August 2004 Archives

An attempt to divide the Islamic loyalties of Muslims in France and elsewhere, and pry them away from the jihadists? Or another example of craven French dhimmitude? You be the judge. From the BBC:

The French interior minister has joined Muslim leaders at the main mosque in Paris to pray for the release of two French journalists abducted in Iraq.

Worshippers applauded as Dominique de Villepin spoke of the unity of French Muslims and non-Muslims.

French Muslim leader Dalil Boubakeur described the men as "our countrymen" and urged the kidnappers to free them.

The kidnappers have demanded that France repeal a ban on Islamic headscarves in French state schools.

The law introducing the ban is due to come into effect on Thursday. The government has refused to withdraw it.

The BBC's Angus Roxburgh, in Paris, describes Mr de Villepin's visit to the mosque as highly symbolic.

He says French Muslims attended to demonstrate their solidarity and their Frenchness - and to distance themselves from the Iraqi kidnappers.

Meanwhile, an influential Sunni Muslim organisation in Iraq, the Committee of Ulema, said it had failed to make contact with the kidnappers and feared the journalists might be killed.

A group calling itself The Islamic Army in Iraq says it is holding the two men - Christian Chesnot of Radio France Internationale and Georges Malbrunot of Paris daily newspaper Le Figaro.

From AFP:

A blast outside a subway station in central Moscow that killed eight people was caused by a female suicide bomber, Russian news agency Interfax quoted the federal security service FSB as saying.

Earlier the interior ministry had said several theories were being considered, among them a suicide bomber but also an explosion in a car parked outside the station.

Police meanwhile had spoken of a bomb filled with bolts and other metal objects that had been placed in or under a car. But the security source quoted by Interfax gave only a female suicide bomber as an explanation for the blast.

From UPI, :

"The worrying tide of anti-Semitism and incitation to racial hatred one is noticing in French society is also permeating within the walls of the library," said Gerard Grunberg, director of the Bibliotheque Publique d'Information at the Pompidou Center in Paris.

"Books were covered with anti-Semitic inscriptions and addresses of Web sites denying the reality of the Holocaust."...

A dozen books about the Dreyfus case and related legal issues were stamped on their edge with the words "Against the Jewish Mafia and Jewish Racism" followed by the addresses of a Holocaust-denying Web site and an Islamic propaganda Web site.

In Berlin in October. Here is a link to a lengthy advertisement for the thing. (Thanks to Ali Dashti and Andy.)

Our meeting in Berlin around these goals and fixed principles will create a new challenge to make the correction of way and to stop the retrogression of our nation and people and to create the practical tools to defend its existence and rights.

It will be the first practical and serious step for the Arabs and Muslims in Europe to work for the following titles:

a) Strengthening the Arab Islamic presence in Europe, unifying its institutions and securing its rights

b) Supporting the resistance movement against the aggression and occupation in Palestine and Iraq, and supporting the steadfastness of the people who is enduring all kinds of oppression and chicanery and torture under the policy of the iron Faust, and who is struggling for its freedom and sovereignty on all the Arab and Islamic countries.

c) Installing a worthy and fair popular Arab Islamic European dialogue to create a common platform of values and principles relying on the support of the right and on the resistance against oppression and injustice, aside the support of the world’s forwarding toward equality and peace between peoples.

d) Creating an Arab Islamic chain within the unified world’s front to oppose hegemony.

This language of resistance to oppression goes hand-in-hand with the language of jihad, as evidenced by the Muslims of Kabardino-Balkaria.

Daniel Pipes and I were scheduled to tape a TV program tomorrow with Nihad Awad and Hussam Ayloush of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). But at the last minute, Awad and Ayloush backed out, leaving the producers scrambling for replacements.

I am not surprised; over a year ago Arsalan Iftikhar of CAIR refused to debate me on the Michael Medved Show. It appears that CAIR officials know well that I am ready to ask pointed questions about them and their organization.

Mr. Awad, Mr. Ayloush: name the time and place that you would like to debate, and I will be there.

UPDATE: I just got a call from the producer and found out that actually Pipes had declined some time ago to appear with the CAIR reps, so it had been going to be just them and me. Now it's going to be me with Oakland Imam Abdul Malik Ali, taped tomorrow for airing at a later date on Pax TV's "Faith Under Fire."

I have learned a few things that may help anyone out there who would like to comment, but can't:

1. You may not be able to register with TypeKey unless your registration name is all one word: johnsmith or John_Smith, but not John Smith.
2. Make sure you have cookies enabled.
3. If you have a firewall, you may have to take it down in order to comment.

Although traffic is up, comments are still down since I put in the registration system. I hope these points help, and will let you know others as I discover them. That may be awhile, however, as I am something of a luddite when it comes to these matters.

And again: comments are largely unmoderated, although I do look in from time to time. Genocidal and abusive comments are not welcome, and will be removed if I see them. If you would like to talk to me, comments are not the best way; I can be reached at director@jihadwatch.org. If you get no reply or a late one, however, please pardon me: I get hundreds of emails daily and have quite a lot to do besides.

Tariq Ramadan, the revocation of his visa barring his way to a professorship at Notre Dame, throws down the gauntlet to his critics in the International Herald Tribune:

I remain in Switzerland, hoping this mistake will be rectified and reflecting on how I am constantly being told the "truth" about who I am: "You are a controversial figure." "You engage in double talk, delivering a gentle message in French and English and a radical, even extremist one in Arabic or to Muslim audiences in private." "You have links with extremists." "You are an anti-Semite." "You despise women." And so on.

When I ask about the source of this information, invariably the response is: This is well-known; check the Internet and you will find thousands of pages referencing it.

A closer examination reveals journalists and intellectuals quoting each other, infinitely repeating what others have said. The response to this finding is: "Well, there has to be some truth in all that." A strange truth indeed!

I have written 20 books and 700 articles, and 170 audiotapes of my lectures are circulating. I ask my detractors: Have you read or listened to any of this? Can you prove the "links" to terrorists? To repeat allegations is not to prove. Where is the evidence of my "double talk?" Have you read the articles in which I call upon fellow Muslims to condemn unequivocally radical views and acts of extremism?

What about my statements on Sept. 12, 2001, calling on Muslims to condemn loudly the terrorist attacks and to acknowledge that some Muslims betray the Islamic message? What about the articles in which I condemn anti-Semitism and criticize Muslims who do not differentiate between the political dimensions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the unacceptable temptation to reject Jews because they are Jews?

Are you familiar with my writings promoting women's rights and an Islamic feminism, and rejecting every kind of mistreatment and discrimination?

Finally, are you acquainted with my extensive study of the Islamic scriptural sources and efforts to promote a new understanding, a way for Muslims to remain faithful to their principles and, at the same time, face the challenges of the contemporary world?

Daniel Pipes is up to the challenge:

But on July 28, just nine days before the Ramadans were to leave for America, Mr. Ramadan was informed that the Department of Homeland Security had revoked his work visa. A DHS spokesman, Russ Knocke, later explained this had been done in accord with a law that denies entry to aliens who have used a "position of prominence within any country to endorse or espouse terrorist activity." The revocation, Mr. Knocke added, was based on "public safety or national security interests."

Of course, Mr. Ramadan dismisses the revocation as "unjustified" and due to "political pressure." He even blames me for the DHS decision.

What's up? The DHS knows much more than I do, but it is not talking. A review of the press, however, gives an idea of what the problem is. Here are some reasons why Mr. Ramadan might have been kept out:

• He has praised the brutal Islamist policies of the Sudanese politician Hassan Al-Turabi. Mr. Turabi in turn called Mr. Ramadan the "future of Islam."
• Mr. Ramadan was banned from entering France in 1996 on suspicion of having links with an Algerian Islamist who had recently initiated a terrorist campaign in Paris.
• Ahmed Brahim, an Algerian indicted for Al-Qaeda activities, had "routine contacts" with Mr. Ramadan, according to a Spanish judge (Baltasar Garzón) in 1999.
• Djamel Beghal, leader of a group accused of planning to attack the American embassy in Paris, stated in his 2001 trial that he had studied with Mr. Ramadan.
• Along with nearly all Islamists, Mr. Ramadan has denied that there is "any certain proof" that Bin Laden was behind 9/11.
• He publicly refers to the Islamist atrocities of 9/11, Bali, and Madrid as "interventions," minimizing them to the point of near-endorsement.

And here are other reasons, dug up by Jean-Charles Brisard, a former French intelligence officer doing work for some of the 9/11 families, as reported in Le Parisien:

• Intelligence agencies suspect that Mr. Ramadan (along with his brother Hani) coordinated a meeting at the Hôtel Penta in Geneva for Ayman al-Zawahiri, deputy head of Al-Qaeda, and Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind sheikh, now in a Minnesota prison.
• Mr. Ramadan's address appears in a register of Al Taqwa Bank, an organization the State Department accuses of supporting Islamist terrorism.

Then there is the intriguing possibility, reported by Olivier Guitta, that Osama bin Laden studied with Tariq's father in Geneva, suggesting that the future terrorist and the future scholar might have known each other.

Ramadan denies all ties to terrorism, but the pattern is clear. As Lee Smith writes in The American Prospect, he is a cold-blooded Islamist whose "cry of death to the West is a quieter and gentler jihad, but it's still jihad."

And here is Tariq Ramadan's reply to Pipes, in which he denies everything. As Pipes notes at his website, the only one not talking in all this is the Department of Homeland Security.

As jihadists dominate the news from Russia, Iraq, and Israel, here in the United States one of their key allies, and a former prominent "moderate Muslim," has suffered a setback. From AP:

CLEVELAND - A federal judge has rejected a defense request to overturn the conviction of an Islamic cleric on charges of concealing ties to alleged terrorist groups on his U.S. citizenship application in 1994.

U.S. District Court Judge James Gwin, who presided at the trial of Imam Fawaz Damra, said Monday in a 31-page ruling that a jury could reasonably conclude from the evidence that Damra had misrepresented his past on his application.

The judge also rejected a defense request for a new trial.

Damra, the Palestinian-born leader of the Islamic Center of Cleveland, Ohio's largest mosque, faces up to five years in prison at his sentencing Sept. 20. He also could face deportation.

The government said that when Damra applied for citizenship, he concealed ties to Afghan Refugee Services, the Islamic Committee for Palestine and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, groups the U.S. government classifies as terrorist organizations.

Prosecutors showed video footage of Damra and other Islamic leaders raising money for an arm of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has been listed as a major terrorist group by the State Department since 1989.

The defense said Damra may have supported certain groups, but he did not consider himself a member or affiliate of them.

Oh. I see. He raised money for them, but he detested them. You know, sometimes the dhimmi line gets so complicated, I wish they would issue a script or something.

"MOSCOW - An explosion in a car near a Moscow subway station Tuesday shattered doors and windows in the station vestibule, but there were no immediate reports of casualties, according to Russian news agencies."

Said the great philosopher Averroes: "Most scholars agree that fortresses may be assailed with mangonels, no matter whether there are women and children within them or not. This is based on the fact that the Prophet used mangonels against the population of al-Ta'if."

And according to the renowned Sufi Al-Ghazali: "One must go on jihad at least once a year...one may use a catapult against them [non-Muslims] when they are in a fortress, even if among them are women and children. One may set fire to them and/or drown them..."

And Ibn Taymiyya, Osama's favorite classical Muslim theologian: "As for those who cannot offer resistance or cannot fight, such as women, children, monks, old people, the blind, handicapped and their likes, they shall not be killed unless they actually fight with words [eg. by propaganda] and acts [by spying or otherwise assisting in the warfare]. Some jurists are of the opinion that all of them may be killed, on the mere ground that they are unbelievers, but they make an exception for women and children since they constitute property for Muslims."

(thanks to Looney Tunes for those quotes.) From AP:

BEERSHEBA, Israel - Suicide bombers blew up two buses almost simultaneously in southern Israel on Tuesday, killing at least 15 people and wounding more than 80 others in the first Palestinian attack inside Israeli in nearly six months.

The twin blasts, claimed by the militant group Hamas, were likely to provoke a harsh Israeli response. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon planned to meet with top security officials later Tuesday, his office said.

The buses burst into flames about 100 yards apart near a bustling intersection in Beersheba, the largest city in southern Israel, just 10 miles from the West Bank. Hamas issued a leaflet in Hebron — the closest Palestinian city to Beersheba — saying the attack was avenging Israel's assassinations of two of its leaders earlier this year.

Yassin and Rantisi, the Hamas leaders who were killed, were terrorist masterminds who inspired scores of suicide bombers. How are they equivalent to a group of civilians on a bus?

The explosions came just hours after Sharon presented to his Likud party the most detailed timetable yet for Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and warned party rebels the plan "will be implemented, period."

After the attacks, Sharon said "the fight against terror will continue full strength." Aides said he would push forward with the pullout.

Rescue workers scoured the scene, cleaning up body parts and scattered pieces of the wreckage as dozens of onlookers gathered nearby. A hand with a ring lay on the ground, and spattered blood covered the walls of the mangled buses.

"People were screaming and yelling. Everybody was running," said witness Tzvika Schreter, a 50-year-old college lecturer.

Police said the messy scene was complicating the recovery of bodies and warned the death toll could rise. They did not know whether the suicide bombers were among the 15 recovered bodies.

Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service said 30 of the wounded were in serious or moderate condition.

In the Gaza Strip, Muslim leaders praised the "heroic operation" — a phrase referring to suicide bombings — over mosque loudspeakers. "There will be no security for Israel as long as the occupation stands," said one of the leaders.

For, among other things, being Buddhists. From Reuters, with thanks to many who sent this to me:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - A militant Iraqi group said it had killed 12 Nepali hostages and showed pictures of one being beheaded and others being gunned down in the worst violence against captives since a wave of kidnappings erupted in April.

The announcement of the killings, made in a statement posted on an Islamist Web site Tuesday, came as France intensified its efforts to save two French reporters held hostage in Iraq by a separate militant Islamic group.

The Nepalis were kidnapped earlier this month when they entered Iraq to work as cooks and cleaners for a Jordanian firm. The killing of men from a tiny country that had nothing to do with the invasion or occupation of Iraq will send shockwaves through foreign companies doing business here.

"We have carried out the sentence of God against 12 Nepalis who came from their country to fight the Muslims and to serve the Jews and the Christians ... believing in Buddha as their God," said the statement by the military committee of the Army of Ansar al-Sunna.

The group posted a series of photographs showing the killing as well as a video.

The recording showed two masked men, one in camouflage, holding down a hostage. One of the men then used a knife to behead the hostage and then hold his head aloft.

The video then showed a group of hostages lying face down and being shot by a man using an automatic rifle. It then showed bodies splattered with blood and bullet wounds.

And besides those sent by Saddam, how many sleeper agents have been sent by jihad groups into the US? If the moderate Muslim community were really all that it claims to be, it would be helping law enforcement officials find the answer to that question. From AP, :

Sami Khoshaba Latchin, 57, pleaded innocent to making a false statement to immigration authorities. A federal judge ordered him held for a bail hearing Sept. 7....

Latchin was "an Iraqi intelligence spy sent to this country to be a sleeper agent," with directions to "assimilate himself into our culture," Assistant U.S. Attorney James Conway said.

He is not alleged to have compromised national security, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said.

Federal authorities do not allege Latchin committed any other crimes. But "if he came here to be here and be available to the Iraqi Intelligence Service if needed, that alone we think is a threat to our national security," Fitzgerald said.

Latchin has lived in the United States for about 11 years, according to federal officials. He is a naturalized U.S. citizen living in Des Plaines, Fitzgerald said.

Apparently charmed by veiled Indonesian girls' familiarity with the masterpieces of Led Zeppelin, US Ambassador to Indonesia Ralph Boyce has landed a huge aid package for madrassas and more. But who will be monitoring what these schools teach about jihad? Who will make sure that radical Muslim leader Abu Bakar Bashir, who has escaped serious punishment from the government for his role in the Bali bombings, won't have a hand in guiding the curriculum? From Reuters, with thanks to Nicolei:

JAKARTA: The United States announced yesterday US$468mil (RM1.77bil) in aid to Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, earmarking part of it to improve Islamic schools, which have been blamed for encouraging fundamentalism....

The US will provide US$157mil (RM596mil) over five years to improve quality of education, US$236mil (RM896mil) for the same length for other basic human services, and US$75mil (RM285mil) in food assistance.

“Pesantrens, madrassas, public schools, private schools. It has been drafted with the advice and input of the ministry of education and religious affairs,” US ambassador to Indonesia Ralph Boyce said when asked about the target of the school aid.

Boyce has been active in visiting Indonesia's thousands of pesantrens in recent years. He was once surprised when a drum band of veiled girls from a moderate Islamic school welcomed him with a rendition of rock anthem Stairway to Heaven.

His "radical Islamic fundamentalist beliefs" don't matter, so it appears that he is free to spread them at the university. From Reuters, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

HAMBURG, Germany, Aug 24 (Reuters) - A Moroccan accused of helping the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers, but acquitted by a German court, may continue his university education in Germany, a court ruled on Tuesday.

Abdelghani Mzoudi had been charged with aiding and abetting the murder of about 3,000 people and belonging to a terrorist group, the Hamburg cell of al Qaeda that prosecutors say led the attacks.

But in February he was acquitted. The court in the northern port city argued it was not convinced of his innocence, but that there was insufficient proof to convict him. Mzoudi is facing a prosecution appeal against the acquittal.

A different Hamburg court ruled on Tuesday that Mzoudi must be allowed to continue his education at the publicly-funded Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. He studies information technology and electrical engineering there.

The university had attempted to prevent Mzoudi from continuing his studies on the grounds of what it described as his "radical Islamic fundamentalist" beliefs.

Mzoudi challenged this in the court, which ruled that his interim grades were the sole criteria for determining his eligibility to continue his education.

More fallout from the Zapatero and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo appeasements. From AP, with thanks to Nicolei:

Prime Minister John Howard's government warned that Australia could become a terrorist target during a six-week election campaign that began Monday, with the war on terror and the nation's troop deployment in Iraq already taking center stage.

Treasurer Peter Costello said Australia should be alert for attacks in the lead up to the Oct. 9 election since Islamic militants detonated bombs in Madrid that killed 191 people in March. Several days later voters elected Spain's Socialists, who opposed the war and occupation of Iraq. Many said the conservative government's support for the war made Spain a target for al-Qaida.

"In Spain during an election there was a terrorist incident, so we have to be careful in Australia," he told Melbourne radio station 3AW on Monday - the first full day of campaigning.

The Madrid bombings were believed aimed at influencing the Spanish vote days later. Socialists won the election and made good on their pledge to pull Spanish troops out of Iraq.

Costello warned terrorists that they could not sway Australian voters with such an attack.

"Any terrorists should understand this point, if they think some kind of attack on Australians is going to change Australian policy, they're wrong, dead wrong," he said, adding later that he was not referring to any specific information of a threat.

Here is an article from the English edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, (thanks to Ali Dashti) about German converts to Islam (including a bit about the eminent Ahmad Von Denffer, whose Ulum ul-Qur'an is a handy reference on Qur'anic interpretation; I quote it several times in Onward Muslim Soldiers). It ably details the alienation from the West and anti-Semitism that motivates them.

It doesn't, however, mention the fact that they are easy prey for radicals because those radicals can appeal to the obvious literal meaning of multiple texts of the Qur'an and Sunnah in order to convince them that violent jihad is a central part of their religious responsibility.

"War is deceit," said the Prophet Muhammad. Evidently, sometimes it's also self-deceit. From WND, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

An Iraqi sheik claims Allah sent giant spiders to the town of Fallujah to help its residents fend off attacks by U.S. military forces.

Sheik Mahdi Saleh Al-Sumide'i spoke to Syrian TV on Monday, claiming several Arab television stations videotaped the helpful arachnids.

The interview is featured on the website of the Middle East Media Research Institute TV Monitor Project, or MEMRI TV. The organization translated the conversation into English.

"They [the Americans] attacked Fallujah and tried to cause great damage to its residents," he explained. "They destroyed mosques and homes, killed women, children and youths, and spread corruption in Fallujah. Nevertheless, we believe that Allah protects the believers, and indeed, Allah stood beside Fallujah, and I'd like to mention some miracles Allah performed in Fallujah. It is possible that the media does not know about them."

Continued Al-Sumide'i: "The first miracle that occurred in Fallujah took the form of spiders that appeared in the city – each spider larger than this chair, or about the size of this chair. The American soldiers left, holding the legs of this spider, and I too, in one of the Friday sermons, held up a spider, with all its magnitude, in front of the satellite channels and in front of the world. This spider also had thin black hair. If this hair touches the human body, within a short period of time the body becomes black or blue, and then there is an explosion in the blood cells in the human body - and the person dies."

The sheik's interviewer then asked about the alleged TV coverage: "The people saw it, but the TV stations did not air it?"

Responded Al-Sumide'i: "The people saw it and the TV stations indeed aired it. I held the spider, and there were between 13 to 15 TV stations, including Al-Arabiya, Al-Jazeera, Al-Majd, Dubai, Abu-Dhabi and other stations, and they saw it with their own eyes."

Cowabunga, Baghdad Bob!

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, whom I profile in Onward Muslim Soldiers and who is a hero of the resistance to jihad and defense of human rights, is also involved. Note that the outrage is all directed toward those who have "insulted" Islam, rather than against the mistreatment of women addressed by the film. From Expatica, with thanks to Ali Dashti and Susan:

AMSTERDAM — Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was given police protection on Monday following the screening of a controversial and "insulting" film about the abuse suffered by women in Islamic societies.

The writer of the film, Liberal VVD politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, is already under police protection following earlier threats to her life.

Van Gogh said despite the shocking content of the film — which casts an accusing eye on the treatment of women in the Islamic faith — no threats were made against him, news agency ANP reported.

The English-language film Submission features four abused women in see through clothing who tell of their mistreatment by male members of their families. They say the abuse they suffer is sanctioned by the Koran. The women's' breasts are visible and anti-women texts from the Koran are written on their bodies.

Well, this sounds to me like an approach they would really go for in Holland, and I am not a European myself, but the core point is sound. After all, the Qur'anic translator Abdullah Yusuf Ali was so embarrassed by Qur'an 4:34 that he inserted the word "lightly" in parentheses after the direction to men to beat their wives, even though the word does not appear in the Arabic.

The idea for the film originated with Hirsi Ali, who has been strident in her criticism of the way in which the Koran sanctions physical violence against women. The MP has previously been forced into hiding after receiving death threats and is accompanied everywhere by armed bodyguards.

The film is a fierce condemnation of the abuses of women in the Islamic faith, allegedly incited by verses in the Koran. Hirsi Ali said she wanted to demonstrate that the Koran itself advocates the beating of women and other abuses.

The outspoken Somali-born Dutch MP also said in the VPRO programme that she did not want to provoke anyone. Instead, she wished to stimulate thought and discussion.

