July 2004 Archives

This is a common view in the Islamic world. From MEMRI:

Dr. Rif'at Sayyed Ahmad, director of the "Jaffa Research Center" in Cairo and columnist for Al-Liwaa Al-Islami, which is the Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party's paper, published a two-part article titled 'The Lie About The Burning of the Jews.' In his article, Ahmad stated, using the work of Western Holocaust deniers, that the burning of Jews in gas chambers during World War II was a tale made up by the Zionist movement in order to extort the West and make possible the establishment of the Zionist enterprise. The following are excerpts from the article:(1) 'Did this Holocaust Indeed Take Place, and what is the Truth about the Numbers?'

"The Zionist enterprise on the land of Palestine succeeded by means of lies and myths, from the myth of the 'Chosen People' and the 'Promised Land' to the lie about the burning of the Jews in the Nazi gas chambers during World War II. When these means were scientifically examined, it was proven that they were untrue, that their reasoning was weak, and that they cannot withstand the test of solid fact.

"What interests us here is that this lie [about] the burning of the Jews in the Nazi crematoria has been disseminated throughout the world until our time in order to extort the West and make it easier for the Jews of Europe to hunt [sic] Palestine and establish a state on it, in disregard of the most basic principles of international law and the right of peoples to independent life without occupation. [This lie] was raised [also] so that [the Jews] would receive financial, technological, and economic aid from the West.

"During the past 50 years, Germany alone gave a total of some $100 billion. Many European countries began to amend their laws so that they would be compatible with the Holocaust myth ... and they toughened the regulations, resolutions, and laws convicting anyone who mocks this lie or tries to [state that] the number of victims was smaller - as happened to Muslim philosopher Roger Garaudy in France.

"This entire situation has turned the Holocaust - that is, Hitler's operation of burning the Jews in gas chambers - into a drawn sword at the necks of historians and serious researchers in the West, and even in the East. At the same time, [the Holocaust] became profitable goods for the Zionist entity...

"Militants," they call them. The group calls itself "The Holders of the Black Banners." The article doesn't tell you this, but the black banner is the standard of jihad. These people have taken these hostages as part of their jihad against non-Muslims and secular Muslims.

How long will we pretend that we can fight against an enemy without naming him? How long will we delude ourselves into thinking that we can ignore who the enemy is and where and how he gains strength, and still defeat him?

From AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi militants said Saturday they kidnapped two Turks and threatened to behead them within 48 hours, the latest in the country's unrelenting wave of abductions, even as efforts intensified to win the release of seven truck drivers taken captive by other insurgents.

The Tawhid and Jihad group of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi demanded the Turks' employers leave Iraq in a videotape aired on Al-Jazeera television, which showed three masked, black-garbed gunmen standing behind two seated men holding various forms of identification, including what were apparently Turkish passports.

Al-Jazeera identified the men as two Turkish truck drivers working for a Turkish company that delivers goods to U.S. forces in Iraq. The network said the militants threatened to decapitate the men if their demands were not met....

The kidnappers have threatened to kill one of the hostages if their employers, Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Co., fail to meet their demands, including ending their work in Iraq.

The group, which calls itself "The Holders of the Black Banners," had said they would carry out their threat by Friday night, but they had extended their deadlines repeatedly in the past and appeared to have done so again.

It is a sad commentary on the American academic establishment. From CNSNews.com, with thanks to Nicolei:

Paris (CNSNews.com) - A Swiss-born Muslim scholar scheduled to begin teaching at a U.S. university next month is a controversial figure in Europe, where he is accused of anti-Semitism and advocating violence against women.

Tariq Ramadan plans to teach at Indiana's Notre Dame University, instructing students on Islam, conflict and peace building.

Ramadan is the grandson of Hassan Al-Banna, the Egyptian founder of the radical Muslim Brotherhood.

With a perfect command of the language and a tailored western look, he is well-known in France, where disaffected Muslim youths listen to his speeches on Islamic pride. But some municipalities have barred him from speaking because he is considered a threat to public order.

Ramadan has denied allegations in the French media that European agencies suspect him of meeting with senior al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Geneva, in 1991.

Late last year, in a television debate with French government minister Nicolas Sarkozy, Ramadan refused to condemn "lapidation" - the stoning of adulterous women, a punishment that is carried out under strict interpretations of the Koran.

Actually this punishment comes from the Hadith. But the point still holds.

A public outcry followed the publication of an article in which Ramadan accused French intellectuals of being pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian purely for sectarian reasons -- that is, because they were Jewish. They were placing their religion above their obligation as scholars, he charged.

Not all the intellectuals he singled out were, in fact, Jews. The article brought him vitriol at a time when France has seen a rise in anti-Jewish violence, often originating in the Muslim community.

"His thoughts seem European and appeal to Muslims living in the West," said Yonathan Arfi, president of the Union of Jewish Students of France. "And then he talks about 'lapidation.' We took a long time to understand his discourse, but now he has been unmasked."

Another Islamic "hijacking." Looks as if the jihad will continue. From AP, with thanks to DC Watson:

UNITED NATIONS - Sudan denounced a U.N. Security Council resolution that gave the government 30 days to stem ethnic violence in the western Darfur region or face sanctions, saying Khartoum needed international help, not threats.

Sudan said the resolution, passed 13-0 on Friday, violates a previous agreement with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in which it promised to crack down on the militias who have killed thousands of people and forced more than 1 million to flee in Darfur.

"Sudan expresses its deep sorrow that the issue of Darfur has quickly entered the Security Council and has been hijacked from its regional arena," Information Minister El-Zahawi Ibrahim Malik said in a statement.

But the violence has continued despite a cease-fire called in July and Sudanese promises of a crackdown. The three African countries on the council — Algeria, Angola and Benin — backed the U.S.-sponsored resolution.

Al-Qaeda trying to influence political policies through assassination? Don't they know jihad is an inner spiritual struggle? From AP, with thanks to DC Watson:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network may have been behind the failed attempt to assassinate the country's prime minister-designate, a senior Cabinet minister said Saturday, though investigators are still poring over the evidence.

The death toll from the suicide bomb attack Friday against Shaukat Aziz, meanwhile, rose to eight, with about three dozen injured, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said. Among those killed was Aziz's driver, who had not yet closed the bulletproof door on the car when a man approached and detonated a bomb.

"Al-Qaida may be behind it," Ahmed told The Associated Press, before adding that there is no hard evidence linking the group to the attack.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has said he believes al-Qaida was involved in two attempts to kill him in December, the last of which killed 17 people. He was unharmed.

Why was Al-Jazeera treated like any other news organization at the Democratic Convention? From Thomas Ryan at FrontPage, with thanks to Son of Infidel:

Despite Democratic Presidential Nominee John Kerry’s assertion that as President, he would “use every available resource to destroy terrorists and deny them sanctuary…and new recruits,” one of the invited guests at the now-concluded Democratic National Convention was an organization that has served as a terrorist recruitment tool, a communications conduit for al-Qaeda in general and Osama bin Laden in particular. This network has repeatedly described Palestinian suicide-bombers as “martyrs.” High above the platform and the sea of “Kerry-Edwards” placards, covering the convention from a skybox towering over the Fleet Center floor was Arabic network al-Jazeera, the Arab satellite news agency whose allegedly “factual and accurate” news coverage has been blatantly anti-American. The Democrats were at least savvy enough to remove the network’s banner, which had been strategically placed near the speakers’ podium. But how could any candidate or political party “serious” about terrorism make no fuss about allowing such a news group inside its convention?

Al-Jazeera was founded in 1996 and is renowned worldwide for its dubious claim that it is politically independent. In reality, the agency was started with $150 million in seed money from the emir of Qatar, who continues to grant the agency annual gifts. Al-Jazeera, which has been called the “Arab CNN,” acts as a public access channel for foreign terrorists.

It would appear al-Jazeera not only shares the airwaves with al-Qaeda; it shares personnel, as well. In 2003, Taysir Allouni, a popular reporter for al-Jazeera, was arrested in Spain for having links to the al-Qaeda terrorist group. Allouni, who interviewed Osama bin Laden after 9/11, was accused of giving assistance to two al-Qaeda officials: Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, alias Abu Dahdah, who was arrested in November of 2001, and is believed to have been Spain’s al-Qaeda commander; and Mohamed Bahiah, alias Abu Kalhed, who is believed to be an al-Qaeda militant fighting in Afghanistan....

Terrorists are certainly interested in the elections process. It was just this past March that a series of ten bombs exploded aboard a crowded commuter train in Madrid, Spain, killing 201 innocent people, and causing Spanish citizens to elect a government that was more appeasing to the desires of al-Qaeda terrorists. John Kerry has said, “As president, I will not rest until I can look into the eyes of the American people who want a future of freedom and security, and say ‘We are as safe as we can be.’” It wasn’t only the eyes of the American people that Kerry has looked into, but also the lens of an al-Jazeera camera, a camera that has pervasively portrayed the United States as the evil antagonist, and global terrorists as the guiltless victims, but which has subsequently portrayed Kerry as a more agreeable figure than the current incumbent.

John Kerry and the Democratic Party failed this terror test.

Yet another interesting detail about Annie Jacobsen's famous Northwest flight 327. From the Washington Times:

The Syrian singer of a band that was detained by the FBI's Terrorism Task Force for suspicious activity during a recent flight to Los Angeles has written about the "glorification" of suicide bombers to liberate Palestine.

Singer Nour Mehana's latest album includes the song "Um El Shaheed," or "Mother of a Martyr," said Aluma Dankowitz of the Middle East Media Research Institute.

The song tells the story of a woman who mourned her son's death until she realized that "he died for a good cause and he should be glorified for what he did," said Miss Dankowitz, who translated the song for The Washington Times.

Mr. Mehana, widely known as the Syrian Wayne Newton, sings to the mother that her son's goals are heroic and she should be happy he is dead.

"The song opens with the depiction of a mother crying over her son. He has said goodbye to his friends and family and is not going to come back. He went with a weapon in one palm and his heart in another palm and he's not going to come back," Miss Dankowitz said. "He went to fight to free Palestine, Golan Heights and South Lebanon."

The song ends with chants of "Allahu akbar," or "God is great," a common Muslim expression. Those were the last words shouted by a September 11 hijacker before the plane crashed into a Pennsylvania field and have been the last words of many suicide bombers in Israel.

This seems to be the same group that claimed responsibility for the April attacks. Note that the group's declaration amounts to a declaration of jihad until Sharia is instituted all over the Islamic world. No one seems to know much about this group, or how much trouble they can cause for this relatively moderate land. And Kofi Annan is dismayed, but what is he going to do? From Muslim Uzbekistan:

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday voiced his dismay at a series of bombings in Uzbekistan against the United States and Israeli embassies, as well as the office of the country's prosecutor. Mr. Annan's spokesman issued a statement saying the Secretary-General "condemns these criminal acts in the strongest terms." Uzbek prosecutor-general Rashyd Kadyrov announced in April the so called "Jamoats" (Communities) were behind Uzbek spring unrest "Targeting of diplomatic missions and civilians is a crime that cannot be justified by any cause," he said.

The blasts in capital of Tashkent reportedly killed two people and injured at least nine others. One of the killed was policeman and another was officer of the National Security Service of Uzbekistan. One of these two was of Russian nationality, according to RFE'RL's Uzbek service broadcast....

Not the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) on Friday claimed responsibility for suicide bombings against the US and Israeli embassies, as well as Uzbekistan's prosecutor general's office in Tashkent as i was reported previously, but an unknown group called "Jamoat" according to a statement posted on an Islamist website.

The claim was posted on (http://www.islamicminbar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=338).

"Martyrdom operations carried out by the group will not stop. They are directed against the injustice of the apostate government and in support of our Muslim brethren in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Hijaz (Saudi Arabia) and other Islamic countries ruled by apostates," said the statement, signed Mohammed al-Fateh from Bukhara.

This still unknown group ... had previously assumed responsibility for March-April attacks.

Faisal Gill of the DHS is starting to attract attention. From FoxNews, with thanks to DC Watson:

WASHINGTON — Officials at the Department of Homeland Security are investigating the reinstatement of a top political appointee to the agency who was briefly suspended for failing to disclose ties to a controversial Islamic organization, FOXNews.com has learned.

Faisal Gill, director of policy for intelligence at DHS, was forced to take a few days off in March after sources close to the FBI raised flags about Gill's former position as spokesman for the American Muslim Council.

The now-defunct American Muslim Council was founded in 1990 to lobby Washington for the interests of American Muslims and had been involved in community activism to that end. AMC was established and headed by Abdurahman Alamoudi, who was indicted in 2003 on passport fraud and illegal finance activities with Libya.

Court documents call Alamoudi an active supporter of Hamas, which the U.S. State Department considers a terrorist organization, and an official in an international charity group run by Usama Bin Laden's nephew. Alamoudi recently told federal officials he was part of a plot to assassinate King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

According to a report first published last month by Salon.com reporter Mary Jacoby, Gill omitted his role with the American Muslim Council when he filed his employment application and requisite security clearances at the agency. Gill left off his "Standard Form 86" that he served as AMC’s spokesman in 2001.

Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer's latest, "Sudan's silent jihad," appeared Thursday in FrontPage.

Just in time to mark the tenth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide that it largely ignored, the human rights community is beginning to take notice of the genocide in Sudan. As welcome as this is, and as refreshing as it is that the New York Times and Washington Post have done extensive reporting on Darfur in recent weeks, few have noted that the tragedy of Darfur is actually the second Sudanese genocide of our age. The first killed over two million African Christians and animists in southern Sudan.

They may be forgiven for being slow on the uptake, however; after all, Darfur marks the third genocide in Africa that Kofi Annan is declining to notice: Rwanda, Sudan I and now Sudan II. Over 100,000 people have been killed in Darfur. By autumn the number of those who have been displaced or impoverished, or whose lives have been destroyed by the war in other ways, will most likely exceed three million. Yet Annan declared that he cannot consider it “genocide or ethnic cleansing yet.”

There is another word that Annan has never uttered in connection with Sudan. For a decade Khartoum has waged what the regime itself calls a jihad against Christians and tribalists in the South. A 1992 fatwa issued by a group of pro-Khartoum Sudanese imams declared: “An insurgent who was previously a Muslim is now an apostate and a non-Muslim is a non-believer standing as a bulwark against the spread of Islam, and Islam has granted the freedom of killing both of them.” This allowed for the murder of Christians and animists in the south; now it has been turned against the Muslims of Darfur, whose Islam doesn’t measure up to Khartoum’s hardline standards....

The victims are the blacks of Darfur and southern Sudan, who continue to be murdered and enslaved by Islamic Arab fundamentalists. The jihadists operate with impunity before a world that doesn’t dare give a name to the crime they are committing. How many more deaths will be needed before Annan and the human rights establishment admit the truth?

Alamoudi was one of the highest-profile "moderates" in the country. This article suggests that the main thing he was doing was trying to topple the House of Saud. That doesn't seem like criminal activity to me -- unless he was doing it so that an even more virulent regime could take its place. Questions linger. From the New York Times, with thanks to Steve:

WASHINGTON, July 29 - Abdurahman Alamoudi, a prominent American Muslim leader implicated in an alleged plot by the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, to assassinate the leader of Saudi Arabia, has acknowledged his role in the plot and agreed to plead guilty to having illegal business dealings with Libya, officials said Thursday. Mr. Alamoudi, who is president of the American Muslim Foundation and has had access to senior officials in the Bush and Clinton administrations over the years, is expected to enter his guilty plea on Friday in federal court in Alexandria, Va., his lawyers said. He faces a maximum of 23 years in prison, but his sentence could be reduced significantly because he has cooperated extensively with the American authorities in some 100 hours of interviews about his Libyan dealings, officials said.

The plea agreement lays out extensive new details about the Libyan plot, including Mr. Alamoudi's recruitment by Libyan intelligence officials last year as an intermediary who funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to anti-Saudi dissidents in London and elsewhere, officials said. A classified version also identifies Libyan officials thought to have acted at the behest of Colonel Qaddafi in seeking to assassinate Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, said officials familiar with the report....

Mr. Alamoudi has been criticized by some outside groups for what they saw as virulently anti-Israeli rhetoric, but embraced by many Muslims for the political inroads he has made among high-level American officials. Even now, he appears to have significant support among American Muslims, including dozens who have packed the Alexandria courtroom.

"The people who know Abdurahman are definitely behind him under all circumstances," said Ashraf Nubani, a Washington-area lawyer who is a close friend of Mr. Alamoudi's. "There's no doubt that this was a selective prosecution. That doesn't excuse what people may or may not have done, whether it was Abdurahman Alamoudi or anyone else, but Muslims are being targeted by law enforcement all levels of society."

Targeted? Well, is he guilty or not?

As Doug Ross, who kindly sent this to me, observes: "This ... is the same group of which Chuck Schumer (someone pinch me, I can't believe I'm agreeing with him) said, 'we know [CAIR] has ties to terrorism.' The same CAIR that was directing donations, ostensibly targeted for the NY/DC Emergency Relief Fund, to Hamas. The same CAIR that changed their solicitation efforts to the 'Global Relief Foundation', which the Treasury Department states, '...has provided assistance to Usama Bin Ladin, the al-Qaeda Network, and other known terrorist groups.'"

A press release from CAIR:

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Congressman John D. Dingell (D-MI), Congressman John Conyers (D-MI), Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY), and other Congressional Democrats were joined yesterday by national leaders of the Muslim American community in a roundtable discussion on issues of mutual concern to Democrats and Muslim Americans.

The discussion centered on working together to defend civil rights and to restore civil liberties.

"This discussion is only the first in an ongoing dialogue between
Congressional Democrats and Muslim Americans," Pelosi said. "We share a fundamental principle - the belief that diversity is the backbone of our communities. Generations of Muslims have made positive contributions in every aspect of American life. We must now work even more closely to navigate through the challenges we face as a nation."

"Since September 11th, many Muslim Americans have been subjected to
searches at airports and other locations based upon their religion and national origin, without any credible information linking individuals to criminal conduct," Pelosi continued. "Racial and religious profiling is fundamentally un-American and we must make it illegal...."

A fascinating exchange between two Muslims who converted to Christianity and one Christian who converted to Islam is up at FrontPage this morning. Remember: only in America. In Muslim countries the two Christian converts would be in hiding, in fear for their lives. As it is, they have to take serious security measures.

One of the most important steps to abolishing dhimmi status once and for all must be the acceptance of freedom of conscience in the Islamic world. The death penalty for converts from Islam must be removed. But will it be. That's unlikely, as it is based on statements of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad himself.

A Jihad Watch exclusive commentary by Stella L. Jatras.

In his book, My Life, President Clinton devotes many pages to his peccadilloes with Monica Lewinsky, a woman young enough to be his daughter, and proudly writes he did it "Because I could." However, he gives scant attention to the destruction of the sovereign nation of Yugoslavia. Let us take a look at the results of what President Bill Clinton is so "proud" of regarding U.S. intervention in Bosnia and Kosovo.

A Telegraph (UK) of 26 July report titled, "US hunts Islamic militants in Bosnia," writes: "American military intelligence and the CIA have deployed hundreds of officers in Bosnia to track suspected Islamic militants amid concerns that the country has become a refuge, recruiting ground and cash conduit for international terrorism. Almost a decade after the end of the war in the former Yugoslavia, Bosnia has become a 'one-stop shop' for Islamic militants heading from terrorist battlegrounds in Chechnya and Afghanistan to Iraq, according to European intelligence officials."

A Wall Street Journal (Europe edition) article of Nov 1, 2001 titled, "Al Qaeda's Balkan Links," reported, "The Balkan's uncharacteristically silent exit from the world stage as the most prominent international hot spot of the last decade belies its status as a major recruiting and training center of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. By feeding off the region's impoverished republics and taking root in the unsettled diplomatic aftermath of the Bosnia and Kosovo conflicts, al Qaeda, along with Iranian Revolutionary Guard-sponsored terrorists, have burrowed their way into Europe's backyard.

"For the past 10 years, the most senior leaders of al Qaeda have visited the Balkans, including bin Laden himself on three occasions between 1994 and 1996. The Egyptian surgeon turned terrorist leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri has operated terrorist training camps, weapons of mass destruction factories and money-laundering and drug-training networks throughout Albanian, Kosovo, Macedonia (FYROM), Bulgaria, Turkey and Bosnia. This has gone on for a decade. Many recruits to the Balkan wars came originally from Chechnya, a jihad in which Al Qaeda has also played a part."

At the same time the Clinton administration was supporting the Bosnian [Muslim] government of Alija Izetbegovic, that government issued a passport to Osama bin Laden at their Vienna embassy in 1992.

In a very revealing commentary titled, "We bombed the wrong side?" of April 6, 2004 (Canadian National Post), Gen. Lewis MacKenzie, first UNPROFOR commander in Bosnia, wrote, "The Kosovo-Albanians have played us like a Stradivarius. We have subsidized and indirectly supported their violent campaign for an ethnically pure and independent Kosovo. We have never blamed them for being the perpetrators of the violence in the early '90s and we continue to portray them as the designated victim today in spite of evidence to the contrary. When they achieve independence with the help of our tax dollars combined with those of bin Laden and al-Qaeda, just consider the message of encouragement this sends to others." Christopher Layne and Benjamin Schwarz wrote on the Opinion Page in The Washington Post on March 26, 2000, "Was it a Mistake? We Were Suckers for the KLA." The Kosovo Liberation Army is engaged in sex slavery, prostitution, murder, kidnapping and drugs. Furthermore, it is an army that was trained by Osama bin Laden dealing mainly in drugs, as confirmed in the May 4, 1999 article by Washington Times reporter Jerry Seper, in which he wrote, "Some members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, which has financed its war effort through the sale of heroin, were trained in terrorist camps run by international fugitive Osama bin Laden -- who is wanted in the 1998 bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa and killed 224 persons, including 12 Americans," yet we are told by the previous administration that at the time, Osama bin Laden was not the known threat that he is today.

In The Spectator [UK] article of Sep 6, 2003 titled, "How we trained al-Qa'eda," author Brendan O'Neill wrote, "For all the millions of words written about al-Qa'eda since the 9/11 attacks two years ago, one phenomenon is consistently overlooked - the role of the Bosnian war in transforming the mujahedin [Islamic warriors] of the 1980s into the roving Islamic terrorists of today."

Ironically, the U.S. is accusing Iran of intervening in the affairs of Iraq, yet in a House Republican Research Committee Report on Terrorism & Unconventional Warfare, titled "Iran's European Springboard?" analysts Yossef Bodansky & Vaughn S. Forrest wrote as far back as 1992, "Thus Tehran and its allies are using the violence in Bosnia-Herzegovina as a springboard for the launching of a jihad in Europe." Yossef Bodansky is the author of "Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War On America."

Through Clinton's misguided foreign policy, Bosnia has become al-Qaeda's corridor into Europe. As an example, Spanish media reported that one of the suspected terrorists involved in the Madrid bombing was born in Bosnia and linked to al Qaeda. (Financial Times, April 8, 2004/BBC monitoring). Reuters of 30 Dec 2003, writes, "UN adds Bosnia charity director to al Qaeda list." Furthermore, The Associated Press of 28 June reported, "In mosques and storefront Muslim charities, U.S. and European intelligence agencies are engaged in covert conflict in Bosnia, tracking up to 300 suspected Islamic militants and shutting down those financing them."

As for President Clinton's "successful" mission in Kosovo, National Review Online of March 19, 2004, wrote, "A pogrom started in Europe this week, with one U.S. official being quoted as saying, 'Kristallnacht is underway in Kosovo.' Serbs are being murdered and their 800-year-old churches are aflame. Much of the Christian heritage in Kosovo and Metohija is on fire and could be destroyed forever. By these deeds too many of Kosovo's Albanians have shown that their rhetoric about 'democracy' and 'multiethnicity,'is false, and demonstrates also that the international community's acceptance of them have been naive."

Americans are rightly outraged by the beheadings of our citizens. However, photos of Saudi Arabian mujahedin holding the severed heads of Serbs in Bosnia as early as 1992 or the most recent photo of KLA terrorists holding the severed of Serbs in Kosovo as late as 1999 went virtually unreported.

During a CATO discussion group the question was raised: "How could we bomb a sovereign nation in violation of the UN Charter, International law and the tenants of NATO." The answer from one of the pro-NATO bombing panelist said, "Because we could." Sound familiar?

Iyad Allawi, Prime Minister of Iraq, is quoted as saying (The New York Times, June 21) "We will do all we can to strike against the enemy forces aiming at harming our country, and we will not stand by with our hands tied." President George W. Bush said precisely the same thing when he said that we will do whatever it takes to defeat (Muslim) terrorists," yet we denied the Serbs the right to defend themselves against the same enemy that we are fighting today. As Gen. Charles Boyd, USAF (Ret), former Deputy Commander in Chief, European Command said, "The Serbs are not fighting to conquer new territory, but to hold on to what was already theirs."

I would like to suggest that if we are serious about finding Osama bin Laden, we look in Bosnia and Kosovo.

_________________________________________

As a career military officer's wife, Stella Jatras has traveled widely and has lived in many foreign countries where she not only learned about other cultures but also became very knowledgeable regarding world affairs and world politics. Stella Jatras lived in Moscow for two years (where her husband, George, was the Senior Air Attaché), and while there, worked in the Political Section of the US Embassy. Stella has also lived in Germany, Greece and Saudi Arabia. Her travels took her to over twenty countries.

Now DHS has retracted an earlier statement and says that Annie Jacobsen's 14 Syrian musicians were here legally after all. What does that suggest about what DHS really knows about anything? An op-ed from the Washington Times, :

The Homeland Security Department reversed itself yesterday, announcing that all 14 Syrian musicians who exhibited bizarre, menacing behavior on a flight from Detroit to Los Angeles last month were legally in the United States after all. DHS blames the confusion about the visa status on Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees. The flip-flop by DHS is just the latest odd twist in a story that raises troubling questions about the ability of our immigration authorities and airline security apparatus to keep potentially dangerous people off passenger planes.... Since the story became public, there has been a campaign by some unnamed government officials and Internet bloggers to discredit Annie Jacobsen — a journalist and passenger who wrote about what occurred on the flight in WomensWallStreet.com — as hysterical and unreliable. Her critics point to DHS' official position that it has no intelligence showing that terrorists are conducting surveillance of airline security procedures. One problem with this is that other passengers have given accounts first reported in this newspaper that corroborate Mrs. Jacobsen's. Also, pilots and air marshals (the latter being DHS' own employees) privately speak about groups of men engaging in similar behavior on other flights, in what look like dry runs for attacks. Also, on Feb. 8 the London Observer published a story quoting intelligence officials as stating that terrorists are practicing ways to smuggle explosive components onto planes so they can assemble bombs in midflight. It stretches credulity to believe, as DHS contends, that terrorists aren't carrying out surveillance of airliners. We dismiss these serious security concerns raised by Mrs. Jacobsen at our peril.

They are fleeing Muslim anti-Semitism, which is just part of the steadily mounting Islamic jihad in Europe. The jihad against their new home of Israel is already fully raging. From CBS News, with thanks to "Allah":

(CBS/AP) Just 10 days after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon enraged French leaders by urging France's Jews to leave for Israel, a group of 200 French Jews arrived to start a new life in the Jewish state, with Sharon at the airport to greet them.

As one émigré told CBS News Correspondent Mark Philips: You wear something to say you are Jewish and you have difficulty. We are afraid. It's simply that we are afraid."...

Carol Ben Guigui, 41, carrying a dog in her arms, said: "In five or 10 years, all the Jews of France will be in Israel because of anti-Semitism."

"Welcome to Israel," Sharon said, "welcome home."

Also at the airport to greet the immigrants were opposition Labor Party leader Shimon Peres and Israel's two chief rabbis....

In a July 18 speech to visiting Jewish American leaders, Sharon told them France was host to "the wildest anti-Semitism."

"If I have to advocate to our brothers in France, I will tell them one thing: Move to Israel, as early as possible," he said....

France is widely viewed in Israel as biased in favor of the Palestinians. The French Jewish community — at 600,000 the third-largest in the world — tends to be strongly pro-Israel, creating friction with a Muslim population of almost 5 million.

The latest French Interior Ministry figures show 510 anti-Jewish acts or threats in the first six months of 2004 — compared to 593 for all of last year.

While France has strengthened security at Jewish institutions and enacted tougher punishments for people convicted of such crimes, a sense of uneasiness and betrayal has some Jews questioning where they belong.

According to the Israeli government, 7,024 immigrants have come from France since 2000 — from a low of 1,160 in 2001 to a high of 2,385 in 2002. In the first half of 2004, 647 French Jews immigrated to Israel.

I have posted here many stories about the persecution of Christians in Iraq over the last few months. The situation is not improving. Christians felt safer when Saddam was in charge because, genocidal murderer that he was, he was not interested in enforcing Sharia provisions of dhimmitude. But people like Muqtada Al-Sadr are. From AP, with thanks to Nicolei:

BAGHDAD, IRAQ (AP) -- On a Sunday afternoon, attendance at mass at St. Peter and Paul's Cathedral in Baghdad was decidedly thin.

A handful of Syrian Orthodox loitered on the steps of the church afterward, women removing their dainty white lace veils as they chatted with friends. For many, church on Sunday is the only time they can really socialize because of safety fears.

Most Christians blame concern over a tumultuous security situation for keeping them away from church, but it's only a small part of a greater, and growing, predicament.

Numbering some 750,000, Christians are a minority here, and even as secular Iraqis worry about the growing tide of Islamic fundamentalism, so long repressed under Saddam Hussein, their Christian compatriots are feeling the effects closer to home. They're anxious about their place in the new world around them, one that often sees them as collaborators with their American occupiers.

The new Iraq seems destined to be dominated by a mix of Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites, leaving many Christians wondering if it is time to leave....

Eighteen-year-old Fadi, studying accounting at Baghdad's university, spoke of learning to hold his tongue when Muslim students turned on him and his Christian friends.

"They think that because the Americans are Christians and we're Christian that we must be collaborating with them," he said. "There's more of them than there are of us, so we have to pull back without answering back."

Christians who fled Iraq before the war are in neighboring Jordan and Syria, waiting and watching before deciding whether to return, said Bishop Andreas at the Assumption of the Virgin Mary Church.

"They're very afraid," he admitted.

Of the 750,000 Christians in Iraq, the majority are Chaldean Roman Catholic, the rest Syrian Catholic, Syrian Orthodox and Assyrian. Most live in Baghdad and its outskirts and some dwell further to the north.

Islamic radicals have warned Christians running liquor stores to shut down their sales, and have turned their sights on fashion stores and beauty salons. The increasing attention on this minority community has many within looking for a way out.

Local newspapers reported that last week, the Chaldean Patriarch, the Rev. Emmanuel Delly, met with Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and told him that Christians wanted to flee the country because they feared for their lives in the new Iraq.

Allawi's office wouldn't comment on the report and Delly reacted furiously when confronted with the question.

"How can you ask me a question like that? Do I ask you who you visit?" he raised his voice at a reporter, knocking down a tape recorder.

He later softened to say the visit was "merely to congratulate him and his new government and to wish him all the best." He told his diocese to stand firm.

"I tell them that we love our nation, and we will work for a better Iraq," he said, fingering a large silver crucifix around his neck. He said he didn't know anything about threats to Iraqi Christians and their livelihoods.

What else can he say?

Shaking the hands of the last worshippers to leave the Cathedral, Father John could only shake his head at the dwindling number of parishioners coming to Mass each week. He said that while Saddam Hussein dragged the country through "war after war," Christians felt safer when he was in charge.

"We have no future in Iraq now," he said.

Dr. Ajai Sahni in OutlookIndia (thanks to Fanabba) takes aim at the dhimmi analysts and academics who refuse to acknowledge the Pakistani jihad that is in front of their faces:

A "failure of imagination", the Panel investigating the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the US stated, was what kept US officials from understanding the Al Qaeda threat before the catastrophic events in New York and Washington.

There is, however, a manifest and abiding danger today, that a future investigation into terrorist plots that are yet to be accomplished would find another, even greater, 'failure of imagination', culminating in horrors that may easily dwarf the events of 9/11.

The 9/11 Panel has been sagacious in noting that the critical element that must be understood if an adequate response to global terrorism is to be crafted, is that "we are in the midst of an ideological conflict". The contemporary assessment of where precisely inimical ideologies are located will be crucial to the outcome of this conflict - and here, again, there is an evident error in the dominant American evaluation. It is, of course, the case that Osama bin Laden has been one of the most articulate representatives of this ideology, and his Al Qaeda one of its most effective manifestations. But there are many 'future bin Ladens' waiting in the wings, largely unnoticed, or systematically and intentionally ignored, by the American establishment, as well as by much of the world.

Among the most dangerous instances of this neglect occur in Pakistan....

There follow a series of lengthy and revealing statements about jihad from radical Muslim leaders in Pakistan and Kashmir.

Worse still, as has been repeatedly noted in the past, the extremist Islamist discourse on jehad, and shahadat (martyrdom) and the 'global conspiracy' against and threat to Islam is not the province of mullahs and militants alone, and has penetrated every aspect of the Pakistani educational system - and not, as is widely believed, just the extremist madrassahs.

It is useful to note that the examples drawn up in this assessment are a small selection of statements and writings in the past less than three months. A comprehensive archive of extremist discourse in this vein for the entire period since 9/11 would fill volumes, and would include innumerable statements by elements proximate to, or directly connected with, the Musharraf regime.

Some of these dangers have been acknowledged, for the pre-9/11 period under its review, by the 9/11 Panel. One writer notes that a cursory key word search of the Panel's report recovers "more than 200 references to Pakistan, many of them damning. There are less than 100 references to Iran and Iraq combined."

Nevertheless, ignorance persists at unacceptable levels. The international press and diplomatic community, largely located in protected and affluent enclaves, with their attention fixed firmly on the relatively moderate and westernized English language media, remain substantially uncomprehending of these dangerous undercurrents. Worse, denial remains integral to the mindset of many Western - and particularly US - observers. A mention of the 'dominant ideology of Pakistan' to a senior US diplomat posted in that country, for instance, drew a sharp response rejecting the idea that any such 'dominant ideology' could actually be identified.Such denial also characterizes the mainstream political discourse on the issue in India today, and constitutes a danger even greater than the direct threat of contemporary terrorism, creating vast spaces for the continuous consolidation of ideas that will breed much worse in the years to come.

A new story on the courageous American Muslim Asra Nomani, who is fighting for equality of dignity for women in a West Virginia mosque. She entered through the front door; they want to banish her altogether. Bull Connor couldn't have done it better. From the BBC, with thanks to Fanabba:

Indian Muslim Asra Nomani has found herself on the frontline of a battle for women's rights in Islam in the United States.

She entered the local mosque through the front door and dared to pray alongside men, an act that has triggered heated discussions among America's Muslim community.

An all-male "tribunal" of the mosque in Morgantown, West Virginia, wants to banish Ms Nomani because they think she is a frequent trouble-maker.

In their campaign to silence her, she has been depicted as heretical, misguided and westernized, someone in need of reform.

Who really needs reform here?

Here's one that will build your confidence in American counter-terrorism activities. From the New York Times, with thanks to Al-Canine:

WASHINGTON, July 28 - A classified Justice Department investigation has concluded that a former F.B.I. translator at the center of a growing controversy was dismissed in part because she accused the bureau of ineptitude, and it found that the F.B.I. did not aggressively investigate her claims of espionage against a co-worker.

The Justice Department's inspector general concluded that the allegations by the translator, Sibel Edmonds, "were at least a contributing factor in why the F.B.I. terminated her services," and the F.B.I. is considering disciplinary action against some employees as a result, Robert S. Mueller III, director of the bureau, said in a letter last week to lawmakers. A copy of the letter was obtained by The New York Times.

Ms. Edmonds worked as a contract linguist for the F.B.I. for about six months, translating material in Turkish, Persian and Azerbaijani. She was dismissed in 2002 after she complained repeatedly that bureau linguists had produced slipshod and incomplete translations of important terrorism intelligence before and after the Sept. 11 attacks. She also accused a fellow Turkish linguist in the bureau's Washington field office of blocking the translation of material involving acquaintances who had come under F.B.I. suspicion and said the bureau had allowed diplomatic sensitivities with other nations to impede the translation of important terrorism intelligence.

The Edmonds case has proved to be a growing concern to the F.B.I. because it touches on three potential vulnerabilities for the bureau: its ability to translate sensitive counterterrorism material, its treatment of internal "whistle-blowers," and its classification of sensitive material that critics say could be embarrassing to the bureau.

The Justice Department has imposed an unusually broad veil of secrecy on the Edmonds case, declaring details of her case to be a matter of "state secrets." The department has blocked her from testifying in a lawsuit brought by families of Sept. 11 victims, it has retroactively classified briefings Congressional officials were given in 2002, and it has classified the inspector general's entire report on its investigation into her case. As a result, groups promoting government openness have accused the Justice Department of abusing the federal procedures in place for classifying sensitive material....

The inspector general "also criticized the F.B.I.'s failure to adequately pursue Ms. Edmonds's allegations of espionage as they related to one of her colleagues," Mr. Mueller said in his letter.

Here's one that will build your confidence in our border controls. From the Brownsville Herald, with thanks to Al-Canine:

Middle Easterners with possible terrorist ties have been detained after entering the country from Mexico but released for lack of jail space, said U.S. Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness.

“It is true. It is very reliable information, from the horse’s mouth, and it’s happening all over the place,” Ortiz, D-Texas, told The Herald on Thursday.

“It’s very, very scary, and members (of Congress) know about this. We have contacted several agencies, and I have talked to some people, but I can’t say who.”

A horrific story from Qatar's Peninsula Online, with thanks to Raymond for the link:

Jammu: The women of Jammu and Kashmir are paying with their honour and lives as terrorists target the families of those who they feel have betrayed them.

Mariam Begum of Gandoh in Doda district was raped for days together before she was defaced by militants, who chopped off her nose and ears. She had to pay with her honour because her brother, a militant, had decided to lay down arms and live a normal life.

“How could that be?” Mariam’s captors reportedly asked her as long as she was in their captivity last month.

If Mariam, who is in her twenties, is thanking god that she survived to live another day, women in the border district of Rajouri have not been so lucky.

Teenaged Zarina, for whom her father Mohammad Shafi was looking for a match as girls in rural areas are married off at an early age, was lowered into a grave on Monday afternoon.

Her beheaded body had to be put together before the last rites. Militants had slit her throat.

Her father and brother were also buried in a similar condition the same day.

A week ago, two female members of Abdul Ghani’s family were among five people shot dead by Lashker-e-Toiba terrorists.

The fault of both these families was that their men were suspected of siding with the Indian security forces.

Women, in most cases, are raped, if not killed as the militants attempt to humiliate families suspected of working with the security forces.

“The women are targeted because this is the raw nerve of all the families and the militants have used rape as a tool against these families,” said a police officer....

Most cases of rape go unreported as shamed families keep matters to themselves, police said.

One unspoken element is the likelihood that he's too popular to be charged. And what does that tell you? This man has spoken openly about violent jihad, and defended the Bali bombings. From AP, with thanks to many:

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Indonesian police dropped plans Wednesday to charge a radical cleric in the 2002 Bali bombings, but said the man Washington accuses of being a terror mastermind in Southeast Asia will remain in jail.

The 65-year-old Abu Bakar Bashir will be charged with other crimes, including heading the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah terror group and a deadly suicide attack last year on Jakarta's J.W. Marriott Hotel, chief detective Suyitno Landung said. Jemaah Islamiyah was blamed for both attacks.

The announcement followed last week's landmark ruling by the Constitutional Court, which barred the retroactive use of an anti-terror law rushed through parliament after the Bali bombings. The explosions killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists....

Earlier this year, U.S. Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge said in Jakarta that Bashir had "intense and deep involvement in the planning and execution of terrorist activities." Australia's foreign minister called Bashir a "loathsome creature" and said he should remain behind bars.

His case is sensitive in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation. Authorities want to be aggressive in the U.S.-led anti-terror war while not being seen as subject to Washington's influence.

Via the Holy Land Foundation. From CBS11 News, with thanks to EPG:

The federal government's roundup Tuesday of seven Middle Eastern men on charges of funding the terrorist group Hamas yielded an unexpected disclosure: a link between Dallas City Hall and Hamas’ top leader in Israel’s occupied territories.

North Texas resident Mufid Abdulquader is a city of Dallas engineer who was among the men charged Tuesday in a 42-count indictment for allegedly using the Richardson-based Holy Land Foundation to funnel millions of dollars to Hamas terrorist operations. But Abdulquader, a Palestinian and naturalized U.S. citizen, has a connection to Hamas shared by none of the others.

Abdulquader’s Syrian-based half brother is a top leader of Hamas, ranking so high that he has been a target of high-profile Israeli assassinations that have killed other organization leaders in recent months. Abdulquader’s half-brother – they share the same father – is Khaled Mishaal, Hamas’ political bureau chief and U.S. designee as a global terrorist.

Until the government unsealed its indictment Tuesday, the family relationship between the city of Dallas engineer and Mishaal was known only to a few intelligence officials who had grown increasingly concerned about it as Hamas leaders began publicly threatening to target Americans.

Hamas has deployed dozens of suicide bombers who have killed hundreds of Israeli civilians in a quest to annihilate that country and replace it with an Islamic regime.

But recent threats by Hamas leadership to mount attacks on American soil provoked heightened fears within the FBI that the engineer could pass along sensitive information about the city’s vital infrastructure systems to terrorists, two sources have told CBS-11 News.

From the superb Cox and Forkum.

Watch for a column about this exact point from Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer, coming very soon -- maybe even tomorrow.

Is this story connected to the theological green light that was just issued? From AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A militant group holding two Pakistani contractors hostage said Wednesday it had killed the men but freed their Iraqi driver, the Al-Jazeera television station Al-Jazeera reported.

The group, calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq, had announced in a video Monday that it kidnapped two Pakistanis working for U.S. forces and sentenced them to death because their country was discussing sending troops to Iraq.

In a new videotape sent to Al-Jazeera on Wednesday, the men said they had carried out their threat, the station reported. The newsreader said the video showed the corpses of the two men; however, the station declined to show the footage.

The kidnapped men were identified by Pakistan as engineer Raja Azad, 49, and driver Sajad Naeem, 29, both of whom worked for the Kuwait-based al-Tamimi group in Baghdad. The militants also warned the company to stop doing business in Iraq or they would kill more of its employees.

A bid for freedom of conscience at the UN. You will be able to read documents related to this initiative in my forthcoming essay collection The Myth of Islamic Tolerance. From Reuters, with thanks to David G. Littman:

GENEVA, July 28 (Reuters) Religious rights campaigners, buoyed by a UN call for an end to repression of minorities by majority religions, today urged the world body to tackle persecution of ''apostates'' in Muslim countries.

The move came as humanist groups hailed the UN's 2004 Human Development Report for declaring that ''individuals must be free not only to criticise the religion into which they are born, but to reject it for another or to remain without one.'' The campaigners' appeal -- in the form of a petition signed by nearly 90,000 people in 32 countries, including present and former Muslims -- was delivered to new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour.

It said Muslim religious leaders and organisations should make a clear public call for reinterpretation of Islamic law ''so that Muslims who change their faith will not have to face intimidation, harassment, persecution or death as a result.'' The petition, launched by British-based Christian group The Barnabas Fund, called on the U.N. Human Rights Commission, governments and international bodies to speak out on the issue and raise it ''as a matter of urgency'' with Muslim groupings.

Fund advocacy manager Paul Cook -- who welcomed the UN report's ''very encouraging affirmation'' of the right to apostasy -- said his group's efforts to get dialogue going with Muslim bodies on the problem had so far met with silence.

I don't find any confirming stories, but here is one provocative report from Texas. From FederalNewsRadio.com, with thanks to Al-Canine:

A South African woman picked up in Texas almost 10 days ago may turn out to be a key, high level al-Qaida operative.

Her name is Farida Goolam Mohamed Ahmed. She was stopped at McAllen Miller International Airport on July 19th headed to New York.

Eddie Flores of the U.S. Border Patrol office in McAllen, Texas tells FederalNewsRadio.com that a review of her papers raised some concerns. "In looking at her documents, they did not find any entry documents in her passport where she was legally admitted into the United States," says Flores....

Government sources tell FederalNewsRadio.com that capturing this woman could be comparable to the arrest of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of 9/11. It was revealed in court yesterday that she was on a watch list and had entered the U.S. possibly as many as 250 times.

The Council on American Islamic Relations is demanding an apology from Jackie Mason and lots of other people for his remarks on radio the other night. From WND:

Comedian Jackie Mason raised the ire of a controversial Islamic lobby group by calling "the whole Muslim religion" a "murderous organization" that teaches "hate, terrorism and murder."

The remarks came when Mason hosted the Jim Bohannon Show, syndicated nationally by the Westwood One radio network. Mason was elaborating on a comment by his co-author, New York lawyer Raoul Felder, who said Islam "is a religion of hate, this is a religion of murder."

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, filed a complaint with the FCC and wants Westwood One to apologize.

Mason, according to CAIR, amplified on Felder's "bigotry."

