jews are shown committing brutal acts of murder and dismemberment against non-Jews and Jews who betrayed the race. Such a program is consistent with a wide body of literature produced in the Arab world, including recent Iraqi newspaper articles.

"After the war, with the flowering of new Iraqi publications, newspaper articles contained numerous Jewish themes, helping to spread the panic that Jews were indeed invading the country. The independent Iraqi daily al-Yawm al-Aakher reported, that 'the frantic campaign to resettle the Jews [in Iraq] has aroused the annoyance of Iraqis, particularly the clerics'. Al-Adala, a newspaper published by the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution, warned that 'a number of Jews are attempting to purchase factories in Baghdad'. The article went on to describe an eyewitness who observed Jews purchasing factories. In fact it seems nearly everyone in Baghdad has a friend or relative who was an eyewitness to Jews buying land.

"An editorial in al-Rassed also warned that Jews were attempting to purchase land as a result of the occupation. Dar al-Salam, a newspaper owned by the Iraqi Islamic Party, reported that Mosul's association of clerics issued an edict prohibiting the sale of land to non-Iraqis because it may end up in the hands of Jews. Meanwhile, al-Sa'ah warned Iraqis to check Taiwanese and Chinese-made appliances for concealed Stars of David because the Israelis would be surreptitiously selling their products in Iraq.

"Another rumor going around is that Michel Aflaq, the now-hated founder of the Ba'ath Party, was a secret Jew who had converted to Christianity. It is also rumored that in Israel, Jewish brothels are built to look like mosques, even with the minaret, or tower. Shi'ites believe that a final battle between Jews and Muslims will occur when the Jews come to the city of Kifil on the Euphrates to visit the tomb of an alleged Jewish prophet. Here Muslims and Jews will fight, and the Jews will hide behind rocks, which will speak and say 'there is a Jew behind me', and the Muslims will be victorious."

This is not just Shi'ite belief. It is founded upon well-attested traditions accepted by Sunnis as well as Shi'ites. Muhammad said: "The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. 'O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him'" (Sahih Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 52, Number 177).

Larry Elder's column today continues his discussion of Islam and jihad with Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer, from his November 10. The first part of this partial transcription can be found here.

Charles Jacobs, president of the American Anti-Slavery Group, and John Eibner, assistant to the international president of Christian Solidarity International, report in the Washington Times on a ray of hope in Sudan, where Christians have been enslaved and brutalized by Muslims for years:

"For the first time in 20 years, Southern Sudan stands on the threshold of peace. The guns are silent. Slave raiding is suspended. Humanitarian aid is flowing. Plans for reconstruction are on the drawing board. Secretary of State Colin Powell expects a comprehensive peace agreement before the end of the year.

"This is a ray of hope in a long, dark night of despair: More than 2 million have perished; more than 4 million have been displaced; and tens of thousands of women and children have been enslaved in Khartoum's declared jihad against the non-Muslims of Southern Sudan. . . .

"Success is within reach. The United States has already pressured and cajoled the belligerents -- the government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (PLA)-- into accepting a settlement based on sound principles: autonomous, Shariah-free self-government for Southern Sudan; and a referendum on independence for Southern Sudan at the end of a six-year interim period."

All is not resolved, as the piece makes clear. But real progress has been made. Let's hope it holds.

I hope all of you in the U.S. (and anywhere else where you might be observing it) are enjoying a peaceful and happy Thanksgiving. We are sipping champagne in the Jihad Watch headquarters now and thanking God for blessing us in this nation with relative peace and freedom, as difficult as those things are to protect and even fully to appreciate.

Jihad Watch grows apace. We hope to make it into an organization that will:
• Counter radical Muslim whitewashes and distortions in the media and the academic sphere;
• Provide an alternative to radical Muslim policy positions and influence among American lawmakers;
• Raise awareness of the ways in which Islamic law denies equality of rights and dignity to non-Muslim minorities;
• Aid moderate Muslims in efforts to press for reform of those areas.

Small steps toward these goals: we have perfected a reasonably bug-free subscriber function. Subscribe, and you will receive in your email daily a Digest of newly added articles, as well as occasional updates on the organization's growth and progress.

You will also see on the left side of this page a new Donations feature. Eventually we plan to make it possible for your donations to be tax deductible, but meanwhile, any help you can give to make Jihad Watch into a strong voice in policy and the media in this war on terror will be gratefully appreciated and put to good use.

To that end also, an unmarked armored vehicle will pull up to Jihad Watch headquarters here in Secure Undisclosed Locationville tomorrow morning sometime between 3 and 6AM, in order to carry me to one of the foremost urban outposts of the Great Satan for a meeting. I hope to emerge from that meeting with a viable impetus to take Jihad Watch to the next level, but alas, this rendezvous will also keep me from filing news updates in the morning. I'll be back as soon as I can, and until then, thank you all again for your support. -- Robert Spencer

The threat of Islamic terror is global, and cannot be attributed solely to Al-Qaeda. However, there are numerous indications that that organization itself is far from incapacitated, even if its involvement in some recent attacks may have been exaggerated. Middle East Newsline now reports that "Al Qaida operatives have been relocating to the southern Sahara Desert in Algeria and have prepared secret bases near the border with Mali.

"Western intelligence sources said the Al Qaida effort was detected in early 2003 and has been aided by the Salafist Brigade for Combat and Call. They said the Salafist leadership has provided Al Qaida with hideouts and logistics in the mountain region.

"'The area is ideal for Al Qaida training and command functions,' an intelligence source said. 'The area is isolated and is located along the border with Mali, where there is no trace of government control.'

"The sources said the Al Qaida operatives use the Sahara as a base to move into neighboring countries as Libya and Mauritania. The focus of the Al Qaida presence is the Mali desert near the Algerian border."

This WorldNetDaily report on the possible adoption of Sharia law by the Islamic community in Canada draws on the same source I used for my report on this on Tuesday. However, WND emphasizes one aspect of the report that I had overlooked: if Canadian Muslims adopt Sharia for their internal affairs, enforcement will still be up to Canadian authorities.

Can you see it? Snidely Whiplash has Nell tied to the railroad tracks, until Dudley Doright rushes up to untie her -- and stones her for adultery. (Thanks to Seymour Paine.)

Where does the Taliban get recruits? In mosques and madrassas, says this profile of a Taliban recruiter in Pakistan from Asia Times.

"Abdul Zahir's day starts with morning visits to a number of mosques in the Pakistani border area with Afghanistan, where the faithful gather for the first of their five daily prayer sessions. And once his morning session is over, he goes to some of the many madrassas (religious schools) in the area, or shows up at social gatherings, such as weddings, if there are any taking place.

"Abdul is unflagging in his rounds because he has an almost missionary zeal: to find recruits for jihad - or holy war - waged by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Himself blinded in one eye from action in Afghanistan, Abdul tells prospective recruits: 'You might fight at the front line, or you might stand guard at night. You can cook for other Islamic warriors, or you can be a male nurse. Or you can give the fighters money or grain - everything is welcome because the jihad has started.'"

Evidently he has no fear that moderate Muslims in the mosques and Islamic schools where he makes appeals will rise up in indignation and repudiate his extremist Islam. (Thanks to nicolei.)

Endy M. Bayuni of the Jakarta Post offers a clear-eyed assessment of the future of radical Islam and democracy in Indonesia: "Political Islam has been making significant inroads ever since Indonesia embarked on democracy in 1998. To the casual observer, the specter of Islamist political forces overrunning secular parties in democratic elections seems all too real in a country where nearly 90 percent of its 220 million people are Muslims.

"If it happened in predominantly Muslim countries like Algeria and Turkey (where the military intervened and trampled democracy), then it could also happen in Indonesia, the country with the world's largest Muslim population, so the argument goes."

However, Bayuni doesn't believe that all is lost in Indonesia: "The reality on the ground portrays quite a different picture. As Islamist political parties discover their voice in a democratic Indonesia, they also find limitations of their influence in a nation that has had a long tradition of religious pluralism and tolerance. . . .

"Still, there are concerns that Islam is rapidly intruding into the political arena. These concerns are founded on indicators and trends that typically include the following:

"Bolder, open expressions that call for turning Indonesia into an Islamic state, or for the introduction of sharia (Islamic law).

"An aggressive campaign to have sharia written into the Constitution.

"Hamzah Haz' election as vice president in 2001. Haz chairs the Islamist United Development Party (PPP), which came third in the 1999 elections.

"The emergence of new political parties, besides PPP, and of organizations that use Islamic attributes.

"The adoption of sharia at local levels, starting in Aceh and, more recently, in a number of regencies.

"The establishment of Islamic paramilitary groups like Laskar Jihad, which sent its volunteers to Maluku and Central Sulawesi to fight in wars between Christians and Muslims, and the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), whose members vandalized bars and nightclubs.

"The bomb attacks, including the ones in Bali nightclubs that killed over 200, mostly Western tourists last year, perpetrated by radical Islamic groups.

"Most of these are phenomena that would have been hard to find during Soeharto's rule between 1966 and 1998. Soeharto regarded political Islam the greatest threat to national security next to communism, and he used the Army effectively to decimate Islamic political forces, including moderate voices, from the outset of his rule.

"Today, with freedom of expression and of association guaranteed by the Constitution, Muslims and political Islam no longer need to suppress their aspirations. Now that the lid has been lifted, we find various kinds of political expression from Indonesian Muslims. And we also learn that political Islam comes in several voices. Some, unfortunately, use violence as a means to achieve their goals."

Bayuni says that there are now over 10 radical Muslim political parties in Indonesia, but "Islamist parties learned of their limitations as early as 1999, when Indonesia held its first democratic elections in over 40 years. Only three Islamist parties out of the pack won seats in the legislature. PPP, PBB and PKS pooled barely 15 percent of the vote between them. . . . Islamist parties were repeatedly defeated in their campaign to write sharia into the Constitution, but they have had occasional victories in other areas. This year, for example, they succeeded in promoting the national education law, which requires Christian schools to hire Muslim teachers to teach Muslim students."

Bayuni concludes on an optimistic note. Here's hoping indeed that he and others will be able to tame this tiger in Indonesia. (Thanks to nicolei.)

More indication that radical Islamic views are quite widespread in the Islamic world: "Several Islamist Web sites and message boards are encouraging visitors to send holiday greetings to Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden." (So says CNN. Thanks to LGF.)

The report says that "the Web sites, which reflect radical Islamic opinion, opened their message forums for Eid greetings and urged people to send messages to the former Iraqi president and the al Qaeda leader. An Islamist is a supporter of Islamic political rule.

"On one site a message addresses Saddam as a 'great leader' who refused to be humiliated by the Americans. 'Brave Saddam Hussein, God protect him and give him victory over the Jews and those who worship the cross,' the message states. . . .

"Some messages on this and other Web sites consisted of poems written to bin Laden asking God to help them die for Islam by joining jihad, the fight against non-Muslims."

"Israeli customs officials have seized 400 Osama bin Laden dolls and 50 Saddam Hussein dolls saying they constitute incitement. The singing and dancing dolls, which carry toy guns, were discovered during a routine check of cargo at he port of Haifa, in northern Israel."

The top picture is of these dolls. The other three are of other toys and souvenir items circulating in the Islamic world. (Thanks to LGF for photos 2 and 4; #3 is from CBS News.)

The report quoted above says that "there has been some support for Osama bin Laden among Palestinians but no mass displays of affection for the accused terror mastermind." That was no doubt intended to be reassuring, but it is always better to be realistic: the items pictured above were manufactured by businessmen who keep an eye on the bottom line. The bare fact that they exist at all, and that such toys keep on cropping up, suggests that support for Osama and for radical Islam are far more widespread in the Islamic world than most commentators would have us believe. These things wouldn't be made if there weren't demand for them.

An AP story about Iraqi policemen says that many Iraqi cops "expressed resentment toward the Americans, who are better armed and less vulnerable to attack. Several policemen referred to the resistance against the Americans as a jihad, or holy war, and said Iraqis had a legitimate right to fight occupation."

Also, "a group of police said they would not notify the Americans if they knew of an imminent attack against the coalition or identify an attacker -- a sentiment also expressed by police in Baqouba and Samarra.

"'We would stop it if we know it will be carried out in the city, because we don't want the Iraqi people to get hurt,' said Salman, an officer who refused to give his last name. But he would not report or stop an attack elsewhere, he said.

"'We are not spies,' said his colleague.

"'I wouldn't tell,' said another policemen.

"'I wouldn't tell on a Muslim,' Salman added."

Nothing surprising here. These men know that the Qur'an (Sura 4:92-3) and Islamic tradition forbid a Muslim to fight another Muslim, or to side with unbelievers against Muslims. I am sure that virtually every Iraqi knows this; does Paul Bremer? This is a primary obstacle he will face in trying to establish democracy in Iraq, as well as in trying to establish Iraq as a stable U.S. ally. (Thanks to LGF.)

Saad Eddin Ibrahim

Today's Wall Street Journal contains a piece entitled "Reviving Mideastern Democracy: We Arabs need the West's help to usher in a new Liberal Age." It was written by Saad Eddin Ibrahim, chairman of the board of the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies in Cairo. Ibrahim was jailed in 2000 and again in 2002 for his pro-democracy work in Egypt. I can't link to the article because WSJ is a subscription-only service, but here are some highlights: [UPDATE: Thanks to Ben F, here it is from Opinion Journal.]

"Democracy is the way forward. It is the only sure way to keep the Middle East from going to the brink of war every few years. . . . How do I rate the prospects for democracy in the Middle East? I think that they are surprisingly good. I am well aware of those who marshal evidence to show that instituting democracies and open societies in the region, or perhaps even in the larger Muslim world, is difficult or impossible. The difficulties are well known and undeniable. But they can all be overcome. In previous decades, authoritative voices said that Germany, Japan, Slavic countries and even Catholic societies would never, could never, be democratic. I am not speaking of popular prejudices here, but of high-level scholarship and expert consensus. Batteries of learned naysayers honestly believed that there was something about German, Japanese or Slavic culture, or about Catholicism, that was fundamentally and unchangeably hostile to democracy and democratic values. . . ."

Now, I would be the last person to say that these difficulties can't be overcome. But the President has made these comparisons too, and they simply aren't exact. At the end of World War II the ideologies that fueled German and Japanese militarism were discredited and rejected. Radical Islam, however, is not discredited in the Middle East.

I'd like to know, in other words, how Ibrahim intends to respond to the challenge of those Muslims who, by their words and deeds, hark back to the words of Ibn Khaldun himself: "in the Muslim community, the holy war is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the Muslim mission and (the obligation to) convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force." In Islam, says Ibn Khaldun, the person in charge of religious affairs is concerned with "power politics," because Islam is "under obligation to gain power over other nations" (Muqaddimah, trans. Rosenthal, p. 183).

Those are not words of openness, tolerance, and democracy. And they are still widely held in the Muslim world.

Ibrahim: "I've never believed anything more strongly in my life. This is not just about Egypt, or the Middle East, or the Arab peoples--this is a global struggle, a battle for the world. Those who are carrying it on in countries and regions such as mine need the help of citizens in mature democracies. Reach out to us, engage us in dialogue, give us a hand if and when you can, and let our message be heard in the West so our culture and our religion will not be unjustly condemned as intrinsically against freedom and democracy, because they are not. . . ."

I would be happy to engage Ibrahim in dialogue. There is no denying his courage and determination, and I admire them. I would ask him to engage the questions above fully and honestly.

Ibrahim: "When we founded the Ibn Khaldun Center and as we guided its work throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, we had the Liberal Age very much in mind. We saw ourselves not as builders from scratch, but as revivers of a great (but not perfect) tradition that had existed not only in our country but also in Syria, Iraq, Iran, Morocco and elsewhere. We were and we remain determined that this liberal tradition--and the Egyptian Court of Cassation, as witnessed in our legal case, is part of this legacy--will not be forgotten. We believe that if these ideas receive the exposure they deserve, the memory of this tradition and, more importantly, the still-living relevance of its core teachings on rights, freedom, transparency, and justice, can play a large role in showing that democracy does indeed have a reasonable chance of putting down roots and growing in the Middle East."

Rights, freedom, transparency and justice must be for all in Islamic societies, not just for Muslims. There is no liberal tradition of this kind within Islam -- there is just the inequality and discrimination of dhimmitude for non-Muslims. This must be addressed by any group working to establish democracy in a Muslim nation.

Ibrahim: "Instead of the 'paralysis by analysis' that comes from cataloguing all the familiar reasons why our peoples will 'never' be ready for democracy, we choose to remind ourselves of the liberal options that were once open and can be open again."

I am not saying "never" or trying to induce any "paralysis." But the questions above must be answered.

Mohammed Hamdi al-Ahdal

The New York Post reports that "a suspected mastermind of the USS Cole bombing was arrested by security forces in Yemen, and officials say he could provide tips about ongoing terror plots on the Arabian Peninsula." Thanks to Internet Haganah.)

"'He's a big fish. He's a logistics guy in al Qaeda. He'll know about cell operations,' a U.S. official said. 'He's the most prominent al Qaeda facilitator in Yemen.'

"Mohammed Hamdi al-Ahdal, also known as Abu Assem al-Makky, was arrested after Yemeni security forces surrounded his hideout in the capital, San'a, and fired shots in the air to warn him he couldn't escape, witnesses and ministry officials said.

"The Yemeni government believes al-Ahdal got $500,000 in outside financing and planned the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in the Aden harbor, which killed 17 sailors, as well as last year's bombing of a French oil tanker, the Limburg.

"In both attacks, suicide terrorists approached the larger ships in small boats packed with explosives.

"Al-Ahdal, 32, a Yemeni national with a wife and four kids, also is accused of planning an aborted attack last year on a five-star Yemen hotel where FBI agents were staying."

Khaled Abou El Fadl (Photo: PBS)

"Professor Khaled Abou Al-Fadl," according to MEMRI, "originally of Egypt, was appointed by President George W. Bush to the Commission on International Religious Freedom, where he is the only Muslim member. Recently he gave an interview to the Egyptian government weekly October in which he strongly criticized the American president."

Al-Fadl is more commonly El Fadl, and he is a leading Muslim "moderate." That may be why Bush was in a hurry to appoint him. But El Fadl has always seen Bush as an opponent. He says: "During the election campaign, Bush gave the Islamic leaders a certain status... They lost their equilibrium. They did not listen - not only to me, but also to someone like Ralph Nader, who was a presidential candidate of Arab origin. He met with them and all but pleaded with them not to vote for Bush. He all but kissed their hands so they wouldn't. We told them that he [Bush] is a Christian religious fundamentalist and that the group around him, of the likes of Paul Wolfowitz and others, hold the same beliefs that accompanied colonialism's entrance to the Muslim countries in the 19th century."

Also this highly tendentious charge: "When Bush came to the presidency, there was a revolution in American policy. He brought in religious Christian people. In the field, Bush permitted missionaries into Iraq before medicines. He is the first president in the history of America whose policy includes supporting Christian missionaries and applying pressure through them on some countries. He links them with continued American aid to some countries.

"Bush says that he respects Islam and wants to spread democratic standards in the Islamic countries. When we ask him what exactly these democratic standards that he calls for are, he has no answer, as if Islam was permitted to exist only provided that it was Islam according to American standards. I say also that unfortunately, there were at first some hesitations in the American administration regarding the raid on Afghanistan, but when it was carried out, it cost much less than they expected, and this spurred them on, in a way reminiscent of intoxication and drunkenness, to start thinking of invading Iraq, Syria, and Iran, and of changing the map of the region."

Regarding "other Islamic voices in America," El Fadl says: "We in America are harmed greatly by the likes of Fouad Ajami, who presents himself as a Lebanese citizen, and many other secular individuals present themselves as if they wanted to purge the Arab world of Islam. They cause us damage, because they present a deviant, erroneous, and distorted picture of the Islamic states..."

El Fadl may despise Ajami because for years Ajami has been, in the words of Muslim writer Marwan Al-Kabalan, "arguing against the widely accepted view that US policies in the Middle East are the main bone of contention with the Arabs." In other words, he is willing to grant that some of the trouble in the Middle East may come from radical Islam, and that Muslims aren't just the aggrieved victims of American imperialism.

Moreover, there are other troubling indications that El Fadl is not as moderate as he seems, and that his explanations of troubling aspects of Islamic militancy are misleading. Much of this I discussed in Onward Muslim Soldiers. For example, he says that "Islamic tradition does not have a notion of holy war. Jihad simply means to strive hard or struggle in pursuit of a just cause." In light of the elaboration of Islamic theology and law regarding violent jihad, it must be asked: is El Fadl trying to reform Islam, or to deceive outsiders -- in line with the Islamic tradition of taqiyya, dissembling to protect oneself when the Islamic faith is challenged?

It looks as if his appointment by Bush may have stemmed more from a frenzy to assert that "Islam is peace" and that the U.S. is not at war with Islam than from a careful assessment of El Fadl's views.

UPDATE: I have just heard from an associate of El Fadl that El Fadl himself denies that he gave this interview. He says that the whole piece is fabricated. He specifically said that he did not oppose Bush's election, did not call him a Christian fundamentalist, did not say anything about mental illness of troops, etc. He will be issuing a written statement and he plans to sue. We will keep you posted.

"Pakistan's 138 million Muslims flocked to mosques on Wednesday to mark the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, with hopes for peace with India tempered by defiant calls for jihad from Islamic radicals."

A tiny minority of extremists? Think again: "Hafiz Saeed, founder of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Taiba guerrillas fighting India in Kashmir, attracted one of the largest congregations in the eastern city of Lahore. He exhorted 150 000 worshippers to support jihad in Kashmir and threatened destruction of the United States."

Said Saeed: "We will continue jihad without any fear or pressure and will not stop it on the asking of anybody. . . . Jihad is inevitable for the glory of Islam. The jihad process is continuing in Kashmir, Bosnia, Palestine and Iraq. Jihad has made Jews and Christians worried. They call jihad terrorism.

"Jews, Hindus and Christians have united themselves against Muslims of the world. They are trying to eliminate Muslims.

"The scenario is changing steadily. The Americans and their allies will face destruction sooner."

Middle East Newsline reports that "Bahrain plans to impose a series of measures as part of a long awaited crackdown against Islamic unrest.

"The Bahraini Cabinet has drafted legislation meant to impose stiff penalties on those convicted of what was termed terrorism. Officials said the new laws would be in accordance with those of other countries that have joined in the war against Al Qaida and related groups."

Great. I hope they will wage the ideological war against radical Islam as well. If they don't, a new generation of jihadists could emerge from the madrassas.

"Six Yemeni-Americans recruited to a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan shortly before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks have filled the government in on Al Qaeda leaders, their training methods and other topics, according to federal authorities." So says AP.

Among other things, the men reportedly explained "Al Qaeda recruiting methods, including 'how to identify potential recruits from among the American population.'"

How were these men recruited themselves? "Friends say the six men were manipulated into going to the camp by high-pressure recruiters who came to their mosque with a message of religious service . . ." Probably a message must like this one.

Besides its well-documented nuclear ambitions, Iran "is reportedly trying to extend the reach of its short and medium-range missiles, some of which could later be supplied to one of its main allies in the Middle East - Hizbullah.

"Reports in the foreign and Hebrew press noted that Iran, under the auspices of Syria, had already armed Hizbullah with upgraded versions of Katyusha rockets that have ranges of 43 km - 75 km.

"These versions, known as the Farj 3 and Farj 5, which were allegedly developed by Iranian weapons experts with the aid of North Korea, have been transported to Hizbullah in Lebanon via Syria, reportedly with the blessing of Syrian President Bashar Assad."

The best line in this terrific Front Page piece by Paul Sperry is the last: Shelomo Alfassa, vice president of the Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture in New York, says: "Imagine if during the war against Hitler, Franklin D. Roosevelt felt that having Jews fight the Nazis might upset the everyday German?"

But that's what's happening in the war on terror: Jews (and people from other dhimmi communities whom I know personally) have been having trouble getting jobs for which they are eminently qualified.

Says Sperry: "A few weeks after Islamic terrorists toppled the World Trade Center, two FBI agents from the New York field office paid a visit to a Sephardic Jewish community center in Brooklyn. Their mission: recruit Arabic linguists to help interpret interviews and intercepts of Osama bin Laden's network.

"Sephardic Jews have lived in Arab countries and know the language, not to mention the culture and history of the region. And being close to Israel, the main target of Islamic terrorism, they were gung-ho to help the feds fight the war on terrorism here.

"It was a good move, or so most involved thought at the time -- and long overdue.

"Federal investigators had missed clues to both the 2001 and 1993 World Trade Center attacks not because they didn't have them, but because they didn't know what they had until it was too late. They were buried in a backlog of untranslated wiretaps and documents in Arabic.

"A chronic shortage of Arabic-speaking translators had resulted in an accumulation of thousands of hours of untranslated audiotapes and written material stored in FBI lockers.

"The FBI's New York field office, at least, knew such delays were no longer acceptable after the 9-11 attack. The bureau's translators were the key to preventing another homeland strike, but they had to convert Arabic chatter to English faster. That meant hiring a lot more translators as quickly as possible.

"So in October 2001, while rescue workers were still pulling remains from Ground Zero, two agents from the FBI's offices located nearby reached out to local Arabic-speaking Jews to do just that. Agents Carol Motyka and Marsha Parrish met with an official at the Sephardic Bikur Holim, a Jewish social-services agency in Brooklyn.

"At the meeting, Yola Haber, who heads the agency's employment division, says she agreed to help recruit Arabic-speaking Jews for the bureau. Most of them applied on-line for the translator jobs. All told, she says she referred some 90 applicants, possibly more, to the FBI. They included retired linguists who had experience working for Israeli radio in Arabic and for the Israeli army.

"Remarkably, not one of them was hired.

"'We sent them a lot of people, and nobody made it to the finish line,' complained Sephardic Bikur Holim director Doug Balin. 'Not one person was found eligible for these jobs, which is outrageous.'

"Instead, the FBI hired dozens of Arab-American Muslims as translators."

"Al-Qaida terrorists have developed a crude device designed to spread deadly cyanide gas through the ventilation systems of crowded indoor facilities such as subways, according to a closely held security directive issued to law enforcement by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and obtained exclusively by WorldNetDaily."

"'Al-Qaida remains intent on using chemical or biological agents in attacks on the homeland,' says the internal warning. 'Terrorists have designed a crude chemical dispersal device fabricated from commonly available materials, which is designed to asphyxiate its victims.' . . .

"'Al-Qaida continues to plan attacks against U.S. targets,' the memo asserts. . . .

"'Al-Qaida has shown an interest in cyanide as a weapon,' said Amy Sands, former deputy director of nonproliferation studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California.

"She cites Ahmed Ressam, the terrorist convicted of plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport during the millennium celebrations. He claims to have been trained to kill people with cyanide at an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan." (Thanks to Mohamed ibn Guadi.)

MEMRI has an illuminating report about the Islamic Affairs Department (IAD) of the Saudi embassy in Washington: "Officials of the Saudi government working at the IAD in Washington, D.C. and its worldwide offices have been mentioned in media reports in 2002 and 2003 for suspected connections with terrorist activities. During the past week, it was reported that the FBI has subpoenaed records and documents of Saudi government bank accounts in the U.S., including accounts from the IAD."

Also, the IAD presents a vision of Islam at sharp variance with the peaceful, tolerant version purveyed by American Muslim advocacy groups.

A few highlights of the IAD's presentation of Islam:

Today's false idols, which dominate over the entire world, are Democracy, Capitalism, Socialism and Communism. Islam instead calls for a Khilafa (Caliphate) based on consultation, and a just economic system based on Zakat and a prohibition of usury.

Hmm. So the Saudi government is calling for restoration of the caliphate, just as radical Muslims are worldwide.

Islam is not a terrorist group as the stereotype would have one believe... We are told that Muslims are terrorists, barbaric and what not. But let us recall what the Christian authorities did... over 12 million people were put to death through the authority of the 'Inquisitions.' Such barbaric act has never been committed by any Islamic authority in the history of Islam. Where was the media then and where are they now - let us judge. Who is barbaric, who chops heads?...

Very well. Leaving aside the fact that this 12 million figure is wildly inflated, show me the global network of Christian terrorists operating today and I will concede your point.

The Muslims are Required to Raise the Banner of Jihad in Order to Make the Word of Allah Supreme in this World. . . . The Muslims are required to raise the banner of Jihad in order to make the Word of Allah supreme in this world, to remove all forms of injustice and oppression, and to defend the Muslims. If Muslims do not take up the sword, the evil tyrants of this earth will be able to continue oppressing the weak and [the] helpless...

Where have I heard this before?

The IAD cites several hadiths to support this, including this one:

Narrated Ibn 'Umar : The Prophet (pbuh) said: 'Whoever of My slaves comes out to fight in My way seeking My pleasure, I guarantee him that I will compensate his suffering with reward and booty (during his lifetime) and if he dies, I would forgive him, have mercy on him and let him enter Paradise.'

This is one of the Hadith Qudsi, the "holy hadiths" in which Muhammad quotes Allah. They are regarded by Muslim theologians as on a par with the Qur'an as Allah's word.

And this one:

Narrated Ibn 'Abbas: Allah's Messenger (pbuh) said: 'When your brethren were killed as martyrs in the battle of Uhud, Allah put their souls into some green birds which arrived at the rivers of Paradise, ate from its fruits and took shelter beside lanterns, made of gold, and suspended in the shade of the divine Throne. When they enjoyed eating, drinking and sleeping, they said: 'Who will convey to our brethren on earth that; (we are alive in Paradise where we are provided with sustenance, so that they would neither renounce fighting in the way of Allah nor retreat at the time of war).' Allah, the Glorified, said: 'I shall inform them of you.'

Not only does the IAD glorify violent jihad. It also denigrates Judaism, Christianity, and other religions:

It is our opinion that whoever claims that any religion other than Islam is acceptable, such as Judaism, Christianity and so forth, is a non believer. He should be asked to repent. It is also our opinion that whoever rejects the universal message of Muhammad, (pbuh), rejects the message of all messengers, even if he claims that he believes and follows His Messenger.

The report says:

Verses from the Qur'an are cited to explain the Muslims' superiority over Christians and Jews: 'Allah does not accept any other religion from anyone, for He, the Exalted, said: 'Surely, the true religion according to Allah is Islam...' [Sura 3:19] Another verse states, "Whoever desires a religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted from Him, and in the Hereafter he will be among the losers. [Sura 3:85]

According to the IAD, the Qur'an 'abrogated all previous revealed books' such as the Torah and the Gospels' . . . The IAD cites a series of Qur'anic verses to conclude, 'By means of the Qur'an, Allah abrogated all the previous revealed books.'" This is traditional Islamic teaching.

The IAD also cites a verse from the Qur'an that says most Jews and Christians are disobedient in their religious beliefs: 'You [Muslims] are the best of peoples ever raised up for mankind... Had the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) believed, it would have been better for them; among them are some who have Faith, but most of them are disobedient to Allah and rebellious against Allah's Command.' [Sura 3:110]

Christians, according to a Qur'anic verse cited by the IAD, made a mistake that amounts to blasphemy: 'Indeed they do blaspheme who say that Allah is Christ the son of Mary. But Christ said: "O Children of Israel! Worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord... Whoever joins other gods with Allah - Allah will forbid him Heaven, and the Fire [meaning Hell] will be his abode. And there will be no-one to help the wrong-doers."' [Sura 5:72] . . .

According to the IAD, only prayers of Muslims are of value: 'From... Qur'anic injunctions we can conclude that any form of worship that does not conform to Islam is not valid. Any prayer outside Islamic teachings becomes useless because Allah will never accept it... When Allah took a covenant from those who were given the Scripture (Jews and Christians) to make it (the news of the coming of Prophet Muhammad and the religious knowledge) known and clear to mankind, and not to hide it, but they threw it away behind their backs, and purchased with it some miserable gain! And indeed the worst is that which they bought.' [Sura 3:187] . . .

All this leads straight to the subjugation of non-Muslims as dhimmis. Says the IAD:

Dhimmis are the group most eligible for rights, because they live in an Islamic territory and under the protection of the Muslims, besides the Jizya (head-tax set by Islamic law on Non-Muslims under Muslim rule) they pay to the public treasury... The leader of the Muslims is under strict obligation to provide protection to them and shield them against any sort of potential or actual harm that may befall them.

This is Islamic tolerance. The IAD continues:

It is one function of Islamic law to protect the privileged status of minorities, and this is why non-Muslim places of worship have flourished all over the Islamic world. History provides many examples of Muslim tolerance towards other faiths...

However, the IAD also gives us the rest of the story of this "tolerance":

Dhimmis must be discriminated from Muslims in their attire. They are not allowed to display any abominable deed or gesture that could go in conflict with Islam such as the cross or bell. Observation of the above mentioned rules promotes amity among Muslims and removes all traces of enmity and hatred.

If you know your place, you'll get along just fine. Watch those "abominable deeds."

If you don't know your place, however, watch out:

Hostile non-Muslims have no right to protection, whatsoever. . . . The covenantee non-Muslims [that is, the dhimmis] have the right to holding us committed to honor the covenant we entered with them so long as they commit themselves to the articles of the agreement, and neither conspire against us nor slander our religion. Allah says: 'Except those of the Mushrikin with whom you have a treaty... So fulfill their treaty to them to the end of its term...' But Allah Almighty goes on saying: 'But if they violate their oaths after they signed the covenant, and attack your religion with disapproval and criticism, then fight the leaders of disbelief... for surely their oaths are nothing to them.' [Sura 9:12]

There is much more at MEMRI, including the assertion that Islamic polygamy is superior to Western monogamy and an explanation of why "the husband's rights on his wife are greater than hers over him" and a defense of the Qur'an's mandate (Sura 4:34) for wife-beating (as long as it is done gently).

UPDATE: Charles Johnson at LGF tells me that the Saudis, evidently watching MEMRI closely, have removed this site, although it still shows up in Google's cache files.

Why would a Muslim from secular Turkey leave his job and travel to Chechnya to fight battles against Russian infantry?

Because the will to jihad is not born of poverty or desperation; it is not a disguised nationalistic impulse, despite the intimations otherwise in the article below. It is a religious impulse that is born of principles of traditional Islamic theology and law -- principles that will continue to inspire jihadis until they are repudiated.

This is all clear in the adventures of Lomali, a Turk who, according to AP, "left his job in a Turkish factory and headed for Chechnya, where he volunteered as an Islamic fighter and fought alongside al-Qaida militants in pitched battles against Russian infantry.

"Lomali -- or Ali the Lion, the name his Chechen comrades gave him -- is one of hundreds of Turks who fought in Chechnya, Afghanistan or Bosnia, some as members of al-Qaida. Turkish police are focusing on these Islamic warriors as key suspects in a string of Istanbul suicide bombings that have left 57 dead.

"Police fear Turks who fought abroad were trained or influenced by radical groups like al-Qaida and may have been behind the Istanbul bombings, which shocked police in their sophistication.

"Lomali, a 28-year-old Turk, says he fought in Chechnya in 1996 alongside Chechen separatists seeking to break Chechnya away from Moscow, learning to use a heavy machine gun and plant land mines. . . . Like many Turks who went overseas to fight, Lomali said he was motivated by both Islam and nationalism. Like some 5 million Turks, Lomali traces his ancestors to the Caucasus, which includes Chechnya.

"'I went there to help the struggle of our Muslim brothers against occupiers,' said Lomali, a soft-spoken, athletic man."

He may have been motivated by both Islam and nationalism, but the quote refers only to Islam. As the Chechen Sharia Council has affirmed, jihad is mandatory in such cases: "When the enemy entered a territory, a city or a village where Muslims are living, then everybody is obligated to go to war." This would hold true as a principle whether Lomali were Chechen, or something close to Chechen, or not.

"In 2001, Lomali met al-Qaida militants on the Chechen-Georgia border, where many radicals were gathering to enter Chechnya.

"'There were small cells of al-Qaida giving training' after Quran classes, he said." Evidently no one there saw a contradiction between the Al-Qaeda training and the Qur'an classes.

The Istanbul bombings? "Like many Islamic fundamentalists, he said he believes that Israel and the United States were behind the blasts and were trying to manipulate the tragedy to draw Turkey closer to the West and distance Turks from Islamic groups."

Meanwhile, "Ankara police detained 10 suspected members of a little-known militant group, Warriors of Islam, the daily Hurriyet reported Tuesday." On the other hand, "Lomali, however, said he has seen no evidence of a police crackdown against militants. 'If there were such a crackdown, I would hear about it,' Lomali said." (Thanks to nicolei.)

Paul Marshall offers a useful summation of the evidence that Al-Qaeda targeted Christians, not Muslims, in Riyadh -- and of the dangers of glossing over that evidence.

"The media," says Marshall, "seem to equate Arab with Muslim and, along with some in the administration, think that al Qaeda's war is against Americans and Westerners per se, rather than against all 'infidels,' a group al Qaeda defines idiosyncratically and expansively as anyone who is not a strictly observant Muslim. Both mistakes are compounded by reliance on the Saudis' distorted account of the attack.

"The November 8 bombing took place in a Lebanese Christian neighborhood of Riyadh, and of the seven publicly identified Lebanese victims, six were Christian. Lebanon's newspapers are replete with photographs of Maronite Catholic and Greek Orthodox victims. Daleel al Mojahid, an al Qaeda-linked webpage, praised the killing of 'non-Muslims.' The Middle East Media Research Institute quotes Abu Salma al Hijazi, reputed to be an al Qaeda commander, as saying that Saudi characterizations of the victims as Muslims were 'merely media deceit.'"

After all, the Prophet Muhammad says, "War is deceit" (Sahih Bukhari, vol. 4, book 52, nos. 267-9).

"If so, the media fell for it. Reuters described the bombing as against 'fellow Muslims,' the Los Angeles Times as 'against Muslims,' the Washington Times called the victims 'innocent Muslims,' the San Francisco Chronicle 'Muslim civilians who happened to be in the wrong place,' and the New York Times 'expatriates from other Muslim countries.'" . . .

"The effect of this mischaracterization is to link Arab to Muslim, ignoring the large numbers of Christian Arabs from Egypt, Lebanon, and elsewhere who work in Saudi Arabia (and Israel) and have long been targeted by Islamic extremists, including by the Saudi government.

"(At the time of the bombing, two Egyptian Christians, Sabry Gayed and Guirguis Eskander, were in a Riyadh prison for holding a worship service, even though Prince Sultan had ordered them released.)"

Nor is this the first time this has happened. "Similarly, media coverage of the October 4 suicide attack on Maxim, a restaurant in Haifa, noted that one co-owner was Jewish, but described the other simply as 'Arab.' Commentators wondered why Palestinian terrorists were killing 'Arabs.' But the second co-owner was actually a Lebanese Catholic, as were many of those killed. The term 'Arab,' while playing into America's obsession with ethnicity, hides the religious dimension that is central to the worldview of al Qaeda, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad."

Precisely.

"However, every day in every way, al Qaeda reiterates that its target is 'infidels,' wherever they live, including Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, and the vast majority of the world's Muslims, who reject the extremists' vision of a restored caliphate under a reactionary version of Islamic law." . . .

"The fact that the Saudi authorities did not reveal that this was largely a Lebanese Christian area, that they rapidly demolished the remains and stayed silent while the media misreported the identity of the victims, suggests a deliberate attempt to mask what is going on in the kingdom. (Meanwhile, a debate is taking place in the Saudi press over whether a woman named Saban Abu Lisam, who was herself injured in the blast but nevertheless drove seven other injured victims to the hospital, should be praised for her courage or punished for violating the ban on women driving.)

"In the Riyadh bombing, al Qaeda did what it has always done, and, as usual, it explained why its targets were chosen. Nevertheless, much of the U.S. administration seems to share the media's bafflement. U.S. deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage, in Saudi Arabia at the time of the blast, opined that the bombers had attacked 'the government and people of Saudi Arabia.' The Los Angeles Times describes 'senior administration officials,' puzzled at this latest choice of targets, as 'grasping, saying this doesn't fit the box we expected.'

"If this is true, the administration, like the media, needs a new box. It would be a good place to dump Saudi prevarications, and also to store the al Qaeda videos, tapes, books, and fatwas that for the last ten years have been laying out the organization's goals in explicit detail. To repeat: Al Qaeda and its allies aim to kill or subdue all 'infidels,' Muslim or non-Muslim, who stand in the way of their goal of restoring a worldwide caliphate governed, Taliban-style, by the strictest, narrowest interpretation of Islamic law.

"Until this fact is finally assimilated, we will continue to have a military that fights superbly against an enemy whose strategic aims we refuse to understand." (Thanks to Habib Malik.)