The chairman of the Islam and Citizenship foundation, M. Sini., said he respected the right of the filmmakers to express their opinion, but he also said the film was an offensive provocation that was insulting for Muslims.

"You must place the equality of men and women up for discussion, but not in this manner," he said.

OK, M. Sini., then you do it. Open the discussion in a manner that you find appropriate. I'll be waiting right here. Meanwhile, recognize that you live in a free society and call the goons off Van Gogh and Hirsi Ali.

Marvin W. Heyboer sends us this lyrical reflection on the Nigerian jihad with this comment: he "was commissioned by Trinity Christian Reformed Church of Grandville, Michigan to investigate the subject of co-existence between non-Muslims and Islam (and other aspects of Islam). He offered to publish these words of his personal journal when he returned from Sudan in July and reviewed the media coverage of Nigeria. He was very disturbed to find that these incidents of slaughter had been dismissed as tribal and sectarian skirmishes. Only when the Christian villagers took up arms in defense did the New York Times quote a newswire, 'that 1,000 people have been killed since May in clashes between Christians and Muslims in central Plateau State June 10, 2004, p A8).' That publication made no comment on the previous village to village slaughters in February and March."

If a tree fell in the forest with no one to hear it fall, did it make a sound? That distant question of my college youth mysteriously revisited me as I returned from my fourth journey into the interior of Nigeria. Ever so tacitly an answer nagged at me. Then I heard myself saying aloud, “It makes not a sound.” The falling tree makes not a sound, when there is no ear to hear the fall. With a fresh scent of fear for more African bloodshed and an intense sadness for Nigeria, I share the silence of the falling Trees of Nigeria.

The Trees of Nigeria are gorgeous ebony, a few kings’ ebony too. These are Trees of smiling faces, bright eyes, white teeth and proud shoulders. Their height is average. Their branches are embracing. Their leaves are gentle. These Trees love life, very simple life. They happily walk for water, dig the earth for yams and devotedly nurture their young.

The Trees of Nigeria are falling. Alas these kindliest, loveliest, simplest trees of the human forest are fast falling. So I ask them. “Why fall there friend Tree? Is it of sickness or disease?” Tree nervously reacts, “No, not me.” I ask again, for I wish to know. “Help me to understand, oh gentle Tree. Why fall, the cursed AIDS, maybe?” With sounds of sorrow, Tree answers me. “No, not AIDS, thank God, for medicines are few.” “But, my friend Tree, why is your pain to fall?” Then Tree in grief cries aghast, “It is the bloody axe.”

These falling Trees of Nigeria make no sound. In the early morning of February twenty-fourth, 2004, the bloody axe fell one hundred twenty-five splendid Trees in the village of Shendam. Now the Trees are gone, with only ash and trash of former homes, churches and shops to witness of their fall. A survivor tells of the event with wet eyes dripping down his face of pain. He is a soft spoken gentleman of education, about sixty years, still in shock. His beloved Trees fell hard that day but made no sounds in the Forest of the World.

These falling Trees of Nigeria make no sound. In the region of Yelwa, eighty Trees humbly bowed in a stark and simple Roman Church saying their early morning prayers to bless the day. They too were felled, suddenly and brutally. The cruel axe severed their branches from their trunks. Lying in that beheaded form, matched kerosene sent their bleeding pieces smoking to the skies. But these falling Trees made no sounds in the Forest of the World.

These delicate falling Trees of Nigeria make no sound. Systematically felled in February and March of 2004, the simple villagers were unprepared and no real resistance made. For many years past they had grown into the safety of their kind, but then from afar the strange enemy’s holy axe suddenly did fall. From village to village in southern Plateau State hundreds were felled. Now the fallen Trees are gone, but the places they fell are still easily found for the curious reporters who dare. Begin in the villages of Bolgan and Karkashi and then simply follow the ashes. Begin even now. These falling Trees, though great in number, they made no sound in the Forest of the World.
These innocent falling Trees of Nigeria make no sound. At the break of dawn, on the edge of town, they see the holy aggressors’ axe. Stunned, they freeze in defenseless panic while another holy attack begins. Papa Trees fall and the madness comes: to run the field, to ride the bike, to hide the hedge, a collage of choices for frantic minds. Tragedy and bazaar blur each other. Fresh widow and orphan flee, no Papa Tree. The roof smokes, kerosene leaks down the walls, flames burn the beds and the yam for evening meal. Havoc, fear and flight all mix into each other. No help, no police, no fire truck, no phone, no 911, no social security, only Papa Tree and now no more Papa Tree. Displaced Mama Trees and little Trees are now victims newly primed to vision their only Security (God) as a conversion to the supreme, holy axe people. These falling Trees made no sound in the Forest of the World.

What hope but to convert, for these broken souls?

• No hope: with the silence of the falling Trees, the way of non-resistance is clearly impossible. Even for King and Gandhi, the instrument of non-violence is a powerless tool without the published sounds of inflicted brutality and bigotry.

• No hope: with the silence of the falling Trees, the idea of international intervention is absurd.

• No hope: when the silence of the falling Trees became so unbearably noisy within the country, the Nigerian Federal Army was ordered into southern Plateau State to protect the innocent villages. Survivors still tell of their arrival and division. One young man, shot twice and left for dead, told how the Muslim soldiers of the army unit joined the militia mob of the holy axe. How they, in official dress, passed door to door to ask each Tree its name. At the mention of a Christian name, the family was killed. More Trees fell that day than the day before. But, these falling Trees made no sound in the Forest of the World.

These tragedies took place before and during my visits (February, March, and April of 2004) to interview Nigerian Muslims and non-Muslims on the crucial subject of co-existence between non-Muslims and Islam. For the record I was able to obtain video of devastated villages, dead, wounded and fleeing victims. Clearly, the hopelessness of this Nigerian crisis extends far beyond the failure of its corrupt government to protect the innocents from their violent aggressors. It reaches into the corruption of Western media and indicts reporters as dishonest primary sources of information in Nigeria, and raises serious questions as to the truth of their information from elsewhere in Africa.

These holy attacks were not a singular act. They were week to week, village to village. Soldiers of the Federal Army turned on their own people. Not to report these atrocious behaviors is hideously harmful to the innocents and a deliberate deception of the people of the world. BBC had no ears. CNN had no ears. The New York Times had no ears. The Washington Post had no ears. NBC had no ears. The falling Trees of Nigeria made no sound in the Forest of the World.

Two Chechen women, neighbors, died last week: one on each jetliner that crashed in Russia. Hmmm. From AP, :

MOSCOW (AP) -- They lived in the same apartment in Chechnya, worked in the same market and may have died within moments of each other on separate airliners that crashed in Russia last week.

New details emerged Monday about the two Chechen women who are the focus of suspicion that the planes were blown up by terrorists.

Russian investigators continued piecing together information about the Tuesday crashes that killed a total of 90 people. Gen. Andrei Fetisov, chief of the scientific department at the Federal Security Service, said investigators are certain there were explosions on both planes and reiterated that traces of the high explosive hexogen were found in the wreckage.

How the explosive may have been brought on board the planes that took off from Moscow is still unclear, and investigators were scraping for clues about Amanta Nagayeva and S. Dzhebirkhanova, two Chechen women whose names were listed on tickets for the flights.

The crashes happened just five days before presidential elections in Chechnya, where separatist rebels have been fighting Russian forces for five years. Officials had warned that insurgents and their supporters could commit terrorist acts to try to undermine the vote.

Nagayeva, 30, and Dzhebirkhanova, 37, aroused accident investigators' suspicions because they purchased tickets at the last minute - and because they were the only victims about whom no relatives inquired after news of the crashes.

At the same time, the women's bodies have not yet been identified. Officials were considering two scenarios: Either Nagayeva and Dzhebirkhanova were indeed suicide bombers, or their passports were used by other women, the newspaper Izvestia reported, citing Chechen law enforcement officials.

Nagayeva and Dzhebirkhanova, who lived in an apartment in Grozny, Chechnya's war-shattered capital, were seen on Aug. 22 leaving by bus from the town of Khasavyurt in the neighboring province of Dagestan, the newspaper said. They were believed to be en route to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, where they often bought clothes and other commodities to sell at the Grozny market.

It was evidently supposed to be a toy included with "authentic Mexican candies." From Florida's WFTV.Com's "News of the Strange," which should in this case be "News of the Sinister":

MIAMI -- In Miami, a wholesaler has announced that his company will recall 14,000 bags of candy. The bags contain a toy that looks like a plane flying into a building and, we found, a second toy that looks like Osama Bin Laden suspended between the two buildings....

"Importers did not realize what they were buying. They were buying assortments of toys and they get to people like us trying to sell authentic Mexican candies. Nobody caught it and it went out into the stores," explains Lisy Corporation manager Luis Pardon.

The manager of Lisy Corporation says the candy was originally purchased sight unseen, but now he'll send back all he's collected.

From AP, with thanks to nevermindlv:

DENVER: A man accused of attending a terrorist training camp was deported on Thursday to Pakistan.

Sajjad Nasser, 29, was deported under a section of the Patriot Act that expands the legal definitions of terrorist organizations and acts, said Corina Almeida, chief counsel for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“I think this case sends a very loud message to the terrorists and those that seek to do us harm,” she said. Nasser’s attorney, David Lane, called the allegation that his client helped terrorists “a big, fat lie”. “He is a sacrificial lamb,” his lawyer said. “It’s ludicrous. It’s racist.”

Nasser was arrested in March 2003 on charges of conspiring to harbour an illegal resident. In a deal with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of possessing a fake ID and was sentenced to the 17 months already served. Nasser’s brother used Nasser’s immigration identification card to make a fake ID so the brother could get a job at a grocery store, Lane said.

Nasser was never charged with a terrorism crime; immigration authorities accused him of attending a training camp run by Jaish-e-Mohammed, considered by the United States to be a terrorist group.

An immigration judge ruled in June that Nasser’s participation provided material support for a terrorist organisation, making him subject to deportation. Lane said Nasser thought the camp’s intent was to teach people to defend Pakistan against invasion by India, and left after three days when he realised its true intentions.

Under his plea deal, Nasser agreed not to appeal and may never return to the United States.

Remember: to "paralyze the rise of Islam" is to create the pretext for offensive jihad. From AP, with thanks to Nicolei:

The leader of Malaysia's Islamic fundamentalist party on Friday accused the United States of using its war on terror "to paralyze the rise of Islam" and seize control of oil reserves.

In his biggest speech since his party suffered a crushing defeat in general elections in March, Abdul Hadi Awang also accused Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's government of supporting US ambitions and undermining Malaysia's sovereignty.

Opening the annual conference of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, Abdul Hadi launched a scathing attack on the US and its allies, describing them as "gangsters in the Persian Gulf," and accused them of attacking Islam under the pretext of combatting terrorism.

"Now they are trying to ... force Islamic countries to amend the teachings of Islam and remove jihad teachings from Islam so that the world is left only with a US version of Islam and not the teachings of the Prophet," Abdul Hadi said.

Many Westerners misunderstand France's headscarf ban. I have criticized it myself for being a cosmetic measure when a realistic confrontation with radical Islam's Sharia imperative is called for. However, it also may be just that: a sign that French officials are aware that sometimes a scarf is not just a scarf, but a first step in a plan to institute Islamic law in the nation. From CNN, :

CAIRO, Egypt (CNN) -- The French government has said it will not revoke a law banning Muslim headscarves in public schools, despite demands by a militant Islamic group holding two French journalists hostage in Iraq.

"The law will be applied," spokesman Jean-Francois Cope told Canal Plus television Monday.

Meanwhile Monday, France's Foreign Minister Michel Barnier visited Egyptian government officials and Arab leaders but said there was no new word on the journalists' fate.

Following a meeting with Amr Moussa, secretary-general of the Arab League, Barnier said the journalists, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, were still missing.

"We have had no further contact, again no contact but we are making all efforts to attain their immediate freedom," said Barnier.

"Our embassy in Baghdad knows the region has sent representatives to the region to explore all routes, gather all information possible and make all contacts possible to secure their release, we have experience in these matters, it requires discretion, basically we are seeking a guarantee of their security."

On Sunday, French officials including President Jacques Chirac condemned the abduction of the two journalists.

Prime Minister Jean Pierre Raffarin told reporters: "Today, the whole nation is united because the life of two Frenchmen is at stake as well as freedom of expression and the values of the republic."

He added: "From the first day, everything, let me repeat it, everything, has been done to obtain their release. The government is totally mobilized."

Aides to the minister said Barnier would visit several countries, but did not identify which.

Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin demanded the group, calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq, release Radio France International's Chesnot and Le Figaro's Malbruno, who were reported missing August 21 on their way from Baghdad to Najaf.

"France is the country of the French revolution, of human rights," said de Villepin. "France has never stopped fighting for the freedom of all, for tolerance and the respect of the human being.

"The French people as a whole, all origins and religions together, are together behind our compatriots Christian and Georges. Together we demand that they be set free."

According to the Arabic-language network Al-Jazeera, the kidnappers are part of the same group that claimed to have kidnapped an Italian journalist and killed him after Italy refused to withdraw its troops from Iraq.

Dhimmitude and absolutely witless politically correct suicidal tendencies gallop ahead in Denmark, with groups fighting anti-terror legislation by ... supporting terrorists. From DR Nyheder, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

A radical Danish association has planned a party next Saturday at which it aims to raise money for international terrorists.

In a press release, the association Rebellion writes that this illegal event is intended as a protest against Danish anti-terror legislation which in 2002 made it illegal to make donations to international terror organisations.

Politicians from both the Liberal Party and the Danish People’s Party have called on Justice Minister Lene Es-persen to stop the event from happening.

"It is totally unacceptable that these people are openly supporting terrorists," said Liberal spokesman Troels Lund Poulsen.

First there was Chechnya, and now Kabardino-Balkaria. The jihadist Kavkaz Center has posted a communique from an Islamic group there. Note the consistent and repeated religious references. These are designed to win over Muslims who may be on the fence. Note also the protestations that they do not engage in terrorism and do not target civilians. If so many mujahedin didn't engage in terrorism and target civilians, this wouldn't be necessary.

In the name of God, Most Merciful, Most Gracious!

Praise Allah, the Lord of the worlds!

Peace and blessings be to Prophet Muhammad, to his family, his disciples and to all of those who followed him until the Day of Judgment! And then:

We are notifying everyone that by mercy of Allah the Military Council of Kabardino-Balkaria Yarmuk has been formed today. Units of Yarmuk have been deployed all across the territory of Kabardino-Balkaria and are now starting to carry out the assigned combat missions in accordance with the requirements of Jihad.

We are announcing that Fighters of Yarmuk were taking part in the latest combat operation in Chegem District of the Republic....

We are Mujahideen! We are Warriors of Allah!

We are not fighting against peaceful civilians, especially against peaceful guests.

We are not fighting against women or children, like Russian invaders are doing in Ichkeria.

We are not blowing up sleeping people, like FSB of the Russian Federation does.

We are stating that any terrorist acts that can happen in the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria against peaceful civilians is the job of the Russian FSB and Kabardino-Balkarian pro-Russian police.

We are fighting against tyrants and bloodsuckers, who put the interests of their mafia clans above the interests of their nations. We are fighting against those who get fat at the expense of impoverished and intimidated people of Kabardino-Balkaria, whom they brought down to their knees. We are fighting against the invaders and aggressors, who seized the Muslims land and are running the show and who are playing the master.

People of Kabardino-Balkaria!

These mere apologies for rulers, who sold themselves to the invaders, have made drug addiction, prostitution, poverty, crime, depravity, drunkenness and unemployment prosper in our Republic. It is their corrupt policies that undressed our daughters and our sisters and brought them to lechery and permissiveness.

They, along with their Kremlin’s masters, are the ones provoking interethnic strife in Kabardino-Balkaria by their criminal and unjust rule.

On their orders Muslims of Kabardino-Balkaria get kidnapped and tortured. On their orders our mosques are getting closed down. And on their orders the ban is put on spreading of the religion of Islam, the religion of Truth and Justice. Probably for the first time in 1,400 years of Islam, a mosque has been built which is not called a mosque, but some «building of clerical administration of Muslims of Kabardino-Balkaria». It means that ordinary Muslims of Kabardino-Balkaria are not allowed in the mosque without having a special permission!

Remember: restrictions on the spread of Islam are a pretext for offensive jihad.

I just got back to Secure Undisclosed Locationville late last night -- just before midnight, on the last stagecoach into town. I was giving talks all weekend, most notably at the Council for National Policy on Friday.

It was a good crowd, full of people with much influence in Washington. I was part of a panel with Sam Soloman, a scholar of Islam from England, and Mark Gabriel, former Al-Azhar professor and author of "Islam and Terrorism." Soloman was particularly hard-hitting, quoting Qur'anic verses in Arabic with all the fervor of a radical imam (and then, of course, in English) and illustrating vividly how jihadists use the Islamic holy book to recruit and motivate terrorists.

I myself spoke about the need to be realistic about the sources of the threat and the goals of the jihadists, so as to respond most effectively. Above all, I stressed the need for the President to speak and act with a realistic awareness of what we are up against, and to stop allowing self-proclaimed moderate Muslim groups with ties to terrorism to brief FBI and law enforcement officials, etc. And I unveiled my Fourteen Points for defeating the global jihad, which I will publish soon in some form or another. I am happy to say that they were interrupted by applause several times.

I had to hurry out right after the address so as to catch a plane and give another talk in another city that night, but on the way out I had the pleasure of shaking hands with Grover Norquist. I am sorry that no photographer was present.

More light on the scandalous execution of a teenager in Iran, and the tepid-to-indifferent reaction from the British (and Western) press, from Alasdair Palmer in the increasingly indispensable Telegraph (thanks to Susan):

Atefeh Rajabi appears to have been a fairly normal 16-year-old: sulky, disobedient, and eager to have sex. In London, those attributes earn lectures from parents and teachers on the importance of acting responsibly and not being offensive. In the city of Neka in Iran, where Atefeh Rajabi comes from, they get you hauled up in front of a judge. Atefeh's typical teenage behaviour meant that she was charged and found guilty of "acts incompatible with chastity". The judge in the Islamic court ruled that the appropriate penalty was death. That's right: death. Her sentence was confirmed by Iran's Supreme Court.

Two weeks ago, on August 15, the 16-year-old girl was hung from a crane in the main square of Neka, in full public view, in order to keep "society safe from acts against public morality".

Sharia law, the Islamic code which is supposed to govern punishments in Iran, states that unmarried people who have sex should be punished with 100 lashes. That was the chastisement meted out to the single man with whom Atefeh was accused of "committing acts incompatible with chastity".

Married women who have sexual relations with someone who is not their husband should, according to Sharia, be stoned to death - although Iran's chief justice, apparently revolted by the cruelty of pelting women with rocks, ruled two years ago that stonings should be abandoned.

Hanging is not prescribed for either category of transgressor. So what was the judge (one Haji Rezaie) doing sentencing an "unchaste" 16-year-old to hang? He said that she had a "sharp tongue" and had "undressed in court".

It seems that all she did was to take off her headscarf and insist that she was the victim of an older man's advances: but even if she had stripped naked and called the judge a fat ignorant bastard, those actions would hardly merit death, even under Islamic law.

Nevertheless, the judge was so outraged that he decided he would personally put the noose round the child's neck.

That disgraceful and disgusting "punishment" has excited a great deal of condemnation in Iran among the reformists. As far as I can see, it has not produced any comment here. Amnesty International issued a statement expressing outrage at the execution (the tenth of a child in Iran since 1990) - but no British newspaper or television station has reported this....

What would be headline news if it happened in America (can you imagine the response if a 16-year-old girl was executed for having sex in Texas?) is, because it happens in an Islamic state, apparently too banal to count.

That attitude guarantees that more children will suffer Atefeh's fate. Of course, it suits our Government - which is pushing for greater trade links with our new-found ally, Iran - just fine if people think that criticism of Islamic judges is inappropriate because standards are different. But respecting Islam does not require accepting the judicial murder of 16-year-olds (or indeed anyone, of any age) for having sex. That's wrong wherever it happens. We need a Government, and a press, that says so.

I sketch the meteoric and criminal career of bin Laden's mentor (and possible murder victim) in my book Onward Muslim Soldiers. Here is his son describing Iraq as the latest site for jihad -- something I also detail in the book, so it is hardly a new development (I wrote the book in Winter 2003). But those who think that the jihad has been caused by American intervention there, and would end with American withdrawal, should remember that there were other sites that drew the mujahedin from around the world before Iraq: Bosnia, Afghanistan, Chechnya, etc. The jihad is not primarily a reaction to Western provocations, but an effort to spread the hegemony of Islamic Sharia; the provocations are only a pretext to gain support by playing on perceived grievances, and an opportunity to gain ground.

AMMAN, Aug 29 (AFP) - Iraq is attracting Islamic militants from across the world determined to join the "holy war" against the US-led occupation, the son of Osama bin Laden's mentor Abdullah Azzam told AFP in an interview.

"Hundreds of Muslims from all over Arab and non-Arab countries go to Iraq to help the resistance end the occupation, spurred by the conviction that jihad is a duty against the occupier," said Hudayfa Azzam, 34.

He also claimed that the former regime of Saddam Hussein "strictly and directly controlled" members of bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terror network in Iraq before the US invasion, as charged by members of US President George Bush's administration but refuted by other experts.

In 1984 Bin Laden decided to leave his native Saudi Arabia and follow Abdullah Azzam, better known as "the prince of the mujahedeens" (Muslim combattants), to Afghanistan.

Before being killed with two of his sons in a bomb attack against their car in Afghanistan in November 1989, Abdullah Azzam wrote a five-volume encyclopedia on jihad which has become the reference book for his Muslim followers.

He also founded the Muslim Brotherhood in the Palestinian territories.

His ideology is that "when a Muslim country is occupied the sharia (Muslim law) says that Muslims across the world must strive to liberate that land," his son told AFP.

"That is why my father was the first Arab to go to Peshawar to help liberate Afghanistan from Soviet occupation," he said.

Impressed by the lectures Abdullah Azzam gave at the King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Bin Laden decided in 1984 to visit Azzam in Amman where he lived to learn more about jihad.

But Azzam was packing up for Afghanistan and invited Bin Laden to follow him there.

Bin Laden took up the offer and agreed "to work in and finance" an office set up by Abdullah Azzam which provided services and guidance to the new mujahedeen recruits, Hudayfa Azzam said.

In 1987 he broke away and set up Al-Qaeda.

"The idea of jihad is the same whether the occupier is Soviet, as was the case in Afghanistan, or American, as it is now in Iraq," Hudayfa Azzam added.

He said that leading Islamic militants "realised that it is more beneficial not to have too many groups, parties and masterminds because it creates problems".

"There is effective coordination among the elite members of the resistance in Iraq," said Hudayfa Azzam, adding that the ideology now prevailing in the embattled country is close to his father's beliefs.