"This is amazing information that almost nobody is aware of ... everyone thinks that it's a legitimate religion that preaches love and brotherhood," said Mason. "The truth of the matter is [that terrorists] are reflecting the religion and following the religion."

They are "following the orders of the religion directly from the Quran ... in plain English, the whole Muslim religion is preaching and teaching hate, terrorism and murder, and nobody knows it, and its about time they found out about it, " Mason said.

"The Quran ... is 50 versions of hate, venom, hostility, and murder ... dedicated to terrorism," he added. " ... I don't know how we can call it a religion in the traditional sense. It should be called a murderous organization that's out to kill people."

In a letter to Westwood One, CAIR demanded a public apology to the Muslim community and "an opportunity to refute Mason's Islamophobic smears."

The letter stated: "It is this type of hate-filled propaganda that was used by the Nazis as justification for their persecution of the Jewish community in Germany."

Now wait a minute. No it isn't. Mason didn't say anything (as far as I can tell) about Muslims. He was talking about Islam and the Qur'an. There is nothing in his remarks inconsistent with the fact that many Muslims are not murderous and hate-filled. Nor did Jackie Mason say anything like this: here is a real Nazi statement about Jews, spoken by Adolf Hitler himself in 1922:

If I am ever really in power, the destruction of the Jews will be my first and most important job. As soon as I have power, I shall have gallows after gallows erected, for example, in Munich on the Marienplatz-as many of them as traffic allows. Then the Jews will be hanged one after another, and they will stay hanging until they stink. They will stay hanging as long as hygienically possible. As soon as they are untied, then the next group will follow and that will continue until the last Jew in Munich is exterminated. Exactly the same procedure will be followed in other cities until Germany is cleansed of the last Jew! (quoted in John Toland, Adolf Hitler. London: Book Club Associates, 1977, p.116)

CAIR is operating in a pluralistic society. Instead of demanding apologies, they should show why Mason is wrong about Islam and the Qur'an. In a pluralistic society, everyone must tolerate not only those who disagree, but those who find one's beliefs ridiculous or appalling. In this environment, Christians and other groups tolerate constant attacks on their beliefs; most, instead of demanding apologies, publish responses. Readers may find them more or less convincing, and so goes the marketplace of ideas. If Ibrahim Hooper and CAIR cannot handle this, I wonder how deep their commitment is to secularism and pluralism.

Also: in 2002 on MSNBC, Ibrahim Hooper of CAIR called me a "hatemonger." This was false, slanderous, and designed to discredit me in the eyes of the American public, but I have never demanded an apology. Instead, I have responded in many ways, directly and indirectly. I have taken pains to emphasize that I am not condemning all Muslims, or saying that they are all terrorists (as is often falsely claimed). I am focusing on the elements of Islam that give rise to terrorism and fanaticism, and asking that they be reformed. I have on several occasions made it clear that "nuke 'em all" haters are not welcome to post on this site (although comments continue to be largely unmoderated). I have made it clear that the proper response to jihad terrorism is not unfocused hate, but a clear and dispassionate recognition of its causes, coupled with a carefully calibrated program of reform.

If Hooper himself gave a similarly reasoned response to Mason, and worked to eradicate from the American Muslim community the hate to which Mason referred, he would be doing a real service to America and its Muslims. As it is, CAIR continues to try to position itself as a civil rights organization defending those beleagured by racism, and their spin on this incident will convince many. But anyone who looks closer should see that it won't wash.

A bit of common sense somehow lodges at Harvard. From the New York Times, with thanks to Seymour Payne:

Harvard University is returning a controversial $2.5 million gift to its donor, the president of the United Arab Emirates.

Harvard said in a statement Monday that the president, Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, recently asked to withdraw the gift, which was to endow a chair in Islamic religious studies, before it was subjected to a formal deliberation this summer by the university.

Abdulla Alsaboosi, a spokesman at the United Arab Emirates Embassy in Washington, said negotiations between the university and Sheik Zayed's representatives had been going on for several months. "The negotiations were conducted in an atmosphere of cordiality and mutual respect," Mr. Alsaboosi said, "but in the end, since no decision was taken by the university, we felt regretfully that we had no option but to retract the gift."

Students and Jewish organizations had criticized the Harvard Divinity School for accepting the donation, which was made in 2000, because they objected to the sheik's support for a policy research organization, the Zayed International Center for Coordination and Follow-Up in Abu Dhabi, one of the seven states in the United Arab Emirates.

Speakers at the center had included an Arab scholar who has written that Jews use human blood to make pastries and a French author who claims that Israel masterminded the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 as well as American officials like former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Vice President Al Gore. It was closed last summer by the government of the United Arab Emirates, which said that the center had engaged in a discourse that "contradicted the principles of interfaith tolerance" espoused by Sheik Zayed.

You can say that again.

This is a declaration that those who aid unbelievers are themselves unbelievers, and can thus be killed. This is a well-attested principle in Islamic law. From the Jerusalem Post:

A lengthy audiotape purportedly by the spiritual adviser to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida-linked group justifies killing Muslims when their presence protects infidels and threatens revenge on Shiite Muslims.

The 74-minute tape, posted Wednesday on an Internet site that often carries statements from Islamic terrorists, identifies the speaker as Sheik Abu Anas al-Shami, spiritual leader for Tawhid and Jihad. His name often is cited in Islamic forums as a religious authority, but he was not known to have released such audiotapes.

"If infidels take Muslims as protectors and Muslims do not fight them, it is allowed to kill the Muslims," the speaker said, then gave an example.

"If there is an interest in killing a Turk, and if it is necessary - meaning that if targeting the infidels is impossible as long as the Turk exists - then killing the Turk serves an interest to all Muslims and his killing is allowed," he said.

Turks, Jordanians, Egyptians and other Muslims have been abducted, but thus far no Muslims are known to have been decapitated.

On extremist Islamic online forums, the accidental killing of Muslims who work for US coalition forces in Iraq has always been a controversial subject, but generally it has been considered justifiable.

Opinions have been more mixed on taking Muslims hostage and beheading them, with some saying "fellow Muslims" should be spared and others urging their killing as examples to others of the fate of those who are "allied with the devil."

Interesting: the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee is suing to stop bag searches around the convention in Boston. Now, why would they care? Is this an instance of anti-Arab discrimination? As far as I know everyone, Nordic, Far Eastern, whatever, is being searched. Here is a question of whether individual civil rights should trump public safety concerns.

So tell me: when you saw those videos of the 9/11 hijackers passing through airport security, did you think they should have been searched more carefully? Or waved through for fear of anti-Arab discrimination?

From AP, with thanks to LGF:

BOSTON - Two civil rights groups filed a lawsuit in federal court to stop the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority from randomly inspecting passengers' bags, saying it's an unconstitutional violation of personal privacy.

A judge scheduled an emergency hearing for Tuesday in the case filed by the National Lawyers Guild and the American Anti-Discrimination Committee.

The random inspections began Thursday, just in time for the Democratic National Convention this week at Boston's FleetCenter. The policy is the first of its kind in the country.

The groups say the searches violate the Fourth Amendment because they don't require information that the person searched is suspected of criminal activity. They've urged customers not to consent to the searches.

"There is no way the MBTA can implement this policy in a constitutional manner," said National Lawyers Guild national president Michael Avery.

MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said the bags aren't opened. Instead, they are run through a machine that detects explosives. Pesaturo said so far no one has objected to having their bags inspected.

If they win this case, won't that stop bag searches in places like museums as well? Not long ago I was in Washington, and I saw that places such as the Smithsonian buildings and even parking garages inspect bags. (I took a break from work long enough to stop by the National Archives, where I was searched going in, but not going out. I guess I could have carried the Constitution home in my socks.)

Rant Wraith (thanks to LGF) has found some exceedingly interesting information about the Muslim imam who said a prayer during the Democratic National Convention last night.

He works at Georgetown, "the first American university to hire a full-time Muslim chaplain. He earned a B.A. degree in Islamic Law and Theology from the University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan. He's a Ph.D. Candidate in Islamic Theology at American Open University, Fall Church, VA."

What is the American Open University? The offical site is mostly (and quite conveniently) in Arabic. But this site has the university curriculum from the summer of 2000 as taught in Fresno, CA.

What do they teach you ask? My favorite lesson is titled, Secularism is Shirk in the Lordship of Allah. Here are some high points of the lesson (tauhid or tawhid is the unity of Allah; mushrik and shirk are Islamic terms for polytheism, a grave sin for Muslims - Christians are considered shirk because they "attribute partners to God" through the divinity of Christ and the Trinity; shirk equals unbelief and infidelism; emphasis in bold added):

Whoever calls the people (and/or himself) to the following and obedience of another law other than the shari'a is a disbeliever and a mushrik.

The scholars of Usool-ul-Fiqh have all agreed on the axiom that "None has the right to legislate but Allah."...

That would rule out human documents like, say, the U.S. Constitution, wouldn't it?

Rant Wraith concludes:

What the hell is the DNC thinking? Did they research this guy before they signed him up? Do they even care?

UPDATE: DNC's Imam Testified for Sami al-Arian -- search the page for "Yahya Hendi." (Thanks to Charles at LGF).

Walid Phares in FrontPage points out: "America was betrayed by academics who told us Islamic terrorism was no threat."

A few months ago, when the 9/11 Commission released footage of the communications between several command centers and the transportation network during the dramatic minutes of September 11, one phrase chilled me to the bones. It summarized how unprepared America was to face to the Jihadist onslaught. A pilot of an F-16 rushing to the scene over the Pentagon screamed on his radio: "God, the Russians had us...they had us."

Since the end of the 1990s, Americans, were subjected to a campaign of intellectual subversion. The Jihadist factor, although identified by U.S. intelligence agencies as the driving force behind terrorism throughout the past decade, didn't make it into the national psyche. Hence, this American jet pilot automatically blamed "Russians," even 11 years after the end of the Cold War....

When an FBI agent rushed to her supervisors to inform them that "Saudi men" were learning to fly but not land airplanes, no one lifted a finger. Agents were told that CIA analysts were receiving cable after cable indicating that Jihadist elements were mounting operations against the mainland, and possibly planning to use planes. But the agency's political bosses had not produced guidelines to help the analysts properly recognize the terrorist threat. In 1998, bin Laden himself declared war against infidel America. The White House did not hear and Congress did not see. Back in 1994, a former CNN journalist, now an MSNBC Terrorism analyst, Steven Emerson, filmed Jihad preachers in New York calling for violence and showed it to the nation. Not only was there no response, but Wahhabi political factions began systematically lobbying against a crackdown. Worse, all experts who attempted to warn America were suppressed by Arabist-Islamist factions. The Wahhabi Lobby claimed that, "warning from the Jihad threat was a cover for pro-Zionist propaganda to advance Israel's interests!" Overall, the American public was denied every single opportunity to be educated.

Americans have a great imagination. What the U.S. lacked was a basic education about Jihadist terror, the worse enemy we have met, the enemy who visited destruction upon New York and Washington in 2001. The pilot that morning embodied the state of America’s education about radical Islam and terrorism, not the state of our imagination. Some academic elites had insisted that after the Soviet Union collapsed, the West had no real enemies. Hence, the last foe the pilot knew was Russia. Don't blame him for what he said when he saw the smoke over the capital and Manhattan. He, along with millions of Americans, was told for a whole decade that Islamic Fundamentalism isn't a threat. Al-Qaeda was attacking us from one side, and our educators were failing us from the other.

Muhammad Qutb was freed, according to this, because he was a Muslim. From the New York Times:

BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 27 - In the end, Muhammad Mamdouh Qutb figures it was his captors' remorse that led to his freedom.

Yes, they roughed him up and bundled him into a car, took him hostage for four days and told the world they would kill him. But then, said Mr. Qutb, an Egyptian diplomat, it dawned on them that he was far from an ideal target: he prayed five times a day, he fasted, and as they learned from a television report, he was known for teaching the Koran to children at the neighborhood mosque.

It did not hurt, Mr. Qutb added, that his captors, who called themselves the Lions of Allah Brigade and snatched him as he came out of a local mosque on Thursday night, had accomplished their mission without killing him. Taking him hostage and airing their demands on television was a cheap, efficient way to make their grievances known.

Judging from their accents, he said, he believed that his captors were all Iraqi. Their goal, he gathered, was to impress upon Egypt that the price of aiding the new Iraqi administration would be steep.

"They wanted to send a message to the Egyptian government," Mr. Qutb said during an interview on Tuesday inside the Egyptian Embassy. "They did that through the media."

It would seem that the US VISIT program, which checks only people from selected countries, would be rendered useless by stories like this. From AP:

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Al-Qaida militants and other terrorists traveling through Europe have obtained South African passports, and authorities believe they got them from crime syndicates operating inside the government agency that issues the documents.

The illicit acquisition of the passports, which allow travel through many African countries and Britain without visas, sent shock waves through South Africa after one top police official said "boxes and boxes" of the documents were discovered in London.

Barry Gilder, director general of the Department of Home Affairs, told The Associated Press he has come across a number of instances in which South African passports were found in the hands of al-Qaida suspects or their associates in Europe — both in his current capacity and as a former deputy director in the National Intelligence Agency.

Another terror charity. And note: Hamas got $12.4 million from this one source alone. Remember that the next time you hear about desperately poor Palestinians having to blow themselves up on buses because they have no money to buy weapons and wage conventional warfare. From AP:

WASHINGTON - A major American Muslim charity and seven of its officers were charged Tuesday with providing millions of dollars in support to Hamas, a Palestinian terrorist organization blamed for dozens of suicide bomber attacks in Israel.

The 42-count indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in Dallas, alleges that the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development provided more than $12.4 million to individuals and organizations linked to Hamas from 1995 to 2001. The U.S. government froze the charity's assets in December 2001.

The indictment names the foundation along with its president, Shukri Abu Baker; chairman, Ghassan Elashi; executive director, Haitham Maghawri; and four others. The charges include conspiracy, providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, tax evasion and money laundering.

Elashi, remember, is a former CAIR official.

At the time of the transfer of sovereignty, I said here that that transfer would change nothing: the mujahedin, the warriors of jihad, would still labor to transform Iraq into an Islamic state. From the Sydney Morning Herald, with thanks to Nicolei:

Gunmen assassinated a senior Iraqi Interior Ministry official and two of his bodyguards in Baghdad yesterday, a ministry source said.

Mussab al-Awadi was reported to have been killed along with two of his bodyguards as he left his house in the capital.

Earlier three people, including a child, were killed and seven others wounded in a suicide bombing outside the main US military base in the northern city of Mosul, the US military said....

Also yesterday, militants calling themselves the Mujahideen Corps kidnapped two Jordanian drivers and threatened to execute them in 72 hours unless their Jordanian company stopped doing business with the US military, Associated Press reported. It follows an announcement by a group holding seven other foreigners that it had extended the deadline for talks and repeated a demand for their Kuwaiti employer to leave.

The hostages - three Indians, three Kenyans and an Egyptian, all truck drivers for a Kuwaiti firm - were seized last week by a little-known group calling itself the Black Banners brigade of the Islamic Secret Army. The brigade said it had decided to extend the deadline in response to an appeal from Sheik Hisham al-Dulami, the head of what he calls the Detainees Association.

The firm, the Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Company, said on Sunday it had received assurances the captives would be freed.

An Iraqi group, the Islamic Army, said in a video aired on Al-Jazeera television that it had kidnapped two Pakistanis working for US forces and an Iraqi contract driver. It said it had sentenced the Pakistanis to death.

A report from a Muslim, Naeem Mohaiemen, in the Daily Star (thanks to Nicolei):

On July 15, Human Rights Watch issued a report on the condition of Foreign workers in Saudi Arabia. The revelation that "Guest Workers" are systematically abused in Saudi Arabia should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with that region's history. What a shame that it took Sarah Whitson, executive director of HRW's Middle East and North Africa Division, to finally speak the unpalatable truth. "We found men and women in conditions resembling slavery," said Whitson in the press conference announcing their findings. The report described "the pervasive abuses foreign workers endure...the abysmal and exploitative labor conditions many workers face, and the utter failure of the justice system to provide redress." The real question is this -- why did the Islamic world not uncover these human rights abuses, so close to the holy city of Mecca?

Based on interviews taken in Bangladesh, India and the Philippines, HRW found abysmal and exploitative labor practices, wanton rape of women workers, and beheading of guest workers accused of crimes without proper legal process. Anyone who has visited Saudi Arabia knows the racism with which ordinary Saudis treats the brown and black-skinned masses that come for Hajj. Like hundreds of Bangladeshis every year, my parents endured these indignities during their recent pilgrimage. When he returned from Mecca, my father told me, "To them, we will always be miskeen (beggar). Doesn't matter what we do, or where we come from. They see our skin and don't need to see more." If this is how pilgrims are treated, imagine how much worse is the plight of the "Guest Worker." Yet, we Muslims remain silent on these abuses -- after all the Saudis are the keepers of Islam's holiest site, so they cannot possibly be racist!

How appropriate as well that HRW used the phrase "slavery" to describe conditions inside the desert kingdom. Saudi Arabia was in fact one of the last nation-states to abolish slavery. Along with Yemen, the Saudis only abolished slavery in 1962. Prior to that, the Islamic world's experience with slavery was extremely problematic. Muslims once led the rest of the world in science, culture and human emancipation. The positive examples are numerous and often-repeated. However, the advances brought about in the early days of the Islamic Caliphate ossified, with very little innovation or re-interpretation in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries....

The Muslim world is sliding backwards into medievalism, and it is time for reformers to speak openly and bravely. There is a cancer that is eating away at our soul -- a disease marked by paranoia, double standards and virulent racism. While we are in full-throated cry against abuses in Iraq and Palestine, we stay completely silent when it is Muslims who are the abusers (of both non-Muslims and Muslims).

How else to explain our outpouring of sympathy for the Bosnian genocide, but our complete silence on the ongoing genocide in Sudan? In that country's civil war between the Arab Muslim North, and the black Christian and Animist South, 2 million people have been killed to date. In a BBC profile of the hundreds of black Africans who have been raped by pro-government Janjaweed Arab militia, one victim described the attackers: "They called me Abeid (slave in Arabic)."

Shame on the Muslim world for staying silent!

Remember Reem Raiyshi? From CNN, :

A military official with the U.S. Central Command tells CNN that in one case after an attack, troops found a body with a foot tied with a rope inside a vehicle.

The official says there also is evidence of some individuals having their entire family held by extremists who then force them into suicide car bomb attacks....

In other cases, mentioned by the official, extremists with remote detonators have followed drivers to set off car bombs.

The official also said in one instance, U.S. forces went to a house and captured extremists holding a family hostage until a bombing mission was completed.

U.S. military officials say they have noticed another tactic, to use so-called "weekend jihadists."

This generally refers to using young men from neighboring countries who come to Iraq, and have no money. Then they are pressured into conducting attacks.

More rage and threats at Turkey, despised by the radical Muslims for its secularism. From AFX, :

ANKARA (AFX) - Turkey has received intelligence that the al-Qaeda network may try to carry out attacks in the country similar to the Sept 11, 2001 attacks in the US, the Milliyet newspaper reported.

Citing "an important source" the newspaper said Turkey received information on July 16 that Al-Qaeda may be planning to either hijack a plane and crash it into a target on the ground, or blow up a plane in the air using homemade explosives.

Milliyet said the interior ministry convened an urgent meeting of security and air authorities last week and ordered security measures at airports be raised to "level yellow", the highest state of alarm after the top "level red".

Back in the days of the Cold War, the doctrine of "Mutually Assured Destruction" was purported to have kept both sides from launching a nuclear attack on the other. But the problem with the "Islamic Bomb" is that those who will wish to launch it will not be given pause by the prospect of their own destruction: they will be martyrs for Allah, enjoying the sensual bounties of Paradise. From Al-Bawaba, :

Intelligence Chief Major-General Aharon Ze'evi-Farkash said the Iranian-backed resistance movement had a few dozen rockets "apparently" with a range of 115 kilometers and perhaps as great as 200 kilometers....

Farkash's comments were published as a spokesman for Iran's Revolutionary Guards was quoted as saying the Islamic Republic will wipe Israel "off the face of the earth" if it dared to attack the its nuclear facilities.

"The United States is showing off by threatening to use its wild dog, Israel," the public relations head of the Revolutionary Guards, Commander Seyed Masood Jazayeri, was quoted as saying by the Iranian student news agency ISNA.

"They will not hesitate to strike Iran if they are capable of it. However, their threats to attack Irans nuclear facilities cannot be realised. They are aware Tehran's reaction will be so harsh that Israel will be wiped off the face of the earth and US interests will be easily damaged," he warned.

Of all places. From Daniel Pipes at FrontPage:

Finally, an official body of the U.S. government has come out and said what needs to be said: that the enemy is “Islamist terrorism … not just ‘terrorism,’ some generic evil.” The 9/11 commission in its final report even declares that Islamist terrorism is the “catastrophic threat” facing the United States.

As Thomas Donnelly points out in the New York Sun, the commission has called the enemy “by its true name, something that politically correct Americans have trouble facing.”

Why does it matter that the Islamist dimension of terrorism must be specified? Simple. Just as a physician must identify a disease to treat it, so a strategist must name an enemy to defeat it. The great failing in the U.S. war effort since September 2001 has been the reluctance to name the enemy. So long as the anodyne, euphemistic, and inaccurate term “war on terror” remains the official nomenclature, that war will not be won.

Better is to call it a “war on Islamist terrorism.” Better yet would be “war on Islamism,” looking beyond terror to the totalitarian ideology that lies behind it.

Significantly, the same day that the 9/11 report was published, July 22, President George W. Bush for the first time used the term “Islamic militants” in a speech, bringing him closer than ever before to pointing to the Islamist threat.

The report of the “National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States” has other good value. It paints an accurate picture of Islamist views, describing these as a “hostility toward us and our values [that] is limitless.” Equally useful is the description of the Islamist goal being “to rid the world of religious and political pluralism.”

In contrast to those analysts who wishfully dismiss the Islamists as a few fanatics, the 9/11 commission acknowledges their true importance, noting that bin Laden’s message “has attracted active support from thousands of disaffected young Muslims and resonates powerfully with a far larger number who do not actively support his methods.” The Islamist outlook represents not a hijacking of Islam, as is often but wrongly claimed; rather it emerges from a “long tradition of extreme intolerance” within Islam, one going back centuries and in recent times associated with Wahhabism, the Muslim Brethren, and the Egyptian writer Sayyid Qutb....

Wow. Sounds like those Commission guys have been reading my books.

The great pioneering scholar of dhimmitude, Bat Ye'or, many of whose most important essays will appear in my forthcoming collection The Myth of Islamic Tolerance, has a critically important essay on the state of Europe today at FrontPage:

Last Tuesday, the 25 nations of the European Union (EU) voted unanimously to support a United Nations Resolution condemning Israel’s defensive fence (ignoring that this barrier was constructed to keep jihadist murderers from entering the nation via Judea and Samaria). The EU’s craven, morally bankrupt stance was sadly consistent with Eurabian policies evident now for three decades. In fact, the EU has been completing a slow metamorphasis into the "Christian" arm of the Pan-Arab world, different in religious observation (or lack of same) but united in its views of Israel and America....

Prompted by fears of Khomeini's Shi’ite theocracy in Iran, international Arab terrorism and the rise of oil prices, the EC adopted the 1980 Venice Declaration. This declaration made clear that the EC, under French leadership, had adopted Pan-Arab conditions regarding Israel without qualification, including: the 1949 armistice as Israel’s legitimate borders; Arab sovereignty over East Jerusalem; an Arab Palestinian state; the recognition of the PLO as the sole representative of the Palestinians, as well as its participation in all negotiations, and the obligation of Israel to negotiate with Arafat, exclusively; and the refusal to recognize a separate peace between Israel and any Arab country, for the resolution of the "Palestinian problem." By adopting all those conditions (which contradicted UN Resolution 242) Europeans could in turn justify their ahistorical designation of Judea and Samaria as occupied Arab land. Ultimately, the entire European effort to delegitimize and vilify Israel hinges upon this inaccurate, disingenuous formulation. In the 1970s and 80s, the Communist bloc and the burgeoning Euro-Arab alliance granted international legitimacy to the denial of Israel’s rights by the PLO. France, and to a lesser extent Germany, directed the entire European Community foreign policy in accord with Arab-Islamic sentiments. A careful reading of the Venice Declaration (1980), the Fez Islamic Conference (1980), the Amman Arab Summit (1980), and the Taif-Mecca Islamic Summit (1981) reveals the similarities between the European and Arab positions in relation to Israel. Europe’s modified wording is just a fig-leaf....

Beyond a fleeting awareness, the overwhelming majority of Europeans and Americans do not understand the new Eurabian entity, which only the first step in a steady progression toward its Arabization and Islamization. Europe has evolved from a Judeo-Christian civilization, with important post-Enlightenment/secular elements, to a "civilization of dhimmitude," i.e., Eurabia: a secular-Muslim transitional society with its traditional Judeo-Christian mores rapidly disappearing....

Most recently, this program of Euro-Arab symbiosis has been codified in a detailed report entitled, “Dialogue between Peoples and Cultures in the Euro-Mediterranean Area.” Released last October, this report (whose contributors included Umberto Eco and Tariq Ramadan) was to establish complete interdependence between Europe and the Arab-Muslim world. Romano Prodi, President of the European Commission, established the High-Level Advisory Group which stated the aims, policies, and routine functions of the foundation. The Advisory Group mandated that the foundation have complete financial and administrative independence in managing its budget and in choosing its partners. In support of this remarkable request, the Advisory Group argued that the foundation needed considerable resources to cover its activities that would be extraordinarily expensive, as they will encompass all the countries of the EU. The Advisory Group further justified such conditions by invoking its lofty aim, which “is nothing less than peace itself.” And this “peace” -- accomplished through “brotherly love” and “dialogue” between the North and the South of the Mediterranean -- will be achieved by a total economic, political, and cultural fusion....

One can choose to ignore it, but Eurabia is a tangible entity. Eurabia has a discernible historical development, and its functionaries are now well entrenched in each European parliament, and at the head of the European Commission. Often Javier Solana merely parrots the Arab League's Amr Moussa, or the Palestinian Authority's Yasser Arafat. Hence Solana's parrots the pan-Arab refrain that no reforms can be achieved in any Muslim country before the settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict, reiterating the same fatuous statements made by Amr Moussa. The EU continues to proclaim that all negotiations must be conducted with Arafat alone and that the Middle East conflict is at the center of world politics. Those two assertions were repeated endlessly at the Fez, Amman, and Taif Summits (1980-81). The EU’s unlimited funds finance anti-Israeli and anti-American campaigns, as well as the "dialogue" industry. Regarding Israel in particular, it appears as if the EU has become the obsequious mouthpiece of the Arab League.

This Eurabian ethos operates at all levels of European society. Its countless functionaries, like the Christian janissary slave-soldiers of past Islamic regimes, advance a jihadist world strategy. Eurabia cannot change direction; it can only use deception to mask its emergence, its bias and its inevitable trajectory. Eurabia’s destiny was sealed when it decided, willingly, to become a covert partner with the Arab global jihad against America and Israel. Americans must discuss the tragic development of Eurabia, and its profound implications for the United States, particularly in terms of its resultant foreign policy realities. Americans should consider the despair and confusion of many Europeans, prisoners of a Eurabian totalitarianism that foments a culture of deadly lies about Western civilization. Americans should know that this self-destructive calamity did not just happen, rather it was the result of deliberate policies, executed and monitored by ostensibly responsible people. Finally, Americans should understand that Eurabia’s contemporary anti-Zionism and anti-Americanism are the spiritual heirs of 1930s Nazism and anti-Semitism, triumphally resurgent.

Read it all.

What pains were taken to make sure that these people do not hold to radical Islamic views? What is the extent of Wahhabi and/or Deobandi and/or Shi'te Iranian presence in Krasnodar? What efforts have been made to make sure that none of these 7,000 have any attachment to Sharia or violent jihad? Political correctness keeps these questions from even being asked, let alone answered. This story will be forgotten in a few days, and that will be that. But all it would take would be one -- or nineteen -- of these 7,000 to make sure it will be remembered forever. From IslamOnline, with thanks to Sparta:

KRASNODAR, Russia, July 24, (IslamOnline.net) - The United States has agreed to grant citizenship to 7,000 Ahiska Muslims who will be settled in Pennsylvania, reported a Russian newspaper on Friday, July 23.

The first 11-strong batch of the Ahiska Muslims, living in the Russian province of Krasnodar, left for Geneva on Thursday, July 22, before flying to Philadelphia, reported Novie Izvestia.

It added that the Muslims would be housed near the grand mosque in Philadelphia.

The paper recalled that Krasnodar governor Alexander Tkachev was notified of the American decision on February 15.

Izvestia said the Russian government does not treat Ahiska Muslims as citizens and has not therefore given them passports or IDs.

An official in Krasnodar administration had told Interfax on Tuesday, July 20, that of the 11,999 Ahiska Muslims living in the region, 4,943 have received Russian citizenship and 744 have embarked on Russian naturalization procedures.

He added that more than 5,000 others have expressed a desire to emigrate to the United States.

Earlier, Chingiz Neiman-zade, chairman of Vatan, a Meskheti Turks association based in Georgia, said the United States had offered to accept the Ahiska Muslims living in Krasnodar as immigrants.

"On February 16, the International Migration Organization began an information program in Krasnodar to explain the terms for the resettlement of the Ahiska Muslims in the U.S.," he told Chicago Tribune on Thursday, July 22.

"The immigrants will be provided with housing and furniture, they will be helped to learn the English language and to complete formalities needed for residence in the US, which is especially important, and have been promised life-long welfare allowances for pensioners and the disabled."

Uzbekistan is reputed to be another beacon of Muslim moderation, but evidently that moderation doesn't extend to dhimmis who dare to proselytize. Question: if Islam is so certain of its superiority as the last and perfect revelation from the true God, correcting and abrogating all previous revelations, why is it so unsure of itself as not to allow competition in the marketplace of ideas? Why doesn't it have confidence that its superiority will shine forth by comparison with its competitors? Why is it so insecure that it must instead silence those competitors by force? From the Barnabas Fund:

Baptists in Urgench in the north-western Uzbek region of Khorezm face interrogations and abuse from authorities who are cracking down on Protestant Christians in what appears to be an attempt to halt the spread of Christianity in this Muslim majority ex-Soviet republic. At least two Baptist Christians have recently been interrogated by the Uzbek secret police, known as the NSS. Both had been intimidated and threatened with long prison sentences, reportedly in an attempt to ascertain the extent and nature of their links with western missions organisations.

According to Forum 18, on 25 June NSS Officer Alisher Khasanov is alleged to have said to one, a Christian woman named Sharovat Allamova, "You Protestants rely on western money. The humanitarian western missions who support you are basically espionage organisations. So you yourselves are agents for foreign intelligence services." On June 26 another Christian, Dilshod Dilbaev, was called in by Khasanov for interrogation about his links with missions organisations. Forum 18 reports that Dilbaev was hit by the NSS who also threatened to plant drugs on him.

Yes, this is the same Sheikh Qaradawi who made a big splash in London recently, praising suicide bombers and getting a return invitation from London mayor "Red Ken" Livingstone. This is, yes, the same Qaradawi who was featured prominently in the Arabic-language literature of a Boston mosque construction project -- but was conspicuously absent from the English-language material. And yes, this is the same Qaradawi who was praised as a moderate by Islamic "expert" John Esposito. From MEMRI:

However, on July 13, 2004, on his weekly program on Al-Jazeera television, 'Shari'a [Islamic Law] and Life,' Al-Qaradhawi explained his objections to including Jews in the May 2004 Conference of Islamic-Christian Dialogue in Doha. [3] Accusing "the Jews" of permitting the spilling of Arab blood and of being oppressors, Al-Qaradhawi concluded, "There is no dialogue between us except by the sword and the rifle..." [4]

The following are two columns from the Arab press about Al-Qaradhawi:

Former Editor of Leading Arab Paper: 'When it Comes to Political Matters, Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi Represents the Utmost Degree of Extremism'

In an op-ed titled 'Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi: Liberal or Extremist?' the former editor of the London Arabic-language daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Abd Al-Rahman Al-Rashed, discussed the discrepancies in the positions expressed by Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi on his current visit to London and those expressed on his website and other venues: [5]

"There has been an uproar in the British papers because of the decision to allow Sheikh Dr. Yousef Al-Qaradhawi to enter Britain, and they have described him as 'The Mufti of Terrorism' and 'The Propagandist of Extremism.' They have demanded that the government stop him [from entering Britain] as did the U.S.

"Now, what is the truth: Is Al-Qaradhawi an extremist? The truth is that with regard to [internal] social problems, he is regarded as one of the most liberal ulama [i.e., Muslim religious scholars]. However, when we are talking about general political matters, he turns into a different kind of mufti, and his record is well known.

"Perhaps the fact that his name is connected to the Muslim Brotherhood organization has made him look on the world from the viewpoint of the party [i.e., the Muslim Brotherhood] rather than from the reality of the Islamic nation, its capabilities, and its needs. One can say about him what the Saudi minister for Islamic affairs said about some of the propagandists and mosque preachers - namely, that they incite the youth to go out to fight while they do not leave their countries and do not allow their own children to do so."

'Al-Qaradhawi, May Allah Forgive Him, Has Been One of the Most Prominent to Call for War and Confrontation'

"Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi, may Allah forgive him, has been one of the most prominent speakers calling for war and confrontation. But he himself has continued to live in Qatar, in an air-conditioned house. I heard what Al-Qaradhawi said in his own defense against the attack by the London press, denying that he is inciting [and claiming] that he is conducting a dialogue, and that he is against violence and in favor of peace."

'What He Said in London is Not Consistent with His Words in Doha'

"However, what he said in London is not consistent with his words in [the Qatari capital] Doha, which you can all read in their totality, as they are documented on his website. Two weeks ago, he announced on his program ['Sharia and Life'on Al-Jazeera] that he is against the Jews and against conducting a dialogue with them, and that they are all iniquitous. [6] The following are his words: 'The iniquity of the Jews, as a community, is obvious and apparent. Let me explain: The West, I can say about some of them [i.e., Westerners] who are iniquitous, and others who are not iniquitous. And it is possible. But iniquity on the part of the Jews is great iniquity, grave iniquity, iniquity that is incomparable and overt. Therefore, when it was suggested to me that Jews would be participating in the dialogue in the upcoming interview, I rejected this. I said no, we should not conduct a dialogue with these [people] while their hands are stained with our blood.' [7]

And how exactly would this change the way the Saudis and Pakistanis have already been operating? From the Washington Times, with thanks to chrisb:

The threat of Islamist extremists taking over Pakistan or Saudi Arabia is real and could "fundamentally change the balance of security in the world," September 11 commission member John F. Lehman said yesterday.

How the United States treats the delicate balance of pro-American governments and radical Muslim forces in those two nations is critical to the success of U.S. strategy on terrorism, Mr. Lehman said during a meeting with reporters at The Washington Times.

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia "are not our enemies," he said. "If they are to fall into our enemies' hands, it would fundamentally change the balance and have enormous impact on our economy."

Kuwait also plans to try to keep the young from being misled by jihad ideology. I hope to see how they will explain the jihad verses in the Qur'an and Hadith. From AFP:

KUWAIT said today it was questioning 11 people in connection with an alleged campaign to recruit volunteers to fight US forces in Iraq and that some had confessed to undergoing military training.

"Eleven people have been referred to the prosecution for investigation of their role in ... enlisting youth for so-called jihad (holy war) in Iraq," Interior Minister Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmed al-Jaber al-Sabah said....

Sheikh Nawaf said some of the suspects were teenagers who had apparently been "brainwashed" with extremist ideas....

At its weekly meeting today, the Kuwaiti Cabinet discussed measures to protect young people from the "dangerous ideas propagated by some extremists".

The drive to prevent youngsters from being misled would be co-ordinated by several ministries, including those of the interior, social affairs and Islamic affairs, Deputy Premier and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Mohammed Deifallah Sharar said.

From the Globe and Mail, with thanks to Mentat:

The author also has a chilling message for the rest of us. Despite official protestations, she says, the vast majority of Saudis support Osama's extremist world-view. "Osama bin Laden is considered a true Muslim. They don't have any doubt about that," she says in a husky, French-accented voice. The Saudis, she maintains, are essentially Taliban with money.

Ms. bin Ladin, who is half Swiss and half Iranian, was married for 14 years to Yeslam bin Ladin, the 10th son of the family patriarch, Sheik Mohamed. Osama is Yeslam's younger brother. Ms. bin Ladin lived in the Kingdom with the extended bin Laden clan from 1976 to 1985. Today, she lives in Switzerland, where she's still in a bitter, protracted divorce battle with Yeslam. The family have cut off all contact. "I know they're not very happy about the book," she says. "But they know it's true."

The book's a scorcher, not for its fleeting glimpses of Osama (who recoiled in horror when she once answered the door unveiled), but for its depiction of the utter oppression and submissiveness of Saudi women and the dysfunction of the elites. While Saudi princes rake off billions in business kickbacks, their neglected and depressed wives abuse drugs, drown their sorrows in extravagant shopping sprees, and turn to lesbian affairs for comfort. Many of them have bone density problems because they never go outside or exercise. When their husbands divorce them, they may never see their children again.

The bin Laden women "did nothing, read nothing, and were like pets kept by their husbands," she writes....

She is deeply pessimistic that Saudi society is capable of reform. "I have never seen Saudis questioning their culture and principles." And that's bad news for the rest of us.

"When Osama dies, I fear there will be a thousand men to take his place," she writes. "The ground of Saudi Arabia is fertile soil for intolerance and arrogance, and for contempt toward outsiders. It is a country where there is no room for mildness, mercy, compassion or doubt. . . . Their way has been chosen by God.

"They are eager to understand our technology, and they understand our political systems. But inside them, there is nothing but scorn for what they perceive as the godless, individualistic values and shameless freedoms of the Western way of life."

American law students are drafting Sharia code for the Maldives. From Daniel Pipes at FrontPage, with thanks to DC Watson:

Today, July 26, 2004, is the day any of you who are students at the University of Pennsylvania Law School must get in your resumé and a grade sheet if you want to participate in the newly-announced seminar on "Islamic Criminal Law: Drafting a Criminal Code for the Maldives."

The law school's registrar, Gloria Watts, sent out a notice informing students of changes in the fall semester's course offerings, as first noted at LittleGreenFootballs.com. One of the them is that Paul H. Robinson, Colin S. Diver Distinguished Professor of Law, cancelled his "Criminal Law Theory Seminar" and replaced it with the three-credit Maldive project. Robinson's course description explains the reasons for the shift in the seminar's topic and its urgency:

The seminar will revolve around a single project: drafting a new criminal code for the Maldives. The work has been requested by the Maldivian government and is sponsored by the United Nations Development Program. Because the Maldives is by constitutional mandate an Islamic nation and, as a matter of law, all citizens are Muslim, the code will be the world's first criminal code of modern format that is based upon the principles of Shari'a.

After studying the existing Maldivian criminal law statutes and the criminal law principles contained in Shari'a, student teams will propose criminal code provisions and critique the proposals of others.

Selected students will have the opportunity to travel to the Maldives as part of the U.N. mission to coordinate the criminal code drafting work. (The Maldives is a nation of 1200 islands in the Indian Ocean that has for centuries been a transit point between Africa, the Middle East, and Asia and continues to have strong cultural connections to all three.)

More moderation for non-Muslims from moderate Muslim Malaysia. Non-Muslims can't even throw their non-halal food wrappings into the school's garbage cans. Got to keep them clean, don't you know. From Malaysiakini, with thanks to Nicolei:

Parents are fuming over a letter from a Kuala Lumpur primary school headmaster directing non-Muslim pupils not to bring non-halal food to school.

Parents who received the letter had called Zainal Abidin Senapi, headmaster of Sekolah Kebangsaan Seri Mega to complain and seek clarification on its contents.

Zainal's letter dated July 14 sent to parents and guardians of students read: "Please be informed that non-Muslim students are altogether forbidden from bringing non-halal food to school, forbidden from using canteen utensils, for example forks and spoons, and from throwing rubbish into rubbish bins."

In the letter made available to malaysiakini, the headmaster also wrote that the matter must be viewed seriously in order to respect Islam as the official religion of the country and to respect the school's canteen operator.

Lenin boasted that the capitalists would sell the Communists the rope they would use to hang the sellers. Dhimmi Spain, meanwhile, having already capitulated to the jihadists in Iraq, is now selling arms to their brother jihadists in Sudan. I wonder if any of these very same weapons will one day be used to topple the Madrid government and reestablish the glorious Al-Andalus. From Expatica, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

BARCELONA - Amnesty International and Greenpeace condemned the Spanish government Friday for exporting arms to war-torn Sudan despite a European Union ban.

The civil rights and ecological groups said Spain was selling light arms and munitions to the Sudanese government, according to an investigation by researchers from the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

The claims came as the US government called on the Sudanese government Friday to prosecute the predominantly Araba Janjaweed militia who are attacking defenceless civilians in the Darfur province....

Amnesty and Greenpeace said Spain was breaking a weapons embargo imposed by the EU in 1994 and renewed in January last year....

Amnesty and Greenpeace claimed Inland Revenue records between February 2003 and January this year showed Spain exported EUR 8,000 worth of small arms and munitions to Sudan, breaking the EU human rights embargo.

Both groups called on the Spanish government to accept responsibility for the sale of these arms and the breaking of the EU sanctions.

India is not an Islamic state, so this controversy is indicative of the way many Muslims perceive the relationship between the Sharia and the laws of the state. From the BBC, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

A conservative Muslim body in India has gone to the High Court to challenge the legal age of marriage, which currently stands at 18.

The All-India Muslim Personal Law Board insists that in family matters the country's Muslims should be subject only to Islamic law, known as Sharia.

It maintains that it is supported by a 1937 act upholding Muslims' right to be guided by this law.

The debate has arisen because of a family who have been threatened with arrest because they allowed the marriage of an under-age girl.

Fatima Mehjabin and her husband Muazzamil dote on their four year-old son, Fazal, along with his little brother and sister.

But the very basis for their marriage is now being questioned in court because when they were wed five years ago, Fatima was 17 - one year under the limit set by Indian civil law.

Creeper plants

Fatima says: "Muslim personal law says you can marry at 12, so I didn't see a problem with it. There are lots of bad things in society these days, so the sooner a girl gets married, the better." ...

But Muazzamil wants to legitimise his own marriage and let other Muslims follow suit, from the age of puberty.

He says: "The case we've been fighting so long has become a national issue. And, God willing, we will win it and Muslims all over India will be able to follow Sharia law."

Muhammad's Army is at the ready in Sudan: the tiny minority of extremists alerts worshippers at the central mosque in Khartoum. From CNN, :

Meanwhile a group calling itself Mohammed's army called on Muslims to prepare to fight Western forces sent on any mission to western Sudan....

In its warning of action against western forces, the previously unknown group said in a statement obtained by Reuters: "We have seen and heard of the American and British interference in Darfur and there is no doubt that this is a crusader war that bears no relation to the citizens of Darfur."

"We call upon you to speedily head towards Darfur and dig deep into the ground mass graves prepared for the crusader army," it added.

Witness said young Sudanese men were handing out the statements to worshippers at the central mosque in the capital, Khartoum.

This report on the jihad in Thailand considers and then downplays religion as a motivating factor in the violence. But to say that the Thai jihadists are not linked to Al-Qaeda, and that many Muslims there are not radicalized, or even that one of the TR Sports players dropped out of a madrassa, actually proves nothing at all about whether or not they were motivated by jihad ideology.

The underlying problem is that secular Westerners often cannot or will not understand religious motivations. They assume that if someone like Osama talks of religion, it is just a cloak for his real motivations, which must be ethnic or socioeconomic or something else. But this founders on the fact that people with ethnic and socioeconomic grievances have gone on for centuries without declaring jihad, and many have solved their problems through negotiation. Jihad is the element that inflames conflicts such that no negotiation is possible. Also, why did the great Islamic empires, which had no socioeconomic or ethnic grievances but were in fact the richest and most powerful polities in the world, nevertheless continue to wage jihads?

Just the other day I was reading an advance copy of Pat Buchanan's new book, in which he gets as far as to say that we should listen to what the jihadists are saying. Then he retails Osama's foreign policy grievances against the US, and says we should oblige him by withdrawing from Saudi Arabia, cutting support for Israel, etc. But why not listen to everything the jihadists say -- including their universalist, expansionist manifestos, declaring that they will fight until the whole world will be ruled by Sharia? Will those men be mollified by a new, Muslim-friendly American foreign policy? Mr. Buchanan, I doubt it. Just as I doubt that the Muslims in Southern Thailand will be satisfied by anything but an Islamic Sharia state there -- in which they will no doubt have the same (or worse) socioeconomic difficulties.

From the Observer, with thanks to Filtrat:

Fifty miles from the boot camp by the coast is Su So. The village, set on a ridge surrounded by forest, is dominated by the football ground's concrete grandstand. But few play football in Su So any more. The best side in the village was TR Sports, and all 19 of its players died when they launched a dawn attack on a police post in a nearby town on 28 April.

