February 2005 Archives

Just in from Reuters, with thanks to Rebecca Bynum:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has fairly recently asked his chief ally in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, to consider the territory of United States as a target for terrorist attacks, a U.S. counterterrorism official said on Monday.

"There has been communication between bin Laden and Zarqawi with bin Laden suggesting to Zarqawi the U.S. homeland as a target," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official said the communication was "a fairly recent development" and contained no specific threat to the United States. But the official declined to provide details for fear of compromising U.S. anti-terrorism efforts.

Jihad Watch Advisory Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald with a modest proposal:

Wealth is a weapon of Jihad. And of course, damaging the economies of the Infidels, or causing them to spend money unnecessarily (how much is the Western world now spending to monitor the very Muslim populations that were heedlessly permitted to enter the countries of non-Muslim peoples and polities, without the necessary pondering of the implications of such a move.

For Muslim immigrants carry with them in their mental baggage certain immutable items that are completely different from what all non-Muslim immigrants bring with them. When Castro deliberately let loose many criminals (the Mariel Boat people), thereby inflicting them on the United States, that was of course bad enough. But a completely different level of menace and threat is involved with Muslim immigrants throughout the Western world, including those who, when they first arrive, seem entirely inoffensive and unthreatening. But they carry with them a mental meme, a dormant virus, that any number of events or personal setbacks or deliberate inculcation of a more fervent faith can trigger into something more virulent. And dangerous not to the health of the carrier, but to the circumambient Infidels.

The "wealth" weapon can be used to spread mosques and madrasas worldwide -- which is why everything must be done to diminish Saudi and other Arab Muslim revenues. Besides, the more Muslims have to work, and work hard, and the more they have to worry about markets, and pleasing customers, and so on, the less time for using all that free time to become resentful of Islam's place in the world, and its right to dominate, and the perfidy of all non-Muslims, beginning with Israel, which is near at hand, and with the United States, the most powerful and redoubtable of Infidel states, the one least likely to share the appeasement now on view in the bureaucracy of the E.U., and among the assorted hirelings -- such as Chirac -- in European countries.

Longtime Jihad Watch reader DC Watson's latest:

The CAIR Mission Statement declares that "CAIR's mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding."

Fair enough. But let's revisit some statements made by members of this group -- in public and on the record -- about their vision of America, and how they’ve put in practice their mission of "encouraging dialogue, and building coalitions that promote justice and understanding."

Omar M. Ahmad, CAIR's Board Chairman: "Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran . . . should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth." (Ahmad began to deny having said this, over five years after it was first reported, but the original reporter sticks by her story.)

Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR spokesman: "I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future."

Nihad Awad, CAIR Executive Director: "I am in support of the Hamas movement."

How's that for American patriotism, respect for our Constitution, and tolerance of all religions? Oh, but there's more.

1) Muslim cleric Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman was convicted and is now in prison for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

CAIR’s response: Despite the vast evidence of Sheikh Omar's guilt presented in the case, CAIR called the conviction a "hate crime" against Muslims.

2) 2001: President Bush orders the closing of a Muslim charity, the Holy Land Foundation, after it was found to be raising money to support Hamas terror attacks.

CAIR’s response: It called Bush's move "unjust" and "disturbing," and circulated a petition exhorting the government to unfreeze HLF assets, claiming "there has been a shift from a war on terrorism to an attack on Islam."

3) Tuesday, February 15th, 2005: Fox’s "Hannity & Colmes" featured Ahmed Bedier, Communications Director for the Florida chapter of CAIR. From the program:

Hannity: "Did you not have a spokesman for your group at one time, a guy by the name of Royer that was on your staff that was convicted?"

Bedier: "I think several years ago we had that individual in our group. And if you're inciting that somehow we're responsible for the actions or behavior of the individuals after they left our organization, that would be similar to somebody that worked for FOX five years ago and then commits a crime and FOX would be responsible for it."

The "guy by the name of Royer" that Hannity asked Bedier about is Randall Todd "Ismail" Royer, former CAIR Communications Specialist. He is now serving a 20-year prison term for terrorist plotting.

But did Royer really, as Bedier claimed, commit his terror-related crimes after he left CAIR? Timelines listed in Royer’s indictment, specifically for September 2001, and a news article that demonstrates Royer speaking as a representative of CAIR on September 18, 2001 are on record. His crimes took place at around the same time. (See pages 15-20 of the pdf.)

If Royer’s conviction were an isolated incident, Bedier’s response to Hannity’s question might have had some legitimacy. However, it is by no means isolated:

In September 2003, Bassem K. Khafagi pleaded guilty to charges of visa and bank fraud in federal court in Detroit. At the time of his arrest, Khafagi was Community Affairs director with CAIR.

12/17/2002: Ghassan Elashi, the founder of CAIR's Texas chapter, according to his indictment, was involved in selling technology, goods and commodities to designated terror-sponsoring states.

In July 2004, the Holy Land Foundation, an Islamic charity organization, was shut down by our Government and indicted on charges of providing material support to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization. Lo and behold, the name of the Holy Land Foundation’s Chairman of the Board was ... Ghassan Elashi.

Details of all this can be found here. See pages 6-12.

And again, who petitioned the U.S. Government to unfreeze HLF’s assets? Wasn't it CAIR?

(On page 8 of the indictment, incidentally, the name Sheik Ahmed Yassin appears. This is the same individual whom CAIR is on record as labeling an "Islamic religious leader." This is the same "religious leader" who was instrumental in founding the jihad terrorist group Hamas.)

Ghassan Elashi also has an interesting family member. He is the cousin of Nadia Elashi, aka Nadia Marzook, who happens to be the wife of Mousa Abu Marzook, aka Abu Omar, Deputy Chief of the Hamas terrorist organization’s Political Bureau. For details, see:

http://news.findlaw.com/cnn/docs/infocom/uselashi121702sind.pdf (Pp. 6-9)
http://www.4law.co.il/hlf2.htm
http://www.dallasarena.com/t040730cbs11.htm
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=13175
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=9981

No matter what side of the political arena we are on, it is of the utmost importance that we always recognize when and from where an enemy is coming at us, retain the ability to turn in their direction -- and relegate the enemy to history.

We would be dishonored if we ever allowed the United States to be brought down from within. Unless, of course, all of the information about CAIR in this column is purely coincidental.

Please keep this information in mind. Be aware: there are foxes in our henhouse, and their removal has become necessary for the good of the country.

No democracy for dhimmis. From AINA, with thanks to Nicolei:

Mubarak Sliva (58) sits in front of "Muntaka" coffe shop by an old table and drinks tea out of a little glass with his friends Michael and Jacob, He watches Shiites and the Kurds celebrating their election victory which will allow them to rule the country. Again and again Mubarak looks at this but seem like every time he feels like being stabbed in the heart. His friends feel sad also. The "Muntaka" is social center of the city of Qaraqosh located 15 kilometers distance from Mosul. All 30,000 inhabitants are Christian Assyrian who were prevented fom voting during the Iraqi elections."No one heard our voices, we were deprived of our constitutional right as in the Saddam Husseins time, nothing has changed", shouts Mubarak Sliva.

East of Mosul, there are many places where only Christians live but because they wear the typical Arab clothing they are not noticed. Out of the 200,000 Assyrians in the region 90 percent were not allowed to vote. "The large iraqi parties celebrate, and the USA wants to establish democracy in Iraq but the minorites will not be part of it", complained Mubarak Sliva: " not even once any body cared to mention in Baghdad that we were deceived. It was alleged that they did not know what happened. That is a lie. Three weeks ago the American consul from Mosul visited us."

Louis Markus Ayoob (45), the deputy mayor and representative of the electoral committee for Qaraqosh, has testified that it was Kurd's intention to keep Christians from voting.

In response to EU requests that Turkey treat its religious minorities more fairly. From the Turkish Daily News, with thanks to Nicolei:

The Religious Affairs Directorate, as a reaction to missionary activities in Turkey and European Union demands for religious expression, has prepared a sermon that will be read on March 11 describing missionaries as the current embodiment of the Crusaders.

The sermon says: “Some powers, afraid of the incredible expansion of Islam, had formed crusading armies to wipe out Muslims. They failed because the Crusaders were fighting a self-confident society whose members believed in justice. The same powers are trying to sever our people's links to Islam because they see it as the biggest obstacle to their domination.....”

From Norwegian Kafir's superb new weblog, Fjordman. Links throughout at the Fjordman site:

Member of Parliament for the rightwing Progress Party, Ulf Erik Knudsen, was accompanied by a bodyguard during a debate arranged by the Immigration Council in the town of Drammen outside Oslo this week. The debate was about whether or not Islam could function as a bridge with Christianity:

He is an internationally certified bodyguard, hired by the party, Knudsen confirms. According to him, both the police and the security services at Parliament have been informed, since MPs for the Progress Party have received a marked increase in the number of death threats recently. Knudsen claims the threats are aggressive, but not specific in nature, saying that ”the next time somebody from the Progress Party takes part in a debate about immigration, the person will be taken care of forever”. – I don’t know for how long I will employ a bodyguard, but it is clear that the security precautions during this fall’s parliamentary elections will be extensive. Usually, it is primarily party leader Carl I. Hagen who gets special protection, but this may now change. Knudsen in particular is exposed to these kinds of threats for other reasons: - I have on many different occasions voiced my support for Israel in the conflict with the Palestinians. Last year this lead to a number of serious threats against my person.

Drammen has one of the highest percentages of Muslim immigrants of any Norwegian city, but being harassed for suspected pro-Israeli opinions isn’t a problem unique to Drammen. A municipally employed teacher in Kristiansand was prevented from wearing a Star of David around his neck. Kristiansand Adult Education Center, where the man works, ruled that the Jewish symbol could be deemed a provocation towards the many Muslim students at the school.

Read it all.

Over the headline of this story CNN (thanks to Jeffrey Imm) has a banner that reads: "IRAQ: Transition of Power." Yes, but to whom is power in transition?

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A suicide car bomber Monday morning drove into a crowd of Iraqis outside a government medical office in Hilla, killing at least 125 and wounding up to 200 others, Iraqi government and health officials said.

Iraqi police recruits were lining up outside the building to be given physicals, officials said.

Looks as if they'll be a natural for the EU. Note the straightforward Islamic references from the "secular" Turkish media, sounding as strong as anything we have seen from any forthright jihadist. From MEMRI, with thanks to all who sent this in:

"Bush is America's Hitler. Like Hitler, he too has become a curse for the world. If the world's sensible leaders don't unite against Bush to stop him, a great number of people will die because of his ambitions.

"Hitler was very racist. Bush, who is an ally of the Zionists, belongs to the racist philosophy too. The beliefs of Bush's evangelical church coupled with Jewish racism, which exceeds Hitler's, are sufficient proof that the 'Sharon and Bush duo' are militants of the same fanatical philosophy.

"Hitler said that he would establish a new world order if Germany won. Bush is after similar invasions. First he targeted Afghanistan and Iraq. Later he expanded his invasion map to include 22 more Islamic countries where he wants to change the order and the borders. He says that he wants to bring the likes of Karzai and Allawi [to these countries] to power, and in doing so establish his colonial empire....

"Conclusion: It is clear that these developments will finally come to the end that our beloved Prophet [Mohammed] promised us. Our Prophet Lord said: Around the time of 'judgment day' there will be a war between my peoples [Muslim believers] and the Jews. And the Jews will be vanquished.During that war the rocks will speak and say, 'O Muslim, there is a zionist hiding behind me, come and kill him…'" [3]

'The Pervert Enemies of Islam'

In the Islamic daily Milli Gazette, columnist Burhan Bozgeyik wrote: "At the present, the American administration is in the hands of the worst enemies of Islam. Their hate is so deep that no amount of Muslim blood [spilled by them] satisfies them. Tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of (Muslim) dead, seem little for them....

In the Turkish business daily Dunya, columnist Dr. Burhan Ozfatura, who is a former mayor of Izmir, wrote: "It is my sincere belief that the USA is the biggest danger for Turkey, today and in the future. At the present the U.S.A. is run by an incompetent, very aggressive, true enemy of Islam, brainwashed with evangelical nonsense, a blood-thirsty team that is a loyal link in Israel's command and control chain."

A provocative and important story from the Times Online, with thanks to Twostellas:

Not long ago, Holland prided itself as being the most tolerant and welcoming country in Europe for immigrants and asylum seekers. It had the credentials to prove it. So many have settled there, ethnic "minorities" are often in a majority. In the great Dutch cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and the Hague, the newcomers already outnumber the native Dutch among under-20-year-olds. They will soon be an absolute majority. Although the slump that followed the 1973 oil shock removed the urgent need to recruit labour, the Dutch accepted that the "guest workers" in the country could remain. The policy was to create a multicultural society in which cultural and ethnic differences were accepted and appreciated....

No longer. A sea change has taken place. It was evident after the death last month of a young Dutch Moroccan, identified only as Ali El B. Several hundred Moroccans congregated on the street where a driver had run him over, reversing into him after he had stolen her bag. They had made a shrine on the pavement, with flowers and candles, and there was talk of racism and murder. The crowd set off on a march to pay their respects at a mosque not far away. The boys were in a long gaggle at the front. The girls, neater, were in disciplined ranks at the rear. Some had Moroccan flags draped over their shoulders. They chanted in Arabic for a while, and passers-by looked and scurried on.

The mosque was on the ground floor in a row of old gabled houses, some converted into offices, that looked out over a broad waterway. A racing skiff, a pair, was splashing through the wavelets thrown up by a blustery gale. Television cameramen darted round the crowd as it milled outside the mosque. An elderly Dutchman looked down from his flat at the sea of hoods and scarves and red-and-green flags, with an utterly forlorn expression.

Nobody doubts that Ali El B would once have become a martyred innocent. Now, attempts to portray him like that were sat on fast and hard. The fiercest comment came from Geert Wilders. The hard line this right-wing MP takes on immigrants and terrorists has made him the fastest-rising star in the political firmament.

It has also brought threats of beheading from radical Islamists, so he is now shackled to six bodyguards and has secure lodgings on army bases. "All Moroccan troublemakers should be expelled," Wilders says. "The government wants to expel terrorists. The same process should be used for street terrorists like Ali El B. Detain them, de-naturalise them and deport them." Wilders is a firebrand. Rita Verdonk is the minister for immigration and integration, and a mainstream Conservative. She, too, is implacable. "If the boy hadn't stolen the bag," she says, "he'd be riding around on his scooter today."

Read it all.

Evidence of a robbery, despite the spin in this story, does not at all mean that there was no religious motive. DeFazio himself, you'll notice, acknowledges that. This should be obvious to everyone in light of the recent revelation that the Saudi government’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs has distributed a tract in American mosques stipulating in regard to a Muslim sexual offender that "it would be lawful for Muslims to spill his blood and to take his money." This would also apply to non-Muslims who committed another capital offense: proselytizing among Muslims.

Meanwhile, there are numerous questions in this case that remain unanswered. I hope more details will be revealed soon, or that I myself will be in a position to reveal them.

From The Newark Star-Ledger, with thanks to Miira, who also comments: "Those accounts should have been frozen within hours of the first claim the police had of robbery as a motive! And why aren't the banks providing the ATM surveillance photos to America's Most Wanted, as well as to other media outlets, to help law enforcement and concerned citizens identify the criminals? Something stinks to the high heaven on this!"

Indeed it does.

For nearly a week after he, his wife and two daughters were killed in their Jersey City home last month, someone withdrew "thousands" of dollars from Hossam Armanious' bank account using his ATM card and secret password, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said yesterday.

The ATM card was used on "a number of different occasions" at banks in the Heights section of Jersey City, where the family lived, and in Midtown Manhattan, DeFazio said. The withdrawals continued for several days after news of the slayings was broadcast and splashed across front pages throughout the region, he said.

The ATM withdrawals further corroborate the likelihood of robbery as the motive in a crime many in Jersey City's tight-knit Egyptian Coptic community believe may have been religiously motivated. The Armaniouses were devout Coptic Christians.

"When we take this, in conjunction with the fact that no money whatsoever was found in the home, it's corroborative of the robbery, greed motive," DeFazio said. "We're still not discounting other aspects, but it is corroborative."...

"Thousands" of dollars were withdrawn from his account, though DeFazio would not disclose the exact total, the number of transactions, nor the banks involved. He also would not comment on whether investigators believe the person using the card was the same person, or people, who killed the family.

The last withdrawal was made "a shade less than a week" after the killings took place, he said.

Many ATMs are equipped with video cameras, but DeFazio declined to say whether investigators had obtained photos or video of the person, or people, who used Armanious' card....

At a press conference in Washington, D.C., two weeks ago, relatives of the victims said they are convinced robbery was not the motive because the family's modest means would make them unlikely targets.

Church leaders and others in the Coptic community have speculated about a religious motive, saying they believe Armanious was targeted by Muslim extremists for criticizing Islam in Internet chat rooms.

"We have not been able to corroborate this Internet ... speculation," DeFazio said. "So I'm not going to say for sure that that is not involved, but I am going to say that we haven't been able to corroborate it and we have corroborated this monetary motive."

Asked specifically about possible religious motive, DeFazio said, "It could still be. It could be a hybrid."

From ANI, with thanks to Nicolei:

The former premiere of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan has said that jihad has greatly helped the Kashmir cause as it has forced India to come to the negotiating table for finding a solution to the Kashmir issue.

Khan in an interview to The News said, that jihad had inflicted huge financial losses on India as New Delhi had the onerous task of maintaining an enormous military establishment in Kashmir to thwart the danger posed by jihadis.

Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer discusses the deleterious effects of the astoundingly poor media coverage of Islam and jihad, led by the New Duranty Times, in FrontPage this morning:

Needed more than ever after 9/11 is solid, probing, intelligent, honest reporting about Muslims and Islam. But not only has this not materialized; if anything, reporting has gotten worse. From the New York Times to the smallest local papers, with remarkably few exceptions, the mainstream media continues to publish misleading, incomplete, distorted material that leaves Americans ignorant of the true nature and dimensions of the terrorist threat. If the stakes weren’t so high, this would be just another instance of the media bias that has been exhaustively documented for decades; but in light of the continuing activity of the global jihadist movement, it becomes something much more urgent.

The Times, in an unconscionable breach of journalistic ethics, revealed the real name of Bat Ye’or in a recent article. But perhaps even worse from the standpoint of their abysmally inadequate reporting on Islam was that they labeled her one “of the most extreme voices on the new Jewish right,” which is not only arrant nonsense, since Bat Ye’or is in no sense a figure of “the right,” but also Times-speak for “pay no attention to this person.” She “argues in her latest book, ‘Eurabia: the Euro-Arab Axis,’ that Europe has consciously allied itself with the Arab world at the expense of Jews and the trans-Atlantic alliance.” But she is of “the right,” you see, so the Times feels no need to examine the evidence for this that she marshals so relentlessly in Eurabia.

Incidentally, no sooner had the Times sniffed at Bat Ye’or that the Asia Times reported on a jihadist cell in France that with connections “throughout Western Europe in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom.” Could this be a function of Europe’s longstanding policy of allying itself with the Arab world? No, you can’t say that — that would be “right wing.”

Like a great garbage scow pulling in its wake the trash in the water, the Times carries along lesser papers. These two examples from this week are not significant for the influence of the papers themselves, but because they reflect the mainstream approach of reporters today: credulous and uninformed to an extent that they are not even able, much less willing, to challenge the disinformation that is coming in a steady stream from all too many Muslim spokesmen.

Shoe bomber Richard Reid's accomplice. More evidence that the hatred and jihad preached at the Finsbury Park Mosque bore bitter fruit, and more may be yet to come. Note also (thanks to Carol) that in its lead paragraph the BBC still refers to Badat as a "suspect," despite his guilty plea. From the BBC, with thanks to Nicolei:

British terror suspect Saajid Badat plotted to blow up an aeroplane on its way to the US using a "shoe bomb".

Badat, 25, of St James Street, Gloucester, conspired with fellow Briton Richard Reid and a Belgian terrorist to make the bomb.

He trained as a suicide bomber but later backed out of the plot. Badat will be sentenced on 18 March.

On Monday at the Old Bailey, he pleaded guilty to conspiring to place a device on an aircraft in service.

More than 100 homes in the city were evacuated during a police search of Badat's house in November 2003, the court was told.

The court heard he had agreed to be a suicide bomber with the intention of destroying a passenger aircraft while it was in the air en route from Europe to the United States.

Plastic explosive

He received training both in Afghanistan and Pakistan and had been given an explosive device designed to evade airport security and destroy an aircraft in flight, said Richard Horwell, prosecuting.

A press release from the Christian Copts of California:

Christian Copts of California: Even If It Leads to Cells of Radical Islamists in America, Justice Demands That Jersey City Police Search Every Clue to Find Murderers of Armanious Family

The Armanious family fled Luxor, Egypt to escape Islamist extremists and came to America where they could express their freedom of speech. It wasn't far enough. They have been murdered. Is it religious motivated?

To the Copts, Egyptian Christians - an American community of several hundred thousand, this is old stuff ... it's why they fled Egypt. But here? In America? Are quiet and hidden Islamist extremist cells coming to life in America? These cells, comprised of U.S. citizens - nice guys next door - don't share our love of the First Amendment: freedom of speech, freedom of religion.

Christian Copts of California will hold a candle light vigil on February 27, 5 to 7 PM at the Santa Monica, California pier (Ocean and Colorado) to rouse the Jersey City police to investigate fully every clue of the Armanious murder.

A large turnout of Coptic Christians from all of Southern California is expected.

Contact: Mounir Bishay of the Christian Copts of California, 310-641-3387 or Calcopts@aol.com

Honor killing in Germany. Note the attitudes of the students. Hatin Sürücü update. From The Telegraph, with thanks to EPG:

Shortly before nine o'clock one Monday evening earlier this month, Hatin Sürücü left her five-year-old son asleep in their small apartment in the Tempelhof district of Berlin and made her way to a bus stop in the main Oberlandgarten Strasse. Minutes later, a volley of pistol shots rang out but no one came to help Mrs Sürücü, 23, who was of Turkish origin. A bus driver discovered her body, with multiple wounds to the head and chest, about 40 minutes later and called the police.

Last week, Mrs Sürücü's three brothers, aged 18 to 25, who were arrested six days after the attack, were formally charged with the murder. They have pleaded not guilty and were remanded in custody.

Police are investigating whether Mrs Sürücü was the victim of a so-called "honour killing" after she made the decision to leave the cousin with whom she had been forced into an arranged marriage eight years earlier.

The police said that Mrs Sürücü had frequently complained of being threatened by her brothers.

If they are found guilty, Mrs Sürücü's murder will be the sixth "honour killing" within Berlin's 200,000-strong Muslim community in four months. Shocking as that is, the reactions of some Turkish immigrant children at a school whose main gates are yards from the scene of the shooting has caused even graver concern.

Asked by teachers what they thought of the murder, several 13-year-old pupils are said to have implied that they thought Mrs Sürücü had "earned" her death. "Well, she lived like a German, didn't she?" remarked one. Mrs Sürücü got married in Turkey at the age of 15 but returned with her son to her birthplace, Berlin, more than five years ago.

Why is it an un-Islamic sentence? Because al-Badawi (who is not the Islamic apologist who owes me a million bucks) no doubt thinks that a Muslim court should support his jihad activity, and not hinder it. From "Yemen upholds 1 death verdict in USS Cole blast," MSNBC, with thanks to TS:

SAN’A, Yemen - A Yemeni appeals court on Saturday upheld the death sentence against a militant convicted in the 2000 al-Qaida bombing of the USS Cole and reduced a death sentence to 15 years in prison against another defendant.

The death sentence was upheld against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi suspected of being an associate of Osama bin Laden.

The court overturned a death sentence against Yemeni militant Jamal al-Badawi, sentencing him instead to 15 years in jail.

“This is an un-Islamic and illegal sentence,” al-Badawi shouted from inside the defendant’s cage.

Another story showing that the threat of death for those who leave Islam is not a relic of history, but is very real today. And it's a positive development that the appeals court is actually taking this seriously. "Christian Afghan fears for life if deported," from Knight Ridder, with thanks to Twostellas:

Years after his conversion to Christianity, Ahmad Ahmadshah, 43, a Minneapolis cabdriver, explained that moment to a U.S. immigration judge. Ahmadshah described how he had received a Bible from friends in Pakistan and read it in secret at his home near Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1988.

"I read a book, and my heart accepted," Ahmadshah said. "I believe that this is the book that says the truth."

Today, Ahmadshah is convinced that his faith could cost him his life.

He has lived in the United States since 1996, but U.S. immigration authorities are trying to deport him for visa violations - despite evidence that his sister was killed for her Christian faith in 1993 by religious soldiers answering to a warlord still active in Afghanistan.