It is close to the ideology of "liberation movements, such as the (Palestinian radical group) Hamas", he said.

Of course, here in the US, the chic PC Left doesn't hold fundraisers for terrorists. But it finds other ways to help them out. Here is Bill West in FrontPage on the sad story of a Florida candidate for the U.S. Senate, Betty Castor, and Sami Al-Arian (thanks to Teri for the link):

The Democratic Senatorial primary on August 31 in Florida is fast approaching. One of the candidates in that primary, former University of South Florida President Betty Castor, throughout her campaign has defended her handling of Professor Sami Al-Arian during the mid 1990s. Al-Arian, accused of being a leading supporter of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization while employed at USF, faces trial in January in Tampa on Federal terrorism charges. Castor has claimed repeatedly she did all she could about Al-Arian while president of USF.

Castor said she “suspended” him and that was the most she could have done under the circumstances. Castor’s statements during her campaign make it appear she had the security and safety of the campus at the forefront when she took action in the Al-Arian matter. Documents obtained under Florida public records law reveal otherwise.

Two key memos from USF related to the Al-Arian case reveal that he was not “suspended” at all, as claimed by Castor, but rather placed on administrative leave with full pay. Suspension implies some form of disciplinary action. It’s clear from these two documents that no disciplinary action whatsoever was taken against Al-Arian....

It is clear from these internal USF documents that far from doing all she could, Castor merely accommodated Al-Arian by placing him on a full-pay administrative leave status so he could “prepare for the various investigations.” Is this how Castor “worked with law enforcement” as she has claimed during her campaign, by freeing the primary suspect, at full taxpayer salary, to prepare for the case against him?

Far from doing all she could in the Al-Arian affair, Betty Castor’s response was tepid at best and, in reality, served to brush the matter aside in an effort to avoid embarrassment, conflict and controversy for the university and her at the time. The voters of Florida need to decide if this is the sort of Senator they really want.

Mark Levine in the Daily Star, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

It is time for the United States to declare a truce with the Muslim world, and radical Islam in particular.

This may sound like a naive, even defeatist statement in the context of the 9-11 Commission Report's reminder that the United States remains very much at war with "Islamist terrorism" and the ideas behind it.

Yep.

Yet a truce (Arabic hudna) rather than an increasingly dangerous "clash of civilizations" is the only way to avoid a long, ultimately catastrophic conflict. And it's up to Europe to be the good broker.

Sure, Mark. It would be easy to avoid a long, catastrophic conflict, especially with Europe's mediation. I think the word you are searching for is "capitulation." Even the "hudna" you invoke is only a temporary halt to a conflict to allow the forces of jihad to gather strength. Is that really what you want?

The NYPD stresses that they were just free-lancers not tied to any terrorist organizaton. They seem to think that will make us feel more secure and not less.

From the New York Post:

Two men charged with plotting to blow up the Herald Square subway station were also planning a "holy war" rampage against seven other crucial targets around the city — including at least two other stations, three police precincts and the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, officials said yesterday...

A law-enforcement source said Siraj — who worked at an Islamic bookstore in Bay Ridge with his father and uncle — was once an associate of suspects in an ongoing federal terrorism and money-laundering probe.

The suspects considered him a "loose cannon," the source said.

But don't worry. His family says he couldn't possibly be a terrorist.

A new dilemma for the French.

From the Washington Post:

Islamic militants released a brief tape showing two French journalists kidnapped recently in Iraq and said they were holding the men to protest a French law banning headscarves in schools, according to footage aired Saturday by an Arab TV station.

The station, Al-Jazeera, said the group gave the French government 48 hours to overturn the law but mentioned no ultimatum.

From the New York Post

The plot unraveled when the NYPD's Intelligence Division began conducting surveillance earlier this year on a group of Muslim men in Brooklyn.

One of the men arrested yesterday had been thrown out of the group, sources said.

"Whether this is al Qaeda or an unstable lone wolf doesn't make much of a difference as to the danger," said a law enforcement official.

The men, described as being in their 20s, don't appear to be connected with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, sources said.

During the course of the investigation of the Brooklyn group, cops learned the two men had mentioned they wanted to bomb a train and went so far as to draw up sketches of the station, sources said.

Beware of backpackers clutching a well thumbed copy of The Budget Terrorist Guide: How to Conquer Europe on Only Ten Dollars a Day.
From AP:

The al-Qaida terrorist network spent less than $50,000 on each of its major attacks except for the Sept. 11, 2001, suicide hijackings, and one of its hallmarks is using readily available items such as cell phones and knives as weapons, a U.N. report says.

The report, released Thursday by a new team monitoring the implementation of U.N. sanctions against al-Qaida and the Taliban, detailed just how little it cost to mount terrorist operations.

For example, the report said the March attacks in the Spanish capital, Madrid, in which nearly 10 simultaneous bombs exploded on four commuter trains, used mining explosives and cell phones as detonators and cost about $10,000 to carry out. The blasts killed 191 people, Spain's worst terrorist attack.

A little more than $50 a head.

Only the sophisticated 9/11 attacks in the United States, using four hijacked aircraft, "required significant funding of over six figures," the report said. Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks, the vast majority in the collapse of the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center.

The 9/11 Commisssion Report estimates the cost at between $400,000 and $500,000.

The report said U.N. sanctions have had only "a limited impact," primarily because the U.N. Security Council has reacted to events "while al-Qaida has shown great flexibility and adaptability in staying ahead of them."

Note to the U.N., John Kerry, and especially France: Conflicts, whether they be wars, cold wars, a war on terror, or ideological struggles, are won by going on the offensive.

From AP

Riot police used water cannons Friday to disperse protesters demanding that the Philippines lift its ban on allowing its citizens to go to war-ravaged Iraq for jobs.

"Your dhimmitude is highly appreciated but we need cash!"

The ban was imposed last month after a Filipino truck driver, Angelo dela Cruz, was abducted by Iraqi insurgents. He was freed after Manila pulled out its troops ahead of schedule, as demanded by the kidnappers.

Their trucking company has decided to leave the country.

From Al-Jazeera:

The bodies of two Turkish captives shot and killed have been found in Baiji in northern Iraq.

Sources in the Iraqi police told Aljazeera on Friday the bodies of two Turkish captives had been found in the key oil refinery town in the Sunni Muslim belt that stretches north and west from the Iraqi capital.

No mention of whether his religious beliefs prevent torching a train and burning 59 Hindu pilgrims to death.

From Reuters

An Indian man charged over the train torching that triggered Gujarat's Hindu-Muslim bloodshed two years ago has asked for bail so he can go home to have sex with his wife, court officials said.

Firozkhan Zafarkhan's two-page handwritten application to the court in the state's main city, Ahmedabad, says he and his wife are suffering mental trauma because their physical needs have not been met for such a long time.

He wants to be allowed out of jail for 30 days. Zafarkhan, a Muslim, said his religion and India's conservative culture forbid him from having sex with anyone but his wife.

Najaf: Rebels evacuate Imam Ali Shrine

Bodies found in al-Sadr's former religious court

Al-Sistani takes over control of Najaf's Imam Ali mosque

Iran to repair Najaf shrine

Someone objects to the church being used as a church. Like Hagia Sophia it has been turned into "a museum for Orthodox icons."

From Kathimerini:

A bomb exploded before dawn yesterday at a Greek Orthodox church in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus, causing damage but no injuries.

Officials said anti-Greek slogans were scribbled on the church. The attack followed reports in the Turkish-Cypriot press that local extremist groups had vowed to try to prevent services planned next week at the Aghios Mamas Church to celebrate its namesake’s saint’s day.

From the National Post

A captured al-Qaeda operative has told Canadian intelligence investigators that a Montreal man who trained in Afghanistan alongside the 9/11 hijackers was responsible for the crash of an American Airlines flight in New York three years ago.

The source claims that Abderraouf Jdey a/k/a Farouk the Tunisian downed the plane with explosives, but no evidence of explosives was found (all you conspiracy theorists are free to snort, "Hah! You mean no evidence of explosives was reported!").

Jdey is wanted by the FBI and whereabouts are unknown.

Charming.

From AP:

Al-Qaida may attempt to attack Veterans Affairs hospitals as an alternative to more heavily guarded U.S. military installations, the FBI and Homeland Security Department warn in a new nationwide terrorism bulletin.

Although U.S. authorities say there is no credible intelligence regarding a specific threat against such hospitals, the bulletin said there have been persistent reports of "suspicious activity" at medical facilities throughout the United States.

From our friends at Al-Jazeera:

Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni, who was taken captive on 24 August, is reported to have been executed by his captors.

In a video tape received by Aljazeera, the purported Iraqi group - identifying itself as the Islamic Army in Iraq - said Baldoni had been executed because their demands had not been met.

"The group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq said they executed the Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni because Italy did not respond to their demand to withdraw troops from Iraq within 48 hours," Aljazeera reported.

Aljazeera decided not to broadcast the grisly footage.

Baldoni, 56, disappeared last week on the road to Najaf, the scene of fierce fighting between US troops and the al-Mahdi Army of Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr.

Our friends atAgence France Presse "report" it this way. Quotation marks entirely theirs:

Italian press shocked at killing of 'innocent' journalist

Both the US and Britain vying to put the hook-handed Abu Hamza on trial.

Perhaps we could make it an Olympic event.

From the BBC:

Police say they have arrested a 47-year-old man Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri is spending a second day in police custody after being arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences.

Aha! That's what Gandhi would think of jihad.

His grandson offers this advice to Palestinians:

Invoking an iconic moment in the Indian resistance, the 70-year-old writer and peace activist told a gathering of Palestinians in the West Bank city of Ramallah: "Imagine yourselves marching by the thousands behind your leaders to the checkpoints and the roadblocks demanding your free passage and the right to be treated as human beings.

"Sit at the roadblocks and sing your songs. March to the wall and dance your dances."

(cue piano)
Imagine all the people not blowing themselves up in buses and pizza parlours,
You may say I'm a dreamer...

More on Iraqi Christians from the Washington Times:

Thousands of Christians were chased out of Iraq by radical Muslims but some of them are returning to Kurdish-controlled areas in the north, Iraq's designated ambassador to the Vatican said yesterday.

Silvio Berlusconi who has refused to play dhimmi before has this to say:

"There are no words to describe this inhuman act that with one blow wipes out centuries of civilization to bring us back to the dark ages of barbarity," the prime minister said in a statement.

Berlusconi spoke of how Baldoni's children issued a plea on Wednesday on Al-Jazeera for their father's release, "which unfortunately turned out to be useless because it was directed at people who evidently had no heart to listen."

The lastest on the Saudi front via the BBC

Saudi police have released Fawzia Sauni, wife of the suspected al-Qaeda chief in the kingdom, Saleh Oufi.

I am stunned to learn that those plane crashes were not coincidences:

DUBAI (Reuters) An Islamist group has claimed that it hijacked two Russian planes that crashed this week, killing at least 89 people, and threatened more attacks, according to an Internet statement posted on Friday.

Traces of explosives have been found in the wreckage of one of two airliners that crashed nearly simultaneously earlier this week, the Federal Security Service said Friday, a day after a top official acknowledged that terrorism was the most likely cause of the crashes.

Friends, I am off soon to New York to address the Council for National Policy. Updates here will be posted when possible.

UPDATE: As I look over my schedule, I imagine posting will be fairly light over the next few days. I shall regale you with details when I return.

It is jihad ideology and the lingering cultural hangover of dhimmitude that stokes rage in "deranged young men" and leads them to attack churches. From Compass Direct:

An apparently deranged young Turk barricaded himself inside the Diyarbakir Evangelical Church in southeast Turkey on July 19, breaking windows and setting fire to curtains, Bibles and cassette tapes until dense smoke finally forced him to surrender to the police.

Identified as Medet Arslan, 27, the young man had stopped by the Protestant church that afternoon in Diyarbakir's Lalebey district, where some of the church members offered him tea. As he sat and talked with them, he began to intersperse his conversation with loud quotes of Quranic verses, saying several times that he wanted to become a martyr.

Raising his voice, Arslan began shouting against the mistreatment of Muslims in Iraq, declaring he wanted to kill people and vowing to go to America and fight. Quickly one of the church staff left the fireside room where they were sitting and called the police.

Moments later the visitor pulled a long butcher knife out from under his coat and chased after a youth who dashed out of the room, managing to hold the door shut until keys were found to lock the man inside.

After several more telephone calls, local police arrived a half-hour later. Arslan barricaded the door, and the police proved unable to reason with the him. Cursing loudly, the man began burning up New Testaments, bookshelves, curtains and whatever else he could find in the room. He also smashed and broke out all the windows in the room.

In NRO Mustafa Akyol has replied to Andrew McCarthy's criticism of his initial piece claiming that radical Muslims were violating tenets of Islam by beheading hostages. My own initial reply to Akyol is here.

Looks like it's time for another long post. My apologies.

I have been criticized by people I respect recently for making trouble for moderate Muslims. Leave them alone, they say. They're doing important work, refuting the radicals. Well, sure -- if they are indeed refuting the radicals. But my problem with these articles by Mustafa Akyol and similar ones by others is that they don't refute the radicals: if a radical Muslim read them, he would be able to invoke multiple verses of the Qur'an and Sunnah to refute them. So I wonder again: what is the real intended purpose of articles like Akyol's? Is it to convert radical Muslims to moderation, or just to reassure jittery Westerners that Islam isn't as threatening as it may seem? And if it's the latter, and it's done on false or shaky pretenses, what kind of reassurance is that?

This time Akyol starts with a common canard:

McCarthy begins by defining jihad as "violent holy war." Yet the term "jihad" does not necessarily refer to armed conflict. It simply means "effort" and it can include nonviolent struggles, such as an intellectual endeavor against atheism. Of course, there is also military jihad in the Koran and in the Islamic tradition; that is the point we have to discuss and, perhaps, redefine.

Redefine? Interesting. So is Akyol rejecting traditional understandings? If so, I'm all for it, but what kind of a following does he have? But anyway, yes: no one who has studied these matters at all doesn't know that jihad doesn't always mean armed conflict. But so what? The Shafi'i legal manual (the Shafi'is are a school of Islamic jurisprudence) 'Umdat al-Salik devotes one paragraph to jihad as spiritual struggle and seven pages to jihad as warfare. Blandly asserting that jihad is also a spiritual struggle doesn't move one inch to stop the groups that are right now waging armed jihad all over the globe.

Akyol then argues that Qur'an 8:67 and 47:4, which enjoin killing unbelievers,

were revealed in seventh-century Arabia, where battles were fought by swords and spears. Winning a battle meant killing a great number of your enemies. Any reluctance during the battle to attack and kill the enemy could bring defeat, and, in Muslims' case, annihilation of the whole umma, or community of believers.

It's interesting that the rhetoric of radical Muslims often parallels this: just the other day I posted a piece from the New York-based Salafi Society of North America. It says:

Don't the Muslims know that our struggle against the Jews is a struggle of Creed and a struggle of Religious livelihood? Don't they realize that it is a struggle of culture, a struggle to remain in existence, a struggle of identification?

It would follow, then, that the Salafis of North America, reading Akyol's piece, would say that that is true: the context of verses 8:67 ("It is not for any prophet to have captives until he hath made slaughter in the land") and 47:4 ("Therefore, when ye meet the Unbelievers in fight, smite at their necks") refers to times when the very existence of the Islamic community is threatened. And that time is now.

Then Akyol criticizes McCarthy's reasoning:

McCarthy finds in this a justification for the beheadings in Iraq. His reasoning goes like this: (a) When jihad is ongoing, the taking of prisoners is frowned on, and (b) jihad should be ongoing until the enemy is subdued.

Here is a crucial flaw in McCarthy's argument; a failure to distinguish between a military jihad (a war) and a battle. Early Muslims of Medina were at war with the pagans of Mecca for many years, but they took prisoners of war after the battles they won. If they thought along the lines McCarthy suggests, they should never have taken any prisoners of war, which was obviously not the case.

This argument is rendered irrelevant by the fact that Islam allows for the killing of prisoners of war, as I outlined in my previous response. Quoting again from 'Umdat al-Salik, which is endorsed by Al-Azhar University, the supreme institution of Sunni Islam:

When an adult male is taken captive, the caliph considers the interests ... (of Islam and the Muslims) and decides between the prisoner's death, slavery, release without paying anything, or ransoming himself in exchange for money or for a Muslim captive held by the enemy. [o9.14]

Then Akyol assails McCarthy for invoking the account of the Bani Qurayza massacre, which I also discussed in my reply:

McCarthy criticized me at this point for leaving out the account of Bani Qurayza, the Jewish tribe whose men were reportedly beheaded by order of the Prophet because they had secretly collaborated with the pagan army attacking Medina. I had a reason for leaving this out: I strongly doubt its historical accuracy. There is no reference to such a dramatic event in the Koran and it only appears in the biography of the Prophet written by Ibn Ishaq, a man who died 145 years after the event. In a detailed article that questions the accuracy of this story, scholar W. N. Arafat explains why it was probably a "later invention." Ibn Hajar, an Islamic authority, denounced it and other related stories as "odd tales." A contemporary of Ibn Ishaq, Malik the jurist, denounced Ibn Ishaq outright as "a liar" and "an impostor" just for telling such fables. Moreover, as Rabbi Brad Hirschfield of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership says, the "massacre... hardly shows up in Jewish literature."

This all seems impressive, but it falls apart on closer examination:

1. "There is no reference to such a dramatic event in the Koran..."
True -- sort of. Even the scholar Akyol cites, W. N. Arafat, along with many others, acknowledges that Sura 33:26 refers to the massacre:

And those of the People of the Book who aided them - Allah did take them down from their strongholds and cast terror into their hearts. (So that) some ye slew, and some ye made prisoners.

Hardly a clear reference, I know. But anyone who thinks that the Qur'an relates stories of the early Muslims in a clear and straightforward manner has not read the book. The Qur'an is largely a dialogue between Allah and Muhammad. In it, they often refer to events and people that they know, but that we don't -- unless we have recourse to ahadith and other extra-quranic texts in order to elucidate what the Qur'an is saying. Take, for example, Sura 9:81:

Those who were left behind rejoiced in their inaction behind the back of the Messenger of Allah: they hated to strive and fight, with their goods and their persons, in the cause of Allah: they said, "Go not forth in the heat." Say, "The fire of Hell is fiercer in heat." If only they could understand!

The translator Abdullah Yusuf Ali, along with many other Muslim authorities, is certain that this verse refers to Muhammad's last military adventure, his trip to Tabuk to take on the Byzantines. He even inserts a parenthesis after "left behind": "(in the Tabuk expedition.)" But "Tabuk" does not appear here, or anywhere, in the actual text of the Qur'an.

2. "...and it only appears in the biography of the Prophet written by Ibn Ishaq, a man who died 145 years after the event."

Akyol doesn't tell you that, removed from the events as he was, Ibn Ishaq is Muhammad's FIRST biographer. There is no earlier source outside the Qur'an for details of the Muslim Prophet's life.

3. "In a detailed article that questions the accuracy of this story, scholar W. N. Arafat explains why it was probably a 'later invention.'"

And on what grounds does Arafat do this? He says, among other things, that "to kill such a large number is diametrically opposed to the Islamic sense of justice and to the basic principles laid down in the Qur'an." Therefore it didn't happen? Come on. Even if this were true, which is not at all clear in light of verses like 9:5 ("slay the unbelievers wherever you find them") as well as the legal injunctions I have already quoted, there is no reason why we must assume that the Muslims at this time and place acted scrupulously according to the injunctions of the law.

Arafat also says that "it it also against the Qur'anic rule regarding prisoners of war, which is: either they are to be granted their freedom or else they are to be allowed to be ransomed." I have already quoted authorities saying that killing prisoners is an option also. Here's another: According to the renowned jurist of the Hanafi school, Ya'qub Abu Yusuf (731-798), "There is no objection to the use of any kind of arms against the polytheists . . . one can even pursue those that run away, finish off the wounded, kill prisoners who might prove dangerous to the Muslims."

Then Akyol attacks Ibn Ishaq's reliability:

Ibn Hajar, an Islamic authority, denounced it and other related stories as "odd tales." A contemporary of Ibn Ishaq, Malik the jurist, denounced Ibn Ishaq outright as "a liar" and "an impostor" just for telling such fables.

Akyol doesn't say why they considered him unreliable. It wasn't because of his historical accounts: it was because of his legal judgments. He was suspected of quoting legal traditions with incomplete or inadequate chains of transmitters establishing their authority (although he scrupulously includes such chains for most of his historical accounts). He was further accused of Shi'ite tendencies and other deviations from orthodoxy. But the great Islamic jurist Ahmed ibn Hanbal (780-855) summed up the prevailing view: "in maghazi [Muhammad's military campaigns] and such matters what Ibn Ishaq said could be written down; but in legal matters further confirmation was necessary."

Then Akyol invokes the Jews:

Moreover, as Rabbi Brad Hirschfield of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership says, the "massacre... hardly shows up in Jewish literature."

I am no authority on Jewish literature, but I know an argument from silence when I see one.

As for the Bani Qurayza massacre istelf, it is amply attested in various ahadith. One summarizes Muhammad's dealings with several groups of Arabian Jews:

Bani An-Nadir and Bani Quraiza fought (against the Prophet violating their peace treaty), so the Prophet exiled Bani An-Nadir and allowed Bani Quraiza to remain at their places (in Medina) taking nothing from them till they fought against the Prophet again. He then killed their men and distributed their women, children and property among the Muslims, but some of them came to the Prophet and he granted them safety, and they embraced Islam. He exiled all the Jews from Medina. They were the Jews of Bani Qainuqa', the tribe of 'Abdullah bin Salam and the Jews of Bani Haritha and all the other Jews of Medina.

That's from the hadith collection considered most reliable by Muslims: Sahih Bukhari, vol. 5, book 64, no. 4028. (That's the book numbering, not the online one. I don't have time to check for the online numbering right now.)

Akyol's final point is that the "'enemy' refers only to combatants." Unfortunately, however, again Islamic law is against him. It prohibits the killing of women and children "unless they are fighting against the Muslims" ('Umdat al-Salik o9.10, cf. al-Mawardi, al-Akham as-Sultaniyyah, 4.2). This has been interpreted as allowing civilians to be killed if they are somehow aiding the war effort -- hence the common assertion that "there are no civilians in Israel."

There is more: Akyol asserts that "in the Koran Jews and Christians are called 'The People of the Book,' and salvation is promised to them if they worship God sincerely (2:62). True, but the Qur'an also says of both Jews and Christians: "Allah's curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth!" (9:30).

So in sum, Akyol's second piece is yet another example of the shallow and incomplete presentations from self-proclaimed moderate Muslims, which, for all their power to reassure Westerners, do nothing to take the wind out of radical sails.