The men had machetes and knives, the police M-16s. The team's only survivor was the coach, Pittaiya. His brother, Kamaruddin, top scorer and captain, was killed. 'He was a normal man, a nice man, very quiet,' Pittaiya said last week. 'They were all normal men. I still can't understand how this happened.'

There are no clear explanations why more than 100 poorly armed villagers launched themselves against automatic weapons. Some blame religion, others 'outside influences' that convinced the men they were invulnerable. But what is clear is that the attack was part of a wider pattern that has brought the vicious little conflict in the south of Thailand, which has claimed 300 lives already this year, to a new level of intensity.

Last week two policemen, a school bus driver, a railway official and two village administrators were shot dead. One was Sawan Khaosee, who worked in Su So. When The Observer visited the village office, a few hundred yards from the football stadium, Khaosee's desk remained piled with the papers he had been working on in the hours before his death. Khaosee was a Buddhist, like nearly 95 per cent of Thais. The villagers of Su So, like most of the people in the three provinces where the violence has been concentrated, are Muslim.The fighting that has surged there is often, by outsiders at least, said to be based in religion.

Islam is a strong element. Ever since the Sultanate of Pattani, a local Islamic kingdom, was annexed by an expansionist Buddhist monarchy more than a century ago, some have fought central rule and called for a separate Islamic state. Revolts in the 1970s and early 1980s were put down with great brutality.

The most recent violence also has a strong religious flavour. On the day that TR Sports died, another group of men attacked a police post on the outskirts of the town of Pattani after praying at a historic mosque near by. According to Niseng Nilaeh, an eyewitness, the leader called on local people to join the battle to 'sacrifice themselves for God'. Later the police found a 30-page tract arguing that it was a religious obligation for Muslims to fight for the 'lost land' of the Pattani sultanate.

Religious radicalism has been growing in the south for several years. More conservative, intolerant styles of worship have been imported from the Middle East. Certainly, many of the TR Sports players had been educated in government-registered religious schools and at least two ran their own Islamic study groups. Some had studied in the 200 new medressas -independent Islamic colleges devoted purely to religion - that have sprung up in the past decade. There are some links to a Saudi-funded hardline religious college.

According to Rawsedee Lertariyapongkul, the president of the Association of Thai Muslim Youth, world events may have angered the footballers. 'People see what is happening in Palestine and Iraq and Kashmir and feel that Muslims are being treated very badly everywhere. They want to fight for justice,' he said.

But there is no real evidence of any link between the separatists and al-Qaeda or its local affiliates. And for every one of the TR Sports team who appeared devout, there are others who were not. The youngest in the side, 18-year-old Samit Suthonehh, had left a religious school three months earlier because he didn't like it. Four others had just completed their compulsory military service.

Nor did the players ever show any interest in, or knowledge of, international affairs. There is no satellite dish in Su So. 'The guys were never interested in religion or politics,' said Pittaiya. 'They just liked to play football. All their favourite players were from Brazil or England.'

Many say the problem is ethnic.The southern provinces are mainly Malay, not Thai.The assailants who decapitated a Buddhist monk in May left a note saying: 'If you continue to arrest innocent Muslims, we will kill innocent Buddhists.' But those who wounded two policemen last week threatened to 'kill innocent Thais' if 'innocent Malays' were harmed. 'That demonstrates how confused these issues are,' said one Thai intelligence expert.

Others point to socio economic factors. Thailand's economic growth has left the southern provinces trailing. Su So's village elders complain of a lack of electricity, public transport and water pumps. The government has launched major development plans - in Su So there is scheme helping women to stitch clothes for export - but many locals still feel they are treated as second-class citizens.The police are almost entirely Buddhist Thais and abuse human rights. Alleged activists, including a human rights lawyer, frequently 'disappear'. Witnesses, who did not want to be named, said that the young men of TR Sports were executed after surrendering. The 32 men attacked in Pattani appear to have been killed in cold blood.

The final complicating factor in the south is crime. Smuggling - of arms, people and drugs - generates hundreds of millions of dollars and penetrates every part of society, including the civil administration and security authorities. Much of the violence, including a recent bomb outside a bar, is likely to be connected to business disputes. No one knows exactly who looted a huge amount of explosive from a quarry or stole 380 automatic weapons from a barracks earlier this year. But the means for massive violence are clearly available.

This article identifies Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, as head of the Anglican Church. Actually that's the Queen of England. But Rowan is right up there. No doubt about the fact that he will deserve the title of the world's Chief Dhimmi after this. From AFP, with thanks to Susan, Sparta, and Jonathan:

THE head of the worldwide Anglican Church, the archbishop of Canterbury, will reportedly mark the third anniversary of the September 11 attacks by praising Islam in an address from the pulpit of an Egyptian mosque.

Rowan Williams had accepted an invitation to speak at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, considered by many to be the Muslim world's most important centre of learning, Britain's Sunday Times said today.

He would speak of the common ground between Christianity and Islam with their shared inheritance as "children of Abraham", the report said.

The article quotes Zaki Badawi of the Muslim College in London:

"The Muslims throughout the world feel beleaguered and a comforting word from Archbishop Williams will assure our people they are not alone."

Al-Azhar is considered the most important religious uiniversity in the Muslim world and is attended by 90,000 students.

Here's some background on the new friends Rowan will be making:

Former Al-Azhar Fatwa Committee Head Sets Out the Jews' 20 Bad Traits As Described in the Qur'an

Tiny minority of extremists burns American and British flags at Cairo's Al-Azhar University

Some See Ramadan as a Chance for Jihad Acts

More misadventures of that staunch U.S. ally, Pakistan. From the Times of India, with thanks to Fanabba:

WASHINGTON: Pakistan's intelligence officials knew in advance about the 9/11 attacks, a well-known American analyst has said, based on a ''stunning document'' that he claims was given by a Pakistani source to the 9/11 Commission on the eve of the publication of its report.

The document, from a high-level, but anonymous Pakistani source, also claims that Osama bin Laden has been receiving periodic dialysis in a military hospital in Peshawar, says Arnaud de Borchgrave, editor-at-large of the news agency UPI.

''The imprints of every major act of international Islamist terrorism invariably passes through Pakistan, right from 9/11 - where virtually all the participants had trained, resided or met in, coordinated with, or received funding from or through Pakistan,'' Borchgrave cites the confidential document as saying.

But one does not have to go to Borchgrave's unnamed sources to find Pakistan's involvement in terrorist activity leading to 9/11. The 9/11 commission report itself nails Pakistan in chapter after chapter, revealing that the Pakistani intelligence was in cahoots with the Taliban and al Qaeda, far more than Iran and Iraq ever were.

There follows a series of eye-opening extracts from the commission report. Read it all.

"Osama bin Laden is a good man. Osama bin Laden wants the same as me -- he wants to see the implementation of God's law." From the San Francisco Chronicle, with thanks to Twostellas:

London -- "Osama bin Laden is a good man. Osama bin Laden wants the same as me -- he wants to see the implementation of God's law," says Khalid Kelly as he sips coffee in a sun-filled London cafe and expounds on his allegiance to the man who has declared war on the West.

Kelly, an Irishman, converted to Islam two years ago while imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for distilling and selling alcohol. Since then, he has become the public face of the tiny London-based organization called Al-Muhajiroun. The radical organization is led by Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, who has long been linked to bin Laden's International Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders.

The presence of militants like Bakri has earned the British capital the sobriquet "Londonistan" among diplomats and terrorism experts, who see London as a worldwide center of Islamic terrorism.

"The Islamists use Britain as a propaganda base but wouldn't do anything to a country that harbors them and gives them freedom of speech," Camille Tawil, a terrorism expert at the Arabic daily Al Hayat, told the New Statesman magazine.

Recently, however, British security officials have staged several high- profile crackdowns on suspected terrorists.

On March 30, police netted eight suspects and more than half a ton of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, the ingredient used in the 2002 Bali nightclub explosion that killed more than 200 people. The bust came after months of bugging telephone lines and tracking suspects and following a web of leads across Europe and the Middle East, according to Peter Clarke, the deputy police commissioner who serves as Britain's anti-terrorism chief.

The scheme was apparently planned abroad but was to be carried out by British citizens. "That is something that is deeply worrying to us,'' Clarke said.

In April, 10 foreigners suspected of plotting attacks were arrested in central and northern England.

Then on May 27, acting on an 11-count U.S. indictment, police arrested Abu Hamza al-Masri, the fiery former preacher at London's Finsbury Park mosque, the spiritual home of several notorious terrorists, including convicted shoe- bomber Richard Reid.

Al-Masri, who lost both hands and an eye in Afghanistan, is being held in London's high-security Belmarsh prison pending extradition on charges of aiding al Qaeda, attempting to set up a terror camp in Oregon and plotting the hostage-taking of 16 tourists in Yemen in 1998. At a hearing Friday, a London court delayed a decision on his extradition until Oct. 19.

But other clerics continue to take advantage of official British tolerance to openly espouse jihad and support for al Qaeda.

In recent weeks, Britain has allowed visits by two high-profile Middle Eastern clerics -- Egyptian Yusuf al-Qaradawi and Sheikh Abdur-Rahman al- Sudais of Saudi Arabia -- who are known for their anti-Semitic and anti- Western views. Yusuf, who has been banned from the United States since 1999, has publicly expressed support for suicide bombers on the grounds that the "martyrdom operations'' are the only available "weapons of the weak."

Read it all.

Spanish police have found the car used by the Madrid bombers. It seems that they were listening to self-improvement tapes. From AP, with thanks to many who kindly sent this to me:

MADRID, Spain -- Three months after the Madrid train bombings, Spanish police found a rental car used by the terrorists containing personal effects, including tapes of Quranic verses and chants praising jihad, an official said Saturday.

Police found the car on June 13 in the town of Alcala de Henares, the departure point of three of the four trains bombed in the March 11 attack, a police spokeswoman said on anonymity.

She said that investigators believe the bombers used the car, a Skoda Fabia, to transport some of the explosives used in the blasts, which killed 191 people and injured 2,000.

DNA tests on clothes found in the trunk confirmed that it was used by two suspected Islamic terrorists, one of whom later committed suicide to evade capture, she said.

"Apart from clothes, an alarm clock, an agenda and a Palestinian headscarf, police spotted two cassettes with calls to jihad and martyrdom," the spokeswoman said.

Besides the miscarriage of justice, note the differential in blood money: if the victim is not a Muslim, or female, the payment is less. From CP, :

(CP) - An Iranian court's acquittal Saturday of the man charged in the murder of Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi came as no surprise to her son who said "the only justice we have come to expect from Iran is injustice."

Stephan Hachemi vowed to continue his fight for justice saying he was looking to Ottawa and the International Court of Justice in The Hague to take up the case. "This is Canada's responsibility to do so," Hachemi, 26, said in an e-mail from Montreal to The Canadian Press hours after the verdict was issued in Tehran.

"Beside the ICJ, I now more then ever deserve answer from Canada. I'm expecting to meet with the minister of foreign affairs to be assured of the other effective measures (Canada) is intending to take."

Earlier in Tehran, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, who led the four-member legal defence team, said the court which acquitted the lone man charged in the beating death was not competent and the legal proceedings were flawed.

"I'm required to work until my last breath to make sure that justice is done to my client," Ebadi said.

She also threatened to take the matter to international organizations.

"I'll protest this verdict. If the appeals court and other legal stages fail to heed our objections, we will use all domestic and international facilities to meet the legal rights of my client," an angry Ebadi said.

The intelligence agent charged with killing Kazemi, counterespionage expert Mohammad Reza Aghdam Ahmadi, pleaded not guilty during the trial. He was the only person implicated by the judiciary in what is called Kazemi's "semi-premeditated murder."

Kazemi, a Montreal-based freelance journalist of Iranian origin, died July 10, 2003, while in detention for taking photographs outside a Tehran prison during student-led protests against the government....

Ebadi said the court ruled that Iran would give blood money, or compensation, to Kazemi's family. Payments of blood money are common in the Middle East.

The average compensation now paid to relatives of an Iranian Muslim man killed is about $24,800 Cdn. The payment is about half that if the victim was Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian or a woman, regardless of her religion.

From The Sun, :

Met Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens said yesterday: "It's more than possible we have foiled four or five."...

And he added: "Since September 11 there have been 520 arrests, half have been charged with an offence and there are 90 about to go to court."

In March Sir John, 62, said it would be "miraculous" if London was not attacked by terrorists.

This is the kind of story you should remember the next time you hear about Israeli troops firing on civlians. Palestinian Arab fighters routinely launch attacks from civilian areas, precisely in order to provoke this. From Haaretz (scroll down), with thanks to the many who sent it to me:

An Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades cell killed a 16-year-old Palestinian boy in Beit Hanun on Friday after a row in which his family opposed the cell's attempt to launch Qassam rockets from their yard, Israeli security sources said.

According to a report obtained from Palestinian sources, the cell, comprised of six men, arrived in a van at the Za'anun family's Beit Hanun home on Friday morning. The militants then placed a Qassam rocket launcher adjacent to the family home, and one of the cell members opened fire on an armored Israel Defense Forces vehicle nearby.

Members of the Za'anun family came out of their house holding sticks and rocks, and tried to drive the Al-Aqsa militants from their yard, most likely fearing that their house would be demolished if Qassam rockets were launched from it.

During the clash, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades members opened fire, killing Hassan Za'anun and wounding three other family members.

The cell left the area following the incident, without firing the Qassam rockets.

Much has been made of the fact that the 14 Syrians on Annie Jacobsen's famous flight were indeed musicians -- as if that proves they couldn't have been up to anything.

But, as Michelle Malkin points out, they were all here on expired visas.

Two questions: Why, and How did they get in?

Mr. Selbourne, welcome to my world. From the Telegraph, with thanks to Twostellas:

A distinguished writer and academic has accused leading publishers of turning down his latest book because it is too critical of Islam.

David Selbourne, who has written more than a dozen books, and his literary agent suspect that publishers are shunning The Losing Battle With Islam because it could provoke anger from Islamic extremists and other critics.

Among the subjects covered in the book is the "negative impact" of actions by Muslims in recent decades. It suggests that Islam is not a religion of peace, balance and compassion, as many of its adherents claim.

The book also discusses the fatwa that was issued against Salman Rushdie, the novelist, by the Ayatollah Khomeini, after the publication of The Satanic Verses. Mr Selbourne writes of the "cruel bounty repeatedly offered for his [Mr Rushie's] head".

Six publishers, including Penguin, HarperCollins and Heinemann, have turned down the book in the past five months.

Mr Selbourne, who is British but lives in Italy, said that he believed that the reason for the repeated rejection was clear.

"The reaction of the publishers is unprecedented. The subject is very contentious. I think there are some people who have fixed views which don't permit them to look at the matter dispassionately.

"It is controversial because it is a record - written without fear or favour - of what has actually happened during the Islamic revival. My book has been turned down because there is hesitation about looking at these matters squarely in the face, especially in Britain."

In the past, Mr Selbourne, whose previous publishers have included MacMillan, Cape, Penguin and Little, Brown, has had little difficulty getting his work into print.

57 terror threats in Israel over the weekend. From the Jerusalem Post:

The arrest on Friday of three Islamic Jihad members in the village of Tubas, southeast of Jenin, prevented a planned suicide attack in Israel, security officials revealed on Saturday. The three terrorists, arrested by soldiers from a reconnaissance unit of the armored corps, include the suicide bomber to-be, the man who recruited him and the man who planned the attack.

The three apparently planned to launch an attack in a petrol station in the northern Jordan valley- Beit She'an area. The suicide bomber was to have entered Israel from a Jordan Valley area where the security fence has yet to be completed.

In his interrogation with the Shin Bet, Shadi Nawaf Daraghme, 24, of Tubas, admitted he had planned to blow himself up in Israel.

Have the Saudis been financing terror in Australia? From the Australian via The Advertiser, with thanks to Twostellas:

A VISITING Saudi Arabian government delegation was summoned to a meeting with senior Canberra bureaucrats this month to discuss Australia's concerns about the kingdom's financing of terrorism.

The Saudi officials had been in Australia several days to meet Islamic community and business leaders before the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade learned of their whereabouts and arranged a meeting through the Saudi Arabian embassy.

A member of the delegation from the Ministry for Islamic Affairs and Endowment told The Weekend Australian it was here to sort out problems with the lucrative business of exporting halal meat to Saudi Arabia.

But members also met trustees raising $2.65million for the controversial purchase of a mosque in southwestern Sydney.

Supporters of hardline Islamic cleric Sheikh Abdul Salam Mohammed Zoud have bought the mosque and must raise the full amount before the July 30 settlement date.

Sheikh Zoud preaches at the prayer hall around the corner whose congregation has included Faheem Lodhi, who is in custody charged with committing an act in preparation for a terrorist attack.

Another astoundingly courageous and insightful piece from Will Cummins in The Telegraph (thanks to Fanabba):

Konrad Henlein, the Nazi leader of the Sudeten Germans - whose cynical attitude to liberal, democratic, minority-friendly inter-war Czechoslovakia offers a metaphor for what we face - once observed: "We must always demand so much that we are never satisfied." He wouldn't have got very far in Leicester South, where the idea of refusing Muslim voters any part of their global Jihadi agenda was so distant from the candidates' minds that they couldn't even wait to be asked.

However, my fellow Telegraph writer Jenny McCartney is plagued by a very different anxiety. She is deeply concerned for, not because of, Britain's burgeoning Muslim population. It is the persecuted Jews of the Third Reich, not its Nazis, to whom we should compare this notoriously gifted, useful and self-effacing group, she has written in her column of July 18.

Jenny sees in the revulsion for Islam displayed by the British National Party an echo of the anti-Semitism to which hideous German publications like Der Sturmer gave vent. Though why she has to ransack back numbers of hoary Fascist tradesheets when almost every mainstream Muslim paper in the world today is full of loathsome anti-Jewish rants and images isn't clear.

"In the miserable event" of "an al-Qaeda attack in Britain", she wrote last week - which repeated warnings from our Government have termed inevitable - "there is little doubt in my mind that assaults on peaceful, law-abiding British Muslims would increase".

Well, it's good to know that, as the rest of us hug our bottles of Evian in the irradiated ruins, mourning thousands of dead, Jenny will be lying awake at night worrying that someone might drop a dog poo through the letterbox of her local balti house. Such outrages, she warns, will be "fanned by an increasingly hysterical rhetoric - already in place - that encourages non-Muslim Britons to see each and every Muslim citizen as a threat". Whose rhetoric is that exactly?

The Guardian newspaper is the Bible - perhaps one should say the Koran? - of Islamo-fascist Britain. However, it has recently been lending its opinion pages to one Fuad Nahdi, a leading Islamic "moderate" who publishes Q-News, a magazine for young UK Muslims. When two British Muslims launched a suicide attack in Israel, this is what he wrote in The Guardian of May 2, 2003: "I am not surprised by news of Britain's first suicide bombers. What, however, I find astonishing is that it took place in Tel Aviv, not Manchester." He goes on to say, "We should brace ourselves for the forthcoming intifada on the streets of Birmingham and Detroit."

Mr Nahdi, who arrived in Britain from Kenya in 1983, is comparing himself and his fellow Muslims here to the Palestinians conducting the second intifada against Israel. In Muslim folklore, the Palestinians are a native people disposessed by Zionist invaders. Mr Nahdi seems not to have grasped that, in Britain, he and the rest of the faithful are the "Jewish settlers", we, the usurped Palestinians. If anybody is going to mount an intifada against the invader, it will be us.

Jenny writes that those who are afraid of Islam ignore the diversity of the religion, which replicates that of Christianity itself. Christianity too, she writes, has its extremists. To which one might, like St Paul, say, "and what has Christ to do with Baal?" All Muslims, like all dogs, share certain characteristics. A dog is not the same animal as a cat just because both species are comprised of different breeds. An extreme Christian believes that the Garden of Eden really existed; an extreme Muslim flies planes into buildings - there's a big difference.

A press release from the American Hellenic Institute, condemning Turkey's ongoing illegal occupation of northern Cyprus, where Cypriot Christians were treated like dhimmis, expelled from their homes and given no recourse. (Thanks to sparta for sending this.)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Vivian Basdekis (202) 785-8430 July 20, 2004 No. 48/2004

Statement by the American Hellenic Institute Commemorating the
30-Year Anniversary of Turkey's Aggression Against Cyprus

Washington, DC-On July 20, 2004, the American Hellenic Institute issued the following statement commemorating the tragic 30-year anniversary of Turkey's aggression against Cyprus:

Today, July 20, marks the sad 30-year anniversary of Turkey's illegal invasion and illegal occupation of the sovereign country of Cyprus.

Thirty years ago Turkey invaded Cyprus with the illegal use of American arms and equipment, which resulted in the occupation of 4% of the Cypriot territory. The second massive phase of Turkish aggression against Cyprus came on August 14-16, 1974, three weeks after the legitimate government of Cyprus had returned to office on July 23. These aggressions were conducted by the Turkish military using hundreds of U.S. tanks, hundreds of U.S. airplanes and 35,000 ground troops, with the result being a land grab by Turkey of 37.3% of Cyprus and the forced leaving of 200,000 Greek Cypriots from their homes and properties.

Since 1974, U.S. policy on the Cyprus problem has been a foreign policy failure. For years the U.S. has favored Turkey regarding Cyprus, thereby disregarding its moral obligation and national security interests.

The latest example, in the form of the flawed Annan Plan, only serves to illustrate the support for Turkey regarding Cyprus.

The Annan Plan, engineered by Britain and the U.S., was a flawed document that did not go to the core of issues of unifying Cyprus and providing for a just and viable solution.

The disparity in the referenda vote, Greek Cypriots 76% against and Turkish Cypriots 65% in favor, further underscores, even to the uniformed observer, that this was not a document that was fair to both, but rather biased against one, the Greek Cypriots.

In examining various provisions of the plan the sharp bias towards Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots is clear. It actually wipes out, believe it or not, Turkey's aggression against Cyprus.

Incredibly, for our government to have helped draft and to support this plan and the ensuing undiplomatic attacks by our U.S. officials on the Greek Cypriots for their "no" vote is an embarrassment to our foreign policy.

In the final analysis the Greek Cypriots voted "no" against the Annan plan because it was unfair, unbalanced, unworkable, not financially viable and rewarded the aggressor, Turkey, and punished the victims, the Greek Cypriots. For the State Department to contend otherwise is Orwellian.

So, thirty years later, we still are commemorating the Cyprus problem. If the U.S. and the world community is serious about solving this problem solutions have to be pursued that are just and viable.

As Americans we need to keep reminding our policy makers and elected officials that in pursuit of U.S. interest and American values the U.S. should immediately call for the following:

a.. Full demilitarization of Cyprus by support of and implementation of the unanimous UNGA Res. 3212 of November 1, 1974 urging "the speedy withdrawal of all foreign armed forces and foreign military presence and personnel from the Republic of Cyprus and the cessation of all foreign interference in its affairs;" and calling "upon all states to respect the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity" of Cyprus;
b.. Support for a constitutional democracy for Cyprus "based on majority rule, the rule of law and the protection of minority rights;"
c.. Support for changes and modifications in the UN Annan Plan for Cyprus: (1) to make it fair, balanced, workable, financially viable and just; (2) to include the immediate demilitarization of Cyprus; (3) to provide for the prompt return to Turkey of the over 110,000 illegal settlers from Turkey with all costs to be borne by Turkey, the aggressor; (4) to call for the immediate tearing down by Turkey of the Green Line barbed wire fence; (5) to have a property recovery and compensation system paid for by the aggressor Turkey; and (6) to have the right of all Cypriots to buy property and live wherever they chose without being limited by ethnic quotas.

None of us wishes to commemorate 31 years next year.

###

For additional information, please contact Vivian Basdekis at (202) 785-8430 or at vivian@ahiworld.org. For general information about the activities of AHI, please see our website at http://www.ahiworld.org.

Some time ago someone signed me up for a message board entitled "The Straight Path of Islam." It is often fascinating as a glimpse into the jihadist mindset, and to Muslim attitudes in general.

The post below was sent out to alert Muslims to false Qur'anic passages that are circulating; the sender says they are designed to ensnare and lead astray unwitting Muslims and prospective converts. What they are in fact are answers to the challenge issued in two verse of the Qur'an:

And if ye are in doubt as to what We have revealed from time to time to Our servant, then produce a Sura like thereunto; and call your witnesses or helpers (If there are any) besides Allah, if your (doubts) are true.(2:23)

Or do they say, "He forged it"? say: "Bring then a Sura like unto it, and call (to your aid) anyone you can besides Allah, if it be ye speak the truth!" (10:38)

A Christian group answered this challenge by producing several pieces in Qur'anic Arabic that expound Christian doctrine. One of them is below. But note the heading on the message "ALERT: JEW PRODUCING FAKE QURAN": once again, the Jews are blamed -- despite the clear Christian content of the third verse. This is another manifestation of the widespread Muslim assumption that if there is a challenge to Islam, Jews must be behind it (and I, of course, must be a Jew as well), producing diabolically clever material that the faithful must be on guard against.

ALERT: JEW PRODUCING FAKE QURAN

Dears Assalamu Alaikum WB,

PLEASE READ AND ACT.....

BE CAREFUL there are certain anti-Islam groups are trying to produce a new Qur'an!! Please read this and send it to all friends. Some enemies of Islam have established an on-line Qur'an Surah with addition of some self-written SURAHS; examples can be seen below.

It's very dangerous for the Muslim world, especially for the newly converted Muslims or the Muslims who don't know FALSE and Bad material.

Kindly send this message to inform as many persons as you can.

They Developed Four SURAH'S with additions by them....

EXAMPLE of fake surah and translation:

SURAT AL-MUSLIMOON:

TRANSLATION:

(1) Alef Lam Saad Meem
(2) Say: O Muslims, You are far astray.
(3) Those who disbelieved in God and his Christ
shall have in the lifeafter the fire of hell
and a severe torture.
(4) Some faces that day will be subdued and darkened
seeking forgiveness from God
and God shall do whatever He wants.
(5) That day, the Most Merciful shall say:
O my servants I favored you with my guidance
revealed to you in the Torah and the Injeel.
(6) And you should have not disbelieved
what I have revealed to you
and go astray from a plain road.
(7) They said: We did not go astray ourselves
but he, who claimed he was one of the messengers (of God)
has mislead us.
(8) And as God says: O Muhammad, you allured my servants
and caused them to become disbelieves.
(9) He said: O my Lord, it is Satan who allured me and truly
he has always been the most corrupting to children of Adam.
(10) And God will forgive those
who have been allured by man and then repented
and he will compel that one who was Satan's advocate to hell,
a hapless journey's end.
(11) And if God rules something, He is most knowing of what He rules
and of what He had ruled and He is able to do all things.

The US Congress calls it genocide. Beshir says it's all an anti-Muslim plot — not the genocide, mind you, but the reaction against it. From AFP:

KHARTOUM, July 24 (AFP) -- Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir has accused the international community of targeting Islam in his country as the government struggles to fend off mounting international pressure over the Darfur crisis, the pro-government Al-Anbaa reported Saturday.

The paper quoted Beshir as telling supporters in the central region of Gezira following Friday prayers that the real aim of the campaign against his country was not the situation in the troubled western region of Darfur, but to derail the growth of Islam in the country.

Sudan has come under increased pressure from the international community in recent days to resolve the situation in Darfur, where the UN says at least 30,000 people have died in the 16-month-old conflict between government forces and Arab militia allies and two main rebel groups in the region.

"The international concern about the Darfur issue is targeting the status of Islam in Sudan," claimed Beshir, who seized power in a bloodless Islamist coup in 1989.

Khartoum has brushed off criticism that it is not doing enough to help alleviate the humanitarian situation in Darfur, described by the United Nations as the world's worst, and pledged to improve the access of international aid agencies to the region and the needy.

The Sudanese president insisted, however, that his government's concern for Darfur was first and foremost because of the responsibility it felt for the people before God and not aid agencies or other countries.

He said his national "salvation" government, as the regime's supporters refer to it, will continue "to adhere to Islamic sharia (law), set an example for social cohesion and bring humanity out of darkness to the light of Islam."

Having successfully attached the heads of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to their belts, the jihadists go after Australia. From AP:

CAIRO, Egypt - An online statement by a group representing itself as al-Qaida's European branch threatened on Saturday to turn Australia into "pools of blood" if it doesn't withdraw its troops from Iraq.

It was the second statement in a week by the Tawhid Islamic Group, a previously unknown group which on Wednesday threatened attacks in Bulgaria and Poland if their troops remained in Iraq.

"We call upon you to leave Iraq before your country turns to pools of blood," the statement warned the Australian government.

"We will shake the earth under your feet as we did in Indonesia, and lines of car bombs will not cease, God willing," the statement said, referring to the 2002 Bali bombing that killed 202 people, many of them Australian tourists.

The al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah was blamed for that attack.

The Tawhid statement also warned Italy to comply with an earlier warning.

"We advise you to accept our offer and if you don't, you will see the lines of cars laden with explosives hit your towns and turn your nights to mornings, God willing. We swear you will see hell with your eyes," the Tawhid statement said.

Another look at Islamic tolerance. From AFP:

KUALA LUMPUR - Four Malaysians who renounced Islam lost an appeal in the nation's top court where they had sought a declaration that they have freedom to practise the faith of their choice, their lawyer said yesterday.

'The Federal Court this morning dismissed the appeal after taking nine months to deliberate the matter,' said Mr Ang Hean Leng.

Mr Daud Mamat, 62, Ms Kamariah Ali, 51, her late husband Mohamad Ya and Mr Mad Yacob Ismail, 62, who served 20 months in jail for 'deviant practices inconsistent with Islamic teachings', renounced Islam in 1998.

They were charged with contempt of the Syariah court for refusing to attend repentance classes which were part of the earlier sentence and were jailed for another three years in 2000.

An update on the trial of the notorious British-based jihadist Abu Hamza. From The Mirror:

MILITANT cleric Abu Hamza is a leading member of a "global conspiracy" to wage war on the West, a court was told yesterday.

The allegation was made in a statement by a senior FBI agent on the opening day of a hearing to decide whether he is extradited to the United States to face terror charges....

The hearing at Belmarsh magistrates court in South London was told he played a key role in Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network.

Hamza is accused of plotting to set up terror training camps in Bly, Oregon, and giving letters of introduction to high-ranking Taliban fighters. The allegations also relate to a hostage-taking incident in the Yemen in which three Britons were killed in 1998.

If found guilty in the US, he faces more than 100 years behind bars - or possibly the death sentence.

An affidavit from FBI terrorism expert Michael Butsch said: "The evidence demonstrates that Abu Hamza is a member of a global conspiracy to promote Jihad against the US government and other Western countries."

Referring to his preaching at Finsbury Park mosque in North London, Mr Butsch added: "He taught his followers that Jihad demanded killing the enemy of Islam."

David Brooks in the New York Times shows a glimmer of understanding that this is an ideological war, and not simply a battle against lovers of undifferentiated mayhem or raw power. He credits the 9/11 Commission with this great discovery (Dave, my books have been out longer; do I get to be George Kennan?), and makes a few good observations -- along with (this is the Times, after all) one ridiculous, PC one. (Thanks to Nicolei for the link.)

hen foreign policy wonks go to bed, they dream of being X. They dream of writing the all-encompassing, epoch-defining essay, the way George F. Kennan did during the cold war under the pseudonym X.

Careers have been spent racing to be X. But in our own time, the 9/11 commission has come closer than anybody else. After spending 360 pages describing a widespread intelligence failure, the commissioners step back in their report and redefine the nature of our predicament.

We're not in the middle of a war on terror, they note. We're not facing an axis of evil. Instead, we are in the midst of an ideological conflict.

We are facing, the report notes, a loose confederation of people who believe in a perverted stream of Islam that stretches from Ibn Taimaya to Sayyid Qutb. Terrorism is just the means they use to win converts to their cause.

That's the ridiculous one I warned you about: "a perverted stream of Islam that stretches from Ibn Taimaya to Sayyid Qutb." A perverted stream of Islam that is 700 years old? Ibn Taymiyya died in 1328. The line from him to Qutb, who died in 1966, is as much of a "perverted stream" of Islam as Protestantism, which is 200 years younger than Brooks' perverted Islam, is a perverted stream of Christianity. That's not a "perverted stream," that's an entire tradition.

There are other things wrong with this as well. For one, Ibn Taymiyya invented nothing. He had plenty of antecedents, and his thinking wasn't out of line with that of other Muslim thinkers. Nowadays American Muslim advocacy groups and their allies try to portray him, because of his forthright statements about violent jihad and the frequency with which he is quoted by people like Osama, as some sort of heretic. But he has never been considered such in Islamic tradition.

A little quiz. Ready, Dave? Who said this: "...in the Muslim community, the holy war is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the Muslim mission and (the obligation to) convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force." In Islam, the person in charge of religious affairs is concerned with "power politics," because Islam is "under obligation to gain power over other nations."

Got to have been that heretic Ibn Taymiyya, right? Wrong. It was Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), the pioneering sociologist who has, for a complex of reasons, become a kind of totem for the democracy movement in Egypt and elsewhere in the Islamic world.

That's right, the democracy movement.

Also: those who claim objectivity shouldn't make such distinctions between Islamic sects. Way back when I was in college, I noticed in studying both Christianity and Islam that my professors would studiously avoid words like "orthodox" and "heretical" (to say nothing of "perverted") when speaking of various sects; those words and judgments were the province of believers only. But Brooks and other members of the PC elite have no trouble identifying "true" and "perverted" Islam. If only they could convince the Muslims.

It seems like a small distinction - emphasizing ideology instead of terror - but it makes all the difference, because if you don't define your problem correctly, you can't contemplate a strategy for victory.

Just what I have been saying all along, Dave.

When you see that our enemies are primarily an intellectual movement, not a terrorist army, you see why they are in no hurry. With their extensive indoctrination infrastructure of madrassas and mosques, they're still building strength, laying the groundwork for decades of struggle. Their time horizon can be totally different from our own....

Most of all, we need to see that the landscape of reality is altered. In the past, we've fought ideological movements that took control of states. Our foreign policy apparatus is geared toward relations with states: negotiating with states, confronting states. Now we are faced with a belief system that is inimical to the state system, and aims at theological rule and the restoration of the caliphate. We'll need a new set of institutions to grapple with this reality, and a new training method to understand people who are uninterested in national self-interest, traditionally defined.

Last week I met with a leading military officer stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq, whose observations dovetailed remarkably with the 9/11 commissioners. He said the experience of the last few years is misleading; only 10 percent of our efforts from now on will be military. The rest will be ideological. He observed that we are in the fight against Islamic extremism now where we were in the fight against communism in 1880.

We've got a long struggle ahead, but at least we're beginning to understand it.

From the Prague Post, with thanks to Nicolei:

TEPLICE, NORTH BOHEMIA: Milos Kejzlar angrily recalls the reaction of visiting Arabs in Teplice following the events of 9/11.

"The people of the town were very surprised to see a great number of Arabs here celebrating in the parks and the restaurants after they learned what happened in the U.S.," he said, downing shots of slivovice at his well-kept house in a leafy suburb.

Shocked by some Arabs' response to the destruction of the World Trade Center and flooded by constant media coverage of terrorist plots, Kejzlar concluded that a mosque a few blocks from his home was a bad idea.

"It seems that terrorism often springs from those who gather at the mosques and from those who preach from them," said the 41-year-old high school math teacher.

Last spring, after learning of a private company's plans to erect a temple to cater to the thousands of Arabs, mostly Saudis, who seek extended medical treatments in this historic spa town, Kejzlar launched a petition against the mosque, which would be the country's second.

An informal prayer house already exists on the proposed site of the 132-square-meter (1,467-square-foot) mosque.

"Islam is a strongly orthodox religion that is based on principles that are contrary to our cultural environment as well as the development of our society," the petition reads.

"At the time when Arab terrorism is growing all around the world, it would be very dangerous even to consider granting a permit for such a building. ... Recently there have been many cases of mosques becoming centers of radical Muslims who preach about the necessity to physically liquidate people of different faiths."...

Ramiz Ahmadie, a Beirut native and owner of the Lebanese restaurant that would abut the controversial house of worship, said he doesn't care if the mosque is built because he is a Druid, not a Muslim. However, he scoffed at the notion that the mosque would attract terrorists. He said most of the spa-going visitors are over 60 years old.

"I thought there was supposed to be freedom here. If I want to go to the disco, I can go to the disco," Ahmadie said. "So what's the big deal if someone wants to go pray in a mosque?"

Is he really a Druid? An old English pagan -- from Lebanon? Probably he is a Druze. Anyway, the man's questions are answered above by Kejzlar. Until they are addressed by the Muslim community, Kejzlar has reason to be concerned.

In the new Iraq, dhimmis better not get out of line. From the Barnabas Fund, with thanks to Bruce Gordon:

The Christian owner of Al-Hanna restaurant in Mosul’s Al-Dawasa district was murdered by the Islamic Wahhabbeen group on Monday 19th July because he had American customers. A local report states that the militants accused the shopkeeper: “You are a Christian. Why do you sell food to the Americans? Are you an agent for the Americans?”

Regular readers of Jihad Watch will find nothing new about the Council on American Islamic Relations in this Washington Times piece, but it is gratifying to see that word is getting out. On the other hand, all this has been known for some time, and government and media organizations continue to assume that CAIR is a neutral civil rights organization. Time to answer some questions, Ibrahim!

This piece recounts five incidents in which CAIR officials have been involved in terrorist activities, and concludes:

We understand that no organization can be responsible for the independent actions of its officials or affiliated members. To its credit, CAIR has denounced terrorist acts, most recently the beheadings of two Americans in Iraq. At the same time, the examples cited above reveal some unsettling connections between certain CAIR officials and extremist groups that demand at a minimum an internal investigation. The federal government has not yet turned its "draconian" reach on CAIR directly, and at this point we are not prepared to ask it to do so. For now, it would be better if CAIR itself began a conscientious and deliberate effort to purge members it believes have terrorist ties and to thoroughly condemn those already convicted.

Hey, as long as there are Gloria Macapagal Arroyos and Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapateros out there, keep going with what works. From AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Militants kidnapped a senior Egyptian diplomat as he left a mosque Friday and demanded his country abandon any plans to send security experts to support Iraq's new government, according to a video broadcast on the Al-Jazeera television station....

The abduction of the diplomat threatened to undermine efforts of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Thursday to persuade Arab and Muslim countries to provide troops to protect the U.N. mission in Iraq.

A separate militant group holding seven foreign truck drivers, including one Egyptian, announced a new set of demands in a new video, insisting that their Kuwaiti employer pay compensation to those killed by U.S. forces in the city of Fallujah. They have threatened to begin beheading the hostages starting Saturday.

The practice of beheading hostages has stirred opposition in Iraq, with radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who led a two-month uprising against U.S. forces beginning in April, joining the criticism Friday.

"We condemn what some people are doing regarding the beheading of prisoners and it is illegal according to Islamic law," al-Sadr said at the Kufa mosque south of Baghdad, where he led Friday prayers. "Anybody doing this is a criminal and we will punish him according to Islamic law."

No word on what Al-Sadr makes of Suras 8:12 and 47:4.

From WND:

Former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger blocked four separate plans of action against the al-Qaida terrorist network from 1998 to 2000, according to the newly released 9-11 commission report.

The report cites a 1998 meeting in which then-director of the Central Intelligence Agency George Tenet presented a plan to capture Osama bin Laden, notes the New York Sun.

"In his meeting with Tenet, Berger focused, however, on the question of what was to be done with Bin Ladin if he were actually captured," the report says, citing a May 1, 1998, CIA memo. "He worried that the hard evidence against Bin Ladin was still skimpy and that there was a danger of snatching him and bringing him to the United States only to see him acquitted."

Berger, who served in the Clinton administration, is facing a Justice Department investigation for allegedly smuggling secret files out of the National Archives prior to the 9-11 commission hearings.

After news of the probe broke Monday, Berger stepped down from his informal position as security adviser to Democratic Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign.

What happened to "obey the laws of the Western countries where you live"? From AFP, with thanks to Susan:

LONDON (AFP) - The radical Muslim group Al-Muhajiroun will not back down from plans to hold a demonstration on Sunday in central London despite a ban imposed by the city authorities and their threat to sue the organisers.

"Al-Muhajiroun do not have permission to hold a rally on Trafalgar Square and they have not applied for permission," a spokesperson for the city authorities said. The city had sent a letter to the head of the group's British branch but had received no reply.

Up to 700 sympathisers are expected to attend the event, aimed at converting non-Muslims to the faith. There are fears that Britain's extreme right-wing right party, the BNP, might organise a rival demonstration in Trafalgar Square, a favourite haunt of tourists in London.

UPDATE: The rally has been canceled after all -- or at least moved.

The Philippines' Appeaser-in-Chief summons up some courage -- to direct at critics. From AFP:

Arroyo brushed off US criticism that she had played into the hands of militants and said she had no regrets about her decision.

"It won't take more than three lines to summarise my case, and let me say them. One, I take responsibility. Two, I make no apologies. Three, I stuck to my oath," she said....

Analysts said Arroyo had decided to act to avoid angering the estimated seven million Filipinos working abroad, a formidable constituency whose billions of dollars of remittances keep the economy afloat.

"I trust that our allies will come to understand that the Philippines is in a special circumstance unlike the US, Australia, Bulgaria and other countries," Arroyo said, referring to other countries with troops in Iraq.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday added to previous US criticism of the troop withdrawal saying that "in effect the kidnappers were rewarded for kidnapping."

"We were very disappointed in the actions of the Philippine government," he said.

"I'm pleased that the Filipino gentleman was returned home safely, but I think a very high price was paid for the policy position that the Philippine government took."

In his reaction, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Wednesday that "weakness is provocative."

In The Spectator, Anthony Browne cuts through the prevailing dhimmitude and obfuscation to point out what I have been pointing out for years now. (Thanks to all who sent me this link.)

A year ago I had lunch with an eminent figure who asked if I thought she was mad. 'No,' I said politely, while thinking, 'Yup.' She had said she thought there was a secret plot by Muslims to take over the West. I have never been into conspiracy theories, and this one was definitely of the little-green-men variety. It is the sort of thing BNP thugs claim to justify their racial hatred.

Obviously, we all know about Osama bin Laden's ambitions. And we are all aware of the loons of al-Muhajiroun waving placards saying 'Islam is the future of Britain'. But these are all on the extremist fringe, representative of no one but themselves. Surely no one in Islam takes this sort of thing seriously? I started surfing the Islamic media.

Take Dr Al-Qaradawi, the controversial Egyptian imam who was recently fawned over by the Mayor of London even though he promotes the execution of homosexuals, the right of men to indulge in domestic violence, and the murder of innocent Jews. During the brouhaha it went unnoticed that he also wants to conquer Europe. Don't take my word for it, just listen to him on his popular al-Jazeera TV show, Sharia and Life.

'Islam will return to Europe. The conquest need not necessarily be by the sword. Perhaps we will conquer these lands without armies. We want an army of preachers and teachers who will present Islam in all languages and in all dialects,' he broadcast in 1999, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute, which translates his programmes. On another programme he declared, 'Europe will see that it suffers from a materialist culture, and it will seek a way out, it will seek a lifeboat. It will seek no life-saver but the message of Islam.'

Far from being on the fringe, his immensely popular programmes are watched by millions across the Middle East and Europe. The BBC cooed that he has 'star' status among the world's Muslims.

Dr Al-Qaradawi, who is based in Qatar, is also the spiritual guide of the hardline Muslim Brotherhood, which is growing across Europe, and whose leader Muhammad Mahdi Othman 'Akef declared recently, 'I have complete faith that Islam will invade Europe and America, because Islam has logic and a mission.'

In the most sacred mosque in Islam, Sheikh Abd al-Rahman al-Sudais of the Grand Mosque in Mecca uses his sermons to call for Jews to be 'annihilated' and to urge the overthrow of Western civilisation. 'The most noble civilisation ever known to mankind is our Islamic civilisation. Today, Western civilisation is nothing more than the product of its encounter with our Islamic civilisation in Andalusia [mediaeval Spain]. The reason for [Western civilisation's] bankruptcy is its reliance on the materialistic approach, and its detachment from religion and values. [This approach] has been one reason for the misery of the human race, for the proliferation of suicide, mental problems and for moral perversion. Only one nation is capable of resuscitating global civilisation, and that is the nation [of Islam].'

Al-Sudais is the highest imam appointed by our Saudi government ally, and his sermons are widely listened to across the Middle East. When he came to the UK in June to open the London Islamic Centre, thousands of British Muslims flocked to see him, our so-called race relations minister Fiona Mactaggart shared the platform, and Prince Charles sent a video message. He is probably the closest thing in Islam to the Pope, but I haven't recently heard the Pope call for the overthrow of all other faiths....

Read it all.

"This is nothing alarming," officials told the passengers. Ignore that bomb-sniffing dog. Not that I am saying that they shouldn't have tried to calm passengers, but I think this is part of a larger official pattern of downplaying every incident, leaving the public largely unaware of the magnitude of the continuing threat. From AP, :

NEWARK, N.J. -- A threatening note found aboard a Washington-to-New York Amtrak train prompted police to detain it for an hour and a half Thursday morning while they checked all passengers for identification and examined the overhead luggage racks.