Here is a detailed Islamic theological treatise explaining what jihad is and calling upon Muslims to wage jihad in Chechnya. It was prepared by the Shariah Council of State Defense Council of Chechnya, and published as "Jihad and Its Solution Today."

Its use of Islamic sources exactly parallels many other similar instances that I detail in Onward Muslim Soldiers. This is the great challenge for moderate Muslims: to stop denying that Islamic theology and jurisprudence is being used by terrorists for their own purposes, but to acknowledge this use forthrightly and renounce what justifies and fosters violence. For it is with dry texts like this one that Muslim radicals recruit warriors for modern-day jihad -- by appealing to their loyalty to Islam and their sense of duty as a Muslim.

Political correctness has obscured this fact in the United States. If we continue to ignore it and thus take no steps to protect ourselves from its effects, we will suffer the inevitable consequences.

A few highlights:

Even though the issue of Hukma (the Decision) of Jihad today seems to be clear, we often happen to encounter Muslims who ask a question: 'Is Jihad in Chechnya mandatory (Fard'Ayn) or voluntary (Fard-Kifayah)?'

Traditionally, defensive jihad to protect Muslim lands is fard 'ayn; offensive jihad to spread the hegemony of Islamic rule is fard kifayah.

. . . or even 'Is it Jihad going on in Chechnya?' Therefore, even though we are afraid to seem like pestering too much by repeating the same thing over and over, we would still like to remind some regulations concerning Jihad according to the Word of the Most High . . .

First, what is Jihad?

Hanbali School (one of the four Shariah Scientific Schools, «Madhabs» - K.C.) [that is, one of the four main schools of Sunni Muslim jurisprudence; the great majority of Muslims adhere to the teachings of one of these four schools -- RS]defined it as spending power and energy in the war in the way of Allah by personal participation, property, word, etc.

Maliki School considers it a war (a battle) of a Muslim with a Kafir (an infidel) who has no treaty, to exalt the Word of Allah, or who trespassed on the territories of Muslims.

Hanbalis say that this is a war against Kafirs (the infidels), unlike an armed fight with the Muslims bordering on being rebels, or brigands or robbers for an example. (Mugni-Muhtaj, vol. 6, page 4).

This document doesn't quote anything from the other school, the Shafi'is, but I have already done so here several times: among other things, jihad is "war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians . . . until they become Muslim or else pay the non-Muslim poll tax" ('Umdat al-Salik, o9.8).

The Chechen document continues:

The missions of Jihad is protection and spreading of Islam and spreading the calling, and protection of Muslims and unbelievers, who are under the jurisdiction of Muslims, from a foreign aggression.

Those unbelievers would be the dhimmis, who are "protected" by Muslims but must by Islamic law live as inferiors in Muslim society.

This treatise also states that "most of the scholars view Jihad as mandatory (i.e. personal obligation for each Muslim) only in three cases:

1. If a Muslim of the full legal age joined the troops in accordance with the words of the Most High:

'O ye who believe! When ye meet an army, hold firm and think of Allah much, that ye may be successful' (Koran, The Spoils of War, 45) ["The Spoils of War" is Sura 8.]

'O ye who believe! When ye meet the unbelievers in hostile array, never turn your backs to them'. (Koran, The Spoils of War, 45)

2. When the enemy entered a territory, a city or a village where Muslims are living, then everybody is obligated to go to war.

This is the call that resounds today in Iraq.

3. When a country's ruler mobilized some of the men of the full legal age. Ibn Abbas told that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: 'There is no Hijra from Mecca to Medina after Mecca was taken, but the Jihad and the intention remains, therefore if you get mobilized, then come out'. (Fikh al Sunna).

The Chechens quote Abdullah Azzam, Osama bin Laden's mentor and a key theorist of violent jihad. Azzam is also profiled in Onward Muslim Soldiers. In this document he is quoted thusly about the necessity to wage defensive jihad:

"And righteous ancestors, and followers,... and scholars, and commentators of the Koran are unanimous in the opinion that in this case Jihad becomes mandatory for the residents of the country that was attacked by Kafirs and for its closest neighbors. So, son should come out without permission from his father, a wife without permission from her husband, and debtor without permission from his creditor. If there are not enough of these people, i.e. residents and neighbors, or if they show negligence and carelessness or taking no actions to repulse the enemy, then this obligation extends to all Muslims."

The medieval Muslim theologian Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1328), a favored theorist of radical Muslims, is also quoted to the same effect. Likewise the Imam Abu Jafar at-Tahawi:

"Hajj and Jihad for Muslim rulers, for the devout as well for the sinners, is carried out until the Day of Judgment, and there is nothing that takes it away or makes them vain". (Al-Akida at-Takawiyya).

That is the scope of the war on terror as far as radical Muslims are concerned.

Perhaps with people like Saddam in mind, the document continues:

We acknowledge that many Amirs and Commanders are not an ideal, just like ordinary Muslims are not, they are often far from the examples of the disciples of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). But the Shariah texts are undeviatingly demanding that the rulers of Muslims in Jihad are obeyed, except when they order to commit a sin.

Canadian Muslims are taking steps to set up Sharia law to adjudicate disputes within their own communities. Law Times News reports that "a recent convention of Muslim community leaders" has "elected a 30-member council which will work towards establishing a Darul-Qada (a judicial tribunal), to be known as the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice (Canada)." (Thanks to kathyshaidle, relapsed catholic.)

The article says that "the convention is the latest step in a long struggle to have Islamic law recognized in Canada. Shariah is a complex and sophisticated body of law based on religious principles. Muslims must resolve all their commercial and personal disputes according to its tenets."

Sharia is also a comprehensive system of societal laws, including ones that mandate the institutionalized subjugation of non-Muslims (dhimmitude) and the waging of jihad against them. Many Muslims believe that once a Muslim community becomes a majority in any nation, Sharia must be instituted there. Has Canada just taken the first step?

To be sure, right now this is simply an arbitration board for personal and business disputes. But it could easily become more, particularly if it receives official recognition from supine, dhimmi Canada.

The article says that Muslims have had difficulty living by the Sharia in Canada: "This has been extremely difficult when there have only been individuals and ad hoc committees providing legal advice and limited mediation and arbitration services. Most dispute resolution has been conducted by Imams, who are learned men connected with local mosques.

"Legal scholars, known as ulama, are thin on the ground in North America. Their knowledge is essential in adjudicating complex issues.

"One of the key obstacles to establishing an Islamic legal institution identified by a number of speakers was a lack of unity and organizational strength. While the Muslim community is the largest minority in Canada, over one million strong, it is made up of groups from many different countries and different schools of Islam. Each group has organized its own activities and there has been no common cause.

"Organizer B. Husain Bhayat was heartened by the turnout. The two main groups - Sunni and Shi'ite - were both represented and there were many Imams and leaders of organizations. . . . The president of the convention was barrister Syed Mumtaz Ali, who struck the first blow in the campaign for recognition of Islamic law in 1962. He was the first lawyer to swear his oath of allegiance on the Koran.

"Syed explained the law of minorities as it is set down by the Shariah. Muslims in non-Muslim countries are required to follow the Shariah to the extent that it is practical."

Unmentioned in this article is whether they discussed the status of non-Muslims in Muslim countries, or the means set down by Islamic law for the transition of a state from non-Muslim to Muslim status.

"'The law applies as if to Bedouin wanderers,' he said. 'We are required by our own law to follow the laws of the country and to follow our own laws. We have a double obligation. You don't have to be the wisest man to see there will be conflicts. . . .'

"Syed explained that until recent changes in the law, Canadian Muslims have been excused from applying Shariah in their legal disputes.

"Arbitration was not deemed to be practical because there was no way to enforce the decisions. Syed said the laws have recently changed with amendments to the Arbitration Act."

But now all that has changed, and secular Canadian courts apparently will have no jurisdiction in matters handled by this new Darul-Qada. "Now," says Syed, "once an arbitrator decides cases, it is final and binding. The parties can go to the local secular Canadian court asking that it be enforced. The court has no discretion in the matter."

The American Middle East Christian Association has staged a public protest against the teaching of Islam in a public school in California: "Hundreds of Christians who fled Egypt to the United States claiming persecution under Islam showed up outside a Southern California middle school yesterday to protest an extra-credit assignment urging students to participate in the Muslim Ramadan fast." This from WorldNetDaily, with thanks to Alyssa Lappen.

"The teacher at Royal Oak Intermediate School in Covina, Calif., wrote parents of students in his world history class, saying he wanted to take advantage of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan 'to promote a greater understanding and empathy towards the Muslim religion.'"

When was the last time a public school declared an intention to promote "a greater understanding and empathy" toward Christianity or Judaism?

"But on a public sidewalk adjacent to the school grounds yesterday afternoon, about 500 people, according to organizers, gathered peacefully to 'tell the truth about Islam' as classes ended for the day.

"A group called the American Middle-East Christian Association maintains that at a time when discussions about Jesus Christ have been barred from classrooms, the teacher is urging impressionable school children to participate in a religion the group views as a threat to America.

"Ultimately, the protesters maintained, the teaching of Islam in a public school is furthering the aim of making America a Muslim nation.

"About 450 of the protestors were Coptic Christian immigrants from Muslim-majority Egypt, whose families had suffered discrimination and persecution because of their faith, said Steve Klein, who helped organize the event.

"'Many of them were in tears, thrilled that they could come out and assert their First Amendment free-speech rights, which are found in no Islamic nation,' Klein told WorldNetDaily. 'They had survived 14 centuries in Egypt by not getting involved in politics.'"

Backpedaling furiously, "Superintendent John Roach insisted the teacher meant only to promote empathy with Muslims, not with Islam. He conceded the instructor told parents in his letter the assignment was about empathizing with the Islamic religion. 'If I had the opportunity to correct the letter before it was sent out, I would have changed that paragraph,' he told WND.

"Roach said he most certainly would have put a stop to the assignment if it had been about promoting Islam and can understand why some people would make an issue of it.

"The letter to parents said students 'may choose to fast for one, two or three days. During this time, students may only drink water during daylight hours. Once fasting is completed, students are to type a ½ page summary of their experience. They should describe how it felt to go without food during the day and connect it to the theme of sacrifice. Fasting is inconvenient and sometimes uncomfortable, many religions to consider it an important sacrifice.'

"The teacher said he wished 'to emphasize that this is an EXTRA CREDIT assignment and is by no means mandatory. For those unable to fast, they may choose to type a 2 page paper in which they compare different religions that encourage sacrifice during the year.'

"Roach went over to the school, which has about 1,600 students, to observe the protest yesterday and estimated the number of protesters to be about 150.

"'If in fact we had been inculcating one religion over another, I'm thrilled that there were 150 people who recognize that that's what schools should not be doing,' said Roach.

"But the official said he was 'saddened' that organizers would mobilize all those people to 'believe what we're doing is training the next generation of al-Qaida.'

"Roach noted, however, the protest was peaceful and orderly.

"The Coptic Christians passed out literature and talked to many parents about their personal experience of persecution under Islam, Klein said, warning passersby that Islam is here to take over America."

Well, there are indications of that. Consider the quote from CAIR's Omar Ahmad in this article. Ahmad denied saying it five years after the fact when he began to be asked about it, but the reporter stands by her story. Said Ahmad: "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Quran should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth."

Meanwhile, at the AMECA rally, "'many parents were very curious,' Klein said. 'They were stunned by what their kids were being taught.'

"One parent objected to the protest, he said, but 'changed his tune' after the immigrants told their stories.

"Many of the Coptic Christians who showed up are articulate professionals, such as dentists and physicians, said Klein, a former Marine officer who served in Vietnam.

"After seeing how the First Amendment works, he noted, they said they need to get together and organize to tell their message further.

"'These people who have suffered have so much to offer [Americans] who are sleeping, refusing to recognize the true nature of Islam,' said Klein, who said he has organized hundreds of protests, including many that have confronted Islam, through a group he established called Courageous Christians United.

"Roach said he's been contacted by some of the Coptic Christians. 'Several people have called me on the phone and spoken to me, wanting to make sure I'm teaching the Islamic religion is a murderous, terrorist religion,' he said.

"But the superintendent argued, if he were to teach that, he would be 'just as guilty as I would be if I went the other way.'"

"'I can't impede a religion any more than I can promote it,' he said."

All right. But I doubt Klein or the Copts are saying that all Muslims are murderous terrorists. They are pointing out that radical Muslims have ample justification within Islamic tradition for their actions. If moderate Muslims manage to affect a transformation within Islam such that radicals will no longer be able to get recruits by referring to these elements of Islamic tradition, I'm sure that Klein and these Copts would welcome that eventuality.

"The teacher's letter to parents opened, 'As part of the world history curriculum, your student has recently been studying the rise of Islam and the teachings of Mohammed. Fundamental to the Muslim religion are the Five Pillars of Islam. They emphasize the "word of God," prayer, charity for the poor, fasting and the pilgrimage to Mecca. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims refrain from food or drink during daylight hours.'

"Roach insisted the seventh-grade class presents a balanced view of Islam, covering mostly the social implications of the religion's rise, as part of a world history curriculum that begins with the Roman Empire.

"As WorldNetDaily reported in January 2002, public school students at Excelsior Elementary School in Byron, Calif., apparently were taken on a deeper journey into Islam in which they pretended to be Muslims, wore robes, simulated jihads via a dice game, learned the Five Pillars of Faith and memorized verses from the Quran in classroom exercises as part of a World History and Geography class for seventh-graders. The class was included in the state's curriculum standards required by the state board of education. These standards outline what subjects should be taught and are included in state assessment tests, but don't mandate how they're to be taught.

"The Islam simulations at Excelsior are outlined in the state-adopted textbook 'Across the Centuries,' published by Houghton Mifflin, which prompts students to imagine they are Islamic soldiers and Muslims on a Mecca pilgrimage."

Mark Steyn's column today addresses the furor over a comic strip that the Council on American Islamic Relations says insults Islam. Steyn, unlike CAIR, manages to keep a more balanced perspective. When asked to speak about the strip in The Media, Steyn declined: "Although I agreed of course that Islamophobic cartooning was the most pressing issue of the week, in my usual shallow way I'd become distracted by some of the day's more trivial stories - the 11 Hindus burnt alive by a Muslim gang in Bangladesh, the 13 Christian churches torched by Muslim rioters in the Nigerian town of Kazaure, and the 27 Turks and Britons murdered by Muslim terrorists in Istanbul."

He also has a few trenchant words for those who buried the EU report on anti-Semitism because it named Muslims as the perpetrators: "Let's go back over that slowly and try not to get a headache: the EU's main concern about an actual epidemic of hate crimes against Jews is that it could provoke a hypothetical epidemic of hate crimes against Muslims. You couldn't ask for a better illustration of the uselessness of these thought-police bodies: they're fine for chastising insufficiently guilt-ridden whites in an ongoing reverse-minstrel show of cultural self-abasement, but they don't have the stomach for confronting real racism. A tolerant society is so reluctant to appear intolerant, it would rather tolerate intolerance." (Thanks to rumcrook.)

Watch for New South Wales Premier Bob Carr to be savaged as a racist for daring to declare that Australia faces a threat from "Islamists in Indonesia and I know there are different gradations of Islamist ideology and practice. But it was only 10 years ago we were being assured that aggressive Islamism would be inconceivable in Indonesia.

"Now schools across Java - Islamic schools - are full of Arab language material, focused on the Middle East and well disposed to Osama bin Laden."

Meanwhile, the Indonesian radical Muslim responsible for the Bali bombing called on Muslims to "continue the struggle." But surely he didn't mean in Australia.

The Bali bomber has called on other Muslims to "continue the struggle" (which is jihad in Arabic):

"The Bali bombing mastermind sentenced to death for his crimes urged fellow terrorists in Turkey, Iraq and elsewhere to 'continue the struggle', a report here said Tuesday." This from AFP, with thanks to nicolei.)

"Imam Samudra, convicted of masterminding last year's attacks on the resort island, made the comments to reporters after he met other Bali bombers for prayers and expressions of forgiveness in the Bali prison to mark the start of the Eid-al-Fitr holy day at the end of the Ramadan fasting month, Detikcom online news service reported.

"'To all my comrades in Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan and Kashmir: Continue the struggle,' he said.

"In September, a court in Bali declared him the 'intellectual actor' behind the October 2002 attacks on two Bali nightclubs, which killed 202 mostly Western vacationers. He was sentenced to death.

"On Tuesday, he reiterated his wish to die a 'martyr's death', Detikcom reported.

"'I will not apologise except to Muslims, and we will not ask for clemency except from God,' he said.

"Detikcom reported that tensions rose during the greeting ceremony when Samudra and Ali Ghufron, alias Mukhlas, who authorised the attacks, suddenly shouted 'God is great'. . . .

"Mukhlas has also been sentenced to death for his role in the attacks, which police have blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah, a regional extremist network which the authorities say has links to al-Qaeda.

"The bombers said they were seeking to avenge injustices against Muslims worldwide."

Maybe. But Jemaah Islamiyah is also on record as saying that they're fighting to create a Sharia-ruled Islamic megastate in Southeast Asia, comprising Indonesia, Malaysia, southern Thailand, Singapore, Brunei, and the southern Philippines island of Mindanao.

The courageous and insightful Daniel Pipes offers a succinct guide to identifying Muslim moderates. I look forward to seeing Muslim groups and individuals declaring that they fit these reasonable and intelligent criteria.

Pipes includes important information about Abdurrahman Alamoudi and other deceptive self-proclaimed moderates, and offers these criteria for identifying real moderate Muslims:

"- Violence : Do you condone or condemn the Palestinians, Chechens, and Kashmiris who give up their lives to kill enemy civilians? Will you condemn by name as terrorist groups such organizations as Abu Sayyaf, Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, Groupe islamique arm\'e9e, Hamas, Harakat ul-Mujahidin, Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, and Al-Qaeda?

"- Modernity : Should Muslim women have equal rights with men (for example, in inheritance shares or court testimony)? Is jihad , meaning a form of warfare, acceptable in today's world? Do you accept the validity of other religions? Do Muslims have anything to learn from the West?"

About jihad, this is just as I have said here: "Any Muslim who renounces violent jihad and dhimmitude is welcome to join in our anti-jihadist efforts."

About accepting the validity of other religions, I might add that clarity is necessary: it is not enough for Muslims to avow respect for "Judaism and Christianity," but for "Judaism and Christianity in their present forms" -- that is, as distinguished from the pure, uncorrupted Judaism and Christianity that are in traditional Islam equated with the religion of the Qur'an.

"- Secularism : Should non-Muslims enjoy completely equal civil rights with Muslims? May Muslims convert to other religions? May Muslim women marry non-Muslim men? Do you accept the laws of a majority non-Muslim government and unreservedly pledge allegiance to that government? Should the state impose religious observance, such as banning food service during Ramadan? When Islamic customs conflict with secular laws (e.g., covering the face for drivers' license pictures), which should give way?

"- Islamic pluralism : Are Sufis and Shi'ites fully legitimate Muslims? Do you see Muslims who disagree with you as having fallen into unbelief? Is takfir (condemning fellow Muslims one has disagreements with as unbelievers) an acceptable practice?"

Takfir, of course, is one justification radical Muslims can use for attacks in places such as Turkey.

"- Self-criticism : Do you accept the legitimacy of scholarly inquiry into the origins of Islam? Who was responsible for the 9/11 suicide hijackings?

"- Defense against militant Islam : Do you accept enhanced security measures to fight militant Islam, even if this means extra scrutiny of yourself (for example, at airline security)? Do you agree that institutions accused of funding terrorism should be shut down, or do you see this a symptom of bias?

"- Goals in the West : Do you accept that Western countries are majority-Christian and secular or do you seek to transform them into majority-Muslim countries ruled by Islamic law?"

"U.S. forces have disrupted several planned terrorist attacks against Western and other targets in the Horn of Africa and local authorities have killed or captured more than two dozen militants, the U.S. general in command of an anti-terrorism task force told The Associated Press."

This task force "is responsible for fighting terrorism in seven Horn of Africa countries: Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Yemen, Sudan, Kenya and Somalia. The impoverished, Islamic region is a well-established recruiting ground for terrorist groups and U.S. officials describe it as a critical theater in the war on terrorism, which they fear could become another Afghanistan."

So this tiny extremist fringe group has extensive operations in seven African countries, as well as dozens of other countries worldwide? "Robeson said suspected terrorists from Tanzania, through the Horn of Africa, all the way to southern Egypt and Saudi Arabia are working with each other to promote radicalism."

"'There are three issues here: there is transnational terrorist networking, at large, there are specific cells planning terrorist attacks, and there's the recruiting, training and shipping of foreign fighters into Iraq,' Robeson said Saturday night at his headquarters on a former French Foreign Legion post in Djibouti.

"'They are down here training and recruiting,' he said. 'They are trying to create numbers and what we want to do is prevent them from creating numbers.'"

How do they recruit? Don't the moderate Muslims in all these countries easily refute their calls to violent jihad, using the peaceful Qur'an and Sunna?

AP tells us that "two American Muslims who tried to join the Taliban were sentenced to 18 years in prison Monday during a hearing in which they denounced the Bush administration and pleaded in song for freedom.

"Patrice Lumumba Ford, 32, and Jeffrey Leon Battle, 33, had pleaded guilty in October to conspiracy to levy war against the United States.

"Both said that in trying to reach Afghanistan, they were fulfilling their Islamic duty to defend fellow Muslims.

"'The attack on Afghanistan killed and maimed thousands of people without achieving its objective,' said Ford, who had traveled to China in an unsuccessful attempt to reach Afghanistan. 'I refuse to stand passive in the face of such policies.'"

"Ford, once an intern at Portland's City Hall, said he felt obliged to defend his fellow Muslims against 'President Bush's cruise-missile diplomacy.'"

At the sentencing, a U.S. District Judge, Robert E. Jones, seized the opportunity to lecture Ford about Islam: "You do not represent the Muslim faith. Muslims do not engage in the activities you engaged in. You are an insult to that faith."

Why American officials feel it necessary to do this, I don't know. I also don't know where Sheikh Robert E. Jones learned his Islam, but I would wager that Battle and Ford are better versed in the teachings of that faith than he is. They are hardly going to take seriously a lecture on Islam from a non-Muslim American judge.

But it was a wild courtroom in many ways. "Battle, a former Army reservist, also spoke of his obligations as a Muslim and concluded by singing a 10-minute song he said he had written in prison. The courtroom was silent during the song, which ended with the stanza, 'Free, free, free, for all humanity, release me.'"

Columnist Michael Duffy of Sydney, Australia's Daily Telegraph writes of Muslim thugs committing petty crimes -- and dhimmi cops afraid to arrest them for fear of creating a political incident.

He said that in response to a recent column, he received letters that "told me of incidents journalists never get to see. Incidents which do not make it on to the crime statistics but which are clearly hugely important to many people."

Priest [a former policeman interviewed in the previous column (see below)] claimed NSW Police has been so weakened in the wake of the Wood royal commission it has been unable to contain crime in this city since the mid-1990s.

By then, young men of Muslim Lebanese background were creating problems, as most young immigrants (going way back to the Irish) tend to do.

This had been going on for a while - one correspondent, who has lived in Greenacre since 1953 - told me his son, who was no saint himself, first complained about vicious and violent Middle Eastern gangs 20 years ago.

"They have the police bluffed. I lament the ruin of our local area," he said.

Police failure to deal with these young hooligans meant many of them have now grown up to be adult gangsters. This explains the escalation of gun crime in Sydney we are now witnessing.

Duffy asserts that:

...the fear of violence is now so widespread it is eating into people's lives. There is a strong sense among many people - including Lebanese Christians - that they have been let down by the authorities.

Again and again I have heard stories of situations where the police seemed to be scared to act.

In one incident, police told a victim: "If we arrest them it would cause a riot and our jobs would be a lot harder in future."

Another Sydney man observed: "I am sure the majority of these occurrences go unreported and unpublished because of the threats and intimidation by these hoodlums."

Duffy added "that this suits the Government because it keeps crime statistics down."

Here also is the previous Duffy column that inspired all these messages to him. It no longer seems to be available on the web:

One day in Auburn in 2001, two uniformed police officers stopped a car with three occupants of Middle-Eastern background. The police had been told the men, well-known offenders, had been involved in a series of robberies. They searched the car and found property stolen in the robberies. What happened next was extraordinary.

The three criminals began to abuse the police and threaten them physically. They told the police they would follow them home, kill them and "f... your girlfriends". The two officers were forced to take refuge in their car where they called for urgent assistance.

But simultaneously the criminals used their mobile phones to do the same. Within minutes a crowd of 60 Lebanese Australians had gathered, some pouring out of the houses nearby and some arriving by car. When more police arrived they were punched and pushed to the ground and their vehicles were damaged.

The police duty officer appeared and ordered all police to retreat immediately. Within minutes they were gone. Some of the crowd followed them to the police station where they intimidated staff and damaged property.

Again the duty officer ordered his officers to do nothing. Eventually the crowd left the station. The stolen property was never recovered. No one was ever arrested.

The above story was told by ex-cop Tim Priest at a Quadrant dinner this week. He claimed it is typical of literally hundreds of incidents where "police have backed down to Middle-Eastern thugs and have taken no action and allowed the incident to go unpunished".

He stresses "the unbelievable influence that local politicians and religious leaders played in covering up the true state of the south-west".

Priest told an amazing story of a city where Lebanese organised crime has been increasingly out of control for years, thanks to a combination of the loss of police morale due to the Wood Royal Commission and an ineffective commissioner in Peter Ryan.

According to Priest, there are now more than 1000 young men of Lebanese descent running intimidation rackets and dominating the heroin and cocaine trade in large areas of Sydney. They are the product of what Priest claimed was the castration of the police force during the Ryan years, when cleanskin cops with little front-line experience were appointed to important positions in the suburbs. As a result, there is now a generation of young Lebanese men, many of whom who despise authority because they perceive it as weak. They have got stronger as the police have grown softer. These days, the only place they fear to go is Cabramatta, because of their respect for the equally violent Asian gangs there.

Priest said the most influential gang is the Muslim males of Telopea St, Bankstown known as the Telopea Street Boys. He claimed they and their associates have been involved in numerous murders over the past five years, and other major crimes such as ram raids and the car-jacking of expensive vehicles while their owners are in them.

He described how nightclubs are targeted for protection payments. "A large number of Middle-Eastern males would enter the club, upwards of 20 at a time. They would outnumber the security staff and begin assaulting male patrons, sometimes stabbing them. The incident would be over in minutes and the gang members long gone before police arrived. A few days later, senior members of the gang, well-dressed and business-like, would approach the club owner and offer to provide protection from similar incidents for a small fee of around $2000 or $3000 per week." Priest claims that in one busy part of the city almost every bar, nightclub and hotel now pays protection money.

What sets these gangs apart from previous ones, Priest said, was their propensity to use violence at any time and for any reason. The violence from the Asian gangs in Cabramatta is horrific, but at least it is localised, making it easier for the police to act - but the Lebanese gangs attack anywhere. "The violence is directed mainly at young Australian men and women," Priest claimed. "Violent attacks on [non-Lebanese] men and women are racial as well as criminal. Quite often when taking statements from young men attacked by groups of Lebanese males around Darling Harbour, a common theme has been the use of racially-motivated violence on the victims simply because they are Australian."

Tim Priest is bitter and angry. He predicts a dramatic rise in gang shootings and says Sydney will soon be a city in which gangs have the sort of power they currently hold in Los Angeles.

(Thanks to Mike Brosnihan.)

"The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has advised federal agencies to initiate emergency counterterrorism measures to prevent possible al-Qaida car bombings planned during the last days of the Muslim holiday Ramadan, according to a confidential department memo obtained by WorldNetDaily."

"Citing al-Qaida's 'increasingly sophisticated' car-bombing tactics, it recommends security guards tow all vehicles parked illegally in and around government facilities, if their owners cannot be identified, and inspect the undercarriage and other areas of vehicles entering sensitive areas, among other high-threat protective measures.

"Al-Qaida could also target 'liquid natural gas, chemical or petrochemical sites near major population centers using multiple vehicle-born improvised explosive devices similar to those recently seen in the attacks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Istanbul, Turkey,' warns the internal department advisory titled, 'Continued al-Qaida Threats Abroad and in the Homeland.'"

The memo also "notes there has been at least one major terrorist attack resulting in substantial casualties each week over the past several weeks, and that the attacks have coincided with Ramadan.

"'These terrorist bombings, coupled with public proclamations regarding al-Qaida's intentions to target Western interests, heighten our concern that a threat against the U.S. homeland and U.S. interests abroad continues,' the document states.

"The Homeland Security memo warns that al-Qaida might launch attacks 'near the end of Ramadan (Nov. 24-27),' which happens to coincide this year with the Thanksgiving holiday. The government is closed on Thursday, Nov. 27, for Thanksgiving. But millions of Americans will be traveling throughout the holiday week, and Homeland Security warns in its memo that 'we cannot discount multiple attacks involving the use of general-aviation aircraft.'

"The department's current terror threat level stands at yellow, or elevated, indicating there is only a significant risk of terrorist attacks. Publicly, it has recommended Americans continue with plans for work or leisure. Behind the scenes, however, it has directed federal and state law enforcement, as well as security personnel, to initiate protective measures under its highest threat level - red - a condition when there is an imminent risk of terrorist attacks."

Also: "'recent information' and attacks reflect 'al-Qaida's desire to repeat a mass casualty attack and/or strike major political and symbolic and economic targets' in America.

"The document expresses concern over al-Qaida's 'increasingly refined capability and sophisticated tactic' in carrying out car-bomb attacks. Among examples, it cites the terror group's new 'ramming tactic to gain access to the target' and the use of 'innocuous-looking vehicles,' such as 'a food catering truck which was detonated by a suicide bomber as it rammed the British consulate.'"

Showing that it can outsneer the New York Times any day, Switzerland's Neue Zürcher Zeitung headlines this story "Zurich's Right fears rise of "Koran schools.'"

I see. So the possibility that Muslim schools in Switzerland may become "universities of jihad," or that Muslims in Switzerland may hold the radical Muslim convictions that no government has any legitimacy unless it governs according to Islamic law, and that Muslims must wage war to overthrow such governments -- those are all just "fears" of the "Right." It doesn't matter how many Muslim spokesmen are on record saying that they want Sharia. To pay attention to them is to betray one's allegiance to the "Right."

Anyway, the NZZ says that "voters in Zurich are set to decide on controversial new laws that would lead to the official recognition of non-Christian faiths, including Islam. But the proposals are being challenged by politicians from the Right, who have been accused of running an inflammatory campaign."

Surprise, surprise. "The People's Party claims that cantonal contributions -- which are given to all recognised religions -- would be used by Muslims for fundamentalist religious teaching."

Well, there are precedents.

"Party literature even shows a montage of the Zurich Münster with its tower replaced by a minaret and the words 'it's a question of time'."

There are precedents for this also, abundant ones in history. Swiss multiculturalists are outrageously self-deceived if they believe that Muslims have discarded the elements of their religion that call upon them to expand the hegemony of Islam by force. In the words of a legal manual approved in the 1990s by the most respected authority in Sunni Islam, Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the Muslim community must make "war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians . . . until they become Muslim or else pay the non-Muslim poll tax" ('Umdat al-Salik, o9.8).

Nevertheless, "both the three recognised Churches and the country's anti-racism commission have heavily criticised the [People's Party] campaign. In a joint statement, the three Churches said that opponents' assertions were simply not true, because funds were not given for religious lessons."

This is specious. Islam makes no distinction between the sacred and the secular. If they were forbidden outright to give "religious lessons," radical Muslims would teach jihad under the guise of politics or civics or history or any number of other things.

"Gioia Weber from the Federal Commission against Racism told swissinfo that this was the case, adding that the Right's campaign bordered on being racist."

Gioia, radical Islam is not a race. It is an ideology.

Meanwhile, "Markus Notter, director of justice in canton Zurich, said that assertions that cash could be used for 'Koran schools' were simply false. He said there were strict requirements that needed to be met before a religious community could gain official recognition. These automatically rule out sects, splinter or fundamentalist groups."

With all due respect, I wonder if Mr. Notter and other Swiss officials are sufficiently informed of the root causes of radical Islam to be able to distinguish between "splinter or fundamentalist groups" and those deserving of official recognition. In reality, there is no great schism between moderate and radical Muslims. Signs are not posted outside mosques denoting their "moderate" or "radical" status. And even if Notter did get condemnations of terrorism from his groups, would he be able to distinguish between genuine ones and counterfeits?

These are the kinds of questions that ought to be asked now in Switzerland and all over Europe. Careful and detailed answers should be known by every leading governing official. I doubt such an effort is being made.

"The law for recognising religions sets out that among other things, a Church must carry out charitable activities. It is not allowed to have any political or economic goals."

This stipulation is certain to collide with Islam's traditional character as a political and social system as well as an individual faith.

"The faith in question must also have been active in Switzerland for 30 years, be organised democratically, recognise the Swiss legal system and exercise religious tolerance."

Will the institutionalized inferior status of the dhimmis count as tolerance? Probably. (Thanks to LGF.)

Will there be a Christmas jihad in Indonesia? "The countdown to Christmas has begun and it is giving security officials here sleepless nights." This from Straits Times, with thanks to LGF.

"What they fear is that Dec 25 will be ushered in with another terrorist bombing blitz. There are signs that preparations are under way, and in recent weeks, both security czar Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and national police chief Dai Bachtiar have been sounding the alarm.

"What they have revealed so far is that the authorities have obtained - through the interrogation of suspects - a list of targets in the capital.

"These include Citibank branches, offices of US-owned oil company Caltex, a suburb popular with expatriates and two interna- tional schools.

"Churches are not on that list. But they could very well be one of the key targets for the Jemaah Islamiah (JI). On Christmas Eve three years ago, a series of church bombings left 19 people dead.

"The Straits Times understands that over the past month, militants have been secretly videotaping at least two Jakarta churches during services on Sunday."

Hmmm. A synagogue in Maryland and churches in Indonesia. I begin to perceive a pattern.

"One of the churches in the posh residential district of Menteng in central Jakarta, St Theresia's, is packed every weekend with expatriates, especially Americans.

"A foreign businessman attending services there with his wife and two children said recently: 'There was this guy on a motorcycle filming the church from across the road. When he realised that I had seen him, he just sped off.'

"Intelligence officials investigating the reports said it follows the modus operandi of groups such as the JI.

"It is standard practice for JI operatives to survey a target as part of their planning before any attack.

"After all, that is what terrorists tried to do in Singapore before they were stopped in their tracks by the Internal Security Department."

The article also says that "despite being emasculated by the arrests of top leaders such as Hambali, JI is alive and well in Indonesia. . . . Its new leader, Islamic cleric Zulkarnaen, is also focusing his efforts on a suicide bombing unit, the Laskhar Khos."

Wait a minute. I thought suicide bombing was a product of desperation and poverty among Palestinians. Why would Indonesians be doing it as well? (For the truth about how suicide bombers are recruited, see Onward Muslim Soldiers.)

Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew says that "Al-Qaeda is not like other terror groups Europeans are familiar with . . . its reach to fanatical Muslims is unique."

This is, as I have pointed out many times, because of its appeal to traditional Islamic concepts of jihad and martyrdom -- although political correctness compels most observers to ignore the evidence of this.

The report says that "Europeans have got it wrong in thinking the terrorist threat can be contained by taking a localised, kid-gloved approach. What the world is grappling with now is a new, globalised menace, one that has to be fought jointly by developed countries and moderate Muslims, Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew said in an interview with Newsweek."

According to Lee Kuan Yew: "The Europeans underestimate the problem of Al-Qaeda-style terrorism. They compare it to their own many experiences with terror - the IRA, the Red Brigade, the Baader-Meinhof, ETA. But they are wrong."

One reason why is because of radical Islam's global reach: "Describing Al-Qaeda-style terrorism as 'new and unique', he noted that an event in faraway Morocco was capable of provoking extremist groups in Indonesia. 'There is a shared fanatical zealousness among these different extremists around the world. Many Europeans think they can finesse the problem, that if they don't upset Muslim countries and treat Muslims well, the terrorists won't target them.'"

That is indeed a widespread view, not only among Europeans, but here in America as well. "But that is a fallacy, he said, bringing up the terror threat in South-east Asia as a case in point: 'Muslims have prospered here. But still, Muslim terrorism and militancy have infected them.'"

Hmmm. Isn't Islamic terrorism supposed to be a byproduct of poverty and desperation? It's good to see that Lee Kuan Yew knows better.

"He told Newsweek that both Singapore and Thailand had been targeted in recent years, even though neither had mistreated its Muslims.

"The more forceful American approach had its shortcomings too. 'You must use force. But force will only deal with the tip of the problem. In killing the terrorists, you will only kill the worker bees.'

"What is needed, he said, is to get at the 'queen bees' - the clerics who spread their twisted ideas of Islam, poisoning the minds of the young.

"SM Lee contrasted the case of Amrozi Nurhasyim - sentenced to death for plotting the Bali bombing - with that of cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, the spiritual head of Jemaah Islamiah, who was given four years for relatively minor offences.

"'Men like Bashir are the real force behind the terror,' he said. 'It is Bashir who churns out these kinds of people.'" Indeed it is.

"To win the war against terrorism, he said, the United States and its allies must give full backing, with their resources and other forms of support, to moderate, modernising Muslims. 'Only Muslims can win this struggle,' he said.

"'Moderate, modernising Muslims, political, religious, civic leaders together have to make the case against the fundamentalists.

"'America can't do it alone,' he explained.

"'You can't go into the mosques, Islamic centres and madrasahs. We don't have any standing as non-Muslims. Barging in will create havoc.'"

This is just what I have been arguing for years: that this conflict will not end until Muslims as a whole or in large part renounce the theology and ideology of violent jihad that underlies them. Sure, that's a remote possibility, but it has a much better chance of succeeding in the long run than some political solution, or any other kind, that is imposed from without.

Says Lee Kuan Yew of Iraq: "It is related to the larger struggle. You must put in place moderates who can create a modern society. If you walk away from Iraq, the jihadis will follow you wherever you go. You may think you've left them behind, but they will pursue you." (Thanks to LGF.)

"Four Scottish schools have been targeted by Islamic campaigners who are calling for them to be converted into the country's first dedicated Muslim primaries." (This from The Scotsman, with thanks to Alyssa Lappen.)

"The schools in Glasgow, including one which is currently Roman Catholic, are at the centre of the controversial move by Scotland's Muslim community to satisfy increasing worries about the negative influence secular education is having on their children.

"While ministers and politicians will not want to be seen to oppose the campaign, they will regard it as a major political headache as any public opposition would also put the issue of separate Catholic schooling under the spotlight.

"The largest of the four schools - all of which have 90% Muslim pupils at the moment - is the Roman Catholic St Albert's School in Pollokshields, which has 360 children. The others are Pollokshields Primary, with 350 children, Annette Street Primary in Govanhill, with 200 pupils, and Willowbank Primary in the Woodlands area of Glasgow's West End.

"The campaign comes in the wake of ministers south of the Border funding Islamic schools, and East Renfrewshire Council - which also runs a Jewish primary - saying it would be prepared to consider any request for a Muslim school. . . .

"Osama Said, the Scottish spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain and the organiser of the campaign, said: 'As parents, we are becoming increasingly worried about the influence of secular schooling on our children. We are worried the boys may be buying into the gang culture, and feel cut off from their heritage. If other faiths have the right to separate schools funded by the state, then it should not be denied to us.'" . . .

"A spokesman for the Roman Catholic Church last night backed the Muslim campaign, and said the Church would have no problem allowing one of their schools to be changed from Catholic to Muslim.

"He said: 'We are in favour of Muslim schools, we support faith schools across the board. In the case of St Albert's, we see a school in which for 95% of the children the festival of Eid has more significance than Christmas or Easter. It is de facto not a Catholic school.'"

However, others voiced fears that "racists" would capitalize on such a change: "Fred Forrester, the former general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland - Scotland's largest teaching union - was horrified. He said: 'Can you imagine how racists would exploit this? The BNP would be able to move into the area and tell people, "Look over there, they took your school away from you". It would be explosive, a gift for racists.'"

It may not just be racists who would have reason to be concerned. For example, "last May, Scotland's first Muslim school, in the south side of Glasgow, was closed after a damning report by inspectors. Iqra Academy, a private Islamic school, was criticised amid allegations of bullying, lack of staff training and the use of corporal punishment. The local Imam who ran the school was also criticised by parents for running it along hard-line religious principles."