Akyol is right when he says: "The Koran was revealed in the seventh century and some verses refer to events that do not or could not take place today. This means there are some parts of the Koran that we can't -- and aren't supposed to -- implement literally now."

I couldn't agree more. Now, Mr. Akyol: please construct an argument that takes all the data into account, so that it will be more likely to convince your coreligionists to lay down their arms and take a place in civilized society.

A suspicious minivan in Montreal; no public word yet on who it belonged to. From CP, with thanks to Ron:

MONTREAL--Police found a large stash of weapons and explosives yesterday after an investigation of a suspicious minivan tied up traffic through downtown streets for several hours.

Montreal police sent in a robot to examine several pieces of luggage after SWAT team members in full protective gear investigated the vehicle.

They seized about 15 firearms, including automatic weapons like machine guns, and also found 90-135 kilograms of explosives.

"The only good news is that the explosives and the detonators were not connected so it could not explode," said police spokesman Miguel Alston.

I have been saying all this for years -- but once again, it's nice to see it in the mainstream media. Common sense from Brian Jenkins in the San Diego Union Tribune, with thanks to Nicolei:

Where are we in the war on terrorism? How are we doing? What's the score? How long will it last? Americans are asking these questions again and again as we approach the third anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The questions say a great deal about how Americans view warfare as a finite undertaking with a beginning and an end. In his State of the Union address last January, reflecting the view of most Americans, President Bush stated that the war on terrorism began on Sept. 11, 2001. But many jihadists see the war as just the latest battle in the perpetual conflict of Islam vs. the Infidels that began more than 900 years ago.

In fact, nearly 1400 years ago.

The word "war" makes Americans set a goal of discernible victory - somebody surrenders, signs a document, an evil empire collapses, a wall comes down, a villain bites the dust, and life returns to normal.

But in the view of the jihadists, war is not an aberration; it is a perpetual condition. As Osama bin Laden put it in his state of Islam address last January: "This clashing began centuries ago and will continue until Judgment Day."

"Combating" terrorism, the term used 32 years ago when President Nixon created the Cabinet Committee to Combat Terrorism, implies an enduring task. It has largely disappeared from the vocabulary of American officials. Wars are to be won, not waged indefinitely.

The jihadists cannot hope to win a conventional military contest. Their code is to lie in wait, attack when we are inattentive and make our lives untenable. Fighting is process, not progress oriented. It provides opportunities to prove conviction, courage and prowess. The jihadists view death not as a sign of defeat, but the pathway to martyrdom. Ultimate victory will come when God wills it.

There is no question that al-Qaeda and its terrorist allies have lost ground since 9/11. A supportive Taliban no longer controls Afghanistan. The readily accessible terrorist training camps are gone. Governments regarded by the jihadists as apostate are cooperating with America and its allies. Many of al-Qaeda's top planners, mid-level leaders are dead or behind bars; others have moved up, but experienced talent is hard to replace. Improved cooperation among the world's intelligence services has made the operational environment for terrorists more dangerous. Cash flow has been squeezed. Many operations have been thwarted.

But al-Qaeda can celebrate some accomplishments. The terrorist group has transcended its original organization to become an ideology shared by many. Al-Qaeda and al-Qaeda-inspired jihadists have managed to continue terrorist operations at a pace faster than before 9/11. True, the attacks in Bali, Jakarta, Karachi, Riyadh, Khobar, Istanbul, Djerba, Casa Blanca and Madrid are all at the pre-9/11 level, but still suffice for recruiting and for keeping al-Qaeda's enemies off balance.

And in the view of many jihadists, America's invasion of Iraq is a gift from Allah that has alienated U.S. allies, provoked the Arab world, exposed the United States to precisely the kind of warfare that the extremists wage best, and created a new front that will attract and train new cohorts of jihad. Security measures are costing the American economy billions of dollars and changing daily life with increased checkpoints and surveillance. And in the battle for minds, the few jihadist Web sites around before 9/11 have grown to more than 7,000.

Read it all.

By mobs that could be linked to the ruling Muslim Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which opposes all "anti-Islamic law." From the Daily Star:

Armed mobsters with alleged links to ruling BNP in a raid on a remote village under Pirgachha upazila in the district on Monday torched 22 houses of minority Hindus, injured 20 villagers and looted cash, crops and cattle.

Eyewitnesses said a group of 35 to 40 BNP activists armed with machetes, swords and daggers cordoned the Hindu-majority Adam Sarkerpara village in the afternoon and set fire to the houses of eight Hindu families after spraying gasoline and kerosene on them.

Suresh Chandra Borman, one of the victims whose homes were burnt to ashes, told The Daily Star that Abdul Mannan and two of his nephews -- BNP activists Raju and Saju, one accused of rape attempt and the other of land-grabbing -- led the band.

Raju was caught red-handed while trying to rape a Hindu girl of the village two years ago, Borman said.

How many more are going unquestioned? From AFP:

KUWAIT CITY, Aug 24 (AFP) - An Islamist cleric was freed without bail after being questioned for a few hours over allegeations he incited youngsters to fight against US forces in Iraq, legal sources told AFP.

Sheikh Jaber al-Jalahma, a hardline Islamist, was questioned after some Islamist activists facing charges of recruiting fighters for Iraq mentioned his name while under interrogation, the sources said.

He and his defense lawyer Abdulrahman al-Rasheedi denied the charges and told the prosecutor that the confessions of the suspects were taken under duress, the sources added.

A second cleric, Sheikh Hamed al-Ali, the former chief of the hardline Salafi Movement, is expected to be questioned Wednesday on the same charges, the sources said.

Kuwaiti security forces arrested some 16 suspects in a crackdown last month on a group of Islamist activists for allegedly recruiting fighters for Iraq....

Islamic Affairs Minister Abdullah al-Maatuk said last week that teams of experts and clerics had been formed to draw up plans to combat extremism and terrorism which had reached a "dangerous level".

I just did. Here is the text, and here you can find the petition and sign it. (Thanks to Ali Dashti for the link.)

On October 21st 2003, Muslim leaders in Canada elected 30 member council to establish a judicial tribunal for Muslims known as " the Islamic Institute of Civic Justice". The move is designed to persuade Canadian court to uphold decisions made under the Muslim Law.

The International Campaign for the Defense of Women's Rights in Iran is running an International Campaign against this new move in Canada.

We strongly believe that this move is anti women's move and will push back women in the society in general. In the past 20 years, women's rights have been increasingly under attack by the Islamic governments and groups. Women are subject to abuse for disobeying social Islamic standards. Daily degradation of women, prohibition from many forms of employment, field of study and sports, sexual segregation in buses, schools and public places, Stoning to death of women or murdering them for sexual relations outside marriage, acid-throwing in the faces of women, and flogging for transgressing Islamic laws for improper behavior have been imposed on women under Islamic influence not only in countries such as Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan but also in Western countries.

The women's rights movement has fought this reactionary movement and many paid a price in doing so. . As part of this radical movement, we believe that all people who live in Canada are citizens with equal rights, and should live according to same social laws and norms. We do not divide society into cultural, religious, national and racial majorities and minorities. We stand for equal and universal laws and freedoms for all humanity, which should embrace all, irrespective of sex, race, ethnicity, etc.
We now are calling on all individuals and progressive organizations to oppose the proposed tribunal for legal recognition of settlements according to Shari'a. This proposal is anti-freedom, anti-women, misogynist and anti-modernism and is strongly racist.

We therefore have the following demands:

1. Religion to be declared private affair of the individual. And complete
separation of religion from education for children under the age 16.

2. Prohibition of violent and inhuman religious ceremonies, practice and any form of religious activities that is incompatible with people's
civil rights and liberties and the principle of the equality of all.

3. Prohibition of teaching religions subjects and dogmas or religions interpretation in schools and educational establishments or in general any law and regulation that breaches the principle of secular non- religious

By signing this petition, you defend the universal rights of human beings. Your support will strengthen the radical movement for secularism.

Homa Arjomand
The coordinator
homawpi@rogers.com

In Islamic thought, the pre-Islamic period of any Muslim nation's history is known as jahiliya: the pre-Islamic time of ignorance. Nothing that was any part of it has any value. This has resulted in incalculable losses to mankind's cultural heritage. From AFP, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

TEHRAN (AFP) -- One of Iran's main historical sites, the ancient Elamite capital of Susa, has been used for the secret nightly dumping of rubbish by the local municipality, a culture official in the area told AFP Tuesday.

"We have filed several complaints against the municipality, but it firmly denies its workers have ever done such a thing -- even though they have been frequently spotted by our guards," said the head of the Cultural Heritage Organization in Shush, the modern name for Susa.

But the official, Mahdi Qanbari, also complained that the municipality was also planning to build a bus depot near the string of historic sites -- a further blow following years of illegal excavations.

"The 16 hectare site has not been fully excavated. There are still thousands of precious objects to be unearthed." Qanbari complained, saying the planned bus depot would be situated near an ancient palace of the Persian king Darius the Great.

Susa was an important and flourishing city before the advent of Islam in Iran and the center of the Elamite Empire (around 2500-644 B.C.). It is situated in the far southwestern province of Khuzestan and adjacent to the border with Iraq.

The ancient city is also mentioned in Old Testament as the place where the prophet Daniel lived. He is also reputed to have been buried there.

Artifacts unearthed from the area include a plaque reputed to be the world's first constitution, currently preserved at the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Well, I can see why the mullahs would not want that to come to light.

Like Zia ul-Haq's son, Shujaat Husaain, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, has distinguished jihad from terrorism. Unfortunately, the same thing I said before still holds true: the explosions caused by jihad are often quite difficult to distinguish from those caused by terrorism. That is underscored by the fact that Husaain considers the Kashmir struggle to be jihad, not terrorism. Once a conflict is labeled a jihad, all manner of mayhem is justified. From ANI:

Pakistan Prime Minister Shujaat Hussain has said that Jihad is different from terrorism in as much as the former is a supreme duty of a Muslim, and the latter a crime.

"There is a great difference between the two, but Jihad cannot be declared as terrorism," The News quoted Hussain as saying.

Pakistan has often said that what is going in Jammu and Kashmir is a Jihad and not terrorism. Claiming that Kashmiris had launched a struggle for freedom, Islamabad has maintained that it is merely supporting their struggle.

A new jihadist magazine for women celebrates human sacrifice. They could dedicate it to Reem Raiyshi. From the BBC, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

Radical Islamists have launched a new magazine publication on the internet especially for women.

The aim of the magazine is to show women how to reconcile the apparent contradiction of fighting jihad while maintaining family life.

The magazine is called Al-Khansa, after a famous Arab woman poet in the early days of Islam, who wrote eulogies to male relatives who had died in battle.

It appears to be the first "jihadist" publication aimed exclusively at women.

The magazine says it is published by an organisation called "The Women's Media Bureau in the Arabian Peninsula".

And it claims that the former leader of al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, Abd-al-Aziz al-Muqrin - who was killed by Saudi security forces in June - was one of its founders.

Al-Khansa also appears to be linked to the most well-known jihadist outlet on the internet, Sawt al-Jihad - or Voice of Jihad.

The first edition of the magazine uses fierce language similar to that found on Sawt-al-Jihad.

One of its encouragements to jihad reads: "The blood of our husbands and the body parts of our children are our sacrificial offering."

A newly-surfaced jihadist group in Bangladesh is targeting Sheikh Hasina, former Prime Minister and daughter of the founding father of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. One principal reason why may be that she is a champion of democracy. From ANI:

An Islamic outfit called the Hikmat-ul-Jihad has claimed responsibility for Saturday's grenade attack at an Awami League rally that was addressed by former Bangladesh premier Sheikh Hasina.

In an e-mail to a Bangla daily here, the HUJ also issued a fresh threat to kill Sheikh Hasina within a week.

"Don't think that Sheikh Hasina is out of danger. We missed out the previous chance, but now we are very careful about our mission. Tell her to be prepared. We are coming and this time we will accomplish our target within seven days," the message addressed to the Daily Prothom Alo said.

Another Yee-like botch by the prosecution? From Reuters:

U.S. Magistrate David Homer said there was not enough evidence to hold Yassin Aref, 34, and Mohammed Hossain, 49, who were held without bail on Aug. 10 after pleading not guilty to money laundering, supporting a terrorist organization and conspiracy to assassinate a Pakistani diplomat.

In the wake of the arrest of the men, other Muslims in Albany -- home to about 7,000 followers of Islam -- have called the case a tragic misunderstanding and many have shied away from attending mosques for fear of being labeled terrorists.

Aref and Hossain were arrested in Albany after authorities said they agreed to help an FBI informant launder $50,000 from the sale of a shoulder-fired missile as part of a fake plan to assassinate Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations.

Homer released them on $250,000 bond each on Tuesday and ordered them to remain in home detention with electronic surveillance bracelets, but he was caustic in his remarks on the case the government built.

NO TERRORIST LINK

"As compared to Aug. 10, there's no longer any presumption that Mr. Hossain would cause a risk of flight or danger to the community," Homer said. "There still is no evidence of Mr. Hossain's involvement with any terrorist organization.

The judge added: "The strength of the case against Mr. Aref appears less strong than it did appear on Aug. 10.

"There is no evidence ... to support claims that Mr. Aref has any contact with any terrorist organization."

The hearing was the second involving the pair associated with an Albany mosque and was granted after a possible translation error was found in key evidence against them.

At the time, U.S. authorities said the evidence included an address book found in what they called a terrorist training camp in northern Iraq that referred to Aref as "the commander" in Arabic. The Justice Department says FBI translators now read the word as "brother" in Kurdish.

The attorneys for the pair said the translation issue called for a re-examination of the entire case amid criticism that the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policies have led authorities to leap to conclusions in cases that have fizzled or were dropped after initial high-profile announcements.

Defense attorneys argued the government was not merely overzealous in their prosecution but used "false information" against their clients.

"We've gone from something that sounded sinister and ominous and scary and terrible to zero in less than two weeks," said defense attorney Terence Kindlon.

Prosecutors say whether the word is "commander" or "brother" is irrelevant and does not affect the criminal charges the two men face. They say the pair were willing participants in the sting operation set up by the FBI.

From News.com.au, :

FRENCH anti-terrorist prosecutor Jean-Louis Bruguiere claims a mystery man in Australia was connected to the "millennium bombing plot" to blow up Los Angeles airport in 2000. Judge Bruguiere said telephone intercepts had linked a suspect in Sydney to Algerian Ahmed Ressam, who was arrested in December 1999 in Canada before he could cross the US border in a vehicle with explosives, large amounts of money and fake identities.

He said the Sydney man was identified during an extensive international sting operation involving his office. The information was passed on to Australian authorities by the French counter-terrorism branch, the DST.

But the claim has puzzled local law enforcement officials. The Australian Federal Police refused to comment last night and NSW police said they had not previously heard of any Australian link.

DST liaises with ASIO, which is understood to have dealt with the referral without involving police.

The millennium plot was considered one of the most serious efforts to be foiled by authorities since al-Qa'ida emerged as a global terror menace in the early 1990s.

US courts have been told it was planned by the al-Qaeda hierarchy to cause massive symbolic damage at the turn of the millennium.

The Muslim Brotherhood is the forefather of virtually all of today's Islamic terror groups -- most notably, Hamas and Al-Qaeda. Held at bay in Egypt and banned in Syria, it is now making a comeback. From MEMRI, :

Recently, there has been frequent mention in the Syrian media of the possible return to Syria of members of the Muslim Brotherhood - an organization that has been banned in Syria for two decades, with membership being punishable by death. While Syrian government officials' statements have been repeatedly preparing the ground for this possible change, Muslim Brotherhood leaders are denying the existence of any contacts with the Syrian government on this matter. For example, while Syrian MP Muhammad Habash revealed that there had been contacts between the Muslim Brotherhood and Syria, the Muslim Brotherhood Inspector-General in Syria, Sheikh 'Ali Sadr Al-Din Al-Bayanouni, [1] denied it vehemently.

Rumors of Return Began With Assad's Statements

The rumors about the possible return of Muslim Brotherhood members started with statements by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad himself, who in April 2004 told Al-Jazeera: "Some Muslim Brotherhood leaders who were in the past involved in events have returned to Syria. These leaders, who in the 1980s were imprisoned and who were responsible for destructive operations, even those in the most senior echelons, have now left the prisons, and now most of the Muslim Brotherhood [members] are living normal lives in Syria. It is possible.

"With regard to those outside Syria, some have returned to Syria, and those from the rank and file who are not leaders but who belong or identify with the Muslim Brotherhood have returned in a quiet and orderly manner. There is acknowledgement of past mistakes, such as the killing and destruction against Syrian citizens."

Anyone who is surprised by this, please contact me for some excellent suspension bridge deals. From UPI, :

Jerusalem, Israel, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- Military Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya'alon blamed Egypt for facilitating arms smuggling into the Gaza Strip, The Jerusalem Post reports.

A source attending a closed-door meeting with a small group of reporters Tuesday told The Jerusalem Post Ya'alon said Egypt knew exactly what arms are being smuggled and could halt the smuggling of rocket-propelled grenades into Gaza.

Haaretz quoted unnamed "Israeli defense sources" as saying the smugglers apparently have contacts with Egyptian intelligence.

Could they have had to do with the Chechen elections coming up? Ask Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. However, the Russians and Chechens are denying this at this point. From AP:

BUCHALKI, Russia - Russian emergency workers searched through heaps of twisted metal and tall grass Wednesday for clues to what caused two airliners to plunge to Earth almost simultaneously, killing all 89 people aboard and raising concerns of a terrorist strike. Officials said one of the jets sent a distress signal that may have indicated a hijacking.

Russia's main intelligence agency, however, said it had found no evidence of terrorism in initial investigations at the crash sites. The Federal Security Service, or FSB, said it was investigating other possibilities such as technical failures, the use of poor quality fuel, breaches of fueling regulations and pilot error, its press service told The Associated Press. Rain and thunder was reported in the regions where both crashes occurred.

A Sibir airlines Tu-154 jet, carrying 46 people, took off from Moscow's newly redeveloped Domodedovo airport at 9:35 p.m. Tuesday and the other plane, a Tu-134 carrying 43 people, left 40 minutes later, according to state-run Rossiya television. The Tu-134 was headed to the southern city of Volgograd, while the other plane was flying to the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, where President Vladimir Putin is vacationing.

The planes disappeared from radar screens about 11 p.m., and by early Wednesday morning, the wreckage of both had been found — with no survivors. Domodedovo airport said in a statement that both planes "went through the standard procedure of preparation for flight ...(and) the procedures were carried out properly."

Uncertainty over the cause of the crashes came after Sibir said that it was notified that its jet had activated a hijack or seizure signal shortly before disappearing from radar screens. Officials said the crew of the other plane gave no indication that anything was wrong, but witnesses on the ground reported hearing a series of explosions.

"There were three loud bangs on the window, like someone knocking," said Nikolai Gorokhov, a local resident who was in his home at the time of the crash.

The Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed Russian aviation security expert as saying the fact that the two planes disappeared around the same time raised suspicions of terrorism....

Officials had expressed concern that separatists [that is, jihadists] in war-ravaged Chechnya might carry out attacks ahead of a regional election Sunday to replace the pro-Moscow president who was killed in a May bombing. Chechen rebels have been blamed for a series of terror strikes that have claimed hundreds of lives in Russia in recent years.

Rebel representative Akhmed Zakayev told Russia's Ekho Moskvy radio from London that Chechen rebel forces and rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov were in no way connected to the near simultaneous crashes.

A stunning development: Tariq Ramadan, the controversial European Muslim, grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, moderate or pseudo-moderate depending on who was doing the explaining, was slated to teach at the University of Notre Dame this fall. But his visa has been revoked by the Department of Homeland Security. From the Chicago Tribune, with thanks to LGF:

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has revoked a visa granted to Tariq Ramadan, a renowned Islamic scholar who is accused by some Jewish groups of being a Muslim extremist, effectively barring him from a teaching post he was to begin this week at the University of Notre Dame.

Ramadan, a rising academic star in Europe who is regarded by Islamic scholars and experts as a Muslim moderate, was appointed to teach Islamic philosophy and ethics in South Bend through the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. University classes begin Tuesday.

A resident of Switzerland, Ramadan was given a visa in February that permitted him to work in the United States, according to government officials. That decision was reversed July 28.

Notre Dame officials said the university was working with the U.S. government and hoped to have the decision reversed. In a statement issued to the Tribune, the university said no reason was given for the visa revocation.

"Professor Ramadan is a distinguished scholar and a voice for moderation in the Muslim world," the university said. "We know of no reason his entry should be prevented."

Kelly Shannon, a spokeswoman for the State Department's consular affairs section, said Monday that Ramadan initially received a visa after being cleared by Homeland Security. But Homeland Security later reversed its decision, ordering the State Department to revoke the visa.

According to Shannon, Ramadan's visa was revoked under a section of the U.S. immigration law dramatically changed by the USA Patriot Act, the controversial legislation approved after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

In addition to allowing the U.S. to revoke a visa from an alleged member of a terrorist organization, the new section authorizes visa revocation because of someone's political activities if those efforts are seen as endorsing terrorism. Visas also can be revoked because of membership in social groups or other organizations that have offered a "public endorsement of acts of terrorist activity" that could undermine U.S. "efforts to reduce or eliminate terrorist activities."

Shannon did not say which specific piece of the law was applied in Ramadan's case.

Contacted by phone, Ramadan declined to comment Monday.

It is Ramadan's pedigree, rather than his writings, that has particularly exposed him to criticism. His grandfather is Hassan al-Banna, who in 1928 founded the Muslim Brotherhood, a conservative religious and political organization that has influenced Islamic groups and movements across the world. Founded as a radical group that sought the violent overthrow of the secular Egyptian government, it has since renounced violence as a means for political change.

Notre Dame officials felt Ramadan's perspective would be valuable to the conversation in the U.S. about Islam. Departing from traditional Islamic thinking, Ramadan has written that there are multiple interpretations of the Koran and that Muslims should engage in ijtihad, a perpetual process of interpreting the holy texts of Islam so that the faith evolves and is compatible with modern times.

Barring intellectuals such as Ramadan from the United States undermines the U.S. government's efforts to fight terrorism, said John Esposito, a Georgetown University professor and author of "Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam."

"At the heart of it, people refuse to distinguish moderate Muslims from extremists," said Esposito, who describes Ramadan as "an established academic . . . with a strong record."

"They want to say all Muslims are a monolithic threat, which means they are excluding the very audience President Bush and his administration should be reaching out to--the moderates," said Esposito, a leading expert on Islam.

This is just silly. I don't refuse to distinguish moderate Muslims from extremists. I just don't want to accept any self-proclaimed moderate without making sure he is not an extremist practicing religious deception, or taqiyya. Apparently the jury is still out on Professor Ramadan.

He was videotaping the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. From the Baltimore Sun, :

A man described in a federal indictment as a "high-ranking" Hamas operative was arrested in Maryland on Friday videotaping the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, authorities acknowledged last night.

Ismael Selim Elbarasse of Annandale, Va., long suspected by authorities of having financial ties to the Palestinian terrorist group, was taken into custody as a "material witness" in a Chicago terrorism case, according to Maryland's U.S. attorney's office.

Elbarasse made an initial appearance in Baltimore's federal courthouse yesterday before U.S. District Magistrate Judge Paul W. Grimm.

In the indictment by a federal grand jury in Chicago, unsealed and announced on Friday, Elbarasse is described as a "co-conspirator" in a 15-year racketeering conspiracy in the United States and abroad to illegally finance terrorist activities in Israel.

Elbarasse was not indicted, but court documents allege that he and defendant Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook - considered one of the highest-ranking Hamas leaders internationally - shared a Virginia bank account that was used to launder hundreds of thousands of dollars for Hamas.

Abu Marzook resides in Syria and is considered a fugitive from justice, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago. The other two defendants charged in the indictment are Muhammad Hamid Khalil Salah of suburban Chicago and Abdelhaleem Hasan Abdelraziq Ashqar of Fairfax County, Va.

This is the tale of two AP stories: one about Salim Ahmed Hamdan and another about Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi. Both are set to appear before a military commission in Guantanamo this week. Although both men are accused of working for Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, the news stories are very different.

Hamdan's begins with a sob story. The poor man didn't even get paid well:

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — Salim Ahmed Hamdan says he earned a pittance for his family as Osama bin Laden's driver prior to the Sept. 11 attack. But U.S. officials allege he did more, serving as the al-Qaida leader's bodyguard and delivering weapons to his operatives.

The 34-year-old Yemeni and Guantanamo terror suspect is to be arraigned Tuesday before a U.S. military commission that allows for secret evidence and no federal appeals, the first person to go before such a tribunal since World War II.

Then it highlights his defense attorney's outrage with the procedure:

"This process goes against everything that we fought for in the history of the United States," said Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Swift, Hamdan's attorney who is likely to challenge the government's classification of his client as an enemy combatant. Hamdan denies supporting terrorism.

Then it suggests that the defense has been rushed:

Depending upon what Swift has up his sleeve or what surprises the prosecutors hold, Hamdan could choose not to enter a plea and his attorney could ask for more time to prepare. It is also possible Swift will question whether the five-member commission panel's presiding officer, U.S. Army Col. Peter E. Brownback, has the capacity to judge the proceedings fairly.

Then it lists Pentagon allegations, pointing out that there is no charge that he did anything violent or participated in the planning of any mayhem:

The Pentagon, in a charge sheet, alleged Hamdan, who is also known as Saqr al Jaddawi, was a bodyguard and personal driver for bin Laden between February 1996 and Nov. 24, 2001.

The Pentagon also alleged that he transported weapons to al-Qaida operatives, trained at an al-Qaida camp and drove in convoys that carried bin Laden. It does not say he took part in any specific acts of violence or participated in the operational planning of any attacks.

Then it suggests that Hamdan, haram, is too dense to understand what is being done to him:

With a fourth-grade education and few skills to interpret legal minutia, Hamdan doesn't understand why he's being charged as anything but a civilian, Swift says. Hamden has said he earned a pittance by driving bin Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks, but he denies supporting terrorism.

A bit later on it suggests that military officials are trying to get away with all this behind the backs of the human rights establishment:

Representatives from Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First and the American Bar Association were offered seats as observers for the pretrial hearings, but military officials have refused to let them tour the prison.

The five groups said they will watch the hearings and will try to keep a representative present for all of the commission proceedings.

"The observers were invited for the military commissions," said Col. David McWilliams, spokesman for the commissions and preliminary hearings. No other explanation was offered.

And not just them, but even the Red Cross:

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was weighing whether to send an observer to the commission hearings, the first such proceedings since World War II.

The Geneva-based group has been the only independent organization to have access to the 585 prisoners at the U.S. base accused of links to Afghanistan's ousted Taliban or the al-Qaida terror network.

And finally, the question of fairness stated openly, complete with sneer quotes around the word terrorists:

Human rights groups have criticized holding the men as enemy combatants, a classification giving them fewer legal protections than prisoners of war. They also have questioned whether the commissions ordered by U.S. President George W. Bush will be fair.

Bush, as well as senior U.S. officials, has repeatedly has called the men "terrorists."

Now compare all that to the second AP story, about Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi. The two men's stories are similar: both are not well educated, and both are described as Osama's bodyguards and drivers. This one highlights how religious the man has always been -- which to any reader knowledgeable about how radical Muslims recruit, will send up a red flag:

Growing up in a middle class religious family in Sudan, Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi spent most of his time in a neighborhood mosque, paying so little attention to his regular studies that he wasn't able to get into university after finishing high school.

Then it goes on to highlight the charges, without stopping first to criticize the process:

He must have been good at math, though. As an adult, Osama bin Laden trusted al Qosi enough to make him al-Qaida's accountant, paymaster and supply chief when the terrorist network was centered in Sudan and Afghanistan during the 1990s, according to U.S. military charges.

Eventually, al Qosi became bin Laden's bodyguard and driver _ so trusted that he was with bin Laden and his inner circle "before, during and after" the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and helped them "evacuate" from Kandahar, Afghanistan, the military alleges.

Al Qosi, who is set to appear before a Guantanamo Bay military commission this week as a first step toward a trial, is among the more prominent detainees in Cuba.

Al Qosi has been charged with conspiracy as an al-Qaida member to commit war crimes, including attacking civilians and civilian targets, murder, destroying property and terrorism.

Then it explains how he got involved in Islamic radicalism, and details how the man is up to his eyeballs in involvement with Al-Qaeda:

He's accused of training in bomb-making and assassination at an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan, but his introduction to Muslim extremism started at home in Sudan.

Al Qosi quickly attracted the attention of high-ranking al-Qaida figures he met after arriving in Afghanistan in 1989 the year coup leaders in Sudan declared they could bring prosperity, end civil war and solve all of the country's other problems by instituting strict Islamic rule, say former militants and Middle East security officials.

Al Qosi arrived at the tail end of the Afghan fight against Soviet invaders, and well before Afghanistan's Taliban began imposing a strict Islamic regime similar to what ideologues prescribed for Sudan. At the time, Sudanese women who didn't cover up fully when on the streets were likely to be scolded by police, punishments such as chopping off the hands of thieves were instituted, and Islamic extremists from around the world found a haven.

In the early 1990s, al Qosi completed a 45-day military training course at al-Qaida's al-Farouk camp near Khost, Afghanistan, learning combat skills, bomb-making and assassination, according to the U.S. military and the Middle East security officials. After the course, al Qosi carried messages between al-Qaida leaders and cells in Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia and elsewhere in Africa, one Middle East security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Al Qosi became close to Ayman al-Zawahri, leader of Egypt's Islamic Jihad Group and bin Laden's deputy and Abu Ubeidah al-Banshiri, the Egyptian who was al-Qaida's military commander and later its main operative in East Africa before he reportedly drowned in a ferry accident on Lake Victoria in May 1996.

Though he had only a high school education, al Qosi was appointed chief accountant, managing donated funds and parceling them out for training camps and operations, another expert said.

From 1992 to 1995, when bin Laden moved his operations to Sudan, al Qosi returned home and became deputy financial chief for al-Qaida and worked for an investment company founded by bin Laden, according to the military charges and Middle East officials.

Egyptian Muslim activists who used Sudan as a base to launch attacks against their secular government at the time remember al Qosi as one of very few Sudanese close to bin Laden.

When bin Laden left Sudan under pressure from the Clinton administration in 1995, al Qosi allegedly traveled to fight with insurgents in Chechnya. Later he rejoined bin Laden in Afghanistan and became a bodyguard for the al-Qaida chief, said a former Egyptian activist who knew al Qosi then, speaking on condition of anonymity from exile in Europe.

And it ends with a quote from his brother, again with red flags for those familiar with political Islam:

"He was only committed to his religion," Abdullah told the Khartoum daily Al Sahafa in one of the stories that newspapers in Sudan have published retelling al Qosi's saga.

Not a word in the second story about the human rights groups, the suspicions about the military tribunals, etc. Just a story about one man's involvement with Al-Qaeda.

Why am I telling you all this? Do a Google search for "Hamdan + Qosi" and you'll see. As of this moment, the first story appears in ABC News; the Philadelphia Inquirer; the Los Angeles Times; the Chicago Tribune; the Manchester Union Leader; the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel; the Hartford Courant; the San Marcos Daily Record; the Porterville Recorder; the Huntsville Item; the Bismarck Tribune; the Bonner County Daily Bee; the Dunn County News; the Idaho State Journal; the Albany Democrat Herald; the Lodi News-Sentinel; the Idaho State Journal; Diario Digital of Juárez, Mexico; the Selma Times-Journal; the Appeal-Democrat; the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier; the Cheboygan Daily Tribune; the North County Times; the Santa Maria Times; the Wyoming News; the Columbia Basin Herald; the Mattoon Journal; the Mt. Carmel Daily Republican Register; the Orangeburg Times Democrat; the Helena Independent Record; the Rapid City Journal; the Daily American Online; the Elko Daily Free Press; The Missoulian; the Petoskey News-Review; the Natchez Democrat; the Corvallis Gazette Times; the Benton Courier; the Carlisle Sentinel; the Hampton Roads Daily Press; the Bradenton Herald; phillyburbs.com; the Orlando Sentinel; Xposed.com; The Spectator Newspapers; the Grand Forks Herald; Kentucky.com; the Albany Times Union; the UK's Guardian; the China Daily; IrishExaminer.com; Canada's CTV; ic Wales; and more.

The second story? You can find it in the Sudan Tribune. That's it.

Now: do you understand how the media is trying to manipulate public opinion in the war on terror?

UPDATE: Mentat points out in the comments that it's not as bad as all that, with an adjusted Google search. Still, the first, more biased story is being featured much more prominently. Look around.

...you just might not want to book a plane flight with them. From WND:

While there likely aren't any posters depicting exotic destinations on the wall, an al-Qaida travel agency operates in Latin America to help terrorists enter the U.S., the 9-11 commission reports.

The revelation was part of the panel's final report issued Saturday as the commission formally disbanded.

The global terror network operates a travel service that uses human smugglers as tools, reported Agence France-Presse.

"There are uncorroborated law-enforcement reports suggesting that associates of al-Qaida used smugglers in Latin America to travel through the region in 2002, before traveling onward to the United States," the panel said, without offering specifics.

Though the reference is to 2002, recent news reports indicate a growing concern that Arab terrorists are using the porous southern border to enter the United States.

Though the problem is getting more attention now, WorldNetDaily reported in 2001 that the number of Middle Eastern illegals crossing the southern border was on the rise.

Federal agents said OTMs – border lingo for "other than Mexicans" – were an increasing problem.

Daniel Pipes at FrontPage has an update on the plight of Christians in Iraq -- a story we have been following here for months.

Pipes doesn't ask why this is happening. I am in regular daily contact with Christians from the Middle East, and it seems clear that they are unwilling to accept the discrimination and precariousness of dhimmi life. Forty years ago, when secularism was much more vital in many important Middle Eastern countries, dhimmitude was largely a receding historical memory. Now Muslims are reasserting many of its features even in secular countries, to their own detriment: I have spoken with a large number of Syrians (ironically, since Syria is the Iraqi Christians' refuge) who left because they knew they would never be able to get decent jobs as Christians, or even, in some cases, a decent education. Consequently Syria faces a brain drain that could have enormous implications for the country's future.

“What are the Muslims doing?” asked Brother Louis, a deacon at the Our Lady of Salvation, an Assyrian Catholic church in Baghdad minutes after it had been bombed. “Does this mean that they want us [Christians] out?”

Well, yes, it does. Our Lady of Salvation was just one of five churches attacked in a series of coordinated explosions in Baghdad and Mosul on Aug. 1, a Sunday, between 6 and 7 o’clock in the evening. In total, these car bombings killed 11 persons and injured 55. In addition, the police defused another two bombs.

The timing of the assault guaranteed a maximum number of casualties. August 1 is a holy day for some Iraqi Christian denominations and because Sunday is an ordinary workday in mostly Muslim Iraq, Sunday services take place in the evening....

These assaults have prompted Iraqi Christians, one of the oldest Christian bodies in the world, to leave their country in record numbers. An Iraqi deacon observed some months ago that "On a recent night the church had to spend more time on filling out baptismal forms needed for leaving the country than they did on the [worship] service. ... Our community is being decimated." Iraq’s minister for displacement and migration, Pascale Icho Warda, estimates that 40,000 Christians left Iraq in the two weeks following the Aug. 1 bombings.

Whereas Christians make up just 3 percent of the country’s population, their proportion of the refugee flow into Syria is estimated anywhere between 20 and 95 percent. Looking at the larger picture, one estimate finds that about 40 percent of the community has left since 1987, when the census found 1.4 million Iraqi Christians.

Although Muslim leaders uniformly condemned the attacks (Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani termed them “criminal actions,” while the interim Iraqi government bravely declared that “This blow is going to unite Iraqis”), they almost certainly mark a milestone in the decline and possible disappearance of Iraqi Christianity.

This seems all the more likely because Christians, due mainly to Islamist persecution and lower birth rates, are disappearing from the Middle East as a whole.

· Bethlehem and Nazareth, the most identifiably Christian towns on earth, enjoyed a Christian majority for nearly two millennia, but no more. In Jerusalem, the decline has been particularly steep: in 1922, Christians slightly outnumbered Muslims and today they make up less than 2 percent of the city’s population.

· In Turkey, Christians numbered 2 million in 1920 but now only a few thousand remain.

And just a few years before that, they were substantially more than two million.

· In Syria, they represented about one-third of the population early last century; now they account for less than 10 percent.

· In Lebanon, they made up 55 percent of the population in 1932 and now under 30 percent.

· In Egypt, for the first time ever Copts have been emigrating in significant numbers since the 1950s.

At present rates, the Middle East’s 11 million Christians will in a decade or two have lost their cultural vitality and political significance.

It bears noting that Christians are recapitulating the Jewish exodus of a few decades earlier. Jews in the Middle East numbered about a million in 1948 and today total (outside Israel) a mere 60,000.

In combination, these ethnic cleansings of two ancient religious minorities mark the end of an era. The multiplicity of Middle Eastern life, most memorably celebrated in Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet (1957-60), is being reduced to the flat monotony of a single religion and a handful of approved languages. The entire region, not just the affected minorities, is impoverished by this narrowing.

From AP:

LOS ANGELES A fund-raiser for an Islamic charity with alleged links to terrorism today testified he believes the donations were for humanitarian projects.

Abdel-Jabbar Hamdan, who founded an Anaheim mosque, also told a judge in Los Angeles that he should be freed as he fights deportation.

Hamdan was arrested on immigration charges last month as authorities unsealed an indictment against the Richardson, Texas,-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.

Hamdan's detention has sparked protests by Southern California Muslims who see it as an unfair pressure tactic to get him to reveal information about Holy Land....

The American Civil Liberties Union is seeking Hamdan's release on bond.

"Allah" has alerted me -- and invited me to respond -- to a particularly egregious and foul-smelling piece of pusillanimous dhimmitude from Brian Whitaker in The Guardian:

When events in the Middle East turn especially bloody, as they have during the last couple of weeks in Najaf, I am often struck by a whimsical - some might say ridiculous - thought.

I imagine that the man at the centre of the trouble is not Moqtada al-Sadr (or whoever happens to be the villain of the moment) but Gandhi, the leader of India's struggle for independence. I wonder what he would have done about it.

Gandhi's methods of non-violent resistance have never attracted much interest in the Middle East - which is rather odd, because he played a crucial role in ending British rule in India, which in turn led to the unravelling of an empire.

It doesn't seem to occur to people that there could be lessons there for ending the American presence in Iraq, say, or the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Gandhi was a Hindu but readily incorporated other ideas into his philosophy. Like many Muslims today, he would undoubtedly have appreciated jihad, self-sacrifice and martyrdom as concepts, though not the methods that often accompany them.

Gandhi would undoubtedly have appreciated jihad, eh? Clearly this has been written by someone who has had his ears filled with carefully designed, glib jihad-is-an-inner-spiritual-struggle explanations and has no idea what Islam really teaches about what jihad is.

Yeah, Gandhi would have loved this: "Jihad means to war against non-Muslims, and is etymologically derived from the word mujahada, signifying warfare to establish the religion." That's from 'Umdat al-Salik (o9.0), a legal manual endorsed by the most respected authority in Sunni Islam, Al-Azhar University in Cairo. I can see how that would have appealed to Gandhi. When Omar Bakri becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain, maybe he can get Ben Kingsley to reprise the Gandhi role with an AK-47 under his robes.

Whitaker, anyway, goes on to wonder why Gandhi has never been a big hero in the Middle East. (Um, could it be because he was not a Muslim?)

In the Middle East, though, his ideas have less appeal. Maybe it's because a wispy vegetarian in granny glasses and loincloth doesn't fit with Arab views of a manly hero. The fact that Gandhi had a moustache of almost Iraqi proportions does little to redeem him: John Wayne and Sylvester Stallone are far more attractive role models for the Mahdi militia.

Some, of course, would offer a different explanation: that Islam is an inherently bloodthirsty religion. This is a view that Bin Laden and his kind have done much to encourage.

There are certainly some violent passages in the Koran - though before basing a case on that it's worth also considering the vast amount of supposedly righteous smiting and slaying that takes place in the Old Testament.

Yeah, let's consider that, Brian. Let's also not forget to consider why there is no Jewish or Christian global network of terrorists justifying their actions by the Old Testament.

A number of Muslim writers have made a plausible case for Islamic non-violence. One is the elderly Syrian scholar, Jawdat Said, who watched the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt during the 1950s and predicted that the use of violence by Islamic movements would eventually prove self-destructive.

He has been promoting his non-violent ideas ever since, apart from several periods in jail. Meanwhile, his sons got into trouble with the Syrian authorities for refusing to serve in the army, and were not allowed to graduate from Damascus university as a result.

Hmmm. Why was he in jail? Could it have been because his ideas were so offensive to Islamic orthodoxy?

There's also a Shia cleric, Imam Mohammad al-Shirazi, who calls for Islamic non-violence, as well as Khalis Jalabi (a Saudi doctor) and Khalid Khishtainy (an Islamic scholar and writer).

One problem with "non-violence" is that the word sounds rather negative when translated into Arabic, implying passivity and surrender. Khishtainy therefore uses an alternative term - "civil jihad" - which sounds more positive and in some ways better reflects Gandhi's methods.

And therein is stated the core of the problem with the ideas of Jawdat Said and other non-violent Muslims: the goal is the same -- the hegemony of Islamic law over the world. Only the method is different.

The Salafi Society of North America acknowledges that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict isn't really about getting land for the Palestinians at all -- it's just part of the global jihad.

It's interesting to remember that while this is being propagated -- the idea that the conflict between Muslims and Jews goes back to Muhammad and is explained in the Qur'an, Massachusetts schoolchildren will be learning that Muslims don't really pay attention to what the Qur'an says.

The enemies of Islaam and the ignorant people that follow them are trying to portray the reality of the struggle against the Jews as a struggle for land and borders, and as a problem of refugees and water ports. And they make it seem as if it is possible to end this struggle with peaceful coexistence and by compensating the refugees, rectifying their condition of living, dispersing them throughout the land and establishing a weak petty secular state, which will live under the Zionist power and which will serve as a shield for the Zionist state (against their surrounding enemies).

But all of these people don’t realize that our struggle with the Jews goes way back, ever since the first Islamic state was established in Madeenah with Muhammad, the Messenger sent to all of mankind, as its leader. Allaah has related to us in the Qur’aan, the reality of the Jews’ malice and hatred for the ummah of Islaam and Tawheed, as he says: “You will surely find that the people with the most enmity towards the believers are the Jews and the polytheists.” [Surah Al-Maa’idah: 82]

So see how Allaah has placed the Jews before the polytheists in their hatred and enmity (towards the Muslims). Even though they are united in their disbelief, they differ (from others) in their (immense) hatred towards the ummah of Muhammad, as Allaah says: “The Jews and the Christians will never be pleased with you until you follow their religion (way).” [Surah Al-Baqarah: 120]

And ever since the first hour in which the Muslims let the beautiful fragrance of Islaam flow through it (Madeenah), the Jews were there showing enmity to the Muslims and their Prophet. So our Prophet, Muhammad, was not safe from the harm of the Jews amongst their ranks. They tried to kill him three times. One time, they tried to kill him by putting a heavy rock on his head. Another time was when they placed poison in the forearm of a goat (for him to eat). And a third case was when the Jewish boy, Lubaid bin al-A’asam, may Allaah’s curse be on him, put a magic spell on him.

And lo, there are the Americans, supplying the Jews with the most ferocious and harmful weapons of destruction, so that they can kill the Muslim children, women and elderly people of Palestine. And they preoccupied the world with their American elections for the purpose of drawing attention away from the Jewish massacre and butchering of the Muslim people of Palestine.

And lo! There are the British, who supply the Jews with loud and explosive ammunition, which when used result in horrific deaths and everlasting handicapping for the youth of Palestine. So this ummah (nation of Palestinians) are open prey - whether young or old, infant or woman – in the hands of the Jews and their supporters.

And lo! There are the supporters of the Jews, who preoccupy the ummah and draw their attention away from the casualties suffered by the Muslim people of Palestine. And they make the people blind to the crimes committed by the Jews by broadcasting the Olympics and other worthless programs, which only make the ummah numb and put it to sleep!

Don’t the Muslims know that our struggle against the Jews is a struggle of Creed and a struggle of Religious livelihood? Don’t they realize that it is a struggle of culture, a struggle to remain in existence, a struggle of identification? ...

Then after all of this, it is said: “Our struggle against the Jews is a struggle for land and a border dispute!!” And the desired solution is to establish a petty Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, so that the followers of the three monotheistic – or so they claim - faiths can live in it. Are these people ignorant of the fact that the only Religion acceptable in the sight of Allaah is Islaam? ...

Indeed, the only solution, which the Jews will understand, is Jihaad – done with its proper conditions – to raise high the Word of Allaah. The Jews do not want peace, rather they only want that this ummah surrender and submit itself to them, and that it bow and debase itself to them. And they want that it wipe out the word Jihaad from its vocabulary! They want them to become slaves, employees and laborers for them, having the right to beat them with their shoes and lash them with their whips whenever they feel like it!

Our real struggle with the Jews will not end by setting up a withered state that doesn’t raise the banner of Islaam nor establishes the Laws of Allaah. How can it come to an end when the Muslim recites in his prayer seventeen times - day and night – “And do not make us from those who gained Your Anger nor from those who went astray.” [Surah Al-Faatihah: 7]

Those who “gained Your Anger” are the Jews and those who “went astray” are the Christians, according to the unanimous agreement of the Tafseer scholars, and this is so until the Day of Judgement.