After officers videotaped the passengers and searched the cars with at least one bomb-sniffing dog, the train was declared safe and allowed to leave Newark Penn Station to continue on its way.

Amtrak spokesman Dan Stessel said he did not know the exact contents of the note, but a law enforcement source said it contained "pro-Muslim, anti-Jewish rhetoric." The note included the phrase, "You're all sitting ducks," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The note was attached to the mirror in a restroom of the train's cafe car, Stessel said. The passenger who found it notified the train crew, and police were waiting for the train when it reached Newark, its next scheduled stop.

Joel Mowbray points out a glaring omission in the much-flawed but elephantine 9/11 report. From the Washington Times, :

In an epic-sized 567-page report, the September 11 commission glossed over one of the most important aspects of the attack: All 19 of the hijackers entered the United States on legal visas, even though at least 15 of them didn't qualify under the law. And the panel mostly shrugged off the U.S. policy that Saudis were granted easier access to visas than any other Arab country.

The commission's latest interim report emphasizes, perhaps unintentionally, the importance of easy visas to the September 11 plot. The panel revealed that one of the biggest difficulties faced by al Qaeda was getting Osama bin Laden's hand-picked hijackers into the United States -- unless they were Saudis.

So easy visa access for Saudis cleared a major obstacle: Had al Qaeda had even one more hijacker, the White House or the Capitol might have met a different fate that day.

Three non-Saudis identified by the commission tried and failed to receive visas, including the would-be fifth pilot, Ramzi bin al Shieb, a Yemeni national. September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed didn't even bother having two other Qaeda operatives selected by bin Laden to apply for visas.

Why? Because, as an earlier staff statement noted, "It soon became clear to KSM [Khalid Sheikh Mohammed] that the other two operatives, Khallad bin Attash and Abu Bara al Taizi -- both of whom had Yemeni, not Saudi, documentation -- would not be able to obtain U.S. visas."

Afforded only a brief mention -- buried in a footnote on page 492 -- was a reference to what Mr. Mohammed reportedly told U.S. interrogators last year: that 15 of the hijackers were Saudis because they had the easiest time getting visas.

The Saudi visa policy was the natural result of the "courtesy culture," an effort spearheaded by the head of Consular Affairs, Mary Ryan, which started with her appointment in 1993. The goal was simple: make "customer" service and satisfaction the top priority in visa policy, where the "customer" was not American national security.

American Airlines specifies the Bible as an offensive item, but the Qur'an gets a pass. From WND, with thanks to EPG:

Some Christian employees of American Airlines think the company's anti-harassment policies - which include a warning not to place a Bible in a Muslim's cubicle - discriminate against them.

The warning was included in a written reminder of the company's workplace policies. One of the examples of what might be "considered to be harassment under company policy" was:

"Placing a Bible in a Muslim co-worker's cubicle, which could support a claim for harassment."

One employee who contacted WND noted, "It makes no mention of a Quran being classified as offensive, the Bhagavad-Gita or any other religious book - EXCEPT the Bible. Obviously, these rules have an anti-Christian bias that needs to be remedied."

Remember, as you read this story, that if all of this is being instituted now, that means it wasn't being done before. Not just English, but "a knowledge of, and engagement with, British civic life" and "professional qualification." And as has been abundantly established, there are clerics in Britain whose only engagement with British civic life is a dedication to subverting it and replacing it with a Sharia state. (Remember Omar Bakri and Abu Hamza?)

From the Telegraph, :

Muslim imams and other "ministers of religion" wishing to enter Britain to work must show a basic command of spoken English, under new Home Office regulations. Within two years of entry, they will have to reach a higher standard as "competent" English writers or speakers, according to the restrictions, which will come into force by the end of next month.

The Home Office is also considering introducing a requirement for imams and priests who have been in Britain for a year to show "a knowledge of, and engagement with, British civic life". They may also be required to have some form of "professional qualification".

The restrictions, and the proposals under consideration, have been prompted by Government concern that some foreign imams may be preaching radical teachings, which could incite terrorism.

However, the Home Office announcement yesterday made clear that the restrictions would not be targeted only at Islamic preachers but all kinds of "ministers of religion".

That's good. Watch out for Buddhist terrorists.

The Iranian mullahs weren't just involved in 9/11. They're still involved with Al-Qaeda. Is that a surprise to anyone? Not to anyone familiar with the jihad ideology. From Bill Gertz in the Washington Times:

A senior CIA official has revealed that al Qaeda operatives in Iran probably had advance knowledge of recent terrorist attacks, a sign that the cooperation between Tehran and al Qaeda is continuing since September 11.

"There have been al Qaeda people who have stayed for some time in Iran ... and because they have been in touch with colleagues outside of Iran at times when operations have occurred, it's hard to imagine that they were unwitting of those operations," the senior official said.

"And it's not hard to make the leap that they may have had at least some operational knowledge. It's harder to make the leap that they were directing operations like that."

The senior official spoke to reporters on the findings of the September 11 commission. The commission's report provides new details of Iranian government support for al Qaeda, including travel assistance to several of the hijackers involved in the 2001 airline attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

U.S. intelligence officials have said that a senior al Qaeda operations official, Sayf al-Adl, has been in Iran since 2002. He has been linked to the terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia in May, and to the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa.

The commission inquiry revealed that captured al Qaeda leaders Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh disclosed to interrogators that at least eight of the September 11 hijackers "transited Iran" on the way to Afghanistan, "taking advantage of the Iranian practice of not stamping Saudi passports," the nearly 600-page report stated.

This just in from Fox News:

WASHINGTON -- A report of a bomb aboard a Turkish merchant ship Thursday forced the U.S. Coast Guard to escort the vessel away from the port of Philadelphia and out into the sea off Delaware, senior Defense officials told FOX News.

The ship's master notified authorities about the possible bomb, officials said. The information was revealed after the captain refused to have portions of the ship searched by the Coast Guard....

UPDATE: There was no bomb. The FBI has now charged the ship's captain with making a false statement. From CBS:

BOWERS BEACH, DE (CBS) The captain of a Turkish merchant ship headed into Philadelphia harbor falsely told a Coast Guard inspector the vessel had a bomb on board Thursday, forcing officials to order the ship to turn around, an FBI spokesman said.

Yildirim Bayazer Tumer, 46, became agitated when members of the Philadelphia Coast Guard boarded the ship for a routine inspection Thursday morning, said Barry Maddox, a spokesman for the FBI's Baltimore field office.

Tumer told an officer that there was a bomb on board that was set to blow up when the ship docked at the port of Philadelphia, Maddox said.

The Coast Guard notified the FBI and other agencies, and the ship was turned around and held at a safe anchorage point near Bowers Beach on the Delaware Bay. Authorities performed a thorough search that lasted a few hours, and no evidence of a bomb was found, Maddox said.

Tumer was charged late Thursday with making a false statement to a federal official, a felony. He was expected to have an initial appearance Friday in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Maddox said.

Plus some information on the latest hostages, from Reuters:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - A decapitated corpse was found by police in northern Iraq Thursday and Bulgaria said it was investigating whether the body was one of two Bulgarians seized by militants loyal to al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

In Kuwait, the transport company that employs three Indians, three Kenyans and an Egyptian also kidnapped by guerrillas in Iraq said it would do all it can to win their release.

The announcement of their kidnapping Wednesday sparked a new hostage crisis just a day after guerrillas freed a Filipino driver following Manila's capitulation to their demands.

Their captors say they will behead one hostage every three days unless the firm that employs the men, Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Company, stops doing business in Iraq.

Iraqi police said the decapitated body and its severed head were found in the Tigris river near Baiji, 100 miles north of Baghdad, and taken to the city of Tikrit. Earlier this month another headless body in an orange jumpsuit was found in the river in the same area. It has yet to be identified.

The severed head was bloated from being submerged in the water. The body was dressed in a faded and torn reddish-colored tunic. Zarqawi's group dresses its hostages in orange clothing before executing them, mimicking the orange jumpsuits worn by U.S. prisoners including Muslim detainees in Guantanamo Bay.

The two Bulgarians, Georgi Lazov and Ivailo Kepov, were seized as they delivered cars to Mosul in northern Iraq. Zarqawi's group has already executed an American and a South Korean hostage, and has claimed responsibility for a series of suicide bomb attacks in Iraq.

"We are officially looking into the situation and are checking if the body is one of the Bulgarian hostages. We are trying to confirm this," Bulgarian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Vicky Melamed said in Sofia.

BEGGING FOR THEIR LIVES

Video footage given to news organizations showed the seven kidnapped drivers looking tired and afraid in a dingy room, stating name and nationality to the camera and begging for their lives to be spared. One of them, Mohammed Ali Sanad from Egypt, tried to reassure his family.

"Mom, if you see me on TV don't get worried, we are with the best people, the Iraqis," he said. "You too my kids, Ahmed and Ali, don't worry. I am coming at the end of the month as I promised you, but if we die then I say thank God."

After reading the Spencer/Kristof letters posted yesterday, and witnessing the don't-confuse-me-with-the-facts attitude they display, Mrs. Obelix kindly sent me this ee cummings sendup. I also decided to post here the original for those who may not be familiar with it.

Here is cummings:

plato told

him:he couldn't
believe it(jesus

told him;he
wouldn't believe
it)lao

tsze
certainly told
him,and general
(yes

mam)
sherman;
and even
(believe it
or

not)you
told him:i told
him;we told him
(he didn't believe it,no

sir)it took
a nipponized bit of
the old sixth

avenue
el;in the top of his head:to tell

him

And Mrs. Obelix:

spencer told

him:he couldn't
believe it(serge trifcovic

told him;he
wouldn't believe
it) daniel

pipes
certainly told
him,and victor davis
("he must be a

jew")
hanson;
and even
(believe it
or

not)you
told him:i told
him;we told him
(he didn't believe it,no
sir)it took
a radioactive bit of
the old sixth

avenue
el;in the top of his head:to tell

him

Once again: is it really "Islamophobia" to point out that Islam, unlike all the major forms of Christianity, has a comprehensive system for the governance of a state and the ordering of a society, and that many Muslims believe that that system must be implemented wherever possible? The Dutch PM says that "the decision on whether to open EU membership talks with Turkey, due to be taken in December, must be strictly on the basis of whether or not Turkey meets the agreed standards of human rights and democracy." Fine; but why can't there be on that basis a forthright discussion of whether Islamic law itself meets those standards?

Yes, Turkey is a secular state, but it is a secular state under constant pressure from radical Muslims, to whom over the years it has granted significant concessions. What form will those concessions take in the future?

Apparently the Dutch PM assumes that Islam is just another species of "religion," i.e., like the Calvinism and Roman Catholicism that the Dutch used to believe in. Neither one challenged the character of the state, at least in modern times; why should Islam? He shows no awareness of the likelihood that many European Muslims want to create Sharia states there, or of other key elements of the Turkey EU question. From the BBC, with thanks to Joe Kraft and Sharon:

Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has said Islamophobia must not affect the possibility of Turkey's entry to the European Union.

Speaking at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, he attacked Muslim groups, which he said were sowing hatred, and promised new anti-terror measures.

Mr Balkenende was outlining the plans of the Dutch presidency of the European Union over the next six months.

The newly enlarged parliament is meeting for the first time this week.

BBC European affairs correspondent William Horsley says Mr Balkenende's comments were unusually harsh and blunt from a European head of government, especially one who speaks for the whole EU.

Same criteria

The Dutch prime minister said Turkey's possible entry into the EU troubled many European citizens.

But he said the decision on whether to open EU membership talks with Turkey, due to be taken in December, must be strictly on the basis of whether or not Turkey meets the agreed standards of human rights and democracy.

There was not a problem that Turkey was a Muslim nation, he said.

"The decision must be arrived at honestly, under the ground rules to which we previously, in 2002, firmly committed ourselves," he said.

"That means strict application of the criteria laid down, but without inventing new criteria.

"We must not allow ourselves to be guided by fear, for example of Islam."

He said the problem was the misuse of religion to sow hatred and to repress women.

It also should be asked forthrightly whether the sowing of hatred and repression of women are really "misuses" of Islam, considering passages of the Qur'an such as 98:6, 9:29-30, 48:29, 4:34, etc. etc. Is this very question "Islamophobic"? Why must it be? Why cannot there be an open acknowledgement by secular and moderate Muslims that they do not live with these assumptions about unbelievers and women, and that they do not believe that such texts are the words of God?

Yes, they would be portrayed as apostates. Yes, they would be in fear of their lives. And this is why we see no large-scale reform in Islam.

In Islamic law, the penalty for conversion from Islam is death. And dhimmis are strictly forbidden to proselytize. These warnings are in full accord with these provisions, once again illustrating that the "extremist" Muslims are the by-the-book types, and that only when moderate Muslims acknowledge, confront and repudiate what is actually taught in Islamic theology and law will reform even become possible.

From WND, with thanks to Cathy J. Palmer:

Terrorists have threatened retaliation against South Korea if the Asian nation sends missionaries to Iraq.

"We have received information that terrorists will act against South Korea if they find South Koreans have entered Iraq for the purpose of propagating Christianity,'' South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo Hyuck told reporters.

After the beheading of South Korean interpreter and businessman Kim Sun Il last month, Seoul advised all civilians to leave Iraq.

The group that murdered Kim, Tawhid wa al-Jihad, or Unification and Holy War, posted a message on its website saying the killing was linked to religious activities of the firm that employed Kim, Gana Trading Co.

Tawhid is not "unification," as it is translated here. It is the Islamic concept of the absolute unity of Allah, by which radical Muslims judge nearly every non-Muslim to be a polytheist -- and thus to be warred against, as per Sura 9:5 and many other passages of the Qur'an.

In a statement both in Arabic and English, the group said Kim, with degrees in the Arabic language and theology, wanted to be a Christian missionary in the Arab world.

The terrorist group said, "We killed him because he was a heretic who tried to spread Christianity in Iraq. The president of Gana Trading is also a sincere Christian. He contributes 10 percent of his earnings for missionary work and the company's name also comes from the Bible."

Annie Jacobsen's now-famous experience was not isolated. According to this Washington Times piece (thanks to Jjp Mackie), those kinds of dry runs are going on with disturbing frequency.

Flight crews and air marshals say Middle Eastern men are staking out airports, probing security measures and conducting test runs aboard airplanes for a terrorist attack.

At least two midflight incidents have involved numerous men of Middle Eastern descent behaving in what one pilot called "stereotypical" behavior of an organized attempt to attack a plane.

"No doubt these are dry runs for a terrorist attack," an air marshal said.

Pilots and air marshals who asked to remain anonymous told The Washington Times that surveillance by terrorists is rampant, using different probing methods....

A January FBI memo says suicide terrorists are plotting to hijack trans-Atlantic planes by smuggling "ready-to-build" bomb kits past airport security, and later assembling the explosives in aircraft bathrooms....

The article then recounts the details of Ms. Jacobsen's experience, adding:

The pilot confirmed Mrs. Jacobsen's experience was "terribly alike" what flight attendants reported on the San Juan flight.

He said there is "widespread knowledge" among crew members these probes are taking place.

A Middle Eastern passenger attempted to videotape out the window as the plane taxied on takeoff and, when told by a flight attendant it was not permitted, "gave her a mean look and stopped taping," said a written report of the San Juan incident by a flight attendant.

The group of six men sat near one another, pretended to be strangers, but after careful observation from flight attendants, it was apparent "all six knew each other," the report said.

"They were very careful when we were in their area to seem separate and pretended to be sleeping, but when we were out of the twilight area, they were watching and communicating," the report said.

The men made several trips to the bathroom and congregated in that area, and were told at least twice by a flight attendant to return to their seats. The suspicious behavior was relayed to airline officials in midflight and additional background checks were conducted.

A second pilot said that, on one of his recent flights, an air marshal forced his way into the lavatory at the front of his plane after a man of Middle Eastern descent locked himself in for a long period.

The marshal found the mirror had been removed and the man was attempting to break through the wall. The cockpit was on the other side....

... [A] flight attendant reported that a passenger was using a telephoto lens to take sequential photos of the cockpit door.

The passenger was stopped, and the incident, which happened two months ago, was reported to officials. But when the attendant checked back last week on the outcome, she was told her report had been lost.

Recent incidents at the Minneapolis-St. Paul international airport have also alarmed flight crews. Earlier this month, a passenger from Syria was taken into custody while carrying anti-American materials and a note suggesting he intended to commit a public suicide.

A third pilot reported watching a man of Middle Eastern descent at the same airport using binoculars to get airplane tail numbers and writing the numbers in a notebook to correspond with flight numbers.

"It's a probe. They are probing us," said a second air marshal, who confirmed that Middle Eastern men try to flush out marshals by rushing the cockpit and stopping suddenly.

UPDATE: Clinton Taylor has shed a great deal of light on Annie Jacobsen's experience. It seems that the Syrians on her flight were indeed musicians, but that she had reason to be suspicious.

Despite the best efforts of their craven elites and the politically correct establishment, the Spanish are not all ready to deny their history and culture. From the Telegraph, with thanks to Susan:

St James the Moor Slayer, Spain's patron saint, has notched up another victory.

Church officials have been forced to overturn a decision to remove a statue of the saint from the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain.

The statue, an 18th-century work by Jose Gambino which depicts St James on a white charger hacking off the heads of Moors beneath his rampant mount's hooves, was deemed to be offensive to Muslims.

However a spokesman for the church, which is Christendom's third holiest site after Rome and Jerusalem and attracts half a million pilgrims each year, said yesterday that, due to public anger over the proposed move, the statue will now remain in place.

"It is still here on the same spot. It is not going anywhere," a spokesman for Alejandro Barral, the president of the cathedral's art commission, said. "We have decided that the statue of St James will stay in the cathedral. There is no reason why it should be removed in the near future. For the moment the debate over its future has been suspended."

The Spanish press reported that terrorist bomb attacks on Madrid trains in March had precipitated the withdrawal of the statue.

The Spanish national newspaper, El Mundo, said: "According to our sources the authorities fear that the image could attract the anger of the Arab world in a period of high tension."

The plan was to put the statue in a museum and replace it with a less provocative effigy, one of St James the Pilgrim.

The decision outraged Roman Catholics. One newspaper commentator dubbed it "political correctness gone mad". People gathered in strength to place flowers at the foot of the statue and newspapers published letters of complaint condemning the "intolerable heresy".

The announcement of the withdrawal was welcomed by the Muslim community as a "step towards peace" according to Houssam El Mahmoudi, the president of the Association of Moroccan Students in Santiago.

How about, as a step toward peace themselves, they root out the elements among Spanish Muslims that perpetrated the 3/11 Madrid train bombings, and that want to reestablish glorious Al-Andalus?

For those who think that nothing has been attempted by radical Muslims in America since 9/11, here is a short list from the Star Tribune of terror-related arrests since then in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area alone. It starts with Zacarias Moussaoui, the famous "20th hijacker," and adds:

• August 2002: Abdel-Ilah Elmardoudi, a Moroccan who lived in Minneapolis, was indicted and later convicted of conspiring to provide material support or resources to terrorists, of fraud and of misusing documents. ...

• November 2002: Indictment unsealed against Ilyas Ali, who was born in India and lived in St. Paul. He pleaded guilty to charges that he conspired to supply weapons to terrorists through the sale of drugs.

• December 2003: Mohammed A. Warsame, 30, a Canadian man born in Somalia who lived in Minneapolis, was arrested in the Twin Cities. He has been charged with conspiring to provide aid to Al-Qaida, and federal prosecutors allege he fought with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

• April 2004: Agents began questioning Mohamad Elzahabi, 41, a Lebanese man who was later charged with lying to federal agents after saying that he didn't send walkie-talkies to Pakistan. Elzahabi, who lived in Minneapolis, is also charged with lying about his role in helping a man fraudulently obtain a Massachusetts driver's license. An FBI affidavit says he admitted to participating in an Al-Qaida training camp.

• July 7: Ali Mohamed Almosaleh was arrested at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport carrying a suspicious note hinting at a public suicide. It hasn't been determined if he has terrorist ties.

Memo to Gloria Macapagal Arroyo: see what you have done? I am glad Angelo de la Cruz is alive and free. But are the lives of these people, who have been captured because you have shown them that hostage-taking works, worth less than his? From AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Militants took six foreign truck drivers hostage and threatened Wednesday to behead them unless their company ends its business in Iraq, and their countries -- India, Egypt and Kenya -- pull all their citizens out. The threat came as militants launched a rocket attack on a Baghdad hospital, killing two people, and set off a car bomb in the capital that killed four....

The threat to behead the hostages -- and separate warnings against Bulgarian, Polish and Japanese troops -- is the latest development in a violent campaign to scare off foreigners, who play a vital role in supporting the new U.S.-backed government and in the reconstruction of Iraq....

A militant group calling itself "The Holders of the Black Banners," announced Wednesday it had taken two Kenyans, three Indians and an Egyptian hostage, and said it would behead a captive every 72 hours beginning Saturday night if their countries do not announce their intentions to withdraw troops and citizens from Iraq.

The black flag is the flag of jihad.

The post below has gotten quite long enough, but I can't resist adding just one more exchange I have had over the Dallas Morning News article.

This one is a classic example of the moral confusion and myopia that keeps people from understanding the reality and magnitude of the threat of radical Islam. It ought to be obvious to everyone that the "Christian extremists" he mentions have done nothing remotely approaching 9/11, or 3/11, or Bali, or Nigeria, or the suicide attacks in Israel, or hundreds of other incidents I could name -- and that therefore any comparison of them with jihadists, like Kristof's, amounts to nothing more than a slur, and a diversion of our attention from where it should be. Unfortunately, it isn't obvious.

Mr. Spencer,

After reading your response to Kristof's article about the "Left Behind" series of novels, it occurs to me that you don't really understand many of the salt-of-the-earth Christians who, quite literally, take these novels as gospel. I work at a public library in a poor area of town in a midwestern state, where Christian extremism is routine. The comments from my customers indicate that they believe the "Left Behind" novels are non-fiction accounts of what will truly happen. They are often incapable of distinguishing fiction from fact. These novels are stirring up dangerous emotions in these folks that entrench their beliefs, and render them incapable of living in even a remotely pluralistic society. Mr. Kristof's view is in no way giving comfort to the Muslim extremists, but, rather, explaining how Christian religious intolerance is incompatible with living in the United States.

Sincerely,
[Name deleted]

Reply:

Thanks. Please send me news articles recounting how these folks have begun taking up arms and killing non-Christians. I look forward to receiving them.

Best regards
Robert Spencer

How interesting to get hate mail from Christians for a change. Here is a choice one I received, thrillingly paradoxical in its lustily slung insults combined with its self-righteous pious posturing and castigation of me for insulting Mr. Kristof. My reply follows, along with another exchange.

These are not posted, however, just for entertainment value: it is instructive to note that these attitudes are still held by large numbers of Americans, and that they obstruct anti-terror efforts. Thus it is important, I believe, to reply to them whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Also, a little State-of-the-Union note: all of the mail I have received about this column, and it has been considerable, has been either from haters or skeptics. Not one message of support or agreement. (UPDATE: I have now received a few very kind notes. Thanks to all who sent them.)

Dear Mr. Spencer, It's very interesting how many times you mentioned Mr. Kristof's name and followed it by an insult of some sort. Instead of sharing an intelligent and thought provoking opposite perspective you made yourself look like someone with their head up their a--.

After reading your view point of "Are Left Behind Books Dangerous?",
in the Wednesday, July 21, 2004 edition of The Dallas Morning News, I
was ashamed and embarrassed that I share the faith of Christianity with you. Somehow, your warped sense of self has been allowed to be shared with the mass public and spread uneducated and yes, ignorant hate against all Muslims.

It is extremely ignorant to take short passages out of any book, let
alone a holy book such as the Quran, and say "See...this is what all
Muslims believe". Many American and world Muslims do NOT believe in
the extremists actions the radical Islamic Militants have taken. The
reason I am told, is because of their holy book, the Quran. Do some
further research and you will find many passages that encourage peace, faith and tolerance in the Quran. That way, Mr. Spencer, you would have spared yourself the embarrassment of looking like a moral and racist imbecile.

It is amazing how you seem to forget all the atrocities that have
been conducted against non-Christians in history and in present day by people who share our love in Jesus. Grow up and get a grip on reality Mr. Spencer.

The several people in my office who read the article (primarily a
Christian group) felt disturbed by what you wrote and how it came
across. Your random spewing has shamed all Christians into looking like archaic fools who can't tell their behind from their head.

I praise our Savior Jesus that there are MANY intelligent, thoughtful
Americans who think of how their words, thoughts and actions effect
other people before they speak and will realize that what you wrote was exactly that....YOUR viewpoint.

I thank Jesus, that by sharing himself in love by HIS thought, word
and action that many Americans understand that we need to remain
tolerant and humble always. Really, it takes so much time and effort to remain daily in the love and light that Jesus taught us and conduct ourselves in a "Christian manner", that we don't have time to stupidly slam others.

I am not sure how you got this far in life Mr. Spencer, but it is
clear that you have some serious doubts in yourself, your faith and
your own confidence as a human being. Our actions have a funny way of coming back to visit us and I pray, Mr. Spencer that you are spared the hate that you have spewed in your article.

May God Bless you,
[Name deleted], Dallas TX

And my reply:

Dear [Name deleted],

Thanks for your note. Please specify where in this article or in any of my books or other articles I have ever said: "See...this is what all Muslims believe."

I would invite you to study the Qur'an, as well as Islamic theology,
jurispudence, and history, and tell me whether you can still maintain
that Islam has no doctrine mandating violence against non-Muslims. You can find these documents readily, or see them quoted abundantly in my book "Onward Muslim Soldiers." Does this mean that all Muslims believe this? Of course not. Nor have I ever said that they do. But to ignore or gloss over this fact is to take away the principal weapon that Muslim reformers have: they can't repair what no one will acknowledge is broken.

Cordially,
Robert Spencer

And another:

How convenient for you to mention only the New Testament when talking about Christians killing other people. You fail to note, my friend, that Christians very frequently refer to Jesus' Jewishness and Christians very carefully study the Old as well as the New testaments.

And in that Old Testament are many instances where God commanded his people to go out and kill entire communities!

Also, you take a tremendous amount of literary license when you
castigate Mr. Kristof, implying that he lumps Christians and Islam so
conveniently in the same bag.

[Name deleted]

Reply:

Dear [Name deleted],

Please specify the Christian churches that teach that Christians have
the responsibility to kill non-Christians. Most Christian churches
actually teach that the Old Testament passages to which you refer have been superseded by New Testament passages such as Matthew 5:38, etc.

Also, please point out to me the existence of a global network of
Christian terrorists that take their justification from the Old
Testament, analogous to the many jihadist groups that take their
justification from the Qur'an -- not just Al-Qaeda, but Hamas,
Hizballah, Islamic Jihad, Jemaah Islamiyah, etc. etc. etc.

Please also specify any specific statement I made that misrepresents
anything Mr. Kristof said.

Cordially,
Robert Spencer

Plus this exchange, which is not hate mail but which I put up for the information contained therein:

Mr. Spencer,

I read your column (Dallas Morning News, July 21) and appreciate your
efforts, but I have do have two questions.

(1) The citations from the Quran are obviously translations. Can we be sure the word translated "fight" means a physical, armed conflict? Even our word "fight" can mean to struggle or contend, as in fighting a disease, fighting to succeed in business, etc. When I was young, we sometimes sang hymns entitled "The Fight is On" and "Onward Christian Soldiers." I don't think anybody interpreted these to go get a gun to literally fight the non-Christians.

Further, I have heard Muslims say that "jihad" means "the struggle to be a good Muslim." The context of at least one of the references you cite suggests the meaning is not a physical battle: the one about making war on non-Muslims until they either become Muslims or pay the tax. If the purpose of the war was to literally kill them, they could hardly become Muslims OR pay a tax.

(2) To my knowledge, all Christians accept the Old Testament as
Scripture. Go back and read Exodus through Judges, and see how much war you find.

Not only that, but the command to "wipe out" the enemies (non-Israelites), sometime men, women, and children, is frequently heard. Is this substantially different from what is in the Islam Scriptures?

Answers to these two sets of questions would be most important if we are to assess your overall thesis.

[Name deleted] (retired minister)
Dallas, Texas

And my reply:

In Islamic tradition, jihad has all these meanings, including physical, armed struggle. I have written a whole book about this, but in any case, the context is clear in this and many other Qur'anic verses: "Therefore, when ye meet the Unbelievers (in fight), smite at their necks; At length, when ye have thoroughly subdued them, bind a bond firmly (on them): thereafter (is the time for) either generosity or ransom: Until the war lays down its burdens." (47:4). "Smite at their necks" is not the language of dialogue and preaching, but of warfare.

"Further, I have heard Muslims say that 'jihad' means 'the struggle to be a good Muslim.'"

That is true. However, the legal manual to which I referred, Umdat al-Salik, devotes one paragraph to this meaning of jihad, and ten pages to warfare. It is clear where the emphasis lies, and this is not an isolated or unusual text in this regard.

"The context of at least one of the references you cite suggests the meaning is not a physical battle: the one about making war on non-Muslims until they either become Muslims or pay the tax. If the purpose of the war was to literally kill them, they could hardly become Muslims OR pay a tax."

Right. 9:29 makes it clear that the purpose of the jihad is NOT solely to kill them, but to subjugate them. As is clear from Islamic theology and law, unbelievers have three choices: conversion, submission, or death.

"(2) To my knowledge, all Christians accept the Old Testament as Scripture. Go back and read Exodus through Judges, and see how much
war you find. Not only that, but the command to "wipe out" the enemies (non-Israelites), sometime men, women, and children, is frequently heard. Is this substantially different from what is in the Islam Scriptures?"

Yes. Neither Christians nor Jews believe that those were commandments to the believers that were valid for all time. Radical Muslims, however, regard the martial verses of the Qur'an, because they were revealed later than those counseling peace and tolerance, as superseding the verses of peace and mandating a belligerent posture towards unbelievers. This is also the traditional teaching of Islamic divines.

UPDATE: For a further exchange with the first letter-writer above, read on. Once again, I believe the exchange is instructive, as exchanges like this take place every day in America nowadays. I hope you find my responses to all these helpful.

Here is another issue that has been clouded by talk of pluralism and religious freedom. That's all very well; but pluralism and religious freedom are generally not allowed to non-Muslims in the countries from which the Hamtramck Muslims came to Michigan. Nor are they allowed under Islamic law. What demands will be made next upon the non-Muslims of Hamtramck?

Also note: the Muslims there weren't going to respect the vote anyway. From AP, with thanks to KR Ingalls:

HAMTRAMCK, Mich. (AP) -- Residents agreed Tuesday to include the Islamic call to prayer in the city's noise ordinance, a victory for those in favor of allowing mosques to issue the call to prayer over loudspeakers.

Those in favor of allowing the broadcasts won the vote 1,462 to 1,200, or 55 percent to 45 percent, with all precincts reporting and all absentee ballots counted.

Opponents and backers of the measure acknowledged that the vote was merely symbolic. The ballot measure would not have stopped the amplified call to prayer; it would merely have repealed an amendment to the city's existing noise ordinance. The amendment regulates the volume and timing of the call. City officials have said there would be nothing to prohibit the broadcasting of the call to prayer itself.

"Now we truly have approval from the residents of the city," said Abdul Motlib, head of the al-Islah mosque, who joined others Tuesday night at city hall to await the results of the vote. "It's a long time we are waiting for this."

The City Council unanimously passed the amendment in April after a local mosque asked for permission to begin broadcasting the Arabic chants, traditionally issued five times a day.

The council's action provoked an outcry among some longtime residents of Hamtramck, a once predominately-Polish city of 23,000 people that is surrounded by Detroit. In recent years, the city has seen a rapid influx of immigrants from Bangladesh, Yemen and other countries.

City Council president Karen Majewski has said that repealing the amendment would have left the city powerless to regulate the calls, but would not allow officials to stop them. Nothing in the current noise ordinance bans the practice, she says.

The al-Islah mosque began the call to prayer in May. Masud Khan, secretary of the mosque, said the broadcasts would have continued whatever the outcome of Tuesday's vote. At least one other Hamtramck mosque also has begun the broadcasts via loudspeakers since May.

Last night on Hardball with Chris Matthews, Senator Bob Graham (D-FL) said that he knew for a fact that another country besides Iran was behind 9/11 and Al-Qaeda. (Thanks to Foehammer for the link.)

GRAHAM: Chris, you're also assuming that the only foreign government that provided assistance to al Qaeda was Iran, based on this new information. I don't think that's correct. There were a number of instances in which our people were put at greater risk because of the actions of foreign governments. Unfortunately, for reason that are inexplicable to me, that's been withheld from the American people. I hope that this instance in Iran will be the basis of the government telling our people who are our friends and who our enemies really are.

MATTHEWS: Right. But Senator Graham, do you know for a fact that any other government helped the al Qaeda people hit us on 9/11?

GRAHAM: Yes.

MATTHEWS: Who?

GRAHAM: I cannot say that.

MATTHEWS: Is it among usual suspects?

GRAHAM: Well, I don't know who your usual suspects are.

MATTHEWS: Well, how about--how about--how about the kind of governments the president lists in his "axis of evil"? How about that for a start?

GRAHAM: Well, let me say this. There is--as Senator Lott has just said, there has been some reporting in those newspapers and magazines about this, so it's not completely withheld from the American people. And some of that has been declassified. But the government has not been forthcoming in saying, Here's who was involved, and here's what we're going to do about it.

MATTHEWS: I'd love to know that list.

Of course, the "right" to wear hijab is just the proverbial camel's nose under the tent. This "right" rather quickly becomes a grim requirement -- as women in Iran and elsewhere have discovered. It is just like conversion: one is free to convert to Islam; one is not free, however, to convert from it. Women in the UK must be free to wear headscarves. All right, but how long will it be before they are not free not to wear them? From Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, with thanks to Sharon:

London, 20 July 2004 -- A newly established group in the United Kingdom aims to protect the right of Muslim women to wear traditional Islamic head scarf, or hijab.

The Assembly for the Protection of the Hijab was created in July by the U.K.'s Muslim Women's Society and the Muslim Association of Britain.

It vows to fight bans on wearing the hijab in schools, as well as the impact such bans have on communities in Western Europe. It has even declared 4 September, the start of the new school year in Europe, International Hijab Solidarity Day.

"I think it shows how concerned the Muslim community is about the whole issue of dress, and how much emphasis is being placed on how Muslim people dress," said Shabana Khan, a spokeswoman for the Muslim Council of Britain, which is affiliated with the Muslim Association of Britain.

Khan pointed out that two recent events acted as a catalyst for the group's formation.

One is the ban on hijab in state schools in France that comes into force after the summer school holidays.

The other is a ruling of the European Court of Human Rights to uphold the decision of a university in Turkey to force a female student to stop wearing the hijab.

Khan said both decisions represent a basic violation of mainstream Muslim views[.]

"The mainstream Muslim or Islamic view is that for men and women there is a dress requirement, and I think that the covering of a woman, including her hair and her body, is part of that requirement," Khan said.

This woman's language betrays the unilateral nature of her quest. If a "dress requirement" is part of "mainstream" Islam, what will prevent it from eventually being required of everyone?

Relax, Mr. Kerry: nukes, but no WMD's. And seriously, why isn't this on the front page of the New York Times and the Washington Post? From UPI, with thanks to "Allah":

Baghdad, Iraq, Jul. 21 (UPI) -- Iraqi security reportedly discovered three missiles carrying nuclear heads concealed in a concrete trench northwest of Baghdad, official sources said Wednesday.

The official daily al-Sabah quoted the sources as saying the missiles were discovered in trenches near the city of Tikrit, the hometown of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

"The three missiles were discovered by chance when the Iraqi security forces captured former Baath party official Khoder al-Douri who revealed during interrogation the location of the missiles saying they carried nuclear heads," the sources said.

They pointed out that the missiles were actually discovered in the trenches lying under six meters of concrete and designed in a way to unable sophisticated sensors from discovering nuclear radiation.

The whole world has voted for terrorism -- except for Australia, Israel, the US, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau. More evidence of the rank corruption and utter worthlessness of the UN. From AAP, with thanks to Kevin:

Australia was among just six nations that opposed a United Nations resolution calling on Israel to tear down part of its West Bank barrier, in a stance described as proof America dictated Australia's foreign policy.

Australia voted against a UN General Assembly resolution which backed a World Court ruling calling on Israel to tear down part of barrier - an unfinished 700km concrete and barbed wire fence built partly on West Bank territory.

The resolution was supported in the UN by 150 countries with only Australia, Israel, the US, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau voting against it, and 10 abstentions.

Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Ameer Ali said the Australian vote sent a message to the Muslim community that the government had no sympathy for Palestine.

"It is disheartening," Dr Ali said.

"Israel, America and Australia - these are three important countries that have voted against it.

"I expected that to happen because the present government goes all the way with what the Americans say, we don't have independent foreign policy at the moment.

"The government has not said anything in favour or in sympathy with the Palestinian people.

"That is the most troubling issue in the Muslim world and as long as that problem remains boiling, the governments that support this American foreign policy will be looked at with disfavour."

A respectful suggestion for Mr. Ali: maybe if he conveyed to his Palestinian Arab friends that if they stopped blowing up civilians in buses and restaurants, renounced violent jihad and Sharia provisions of dhimmitude, and accepted a peaceful negotiated solution to the conflict, they would command a great deal more sympathy. These words from the Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism explain it all:

The Coalition believes that terrorism can never be justified.

No other issue has been more frequently used to justify global terrorism than the alleged support for the Palestinian cause....

The Coalition believes unambiguously that organizations like HAMAS, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad are criminal terrorist organizations and their alleged support for the Palestinian cause does not in any way justify their use of terror or the killing of innocent Jews, Christians and Muslims.

The Coalition believes that terrorist organizations such HAMAS and Islamic Jihad have done more to hurt the Palestinian cause than any perceived enemy of the Palestinians. The Coalition believes that the Palestinians have a just cause and have the right to live in peace and prosperity. The Coalition also believes that Israelis have a just cause and have the right to live in peace and prosperity.

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is characterized by the same jihadist rhetoric as conflicts around the world between Muslims and non-Muslims. Israel is just one front in the global jihad, and all anti-jihadists should recognize that.

But of course, all this is not a problem for Palestinians at the UN, where they already have won the allegiance and sympathy of the world.

It is time for this stout coalition of six countries -- and any others who may find within themselves some last vestiges of moral discernment and courage -- to leave the UN and shake the dust from their feet. It's time for any states that wish to resist the global jihad to take a long, serious look at Dr. Rafael Israeli's proposal: an Alliance of Western and Democratic States (AWADS):

Coexistence between the West and the Muslim world, if not peaceful then at least non-belligerent, cannot exist or last unless a system of unilateral measures of self-defense is adopted by the West, but advertised and made clear to all, on the one hand; and another system of reward and non-lethal punishment is put in place, as a menu for every Muslim country or organization to choose from, if it elected to enjoy the goodies of the West, on the other.

Both do not require any agreement on the part of the Muslim countries, but do assume a united and uniform policy of Western countries, who are willing to participate in the effort and also to benefit from its fruits, those who belong there today, or prove in the future that they respond to the cumulative criteria, set by the West itself, for joining in, such as a certain per-capita income, a certain GNP judged necessary to maintain Western norms, a regime of liberal democracy- elected, with pacific transfer of power, accountable, a-personal, non-hereditary; a free press, transparency of government, human rights and freedoms; free enterprise, freedom of property, transaction of real estate and funds; freedom to create in the arts, the humanities, literature, and protection of one's creation; and a strong and independent judiciary to oversee all this. Such countries that would be accepted to the AWADS (Alliance of Western and Democratic States), at the center of which will be the US, Canada, Australia and Western Europe, will add other applicants as they prove their adaptability to its rules and their willingness and capacity to live by and up to them.

This system may sidetrack the chaotic situation in the UN today, where politics and shifting majorities, composed of dictatorships for the most part, determine the moral and other standards of behaviour in the world body. Durban 2001, should remain for ever a warning to the level of hatred and bigotry that the UN today is capable of stooping to.

Rules of Co-existence

AWADS will announce that it is organized to fight in unison terror, but is open not only to cooperation with Muslim countries who so desire, as long as they meet the two criteria of renouncing violence externally and enhance human rights domestically, but would even consider co-opting them into the organization if they should wean themselves from terror and develop political systems acceptable to it.

Thus, without threats, recriminations, forced reforms and all the rest, a powerful incentive is introduced in the international arena for change, the Western way, if a country so elects, or stay in the putrid marsh of UN politics. The West will then determine whom to get into AWADS, and once there what sort of obligations every country has to meet, proportionately to its strength, population and wealth, in contrast to the universality of the UN, which permits that any group of evil terrorist countries, such as Algeria, Syria and Sudan can determine the agenda and resolutions of, for example, the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva....

Even though it only had 51 troops in Iraq, the Philippines has dealt the coalition and the free world a major blow by caving in to terrorist demands and withdrawing them. Not only will they not bring peace to the Philippines or the Middle East, but many more people will be murdered by the terrorists. After all, they have seen that it works. From AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - New online statements by purported militants threatened attacks against three U.S. allies -- Poland, Japan and Bulgaria -- if they don't pull their troops from Iraq, a day after a Filipino hostage was released because the Philippines bowed to insurgents' demands and withdrew its tiny contingent....

The new threats against Poland, Japan and Bulgaria were worrying signs that militants may be emboldened by their success against the Philippines. The United States and other coalition allies had criticized the government for agreeing to withdraw its 51-member contingent to save the life of truck driver Angelo dela Cruz, who was kidnapped two weeks ago.

The same group that kidnapped dela Cruz, the Khaled bin al-Waleed Corps, took aim at Japan. The group is the military wing of Tawhid and Jihad, the group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

"To the government of Japan: Do what the Philippines has done. By God, nobody will protect you and we are not going to tolerate anybody," said a statement signed by the group. "Lines of cars laden with explosives are awaiting you; we will not stop, God willing."

A Foreign Ministry official in Japan said Wednesday that Tokyo would not pull its 500 troops, sent here for medical and reconstruction duty. Japan refused in April to withdraw after three Japanese were kidnapped by Iraqi insurgents. They were released unharmed....

The veracity of the latest statement could not be determined. A new statement signed Tawhid and Jihad on Wednesday cautioned readers to trust only statements posted on the group's behalf by Abu-Maysara al-Iraqi, the pen name of a frequent contributor to sites known for militant Muslim content. The threat against Japan was not posted by Abu-Maysara al-Iraqi.

While Tawhid and Jihad -- a name referring to the central Islamic tenet of monotheism and to holy war -- has claimed many attacks, it rarely issues threats or warnings. It earlier claimed responsibility for beheading U.S. businessman Nicholas Berg and South Korean translator Kim Sun-il.

An online statement from a previously unknown group that identified itself as al-Qaida's European branch contained threats to carry out deadly attacks in Bulgaria and Poland if the two countries don't withdraw their troops from Iraq.

The statement, signed by the Tawhid Islamic Group, appeared Wednesday on an Islamic Web site known as a clearing house for al-Qaida and groups linked to the terror network. The group identified itself as "al-Qaida in Europe." The authenticity of the statement and the group could not be verified.

The group said Bulgaria and Poland will "pay the price" just like the United States and Spain did, referring to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington and deadly explosions on trains in Madrid in March.

"To the crusader Bulgarian government which is allying itself with the Americans and to the Bulgarian people we demand, for the last time, that you withdraw Bulgarian troops out of Iraq or we swear we will turn Bulgaria into pools of blood if you don't comply," said the statement.

Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov said Friday he won't pull out Bulgaria's 480-strong infantry battalion from Iraq. Last week militants threatened to kill two Bulgarian truck drivers in Iraq, while the fate of the second hostage remained unclear.

The group's statement also had a warning to Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka: "Pull your troops out of Iraq or you will hear the sounds of explosions that will hit your country, at the time we choose."...

On Wednesday, Deputy Defense Minister Janusz Zemke said withdrawing troops from Iraq would be a "terrible mistake" that would only encourage terrorism.

I'm glad somebody realizes that. It's too bad Janusz Zemke doesn't work in Manila.

Why was it in the freezer? Stored away for later propaganda use? From AP (thanks to Romy):

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - The head of slain American hostage Paul M. Johnson Jr., who was kidnapped and decapitated by militants in Saudi Arabia last month, was found by security forces during a raid that targeted the Saudi al-Qaida chief. Two militants were killed, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday.

The Saudi Interior Ministry said Johnson's head was found after a search of one of three locations after the raid late Tuesday that hit the home of Saudi al-Qaida leader Saleh Mohammed al-Aoofi. Weapons, including an anti-aircraft SAM-7 missile, chemicals, video cameras and cash were among items seized from the location.

In a statement broadcast on Saudi al-Ekhbariya television, the Interior Ministry said the head was found in a freezer in an apartment. The body was not found....

During the past year, Saudi Arabia has been rocked by suicide bombings, gunbattles and kidnappings targeting foreign workers. The attacks have been blamed on al-Qaida and sympathizers of the anti-Western terror network headed by Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden. Al-Qaida wants to topple the Saudi royal family and replace it with its own Islamic government.