This month, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals made Ahmadshah's deportation less certain. A three-judge panel threw out an order from the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals, which had rejected his application for asylum.

The judges ordered immigration judges to reconsider his case, taking into account how apostates - Muslims who reject Islam - are treated in Afghanistan.

"The murder of Ahmadshah's sister points to a pattern of violence perpetrated against Christian converts and was coupled with a threat directed at Ahmadshah himself," the appeals court wrote.

Another case showing how how jihadists obtain important documents, with willing help from short-sighted Americans out to make a buck. "2 La. men first to face terrorism charges in Mississippi," from AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Two Louisiana men have appeared in U.S. District Court on the first terrorist charges filed in Mississippi.

Lamont Ranson and Cedric Carpenter, both of New Orleans, were arrested Feb. 18 and charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, conspiracy to defraud the United States and an attempt to provide material support to terrorists....

A Jackson television station reported that the two men bragged they had contacts at the Mississippi Highway Patrol and could obtain material to produce false driver's licenses and other forms of identification.

Court records indicate they agreed to do so in exchange for cash and heroin from Abu Sayyaf, a radical Islamic separatist group based in the Philippines, WLBT-TV reported.

"The information alleges they could obtain Mississippi drivers licenses, false documents that could be used by terrorists to enter the country, remain in the country, travel in the country," U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton said.

The Bangladesh Journal (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist) gives us one for the "Comrades! Production is up!" Department:

Dhaka, Feb 26: Bangladesh Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan dismissed the notion of presence of international terrorists in Bangladesh, saying that there may be some “local goons” working in the name of religion, who are being arrested.

“There is a difference between international terrors and local goons,” he said, asserting that there are no international terrorists in this country.

He said the government would not spare any person or group who engages in any anti-state activities by capitalizing on Islam. Many Islamic thinkers hailed the government decision.

Here is a more likely piece on the jihad in Bangladesh.

Sharia alert. From "Integration Tops European Fatwa Council Meeting" in Islam Online, with thanks to Nicolei:

DUBLIN, February 24, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Eminent scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi has inaugurated the 14th session of the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR) with a call for the sizable Muslim minority in Europe to integrate into and contribute to the advancement of society.

“A Muslim should stick to the balanced and moderate Islam. He should be integrated into the society where he lives without violating the rules of Shari`ah,” Sheikh Qaradawi, the head of ECFR, told the opening session on Wednesday, February 23.

Of course, Qaradawi is the famous moderate who recently declared his hope that he would die in jihad warfare.

Anti-dhimmitude at Brandeis. "My problem is not the anti-Zionism or even that many of them are anti-American, but that they are third-rate." Such that they hide behind their degrees in order to avoid unpleasant debate on the facts, eh, Omid?

"A lesson in academic politics," from the Jerusalem Post, with thanks to JS:

When the controversy at Columbia University erupted last fall over charges of anti-Israel bias in courses on the Middle East, many American Jews saw the brouhaha as another alarming sign that pro-Arab academics had gained the upper hand in university Middle East studies departments.

Mideast studies had become polemicized, and American Jews sought to ameliorate matters by pushing for the creation of Israel studies chairs and ensuring that courses on the Arab-Israeli conflict were taught by professors sympathetic to Israel.

But where many American Jews saw political bias, Brandeis University president Jehuda Reinharz saw something else: academic mediocrity.

The controversy underscored for Reinharz what had become an endemic problem in the field: Politics had superseded scholarship as a test of who was fit to teach the Middle East, with the result that political indoctrination had replaced research-driven academic inquiry.

"My problem is not the anti-Zionism or even that many of them are anti-American, but that they are third-rate," Reinharz said in a recent interview with the Jerusalem Post at his Brandeis office, referring to university Middle East studies departments. "The quality of the people [in Mideast studies] is unlike any of the qualities we expect in any other field."

Reinharz has set out to change that by creating a new center for Middle East studies at Brandeis, which he hopes will set a much-needed example of academic rigor in the field.

"We need a first-rate center for Middle East studies that is not pro or con anything," Reinharz said.

Amen! And if it were really politically neutral and academically honest, it would have room for an Institute of Dhimmitude Studies and a Center for the Study of Jihad. And more.

What natural right does a man with this kind of record have to enter Canada? "Terrorist returns: Peter MacKay urges Ottawa to consider revoking citizenship," from the National Post, with thanks to Martin:

TORONTO - One of Canada's most notorious terrorist leaders has returned home to Montreal after serving four years in a French prison for his role in an international jihadist network.

Fateh Kamel, a 44-year-old Algerian-Canadian who headed a Montreal-based extremist cell, arrived in Montreal on Jan. 29 aboard an Air France flight, sources told the National Post.

A charismatic shopkeeper who led a double life as the international terrorist operative "Moustapha," Kamel was dubbed the "Islamist Carlos" because of his remarkable exploits around the world.

"I am GIA," he once said in a conversation intercepted by Italian counter-terrorism investigators. GIA is the French acronym for the Algerian Armed Islamic Group. "Killing is easy for me."...

Captured in Jordan in 1999, Kamel was tried in Paris in 2001 and convicted for his involvement with terrorist groups. Although sentenced to eight years' imprisonment, he was released early for good behaviour. He has a Canadian wife and son.

Peter MacKay, the Conservative Party's deputy leader and public safety critic, urged the government to consider revoking Kamel's Canadian citizenship. Canada has used such tactics against Nazi war criminals.

"By all means we should be examining revocation, and certainly there is cause for the Canadian government, for our officials, to examine whether he was truthful at the time of his entry into this country," Mr. MacKay said.

"I have a real problem with us just saying we'll let bygones be bygones. I don't think most Canadians have much comfort level knowing that this convicted terrorist is now back in our country."

Peter MacKay for PM!

More British madness: how is it racial discrimination to require a man not to walk off his job at odd hours? From the BBC, with thanks to Twostellas:

An appeals body has allowed a challenge by Mohamed Loke, from Aston in Birmingham, to an earlier employment tribunal's rejection of his claim.

He claimed he was not allowed to pray at his local mosque while he worked at Calthorpe Special School in 2003....

Mr Loke told the earlier hearing he believed he was racially discriminated against because it was every male Muslim's duty to attend Friday prayers.

Calthorpe School caters for children with severe and profound learning difficulties.

The school claimed that on 9 June, 2003, Mr Loke was responsible for one-on-one care for a pupil and was told he could not attend prayers, but did anyway.

Sharia alert: this is what results from Qur'an 4:34, which sanctions wife-beating, and Islam's easy divorce. From IRIN, with thanks to Twostellas:

NURISTAN, 24 February (IRIN) - The wooden hut of Zulaikha, a 45-year-old midwife, remains the only ray of hope for destitute women in the Nuristan valley, in northeastern Nuristan province. Dozens of women gather around Zulaikha, many of them after travelling from snow-capped mountains after a day's journey by foot.

While some come for treatment, others have been severely beaten by their husbands or forced to leave their homes and children. Many women claim that their husbands have sent them back to their parents after coming down with tuberculosis (TB), the province's chief health concern, or that they had become weak as a result of poor nourishment.

"My husband beat me and kicked me out after my sickness [TB] became serious," Bibi Hawa, a 30-year-old housewife, told IRIN, after speaking with Zulaikha, the only literate woman and health worker in Kamdish and Bargmatal districts, with a population of over 100,000.

"He threw me out to take revenge on my father who had received 30 cows as a dowry for my wedding," she exclaimed.

For a long time in Israel it has looked as if one side was determined to make concessions in exchange for peace, despite the other side's manifest inability and likely unwillingness to secure peace in exchange for those concessions or any other. But here at last Sharon strikes a different, non-dhimmi pose. From Reuters, with thanks to JS:

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, responding to a Palestinian suicide bombing that killed four Israelis, said on Sunday new Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas must "wipe out" militant groups before peacemaking can resume.

"There will not be any diplomatic progress, I repeat, no diplomatic progress, until the Palestinians take vigorous action to wipe out the terror groups and their infrastructure in the Palestinian Authority's territory," Sharon told his cabinet.

Will they lead to the lair of the mastermind? From the World Tribune, with thanks to Nicolei:

"Abu Qutaybah was responsible for determining who, when and how terrorist network leaders would meet with Al Zarqawi," the government said in a statement on Feb. 25.

Al Duleimi was a "key lieutenant for the Zarqawi network, arranging safe houses and transportation as well as passing packages and funds to Zarqawi," the government said. "His extensive contacts and operational ability throughout western Iraq made him a critical figure in the Zarqawi network."

The statement said another Al Zarqawi aide was captured in the operation. He was identified as Ahmad Al Rawi, or Abu Othman, who also helped arrange meetings for Al Zarqawi.

It had a circulation of 10,000 from among that distressingly large tiny minority of extremists. "Germany shuts down Islamist newspaper," from DPA, with thanks to Jeff Lastname:

BERLIN - Germany closed down on Friday a Turkish-language Islamist daily newspaper that has denied the Holocaust.

Interior Minister Otto Schily put a banning order on the Yeni Akit publishing house, which brings out the European edition of Anadoluda Vakit. The title means "the times in Anatolia". Prosecutors have been collecting evidence against the newspaper for months.

The Interior Ministry in Berlin said the closure was ordered because Vakit had incited to ethnic hate. The newspaper had attacked Israel, Jews in general and the fundamentals of western society....

Despite warnings, the newspaper recently ran a letter headed "Hitler was right". In December last year, a member of parliament held up an issue that claimed "There Was No Holocaust" and appealed to the government to ban the paper.

A day off on a dhimmi holiday? No way! And don't miss the part about the hand grenade: they don't even do that at Evander Childs, a famously lethal school located in my old haunts in the Bronx.

"Iraqi students protest day off on Jewish Sabbath," from AP, with thanks to Charles Martel:

It's not that the Iraqis do not want time off - they just want the extra day moved to Thursday.

"We don't want Saturday! It's a Jewish holiday!" students chanted as they marched in protest last week to the governor's office in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

A high-school student pulled out a hand grenade and started waving it, and police fired into the air to disperse the crowd. At least three students reportedly were injured in the ensuing scuffle.

At Baghdad's University of Mustansariyah, a statement issued by a student union believed to be allied with the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr described Saturday as "the Zionist holiday" and said the government order should not be followed.

"We declare a general strike in the University of Mustansariyah to reject this decision and any decision aimed at depriving Iraqis of their identity," the statement said.

Louis-Noel Harfouche Bar-Levannon is a member of the Knights Templar and an astute, witty, and absolutely fearless Lebanese non-Arab. He has started a new blog, Ecce Libano. Don't miss his incisive and illuminating explanation of Lebanese identity, "Why I Am Not Arab" -- particularly relevant after the Hariri murder.

Bravo, Louis! Let us hear more from you.

From a press release by the Anti-Terrorism Coalition:

The ATC is now back after having been down since January 11, 2005, when terrorists struck their hosting companies Super Verticals, Yahoo and the ATC websites. "After the 1-11 Attacks the ATC Leadership decided not to return until high security could be assured and today we have that security." stated ATC President Stalfos. The ATC is now up at http://www.atcoalition.net.

On January 13, 2005, ATC Vice President Benyamin B stated, "We shall return." "And today, we have indeed returned," stated Vice President Benyamin B earlier today. "On behalf of the Leadership of The Anti-Terrorism Coalition (ATC), I would like to make the following message heard load and clear: We will not be stopped by terrorists. We will not let the terrorists prevail over the anti-terrorism community. We are united, we are determined, and we are here to stay. We shall prevail!" said Benyamin B.

At the same time, ATC Intelligence Spokesman Robert Johnson charactorized ATCI's ongoing investigation as a success. During the ATCI Investigation of the 1/11 Terrorist Attacks, the perpetrators attempted to track down ATC Vice President Benyamin B. "It is true that they attempted to track him down." stated the ATCI Spokesman.

Could reality be creeping up even on the media elite? This New York Times story (thanks to Nicolei) about Dutch emigration mentions social tensions, "Islamic militants," and rising crime, but not racism or intolerance.

AMSTERDAM - Paul Hiltemann had already noticed a darkening mood in the Netherlands. He runs an agency for people wanting to emigrate and his client list had surged.

But he was still taken aback in November when a Dutch filmmaker was shot and his throat was slit, execution style, on an Amsterdam street.

In the weeks that followed, Mr. Hiltemann was inundated by e-mail messages and telephone calls. "There was a big panic," he said, "a flood of people saying they wanted to leave the country."

Leave this stable and prosperous corner of Europe? Leave this land with its generous social benefits and ample salaries, a place of fine schools, museums, sports grounds and bicycle paths, all set in a lively democracy?

The answer, increasingly, is yes. This small nation is a magnet for immigrants, but statistics suggest there is a quickening flight of the white middle class. Dutch people pulling up roots said they felt a general pessimism about their small and crowded country and about the social tensions that had grown along with the waves of newcomers, most of them Muslims."The Dutch are living in a kind of pressure cooker atmosphere," Mr. Hiltemann said.

There is more than the concern about the rising complications of absorbing newcomers, now one-tenth of the population, many of them from largely Muslim countries. Many Dutch also seem bewildered that their country, run for decades on a cozy, political consensus, now seems so tense and prickly and bent on confrontation. Those leaving have been mostly lured by large English-speaking nations like Australia, New Zealand and Canada, where they say they hope to feel less constricted.

In interviews, emigrants rarely cited a fear of militant Islam as their main reason for packing their bags. But the killing of the filmmaker Theo van Gogh, a fierce critic of fundamentalist Muslims, seems to have been a catalyst.

"Our Web site got 13,000 hits in the weeks after the van Gogh killing," said Frans Buysse, who runs an agency that handles paperwork for departing Dutch. "That's four times the normal rate."

Mr. van Gogh's killing is the only one the police have attributed to an Islamic militant, but since then they have reported finding death lists by local Islamic militants with the names of six prominent politicians. The effects still reverberate. In a recent opinion poll, 35 percent of the native Dutch questioned had negative views about Islam.

Tiny minority of extremists update. Dr. Bernard Haykel is a professor of Islamic Studies at New York University. In a mostly pointless New York Times story (thanks to rgans) about discussions over the meaning of jihad at the Al-Moayad trial, "Defense in Terror Trial Paints a Rosier Picture of 'Jihad,'" he says this:

"There are a billion plus Muslims in the Arab world, 90 percent of whom support Hamas," he testified. "If they were all terrorists, we would be in dire trouble."

No, Dr. Haykel, they are not all terrorists. But if they support Hamas, they are terrorist sympathizers, and in many cases, terrorism enablers. This underscores the fact that I have long stressed: that the jihad ideology as espoused by Hamas is not a "hijacking" or "twisting" of Islam, but is rooted in its core teachings and central texts. Or I suppose the whitewashers would have us believe that 90% of Muslims worldwide have gotten their religion wrong.

He was a devout Muslim with no history of militancy? Didn't he learn in his devout Qur'an reading to treat the unbelievers with tolerance and respect? Or did he learn to make war against them, as is commanded by Sura 9:29 and other passages of the Qur'an? "Palestinians Arrest 2 for Israel Bombing," from AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian security forces on Saturday arrested two suspected militants in connection with a suicide bombing that killed four Israelis at a Tel Aviv nightclub, acting on orders from Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to track down and punish those responsible.

Palestinian security officials pointed to the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah, which has been trying to disrupt an informal Mideast truce, as the apparent mastermind of the attack. Abbas hinted at Hezbollah involvement, holding a "third party" responsible for the bombing.

Hezbollah, which is funded by Iran, has hundreds of West Bank gunmen from various Palestinian militant groups on its payroll....

The bomber was identified as Abdullah Badran, 21, a university student from the village of Deir al-Ghusun near the West Bank town of Tulkarem. His parents said he was a devout Muslim but had no history of militant activity.

Honor killing in Germany. "I'm not saying you should murder, but Hatin's lifestyle just didn't fit the way traditional Muslims live." From Deutsche Welle, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

On a cold afternoon this week, Hatin Sürücü gazed gravely from a large poster behind a bus stop lined with flowers, cards and candles.

To the people who came to this bleak part of Berlin's Tempelhof district for Tuesday's solemn vigil -- called not by the city's Muslim community but a gay and lesbian organization -- the image of the young woman in a headscarf, a baby in her arms, was familiar from newspapers and television. A few notes at the memorial read, "Hope you get a better deal in your next life," and "Live a life on your own terms."

"It's a scandal," said Ali K, 33. "All Muslims in Berlin should take to the streets to protest." Yasemin, 22, said, "It's horrific. All Hatin was doing was leading her life the way she wanted."

But it was a choice she paid for with her life. On Feb. 7, 23-year-old Hatin Sürücü was gunned down at the aforementioned bus stop. She died on the spot. Shortly afterwards, three of her brothers -- who reportedly had long been threatening her -- were arrested. Investigators suspect it was a so-called "honor killing," given the fact that Sürücü's ultra-conservative Turkish-Kurdish family strongly disapproved of her modern and "un-Islamic" life....

At Berlin's Turkish-dominated neighborhood near Kottbusser Tor in the Kreuzberg district, 17-year-old Erkan, a high school student of Turkish origin, was divided about the issue. "I'm not saying you should murder, but Hatin's lifestyle just didn't fit the way traditional Muslims live," he said.

From C-Span:

On Sunday, February 27 at 7:30 am

Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis
Bat Ye'or

Description: Bat Ye'or talks about her new book, "Eurabia," at the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC. She looks at the relationship between European and Arab countries since the mid-20th century and argues that Muslims living in Western Europe have significantly influenced their governments' attitudes toward Israel and other countries in the Middle East. During the talk, she also discusses why Turkey should not be allowed into the European Union and addresses the question of European anti-Semitism. Bat Ye'or answers questions from the audience following her remarks.

I told you so update. Note that Sharia is being presented as an improvement for women upon their situation in Saddam's relatively secular Iraq. From the Christian Science Monitor, with thanks to all who sent this in:

BAGHDAD – Covered in layers of flowing black fabric that extend to the tips of her gloved hands, Jenan al-Ubaedy knows her first priority as one of some 90 women who will sit in the national assembly: implementing Islamic law.

She is quick to tick off what sharia will mean for married women. "[The husband] can beat his wife but not in a forceful way, leaving no mark. If he should leave a mark, he will pay," she says of a system she supports. "He can beat her when she is not obeying him in his rights. We want her to be educated enough that she will not force him to beat her, and if he beats her with no right, we want her to be strong enough to go to the police."

Broadening support for sharia may not have been the anticipated outcome of the US mandate that women make up one third of the national assembly. But Dr. Ubaedy's vision is shared by many members of the United Iraqi Alliance, a list of religious Shiite candidates that won a majority of seats. She says the women on the UIA list are meeting now to coordinate their agendas and reach out to women from other parties.

How their presence translates into action not only will shape women's rights in Iraq but goes to the heart of how much religion will dictate law.

"When you have a fairly large number of women [in a legislature], it brings women's issues to the forefront," says Marina Ottaway, an expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. "On the other hand, [in Iraq] you have a majority of women elected from religious political parties, and this process will take place in the midst of discussions of the constitution and role of Islam in the constitution."

Stop the presses! Religious intolerance in (gasp) secular Turkey, heir of the illustrious Ottoman Empire! "Santa Claus statue row in Turkey," from the BBC, with thanks to Susan:

Residents of the Turkish province of Antalya have held a rally to denounce the removal of a statue of St Nicholas, commonly known as Santa Claus.

Local authorities replaced the statue of the saint holding a Bible with a plastic Santa-Claus.

The statue was a donation from Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who has sent a complaint to the Turkish president....

Despite being a predominantly Muslim country, Turkey is proud of its St Nicholas connection.

Is that so? Then what explains this incident?

The Russian artist who sculpted the statue, Gregory Pototsky, reacted angrily to its removal.

"It is not decent to do such things with gifts. There is nothing about religious tolerance here," he told the Newsru.com web site.

Demre has become a major tourist attraction, with Russians comprising a large part of international holiday-makers in Antalya.

Syrian intelligence behind the Iraqi jihad? But wait: the Syrians are secular Arab nationalist Baathists. Surely they wouldn't have anything to do with the mujahedin, would they? Remember the words of Michel Aflaq, founder of the Baath Party: "Islam is Arab nationalism" (see Sylvia Haim, Arab Nationalism, 1962, p. 64).

From AP, with thanks to Mohamed Ibn Guadi:

The bearded man in a gray jacket and shirt who appeared on the U.S.-funded Iraqi state television station Wednesday had a stark message about the insurgency -- he was a Syrian intelligence officer who helped train people to behead others and build car bombs to attack American and Iraqi troops.

"My name is Anas Ahmed al-Essa. I live in Halab. I am from Syria," he said by way of introduction -- naming what he said was his home in Syria.

"What's you're job?" he was asked by someone off-camera. "I am a lieutenant in intelligence."

Then a second question. "Which intelligence?" The reply: "Syrian intelligence."

And so began a detailed 15-minute confession broadcast by al-Iraqiya TV, in which the man, identified as 30-year-old Lt. Anas Ahmed al-Essa, said his group was recruited to "cause chaos in Iraq ... to bar America from reaching Syria."

"We received all the instructions from Syrian intelligence," said the man, who appeared in the propaganda video along with 10 Iraqis who said they had also been recruited by Syrian intelligence officers.

The jihad cannot end, and cannot be subject to negotiations. The Western nations continue to imagine that they can negotiate with the adherents of a totalitarian, intransigent, violent ideology. This is how such negotiations will always end. From Reuters, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

"Islamic Jihad claims responsibility (for the bombing) in Tel Aviv," a spokesman told Reuters. "This is a martydom operation that shows we are not committed to the cease-fire because Israel is continuing to kill and arrest Palestinians."

In other words, Israel can only hope for peace if it stops defending itself.

It was certain to happen; the only question was when. From the New York Times, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

TEL AVIV, Israel, Feb. 26 - A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up tonight among a crowd of young Israelis waiting to enter a nightclub near Tel Aviv's beachfront late, shattering a truce that had largely been holding.

Several people were killed and about 50 were injured at the Stage nightclub, according to initial reports by the Israeli police and rescue workers.

The crowd was waiting on the sidewalk outside the club, just a few yards from the beach, when the bombing took place at around 11:30 p.m., witnesses and officials said. Much of Israel shuts down for the Sabbath from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, but in secular Tel Aviv, the clubs were just beginning to open at the time of the blast.

"A single terrorist exploded in a line of people waiting to get into the club," the police chief of Tel Aviv, David Tzur, told Army Radio in a broadcast monitored by Reuters.

No satisfactory explanation for this phenomenon has yet been found. "On November 22, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security sent an intelligence bulletin to police agencies to alert them that terrorist groups have shown an interest in using laser beams to try to bring down airliners."

From AP, with thanks to Bruce:

ROMULUS, Mich. -- Two Northwest Airlines pilots said laser lights were shone into their cockpits as they were about to land their planes at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, authorities said....

"They were making their approaches, and the pilots reported seeing a green laser-like light shining towards their aircraft,'' Booth said....

Over the past four months, the FAA has received dozens of reports of lasers being pointed at airplanes in several states. Laser illuminations can briefly disorient a pilot during the critical flight stages of ascending and descending.

Six airline pilots told authorities they saw a laser while approaching Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on Sunday evening. No lasers were aimed at the airplanes' cockpits, the FBI's Dallas office said.

It is unfortunate that the only people saying things like this are Jean-Marie Le Pen, whose name is already so closely associated with racism and anti-Semitism. It further obfuscates the fact that Europe is facing an ideological threat, and that the only reason to object to Muslim population growth in Europe is not because Muslims are of a different race from Frenchmen. The court condemns Le Pen simply for noting this population growth; its decision shows that it is the official French view that such growth is benign, and no dissent is tolerated. But the court seems to have said nothing about the Sharia or the possibility of its coming to France with this growing population, and leading to the overhaul of French society and the denial of French history and culture. "Far-right leader’s conviction upheld," from AP, with thanks to Ian:

Le Pen, leader of the National Front party, was ordered to pay a £6900 fine for inciting racial hatred in comments in Le Monde newspaper two years ago.

Le Pen has been convicted of racism or anti-Semitism at least six times.

He blames immigrants, especially those from North Africa, for high unemployment and wants to deport all illegal immigrants.

He wants to deport illegal immigrants? Horror of horrors!

In the interview, Le Pen urged the French to beware of "the day in France when we have 25 million Muslims, not five million" — the estimated population of Muslims in France.

The appeals court in Paris said such comments could incite hatred. "In denouncing such a threat, Jean-Marie Le Pen tends to stir in the reader a feeling of hostility and rejection toward Muslims depicted as dominators," the written ruling stated.