So the decisive battle in which the Jews will come to an end will most assuredly come to pass – it is inevitable. It will be a battle of Faith and a battle of servitude to Allaah. The Prophet (sallAllaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said: “You will indeed fight against the Jews and you will kill them to the point where the rock and the tree will say: ‘O Muslim! O ‘Abdullaah (slave of Allaah)! There is a Jew hiding behind me. Come and kill him.’ Except for al-Gharqad for it is from the trees of the Jews.”

This is a true promise from the one who doesn’t speak from his own desire (Prophet Muhammad), which confirms the true nature of our struggle against the Jews, unlike what the misguided and misguiding media is portraying.

Here's a twist. Has Khatami talked with Al-Haeri about this? From AP:

TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said Monday that his government is not supporting the uprising by Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, and blamed U.S. troops for the fighting in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

"We have never taken sides in favor or against any group or faction in Iraq," Khatami was quoted as telling reporters when asked if Iran backs al-Sadr, whose militiamen are battling with U.S. and Iraqi government forces in Najaf and elsewhere.

Iran, a Shiite Muslim country with close ties to Iraq's majority Shiite population, is believed to want to counter U.S. influence in Iraq and to be trying to ensure future Iraqi governments are friendly with Iran. The Iranian government insists it is not interfering in Iraq.

Khatami said these are testing times for Iraq's interim government. "If it can't resolve the problems, then definitely the Iraqi public opinion won't have a positive view of it," he said.

The fighting in Najaf, a holy city to Shiite Muslims as the home to the revered Imam Ali Shrine, has sparked concern in predominantly Shiite Iran.

Khatami said al-Sadr's militants "had not provoked the U.S. forces in Iraq this time to justify the attacks" in Najaf. "The occupying forces play the main role in these attacks," IRNA quoted Khatami as saying.

He stabbed her to death in the courtroom. The lover will get lashed. From AFP, with thanks to "Allah":

According to the newspaper Shargh, the man, identified as Mahmoud, had filed a complaint against his wife and her lover when he had found out that she was cheating on him.

When she appeared in court in Shahr Ray city in Tehran province in 2003 he lost control and stabbed her to death.But a court sentenced him Wednesday only to pay compensatory "blood money" to the "parents of the blood", who are in fact himself and their three children, because the parents of the murdered woman, Fatemeh, 29, are dead, Iran newspaper said.

The court followed an order by the head of Iran's hardline judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi.The children would have lost their only breadwinner if the murderer had been put in jail, Iran.

The woman's lover, charged with illegitimate relations, was sentenced to be lashed and the verdict will be executed soon, Shargh said.

"I asked the court for the ultimate punishment for her. But I thought they would not punish her," Shargh quoted the husband as saying, "so I left the court building, hid a knife in my clothes to escape the body search at the court entrance, then I stabbed her in the courtroom in presence of the court staff."

CAIR Canada has come out against Sharia in that country! The word, that is. As savvy at PR as their American counterparts, they are trying to smooth over the reality of Sharia's coming to Canada by not of using the word. Meanwhile, their talk here of instituting adequate safeguards is interesting: it illustrates that they know that people need safeguards against Sharia, for one thing. Let's hope that whatever safeguards do get put into place are adequate. From CP, with thanks to LGF:

TORONTO (CP) -- A Canadian Islamic group is trying to prevent the word shariah from being included in Ontario's Arbitration Act on the grounds it creates a "slippery slope'' that blurs dangerously the lines between family and criminal law.

Currently, the law provides for voluntary faith-based arbitration, which allows Muslims, Jews and members of other faiths to use the guiding principles of their religion in settling private disputes such as divorce, custody issues and inheritances outside the court system.

But the Council on American-Islamic Relations Canada is worried that including the word shariah in the legislation would enshrine in law so-called shariah tribunals, which they say are a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

While CAIR-CAN supports faith-based arbitration as an alternative to litigation, Saloojee and others say safeguards are necessary to ensure that vulnerable groups, especially women, are not "coerced'' into using the practice....

Moderate Muslim cleric Ahmad Kutty, one of two Canadian imams who made headlines a year ago when they were kicked out of the U.S. on suspicions of terrorism, said he supports leaving shariah out of the act.

"Shariah is a loaded word; it includes all of the civil, criminal and other institutions associated with the Islamic legal system,'' Kutty said. "No one in his right mind would propose implementing this system of laws in Canada.''

But Kutty said he still supports the concept of faith-based arbitration, so long as "sufficient safeguards and checks and balances'' are in place to protect the rights of ``those who are often vulnerable to exploitation.''

Saloojee said the use of faith-based arbitration is on the rise for Canada's burgeoning Muslim community.

Islam is Canada's fastest growing religion, with 579,640 Muslims enumerated in the 2001 census, more than twice the number in 1991. Some 61 per cent, or 352,500, live in Ontario.

As a result, the province has asked former attorney general Marion Boyd to conduct a review of the province's arbitration processes.

She is expected to deliver her recommendations in September, but said she has yet to decide whether to recommend using the word shariah to describe faith-based arbitration for Muslims.

"I haven't made up my mind yet,'' Boyd said. "I can tell you that CAIR-CAN is not the only group that has suggested that it is inappropriate to call this shariah.''

Other groups, like the Institute of Islamic Law in Canada, have expressed support for the term shariah, Boyd said. The institute could not be reached for comment.

Tarek Fatah, co-founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress and host of TV's Muslim Chronicle, said Ontario should trash the entire process for fear it will only "ghettoize'' Muslims regardless of what it's called.

"In some ways this is the racism of lower expectations,'' said Fatah, who plans to meet with Boyd next week.

"Under the guise of empowering us and under some false notion of multiculturalism, the mainstream community is saying, 'Well, it doesn't affect us . . .we will have the public judicial system and the Muslims can hire their own private judges and if it affects someone negatively, it will not be one of us.'''

Fatah said he fears a two-tiered judicial system within the community that would see vulnerable, low-income groups "suckered'' into faith-based arbitration because they can't afford lawyers.

"We also believe the Islamic fundamentalists in the community are utilising this, trying to bring their right-wing, social-conservativism to dominate the Muslim narrative in Canada,'' Fatah added.

"It's shariah by stealth, actually.''

Some good news from AP: terrorism doesn't (always) work.

MURREE, Pakistan - A Christian school that shut down after Islamic militants stormed its campus two years ago and killed six people has reopened with the unveiling of a plaque to commemorate the dead.

Pakistan’s Education Minister Zobaida Jalal joined teachers, dozens of students and parents for a small ceremony Sunday at the Murree Christian School in this scenic hill town about 55 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of the capital, Islamabad.

The school, dominated by an imposing stone and stain-glassed church, has educated children of Christian missionaries, mostly foreigners, for nearly a half century.

But it was closed for two years after the Aug. 5, 2002, attack, when masked gunmen stormed its front gates firing AK-47 rifles, killing six Pakistani workers at the school.

Jalal unveiled a gold-color plaque with names of the dead.

Luke Cutherell, the chairman of the school’s directors, paid tribute to the sacrifice of the victims.

“That we, as an educational institution, will carry on, is an indication that we have not been overcome by evil,” he said.

Islamic militants have staged several attacks on minority Christians in Pakistan, as well as against Westerners, since President Gen. Pervez Musharraf decided to become an ally in the US-led war on terror in late 2001.

The mainstream media is still saying it was neo-Nazis, but here is the latest from AP: Muslim radicals are claiming that they have carried the jihad into France.

The official at Paris police headquarters said it was still unclear whether the posting on a Web site known for militant Islamic comment by a group calling itself Jamaat Ansar Al-Jihad was a serious claim....

When the smoke cleared, investigators found anti-Semitic graffiti and swastikas scrawled in red marker.

One message read, "Without the Jews, the world is happy," while another said, "Jews get out."

France has suffered a long wave of anti-Semitic violence since 2000, coinciding with worsening tensions in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians.

Some of the violence has been blamed on young French Muslims, although the large Muslim community itself is also a frequent target of racist attacks. Both Jewish and Muslim cemeteries have been desecrated in France recently, with swastikas painted across headstones.

Usually, such attacks are not claimed, so the message that appeared Sunday on the Web was unusual.

The message said that "a group of Mujahedeen youth set fire at 4 a.m. Paris time to the Jewish synagogue in Paris in retaliation for the racist acts carried out by the Jews in France against Islam and Muslims, and acts of defiling Muslims' cemeteries."

The posting, which referred incorrectly to the community center as a synagogue, said the blaze marked the 35th anniversary of a fire at al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, which gutted the southeastern wing of the holy shrine.

Rumors quickly spread of Israeli responsibility, though a non-Jewish tourist from Australia confessed to setting the fire. He was hospitalized in a mental institution and later deported from Israel.

The Daily News Tribune (Massachusetts) reports on a teacher workshop on Islam that sounds as if it was a full-blown course in dhimmitude. I am trying to get hold of the curriculum now, so as to take a closer look. (Thanks to Andy for the link.)

FRAMINGHAM -- The history of Islam was a dusty subject until Sept. 11, 2001, when the terrorist attacks on the United States had students asking a lot of tough questions. Nearly three years later, knowledge of the history of Islam and the cultures of the dozens of predominantly Muslim nations remains minimal. In an effort to reverse the trend, a week-long workshop for Bay State teachers was held at Cameron Middle School in Framingham this past week to send educators back into the classrooms armed with answers. According to the participants, the workshop worked. "When I teach this year I want to actually help kids understand the Middle East," said Framingham history teacher Steve Manning, who teaches at Cameron Middle School. "How can they understand Iraq if they don't know the history of the people?" *** Primary Source, the group that organized the workshop, called "The Genesis and Genius of Islam," began offering the course three years ago, said Deborah Cunningham, senior program director for the group. The workshop is sponsored by the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities and the Mosaic Foundation out of Virginia.... Professors from Boston College, College of the Holy Cross and Harvard and Bridgewater State College took part. Lectures ranged from the birth of Islam, to Islamic art to women's role in early Islam. Even the lunch breaks were filled with learning opportunities, with screenings of movies and documentaries covering various aspects of Islam....

Robert Dunn, a history teacher at Shrewsbury Middle School, will teach world history to his eighth-graders for the first time this year, after the state changed the order of how history is taught. In past years Dunn taught U.S. history in eighth grade.

"A huge chunk (of world history) will be on Islam," Dunn said. "I'm trying to catch up. (The workshop) has been great."

When school starts in a few weeks, Dunn said he must be prepared for some pretty frank questions about Islam.

"Everything we're thinking, kids will be saying these things," Dunn said.

Many student's perspective on Muslims comes from what they see on the news and from movies and television shows. Dunn hoped to find an Islamic nation he could use as an example of where women have rights more like those in the United States, to dispel some misconceptions.

"Students come in with preconceived notions about things," Dunn said. "I'm looking for a country to choose that has progressive Islam."

Great, Mr. Dunn! Please let us know when you find one! But -- well, if not for this fall, maybe for the '05-'06 school year, eh?

Much of the confusion Americans have about Islam comes from looking at the action of Muslims, often the most extreme groups, and what is written in the Muslim holy book, The Koran.

Wiser heads have said that you can't understand Islam by reading the Qur'an. I respectfully disagree. Read on:

During the workshop, Barbara Petzen, outreach coordinator of Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern Studies, said anyone studying or discussing Muslims must keep in mind the difference between what the Koran says and what is actually practiced.

That's true of many Muslims, but the problem with Islamic radicalism is that it presents us with an aggregate of Muslims who ARE doing what the Qur'an says. I am confident that the workshop did not address that phenomenon.

One of the West's biggest criticisms about the Muslim world is the treatment of women. In the beginning, however, they had a large role in the religion.

"Realize, women didn't have the same access to the written ," Petzen said. "And the sections they did have access later may have been edited out."

This is just wishful thinking. There is no actual evidence that women fared better in Islam and that their equality, or whatever it was, was later edited out. And anyway, even if it were true, why was this material edited out? Why would these faceless editors want to put material negative toward women into the Qur'an? What can be done about it now?

The group spent quite a lot of time discussing a subject that fascinates and perplexes many non-Muslims -- veiling.

Unlike the stereotype, not all Islamic countries require women to wear veils, and the vast majority do not insist on women covering head to toe.

Some Muslims see the veil as a sign of prosperity, rather than something oppressive.

"The veil is a symbol of high class," Petzen said. "(It shows) the ability of a husband to keep his wife out of the work force, as well as being a sign of sexual honor and purity."

No word, I suspect, on Iranian women being forced to wear the veil, or on non-Muslims being forced to wear it.

Westerners hear Osama Bin Laden's anti-technology message and assume that Islamic cultures are backward. Muslims, however, have a strong tradition in math and science, said Ibrahim Kalin, an assistant professor of religious studies at Holy Cross. Alexandria, Egypt and Baghdad in the Ninth Century were the learning centers of the world. Scholars -- Muslims, Christians and Jews alike -- came to those cities to study and debate, as well as translate scientific works, Kalin said.

Mm-hmm. Were were were. Where is the ARE?

Islamic sailors were the best seamen of the day, Kalin said, who noted that even Christopher Columbus had several Muslim sailors on his voyage that wound up in the New World.

This is just radical Muslim fantasy. It appears in no genuine history of Columbus's voyages.

I see that the Massachusetts teachers will be quite prepared for this school year.

Manning, a history teacher at Framingham's Cameron Middle School, has found his students often have a warped image of Islam.

"People look at Islam and see a group people that are all terrorists," Manning said. "It's not true, and in education I think we have the obligation to present the truth."

That is undoubtably true. Muslims are not all terrorists. It would be refreshing, however, if Manning looked closely at why some are. I am not holding my breath.

UPDATE: It isn't just Massachusetts. Charles at LGF has alerted me to the fact that even the State Department wants to believe this nonsense about Columbus:

Islamic influences may date back to the very beginning of American history. It is likely that Christopher Columbus, who discovered America in 1492, charted his way across the Atlantic Ocean with the help of an Arab navigator.

Find this in one reputable historical source.

"Switzerland likely was used as a base for financial and logistical support for al-Qaida." From AP, :

GENEVA (AP) -- Swiss investigators have established a link between at least three Arabs detained in a nationwide anti-terror sweep and a purported key al-Qaida member, a newspaper reported Saturday.

The Geneva daily Le Temps said it obtained a copy of a document written by Deputy Federal Prosecutor Claude Nicati in which he detailed his case against 10 people arrested in raids since December and ordered the launch of preliminary judicial proceedings. Five suspects have been released but remain under investigation.

Swiss justice authorities routinely decline to comment on media reports or give details of ongoing investigations, and prosecutor's office spokeswoman Andrea Sadecky told The Associated Press she could not comment.

"All I can say is that we regret the report has been made public," she said.

In June, Swiss Federal Prosecutor Valentin Roschacher said investigators had concluded that Switzerland likely was used as a base for financial and logistical support for al-Qaida.

According to Le Temps, Nicati's report said two suspects arrested in Switzerland - both originally from Yemen - were in "close contact with several hardcore members of bin Laden's movement."

The report cited the name Abdallah al-Kini and described him as an "operational al-Qaida agent" involved in the October 2000 attack on the destroyer USS Cole off Yemen, which killed 17 American sailors.

Al-Kini, who has not been mentioned previously by Yemeni anti-terror investigators, currently is detained there, the report said.

We've come a long way from "Der Fuhrer's Face" and Hitler cuspidors. Can you imagine what the reaction would have been if a German-American group had protested "Der Fuhrer's Face" on the grounds that it was anti-German? But it is evidently no longer acceptable to express contempt for mass murderers. A paintball game in which players take aim at Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden is being criticized as anti-Arab.

But wait a minute. I thought those guys represented only a tiny minority of extremists whose views and actions were abhorrent to the vast majority of peaceful Muslims. If one believes the rhetoric that groups like the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee purvey most of the time, one would think that Arabs would be lining up to play this game. By playing both sides of matters like these, the ADC leaves us with the impression that Saddam and Osama mean more to them than they ordinarily let on.

From AP, with thanks to DC Watson:

WILDWOOD, N.J. -- A live-target paintball game in which patrons take aim at runners dressed as Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden has drawn fire from critics who say the game is tasteless and can only encourage violence against Arabs.

"We don't need any more games that would encourage people to hate Arabs or kill them," said Aref Assaf, president of the New Jersey Chapter of American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Assaf has called on local officials to shut the game down, which he considers hate speech. He also wants Wildwood visitors to boycott it.

The game, known as "Wack the Iraq" _ not Iraqi _ has been on the board walk in Wildwood for at least a year, but has only recently drawn complaints, said Mayor Ernie Troiano Jr.

Troiano agrees the game is tasteless but said it was no more likely to encourage violence than many popular video games. He also said the city was powerless to shut the game down because of the operator's free speech rights.

"You go out and tell him that he can't do this, you're going to have a lawsuit that you cannot win," Troiano said.

That remains to be seen, in these hyper-PC times.

Apparently Al-Sadr realized he weren't going to achieve the desired result from killing him. But note that he won his release, at least according to this, because he opposes administration policies. From Reuters:

DUBAI (Reuters) - U.S. journalist Micah Garen was on Sunday freed by an Iraqi group who had held him hostage in the southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya.

"I am very grateful to everyone who worked to protect me and guarantee my release and I thank my friends in Nassiriya and my family and fiance who spent three months with me in Nassiriya," Garen told Arab satellite television Al Jazeera by telephone.

He was speaking from the Nassiriya office of rebel Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

"Today he was brought to the office of Sheikh Sadr in Nassiriya and he is now there. We have called the human rights body in Nassiriya to come and receive him," Aws al-Khafaji, an aide to Sadr, told Al Jazeera.

Garen, of New York-based company Four Corners Media, said he was seized while taking pictures with a small camera at a market in Nassiriya.

"People misunderstood what I was taking pictures of. There was a misunderstanding," he said without elaborating. His comments were translated into Arabic by the channel.

A group calling itself the Secret Action Group of the Mehdi Army said in an Internet statement on Friday it was holding a U.S. journalist hostage and would release him on Saturday because he was opposed to U.S. administration policies.

"The victim faced a life as an outcast, ostracised and stigmatised by Indian society for being on the receiving end of a violent sexual crime." No--not Indian society. Islamic society. From The Scotsman:

THE dusty Berhampur Central jail, 120 miles north of Calcutta, provided the setting for a bizarre wedding last week between a rapist and his victim.

The victim faced a life as an outcast, ostracised and stigmatised by Indian society for being on the receiving end of a violent sexual crime.

But if her assailant married her, the shame would be lifted in the eyes of the local Muslim community.

On the order of the court in Berhampur, Ahammad Shaikh, 30, tied the knot with Sabina Khatoon, 18, inside the local prison where he is serving his sentence.

Shaikh kidnapped Khatoon - the daughter of a daily wage labourer - from her village and raped her in a nearby forest in March this year.

After her father complained of the rape to the police in June, Shaikh was arrested. In the court he admitted having raped the teenager and was sent to prison for the deed.

Shaikh's lawyers failed to bail him out and he expected to be handed at least a seven-year sentence within a few months.

Then, with permission from the court, an activist carrying out work among rural women, approached Shaikh inside the jail and informed him of the woman's miseries after being 'tainted' by his rape.

The women's rights activist suggested that Shaikh marry Khatoon. Shaikh said that he needed time to respond to the overture.

The court also said that if Shaikh came forward to marry Khatoon, it could consider his case with sympathy and a possible release.

Shaikh's lawyers and Khatoon's parents then petitioned the court that the defendant was willing to marry Khatoon, and they sought his release from the jail for the purpose of the marriage.

The court observed that it could never release Shaikh until he married his victim. However, it ordered that the two could get married inside the prison if they wanted.

As bride, Khatoon turned up in the jail with her relatives. In the presence of Shaikh's relatives, the jailhouse wedding took place according to the Muslim rites, followed by a registration.

The jail officials and about 60 remand prisoners took part in the marriage celebrations, which included a feast.

"I took advantage of her weakness and assaulted her while she was alone. What I did was wrong," the apparently repentant Shaikh said at the end of the ceremony.

"Now I am happy to get a chance to make amends for the crime I have committed."

Khatoon, who looked very happy after the marriage, said: "For that act [of rape] I hated him. Sometimes I felt like I wanted to tear him to pieces.

"But I have a different feeling for him now. I have forgiven him because he has chosen me as his wife. I have to love him now."

And the rights of women in general in Sharia states like Iran is comparable to the rights of non-Muslims: if they step out of line, their lives may be forfeit. Even worse, this girl's reference to the fact that punishment should be meted out to the perpetrators, not the victims, makes it likely that she was a victim of rape. From IranFocus, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

On Sunday, August 15, a 16-year-old girl in the town of Neka, northern Iran, was executed. Ateqeh Sahaleh was hanged in public on Simetry Street off Rah Ahan Street at the city center....

In her summary trial, the teenage victim did not have any lawyer and efforts by her family to recruit a lawyer was to no avail. Ateqeh personally defended herself. She told the religious judge, Haji Rezaii, that he should punish the main perpetrators of moral corruption not the victims.

The judge personally pursued Ateqeh's death sentence, beyond all normal procedures and finally gained the approval of the Supreme Court. After her execution Rezai said her punishment was not execution but he had her executed for her "sharp tongue".

We hear constantly from Islamic apologists and people who ought to know better about how the Qur'an forbids suicide, as if that is the last word about suicide attacks carried out by Muslims. But when Muslims speak to their fellow Muslims, instead of to Western unbelievers anxious to be reassured that all that we are seeing is just an aberration, a misuse of Islam that will soon pass, it's often a different story. Take this justification for suicide bombing, complete with quotes from Osama himself, found at MuslimCreed.com (thanks to nevermindlv):

"We emphasize the great importance of martyrdom operations against the enemy - operations that have inflicted great damage on the United States and Israel, which damage is unprecedented in their history, thanks to Almighty Allah." Sheikh ul-Mujahideen Usama bin Laden (hafidhahullah).

What Are Martyrdom Operations?

Martyrdom Operations - sometimes called Fidayee attacks (see Note 1) - are those where a Muslim, a Mujahid, attacks the enemy in such a way that the death of that Muslim is (should Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta'ala) so will it) highly likely. The history of Islam is replete with heroes who have sacrificed their own life for the Way of Life which is Al-Islam.*

In modern times, many Martyrdom Operations involve the Mujahid detonating an explosive device (attached to themselves or in a vehicle they are driving) when close to, or among, the enemy.

Not surprisingly, such attacks are feared by the enemies of Islam, and especially by those infidels who are waging war against Islam, those who are oppressing Muslims, and those who are invading Muslim lands.

Such attacks are often incorrectly called "suicide attacks" in the hope of discrediting them. In addition, some Muslims, and some Islamic scholars, have claimed that such "suicide attacks" are forbidden according to the Quran and Sunnah.

Are Martyrdom Operations Lawful?

To understand and answer this question, three things need to be understood:

(1) The criteria used to determine whether such operations are lawful and justified must and can only an Islamic one. That is, the judgment must be made according to Quran and Sunnah, and them alone. All other criteria or standards of judgment must be rejected. To do otherwise, is un-Islamic.

"And whosoever does not judge by what Allâh has revealed, such are the Kâfirûn." [5:44 Interpretation of meaning]

(2) The intentions of the Mujahid who undertakes the attack is important, as is the fact that their is a likelihood of the attack harming or killing enemies.

(3) In a discussion of Islamic sources - Quran and Ahadith - it is important to refer to the meaning of the Arabic, and not to rely on interpretations of meaning which use modern, and often biased, terms and words such as the English word "suicide".

The Unlawful Nature of Killing Oneself:

There is no dispute, among scholars or among the Muslims, that it is forbidden for a person to take their own life, for personal reasons. That is, because one is overwhelmed with grief, or sorrow, or has abandoned all hope when faced with difficulties.

There are many Hadith and Quranic Ayat which make it clear that the Muslim who does such a deed will not enter Paradise because such a deed involves the abandonment of Islam: the belief that one should never totally despair; never be totally overwhelmed with misery, and never abandon trust in Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta'ala).

The Islamic Judgment:

Those - Muslim and non-Muslim - who declare martyrdom operations unlawful, and un-Islamic, consider them to be acts of what they call "suicide", and justify such a declaration by quoting Quranic verses and Hadith which refer to a person killing themselves.

Quite often, those who denounce martyrdom operations use translations of Hadith, or interpretations of the Holy Quran which use the word "suicide". For instance, Ahadith similar to the following are often cited:

The Prophet (salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) said, "He who commits suicide by throttling shall keep on throttling himself in the Hell-Fire (forever) and he who commits suicide by stabbing himself shall keep on stabbing himself in the Hell-Fire." (Sahih Bukhari)

However, as mentioned above, the use of English words such as "suicide" in such translations is often incorrect, for such modern English words often mean and imply different things than are meant and implied by the Arabic, even though, in the West, the term "suicide" is sometimes understood as an "act, malicious or otherwise, of self-murder". That is, as a basically selfish act done for personal reasons. (In origin the word suicide itself derives from a term for "self".)

Perhaps a better interpretation of the above Hadith would be along the following lines:

"The person who commits Intihar by hanging themselves shall keep hanging themselves in the Hell-Fire, just as those who commit Intihar by stabbing themselves will keep stabbing themselves in the Hell-Fire."

Maati has Canadian citizenship. From the Boston Globe, :

HYANNIS -- A long-sought suspected Al Qaeda member who has eluded a concerted international dragnet may have been sighted at a Nantucket airport this week, prompting the FBI to distribute a picture of the suspect to law enforcement and transportation officials on the island.

Law enforcement authorities declined to disclose details of the possible sighting of Amer el-Maati, who allegedly has talked about hijacking a plane in Canada and flying it into a building in the United States. The sighting was first reported in the Inquirer and Mirror newspaper of Nantucket yesterday, citing unnamed town and airport sources.

The State Police went to the Nantucket Memorial Airport at noon Thursday after the possible sighting was reported, according to Phillip Parent of the Steamship Authority, which runs ferries to Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard.

Later on Thursday, the FBI distributed photographs of Amer el-Maati to airline and ferry employees, as well as island law enforcement officials. The photographs were not released to the media, but an FBI official confirmed the sighting report.

A flier with the photo describes Maati as "armed and dangerous" and says he "is being sought for possible terrorist threats in the United States," said Parent, the Steamship Authority's human resources director.

In May, US authorities released the photographs of Maati, 41, and six others, saying they were possibly planning terrorist attacks on American targets.

According to the FBI, Maati, also known as Amro Badr Eldin Abou, says he has Egyptian and Syrian roots, but was born in Kuwait in 1966. Maati has Canadian citizenship and is a licensed pilot, the FBI has said.

Here again, Prince Hamzah asserts that "extremism" is rejected by Islam, but his terms remain undefined -- and he ends up recommending that Muslims obey Sharia, which would presumably thus include the provisions regarding violent jihad and the oppression of non-Muslims. So what looks at first glance like a statement of Muslim moderation turns out to be just the opposite. From AP, with thanks to Doc Washburn:

Jordan's Crown Prince Hamzah on Saturday urged reforms in Muslim thinking and criticized Islamic extremism, but said such fanaticism resulted from injustices and oppression being suffered by Muslims.

Hamzah, a half brother of Jordan's King Abdullah II and heir to the throne, told 80 scholars from 40 countries attending a three-day conference here that the Muslim world was facing "successive pressures and challenges ... (that) extend to every corner of the (Islamic) nation's potential and its sacred shrines."

Hamzah did not elaborate on the pressures Muslims were facing, saying only that fanaticism was caused by a "deprivation, oppression and absence of justice" that "provokes hatred."

The prince said the extremist Islamic behavior resulting from such pressure is, then, "taken as evidence to convict and blame Muslims on the false assumption that these are characteristics of their morals, principles and even religion."

"But the truth is that Islam and the Muslims reject and condemn these exceptional cases as strange to their true religion and as a form of transgression," he said....

"Extremism has destroyed, throughout history, remarkable achievements in great civilizations, including our Islamic civilization," he said. "When hatred is dominant and hearts are closed, and when people do not resort to the rulings of Sharia (Islamic law) and reason, the tree of civilization withers away and societies cease to grow."

Hamzah also blamed the media for "weakening the Muslim's energy and soul," and suggested that educational reform could remedy extremism and inform the masses of Islam's true meaning.

Pakistan inches closer to chaos. From AP, :

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan announced Saturday that it had arrested at least five men suspected of having ties to al Qaeda who'd been plotting to launch suicide attacks on government leaders and the U.S. Embassy.

Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told reporters that security forces had captured five or six suspects -- one Egyptian, the others Pakistani -- in the past week across the country, and had seized weapons.

Authorities were hunting for four to five other suspects, he said.

However, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayyat told The Associated Press that about a dozen suspects had been nabbed. He said they'd been planning suicide attacks on "important personalities."

Hayyat said the group wanted to hit the official residence of President Pervez Musharraf, Parliament and the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Islamabad, as well as Army House in the neighboring city of Rawalpindi.

They also wanted to target government ministers, he said.

"This is a gang of suicide bombers, and our security agencies have done a remarkable job by foiling this plot," Hayyat said, adding that those captured were "definitely linked to al Qaeda."

From AP, with thanks to nevermindlv:

A Moroccan accused of helping the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers was part of a group that raged against the United States "because it defends Israel" and himself approved of Hitler's extermination of the Jews, witnesses testified Wednesday.

Sudanese student Ahmed Maglad, 30, testified he met defendant Mounir el Motassadeq while living in Hamburg in 1997 and through him met lead suicide pilot Mohamed Atta, who he said was "aggressively religious" and was always trying to "prove something." Maglad told the Hamburg state court he also knew Ramzi Binalshibh, the suspected contact between al-Qaida and the Hamburg cell that included three of the suicide pilots.

And how do they get recruits? No one seems particularly interested in that. From AP:

MONTERREY, Mexico - Governments throughout Mexico and Central America are on alert as evidence grows that al-Qaida members are traveling in the region and looking for recruits to carry out attacks in Latin America -- the potential last frontier for international terrorism.

The territory could be a perfect staging ground for Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s militants, with homegrown rebel groups, drug and people smugglers, and corrupt governments. U.S. officials have long feared al-Qaida could launch an attack from south of the border, and they have been paying closer attention as the number of terror-related incidents has increased since last year.

The strongest possible al-Qaida link is Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, a 29-year-old Saudi pilot suspected of being a terrorist cell leader. The FBI issued a border-wide alert earlier this month for Shukrijumah, saying he may try to cross into Arizona or Texas.

Michael Coren, on whose Toronto TV show I once participated in a rollicking debate with Dr. Anis Shorrosh (author of Islam Revealed) and two Muslim scholars, again displays his courage and insight in daring to challenge the prevailing dhimmitude and woolly thinking. From the Toronto Sun, with thanks to Russell:

THERE ARE things you are not supposed to say. Things that people pretend are not true. Things that get you into all sorts of trouble because we live in a dishonest world. Here goes...

Not supposed to say that the Crusades were not some vile Christian slaughter, but a response by Europe to the military expansion of Islam. Muslim armies had invaded Christian lands and would continue to do so for hundreds of years. They moved into Spain and reached the gates of Vienna.

The idea that Christians became Muslim with smiles on their faces is ludicrous. Countless people died and the very birthplace of Christianity was soaked in blood. The Crusaders did not always act morally -- though they often did -- but they were merely reacting to aggressive conquest.

Today the Roman Catholic Church condemns the Crusades as being wrong. Yet few if any Muslim leaders will condemn the rape of so many Christian countries by their own ancestors. On the contrary, some Muslims speak of these countries as being somehow Islamic by nature and sometimes refer to the re-conquest of Spain.

Muslim democracy?

Not supposed to say that the United States, Europe, Israel, Jews and Christians have little to do with the fact that there is no democracy in the Muslim world. Of course many of these countries were colonized and exploited, but then most of the world suffered such a fate.
India is composed of a billion people speaking various languages. The Hindu religion and culture of this magnificent nation has achieved the largest democracy in the world. People vote, honestly, fairly and peacefully. Violence is rare and political corruption isolated. All this in spite of poverty, partial rural illiteracy and centuries of imperial dominance.

Not supposed to say that Israel has become the new international whipping boy. Its people are broadly divided into Ashkenazi and Sephardi. Ashkenazi Jews were perhaps the most persecuted people in history. The colonization of Arab nations by the West is nothing compared to the pogroms and Holocaust.

Sephardic Jews were mostly to be found in Muslim states, where they were always at the bottom of the social ladder. Sometimes they were treated fairly well, sometimes very badly. But never were they complete equals. Even in Ethiopia, with all of its problems, a way was found to treat Jews worse than anybody else.

Yet whatever one wants to say about Israel -- and people will say everything about Israel, whether it's true or not -- the country enjoys a flourishing democracy. The million Arab citizens of Israel are not always first-class citizens. But they have the vote. More democratic rights than their Arab relatives across the border in Egypt or Jordan.

Not supposed to say that although the war in Iraq was, in my opinion, wrong and foolish, many Iraqis are acting like brutal and irrational thugs. Saddam Hussein kept his country in order by ruling as a murderous tyrant yet faced very little opposition. Where were these brave Islamic militants then?

The Americans have often acted thoughtlessly and have caused much suffering. But this can't justify blowing up churches, killing innocent Iraqi people and beheading foreign truck drivers. I'm tired of various so-called "holy" cities, holy men and holy ideas. None seem very holy or capable of giving people a life of dignity and safety.

Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin, like Western politicians who pontificate about Islam, is not a Muslim. How does he know their interpretation of the Qur'an is wrong? Where can the correct interpretation be found? It is staggering how many people of influence repeat the mantras about Islam is peace and militant Islam is a hijacking of a great peaceful religion without ever bringing forward a tradition of Islam that abjures violence altogether, or an explanation of the Qur'an that refutes (not ignores, but refutes) the radical exegesis.

Some analysts have criticized my allies in this struggle and me because, they say, we are are bent on discrediting Islam itself, and that we have set the standard for Islamic moderation so high that no Muslim can meet it without apostasizing. They say we should encourage Muslim moderates who articulate a peaceful Islam even when their version of Islam takes little or none of the radical exegesis into account, and is utterly inadequate to refute it.

But this article shows the shoddy thinking that is involved in such criticism. Thaksin is blandly asserting, as so many others have also in the US and elsewhere, that Islamic terrorists are misinterpreting and misusing Islam. But the "correct" version has yet to assert itself. When moderates who, for whatever reason, do not respond properly to radical teachings are lionized and encouraged, the assertion of any true or effective moderate Islam is postponed yet again. Such moderates make their Western audiences feel reassured, but since they make no headway against the radicals it's a hollow reassurance.

We need moderate Muslims to wage rhetorical war against the radical version of Islam. But this needs to be done by people who are completely honest about the teachings of Islam on jihad and the treatment of non-Muslims, as well as honest about the sources of those teachings and the need for massive reform. Anything less, and we're just whistling in the dark with Prime Minister Thaksin.

From AP, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

BANGKOK - Islamic teachers in southern Thailand are 'brainwashing' students and there will be no quick end to the Muslim insurgency there, Thailand's Prime Minister said yesterday, while police reported four more slayings in the region's latest bloodshed.

Several Muslim teachers have been arrested recently because of suspicions that they may be encouraging students to take part in the rebellion and many militants killed in fighting have been teenagers studying at religious schools.

'The problem is difficult to resolve because the religious teachers have been brainwashing people with the wrong interpretation of the Quran,' Mr Thaksin Shinawatra told journalists in Bangkok.

'It will take time to resolve the problem.'

More than 330 people have been killed in fighting this year in the three Muslim-dominated southern provinces of predominantly Buddhist Thailand.

Remember Denis MacShane? He was the British Foreign Office minister who told British Muslims that they must "must make a choice between the 'British way' of political dialogue and Islamic terrorism." For that he was roasted on both sides by the multiculturalist establishment and British Muslim leaders, who made him apologize several times. In one of them, he said: "I apologise to anyone who felt that I suggested that British Muslims sympathise with...terrorist actions."

So my question now is: can Denis MacShane get an apology from the people who put these leaflets in the mosque in Birmingham?

From icBirmingham, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

Hundreds of leaflets urging Muslims to become terrorist fighters have been distributed at a Midland mosque.

Police have been called in to investigate after the flyers were found at Birmingham Central Mosque last week.

The leaflets urge worshippers to become Mujahideen fighters and ask them to 'pray for death and decay to be visited upon the West'.

The literature bears the name of a group called Ahle Sunnah Wal Jamah, which mosque officials say is often used as an alias for the Al Muhajiroun group.

Al Muhajiroun, a small radical organisation which has called for a British Islamic state, has been accused of inciting terrorism, anti-Semitism and homophobia.

Mosque chairman Dr Mohammed Naseem warned that the leaflets could act as a recruitment aid for would-be terrorists.

"It is very worrying," he said. "These leaflets appear to be encouraging Muslims to become Mujahideen fighters.

"This sort of thing getting into the wrong hands is very dangerous.

"They are the views of a minority of people but young, impressionable Muslims may read this and think they should be doing these things.

"I shall be showing the leaflets to our community policeman and asking him for advice."

That's great. I'm glad he is going to do that. But he should also be initiating an aggressive program to refute Al-Muhajiroun's reasons why Muslims should wage jihad against the West. Go to that group's website, and their material is full of quotes from the Qur'an and Islamic authorities. Until moderate Muslims respond to this sort of thing, jihad violence will not end. But of course in this they face an uphill battle, for the texts are not on their side.

And there was a great cheer at the Islamic Cultural Center. That tiny minority of extremists must have loud voices. From Nettavisen, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

There was an enormous cheer at Islamic Cultural Center when they were informed that Qazi Husssain Ahmed was granted permission to visit Norway. Islamic Cultural Center invited the controversial Pakistani politician to Norway, and the decision to grant him entry arrived only days before his scheduled arrival.

Ahmed arrives at Gardermoen International Airport on Saturday, but Minister of Local Government Erna Solberg waited until Thursday afternoon before she announced that Norway opposes the Schengen decision and grants him permission to visit.

In spite of the delay, the management of Islamic Cultural Center said they never lost faith that Norway would grant Ahmed entry.

«Norway is a democracy, and everybody is allowed to state their opinion,» said Ikhlaq Ahmad, general secretary at Islamic Cultural Center to TV 2 Nettavisen. «Everybody is very happy, and we are very proud to live in Norway. We live in a free society.»

But for how long? "Qazi Hussain Ahmed has earlier make flattering comments about Osama bin Laden, and his party, Jamaat-e-Islami, also has hailed al-Qaeda members as heroes."

Why should he be repentant? What has been done to disabuse him of the jihad ideology? Undoubtedly nothing. From Australia's Sunday Telegraph:

UNREPENTANT Bali bomber Imam Samudra has warned he will continue to wage jihad if a recent constitutional court decision means he is set free.

Vowing to carry out more bombings against "unbelievers", Samudra said: "I want to continue my Jihad Fie Sabililah (violent holy struggle).

Actually this is "jihad for the sake of Allah," which is indeed a technical term in Islamic law referring to jihad warfare.

"I want to go to Moro (in the Philippines). I want to go to Afghanistan. I want to go to Israel to kill Sharon."

Speaking from his death-row cell in Bali's Kerobokan prison, Samudra vowed to kill again. "If I get the death penalty, I will die a martyr's death. If I'm free, I'll bomb again. You got it?"

The 33-year-old field commander of the Bali bombings that killed 202, including 88 Australians, said he would "slaughter Bush" if a recent change in Indonesian legislation meant he was released from custody.

Muslims have told me that there are no jihadists in Bosnia, or that their number is negligible. Who, then, is doing the recruiting, and who is being recruited? From Israel National News, with thanks to Sparta:

(IsraelNN.com) Serbian news outlets have been reporting with increasing intensification in recent days on attempts by Islamist terrorist groups, including Al-Qaeda, to recruit soldiers among Bosnia's Muslims.

The independent Serbian news agency FoNet reported on Tuesday that Muslims from Bosnia-Herzegovina are being recruited to join the what has been called "white Al-Qaeda".

Slobodan Radulj, former member of Bosnia-Herzegovina's anti-terrorist task force and an adviser to the Serb member of the presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina, told the Nezavisne Novine Serbian daily, "Reports by international intelligence services saying that future terrorists will be blue-eyed and blonde indicate that Al-Qaeda is recruiting in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. This is why the authorities should prevent radical Islamists from paying young and poor men to go to battlefields and to die there."

It isn't just in Saudi Arabia and Egypt that Muslims project the jihadist quest for world domination onto the Jews. It's also on French television, at least for awhile longer. From Reuters, with thanks to Teri:

Lebanese television station al-Manar has escaped an immediate ban in France for showing allegedly anti-Semitic programs, winning several weeks to seek broadcasting rights.

A French court said European satellite operator Eutelsat would have to stop al-Manar's broadcasts if the channel, run by Lebanon's Hezbollah, failed to apply to French broadcasting authority CSA for rights by October 1....

CSA took al-Manar to court after its drama The Diaspora, which depicts a Zionist plot to dominate the world, provoked uproar. The CSA called the program "intolerable".

The Syrian-produced series was first broadcast on al-Manar's satellite channel during the high-viewing Islamic holy month of Ramadan in October last year, drawing Washington's ire.

Jewish groups complained the series was a false rehash of Jewish history that could provoke anti-Jewish hate.

Officials feared French Muslim youths were taking such programs from the Middle East as encouragement to attack Jews in revenge for an Israeli crackdown on a Palestinian uprising.

Satellite television is widely watched in the poor suburbs around French cities where anti-Semitic attacks have occurred of late. Some 600,000 Jews and 5 million Muslims live in France - western Europe's biggest Jewish and Muslim communities.

Al-Manar's lawyer, Denis Garreau, told the court on Thursday the television station was "criticising the policies of Israel, not the Jewish religion. Its management agrees that the program broadcast was unacceptable"....

It opens with an actor playing an early promoter of Zionism telling his children to spread their ideas in Europe.

"Our lord has promised us retribution against those who sent us into exile," he says.

"For this reason ... we must control the world, all of it, through loyal agents in foreign governments."

In one scene, set on a boat taking Jews to what would become Israel, a Jewish rabbi is portrayed raping a young woman.

Memo to gay rights activists who compare opponents of gay marriage to the Taliban: maybe it's time to rein in your rhetoric. From The Guardian, with thanks to Teri:

A law banning gay sex has come into effect in Zanzibar, with homosexual men threatened with 25-year jail terms and lesbians facing seven-year sentences.

"This is what we have been aspiring for. If the government takes such steps, the country will really move ahead," said Sheikh Muhammed Said, a local Islamic leader.

The law was brought into effect by President Amani Karume's signature last week, the attorney general's office said. Parliament passed the bill in April.

The islands, a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, are largely Muslim.

Travel agencies that specialise in trips for gays and lesbians have threatened to boycott Zanzibar.

I think they would be wise to do so, if they value the health and freedom of their clients.

A few days ago we saw an Egyptian government daily projecting the jihadist desire for world domination and sanctioning of violence against unbelievers onto the Jews. Now a Saudi Armed Forces journal, "The Muslim Soldier," has begun to play the same projection game, this time with reference to the arch-forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Most interesting is the imagining that the Jews were behind the abolition of the caliphate -- which radical Muslims worldwide wish to restore. From MEMRI, with thanks to Sugar Quub:

A journal titled "Al-Jundi Al-Muslim" (The Muslim Soldier), which is published by the Religious Affairs Department of the Saudi armed forces, published an antisemitic article in its "Know Your Enemy" section. The article was written by Ma'ashu Muhammad and was titled "The Jews in the Modern Era." The following are excerpts from the article:

'The Majority of Revolutions, Coups D'etat, and Wars ... are Almost Entirely the Handiwork of the Jews'

"The majority of revolutions, coups d'etat, and wars which have occurred in the world [in the past], those that are occurring, and those that will occur, are almost entirely the handiwork of the Jews. They [the Jews] turned to [these methods] in order to implement the injunctions of the fabricated Torah, the Talmud, and the 'Protocols [of the Elders of Zion'], all of which command the destruction of all non-Jews in order to achieve their goal - namely, world domination.

"In addition, they aspire to dominate the world in material, cultural, and spiritual terms in order to annihilate it. They own property and gold and they control the banks and other financial institutions, which [in turn] control the economies of the powerful countries. In this way they controlled the most [influential] people in the world, in whose power it was to entangle their countries in wars that resulted in benefits only for the Jews. Among the enticements [which the Jews used] were: 1) cash incentives; 2) offering jobs; 3) the introduction of religious elements into terrorism....

That #3 is an outstanding example of the pot calling the kettle black.

The Jews and the Islamic Caliphate

"... Abd Al-Hamid's reign was under pressure from World Zionism, under the direction of Theodore Herzl, who came to visit him in the years 1901-1902. [Herzl] proposed that Abd Al-Hamid agrees to the immigration and settlement of the Jews in Palestine, in exchange for which he would receive large sums from the Jews, [but] Herzl found that the Sultan scorned the Jews' gold, their voracious appetite, and their insolence. Sultan Abd Al-Hamid said in this context: 'Advise Dr. Herzl not to take any serious steps in this matter. I can not relinquish a single inch of the land of Palestine, which is not my personal property ... but rather the property of the Muslim nation. Let the Jews keep their millions. If the Caliphate is to come apart one day then they will be able to take Palestine for free...'

"When the Jews understood that the Sultan opposed their voracious appetites, they hastened their plot to dethrone him. They were aided by the forces of evil in the Arab homeland and in the world, who dedicated themselves to breaking off lands from [the realm of] Islam. The most important among [the forces of evil] are the Masons, the Dunmeh, [1] and the secret societies of the 'Committee for] Unity and Progress,' among whose principle members was Kemal Ataturk, the man who personally destroyed the Islamic Caliphate and deposed Sultan Abd Al-Hamid II in March, 1909...

"The Masonic, Crusader, nationalist propaganda produced in the Jewish factories of intrigue succeeded in sullying [the reputation of] Sultan Abd Al-Hamid II with all sorts of abominations. In addition, it succeeded in glorifying all of the pictures of bravery surrounding the Jew Mustafa Kemal, who represented the head of the Jewish snake, and caused it to bite deadly bites which brought on the destruction of the Islamic Caliphate. This fiend used to present himself as religious, as someone who believes in Islam, all the while inveigling the gullible, errant, and hypocritical ulama and taking advantage of them so that they might goad the laymen into doing his bidding. After his rule was well established, he began to implement the scheme which the Jews had outlined for him for the destruction of the Caliphate and for sowing division in the ranks of the Muslims...

"After Ataturk's death ... rule fell unto his successor Ismet Inonu, who continued to implement the disgraceful policies of Ataturk, which destroyed the [Islamic] countries and turned them into a tool in the hands of the Jewish worldwide order..."

The Jews Created Every Scientific or Philosophical Principle or School

"Every scientific or philosophical principle or school was either created by Jews, or else Jews were behind them:

"The Jew Karl Marx was behind communism and socialism which destroyed human nature.

"The Jew [Emile] Durkheim was behind the science of sociology which destroyed the family unit.

"The Jew [Jean-Paul] Sartre was behind licentious existentialism.

"The Jew [Sigmund] Freud was behind psychology which established the principles of wild sex and immorality.

"The Jew [Benjamin] Disraeli was behind the policy of 'the ends justify the means.'

"The Jew [Rene] Cassin drew up the program for human rights.

How's that again? The idea of "human rights" is just another destructive force, comparable to "wild sex and immorality," "licentious existentialism," and the destruction of the family unit?

And yet when I have pointed out that radical Muslims are against modern notions of human rights, all I get is name-calling from American Muslim representatives. Don't say you weren't warned, my friends.

Even though the sharks are out for Will Cummins, the Telegraph itself doesn't seem to be cowed. From Charles Moore in that courageous publication, with thanks to the many who sent this to me:

One thing we are supposed to welcome in modern Britain is "diversity". The theory is that the mixture of races, cultures and religions which we have more and more become is a source of strength and should therefore be nurtured and celebrated. Although there is a great debate about how strong the overarching idea of Britishness needs to be for the diversity to work, there is clearly much to be said for the theory. The authorities therefore set to work to accommodate, within reason, the special requests of the minorities - the observant Jew who wants to leave work on Friday in time for the beginning of the Sabbath, the Hindu who cannot eat beef, the Muslim traffic warden who does not want to wear a cap badge which includes the sign of the Cross.

Some of these questions can create real difficulty - should the Cross, woven into so many national symbols, such as the flag, which mean a great deal to us, really be sacrificed to some people's feelings? But if the wish to be distinctive is genuinely mixed with the desire to participate, then a way can usually be found.

So you might think it is good news that "Islamic banking" is now taking hold. This month saw the launch of Britain's first fully regulated and approved Sharia-compliant bank, the Islamic Bank of Britain. And the big banks have also developed Islamic banking arms. The need for these is said to arise because the Koran forbids "riba", which is interest, or usury.

Yet Muslims need money and banks need to make a living. Systems are devised to get round the ban. For example, instead of a Muslim holding a mortgage for a house, the bank can own the house and make arrangements for the Muslim gradually to buy it off the bank over a period of years. HSBC now boasts of "Our Sharia Board" stuffed with learned sheikhs and Justices from Arabia and Pakistan. Isn't all this an encouraging example of how the resourcefulness of modern free societies can achieve tolerance and market efficiency?

But when you look a little further into the question of Islamic banking, you find that it is not, in fact, required by Islam. Al-Azhar University, in Cairo, the main and ancient home of Sunni religious learning, teaches that "riba" means extortionate interest, not any interest at all, and that moderate interest should be permitted. Most Egyptian banks charge and pay interest. Even Muslims who reject this interpretation say that the doctrine of "extreme necessity" permits Muslims in non-Muslim countries to pay interest.

So what is being proposed with Islamic banking is actually a hardening of the religion, not an accommodation of its existing custom. It is rather as if Catholics, arriving in large numbers in a Muslim country, insisted that they must eat fish rather than meat on a Friday, a rule which has been dropped by the Church in modern times. And when you look at HSBC's Sharia Board you find that a couple of its members have links with the Deoband, the long-standing ultra-conservative group whose schools in Pakistan educated many of the Taliban.

Two others are Wahhabis, trained by the intolerant and puritanical school of thought that dominates the religious life of Saudi Arabia. If HSBC had a Christian Banking Board would they staff it with disciples of the Rev Ian Paisley, the Rev Jerry Falwell and the followers of the late Archbishop Lefebvre, rather than nice Dr Rowan Williams or Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor?

Read it all.

This piece by Shawn Macomber appeared at FrontPage on Thursday, detailing the ACLU's determination to avoid any appearance of concern for the security of Americans.

The ACLU has hit a new low.

The group's latest batch of press releases insists that the organization will never check their new hires against terrorism watch lists.

The problem for the ACLU is that they actually already signed an agreement to use the watch lists in order to obtain nearly $500,000 from the Combined Federal Campaign, as required by the USA PATRIOT Act. The CFC is an agency which dispenses charitable donations from federal and state employees to more than 2,000 non-profit groups, which totals some $250 million per year.

The ACLU, however, despite all its bluster about the Constitution, apparently has little use for contract law. They decided to simply disregard the list. And they probably would have gotten away with it if they could have kept their egos in check. That, of course, proved quite impossible and soon ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero was announcing to the world on NPR that while he'd printed out the watch lists, he'd "never consulted them." Furthermore, he had no intention of doing so.

When CFC Director Mara Patermaster pointed out in the New York Times that the ACLU was willfully violating government policy, the ACLU actually voted to heed the agreement and collect their cash. Then Romero, seemingly unable to repress any rash impulse whatsoever, pulled out of the agreement entirely, and began screaming the ACLU's favorite word from the rooftops, one so integral to the martyr myth the group was built on--"blacklist."

"It is increasingly clear that the Patriot Act and the government's 'war on terror' are threatening the ability of America's non-profit charities to do their essential work," Romero wrote in a letter to Patermaster. "By requiring non-profit charities to check their employees against a 'blacklist' in order to receive donations from the CFC, you are furthering a climate of fear and intimidation that undermines the health and well-being of this nation."

How will the health and well-being of this nation be affected by a terrorist employee of the ACLU setting off a bomb in New York City?

To fake a hate crime. Hate crimes offer considerable capital for the victims these days. From the Seattle Times:

Mirza Akram, 37, owner of Continental Spices Cash & Carry was arrested at the store yesterday on a federal warrant accusing him of arson. Police also said a second man helped set the July 9 fire that caused an estimated $50,000 damage.

"We suspected him right away," said Julianne Marshall, spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Marshall declined to go into detail about why Akram was immediately suspected of the arson.

After the fire was doused at the grocery, at 315 E. Casino Road, Everett police and firefighters found a gasoline can and a derogatory message directed toward Arabs spray-painted on a wall. A white cross was spray-painted on a refrigerator in the back of the store, which specializes in Pakistani, Indian and Middle Eastern groceries. Nobody was injured in the fire.

Everett police spokesman Sgt. Boyd Bryant said investigators believe the store owner set the fire because he was experiencing financial difficulty. "That was his motive, to collect from insurance," Bryant said....

Marshall said Akram will appear before a federal magistrate today to be read his formal charges and to learn his bail amount. She said the minimum mandatory federal sentence for arson is five years in prison.

Rupinder Bedi, who owns a 7-Eleven next to the grocery, said he saw Akram crying after the fire. Bedi said the store owner told him he had been harassed by some customers earlier this summer.

Bedi said Akram told him the verbal slurs didn't stop until he threatened to call police.

Samia El-Moslimany, a spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Seattle, said Akram had been in contact with her agency soon after the fire. El-Moslimany asked the FBI to investigate the fire as a possible hate crime.

From the Egypt Shadow Government. If the UN were sane, this is the sort of thing it would be working on:

To: The Leaders of The Free World

From: Egypt Shadow Government

Subject: Impose Sanctions on the Regimes of Mubarak, Sauds and Assad!

Dear Sirs,

Egypt Shadow Government (ESG) herewith calls upon you to impose sanctions on the regimes of Mubarak, Sauds and Assad in the interest of world peace and security. ESG recommends that sanctions include:

1. The freezing of all monies and assets that the said regimes have plundered from the treasuries of their respective countries and deposited in banks and other financial institutions in your countries.
2. Arms supplies embargo.
3. Trade embargo.
4. Severing of diplomatic relations.

ESG reasons for so requesting can be summarized as follows:

I. Those regimes are unelected and hence illegitimate.
II. They are despotic, brutal and atrocious.
III. They are corrupt, incompetent and irresponsible.
IV. They inspire, sponsor and support terrorism.
V. They orchestrate elaborately destructive hate campaigns against the West, peace, democracy and non-Muslims.
VI. They preach and spread Jihadi Islam which calls for the terrorization and annihilation of non-Muslims.
VII. They impoverish and cause the peoples of their respective countries to be miserable and hopeless which are precursor to terrorism, violence and unrest.
VIII. They blackmail or corrupt Western leaders with a view of causing division in the West.
IX. They obstruct the war against terrorism.
X. They obliterate and resist reform and modernization in the Middle East.
XI. They destabilize and cause to compound situations in Palestine, Iraq, Sudan, the African Horn and other third-world countries.
XII. They discriminate against and persecute minority groups, including Christians, in their respective countries.
XIII. They are involved in illegal arms and drugs trafficking.
XIV. They have secret programs for the development of WMD.

Yours truly
Omar Samy
Prime Minister

Joel Mowbray points out a glaring omission. From the New York Post:

IF al Qaeda wants to strike on U.S. soil before the elections, it still has available to it a gaping loophole it exploited pre-9/11: Saudis' easy access to U.S. visas.

Despite supposed reforms implemented by the State Department, current statistics obtained by this columnist reveal that nearly 90 percent of all Saudi visa applicants get approved. To put this in perspective, applicants in most other Arab nations -- the ones that didn't send us 15 of 19 9/11 hijackers -- are refused visas three to five times more often than Saudis.

Sept. 11 mastermind Khaled Sheikh Mohammed reportedly told U.S. interrogators that the reason 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis was because they had by far the easiest time getting visas. According to the 9/11 Commission, Mohammed personally discovered how true this was when he obtained a visa (using an alias) in July 2001 through a program known as Visa Express, which allowed all Saudis to apply for visas at travel agencies.

As troubling as Visa Express was, though, it was used by just three of the terrorists, since the program was only open for three months before the attack. Far more disturbing is the fact that Visa Express didn't lower the standards for Saudis to get visas; they couldn't have gotten any lower.

The General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, found in an October 2002 report that "consular officers in Saudi Arabia issued visas to most Saudi applicants without interviewing them, requiring them to complete their applications or providing supporting documentation." Even before Visa Express started, 99 percent of all Saudi nationals were approved.

Following a public outcry, State shuttered Visa Express in July 2002, and also canned consular chief Mary Ryan in the same week. Congress even came close to stripping the visa power from State -- an amendment failed by a single vote in committee -- but the diplomats' department staved off those efforts by pledging reform. Lots of it.

State has made some progress, such as doubling the number of names on the watchlist and breathing more life into pre-9/11 programs to identify non-watchlisted individuals who should be barred from the U.S.

What State has neglected to do, however, is enforce the law in Saudi Arabia.

Because of a provision in the law known as 214(b), all applicants are presumed ineligible for a visa until they establish their eligibility. This is supposed to be a high bar to clear, and in most countries, it is. Just not for Saudis. That's why nearly 90 percent who apply still get approved.

Pork has been removed from the menu altogether. Are Muslims the only inmates?

Also, I was just wondering: if the situation were reversed, would Abu Hamza extend the same courtesy to non-Muslim prisoners? Let's see. He is the man who has said: "Bin Laden is a good guy. Everyone likes him in the Muslim world, there is nothing wrong with the man and his beliefs." And: "If a kafir person (non-believer) goes in a Muslim country, he is like a cow. Anybody can take him. That is the Islamic law. . . . If a kafir is walking by and you catch him, he's booty. You can sell him in the market. Most of them are spies. And even if they don't do anything, if Muslims cannot take them and sell them in the market, you just kill them. It's OK." (That last one was from an Ottawa Citizen piece that is not online.)

From Big News Network.com:

British prison officials have issued a written apology to suspected Muslim terrorist Abu Hamza and others for offering pork as a prison dinner, The Sun reports.

Prison governor Geoff Hughes sent a letter of apology to all inmates, saying the mistake should never have happened.

Spicy pork chops were described as suitable for Halal diets. Clearly that is nonsense, he wrote.

A prison worker told the newspaper Hamza was livid the Muslim dietary code was ignored.

"The Muslims saw it as some sort of planned insult to their religion but that's crazy. It was just a mistake," he said.

Hughes ordered pork be removed entirely from the prison's meal offerings.

The fact that he is of "Algerian origin" makes it quite likely that he is a jihadist. From AFP, with thanks to LGF:

WARSAW, Aug 18 (AFP) - Police have arrested a Frenchman near a gas pumping station in western Poland suspecting he is preparing a terrorist attack, an official from the Polish security services said on Wednesday.

"Michel N., 23, is being investigated for preparing actions which can endanger human life and destroy property," Ewa Socha, the official following the matter at the public prosecutor's office in the western city of Poznan told AFP.

"We had sufficient information at our disposal to be able to arrest him for three months," she told AFP by telephone....

The suspect is of Algerian origin, according to Poland's Fakt newspaper.

He "was arrested Friday while he was cycling around the pumping station at Swarzedz and taking photos of the site," the newspaper said.

According to another newspaper, the Rzeczpospolita, he is suspected of "having prepared the ground to blow up the pumping station".

An attempt to get the U.S. to follow the path of Spain and the Philippines. It won't work -- at least until January. From AFP:

DOHA (AFP) - Al-Jazeera news channel aired footage of a US journalist taken hostage in Iraq reading a message from his captors in which they call on the American people to strive to "stop the slaughter" in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.

"I am an American journalist in Iraq, and I was asked to pass on a message from the Martyrs Squad, who want the American people to strive to stop the slaughter in Najaf," said Micah Garen in English, according to an Arabic voice-over.

"I am now detained and am being well treated," he said.

Garen's sister, Eva, told Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television earlier Friday that radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, who is at the center of a standoff in Najaf with US and US-backed Iraqi forces, had ordered the immediate release of the journalist.

Al-Jazeera reported on Wednesday that the so-called "Martyrs Squad" had threatened to kill Garen unless US forces withdrew from Najaf within 48 hours.

Living in Virginia, indicted in Chicago, with bank accounts in Mississippi. From AP, :

Three Palestinian activists, including an Alexandria man, have been indicted in Chicago on charges they conspired to provide money for terrorist acts in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip....

The activists include Abdelhaleem Hasan Abdelraziq Ashqar of Alexandria.

The three were charged with racketeering conspiracy for allegedly joining with 20 others since at least 1988 to conduct business for Hamas, which the government said included conspiracies to commit murder, kidnapping, passport fraud and other crimes.

Attorney General John Ashcroft says the men are behind the “murder of innocent individuals.”

Ashqar was accused of opening bank accounts in Mississippi for Hamas purposes. He and one of the other suspects was arrested late last night.

Every day I get hundreds of emails, including many, many referrals to news stories -- many of which I cannot put up simply because of time constraints. But I am grateful to everyone who sends me any such material, even though I am unable to answer every message. Anyway, about a week ago, the email stopped coming in. I thought it was strange that several people who regularly sent me links suddenly stopped all at once, but I have been too busy to give it much thought -- until just now, when someone emailed me at another address to ask why I hadn't answered a note he sent several days ago through the "CONTACT US" feature at left.

Well, I never got it. And that got me wondering what other messages I have not received. Please email me at director@jihadwatch.org for the time being, and I am going to redirect the "CONTACT US" box asap. And thanks for your patience.

Suroosh Infani writes an adoring review of Karen Armstrong's autobiography in the Daily Times of Pakistan (thanks to Ali Dashti for the link). And why not? She has said and written much that is quite useful to the radical Muslims, who are so powerful in Pakistan.

As an icon of intellectual activism and religious pluralism bridging the gap between the Muslims and the West, Armstrong has come a long way from the struggling woman who was driven by her successive failures and inner terrors to the brink of despair and suicide. In fact, her Spiral Stairway is a living testament of a divine paradox aptly summed up by the 13th century sufi poet Rumi: The seeker after Truth will never surrender for a trifle; [refusing to settle] until belief turns unbelief and unbelief becomes belief....

At the same time, Armstrong’s western stereotype of Islam as an “inherently violent and fanatical faith” changed completely as her readings of Islam showed her that “Islam was more tolerant of other faiths than Christianity”. However, the Salman Rushdie controversy made her realise that there was hardly any book in the market that could counter the inflamed western prejudice against the Prophet of Islam in an idiom the western reader could relate to. This prompted her to write a biography of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) that endeared her to many Muslims, and made her one of the compelling voices in interfaith understanding. Interestingly, however, Armstrong also makes a passing reference to an interfaith seminar in London, where a fellow panellist who called himself a Sufi Sheikh refused to speak to her, or even acknowledge her presence there.

Writing the Prophet’s biography, too, had its secret surprises. Armstrong notes that her immersion in the lived experiences of the Prophet’s time as she did the book virtually transformed her writing into an act of surrender- or Islam in the literal sense of Surrender.

Interesting. Does this mean that Armstrong has become a Muslim?

Some of her most notable works, including A History of God followed after she did the Prophet’s biography.

For a woman who became a nun as a teenager because she wanted to encounter God and be filled by divine presence, God now signifies the urge for transcendence and transformation, as indeed the desire to live a life more intensely rooted in compassion. It is a living engagement with such compassion that has transmuted Armstrong’s struggle with the darkness within, into a struggle against the darkness of religious hatred and intolerance in the world outside.

An Urdu translation of Armstrong’s autobiography and its circulation in Pakistan’s schools and seminaries could help enlarge the spiritual horizons of the young; and inspire them to acknowledge, and perhaps engage with the reality of the spiritual quest in societies and people other than their own.

In sharp contrast to this love note, I have been denounced three times (twice by the same man) in the Pakistani press. In chronological order, although the articles now appear undated:

One Two Three.

One common element I notice in all three of these: they provide no evidence whatsoever that anything I say is false. What I say is simply presented (and often misrepresented, as when Khalid Hasan says falsely: "Nor does Spencer acknowledge Islam’s great contribution to science, art and culture") as self-evidently wrong and even hateful.

What they think of me isn't important. But since I am simply working from Islamic texts, this raises an important question. So in the spirit of the quest for truth that Infani praises in Armstrong, I hereby invite Armstrong, Infani, Khalid Hasan and Lt. Col. M. Zaman Malik to a public discussion and dialogue here at Jihad Watch. Every conclusion I have come to about the need for reform in Islam, and the need for a frank public examination of what in Islam gives rise to terrorism, I have arrived at through study of core Islamic texts -- particularly but not limited to the Qur'an. These conclusions have important implications for public policy, some of which are explored in some interesting and provocative ways here by Lawrence Auster.

Therefore, it is of the utmost import, if Armstrong, Infani, Hasan and Malik are really interested in truth, to investigate these texts and see whether what I have found in them is really there, and what can be done about it. Ms. Armstrong, Mr. Infani, Mr. Hasan and Lt. Col. Malik: you can contact me at director@jihadwatch.org. I look forward to hearing from you.

Good idea, if a bit overdue, since it has been a while now since Canada itself acknowledged that it was a terrorist haven. From UPI, :

A sensor-laden aircraft, a Blackhawk helicopter and boats will operate out of a new command center in Bellingham, Wash., 15 miles south of Vancouver, said Gary Bracken, spokesman for the Air and Marine Operations.

"Along the (Canadian) border we are also faced with the smuggling of migrants, weapons, currency in both directions, as well as the possibility of terrorists or weapons of mass destruction crossing the border using traditional smuggling routes," he said....

Another command center will open by the end of the year in Plattsburg, N.Y., and over the next two years, more centers are expected to be put in place in Montana, North Dakota and Michigan, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. said.

Adnan Gulshair El Shukrijumah, who may like to have lunch at Denny's, is being watched for along the Texas border. From AP, :

EL PASO, Texas (AP) - The FBI has issued an alert for a suspected al-Qaida member who may try to cross the U.S. border through Arizona or Texas.

Adnan Gulshair El Shukrijumah, 29, is suspected of being an al-Qaida cell leader and has been wanted by the United States since 2003, authorities said Tuesday.

The latest information places him in Honduras with the intent of crossing the U.S.-Mexican border, said Art Werge, a spokesman for the FBI's office in El Paso, Texas.

"We certainly don't want him crossing into the United States because his plan is to conduct terror operations," said Werge. "He is believed to be one of the most dangerous cell leaders below the leadership of al-Qaeda."

The thief was asking clerks details about global positioning systems before the theft. From AP, :

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) A joint task force on terrorism has been called upon to help investigate a series of robberies at Southern California electronics stores in which the thief asked about global positioning systems.

The latest robbery occurred Wednesday in Laguna Niguel when a man spent about 25 minutes talking on a cell phone and asking employees about global positioning systems, authorities said. The man then pulled a sawed-off shotgun out of his duffel bag and stole a TV and walkie-talkies.

Investigators have learned of four similar Radio Shack heists in Long Beach, Anaheim, Rowland Heights and Pomona in the last several weeks. Some of the other incidents also began with phone calls asking directions from Garden Grove, said Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino.

"We can't predict what is going to happen, but are adequately prepared," says Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. From the New York Daily News, :

Hundreds of detectives in the NYPD's elite specialized units are being ordered to put aside cases and ride the rails as extra security as early as this weekend, the Daily News has learned.

Narcotics, vice, gang and organized crime investigators will join hundreds of transit and patrol cops on the subways - creating a formidable underground police force to combat terror threats leading up to and during the Republican National Convention, sources said.

A directive, handed down by Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly on Wednesday night, requires many of the detectives to don uniforms, although some will remain in plainclothes, police sources said.