A slightly expanded version of my criticism of Nicholas Kristof's appalling equation of Christian Fundamentalists with Islamic jihadists appears today in the Dallas Morning News:

Mr. Kristof either has no clue or doesn't care that Christianity does not have and never has had a doctrine mandating warfare against non-Christians. Islam, on the other hand, has now and has always had a doctrine mandating warfare against non-Muslims.

See, just to cite a few references, Quran 9:29 ("Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day ... (even if they are) of the People of the Book [Jews and Christians], until they pay the Jizya [the special tax on non-Muslims] with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued") and hundreds of other verses; Sahih Muslim 4294 (Muhammad says: "Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war"); a legal manual endorsed by the closest thing to a Vatican that Sunni Islam has, Al-Azhar University: "Umdat al-Salik o.9.8 ("[make] war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians ... until they become Muslim or pay the non-Muslim poll tax"); plus the writings of all the major Islamic jurists....

This is, of course, the one thing that people like Nicholas Kristof can never and will never admit, because it would explode the foggy multiculturalism and relativism that passes for a worldview in their minds. But it is simply a fact. Prove me wrong.

For Mr. Kristof to term this set of novels "militant Christianity," which is somehow equivalent or becoming equivalent to militant Islam, shows that he has not the remotest idea of what the jihadists are really saying, why they are saying it, and how it differs from what Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell are saying. This kind of theological equivalence is the idiot stepchild of the moral equivalence that the learned pundits used to preach regarding the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

And just as moral equivalence played into the bloody hands of the Communists, so theological equivalence plays into the hands of the jihadists, attempting as it does to blunt the force of the moral argument against them. Yeah, sure, they preach murder, but, hey, look at these novels!

Maybe. But they still can't search backpacks. So even if there is no terrorism link here (and they always seem to say that these days) what's to prevent there from being one next time? From AP, :

A backpack that set off a small explosion in a Times Square subway station may have contained a pipe bomb and not just fireworks, as originally believed, police said Tuesday.

The explosion at 8 p.m. Monday slightly injured a retired police officer and disrupted subway service.

Scores of heavily armed police trained in anti-terrorism tactics and hundreds of other officers sealed off parts of the surrounding streets around 43rd Street and Eighth Avenue.

Investigators said later, however, that they did not suspect any terrorism link.

Another activist judge makes us all a little more vulnerable. From the New York Daily News:

NYPD cops blasted a federal judge's ruling aimed at stopping them from searching demonstrators' bags outside the Republican National Convention, saying the decision gives "an open door to terrorists."

Manhattan Federal Judge Robert Sweet's decision - made public yesterday - prohibits blanket searches of bulky bags and backpacks in the absence of a "specific threat."

"In this day and age of terrorism, it's an extremely dangerous step in a very dangerous time in New York City," said an outraged Michael Palladino, president of the Detectives Endowment Association.

"It's giving an open door to terrorists, and further handcuffing police at a time that they should be given a little bit more latitude," Palladino said. He said he plans to urge Mayor Bloomberg to appeal the ruling.

Sweet's decision also limits how many streets the NYPD can close around Madison Square Garden, and prohibits cops from penning protesters behind metal barricades.

The ruling does not prevent the use of hand-held metal-detecting wands around the perimeter of the convention.

Sweet wrote that his ruling is an attempt to "define a resolution which can serve to encourage free expression in a secure society."

He described the preventive measure by police as an "invasion of personal privacy."

Christopher Dunn, an attorney for the New York Civil Liberties Union, called it a "historic victory."

The Ingushetian Shura Council in Chechyna has declared jihad. Of course, jihad has been raging there for some time, so this isn't really a new development, but there is a noteworthy point in their communiqué: the jihad is so that "the Earth could be cleansed of unbelief."

This assumes an endless jihad against unbelievers, until Islamic hegemony is established everywhere. This is traditional Islamic doctrine, but since it is obscured and denied by so many taqiyya artists (that's deception as allowed by the Qur'an, 3:28 and 16:106) and dhimmis, it is useful to see what they're saying about it in Chechnya -- which is the same thing, by the way, that jihadists today are saying worldwide, though few are paying attention.

From the Kavkaz Center via Jihad Unspun, with thanks to Nicolei:

In the name of God, Most Merciful, Most Gracious!

Praise Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, peace and blessing be to our Prophet Muhammad, his family and all of his disciples.

Indeed, Allah created people so that He could be worshipped alone, so no companions are ascribed to Him, and He permitted Jihad on His Straight Way, so that the Religion of Allah could be above all, so that all areas of life could be guided by Islam, and so that the Earth could be cleansed of unbelief.

Allah said, «Make war on them until no more temptation remains…» (Anfal 39) [That's Sura 8:39]

The reason why the Muslims are weak is because they abandoned the Jihad. Allah set the infidels on Muslims, these infidels are guided by ignorance and unbelief and in the Muslim countries they have tried to do everything to make Muslims forget their Religion. Enemies are taking the riches of Muslims, they are persecuting the Muslims and thus confirming the warning from Allah:

«They will not cease to fight with ye until they avert ye from your Religion, if they will be able to do it»....

Everyone who cooperates with the invaders and helps them in the war against Muslims with weapons or with snitching thus becomes one of them. Requirement of the Shariah Law applies to such people. These people will be punished by death, because fighting shoulder to shoulder with infidels or helping the infidels in the war against Muslims banishes them from Islam. For Allah said that those who make friends among infidels become one of them. And Allah will not be guiding the wicked.

Muslims must be convinced that the only salvation and the only way to obtain honor and dignity is the Religion of Islam. Our enemies know it and this is why they are trying to do all they can to lead Muslims astray. They appoint their lackeys as muftis, imams of mosques, who in turn pervert the truth and lead Muslims away from the Religion of Islam; they spread ignorance and heresy; they split Muslims into groups and sects; they spread polytheism and they call to obey the enemies.

Muslims, do believe the promises of Allah about His help. Jihad on the Way of Allah is the truth that restores justice.

Allah is our Master and there is no help other than from Him.

Allah Akbar!!!
God is Great!!!

Military Council Majlis Al-Shura of Ingushetia
2004-07-09

Legal jihad, from Henry Mark Holzer at FrontPage.

First, from the editor's note:

The article below by Henry Mark Holzer discusses the Supreme Court's recent decision to give constitutional protection to foreign "enemy combatants." This development, which epitomizes activist judges "legislating from the bench," overwrites decades of precedents and undermines the country's ability to fight the War on Terror. Meanwhile, terrorists and their radical America-hating lawyers are lining up to find and exploit loopholes in the rulings that may ultimately set a large number of criminals and murderers free -- and a large number of Americans to their graves.

The advocates of these terrorists come mainly from two leftist organizations with a long history of defending the dregs of American (and now Islamic) society: the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the National Lawyers Guild (NLG). These groups have teamed up to challenge the rights of America to defend our jihadist enemies.

The CCR, which was founded by radical leftist attorneys William Kuntsler and Arthur Kinoy, has a long record of defending and identifying with our enemies. Like the CCR, the NLG never met an anti-American, anti-capitalist, or anti-Semite it didn't like. Both, for instance, stand firmly behind accused terrorist and former University of South Florida professor, Sami Al-Arian, who awaits trial for providing material aid to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The NLG is at the forefront of fighting on behalf of Guantanamo terrorist prisoners. It actively opposes legislation designed to prevent terror attacks, supports other terrorist groups like the Basque Separatists, and routinely passes out literature in Arabic to immigrants and visitors so they can "know their rights" with respect to U.S. investigators. "Talking to the FBI or other agents can be dangerous," says one NLG pamphlet.

The most notorious terrorist advocate currently is NLG member Lynne Stewart, who is now on trial herself for aiding and abetting the terrorist leader Omar Abdel Rahman. Stewart is a self-proclaimed champion of terrorism and an avowed Communist whose heroes include Lenin, Mao and Ho Chi Minh. Rahman's followers perpetrated the first World Trade Center bombing and had planned other attacks on NYC. While acting as his lawyer, Stewart disseminated instructions to Rahman's followers....

And from Holzer:

Rumsfeld v. Padilla. An American citizen, Jose Padilla (the so-called “dirty bomber”) was arrested in Chicago, brought to New York, later designated an “enemy combatant,” and given into military custody in South Carolina. Assigned counsel sought habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in Manhattan), challenging Padilla’s detention.

In a narrow technical decision, the Supreme Court held that Padilla’s lawyer had sued in the wrong jurisdiction. Since the “immediate custodian” who had control of enemy combatant Padilla was the warden of the naval brig in South Carolina, that jurisdiction, not New York, was where the alleged dirty bomber’s case belonged. Accordingly, the Supreme Court told Padilla that if he wanted to challenge the detention, he would have to re-file his case in the South Carolina federal court. Thus, Padilla decided nothing substantive—the case only further defined the statutory meaning of “immediate custodian.” (Justices Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer were prepared, knowingly, to misinterpret the habeas corpus statute and reach the merits because Padilla’s claims, apparently unlike the plain meaning of a venerable federal statute, were “important”)....

There follow details of other important cases. Read it all.

To paraphrase Godfather Don Corleone: Radical lawyers with word processors can do more harm than 100 terrorists with machine guns.

Yes, he is. Think about it. I argued here several days ago that his ridiculous smear of evangelical Christianity would gave aid and comfort to the jihadists. And lo and behold, his piece has been picked up by the Pakistan News Service and ... (ready?) ... Al-Jazeera.

For a little background on what Al-Jazeera is and what it has done, see here.

Chirac is smarting over Sharon's call for French Jews to flee rising antisemitism in France. That's right, Jacques: shoot the messenger. I'll bet Sharon's heart is broken over this. From CNN, with thanks to cgiddensjr:

PARIS, France (CNN) -- French President Jacques Chirac said says Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is not welcome in Paris until he explains his appeal to French Jews to leave the country, a presidential spokeswoman said.

"A visit by the Israeli prime minister won't be looked at closely until the requested explanation is provided," the spokeswoman said.

Sharon said last weekend that French Jews should consider immigrating to Israel because of the rise in anti-Semitic incidents in France.

Sharon's remarks, which included the charge that France was host to "the wildest anti-Semitism" -- were misunderstood, Jacques Revah, the charge d'affaires of the Israeli Embassy in Paris, told The Associated Press. He said Sharon's comments were only a way of telling Jews they belong in Israel.

"Mr. Sharon had the same message for all Jews in the world, and if he pointed out France, it was to praise the position and the measures France has taken to combat anti-Semitism," Revah told the AP.

An invitation to visit France had apparently been extended to Sharon, but no date had been set, French officials said.

The French foreign ministry said Sharon's remarks were "unacceptable," and other officials described them as an "insult to France."

No: antisemitism, perpetrated by jihadist Muslims in France and largely unpunished by French authorities, is an insult to France.

Why shouldn't the Janjaweed being doing this? Nothing in Islamic law forbids the treatment of women who are considered war captives in this way. From Reuters, with thanks to cgiddensjr:

BEIRUT, Lebanon (Reuters) -- Arab militias in Sudan are gang-raping and abducting girls as young as eight and women as old as 80, systematically killing, torturing, or using them as sex slaves, an Amnesty International report said on Monday.

Militias known as Janjaweed, which rights groups say are backed by the government, have been fighting rebels in Sudan's western Darfur region since last year, triggering one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

"When we tried to escape they shot more children," one woman identified only as A. told Amnesty researchers.

"They raped women, I saw many cases of Janjaweed raping women and girls. They are happy when they rape. They sing when they rape and they tell us that we are just slaves and that they can do with us how they wish."

As many as 30,000 people have been killed in Darfur and more than a million displaced, their homes bombed by government planes, their crops stolen.

In a report called "Rape as a Weapon of War," Amnesty outlines sexual violence against women it says is happening on a massive scale. It says Khartoum is actively violating its legal obligations to protect civilians.

"Soldiers of the Sudan government army are present during attacks by the Janjaweed and when rapes are committed, but the Sudan government has done nothing so far to stop them," Amnesty researcher Benedicte Goderiaux told a news conference.

Darfur's rebels accuse the government of arming the Arab Janjaweed to loot and burn African villages in a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Khartoum denies the charge.

The Sudan embassy in Beirut said in a statement that the Amnesty report was aimed at defaming the government, distorting Arab culture and driving a wedge between Sudan's ethnic groups.

Annie Jacobsen's harrowing piece "Terror in the Skies, Again?" came under fire from many quarters, including from some who claimed it was a hoax. But it was anything but, and Jacobsen provides more information in a follow-up piece in WomensWallStreet.com(thanks to Kemaste for the link):

And I now have another important question... Is there a link between my experience on flight #327 and the arrest of Ali Mohamed Almosaleh by customs agents at the Minneapolis Airport on July 7 (approximately one week after my flight)? Almosaleh was traveling from Damascus, Syria, to Minneapolis on KLM/Northwest Airlines. According to CNN.com, "Agents found Almosaleh to be carrying what they described as a suicide note and DVDs containing anti-American material."

It was initially reported by CNN.com that the man "is not known to the intelligence community, and that his name was not on any terrorist watch list." The following day, on TwinCities.com, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that Almosaleh "had something with him indicating a connection with at least one known terrorist." So, did a more thorough check of the man reveal this critical new information? Remember, according to Adams, FAM checked the 14 Syrian men on my flight against the terrorist watch lists. They found no match, so they let them go. I wonder what might have happened if the 14 Syrians on my flight had been looked into more thoroughly?

Since publishing the first article, I have received dozens of emails from people in the airline industry, including flight attendants, captains and pilots, some of whom I have also spoken with on the telephone. As of Sunday morning, to my knowledge, WWS had received no emails from anyone in the airline industry suggesting that the incident described in my first article did not happen. Here is what some of them are saying, all of it on the record.

Jeanne M. Elliott, Security Coordinator for the Professional Flight Attendants Association (PFAA), which represents the flight attendants of Northwest Airlines, said, "By the uneducated eye, and to those who don't walk in our shoes, it may have been perceived that we were doing nothing, when indeed we were putting the safety and security of those passengers as our first priority."

This is just a small excerpt. Read it all.

The latest article by Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer, "Jihad TV Comes to Canada," is available today at FrontPage:

Al-Jazeera executives have claimed that the network has been criticized by American officials only because it doesn’t accept the American understanding of the war on terror, and because it portrays the Muslim perspective on the burning issues of the day. No doubt these two considerations made the network’s application far more attractive than Fox’s to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. The members of that august body no doubt share the visceral anti-Americanism generally held by the Canadian elite — as well as an anxiousness to accommodate and pacify Canada’s rapidly growing Muslim population.

But the incidents recounted above and others like them suggest that Canada may be getting more than it bargained for. According to a recent report by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, “Terrorism of foreign origin continues to be a major concern in regard to the safety of Canadians at home and abroad. … Canada is viewed by some terrorist groups as a place to try to seek refuge, raise funds, procure materials and/or conduct other support activities. ... Virtually all of the most notorious international terrorist organizations are known to maintain a network presence in Canada.” From the looks of its track record, Al-Jazeera will provide these Canadian-based terrorists with a source of news, encouragement, and instruction.

What’s more, it will serve these radical Muslims as a useful recruiting tool. For jihadist recruiters in Canada, Al-Jazeera is likely to be an electronic madrassa beaming, twenty-four hours a day, the teachings and perspective of radical Islam into the living rooms of Canadian Muslims. Nor will this be a problem for Canada alone: what is to prevent those whom Al-Jazeera radicalizes and recruits for the global jihad from slipping across the border into the Great Satan?

Whenever that happens, and whatever they succeed in doing here, you can be sure that it will be carried — and celebrated — on Al-Jazeera.

A welcome announcement from Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun. From AP:

QUANTICO, Va. - Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, the Marine who disappeared under mysterious circumstances while on duty in Iraq, insisted on Monday that he was captured by enemy forces and that he is still a loyal Marine.

"I did not desert my post," he told reporters outside Quantico Marine Corps Base. "I was captured and held against my will by anti-coalition forces for 19 days. This was a very difficult and challenging time for me."

He did not answer any questions during his brief appearance. He was joined by his brother, who arrived from Utah.

"I would like to tell all the Marines as well as all those others serving in Iraq to keep their heads up and spirits high. Once a Marine, always a Marine, Semper Fi," Hassoun said, invoking the Marine Corps motto, Latin for "always faithful."

I hope he will eventually explain why his family thought it necessary to explain to the Muslim world that he joined the Marines out of necessity — strongly suggesting that he did not hold to Marine principles and was not motivated by a sense of patriotic duty.

Funny thing: I never thought of oil refineries as a popular tourist destination. I wonder if this is the same guy who was taking pictures of a Texas chemical site last winter.

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Law enforcement officials said on Monday they are looking for a man seen taking pictures of two refineries in Texas City, Texas.

Texas City, located on the Texas Gulf coast about 30 miles south of Houston, has three refineries including the largest U.S. plant operated by BP Plc., which is the third-largest U.S. refinery, processing 470,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

The man, described as white with dark hair, was seen taking pictures outside the refineries, all located on the same highway, at about 5 p.m. CDT on Saturday, said Bruce Clawson, emergency management and homeland security director for Texas City.

While it is not illegal to take pictures of a refinery from a highway or street, officials would like to talk to the man to find out his reason for taking the photographs.

"This is based on the idea that al Qaeda does its homework," Clawson said. "That's not to say we don't have enough home-grown idiots already who might want to do something."

For an interesting precedent, see here. (And a book review here.) From Nettavisen, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

Central members of Kristiansand Progress party claims Hitler’s «Mein Kampf» and the Koran are one of the same, and they want Islam banned in Norway.

According to the Norwegian paper Dagbladet, central figures in Kristiansand Progress party (Frp) wants to ban Islam in Norway.

«We are not the only ones demanding this ban,» said Halvor Hulaas, chairperson in Krstiansand Frp to the paper. «This is an opinion that is well established in Scandinavian countries. We are now importing people with a religion that is practiced in the same way it was practiced when it was established in year 600. The freedom we have in Norway may be taken away from us if we do not start to have some demands to these immigrants.»

Karina Udnæs, deputy leader of the Progress party’s city council group in Kristiansand is pushing it even further.

«It is about high time Norway and Europe make the ideology Islam and the practice of this, illegal and punishable in the same way as Nazism,» Udnæs said. «The prophet Muhammad urged them to kill everyone infidel.»

Kill or subjugate, of course.

Another sermon full of peace, tolerance, and sanity from the PA. (Yes, that was a sarcastic sentence.) This is noteworthy for its reassertion of the radical Muslim insistence that rule must be according to the Sharia, as well as for its naked hostility and preposterous fantasizing regarding Jews and Americans. From IMRA:

Gaza Palestine Satellite Channel in Arabic, official television station of the Palestinian Authority, carries on 16 July 2004 at 0958 GMT a live sermon from Shaykh Zayid Al Nuhayyan mosque in Gaza....

Shaykh Ibrahim Mudayris delivers the sermon, which he devotes to the theme of trust....

The imam also says that fulfillment of trust goes with governing in accordance with the shari'ah. He cites the Koranic verse that says: "And, when you govern among people you must do so fairly." He then says: "Trust was lost when we the rulers stopped ruling as revealed by God. There are more than 60 Muslim states. How many of them rule as revealed by God? If the rulers had lost this trust, where is the trust of the ulema?'

The imam says: "Jews rejoiced the death of the religious scholar Shaykh Abd-al-Aziz Bin-Baz, may his soul rest in peace. They rejoiced his death, believing that the field is now open before them. Here they are trying to spread chaos in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Indeed, Jews are responsible for that. Jews and Americans are behind all this chaos in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, because it is the country of the prophet, may the peace and blessings of God be upon
him, and also because they want to avenge for their ancestors, who were expelled and killed."

What's that? Jews and Americans want to avenge their ancestors, who were expelled and killed? It is refreshing that Sheikh Ibrahim Mudayris acknowledges, and assumes that his hearers will take for granted, that Jews and Christians were indeed expelled from the Arabian Peninsula and killed by Muslims. But the idea that any American actually knows that, or cares to avenge it, is, well, just as farfetched as everything the Sheikh says.

The imam concludes with a general prayer to God for success in the fulfillment of the trust. He prays: "O God, preserve our country and all Muslim countries from every evil. O God, preserve the country of the two holy mosques and the country of the night journey by the prophet, may the peace and blessings of God be upon him. O God preserve holy Al-Azhar from the filth of the Crusaders and Jews."

A fresh attack in the Indonesian jihad. From the BBC, with thanks to Nicolei:

A priest has been killed and four others wounded during an attack inside a Christian church in Indonesia.

Police said gunmen entered the Effata church in Palu, in Central Sulawesi province, on Sunday evening.

The female priest, 29-year old Reverend Susianti Tinulele, died at the scene after preaching a sermon. One of the wounded is in a critical condition.

At least 1,000 people have been killed in Muslim-Christian unrest in the province over the past five years.

The shooting happened near the town of Poso, which has seen some of the worst religious violence in recent years.

That "Muslim-Christian unrest" is, of course, provoked by jihad ideology. The conflict didn't begin because Christians were attacking Muslims.

From the New York Post, :

July 19, 2004 -- WASHINGTON — American officials believe that millions of dollars Saddam Hussein skimmed from the scandal-plagued U.N. oil-for-food program are now being used to help fund the bloody rebel campaign against U.S. forces and the new Iraqi government, The Post has learned.

U.S. intelligence officials and congressional investigators said last night that the "oil-for-insurgency link" has been recently unearthed in the numerous probes now under way into the giant U.N. humanitarian program, in which Saddam is believed to have pocketed $10.1 billion through oil smuggling and kickbacks from suppliers....

U.S. intelligence officials believe a portion of the funds in these hidden accounts — possibly millions— is now being used to fund the Ba'athist guerrillas responsible for much of the postwar violence against coalition troops, sources said.

"We are still in the early stages of investigating this. But from what we know so far, it's the same financial system, and we believe there is now some connection between what was left over from the illegal profiteering under the oil-for-food program and the funding of insurgency," said a U.S. official familiar with the recent intelligence information.

U.S. officials revealed earlier this month that a network of Saddam's cousins led by Fatiq Suleiman al-Majid, a former henchman in Saddam's murderous Special Security Organization, is involved in funding and arming the militants.

Investigators found a money trail connected to Saddam's clansmen that flowed through banks in Syria. Some of these same banks, congressional investigators said, also handled the kickback depos- its during the oil-for-food program.

Why is the State Department whitwashing jihad terror attacks against Israel? From Daniel Pipes in FrontPage:

Patterns of Global Terrorism, an annual report compiled by the Department of State, provides the authoritative U.S. government survey of the scourge of terrorism. Unfortunately, as I documented in an article about the 2001 edition (“State's Terror Untruths”), it is "a highly politicized document, reflecting the Washington debate and diplomatic imperatives, but this year it has veered into unreliability and even falsehood. It's a dangerous document likely to harm the war on terrorism."

He goes on to list 22 murders of Israelis that didn't make the report:

Jan 2, 2003 - The charred body of Massoud Makhluf Alon, 72, from Menahemiya in the Lower Galilee, was found in the northern Jordan Valley in his burned out car. The Fatah Al-Aqsa Brigades claimed responsibility for the murder.

Jan 12, 2003 - Eli Biton, 48, of Moshav Gadish was killed and four people wounded when terrorists infiltrated the community and opened fire. Two terrorists were killed by Israeli forces. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

Mar 19, 2003 - Zion Boshirian, 51, of Mevo Dotan was shot and killed while driving in his car between Mevo Dotan and Shaked in northern Samaria. The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

May 4, 2003 - The body of Tali Weinberg, 26, of Beit Aryeh, was discovered in a garage in Rosh Ha'ayin with numerous stab wounds. The suspect, Weinberg's boyfriend, arrested on June 11, a 21-year-old Arab resident of Kafr Qasem, is believed to have carried out the murder as part of a "loyalty test" administered by Palestinian terrorist organizations.

May 5, 2003 - Gideon Lichterman, 27, of Ahiya, was killed and two other passengers, his six-year-old daughter Moriah and a reserve soldier, were seriously wounded when terrorists fired shots at their vehicle near Shvut Rachel, in Samaria. The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

May 11, 2003 - Zion David, 53, of Givat Ze’ev near Jerusalem, was shot in the head and killed by Palestinian terrorists in a roadside ambush half a kilometer from Ofra, north of Jerusalem. Both Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack.

May 17, 2003 - Gadi Levy and his wife Dina, aged 31 and 37, of Kiryat Arba were killed by a suicide bomber in Hebron. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

May 19, 2003 - Kiryl Shremko, 22, of Afula; Hassan Ismail Tawatha, 41, of Jisr a-Zarqa; and Avi Zerihan, 36, of Beit Shean were killed and about 70 people were wounded in a suicide bombing at the entrance to the Amakim Mall in Afula. The Islamic Jihad and the Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades both claimed responsibility for the attack.

June 5, 2003 - The bodies of David Shambik, 26, and Moran Menachem, 17, both of Jerusalem, were found near Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital in Jerusalem, brutally beaten and stabbed to death. Believed to be terror victims.

June 12, 2003 - Avner Maimon, 51, of Netanya, was found shot to death in his car near Yabed in northern Samaria. The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

June 17, 2003 - Noam Leibowitz, 7, of Yemin Orde was killed and three members of her family wounded in a shooting attack near the Kibbutz Eyal junction on the Trans-Israel Highway. The terrorist fired from the outskirts of the West Bank city of Kalkilya. The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command claimed responsibility for the attack.

June 19, 2003 - Avner Mordechai, 58, of Moshav Sde Trumot, was killed when a suicide bomber blew up in his grocery on Sde Trumot, south of Beit Shean. The suicide bomber was killed. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

June 26, 2003 - Amos (Amit) Mantin, 31, of Hadera, a Bezeq employee, was killed in a shooting attack in the Israeli Arab town of Baka al-Garbiyeh. The shots were fired by a Palestinian teenager, who was apprehended by police. The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

July 7, 2003 - Mazal Afari, 65, of Moshav Kfar Yavetz was killed in her home on Monday evening and three of her grandchildren lightly wounded in a terrorist suicide bombing. The remains of the bomber were also found in the wreckage of the house. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

July 15, 2003 - Amir Simhon, 24, of Bat Yam was killed when a Palestinian armed with a long-bladed knife stabbed passersby on Tel Aviv’s beachfront promenade, after a security guard prevented him from entering the Tarabin cafe and was wounded. The terrorist, who was shot and apprehended, is a member of the Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which claimed responsibility for the attack.

Aug 10, 2003 - Haviv Dadon, 16, of Shlomi, was struck in the chest and killed by shrapnel from an anti-aircraft shell fired by Hizbullah terrorists in Lebanon. Four others were wounded.

Aug 12, 2003 - Yehezkel (Hezi) Yekutieli, 43, of Rosh Ha’ayin, was killed by a teenaged Palestinian suicide bomber who detonated himself at the local supermarket.

Aug 29, 2003 - Shalom Har-Melekh, 25, of Homesh was killed in a shooting attack while driving northeast of Ramallah. His wife, Limor, who was seven months pregnant, sustained moderate injuries, and gave birth to a baby girl by Caesarean section. The Fatah al-Aqsa Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

Sept 9, 2003 - Nine IDF soldiers were killed and 30 people were wounded in a suicide bombing at a hitchhiking post for soldiers outside a main entrance to the Tzrifin army base and Assaf Harofeh Hospital. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. The victims: Senior Warrant Officer Haim Alfasi, 39, of Haifa; Chief Warrant Officer Yaakov Ben-Shabbat, 39, of Pardes Hanna; Cpl. Mazi Grego, 19, of Holon; Capt. Yael Kfir, 21, of Ashkelon; Cpl. Felix Nikolaichuk, 20, of Bat Yam; Sgt. Yonatan Peleg, 19, of Moshav Yanuv; Sgt. Efrat Schwartzman, 19, of Moshav Ganei Yehuda; and Cpl. Prosper Twito, 20, of Upper Nazareth. Sgt. Liron Siboni, 19, of Ramat Gan died of her wounds on November 19.

Sept 26, 2003 - Eyal Yeberbaum, 27, and seven-month-old Shaked Avraham, both of Negohot, south of Hebron, were killed during the holiday meal on the eve of Rosh Hashana in the Yeberbaum home when a Palestinian terrorist who infiltrated the settlement opened fire with an M-16 assault rifle. The terrorist was killed by IDF forces. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

Nov 22, 2003 - Two Israeli security guards, Ilya Reiger, 58, of Jerusalem, and Samer Fathi Afan, 25, of the Bedouin village Uzeir near Nazareth, were shot dead at a construction site along the route of the security fence near Abu Dis in East Jerusalem. The Jenin Martyrs’ Brigades, affiliated with Fatah, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Dec 25, 2003 - Adva Fisher, 20, of Kfar Sava; St.-Sgt. Noam Leibowitz, 22, of Elkana; Cpl. Angelina Shcherov, 19, of Kfar Sava; and Cpl. Rotem Weinberger, 19, of Kfar Sava were killed and over 20 people were wounded in a suicide bombing at a bus stop at the Geha Junction, east of Tel Aviv, near Petah Tikva. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack.

That the Department of State, even in revising its basic research document on terrorism, does such a shoddy job points to its inability to carry out this task which needs to be handled by some other department or agency, one that can do properly objective work.

Hear, hear.

More like Presbyterian dhimmitude. More on the Presbyterian church's anti-Israel resolutions, from Richard Baehr in FrontPage. The Presbyterian church, like so many others, has no idea that Israel faces the same jihad that non-Muslims are facing in Indonesia, Philippines, Kashmir, Chechnya, Nigeria, etc. The alternative to Israel is a maximalist, totalitarian Sharia state that will be just as bad for Presbyterians in the area as it will be for Jews.

Jewish liberals received a shock last week. The liberal Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) declared war on Israel at is annual General Assembly meeting, approving a divestment campaign from Israel with 87 percent of the vote, casting the Holy Land as the new South Africa. The shock was doubly painful since liberal Jews believe that liberal churches are supposed to be their allies in all kinds of common fights....

The leftist Presbyterians apparently thinks that now is the time to pile on Israel and force it to “behave better” with the Palestinians. The Church strangely did not pass any resolutions at their General Assembly this year about the slaughter of black Muslims in the Sudan by Arabs, and they never passed any resolutions in prior years, when the Sudanese Arabs chose to slaughter black Christians. They were silent when the Rwanda genocide occurred, as well. But hey, what're a few million black African lives when Muslim olive trees are being cut down near the “green line”?

Needless to say, the Presbyterians’ resolution against Israel is entirely silent on the subject of Palestinian terrorism or suicide bombing, or the incitement to martyrdom and Jew-killing in the Palestinian media, mosques, summer camps and official government statements.

Like other liberal Christian churches (the Lutherans, the Episcopalians, the Unitarians, the United Church of Christ, the Quakers) the hatred and condemnation of Israel has grown so strong that advocates for Israel are not permitted to make presentations to these congregations anymore. If Jews want to speak abut Israel, they have to be from the far-Left, and they must come to trash Israel (and help bury it). On the other hand, any representative of the International Solidarity Movement is sure to draw a full house and be warmly welcomed....

For years, the Israel-haters have tried to link Israel to South Africa, and even more outrageously, to the Nazis. The Presbyterian Church (USA) has now legitimized this slander. For this, they should be ashamed -- or simply shamed.

More on the deleterious influence of Grover Norquist on anti-terror policy. From Frank Gaffney in FrontPage mag: "Why is an associate of groups sympathetic to radical Islamists a policy director at the Department for Homeland Security?"

It now appears that Mr. Norquist’s help has extended beyond facilitating high-level access and influence for various Muslim-American and Arab-American entities with troubling ties to, or at least sympathy for, radical Islamofascists – and even terrorists. Reportedly, his association also helped someone affiliated with such a group to gain a political appointment to an exceedingly sensitive post: “policy director” of the Department of Homeland Security’s Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection division.

As the title of this position suggests, its occupant would have access to highly sensitive information about the vulnerability of, among other things, U.S. ports, transportation infrastructure, chemical plants, oil refineries and nuclear power plants to terrorist attack. The incumbent is a 32-year-old lawyer named Faisal Gill.

It is unclear what qualified Mr. Gill for such a post. In response to press inquiries, a DHS spokeswoman declined to describe his qualifications or background so it is not known whether he has any prior experience with intelligence or, for that matter, with security policy.

What is known is that Gill’s political patrons include Grover Norquist, who was listed by Gill as a reference on employment documents. After all, Gill had been a spokesman for the Taxpayers Alliance of Prince William County, Virginia, which is affiliated with Norquist’s group, Americans for Tax Reform. Gill had also worked in 2001 as director of government affairs for the Islamic Free Market Institute (also known as the Islamic Institute), whose founding president was Grover Norquist.

Interestingly, news articles published after September 11 described Gill in another capacity – as a spokesman for the controversial American Muslim Council (AMC). The AMC was founded and controlled by a prominent Islamist activist, Abdurahman Alamoudi. Alamoudi was indicted last October on terrorism-related money laundering charges. While in jail awaiting trial, he has reportedly engaged in plea-bargaining by confessing to participating in a Libyan plot to murder the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.

For some reason, Gill is reported to have failed to list his work with the AMC on his “Standard Form 86” national security questionnaire. This is a potential felony violation of the full and truthful disclosure required by law of all applying for clearances.

According to two recently published articles in Salon.com, the FBI raised concerns last March about Gill’s non-disclosure of his ties to Alamoudi’s AMC. At the time, he was reportedly briefly removed from his position at DHS.

Curiously, however, Gill is said to have been reinstated within days. According to a DHS spokesman, the Department had conducted a "thorough investigation" that found Gill "exceeded all requirements" for his job.

Fortunately, on 23 June, after news reports revealed Gill’s omission, attendant suspension and subsequent reinstatement, the Homeland Security’s Inspector General, Clark Kent Ervin, announced that he would be launching an inquiry into how Gill received a security clearance, despite the omission. For some reason, though, the IG’s report is said to require as much as six-months to complete.

This is an intriguing site. (Thanks to Jonathan for the link.) Their statement that "Political Islam is a movement that arose in the 1940s as a reaction to foreign domination and political corruption" is demonstrably false; political Islam is as old as the Prophet Muhammad, and I provide an abundance of proof of this in Onward Muslim Soldiers.

Nevertheless, there is no quarrel with this:

We, the undersigned, oppose Political Islam, its agenda of hatred and oppression, and its imposition of the most barbaric interpretation of Sharia law. We seek a future in which all people, men and women, Muslims and non-Muslims, enjoy the benefits of equality, justice, democracy and human rights, and freedom of inquiry, freedom of thought, and freedom of expression.

Check it out.

But of course, it has nothing to do with terrorism. The man just loves to fly. From AP, with thanks to EPG:

Sami Abuhamatto, 24, was arrested Friday and was being held pending a hearing on Monday.

There are no allegations that the case is terrorism-related....

Abuhamatto's six-month visitors visa expired in 1996, according to court documents. He applied for the pilot's license in May 2002, claiming he was a U.S. citizen born in Brookfield, the Chicago suburb where he lives, the documents show.

The Federal Aviation Administration approved the application less than a week later.

Authorities said they learned of the incident after Abuhamatto arranged a bogus marriage late last year in an effort to gain resident alien status.

More on the fence in Israel from Jeremy Rabkin in Opinion Journal. (Thanks to EPG).

Maj. Michael Newton, a military lawyer who teaches at West Point, coined a new term earlier this year: "lawfare." It is the pursuit of strategic aims, the traditional domain of warfare, through aggressive legal maneuvers. Last Friday's decision by the International Court of Justice holding Israel's security fence in violation of international law is another milestone in the onward march of lawfare. The ICJ has now confirmed that lawfare and warfare can be pursued simultaneously.

The terror war against Israel, launched in the summer of 2000, has by now resulted in the deaths of nearly a thousand Israeli civilians. The security fence, by greatly impeding the movement of would-be terrorists into Israel, has helped to achieve a sharp decline in terror attacks over the past year. Nonetheless, the ICJ admonished that the nations of the world are obligated not to pressure Palestinians to abandon terrorism, but to pressure Israel to dismantle its security fence.

Most of the court's reasoning, based on arguments advanced by British barristers, is superficially plausible--so long as one ignores the actual political context of the dispute. Perhaps the Children's Rights Convention or the Fourth Geneva Convention do provide arguments against disrupting the free movement of innocent Palestinians. But the arguments are more plausible if one ignores the terror threat to Israeli lives, as the court essentially does. In concluding that the fence sits on "occupied territory," the court assumes that the armistice lines of 1949 are Israel's final borders, though never accepted as such by Israel's neighbors. In concluding that Israel cannot undertake intrusive measures to protect "illegal settlements," the court assumes that Jews had no claim to return to places, like the Old City of Jerusalem, from which they were forcibly expelled by Arab armies in 1949....

The ruling raises still broader questions about the U.N.'s capacity to contribute to any serious international effort against terrorism. Even U.N. judges, we now see, have other priorities.

And with good reason. Look at all the converts who have already made news on the front lines of terror: Lindh, Reid, Padilla, Roche, Gadahn, etc. etc. From the New York Times, with thanks to Filtrat:

ST.-PIERRE-EN-FAUCIGNY, France — The Courtailler brothers grew up in this medieval Alpine town, children of a butcher who went broke, who divorced his wife and moved to a job in a meatpacking plant far away. Two of the three brothers, David and Jérôme, educated in Catholic schools, foundered in drugs until they found religion: Islam.

Within five years of David's initial conversion at a mosque in the British seaside resort of Brighton in 1996, the brothers embraced many of the leading lights of Europe's Islamic terror network. David, 28, is now in jail, and in late June, Jérôme, 29, turned himself in to the police in the Netherlands, days after he was convicted by a court there of belonging to an international terrorist group.

The Courtaillers are part of a growing group of people who found a home in Islam and then veered into extremism, raising concerns among antiterrorism officials on both sides of the Atlantic that the new recruits could provide foreign-born Islamic militants with invisibility and cover, by escaping the scrutiny often reserved for young men of Arab descent.

A handful of Westerners have already been arrested on terrorism charges. Their experiences, the authorities fear, could foreshadow a deepening problem.

"Converts will be used for striking more and more by jihadist circles," said Jean-Luc Marret, a terrorism expert at the Strategic Research Foundation, in Paris. "They have been used in the past for proselytism, logistics or support, and they are operationally useful now."

Islam is Europe's fastest-growing religion, and many experts say that while there are no reliable statistics, they believe that the number of converts has grown since Sept. 11, 2001, in many ways because of the campaign against terrorism.

Well, yes, they passed through Iran, but, uh, we didn't know they were here! Yeah, that's it! From AP, with thanks to DC Watson:

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran said Sunday some Al Qaeda operatives blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States may have illegally passed through Iran from Afghanistan months before the terror strike, but Tehran dismissed as "fabrications" U.S. reports that Iran may have helped in the assault.

"It's normal that five or six people may have crossed the border within a couple of months without our knowledge. ... Our borders are long and it's not possible to fully control them," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters.

Asefi was responding to a September 11 Commission report, expected out Thursday, that says Iran may have facilitated the 2001 attacks in the United States by providing eight to 10 Al Qaeda hijackers with safe passage to and from terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.

A secret police dossier dealing with Al-Qaeda plots in Britain was ... um, misplaced. From CNN, :

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- British police have said they had launched an inquiry into how a secret police dossier went missing that according to a newspaper report contained counter-terrorist plans for London's Heathrow airport.

The dossier, found lying in a road, showed 62 sites at the airport where al Qaeda was most likely to launch anti-aircraft missile strikes, the Sun newspaper said in its Monday edition.

The Sun said the dossier included facts about surveillance, escape routes, evacuation plans and deployment of rooftop snipers at the world's busiest international hub.

The plans, which have since been returned to police, were found by a motorist, the newspaper said.

A police spokeswoman could give no details about what the dossier contained or where it was found, but confirmed it had been returned to police.

"We treat any breach of security extremely seriously," the spokeswoman said.

"We have launched an internal inquiry into the circumstances of how these documents went missing and will take the appropriate action when we have ascertained the facts surrounding this matter," the spokeswoman said.

An overview of the jihad in Thailand, from the Strategy Page, with thanks to Fanabba:

July 18, 2004: The Moslem separatist violence in Thailand continues, with two members of the ISOC (Internal Security Operations Command) were shot in the south while investigating Moslem separatists. There have been attacks against other government officials, especially teachers. As a result, 5,000 school teachers and other government officials in the Moslem areas of southern Thailand have demanded more protection, or transfers to other, safer, parts of the country. So far this year, over 300 have died from the violence in the Moslem south, most of them government officials or non-Moslem Thais. At the same time, a government amnesty has caused nearly 250, mostly young men, to turn themselves in to the police. These men will under go six weeks of re-education and be released. But the Thai police have been unable to find any of the hard core separatists who are making the lethal attacks and trying to drive out the non-Moslem minority from the south. The unrest is based on centuries old disputes between the Moslems of this region and the Buddhist Thais to the north, and the more recent popularity of Islamic radicalism and groups like al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah.

This is an important site for background into this particular arena of the global jihad.

Yes, it has gotten this bad. Unfortunately, French Jews cannot be said to be entirely safe from Islamic hatred and violence in Israel, either. From AP:

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Sunday urged French Jews to flee the country to escape a rising tide of anti-Semitism, while acknowledging that the French government is fighting racial violence.

The latest French Interior Ministry figures show 510 anti-Jewish acts or threats in the first six months of 2004 — compared to 593 for all of last year....

Anti-Semitic acts against Jewish schools, synagogues and cemeteries have risen in France in recent years, coinciding with growing tensions in the Middle East. Many attacks have been blamed on young Muslims.

Not just "blamed." They were responsible.

Boy, is this stupid. Maybe the people in charge of the air marshals should watch Serpico or something -- not for the corruption plot, but for the running subplot about the effectiveness of undercover ops. From the New York Times, with thanks to Ruth King.

WASHINGTON, July 16 - Beards are out. So are jeans and athletic shoes. Suit coats are in, even on the steamiest summer days.

That dress code, imposed by the Department of Homeland Security, makes federal air marshals uneasy - and not just because casual clothes are more comfortable in cramped airline seats. The marshals fear that their appearance makes it easier for terrorists to identify them, according to a professional group representing more than 1,300 air marshals.

"If a 12-year-old can pick them out, a trained terrorist has no problem picking them out," said John D. Amat, a spokesman for the group, the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association.

Documents and memorandums issued by the Department of Homeland Security and field offices of the Federal Air Marshal Service say air marshals must "present a professional image" and "blend unnoticed into their environment." Some air marshals have argued that the two requirements are contradictory.

Federal air marshals must have neatly trimmed hair and men must be clean-shaven, the documents say. Some of the service's 21 field offices have mandated that male officers wear suits, ties and dress shoes while on duty, even in summer heat. Women are required to wear blouses and skirts or dress slacks. Jeans, athletic shoes and noncollared shirts are prohibited....

Andrea Houck, 52, who was traveling through New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport this week, said that she thought federal air marshals should be "totally undercover."

"Look around you," Ms. Houck said as she pointed to other passengers waiting in the food court. "Most people are traveling in T-shirts, sweatshirts and khakis." She added: "If I was a terrorist and I spotted someone dressed like an air marshal in a suit, I wouldn't get on that flight. I would get on another one."

This looks like good news, and I hope it is, but I'm not sure. From the Washington Times:

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons, criticized in May for allowing a shortage of Muslim chaplains to threaten prison security and increase the potential for terrorism, has taken "important steps" in correcting the problems, a report said yesterday.

Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said the bureau had either closed or resolved all but three of 16 recommendations made to correct problems in the selection, screening and supervision of Muslim chaplains, contractors and volunteers who work with 9,000 Muslim inmates.

Two months ago, Mr. Fine said that without sufficient Muslim chaplains on staff, inmates were more likely to lead their own religious services, distort Islam and espouse extremist beliefs. The "presence of extremist chaplains, contractors or volunteers ... can pose a threat to institutional security and could implicate national security if inmates are encouraged to commit terrorist acts against the United States," he added.

There's that distorted Islam again. What Mr. Fine leaves out of this is the fact that it was the chaplains -- like the notorious Warith Deen Umar who said that most Muslims privately cheered 9/11 -- who were (in his view) "distorting" Islam. So getting chaplains in again is not going to fix the problem. They have to get in the right kind of chaplains: ones who explicitly renounce violent jihad. Has he found them?

An update on a story we have followed here: Asra Nomani's courageous fight for equality of rights, or at least some respect, for women in a West Virginia mosque. From AP:

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Asra Nomani took a deep breath and entered the front door of the Islamic Center in Morgantown, W.Va., during Ramadan last year, shunning tradition and the women's balcony to pray on the main floor.

The 38-year-old single mother had no intention of praying next to the men — an act that would seem shocking to congregants. But she did want to see and hear the prayer leader, and was willing to break down gender barriers to do it.

She hopes her simple act will be the first step toward improving Muslim women's rights at mosques across the nation. "To deny women access to space is to deny access to participation," Nomani said. "We want voice and we want leadership."

Although the Morgantown mosque never had an official [policy], it had become custom that women pray in the balcony and enter through a separate door "to protect their privacy," said Christine Arja, a Fairmont lawyer and spokeswoman for the mosque's executive committee.