Here is another case of dhimmitude coming to the UK. Islamic law stipulates that a dhimmi who does not behave respectfully toward a Muslim voids his contract of "protection." Riaz Burahee probably thought that 92 threatening phone calls was a perfectly reasonable response to an insult from a Jew. It reminds me of a recent incident in which a Christian church in the U.S. was sending out flyers inviting people to attend. A Muslim called the pastor in hot anger, telling him never to send him such material again -- and repeating again and again that he had "no right" to send him such a thing in the first place. And the church indeed had no right to do so, from the standpoint of the laws of the dhimma, which have become ingrained into Middle Eastern culture and so still frame interaction between Muslims and non-Muslims in many areas.

From SkyNews, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

A Muslim man bombarded synagogues with telephone calls for three days threatening to kill, rape and blow up Jews.

Riaz Burahee, 25, of Edmonton, north London, who has photographs of Osama bin Laden at his home, admitted 10 offences.

Wood Green Crown Court heard Burahee told police he made the calls because he had been insulted by a Jew.

The court heard he had made as many as 92 calls, telling people to leave the building or be bombed.

Burahee, who described himself as a Muslim with strong religious beliefs, said he had no links to terrorism.

Photographs of Bin Laden and militant US civil rights activist Malcolm X were found in his room.

ABC News, home of America Held Hostage Day XXX, and Iran get together at Starbucks and talk about how great things are going since they broke up. From ABC News:

Although it was turned into a museum long ago, TV cameras have rarely been allowed in. But it recently was renovated, which may explain why Iranians proudly showed ABC News what they now call the "den of spies."

Souvenirs seized by the hostage-takers are antiques now -- including old computers and circuitry, a device to destroy documents, and a massive code machine from the National Security Agency.

One of the central exhibits here is what they call the "glassy room" for top-secret meetings. Majid said it is set up more or less how they found it when the American spies operated here -- though he said they removed the green velvet drapes and added mannequins to depict one of the alleged secret meetings.

I wonder if the mannequins are discussing withdrawing support from the Shah? "Aw, c'mon. What's the worst that could happen?"

"We have no relationship with America now, so it's better," one visitor said.

Well, I hate terrorism and like alliances against terrorism, especially with Muslim nations who are trying to keep their own jihad terrorists in check. So why is it that when Musharraf says this, a little voice in my head echoes, "Good new, comrades! Steel production is up, and has exceeded quota according to the five year plan!"

Am I just cynical? From Reuters, with thanks to Jeff Imm:

Pakistan has broken the back of terrorism in the country, killing and arresting hundreds of militants and destroying the structure of their organizations, the president of the Islamic nation said Thursday.

Pervez Musharraf, who survived two assassination attempts by militants linked to al Qaeda just over a year ago, said an army offensive in semi-autonomous tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan had led to the capture of guerrilla bases and forced the leaders into the mountains.

Are there Potemkin guerilla bases?

"We have had tremendous success over terrorism. Their back has been broken and they are on the run," the president told an audience of government ministers, military and media at his official residence in Islamabad.

And then, no doubt, the audience stood for sustained spontaneous applause.

Anti-dhimmitude in Holland. Why aren't other countries doing more of this? From Expatica, with thanks to Nicolei:

AMSTERDAM — A cleric from a Rotterdam mosque has become the fourth imam to be ordered out of the Netherlands, it has been reported.

The fourth man was brought to an airport on Thursday, the biggest selling daily newspaper in the Netherlands, De Telegraaf, reported.

Although he was not named, the newspaper cited "well-informed sources" identifying him as an imam at Iskender Pasa Camii mosque on the Insulindestraat in the Rotterdam district of Bergpolder.

He was being expelled after being found to have provoked hatred and inciting people to jihad or holy war.

Three capitalists sell the rope by which they will be hanged. "Three admit trying to sell documents to Iranians," from the Brownsville Herald, with thanks to Kemaste:

February 24, 2005 — Three members of an alleged ring accused of attempting to sell fake immigration documents to Iranian nationals pleaded guilty in federal court to various counts of fraud and identity theft.

Port Isabel residents Roberto Aburto, his wife Azalia Gaona, Miriam Palestina and Rutilio Marquez are accused taking $1,050 to make fake Social Security cards and green cards in August for three Iranian men.

Aburto, 31, Gaona, 27, and Palestina, 26, were arrested during two Sept. 9 raids in Port Isabel, but Marquez remains at large and is presumed to have fled to Mexico.

According to federal court records, the ring’s activities had been monitored by the U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement and the Social Security Administration as part of an ongoing investigation.

Between Aug. 2 and Sept. 9, the group allegedly agreed to make nine sets of fake Social Security cards and green cards for undercover agents for $2,770.

Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi continues to prove his reputation as a "reformist." A new MEMRI report (thanks to Nicolei) on this aging child prodigy, this darling of the Islamic Society of Boston:

"When I was only nine, the people of my village gave me the title 'sheikh [who teaches] the Koran and religious science.' I have devoted myself to religious propagation [ da'wa ] for the sake of Allah, and I have not relinquished the mission that Allah entrusted to me. I see myself as appointed by Allah. I will never withdraw from this mission. I hope my life will end with a virtuous death, like [the death] sought by warriors fighting Jihad for the sake of Allah. I do not defend falsehood or the tyrants … but I defend and am beneficial to the affairs of my nation. I will not relinquish my mission whatever accusations are leveled at me regarding terrorism or other matters." [1]

The London Arabic-language daily Al-Hayat reported that Al-Qaradhawi said: "I am not afraid of the Mossad or the Americans." He also said: "The Mossad has threatened to eliminate me, and I hope that Allah will grant me martyrdom [ shahada ] for His sake and that my life will end by my dying at the hands of the enemies of Islam." According to the daily, Al-Qaradhawi hoped to die "a virtuous death" and that this meant "that the head would be severed from the body." [2]

Meanwhile, on the dhimmi front:

London Mayor Livingstone: 'Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi's Ideology is Utterly Remote from Extremism'

During the solidarity conference, a film about Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi was aired, in which London Mayor Ken Livingstone appeared. According to a report on Al-Jazeera TV 's Internet site, Livingstone said: "We were surprised by the onslaught of unbridled distortion of facts in the papers, which described this man as a wild animal and presented him as the jurisprudent of Satan... We were therefore of the opinion that it is important to conduct a comprehensive inquiry, in which we will consult with the world's ' ulema and study Dr. Al-Qaradhawi's 140 books.

"The results of the report were astounding. It transpired that most of the fabrications that distorted Dr. Al-Qaradhawi's words come from the institute called 'The Middle East Media Research Institute,' which purports to be an objective institute interpreting the words of the Muslim ' ulema from around the world. However, we have discovered that an ex-officer in the Israeli intelligence, the Mossad, is running this institute and that the institute systematically distorts not only Al-Qaradhawi's words, but the words of many [other] Muslim ' ulema as well. In most cases, this distortion is comprehensive, and therefore we printed this document." [3]

According to the Qatar daily Al-Sharq, Livingstone noted that after special committees had studied Al-Qaradhawi's ideology by reviewing over 140 books, as well as sermons and lectures by Al-Qaradhawi, it was found that "Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi's ideology is utterly remote from extremism." [4]

How did they establish that she consented? This article doesn't say, but it was probably from the testimony of the men involved. Traditional Islamic law disallows a woman's testimony in such a case. From the BBC, with thanks to Kemaste:

A teenage girl and two young men in Iran have been sentenced to lashes for having sex.

The court dismissed the girl's claim that [she] was raped. It said she had sex of her own free will, the official Iran Daily newspaper reported.

The girl was sentenced to 100 lashes because her accusations of rape and kidnap could have landed her partners a death penalty, the Tehran judge said....

The young men in the case were sentenced to 30 and 40 lashes each. ...

Under Iranian law, girls over the age of nine and boys over 16 face the death penalty for crimes such as rape and murder, while capital punishment can be imposed in certain cases of illegal sexual relationships.

Nine year old girls facing the death penalty for rape: do you think they are the perpetrators?

Rusty Shackleford over at the Jawa Report (thanks to Nicolei) has some very interesting additional information about the Bush assassination plot: "Did Omar and Faten Ali and know of their sons jihadism?"

The jihadi connection only gets deeper. From this NY Times article (ht: Katherine) we learn that Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, the man indicted on charges of working with al Qaeda to plot the assassination of the President of the US, taught Islamic studies to children at the Dar Al Hijrah Islamic Center while still in high school. According to the Washington Post, the Center has been a gathering place for Islamist and jihadi activity in the US.

Two of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers worshiped at the mosque and several of the group's founders were active in the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. It is no surprise that the Muslim American Society pushed for Ahmed Abu Ali's release and its members showed up in force to laugh at the judge during Ali's indictment. The Muslim American Society is also associated withe the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Muslim Brotherhood is the original al Qaeda. Al-Ikhwan, as it is known in Arabic was started in 1928 as an Islamist organization with the goal of seeting up the world-wide Islamic state. The radical goals of the Muslim Brotherhood and the political teachings of its founder were the inspiration behind Ossama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization.

Are we to believe that Mr. Omar Abu Ali was not aware of the Salafiyya dogma being taught at the Mosque he attended? A dogma which calls for the introduction of sharia law into the Muslim world? A dogma which calls for violent jihad against regimes in the Middle East?

Additional links about the Brotherhood and the Center over at Rusty's place.

The Sharia is not in force anywhere except Saudi Arabia and Iran, you'll hear. Christians enjoy rights equal to those of Muslims in other Muslim countries, you'll hear. Then why are there so many stories like this one?

From IOL.ie, with thanks to Nicolei:

A Pakistani court has convicted and sentenced a Christian man to seven years in prison for insulting Islam’s holy book, the Koran, as he practiced magic, police said today.

A court delivered the ruling on Monday against Bashir Masih, 35, in the town of Chistian, about 90 miles northeast of Multan, a major city in eastern Punjab province, said Haji Nazir Ahmed, a local police official.

Masih was arrested in August last year in the cotton-growing village of Chak 109 Fateh after a Muslim man complained to police that Masih was insulting the Koran by putting his legs on the holy book while he lay in bed at home, Ahmed said.

Ahmed said that after his arrest Masih told police he would place the Koran on his feet and tear out pages from the holy book on which he would write magic spells to put inside amulets that he’d give to fellow Christians.

This doesn't sound to me like anything anyone with the brains God gave a hamster would admit to doing in Pakistan, no matter what the actual facts of the case. This sounds to me more likely to be just another example of the way Christians are victimized by the blasphemy laws, which are so easy for Muslims to use against Christians they for some reason don't like or want around.

Masih was sentenced under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws and moved to a jail in the nearby town of Bhawalnagar. He can appeal the sentence....

Under the blasphemy laws, anyone who insults the Koran, Islam or its prophet Muhammad can be punished by death. Throwing the holy book on the ground, touching it with feet or saying derogatory things about it are deemed insulting.

Human rights groups have demanded that the blasphemy laws be abolished. Christian groups allege persecution under the legislation.

Jihad in the Philippines update. The Philippines, you may recall, is one of those places that was left off a list of countries with "serious extremist movements," recently drawn up by a putative Islamic expert. From AP, with thanks to Nicolei:

MANILA -- Officers have arrested four suspected members of al-Qaida-linked terror groups who were planning to bomb an airport, malls and a church in the Philippines, police officials said Thursday.

Two Indonesians and a Malaysian, all suspected members of the regional Muslim terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, and a Filipino allegedly from the Abu Sayyaf extremist group, were arrested in southern Zamboanga city in December, but their detentions were not announced immediately to allow officials to track their companions, police officials said.

The arrests were to be officially announced later Thursday.

Police intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the men's targets included a Roman Catholic church and the airport in the bustling port city of Davao and unspecified malls in Manila.

There were other possible targets in the southern cities of General Santos and Cagayan de Oro, they said. Some of the four were arrested at a wharf in Zamboanga after they came off a local ferry, the officials said.

Last night I spoke in Beverly Hills, California as part of a panel with Bat Ye'or, the pioneering scholar of dhimmitude, and Rafael Israeli, author of the magnificent Islamikaze, a study of the ethos of suicide bombing.

It was a great evening. Bat Ye'or spoke with her usual fire and precision about the Islamization of Europe; Israeli, who is a comic talent worthy of late night television, added important information about the jihad ideology in general. I added some details about jihadist activity in the United States.

I noticed this morning that some people were asking about tapes of the event. I don't know details yet, but I did see last night that we were being filmed. I will find out how and when the video will be available -- if it will -- and keep you posted here at Jihad Watch.

Let them into the EU! Note that Kart has drawn Erdogan's ire (that's right: he has irked the Turk) by noting the encroachment of Islam into public life in this secular state. From the LA Times, with thanks to Nicolei:

ANKARA, Turkey — This nation's best-known political cartoonists gathered in Istanbul on Wednesday to protest legal action taken by the prime minister against artists who criticized him through their work.

Members of the Turkish Cartoonists Assn. accuse Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of trying to stifle free expression even as Turkey is preparing to launch talks to win membership in the European Union.

"We cartoonists have long faced pressure from politicians," Metin Peker, the association's president, said at a news conference.

"Just as we thought those dark days were over, we have been confronted with this."

Peker was referring to a defamation suit filed recently by Erdogan against Musa Kart, a cartoonist for the secular daily newspaper Cumhuriyet. Kart was fined $3,500 by an Ankara court last week on charges of assailing Erdogan's honor in a cartoon that depicted him as a cat enmeshed in a ball of wool.

The work was published by Cumhuriyet in May, when the Turkish leader proposed a legislation that would allow graduates of Islamic clerical training schools to enter secular universities. In the cartoon, Erdogan, who is entangled in yarn labeled for the Islamic religious schools, says: "Do not create tensions. We shall resolve this matter."

Turkish secularists accused the former Islamist leader of doing just what the cartoon figure warned against by trying to increase the role of Islam in public life. The bill was rejected by the country's secularist president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer.

Jihadwatch Director Robert Spencer will take part in a panel discussion; thanks to Drudge's weather report, he knew to leave his umbrella in Secure Undisclosed Locationville.

Radical Islam’s Penetration of Western Civilization

7:00 pm Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Nessah Educational and Cultural Center
142 So. Rexford Dr. Beverly Hills, California

The panel will consist of three authors of world renown

Bat Ye’or, author of Eurabia: the Euro-Arab Axis (2005) and Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide (2003)

Robert Spencer, author of Onward Muslim Soldiers (2004) and Islam Unveiled (2002)

Raphael Israeli, author Islamikaze: Manifestations of Islamic Martyrology (2004) and War, Peace and Terror in the Middle East (2003)

The panel with be moderated by Los Angeles journalist Avi Davis.

Attendance: $10.00

Thanks to Jimmy the lgfer who first alerted me to this salient detail about the valedictorian accused of plotting to kill President Bush. The school has been in the news before.

From AP

He attended the Islamic Saudi Academy and graduated as valedictorian.
The private school's teachings have come under scrutiny since the Sept. 11 attacks. Federal court documents in a case against another academy graduate suspected of terrorism indicate that student discussions following Sept. 11 took an anti-American bent and that some students considered the attacks legitimate "payback" for American mistreatment of the Muslim world.

Last year, the school also faced criticism for using textbooks that taught first-graders that Judaism and Christianity are false religions.

"Give peace a chance," by James Carroll in the Boston Globe, recounts a Jewish/Christian/Muslim meeting in Jerusalem to stand "against a global holy war."

In Jerusalem this week, Jews, Christians, and Muslims have gathered to examine the ways their own respective theologies -- "I'm saved, and you're not!" -- have sacralized this habit of negation, making it a source of political denigration, even violence. More accurately, we Jews, Christians, and Muslims are searching our traditions for countering sources of affirmation of the "other," precisely as a way of standing against a global holy war.

This is the 18th International Theological Conference at the Shalom Hartman Institute, a long-established gathering of distinguished Jewish and Christian theologians (founded by Rabbi David Hartman and Harvard Divinity School Dean Emeritus Krister Stendahl), which, some years ago expanded to include Islamic religious thinkers.

This year several dozen men and women are arrayed around one large block of tables, about evenly divided among the three traditions, and among Europeans, Americans, Israelis, Palestinians, and others from the Middle East. Notre Dame, Duke, and the University of Arkansas are here; so are Lund, Haifa, Al Quds, and Bethlehem universities. A leading Catholic authority on Thomas Aquinas is here, together with a Protestant expert on Roger Williams, and a major scholar of Jewish political thought. A foremost Muslim-American scholar is here.

When this three-way seminar began a few years ago, the discussions were braced by the local war between Israel and Palestine. That remains, but now the new threat of a "civilizational" war between Islam and "the West" underscores the relevance of otherwise abstract discussions. But even before the "dialogue" begins, the presence at the table of Muslims from Europe and the United States requires an opening up of stereotypes: Are there no Muslims in "the West"? And what about the Palestinians who are Christian? As each group reexamines its attitude toward "the other," the titles of the formal presentations indicate the range of the week's moral and political reckoning:

"Catholic Struggles Toward Full Religious Liberty; Appreciating Vatican II."

"The Earliest Concept of an Islamic State with Non-Muslim Citizens."

"Beyond Bi-Polarity: Shared Civic Discourse of Jews and Non-Jews."

"Roger Williams on Civil Rule and the Religiously Other."

"Building an Islamic Theology of Pluralism: Pre-modern Sources."

"Ways of Peace in Rabbinic Literature."

Such topics might once have seemed impossibly arcane, but not here; not now. Justice for Palestinians, authentic security for Israel -- the very peace of the world are all at stake in such questions. For every person at the table, any temptation to devotional piety is preempted by the acknowledged fact of history, put succinctly by a rabbi; "Religion has never been a source of tolerance. Again and again we must ask, 'Why has there been all this killing in the name of God?' " Instead of glibly honoring the Christian tradition as a source of peace, a Jesuit salutes the civic tolerance made possible by the French Revolution. A Muslim declares simply that the self-aggrandizing of much contemporary Islamic thought represents "a new idolatry." Speakers from all three traditions admit the gap between the shared ideals of compassionate love and the failures of the past and present.

There is more than a whiff of what in Islam Unveiled I term "theological equivalence" in all this. "Shared ideals of compassionate love"? I wonder if James Carroll would be so kind as to show where the ideal of compassionate love for non-Muslims can be found in Islam.

Also, Nicolei observes: "Today, Jews and Christian do not kill their apostates or infidels. Neither do their synagogues or churches teach such doctrines. Nor are there secular laws in nations of Judeo-Christian heritage that punish apostates or laws based on a dhimmi system. Jews and Christians can separate religion from the state; Muslims tenets simply do not allow for such separation. The fact is that Muslims are free to practice Islam, proselyte and build their mosques in the West, while such liberties are restricted or non-existent for non-Muslim religions in Muslim nations -- particularly in the Arabian peninsula." Let's see a seminar deal with all that.

I have often noted in speeches and writings that the Islamic jihad ideology mandates that Muslims must wage war against non-Muslims after first inviting them to become Muslim. If they refuse, they must be fought until they convert or submit to second-class dhimmi status, paying the special tax for non-Muslims -- jizya -- and submitting to various institutionalized forms of discrimination and harassment.

When I explained all this recently in a talk in Boston, a prominent U.S. Muslim told me and the audience during the Q & A that it was unlike any Islam that he knew. I have many reasons to doubt that that is entirely the case, and here is another: an essay in the Arab News (thanks to Romy) calling on Muslim forces to follow exactly these procedures, in imitation of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad's example.

Note also that Osama bin Laden has invited the American people to accept Islam on several occasions, including this one.

The Prophet was keen to instruct any troops commander dispatched on any mission that he must first explain to the people the message of Islam and call on them to accept it. Only if they reject it and choose to fight that Muslims could fight them. Never did the Prophet or his commanders launch a surprise attack on people, killing them before offering them a chance to understand Islam, reflect on its message and either accept it or make peaceful arrangements with the Muslim state. Even when God instructed His Messenger to terminate treaties with Arabian tribes, He ordered him to give them a four-month notice during which they could determine the attitude they wanted to take. Islam never goes into war for an easy gain, or for land annexation, or to establish its authority over others. It goes into war to protect its people and to ensure that others have a free choice.

Should it ever happen that a Muslim army does not observe Islamic rules requiring that the other side are given sufficient notice of the choices available to them, the matter is soon rectified. In the early Islamic period, the people of Bukhara sent a small delegation to Damascus, the capital of the Muslim state, complaining to the Caliph that the Muslim army took over their city without giving them notice and offering them the three standard alternatives of 1) accepting Islam; 2) paying jizyah, which is a tribute confirming loyalty in return for protection against any outside attack; or 3) war. The Caliph, Umar ibn Abd Al-Aziz, appointed a soldier of that same army to look into the complaint. The delegation went back, dejected, feeling that a soldier could never rule in their favor against his own commander. However, when they reported the results of their mission to their people, some of them suggested that they would lose nothing if they pursued the matter with the occupying Muslim army. They did so, and the one-soldier tribunal sat to look into their complaint. They were amazed when they heard that soldier make his ruling and telling his commander: “God has sent Muhammad to mankind with His guidance. He did not send him to be a military conqueror. You and your army should leave the city immediately, and after a while you can approach it with the normal warning giving it the normal choices.” Having already experienced life under the Muslim army over the few months it took their delegation to go to Damascus to see the Caliph, the people of Bukhara requested the Muslim army to stay and in time the majority of them became Muslims....

A possible lead in this story. From the Mail & Guardian Online, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Kenyan authorities believe three terrorism suspects detained at the weekend are potential suicide bombers who may be linked to this month's murder of a British Broadcasting Corporation journalist in Somalia, a senior police official said on Monday.

The trio had documents detailing the fatal shooting on February 9 in Mogadishu of BBC producer Kate Peyton as well as other documents indicating that they had been trained to carry out suicide attacks, the official said.

In addition, the official, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the three were believed to have ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

"They had documents detailing the killing of the BBC and documents that indicated they were trained suicide bombers," the official said.

"The documents don't say whether these men were actually involved in the murder but they give precise details of the killing," the official said.

This is what has come from Musharraf's repeated assurances that he is fighting against "extremism" in Pakistan. From the Indo-Asian News Service, with thanks to Fanabba:

Islamabad, Feb 22 (IANS) In what is seen as the first signal of Pakistan's assertion against US policies in its area, Islamabad has ordered the army to shoot at US troops if they intrude into the country from Afghanistan without authorisation.

"Pakistan has issued new rules of engagement permitting its army to fire at US forces that cross the border from Afghanistan without coordinating first," the Daily Times newspaper said Tuesday in a report from Washington.

Ranking House Dhimmicrat Charlie Rangel repeats what by now are well-worn pieties re Islam. From NewsMax, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Top House Democrat Charlie Rangel said Tuesday that it was an act of discrimination to label groups like Hezbollah "Islamic terrorists."

Asked about the refusal by some European governments to declare Hezbollah an Islamic terror group, Rangel told WWRL's Steve Malzberg and Karen Hunter, "To call it Islamic terror is discriminating, it's bigoted, it is not the right thing to say."

Rangel even questioned whether, in fact, a worldwide Islamic terrorist movement even existed, saying, "We just take for granted that there is an Islamic terror movement because we do have some fanatic people who come from Islamic countries."

The Harlem Democrat complained: "When we had the Ku Klux Klan we didn't call them Baptist terrorists. When Hitler was killing Jews, we didn't call it Christian terrorists."

Now pay attention, Charlie: I'm only going to say this around 10,000 times. The KKK and Hitler could not and did not invoke Christian theology to justify their actions. Islamic jihadists, in contrast, routinely invoke Islamic theology and tradition to justify what they do and recruit new members from the larger Muslim community. Until you and other pols from the President on down understand and acknowledge this, you will simply not be addressing the problem of Islamic terrorism at its roots. But unfortunately, all your denials that it exists are not going to make Islamic terrorism go away.

More on this case, just in from AP, with thanks to JJP Mackie:

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A former Virginia high school valedictorian who had been detained in Saudi Arabia as a suspected terrorist was charged Tuesday with conspiring to assassinate President Bush and with supporting the Al Qaeda terrorist network.

Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 23, a U.S. citizen, made an initial appearance Tuesday in U.S. District Court but did not enter a plea. He claimed that he was tortured while detained in Saudi Arabia since June of 2003 and offered through his lawyer to show the judge his scars.

The federal indictment said that in 2002 and 2003 Abu Ali and an unidentified co-conspirator discussed plans for Abu Ali to assassinate Bush. They discussed two scenarios, the indictment said, one in which Abu Ali "would get close enough to the president to shoot him on the street" and, alternatively, "an operation in which Abu Ali would detonate a car bomb."

