May 2004 Archives

Garnaoui's trial is reminiscent of the mafia trials of the early Sixties, what with the witness amnesia, missing evidence, etc. The European bungling reported here reminds me of the Yee, Al-Arian, and Mayfield cases stateside. From the Washington Post, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

BERLIN -- The defendant, a Tunisian man with a bushy beard, sits inside a bulletproof glass box in the courtroom. Since his arrest more than a year ago, German authorities have declared the suspect, Ihsan Garnaoui, to be a terrorist and a threat to national security, a man who plotted attacks against U.S. and Jewish targets here.

But since his trial began earlier this month, prosecutors have struggled to make their accusations stick. Witnesses for the state have displayed shaky memories. Security officials have refused to allow two confidential informants to take the stand. And a key police report is missing.

This silly and naive policy is what results from the pervasive fundamental misunderstanding about the causes and roots of terrorism. From Reuters, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

LONDON - Britain signalled its commitment to its Muslim community yesterday as a leaked document revealed a project to 'win the hearts and minds' of Islamic extremists and Al-Qaeda sympathisers.

The government project codenamed Contest, which was leaked to the Sunday Times newspaper, suggested Britain might be harbouring as many as 10,000 Al-Qaeda sympathisers. ...

'We don't comment on leaks, but the government is taking its relationship with the Muslim community very seriously,' said a government spokesman. 'But that is only one part of the strategy against terrorism.'

Moderate Muslim preachers would receive state funding under the plan, while radical foreign imams would be asked to pledge allegiance to the British way of life or face a ban, said the Sunday Times.

Oh, you mean they will promise to be loyal? Great idea! That will take care of any problem!

'The aim is to prevent terrorism by tackling its underlying causes...to diminish support for terrorists by influencing relevant social and economic issues,' Cabinet Secretary Sir Andrew Turnbull was quoted as saying in a letter prior to a May 19 meeting to discuss Contest.

The project is said to have been prompted by the March 11 attacks on Madrid commuter trains, killing 191, and the discovery of over half a tonne of bomb making material in a London warehouse.

'Muslim-friendly workplaces' could be set up, along with moderate Muslim television and radio stations.

In a note to Home Office Permanent Secretary John Gieve, Sir Andrew called for a blueprint to win 'the hearts and minds' of Muslim youth.

'Al-Qaeda and its offshoots provide a dramatic pole of attraction for the most disaffected,' he wrote. 'The broader task is to address the roots of the problem, which include discrimination, disadvantage and exclusion suffered by many Muslim communities.'

Despite the assumptions of some Western analysts, Islamic radicalism never was remotely close to being a personality cult centered around Osama. But just in case someone didn't get the point, here is some information about some lesser-known but powerful terrorist leaders. From AP, with thanks to Peter Rockas and Jeffrey Imm:

From the dusty Sahara to the jungles of Indonesia and in the cauldron of unrest that is US-occupied Iraq, a new generation of Osama bin Ladens is emerging to take the place of elders who have been killed, captured or forced underground. The new class has already written a new history of terror in blood - from Istanbul to Madrid to Yanbu, Saudi Arabia.

'These are the men that are the new 21st-century terrorists,' said Mr Evan Kohlmann, a US-based terror expert.

At the fore of this group is 38-year-old Abu Musab Zarqawi, a former Osama commander who has links to terror groups from North Africa to the Caucasus.

If you thought being a terrorist might be a cushy career choice, you're wrong.

Increased risk means the life expectancy of today's generation of terrorists will probably be short.

'But these guys don't care,' said Mr Evans, of Jane's. 'They consider themselves to be the first members of the new Islamic vanguard. There will be plenty more Zarqawis bubbling up to the surface.'

Why? Not just because of American policy. There were Zarqawis long before there was a United States of America.

Why was this man released? From The Age, with thanks to GMG:

An Australian man arrested on terrorism charges in Lebanon should not have been given bail when facing serious firearms charges in NSW, Police Minister John Watkins said today.

Saleh Jamal was arrested on Friday in Lebanon along with a Lebanese Australian, known only as Haitham M, a Lebanese national, a Palestinian and another man whose nationality was unclear.

If found guilty the men could face life in prison.

Prosecutor Jean Fahd yesterday told reporters the men were linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

NSW Police yesterday confirmed they were seeking more information from Lebanese authorities through the Australian Federal Police about Jamal's arrest.

He was wanted for breaching bail conditions while facing charges in connection with the 1998 shooting attack on the Lakemba police station in Sydney's southwest.

He was also facing charges on other firearm-related offences.

Mr Watkins said Jamal had met bail conditions until he fled Australia some time earlier this year.

''I don't believe that this person should have got bail in the first place, but after spending two years in jail awaiting bail, the court did give him bail,'' he told reporters.

''Certain questions need to be asked as to what happened to this person in the months after that and how this person left Australia, presumably with false documents.

''That's a matter I'll be raising with the federal government.''

Mr Watkins said new laws to come into effect on July 1 would ban bail for anyone charged with a serious firearms offence.

He doubted Jamal would ever be brought back to Australia to face charges if found guilty in Lebanon.

''We would like to get this person back here to NSW but ... I believe it will be a very long time before we get him back here because he'll probably be incarcerated in the Middle East,'' Mr Watkins said.

NSW Opposition Leader John Brogden today said he was appalled Jamal could flee the country.

''I'm stunned that somebody who is implicated in shootings, in particularly shooting up a police station in Sydney, is allowed to go free on bail and we now discover that they are a potential terrorist,'' Mr Brogden told reporters.

''This is an appalling situation. We need to not only improve our bail laws, but what we desperately need to do is improve our intelligence so people like this are not getting bail.

''This guy should have been in jail from the outset, rather than now overseas and involved in terrorist activities.''

From Jamal's family, the expected reaction:

''I think that he never did this thing, this is what my feeling, 'cause I know him, I know my son,'' his father Mahmoud Jamal told Channel Nine.

From The Telegraph, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm and IR1948:

A London school funded by the Saudi Arabian government is facing complaints from parents that it is teaching British children "fundamentalist" Islam while giving girls an inferior education. The King Fahd Academy in Acton, west London, named after the current Saudi ruler, devotes up to 50 per cent of lessons to religious education and teaches almost all classes in Arabic, with boys and girls following different curricula.

Former teachers and parents have come forward to criticise the academy's religious teachings for instilling "hostility to the outsider". They also claim that there is discrimination against female pupils. The school was opened 19 years ago for the offspring of Saudi diplomats in London. Since then, many children of British Muslims have joined the school. In 2002, only 37 per cent of the 738 pupils were of Saudi origin.

Among those who currently attend the academy are the children of Abu Hamza, the cleric from Finsbury Park mosque who was arrested last week after the United States applied for his extradition on terrorism charges.

Originally the British and the Saudi curricula were taught side by side. Five years ago, however, the Saudi Arabian government ordered the school to phase out British lessons and to teach Saudi-style classes.

The school is segregated and younger boys and girls are now taught different courses, to comply with Saudi education policy, which states that a girl's education should "enable her to be a successful housewife, an exemplary wife and a good mother" or prepare her for work which is "suitable to her disposition as a woman".

Girls at the academy do barely any physical education and the only type of technology they will learn is "home technology".

Dr Mai Yamani, a research fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, had two daughters at the school, but removed them when she became uncomfortable about the education they were receiving. "I moved my eldest daughter at the age of seven. Her new school said that, in their opinion, she had been 'totally untaught' to that point. They had to put her in a class with much younger children, which was terrible for her.

"The books they taught the girls from kept going on about idolatry and sin and how to avoid it. It was about the fires of hell, torture in the grave and how to make sure that your ways are not those of the infidel.

"The school is trying to make sure that the Saudis who go there abide by the system of state control in Saudi Arabia. The method is 'loyalty to the system and hostility to the outsider'.

"Three years ago I interviewed some of the pupils for a book and some of them were talking as if they didn't live in London at all."

Dr Yamani, the daughter of the former Saudi oil minister Sheikh Yamani,

...an apt a name as there ever was for an oil minister...

believes that girls at the school are given an inferior education to that provided to boys and that they are taught to "know their place".

She added: "They consider that the mind of a girl is less capable of absorbing education." Another parent who has two teenage girls at the school is unhappy with the direction the academy is taking.

"It used to be a wonderful school that taught the two traditions side by side. Now only one lesson in six is taken in English. The children would not have the standard to even read the paper by the time they reach A-level," he said.

"It has arrived at a situation where the school seems to be saying: 'This is the only correct version of Islam'. It's such a fundamentalist approach." ...

Pupils in Saudi Arabia are obliged to spend half of the school timetable studying a rigid interpretation of Islam. A recent review of the curriculum by the Saudi government concluded that almost a fifth of lesson plans contained tracts preaching anti-Western and anti-Semitic views. The Saudi education department is now considering a redraft of the whole curriculum.

He lived by the sword, he died by the sword. From Reuters, with thanks to Nicolei:

KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuters) - A senior pro-Taliban cleric in Pakistan was gunned down Sunday outside his mosque in the southern city of Karachi, and his death unleashed violent protests in which at least 17 people were hurt.

Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, who had called for a "jihad," or holy war, against the United States after the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, was fatally wounded, police said.

The mob seems to have heard that fast food can kill.

In the middle-class neighborhood of Gulshan-e-Iqbal, an enraged mob threw stones at an outlet of American fast food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken, and broke its windows, police said. A government-run National Saving Center was also attacked.

More on Siddiqi, from WND. (Thanks to FreedomNowNews and Jeffrey Imm.)

WASHINGTON – The California imam who helped convert an al-Qaida suspect to Islam headed a Muslim activist group under investigation here for possible financial ties to terrorist front groups.

Adam Gadahn allegedly traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan to train at al-Qaida camps following his conversion while attending the Islamic Society of Orange County in Garden Grove, Calif., in the late 1990s. Siddiqi is head of the mosque there.

Congress is reviewing the financial records of the Islamic Society of North America, or ISNA, as part of a post-9-11 investigation into alleged ties between tax-exempt Muslim organizations and terrorist groups.

Siddiqi served as president of ISNA from 1996 to 2000. He still serves on its board. ISNA did not return phone calls to its Indianapolis headquarters.

From Reuters, with thanks to Nicolei:

KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - "Are you Muslim or Christian? We don't want to kill Muslims. Show us where the Americans and Westerners live," Islamic militants told an Arab after launching a shooting spree on Westerners in Saudi Arabia.

The four gunmen, aged 18 to 25 and wearing military vests, grabbed Abu Hashem, an Iraqi with a U.S. passport, in front of his home in the Oasis compound in Khobar but let him go when he told them he was a Muslim.

"Don't be afraid. We won't kill Muslims even if you are an American," he quoted them as saying.

That's odd. I keep hearing terrorism is caused by American foreign policy.

Abu Hashem, the director of a Saudi firm who has been in Khobar for six months, said he wanted to move to Bahrain.

He said the four gunmen had been polite and calm.

"They gave me a lecture on Islam and said they were defending their country and ridding it of infidels," he told Reuters at Qusaibi hotel.

"The gunmen were so polite. I cannot comprehend this politeness they showed me because I am a Muslim and this cruelty to others," said Abu Hashem, who declined to give his first name.

In response to the above, an urgent press release from the World Lebanese Cultural Union (thanks to Walid Phares):

WORLD LEBANESE CULTURAL UNION (INGO) Office of the Secretary General www.wlcu.org

CONCERNS ABOUT LEBANESE VICTIMS OF TERROR IN SAUDI ARABIA

The World Lebanese Cultural Union (WLCU), the legitimate representative of the Lebanese Diaspora expresses its utmost concerns as a result of the Terrorist attacks in Khubar in Saudi Arabia. From media reports and sources within the community, the WLCU has learned that the armed Terrorists have targeted Lebanese nationals among other nationals and are holding a number of them as hostage, till this hour.

The WLCU was particularly concerned by the fact that the Terrorists have once again targeted a particular religious community among the Lebanese nationals, as reported by survivors and the media. The attacks of last October were a warning. Today's attack confirms our concerns about the security of the Lebanese community, in Saudi Arabia.

The WLCU condemns these attacks, and calls on

1) The Saudi Government to do all it can to protect Lebanese lives.

2) The UN to intervene and help rescuing thousands of Lebanese workers and business people in Saudi Arabia.

3) The Lebanese Government to take all measures needed to face the terrorist threat against its own citizens and nationals abroad. The Lebanese Government is responsible for the security of these citizens. It must condemn the perpetrators firmly and crack down on their support organizations based in Lebanon. Failing to do so, will engage the responsibility of the Lebanese Government as well.

As developments are taking place, the WLCU will monitor the situation of the community in Saudi Arabia and remain in contact with its branches in the Arabian Peninsula as well as with concerned Governments around the world.

The Office of the Secretary General.

For media contacts, please contact the Commission on Information of the WLCU at wlcuuscanada@aol.com

From AP, with thanks to DC Watson:

JERUSALEM — A senior Hamas commander, his assistant and a bystander died in a fiery Israeli airstrike in Gaza City early Sunday, hours before Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was to confront his Cabinet over his plan to pull soldiers and settlers out of Gaza. Hamas called the attack a "cowardly assassination crime" and said it killed Wael Nassar, 38, a top Hamas commander; his assistant, Mohammed Sarsour, 31; and an unidentified bystander. The two Hamas leaders were on the motorcycle when it exploded, witnesses said.

The Israeli military said its air force carried out the strike, aimed at "two senior Hamas commanders who were responsible for many attacks against Israelis, including suicide bombings, and were planning further attacks."

Witnesses said they saw a flash in the sky before the motorcycle exploded. Outside the hospital morgue, angry Palestinians, most of them Hamas supporters, chanted "God is great." Amplified statements from local mosques mourned Nassar, one of the founders of the Hamas military wing, called Izzedine al-Qassam. Nassar planned many Hamas attacks against Israelis, Palestinians said.

Notice that the Palestinians confirm what Israel said: this man planned many attacks against Israelis.

Samuel Masih's grieving family (Reuters)

Don't you think that if this were a Muslim beaten with a hammer in his hospital bed by a Christian cop, that this story would be on the front page of the New York Times and in the frontline of media coverage worldwide?

Said the cop: "I have offered my religious duty for killing the man. I'm spiritually satisfied and ready to face the consequences." From WND, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Samuel Masih was buried in Lahore, Pakistan, yesterday following injuries he received from a Muslim policeman who beat the 27-year-old Christian with a hammer as he lay in his hospital bed recovering from a bout of tuberculosis.

Masih had been in jail since Aug. 23, 2003, awaiting trial on charges of blasphemy under Pakistan's strict "Law 295" – which forbids desecrating the Quran and "defiling" the name of Islam's prophet, Muhammad. On the day of his arrest, Masih was collecting garden rubbish, which he heaped temporarily against the wall of a mosque in Lahore's Lawrence Gardens section while collecting more that he planned to burn later. This action brought the blasphemy charge, which carries a maximum two-year prison sentence.

He had been held in the Lahore Central Jail for nine months when he had a severe tuberculosis attack and was transferred to a local hospital. According to reports in the Lahore Daily Times, the constable assigned to guard the prisoner's room at the hospital, Officer Faryad Ali, savagely beat Masih with a hammer used for cutting bricks after learning he had been accused of strewing garbage near the mosque's walls.

Faryad Ali, who has been jailed and charged with murder, reportedly told investigators it was his religious duty as a Muslim to kill the Christian man. According to Voice of the Martyrs, he is reported to have said, "I have offered my religious duty for killing the man. I'm spiritually satisfied and ready to face the consequences."

"This is another example of the danger our brothers and sisters in Pakistan face every day," said Todd Nettleton, VOM spokesman.

Baboo Emmanuel, Masih's father, told the Daily Times he did not know his son was in jail until approximately four months ago. A whitewasher by trade, Masih was frequently away for extended periods while working. But even when informed of his incarceration for blasphemy, the family did not pursue the case because of fear of the police. No one defended him on the charge.

"Poverty, society’s pressure and the lawless wild police system prevented me from following my son's case, Masih's father told the Daily Times.

The Christian minority's fear of the police and Pakistan's blasphemy laws were themes echoed by Lahore Archbishop Lawrence J. Saldanha who led the procession of 500 mourners at Masih's funeral.

"Sections 295 B and C and Section 298 A, B and C of the PPC are vague and can be interpreted in ways that cause suffering and death and devastating pain to society," Saldanha said. "The existence of these laws gives rise to injustices. It is usually the poor and weak who are the victims."

Masih's father, emboldened by the support of several human rights NGOs and media publicity, is asking the government to investigate the basis for the blasphemy charge against his son. No one in his senses would attempt blasphemy, he insisted to the Daily Times. "Particularly a person who belongs to a minority would never dare to do so because of the extreme sentence provided in the law," he said. Emanuel believes his son became a victim because he belonged to a minority.

According to human rights groups, Pakistan's blasphemy law is much abused and frequently used to settle personal grudges. Where convictions are made, most are overturned on appeal. However, Reuters notes that several Christians and Muslims accused of blasphemy have been killed by "religious fanatics" while in prison or police custody.

"This is a brutal act of terrorism committed by the police constable and a clear misuse of blasphemy law," said Shahbaz Bhatti, president of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance. "This is the time that government should abolish blasphemy law."

President Pervez Musharraf has called for a review of Pakistan's system of strict Islamic law, including the laws against blasphemy introduced in the 1970s during the regime of military dictator Gen. Zia-ul-Haq.

For skeptics of WND, here is Reuters story that, although less informative, confirms the facts above. (Thanks to Fanabba.)

Why is it so easy to get people to sign up? Why won't American Muslim spokesmen move beyond "the Qur'an forbids suicide" and answer that question? From AFP, with thanks to Twostellas:

TEHRAN: Hundreds of Iranian men and women, even children, declared their willingness to carry out suicide attacks in Iraq and Israel following Friday prayers in Tehran.

The "volunteers" signed their names and gave their telephone numbers to an obscure group calling itself the Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the World Islamic Movement.

A spokesman, Mohammad Yasser Samadi, said the action was to "show our friends in Iraq and all other Muslims that we are ready to give our lives to defend our honor.

"Suicide operations are the best way to fight the oppressors and they have already shown their worth in Lebanon and during the war between Iran and Iraq," he said, referring to the neighbours' bloody 1980-88 conflict.

However, there was no evidence the action was anything more than symbolic, and Samadi said they would renounce suicide operations if asked to by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

As far as I know, there is no sign that he has asked them to yet.

A police officer listens to Tamer Ahmed of CAIR

Can you imagine, during World War II, German-Americans or Japanese-Americans giving lectures to law enforcement officials on how to avoid discrimination? No, Ibrahim, I am not advocating internment camps. I am pointing out that in a saner age, groups from which sprang enemies of the nation were anxious to prove their loyalty and help out with the war effort.

In other words, when will CAIR hold a seminar for law enforcement officials on how to spot radical Muslims, where they are likely to congregate, what the warning signs are when a Muslim is tempted to turn radical, how a radical Muslim can be converted to the gentler variety they supposedly espouse, and so on?

When will, as Agent Azure wondered, CAIR hold a seminar on how to prevent honor killings, which have already begun to happen in North America? Or hold a seminar on how to distinguish taqiyya from truth in Muslim spokesmen?

From the Sacramento Bee, with thanks to Agent Azure:

During a traffic stop, the driver avoids eye contact with the police officer.

If the person is Muslim, the gesture isn't necessarily a sign of evasion or deceit. The person could be following religious teachings about modesty when dealing with someone of the opposite sex.

"It's a sign of respect," said Tamer Ahmed, an executive committee member of the Sacramento Valley chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Such information was relayed during a presentation on American Muslims and Islam that CAIR, a Muslim civil rights organization, provided to Elk Grove police supervisors Thursday afternoon.

Elk Grove is the first law enforcement agency in the Sacramento region to which the Sacramento Valley chapter has provided diversity training. The training is scheduled to be given to the Sacramento Police Department's graduating recruits next month. There also is discussion about having patrol officers in the Sacramento and Elk Grove police departments go through the seminar.

With more than 50,000 Muslims living in the greater Sacramento area, law enforcement needs to be aware and sensitive to what Islam is, and to the beliefs and customs. The information can help police when they interact with Muslims, Ahmed said.

"There's a lot of misunderstandings about who Muslims are and what they believe in," he said.

Hate crimes and incidents against Muslims have risen dramatically after Sept. 11, 2001, and since the war in Iraq began. In a report released earlier this month, the council's national office logged 1,019 incidents of violence and discrimination against Muslims in 2003, the largest number of complaints recorded by the Washington, D.C.-based group.

You can read about the tendentious nature of that report, albeit swallowed whole by this reporter and many others, here.

The Muslim community needs law enforcement to protect them from the backlash, while police officials want the cooperation of the community in its investigations, said Rabiah Ahmed, a spokeswoman at CAIR's national headquarters. Outreach efforts need to be happening from both sides, she said.

"In order to build trust, you need to show sincere efforts to learn about the community," she said. ...

The seminar was designed to bridge the cultural gap so officers can understand why, for example, there might be a delay in opening the door when officers go to a Muslim home. Don't assume the family is not cooperative; it may be a woman is putting on her hijab or head covering, Tamer Ahmed said.

Elk Grove Police Lt. Barbara Bravos, who worked with CAIR's Sacramento Valley chapter to arrange the training, said it is important that officers are attuned to different cultural and religious practices.

"Our intent is the more knowledge we have about each other, the easier it's going to be to do business and get the information we need," she said.

Sgt. Art Olsen said the workshop can help correct stereotypes and misinformation that people may have about Muslims.

"It's venues like this where we're educated and we overcome those biases," he said.

Homa Arjomand

"An abuse of multiculturalism"! Or maybe a manifestation of the flaws that are inherent in the idea. A courageous column on Homa Arjomand and Sharia in Canada, from Margaret Wente in the Globe and Mail, with thanks to Mentat and Keith Cassidy:

Homa Arjomand knows what it's like to live under sharia law. In Iran, she endured it until someone tipped her off that she was about to be arrested and imprisoned. Many of her activist friends had already been tried and executed. She, her husband and two small children (the youngest was barely one) escaped on a gruelling trip by horseback through the mountains. That was in 1989.

Today, she lives in a suburb northeast of Toronto. Her job is helping immigrant Muslim women in distress. And now she is battling the arrival of sharia law in
Canada.

"We must separate religion from the state," she says emotionally. "We're living in Canada. We want Canadian secular law."

Sharia law in Canada? Yes. The province of Ontario has authorized the use of sharia law in civil arbitrations, if both parties consent. The arbitrations will deal with such matters as property, marriage, divorce, custody and inheritance. The arbitrators can be imams, Muslim elders or lawyers. In theory, their decisions aren't supposed to conflict with Canadian civil law. But because there is no third-party oversight, and no duty to report decisions, no outsider will ever know if they do. These decisions can be appealed to the regular courts. But for Muslim women, the pressures to abide by the precepts of sharia are overwhelming. To reject sharia is, quite simply, to be a bad Muslim.

Ms. Arjomand's cellphone is constantly ringing -- with calls of support, or calls for help, or updates on various crises. A client of hers has just that day died of cancer, leaving behind a nine-year-old daughter. The husband was brutally abusive, and now the dead woman's family is terrified that he's going to take the daughter, who was born in Canada, and go back to Iran. Ms. Arjomand has been trying to get Children's Aid to intervene.

In the burgeoning Muslim communities around Toronto, it's customary to settle family disputes internally, by appealing to an imam or an older person in the family. "I have a client from Pakistan who works for a bank," Ms. Arjomand tells me. "She's educated. She used to give all her money to her husband. She had to beg him for money to buy a cup of coffee. Then she decided to keep $50 a month for herself, but he said no."

They took the matter to an uncle, who decreed that because the wife had not been obedient, her husband could stop sleeping with her. (This is a traditional penalty for disobedient wives.) He could also acquire a temporary wife to take care of his sexual needs, which he proceeded to do. Now the woman wants a separation. She's fighting for custody of the children, which, according to sharia, belong to the father.

The law permitting a sharia court was passed in 1991, when Ontario sought to streamline the overloaded court system (and save money) by diverting certain civil cases to arbitration, including arbitration conducted on religious principles. Jewish courts have operated in the province this way for many years. "People can agree to resolve disputes in any way acceptable," said Brendan Crawley, a spokesman for the Ontario attorney-general. "If they decide to resolve disputes using principles of sharia and using an imam as an arbitrator, that is perfectly acceptable under the arbitration act."

Promoters of Islamic law in Canada have been working toward this goal for years. Last fall, they created the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice, which has already chosen arbitrators who have undergone training in sharia and Canadian civil law. The driving force behind the court is a lawyer and scholar named Syed Mumtaz Ali, who was quoted last week saying "to be a good Muslim," all Muslims must use these sharia courts.

Many Muslims, including many women, are enthusiastic about giving Islamic law an official place in Canada, and they emphatically deny that it will harm women's interests. On the contrary. They insist that under Islam, a woman's rights are protected. "We follow the Islamic law, secure with a perfect sense of equality between the sexes," wrote Khansa Muhaseen and Nabila Haque in a letter to the Toronto Star, where the sharia debate has been raging fiercely.

Opponents of the new tribunals argue that the government's imprimatur will give sharia law even greater legitimacy. Sharia law is based on the Koran, which, according to Muslim belief, provides the divine rules for behaviour. What is called sharia varies widely (in Nigeria, for example, it has been invoked to justify death by stoning). The one common denominator is that it is strongly patriarchal.

Alia Hogben is president of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, a pro-faith group with members from every Muslim culture. But the council was never consulted about the new sharia courts, and it strongly opposes them.

"This is a very difficult position for us to be in because we are believing women," says Ms. Hogben. "But to apply Muslim family law in Canada is not appropriate." In Britain, she adds, the government has flatly rejected councils for sharia law.

Both Ms. Hogben and Ms. Arjomand -- the former an observant Muslim, the latter not -- are lobbying hard for Ontario to change the arbitration law.

(Ms. Arjomand has launched a petition, which you can find through a web search for "International Campaign Against Sharia Courts in Canada.")

When Ms. Hogben's family came to Canada 50 years ago, the Muslim population was tiny. In the 1970s, she and her husband started a tiny mosque in Toronto that they shared with Albanians and Bosnians. Today, Canada's Muslim population numbers more than 600,000, and many Muslims live in self-contained enclaves where there is little interaction with the outside world. Ms. Hogben welcomes the stronger sense of identity among Muslims now. But she warns that many of the new arrivals have brought with them a far more rigid version of Islam. "A lot of money is being poured into North America from very traditional groups from Saudi Arabia and Libya," she points out. These groups are not known for their tolerance of other versions of Islam, or for their progressive attitudes toward women.

Immigrant women are among the most vulnerable people in Canada. Many don't speak English, are poorly educated, and are isolated from the broader culture. They may live here for decades without learning the language, and stay utterly dependent on their families. They have no idea of their rights under Canadian law.

Both Ms. Hogben and Ms. Arjomand say that we are sacrificing these women on the altar of multiculturalism.

"This is an abuse of multiculturalism, says Ms. Hogben. "There is a lack of courage [on the part of governments], and also a fear of offending Muslim sensitivities."

"I chose to come to Canada because of multiculturalism," says Ms. Arjomand, who gave up a career in medical science to work with women who are victims of abuse. "But when I came here, I realized how much damage multiculturalism is doing to women. I'm against it strongly now. It has become a barrier to women's rights."

Costello

Of course, the religious group that is spying on others looking to collect info for court cases is ... you guessed it. There is a major case going on in Australia right now in which two Christian preachers are being sued by a Muslim group for talking about Islam and violence. The trial, however, has somewhat backfired on the Muslims, who have been compelled on the witness stand to read from their own sacred books. But in any case, Costello is right: all this comes from bad laws that should be repealed. From The Australian, with thanks to Nicolei:

FEDERAL Treasurer Peter Costello today slammed Victoria's religious vilification laws, saying religious harmony would not be promoted by representatives of different religious groups spying on each other to collect evidence for court cases.

In an address to the national day of thanksgiving commemoration in Melbourne, Mr Costello said differing views of religion should not be resolved through civil lawsuits.

He said religious leaders should be free to express their doctrines and their comparative views of other doctrines, although advocating violence or terrorism should be an offence.

Mr Costello conceded his thanksgiving day speech, presented at Melbourne's Scots Church, had already sparked some controversy.

Earlier this month The Age newspaper reported criticism from the Islamic Council of Victoria which suggested he could be giving legitimacy to those the Islamic Council was suing under Victoria's Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001.

That relates to a controversial case in which the council is suing two fundamentalist Christian ministers for allegedly accusing Muslims of being terrorists and rapists.

The council lodged the complaint on behalf of two Muslim men and a Muslim woman who were among 250 people who attended the fundamentalist Christian seminar.

Mr Costello said he had no intention of seeking to influence the court case.

"Since the issue has been raised, I will state my view," he said.

"I do not think that we should resolve differences about religious views in our community with lawsuits between differing religions.

"Nor do I think that the object of religious harmony will be promoted by organising witnesses to go along to the meetings of other religions to collect evidence for the purpose of later litigation."

Mr Costello said no-one liked vilification.

"But if rival camps start sending informants to rival meetings so they can take legal proceedings against each other in publicly funded tribunals we shall not enhance our openness or tolerance," he said.

"The proceedings that have been taken, the time, the cost, the extent of the proceedings, the remedies that are available all illustrate in my view that this is a bad law."

Mr Costello lamented that the legacy of the Judeo-Christian tradition seemed to be fraying, with evidence of moral decay all around.

And with good reason. Read on. From The Age, with thanks to Twostellas:

For those schooled in Shakespeare, the doomed romance of Melbourne teenager Mustafa and his Muslim lover Khadji has all the hallmarks of a modern-day tale of Romeo and Juliet.

But for Victorian County Court judge Michael McInerney, the violent family feud that erupted over the forbidden love affair also provided a salient message about the need for Muslim religious leaders to educate immigrants about Australian culture and laws.

The court heard that three members of Khadji's devoutly religious Turkish family were so desperate to find 18-year-old Khadji, who had absconded with her boyfriend Mustafa, they kidnapped and assaulted Mustafa's teenage brother and cousin. Khadji's aunt, sister and brother-in-law all pleaded guilty to charges relating to the boys' terrifying ordeal.

In his sentencing remarks yesterday, Judge McInerney said there was no excuse for the "very serious crimes" and he hoped a Muslim priest who had been present in court would educate the Turkish community.

"The community must understand that whatever the tenets and concerns of the Muslim religion, they in no way justify the breach of the law while in Australia," he said.

The court heard that on the night of December 11, 2002, Khadji's aunt, sister and brother-in-law waited for several hours in a car while the teenagers' extended families discussed wedding plans for the couple. Khadji had disappeared with Mustafa that day. When Mustafa's brother and cousin came outside for a cigarette, Khadji's aunt, Sukriye Yigiter, demanded the cousin's mobile phone, assuming he was speaking to Mustafa. The boys were punched in the face and forced into the car when they denied knowledge of Mustafa and Khadji's whereabouts. Yigiter repeatedly called Mustafa's brother and his family "liars and dogs" and threatened to imprison the boys for 10 days at her Meadow Heights home until they told her where her niece was. Khadji's brother-in-law, Regaip Dincer, dragged the boys into Yigiter's living room, where she struck Mustafa's brother twice on the shin with a metal birdcage stand. "I'm crazy, everyone knows I'm crazy," Yigiter screamed. The ordeal ended 30 minutes later, when Yigiter's brother-in-law returned after the wedding meeting and drove the distressed boys home.

"Certainly this has many elements of Romeo and Juliet about it," prosecutor Marc Sargent said during the hearing. Yigiter's lawyer, Tara Hartnett, said her client's actions had to be seen in the context of the shame the episode had brought on the devout Muslim family. She said Yigiter and Khadji's parents had been suspicious of Mustafa's intentions and were concerned he would not marry Khadji. "The circumstances of the offending revolve around culture, they involve religion, they involve loyalty, they involve trust," Ms Hartnett said. "From where Mrs Yigiter was standing they involved a breach of a promise. They involved, from her perspective, the destruction of not only her niece's life but also the reputation of the immediate and extended family."

The court heard Khadji returned to her family home a week after the ugly feud. Mustafa's family did not approach Khadji's family to arrange a wedding and the lovers split up within a week. "The difficulty that caused was enormous," Ms Hartnett said. "It was clear (Khadji) and (Mustafa) had had a sexual relationship. (Khadji's) family, including her aunt, were strict Muslims and because she is not a virgin there are difficulties in relation to her marrying another Muslim. She would be able to marry someone who is a widower or a single father but it excludes her from marrying others. The shame on her family is enormous."

"The old ways don't stay in the village, they come with immigration," Judge McInerney said during the hearing.

Yigiter, 40, of Meadow Heights, and Regaip Dincer, 21, of Upfield, pleaded guilty to false imprisonment and recklessly causing injury. Yesim Dincer, 23, of Upfield, pleaded guilty to assault and false imprisonment.

Doesn't he know that the Qur'an forbids suicide?

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan police have arrested a man suspected of trying to recruit students to carry out suicide attacks on international peacekeepers in Kabul, a spokesman for the multinational force said on Saturday.

Pakistan sends a message to India.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan successfully test-fired on Saturday a ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads, as part of efforts to boost defenses in its rivalry with India.

If they murder people how can they be "innocent"?

BANGKOK, May 29 (AFP) - Assailants decapitated an elderly Buddhist in Thailand's Muslim south Saturday and vowed more such killings if Muslims continued to be arrested for the months-long unrest in the region, police said.

It was the first decapitation in the violence, which has claimed some 190 lives since January, police said.

Sieng Patkaoe, 63, was attacked by men with machetes early Saturday as he tapped rubber trees on his plantation in the southern province of Narathiwat, district police said.

Sieng's severed head was left along a village road. His body, found some 60 metres (yards) away, had a note pinned to it threatening more killings, police said.

"If innocent Malayu (the predominant ethnic group in the Muslim south) continue to be arrested, we will murder more Buddhists," police quoted the note as saying. It was written in Thai and printed by computer, they said.

The U.S. Embassy said one American was confirmed dead

More trouble in Saudi Arabia:

DAMMAM, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Saudi security forces stormed an expatriate residential complex Saturday seeking gunmen who had taken hostages after a shooting rampage on two compounds housing oil company offices, killing at least six people - including a 10-year-old boy.

At least one American and two other Westerners were among those killed in the second deadly attack on oil industry targets in the Saudi kingdom this month. There were reports the death toll could be as high as 15.

Saudi forces fired shots inside the residential complex in the eastern city of Khobar, officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. They gave no further details.

Earlier, a police officer inside the housing compound told The Associated Press that all hostages had been released and negotiations were under way.

And here's an Update from AP: Saudi Forces Hunt Militants After Attack. Islamic militants, no less. Who'd have guessed?

And also a list of recent attacks in Saudi Arabia.

"While many of us will be blessed to live a longer life, few of us will ever live a better one," — John McCain

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) - Former pro football player Pat Tillman was "probably" killed by friendly fire as he led his team of Army Rangers up a hill during a firefight in Afghanistan last month, the U.S. Army said Saturday.

Just as the army that investigated Abu Ghraib way back in January, now they have investigated Tillman's death and issued a public report.

Such transparency conflicts with the fevered imaginings of those who think Bushitler and Ashcroft are rounding up dissenters and dragging them to the Ministry of Love, while shadowy neo-cons fling truth down the memory hole.

I just flew back to the US from another country last Tuesday, and security still seemed lax at the departure point. Of course, the US has no direct control over that, but surely some sort of efforts could be made. Meanwhile, security is, at least according to this report, stepping up efforts stateside. From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

WASHINGTON (AP) - The federal official in charge of the nation's airports said Friday security has been "stepped up a notch" in the face of renewed terror warnings this holiday weekend and said authorities are asking the public to be vigilant.

"If they see anything unusual, report it - an unattended package, something that just doesn't look right, even odd behavior in the terminal or on the aircraft," FAA Administrator Marion Blakey said on NBC's "Today" show.

She said photographs of seven suspected terrorists released Wednesday by the FBI "are everywhere" and that screeners have been redeployed to some of the busiest airports in anticipation of heavy Memorial Day holiday travel.

From MEMRI, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

The London Arabic-language daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reported that "an Iranian intelligence unit has established a center called The Brigades of the Shahids of the Global Islamic Awakening to replace the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Department of Liberation and Revolutionary Movements, which had been in charge of helping and training revolutionary forces across the world." [1] The article went on to report a speech given by an official of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, threatening the U.S. with suicide and missile attacks at already-selected sensitive targets, and threatening to "take over" Britain. The following is the report: [2]

Iran Stands Ready to Attack the West

"A source close to [Revolutionary Guards] intelligence confirmed that P.R. has been appointed secretary-general of a new office that has begun registering the names of suicide volunteers to be sent to Iraq, Palestine, and Lebanon.

"[The newspaper reported that it had obtained] a tape with a speech by H.A., a [Revolutionary] Guards intelligence theoretician, who teaches at the Revolutionary Guards' Al-Hussein University. [In the tape, H.A.] spoke of Tehran's secret strategy aimed at taking over the Arab and Muslim countries by means of helping revolutionary forces and organizations. H.A. is regarded as one of the advisors of a branch in the organization, and has published a number of works on exporting the [Islamic] revolution and the method of the struggle against the world arrogance [i.e., the U.S.].

"In his speech at a secret conference attended by students who are members of the Ansar Hizbullah movement at Al-Hussein University, [H.A. said]: 'Iraqi oil constitutes 11% of the world oil reserves, and it has fallen into the hands of the U.S. and Britain. The value of the intelligence documents that the U.S. obtained because of its takeover of Iraqi intelligence is greater than $1000 billion. Whereas our [Iran's] Foreign Ministry was expressing willingness to reconstruct the statue of the Buddha [destroyed by the Taliban in 2001] in Afghanistan – that is, to build an idol, which is an act that is against the principles of Islam – the U.S. managed to force its rule on Afghanistan.

"'(President Muhammad) Khatami speaks of the dialogue between civilizations, and I have grave doubts about this. It is a dubious idea. We do not want to take over the British Embassy, since they (the British) have already cleared the embassy of documents; we must take over Britain [itself].'

"After [H.A.] harshly attacked Khatami and the reformists, he said in his speech: 'The West sees us as terrorists, and depicts our strategy as terrorism and repression. Had our youth agreed to Khatami's teachings and interpretations, it would never have fought the arrogance, and would never have defended the holy places – because Khatami speaks always of being conciliatory, of patience, and of rejecting terrorism, while we defend [the line of] toughness and war against the enemies of revolutionary Islam. I take pride in my actions that cause anxiety and fear to the Americans.

"'Haven't the Jews and the Christians achieved their progress by means of toughness and repression? We have a strategy drawn up for the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilizationand for the uprooting of the Americans and the English.

"'Our missiles are now ready to strike at their civilization, and as soon as the instructions arrive from Leader ['Ali Khamenei], we will launch our missiles at their cities and installations. Our motto during the war (in Iraq) was: Karbala, we are coming, Jerusalem, we are coming. And because of Khatami's policies and dialogue between the civilizations, we have been compelled to freeze our plan to liberate the Islamic cities. And now we are [again] about to carry out the program.'

"In his speech, he added: 'The global infidel front is a front against Allah and the Muslims, and we must make use of everything we have at hand to strike at this front, by means of our suicide operations or by means of our missiles. There are 29 sensitive sites in the U.S. and in the West. We have already spied on these sites and we know how we are going to attack them.'

"In another part of his speech, he emphasized, 'If Israel dares attack the [nuclear] installations at Bushehr, our losses will be very low, because [only] one structure will be destroyed – while we [i.e., Iran] have means of attacking Israel's nuclear facilities and arsenals such that no trace of Israel will remain.'"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), May 28, 2004.

[2] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), May 28, 2004.

From Reuters, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

MOSCOW, Russia (Reuters) -- A bomb blast derailed a passenger train in a Russian region bordering Chechnya on Saturday, but no one was seriously injured, a railways spokesman said. blockquote>

From Thailand's Nation:

In a stall recently set up near the historic Krue Se Mosque, a young man is busy selling VCDs, CDs and books that mostly cover various aspects of Islam. One of the VCDs is entitled "Global Jihad Movements".

The stall owner, a native of Pattani who spoke on condition of anonymity, tells me while I glance at his extensive range of products that VCDs on jihad have sold out quickly after the April 28 incident at the mosque which left 32 suspected insurgents dead.

In all, 108 suspected insurgents died on April 28, while five security personnel also perished.

The Islamic word jihad has often been associated with international terrorism since the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

"The VCDs on jihad have been selling like hotcakes," he says.

The young businessman tells me that he usually sells his goods at major mosques in Pattani and Yala, including the Central Mosque of Pattani. He set up a stall at Krue Se Mosque after April 28.

"There are a series of VCDs on jihad movements in Afghanistan, Chechnya and also about [Osama] bin Laden," he says, adding that his merchandise comes from Malaysia.

It is hard to know what the buyers of these VCDs have in mind. Perhaps they want to know more about how fellow Muslims pursue jihad - the struggle against any act of aggression in defence of Islam - in other countries.

Jihadwatch is occasionally discovered by those hoping to learn more about how to wage violent jihad and who are subsequently disappointed to learn that the site is against it.

The illustrious and deservedly beloved Hugh Fitzgerald has sent me this precise,
perceptive, and courageous address by Singapore's Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong. Notes Hugh: "Goh Chok Tong has given no indication of being a devout follower of Pat Robertson. Nor is there any record of his changing his name from something reminiscent of Perle or Wolfowitz... He does, however, live between Malaysia and Singapore, and has a lifetime of experience with Islam."

Chris Patten would do well to read this speech carefully. What follows here are some good excerpts, but it is all excellent. Read it all.

The war against terrorism could shape the 21st century in the same way as the Cold War defined the world before the fall of the Berlin Wall. To win, we must first clearly understand what we are up against. Terrorism is a generic term. Terrorist organizations such as the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka or ETA in Spain are only of local concern. The virulent strain of Islamic terrorism is another matter altogether. It is driven by religion. Its ideological vision is global. It is most dangerous. The communists fought to live whereas the jihadi terrorists fight to die, and live in the next world. My perspective is formed by our own experiences in Southeast Asia which post Sept. 11 has emerged as a major theater for terrorist operations. In December 2001, Singapore arrested 15 people belonging to a radical Islamic group called the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). They were plotting even before Sept. 11 to attack American and other Western interests in Singapore. In August 2002, we arrested another 21 members of this group. Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand have also made many arrests of terrorists. The JI regional leadership spanned Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and the Southern Philippines. Its tentacles even probed into Australia. JI's objective was to create a Daulah Islamiyah, an Islamic state in Southeast Asia. This was to be centered in Indonesia but would include Malaysia, Southern Thailand, Southern Philippines, and, inevitably, Singapore and Brunei. But the most crucial conclusion our investigations revealed was this: the existence of a transregional terrorist brotherhood of disparate Southeast Asian groups linked by a militant Islamic ideology to each other and to Al Qaeda. Whatever their specific goals, these groups were committed to mutual help in the pursuit of their common ideology: they helped each other with funds and support services, in training and in joint operations.

In 1999, JI formed a secret caucus called the Rabitatul Mujahidin, meaning Mujahidin Coalition, to bring together various militant Southeast Asian Islamic groups. It was responsible for the bombing attack against the Philippine Ambassador to Indonesia in Jakarta in August 2000. The brain behind the attack was Hambali, the link man between Southeast Asian terrorism and Al Qaeda. Fortunately, he is now under arrest.

But the threat remains. It stems from a religious ideology that is infused with an implacable hostility to all secular governments, especially the West, and in particular the U.S. Their ultimate goal is to bring about a Caliphate linking all Muslim communities. Their means is jihad which they narrowly define as a holy war against all non-Muslims whom they call "infidels."

Likewise, JI's ultimate goal is a Caliphate, by definition not confined to Southeast Asia. The dream of a Caliphate may seem absurd to the secular mind. But it will be a serious mistake to dismiss its appeal to many in the Islamic world, though the majority do not believe in killing and dying for it.

But there are radicals and militants who do. The terrorist brotherhood in Southeast Asia and its links to al Qaeda were first forged through the struggle against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Ibrahim Maidin, the leader of the Singapore JI cell, underwent military training in Afghanistan in the early 1990s. His encounters with the Mujahidden deeply impressed him. Maidin wrote several letters to the Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and to Osama bin Laden. He asked whether Mullah Omar was to be regarded as the Caliph of the Islamic World. After returning to Singapore, Maidin arranged for JI members to visit Afghanistan and to undergo training there.

Islamic militancy is not new to Southeast Asia. But what is new is this type of fanatical global ideology (including the phenomenon of suicide bombers) that has been able to unite different groups and lead Southeast Asian groups to subordinate local interests to the broader struggle.

Ibrahim Maidin has confessed to a senior Singapore intelligence officer that
in retrospect he had made the mistake of moving too quickly and should have
waited for Malaysia, Indonesia, the Southern Philippines and Singapore to
become an Islamic state before acting against U.S. interests. But he still believes that his side would ultimately win.

From our experience in Southeast Asia, I draw three principal conclusions that I believe have a wider relevance.

First, the goals of these terrorists make the struggle a zero-sum game for them. There is no room for compromise except as a tactical expedient. America may be the main enemy but it is not the only one. What Osama bin Laden offered Europe in April was only a "truce" [if it stopped "attacking Muslims or interfering in their affairs including [participating] in the American conspiracy"], not a lasting peace. The war against terrorism today is a war against a specific strain of militant Islamic terrorism that wants, in effect, a "clash of civilizations."

The JI has tried to create the conditions for Christians and Muslims in Southeast Asia to set against one another. In December 2000, it attacked churches in Indonesia, including one church in an Indonesian island off Singapore. It has sent its members to fight and stir up trouble in Ambon against Christians.

One of those we detained in Singapore was a service engineer with an American company. He confessed that he actually liked his American friends
and bosses. He was nevertheless involved in targeting American interests. We
have a sense that he had struggled with this. He eventually decided to testify against the spiritual leader of JI, Abu Bakar Bashir, but only because he felt betrayed by Bashir's denial of the very existence of the JI organisation which Bashir headed and to whom he and other members had sworn allegiance.

And just as Osama bin Laden is trying to drive a wedge between Europe and America, in Southeast Asia, JI was plotting to do the same thing by blowing up the pipelines that supply water from Malaysia to Singapore. The JI knew that water from Malaysia is a matter of life and death for Singapore. They knew that race and religion have historically been the major fault lines within and between both countries. The JI's intention was to provoke a conflict between Singapore and Malaysia and portray a "Chinese Singapore" as threatening a "Muslim Malaysia," and use the ensuing confusion to try and overthrow the Malaysian government and establish an Islamic state in Malaysia.

That particular plot failed. The governments of Singapore and Malaysia could not have allowed it to succeed. We know only too well what is at stake.

My second conclusion is that it is only through absolute and unsentimental clarity about the threat we face that we can define, differentiate and therefore, isolate militant Islamic terrorism from mainstream Islam. It is not sufficient to repeat, mantra like, that the majority of Muslims are peaceful and do not believe in violence. Unfortunately, we too often sacrifice clarity to be politically correct.

This brings me to my third and perhaps most important conclusion. Just as the Cold War was an ideological as well as a geopolitical struggle, the war against terrorism must be fought with ideas as well as with armies; with religious and community leaders as well as police forces and intelligence services. This ideological struggle is already upon us. Unless we win the battle of ideas, there will be no dearth of willing foot soldiers ready to martyr themselves for their cause.

We know that we should work with the moderates and isolate the extremists. But as we seek to separate the wheat from the chaff, we need to recognise that both come from the same plant. How we seek to engage and encourage the Muslim world to fight the ideological battle against the extremists must reflect this sensitivity and awareness.

This is complicated but not impossible. In Malaysia, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi fought the Islamic party, PAS, on the issue of the kind of Islamic state that Malaysia should be. He won a resounding victory in the general elections. He checked PAS' advance towards an austere Muslim state with Sharia laws with his vision of an Islamic state that is Islam Hadahri or "Progressive Islam." He has joined issue not on whether Malaysia should be an Islamic state but on the nature of such a state; and the struggle to define Malaysia's Islamic state will continue for a long time. In Indonesia, Islamic based parties generally did not do as well as parties that do not campaign under the banner of Islam in the recent parliamentary elections. But the Islamic parties will remain a crucial swing factor in the presidential elections later this year.

Let me conclude with a few words about the role of the U.S. Only the U.S. has the capacity to lead the geopolitical battle against the Islamic terrorists. Iraq has become the key battleground. Before he was killed in Saudi Arabia, Yousef Al Aiyyeri, author of the al Qaeda Blueprint for fighting in Iraq, said: if democracy succeeds in Iraq, that would be the death of Islam. That is why Osama bin Laden and others have put so much effort to try and break the coalition and America's resolve to stay the course to build a modern Iraq that Muslims will be proud of. Those who do not understand this, play into their hands. The key issue is no longer WMD or even the role of the U.N. The central issue is America's credibility and will to prevail. If that is destroyed, Islamic extremists everywhere will be emboldened. We will all be at greater risk.

If we are to win the war against terrorism, we must, as Sun Tze in "The Art of War" says, understand the enemy. And we must, all of us, Muslims and non-Muslims, Americans, Europeans, Arabs and Asians, unite against it. But we must create the conditions that will make this essential unity possible.

Dhimmi, dhimmi, smiling damn'd dhimmi

The Rt. Hon. Chris Patten, the European Union's External Relations Commissioner, is ready to acknowledge that there may indeed be a clash of civilizations going on — but of course, it's the West's fault. He engages in every kind of moral and theological equivalence, trashing the West's history while exalting Islam's. Of course, he never deals with the theology and legal structure of jihad and dhimmitude, which threatens the West today, and for which there is no parallel in Western religious traditions.

Part of Patten's problem is that he seems to think that one cannot and must not fight a moral evil if one can be convicted of any evil in turn. But that would have made it impossible for Britain to resist Hitler; the Nazis could and did point to the sins of British colonialism, hoping to steal the moral high ground. They couldn't, because the society they built was objectively evil, regardless of the sins of others. Of course the West should clean house, but becoming a conglomeration of Sharia states is not the way to do it. Both reform and resistance can and should be undertaken.

From a speech he gave last Monday at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, with thanks to John Eibner:

If Samuel Huntington were a share, he would today be what market tipsters call a strong buy. That is bad news, because the clash of civilisations, which he predicted in his essay for “Foreign Affairs” in 1993, at the moment casts a gibbet’s shadow over the prospects for liberal order around the world. Depressingly, witlessly, we have to a great extent shaped our own disaster-in-waiting. ...

Oh, to have been the publisher of Professor Bernard Lewis, sage of Princeton. I admit to a personal debt to his scholarship. I have enjoyed, and I hope, learned from a number of his books.

But I have started to worry as I read on from “What Went Wrong?” to “The Crisis of Islam” that I am being carefully pointed in a particular direction, lined up before the fingerprints, the cosh, the swag bag and the rest of the evidence. “Most Muslims”, he tells us in “The Crisis of Islam”, “are not fundamentalists, and most fundamentalists are not terrorists, but most present-day terrorists are Muslims and proudly identify themselves as such”. Well, yes - and it’s a sentence that resonates in parts of the policy-making community in Washington. But what if I had tried a similar formulation on some of these same policy makers just after the IRA bombed Harrods in London: “Most Catholics are not extremist Irish republicans, and most extreme republicans are not terrorists, but most terrorists in Britain today are Catholic and proudly identify themselves as such”. I suspect that it is not a sentence that would have increased my circle of admirers in America, not because it is wrong but because it is so loaded with an agenda. Anyway, what we have been taught is that there is a rage in the Islamic world - in part the result of history and humiliation - which fuels hostility to America and to Europe too, home of past crusaders and present infidel feudatories of the Great Satan. Clash go the civilisations.

There are many ways of coming at this issue, but I wish myself to be rather prosaic. I will not therefore deal with the religious arguments, leaving them to retired archbishops and other distinguished theologians, only noting in doing so that according to a “Sunday Times” survey in January, more Muslims attend a place of worship in the UK each week than Anglicans. ...

Oh! Well, in that case they have the moral high ground!

As for the present religious, ethnic or civilisational nature of our European club, there are probably about 12 million Muslims living in Western Europe, approaching four million in France, two and a half million in Germany, one and three quarter million here. Their religion is the fastest growing in the world. They practice it in Europe in a union of nation states formed out of the bloody wreckage of the 20th century. Our recent history of gas chambers and gulags, our Christian heritage of flagrant or more discreet anti-Semitism, do not entitle us to address the Islamic world as though we dwelt on a higher plane, custodians of a superior set of moral values. Our prejudices may be rock solid but our pulpits are made of straw.

What of this Islamic world which allegedly confronts our own civilisation? It is sometimes forgotten that three quarters of its 1.2 billion citizens live beyond the countries of the Arab League, in for example the democracies of Malaysia, Indonesia and India. Asian Muslim societies have their share of problems, not least dealing with pockets of extremism, but it is ludicrous to generalise about an Islamic anger engulfing countries from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific shores.

If we focus on a narrower range of Arab countries - the Magreb, the Mashreq, the Gulf, the countries in the cock-pit of current struggle and dissent - what do we find? In 2002, the Arab Thought Foundation commissioned a survey by Zogby International of attitudes in eight countries - Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. They questioned 3,800 people and their results confirmed other similar if not identical surveys, for example by the Pew Research Centre. What is pretty clear is that, like Americans or Europeans, Arabs are most concerned about matters of personal security, fulfilment and satisfaction. Perhaps it is a surprise that they do not appear to hate our Western values, and their cultural emanations - democracy, freedom, education, movies, television. Sad to say their favourite T.V. programme is “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” Other survey evidence underlines this point about the most significant values. The Second Arab Human Development Report published in 2003 - I shall return to its predecessor later - quotes from the World Values Survey which shows that Arabs top the world in believing that democracy is the best form of government. They are way ahead of Europeans and Americans, and three times as likely to hold this view as East Asians.

There is not much sign of a clash of values here. The problem seems to be rather simpler. The Arab world does not mind American and European values, but it cannot stand American policies and by extension the same policies when embraced or tolerated by Europeans. So the Arab world holds very negative opinions of the United States and the United Kingdom (even while holding, according to the same survey, positive views about American freedom and democracy). Why is the U.K. in this pit of unpopularity? Partly I suppose because of what we are seen to do, and partly because of what we are silent about. I don’t know how widely St Thomas More is read in Arab lands but “qui tacet consentire videtur” is true everywhere. Perhaps it cheers us to discover that France comes best out of these surveys, scoring very positive ratings, as do Japan, Germany and Canada.

Of course, Patten plumps for Palestinian rights, with apparently no awareness of the fact that many decent people have been soured on this issue by the relentless suicide bombings and targeting of civilians.

The treatment of the Palestinians is one of four areas of policy where the approach we pursue in America and Europe could abate or exacerbate Arab hostility, and build rather than burn bridges between the West and the whole of the Islamic world. ...

He also so thoroughly misunderstands the causes of terrorism that I wonder if he has ever read a single communique from Osama bin Laden, a single line of the Qur'an, or any other pertinent material:

Today’s terrorism by Islamic groups, able through the advance of technology to shatter civilised order through terrible acts of destruction, seems closer to the anarchists than to the gun-toting politicians, for instance the ones I myself know best who were notorious for their ability to carry both a ballot box and an Armalite. The ideas that sustain Usama Bin Laden and those who think like him, not all of them the members of a spectacularly sophisticated network of evil, but nonetheless fellow-believers in a loose confederation of dark prejudices, can hardly be dignified with the description of a sophisticated political manifesto. They do not travel far beyond the old graffiti “Yankee, Go Home”. But they do represent a form of political, social and cultural alienation, which we should seek to comprehend.

Etc. etc. etc. Ultimately, you see, it all comes down to Western policy. If we would just be nicer to them, if we would just give them what they want, all this terrorism will stop. Alas, Neville Chamberlain thought that too. Maybe sometime, somewhere, during the Ottoman conquests of Christian land after Christian land, some forefather of Chamberlain and Patten thought so too, and ventured out boldly to make a deal with the invaders. If so, his name is not recorded for history — such a man would only have ended up dead or numbered among the humiliated, anonymous dhimmis.

Kaplan, The Caliph of Cologne

The "Caliph of Cologne" can rest easy. He has two months to rest, cover his tracks, and make plans. From Reuters, with thanks to Susan:

BERLIN, May 27 - The German authorities began a Europe-wide search on Thursday for a Turkish Islamic militant facing extradition to Turkey on treason charges, and then dropped their hunt amid confusion over a court ruling.

The man, Metin Kaplan, is wanted in Turkey for a 1998 plot to crash an aircraft with explosives into the mausoleum of Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern, secular Turkish state. The attack was planned to occur during a ceremony at the mausoleum attended by the country's political and military leadership.

A German court ruled Wednesday that Mr. Kaplan, known as the "Caliph of Cologne," would not face human rights abuses in his home country and could be extradited. On Thursday, the police put out an alert across Europe for him. But the warrant was withdrawn after it emerged that Wednesday's ruling had granted Mr. Kaplan a stay of two months to appeal the ruling. There was no indication whether Mr. Kaplan, head of a Cologne-based group known as the Kalifstaat (Caliphate state), was in Germany.

Better late than never, I suppose, but the Christian exodus has been going on for many years, and has seldom if ever before been noted in the Vatican, even as Vatican officials relentlessly pursued "dialogue" with Muslims who were not truly interested in meeting as equals. From the Jerusalem Post, with thanks to Ruth King:

Increasing Christian emigration from the Holy Land in general and Bethlehem in particular is troubling to the Vatican, Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews said in Jerusalem on Thursday.

Kasper was speaking to reporters in the course of a visit with President Moshe Katsav to whom he conveyed the greetings of Pope John Paul II, saying: "Jewish-Christian relations are very close to his heart."

Kasper also reminded Katsav that all forms of anti-Semitism and violations of human rights had been condemned by the Second Vatican Council. ...

On the issue of Christian emigration from Bethlehem and the gradual Muslim takeover, Kasper acknowledged that the Church is worried, particularly because Christians have lived in the Holy Land throughout the centuries and have made important contributions to cultural developments. Christians have also come on pilgrimage for centuries he noted, stating: "We don't want dead stones; we want living communities."

Even if Bethlehem's Christian community continues to diminish he said, the Church is determined to remain.

If that is so, some support for Eastern Christians against the ongoing jihad, and some efforts to undo the dhimmi attitudes that still prevail there (and often seem to have been encouraged by the authorities) would be welcome.

Malfunctioning anti-terror mechanism update: Denny's manager in Denver calls FBI to report the presence of two of the Seven Wanted in his restaurant last Wednesday. Agent is bored, indifferent, bureaucratic.

The Al-Qaeda types, meanwhile, were, "demanding, rude, and obnoxious." Hey -- don't they know it's a religion of peace?

Anyway, I don't know if these guys were really in Denny's. I don't see any a priori reason why not, and why a follow-up effort couldn't be made. From the Denver Post, with thanks to Diana West:

Samuel Mac, manager of the Denny's in Avon, isn't happy with the response he got from the FBI when he reported that two of them ate at his restaurant Wednesday.

When he called the FBI in Washington, D.C., Mac said the man who answered the telephone said he had to call the Denver office and declined to take down any of the information.

When he called the Denver office, he was shuttled to voice mail because the agents were busy, Mac said. It was five hours before a seemingly uninterested agent called back.

Mac said two men - he subsequently identified them from their photographs as Adnan G. El Shukrijumah and Abderraouf Jdey - came into Denny's, which is just off Interstate 70, about 8 p.m.

One ordered a chicken sandwich and a salad, the other just a salad, Mac said. They were demanding, rude and obnoxious, he said.

For some time now the comments here have been almost entirely unmoderated. My staff and I are quite overtaxed as it is, and I have entered an extraordinarily busy period involving much travel and several hot deadlines. Also the site has grown so much lately that there are many more comments than there used to be.

Thus while I read most of them when the site was new, now I only read the occasional thread. But when I do, occasionally I see questions addressed to me. These, of course, may occur in other threads that I don't see, so please note that if you really want to ask me something, the best way is through the email feature here ("Contact us" at left), and not in a comments thread. Thus if you have asked me something and I haven't answered, most likely it's because I didn't see your question.

Also, this means that if someone says something that is ban-worthy, I most likely haven't seen it. Please email me if you are concerned about something specific.

The resistance against global jihad is a struggle to defend of the equality of rights and dignity of all people — male, female, of all races, Muslim, non-Muslim, etc. Thank you for your support and assistance.

Fawaz Damra case from the Cleveland Plain Dealer. How could Damra's statements about terrorism be irrelevant and prejudicial to a case about his past links to terrorism?

The government's chief witness in Fawaz Damra's case says the indicted imam is a "classic case study of a radical Islamic militant" with ties to associates of al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.

In a report filed in federal court, Matthew Levitt says Damra actively aided "in the persecution of Israelis and Jewish people in general." The report, interpreting Damra's Arabic speech, quotes him as saying in 1989, "The first principle is that terrorism, and terrorism alone, is the path to liberation. . . . If what they mean by jihad is terrorism, then we are terrorists."

Hoop, maybe if you answered such questions, this sort of thing wouldn't happen

A CAIR press release (thanks to Twostellas):

PHOENIX, May 27 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Arizona office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-AZ) today announced that a Muslim ex-employee of Intel Corporation has filed a religious discrimination lawsuit against the California-based computer chip giant.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, alleges that the Muslim employee faced national origin and religious harassment, discrimination and retaliation following the 9/11 terror attacks.

According to papers filed with the court: "Since September 11, 2001, (the plaintiff's) supervisor began making derogatory remarks...which included, but not limited to, 'Why (do) your people want to kill Americans?' and 'Why do the Islamic groups from the Middle East want to destroy the Western Civilization?'"

Now wait a minute. Would CAIR now have us believe that there are no Muslims who want to kill Americans since 9/11? Would they have us believe that there are no Islamic groups from the Middle East that want to destroy Western Civilization? And are we now to accept that even to ask such questions constitutes discrimination and harassment?

This is legal strong-arming of a spectacular sort, and if successful, its effect will only make Americans less willing to investigate the causes and goals of Islamic terrorism. Now why would CAIR want to do that?

In 2002, the plaintiff filed an internal complaint of discrimination. Despite that complaint, the employee claims that harassment intensified, forcing him out of his job. The lawsuit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

"Employees of all faiths should be offered a workplace environment free of racial or religious discrimination and harassment," said CAIR-AZ Executive Director Deedra Abboud.

Locals in Orland Park, Illinois are resisting the construction of a large new mosque in the area. CAIR is crying racism, of course (I wish they'd tell me how exactly Islam is a race), and even using the townspeoples' fears of Islamic radicalism as evidence.

But wait a minute: what guarantee can CAIR give that Islamic radicals will not enter this mosque? After all, as Charles points out at LGF, it happened in nearby Bridgeview.

From the Daily Southtown, with thanks to LGF:

The concerns of some about the mosque, planned for 16530 104th Ave., is a prime example of the hardships faced by American Muslims since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, religious experts and observers said.

They said many Americans still know little or nothing about Islam. Though there are no official statistics, the Council for American-Islamic Relations says backlashes against new or enlarged mosques are becoming increasingly common.

"Sometimes people don't even realize the concerns they have are fueled by prejudices," said Rabiha Ahmed, spokeswoman for the council. "But you can't (defeat a mosque plan) if you're openly racist. So, they come up with issues like noise and traffic and parking to hide their real issues."

"Sometimes people look at what they think will be perceived as their best argument, even if that may not be their real argument," Orland Park Trustee Patricia Gira said.

Aminah McCloud, director of DePaul University's Islamic World Studies program, said a lack of knowledge about the Muslim community makes it harder to break through people's prejudices.

"Churches and synagogues don't have to do a PR campaign to build their houses of worship," she said. "(But) to judge by the media coverage, you would think there's a Muslim terrorist around every corner."

About 150 residents packed an Orland Park Plan Commission meeting this month, with many objecting to the mosque, the first of the village's 25 houses of worship that would not be a Christian church. Plan commissioners approved the plan, sending it on to the village board.

Most of the opponents said they were concerned only about the mosque worsening traffic problems in the area. But some were openly worried about the building drawing Islamic extremists — what one resident called "the elephant in the room."

"My feeling is they (mosque opponents) were tip-toeing around their real issues," said Khalid Mozaffar, co-chairman of the Southwest Interfaith Team and a mosque supporter. "If you stood out in the hallway after (the plan commission meeting), it was all about Muslims coming to town, not about traffic."

Amy DeRogatis, a professor in Religion in American Culture at Michigan State University, said religious tensions always have been part of America, but outside political factors — such as the 9-11 attacks — force those tensions into the spotlight.

McCloud is optimistic that the Orland Park mosque issue will not deteriorate into an ugly controversy, as has happened elsewhere in the Chicago area — including in Palos Heights in 2000, where a mosque was rejected, resulting in a federal lawsuit that's still pending.

McCloud said she's impressed with the openness of the Orland Park mosque organizers and the public discussion about the mosque.

The next public meeting on the mosque will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the village hall, when the village board's planning and zoning committees review the proposal.

Some of the mosque foes said they plan to make the mosque's funding and residents' fear of terrorism the focus of upcoming hearings.

Trustee James Dodge said he understands why people, given world events, may be worried, but turning the hearings into an anti-Muslim battle would be unfortunate.

"At the intersection of fear and ignorance is hatred. That's it," he said.

The latest on Hamtramck from AP:

HAMTRAMCK, Mich. - A noise-ordinance change that would allow mosques to broadcast calls to prayer on loudspeakers will be put to a citywide vote after opponents gathered hundreds of petition signatures.

The more than 630 signatures submitted to the city clerk's office were enough to force the City Council to rescind the amended ordinance or put it to a vote.

"We decided not to rescind the amendment, so it goes to the ballot," council president Karen Majewski said Tuesday night.

The council had voted unanimously last month to allow the Bangladeshi Al-Islah Mosque to broadcast the call to prayer five times a day.

The issue has divided this blue-collar city of 23,000, which once was overwhelmingly Polish and Roman Catholic but now has a sizable Muslim population.

It was not immediately known when the vote would be held in this enclave surrounded by the city of Detroit, but it is likely to be in the next few months.

In the meantime, Majewski said, the mosque can go ahead with its calls to prayer.

"There's nothing to regulate them. This actually gives them more power," she said.

Although the city's noise ordinance did not prohibit calls to prayer, attorneys for the city had recommended amending the law to specifically allow it, which would also allow the city council to regulate the noise.

The Al-Islah mosque plans to begin broadcasting the calls on Friday.

Abdul Motlib, head of the mosque, said he was confident the measure would win a citywide vote.

"Hamtramck has 23,000 people. If 500 or 600 people go against us, we're not losing nothing."

"There was some people out there that wore long clothes, but the only time we ever saw them was at the post office"

What they're thinking in the town where the Feds say Abu Hamza was hoping to set up a terrorist training camp. This article and this one at Dhimmi Watch show how important it is for Americans to have a full and working knowledge of Islam and the goals of Islamic radicals like Osama bin Laden and Abu Hamza. From AP:

Dean Lawrence used to think it was a joke when he heard all the talk about terrorists thinking about training on a sheep ranch outside his tiny hometown of Bly, Ore.

He was rethinking things Thursday after the arrest of a Muslim cleric in London on charges of trying to establish a terrorist training camp near Bly, a logging and ranching town in the sagebrush-dotted high desert of southern Oregon.

"A small town like this - I read in the paper one time there was 15 people came down to look" at the ranch, Lawrence said Thursday in a telephone interview from the gas station he owns in Bly.

The townspeople have been slow to believe terrorists were really targeting their town.

Two people connected to a mosque in Seattle, Semi Osman and James Ujaama, were charged in 2002 with trying to start a training camp for Al-Masri, but the charges were dropped in exchange for guilty pleas on lesser charges.

Authorities have said Ujaama sent al-Masri a fax proposing a camp outside Bly, and al-Masri sent two representatives to evaluate the site. The two were reportedly disappointed that the property had no barracks for trainees, and the camp was never developed.

The Klamath County Sheriff's Department got a tip from Interpol about the ranch in 1999 and sent some deputies to keep an eye on it, but they did not notice much beyond a dozen people taking target practice, said Sheriff Tim Evinger.

The shooting was not enough to catch the notice of neighbor Don Wessel, a retired logger who himself is used to taking shots at gophers on his ranch. He saw the news about Al-Masri's arrest on television.

"There was some people out there that wore long clothes, but the only time we ever saw them was at the post office," said Wessel.

Finally one wonders, "Why Oregon?"

Oregon had a brush with terrorism in 2002, when seven Portland-area Muslims, most of them American-born, were charged with plotting to join the Taliban to fight in Afghanistan.

Only one, accused ringleader Habis Abdu al Saoub, made it to the battlefield, where he was killed by U.S. forces last year. The others met with visa and money troubles and returned without firing a shot. They pleaded guilty to various charges and are serving three to 18 years in prison.

From the San Diego Channel, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

SAN DIEGO -- A 34-year-old Saudi national believed to have ties with two of the deceased Sept. 11 hijackers was arrested Thursday in San Diego by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Hasan Saddiq Faseh Alddin, a legal permanent resident of the United States, was taken into custody on immigration charges, resulting from two prior domestic violence convictions, according to Mike Unzueta, deputy special agent-in-charge for ICE investigations in San Diego.

Perhaps his connection to the hijackers was coincidental.

Memo to all permanent residents: you will attract less law enforecement attention if you don't beat your wives.

Imam arrested in a Pennsylvania mosque. From Philadelphia's WPVI.com, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Members of the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force descended on a house and mosque this morning and arrested the Imam in front of his wife and children.

Meriem Moumen says she and her husband were dropping their daughter off at school when they were surrounded by Philadelphia police, FBI and other federal agents.

They detained Mohamed Ghorub, the Imam of the Ansaar Allaah mosque in Bridesburg.

Many complain about the "use" of "immigration issues" to harass "law-abiding" Muslims. I thought they were immigration laws, not suggestions.

He was arrested a year ago, and released on bond which has now been revoked. The FBI says Immigration was the lead agency on today's raid.

Immigration says the raid was initiated by the FBI. In the past, the FBI has used immigration issues to detain and question people indefinitely. Moumen says they asked her where they were hiding the guns and where do they get their money. She says they have nothing to hide.

Adam Yahiye Gadahn was apparently expelled from Muzammil Siddiqi's Islamic Society of Orange County, but what I want to know is this: what did he learn from Siddiqi before that? In this AP story, Siddiqi says: "He was becoming very extreme in his ideas and views. He must have disliked something."

And then there was the mysterious arrest:

Gadahn, who was named Wednesday as one of seven suspected Al Qaeda operatives sought by the FBI, was later expelled from the mosque after attacking an employee. Records show he pleaded guilty to assault and battery charges in June 1997 and was sentenced to two days in jail and 40 hours of community service.

"He was becoming very extreme in his ideas and views," said Muzammil Siddiqi, the society's religious director. "He must have disliked something."

But what did he learn from Siddiqi before that? After all, Kenneth Timmerman has noted that:

During an anti-Israel rally outside the White House on Oct. 28, 2000, Siddiqi openly threatened the United States with violence if it continued its support of Israel. "America has to learn ... if you remain on the side of injustice, the wrath of God will come. Please, all Americans. Do you remember that? ... If you continue doing injustice, and tolerate injustice, the wrath of God will come." By "injustice," he meant U.S. support for Israel.

Siddiqi also has called for a wider application of sharia law in the United States, and in a 1995 speech praised suicide bombers. "Those who die on the part of justice are alive, and their place is with the Lord, and they receive the highest position, because this is the highest honor," he was quoted as saying by the Kansas City Star on Jan. 28, 1995.

So said Adnan El'Shukri-Jumah, one of the Seven Wanted Ones. And what was he willing to do to bring that law here? From an otherwise annoyingly irrelevant and unrevealing puff piece about this man's family in the Sun Sentinel, with thanks to Wendy and Mentat:

For El'Shukri-Jumah's family, Ashcroft's announcement served only to renew the despair they have endured since a similar FBI announcement brought the world's attention to their doorstep in March 2003. The family last saw the eldest son in 2001, before the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. His mother said he has called once since then. He said he was teaching English in Morocco, had married and had a son; she warned him to stay away, telling him that the U.S. government was imprisoning Arab and Muslim men without letting them see a lawyer, Ahmed said.

His mother explains further:

He may have been uncomfortable with the open expression of sexuality in the American public, but her son never expressed hatred or the desire to harm anybody.

He appreciated this country, its cultural diversity and the kindness of its people, she said.

"You know something," she said, "he and I used to say, `If this country had Islamic law it would be the best country on the Earth.'"

From AP, some information about six of the seven Islamic radicals wanted in possible connection with planning for a major attack in America this summer. Strange thing -- nary a Buddhist among them:

AAFIA SIDDIQUI: A Pakistani woman who studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She received a biology degree in 1995 and wrote a doctoral thesis on neurological sciences in 2001 at Brandeis University. Authorities have not charged that Siddiqui, 32, is a member of al-Qaida but believe she could be a "fixer," someone with knowledge of the United States who can get things done for other operatives. FBI officials believe Siddiqui also spent time in the Maryland suburbs of Washington.

The FBI issued a global alert for her arrest in March 2003 and requested that Pakistan locate Siddiqui. A month later, Siddiqui's mother, Ismat, claimed she saw her daughter get into a minicab with her three children for a journey from Karachi to Islamabad. But a senior Pakistani security official said Wednesday that she could not be found. Her husband, Dr. Amjad Mohammed Khan, also is wanted by the FBI for questioning.

FAZUL ABDULLAH MOHAMMED: A native of the Comoros Republic in the Indian Ocean, he is believed to be al-Qaida's ringleader in eastern Africa. He has been indicted in the United States in the 1998 al-Qaida bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 231 people. Since the indictment, Fazul's face could be seen on the walls of Kenyan police stations, and he has a $25-million bounty on his head. He is thought to be hiding in Kenya or Somalia.

AHMED KHALFAN GHAILANI: A Tanzanian who also goes by the names "Foopie," "Fupi" and "Ahmed the Tanzanian." He is under indictment in the United States for the embassy attacks.

AMER EL-MAATI: Born in Kuwait, he is wanted by the FBI for questioning about possible al-Qaida links.

ABDERRAOUF JDEY: A Tunisian who obtained Canadian citizenship in 1995. He was among five men who left suicide messages on videotapes recovered in Afghanistan at the home of Mohammed Atef - reportedly Osama bin Laden's military chief who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in 2001.

Also recovered from the home was a suicide letter by Jdey from August 1999. In the letter, he pledged to die in battle against infidels, according to information released by U.S. authorities in 2002. Jdey also goes by the names Farouq Al-Tunisi and Al Rauf bin Al Habib bin Yousef Al-Jiddi. He might have a Canadian passport. His last known address was an apartment building in Montreal.

ADAM YAHIYE GADAHN: A 25-year-old U.S. citizen who also goes by the names Adam Pearlman and Abu Suhayb Al-Amriki. FBI Director Robert Mueller says he attended al-Qaida training camps and has served as an al-Qaida translator. Gadahn says on an Islamic Internet site that he grew up on a goat ranch in Riverside County, Calif., and converted to Islam in his later teenage years after moving to Garden Grove, Calif.

Note that Iqbal Sacranie, the voice of moderate Islam in Britain, is suggesting that Hamza is being treated unfairly. Search this site for Abu Hamza, read some articles, and tell me there isn't a reasonable case for arresting this man. From the BBC, with thanks to EPG:

Controversial cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri has been arrested on an extradition warrant issued by the US government, which is said to relate to terrorism.

Scotland Yard has confirmed a 47-year-old man was seized at his home in west London at 0300 BST on Thursday.

The cleric, who preaches outside the Finsbury Park mosque in north London, will appear before magistrates at Belmarsh on Thursday.

Hamza and his mosque have been conncected with terrorists in the past.

But Iqbal Sacranie, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said it was still important that the principle of "innocent until proven guilty" be observed.

"He has certainly made provocative statements... but we need to be very clear [about the difference] between those remarks, that are perhaps deeply offensive to us, and whether there has been a breach of law," he told BBC News.

"I think for any British citizen, irrespective of where you come from, what your feelings are, what your thoughts are, the law should be applied equally."

It will be interesting to see if this exam will try to determine if Muslims from Turkey and Morocco hope someday to institute Sharia in their new homeland. From Expatica, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

Newcomers and settled immigrants will be forced to successfully pass an integration examination to prove they have integrated into Dutch society.

The law is primarily aimed at non-EU family unification immigrants — especially those from Turkey and Morocco — who will be required to complete a basic integration test in their country of origin before arriving in the Netherlands.

The Netherlands is the first country in the world to demand permanent immigrants complete a pre-arrival integration course. US, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and Japanese nationals are exempted from the pre-arrival courses. ...

Moving on, the Cabinet agreed on 23 April that after arriving in the country, a newcomer must report back to the local council after six months to monitor their integration progress. Authorities will determine when they will be assessed again. Those who fail to report will be fined.

If the immigrant wants to be compensated for course costs, they must pass the integration exam within three years. If a newcomer has failed to integrate after five years, they will be fined.

Asylum seekers will only be obligated to integrate once they have gained their first temporary residence permit. Antilleans and Arubans will also be obliged to integrate.

A residence permit for an indefinite period can only be obtained once a foreigner has passed an integration exam.

Erdogan, standing before a portrait of another deeply moral statesman, Ataturk

Speaking of myopic moral equivalence, here is one from Haaretz, with thanks to Ali Dashti. But where are the Israeli suicide bombers? I know that Israel is accused of targeting civilians. I also know that Palestinian Arab terrorists tend to hide among civilians. But that is something we dhimmis are not supposed to notice.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday criticized Israel's Rafah operation, saying that although Turkey also suffered from terrorism and was fighting it, he did not see a difference between what terrorists were doing and Israel's demolition of homes and the damage it was bringing to civilians.

Erdogan met with National Infrastructure Minister Yosef Paritzky, who said that the Turkish PM renewed offers to mediate between Israel and both the Palestinians and Syria.

Paritzky said the Turkish leader had been forthright in his criticism of Israel's assassination of two Hamas leaders and a recent huge raid on the Gaza Strip.

"The prime minister was very unhappy, to say the least," Paritzky told a small group of reporters.

"He claimed that the activities of the State of Israel do not promote peace...[But] he is willing to offer his services to mediate, negotiate and bring peace to the area."

Muslim but firmly secular Turkey has close economic and security ties with Israel, which regards Ankara as a valuable ally in the region, but has also traditionally supported Palestinian aspirations to statehood.

Erdogan, who had previously offered to mediate in the Middle East conflict, accused Israel in March of "terrorism" after the killing of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

Speaking in a newspaper interview, he said then that the assassination had seriously damaged peace efforts and there was "nothing left to mediate".

But apparently none of the killings of innocent non-combatants ordered by Yassin damaged peace efforts, eh, Erdogan?

From the Daily Times of Pakistan via the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

Lahore, May 25: Samuel, a blasphemy suspect, is in critical condition at General Hospital after a police constable hit him on his head with a brick cutter on the morning of May 22.

Constable Faryad, who attacked Samuel, was sent to jail after a case was registered against him.

Even though the case has been brought into the open, the authorities are still trying to keep the whole matter a secret. The Punjab Home Department has banned visitors to the hospital’s ward No 18, where Samuel is being treated. The police refused to show a copy of the FIR and discuss more details. The hospital staff was also reluctant to speak.

HRCP led a fact-finding into the incident. A police officer told the team that Faryad appeared calm after trying to kill Samuel but realized he had done something ugly the next day.

The team described the case as horrific, lacking education, awareness, sensibility and understanding and the result of a clear misuse of the blasphemy law.

Samuel alias Nadeem, the son of a man named Emanuel from Saidan Shah near Upper Mall Lahore, had been charged with blasphemy under Section 295 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Chaudhry Muhammad Yaqoob, librarian of the Darul Islam Lawrence Garden, Lahore, registered a First Information Report (FIR) against Samuel, accusing him of throwing waste by the wall of a mosque near the library.

From AP, with thanks to DC Watson:

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) -- Two car bombs exploded minutes apart by a language school close to the U.S. Consul's residence in Pakistan's biggest city Wednesday, killing a police officer and wounding 25 other people.

The attack came days after police in Karachi said they smashed an Islamic militant ring accused in a deadly bombing outside the U.S. Consulate two years ago and a failed assassination plot against Pakistan's pro-American president.

The fact that one of the seven wanted Al-Qaeda members is an American citizen, a convert to Islam, speaks volumes. Of course, several converts have already won headlines in the war on terror: John Walker Lindh, Juan Padilla, Richard Reid, Jack Roche, etc. It is obvious why Islamic terrorist groups would want to recruit such people. Less often noted is the significance of the fact that they can be recruited at all. For they approach the Qur'an and other Islamic texts without the culturally ingrained ways of understanding them that Muslims pick up in Islamic societies. In other words, they come to Islam more or less in a pure, abstract form. The force of any given passage of Qur'an or Hadith is not blunted by cultural habit and familiarity. This is extremely revealing of the nature of the Qur'an and Sunnah.

[Last night I posted the above graphic with a similar story. I was surprised to see that it quickly disappeared, but it was while the site was being worked on by the technicians. So I posted it again, made sure it was up, and turned to other work. Now this morning I find it gone again. I am no computer expert and don't know why this is happening, but I suspect it is also why some of you have found you can't post occasionally, or encounter other difficulties. Apologies for any inconvenience, and I will try to figure out what's going on. I thought the problems had been taken care of, so this is really puzzling.]

From the Washington Post:

The nation's top law enforcement officials, saying they are convinced al Qaeda is planning an attack on the United States in the coming months, issued an urgent plea yesterday for information about seven people who they said could be involved in such an effort.

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III asked for the public's help in tracking down six men and one woman associated with al Qaeda who either are familiar with the United States or have a history of involvement in attacks on U.S. interests.

All but one -- Adam Yahiye Gadahn, 25, a Southern California convert to Islam linked to top al Qaeda captive Abu Zubaida -- have been sought for many months by the FBI. Officials said they do not know whether any of the seven is in the United States. ...

"Credible intelligence, from multiple sources, indicates that al Qaeda plans to attempt an attack on the United States in the next few months," Ashcroft said. "This disturbing intelligence indicates al Qaeda's specific intention is to hit the U.S. hard." He said the information has been "corroborated on a variety of levels."

The problems you may be having getting to Jihad Watch today stem from efforts to resolve continuing space problems. The readership is growing very quickly, and we are doing our best to accomodate. All problems should be resolved soon, and thanks for your patience.

Johnson

What's so bad about American politicians comparing each other to Osama and the Taliban? Well, most American politicians aren't mass murderers. This kind of rhetoric blunts the reality of jihad. From AP:

Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson has apologized for remarks at a campaign rally in which he compared a segment of the Republican Party to the Taliban.

At a get-out-the-vote rally in Sioux Falls for Democratic House candidate Stephanie Herseth, Johnson told the crowd that Herseth will win a June 1 special election against Republican Larry Diedrich. "And how sweet it's going to be on June 2 when the Taliban wing of the Republican Party finds out what's happened in South Dakota," Johnson said at the Sunday event.

The second-term senator issued an apology Tuesday, saying "I am proud of the support I have enjoyed from Republicans across South Dakota. In a state like ours, you have to be able to reach across party lines to find consensus. If any Republicans were offended, I apologize."

Republicans were outraged by the remarks, with state GOP chairman Randy Frederick describing the statement as "repulsive" and "an attack on the character of all Republicans in South Dakota."

"To have someone of Sen. Tim Johnson's stature talking about my supporters as being terrorists is somewhat flabbergasting," Diedrich said.

Johnson said the remarks were directed at an outside group that attacked the senator's patriotism and "compared me to Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden" in a television ad during his 2002 Senate campaign.

Bashir Ahmad

"The ignorant majority of Muslims have a wrong interpretation of jihad, which is to fight against non-Muslims. The true interpretation is that any struggle for good — it could be against yourself — is jihad."

How's that again? The ignorant majority? Wait a minute. I thought we were dealing with a tiny minority of extremists here. But the remarks made by Mirza Mahmood Ahmad (who sounds as if he may be a member of the Ismaili sect that most Muslims consider heretical) in this Washington Times piece (thanks to Lokolaka) suggest that such talk is just what it is: dhimmi obfuscation. It is also illuminating for the tension in loyalties that Muslim soldiers feel.

Finally, note that Bashir Ahmad does not, at least in this article, mention loyalty to the United States as one of his reasons for staying in the service.

Mirza Mahmood Ahmad of Great Falls, Va., recalls his uneasy feelings about his son's deployment to Iraq in January, though he is proud of the young man's service in the Virginia National Guard.

"I said, 'Bashir, you want to go? There is no confusion in your mind? You are a Muslim. You may have to fight against other Muslims.' "

His son was annoyed by the question, Mr. Ahmad says.

"He said, 'First of all, I'm a medic. I won't be fighting.' 'Second,' he said, 'I can't back out' — because of his loyalty to his fellow soldiers," says Mr. Ahmad, 47, a Pakistani-born U.S. citizen who owns his own international wireless company.

Muslims make up a small minority in the U.S. military and have been regarded with suspicion by other Muslims at home and abroad, as well as by fellow members of the armed services of different faiths who question their enthusiasm for fighting fellow Muslims.

According to the Pentagon's most recent statistics, 4,154 of the 1,399,751 active-duty members of the armed forces, or 0.3 percent, identified themselves as Muslims.

Mr. Ahmad says he must defend his son's presence in Iraq to some at his mosque who question how a Muslim can go to an Islamic country and fight against members of his own religion.

"I have had to explain why Bashir is doing this," he says.

"He's an extremely smart kid," Mr. Ahmad says. "People like Bashir should be in the Army. I think he's making a major contribution."

His son — Pfc. Mirza Bashir Ahmad, 21, a political science student at Radford University — serves as a Virginia National Guard medic with the 276th Engineer Battalion out of Richmond.

In an e-mail from Iraq, Pfc. Ahmad said American Muslim soldiers in Iraq must walk a fine line to maintain the trust of their comrades while not offending other Muslims. ...

Mr. Ahmad immigrated to the United States in 1977 and belongs to a Muslim minority that interprets the Koran — and specifically the idea of jihad, or holy war — differently from many other Muslims.

"We are not against jihad," he says. "The ignorant majority of Muslims have a wrong interpretation of jihad, which is to fight against non-Muslims. The true interpretation is that any struggle for good — it could be against yourself — is jihad."

Mr. Ahmad's brother, a George Mason University graduate and computer expert, was assassinated by Islamic extremists in Pakistan in 1999 because of his views.

Mr. Ahmad does not think his family's situation is particularly noteworthy, he says, and asked not to be photographed. "It's unusual for us, a first-generation American family, in a very awkward time. [September 11] has changed a lot of things."

Step back for a minute and imagine an army led by a Buddhist monk or Christian priest, who was only one of many such clerics who preached violence from the pulpit and led armed forces. Then tell yourself that the Islamic identity of people like Al-Sadr and his lieutenant is incidental to what they are doing. Yet this politically correct myopia continues to afflict most Western policymakers, to our detriment.

From AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. troops captured a key lieutenant of radical Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr during overnight clashes in Najaf that killed 24 people and wounded nearly 50, hospital and militia officials said.

Here is a Fox story (thanks to Jeffrey Imm) about the latest threats.

Counterterrorism and law enforcement officials told Fox News Tuesday that they are extremely concerned that terrorist groups like Al Qaeda may be planning an attack during one of the major events scheduled for this summer. The comments came after a think tank study revealed that despite the elimination of several key figures, Al Qaeda still has a functioning leadership, over 18,000 potential terrorists in its global network and a swelling membership thanks to the war in Iraq.

I wrote about Sgt. Hasan Akbar's attack on his fellow American troops in Onward Muslim Soldiers. Now comes confirmation of my contention there that he attacked them solely out of loyalty to Islam, not because of racism or anything else (contrary to widely published reports). From AP, with thanks to LGF:

FORT BRAGG, N.C. - A prosecution witness testified Monday that a soldier charged with killing two officers in a grenade attack during the Iraq war confessed to the crimes after his arrest, saying he feared the wartime deaths of Muslims.

The SITE Institute has published excerpts of a training manual for Muslim kidnappers. The entire article is well worth reading at that site. One illuminating point is that the manual clearly sees kidnapping as an Islamic religious act, and even — astonishingly enough — as an opportunity to call people to Islam:

• Abide by Muslim laws as your actions may become a Da’wa [call to join Islam].

You may be annoyed when proselytizers knock on your door, but one thing you can say about the Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and others: they aren't under any illusions that kidnapping and murder will make their faiths any more attractive to nonbelievers.

"When some 95 percent of the population is Muslim, tackling the talibe problem is a delicate business."

Why? These children are being abused. Surely no one outside of a tiny minority of extremists could countenance that? The dhimmi hesitation to offend Muslims by tackling this scandal speaks volumes about both non-Muslims and Muslims.

From AllAfrica.com, with thanks to Susan:

Moussa doesn't know how old he is or how long he has been in Dakar begging for money to keep his Muslim schoolteacher from beating him. But he knows what he wants to be when he grows up - a white man.

Malnourished children stretching out their hands for a coin are a common sight in many African cities, but in this most western tip of the continent, it is not poverty driving them onto the streets but adults.

Moussa is one of thousands of Senegalese boys, plucked from their rural roots and sent to moderate religious schools - daaras - in the cities to learn about Islam and memorise its holy book, the Koran.

Yet the pupils, known as talibes or disciples, learn little, forced to spend 10 hours a day trudging the streets for coins so they can pay their marabout teachers and for scraps so they can feed themselves.

"I have to take 200 CFA (36 cents) back to my marabout every night," Moussa mumbled, digging in a tomato-paste tin for that day's collection of coins.

It is early evening in one of Dakar's more affluent suburbs and the boy, who looks no older than seven, doesn't have even half the required amount. "If I'm short, the teacher hits me with a stick," Moussa said resignedly.

He rubbed at a red scar on his forehead from a beating last week as he explained how there was only one thing he wanted to be when he was older.

"I want to be a white man."

Some marabouts argue that they have no other way of providing for the boys, that they had the same upbringing and that begging teaches the children humility. But these reasons don't convince everyone.

EXPLOITATION

"Obviously we're not talking about all marabout teachers, but for some it has reached the point where children are a business," said Lahad Ndiaye, who works for the Synapse Network Center, a Dakar-based group that has tried to help the talibes.

"It's exploitation pure and simple. You see kids who can't recite even two verses of the Koran. They don't have time to learn because they're on the street all day."

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimates there are up to 100,000 child beggars in Senegal - about one percent of the population - and "talibe children are the vast majority".

"I think the problem is growing," Mamadou Wane, a UNICEF child protection officer, said in an interview in his Dakar office.

"Poverty is hitting rural areas ever harder here, meaning more kids in the city daaras," he continued.

Daaras have been around since the seventeenth century and in their original incarnation were based in villages. Parents would send their children to work the marabout's fields in return for a religious education.

But in the last 50 years or so, bad droughts shrivelled crops to dust, the national economy spluttered and the marabouts joined the exodus to the cities. There, riches proved equally elusive, and for some sending their pupils to beg was a neat solution.

"The marabouts have no salary and they have to support 20 to 30 kids, it's impossible," said Babacar Sene, a Muslim elder in Ouaka, one of the outer suburbs of Dakar.

Sene is well known in the local community, where a number of marabouts operate but refused to discuss their operations.

"I don't agree with begging, it's irritating. But it's a thorny problem to solve. What else can the marabouts do?" added the 76-year-old, who chose to send his 23 children to French-speaking schools and teach them the Koran at home.

Senegal is a religiously tolerant country where many Muslims even celebrate Christmas and Islamic militancy is limited to the odd Osama bin Laden T-shirt.

SENSITIVE SUBJECT

But even so, when some 95 percent of the population is Muslim, tackling the talibe problem is a delicate business.

"The fact that people can talk about it now, that's already progress," said UNICEF's Wane. ...

For Cire Kane, another Synapse Network worker, the talibe problem should be a priority.

"When these kids grow up they won't have the skills to find work and they'll stay on the streets. Senegal is preparing a time-bomb for itself."

Indeed. In more ways than one.

From the Detroit News, with thanks to LGF:

HAMTRAMCK — A controversial noise ordinance allowing a mosque to broadcast daily Islamic calls to prayer over loud speakers is set to go into effect Wednesday.

But it probably won’t go into effect because of a petition protesting the ordinance.

But it probably won’t matter because the mosque plans to broadcast the calls to prayer anyway.

Confused? The Hamtramck City Council will try to sort through the mess Tuesday in the latest round of what is becoming a lesson in democracy, freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

Leaders of the Al-Islah Islamic Center asked the council for permission to broadcast calls to prayer — a centuries-old tradition in Islam. A prayer is sung five times a day to invite Muslims to pray. They’re often broadcast by loud speaker in predominantly Muslim countries, but are seldom broadcast in the United States.

The council wrote and approved an amendment to the city’s noise ordinance, sparking waves of outrage from Christian groups across the country that claimed Hamtramck was giving special rights to Muslims.

Last week, citizens turned in petitions with an estimated 630 signatures asking that the noise ordinance amendment be suspended. If 552 of the signatures are certified by the city clerk’s office, then the council Tuesday will be required to reconsider the amendment.

The council could vote down the amendment — which seems unlikely — because the amendment has passed unanimously several times.

If the council votes to approve the amendment, it still doesn’t go into effect. Instead, the amendment would be put on hold until it can be put on a ballot for city voters to consider.

All the political gyrations may not matter.

Masud Kahn, the associate imam of the mosque, said the mosque will begin the calls to prayer Friday, as planned, no matter what happens with the petition and the council.

Kahn and council President Karen Majewski say the mosque didn’t need the city’s permission to broadcast the calls to prayer in the first place.

Because the mosque is a religious institution and because it is broadcasting from its own property, the city has no control over the calls to prayer beyond regulations contained in the noise ordinance.

Another convert to Islam ends up mixed up with terrorists. Where, o where, is this grand religion of peace we keep hearing about? From the New York Times, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

ARIS, May 25 — A Paris court today sentenced a Frenchman with ties to a suspect in the Madrid train bombings to four years in prison for helping Islamic terrorists in Europe.

The man, David Courtallier, was convicted of conspiring with criminals engaged in a terrorist enterprise and was not implicated in the Madrid bombings, which killed 191 people on March 11. But Mr. Courtallier, a cheese vendor from France's Savoy region who converted to Islam in 1997, had been in contact with Jamal Zougam, one of the first suspects arrested in the Madrid attacks.

In both Onward Muslim Soldiers and Islam Unveiled I discuss the British Sheikh Omar Bakri, who has long boasted about using Britain's freedom of speech to advocate the establishment of a Sharia state in Britain. Here is more about him, from the Dallas Morning News:

LONDON – The puzzle of Sheik Omar Bakri Muhammad is the puzzle of growing ranks of militant Muslims across Europe today. Some are talkers, others are doers, and often it isn't easy to distinguish between the two.

Sheik Bakri, a controversial London-based cleric, counsels the hundreds of young men and women who attend his weekly sermons to exercise restraint and nonviolence. Yet, he says martyrdom is a key to paradise. Under some circumstances in the defense of Islam, he says, violence and killing may be necessary.

Europe may be the scene of martyrdom attacks soon, Sheik Bakri warned in an interview, although he placed numerous caveats on how that could unfold.

He regards the West as the enemy, confers upon Osama bin Laden the honorific of "sheik," and praises as "magnificent" the 19 al-Qaeda members who killed themselves in the Sept. 11 attacks. But he also preaches kindness and respect for non-Muslims and condemns indiscriminate attacks as "forbidden" in Islam.

Taqiyya alert: Bakri taught two young British Muslims who journeyed to Israel to become suicide bombers.

A commentary last year in the Guardian newspaper mistakenly described Sheik Bakri, who walks with a cane but is otherwise able-bodied, as "one-eyed, hook-handed."

That would be Abu Hamza, Bakri's partner in crime.

An April 26 New York Times story listed Sheik Bakri foremost among European clerics allegedly expressing sympathy toward terrorist attacks against Europe. He was so angered, he banned members of al-Muhajiroun from speaking to the non-Muslim news media and accused the New York Times of attempting "to stir up hatred towards Muslims and to whip the masses into a frenzy of fear and animosity."

Rankling officials

Nevertheless, Sheik Bakri acknowledged in the April 22 interview that he has deliberately tried to rankle the British and U.S. governments with his fiery sermons, which he delivers several times a week at mosques and community centers around England.

By praising al-Qaeda as "magnificent," the cleric said, he is able to draw media attention and spread his message to a wider audience. But because he stops short of calling for his own followers to stage attacks, he explained, he has been able to avoid arrest for inciting terrorism.

Key to his rhetorical strategy is a carefully worded explanation of Islam's "covenant of security," which obliges Muslims to behave themselves when they have been invited into their enemy's domain. It is forbidden, the cleric explained, for Muslim immigrants to launch attacks in the Western countries where they reside because, as guests, they must abide by a covenant of nonaggression.

He said there currently is no one who can be described as the undisputed leader of all Muslims. However, he describes Mr. bin Laden as, hands down, the most popular and widely respected person in the Muslim world today.

"If you want to make free elections in the Muslim world, I doubt if anyone could compete with him. Even moderate Muslims, if they are given the free hand to vote and are given the power, they would vote for Osama bin Laden," he said. ...

Muslims who regard Mr. Bin Laden as their supreme leader might regard themselves as free to rise up against their European hosts, Sheikh Bakri said.

"What we do is all part of the same struggle," said Anjem Choudary, the chief deputy of Sheik Bakri, who described the jihad being waged by al-Muhajiroun in the United Kingdom as the same as those being waged by Muslim guerrillas in Iraq, Afghanistan and Chechnya.

"It's right that we're fighting against it [oppression by the West]. We just don't do so militarily," he said.

Sheikh Bakri says he makes a point of sending advance copies of his sermons to British police so they can judge for themselves whether he is the terrorist demon portrayed by the media. So far, police have not intervened. In spite of calls by members of Parliament for his arrest and deportation, British authorities say Sheikh Bakri has the right of free speech as long as he doesn't incite violence.

Kids love him, too — a tiny minority of kids, of course

This story is an AP version (thanks to Jake) of the Reuters piece below. This one is far more concerned than the Reuters piece with portraying these findings as showing that the war on terror has failed.

However:

1. Doesn't the fact that half of Al-Qaeda's leadership has been killed or captured indicate that the war on terror thus far may not have been as dismal a failure as the lead paragraph suggests?

2. Estimates of the number of people who went through Al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan have ranged as high as 120,000. Low-end estimates are still in the 70,000-80,000 range. If only 18,000 of them are still active, doesn't that indicate some success? Of course, these 18,000 could inflict tremendous damage, but I'd still rather have 18,000 to deal with than 100,000.

3. The idea that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have boosted Al-Qaeda is dear to the hearts of people like Ted Kennedy, but where would we be now if there had been no response to 9/11, or if that response had amounted to just a few cruise missiles lobbed into Waziristan? Would the Al-Qaeda members who already existed before 9/11 have folded up shop and stopped attacking Westerners?

4. Also, if Muslims joined Al-Qaeda because of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, doesn't that indicate that they didn't have any serious objection to Al-Qaeda's activity even before joining? After all, if they considered Osama and Co. to be heretics who were defaming Islam by using it to justify terrorism, that wouldn't change because the Americans invaded, would it? Surely in that event it would have been possible to create a non-terrorist force that was not allied with Al-Qaeda, that would have really constituted the indigenous militiamen that Ted Rall and his ilk imagine the terrorists to be? But doesn't the fact that this didn't happen indicate that the ideological divide between Al-Qaeda and the rest of the Islamic world wasn't as large as most analysts continue to believe?

LONDON - Far from being crippled by the U.S.-led war on terror, al-Qaida has more than 18,000 potential terrorists scattered around the world and the war in Iraq is swelling its ranks, a report said Tuesday.

Well, if this report is true, we now have a count of the tiny minority of extremists: evidently, there are 18,000 of them. But of course Reuters — and few analysts — seem to care how these 18,000 were recruited, and whether such recruitment efforts are still effective among Muslims worldwide.

From Reuters, with thanks to nevermindlv:

LONDON (Reuters) - Al Qaeda has more than 18,000 militants ready to strike and the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq has accelerated recruitment to the ranks of Osama bin Laden's network, a leading London think-tank says.

Personally, I find the pop singer Madonna always tiresome and frequently contemptible; however, I am not interested in murdering her or her family, or even in preventing people from buying her records. Therein lies a key difference between the civilizations that are currently clashing.

From Haaretz, with thanks to Tziona:

Pop superstar Madonna recently canceled concerts scheduled in Israel as a result of death threats by unknown Palestinian militants, the British tabloid The Sun reported yesterday. The singer had scheduled three concerts to be held in Tel Aviv in September, but canceled the performances earlier in the month.

According to the report, Madonna initially "freaked out" when she learned of the threat, but decided to go ahead with the performances. She changed her mind, the paper said, when she received letters containing details about her two children, aged 7 and 3.

In all the excitement around the Jihad Watch offices lately here in sunny Secure Undisclosed Locationville, we once again neglected to post links to two new articles by Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer: "The Jihad in America and the Judeo-Christian-Islamic Way," which appeared in Human Events; and "The Enemy is Not Just Al-Qaeda," from FrontPage. Both appeared last Thursday, although I assure you they were not written simultaneously.

U.S. News and World Report has this. In the days after the Madrid bombing everyone asked what would happen if the American election was targeted. Would Americans go the way of Spain or be roused to greater action?

Al-Qaeda would like to find out.

The chatter was persistent--and alarming. In the weeks after the deadly March bombings of four commuter trains in Madrid by al Qaeda operatives, the supersecret U.S. surveillance network, Echelon, intercepted a number of messages from suspected terrorists suggesting planning for a massive, multipronged assault on the United States. When? Between this summer's political conventions and October, one month before the presidential election. The intelligence appeared to confirm information obtained from some seized al Qaeda computers and from several human sources, government officials say. Officials at the CIA and the National Security Agency, which runs the Echelon program, believe the information is credible but worry that the human sources were on the periphery of the now widely dispersed al Qaeda network. Nevertheless, the information pointed to two, perhaps three, targets, the sources say: New York, Washington, and Las Vegas. The objective of the suspected attack, the officials continued, would be not only to cause mass casualties and devastation of U.S. infrastructure but to roil the presidential race. The Madrid bombings, which killed 191 people and wounded 1,800, also toppled the Spanish government and triggered the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq. "Since Spain," says a Bush administration official, "al Qaeda has had the feeling of 'We can do this. We can affect an election.' "

More holy fighting in the holy city of Najaf where a holy shrine was damaged— but not it seems wholly destroyed.

NAJAF, Iraq (AP) - One of the most sacred shrines of Shia Islam suffered minor damage during clashes Tuesday between U.S. forces and radical Shiite militiamen that killed at least 13 Iraqis, some of them civilians. It was unclear who was responsible for the shrine damage.

A wonderful hi-tech dream that will fall apart if differing agencies do not share information.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Department of Homeland Security is on the verge of awarding a 15-billion-dollar contract for creating an elaborate system of databases that would track visitors to the United States long before they arrive.

On Sunday, The New York Times said the contract, which will probably be awarded in coming days to one of three final bidders, is already generating considerable interest as federal officials try to improve their ability to monitor those who enter the United States at more than 300 border checkpoints.

No one wonder he thinks bin Laden seemed like a "nice man". More in The Age on the trial of Australian terror suspect Jack Roche.

Al-Qaeda leaders talked about destroying American and Israeli airlines flying to Australia a year before the September 11 attacks in the United States, a court heard yesterday.

The strikes were part of a plot outlined in early 2000 in the Pakistan city of Karachi by al-Qaeda's second in command, Mukhtar, in talks with alleged al-Qaeda conspirator Jack Roche.

Roche, 50, a British-born Islamic convert, has denied plotting with senior al-Qaeda officials to bomb the Israeli embassy in Canberra, with intent do endanger lives.

On day six of his trial in the Perth District Court, the jury was played part of a nine-hour videotape of an interview with Roche conducted by two Australian Federal Police agents in November 2002.

Roche says in the interview that he and Mukhtar also talked about the assassination of Americans and Israelis in Australia and how Melbourne Jewish leader Joe Gutnick would be a possible target.

"Mukhtar was thinking about any airlines that regularly came to Australia from either the US or Israel," Roche says in the recording. "But he mainly was interested in the American airlines that flew into Australia and people who could be targeted."

France struggles with its future. (Thanks to Jeffrey Imm.)

LYON, France (AP) - A Muslim cleric deported last month for condoning wife beating and espousing violence returned to France on Saturday after a court suspended his expulsion.

Abdelkader Bouziane returned to this southeastern French city on a flight from his native Algeria but faces legal troubles that could lead to another expulsion, his lawyer, Mahmoud Hebia, said in a telephone interview.

Bouziane's arrived back two days after the Turkish director of a Paris mosque, Midhat Guler, was deported based on what the Interior Ministry said was a threat to public order.

It said that the Turkish imam, or prayer leader, led a Turkish Islamic extremist movement, Kaplan, "that preaches the use of violence and terrorism."

France fears that some imams are spreading messages of violence in their mosques or values that do not adhere to the western model. An imam from the western city of Brest also has been expelled. LYON, France - A Muslim cleric deported last month for condoning wife beating and espousing violence returned to France on Saturday after a court suspended his expulsion.

There is no way for cases like this not to be highly politicized from the beginning, and the FBI should have known that.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A federal court threw out the case Monday against an American lawyer arrested in connection with the Madrid train bombings, lifting a a cloud of suspicion that has surrounded the attorney since his arrest earlier this month.

Robert Jordan, the FBI agent in charge of Oregon, said the agency "regretted" any hardship caused by the arrest, and said the agency would be reviewing its practices on fingerprint analyses.

ADDENDUM: If this case had really been a witch hunt, of course, Mayfield would never have been released. But greater care is needed, as I called for in this article about the case: "No Margin for Error in Terror War." It appeared in Human Events on May 13:

An American lawyer named Brandon Mayfield was arrested last Thursday. Reports indicated that his fingerprints were found on one of the bags holding the explosives that blew up in Madrid on March 11. Adding to the suspicion was that he was a convert to Islam — and therefore possibly, like John Walker Lindh, a convert to jihad ideology. Among Mayfield’s clients had been another Muslim convert, Jeffrey Battle, who was convicted some time ago of participating in a conspiracy to aid Al-Qaeda. (Mayfield didn’t represent him on that case, but on an earlier one involving child custody.)

But a significant question arose almost immediately. Not long after the FBI took Mayfield into custody, Spanish officials expressed grave reservations about the incriminating fingerprint (it turned out to be just one). It was, they contended, not similar enough to fingerprints known to be Mayfield’s.

Now, I’m not saying that Mayfield is innocent. Nor am I saying he’s guilty. What I am saying is the FBI better have more than a single fingerprint on which to base their case, and that they need to make their case as convincing in the court of public opinion as in a court of law. They need to assure Americans that they do have other evidence — even if they’re not able to say what it is at this point. This is because there is no way for cases like this not to be highly politicized from the beginning. The doubts about the fingerprint just feed suspicions such as those expressed by Mayfield’s brother: “I think the reason they are holding him is because he is of the Muslim faith and because he is not super happy with the Bush administration.”

The idea that the FBI is now rounding up random Muslims and critics of the Bush Administration is a cherished fantasy of the loony Left, but cases like this only feed the paranoia. If the fingerprint turns out definitively to be not Mayfield’s, his case will form a nice companion, in the hysterical annals of Bushitler’s reign of terror, to that of Muslim Army Chaplain James Yee. Yee was arrested last September and suspected of mishandling classified documents at Guantanamo; officials intimated that a treason charge could be in the offing. But then it all got curiouser and curiouser: prosecutors asked for more time so that they could determine whether the documents Yee had were really classified at all. The charges were reduced, revised, and finally dropped altogether.

American Muslim advocacy groups and their allies have tried to make Yee’s case into a cause celebre, clamoring for an official apology and comparing Yee to Alfred Dreyfus, the Army Captain who was convicted of treason on charges trumped-up by anti-Semites in France a hundred years ago. Just last Saturday the Chicago Tribune huffed: “No apologies by the military would fully restore Yee’s reputation or compensate his family for the suffering they endured. Yet a formal apology would be a good place to start. The military ought to consider, too, how this witch hunt has damaged its image, its plans to recruit Muslims and Arabs into its intelligence services — an urgent task — and its reputation among Muslims at home and abroad.”

Maybe Yee hasn’t received an apology because of the unanswered questions that linger about his case. When the charges were dropped, Major General Geoffrey D. Miller, commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo spoke cryptically of “national security concerns that would arise from the release of the evidence” if the government continued to prosecute Yee.

What on earth did Miller mean? That the documents Yee was carrying were so sensitive that a trial would bring to light information that must not come out? If that was so, then why was he sent back to work? But if he didn’t have classified documents, why not dispel all remaining suspicions and allow this innocent man to get on with his life without any clouds hanging over him?

The stakes are too high in the war on terror to allow for the kind of bungling that marked, or seemed to mark, the Yee case, and which now threatens to turn another high-profile terror prosecution into a fiasco. The problem is not that all this makes Bush look bad. It is that there are plenty of real terrorists still at large. Whether Justice is trumping up charges against innocent people or mishandling the prosecution of real jihadists is equally damaging. Abu Ghraib is just one example: there is today simply no margin for error.

Saudi Arabia's plentiful chickens come home to roost again.

RIYADH: (AFP) A German national was shot dead in Riyadh on Saturday, becoming the seventh Westerner to be killed in Saudi Arabia this month, hours after authorities reported seizing bomb-making material in a terror "den".

"An expatriate holding German citizenship was shot and killed by unknown elements in eastern Riyadh. Security authorities are still (investigating) the incident," the capital's police chief said.

Ibn Warraq, author of Why I Am Not A Muslim

Khilafah.com boldly reasserts a traditional position. How will Canada's sharia court arbitration system handle such matters?

One idea that requires a response is the attack on aspects of the Shar’iah as barbaric. They claim that the standards for acceptability over 1400 years ago are different from the acceptable norms today. Therefore they say it is barbaric to stone the adulterer and lash the fornicator and cut the hand of the thief and - most controversially in their eyes – to kill the apostate. There I’ve said it. I can just imagine the human rights organisations rallying their capitalist brethren and the defeatist Muslims cringing. Yet it is an irrevocable command from the Creator, without distortion, abrogation or capitulation. The Messenger of Allah SalAllahu alaihi wasallam said:

من بدّل دينه فاقتلوه
"Whoever changes his religion, kill him". (Bukhari)

Algerian Salafist Abu-Ibrahim Mustafa's May 2004 address, "A Word that has to be said" (Thanks to Nicolei.)

They won't rest until non-Muslims are dhimmis.

Everyone knows the situation of the Muslims today, and Muslims are suffering everywhere. Here are the Muslim people of Palestine, in the Land of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the first Qiblah (direction for prayer) for Muslims, these Mujahidin are being killed everyday. Men, women, children; and killed by the hands of the wicked Jews and with help of the Americans and their allies, while the world is watching. The goal is to make the holy Al-Aqsa a Jewish site and to prevent the Muslims from establishing a Muslim country. It will be established, God willing, and the Jews will be humiliated.

Here is the Muslim land of Afghanistan, on which the State of Islam was established; where the glory of the faith has appeared for the first time after long years of humiliation. This country showed the world the great values of loyalty, faithfulness and support for the faith, when it destroyed the Buddha statues, disregarding the condemnation of the infidels everywhere. Also, it has refused to hand over Usamah Bin-Ladin to the infidel Americans, even if this would cause the destruction of their country. This infuriated the American and their allies, and they declared the crusaders war to stop this holy, Godly movement, the movement of Islam and glory. They attacked Afghanistan with every weapon. They demolished and destroyed with hatred and anger against Islam. Allah will allow nothing except His light, even if the infidels do not like it. Here is Afghanistan, slowly going back under the banner of the Taliban. We ask Allah to grant them victory. Allah said, “God grant victory to those that support him. And God is powerful almighty”. Allah will defend the faithful; He does not like the infidels, and e is capable of granting them victory.

Here is the Islamic land of Chechnya and its Muslim people, Al-Mujahidin, who are controlled by the Russian war machine with the support of the Americans and their Allies. They are preventing these Muslim people from establishing their own Islamic state in the throat of the Russians. God willing, it will be established and become a role model to the Muslims.

Look at what is happening today in Algeria, the Philippines, Kashmir, Indonesia, Egypt, Iraq and others. They chase and surround the unshakable Mujahidin who fight to uphold the word of Allah, and to make faith in Allah the only faith. They are imprisoned and killed and violated to prevent them from keeping the faith and from establishing a Muslim state.

From The Telegraph:

Note also:

Common wisdom in the Iraqi capital is that nearly all the Mahdi army fighters in the holy cities are poor and ignorant Shias from the sprawling Baghdad suburb of Sadr City.

But most of those fighting the Americans this weekend were local. Some were educated and from well-off families.

And it's 1 2 3 What are we fightin' for? Don't ask the major TV networks. (AP)

A speech in which Bush is expected to lay out details of the transfer of power to Iraq, and reassure Americans about that war, will not be covered by the major networks.

According to Hollywood Reporter:

The broadcast networks are not expected to carry President Bush's primetime speech tonight, in which he will lay out a "clear strategy" for the future of Iraq. The Bush administration has not requested the Big Four to air live the president's address to an audience at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Penn., scheduled for 8 p.m. EDT on the last Monday of the crucial for the network's ad rates May sweep period.

NBC, Fox and ABC will proceed with their scheduled programming for the 8-9 p.m. hour -- an episode of "Fear Factor," the finale of "The Swan" and the broadcast premiere of Oscar-winning "A Beautiful Mind," respectively. NBC and Fox's sibling cable channels, MSNBC and Fox News, will carry the speech.

Everybody loves Raymond, but nobody loves W.

CAIR responded to the murder of Nicholas Berg by circulating a petition against terrorism called “Not in the Name of Islam.”

The “Not in the Name of Islam” petition states: “We, the undersigned Muslims, wish to state clearly that those who commit acts of terror, murder and cruelty in the name of Islam are not only destroying innocent lives, but are also betraying the values of the faith they claim to represent. No injustice done to Muslims can ever justify the massacre of innocent people, and no act of terror will ever serve the cause of Islam. We repudiate and dissociate ourselves from any Muslim group or individual who commits such brutal and un-Islamic acts. We refuse to allow our faith to be held hostage by the criminal actions of a tiny minority acting outside the teachings of both the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.

Islam Online says the petition is “Not in the Name of Islam”

On the other hand, it promotes a message of pacifism to Muslims in the US and around the world, disregarding Islam’s instructions to fight oppression and invasion. This is suggested when the term reject violence is used.

Violence and all its forms are subjectively interpreted. To non-Muslims, the desired interpretation would be “Drop all of your beliefs in fighting against our oppression.” Another possible connotation would be that Muslims should not support the death penalty or corporal punishment. The death penalty, whether by stoning, hanging or beheading, is considered a violent act by many.

Desperate to curry favor with non-Muslims, CAIR has successfully been trapped in a catch-22. Now that we’ve suggested that Muslims do not believe in violence, non-Muslims will tear us up in their writings by accusing us of hypocrisy for daring to take up arms against an occupying force.

UPDATE: Read the comments. In haste I missed the crucial point that the Islam Online article was written by an American Islamic chaplain. Thanks to Charles and all the others who provided the info.

KARBALA, Iraq (AP) U.S. forces battled fighters loyal to radical Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in his stronghold of Kufa overnight Sunday, and at least 18 people died. Many militiamen returned to their homes after abandoning the center of another holy Shiite city, Karbala, witnesses said.

The clashes broke out when American tanks and troops moved into the city for the first time as part of an effort to weaken the militia of al-Sadr, a fierce opponent of the U.S.-led occupation who launched an uprising against the coalition in early April. He routinely delivers a sermon at Friday prayers in Kufa.

It seems as if even AP is getting tired of "the holy city of ..." designation. It calls to mind a recent Scrappleface headline: "New York, Washington Declared Muslim Holy Cities." Now that's thinking outside the box, and an interesting tactic to boot.

Back to AP:

The U.S. military has said al-Sadr's forces are using mosques and shrines to store weapons and organize attacks, while the radical cleric's supporters have accused the military of desecrating holy places.

Meaning: if al-Sadr's forces attack from the mosque it is not a desecration, but if U.S. forces follow them back to their lair, it is.

Thanks to Jeffrey Imm, this story from The Telegraph:

...there is no disguising the fact that hundreds of angry young Shias - some poor and ill-educated, others from relatively well-off families - are flocking to the Mahdi army.

The article concludes:

"I am no fan of Moqtada al-Sadr but it is the Americans who are causing our suffering. Every day they kill innocent people. They should just leave our country. They promised democracy and freedom but all they have delivered is torture and abuse."

Homa Arjoman

Thanks to the several people who sent this article from The Star.

Had she stayed in Iran, Homa Arjomand would now be dead.

All — all — of the women's activists she worked with in Tehran have been executed, victims of a reactionary regime that ruled, and continues to rule, by strict adherence to Islam's sharia law.

In 1989, she and her husband paid $15,000 to smugglers to help them and their two young children flee the country.

For three days, they rode on horseback through the mountains, sleeping in barns before finally reaching Turkey.

Two years later, the onetime professor of medical physics arrived in Canada as a refugee. And how grateful she was to be in a secular country, where female equality was the law.

That was then.

Last fall, Arjomand, now a transitional counsellor in Toronto for immigrant women, heard the province had quietly approved the use of Islamic law in Ontario's Muslim community.

A group she'd never heard of, called the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice, had gained the right to hold tribunals, darul qada, in which marriage, family and business disputes can be settled according to sharia.

The 1,300-year-old body of laws and rules for living was inspired by the Qur'an, Islam's holy book.

Arjomand was horrified.

"The last thing I expected in Canada, the last thing I want, is sharia law," she says. "Women are not equal under it, therefore it is opposed to Canada's laws and values. The government can't let this happen."

Jihad Watch was temporarily off-line, ironically because the site was just upgraded to handle more data and bandwidth.

Apologies for any inconvenience.

In today's Dallas Morning News, by Andrew McCarthy:

For Islamic militants like Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, Osama bin Laden and those who follow them, jihad means killing the enemies of the militants – which is pretty much anyone who is not a militant. That sounds crazy to us – we're from a diverse, tolerant, live-and-let-live culture. But if we are going to appreciate the risk – the threat – we face, the reality is: It matters much less what we think about the militants than what they think about themselves.

Mort Kondracke mentions that

The decapitation of Nicholas Berg - which, it merits reminding, required several cuts of the knife to stop his screaming - was a front-page story for just one day. Only one newspaper that I know of, the Dallas Morning News, plus the Weekly Standard magazine, made the point that Berg's murder is "why we fight."

Don't mess with Texas.

From Channel 4's promotional material

The producers of this documentary spent a year working with Bradford Social Services and the troubled people they help. "These are the neighbours we don't want to know whose problems we don't want to see," said the producers. How right they were.

LONDON (Reuters) - A British television documentary which shows Asian men grooming under-age white girls for sex has been shelved because of fears it could incite racial violence ahead of elections, Channel 4 said Friday. The broadcaster said the decision to pull "Edge of the City" was taken after discussions with police.

Bradford, the northern city where the program was filmed, was rocked in 2001 by race riots between Asians and whites.

"The police feared that the timing of the broadcast would increase community tensions in Bradford...with the risk that it would lead to public disorder," the broadcaster said in a statement.

The program, which was to have been screened earlier this week, explores what it calls an explosion of child abuse whereby Asian men in the city have been targeting young girls for sex -- one as young as 11 -- by plying them with drugs.

The Muslim Political Affairs Committee (MPAC) is crowing:

Success: ‘Edge of the City’ Stopped

It was a last minute rush to get this biased documentary postponed, but we did it. MPACUK readers rushed to register their dismay at linking race with paedophiles; the police registered their concern by stating that it could cause racial tensions and MPAC contacted 5 MPs and a Lord to ask them to raise this with Channel 4. Here is MPAC’s story on what we did, who we talked to and the one guy who we got to. This is why lobbying works and why Muslims need to know their MPs.

Wait a minute. Didn't you guys forget to blame the so-called hatemongers who report verifiable facts backed up with documentary evidence? Oh -- never mind. You put that bit at the end.

This small success by the Grace of Allah, the hard work of the e-group and the personal interest shown by our Parliamentary representatives, show that when we do make an effort, we get results. And that is why we demand that the mosques actively lobby and teach their congregation the importance of politics. With Allah’s blessing and our deeds we can and will make a difference. If we all mobilize to the man, woman and child, then the BNP, Zionist, Islamophobes can all be beaten. The key is everyone participating.

Ironically the program also profiles Mathew, a repeat offender and "underprivileged white youth" who is assigned to Omar -- a British Muslim whose role is to keep him out of trouble.

Reuters explains how the law prohibits stirring up racial tension (even "inadvertently").

Local and European elections take place throughout Britain in June and broadcasters are duty-bound not to transmit material which is either intended to create racial hatred or which could inadvertently stir up racial tension.

In short, there are just some things one does not talk about. Sorry for the girls and all that, but we can't take a chance on upsetting people.

Background via the BBC on the 2001 riots:

"Segregation, albeit self-segregation, is an unacceptable basis for a harmonious community and it will lead to more serious problems if it is not tackled."

Europe, are you listening?

BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. officials believe they have "rock solid" evidence that Iraqi Governing Council member Ahmad Chalabi (search), once a darling of the American government, passed secrets to Iran, Fox News has learned.

"There is no need for an investigation because we're quite certain he did it," one senior Bush administration official said.

The official first described the evidence against Chalabi as "pretty solid" and then characterized it as "rock solid."

U.S. officials won't describe the information Chalabi's alleged to have passed to Iran or how he's supposed to have obtained it, but they said he does not have the clearance to possess American classified information.

According to Reuters, however, this is not what yesterday's raid was all about.

An Iraqi judge, Hassan Muathin, said the raid was carried out under an arrest warrant for several men wanted for stealing state-owned vehicles, but Chalabi accused U.S.-led authorities running Iraq of a "targeted attack" against him.

Squads of soldiers and police sealed off the neighborhood around the headquarters of the Iraqi National Congress (INC) and a nearby house used by Chalabi, removing computers, files, a copy of the Koran and other personal items, Chalabi said.

UPDATE: Michael Rubin of the American Enterpise Institute sees it this way:

On May 20, U.S. forces raided the home and office of Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi. At a press conference following the operation, Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) spokesman Dan Senor told assembled journalists that U.S. forces did not participate. To be kind, Senor appeared to misspeak. There was a non-Iraqi American citizen in Chalabi's house at the time of the raid. As armed men pointed guns at Chalabi's head, the U.S. citizen demanded to know who was in charge. A number of heavily armed Americans (judging by language and accent) in civilian clothes, upon learning of the presence of a non-Iraqi witness, scurried outside and waited in U.S. military humvees while Iraqis searched Chalabi's house.

Those conducting the raid stole a Chalabi family Koran, smashed a portrait of Chalabi's father, and destroyed computers and family heirlooms. Chalabi's name did not appear on the warrant they presented. Iraqi police conducting the raid under American supervision sheepishly apologized in Arabic; they did not know they were to target Chalabi.

Iraqis--fans and foes of Chalabi alike--saw the raid as another sign of the contempt the CPA shows for ordinary Iraqis. By sending forces to break into Chalabi's house and then by holding a Governing Council member at gunpoint, Bremer sought to humiliate Chalabi. Bremer has not learned from the Abu Ghraib scandal. Humiliation backfires.

Simultaneously, the inside-the-beltway rumor mongering made clear both the irrational contempt and ignorance that many professional pundits feel for any proponent of Arab democracy. Those academics, pundits, and commentators who have never met Chalabi reserve for him the greatest vitriol.

And, via LGF, Michael Ledeen, also of the American Enterprise Institute, spells it out further:

Yet the State Department's and the CIA's Middle East gangs have hated him and fought him for more than a decade, because he is independent and while he is happy to work with them, he will not work for them.

If we can't take a picture of Aunt Mabel on the D train ("ummm, how did we wind up at Coney Island?"), the terrorists win.

The New York Daily News on proposed new regulations to help deter terrorism in the subways:

Smiling will still be allowed on the subways, but - sorry, tourists - taking pictures may soon be banned.

Transit officials, at the request of police, yesterday proposed prohibiting photography and videotaping in the subway system and on buses - hoping to thwart terrorists from gathering information for an attack.

There are various other rules proposed, such as no walking between cars (I committed that particular crime quite often back when I lived in Gotham City); no shoes on the seats, and no jumping the turnstile even if you have a valid fare card that malfunctions.

NYPD Transportation Police Chief Michael Scagnelli said police would use discretion in issuing summonses to shutterbugs. But violators could be questioned and subjected to background checks, he said, and have their film confiscated.

New York officials were recently planning for possible subway terrorism in a four-hour drill, coordinated by the Office of Emergency Management and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

NEW YORK (AP) _ City officials staged a mock explosion in a lower Manhattan subway station early Sunday May 16, simulating an incident with 200 injured and 40 killed to test protocols and communications among emergency personnel from multiple agencies.

More info on the arrests on Tuesday.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S.-led forces in Iraq are holding two people suspected of possible involvement in the kidnap and beheading of American Nicholas Berg earlier this month, the U.S. military said on Friday. Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, a spokesman for the forces, told a news conference four people had been detained in a raid in Baghdad two days ago and two had subsequently been released. Of the other two, he said: "We may find out that they have no association with the murder."

AP spoke to an anonymous Iraqi official who said the group that killed Berg was led by a relative of Saddam Hussein.

The group that was involved in the killing of Berg was led by Yasser al-Sabawi, a nephew of Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi security official said. He said American intelligence had asked Iraqi authorities to hand over the suspects, but they were still in Iraqi hands.

Al-Sabawi was not among those arrested, the Iraqi official said.

Charles Martel receives a messenger

France is deeply conflicted over its rush to dhimmitude.

PARIS (AP) - France deported an Islamic mosque leader Thursday who was accused of leading a group that advocates terrorism, the Interior Ministry said.

The expulsion of Midhat Guler is part of a growing French crackdown against radical Muslim clerics.

Guler, a Turkish national, was taken out of France by plane, but the ministry did not indicate what the destination was.

"This expulsion is motivated by the threat that this person represented to the public order," the ministry said in a statement. "Mr. Guler is in fact a leader in France of a Turkish Islamic extremist movement called 'Kaplan' that preaches use of violence and terrorism."

The ministry statement was an apparent reference to a group that calls for establishing an Islamic state in Turkey as a breeding ground for Islamic terrorists.

Guler, 45, was the leader of a mosque near the Bastille area of eastern Paris, the ministry said. He has lived in France for 28 years and has five children.

The French government has pledged to deport those who preach Islamic fundamentalism. But it suffered an embarrassment last month when it expelled an Algerian Muslim prayer leader, Abdelkader Bouziane, who condoned wife-beating and allegedly made calls to violence. Days after Bouziane was put on a plane to Algiers, a court ruled the deportation was unwarranted and said he could return to France.

Bouziane, 52, an imam at a mosque in Venissieux, a suburb of the southeastern city of Lyon, has said he plans to return to France.

Scotsman.com reports on claims by terror suspect Jack Roche to have had lunch with Bin Laden in March 2000. (Thanks to Jean-Luc.)

“Yeah a very nice man ... I would rather meet him than George Bush I can tell you,” he told the reporter. “He is a very nice man, but I only met him for a short time ... just outside Kandahar.”

Roche told the reporter he sat down to start eating, “and I looked across and I said ‘whoah – that’s like the bloke on the telly.”’

Prosecutors say Roche was in Afghanistan to undergo explosives training with al-Qaida.

Roche, a convert to Islam said,

“If someone punches you, you are allowed to punch them back. I am very concerned about my brothers and sisters of Islam who are being punched by these people,” Roche said during the interview.

Time reports that the FBI has sent a bulletin to law enforcement agencies, warning that individual suicide bombers may attempt to strike inside the United States.

Law enforcement professionals should be on the alert for "people wearing heavy, bulky jackets on warm days, smelling of chemicals, trailing wires from their jackets" and should know that "suicide bombers may disguise themselves in stolen military, police or firefighter's garb, or even as pregnant women."

Note the last paragraph:

In fact, U.S. analysts are at a loss to explain why the homeland has thus far escaped such attacks, since a number of extremist groups, particularly Hamas, have a sizeable presence here. One factor, officials say, is that terror leaders still regard America as a cash cow, and don't want to antagonize moderate Muslim donors. Another reason, says one specialist, may simply be that while there seems to be an endless supply of fanatical youths willing to die for the cause in the Middle East, most of them simply can't get visas to the U.S.

As I have recently pointed out, there is No Margin For Error In the Terror War.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A lawyer who had been arrested two weeks ago in connection with the terror attacks in Spain was set free Thursday after evidence pointed to another suspect in the deadly bombings.

A debate by Intelligence Squared, the London Forum for live debate.

Speakers for the motion:

• Amir Taheri, born in Iran and educated in Tehran, London and Paris; author of "Holy
  Terror"


• Raphael Israeli, a Professor of Islamic, Middle Eastern and Chinese history at Hebrew
  University in Jerusalem.


• David Pryce-Jones , the Senior Editor of the National Review and author of “The
  Closed Circle: An Interpretation of the Arabs” [as well as the author of the Foreword to Robert Spencer's Islam Unveiled]

• Andrew Wheatcroft , Director of the Centre for Publishing Studies at the University of
  Stirling, Scotland and the author of “Infidels: a history of the conflict between
  Christendom and Islam”


• Professor John Esposito, Professor of Religion and International Affairs and of Islamic
  Studies at Georgetown University author of numerous books about Islam


• Sarah Joseph, the Editor of EMEL magazine, a lifestyle magazine with a Muslim focus.

Some of Taheri's remarks:

This debate is not easy.

For Islam has become an issue of political controversy in the West.

On the one hand we have Islamophobia, a particular affliction of those who blame Islam for all the ills of our world.

The more thin skinned Muslims have ended up on regarding every criticism of Islam as Islamophobia.

On the other hand we have Islamoflattery that claims that everything good under the sun came from Islam. ( According to a recent PBS serial on Islam, even cinema was invented by a lens-maker in Baghdad, named Abu-Hufus!)

This is often practised by a new generation of the Turques de profession, Westerners who are prepared to apply the rules of critical analysis to everything under the sun except Islam.

They think they are doing Islam a favour.

The opposite is true.

Depriving Islam of critical scrutiny is bad for Islam and Muslims, and ultimately dangerous for the whole world.

The whole thing is well worth reading. He concludes:

Muslims can build democratic society provided they treat Islam as a matter of personal, private belief and not as a political ideology that seeks to monopolise the pubic space and regulate every aspect of individual and community life.

Ladies and gentlemen: Islam is incompatible with democracy.

The motion was carried by 403 votes for, 267 against. 28 were undecided.

Other spins: "Bush Seeks to Rally GOP Around Iraq Plan" (later headline from AP); "Bush Rallies Worried Republicans on Capitol Hill" (Reuters).

This rare meeting seems to be becoming an annual event.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush sought to rally Republican lawmakers around his Iraq plan Thursday, saying Iraqis are ready to "take the training wheels off" by assuming some political power, but warning that violence is likely to worsen as that transfer approaches.

The president made a rare visit to Capitol Hill as lawmakers prepare to head to their home states for the Memorial Day recess.

"This has been a rough couple of months for the president, particularly on the issues of Iraq, and I think he was here to remind folks that we do have a policy and this policy is going to be tough," said Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa. "Things, as I think he commented, are very likely to get worse before they get better."

But later

It was the second year in a row that Bush met behind closed doors exclusively with his fellow Republicans just ahead of the congressional Memorial Day break. The stakes were especially high this year: Bush and most lawmakers face re-election, and Iraq is still plagued by chaos and violence six weeks before the United States cedes some power to Iraqis.

Somalis have been trying to cope without a government since 1991 (BBC)

Dhimitude refers to the status of non-Muslims under Islam. Muslim women aren't dhimmis.

On the other hand, I often get questions about female circumcision, so this seems as good a place as any to set the record straight Allow me to quote from an excellent book:

"The barbarity of female circumcision is practiced within the House of Islam as well as by some Third World non-Muslims." (Islam Unveiled, p.87).

Most Muslim societies do not practice female circumcision, but it is practiced in Egypt, Ethiopia, and other parts of Africa. While many say that there is nothing in Islam which requires female circumcision, one of Sunni Islam’s “Four Great Imams,” Ahmad ibn Hanbal (from whom the Hanbali school of Islamic jurisprudence takes its name) quotes Muhammed as saying “Circumcision is a law for men and a preservation of honour for women.”

Sheikh Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi of Egypt’s Al-Azhar Universitycalled circumcision “a laudable practice that did honor to women.”

From The Guardian:

A maternity hospital in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, has been forced to close after a doctor who removed a woman's womb in a life-saving operation received death threats from her family.

The doctor insists the surgery was essential, but her family says she is "as good as dead" because she can no longer bear children.

Members of the family, who are reportedly claiming compensation of 50 camels, hired gunmen to threaten staff at the city's SOS hospital.

Patients were evacuated and medical workers went on strike on Monday, complaining of intimidation by the 20 or so hired gunmen, who have been prowling the hospital grounds and harassing staff.

The hospital is the only free medical facility in Mogadishu.

The woman's uterus was removed by Bashir Sheikh, head of obstetrics and gynaecology at the hospital. He said the operation was vital because the woman was carrying a dead foetus.

"I was waiting to be thanked, but instead I am receiving death threats," he told the BBC.

The cause of the foetus's death was not known, but the most likely cause of complications was that that the mother had been circumcised. During female circumcision in Somalia, the vagina is sewn together to leave a tiny aperture, causing internal damage and prolonging childbirth for up to 10 days.

Babies frequently suffocate during labour.

Dr Sheikh has complained in the past that female circumcision "is a very bad practice, and against our religion".

He said: "We have had women spending from three days to seven days in labour. Ten days is also normal. At that time the child can suffer asphyxia."

Elders, religious leaders and women's groups have been calling on the family to withdraw the militiamen, but they say they will back down only if they get the 50 camels - the traditional Somali compensation for taking a woman's life.

Ach so! Intelligent intelligence from Deutschland:

Germany's Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BFV), one of three national intelligence services in Germany that is charged with gathering information on domestic as well as foreign extremist and terror groups active on home soil, stressed on Monday that Islamic terrorism posed the biggest security threat in Germany.

Presenting the annual domestic security report 2003 in Berlin, German Interior Minister Otto Schily said, "Unfortunately we still face diverse dangers in Germany of which Islamic terrorism and Islamic extremism form the focal point."

Schily added that recent terrorist attacks such as the ones in Madrid in March this year that killed almost 200 people targeted so-called soft targets worldwide.

"We can't assume that Germany lies outside the reach of such targets," Schily warned, saying that in the eyes of Islamic terrorists Germany counted as an ally of the United States and Israel and was also actively involved in the war against terrorism through its peacekeeping deployment in Afghanistan.

Many thanks to all who sent variations on this story. Although Dumont used a forged passport, the 90 day visa reiterates the importance of Daniel Pipes' observations, Europe's Threat to the West.

TOKYO (Kyodo News) — A senior member of the al-Qaida terrorist network repeatedly entered Japan on 90-day visas with a forged French passport in 2002 and 2003 to hide out in the city of Niigata for about a year, and had telephone conversations with a senior British member of the network during his stay, investigative sources said Wednesday.

Lionel Dumont, 33, who was arrested in Germany last December, entered Japan from Singapore on July 17, 2002. He left Oct 5 that year just before his visa was to expire but then reentered Japan 11 days later with a new visa. He repeated this two more times until his final departure last September.

AP reports also that he attempted to organize a terrorist cell (Report: al-Qaida Member Had Japan Base ) and UPI provides further details:

Dumont was arrested in Germany last December. He had been sought by Interpol in connection with an attempted terrorist bombing related to the Group of Seven economic summit in Lyon, France in June 1996.

Japanese authorities apparently are shocked by the fact that Dumont, 33, repeatedly shuttled between Japan and abroad, and remained in contact with foreign nationals in Japan after leaving the country in September, 2003.

Police found records of phone calls from Dumont to Pakistanis and Iranians resident in Japan, Yomiuri Shimbun reported. They are concerned he may have been raising money and forming a terrorist network in Japan.

I have had little to say about the 9/11 commission's road show in New York. The idea of investigating what we could have done better in the past to know what we must do better in the future is a good one in theory, but I don't see it happening here.

Giuliani puts it well:

NEW YORK (AP) - Giuliani said the briefings he received from federal officials indicated that New York's bridges, tunnels and subways were more likely targets.

"I do think the interpretation would have been more in the direction of suicide bombings than aerial attacks," Giuliani said one day after his top commissioners were grilled over their Sept. 11 response.

Above all,

"Our enemy is not each other, but the terrorists who attacked us," Giuliani said. The mayor acknowledged there were "terrible mistakes" made on Sept. 11, but attributed that to the unprecedented circumstances.

"The blame should clearly be directed at one source and one source alone, the terrorists who killed our loved ones," Giuliani said as family members broke into applause.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The top intelligence official at the Homeland Security Department, worried about an increased risk of attack in coming months, says al-Qaida wants to strike on U.S. soil with something other than a conventional explosive - perhaps with a chemical or biological weapon.

Hughes is able to see the big picture— and that is why he worries.

Hughes ticks off a list of terrorist attacks that began in the 1990s - Khobar Towers, the African embassy bombings, the USS Cole, bombings in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East and 9/11 - and worries that terrorists are able to show much patience.

"If the past is indeed prologue, then we are going to screw up, or they are going to get lucky," Hughes said. "I can't sleep."

Tests on an artillery shell that blew up in Iraq on Saturday confirm that it did contain an estimated three or four liters of the deadly nerve agent sarin, Defense Department officials told Fox News Tuesday. The artillery shell was being used as an improvised roadside bomb, the U.S. military said Monday. The 155-mm shell exploded before it could be rendered inoperable, and two U.S. soldiers were treated for minor exposure to the nerve agent.

James Taranto has more on the spin at the New York Times and elsewhere.

At first, I was dubious when I saw this story from the Toronto Star. But then everything fell into place.

Readings have traditionally been decorous events. Now they may call for security guards.

On Sunday at the Indigo Books store in Kitchener, a discussion of a novel by Howard Rotberg was stopped after two men identifying themselves as an Iraqi Kurd and Palestinian started shouting abuse at the first-time author.

"I was talking about my book, which is called The Second Catastrophe, and they started to make anti-Israel and anti-American speeches," Rotberg recalled yesterday. "We hadn't gotten to the question period yet. They just took over and I was unable to continue. Then I heard the Kurdish man refer to me as a `f---ing Jew.

"I shouted back that I would not be called a f---ing Jew during my lecture. You bet I was upset. My aunt and grandparents died in Auschwitz."

It seems that objecting to being insulted makes a situation that is "inappropriate" on both sides. Hmmmm. Like the "cycle of violence" in the Middle East?

Police arrived but declined to charge the hecklers. Indigo spokesperson Sorya Gaulin said that while an author who'll draw a big crowd warrants security guards, "You wouldn't expect this behaviour at a discussion of a novel. The author's behaviour was inappropriate — we were seeing (that) on both sides."

And it turns out that Irshad Manji got similar treatment.

It was not the first disruptive heckler at the Kitchener store. Sheila Kay, deputy director of publicity at Random House Canada, says her company presented The Trouble With Islam by Irshad Manji there in December. "A young man in army fatigues and a sign on his chest saying 'Free Kurdistan' interjected that this was just a big publisher making money on a topic they knew nothing about."

So far, only Sky News has this. Assiduous searches elsewhere turned up only a BREAKING NEWS alert about actor Tony Randall's death.

More details when available.

UPDATE: According to AFP, none of the four included Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, who US authorities believe carried out the killing.

Four people have been arrested over the beheading of American Nicholas Berg, Iraq sources say.

The 26-year-old businessman's decapitated body was found 10 days ago in Baghdad.

UPDATE: AFP has more.

Thanks to Nicolei for this piece from Reuters.

QUETTA, Pakistan, May 16 (Reuters) - A Pentecostal preacher was feared kidnapped in Pakistan on Sunday, apparently by an unknown Islamic militant group after he disappeared in the southwestern city of Quetta, his friends and family said.

Wilson Fazal, a Pakistani Christian cleric at a local city church, had been receiving threatening letters from an unknown group of Islamists urging him to convert to Islam or face unspecified consequences, his son Jerry told Reuters.

Jerry said the latest hand-written letter was delivered to their house five days ago asking Wilson to stop preaching Christianity. The letter was apparently sent by a group calling itself Mahaz-e-Jihad, or "Frontier of the Holy War."

"Get ready, ready, ready, or else...," said the letter which had a hand-drawn rifle for a signature at the bottom.

But Reuters is quick to make sure that blame is not placed on Islamic militants. It's our fault, of course, for making them angry.

There are about eight million Christians who comprise a small minority in mainly Muslim Pakistan. Some have been targeted by Islamic militants angered by the U.S.-led "war on terror".

So often the response to calls to take the jihadist threat seriously consists of three epithets: "Hatemonger! Islamophobe! Racist!"

That last one always gets me. What race are Muslims?

Read Daniel Pipes on the Europe's Threat to the West.

Looks as if somebody has found Saddam's WMD's. From AP, with thanks to JJP Mackie:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A roadside bomb containing deadly sarin nerve agent exploded near a U.S. military convoy, the U.S. military said Monday. It was believed to be the first confirmed finding of any of the banned weapons upon which the United States based its case for the Iraq war.

Suicide bombers Asif Hanif and Omar Khan Sharif pose with the Qur'an

What's in the Dag Bag? Not the Qur'an: Dagestan has banned the Russian version of the book of peace. There was a similar initiative to ban the Qur'an in Calcutta in the 1960s, on the grounds that it was an incitement to violence. The great Indian scholar Sita Ram Goel wrote a classic book about it, The Calcutta Quran Petition.

From IslamOnline, with thanks to Mentat:

DAGESTAN, May 17 (IslamOnline.net) - The religious administration of the Muslims of Dagestan, a republic of the Russian Federation, has decided to ban circulation of the Russian versions of the holy Qur'an as well as a number of Islamic books published in Russian, under the pretext of "fighting terrorist and fanatic ideas" these books are alleged to promote.

In a statement, a copy of which was obtained by IslamOnline.net Sunday May 16, the religious administration of the Muslims in Dagestan said that it has decided to ban all Russian versions of the holy Qur'an and books of prophetic Sunna (Tradition) as well as some Islamic books that are available in different parts of the Russian Federation .

It is worth noting that versions of the Qur'an have only been previously banned in Dagestan during the Communist regime in Russia between 1923 and 1991.

In its statement published also in al-Salam monthly newspaper, the religious administration reiterated that the decision was due to its keenness on "fighting terrorist and fanatic ideas," in reference to the Wahabbi beliefs adopted by several Islamic schools and movements in Dagestan.

Dagestan Wahabbis call for setting up an Islamic State. They are supporters of Chechen fighters in the war currently underway against the Russian troops.

According to a 2002 report made by the research center of the governmental Dagestan University, Wahabbi followers in Dagestan represent 3% of the total Muslim population, who, in turn, represent 84% of the two-million total population of Dagestan.

Wahabbi movements appeared in Dagestan between 1980-1985. The "United Islamic Socialist Party," led by Ahmed Qadhi Ahtayev is one of the greatest Wahabbi movements and it has several offices in south Dagestan .

The number of religious schools teaching Wahabbi ideas are 14, including two in the Dagestani capital "Makhg el-Qalaa."

UPDATE: Some people have commented well here on the fact that only the Russian version was banned. I respectfully disagree that this is a move toward Wahhabism, although that may indeed turn out to be the case. I tend to think that restriction of Russian editions in a place like Dagestan will only decrease ready understanding of the text — and rapid dissemination of the text's message. Few Muslims there can be as fluent in Arabic as they would be in a place where they speak it every day — although modern spoken Arabic differs considerably from Qur'anic Arabic in any case. Still and all, although time will tell about this measure, it is absolutely correct that it isn't enough if its intention is to cut off violent fanaticism at its roots.

It appears that Lebanese Christians, not Muslims, were responsible for the firebombing of the Jewish school in Montreal. I am in extensive daily contact with Lebanese Christians, and they are a deeply divided community. Many manifest the dhimmi mentality, subscribing completely to the jihadist agenda, with all its anti-Semitism and fanaticism.

This is a consequence in part of the Arab Nationalist movement, which was ostensibly secular and fostered by many Arab Christians as a result; they thought it would ensure them a place in the Middle East. But from its beginnings, secular Arab Nationalism suffered from severe contradictions because of the close identification of Islam with the Arab nation. Consider the case of the founder of the Ba'ath Party, Michel Aflaq. Aflaq was an Orthodox Christian, but he converted to Islam and urged other Christians to do so, saying, "Islam is Arab Nationalism" (quoted in Sylvia Haim, Arab Nationalism, 1962, p. 64, with thanks to Bat Ye'or).

Aware of this, and also aware that the Islamic Sharia called for by Islamic radical groups would subjugate them as second-class dhimmis no less than it would the Jews of Israel, many other Lebanese Christians reject any common cause with Islam. But it seems as if these young men are in the former camp.

From the Globe and Mail, with thanks to Mentat:

MONTREAL -- Two 18-year-olds charged with firebombing a Jewish elementary school in Montreal will appear in court today for a bail hearing, where more details of the allegations against them are expected to be made public.

On the weekend, Simon Zogheib and Sleiman Elmerhebi were arraigned on charges of arson and conspiracy related to the Passover attack on United Talmud Torah school. They pleaded not guilty.

Rouba Elmerhebi Fahd, 36, and the mother of one of the suspects, was charged with being an accessory after the fact. She also pleaded not guilty. ...

The arrests were greeted with a sense of relief, particularly in Montreal's Jewish community. But they also left observers perplexed for a number of reasons.

First, while the suspects face serious charges, they have not been charged with hate crimes. The April 5 firebombing, which destroyed the school's library and was the worst of a series of attacks on Jewish institutions across Canada, drew wide condemnation as a hate crime, from the Prime Minister on down.

The attack on the school was not the work of a loner, but of an organized group. However, the young men implicated do not seem to have links to any established terrorist group and do not have criminal records.

Notes taped to the front of the school linked the arson to Israel's killing of Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin. "Here is the consequence of your crimes and your occupation," the message read. This led many to believe the firebombing was the work of Palestinian or Muslim extremists.

The people charged all live in the middle class Montreal suburb of St. Laurent, not far from the Talmud Torah elementary school. The suspects are of Lebanese origin but, according to neighbours, they are Christian, not Muslim.

Mr. Zogheib lives near Saint-Hippolyte Church, which he is said to attend regularly.

AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The head of the Iraqi Governing Council was killed in a suicide car bombing near a checkpoint outside the coalition headquarters in central Baghdad on Monday, dealing a blow to U.S. efforts to stabilize Iraq ahead of a handover of sovereignty on June 30.

Abdel-Zahraa Othman, also known as Izzadine Saleem, was the second and highest-ranking member of the U.S.-appointed council to be assassinated. He was among nine Iraqis, including the bomber, who were killed, Iraqi officials said.

"Days like today convince us even more so that the transfer must stay on track," said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, speaking on CNN.

The Telegraph, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

More than 200 Islamic students threw stones and tried to storm the British embassy compound in Teheran yesterday in protest over Iraq. Iranian students burn the Union Flag outside the British embassy in Teheran The crowd, which chanted "Death to America, death to Britain and death to Israel", was quickly dispersed by riot police but its leaders vowed to be back.

The grandfather of all modern Islamic terrorist groups, the Muslim Brotherhood, is in hot water yet again in Egypt. From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Police arrested 54 members of Egypt's outlawed Muslim Brotherhood early Sunday in an ongoing crackdown against the organization, officials said.

The Brotherhood said "about 55" people had been arrested. A leading member of the group said police told the men they were being detained for belonging to an illegal group, said Ali Abdel-Fattah.

A statement from the group said the dawn raids were "a surprise escalation, against all expectations and (in line) with the fierce American and Israeli campaign against the Arab region, which requires solidarity between the regimes and all political forces," with the Brotherhood at the forefront

Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah

Despite resistance from hardline Muslims, Kuwaiti women may get the vote. From Reuters, with thanks to Miriam:

KUWAIT (Reuters) - Kuwait's cabinet approved a draft law Sunday allowing women to vote and run in parliamentary polls, moving them a step closer to full political rights they have sought for decades in the conservative Gulf Arab state.

The draft needs parliament's approval to pass into law. A decree issued by Emir Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah giving women the vote was narrowly defeated in the 50-man house in 1999 by an alliance of Islamist and conservative tribal MPs.

Kuwaiti women have been fighting for suffrage for more than 40 years, only to be blocked by Islamists and male politicians.

"The council (of ministers) decided to approve the draft law and transfer it to the Emir, God protect him, in order to transfer it to the National Assembly," a cabinet statement said. ...

Leading women's rights activist, Dr. Fatima al-Abdali, welcomed the news, adding that the issue of refusing women the vote was "sabotaging Kuwait's image internationally."

Islamist and conservative MPs, who wield great influence in parliament, are opposed to Western influences and may prove to be a stumbling block in the face of the new draft.

"I'm hopeful," Abdali said. "If this bill is serious and is not just a fight between the Islamist bloc and the democratic bloc, I think women can quickly gain everyone's confidence."

PROGRESS ACROSS THE REGION

Regarded by some as among the most emancipated in the conservative Muslim region, Kuwaiti women have had to sit back and watch their sisters in other Gulf states -- such as Qatar, Bahrain and Oman -- make modest progress.

Kuwaiti women serve as diplomats, run businesses and help steer the vital oil industry in the country of 900,000 citizens.

They constitute up to 70 percent of college graduates in Kuwait, but account for less than five percent of the country's decision makers. Some have moved up to mid-level public ranks, but none holds a top post such as government minister.

Signs of change came last October when the government approved allowing women to stand for office and vote in municipal council elections, a move observers hailed then as a first step toward granting women greater political rights.

From CNN, with thanks to JJP Mackie:

(CNN) -- The Arabic language news network Al Jazeera aired pictures Sunday of what it said were two Russian electrical workers taken hostage last week by an Islamic group in Dura, south of Baghdad.

A statement from a group referring to itself as Jaish al-Tifa al-Mansoura -- the Army of the Victorious Sect -- said it was holding the men and called on countries participating in "this criminal act," presumably the war in Iraq, to withdraw their citizens "before it's too late." ...

"We are showing the whole world our prisoners' pictures and how the Muslim mujahedeen are treating them," the previously unknown group said in the statement, which accompanied the tape.

"We have decided to punish America and its followers, and we'll destroy the crusaders' imperial dream," the statement continued.

The men were working for the electric power consortium Inter Energo Servis when their vehicle was ambushed south of Baghdad. Another IES worker was killed in the attack, a company spokesman said.

Khamenei's man

Also, rumblings from Tehran. From AP, with thanks to JJP Mackie:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Fighters loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr drove Italian forces from a base in the southern city of Nasiriyah on Sunday and attacked coalition headquarters there with grenade and mortar fire as tensions in the Shiite region escalated.

Two U.S. soldiers died elsewhere, and gunmen killed three Iraqi women working for the U.S. led-coalition. Amid the ongoing violence, the United States is looking to move some of its 37,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea to bolster forces in Iraq, South Korean and U.S. officials said.

Two Iraqi fighters were killed and 20 were wounded in battles in Nasiriyah, mostly at two bridges across the Euphrates, residents said.

The Italian troops evacuated their base as it came under repeated attack. Portuguese police were called out to support the Italians, their first action since the force of 128 deployed to Nasiriyah in November, a Portuguese duty officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

At least 10 Italians were wounded, one critically, contingent spokesman Lt. Col. Giuseppe Perrone told The Associated Press by phone. He said the Italians relocated to the nearby Tallil air base.

Also in Nasiriyah, a convoy transporting the Italian official in charge of the city, Barbara Contini, came under attack as it neared the headquarters of the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority, Perrone said. Two Italian paramilitary police were wounded. ...

Apparent gunfire slightly damaged one of Shia Islam's holiest shrines in Najaf on Friday, prompting calls for revenge against the Americans and even suicide attacks against the coalition.

The U.S. military has said al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army was probably responsible, but Iran's supreme leader on Sunday accused the United States of damaging the shrine through "shameless" and "foolish" actions.

"Muslims can't tolerate the shameless incursion of American forces into sacred places," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted as saying by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

Two U.S. tanks were stationed Sunday in a main square in Najaf, while militiamen held positions in the cemetery and other areas.

Several mosque imams from Fallujah, a Sunni stronghold west of Baghdad that was the site of heavy fighting last month, visited al-Sadr in Najaf to show solidarity. The siege of Fallujah by U.S. Marines ended when the coalition allowed an Iraqi force led by former officers in Saddam Hussein's army to take over security in the city.

Jeffrey Imm has called my attention to this notice from London Indymedia, and he notes that the mainstream media generally doesn't cover joint activities by anarchist and jihadist groups. But the Far Left's links with radical Islam are increasingly obvious. Comments Imm: "The London Anarchists protested Mark and Spencer's Department Store, because one of the founders was Jewish, and because the department store is willing to do business with Israel. One of the protestors repeatedly shouted 'Heil Hitler'. The original report of the M&S Anarchist protest was edited to remove the text celebrating the killing of Israeli soldiers by Anarchists: 'heroic killing of 6 Zionist soldiers', where it is discussed at: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/05/291508.html.
The antisemitic nature of the Anarchist organizations continues to become evident as it is increasingly difficult to discern the difference between Anarchist and Nazi organizations."

Victory to the Intifada picket of Marks and Spencer Oxford Street St Loski, 06.05.2004 22:57

The history of Britain's biggest clothing retailer Marks and Spencer demonstrates how consumer habits in Britain are tied to the oppression of other peoples. Marks and Spencer has championed the state of Israel and thus connived in the dispossession and suppression of the Palestinians. Our comforts and pleasures, which Marks and Spencer so eagerly service, have been bought at an unacceptable price. ...

The occupation of Iraq by imperialist troops and the occupation of Palestine by Israel supported by the imperialists is coming up against resistance. It is our duty to defend the resistance both in Palestine and Iraq and demand the end to the occupation. Peace and justice in the Middle East cannot be achieved while there is no justice for Palestinians.

So join our weekly picket – come and speak, chant, sing, discuss, petition – be part of telling the passing public the truth about the situation in Palestine and help them to understand the urgency of the situation.

Boycott Marks and Spencer – shop with a conscience! Victory to the Intifada!
See you next week.

Mohammed Al-Hindi

From Haaretz, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Israel Air Force missiles struck targets in Gaza City early Sunday, hitting a building housing the offices of the political branch of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah group and another belonging to a pro-Hamas newspaper, witnesses reported.

Nobody was inside either office at the time of the air strikes, although several bystanders, including two children, were wounded in the attack on Fatah's office.

Fatah's secretary-general in the Gaza Strip, Ahmed Halless, said the site was a cultural center that offered social and educational programs to local families.

"Israel should understand that aggression will not bring peace. Violence will bring more violence," he said.

Sure, Halless. But that cuts both ways, doesn't it?

The second strike hit the office of al-Resala, a weekly newspaper that supports Hamas.

The IDF described the targets as "focal points of terrorist activity," saying that the Fatah building was used by its military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. The military also claimed that the Hamas newspaper was used for incitement purposes and to pass messages between the group's leadership.

On Saturday, the IAF launched two missile strikes in the Gaza Strip, hitting Islamic Jihad targets and wounding 12 people. The IDF denied Palestinian claims that the attacks were an abortive attempt to assassinate Jihad leader Mohammed al-Hindi.

Jack Roche (ABC Television News)

Another convert who somehow missed the Qur'an's counsels of peace and tolerance. From Breakingnews.ie, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

A British-born Muslim convert was recruited by al-Qaida for a plan to blow up the Israeli embassy in Canberra with a lorry bomb, prosecutors said today on the opening day of the man’s trial.

Jack Roche (aged 50) was told by senior officials in Osama bin Laden’s terror network to form a terror cell in Australia to carry out the plot, prosecutor Ron Davies told Perth District Court. The bombing was never carried out.

Roche has pleaded not guilty to one charge of conspiring to damage the Israeli embassy by means of explosives, and as a consequence harm diplomatic staff. He faces a maximum sentence of 25 years if convicted.

Prosecutors told the jury Roche travelled to Afghanistan to meet with senior figures from the terrorist organisation – including bin Laden – in March 2000.

A Buddhist Temple in Thailand

Maybe it was homework. From Reuters, with thanks to DC Watson:

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Bomb blasts rocked three Buddhist temples in Thailand's troubled Muslim south Sunday, wounding at least one person in the latest violence to hit the restive region, police said.

The temples, located in three separate districts of Narathiwat province, were hit by bombs within minutes of each other. One temple suffered damage to its roof and pillars.

"Three temples were attacked with explosives," said Police Major General Kathane Kochapalayuk. A bystander was slightly wounded outside one temple.

Authorities declined to speculate on the motive for the attacks, the first major incident in the region since security forces killed 108 Muslim militants who attacked police outposts across three southern provinces on April 28.

Some in Turkey evidently oppose the "moderate, secular values" Blair has come to praise. From Reuters, with thanks to Nicolei:

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Four small bombs exploded outside branches of British bank HSBC in the Turkish cities of Ankara and Istanbul on Sunday night, hours before British Prime Minister Tony Blair was set to visit Turkey.

Police and local media said the blasts caused minor damage and no casualties.

The bank has been targeted before. Its main Istanbul office was one of four British and Jewish targets bombed in Istanbul in November, attacks which killed 61 people.

A police official said one percussion bomb, believed to have been placed under a car, smashed windows of a bank branch in the capital Ankara when it exploded around 10:30 pm (3:30 p.m. EDT).

There was also an explosion in front of another branch in the city, he said.

State-run Anatolian news agency said there were two similar blasts outside two HSBC branches on the Asian side of the country's commercial hub Istanbul around 10 pm, which were also caused by percussion bombs and caused some damage.

Percussion bombs, often used by militant groups in attacks in Turkey, generally produce a loud bang but little damage.

Television pictures showed slight damage to the wall of one of the banks, which had been cordoned off as police officers inspected the area for evidence.

November's devastating bombs, whose victims included British consul Roger Short, have been blamed on a Turkish Islamist group linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

Far-leftist and Kurdish militant groups have also carried out bombings in Turkey in the past. Istanbul is scheduled to host a NATO summit in late June.

Blair was expected to pledge his support for Turkey's bid to join the European Union and to discuss turmoil in neighboring Iraq during his six-hour visit to the capital Ankara.

He will be the first British leader to visit Ankara since Margaret Thatcher 16 years ago and is expected to praise Turkey's political reforms and stress its importance as a moderate Muslim country espousing democratic, secular values.

Thamarak Isarangura

Just as Pakistan's schools are laboratories of jihad, so also in Thailand. From the Independent, with thanks to Nicolei:

Hidden a few kilometres down a remote country lane in the heart of Thailand's troubled deep south - where a Muslim separatist uprising has left more than 200 dead this year - is the multi-million-dollar new campus of the Yala Islamic College.

With more than a dozen Arab teachers from across the Middle East and a seemingly endless flow of funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait, Yala has become the most obvious manifestation of what critics here say is an "Arab threat" to the traditionally moderate and tolerant local Islamic tradition. It was first brought home in 2002 when two dozen Middle Eastern suspects were arrested in the south for forging travel documents, visas and passports for al-Qa'ida operatives.

How did the teachers at Yala make inroads into the "moderate and tolerant local Islamic tradition"? Well, it's a school, after all. They taught a "purer form of Islam" (see below) from the Qur'an and Sunnah, showing through them that moderation and tolerance were not as Islamic as Thai Muslims may have assumed.

The south's largely unregistered Islamic schools - which offer religious education, a regular curriculum and training in Arabic and the local Yawi dialect - are accused by the government of being breeding grounds for radical separatists. The Islamic faith in Thailand, like Buddhism, has always been seen as being integrated with many other beliefs and practices, but the foreign-returned Muslims are insisting on a "purer" form of Islam.

After all, it was the teachers themselves leading the jihad:

A number of the Muslim separatists killed on 28 April, when more than 100 Islamists were gunned down on their motorbikes by soldiers acting on a tip off about a planned series of raids on army posts across the south, taught at local Islamic schools. Radical Thai Muslims have also targeted government-run secular schools, with nearly 100 this year alone being burned to the ground.

Last week a Bangkok court issued an arrest warrant for a Muslim teacher accused of organising the worst separatist attacks - proof, say critics, that many Muslim Thai teachers who went overseas to Islamic schools must have come under the influence of hardliners.

The Buddhist minority in the south are circulating pamphlets detailing alleged local Muslim extremism, saying it poses an unprecedented threat both to their religion and the state. One senior Thai government official in Pattani said that he was aware of the first signs of "ethnic cleansing" in Narathiwat, one of the south's Muslim-majority provinces. "Some Thai Buddhist families have been told to leave under the threat of violence," he said on condition he not be further identified.

The Deputy Prime Minister, General Thamarak Isarangura, has said the Thai government believes there are military training sites in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt where Thai Muslim separatists are trained to execute terror attacks. More than 160 Thai Muslims students are enrolled in Islamic institutions in Saudi Arabia, and 1,500 in Egypt.

Yala Islamic College is run by Dr Ismail Lutfi, a Thai graduate of the hardline Wahhabi Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He has an estimated 8,000 followers in key Islamic posts throughout the south, and the 1,500 students at the college are taught a hardcore Wahhabi interpretation of Islamic law in the Arabic language.

Lutfi knows how to tell Western journalists what they want to hear; however, it is left unclear whether he considers jihad in Thailand to be violence and extremism at all:

"I am against violence and I am against extremism," Dr Lutfi said in flawless Arabic in an interview at the college this week. "However, I do not consider telling the local Muslims that they should go to the mosque and pray five times a day extremism," he added.

Hamidou Laanigri

New signs of increased activity from an emerging jihadist base in Morocco — leading to frustration with Europe's lax anti-terror laws. From the New York Times, with thanks to Nicolei:

Morocco has been among the West's closest Arab allies and has long been instrumental in pursuing Arab-Israeli reconciliation. Although Moroccan and European officials now agree that there is a new Moroccan threat, they disagree over its nature and origin — and how to contain it.

One problem is simply identifying major Moroccan terrorists. Two months after the Madrid train bombings, Spanish investigators believe that its mastermind may still be at large.

The French and Belgian police successfully dismantled Moroccan cells in their countries after the Madrid attacks, but they are convinced that other cells may have burrowed further underground.

Moroccan terrorists, intelligence and police experts say, know how to blend in.

"There are cells in which the Moroccans are well integrated into the population," Pierre de Bousquet, the head of the Directorate for Territorial Surveillance, France's counterintelligence service, said in an interview. "So they do not seem suspicious. They work. They have kids. They have fixed addresses. They pay the rent. The networks are dispersed throughout Europe and are very autonomous."

In addition to uneven cooperation among law enforcement and intelligence agencies within Europe, there is the problem of tensions that have surfaced between European and Moroccan officials.

Although the two sides are working together to investigate the Madrid bombings, the Moroccans have complained that their pleas for help after the Casablanca attacks were largely ignored until terrorists struck the heart of Europe.

They also have expressed frustration that laws in many European countries are not tough enough.

In April a court in Hamburg, Germany, allowed a Moroccan who was the only person convicted in connection with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States to leave prison pending a new trial.

Three weeks later a court in Rome acquitted 12 people, including 9 Moroccans, who were arrested in 2002 and accused of being associated with a terrorist organization.

"The Madrid bombings finally have forced the Europeans to make their investigations more serious and their cooperation quicker and more operational," Gen. Hamidou Laanigri, Morocco's chief of security, said in an interview. "But we are victims of laws and guarantees that protect the rights of individuals at the expense of cracking down against organized crime."

Intelligence and law-enforcement officials in Spain, France and Belgium say that their Moroccan colleagues have refused to face the fact that Moroccans have banded into autonomous terror cells that can carry out attacks without outside organization, logistical support or money.

This sounds great; it is amazing for the ruler of a Muslim country to acknowledge that Islamic law discriminates against women and non-Muslims. If he were a non-Muslim analyst in the West saying the same thing, American Muslim advocacy group spokesmen would call him a bigot and hatemonger!

I am just not sure it will get very far as long as it must stay "within the teachings of the Holy Koran," since that is the source of the laws to which he objects in the first place. From Reuters, with thanks to Nicolei:

ISLAMABAD : Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf called on Saturday for a review of controversial Islamic laws that human rights groups say are discriminatory against women and non-Muslim minorities.

Speaking at a convention on human rights, Musharraf said the strict Islamic laws passed under the military dictatorship of late General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq in 1979 should be studied afresh to ensure they were not misused.

"The nation should not shy away from re-examining the Hudood Ordinance by scholars, lawyers and legislators within the teachings of the Holy Koran," the official APP news agency quoted Musharraf as saying.

"Islam says we must reach a decision through discussion ... why should a discussion be opposed on an ordinance which is the creation of human mind," he added.

Musharraf said the country's blasphemy law should also be reviewed. The blasphemy law prescribes the death penalty for insulting Prophet Mohammad, other prophets and holy books, but rights groups say it is often used to settle personal scores.

"The blasphemy law needs to be looked into so that justice is done and it is not misused to victimise the innocent," he said.

Musharraf also called for a law banning honour killings, in which male relatives kill women deemed to have brought disgrace on their families by having a relationship with a man, or marrying without consent or bringing an inadequate dowry.

"Although honour killing is illegal, the passage of law banning it would lend more strength to Pakistan 's efforts to do away with the intolerable practice," he said.

Missionaries of Charity home for handicapped children, Baghdad

This Washington Post story (thanks to Mrs. Obelix) about Christian missionaries in Iraq is much concerned about the hazards and methods used by the missionaries to proselytize in a country where (in a remarkable admission for the Post) "outbreaks of violence in the name of Islam [are] occurring on an almost daily basis."

But what is most remarkable is a remark made by an Iraqi toward the end of the article:

Zainab Badran, 36, a pharmacist, said one missionary gave him a Bible.

Although he has no intention of converting from Islam to Christianity, he read it out of curiosity and said it was nice to learn about other religions. He believes Christian aid workers should be more open about their aims.

"I can hear their thoughts and this won't harm me," he said. "I can accept them or refuse."

Of course, this is just one individual with no political power or infuence, but nonetheless, he has expressed here an anti-Sharia, anti-dhimmitude perspective: this man thinks he can hear a religious message and accept or reject it! In other words, he doesn't have to have the power of the state stamping out the message and forbidding it to be preached. This is an attitude that comes from assumptions about freedom of conscience and human dignity that have nothing to do with Sharia. I take it, this sunny morning in Secure Undisclosed Locationville, as a small sign of hope.

A real-life Third Man mystery from the Washington Post, with thanks to Mrs. Obelix:

The FBI has never found the individual who allegedly asked two Yemenis to take photos of federal buildings in downtown New York in May 2001, an episode that was mentioned in an intelligence report given President Bush little more than a month before the attacks on the World Trade Center, according to government officials. The two Yemenis were questioned on May 30, 2001, by Immigration and Naturalization Service agents, and their camera was confiscated after guards saw them taking photos of 26 Federal Plaza and surrounding buildings, including one that housed the FBI's counterterrorism unit in New York.

Federal officials developed the film and found the images showed the plaza and surrounding buildings, plus the street. When FBI agents subsequently questioned the two men, they said they took the photos for a friend in Indianapolis who had never visited New York. The FBI has never located the Yemeni friend, who was in the United States under an assumed name with false documents.

Federal officials at the time were on alert because one day earlier, in one of the courthouses photographed, six men had been found guilty on a number of counts in connection with the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, an attack linked to al Qaeda. A terrorist alert had been put out that day by the State Department, although the government said at the time it was not aware of any specific threat in response to the verdicts.

The President's Daily Brief (PDB) for Aug. 6, 2001, the highly classified intelligence report prepared by CIA for President Bush and top officials, contained a short section titled, "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US." Along with some past material about previous threats by the al Qaeda leader, the report referred to the FBI investigating "suspicious activity in this country consistent with the preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York."

At the time of the public release of the briefing document last month, a White House fact sheet said the FBI had "interviewed the men and determined that their conduct was consistent with tourist activity and the FBI's investigation identified no link to terrorism."

Neither the fact sheet nor two White House officials who briefed reporters April 9 mentioned that a third Yemeni was involved.

Within a few weeks of the May 30, 2001, incident, the FBI concluded that the two Yemeni men had no connection to terrorists and appeared to be taking tourist photos, according to a senior FBI official, who declined to be identified because he was discussing an ongoing investigation.

But the official also acknowledged that the third man, who had been working in the Indianapolis area under the assumed name Mohammed Hassan Abadi, has never been located or interviewed. The FBI does not know the man's real name, but it does have a photograph of him and has found no links between his assumed name or photograph and terrorist groups or individuals, the official said.

Kim Jong Il: Stalinist jihad?

What were "Syrian technicians" doing on the train? Could they provide a hint as to why it exploded? Is Kim Jong Il making common cause with the global jihad? From The World Tribune, with thanks to Mrs. Obelix:

Syrian technicians accompanying unknown equipment were killed in the train explosion in North Korea on April 22, according to a report in a Japanese newspaper.

A military specialist on Korean affairs revealed that the Syrian technicians were killed in the explosion in Ryongchon in the northwestern part of the country, according to the Sankei Shimbun. The specialist said the Syrians were accompanying "large equipment" and that the damage from the explosion was greatest in the portion of the train they occupied.

The source said North Korean military personnel with protective suits responded to the scene soon after the explosion and removed material only from the Syrians' section of the train.

The technicians were from the Syrian technical research center called Centre d'Etudes et de Recherche Scientific (CERS). Although CERS was established to promote science and technology development, it has been viewed as a major player in Syria's weapons of mass destruction development program. ...

As many as 10 Syrians and accompanying North Koreans were killed, according to the report. The bodies of the Syrians were taken home on May 1 by a Syrian aircraft, which had come to Pyongyang to deliver aid supplies.

The Syrians and North Koreans who transported the victims were also reportedly wearing protective suits similar to those worn by the North Korean military figures who arrived on the scene immediately after the accident, the source said.

The United States and other countries have expressed concern that Syrian and North Korea are developoing Scud-D missiles, as well as chemical and biological weapons.

Concerning the cause of the explosion incident, the DPRK has explained that a train carrying fertilizer containing ammonium nitrate and a railroad tank carrying petroleum were being shunted, and, in the process, came into contact with electrical wires, due to carelessness.

Mickey (Disney Corp.)

From WOFL.com, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Walt Disney has a new security measure in place. Hydraulically powered, steel barricades block the service entrances of the resort's four theme parks. They were apparently designed to stop a 20-thousand-pound truck bomb traveling 70 miles per hour. The dozen or more yellow-and-black barricades are state-of-the-art. The manufacturer recently shipped the same model to Baghdad, Iraq, to guard the new U-S Embassy there. A Disney spokeswoman yesterday says the company did NOT install the barricades in response to a specific terrorist threat against the parks.

Prince Nayef

From the Independent, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Al-Qa'ida terrorists whose suicide bombs killed 35 people and injured 200 at a housing compound in Riyadh last May were secretly assisted by certain members of the Saudi National Guard which protects the royal family, military trainers employed by a US firm have claimed.

In exclusive interviews with The Independent on Sunday, the former trainers for the Vinnell Corporation, which has an $800m (£460m) contract to advise the Saudi National Guard, allege:

* Some members of the Saudi National Guard knew about the bombing in advance and gave inside help to al-Qa'ida, including possibly a detailed map of the target.

* An "exercise" organised by the national guard removed 50 of 70 security staff for the day of the bombing, thus leaving the compound "defenceless".

* Security was generally lax, with machine guns unloaded and guards unarmed.

* Vinnell and the Saudis were given detailed, repeated warnings that Islamic militants were planning an attack, but did nothing to upgrade security.

These claims will renew the controversy over the failure of the Saudi royal family to deal with Islamic insurgents. In recent weeks al-Qa'ida has renewed its attacks on Western targets in Saudi Arabia which have killed several British workers. ...

The bombing on 12 May 2003 was implemented with precision based on meticulous intelligence. Lt-Col Raphael Maldonado, then a Vinnell instructor, claims al-Qa'ida received inside assistance from National Guard members. "This compound was too big and complex to be bombed without inside help", he said. He points to the discovery of a detailed map in the car left behind by the assailants and an improvised ladder consisting of concrete blocks and the trace of shoe markings made by people rushing to escape just before the explosion.

On the morning of the atrocity, Lt-Col Maldonado noticed that none of his Saudi co-workers was present. A fellow Vinnell adviser angrily told him that a Saudi National Guard commander had suddenly notified him that they were leaving the compound to per- form night manouevres with 50 trainers. "I don't understand why they are suddenly going into the field for just one night," he told Lt-Col Maldonado, who was even more concerned when he drove past the local mosque at noon and noticed far fewer shoes outside the door than usual.

Lt-Col Maldonado believes that removing 50 of the 70 Vinnell trainers on what he claims was a "pointless" and unscheduled expedition 40 miles away just before the bombing, was deliberate, leaving the compound defenceless. "There is no doubt we were set up," he said. "Someone in the upper echelons of the Saudi National Guard knew the bombing was imminent." ...

The Saudi Interior Minister, Prince Nayef, condemned the bombing and called for public assistance in capturing 19 suspects. But the reaction showed how al-Qa'ida has retained support. Three prominent clerics declared the terrorists were "devout" men and called on people to disobey the regime's request. They said any help to the police would constitute aid to the US in its "war against Islam". Ten of the suspects remain at large.

Bazian

Jonathan Calt Harris of Campus Watch (via FrontPage, with thanks to DC Watson) exposes how Berkeley lecturer Hatem Bazian explained, or tried to explain, to Bill O'Reilly his call for Intifada in America:

Hatem Bazian, a senior lecturer at Berkeley in Islamic Studies, recently went on television and was put on the defensive by Bill O’Reilly. The subject was comments Bazian had made at a left-wing rally in San Francisco on April 10, 2004, calling for an “intifada” in the United States.

As reported by LittleGreenFootballs.com, and Frontpagemagazine.com (and viewable here) Bazian ungrammatically declared to a crowd of protestors, “we’re sitting here and watching the world pass by, people being bombed, and it’s about time that we have an intifada in this country that change fundamentally the political dynamics in here.”

Bazian concluded with a promise of more violence to come: “They’re gonna say, ‘some Palestinian being too radical’ — well, you haven’t seen radicalism yet!”[i]

Bazian appeared on Fox News Channel’s O’Reilly Factor on April 19 to explain what he meant by the word intifada. Bazian defined it as “shaking off,” willfully ignoring that these days, both in Arabic and in English, it means “violent rebellion.”

“It was a reference point,” Bazian backtracked. “I was calling for a grassroot political change at this time to make changes in the country considering what has been taken place.” O’Reilly pressed him:

O’REILLY: But no violence. You don’t want anybody to use violence?

BAZIAN: No. I’ve been activist for the past 20 years or so. And I have never engaged in any violence. And non-violence is the method that I choose for political change.

O’REILLY: OK. Therefore, I assume then you condemn Hamas and Hezbollah?

BAZIAN: Well, I condemn the targeting of civilians in any situation. I think relations to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; you have the Hatfields and McCoys getting at each other. And I think it will behoove us here in the United States not to aid or encourage either side to engage in violence.

O’Reilly was ready for Bazian’s efforts to dodge his accusations.

O’REILLY: We did a very exhaustive search on you, professor. And we’ve never seen you say that you condemn the violent methods of Hamas and Hezbollah ever.

BAZIAN: Well, yes, if you want me to speak about the violence that has taken place, I just spoke to you, telling you that violence is unacceptable.

O’REILLY: OK, but you yourself have not come out and condemned it.

Bazian here was relying a common two-step tactic of those who sympathize with the militant Islamic and Palestinian causes: condemn the violence or terrorism in general, without naming names; then deflect blame to the victim, especially the United States or Israel; or dismiss the danger that terrorism poses.

Here are a few examples of the “I condemn … but” line of reasoning, all concerning the Palestinians and Israel:

• Eric Vickers, [former] head of the American Muslim Council: “We condemn any sort of terrorist activities,” but “We can’t be simplistic in our views. We have to recognize exactly what is occurring in the Middle East. We have to recognize that what is occurring there is an uprising by the Palestinian people.”[ii]

• Rashid Khalidi, former PLO press flack, now a “professor” at Columbia University: “Killing civilians is a war crime,” but “Resistance to occupation is [accepted] in international law.”[iii]

• Joel Beinin, professor of Middle Eastern History at Stanford: “there is absolutely no justification for the Palestinians’targeting of unarmed civilians in their struggle to end the occupation,” but “no Palestinian armed actions of any sort have ever posed an existential threat to Israel.”[iv]

Bazian fit this pattern precisely:

• “I condemn terrorism throughout. But at the same time, I would like people here in the U.S. to begin condemning the Israeli assassinations.”

O’Reilly repeatedly offered Bazian the chance to condemn terrorist groups, but he as many times declined it. Thus is another academic equating the targeting of terrorist leaders with the targeting of civilians and children. In this context, it is hardly surprising that Bazian would also call for a campaign of violence in the United States.

Jonathan Calt Harris, a former reporter for Time magazine and managing editor with the Middle East Forum, is a writer in Illinois.

Notes:

[i] “An Intifada in This Country,” April 11, 2004, LittleGreenFootballs at http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=10615

[ii] http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/index.jsp?section=static&page=brithume619

[iii] Khalidi, Rashid, Arab Tells Arabs: 'Stop Whining' NewsMax.com, Wires, Saturday, June 8, 2002.

[iv] Beinin, Joel. Another Bloody Passover, AlterNet, March 27, 2002 at http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12711

Heather Mallick

Heather Mallick blames U.S. Republicans and the Canadian Right for the tendency to atomize and privatize Canadian law; I rather think the blame lies with the multiculturalist ethos. But she makes some excellent points about how the idea of Sharia "mediation" threatens women. From the Globe and Mail, with thanks to Mentat:

The news that Ontario will permit civil disputes such as divorce to be mediated under sharia or Islamic law is about the best idea since female foot-binding. It's not just, but it is restful. A woman with tiny claw-like feet isn't getting off the couch to hire a lawyer. And it's cheap: No court hearings, no going halfsies on the family home, no squabbles over custody, no fighting over wills.

For sharia law is already written. By a deity. And if you're a Muslim woman who makes the choice of going to Canadian courts rather than signing away her rights under sharia, you're offending one of the bigger gods, as I understand Islam.

This is interesting, not just because it's vile, but because it's part of a worldwide move toward privatizing everything, including the legal system. Ooooh, now we can go law-shopping. ...

The National Post likes sharia "mediation," even mocking The Globe and Mail for thinking it a front-page story. If the Post likes something that makes Muslims look different and bad, and it harms women, trust me, it's positively cyanotic. Save time, Muslim women, and bite the capsule now.

Journalist Paula Todd, on TVOntario, was on to the story early. She mapped it out for Ontarians, and I will trace her map for you so this sub-legal disease doesn't spread cross-country.

She interviewed Alia Hogben of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, who pointed out that sharia law isn't monolithic, but is applied differently throughout the Islamic world (which is where stoning women to death comes in).

But it has one common thread: patriarchy. In a will, a wife might get a quarter of the estate at the most. She cannot divorce her husband, but he can divorce her. She would get three months to a year of alimony, maximum. Note "alimony," as opposed to child support, because she won't get the kids if the husband wants them.

Opposite her sat Ali Hindy, a local imam. No, not David Bowie's wife, but a Muslim god's deputy, in this case a grey-bearded man exuding utter certainty and self-satisfaction. Ms. Hogben looked distressed to be defying both man and god. I applaud her bravery in daring to disagree.

"The man with a hammer interprets every problem as a nail," American scholar Stephen Holmes writes in the current London Review of Books. And in this case, Canadian law is what moderates the hammer.

The imam said that if the woman were unhappy, she could go to the Canadian courts. "You can take more." Pause. "You are disobeying god."