"Many people don't understand the manner in which Muslims pray," Arja said. "We pray in a line with our shoulders touching and our backsides do go up in the air. Many women don't want to be shoulder-to-shoulder with men."

Still, in June — less than a month after a new executive committee was elected, including the mosque's first woman — leaders clarified that women could pray behind men in the main prayer space. The mosque's small membership is largely made up of West Virginia University students and staff.

"Less than a year ago they told me, 'Sister, please use the back entrance,' " Nomani said. "Now they're talking about greeting us at the door. This is an important victory toward removing the barriers that keep women from full participation."

Sunni-Shi'ite cooperation is unusual, but not unheard of. It indicates how determined the Islamic world is in this struggle that we still dare not name. Of course, this, like everything from the 9/11 Commission, is craven and politically motivated, but there is still useful information here. From the New York Times:

The final report of the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks will offer new evidence of cooperative ties between Iran and Al Qaeda, including information drawn from intelligence reports suggesting that Iran provided several of the hijackers with safe passage in the year before the attacks, government officials said yesterday.

The officials emphasized that the commission had no evidence to suggest that Iranian officials knew of the Sept. 11 plot. But they said the evidence raised new questions about why the Bush administration focused on the possibility of Iraqi ties to Osama bin Laden's terror network after Sept. 11, 2001, when there may have been far more extensive evidence of an Iranian connection.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the embargo placed by the commission on discussing the report until its release, said the panel had recently obtained intelligence showing that Iran had ordered guards at its border stations not to stamp the passports of Qaeda members from Saudi Arabia who were moving through Iran after training at terrorist camps in Afghanistan. The existence of the new intelligence was first reported on Time magazine's Web site.

The officials said the bipartisan commission had uncovered evidence that as many as 10 of the Sept. 11 hijackers traveled through Iran in late 2000 and early 2001 and would have benefited from the Iranian policy, allowing them to enter the United States without an Iranian passport stamp, which could have made them subject to special scrutiny.

A shameful case of political correctness and dhimmitude, from WND, . The Presbyterian church, like so many others, has no idea that Israel faces the same jihad that non-Muslims are facing in Indonesia, Philippines, Kashmir, Chechnya, Nigeria, etc. The alternative to Israel is a maximalist, totalitarian Sharia state that will be just as bad for Presbyterians in the area as it will be for Jews.

By an overwhelming vote of its general assembly, the Presbyterian Church USA, boasting 3 million members, is siding with Palestinian Arabs and against Israel, choosing to divest from the Jewish state as it did only with apartheid South Africa.

With the decision, approved in a 431-62 vote at the 216th annual general assembly of the PCUSA, the denomination is believed to be the largest organization or institution to join the divestment campaign against Israel. It is the first Christian denomination to do so.

This isn't really surprising to anyone who has studied jihad ideology for any period of time. It only comes as a surprise to analysts who import Western categories into their understanding of the Islamic world. An excerpt from Yossef Bodansky's new "Secret History of the Iraq War," from WND, with thanks to EPG:

But there was a darker facet to the Abu Nidal story. In the weeks prior to the assassination, Iraqi intelligence received warnings from the intelligence services of several Gulf States that Abu Nidal was trying to reach an agreement with Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), which the Arab world respects and dreads far more than the CIA. Unhappy with the medical treatment he was getting in Baghdad, Abu Nidal had offered to divulge secrets in exchange for superior medical treatment in England. When London was cool to the original offer, Abu Nidal professed that he could provide the latest information about Iraqi cooperation with international terrorism generally, and al-Qaeda in particular.

Iraqi intelligence was reluctant to accept these reports because it knew the ailing Abu Nidal had few aides left, and most of these were actually working for Iraqi intelligence. After extended consideration, Saddam and the Mukhabarat high command concluded that the warnings had actually been a crude disinformation effort by the CIA or the SIS -- a sting aimed to manipulate Baghdad into exposing its growing cooperation with bin Laden, giving the administration an excuse to strike. The Iraqis, it turns out, were correct: the SIS was indeed trying to provoke the Iraqis into reckless actions, using its allies in the Gulf States as conduits for the flow of "chicken feed" to Baghdad.

The assassination destroyed all remaining hopes in Washington and London for extracting information from Abu Nidal.

With friends like these...

From the Washington Post, with thanks to Sugar Quub:

The House yesterday rejected a $570 million cut in U.S. military aid to Egypt after Secretary of State Colin L. Powell issued a last-minute warning to lawmakers that the action would damage relations with a close Middle East ally "at a very sensitive moment in the region." Although the 287 to 131 vote was lopsided, the administration and military contractors who sell U.S.-financed weaponry to Egypt took seriously the threat of a cut and worked behind the scenes to head it off.

Before the vote, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice made calls to some lawmakers, who were also on notice from arms companies that the shift could result in job losses in home districts. "It was a full-court press," said Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), who offered the amendment to the $19.4 billion foreign aid bill for 2005.

They didn't have TIME to deal with them. From The Sun, with thanks to Teri:

ANGRY cops had to free two dodgy asylum seekers because immigration staff were too BUSY.

The two illegals were detained at a police station after 11 YEARS on the run.

But immigration officers admitted they did not have TIME to come and get them — despite being only four miles away....

Algerian Abdul Alouane, 35, and Nigerian Mohammed Egbejule, 28, were stopped in a suspect car in South London.

They were taken to Brixton nick and cops called the immigration processing centre at London Bridge — only to be fobbed off.

A young man from Vanderbilt University asked me what I thought of this ludicrous New York Times op-ed by Nicholas Kristof, in which he compares the popular Left Behind series to the murderous statements and actions of jihadists.

If the latest in the "Left Behind" series of evangelical thrillers is to be believed, Jesus will return to Earth, gather non-Christians to his left and toss them into everlasting fire:

"Jesus merely raised one hand a few inches and a yawning chasm opened in the earth, stretching far and wide enough to swallow all of them. They tumbled in, howling and screeching, but their wailing was soon quashed and all was silent when the earth closed itself again."

These are the best-selling novels for adults in the United States, and they have sold more than 60 million copies worldwide. The latest is "Glorious Appearing," which has Jesus returning to Earth to wipe all non-Christians from the planet. It's disconcerting to find ethnic cleansing celebrated as the height of piety.

If a Muslim were to write an Islamic version of "Glorious Appearing" and publish it in Saudi Arabia, jubilantly describing a massacre of millions of non-Muslims by God, we would have a fit. We have quite properly linked the fundamentalist religious tracts of Islam with the intolerance they nurture, and it's time to remove the motes from our own eyes....

As my Times colleague David Kirkpatrick noted in an article, this portrayal of a bloody Second Coming reflects a shift in American portrayals of Jesus, from a gentle Mister Rogers figure to a martial messiah presiding over a sea of blood. Militant Christianity rises to confront Militant Islam.

This matters in the real world, in the same way that fundamentalist Islamic tracts in Saudi Arabia do. Each form of fundamentalism creates a stark moral division between decent, pious types like oneself — and infidels headed for hell.

No, I don't think the readers of "Glorious Appearing" will ram planes into buildings. But we did imprison thousands of Muslims here and abroad after 9/11, and ordinary Americans joined in the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in part because of a lack of empathy for the prisoners. It's harder to feel empathy for such people if we regard them as infidels and expect Jesus to dissolve their tongues and eyes any day now.

I am not a fundamentalist and do not believe in the theology that the "Left Behind" series expresses, but Kristof has (as usual) missed a fundamental distinction: a depiction of Jesus killing people at the Last Judgment, no matter how glorious a reader may find it, is not even remotely equivalent to an explicit and repeated call for believers to wage war against unbelievers. Calls like that go out from mosques worldwide with numbing regularity. One would be hard pressed to find a church making the same kind of call on the other side. No one who reads "Left Behind" is going to kill you because of it. He might be waiting for Jesus to do it, but that is not a call to action.

Traditional Christianity and traditional Islam both believe in Judgment and Hell. Kristof's analysis suggests that if you believe that those things exist, you must want to kill people. He completely ignores the fact that the two religions actually have quite developed teachings about how to behave in this world that don't depend at all on their eschatologies. Kristof has, I am sure, no clue of the fact that Christianity actually doesn't have and never has had a doctrine mandating warfare against non-Christians; Islam, on the other hand, has now and has always had a doctrine mandating warfare against non-Muslims. (Taqiyya artists and dhimmis please see, just to name a few, Qur'an 9:29 and hundreds of other verses, Sahih Muslim 4294, Umdat al-Salik o.9.8, plus the writings of all the major Islamic jurists. I have quoted them many times and you can find it all in Onward Muslim Soldiers.)

I am not saying that Christians have never behaved in a beastly manner. I am saying that they didn't do it because of their ideas of what was going to happen at the end of the world. Whatever you want to tell me about the Crusades and the Inquisition, you will never find a New Testament verse commanding that Christians go out and kill people. But jihadists who kill today are doing so because of teachings of Islam to which I referred above, and others. Muslims who do not kill don't have different teachings; they just ignore these.

This is, of course, the one thing that people like Nicholas Kristof can never and will never admit, because it would explode the foggy multiculturalism and relativism that passes for a world view in their minds. But it is simply a fact. Prove me wrong.

For Kristof to term this set of novels "militant Christianity," which is somehow equivalent or becoming equivalent to militant Islam, shows that he has not the remotest idea of what the jihadists are really saying, why they are saying it, and how it differs from what Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell are saying. This kind of theological equivalence is the idiot stepchild of the moral equivalence that the learned pundits used to preach regarding the U.S. and the Soviet Union. And just as moral equivalence played into the bloody hands of the Communists, so theological equivalence plays into the hands of the jihadists, attempting as it does to blunt the force of the moral argument against them. Yeah, sure, they preach murder, but hey, look at these novels!

Still glorying in blood and death. From AP, :

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) Images of an American hostage being decapitated surfaced Saturday on an Internet site known for carrying the statements of Islamic militants.

The gruesome videotape appeared three days after U.S. authorities announced the search for the body of Paul M. Johnson Jr. had been called off.

Still photographs of Johnson's beheading had been posted June 19 on some of the same militant Islamic forums that on Saturday provided links to the newly released video footage.

Johnson, a 49-year-old engineer for U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin, was kidnapped June 12.

The video, which ran almost two minutes and included images of tanks and destroyed homes apparently in Iraq, carried the title "The Voice of Jihad: Get the infidels out of the Arabian Peninsula."

Voice of Jihad is the name of a periodical issued on the Internet twice monthly by the al-Qaida cell in Saudi Arabia, which claimed Johnson's killing.

Anti-terror efforts meet with a predictable response from CAIR, Zogby, etc. They would do American Muslims a much greater service by being entirely open and cooperative; their cries of "witch-hunt" only increase suspicions. Nevertheless, I think the young man quoted at the end of the article, Alamoodi, is probably right: questioning like this doesn't accomplish much, if anything. From the Washington Post, :

FBI agents have launched a series of interviews of Muslims and Arab Americans in the Washington area and across the country, hoping to glean information that could prevent a major terrorist attack during this election year.

A few dozen voluntary interviews of community leaders, students, businesspeople and others have been conducted so far, according to attorneys and Muslim activists. Authorities said they do not know how many people will be contacted, but the effort is expected to expand significantly in the next week or so.

The new round of questioning is also far more targeted than an earlier program of voluntary interviews with men from Arab and Muslim countries, which followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and was criticized for being ineffective and using profiling.

"This is not a general population. They are identified by intelligence or investigative information," said an FBI official who spoke on condition of anonymity, in line with department policy. He added that the questioning did not signify that the people were under investigation themselves.

The questions being posed vary widely, according to attorneys, activists and interviewees. Several people in California and Arizona have been asked whether they knew anyone who had recently been in the Pakistani border region of Waziristan, regarded as a possible refuge for al Qaeda figures. They were also asked about Abu Nour, which agents identified as a mosque and school in Syria that was popular with American converts to Islam, the attorneys and activists said....

"Within two days, I received 10 calls from people freaking out because the FBI was contacting them," said Deedra Abboud, executive director of the Arizona chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

She said that the FBI agents went out of their way to be low-key but that Muslims were fearful when they got the calls, worrying that they were under investigation themselves.

Leaders of Muslim and Arab American organizations have been trying to build bridges with federal officials since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Many say that the earlier interviews cast too wide a net and reflected the wrong approach.

"It creates fear in the community and accomplishes absolutely nothing," said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute. The Justice Department has defended earlier interviews with Middle Eastern men and Iraqi immigrants, saying they provided useful information and were a way to build contacts.

Some activists said that Muslims and Arabs were nervous about responding to the FBI, in part because thousands of immigrants wound up being deported after being contacted in earlier phases of the government's anti-terrorism campaign. Several people in the Washington area have told FBI officers that they will meet with them only if their attorney is present....

Yaser Alamoodi, a student at Arizona State University, was surprised to get a visit at home recently from a campus police officer with the local Joint Terrorism Task Force. The 27-year-old student, who is a Yemeni citizen applying for U.S. residency, said that he agreed to the interview and that the officer was friendly and polite.

Alamoodi said the questions included whether he knew anyone who had recently returned from Pakistan, anyone who had shown interest in a government building or agency or anyone who had shown extreme hostility toward Americans.

"The questions were just ridiculous," he said. "I said, 'You guys really think you're going to get anywhere with these kind of questions?'"

Alamoodi said he was puzzled about why he was selected for an interview.

"I don't go to the mosque that often," he said, "unless they have free food."

A press release from Christian Solidarity International (thanks to Keith Roderick):

85 Black Sudanese boy slaves were freed from Arab masters last month through the mediation of the Arab-Dinka Peace Committee at Warawar, Southern Sudan.

The freed slaves were documented last week by an international team of researchers sponsored by CSI.

The freed slave boys were among the tens of thousands of Black women and children who had been enslaved by Sudanese government-sponsored militias during two decades of civil war. All of the boys reported that they were forced to work without pay, and were frequently beaten and subjected to racial insults. Over 80% of the boys reported that they had been forced to practice Islam against their will, while 18% claimed they had been raped by their masters or by their masters_ friends and relatives. One 14-year-old boy, Mawien Garang, explained that his master forced him to serve another man as a male prostitute. 65% of the slaves reported that they had witnessed the execution of other Black Africans during slave raids or while in captivity.

The Islamist Government of Sudan has long sponsored slave raiding in Southern Sudan as an instrument of a declared jihad against the Black, non-Muslim communities that have resisted the imposition of Arab-dominated, Islamic rule. As a result of a U.S. supported cease-fire in Southern Sudan, the Khartoum government has recently suspended slave raiding there. But it has revived the practice against the Black African tribes of Darfur in western Sudan.

This year, UN sources have documented the extensive "abduction" and rape of Black women and children in Darfur by the armed forces of the Sudanese government. "Abduction" is the euphemism used by UN agencies as coded language for the enslavement of Black citizens of Sudan.

Speaking to CSI's Dr. John Eibner last week, a 30 year-old displaced mother from Darfur, Sennah Abdelhamid, expressed the fear that her four missing children had been enslaved by Arab militiamen, noting that she had seen enslaved children from her Black tribe serving Arab masters in cattle camps.

Since the outbreak of civil war in 1983, the Government of Sudan has implemented genocidal policies against Black African tribes, resulting in the death of over two million civilians, the displacement of over five million and the enslavement of tens of thousands of women and children.

CSI is currently campaigning for the U.S. Department of State to establish a Task Force to Monitor the Eradication of Slavery in Sudan, and for the U.S. to act on the 2002 declaration by President Bush, Sen. John Kerry and both Houses of Congress that the Government of Sudan is a perpetrator of acts of "genocide", including "slavery". (Sudan Peace Act, 2002)

Slavery is a "crime against humanity", according to international law.

CSI is a co-founder of the Sudan Campaign, which is coordinating daily STOP the GENOCIDE and FREE the SLAVES demonstrations at the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Email: keith.roderick@csi-usa.org

We carried several stories here about Hussam Abdo, the 15-year-old would-be suicide bomber who was disarmed and jailed by Israeli forces. Now the BBC (thanks to Peter Rockas for the link) has published an interview with the boy that is extremely revealing of the culture that has spawned this demonic phenomenon -- also note that none of the vaunted brutality of the Israelis seems to be on display here:

JR: When you put on that belt did you really know - as a 15-year-old - that you were going to go and murder people, that you were going to go and cause great suffering to mothers and fathers, that you were going to be a mass murderer? Did you really know that?

Hussam: Yes. Just like they came and caused our parents sadness and suffering they too should feel this. Just like we feel this - they should also feel it. [...]

JR: When the army caught you, how did you feel?

Hussam: I was a bit scared. The soldiers came to me and there were many of them so I was a bit scared.

I was afraid that they would beat me but I wasn't afraid that they'd shoot me.

They were nice to me - they treated me well. [...]

JR: Did the people who sent you - the people from the Al Aqsa Brigades - did they promise you anything?

Hussam: Of course they did. They told me, once you carry out the operation and the soldiers come and demolish your home, we'll stand by your parents and rebuild your house and give them money. [...]

JR: Have you spoken to them since your arrest?

Hussam: I spoke to them [his parents] shortly after I was arrested. I was at the army base and the doctor there was checking me and I told him I wanted to speak to my mother, so he lent me his mobile phone.

He let me speak to my mother. She began to cry - she'd seen what happened on TV.

Then the doctor took the phone away from me and he spoke to my mother.

He said don't worry about your son, he's fine, we'll take care of him.[...]

JR: Some teenagers want to be footballers, others want to be singers. You wanted to be a suicide bomber. Why?

Hussam: It's not suicide - it's martyrdom.

I would become a martyr and go to my God. It's better than being a singer or a footballer. It's better than everything.

JR: What was the main reason for you deciding to become a suicide bomber? The one reason in particular.

Hussam: The reason was because my friend was killed.

The second reason I did it is because I didn't want to go to school.

My parents forced me to go to school and I didn't feel like going.

JR: Are you saying that one of the reasons you wanted to become a suicide bomber was because you didn't like your teacher?

Hussam: That and because of my friend Sabih, who was killed.

JR: It seems extreme that if you don't like your teacher it could partially propel you towards murder and suicide.

Hussam: The thing is my parents forced me to go to school and I didn't want to go.

I found this report less disturbing for the fact that al-Qaida is recruiting non-Arabs than for the idea that this is news. It indicates that the FBI, the media, or both have by now utterly forgotten about John Walker Lindh, Richard Reid, Jose Padilla, Jack Roche, and all the rest. Doesn't bode well for our state of readiness to have such short memories. From AP, with thanks to pfinn:

WASHINGTON -- The FBI is cautioning local authorities the al-Qaida terror network may be recruiting non-Arabs less likely to attract notice as they carry out attacks in the United States.

Al-Qaida especially wants operatives who have American citizenship or legal residency status, the FBI's counterterrorism division said in its weekly bulletin to 18,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide.

"Finding operatives with U.S. status would greatly facilitate al-Qaida's ability to carry out an attack within the United States," said the bulletin, obtained Friday by The Associated Press.

The new warning comes amid a continuous stream of intelligence indicating that al-Qaida is determined to strike the United States in the summer or fall. Officials have said the terror network blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks hopes to inflict mass casualties again and disrupt the political process in this presidential election year.

Ordinarily I wouldn't put up a piece that is a month old, but this column by Andrew Bolt in the Herald Sun (thanks to ymr) states the obvious that so many Westerners miss: that Muslims are associated with terrorism because Muslims themselves make the association, not because of Western xenophobia.

WE pay Bill Jonas at least $200,000 a year to be our conscience, and we sure get enough tears for that money.

This Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commissioner released his report this week into racism against Muslims and broke down when he told the ABC of one of the worst cases.

Jonas: "I actually find it very difficult to say 'cause I get too upset about it, but that seventh generation (Muslim Australian) being told to go back to the country . . .(stifled sob)"

Reporter: "I'll give you a moment."

Jonas (brokenly): "Every time, it just really upsets me when I read it."

If I may interrupt Jonas's tears, I'd say if a dill telling a Muslim to "go home" is the worst racism he found after grilling 1400 Muslims for horror stories, then we must be angels. And since a guest at his launch was Australia's Mufti, Sheik Taj el-Din el-Hilali, Jonas and his Race Police might now think of far more potent threats to our harmony to probe.

It's Hilali, after all, who said Jews were the "underlying cause of all wars", using "sex and abominable acts of buggery" to "control the world", and that suicide bombers were "heroes".

But, surprise, Jonas ignores the hate speech of Hilali and even more extreme imams. It seems he'd rather repeat wild claims that the real racists are mainstream Australians....

True, other cases cited in HREOC's report are nasty. A few Muslims have suffered awful name-calling and threats, thanks to cretins who think every Muslim is a terrorist. But who gives just that wicked impression?

This week newspapers published a petition attacking the Howard Government's new laws against terrorists as "fascist". And who were the main signatories? Muslim leaders, including Hilali, a fan of the Hezbollah terrorist outfit. So who here equates the war on terror with a war on Islam?

Meanwhile, leaders of 25 Muslim groups signed a letter claiming "anti-terrorism legislation enacted in this country has unfairly targeted Muslims: only Muslims have been arrested".

There's a reason for that, dear imams -- no Christian or Jewish groups have been found here plotting to kill civilians or help terrorists.

NOR are their leaders as troubling as your radical Sheik Muhammed Omran, who signed your letter against our terrorism laws -- maybe because he's a friend and acquaintance of men jailed or charged over links to al-Qaida.

So once again it's Muslim leaders who equate terrorism with Islam. Such stupid leadership -- seeming to side with the worst Muslims against good Australians -- is tragic. No wonder both Muslims and non-Muslims fret. It's enough to make me cry with Jonas, except my tears you can have free.

Anti-Semitic hate speech? OK. FoxNews? Forget about it. Dhimmitude gallops forward in Canada. From WND, with thanks to Jjp Mackie:

The Canadian commission that approves applications for television access yesterday OK'd Arab news network Al-Jazeera to broadcast on the nation's satellite system.

While approving Al-Jazeera and eight other new non-Canadian third-language services, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission rejected applications from an Italian and several Spanish-language outlets....

The Toronto Globe and Mail reported the Al-Jazeera application received considerable support from many of the 500,000 Canadians of Arabic and west Asian origin. The Canadian Jewish Congress, among others, however, argued that the 8-year-old network disseminates "anti-Semitic hate speech."...

The approval of Al-Jazeera comes as the U.S.-based Fox News Channel continues to seek access to Canadian television. The commission currently is taking public comments regarding a request by the popular cable network to be added to the list of approved channels. The comment period ends Aug. 9.

Even in Dhimmi France (today's counterpart to Vichy France), feminism may trump multiculturalism. From the BBC, with thanks to Nicolei:

The French authorities could soon be able to expel foreigners for inciting discrimination against women. The upper house of parliament has approved legislation that would allow a clamp down on people encouraging hatred or violence against women.

The law came after the authorities suffered a setback in their efforts to deport radical Algerian Islamic cleric Abdelkader Bouziane.

Mr Bouziane was accused of publicly justifying wife-beating in an article.

Presidential concern

Under the new legislation foreigners can be expelled for "inciting discrimination, hatred or violence against a specific person or group of persons".

The 52-year-old Algerian preacher returned to France last month, after a court ruled that his deportation had been illegal.

He preaches at a mosque in a suburb of Lyon.

The cleric was deported to Algeria on 21 April for saying that the Koran authorised the stoning and beating of adulterous women.

The remarks caused an outcry in France, with many Muslim leaders condemning them as un-Islamic.

Well, sure they did. But I wonder what they said about Sura 4:34: "Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them. Lo! Allah is ever High, Exalted, Great."

Or did he just assume that the dhimmis wouldn't know it existed?

Why did Saudi Arabia get any aid in the first place? Why did one of the richest nations on earth get a place on the Washington dole? Why were we giving money to a country that cannot guarantee the safety of our citizens on its soil? Why were we helping them pick up the tab for all their funding of jihadist activities around the world? Why were we in effect paying them to spread the notion that we must be conquered and made over into an Islamic state?

A minuscule amount? Sure. But a penny would be too much.

From Reuters, with thanks to EPG:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lawmakers cheered as the House of Representatives voted on Thursday to strip financial assistance for Saudi Arabia from a foreign aid bill because of criticism that the country has not been sufficiently cooperative in the U.S. war on terror.

The vote was a stinging defeat for the Bush Administration which had strongly opposed the measure saying it would "severely undermine" counterterrorism cooperation with Saudi Arabia and U.S. efforts for peace in the Middle East.

The House voted 217-191 to remove $25,000 in the $19.4 billion 2005 foreign aid bill earmarked for Saudi Arabia.

The funds were designated for military training but approval would have triggered millions of dollars in discounts on hardware and other military training, lawmakers said.

"I don't want my taxpayer dollars going to the Saudis and I don't want anyone else's to," said Nevada Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley.

Muslims are advised to stay away from all those Christian airlines. From WND, :

The Al-Battar Camp online magazine, stated in a June 29 posting that the measure was for Muslims' safety....

The report, "A Warning to Muslims With Regard to Getting Close to Infidels and Oppressors," was written by Sheikh Amir Ibn-Abdullah al-Amir.

It advises Muslims, "If you are working with our infidel enemies, beware. Leave their quarters to save your religion, first, as well as for your own safety, should the mujahadeen target these infidel companies that hold enmity toward the Muslims and play a role in the war against Muslim nations. Beware of being with these infidels in this situation, lest you become afflicted by what will befall them. Al-Qaida has already warned and explained that it will be targeting these companies, especially the airlines, the oil companies and others run by the Christians."

What are these -- Prussian jihadists? The "inefficient" Berlusconi? They're worried about efficiency now? Of course, Silvio has upset them ever since he said: "We must be aware of the superiority of our civilisation, a system that has guaranteed well-being, respect for human rights and -- in contrast with Islamic countries -- respect for religious and political rights, a system that has as its value understanding of diversity and tolerance." Yes, blow up Italy! That'll prove him wrong!

From AP:

The statement, signed by the Brigades of Abu Hafs al-Masri and posted Friday on an Internet site known for carrying extremist Islamic content, follows the expiration of a three-month offer of a terrorism truce purportedly made by Osama bin Laden to European states, including Italy.

"Either you get rid of the inefficient Berlusconi, or we will really burn Italy," the undated statement said, adding, "Berlusconi is dragging you into more blood plus absolute slavery to America."

There was no way to verify the authenticity of the statement.

Maybe he was just calling for a spiritual struggle for self-improvement against U.S. forces in Iraq.

RAMADI, Iraq (AFP) - A senior Sunni cleric called on his followers to launch a holy war against the US forces in Iraq and threatened to turn the hotspot city of Ramadi into a "graveyard" for American troops.

"I ask US President (George W.) Bush to withdraw from Iraq or else Ramadi will become a graveyard for US soldiers," declared Sheikh Akram Ubayed Furaih at weekly prayers in the city, 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of Baghdad.

"I call upon my brothers the Shiites and on all other religious groups to embark on a Jihad (holy war) against the US military to force them out of Iraq," said the cleric, who spent three months in a prison after being arrested by the US military and whose home was also raided last week.

"I urge all the Iraqi people to fight a holy war against the Americans," said the cleric, among the most respected figures in this Sunni rebel bastion.

All that supine dhimmitude, and what do they get? Three civilians kidnapped. From Reuters, with thanks to Ruth King:

GAZA (Reuters) - Masked Palestinian gunmen kidnapped three French civilians in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis Friday, Palestinian witnesses and security officials said. It was the third Gaza kidnapping in a day.

The witnesses said two foreign women and a man had been sitting at a restaurant when the gunmen burst in, seized them and took them to the local Red Crescent headquarters, where they ordered workers to leave the building.

Palestinian security officials said the hostages were French. French foreign ministry officials had no information on the kidnapping.

The officials said the kidnapping was carried out by militants from the Abu al-Rish brigades, which is linked to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction.

The jihadists celebrate a victory. It looks as if the non-Muslim world will be experiencing the repercussions of Fallujah for quite some time. From AP, with thanks to DC Watson:

U.S. Marines besieged the city west of Baghdad in April after four Americans were ambushed and killed there. Ten Marines and hundreds of Iraqis, many of them civilians, died before the Marines pulled out and handed security over to an Iraqi volunteer force.

The three-week siege is inspiring "a literature of resistance and war," said Egyptian novelist Gamal el-Ghitani. "Fallujah is a symbol, in one of the worst eras we have witnessed, that it is not impossible to stand up to America."

He said it also sends a message to Arab dictators about the lesson people may draw about resisting oppression.

"I used to laugh, despite the ghastly daily news, about how a bunch of poor, helpless Iraqis with primitive weapons are forcing the greatest superpower in the world to negotiate. Honestly, the American army was ridiculed," he said.

Funny thing: why didn't the Vast Majority of Muslim Moderates at Dartmouth put a stop to this before pressure was brought from outside? From Dartmouth Online, with thanks to Nicolei:

A series of recent editorials and letters to the editor concerning controversial statements on the Al-Nur Dartmouth Muslim Student Association website have sparked a controversy over whether the student group should be subject to sanctions for placing offensive material on its website.

The strife began after a piece entitled "Preaching Hatred at Dartmouth" ran in the June 29 issue of The Dartmouth. The author, Ilya Feoktistov '06, described several passages found on Al-Nur's website that he deemed to be anti-Semitic. The passages included an inflammatory hadith -- one of the sayings of Muhammad that is sacred to Islam -- and commentary by a Pakistani Muslim religious authority on several hadiths.

Feoktistov discovered this material approximately one year ago while searching through Al-Nur's website. However, he did not take action until April when requests from Jewish students to use the Pavilion Dining Hall to celebrate Israeli Independence Day were denied, and a member of Al-Nur described Israeli independence as a "terrible tragedy" in a BlitzMail message that was later forwarded to Feoktistov.

"He viewed this day as a day of great tragedy, which I viewed as anti-Semitic." Feoktistov said. "It made me worry about anti-Semitism within Al-Nur, not just within their website."

Feoktistov's editorial concerned links to controversial passages on the Al-Nur site, including one which read: "The Messenger of Allah said, 'The Last Hour will not come until the Muslims fight against the Jews, until a Jew will hide himself behind a stone or a tree, and the stone or the tree will say: 'O Muslim, there is a Jew behind me. Come and kill him.'"

Al-Nur removed the material in question quickly after Feoktistov's editorial was published. In addition, Sajid Huq '04 issued a published apology on behalf of Al-Nur.

"The offensive views are resoundingly dissonant with the views held by Muslim students on this campus," Huq wrote, "and we urge people to exercise good judgment if they ever encounter hateful material under the umbrella of Islam, which unfortunately is not hard to run into."

Former Al-Nur president Adil Ahmad '05, said that the presence of the controversial material on the site was a matter of neglect. However, Ahmad questioned Feoktistov's concerns that the material reflected a deeper enmity of Jews within the Al-Nur organization.

"We didn't read the commentaries," said Ahmad, who serves as the webmaster for Al-Nur's website. "If you remove the context, [the passages] seem very offensive." Ahmad went on to explain that the particular hadith dealt with a "war with a tribe of Jews 1,400 years back," and the passage is "specific to that war only."

Mmm-hmmm. Funny how it mentions the Last Days, then, and that radical Muslims around the world seem to have missed that interpretation.

A helpful new survey from MEMRI:

Introduction The post September 11 war on terrorism has increased Islamist organizations' dependence on the Internet, making it a vital means of communication and indoctrination for both Islamist organizations and for the infrastructure of Al-Qa'ida supporters. As a result of Islamist websites often being tracked and in some cases hacked, or shut down by their Internet Service Providers (ISPs), the Islamist organizations have also become increasingly dependent on chat rooms and message boards for communication.

The following list of 25 Islamist websites and message forums, the first in a series of reports, includes website affiliations, IP addresses, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and information about their registrants.(1) The entries are categorized by ISP location.

The IP addresses and hosts included in the list were valid as of July 16, 2004.(2)

The MEMRI piece continues with a list of the particular sites.

From Americans 4 Free Iran, with thanks to Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi:

ACTION ALERT: The Council on Foreign Relations is hosting a task force on Iran that calls for the US to engage Iran - which is Washington speak for 'make a deal'. Your voice is needed to demonstrate just how dangerous this is for America and for Iran. Please send a fax or email to the Council (in English if possible) letting them know that to "engage Iran" will mean complicity in the torture, repression and murder of an entire people -- while also allowing Iran to shelter al Qaeda terrorists and extremists bent on using nuclear weapons against America.

Contact the Council on Foreign Relations at either their NY or DC offices:

New York Office
The Harold Pratt House
58 East 68th Street
New York, NY 10021
Tel. (212) 434-9400
Fax: (212) 434-9800

Washington Office
1779 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
Tel. (202) 518-3400
Fax (202) 986-2984

** Or: Email the Communications Department at: communications@cfr.org

Be Sure to THANK - U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman -- Sen. Coleman (R-MN) spoke to the 'Free Iran' rally in front of the U.S. Congress on July 8-9th. Sen. Coleman has proven himself in the past year, to be one of the best new lawmakers on the issue of Iran. All you from Minnesota should be proud!! But no matter where you are from, take a minute to drop the Senator's office an email thanking him and his staff for their good work. This means a lot for members to get feedback and it can help the Senator to know how many people are watching and supporting his efforts.
Email the Senator's office:
coleman.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactForm

Another call for reform of Islam that seems to rest on false principles. I do not believe that genuine reform is possible without a forthright acknowledgement of what needs to be reformed. From Singapore's TodayOnline:

The word "jihad" used to have a noble connotation of an effort made towards self-improvement through enlightenment and education. But, of late, it has become synonymous with armed struggle and terrorism.

Speaking at a seminar on the uses and abuses of jihad at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies yesterday, prominent Islamic thinker Prof Mohammad Hashim Kamali said the word and deed has become one of the most distorted and politicised aspects in Islam.

The Afghan-born Prof Kamali said Islamic juristic writings on jihad were a key influence in "virtually equating jihad with war".

He said: "In the course, juristic writings on jihad became so preoccupied with its military aspect … it was eventually restricted only to this meaning to the near total exclusion of its wider connotations. This has lent support to the common misconception about jihad that has persisted ever since."

So Islamic jurists are responsible for the misconception? In other words, if you read books of Islamic law, which I do at some length in Onward Muslim Soldiers, they'll tell you that jihad means warfare, but they're wrong? The body of men who spent their lives studying the Qur'an and Hadith in order to conform every aspect of Muslims' lives to the will of Allah and his prophet, and they misunderstood this key concept?

Referring to Koranic evidence, Prof Kamali emphasised that jihad was the "inner struggle for self- discipline and a sincere striving for the acquisition of knowledge".

I wish the article had been more explicit. I'd like to know how "slay the unbelievers wherever you find them (Sura 9:5) and the scores of other Qur'anic verses commanding warfare against non-Muslims refers to an "inner struggle for self-discipline."

However, he admitted that jihad in the military sense could be interpreted as a defence against aggression.

"In countless places, the Koran ordains fighting tyranny and suppression of liberties until persecution stops and people are free to believe and act in accordance with their own conscience," said the professor of Islamic law and jurisprudence at the International Islamic University in Malaysia.

Also, I wonder what Kamali would say to Mufti Ebrahim Desai and others who say that jihad warfare is not always defensive, but must also be waged offensively to spread Islamic hegemony. The fact that he takes no notice of this is just one indication of the severe limitations of his supposedly reformist vision.

Hmm. Weren't they respecting the laws in Europe already? Apparently not. From IslamOnline, with thanks to EPG:

LONDON, July 11 (IslamOnline.net) - The European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR) wrapped up its 13th session late Saturday, July 10, with a call to Muslims living in the West to abide by the laws in their respective countries and respects the rights of non-Muslims.

At the conclusion of their annual meeting, held in the London City Hall on July 7-10 at an invitation from London Mayor Ken Livingstone, Muslim scholars made several important recommendations, mostly directed to Muslim communities in the West.

"While abiding by the host country’s laws, Muslims are also asked to form Islamic bodies to organize their personal issues in accordance with Shari`ah," said the ECFR.

Most importantly, the body recommended that Muslims in the West to spare no legal or peaceful efforts to get the country where they live to recognize Islam as a religion and Muslims as a community that should enjoy full rights.

The recommendations also asked Muslims in the West to respect the lives and properties of non-Muslims.

"Muslims in the West should observe all duties and provide a good example for others in words, actions and behaviours," said the ECFR.

It also encouraged Muslims in the West to "adopt positive and innovative attitudes on all levels."

"They should do their utmost to raise the new generations - boys and girls - in a modern Islamic manner through establishing schools, educational and entertainment centres to protect them from deviation.

In other words, create a separate culture, with separate values. All right, but does that include an attachment to Sharia? And what does that suggest for the future of Europe?

After initial indications that the Filipino hostage had already been freed or would be freed quickly after the Philippine government's abject surrender to jihadist demands, the jihadists are slowing down the process. They want to make sure that the Filipinos carry out their part of the bargain before they carry out theirs. From CNN, :

(CNN) -- Militants holding a Filipino hostage say they will free him when "the last Filipino leaves Iraq on a date that doesn't go beyond the end of this month," according to a statement read by the Arabic-language news network Al-Jazeera.

The statement was broadcast Thursday shortly after Al-Jazeera had shown video of the Filipino trucker reported that he will be returning home.

Images of Angelo de la Cruz, a 46-year-old trucker, were seen but his voice was not heard, with an anchor reading his purported message.

The news reader said de la Cruz had sent a message to the Philippines president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, thanking her for her decision to withdraw troops and sticking to that decision.

He also sent a message to his wife and family saying he is OK and "wait for me, I'm coming back to you."

He was not wearing the orange jumpsuit hostages frequently are seen wearing. Instead, he was wearing civilian clothing and looked like he was in good shape.

Over a very pleasant dinner with a high-profile Muslim spokesman a few months ago, he assured me that Morocco was a bulwark of Muslim moderation, a veritable model for the Islamic world. Unfortunately, however, that seems not to be the case. From AP, with thanks to the many who sent this to me:

MADRID, Spain – Morocco – home to most of the suspects in the Madrid train bombing – is teeming with some 100 al-Qaeda-linked cells that are capable of suicide attacks and pose Europe's biggest terrorist threat, Spain's leading anti-terrorism judge testified Thursday.

Each cell has five to 10 members, "so we are talking about 900 to 1,000 people who could be sought by police now in Morocco," Judge Baltasar Garzon told lawmakers investigating the March 11 attacks, which killed 190 people. Garzon cited police and intelligence data.

"In my opinion it is the gravest problem Europe faces today with this kind of terrorism," Garzon said, noting that many of those groups are in northern Morocco, with members who speak perfect Spanish and are able to slip easily in and out of Spain. The two countries are just a short ferry ride away from each other across the Strait of Gibraltar.

Most of the 17 people jailed in Spain on preliminary charges stemming from the Madrid bombing attack are Moroccan, including Jamal Zougam, suspected of physically placing the bombs on the crowded morning commuter trains.

But note that even as Marie Arena acknowledges that radicals use mosques to recruit and plan activities, she has to assure us that this has nothing to do with genuine Islam. When, just by way of comparison, did you ever hear the media or a governing official assure the public that a case of sexual abuse by a priest had nothing to do with genuine Christianity?

Yet even that comparison is inexact, because Christianity doesn't teach sexual abuse, but there is abundant evidence that anti-Semitism (Qur'an 2:62-65, 5:59-60, 7:166, 9:30 etc.) and violence (Qur'an 9:5, 9:29, etc.) are not abuses of Islam at all. From Expatica, :

BRUSSELS - Belgian intelligence services are to investigate mosques suspected of promoting anti-Semitic and xenophobic messages, it has been revealed.

The move was announced by Equal Opportunities Minister Marie Arena ... Arena played down the significance of the proposal on mosques in the action plan, arguing that it was no secret that mosques were often the target of fundamentalists....

The minister stressed that Islam as a religion had to be seen independently from Islamic extremism.

All that supine dhimmitude, and what do they get? Threatened like the rest of us. From Expatica, :

AMSTERDAM — A letter, allegedly from al-Qaeda, suggests that European organisations in The Hague and Brussels are potential targets for terror attacks. 'Soft targets' where the public gather in Western Holland are also thought to be most at risk, it was reported Friday.

The Dutch government issued a terror alert on 9 July and security has been stepped up at government and other buildings, train stations and infrastructure points during the week.

The alert has not been rescinded and Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has cautioned the public to be watchful for suspicious activity.

Sure, Michael Moore, there is no terrorism in the US. A harrowing piece by Annie Jacobsen in Women'sWallStreet.com (thanks to Ruth King). Here are a few highlights. Please read it all. It is important not only for what it suggests about ongoing jihad activities in the USA, but also about our state of preparedness.

On June 29, 2004, at 12:28 p.m., I flew on Northwest Airlines flight #327 from Detroit to Los Angeles with my husband and our young son. Also on our flight were 14 Middle Eastern men between the ages of approximately 20 and 50 years old. What I experienced during that flight has caused me to question whether the United States of America can realistically uphold the civil liberties of every individual, even non-citizens, and protect its citizens from terrorist threats.

On that Tuesday, our journey began uneventfully. Starting out that morning in Providence, Rhode Island, we went through security screening, flew to Detroit, and passed the time waiting for our connecting flight to Los Angeles by shopping at the airport stores and eating lunch at an airport diner. With no second security check required in Detroit we headed to our gate and waited for the pre-boarding announcement. Standing near us, also waiting to pre-board, was a group of six Middle Eastern men. They were carrying blue passports with Arabic writing. Two men wore tracksuits with Arabic writing across the back. Two carried musical instrument cases - thin, flat, 18 long. One wore a yellow T-shirt and held a McDonald's bag. And the sixth man had a bad leg -- he wore an orthopedic shoe and limped. When the pre-boarding announcement was made, we handed our tickets to the Northwest Airlines agent, and walked down the jetway with the group of men directly behind us.

My four-year-old son was determined to wheel his carry-on bag himself, so I turned to the men behind me and said, You go ahead, this could be awhile. No, you go ahead, one of the men replied. He smiled pleasantly and extended his arm for me to pass. He was young, maybe late 20's and had a goatee. I thanked him and we boarded the plan.

Once on the plane, we took our seats in coach (seats 17A, 17B and 17C). The man with the yellow shirt and the McDonald's bag sat across the aisle from us (in seat 17E). The pleasant man with the goatee sat a few rows back and across the aisle from us (in seat 21E). The rest of the men were seated throughout the plane, and several made their way to the back.

As we sat waiting for the plane to finish boarding, we noticed another large group of Middle Eastern men boarding. The first man wore a dark suit and sunglasses. He sat in first class in seat 1A, the seat second-closet to the cockpit door. The other seven men walked into the coach cabin. As aware Americans, my husband and I exchanged glances, and then continued to get comfortable. I noticed some of the other passengers paying attention to the situation as well. As boarding continued, we watched as, one by one, most of the Middle Eastern men made eye contact with each other. They continued to look at each other and nod, as if they were all in agreement about something. I could tell that my husband was beginning to feel anxious.

The take-off was uneventful. But once we were in the air and the seatbelt sign was turned off, the unusual activity began. The man in the yellow T-shirt got out of his seat and went to the lavatory at the front of coach -- taking his full McDonald's bag with him. When he came out of the lavatory he still had the McDonald's bag, but it was now almost empty. He walked down the aisle to the back of the plane, still holding the bag. When he passed two of the men sitting mid-cabin, he gave a thumbs-up sign. When he returned to his seat, he no longer had the McDonald's bag.

Then another man from the group stood up and took something from his carry-on in the overhead bin. It was about a foot long and was rolled in cloth. He headed toward the back of the cabin with the object. Five minutes later, several more of the Middle Eastern men began using the forward lavatory consecutively. In the back, several of the men stood up and used the back lavatory consecutively as well.

For the next hour, the men congregated in groups of two and three at the back of the plane for varying periods of time. Meanwhile, in the first class cabin, just a foot or so from the cockpit door, the man with the dark suit - still wearing sunglasses - was also standing. Not one of the flight crew members suggested that any of these men take their seats.

Watching all of this, my husband was now beyond anxious. I decided to try to reassure my husband (and maybe myself) by walking to the back bathroom. I knew the goateed-man I had exchanged friendly words with as we boarded the plane was seated only a few rows back, so I thought I would say hello to the man to get some reassurance that everything was fine. As I stood up and turned around, I glanced in his direction and we made eye contact. I threw out my friendliest remember-me-we-had-a-nice-exchange-just-a-short-time-ago smile. The man did not smile back. His face did not move. In fact, the cold, defiant look he gave me sent shivers down my spine.

When I returned to my seat I was unable to assure my husband that all was well. My husband immediately walked to the first class section to talk with the flight attendant. I might be overreacting, but I've been watching some really suspicious things... Before he could finish his statement, the flight attendant pulled him into the galley. In a quiet voice she explained that they were all concerned about what was going on. The captain was aware. The flight attendants were passing notes to each other. She said that there were people on board higher up than you and me watching the men. My husband returned to his seat and relayed this information to me. He was feeling slightly better. I was feeling much worse. We were now two hours into a four-in-a-half hour flight.

Approximately 10 minutes later, that same flight attendant came by with the drinks cart. She leaned over and quietly told my husband there were federal air marshals sitting all around us. She asked him not to tell anyone and explained that she could be in trouble for giving out that information. She then continued serving drinks.