According to the indictment, Abu Ali obtained a religious blessing from another unidentified co-conspirator to assassinate the president.

A religious blessing, eh? No doubt those Methodists again.

More than 100 supporters of Abu Ali crowded the courtroom and laughed when the charge was read aloud alleging that he conspired to assassinate Bush.

When Abu Ali asked to speak, U.S. Magistrate Liam O'Grady suggested he consult with his attorney, Ashraf Nubani.

"He was tortured," Nubani told the court. "He has the evidence on his back. He was whipped. He was handcuffed for days at a time."

Has there ever been a Muslim detained by the United States on terror-related charges who wasn't tortured? These kinds of claims would have a great deal more credibility if they weren't made in every case.

UPDATE: Here is a pdf of the indictment (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist).

He may have been part of the Virginia jihad network. From CNN, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An American detained in Saudi Arabia for 20 months without being charged is being sent back to the United States where he is expected to be charged Tuesday, his father and a family friend told CNN....

Abu Ali's family said it has been told he will face unspecified charges in federal court. He is expected to make an appearance in U.S. District Court sometime Tuesday....

The father said his son is not guilty of any crimes. Regarding the unspecified charge expected to be filed in the United States, the father said, "They are lying. He is innocent."

Abu Ali was arrested after the May 2003 bombings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which killed 23 people, including nine Americans.

Sources familiar with the case have said Abu Ali is suspected of having connections to individuals involved in that bombing. A federal grand jury has been hearing evidence regarding the case.

Federal prosecutors have previously alleged Abu Ali had a relationship with some members of what has been called the "Virginia jihad network," whose members were charged with providing material support to a terrorist organization.

Bat Ye'or will be appearing on the Dennis Prager radio show on KRLA today. The show begins at 2PM Eastern Time, 11AM Pacific Time. Further details at www.dennisprager.com.

Callers welcome: 1-877-243-7776. Tell Prager you saw it on Jihad Watch!

Europe is becoming a major recruiting center for the global jihad. From Asia Times, with thanks to Chris:

RABAT - When he was arrested in Dubai in July 2001, Djamel Beghal, a French Algerian already known to French services, confessed he had been ordered by Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, Abu Zubeida to set up a terrorist cell to strike US interests in France. He admitted he had attended meetings in Afghanistan's training camps in preparation to blow up the US Embassy in Paris.

But when he was later extradited to France, Beghal denied any involvement in terrorist activities. During his trial in Paris, Beghal delivered a detailed testimony accusing Emirates interrogators of having psychologically and physically tortured him to accept an already established scenario. "This attack never existed, neither in my imagination, nor in reality," said Beghal.

Beghal, who is being judged with five co-defendants, is accused of recruiting terrorists and leading a terrorist cell in France with ramifications throughout Western Europe in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom.

And now they're freeing more. From the Jerusalem Post, with thanks to Kemaste:

A former security prisoner released in January 2004 in the deal struck with Hizbullah to secure the return of the bodies of three soldiers and businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum was one of two gunmen shot and killed by soldiers last Tuesday night while attempting an attack at Har Bracha, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

Atsem Mansour, 29, a Fatah Tanzim member from the Balata refugee camp was imprisoned in Israel between October 2001 and January 2004 for his involvement in terrorism. He was one of 462 security prisoners released in exchange for Tannenbaum and the bodies of Staff-Sgts. Benny Avraham, Adi Avitan and Omar Sawayid.

Details were revealed as preparations got under way for the release of 500 security prisoners who will be freed Monday morning at five West Bank checkpoints and at the Erez crossing in the Gaza Strip as a gesture to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Why, of course! Who else would have done it? From Big News Network, with thanks to Kemaste:

The Syrian Minister of Expatriates has hit back at claims her country was behind the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.

When the blast hit, locals looked up into the sky for Israeli warplanes, Bouthaina Shaaban was quoted as saying by UPI.

Shaaben said Israeli planes violate Lebanese airspace almost daily.

She said Arabs were horrified watching the scenes of smoke and fire, burnt bodies, and damaged buildings in what she described as the most beautiful of Arab capitals. 'We have become quite accustomed to watching such scenes every day in Iraqi cities under American occupation, in the Palestinian territories over a century now, and in Beirut itself during the civil war that the Syrian cooperation with the Lebanese national forces put an end to,' she said.

'For Arabs, this atrocious murder looked like a shift planned and executed by the enemies of the nation, with utmost precision in identifying the target, the time and type of killing,' Shaaban told UPI.

I give the history of Muhammad's massacre of the Qurayzah Jews in Onward Muslim Soldiers. But American schoolchildren are learning a somewhat different version. "Module for Teaching Islamic History in Public Schools Unfairly Maligns the Qurayzah Jews," by Andre Rublev at the 6th Column Against Jihad blog:

Due to the exponential growth in demand for information about Islamic history, we cannot ignore the intense competition over what version of events our children will learn. After all, the impact of first impressions on impressionable young minds cannot be underestimated. Well ahead of the game, the Council on Islamic Education has prepared a teaching module for use in public high and middle schools whose sole purpose is to pre-empt all negative impressions relating to Muhammad’s harsh treatment of the Bani Qurayzah following the Battle of the Trench.

The CIE is not a stranger to controversy. William Bennetta of the California-based Textbook League first pointed out the CIE’s pernicious influence over history textbooks used in American schools in both the March-April and July-August 2000 issues of The Textbook Letter [1, 2]. More recently, Gilbert T. Sewall of the American Textbook Council in New York City made similar observations. In his 2003 publication “Islam and the Textbooks” Sewall described the CIE as “a content gatekeeper with virtually unchecked power over publishers” [3]. The CIE is also involved with teacher training and the preparation of supplemental teaching modules. The module in question incorporates the controversial Public Television special “Legacy of a Prophet” and adds insult to injury by going so far as to vilify the hapless Qurayzah.

No account of Muhammad’s time in Medina can inconspicuously gloss over this incident because it is linked to Muhammad’s most important victory over Mecca. The historical setting is referred to as the “Hiraj.” This began when Muhammad and his followers relocated from Mecca to Yathrib in 622 after two rival tribes had asked him to mediate an exhausting civil war. During the following six years, Muhammad sealed important alliances by way of diplomacy and marriage. He also built up the wealth and military prestige of the Muslim community by raiding caravans organized by the Quraysh and by appropriating the property of banished tribes. Yathrib was later re-named “Medina” in Muhammad’s honor.

Consequently, the Quraysh sent forces from Mecca to put an end to Muhammad’s disruption of their trade, culminating in the “Battle of the Trench” in 627. Muhammad’s success in outlasting the siege was a turning point in his rivalry with the leadership of Mecca. By the time of his death in 632 most of the Arab peninsula was consolidated under Islam.

In 622, Medina was also inhabited by three large tribes of Jews; the Bani Nadir, the Bani Qaynuqah, and the Bani Qurayzah. By 627, both the Bani Nadir and the Banu Qaynuqa had been expelled to Khaybar, a region north of Medina. During their final attempt to subdue Medina, the Meccans sent envoys to the Bani Qurayzah hoping to win their support. The Meccans had already obtained the support of the two exiled Jewish tribes now living in Khaybar. Although hesitant at first, the Qurayzah finally sided with the Meccans as the siege dragged on. However, before the Qurayzah could effectively act on their decision the Meccans broke the siege due to foul weather. Well aware of the Qurayzah’s dealings with the Meccans, the Muslims now laid siege to the Qurayzah fortress until they surrendered. Mortally wounded Arab chief Sa'd ibn Muadh was chosen by Muhammad to decide their fate. He ruled that all the men should be killed, and all the women and children be sold into slavery. The next day, between 700 and 900 men of the Bani Qurayzah were beheaded [4, 5].

To present this massacre to American high school students in a more positive light, the CIE module emphasizes the alleged “treachery” of the Qurayzah [6]. Below are no less than seven sentences or phrases from the lesson plan that use the t-word:

1) Title: The Concept of Treason in Comparative Law
2) Overview: This lesson explores the theme of treason.
3) Students should be able to…analyze the issue of treason in the United States Constitution and during the Battle of the Trench.
4) Have students organize into groups and read Student Handout: The Battle of the Trench, which contains background information on the Battle of the Trench, the comments of Professor Firestone on the Bani Qurayzah, and the clause on treason in the third article of the United States Constitution.
5) Why would the siding of the Bani Qurayzah with the Quraysh be seen as treason?
6) Could the definition of treason given in Section 3, Article 3 of the Constitution apply to the actions of the Bani Qurayzah? If so, why?
7) Why do you think treason is punished so severely in U.S. law? Give several reasons.

"America needs Islam"? And how did he expect America to get Islam? Does he want to see a Sharia state here?

From the Houston Chronicle, with thanks to all who sent this in:

WASHINGTON - Hakeem Olajuwon told an audience at a 1995 conference in Houston sponsored by a group later linked to a terrorist organization that America was near morally bankrupt and Islam was the only solution.

Those remarks came five years before his mosque made unwitting donations to other suspected terrorist groups.

The 1995 gathering was hosted by the Muslim Arab Youth Association, now defunct, a group that had been involved in fund-raising efforts by the terrorist organization Hamas, according to FBI documents and former federal law enforcement officials.

The former Houston Rockets basketball star told a crowd of mostly young people, "America needs Islam, Islam is the only solution and the only way of life." He added, "The morality of America is almost bankrupt. There is no morals."...

There is no evidence Olajuwon knew of MAYA's links to terrorist groups when he spoke in 1995. But experts said as an admired Muslim, his remarks could have been used as a recruiting tool without his knowledge.

Yes, Aisha was betrothed to Muhammad when she was six years old, but two years old? Isn't that a bit much even for Pakistani law? Well, no. Note what Rashid Rahman says below. It's not that she's a minor, it's that it's against her will. So if someone slips a piece of candy to the little one and thereby obtains her consent to the marriage, I guess it's ok, once the fine is paid. "Pakistanis Order Betrothal of 2-Year-Old," from AP, with thanks to all who sent this in:

MULTAN, Pakistan - A tribal council in Pakistan has ordered the betrothal of a 2-year-old girl to a man 40 years older to punish her uncle for an alleged affair with the man's wife, police said Monday.

The council decreed the girl must marry 42-year-old Mohammed Altaf, her uncle's cousin, when she turns 18, police said.

Altaf, a farmer, divorced his 32-year-old wife over her alleged love affair with his 20-year-old cousin, Mohammed Akmal. Akmal, a bachelor and also a farmer, has no children.

Altaf asked tribal elders in the village of Kacha Chohan, about 215 miles west of the city of Multan in Punjab province, to convene a panchayat, or council, on Feb. 15 to arbitrate and propose a punishment. As punishment, the elders ordered the girl's betrothal and ruled Akmal should also pay a $3,800 fine to the husband....

Police chief Maqsoodul Hassan said an investigation has been started into the case involving the 2-year-old girl, but they have made no arrests as no one had filed a complaint....

Rashid Rahman, a lawyer and Multan-based coordinator with the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, condemned the village council's decision.

"These types of panchayats are illegal and nobody has the right to take a decision about a child's life," he said. "This country has its legal system and all decisions should be taken under it."

He said that the betrothal of a minor did not itself break the law, but forcing a woman to marry against her will carried a maximum 14-year jail sentence. Underage marriage is also illegal but is only punishable by a fine.

What's that? You don't believe me about Muhammad and Aisha? Here it is straight from the hadith collection accepted by Muslims as most reliable:

Sahih Bukhari, Volume 5, Book 58, Number 234:

Narrated Aisha:
The Prophet engaged me when I was a girl of six (years). We went to Medina and stayed at the home of Bani-al-Harith bin Khazraj. Then I got ill and my hair fell down. Later on my hair grew (again) and my mother, Um Ruman, came to me while I was playing in a swing with some of my girl friends. She called me, and I went to her, not knowing what she wanted to do to me. She caught me by the hand and made me stand at the door of the house. I was breathless then, and when my breathing became Allright, she took some water and rubbed my face and head with it. Then she took me into the house. There in the house I saw some Ansari women who said, "Best wishes and Allah's Blessing and a good luck." Then she entrusted me to them and they prepared me (for the marriage). Unexpectedly Allah's Apostle came to me in the forenoon and my mother handed me over to him, and at that time I was a girl of nine years of age.

Sahih Bukhari, Volume 7, Book 62, Number 64:

Narrated 'Aisha:
that the Prophet married her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old, and then she remained with him for nine years (i.e., till his death).

That should be "Qur'an," and that small mistake is a reflection of the general ignorance about Islam that pervades this story from the Montgomery Advertiser, "Entertainment media's Muslims bear little resemblance to reality" (thanks to EPG). Reporter Darryn Simmons seems to have gone to the Masjid Qasim B El-Amin in Montgomery to ask about Fox's "24," and has credulously reported as fact all the half-truths and distortions the people there fed him.

It starts with a red herring:

If they just watch TV and movies, Americans may think that many of those who believe in Islam are Arab terrorists, but local Muslim Ahmad Hasan said most Muslims aren't even of Arab descent.

"That's the most ironic thing," Hasan said. "They portray Arabs as representing the religion, when, in truth, the number of Arabs that are Muslims is a minute percentage."

I guess this is supposed to illustrate the ignorance of the masses, but in this context it isn't even relevant. I myself have pointed out many times that most Muslims worldwide aren't Arabs and most Arabic speakers in the U.S. aren't Muslim, but what of it? How does it show that Fox is way off base? After all, there are Arab Muslims, and Arab Muslim jihadists. It isn't as if the producers of "24" invented the concept. It looks as if the people in the Montgomery mosque want us to regard Arab Muslim jihadists the way we would regard Pennsylvania Amish car bombers.

And from the Ironic Juxtaposition Department:

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) took Fox to task about the "24" episode in the publication Broadcasting and Cable.

Rabiah Ahmed, spokeswoman for CAIR, said that the show is "taking everyday American Muslim families and making them suspects ... it's very dangerous and very disturbing."...

Abdullah said he didn't complain to the station, and he isn't surprised to know that other Muslims did not.

"When you complain, it makes you look small," he said. "It naturally bothers us of course, but we don't complain to people about it -- we complain to God."

The reporter doesn't seem to have asked Abdullah whether he thinks CAIR looks small for complaining about "24."

"It doesn't make sense," he said. "Muslims are not like this, and Islam is an excellent religion -- but if a lie is told often enough people begin to think it's the truth."

Ain't it the truth! In fact, here comes a whopper now:

Muslims do not believe in converting people to their religion by force. In fact, the Qu'ran (or Koran) accepts religious pluralism and sees strength in diversity.

Note the language: the "Qu'ran" (sic) accepts "pluralism" and "diversity." Whoever it was at the mosque who told this to Simmons has mastered the art of pushing today's most effective cultural hot buttons. Muslims believe in diversity, you see. Not like those nasty Christians.

But of course, Simmons asked nothing about the humiliations and second-class status mandated for non-Muslims by Islamic law, and rooted in the Qur'an (9:29). "Pluralism"? "Diversity"? "The subject peoples," according to a manual of Islamic law, must "pay the non-Muslim poll tax (jizya)" and "are distinguished from Muslims in dress, wearing a wide cloth belt (zunnar); are not greeted with 'as-Salamu 'alaykum' [the traditional Muslim greeting, "Peace be with you"]; must keep to the side of the street; may not build higher than or as high as the Muslims' buildings, though if they acquire a tall house, it is not razed; are forbidden to openly display wine or pork . . . recite the Torah or Evangel aloud, or make public display of their funerals or feastdays; and are forbidden to build new churches." If they violate these terms, the law further stipulates that they can be killed or sold into slavery at the discretion of the Muslim leader. (‘Umdat al-Salik, o11.3, 5.)

Yeah. That's pluralism and diversity, all right. But like virtually every other reporter, he accepted what Muslims told him at face value, without probably even being aware that he might need to employ a bit of critical thinking in this regard.

The propaganda jihad is nowhere more sophisticated or virulent than in Israel. Not only does the Palestinian media fabricate Israeli atrocities; the Israeli media does too. From "Citizens should insist on a fair press" in the Jerusalem Post, with thanks to JS:

A particularly flagrant Israeli example was Ilana Dayan's report on the October 5 shooting of a 13-year-old girl in Gaza by IDF soldiers. Initially, the soldiers claimed to have no idea that Iman al-Hams was a schoolgirl; they merely saw an unidentified Palestinian carrying a backpack near their outpost, where no innocent Palestinian had reason to be, and concluded that it was a bomber coming to attack them.

Later, however, several soldiers accused their company commander of "confirming the kill" – i.e. shooting al-Hams repeatedly at close range, where he could not have avoided seeing that she was a schoolgirl. (The star prosecution witness in the commander's trial has since admitted in court that his "eyewitness" account of this "confirmed kill" was a lie.)

After the "confirmed kill" story broke, Dayan broadcast an investigative report into it on Fact, the acclaimed television news magazine she anchors. The IDF subsequently accused her of having distorted, or even fabricated, parts of the report in a libelous fashion. Most egregiously, the IDF said, she tacked footage of the soldiers celebrating onto the footage of them shooting, so that anyone watching would assume they were celebrating al-Hams' death.

In reality, the celebration footage came from a Rosh Hashana party several weeks earlier – a fact Dayan admitted when confronted.

Tacking unrelated celebration scenes onto the ostensible footage of al-Hams's killing (in reality, the shooting scenes also turned out to be from a different incident) is indeed slanderous fabrication; it implies that the soldiers rejoiced over having killed a schoolgirl.

Yet not only did Dayan pay no price; her media colleagues vigorously defended her right to indulge in such fabrications.

Her boss, program editor Doron Glazer, for instance, dismissed the incident by declaring: "The chief of staff has more important work to do than attacking Fact." And Haaretz columnist Ehud Asheri went even further, writing that Dayan was not guilty of "tendentious and intentional fabrication," because "the celebration scene was shown in the context of the general atmosphere in the company."

In other words, since Dayan believed – rightly or wrongly – that those particular soldiers were capable of celebrating a schoolgirl's death, it was legitimate for her to fabricate footage that showed them doing so when they did not.

Despite mounting evidence that it was all a fraud, French journalists are sticking by their Mohammed al-Durra farrago. "French TV Sticks by Story That Fueled Palestinian Intifada," from CNSNews.com, with thanks to JS:

Paris (CNSNews.com) - A French journalist and an independent film producer who saw raw, unedited video of the shooting of a Palestinian boy in 2000 said it's not possible for the boy to have been shot by Israeli soldiers, as a French TV report claimed.

French state television is standing by its claim that the broadcast is authentic. The broadcast purportedly showed 12-year-old Mohammed al-Durra being shot by Israeli soldiers, an event that led to the current Palestinian intifada.

But Denis Jeambar, editor-in-chief of the French news weekly l'Express, and filmmaker Daniel Leconte, a producer and owner of the film company Doc en Stock, say the videocassette is full of staged scenes of faked injuries.

Jeambar and Leconte were allowed by the France 2 network to view an unedited master video cassette of the incident, which took place in September 2000 at Netzarim Junction in the Gaza Strip. Leconte said he is satisfied that the shooting really happened, but he does not believe the bullets that struck the child could have been fired by Israeli troops.

"The only ones who could hit the child were the Palestinians from their position," Leconte told Cybercast News Service. "If they had been Israeli bullets, they would be very strange bullets because they would have needed to go around the corner."

"Towering symbol," from the Pasadena Star News, with thanks to EPG:

Sunday, February 20, 2005 - SAN GABRIEL -- Masjid Gabriel is undergoing a transformation that will add a minaret and domed roof traditional elements of Islamic architecture to the mosque.

But the changes are more than cosmetic.

The renovation also illustrates the changing nature of the American-Muslim identity, mosque leaders say. It reflects the pride Muslims share in their religion, a commitment to rediscover their historic roots and teachings and a desire to ensure Islam is passed to the next generation.

"We are doing this for the children who come here so they can identify themselves with their faith and their symbols,' said Imam Nissar Hai. "We may be immigrants, but they were born here and they have to feel that they belong here and to their faith and this is a symbol of our faith.'...

Even before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks or the war in Iraq, local Muslims said they felt occasional unease during difficult times such as the Islamic Revolution in Iran or the Gulf War.

But Hai said Americans have deepened their understanding of Islam in recent years and understand that most Muslims are not radicals, he said.

Great. Now why didn't the reporter, Marshall Allen, ask a few questions about this mosque's funding, and pick up some of its literature? There's no indication from this article that he looked at what was being taught there -- and plenty of indication that he should have, based on what is being taught in other American mosques.

The demand for new space is driven in part by the mosque's burgeoning children's after- school program. Children study Arabic and the Quran for several hours every Monday through Thursday. The number of students, toddlers to teens, has more than doubled to about 50 in the past two years, Hai said. The increased demand for children's education is partly a result of the Sept. 11 attacks, Hai said. Initially, the mosque's membership declined after the attacks, but then the Muslim community seemed to take them as a wake-up call, he said. The American-Muslim community was feeling comfortable before Sept. 11, and then faced criticism of Islam, Hai said.

"So when you feel under attack you want to go back to your roots,' he said. "It made us stronger.'

"You want to go back to your roots." They study Qur'an for several hours for four days a week. Why don't reporters ask them at such points what they think about the roots of Islam that involve working to impose Sharia rule? Why don't they ask them what they do about the Qur'an's harshness toward non-Muslims and commands to make war against them?

The time is long past for more intelligent reporting on Islamic issues, but we aren't even close to getting it.

Full explications of each of these points can be found in Islam Unveiled. From Jewish World Review:

I was shocked after September 11th when I heard government officials say Islam is a "religion of peace". Nothing could be farther from the truth! Our President was even considering not conducting any military activities out of respect for Ramadan! I spoke with my congressman, Nick Lampson of Texas, and strenuously objected, sharing my experience and what I had learned about Islam. I explained how Islam is the greatest threat the Democracies of our world face in the 21st Century, and demonstrated how the international polity of Islam is the equivalent of the German Nazis in the 20th century. I further pointed out that Osama Ben laden is the equal to Adolph Hitler in our generation.

As result, Congressman Lampson asked me to submit to him a factual report that he could present to the Foreign Relations Committee, Congress, and the President. Some of this article is based on that report.

It must be understood that we define Moslem, as one who follows the Quran, the life of Mohammed, and the traditions of the community. There are sects called Moslems that do not necessarily abide by these rules. They can be called "cultural Moslems," some of these are Ismailis, Druze, and Sufis. Secular Moslems like many Turks have a Moslem culture but because of Turkey's history and geography have been secularized. Fundamentalists, those that accept the Quran literally, and pattern their lives after Mohammed, as well as follow the traditions of those who have historically lived this way, are a growing threat to all mankind and all democracies of the world.

Now here are some very critical misconceptions regarding Islam:

1. Islam is a religion of peace, and is not anti-Jewish.
Islam has been a violent and military movement from its beginning. The current attitude of Arab and Islamic countries towards Jews dates back to the life of Mohammed, who conducted 74 military campaigns, 24 of them personally. He unified the Arab tribes with war and assassinated or exiled Jews, therefore setting precedent for the militant and anti-Jewish practices of Islam.

The reason Mohammed was so violently anti-Jewish was because he originally saw himself as a prophet to the Jews, Christians, and pagans of Arabia. In his early reign he instructed his followers to bow down and pray to Jerusalem! The Jews of Arabia rejected him as a Hebrew prophet and he was almost killed in battle with them. He then changed the direction of prayer to Mecca.

I journeyed across Syria from Damascus to Aleppo to the Euphrates River and back to Damascus in 1999. I learned that it was a practice in Syria for Moslem fathers to make their son's swear, "I will kill a Jew before I die." In 1947 Arab mobs in Aleppo devastated the 2,500-year-old Jewish community. Many Jews were killed and thousands of Jews illegally fled Syria to go to Israel. Today there are less than 150 Jews in the entire nation.

2. Islam is just a religion.
Islam has never been just a religion in the traditional sense, in as much as the members of Democracies understand; it has always been a polity; a political organization.

Mohammed's intention was the unification of the Arab tribes and their international expansion. The state and religion are not seen as separate nor can an individual dissent from the Quran. The very word Islam means submission.

Islam is seen as a political organization, which has no boundaries. This was the intent of Mohammed in the establishment of the Umma, the community or brotherhood. Western culture perceives this to be their statement of equality for mankind, but it must be remembered; if you are not Moslem you are not equal.

In Islamic societies where Jews and Christians are allowed to exist they do not have the same rights as a Moslem, and they are required to pay a special tax.

Read it all.

From UPI, with thanks to Kemaste:

Iran has begun preparing for a possible U.S. attack, or at least trying to dissuade Washington from such an attack by appearing to prepare for war.

Tehran has recently disclosed efforts to bolster and mobilize recruits in citizens' militias and making plans to engage in the type of asymmetrical warfare used against U.S. troops in Iraq, the Washington Times reported Saturday.

"Iran would respond within 15 minutes to any attack by the United States or any other country," said an Iranian official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

"Learning About Islam," from the Bogalusa Daily News, with thanks to EPG:

FRANKLINTON - "Many of us fear what we don't know," Imam Jehad Mahmoud said yesterday to members and guests of the Franklinton Rotary Club.

Mahmoud, who serves as president of the Islamic Center of Baton Rouge, spoke to the Rotarians yesterday to provide a brief lesson on the foundations of the Islamic faith n and in hopes of putting common myths and misconceptions of the faith to rest.

"If I talk about Islam, I'll be talking about Christianity, I'll be talking about Judaism…" Mahmoud said. "We are all the same."

"The Religion before Allah is Islam: Nor did the People of the Book [Jews and Christians] dissent therefrom except through envy of each other, after knowledge had come to them. But if any deny the Signs of Allah, Allah is swift in calling to account." (Qur'an 3:19)

Mahmoud also addressed a misconception sparked from radical Muslims that eternal salvation is guaranteed by killing an infidel. "No one can be assured he is going to Heaven," and it is considered a blasphemy to state that belief. "The only way for any person to get to Heaven is through God himself."

In addition, Muslims are taught that anyone who commits suicide "will stay in Hellfire for eternity, committing suicide."

"Allah hath purchased of the believers their persons and their goods; for theirs (in return) is the garden (of Paradise): they fight in His cause, and slay and are slain: a promise binding on Him in truth..." (Qur'an 9:111)

"We pray in congregation, with the men in front, and the women in back," Mahmoud explained.

However, it is not because women are seen as inferior to men, he said, but instead it is "out of respect and protection." Because Muslims kneel to the ground during prayer, and "men have weak hearts," the men must always pray in front of the women.

In addition, men cannot "expose anything between the belly button and knees, and women can only expose their hands and face. However, the Muslim dress code is a choice, he said, adding that he's even heard of Muslims who have attended nudist camps.

I believe nudist camps might be out of the question for believing Muslims as well: "And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husband's fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers or their brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their women, or the slaves whom their right hands possess, or male servants free of physical needs, or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex; and that they should not strike their feet in order to draw attention to their hidden ornaments. And O ye Believers! turn ye all together towards Allah, that ye may attain Bliss." (Qur'an 24:31)

On the BBC's Thought for the Day, the egregious John Bell joined the propaganda jihad and repeated tendentious and unsupportable charges froma dubious source. Note also that Bell doesn't apologize for the key point -- alleging that Israel jails soldiers for refusing to shoot children -- but for minor details of his farrago. The BBC seems to pick up the slack, but is itself vague. From the BBC:

In the programme, on 10 February, the Reverend John Bell of the Iona Community spoke of meeting an Arab man conscripted into the Israeli Army.

Dr Bell told listeners the 19-year-old corporal had been jailed for refusing to shoot Palestinian schoolchildren.

However, the remarks angered many members of Britain's Jewish community, who said the account could not be true.

'Factual errors'

Several people told the BBC that Israeli Arabs are exempt from conscription into the army. Moreover, it would be impossible for a 19-year-old to rise to the rank of corporal.

Dr Bell has since admitted, in a letter to the BBC, that his account contained "two factual errors".

"One was that the soldier was 21 and not 19, thus he would have been of the age to be a corporal.

"The second is that he did not say he was conscripted. My presumption regarding conscription is wrong as regards Arab Israelis....

The BBC added their own apology, on the Thought For The Day website, acknowledging that the facts should have been checked prior to broadcast.

"We have talked to the Israeli authorities and we are unable to find any evidence to support the story told to Dr Bell and recounted by him on Thought for the Day.

More jihad in Kuwait news: 200 members of the tiny minority of extremists have been arrested. From the World Tribune, with thanks to Nicolei:

ABU DHABI – A major crackdown on the Al Qaida network in Kuwait has foiled several attempts to attack Western military personnel in Kuwait, Western diplomatic sources said.

The sources cited the arrest of nearly 200 suspected insurgents and raids against four strongholds in the sheikdom during January.

"Kuwait has responded very well to warnings of Al Qaida attacks," a diplomat said. "Security forces have been acting on information and intelligence has been collecting new leads."

But the U.S. embassy has warned of additional Al Qaida attacks on Western interests in Kuwait, Middle East Newsline reported. The embassy said Al Qaida and related operatives could "seek softer targets such as public transportation, and public areas where people congregate."

"Al-Qaida member killed in Russia," from Xinhuanet, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm and Nicolei:

MOSCOW, Feb. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Russian forces have killed a key al-Qaida member in charge of funding terrorist actions in southern Russia, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Monday.

Abu Dzeit, who held a prominent position among militant leaders, was killed in an operation launched by Russian security forces in the republic of Ingushetia on Wednesday, FSB spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko was cited by the Interfax news agency as saying.

Joel Mowbray at TownHall (thanks to Nicolei) on Fox's dhimmitude and CAIR's inconsistency:

What has Fox’s hit TV show “24” done to prompt TV Guide to report “24 in Hot Water” and Entertainment Weekly to ask, “Has ‘24’ Gone Too Far?”?

Its bad guys are terrorists who are… Muslims. That’s it.

Few of us need reminding that we are not simply waging a war against terror, but against the radical Islam that animates the enemy. The enemy is not coincidentally Muslim, but they are the enemy because their radicalized version of Islam tells them to be. “24,” so far at least, understands that.

An aside: Neither Mowbray nor anyone else has yet produced a non-radicalized version of Islam that is convincing enough on Islamic grounds to neutralize the growth of terrorist movements.

Instead of kudos, though, “24” has courted considerable controversy. Making the most hay has been CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which bills itself as “America's largest Muslim civil liberties group.” A CAIR spokesman complained to Entertainment Weekly, “They are creating a new stereotype.”

What “new” stereotype? Muslims as terrorists? Blame the news for that one. Wait, no, blame the Jihadists the world over who still wish “death to America.” No one, including “24,” is claiming that all Muslims are terrorists, but as “24” Executive Producer Joel Surnow told Entertainment Weekly, “Muslims are the terrorists right now.”

Facts be damned, Fox bowed to CAIR’s scare tactics and agreed to air a public service announcement, with “24” star Kiefer Sutherland directly addressing the camera. Unfortunately, the spot included a line that may not be entirely true: “the American Muslim community stands firmly beside their fellow Americans in denouncing and resisting all forms of terrorism.”

It’s not considered polite to suggest that some American Muslims might not be with us, but there is too much evidence to ignore in the name of political correctness. The radical Islam we are fighting is not found only in places like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, but right here inside our borders.

Virtually ignored by the entire mainstream media last week was a groundbreaking 67-page report issued by human rights group Freedom House, which detailed the poisonous contents of Saudi-funded and sponsored materials found in prominent American mosques.

On mosque library shelves were vitriolic Saudi screeds urging Muslims to, among other things, completely dissociate themselves from the “infidel” society, including refusing military service and citizenship. Other materials encourage Muslims to “curse” Jews and Christians, and still others encourage outright violence.

Many, or even most, mosque-goers may not be brainwashed by such bloodthirsty teachings, but is it even possible that such materials could be found in prominent American mosques if the entire Muslim community truly “stood firmly beside their fellow Americans”?

One group of Muslims that has not denounced “all forms of terrorism” is the one that pushed Fox to air the tolerance-touting ad: CAIR.

When four Americans were murdered (and burned, hanged, and mutilated) in Fallujah last year, CAIR pointedly refused to condemn the murders, only saying that mutilations were contrary to Islam—a position almost identical to infamous Fallujah cleric Sheikh Khalid Ahmed.

The Washington Post in November 2001 asked a CAIR spokesman to condemn Hamas or Islamic Jihad. He refused, explaining, “It’s not our job to go around denouncing.” Asked a similar question about Hamas and Hezbollah by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in February 2002, CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper called such queries a “game” and added, “We’re not in the business of condemning.”

Worse still, for several months after 9/11, CAIR even refused to condemn Osama bin Laden for the murder of 3,000 Americans.

Veteran fans of “24” know from the three previous seasons that the ultimate enemy might still be off-camera. But all of us know that an organization that refuses to condemn the enemy is the enemy.

I have just started work on a new book for Regnery Publishing entitled The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam and the Crusades, which is slated to come out this Fall as part of their new Politically Incorrect Guide series. Ali Dashti has just kindly sent me an example of the kinds of misapprehensions that I intend to clear up: this questioner at Understanding Islam has gotten the idea -- from a Catholic apologetics book -- that the concept of "holy war" was invented by the Pope at the time of the Crusades. His Muslim respondent is honest enough to explain to him that the idea of warfare for Allah is embedded in the Qur'an, and that that warfare is not defensive:

I have read in Catholic apologetic books that jihad literally means self-defense instead of holy war that the pope coined at the time of the crusades, is this true?

Answer:

The Crusades took place between 1095 AD and 1291 AD. The Qur'an, on the other hand, used the word 'Jihad' in the early parts of the 7th century. It, therefore, seems quite difficult to agree with the stated opinion.

As far as the meaning of the term is concerned, one may, indeed, ascribe to the opinion that the Qur'an has used the word 'Jihad' or its derivatives to imply 'self-defense'. However, the Qur'an does not support this opinion.

The Qur'an has used the word 'Jihad' to imply 'striving hard'. The phrase 'Jihad fi Sabeel Allah' thus means 'striving hard in God's cause'. One of the practical applications of such 'Jihad fi Sabeel Allah', according to the Qur'an, is 'Qitaal fi Sabeel Allah' (i.e. fighting for God's cause).

Jihad fi sabeel Allah is, in Islamic theology, specifically jihad warfare. Qitaal is warfare.

Keeping the above explanation of the words 'Jihad fi Sabeel Allah' and 'Qitaal fi Sabeel Allah' in perspective, it should be clear that it is not the nature of fighting - i.e. whether the war is being fought for defense or for aggression - which, according to the usage of these words in the Qur'an, qualifies the action to be termed as such. On the contrary, a war - whether aggressive or defensive - when fought for the sole cause of the Almighty and according to the directives given by the Almighty, qualifies to be termed as 'Jihad' or 'Qitaal fi Sabeel Allah'.

It might be interesting to note here that at most of the instances in which the Qur'an has prompted the Muslims to fight for God's cause refer to aggressive rather than defensive war.

Dr. Badawi, call your office.

In view of the foregoing explanation, I do not consider the referred opinion to be accurate. It not only gives an incorrect implication of the word 'Jihad', but even the literal meaning ascribed to the word 'Jihad' (i.e. self-defense) is absolutely baseless and not supported by any authentic source of the Arabic language.

A new piece by Wolfgang Bruno:

Works such as ”The Coming of the Book” or "The Printing Press as an Agent of Change" have documented the monumental changes to Europe and Western civilization triggered by the introduction of printed books. Printing, already used in China for centuries, was reinvented in Europe by people like Johann Gutenberg. Its effects were immediate and profound. Perhaps 15 to 20 million copies of different books were printed even before the year 1500. Conservative estimates indicate that at least 150 to­ 200 million books were made in Europe during the 16th century. When Martin Luther put up his Theses in Wittenberg in Germany on 31st October, 1517, within 15 days they had been translated into German and summarised, printed as flysheets and distributed throughout every part of the country. Orders by Rome to burn books made by Luther and other Protestant heretics only served to trigger the curiosity of the masses. Attempts to silence the critics and re-impose strict censorship were futile. Banned books circulated in France in ever greater numbers despite all the regulations forbidding them. The tide of the first mass media revolution could not be held back.

To claim that the invention of the printing press alone created the Christian Reformation would be too simplistic. The Renaissance and a slowly expanding educated audience had created new forces and needs. Political backers such as Frederick the Wise of Saxony saved Luther’s life long enough for him to finish his work. Still, it is hard to see how the Reformation could have taken place in this manner without the printing press. The fates of other critics such as Jan Hus or Giordano Bruno might have been very different had they had Gutenberg’s invention at their disposal. At the very least, the printing press served as an important catalyst for and facilitated changes already underway.

Many have made comparisons between the Islamic world today and Christian Europe in the 16th century. As some like Robert Spencer have suggested, there may be closer analogies to the Wahhabi movement. However, it is possible that in hindsight, modern communication technology such as the Internet may prove a turning point no less crucial to Islam today than the printing press was to Christianity. The global number of Internet users is approaching one billion and growing fast. Now, the Internet may not be the magic vessel for unrestricted freedom of speech as was once hoped for, but it can still retain just enough flexibility to represent a potent challenge to authoritarian regimes and ideologies.

Mass communication and education will lead to contradictory results, and could even be imagined to strengthen Islam. The Islamic Umma, or community, can be viewed as an old-fashioned Arab tribe in its aggressive dealings with outsiders, and the demand of absolute loyalty within the community. With the introduction of Islam, a new “super-tribe” was born, directing Arab tribal aggression outwards instead of inwards, and what ex-Muslim Anwar Shaikh has called the Arab National Movement was created. Later, the Umma was taken to include all Muslims. Although this concept of a global community of Muslims supporting each other against the infidels has always been a central part of the Muslim world view, it has for the most part remained a theoretical construct. With globalization and even the spread of the infidel English language as the world’s lingua franca, Islamic communities across the planet can keep in closer contact than they have ever done before. Islamists immigrants in the West can take advantage of Western freedoms to mount an effective propaganda machine. Individual PC users now have more capacity at their fingertips than NASA had during its first moon launches, and setting up your own website is cheap and easy.

The new technology will give Islam a chance to realize its original aim of global universalism, and thus increase the clashes with the non-Muslim world. The revival of Muslim identity is spreading outside the Middle East, including Southeast Asia, Central Asia and Europe, where religious identity has traditionally not been as strong. This revival has been accompanied by a deepening solidarity among Muslims caught up in separatist struggles in Chechnya, Iraq, Kashmir and southern Thailand. Jihadist groups on the Internet are multiplying, as can be testified by the Internet Haganah. One can argue effectively that the current Islamic tensions have much more to do with long-term communications changes, combined with high birth rates and Saudi petrodollars, than with the policies of any specific countries like the USA or Israel.

Even if new media may in the short run actually assist Islamic extremism, it is conceivable that in the longer run, new media will challenge the very existence of Islam as we know it. The Internet and Muslim exposure to Western society has also created the first organized networks of ex-Muslims in history, the counterpart to the Jihadist websites. These ex-Muslim sites may still be of marginal importance, but it is hard to overestimate the monumental threat they pose to Islamic orthodoxy. Infidels should make use of this combination of ex-Muslims, the Internet and greater Western freedom of speech in a deliberate effort to copy the example of 16th century Europe. We should make a selection of, say, 20 or 30 of the best critical books written about Islam by ex-Muslims and non-Muslims. Pay the authors a substantial amount of money for the manuscripts, or buy the copyrights from whomever owns it. Make sure they understand that they receive a one-time sum in return for sharing their work with humanity. After this, the books in their full length should be made available in English on the Internet, perhaps later in translations into other major languages. From then on, anybody who wants to can freely download, copy, republish and reprint the books. This would trigger a chain reaction, as the printing press did with Luther’s pamphlets. The information would spread around the planet faster than CAIR can say “Islamophobia”. The genie would be out of the bottle, and no amount of intimidation, hacker attacks or “hate speech” lawsuits could return it to the bottle. In combination with funding and support to websites by ex-Muslims and some others like Jihad Watch, we would basically present Islam with a “sink or swim”-ultimatum: Islam will have to reform if it can, or Islam will die. The entire operation would cost some hundreds of millions of dollars, not more than what can be done quietly and unofficially. We can spend this small amount of money on a “Gutenberg Fund”, or we can use hundreds of billions of dollars on defensive measures that will do little to change Islam.

Since Islamists with the murder of Theo van Gogh demonstrated their fear of Western free speech and their desire to curb it, giving them such a hefty dose of it seems like a sweet and fitting reply. This initiative would not mark the end of the struggle, of course, but we would already have won a crucial, if not decisive victory. Christianity was up to the challenge presented by modern education and mass media. It’s time to find out whether Islam is similarly up to the challenge.

Wolfgang Bruno is a European author. He is writing a book about the Internet movement of ex-Muslims. All of Bruno's essays can be republished and reproduced for free by anybody who wants to.

"SUNY Oswego tries to ban Muslim speaker for" (yes, that's really the headline), from SUNY's Daily Orange, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

Controversy surrounding a Muslim man's suspected connection to terrorists almost prevented funding for the keynote speaker's upcoming lecture on racism.

Abu Yousuf will speak Saturday at the State University of New York at Oswego, but the university's Muslim Student Association, which is sponsoring the event, did not obtain the funding easily.

Some members of SUNY Oswego's Student Association were concerned about claims in an Internet article claiming Yousuf has ties to Al-Muhajiroun, an extremist Islam group that has been linked to terrorist activity in other countries.

Fahad Samad, president of SUNY Oswego's Muslim Student Association, said the claims are false.

"Those are straight-forward lies," Samad said. "Those are accusations."

The Muslim Student Association defended Yousuf at the SUNY Oswego Student Association meeting Tuesday, and after some debate, the SA eventually gave the organization $800 to bring Yousuf to campus, said Alan Hershkowitz, a SUNY Oswego junior and SA senator.

Hershkowitz acknowledged there was initial confusion surrounding the speaker's identity.

"There was some stuff on the Internet about him, but we weren't sure if it was the same person. Abu Yousuf is a common name," he said.

SA passed the funding request because the allegation could not be verified, Hershkowitz said.

OK, which is it? Is the allegation that Abu Yousuf is connected to Al-Muhajiroun a "lie," as Samad says, or is this a case of possible mistaken identity, as Hershkowitz says? It is worth nothing that the original WND article that linked Abu Yousuf with Al-Muhajiroun portrays him as volunteering information about the connection, and also saying that he spoke regularly for the MSA: "Yousuf explained that he speaks at many colleges throughout the New York area, and that most of his speeches are arranged by the MSA." What steps did SUNY really take, if any, to find out whether or not they were dealing with the same person?

How will helping Muslims adhere to their identity help them integrate into society? Does the Swiss Academy for Development have the first foggiest idea what Islam actually teaches about Muslim interaction with infidel societies? From IslamOnline, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

GENEVA, February 19, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – A Swiss think-tank has recommended teaching Islam in schools as it helps the second and third generation of the Muslim community integrate into society.

The Swiss Academy for Development (SAD) cited in a recent study the success story of teaching Islam in schools in the two cities of Kriens and Ebikon, central Switzerland, in the 2002/03 school year.

“The results of the experience exceeded all expectations and showed a positive feedback,” said the study, released on February 15.

“It can serve as a model for all cities across the country. Such schools encourage Muslim students adhere to their identity as they learn their religion in the languages used in the country,” it added, referring to the four official languages German, French, Italian and Romansch.

Funny thing: the jihadists commonly call American forces "Crusaders," and some American analysts are happy to accept the locution. But those same American analysts, as willing as they are to charge Bush with leading a Crusade, are generally reluctant to accept that the other side is waging a jihad. From AFP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

DUBAI (AFP) - Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri warned the West it faced defeat in what he termed its "new crusade" against the Islamic world, as well as thousands of dead and economic collapse, in a videotape aired by Al-Jazeera television.

"Your new crusade will end, God willing, with the same defeat as its predecessors, but only after you have suffered tens of thousands of dead and the destruction of your economy," Zawahiri said in his message to "the peoples of the West" broadcast by the Qatar-based satellite channel....

Zawahiri, hunted by the US and believed to be hiding on the Pakistani-Afghan border, warned the West: "Your real safety lies in treating the Muslim nation on the basis of respect and ceasing aggression (against it)."

I don't know Shafik Saleh Shafik, but I do know that there are many instances of Coptic Christian girls being kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam -- so many that even Pope Shenouda spoke out against this, despite his keen awareness of the risks involved in doing so. From Compass Direct, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

February 16 (Compass) -- The criminal trial of Egyptian Christian Shafik Saleh Shafik, begun in mid January, has been ordered postponed until February 20 by the presiding judge, who accepted defense petitions to summon key witnesses and police reports related to the case.

As the director of a home for troubled Coptic girls, Shafik faces criminal charges of holding Magda Refaat Gayed, 16, against her will and without her parents’ permission, beating her and attempting to rape her.

The defendant dismisses all the charges as “contrived” attempts to halt his recovery ministry among young Coptic girls, who he says are being enticed to leave their families and convert to Islam.

Magda had escaped from Shafik’s “safe-house” residence for girls in Cairo last September 6, the day after she arrived. Her parents had placed her there under Shafik’s guardianship when the girl was returned home by police, who located her living with an Islamist group two weeks after she had disappeared from home....

Shafik told Compass that he got an anonymous call from someone two weeks ago, asking him to accept into his care a Muslim girl who wanted to convert to Christianity. “This was clearly a set-up,” he said. “The fanatic groups have my phone number, and I sense they are trying to find out where my new safe-house is located.”

Read it all.

It isn't just Iran. From the World Tribune, with thanks to Nicolei:

LONDON – The International Atomic Energy Agency will report that Egypt failed to report nuclear tests required under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The IAEA has drafted a report that determined that Egypt repeatedly failed to report nuclear materials and activities over the last 15 years, agency sources said. The sources said that the agency said in the report that this was a "matter of concern," but did not recommend sanctions.

This is doubtless proving so difficult because of the deep roots of the "Al Qaida ideology" in the Qur'an and Sunnah. From the World Tribune, with thanks to Nicolei:

ABU DHABI – Gulf Arab states have agreed to reform Islamic education.

But the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council has not agreed on a uniform curriculum that would discourage Al Qaida ideology.

GCC officials said GCC education ministers discussed plans to reform Islamic education as part of a drive to stop the Islamic insurgency campaign in the region. The officials said the GCC ministers agreed to conduct a review of religious education and introduce changes.

"It's time to develop the syllabus of Islamic education," GCC secretary-general Abdul Rahman Al Attiyah said during the GCC meeting in Kuwait on Feb. 9. "This must be carried out by specialists among clerics, scholars and experts. I insist they must be moderates."

"Palestinian security officers schooled by U.S. later used tactics against Israel." From the San Francisco Chronicle, with thanks to Teri:

Bethlehem, West Bank -- In June 1998, somewhere near CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., two rows of men in military fatigues posed for their graduation photo.

All of them were officers in Palestinian General Intelligence Service, charged with hunting down terrorists and preventing attacks on Israel. They had just completed a training course, paid for by the U.S. government, in which they learned firearms and counterterrorist tactics.

But the graduation photo holds a stark warning for the Bush administration as it gets more involved in Middle East peacemaking. Some of the men in the picture later swapped sides and began using the skills they learned in Virginia against the Israelis.

Such training courses, which were suspended with the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000, will be an integral part of Washington's aid package for the new government of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas....

As Israeli commentators had been warning for years, the CIA inadvertently helped train future adversaries -- as it has done in other countries, including the anti-Soviet forces in Afghanistan who ended up as Taliban and al Qaeda militants....

A U.S. official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said that if previous U.S. aid went to train would-be militants, "obviously steps will be taken so that any future training does not lead to a similar outcome."

What steps? How can they possibly do this?

A prominent Muslim writer has criticized non-Muslim critics of Sharia and dhimmitude for claiming that "apostasy from Islam was universally punished by death." And of course, he's right. No law in the history of the world has ever been universally enforced. But what's really disturbing about Islamic apostasy law is that some would like to see it enforced today: including the famous Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, who has been hailed as a "reformist" by no less a luminosity than John Esposito.

From "Accusing Muslim Intellectuals of Apostasy," in MEMRI, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi Advocates Implementing the Ridda Death Penalty

In an interview with the Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram Al-Arabi, Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, one of the most prominent clerics in Sunni Islam and among Islamist circles and a spiritual leader for the Muslim Brotherhood movement, discussed the view of modern religious law on carrying out the punishment for ridda, and permitted the murder of free Muslim intellectuals whose views differ from those of Islamist clerics.

Asked, "In Muslim society, has an individual the right to change his religion as he wishes?" Al-Qaradhawi drew a distinction between two types of ridda: "One of the freedoms that Islam does not accept is the freedom of ridda that expands [from the realm of the individual to that of the group] and threatens the social fabric and its foundations. [On the one hand,] there is limited ridda, and [on the other,] there is ridda that expands [from the individual to the group].

"Limited ridda is the ridda of the individual who switches religion and is not interested in others. According to Islam, the punishment for this individual is [Hell] in the world to come…

"But [the other] ridda, which expands [from the individual to the group], is a ridda in which the individual who abandons Islam calls [upon others] to do likewise, [thus creating] a group whose path is not the path of society and whose goal is not the goal of the [Muslim] nation, and whose allegiance is not to the Islamic nation. Such [individuals] endanger the social fabric, and they are like the murtaddoon [apostates], who were fought by [the first Caliph] Abu Bakr together with the Companions of the Prophet [the Sahaba]. Those murtaddoon falsely claimed that they were prophets with the same inspiration as was given to the Prophet Muhammad…"

Asked what the view of the modern Muslim sage should be about the danger of ridda, Al-Qaradhawi replied: "The gravest danger facing the Muslim is the one that threatens his spiritual existence – i.e., that threatens his belief. Therefore, apostasy, or unbelief after having been Muslim, is the gravest danger to society…

"In our generation, Muslim society has been subject to violent invasions and severe attacks aimed at uprooting it, and these were manifested by the invasion of Christian missionaries that began with Western colonialism and is continuing in the Islamic world and among the Islamic communities and minorities [outside the Muslim world] … [and by] the Communist invasion that destroyed entire Muslim countries in Asia and Europe and made every effort to eliminate Islam and remove it ultimately from people's lives … and by the third and worst invasion, the secular invasion that is continuing to this day in the heart of the Islamic world, sometimes openly and sometimes covertly, and which persecutes the true Islam…

"For Muslim society to preserve its existence, it must struggle against ridda from every source and in all forms, and it must not let it spread like wildfire in a field of thorns. This is what Abu Bakr and the companions did when they fought the people of ridda who followed the false prophets… There is no escape from struggling against and restricting the individual ridda so that it will not worsen and its sparks scatter, becoming group ridda… Thus, the Muslim sages agreed that the punishment for the murtadd [who commits ridda ] … is execution…"(3)

In his book 'Islam and Secularism,' Al-Qaradhawi explains: "The Muslim sages agreed unanimously that anyone who denies something that is known in the religion … is an apostate who abandons his religion. The Imam must demand of him to repent, and recant his deviation from the righteous path, or the laws regarding the murtadd will apply to him."

Jihad fi sabil Allah, jihad for the sake of Allah, is the common Islamic term for violent jihad -- most decidedly not "spiritual struggle." A prominent Muslim writer recently decried non-Muslim analysts for supposedly claiming that Islam is "inseparable from, exclusively defined by, and universally characterized by violence against non-Muslims." I trust he will soon be firing off a sharp letter to Khaled Al-Dosari, the most wanted jihadist in Kuwait, for doing just that. "Top Wanted Kuwaiti Islamist: Islam is Only Consummated through Jihad; We Don't Have Any Ties to Al-Qa'ida; Al-'Anzi Was Executed upon American Orders," from MEMRI, with thanks to Nicolei:

Question: "Would you turn yourself in to the authorities? Has anyone requested you to turn yourself in?"

Al-Dosari: "I love death more than [prison]... To whom should I turn myself in? To the oppressor so that he can oppress and torture me? I should turn myself in knowing that my fate would be like the fate of Sheikh 'Amer [Al-'Anzi]? If I knew that there was justice and respect for human rights, I would go of my own accord, but I am convinced that they want to kill me…"

Question: "What is your message to your people, your brethren, your friends, and the people at large?"

Al-Dosari: "I tell them that I stand firm in my principles. Their [the authorities'] threats to kill me will not turn me away from my religion. I don't mind dying a Muslim, even if I don't know where I am going [to Paradise or Hell]. Religion is only consummated in the Muslims' souls and among the people through Jihad for the sake of Allah, in all its forms. Religion can subjugate the evil of those who corrupt the land only through force, which will scare them, and only through Jihad, which will break their power. Without Jihad there would be perversion in the land and the mosques would be ruined. The struggle between truth and falsehood is a valid sunna [way of life]. The party of falsehood is always larger than the party of truth. They will be defeated, and their evil will be stopped only through Jihad. Many people only listen to the truth when the use of force pushes them to do so."

I think he may be right about that last bit.

Among the clearest evidence of the incompatibility of the Sharia with norms of human rights is its denial of freedom of conscience, and death penalty for those who leave Islam. Here is another story showing that that penalty is by no means a thing of the past. It will be interesting to see what happens to Abd al-Salam in a country where there are many who want to see Sharia rule implemented. From AsiaNews, with thanks to Emergency Room:

Zakho (AsiaNews/MEC) – A Christian convert from Islam was killed for his faith. Ziwar Muhammad Isma’il, who worked as a taxi driver in Zakho in the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, was shot dead by Abd al-Karim Abd al-Salam at a taxi station early on the morning of February 17.

Abd al-Salam approached Ziwar and told him to return to Islam. When Ziwar refused he opened fire with an automatic rifle.

Abd al-Salam fled but was chased by other taxi drivers who, after apprehending him, turned him over to the police.

Abd al-Salam claims that the prophet Muhammad appeared to him in a dream and told him to kill the Christian.

Ziwar, who converted to Christianity seven years ago, leaves a widow and five children. He had been quite open about his faith even though he had been threatened by his relatives and other Muslims. He had been arrested twice but never charged.

How Sharia intransigence causes a brain drain. "Govt looking into Taslima Nasreen's plea," from Rediff.com, with thanks to Fanabba:

Nasreen, who is facing death threat from radical Islamic groups in Bangladesh, has sought Indian citizenship saying her country of origin has 'slammed the doors' on her. Fundamentalist outfits in Bangladesh issued death threat against her in 1994 for her 'blasphemous' writings.

At the highest levels. It would be interesting to know how this report relates to this one. From the Jerusalem Post, with thanks to Doc Washburn:

Officials at the highest levels in Syria and Lebanon organized the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper a-Siasa.

The report revealed that two high-ranking Syrian generals – including Syrian president Bashar Assad's brother-in-law, Brig. Gen. Asef Shawkat, whom he appointed Friday to head military intelligence – and a Lebanese general.

The newspaper did not reveal the sources of the report.

The Lebanese and Syrian governments have denied any role in the death of Hariri, who was killed by a massive bomb as he was driven in his motorcade through central Beirut. The blast killed 16 other people and wounded more than 100.

The murder of Hariri, a politician who was seen as a key figure in applying international pressures to effect Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon, was evidently intended as a bloody warning to the Lebanese to think twice before demanding that Syrian troops pull out, the report commented.

"Abbas Rejects Use of Force to Disarm Palestinian Groups," from Arab News, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

RAMALLAH, 20 February 2005 — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he opposes any use of force to disarm Palestinian groups.

“We don’t want conflict with the armed organizations, but agreement,” he said in an interview with the German weekly Der Spiegel to appear in tomorrow’s edition. The president said fighters from Hamas, Fatah and Islamic Jihad must be integrated into the Palestinian security forces.

“After that, there will be no illegal arms, because the fighters must first hand them over,” he told Der Spiegel.

Abbas also pledged that the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza would be free of violence. “People will throw flowers at the Israelis, and not stones,” he said. Hamas and Islamic Jihad agreed on Feb. 12 to maintain an informal truce following talks with Abbas.

Cyber attacks on anti-jihad websites are growing increasingly common. Here is news of one from a press release from the Anti-Terrorism Coalition:

On January 11, 2005, the Anti-Terrorism Coalition (ATC) was attacked by unknown hackers. Around 6 pm Eastern Standard time, January 11, 2005, the ATC-owned Facts About Islam website was attacked. All of the accounts on which it was hosted on were completely destroyed within an hour. Shortly after the attacks, a message was posted by one of the suspected attackers:

"I WILL CONTINUE HACKING DOWN YOUR FILTHY ZIONIST SCUM WEBSITES UNTIL THEY DISAPEER! ALAHU AKBAR! f**kink kikes!"

The ATC immediately increased its security. Early on January 12, ATC's host and Super Verticals (the company that provided the urls for the ATC) got attacked as well, this made all remaining ATC sites unreachable, including the famous database of terrorists websites from the ATC. But as Super Verticals also provided urls to other websites, hundreds of websites that used a Super Vertical url got unreachable as well.

By January 13, the host was completely offline, making all ATC websites, including the main ATC website, the ATC's famous Database of Terrorist Websites and eGroups, the ATC Intelligence website, the ATC & FAI Guestbook, and other websites unreachable. All other websites hosted by Freeurl were also destroyed.

This attack was not the first Mega-Cyber Terrorist Attack on the ATC. On June 27, 2003, 8-27 anti-terrorist websites, including the ATC, FAI (then called AMS), Anti-Jihad International, and others were attacked, including the Hindu Unity website and the now extinct Our Enemies website were targeted by the attackers. These attacks were executed in a somewhat similar style, according to the ATC. "Except this time, we were a greater threat to them, and they took out a whole company just to get to us," added Vice President B.

Vowing to return, ATC President Stalfos stated: "The ATC will remain shut down this time until we have a better security."

"We will find the attackers. We will not be influenced by terrorist thugs. We shall return," added Benyamin B.

Why? Because he was in the army, and he didn't tell them he had converted to Christianity. Dhimmis can't serve in the army. But of course, he had told them, years ago. "Iran: Government Jails Christian Pastor for Three Years," from Compass Direct, with thanks to LA Hutton:

February 17 (Compass) -- Yesterday a Tehran military court sentenced Iranian Christian pastor Hamid Pourmand to jail for three years, ordering his immediate transfer to a group prison cell in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison.

The former army colonel was found guilty of deceiving the Iranian armed forces by not declaring when he acquired officer rank that he was a convert from Islam to Christianity. Under the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran, it is illegal for a non-Muslim to serve as a military officer.

During yesterday’s hearing, Pourmand’s lawyer produced several documents in which his client’s military superiors had acknowledged years ago that the colonel was a Christian. He had even been excused by his commander from observing the Muslim month of fasting, an exemption granted only to non-Muslims.

Nevertheless, the court ruled that Pourmand was guilty of giving false testimony and producing falsified documents. Yesterday’s verdict came during the second and final session of his military trial begun in late January.

UPDATE: A commenter was puzzled as to why apostasy doesn't seem to enter into this story. But LA Hutton just sent this story, which makes clear that Pourmand will also face trial for apostasy:

During last week’s trial, the Christian prisoner was informed that he would be transferred back to Bandar-i Bushehr, where he will face trial on two separate charges of apostasy and proselytizing.

During the hearing, court officials declared that for many years Pourmand had belonged to an “underground” church through which “many Muslims” had deserted Islam and become Christians.

“Either he will be forced to return to Islam,” one Iranian Christian source noted, “or he will face a very big problem now.”...

Since 1990, several ex-Muslims who converted to Christianity have been either assassinated or executed by court order, under the guise of accusations of spying for foreign countries.

Under Iranian law, apostasy is listed along with murder, armed robbery, rape and serious drug trafficking as a capital offense.

I might as well make a template with that headline, I have to use it so often in regard to the wonderful charitable works of our friends and allies the Saudis. "Saudi Charity Suspected of Aiding Terror," from AP, with thanks to Teri:

PORTLAND, Ore. - A U.S. arm of a large Saudi charity suspected by the government of supporting terrorism was indicted on fraud and tax charges, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

The three-count indictment charges Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation and its two officers, Pirouz Sedaghaty - also known as Pete Seda - and Soliman Al-Buthe with illegally sending $150,000 to Muslim fighters in Chechnya.

The Bush administration last September designated the charity as a group suspected of supporting terrorism through its main location in Ashland and a mosque in Springfield, Mo. Assets at both sites have been frozen since last February.

Sedaghaty had been living in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, but the whereabouts of Al-Buthe were unknown. There was no word on any arrests.

A federal grand jury indictment Wednesday alleges an Egyptian citizen contacted the foundation in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, seeking to donate money to Muslims in Chechnya. The indictment said $150,000 was transferred by wire to a foundation bank account in Ashland.

From the superb Diana West in the Washington Times:

It was just a coincidence that "Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis" appeared in the mail the same day a New York Times article on the subject of Eurabia landed on the doorstep. "Eurabia," the long-awaited book by Bat Ye'or, is a comprehensive, even overwhelming and absolutely shocking explication of how and why it is that Europe is transforming itself into what the Egyptian-born historian calls "a new geopolitical entity " Eurabia." The New York Times article, on the other hand, a muddled analysis by Craig S. Smith about the "fear of Islamists" and the "far right" in Belgium, is one more illustration of how desperately Bat Ye'or's trail-blazing work is needed.

Few of us have the long-view vision to make sense of the sweep of history as it smokes past our eyes; Bat Ye'or, as a historian of Islam, and, in particular, the dhimmi (the non-Muslim peoples who live as second-class citizens under Islamic rule), has precisely the laser-lens required. She also has the fortitude of the historian/gumshoe to wade through the stacks of articles, memoranda and conference declarations generated by something called the Euro-Arab Dialogue (EAD).

Created 30-odd years ago at the instigation of France and the Arab League, the practically unknown EAD has provided structural and theoretical underpinnings to a Euro-Arab axis " Eurabia. These have fostered the political, economic and cultural bonds between Europe and the Arab world that Bat Ye'or maintains were designed to create "a global alternative to American power."

How? Read it all.

From Die Jüdische, with thanks to Teri:

Hany Abu - Assad`s movie „Paradise Now” is portraying two Palestinian suicide bombers.

At the end the screen goes blank. You do not see rubble nor dead people. The last thing you see is a pair of determined staring eyes. The camera moves closer to the face of the young Palestinian and separates him from the world surrounding him: his victims.

The eyes in the face belong to a man called Said. For 90 minutes the audience accompanied him through the movie “Paradise Now”. Said is a suicide bomber and his victims are Israeli Jews.

“Paradise Now” is not one of those movies, shot by well educated moviemakers, producers and technicians in the Palestinian territories, that celebrates “martyrs”: those men and women who are sacrificing themselves in order to kill as many Jews as they can.

“Paradise Now “ is in competition at the 55th International Film festival Berlinale which opened last Thursday in Berlin. The director Hany Abu-Assad is asked in the press conference for “Paradise Now”: “why are there almost only Israeli soldiers sitting in the bus, which Said is going to blow up? Assad answers evasively; he wanted to let the character decide for himself.

Kais Nashef, who plays Said in the movie, continues to answer: “ the soldiers in the bus made the decision, to blow himself up, easier [if]Israelis stay invisible throughout the movie; you can only see them from afar, only as figures and not as human beings. You are not allowed to get to know any of the other characters, neither the people at the bus station nor the little girl standing by the bus driver, otherwise the audience could emphasize with them."

How could this be? Isn't Musharraf warring against the "extremists"? Hmmm. Could it be that these "extremists" are actually so mainstream that he can't possibly even get them out of his government, much less influence public opinion? "Pak 'most anti-US country': CRS," from Rediff.com, with thanks to Fanabba:

Notwithstanding its cooperation with the US in the war against terrorism, Pakistan is probably the "most anti-American country" in the world right now, according to the Congressional Research Service.

The assessment of the depth of Pakistan's anti-Americanism is attributed by K Alan Kronstadt, who is in charge of analysing Asian affairs for the CRS, to a "senior expert."

Adding to US concerns about Pakistan's domestic political developments, Kronstadt says, are increasing signs of Islamisation and anti-American sentiments.

While Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf vowed in August 2003 to "finish off extremism," Kronstadt notes, Pakistan's Islamists routinely denounce Pakistani military operations in western tribal areas, resist government attempts to reform religious schools that teach militancy, and harshly criticise Islamabad's cooperation with the US government.

Christopher Caldwell in The Weekly Standard (thanks to Nicolei) continues his useful explorations of the Islamization of Europe with a piece about the dilemmas posed for the Swedish welfare state by Muslim immigration and reluctance to assimilate.

The Hariri murder has pushed tensions in Lebanon over the Syrian occupation higher than they have been for years -- but the occupation is just fine with the jihadists of Hizballah, the "party of Allah." Hizballah's leader Hassan Nasrallah knows that his power in Lebanon depends largely on Syria's presence there.

"Hizbollah Tells Lebanese to Cool Anti-Syria Line," from Reuters, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm, who comments: "They should ask some of the PC(USA) missionaries to come back over and tell the Lebanese people how 'great' Hezbollah and Syria are."

Opposition leaders are urging Lebanese to join a peaceful "independence uprising" to free their country from Syria's military and political dominance, intensifying a war of words after Hariri's assassination in a huge bomb blast Monday.

"God forbid, if the roof collapses, it collapses on all of us," Nasrallah told tens of thousands of Shi'ite Muslims gathered for Ashura, the most solemn event in their calendar.

"Today we are responsible for a nation that came out of the civil war ... but we face acute problems, especially this year and in the past few months," the black-turbaned cleric declared. "As Lebanese, we have no choice for remedying our crises and problems except to discuss and meet, even if we are angry and tense," he said. "We must not repeat the mistakes of the past."

Hizbollah, backed by Syria and Iran, is now a formidable Lebanese political party as well as an anti-Israel guerrilla force that still controls much of south Lebanon since helping end a 22-year Israeli occupation in May 2000....

The anti-Syrian sentiments now uniting many of Lebanon's Christians, Druze and Sunnis have not been voiced by Shi'ite leaders counted among the most loyal allies of Damascus. Shi'ites form the country's biggest religious community.

Hizbollah, the only militia to retain its guns openly since the civil war ended, could come under intense pressure to disarm, in line with United Nations demands, if Syria left.

An update from the Winning Hearts and Minds Department. But of course, everybody knows that there is no "serious extremist movement" in Indonesia. "Australia warns of Aceh attacks," from AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- Australia's foreign minister said Saturday that terrorists could be planning to attack foreign aid workers in Indonesia's tsunami-ravaged Aceh province.

"New information (has been) received by the government concerning possible terrorist planning for attacks against foreigners involved in relief efforts in Aceh or other areas of northern Sumatra," Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said in a statement.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Saturday revised its travel advice for Indonesia, warning that Australians could endanger themselves by traveling to northern Sumatra island, where Aceh is located.

Funeral jihad. Nothing, indeed, is sacred -- except, apparently, jihad. This was another in a string of attacks on Shi'ites. From CNN, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A suicide bomber on a bicycle has blown himself up inside a funeral tent at a Baghdad mosque, killing at least three people and wounding 38 others, Iraqi police said.

The Saturday morning attack happened the al-Baya'a district of southwestern Baghdad, police said.

Across the capital, three mortar rounds landed on a procession of Shiite worshippers marching toward a mosque in northern Baghdad, wounding 17 civilians and two Iraqi soldiers, Iraqi police said.

The worshippers were on their way to the al-Kadthimiya mosque in the al-Adthamiya district of Baghdad in a commemoration of Ashura when the mortar attack happened, police said.

Ashura is the commemoration of the death of Prophet Mohammad's grandson, Hussein, who was killed and entombed more than 1,300 years ago in Karbala.

Guess which cleric might have spoken this way -- that's right, it's Sheikh Omar Bakri again. "Muslim cleric talks of No 10 suicide attacks," from ITV News, with thanks to Nicolei:

It is a statement that will horrify and disgust people across Britain, but he made these statements without any fear of prosecution.

On the tape he was heard to say: "You want to call us extremist, yes I am extreme.

"Somebody he fly aeroplane and he decide to fly the aeroplane over 10 Downing Street.... It's another self-sacrifice operation...

"What people call suicide operations they mean somebody he wear explosives or he carries explosives and he go and he blow it in the building with the people...

"Martyrdom is what you want.

"Make sure you have nothing left behind you to think about or cry for and fight in the name of Allah."

More evidence that Europe has become an active recruiting ground for jihad terrorists. This, of course, is all the more reason for Europeans to be concerned about the huge influx of Muslim immigrants, even while politicians and the media continue to consider this a "racial" question. "Kurds Recruiting Radical Islamic Fighters," from the Washington Post via AINA, with thanks to Nicolei:

Ansar al-Islam, a radical Islamic group founded by Kurds in northern Iraq in 2001, has rapidly built an extensive recruiting network in Europe. Over the past two years, European counterterrorism officials have arrested Ansar operatives and uncovered cells in six countries. The network is suspected of funneling hundreds of recruits to Iraq to fight occupation forces there.

There's a map and additional information at the AINA link.

It seems as if there are elements in Iraq that don't want a party of Christians operating there. From Reuters, with thanks to Nicolei:

"I appeal to Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia, His Holiness the Pope, world Christian parties and the Association of Iraqi Muslim Clerics ... to work towards freeing me," Minas al-Yusifi, said in a video aired on Thursday.

The leader of Iraq's Christian Democrats was snatched three weeks ago by the Martyr al-Isawy Brigades whose name was on a black banner behind him during the video released by fighters.

He returned to Iraq two years ago to re-establish the party after seeking asylum in Sweden 20 years ago.

Shahid Alam compared the 9/11 hijackers to the Founding Fathers, sent a fiendishly anti-Semitic reply to an emailer who complained, and for good measure, falsely accused Jihad Watch and LGF of subjecting him to "orchestrated attacks--many of them death threats." Then he had the temerity to complain about his academic freedom being threatened, even though MESA Nostra has made sure that people with his views dominate Middle East Studies departments all over the country.

What does he get for all this? An award. From WND, with thanks to all who sent in reports of this:

A university professor who wrote an article equating the 9-11 suicide-hijackers with American colonists who fought the British has been given an award for speaking out on controversial issues.

M. Shahid Alam, professor of economics at Northeastern University, was honored by the National Lawyers Guild with their Free Speech Award on Thursday.

In his article, Alam wrote: "On September 11, 2001, nineteen Arab hijackers too demonstrated their willingness to die - and to kill - for their dream. They died so that their people might live, free and in dignity."...

Announcing the award, the leftist National Lawyers Guild noted Alam has been heavily criticized by commentors such as Bill O'Reilly of Fox News and scholar Daniel Pipes, director of the think tank Middle East Forum and a presidential appointee to the board of the United States Institute of Peace.

Guild member Bin Ahmad, a third-year law student at Northeastern, said Pipes "goes on national television and calls Dr. Alam a 'radical Muslim' and a 'bomb thrower' with 'venom towards America."

"These are outrageous allegations based on a selective and distorted reading of Dr. Alam's writings," she said. "Additionally, Dr. Alam has been the target of physical threats and harassment after excerpts from one of his recent essays were posted on websites of known, extreme right-wing organizations."...

Jonathon Foglia, another Northeastern student-member of the Guild said Alam deserves the Free Speech Award because his work epitomizes the type of thought and expression the First Amendment protects.

"Dr. Alam is a man of profound scholarship and enviable bravery," Foglia said. "His work is clearly core political speech. Anytime self-professed 'patriots' threaten and intimidate individuals on the basis of published words, we must all rally to the defense of the First Amendment and people such as Dr. Alam."

The National Lawyers Guild recently defended New York lawyer Lynne Stewart, a member, on charges she helped a radical Egyptian sheik Omar Abdel Rahman pass secret messages to his followers urging terrorist attacks.

Stewart, 65, was convicted Feb. 10.

I will not shirk to do this work, for those who post and those who lurk: the Turks are irked. The Turks are irked. What kind of jerk would irk the Turks? One who smirks, "No Muslim perks."

"The Europeans want to strip off our Islamic identity. We don't want to join the EU if the price will be deserting Islam."

But Islam, as I have noted many times, is not just a system of individual piety; it is a political and social system. This political and social system is not in power in Turkey; but the Turkish government is under constant pressure from its adherents, many of whom, indeed, hold positions of power in that government. How then can they join the EU if they don't desert Islam, or at least parts of it? How can they enter into an alliance of equals with non-Muslim countries? What will be their future intentions toward Europe -- particularly if political Islam returns to power in Turkey?

The Turks are irked, eh? So am I. Why would they balk about ID cards and religious courses, unless it were because they balk at granting full equality to their non-Muslim citizens?

From IslamOnline, with thanks to Nicolei:

ANKARA, February 18, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – European recommendations for Turkey to free citizens' ID cards from religious reference and to stop compulsory religious courses at schools, raised suspicions and drew criticism in the dominantly Muslim country, with some saying the EU recommendations aim at "neutralizing, then swallowing" the Turkish people, and others believing they hurt the country's unity.

"The recommendations of the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) demonstrate an interference in Turkish affairs and aim at harming the unity of the Turkish people," Ali Ozdmer, a retired officer, told IslamOnline.net.

"We are proud that our ID cards highlight our Islamic identity," he said.

The ECRI has urged the Turkish government to drop any reference to religion on the ID cards and to stop the compulsory religious courses in the Turkish schools, alleging such measures would "bring the country's standards into line with the European standards"....

"Rights of minorities in Turkey are protected. The non-Muslim minorities live with complete freedom in Turkey .

Is that so?

Ordinary citizens also reacted in anger to the European recommendations.

"I don't know what the European Union has to do the religion of the Turkish citizens. What is Europe 's problem with Islam in order to try to impose such demands," said Mohamed Dogan, an employee.

He further stressed that such demands were put forward for political reasons and aimed at blocking Turkey 's membership in the European Union.

Mostafa Gul Safan, a driver, agreed.

"The Europeans want to strip off our Islamic identity. We don't want to join the EU if the price will be deserting Islam."

Funny thing: Muslims in Europe don't seem to have any problem demanding that Europeans strip off their own cultural identity.

The Dutch Report (thanks to all who sent this in) discusses a report on the murder of Theo van Gogh from the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, "The Slaying of the Dutch Filmmaker":

The analysis (.....) indicates that the slaying of Theo Van Gogh should be considered a terrorist attack, not by a lone fanatic, but by a member of an al-Qaida inspired Sunni Islamist ad-hoc terrorist network. For example, the modus operandi of the attack was typical of al-Qaida and its associated groups waging global jihad against the US and its allies around the world. The radical Islamist milieu the killer belonged to, the Hofstad Network, was involved in the same type of activities and "organized" itself in the same way as other al-Qaida associated or inspired terrorist networks that have been detected in Western Europe recent years. In addition, the social profiles of Bouyeri, and other members of the Hofstad Network, resemble those of incarcerated militant Islamists who have been planning attacks in European countries.

Contextual analysis of the operation in Amsterdam indicates potential motivations related to multiple contexts that could be considered relevant for Muslim immigrants to Holland, such as Dutch immigration policy and counter-terrorism efforts, the "global war on terrorism" and the invasion of Iraq, as well as increased conflict-levels in areas of political grievance and symbolic value to Islamists and Muslims in general, such as in Palestine, Chechnya and Kashmir. In addition the Van Gogh case suggests that statements by high-profile persons that are exposed in the media might be interpreted as "insults against Islam", and thus serve as partial motivation for terrorism, or at least affect the target selection of the Islamist militants, who have chosen terrorism as a strategy in the battle against the US and its allies. The murder of the filmmaker also showed the effectiveness of an assassination of a public figure in spreading fear and escalating the levels of conflict between the Dutch and immigrants to Holland, adding to a growing xenophobia, which in turn might lead to increased problems of integration, and make alienated young Muslim immigrants receptive of al-Qaida's vision of global jihad.

From a counter terrorism perspective, the concept of complex motivations, or multiple social, political and religious motivations (related to different contexts), implies that the police and intelligence services working to prevent terrorist attacks should pay careful attention to political developments beyond the geographical area they police, and be aware that Islamist terrorism might occur as a response by developments in other countries, or faraway areas of the world.

The full report is available as a pdf here.

The jihad continues in Iraq -- this time apparently targeting the election victors. From AP, with thanks to JE:

Twin explosions during Friday prayers outside Shi'ite mosques in Baghdad have killed about 30 people and injured dozens, officials said.

The first blast occurred in Baghdad's southern Dora neighbourhood near the al-Khadimain mosque and reportedly killed 30, Iraqi National Guard 1st Lieutenant Ahmad Ali said.

The mosque's imam, he said, was making appeals for blood donations.

A second blast, apparently caused by a mortar attack, occurred outside the Al Qura mosque in a predominantly Shi'ite neighbourhood of western Baghdad, Lieutenant Colonel Jalal Sabry of the local police station said.

A press release from the Boston Israel Action Committee:

The Presbyterian Church, USA, has joined End the Occupation, a coalition that includes several organizations that endorse terrorism.

Within the last twelve months, PCUSA delegations have twice met with Hezbollah, a listed terrorist organization.

Although leaders of the PCUSA have issued formal statements repudiating terrorism, they have sometimes admitted to having difficult recognizing it. In his 2004 Christmas message, PCUSA Moderator Rev. Rick Ufford-Chase wrote: "It's increasingly difficult to distinguish between… the victims of terrorist attacks or well-executed military campaigns… the United States or Osama Bin Laden...."

By joining End the Occupation, the Presbyterian Church places itself in close alliance with several organizations that endorse terrorism. Among these are the International Solidarity Movement, which views the murder of Israelis by suicide bombers as a "form of 'jihad'"; Al Awda – The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, a group dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish State "by any means necessary"; and the Palestine Solidarity Movement, which, at its National Convention at Duke University in October, 2004, voted to defeat a floor motion to condemn terrorism -- a vote greeted with thunderous applause. Rev. Mark Davidson, pastor of the PCUSA Church of Reconciliation in Chapel Hill, NC, was a featured speaker at the PSM conference. This marks the third year in a row that the PSM National Conference has voted overwhelmingly in favor of maintaining its endorsement of terrorism as one of the "strategies and tactics," appropriate in the elimination of the State of Israel.

End the Occupation is a large coalition. Some member organizations are legitimate religious groups, such as the American Friends Service Committee. Some are political associations with questionable attitudes toward terrorism, such as the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Many member organizations are radical left groups such as the International Socialist Organization and the National Lawyers Guild. This week the National Lawyers Guild held a dinner to honor Northeastern University Professor Shahid Alam, notorious for comparing the 9/11 hijackers to the Founding Fathers – favorably. Most groups on the list are single-city committees, often affiliated with one of the national anti-Israel groups: the ISM, PSM, and Al Awda.

A note about the murder of a Coptic Christian family last month in a possible revenge killing for their proselytizing activity among Muslims:

After the Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio stated that "the FBI does not think that, based on the information gleaned from the scene, it's based on religious extremism," the situation looked exceedingly bleak: there were numerous reasons to suspect that important leads were not being investigated, and that the Prosecutors Office was bowing to pressure from jittery officials, American Muslim advocacy groups, and possibly even the Egyptian Consulate to soft-pedal the case.

But then the relatives of the slain family held a press conference. The Rev. Dr. Keith Roderick of the Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights declared: "The central issue here should not be about communal disputes, but the fact that the perpetrators of this vicious crime are still at large. To avoid pursuit of what may be the most obvious motive of the murder for fear of maligning one part of the Jersey City community or creating a backlash against that community is irresponsible."

And lo and behold, things started moving. Almost a month after I filed a report, I was contacted today by an investigator with the Prosecutors Office, asking about what I had learned from my conversations with a close friend of the Armanious family and others. I am glad to know that this information has not fallen through the cracks, and is in fact being investigated; soon, I believe, it will begin to come to light. And I have heard from others that there has finally been movement on other leads we feared had been lost or ignored.

The lesson here is that public pressure works. Maybe it's just coincidence that I got a call after the press conference, and not before. Maybe it isn't. But America is still a relatively open system, and the more we can draw public attention to injustice, the better chance there is that justice will come. And that, indeed -- drawing attention to the depredations of jihad violence and Sharia, in the name of universal human rights -- is the purpose of Jihad Watch.

Stephen Schwartz has published a piece entitled "Reductio ad Jihadam" in Tech Central Station today. Although Schwartz does not name me in the piece, he calls into question some of the core premises of my work, so I feel compelled to reply -- although I am somewhat reluctant to do so. Stephen Schwartz has interpreted my earlier attempts to engage him in dialogue as personal attacks, which was unfortunate for several reasons: they were not personal attacks by any stretch of the imagination, but sincere questions about assertions he has made publicly; for Schwartz to have characterized them as attacks and refused to answer them only further poisoned an already poisonous public discourse about Islam, and left the questions, which I still consider important, unanswered. It was also disheartening to see a prominent and influential moderate Muslim like Schwartz engage in the same reply-by-smear tactics that groups like CAIR, which he has fought indefatigably, employ with such skill.

Some people also have asked me why I should spend any time at all taking issue with Schwartz, since he does such good work opposing the jihadist depredations of the Saudis, and is after all "on our side." I am not in the least interested in denying or diminishing his excellent work in exposing the Saudis for what they are, and I have great respect for his courage and persistence in doing so, and high regard for him personally. But because his writings in other areas are just as influential as is his work on the Saudis, it is important to set the record straight on matters where his contribution is, in my view, less accurate and less beneficial overall to the anti-jihad resistance. The anti-jihad resistance is in no way aided by ignoring the uncomfortable aspects of Islamic history and law.

If this response were to initiate a mutually respectful dialogue and exchange with Stephen Schwartz, that would be all to the good, and would no doubt serve to illuminate many matters of pressing moment in today's political debate. But at this point I have no hope of that.

Schwartz begins by decrying "a certain style of popular argument" that "seeks to win debating points by associating any adversary, especially if the latter is a conservative, with Nazism or fascism." He then goes on to assert that

A new and comparable trope has emerged from the discussion of Islam, which could be called the "reductio ad Jihadam." This is an argument that forces every debate over any aspect of the 1,400 year history of the religion of Muhammad into a framework in which Islam is said to be inseparable from, exclusively defined by, and universally characterized by violence against non-Muslims.

All right. No one I know who is doing any serious work about Islam and jihad actually does this, so this has a whiff of the straw man to me, but let's move on:

There are variations on this metonymy, which might be called the "reductio ad shariam" and the "reductio ad dhimmam." In these instances, Islam exists only to support the exclusive application of Islamic law, or shariah, to all residents of a Muslim-majority society, and/or to impose the dhimma, a contract for the rule of non-Muslims under Muslim authority.

Once again, Schwartz is setting up a straw man. "Islam exists only to support the exclusive application of Islamic law?" This seems to be a bit of a reductio of his own; no scholar of Sharia or dhimmitude that is worth his or her salt is really saying it.

But in characterizing expositions of the dhimma in this way, he casts aspersions upon the legitimate work of people like Bat Ye'or and A. S. Tritton, for he seems to allow for no genuine research in this area -- it is all exaggerated:

In reality, jihadism and devotion to shariah as an exclusive legal system are rare doctrines among today's Muslims. Were they not, the present conflict between radical Islam and the world would be conducted, from the extremist side, by armies and nations, rather than by small conspiracies. Serious extremist movements are visible only in Saudi Arabia, Iraq (where they are imported, mainly from the south), Iran, Pakistan, regions of Nigeria and Malaysia, and a tiny number of war zones like Chechnya and southern Thailand.

Really? Not Indonesia, where jihadists used the tsunami to agitate for Sharia rule, and threatened non-Muslim aid workers? Not the Philippines, where the struggle between the government and the jihadists is edging toward all-out war? Not Egypt, in which even Egyptian writers complain that the venerable Al-Azhar University "encourages extremism and terror"? Not Uzbekistan, where jihadists bombed the American and Israeli embassies? Not Bangladesh, where jihadists threaten to bring about the "Talibanization" of the country? Not even Afghanistan, where the Taliban itself still roams all too freely? I would respectfully suggest that "jihadism and devotion to shariah" is a bit more extensive that Schwartz claims.

Uh oh. Mueller says there are Al-Qaeda cells in the U.S.? He better get ready for a phone call from the ACLU.

From Bill Gertz in the Washington Times, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Senior U.S. intelligence leaders told Congress yesterday that "it may only be a matter of time" before terrorists try to use weapons of mass destruction against the United States.

In his first public appearance since becoming CIA director in September, Porter J. Goss used the annual worldwide threat hearing to issue the prediction, while another federal official said the FBI knows little about al Qaeda sleeper cells such as the September 11 terrorists.

"It may be only a matter of time before al Qaeda or another group attempts to use chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons," Mr. Goss told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III testified that he is "very concerned" about the lack of data on a network of al Qaeda "sleeper" cells in the United States.

"Finding them is a top priority for the FBI, but it is also one of the most difficult challenges," he said.

"Because of al Qaeda's directed efforts this year to infiltrate covert operatives into the U.S., I am also very concerned with the growing body of sensitive reporting that continues to show al Qaeda's clear intention to obtain and ultimately use some form of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear or high-energy explosives material in its attacks against America," Mr. Mueller added.

More charity jihad, from the Daily Southtown, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

Prosecutors told a federal appeals court Tuesday that Enaam Arnaout, the imprisoned leader of a now-defunct Palos Hills-based Muslim charity, should have been dealt with as a terrorist and sentenced to much more time behind bars.

Arnaout, 42, is serving an 11-year prison sentence for defrauding donors of Benevolence International Foundation. The Syrian-born Justice resident pleaded guilty two years ago to charges he used some charitable donations to help armed rebels in Bosnia and Chechnya.

Arnaout's attorneys insist he deserves a new sentencing hearing under a recent ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court that tossed out the mandatory system used to determine how much prison time Arnaout was eligible for.

But in their own appeal of the sentence, prosecutors claim the judge who handled the case should have ruled that Arnaout promoted terrorism — a finding that would have mandated he spend at least 20 years behind bars. During brief oral arguments before the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, Assistant U.S. Attorney John C. Kocoras said Arnaout's sentence was "unreasonably low."

The U.S. attorney's office has long insisted Arnaout was linked to al-Qaida and at one point was a close associate of Osama bin Laden. The legal case tying Arnaout to al-Qaida fizzled after a series of adverse court rulings, and a judge ultimately concluded the government had "failed to connect the dots" between Arnaout and terrorism.

And even though prosecutors eventually agreed to drop the terrorism charges against Arnaout in exchange for his guilty plea to fraud, they still maintain the case is much more serious than a simple money-swiping scheme.

"He wasn't defrauding donors to line his pockets with money," Kocoras said. "He was defrauding donors to arm fighters overseas."

It appears that this attempt to cow and intimidate Jordan has failed: he gave no details, and he doesn't seem to have retracted his statement either. (Or if he did, this article certainly isn't clear about it.) Now why the ACLU -- and Muslim groups, for that matter -- would consider it offensive for a law enforcement official to say that Al-Qaeda is present in a particular place is beyond me. If they succeed in gaining Jordan's scalp, anti-terror efforts will suffer an immense setback: it will become a punishable offense merely to suggest that jihadist activity is going on, let alone to do anything about it. Be assured: the Muslim groups and ACLU will keep trying.

From AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — In a meeting with local Muslims, Robert Jordan, the top FBI agent in Oregon, refused to elaborate on his recent comments that jihad-trained fighters are living in the state, according to an ACLU representative who attended the gathering. Jordan, the special agent in charge of the FBI in Oregon, addressed the ACLU representative, several dozen Muslims and other religious leaders on Tuesday at the Bilal Mosque Association in Beaverton....

In an interview with The Associated Press last month, Jordan said: "We have people here in Oregon that have trained in jihadist camps in bad areas. In the bad neighborhoods of the world." He added that the FBI knows "they've trained overseas, taken oaths to kill Americans and engage in jihad," but the challenge is "to prove those things."

Ahmed said those comments stunned him, and he wanted Jordan to speak about the remarks to a gathering at the mosque.

Peg Pfab, pastor of Southminster Presbyterian Church in Beaverton, said the meeting was helpful.

"I think Mr. Jordan and the Bilal community are all trying very hard to move ahead and to use this experience as a learning experience, so that they can be better supportive of each other," Pfab said.

Andrea Meyer, legislative director for the ACLU of Oregon, told The Oregonian that the meeting featured a presentation by the secretary of the mosque who talked about how Jordan's "jihad" comments have appeared in inflammatory Internet chats targeting Muslims and Arab Americans.

An impressive list of accomplishments. However, "in spite of these accomplishments, al-Qaeda continues to adapt and move forward with its desire to attack the US, using any means at its disposal."

"FBI foiled plot to kill Pak diplomat in New York," from the Times of India, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

"In New York, Yassin Muhiddin Aref was arrested on money laundering charges connected to a possible terrorist plot to kill a Pakistani diplomat," Robert S Mueller, Director of the FBI, told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Wednesday.

In 2004, the FBI learned that al-Qaeda and related terrorist groups had conducted detailed surveillance of financial targets in New York, Washington DC and New Jersey....

In Virginia, Mohammed Ali al-Timimi, the spiritual leader of the Virginia Jihad training group, disrupted last year, was indicted for his involvement in the recruitment of US citizens for extremist training and jihad preparation.

Al-Timimi, the primary lecturer at a Northern Virginia Islamic centre, preached jihad to a small group of followers, provided them paramilitary training and facilitated their travel to Pakistan in the days after September 11 to attend a Lashkar-e-Taiba training camp in preparation to fight the United States in Afghanistan.

In Minneapolis, the FBI arrested Mohamad Kamal El-Zahabi, a Lebanese citizen, who admitted to serving in Afghanistan and Chechnya as a sniper and to providing sniper training at Khalden camp in Afghanistan and in Lebanon in the 1990s....

Unfortunately, said Mueller, "In spite of these accomplishments, al-Qaeda continues to adapt and move forward with its desire to attack the US, using any means at its disposal. Their intent to attack us at home remains and their resolve to destroy America has never faltered."

Dhimmitude enforced in Jerusalem. From WND, with thanks to EPG:

Judaism considers it the holiest place on earth. Muslims say it's the third holiest. Christianity reveres the spot as being of great historic importance. But if someone prays there, if he or she is not Muslim, the worshiper will be immediately arrested. Welcome to the Temple Mount.

The Temple Mount is the large area directly behind the Western Wall in Jerusalem. It is the site of Judaism's first and second Temples, the primary area of worship for the Jewish faith and the location in which God's "shekhina," or presence, is thought by Jews to reside. The area is about the size of 15 football stadiums....

Although is not mentioned by name in the Quran, the Temple Mount is also commonly identified by Muslims as the "furthermost sanctuary," the site from which the Prophet Muhammad, accompanied by the Angel Gabriel, made the Night Journey to the Throne of God.

In addition, Christianity considers the area historically important. The book of Luke records that Jesus, raised a devout Jew, was dedicated in the Second Temple in accordance with the Laws of Moses, and describes Jesus' boyhood visit to the Temple, which, it is written in John, he cleansed at Passover and during the last week of his life. Jesus once referred to the Temple as His "Father's house."

The Temple Mount was opened to the general public until September 2000, when the Palestinians started their intifada by throwing stones at Jewish worshipers after then-candidate for prime minister Ariel Sharon visited the area.

Following the onset of violence, the new Sharon government closed the Mount to non-Muslims, using checkpoints to control all pedestrian traffic for fear of further clashes with the Palestinians.

The Temple Mount was reopened to non-Muslims in August 2003. It is still open but only Sundays through Thursdays, 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., and not on any Christian Jewish or Muslim holidays or other days considered "sensitive" by the Wafq, the Muslim custodians of the Temple Mount.

During "open" days, Jews and Christian are allowed to ascend the Temple Mount, usually through organized tours and only if they conform first to a strict set of guidelines, which includes demands that they not pray or bring any "holy objects" to the site. Visitors are banned from entering any of the mosques without direct Wafq permission.

Rules are enforced by Wafq agents, who watch tours closely and alert nearby Israeli police to any breaking of their guidelines.

U.S. vs. Eurabia. "U.S. presses Europe to shun Hezbollah," from the New York Times via the International Herald Tribune, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

WASHINGTON Opening up a new divide in trans-Atlantic relations, the Bush administration is increasing the pressure on Europe to list Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and impose economic sanctions.

But it has been rebuffed by France and other countries concerned that such an action will anger Iran and backfire.

A European diplomat said that Israel, with U.S. backing, made the case for listing Hezbollah at a meeting Wednesday in Brussels of the so-called Clearing House, a unit of the European Union.

The Clearing House decided against acting because of a lack of consensus on the issue, the diplomat said.

The United States got the European Union to list Hamas as a terrorist organization in the autumn of 2003, but in a measure of continuing disagreement about how to handle the Middle East, some European countries are questioning whether Hamas should remain listed now that some of its members have won elections in Gaza.

Oh, they've won elections? Well, then that makes all those murders of civilians on buses and in restaurants all right.

I expand on this response to Jamal Badawi's offer of a million dollars to anyone who can find that the Qur'an condones religious warfare, and explore the implications of the offer, in FrontPage today.

(By the way, I heard from Dr. Badawi last night, but alas, he didn't ask me where he should send the million-dollar check. He just asked for more Qur'an verses, since I had said there were "many others," and I supplied some more (there are still more). So I expect he may be drafting a reply.)

A prominent Islamic apologist named Jamal Badawi, renowned as a “moderate Muslim,” has offered one million dollars to anyone who can find references in the Qur’an that condone “religious war, or jihad.”

The Bergen Record reported this at face value, so even though it noted that Badawi made the challenge “jokingly,” Badawi’s point was made: the Qur’an does not teach religious warfare, and it’s only media distortion that gives any other impression.

Badawi almost certainly knows better. But his “joking” offer only obfuscates the truth about how jihadists use the Qur’an to recruit and motivate terrorists — thereby blindsiding gullible Americans into thinking that mosques do not need to be monitored, and Muslims are unfairly “profiled” by law enforcement agencies. As such, Badawi’s offer is not a joke. It is a political statement, and one that harms our ability to guard against terrorist attacks on American soil.

Dr. Badawi, I want to be a millionaire. Here are a few quotes from the Qur’an:

Fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against you, but begin not hostilities. Lo! Allah loveth not aggressors. And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter. And fight not with them at the Inviolable Place of Worship until they first attack you there, but if they attack you (there) then slay them. Such is the reward of disbelievers. (2:190-191)

Slay the disbelievers. Sounds like a religious war to me. So does this:

Fighting is prescribed for you, and ye dislike it. But it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you, and that ye love a thing which is bad for you. But Allah knoweth, and ye know not. They ask thee concerning fighting in the Prohibited Month. Say: "Fighting therein is a grave (offence); but graver is it in the sight of Allah to prevent access to the path of Allah, to deny Him, to prevent access to the Sacred Mosque, and drive out its members." Tumult and oppression are worse than slaughter. Nor will they cease fighting you until they turn you back from your faith if they can. And if any of you Turn back from their faith and die in unbelief, their works will bear no fruit in this life and in the Hereafter; they will be companions of the Fire and will abide therein. (2:216-217)

And this, which identifies the enemies of the Muslims as disbelievers and friends of Satan:

Let those fight in the cause of Allah Who sell the life of this world for the hereafter. To him who fighteth in the cause of Allah,- whether he is slain or gets victory - Soon shall We give him a reward of great (value). And why should ye not fight in the cause of Allah and of those who, being weak, are ill-treated (and oppressed)?- Men, women, and children, whose cry is: "Our Lord! Rescue us from this town, whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from thee one who will protect; and raise for us from thee one who will help!" Those who believe fight in the cause of Allah, and those who reject Faith Fight in the cause of Evil: So fight ye against the friends of Satan: feeble indeed is the cunning of Satan. (4:74-76)

Here the religious warriors, or the angels who protect them, are to behead those who do not believe:

Remember thy Lord inspired the angels (with the message): "I am with you: give firmness to the Believers: I will instil terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them." (8:12)

Cf. this verse, which also makes clear the religious character of the fight:

Therefore, when ye meet the Unbelievers (in fight), smite at their necks; At length, when ye have thoroughly subdued them, bind a bond firmly (on them): thereafter (is the time for) either generosity or ransom: Until the war lays down its burdens. Thus (are ye commanded): but if it had been Allah's Will, He could certainly have exacted retribution from them (Himself); but (He lets you fight) in order to test you, some with others. But those who are slain in the Way of Allah,- He will never let their deeds be lost. (47:4)

This one states the goal of the fighting in terms that also make clear that the war is religious:

And fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is all for Allah. (8:39)

This one, like many others, makes it clear that the fighting that believers must do is not spiritual, but physical -- otherwise the promise that the believers will overcome long odds would make little or no sense:

O Prophet! rouse the Believers to the fight. If there are twenty amongst you, patient and persevering, they will vanquish two hundred: if a hundred, they will vanquish a thousand of the Unbelievers: for these are a people without understanding. (8:65)

This is the celebrated "Verse of the Sword":

But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, an seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practise regular charity, then open the way for them: for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful. (9:5)

Again, hard to see that as spiritual or metaphorical fighting. And this one establishes that the warfare is against the People of the Book, that is, Jews and Christians:

Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued. (9:29)

There are many other such verses, but I don’t have to speak with Dr. Badawi to know what he will say about this list: I am taking the verses out of context. I can only understand them properly in the original Arabic. I need to be well-versed in the science of Qur’anic interpretation, tafsir, to be able to understand them. Only an “Islamophobe” would take such verses at face value.

Very well. But what is he going to do about Muslims who read such verses and take them at face value? For instance, the Ingushetian Shura Council in Chechyna has explained in a recent communiqué that “Allah created people so that He could be worshipped alone, so no companions are ascribed to Him, and He permitted Jihad on His Straight Way, so that the Religion of Allah could be above all, so that all areas of life could be guided by Islam, and so that the Earth could be cleansed of unbelief.” In support of this idea, the Council quoted Sura 8:39, as it appears above. Likewise, in a treatise entitled “The true meaning of Jihad” that was posted last year on several jihadists websites, one Sidik Aucbur charged that “the West” was trying to distort the meaning of jihad by teaching that “Jihad is only about struggling against our desires.” He quotes the Qur’an copiously to establish that jihad means warfare against unbelievers, and declares: “there are over 120 verses of the Qur’an that use the Shari’ [Islamic legal] meaning of Jihad to mean fighting and killing.” Aucbur adds that all four major schools of Sunni Muslim jurisprudence agree on this point: “It has been agreed upon by the classical scholars that the Shari'ah meaning of Jihad is to fight and kill the kuffar [unbelievers]: Hanafi school in the book ‘Badiia as Saniia;’ Maliki school in the book ‘Manhal Jaleel,’ Shaffi school in the book ‘al Iqnaa,’ Hanbali school in the book ‘al Mughni.’”

Aucbur is hardly eccentric in pointing out this sort of thing; such arguments are echoed by jihadists worldwide, who use passages of the Qur’an and Islamic law to recruit new jihad warriors and convince Muslims that theirs is the “true Islam.” Is Badawi unaware of all this? Rather than throw his millions around with claims that the Qur’an contains nothing in the way of exhortations to religious warfare, wouldn’t it be more honest of him to acknowledge that such passages exist and are used by jihadists, and to offer some cogent explanation of how their force can be blunted within the Islamic community — if indeed it can?

This is one of the fundamental defects of the post-9/11 discourse in America: Muslim spokesmen again and again have insisted that Americans accept that Islam is a religion of peace, without offering a shred of evidence to this effect. Meanwhile, Muslims worldwide continue to commit violence in the name of Islam, and bland denials like Badawi’s not only do nothing to stop them, but perpetuate political myths that continue to mislead Americans about the sources of terror. As long as this goes on, nothing effective can or will be done to stop the ideology of jihad terrorism from proliferating in mosques and Islamic schools in the United States and around the world.

Dr. Badawi, I hope to hear from you soon. I’m so excited about your million-dollar offer, I have already started spending the money. After you pay me, I’ll treat you to lunch in Gstaad; we’ll get there on the new Jihad Watch Learjet.

Not that civilization itself is under attack or anything. "Officials: Militants Targeted Eiffel Tower," from AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

PARIS - Islamic militants under investigation for allegedly planning an attack on the Russian Embassy in Paris had other targets on their list, including the Eiffel Tower, police and judicial officials said Wednesday.

Three men, all Algerians, were detained Jan. 11 in connection with an investigation into a network of Islamic radicals supporting Chechen rebels, the officials said on condition of anonymity.

More than 20 people have been jailed in a series of arrests since December 2002 as part of an investigation into the network. The investigation revealed an alleged plot against the Russian Embassy and a planned chemical attack.

On Wednesday, judicial officials confirmed the three arrests, which were first reported by the daily Le Parisien. The newspaper said attacks in Britain were also allegedly planned and that those arrested in France had links to a group of Islamic radicals in Spain.

According to judicial officials, the three men said among the targets was the veritable symbol of France, the Eiffel Tower. Also targeted were a clothing store in the central Paris district of Les Halles, which is a commuter link packed with people, Israeli interests and police stations, officials said.

What was that again about a peaceful negotiated settlement? "Fugitives to join PA security forces," from the Jerusalem Post, with thanks to Teri:

About 350 Palestinian gunmen will be incorporated into the Palestinian Authority security forces soon as part of a deal reached between PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and leaders of all the Palestinian factions, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

The militiamen, who are on Israel's list of wanted terrorists, belong to various factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

This is the first time that members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad would serve in the PA security forces....

"The fugitives who will join the security forces belong to all the Palestinian groups and factions," Naja said. "The move is designed to protect them against Israeli assassination attempts."

The jihad has indeed returned to Lebanon. Hariri murder update from UPI, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- The suicide bomber who killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is a Palestinian member of an Islamic group linked to al-Qaida. A security source, on condition of anonymity, identified the bomber as Ahmed Abu Adas, a Palestinian refugee who lived in the low-income Beirut neighborhood of Tarik Jadida. The source said the bomber's neighbors saw him leave his home a few hours before the attack that killed Hariri and eight other people.

"The Muslim community is one of the fastest growing in the UK and is very much part of the fabric of British life." OK, but how far will British authorities and businesses go to accomodate Sharia for this growing community?

For similar US developments, see here.

From The Guardian, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Lloyds TSB today announced the launch of a current account that adheres to Islamic rules on finance. The account has been designed to comply fully with Islamic law, or sharia, which forbids the payment and receipt of interest, or riba. As such, the account will not pay interest on credit balances or have an overdraft facility.

The funds held by the bank on all shariah-compliant accounts will also be held according to Islamic law. Under shariah, Muslims are not allowed to invest in companies related to certain types of industry, such as alcohol, tobacco, pornography, armaments and gambling....

Gordon Rankin, current accounts director at Lloyds TSB, said: "The Muslim community is one of the fastest growing in the UK and is very much part of the fabric of British life. However, until now their banking needs have been largely uncatered for and many British Muslims have often had to bank in a way that is against their principles."

I'm not so sure the two things are not connected. Why did they make the false statements? From the Tampa Tribune, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Sameeh Hammoudeh faces trial in April with Al-Arian and two others on charges they helped organize and finance the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an organization that has claimed responsibility for numerous suicide bombings in Israel.

In a move that does not appear to directly affect the Al-Arian case, Hammoudeh and his wife, Nadia, entered into agreements Monday to plead guilty to three charges alleging they made false statements on immigration and mortgage documents. The couple had been scheduled for trial March 7 on those charges.

The Hammoudehs were indicted in August on 15 counts, including charges of wire fraud, conspiracy, false statements to the Internal Revenue Service and submitting a false claim to a federal agency.

In the plea agreements, the couple admit that between September 1994 and April 2000, they violated their visas by working at the Islamic Academy of Florida without authorization from federal immigration authorities. The school was co-founded by Al-Arian for students from prekindergarten through 12th grade.

According to court papers, Hammoudeh, who was born in the West Bank in Israel, entered this country in December 1992 on a tourist visa and later obtained a student visa. Prosecutors describe him as Al-Arian's closest confidant in the United States, but his attorney has asserted that the two men differed in numerous areas.

"There is no place in our country for people like this, and they must leave Germany as quickly as possible." Now that's a positive development. From AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

STUTTGART, Germany -- An Egyptian imam accused of preaching violent Islamic extremism has been deported to his homeland, authorities said Tuesday.

The 37-year-old imam, identified only as El Beih, had preached sermons in which he called the United States the "true terrorists" and a "Satan" that threatened the Islamic world, state Interior Minister Heribert Rech said.

The imam also called for people to be willing to fight and die for Islam, Rech said.

"There is no place in our country for people like this, and they must leave Germany as quickly as possible," Rech said.

"Suffolk resident released on bail after black market formula inquiry," from the Virginian-Pilot, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Abdelaziz Agoujdad, 42, posted $25,000 bail Monday and was freed pending an appearance in U.S. District Court on Thursday. He was arrested last week following an investigation that began in the summer.

Agoujdad’s case is tied to a multi million dollar black market baby formula ring that was broken up near Raleigh, according to court records.

Eight illegal immigrants were charged and convicted in that case.

The Wake County, N.C., Sheriff’s Department and the Wilson, N.C., Police Department began the investigation after noticing a surge in shoplifted infant formula, such as Enfamil and Simulac.

That led to undercover deals involving Agoujdad, according to court records.

The records say that an undercover officer sold Agoujdad more than 1,000 cases of formula on four occasions between July and August. Agoujdad believed the cans and boxes were stolen, the records say. The formula was worth more than $50,000.

After making the purchases in North Carolina, Agoujdad drove back to Virginia and stored the formula at his home in the 300 block of Morning Tide Lane in Suffolk, the court records say.

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III reported in November that there is a growing problem of purloined infant formula. In a number of cases, he said, the proceeds of those sales were used to support terrorist activities.

Missouri jihad. But of course, it wasn't really about suicide bombing. From Knight Ridder, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - (KRT) - A religious charity based in Columbia, Mo., once supported the children of Islamic "martyrs" in Afghanistan, according to declassified documents released Tuesday.

A spokesman for the charity, the Islamic American Relief Agency-USA, cautioned, however, that "martyr" can have a much more benign interpretation than "suicide bomber."

"It's an all-encompassing concept," lawyer Shereef Akeel said. "It could mean struggling and dying while you're being faithful to your religion, such as someone who drowned while being a believer."

Then he should give evidence that they supported the families of drowning victims. The classification of suicide bombers as "martyrs" has become so ubiquitous in the Islamic world that Akeel's argument will only fool the credulous -- who, unfortunately, are not in short supply in this area.

In October, the charity, also known as IARA-USA, was designated by the U.S. Treasury Department as a supporter of international terrorists, including Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida. The documents released Tuesday were filed by government lawyers in Washington as part of a lawsuit in which IARA-USA is seeking to have its assets unfrozen.

Jihad Watch Advisory Board Vice President asks some pointed questions about the Armanious case:

1) Did any Muslims mysteriously disappear from Jersey City in the period immediately following the murders?

2) If so, was there anything in the personal or family history of those who may have disappeared that might indicate a special animus toward the Armanious family (i.e., the father, or the outspoken Sylvia)?

3) Was there any communication between officials of the Egyptian embassy, consulate, delegation at the U.N., or any other Egyptian official in Egypt or the United States, who tried to silence relatives or friends of the victims, or other Copts in Jersey City, or elsewhere?

4) Was there any attempt by any Egyptian officials to intimidate Copts now in Egypt, so that they, in turn, would plead with Copts in the United States to keep quiet?

5) Was there any communication by anyone in the American government to the Hudson County Prosecutors Office, or within the FBI, suggesting that the investigation should not "make things worse" in the larger context of the "war on terrorism" by "needlessly" offending local Muslims "whose support was needed" in "that war" -- or words to that effect?

6) In learning about Muslim attitudes toward Copts and other non-Muslims, to whom did the Hudson County Prosecutors Office turn? And the FBI? What "experts" did they consult? What articles did they read? One would like to know about the extent of knowledge possessed by American police and other security forces of the attitude, enshrined in the Shari'a, and reflected everywhere in the Qur'an, Hadith, and Sira, that is encouraged toward non-Muslims. One would like to know if, for example, any of the studies of dhimmitude have been assigned to be read by agents of the FBI? If not, why not? What about having a translation commissioned of the most thorough study of the legal status of dhimmis -- that of Antoine Fattal. Surely the American government can pay for a translation of this book, given its relevance.

7) Who in Congress, or in the State of New Jersey, is taking careful note of how this investigation is proceeding, and of the curious reluctance to suggest that something other than robbery might be the motive?

8) Why is this case not worthy of the attention of the Scott Petersen case, much less that of O. J. Simpson?

9) Have any of the often vocal associations, such as the National Council of Churches, seen fit to urge that the case be given full attention, and to make sure that its members keep up the pressure on the Hudson County Prosecutors Office not to bury or archive this matter, and to hope that it goes away?

For it cannot now be buried, and what is at stake are the reputations of the investigators, and of the faith, repeatedly shaken (not least by the mysterious disappearance of Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun) of American citizens in their own government's ability, or willingness, to take a tack quite different from that which can be observed in Europe.

Meanwhile, John Walsh on "America's Most Wanted" and a good many others on-line, are unlikely to lose interest -- or allow others to do so.

Here we go again. Once again, key elements of the Qur'an and Islamic teaching are not addressed, leaving the impression that Mr. Irfan Mehr is practicing taqiyya. From the Corning Leader, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

Mehr, a native of Pakistan, met with more than 160 county workers during two sessions, to broaden their understanding of a faith held by 1.7 billion people worldwide.

The workshop was set up by Legislator Kenneth Isaman, R-Hornellsville, as a way to raise awareness and respect for Muslims in the area.

Isaman said he plans on arranging more workshops for county employees in the future, and wants to develop similar presentations for municipal boards and local schools....

Mehr said the Koran calls Christians and Jews "Children of the Book" and tells Muslims to treat them as cousins in faith.

"It tells us you are all children of Abraham, leave your differences up to the Almighty," Mehr said.

The Qur'an also says that Muslims should make war on these "Children of the Book" -- actually "People of the Book" -- and that they are under the curse of Allah:

Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued. The Jews call 'Uzair [Ezra] a son of Allah, and the Christians call Christ the son of Allah. That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate what the unbelievers of old used to say. Allah's curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth! (9:29-30)

The Koran also dedicates separate chapters to Mary, and Jesus. Muslims believe all the New Testament accounts of Jesus, but believe he was a prophet and not the Messiah, Mehr said.

This is simply false. In the first place, there is a chapter of the Qur'an entitled "Mary" (Sura 19), but there is no chapter "dedicated" to Jesus. Nor do Muslims believe all the New Testament accounts of Jesus: Mehr contradicts himself by saying that and following it up by saying Jesus was not the Messiah, since the New Testament of course proclaims him to be the Messiah. Now in this instance I suspect the reporter has gotten mixed up, for the Qur'an does refer to Jesus as the Messiah, but strenuously and repeatedly denies that he is the Son of God. I suspect that that is what Mehr said, unless he himself is ignorant of the Qur'an. But in any case, in no sense do Muslims accept what the New Testament teaches about Jesus, for the latter affirms him to be the Son of God. The Qur'an also denies the crucifixion, as well as other elements of the New Testament account of Jesus.

That they said (in boast), "We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah"; but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not... (Qur'an 4:157)

The story about Mehr continues:

The Islamic notion of justice is strict, with the Koran demanding someone who has done wrong to testify against himself, Mehr said. If a soldier believes his side is wrong he must immediately join the other side and fight his comrades and family.

Is Mehr thereby endorsing the actions of Hasan Akbar?

While individual Muslims may judge an act as wrong or evil, they are forbidden to react until their leaders unanimously agree on a course of action, Mehr said. In extreme cases, after efforts at reconciliation have failed, the leadership may call a holy war, or jihad.

Likewise, only religious leaders may judge wrongdoing.

"It has been said that (Sept. 11 mastermind Osama) bin Laden will never even catch whiff of the fragrance of heaven," Mehr said. "That is strong condemnation."

Mehr said reports of Muslims hating the West, and specifically Americans, are exaggerated.

"There is no hate," Mehr said. "Yes, there are certain things in the American culture they don't want any part of, we don't want in our houses. There are certain things in our cultures you don't want in your houses. Things that are despicable, like wife beating."

Which also comes, of course, from the Qur'an (Sura 4:34). But "there is no hate"? Really? Sure. Just a few wall posters proclaiming, "Killing of Christians and Jews is required as soon as possible." But no hate.

And Mehr is trying to take this kind of thing into schools. But of course, it is already there.

"Iranian Celebration Canceled," from the Washington Post, with thanks to EPG:

A celebration scheduled for this weekend at Montgomery County's new hotel and conference center, marking the 26th anniversary of the Islamic revolution in Iran, was canceled after the hotel's operator learned that it would violate federal law.

The Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, which opened in December, was to play host to 1,000 guests at a reception thrown by Ali Jazini, director of the Interests Section of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

John Wolf, a Marriott spokesman, said yesterday that the hotel canceled the event after realizing it is illegal to do business with Iran. He said Marriott officials will "be taking steps" to prevent similar bookings in the future.

Announcement of the event raised an outcry from Iranian opponents of the country's regime who live in the United States. They organized a campaign calling on Marriott to cancel.

"For them to come celebrate the anniversary of their glorious revolution in the United States is just wrong," said Iman Foroutan, director of the Iran of Tomorrow Movement, an American-based organization working to oust Iran's fundamentalist regime. "If they allowed this, I would not be surprised if al Qaeda celebrated their next anniversary in the heart of New York."

Christians as monkeys (cf. Qur'an 5:59-60, 7:166)

Not long ago I told you about barsomyat.com, where Muslims posted personal information about Christians along with inscriptions such as "Oh Allah, grant me the privilege of slitting his throat." On that site also, Muslims cheered the murders of the Armanious family.

That site was quickly taken down after a New York Sun article by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, along with a report here and at Internet Haganah. But that has not stopped those with murderous intent; they continue to stalk Coptic Christians at another website, barsoom.coolfreepage.com (thanks to Salah and Internet Haganah).

On it, Copts are denoted by monkey cartoons, in line with the traditional application by Muslims of Qur'anic verses such as 7:166 to Christians: "When in their insolence they transgressed (all) prohibitions, We said to them: "Be ye apes, despised and rejected!" This is common usage among jihadists today.

The site lists personal information about the targeted Christians. Internet Haganah gives a few examples:

- one is a Taxi driver who used to live in Egypt but he left the country

- another is believed to be a dentist, likes to argue with Hamas sympathizers

- one lives in America and he is "worse than the Americans themselves..."

- two others are "Christians from Syria"

It is exceedingly ironic that while the Hudson County Prosecutor says flatly that "the FBI does not think that, based on the information gleaned from the scene," the murder of the Armanious family was "based on religious extremism," that this stalking of Christians who -- like Hossam Armanious -- argue with Muslims on discussion sites still goes on.

I hope to have more information on this site soon. Stay tuned also at Internet Haganah and the Counterterrorism blog.

UPDATE: Daveed Gartenstein-Ross at the Counterterrorism blog has more, including this:

Another page on Barsoom features rulings on those who curse God's prophet. Although many of these religious rulings are directed at Muslims rather than non-Muslims (e.g. stating that joking about God and religion is considered disbelief for the Muslim), it appears that the clear intention behind the page -- since it comes in the context of a broader discussion excoriating the Copts -- is to demonstrate that the Christian debaters on PalTalk are worthy of punishment. For example, the page of religious rulings states that "the one who curses God deserves death." Another ruling states, "The one who curses God, his Prophet and [the Prophet's] companions or successors has denied the Qur'an and should be killed. Also anyone who defames Aisha, the Mother of the Believers. And they should have their heads cut off."

Watch for more updates here this afternoon.

Another report on the Armanious family press conference, from WND:

WASHINGTON – Relatives of a brutally slain New Jersey Christian family spoke out yesterday for the first time, saying the killings were consistent with Quranic methods of slaying infidels....

Held at the National Press Club, yesterday's press conference included a statement by U.S. Copts Association President Michael Meunier.

"We feel it is extremely important that the public hear the Armanious family members' side of the story and we are pleased to help them express their point of view on this disturbing crime," Meunier said.

Cautious in their speech, and unwilling to ascribe outright motive for the slaying, the family, when questioned by the press did say the manner of slaying was consistent with passages in the Quran that describe how to kill an infidel. The family stressed it is waiting for the investigation to play out. Regarding the possibility the slaying was a jihadist act, family uncle Emile Garas told WND afterward, "We're not ruling anything out."

The Rev. Dr. Keith Roderick, Washington representative of Christian Solidarity International and secretary general of the Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights, offered a statement relating to concerns over the manner in which the crime is being investigated.

"The investigation is not complete; no suspects have been identified," said Roderick, "and the district attorney's office of Hudson County is pursuing a number of theories related to the motive and nature of the crime. Public statements by that office indicate that theories related to robbery have been given precedence over a possible hate crime as a motive. By stressing that there are no facts substantiating a religious motivation to this crime, the confidence of the family has been eroded that the local investigation will lead to a resolution."

Roderick said that a "great deal in the media" has been made of the potential conflict within the Christian and Muslim communities if the investigation leads to a religious motive. Indeed, an Associated Press story, "Slaying spurs new wave of anti-Muslim bias" detailed community tensions and quoted Ahmed Shedeed, director of the Islamic Center of Jersey City as saying, "We Muslims living in America are getting sick of this crap. Why should we have to apologize for or make a defense of something we had nothing to do with? There is no proof at all that Muslims had anything to do with this, yet we are taking the blame again. Is Islam on trial, or is a killer on trial?"

"The central issue here," Roderick said in his statement, "should not be about communal disputes, but the fact that the perpetrators of this vicious crime are still at large. To avoid pursuit of what may be the most obvious motive of the murder for fear of maligning one part of the Jersey City community or creating a backlash against that community is irresponsible." The reverend indicated he hopes the investigation will confront the case "honestly without the fear of sectarian concerns." Leaders of the communities and social workers are the people most qualified to address those concerns, not law enforcement, he said.

Nidra Poller gives some important information in the New York Sun about the Armanious family press conference yesterday:

WASHINGTON - Relatives of Hossam Armanious - who along with his wife and two daughters was savagely murdered last month at Jersey City, N.J. - said at a press conference here yesterday that the family was probably killed because of their religious beliefs....

The Armanious relatives yesterday spent the day in meetings with members of Congress, and FBI and Justice Department officials.

In a prepared statement read by Michael Meunier, a representative of the U.S. Copts Association, the relatives of the Armanious family rejected several theories about the motive for the grisly murders.

It was not an old country vendetta, they said. Also, there was no mysterious trip to Egypt last year made by Hossam. As for robbery, the relatives said the family had no hidden wealth, just a mortgage and credit line, and that they kept their cash in the bank....

The most probable method and motive for the slayings, the relatives said, is a ritual murder for religious reasons.

Though the Coptic tattoo on 16-year-old Sylvia Armanious's wrist was not slashed as had been initially reported, other details of the execution-style killings do follow a Koranic prescription, Mr. Meunier said.

Naif is unhappy about stories like this one, which called the winners "Islamists." And well he should be: in Onward Muslim Soldiers I explain why the term is essentially useless: it posits a distinction between Muslims who pursue a political and violent agenda and their coreligionists that does not exist in fact. You will not find mosques or Muslims classifying themselves as "Islamist" or "non-Islamist."

The people whom non-Muslim analysts tend to call "Islamists" are those who believe that Sharia should be the law of the land -- every land -- and are willing to do violence to bring that about. But these people are merely traditional Muslims, acting on the example of the prophet Muhammad and core teachings of the Qur'an and Hadith. They move about freely among Muslims and are found in every Muslim community. Most often, Western analysts use the term "Islamists" to suggest a vast majority of Muslims who do not accept "Islamist" premises or principles. Unfortunately, however, such people do not in fact generally exist. There are Muslims, often known as moderate Muslims, who are unaware of or indifferent to the premises of political Islam, and a much smaller number who are honestly trying to reject or reform those principles; but a genuinely moderate Islam -- a Muslim system that accepts the principles of Western pluralism and is ready to teach Muslims to live in harmony with non-Muslims as equals, not as current or eventual superiors and masters -- does not exist.

From Arab News, with thanks to Ali Dashti:

RIYADH, 14 February 2005 — Interior Minister Prince Naif has rejected moves to classify Saudis into Islamists and non-Islamists. He was referring to media reports that Islamists had won Riyadh Municipal Council elections.

“I strongly object to the media for focusing on this issue. We don’t accept such classifications, because we are all Muslims and citizens. The elections were held in the right manner. It has been proved that they (the winners) followed the law and did not create any problem,” he told reporters....

The candidates also said that the winners unfairly claimed they had the backing of Islamic clerics.

“The winners used religion,” said Hezam Al-Otaibi, a loser. “Of course messages were going around on cell phones, violating the election rules,” he added.

UPDATE: Martin Kramer has brought my attention to his most interesting article about the history of the term "Islamist," and resistance to it among those it was intended to classify.

The Rev. Dr. Keith Roderick is the Washington Representative of Christian Solidarity International and the Secretary General of the Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights. Here is his statement at this afternoon's press conference:

I am here to support the relatives who grieve the loss of the Armanious family and also are burdened by intense public pressure to provide some insight into this terrible tragedy. The fact that this press conference is taking place in Washington, D.C. rather than in Jersey City points to the broader impact of this case.

The investigation is not complete; no suspects have been identified; and, the District Attorney’s office of Hudson County is pursuing a number of theories related to the motive and nature of the crime. Public statements by that office indicate that theories related to robbery have been given precedence over a possible hate crime as a motive. By stressing that there are no facts substantiating a religious motivation to this crime, the confidence of the family has been eroded that the local investigation will lead to a resolution.

A great deal in the media has been made of the potential conflict within the Christian and Muslim communities if the investigation leads to a religious motive. The central issue here should not be about communal disputes, but the fact that the perpetrators of this vicious crime are still at large. To avoid pursuit of what may be the most obvious motive of the murder for fear of maligning one part of the Jersey City community or creating a backlash against that community is irresponsible. We hope that the investigation will confront the case honestly without the fear of sectarian concerns. Those are issues best addressed by the leaders of the communities and social workers, not law enforcement. Justice is having done th