Hard-line religious principles? This is interesting in light of another statement from Turkey today: "'Because families in Bingol bring up their children from a young age according to Islamic principles, once they reach a certain age they join Islamic groups and they take part in acts of terror,' said Mehmet Polat, an unemployed man in Bingol." (Thanks to aaron.)

It is hardly racist to be concerned that Islamic schools in Scotland may have the same result, and to try to ensure that they won't.

In an article about the European Union's reluctance to admit Turkey, the New York Times piles on the sneer words and suggests that legitimate concerns about the attachment of Muslim immigrants to the Sharia are just racist fears:

Many in Europe have yet to accept that the white, Christian culture of their ancestors is giving way to a multicultural mix heavily weighted with Islam.

Those benighted, racist white Christians. Why can't they placidly accept a multiculturalist, inclusive Europe that welcomes Islam? The real answer, of course, is one that you'll never see in the Times: that European concern about Islam has nothing to do with race, but with jihad ideology that mandates the subjugation of non-Muslims, and the imposition of Islamic law. That jihad idology is alive and well in Europe, and growing daily.

Europe's governments are already grappling with the social tensions created by expanding Muslim immigrant communities. Shrinking populations across Europe mean more immigration is in store. Accepting Turkey as a European Union member would quicken that trend and irrevocably alter the definition of Europe.

Part of the problem is Turkey's population of 70 million. In Europe only Germany is bigger, and given the two countries' birth trends, Turkey could be the leader by the time it is admitted to the union. That would give it a major -- to some Europeans, an inordinate -- say in European affairs. Former President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing of France spoke for many Europeans a year ago when he said Turkey's membership would be 'the end of Europe.'

But there is also a deep, amorphous fear in Europe of accepting a Muslim country into its midst, despite Turkey's strong secular tradition, in which many people practice their religion with the same moderation as European Catholics.

Ah. You see, these racist Europeans just need a bit of therapy to dispel their amorphous fears. But in fact, there is nothing "amorphous" about it. The ideologies of jihad and dhimmitude (the subjugation of non-Muslims as inferiors under Islamic rule) are quite carefully delineated in Islamic law. For details, see the sidebars on the lefthand side of this page and the Jihad Watch page. For more, see Onward Muslim Soldiers.

Meanwhile, don't you see, Turkish Muslims are just like you and me:

Back at the Memek bar, the voices of Donna Summer and Barbra Streisand are booming 'Enough Is Enough' through the gyrating crowd. If it were not for the Turkish lira changing hands at the bar, the scene could be in Italy or Germany or even France.

'If the E.U. is happy with the way we are, okay,' said Ms. Bayburt [a secular Muslim introduced earlier in the article], 'but I don't want to change for anyone.'

Terrific. But neither do the jihadists, and they come right along with Ms. Bayburt and her Donna Summer records.

Here's a story out of Iraq that you're not likely to find in the New York Times or CNN: "Bombs found in Christian Schools. Pupils Warned to become Muslims or Die." This from the Barnabas Fund.

"Christian schools have been leafleted with threats demanding the students should become Muslims or face death. Last week bombs were discovered in two schools, one in Baghdad and another in Mosul (northern Iraq)."

The leaflets are similar to a letter sent recently to Hindus in Bangladesh.

"The bomb at St Thomas' School in Mosul was discovered on 11 November; it was a cluster of low explosive hand grenades that could have caused significant injury or even death. The school has around 500 pupils of whom approximately 450 are Christian and 50 are Muslim. Thankfully the bombs in both schools were successfully defused. The schools have received intimidating written warnings demanding that the children should become Muslims. If they failed to do so, the warnings read, they should expect to be killed. It is thought that a Saudi backed Wahhabi Sunni group are responsible for both the warnings and the bombs.

"Christian families all over Iraq have been receiving threatening letters, one of which has been posted on an Assyrian Christians website:

"'In the name of God: the Merciful, the Compassionate.

"'Do not adorn yourselves as ignorant women did before the time of Islam (Sura 33.33).

"'The leadership of the Islamic Badr Brigade hopes that the head of this noble family will stand with the Muslim brethren and follow basic Muslim rules. The veil should be worn and the honourable teachings of Islam that have come to us from ages past must be adhered to. We are Iraqis and Muslims; we will not tolerate sin. If this announcement is not complied with we shall either inflict some unbearable punishment, kill offenders, kidnap them, or destroy them in their homes with fire or by bombing.

"'This order applies to the daughters of this family, their mother and the little girl.

"'The Islamic Badr Brigade, Najaf'

"This notice has been sent out by Al-Badr, which is the militia of the main Shi'a group, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). SCIRI has a representative on the 25 member Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) set up by the coalition. This warning is thus the first one that comes from a group that has official international recognition.

"Sheikh Abbas Rubai presided over the first sitting, in May, of an Islamic court in Baghdad at Hikma Mosque in Sadr City. The mosque has established four committees to enforce Islamic law. These committees are stopping women on the street to force them to cover their heads and not wear make-up. Sheikh Mohammed Fartousi, also of al-Hawza, has said, 'Women who don't wear the veil won't be served when they go shopping; taxis won't pick them up and they might have eggs and rotten tomatoes thrown at them.'

"Life in Iraq is becoming increasingly difficult for the estimated 700,000 Christian Iraqis. Many now feel that their situation is worse than when they were living under Saddam Hussein. In Baghdad most are afraid to go to Church. They fear that large numbers of Christians meeting together in a church pose an unacceptable security risk as they would constitute a likely target for a bomb attack. In Basra the clergy are being specifically targeted. In the same week that the school bombs were discovered a Kalashnikov was fired at the residence of the Syro-Antiochan Bishop of Mosul. Christians in the North have been illegally dispossessed and are under constant pressure from the Kurds to convert, if they wish to enjoy their protection."

The Pakistan Christian Post reports that Claude Moraes, a member of the European Parliament, has declared that "the suppression of individual's freedom to practice their religion is a violation of human rights and breach the fundamental ideals of democracy." The report here is a bit unclear, but it indicates that at least a few people in Europe are beginning to notice the realities of dhimmitude.

Moraes "has requested the European Commission to take notice of the situation in Pakistan." He asks that "non Muslims in Pakistan be exempted from the Shariah Law adopted in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan," and "has submitted a Parliamentary Question to the Commission in order to press the matter."

Also, "the European Commission during its recent visit to Pakistan in October has raised Human Rights issues with Pakistani authorities. The European Commission has called for more protection for Christians and members of other minorities in Pakistan."

Another European Parliament member, Glenys Kinnock, "said that the European Union is very much aware of incidents occurred over the past two years, in particular, [s]he mentioned the attack on the office of Idara-e-Amn-o-Insaf (a Christian NGO working for Justice and peace in Karachi), the killing of worshipers at churches in Bahawalpur and Islamabad, and atrocities committed against Christian institutions in Muree and Texala."

Not only that: "the EU has reiterated its concern about the blasphemy laws, and continue to call on the Government of Pakistan to take all possible measures to prevent the abuse of the blasphemy laws, and those accused under these laws should be provided protection."

Even Jack Straw "has supported the campaign against Shariah Law by saying 'we have taken action on this issue with our EU colleagues, as well as raising it repeatedly in both official and ministerial level contact with the Pakistanis.'"

Says Nasir Saeed of the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS): "We believe that every human being in the world should be respected, and able to enjoy full human and fundamental rights."

Since the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan adopted the Sharia, Saeed "has been campaigning to get the religious minorities exempted from Shariah law in Pakistan, and get the blasphemy law abolished, which has mandatory death penalty. He told that he has received a very positive response from the Members of the European Parliament. The EU has asked the Government of Pakistan to guarantee fully the fundamental rights of all Pakistani citizens, particularly the most vulnerable, such as women, children and religious minorities. He said he would continue to take every appropriate opportunity and forum to urge Pakistani Government to pursue laws and practices, which foster tolerance and mutual respect, and to protect religious minorities against discrimination and intimidation and attacks."

"A court in Rabat sentenced 15 militants to 20 years in prison yesterday for plotting terrorist attacks while 26 other defendants were given jail terms ranging from two to 15 years, a judicial source said. Three of the 45 defendants in the so-called 'Agadir terrorist cell' were acquitted and another one was fined 3,000 dirhams (33 euros).

"The defendants, all from the southern city of Agadir, were accused of conspiracy to commit terrorist acts, offering lodging to a criminal, failure to denounce and attempting to collect funds to commit a terrorist attack. Prosecutors had requested heavy sentences for 12 of the defendants but said 23 others were considered less dangerous.

"The prosecution claimed that the Agadir cell was part of the banned militant group Salafist Jihad, which is blamed for the May 16 attacks in Casablanca that killed 45 people. Defense lawyers had argued that their clients were innocent and pointed to the lack of evidence against them."

Dr. Badawi! Salam Al-Maryati! Where are you? Where are you to explain to these men that they are misunderstanding the concept of jihad, that peaceful spiritual struggle within the soul of the believer?

"In a separate case, the court sentenced nine radicals to sentences ranging from two to 20 years in prison and acquitted two others in connection with the Sept. 11, 2003, murder of a Jewish shopkeeper in Casablanca."

"Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan questioned yesterday whether the massive Istanbul bombings were the work of the Al-Qaeda terror network, as the city's British community joined in solemn prayers for the dead."

He did acknowledge, however, that religion may have played a role in the motivations for the attacks. "'We have some evidence of religious motives,' Erdogan said in an interview with BBC television after the attacks on the British Consulate and the offices of the HSBC banking group in which 28 people were killed and hundreds injured.

Wait a minute. I thought the attacks had nothing to do with Islam.

Erdogan also said: "'Is this an Al-Qaeda conglomerate...Or is it some other terrorist organization? We are not 100 percent sure at this point,' said Erdogan, who has spoken of his country's shame that the four suicide bombers have been identified as Turkish citizens."

Maybe it was this group. Note that it is determined to establish an Islamic State, and that it recruits through books and other publications -- which no doubt teach that to join the group is to join forces with authentic Muslims.

After students graduate from those madrassas in Pakistan that teach the glories of violent jihad, where do they go? Many ended up in terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, which have had nothing less than a global reach: "From Bali to Istanbul, New York to Casablanca, the ferocious chain of terror that has choked the world since Sept. 11 has stemmed from a single source - camps like this one just south of Kabul, where thousands of young men were indoctrinated in Osama bin Laden's brutal vision." Thus says AP.

"An Afghan link can be traced to nearly every major terrorist attack since the 2001 strikes in New York and at the Pentagon, although not all have been carried out directly by bin Laden's al-Qaida, U.S., European and Asian officials told The Associated Press.

"Attacks like the ones in Turkey this past week, and others in Indonesia, Morocco, Tunisia and the Philippines, appear to have involved homegrown groups, sometimes working hand-in-hand with al-Qaida. Officials say some of the attacks carry the 'hallmarks' of al-Qaida, a way of spreading the group's franchise throughout the world.

"Extremists were trained and either pledged their allegiance to bin Laden and al-Qaida or carried his message and inspiration back to their home countries to initiate more localized jihad efforts,' said a U.S. intelligence report obtained by AP.

"Between 15,000 and 20,000 people are believed to have trained at Afghan camps since 1996, when bin Laden returned to Afghanistan from Sudan, said a U.S. counterterrorism official, speaking on condition of anonymity."

Other estimates are much higher. Senator Bob Graham, who of course may have had reasons of his own to exaggerate, said last July that, according to the CIA, "70,000 to 120,000 recruits went through the al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan before we attacked those camps in late 2001."

Since the war, says AP, "Rishkhor and other al-Qaida camps have mostly been reduced to rubble, but the men who trained in them - including, allegedly, the two Turkish suicide bombers who detonated last week's synagogue explosions - are still pursuing their legacy of death.

"The Afghan war deprived al-Qaida and other Islamic militant groups of their main operating base, making it far more difficult to plan and organize large-scale attacks like Sept. 11. But as followers poured out of Afghanistan under heavy U.S. bombardment, they created a diaspora of destruction the world is today struggling to contain.

"Militants who trained in Afghanistan have returned to Turkey, the Philippines, Pakistan, Malaysia, Morocco, Chechnya and countries throughout Europe and the Middle East, possibly including Iraq, authorities say. The United States and Canada have also arrested men allegedly trained in the Afghan camps.

"If anything, the decentralization has made it harder for intelligence services to track down the extremists, said Pillar, the U.S. analyst: 'It's harder to follow a bunch of different groups coming at you from different directions.'

"Some 3,500 men passed through Rishkhor, a sprawling complex of shattered barracks and dusty training fields about 10 miles south of the Afghan capital, Kabul, Mullah Mohammed Khaksar, the Taliban's former deputy Interior Minister, told AP.

"The camp was run by a Pakistani - Qari Saifullah Akhtar - and taught traditional combat skills in order to feed foreign troops into the Taliban army, but terrorist training also went on here.

"Khaksar said that, as a senior Taliban official, he attended an al-Qaida demonstration at the camp in early 2001 in which terrorist trainees - including Middle Easterners, Pakistanis, Chechens and others - showed off kidnapping and assassination techniques. U.S. warplanes bombed the camp into ruin on the first night of the Afghan war.

"'It was one of the biggest camps and they were extremely well trained,' said Khaksar, who secretly contacted the United States in 1999 to seek American help in stopping the Taliban, and renounced the religious movement after their collapse. 'Now these men have all returned to their homes. It is a grave risk for the security of the world.'"

The New York Post reports that "since last week's deadly attacks in Turkey, the 'chatter' among Islamic extremists has spiked upward, suggesting al Qaeda may try a spectacular attack on U.S. soil, it was reported yesterday. 'You have rapid-fire, back-to-back, significant al Qaeda attacks,' a counterterrorism expert told Newsweek.

"'It's starting to look like this could be the buildup to a grand finale on U.S. soil.'"

Since the Istanbul bombings, "the chatter - loose talk of threats among Islamic extremists that is picked up by U.S. eavesdroppers - has picked up, Newsweek says.

"And the holy month of Ramadan, which terrorists see as a propitious time for great and violent events, is ending."

Newsweek introduces to the Jamia Uloom Islamia religious academy in the mountains of Pakistan, where students as young as nine years old "spend most of the day reciting the Qur'an; memorizing every one of its 6,666 verses is the main requirement for graduation."

This is the sort of thing we should encourage, right? Because surely an immersion in the teachings of the Qur'an will "leave no doubt," as the Muslim scholar Dr. Jamal Badawi says, that "Islam is a religion of peace and nonviolence."

Well, unfortunately, Dr. Badawi isn't an instructor at Jamia Uloom Islamia religious academy. Instead, students "learn civics from a white-bearded scholar named Amanullah, 65, who teaches them about the Taliban. 'There was a real Islamic regime,' the old man says. 'They fixed 25 years of problems in no time, using Islamic laws.'

Another faculty member, Mullah Taj Mohammad, 40, gives a current-events lesson, warning of the evils that lurk in non-Islamic lands: 'I've heard that many Muslim girls have infidel boyfriends--and clink glasses of alcohol with Jews.' That's not the worst of it, he says: 'Americans are killing Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq, and they are busy trying to poison Muslim minds everywhere with films, music and television.' Abdul is an eager learner. He dreams of enlisting in the jihad against Afghanistan's U.S.-backed president, Hamid Karzai. 'Karzai is a killer of Muslims,' the boy says. 'When I grow up I'll fight him, and then we'll see who's a man and who's a woman.'

The article also notes that religious appeals are sounded constantly in Afghanistan and in schools like this one in Pakistan:

...two weeks ago, in the old Taliban stronghold of Spin Buldak, a new audiotape was released, purportedly of the group's leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, rallying his followers. 'If you claim to be among the faithful, why can't you be ready for sacrifice?' the voice on the tape demands.

Abdul hears such calls to arms incessantly. Hardscrabble madrassas like his, in the north Waziristan town of Mirali, are where many Taliban leaders got their start two decades ago during the CIA's war against the Soviets in Afghanistan.

Nice dig, but the CIA didn't invent the jihad ideology. Nor was this ideology dormant until the CIA came around. For details, see a man named Khomeini.

Today, those jihad academies continue to indoctrinate new generations of holy warriors, passionately loyal to the banner of radical Islam and inured to lives of hardship. Such schools pose a grave challenge to the Bush administration's plans for the region. 'How do we stop those who are financing the radical madrassa schools?' asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in a recently leaked memo. 'Is our current situation such that "the harder we work, the behinder we get?" ' More than a year ago Pakistan's leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, promised to defang the madrassas. Instead, he formed a political alliance with the schools' radical Islamist supporters against the mainstream secular opposition. 'Musharraf talks a lot, but nothing happens,' says Maulana Abdul Qadr, principal of the Darul Uloom Zuberia madrassa, near Peshawar.

...last week Musharraf's security forces went after six previously banned militant groups, closing down dozens of their affiliated madrassas and promising to deal harshly with any that tried to defy the order. Musharraf's Interior minister, Faisal Saleh Hayat, announced that new regulations on religious schools will be issued this week, at the end of Ramadan. 'There will be no compromise,' Hayat told NEWSWEEK before the announcement. 'We are totally committed to madrassa reforms and will not be deterred by political expediency.' Nevertheless, Musharraf's Islamist partners of convenience are threatening to organize street protests against him, and the country's leading hard-line schools, such as the Darul Uloom Islamia in Karachi, swore to resist any moves to control them.

And what's more, even Hamid Karzai is now complaining that Pakistan isn't doing enough to stop the Taliban. "We cannot stop this terrorism as long as Pakistan doesn't co-operate," says Karzai. "That is the key issue."

Opines Newsweek:

Musharraf's job often seems hopeless. Not even the mullahs know how many madrassas Pakistan has. The government's latest guess is 27,000 or more. Many are peaceable institutions wishing only to train devout Muslims, not warriors or terrorists. But others steep their students in the doctrine of holy war and function openly as jihad enlistment centers.

I would like to know the basis on which the distinction is made between the schools that want to train devout Muslims and those that want to train warriors -- in light of the fact that the madrassa featured in this article, the Jamia Uloom Islamia religious academy, seems to place a great emphasis on Qur'anic study. And this same article also tells us that a student of Islamic law is one of the staunchest warriors:

Zahidullah, 31, a grad student in Islamic law at the Bahrul Uloom madrassa in Pakistan's northern mountains, boasts of how many recruits he has gained for the outlawed Kashmiri guerrilla force Harkatul Mujahedin: 'Many youths here are anxious to join the jihad when I tell them stories of our heroic Islamic resistance against Indian aggression.'

Also,

...some schools provide far more than recruitment services, providing safe havens, supply depots and clandestine meeting sites. Last summer, according to Pakistani intelligence sources, a group of senior Taliban leaders secretly gathered to discuss strategy at a madrassa some 20 miles south of Peshawar.

Yet if this school were to become the recipient of a missile, we would hear about American troops zeroing in on civilian targets.

The Afghans told their local contacts that Mullah Omar was calling for new recruits to intensify the war against America. In September Pakistani security forces raided another madrassa in Karachi, hauling in more than a dozen Indonesian and Malaysian students, including Rusman Gunawan, younger brother of the notorious Qaeda lieutenant Hambali. Gunawan remains in custody without charges under Pakistan's antiterror laws.

In recent months, thousands of young Afghan men have swarmed to madrassas just inside Pakistan. In Baluchistan's Chaman district, directly across the border from the Taliban's home province of Kandahar, at least 300 madrassas are filled to bursting. Pakistan's Army has lined the desolate frontier with high earthen berms, concertina-wire fences and watchtowers, but nothing stops the traffic of fighting-age Afghans--in either direction. 'There is a constant stream of them,' says Hafiz Hameedullah, head of a seminary in the town of Chaman, right on the border. 'It's hard to find accommodations for all the newcomers.' On the Afghan side, meanwhile, the influx of madrassa students and graduates has helped to produce Taliban battle units as large as 100 fighters, where a year ago the guerrillas were mustering squads of barely a half-dozen men.

Meanwhile, Musharraf's new law for madrassas "will ban the teaching of sectarian hatred and violence."

I expect that this will be slippier than it might seem. Radical Muslims do not consider themselves to be teaching sectarian hatred and violence. Jihad for them is not violence or mayhem or anarchy; it is a holy struggle for Allah. So they might consider that this new law, however it may be worded, doesn't apply to what they're doing. The key will be in how it is enforced.

But mostly it lays out a program for the voluntary registration of madrassas, offering financial aid to schools if they submit to financial audits and accept a government-recommended curriculum that includes secular courses like English and computer science. Even many militant schools have begun offering those subjects already, to help their students find jobs after graduation. They still draw the line at letting their pupils use the Internet. 'Weak students could look at pornography,' Qadr explains. Any effort to combat radical teachings is complicated by the fact that Pakistan desperately needs its madrassas. Without them, an estimated 1.5 million young Pakistanis would get no formal education at all. . . . And Pakistan's jihadis are more than ready for a fight. 'If Musharraf tries to crack down on madrassas, there will be a flood of blood in the streets,' says Maulana Anwar Ali Shah, principal of one of Pakistan's biggest schools, the Jamia Islamia Taalemulqiran madrassa in Peshawar. A far greater worry, at least in the West, is the blood that will be spilled if the madrassas keep on teaching violence and hate. Sitting below a poster of --himself holding the Qur'an in his right hand and a Kalashnikov in his left, Samiul Haq says he fully supports what he calls 'the real freedom fights' in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kashmir. He's the principal of the Darul Uloom Haqqania mad-rassa, 20 miles east of Peshawar, one of the biggest religious schools in Pakistan. He and his 3,000 students proudly call it 'the University of Jihad.' Its alumni include at least eight senior Taliban leaders, and Mullah Omar sent a personal message to every graduating class until his regime's collapse two years ago. Without a trace of irony, Haq denies that his school teaches extremism. 'I challenge Musharraf to find any extremism here,' he says. 'This madrassa is not a military base. It has no guns or tanks.' He adds: 'We teach jihad because the holy Qur'an teaches jihad, which is the defense of Islam.'

Precisely. This is why condemnations of terrorism and extremism by Muslim spokesmen can sometimes be deceiving. Radical Muslims are not (in their own view) extremists, terrorists, or thugs; they are holy warriors, obeying the will of Allah.

A NEWSWEEK reporter attended the school's commencement ceremony a few weeks ago. About 1,000 white-turbaned graduates and thousands of relatives jammed the madrassa's courtyard under banners depicting AK-47s and antiaircraft guns. The crowd seemed uncontrollable until Haq's eldest son, Rashidul Haq, took the microphone and announced: 'If you are a friend of Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar, please sit down. But if you are a friend of Bush, keep standing.' Everyone immediately sat, and a mullah delivered the invocation. 'I request that almighty Allah protect the Taliban and our popular leaders Mullah Omar and Osama,' he prayed. 'They are living in caves and suffering. We pray for their assistance and health.'

Ten miles closer to Peshawar, in the tiny village of Qumber Khen, tribesmen recently greeted a homecoming student with jubilant bursts of AK-47 fire in the air. Talawat Shah, 28, was arriving from his graduation at the Darul Uloom Sapia madrassa, not far from the Khyber Pass. Shah told the crowd that he was dedicating the day to Mullah Omar. 'If we forget the jihad, God will forget us,' Shah said. 'But if we return to jihad, God will lift us up.' His first priority is to start a madrassa in Qumber Khen. He's eager to spread the message of jihad to his students.

(Thanks to LGF.)

Christians living in our friend and ally Pakistan still suffer under much of the discrimination and deprivation of dhimmi status. But this is a courageous community that is not willing to accept dhimmitude without a struggle.

According to the Pakistan Christian Post, James Khokhar, a prominent Christian leader who has now been granted asylum in Canada, it is "time that [Pakistani] Christians shall be given equal opportunities to become doctors, engineers, scientist and businessman by the government of Pakistan."

Said Khokhar: the "government of Pakistan shall repeal blasphemy laws at an earliest to seek liberal image of Pakistan in international community." He said that the law, "section 295 C PPC," is an "open hanging sword on Christians in Pakistan and it ha[s] been misused by the majority community against Christians."

"There were speculations, late yesterday, that some unknown persons had planted a bomb in a popular shopping mall on Victoria Island, Lagos." So says This Day Online.

"But against the backdrop of fear and apprehension in some quarters of possible terrorist attacks on some sections of the country, the police, yesterday, assured Nigerians of adequate security nationwide."

Nevertheless, there is reason for Nigerians to be concerned: "The protesters in Kaduna . . . demanded the immediate prosecution of 'Jihad,' asking for the enthronement of an Islamic government in Nigeria with immediate effect.

"The development yesterday shattered the fragile peace in Kaduna as markets and other businesses summarily closed shop, while residents scampered for cover in the confusion that ensued.

"Demonstrators, armed with placards and reciting various Qu'ranic verses, marched through major streets. They condemned what they described as anti-Islamic policies of the United States government in the Middle East.

"The police confirmed that the protesters began their march shortly after the Jumat prayers, from the Maiduguri Road Central Mosque in the heart of the metropolis."

Hadn't they learned at that mosque that jihad is a spiritual struggle? Apparently not, and they invoked no less illustrious a personage than the Prophet Muhammad himself in support of their less pacifistic views: "To redress some of their grievances, the protesters in a statement they circulated said: 'The only solution is Jihad, the type of jihad put into practise by Prophet Muhammed and exemplified by Shehu Usman Dan Fodio and the late Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran. We Muslims should unite and embrace this concept of Jihad that will undoubtedly empower us to destroy oppression and oppressors, and in its place establish Islam."

"The American Middle-East Christian Association (AMECA) has learned of Royal Oak Intermediate School, Covina, California, teaching the Islamic religion to America's young, naive, impressionable school children." (Thanks to LGF.)

"In a letter sent home to parents, the teacher wrote, 'During the month of Ramadan, Muslims refrain from food or drink during daylight hours.' For EXTRA CREDIT, he asked parents' OK for student participation by choosing 'to fast for one, two or three days.'"

This is far from the only such instance. There are other such cases proceeding today.

The AMECA press release correctly observes: "America's Christian children had better not even utter the name Jesus Christ in public schools without persecution and prosecution by the 'separation of church and state' zealots.

"AMECA will conduct a peaceful educational seminar in accordance with our First Amendment rights on the public sidewalk in front of ROYAL OAK INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL at 303 South Glendora Av in Covina, CA 91723 from 2:00-3:00 p.m. on MONDAY, NOV. 24."

The press release concludes: "We will have a number of experts in Islam to share quotes from the Koran in both Arabic and English. We will provide an American civics lesson for Royal Oak students, to see our FIRST AMENDMENT exercised peacefully and profoundly: A RIGHT FOUND IN NO ISLAMIC CONTROLLED NATION ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD." Certainly this is true of nations in which Islamic law is enforced in its fullness: there is no idea of equality and freedom of religion, but for non-Muslims only the limited tolerance and humiliation of dhimmi status.

Recently on the Michael Medved Show, Salam Al-Maryati of the Muslim Public Affairs Council criticized my characterization of radical Islam as a widespread global movement, and suggested that it was in fact a marginal radical fringe. He brushed aside my statements that moderate Muslims need to do more to convert radical Muslims to a more peaceful form of Islam, saying almost in the same breath that it was already being done on a large scale and that it couldn't be done anyway.

Maryati may more disposed to believe Dr. Mohammad Waseem of Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, Pakistan, who has "warned that Islamic radicalism is on the rise and liberal, modern and secular sections of society are being marginalised in Pakistan."

Waseem is no friend of the West. In the rest of his talk he blamed the West for fostering the growth of Islamic radicalism in various ways. But at least he, unlike Maryati, acknowledges that this growth is widespread.

Dr. Waseem also "criticised Western countries and their media for adopting a 'text-based' approach to Islam, instead of making an effort to understand Islamic societies and their ethos. In many cases, tradition and cultural norms were mistaken for religion which only contributed to the further distortion of Islam’s meaning and message."

In the first place, Westerners should stop reading Islamic texts when radical Muslims stop using them to justify murder. Also, if calls to violence against unbelievers are in fact in the Qur'an and other texts, they can hardly be classified as "tradition and cultural norms" instead of religious ones.

While Saudi officials complain about FBI efforts to investigate Saudi terrorism, World Net Daily has a new report stating that the Saudi terror crackdown is "just talk": in fact, sources say that "Islamic radicals and Saudi leaders have 'reunited' to save the kingdom following a three-day meeting last weekend of royal family members, Muslim clerics and those sympathetic with Osama bin Laden.

"Crown Prince Abdullah and a group of more than 40 Saudi scholars gathered in Mecca for discussions on mediation between the government and al-Qaida. The meeting included a mentor of Osama bin Laden, Muslim theologian Safar al-Hawali, who denies claims that the recent Riyadh bombing could be considered jihad.

'''Our problem as Muslims is with those who seek to destroy us and our religion – and they are well known – not with the Arab and Islamic governments in our countries,' al-Hawali was quoted as saying."

Al-Hawali is secretary general of the Global Anti-Aggression Campaign, which states: "The Muslim nation has been subjected to vicious aggression at the hands of the forces of tyranny and oppression, especially the Zionists and the American administration led by right-wing extremists."

Meanwhile, "a second prominent Saudi cleric has renounced Islamic militancy and attacks against innocent people during an interview aired on state-run TV yesterday."

And Dr. Khaled M. Batarfi writes in Arab News about the Istanbul bombings: "Whoever did this does not represent Islam, Arabs or any decent human being. This dirty deed was not committed in my religion’s, my people’s or my name." He isn't just mourning the Muslim victims, either: "I offer my wholehearted condolences to the families of the victims in the Turkish attacks, Jewish and Muslim alike."

I am glad to see this. Just as in the case of the Turkish imams, I hope these words will be accompanied by actions, including the full renunciation of the doctrines of violent jihad that radical Muslims use to recruit and motivate terrorists.

This from the Boston Globe:

The FBI is investigating a Saudi college student and his American wife who recently videotaped a Jewish school in Baltimore and said they sent the footage to Saudi Arabia, according to law enforcement officials and community leaders who know about the case. The Saudi man, who came to the United States on a student visa four years ago, and his wife were seen videotaping an Orthodox school for girls, Beit Yakov, on Oct. 26 and fled after witnesses wrote down their automobile's license plate number, officials said. Law enforcement officials were contacted and later interviewed the couple, who said the video was intended for the man's parents in Saudi Arabia.

Ah. A nice video of the holdings of the international Jewish conspiracy, I suppose.

A spokesman for the US Department of Homeland Security said no new national terrorist alerts have been issued about possible threats to Jewish institutions, considered attractive targets for anti-Semitic groups.

But recent terror attacks on Jewish synagogues in Turkey and the fact that the Baltimore couple fled have raised enough concern that FBI agents are investigating. The inquiry has been broadened to Saudi Arabia, where the FBI is trying to recover the tape, and to the woman's home state, Utah, the officials said. . . .

An official explained

...that the man and his wife, a Muslim convert, were not initially asked for a copy of the tape by local authorities because they had no legal grounds to seize it. But he said officials at the US Embassy in Saudi Arabia are trying to help the FBI recover it as part of the investigation.

Says Reuters: "A senior al Qaeda militant orchestrated the bombing of a residential compound in Saudi Arabia earlier this month by telephone from Iran, a Saudi newspaper says.

"Okaz newspaper, quoting informed sources on Sunday, said the militant network's security chief Saif al-Adel gave orders for the attack in the capital Riyadh by satellite phone. . . . 'The sources said that the terrorist Saif al-Adel is in Iran,' it added."

Saif isn't alone: "The newspaper said Saif al-Adel fled to Iran with 500 al Qaeda members during the intensive U.S. bombing of Afghanistan in late 2001. It said they were detained by Iranian troops." Not all that efficiently, it seems.

Meanwhile, an Iranian official says this about Al-Qaeda's Iranian presence: "These are rumours...We are serious about confronting al Qaeda. We have always been and will continue to be so." He sounds a bit like Saddam's Information Minister.

"A Muslim may not declare that he is not a Muslim, save where he has been certified as such by a Syariah court."

This is Malaysian law, which also prescribes jail for those who leave Islam: an ex-Muslim is "to be detained at an Islamic Guidance Centre for up to 36 months for religious instruction and repentance if he attempted to renounce his faith."

All this comes from a story about four Malaysian ex-Muslims who have run afoul of these laws: "The Federal Court today reserved judgment on an appeal by a couple and two others against the Court of Appeal's judgment rejecting their application for a declaration that they have absolute right and freedom to practise the religion of their choice.

"Chief Justice Tan Sri Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim heard their appeal with Federal Court judges Datuk Wira Mohd Noor Ahmad, Datuk Pajan Singh Gill, Datin Paduka Rahmah Hussain and Court of Appeal judge Datuk Richard Malanjum. Daud Mamat, 62, Kamariah Ali, 51, her husband Mohamad Ya, 57, (now deceased) and Mad Yacob Ismail, 62, had appealed against the Court of Appeal's decision handed down on Aug 2 last year.

"It had dismissed their appeal for a declaration that the Syariah court had no jurisdiction over them in view of their apostasy.

"The court had also dismissed application for writ of habeas corpus for their release from the Pengkalan Chepa prison."

Against them, "Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail, for the director of the Pengkalan Chepa prison, in his submission today, said a person's right to profess a religion of his choice as stipulated under Article 11(1) of the Federal Constitution was not an absolute right."

You may practise any religion you want, as long as it's Islam.

"He said since the country had a dual system - civil and syariah - the religious affairs of the Muslims were governed by the syariah, including the issue of apostasy." (Thanks to LGF.)

"The FBI, in an unprecedented move that has strained relations with a close ally in the war on terrorism, has subpoenaed records for dozens of bank accounts belonging to the Saudi Embassy, part of an investigation into whether any of the hundreds of millions of dollars Riyadh spends in the United States each year end up in the hands of Muslim extremists, U.S. and Saudi officials said."

So says the Washington Post. (Thanks to LGF.)

Gee, I hate to see strained relations with our friends the Saudis, but there is a lot of reason to investigate: "The wide-ranging investigation into the $300 million a year the Saudi Embassy spends here was launched this summer, just as the U.S. and Saudi governments were hailing a new era of cooperation in the fight against Muslim terrorism. Earlier this year, U.S. and Saudi officials established the first-ever joint task force to track terrorist financing in Saudi Arabia."

$300 million! Hmm. How much of that might have gone to Wahhabi Muslims who endorse the doctrines of violent jihad against unbelievers and the necessity to establish Islamic law everywhere?

Nevertheless, "the subpoenas outraged Saudi officials, who believe they were unnecessary."

"Muslim prayer leaders in Turkey will this week use a sermon marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan to condemn terrorism and call for unity in the wake of four deadly bomb attacks in Istanbul." This from Reuters.

"Anatolian news agency said on Sunday Turkey's religious affairs directorate had revised the planned reading for the Eid al-Fitr feast in the light of the suicide bombings which killed more than 50 people over the last week.

"'Terror, violence and anarchy have no connection whatsoever with Islam,' the agency quoted the sermon as saying. 'Our religion clearly outlaws any kind of anarchy, sedition, enmity, cruelty, torture, terror or violence.'"

Great. I hope they will accompany their statement with vigorous efforts in their community to counteract the radical Muslim understanding that their religion does indeed call for terror (against the enemies of the believers, cf. Sura 8:12 of the Qur'an) and violence (against Jews, Christians, and other non-Muslims, cf. Suras 9:5 and 9:29). This belief is not founded on a few scattered verses of the Qur'an, but on an elaboration of theology and law that mandates (in the words of a legal manual approved by the most respected authority in Sunni Islam, Al-Azhar University in Cairo) "war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians . . . until they become Muslim or else pay the non-Muslim poll tax" ('Umdat al-Salik, o9.8).

I hope the Turkish imams will acknowledge that jihad terrorists justify their actions using such doctrines, and renounce these doctrines definitively and absolutely.

Similarly, "Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has condemned the recent suicide bombings in Turkey which left 27 people dead and injured hundreds, saying the attacks tarnished Islam."

There have been many suicide bombings before this. Might these condemnations coming from the Muslim world have to do with the Muslim victims of these particular bombings? Anyway, Abdullah said: "I am greatly saddened at the loss of so many innocent lives in the truck bomb attacks in Istanbul on Thursday. . . . Such attacks have also further tarnished the name of Islam which is a religion of peace."

Same question for Abdullah: will you then renounce the doctrines of violent jihad against non-Muslims? Yes, the attacks in Istanbul killed Muslims, but they emanate from the same desire, stated many times in many places by radical Muslims: to institute Islamic law in secular Turkey and everywhere else they possibly can — by force where necessary.

"The Homeland Security Department has decided to stop a program that required thousands of Arab and Muslim men to register with immigration authorities after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, officials said on Friday."

If that phrase, "Arab and Muslim men," had any substance, the program was wrongly conceived from the start. Arab men (and women and children) who are not Muslim have nothing to do with the problem of jihadist terrorism, except as its victims. The ideology of violent jihad is not held by Arabic-speaking Christians.

But there is more. "Of the 85,000 men who went to immigration offices early this year, as well as tens of thousands screened at airports and border crossings, 11 had links to terrorism, officials said."

Sounds like a painstaking process, but I fail to see how a program that has stopped 11 terrorists before they could murder anyone is not working. But the problem, of course, is not that it's a failure; it's that it is "racist." Therefore, "the program might be superseded by an effort in which immigration officials at 115 airports and 14 seaports will begin collecting digital fingerprints and photographs from foreign visitors who enter the United States with visas. That program, which is scheduled to begin in January, is not be specifically directed at Muslims and Arabs, he said."

This is as silly as searching white-haired grandmothers in airports. Jihad terrorism isn't being waged by Lutheran or Buddhist or animist or Hindu immigrants. I am sorry if non-terrorist Muslims will be inconvenienced, but if they are not doing anything illegal, then that is all they will suffer: inconvenience. The fact that jihad terrorism is coming from the Islamic world is an unpleasant fact of life; evidently the alternative to being realistic about it, which has become politically impossible, is to inconvenience everyone. I don't mind being inconvenienced in order to help stop terrorism, but for Homeland Security to be fingerprinting Japanese tourists who are wielding nothing more lethal than cameras only diverts time and attention from real anti-terrorism efforts.

(This from the New York Times, with thanks to LGF.)

"An Islamic militant leader condemned a symbolic Mideast peace deal, branding the Palestinians who helped negotiate it as traitors for making compromises with their Israeli counterparts." So says AP, with thanks to LGF.

"The test treaty, known as the 'Geneva Accord,' envisions a Palestinian state in most of the West Bank and Gaza with a capital in Jerusalem."

But that's not good enough for Nizar Riayan of Hamas (the Islamic Resistance Movement): "Those behind this document should be brought to trial because no one authorized them to talk on behalf of the Palestinian people and to betray us with this document. God willing, we are not going to give up our rights over our holy land.''

This is the kind of intransigence that has poisoned the chances for success of earlier negotiated settlements. The Hamas Charter makes it plain:

"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it."

"The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf [a religious endowment, as delineated by Islamic law] consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. "

How can any negotiations be successful when one side thinks this way? And even worse:

"There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors."

"After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion', and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying."

"Moreover, if the links have been distant from each other and if obstacles, placed by those who are the lackeys of Zionism in the way of the fighters obstructed the continuation of the struggle, the Islamic Resistance Movement aspires to the realisation of Allah's promise, no matter how long that should take. The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said:

"'The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews.' (related by al-Bukhari and Moslem)."

"Allah is its target, the Prophet is its model, the Koran its constitution: Jihad is its path and death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of its wishes."

Plus a little ad for dhimmitude -- the subjugation of Jews and Christians as inferiors under Islamic rule -- that shows how useful the widely-accepted whitewashes of Islamic history can be: "Under the wing of Islam, it is possible for the followers of the three religions - Islam, Christianity and Judaism - to coexist in peace and quiet with each other. Peace and quiet would not be possible except under the wing of Islam. Past and present history are the best witness to that." (For the facts of the case, see Onward Muslim Soldiers.)

"The Jamaatud Dawa (JD) is ignoring a government ban on militants and continuing to collect donations for jihad. The federal government recently banned three organisations for violating the prohibition to collect money for jihad. But the JD, which was put on a watch list, continues its fund collection." This from Gulf News in Dubai.

Why would they do that? From whom do they expect to raise funds? Doesn't the vast majority of UAE citizens reject the principles of radical Islam?

"In Lahore, the JD has several camps in Chauburji, Samanabad, Allama Iqbal Town, Shadman and Baghbanpura. Ramadan is a good time for jihadi groups and seminaries to get donations as a large number of Muslims pay their Zakat (annual charity) and Fitrana (poor dues related to the Eid feast). Many jihadi leaders have visited Lahore this month to boost donation campaigns.

"The chief of the now banned Tehrik-e-Khuddamul Islam, Maulana Masood Azhar, Jamiatul Furqan chief Mau-lana Abdullah Shah Mazhar, Al Rasheed Trust's Qari Mansoor, too, have visited mosques, seminaries and industrial areas to collect funds, but the JD seems to be the only group to have set up camps.

"The camps sell JD publications, posters, stickers and other material. 'Help the Mujahideen with your money. They are defending your ideological and national frontiers with their blood,' says one poster."

"The Afghan war was meant to deprive al-Qa'ida of the protection of its Taliban allies and destroy it as a fighting force. But the Istanbul bombings are the latest example of how the organisation has reinvented itself to continue its jihad." This from Financial Times.

"Al-Qai'da has proved to be a many-headed hydra. One was decapitated in Afghanistan, with many of Osama bin Laden's senior lieutenants killed or captured, and much of its financial resources uncovered and blocked. But the organisation has now sprung up again in a number of countries in a franchised form. The recent attacks in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Chechnya and, possibly, Iraq show that smaller organisations, often with fighters trained in al-Qa'ida camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, are able to carry out operations without overt help from Bin Laden."

Later on the article says that "British and US security sources say around 20,000 people from 47 countries passed through the al-Qa'ida camps from the mid-1990s until the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001."

Other estimates are much higher. Some believe there may have been as many as 120,000.

"Michael Pillsbury, a Pentagon terrorism consultant, argued that the evolution of the terrorist groups is analogous to a process of corporate merger and acquisition. Regionally focused groups with their own agendas join with al-Qa'ida to learn their operational techniques or use their contacts, but are not subordinate to it."

(Pardon my digression, but if my memory serves me well, this gentleman was the original Mike Doonesbury.)

"For example, Jemaah Islamiah seeks to create a pan-Islamic state in Asia, an agenda that has little to do with driving US forces out of Saudi Arabia or other goals of Bin Laden's. 'They like to get advice and equipment from al-Qa'ida but still have their own political agenda,' Mr Pillsbury argued."

Actually, Mike, their agendas are the same. They all want to establish pan-Islamic states wherever they can. They are on record over and over again about this. See the evidence in Onward Muslim Soldiers.

From Insight magazine via WorldNetDaily: radical Muslims are buying opposition to anti-terror efforts.

"On Sept. 11, 2001, as people around the world opened their hearts and their checkbooks to victims of the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, a prominent Muslim activist laid out $3,000 of his own. But he didn't have the victims in mind. He used the occasion to help re-elect one of his favorite federal lawmakers: a feisty left-winger who kept the FBI in her political crosshairs.

"According to Federal Election Commission records, Abdurahman Alamoudi wrote two checks that day totaling $3,000 to the campaign committee of Rep. Cynthia McKinney, the Georgia Democrat who would spend the next - and last - year of her short tenure in office attacking President George W. Bush and the post-9/11 war on terrorism.

"Twelve months after McKinney's electoral defeat, in September 2003, Alamoudi would be a federal prisoner facing allegations that he laundered money from Libya to finance his political activity in Washington and that he served as a Virginia-based paymaster for terrorists whose members included al-Qaida. He was caught in London with a suitcase containing $380,000 in cash that he admitted he had been given in Libya.

"In Tampa, Fla., the alleged chief of the North American cell of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad had been buying political access of his own. Sami al-Arian, a University of South Florida computer-science professor and prominent Muslim activist, handed out $1,000 contributions to McKinney and other lawmakers during a short burst of political giving between 1998 and 2001.

"Al-Arian, Alamoudi and some of their close associates, who collectively are alleged to have formed a terrorist-support network across the United States, bought themselves political access and political cover in Washington in what appear to have been attempts to undermine existing federal counterterrorism laws and weaken new laws as they were being enacted.

"The individual sums are not a lot, say critics. But when taken together, and compared with the campaign contributions of other identified leaders of what has become known as the 'Wahhabi lobby,' a pattern emerges. Members of Islamist terrorist groups in the United States and their followers appear to have channeled their campaign contributions to elect or re-elect lawmakers from both parties who for the most part have had significant roles to play in the war against terrorism.

"So far these radicals appear to have had little success. Most of their candidates either lost the elections or returned the money.

"Some of the recipients were candidates of Arab or Muslim heritage. Others were lawmakers liberal or libertarian enough to be counted on to challenge counterterrorism laws that directly affected Alamoudi and al-Arian's alleged terrorist-support operations inside the United States. Several were members of congressional committees concerned with judiciary, law-enforcement and counterterrorism issues and with budgetary power and oversight of the FBI.

"Alamoudi's first registered campaign contribution was a $500 check in 1997 to Rep. Dennis Kucinich, the Ohio Democrat now running for president. Subsequently he would donate to Reps. David Bonior, D-Mich., Tom Campbell, R-Calif., Jim Moran, D-Va., and John Sununu, R-N.H., as well as Sen. Spencer Abraham, R-Mich., now U.S. secretary of energy.

"He also donated $1,000 each to the Senate campaign of former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, on May 25, 2000, and to the presidential campaign of Texas then-governor George W. Bush five days later. FEC files show that Bush returned the contribution on Oct. 25, 2000, with Clinton, Bonior, Moran and Sununu following suit.

"Al-Arian's first legal campaign contribution on record was a $200 donation in 1998 to re-elect his local congressman, Rep. Jim Davis, D-Fla., according to FEC records. Between 1999 and early 2001, the Islamist leader and his wife, Nahla, gave larger, multiple contributions to the campaigns of McKinney ($2,000), Bonior ($3,200) and Campbell ($1,300). Nahla al-Arian also made at least one $1,000 contribution to the campaign of Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., then-chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which was responsible for antiterrorism legislation. Hyde ordered the money be given to charity upon learning of the al-Arian connection, his friend, Chicago attorney David Schippers, tells Insight.

"The al-Arians told reporters that they volunteered to help the Bush presidential campaign in the summer of 2000. Their son, Mohammed, worked for Bonior as an intern in 2001.

"Alamoudi also donated at least $1,000 to Bonior's campaign, which returned the money on the same day, FEC records show. Bonior left the House in a failed attempt to run for governor of Michigan in 2002. Records obtained through Opensecrets.com indicate that Bonior did not return the contributions from Nahla and Sami al-Arian.

"Leaders of Alamoudi's American Muslim Council, or AMC, and American Muslim Foundation funneled at least $58,400 to a handful of candidates in the last three election cycles, with a former Alamoudi deputy contributing another $24,950 in that same period, according to a compilation distributed by the Center for Security Policy based on FEC filings.

"What did the Islamic Jihad leader and the al-Qaida funder stand to gain from their modest political contributions? Their public statements at the time show they wanted Congress to do away with provisions of the 1996 Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which allowed federal authorities to use classified information as a basis on which to hold foreign terrorist suspects and to deny that information to the suspects' defense attorneys. The thinking behind the law, congressional sources say, was to allow domestic law-enforcement services to use foreign intelligence as evidence on which to detain and deport the foreign suspects. Much of that intelligence could not be revealed to the defense because it would put the sources of that intelligence in physical danger.

"Alamoudi and al-Arian received the active support of Rep. Campbell, who had a Pakistani-American staffer serve as point man on the issue. That staffer, according to the program and subsequent AMC newsletter, spoke to an event for training Muslim activists on 'How to Lobby Congress.' The published agenda of the AMC's June 2001 national conference shows that al-Arian was another AMC lobbying coach who helped train activists from around the country in lobbying Congress. Campbell left Congress in 2002 in an unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate.

"Other figures implicated in federal investigations of alleged Wahhabi terrorist financial operations in the United States include Jamal Barzinji of Herndon, Va. A board member of Alamoudi's AMC organization, Barzinji is a longtime supporter of al-Arian, according to federal investigators.

"The FEC records show that Barzinji donated to the campaigns of former Sen. Abraham and of Reps. Bonior, Campbell, McKinney, Moran and others. Moran returned $3,750 to Barzinji in October 2002.

"David Kane, a senior special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, testified in a March 20, 2002, affidavit to U.S. Magistrate Judge Theresa Carroll Buchanan that Barzinji is a major figure among 'a group of individuals that are suspected of providing material support to terrorists, money laundering and tax evasion through the use of a variety of related for-profit companies and ostensible charitable entities under their control.'

"Barzinji, through a lawyer, insists he is innocent. Kane, however, alleges that Barzinji 'committed and conspired to commit the following offenses: transit money internationally for the purpose of promoting offenses against foreign nations involving murder or the destruction of property by means of explosive, fire, kidnapping or extortion ...; provide material support or resources to foreign terrorist organizations ...; and provide material support or conceal or disguise the source of ownership of material support intended for use in preparation for or in carrying out a terrorist act.'

"Kane also told the judge that Barzinji is 'closely associated' with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and with Hamas."

The Financial Times reports that "the European Union's racism watchdog has shelved a report on anti-semitism because the study concluded Muslims and pro-Palestinian groups were behind many of the incidents it examined."

This is a product of the multiculturalist "Muslims can't be racists; they're victims" school. "The Vienna-based European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) decided in February not to publish the 112-page study, a copy of which was obtained by the Financial Times, after clashing with its authors over their conclusions."

Specifically, "when the researchers submitted their work in October last year, however, the centre's senior staff and management board objected to their definition of anti-semitism, which included some anti-Israel acts."

And more pointedly: "the focus on Muslim and pro-Palestinian perpetrators, meanwhile, was judged inflammatory."

Said an unidentified "person familiar with the report": "There is a trend towards Muslim anti-semitism, while on the left there is mobilisation against Israel that is not always free of prejudice. Merely saying the perpetrators are French, Belgian or Dutch does no justice to the full picture."

There was more also: "Some EUMC board members had also attacked part of the analysis ascribing anti-semitic motives to leftwing and anti-globalisation groups, this person said. 'The decision not to publish was a political decision.' . . .

"In July, Robert Wexler, a US congressman, wrote to Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, demanding the release of the study.

"Ole Espersen, law professor at Copenhagen University and board member for Denmark, said the study was 'unsatisfactory' and that some members had felt anti-Islamic sentiment should be addressed too."

Fair enough, until you read on: "The EUMC, which was set in 1998, has published three reports on anti-Islamic attitudes in Europe since the September 11 attacks in the US." (Thanks to Charles Johnson.)

This just in at WorldNetDaily: "Citing an 'unimpeachable source,' Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri are in Iran, according to a Fox News analyst.

"Al-Zawahiri was seen within the last two weeks, and bin Laden was spotted in July, says the network's foreign affairs analyst Mansoor Ijaz.

"The report dovetails with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's announcement last summer that he had sent his own army into the northern tribal areas near the border with Iran to ferret out bin Laden.

"'That was an extraordinary admission at the time, one that I could not understand how he could make if bin Laden, in fact, was still in that area,' Ijaz told Fox News host Brit Hume. 'Well, it turns out that it was around that time that bin Laden moved from the Afghan-Pakistani border into Iran.'

"Al-Zawahiri has been seen recently in Iran planning and plotting various terrorist attacks against U.S. interests and other countries, he said.

"Both al-Qaida leaders are disguised. Bin Laden, Ijaz has been told, shaved his head bald and is wearing a shorter beard that is dyed to make him look more like an Iranian cleric. He also has put on a considerable amount of weight.

"Al-Zawahiri has done something similar, Ijaz said, and is now wearing a black turban and dyed beard instead of the traditional white turban he wore as an Egyptian cleric.

"Bin Laden is being kept out of the public while al-Zawahiri is said to be moving around quite freely, Ijaz said.

"The analyst said the Revolutionary Guard of Iran has arranged for at least three to four body doubles that are making their way around different parts of Afghanistan to fool bin Laden's pursuers.

"'But I can tell you with unimpeachability tonight that he is on the western border of Iran, inside Iran, planning terrorist attacks against the United States' interests in that part of the world,' Ijaz said.

"He explained that Iran's provision of safe harbor, finances and logistical support for al-Qaida is a measure to counter the possibility that U.S. action in that region could result in democracies on both sides of the country, in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"Ijaz said a warlord who controls Afghanistan's western provinces, Gulbuddin Hektmayer, is working with al-Qaida on a plan to bring a large army of Iranian Revolutionary Guard troops into Afghanistan during the winter months to attack U.S. interests and to try to take control of the entire country.

"'Iran does not want to see us succeed in building a democracy in Afghanistan under any circumstances,' he said.

"'In short,' according to Ijaz, 'Iranian technology is now being used to help the Afghan warlords to take over the country from Hamid Karzai,' the Afghan president.

"Ijaz said it is likely certain segments of the U.S. government have the information on bin Laden and are analyzing and processing it.

"'But it was my judgment,' he said, 'that it was vitally important for the broader part of our government's decision-making apparatus to know exactly what it is that's going on there, because it's very clear that the Iranians are trying desperately to not only hang on to power, but to fuel the terrorist enterprise in that part of the world.'"

UPDATE: Michael Ledeen tells us that he broke this story a year ago in The War Against the Terror Masters. Read it and weep.

FrontPage Magazine's Stephen Brown has a chilling article about death threats received by the author and publisher of a French translation of Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer's Islam Unveiled.

It seems that radical Muslims in France grow steadily more brazen, and the dhimmi mentality of the non-Muslim population does little or nothing to stop them.

The case against a group of Islamic terrorists in Portland, Oregon is wrapping up, and some intriguing details have come to light. (Thanks to LGF.)

The terrorists, notably American Muslims Jeffrey Leon Battle and Patrice Lumumba Ford, were captured on tape. "The conversations ranged from inquiries about bomb making, to talk of cutting the heads off nonbelievers, to a desire to have 'real' Muslim wives who would be willing to carry AK-47 assault rifles and be 'ready to run and blow something up.'

"All six of the suspects in custody have pleaded guilty . . . Prosecutors filed the 23-page memorandum Wednesday that reveals new details about the group that traveled to China in the fall of 2001 in a failed attempt to enter Afghanistan to fight against U.S. troops."

Why did they go? "Their attorneys have said that their trip was motivated by their religious beliefs that they would have been coming to the aid of fellow Muslims.

"Yet, according to the prosecutor's filing, Battle asked about making a bomb in September 2002, after a series of conversations in which he spoke of his consideration and ultimate rejection of committing a terrorist act in the United States.

"He had said he wanted to kill hundreds of Jews at a Portland-area synagogue or Jewish school.

"In other details revealed in the filing, the group that has come to be known as the Portland Seven - for the seven people indicted in the case - called itself 'Katibat Al-Mawt,' which federal prosecutors say loosely translates to 'Squad of Death.'"

That's an accurate translation.

"One Portland Seven member, Ahmed Ibrahim Bilal, had such disdain for Jews that he referred to them as 'lampshades,' the document states.

"Battle told the informant that he wanted a 'blade' to cut off the heads of 'kaffirs,' or unbelievers."

Might Battle have been reading his Qur'an? "I will instil terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them" (Sura 8:12). Maybe he was a moderate, since he didn't seem to mention anything about cutting off fingertips as well as heads.

"On an Aug. 14, 2002, wiretap recording, Ford and Muhammad Ibrahim Bilal, Ahmed's brother, spoke about wanting to marry Muslim women.

"Ford said he wanted to marry a 'real' Muslim - not a 'fake' American one - who carries an AK-47 assault rifle and is 'ready to run and blow something up.'"

A real Muslim blows things up? Rauf Denktas, call your office. Jihad terrorism will not vanish from the earth until men like Ford are convinced that a "real" Muslim doesn't actually blow anything up. Where are the efforts by moderate Muslims to convince radicals that their Islam is not real Islam?

"When Battle was arrested on Oct. 4, 2002, he initially claimed the overseas trip was for religious education, but eventually told investigators with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force about the plot, naming everyone except Maher 'Mike' Hawash. . . . Both Battle and Ford agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to levy war against the United States but have not cooperated with the government's ongoing investigation into others who may have helped organize and finance the trip."

Why not? Maybe because a "real Muslim" doesn't fight against other Muslims? (Cf. the Qur'an, Sura 4:92-3).

Julia Duin gives us a useful piece on Ramadan and violence in today's Washington Times.

In it, Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer explains: "Radicals see jihad not principally as an act of violence or an assertion of power ... but as a spiritual act, a holy cleansing of the world's impurities. In this view, if there is ever a time to fight Satan in all his various manifestations on Earth -- including Americans and Israelis -- it is Ramadan."

This AP story chronicles a common sight in Saudi Arabia: "a sweep by the muttawas, or religious police, rounding up Muslim men -- Saudis and foreigners alike -- and forcing them to go to the mosque at prayer time."

Meanwhile, the article states the plight of non-Muslims in Saudi Arabia with unusual clarity: "Under Saudi law, all citizens must be Muslim. Non-Muslim foreigners sometimes get caught up in the muttawa sweeps."

A Christian friend of mine who worked in Saudi Arabia for awhile once told me that he would routinely have to hide when one of the five daily prayer times came around -- if the muttawas caught him on the street, he would be jailed.

"The kingdom forbids non-Muslim public worship among the country's estimated 7 million expatriate workers, around half a million of whom are Christian. The kingdom also prohibits non-Muslim religious literature and public display of the symbols of other religions.

"Larry, 39, a computer programmer from the Philippines who gave only his first name, said he had been jailed for a day on three different occasions, including once for possessing a Bible. . . .

"In January, at least half a dozen Christian Filipinos were deported, after the muttawas found them holding religious gatherings, a diplomat in the kingdom said on condition of anonymity. Several others reportedly were arrested and deported in sweeps in 1998 and 1999 for similar reasons, including distributing Christian literature in Arabic."

Why does Saudi Arabia forbid Christian worship? This prohibition is founded on the Prophet Muhammad's famous deathbed statement that "no two religions are allowed in Arabia." Muhammad also said, "I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslims." How can Saudis offer non-Muslims the freedom to practice their religions on sacred Arabian soil when the Prophet himself forbade it?

The President of the Turkish client state known as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Rauf Denktas, "condemned on Friday the bomb attacks that took place in Istanbul, adding that ''those who did that have nothing to do with Islam and God.'

"Issuing a statement about the attack, Denktas said that the bomb attack was a murder against humanity, adding 'they stain Islam, this beautiful religion of peace and love by their acts and give the opportunity to Christian world to regard Islam as a terrorist organization.'"

I'm glad to hear that these attacks have nothing to do with Islam. But the unpleasant fact is that the attackers themselves contend that they have everything to do with Islam. And there is as yet no large-scale movement -- and it would have to be global -- by the people who think like Denktas to convince the others that their use of Islam is wrong. This may be becaause of the immense hurdle that moderate Muslims face, as articulated memorably by the great ex-Muslim writer Ibn Warraq: "We must take seriously what the Islamists say to understand their motivation, [that] it is the divinely ordained duty of all Muslims to fight -- in the literal sense -- until man-made law has been replaced by God's law, the Sharia, and Islamic law has conquered the entire world. . . . For every text the liberal Muslims produce, the mullahs will use dozens of counter-examples [that are] exegetically, philosophically, historically far more legitimate."

The U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Information Programs Washington File has published a release entitled "Muslims Reach Out to Non-Muslim Americans During Ramadan: Muslims seek to clear up misperceptions about Islam."

It features comments made by Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), on the November 19 "Global Exchange" television program. CAIR is identified as a "Washington based advocacy group that seeks to promote a positive image of Islam and Muslims in America and present an Islamic perspective on issues of importance to the American public."

No mention is made, of course, of the many questions surrounding CAIR's real posture toward Islamic radicalism, which may have been why CAIR wasn't invited to the President's recent Ramadan iftaar.

Might CAIR be persona non grata at the White House and still be a good friend of the State Department? Maybe. Or maybe administration officials are being good dhimmis, and caving in to the pressure created by the universal media treatment of CAIR as a moderate Muslim group.

"The United States has determined that Islamic insurgency groups based in the Middle East have established operations in South America."

(Maybe they read about it here.)

"U.S. officials said Middle East insurgents use South America to raise money through drug trafficking and other illegal activities. They said the Islamic groups also employ South America to recruit agents and ensure logistics for operations.

"The groups that operate in South America include the Palestinian-based Hamas, the Lebanese-based Hizbullah and the Egyptian Gamiat Islamiya, officials said. These organizations have representation in several countries in South America, including Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, Paraguay, Trinidad and Venezuela.

"'These logistic cells reach back to the Middle East and extend to this hemisphere the sophisticated global support structure of international terrorism,' U.S. Southern Command Gen. James Hill said. 'Not surprisingly, Islamic radical groups and narcoterrorists in Colombia all practice the same business methods.'"

"The life of Istanbul's chief rabbi is being threatened by the same terrorist organization, which claimed responsibility for the Istanbul bombings on Thursday and on Saturday." This according to the Jerusalem Post.

"The Islamic Great Eastern Raider's Front group said it looked forward to eating halva at the funeral of Rabbi Isak Haleva, in a communique released on Channel 2 News Thursday night. Halva is traditional mourning food in Turkey.

"The message wished the 'Dirty Jews a peaceful Shabbat.' It blamed the Jews for destroying Islamic society, saying they have poisoned Muslim culture with corruption and prostitution." They're fighting corruption, evidently, with mass murder.

"Foreign Office minister Denis MacShane told the leaders of the UK's Muslim community today that they must make a choice between the 'British way' of political dialogue and Islamic terrorism.

"Following the Istanbul bombs, Mr MacShane likened the terrorists to the Nazis and urged [imams] and other Muslim leaders to use 'clearer, stronger language' to speak out against them.

"'It is time for the elected and community leaders of British Muslims to make a choice: it is the British way - based on political dialogue and non-violent protests - or it is the way of the terrorists against which the whole democratic world is now uniting,' he said in a speech in his Rotherham constituency.

"'I hope we will see clearer, stronger language that there is no future for any Muslim cause anywhere in the world that validates, or implicitly supports, the use of political violence in any way.

"'Democracy has no place for terrorism and - like Nazism and other forms of tyranny - it must be defeated by the common will and determination of all who live under rule of law and in democratic freedom.'"

It is refreshing to see any public official in Europe speak forthrightly about the incompatibility of republican government with radical Islam. Especially in Britain, where advocates of violent jihad operate openly.

UPDATE: After Muslim protests, MacShane has toned down his remarks. "But," says the latest report, "he stood by his most inflammatory comments in which he told Muslims they must be stronger in their condemnation of terrorism."

Larry Elder's column today gives some highlights from his rollicking 2-hour interview November 10 with Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer. Also, yesterday's edition neglected to mention another interview with Spencer conducted by John Hawkins of Right Wing News. (Our apologies for the late notice, John.)

Reuters (thanks to LGF) reports that "Islamic militants burned to the ground thirteen churches and several houses in a remote northern Nigerian town after a Christian student was accused of blasphemy, police said on Thursday.

"Irate youths torched churches, houses and shops late on Tuesday in Kazaure, some 80 km (50 miles) north of Kano, a northern provincial capital where hundreds have died in religious clashes in the past three years.

"The dispute began when a Christian student was accused of insulting the Prophet Mohammad and a group of Muslims were not satisfied with the response of school authorities.

"Abubakar Sale, police commissioner in the northern Jigawa state, told Reuters that the rioters attempted to invade the school but were repelled by police.

"'The hoodlums then mobilised and went into town where they started looting and burning people's property,' Sale said by phone from Dutse, the state capital.

"'Thirteen churches were burnt, several houses and shops were torched, but there were no deaths,' said Keirian Dudari, assistant inspector general of police in Kano.

"Police said the town was calm on Thursday after reinforcements were deployed to quell the riots.

"The violence came after three students were killed and more than 30 injured in fighting between Muslims and Christians at a university in northeastern city of Maiduguri earlier this month.

"More than 5,000 people have been killed in religious violence in northern Nigeria in the past four years since the introduction of Islamic sharia law in 12 states."

"Trucks packed with explosives blew up at a London-based bank and the British consulate Thursday, killing at least 26 people and wounding nearly 450. The worst terrorist bombing in Turkey's history coincided with President Bush's trip to Britain and were blamed on al-Qaida." This just in from AP.

According to MEMRI: "The month of Ramadan, the month of fasting, has a special status as the month of religious spirituality and devotion. However, in Muslim tradition it is also perceived as a month of Jihad, a month in which Allah grants military victories to His believers. It was during Ramadan that Muslims triumphed in many battles throughout the history of Jihad for the sake of Allah - among them the battle of Badr in 624, the conquest of Mecca in 630 and of Andalusia in 711, the battle of Al-Zallaqa (in Andalusia) in 1086, the battle of Ein Jalut in 1260, as well as the 1973 War (called The Ramadan War).

"Given the historic religious and military significance of Ramadan, Islamist groups, as well as some mainstream Arab organizations, escalate incitement to terrorism during this period."

Numerous illuminating examples follow. Says Sheikh Ibrahim Mudeiris, a PA employee in a sermon broadcast on Palestinian TV: "Has the time not come for the Muslims to say: 'We will achieve victories in Ramadan as did our predecessors'? Has the time not come for Muslims to say: 'We will achieve victory and liberate the blessed Al-Aqsa [Mosque] in the month of Ramadan'? It is surprising that the soul of a Muslim who says 'there is no God but Allah,' fasts during the day, and prays and reads the Koran through the night does not call on him to fight the battle of Jihad to liberate the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and the land of Palestine."

There is more at MEMRI, all bearing out what I explained in connection with the Riyadh bombings.

"A controversial Islamic lobby group is demanding an apology from radio counselor Dr. Laura Schlessinger for an alleged 'anti-Muslim tirade' on her program this week." This from WorldNetDaily.

This is what Dr. Laura said in response to a caller asking if she should allow her daughter to go on a field trip to a mosque, "aimed to help students learn how 'Muslims are treated' in the United States": "This is a class on morals. What is the point of going to a mosque? ... You're joking of course. How many Americans have tortured and murdered Muslims. I think you ought to stand up against this class and this teacher. This is despicable. You tell him you are willing to go to the mosque only if it is one that has done its best to rout out terrorists in its midst. Instead of complaining. I am horrified that you would let her go. I am so sick and tired of all the Arab-American groups whining and complaining about some kind of treatment. What culture and what religion were all the murderers of 9-11? They murdered us. That's the culture you want your daughter to learn about?"

Bad dhimmi! Imagine her calling on Muslims to root out terrorists from their midst!

Not only that, but the "controversial group" in question is the Council on American Islamic Relations, with its spokesman, my old pal Ibrahim Hooper.

As I have noted many times, CAIR has numerous unexplained ties to radical Islam. In a similar vein, the WND article informs us that "CAIR is a spin-off of the Islamic Association For Palestine, or IAF, identified as a 'front group' for the terrorist organization Hamas, according to two former heads of the FBI's counterterrorism section."

Also, "CAIR's leaders . . . have provided evidence for claims Muslims have a plan for domination.

"As WorldNetDaily reported, CAIR's chairman of the board, Omar Ahmad, was cited by a California newspaper in 1998 declaring the Quran should be America's highest authority.

"He also was reported to have said Islam is not in America to be equal to any other religion but to be dominant.

"Hooper himself indicated in a 1993 interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he wants to see the United States become a Muslim country. 'I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future,' Hooper told the paper. 'But I'm not going to do anything violent to promote that. I'm going to do it through education.'

"In addition, CAIR has sought to convey the impression Muslims are under siege in America. A report released this year, titled 'Guilt by Association,' blasted the Bush administration for government policies that unfairly single out Muslim individuals and organizations' - a charge denied by the Justice Department.

"CAIR claimed when compared to the year preceding Sept. 11, its 2002 report on bias or hate-related incidents against Muslims showed a 64 percent increase.

"Justice Department spokesman Jorge Martinez told WorldNetDaily, on the contrary, he sees a vastly improving situation in 'backlash' incidents since a 'spike' in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks."

See also this about CAIR's claims of bias attacks.

UPDATE: Dr. Laura will not be treated like a dhimmi. She will not apologize. The WND headline: "Dr. Laura: No apology to Muslims needed -- Remarks 'quite specific to terrorists and the people who harbor them'"

They weren't planning on going to sing a few hymns, either. According to the Barnabas Fund, "Church service schedules have been found in a raid on terror suspects. The discovery was made days after the alleged mastermind of the Bali bombings shouted during his trial 'We are ready to win the crusade against Christians! We will win!' Westerners and local Christians are clearly considered one and same enemy."

This is especially interesting in light of Walid Phares' observation (below) that the Riyadh bombings show that Al-Qaeda also is waging jihad against Christians.

Meanwhile, Christians are again being murdered in Indonesia. "On Sunday 16 November the bodies of Mr Tadjodja and his nephew were found in their car between two Muslim villages near Poso. Mr Tadjodja, 58 . . . had been sent by the church's synod to preach in one of the villages hit in the 12 October attacks.

"That same day another member of GKST [the Central Sulawesi Christian Church], known as Dennis, was travelling through Poso on the way to Palu, when an irate Muslim mob forced him to come to a halt and then dragged him from his motorbike. He was beaten to death. His body was found near the market area in Poso along with the body of another Christian and GKST member assumed to be Mr Bowo, though his identity is as yet unconfirmed. He had been killed in a similar brutal fashion; his burnt out motorbike was discovered nearby."

More harassment of the dhimmis in Egypt. According to the Barnabas Fund, "the Egyptian Army has once again carried out a totally unprovoked attack on the Patmos Christian Centre 30km to the east of Cairo.

"Just after midnight in the early hours of Tuesday 18 November an army dump truck was driven repeatedly into the perimeter wall surrounding the Patmos Christian Centre. As pictures show considerable damage was caused, including the destruction of one of the reinforced concrete pillars."

Obviously in secular Egypt there are still significant sectors that believe in the Sharia stipulation that dhimmis are forbidden to build new churches (cf. a legal manual approved by Al-Azhar University in Cairo, 'Umdat al-Salik (o11.5 (7)).

Walid Phares turns in another incisive analysis of the deeper significance of the Riyadh bombings at FrontPage magazine: contrary to the U.S. State Department assertion that the attack "is not against America and the West only, it is also against Islam," the attackers were actually targeting Lebanese Christians -- as reported here from both Lebanese and radical Muslim sources.

Phares explains that "the characterization of the Riyadh attacks took off without accurate data. Both the BBC and CNN ignored the victims: their names, their socio-economic realities and the history of the Jihadists in this regard."

Phares reports that a "few hours after I finished writing this piece, an al-Qaida commander out of Iraq admitted that the compound was 'under surveillance for many months.' Al-Hijazi added it was known 'that a large group of Lebanese Christians were living there.' He openly declared, 'After consultation, we decided it was appropriate to attack this place and destroy it, including the people who lived there, because it housed Americans and a large majority of Christians holding Lebanese citizenship.'

"With these words, al-Qaida has declared war on Lebanese Christians, and if it gets the opportunity, on Christians worldwide."

Meanwhile, this Washington Times piece states that the bombings killed "17 persons, most of them Arabs." This is absolutely the wrong focus: it matters not a whit that they were Arabs, and in any case Lebanese Christians are descendants of the pre-Arabic inhabitants of the region. It is not significant at all that Al-Qaeda would target fellow Arabs, if fellow Arabs they were. They targeted them because they were non-Muslims, as indeed radical Muslims are waging war everywhere today in the name of Islam -- whether these Muslims are Arabs or not. Calling radical Muslim terrorists "Arabs" and portraying the war on terror as a struggle against "Arabs" only obscures the fact that the conflict is ideological -- against those who are fighting because of their belief in Islamic jihad ideology. It is not racial or nationalistic.

"The attack on Israel's border crossing with Jordan on Wednesday morning has the markings of an Al- Qaida strike, a senior security source told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday." (Thanks to LGF.)

"Al Qaida is increasing its activity in Arab countries perceived to be pro-western, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, the source said.

"Al-Qaida's aim, the source added, is to punish these state for leaning towards the west in a time of Jihad. Hitting tourists is also part of a well-established Al Qaida tactic, he said.

"He also doubted that the attacks were engineered by Hamas or elements of other terrorist groups tolerated in Jordan s capital Amman.

"'They [Hamas] would not want to risk their position in Jordan by angering and humiliating the Jordanians in such a way,' said the source."

There's an intriguing example of oblique cooperation between Muslims perceived to be radical (Hamas) and those perceived to be moderate (Jordan).

"On Wednesday morning, a terrorist shot at a group of South American tourists wounding 5, one critically, as they were passing from Jordan to Israel through the Rabin border crossing, north of Eilat in the Arava desert.

"The army official said that most terror organizations based in Amman try to keep as low a profile as possible, and that an attack aimed at tourists in a 'westernized Arab country' is in line with Al-Qaida interests."

"Worried about a surge in anti-Semitic attacks, France's chief rabbi has cautioned Jewish men against wearing yarmulkes in public, suggesting they wear baseball caps instead.

"After a weekend arson attack on a Jewish school, Rabbi Joseph Sitruk urged young men to be extra cautious, saying they could become targets of violence if they wear the yarmulke, or skullcap.

"'I ask young Jews to be alert, to avoid walking alone, to avoid wearing the yarmulke in the street or in the subway and consequently becoming targets for potential assailants,' Sitruk told Radio J this weekend."

It may be not too long before the headscarves that Muslims are fighting to change France's secular laws in order to wear will be the only religious apparel visible on French streets.

Who is funding the Edward Said Chair in Middle East Studies at Columbia University? An anonymous dhimmi? Or more ominous figures?

Reports Jonathan Calt Harris at FrontPage magazine: "Columbia University’s newly established Edward Said Chair in Middle East Studies is noteworthy for several reasons. The position is named for the recently deceased professor best known for his defense of Palestinian 'resistence.' And Rashid Khalidi, an overt supporter of Palestinian violence and – according to a just-published biography of Yasir Arafat from Oxford University Press – a former PLO press spokesman, has joined Columbia to fill the post.

"But there is something even more objectionable about this chair: It is anonymously endowed and Columbia University – perhaps against the law – refuses to disclose the donors. According to Columbia, the donors’ names are confidential. 'We don’t disclose them without their permission,' said spokeswoman Katie Moore, adding that Columbia has 'the same policy that every school would have.'"

Neverheless, "several donors to the chair’s endowment fund have been identified. The Hauser Foundation, headed by New York philanthropist Rita Hauser, is one of them. Ms. Hauser’s former law firm, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, has been registered as recently as 2001 with the Justice Department as an agent for the Palestinian Authority.

"Another donor is the Olayan Charitable Trust, a New York-based charity affiliated with the Saudi-based Olayan Group. The vice president of corporate communications at Olayan’s New York offices, Richard Hobson, has said that while the trust does not publicize its donations, that he believed it is, 'one of the lead donors but not the lead donor.'

"And Martin Kramer, editor of the Middle East Quarterly, reports he has a list of contributors to the chair that includes a foreign government.

"Hiding the donors goes against Columbia’s own rules, which stipulate that a 'principal investigator' involved in any university grant or contract is mandated to release information for 'dissemination to members of the University community' when such requests are made. An endowed chair is not specifically a university grant or contract, but neither is it that different.

"'It is highly unusual, to say the least, for the donor or donors of an academic chair to hide their identity,' says Columbia’s Awi Federgruen, a former dean of the graduate business school. 'In the face of various precedents,' he continues, 'at Berkeley, Michigan and most recently the Zayed chair donated by the United Arab Emirates to the Harvard Divinity School, one cannot blame the public for being concerned.'" Indeed.

The Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minorities reports that a militant Islamic group there, Harkat-E-Islam Al-Jihad, has sent a letter to "religious minority businessmen and leaders of opposition party" demanding that they "convert to Islam with in seven days of receiving letter." If they don't, "their family members will be attacked and houses will be burnt."

"Osman Bin Abdulla Al Jihadi, South-East Asian Sub Committee, signed the letter. The signature is written in Arabic language. The letter sent to Rajat Subhra has a postmark of October 31st and it was sent from Khilgaon Post Office. The letter used his father’s nickname 'Gop Babu' in the care of. It is believed that some locals are involved with the organization.

"The letter is written on organizational pad with picture of two swords on the left, a picture of mosque and moon in the middle. Document number is: 2/ES/G/ASIA 029. The date is hand written, 2 Ramjan 1424 Hijri (Arabic Year). In addition, the whole letter is composed with computer.

"The letter started with, hey Infidel (non-believers), Jews and Kafers (Non-believers) you are living in Muslim Bangladesh and sending assets to a neighboring Infidel country. We have established Harkat-E-Islam Al-Jihad to eliminate people like you. Our Jihad will continue until we win. Our main objective is to exterminate you from this country. The same letter has been sent to Dipak Ghosh and some others through postal, in addition to Rajat Subhra. Those letters reached Mankganj yesterday.

"Source: The Daily Sangbad (Bengali News Paper), November 3, 2003." (Thanks to fanabba).

Says the Saudi Arab News (thanks to LGF): "JEDDAH, 18 November 2003 — A Jizan court has sentenced a young woman to 500 lashes for allegedly spending time alone with a young man and marrying him hours after divorcing her former husband, Al-Madinah reported on Sunday.

"According to the court ruling, the groom will also get 500 lashes while the mazoun who married them will get 30 lashes for violating Shariah rules.

"The woman was on bad terms with her former husband and entered into a romantic relationship with the young man. But under Shariah, she was required to wait for three months before marrying another man, the paper said."

This is the law that jihadists are fighting to institute everywhere.

"Despite a two-year manhunt by thousands of American troops, inside sources say that the Taliban's elusive leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, remains firmly in control, directing operations through a 10-man leadership council that was created in June." This according to Reuters and the Guardian.

"'Since this council was set up, the Taliban jihad has much improved,' a Taliban official, Mullah Abdul Rauf, told Reuters from an undisclosed location. 'Mullah Mohammed Omar is still in charge and head of the Taliban, and all our jihadi activities are being carried out with his permission and consultation.'

"'During the last two years Taliban commanders attended a number of meetings chaired by Mullah Omar during which they planned tactics of the Taliban jihad,' said Mullah Rauf. 'He also issues instructions to Taliban commanders through other secret means.'

This mullah also declared: "Osama bin Laden is the greatest mujahid [holy warrior] and all Muslims think he is their ideal. All those fighting a jihad anywhere in the world against the cruel infidels, including [in] Afghanistan, are our brothers and allies."

Such an assertion stands in bald contrast to the repeated claims by American Muslim groups that Osama and others like him are marginal extremists with little support in the Islamic world — as Salam Al-Maryati of the Muslim Public Affairs Council insisted Monday when speaking with me on the Michael Medved Show. I am not saying that Rauf is right and Maryati is wrong, but Maryati's claim would be bolstered if moderate Muslims around the world were more actively resisting the spread of Islamic radicalism, and the destruction wrought by it, both inside and outside the Muslim community.

Meanwhile, "Turkey yesterday said it had established a link to Afghanistan in the suicide bombings of two Istanbul synagogues, making its clearest statement yet that Osama bin Laden's Al Qaida network was behind the attacks."

Although the media remains mum about the possibility that John Muhammad was tied to the radical Muslim group Al-Fuqra, it has come to light that he "espoused anti-Semitic views" and seems to have fired bullets into a synagogue.

Thus it seems eminently likely that Muhammad would enjoy the company of Muslim spokesmen such as Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, who has said that Jews are "the enemies of Allah, sons of pigs and apes" — language inspired by Sura 5:59-60 of the Qur'an. This usage is extremely common among radical Muslims around the world.

Reports MEMRI: "During the month of Ramadan, Hizbullah's satellite television channel Al-Manar, which is viewed worldwide, is broadcasting a 30-part antisemitic Syrian-produced series titled Al-Shatat ('Diaspora'). According to a November 11, 2003 report by the Syrian daily Syria Times, it is 'a Syrian TV series recording the criminal history of Zionism.' The series purports to tell the story of Zionism from 1812 to the establishment of the state of Israel and depicts a 'global Jewish government' similar to that described in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion."

MEMRI's report includes a video clip, script excerpts, and photos from this series, "which depict Jews carrying out acts of torture and plotting to secretly dispose of the body of a community member."

This is the mentality underlying the entire dhimmitude system in Islamic law: it regards dhimmis as accursed, as renegades, as untrustworthy, and as people who must be subdued, because to treat them as equals would invite disaster for the Muslims. That's why dhimmi testimony is devalued or rejected in Sharia courts, why a dhimmi's life is worth less than a Muslim's, etc.: the dhimmis are fundamentally evil people who have defied God and rejected His Prophet.

"A man suspected of financing the Islamic militant group Hezbollah from a border region where Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil converge has been extradited to Paraguay to face tax evasion charges, Brazilian officials said Tuesday.

"Assad Ahmad Barakat, who has acknowledged being a Hezbollah sympathizer, was flown to the Paraguayan capital, Asuncion, on Monday, said Brazil justice ministry spokeswoman Marina Oliveira.

"Paraguayan officials have said seized bank records raised suspicions that Barakat could have been illegally funneling large sums of money to the Middle East from his electronics business in Ciudad del Este, just across the border from Brazil. . . .

"The 'Triple Border' region, considered a haven for arms traffickers, smugglers and counterfeiters, is a porous area where passport checks are rare. The area, home to about 20,000 Lebanese Muslims, has been described by the U.S. State Department as a 'focal point for Islamic extremism in Latin America.'

"Barakat told The Associated Press in 2001 he sympathized with Hezbollah, whose name in Arabic means 'Party of God,' but he denied any links to the group. His only financial contributions were to support the orphan of a Hezbollah fighter, he said.

"'Yes, I am a sympathizer of the Party of God. But that does not mean that I support terrorism or terrorists,' said Barakat, who is in his mid-30s. . . .

"After the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, Paraguay began cracking down on Lebanese residents in Ciudad del Este. Anti-terrorism agents raided Barakat's wholesale electronics store, arrested two employees and seized videos and documents that a prosecutor said 'encouraged young men to join Hezbollah's war against Israel and become suicide bombers.'"

How can he say he's against terrorism and yet encourage suicide bombing? Well, you see, that's not terrorism. That's "cowing of infidels."

Says UPI: "A Saudi extremist religious leader repented in public for inciting Saudi youth to carry out terrorist attacks. Sheikh Ali al-Khoderi appeared on Saudi television Monday night to back track the edicts he issued in the past giving the green light to Muslim extremists to carry suicide attacks, justifying them as holy war."

Sounds great, until he's quoted. "He denounced the bombing of a residential compound in Riyadh earlier this month, saying the act 'in which Arab Muslims, including women and children, were killed, is the doing of atheists and non-believers.' . . . Bombing attacks and other acts destabilizing security in the kingdom were utterly rejected and unacceptable.'"

OK, but this Sheikh, whose name is spelled three different ways in this brief story, doesn't seem to say anything about bombing attacks that aren't against Muslims. What about suicide bombings in Israel? Chechnya? Kashmir? Bali? Istanbul? New York City? I would like to give this "repentant" cleric the benefit of the doubt, but I am sure he is aware of the sharp distinction between the killing of Muslims and of non-Muslims in Islamic law. Traditional Islamic law stipulates that retaliation (in modern terms, capital punishment) is obligatory for murder, but not in cases where a Muslim kills a non-Muslim (cf. 'Umdat al-Salik, o1.1 and o1.2). This is not ancient history. This is Islamic law today.

From AP, "a glance at militant Islamic groups active in Turkey:

"-Islamic Great Eastern Raiders-Front, or IBDA-C: The group advocates Islamic rule in this predominantly Muslim but officially secular country and is allegedly backed by Iran. It has claimed responsibility for Saturday's truck bombings outside two Istanbul synagogues that killed 25 people, but Turkish authorities dispute the claim.

"Active since the mid-1970's, it has become increasingly violent in the last decade and has an estimated 600 followers. The group has staged attacks on left-wing and Christian targets. Its leader, Salih Izzet Erdis, also known as Salih Mirzabeyoglu, was captured in 1998."

The progressive mentality has so overtaken Westerners that they tend to assume that once a society has attained to secularism, it will never wish to return to the bad old days of rule by religious law. (I am speaking, of course, about the kind of people who use expressions like "In this day and age!" and "This is 2003!") However, as I have pointed out many times, the Islamic world in general doesn't share such notions of "progress." Instead, there are large contingents who believe that Turkish secularism was and is a grave misstep, an affront to Islam (which is a political and social system as well as an individual faith), and an unconscionable discarding of what is greater (the Sharia, the law of Allah) for what is lesser (the manmade laws of democratic republics). Unfortunately, many of these are willing to take up arms to press their point home.

"-Hezbollah: The Sunni group is not linked to Lebanon-based Shiite Hezbollah but it is also allegedly backed by Iran. It aims to create an Islamic state in Turkey's mainly Kurdish regions. The group, which has a few thousand followers, is believed to be behind hundreds of killings of opponents in the region.

"The leader of the group's most militant wing was killed in a shootout in Istanbul in 2000. Turkey allegedly supported Hezbollah when it was formed in the early 1980s, because it fought autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels.

-Islamic Action: Known for its strong affiliation with Iran, it aims to establish an Islamic state. Its members reportedly received military training in Iran. Authorities believe that the group was behind the killings of a few pro-secular Turkish intellectuals in the early 1990s."

Interesting also to note the signs of cooperation here between Sunni Turkish militants and Shi'ites from Iran.

I have been hesitating to put up this story, because what this article says is true: honor killings are indeed not sanctioned by the Qur'an. And obviously it has no clear connection to jihad.

But there is a reason why the problem of honor killing is so rampant in Islamic society, and it goes back to attitudes toward women that are rooted in the Qur'an, the Sunna, and Islamic jurisprudence. It was not really a surprise that last September in Jordan, a law stiffening penalties for honor killings was rejected, partially on Islamic grounds.

This article likewise notes that "because honor killings are accorded special status, murderers serve little or no jail time . . . Some men convicted of premeditated murder serve as little as three months and are treated as celebrities by family and friends upon release." And that thousands of women have been murdered in the name of honor. Anthropologist James Emery says that "are murdered in their homes, in open fields and occasionally in public, sometimes before crowds of cheering onlookers."

As Islamic culture makes it presence felt increasingly in the West, all these attitudes will come along with it. (Thanks to jbnegri.)

"Turkish police believe they have positively identified the men who drove the vehicles used in the suicide bombing attacks on two Istanbul synagogues Saturday."

One of the seems to have been Azad Ekinci, who "was known as to have been a member of the radical group the Islamic Front of Raiders of the Greater Orient (IBDA-C), which initially claimed responsibility for the blasts. He is also reported to have travelled to Iran to receive training in the use of explosives."

"Four Thai Muslims have gone on trial in Bangkok, accused of plotting a series of attacks on foreign embassies and tourist spots in the kingdom. At earlier hearings, the four pleaded not guilty to being members of the regional terrorist group, Jemaah Islamiyah. Three of them -- a medical doctor and a religious school owner and his son -- were captured in June during a raid in the southern province of Narathiwat. The fourth man surrendered to authorities in July."

Now what would make a doctor and a religious school owner join up with a terrorist group? If they really did, they hardly fit the general media profile of desperately poor and ignorant terrorists. But they do fit with the reality, established again and again, of relatively affluent and educated terrorists moved by religious motivations.

"Fearing they might offend someone, Red Cross stores in Britain have taken the Christian out of Christmas this year, banning any display of overtly religious decorations." This from WorldNetDaily.

"At a shop in Ipswich, England, for example, Christmas cards are on display but none of them depict the classic Christian images of the birth of Christ, Joseph and Mary, and Bethlehem, the Evening Star newspaper of Ipswich reported.

"Instead, the store carries only cards with wintry, non-religious scenes.

"Its window display shows snowmen and tinsel.

"'We are a non religious organization, but personally I think it has gone too far,' a volunteer in the store told the newspaper. 'I don't think Muslims are offended by Christmas.'"

Even if they may be offended, part of what living in a pluralistic society means that you put up with the existence of certain things that may offend you.

A sign of hope that maybe Europe, or at least Italy, is not going to surrender abjectly and accept dhimmitude: "officials in Italy say they are deporting a Senegalese imam who poses a 'great threat' to state security."

No doubt there will be cries of racism and bigotry all around, but Italian authorities seem to be on firm ground: "The decision follows recent statements to the media by Fall Mamour, predicting that there would be attacks on Italian soldiers in Iraq. The 39-year-old imam was already being investigated for his financial deals, an interior ministry statement said."

A spokesman said that Mamour "was already known to authorities as somebody who received suspect funds. . . . In addition, for a long time, and even more so since the slaughter of Italian soldiers in Nasiriya, he has launched dangerous initiatives, especially in the present context of international terrorism."

Some of these seem to indicate that he knew Italian troops in Iraq would be targeted: "Since the Nasiriya attack, several Italian newspapers have published stories on a series of predictions Mr Mamour made weeks before the bombing, in which he warned of attacks against Italian soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. The imam said Italy's troops would be targeted because they were aiding the US-led coalition, adding that further strikes would then follow on Italian soil."

Nor is that all: "Mr Mamour - who has lived in Italy for 11 years - has previously stirred controversy by his statements on Italian television programmes. During one of the TV interviews, he said he had once fought alongside Osama bin Laden and was linked to the al-Qaeda leader by what he said was a 'blood pact'."

"A jury convicted John Allen Muhammad of capital murder Monday, concluding he used a rifle, a beat-up car and a teenager who idolized him to kill randomly and terrorize the Washington area during last year's sniper spree."

No mention was made in this article of the possibility that John Muhammad was waging his own private jihad, or that he may have had ties with a radical Muslim group, Al-Fuqra, that has numerous links to Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.

If anyone has any information about what became of probes into Muhammad's possible ties with Al-Fuqra, please let me know. There is a curious media indifference to this question, as there is with so many things.

"The imprisoned Islamic cleric thought to be a guiding force behind the Indonesian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah warned that all Muslim countries with close ties to the United States were targets for attack.

"'As long as Muslim countries have close ties or support the U.S. government or U.S. policy, [they] will be threatened by a Muslim militant attack,' said Abu Bakar Bashir, as he sat on the rough floor of the Salemba Prison, the Jakarta prison where he has been held for the past year.

"'Indonesia, Egypt, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and some Mideast countries,' were all potential targets, the 66-year-old, white-bearded cleric told The Washington Times."

Wait a minute. We have just been hearing about Muslims being angry with Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia because their recent attacks killed other Muslims. So how could Abu Bakar Bashir actually issue a warning to Muslim countries? Because they have joined forces with the kuffar, the unbelievers. One manual of Islamic law stipulates: "Muslims may not seek help from non-Muslim allies unless the Muslims are considerably outnumbered and the allies are of goodwill towards the Muslims" ('Umdat al-Salik, o9.7).

In the view of Abu Bakar Bashir and others who share his perspective, neither of these conditions have been met in the war on terror. So America's Muslim allies, whatever the genuineness of their commitment to this cause, are fair game. They have sided with non-Muslims against Muslims, and so are hellbound: "If a man kills a believer intentionally, his recompense is Hell, to abide therein forever" (Sura 4:93).

In order to avoid inundating subscriber inboxes with email, I will henceforth send a single Daily Digest notice instead of sending you email every time I update the site.

Thanks to Blackeld for the excellent suggestion.

The Yemeni Observer reports that "last Tuesday, a new political party calling itself “Hizbu Tahrir” (Liberation Party) was declared in Sana’a when it held its first conference in Sana’a. The party is focusing on the creation of an Islamic orthodox caliphate-style state."

The Caliph was the successor of Muhammad as the military, political, and religious leader of the Muslim community. Caliphs headed the great Islamic empires. After a long period of decline, the caliphate was abolished by the secular Turkish government in 1924. Muslim radicals worldwide have declared their intention to revive it and to wage offensive jihad against the non-Muslim world under its banner.

Hizb-ut-Tahrir is the international movement which, while ostensibly renouncing terror, openly declares its intention to:

1. Restore a worldwide Caliphate, uniting the world under Islamic rule;
2. Ban all faiths apart from Islam, Judaism and Christianity (the Qur'an's "People of the Book"; members of other religions are not listed as "People of the Book" in the Qur'an, and thus are not allowed to practice their faiths even with the restricted freedom accorded to Jews and Christians);
3. Regulate all religious practice according to Sharia law;
4. "Give all non-Muslim states a choice between either joining the Caliphate under Sharia law, or paying a tax to the Caliphate. Failure to pay the tax would be punished by military attacks."

In Yemen, "at the beginning of the meeting, a recorded speech, three minutes in length was read by the Emir of the party in Palestine, Ata Abu Arashta, he said that 'a Caliph of the Muslims, a real Emir of Jihad is opening this conference.' He went on 'we are near the establishment of a Caliphate' insisting that all indications especially 'massacres against Muslims in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Sudan and other countries' are a harbinger of the Islamic Caliphate.

"A member of the leadership of the Yemen branch, Nasir Abdu Allahbi told Yemen Observer 'the party is seeking the creation of a Caliphate and the enforcement of Allah’s legislature 'Sharia’a'."

How could a party that is thus demonstrably anti-democratic participate in the electoral process? "The party, he said, took advantage of the participatory politics system to declare its existence spurred on by the fact that the party 'has become international' holding general conferences in the U.K, Sudan and Uzbekistan and gaining ground in Europe."

What about terror? "The party doesn’t preach terror, noted Allahbi. A party insider made it clear 'Erhab (literally terror) as viewed by the party has two forms; cowing of infidels, a commendable form of Erhab, and terror against Muslims by high-way robbery for example, a heinous crime as the name "terror" suggests.'"

Oh. So the "cowing of infidels" is ok — just not the targeting of Muslims.

Meanwhile, the new party's intentions to oppose any republican government are clear. "'For the party, both the republican and democratic systems of ruling are ungodly', according to Allahbi. 'They are never linked with Islam.' The party doesn’t seek to participate in ruling since 'sharing power with the unjust regimes means sharing injustice with them.' 'The Arab and Muslim rulers are not applying Allah’s legislature “Sharia’a”.'

"As for the participation of the party in the Yemeni political landscape and the contrast between the beliefs of the party and the Yemeni constitution, Allahbi says 'our ideas differ from the texts of the constitution. Nonetheless, we will try to avoid the hurdles and get licenses from the Parties Affairs Committee in order to carry out our politics and free campaigning to the general public.

"'The party will take part in the next elections provided that a set of conditions, which we will specify in time, are met.' The leaders of Hizbu Tahrir are anonymous until 'we squeak through' 'for the time being,' said the conference spokesman of the party. He acknowledged that there is 'a media blackout about the worldwide activities of the party' which is seeking to create an Islamic state by total [non-violent] change of Muslim and Arab regimes."

I'm unclear as to why the Yemeni Observer thought it necessary or accurate to insert the words "non-violent" into that quote.

Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency reports that the "leader of a Pakistani religious group has said that Al Qaeda or Islamic militants were not responsible
for Sunday's suicide bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed at least 11 people, Daily Times reported."

Who was, then? "'It is a Jewish and American conspiracy against the Mujahideen
and Al Qaeda,' Jamaatud Dawa Chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed said in Lahore on Wednesday."

It's all a conspiracy, you see. "'America wants to extend its stay in Saudi Arabia as its contract to hold Saudi air bases has expired,' he said. 'If jihad in Kashmir is stopped, India could attack Pakistan, and if the Mujahideen lay down their weapons in Afghanistan, America could attack Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. America is looking to withdraw its troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, but it has no way out. The day is not far when America will be crushed like the USSR by the mujahideen,' he added.

This is the kind of propaganda that is pandemic in the Muslim world. Variations on these themes are spread westward by dhimmi academics and journalists frantic to paint the West and the U.S. in the worst possible light, even if it means presenting elaborate conspiracy fantasies as truth.

Saeed also "criticized the government of Pakistan for trying to improve ties with India rather than supporting jihad in Kashmir. 'It is treachery against the mujahideen, who are fighting for the Pakistan survival,' he said.

Saeed's group, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, has been placed by the Pakistani government on "a watch list under the Anti Terrorist Act," although it continues to operate while three other radical Muslim groups have been banned.

Over the objections of our Yemeni "allies," "a Muslim imam and his assistant have been extradited to the United States after being arrested in Germany on suspicion of having links with al-Qaida. German prosecuters said Muhammad Ali Hasan Shaikh al-Muayad, imam of the main mosque in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, and Yahya Zayid were handed over to US authorities at Frankfurt airport on Sunday."

This "al-Muayad" is the man who appeared in other stories as "al-Moayad" last week.

"Muayad is suspected of being a finance chief for Usama bin Ladin's al-Qaida and Palestinian Islamic group Hamas, supplying both with weapons and communications equipment. He also had been linked to the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen which killed 17 crew and injured 38."

This Al-Jazeera story also tells us that he was arrested in a sting arranged by "a Muslim working for the US Central Intelligence Agency who had studied at the same Quran school as Bin Ladin and Muayad."

Best thing I've heard about the CIA in a long time.

This story also increases from 92 to 146 the number of putatively repentant al-Qaeda members freed by Yemen. "The official SABA news agency reported on Monday that Yemeni President Ali Abd Allah Salih had either freed or pardoned a total of 146 people suspected of links with al-Qaida, which carried out the 11 September 2001 attacks."

From Bahrain's Gulf News comes a story headlined "Islamic activists held in Pakistan."

"Islamic activists," eh? Were they working to get out the vote? Or to fluoridate the water? Not quite: "A police official said that Sajid Ali Naqvi, head of Islami Tehrik-e-Pakistan and accused over the killing of Maulana Azam Tariq, the leader of Millat-e-Islamia who was fatally shot on October 7, had been picked up in an overnight swoop in the capital Islamabad. The authorities also raided mosques, homes and militant bases across Pakistan early yesterday, picking up dozens of Islamic militants, another police official in the central city of Multan added."

"Hundreds of angry" bystanders were at the scene of Naqvi's arrest. "'Al jihad, Al jihad (holy war),' the crowd shouted. 'We will continue our struggle until the release of our leader.' The protesters chanted slogans such as 'Down with America' and 'Down with (President) Musharraf' as they marched through the streets of the city. They also demanded the immediate release of Naqvi."

Why weren't they happy that these militants who had hijacked their religion were finally being rounded up?

By the way, in the story, the phrase "Islamic activists" doesn't actually appear in quotes, but "war on terror" does.

MSNBC says that for Ramadan, "Yemen's government on Sunday freed 92 followers of the al-Qaida terrorist network who have repented, a Yemeni judge responsible for dialogue with suspected terrorists said."

This isn't the first time this has happened. "At least 70 repentant militants have been released by Yemen in the last two years."

How do they know they've repented? Apparently all they have to do is say so. "They declared they would respect 'the rights of non-Muslims, their lives, money, and (promised) not to target embassies of friendly countries."

I'm thrilled that Yemen has such an effective rehabilitation program going, but I trust that Yemeni officials are aware that the Prophet Muhammad himself said, "War is deceit" (Sahih Bukhari, vol. 4, book 52, nos. 267-9).

Not just Japan, but Australia, Italy, and Britain are now being threatened by Al-Qaeda. We can hope it's more empty bluster, but it does seem as if this small group of discredited fanatics has a global reach. (Thanks to LGF.)

This report comes from World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty researcher and writer, Elizabeth Kendal, courtesy Freedom Now News:

EGYPT: CHRISTIANS IMPRISONED - ISLAMISTS RELEASED
--------------------------------------------------------------------

The Egyptian government recently released around 1,000 members of the Islamist fundamentalist group Gammaa el-Islamiya, and then moved to detain and torture Christians (apostates; i.e. former Muslims) for changing their Muslim names to Christian names.

A 26 September 2003 Stratfor Global Intelligence Report entitled, "Egypt: Internal Focus and Political Stability", provides a basis for analysis. Stratfor says, "Egypt's ruling party is touting economic and political reform, signalling Cairo's renewed focus on domestic issues.

"Egypt plays a pivotal role in the region. The country has seen slow but steady economic growth in the past decade, with purchasing power parity rising steadily from 1992 to 2002. This has eased internal pressures on the government, despite widespread anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiment and opposition to Cairo's relationship with Washington. Instability in Egypt would resonate throughout an already troubled region, encouraging instability in states such as Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. In a bid to prevent such instability, Cairo is focusing almost all of its attention inward."

According to this Stratfor report, the government's main problems at present are "anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiment and opposition to Cairo's relationship with Washington". This might go some way to explaining the recent prisoner movements in Egypt.

"A London-based Saudi newspaper, Al-Majallah, said it has received a statement from Al-Qaeda warning of an attack in Tokyo and claiming responsibility for last week's anti-Italian bombing in Iraq." This from AFP.

Why Tokyo? Because they may send troops to Iraq. "Abu Mohammed al-Ablaj, purported to be an Al-Qaeda leader, warned the Japanese against sending troops to join the US-led coalition in Iraq, in an e-mail received by the Saudi weekly. 'If they want to destroy their economic power and be trampled under the feet of the combatants of Allah, let them come to Iraq. Our strikes will reach the heart of Tokyo.'"

He also said: "Let America and Israel mourn their dead from now, as well as the destruction which they will suffer. The Jews and Americans will never be safe so long as we are alive."

On the left hand side of this page and the Dhimmi Watch page, you can now find a "Subscribe" button, which will give you email notification every time this site is updated.

You will also receive notices, as they are warranted, on the development of the Jihad Watch organization.

I hope you have found and are finding this weblog helpful. Please give me feedback about what you would like to see here, or any related matters. But from the beginning Jihad Watch has been envisioned as much more than just a weblog. Jihad Watch will, as funding permits (and yes, that will be the hard part):

• Combat the distortions and misinformation about radical Islam in the media;
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• Offer books that provide a balanced view of Islam to libraries, to counter the whitewashed and misleading books being placed in libraries all across America now by American Muslim advocacy groups;
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Nor is that all. At Jihad Watch we will do all that is within our resources to defend Western civilization against those who threaten its very life. Subscribe, and we will keep you posted about initiatives in these areas and more.

"An Arab newspaper reported Sunday that it received a claim of responsibility from the al-Qaida terrorist group for the car bomb attacks that killed 23 people in two Istanbul synagogues a day earlier." So says AP.

Of course, Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the great East Coast blackout, too. But over 100,000 men went through their training camps, and untold thousands of them are still at large.

"The Iraqi scientist who headed Saddam Hussein's long-range missile program has fled to neighboring Iran, a country identified as a state sponsor of terrorism with a successful missile program and nuclear ambitions, U.S. officers involved in the weapons hunt told The Associated Press.

"Dr. Modher Sadeq-Saba al-Tamimi's departure comes as top weapons makers from Saddam's deposed regime find themselves eight months out of work but with skills that could be lucrative to militaries or terrorist organizations in neighboring countries. U.S. officials have said some are already in Syria and Jordan."

But surely these men wouldn't do business with a small band of discredited and despised extremists?

(Link repaired, thanks to Solomon.)

"Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali has said that international terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar are hiding in the north-western province of Pakistan. 'They are most likely hiding in Pakistan's north-western province bordering Afghanistan,' Jalali told RIA Novosti news agency at the end of his three-day visit to Moscow."

Jalali explained that "this is a mountainous area inhabited mainly by the Pushtu, which enjoys a great deal of autonomy and independence in domestic affairs. These mountains are harbouring many of the al-Qaeda supporters and Talibans," he said.

These mountains aren't empty: they're full of radical mujahedin. "The Afghan people have got tired of war. It is, therefore, not surprising that Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a leader of the extremist Pushtu Islamic party of Afghanistan, who had until recently been in exile in Iran, has declared jihad against the Karzai government and the USA, but found no support among Afghans," Jalali pointed out.

I hope they don't. But the Taliban is still quite active, and there are numerous indications that jihad ideology is far from dead in Afghanistan.

"An audiotape purportedly made by Saddam Hussein told Iraqis on Sunday to step up their resistance to the U.S.-led occupation, saying the United States and its allies misjudged the difficulty of occupying Iraq." Thus says AP.

This message, like many of Saddam's messages toward the end of his rule, urges resistance in the name of jihad.

"Iraq will rebel against their evil intentions to colonize it and to wield influence in it. The evil ones now find themselves in a crisis and this is God's will for them."

Saddam, or psuedo-Saddam, "called on 'mujahedeen,' or holy warriors, to strike coalition forces 'even harder.' . . . The path of resistance is the path of choice to God and the people. . . . The land and fire of glorious Iraq that God has blessed with jihad because of valor in resistance... will swallow hundreds of thousands of troops that ... will never achieve their plans."

Now imagine for a moment that you are Saddam or pseudo-Saddam. Obviously you want to make the strongest possible appeal to your people, an appeal that will make them rise up against the Americans en masse. So you couch your appeal as a summons to jihad. Apparently it never crossed his mind that the majority of his hearers would misunderstand his call to jihad as an exhortation to purify their own souls.

A reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune, traveling in Istanbul, records some tourists' reactions to the Istanbul synagogue bombings: "Americans touring Turkey's largest city Saturday reacted with disbelief that terrorism had shattered a peaceful religious and ethnic co-existence that is foreign to many other Muslim countries."

President Bush said it too: "I condemn in the strongest possible terms the terrorist attacks today in Istanbul, where Turkey's diverse religious communities of Muslim, Jewish, and Christian believers have flourished together for centuries."

I hate to sound a sour note here, but take a look at this to see how well the diverse communities flourished together in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire and the beginnings of the secular Turkish state: over three million non-Muslim victims of jihad.

Also note that the non-Muslim population of Istanbul itself has gone from 50% in 1914 to less than one percent today. How could this have happened in a land of such harmonious diversity? (Thanks to Beck.)

The Chicago Tribune carries a huge story this morning headlined "Immigration crackdown shatters Muslims' lives."

The story recounts the woes of several Muslims who were deported to Pakistan after being found in violation of immigration laws. " All had been in the U.S. illegally," says the article. "But the chief reason many were singled out is they were from one of the Muslim countries targeted by American officials trying to foil another Sept. 11."

What happened to some of these people is indeed unfortunate. But it is hard for me to accept the story's premise that these were hard-working guys who were playing by the rules when they were already in violation of one main rule: the stipulations of the visa by which they entered the country in the first place.

Also left unspoken is the unmistakable fact that radical Muslims are operating in mosques and using them as a cover for their activities. The Al-Qaeda cell in the mosque in Lackawanna, New York is just one of many examples. This entails a law enforcement focus on mosques and Muslims which is only common sense, and doesn't necessitate anyone's loss of rights or freedoms: if you aren't doing anything wrong, you shouldn't have anything to worry about. If Methodists were blowing up buildings and threatening the US around the world, and I were a Methodist, I would cooperate fully with efforts to root the radical Methodists out of my community. I would like to see that kind of cooperation today from American Muslims.

Islamic law forbids the killing of non-combatants — women and children — unless they are deemed to be aiding in the war effort. I provide abundant citations for this from Islamic legal sources in Onward Muslim Soldiers.

Perhaps remembering the caveat that women and children are fair game if they are somehow aiding the warriors, the Palestinian Authority has held "a rally . . . in Tulkarem on Friday in honor of Sirhan Sirhan, the Fatah gunman who last year carried out the attack in Kibbutz Metzer, killing five people, including a mother and her two children. Sirhan, a resident of the Tulkarem refugee camp, cold-bloodedly murdered Revital Ohayon, 34, and her two sons, Matan, five, and Noam, four inside their home. He also killed Tirza Damari, 42, and Yitzhak Dori, 44, the kibbutz secretary before escaping back to the West Bank." (This from the Jerusalem Post, via LGF.)

This is a hero? Evidently.

The rally, organized by Fatah to mark the passing of 40 days since the killing of Sirhan, was attended by hundreds of residents, political activists, gunmen from different groups, and senior Palestinian Authority officials.

Tulkarem governor Izz al-Din al-Sharif, who represented PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, delivered a speech before the crowd in which he heaped praise on Sirhan and described him as a 'struggler and martyr.' He also conveyed the condolences of Arafat and the Palestinian leadership to Sirhan's family.

'The Palestinian people will continue the resistance and struggle until we achieve our freedom and independent state,' Sharif added. He condemned Israel's refusal to hand over Sirhan's body to his family as a 'violation of international conventions.'

A spokesman for Fatah's armed wing, al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, vowed to continue the fight against Israel until it ends its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He described Sirhan as 'a hero who managed to infiltrate the Zionist settlement of Metzer.' He urged young Palestinians to follow the example of Sirhan and launch more attacks against Israel.

Bassam Mirai, a senior Fatah leader in the Tulkarem area, also praised Sirhan's 'contribution and sacrifice' for the Palestinian cause, saying all Palestinians will follow suit 'until the homeland is liberated.'

This is how people who would otherwise be quite sympathetic to the cause of Palestinian statehood become, to put it mildly, disenchanted.

Zacharias Moussaoui isn't the only mujahid trying to wage jihad from prison; it turns out that "Texas prison officials are monitoring inmates at the state's 114 prisons for signs that outsiders are trying to recruit them into terrorism or that inmates are working contacts outside prison for illegal purposes, including terrorism."

What kind of terrorism? "As many as 300 letters a week written in Arabic, Farsi or other Middle Eastern languages are opened, copied and forwarded to the FBI for translation and review. State officials say inmates under scrutiny aren't just Middle Eastern or Muslim. About 150 imprisoned Texas felons are of Middle Eastern descent – a fraction of the 150,000 total prisoners. But the state's population of 7,600 Muslim inmates is among the largest in the nation."

How was officials' interest aroused? "The program began about two years ago after officials intercepted a video tape being sent to a prisoner which showed a Muslim imam blaming the United States for declaring war against Islam." (This is from AP, with thanks to LGF.)

Texas isn't alone. Remember Warith Deen Umar, who spread radical Islam throughout the New York prison system?

One of the world's foremost authorities on jihad terrorism, Walid Phares, explains why terrorists targeted Lebanese Christians in last Saturday's attack in Riyadh. He exposes the hollowness of analyses that purport to explain the attack as Muslim against Muslim:

JIHAD AGAINST THE LEBANESE CHRISTIANS
by Walid Phares

A few hours after the blasts in Riyadh, a chain of commentaries mushroomed around the world. The story ran much faster than the broadcasting of the names of the victims. By the morning the official "version" of the attack was about to become Governmental both in Washington and across the Oceans. In a nutshell, it was reported as an Muslim on Muslim attack, blaming the Islamist al-Qaida for mass murdering Muslims in their spiritual motherland Arabia, and during their holiest month of the year, Ramadan.

A US State Department official said "this was is not against America and the West only, it is also against Islam" concluding that it was a "war against civilization." This version of the Saturday November 10th terror attack is convenient to the US, its allies, and the general campaign against Terrorism. It could be turned into an immense rallying banner around the world. If al-Qaida starts massacring fellow Muslims, then it would generate an internal Islamic war, and lift the mantra of Crusade from Washington's efforts. Sadly, diplomatic analysts on both sides of the Atlantic hoped this would be a pragmatic shift in the war on Terror, or so they believed it is. In fact it wasn't. And here is why.

The characterization of the Riyadh's attacks took off without accurate data, hence ruining this wishful theory. Both BBC and CNN, and their media associates ignored the victims, their names, their socio-economic realities and the history of the Jihadists in this regard.

First the statistics: According to Diaspora-based Lebanese sources, among the injured from the attacks about 90 victims were Lebanese. Five Lebanese nationals were burned to death, including two children, Jad and Raya Mezher. Another newly married woman Nina Joubran was also massacred. A pregnant woman, Houry Haytaya and her husband Dany Ibrahim, were also killed. Another family, the Haidar, were murdered as well. The list of casualties is growing by the days, many persons were not found yet. But one fact is certified: The massacre of the Muhayya compound was directed at the Lebanese Christian community living in Saudi Arabia.

Media commentators and news rooms were too fast in describing the horror as Islamist terrorists murdering Muslims. Not that al-Qaida and its alike do not kill Muslims. They have terminated more than 48,000 Muslim civilians in Algeria and many moderate Muslims in Egypt. But the Muyahha attack targeted the Lebanese Christians for very specific reasons. There are about 100,000 Lebanese people working in the Kingdom since the mid sixties. Many from the first generations have become a pillar of Saudi economy. The contribution Lebanese from all communities, particularly the Christians to Saudi prosperity is widely known in the Business world. The most recent waves of Lebanese are made of liberal sectors and management planners. They are found in all spheres of the work force and as advisers to Government. It is to note that more than 80% of these migrants are Christians, and many among them are Maronites.

Al-Qaida aimed at this vibrant community as a way to cripple one the pillars of Saudi economy. With one stone -this time a police car bomb- the Jihadists wanted to kill as many of these Lebanese "infidels" as possible. These Lebanese migrant birds were both "kafirs"and economic assets. Back in October, Usama's audio-call through al-Jazeera called on the cleansing of Arabia from all people of the Book. There are no Jews left in the Peninsula. Most of the Americans are either gone or well protected. The next on the Jihad list are the Lebanese Christians. Last week end massacre was the first step in their elimination. The other steps will come in the form of an alleged "help" extended to them. In fact, few days after the tragedy, the Syrian-controlled Government of Lebanon declared it would reduce the price of the tickets for a one way flight from the Wahabi country to Lebanon, or to any other country of their choice. The ethnic cleansing of the Lebanese from Arabia seems to become more sophisticated than the Balkan's predecessor.

But why this Jihadi determination to obliterate Lebanese Christians? Are they not Arabs? To be academically correct, they aren't. The Christians of Lebanon, particularly the Maronites speaks Arabic very well, but they have their own ethnicity: Aramaic. They are the descendants of the Phoenicians. In their religious services, the Syriac language is still used as it was spoken by Jesus, some 2033 years ago. But al-Qaida has more recent political reasons to aim at them. It is known, in the circles sympathetic to the Jihadists that Lebanese Christians have pro-Western affinities, work in American companies in the Peninsula, and constitute an obstruction to the radical clerics designs on the Kingdom's infrastructure. Worse by Jihadi standards, the Lebanese Christians worldwide have been at the forefront of the campaign against Terrorism. Both in the US and elsewhere, they have produced top translators, diplomatic analysts, staffed official media agencies, and were recruited by the military. On Al-Jazeera and on the LBCI, many Islamic Fundamentalists went to the length of calling General John Abuzaid as a traitor to this "roots."

But Jihad against the Lebanese Christians has a very long history. To name a few, decades before 9/11, al-Qaida's predecessors have slaughtered Monks in Deir Ashashe in 1975, massacred thousands of Christians in Damour in 1976, and raped, maimed and razed villages in East Sidon in the mid 1980s. Even after the so-called end of the War in Lebanon, the men of Bin Laden were still rampaging in Christian areas of Lebanon into the new Millennium In January 2000, al-Qaida Terrorists murdered a number of civilians in Kfar Habou in Northern Lebanon, slicing the body of a pregnant woman, torturing a nun till death in a Beirut suburb. Lebanese Christian blood was spilled by the organization responsible for September 11 throughout the 1990s. Symbolism wasn't absent from al-Qaida guidelines. Many McDonald, Pizza Hut and other American inspired food places, located in the Christian sectors of Lebanon were bombed in the past 12 years.

The Jihadist paragdim is systematic. From Beirut, to Riyadh, passing by Haifa, the region is to be made Lebanese-Christian free. The method is very telling. Al-Qaida wants to sign and enjoy its horrors. According to Pierre Atallah, the Lebanese journalist in exile in Paris, who lost his nephew and niece, "the Terrorists were machine gunning the victims for more than twenty minutes. Killing has proceeded before the blasts." In Riyadh, it wasn't a bomb by Jihadists against other Muslims, it was a slaughter of Christians. But by way of consequences, it is a Muslim image that al-Qaida was maiming. And many humanist Muslims made it clear in their statements.

Few hours after I have finished writing this piece, an al-Qaida commander out of Iraq admitted that the compound was "under surveillance for many months." Al-Hijazi added: "that a large group of Lebanese Christians were living there." He openly declared that "after consultation, we decided it was appropriate to attack this place and destroy it, including the people who lived there, because it housed Americans and a large majority of Christians holding Lebanese citizenship."

This statement simply rested the case.

**********

Walid Phares, Professor of Middle East Studies and Terrorism Analyst

The estimable Michael Coren hits another nail on the head in this article about jihad slavery in Sudan: "In fact, millions have been enslaved, murdered, mutilated and abused in this campaign, far more than have suffered in, for example, what are known as the Occupied Territories in Israel. Odd, then, that so much media time is given to that situation, so little to this.

"The world ought to look closely at what takes place in Sudan in the months and years to come. There are very powerful and very bad people who will resist ceaselessly the creation of a separate African and largely Christian state on the edge of the House of Islam.

"Let us hope the world does not play the role of hypocrite once again. The stench of the blood is becoming overwhelming."

Agence France Presse reports that "seven Iranian women in the southwestern city of Shiraz were sentenced to 50 lashes each for undermining strict Islamic codes during the holy month of Ramadan, a hardline paper reported."

What did they do to deserve 50 lashes? "The women, wearing heavy makeup, were dancing and listening to loud music at the time of 'iftar', the evening meal that breaks the day-long fast during Ramadan, making fun of fasting Muslims, the Kayhan newspaper said."

Well, that was rude. But 50 lashes?

This is the kind of society that radical Muslims are laboring to impose everywhere they can.

The dhimmis at Reuters have compiled a list of the "worst terror attacks since 9/11."

Charles at LGF points out one glaring problem with this list: "Not one attack by Palestinian Arab terrorists in Israel is listed."

Another example of PC dhimmitude is the fact that these attacks are identified as "some of the worst terror attacks around the world since September 11, 2001." The words "Islam" or "Muslim" never appear anywhere, even though all 20 attacks listed were the work of radical Muslims who were operating in the name of Islam. For all anyone can tell from this Reuters list, these attacks could have been committed by Free Will Baptists or Amish.

UPDATE: CNN, perhaps bowing to protests, has removed this list. The link above doesn't work.

"A pre-dawn fire Saturday that destroyed part of a suburban Jewish school was likely an anti-Semitic act, France's interior minister said." . . .

"Jewish schools, temples and cemeteries have been hit in anti-Semitic attacks that peaked in 2002 when a Marseille synagogue was deliberately burned to the ground.

"Rising tensions coincided in the past with the crisis between the Palestinians and Israel. Many of the attacks were blamed on young Muslims." This from AP.

And such attacks are incited by imams around the world who use jihadist "Jews are apes and pigs" rhetoric regularly.

A trenchant address by Serge Trifkovic skewers the tendency of dhimmi academics to "twist the Moslem past to serve their present-day intellectual agendas" — a tendency I also explore in Onward Muslim Soldiers.

Dhimmitude seems to be alive and well in enlightened, secular Turkey, everyone's favorite model of a thriving Islamic democracy. Compass Direct reports that when Deniz Kasan, a convert from Islam to Christianity, applied to change her religious identity (yes, this must be registered with the "secular" government), her application was denied.

"But to Kasan’s shock, her routine application was refused by the Kadikoy 'kaymakam,' or presiding district official. In a notice issued that same day, September 29, the official declared that her church was 'not recognized as an official house of worship' and thus her baptismal certificate could not be considered valid."

Other applications from the same Presbyterian church, however, including that of Kasan's husband, also a convert from Islam to Christianity, have been accepted in the past. More recently, however, others have also been rejected — and this pattern is recurring all over Turkey.

On Timur Topuz's second try to change his registration from Muslim to Christian, "he was given a written notice declaring that his identity could not be revised as requested. Citing an Interior Ministry directive dated October 14, 2002, the office ignored his objections and issued him a new card identifying him as a Muslim. When asked if he planned to open a court case over his denied request, Topuz confirmed that his church was considering it. 'But it seems it could be very expensive,' he noted."

Another was Emrah Unver: when he "told the officials he wanted to change his identity from Muslim to Christian, they told him it was not allowed and refused to accept his application."

Says lawyer Erol Dogru: "Without question, Turkey’s laws and constitution guarantee freedom of religion. But in order to win this, our citizens have to fight for it in the courts of law."

"Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein gave terror lord Osama bin Laden's thugs financial and logistical support, offering al Qaeda money, training and haven for more than a decade, it was reported yesterday.

"Their deadly collaboration - which may have included the bombing of the USS Cole and the 9/11 attacks - is revealed in a 16-page memo to the Senate Intelligence Committee that cites reports from a variety of domestic and foreign spy agencies compiled by multiple sources, The Weekly Standard reports."

A book could be filled with the proclamations of learned pundits who doubted the existence of this link in print. Jacques Chirac knew better, according to a BBC report from last year: "French President Jacques Chirac has said he knows of no relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda, and has warned that a war against Baghdad could provoke terrorists to stage new attacks." In June in the New York Times, the great Paul Krugman declared: "There was never any evidence linking Saddam Hussein to Al Qaeda; yet administration officials repeatedly suggested the existence of a link."

And not just learned pundits: here is one from a bright and up-and-coming young man writing with great assurance last July in The Daily Athenaeum of august West Virginia University: "Oh, and one must not forget the Saddam-Osama link. Apparently most Americans believed there was one. Where it came from I don't know, but the administration certainly exploited the public's ignorance on that one; for the record, there is NO link between Saddam and al Qaeda."

And here, meanwhile, is a not-so-learned "satire" from DemocraticUnderground.com, sneering at the idea of such a link last February.

While their comrades-in-arms carried out a successful jihad operation against a synagogue in Istanbul, members of the Kashmir radical Muslim group Hizbul Mujahedin (Party of Jihad warriors) scored big against two other key military targets: a three-wheeler taxi and a Christian school.

To be sure, they did injure three Indian soldiers with the taxi bomb, which went off near "Hazratbal," which "is considered Kashmir's holiest shrine as it houses a whisker said to have come from the Prophet Mohammed."

But "in the southern town of Pulwama, suspected rebels hurled a hand grenade at a Christian missionary school that went off in the lawn, injuring two Muslim employees of the school and a police guard, police said. Gunmen had opened fire on a bus of the same school, Good Shepherd Mission, on Thursday without causing injuries."

The logic of jihadists attacking a Christian school is about on the same level as their taking out a synagogue: "Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book [Jews and Christians], until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued" (the Qur'an, Sura 9:29).

This was, says the article, one of the first time Christians have been targeted in violence that has been devastating: "More than 39,500 people have died in the Kashmir rebellion. Separatists put the toll between 80,000 and 100,000."

One of the reasons why al-Qaeda member Zacharias Moussaoui lost the right to represent himself was that he tried "to use his motions to contact al-Qaida sympathizers from his isolated quarters in the Alexandria Detention Center."

"Car bombs exploded outside two synagogues in Istanbul at almost the same time during Sabbath prayers on Saturday, killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 140, the interior minister said." This from AP.

It isn't the first time. "Security has been tight at Neve Shalom since a 1986 attack when gunmen killed 22 worshippers and wounded six during a Sabbath service. The Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah carried out a bomb attack against the synagogue in 1992, but no one was injured." . . .

"In a telephone call to Anatolia, a person claiming to be from a radical Turkish group, the Great Eastern Islamic Raiders' Front, said the militant group was responsible for the attacks, and promised more. The caller said 'the attacks would continue in the future and the reason was that to prevent the oppression against Muslims,' the agency said."

What could worshippers at an Istanbul synagogue have been doing to oppress Muslims? That question takes you straight into the Protocols of the Elders of Zion territory, which of course is where radical Muslims live.

"The Quran: One explosive book" by Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer is in today's WorldNetDaily.

LGF linked to a New York Post story saying that Arafat is, surprise of surprises, pulling for the Democrats in '04. But way down at the bottom of the story something caught my eye:

"Meanwhile, Palestinian terrorist infrastructures are being extended into mosques, a new Israeli intelligence report found. A document dated Nov. 3 concluded that mosques in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and on Temple Mount in Jerusalem are being used as 'incitement centers' to spread hatred of Israel and the United States."

Imagine. Spreading hatred from mosques. Why don't all the peaceful Muslims rise up and prevent this from happening? What assurance do we have that hatred is not being preached in mosques in the United States — especially since Steve Emerson demonstrated that it was as far back as 1994?

Commenting below about the Palestinian textbook's teachings on jihad, I wrote that it is "important to follow the money trail from Muslim charities."

Well, this citizen would like to thank his elected officials for their fast, efficient service! The State Department announced just today that "The U.S. Department of the Treasury has suspended the tax-exempt status of three charities because of their links to terrorist networks. In a November 14 news release, Treasury said that contributions to the three charities -- Benevolence International Foundation, Global Relief Foundation, and Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development -- would no longer be deductible for federal tax purposes."

"Seventeen of the 22 Christian converts and their supporters who were arrested in Alexandria in late October have been granted bail; the five remaining in prison are still suffering degradation and abuse," says Project Open Book.

The article notes: "A Christian who converts to Islam in Egypt can receive new ID papers with a new adopted Muslim name within 24 hours. However, it is impossible for a Muslim who converts to Christianity to change their name to a Christian one at all."

The violent jihad that Jihad Watch is dedicated to exposing and resisting is not, contrary to popular belief, an obscure, isolated, or newly minted phenomenon. It is taught by traditional Islamic theology and law, as I explain in Onward Muslim Soldiers, that the Muslim community must make war against Christians, Jews, and other non-Muslims until they either convert to Islam or pay the non-Muslim poll tax.

This is a far cry from the notions of jihad that American Muslim advocacy groups offer. The Council on American Islamic Relations, for example, defines jihad as a “central and broad Islamic concept that includes struggle against evil inclinations within oneself, struggle to improve the quality of life in society, struggle in the battlefield for self-defense (e.g., having a standing army for national defense), or fighting against tyranny or oppression.”

New evidence that significant segments of the Islamic world tend to subscribe more to the traditional view of jihad than to CAIR's comes from MEMRI today (thanks to LGF), reporting on a "newly-printed textbook produced by the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Education titled 'Islamic Culture,' intended for students in the 11th grade." It contains, says MEMRI, "incitement for Jihad and martyrdom."

Some excerpts from the book, with comments:

[One of] the State's tasks is to strengthen the ties between the people and their Creator… to defend the religion and protect it from [heretical] innovators and doubters… to prepare the nation for Jihad and to defend the country from its enemies…

This is an indication that the PA Ministry of Education, at least, envisions that the children will be living in an Islamic state ruled by the Sharia, not in a pluralistic secular state.

Islam is Allah's religion for all human beings. It should be proclaimed and invite [people] to join it wisely and through appropriate preaching and friendly discussions. However, such methods may encounter resistance and the preachers may be prevented from accomplishing their duty… then, Jihad and the use of physical force against the enemies become inevitable…

This is the classic Islamic prescription for dealing with unbelievers. First invite them to accept Islam: this is dawah. Then if they refuse, "jihad and the use of physical force against the enemies become inevitable." It would be as if you turn the Jehovah's Witnesses away from your door and they come back with guns drawn. The idea that dawah should be followed by jihad is founded upon the words of the Prophet Muhammad:

Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. . . . When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to three courses of action. If they respond to any one of these, you also accept it and withold yourself from doing them any harm. Invite them to (accept) Islam [this is dawah]; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them. . . . If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya [the special tax on non-Muslims, which is the key mark of their inferior status in Islamic society]. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah's help and fight them (Sahih Muslim, book 19, no. 4294)

This is an interesting contrast to CAIR's technically correct but misleading statement that "'Jihad' does not mean 'holy war.'"

The book continues:

The difference is that Jihad has noble goals and lofty aims, and is carried out only for the sake of Allah and for His glory… [By contrast] wars by other nations are mainly waged because of wickedness, aggression, love of domination, expanding influence, looting properties, murder, and the fulfillment of ambitions and desires, such as the war that the Western countries waged to exploit Islamic countries for imperialistic purposes, to control their Muslim citizens and to rob their resources and richness…

This is important because it underscores the fact that radical Muslims do not consider violent jihad, even if it involves mass murder of innocent civilians as on 9/11, to be a war of aggression. Islamic jihad, to them, is purified by its motives.

In Mecca, Allah's Messenger called [to join] Islam by using evidence and proofs… His weapons and those of his companions at that stage of spreading the message [of Islam] were perseverance and restraint. After the Prophet's migration to Al-Medina, and the emergence of an Islamic society in it, there was no escaping the fight against aggression and the polytheists… Following that, the duty of Jihad was imposed on all Muslims…

This is a common three-stage theory for understanding the Qur'an's teachings about jihad. First fighting was not commanded, then it was allowed for self-defense; finally it was commanded as an active responsibility of the Muslim community. This third stage is final and abrogates the teachings of the first two. "Moderate" spokesmen often quote Qur'anic verses from one of these first two stages, although they cannot be unaware that a broad strain of Islamic tradition considers these verses to have been abrogated.

Allah's Messenger practiced Jihad during his sojourn in Al-Medina, his companions and followers followed in his footsteps.

As they do today.

However is Jihad a personal duty [Fardh 'Ein] that each Muslim is required to fulfill personally, or is it a collective duty [Fardh Kifaya]? It is likely a collective duty. If some Muslims fulfill it, then it is not required of the rest as long as [the acts of those who waged it] are sufficient… [however] if no one practices Jihad, then all Muslims are guilty of negligence.

This is another traditional distinction. Offensive jihad is fardh kifaya — a duty of the community but not of each particular individual, but defensive jihad is fardh 'ein — something that each Muslim must fulfill personally. In Onward Muslim Soldiers I show how Muslim leaders from all over the world have been teaching that defensive jihad in Iraq is fardh 'ein: every Muslim must go or aid those who go.

The textbook itself makes this clear:

Jihad becomes a personal duty in the following three cases: When Muslims are attacked. When the enemy is present in a Muslim country, it is the duty of the [Muslim] citizens of that country to fight the enemy and chase them away. If they are unable [to do so], the personal duty [of Jihad] passes on to their neighbors, until the enemy is defeated and destroyed…

This is the justification used today to get Muslims to go to Iraq to fight.

In the case of a general call to arms. When a Muslim ruler declares it, or calls a specific group, it is the duty of Muslims to answer the call…

This is one of the chief reasons why radical Muslims want to restore the caliphate and unite the Islamic world under its rule: they want a universally recognized Muslim ruler who, by virtue of his position, has the right to call an offensive jihad.

The book also discusses "types of Jihad," including primarily "the physical Jihad -Participation [in battle] against the enemy. To fight him directly with weapons, and with actual participation in the battle and with self-sacrifice for the sake of Allah. This is the ultimate requisite from a [believer]. Allah promised anyone who participates personally in Jihad for His sake Paradise, or that He will return him safely to his family with great spoils."

This promise of Paradise is unique in the Qur'an, and radical Muslims take it very seriously.

Then there is also

the material Jihad – He who wages such a Jihad gives some of his money in order to equip Muslim armies with various weapons, necessary supplies, land, sea and air transportation, and anything else that those who wage Jihad need in order to defeat the enemy, to glorify Allah's name, and to strengthen His faith. Included in the material Jihad is the construction of military installations, fortifications, strongholds, airports, and seaports, that are necessary for the Muslim armies, as well as health centers and hospitals for the soldiers of Jihad and their families, and granting money to those who implement Jihad and to their families.

This is why it is so important to follow the money trail from Muslim charities.

The Islamic nation today is in urgent need [of reviving] the spirit of Jihad in its sons, [by using] all types of Jihad and to concentrate all its resources on strengthening Allah's religion and to force His enemies [to surrender]. . . .

Jihad is one of life's needs. A nation cannot defend its religion and uphold its honor and its motherland if it does not have the power to do so. This is why Islam imposed [the duty] of Jihad on the Muslim nation when [a Muslim] society and state emerged in Al-Medina…

Note also that the writer here sees no contradiction between all this and the Qur'anic verse declaring that "there is no compulsion in religion." In Onward Muslim Soldiers I explain how radicals reconcile these two seemingly contrary principles.

About this the Palestinian textbook says:

Allah instructed the Muslims to convince people [with the message of Islam] in a wise way, by appropriate preaching and friendly discussions, so that the spread of Islam is achieved through intellectual persuasion, inner gratification and serenity and not through compulsion as Allah said 'There is no compulsion in religion…' [Koran 2:256]. [However], when the despots confront Islamic preaching, prevent the preachers from bringing the good tidings [of Islam] to the people, build roadblocks and obstacles in preachers' way, and prevent the word from reaching their people - then Jihad becomes the only means to remove these obstacles, which deprive people of their freedom of choice and prevent the propagation of Islam. Allah's Messenger instructed those who wage Jihad not to initiate war against their enemies [as a first option], but to offer them Islam, and if they refuse it - to suggest to them to pay Jizya [tax imposed on non-Muslims under Muslim rule]… and if they refuse again, to fight them.

And then there are the glories of martyrdom:

Jihad is considered a way to strengthen the nation and [to secure] its victory in an armed struggle when it uses all its resources, efforts and capabilities for its sake… Jihad is also considered a source of welfare and prosperity for the Muslims. After realizing victory, he who wages Jihad returns to his family high-aspiring with his head high up, thanking Allah for his grace. If he is blessed with Shahada [martyrdom] and honor, his soul returns to its Creator to live a different life, content with the rewards and honor bestowed upon it, a life of grace thanks to Allah, as the Koran says [3:169-170] 'Do not consider those who died in the cause of Allah as dead, rather as alive at their lord sustained…'

Also:

The Islamic nation needs to spread the spirit of Jihad and the love of self-sacrifice [Shahada] among its sons throughout the generations, and especially when materialism is uppermost in people's minds and they abandon Jihad while the enemy desires [to exploit] them… It is clear that the respect and power of the Islamic nation are linked to the preservation of a strong Jihad spirit. When this spirit declines and the nation has no power to help its weak elements and to defend itself from its enemies, then the nation is attacked from the outside, the aggressors desire it, they humiliate it, plunder its resources, kill its people, conquer its land and live there in immorality.

What if the Muslims ignore their responsibility to fight jihad?

A. Enemies occupy Muslim lands, their resources are plundered, their blood is spilled, their honor tarnished and as a result they [the Muslims] live a life of disgrace and oppression. B. Losing the great reward that Allah promised those who wage Jihad and the Shuhada [martyrs]. C. Severe punishment on Judgment Day.

And:

Allah instructed the faithful to partake in Jihad in all circumstances, be it easy or hard, when they are few or many, at times of prosperity or need, when they are strong or weak. Their Jihad should be through self-sacrifice or material for the sake of glorifying Allah's name. This is the way to enjoy this world and to succeed in the Hereafter.

More at Dhimmi Watch.

The Palestinian textbook that I discuss at Jihad Watch also explains why anyone who leaves Islam deserves death:

"The logical reason for executing a person who abandons Islam is the following: There is nothing in Islam that comes in contrast to human nature. Whoever joins Islam after recognizing its truth and after tasting its sweetness and then abandons it - is in fact rebelling against truth and logic. Like any other regime, Islam has to protect itself therefore this punishment [execution] awaits the person who abandons it, because he is spreading doubt about Islam…

"Abandoning Islam is a crime that warrants a severe punishment… [The phases of punishment are]:

"Urging [the sinner] to recant immediately…
"Warning him of the implications of his persistence in abandoning Islam, namely warning him that he will be executed.
"Execute the sinner if he persists in [his decision to] abandon Islam…"

Christian missionaries, meanwhile, are merely agents of the Great Satan: "Missionaries are one of the Western institutions used for intellectual invasion of the Muslim world. They tried to get the Muslims out of Islam by weakening the faith in their hearts and accepting the Western way of life. Outwardly they call for adopting the faith of Jesus, but in reality they try to facilitate the Western intellectual invasion of the Islamic countries… The missionary organizations throughout the Islamic world tried to weaken the faith in the hearts of the Muslims, to spread secular ideas to replace Islamic ideology and to pave the way for the occupation of Islamic countries and strengthening Imperialism in them…

"The missionary movement left deep impressions in Islamic life, such as:

"Admiration and adoption of the Western way of life… Materialistic and exploitative Western criteria and values and their understanding of life was common to the point that many Muslims yearned for it and turned to Western culture and literature.

"Weakening the Islamic spirit of the young generation as a result of weakening the faith in their hearts and the acceptance of contagious Western ideas and principles. Capitalist, Communist, and atheist ideas spread among the Muslims…

"Giving the educational system in the Islamic countries a Western flavor. The missionaries, with the help of Imperialism, were able to turn their philosophy and culture into educational foundations in many Islamic countries. Western history and culture became the main source of education and science-learning for Muslim children…

"Defamation of Islamic history and the life-histories of the Muslim Khalifs, and presenting Islamic history as [a series of] wars, conflicts, civil wars, revolutions, battles over power, and repression of citizens…

"Faulting Islam, its Messenger, and the truth of his prophecies, and spreading misleading ideas, such as the claim that Islam expanded by the sword and by coercion. Also, faulting the divorce laws and polygamy and depicting Islamic legal punishments as inhumane."

Imagine! Stoning and amputation inhumane! The idea!

All this, needless to say, is an extended apology for Sharia and the terrorism that radical Muslims justify on its basis.

An editorial from Thailand's The Nation dares to point out the Islamic world's "double standards about al-Qaeda and the Taleban."

It points out that "the recent suicide attack by al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia was met with unusually loud condemnation from the Muslim world, apparently because virtually all the victims were Muslims and perhaps because Riyadh has been one of the most generous aid givers to poorer Muslim nations. In contrast, exactly the same heinous acts being carried out by Taleban terrorists in Afghanistan have hardly attracted any outrage from the Muslim world, perhaps because the country is a pauper state struggling to build itself up from total collapse."

The conclusion: "Moderate and sensible Muslims everywhere who have too often been cowed into submission by the extremist elements in their societies must abandon the double standards that make a distinction between non-Muslim and Muslim victims of terrorists. After all, there is only one standard for humanity, which calls for the eradication of terrorism from the face of the earth." Indeed.

Could this be behind the threat of 100,000 deaths?

"An al-Qaida representative bought enriched uranium capable of being used in a so-called dirty bomb from the Congolese opposition in 2000, according to a French newspaper report."

The report asserts that "in sworn testimony an unnamed former soldier from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) . . . 'described a meeting which took place on 3 March in (the German city of) Hamburg between some Congolese men and an Egyptian by the name of Ibrahim Abd.'"

Something about Abd made the soldier "realise" that he was tied to al-Qaeda. "According to Le Progres, the Egyptian was able to acquire two bars of enriched uranium 138. Only highly enriched uranium can be used in the manufacture of an atomic bomb, but anti-terrorist experts take more seriously the threat of a 'dirty bomb', in which radioactive material is disseminated via a conventional explosive."

Coming from Al-Jazeera, which has now been fully unmasked (see the Nov. 10 entry) as another jihadist entity, this could amount to nothing more than another empty threat, but we do know that Al-Qaeda has been trying to get hold of some uranium for a long time.

POSTSCRIPT: Agence France Press is reporting the same thing.

SECOND POSTSCRIPT: Reader Karl Lembke points out that there is no such thing as uranium-138. My guess would be that uranium-238 was meant. (Of course, I do hope that al-Qaeda paid top dollar for a huge amount of uranium-138!)

Yesterday I wrote about two of the CAIR members who have recently been arrested on suspicion of activities aiding terrorists, and lo and behold, one of them was just sentenced.

According to AP, "The former head of an Islamic charity that was accused of having ties to terrorism was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty to bank and visa fraud. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Zatkoff sentenced Bassem Khafagi, formerly of Ann Arbor, to 10 months of time already served in prison. Khafagi, 41, pleaded guilty Sept. 9."

The article notes that "at the time of his arrest, he was community affairs director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group based in Washington. The FBI said Khafagi is a founding member of the Ypsilanti-based Islamic Assembly of North America, a charity that purports to promote Islam. Officials said earlier this year that they were investigating the organization for possible links to terrorism." Khafagi will also be deported to his native Egypt. (Thanks to LGF).

I will be waiting for the statement from CAIR's Ibrahim Hooper on how someone with possible links to terrorism (as well as involvement in bank and visa fraud) slipped under the organization's no doubt stringent screening process that it employs to make sure that none of the tiny minority of extremist Muslims end up working there.

From MEMRI: "Al-Qal'a (The Fortress) an Islamist Internet forum, posted the first of a two-part interview with a person who introduced himself as Abu Salma Al-Hijazi, one of the Al-Qa'ida commanders closest to Osama bin Laden. The interview was conducted in Iraq, south of Faluja. The article notes that Al-Hijazi was surrounded by five masked men carrying missiles as well as personal weapons."

Al-Hijazi says: "In regard to rumors about a large-scale attack against the U.S. during the month of Ramadan, Al-Hijazi said that 'a huge and very courageous strike' will take place and that the number of infidels expected to be killed in this attack, according to primary estimates, exceeds 100,000. He added that he 'anticipates, but will not swear, that the attack will happen during Ramadan.' He further stated that the attack will be carried out in a way that will 'amaze the world and turn Al-Qai'da into [an organization that] horrifies the world until the law of Allah is implemented, actually implemented, and not just in words, on His land... You wait and see that the balance of power between Al-Qai'da and its rivals will change, all of a sudden, Allah willing.'"

Note again the goal: to establish the law of Allah -- the Sharia, administered by a government led by the restored caliph. "There is no doubt that the demise of America and its collapse will lead to the collapse of these fragile regimes that depend on it... We will not stop until we establish the Islamic Caliphate and until Allah's law is implemented in His land."

About the Riyadh bombing: "Allah facilitated breaking into the place and bombing the part in which mostly Americans stayed. As a result, praise Allah, at least 40 Americans were killed, as well as 27 Christians from Lebanon, and a group of citizens who were Muslim; also, at least 70 Americans were injured, as well as more than 30 citizens of other countries, most of them Christians from Lebanon."

This is a man who rejoices and praises his god for the murder of innocents. I trust that we will soon see a flood of statements from CAIR and other American Muslim advocacy groups dissociating their view of Allah from Al-Hijazi's. (Thanks to Kat.)

Meanwhile, what is being done to meet this threat? "A United Nations diplomat has slammed U.N. sanctions against al Qaeda and the ousted Taliban as inadequate, blaming member countries for failing to cooperate. Less than half of all member states were supplying the required information on al Qaeda and related terror-linked data to a special U.N. committee, said Heraldo Munoz, the Chilean Ambassador to the United Nations and the chairman of an al Qaeada sanctions committee." So says CNN. (Thanks to Free Speech.)

"Germany's supreme court said Thursday it has approved the extradition of two Yemenis to the United States, where they are wanted on charges of supporting al-Qaida."

"According to papers from a Brooklyn federal court supporting the extradition request that were released in March, [Ali Hassan] al-Moayad told an FBI informant that he supplied $20 million, recruits and weapons to bin Laden in the years before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks."

Twenty million! Nevertheless, "Yemen, an ally of the United States in the war on terrorism, has asked for both men to be returned to their homeland."

Ally?

"Officials there have said [Al-Moayad], a leading member of the Yemen's Islamic-oriented Reform party, left his country for medical treatment in Germany 10 days before his arrest. The former legislator has asthma and diabetes. The arrest sparked street protests in Yemen, and Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh raised the issue with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder during a visit to Germany in June."

On what grounds?

Says Reuters: "Unidentified men on a motorbike have handed Reuters an audio cassette purporting to be of supreme Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, two years to the day after his hardline regime fled Kabul."

Says Omar: "I am talking about faith and Islam among the commanders, about those who are not participating in the jihad. I sacrificed my rule and all I had and if I can stand for my honour, why can't you? If you can't stand for your honour, it means your faith is weak. If you claim to among the faithful, why can't you be ready for sacrifice? I have sacrificed everything."

Omar appealed to Afghanis on the basis of their Islam: "If you have strong faith and have strong honour you should stand up to protect your country and your religion. Every Muslim should ponder and awaken his honour and protect Islam and the Koran and, God-willing, if he dies, it will be a great success and if he lives then it will also be a victory."

This is how radical Muslims gain recruits around the world, as I explain in Onward Muslim Soldiers: by portraying their struggle as a fight for Islam. They appeal to those who want to live out their faith in its fullness. This religious dimension of their appeal is denigrated and denied by those who wish to pretend that global terrorism is merely a response to American imperialism, or to Israel. They deny that there is a clash of civilizations, as if their opinions will influence what people like Mullah Omar think.

From Fox: "President Bush is willing to pose for pictures with American Muslims and publicly praise Islam, but developing a substantive relationship with the Bush administration will take much more work, say some Muslim-American groups."

Said Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR): "We need to see regular, productive, policy-based meetings."

You have to admire Hooper's, uh, chutzpah. He wants to dictate policy to Bush when there are some things about CAIR that may well explain why he wasn't invited to the President's recent iftaar: radical Islam has long been a troubling element of the Council on American Islamic Relations. CAIR's founder and Executive Director, Nihad Awad, has repeatedly declared his support for the terrorist group Hamas. Former CAIR communications specialist Randall Todd "Ismail" Royer has been charged with "conspiracy to levy war against the United States and conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaida and the Taliban." Bassem K. Khafagi, who has been identified in news reports as the community affairs director for CAIR's national office in Washington, pleaded guilty to charges of bank and visa fraud. An organization he helped found, the Islamic Assembly of North America, is suspected of providing websites for two radical Sheikhs with ties to Osama bin Laden.

To my knowledge, Hooper has never explained any of this. When confronted about CAIR's support for Hamas and other terrorist groups, he reportedly replied: "CAIR does not support these groups publicly." But he responded rudely to requests to clarify this curious statement -- just as he has ducked uncomfortable questions with rudeness and bluster in the past.

But this man still receives carte blanche in this story from Fox News as a neutral civil rights leader with a legitimate claim to discuss policy with the President.

In the New York Times, Noah Feldman asks, "Can a nation be founded on both Islam and democracy without compromising on human rights and equality?" He has high hopes for Afghanistan's new constitution, although he acknowledges that its provisions about women's rights are ambiguous.

About non-Muslim rights he says: "The provision that makes Islam the nation's official religion also recognizes the right of non-Muslims 'to perform their religious ceremonies within the limits of the provisions of law.' This carefully chosen language might arguably leave room to restrict proselytizing -- as, for example, do similar laws in India and Israel -- but it nonetheless guarantees individual expression as an inviolable right. (It's worth noting that the right to change one's religion is enshrined in the human rights declaration.)"

Unfortunately, Islamic law can't legitimately be compared to whatever India and Israel say about prosletyzing. "The subject peoples," according to a manual of Islamic law that carries the endorsement of Al-Azhar University, Sunni Islam's most respected authority, must "pay the non-Muslim poll tax (jizya)" and "are distinguished from Muslims in dress, wearing a wide cloth belt (zunnar); . . . must keep to the side of the street; may not build higher than or as high as the Muslims' buildings, though if they acquire a tall house, it is not razed; are forbidden to openly display wine or pork . . . recite the Torah or Evangel aloud, or make public display of their funerals or feastdays; and are forbidden to build new churches."

Feldman also mentions Afghanistan's adherence to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He notes that "One essential provision mandates that the state shall abide by the United Nations Charter, international treaties, all international conventions that Afghanistan has signed and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights." He also tells us that the new constitution calls for "elimination of traditions contrary to the principles of the sacred religion of Islam."

What he doesn't tell us is that those two principles are on a collision course. The human rights declaration does indeed contain the right to change one's religion, but the Sharia does not. The death penalty for people who leave Islam is rooted in the words of Muhammad: "Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him" (Sahih Bukhari, volume 9, book 84, no. 57).

Also, there are numerous indications that democracy is going to have a tough time in the Muslim world, just as I predicted: today in Arab News, Fawaz Turki sneers at President Bush's Wilsonian plans to export democracy:

"A people's habits of vision -- their history, culture, faith, language, literature -- codify that people's immemorial reflexes, the contours of their communal reference . . . President Bush in effect wants Arabs, along with folks elsewhere in the Muslim world, to weld these habits of vision to an idiom appropriated from Jefferson, Locke and Montesquieu. Well, it ain't gonna happen, fellow, not only because the whole enterprise is degrading for its ethnocentric bias, but because that's not the way social systems organically evolve and transform."

Rather, "in the end it will be in the wealth of our own heritage, not in the borrowed dress of other tongues and political traditions that an Arab renaissance will strike root."

Wonderful. But does that mean more dhimmitude -- discrimination, harassment, subjugation -- for non-Muslim minorities? After all, that's the heritage of Islamic law.

That heritage is being asserted now in Malaysia, where the Washington Times reports that "Malaysia's biggest opposition party yesterday declared its goal of forming an Islamic state, with punishments such as stoning and amputation for criminals and a ban on non-Muslims becoming prime minister."

They were full of reassurances: "Party leaders tempered the announcement by promising the country's large non-Muslim minorities they would not lose religious freedoms guaranteed by the constitution or the right to hold other government posts."

But again, such a reassurance is on a collision course with the law according to which Islamic states have been constituted throughout history, and other political groups in Malaysia are fully aware of that. Lim Kit Siang of the Democratic Action Party charged that an Islamic state would create "a new dichotomy between Muslims and non-Muslims. It confirms the worst fears of the non-Muslims in Malaysia. The proposals raised would alter the citizenship rights of both Muslims and non-Muslims."

The man knows his Islamic law.

A linguist at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday for allegedly "gathering, transmitting and losing defense information" that was part of the military's highly secret operation of interrogating suspected terrorist detainees at the prison camp there.

So says an LA Times story.

Ahmed Fathy Mehalba's lawyer, Michael Andrews, says his client

has all along maintained that he was not a terrorist and was not involved in terrorism. He is a patriotic, hard-working guy.

Yet

government evidence at the earlier hearing in Worcester, Mass., showed that Mehalba had been carrying reams of documents stored among some of his 132 computer discs and that the material had been alternately marked "secret," "sensitive" and "classified."

Andrews says that

Mehalba "truthfully" does not know how the material ended up in his luggage.

Here is an account from the criminal complaint: Mehalba had

a garment bag bearing a U.S. Army insignia. During a check of it, a compact disc case was discovered. Mehalba stated that the discs contained "only music and videos," some of which he made in Egypt. The compact discs were reviewed by CBP Officer Daniel Ouelette. During that review, Officer Ouelette discovered on one disc, labeled in black handwriting "Backup #3 for MO'S Profile" (hereinafter, "the suspect disc"), classified information including a document labeled "SECRET."

When questioned, Mehalba said that he had no Gitmo documents, and reiterated that only music and videos were on the discs. But

Mehalba admitted that the suspect disc was his, and that his handwriting was on it. However, Mehalba stated that the suspect disc had his personal documents on it, and on several occasions, Mehalba denied any knowledge of how that classified information came to be found on his disc.

The indictment also contains an account of a U.S. Army private who was dishonorably discharged, who seems to have been Mehalba's girlfriend. A 2001 search of her quarters turned up classified counterintelligence training material. It also turns out that Mehalba's uncle had been an intelligence officer for the Egyptian army.

Courtesy of Freedom Now News, a report on the ongoing tragedy of the dhimmi populations in Sudan:

Red Flags in Sudan: Threats to the Peace Process; Widening Humanitarian Crisis in Darfur

by Eric Reeves

The massive and growing humanitarian crisis in Darfur Province (northwestern Sudan) is not typically seen in the context of peace negotiations between Khartoum's National Islamic Front regime and the SPLM/A, representing southern Sudan and the country's marginalized areas. And to be sure, it is important to note that the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) in Darfur is not directly related to the forces struggling against Khartoum in the south and other marginalized areas. What both conflicts have in common, however, is the refusal to accept any longer the Islamic fascism that has ruled Sudan for the last fourteen years.

At the same time, it is critically important to understand all that lies implicit in Khartoum's present response to the human catastrophe in Darfur. We will then come much closer to seeing the nature of remaining obstacles in the Machakos/IGAD peace process, and the challenges that will follow immediately upon any peace agreement. This is especially true if we consider very recent and ominous militia movements in Upper Nile province, as well as inflammatory statements by NIF President Omer Beshir on the key outstanding issue in negotiations, the status of the three contested areas of Abyei, the Nuba Mountains, and Southern Blue Nile.

With all this in mind it may not be so difficult to understand why local observers in Khartoum are reporting that the mosques in the city are generating a greatly heightened rhetoric directed against a peace agreement. Though such an agreement seems increasingly likely to be reached in Kenya, Khartoum still seems to be preparing for a possible strategic collapsing of the peace talks---or perhaps a full-scale reneging on any actual signed agreement. There is in any event a good deal in recent days that bears close scrutiny and is cause for deep concern.

Strikingly, the US charge d'affaires in Khartoum---presently the ranking US diplomat in Sudan---was prevented from traveling to Darfur two days ago. Deutsche Presse Agentur (dpa) reports that the American Embassy in Sudan published a statement Sunday (November 9, 2003), "expressing regret that the U.S. charge d'affaires in Sudan, Gerard Galluci, and other representatives of the Embassy and US AID [Agency for International Development] were prohibited from traveling to Nyala town in the South Darfur region of western Sudan. The statement said that Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC), a government establishment regulating the work of local and international relief organizations cancelled the trip despite the Ministry of Foreign Affairs granting permission to travel." (Deutsche Presse Agentur, November 9, 2003)

Just in case anyone was planning to tune in today, the scheduled appearance of Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer on the Michael Medved Show, along with Muslim Public Affairs Council Executive Director Salam Al-Marayati, has been rescheduled for Monday, November 17, at 4PM Eastern.

According to FrontPage magazine, "American philanthropic organizations have given substantial amounts of money to Palestinian charities over the years, but their dollars may have funded a great deal more than charity. There is reason to believe that some of this money may have gone from philanthropic foundations, through Palestinian NGO's, into the hands of terrorist organizations. The Ford Foundation is one philanthropic group whose money has made its way, through various twists and turns, into terrorists' hands."

The article notes that "the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) informed U.S. tax-exempt organizations that if they partnered with Palestinian NGO's, those NGO's would be required to sign a Certification Regarding Terrorist Financing. This statement vows that no funds ever have been given or ever will be given to terrorist groups."

But according to a Palestinian official, "Ford does not make us sign this agreement." Why not?

According to Al-Jazeera, in the German state of southwest state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, "authorities have agreed for the first time to ban women teachers from wearing a Muslim headscarf in school, although Christian and Jewish attire will be allowed."

In an Orwellian touch, "the Central Council of Muslims said that if it was passed, the bill 'would hinder integration' . . ." Wouldn't it be more likely to encourage the integration of the German Muslim community into the wider culture?

Explained state premier Erwin Teufel: "The aim of the law is to forbid state teachers from wearing symbols which could be regarded as political." He and another official "defended the decision not to include Christian or Jewish symbols in the ban, saying the state constitution placed Christian and Western values and culture at the heart of the education system."

It's astonishing to see anyone in sclerotic, dhimmi Europe actually assert that Europe has any connection to "Christian and Western values and culture." I'm confident that the Muslim groups that are protesting this have no trouble insisting on the unique Muslim identity of other nations where "Christian and Jewish attire" is most definitely unwelcome. Try, for example, to wear a cross in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Even possession of a cross can earn you the wrath of the religious police. After all, the Prophet Muhammad said: "I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslims" (Sahih Muslim, book 19, no. 4366).

The Globe and Mail reports today that the Al-Qaeda bombing in Riyadh last Saturday may have been "targeting Christian Arabs, rather than Muslims."

This is more confirmation of what Jihad Watch reported from the World Lebanese Cultural Union on Sunday and from a radical Muslim source on Monday.

POSTSCRIPT: Of course, Muslims were also killed. That's why Hamas condemned the bombing, saying that their own suicide attacks are "legitimate ones through which we defend our land and people," but the Saturday Riyadh attack "contradicts religion and the principles of Hamas." (Thanks to LGF for this one.)

What does it contradict in their religion and principles? "If a man kills a believer intentionally, his recompense is Hell, to abide therein (for ever): and the wrath and the curse of Allah are upon him, and a dreadful penalty is prepared for him" (Sura 4:93). There is no similar statement in the Qur'an about a man who kills an unbeliever.

What about this one, oft-quoted in the West? "We ordained for the Children of Israel that if any one slew a person -- unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land -- it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people" (Sura 5:32). Hamas and other terrorist groups brush it aside -- their targets are "spreading mischief in the land."

"South African Muslim groups have called on the government to scrap a proposed anti-terrorism bill saying it threatened to undermine the nation's hard-won civil liberties. 'We urge our government not to take us back to the dark days of fear, suspicion and injustice,' a host of Muslim organisations said in a joint statement, referring to the country's apartheid past."

These groups assert that "many countries . . . had used anti-terrorism legislation, especially in the United States and Britain, to 'trample on the civil liberties of innocent people, most of them Muslim'."

I oppose any element of the Patriot Act that is legitimately determined to deny anyone rights that are constitutionally guaranteed. But here and in South Africa, Muslim advocacy groups that protest anti-terrorist measures would have a much stronger case if they were, with all respect for civil rights and religious freedom, actively cooperating with anti-terror efforts. When CAIR puts up instructions at its website on how to report terrorist activity that moderate Muslims may witness in their mosques, I'll take their protests more seriously.

"Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has held out an olive branch to Israel, saying it has a right to live in security alongside a future Palestinian state and calling for an end to bloodshed."

Has Arafat been reading The Onion?

The headline on this story is "Arafat happy with Israel as neighbour."

I wonder if he would be neighborly enough to stop people from blowing themselves up in restaurants and buses.

"Muslim militants planning attacks in Saudi Arabia's holiest city, Mecca, booby-trapped copies of Islam's holy book, the Koran, to kill and maim pilgrims, a leading Saudi-owned newspaper has reported." This from Reuters.

It's ironic that they would even consider doing such a thing, especially in light of the outrage in Iraq over an American soldier who -- no doubt unaware of the implications of what he was doing -- threw a Qur'an to the ground during a search.

But I doubt that these militants were unaware, or even that they were unbelievers who were callously indifferent to the way the Muslim sacred book is treated -- although this is no doubt what the Saudis are hoping people will think. Perhaps they saw wiring the Qur'an as a good way to "instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers," as per this verse of their explosive book: "Remember thy Lord inspired the angels (with the message): 'I am with you: give firmness to the Believers: I will instil terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them'" (Sura 8:12).

If this report is true, these militants almost certainly didn't see wiring the Qur'an with explosives as a heinous desecration -- because such groups regard such verses and many others like it with the utmost seriousness. They probably considered themselves to be acting in accord with its dictates.

Yes, there are violent passages in the Bible, too. Yes, people of all religions have done terrible things. None of those kinds of objections gets to the heart of the matter: terrorists are using the Qur'an today, not the Bible or the Bhagavad Gita or the Book of Mormon, to justify violence and to convince others that they should act violently or approve of violence.

Yet you can go to the site of any prominent American Muslim advocacy group, and you will see no hint of this. Insofar as Muslim moderates (both those that are genuine and those that are merely self-proclaimed) continue to ignore such passages or to deny that they even exist in the Qur'an, and to ignore or deny the fact that radical Muslims can and do easily exploit them to justify their actions, they have nothing to say to these radicals to rein them in. They simply aren't mounting a serious response to the enormous challenge of radicalism within their own community.

"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia affirmed today that it abides by human rights including the rights that are endorsed by the Islamic Sharia," reports IMRA.

The Saudi ambassador to the United Nations, Fawzi Abdul-Majeed Shobokshi, said this in a speech at the UN: "Human rights in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia were those recognized in Islam. They might not extend what the Almighty had prohibited, or transgress what the Almighty Allah had ordered."

It is doubtful, then, that Shobokshi believes in any right of a Muslim to leave Islam, or any right of non-Muslim dhimmis to share equal rights and dignity with Muslims in Islamic societies. For these rights are not recognized in traditional Islamic jurisprudence.

Shobokshi also complained that "some media repeatedly pretended that Islam and Muslims had become the source of terrorism and violence." I trust he will take up this complaint with Osama bin Laden, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, Indonesia's Abubakar Bashir, England's Omar Bakri, the Internet wolf-crier at the Daleel Al-Mojahid Yahoo group, and all the multitudinous other Muslims who have linked Islam to terrorism and violence without any prodding from the media at all.

"The Iranian people want their freedom back. They do not want to banish Islam from their lives. Far from it. They want to be free of those who have dragged the sacred garments of Islam into the political gutter."

So said Secretary of State Colin Powell at City College of New York.

Retorted Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi: "American officials' interpretations of Islam and Muslims clearly prove that, like many other issues such as Iraq, the Middle East and democracy, they know nothing about Islam and Muslims."

In 1979, Americans were aghast at the specter of Iran, a modern society rushing headlong to embrace a medieval theocracy. Women took the veil as a political statement -- just as the veil is a political statement in France and Germany today. Even today in Nigeria and elsewhere, the institution of Sharia enjoys broad popular support. Powell may be on thinner ice than he realizes when he questions the Islamic character of the present Iranian regime. Maybe those who ultimately topple it will be able to institute an Islamic government (as opposed to a secular government administered by Muslims) with more of a human face, but that remains to be seen.

Source: "Force Protection: Today's Reality" by Colonel Ron Torgerson, USAF (Ret), at the Defense Technical Information Center. (Thanks to Arnaud.)

Not long after 9/11, Osama bin Laden boasted that soon more planes would be "falling out of the sky."

Now WorldNetDaily reports that "Transportation Security Administration officials say they believe terrorists will continue to plot attacks against commercial airplanes in the United States and abroad - including the use of shoulder-launched missiles."

Unbelievable? "Officials cited the unsuccessful missile attack on an Israeli commercial airliner in Mombasa, Kenya, in November 2002, as an illustration of how credible the threat is. . . . While the U.S. intelligence community does not have any credible, specific intelligence information about planned MANPADS [man-portable air defense systems] attacks against commercial aircraft in the United States, the TSA believes safeguards need to be planned."

Well, no major terrorist attack took place yesterday, despite threats on the 9th stating "Tomorrow O Bush is your date" (see below). But the dire warnings continue:

alaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah akbaaaaar alaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah akbaaaaar

alaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah akbaaar.

The Daleel Al-Mojahid site could easily be maintained by some kid who is enjoying crying wolf, but at his site are several files of Arabic-language bomb-making manuals. I hope someone in law enforcement is paying attention -- and paying a visit to the place from which this fellow is posting.

"The U.S. military is holding 20 people suspected of links Al Qaeda links, the commander of American forces said Tuesday. 'Currently, we have about 20 who are suspected of being from Al Qaeda,' L. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez told reporters. 'We are still questioning them' and have not determined absolutely whether they are members of Usama bin Laden's terrorist organization.

"U.S. officials have said they suspect foreign volunteers, including some from Al Qaeda, have slipped across the borders into Iraq to take part in a 'holy war' against the U.S.-led occupation."

I trust that these U.S. officials are going to explain to these volunteers that they have it all wrong: jihad is actually a spiritual struggle.

The New York Times this morning explores something I noted below: that Al-Qaeda has lost support in Saudi Arabia by killing Muslims.

No one seems concerned about non-Muslim deaths.

"'They can no longer say they are more or less raising the banner of jihad,' said Saad A. Sowayan, a professor specializing in Bedouin poetry at King Saud University, sipping orange juice in a hotel coffee shop. 'Jihad is not against your own people.'"

Evidently then, earlier attacks by Al-Qaeda enjoyed wide support because they were not against Muslims, and were understood as jihad operations. But not this time: "The fact that the targets were fellow Muslims lent the sense that the attackers might just be pursuing pure chaos. 'If they were really seeking change they would resort to actions that would win them the support of the people,' the professor said. 'Before, people could find excuses. It is getting so irrational that you cannot explain it, you cannot defend it, you cannot understand it.'"

What kind of actions would "win them the support of the people"? Bombings in the U.S. instead of Saudi Arabia?

No word in this article about the evidence that non-Muslims, including a large number of Lebanese Christians, were actually the targets. Some radical Muslims themselves are claiming this, as quoted below: "the mojahideen had struck the heart of a compound housing arab non-muslims working for the CIA!"

"While the U.S. and its allies are fighting Islamist ideology and terror," Michael Meunier observes, "Egypt, a supposed Western ally, is drastically undermining their efforts. In an alleged attempt at 'historic reconciliation,' President Mubarak has recently released Egypt's most notorious and dangerous Islamist leaders, along with over 1,000 of their cohorts."

This is bad news for the nation's Christians: "Among the chief leaders of the Gammaa el Islamiya, Karam Zohdi, Fou'ad El-Dawalibi and Assem Abdel-Maged were released last month on the supposition that for the past several years they had taken an active role in the spread of a pacifist ideology within the characteristically violent group. The violent Gamma el Islamiya revitalized their campaign of terror in the 1990s, seeking to overthrow the government and killing hundreds of people, including police, tourists, and their easiest targets - the Christians."

The group's dislike of Christians stems from its distaste for the nominally secular society of Egypt, and its desire to replace it with a Sharia state: "During the nineties, the group's attacks on the country's Christians increased in both their brutal and indiscriminate nature. Copts, the Christians of Egypt, whose very existence was viewed by the group as a threat to aspirations for a fundamentalist Islamic state, were assaulted, terrorized and murdered. During this decade, Copts, Jews, and Westerners were systematically targeted as infidels, whose wealth was declared by the group's leaders as forfeit and available for the plundering of the Islamic faithful. Coptic men, women, and children were killed; Coptic businesses ravaged and looted; and Coptic churches bombed and set on fire. This onslaught of violence on Copts in their homes, businesses, and places of worship paralyzed the Coptic community."

Nor has the group shown any sign of repentance. "The government's decision to release the Islamist prisoners allegedly comes on the heels of the government's promise of reform towards democratic dialogue and as a consequence of the group's alleged ideological revision. Leaders of the Gamma el Islamiya have issued statements of repentance, however curiously omitting remorse concerning the Copts, Jews, and Western victims of their campaign of violence. In fact, shortly following Zohdi's release, the group published a book, dedicating it to the 'blood of all innocent Muslims who were killed in the [Riyadh] bombing and other similar attacks.' The group has even gone so far as to label President Sadat, assassinated at their hands, as a martyr. Yet, the discriminatory Islamist ideology that propelled the group's members to violence against the Copts appears to remain ingrained within its new, revised philosophy. We hear no remorse for the brutality demonstrated against the infidels (Christians and Jews) - they are once again sidelined as acceptable victims of violence."

Reader Scandinavian infidel last night sent me this story, in which the Muslim Public Affairs Council of the UK calls upon Muslims to protest an illustration in a book:

"It has been brought to our attention that a British company has published the above 'portrait' of Allah's last prophet, Muhammad (peace be upon him) to illustrate the topic of Shariah in their book, 'The History of Punishment'. Why would anyone paint the prophet Muhammad (pbuh) surrounded by naked women?! Why have they chosen to cause so much hurt to Muslims? Is a tiny bit of respect really too much to ask?"

No, not really. I am not in favor of insults to anyone's religion. But I could do an Internet search right now and find thousands of insults to mine, and no one would take me seriously if I set out to get them all removed: America and Britain are, at least at this point, pluralistic societies, in which freedom of speech has a long history. If everything that insulted someone else were banned, what would remain of that freedom?

MPAC also includes a bit of saber-rattling: "This picture is possibly the most disgusting insult against our prophet since 'The Satanic Verses' was published. This humiliation will not stop while most Muslims remain too pacified to lift a finger to stop this."

The Satanic Verses drew a death sentence that sent Salman Rushdie into hiding for years. Is that the sort of response that MPAC would like to see to this "humiliation"?

In any case, I see in LGF that like a good dhimmi, the publisher immediately agreed. "The company's representatives have said that the portrait was unwittingly reproduced, without the realisation that it would cause offence. Negotiations are currently underway to resolve the matter - Amber will be placing a statement on its website."

Peter Hitchens, author of The Abolition of Britain, has now written about what could well be the next stage of Britain's history: Britain as an Islamic society. He explains how Islam is already filling the spiritual void left by the collapse of Christianity there, and that there is no adequate counterweight to its force in the country now.

Hitchens writes of "an astonishing Channel 4 programme last week - The Last White Kids -- showed two English children who live in an entirely Muslim district becoming enthusiastic attenders at the local mosque, wrapping themselves in Islamic draperies and learning the Koran."

The subjects of the show, "Amie Gallagher, nine, and her sister Ashlene, 12, are all-too-typical children of modern Britain in some ways, daughters of a single-parent household where the father is absent."

Why does their family situation matter? "In Islam they seem to have found something that would otherwise be missing from their lives. At the mosque there is authority, certainty, even disciplined education in the Arabic language and the Koran."

That discipline is in contrast to Britain's current miasma of "sexual chaos, drunkenness, family breakdown and the epidemic use of stupefying drugs. Sooner or later, as in every other era of human history, there will be a revulsion against this licence, a desire to stop the waste, cruelty and misery which these things bring, especially to children."

But Christianity, Hitchens explains, which brought an end to similar periods in the nation's history, is too exhausted to do it again. "Its leaders are more concerned about foreign conflict than about domestic misery, and more interested in the sexual tastes of bishops than in trying to regulate the confused sex lives of Britain's young."

He paints a riveting picture of Britain in cultural transition. "The Christian churches have all but disappeared from the lives of the British people. The chapels of Wales are gaunt ruins, the great Roman Catholic churches of the industrial North West are often empty and derelict, the Anglicans scuttle about in their hallowed, lovely buildings like mice amid ancient ruins, rarely even beginning to fill spaces designed for multitudes. The choirs and the bells gradually fall silent, the hymns are no longer sung and one by one the doors are locked and places which in some cases have seen worship for centuries become bare museums of a dead faith. . . . When Christianity was part of our culture and its beliefs were handed down in homes and schools, its familiarity kept it strong. Everyone knew Bible stories, hymns and prayers. Now it is at least as alien to many young people as Islam, if not more so because it does not seem to be interested in them.

"But Islam is interested in them. And Islam is growing. More and more British cities have seen the domes and minarets of smart, prominently positioned new mosques rising in their neighbourhoods.

"A large and imposing Islamic centre is now nearing completion in Oxford, one of Christian England's holiest places. Imagine what would happen if Anglicans sought to build a Christian centre in Qom, Isfahan, Najaf or anywhere on the soil of Saudi Arabia, and wonder what Muslim leaders think of Christian feebleness on such matters.

"Thanks to the immigration of recent decades, Britain has a young, energetic and swelling Muslim population which is increasingly assertive about its faith."

And with this population has come nasty signs of the presence of radical Islam and the dhimmi impulse: "Official Islam may disapprove of such things but there have even been signs of the Muslim intolerance towards Christianity that is a nasty feature of so many Islamic societies. In the Bradford suburb of Girlington, not far from where the Gallaghers live in Manningham, Asian youths tried to set fire to an Anglican church. Soon afterwards, a Brownie pack leader was attacked in a nearby street by young men who snarled 'Christian bitch' at her. . . . If you travel to these areas, you get the sense that Islam, one of the great forces of history, long ago defeated by the armies and navies of a mighty Christian Europe, is once again feeling its strength and finding that it has been able to penetrate what were once the most impregnable fortresses of its great rival."

The bottom line for Britain's future: "In a country in the grip of unbelief, those with strong, clear convictions and an uncluttered message have a great advantage over those who offer nothing but choices to the perplexed and cannot seem to make up their minds about anything."

Some trenchant questions: "If bureaucratic police and feeble justice continue to fail to suppress crime and disorder, will the savage but simple remedies of Sharia law begin to appeal to the British poor, who are already weary of seeing dishonesty triumph everywhere and lawless violence go unchecked?

"Might Islam become respectable among the politically correct middle classes, in a way that Christianity never really can, because Christianity is always associated in this country with the conservative, imperial past?" (Thanks to Little Green Footballs.)

"A report released Tuesday said Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network has been largely dismantled, but the threat posed by extremist Muslim terrorists remains high and has grown harder to track." This just in from AP.

I have been saying ever since 9/11 that the threat of radical Islam doesn't come only from Al-Qaeda, but that radicals around the world are making recruits by appealing to the Qur'an and Sunna. It's nice to see AP coming around on this.

"Kevin Rosser, one of the report's authors, said worldwide counterterrorism efforts, including the arrests of al-Qaida leaders like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, had significantly disabled the network. 'The al-Qaida organization that existed on Sept. 11 (2001) ... really no longer exists, it's been largely dismantled,' he said."

Later, however, comes a sour note: "However, bin Laden remains at large and not everyone agrees with that assessment of al-Qaida's capabilities. Officials in Saudi Arabia believe a suicide car bombing that killed at least 17 people in Riyadh on Saturday bore similarities to previous attacks blamed on the group."

Rosser adds: "What we're beginning to see is a much more disparate movement of people who are sometimes coordinating their acts and sometimes not, but who are inspired by the example of al-Qaida and who are carrying out attacks. So we see the threat becoming much more elusive and the danger is that it becomes much harder to track." . . .

"Rosser said that terrorists' intense focus on civilian targets and the presence of strong anti-American and anti-Western feelings in many parts of the world mean the risk of new attacks remains high. The report noted the continued risk of a major attack on the United States or Europe, and included London, but not the rest of Britain, on its medium risk list. Athens was also rated medium risk because the Olympics are being held there."

Any sign that Al-Qaeda is growing unpopular in the Muslim world is good news. Still, there is something ghastly about the fact that Muslims are angry because Al-Qaeda attacked "Muslims it considers traitors to the faith."

When we get to the point that the Muslim world is outraged because innocent non-combatants, regardless of their creed, were murdered, then we'll be making progress.

Another example of the common tactic of labeling any criticism of radical and terrorist Islam as "racist."

At Stanford University, "A group of students began circulating an e-mail petition yesterday asking for the recall of Daily Editor in Chief Ramin Setoodeh, after The Daily decided to continue running a series of controversial advertisements from a pro-Israeli group.

"The ads, which have run in many college newspapers nationwide, have attracted campus attention over the past two weeks for claims some students say are anti-Palestinian. One ad depicts Israelis lighting candles in remembrance of Sept. 11 victims, under the words, 'On September 11, 2001, Israelis mourned in Tel-Aviv.' Next to it is a photo showing Palestinian men and children cheering, beneath the text, 'On September 11, 2001, Palestinians celebrated in Lebanon.'" . . .

"'The advertisement suggests that all Palestinians are inhumane and they revel in the shedding of innocent blood,' wrote the group, called the Coalition for Justice, in a letter that members of the Stanford community signed."

No one is suggesting that all Palestinians think one way about anything. But people should be aware that overwhelming majorities of Palestinians are supporting suicide attacks against innocent people.

When will it begin — the massive effort by the Palestinian Authority to convince these people that attacking civilians is wrong, that it damages their cause, and that all people who value human dignity and rights should repudiate such attacks? When will American Muslim groups start calling for such an effort?

Instead, we get the attempts to enforce the silent subservience of dhimmitude on those who dare to speak out against such horrors.

I have many close friends who are Lebanese Christians; they politely decline to be designated as "Arabs," and remind those who call them by that name that they are descendants of the Phoenicians who were in Lebanon long before the Muslim conquerors arrived from Arabia.

Now in Egypt there is a movement stemming from similar principles. "Scores of Egyptian intellectuals and vocational members formed a party called 'Egypt the motherland' ( Mesr al-Um) for dismantling Egypt from its Arab identity.

"Lawyer Mohsin Lutfi said that he will apply to the Parties affairs at the Shoura council after Eid al-Fiter for licensing the party. He explained 'we are a party which says: we are Egyptians and not Arabs.. The Arabs are our friends and neighbors and we have common destiny.. but we are not Arabs.'" . . .

"Lutfi calls for reviving the Heoglyphic and Coptic languages and has been teaching scores of students the Heroglyphic language in his house since 10 years. He studied Heroglyphic language at the French Surrbornne university after he had graduated in 1948 from the law faculty, Fouad 1st university ( the current Cairo university). He also studied at London's university for more than 3 years."

This is a strong anti-dhimmi movement. Also, it is a strong rejection of the general Islamic contempt for the pre-Islamic history of Muslim nations. And many in Egypt are well aware of this: "The Egyptian writer Jamal Badawi strongly criticized the idea of the new party in the Egyptian daily al-Wafd issued on Tuesday, saying 'those of the Pharos trend do not care what form of government there is, rather what is of concern to them is to cancel the Arab era from Egypt's history.' He added they 'are not brave to show off their hostility to Islam, and therefore they concentrate their arrows on Arabization, and put the Arabs in one bunch along with the foreign forces which occupied Egypt.'"

"All is set for the amputation of the limbs of two men convicted by a Sharia court in Zaria. . . . The Kaduna State Grand Khadi, Dr Maccido Ibrahim, who announced this at a Ramadan fast-breaking ceremony at the palace of the Emir of Zauzzau, Dr Shehu Idris, said the judgment signalled the effective take-off of the Sharia legal code in Kaduna.

"He described critics of the Sharia law as ignorant people who are uninformed about the islamic code of jurisprudence." . . .

"Kaduna has an almost equal number of indigenous Christians and Moslems who occupy the southern and northern parts of the state respectively."

Those Christians no doubt realize that the more the Sharia is enforced in Kaduna and elsewhere, the closer they are to being subjugated under the Sharia's laws of dhimmitude.

An AP story today reveals how Iraqi mosques are becoming recruitment centers for anti-American jihadists.

The article quotes a preacher's Friday sermon: "'It's not enough for them to defile the land, they also wanted to defile God's book and then violate the sanctities of Muslims,' the preacher shouted, his words carried into the street by loudspeakers. 'The grandsons of monkeys and pigs, who don't know their mothers or fathers, trespass on the book of God!'"

The "grandsons of monkeys and pigs" is, of course, a reference to the Qur'an's Sura 5:59-60: " Say: 'O people of the Book! Do ye disapprove of us for no other reason than that we believe in Allah, and the revelation that hath come to us and that which came before (us), and (perhaps) that most of you are rebellious and disobedient?' Say: 'Shall I point out to you something much worse than this, (as judged) by the treatment it received from Allah? those who incurred the curse of Allah and His wrath, those of whom some He transformed into apes and swine, those who worshipped evil;- these are (many times) worse in rank, and far more astray from the even path!'" Since the "People of the Book" in the Qur'an are primarily Jews and Christians, calling them "monkeys and pigs" on the basis of this verse has become commonplace among radical Muslims.

"Moustafa Mohammed, a 19-year-old college sophomore squatting in the mosque, listened in anger and pain. 'Islam today is being humiliated,' he said. 'We ask God to make us victorious. They are hurting Muslims. ... It's horrible.' . . . Some mosques in Mosul have become channels for anti-American rhetoric, drumming on Muslim resentments over perceptions of Western dominance and painting the occupation as a religious struggle."

This is something to remember: it doesn't matter how many times Americans deny that this is a clash of civilizations. The other side wants it to be a clash of civilizations, and is doing everything it can to make it so.

Next in the article comes a dose of dhimmi temporizing: "While arguing that many clerics espouse pro-occupation views, American officials say they are keeping an eye on mosques that could be fueling resistance to the coalition administration. But they say local Iraqi authorities have removed only one imam in Mosul for anti-U.S. speeches."

I'd like to hear from those clerics espousing pro-occupation views. Especially since later on in the article we get this: "Across the Middle East, Friday sermons are a traditional way of measuring popular sentiments. The faithful unite around mosques for guidance and support, especially in times of chaos and crisis. A group of Sunni clerics in Mosul, the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq, issued a statement Friday warning people against cooperating with U.S. forces. 'Beware of supporting the occupiers and know that contacting them, without a legitimate necessity, is sinful,' it said." . . .

"At al-Shaheed Bashar Qalander mosque, Sheik Abdel Jawad Mohammed Safo said mosques have a responsibility to direct people and raise their awareness. 'I always stress that the people ruling over us are nonbelievers,' he said. 'We always say that this war is a religious war. ... It's a war between Arabs and Jews; America is a mere toy in the hand of the Jews.'"

Islamic law forbids a non-Muslim to hold authority over a Muslim — that's why the key part of this sheikh's statement is "the people ruling over us are nonbelievers."

"Safo said his pulpit 'is always one of jihad.' Asked if that includes armed jihad, he answered: 'Yes. We call for it in public, without any hesitation.'"

Lt. Col. Chester C. Egert, a chaplain with the 101st Airborne Division, isn't concerned: "In general, I don't think the population is inclined to buy into jihad or fighting against the coalition."

The article concludes: "Saleh Khalaf, director of the office that oversees mosques and other places of worship, traces anti-U.S. sentiment to nonreligious sources. 'The talk of the preachers is a result of the social pressure in their areas,' he said. 'For instance, the neighborhood lacks services and there's a lot of unemployment. If these things are taken care of, I promise ... that 95 percent of the problems between the coalition forces and the people will be solved.'"

This is a common assertion: Islamic radicalism is a result of poverty. And maybe some of it is. But Osama bin Laden is a very rich man. Americans ignore religious motivations at our own risk.

Is your ice cream money funding global jihad? "At dawn, armed FBI (website) agents assigned to an anti-terrorism unit converged on an unlikely front in the war on terrorism: a tiny ice cream shop in Brooklyn."

They "arrested the Yemeni proprietor [Abad Elfgeeh], a naturalized U.S. citizen, who lived three floors above. Based on a tip, they said, they had learned that $20 million had passed through the bank accounts of his business from 1997 until the raid in January. . . . [P]rosecutors believe Elfgeeh was an associate of Sheik Mohammed Hasa Al-Moayad, a prominent Yemeni cleric charged with funneling millions to al-Qaida in the years before the Sept. 11 attacks."

Elfgeeh denies this, but "Al-Moayad allegedly named four men in New York, including Elfgeeh, he claimed had secretly transferred funds to him in Yemen. He also 'said he received money for "jihad" that was collected from the Al Farouq mosque in Brooklyn,' court papers said. Past investigations identified the mosque as a place of worship for terrorists, including the men who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993. Mosque leaders have dismissed any current connection."

This ice cream shop operation is an example of the hawala money laundering system that radicals are using to great effect. "Osama bin Laden has boasted that hawalas created cracks in the Western financial system that 'were as familiar to him and his al-Quaida colleagues as the lines of their own hands,' a recent congressional report warned."

So says Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, according to DEBKAfile.

Also: "three or four days before the May 12 attacks, Saudi and US intelligence discovered and encircled the bombers’ hideout in advance of their operation, but enough escaped to regroup at prepared alternative secret bases and pounce from there. This time too, the Americans and Saudis knew a fresh assault was imminent. On November 8, Washington released information that terrorists had moved from the planning to the operational stage and shut all diplomatic missions in the kingdom." . . .

"DEBKAfile’s terrorism experts note: The sequence of events lays bare a major obstacle in the capabilities of the royal Saudi authorities and the intelligence resources at their command to fight al Qaeda. On top of the conventional terror prevention methods, like human and electronic surveillance and intelligence gathering, the Saudis are confronted with the need to bargain perpetually for the cooperation of local tribal, clan and clerical leaders in handing over al Qaeda suspects. Saudi security officers in pursuit of terrorists dare not venture into a district before the local chiefs and imams have been won over. The alternative is wholesale war against one or more of the tribes that are the backbone of the kingdom’s population."

Also, Kuwait has become a significant recruitment center for Al-Qaeda."DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources reveal exclusively that since mid-October, hundreds of al Qaeda recruits in Kuwait are entering Iraq directly or through Saudi Arabia. The scale of this traffic is beginning to rival the movement of Arab and other al Qaeda fighters into Iraq from Syria. . . . Both the Saudi and Kuwaiti authorities have not been able to stop this dangerous cross-border movement."

Postscript: In a comment here, Michael Ledeen raises some pointed and excellent questions for Mr. Armitage: "DEBKA is about as accurate as Armitage, which is to say NOT. That said, the 'discovery' that al Qaeda is determined to destroy (at least part of) the Saudi Royal Family is what the Italians call 'the discovery of the umbrella,' namely we all knew that all along. Finally, if Armitage is so worred about al Q, then how come he keeps appeasing Iran, which is where al Q has been hiding, training, feeding and reveling since Afghanistan?".

Daleel al-Mojahid, the Yahoo group that posted an early warning to Muslims to flee New York, Los Angeles, and Washington before an imminent al-Qaeda attack, is crowing about the terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia. Last night whoever runs the site posted this:

"alaah akbaar

"the mojahideen had struck the heart of a compound housing arab non-muslims
working for the CIA! the hit was a another slap on bush's face and more slaps
are coming to you face bush.

"this hit is not the hit that we issued a warning about this is a hit to start
cleaning up the dirty black stain of the CIA in the kinkdom.

"ofcourse you will here the saudi TV issue all kinds of false statments of who
was killed in the attack...i wonder why armitage is in saudi arabia meeting up
with the crown prince!! tell your american people who was there armitage!!

"alaah akbaar alaah akbaar and what is coming is greater.

"alaah akbaaar
daleel_almojahid"

Scroll down a bit to see two photos that I posted here last night of "arab non-muslims working for the CIA" who were killed in the attacks.

Walid Phares, one of the world's keenest observers of Islamic terrorism, places Saturday's bombings in the context of an Al-Qaeda ultimatum to the House of Saud: choose the USA or us. When the Saudis looked as if they were cracking down on radicals, al-Qaeda struck.

Phares records the analysis of Al-Jazeera's Washington bureau chief: ". . . the attacks in Riyadh were provoked by crackdowns against Islamists. Hafiz al-Mirazi puts it that way: 'Those men who knew that the security forces were coming to kill them hit first.' In other words, al-Qaeda was implementing a pre-emptive strike, which is not exactly terrorism. In other words, al-Jazeera whitewashed the attack of al-Qaeda on the Saudi Kingdom."

Phares explains that "Riyadh was compressed between its traditional inclination to Wahhabism and its realistic foreign policy need to maintain its ties to the United States. Al-Qaeda wanted to force the Saudis to shift either way, or collapse inwards. From May to November, it gave six months to the Kingdom to make its choice. In the eyes of bin Laden, it seems that the Saudi ruling elite made its choice, deciding to crack down on al-Qaeda's operations within the Kingdom."

The last straw for al-Qaeda was the Kingdom's crackdowns on the rabid clerics I quote in my own piece (see below): "Then al-Qaeda decided the Saudis had gone too far. One day, Crown Prince Abdallah made a declaration of war against the 'clerics' who protected al-Qaeda and legitimized violence. He called them 'intruders' and 'enemies of the true path.' It was seen, by al-Qaeda, as declaration of war."

". . . By October, winds of jihad were blowing.Osama bin Laden aired his audiotape on al-Jazeera television, ordering his Mujahedeen to attack infidels around the Middle East on October 19. The Qatari-based satellite TV network not only broadcast the 'State of Jihad' address, but played it all day long, and assembled intellectuals to explain it better to the populace."

So much for the recent claims from some in the Muslim world that Al-Jazeera was bowing to US pressure and climbing out of the radicals' hip pocket. Meanwhile, how is the venerable network covering the Saturday attacks? Here's Phares: "Less than a few minutes after the blasts Saturday at midnight, Middle East time, the news room in Qatar was interviewing the spokesman of the 'Islamic Reform Movement' of London. In a split second, the Islamist dissident accused the Saudis of 'massacres' inside the holy city. Associating Mecca with Muslim blood is, indeed, explosive. I'll bet that in the next days or weeks you will hear the story developing as a 'legitimate guerrilla attack' against the monarchy, or at least, there will be an attempt to frame it that way."

That will be most interesting to see.

"The attack against the al-Muhayya neighborhood is typical of al-Qaeda methodology. The organization attacks the 'infidels' wherever it can reach them in Arabia, then waits to see the authorities falling in front of hard choices; either with the infidels or against them. That's what drives al-Qaeda and its suicide bombers today: They are simply dividing the world into what they want it to be -- the world of international law and the world of jihad."

Precisely.

In a new article at World Net Daily, "Ramadan in Saudi Arabia," I explain how Saturday's bombings are the fruit of years of Saudi tolerance for and even encouragement of Islamic radicalism.

Among those murdered by Al-Qaeda jihadists yesterday in Saudi Arabia were these two Lebanese Maronite Christian children:

Jad (age 4) and Raya (age 7) Mezher

Here is a statement about them and the bombing from the World Lebanese Cultural Union (WLCU):

TERRORISM MASSACRES 3, INJURES 90 OTHERS — INCLUDING TWO LEBANESE CHILDREN IN RIYADH

Source: wlcuir@aol.com

The Commission on International Relations (CIR) of the WLCU deplores the Terrorist attack in Riyadh on November 8, 2003, which led to the massacre of three Lebanese nationals and more than 90 Lebanese citizens.

The Commission is saddened to inform the Lebanese Diaspora and Lebanon's civil society that two Lebanese children were massacred by the Terrorist attack: Raya and Jad Mezher. Raya (seven years) and Jad (four years) are the children of Charbel Mezher and the nephew and niece of the WLCU Media advisor Pierre Atallah. Mr. Atallah is the founder of the Paris Chapter of the WLCU and al-Nahar (daily), and is a well known journalist and writer.

The World Lebanese Cultural Union stigmatize these acts of terror whose cowardly acts target children, women and elderly. The Terrorists who perpetrated the massacre of Riyadh against the Lebanese community on November 8, 2003 are from the same evil organization that perpetrated the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington, where in addition to thousands of American and international citizens, many Lebanese have also been massacred.

The Lebanese people, both in the Diaspora and in Lebanon, has sided and will continue to side with the international campaign against Terrorism. Lebanon was the first battlefield against Terrorism, and its people were the first to be massacred by Terror since the 1970s.

The attacks of Riyadh were directed not only against the national security of Saudi Arabia, its moderate citizens and Western citizens, but against the Lebanese community that has contributed to the renaissance of the Arab culture and the prosperity of the Kingdom for more than half a century.

The Al-Qaida murderers have targeted the compound because of the large number of Lebanese citizens, including children and women who live there. The WLCU calls on the Saudi Government to mobilize all of its resources inside the country and worldwide to bring the murderers to justice. The WLCU calls on the United Nations to hold a special session to examine ways and means to combat the al-Qaida Terrorists and its followers around the world.

As we deplore the martyrdom of the three Lebanese citizens, and particularly Raya and Jad, at the hands of Terrorists, we reserve to the WLCU its full rights for legal action against whomever will be made responsible for these murders by a court of law.

A new warning from Al-Qaeda posted at Northeast Intelligence Network: "A final warning to all of the Muslims in three sites inside the United States - Washington - New York - Los Angeles... The hit from al Qaeda is inevitable.... the complete readiness for zero day God willing depart immediately..."

(Thanks to Crusader Girl at LGF.)

A reader, Doug, has kindly pointed me to this story in which a Saudi gentleman named Mohsen al-Awajy is identified as a "moderate Islamist."

Come again? I thought "Islamist" was the term du jour for a Muslim who believes that it is part of his religious responsibility to wage war and commit acts of violence in order to institute Islamic law. As Doug puts it, "I guess a moderate islamist is one who will start by just killing your pets or putting sugar in your gas tank in a humane attempt to get you to see the light."

From Cairo comes more confirmation of the idea that Ramadan is seen by many Muslims as a chance to strike out in acts of "Jihad against Satan and his followers."

"'For militant groups, Ramadan is an opportunity for escalating violence,' Dia'a Rashwan, an expert on radical Islam at Egypt's Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said Sunday."

According to Rashwan, "some Muslim militants believe they would 'gain the highest reward' by committing acts of jihad, or holy war, in the month during which Muslims believe their sacred book the Quran was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad."

The article also quotes some apparent moderates, including Abdul-Moti Bayoumi of the Islamic Research Center at Cairo's Al-Azhar University, who said: "Linking Ramadan with violence is unacceptable. Ramadan is the month of peace between the individual and himself, with people and with God."

Bayoumi is so moderate that in 2001, he said that suicide bombings in America would be terrorism, but in Israel they're acceptable.

Another moderate quoted was "Saleh al-Fauzan, a member of Saudi Arabia's senior clerics committee, [who] told Saudi radio that attacks in his capital Saturday blamed on Muslim extremists violated 'the sanctity of Ramadan.'"

That is the Saleh al-Fauzan (spelled al-Fawzan below) who is so moderate that he said "Slavery is a part of Islam. Slavery is part of jihad." (See the post by that name below.)

This article also correctly notes that "the seventh century Battle of Badr," in which the Muslim Prophet Muhammad himself fought, "the first battle between Muslims and non-Muslims, took place during Ramadan." And also, "Egypt and Syria launched their 1973 war on Israel during Ramadan." There was no accident in either case.

Good news for the world's dhimmis? "Iran's vice president for legal and parliamentary affairs Mohammad-Ali Abtahi said here Saturday that the real Islam is the religion of freedom and peace which does not contradict principles of human rights."

In a meeting with a UN official, Abtahi explained that "The (Iranian) government has done its best to opt for a version of religion which would not be against human life, peace and freedom because any religion which stands against human freedoms would be removed from political and social scenes. . . . Today, the Iranian nation demands reforms and this is among great achievements of the Islamic Republic's government."

Wonderful. Then I assume that Abtahi fully supports Nobelist Shirin Ebadi's call for the "abolition of Islamic penalties and their replacement by judicial punishments."

I trust he also supports her call "for an end to stoning and the amputation of limbs," and that he shares her "grave concern about women's rights in Iran, pointing to the fact that a woman's life is officially considered only half as valuable as a man's and that a woman's divorce rights are far weaker than her husband's."

If the Iranian government denounces the death threats against Ebadi and adopts her recommendations at the highest levels, then I'll believe Abtahi.

"Answering Osama bin Laden's call for a holy war in Iraq, hundreds of followers from at least eight nations have entered the country and are playing a major role in attacking Western targets and Iraqi civilians, U.S. and Iraqi officials say."

This quote is from a Los Angeles Times story that is circulating over the wire: I picked up in the Fort Worth Star Telegram. This is the kind of coverage we get when political correctness prevents people from acknowledging the dimensions of the problem we're up against. I noted below that in Onward Muslim Soldiers I give numerous examples of Muslim spokesmen calling the war on Iraq a defensive jihad many months ago, and telling Muslims that they were obligated to go to Iraq to fight or to do anything they could possibly do to help. Here are some of those listed in the book:
• Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar University in Egypt;
• The Grand Mufti of Syria, Ahmad Kuftaro;
• The influential Indian Imam Syed Ahmed Bukhari;
• Pakistani Mufti Mohammed Jamil Khan;
• Habib Rizieq Shihab of Indonesia’s Islamic Defenders Front (FPI).

Says the article: "The largest group of militants is from neighboring Syria, officials say, while others have come from Jordan, Egypt, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Palestinian territories."

Syria and Egypt. Hmm. And they're all listening just to Osama, not to Tantawi or Kuftaro?

Also these men, among many others, declared that the war in Iraq was a jihad:
• Canadian Imam Gamal Soleiman;
• Parouk Hussin, the leader of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao region of the Philippines.

By saying that the jihadists in Iraq are all answering Osama's call, the piece gives a misleading impression of the extent of militant Muslim sentiment around the world. It's much, much bigger than just Osama.

"Al-Qaida is not only operating in Iraq against coalition forces, it is preparing for the next stage of guerrilla warfare: winning the hearts and minds of ordinary Iraqi Sunnis and wearing down the will of the American public," according to the Jerusalem Post.

How will they win these hearts and minds? By appealing to their Islamic loyalty. The article quotes Peter Bergen, identified as "an al-Qaida expert": "In the three most recent Osama bin Laden video cassettes, he refers repeatedly to Iraq."

The article continues:

The support is not only rhetorical. Bergen added that Dr. Saad al-Fagih, a London-based Saudi radical, told him that, in June and July, 3,000 Saudis went to fight in Iraq - just as many Arab volunteers once streamed into Soviet-occupied Afghanistan. 'For them, as well as many others in the Muslim world, fighting in Iraq is the classical defensive jihad,' he said."

I give example after example of Muslim clerics defining the war in Iraq as a defensive jihad as early as last winter in Onward Muslim Soldiers.

"Slavery is a part of Islam," says a leading Saudi government cleric. "Slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long there is Islam."

And he is the author of textbooks that are used to teach Muslim students in Saudi Arabia and the United States.

The Saudi Information Agency reports that

leading government cleric Sheikh Saleh Al-Fawzan is the author of the religious books currently used to teach 5 million Saudi students, both within the [Kingdom] and in Saudi schools aboard - including those in the Washington, D.C. metro area.

The slick Saudi flack "Adel Al-Jubeir and other officials have repeatedly claimed religious curriculums are being reformed, but Al-Fawzan's books continued to be used according to the minister of education's statements published by Al-Watan daily September 14th, 2003."

This may be because Sheikh Saleh has friends in high places:

Al-Fawzan is member of the Senior Council of Clerics, Saudi Arabia's highest religious body, a member of the Council of Religious Edicts and Research, the Imam of Prince Mitaeb Mosque in Riyadh, and a professor at Imam Mohamed Bin Saud Islamic University, the main Wahhabi center of learning in the country.

The Sheikh has little use for the apologetic arguments of Muslim moderates:

Al-Fawzan refuted the mainstream Muslim interpretation that Islam worked to abolish slavery by introducing equality between the races. 'They are ignorant, not scholars,' he said of people who express such opinions. 'They are merely writers. Whoever says such things is an infidel.'

It gets worse:

Al-Fawzan's most famous book, 'Al-Tawheed - Monotheism', is taught to Saudi high school students. In it, he says that most Muslims are polytheists, and their blood and money are therefore free for the taking by 'true Muslims.'

Note one thing: the controversial aspect of this is his classification, in Wahhabi fashion, of most Muslims as polytheists. Not in dispute, at least in terms of classic Islamic jurisprudence, is the principle that the blood and money of polytheists are free for the taking by Muslims.

[Al-Fawzan] is also is a leading opponent of those who seek to introduce change to the Saudi school curriculum. He also claimed that elections and demonstrations are western imitations.

Certainly there is no broad Islamic tradition of elections and demonstrations. (Thanks to Little Green Footballs).

A United States District Court has "sentenced three American members of Lashkar-e-Toiba, including a Pakistani-born American citizen, for plotting 'jihad'" in Kashmir.

Lashkar-e-Toiba, "Army of the Pure," is a radical Muslim group dedicated to restoring Islamic rule not only in Kashmir, but in all of India.

"The three have been sentenced by a Virginia court to prison terms ranging from three to 11 years following guilty pleas in August to conspiracy and weapons charges to escape harsher sentence. . . .

"US District Judge, Leonie M. Brinkema, in Alexandria yesterday sentenced Yong Ki Kwon, 27, a naturalised US citizen of Fairfax, Khwaja Mahmood Hasan, 27, a Pakistani-born US citizen who lived in Alexandria, and Donald T. Surratt, 30, a former US soldier of Suitland.

"The three men were among 11 named in a 41-count indictment handed up in June in a conspiracy to 'prepare for and engage in violent jihad' against foreign targets.

"Nine of the 11 were identified as US citizens. A fourth person, Mohammed Aatiq, a Pakistani national living in Pennsylvania, has also plead[ed] guilty. He will be sentenced next month.

"Hasan and Kwon could have received life sentences, while Surratt faced up to 15 years. All three have agreed to cooperate with authorities in the government's ongoing investigation."

It seems that 30 of the prisoners at Guantanamo are Egyptians.

According to Middle East Newsline, "the Egyptians were captured in the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 and suspected of fighting for Al Qaida and the then-ruling Taliban movement."

Just another illustration of the global appeal of the call to jihad.

As fires still burn in Riyadh, the Saudi Arab News has posted a story about the latest from Kuala Lumpur: "Malaysia criticized the United States yesterday for issuing a safety warning to Americans in the country, saying security nationwide is adequate and ruling out fears that it will hurt foreign tourist arrivals."

After U.S. intelligence correctly predicted trouble in Saudi Arabia yesterday, this is a particularly inopportune time to take American officials to task for such warnings.

Evidently it isn't just in Algeria that some Muslims think Ramadan is a perfect time for "Jihad against Satan and his followers." In Saudi Arabia, "three explosions rocked a residential compound in the Saudi capital Saturday night, and a government official said the attack came after gunmen broke into the compound and exchanged fire with security guards."

Details are murky at this point, "the manager of the targeted compound estimated that 100 people were wounded, and a resident said 20 to 30 people were killed, the Al-Arabiya television channel said. Ma'aed al-Yamie, a doctor at Riyadh Central Hospital, told The Associated Press that a Sudanese man killed in the blast and 10 wounded were brought to his hospital."

U.S. intelligence deserves some props for seeing this one coming: "The attack occurred a day after the U.S. Embassy issued a warning that terror attacks could be imminent in the tense Gulf kingdom, and American diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia were closed Saturday as a result."

Northeast Intelligence Network reports more on the latest threats: a radical Muslim source "mentioned in its Friday issue that the Al Qaeda Network under Osama bin Laden's leadership plans for the direction of a deathblow to the Americans during this Ramadan season." . . .

In case you're counting, Ramadan ends this year on November 25.

"And the Qatari Al Jazeera transmitted a message attributed to Osama bin Laden on 18 October 2003 that threatened in it the Al-Qaeda leader with the sending of suicide bombers to the United States and the attack of any forces that joins the alliance that the United States lead in Iraq."

The threat contained this prayer: "Oh Allah fix the feet of our brothers that prepare for the hitting of a special America and for all of the Mujaheed an all and memorize them from the trials and their more honorable from the families and split they them the appearance of the unbelievers and elevate they them the religion word and the acceptance of their blood .. And we inflicted they them not a Khzaya and no tempted and no damns ..Amen" Broken English, but I get the idea. (Thanks to LGF).

The bishop of Oslo, Gunnar Staalsett, has "warned Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Erna Solberg of the dangers of criticizing Islam after she told Norway's Muslims that they should modernize their religion. Staalsett fears that the statement will create a warped view of Islam."

What kind of warped view of Islam? Solberg said last week that "Islam in Europe must function differently than it does in Islamic countries. . . . These religious leaders can't just be brought up from Islamic countries where Muslims are in the majority. They have no understanding of what it's like to be a Muslim in a country where they're a minority. . . . It's especially important that immigrants learn what it means to live in a feminist society."

Oh, and by the way, "Solberg earlier this year was the target of death threats by a disgruntled Muslim asylum-seeker, and she also has been at the center of the storm around Mullah Krekar, the suspected terrorist who remains in Norway despite a deportation order."

Meanwhile, MSNBC reports that Ansar al-Islam, the Kurdish radical Muslim group that Krekar headed until 2002, has been blamed by U.S. officials for "the wave of anti-U.S. attacks in Iraq, and at least four Islamic groups linked by ideology or personnel to the international jihadi movement that includes Al-Qaeda are operating in Iraq, along with at least two Saddam-ite groups and cells from Ansar al-Islam itself." No word as to whether Staalsett scolded Krekar for presenting a "warped view of Islam."

While Algerian Muslims are enjoying a peaceful Ramadan enforced with bayonets (see below), Swedish Muslims are "trying their best to instill the Islamic values and Ramadanian traditions into their young generations."

Are any of those Ramadan traditions the ones that inspire radical Muslim Algerians to wage "Jihad against Satan and his followers" during the holy month?

The problem in Sweden and all over the world is that multiculturalism prevents such questions from being asked. Multiculturalists encourage Muslims to preserve and defend "Ramadan traditions" and every other aspect of their tradition, just as they encourage all immigrants to preserve their traditions in their new country and resist assimilation. But it's in the worst possible taste to suggest that some of those traditions may be inconsistent with traditions in the new country.

But if all Muslims view Ramadan as a peaceful period, why does the Algerian military have its hands full this month?

Meanwhile, in a scene that reminded me of how I used to watch "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and "A Charlie Brown Christmas" every December, Swedish Muslims are gathering around the TV for some wholesome Ramadan fare: a 26-part miniseries that "traces back Zionism at all political, economic and religious levels, and unmasking ways used by the Jews to create their 'fictitious' entity in Palestinian territories." Glad to see they're promoting peace.

Islam Online reports that "political analysts believe the security measures taken by Algerian authorities during Ramadan - when attacks of armed groups against civilians and police forces usually intensify - have largely contributed to limit the scope of such attacks and allowed citizens to enjoy quiet, secure Ramadan nights."

The story explains that "armed groups usually declare the intensification of what they term 'Jihad against Satan and his followers' during the holy month of Ramadan." This, of course, seems to be utterly inconsistent with the idea of Ramadan as a time of spiritual purification, but from the radical Muslim perspective it's entirely in keeping with it; radicals see violent jihad as just that: an act of spiritual purification.

This has long been a serious problem in Algeria. Says the article: "Victims of violent incidents during Ramadan in 1997 have topped 3000. It amounted to genocides, but such numbers decrease gradually year after another with the improvement of the security conditions in Algeria."

This "improvement of security conditions" is very much like open warfare: "Algerian army forces, for their part, have launched extensive attacks against the armed groups, killing 16 armed men in three days. The security forces liquidated 10 terrorists and restored several machineguns in Saida and Gulaizan provinces. . . . A source close to the security agencies, who refused to be named, told IslamOnline.net that the army forces attacked an armed group Thursday, eventually killing eight. Military forces also killed two armed people in Awlad Eiiesh district. The military forces also killed six other armed persons Wednesday, November 5, in Assas Mountain, during a military operation similar to the previous two."

Nevertheless, "despite the security measures taken during the holy month, the armed groups managed to penetrate through their mountainous edifices and kill four persons Wednesday and Thursday in Media and Sacdida provinces, according to Algerian newspapers."

I wonder what the authorities are doing on the ideological side of this struggle -- to disabuse Muslims of the notion that killing people is a good way to please Allah during Ramadan.

Former Palestinian Authority official Abdul Fattah Hamayel, according to the BBC, says that "the Authority sends 50,000 dollars a month to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades members as living expenses to try to stop them carrying out attacks in a three-year-old uprising."

Reuters quotes an Israeli spokesman, Avi Pazner, going farther: ''In our experience...the Palestinian Authority funds terrorist attacks. The Brigades is directly subject to Arafat's authority, and therefore all he needs to do is order it to stop its terrorism if that is what the Palestinian Authority really wants.''

But Arafat's people deny it all. Says Hatem Abdel-Qader of Fatah: ''The Fatah central committee does not recognise them and tried time and again to dismantle the group. The Finance Ministry has no mandate to give the Brigades money and nor does Fatah. What Abdul Fattah Hamayel is claiming is baseless and untrue. Perhaps he was misquoted.''

Perhaps. But would it really surprise anyone if this charge about Arafat were proven? After all, he has been sponsoring terrorist attacks for years.

The Qur'an is now on display in a glass cube atop a brass pedestal at One Police Plaza in New York City.

This one speaks for itself.

First it came from various jihadist websites (see "Al Qaeda warnings and the Qur'an," below); now it is coming from all over: Al Qaeda is planning a major attack in early November.

Of course, these threats have proven worthless many times before. It may be that Al Qaeda has been decimated to the extent that the only way it can get to us now is to try to scare us. I am not putting off a trip today from Secure Undisclosed Locationville to one of the cities mentioned in the warnings to Muslims. Nonetheless, to think that any and all threats from Al Qaeda or from any radical Muslim group are now worthless would be naive. This is by no means a force that has been neutralized.

9/11 or its aftermath may have been planned to be much larger, according to a report today in World Net Daily.

Says Roger Cressey, the former director for counterterrorism for the National Security Council: "Our assumption at the White House at the time was that there were more attacks planned. Maybe not on 9-11 but certainly afterward. [Osama] bin Laden and his people think strategically." . . .

"ABC said some of the suspected terrorists have been killed or captured overseas, but one who traveled to the U.S. with a suspected would-be hijacker is still unaccounted for. That man, who might still be in the country, was traveling with a Saudi national who left the U.S. just before Sept. 11 for unknown reasons. . . ."

I set out abundant evidence in Onward Muslim Soldiers for thinking that terrorists are still operating in the US, and Cressey thinks so too. "A terrorist network might still be in place in the U.S., said Cressey. 'In fact, there probably is,' he told ABC. 'Just because the FBI has not found it yet does not mean that it doesn't exist.'"

"A devout Muslim who tried to hire a hitman to avenge a perceived stain on his family's honour was facing a possible lengthy jail term yesterday after being found guilty of incitement to murder."

"Mohammed Arshad, 49, a businessman and leading member of the Tayside Asian community, was outraged by his daughter's secret wedding and wanted his new son-in-law 'removed from this earth'."

He hired a hitman, who turned out to be an undercover cop, and now Arshad is in a heap of trouble.

Remember: just last September in Jordan, a law stiffening penalties for honor killings was rejected, partially on Islamic grounds.

When people talk about a clash of civilizations, here it is. The U.K. is prosecuting Arshad for something that would get him little or no penalty in Jordan. As the Muslim population in Scotland increases, will these new Scots Muslims discard any ideas about the acceptibility of honor killing that they may have and adopt those of their new homeland -- or will we begin to see a change in attitudes toward this crime in Britain?

This AP profile of a "resistance fighter" in Iraq spells out why exactly he is resisting. Contrary to the beliefs (stated in the story) of American analysts that most of the resistance comes from supporters of Saddam, the Iraqi Muslim cleric Abdel Jawad Mohammed Safo says that "he believes many of the resistance fighters are young and deeply religious."

Says Sheikh Abdel: "The former regime in Iraq is like a book that has been closed. It's over. Most acts of (resistance) in the country stem from religious reasons. A Muslim doesn't accept a foreigner and a nonbeliever to rule over him."

Indeed. Islamic law forbids non-Muslims to hold authority over Muslims. In light of that, what might Ahmed Hassan Ibrahim, the subject of the story (who was killed while firing rocket-propelled grenades at American troops), have thought of a democracy set up by those foreigners and nonbelievers? What might he have thought of a government that did not obey Islamic law? Was it "cultural condescension" that made him oppose the nascent Iraqi democracy?

"An Army helicopter crashed Friday into a riverbank near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, killing at least four U.S. soldiers, the military said. Another American was killed and nine were wounded in attacks in the northern city of Mosul, raising concerns that the insurgency was spreading north. . . ."

"'Death was in the cause of freedom. They were serving our country and answering our nation's call to fight terrorists,' said the unit's commanding officer, Col. David A. Teeples. 'We honor them for their sacrifice. We honor them as Americans, as soldier[s] and as family.'"

Yes.

"Army officials said the helicopter's crew apparently had a last-second warning of an approaching missile and managed to launch flares designed to draw the heat-seeking missile away. The defensive measure did not work and the missile slammed into the right side of the helicopter's rear engine, destroying it and triggering a fire."

When a Black Hawk helicopter went down in Somalia in 1993 and 18 Americans were killed in fighting in Mogadishu, President Clinton withdrew our forces. However ill-advised the whole Somali adventure may have been in the first place, this withdrawal is what convinced Osama bin Laden that America was soft and ready to be defeated. Although our long-term presence in Iraq is undesirable and unfeasible, if Clinton's actions are repeated now in Iraq, many other terrorists will draw the same conclusion.

In his speech today on democracy in the Middle East, President Bush said: "Some skeptics of democracy assert that the traditions of Islam are inhospitable to the representative government. This 'cultural condescension,' as Ronald Reagan termed it, has a long history. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, a so-called Japan expert asserted that democracy in that former empire would 'never work.' Another observer declared the prospects for democracy in post-Hitler Germany are, and I quote, 'most uncertain at best' -- he made that claim in 1957."

I have been skeptical in print about the possibilities for democracy in Iraq. As such, two questions:

1. Is it "cultural condescension" if the skepticism about democracy in an Islamic context that the President derides comes from Muslims themselves? In the article I linked to above I quote the radical Muslim writer Abdul Qader Abdul Aziz, who explicitly rules out Western political models for Islamic societies: "[I]n kufr, or disbelief, is the one who claims that the Muslims are in need for the systems of democracy, communism or any other ideology, without which the Muslims lived and applied the rules of Allah in matters that faced them for 14 centuries."

This man is not alone. Muslim theorists throughout the world have derided democracy, declaring it a Western import, foreign to Islam. See Onward Muslim Soldiers for profiles of several of them, notably the influential Egyptian radical Muslim writer Sayyid Qutb. Does this mean that democracy must fail in Iraq? Certainly not. But Mr. President, I hope you are aware that skepticism about the compatibility of Islam and democracy comes not only from those who indulge in "cultural condescension," but also from significant elements within Islam.

2. Japan's state Shinto and Germany's Nazism were discredited and repudiated ideologies after World War II. What real evidence is there that radical Islam is today in Iraq or anywhere else a discredited and repudiated ideology, or that it will come to be one because of any actions by Americans or others in the future?

I share Bush's hope that democracy will take hold in the Middle East. But with all respect I believe that to gloss over the real obstacles it faces only sets us up for disappointment and worse.

(Postscript: As readers have pointed out, Bush also said this: "It should be clear to all that Islam -- the faith of one-fifth of humanity -- is consistent with democratic rule. Democratic progress is found in many predominantly Muslim countries -- in Turkey and Indonesia, and Senegal and Albania, Niger and Sierra Leone. Muslim men and women are good citizens of India and South Africa, of the nations of Western Europe, and of the United States of America.

More than half of all the Muslims in the world live in freedom under democratically constituted governments."

Granted. I think it would be as asinine as the President suggests it would to say that Muslims can't live in democracies. But the problem with the states he mentioned, although each is quite different from the other, is that none of them are "Islamic democracies." That is, none are constituted as democracies by means of Islamic principles. All have stepped away from Sharia in varying degrees in order to establish, insofar as they have, democratic rule. That being the case, each is under pressure, again in varying degrees, from elements within each country who believe that the government is illegitimate on Islamic grounds. And the ideology of those people not only has not been discredited, it is quite widespread today, notably in Iraq.

So what I wish the President would address, since he has brought up the subject, is how he intends to deal, and how he thinks Muslims ought to deal, with the Sharia and with those who think that it must be the foundation of any Muslim state. Because those people are not outsiders being condescending, they are insiders in Muslim society and they are not going away.)

Imad Hamad of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) wanted the Crestwood Board of Education in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, to make Eid (Eid ul-Fitr, the Muslim holy day marking the end of Ramadan) a day off from school.

So Hamad wrote in a letter to school board president Ron Panetta: "We are urging you to thoroughly review this matter, and consider the various concerns, before making an ultimate decision. Rushing into decisions that involve such sensitive issues might bring serious ramifications and unexpected unhealthy consequences." (Thanks to Agent Azure.)

Serious ramifications? Unexpected unhealthy consequences? Panetta thought he was being threatened; Hamad denies that the letter meant anything more than "an effort to alert the district of the wrong message that might come across to the community if this matter were to become more political, rather than educational in nature."

All right. Maybe that's all Hamad meant, although if so his choice of words was outrageously undiplomatic and imprudent. But even if that is all he meant, why the strong-arming and threats of political agitation over a school holiday? I don't believe that Good Friday or Yom Kippur are generally public school holidays. Why should Eid ul-Fitr be any different? Why is equality for minorities so often confused with special treatment for minorities?

By insisting on what amounts to preferential treatment for Muslims and the subservient dhimmitude of the larger community, Imad Hamad and the ADC are perpetuating the need for themselves: the strong-arming, whether it involves physical threats or not, will lead to resentment, which will lead to the perceived need for an advocacy group. The ADC would do all Muslims in America a favor by dropping this kind of bullying from its tactic sheet.

Colin Powell hosted an Iftaar dinner (the evening meal to break the day's Ramadan fast) last night at the State Department.

In his address to the gathering, he declared: "I have learned about Islam as a religion of peace and caring, a religion that teaches values we all share, such as tolerance, justice, and respect for human dignity."

That's wonderful, and it's undoubtedly true that millions of Muslims share the values of tolerance, justice, and respect for human dignity. It's also undoubtedly true that within Islam there are broad and established traditions with quite different takes on tolerance, justice, and respect for human dignity from what we might expect. One need only look at Shirin Ebadi's struggle to end, among other things, stonings and amputations in Iran -- efforts which are resisted by the leaders of Iran on Islamic grounds.

Look at the Iranian Sufi leader, Sheikh Tabandeh, who wrote A Muslim Commentary on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To take one of many examples: while arguing for capital punishment if a Muslim is killed, Tabandeh argues against it if the murderer is Muslim and the victim non-Muslim. "Since Islam regards non-Muslims as on a lower level of belief and conviction, if a Muslim kills a non-Muslim . . . then his punishment must not be the retaliatory death, since the faith and conviction he possesses is loftier than that of the man slain. A fine only may be exacted from him . . ."

What does this have to do with Powell's iftaar? Everything. For Tabandeh's views are not just how own. They are quite widespread in the Islamic world, and they are a key guide to its attitudes toward the West today. It is nice, and diplomatic, for Powell to assert otherwise, but I hope that he is aware that his statement of what Islamic attitudes are is not universally accepted by Muslims, and that that fact has important geopolitical implications.

According to the Chinese news service Xinhuanet, "A former member of the Iranian espionage services testified Wednesday that his country was behind the 1994 attack on a Jewish center in the Argentinian capital which left 86 dead."

"The attack on a Jewish center building on July 18, 1994 left a total of 86 people dead and more than 500 injured."

Why? The attack "was intended to avenge the Argentine government's failure to supply nuclear materials to Iran, as promised in the past."

Let's see. Somebody was thinking: The Argentine government has failed us. We must have revenge! Let us attack a Jewish community center! This twisted leap of logic becomes understandable only in the context of the radical Muslim anti-Semitic hatred and paranoia of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

I take my questions to Dr. Badawi (below, "In search of moderate Muslims") to a wider forum in a new article, "O Moderate Muslims, Where Art Thou?" at FrontPage this morning.

Asia Times reports that "Aljazeera is coming in for increasing criticism in the Arab world after a spate of embarrassing revelations that suggest it has capitulated to United States pressure and tamed its news coverage."

Exactly how did it tame its coverage? "Aljazeera's top management chose not to air several Osama bin Laden tapes; pulled from its news websites caricatures the White House deemed offensive; and removed its former general manager following US complaints to the Emir of Qatar about the channel's coverage of the war in Iraq."

Now I don't know about the caricatures and the Emir of Qatar, but what's that about Osama? Al-Jazeera is being criticized for not giving him publicity? Ibrahim Hillal, the editor-in-chief, explained: "We don't want to become the fanatic's channel."

Precisely. After all, I thought that Osama's version of Islam was a discredited ideology, rejected by the vast majority of Muslims. So who is criticizing Al-Jazeera for not putting his mug on the air?

Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi "has been given bodyguards by police following a number of death threats since she returned to Iran last month, a close associate said Wednesday."

Ebadi has no friends in high places. "Gholamreza Hasani, who represents Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in northwestern Iran, has described Ebadi as a 'mentally retarded woman with secular thinking.'"

Evidence of her retardation: her calls for a reform of the Islamic Republic. Specifically, she has called for the "abolition of Islamic penalties and their replacement by judicial punishments. Ebadi called for an end to stoning and the amputation of limbs." She has also "expressed grave concern about women's rights in Iran, pointing to the fact that a woman's life is officially considered only half as valuable as a man's and that a woman's divorce rights are far weaker than her husband's."

Ebadi asserts that "after 20 years of legal studies I can say definitively that with a correct interpretation of Islam human rights can be respected. The problem is the interpretation."

I would like to learn from her the correct interpretation of, say, this passage from the Qur'an that does seem to assume that one man is worth two women: ". . . get two witnesses, out of your own men, and if there are not two men, then a man and two women, such as ye choose, for witnesses, so that if one of them errs, the other can remind her" (Sura 2:282).

But more important than the challenges Ebadi will face in convincing radical Muslims that her interpretation of Islamic theology and law is correct is the fact that they would seem to prefer to face her with guns rather than with discussion points.

While Canada cancels a TV show about Islam because some Muslims believe that its tone, not anything it actually said, will incite people to hatred (see "Dhimmitude in Canada: watch your tone of voice there, buddy" at Dhimmi Watch), many high-placed Palestinian Muslims don't seem to be worried about their tone at all.

IMRA and Palestinian Media Watch report that "vicious incitement of hatred towards the United States continues unabated in the controlled Palestinian media. The PA daily condemned the Khawza Shiite institutions, for not encouraging suicide terror against the US in Iraq. President Bush and Secretary Rumsfeld are 'bloodthirsty beasts', Bush is 'the Great Liar', the USA is the 'imperialist power'. American involvement in Iraq is called: 'fascism and cruelty... repression and humiliation of the Iraqi people'. It should be noted that the PA leadership is not limiting its incitement against the US to the PA areas. In a speech in Brazilian Parliament a PA National Council Member called the 'triangle of terror and evil... Bush, Sharon and Blair' and their policies 'organized terror... and war crimes.' USAID, while it continues transferring hundreds of millions of dollars to the PA, is called 'spies'."

Hmmm. I find the tone of all that "demeaning." Maybe I can get CAIR to lodge a protest for me . . .

"An American evangelist's television series on Islam in America was canceled by a Canadian station after the first program because Muslims complained his tone and demeanor was an incitement of hatred," according to World Net Daily.

Program Manager Rob Sheppard wrote "a letter of apology" to the Canadian branch of the Council on American Islamic Relations, even though there wasn't any incitement in anything pastor John Hagee actually said. "It was a tonal thing," Sheppard explained. "You could see what he was trying to do by his tone and body language. . . . I listened to the people who contacted us, and they perceived his tone to be demeaning. It is subjective, but there were a lot of people who contacted us who were upset."

Hagee has evidently had this kind of trouble before: "A program in which Hagee played video of Muslim imams in both the United States and overseas preaching hatred and violence against Jews and Israel upset Muslims and resulted in complaints filed with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the equivalent of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, or FCC."

Now let me get this straight. It is incitement to speak about Islam with a tone of voice that Muslims don't like? It is incitement to play a video of Muslim imams preaching hatred and violence? But does CAIR have anything to say about the imams themselves? CAIR's website features plenty of mechanisms for reporting discrimination and hate crimes, as well as for protesting against FBI investigations, but I never have found there any way for a moderate Muslim to report terrorist activity that he may witness at his mosque or Islamic center.

Also: so the imams preaching hate aren't shown, and Canadians aren't incited to rise up and form gangs of Canadian bullies to terrorize peaceful Muslims. But that wasn't going to happen anyway. The other effect is that Canadians who don't see these videos are that much less aware that there are Muslim imams preaching hatred and violence, and that some of them are quite close at hand. So they're that much less aware of the need to take legitimate steps to defend themselves against terrorism. But CAIR doesn't seem to be concerned about that.

Even worse: sailing by on Canadian television without any concerns about "incitement" was a "documentary series comparing the U.S. to the Hitler regime. [Canadian network] Vision's six-part series charged the U.S., in collaboration with its 'CIA-trained partner' Osama bin Laden, planned the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as a pretext for attempts to gain world dominance. The U.S. is going about this, Vision said, in much the same way Nazi brownshirts torched the Reichstag, or parliament, in Berlin in 1933 and blamed it on Adolf Hitler's enemies to provide a pretext for a crackdown propelling Hitler into power."

This is not just Canadians modeling cringing, subservient dhimmitude, pulling shows because of their tone. This is Canadians acting as a mouthpiece for full-blown radical Muslim hate and paranoia.

According to Joseph Farah of World Net Daily, "France is involved in a massive, emergency investigation of the activities of Islamic terror groups operating inside the country, turning the European nation into a major logistical and operational base." (Thanks again to LGF.)

And why not? If Islamic terrorists could train in Alabama, they can certainly train in France.

Meanwhile, in Canada, radical Muslims are winning big victories in the propaganda war. See the story at Dhimmi Watch.

The superb Michael Radu, Senior Fellow and Co-Chair of the Center on Terrorism and Counterterrorism at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, here dares to ask the hard questions about the future of European freedom of religion and secularism in the face of increasing Islamic militancy.

Radu recounts some of the recent controversies in Europe over the Islamic headscarf, and then gets to the heart of the matter: "The issue of the Islamic scarf, everybody agrees, goes far beyond the whims of two impressionable teenagers, to the very fundamental issues of laicité (secularism) as a fundamental aspect of the French Republic. It also reflects the ability, or lack thereof, of the country’s millions of Muslims to integrate in or accept the values of the French society. In a larger context, the issue raises some fascinating dilemmas for the Left, inasmuch as it conflicts between its historic hostility to religion and religious symbols and its beliefs in 'multiculturalism,' with a promiscuous definition of tolerance."

Could we someday face the same dilemmas here? "From Aubervilliers to Karlsruhe to Göteborg to Granada – and perhaps soon, Detroit - the issue appears to be more or less the same. It is not nearly as confusing or 'complex' as the liberals would make it. Are Western values like freedom of religion and secularism to be sacrificed as 'outdated' in a 'multiculturalist' [society]? How ironic that the same people who applaud the prohibition of any church or synagogue in Saudi Arabia support a 'democratic right' to build Europe’s largest mosque very close to the Vatican."

"U.S. forces apparently launched an airstrike that killed six Afghan civilians, including four children, because they were misled by an Afghan interpreter trying to settle scores, a senior government minister said Tuesday."

Read this story in light of the politically correct don't-ask-don't-tell mentality about radical Islam that seems to have pervaded the translation operations among Al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

"Osama bin Laden, wearing the plain white head cover of a religious teacher, recites a highly charged, inflammatory poem about the condition of the Muslim umma (worldwide community), appalled, mobilized, and seeking vengeance against its enemies. In particular, bin Laden extols the young men in Najd, Saudi Arabia, who have risen up and joined the jihad. He also praises the young men in Aden, Yemen, who demolished the indestructible American destroyer USS Cole, directly indicating approval and knowledge of that suicide bombing in Aden.

"Here as in several other scenes, bin Laden is standing in front of a wall-sized map of the world, symbolizing the scope of the problems and solutions he wants his audience to be conscious of. The dagger in his waistband is typical for formal male dress in Yemen and Oman in southern Arabia. This suggests an affinity between bin Laden, the son of a Yemeni father, and the Yemeni suicide bombers who attacked the USS Cole. Visually, an explosion is superimposed over the hole in the hull of the USS Cole to convey the sense of watching the attack live."

That's just one of several video clips here. (Thanks to Charles at LGF.)

Pakistan has become a global jihad factory, says B. Raman, a former Indian intelligence official. "Recently I read in the media a memo had been recorded by Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, in which he reportedly expressed exasperation over the fact that the more the number of jihadi terrorists the US forces put out of action in Afghanistan and Iraq, the more the number of jihadi terrorists who come out of the madrassas [Islamic schools] to replace them. He did not mention the country in which these madrassas are located. From the context of the memo, it was apparent these madrassas are the madrassas in Pakistan."

Pakistan. Like Saudi Arabia, another friend and ally of the United States. Ultimately these are two alliance that are going to have to be reevaluated if we really want to defeat terrorism.

The unanimous goal of violent jihad groups around the world is to institute Islamic law, the Sharia.

Because of Sharia law in Sudan today, a 16-year-old boy named Mohamed Hassan Hamdan faces "judicial amputation" of his right hand and left foot, according to this Amnesty International report.

Why amputation of his right hand and left foot? He is accused of armed robbery. That has evidently been ruled to be "corruption in the land," as per this verse of the Qur'an: "The only reward of those who make war upon Allah and His messenger and strive after corruption in the land will be that they will be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off . . ." (Sura 5:33).

Moreover, this punishment, AI says, "contravenes international human rights standards ratified by Sudan."

When we fight against global terrorism, this is what we are struggling against.

Since 9/11 I am aware of several attempts to count the number of people killed by jihad in modern times. It's an unsettling exercise, for it brings how just how large a threat this is, and how truly global its reach has been.

If your idea of "modern times" includes the early 20th century, then this count must be added in to the total. This is an old article, but it is historically accurate, and I'll bet you haven't seen it. It tallies the number of Orthodox Christians killed in jihad in the Ottoman Empire between 1894 and 1923.

The article says, "During 1894-1923 the Ottoman Empire conducted a policy of Genocide of the Christian population living within its extensive territory." The fact is that these people were considered to have violated the terms of their dhimmi contract, and thus the "protection" of the Islamic state was removed and they were subject to slaughter (as well as exile) on a massive scale.

It is a sobering and useful list to peruse, for it indicates that Islamic radicalism is nothing new in the world. Today's radicals worldwide have the same beliefs and goals as did the perpetrators of these crimes in the Ottoman Empire. I respectfully refer doubters to an abundance of data illustrating this in Onward Muslim Soldiers.

In Islam Unveiled I explain the theological and legal reasons why slavery persists in some Islamic societies -- notably Mauritania and Sudan. I had a little bit of information on slavery in Saudi Arabia in there but for reasons I don't recall it didn't make the final draft. Still, slavery was only abolished in Saudi Arabia in 1962, and there are numerous indications that it continues today -- including this ad in Saudi paper (which I saw thanks to LGF) offering a 1991 Dodge for a "female servant" from Sri Lanka or India.

And why not? It's taken for granted in the Qur'an (see Suras 2:178, 2:221, 4:92, 5:89, and many more), and that is the foundation of Saudi society. It is also a cornerstone of the oppression of non-Muslims dhimmis, who throughout history have often been enslaved or treated as slaves by their Muslim overlords. The fact that such laws are still on the books ought to be the first concern of human rights organizations worldwide.

Here is a press release about a resolution introduced in the House of Representatives by Representatives Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Frank Pallone (D-NJ).

The resolution seeks official recognition of "the oppression and expropriation of property faced by the 900,000 Jews who were expelled from Arab nations in the period leading up to and following the creation of the State of Israel. The resolution also seeks to promote peace in the Middle East by urging the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to resettle Palestinian refugees from Arab countries."

It also calls upon the UNRWA not only to "take responsibility to ensure that these refugees are provided homes," but also to make sure "that the educational materials provided by UNRWA do not promote anti-Semitic beliefs, and that UNRWA's facilities are not being used to store weapons or to promote violence and terrorism."

This is initiative attempts to call attention to the Jewish dhimmi refugees from Muslim nations in order to contrast the fates of the two refugee groups. I have enormous sympathy for the Palestinian refugees, and deplore how they have been used, as this resolution points out, "as a political weapon by Arab nations against Israel," and as a recruiting grounds for Islamic terrorism. Thus I applaud this bipartisan resolution.

Kaushik Kapisthalam reports that two New Hampshire state representatives, Robert Giuda and Saghir Tahir, "use half-truths and misleading statements to excoriate India, a democratic ally of America, in the name of requesting help for Kashmir while simultaneously white washing the acts of anti-American terrorists."

The article explains how the congressmen uncritically repeat Pakistani military propaganda while ignoring mountains of evidence of jihad terror activities by radical Muslim groups in Kashmir.

Tahir himself is a Muslim from Pakistan, which may explain his perspective and behavior, but how did he inspire such obliging dhimmitude in Giuda?

Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo, founder of the Centre for the Study of Islam and Christianity and the Barnabas Fund, has had the courage to state the truth that almost everyone (including many Christians who should know better) wants to ignore: "Western churches are betraying Christian minorities in Muslim countries by trying to appease Islam."

Sookhdeo, whom governments have called upon to advise them about Islam, said according to this report that after 9/11, "Christian leaders rushed to call Islam a religion of peace, but did not speak out against the persecution of Christians, such as the death of 3 million in Sudan."

This underscores an unpleasant fact about politically correct silence and distortion about radical Islam: it abets murder.

Arab News this morning reports that "Abdulrahman Alamoudi's troubles are increasing."

The high-profile American Muslim activist has already been accused of smuggling, "engaging in illegal financial transactions with Libya, money laundering, failure to report foreign bank accounts, misuse of a passport, and lying in an application to become a US citizen."

Now there is more: "Recently available court records say Alamoudi funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to companies and organizations tied to international terrorism. Law enforcement officials say Alamoudi, 51, was a principal player in a plot to launder money through front companies and phantom organizations."

Alamoudi is alleged to have "sent at least $160,000 from these organizations to an organization implicated in Al-Qaeda's December 1999 plot to blow up Los Angeles International Airport."

Remember: for years Alamoudi was a leading "civil rights" spokesman for Muslims in America. He joined Bush at a prayer service after 9/11. He is also the man who sued George W. Bush and Ariel Sharon in 2002 for various violations of international law. The moral of the story is not that all such Muslim spokesmen have similar skeletons in their closets, but that pointed questions to them, such as the ones I once tried to ask Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American Islamic Relations, are not out of order.

Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar University in Cairo and the man whom the BBC called "the highest spiritual authority for nearly a billion Sunni Muslims," has reiterated his approval -- on Islamic grounds -- for suicide bombing.

Egypt's MENA news agency reported (according to IMRA) that Tantawi "announced on Sunday [2 November] that suicide-bombers who are defending their land are seen as martyrs in Islamic shari'ah law. Anybody blowing himself up in the face of an the occupiers of his land is a martyr, said Shaykh Tantawi in response to a question about the Islamic shari'ah stance over the Palestinians who blow up their bodies against the Israelis."

Tantawi is on firm Qur'anic ground here. Read the statements of jihadists themselves, and they invariably quote one of the Qur'an's guarantees of Paradise for those who kill for Allah and are killed while doing so: "Allah hath purchased of the believers their persons and their goods; for theirs (in return) is the garden (of Paradise): they fight in His cause, and slay and are slain: a promise binding on Him in truth . . ." (Sura 9:111).

Tantawi "stressed, however, that Islam did not allow the killing of innocent civilians and children but only invaders and aggressors."

Tantawi's ruling here is based on the Sharia's dictum that non-combatants are fair game if they are aiding the combatants. Of course, Osama bin Laden saw the World Trade Center as a veritable nest of people who were doing just that -- aiding the "invaders and aggressors." Other radical Muslims have declared on these grounds that there are no non-combatants in Israel.

After initially condemning the practice in 2001 (which is what set the BBC aflutter in the first place), Tantawi has now repeated his approval of it several times. I examined his initial flip-flop on this issue in an April 2002 article, after which a prominent Muslim apologist challenged my interpretation of his words by contending that they had been mistranslated from the Arabic. But I believe that Tantawi has by now provided ample clarification of his own.

Big surprise here: European Muslims are journeying to Iraq for jihad. There has been abundant evidence since last winter that radical Muslims have viewed Iraq as a global arena for jihad, and calls for Muslims to go there to fight have come from imams all over the globe, as I detail in Onward Muslim Soldiers.

But only now, "in interviews with The Associated Press, some European experts said they have evidence that young militants are being drawn to the struggle." A "German security official" is quoted: "Since the end of the war, there has been a large movement of people motivated by Islamic extremism from Germany and the rest of Europe toward Iraq. . . . They're people who want to fight a jihad (holy war)."

Hmm. I thought this struggle had nothing to do with religion. And don't they know that jihad is not a holy war, but a spiritual struggle, or, as an acute observer put it today, "to struggle in any aspect of life, such as raising a family or paying the bills"?

Charles at LGF has alerted us to a new warning from Al-Qaeda that differs from their many ballyhood but ultimately empty warnings issued since 9/11 in one significant detail: in several places, including a Yahoo group, Muslims are being ordered to leave New York and Los Angeles.

Says a message in the Yahoo group:

this is the last call for muslims in newyork,the east side, and LA to start leaving.

the mojahideen are now ready to teach the US a lesson it will never
forget inshalaah.

alaaaaaaah akbaaaaaar.
daleel_almojahid

Now, we may hope that this message is just one in a series of empty threats, although it's intriguing in its parallels to the preposterous charges by hysterical Muslims -- like New Jersey's poet laureate Amiri Baraka -- that Jews were warned not to show up for work at the World Trade Center on 9/11. Most likely it's as hollow as Osama's post-9/11 warning that soon planes would be "falling out of the skies" in large numbers. (After all, Muslims are to flee, but for how long? If I stayed away a week and then got blown up in an explosion on the 8th day after the warning, I'd have a bone to pick with the local jihadists).

But of particular interest here also is an earlier message in the same group, celebrating the attacks on American troops in Iraq and quoting the Qur'an copiously:

Dear brothers in Islam, As Salaamu' Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi.

Today in Baghdad we saw the strength of the brothers in jihad . O Allah accept into paradise the brothers who do their honor as martyrs for sake of jihad.

O you who believe! Seek help in patience and prayer. Truly! Allah is with the steadfast.(Quran.2: 153) How many a little company hath overcome a mighty host by Allah's leave! Allah is with the as-sabirun."(Qur-an.2: 249 ) And recite the Quran in the early dawn. Verily, the recitation of the Quran in the early dawn is ever witnessed. And in some parts of the night offer the prayer with it (recitation of Quran), as an additional prayer (Tahajjud). We send down (stage by stage) in the Quran that which is a healing and a mercy to those who believe: to the unjust it causes nothing but loss after loss.(Quran17 :78-82)

So, recite you of the Quran as much as may be easy for you. He knows that
there will be some some among you sick, others travelling through the land,
seeking of Allah's Bounty, yet others fighting in Allah's Cause. (Quran 73:20)

Suggested Du'a (prayers)

Say: "O my Lord! let my entry be by the Gate of Truth and Honour, and likewise my exit by the Gate of Truth and Honour; and grant me from Thy Presence an authority to aid (me). And say: "Truth has (now) arrived, and Falsehood perished: for Falsehood is (by its nature) bound to perish."(Quran 17:80-81) ALLAH is sufficient for us ! Most Excellent is He in Whom we trust! (Quran3 :173) Fight in the way of Allah, and know that Allah is Hearer, Knower. (Quran.2: 244)

"Our Lord! Bestow on us endurance, make our foothold sure, and give us help against the disbelieving folk. (Quran2 : 250) Our Lord! Forgive us for our sins and our transgressions, make our foothold sure, and give us victory over the disbelieving folk.(Quran3 :147) Our Lord! Condemn us not if we forget, or miss the mark! Our Lord! Lay not on us such a burden as Thou didst lay on those before us! Our Lord! Impose not on us that which we have not the strength to bear! Pardon us, absolve us and have mercy on us, Thou, our Protector, and give us victory over the disbelieving folk. (Quran 2:286) . . .

"Do Jihad against the disbelievers with your hands and tongues." for
Allah suffereth not the reward to be lost of those who do good.(At-Tauba.120)

Qur'an quote after Qur'an quote, including many about fighting against "the disbelieving folk." This is how jihadists recruit Muslims: by portraying their struggle as the Muslim's duty. And yet just today I saw someone claiming that jihad movements around the world actually have "nothing to do with religion."

"We usually celebrate Ramadan at the end of the month," says taxi driver Abdullah Hissein in Iraq, in a story about Iraqis cheering the downing of a U.S. helicopter there yesterday. "Now we are celebrating in the beginning after these infidel Americans were shot down." (Thanks to Little Green Footballs for this one.)

Meanwhile, in Riyadh, "Saudi security forces shot dead two militants in a clash in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, the interior ministry confirmed." Said an unidentified interior ministry official: "Saudi authorities were able to prevent a terrorist attack being prepared by terrorists, which did not respect the sanctity of the holy city of Mecca and the month of Ramadan."

So is murder and mayhem in keeping with the spirit of Ramadan, or isn't it? Unfortunately, there are many in the Muslim world who consider that to wage jihad during Ramadan is wonderfully in keeping with the holy disciplines of the season. This is the kind of thinking within Islam that moderate Muslims must confront and refute before the war on terror can possibly end.

I recently came across a description of the Jihad Watch and Dhimmi Watch weblogs as "exclusively devoted to presenting the negative and most deplorable face of Islam."

That is in fact not the case. These weblogs, and the Jihad Watch organization (which is now being formed) in general, are devoted to bringing public attention to the devastation wrought by jihad and dhimmitude, and to defending the human rights of the victims of those institutions. As I say in the "Frequently Asked Questions" section on my bio page, "Any Muslim who renounces violent jihad and dhimmitude is welcome to join in our anti-jihadist efforts."

Consequently I read with great interest this piece about Dr. Jamal Badawi, a Muslim scholar who insists that "a careful reading of the Qur'an leaves no doubt" that "Islam is a religion of peace and nonviolence."

Well, if the world needs anything today, it needs a large -- indeed, global -- contingent of Muslims who believe this, are ready to act upon it, and are willing to confront radical Muslims and dispute their differing understanding of the Qur'an and the Sunna, the traditions of the Prophet.

As I am aware of some of the objections that these radicals might make to Dr. Badawi's contention, I will raise them here. If Dr. Badawi sees this, I invite him to respond, and I assure him that I mean these questions with all respect and would love to see thoughtful and compelling answers from him. For it should be clear by now that simply to assert flatly that the Qur'an teaches peace isn't enough: the people who really need convincing aren't Western non-Muslims, but the radical Muslims who are convinced that it teaches violence.

So to the questions:

The article reports Badawi as explaining that "when people quote just one Qur'anic passage they pull the meaning out of its historical context and out of the complex system of translation from Arabic to another language."

Fair enough. Two questions:

1. Does Dr. Badawi then reject the extensive theological and legal tradition within Islam that teaches that the Muslim community must wage war against unbelievers until they convert to Islam or submit to Islamic rule? This tradition is not based just on one verse, but many, as well as upon many statements of the Prophet Muhammad and rulings of Muslim legal scholars from all four major schools of Sunni Muslim jurisprudence -- as I explain in my book Onward Muslim Soldiers.

2. Can translations of the Qur'an and other Islamic texts made by Muslims for Muslims be trusted? Many (such as the Qur'ans of Abdullah Yusuf Ali and Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall) contain numerous verses enjoining violent jihad. If these have a substantially different meaning in Arabic, why are they universally mistranslated?

The article quotes Dr. Badawi: "It is a common misconception, especially after the tragic events of September 11th, that the attitude of hatred and violence towards non-Muslims is embedded in Islamic sources." He, in contrast, "contends that the Prophet Mohammed did not preach violence against people of other faiths."

In light of the fact that many Muslims seem to hold this misconception, I would be interested to hear Badawi's explanation of many passages of the Qur'an and Hadith. For space reasons I will ask about only one here. In a well-attested hadith, Muhammad says: "When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to three courses of action. . . . Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them. . . . If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya [the special tax on non-Muslims]. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah's help and fight them" (Sahih Muslim, book 19, no. 4294).

Dr. Badawi, what would you say to a Muslim who invoked this passage and others in support of the idea that Muhammad did, in fact, "preach violence against people of other faiths"?

"The challenge," says Badawi, "is that many say that the Qur'an calls Jews and Christians infidels. It's a term that many incorrectl