About 20 minutes later the same flight attendant returned. Leaning over and whispering, she asked my husband to write a description of the yellow-shirted man sitting across from us. She explained it would look too suspicious if she wrote the information. She asked my husband to slip the note to her when he was done.

After seeing 14 Middle Eastern men board separately (six together, eight individually) and then act as a group, watching their unusual glances, observing their bizarre bathroom activities, watching them congregate in small groups, knowing that the flight attendants and the pilots were seriously concerned, and now knowing that federal air marshals were on board, I was officially terrified.. Before I'm labeled a racial profiler or -- worse yet -- a racist, let me add this. A month ago I traveled to India to research a magazine article I was writing. My husband and I flew on a jumbo jet carrying more than 300 Hindu and Muslim men and women on board. We traveled throughout the country and stayed in a Muslim village 10 miles outside Pakistan. I never once felt fearful. I never once felt unsafe. I never once had the feeling that anyone wanted to hurt me. This time was different.

Finally, the captain announced that the plane was cleared for landing. It had been four hours since we left Detroit. The fasten seat belt light came on and I could see downtown Los Angeles. The flight attendants made one final sweep of the cabin and strapped themselves in for landing. I began to relax. Home was in sight.

Suddenly, seven of the men stood up -- in unison -- and walked to the front and back lavatories. One by one, they went into the two lavatories, each spending about four minutes inside. Right in front of us, two men stood up against the emergency exit door, waiting for the lavatory to become available. The men spoke in Arabic among themselves and to the man in the yellow shirt sitting nearby. One of the men took his camera into the lavatory. Another took his cell phone. Again, no one approached the men. Not one of the flight attendants asked them to sit down. I watched as the man in the yellow shirt, still in his seat, reached inside his shirt and pulled out a small red book. He read a few pages, then put the book back inside his shirt. He pulled the book out again, read a page or two more, and put it back. He continued to do this several more times.

I looked around to see if any other passengers were watching. I immediately spotted a distraught couple seated two rows back. The woman was crying into the man's shoulder. He was holding her hand. I heard him say to her, You've got to calm down. Behind them sat the once pleasant-smiling, goatee-wearing man.

I grabbed my son, I held my husband's hand and, despite the fact that I am not a particularly religious person, I prayed. The last man came out of the bathroom, and as he passed the man in the yellow shirt he ran his forefinger across his neck and mouthed the word No.

The plane landed. My husband and I gathered our bags and quickly, very quickly, walked up the jetway. As we exited the jetway and entered the airport, we saw many, many men in dark suits. A few yards further out into the terminal, LAPD agents ran past us, heading for the gate. I have since learned that the representatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), the Federal Air Marshals (FAM), and the Transportation Security Association (TSA) met our plane as it landed. Several men -- who I presume were the federal air marshals on board -- hurried off the plane and directed the 14 men over to the side.

Knowing what we knew, and seeing what we'd seen, my husband and I decided to talk to the authorities. For several hours my husband and I were interrogated by the FBI. We gave sworn statement after sworn statement. We wrote down every detail of our account. The interrogators seemed especially interested in the McDonald's bag, so we repeated in detail what we knew about the McDonald's bag. A law enforcement official stood near us, holding 14 Syrian passports in his hand. We answered more questions. And finally we went home.

There is much more. Don't miss a word.

Some of the chatter on Islamic Forums is nuclear. The English is broken, the message is clear. From HomelandSecurityUS.net, with thanks to William Webb:

The nuclear warfare is !!The hitting scenario coming to the base God willing

Yes it is the sole solution for the destruction of the crusaders and if we drank the bitterness of the war he kept off it and the nuclear warfare from the destination of my consideration is kinds a many from it the Alzrbat of the chemical and the bacterial one .

And so that we imagine now the scenario of some Alzrbat that may establish in Hubal the age and the time idol .

What if they sickened one of young man are one of their high buildings and he carries by its hand its packs a French perfume Shahira its workshops contains the anthrax item to the air ¿¿

The drizzle will spread certainly in the areas of the intended city certainly that will not discover the cautious authorities of security in the United States not to a passage except ¿¿¿

After it is too late ¿ ¿ ¿ he will start the injured with the flow to the country hospitals an Aladmi without managing their aid !!!

And the spokesman will declare by the house in the name of so the White House accusation eggs of the base with this attack .

And after a short time the newscaster Sidhr passes so that he declares that the spokesman is by the Al-Qaeda poison the His Eminence Sheikh / Suleiman Abu Ghaith its officials the Al-Qaeda about the attack .

And its His Eminence confirms that the operations this time will not stop till that America declares its defeat and recognizes its withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq and Palestine and the Arabs island .

There is much more, worth wading through.

If I had a nickel for every time a Muslim (or non-Muslim, for that matter) has told me that jihad is merely a struggle within the soul, or a defensive struggle at most, I would buy the Trump Tower. But in Onward Muslim Soldiers I detail the Islamic doctrines calling for offensive jihad against unbelievers in order to spread the hegemony of Islam, and now new confirmation of this doctrine has come from a Muslim site. The Islamic Q&A Online run by the South African Mufti Ebrahim Desai (thanks to Robert R. for the link) fields a question from Canada:

I have a question about offensive Jihad. Does it mean that we are to attack even those non-Muslims which don't do anything against Islam just because we have to propagate Islam?

I have been reading Tafsir e Usmani for the last month or so. In it I have read that offensive Jihad (first attack) should be done by Muslims for 2 reasons. 1) For the sake of Allah (in the Way of God) 2) For the sake of subjugated people under oppression like in Kashmir, Palestine etc. Now the second reason I completely understand. But the explanation given of the first reason is "For the sake of Allah includes the propagation of Islam, the survival of Islam, the extermination of those hindrances which impede the progress and expansion of Islam." (explanation of verse 190, Surah baqara) [that's Sura 2].

I really don't understand this explanation. What does propagation of Islam mean here? Does it mean that we are to attack even those non-Muslims which don't do anything against Islam just because we have to propagate Islam? For example, there are many countries in the world which are not enemies of Islam in any way (at least I think so). Please explain to me against which Non-Muslims, the Muslims have to do Jihad and against which, Jihad is not allowed. JazakAllah Khair.

Answer 12128 2004-07-13:

You should understand that we as Muslims firmly believe that the person who doesn't believe in Allah as he is required to, is a disbeliever who would be doomed to Hell eternally. Thus one of the primary responsibilities of the Muslim ruler is to spread Islam throughout the world, thus saving people from eternal damnation.

Thus what is meant by the passage in Tafsir Uthmani, is that if a country doesn't allow the propagation of Islam to its inhabitants in a suitable manner or creates hindrances to this, then the Muslim ruler would be justifying in waging Jihad against this country, so that the message of Islam can reach its inhabitants, thus saving them from the Fire of Jahannum. If the Kuffaar allow us to spread Islam peacefully, then we would not wage Jihad against them.

and Allah Ta'ala Knows Best

Mufti Ebrahim Desai

Once again: jailing jihadists doesn't do a thing to convince them to stop being jihadists. If someone believes he is on a mission for almighty God, do you really think that a stretch of prison time will make him give it all up and go home? Yet neither the US nor the Pakistani governments can take any official account of this fact, because it would lead them into areas in which they do not wish to go regarding the genesis of Islamic terror. Consequently, a great deal of our anti-terror efforts, particularly when they free jihadists from prison without any attempt to change their beliefs, are utterly inadequate. From HiPakistan:

ISLAMABAD: As many as 650 Pakistani prisoners in Afghan jails have threatened that they would launch Jihad when they were set free, said Abdullah Abdullah, Afghanistan Foreign Minister, here Wednesday.

"These prisoners are determined to strike against the US and Kabul governments", he said. He was talking to journalists here on Wednesday morning during a breakfast meeting.

He said the prisoners made their intention known to Kabul officials and American investigators who met them before deciding about their fate. He said this caused delay in the release of these detainees.

However, the minister said the Americans had completed the process of screening and cleared majority of the prisoners, who would be handed over to Pakistan.

He said, "It will be interesting to see that how Pakistani government deals with those defiant prisoners who are still ready to fight and die in the name of Jihad."

Note that the Korean Muslim leader quoted in this story doesn't, at least as quoted here, actually condemn the religious killing at all. Instead, he simply denies what's in front of his face: that the Muslim terrorists who murdered Kim Sun-il did it for religious reasons. You see, they couldn't have, because Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance. And the Christian, of course, happily plays along.

People often ask me whether or not Muslim groups condemn actions such as the beheadings. I would not offer this as evidence that they do, because the imam Lee Haeng-lae has done absolutely nothing to refute the terrorists' Islamic justifications for their actions, and has tried to make his hearers believe that there are, in fact, no such justifications. Well, I have quoted Sura 8:12 and 47:4 here enough; I think most of you who are reading this will know that the Qur'an directs believers to "strike the necks" of unbelievers. I wonder if Lee Haeng-lae would tell us that we really have to be native Arabic speakers to understand what such verses really mean.

From the Korea Times:

The group, known as Tawhid wa al-Jihad (Unification and Holy War), posted a message on its Web site on Thursday that suggested the killing was linked to Kim's religion.

``We have killed an infidel who tried to propagate Christianity in Iraq,'' the message read. ``This infidel studied theology and was preparing to become a missionary in the Islamic world.''

But Islamic and Christian leaders in Seoul refused to accept that the murder had anything to do with faith.

Lee Haeng-lae, prayer leader at Korea Central Mosque in Itaewon, said true Muslims would never kill a person because he or she was Christian. ``I'm sure that they did not kill Kim Sun-il just because he was Christian,'' he said ``Muslims are understanding of other religions like Christianity and Buddhism.''

Lee, whose mosque received threatening phone calls after Kim was found beheaded on June 22, was also determined that the insurgents' claim would not trigger religious hatred.

Rev. Hong Keun-soo, former pastor at Hyangrim Presbyterian Church, agreed with Lee, saying: ``I don't think this is a conflict between Christianity and Islam.''

Hong said the violence in Iraq is politically motivated and the blame for it lay with political leaders. ``Christianity is a very pacifist religion, like Islam.''

I know that there are some Muslim groups monitoring this site. Some of you are kind enough to email me from time to time. Thus I respectfully request that all Muslim pacifists please write to me today. All I want to know is that you're out there, and how you understand the verses of the Qur'an to which I referred above, and some others. I look forward to hearing from you.

I am not English and I don't know if the BNP is actually racist or not. I do know that that word is slung around in a lot of contexts in which it doesn't belong, and that American and British Muslim advocates use it to smear and discredit people who dare to speak the truth about the global jihad. But anyway, whether the BNP is really racist or not, this bus driver has been fired because his route had him carrying mostly disabled Muslims ("Asians" in this article) whom he had to make sure were seated properly, etc.

Was he yelling racist epithets at them? Mocking the Prophet? Filling his bus with anti-Muslim literature? Nope: there were no complaints about him. None. His employers just thought that his beliefs, rolling around in his mind up there in the driver's seat, might offend his passengers.

It just gets crazier and crazier.

From the BBC, with thanks to jonascot:

Bradford city councillor for Wisbey, Arthur Redfearn, drove a bus for children and adults with special needs.

But West Yorkshire Transport Service said it was "incompatible" for a BNP member to transport the mainly Asian passengers every day.

Fellow Bradford BNP councillor James Lewthwaite said his colleague was now considering legal action....

"This is undemocratic, it's sacking someone for something he might do rather than for what he has done."

The transport service is a private company run by Serco. Its spokesman said Mr Redfearn had a caring role as the bus driver, which conflicted with his political role.

"He has to strap passengers in and help them in and out of the vehicle," he said.

"It's not appropriate for an active member of the BNP to be 'in loco parentis' with them.

"Their families might not have confidence in him and that means we would not be fulfilling our duty of care."

UPDATE: Some people have filled me in on the BNP, and I want to emphasize that I do not support them. However, I also do not support victimizing people for wrongdoing that they actually haven't committed.

A Norwegian politician is under fire for "anti-Muslim" remarks. From Aftenposten, with thanks to the many who alerted me to this:

Populist Norwegian politician Carl I Hagen has a long track record of provocation in Norway. His latest frontal attack on Muslims at a Christian gathering this week may set a new record for the degree of reaction he's getting. Rival politicians are blasting remarks made by Progress Party boss Hagen that compared Muslims to Hitler, poked fun at Mohammed and raised fears that Muslims are trying to take over the world.

Local theologists say they're shocked, a university professor claimed Hagen went way too far this time, and at least one anti-discrimination organization is threatening to sue him.

Hagen's outbursts came during a speech he made at a Christian festival in Bergen on Tuesday.

"The Islamic fundamentalists, along the same lines as Hitler, made it clear a long time ago that their long-term plan is to 'Islamify' the world," Hagen claimed. "They're well underway, they've come far in Africa and are on their way into Europe, and then we have to fight it."

Hagen also talked about children being used as suicide bombers. "We Christians are very concerned about children, 'Let the children come to me,' said Jesus," Hagen declared. "I can't see Mohammed saying the same."

That remark spurred laughter and applause from his Christian audience, perhaps encouring Hagen to add: "If he (Mohammed) did say such a thing, it must have been: 'Let the small children come to me, so that I can exploit them in my effort to make the world Islamic."

The article goes on to quote Norwegian politicians and Muslim leaders who are outraged that Hagen criticized not only "Islamic fundamentalists," but Muhammad himself. Yet I suspect that if Hagen had said similar remarks about Jesus Christ, those politicians would be in the forefront of his defenders, explaining that he was only exercising his freedom of speech.

Those who live in a free society, you see, have to accept criticism of their beliefs as part of the societal landscape. If I demand that such criticism be silenced, then I too can be silenced on some other pretext. Muslims, if they wish to live in free societies, have to accept peacefully that some people are going to criticize Muhammad and Islam, just as people criticize every other religious tradition with great verve and enthusiasm -- do a Google search for "Jesus" and you'll see. If they, in turn, respond to the criticisms with reasonable answers, they will have embarked upon the great debate that has characterized Western society for centuries, and which is a hallmark of free society. If, on the other hand, they simply demand that critics be censured, they have not grasped one of the first principles of life in the Western societies in which they have settled.

The brave and perceptive Stanley Crouch speaks out again in a forum that is usually not so hospitable to the truth about jihad: the New York Daily News.

The constant discussion of John Kerry and John Edwards in superficial, gossip-column terms may result in their soon being called John & John or J & J, but it will not change something that we have to keep our eyes on, here and abroad. The Islamic extremists bent on waging holy war will not disappear. They are intent on destroying secular governments and turning the clock back to a time when the worshipers of Allah ran what was then considered the world. One can blame any government available for riling them up and inspiring others to join them, but the facts are what they are and will remain past November. They are at war with us, and we need to face the fact that changing an administration, if it comes to that, will not cause the Prophet to appear in the skies with a referee's whistle and blow it to signal that the extremists should stop the kidnapping, the decapitating, the car bombing and constant murdering....

These are not the times for trivial pursuits. What we need to know from Mr. Kerry and Mr. Edwards is what kind of a war strategy they have and what it would do to give us a better chance to defeat these enemies who do not go on vacations, follow elections or respond to polls. What, exactly, do these two men propose to keep our shores safe and to handle the troubles we are faced with in Iraq as well as with the growing body of jihadists? The rest is fluff.

A new book, Osama's Revenge, lays out the evidence. From NewsMax:

A new book written by a former FBI consultant claims that al-Qaida not only has obtained nuclear devices, but also likely has them in the U.S. and will detonate them in the near future.

These chilling allegations appear in "Osama's Revenge: The Next 9/11: What the Media and the Government Haven't Told You," by Paul L. Williams (Prometheus Books).

Williams claims that al-Qaida has been planning a spectacular nuclear attack using six or seven suitcase nuclear bombs that would be detonated simulantaneously in U.S. cities.

"They want the most bang for the buck, and that is nuclear," Williams told NewsMax.

"I expect such an attack would come between now and the end of 2005," the author said.

In addition to writing several books on terrorism, Williams, an investigative journalist, has worked as an FBI consultant.

Williams' contention is not far from what U.S. intelligence believes, a source close to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has told NewsMax. The source said Ridge claimed that U.S. intelligence believes terrorists already have smuggled into the U.S. actual atomic devices, as opposed to so-called "dirty nukes" that simply are conventional bombs that help spread radiation.

The Prophet Muhammad directed his followers to expel all "polytheists" from the Arabian Peninsula. They did so, although the modern Saudi state allows in foreign workers to perform the menial tasks that none of the fantastically rich Saudis are willing to undertake. But these foreigners live in the Muslim holy land with daily reminders of the inferior status accorded them. From Reuters:

LONDON (Reuters) - Many of the millions of foreign laborers in Saudi Arabia suffer from extreme exploitation and work under conditions that resemble slavery, an international human rights watchdog said on Thursday.

Saudi Arabia said the report exaggerated the experiences of a few of the more than six million foreigners working in the kingdom, and noted that millions of families around the world were dependent on remittances from such workers.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch, in its first comprehensive report on foreign laborers in the oil-rich kingdom, slammed Saudi authorities, the legal system and private employers for a range of abuses that sometimes led to death.

The hard-hitting report called on de facto Saudi ruler Crown Prince Abdullah to set up an independent commission to investigate the abuses and publicize its findings.

"Migrant workers in the purportedly modern society that the kingdom has become continue to suffer extreme forms of labor exploitation that sometimes rise to slavery-like conditions," it said.

"This report is an indictment of unscrupulous private employers and sponsors as well as Saudi authorities, including Interior Ministry interrogators and sharia court judges, who operate without respect for the rule of law and the inherent dignity of all men and women," it added.

Around six million foreigners, mostly from the Indian subcontinent, sweep the streets, build homes or run offices in Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude oil exporter.

Avi Davis explains the disturbing implications of the International Court of Justice's ruling on Israel's West Bank fence:

It's a neat concept. An international court developed to adjudicate disputes between contending nations. Those who dreamed of a world government, where a single legislature would execute one body of laws to which all nations would be bound, must have been elated. With the establishment of the International Court of Justice , the idea that nations could settle their differences before a panel of eminent impartial jurists without resort to force, finally seemed to have come of age.

Put that notion to rest. The decision, last week, of the international Court of Justice to present an adverse advisory opinion on Israel's construction of a fence in the West Bank has exposed the underlying flaws of any global deliberative body: inherent bias, racial prejudice and the kind of political manipulation that we have long come to associate with that other august body of impartial governance - the United Nations.

The International Court of Justice was originally mandated to adjudicate on cases of territorial disputes between states. This was in keeping with the general tenor of international law which customarily did not involve itself with internal matters of states. That orientation has shifted in recent years as both international humanitarian law and international environmental law have both gained greater prominence. The developing interest of the Court in issues of world environmental degradation or the abuse of human rights has seemingly created a new jurisdiction for the ICJ - one that allows it to penetrate national sovereign boundaries and pass judgment directly on matters that were once formerly restricted to the sovereign domain.

In many ways this has had its positive results. The crimes of Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia and those of the Hutu leaders in Rwanda who engineered genocidal campaigns in those countries, certainly warranted the intervention of an international judicial body, where no local court could nor would make determinations of fact. But there are nevertheless limits to this kind of judicial intervention. According to the ICJ's own rules, a dispute between two nations cannot be heard unless the two contending states agree to it. The rules and the law are not clear at all about contending parties where one is not a state but an administrative body, such as the Palestinian Authority.

The increasing encroachment of international humanitarian law on sovereign jurisdiction has many nations alarmed. The natural reflex of any government when it finds its own jurisdiction is challenged, is to protect it. Thus the decision of the United States to withdraw from the Treaty of Rome's establishment of the International Criminal Court, a policy predicated on American unwillingness to expose U.S. citizens to the vagaries of a court that could become highly politicized and not geared toward the genuine pursuit of crimes of an international nature.

Those fears now appear to have been well grounded. In agreeing to provide an advisory opinion on the West Bank fence issue and then issuing an opinion that smacks of blatant political bias, the ICJ has assaulted the very concept of impartial and independent adjudication which rests at the foundation of its mandate.

There are several grounds for this charge. First, the Court accepted jurisdiction in the matter when one of the disputants refused to participate; second, it accepted jurisdiction when one of the disputants is not a sovereign state; third, it adjudicated on a matter that has been the subject of negotiations between the competing interests for more than eleven years, therefore placing itself in the midst of an international political dispute; fourth, it took no interest whatsoever in the claims and motivations of one of those parties, ignoring entirely the humanitarian context for the fence's construction.

Even more ruinous to the Court's credibility and reputation were the majority's barefaced tolerance of terrorism and tacit acceptance of the notion that the Court could and should dictate an ultimate territorial solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Take, for instance, the opinion of Judge Awn al-Khasawneh:

"Whilst there is nothing wrong in calling on protagonists to negotiate in good faith ... no one should be oblivious that negotiations are a means to an end and cannot in themselves replace that end."

Or Judge Nabil Elaraby:

"I wholeheartedly subscribe to the view ... that the breaches by both sides of the fundamental rules of humanitarian law reside in "the illegality of the Israeli occupation regime itself". Occupation, as an illegal and temporary situation, is at the heart of the whole problem. The only viable prescription to end the grave violations of international humanitarian law is to end occupation."

Or Judge Pieter Koojimans:

"Resolutions 1368 and 1373 refer to acts of international terrorism as constituting a threat to international peace and security; they therefore have no immediate bearing on terrorist acts originating within a territory which is under control of the State which is also the victim of these acts. And Israel does not claim that these acts have their origin elsewhere. The Court therefore rightly concludes that the situation is different from that contemplated by resolutions 1368 and 1373 and that consequently Article 51 (describing a nation's right of self-defense) of the Charter cannot be invoked by Israel."

The formalistic application of the law, the brazen disrespect for the conditions and context for the construction of the wall and the inability of any of the justices, including the lone dissenting voice, to resist the temptation to rule on the legality or illegality of Israel's control of the West Bank (a matter it was never called upon to address) has sent the world a chilling message: that property rights are of greater importance to international law than the preservation of human life.

That message will certainly resound with Palestinian suicide bombers who have little interest in the preservation of human life. The tragic irony is that in the application of humanitarian principles, murderers will ultimately find the justification for the slaughter of innocent people. And for this, no greater damage can be imagined for the future efficacy of international law.

This is what "blood for oil" really means. The Saudi hand reached into Europe and made sure its defenses were down. The Spanish dhimmis, displaying the indomitable spirit of 3/11, willingly played toady, as long as the oil kept coming. From AP, with thanks to LGF:

MADRID, Spain - The Spanish government deliberately ignored a mosque known for fundamentalist preachings and frequented by suspects in the Madrid train bombings because the facility was financed by Saudi Arabia, an academic expert testified Wednesday.

Spanish authorities knew for years the city's largest mosque, the Islamic Cultural Center, adhered to the Wahabi fundamentalist movement sponsored by Saudi Arabia, Islam expert Jesus Nunez told a commission investigating the March 11 bombings.

Authorities did nothing to monitor the mosque because Saudi Arabia provides Spain with oil, Nunez said.

"Until now the West in general -- and Spain as part of it -- closed its eyes to what Wahabism means as a rigorous doctrine that violates human rights," said Nunez, who runs a Madrid think tank called the Institute of Studies on Conflicts and Humanitarian Action.

A heartening display of common sense in Italy. From AP, with thanks to Susan:

ROME - Education authorities in Milan have blocked a plan by a local public school to create a separate class for Islamic students, a decision that fueled an ongoing debate over the role of Muslims in this predominantly Catholic nation.

The decision Tuesday came after days of raging controversy in Milan. Over the past months, two other cases have made headlines in Italy: that of a Muslim activist who went to court to have a crucifix removed from his son's public school classroom; and a kindergarten that asked a Muslim trainee teacher to remove her headscarf.

The plan by the Gaetana Agnesi school called for 20 high-school students of Egyptian origin - three boys and 17 girls - to study together. The girls would have been allowed to wear headscarves in class, and would have had Friday off for Muslim prayer services.

"The possibility of creating classes with students of the same language, culture and religion must be ruled out, because it would be in contrast with the constitutional principles and values aimed at overcoming all forms of discrimination," said Mario Giacomo Dutto, the head of school programs for the Lombardy region that includes Milan.

Giovanni Gaglio, the school principal, argued he was trying to guarantee the children a right to an education while preserving their cultural and religious identity.

"Our project was one of real integration, a challenge that I and all of us teachers believed in very much," he was quoted as saying Wednesday in the daily newspaper Corriere della Sera.

How can he achieve integration through segregation?

The future of dhimmi France, courtesy Evil Pundit.

After they were supposedly cleaned up. From The Guardian, with thanks to Nicolei:

Saudi schoolchildren are being taught to disparage Christianity and Judaism in a textbook issued by the education ministry, a report said yesterday.

The book forms part of the kingdom's revised curriculum - supposedly cleaned up after complaints that demonising the west had become endemic in Saudi schools.

A lesson for six-year-olds reads: "All religions other than Islam are false." A note for teachers says they should "ensure to explain" this point.

The Saudi Institute, a Washington-based pro-reform group, said yesterday the book, Monotheism and Fiqh, contradicted the Koran.

"The Saudi contention that Judaism and Christianity are false religions is clearly refuted by the Koran," it says in a report, quoting a verse.

Hmm. I have great respect for the Saudi Institute, but it is odd that they would insist that the contention that Judaism and Christianity are false religions is contradicted by the Qur'an. I wonder how that squares with verses like Qur'an 9:30: "The Jews call 'Uzair [Ezra] a son of Allah, and the Christians call Christ the son of Allah. That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate what the unbelievers of old used to say. Allah's curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth!" Common Muslim teaching, based on verses like this one, is that what are known as Judaism and Christianity today are actually corruptions of the true religions revealed through Moses and Jesus -- and that the true form of both is, you guessed it, Islam.

A Muslim who may have terrorist ties has been arrested trying at Minneapolis/St. Paul airport with a suicide note and anti-American material. This just in from Eyewitness News in Minneapolis/St.Paul:

Federal sources told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS the man was arrested last Wednesday at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Sources in the Twin Cities and in Washington D.C. said the man arrived on a flight and was taken into federal custody. Along the way, customs agents found disturbing items in his possession.

The U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that Ali Mohamed Almosaleh is in federal custody in the Twin Cities. He was being detained on an immigration law violation, but federal sources confirmed there is much more than that to this investigation.

Sources confirm Almosaleh was carrying a suicide [note] when he was arrested. They say that note indicated a specific time and date for carrying out some sort of public suicide. He was also carrying CDs and DVDs, which federal sources say contained anti-American material. A source also confirms Almosaleh had something with him indicating a connection with at least one known terrorist.

Another blow against the dhimmitude that issues from the media and government officials after every Muslim beheading. Syed Kamran Mirza at Bangladesh-web.com (thanks to Fanabba) offers another close examination of what the Qur'an actually says.

Big question--'is the beheading Islamic?' =========================================== Yes, beheading is, of course, an Islamic justice to the infidels, criminals, and sinners. This cruel way of killing infidels is sanctioned by Islamic Sharia laws. Denial to the grotesque beheading of western Kaffirs by those Islamic terrorists (in Iraq) that it is not Islamic is yet another clear sign of ignorance, hypocrisy, or intellectual dishonesty by the defenders of Islam.

Islamists are not ready to take the burden of ugly reality of the fact that human beheading is 100% consistent with the sacred Islamic Jihadi practices. Hatreds towards other religion such as Jews, Christians, Hindus and other polytheists are the ardent teachings of Islamic holy book Qur'an. Beheading was practiced by the Prophet Muhammad himself during the 7th century period of Islam and by the most Islamic rulers thereafter.

Saddest thing is no Islamists will ever tell you the truth about the intimate relation of beheading in Islam! Following the recent beheadings of Americans and other foreigners in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, the U.S. press turned to various experts to identify a precedent in the Quran or Islamic history for this kind of gory murder. Look what were the answers by some erudite but hypocritical Mullahs! Imam Muhammad Adam El-Sheik, co-founder and chief cleric at the Dar Al Hijrah Mosque at falls Church, VA told to the USA today: "Beheadings are not mentioned in the Koran at all".

Yvonne Haddad, a professor at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University has agreed with the above Imam and added (to New York Newsday): "There is absolutely nothing in Islam that justifies cutting off a person's head." You go ask any Imam or mullah in the US, you will come up with the same lies again and again.

Obviously, had it not been the sacred custom of ancient Islam, beheading would be quite unnecessary method to kill enemies by those Islamic terrorists in Iraq. Those Islamic terrorists could easily kill their infidel enemies (such as Daniel Pearl, Nich berg, Kim Sun II, Paul Johnson etc.) by a simple bullet. But those militants actually wanted to give an Islamic veneer to the infidel slayings --because killing by beheading is considered most brutal and utterly degrading, and only western infidels deserve this type of brutal killing. In fact they only tried to follow the footsteps Prophet Muhammad and devoutly followed the Allah's order in the Qur'an. Holy Quran is replete with the harsh verses which directly order Muslims to behead Kaffirs/infidels. Let me cite some sample of those verses below:

Quranic verses that dictate beheading Kaffirs:

5:33-"The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution (by beheading), or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter;"

8:12- "I will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off."

47:4- "Therefore, when ye meet the Unbelievers (in fight), strike off their heads; at length; then when you have made wide Slaughter among them, carefully tie up the remaining captives": thereafter (is the time for) either generosity or ransom: Until the war lays down its burdens."

9:123: "Oh ye who believe! Murder those of the disbelievers and let them find harshness in you."

2:191- "Kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from wherever they drove you out."

5: 45-- "We ordained therein for them: "Life for life, eye for eye, nose for nose, ear for ear. Toth for tooth, and wounds equal for equal."

2:193- "Fight them on until there is no more tumult and religion becomes that of Allah"

9:29- "Fight those who do not believe in God and the last day... and fight People of the Book, (Christian and Jews) who do not accept the religion of truth (Islam) until they pay tribute (Zizziya tax) by hand, being inferior."

8:17--It is not ye who Slew them; it is God; when thou threwest a handful of dust, it was not Thy act, but God's....." (Allah is a real merciful indeed!)

Read it all.

Another example of the mistreatment of women that the Sharia mandates. From The Telegraph, with thanks to jonascot:

Mahadad was resting on a cushion in her sitting room, with a thick bandage covering the burns on her legs. "I'm never going back," she said. "Look at my leg. How can I go back? In my heart, I never want to go again." Mahadad, 38, is one of the 12 survivors of last week's bomb attack by Taliban on a bus that was carrying women election workers and a child near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan. Two of the women and the child were killed in the explosion.

They had been on their way to a registration site to hand out identification cards to women which would allow them to vote in the coming autumn elections. Despite the Taliban claiming responsibility, questions are still being asked about how such an atrocity could have happened.

Mahadad, who did not want her last name to be published, fell silent when asked about her attackers. She shook her head. Then, after a few minutes, she stood up. It was a cue to leave.

"It is very sad," Fahima Mojadeddi, the only female member of the shura, the province's tribal council, later said. "Mahadad used to be very active and outspoken on behalf of women. She could debate endlessly. Now she's too scared to talk."

As the United Nations tries to organise the registration of up to nine million voters, the number of women coming forward is limited. So far, of the 4.5 million registered, only 36 per cent are female. That figure has increased from 15 per cent from a few months ago but women are still made nervous by the extreme attitudes of men.

Those attitudes are formed and informed by Sharia provisions.

But what surprises will the MILF have waiting for them there? From CNN, :

MANILA, Philippines (CNN) -- The Philippines has begun pulling its troops out of Iraq, a move seemingly being made to satisfy demands by kidnappers of a Filipino hostage.

Eight of the 51 Philippine humanitarian troops in Iraq have already left the country, Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Delia Albert said early Wednesday.

"The Foreign Affairs Ministry is coordinating the pullout of the humanitarian contingent with the Ministry of National Defense," Albert said in a statement.

"As of today (Wednesday), our head count is down from 51 to 43."

The United States has protested the action, saying giving in to terrorist demands should not be an option.

More saber-rattling from Tehran. From MEMRI, :

Iranian Revolutionary Guards Political Bureau head General Yadollah Javani wrote in the conservative daily Kayhan, which is close to Iranian Leader Ali Khamenei:"Threats of this kind are nothing new, but Iran must respond to these threats. [2] To deal with the invader, Iran will use all its capabilities within and outside Iran. It seems to me that in his [Hamedan] speech, the leader was referring to the use of all means of force, as Iran has in its possession all means of force on the highest level.

"...The converging of millions of Iranian youth imbued with the spirit of Shehada [martyrdom] in the Basij forces [3] ... along with a courageous leader, the trend of the Islamic awakening, and the consolidation of many supporters around Iran's Islamic revolution can [all] go into action in times of crisis and play their part in light of these threats.

"Today we have in our possession long-range smart missiles which can reach many of the interests and vital resources of the Americans and of the Zionist regime in our region. Thus, if the enemies show stupidity and make any mistake towards Iran, [Iran] will certainly use all the means and capabilities at its disposal.

"Today we enjoy high deterrent ability, and if the enemy acts in madness and wants to try his luck, he will, as the leader said, quickly see his black fate, and will regret acting against Iran's Islamic regime." [4]

And 179 convictions. You won't be hearing too much about this until after the elections, if ever. From the Washington Times, :

The USA Patriot Act has helped federal, state and local terrorism investigators arrest 310 persons since the September 11 attacks, 179 of whom have been convicted, and has proved to be "al Qaeda's worst nightmare," the Justice Department said yesterday in a report.

Attorney General John Ashcroft, attempting to dissuade Congress from weakening the act, key provisions of which will expire next year, delivered the 29-page document to the House Judiciary Committee, saying it gave authorities access to new legal tools and technology to "hunt down al Qaeda, destroy their safe haven and save American lives."

"We are a nation at war. ... We have to use every legal weapon available to protect the American people from terrorist attacks," Mr. Ashcroft said at a press conference with Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Wisconsin Republican.

The report said the act helped secure six guilty pleas from an al Qaeda "sleeper cell" in Lackawanna, N.Y.; allowed the surveillance of a reputed terror cell in Portland, Ore., resulting in convictions of six persons in a scheme to travel to Afghanistan to fight U.S. forces; and the successful prosecution of a money launderer for Colombia's leftist rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

West Africa, as we have often noted here, is increasingly becoming a safe haven for radical Muslims. From the Washington Post, :

With the end of the brutal conflicts in Liberia and Sierra Leone, West Africa is seldom in the news or on the policy agenda these days. Yet the region is quietly gaining recognition as what it has long been: a haven for al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. Weak and corrupt governments, vast, virtually stateless stretches awash in weapons, and impoverished, largely Muslim populations make the region an ideal sanctuary.

U.S. Gen. Charles Wald, deputy commander of the European Central Command, has been warning Congress and the Pentagon for months that al Qaeda-affiliated groups are active in Mauritania, Mali, Chad and Niger. The trade in diamonds used by terrorist groups, begun under the protection of former Liberian strongman Charles Taylor, continues despite international efforts to curb it. "The terrorist activity in this area is not going to go away," Wald warned recently. "This could affect your kids and your grandchildren in a huge way. If we don't do something about it, we are going to have a real problem on our hands."

A mind-boggling bit of British dhimmitude. From The Scotsman, :

A GROUP of Afghans who stood trial for a hijacking incident at Stansted Airport have won the right to stay in Britain.

The nine men were jailed for hijacking an Afghan Ariana Boeing 727 in February 2000 but had their convictions quashed by the Court of Appeal last summer.

The Immigration Appellate Authority (IAA) has now ruled that returning the nine to Afghanistan would breach their human rights as they could be in danger of attack from members of the deposed Taleban regime if repatriated.

A Home Office spokesman expressed "disappointment" at the decision and said an appeal would be launched.

Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer's latest article, "Surrendering to the Global Jihad," is up today at FrontPage.

The Philippines has all of 51 soldiers in Iraq, but not for long. The Philippine government has caved in to demands from the jihadist kidnappers of Angelo de la Cruz, a Filipino truck driver in Iraq, and the troops are going home. De la Cruz is safe now, having avoided the fate that has befallen other recent hostages, and everyone is happy.

Of course, the withdrawal of fifty-one troops is of little moment in terms of the overall Iraqi military presence. But for the global jihad, this is almost as huge a victory as the Spanish capitulation after the March 11 Madrid bombings: it shows once again that the terrorists can have their way with the gelded republics of the non-Muslim world.

William Webb has written a disturbing article about Al Qaeda's plans for massive caualties with WMD use -- whether by nuclear, chemical or biological attack -- or by blowing up a nuclear power plant or chemical facility.

The article is on the RANTS side of his site. It is sobering and should cause each of us to ask: How can my neighbors and I increase our vigilance?

With Al Qaeda hoping and planning to cause 100,000 casualties this time -- can we afford not to be on the lookout for anomolies?

On the articles side of Webb's site, there is another item of interest: he has reprinted the un-classified version of the Department of Homeland Security briefing by a senior intelligence official.

Together, the information contained within these two documents should be a call to all of us to increase our awareness.

What kind of bail will his 224 victims get? From the Times Online, :

AN ISLAMIC terrorist suspect wanted in the US for al-Qaeda attacks which killed 224 people will today be reunited with his family after being freed on bail from a mental hospital.

The Egyptian-born suspect is to leave Broadmoor top-security hospital to live at a designated address in London after David Blunkett agreed he could be released on bail.

The Home Secretary agreed the release of the man, who can only be known as Mr X for legal reasons, because he is suffering from terminal bone cancer. But a senior judge urged the Home Secretary to speed up making a final decision on whether to extradite Mr X, who has been in custody in Britain for five years.

Mr X, aged 43, a married man with six children, is facing extradition to the United States where he is accused of being a member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist organisation that merged with al-Qaeda in 1997.

He is also accused of conspiring to murder US citizens abroad and of giving direct orders to the cell that carried out the bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998 that killed 224 and injured 4,000. He denies the charges.

Mr Justice Collins granted him bail late yesterday with conditions which mean the suspect will live under virtual house arrest. He will be electronically tagged and allowed to leave the address only to undergo medical treatment for bone cancer.

Mr Justice Collins said: "The evidence of a link between 'X' and al-Qaeda is pretty strong. The evidence of involvement in the bombing in Nairobi is certainly less strong, even is not particularly strong at all.

"It is the link with al-Qaeda, the sympathy with al-Qaeda and the involvement of others -- that is the fear." Earlier he had said during habeas corpus and bail applications by lawyers for Mr X that tough bail conditions were necessary.

"The purpose behind this is to avoid the suggestion that he will continue activities which are contrary to the interests of the State because of his involvement with al-Qaeda. That may or may not be accepted. That is the fear and there are grounds for it."

Al-Sadr has Zionist or American office members?

BAGHDAD, July 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Sources close to Moqtada Al Sadr, a young Iraqi Shiite cleric, said that Sadr was stabbed by one of his office members after a quarrel over his authorities, and the injury was not dangerous, local newspaper Al Itihad reported on Monday.

The newspaper, speaking for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan headed by Jalal Al Talabani, quoted the sources saying, "a disagreement erupted between Al Sadr and some of his office members concerning the authorities of Al Sadr."

Zarqawi's group says it has killed one of the Bulgarian hostages. The Bulgarians, of course, unlike the Filipinos, didn't cravenly cower before the jihadist threats. This man is a martyr for the cause of the equality of dignity and rights of all people.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) A militant group holding two Bulgarian truck drivers said it had killed one of them, the Pan-Arab television station Al-Jazeera reported Wednesday.

Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad threatened last week to kill the men if the United States did not release all Iraqi detainees by Saturday.

From the geniuses Cox and Forkum.

Welcome to Denial Central, Tehran division. The question that leaps to mind: does Khamenei really believe this, or does he just know that there are millions of people so drunk with hatred of America and Israel that they'll believe it? From AP, :

In comments made during a meeting with visiting Singaporean Prime Minister of Singapore Goh Chok Tong, Khamenei said: "We seriously suspect the agents of the Americans and Israelis in conducting such horrendous terrorist acts and cannot believe the people who kidnap Philippines nationals, for instance, or behead U.S. nationals are Muslims." ...

Numerous Islamic militant groups have claimed responsibility for similar operations in the country, including the beheadings of an American and a South Korean.

This Sky News piece doesn't tell us anything we didn't already know, but it does underscore that this unconscionable use of children is continuing.

Children as young as 10 are being recruited to fight for the Palestinian cause.

Sky News has gained access to a young people's camp in Gaza, where the only lesson taught is how to kill Israelis.

Sky's Middle East Correspondent Emma Hurd said the camp, at an undisclosed location, had been set up to drill children in the ways of war.

The recruits, some of whom are dwarfed by their AK-47 assault rifles, are taught how to carry out ambushes....

Hurd witnessed one training session in which a militant, dressed as a Jewish settler complete with yarmulke skull cap, was ambushed in his car. Gunmen pulled the "settler" from his vehicle and Hurd was told if this had been real he would have been killed.

This is the infamous fellow who chuckled over 9/11 with Osama on videotape. From FoxNews, with thanks to the many who emailed about this:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — A senior associate of Usama bin Laden has surrendered to Saudi Arabian authorities, FOX News has confirmed.

Khaled bin Ouda bin Mohammed al-Harbi, also known as Abu Suleiman al-Makki or "the crippled sheikh," apparently turned himself in to the Saudi embassy in Tehran, Iran in response to the amnesty offered last month by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah on behalf of his incapacitated brother King Fahd.

He was then flown to Saudi Arabia, U.S. officials told FOX News.

Al-Harbi is best known for being in a videotape that surfaced a few days after Sept. 11, 2001, in which he is seen laughing and smiling with bin Laden as they discuss the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon over a meal, presumably in Afghanistan.

In a statement, the Saudi Interior Ministry said al-Harbi contacted the Embassy in Tehran from the Iranian-Afghan border, where he was stranded. It did not say what al-Harbi was wanted for. His name does not appear on the list of the kingdom's 26 most wanted Islamic militants.

"Thank God, thank God ... I called the embassy and we were very well-received," the wheelchair-bound and smiling al-Harbi told Saudi state television in the airport terminal. "I have come obeying God, and obeying the [kingdom's] rulers."

Al-Harbi is the third man to take advantage of the amnesty, which was offered June 23, lasts for one month and promises to spare the lives of militants who surrender.

From The Scotsman, with thanks to Sharon:

KEN Livingstone yesterday invited the controversial Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi back to Britain for another speaking tour.

Ignoring the growing outrage over Dr Qaradawi’s presence, the London mayor offered him a personal invitation to return for a three-day conference in October, saying it would be an "honour".

Dr Qaradawi has been heavily criticised after describing suicide bombers as "martyrs" and for his views on homosexuals and women.

Interesting news about our security and readiness. From WND, with thanks to Richard:

The state of Arkansas unknowingly helped the al-Qaida terrorist network distribute propaganda promoting violence against the United States.

Laura Mansfield, associate director of the Northeast Intelligence Network, first noticed the postings yesterday while monitoring a forum on an Arabic-language Internet bulletin board frequented by al- Qaida sympathizers.

The Ansar forum received notoriety for releasing the video of the beheading of American citizen Nicholas Berg in Iraq.

From July 9 to mid-morning yesterday, a self-proclaimed U.S.-based al-Qaida sympathizer known as "Irhabi 007," or Terrorist 007, listed a large number of video and audio files for download by fellow sympathizers, Mansfield reported to WorldNetDaily.

The files were located on an anonymous FTP server at the Arkansas Department of Highways and Transportation in two directories called "007" and "ALQA3EDAH."

Among them were files highly sought after by jihadis, including the al-Qaida films "Badr al Riyadh," "American Hell in Iraq," "Russian Hell," "Martyrs of the Confrontation" and "Wills of Martyrs." Also posted were the Berg beheading video and many audio and video clips of various al-Qaida leaders, including Osama Bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abu Musa'ab al-Zarqawi.

The files were located at ftp://www.ahtd.state.ar.us/incoming/GIS/007 and at ftp://www.ahtd.state.ar.us/incoming/GIS/ALQA3EDAH

Mansfield reported the postings to the Joint Terrorism Task Force at 3:20 a.m. Eastern time and by noon yesterday, the directories and files no longer were accessible.

From m2.com, :

Airport authorities in South Korea have increased security after an e-mail alert that a person linked to al-Qaeda would enter the country.

Security at the country's airports has been on high alert ever since the decision to send 3,000 South Korean troops to Iraq in March 2004. Although security has been tightened further, authorities said they were sceptical about the e-mail.

The note said that wanted terrorist Abdul Razak would attempt to enter South Korea to attend a Christian function in the country. Razak is on the international no-fly list and would use an assumed name to travel.

That's odd. A Christian function? Is this just a cover, or is Al-Qaeda infiltrating Christian groups now? I haven't heard of anything like this. If anyone has, please let me know.

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (thanks to Sharon):

FRANKFURT, Germany -- Police on Monday searched computer hard-drives and discs seized from a Moroccan mosque in Frankfurt looking for evidence of violent films, including a beheading, that a young girl said were shown to her and other children to try and incite hatred toward non-Muslims, authorities said.