So a timid woman in a new country, who has never disobeyed a man or her god in her life, is going to find the money (where?) to defy her entire culture and ask for a divorce, half the assets, shared child custody and support, and a place to live while she takes out student loans to get a degree and, years later, a job. Add a burqa to the equation, leaving her unemployable, and she's done and dusted.

If you believe sharia mediation is plausible, then John Ashcroft's secretly an opera singer with three breasts. He's sleeping with Andrea Bocelli, and their love child, Rocco Ray Ashcroft, is being raised by Noam Chomsky in a rooming house in Bruges.

Have I now made it clear that allowing vulnerable women to be bullied into destitution and despair in a Liberal province is an absurd and fantastical idea that will end in tears? And blood, doubtless female?

Timing shouldn't matter when it comes to principle, but it does here. Speaking as a paranoid "my coffee smells of bitter almonds" type who just made an off-the-record-or-else speech at a Vancouver journalism conference and was later told that a man from the Seattle branch of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was sitting in the front row, I can only say this: Canada, where I was born to immigrants, is as friendly a country to foreigners as can be found. But multiculturalism to the extent of cutting new Canadians off from the legal mainstream is like hacking off your own leg.

It doesn't grow back.

Curioser and curiouser. From NewsMax, with thanks to Joel:

Nick Berg had a bit of a strange run the last few years, starting with the "coincidental" usage of his e-mail account by the alleged 20th 9/11 hijacker and ending with his beheading at the hands of terrorists in Iraq.

He is described by various news agencies as a techno genius, a dreamer, a wanderer, a funnyman and the ultimate Curious George.

Today, Philly.com revealed another item about Berg: "Berg's stubborn wanderlust made him a target of suspicion - a religious Jew riding around Mosul in a taxi with a copy of the Koran. ... Some U.S. soldiers even wondered if the patriotic Berg was 'a wannabe freedom fighter.'"

So, what was he doing in Iraq? A friend told Fox News he thought Berg was "sailing in Turkey." (Sure ... if we were to go sailing, that's the place we'd choose as well.)

When Berg was arrested in Mosul, he had two items with him that made authorities nervous: a copy of the Koran and another book reportedly entitled either "The Jewish Problem" or "The Jewish Solution." Why a Jew would be carrying these items is unclear, but Berg supporters say it was like him to be curious about such things.

Berg also refused to leave Iraq when asked to do so by the State Department.

He not only apparently felt the need to help rebuild Iraq, but he also wanted to go into business doing so. He told jailers that he was losing thousands of dollars while being detained.

He had worked in Africa (Uganda) and had a relative living in Mosul, so that's where he went in Iraq. He was arrested only because he was an unaccompanied American in a place where that was highly unusual.

A military source in Iraq told the Philadelphia Daily News, "He was jailed because unescorted Americans aren't usually seen downtown and 'they didn't know what to do with him.'

"Police were suspicious because of 'his demeanor'" and the two books he carried.

Berg was, according to the paper, "under Iraqi control ... the FBI also questioned Berg three times and visited his parents back in West Chester."

Authorities tried to tell Berg to go home and offered to pay for everything, but he told them: "You don't understand these people like I do. You're here for a reason - and so am I."

On April 6, Berg was released from jail, and three days later he disappeared.

Let's see. Israel kills a terrorist mastermind who oversaw the murder of civilians. In retaliation, these people firebombed a Jewish school. From CP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

MONTREAL (CP) - Police have arrested four young men and a woman in her 30s in connection with a widely condemned firebombing at a Jewish school last month.

"Four males aged between 18 and 20 and one female in her 30s were all apprehended at 6:15 this morning," Montreal police spokesman Ian Lafreniere said Friday. The April 5 attack on the library of the United Talmud Torah elementary school garnered headlines across the country and even elicited a financial pledge from actor Russell Crowe to help replace books.

A note left at the school said the fire was in retaliation for Israel's killing of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

Lafreniere did not give the nationalities of those arrested, saying there was some information police did not want to reveal so as not to jeopardize the investigation into other possible suspects.

O, selfish Canada

"Selfish"? That's what Canada gets for all its accomodations to terrorists?

From the National Post, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

ISLAMABAD - The Al-Qaeda terror network views Canada as a legitimate target because it is a "selfish" nation committing "terrorism" against Muslims around the world, an unofficial spokesman for jihadists waging holy war against the West said yesterday.

Wail al Dhaleai in Taekwondo garb

Ah, what a swell guy he was. Neither these English kids nor their parents seem concerned that he killed himself in a murderous attack on troops allied with Britain's. From Sheffield Today, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

SHEFFIELD youngsters have paid tribute to their "fantastic" martial arts instructor, a man who died in a suicide bomb attack on US troops in Iraq.

Tae kwon do pupils at the Goodwill Community Centre spoke of their much-loved teacher Wail al Dhaleai, aged 22, of Clover Gardens, Wincobank, who set up classes a year ago.

Staff and some pupils at the centre, on Rothay Road, Grimesthorpe, were heartbroken when the martial arts expert blew himself up in Iraq last November.
When his pupils took their first tae kwon do grading exam, they said they did it for him.

Sammy Noor, aged 14, of Wensley Street, Grimes-thorpe, said: "He was one of the nicest people I have ever met. We had a laugh with him and he made it fun for us so that we wanted to train with him.

"I felt like when I got my grading, I did it for him. When he trained us he used to say 'don't stop, keep training.' He wanted to make us good fighters."

"I was upset because he was a friend to us. I used to see him at prayer at the mosque as well as at the classes.

"We used to joke with him and have a laugh with him, we only found out what happened to him in the newspaper."

Parent Hussein Saleh, 38, paid tribute to the man who "boosted the community" by opening the first martial arts class at the centre.

"He was fantastic and what he did for these kids is what no one had ever done before. We needed Wail. Getting them here after school was getting them off the streets.

"He gave them the determination to carry on and be a black belt. He was such a good teacher. Discipline was his speciality."

I guess you could put it that way.

Arafat quotes the book of peace. From AP, with thanks to DC Watson:

In a televised speech from the West Bank town of Ramallah, Arafat urged his people to remain steadfast.

"Find what strength you have to terrorize your enemy and the enemy of God," he said, quoting the Quran. "And if they want peace, then let's have peace."

Having gotten himself or herself into the position of suggesting that the Qur'an says to terrorize people, the AP writer is ready to explain Islam to us:

Arafat, whom Israel accuses of supporting militant groups, did not appear to be calling for new attacks on Israel. The Quranic passage refers to the early Muslims' wars against pagans and is frequently invoked by Islamic leaders today to encourage strength in times of conflict.

Angelo M. Codevilla, an influential opinion-maker associated with several Washington think tanks, asserts in The American Spectator (thanks to rickb) that "The war on terror will be won only when Islam’s Wahabi heresy is defeated -- by orthodox Islam." He bases his argument on Europe’s religious history, but when he turns to Islam he makes a number of misleading and incorrect assertions.

HAZILY, AMERICAN ELITES PERCEIVE that modern terrorism has something to do with the Wahabi sect of the Arabian Peninsula. But they lump that sect with "radical" or "fundamentalist" Islam, and throw up their hands over whether terrorism is a natural consequence of Muslim fervor or not. In fact, anti-Western terrorism results from a war within Islam that is more serious for Muslims than for the rest of us, because the Wahabis' ideas imply irreconcilable enmity against other Muslims first, and then against others. Western elites, religiously challenged as they are, don't understand the mixture of threat and temptation that the Wahabis pose to the Muslim world because they do not know how analogous Christian heresies have roiled Western civilization.

There's no doubt that Wahhab and his followers declared other Muslims infidels and waged jihad against them. Codevilla is certain that Wahhabism is a heresy, and that the orthodox Islam he imagines is represented by the Muslims that Wahhabism opposes has the strength to defeat it and keep it from lashing out in terror attacks against non-Muslims. The fundamental mistake Codevilla makes stems from his apparent unawareness of the fact that violent jihad against unbelievers is taught by all four "mainstream" schools of Sunni Islam: Shafi'i, Maliki, Hanafi, and Hanbali. It is not a Wahhabi innovation. Sure, Wahhabis will fight other Muslims. But they will see eye-to-eye with those Muslims about the necessity of fighting the rest of us.

The Koran is adamant about monotheism: "Kill those who ascribe partners to God, wheresoever you find them." But affirming monotheism is also the core of the Wahabi heresy.

Ibn Abdul Wahab, born around 1700 in a remote village in a remote region of Arabia, was early impressed with the central tenet of Islam, as well as with the deviations from it both of the Ottoman Empire's sophisticates, who, in Abdul Wahab's view, had adopted Christian ways, and of village simpletons who idolized shrines and trees. He wrote that Islam is "…above all a rejection of all gods except God, a refusal to allow others to share in that worship that is due to God alone (Shirk). Shirk is evil, no matter what the object, whether it be king or prophet or saint or tree or tomb."

Wahab destroyed the tombs of the Prophet's earliest disciples because they had become objects of veneration. Wahab declared ancient Islamic scholars "unbelievers" and "polytheists," those who held not only to Shi'a Islam, but also to the Sufi spiritual tradition and Islamic law, and burned their books. His quest for purity alienated his village's authorities, including his father.

One of the region's tribes, however, found him useful against the others, and gave him shelter. That was the house of Saud. Wahab's version of Islam became the official creed wherever the Saudi family ruled. The bargain was sealed by Wahab's marriage to Ibn Saud's daughter.

Dore Gold in Hatred's Kingdom explains that "[T]ribal raiding could now be carried on as a religious cause. What had once been taken as tribal booty was now demanded as Zakat (the charitable payments required as one of the five pillars of Islam). Significantly, Wahab legitimized Jihad against fellow Muslims for the first time." Killing those who would not accept his version of the faith (and Saudi sovereignty), as well as taking their possessions, was good.

Wahab's teaching about Jews and Christians was of the same sort. Rather than respecting them as "people of the book," as misguided followers of the One God, Wahab called them polytheists, "devil worshipers," and sorcerers, to whom the biblical punishment of death was applicable. Hence Wahabism assured its combatants of the manifold blessings of Muslim martyrdom and set them to war with the entire world.

Codevilla seems altogether ignorant of Sura 9:29, which mandates not respect, but warfare against Jews and Christians until they either convert to Islam or pay the jizya, the special tax for non-Muslims, and "feel themselves subdued," i.e., submit to the humiliations of dhimmitude. Wahhab didn't invent this verse, or the theological and legal supertsructure that grew up around it. Nor did Wahhab mandate any "biblical punishments." Codevilla seems not to know that someone like Wahhab would have regarded the Bible as corrupted; any punishments he mandated came only from the Qur'an and Sunnah.

Codevilla goes on to say that the Ottomans defeated the Wahhabis in the 19th century. However:

The Ottomans, however, failed to discredit Wahabism doctrinally. They did not teach orthodox Islam and insist that it be taught, much less did they live it.

Maybe that's because the "orthodox Islam" that Codevilla posits doesn't actually exist. Or at least, while some may have been able to challenge Wahhabism's posture toward other Muslims, no Islamic challenge could have been mounted to the Wahhabi idea of jihad against unbelievers.

It's sad but true that this seriously flawed analysis will almost certainly make the rounds in Washington, and influence policy.

Franklin Graham

Discrimination and targeting innocent people is never justified and should always be rejected. But in this Army News commentary (thanks to Nicolei), Staff Sgt. Russell Bassett is a bit too quick to assume that bigotry is all that's behind the questioning of the Islamic roots of terrorism — and to dismiss the ties that Osama bin Laden and other radical Muslims have to Islam. As I say all the time, unless the Islamic roots of jihad terrorism are recognized and rejected by a large number of worldwide, that terrorism will continue. This kind of analysis just leaves us more vulnerable to an attack from a source that we thought was peaceful.

FORT EUSTIS, Va. (Army News Service, May 14, 2004) -- Religion is never a very easy topic to talk about. It tends to divide more than it unites.

Religion gets to the heart of what we believe and what we value, and strong emotions are wrapped around those beliefs and values. Even atheists strongly defend their right not to believe in God.

Down through history, religion has been used to justify great injustices, including war and genocide.

Today, one religion -- Islam -- is facing close scrutiny as its radical fringe terrorizes the world through violent attacks.

The White House has gone to great pains to ensure the War on Terrorism is not seen as a clash of religions. President George Bush made a point of praising Islam as "a religion of peace." He invited Muslim clerics to the White House for Ramadan dinners and criticized evangelicals who call Islam a dangerous faith.

One such evangelist, Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham wrote, "Islam – unlike Christianity – has among its basic teachings a deep intolerance of those who follow other faiths."

That Islam has produced its share of fanatics should come as no surprise. Every religion has its extremists, and there can be no denying that militant Islam's rigid and intolerant orthodoxy is making the world a more dangerous place.

But is Islam itself the reason for terrorism, or is it something else? Has the backlash against terrorism created intolerance for Islam? And are those of us in the military doing enough to ensure that Muslims in uniform are enjoying the same tolerance of their faith as those from different religions?

Islam is the second largest religion in the world, totaling more than 1.3 billion believers. Less than 20 percent of the Muslims in the world are Arab, and all Arab countries have populations that believe in other religions. Indonesia has the world's largest Islamic population –--88 percent of citizens are Muslim.

In the United States, Islam is the fastest growing religion. There are currently five to seven million Muslims who are U.S. citizens.

There is also a substantial number of Muslims in the U.S. military; between 10,000 and 20,000 U.S. service members consider themselves followers of Islam.

In the U. S. Army, Muslims are afforded the same rights to worship as any other religion.

"The Army tries to accommodate different religions," said Col. Hanson Boney, Fort Eustis chaplain. "There have been Muslims in the Army for the past 40 years. There are times we can't accommodate religions, like in times of war, but Muslims have no harder time worshiping in the Army than any other religion."

Some Muslims are finding that the backlash against terrorism has made it harder for them to practice their faith.

Matthew Hicks, a Soldier in E Company, 71st Transportation Battalion , said he was "jumped" after 9-11. "People get the wrong idea about Muslims," he said. "They think I'm a terrorist or going to blow something up."

In 2002, Hicks changed his name from Abdulaziz Gazah so he wouldn't have to face the prejudice associated with an Islamic name.

After joining the Army, Hicks also faced discrimination.

"When I was in Basic,” he said, “I told my drill sergeant that I wanted to attend Muslim service and he at first didn't believe me and then started ranking on me, so I stopped going to the services all together."

After that incident, Hicks decided he was not going to tell anyone he is a Muslim. He arrived on Fort Eustis two weeks ago and had not even told his battle buddy about his Islamic beliefs.

One of the five pillars of the Muslim faith is to pray five times a day. As an Initial Entry Soldier, it has been difficult for Hicks to find time to pray.

"I have had zero time to pray," he said. "But in the Islamic faith it is not so much that you have to pray, it's if you have the time or make the intent. It is all about your intent."

The Jacksonville, Fla., native who speaks Arabic said he joined the Army to work as a translator in the Persian Gulf.

"Most fights start from a misunderstanding," Hicks said. "I'd like to go over there and help clear up some of those misunderstandings."

Hicks, whose parents are from Saudi Arabia, said he spent some time in that country growing up, but that he is "born and raised American."

"I am so loyal to the United States," he said. "My grandfather served in the U.S. (Army) Air Corps and even when I was in Saudi Arabia I told everyone I was American."

Spc. David Burgos, operations clerk for the 492nd Harbormaster Detachment, who has been an active Muslim for 25 years, said Islam helped give him direction and hope.

"I came from a broken home and when my parents divorced I became a ward of the State," Burgos said. "The path I was walking was one of crime and drugs and it was the light of Islam that brought me off that path."

Before joining the Army, Burgos faced prejudice because of his faith during the first Gulf War.

"There was a lot of backlash as a Muslim for me in the workplace," he said. "Coworkers would place notes that said, 'Go back to your own country' or 'Muslims are trouble makers.'"

Like Hicks, Burgos also did not mention his beliefs during Initial Entry Training. "I wasn't sure how it would be accepted," he said.

Since then, Burgos has spent eight years on Fort Eustis, and he said working here has enabled him to actively pursue his faith.

"My unit has always been accepting," he said. "They let me to go to Jumah (prayer) at 1300 on Friday and they always inquire about me during Ramadan, especially for PT (physical training). Since Ramadan is a time of fasting and no liquids during the day, they have allowed me to do PT later in the day."

Burgos said he has experienced no discrimination or prejudice here, even after 9-11.

"The whole year after 9-11 I had people asking me questions about Islam, but I don't believe any of them were in a negative manner," he said. "Fort Eustis has been good for me as far as being Muslim and wearing the green uniform."

The United States has several allies among the Arab nations, and many Arab countries send their soldiers to the Transportation School here for training.

Sebastian Velilla, international military student specialist with the T-School, helps ensure that Muslims who visit Fort Eustis to train are allowed to practice their beliefs.

"We have students from the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Egypt." he said. "Next year we will have 223 Arab students."

Friday, 15 Arabs from the school joined together at the Islamic Center here to pray. Sgt. Maj. Alkhedaid Aazib, an aviation soldier from Saudi Arabia, led the prayers.

He said it has been "easy" to practice his faith since coming to Fort Eustis and that he has not faced any discrimination because of his beliefs.

"Because we are working with Americans here, they get to know us and we get along well," he said. "We are treated like equals."

Aazib stressed that Islam is a religion of peace.

"We believe in peace for every person and every country," he said. "You cannot be a Muslim and be a murderer or killer."

Hicks and Burgos agreed.

"Islam is actually a peaceful religion," said Hicks. "When Muslims say hello we say, 'Peace be upon you' and when we return the greeting we say 'Peace be back to you.'"

Burgos said the Koran teaches peace and nonviolence.

"I have read the Koran several times and there," he said. "Islam teaches its followers to be peaceful. Islam is all about giving life, not taking it."

Hmm. I myself have read the Qur'an many more than several times, and I could show Burgos the verses Osama and Co. use to justify warfare against non-Muslims. This is not just based on just a few Qur'an verses, either, but on numerous ahadith and tenets of Islamic law. I wonder how Burgos missed them.

However, the question still remains: If Islam is such a peaceful religion, why then are there schools in such traditionally allied nations like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia that teach intolerance and hatred? And why do terrorists use Islam to justify their violent actions?

Hicks believes it has to do more with the political situation than the faith.

"(Terrorism) is not Islam," he said. "It's certain people with messed up ways. Bin Ladin's hatred comes from his hatred of the United States, not his religion."

Burgos agreed.

"Some people who call themselves Muslims are angry about what is going on in the politics of their region," agreed Burgos.

Despite a few isolated cases, Muslims who serve in the United States armed forces are proving their loyalty to this country. They should be afforded the same rights and privileges afforded their non-Muslim brothers in arms.

As Americans, we set the example. Let's be sure that example is one that includes tolerance for people of all religious faiths.

"Martyr Al-Sadr"

From AsiaNews:

Nassiriyah (AsiaNews) – Today, a spokesman from "Martyr Al-Sadr’s Office" declared Jihad, saying the holy city of Nassiriyah must not be occupied by foreign troops.

This was the first time in 20 years that Shiite religious leaders have declared holy war against any foreign power. Meanwhile, a spokesman from the same office in Baghdad, has asked Al-Mahdi militia forces to start heading for Najaf.

On several occasions Shiite imams have warned about the danger of militarily trespassing on the two holy Shiite towns, which Ayatollah Al-Sistani himself said were “off-limits” to foreign troops.

Moreover, for the first time in many years Friday prayer was cancelled at Imam Hussein’s mosque in Karbala “due to the bad situation” and by way a decree issued by Ayatollah Al-Sistani. Meanwhile, 4 people have died and 13 were wounded in violent conflict that broke out in Karabala late yesterday.

This morning heavy fighting erupted in Najaf, where prayer services were also cancelled. Battling were American soldiers and Moqtada Al-Sadr Al-Mahdi militants. Around 7.00 a.m. (Iraqi time) a series of explosions ripped through downtown Najaf while gunfire was heard criss-crossing city streets. ...

Al-Mahdi militia units have taken control of buildings around Najaf's holy sites and hotels where Shiite pilgrims are staying, most of whom are from Iran.

Many witnesses have said that Imam Moqtada Al-Sadr has not set out for Kufa (a town 20 km from Najaf) to attend Friday prayer services, like he has done every week since taking refuge in Najaf.

From Iran's IRIB News, with thanks to Twostellas:

Dubai, May 14 - A statement purported to be from the Al-Qaeda chief in Saudi Arabia said on Friday that one of the terror network's cells had carried out a recent attack at a petrochemical plant which killed five westerners.

"The Yanbu cell which carried out the heroic, successful operation this month is one of the most eloquent and best examples" of what militants should seek to achieve, said the statement attributed to Abdul Aziz Al-Muqrin and posted on an Islamist website.

The authenticity of the statement could not be independently confirmed.

Four gunmen went on a shooting rampage at the plant in the industrial Red Sea port of Yanbu on May 1, killing two Americans, two Britons and an Australian.

A Saudi national guardsman was also shot dead in gunbattles before the carnage ended with the death of the assailants.

"Our brother Abu Ammar Mustafa Al-Ansari, God rest his soul, was from the cream of the Mujahedeen, having waged Jihad (holy war) in Afghanistan and Somalia," said the message allegedly penned by Muqrin, who tops a list of most-wanted presumed Al-Qaeda militants in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi authorities have identified the leader of the Yanbu assailants, all from the same family, as Mustafa Abdul Kader Abed Al-Ansari.

Bali, October 2002

From the Herald Sun, with thanks to Nicolei:

SUSPECTED links between Jemaah Islamiah, the terror group responsible for the Bali bombings, and the Madrid train bombers are being investigated by British police.

If confirmed, the news would add credence to claims by terror experts that the Madrid bombers may have trained in JI-linked terrorist camps in central Indonesia.

The British investigation was launched after Spanish news agency Efe reported that seven Islamic terrorists involved in the Madrid train bombings telephoned a JI operative and a jailed radical Muslim cleric in London's Belmarsh prison shortly before they blew themselves up last month.

Surrounded by police in a flat in Leganes, south Madrid, on April 3, the terrorists reportedly placed three calls to the phone of Britain's suspected al-Qa'ida chief Abu Qatada, and also made calls to Indonesia to "someone in the milieu" of JI spiritual leader Abu Bakar Bashir.

The men, mostly from Morocco, who soon afterwards blew themselves up, were reportedly seeking authorisation to commit suicide, the report said. ...

The alleged leader of Spain's al-Qa'ida cell, Abu Dahdah, visited Poso in central Indonesia in May 2001 according to a recent report by JI expert Sydney Jones, director of the Jakarta office of the International Crisis Group.

In an interview in March, Ms Jones told The Australian there was "clearly close contact" between al-Qa'ida and JI and that Spanish al-Qa'ida operatives were trained in terrorist camps in Indonesia.

"It goes back to at least late 2000, maybe before," she said. "The whole reason that Poso came to international attention was because Spanish authorities arrested al-Qa'ida operatives who said they had been trained in Poso."

Indonesian police found two copies of the Koran in Spanish, another Spanish book and 26 Spanish business cards in raids on JI's bomb factory in Semarang in central Java last year.

Not a silver tongue

Gene Simmons of KISS has offended Muslims in Australia with some salty comments during a radio interview. From The Age, with thanks to faustaw:

KISS bass player Gene Simmons has caused an uproar among Australia's Muslim community by launching an attack on Islamic culture while in Melbourne.

The lizard-tongued rock god who is touring Australia with the world's most enduring glam rock band launched an attack on Muslim extremists during an interview on Melbourne's 3AW radio.

"Extremism believes that it's okay to strap bombs on to your children and send them to paradise and whatever else and to behead people," he said yesterday.

The Israeli-born US musician went on to say Islam was a "vile culture" that treated women worse than dogs.

Muslim women had to walk behind their men and were not allowed to be educated or own houses, he said.

"Your dog, however, can walk side by side, your dog is allowed to have its own dog house... you can send your dog to school to learn tricks, sit, beg, do all that stuff - none of the women have that advantage."

He went on to say the west was under threat.

"This is a vile culture and if you think for a second that it's going to just live in the sands of God's armpit you've got another thing coming," he said.

"They want to come and live right where you live and they think that you're evil."

Simmons said the United Nations approach did not work and the west had to "speak softly and carry a big stick".

The radio station today fielded calls from Muslims upset at the comments, including Australian Muslim of the year Susan Carland, who said Australian Muslims rejected extremism and did not fit Simmons' stereotype.

Ms Carland said she had two degrees, was doing her honours and "certainly do not walk behind my husband".

Chairman of the Islamic Council of Victoria Yasser Soliman said Simmons' comments were "very unfortunate".

"He's very famous obviously and popular and, as a result, influential," he said.

"Mixing the entertainment world with the political and religious world is a minefield."

He said Simmons had begun by talking about extremists but had gone on to vilify the entire Muslim culture.

"A number of his claims regarding women and what they are allowed to do and not do are wrong - Islam teaches the opposite," he said.

Simmons had a right to free speech, but this had to be balanced against the damage done to innocent people, he said.

"I think it would be good for overseas speakers and commentators to be given some sort of advice in regards to our vilification laws here," he said.

"They leave and go back to where they arrived from, but they leave behind a big mess that we have to live with."

Simmons may not be a silver-tongued diplomat, but his words were more accurate than Carland lets on. There is, of course, the Qur'an verse sanctioning wife-beating (4:34), the devaluation of legal testimony by women (2:282), hadiths dictating that a wife can never refuse her husband sex, even if she is cooking or otherwise occupied, Sharia provisions forbidding a woman even to venture out of her house without her husband's permission, and much more. If Carland doesn't live by these, that's great. But it doesn't make them any less part of Islamic law.

UPDATE: Now Simmons says he didn't say it. Didn't say what exactly? Unclear. From his website, with thanks to Mentat:

Hello everyone. Lately, comments that have been attributed to me in the press have been printed. They are false. Please use your own logic and best judgement when reading media. Sometimes media is responsible and sometimes, it is not. You know me. And, I believe your instincts will guide you in determining what is real and what is not.