Some 120 officers raided the Taqwa Mosque's Islamic school on Sunday after the 9-year-old told her public school teacher she and other children were shown violent videos calling for a "holy war against unbelievers," Frankfurt prosecutor's spokeswoman Doris Mueller-Scheu said.

Mosque director Ahmed Ayaou called the raid an insult, and said he did not know who the girl was or what she was talking about.

"This was very surprising - it fell upon us like a blow," he said. "Our association accepts and respects German law. We are well known in Frankfurt, and we live with everyone peacefully."

He criticized police for coming in to the mosque with weapons and not taking their shoes off as they searched the building.

I wonder what he thinks when Al-Sadr's men in Iraq go into mosques with weapons.

Another glimpse of life under the Sharia that radical Muslims are laboring to impose upon the world. From the BBC, with thanks to Sharon:

Iran's morality police have made several raids in Tehran, in an apparent crackdown on women who flout the strict Islamic dress code.

Witnesses said dozens of young women were held in the raids on shopping centres and shops in the capital.

Police also confiscated several items of clothing deemed to be too revealing.

After winning parliamentary elections in February, hardliners warned they would not tolerate what they described as social corruption.

However, the clampdown could be the usual summer anti-vice operation, correspondents say.

Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran's laws say all young women must wear the veil and a long coat that conceals their figures, or face fines or even imprisonment.

While Musharraf pontificates about reform, the movement on the ground is all in the opposite direction. From the BBC, with thanks to Sharon:

The government of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province has unveiled a plan to shut public and private businesses during prayer times.

The plan replicates the Saudi Arabian model, enabling shops and businesses to close for a 20-minute prayer break.

Last week, the NWFP government was criticised by human rights groups for trying to introduce new Islamic laws.

So far no date has been given for the new initiative to take effect, but officials stress it will be voluntary.

Why would it be? The Saudi model isn't. Several Christians who worked in Saudi Arabia have told me that they had to be off the streets during prayer times -- or else.

Earlier this month, human rights activists in the province strongly criticised a proposal put forward by the MMA to establish an Ombudsman's office which would ensure that Islamic law was being implemented.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said it amounted to an effort to enforce "Mullah's martial law" and "Talebanise" society.

A star member of Canada's Al-Qaeda family is smarting from a rejection from the Canadian Passport Office. Khadr's lawyer huffs: "In a democracy we don't function that way"?? What way? We don't do anything to protect ourselves?

From the Toronto Star, :

Abdurahman Khadr, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who said he was an American spy, was denied a Canadian passport due to concerns about national security and the potential negative reaction from the public, court records show.

The documents include a report from the Canadian Passport Office urging Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham to refuse passports to Khadr and other family members, "in the interests of national security of Canada and the protection of Canadian troops in Afghanistan."

Marked "secret," the report is part of the federal justice department's reply to a federal court motion by Khadr appealing the decision to deny him a passport. Large paragraphs are blacked out in the report due to security concerns.

In a section entitled "considerations" the Passport Office states:

"We believe the implications of providing passports to the high risk members of the Khadr family are significant in terms of `Canada-U.S. relations' ... it seems likely the Canadian public and the American government would be highly critical of full passport services being provided to this family."

Graham used a rare power of intervention, known as a royal prerogative, to deny the 21-year-old Canadian citizen a passport. The Passport Office does not have the grounds to reject a claim for a passport on issues of national security.

In a telephone interview, Graham would not go into any details about the case.

Khadr's lawyer, Clayton Ruby, said he would challenge the ruling as a breach of his client's Charter rights. He questioned Graham's authority to use the royal prerogative.

"I concede that the Queen can exercise the royal prerogative but she doesn't know Mr. Khadr," Ruby said yesterday, agreeing that Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson is able to employ the powers.

"This is the kind of thing the Soviet Union used to do in the bad old days ... Graham ought to know better, in a democracy we don't function that way."

For months we have followed here the deteriorating situation of Christians in Iraq, as the Sharia impulse reasserts itself. This is a problem that is not going to go away, and is only going to get worse, because those who can do anything about it don't care, either because they themselves don't believe, despite lip-service, in the equality of non-Muslims with Muslims, or because they have convinced themselves that Islam is a religion of peace, mercy, and tolerance -- and therefore these things either aren't happening at all or are just being perpetrated by a tiny minority of extremists that is of no great significance.

From the Christian Science Monitor, with thanks to Sharon and Susan:

BAGHDAD – It was 10:30 in the morning, almost four months ago, and the children were getting ready for church. Aziz Raad Azzo, 5 years old, was drinking his milk; his 14-year-old sister Raneen was putting on her new clothes. When they heard a car pull up, Raneen, thinking her father was home, ran to the window and flung open the shutters. Four men shot her and her little brother in the head. The children's crime: Their father, a Christian storekeeper, had sold alcohol.

Before the murders, the family received a photocopied death threat. "We are warning you, the enemies of God and Islam, from selling alcohol again, and unless you stop we will kill you and send you to hell where a worse fate awaits you," reads the warning, signed by "Harakat Ansar al-Islam," the Partisans of Islam Movement.

These murderers were not warping the peaceful teachings of Islam. They were following an established principle of Islamic law: dhimmis "are forbidden to openly display wine or pork" (Umdat al-Salik, o11.4(6)). Above all this means they are not to sell it in a place where Muslims can buy it.

Another flip-flop from the Philippines, and appeasement comes out on top. This is a manifestation of a pseudo-humanitarianism: in the name of saving this one man's life, which is definitely worth saving, they are willing to condemn many others to deaths that will come from newly emboldened Islamic radicals who are ready to commit violence to achieve their purposes -- particularly when they see that that violence accomplishes those purposes quite well.

The Philippine government deserves the harshest possible judgment from history. It deserves nothing but the disgust and condemnation of free people. Some new Dante is needed to write the sorry story of the Chamberlains, the Zapateros, and the Gloria Macapagal Arroyos, along with all the other besotted do-gooders who brought Peace to Our Time. But such may not emerge until some distant future when the Dark Ages of the Sharia rule that is sure to come to the Philippines and elsewhere begin to recede.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Philippines said on Monday it would withdraw its troops from Iraq as soon as possible to save a Filipino hostage threatened with death by militants.

CNN quoted unidentified Philippine officials as saying they expected truck driver Angelo de la Cruz to be released on Tuesday, but no independent confirmation was available.

Al Jazeera broadcast footage of Philippine deputy foreign minister Rafael Seguis reading out a statement, which the television station translated into Arabic, shortly after the expiry of a new execution deadline set by the militants.

"In response to your request, the Philippines ... will withdraw its humanitarian forces as soon as possible," Seguis said according to the translation of the statement, addressed to the Islamic Army in Iraq group holding 46-year-old de la Cruz.

"I hope the statement that I read will touch the heart of this group," said Seguis. "We know that Islam is the religion of peace and mercy."

And let this new Dante consign Rafael Seguis to a circle of hell reserved for self-deluded fools, babbling about Islam the religion of peace and mercy in an appeal to a bunch of cutthroats (literal ones) who reserve their peace and mercy only for fellow believers, but who will gladly accept the bumbling, ignorant submission of Rafael Seguis and others like him as a welcome new indication of the pusillanimity, weakness, and utter spiritual exhaustion of what was once the Christian world.

Maybe Rafael Seguis is vying for the honor of being the one, danegeld in trembling hand, to welcome the new leaders of the Islamic Republic to Manila, once the Moro Islamic Liberation Front crushes once and for all the cowed and rudderless forces of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her coterie of unready appeasers.

Expect an outcry and a disavowal forthwith. From AFP, with thanks to Nicolei:

BRITAIN will deploy teams of intelligence officers and surveillance experts in cities where it is feared that extremists are radicalising Muslim youth, according to The Times.

The internal security service, M15, would fan officers out from its London HQ in a bid to snuff out any incipient terrorist threats within urban Muslim communities, the paper said, citing "government sources".

It was hoped the scheme would greatly improve co-operation between special police services and counter-espionage officers, it reported.

Cardinal Antonio María Rouco has the courage to tell the truth. From The Guardian, with thanks to Filtrat:

Spain's leading archbishop, Cardinal Antonio María Rouco, yesterday denounced the new socialist government, saying its policies were taking the country back to medieval times, when Muslim invaders swept across the Straits of Gibraltar.

His comments came after the government's decision to cancel the reintroduction of compulsory religious classes and to find ways of financing other faiths, including Islam, with public money.

"Some people wish to place us in the year 711," Cardinal Rouco said. "It seems as if we are meant to wipe ourselves out of history."

The Catholic church is coming to terms with a sudden and dramatic dwindling of its power following the socialists' victory, in March, over the conservative, pro-Catholic People's party of the former prime minister José María Aznar. Mr Aznar's government had planned to make religion a compulsory exam subject.

But the socialists have already announced that the law reintroducing compulsory religion lessons, a feature of the Franco dictatorship, will be scrapped.

Intriguing revelations about Madrid 3/11 and more, from the New York Times (thanks to the many who sent me this link):

MADRID, July 10 — Terrorists are not usually talkers. But the man who calls himself the mastermind of the March 11 train bombings in Madrid is an exception.

For nearly three months, the Italian police have eavesdropped on Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, "Muhammad the Egyptian" as the 32-year-old Egyptian is known. The contents of his conversations, both in custody in Milan and before his arrest last month, have provided the police with a mother lode of information about the secret world of a man who claims to have recruited suicide bombers and organized terrorist operations in the name of Islam.

Senior Spanish investigators believe that Mr. Ahmed played an important role in the Madrid bombings, which killed 190 people, and could indeed be the architect of the operation, although they are still searching for other leading suspects. The Italian authorities arrested Mr. Ahmed after his monitored conversations spoke of an imminent attack in an undisclosed location.

Dozens of pages of transcripts obtained by The New York Times and interviews with officials in Spain, Italy, Germany and France have shed light on Mr. Ahmed and his ability over the years to take on new identities, cross borders and avoid the police as he pressed his cause against the West. They also offer a case study of the challenges and frustrations Europe faces in monitoring radicals, routing out sleeper cells and prosecuting and convicting those they arrest.

In Germany in 1999 and 2000, Mr. Ahmed served 16 months in a detention center, feigning different Arabic accents and pretending to be a "stateless Palestinian" seeking political asylum.

In Madrid in 2001 and 2002, he befriended a group of radical Muslims, some of whom were involved in the March 11 bombings and were killed in a suicide operation while trying to escape the police.

In a Paris suburb in 2003, he eked out a living as an illegal construction worker and house painter. In Milan in 2004, he lived in an apartment in a tidy, upscale neighborhood, where he seemed to spend most of his day watching Arabic-language movies and news on satellite television.

"We looked for a job for him," said Ghazi Bidel, a 27-year-old Egyptian pizza maker who was his roommate in Milan. "But he said he didn't want to work."

Last April, shortly after the Spanish police found Mr. Ahmed's Italian cellphone number in the address book of one of two men suspected of involvement in the plot, the Italian police began tapping Mr. Ahmed's phone and bugging his apartment.

In the taped conversations, Mr. Ahmed calls himself "the thread behind the Madrid plot," discusses an imminent terrorist operation in an unidentified location and the deployment of suicide martyrs to Iraq, and complains about his marriage and money problems. He shows off a computer program that activates numerous cellphones simultaneously — similar to the technology used in the Madrid attacks — and says he was in Madrid days before the bombings.

He declares that nationality does not matter in holy war, that he has converted drug dealers and criminals to the faith and that Muslims are allowed to marry Christians as a means of acquiring false documents. He describes the ease of buying false documents but stresses quality, saying, "If you don't know who used them, it is dangerous."

I don't often agree with Amir Taheri these days, but on this alliance he is right on the money. From the Jerusalem Post, via FrontPage:

When the US-led coalition invaded Iraq in March 2003, few would have imagined that the move might lead to the formation of an alliance between the radical Left and hard-line Islamists in Western Europe. But this is precisely what happened.

In this month's election for a new European Parliament, voters in several European Union countries, notably France and Britain, are offered common lists of Islamist and leftist candidates, often hidden under bland labels.

Europe's moribund extreme Left has found a new lease on life thanks to hundreds of young Muslim militants recruited from the poor suburbs of Paris and the Islamic ghettos of northern England.

The Islamist groups, for their part, are learning many tricks from the Left about how to exploit the inevitable weaknesses of an open society.

In Britain, the new Marxist-Islamist alliance is the offspring of the so-called anti-war coalition set up two years ago to prevent the liberation of Iraq. The coalition has a steering committee of 33 members. Of these, 18 come from various hard Left groups: communists, Trotskyites, Maoists, and Castroists. Three others belong to the radical wing of the Labor party. There are also eight radical Islamists. The remaining four are leftist ecologists known as Watermelons (Green outside, red inside). The chairman of the coalition is one Andrew Murray, a former employee of the Soviet Novosty Agency and leader of the British Communist Party. Co-chair is Muhammad Asalm Ijaz of the London Council of Mosques.

A prominent member is George Galloway, recently excluded from the Labor party, who is under investigation for the illegal receipt of funds from Saddam Hussein. Galloway heads a list of candidates backed by several radical leftist groups, notably The British Socialist Workers Party (SWP), as well as the Muslim Association of Britain, the British branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, and a dozen Palestinian groups financed by Yasser Arafat.

The Palestinian checkered headgear, worn by the leftists as a cache-col, has become the symbol of this left-Islamist alliance.

Read it all.

When this story broke, I compared the British response to their response two decades ago to the Argentine seizure of the Falkland Islands. Now Reza Bayegan in FrontPage expands upon the new British spirit of appeasement and dhimmitude:

The British government's policy towards the Islamic Republic is not a policy put together in the light of what the Iranian regime in reality stands for. It is rather sketched on the basis of what Jack Straw and some others in the Foreign Office hope one day it might evolve into. It is grounded in self-deception, bewilderment and irresponsibility. The mullahs on the other hand have no illusions about their enemies and their allies. Like all well-trained, well-experienced terrorists they can immediately sense the moral confusion and intellectual perplexity of their victims and use it to their greatest political advantage. They are toying with Jack Straw the same way they manipulated the weakness and confusion of the Carter administration.

Having successfully flexed their muscles in the Arvand Rood waterway (Shatt al-Arab in Arabic) by seizing the British vessel, the mullahs know full well that they face no retaliation. They are complacent in their assurance that all the dismay expressed by London over the abduction of their sailors will amount to nothing and is a mere face- saving exercise. As The Guardian reported in its July 2 issue, the Foreign Office is unlikely to consider a drastic response “since it cherishes its diplomatic links with Tehran.”

Accordingly the British government has adopted the same cringing, guilt-ridden, apologetic attitude as that of the Clinton administration (remember Madeleine Albright's apology to Iran for “past American errors”). Jack Straw is banking on what he calls “bit-by-bit, progress” in relations between Iran and the United Kingdom. In fact, what we witness seems increasingly like bit-by-bit surrender to the Islamic Republic of Iran rather than a clearly thought out and integrated foreign policy.

The British unwillingness to stand up to the regime in Tehran is partly due to what is taking place at the moment in Iraq. The war waged against Saddam Hussein with its obvious benefit of ridding the world of a cruel dictator has incurred huge human and material loss. The mullahs, instead of waiting for their turn to become the next dispatched member of the Axis of Evil, have been fighting the war for their survival on Iraqi soil by supporting the terrorists and sabotaging the establishment of democracy in that country. Their diabolical efforts have paid off. Fatigued both militarily and economically by the war in Iraq, the United States would have great difficulty in commencing a war on a new front.

This allied exhaustion has offered the clerical dictatorship a new lease on life, which the mullahs are using to push forward with their plan to acquire of nuclear weapons. On June 27, 2004 – in defiance of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) – the Iranian government decided to resume centrifuge construction. It is only a (brief) matter of time before the most dangerous regime on earth will be armed with the most destructive means to destroy human life. If such a nightmare is realized, Jack Straw's “bit-by-bit, progress” with Iran can only mean inching toward Hell on earth.

From Erick Stakelbeck in FrontPage: "The Saudis have found the perfect man to mediate their terrorist amnesty program: a pro-jihad Sheikh with ties to Osama."

Last week, Saudi Arabia scored a victory for its recently-announced terrorist amnesty program, as Othman Hadi Al-Maqbul Al-Amri, an Al-Qaeda operative and one of the Kingdom’s most wanted men, gave himself up to Saudi authorities.

Although the surrender of Al-Amri, a veteran jihadist who had been on the run for two years, was certainly a positive development, the means by which it was accomplished were extremely dubious.

According to reports, Safar Al-Hawali, a radical Saudi cleric with links to Osama bin Laden and several of the 9/11 hijackers, played the role of “mediator” between Al-Amri and Saudi officials.

Over the past year, Al-Hawali has also negotiated the surrender of two other high-ranking, Saudi-based Al-Qaeda operatives, Ali Al-Faq’asi and Ali Abdel Rahman Saeed al-Faqaasi al-Ghamdi.

That Al-Hawali, a longtime Al-Qaeda supporter who spent five years in a Saudi prison for seeking to overthrow the Royal Family—and who continues to preach the destruction of the United States and Israel—has apparently become a trusted mediator for the Saudi government speaks volumes about the Kingdom’s “war” on terrorism.

Otherwise the bride would almost certainly have been the victim of an honor killing. From the Gulf Daily News, with thanks to EPG:

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani doctors Amnat and Ghulam Mustafa are on the run, in fear of their lives, for falling in love and getting married.Hundreds of women fall victim to so-called "honour killing" by male relatives every year in deeply conservative, rural Pakistan for marrying without their families' consent, thereby being deemed to have brought disgrace on their family.

Amnat fears she would meet that same fate if she returned to her home in Sindh province in the south of the country.

"My brothers have threatened to kill me and my husband," 44-year-old Amnat said.

"There is no guarantee for my life if I go home," the visibly shaken woman said as her husband, Ghulam Mustafa, looked on.

"The main condition of my brothers is that I should get a divorce from my husband if I want to go home but I will never do that."

The couple's predicament highlights a major dilemma faced by Pakistan in reconciling centuries-old tribal traditions with modern-day values as President Pervez Musharraf tries to project the country as a moderate, progressive Muslim nation.

More than 4,000 people, the majority of them women, have been killed in the name of honour across Pakistan since 1998, according to government officials.

The jihad in Kashmir takes on a formidable enemy: a 14-year-old girl. From Reuters, with thanks to LGF:

Mariam Begum was abducted by a group of militants from her house in Doda district south of Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital.

"The abductee was let off by the terrorists. However her ears, nose and tongue have been chopped off," a police spokesman said.

Rebels have in the past killed or maimed people who they believe are helping Indian soldiers put down the 15-year revolt in the Himalayan region.

Al-Jazeera (thanks to Nicolei for the link) is reporting that Arafat is playing that ever-popular game among Muslims: whenever anything bad happens, blame the Jews. The fact that Jews were killed by this bombing doesn't faze him in the least.

Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat has condemned Sunday's deadly bomb attack in Tel Aviv but suggested that it was an act of provocation carried out by the Israelis.

"We condemn this act as we always condemn these acts," Arafat said, before hinting that it could have been carried out by the Israelis.

"You know who is behind these acts," he told reporters on Sunday at his West Bank offices. "Europe knows it, the Americans know it, the Israelis know it."

Arafat has previously accused members of the Israeli secret services of having perpetrated attacks against Israel.

The blast near a bust stop on Sunday killed a 19-year-old female army surgeon and wounded 20 people.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an armed faction which pledges loyalty to Arafat, purportedly claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Here's one for all those who would prefer to convince themselves that Osama is a cynical manipulator of the poorly grasped religious beliefs of the uneducated and poor, rather than as a deeply pious Muslim who believes that he is serving Allah in what he is doing. From AP, with thanks to Nicolei:

GENEVA: Osama bin Laden's sister-in-law describes him as a man so driven by his beliefs that he would deny a water bottle to his own infant son in the heat of the Saudi desert. "I'm sure Osama would not have wanted to lose his baby. By his insistence, his wife used a spoon instead of a bottle," said Carmen bin Laden, the Swiss sister-in-law of the alleged terrorist mastermind.

"It was not as if he didn't care about the child. But to him, the baby's suffering was less important than a principle which he probably imagined stemmed from some seventh-century verse in the Koran."

Jihad politics at the UN: the Palestinians are delaying a Security Council vote on Israel's vote until after the American elections, so as not to "incite the Americans." And after that, President Kerry may make things easier for them anyway. From Haaretz (scroll down), with thanks to ceconomakis:

The Palestinians are to hold off pushing for a UN Security Council resolution against Israel's West Bank barrier until after November's U.S. presidential elections, ministers said Sunday.

"We decided that it was not wise now to go to the Security Council because we don't want to incite the Americans, especially during the election campaign and its better to wait until after the elections," one minister said after a meeting chaired by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

"In the meantime we will take the issue to the [UN] General Assembly," he said on condition of anonymity.

They're leaving, but not as fast as the terrorists want them to. It's appeasement, but with a stern face. From AP:

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - The Philippines -- still hoping a kidnapped Filipino trucker driver will be released -- rejected demands Sunday of the hostage takers for an early troop withdrawal from Iraq. The group that snatched Angelo dela Cruz, 46, near the restive city Fallujah on Wednesday gave Manila until 3 p.m. EDT to advance its pullout by a month to July 20.

"In line with our commitment to the free people of Iraq, we reiterate our plan to return our humanitarian contingent as scheduled on Aug. 20, 2004," Foreign Secretary Delia Albert told reporters after an emergency Cabinet meeting on the hostage crisis.

Albert said negotiations for dela Cruz's release were continuing through "formal and informal channels," adding: "We are hopeful that with the continued support and prayers of the people, we will hurdle this crisis."

Government officials said Saturday that dela Cruz had been released, but the news was quickly denied by the militants in a message broadcast by Al-Jazeera television, in which the captors gave the Philippine government 24 hours to respond to their demand for a July 20 pullout. On Saturday, Philippine authorities announced troops would leave by Aug. 20 as planned.

There are 51 Filipino soldiers and police on a humanitarian mission in central Iraq.

The Islamic Army of Iraq-Khalid bin al-Waleed Brigade said dela Cruz would "be treated as a prisoner of war, in accordance with Islamic precepts" until the deadline expired.

More revealing statements from Sheikh Qaradawi as he continues his triumphant British tour. From the Telegraph, :

Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim cleric currently on a controversial visit to Britain, believes that female rape victims should be punished if dressed "immodestly" when assaulted. The 78-year-old Egyptian-born scholar, allowed into the country despite his open support of Palestinian suicide bombers and his extreme views on homosexuality, says that women can be guilty of provoking a sexual attack if their dress or behaviour arouses a man.

Dr al-Qaradawi's views on rape appear on a website called IslamOnline, which purports to give a modern interpretation of Islam. He is the website's chief scholar and leader of a group of Islamic academics who provide answers to questions posed by Muslims on moral issues.

One question asked: "Are raped women punished in Islam?" A panel, headed by Mr al-Qaradawi, replied: "To be absolved from guilt, the raped woman must have shown some sort of good conduct . . . Islam addresses women to maintain their modesty, as not to open the door for evil.

"The Koran calls upon Muslim women in general to preserve their dignity and modesty, just to save themselves from any harassment.

"So for a rape victim to be absolved from guilt, she must not be the one that opens . . . her dignity for deflowering."

The disclosure of Dr al-Qaradawi's views follows controversy over his public support for suicide bombers in Israel and his extreme interpretation of Islam on the subjects of wife beating and homosexuality.

Dr al-Qaradawi, who is based in Qatar and is the head of the European Council for Fatwa and Research, has stated that wife beating is allowed under Islam. "It is permissible for him [the husband] to beat her lightly with his hands, avoiding her face and other sensitive parts," he said.

The website describes homosexuality as perverted, abominable and a corruption, and states that homosexuals can be executed by either burning or stoning.

More jihad in Israel, this time targeting people at a bus stop. From CNN, with thanks to cgiddensjr:

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- An explosion at a Tel Aviv bus stop has killed one woman and wounded more than 20 others, according to Tel Aviv police and Israeli emergency services.

Four of the injured are in a serious condition.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a military offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the attack, according to Palestinian security sources.

Israeli police said it was not a suicide attack, but the result of a bomb placed in the bushes near the bus stop, according to Tel Aviv police spokeswoman Shlomit Hertzberg.

The chickens are coming home to roost. From the Washington Post, :

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- An increasing number of Saudis who crossed the border into Iraq to fight the U.S.-led military occupation are returning home to plot attacks against the Saudi government and Western targets in the desert kingdom, according to Western counterterrorism officials and Saudis with ties to militant groups. The Iraq veterans are serving as fresh recruits for an underground network in Saudi Arabia that, until recently, was led by an older generation of fighters that had trained in Afghanistan and was closely connected to al Qaeda and its founder, Saudi native Osama bin Laden. Many of those leaders have been killed or captured in recent months by Saudi security forces.

Today, the proclaimed new chief of the primary militant group in the kingdom is Saleh Awfi, 33, a Saudi who journeyed north last year to join Ansar al-Islam, an Islamic radical group in Iraq that the U.S. government has branded as a terrorist organization. Awfi stayed for a few months, barely surviving U.S. aerial bombardment, before deciding to return and take up arms in his home country, according to a former Saudi radical who met with Awfi last year.

Other Saudis are returning after spending time in newly established training camps across the Red Sea in remote parts of Sudan where central government influence is weak, said a European intelligence official whose government is advising Saudi officials on their domestic terrorist threat.

For years, the religiously conservative Saudi royal family considered itself immune to attacks from Islamic extremists, but since May 2003, armed insurgents have shaken the government with a series of bombings and shootings resulting in more than 80 deaths.

Muslim anti-Semitism continues unabated in France, as six North African men attack a mother and her baby. From the Courier-Mail, with thanks to LGF:

A YOUNG woman and her baby have been attacked in a suburban train near Paris by unidentified men who drew swastikas on the mother's stomach.

Police today said it was an anti-Semitic assault.

The six attackers who were armed with knives clipped the 23-year-old woman's hair, and cut her tee-shirt and trousers before drawing three swastikas on her body.

The men of North African origin also overturned the pram holding her baby, aged 13 months.

They then took the mother's backpack, which contained her identity papers, a bank card and cash.

Police said the attackers erroneously assumed the woman was Jewish because she was living in Paris' posh 16th district.

"Only Jews live in the 16th district," one of the men told her.

Dominique de Villepin was quick with condemnations. But what is he going to do about it? When will he face the fact that this sort of hatred is being taught in French mosques?

UPDATE: Or was it a hoax? French police doubt shocking anti-Semitic attack

SECOND UPDATE: Yes, it was a hoax. The woman has admitted making up the story. This is reprehensible, and above all it does the embattled Jews in France a grave disservice. There is rampant anti-Semitism in France, and this just obscures the issue.

A courageous and much-needed criticism of the proposed new religious hatred laws in the UK. I am amazed that this article got published. From Will Cummins in the Telegraph, with thanks to Charles at LGF:

In the time of Marcus Aurelius, Christianity was a growing force within the Roman Empire. His ministers asked him if the state should join the non-Christian majority in attacking the new religion, or seek to protect it. The Emperor's reply is found in his Meditations. The state's response to Christianity, he said, or to anything else, should be determined by one simple question: "What is the thing in itself? What does it do?" Today, the Government faces a similar dilemma regarding Islam. In response, the Home Secretary announced plans last week to make vilification of Islam a crime. He insisted that his law to "ban incitement to religious hatred" was meant to defend every faith. However, only Muslims have asked for immunity. The legislation would "close a loophole", David Blunkett observed, because inciting hatred of people on racial grounds is illegal in the UK, but inciting hatred of them on the grounds of belief is not.

The problem is that a virulent hatred of Muslims can no more be racism than a virulent hatred of Marxists or Tories. Nobody is a member of a race by choice. Such groups are protected from attack because it is unfair to malign human beings for something they cannot help. However, nobody is a member of a community of belief except by choice, which is why those who have decided to enter or remain within one are never protected. Were such choices not open to the severest censure, we could no longer call our country a democracy.

It is a red herring for supporters of Mr Blunkett's law to say that Muslims should be shielded by the race laws because Jews and Sikhs are. It is the racial persons of Jews and Sikhs that are protected, not their beliefs. In any case, Sikhism and Judaism are race cults which actively discourage converts. It is almost impossible to become a member of either religion unless you are racially Jewish or Punjabi. They are diametrically opposed to inclusive ideologies like Christianity or Islam, which seek to convert everybody.

Some propose special protection for Muslims by saying that Islam is a racial identity because three of the four schools of Islamic law enjoin faithful Muslims to murder anyone who wishes to leave the faith, thus limiting every Muslim's freedom of action. But is this a point in Islam's favour? And is this the sort of religion we want to throw people into prison for condemning?

To argue that Islam should have special protection because it is a "religion" while Marxism or Conservatism are "merely philosophies" is equally specious. All that divides a religion from a secular ideology is something whose existence - supernatural support - is disputed by adherents of the latter. To privilege supernatural belief-systems by law would be to impose the view of the faithful about this on everyone, the situation that prevailed in the Middle Ages. This time, it is Islam, not Christianity, that New Labour wants to impose on Christendom.

A society in which one cannot revile a religion and its members is one in which there are limits to the human spirit. The Islamic world was intellectually and economically wrecked by its decision to put religion beyond the reach of invective, which is simply an extreme form of debate. By so doing, it put science and art beyond the reach of experiment, too. Now, at the behest of Muslim foreigners who have forced themselves on us, New Labour wants to import the same catastrophe into our own society.

In a recent television panel, Iqbal Sacranie explained why the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), the organisation he leads, had pushed for this legislation. The British should be allowed not to believe in Islam, he said (thanks, Mr Sacranie!), but they should not be permitted to "criticise" it.

Ken Livingstone has gone even further. On Wednesday, the Mayor of London welcomed to City Hall the Qatari divine Dr Yusuf al-Qaradawi, according to the MCB "an Islamic scholar held in great respect throughout the Islamic world".

Basing his teaching on Islam's holiest texts, Dr al-Qaradawi has urged his fellow Muslims to beat their wives; to use child suicide bombers to kill female and infant civilians; to murder Jews, homosexuals and British servicemen; and to colonise, desecrate and usurp Christian Rome.

Mr Livingstone said that the newspapers that had condemned Dr al-Qaradawi for such views "showed why this legislation [Blunkett's] is necessary". It was the critics of Dr al-Qaradawi's beliefs, Mr Livingstone insisted, who were, as the Muslim Association of Britain put it, "the image of evil". Dr al-Qaradawi, a mainstream figure in a major religion, had endorsed Jew lynching and wife beating: Mr Livingstone seemed to imply that, like Islam, such activities should therefore be above criticism.

This brings us to the nub of the issue: the fact that Islam's teachings are completely unlike those of other faiths. The Government shows no sign of understanding this. Defending his proposed legislation, Mr Blunkett, for instance, said: "It applies equally to far-Right evangelical Christians as to extremists in the Islamic faith." But what "far-Right evangelical Christian" has ever proposed or endorsed anything as horrifying as what the moderate Muslim regards as normal?

In the Qur'an there is a sharp divide between believers and unbelievers, and no indication that unbelievers enjoy the same rights and dignity as do believers. This distinction runs through Islamic theology and law, and informs present-day practice. To wit this from the Telegraph, with thanks to LGF:

A Pakistani hostage released by his captors in Iraq claimed yesterday that he saw them behead three people before sparing his life because he appeared to be a devout Muslim. Amjad Hafeez, who worked for an American company that supplied food to the United States military, was released last week after the intervention of leading Muslim clerics.

"The people who were beheaded - their hands and legs were tied and one fat guy came and beheaded all three of them, one by one, after saying 'God is Great'."

Mr Hafeez was next in line to be executed, he said. "They told me, 'The cameraman is coming. Then I cut your neck'. I waited to die."

He believes that his captors accepted that he was not an American spy, as they had alleged, when he began a Muslim cleansing ritual before saying his final prayers.

They live in America, but don't get the wrong idea: that doesn't mean they have any loyalty to it. Loyalty to Islam comes first; Wassef Ali Hassoun's family has a lot of 'splainin' to do, and they're doing it.

Can you remember the last time that the family of a United States Marine felt compelled to apologize for their son's service? I can't. Here, then, is an insight into the Muslim mindset regarding loyalties and service to a non-Muslim nation -- particularly the Great Satan. From AP, with thanks to Roxanne:

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Relatives of a U.S. Marine who surfaced in Beirut nearly three weeks after an apparent kidnapping in Iraq appealed for understanding from fellow Arabs on Saturday, saying the Lebanese-born man emigrated and joined the Marines for financial reasons.

Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun was doing well and recovering at a U.S. military hospital in Germany after being flown out of Lebanon on Friday, a Marine spokesman said. He is expected to return to his home unit in Camp Lejeune, N.C., next week.

In Hassoun's native city of Tripoli, his family issued a statement saying he was forced to go to the United States and join the Marines because of the deteriorating economic situation caused by Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war.

The statement appeared aimed at countering criticism by some fundamentalist Sunni Muslims in Tripoli who accused Hassoun's family of being "American agents and collaborators." It stressed the family's Arab and Islamic ties, and its loyalty to Lebanon.

"We are a family of Lebanese Arab Muslims. We are not seeking to defend ourselves," the Hassoun family's statement said. "But we would like to thank the Lebanese for sympathizing with one of their sons (Hassoun) who was pushed by the difficult living conditions in their home country to emigrate and forced to work in a position that they may not like."

The statement said Hassoun, 24, was "driven by the lure of a good life to emigrate, (but he) might have made a mistake by choosing to sign a four-year contract with the U.S. Navy, which expires by the end of 2005."

The Philippine government promised to leave Iraq almost immediately after this man's kidnappers demanded that it do so. But now they are setting a deadline for the withdrawal as a condition for the man's life.

I expect that Philippine officials will probably agree to this demand. After all, they've already established what the Philippine government is; now they're just haggling over price.

Meanwhile, the Bulgarians are hanging tough.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A Filipino and two Bulgarians remain captive in Iraq after militants issued a fresh threat to kill the Filipino within 24 hours.

Angelo de la Cruz had appeared close to release the previous night, but his captors then denied they were freeing him and vowed to kill him on Sunday night unless Manila decided to pull its small troop contingent out of Iraq within 10 days.

"Yesterday was a false hope, he was not released but we are hoping he will soon be free," said a Philippine embassy source in Baghdad. He said he had heard nothing since the kidnappers had extended their deadline to kill the 46-year-old driver.

Death threats still hung over two Bulgarian truck drivers, but Sofia said it was growing more confident they had survived a Friday night execution deadline set by their captors.

"Today we have more reasons than yesterday to believe that there has been no radical change in the situation of the Bulgarian hostages in Iraq," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Gergana Grancharova told state radio.

"There are still many tense hours ahead. I do not want to leave the false impression of undue optimism," she said.

A jihadist at Los Alamos? Since U.S. officialdom refuses to acknowledge the religious/ideological nature of this conflict, and shuns "profiling" on the basis of religion, it could happen. I hope it hasn't here, but what would prevent it? From AP, :

Lab spokesman Kevin Roark refused to say Friday if the information could jeopardize national security.

He said the "Classified Removable Electronic Media" were discovered missing from the Weapons Physics Directorate during an inventory check Wednesday. He refused to specify exactly what was missing, but said the items could be products such as CDs or floppy disks.

A search was under way, and lab Director Peter Nanos said he would order a full inquiry into what happened.

"In order to operate effectively, this apparent lack of attention to CREM issues must be dealt with swiftly and decisively," Nanos said.

This is the second such incident in recent months. Classified electronic media was also reported missing in May. That data had been set to be destroyed before it went missing, Roark said at the time.

Roark acknowledged Friday that this situation is different because the items were to be used for an upcoming experiment. He added that Nanos' tone is also different this time.

"What's different in this case is the director is saying this won't stand," Roark said. "If you can't keep track of classified material, then you can't work at Los Alamos anymore."

Yeah, that would stand to reason, all right.

The Filipino hostage has been freed, now that the Philippines has agreed to withdraw from Iraq in accord with the Islamic terrorists' wishes. I am glad that this man's life was spared, but how many more will have to die -- in the Philippines, Iraq, and elsewhere -- because the jihadists have now seen again that terror and intimidation work and thus they should continue them? The Philippines and Spain have done the free world a grave disservice.

From AP:

MANILA, Philippines - Insurgents in Iraq freed a Filipino truck driver whom they kidnapped and threatened to behead, the Philippine labor secretary said Saturday....

The announcement came just hours after Arroyo's spokesman said the Philippines' small peacekeeping contingent in Iraq would be withdrawn when its tour ends Aug. 20. Dela Cruz's captors had demanded that Manila pull out its tiny 52-strong force within three days, a deadline that was drawing near as word came of the release.

UPDATE: Now, in what is becoming a familiar dance, they are saying that he hasn't been freed after all.

In Islam Unveiled I discuss the widespread acceptance of wife-beating in the Islamic world, stemming from the Qur'anic sanction given it in Sura 4:34. Here is further confirmation that this practice is still widely accepted, and a welcome indication that the light of world opinion shining on this practice (witness the fact of the article itself) may help ultimately to end it.

Note also that this imam and his muezzin don't seem to be familiar with the tradition oft-cited by American Muslim apologists, in which Muhammad is supposed to have directed his followers to beat their wives with nothing larger than a miswak, a stick used for cleaning the teeth.

From the Daily Star of Bangladesh, with thanks to Fanabba:

An imam of a city mosque let his underling beat his wife black and blue right before him Tuesday night for her failure to meet his dowry demands and not giving nod to his intended second marriage. Hafez Maulana Saiful Islam, imam of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) Hospital Jame Mosque, and his assistant Aman Ullah looked on nonchalantly while muezzin Abdul Kader assaulted and critically injured Sabina Islam, wife of Saiful, in the mosque.

Sabina's father Sirajul Islam filed a case with Ramna Police Station Wednesday under the Women and Children Repression (Prevention) Act accusing Saiful, Kader and Aman. Of them, police yesterday evening arrested Aman from the mosque. The other two are absconding.

In reaction to the arrest, a gang led by Kashem, president of BSMMU Hospital workers' union, last night staged a showdown with Sabina in the hospital, where she is undergoing treatment.

Witnesses said five angry men, apparently instigated by the imam, tore medical reports of the bruised woman and snatched away other documents from her. Before leaving the scene, they ordered the doctors to immediately release her from the hospital and her family members to vacate the imam's living quarters.

"We are living under awful pressure and constant fear of assault from them," said Sabina's sister Shahida Akhtar, who is looking after the victim's two children, Shammi and Sakib, in absence of their mother.

Shafi, a BSMMU employee, confirmed, "Saiful and his men are threatening with death to whoever tries to help the poor woman and her kids."

Here is an extract from a letter from the Coordinator of the International Committee Against Stoning to Kofi Annan:

The International Committee against Stoning is a network of more than 200 women's rights and human rights organizations and individuals. We, heartened by the success of our campaign to save the Nigerian woman Amina Lawal from the brink of stoning, and overwhelmed by the level of support and sympathy directed towards our campaign, proposed to declare July 11th, the day on which in 2001 Maryam Ayoubi, an Iranian woman and mother of three children was stoned to death, as the International Day against Stoning. This day has been endorsed by many other organizations.

In order to recognize this day by the international community, we have urged all women's rights and human rights organizations to observe one-minute silence at 11:00 am GMT on 11th July 2004.

On behalf of the International Committee against Stoning, I would like to urge you as the Secretary-General of the United Nation to announce and observe a minute silence on July 11th 2004 at 11:00 am. I am sure you agree with us that the announcement by the UN will definitely be a step forward towards saving many lives and recognizing one of the most basic rights of people living under the threat of stoning.

Sincerely
Mina Ahadi
Coordinator of the International Committee against Stoning

Cc: European Union
Human rights and women's rights organizations

You can find all this and much more extremely important information at www.stopstoningnow.com (thanks to Ali Dashti), in English, Farsi, and more. And remember: a minute of silence tomorrow at 11:00AM GMT (that's 7:00AM EDT, and the middle of the night in California, so it should be easy for you Westerners to maintain the silence).

Maybe he really does understand what is at stake, or is beginning to. Or maybe he is beginning to understand that a growing number of Americans do not buy, if they ever did, his "religion of peace" line. From the Washington Times, :

KUTZTOWN, Pa. -- President Bush yesterday called the war on terror "a mighty ideological struggle" between an American society of religious tolerance and Islamist militants who kill those with different beliefs.

"The better way to describe what's happening is, this is a war against an ideology which stands exactly opposite of what we believe," said Mr. Bush, using more direct and religious language to describe the war than ever before.

At an appearance later in the day in Lancaster, Pa., Mr. Bush said terrorists' "hearts are filled with evil," he said. "There is no peace treaty you can sign with these people."

Shortly after the September 11 attacks, Mr. Bush characterized the war on terror as a "crusade," an off-hand comment that was widely criticized as being insensitive to Islamic culture. He has avoided couching the war in religious terms since.

But campaigning for re-election as a war president at a time when support for his performance as commander-in-chief is waning, Mr. Bush has sharpened his rhetoric.

Admitting that his "greatest fear is we're going to get attacked again," Mr. Bush told 2,500 supporters at a basketball gym at Kutztown University that he is "working hard to stop it from happening" by showing strength to the terrorists.

"Listen, we want to whip them in Iraq before we have to face them here at home," Mr. Bush said.

One of the most important values of the United States, the president said, is the nation's tradition of religious tolerance -- a value not shared by the enemy.

"You see, we believe that you're as big a patriot if you worship the Almighty as if you don't. And if you choose to worship, whether it be as a Christian, Jew or Muslim, you're equally as patriotic as your neighbor," Mr. Bush said. "That's what we believe. You have the freedom to worship as you see fit in America.

"That's the exact opposite of the dim view of the people who are trying to cause us harm. So this is really a ideological struggle where the enemy is willing to use terror as a tool."

Note the Pakistan paper's sneer quotes around "terrorism," even though this is one of Pakistan's better papers. Also, it would be nice if Musharraf (or anyone else) could present a picture of this "true path" he mentions that would be coherent from the standpoint of Islamic theology and law. Without that, the radicals will always be able to quote abundant chapters and verses to show that theirs is in fact the true path.

And as for Israel, I wish he would explain to me what Israel has to do with the jihads in Indonesia, the Philippines, Kashmir (his own backyard, that one), Nigeria, etc. From the Daily Times of Pakistan, with thanks to Fanabba:

BAKU: Islamic 'terrorism' is holding the Muslim world hostage, President Pervez Musharraf said on Friday during his visit to Azerbaijan.

"But the West must also change its attitude to the Islamic world and persuade Israel to withdraw from Palestinian territory, if global terrorism is to be defeated," he said.

The Pakistani leader made the remarks in a speech about the challenges facing the Islamic world during his state visit to Azerbaijan, a mainly Muslim state which has forged close links with Islamabad.

"Unfortunately, the Islamic world is faced with many problems. It is as if the Islamic world is facing a storm," the president, speaking through an interpreter, told a special session of the Azeri parliament.

"It is also unfortunate that terrorism harms Muslim countries. The tactics they use, such as car bombs, executions and other dirty methods, damage our great religion. Today they are holding our societies hostage. They must understand that they cannot solve the problems of the Islamic world this way. I call on them to return to the true path," the president said.

From the New York Times, :

The New Jersey man, Numan Maflahi, 31, a Yemeni-born United States citizen, was convicted at a jury trial in February of making false statements to federal agents. When the agents questioned him in 2003, he denied helping a Yemeni cleric who prosecutors said made a fund-raising trip to Brooklyn mosques in 1999.

Prosecutors said Mr. Maflahi, a gas station owner who lives in Little Ferry, N.J., had been the driver and personal assistant for Sheik Abdullah Satar, a former member of parliament in Yemen. They have described Sheik Satar as a fund-raiser with ties to Al Qaeda.

But of course, for the defense this is all about racism:

Yesterday, Mr. Maflahi's lawyer, Hassen Ibn Abdellah, told Judge Nina Gershon of Federal District Court in Brooklyn that her sentencing decision was a test of whether "this country could be fair to Arab-Americans."

A predictable development. From AP, :

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Following their victory in the U.N.'s highest court, the Palestinians will ask the General Assembly next week to demand that Israel destroy the barrier it is building to seal off the West Bank.

After Friday's ruling by the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, that the barrier violates international law, the Palestinians and their Arab supporters said they will seek a resolution enforcing the decision.

In a sharply worded advisory opinion, the court said Israel should tear down the barrier, compensate Palestinians harmed by the structure and return property confiscated for its construction.

The court urged the U.N. General Assembly and the Security Council to consider "what further action is required to bring to an end to the illegal situation."

No word from the court, however, about fences constructed in Saudi Arabia, India, and Turkey. Here is some background: "Unilaterally Constructed Barriers in Contested Areas."

The heroic former PLO terrorist Walid Shoebat on why Palestinians hate Jews, and more, in an interview with Jamie Glazov at FrontPage:

FP: Tell us a bit about the violent culture you come from.

Shoebat: This question requires an entire book to respond to fully, but simply put, one must never forget Nazi Germany. Nazism was the process of robbing the religious institutions, arts, media, and the social fabric of the German society. Likewise, in the Middle East, one can find the same elements as Nazi Germany, with a crucial difference: