January 2006 Archives

Well, now everything's going to be all right, I suppose. We're all dhimmis now. That is, unless they conclude that the statement was indeed ambiguous. From AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - A Danish Muslim group Tuesday accepted an apology from a newspaper that published offensive cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad but said later that it had decided the statement was ambiguous.

The group did not elaborate and it was unclear if there would be any effect on protests and boycotts of Danish goods in Muslim countries.

The offices of the newspaper Jyllands-Posten were briefly evacuated Tuesday evening after an English-speaking person called in a bomb threat to the switchboard, and an Internet statement purportedly from insurgents in Iraq urged attacks in Denmark and Norway, the first known call for violent reprisals over the cartoons....

In a statement published late Monday, Jyllands-Posten apologized and said it regretted offending Muslims. It stood by the decision to print the cartoons, saying it was within Danish law.

The drawings "were not intended to be offensive, nor were they at variance with Danish law, but they have indisputably offended many Muslims for which we apologize," the daily said Monday.

Danish Muslims said Tuesday that they welcomed the apology. However, 27 Muslim groups met later in the day to discuss the statement and declared it "ambiguous."

"We lack a clear statement where the newspaper apologizes for the offense and stand by it," said Ahmed Akkari, a spokesman for the groups.

The Danish Muslims thanked Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen for saying Monday evening that his government could not apologize on behalf of a newspaper, but that he personally "never would have depicted Muhammad, Jesus or any other religious character in a way that could offend other people."

For years now I have been calling for a Manhattan Project to find new energy sources. Maybe we are getting close. From AP:

WASHINGTON - President Bush, pushing to take charge of the election-year agenda, said Tuesday that "America is addicted to oil" and must break its dependence on foreign suppliers in unstable parts of the world.

In his State of the Union address, Bush also renewed his commitment to the central pledge of his inaugural address. "Our nation is committed to an historic, long-term goal — we seek the end of tyranny in our world," he said. "The future security of America depends on it."

The end of tyranny. Great. I suppose we'll be launching an operation against the King of Swaziland soon. Then America will be safe.

For pete's sake. Tyrants have always been with us, and always will be. America's safety is not imperiled by the reign of tyrants in Cameroon or Myanmar. America's safety is imperiled by Islamic jihad. Tyranny is simply beside the point. And with this loss of focus comes a lack of precision in his response, a lack of precision that ultimately imperils us all.

If only the opposition party weren't even worse. It's going to be a long, hard ride.

Cartoon rage reaches the troops in Iraq. From AFP, with thanks to Twostellas:

A FATWA appears to have been issued against Danish soldiers stationed in Iraq, the Danish defence ministry said today.

"I can confirm that we've heard about the fatwa from a reliable source in Iraq ... so we believe it's true," Defence Minister Soeren Gade's spokesman Jacob Winther said.

The report came amid rising Muslim anger over 12 cartoons published in Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten last September depicting the Prophet Mohammed....

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari summoned Denmark's ambassador today to hear Iraq's condemnation of the cartoons, including a portrayal of the prophet wearing a time-bomb shaped turban.
Islam considers any image of the prophet blasphemous....

Good thing we have a moderate government in Baghdad, eh?

Mr Winther said Danish troops had been put on higher alert, but that the military did not yet know how worried to be.

"We don't know what kind of a fatwa it is, whether it's just a religious ruling of a death threat or what it is," he said, adding: "I don't think it's good."

Yes, I wouldn't think so.

So much for all that talk about how they just wanted nuclear power for peaceful purposes. If anyone believed it at all in the first place. From AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

VIENNA, Austria - A document obtained by Iran on the nuclear black market serves no other purpose than to make an atomic bomb, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Tuesday.

The finding was made in a report prepared for presentation to the 35-nation IAEA board when it meets, starting Thursday, on whether to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council, which has the power to impose economic and political sanctions on Iran.

I think we should give them just that: a cartoon apology. Send Bugs Bunny to munch his carrot and say, "Ehhhh...sorry about that, doc."

Seriously, the entire free world, and everyone who values freedom of speech, should be standing with Denmark now.

Cartoon Rage Update from Reuters, with thanks to Kemaste:

GAZA (Reuters) - Thousands of Palestinians protested for a second day on Tuesday against Denmark for allowing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad to be published, saying an apology by the newspaper involved was not enough.

Demonstrators burned Danish flags, chanted "War on Denmark, Death to Denmark" and called for an Arab boycott of products from the small north European country until it showed contrition for the satirical caricatures deemed blasphemous by Islam.

Anger has spread across much of the Muslim world.

The offices of the Danish newspaper were evacuated on Tuesday after a bomb threat. "I can confirm we evacuated Jyllands-Posten. There has been a bomb threat and we have evacuated the building," a police spokesman said.

The offices of Jyllands-Posten in its headquarters in Denmark's second city Arhus and in the capital Copenhagen were evacuated and police and sniffer dogs searched the buildings.

The newspaper apologized on Monday, but that was not enough for the Gaza protestors.

Here is my take on Khalil Shikaki's Brandeis appointment, from FrontPage this morning. News links in the original:

Providing new evidence of the academic Left’s hardened anti-Americanism and sympathy for jihad terror, Khalil Shikaki has been appointed a senior fellow at Brandeis University’s Crown Center for Middle East Studies.

Shikaki’s involvement with Middle Eastern politics and culture has long been more hands-on than that of most academics. On February 24, 1998, terrorism expert Steven Emerson gave this testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee: “Professor Khalil Shikaki seemed to possess such an impassioned voice for moderate political solutions to the Middle Eastern problems that it prompted the USF [the University of South Florida] to finalize its cooperative relationship with WISE [the World & Islam Studies Enterprise, of which Shikaki was the first director]. Yet documents seized by federal officials uncovered a wealth of information, including incriminating letters, proving Khalil Shikaki using Shallah as a courier to ferry information, messages and even operational materials to his brother Fathi in Damascus, head of Islamic Jihad. When publicly asked however, Khalil always maintained he had no contact with his brother.”

On May 23, 2000, Emerson gave additional and quite specific information about Khalil Shikaki when testifying about the World & Islam Studies Enterprise before the House Judiciary Committee: “Documents seized by federal agents at the WISE office in November 1995 show that Khalil Shikaki, after his departure from WISE in 1992, contacted his brother Fathi Shikaki through Ramadan Abdullah. Evidence released in the federal investigation against WISE and ICP included a letter and a fax between Abdullah and Khalil Shikaki showing that Abdullah served as a go-between for the brothers. These communications contained references to various matters including support for a project headed by ‘Abu Omar,’ a nom de guerre of Hamas leader Musa Abu Marzook…. In comments made by Khalil Shikaki on December 24, 1989 at the ICP Annual Conference, he proclaimed support for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad as a unifying element of the Islamic resistance in Palestine.”

The end of diplomacy? The endless posturing never ceases to take my breath away. From AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran struck back Tuesday at the Big Five's decision to refer the country's nuclear file to the Security Council, saying the move has no legal justification and would be the end of diplomacy.

At a London meeting that lasted into the early hours of Tuesday, envoys of the United States, Britain, China, France and Russia agreed to recommend that the International Atomic Energy Agency report Iran to the U.N. Security Council.

They also decided the Security Council should wait until March to take up Iran's nuclear file after a formal report on Tehran's activities from the U.N. agency, which meets Thursday in Vienna.

"Reporting Iran's dossier to the U.N. Security Council will be unconstructive and the end of diplomacy," said Iran's leading nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani. State television quoted him as saying Iran still believes the issue can be resolved peacefully.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald reveals some important and little noted information about Ayman Al-Zawahiri:

Al-Zawahiri does not come from the lower depths, and neither "poverty" nor any of those other off-the-shelf pseudo-explanations will do. He comes from the highest stratum of Egyptian Arab society. He was trained as a surgeon. He comes from a long line of physicians, professors, and others who have made their mark. His great-uncle was Azzam Pasha, the first Secretary-General of the Arab League, serving from 1945 to 1952. It was Azzam Pasha who promised, on the eve of the simultaneous attack by five Arab armies intended to snuff out in the cradle the nascent state of Israel, that the world would witness, in his words, "a massacre the likes of which the world had not seen since the days of the Mongols." That was the promise; that was what the Secretary-General of the Arab League foresaw.

There is a direct link, ideologically, between Azzam Pasha and Al-Zawahiri. The difference is this. When Azzam Pasha was alive, there was no vast oil wealth. There was no huge presence of Muslims who had been allowed to settle behind what they regard as enemy lines, in Western Europe and even in North America. There were not those technological advances, made by the Infidels but exploited by the Muslims, which spread the word of Islam so that the pious yet largely ignorant Muslim would no longer remain so ignorant of its teachings. Those teachings were disseminated through audiocassettes, and then videocassettes, and Internet access, and satellite channels such as Al-Jazeera -- all spreading the most venomous Islamic teachings about Infidels and the necessity of Jihad to every village.

No one has seen fit in the Infidel press to note this connection between Azzam Pasha, who participated in the Lesser Jihad against Israel, and Ayman al-Zawahiri, a leading figure in the Greater Jihad against Infidels everywhere. No one has seen fit to remind Infidels that what Azzam Pasha promised in 1948 was not different in the essential message, but only in the size of the intended target.

Israel Suicide Watch Alert from JTA, with thanks to Teri:

A Jewish group called for talks with a new, Hamas-led Palestinian government.

In a statement, Jewish Voice for Peace called the rise of Hamas a “matter of great concern to every Jewish group,” but said negotiations are the “only way”out of the current conflict.

“It is not more acceptable for the Palestinian Authority to refuse to talk to Israel than it is for Israel or the U.S. to refuse to talk with the legitimately elected representatives of the Palestinian people,” the group says.

Israel refuses to talk to Hamas until it renounces terrorism and recognizes Israel’s right to exist, a position backed by the United States.

This will fix the problem right up. From AP:

The United States and other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council agreed Tuesday that Iran should be hauled before that powerful body over its disputed nuclear program.

China and Russia, longtime allies and trading partners of Iran, signed on to a statement that calls on the U.N. nuclear watchdog to transfer the Iran dossier to the Security Council, which could impose sanctions or take other harsh action.

Foreign ministers from those nations, plus the United States, Britain and France, also said the Security Council should wait until March to take up the Iran case, after a formal report on Tehran's activities from the watchdog agency.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other foreign ministers discussed Iran at a private dinner at the home of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. After the four-hour meeting, which spilled over into the early hours Tuesday, a joint statement called on the International Atomic Energy Agency to report the Iran case when it meets in Vienna on Thursday.

Cartoon Rage Update. I must confess, I am amazed that this story never seems to die. Perhaps these twelve cartoons will end up being the Gavrilo Princip of 2006. "Protests Over Muhammad Cartoon Grow," from AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

BEIRUT, Lebanon - The controversy over Danish caricatures of Prophet Muhammad escalated Monday as gunmen seized an EU office in Gaza and Muslims appealed for a trade boycott of Danish products. Denmark called for its citizens in the Middle East to exercise vigilance.

Denmark-based Arla Foods, which has been the target of a widespread boycott in the Middle East, reported that two of its employees in Saudi Arabia were beaten by angry customers. Aid groups, meanwhile, pulled workers out of Gaza, citing the threat of hostilities....

But Arla Food's executive director urged the Danish government to take action.

"Freedom of expression is an internal Danish issue but this has a totally different dimension," Peder Tuborgh said. "This is about Denmark having offended millions of Muslims."

I.e., surrender, please, before we go broke. Buy those cheeses, people. We are few in number, but maybe if we act we can help Mr. Tuborgh regain a little backbone.

Villy Soevndal, leader of the small opposition Socialist People's Party, said Denmark "cannot be a country where the prime minister goes into hiding while Denmark loses export money, Danish citizens are being threatened and Danish flags burned."...

Villy, you're right. The whole free world should be standing with Rasmussen. What a pity that craven political hacks like Bill Clinton have already lined up on the other side.

The Danish Red Cross said it was evacuating two employees from Gaza and one from Yemen.

"There have been concrete threats against our employees. The fact that they are Danish nationals has made the difference," Danish Red Cross spokesman Anders Ladekarl said.

The Norwegian People's Aid group also said it was withdrawing its two Norwegian representatives in Gaza but that operations would be maintained by local staff....

In Iraq, a roadside bomb targeted a joint Danish-Iraqi patrol near the southern city of Basra on Monday, wounding one Iraqi policeman, military officials said. The attack was the first involving Danish troops since the protests flared.

Danish forces said the roadside bomb was targeting the Iraqi police rather than the Danes, though British Maj. Peter Cripps said coalition forces were investigating if there was any link between the attack and the drawings....

Libya on Sunday said it was closing its embassy in Denmark.

Emirates' Minister of Justice and Islamic Affairs Mohammed Al Dhaheri said publishing the "blasphemous" cartoons was "disgusting and irresponsible," according to comments released Monday by the official WAM news agency.

"This is cultural terrorism, not freedom of expression. The repercussions of such irresponsible acts will have adverse impact on international relations."

The Egyptian parliament's Economic Committee refused to discuss a $72.5 million loan from Denmark to Egypt, with newspapers quoting lawmakers as saying they do not want to cooperate with a country that has insulted the prophet.

In Pakistan, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said the government is "engaged with the Danish government" over the cartoon publication.

She said Pakistan hopes the Danish government would "try to resolve this issue because you cannot hurt the sentiments of billions of Muslims in the name of freedom of press."

Why not? What is freedom of the press if nothing can be said that hurts anyone's sentiments?

Zawahiri pops up again, making, among other things, another appeal to the appeasement-minded Left. From CNN:

"The American airplanes, in collaboration with their agent of the Jews and the Crusaders, Musharraf, launched an airstrike on Damadola near Peshawar around the Eid al-Adha holiday, during which 18 Muslims -- men, women and children -- died in their fight against Islam, which they call terrorism. Their claim was to target this poor man and four of my brothers. The whole world discovered the lies as the Americans fight Islam and the Muslims. Before I discuss this incident, I have some messages to send out.

Zawahiri wants to portray the war in Iraq as a fight against Islam for the same reason Bush wants to portray it as anything but. Nuance, as in a sober realization that the conflict is fed by the jihad ideology and that that is what must be targeted if the conflict is ever to end, eludes Bush as much as it does his enemy.

"My first message is to the butcher of Washington, Bush: You are not just defeated and lying about it, but you are, with God's help, a loser. You are bad luck to your people. You brought them disasters and catastrophes, and you will bring them even more disasters.

"Bush, you failed crusader, know that we are the nation of monotheism, which believes that no one is greater than God. He sent us a prophet and a book that was never edited like the other books before it. A unique book that defies anyone to come up with anything like it.

"I will meet my death when God wishes. But if my time hasn't come, you and all the Earth's forces can't change it, not even by a second.

"Bush, do you know where I am? I am among the Muslim masses enjoying their care with God's blessings and sharing with them their holy war against you until we defeat you, God willing.

I'll bet he is. Why don't they turn him in? Isn't there any Muslim around him who is part of the Vast Majority of Peaceful Moderate Muslims?

"My second message is to the American people who are drowning in illusions. I tell you that Bush and his gangs are shedding your blood and wasting your money in frustrated adventures. The lion of Islam, Sheikh Osama bin Laden, offered you a decent exit from your dilemma, but your leaders, who are keen to accumulate wealth, insist on throwing you in battles and killing your souls in Iraq and Afghanistan and, God willing, on your own land.

A decent exit. He offered a truce, which according to the Islamic law that he reveres, would only postpone the inevitable day of reckoning, and make the Muslims that much stronger in the process.

"Your leaders responded that they do not negotiate with terrorists and that they are winning in their war on terrorism. I tell them, O' liars and greedy war merchants, who is pulling out of Iraq and Afghanistan, you or us? Whose soldiers are committing suicide out of desperation, you or us?

"To the American mother I say, if the defense ministry called you to tell you your son is coming back home in a coffin, remember Bush.

"To the British wife I say, if you got a call telling you your husband is coming back home with his body paralyzed, amputated or charred, remember Blair."

This is the kind of talk that will appeal to appeasers. It should not move anyone with the courage to do what it takes to resist the global jihad. But of course, America and Britain are not at this point even fighting against the global jihad.

Goodbye, freedom of speech in Denmark. Jyllands-Posten editor Carsten Juste's letter of apology, "Honourable Citizens of The Muslim World," can be found here. (Thanks to Diana West.)

Eurabia Update: "EU 'to keep funding Palestinians,'" from the BBC, with thanks to Kasia:

The European Union says it will continue funding the Palestinian Authority so long as its new government is committed to peace with Israel.

When did Hamas ever say it was committed to peace with Israel?

EU ministers renewed their call for Hamas to renounce violence and recognise the Jewish state following the militant group's election victory.

Earlier Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas urged foreign donors to continue giving aid to the Palestinians.

EU member states donated about $600m (£341m) to the Palestinians in 2005.

But Hamas' landslide victory has left the union in a quandary because the group, which has launched dozens of suicide bombings against Israelis, figures on an EU list of terrorist groups.

Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, who chaired the talks in Brussels, said the EU expects the new Palestinian assembly to "support the formation of a government committed to a peaceful and negotiated solution of the conflict with Israel".

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald again discusses the urgent necessity of ending jizya payments to the Palestinians and others:

The largest transfer of wealth in human history is that from the oil-consuming nations to the oil-and-gas producing nations -- the Arab and Muslim nations which are almost the entire membership of OPEC. Since 1973 some ten trillion dollars has gone to the OPEC countries. No one has had to lift a finger for that money. No hard work, no entrepreneurial flair, nothing. Just an accident of geology, and the discovery of that oil. Yet the finding of a use for that oil and the producing of that oil has been a work done almost entirely by Infidels.

Saudi Arabia alone takes in nearly $1 billion a day. Yet the Infidels have fallen into the trap of supplying foreign aid -- aid that is equivalent to the Jizya because it is a transfer from Infidels to Muslims, with the Muslim recipients behaving as if they are entitled to it and it must continue "or else." The Infidels who give it, for their part, treat it largely as something they simply "must give." Look, for example, at the fear of offending Egypt by ending aid that it has done nothing to deserve. And yet that aid, just like the aid given to Arafat and the "Palestinians" of Fatah, will only provide the loot upon which to batten, and inevitably lead as an inevitable reaction to the anti-corruption impulse being given, as it must in any Islamic society, an Islamic cast and shape and form.

Stop the damned Jizyah. Let Muslims give money to other Muslims. Let Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and the U.A.E. give money to their fellow Arabs (renamed after 1967 the "Palestinian people") if they wish. It will use up some of their discretionary income -- the money that they now use to fund the mosques and madrasas and Muslim propaganda all over the Infidel world. It will not lead, as some fear, to an "increase in extremism," because there is nothing more to increase. The "Palestinians," whether of Hamas or of Fatah, are the self-primitivized local shock troops of the Lesser Jihad against Israel. There should never have been any payments to them in the first place by any Infidels.

From our inexhaustible Clueless Department: "Why not test bin Laden's 'truce' offer?" by Douglas A. Borer, an associate professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, and the author of "Superpowers Defeated: Vietnam and Afghanistan Compared." From the Christian Science Monitor, with thanks to David:

MONTEREY, CALIF. – One of the hardest decisions a president of the United States is obligated to make is that of going to war. It is a decision, however, that pales in comparison to the degree of difficulty in making peace when one's enemy remains unvanquished. With the release of Osama bin Laden's latest media communiqué offering a truce to the US, President Bush must decide whether to stick to the moribund old cliché "we don't negotiate with terrorists," or whether he should use this as a potential opportunity to redirect global politics along a path that serves US national interests....

If our goal is to reverse this trend, the question is simple: Are we better off negotiating with Mr. bin Laden? If we can capture or kill him, certainly the US can rightfully claim justice has been served against the perpetrators of 9/11. Because revenge is the sweetest of our dark sweet dreams, bin Laden's demise will bring no small degree of personal satisfaction to many people. But if we kill him with a well-aimed smart bomb, or if he remains in hiding as a living symbol of a growing anti-US resistance in the Muslim world, will the insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan lay down their arms? Leading US government officials have said time and again that bin Laden's death or capture will not engender these results. Thus, if our wisest men have decided that our present policy toward bin Laden will not help reduce the threat of terrorism, what might help? Does our yearning for revenge outweigh the potential value we might gain by negotiating with bin Laden?...

Borer shows no awareness, none whatsoever, of the terms in traditional Islamic law under which Muslim forces offer a truce. But in that, of course, he is by no means alone.

Bill Clinton, former President and future First Husband, condemns freedom of speech. From AFP, with thanks to MB:

Former US president Bill Clinton warned of rising anti-Islamic prejudice, comparing it to historic anti-Semitism as he condemned the publishing of cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper.

"So now what are we going to do? ... Replace the anti-Semitic prejudice with anti-Islamic prejudice?" he said at an economic conference in the Qatari capital of Doha.

"In Europe, most of the struggles we've had in the past 50 years have been to fight prejudices against Jews, to fight against anti-Semitism," he said.

Clinton described as "appalling" the 12 cartoons published in a Danish newspaper in September depicting Prophet Mohammed and causing uproar in the Muslim world.

"None of us are totally free of stereotypes about people of different races, different ethnic groups, and different religions ... there was this appalling example in northern Europe, in Denmark ... these totally outrageous cartoons against Islam," he said.

That's not the point. This is a question of being able to say something that Bill Clinton finds outrageous. These cartoons may be totally outrageous indeed. But if we cannot speak openly about Islamic militancy, we cannot combat it. And freedom of speech is certainly dead.

Cartoon rage in Gaza. "Gaza EU offices raided by gunmen," from the BBC, with thanks to libbysmom:

Masked gunmen in Gaza have briefly stormed the local office of the EU.

They demanded an apology from Denmark and Norway over the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that have offended Muslims.

One of the gunmen said citizens of both countries should not enter Gaza until the apology is made.

They'll use it for peaceful purposes. Really, they will. Trust them.

Ten to one the EU falls for this.

"EU calls on Hamas to clarify political intentions," from AP, with thanks to Kasia:

EU foreign ministers on Monday called on the Hamas to clarify its political intentions in an eventual Palestinian government, urging it to embrace peace efforts with Israel.

The 25-member bloc is also questioning whether it can continue its multimillion euro aid to a government that looks likely to be led by Hamas, a group that remains on an EU blacklist of terrorist groups. Hamas, meanwhile, called on the international community Monday not to cut aid to the Palestinian Authority.

Promising the money would only go toward helping the Palestinians and saying a Hamas government is ready to have its spending monitored, Ismail Hanieh, a Hamas leader in Gaza, also said the group is ready to negotiate the terms of continued foreign aid with the international community.

Hanieh spoke just hours before senior representatives of the Quartet of Mideast mediators - the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia - met on Monday.

He urged the West to reconsider, saying it must recognize the result of the Palestinian election.

"We in Hamas are ready to meet and have an open dialogue with the Quartet," Hanieh told a news conference in Gaza City.

He called on the donor nations to continue transferring aid to the Palestinian treasury, and said the money would be spent to help Palestinians in their daily lives.

"We assure you that all the money will be spent under your supervision," he said, adding that Hamas was willing to discuss means of keeping the spending transparent.

Over the Passion of Kanye West photo on the latest issue.

Just kidding.

I haven't said anything about Bill Handel's flap with CAIR yet because I have been thinking it over. I don't like obnoxious talk making fun of people who have been the victims of accidents, in any context, anywhere, at any time. On the other hand, I believe in free speech, and that must include the freedom to be obnoxious. KFI-AM has struck just the right balance by challenging the Council on American Islamic Relations with legitimate questions that the mainstream media ought to be asking the group, as well as clarifying its stance toward Handel's remarks.

"Los Angeles Radio Station Squares-Off With Muslim Group," from the Drudge Report, with thanks to MB:

Los Angeles's top talkradio station is under fire from a Muslim group because of comments made earlier this month by morning man Bill Handel. The Council on American-Islamic Relations has demanded an apology from Handel for making fun of a stampede that killed hundreds of Muslims during an annual pilgrimage.

But Handel is set to fire back, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

Handel will apologize IF the Council on American-Islamic Relations:

1) Decries all acts of terror (described specifically, not generally)

2) Agrees that Israel is a sovereign nation with the right to defensible borders

3) CAIR has no ties of any sort, financially or otherwise, to any terror orgs or individiuals.

MANAGEMENT STATEMENT

KFI-AM does not condone making light of the deaths of people engaged in religious observances. We regret that listeners found the comments of one of our on-air hosts to be insensitive. KFI does not censor its hosts, nor does it tell them what to say or not to say. KFI is a strong and passionate believer in 1st amendment rights and that is at the very core of this radio station.

Unexpected anti-dhimmitude from the EU. From AP, with thanks to Henri:

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has warned Saudi Arabia that it would take WTO action if the Riyadh government supported a boycott of Danish goods, the European Commission said Monday.

A Danish newspaper's publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad has led to tension between Denmark and some Muslim countries. Mandelson told the Saudi Minister of State that any Danish boycott would be a boycott of the European Union.

"He made it clear that if the Saudi government had encouraged the boycott, Commissioner Mandelson would regret having to take the issue to the WTO," said EU spokesman Peter Power.

The Saudi minister told Mandelson that the government had not encouraged the boycott.

Denmark told Riyadh that it did not support the incitement of racial hatred but could not condemn the free expression of the press.

Has cartoon rage in Denmark over the cartoons of Muhammad printed by the newspaper Jyllands Posten now taken the form of hacker attacks against that paper's website?

"Denmark subject to islamic cyber-attacks," from the Dansk-Svensk blogspot, with thanks to Steen:

from www.politiken.dk the 29 of jan. a German version will appear later today:

New hacker attack paralyzes Jyllands-Posten

The web version of Jyllands-Posten is off-line. Hackers pulled off another large attack on the website of the paper.

The web version of the paper Jyllands-Posten, www.jp.dk, has again been knocked to the ground. The web paper is under attack by hackers.

A new so-called distributed "denial of the service"-attack has hit the home page of Jyllands-Posten. The technical term means, that attackers in different parts of the world take control of computers all over the world.

Several attacks.

These computers bombard the home page with so many simultaneous requests, that it finally crashes.

So says Casper Bruun Møller, teamleader at Metropol Online, the internet company owned by Berlingske (Danish publishing house), on whose server Jyllands-Posten, Berlinske tidende, BT and Kristeligt Dagblad web version is located.

"Over the last couple days, there have been several distributed "denial of service" attacks against the home page of Jyllands-Posten. We had a smallish attack early friday, a larger one friday evening, and not there is another attack brewing", says Casper Bruun Møller.

The "insurgents" in Iraq in their "nationalist" struggle have decided to target Christian sites, despite the fact that the Christians in question are "Iraqis."

Now if this "Iraqi" "insurgency" really were "nationalist," would they do this?

"Bombs strike several churches in Iraq, dozens killed," from AP, with thanks to all who sent this in:

(1/30/06 - BAGHDAD, Iraq) - Car bombs exploded in quick succession Sunday near four Christian churches and the office of the Vatican envoy, killing three people and raising new concerns about sectarian tensions. At least 17 other people were killed in other violence around the country.

No group claimed responsibility for the bombings, which occurred within a half hour near two churches in Baghdad and two in Kirkuk, 180 miles to the north. The fifth bomb exploded about 50 yards from the Vatican mission in the capital.

Suspicion fell on Islamic extremists such as al-Qaida in Iraq led by Jordanian-born terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi that have been responsible for massive car bombings and suicide attacks against Iraqi Shiite civilians.

More assistance from our friend and ally Pakistan. From the Telegraph, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

Prevarication by the Pakistani government cost America the chance to kill Osama bin Laden in an airstrike near the Afghan border two years ago, the Sunday Telegraph has been told.

A CIA lead that the al-Qaeda leader was hiding in a remote province was squandered because the Pakistani government delayed giving permission for the attack on its soil, according to a senior Western diplomat.

By the time US officials got the go-ahead, bin Laden had left the suspected hideout in Zhob, in the Baluchistan province of south-west Pakistan.

The near-miss was cited by the diplomat as the reason why America chose not to consult Islamabad before the US missile strike in Pakistan's Bajaur region two weeks ago. The January 13 attack, prompted by a tip that bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was hiding in a local village, killed 13 civilians.

Speaking of the Zhob attack, the diplomat, who asked not to be named, said: "For unknown reasons, Pakistani officials delayed in giving permission...which ultimately gave these militants time to move to an unknown location."

For unknown reasons. Maybe because there are so many supporters of the jihad within the Pakistani government and military? But this, of course, cannot be acknowledged or even discussed -- and this PC lack of focus is costing us dearly.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald explains the lack of focus in Washington that could ultimately have disastrous consequences:

Wars are won in all sorts of ways. Hot wars are won on battlefields, by destroying the enemy. But the Cold War was not "won" on a battlefield, but by a long and expensive process of checking Soviet power everywhere, and even outspending the Soviets so that, in the end, a sufficient number of intelligent people, Party members and Party officials, came to realize that the Soviet system was a failure. That failure led them, from the inside, to dismantle that system, in ways that were sometimes precipitous. And they were not aided by such shallow Western "experts" as the loudmouth and self-promoter Jeffrey Sachs, who does a good imitation of the comic Irwin Corey and his "World's Greatest Authority" act.

The war is one of self-defense. We do not wish the supremacist creed of jihad and dhimmitude to spread. We do not wish those who hold this creed to overbreed, or outbreed, Infidels in the very lands of dar al-Harb. Just look at what is happening all over the Western world, and even in this country where only 1% of the population is Muslim (about 3 million, at most, and most of them not-quite-orthodox Black Muslims). We wish to check it, and to create the conditions in which the failures of Sharia states and semi-Sharia states will be understood by a number of intelligent people born into Islam to be connected to the belief-system of Islam itself -- that its traditional laws make it such an enemy of music, painting and the plastic arts, and inculcate habits of mind, ways of thought, that simply do not permit of free and skeptical inquiry.

The major weapon of the current Jihad is money -- not money that Muslims have earned, but for the most part money that comes from an accident of geology. And whatever enormous sums the Arab and Muslim oil states have acquired, they have used not to build modern economies, but to buy hundreds of billions of dollars in arms. And their thieving ruling classes -- not to be opposed as long as they are Muslims -- have their own special expenditures, what with endless villas in Marbella and apartments on Avenue Foch and on the French Riviera, and in London and the Home Counties, and in Aspen, and McLean, Virginia, and so on.

"Nobel laureate seeks Islamists’ permission to publish," from The Statesman, with thanks to RG:

CAIRO, Jan. 28. – Egypt’s Nobel Prize winning author, Naguib Mahfouz, is seeking the permission of the country’s highest Islamic authorities to publish one of his most controversial novels, in a move which has staggered friends and colleagues who see it as a capitulation to the power of conservative Islam. Speaking publicly about his decision for the first time, the 94 year-old confirmed that his publisher had sought the approval of Al Azhar university, Sunni Islam’s oldest seat of learning, to finally publish Children of the Alley. The book was banned in Egypt in 1959 when Islamists declared it blasphemous.

“If Al Azhar agrees to publish it, then I want it published,” he told friends and supporters seated around him at a weekly get-together in a bar at the Shepherd Hotel on the banks of the Nile. Mahfouz, whose sophisticated literary works helped make Egypt the intellectual and cultural hub of the Arab world, further dismayed his audience when he confirmed that he had asked Egypt’s powerful Islamic organisation, the Muslim Brotherhood, to write a preface to the book. He said he wanted the imprimatur of “the Islamists”.

While he rattles sabers on the international stage, all is not rosy for the Thug-In-Chief on the home front. From SMCCDI:

Fire forced the closure of the Navab Metro Station in the Iranian Capital. The incident which is believed to be an act of arson took place today and on the same day that many of Tehran's Collective Bus drivers observed a protest action.

Official sources have attributed the fire to a short circuit but curiously the same motif was used in order to justify the burning of a collective bus, happened the day before, in southern Tehran.

Several other Metro Station were damaged and some of their drivers bowed by strikers' supporters who some of them were heard shouting slogans by calling for the solidarity of Metro drivers with the Bus company's strikers.

Many Iranians and especially youngsters have shown their support of strikers by attacking militiamen who were appointed as bus drivers or by smashing the windows of the collective vehicles.

Many of the strikers and their family members, estimated at more than 1000 individuals, have been injured or arrested by brutal militiamen. The fate of many of the arrested activists is unknown and some have been transferred to section 240 of the infamous Evin Political Jail located in North Tehran.

Their colleagues have called on the free world and western unions and human rights' association to intervene for their immediate releases.

Lights out in Oslo. Norway is well on the way to becoming an Islamic State. If criticism of Islam is forbidden, then the rest of Sharia will ultimately follow. Freedom of speech and freedom of thought have been relegated to the dustbin of history.

From Brussels Journal, with thanks to all who sent this in:

The left-wing government in Norway apologizes to Muslims worldwide for the publication of twelve Muhammad cartoons [see them here] in the Norwegian newspaper Magazinet. Oslo sent out instructions to all the Norwegian embassies on how to respond to queries about the cartoons. Unlike the Danish government, the Norwegian government is not concerned about safeguarding the right to freedom of expression. Foreign Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, a leading member of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s Workers’ Party, wrote the following e-mail to the Norwegian embassies:

I am sorry that the publication of a few cartoons in the Norwegian paper Magazinet has caused unrest among Muslims. I fully understand that these drawings are seen to give offence by Muslims worldwide. Islam is a spiritual reference point for a large part of the world. Your faith has the right to be respected by us.

The cartoons in the Christian paper Magazinet are not constructive in building the bridges which are necessary between people with different religious and ethnic backgrounds. Instead they contribute to suspicion and unnecessary conflict.

Let it be clear that the Norwegian government condemns every expression or act which expresses contempt for people on the basis of their religion or ethnic origin. Norway has always supported the fight of the UN against religious intolerance and racism, and believes that this fight is important in order to avoid suspicion and conflict. Tolerance, mutual respect and dialogue are the basis values of Norwegian society and of our foreign policy.

Freedom of expression is one of the pillars of Norwegian society. This includes tolerance for opinions that not everyone shares. At the same time our laws and our international obligations enforce restrictions for incitement to hatred or hateful expressions.

Come off it. Worse things are published about Christianity in Europe every day. No one has committed any violent act because of these cartoons, and if anyone does it is likely to be a Muslim. Freedom of expression without freedom to criticize Islam and Islamic violence means that Islam and Islamic violence will grow, while freedom of expression will continue to wither. Goodbye, Norway.

The Onion knows what Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is all about. See their graphic on Iran's Holocaust conference here. It's a pity that this knowledge continues to elude more ostensibly serious Western news sources.

The Danish company Arla Foods faces an international boycott stemming from Muslim cartoon rage. Help Arla Foods survive this unconscionable bullying and intimidation, and help the free world protect the principle of freedom of speech: please buy as many of their products as you possibly can. Here is an email received by Jihad Watch reader Steve from an Arla Foods executive:

Thank you for your e-mail and your support.

You can find our products in the cheese deli in most supermarkets. We
market the following products here in the US:

Rosenborg - Blue cheeses
Denmarks Finest - Havarti (an imported mild and creamy yellow cheese)
Lurpak - Butter
Dofino - Havarti (produced in Wisconsin)
Mediterra - Feta

You can also visit our website for further information: arlafoodsusa.com

You should be able to find our products in most stores, but certainly in Safeway, Albertsons and Costco.

They will remain those same lovable mass murderers, belying the learned analysts. From AP:

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Following their resounding election victory, the Islamic militants of Hamas met the question of whether they will change their stripes with a loud "no": no recognition of Israel, no negotiations, no renunciation of terror.

But the world holds out hope that international pressure can make them more moderate.

Because human kind cannot bear very much reality.

At stake is the future of Mideast peacemaking, billions of dollars in aid and the Palestinians' relationship with Israel, the United States and Europe....

Yes, and the peace of the world, and the fate of the global jihad of this age, and the fate of free societies, and more.

The Swords of Righteousness Brigades. Not that religion has anything to do with this, of course. From AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Kidnappers threatened in a new videotape broadcast Saturday to kill four Christian peace activists unless all Iraqi prisoners were released, saying they were giving the U.S. and Iraqi governments a "last chance" to save the hostages.

The tape dated Jan. 21 and broadcast on Al-Jazeera showed the four men — two Canadians, an American and a Briton — standing near a wall, before cutting away to another shot in which they were seated and talking, but their voices were not heard.

The newsreader said the group issued a statement with the tape saying it was the "last chance" for U.S. and Iraqi authorities to "release all Iraqi prisoners in return of freeing the hostages otherwise their fate will be death." No deadline was set.

The previously unknown Swords of Righteousness Brigades has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald again explains why short-sighted, suicidal foreign aid policies must stop:

Now -- as the world is still adjusting to the reality of an openly terrorist “Palestinian” state – is a perfect time for the United States and Europe to end, permanently, the jizyah. “Palestinian" territories, and that other world center of antisemitism and anti-Americanism, Egypt, should be first. Followed by Pakistan and Jordan, which should receive no more military aid because they are now going to be judged by the hostility of their peoples, and not by the reassurances or smiles of government figures. Westerners must stop swallowing that worthless "we love America, it's just Bush/your government/your Congress we hate" line that is the kind of thing brought to our attention in highly tendentious and sanitized opinion polls, the ones "conducted by Zogby International" in consultation with Shibley Telhami, in which no one seems to have the bright idea of asking such questions as these:

"Do you think Muhammad is uswa hasana, and if he is, what would Muhammad do today about the Infidels?

"Does Israel have a right to exist as a Jewish state forever, or just for a short while?"

"Do Christians and other non-Muslims (Jews, Hindus, Buddhists) have the right to live and be treated with full legal equality -- buying land, voting, running for office, opening churches wherever they wish? Do they have the right to live as equals in Muslim-run countries, as Muslims now do in Infidel lands?

"Why not"?

But that's not what anyone -- least of all Zogby International and Shibley Telhami -- want to find out, or want those who pay for their results in the American government to find out.

Fit these guys for a zunnar. From Life Style Extra, with thanks to a tea-loving snail:

LIFE STYLE EXTRA (UK) - An orthodox Jewish Rabbi and an Anglican vicar today took the witness stand to back 'preacher of hate' Abu Hamza despite him listing Jews and Christians as the second and third enemies of Islam.

Rabbi Joseph Goldstein told the Old Bailey that he met up with the cleric at Finsbury Park Mosque in north London to discuss the pastoral care of a Jewish man that had married a Muslim woman.

At the time Hamza, 47, was the imam before he was thrown out and barred from preaching inside the mosque by its trustees.

Rabbi Goldstein, who is involved in synagogues in east London, said: "I met him in the office of the mosque and we spoke on the phone a couple of times.

"He was very pleasant, friendly and we and a cordial relationship."

"He was very open, very cordial and it was very easy to discuss the matter. We talked about various things, both personally and things that affected the community."

And the vicar of St Thomas's Church in Finsbury Park, Rev Stephen Coles, told the court how the pair met for the first time after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington to promote "inter-religious dialogue".

He said: "We got on extremely well. He was very hospitable. He asked me if I wanted a cup of tea and he treated me like a normal human being."

Oh, well, then he must not be a jihadist.

Another British jihadist. "Man charged over failed bombings," from the BBC, :

A 27-year-old man has been charged in connection with the alleged attempted bombings in London on 21 July.

Muhedin Ali, of Chesterton Road, west London, is accused of assisting one of the suspects in the attempted bombings, Hussain Osman, to evade arrest.

He is also charged with failing to disclose information about Mr Osman, and will appear before magistrates in central London on Saturday.

The failed attacks took place two weeks after suicide bombers killed 52 people.

"Disdaining religion," eh? Such "insolence"! This is an increasingly strong challenge to a fundamental basis of a free society. If one is not free to write something critical of any belief-system or group, if any belief-system or group is held immune from such criticism, then freedom of speech does not actually exist. A free society means the freedom to reject, to criticize, even to ridicule. Without this freedom of speech and freedom of thought are hollow and meaningless.

"Muslim World League calls for UN interventions against disdaining religions," from the Kuwait News Agency, with thanks to Twostellas:

RIYADH, Jan 28 (KUNA) -- Muslim World League (MWL) called Saturday on the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to activate international laws against insolence of religions.

MWL Secretary General Dr Abdullah Al-Turki condemned, in a letter addressed to Annan, the discretion of Prophet Mohammed (PBU) by Danish and Norwegian newspapers, which published cartoon depicting the Prophet in a disrespectful way.

Al-Turki said in the letter that Muslims around the world felt very offended by the unethical campaign, noting that international laws prohibited scorning religions and other hatred-provoking practices.

He stressed that UN should intervene to stop media campaigns against Islam, which might ignite clashes between different cultures.

Moreover, he called on Annan to immediately and directly contact the Danish and Norwegian governments to demand them to ban media campaigns against Islam and to officially apologize for the Muslim nation.

Al-Turki also called on the international community to adopt a clear law criminalizing individuals and institutions that disrespect religions.

Cartoon Rage Update: "Brussels mosque preacher denounces prophet-offensive cartoons," from IRNA, with thanks to Twostellas:

The imam (prayer leader) at the Islamic Center in Brussels, in his Friday sermon, strongly condemned the Danish and Norwegian publications which carried cartoons insulting Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him).

"We denounce these offensive cartoons. Where are the human rights organizations? Why are they silent?" asked the Arab preacher.

...thus demonstrating a startling lack of understanding both of what constitutes a free society and of what constitutes a human rights violation.

Sharia Alert: "Pakistan: Islamists riot against mixed-sex race," from AP, with thanks to Twostellas:

Authorities beefed up security on Saturday for a planned marathon for men and women, a day after police arrested 400 protesters from an Islamic group that has branded the race obscene and vowed to block the runners.

Several Islamists and two police officers were injured during Friday's street clashes in Lahore, the venue of Sunday's marathon... But hard-line Muslims have pledged to disrupt the race, saying Islam prohibits women from participating in such events.

Do CAIR and MAS, who are involved in this according to this story, believe that Jamaat al Tabligh (aka Tablighi Jamaat) is not a terrorist organization? Evidently they don't, judging from this story. On what grounds do they think this? What evidence do they have that DHS's finding that it is a terrorist group is wrong? Or is this outrage just part of a larger effort to hinder any anti-terror action? Do tell, Ibrahim.

From KVOA.com, with thanks to Twostellas:

Representatives from leading Islamic organizations are demanding that federal authorities allow an Arizona doctor to return home from Pakistan.

Nadeem Hassan, a Pakistani who belongs to an Islamic group known as Jamaat al Tabligh, was forced out of the country last week under threat of indefinite detention based in part on a Homeland Security finding that the group is a terrorist organization.

Those moves infuriated Phoenix-area Muslims, who say Hassan is a peace-loving physician and Jamaat al Tabligh is a non-violent, apolitical missionary movement.

Russ Knocke, a Homeland Security spokesman in Washington, said Hassan's ouster from the United States "is an example of what we mean when we talk about restoring integrity to the immigration system."

Hassan had lived in the United States for more than 15 years, and practiced medicine at Maricopa Medical Center here under a temporary-work permit....

Knocke said there was no nefarious plan to revoke Hassan's green card while he was overseas, especially in a department that handles thousands of cases daily, and rejected assertions that discrimination was involved.

"We operate on intelligence," he said.

In revoking Hassan's green card, CIS said he committed fraud by failing to declare his leadership in a number of Muslim groups, including Jamaat al Tabligh and a mosque in Mesa.

One says it comes from a failure on the part of clerics: in other words, Islam is peaceful and tolerant, but is, as always, beset by misunderstanders. Another denies that there is any intolerance at all: in other words, Islam is peaceful and tolerant, but is, as always, beset by Islamophobes. Nobody seems to have been willing to face up to the reality of the intolerance and discrimination mandated by the Sharia laws relating to the dhimma. "Muslim, Christian leaders brainstorm about intolerance," from The Nation (Pakistan), with thanks to Twostellas:

LAHORE, JAN 26 (THE NATION) - Muslim and religious leaders came together at a seminar on Thursday to deliberate about the causes and remedies of contemporary religious intolerance in Pakistan. Some of them admitted that it showed the failure of the religious clerics in country while one of the speakers dismissed the whole issue by claiming there was no religious intolerance.

The seminar was organised by Commission for Peace and Human Development at Durab Patel Hall, Aiwan-e-Jamhoor and New Garden Town. Archbishop Lawrence J Saldanha of Lahore was the chief guest while Khateeb Badshahi Mosque Maulana Abdul Khabir Azad chaired the seminar. President Jamiat-e-Ahle Hadith Pakistan Hafiz Zubair Ahmad Zaheer, General Secretary Majlis-e-Ulema-e-Pakistan Maulana Maqbool ur Rehman Ansari, scholar Safdar Hassan Siddiqui, Principal St Anthony's College Cecil Chaudhry, Rt Rev Samuel Azariah and IA Rehman shared their views. In the end a resolution was passed condemning those engaged in spreading hatred in the society. It urged government to end the discriminatory laws and delete the portions in the syllabus that create hatred against different communities.

Zaheer maintained there was no intolerance in Pakistan. "Miscreants are there in every country and they should be taken to task. This is the age of science and development and we should move forward and create goodwill and love in the society," he said. He was of the view that religious leaders of both communities should play an active role in creating harmony in the society.

Saldanha said Pakistan has become a Fascist state."Religion and state are one and that is creating waves of intolerance. Blasphemy and Hudood laws are example. "In the education sector the syllabus contains many things which spread hatred against Christians and Hindus. How can you expect these kids to be tolerant when they grow up? Christian and Hindu communities are not given time on TV, which is sad as this step could have helped to create better understanding among different communities," he said.

1938 Update from AP, :

TEHERAN - Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief warned the United States and Britain on Saturday that Iran would retaliate with missiles if attacked, state-run television reported....

“The world knows Iran has a ballistic missile power with a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,300 miles),” Safavi said on state-run television. Israel is within that range.

“We have no intention to invade any country. We will take effective defence measures if attacked,” he said.

...as the Palestinian Authority edges closer to civil war. "Ramallah: Fatah gunmen fire weapons in PA Parliament," from the Jerusalem Post, :

Thousands of angry Fatah activists, led by masked gunmen firing wildly in the air, marched in the West Bank on Saturday, demanding the resignation of party leaders following Fatah's defeat by Hamas in this week's parliament election.

Dozens of them made their way into the Palestinian parliament building in Ramallah Saturday afternoon and began shooting in different directions.

Some of the gunmen said they would no longer observe an informal cease-fire with Israel.

Why? Did Israel elect Hamas?

In the city of Nablus, about 2,000 Fatah members marched through the streets, led by dozens of gunmen from the Fatah-allied Al Aksa Martyrs' Brigades, who climbed aboard the back of a truck and fired in the air.

"Al Aksa, from Rafah to Jenin, has stopped the cease-fire," one of the gunmen aboard the truck, Nasser Haras, told the crowd. "We are now no longer part of the cease-fire."

Following bloody clashes Friday night and Saturday morning between his group and Fatah, Hamas leader in Gaza, Ismail Hania, told his followers Saturday morning that, "weapons should be turned only against Israel.

"Our battle is not against our own people," he added.

The statement came after Hamas gunmen ambushed a Palestinian police patrol early Saturday, wounding two officers, Gaza police said.

"U.N. nuclear chief calls on U.S. to provide Iran with reactors, Tehran to stop enrichment," from AP, with thank to Gabrielle Goldwater:

U.N. nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei on Friday called on the United States to provide Iran with nuclear reactors, and urged Tehran to declare a moratorium on enriching uranium for at least eight years.

He said eight or nine years would enable the country to earn the confidence of the international community that it was really interested in nuclear energy - not nuclear weapons.

Yes indeed. No one can wait for more than nine years to do something he is determined to do. Why, that will solve everything.

No one yet charged in the Cronulla riots. Why not? Could it be because too many Australian politicians need the Muslim vote?

From The Australian, with thanks to Rosie:

UNTIL just over a week ago, not one alleged revenge attacker in the wake of last month's race riot in southern Sydney had been charged, despite the charging of up to 30 white men over the initial affray.

Peter Debnam, in the riskiest political move of his five months so far as Opposition leader in NSW, took up the cause. He claimed the state Labor Government of Premier Morris Iemma had encouraged police to go soft on revenge attackers, most thought to be Middle Eastern, because of what he called Labor's political correctness.

Bashings of whites in the southern suburbs followed the riots, as did damage to cars and businesses, mostly smashed windows. One youth has been jailed after an Australia flag was torn down and burnt.

Debnam expanded the conspiracy theory to say many Labor politicians including Iemma, whose electorate of Lakemba has a large Lebanese population, were "indebted" to that community, in part because of the stacking of local Labor branches with members of Middle Eastern descent.

Iemma and NSW police commissioner Ken Moroney described the claims as untrue, outlandish and offensive. Moroney said it had been easy to arrest the whites because of high-quality television video footage. No videos existed of the revenge attacks, he said. Task Force Enoggera, set up with 28 officers to investigate revenge attacks, would do the job.

Then all hell broke loose. Channel Nine broadcast a closed-circuit video showing about 30 Lebanese bashing a bystander at Cronulla after the riot. It's debatable just how recognisable the faces are, but it's expected some perpetrators will be identifiable to those who know them.

Read it all.

Freedom of speech? Pah. We're losing money here. "Danish Trade Group Challenges Newspaper," from AP, with thanks to Kasia:

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - Denmark's main industry organization, fearing a loss of business in the Muslim world, sought to distance itself Friday from a newspaper that published contentious drawings of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

The Confederation of Danish Industries urged Jyllands-Posten to explain its decision to publish the cartoons on Sept. 30 last year.

"Time has come for Jyllands-Posten to use its freedom of speech to explain how it views the fact that the paper's Muhammad drawings have offended large groups of people," the group's head, Hans Skov Christensen, wrote in a letter to the daily....

Skov Christensen said Danish companies faced repercussions this week from customers in the Middle East, including product boycotts, dropped orders, and canceled business meetings. The confederation claims the Middle East accounts for annual sales of at least $816 million for Danish companies.

Danish-based Arla Foods, Europe's largest dairy group, said it had noted sales dropping in Saudi Arabia because of protests over the drawings.

"We are sorry if Muslims have been offended in their faith. It was not the intention," Carsten Juste, Jyllands-Posten's editor in chief, told The Associated Press. "What we did, we did within the constitution, the Danish penal code and international conventions."

Lights out in Copenhagen.

Kashmir jihad update from AP, :

At least eight people were killed in a gunfight between Indian security forces and Kashmir rebels on Saturday, an army official said....

More than a dozen Islamic rebel groups have been fighting security forces in India's portion of Kashmir for the region's independence, or its merger with mostly Muslim Pakistan. The 16-year insurgency has claimed more 66,000 lives.

India accuses Pakistan of training and funding the militants, a charge denied by Islamabad, which says its cracking down militant groups operating from its territory. The South Asian rival have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, which both claim in its entirety....

Sharia: it's the will of the people. Ain't democracy grand? From the
Globe and Mail, with thanks to Penkill:

The incoming Hamas government will move quickly to make Islamic sharia “a source” of law in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and will overhaul the Palestinian education system to separate boys and girls and introduce a more Islamic curriculum, a senior official in the movement said yesterday.

Spelling out the domestic agenda of Hamas for the first time since the group's stunning victory in a legislative election this week, Sheik Mohammed Abu Teir also said Hamas would not go to foreign donors on bended knee if they withdrew aid to the Palestinian Authority.

They won't have to. The dhimmi donors will come to them, I'm sure.

The armed struggle against Israel will continue as long as Israel continues its occupation of Palestinian lands, he added.

From our Proportionate Reponse Department comes this item posted by Dr. Rusty Shackleford at the Jawa Report: the threat of a jihad-martyrdom attack in Denmark, "Warnings of Impending Suicide Attack in Denmark." Why? You guessed it: those cartoons.

The Glory Brigades in Northern Europe are now threatening suicide attacks in Denmark. The originals can be seen and downloaded at Infovlad who has them archived. A rough translation of the warning from an Islamic forum can be seen at Tracking al Qaeda.

The Glory Brigades of Northern Europe have threatened terrorist actions in both Sweden and Denmark in the past. The current threats are being made in retalliation for cartoons appearing in Danish papers which are said to be offensive to Muslims.

I wonder how many Christian fundamentalists have threatened to blow themselves up in New York over Kanye West's portrayal of Christ in Rolling Stone?

Good links and pictures at the Jawa Report.

Yes, of course they will lay down their arms when called upon to do so by the international community. From Reuters:

GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas and Fatah gunmen exchanged fire on Friday in political turmoil as the long-dominant Fatah faction was threatened with a violent backlash from within after its crushing election defeat by the Islamic militant group....

Some 20,000 Fatah supporters took the streets in angry protests across the Gaza Strip, burning cars outside the Palestinian parliament building and firing rifles in the air. Some Hamas posters were ripped down by the crowd, which burned tires in the streets....

The militant al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of Fatah, issued a statement threatening to "liquidate" the faction's leaders if they changed their minds and joined a Hamas-led administration.

At separate rallies, thousands of Hamas backers celebrated their surprise victory....

In the first armed clash between Hamas and Fatah militants since Wednesday's vote, three people were wounded in a gun battle near the southern city of Khan Younis.

Witnesses said the violence erupted after Hamas militants were angered by a sermon by a Fatah-appointed Muslim preacher during Friday prayers.

In a later flare up, Hamas gunmen and Palestinian security forces exchanged fire in Khan Younis. A Hamas gunmen and two security officers were wounded in the clash and underscored the difficulties ahead.

With Middle East peace talks frozen since 2000, Israel ruled out negotiations with any Palestinian administration involving Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction and has been behind dozens of suicide bombings.

No mention by Reuters of the fact that Hamas has also ruled out negotiations.

Meanwhile, the jizya may stop:

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Israel threw into doubt its willingness to continue the transfer of monthly customs revenues totaling tens of millions of dollars to the Palestinian Authority. The money is needed to help pay salaries for 135,000 government employees.

Compounding the Palestinian Authority's worries, the United States said it will review "all aspects" of its aid programs to the Palestinians if Hamas is in the government.

"To be very clear, we do not provide money to terrorist organizations," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

DIVIDED OPINION

An opinion poll in Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper showed 48 percent of Israelis favored talking to a Hamas-led Palestinian government, while 43 percent were opposed.

Calls to open talks will grow. They are suicidal. A group that believes this is only interested in talking for the advantage they can gain over their enemy from such talks.

Israel holds a general election on March 28 and interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, whose centrist Kadima party is the front-runner, has hinted at unilateral moves to set a border with the Palestinians on Israeli terms.

Israel has already pulled its settlers out of the Gaza Strip without negotiations, citing the current Palestinian government's failure to rein in militants....

Hah? So Israel has acted unilaterally by withdrawing from Gaza? By leaving? This was an aggressive move to set the border on Israeli terms? This is something to blame Israel for, as if it were some kind of provocation of the Palestinians? What are they smoking at Al-Reuters?

Hamas's capture of 76 seats in the 132-member parliament -- against 43 for Fatah -- was widely seen as a political earthquake in the Middle East, triggered by voter anger at Fatah over corruption and the failure of peace efforts.

Did you catch that? Reuters would have us believe that Palestinians voted for Hamas because they were frustrated at the failure of peace efforts. Sure. They wanted peace, so they voted for Hamas. And when I want to see something, I cover my eyes with thick wool.

Hamas has mostly respected a truce for nearly a year, but says it will not give up its guns or its charter demand for an Islamic state to encompass Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.

Cartoon rage reaches the home of the Fallujah atrocities, Saddam's file cabinet prison, etc. "Iraqis protest against anti-Islamic Danish cartoons," from AFP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

BAGHDAD (AFP) - With fiery sermons and raucous demonstrations, Iraqis called for an investigation into Danish and Norwegian publications carrying cartoons deemed offensive to the Prophet Mohammed....

In a virulent sermon from the pulpit of his mosque in the Shiite Kadhimiya neighborhood of Baghdad, Sheikh Hazem al-Aaraji described the cartoons as an attack on Islam.

"They want to disfigure Islam and this we cannot accept. These cartoons directly attack the personality of the messenger of God. We say to them: they cannot attack Mohammed, nor any of the prophets," thundered the preacher, who is a follower of firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

His audience filled the mosque with their cries of "No to evil," "No to Satan" and "Mohammed we will answer your call."

"Mohammed is the symbol of humanity. He is not dead, he lives always among us through his teachings and through the sacred book," said the preacher, before calling on the Iraqi government and all Muslim states to demand an accounting from the Danish and Norwegian governments.

Following the sermon, around 100 people careened through the narrow alleys of Kadhimiyah with chants of "there is no god but God, and Mohammed is his prophet" and "Jews, the army of Mohammed and Ali will return."

Oh, I see. A veiled genocidal threat is all right. But cartoons of Muhammad? It's...it's an outrage!!

Over in Baghdad's grim Shiite district of Sadr City, another preacher used his Friday sermon to call for the editors of the magazines to be put on trial.

"We demand the opening of an inquiry and the prosecution of the artists, publishers and the officials of the newspapers before Danish and European courts," declared Sheikh Salah al-Obeidi.

The main Sunni political coalition, the National Concord Front, also issued a denunciation of the cartoons, calling for the West on Wednesday, to "put an end to their decline in morals."...

Dhimmi Norway is already caving:

The Norwegian foreign ministry on Thursday asked its diplomats posted in Muslim countries to express their "regrets" to their host governments about the re-printing of the cartoons.

Here's one for Friday afternoon if you are at your desk but not feeling all that productive. Jihad Watch News Editor Anne Crockett, who has kindly been fighting the agenda-driven half-truths and outright falsehoods that have dominated my biography at Wikipedia, has alerted me to yet another biography at Uncyclopedia. It's modeled after Wikipedia, but is altogether more entertaining:

Robert "Freakin' Batman" Spencer is an American writer and commentator on Islam and Jihad. He has written five books, including two bestsellers, on topics related to Islam and terrorism. He is the founder and current director of the JihadWatch and Dhimmiwatch websites, which are frequently condemned for inciting hatred toward well meaning everyday people who behead little girls on their way to Sunday School.[1]

As his critics have said "Is there really any meaningful difference between blowing yourself up in a Tel Aviv Pizza Parlour and reporting on those things? Of course not."

Jihad Watch has come under fire for its associates, most notably Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald is suspected of being behind a deadly 1993 run-on-sentence, but no charges were ever filed.

Bibliography

The Purpose Driven Terrorist (editor), Prometheus Books, 2005. ISBN 1591022495
The Seventy Two People You Meet in Heaven, Regnery Publishing, 2005. ISBN 0895260131
A Million Little Pieces: Memoirs of a Suicide Bomber, Regnery Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0895261006
Inside Eurabia: A Tour Guide to Notre Dame, St. Peter’s Basilica, Hagia Sophia, and other Famous Mosques (with Daniel Ali), Ascension Press, 2103. ISBN 0965922855
Your Best Jihad Now: 7 Steps to Dying at Your Full Potential (Foreword by David Pryce-Jones), Encounter Books, 2002. ISBN 1893554589

Check out the picture at the Uncyclopedia site, which comes from here.

I'll be talking about the Palestinian election today with:

• Michael Graham on WTKK (listen online) at 4PM EST; and

• Lars Larsen at 6:30PM EST.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald discusses the phenomenon of women and Westerners in general converting to Islam:

There is something not neutral, not innocent, something disturbing, about the Western women who choose to live in Muslim countries for a short or long period, and when they do, and find it neceesary (or sometimes eveb without finding it necessary) to the dress code for local women, do so uncomplainingly, willingly adapt, at times with a certain secret pleasure. While women in Iraq, or at least the most advanced women in Iraq, have been trying hard not to have the chador, abaya, whatever you want to call it, right down to the eyeslit of the niqab, imposed on them again, some Western women appear almost gleeful in the requirement, as they see it, to dress that way. Is it that they find the chador liberating, in fact -- or is it something else prompting their pleasure? The most advanced women born into Islam (starting with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Homa Arjmand, Azam Kamguian) try to become free of this male-imposed dress when they can; the most un-advanced, most primitive women in the non-Muslim world, on the other hand, find themselves not only finding nothing wrong in "Islam's treatment of women," but justifying and even celebrating what some of them call a "portable seclusion," instead of addressing the attitudes and behavior of Muslim men toward women (any female traveller to Muslim countries can be called to the witness-stand) that might make such "portable seclusion" necesary.

You see: it's fun. This dressing up voluntarily in Islam-mandated clothes is just plain fun, apparently, for some Western women. They do not assume the garb reluctantly, but are excited by the make-believe of it all. It's a kind of civilizational slumming, or rather, a rapid abandonment of all supposed principles that supposedly meant so much to them at home. Where be that famous feminism now?

There was Giuliana Sgrena, the shrill-voiced hysteric (I heard her on the RAI), with her illogic and malevolence toward the United States and toward the West, well-watered by Il Manifesto. There was Margaret Hassan, who spent decades in Iraq, who threw her lot in with "the Iraqi people" and even married an Iraqi (an Iraqi whose reaction to the news of her death was strangely muted), and was executed because, alla fin fine, she was an Infidel. There were the two Simones, as Oriana Fallaci called them, part-Sgrena part-Hassan in their crazed blend of unappeasable anti-Western animus and identification with Islam, and their enjoying their roles as "Muslim women" without having to be Muslims to enjoy it.

Another British-born jihadist. From The Guardian, with thanks to D. C. Watson:

A market stall holder who plotted to "hunt down" and kill a decorated British soldier was jailed for six years today.

British-born Abu Mansha, 21, obtained an address for Corporal Mark Byles after reading coverage in the Sun newspaper of how he led a bayonet charge in which he killed up to 20 Iraqi insurgents.

When Mansha's flat in Thamesmead, south east London, was searched by Special Branch in March last year they found a blank-firing gun in the process of being converted to shoot live rounds.

There was also a scrap of paper with the name of Cpl Byles and the word "hero", as well as a "horrific" collection of DVDs showing Osama bin Laden and the beheading of British hostage Ken Bigley.

Here, from FrontPage, is my assessment of the Palestinian Authority election results. Many news links in the original:

The denial started almost immediately after Hamas captured 57 percent of the seats in the Palestinian parliament. Associated Press reported that “Hamas capitalized on widespread discontent with years of Fatah corruption and ineffectiveness. Much of its campaign focused on internal Palestinian issues, while playing down the conflict with Israel.” Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice opined: “Palestinian people have apparently voted for change, but we believe their aspirations for peace and a peaceful life remain unchanged.”

But what kind of peace? And how does Hamas (Harakat Muqawama Islamiyya — the Islamic Resistance Movement) propose to rid the Palestinian Authority of corruption? To these questions the answer has been clear for as long as Hamas has existed; the answer to both is Islam. The Hamas Charter of August 18, 1988, quotes Hassan Al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, the first modern Islamic terror organization and the direct forefather of Hamas: “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.” A Hamas supporter in Gaza amplified that principle on Thursday: “We’re happy that now we will have an Islamic state. God willing, Islam will prevail and we will get rid of corruption.”

The Iranian regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has joined Hamas in calling for the destruction of Israel, expressed delight at the election outcome. An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said: “Iran...hopes that the powerful presence of Hamas at the [political] scene brings about great achievements for the Palestinian nation.”

Others were not so joyful. Jasser Jasser, a Christian pharmacist in Ramallah, said of the prospect of Hamas rule: “We’re all afraid. We’re worried about the future, that we’ll become a second Iran.” Jasser and other non-Muslims have every reason to be afraid. Hassam El-Masalmeh, Hamas leader in Bethlehem, recently declared that his movement intended to reinstitute the traditional tax, the jizya, stipulated in the Qur’an for Jews and Christians in an Islamic state. “We in Hamas,” Masalmeh announced, “intend to implement this tax someday. We say it openly – we welcome everyone to Palestine but only if they agree to live under our rules.” Since along with this tax, Islamic law stipulates that Jews and Christians must submit to a series of humiliating and discriminatory regulations, ensuring their second-class status in line with the Qur’anic stipulation that they “pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued” (9:29).

Cartoon rage continues to roil, making it increasingly clear that this is a challenge over nothing less than whether free societies will remain free. From AP, with thanks to all who sent this in:

Riyadh — Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador to Denmark on Thursday to protest against a published series of caricatures of the prophet Muhammad, which provoked a wave of anger in Islamic countries when they were published last year in a leading Danish newspaper.

Ambassador Mohammad Ibrahim Al-Hejailan had been posted to Denmark since March 2003. Embassy officials did not answer phone calls Thursday afternoon.

The 12 drawings published Sept. 30, 2005 by the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten included one showing Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse. Another portrayed him with a bushy grey beard and holding a sword, his eyes covered by a black rectangle. A third pictured a middle-aged prophet standing in the desert with a walking stick in front of a donkey and a sunset.

Islamic tradition bars any depiction of the prophet, even respectful ones, out of concern such images could lead to idolatry.

And with good reason, since a Hamas official is on record saying that the organization intends to reinstitute the jizya for dhimmi Christians unfortunate enough to live within its domains. "Liberal Palestinians fear Hamas win," from the Globe and Mail:

RAMALLAH, WEST BANK -- Jasser Jasser watches quietly as the parade of green flows by his pharmacy. What he sees is unnerving for him, perhaps enough to make him want to leave his home and move elsewhere.

Walking at the front of the parade is a boy, perhaps in his early teens, carrying the banner of the Hamas movement -- the Islamic militia-cum-political party that opinion polls suggest is poised for a breakthrough in today's Palestinian parliamentary election.Then come the drummers, dozens of them, pounding a martial beat. Some of the drummers look to be no more than five or six years old.

That Hamas was able to hold such a large march in the centre of Ramallah, long considered the most liberal Palestinian city and a stronghold of the secular Fatah movement, in the final hours of the election campaign speaks to the momentum the Islamists have heading into today's vote.

Some opinion polls now have Hamas within just a few percentage points of the long-governing Fatah, sparking speculation that Hamas, on its first foray into national politics, could win a plurality of seats in the next Palestinian Legislative Council.

For Mr. Jasser, a 43-year-old pharmacist, that would be the final straw. Christian and liberal-minded, he said a Hamas win would have him packing his bags.

"I would leave the country," he said simply, moments before the parade of tiny drummers drowned him out.

"We're all afraid. We're worried about the future, that we'll become a second Iran."

It's a common sentiment in Ramallah, especially among the city's dwindling Christian community. Where Christians once made up an about 10 per cent of the population of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the share is believed to have fallen to less than 2 per cent as many left to escape both the rising Islamicization of society and the constant violence....

"Hamas rules out talks with Israel," from the Jerusalem Post:

In response to the victory, Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared during a security cabinet meeting Thursday night that any Palestinian Authority government that included Hamas would not be a partner for Israel.

The Prime Minister's Office issued a statement after the cabinet meeting that read, "Israel will not negotiate with a Palestinian government, even if only part of it is an armed terrorist organization calling for Israel's destruction, and in any case will continue to strenuously fight terrorism everywhere."

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas responded to the election results with a veiled warning to Hamas. "The Palestinian Authority is a signatory to several international agreements, and any government established in the future will be required to implement them," he said. "This is the only way to end the occupation and to gain the support of the international community."...

As news of the results started to trickle in, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar was quick to reiterate his movement's conditioned commitment to the unofficial truce with Israel.

"If Israel is going to continue commitment to what is called quietness, then we will continue," he said. "But if not, then I think we will have no option but to protect our people and our land."

Asked if a Hamas-run cabinet would negotiate with Israel, Zahar said even prior to his movement's victory there had been no movement toward peace and, therefore, there was no point in holding a dialogue at this time.

"We have no peace process," he said. "We are not going to mislead our people to tell them we are waiting, meeting, for a peace process that is nothing."

Well, this will make it harder for the learned pundits to keep insisting that this was a vote against corruption and not a vote for the destruction of Israel. But they'll find a way, I'm sure. From AP, with thanks to Gabrielle Goldwater:

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said the Islamic group will "complete the liberation of other parts of Palestine," But did not say which territories he was referring to or how he would go about it.

All AP need do is refer to the Hamas Charter, which makes it quite clear that the territories in question include every inch of the State of Israel.

I'll be discussing the Hamas victory also tonight on the Gunny Bob Newman Show, which comes out of Denver and is syndicated in 38 states, at 9:35PM EST.

I am scheduled to appear at 8:30 PM EST or thereabouts on Michael Savage's The Savage Nation to discuss, you guessed it, the Palestinian elections.

I am scheduled to be on the Mike Reagan Show tonight at 7:15 or 7:20PM EST to discuss the Palestinian Authority elections and more.

"Prophet drawings anger Saudi consumers," from the Copenhagen Post, with thanks to Filtrat:

Saudi Arabian consumers threaten to protest drawings of the prophet Mohammed by boycotting Arla Foods.

Arla Foods is concerned that a boycott of the company's products in
Saudi Arabia could cost billions if it takes widespread effect.

Saudi Arabian religious and political leaders encouraged consumers to boycott Danish-based Arla Foods' products during last Friday's weekly prayer service.

Since then, the call to has been repeated on national TV stations and newspapers accompanied by pictures of Arla products.

Arla, one of the world's largest producers of dairy products, has earnings worth DKK 3b in the Middle East and expected to open a major dairy facility in two weeks in Saudi Arabia.

Religious leaders called for the boycott as a way to respond to drawings of the prophet Mohammed printed in daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten last September. The newspaper printed 12 drawings of the prophet Mohammed last year as a way to challenge what it considered the intimidating tactics of fundamental islamists.

One Saudi Arabian chain of supermarkets has already removed Arla products from its shelves and called for an official apology.

Arla company feared the boycott could spread.

It looks as if it was a landslide for the Tiny Minority of Extremists: "Hamas Wins Landslide 76 Seats," from AP. Note something that Ashrawi says: "The Americans insisted on having the election now." Indeed, the Americans did, operating out of the widely held fantasy that free elections are a good thing in themselves, and that voters, out of the natural longing for freedom in every human heart, will always reject tyranny and hatred and fanaticism at the ballot box.

Unfortunately, reality is neither that simple nor that comforting. As I argued here several years ago (my section is "No," starting on page two), as long as the idea that Islamic Sharia is the law of God remains strong in Islamic countries, they will not be interested in exchanging it for laws based on human consensus. And, I might add -- and as today's news shows us -- Muslims who believe this will use their vote to choose Sharia when they have the chance. The fact that this is their democratic choice should not be comforting, for it is a choice for the institutionalized oppression of women and religious minorities.

RAMALLAH, West Bank - The Islamic militant Hamas won a landslide victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections, winning 76 seats in the 132-member legislature, election officials said Thursday. The rival Fatah Party, which controlled Palestinian politics for four decades, won 43 seats.

Hamas supporters raised their flag over the Palestinian parliament and rushed into the building amid clashes with Fatah loyalists a day after winning parliamentary elections.

The two camps threw stones at each other, breaking windows in the building, as Fatah supporters briefly tried to lower the green Hamas banners. The crowd of about 3,000 Hamas backers cheered and whistled as activists on the roof of the parliament raised the Hamas banner again....

Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi, who apparently was re-elected on a moderate platform, said the Hamas victory was a dramatic turning point. She said she is concerned the militants will impose their fundamentalist social agenda and lead the Palestinians into international isolation.

She said Fatah's corruption, Israel's tough measures and international indifference to the plight of the Palestinians were to blame for Hamas' strong showing.

Washington miscalculated in pushing for the vote, as part of its pro-democracy campaign in the Arab world, she said. "The Americans insisted on having the election now, so they have to respect the results of the election, as we all do," she said.

Israel has repeatedly asked Abbas to force Hamas and other militant groups to disarm but Abbas has refused, warning such an act could cause civil war.

"We-Win!-Free-Elections-In-the-Middle-East" Update. Pressure will be growing steadily for the U.S. and Israel to change this stance and deal with Hamas. After all, Chamberlain went to Munich; why can't Israel parley with Hamas? From AP:

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Thursday that Hamas cannot be a partner for Middle East peacemaking without renouncing violence, and he reiterated that the United States will not deal with Palestinian leaders who do not recognize Israel's right to exist.

Bush urged Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to remain in office after Wednesday's stunning Hamas victory over Abbas' Fatah faction in Palestinian elections.

"If your platform is the destruction of Israel, it means you're not a partner in peace, and we're interested in peace," Bush told reporters at a news conference.

So as to make it easier to knock planes out of the sky? From Airwise News, with thanks to Tombeth:

Iran has asked the United States to allow direct flights between the two countries after a break of more than two decades, a senior civil aviation official said on Thursday.

The request comes as the United States and its European Union allies are pressing for the Islamic Republic to be reported to the United Nations Security Council where it could face possible sanctions for its nuclear program.

"We sent a letter to the relevant American officials on Wednesday, announcing Iran's willingness to resume direct flights," Nourollah Rezai-Niaraki, head of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization, told state television.

He said the decision to make the request was taken by hardline Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad due to demand from the large Iranian community living in the United States.

"They have repeatedly complained about wasting time and losing their baggage on connecting flights," the official said.

No connection to the Jill Carroll kidnappers' demand. We are not dhimmi tribute payers. Move along. Nothing to see here.

I hope all the people who are kidnapped from now on will send a personal note of thanks to the U.S. military for making their kidnapping such an enticing prospect for the jihadists. "U.S. Military Releases Five Iraqi Women," from AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

The U.S. military released five Iraqi women detainees Thursday, a move demanded by the kidnappers of an American reporter to spare her life, but an official said the release was coincidental.

The women were freed from U.S. custody and delivered to the home of a senior Sunni Arab politician in Baghdad, where they were returned to their families, according to an Associated Press photographer at the scene. They were later driven away in taxis.

January 30, 1933 Alert: "Officials: Hamas Wins Palestinian Election," from AP:

Earlier, Fatah legislator Saeb Erekat said after a meeting with Abbas that the party has already decided to serve in the opposition. "Hamas will be asked to form the new government," Erekat said. "We in Fatah will not join them. We will be a loyal opposition and rebuild the party."...

Israel and the United States have said they would not deal with a government led by Hamas, which has carried out dozens of suicide bombings and which they consider a terrorist group.

Acknowledging the Hamas victory, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and his Cabinet ministers resigned Thursday — hours before official results were released.

"This is the choice of the people. It should be respected," Qureia said. "If it's true, then the president should ask Hamas to form a new government." The Cabinet remained in office in a caretaker capacity.

By law, Abbas must ask the largest party in the new parliament — presumably Hamas — to form the new government. Abbas was elected separately a year ago and remains president.

Head-In-the-Sand Alert:

Hamas capitalized on widespread discontent with Fatah's corruption and ineffectiveness. Much of its campaign focused on internal Palestinian issues, while playing down the conflict with Israel.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald discusses what to do about the Thug-In-Chief and the Mad Mullahs:

Perhaps there are still those in Washington who still counsel avoiding military action against Iran for fear of offending those who, within Iran, are just waiting to "overthrow the mullahs" and who are "our natural allies." The first category consists of people who largely despise the clerics for limiting their daily lives, and above all for being crooks. The second class, of those who would welcome the West in any form, is very small. Then there are those Iranians in exile who, in the manner of the Shi'a Iraqis who presented a “moderate” face to Washington (sometimes calculatedly, sometimes because they had been out of Iraq so long, and become so westernized themselves, that they really had lost touch with what most of those in "Iraq" were really like), counsel everyone in Washington that really, truly, everyone is just waiting for the Americans. But, they go on, we mustn't think of bombing those nuclear facilities because it will make the task of "those Iranian reformers" harder.

Such people are not good guides to anything. From their point of view, perhaps, in order to make their task, as they see it, easier, we should not bomb Iran's nuclear project. But the Infidels cannot wait, cannot hope that the Iranian regime will be rational. Nor can we hope that the one that replaces the one that is there now will be rational. Nor can we place our hope in the one that ultimately replaces that one. Iran, as long as it remains Muslim, cannot be trusted with nuclear weapons.

I am glad of this. I hope this will enable DHS to release some of the information on Tariq Ramadan that led them to the decision to keep him out of the country. I discuss Ramadan in my book Onward Muslim Soldiers, detailing the careful ambiguity of his Muslim moderation. There is a great deal more that is questionable about him; I hope this suit will make his allegiances clear. From AP, with thanks to all who sent this in:

NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union sued the U.S. government Wednesday for preventing a Muslim scholar from entering the country, arguing that the government was using anti-terrorism laws as "instruments of censorship."

The lawsuit asks the court to find a provision of the Patriot Act unconstitutional and seeks clearance for Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss intellectual and Muslim scholar, to accept invitations to speak in the United States.

Ramadan was blocked from accepting a tenured teaching position at the University of Notre Dame when his visa was revoked in August 2004 because of a provision of the Patriot Act, said Jameel Jaffer, an ACLU staff attorney.

Jaffer said it was part of an effort by the federal government to bar foreign scholars whose political views might be contrary to those of the U.S. government. The provision blocks entry to the country for prominent aliens who used their status to endorse or espouse terrorism or to persuade others to terrorist activity, he said.

"We don't think there's any evidence at all that he has endorsed terrorism," Jaffer said. "In fact, there is overwhelming evidence that he has condemned terrorism."

An update on the Brandeis terror threat/Newton library fiasco. From the Daily News Tribune, with thanks to Rafic:

NEWTON -- FBI agents responding to a terrorist threat last Wednesday could lawfully have seized library e-mail records, but decided not to, a bureau spokeswoman said yesterday.

"For a threat kind of event, you don’t necessarily need a warrant," said Gail Marcinkiewicz, spokeswoman for the FBI’s Boston office. Warrants are usually time-consuming, she said. "If you wait, the emergency could turn into a crisis, and maybe a loss of life."

Between 11 a.m. and noon, Jan. 18, Brandeis University Police received an e-mail making an unspecified, but credible terrorist threat against a university building. Emergency responders evacuated several campus buildings and a nearby elementary school, and local and federal officials swept the buildings with bomb-sniffing dogs.

By about 2 p.m., law enforcement officials had traced the e-mail to a computer at the Newton Free Library on Homer Street.

Newton police officers and FBI agents rushed to the library, but Newton Mayor David B. Cohen and library Director Kathy Glick-Weil asked officials to obtain warrants before surrendering library computers for search.

About 10 hours later, warrants in hand, agents removed the computers from the building for inspection.

FBI agents involved decided not to invoke their right to seize the material, in order to "be cooperative and not inconvenience the library," Marcinkiewicz said. She would not say on what information they had based their decision, citing the ongoing investigation.

"The decision on the imminence of this threat was not determined by the city of Newton," said city spokesman Jeremy Solomon. "It was determined by the FBI," and Cohen’s decision did not hinder their investigation.

Here comes the damage control:

Glick-Weil said FBI agents never told her they needed the information to prevent a terrorist attack. She disputed statements by an unnamed law enforcement official, quoted in yesterday’s Daily News Tribune, suggesting local officials had been uncooperative. Library technology staff helped investigators locate the computer from which the e-mail had been sent, she said. "I feel I did everything I needed to do to protect the privacy of the people I need to protect, and to obey the law," Glick-Weil said.

Maybe. But if a bomb had exploded at Brandeis, your damage control efforts would be considerably more difficult today.

"Time to confront failures, not ignore them: Even left-leaning support for multiculturalism is starting to flag," a superb piece from Miranda Devine in the Sydney Morning Herald (thanks to David):

THE prospects of an Australia Day race riot by flag aficionados look remote today, especially with the precautionary boost to the numbers of police sipping cappuccinos on Cronulla Beach. The Police Minister, Carl "Sparkles" Scully, is back in town, declaring he has cut short a taxpayer-funded European trip with his family to retake control of the troubled portfolio. Just what the police need.

But at least this week Sydney courts began to hear evidence against Arab-Australian youths charged with violent reprisal attacks after the Cronulla riots on December 11.

A 16-year-old from Chester Hill allegedly asked the driver of a car in Carlton his nationality before smashing in his window with a pole on the night of December 12, AAP reported. When the driver replied he was Australian, the youth said: "Are you f---ing sure you are, you f---ing sure? You f---ing Aussie" and swore in Arabic, according to police facts read to Sutherland Children's Court by the magistrate, Paul Falzon.

Australian-born, of Middle Eastern descent, the youth is hardly a pin-up boy for Australian multiculturalism.

Thanks to an epidemic of similar law and order problems in other Western democracies with Muslim immigrant populations, even left-wing liberals are beginning to join the dots, and question multiculturalism. It is not the "culturally diverse community, united by an overriding and unifying commitment to Australia" as the Prime Minister, John Howard, put it in his Australia Day address, which is being questioned, but a welfare-driven ideology, corrupted by politicians chasing the ethnic vote, which has encouraged separate identities.

Read it all.

Dhimmis will always tell you how wonderful, how magnanimous, how kind their masters are. They will carefully omit any evidence to the contrary. From JTA, with thanks to Teri:

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 (JTA) — The grand mufti of Jerusalem made an alliance with Adolf Hitler during World War II. Yet, visitors to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., will learn nothing about it.

Some Jewish activists want to change that.

The locally based Holocaust Museum Watch is urging the museum to take a leadership role in exposing Arab and Muslim anti-Semitism both during the Holocaust and in the present day.

The absence of programs or information on the topic is a “dereliction of duty” by the facility, HMWatch chair Carol Greenwald charged last week, speaking during a forum at Ohev Sholom Talmud Torah.

HMWatch had asked U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council chair Fred Zeidman to speak at last week’s program, but he declined the invitation....

Among their complaints is the museum’s failure to detail Jerusalem Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini’s connection to the Nazis. The two met in Berlin in 1941, and Hitler pledged his assistance in ridding the Arab world of Jews.

Later in the war, the mufti, among other activities, broadcast radio messages supporting the Nazis and helped recruit Muslim SS units in the Balkans.

The museum also bypasses the persecution of North African Jews, said Shelomo Alfassa, founder of the Sephardic Holocaust Project and executive director for the International Society for Sephardic Progress.

Nothing in the museum details the forced labor camps in Tunisia, from which 4,000 Jews were deported to European extermination camps, Alfassa said. Nor, he said, is there mention of the “Vichy restrictions” forcing Jews into ghettos in Morocco during the wartime period.

Edwin Black — author of “Banking on Baghdad, a history of Iraq” — points out that the museum makes no mention of the Farhud, a 1941 pro-Nazi pogrom in the Iraqi capital city that killed more than 200 Jews and destroyed hundreds of Jewish businesses.

Efforts to get the museum to recognize the anniversary of the Farhud have been rebuffed, he said. Black emphasized that he was not a member of HMWatch, but was representing himself on the panel.

He believes that the museum has avoided the topic because if museum historians “didn’t discover it, grow it and package it, it doesn’t exist.”

Others blame political demands for the museum’s failure to include such information in its permanent exhibit, or to explore concerns about current Muslim anti-Semitism in the same way the museum has sponsored programs on the genocides in Sudan and Rwanda....

The Tiny Minority of Extremists has won the Palestinian elections, which in itself is not actually a demonstration that the jihad ideology enjoys broader support among Muslims than most analysts would like to admit, since Fatah itself was not exactly an epitome of opposition to that ideology. As Hugh Fitzgerald pointed out yesterday, this was a choice between the slow jihad against Israel and the faster variety. "Palestinian Premier, Cabinet Resigns," from AP:

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and his Cabinet ministers submitted their resignations Thursday as the Islamic militant group Hamas appeared to have captured a large majority of seats in the Palestinian elections — a shocking upset sure to throw Mideast peacemaking into turmoil.

"This is the choice of the people. It should be respected," Qureia said. "If it's true (the results), then the president should ask Hamas to form a new government. For me, personally, I sent my resignation."

Under the law, Abbas must ask the largest party in the new parliament — presumably Hamas — to form the next government. Abbas was elected separately a year ago and remains president.

Hamas said before the election it does not want to govern alone, and would prefer to bring Fatah into a coalition. Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said Thursday that the group will declare its intentions after official results are announced later in the day.

The result could have a devastating effect on the peace process with Israel. Mushir al-Masri, a senior Hamas official, said Thursday that recognizing Israel and negotiations with the Jewish state are "not on our agenda."

Israel and the United States have said they would not deal with a Hamas-led Palestinian government. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has said he would step down if he could no longer pursue his peace agenda with Israel.

Reporters Without Borders (thanks to Filtrat) lines up on the right side of the ever-expanding cartoon rage, in contradistinction to the fulminating "moderate" Jordanian Parliament:

Reporters Without Borders voiced concern today about the Jordanian parliament’s call yesterday for the punishment of the cartoonist who drew 12 caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed that appeared in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten on 30 September and were reprinted in the Norwegian publication Magazinet on 10 January.

“Islam forbids any representation of the Prophet and we realize that these cartoons may upset some people, but it is not acceptable for the parliament of a supposedly democratic country to call for the cartoonists to be punished,” the press freedom organisation said.

“Those who so desire may bring a complaint against the newspaper, but politicians should under no circumstances should call for direct reprisals against journalists,” Reporters Without Borders continued. “The cartoonists have already received death threats and these new statements put them in further danger.”

In a statement yesterday, the Jordanian parliament said the cartoons “constitute a cowardly and reprehensible crime” and urged the Norwegian and Danish authorities “to express their condemnation and disapproval of this hateful crime and to punish the perpetrators and instigators.”

It also called on “parliaments, governments and civil society organisations in the Muslim world to take a firm position on this evil, which strikes at the sentiments of the Arabo-Muslim nation.”

The 1938 Updates are coming thick and fast. From YnetNews, with thanks to Gabrielle Goldwater:

Iran threatens again: Iran's Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said Wednesday that the country and its allies could put Israel "in an eternal coma," like that of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, if Israel attempts to attack the Muslim republic.

"Israel does not have the courage to attack Iran, and if it commits such a big mistake, the defenders of Islamic Iran will put Israel in an eternal coma like Sharon," he said in a television appearance.

Najjar, who branded the United States and Israel as "the great and little Satan, who are using psychological war to intimidate Iran," was responding to recent statements by Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, who said Israel may attack Iran if diplomatic measures to neutralize its nuclear armaments efforts fail.

"The state of Israel will not be able to accept Iranian armament, and must prepare to defend itself. The Iranian president's regime supports terror in the Middle East by providing terror organizations with rockets that threaten Israel, money and knowledge," Mofaz said at the Herzliya Conference Saturday.

Tiny Minority of Extremists Update from USA Today, with thanks to GTG:

Islamic fundamentalists who oppose U.S. interests in the Middle East have benefited from the U.S. policy of promoting democracy, making significant gains in recent elections.

Hamas is the latest to rise. Its likely strong showing in Palestinian parliamentary elections today poses a dilemma for the United States and Israel, which refuse to deal with a group responsible for numerous suicide bombings....

Kenneth Katzman, a Middle East expert at the non-partisan Congressional Research Service, says the United States has pressured Egypt, Iraq and the Palestinian territories to hold free elections.

"The pro-democracy effort has had the actual effect of strengthening fundamentalist movements," Katzman says....

1938 Alert from Iran Focus, with thanks to Mackie:

Tehran, Iran, Jan. 25 – Iran accused Britain on Wednesday of involvement in two bombings this week in the south-western city of Ahwaz.

At least eight people died and dozens were injured when two bombs exploded at a bank and a government building in the oil-rich city on Tuesday.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters on Wednesday that Britain had to be held to account for its role in the twin bombings.

“Britain must answer the Iranian nation’s questions regarding the events in Ahwaz and the terrorist explosions in Khuzestan [Province]”, Mottaki said.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald once again assesses the vexed question of Muslim moderates:

Islamic moderates remain elusive. Despite protestations and ostentatious displays, there is still no large-scale effort on the part of such people to distinguish themselves from "Islamist extremists." Meanwhile the moderates cause a great deal of confusion. Look at My Weekly Standard, with its stout support for the "moderate Muslim" (at least one of whom appears in its pages), especially the wonderful Shi'a of wonderful Iraq, and the inability of many on that magazine to grasp what is wrong with the whole Iraq tarbaby. That failure comes from an uncritical cheering of the Administration, and a refusal by its writers to study Islam or to consult with "moderates" who are occasional contributors, but the defectors from Islam.

There is no clearly identifiable group of moderates for all sorts of reasons. There have been many documented instances (most famously Mike Hawash) of people who feign "moderate" attitudes, or for that matter may even, for a time, hold certain "moderate" attitudes. But then, in response to any one or more of a whole panoply of provocations large and small (including emotional desarroi, perceived loss in status, any number of things), the feigning stops, or those who had perhaps thought of themselves as one kind of Muslim, the "moderate" kind, found that their true beliefs were now, or perhaps always had been, more deep, and thus more "extreme" and less "moderate" than even they had once understood.

The very notion of a "moderate Muslim" must be examined carefully, and always one objective criterion kept in mind: does this person, in his (or her) being, contribute to a truthful understanding of what the tenets of Islam teach, and what the vast majority of Believers believe, about jihad and the ultimate necessity to establish the supremacy of Islam and the Shari’a? Or does this person lead the unwary astray, whether out of embarrassment at what Islam really teaches, or filial piety (perhaps toward pious ancestors, or simply toward one's own cultural heritage, at times leading some to become Defenders of a Faith they do not really support or accept, but cannot bear to allow it to be criticized). The bar should not be set too low.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald discusses the Palestinian election and some of its larger implications:

The election is between those who believe in the Lesser Jihad (Slow Version) and the Lesser Jihad (Fast Version). The Europeans contributed billions to Arafat, and were then joined by the Americans, who helped contribute a few billion more, with both promising more billions over the next three years (a promise that should be forgotten -- let the rich Arabs send the money to fellow Arabs, and have a bit less for mosques in the capitals of the West). In doing so they have only damaged the "Palestinians" -- if a Hamas victory is regarded as "damage" -- by supplying the very money that allowed the corrupt Arafat and his corrupt followers (every single one of them, including Abbas at the top of the list) with the money with which to be corrupt. If no pot of gold had been supplied to the "Palestinians," there would have been no corruption and stealing of greater or lesser shares of that pot.

It is amusing that among the unintended consequences of those disgusting jizyah-payments by the E.U. and the inveigled Americans is the strengthening of Hamas, which has thereby lessened, rather than increased, the plausibility and hence the appeal(for the outside world), of the camouflage of "Palestinian nationalism" provided to the Lesser Jihad. The dominance of Hamas, the flight of even those local islamochristians who thought that if only they parrotted, and deeply believed, the Muslim Arab hostlitiy toward Israel, that they would be safe (one more vain attempt by Christians within Dar al-Islam to protect themselves), helps to rip the pseudo-nationalist "legitimate-rights--of-the-Palestinian-people" veil right off the dead-to-the-world face of the Jihad beneath. That Jihad, the Lesser Jihad against tiny Israel, did not require much in the way of resources, and began long ago. It began, that is, before the three things happened that permitted the Arabs and Muslims to openly demonstrate their aggressive intent. Those three tihngs were: one, the trillions in unearned, unmerited oil revenues; 2) the foolishly permitted migration of millions of Muslims behind enemy lines (to the Western world, to Infidel lands, to the Bilad al-kufr); third, technological advances made in the West and exploited by Muslims (audiocassettes, videocassettes, satellite channels, the Internet) helped make a reality of the permanent dream of a Greater Jihad.

If something explodes at Brandeis, these librarians can congratulate themselves that they protected the civil rights of the bombers. "City stalls FBI access in library," from the Daily News Tribune, with thanks to Rafic:

NEWTON -- Law enforcement and Newton Free Library officials were embroiled in a tense standoff last week when the city refused to let police and the FBI examine library computers without a warrant.

Police rushed to the main library last Wednesday after it was determined that a terrorist threat to Brandeis University had been sent from a computer at the library.

But requests to examine any of its computers were rebuffed by library Director Kathy Glick-Weil and Mayor David Cohen on the grounds that they did not have a warrant.

While one law enforcement official said he was "totally disgusted" with the city’s attempt to hold up a time-sensitive investigation of a potential terrorist threat, Cohen is defending the library’s actions, calling it one of Newton’s "finest hours."

"We showed you can enforce the law...without jeopardizing the privacy of innocent citizens," Cohen said.

There is more, if you have the stomach.

Let's see. We have seen honor killings among Palestinian Muslims, as well as among Pakistanis, Jordanians, Egyptians, and more, as well as honor killings in Muslim communities in the West, notably Germany and the UK. At the same time, we do not see any significant occurrence of honor killings among non-Muslims except, very occasionally, among culturally Islamic Arab Christians. Yet the very same people who insist when I quote Qur'an and Sunnah about jihad that quoting verses doesn't establish anything, despite mountains of evidence that jihadists understand such verses as marching orders, will turn around and point out that honor killing is nowhere sanctioned in the Qur'an and Sunnah, and thereby dismiss it as non-Islamic.

That's just swell, but it isn't going to keep these victimized women alive. Here is yet another area in which the silence, indifference, and self-serving apologetic of Muslim moderates needs to end, and soon, or once again their self-definitions are suspect. The time for talk is long ended. It is time for them to take action if they sincerely hold the values they say they hold.

From the Jerusalem Post, with thanks to Ruth King:

A 38-year-old woman was shot and killed in the Arab village of Jisser a-Zarka early Wednesday morning while she was on her way to work.

It was suspected that the motive for the killing was family honor, according to residents of the place.

According to initial inquiries, the 18-year-old daughter of the woman who was murdered was romantically involved with a man from a rival family.

Racist soup. What's next? Hatemongering crackers? As Europe slides inexorably into Sharia, at least it's amusing.

But in fact, while the soup is traditional, the intent, at least according to this article, is to exclude Muslims. That is silly; but for the French government to close the soup kitchens in response is just as silly, and only fuels backlashes like this in the first place.

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

Charity groups with far-right links serving pork soup to homeless people face a crackdown by French officials.

Protesters have accused the groups of deliberate discrimination against Jews and Muslims, who do not eat the meat.

Strasbourg officials have banned the hand-outs and police in Paris have closed soup kitchens in an effort to avert racial tension.

The charities have defended offering what they call traditional cuisine to French and European homeless people.

The groups, operating in cities across France and neighbouring Belgium, are not formally linked but are associated with a small far-right organisation called Bloc Identitaire.

'Racial tensions'

Identity Soup, as it has been dubbed by its chefs, was banned in Strasbourg this month after officials ruled it could lead to public disorder.

"Schemes with racial subtexts must be denounced," Strasbourg's mayor Fabienne Keller said.

Although no ban exists in Paris, police have closed soup kitchens in the capital's Montparnasse and Gare de l'Est train stations on administrative grounds.

Volunteers were ordered to re-seal soup containers on the basis they did not have the necessary permits to distribute food.

A leading French anti-racism movement has urged Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy to ban pork soup give-aways throughout the country.

Bernadette Hatier, vice president of the Movement Against Racism and for Friendship Between Peoples, said the scheme was a ploy to drum up far-right votes ahead of 2007 presidential elections.

'Nothing illegal'

Many local authorities have said they are powerless to intervene as the groups are not breaking the law.

National Front spokesman Bruno Gollinisch said that people had the right to be charitable to whomever they want.

He described moves to ban the pork soup kitchens as "revelatory of authorities' alienation from the French people".

Dominique Lescure, head of the Nice-based group Soulidarieta, said pork was a traditional part of French cuisine.

But he admitted wanting to serve the soup to what he called his "compatriots and European homeless people".

Very specific leads on a planned jihad terror attack in India. "Hijack plot by ‘pregnant’ woman worries police," from the Hindustan Times, with thanks to Cindy:

...According to another input, seven “highly motivated” militants of the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba have entered the Capital. They are probably staying in Najafgarh.

These terrorists will later be later joined by four men from Afghanistan. The men plan to plant a bomb in Chandni Chowk. The local police and the special cell have been trying to track them, but have not succeeded so far.

The other input says that, according to intercepts, eight high-ranking LeT terrorists from Kashmir are planning a fidayeen attack on Parliament, VVIP complex and residences of many politicians on Akbar Road. The module is led by Abu Azan, a foreign terrorist.

The report further states that 12 jehadis along with a ‘pregnant’ woman will try to hijack a plane.

The report says the woman will pose to be pregnant and the group will enter either from Mumbai, Delhi or Guwahati airport. Delhi airport has been put on high alert.

The intelligence agencies have also warned that seven Hizbul Mujahideen militants led by one Ashad Gilani have infilitrated into Rajouri during last week of October.

The group is carrying 5 kgs of RDX.

Here are two Australian brothers who converted to Islam; one ended up in an Afghan military camp. Like John Walker Lindh, they seem to have no sooner accepted the Religion of Peace that they began to misunderstand it. How is it that those who converted them weren't able to prevent this? How is it that they missed all the allegedly peaceful and tolerant passages of the Qur'an that we keep hearing so much about? What are allegedly peaceful and pluralist Muslim organizations doing to ensure that new Muslims are properly instructed about the supposedly peaceful true Islam?

"Forced end to Islamic studies," from the Herald Sun, with thanks to Snowman:

THE brother of a Victorian accused of terrorism has returned to Australia after studying Islam in Pakistan. Zaid Kent and his brother Shane grew up in a middle-class Australian family and both converted to Islam in the mid-1990s.

Shane, who adopted the Islamic name Yasin, trained in an Afghan military camp where he allegedly met al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in 2001.

He is now one of 10 Victorians facing charges of belonging to a terrorist group.

Zaid Kent returned to Victoria last month from a Pakistani Islamic school days before a deadline set by Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf for all foreign Islamic students to leave the country.

There had been criticisms that foreigners were being indoctrinated into Islamist militancy.

No allegations have been made against Zaid Kent, but he has been spoken to periodically by Australian security authorities.

"He has been under scrutiny for years, like anyone else who has gone to study Islam in Pakistan," a source said.

Good thing the poor thing was released from Gitmo, eh? Remember also: drug trafficking has been a major means of support for, at least, the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. From Arab News, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

SANAA, 24 January 2006 — A Yemeni man repatriated last year from the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, appeared before a state security court in Sanaa yesterday charged with drug trafficking.

Karama Saeed Khamsan, 33, was accused of traveling to Pakistan to secure the delivery of two tons of hashish for $533,000 for a Yemeni partner.

The consignment was due to be smuggled across the Arabian Sea to the southern Yemeni province of Al-Mahra and then through the porous borders to Saudi Arabia.

Jihad is over, if you want it. At least in Algeria. But Mezrag will work through democratic means to establish an Islamic state. Oh, democratic means? Well, then, no problem! From Reuters:

"I don't see why they (the rebels) are still in the mountains. I fought the regime to defend principles. The war is over now," Madani Mezrag, former leader of the armed wing of the now-defunct Islamic Salvation Army party, said at a press conference.

"I do not believe they are defending Islamic principles as we did. They should give up the fight," Mezrag said.

The influential Islamic leader said he was still in contact with the rebels holding out in the mountains but did not give further details.

"Contacts never stopped. I will continue to persuade them that jihad is over. But the government should keep its promise to facilitate their reinsertion into social life," said Mezrag.

The 45-year-old, who negotiated the surrender of the AIS in 1997, said he would never abandon his political project to establish an Islamic state in the oil and gas-rich North African country.

"Islamic currents will come back in force in the political scene. I have no doubt about this. And we will do whatever possible through democratic means to set up an Islamic state here," Mezrag told reporters.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald, who wrote this superb critical essay on Bernard Lewis some time ago, adds some new observations here:

Bernard Lewis is busy chipping away at his own monument, so that posterity will be left with far less than if he had been silent these past few years, or at least had owned up to a few mistakes -- including his scandalous refusal to admit not only to the mistake of supporting the Oslo Accords, but to own up to the fact that his enthusiasm for those "Accords" made no sense if he took seriously the principles of Islamic law and the model of Al-Hudaibiyya. Years ago he wrote about the incompatibility of Islam and Democracy.

But lately, in his initial enthusiasm (no doubt by now much diminished) for the fantasy-land plan of Iraq the Light Unto the Muslim Nations, he assured us (and no doubt others took heart from this assurance) that a kind of democracy (oh, not the "Western" kind, perhaps, with all those universal-declaration-of-human-rights notions, or at least with some theoretical possiblity of locating a state's legitimacy in "the people," which is not possible in Islam, but something) was always to be found in the Islamic tradition. He assured us that in the Islamic world there has even been great "social mobility" (meaning that the rulers could come from the lowest classes, even from the slaves -- and so they could, because anyone who had risen through the ranks even as a slave-soldier might seize power), greater than anywhere, in Lewis' formulation, other than possibly late nineteenth-century America. He has, with James Woolsey, promoted the idea of putting his (unnamed but clearly meant) friend, Prince Hassan, on the throne of Iraq as a Hashemite monarch supposedly acceptable to all sides, as if there were ever a chance that the Shi'a would have accepted a Sunni monarch after all that happened to them in the history of Sunni-ruled, modern Iraq.

As with the great enthusiasm for the transparently-awful Oslo Accords, Lewis apparently does not feel, at a time of great and growing peril, that anything should nothing extenuate about Islam. Why? Perhaps out of a desire to keep old friends or patrons, or out of jealousies of others and what they went off and managed to study on their own, or out of an unwillingness to declare a mea-culpa or two. How about an article on the folly from the get-go of the idea of Iraq the Model, and the series of assumptions, all proven to be false, from which that idea, like Topsy, just grew?

Lewis has never yet acknowledged his behind-the-scenes belittling of Bat Ye'or and his own refusal to recognize that the history of dhimmitude -- a word he likes to mock as "dhimmi-tude," as if it is a preposterous, rather than useful, addition to the lexicon -- matters, is relevant, is center-stage. Instead we are supposed to believe the word itself is illegitimate. No one, apparently, can add to the wordhoard's store, even when the word turns out to be most apt and most useful. He has never engaged sympathetically with what is presented in The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam. He has never reviewed the book, never written about it. Instead he just goes around, ignoring or denigrating in various sly ways (that "dhimmi-tude") the work of Bat Ye'or.

Once again, Muslim-on-Muslim violence provokes a backlash among Muslims. I am glad to see anything that diminishes Al-Qaeda's power in Iraq -- but until we begin to see the same kind of indignation among Muslims when Muslims kill non-Muslims, we will not be out of the woods. From Reuters, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

BAGHDAD: Iraqi insurgents in the Sunni city of Ramadi have turned against their al-Qa'ida allies after a bomb attack killed 80 people, sparking tit-for-tat assassinations.

Residents yesterday said at least three prominent figures on both sides were among those killed after local insurgent groups formed an alliance against al-Qa'ida, blaming it for massacring police recruits in Ramadi on January 5.

"There was a meeting right after the bombings," one Ramadi resident said, speaking anonymously for fear of reprisals.

"Tribal leaders and political figures gathered to form the Anbar Revolutionaries to fight al-Qa'ida in Anbar and force them to leave the province.

"Since then, there has been all-out war between them."

The bloodshed is the latest example of a trend US military commanders and diplomats have been pointing to optimistically as a sign that some militants may be ready to pursue negotiable demands through the Sunni engagement in parliament following last month's election.

Last week, three local Islamist groups around Ramadi - the 1920 Brigades, the Mujaheddin Army and the Islamic Movement for Iraq's Mujaheddin - met to distance themselves from their fellow Islamists in al-Qa'ida.

Iraqi newspapers quoted a statement from six armed groups on Monday announcing they had united to form the "People's Cell" to confront al-Qa'ida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and preserve security in the Anbar province.

The statement condemned "armed operations which target innocents" and affirmed "a halt to co-operation with al-Qa'ida"....

Heck, they may even reoccupy the Rhineland. From Haaretz, with thanks to Misty:

A senior Iranian official threatened that Tehran may forcibly prevent oil export via the Straits of Hormuz if the UN imposed economic sanctions due to Iran's nuclear program, an Iranian news Web site said on Monday.

This is the first time an Iranian official makes military threats in a public statement on Tehran's recent disagreements with the West.

The news site, affiliated with the radical student movement in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was once a member, quoted Mohammed-Nabi Rudaki, deputy chairman of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission.

According to the report, Rudaki said that "if Europe does not act wisely with the Iranian nuclear portfolio and it is referred to the UN Security Council and economic or air travel restrictions are imposed unjustly, we have the power to halt oil supply to the last drop from the shores of the Persian Gulf via the Straits of Hormuz."

Here at the BBC is an interview with one of the most heroic women in the world today, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who talks "about her journey from devout Muslim to one of Islam's most outspoken critics, and why she refuses to be silenced."

Thanks to all who sent this in.

In this column in Al-Jazeera (thanks to Fjordman), Soumaya Ghannoushi points out the manifestly true and obvious fact that to take defensive measures against Islamic terrorism contradicts the multiculturalist ethos. Then she adds this:

In this context, the intensely rich and complex Islamic culture, which had fostered some of the most cosmopolitan and open societies in history, in Baghdad, Damascus, Cordoba, or Istanbul, has found itself reduced to a narrow set of vulgar stereotypes.

These range from the subordination of women and arranged marriage to fanaticism and religious despotism. Such arguments bespeak much ignorance and prejudice.

Above all, they overlook the fact that all cultures are subject to different modes of interpretation, and that no culture is homogenous or absolute. To reduce the Islamic culture to these phenomena is akin to identifying ‘Britishness’ with Victorian military expansion and the British massacres of natives in Kenya, Sudan, and Malawi, or seeing Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and the burning of the corpses of so- called enemy combatants as representative of American culture.

There is a great deal wrong with this. First, the idea that those were "the most cosmopolitan and open societies in history" is extremely dubious. See here, for example, for some information about Muslim Spain.

But more importantly, to reduce British culture to Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo would be to ignore the self-criticism of Western society, and the fact that the perpetrators were prosecuted. Where in the Islamic world are those who are fighting the subordination of women and arranged marriage? They are few and far between. When a woman gets death threats for leading Islamic prayers, when one rape victim is hanged and another is barred from speaking about her plight, when even the "moderate" Jordanian Parliament votes down stiffer penalties for honor killing, and there are so many other examples of this kind, it is clear that there is in the Islamic world not anything like the Western capacity for self-criticism and reform. And there needs to be.

They're planning to “combat the myths, misconceptions and misunderstandings of Islam.” Hey, that's terrific. Call me, won't you, Dr. Williams? We can discuss some of those foremost myths, misconceptions and misunderstandings, including the idea that the core texts of Islam teach peace and tolerance, and that they have been understood as teaching peace and tolerance throughout the major portion of Islamic history.

I am confident that since you are so dead set against myths, misconceptions and misunderstandings of Islam, you will be open to this perspective, no? After all, I am prepared with innumerable citations from the Qur'an and Sunnah.

From Ekklesia, with thanks to a tea-loving snail:

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is to host the inaugural meeting and formal launch tomorrow of a new Christian-Muslim Forum in the UK.

The event coincides with the unveiling in London today of what is claimed to be Europe's largest-ever exhibition to “combat the myths, misconceptions and misunderstandings of Islam” – headed up by the Muslim envoy who has been seeking the release of four Christian Peacemaker Teams activists in Iraq.

The Christian-Muslim Forum brings together a wide range of people involved in community life from both faiths, together with specialist members. It is also supported by scholar-consultants drawn from academic life.

As a Founding Patron of the Forum, Dr Williams will welcome senior church and faith leaders, politicians and other guests at an evening reception to mark the new body’s inception.

The Alawites are forever indebted to the Shi'ite mullahs of Iran for protecting their precarious position of power in Syria, and they are more interested than ever in paying this debt. "Syrian nation calls Iranian President Ahmadinejad a 'hero,'" from the Islamic Republic News Agency:

The Syrian nation has praised Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as "a brave man and a hero," Syrian Minister of Information Mahdi Dakhlallah said here Sunday.

During a meeting with Iranian Ambassador to Damascus Mohammad Hassan Akhtari, Dakhlallah assessed the outcome of President Ahmadinejad's recent visit to Syria as "successful."

He also praised the "kind" government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Yes, very kind. Just ask this girl. Or this one.

There are currently around 2,250 subscribers to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest, which brings links to every article we post right to your email every day.

That is, unless you have subscribed with an AOL email address. They worked fine until about a week ago, but I have been receiving an increasing number of emails from AOL users telling me they are no longer receiving the Digest.

I am not sure if there is anything I can do about this. If there is, please let me know. Meanwhile, if you have subscribed to the Digest from an AOL account and would like to continue receiving it, please contact AOL and let them know. Thank you.

From the UK Independent, with thanks to Archduke.

Europe's biggest exhibition of modern-day Islam will take place in London a year after the 7 July bombings in an effort to depict the religion in a positive light.

The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, is set to launch the event which hopes to "combat the myths, misconceptions and misunderstandings of Islam". IslamExpo will consist of a series of exhibitions on Islam's cultural heritage, lectures, debates, films, stand-up comedy and workshops at Alexandra Palace. Organisers plan to invite survivors of the Tube attacks to attend with a special commemoration on the day.

It is hoped that the event will help to improve relations between Britain's 1.8 million Muslims and the wider community.

The exhibitions will be divided into three zones: "Discover Islam", which will feature famous mosques and a demonstration on a prayer platform; "Muslim Civilisation", which traces Islam's history; and "Muslim World", which covers Palestinian history, religious chants and a gallery of famous converts. Seminars ranging from democracy and jihad to Muslim gardening and agriculture will also take place.

The event has received the backing of numerous Muslim groups as well as the al-Jazeera news channel and the Greater London Authority If it is successful, it could become an annual event in London...

From the Washington Times:

A financial firm plans to open an office in Fairfax County in early March to sell mutual funds to the Washington area's Muslims, joining banks and investment houses that find the growing U.S. Islamic population can no longer be ignored.

Saturna Capital Corp. plans to sell its Amana mutual funds to the Washington area's approximately 200,000 Muslims who want to avoid violating Islamic law with their investments.

"They're fairly young, making a lot of money, well-educated and they're looking for services," said Monem Salam, director of Islamic investing for Saturna Capital, which also sells funds that have no religious orientation.

The funds invest only in stocks that are Shariah-compliant, which means they cannot invest in the alcoholic beverage, gambling, pornography, tobacco or pork-processing industries.

Islamic law also forbids Muslims from paying or earning interest.

A Washington-area office "gives us access to all the East Coast," Mr. Salam said.

The Bellingham, Wash., company, which manages $250 million in Islamic investments, is riding a trend among financial institutions to find a niche among the nation's Muslim population.

Although Census Bureau data is sketchy, government studies and Muslim groups estimate 6 million to 7 million Muslims live in the United States. Other studies, however, have estimated the number as low as 1.6 million. The Department of Homeland Security says the number is rising with immigration from Muslim countries...

Unresolved under Internal Revenue Service rules is whether Muslim taxpayers can claim an interest deduction on their homes or businesses when they are not paying interest.

Muslim groups say their concerns are being taken more seriously as their U.S. population grows.

"The community has obviously grown by leaps and bounds," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington civil rights group for the Muslim community...

From the Washington Times:

JERUSALEM -- Israel's defense minister hinted strongly over the weekend that his country would act unilaterally if necessary to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Shaul Mofaz, who hails from the same hometown as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, also warned the Iranian leader that his policies risked bringing destruction to his own people.

"I want to address President Ahmadinejad, who is from the city where I was born," said Mr. Mofaz at the opening session Saturday of the Herzliya Conference, an annual strategic seminar.

"I address you as someone who leads his country with an ideology of hate, terror and anti-Semitism. I suggest you look at history and see what happened to others who tried to wipe out the Jewish people. In the end, they brought destruction on their own people."

Mr. Mofaz said Israel was relying "at present" on international efforts to forestall Iran's nuclear efforts, but suggested that it would take the matter into its own hands if necessary.

"Israel is not prepared to accept the nuclear arming of Iran and it must prepare to defend itself, with all that that implies," he said...

Defense Dept. to hold second anti-terror drill. From WND:

The Defense Department has scheduled a second major, three-day exercise to combat nuclear terrorism in the Charleston, S.C. area.

The goal is not prevention, but coping with the catastrophic results of a terrorist nuclear attack on a major U.S. port city.

The military's Joint Task Force-Civil Support, headquartered at Ft. Monroe, Va., will host the three-day drill for commanders and representatives of other federal agencies that would be involved in managing the consequences of a 10-megaton nuclear blast, enough to inflict mass causalities and devastation on an American city.

Like last summer's exercise, the Jan. 31 to Feb. 2 drill is centered around a hypothetical blast that affects nearly half a million people across a 900-square mile section of tidewater South Carolina. The scenario assumes 10,000 fatalities and more than 30,000 injuries...

The drill is strikingly similar to a scenario detailed by Graham Allison, former Pentagon assistant secretary for plans and policy and current Harvard professor, in his book, "Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe."

A month after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Allison wrote, the Central Intelligence Agency presented Bush with a report that al-Qaida had smuggled a 10-kiloton nuclear bomb into New York City. The president, according to the book, dispatched Nuclear Emergency Support Teams of scientists and engineers to New York to search for the weapon, which was never found...

Sudan is seeking to head the African Union which has peacekeeping troops within Sudan in an effort to halt the jihad carnage in Darfur, which is reported to be supported by the Sudanese government. If Sudan were to control the AU, they would also control the peacekeepers. Nice work, if you can get it. From Reuters:

KHARTOUM - Five African leaders have asked Sudan to withdraw a bid to head the African Union that has prompted worries it could sink the Darfur peace talks and dent the group's credibility, an AU official said on Monday.

Sudan has nominated itself to chair the 53-member AU, based on a tradition that the host becomes the next head. Sudan, which is under fire for rights abuses, would take over from Nigeria.

However, Khartoum's bid has provoked criticism from rights groups which say a Sudanese presidency would damage AU efforts to improve the continent's record on democracy and human rights, and is opposed by several African regional blocs.

An AU official told Reuters that five heads of state had met Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Sunday and told him "there was a consensus that he should withdraw".

"Bashir said he would consult with his neighbouring countries and reply," the official said. He said the five nations included Nigeria, whose president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has already led the AU for two years.

"It is looking like the compromise is for Obasanjo to stay because then Bashir will save some face," the official said.

An AU force of 7,000 troops is monitoring a tentative truce between the government and rebels in Darfur in western Sudan, and critics, including the United States, say it would be inappropriate for Sudan to head the group leading that force.

Darfur rebels have said they would walk out of AU-sponsored peace talks in Nigeria if Sudan becomes head...

From Reuters:

China and Saudi Arabia signed several deals on Monday, including one on energy and possibly a refinery, during King Abdullah's first official visit to the world's second-biggest oil consumer.

The king met Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing on Monday afternoon as both sides sought to use their burgeoning oil business as a basis for broader economic and diplomatic cooperation.

"We hope this cooperation will develop even more in the future," King Abdullah said. "We emphasise (that) we praise the important role China plays regionally and internationally."

Hu said the king's visit showed Saudi Arabia's emphasis on strengthening its ties with China, adding: "I believe your majesty's visit will play an important role in pushing forward relations between the two countries."

Saudi Arabia is already the largest supplier of oil imports to China, which has been scouring the globe for crude to feed its booming economy, tempting potential partners with the prospects of its huge market...

Al-Faisal said the energy deal set a "framework" for investment, but actual investment would have to come from companies, adding Saudi and Chinese firms had extensive contacts.

Details on the energy deal were not immediately available.

A member of the king's delegation, who asked not to be identified, said the agreements likely included a refinery deal, but did not elaborate.

Chinese refineries find it difficult to handle Saudi Arabia's heavy crude. So Saudi Arabia is likely to find a larger market for its oil in China if it invests in processing plants...

Attacks on police and their families continue, but still no word on the fate of Jill Carroll. From AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades at a policeman's home northeast of Baghdad on Sunday, killing his four children and his brother and raising to at least 23 the number of Iraqis killed in attacks this weekend.

Also Sunday, police found the bullet-riddled bodies of nearly two dozen men abducted last week north of Baghdad after being rejected entry into a police academy, officials said.

On Monday, a suicide car bomber targeted an Iraqi police patrol near the heavily fortified Green Zone on Monday, killing two people and wounding five, police said.

The blast happened at about 10:10 a.m. near a checkpoint into the Green Zone, which houses the Iraqi government and the U.S. Embassy. Another explosion was heard about 20 minutes later, but its source or location were not immediately known.

Also Monday, the U.S. military announced that a roadside bomb blast killed two U.S. airmen and wounded another Sunday near Taji, 12 miles north of Baghdad. At least 2,226 U.S. military personnel have been killed since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The violence continued as Iraq's political parties began gearing up for talks on a new coalition government that U.S. officials hope will win the confidence of disaffected Sunni Arabs and undermine support for the insurgency. That would hasten the time when U.S. and other foreign troops can go home.

There was still no word on the fate of kidnapped American journalist Jill Carroll two days after a deadline set by her captors. They had threatened to kill the 28-year-old freelancer for The Christian Science Monitor unless all Iraqi women detainees were freed.

Iraqi officials have said they expect the Americans to free six of the nine women they are holding this week. U.S. authorities have not confirmed the claim...

From AP:

DAMADOLA, Pakistan - Sympathy for al-Qaida has surged after a U.S. airstrike devastated this remote mountain hamlet in a region sometimes as hostile toward the Pakistani government as it is to the United States. A week after the attack, villagers insist no members of the terror network were anywhere near the border village when it was hit. But thousands of protesters flooded a nearby town chanting, ''Long live Osama bin Laden!''

Pakistan's army, in charge of hunting militants, was nowhere to be seen.

The rally was the latest in a series of demonstrations across Pakistan against the Jan. 13 attack, which apparently targeted but missed al-Qaida's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri.

The military still mans numerous checkpoints in the area, but it appears to be keeping a low profile so it will not inflame villagers still seething over the deaths of 13 civilians, including women and children, in the attack.

Pakistani intelligence officials believe that four top al-Qaida operatives may have also been killed in the strike including al-Qaida's master bomb maker, Midhat Mursi, who has a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head.

The men had gathered for dinner on the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha to plan attacks for early this year in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a senior Pakistani intelligence official said.

''This attack has increased our hatred for Americans because they are killing innocent women and children,'' said Zakir Ullah, one of 5,000 demonstrators in Inayat Qala, a market town about three miles from Damadola.

''We support jihad [holy war]. Jihad is the duty of every Muslim,'' he said...

From AA:

The Washington administration has reportedly decided to allocate about two million dollars in financial to support the al-Fatah organization, campaigning against the Islamic Resistance Movement, HAMAS, in the January 25 Palestinian elections.

US Consulate East Jerusalem Representative Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm told the New York Times the money will also be used to support efforts in democratization.

Statements of American and Palestinian officials included in the news report told the financial aid began in early August to defeat HAMAS in the elections...

From CBC:

Turkey has dropped charges of insulting the national identity laid against the country's best-known author, Orhan Pamuk, a Turkish TV station said Sunday.

Pamuk was charged after he told a Swiss newspaper last year that discussion of Turkey's role in the deaths of Armenians in World War One and Kurds in the 1980s was suppressed.

The paper quoted him as saying that "30,000 Kurds and one million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it."

The actions of the Ottoman Empire involving Armenians are very sensitive in Turkey. It rejects the allegation that the empire committed genocide.

Turkey is very worried by its Kurdish minority, fearing that it might try and establish its own country.

But Ankara has been under pressure from writers and the European Union to become more open about its history, and withdraw the charges against Pamuk.

Turkey wants to join the EU, which said Pamuk's case raised issues about freedom of speech.

The British branch of PEN, the international writers support group, has said Turkey's laws regarding insulting the Turkish identity contravene UN and EU human rights agreements, both of which Turkey has signed...

Pamuk, who has written best-sellers including Snow and My Name is Red, may be a contender for the Nobel Prize.

From the Toronto Star:

RAMALLAH, West Bank- If the plan was simply to wet its toes in the churning waters of Palestinian democracy, Hamas must brace for a shock. Ready or not, the militant Islamic group now finds itself plunging head first into the deep end.

Quite possibly, it will form the government.

According to a succession of startling public opinion polls, the race for Wednesday's first truly competitive election the Palestinians have ever known is now a coin toss, with a surging Hamas in a statistical dead heat with the fragmented and corruption-riddled Fatah party founded by the late Yasser Arafat.

The most sobering numbers came Friday, in a survey of 1001 voters in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Centre, showing support for Fatah sliding to 32.3 per cent, with Hamas at 30.2 per cent. The balance of the electorate was either undecided or siding in small numbers with nine other fledgling Palestinian parties.

Any way it breaks down, Palestinians are about to open their 132-seat legislature for the first time to the hard fist of political Islam.

"It is an incredible turn of events," says Nader Izzat Said, a political analyst at Ramallah's Birzeit University.

"Running for the first time, Hamas did not even ponder such an outcome. They wanted to do well, but not this well.

"Their idea was to sit in opposition, where Hamas can play the role of God-given saints that do no wrong. But the momentum is now carrying them beyond, and it is driven by impossibly high expectations. They will have to ask themselves how they can possibly deliver."...

Yes, I suppose the populace will want to see Israel destroyed the day after the election. What's a terrorist to do? So much destruction, so little time....

From the New Duranty Times:

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 20 - Mukhtar Mai, the Pakistani woman whose defiant response to being gang-raped by order of a tribal court brought her worldwide attention, was denied a chance to speak at the United Nations on Friday after Pakistan protested that it was the same day the country's prime minister was visiting.

Ms. Mai had long been scheduled to make an appearance called "An Interview With Mukhtar Mai: The Bravest Woman on Earth" in the United Nations television studios, sponsored by the office for nongovernmental organizations, the Virtue Foundation and the Asian-American Network Against Abuse of Human Rights.

But on Thursday night the organizers were informed that the program would have to be postponed because of Pakistan's objections...

Mr. Aziz is scheduled to see President Bush in Washington next week.

This was not the first time that Pakistan's government had interfered in Ms. Mai's travels. President Pervez Musharraf blocked her from taking a trip to the United States in June and then relented last fall when Glamour magazine honored her as its "Woman of the Year."...

Illustrating the polar difference between western and Islamic concepts of honor, Sharon Lapkin writes in FrontPage:

When Israel began erecting a separation barrier in late 2003 to protect its citizens from the seemingly endless procession of suicide bombers, Palestinian society responded by redirecting its destructive urges inward. All revolutions are said ultimately to turn upon themselves and devour their own children. And, when suicide bombing became an increasingly difficult means of enhancing family prestige, Palestinians shifted the focus onto their female offspring to restore the balance.

Suicide bombings in Israel had developed into a bloody and lucrative industry for Palestinians who carried out 39 attacks in 2002. But, since Israel began constructing its anti-terrorist fence, the Palestinian human-bomb industry has been reduced to bankruptcy by producing only 11 attacks in more than two years.

Honor killing, on the other hand – which has always been an integral aspect of Palestinian life – began gathering momentum. With horrifying zest, weapon-wielding fathers, brothers, uncles and sometimes mothers, hunt down their daughters and sisters and commit shocking acts of violence for real and imagined immoral transgressions.

The Arab motivation for murdering their own daughters flows from the same cultural wellspring that produces suicide bombers. The defensive form of honor, called ird, is consumed with female sexual purity and manifests itself in the murder of its own to restore family honor, whereas the offensive manifestation, sharaf, requires positive actions implemented to heighten social status and increase family honor. As Palestinian society retreats from its failure to infiltrate the daily life of Israeli citizens with death and destruction, it compensates by killing its own and depositing ird in its honor bank...

During a particularly brutal spate of honor killings in early 2005, five Palestinian women were murdered in four separate incidences over a short period of time. Faten Habash spent six weeks in hospital after she threw herself from her family’s fourth floor apartment window. Upon her return home, her father bludgeoned her to death with an iron bar.

Two days later, Maher Shakirat attacked his three sisters. The eldest, Rudaina, was eight months pregnant and had been admonished by her husband after he claimed she’d had an affair. Maher forced his sisters to drink bleach before strangling them. The youngest, Leila, escaped but had serious internal injuries from the effect of the bleach.

Rafayda Qaoud shared a bedroom in her Ramallah home with her two brothers. After they raped and impregnated her, she gave birth to a baby boy who was adopted by another family. Her mother then gave Rafayda a razor blade and ordered her to slash her own wrists. When she refused to commit suicide, her mother pulled a plastic bag tightly over her head, sliced open her daughter’s wrists and beat her with a stick until she was dead...

Read it all, if you have the stomach for it.

From the UK Telegraph:

The Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has caused outrage by accusing Israel of murdering Yasser Arafat.

He used what was billed as a speech on democratic reform to accuse Israel of a "methodical and organised" killing.

Mr Assad, who himself is suspected of ordering the killing of the Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, said: "Of the many assassinations that Israel carried out in a methodical and organised way, the most dangerous thing that Israel did was the assassination of President Yasser Arafat."

He told a conference of Arab lawyers in Damascus:"This was under the world's gaze and its silence, and not one state dared to issue a statement or stance towards this, as though nothing happened."

The exact cause of Arafat's death, which followed a brain haemorrhage and coma in 2004, has never been made public, but Israel has always denied accusations that it poisoned him.

"When the Syrian president thinks up this sort of delusional accusation one has to wonder what is going on behind the scenes in Damascus," said Israel's foreign ministry spokesman Mark Ragev. "We have said on more than one occasion that we are for a full public disclosure of Mr Arafat's medical documentation. We have nothing to fear from full transparency."...

Sabotage has not been confirmed or denied in this particular case as yet, but attacking the oil and gas supplies of the infidels is certainly part of jihad strategy as witnessed in the web posting urging attacks on the Alaska pipeline. From AP:

TBILISI, Georgia -- Explosions hit natural gas pipelines running through southern Russia early Sunday, cutting the supply to Georgia and Armenia as the countries suffer a cold snap.

The blasts hit the pipelines running through the southern Russian region of North Ossetia around 3 a.m. (0000 GMT), Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said.

Ministry spokesman Viktor Beltsov initially said the blasts appeared to be accidental, but Nikolai Shepel, chief prosecutor for Russia's southern region, said a criminal investigation had been opened on charges of sabotage...

Russia's NTV broadcast footage showing twisted and smoking pipelines in what appeared to be a high mountain pass.

In recent years, pipelines in Russia's turbulent North Caucasus region have occasionally been damaged in explosions that investigators have ruled sabotage, but the blasts have not caused major supply disruptions. Criminal groups as well as militants with ties to Chechnya's separatist rebels have been suspected.

ITAR-Tass quoted an Emergency Situations Ministry official in North Ossetia, Vladimir Ivanov, as saying that it would take two to three days to complete repairs.

The cutoff hit Georgia, which has faced extreme energy shortages for more than a decade, with a fresh crisis as it headed into a cold snap. Temperatures in Tbilisi on Sunday were minus 5 Celsius (23 F)...

Neither Georgia nor Armenia produce significant amounts of gas domestically, relying on Russia for the overwhelming majority of their gas imports.

Armenia hopes to reduce its dependence on Russia by building a pipeline to bring gas from Iran, but the first section of that project is not expected to be completed until 2007.

Nihad Awad and other members of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) arrive in Baghdad to plead for reporter Jill Carroll's release and two Marines are reported slain in a suicide attack in yet another day of kidnappings, violence and mayhem in Iraq. From the Los Angeles Times:

BAGHDAD — On a day that members of a U.S. Islamic group arrived in Baghdad to plead for the release of a kidnapped reporter, the U.S. military announced that two Marines were killed by a suicide car bomber while on a combat mission near Ramadi, a hotbed of insurgent violence...

Meanwhile, executive director Nihad Awad of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in an interview Saturday that any harm done to Jill Carroll, a freelance reporter for the Christian Science Monitor, "would harm the Iraqi people and the Iraqi cause." Carroll was abducted Jan. 7 while on assignment in Baghdad.

A videotape of the 28-year-old reporter was released by her captors Tuesday along with a warning that she would be killed unless all women held in Iraqi jails were released within 72 hours. The deadline passed Friday evening with no further word on Carroll's whereabouts or fate.

The Iraqi Justice Ministry on Saturday reiterated its request that the U.S. military release six female detainees. But U.S. military spokespeople said that no such release was forthcoming and that there would be no negotiations with the kidnappers.

"The kidnapping of Jill Carroll does not benefit the kidnappers," said Awad, whose Washington-based group represents U.S. mosques and Islamic associations. "If she is released she will continue to talk about Iraqi issues, and, as people have noted, she has been friendly and respectful of the Iraqi people, not an enemy."

Public pleas on her behalf by her family and others have mentioned Carroll's sympathy for and knowledge of Iraq.

"Do not sacrifice an innocent soul," her father, Jim Carroll, said in a statement released Friday. "Allow her to be your voice to the world. Her life as a reporter would better serve your purpose than her death."

Carroll was one of many people kidnapped in Iraq in recent days.

On Saturday, the son of a senior Defense Ministry official was reported kidnapped by the so-called Revenge Squadron group, which threatened to kill him unless Iraqi security forces stopped cooperating with American forces, according to Al Arabiya television.

In another case, a police source said that the bodies of 10 of 35 police recruits abducted Monday had been found and that several more reportedly had been found in a remote desert area to the northeast. Police are "assembling a force" to investigate, said the source in Mashahidah, about 15 miles north of Baghdad...

Two African telephone engineers were kidnapped last week after their convoy was attacked in a daylight ambush on a busy Baghdad street. Twelve security guards and bystanders were killed in the attack. The families of the engineers also issued pleas for mercy Friday.

On Saturday, a car bomb exploded in a crowded Baghdad market, killing one, and a roadside bomb went off near a motorcade carrying members of President Jalal Talabani's staff north of Baghdad. The president was not riding in the motorcade, but five passengers were hurt.

And a murderer is poised to replace him. Tiny Minority of Extremists Update from the TimesOnline, with thanks to JE:

A SURGE in support for the Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas in the run-up to Wednesday’s parliamentary elections is fuelling calls for Mahmoud Abbas, the 70-year-old Palestinian president, to step down after the vote.

Dissatisfaction is growing in the ranks of Abbas’s Fatah party at his lacklustre performance since he was elected leader last January. Polls yesterday showed Hamas had closed the gap with Fatah and was trailing only 42%-45%, making the final result too close to call.

Even if Fatah manages to hold its lead, Hamas will be guaranteed a role in the Palestinian parliament for the first time and may be part of the next government. “Abbas has failed and we want him out of the job,” said a young Fatah leader. Members of the 60,000 strong Palestinian security forces began voting yesterday.

Many of the president’s critics would like to see Abbas replaced by Marwan Barghouti, 48, who has emerged as leader of a faction known as the Young Guard. He directs it from a high security prison cell in Israel’s Negev desert where he is serving five life sentences for murder.

Barghouti heads Fatah’s national list of candidates, making his own election a certainty. His inability to attend parliament has not stopped him calling Palestinians from the jail, urging them to back Fatah.

From Resa LaRu Kirkland, America's War Chick, comes this appraisal of Spielberg's lamentable Munich:

Before the first advertisements were playing out before the world, I’d already been tipped off that Spielberg had blown an awesome opportunity with Munich. He had a chance not often seen in Hollywood, a chance to show the world a side of Israel they’re rarely allowed to see: hero.

The head’s up came from a source who knew what he was talking about because he is one of them—one of the Hollywood elites without the elitist attitude. Robert J. Avrech has been writing for Hollywood for over 25 years, yet he has managed to remain logical, reasonable, and—horrors!—conservative. He is also an Orthodox Jew, and has a passion for another Jewish story that begs to be told. In spite of being an insider, however, he has yet to get anyone to consider his project on this under-reported yet significant piece of history; one that, had it not happened, would have ended the existence of not just Israel, but eventually the entire world.

Why can’t he get anyone in the inner sanctum to consider it? His words describe it perfectly.

Resa:

I just wanted to let you know that I really like your latest article. Your point about how Israel destroyed the Osiris Nuclear Reactor is quite important and has conveniently been forgotten by the mainstream media.

I've been trying to produce a film about this magnificent raid for
years now, but naturally Hollywood has zero interest in such a heroic story.

Why?

1. It is pro Israel.

2. Jews are not victims. Hollywood prefers dead Jews in their movies. If not dead, at least guilty, witness Spielberg's latest liberal atrocity: Munich. I have read the script. It is vile and a complete lie.

3. The raid proved that Saddam was hell bent on genocide. Something no one in Hollywood wants to admit.

No, War Chick, my Hollywood compatriots are busy beating the drums about, oh... so called global warming. I'm ashamed to admit that many of these liberals are Jews. And while the Muslim fanatics are promising to murder every Jew and Christian on the planet, they are having conventions in Las Vegas and heroically calling attention to "melting polar icecaps." And who is their scientific expert? Why none other than our modern Madame Curie, Barbra Streisand.

It's enough to make a grown man cry.

After reading this from a man I respect and admire, I watched carefully for the reactions from others about the movie. The reviews rolling in backed up Robert’s impression, and left me aching with disappointment. How could the creator of Schindler’s List have authored such an atrocity? It would seem that Spielberg likes getting rich off of Jews, but only dead Jews, as Robert points out.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald discusses Pakistan's indignation at the United States over the Zawahiri strike, the failure of our policies toward Pakistan in general, and other erroneous stances toward the Islamic world arising from the Cold War:

It is common in the Islamic world for America to be regarded as “the bully on the block." This is true even in Pakistan, where outrage is running high today over the failed strike at Zawahiri. The Pakistanis are outraged despite four decades of the American government supporting Pakistan to the hilt, supplying it with every sort of advanced weaponry (partly because American officials loved dealing with those ramrod-straight, mustachioed, sometimes Sandhurst-educated Pakistani generals, all very pukka sahib as opposed to those nasty leftists, some of them from the Christian, but also Marxist, from the Indian state of Kerala, and of course those Bandung-conference leftover leftists such as Krishna Menon). The Cold War, for the United States, meant that Islam was a Good Thing. For though no one knew a damn thing about Islam, they knew that Religion and Atheistic Communism Did Not Mix, and who was more religious than those devout Muslims. Of course it was true -- Islam and Communism don't mix. But the Nazis and the Communists did not mix, either (though all three Total Systems have much in common), and yet, during World War II, we had no difficulty in making common cause with Soviet Russia.

During the Cold War, this inability to see Islam for what it was, is, and will be -- a totalitarian threat at least as great, and probably a good deal greater, than Communism -- led to certain obvious failures, and certain failures that remain unobvious. Among the obvious failures was the CENTO military organization, with Iraq, Turkey, and Pakistan enrolled in a supposedly non-Communist military alliance meant to mimic NATO, under American (and British) leadership. It came to nothing, for it was nothing -- except that the Americans were locked into the myth of stout Muslim allies.

The second was the firm entrenchment of the myth of a benevolent Saudi Arabia, our "staunch ally" -- a notion promoted by ARAMCO in its official publications and through a powerful network of Washington agents. This began in the 1950s, and the power of this myth only grew. No one knew much about Saudi Arabia, and Islam itself was hardly understood; in the State Department, it remains understood. Loy Henderson was not reading Arthur Jeffery or C. Snouck Hurgronje in 1948, or ever. Nor were those children of Beirut missionaries who comprised such a large percentage of what came to be called Arabists. They were akin in their attitudes, these non-Arab scions of Christian missionaries, to islamochristians, that is, Christians who, because of the pull of their Arab identity, had internalized and then promoted views that are essentially Islamic (such as the impermissibility of Israel, as an Infidel sovereignty, to exist within the dar al-Islam, whatever its size and however long and devious the means to eliminate it). Curious, is it not, that no one has noted that the ethnic pull for Arabs (who even if Christian sense that the Arab claim to fame is based on Islam) trumps resentment over their treatment as dhimmis, whereas non-Arab Christians in Muslim-ruled lands -- Christians in Pakistan, or Bangladesh, or Indonesia -- not having this ethnic pull, do not identify with the Muslim besiegers of Israel?

Not long after S. I. Rosenbaum's irresponsible smear job of Joe Kaufman (and, peripherally, me) appeared in the St. Petersburg Times, I sent off an email to Rosenbaum myself with the subject heading, "You were right; I shouldn't have trusted you" -- referring to her thanking me for trusting her, which she did several times during our long conversation. She responded: "I'm sorry you feel burned - that certainly wasn't my intention."

However, the Council on American Islamic Relations knows what side she is on, and is less shy than she is about admitting it. They are just thrilled with her little hatchet job, and have asked their followers to send a "note of appreciation" to the St. Petersburg Times and Rosenbaum herself.

CAIR, of course, has had several of its officials arrested and convicted on various terrorism-related charges, and has never answered questions about where it really stands on jihad violence. Good work, Rosenbaum. When the New Order is established, you will surely be among the foremost dhimmi journalists nationwide.

A choice bit of Saturday afternoon hate mail:

You guys all are idits.

America is a state of terrorism.

May the Lord destroy the US and make it into 100 small states.

The would be great for the world peace.

That will happen very soon. for the sake of american people.

The "experts" are right. If Osama and Zawahiri were proven to be dead, it would be a great victory, but it would not end jihad violence. The jihad ideology doesn't depend the presence of a charismatic figure; it is based on deeply rooted religious beliefs. From AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

The Israeli assassins caught Abu Jihad in his study. They left the chief strategist of the Palestinian uprising with 170 bullets in his body. Over the next two decades, however, the movement only grew stronger, and Israel bled even more.

It's called "decapitation," and a missile strike in Pakistan has raised the question anew: Would eliminating Osama bin Laden and deputy Ayman al-Zawahri deal a mortal blow to the al-Qaida terror network?

"Decapitation just fuels the movement itself," says Jenna Jordan, a University of Chicago scholar who has closely studied the historical record of such antiterrorist tactics.

"I think that is the lesson of the Israeli efforts over the years," says Brian Jenkins, veteran terrorism analyst with the RAND Corp. research firm.

But, he quickly adds, "that doesn't mean you don't do it."

The Jan. 13 missile strike on a remote Pakistani border village showed again that the U.S. government is still trying to do it.

The early-morning attack, reportedly aimed at al-Zawahri, killed 13 villagers and possibly a few second-rank al-Qaida operatives - but not the bin Laden lieutenant. Its immediate impact could be seen in the streets of Pakistani cities, where thousands rallied, chanting "Death to America," in support of al-Qaida's "jihad," or holy war.

By Thursday, bin Laden's voice was being broadcast throughout the Muslim world, threatening a new terror strike against America.

"The Pakistan case, where you have all those people killed, that's the kind of `bad press' that keeps a movement going," said Jordan, whose 2004 study reviewed 72 international cases, stretching back almost a century, in which militant movements' leaders were targeted and killed.

In most cases, she found, the movements carried on - particularly if they were religion-based, like al-Qaida. Only one in five violent religious groups collapsed when their leaders were eliminated, she determined.

Here is a video of my appearance on Fox News today, courtesy Alex Porter of the Intelligence Summit.

Now that I'm an "Islamist scholar," do I have to blow myself up?

More cartoon rage. Has the IUMS gotten around to saying anything about bin Laden yet? "IUMS urges Norway, Denmark to halt acts offending Islam," from KUNA, with thanks to Twostellas:

CAIRO, Jan 21 (KUNA) -- The International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS) urged Saturday Norway and Denmark to halt all acts directed towards offending Islam.

In a press release, IUMS said it will call on Muslims to boycott all Norwegian and Danish products and activities if the newspapers of the two countries do not stop publishing material aimed at offending Islam.

Fresh from his Fox News appearance, Mr. Spencer is making his way up river by canoe to Jihad Watch headquarters. But while he is en route, Mrs. Obelix sent in this story which needs no comment, other than that it really is from the Washington Post, and not The Onion.

Twenty-four hours after Osama bin Laden told the world that the American people should read the work of a little-known Washington historian, William Blum was still adjusting.
Blum, who at 72 is accustomed to laboring in relative left-wing obscurity, checked his emotions and pronounced himself shocked and, well, pleased.
"This is almost as good as being an Oprah book," he said yesterday between telephone calls from the world media and bites of a bagel. "I'm glad." Overnight, his 2000 work, "Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower," had become an Osama book.

I am scheduled to appear briefly on Fox News, the Tony Snow program, around 1:30PM EST this afternoon to discuss the Osama truce offer. These appearances are always brief and subject to cancellation, but that's the plan at this point anyway. The stagecoach will be here any minute to take me to their studios here in Secure Undisclosed Locationville.

A Let-Them-Into-the-EU Alert: "Muslims Beat Pastor After Attending Church," from Compass Direct, with thanks to Sccork:

The four Turks involved in the attack appeared to be in their late teens but were led by a foreigner probably 10 years older who claimed to be from Turkmenistan. At one point, the group’s leader said he was acting on behalf of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network.

The five strangers showed up at the Adana Protestant Church’s rented facility near the city center 45 minutes before the Sunday service began at 2 p.m. About 40 people, the usual number, were attending the service.

Introducing himself to church members as a Christian from Turkmenistan, the group’s leader made a show of speaking Russian. He said that he had “converted” the four Turks with him to Christianity, but that he did not know how to teach them.

The others chimed in, saying, “We want to know more. Please teach us about Jesus.” They claimed to have come from Mersin and Gaziantep, cities 35 and 120 miles, respectively, from Adana.

Following the service, Kiroglu suggested the visitors ask him their questions as church members lingered at the facility drinking tea. But they said it was too crowded to talk freely, insisting they would wait to talk with him after everyone else had left.

Some minutes later, Kiroglu began to become suspicious, realizing that he was now alone with them in the building. All five stood whispering together near the door, blocking him from leaving.

Surprise Package

Explaining that he and the other church leaders all had previous appointments, Kiroglu glanced out the door and called to an expatriate friend waiting for him outside. When his friend appeared, the group reluctantly started to leave, talking among themselves about a “package” they had left inside.

“If you have left any package inside, go and get it,” Kiroglu told them, “because I am going to lock the door.”

Surprised, the leader tried to deny saying anything about a package. But then he said abruptly, “There is a package for you from Al-Qaeda. It is a surprise. You will soon know what it is.” Then the men quickly strode away.

“When I heard this, I shut the door,” Kiroglu said, “and I was really frightened.”

Shouting to his expatriate friend, who did not understand Turkish, to run, he took out his cell phone to call the police.

But when the men looked back and saw what Kiroglu was doing, they whirled and rushed back toward him. He said one of them shouted, “We don’t want Christians in this country!”

Ignoring the church leader’s confused foreign friend, the men chased and caught Kiroglu and began to strike him severely with their fists and feet. “I was trying to protect my face,” Kiroglu said, “but soon I was lying on the ground, covered in blood, and they were still kicking and beating me.”

After briefly losing consciousness, he managed to get to his feet and start running again, but again the attackers caught up with him.

“They were trying to force me to deny Jesus,” Kiroglu said. “But each time they asked me to deny Jesus and become a Muslim, I was saying, ‘Jesus is Lord.’ The more I said ‘Jesus is Lord,’ the more they beat me.”

Kiroglu saw in one man’s hands a long butcher knife, which he later learned had been grabbed from a nearby kebap restaurant. Shoving the knife against Kiroglu’s stomach, the attacker said, “I’m asking you again, deny Jesus, or I will kill you now.”

“Then I realized there was no way of saving myself,” Kiroglu said. “He was going to kill me.”

Suddenly, the Christian said, he felt two heavy blows, one on his head and the other on his spine, and everything went dark. When he regained consciousness, his attackers were gone and his friend was trying to wake him up.

Kiroglu then went directly to a nearby police station, where officers took him to the hospital for treatment. Although his assailants never stabbed him, doctors put six stitches into his bleeding mouth, and his head and other parts of his body remained swollen and painful for nearly a week after the beatings. His glasses were also shattered during the attack.

There is a recurring feature of criticism of my work and this site: critics charge that in writing about Islam I focus only on the violent teachings and teachers, and ignore those that are peaceful. Of course, since what I do in my books and at this site is explore the ideological and theological roots of jihad violence, it should be obvious why I would quote inciteful texts and violent imams.

However, the claim that I "cherry-pick" violent verses from the Qur'an and ignore peaceful ones is simply false; in my books, particularly Onward Muslim Soldiers, I give examples of both Qur'anic verses that are purportedly more peaceful and ones that are violent, and I explain how both types are treated in traditional Islamic theology, explaining the traditional doctrine of abrogation (naskh) and other elements that lead traditional Islam to favor violence and subjugation over peaceful coexistence with non-Muslims as equals.

Nevertheless, many have said that I ignore scholars both ancient and modern who teach against the ideas of violent jihad and the subjugation of unbelievers, and against the idea that Abu Hamza espouses here, that one may gain Paradise by killing unbelievers and getting killed in the process. The problem is that no one has ever been able to come up with a single specific example of such a scholar or tradition within Islam. They simply deride me as ignorant and try to give readers the impression that there is a vast body of Islamic teaching that contradicts what I say.

Such putative reformers, of course, have existed and do exist. Daniel Pipes recently referred to one: Mahmud Muhammad Taha (1909-85) of Sudan. Said Pipes: "Taha argued that specific Koranic rulings applied only to Medina, not to other times and places. He hoped modern-day Muslims would set these aside and live by the general principles delivered at Mecca. Were Taha's ideas accepted, most of the Shari'a would disappear, including outdated provisions concerning warfare, theft, and women. Muslims could then more readily modernize."

That's great. Pipes neglected to mention, however, that Taha was arrested and executed for heresy. Were those who tried and executed him utterly ignorant of the teachings of the Qur'an and Sunnah? More of those ubiquitous misunderstanders of Islam? Were Taha actually reflecting a legitimate and established tradition within Islam, would his enemies have been able to do away with him so readily?

What my critics would have you believe is that there are many Tahas and even traditions full of Tahas within Islam, and that I am ignoring them. They would have you believe that such traditions are actually the mainstream of Islam and that they are not considered heretical by most Muslims.

Very well. I will issue this request again. I know Abu Hamza is right when he says that "religous scholars" regard jihadist-martyrdom bombing as "the highest form of martyrdom." I can readily provide examples of such.

Now: prove him wrong, please. Help me out in my ignorance. Send me specific examples not only of Islamic religious scholars condemning jihadist-martyrdom bombing, for I know that some do (but I think it is reasonable to regard only such condemnations that include rejection of such acts against Israelis and other non-Muslims, not just against other Muslims). Send me also examples of Islamic religious scholars rejecting, on Islamic grounds, jihad violence against non-Muslims; rejecting the idea that Sharia law should be instituted in the Muslim and non-Muslim world; and teaching the idea that non-Muslims and Muslims should live together indefinitely as equals. Send me rejections of the ideas that women should not enjoy full equality of rights with men.

But it would be preferable if these scholars were not lone voices crying in the wilderness, with the wolves of Islamic orthodoxy ready to pounce upon them. After all, if I have somehow missed in 25 years of study these broad peaceful traditions within Islam, I would hope that someone out there would be so kind as to enlighten me. Send me examples not of lone scholars, but of entire Islamic schools of thought or sects or traditions that eschew this ideology of violence and supremacism. Send it all to director@jihadwatch.org. And thank you.

Oh, and by the way: spare me talk of the Sufis, please. They are aiding the Chechen jihad; Hasan Al-Banna of the Muslim Brotherhood was strongly influenced by them; and some of their most revered figures, including Al-Ghazali himself, were quite clear in their espousal of violent jihad and dhimmitude for non-Muslims.

"Suicide bombing is a legitimate tactic, Abu Hamza tells court," from the TimesOnline, :

SUICIDE bombing is a legitimate tool of war, regarded by religious scholars as "the highest form of martyrdom", Abu Hamza al-Masri told an Old Bailey jury yesterday.

The radical Muslim cleric, who is facing charges of soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred, said that he condoned suicide attacks if they were the only way that Muslims had of defending themselves.

Abu Hamza sought to explain remarks that he had made in a video of a lecture delivered in Luton in 1997. Asked, during his second day of evidence, about the legitimacy of "martyrdom operations", he said: "If it is the only way of preventing the enemies of Islam or resisting oppression, then that would be your only tactic of war.

"It is as if a woman was being raped -- are you telling her, don't use the scissors? Use what is available to you."

Pressed by Edward Fitzgerald, QC, to give an example of when suicide attacks would be appropriate, Abu Hamza said that Palestinian villagers faced with Israeli tanks and bulldozers could legitimately use such tactics....

But once again they are exercised about acts of jihad violence against Muslims. When non-Muslims are targeted they don't seem to have a problem. "Arab Columnists Criticize the Justification of Terrorism," from MEMRI, with thanks to Daryl:

The Bombings in Jordan Have Nothing to Do With Iraq and Palestine

In a column titled "The Link between Terrorism and the Palestinian and Iraqi [Issues] is a Lie," Dr. Mamoun Fandy wrote in the London Arabic-language daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat: "The Jordan bombings are resounding proof that justifying terrorism by linking it to the Palestinian issue is a fraud, and that justifying terrorism by linking it to the American occupation in Iraq is a big lie. To those who say that terrorism in our Arab region is the result of the American occupation in Iraq, I say: we are no [foreigners]. We [didn't come from] Sweden - we know the region [well]. And terrorism existed and was [deeply] rooted in our region [even] before the Americans came to Iraq.

Note that in the litany of terrorist acts that follows he includes none of the many attacks on non-Muslims -- not Madrid 3/11, or London 7/7, or even 9/11. Not a word about the innumerable attacks in Israel:

"The terrorism of the Islamist groups in Egypt and the assassination of [Egyptian president Anwar] Al-Sadat occurred before [the war] in Iraq; the massacre of the children in Algeria began before the occupation of Iraq; Juhaiman [Al-'Utaibi's] terrorism in the mosque in Mecca took place before [the war in] Iraq; [1] and the bombings in Al-'Uliya and Al-Khobar also took place before the war in Iraq. [2] Terrorism existed in our region before the [U.S.] occupation, and it will continue to exist after the Americans withdraw from Iraq. [It will continue] until some of us, especially in the media, are [finally] able to say that the justifications of terrorism are false, and that the bombings in Jordan... had nothing to do with the fact that Jordan shares a border with Iraq... If mere proximity to Iraq causes terrorism to spread [into a country], why aren't we witnessing bombings in Syria, which has extensive borders with Iraq? Why aren't we witnessing terrorism in Iran, which also shares a border with Iraq? Why are we witnessing terrorism [only] in Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia?...

[...]

Dr. Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari makes the same conspicuous omission:

Qatari Reformist: "When Will We Launch an Ideological, Cultural, Educational, Informational, and Religious Campaign to Eradicate Terrorism?"

The former dean of the Faculty of Islamic Law at the University of Qatar, Dr. Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari, wrote in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa that the time has come for the Arabs to assume responsibility for their actions and stop justifying terrorist acts:

"Is there any explanation for the actions of these devils, who came from Iraq to Jordan in order to blow themselves up [in] the capital's three largest hotels? Is there any justification for the act of that suicide [bomber] who chose to blow himself up among ordinary people eating their breakfast at a restaurant in central Baghdad? Is there any logical motivation [that leads] those who call themselves 'the national resistance' to target [people at] bus stops, restaurants, markets, and mosques?! Is there any convincing reason to harm people sitting in a mourners' tent, in Shi'ite mosques, or in hospitals?...

"When will we initiate a significant change [leading] towards a national program for combating terrorism? When will we launch an ideological, cultural, educational, informational, and religious campaign to eradicate terrorism?

Sounds great, but then he makes it clear that he is still concerned only with Muslim-on-Muslim violence -- arising from the practice of takfir, or the declaring of other Muslims to be unbelievers and thus legitimately killed (a favored tactic of the Wahhabis). But where does that leave the other unbelievers?

The king of Jordan said: 'We will not be lenient towards the ideology of takfir [accusing others of heresy] and towards those who justify and support terrorism.' Previously, the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf [states] made similar statements. But what do we do about the general public which accepts extremist fundamental notions? [About] the public which constitutes fertile ground for the development of extremism and cultivation of terrorist cells? How do we translate the declarations of the kings and leaders into operational plans to bring about the eradication of violent thinking?

"Countering [terrorism] on the security front [alone] is not enough, [since] many imams bless the terrorists. The security agreements are to no avail [when] columnists, writers, journalists, and satellite channels praise the terrorists' actions in Iraq and refer to them as 'resistance' and 'jihad'...

"The 'culture of justification [of terrorism]' is still [well] rooted in the Arab world, and there are writers, columnists, and satellite channels who make their living off it." [6]

Somebody needs to fill in Dr. Al-Ansari: the culture of justification for terrorism isn't deeply rooted. Rather, it is the product of a Tiny Minority of Extremists who have Hijacked The Religion, and it is condemned by the Vast Majority of Peaceful Muslims. Doc, somebody forgot to issue you a script.

"Are you ready for jihad against America?" Tiny Minority of Extremists Update from AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Thousands of protesters took to the streets yesterday, chanting ''Death to America" and calling for holy war as outrage persisted over an airstrike that heavily damaged a remote border village.

Pakistani authorities suspect Al Qaeda operatives had gathered last week at Damadola to plan attacks early this year in Afghanistan and Pakistan, when the meeting was torn apart by US missiles, an intelligence official said.

President General Pervez Musharraf is a key US ally in the war on terror, but many in the Islamic country resent those ties. Feelings intensified after the deaths of 13 villagers in the US attack on Jan. 13.

Officials believe at least four foreign militants also may have died, including an Al Qaeda explosives and chemical weapons specialist and a son-in-law of the terror network's number two leader, Ayman al-Zawahri.

Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, or United Action Forum, an opposition Islamic coalition, has organized anti-American protests across the country, the latest held yesterday.

The largest was held in Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province, where Damadola is located.

Several thousand people marched from two mosques, chanting ''jihad [holy war] is our way" and burning effigies of President Bush. Smaller demonstrations were staged in Lahore and the volatile border town of Wana. No violence was reported.

Several thousand people. Versus less than 50 at that much-vaunted Free Muslims rally against terror last year.

''Are you ready for jihad against America?" Dost Mohammed, a coalition party leader, asked the gathering in Peshawar.

Hundreds of protesters, most wearing white prayer caps, raised their hands.

''We will keep fighting jihad with our pens and our voices. If there is need, we will fight with other means," Shahid Shamsi, a spokesman for the religious alliance, said when asked if it was advocating armed struggle.

''Our mujahideen have fought against the Russians in Afghanistan and in Kashmir. We will fight if an aggressor occupies us," he said.

Pakistani lawyers, meanwhile, held separate protests in various cities. In the capital, Islamabad, about 100 lawyers protested in front of the Supreme Court, chanting ''death to America" and ''death to Musharraf."

Pakistani lawyers. Speaking of uneducated rabble manipulated into extremism by craven Islamist leaders.

With the unstated premise here being that there cannot possibly be any hate in the Qur'an. Now I wonder if Ibrahim Hooper or Stephen Schwartz or maybe John Walker Lindh would be so kind as to explain to me how exactly we can be certain of that. "'Offensive' remarks taken straight from Koran, defence says," from the TimesOnline, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

COPIES of the Koran were handed to the jurors in the Abu Hamza trial yesterday as his defence argued that some of the cleric’s “offensive” statements were drawn directly from Islam’s holy book.

Edward Fitzgerald, QC, for the defence, said that Abu Hamza’s interpretation of the Koran was that it imposed an obligation on Muslims to do jihad and fight in the defence of their religion. He said that the Crown case against the former imam of Finsbury Park Mosque was “simplistic in the extreme”.

He added: “It is said he was preaching murder, but he was actually preaching from the Koran itself.”

Why then, if he was preaching from the Qur'an, it just only seemed as if he was preaching murder. He was actually preaching that everyone should enjoy ice cream. Oh, how could I have been so ignorant? So Islamophobic?

Mr Fitzgerald [no relation whatsoever to Jihad Watch's Hugh Fitzgerald] cited two verses of the book that Abu Hamza would rely on, among many others, as theological justification for the words that had led to him being charged. They were Chapter 2, verse 216 and Chapter 9, verse 111. He said that all the great monotheistic religions had scriptures that contained “the language of blood and retribution”.

No, Fitz. I challenge you, and I challenge the world, to produce any verse of the Bible that remotely corresponds to either one of these.

2:216 says: "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."

Where in the Bible does it tell the aggregate of believers that fighting is "prescribed" for them? There are verses in the Old Testament telling the Israelites to fight against specific people, but they are not commands to open-ended warfare against unbelievers, and Jews and Christians have never understood them as such.

9:111 is even worse: "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..."

This verse is used as a rationale for suicide bombing. Now find me one verse of the Bible that promises Heaven to anyone who kills and is killed. Go ahead. I'll be right here: director@jihadwatch.org.

Abu Hamza’s remarks, which the prosecution alleges amount to an attempt to stir up racial hatred against the Jewish people, were, Mr Fitzgerald said, a reference to the Hadith — sayings of the Prophet Muhammad — in which fighting between Jews and Muslims is predicted.

The Hadith says that the trees will call out to the Muslims “there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him”.

In a sane world, this would not be seen as a valid defense at all. Instead, it would raise questions about the Qur'an and Hadith themselves. But that is so far off the radar screen in Britain, Eddie Fitz has nothing to worry about.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald offers this calm and even-tempered assessment of Frank Lindh and his notorious son:

That family man, and father of John Walker Lindh, thinks that his hideous son, and the criminal negligence of that hideous son's hideous parents, are to be forgiven. Why? Because his son was for all the world like a Bryn Mawr girl on her Junior Year Abroad, just "learning about new cultures and acquiring new language skills."

I don't think that his rotten son was ever "a decent and honorable young man embarked on a spiritual quest." I think he was one more empty simpleton, raised by empty and simple-minded parents no doubt trying to "find" themselves -- here, there, god knows where they looked or are still looking -- at the same time that their son was looking for himself on his no-doubt-to-him fascinating Spiritual Search. But unfortunately instead of Hari Krishna or Father Divine or Bob Jones or some other spiritual ponzi scheme, little Lindh found Islam -- and his upbringing became a moral tale, in which those parents do not fare well not because they divorced (for all you family values folk), but because they were both very very stupid, which is an incurable disease, and very very negligent in their doctor-spockism run amok, and more than amok -- chose the very worst thing he could have chosen.

Indeed he was, and that was just what was so worrisome about him. The Islam-Is-A-Religion-Of-Peace crowd has never satisfactorily explained how these spiritual quests to learn more about Islam end up as something involving AK-47s, and even more importantly, how they propose to keep that from happening.

"Father: Son Taliban, but not terrorist: Frank Lindh: Son was on 'spiritual quest' to learn about Islam," from AP, with thanks to libbysmom:

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- After years of silence, the father of American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh asked President Bush on Thursday to grant clemency to his son, who he says was wrongly maligned as a traitor and murderer.

"In simple terms, this is the story of a decent and honorable young man embarked on a spiritual quest," said Frank Lindh, swallowing back tears at times during a speech at the Commonwealth Club, a nonprofit organization.

Frank Lindh said that although his son had nothing to do with the September 11 attacks, they ended up adding dire consequences to his decision to join the Taliban, targeted by the U.S. after the 2001 attacks for harboring al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden....

"Being viewed through the prism of those attacks has caused this young man to be vilified as a terrorist and a traitor," the elder Lindh said.

Yes, he joined the Taliban, but those guys were pussycats apart from 9/11.

John Walker Lindh, who turns 25 next month, was 20 when he was captured by American forces on November 21, 2001, alongside Taliban fighters.

Charged with conspiring to kill Americans and supporting terrorists, the younger Lindh avoided a potential life sentence in 2002 by pleading guilty to lesser charges of supplying services to the Taliban in violation of U.S. economic sanctions and of carrying weapons against U.S. forces. In exchange, John Walker Lindh agreed to withdraw claims of abuse or torture.

Until now, his parents have mostly maintained a public silence about the case, hoping to avoid a media barrage that could be detrimental to their son. But on Thursday, Frank Lindh shared baby pictures and other photos of his son during the presentation and said he is proud of his child.

Frank Lindh said he decided to break his silence because he hoped the story of his boy's journey from bucolic Marin County to harsh Afghanistan battlefields will help him get a reduction in his 20-year prison sentence. Last year, his son renewed his request for clemency, already rejected once.

John Walker Lindh, raised Catholic, was 12 when he saw the movie "Malcolm X" and became interested in Islam, his father said. A few years later, he converted to Islam in a mosque in Mill Valley.

With his parents' blessings, he headed to Yemen, and later Pakistan, to memorize the Quran and become an Islamic scholar.

To memorize the Qur'an and become an Islamic scholar. Combine that with the innumerable stories we have posted here about Islamic clerics being involved in jihad violence. The bottom line is that these are not likely to be men who don't know their faith. They know what the Qur'an teaches, and they are taking up arms accordingly. Peaceful Muslims must face the implications of that if it is ever going to end. The world is still waiting.

What did Frank Lindh think of his son's decision to pursue these studies?

"It's a wonderful thing for an American kid to go overseas and study, to learn another language, to learn another religion. These are great things," he said.

Sure, it's absolutely the same thing as if he has converted to Buddhism and gone off to Lhasa.

In spring 2001, John Walker Lindh told his parents he was going to dodge the desert heat and spend the summer in the mountains of Pakistan. He did not tell his parents that he planned to cross into Afghanistan and join the Taliban army.

The younger Lindh saw bin Laden speak twice while he was training in Afghanistan, but had no idea that he was involved in terrorism against the U.S., his father said.

What did he think he was involved in? Macrame?

On Thursday, Frank Lindh emphasized that his son was involved in an Afghan war, not a fight against the U.S., when the Muslim convert joined the Taliban army to fight the Northern Alliance. He noted that the U.S. once supported Taliban fighters when they were fighting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

"What happened unfortunately for John is that the United States made an abrupt change after the 9/11 attacks," Frank Lindh said. "We switched sides. John was on the ground there when that happened. He certainly didn't go to Afghanistan to do anything against America. He never fought against America. He never fired a gun at an American. He was simply rescued."

The idea that the U.S. abruptly switched sides and stopped supporting the Taliban after 9/11 is absurd. And so is the idea that John Walker Lindh had no intention of fighting Americans. Anti-American rhetoric among his friends and mentors was running high all through the 1990s. If he really didn't know what he was getting into, he was an astounding ignoramus.

Featuring the Thug-In-Chief of Iran, Hamas, and others. "Ahmadinejad backs Hamas, Jihad," from YnetNews, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday met with the heads of Palestinian terror organizations in Damascus, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad chiefs, as part of an official visit to Syria.

The meetings come in the wake of a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on Thursday for which Israel blamed Tehran and Damascus.

Ahmedinejad reportedly held talks with Hamas chief Khaled Mashal, Islamic Jihad exiled-head Ramadan Shalah and the head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Ahmed Jibril.

Maher Taher of the PLFP told AFP that the Iranian President expressed his full support for the struggle of the Palestinian people against Israel. The heads of a dozen Palestinian factions vowed the continuation of violent attacks against Israel and expressed their solidarity with Syria, under pressure for its failure to cooperate with a U.N. inquiry in Lebanon, and Iran, which faces the threat of United Nations sanction over its nuclear activities.

A Norwegian article in Aftenposten (thanks to cskaug) reports that Osama bin Laden's speeches are to be published in Norwegian by the publisher LSP Forlag.

The most important part of the story is that a Norwegian NGO called the Freedom of Expression Fund has decided to support the publication by paying the 40000 Norwegian kroner (about 5000 euro) necessary for the translation of bin Laden's speeches.

Meanwhile, the Norwegian translation of Oriana Fallaci's latest book -- Oriana Fallaci Interviews Herself with the epilogue "The Apocalypse," which has been available for a year -- remains unpublished in Norway, even though her two previous books about Islam and the West sold in large numbers there.

No surprise here. The Syria/Iran axis has long been established. The Alawite leadership of Syria owes a debt of gratitude to the Shi'ite mullahs for certifying the Islamic bona fides of the Alawites; the cordial relationship stems from that, as well as, of course, a mutual hatred of Israel. From AP, with thanks to Report:

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Syria asserted Thursday that Iran had a right to atomic technology and said Western objections to Tehran's nuclear ambitions were not persuasive.

President Bashar Assad of Syria, a longtime Iranian ally facing its own international criticism, said he backed Tehran's moves toward nuclear power and wanted to strengthen ties.

``We support Iran regarding its right to peaceful nuclear technology,'' Assad said at a news conference with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the start of two days of meetings. ``It is the right of Iran and any other state to own nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. Countries that object to that have not provided a convincing or logical reason.''

How about this for a reason, Bashar: we wouldn't like to see the mushroom clouds over Israel that we know your friend Ahmadinejad wants to make a reality. Nor would we like to see them anywhere else.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald discusses the state of dhimmitude at NPR:

At 5:43 yesterday afternoon on NPR I heard a respectful interviewer respectfully interviewing a "Palestinian" about the new, improved, peaceful Hamas, which has become a Good Government organization, working for setting up a system of Civil Service Examinations, draining the Pontine Marshes, and possibly putting a Volkswagen in every garage (well, things to that effect). He was particular cagey, in a way one has grown accustomed to, about not answering while seeming to provide an answer to certain questions. Oh, how we all have gotten so used to those examples of oily, pleasant-voiced meretriciousness.

But here's the moral of the tale. It was none other than Khalil Shikaki, the one scheduled to be a fellow at the Crown Center, and not only that, but one of three chosen to explain to earnest, long-suffering Brandeis alumni, How We Can Have Peace In the Middle East. He is to do this at some summer seminar, along with Shai Feldman (who at the Jaffee Center put the kibosh on someone wishing to present evidence of how "Palestinian" control of much of the West Bank would also lead to control of 60-70% of the aquifers Israelis rely on to live--simply would not hear of it), and Kanan Makiya, whose sympathy for the Kurds never quite achieves a further understanding that the Arab mistreatment of the Kurds in Iraq is connected to Arab mistreatment of other non-Arab Muslims (blacks in Darfur, Berbers in Algeria) -- not to mention, of course, the Muslim mistreatment of all non-Muslims. When he was offered one of Bat Ye'or's books to read, Kanan Makiya angrily returned it, calling it "disgusting" -- so much for keeping an open mind, so much for being willing to learn a little more about the history of Islam.

Did the young earnest female interviewer know about Khalil Shikaki's appearance on tapes connected to that little matter of Sami al-Arian? Did she know about what was reported in the New York Sun just this week?

Clash of civilizations update from Holland, from the BBC, with thanks to Designnut:

The Dutch government will announce over the next few weeks whether it will make it a crime to wear traditional Islamic dress which covers the face apart from the eyes.

The Dutch parliament has already voted in favour of a proposal to ban the burqa outside the home, and some in the government have thrown their weight behind it.

There are only about 50 women in all of the Netherlands who do cover up entirely - but soon they could be breaking the law.

Dutch MP Geert Wilders is the man who first suggested the idea of a ban.

"It's a medieval symbol, a symbol against women," he says.

"We don't want women to be ashamed to show who they are. Even if you have decided yourself to do that, you should not do it in Holland, because we want you to be integrated, assimilated into Dutch society. If people cannot see who you are, or see one inch of your body or your face, I believe this is not the way to integrate into our society."...

Mr Wilders has explicitly linked his wish for a burqa ban with terrorism.

"We have problems with a growing minority of Muslims who tend to have sympathy with the Islamo-fascistic concept of radical Islam," says Mr Wilders.

"That's also a reason why everybody should be identifiable when they walk on the street or go to a pub or go into a restaurant or whatsoever."

Osama again displays his media savvy, appealing to the appeasement-minded Left, hitting all their hot buttons about how Iraq has become a jihad center because of the American presence there (which is of course true to a great extent, but irrelevant in light of the fact that the jihad ideology so manifestly exists elsewhere, all over the globe, where American troops are not present) and invoking public opinion polls. From The Guardian, with thanks to JE:

My message to you is about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and how it can be ended. I did not intend to speak to you about this, because we already know how this war should end ...

But I spoke to you because your president is continuously misinterpreting public opinion polls which show that the vast majority of you support the withdrawal of your forces from Iraq. But he disagreed with this desire and said the withdrawal of troops will give the wrong message to the enemy, and that it is better to fight them on their ground than on our ground.

And in answer to these interpretations I say that the war in Iraq is raging and the operations in Afghanistan are increasing and in our favour, thank God, and Pentagon numbers show a rising in the number of your deaths and injuries ...

Reality shows that the war against the US and its allies is not just restricted to Iraq as he claims, but Iraq has become a gravitational point and a recruiting ground for qualified [mujahideen].

And from another point, the mujahideen have been able, with the will of God, to overcome all security measures that the forces have taken, and the result of this is what you have seen in the explosions in major European capitals ...

And our delay on similar attacks in the US is not because we could not penetrate security measures. The operations are under preparation and you will see them in your houses as soon as they are completed.

And based on the substance of the polls, which indicate Americans do not want to fight Muslims on Muslim land, nor do they want Muslims to fight them on their land, we do not mind offering a long-term truce based on just conditions that we will stand by ... a truce that offers security and stability and the rebuilding of Iraq and Afghanistan that war has destroyed.

This is another instance in which ignorance of Islam hamstrings our response to the jihad. If policymakers in Washington knew under what circumstances a jihad warrior offers a truce, they would know that now is the time to increase the pressure, in all kinds of ways. But this is by no means the first time that this conflict has been misconceived at the highest levels.

How dare those dhimmis try to build a new church! Don't they know that is forbidden?

Misunderstanders of Islam attack again in Egypt. If only they would listen to all those who are ready to tell us here at Jihad Watch that Islam is peaceful and tolerant, and that it is we who are stirring up hate by reporting on the misdeeds of its legions of misunderstanders. But how passing strange it is that in Egypt, with so many millions of Muslims, misunderstanding of Islam would be so widespread! Has anyone addressed this strange global collapse of Muslims' ability to teach their religion properly to their children??

"Egyptian church clash injures 12," from the BBC, with thanks to Null:

At least 12 people were injured in clashes in Upper Egypt when a group of Muslims attempted to stop Christians converting a house into a church.

Security officials said the Muslims set fire to building materials for the building in Odaysat, near Luxor.

Several members of both communities were reported injured in the subsequent clashes, as well as two policemen.

It is the latest in a series of violent sectarian incidents in Egypt in the past few months.

A security source quoted by Reuters said the Christians did not have official permission to build the church.

Oh, well then! Their papers are not in order? Kill them!

Police arrested 10 young men and the owners of the house, reports say.

Correspondents say curbs on building churches have been one of the main grievances among Copts, although these restrictions have been eased recently by presidential decree.

Yes, and you can see how respected that decree is.

Christians and Jews in Iran: the reality of dhimmitude. From Kevin Sites, with thanks to Gurm:

The Armenians say they've been in Iran for hundreds of years. Many were brought by force, enslaved by Persian ruler Agha Mohammad Khan during his wars in the Caucasus.

But now many claim Iran as their own.

"We identify ourselves with Iranian society and nationality because Armenians have been living here for centuries and centuries," says Bishop Sebouh Sarkissian of the Archdiocese of Tehran. "Sometimes they call us religious minorities -- a word I've never liked, even hated, because we are not a religious minority. We are citizens of this country."

Citizens who, some say, have more privileges under the Islamic government than even Iranian Muslims.

Because they can drink and dance:

In the Armenian Club near the church, a more festive New Year's celebration is under way. Dozens of couples twirl around the floor, their hands held high in the traditional style of Armenian dance, with live music performed by a band brought in from Armenia specifically for the occasion.

One man tells me, pouring a glass of Johnny Walker Red whisky over ice, "We have more freedoms than even the Muslims. They would never be able to do this."

Christians are allowed to have alcohol in their homes and sometimes for holiday celebrations, but for the Muslim population it's strictly forbidden.

Others at the party agree, saying they don't face discrimination in Iran and can even travel more freely, usually to Armenia and to the United States.

Of course they will say that. What would you say if you were a Christian in Iran talking to a Western reporter? But the State Department's 2005 Religious Freedom Report says this: "Zoroastrians, Jews, and Christians are the only recognized religious minorities who are guaranteed freedom to practice their religion; however, members of these recognized minority religious groups have reported imprisonment, harassment, intimidation, and discrimination based on their religious beliefs."

One woman is more circumspect about life for Armenians in Iran. "We have a little hole here in Iran," she says, "but we're very good at filling it with happiness."

* * *

Iran also has a Jewish minority, which at its peak numbered about 80,000. Shortly after the Islamic Revolution, many immigrated to the U.S. and some to Israel, leaving a community of about 25,000 today.

Still, it is the largest Jewish community in the Middle East, outside of Israel.

At the Jewish Community Center in Tehran, Dr. Unes Hammai-Lalehzar says the Jewish population has had its ups and downs, but he doesn't believe there's any discrimination from the general public....

And while they say they don't face discrimination from their fellow Iranians, Jews here can't be considered for jobs as teachers, unless they are teaching members of their own community. Government jobs, even junior level positions, are also off limits....

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald lionizes the arch-dhimmi Edward Mortimer, Kofi Annan's speechwriter at the UN:

The Director of Communications at the U.N. and Kofi Annan's Chief Speechwriter (and also his "Senior Adviser") is one Edward Mortimer, formerly with the Euro-Arab Dialogue branch of the E.U., and before that, a journalist with a variety of English newspapers. He is most famous, among those who remember what he wishes they would forget, for the absolute delight with which he greeted that primitive pro-fascist mass-murderer, the Ayatollah Khomeini, the man who in his writings carefully explains to whom it is licit to serve the cooked remains of a goat, a camel, a sheep with which you have had sexual intercourse and then killed and cooked. That allows one to deal with that famous problem immortalized in song -- "breaking-up-is-hard-to-do" -- and at the same time thriftily observing the ethic of "waste not, want not." And then, of course, there are the Ayatollah's remarks on the absolute necessity of making war on the Infidels (see, for bloodthirsty samples, Ibn Warraq's Why I Am Not a Muslim, pp 11-12, and Robert Spencer’s Islam Unveiled, p. 35).

Here is what Edward Mortimer, the man who puts the words in Kofi Annan's mouth and therefore helps to mold what pass for Kofi Annan's "thoughts," wrote when the Ayatollah Khomeini first came to power, as reported by the English writer Anthony Howard:

Way back at the start of 1979, when the Iranian people took to the streets and the late Shah was overthrown, the media - as I recall - did not so much give a shudder of horror as heave a sigh of relief. Indeed, one London periodical (the ultra-respectable, middle-of-the-road Spectator) went almost overboard in its exultation. Writing from Teheran, one of its contributors, Mr. Edward Mortimer of The Times of London, actually went so far as to begin his article with Charles James Fox's comment on the fall of the Bastille: ''How much the greatest event it is that ever happened in the world, and how much the best!'' Those words, added Mr. Mortimer, seemed to him ''entirely apposite.''

That is Mortimer on Khomeini's resistible rise: "How much the greatest event it is that ever happened in the world, and how much the best" are words, he wrote, that seemed to him "entirely apposite."

They could be living in the United States. If so, no doubt the overwhelming majority of peaceful, Sharia-abjuring Muslims in the United States will soon turn them in to authorities. "Web post urges jihadists to attack Alaska pipeline: Bullets or Explosives: Nameless author claims to be acting on al-Qaida directives," from the Anchorage Daily News, with thanks to the Alaskan:

A recent posting on a Web site purportedly affiliated with al-Qaida urges attacks against the trans-Alaska oil pipeline and Valdez tanker dock, calling on jihadists to either shower the pipe with bullets or hide and detonate explosives along its length.

The unknown author encourages small cells of four or five mujahedeen, or Muslim guerrillas, living in the United States or in Canada or Mexico to mount the attacks.

The 10-page posting includes numerous links to Web sites providing maps and other basic information about the pipeline.

Attacking oil and gas targets in the United States and other countries is key to bringing down the economy of the "American devils," the author writes, saying the message was posted in response to calls from Osama bin Laden and his top al-Qaida deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri.

The Arabic posting was discovered and translated in late December by the SITE Institute, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit organization that tracks international terrorists.

That reckless cowboy Jacques Chirac! Doesn't he want to hew to the "French way" of negotiations and compromise?

From Reuters, with thanks to all who sent this in:

France said on Thursday it would be ready to launch a targeted nuclear strike against any state that carried out a terrorist attack on French soil.

What if it isn't a state agent, Jacques, but a warrior of jihad?

In a speech defending France's costly nuclear deterrent and toughening policy against terrorism, President Jacques Chirac said Paris must be able to hit back hard at a hostile state's centers of power and its "capacity to act".

"The leaders of states who would use terrorist means against us, as well as those who would consider using in one way or another weapons of mass destruction, must understand that they would lay themselves open to a firm and adapted response on our part," Chirac said during a visit to northwestern France, where France's nuclear submarines are based.

Anarchy has set in since the PA took control. Imagine that. And yet there are still Middle Eastern Christians who think that everything in the Middle East would be just fine if only the Israelis left. "Q&A: Justus Reid Weiner on Palestinian Christians: 'If they're not sitting on their suitcases, they've already left,'" from Christianity Today, with thanks to Tom Syseskey:

Weiner is scholar-in-residence at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and recently published Human Rights of Christians in Palestinian Society.

How has the situation for Christians in Palestinian society changed since the Oslo Accords in 1993?

Before the Oslo accords, which were intended to empower Palestinians to govern themselves, Israel was in control on a day-by-day basis in the West Bank and Gaza. People could walk the streets. The presence of soldiers and local police was sufficient that people felt secure in their houses, churches, and businesses. Sure, there was a background of knowing your place and knowing where to back off, but people lived normal lives. They worked. They taught. They studied. They conducted their family affairs.

Anarchy has taken over since 1994, when the Palestinian Authority moved in. Everyone suffers in anarchy, but the weak and those who can be targeted at little or no price suffer the worst. A lot of the attacks on Christians are not ideological. They're not intended for someone who's handing out Bibles or trying to live a Christian life or speaking to people about Jesus. People see the Christians as weak, as not having connections in the entourage first of Yasser Arafat and now of Abu Mazen, as not having the economic power they once had. If they're weak and anything goes, why not burn their cars, steal their land, harass the women? You can get away with it with the Christians.

There is a great deal more. Read it all.

Sure is a good thing the Israelis withdrew from Gaza to usher in peace in our time, isn't it? "Israelis Say 20 Wounded in Tel Aviv Attack," from AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

TEL AVIV, Israel - A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at a Tel Aviv fast-food stand Thursday, killing himself and wounding 20 people in an apparent attempt to destabilize the region just a week before the Palestinian parliament election.

The militant Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility in a phone call to The Associated Press. Islamic Jihad has been responsible for all six suicide bombings in Israel in the past year, and is the only faction to boycott next Wednesday's parliament vote.

The bomber, who witnesses said pretended to be a peddler selling disposable razors, walked into "The Mayor's Shwarma" in a crowded pedestrian mall near Tel Aviv's old central bus station on Thursday afternoon.

Yehiel Ohana, who works in a nearby store selling nuts and seeds, said the bomber, wearing a black coat and black stocking cap, aroused his suspicions because of his unsteady gait.

"The guy was standing at the corner of the street, looking like he was waiting for someone," Ohana said. "He swayed strangely. Then he went into the shwarma (gyro) stand, and two to three seconds later, we heard the explosion. Everything shuddered. We entered the shwarma stand, and we saw him lying on the floor, and then we understood he was a suicide bomber."

Police initially said the explosion apparently went off in the restaurant's bathroom, possibly prematurely as the bomber tried to prepare the explosive device.

However, police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld later said the blast did not go off prematurely.

"He made his way into the shwarma place, deep into the back of the restaurant, not in the bathroom. He exploded himself inside the restaurant itself," Rosenfeld said.

At the time, most of the customers were sitting at sidewalk tables, relatively far from the bomber.

Well, at least we can be thankful that he was relatively inept.

I know absolutely nothing about this, and have never heard about it before, so as far as I know, Jihad Watch actually had nothing to do with it. If I find out anything else, I'll let you know. From AP, with thanks to all who sent this in:

(AP) - A Jordanian living in Ohio tried to recruit a Norfolk police officer for a terrorist cause, the officer testified in a federal hearing in Dayton, Ohio.

David Vazquez testified Wednesday in federal court that Mohammed Radwan Obeid told him in an e-mail that he was helping to start an operation that would dwarf the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.

Vazquez said he contacted Obeid through two Web sites, including jihadwatch.org, and contacted the FBI after reading Obeid's e-mails....

Reference librarian Laura Girolamo testified Wednesday that Obeid apparently sent e-mail about gun silencers and constructing hydrogen bombs on a computer at the Troy-Miami County Public Library. She contacted the FBI as well.

Obeid's lawyer, Shawn Kelly, challenged Vazquez's interpretation of the e-mail and said he doubted Girolamo could know for sure that Obeid sent the e-mails from the library.

Obeid's attorneys have argued that he visited terrorist Web sites because he was conducting research for a book about terrorism and world religions.

In Islamic theology traditionally the forces of jihad ask for a truce when they are weak and need to gather strength. Hmmmm. From AP:

Al-Jazeera on Thursday aired an audiotape purportedly from Osama bin Laden, who says al-Qaida is making preparations for attacks in the United States but offering a truce "with fair conditions."...

He said insurgents were winning the conflict in Iraq and warned that security measures in the West and the United States could not prevent attacks there.

"The proof of that is the explosions you have seen in the capitals of European nations," he said "The delay in similar operations happening in America has not been because of failure to break through your security measures. The operations are under preparation and you will see them in your homes the minute they are through (with preparations), with God's permission."

The speaker did not give conditions for a truce in the excerpts aired by Al-Jazeera.

"We do not mind offering you a long-term truce with fair conditions that we adhere to," he said. "We are a nation that God has forbidden to lie and cheat. So both sides can enjoy security and stability under this truce so we can build Iraq and Afghanistan, which have been destroyed in this war."

ADDENDUM: I have been asked to provide details of the truce in Islamic law. Here is a passage from Umdat al-Salik (Reliance of the Traveller), a Shafi'i Sharia manual endorsed by Al-Azhar University in Cairo as conforming to the "practice and faith of the orthodox Sunni community":

Truces are permissible, not obligatory....Interests that justify making a truce are such things as Muslim weakness because of lack of numbers or materiel, or the hope of an enemy becoming Muslim...If the Muslims are weak, a truce may be made for ten years if necessary, for the Prophet (may Allah bless him and give him peace) made a truce with the Quraysh for that long, as is related by Abu Dawud....The rulings of such a truce are inferable from those of the non-Muslim poll tax; namely, that when a valid truce has been effected, no harm may be done to non-Muslims until it expires. -- Umdat al-Salik, o9.16

This story indicates yet again that the problem of jihad terrorism is not one of race, but one of ideology. That ideology is being spread among Muslims in the United States. Because that is happening at religious sites and under religious auspices, are we not allowed to be concerned about it and defend ourselves against it? "AP Interview: FBI's LA boss says homegrown terrorists top concern," from AP, with thanks to Olivia:

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The FBI's new regional chief says the threat of homegrown militants remains a top concern five months after authorities uncovered an alleged terrorism plot by Americans targeting synagogues and military recruiting centers around Los Angeles.

"What keeps me awake at night? A homegrown cell that has taken seed and grown," J. Stephen Tidwell, assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles field office, told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday. "That is one of the things that we fear the most."

Three men - two of them U.S. born - were indicted last month on federal charges of conspiring to wage war against the government through terrorism for allegedly planning shooting rampages at the Los Angeles-area sites. All three have pleaded not guilty.

Tidwell said the homegrown threat has increased as terrorist groups have spread their ideology overseas through propaganda. He said one of the suicide bombers in the July attacks on London's public transit system was a citizen who'd been radicalized in a year.

"Now, it's an idea," he said. "That's why you've got radicalized homegrown entities picking up the sword ... that gives us pause."

Very important comment on this story. From "Moorthy and beyond" in Malaysiakini, with thanks to bamsterkins:

The alleged conversion of Moorthy and the subsequent snatching of his body from his family and the unprofessional conduct of the Syariah Court and later the High Court illustrate very vividly how state agencies in the hands of Malay/Muslims have become tools of suppression of non-Malay or non-Muslim rights. Beyond this, the growing perception among Malays that Malaysia is an Islamic state has served to fuel intolerance towards non-Malays and their religious and cultural practices. Over the last two decades or so, hundreds of non-Muslim places of workshop have been removed or demolished in the name of development while permission to construct non-Muslim places of worship have been denied by overzealous Muslims in the relevant bureaucracies. While mosques and suraus are allowed to flourish, the same is not true for non-Muslim places of worship.

Read it all.

1938 Update from Reuters, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

BERLIN (Reuters) - EU powers began circulating a draft resolution on Wednesday for a February 2 meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog asking it to report Iran to the Security Council, but Russia was seeking moves that stopped short of a formal referral.

The EU draft resolution drew scorn from Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency will hold an emergency meeting that day on Iran's nuclear work at the request of European Union powers, an IAEA spokesman said.

France, Britain, Germany and the United States are expected to push to have Tehran referred to the U.N. Security Council after it resumed research that could be used for generating electricity or making atomic bombs.

But EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said European states were considering a Russian proposal that could delay a formal referral of Iran to the council....

The United States and EU said they saw no point in further talks with Iran and it was time for the Security Council to tackle the issue, ratcheting up diplomatic pressure on Tehran and opening the door to eventual sanctions.

A commenter on this thread has posted some statements from an article Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald wrote at another place, and has made some general allegations and asked some general questions about this site and my intentions. Since these are common questions, and quotes like these from Hugh are common fodder for those who attempt to discredit our work here, I thought I would post the commenter's messages to me and my reply as a separate post, for the reference of any fair-minded readers who might happen along.

First came this message from "RickS," replying to an earlier poster:

Ispanan -

Of course, there is always Hugh's article "Islam for the Perplexed" - not written, as far as I can tell, as an "alternative" to Tancredo's suggestion.

"The second important goal is to stop all Moslem migration from Moslem lands, to the U.S., to Canada, to Western Europe. For obvious reasons, Moslems do not migrate to Eastern Europe and Russia. If possible, not only should migration be stopped, but life can be made more difficult, if not by the government, then by private individuals, so that Moslems will be discouraged from remaining.

What do I mean? I mean that we, as private citizens, do not have to hire Moslems, we do not have to buy their goods, or make their lives, economically, more rewarding. It may seem mean, and many of you may be offended by it, and I am perfectly aware that there are nice Moslems, that there are those who simply ignore the main tenets of Islam. But as a group, the Moslems are a threat to me and those I love. Even the innocent ones, merely by being here, swell Moslem political power."

In the St. Petersburg Times article that was recently linked to on JihadWatch, Robert Spencer said that "he bans" the "racists" who visit his site. Both quotes from him. Now, I know there are many among you who will say "Muslim" is a not a race. Clearly true, but the quote was in the context of people who are bigoted against Muslims. (To put this in context, the definition of Anti-Semitism in the M-W dictionary is: "hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group." I'll assume good faith in your statement and assume you meant the same, just replacing the word "Jews" with "Muslims")

Seems that Hugh, "as a group, the Moslems are a threat to me and those I love", qualifies.

Mr. Spencer: Will you a) clarify whether you also hold similar opinions to those above and b) ban Hugh from JihadWatch as one of the "racists" you claim to abhor?

Will you also make an unconditional statement that you are against those who hold or practice "hostility toward or discrimination against any religious, ethnic, or racial group, including Muslims"?

Thank you.

Then another poster recommended that he email me, as I usually don't read the comments here, to which "RickS" responded:

Archimedes -

Thank you - good idea.

Re: the Quran, yes I have read it. I don't dispute the fact that the much quoted verses are in there. I also don't think that what is in the Quran is any worse than what is found in the Bible (esp the Old Testament). All Muslims that I know believe in the Quran literally, but also have a very strong grasp of the concept of context - that much of the Quran was day to day instruction at the time it was revealed, while other partss were eternal mandates. Almost all of the verses quoted by those who want to demonize it fall into the former.

I do dispute the idea that the quoted constitute a majority of the verses, and I doubt the motives of people, like Spencer, who emphasize that without a single mention of the more positive, and common, elements of the Quran.

I also know, from first hand experience being in the Middle East, that Jihadist ideology is not widespread amongst Muslims. Nationalism explains (but does not excuse) most of the violence (Kashmir, Palestinians, Thailand, Iran, etc) better than religion. That jihadist groups have infiltrated these groups is very dangerous, I agree.

Frankly, I am as worried about Jihadists as everyone here is. I also agree with Stephen Schwartz that the Wahhabis are extremely dangerous, and they they must be stopped.

But I strongly believe that people like Hugh, who would easily be counted as an Anti-Semite if he had written the stuff he publishes about Jews instead of Muslims, are bigots of the worst kind.

And I believe Robert Spencer is trying to have it both ways - operating what I do consider to be a thinly disguised hate site while providing what I also consider to be valuable news and information about a real threat.

However, RickS did not email me, but Jihad Watch reader Miss Moneypenney alerted me to his posts, whereupon I posted this reply:

Nidra Poller at Tech Central Station discusses the recent train attacks in France and the dhimmi coverage they received:

Paris 5 January 2006 -- French opinion makers are against the clash of civilizations the same way they are against the war in Iraq: fervently sure of their own moral superiority. But reality has a way of its own, and the Great Train Razzia that rang in the New Year on the Côte d’Azur is a smashing illustration of the clash of civilizations....

Don't miss Poller's account of what happened on the train. Then:

At approximately 7:30 AM, the conductor decided that the train was no longer safe and stopped at les Arcs. Employees have the right to lay down their tools and walk off the job if their safety is endangered. According to some accounts the gendarmes were waiting on the platform, others claim it took them half an hour or more to arrive. One gendarme describes “prostrate passengers who didn’t dare intervene.” Little by little the gendarmes fanned out through the 10 cars of the train, “without confronting the troublemakers.” The train was immobilized for an hour-and-a-half, the gendarmes tried to encourage passengers to file complaints, but for some reason didn’t get much of a response. A few passengers fled the train. Including one young woman who had been sexually assaulted. When she resumed her voyage on a later train with a higher fare, the conductor made her pay the difference. Bonk! Clash of civilizations. A law-abiding young woman, victim of the traditional jihad treatment of conquered peoples, is expected to pay the correct fare. A horde of wild bandidos is allowed to run riot up and down the train. And when a handful, a tiny handful are caught, the judge sets most of them free.

Except for Aziz Ed Doubia of Moroccan origin and a repeat offender named Ashraf Bouzizoua; they are in prison awaiting trial. The train pulled out of Les Arcs, under a light guard of fifteen gendarmes, who got off in Toulon as three policemen got on but for some strange reason were not able to curtail the razzia. As the train reached the outskirts of Marseille, the junior jihadis pulled the emergency brake, jumped the train, turned around and bashed and stoned it, and then scattered to their just abodes, there to sleep off a most exciting New Year’s Eve escapade.

It is easy to understand why the “youths” preferred to leave before the train pulled into the station, but who can understand why the passengers didn’t flee while it was docked at Les Arcs? Were they too terrified to try to escape? Did they think the “youths” would catch them and slit their throats? They did promise to bleed (meaning in fact to slaughter) anyone who dared denounce them. Or were the passengers so dhimmified that they considered their punishment to be justified? Or normal?

Read it all.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald discusses some members of Brandeis' faculty, and the implications of their hiring practices:

Brandeis has gained attention recently for the presence of Khalil Shikaki, who is suspected of ties to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, on its faculty. Previously the Brandeis Near Eastern and Judaic Studies department was best known for the presence of Baghdad-born Kanan Makiya, the Sylvia K. Hassenfeld Professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies. When the Hassenfeld family (of Hasbro Toys) decided to endow a chair at Brandeis in Islamic studies, a lecture was delivered by Bernard Lewis. Asked by the wife of the donor as to whether or not he had any ideas about who might hold the chair, Lewis was characteristically reticent. Asked about Kanan Makiya by an enthusiastic questioner, he replied that the best book by Makiya was the "one on architecture" (that is, about the kitsch of Saddam Hussein's monuments to himself) -- not exactly a ringing endorsement. Nonetheless, Makiya was appointed to the chair.

There are dozens of Western scholars of Islam. Kanan Makiya is not a scholar of Islam. He was a political emigre from Iraq whose claim on our attention is that he publicly deplored Saddam Hussein and wrote about it ("The Republic of Fear") and that he was one of the few Arabs to denounce the massacre of Kurds. So he is on the right side, more or less, though not quite as far along as Fouad Ajami. He still thinks the "Palestinians" can be talked about as a separate people, and holds astonishingly conventional Arab Muslim views about the Arab siege of Israel. His sympathy for murdered Kurds is clear; a larger understanding of why the phrase "the Arab world" is both deceptive and cruel, and that the Jews, too, might possess rights to a homeland with defensible borders, and that the essentially endless nature of the Arab opposition ought to be admitted to and spoken about -- by advanced Arabs such as himself -- is something that has not yet entered his head.

Cal Thomas is right. Most people still aren't taking this threat seriously, and their attention is focused instead on chimeras and, worst of all, on those who are trying to call attention to this threat. From the Sacramento Bee, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Beginning with the Revolutionary War, when British agents and sympathizers attempted to derail independence, people have tried to infiltrate the United States for the purpose of undermining and destroying it. In modern times, communism and fascism have sent agents among us, but we discovered their plans and defeated them here and abroad.

Now comes what may be the greatest threat: radical Islam, whose "agents" may have established a base more solid and more dangerous than anything we've encountered before. The good news is they speak openly of their intentions. The bad news is that many of us are not taking them seriously....

The West does not know how many share this twisted religiosity. Instead, political leaders repeat the bromide that Islam is a "peaceful religion" and radicals are trying to hijack it. Are we being infiltrated by people who, on the outside, pretend to be peaceful and tolerant, but inside wish to overthrow our government?

One clue may be found on (http://muslim-canada.org/muslimstats.html), a Canadian Muslim Web page. In a discussion on Muslim population statistics, which includes a chart projecting that the world Muslim population will outgrow the Christian population by 2025, it is noted that Islam is growing nearly 3 percent per year, faster than the total growth in world population. While the ratio of older to younger people is weighted to the older in the West, the reverse is true among Muslims. We have been warned.

Read it all.

And why? Not because of Israel. From the VOANews, with thanks to RG:

Israelis say the number of Christians in Israel has not declined. There has actually been a slight increase, bringing the total number of Christians close to 120-thousand. "In Israel they [the Christians] have a small percentage of increase, that is 1.4 pecent of increase per year, which is about the same as that of the Jews in Israel," says Daphne Tsimhoni, a professor of modern Middle East History at Technion, Israel's Institute of Technology.

Leon Hadar, a Middle East analyst and author of the book, Sandstorm: Policy Failure in the Middle East, says attitudes toward Christians in Israel may be changing. "There is an interesting development, in which some of the Russian immigrants who came to Israel, probably around 300-thousand to half-a-million are not Jewish, says Mr. Hadar. "They are Christians. And it is quite possible that, if that community - we are not talking about an Arab-Christian community, but an Israeli Hebrew-speaking community - becomes integrated into Israeli society, Israel will become less and less of an exclusive Jewish state, and will become more open to integrating Christians into Israeli society."

Some observers say Christians in the Middle East have fared better under secular governments. Jonathan Adelman, professor of political science at the University of Denver, Colorado, says the rise of fundamentalist Islam is a concern.

"When they hear that Sharia law needs to be introduced, which basically means that Christians cannot testify in court as equals, that they are inferior - this is something that is very hard for any minority in the world, does not matter if they are Christians or not - very hard to understand or to accept in the 21st century, which is about tolerance and is about modernity. That's why we've had millions of them get up and flee to other parts of the world, where they don't feel threatened."

Jamie Glazov interviews Jesse Petrilla of the United American Committee in FrontPage about an important upcoming initiative. One caveat: modern political Islam may have roots in fascism, but political Islam itself is much older than fascism.

Frontpage Interview's guest today is Jesse Petrilla, the founder of the fast growing organization The United American Committee (UAC), a federation of concerned Americans promoting awareness of threats to Homeland Security, primarily focusing on Islamic extremism in America. The UAC is planning a National Rally Against Islamofascism Day on February 1.

Jesse Petrilla in the Golan Heights on a recent fact-finding mission in the Middle East.

FP: Jesse Petrilla, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

Petrilla: It's good to be here Jamie.

FP: So your United American Committee (UAC) is having a National Rally Against Islamofascism Day on Feb.1. Tell us about it.

Petrilla: The National R.A.I.D. (Rally Against Islamofascism Day) is taking place so that citizens everywhere at the grassroots level can rally against Islamofascism in an attempt to awaken society and our government. We picked Feb 1st, a day that will not coincide with any holiday, so that we can send a clear message that we are standing up, and rallying against the Islamic extremist enemies of our nation and those who support them.

We have 18 rally locations scheduled so far in America, and numerous international rallies on February 1st as well -- including the Czech Republic, Australia, and others. These rallies will also send a message of support for our troops and also for law enforcement, those men and women who protect us in the war on terror.

Any and all individuals interested in forming a rally of their own are encouraged to gather their friends and head out to a busy street corner, or outside of a government building with flags and signs in hand, to rally on Feb. 1st in the National R.A.I.D.

FP: So what are some of the goals the UAC hopes to attain with the National R.A.I.D.?

Petrilla: It is aimed at awakening the American people and the American government to the Islamic extremist threat. It is also a way to let concerned citizens know that they are not alone. If a citizen is concerned with the radical Islamist threat to our nation, when they see other people standing up, they will hopefully stand up as well. We need to let people know that it is OK to confront Islamic extremism, regardless of whether or not it is politically correct. We will never defeat our enemies if we are afraid to fight them and call them what they are.

In FrontPage this morning I discuss the ACLU/CAIR suit against the Bush wiretapping program, and some of its implications on both sides (news links in the original):

On January 5, 2005, a drug runner named Noel Exinia, who was engaged in transporting over five hundreds pounds of cocaine from Mexico to New York City, revealed in a telephone conversation that he was interested in other kinds of cargo as well. He spoke about twenty Iraqis, all between the ages of 25 and 33, who would pay $8,000 to get past the Mexico-U.S. border and into the United States. These Iraqis were, he said, in the Mexican cities of Monterrey, Chiapas and Puebla, and were ready to cross into Texas; ultimately, they hoped to get to the Northeast. According to Exinia, they were “la gente de Osama” — Osama’s people. What’s more, they were “dangerous…really bad people.” Even Exinia, with all his experience in the drug underworld as part of the Gulf Cartel, admitted he was afraid of them.

No one would have known any of this, at least until these Iraqis committed a terrorist act on American soil, had it not been for the fact that Exinia’s call was recorded. The recording was permissible under the U.S. Patriot Act.

And that, says Exinia’s lawyer, John Blaylock, is why no one should ever have heard anything about Exinia’s phone call. “This is an example,” he maintains, “of a lot of hot air with a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing….Terrorism is the flavor of the week. If they could have, they would have charged him with terrorism to justify the Patriot Act that is coming up for renewal.” However, Exinia’s previous lawyer, William May, said that he thought the terrorism allegations against his former client were true.

Say, how many of you who comment here have been arrested and convicted on terrorism-related offenses?

No need to go public; I'm not trying to embarrass you or anything. Just send me the court documents at director@jihadwatch.org.

Why do I ask? Well, the Council on American Islamic Relations is mighty exercised about some unmoderated comments here (yes, they've been removed, but CAIR, well, doesn't care). They just don't like you people at all. I'm sorry to be the one to break it to you, but I don't think there's any chance that you'll be invited to the Hoopers' next Eid.

But they don't seem to have much to say at all about their own officials who have been arrested and convicted for, you know, little things like active participation in the Virginia jihad network.

If Jihad Watch is a "hate site" for unmoderated comments by people whose identity and motives I do not know, whose views find no echo in my own (for if they did, they could just quote me, but they don't, and can't), and which are contradicted by other posters here, then what is CAIR for hiring and employing for long periods individuals who clearly subscribe to the supremacist, violent ideology that is held by the global jihadists?

"...they asked Iran — as then French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin put it — to give them 'something with which to silence the Americans.'"

Fools. They're the mouse asking the cat for something with which to silence the dog.

Amir Taheri in the New York Post, with thanks to Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi:

January 17, 2006 -- TREATING Iran's alleged nuclear ambition as a hot potato, the European trio of Britain, Germany and France has decided to pass it on to the International Atomic Energy Agency and thence to the United Nations' Security Council. "Our talks with Iran have reached a dead end," says Germany's new Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

In truth, however, the trio's three-year talks with Iran started at a dead end.

The talks began when Iran admitted that it had been lying to the International Atomic Energy Agency and violating the terms of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) for 18 years but promised not to do so again.

Legally speaking, Iran should have been referred to the Security Council at that time. But the Europeans rejected U.S. demands to that effect and decided to forgive Iran for its past sins — much as a deceived spouse might show magnanimity toward a sinning partner.

In exchange, they asked Iran — as then French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin put it — to give them "something with which to silence the Americans."

De Villepin had devised the scheme as a means of exposing what he called "the follies of American policy"; Iran could be dealt with "the French way," meaning negotiations and compromise rather than knuckle-rapping or worse.

The Iranians had good reason to welcome the European offer. It removed the serious-seeming threat of military action, while isolating the United States. And it gave Tehran time to speed up its nuclear program.

Yes, read it all.

Joe Kaufman of Americans Against Hate responds to S. I. Rosenbaum's hit-and-run attack in the St. Petersburg Times, with this letter to the Times:

Recently, I called up one of your writers to complain about two of the articles she had written for your publication, dated December 31st and January 1st. Both of the pieces insinuated that my appearance on Fox News, an article I had written for Frontpage Magazine, and my group's website, AmericansAgainstHate.com had caused death threats to come to a Tampa-area Presbyterian-owned campgrounds (Cedarkirk) and a Muslim organization (Muslim American Society of Tampa) that was planning on using the campgrounds for a "retreat." This was irresponsible journalism at its worst, as the violent nature of the organization and its speakers were given a pass.

Following my complaint, the writer of the articles, Sara Rosenbaum, sent me an e-mail saying that she wanted to do a piece on me. I agreed, understanding that, given the past two, it was probably going to be biased against me, and unfortunately, I was correct. In 'Are bloggers against hate, or feeding it?' dated January 16th, once again, Rosenbaum insinuated that I had caused the threats. She went as far as to say that images placed on my group's website had been responsible for death threats "pouring [sic] in to the Tampa Muslim American Society." No mention was made of the material found on MAS-Tampa's website discussing the murder of Jews or about the waging of holy war against Christians and Jews. No mention was made of the fact that one of the speakers of the "retreat," Mazen Mokhtar, had created a website that raised funds and recruited terrorists for Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, or that his website was also used as a portal to the official site of Hamas. All of this information was presented to Rosenbaum, but once again, I was the bad guy, and the terrorists were given a pass.

Which side are they on? One small example: this program evidently uncovered evidence that 20 Iraqis -- identified as "Osama's people" -- were offering money to be smuggled across the border from Mexico into the United States. Would CAIR and the ACLU prefer that they cross the border unhindered?

"Groups Sue to Stop Domestic Spying Program," from AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

NEW YORK - Federal lawsuits were filed Tuesday seeking to halt President Bush's domestic eavesdropping program, calling it an "illegal and unconstitutional program" of electronic eavesdropping on American citizens.

The lawsuits accusing Bush of exceeding his constitutional powers were filed in federal court in New York by the Center for Constitutional Rights and in Detroit by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The New York suit, filed on behalf of the center and individuals, names Bush, the head of the National Security Agency, and the heads of the other major security agencies, challenging the NSA's surveillance of persons within the United States without judicial approval or statutory authorization.

It asked a judge to stop Bush and government agencies from conducting warrantless surveillance of communications in the United States.

The Detroit suit, which also names the NSA, was filed by the ACLU, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Greenpeace and several individuals.

D. C. Watson just sent this in, responding to the Magnificent Rosenbaum's head-shaking wonderment at the fact that I "won't stop blogging":

That Robert Spencer just won't stop blogging.

And why the hell should he?

If you want a good laugh at some people who feel that their opinion should be the rule, check out the website of the Council on American Islamic Relations, where they label Jihad Watch a "hate site."

Of course, nobody who runs Jihad Watch said any of the things they quote, and the inflammatory comments have been removed, but CAIR doesn't care about that.

Now it appears that speaking the truth about fanatical Muslims here and abroad -- speaking clearly and honestly about their lying, underhanded, racist, and violent ways -- qualifies in CAIR's view as "hate."

Why don't we talk about hate for a minute?

Does the Council on American Islamic Relations have anything to say about its officers that have been convicted on terror- and fraud-related crimes?

How many of the Jihad Watch staff have been convicted of such offenses?

Has anyone on the Jihad Watch staff ever publicly stated that they were in support of a terrorist organization, as CAIR's Nihad Awad has when he said that he was "in support of the Hamas movement"?

Does Robert Spencer or anyone else on the Jihad Watch staff complain about Muslim sites being monitored for increased radiation levels, despite the fact that Osama bin Laden and his zombies have stated that their goal is to set off a nuclear device in an American city, and that jihadists have used mosques as bases of operations around the world?

Has Robert Spencer, Hugh Fitzgerald, Rebecca Bynum, or any other Jihad Watch staffer ever said that suicide bombers are not terrorists, because they kill themselves for Christianity, as CAIR's Omar Ahmad has said of Islamic suicide bombers killing themselves for Islam?

Has Robert Spencer or any of the Jihad Watch staff ever said that they could not be full citizens of the United States because their values collide with those of America's, as has prominent Muslim spokesman Ihsan Bagby?

Has the Jihad Watch site ever posted a column celebrating the deaths of Muslims?

Has the CAIR website ever issued a condemnation of the literature found in American mosques, preaching hate for the United States?

Has the CAIR website ever issued a condemnation of the madrassas that are on American soil and yet teach their students that Christianity and Judaism are false religions, and that the students should be loyal to the Qur'an, not to the United States Constitution?

The idiots in the mainstream media have proven to be useless. They are quick to condemn those who speak the truth about what lives among us and just as quick to defend those among us who are here with bad intentions.

Are bloggers against hate, or feeding it?

Blogs dedicated to protecting America against terrorism are troubling the Muslim community.

Here is how Ahmed Bedier, spokesman for the Tampa Bay chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, described Joe Kaufman of Americans Against Hate: "He's spreading lies, slandering individuals...These are vigilantes."

Oh come on, Bedier, if this were true, your sensational gathering of peaceful, loving Muslims over at CAIR would be working on filing a lawsuit for slander or libel against Mr. Kaufman, just as they did against Andrew Whitehead of Anti-CAIR and Congressman Cass Ballenger.

The Council on American Islamic Relations: its name is inappropriate, and its mission statement is meaningless. Its officials have adhered to neither one. CAIR says that its "mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding."

Well, they have certainly enhanced understanding of Islam, although not perhaps always in ways they intended to do so. However, when it comes to "encouraging dialogue" and "building coalitions" they are about as potent as a wet match.

So who is gonna get us all killed first? The gutless morons in the mainstream media to whom groups like CAIR run, screaming "Islamophobia"? Or our vote-digging politicians who have fallen for false Muslim population voter figures, and who hold hands with the Saudi jihadists?

Pelosi

McKinney

Bush

The people who know the truth, despite all the never-ending efforts to hide it from them, must never stop blogging. Truth is not bigotry. Truth is not vigilantism. Truth is truth.

Shikaki, by the way, has been lionized for years as a moderate Muslim voice. From the New York Sun, with thanks to Looney Tunes:

WASHINGTON - Concern is mounting about the possible connections between a prominent Palestinian Arab scholar, Khalil Shikaki, and leading members of the terrorist organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Government wiretaps introduced at the trial of a Florida professor accused of operating the American wing of PIJ, Sami Al-Arian, show Mr. Shikaki distributed money in the West Bank for Al-Arian associates allegedly tied to PIJ - conversations the federal government argues may represent terrorist activity.

Mr. Shikaki is, among many scholarly affiliations, the founder and director of a prominent polling institute, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, and last year was named a scholar at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University. Among Palestinian Islamic Jihad's more notorious acts was an April 1995 bombing in Israel that killed a Brandeis student, Alisa Flatow.

He is also the brother of the assassinated founder of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Fathi Shikaki, and a former director of the Florida-based World & Islam Studies Enterprise. WISE was founded by Mr. Al-Arian and connected to several other figures involved in the recent PIJ terrorism trials in Tampa, Fla., during which Mr. Al-Arian and three co-defendants were acquitted.

Mr. Shikaki has not been indicted on any criminal charges in America, and has repeatedly denied any connection to his brother's terrorist operation; any knowledge of the connections between WISE and the Islamic Committee for Palestine - both alleged by the government to be front groups for Islamic Jihad - and PIJ, and any knowledge that top figures in the organization with whom he had associated, including its current leader, Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, and an Al-Arian associate affiliated with WISE, Sameeh Hammoudeh, were at all involved in PIJ. Mr. Hammoudeh was one of the co-defendants in the Al-Arian case, and was acquitted on all counts.

Wiretaps of conversations between Messrs. Shikaki, Shallah, and Hammoudeh introduced as evidence at the Al-Arian trial, however, suggest that Mr. Shikaki distributed money in the West Bank for Al-Arian associates, who raised the funds in America, and then stopped the money transfers in January 1995, shortly after PIJ was declared a blocked terrorist organization by President Clinton.

Read it all.

Yeah, sure, okay, but what about the real threat: guys like Kaufman and Spencer? From The Telegraph, with thanks to all who sent this in:

Biological weapons pose a far more serious long-term terrorist threat to the West than nuclear weapons, according to Washington's leading counter-terrorism expert.

And Henry "Hank" Crumpton, the newly-appointed head of counter-terrorism at the US State Department, believes that it is simply a matter of time before international terrorist groups such as al-Qa'eda acquire weapons of mass destruction and use them in attacks.

In an exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Crumpton, who previously spent 20 years working for the Central Intelligence Agency, warned yesterday that the "war on terror" was likely to last for decades.

"This threat has changed the way we will fight wars in the future," he said.

"We are talking about micro targets such as al-Qa'eda which, when combined with WMD, have a macro impact. I rate the probability of terror groups using WMD [to attack Western targets] as very high. It is simply a question of time.

"And it is not just the nuclear threat that bothers me. I think, if anything, the biological threat is going to grow.

"As catastrophic as a nuclear attack would be, it would be self-contained. But if you look at a worst-case scenario for a biological attack, it would be difficult to determine whether or not it was a terrorist attack, and it would be far more difficult to contain."

Sorge Diaz of Western Resistance, whose site was named as was this one in S. I. Rosenbaum's St. Petersburg Times piece yesterday, has detailed four unstated premises that led Rosenbaum to slant her article the way she did. These premises show up in many, many other mainstream media pieces about jihad and terrorism as well.

Unstated Premise 1; hate is always bad, except when it isn't: The article's title is telling: "Are bloggers against hate, or feeding it?" The writer examines in great detail how the actions of bloggers either lead or might lead to hatred against Muslims, but no attention is paid to hatred by Muslim themselves, or to the message of Islam. Only hatred--or "hatred"--by non-muslims is worth reporting.

Unstated Premise 2; Comments by non-muslims should be examined, comments by Muslims accepted uncritically: The message of Muslim spokesmen is never critically examined in the piece, while the message of their critics, well....

Unstated Premise 3; There is such a thing as Moderate Islam: The existence of Moderate Islam, a great, wonderful doctrine that will save us all, is assumed away; it is never looked for, let alone found. The History and Theology of Islam is conveniently ignored.

Unstated Premise 4; The Government is Always Right, when it agrees with us: I'll give you the passage:

Daniel Sutherland of the Department of Homeland Security said the government is more interested in forging bonds with Muslims.
"There is no clash of civilizations going on here, there is no "us' and "them,"' he said.

Stop the presses, a guy from the Department of Homeland Security repeated the Government's official view, it must be true! It amazes me how reporters capable of unbound skepticism of the Government in some areas, become willing peddlers of the official line when that line agrees with the "Islam is a Religion of Peace" canard.

Read it all.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald discusses Islamic uses of the histories of other peoples, and the implications of the growth of the field of serious scholarship on the origins of Islam:

If you are a Muslim, you believe that Muhammad made his "Night Journey," or Miraj, from the top of what non-Muslims know as the Temple Mount. Though Jerusalem is mentioned nowhere in the Qur'an, the Umayyad Caliph wanted to claim Jerusalem, the city holy to Jews and Christians, for Islam – and for precisely that reason. Islam had to appropriate the holy sites of prior religions just as it did the prophets and the stories (in new versions) of the prior two monotheisms whose adherents lived -- richer, more numerous, and more advanced -- in the very lands the formerly pagan, now islamized Arab tribes managed to conquer.

The Umayyad caliph (who had a role in the development of early Islam) decided that the "farthest mosque" mentioned in the Qur'an, from which Muhammad made his "Night Journey" up to the seventh heaven and back, all within 24 hours, must have been situated on the Temple Mount. Other early Muslims disputed where that "Night Journey" might have been made, but it surely made geopolitical sense -- and Islam is a geopolitical doctrine and plan -- to fix the site at Jerusalem. In one fell swoop, the appropriating faith of Islam appropriated the city that was holy to both Jews and Christians, and for good measure planted the flag of Islam right on top of the holiest site for Jews, the Temple Mount. Talk about two birds and one stone.

For appropriation of the major figures, the stories, and the holy sites that are important in other religions (which is why mosques in India were built on, and using stone quarried from, Hindu or Buddhist temples) is part of Islam. The Temple Mount is Muslim, of course. Jerusalem is Muslim. Constantinople, by rights, is Muslim, and so is Hagia Sophia. And next after Constantinople, according to a "vision" of Muhammad that circulates widely in the Muslim world and on Muslim websites, the next city to become Muslim will be -- Rome.

The Vatican as a Mosque: that should get someone's attention. And once it is established as such, don’t be surprised if you hear some farrago to the effect that long, long ago, lost in the mists of the distant past, there was a mosque there -- before there was any church.

Andrew Whitehead of Anti-CAIR has sent this letter to my friend S. I. Rosenbaum, the St. Petersburg Times "journalist," about her recent article about Joe Kaufman and me -- about which I wrote yesterday:

Dear Ms. Rosenbaum,

I’ve read your column, “Are bloggers against hate, or feeding it?”

In your column, you attempt to paint both Joe Kaufman of Americans Against Hate and Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch as something they are not...in short, you use inuendo, unsupported by facts or any real research whatsoever to justify your preconceived notions of what Joe and Robert do.

Your cheap shot at two fine Americans who are standing up and doing something that you so-called “journalists” in the press should be doing is not only an insult to the profession of journalism; it directly endangers our country by blinding unknowing Americans to the threat of radical Islam. The threat is real; it is here; and it will kill you.

As for quoting Ahmed Bedier of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)...do you really know anything about him or CAIR? Are you aware that CAIR’s current executive director is a former spokesman for the Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP), an Islamic terrorist group that has direct ties to Hamas? Do you have any idea how many Americans have been terror-murdered in the name of Allah by Hamas? Do you know how many CAIR officials are currently in prison on terrorism charges?

I am proud to know of Joe’s and Robert’s work and to have shared my thoughts with them. I’d rather have the two of them standing behind me than any thousand so-called “journalists.”

May I suggest you visit the website of Dr. Daniel Pipes for another perspective on the threat of radical Islam?

You’d have thought 9-11 would have been a wake-up call to America’s journalists. What’s it going to take for you to “get it,” a mushroom cloud over Miami?

I’m not asking you to take a propaganda line against Islam; I’m only asking that you tell the truth.

Respectfully,
Andrew Whitehead
Director, Anti-Council on American-Islamic Relations (ACAIR)

Hany Abu-Assad may have been surprised, but I certainly am not. What could be more fashionable among the glitterati these days than the glorification of terrorist murderers and the hatred of our own culture and civilization? From Reuters, with thanks to Cindy:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Palestinian filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad was perhaps the most surprised man at the Golden Globes on Monday as his drama of suicide bombers crossing into Israel, "Paradise Now," was named the year's best foreign language film.

Abu-Assad, who works out of Holland but is now looking for a house in Hollywood Hills, had expected to lose as he did earlier this month to martial arts comedy "Kung Fu Hustle" at the Broadcast Film Critics awards.

He said he just assumed that too many people had either not seen his film or simply assumed it was too controversial. After all, Palestinian films are a rarity in the United States, especially ones that try to explain the politics of despair.

In his acceptance speech, Abu-Assad made a plea for a Palestinian state, saying he saw the Golden Globe as "a recognition that the Palestinians deserve their liberty and equality unconditionally....

"I am surprised that we won but I don't believe my film is controversial. It just shows something from a different side that we are all worried about," he told reporters backstage at the Globes.

Uh, that is, not that he took sides, of course, heh heh:

Abu-Assad insisted that he had not taken sides in the film but had tried to explain why two seemingly simple garage mechanics would be willing to kill themselves and others. His film presents arguments on all sides of the issue.

"It is a work of cinema. Cinema shows you different points of view," he added.

"We have never had a dispute with Hamas or anyone else regarding the principle of resistance." Remember that statement the next time some learned analyst tries to draw a sharp distinction between the "Arab nationalist" and "Islamist" wings of the "Palestinian" movement. From MEMRITV, with thanks to a tea-loving snail:

Following are excerpts from an interview given by the Palestinian Authority's National Security Advisor Jibril Rajoub, which was aired on Al-Jazeera TV on January 11, 2006.

Jibril Rajoub: We were the ones who fought and kept up the resistance, sir. We never removed the resistance from our platform, and we never will.

As you know, it was Marwan Al-Barghouthi who founded the the Al-Aqsa Brigades, according to a decision by Yasser Arafat. Marwan was the chief of staff of the Al-Aqsa Brigades. Marwan and Abu Ali Yatta head the Fatah list of candidates, and this serves as a message that has to do with the resistance and the struggle.

We have never had a dispute with Hamas or anyone else regarding the principle of resistance. In all our agreements our brothers in Hamas and the other factions, we always insist that resistance is our legitimate right.

This would not be a "breakthrough." This would be a large-scale dhimmi capitulation. The fact that the Iranians think this is a great idea indicates that they don't envision it putting any brakes on their plans whatsoever. "Iran breakthrough may be in sight," from The Scotsman, with thanks to Zhu:

A POTENTIAL breakthrough in the nuclear stand-off with Iran came last night when the Iranian ambassador in Moscow praised a proposal to move Tehran's uranium enrichment programme to Russia.

As Britain, the United States, Russia, France and China met in London yesterday to discuss how to handle Iran's illegal nuclear development, the country was facing the growing certainty that it would be referred to the UN Security Council.

While China remained resolutely silent on the possibility of sanctions - a move which it has the power to veto - Russia made significant moves towards the western stance on Iran's nuclear programme.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, said last night that his position is "very close" to that of the United States and Britain. And it appeared that he could hold the key to a resolution when Iran's ambassador to Russia, Gholamreza Ansari, welcomed an offer to move the Iranian uranium enrichment programme to Russia.

Such a move would mean Iran, which is developing a missile which could reach Israel, could not acquire enough material for a bomb.

"As far as Russia's proposal is concerned, we consider it constructive and are carefully studying it. This is a good initiative to resolve the situation. We believe that Iran and Russia should find a way out of this jointly," said Mr Ansari.

More help from our friend and ally. "Iran nuclear bid 'fault of West,'" from the BBC, with thanks to Mackie:

Saudi Arabia has said the West is partly to blame for the current nuclear stand-off with Iran because it allowed Israel to develop nuclear weapons.

The Saudi foreign minister told the BBC statements made by Iran's president were "extreme" but that diplomacy was the way to resolve the crisis....

Prince Saud told the BBC that the West was partly responsible for the current stand-off with Iran over its nuclear policy because, he said, it had helped Israel develop its own nuclear arsenal.

Islamization of Europe Update from The Scotsman, with thanks to all who sent this in:

AN ISLAMIC campaign group has called for a Catholic primary school to be based on the Muslim faith.

The Campaign for Muslim Schools said 90 per cent of pupils at St Albert's Primary, in the Pollokshields area of Glasgow, are Muslim, yet children are having to take part in Catholic rituals like saying the Lord's Prayer and attending mass.

Osama Saeed, co-ordinator of the alliance of Glasgow's main mosques and Muslim organisations, said he could see no reason why the main faith of the school should not change.

He said: "Clearly the parents of that area find a faith school, even if it is of another denomination, preferable to a secular one. But surely it should be possible for them to have one that is relevant to their own faith.

"To move towards this would be a fantastic example of good faith - in more ways than one - on the part of the Church."

Great. When will we get some examples of good faith from Muslim communities in the West?

Video here (thanks to Roger L. Simon).

Why we need to open up ANWR and initiate a Manhattan Project to find new energy sources immediately -- as I have been recommending for some time now. From The Guardian, with thanks to Mackie:

Iran stepped up its defiance of international pressure over its nuclear programme yesterday by warning of soaring oil prices if it is subjected to economic sanctions. As diplomats from the US, Europe, Russia, and China prepared to meet today in London to discuss referring Tehran to the UN security council, Iran's economy minister, Davoud Danesh-Jafari, said the country's position as the world's fourth-largest oil producer meant such action would have grave consequences.

"Any possible sanctions from the west could possibly, by disturbing Iran's political and economic situation, raise oil prices beyond levels the west expects," he told Iranian state radio.
In a provocative move, Iran also announced plans yesterday to convene a "scientific" conference to examine the evidence supporting the Holocaust. The news comes weeks after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad provoked a global outcry by describing the slaughter of 6 million Jews by the Nazis in the second world war as a "myth".

Mr Danesh-Jafari's comments echoed fears voiced by energy market analysts after crude oil prices last week rose above $64 (£36.50) a barrel as hopes faded of a diplomatic solution to the dispute.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald discusses the Wahhabi tendency to label the current rulers of Muslim states "Infidels."

In the Qur’an and Sunnah, it is clear: Infidels are to be despised. Infidels are to be condemned. Infidels do not deserve to keep their own inferior, and outrageous, political and social arrangements. Infidels are Kufr, ungrateful to Allah, wretches. The vilest of creatures (Qur’an 98:6). Islam is "to dominate and not to be dominated." You may use whatever instruments prove effective, seriatim or in tandem, to ensure the conditions for the spread of Islam.

With all this one cannot disagree.

But, alas, in Saudi Arabia, and in Kuwait, and in the U.A.E., and elsewhere, we find that some people have begun to use the term "Infidel" for their rulers. This is, of course, the principle of takfir, so beloved of the Wahhabis. They seem to think that they can simply call "Infidels" anyone they wish to oppose. And they imply that the House of Al-Saud, or Al-Sabah, or Al-Thani, or Al-thisorthat, are in cahoots with Infidels.

“No,” the denizens of those Houses might respond. “We are not in cahoots with the Infidels. We use the Infidels. There are those who think they can get at us by calling us Infidels. But we are not. Both the Infidels themselves, and apparently these wild men who try to bomb us, are confused, and confused in the same way. We charge the Infidels $60/barrel for oil that they discovered, that they make use of, and that costs us litle more than $1/barrel to lift. We smile, and smile, but we twist them around our little fingers. We use the West for shopping sprees, of every kind. It's a vast fun-fair-cum-brothel for us. We buy up stock in the major media companies, so we can get on the phone and change a headlline at will. We have bought up, directly but more often indirectly, many of their diplomats and even their intelligence agents. A former C.I.A. station chief, a few dozen diplomats in London, Washington, Paris -- we even managed to have the Italian ambassador ‘revert’ to Islam recently. It is we who recognize that, for the moment, we are temporarily unable to compete militarily with the Infidels.

A number of people have emailed me to let me know that they cannot comment. The comments feature seems to be not working at this point. I have contacted Tech Support about this and will have the comments up and running as soon as possible. I apologize for the inconvenience.

I am also having some technical difficulties that are making posting very difficult this morning, so updates may be slow. No, the site has not been hacked. Yes, your email addresses are secure.

I will post technical updates when I have new information.

In Annie Hall, Woody Allen's character Alvy Singer says: "Lyndon Johnson is a politician. You know the ethics those guys have? It's like-uh, a notch underneath child molester."

As for reporters, I wouldn't say that they're that bad. Heck, I'll even grant that they're a notch above child molester. But particularly when it comes to Islam and jihad, I have found them to be agenda-driven, short-sighted, and above all, simply dishonest. Not so much in terms of outright lies, but in terms of spin: by omission and juxtaposition, by what they say and what they don't say, and by how they choose quotations as well as by how they frame them in a story, they attempt to lead the reader to the conclusion they wish him or her to draw.

The best of them are so good at this that most readers don't even notice that they are being manipulated and propagandized; it is something always to bear in mind when reading anything in, say, the New York Times and the Washington Post, or, as Hugh calls them, the New Duranty Times and the Bandar Beacon. To see how it works, click here for a dissection I conducted on a stunningly manipulative piece from The Economist. But it is not just the likes of the Times, the Post, and the Economist that have mastered this craft; wannabe Woodwards and ambitious hacks all the way to backwaters like the St. Petersburg Times are doing their bit as well, eager to prove that they have imbibed the relativist multiculturalist gas that permeates everything as deeply and fully as has anyone in New York or Washington.

And so we come to the illustrious S. I. Rosenbaum of the St. Pete rag, with whom I wasted thirty or 45 minutes of my life a few days ago, while if I had not been fool enough to think that she might be decent and fair I could have slavered a little and given her what she wanted in no more than twenty seconds. Rosenbaum called me looking for material for her story which appears today, "Are bloggers against hate, or feeding it?" (thanks to all who sent this in).

You can imagine which side she comes down on, but hold on. This story isn't actually about me at all. It is about Joe Kaufman of Americans Against Hate. Kaufman drew mainstream media attention not too long ago by sending out a press release and writing an article about a Muslim retreat in south Florida. The retreat featured one speaker, Mazen Mokhtar, who had been investigated by the Department of Homeland Security for operating a website soliciting support for the Taliban and Chechen jihadists, and another, Chantal Carnes, who had apparently made statements praising the Muslim Brotherhood, the first modern Islamic terrorist organization, and its founder, Hasan Al-Banna.

Kaufman's piece allegedly led to death threats against the Muslims in Florida, causing the retreat to be relocated. Rosenbaum wrote in an earlier article that Chantal Carnes "didn't recognize herself" in Kaufman's article, although our intrepid reporter doesn't seem to have asked Carnes whether or not she really made the statements. As for Mokhtar, Rosenbaum reported only that Kaufman "wrote that the retreat's other speaker, Mazen Mokhtar of New Jersey, was linked to al-Qaida," without bothering to tell her hapless Floridian victims that none other than the Bandar Beacon itself and the Department of Homeland Security had made the same link.

Of course, if there really were death threats, that is abhorrent. But just as newsworthy is the actual stance of the speakers, since if they believe as Kaufman says, they pose a threat also. But that is evidently not fit to print.

Roger L. Simon has one up on me: he has seen the documentary about Islam and jihad in which I appear, and I haven't. He reviews Islam: What the West Needs to Know at his blog today:

Three controversial films were screened at the AFR festival in Hollywood Sunday afternoon - The Full Story (a settler-sympathetic short from Israel), Submission - Part 1 (excerpted scenes from the movie that cost Theo van Gogh his life) and the world premiere of the documentary Islam: What the West Needs to Know. Security was tight because, in these odd times, it is the non-PC films that bring us to the edge of danger in the way movies like Battle of Algiers did in the old days. The VIP lounge and the balcony were closed for these screenings because of unspecified threats. But enough about the perils of movie-going, here's my take on the films themselves.

[...]

From what I understand, the makers of Islam: What the West Needs to Know (director: Bryan Daly) were reluctant to screen with Submission because they didn't want to be associated with the notorious film, which is strange since their documentary is easily as hard on the Islamic faith as van Gogh's work. The documentary is ninety-five minutes of non-stop recapitulation of the history of the religion, its belief system and political intent narrated by well-known scholars and critics Robert Spencer, Walid Shoebat, Serge Trifkovic and Bat Ye'or. I have read all these people exept Trifkovic and respect them all. Speaking one after another as talking heads on the film (it's that kind of old-fashioned documentary) they raise the question of our time that few dare speak, at least on any level of serious analysis. Is jihadism the real Islam or is there an actual moderate strain of the religion? Clearly, from its title, it's obvious this film takes the former view and warns the West to heed the consequences of its dire conclusion.

Does it convince? Not entirely. But I think documentaries - particularly talking-head documentaries - are not ultimately a convincing form. They are too easily subject to manipulation by the filmmaker. The various writers who speak here are more interesting in their books, which develop their arguments at much greater length and depth. Still, this is a necessary film and I hope it finds distribution. Even though I hope its argument is at least partly wrong, I fear that it is not.

Roger is right. I am much more interesting in my books than in person. My friends tell me that all the time. Still, I'd like to see the film, and hope I will get a chance when it is showing, as it surely must, at the Empire Burlesque in downtown Secure Undisclosed Locationville.

He denies it all now. It is unclear why he would have asserted it all in this phone call, however, if it were not true. Of course, there could be any number of reasons. But this case bears monitoring. "Infiltration from the south feared: Terrorist smuggling denied by admitted drug runner," from The Brownsville Herald, with thanks to Richard:

Officials are pointing to records in a South Texas drug case with alleged terrorist ties that they say underscores the lack of preparedness here.

The attorney for a jailed Gulf Cartel member cited in the incident, however, says his client was falsely accused of trying to smuggle Iraqi terrorists into this country. He maintains the claims were brought to increase the punishment for a drug offense against the accused.

The allegations are debated but the danger is real, warns U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz who believes federal lawmakers do not realize the exposure that exists on this porous international boundary.

“There is a huge disconnect between Washington and the border,” Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, said and called the security issue “alarming.”

‘Gente de Osama’

The January 2005 arrest of Noel Exinia and Cesario Nuñez appeared to be just another Drug Enforcement Administration bust on the border, until court documents in the case are examined more closely.

A few days before their arrest on federal cocaine trafficking charges, Exinia and Nuñez moved more than a quarter-ton of cocaine from Mexico through the Rio Grande Valley and on to New York City, the men told officials.

Nuñez, 33, pleaded guilty to a drug conspiracy charge in September. His sentencing is set for Thursday.

Exinia, 35, eventually pleaded guilty to the same charge. His sentencing is expected in March.

Court documents filed in Exinia’s case make frequent references to his position in the notorious Gulf Cartel. The paperwork also contains details of a December 2004 incident in which he tried to secure transportation for 20 Middle Eastern “terrorists” waiting to enter the United States from Monterrey, Chiapas and Puebla in Mexico.

Recorded telephone conversations authorized under the U.S. Patriot Act and a court order captured the La Feria truck driver referring to the 20 men as “gente de Osama” or “Osama’s people.”

During a Jan. 5, 2005, telephone conversation, Exinia described the men as “Iraqis,” ages 25 to 33, who were willing to pay $8,000 for transportation past Border Patrol checkpoints in South Texas and into the U.S. interior.

Exinia mentioned that eight of the men were coming to Progreso, northwest of Brownsville. He said they were “dangerous” and “really bad people.” They carried guns and made the smuggler that was helping them “afraid.”

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald discusses some problems posed by mosques in Western countries, and what to do about them:

When building new mosques in the West, one-for-one should be the rule. For every mosque that is permitted in the Infidel world, one church, synagogue, Hindu temple, depending on where the mosque is built, must be permitted -- one of similar size, and prominence -- within Dar al-Islam. Simple reciprocity. And no punishment for apostasy, so that there is freedom of conscience. Otherwise, no further permission for the building of mosques need be granted.

Reciprocity. That's a reasonable demand.

The mosques that are already here pose a more vexed question. A "dual-use" mosque, where one use is incitement of religious or other kinds of hatred, and where there is some evidence of something unconnected to individual worship going on, is not at all like a church or synagogue where there may be social gatherings and so on. When a belief-system is not only a religion but a geopolitical program, and when there is evidence that that geopolitical program threatens all others, religious or non-religious, if they are not Muslims, one has a right to investigate the place where such believers congregate. For such a place, hiding behind religion, is in fact a meeting-ground -- it has been discovered in mosques all over Europe and the Middle East – where weapons, false documents, and similar material has been stored.

From MEMRI:

A three-volume treatise by Sa'id ibn Nasser Al-Ghamdi, titled Deviation from the Faith as Reflected in [Arab] Thought and Literature on Modernity, has recently gained publicity in the Arab world. The book, published in December 2003 inSaudi Arabia, is based on Al-Ghamdi's 2000 doctoral dissertation, submitted to the Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, for which he received his degree summa cum laude. In his treatise, Al-Ghamdi names more than 200 modern Arab intellectuals and authors whom he accuses of heresy - thus making it permissible to kill them...

Al-Ghamdi's book was reviewed on the reformist website www.metransparent.com by Egyptian poet and literary critic 'Abdallah Al-Samti, who said: "The most dangerous thing in this book is its outright call to murder, and the fact that it legitimizes the killing of Arab intellectuals, since Sa'id Al-Ghamdi claims that 'the statements, actions, and beliefs of [these intellectuals] demand the ridda punishment [3] and legitimize their killing. However, in the current secular political climate that has been imported from the West, they have [been able to] spread the heresy and atheism that is in their decayed hearts...'"

In his dissertation, Al-Ghamdi explains that "since the arrows of doubt shot by the enemies of Islam have multiplied... and they have spread their intellectual and behavioral poisons among the Muslim youth in an attempt to drown them in deviancy, to bring them out from light into darkness, to replace their inner conviction and faith, and to cast them into the wasteland of doubts, skepticism, and vanities - [for these reasons] it is incumbent upon those who understand this to make clear to their [Islamic] nation and their community the danger inherent in this behavior...

"The most dangerous and vile thing that the enemies of Islam have done in order to achieve their deviant aims has been to use cultural means, which are outwardly manifest as literature, poetry, culture, and criticism, but which internally embody heresy, skepticism, and hypocrisy.

"The enemies of Islam have succeeded in sowing the seeds of their hatred in the land of the Muslims, and in growing the evil tree - the tree of accursed materialism. Muslims see and hear the people who openly call to heresy and to departure from the right path, and who openly spread intellectual and moral depravity, sometimes in the guise of 'modern literature' and sometimes under the slogan of 'human culture'..."

Yesterday it was revealed that Danish Muslims traveling abroad to drum up cartoon rage have taken it upon themselves to embellish the truth a bit. From Brussels Journal:

...Meanwhile, the Danish tabloid Extra Bladet got hold of a 43-page report that Danish Muslim leaders and imams, on a tour of the Islamic world are handing out to their contacts to “explain” how offensive the cartoons are. The report contains 15 pictures instead of 12. The first of the three additional pictures, which are of dismal quality, shows Muhammad as a pedophile deamon [see it here], the second shows the prophet with a pigsnout [here] and the third depicts a praying Muslim being raped by a dog [here]. Apparently, the 12 original pictures were not deemed bad enough to convince other Muslims that Muslims in Denmark are the victims of a campaign of religious hatred.

Akhmad Akkari, spokesman of the 21 Danish Muslim organizations which organized the tour, explained that the three drawings had been added to “give an insight in how hateful the atmosphere in Denmark is towards Muslims.” Akkari claimed he does not know the origin of the three pictures. He said they had been sent anonymously to Danish Muslims. However, when Ekstra Bladet asked if it could talk to these Muslims, Akkari refused to reveal their identity.

More on the cartoon controversy also from Brussels Journal:

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen is shocked at the way in which some Muslims are misrepresenting Denmark in the Islamic world. “I am speechless that those people, whom we have given the right to live in Denmark and where they freely have chosen to stay, are now touring Arab countries and inciting antipathy towards Denmark and the Danish people,” Rasmussen told journalists yesterday.

Rasmussen was responding to the recent visits by certain imams, Muslim intellectuals and representatives of Danish Muslim organizations who toured a number of Muslim countries to “explain” the Danish cartoon affair to local political and religious leaders and media. The affair started last September when the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published 12 cartoons of Muhammad.

Meanwhile, after last week’s rejection of their complaint by the public prosecutor, Danish Muslim organisations have announced that they will take the newspaper to the European Court of Human Rights over the controversial publication. Islam forbids the depiction of the Muslim prophet. Carsten Juste, the editor of Jyllands-Posten repeated late last week that the daily will not apologise for publishing the cartoons: “We will not apologise, because we live in Denmark under Danish law, and we have freedom of speech in this country. If we apologised, we would betray the generations who have fought for this right, and the moderate Muslims who are democratically minded.”...

More on the Pakistan airstrike from Reuters:

ISLAMABAD - A dinner invitation to al Qaeda's second-in-command triggered a U.S. airstrike in Pakistan's tribal region but Ayman al-Zawahri failed to show up, Pakistani intelligence officials said on Sunday.

Pakistan condemned Friday's strike, which killed at least 18 people, including women and children, and summoned U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker to protest. Thousands of local tribesmen also rallied near the scene, chanting anti-American slogans.

The Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that foreigners had been near the village of Damadola in the Bajaur region bordering Afghanistan and were the probable target.

Pakistani intelligence officials said they were checking reports up to seven foreign militants had been killed and their bodies removed by local supporters. But they said there were no indications Osama bin Laden's deputy, Zawahri, was there.

"He was invited for the dinner, but we have no evidence he was present," a senior intelligence official told Reuters.

Al Arabiya television quoted a source it said had contact with al Qaeda saying Zawahri was alive...

From AP:

PESHAWAR, Pakistan Chanting "Death to America," angry anti-U.S. Islamic groups staged nationwide protests Sunday against a purported CIA airstrike that Pakistan says killed innocent civilians instead of the apparent target - top al-Qaida lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahri.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf meanwhile, warned his countrymen not to harbor militants, saying it would only increase violence within Pakistan's borders.

"If we kept sheltering foreign terrorists here ... our future will not be good," Musharraf said in speech broadcast Sunday by state-run Pakistan Television. "Remember what I say."

Musharraf, who spoke Saturday to a gathering in the northwestern town of Sawabi, did not directly mention Friday's attack that killed at least 17 people, including women and children, in a village of Damadola, just a few kilometers (miles) from the Afghanistan border.

But his government has protested to the U.S. Embassy amid growing frustration over a recent series of suspected U.S. attacks along the frontier, apparently aimed at Islamic militants.

On Sunday, about 10,000 people rallied in Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city, many chanting "Death to American Aggression" and "Stop bombing against innocent people."...

From The Guardian:

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the hardline President of Iran, launched an angry tirade against the West yesterday, accusing it of a 'dark ages' mentality and threatening retaliation unless it recognised his country's nuclear ambitions.

In a blistering assault, Ahmadinejad repeated the Islamic regime's position that it would press ahead with a nuclear programme despite threats by the European Union and United States to refer Iran to the UN Security Council, where it could face possible sanctions. He added that Iran was a 'civilised nation' that did not need such weapons. Iran insists its nuclear programme is a wholly peaceful attempt to generate electricity.

Addressing a rare press conference in Tehran, he appeared to issue thinly veiled threats against Western countries, implying that they could face serious consequences unless they backed down. 'You need us more than we need you. All of you today need the Iranian nation,' Ahmadinejad said. 'Why are you putting on airs? You don't have that might.'

Reminding the West that it had supported the monarchical regime of the former Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi - overthrown in the 1979 Islamic revolution - he went on: 'Those same powers have done their utmost to oppress us, but this nation, because of its dignity, has forgiven them to a large extent. But if they persist with their present stance, maybe the day will come when the Iranian nation will reconsider.' He added: 'If they want to deny us our rights, we have ways to secure those rights.'

Ahmadinejad, an ultra-Islamist populist elected last June, did not elaborate on his apparent threat. But Iran is the world's fourth-largest oil producer and analysts have predicted that any disruption to its supplies could have a grave impact on global markets.

The Iranian President's outburst - the latest in a series asserting Iran's nuclear rights and questioning Israel's right to exist - came after the EU last week effectively abandoned two-and-a-half years of negotiations with the Iranians. The move came after Iran decided to remove UN seals at a nuclear plant in Natanz, enabling it to resume research into uranium enrichment, a process that can be used to produce a nuclear weapon...

From ITN:

Al Qaeda in Iraq has claimed responsibility for the downing of a US military helicopter near the northern city of Mosul which killed two pilots.

"Our lions in Mosul ... succeeded to shoot down a US helicopter on Friday by targeting it with medium-sized weapons," said an Internet statement attributed to al Qaeda.

The statement's authenticity could not be verified but it was posted on a Web site often used by insurgents.

Witnesses reported seeing gunmen armed with heavy machine guns open fire on the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior, a two-seat, single-engine helicopter, in al-Sukar district north of Mosul, about 240 miles north of Baghdad.

It was the second U.S. helicopter to crash in Iraq in less than a week. A military UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed last weekend, killing all 12 aboard in one of the worst incidents of its kind since the war began in 2003.

The US military believes the Black Hawk may have been brought down by bad weather, but the cause is still under investigation...

Tiny minority of extremists update: the Post tells us that the idea of a restored caliphate "resonates with mainstream Muslims." Someone ought to notify Stephen Schwartz that it resonates not with Wahhabis only. It's interesting that what I have been saying for years now, about the jihadist goal of restoring the caliphate and dating the troubles of the umma to its abolition, has been dismissed and ignored by the learned analysts -- but now the Post accepts it as axiomatic.

"Reunified Islam: Unlikely but Not Entirely Radical," from the Washington Post, with thanks to all who sent this in:

ISTANBUL -- The plan was to fly a hijacked plane into a national landmark on live television. The year was 1998, the country was Turkey, and the rented plane ended up grounded by weather. Court records show the Islamic extremist who planned to commandeer the cockpit did not actually know how to fly.

But if the audacious scheme prefigured Sept. 11, 2001, it also highlighted a cause that, seven years later, President Bush has used to define the war against terrorism. What the ill-prepared Turkish plotters told investigators they aimed to do was strike a dramatic blow toward reviving Islam's caliphate, the institution that had nominally governed the world's Muslims for nearly all of the almost 1,400 years since the death of the prophet Muhammad.

The goal of reuniting Muslims under a single flag stands at the heart of the radical Islamic ideology Bush has warned of repeatedly in recent major speeches on terrorism. In language evoking the Cold War, Bush has cast the conflict in Iraq as the pivotal battleground in a larger contest between advocates of freedom and those who seek to establish "a totalitarian Islamic empire reaching from Spain to Indonesia."

The enthusiasm of the extremists for that vision is not disputed. However unlikely its realization, the ambition may help explain terrorist acts that often appear beyond understanding. When Osama bin Laden called the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon "a very small thing compared to this humiliation and contempt for more than 80 years," the reference was to the aftermath of World War I, when the last caliphate was suspended as European powers divided up the Middle East. Al Qaeda named its Internet newscast, which debuted in September, "The Voice of the Caliphate."

Yet the caliphate is also esteemed by many ordinary Muslims. For most, its revival is not an urgent concern. Public opinion polls show immediate issues such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and discrimination rank as more pressing. But Muslims regard themselves as members of the umma , or community of believers, that forms the heart of Islam. And as earthly head of that community, the caliph is cherished both as memory and ideal, interviews indicate.

Read it all. The article gets into some silly territory, blaming Bush and American foreign policy for not being more sensitive to legitimate caliphate aspirations -- betraying yet again that the Post has no clue whatsoever just how much a restored caliphate would pose a threat to the West (not least because of the nature and goals of the groups promoting it most energetically). But there is some useful information in the piece.

Someone is going to get called on the carpet in the Jihad Publicity Bureau -- you know, the guys who post the braggadocio-laden, threat-filled announcements on Islamic websites. From The Observer, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

A British man kidnapped in Iraq and held for five days by armed men who threatened to behead him was rescued last week by American special forces and astonished to discover that no one had noticed he was missing.

Phil Sands, 28, a freelance journalist, was held by gunmen who ambushed his car in Baghdad. He said the worst aspect of his ordeal was imagining the anguish of his family. But his parents were holidaying in Morocco and knew nothing of his sufferings until he called them after he was released during a chance raid by US forces on a farm outside Baghdad.

Here's one for all those who think that the jihad is advancing today only by terrorist violence. In fact, it is advancing across a broad spectrum of political and cultural fronts. But few, very very few, recognize that. Umm Farhat update: "Hamas rallies to 'martyr' mother," from the TimesOnline, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

ONE objective burnt deep in the heart and mind of Mohammed Farhat when, rifle in hand, he attacked a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip: to kill as many Israelis as possible. The 17-year-old Palestinian dispatched five settlers before being shot dead. In later military operations his two brothers were killed by the Israelis, who also tried to blow up the Farhats’ home. Today, with the intifada in Gaza and the West Bank over and Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip completed, Mariam Farhat, the mother of the three dead youths, insists that the struggle must go on. But this time she has chosen the ballot box over the bullet.

Across the Arab world the 56-year-old mother is an icon of the resistance as she campaigns in Gaza as a candidate for the Islamic militant group Hamas in Palestinian parliamentary elections on January 25.

Hamas has been the deadliest of the Palestinian militant groups. It has always stood for the obliteration of the Jewish state and was responsible for suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Israelis over the past five years.

Farhat still mourns her sons. Nidal, her eldest, was killed in 2003 while preparing an attack and Rawad was blown up last year in an Israeli airstrike on his car, which was laden with rockets.

The mother regards her candidacy for the Palestinian Legislative Council as a logical extension of the armed struggle she encouraged her sons to die for. She denies that Hamas’s decision to join mainstream Palestinian political life contradicts its military goals.

“The jihadist project completes the political one and the political project cannot be completed without jihad,” she says. “The resistance needs the political project to support it through the legislative council.”

This is what we need to see. This is just the thing we need: a grand coalition. An international one. A coalition of all those whose lives and rights are threatened by the Sharia that jihadists want to impose. May it come to be. A welcome bit of anti-dhimmitude from Asia Times, with thanks to Fjordman:

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's minorities are banding together to put up a united front against what they fear is a steady encroachment of Sharia (Islamic law) into their lives.

Unsettled by the decision of a court last month that it had no jurisdiction in Islamic matters and that a non-Muslim had no remedy under common law, the minorities, led by moderate leaders, are putting up stiff resistance.

Observers say the resistance has placed the government of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi in a delicate position because it needs to balance the competing demands from the majority Muslims. While non-Muslims want common law and the secular constitution of Malaysia preserved and protected, Muslims demand a society based on Sharia....

In Malaysia, a strong undercurrent of dissatisfaction has been building up among the country's minority communities against fundamentalists pushing the Islamic way into many matters - from banking and halal food to family matters, education and personal issues such as religious conversion.

In effect, two parallel societies - Muslim and non-Muslim - have gradually replaced what was a pluralistic, secular Malaysian society based on common law that was the legacy British colonials handed over upon independence in 1957....

The last straw was the forced burial last month of a 36-year-old soldier and mountaineer, M Moorthy, as a Muslim, over the protest of his Hindu wife. Judge Mohamed Raus Sharif ruled that his civil court had no jurisdiction to hear an application by S Kaliammal that her husband was Hindu.

Sharif refused to alter an ex parte judgment, obtained from a Sharia court by the Islamic Affairs Department Sharia, that deemed that the dead man had converted to Islam - in effect telling non-Muslims that they have no remedy in such cases.

The protest has, thus far, been peaceful - a candlelight vigil at Sharif's office, a signature campaign, and a memorandum to the prime minister.

In addition, about 30 influential Hindu organizations have formed an umbrella Hindu Rights Action Force (HRAF) to protect the rights of minorities to religious freedom. The HRAF mounted a protest outside the palace this week and petitioned the king, who is constitutionally the head of Islam, to intervene....

The crux of their demand is a repeal of Article 121 (1A) of the constitution that was amended in 1988 to state that the civil court had no jurisdiction on matters under the purview of the Sharia court....

However, Muslim organisations have warned that any attempt to repeal Article 121 (1A) would be strongly resisted.

The Malay National Force (TERAS), a Malay non-government organization, said in a statement that Article 121 (1A) provided specific guarantees that the civil court will not interfere in Islamic matters.

"The Sharia court should not be seen as an institution that denies justice to non-Muslims. On the contrary, if its laws are fully applied, there is an assurance of better justice here compared to civil laws, which are the heritage of British colonial rule," said TERAS president Mohamad Azmi Abdul Hamid.

This is the common Muslim assertion that the Sharia offers a superior societal model. This assertion founders on fact in regard to freedom of conscience, the rights of women, the rights of religious minorities, and more.

Human-rights lawyer P Uthayakumar asked: "How can anyone even suggest such a remedy to non-Muslims? What becomes of the civil law, the judicial system and the secular constitution?

"We non-Muslims have suffered long enough. The government should intervene immediately and put an end to non-Muslim fears and misery," he said. "The uncertainties have gone on for far too long."...

Abdullah has offered a cautious response. "I am looking into the matter and hope to prevent problems like this from happening," he said this week.

But non-Muslims, who fear that Sharia is becoming the supreme law of the land, want more than soothing words to alleviate their anxiety that common law and the civil justice system are under threat.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald offers a pedagogic and defensive exercise:

It is useful to study the offerings at the www.dawanet.com website, especially the sample presentations of Ramadan, or the ways that Muslim parents are carefully instructed in a step-by-step wooing and winning of teachers and principals. There is even, if you look around, a precise guide as to when to invite the teacher or school administrators home to have a "delicious meal of chicken and pita" and so on. It is all down to a science -- a carefully calculated and calibrated program, to ensure that whatever demands you make on a school, from the setting aside of a prayer room, to letting students out for such prayer, to permitting Muslims essentially to conduct propaganda -- Da'wa -- freely in the schools, under one guise or another ("Sharing Ramadan" Outreach, promoted by CAIR, is the best-known) are granted, and granted happily.

Much of what is at www.dawanet.com is simply rehashed or reposted stuff from various speakers' bureaus -- all designed to prepare you for your propagandistic missionary work in the schools, if you are an attentive Muslim. But some of it is even more sinister. It would be wise if parents and teachers and administrators alike visited this site, and fully informed themselves of just how studied and thought-out the propaganda effort is -- and made sure that none of it gets by in the classrooms in which they teach, or which they oversee, or which their students inhabit.

More than one John Walker Lindh -- I can think of an East Coast example -- has been set on the course of Islam and is off seeking a suitable bride in Yemen because of a smiling Pakistani roommate (or some such) he had at prep school and then at Harvard, or schools like it. The problem is everywhere, at every level.

Eternal vigilance has to be exercised. This jihadist cult threatens everyone who does not belong to it, in a way that the Hare Krishnas and the other well-known cults never did. And it will permanently stunt the growth of all those who enter it. You do not want to stunt your child's mental growth, do you?

The hijabbed Australian cops will look sharp, and will know not to arrest Muslim wife-beaters. "Force's new look of diversity," from The Australian, with thanks to JE:

NAVY blue hijabs, loose-fitting shirts and turbans emblazoned with the police logo will be part of a new range of West Australian police uniforms.

But the institution of religiously appropriate attire to attract to the ranks Muslims and Sikhs was lambasted yesterday by the police union and state Opposition.

Opposition police spokesman Rob Johnson asked if officers would also be permitted to interrupt their duties to pray to Mecca.

Victoria and Queensland police have already allowed culturally appropriate uniforms for Muslims and Sikhs on a case-by-case basis, but West Australian Police are the first to introduce blanket uniform exemptions to accommodate religious beliefs....

He said the move was aimed at increasing police numbers and targeting new recruits from a variety of backgrounds.

But West Australian Police Union spokesman Mike Dean said people of different cultural backgrounds should be required to meet uniform standards. "Special treatment for special groups brings difficulties," he said.

Uh huh.

Don't expect him to be apologizing for this, a la Pat Robertson, anytime soon. "Holocaust a punishment from God, said radical preacher," from the Times Online, with thanks to JE:

ABU HAMZA AL-MASRI used his position as imam of the Finsbury Park mosque to preach virulently anti-Semitic sermons, the Old Bailey was told yesterday....

In a sermon in Arabic, a translation of which was read to the court by David Perry, for the prosecution, Abu Hamza said that God had decreed that the Jewish people should face further torture.

He said: “Every time they lit the fire for war God has put it out. And this is the imminent result and this is a universal result too. Hitler looked at their dealings and their treachery. They wanted to deceive him in his war. Some were dealing with the Allies against him.

“So he killed them and punished them and this is a sunna (Islamic rule). And they will be inflicted with that again when the stones and the Sharia start talking to the Muslim — you the worshipper of God . . . This is a Jew dealing in usury, so come and kill him.

“This shows that the Jews will be destroyed, the State will be destroyed and some of the Jews will be running around hiding behind the trees and the stones and then they get cursed by the earth until there is not one of them left.”

This is a well-attested Islamic tradition (cf. Bukari 4:52:176; 4:52:177; 4:56:791; Muslim 41:6981-6985; etc.). I'd like to see Stephen Schwartz address it. I am not holding my breath.

In a separate video, Abu Hamza told a group of people that shoplifting and theft by Muslims from non-believers was permitted. Students were not required to repay loans and identity fraud by Muslim refugees was allowed, according to his interpretation of Islam.

In other passages from his lectures, the court heard Abu Hamza telling his audience that they were allowed to kill non-Muslims.

He said: “Killing a kuffar (unbeliever) who is fighting you is OK. Killing a kuffar for any reason, you can say it is OK even if there is no reason for it.”

The cleric reserved particular ire for the owners of off-licences and authorities that granted licences for the sale of alcohol.

“Don’t go to the man in the wine shop and tell him, ‘Please why are you selling the wine, come to the mosque’. Make sure the person who gave him the licence for that wine shop does not exist any more on the earth. Finish him up. Give him dawa (the spread of Islam), if he doesn’t respect dawa, kill him.”

Mind you, some non-Muslims might not find this event quite so great. From Iran Focus, with thanks to JE:

Tehran, Iran, Jan. 12 – Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday evening that the Islamic Republic’s 1979 Islamic revolution was a great movement and a stepping stone to a final “great event” in the world.

Speaking to a crowd in the southern city of Roudan, Hormozgan province, Ahmadinejad said, “The Islamic Republic is the continuation of the path of the prophets which came to begin a great movement and the final occurrence”.

“The Islamic revolution was a great leap in leading the people and reaching the climax of history”, Ahmadinejad said.

If he sets off his nukes as he wishes to, he may not be that far wrong.

This is an exceedingly vexed question. Everyone wants to encourage moderate Muslims and make common cause with them, but no one is agreed on what exactly constitutes one. Most non-Muslim Westerners assume that all Muslims who are not saying or doing anything publicly to the contrary are moderate, and that they accept the parameters of Western pluralism. Maher Hawash and a myriad of others have shown this to be naive. Daniel Pipes offers some useful criteria for distinguishing moderate Muslims here, and Hugh Fitzgerald has made some important observations about moderate Muslims in light of what is in the Qur'an and Sunnah here. I myself have addressed various aspects of this question in several articles, including this one, in which I ask: "Where is moderate Islam? How can moderate Muslims refute the radical exegesis of the Qur’an and Sunnah? If an exposition of moderate Islam does not address or answer radical exegeses, is it really of any value to quash Islamic extremism? If the answer lies in a simple rejection of Qur’anic literalism, how can non-literalists make that rejection stick, and keep their children from being recruited by jihadists by means of literalism?"

Of course, as I have pointed out many times, traditional Islam itself is not moderate or peaceful. It is the only major world religion with a developed doctrine and tradition of warfare against unbelievers. (Those who claim that Christianity is equivalent should read that sentence over carefully before invoking the Crusades.) The Qur'an and Sunnah teach warfare against unbelievers until they are converted or subjugated as dhimmis. See Qur'an 9:29 (bearing in mind the traditional Islamic theology that holds that sura 9, as the last revealed, takes precedence over other Qur'anic passages that appear to counsel tolerance rather than war), Sahih Muslim 4294, etc. etc.; I explain this at length with reference to Islamic texts in my books, including the latest, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades). I have been harshly criticized for not going farther than this and denying that any peacefully-inclined Muslims even exist. Some have even claimed that such people are all deceivers, which I think is an impossible position to hold, as it claims a knowledge of other people’s hearts that no one really has. It also betrays a strange unawareness of the fact that a wide spectrum of belief and practice exists within all religious traditions.

Others have said that moderates must be either deceitful or ignorant of their own religion, since their primary texts so clearly teach supremacism and violence. While there is no doubt that the mandate that the Qur’an must be read and recited in Arabic limits the understanding of it to a tremendous degree, not only among non-Arab Muslims but also among Arabic speakers who have not mastered seventh-century Qur’anic Arabic, that is not the only source of Islamic moderation. There are some who are genuinely trying to frame a theory and practice of Islam that will allow for peaceful coexistence with unbelievers as equals. Certainly there are many more who claim to be doing this than are actually doing it or doing it as honestly or fully as they would like the world to believe, but nonetheless, the world situation and the dignity of each individual requires that every such claim be treated with respect -- and examined forthrightly and searchingly.

And now Stephen Schwartz, himself a Muslim, offers some criteria for how to identify a moderate Muslim in “What Is a Moderate Muslim?,” published at Tech Central Station. There are some useful elements to his analysis, and some not so useful. He begins by saying that “Muslim moderation is defined by attitudes and conduct, not by abstractions or historical precedents, which, as with all religions, may be interpreted to support any ideological position.” This appears to mean that Muslim moderation need concern itself only with actions, not with reforming core texts or working to overhaul the traditional understanding of those texts, since later Schwartz adds: “Moderate Muslims admit there is a problem in the body of the religion -- not in the principles and traditions of the faith, but among the believers themselves.”

So how are we to eradicate these problems from among believers? No problem, says Schwartz:

Observing and analyzing Sunni Muslims by such positive, practical criteria is extremely easy. There are more than a billion Sunnis in the world, and they are not all jihadists or fundamentalists, so telling them apart should not be difficult with a little effort.

Well, certainly they are not all jihadists or fundamentalists. Unfortunately, the world has not so far found it all that easy to distinguish those who will never turn out to be jihadists or fundamentalists from those who will – Hawash, the Lackawanna Six, Fawaz Damra, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, and on and on. Perhaps we have not made the proper effort. Schwartz offers more specific direction as to how that effort can be made as he goes on. But almost immediately his guidance becomes problematic:

Identifying moderate Shia Muslims is harder, but one thing may be said immediately: those who follow Ayatollah Ali Sistani in Iraq prove their moderation daily, by their silent but effective support to the U.S.-led liberation coalition.

No word from Schwartz on what he thinks of Sistani’s classification of unbelievers as unclean on the level of blood, sweat, and feces. Is that a “moderate” view conducive to the peaceful coexistence of Muslims with non-Muslims as equals? I rather think it isn’t. Has Sistani changed these views? No; the list is up on his website now. Does the fact that he has supported the U.S. in Iraq mean in itself that he is moderate? Not when it is so patent that the Shi’ites have an opportunity to gain the upper hand in Iraq by means of the electoral process. Sistanti’s website shows nothing if it doesn’t show a man deeply concerned with following Islamic laws. Are we to believe that he will cheerfully acquiesce in the setting-aside of certain of those laws regarding the subjugation of women and non-Muslims in an Islamic state in order to establish a Western-style secular republic? If he does intend to so acquiesce, why did Auxiliary Bishop Andraos Abouna of Baghdad describe the situation of Christians in Iraq after the elections as a “nightmare,” particularly because Iraq is teetering on the brink of establishing an Islamic state?

Sheik Fadhel al Sahlani comes out for the Thug-In-Chief. From the New York Sun, with thanks to all who sent this in:

The leader of a large Shiite mosque in Queens has joined the new Iranian president in disputing the Holocaust, saying the Nazi massacre of an estimated 6 million Jews during World War II "has been exaggerated."

"The numbers which have been mentioned are too much," the spiritual leader of the Imam Al Khoei Islamic Center in Jamaica, Sheik Fadhel al Sahlani, told The New York Sun. Sheik al Sahlani, who said his mosque has a membership of about 3,000, said that the killing of innocent Jews during the war was "an injustice" but that the extent of Nazi persecution needed further examination. "The numbers, the reasons, we have to study more," he said.

In that light, Sheik al Sahlani voiced his support for Iran's proposal to hold a conference on the Holocaust in Tehran, saying there is "nothing wrong with studying more." The conference is likely to include scholars who deny that the Holocaust took place.

That is, the jihadist peace of the supremacy of the Sharia -- aided and abetted by the Russians. I suspect their support of this man may prove short-sighted. "Chechnya's gun-toting strongman," from BBC News, with thanks to Null:

This is Tsentoroy, the home village and headquarters of Ramzan Kadyrov, the most powerful man in today's Chechnya.

He is the republic's acting prime minister - and its de facto ruler....

As the car pulls up outside the army base, Mr Kadyrov whistles into the night. From this moment, his soldiers only have 40 seconds to get ready for action.

Thirty seconds later, they are already standing to attention, lined up and armed to the teeth.

"Look at them," says Mr Kadyrov. "American uniforms, Russian weapons, Islamic beliefs and a Chechen spirit. They are invincible."...

This army - and Mr Kadyrov himself - is what the Kremlin is counting on to establish peace and stability in the troubled republic.

They are a living example of Moscow's "Chechenisation" policy - they, not the Russian federal forces, run today's Chechnya.

"We have made Chechnya the safest place in Russia, soon it'll be the safest place in the world - people will be coming here on holiday.

"We've just got a few more devils to kill and that'll be it. We want peace. And if anyone doesn't want to live in peace with us, we'll make them," promises Mr Kadyrov.

Torture claims

But human rights groups are less optimistic.

"Ramzan does not stabilise the situation in Chechnya. He himself motivates supporters of the rebels by his activities," says Grigory Shvedov, a journalist and human rights activist.

"The personal security forces of Ramzan are the main group involved in torturing and abducting people - people are arrested and then no-one can find out where they have been or where their bodies are," he says.

Mr Kadyrov himself categorically denies these accusations, while the Kremlin seems to ignore them.

Back at his home in Tsentoroy, Mr Kadyrov treats us to some tea and biscuits. On the wall opposite is a huge photograph of our host, taken at the Kremlin.

The picture shows him waiting patiently as President Vladimir Putin attaches the Hero of Russia medal to his jacket.

Kadyrov's lion

"Do you want to see my pet lion? The one I received as a present when my baby son was born?" Mr Kadyrov asks us suddenly.

The pet lion shows it has a tough character, too

We rush outside, into the enormous front yard. And there, in the corner, hiding behind a white Caucasian sheepdog, sits a lion cub. It looks confused - and rather scared.

But when Mr Kadyrov reaches out to pat it, the cub growls and bares its teeth, making sure the message is clear.

"One day I'll teach it who the master is," he says as he looks at his pet.

"This lion will either kill me - or learn to be obedient."

Words non-Muslims in Kadyrov's vicinity would be well-advised to remember.

Why criminalize polygamy? Well, because it is inherently harmful to women, who are reduced to the status of possessions. But Canada in its myopic relativism cannot see that anymore. "Legalize polygamy, study urges," from Canadian Press, with thanks to Penkill:

Ottawa — A new study for the federal Justice Department says Canada should get rid of its law banning polygamy, and change other legislation to help women and children living in such multiple-spouse relationships.

“Criminalization does not address the harms associated with valid foreign polygamous marriages and plural unions, in particular the harms to women,” says the report, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

“The report therefore recommends that this provision be repealed.”

The research paper is part of a controversial $150,000 polygamy project, launched a year ago and paid for by the Justice Department and Status of Women Canada.

The paper by three law professors at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., argues that Sec. 293 of the Criminal Code banning polygamy serves no useful purpose and in any case is rarely prosecuted.

Instead, Canadian laws should be changed to better accommodate the problems of women in polygamous marriages, providing them clearer spousal support and inheritance rights.

Currently, there's a hodgepodge of legislation across the provinces, some of which — Ontario, for example — give limited recognition to foreign polygamous marriages for the purposes of spousal support. Some jurisdictions provide no relief at all.

Chief author Martha Bailey says criminalizing polygamy, typically a marriage involving one man and several wives, serves no good purpose and prosecutions could do damage to the women and children in such relationships.

“Why criminalize the behaviour?” she said in an interview. “We don't criminalize adultery.

“In light of the fact that we have a fairly permissive society ... why are we singling out that particular form of behaviour for criminalization?”...

1938 Update from Reuters, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran threatened on Friday to halt snap U.N. inspections of its nuclear facilities if it is taken to the U.N. Security Council, and Britain said the council would consider sanctions if Tehran defied international demands.

The United States and the European Union's three biggest powers said on Thursday that nuclear talks with Iran were at a dead end and Tehran should be brought before the Council.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said such a step would have "consequences" for the West.

"The government will be obliged to end all of its voluntary measures if sent to the U.N. council," he said.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald discusses the phenomenon of Western converts -- or, in their preferred parlance, "reverts" -- to Islam:

The whole question of who, in the Western world, "reverts" to Islam -- or to borrow a phrase from Jim Jarmusch, reverts to "His Own Private Islam" -- is worth investigating. There are the clearly marginal characters, at the bottom of society, such as Richard Reid. Then there are the ex-gang members wishing to find another kind of community for solace, and choose the community of the umma al-islamiyya -- such as Jose Padilla. There are also the spoiled brats whose minds are video-rental stores rather than well-stocked libraries, and whose parents, themselves comically adrift, offer little guidance, such as John Walker Lindh. (It should be noted that there are wonderful parents who do everything right, yet their children unaccountably fail to appreciate this and become a constant heartache for parents who did absolutely nothing to deserve it.) There are those who, having married a Muslim, "revert" to please him, or her, and may come to realize that there is a bit more to this belief-system than had at first been apparent, and then are forced to cope as best they can.

Some native speakers of English, including those who seldom read books in their own immediately accessible literature, will spend years learning another language, in their search for the picturesque or unusual. Not Dickens, but Gottfried Benn or Raymound Roussel, is what their souls seem to require. A taste for the new and the exotic drives so much in this world. One wants to be different, to display unusual tastes. And in now becoming a Muslim in the West, one is also making a statement not only that fortunately is still one that is unusual, but also contains elements of defiance and alienation.

Too many people are Serial Seekers After the Truth. They try on now this, and now that, Way to Happiness and Explanation of Everything. Make up your own list: Rolfing, crystal therapy, Hare Krishna, Tantric yoga, Scientology, Marxism, Trotskyism, Sokka Gakkai, Liberation Theology, not to mention controlled substances, sex of every conceivable and inconceivable sort, and compulsive shopping by sad hearts at the supermarket.

Islamic tolerance alert from the Finger Lakes Times, with thanks to Cornelius:

NEWARK — Seven hellish days of torture in an Egyptian prison did nothing to diminish Muslim-turned-Christian Majed El Shafie’s faith in God, but it did ignite a passion for helping other persecuted Christians worldwide.

El Shafie, founder of Toronto-based One Free World Ministries, will share his harrowing story and testimony at 7 p.m. Sunday at Em-manuel United Methodist Church in Newark. Through his ministry, he has reached out to lawmakers in the United States, Canada and Israel to relieve the plight of persecuted Christians in Asia and the Middle East. El Shafie urges love and forgiveness in the face of terrible hardship.

“I decided to forgive those who tortured me, but with forgiveness comes action,” he said. “We have to help the people that are suffering for their beliefs.”

Born into a prominent Muslim family in Cairo, El Shafie seemed destined to go into law. His father and brother are successful attorneys and an uncle serves as a judge on a high court.

“When you’re born into a family like this, you have lots of books on law, justice and freedom,” he said.

While studying law in Alexandria, El Shafie was shocked to see the harsh treatment of Christians. Building churches is illegal in Egypt, he said, and Christians are treated worse than second-class citizens.

Struck by this intolerance, El Shafie began studying the Bible. In 1998, when he was about 20, he converted to Christianity and organized an underground congregation that attracted 24,000 worshippers within two years.

It was literally an underground church, worshipping in caves near the outskirts of the city.

El Shafie ran afoul of the Egyptian government when he appealed for equal rights for Christians. He also took issue with the harsh teachings of the Koran, which the government used to justify persecuting Christians.

“It’s not that they’re bad because they’re Muslims,” he said. “Our problem was with their teaching of Islam.”

Read it all.

Our friend and ally receives our bitter enemy. Is this a sign that King Abdullah knows who will eventually be coming to power in Iraq? From Middle East Online, with thanks to JE:

MINA, Saudi Arabia - Saudi King Abdullah has received radical Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr at his palace in Mina near the Muslim holy city of Mecca, as the annual hajj pilgrimage winds down.

"The meeting was to strengthen relations between the two countries," the firebrand cleric said on Wednesday, declining to give details.

Saudi state television broadcast footage of the meeting which took place late Tuesday, after which the Saudi monarch appeared showing Sadr around the palace.

King Abdullah received Sadr again on Wednesday as part of a reception for dignitaries and world leaders.

Sadr who led a bloody rebellion against US-led forces in Iraq in 2004, walked into the sumptuous conference room in his hallmark black robes and turban and sat to the left of the king.

He later expressed pessimism about the future of his war-torn country following the December 15 legislative polls.

"I am pessimistic (about the future of Iraq). Fanaticism and branding others as apostates dominate now," said Sadr, who was in Saudi Arabia to perform the hajj for the first time in his life.

Sadr travelled overland from Iraq and was told by Saudi officials upon arrival that he was a guest of the king, according to the head of the Iraqi hajj delegation, Sheikh Khaled al-Atiyah.

Sadr, who only speaks Arabic, has rarely travelled abroad. His only known trip outside Iraq was to neighbouring Iran to take part in a June 2003 commemoration of the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The King Abdullah-Sadr meeting was significant because of past tensions between the ultra-conservative Sunni kingdom and radical Shiites in the Middle East.

Targeting Big Ben and more. From the Evening Standard, with thanks to Sparta:

Muslim cleric Abu Hamza kept a terrorism "manual" which contained a dedication to Osama bin Laden and suggested a list of potential targets which included skyscrapers and Big Ben, the Old Bailey heard.

The Encyclopaedia of Afghani Jihad, which was found at Hamza's home, also advised hitting targets such as the Statue of Liberty or the Eiffel Tower to cause "destruction" and suggested attacks on museums or archaeological sites. It said plans "should be laid out" to hit buildings such skyscrapers, ports, airports, nuclear plants and football stadiums and it talked about attacking large congregations of people at Christmas.

"This, the prosecution say, is a blueprint, a manual for terrorism which echoes the things which feature in the defendant's speeches," said David Perry prosecuting....

How can Muslims who say that they accept pluralism and Western governments as they are currently constituted reply to Abu Hamza's assertion here that Muhammad claimed the whole earth for Islam? Answer: they don't. Evidently they just hope that non-Muslims will not notice this material. Imam Hook Trial Update from the TimesOnline, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

TWO very different Abu Hamzas appeared at the Old Bailey yesterday as the trial of the former imam of Finsbury Park mosque was shown video recordings of the radical cleric preaching.

Abu Hamza al-Masri sat in silence in the dock watching a much more animated and younger version of himself. The on-screen Abu Hamza was passionate, gesticulating with the stumps of his amputated arms as he emphasised the plight of Muslims around the world, the duty to fight the unbeliever and the evils of democracy.

This Abu Hamza emphasised the need for young Muslim men to train for jihad and to identify targets including the law courts, banks and brothels — all of them symbols of corrupt “kuffar countries” like Britain....

The war against the unbeliever must be fought, Abu Hamza stated, “until you see the Khilafa sitting in the White House ruling from there like the Prophet Muhammad said, that Allah showed him the Earth, that Allah told him that the whole Earth will be for Muslims, booty for Islam.”

The trial continues.

WHAT HE SAID

ON MUSLIMS IN BRITAIN
“It looks unfortunately that we have been forced to be inside a toilet . . . and some of us think they can be leaders in that toilet unfortunately. We are all under the feet and the heavy boots of the kuffar”

ON FIGHTING
“The first phase is called the Shawkat al-Nekaya, it is called the needle of bleeding the enemy. Like you imagine you have one small knife and you have a big animal in front of you . . . You have to stab him here and there until he bleeds to death . . . This is the first stage of jihad, destruction of the enemies of Allah”

ON LEGITIMATE TARGETS
“Every court is a target and every brothel is a target and everybody who’s endorsing that is a target”

ON CHRISTIANITY
“The Church itself have lost every capacity it has. In the hearts and minds of people preachers have become homosexual, they have become child hazard. Churches have become places of dancing, iniquity, business, black magic, you name it. Child prostitution and everyday there is evidence of that”

ON MULTICULTURALISM
“The Hindus don’t worship God, they worship the cow, and as far as Christians (are concerned) they don’t worship God they worship Jesus, and Jews they worship their desires and Muslims, they worship Allah. So your God is different from their God”

ON WEAPONS
“We ask Muslims to . . . bleed the enemies of Allah anywhere by any means. You can’t do it by nuclear weapon, you have to do it by kitchen knife, no other solution. You can’t do it by chemical weapons, you have to do it by mice poison”

Yet more evidence of the fact that it is virtually impossible to distinguish moderate Muslims from those more inclined to, or at least approving of, violence. From WND, with thanks to all who sent this in:

JERUSALEM – A Palestinian official who publicly claims to support Israeli-Palestinian peace initiatives this week gave a speech in Arabic in which he praised suicide bombers, blasted "filthy [Israeli] occupation," and declared Jerusalem is Palestinian land.

Qadura Faras, a Palestinian Legislative Council member and lawmaker from the ruling Fatah party, has been a vocal proponent of the Geneva Initiative, a private peace proposal drafted in 2003 by a group of extreme leftist Israelis, Palestinians and Europeans calling for an immediate Palestinian state in Gaza, Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem.

Faras appears on a video featured on the official Geneva Initiative website with a message of peace toward Israelis:

"It is always asked, do you [Israelis] have a partner on the other side. I am telling you with full sincerity, we are ready to reach an inclusive agreement with you, which will promise us freedom and liberty and statehood, and will promise you the thing we know you are sensitive to, which is your full right to live in peace and security."

But Israel-based Palestinian Media Watch reports Faras this week conveyed a different kind of message in a speech to a group of Palestinians.

According to the Al-Hayat Al-Jadida Palestinian newspaper, which covered Faras' Arabic-language address, the Fatah official "emphasized the continuation of the struggle until the freeing of all of the Palestinian territories from the filth of the occupation, and establishing the independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. Fares blessed the prisoners behind bars, and in particular mentioned the imprisoned fighter, "The Sniper" Tha'ir Hamed, who carried out the ... operation that led to the killing and injuring of several of the occupation soldiers."

Hamed was involved in terror attacks that killed 10 Israelis.

Although I do not normally administer tuberculosis tests, that was the subject line of this message that just arrived in the hate mail bag:

You guys are a bunch of senseless losers who have nothing but to spread Zionism and hate around the world. Well guess what you are losing the battle and Islam will shine everywhere, even in your dark houses and countries. I welcome any respectful reply if you guys know of such a thing.

Well, your message was itself so respectful, sir, that I doubt I could match it no matter how carefully I framed my reply.

Perhaps Iqbal Sacranie will be along soon to explain to us why most Muslims in Britain don't think this way at all. Imam Hook Trial Update from the BBC, with thanks to Null:

The video shows Mr Abu Hamza standing on a platform bearing a banner with the words "Al Jihad" in red.

In English, he speaks about life "asking [non-Muslims] to give us security from our own oppressive regime, asking them to protect our children, our wives, our money from our own regime staying in their pavements happy to be there".

Charges against Hamza

He says they were thrown "bits and pieces" as dogs who run after the honey pot, "as they like to call it".

"It is sad... what is more sad about it is that people are arranging their life according to this as the unescaped destiny," he says.

"Do we stay like that... do we change? It looks like, unfortunately, that we have been forced, unfortunately, to be inside a toilet."

He also talks of establishing a caliphate, a government according to Islamic law.

Read it all.

The annual hajj stampede story is usually not on topic for this site. However, the fact that the British sent an observer to Saudi Arabia this year to study how the Saudis manage to control hajj crowds so well makes this a prime Dhimmi Watch item.

The AP story on the stampede is here.

Do you think that Jawaid Akhtar, assistant chief constable with West Yorkshire Police (WYP), is thinking today that he wasted his time studying Saudi crowd control techniques? Somehow I doubt that he is.

Jihad Watch reader Mike sends me this article, which states:

Robert Spencer, who writes the "Jihad Watch" column and believes Islam will conquer Europe within 10 years...

Come now. I think no such thing. I do hold, with Bernard Lewis, that Europe will be Islamic by the end of this century, unless there is some cataclysmic change. But I have not given up hope altogether for a recovery of Europe's identity and cultural vitality.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald offers some recommendations on what to do about Darfur:

"Genocide continues to rage in Darfur" -- from today's headlines

Darfur should be a place upon which Infidel attention should be focused, and much made of the situation there, as it is so clear-cut. Two points can be made, and action -- by the United States, which seems fated to do the work for everyone -- could help after another few months of false rescue by the Muslim troops in Nigeria.

To wit:

Let Darfur be used to hammer in two propositions:

1) Islam is not a universalist religion, but is a vehicle for Arab imperialism. This has been noted by Ibn Warraq, Anwar Shaikh, and many Muslims -- among the Berbers, the Malays, and others. The requirement that one learn Arabic to read the Qur'an, or at least to memorize the Qur'an in Arabic (as so many Urdu-speaking Pakistanis do in the madrasas); the adoption of Arabic names (including those "Sayeeds" in Pakistan -- the name indicates descent from the Prophet); the imposition of the Sunna (the ways, the customs, of Muhammad and his Companions), which inflicts on non-Arab peoples the ways of the Arabs; and the history of Arab aggression against non-Arab Muslims (Kurds, Berbers, blacks) should be emphasized. Darfur is now well-publicized as a place of organized massacre of Arabs against non-Arab Muslims. Let that, and its imperialist, supremacist implications, become as much a focus of world attention as possible.

The Danish Muhammad cartoon controversy has not died down, and now a new one has begun in Norway. This is an element of free speech in the West: attempts to curtail it will inevitably meet resistance. The resistance, meeting the muzzling attempt head-on, will often look like a deliberate provocation. The Norwegian magazine would most likely never have reprinted the Danish cartoons of Muhammad if the Muslim reaction to their first printing hadn't been so disproportionate and ominous in its implications. "Norwegian Muslims Blast Magazine Over Prophet Cartoons," from IslamOnline, with thanks to Fjordman:

CAIRO, January 11, 2006 (IslamOnline.net) – Norwegian Muslims on Wednesday, January 11, blasted an obscure magazine for echoing a Danish daily and publishing a set of caricatures offending Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

"The Supreme Islamic Council (SIC) condemns in the strongest possible terms the publishing of such offensive cartoons by Magazinet," SIC Head Mohammad Hamdan told IslamOnline.net over the phone from Oslo.

The Christian magazine on Tuesday, January 10, published the same cartoons that caused uproar in the Muslim world after first emerged in Denmark's mass circulation Jyllands-Posten last September.

It printed the blasphemous cartoons in the name of "freedom of expression."

"What on earth does freedom of expression mean?" A furious Hamadan wondered.

The fact that you don't know, Hamadan, is part of the problem.

In FrontPage this morning I discuss how the world's foremost economic magazine aids Islamist intimidation and the chilling of free speech. (News links in the original.)

Several weeks ago I wrote about how some cartoons of Muhammad in a Danish newspaper became an international incident. At stake is much more than some cartoons; this matter has become a test case for the continued viability of freedom of speech in Western countries. And now The Economist has written about the story in a way that reveals the biases and false assumptions so prevalent in the public discourse today.

As Islamic terrorism and jihad violence spread all over the globe, The Economist has doggedly maintained its tone of blame-the-West-first dhimmitude. Instead of seeing the cartoon controversy as another threat to freedom of speech in the West, it places the onus all on Danish racism and xenophobia. The spin starts in the lead sentence: “For much of last year, various squabbles have simmered over several prominent Danes' rude comments about Islam.”

Imagine you are a writer for The Economist, sitting down to write your story about the cartoon controversy. What is this story about? You could start it with a reference to the Van Gogh murder and the chill on free speech about Islam in Europe. Or you could refer to one of the many anti-Christian broadsides lauded in European art museums and on its airwaves, and the stout defenses of freedom of speech that the likes of The Economist published in the face of any Christian protest. You could refer to the menacing rise of anti-Semitism in Europe, and to increasing intimidation by Islamic thugs.

Or you could cast the whole thing all as being about "rude comments about Islam." Yes, of course! That's it! How could non-Western non-Christians, largely non-white, be anything but victims!

And so The Economist story got its proper lead. Then it follows with this: “Now a schoolboy prank...” Oh, so that's what it was. Not a trial balloon to see if free speech still existed in Europe. Not an attempt to defend it against attack. Just a schoolboy prank. Those idiotic schoolboys at Jyllands-Posten! Don't they realize they're playing with fire? “Now a schoolboy prank by a newspaper has landed the prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, in the biggest diplomatic dispute of his tenure in office.”

True, but it also showed him, at least initially, to be one of the few European statesmen with a clear understanding just how deep and serious was the cultural challenge presented by the cartoon protests and other instances of Muslim indignation. But as far as The Economist is concerned, all that matters here is that a schoolboy prank ended up embarrassing the Prime Minister.

Jakarta bans films on East Timor occupation," from AP, with thanks to JE:

Indonesian troops killed tens of thousands of people in East Timor during their 24-year occupation of the tiny territory. The films focus on alleged atrocities during the occupation and UN-led reconciliation since the referendum in 1999.

"We feared the films might reopen old wounds when a bridge of friendship is being built between East Timor and Indonesia," said Titie Said, head of Indonesia's film censor board.

1938 update from Iran Focus, with thanks to JE:

Tehran, Iran, Jan. 11 – Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that the Islamic Republic would obtain nuclear capabilities in the “near future”.

“In the near future, full nuclear energy for peaceful purposes will be at our disposal”, Ahmadinejad told a gathering in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas.

Take that "peacful" in the sense that Sayyid Qutb argued that Islam was a religion of peace: it will fight to establish Sharia everywhere, and then Allah's peace will reign over the world.

Sharia Alert from AFP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Move over Barbie, veiled is beautiful. The physical ideal of Muslim girls increasingly includes the hijab, as evidenced by toy shops' best-selling doll "Fulla" and the string of showbiz stars opting to cover up.

The dark-eyed and olive-skinned Fulla has replaced her American rival's skimpy skirts with more modest "outdoor fashion" and Barbie's luxuriant blonde mane with an Islamic veil.

"Fulla sells better because it is closer to our Arab values: she never reveals a leg or an arm," says Tarek Mohammed, chief salesman at a Toys'R'Us branch in Mohandessin, one of Cairo's more upmarket neighbourhoods.

The Arab answer to Barbie has been selling like hot cakes for Eid Al-Adha, the most important holiday in the Muslim calendar, not least because it is cheaper than its American rival, although both are made in China.

Fulla is not the first Islamic doll but none of her predecessors have taken the regional market by storm like she has, selling some two million since its creation two years ago by the Emirates-based NewBoy Design Studio.

Saudi Arabia's religious police had then just banned "Barbie the Jewish doll", whose "revealing clothes and shameful postures, accessories and tools are a symbol of decadence to the perverted West."...

Fulla also has two female friends, Yasmine and Nada, with lighter hair.

But she is still single as no plans appear to be afoot for marketing an Islamic equivalent of Ken, as giving her a boyfriend would be seen inappropriate in conservative Muslim cultures.

But a mass marketing campaign, including TV commercials and dozens of by-products ranging from cereals to school stationery, is not the only reason for Fulla's ever-growing popularity.

The sartorial evolution of little Muslim girls' toy dolls mirrors a broader phenomenon of Islamisation in Arab culture and society, which is no longer incompatible with hip and glamour.

Imam Hook Trial Update, from the BBC, with thanks to John and Mick:

Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri told his followers it was their "religious duty to kill" non-Muslims, jurors heard as his trial began at the Old Bailey.

David Perry, prosecuting, said a "terrorism manual" was found at the cleric's home in London in May 2004.

It explained how to make explosives and organise a terrorist unit, he said.

Abu Hamza, 47, denies 15 charges including having a document "useful" to a terrorist and soliciting people to murder non-Muslims....

He is also accused of threatening behaviour with intent to incite racial hatred.

Mr Perry said Mr Abu Hamza railed against alcohol, adultery, democracy and said Muslims had an "obligation" to fight and kill kuffar (non-believers)....

"You will hear the tapes and we will hear that the defendant, Sheikh Abu Hamza, encouraged his listeners, whether they were an audience at a private meeting or a congregation at the mosque, to believe that it was part of a religious duty to fight in the cause of Allah, God, and as part of the religious duty to fight in the cause of Allah, it was part of the religious duty to kill."

See Qur'an 2:190-193; 9:5, 9:29; and a host of others.

Mr Perry said the cleric preached "intolerance, bigotry and hatred", especially against Jewish people.

The prosecutor stressed the case was "not a trial against Islam", or against its holy book, the Koran, but had been brought "because of what the defendant said"....

Hmmm. But what if what he said tallies with what is in the Qur'an?

I wrote about Warith Deen Umar, the Muslim cleric who spread pro-9/11 sentiments in the New York prison system, in Onward Muslim Soldiers. Here again he shows how deeply he has imbibed the peaceful teachings of his adopted religion. This story, of course, will get virtually no notice at all. If it had been a Christian cleric, it would be page one news. "Muslim Cleric Picked Up On Weapons Charge," from WCBSTV, with thanks to Seymour Paine:

(CBS) NEW YORK A controversial Muslim cleric banned from the state prison system for allegedly calling the Sept. 11 hijackers martyrs now has been arrested for gun possession. Search warrants were executed at his homes in the Bronx and a suburb of Albany.

On Dec. 30, Imam Wariff Deen Umar, a former Black Panther and member of the Nation of Islam, said a tenant hit him while arguing about another apartment. The tenant says he did not.

"I pushed him away from my face," the tenant said.

Imam Umar admits he then aimed a shotgun at the larger man, who left. The Imam says he called police, who arrested him. At the police station the FBI interrogated him, according to the Imam, about Sept. 11 and terrorist connections. The police executed a search warrant on his Bronx apartment and took computer hard drives and legal papers.

"(They were) using this as a pretext to try to frighten the Muslims, to try to intimidate us, to try to take whatever material they think they can find," Umar said.

If there is nothing to find, Umar, you have nothing to worry about.

1938 Alert: "Blair says West likely to sanction Iran," from AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

TEHRAN, Iran - British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday that Western countries were likely to seek economic sanctions against Iran after Tehran restarted its nuclear program, but a powerful cleric said it would not curtail its research. Iran on Tuesday broke U.N. seals at a uranium enrichment plant and said it was resuming nuclear research after a two-year freeze. Enriched uranium can be used as a fuel for both nuclear energy and nuclear weapons.

"I think the first thing to do is to secure agreement for a reference to the Security Council, if that is indeed what the allies jointly decide, as I think seems likely," Blair told the House of Commons, adding that he was in close contact with Washington on the issue.
"We obviously don't rule out any measures at all," Blair said when asked about possible sanctions. "It's important Iran recognizes how seriously the international community treats it."

In Moscow, the Foreign Ministry said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had discussed the issue with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and both sides shared "a deep disappointment" over Iran's move. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Tuesday that if Iran continued on its present course, "there is no other choice but to refer the matter to the Security Council," which could impose sanctions.

In Iran's first response to the international outcry, former President Hashemi Rafsanjani said he was "astonished" by the West's attempt to "bully" Iran.

"If they cause any disturbance, they will ultimately regret it," he warned.

Someone certainly will.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald surveys the effects of the Islamic presence in Africa:

Islam has had its effect on Africa, all right. In the north, the thriving agriculture, and flourishing civilization of migrants and Phoenician traders and Jews and christianized Berbers, the Other Shore of Mediterranean civilization, from where among others Tertullian and Augustine of Hippo came, was destroyed by the Arab Muslim invaders, with the consequences for North Africa that we can all see. It was only in the period of French rule in Algeria, from 1830 to 1962, that agriculture was revived (including that of the vineyards), that the desertification that Arab non-methods of cultivation brought everywhere they conquered was reversed, and where universities, museums, and other outward and visible signs of civilization were established and maintained. For that moment, Algeria again possessed something like civilization -- and now it has relapsed, as of course it could have been predicted that it would, into a scarcely endurable and violent place, where the only hope is to get, as those chanting crowds repeated when they came out to "greet" a visiting Jacques Chirac a year or two ago: "Visa, Visa!"

What about black Africa? If you wish to see the traditional Arab Muslim treatment of black Africans, look at the 2 million dead over the past 20 years of scarcely uninterrupted warfare and genocide in the southern Sudan. If you wish to see the traditional Arab Muslim treatment of black African Muslims, prompted by the Arab supremacist ideology that Islam carries within it, and that does not admit of non-Arabs being as "fully Muslim" as the Arabs, look at Darfur, through the lenses even of Nicholas Kristof.

If you seek other examples, look at the unceasing pressure of Muslims in northern Nigeria on the Christians of southern Nigeria. Read again the Ahiara Declaration of Col. Ojukwu, in 1969, the leader of the Biafran Nation. Advanced Christians, chiefly but not entirely Ibo, sought independence as a way of protecting themselves from the "Jihad" (Col. Ojukwu's carefully-chosen word) being waged against them.

Good thing Islam forbids killing the innocent or people in these resorts would really have something to worry about. "Thai terrorists 'target resorts,'" from The Australian, with thanks to JE:

JEMAAH Islamiah-linked terrorists in southern Thailand are believed to be planning to transform their insurgency from attacks against the Thai state to bombings of Western tourists.

US terrorism expert Zachary Abuza has told The Australian that the Muslim insurgency could spread from the hinterland to beach resorts, such as Phuket, frequented by Western tourists.

Dr Abuza will tell the Foreign Correspondents Club in Bangkok tonight there are also reasons to believe that JI may become involved in such a plan being hatched by Thai insurgents.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald examines the implications of Germany's release of the killer of Robert Stethem, and larger questions regarding Germany:

Why did the Germans free the torturer and killer of Robert Stethem?

Germans do not understand how the educated world, the world of those with memories, regards them still, and will for a very long time to come. They may have misinterpreted the indulgence of the American government (needing or thinking it needed to put all sorts of things behind it because no sooner was World War II over than the Cold War loomed) with what many intelligent people, many of them born after the war, in America, in France, in Italy, in Russia, in Poland, in Czechoslovakia, in Denmark, in Norway, and in England, naturally think of when they hear the word "Germany." The Germans may think that by now they are home free, and they appear all too ready to regard themselves and expect others to regard their country, their history, and their manner of dealing with that history, as "normal." Many of them are "tired," as the writer Martin Walzer wrote -- not in these precise words -- of "being beaten over the head about the Holocaust." Too bad. There is no sell-by date on learning in great detail about that atrocity, and realizing there is no transcending of it, no "getting beyond or over it." It is there, in the air, permanently.

Young backpack-and-water-bottled Germans travel complacently about the world, completely oblivious to what comes to mind to those who either lived through the war, or who have learned about it in detail, when they hear the word "German" or see those faces that cannot but remind one of Hitlerjugend sun-worshippers tramping the heather in groups. And one repeatedly hears about the behavior of German high-school students, as they make their dutiful tours as high school students to Auschwitz -- chewing gum, cracking jokes, laughing their heads off, having a great time.

While the Russians do their best to cozy up to the Iranian mullahs who are helping make this jihad possible. From Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, :

A man presenting himself as the leader of the anti-Russian armed front in Kabardino-Balkaria today warned that the jihad, or "holy war," was spreading across the entire North Caucasus region.

In an interview with the pro-independence Kavkaz-Center Chechen website, Anzor Astemirov assessed the 13 October raids on Kabardino-Balkaria's capital Nalchik as a strategic success. "We've achieved our main objective. We finally and openly carried out the first step toward jihad," Astemirov is reported to have said....

Russian officials say the October raids claimed the lives of more than 140 people, including 95 alleged militants. Astemirov and Basaev both said 37 militants were killed in the unrest.

Wait a minute, Ibrahim. They took the first step toward jihad and people were killed? But I thought only Islamophobes believed that jihad was anything but a spiritual struggle. This is all so confusing!

Jihad in Japan? That's right. "Terror: What Japan has to fear," from Asia Times, with thanks to Kasia:

BANGALORE - A Pakistan-based Sunni extremist group, the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) or Army of the Companions of the Prophet, is reportedly attempting to spread its tentacles in Japan. While little is known of how successful it has been with its mission in Japan, its record in Pakistan should put authorities in Tokyo on maximum alert.

According to reports in the Japanese media, a 30-year-old member of the SSP entered Japan in 2003 with a visa for religious activities. Apparently, he told some worshippers at a mosque that he had come to Japan to establish an SSP cell there. Police have now arrested a Pakistani man who has been in touch with him and are monitoring the activities of suspected members of the group, according to the Sankei Shimbum newspaper.

Read it all.

New Europe Update: "Spain: Algerian Suicide Bomber Linked to Cell," from AKI, :

Marid, 10 Jan. (AKI) - The recruiters of an Algerian suicide bomber who investigators believe is one of those responsible for an attack in Iraq in 2003 that killed 19 Italians were among 20 people arrested on Monday in Spain on suspicion of enlisting Islamist fighters for Iraq. Spanish and Italian security forces had worked together to provide the forensic evidence linking the late Bellil Belgacem to the 2003 attack on an Italian military barracks in Nasiriya, southern Iraq, Spain's interior minister Jose Antonio Alonso said in a statement.

The police sweep - carried out on Tuesday in the Spanish cities of Barcelona, the capital, Madrid, and Lasarte in the Basque region - netted 15 Moroccan, three Spanish, a Turkish, and an Algerian suspect, believed to belong to al-Qaeda linked cells, the interior ministry said.

The world didn't run out of patience with Iran yesterday. The only sign that the world has run out of patience with Iran would be the dismantling of this nuclear program before it is too late. From the TimesOnline, :

THE world ran out of patience with Iran yesterday after Tehran defied the United Nations by breaking the seals on an underground nuclear site and resuming enrichment work.

British officials said last night that Iran was likely to be referred to the UN Security Council for punitive sanctions by the end of the month.

I would imagine that that prospect has the mullahs shaking in their boots.

Erick Stakelbeck of CBN.com profiles Michigan Imam Mohammed Ali Elahi:

CBN.com - DEARBORN, Michigan - For many in Dearborn, Michigan, a heavily Arab and Muslim suburb of Detroit, Imam Mohammed Ali Elahi is a true American-Muslim success story.

A native of Iran, Elahi worked for the Iranian Navy, and was wounded by Saddam Hussein's forces during the Iran/Iraq War in the 1980s. He arrived in the U.S. in 1991, and he is now an American citizen.

"When I took the American citizenship and took the vows associated with loyalty to this country, I meant it. So I'm not [an] ambassador of Iran or any other country," Elahi said.

Elahi meets frequently with Michigan Jewish and Christian leaders and political figures. He also speaks at various U.N. events, and has even met with former President Bill Clinton. But most of his time is spent at the Islamic House of Wisdom, a popular mosque located just outside Dearborn.

The Islamic House of Wisdom used to be a church. Now it is one of the largest mosques in the United States. As its leader, Imam Elahi holds considerable influence over Dearborn's Muslim community. But critics say he has misusing that influence to promote an anti-Israel, pro-Iran agenda.

Read it all.

Another one for the "Sunnis won't work with Shi'ites against Infidels" files. From the Telegraph, with thanks to Interested:

President Bashar al-Assad of Syria secretly incited Iraq's top Shia leader to declare holy war against US and British forces, according to Washington's former administrator in the country.

In his new book, My Year in Iraq, Paul Bremer said he heard the explosive intelligence in October 2003 as sectarian tensions soared across the country following the fall of Saddam Hussein.

News of Assad's actions ‘stunned’ the US administration in Iraq
The report came from an extremely senior source, the supreme leader of Iraq's majority Shia community, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

According to Mr Bremer, the news was passed to him by Mowaffak al-Rubaie, a senior Shia politician involved in negotiations with the ayatollah. The Syrian leader had apparently recalled the Shia-led uprising against the British in 1920 and urged the Shia to repeat history.

Cinnamon Stillwell in the San Francisco Gate (thanks to Olivia) identifies an all-too-common malady that hampers public discourse about Islamic terror:

Ever since Sept. 11, critics have been insisting that the U.S. government remedy the blind spots that led to the attacks. That was the ostensible purpose of the Sept. 11 commission and most of its recommendations did indeed conform to such goals. Yet every effort to "connect the dots" since has been met with opposition by the very same critics.

The recent wiretapping controversy is a case in point.

Last month, the New York Times broke the story that the National Security Agency has been listening in on the electronic communications of al Qaeda operatives in America. And the debate has been raging ever since. The problem is, the story turns out not to have been quite the shocker the Times intended.

For one thing, congressional leaders were informed about the surveillance and seemed to have had few qualms about it at the time. The monitored calls were international in origin, a fact conveniently overlooked by those still labeling it a "domestic spying program." Constitutionally speaking, such actions are in fact within the power of the executive branch, as a recent Justice Department communication makes clear.

The intelligence that led to the surveillance was gleaned from computers, cell phones and phone books belonging to captured al Qaeda terrorist Abu Zubaydah and picked up during a CIA operation in Pakistan in 2002. Similarly, the capture of al Qaeda operations chief and Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in Pakistan in 2003 produced a treasure trove of information regarding al Qaeda contacts in America. It would have been beyond negligent for the government to ignore such solid leads. If confirmed members of al Qaeda residing in the United States, whether citizens or not, do not make for appropriate surveillance targets, then who does?

Indeed. Read it all.

Yet another in the long string of articles I have posted here in which Islamic clerics say something that, had a non-Muslim observer said it of Muslims, would bring accusations of "Islamophobia." From MEMRI, with thanks to all who sent this in:

Sheikh Abd Al-Aziz Fawzan Al-Fawzan, a professor of Islamic law at Al-ImamUniversity, who frequently appears on Saudi TV recently made anti-Christian comments on Saudi Al-Majd TV. He told his audience to hate anyone "who worships Christ, son of Mary" and added that "whoever says 'I don't hate him [i.e. a Christian]' is not a Muslim..." He went on to explain that such an attitude "is not racism" since the Christian is not hated "because of his color, gender, blood, country, or because he is American, European, Chinese, or Asian," and stipulated that this hatred should be "positive hatred" that guides and reforms. TO VIEW THIS CLIP, VISIT: http://www.memritv.org/Transcript.asp?P1=992

[...]

Muslims Must Hate Christians With "Positive Hatred" - December 16, 2005, Al-Majd TV

Al-Fawzan: "Someone who denies Allah, worships Christ, son of Mary, and claims that God is one third of a trinity - do you like these things he says and does? Don’t you hate the faith of such a polytheist who says God is one third of a trinity, or who worships Christ, son of Mary?

"Someone who permits and commits fornication - as is the case in Western countries, where fornication is permitted and not considered a problem - don't you hate this? Whoever says 'I don't hate him' is not a Muslim, my brother."

[...]

"This is not racism, my brother. We don't hate a polytheist because of his color, gender, blood, country, or because he is American, European, Chinese, or Asian. They are our partners in humanity. An American Muslim may be better in Allah's view than all the Arabs."

[...]

"But if this person is an infidel - even if this person is my mother or father, God forbid, or my son or daughter - I must hate him, his heresy, and his defiance of Allah and His prophet. I must hate his abominable deeds. Moreover, this hatred must be positive hatred. It should make me feel compassion for him, and should make me guide and reform him."

Read it all.

Scorn. That'll show 'em. From AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran removed U.N. seals on uranium enrichment equipment and resumed nuclear research Tuesday, defying demands it maintain a two-year freeze on its nuclear program and sparking an outcry from the United States and Europe.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran plans to enrich uranium as part of its experiments with the nuclear fuel cycle. An IAEA statement issued in Vienna, Austria, said Iran told the agency the scale of its enrichment work would be limited.

U.S. officials denounced Iran's move, calling it a step toward creating material for nuclear bombs. Germany's foreign minister raised doubts over the future of European-led negotiations on Iran's nuclear program, questioning whether there remains any basis for more talks.

Britain warned that the international community was "running out of patience" with Tehran, and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Iran had breached IAEA resolutions.

"There was no good reason why Iran should have taken this step if its intentions are truly peaceful and it wanted to resolve longstanding international concerns," Straw said.

Well, Straw, they aren't. Time to wake up, now.

The big bad old West keeps associating Islam with terrorism. Imagine that. Osama? Abu Bakar Bashir? Abu Hamza? Omar Bakri? Zarqawi? Zawahiri? Fawaz Damra? Ahmed Omar Abu Ali? Etc. etc. etc.? Never heard of 'em. From the Times of India, with thanks to Hari:

MECCA (Saudi Arabia): A top Saudi cleric told Muslim pilgrims marking the climax of Haj on Tuesday that the West was using the global phenomenon of terrorism to scare people away from Islam and discredit legitimate Muslim causes.

Sheikh Abdul Rahman al-Sudeis, the state-appointed preacher at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, also called for stability in Iraq and said Islam was innocent of the charge of "terrorism".

"The campaign against Islam has become fierce and Muslims are being described in insulting terms to distort the image of Islam and scare people away from it," he told the 2.5 million pilgrims in a sermon to mark the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha.

He accused Western countries of hypocrisy in promoting freedom and democracy, citing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"When the oppressor Zionist enemy uses its war of smart bombs and tanks against our brothers in Palestine, violating our holy sites, that's not terrorism to their mind - but defending land, religion and honour is," Sudeis said....

"Islam is innocent of this grave phenomenon (of terrorism). The shedding of blood in this country and other Muslim countries is a forbidden criminal act," the cleric said, adding that fighting Islamic rulers was "foolish" and counterproductive....

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald discusses the implications of the fact that so many in the government are not willing to accept or examine the implications of the facts we present here:

Now and again we hear that some in the American government have the dreamy idea of funding "non-Wahhabi" madrasas -- akin to Sarkozy's idea that if only the French government funds mosques, all manner of things will be well. What can this possibly mean? Was the Ayatollah Khomeini a follower of Wahhabism? The idea that Infidel taxpayers should pay for mosques and madrasas anywhere instead of trying to cut off their funding from anywhere (and not just the Saudis) shows that the evasion of reality continues -- an evasion based on avoiding, at all costs, actually studying what is in Qur'an and hadith, what Muslim jurisconsults say about Infidels, how Infidels are to be treated under the Shari'a, and how the Jihad-conquests and subsequent subjugation of Infidels has, over 1350 years, proceeded -- from Spain to China, from 650 to 2004. No interest in history, no interest in learning about dhimmitude or Jihad, no interest in reading the texts. Just -- hope.

Every single failure of the Western world in the last thirty years, in dealing with oil, with terrorism, with Muslim migration to Europe and other countries of the Bilad al-kufr -- every single failure is a direct result of misunderstanding the nature of Islam. One to two trillion dollars might have been recaptured by oil-consuming nations if the Saudi lobby and Saudi hirelings had not convinced successive American administrations that they could rely on Saudi "friendship" to "moderate" oil prices (all nonsense, all silly). If Islam had been understood, the incredible criminal negligence above all of the French elites -- good at passing ENA exams and arranging comfortable existences, not so good at things like understanding the Arabs and Muslims but making smug assumptions that, in contradistinction to those buffoonish Americans, they do, they do -- would never have been permitted. Had Islam been understood, one would not be surprised by anything that happens today.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald explains how the New York Times' shoddy coverage of the Danish cartoon controversy reveals deeper problems with its coverage of the global jihad:

“Denmark unlikely front in Islam-West Culture War." - title of this New Duranty Times article

This title is already a dead giveaway to what is wrong, so wrong, with the coverage of Islam at The New Duranty Times.

First, why is Denmark an "unlikely front"? Well, because Denmark, it is well understood, its people and its king, acquitted themselves well during World War II. And from that time on Denmark has been, like Holland, seen as well as what it has been, a place of easy-going tolerance, relaxed about religion, sexual mores, and all that other stuff -- sometimes, possibly, with unintended and unwelcome consequences. If Denmark is an "unlikely front" in something (in a minute we'll get to how The New Duranty Times describes that something) it must be because we expect "likely fronts" to be European countries that have historically been seen as less tolerant, less easygoing, not like Denmark at all. Because, you see, as far as the New Duranty Times is concerned the problem lies solely with the European countries themselves and how they respond to Muslims -- not with Islam, or with Muslims, or with what Islam teaches, and what Muslims believe, and act upon.

If The New Duranty Times saw the problem correctly, it would have fashioned a different title. If the reporter and editors had recognized the phenomenon of the Jihad that causes so many Muslims everywhere, sooner or later, to strive "to dominate and not to be dominated" (as a Hadith puts it, and as the entire life of Muhammad insists), their story would have been quite different. The Times should have recognized that the problems in Denmark posed by Islamic attempts to censor what can and cannot be written or said in Denmark are of a piece with the various attempts by Muslims, wherever they may be within the Lands of the Infidels (temporarily, as they see it, the Lands of the Infidels), to transform the indigenous non-Muslim laws, customs, manners, understandings, and the non-Muslims’ ability to behave with wonted freedom. The threats and fury directed by the entire Muslim world at little Denmark for a dozen cartoons, most of them so mild as to cause one to wonder why anyone could cause a fuss, is no different from the demands made for the wearing of the hijab in French schools, or the removal of all crosses from public places in Italy, or the insistence that the Shari'a law apply to local Muslim communities in Canada, or any number of other such demands, made so insistently, and so outrageously, and at a time when Muslims are only a small percentage of the population and held, correctly, in deep and growing suspicion. One can only wonder how things will be if the percentage of Muslims in the population is permitted to grow, and mosques and madrasas -- almost all supported by money from abroad -- are allowed to be built, to spread the doctrines to be found in Qur'an, Hadith, and Sira. Anyone bothering to look into all that will, if he is an Infidel, come away with a feeling of dread.

For that matter, within those countries firmly under Muslim control, such as Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sudan, Nigeria, Egypt, Algeria, and Iraq, precisely the extent of the fervency of the local Muslims and their ability to work their will determines how much all local communities of non-Muslims (whether Christians or Hindus or others -- no Jews are left, but there are Bahai's, Buddhists, Sikhs, followers of Confucius, animists, and of course those without any attachment to an organized religion) will be made to suffer. They will suffer from discrimination and a feeling of permanent insecurity, and from other indignities all the way up to expulsions and attacks on churches and Hindu temples, attacks on church-run schools and hospitals, and upon any other non-Muslim institutions that can be identified and attacked.

No surprise here at all, except to those who are determined to ignore the obvious Shi'ite plan in Iraq. From the Washington Times, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Shi'ite clerics are recruiting young Iraqis to go to neighboring Iran for political indoctrination and militia training, said the uncle of one young man who recently returned from a one-month session.

Upon the return of the young man -- whose name has been withheld from this article to protect his family -- he was recruited into the armed wing of the pro-Iranian Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) political party, the uncle said.

The claim is consistent with remarks by U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad, who has repeatedly warned about Iranian meddling in Iraq's affairs.

An update on the Oakland liquor store story. From AP:

They weren't your ordinary thugs. Dressed in bow ties and dark suits, nearly a dozen men carrying metal pipes entered a corner store, shattered refrigerator cases and smashed bottles of liquor, wine and beer, terrifying the clerk but stealing nothing.

The just wanted to leave a message: Stop selling alcohol to fellow Muslims.

No new news in the article but a bit more background:

While black and Middle Eastern Muslims may pray at the same mosques on weekends, their worlds do not tend to overlap beyond that, said Hatem Bazian, professor of Near East and ethnic studies at the University of California at Berkeley.

Aref and Hossein update. Imagine: an imam and the co-founder of a mosque involved in terrorism! Why, how did they miss all the Qur'anic teachings of peace and tolerance?

Seriously, when will the denial about the roots of Islamic terror end? How many more imams will be arrested? How many imams will succeed in their plans without being arrested? From AP, :

ALBANY, New York - A judge refused Monday to dismiss charges against two Muslims accused of supporting terrorism, saying there was enough evidence to go forward despite defense arguments that the men were entrapped.

Yassin Aref, imam at the Masjid as-Salam mosque in Albany, and Mohammed Hossain, a co-founder of the mosque, were arrested in August 2004, accused of laundering money for an FBI informant posing as an arms dealer.

U.S. District Judge Thomas McAvoy said there was sufficient evidence for a trial. He also refused to grant separate trials for the men, who have pleaded not guilty.

Aref, 35, a native of northern Iraq's Kurdish area, immigrated to the United States with his family in 1999. Hossain, 50, a native of Bangladesh who owns an Albany pizzeria, is a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Prosecutors maintained that they were willing participants in criminal activity, while the defense argued Monday that the men were entrapped.

The FBI informant allegedly told the men that some $50,000 they held for him was from the sale of a missile that would be used to kill a Pakistani diplomat in New York City. The men say they never believed the business deal was part of a terrorist plot.

Spengler in Asia Times (thanks to all who sent this in) tells truths that cannot be told in American public discourse, making points we have made here many times:

Islam is the unexploded bomb of global politics. US foreign policy - the only foreign policy there is, for the United States is the only superpower - proceeds from the hope that a modern and democratic Islam will emerge from the ruins of Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Through democratic institutions, Washington believes, the long-marginalized Shi'ites will adapt to religious pluralism. Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's Islam, fixed in amber since the High Middle Ages, will metamorphose into something like American mainline Protestantism.

Alas, the available facts suggest that the opposite result will ensue: more freedom equals more fundamentalism. Not the secular Shi'ite parties but the pro-Iranian religious parties dominate the Iraqi polls. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood quadrupled its vote despite heavy-handed measures to intimidate its supporters; Hamas threatens to displace Fatah in the Palestinian elections this month; Hezbollah has become the strongest electoral as well as military force in Lebanon; and, most important of all, Mahmud Ahmadinejad crushed a more pragmatic opponent in last June's Iranian presidential elections.

Islam was founded as a theocracy, such that the Western innovation of church-state separation remains alien to its culture. Is it possible for Islam to reform? A negative answer implies that Ahmadinejad's January 5 call for world domination falls within the Islamic mainstream. He told an audience of religious students, "We must believe in the fact that Islam is not confined to geographical borders, ethnic groups and nations. It's a universal ideology that leads the world to justice. We don't shy away from declaring that Islam is ready to rule the world. We must prepare ourselves to rule the world." The previous day, the London Guardian leaked a European intelligence report detailing Iran's efforts to acquire technology required to build nuclear weapons. A very few writers, including this one, have rejected the possibility of Islamic reformation, to the stony contempt of universally accepted opinion.

Now Pope Benedict XVI has let it be known that he does not believe Islam can reform. This we learn from the transcript of a January 5 US radio interview with one of Benedict's students and friends, Father Joseph Fessio, SJ, the provost of Ave Maria University in Naples, Florida, posted on the Asia Times Online forum by a sharp-eyed reader. For the pope to refute the fundamental premise of US policy is news of inestimable strategic importance, yet a Google News scan reveals that not a single media outlet has taken notice of what Fessio told interviewer Hugh Hewitt last week. No matter: still and small as Benedict's voice might be, it carries further than earthquake and whirlwind.

Read it all. Yes, you heard me.

All together now! Everbody clap your hands, stomp your feet and say, "Death to America!" Iranian pilgrims in Mecca. So bear in mind that this is the kind of thing that comes from a peak of religious fervor in Islam's holiest site. Not exactly Kumbaya, but I appreciate the campfire sing-along spirit. From MEMRITV, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Following are excerpts from a rally of Iranian pilgrims in Mecca, aired on Channel 1, Iranian TV, and on Al-'Alam TV, on January 9, 2006.

Crowd: Israel is the enemy of Allah.

Man: May the hands of the infidels be chopped off.

Crowd: May the hands of the infidels be chopped off.

Man: May the hands of the infidels be chopped off.

Crowd: May the hands of the infidels be chopped off.

Man: (Chopped off) from the land of the believers.

Crowd: From the land of the believers.

Man: The Audience will now split into two groups: One group will settle the score with America, and the other will settle the score with Israel. This group now: Death to America!

Crowd: Death to America!

Man: Death to Israel!

Crowd: Death to Israel! Death to America!

Man: Death to America!

Crowd: Death to America!

Man: Death to America!

Crowd: Death to Israel! Death to America! Death to Israel!

Man: All together now: Death to America! Death to Israel!

Crowd: Death to America! Death to Israel! Death to America! Death to Israel! Death to America! Death to Israel! Death to America! Death to Israel!

Read it all.

Suzanne Osthoff, the German hostage in Iraq who was treated well because of her Islamic faith, turns out to have been a spy as well. From UPI, with thanks to Gabrielle Goldwater:

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Susanne Osthoff, the German archeologist kidnapped by Iraqi gunmen on Nov. 25 and released before Christmas was connected with her country's intelligence service, the BND, and had helped arrange a meeting with a top member of the terrorist organization al-Qaida, possibly Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi himself, according to well informed German sources Sunday.

Great. Why did they want to meet with Zarqawi? Most likely to ask him "What do you want?" or "What can we give you that will pacify you?" Which questions, of course, stem from an utter unwillingness or inability to understand the jihad ideology.

The sources confirmed German press reports that the 43-year-old woman had worked for the BND in Iraq on a freelance basis, and had for some time even stayed in a German intelligence safe house in Baghdad.

A convert to Islam and a fluent Arabic speaker, Osthoff had lived in Iraq for over a decade, and was at one time married to an Iraqi. Archeology is a classic intelligence cover: T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) posed as an archeologist in the Middle East in the early part of the last century. But archeology is Osthoff's real profession. One Washington-based German source said Osthoff had been working on arranging a rendezvous with an al-Qaida member on behalf of a German intelligence agent in Iraq. Whether the meeting ever took place has not been revealed, but another source in Berlin, reached by telephone, said experts believed that the kidnapping may have been the work of a rival group, possibly within the same organization.

A day after Osthoff's release, the Germans had quietly freed and sent home to his native Lebanon Mohammed Ali Hamadi, a Hezbollah militant serving a sentence for killing a U.S. Navy diver in a hijacked TWA jetliner in 1985. Berlin officials denied any connection between Osthoff's release and Hamadi's after serving only 19 years of a life sentence. They said Hamadi had qualified for parole and the decision to free him had been taken by the state government in North Rhine Westphalia, where he was being held, not the Federal government.

Yes, yes, of course. But it gets even worse:

He was captured in Frankfurt in 1987 for his part in hijacking the TWA jetliner and killing the American navy diver, who was a passenger on the plane. The United States requested Hamadi's extradition, but the Germans refused, and instead tried and convicted him.

But both German sources said the real deal involving Osthoff's release had been the payment of a ransom to her terrorist captors by the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel. The ransom and Hamadi's release could well constitute a double embarrassment for Merkel on her scheduled "maiden" visit to Washington next week. Washington has always opposed pay ransom money on the grounds that it encourages more kidnapping.

Make that Angela "Aethelred" Merkel. And remember: she was supposed to be the hardline German candidate.

A fuller version of this story from Iran Focus, with thanks to Sparta:

Tehran, Iran, Jan. 07 – An Iranian court has sentenced a teenage rape victim to death by hanging after she weepingly confessed that she had unintentionally killed a man who had tried to rape both her and her niece.

The state-run daily Etemaad reported on Saturday that 18-year-old Nazanin confessed to stabbing one of three men who had attacked the pair along with their boyfriends while they were spending some time in a park west of the Iranian capital in March 2005.

Nazanin, who was 17 years old at the time of the incident, said that after the three men started to throw stones at them, the two girls’ boyfriends quickly escaped on their motorbikes leaving the pair helpless.

She described how the three men pushed her and her 16-year-old niece Somayeh onto the ground and tried to rape them, and said that she took out a knife from her pocket and stabbed one of the men in the hand.

As the girls tried to escape, the men once again attacked them, and at this point, Nazanin said, she stabbed one of the men in the chest. The teenage girl, however, broke down in tears in court as she explained that she had no intention of killing the man but was merely defending herself and her younger niece from rape, the report said.

The court, however, issued on Tuesday a sentence for Nazanin to be hanged to death.

"Islam's enemies want to empty our religion from its contents and its meaning." That is, cut out the parts about violent jihad and the subjugation of infidels. But Sheik Abdul-Aziz al-Sheik, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, isn't about to let that happen -- and neither are the hajj pilgrims who listened to his sermon.

Islamic Reform/Snowball In Hell Alert: "Hajj Pilgrims Told of War on Islam" from AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

MOUNT ARAFAT, Saudi Arabia — More than 2 million Muslim pilgrims from 178 countries prayed for salvation Monday at Mount Arafat, Islam's most sacred site, where Saudi Arabia's top cleric declared the West was conducting a "war against our creed."...

Sheik Abdul-Aziz al-Sheik, the kingdom's grand mufti, said Muslims faced critical challenges, among them accusations of terrorism and human rights abuses and calls for revisions in their school textbooks.

"Oh, Muslim nation, there is a war against of our creed, against our culture under the pretext of fighting terrorism. We should stand firm and united in protecting our religion," he said, speaking at a mosque on the plain of Mount Arafat.

"Islam's enemies want to empty our religion from its contents and its meaning. But the soldiers of God will be victorious," said al-Sheik, the Saudi kingdom's top religious authority.

The faithful called out: "Amen!"

As Islamic terrorism and jihad violence spread all over the globe, The Economist has doggedly maintained its tone of world-weary populist Saidism and blame-the-West-first dhimmitude. Its reaction to the Muslim cartoon controversy in Denmark is no exception. In "Free speech clashes with religious sensitivity" (thanks to Designnut), the onus is all on Danish racism and xenophobia.

It is useful to read articles like this closely to see just how skillfully they stack the deck and attempt to manipulate reader opinion.

It starts with the lead sentence:

FOR much of last year, various squabbles have simmered over several prominent Danes' rude comments about Islam.

Imagine you are a writer for The Economist, sitting down to write your story about the cartoon controversy. You have a tabula rasa. The whole universe is at your disposal as you choose a lead to focus your story. Let's see...what is this story about? You could start it with a reference to the Van Gogh murder and the chill on free speech about Islam in Europe. Or you could refer to one of the many anti-Christian broadsides lauded in European art museums and on its airwaves, and the stout defenses of freedom of speech that the likes of The Economist published in the face of any Christian protest. You could refer to the menacing rise of anti-Semitism in Europe, and to increasing intimidation by Islamic thugs.

Or you could cast the whole thing all as being about "rude comments about Islam." Yes, of course! That's it! How could non-Western non-Christians, largely non-white, be anything but victims!

And so The Economist story got its proper lead.

Now a schoolboy prank...

Oh, so that's what it was. Not a trial balloon to see if free speech still existed in Europe. Not an attempt to defend it against attack. Just a schoolboy prank. Those idiotic schoolboys at Jyllands-Posten! Don't they realize they're playing with fire?

...by a newspaper has landed the prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, in the biggest diplomatic dispute of his tenure in office.

True, but it also showed him, at least initially, to be one of the few European statesmen with a clear understanding just how deep and serious was the cultural challenge presented by the cartoon protests and other instances of Muslim indignation. But as far as The Economist is concerned, all that matters here is that a schoolboy prank ended up embarrassing the Prime Minister.

The latest spat started some months ago when Jyllands-Posten, Denmark's biggest-selling broadsheet, published a dozen cartoons depicting Muhammad. Visual representations of the prophet are frowned upon by the faithful. And Jyllands-Posten's cartoons were undeniably strong stuff: one showed Muhammad in a bomb-shaped turban, another depicted him wielding a cutlass and a third had him saying that paradise was running short of virgins for suicide-bombers. The paper insists that it meant no offence: it was merely protesting against the self-censorship of some cartoonists who had refused to illustrate a children's book about Muhammad for fear of reprisals. But the result has been a row that has spread far beyond Denmark's borders.

"The paper insists..." Using the word "insist" implies a defensiveness: in the face of all the evidence to the contrary, the paper insists...In other words, The Economist is fairly sure that the paper was up to some racist no-good. But its journalistic integrity requires it to note that they "insist" the contrary.

Louise Arbour, the United Nations human-rights commissioner, said she was "alarmed" by such an "unacceptable disregard for the beliefs of others". Similar condemnations came from the European Commission, the Council of Europe and the Arab League. The affair has led to protest marches in Copenhagen and Karachi, and a wave of disapproving e-mails to Danish embassies. The cartoons were even condemned by many in Denmark's liberal-minded intelligentsia, not because they favour censorship but because they see the drawings as part of an increasingly xenophobic tone that has infected all Danish dealings with foreigners.

Uh oh! "The cartoons were even condemned by many in Denmark's liberal-minded intelligentsia"! Do you consider yourself liberal-minded? Like to think of yourself as part of the intelligentsia, or at least in tune with what the knowing people know? Then you better pile on and condemn these cartoons, along with all the right-thinking folks and forward-looking institutions.

In a country where a member of parliament can liken Muslims to "cancer tumours" and still not lose her seat, unfettered public debate is seen as normal.

Ah, see, Denmark is just sort of unhinged, you see. They have mad members of Parliament and schoolboy pranksters running newspapers. Really, they need to rein themselves in a little.

Danes, like most people, cherish their freedom of speech. But their secular society may have blinded them to some people's religious sensitivities. Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, a former foreign minister, laments his country's lack of manners.

"Lack of manners." Is that what it was? Well, no one wants to be unmannerly. Danish secularism has gotten out of hand, you see, that's all. The Danes just have to recover their manners. Did The Economist pontificate about manners and religious sensitivities during the Piss Christ controversy? Somehow I rather think it didn't.

"We have a right to speak our minds, not an obligation to do so," he says.

What on earth does that mean? We are not forced to say what we think? There are circumstances in which speaking our minds is not called for? That is true on an individual level. But if on a society-wide basis the Danes are prevented from saying what they think for fear of reprisal or even of giving offense to some group, then they no longer actually have the right to speak their minds.

Mr Fogh Rasmussen has tried to defuse the row mostly by ignoring it. After he had rejected a request for a meeting with 11 ambassadors from Islamic countries to Copenhagen, he was lashed by 22 former Danish ambassadors to the Muslim world, who deplored his ignorance of diplomatic niceties. After several more weeks of dithering, the prime minister at last tackled the matter in his new year's speech, condemning any attempts "to demonise groups of people on the basis of their religion or ethnic background". But although he alluded to "a few unacceptably offensive" instances, he did not mention Jyllands-Posten by name. And he also insisted that the general tone of the Danish debate was "civilised and fair".

How viciously unfair to Rasmussen. In fact, he didn't ignore the problem or dither. He stood up stoutly for freedom of speech, saying: "This is a matter of principle. I won’t meet with them because it is so crystal clear what principles Danish democracy is built upon that there is no reason to do so.” He added: “I will never accept that respect for a religious stance leads to the curtailment of criticism, humour and satire in the press.” The matter, he said, was beyond his authority: “As prime minister I have no tool whatsoever to take actions against the media and I don’t want that kind of tool.”

The Economist just happened not to notice that he said all that? Or did it all just not fit their paradigm?

For many Muslims, this is too little, too late. Ahmed Said Kassem, a leading Copenhagen Muslim, has called on Jyllands-Posten to apologise and on the government to dissociate itself from the cartoons. In a sign that the row may have some time still to run, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, a 57-strong group of countries, has also announced a boycott of "Images of the Middle East", an exhibition due to be held in Denmark this summer. What should have been a celebration of Denmark's cultural links with the Islamic world now looks like falling victim to Danish free speech.

"...falling victim to Danish free speech." Not "falling victim to Islamic intransigence and inability to accept the parameters of a free society."

D. C. Watson revises his list of those whom the dhimmi media and academic establishment must necessarily regard as "misunderstanders" of Islam:

They still don't get it. So many Muslims continue to fail to understand that as followers of Islam, they should strive to coexist peacefully with non-Muslims everywhere in the world and live in harmony and equality with them -- as it is prescribed in the Qur'an. I know it's in there somewhere...I'm still looking for the passage!

The following is an update to my running list of the "tiny minority" of Muslims arrested, convicted, deported, still at large, or now with Allah -- in other words, of Muslims in the United States who are out on the fringe of the 'religion of peace' and tolerance, Islam.

Note: The charges filed against those who have made this list do not include toilet-papering houses, turfing lawns, ringing doorbells and running away, flushing M-80s down school toilets, spraypainting graffiti on bridges or water towers, or riding along and bashing in mailboxes with an aluminum ball bat. If only it were that benign. In truth, the charges include:

Murder
Arson
Immigration fraud
Credit card fraud
Identity theft
False marriage in order to obtain legal immigrant status and benefits
Domestic servitude
Assault and battery
Car theft
Filing false documents
Making false statements to law enforcement pertaining to terrorist ties
Filing false anti-Muslim hate crime reports
Insurance fraud
Conspiracy to overthrow the United States government
Smuggling illegal contraband
Drug trafficking
Conspiracy to commit money laundering
Conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States
Conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists or terrorist networks

In a good number of these cases, these activities were determined to be for the purpose of providing material and financial support to known terrorists and terrorist networks, and to aid in the planning and execution of Islamic terrorist attacks on U.S. soil and abroad.

And now, introducing Americans' former neighbors, coworkers, and employees who have misinterpreted the teachings of their own faith, which, after all, as we all are continually told, strives for plurality, peace, and tolerance:

Abd Al Aziz Awda
Khwaja Hasan
Abdel Elmardoudi
Abdelghani Meskini
Abdelhaleem Ashqar
Abdo Mohammed Haggag
Abdul Al Arshad Ali
Abdul Mossabah
Abdul Noormohamed
Abdullah Alawaqi
Abdurahman Alamoudi
Abrahim Sheikh Mohamed
Adel Abuzaid
Adham Hassoun
Adnan el-Shukrijumah
Ahmad Al Momani
Ahmad Herzallah
Ahmad Hiriri
Ahmad Nasim
Ahmed Atta
Ahmed Barodi
Ahmed Bilal
Ahmed Hannan
Ahmed Jaffal
Ahmed Omar Abu Ali
Ahmed Ressam
Ahmed Sattar
Ali Abdulamir Daher
Ali Albanna
Ali al-Marri
Ali al-Timimi
Ali Amhaz
Ali bin Mussalim
Ali Boumelhem
Ali Chandia
Ali F. Darwiche
Ali Farhat
Ali H. Darwiche
Ali Hawil
Ali Jahmee
Ali Kamal
Ali Khalid Steitiye
Ali Mohamad Akhdar
Ali Mohammed
Ali Taher Elbaneh
Ali Warrayat
Almaliki Nour
Amjad Abunar
Aquil Yassom Al-Timimi
Aref Ahmed
Arwah Jaber
Asad Tuffaha
Assef Mihsen
Atef Adais
Ayman Jarwan
Azad Abdullah
Bashir Nafi
Bashir Noorzai
Basman Elashi
Bassam Hammoud
Bassem Khafagi
Bayan Elashi
Cayson Bin Don
Chawki Hammoud
Clement Hampton-El ("Dr. Rashid")
Daher Al-Mayahi
David Hossein Safavian (White House Official)
Denise Rae Jagger Ghali
Diya Mohamed Sharaf
Donald Surratt
Dr. Rafil Dhafir
Elhadi Abdalla
Elias Akhdar
El-Sayyid Nosair
Emadeddin Muntasser
Eman Zaeri
Enaam Arnaout
Eyad Abu-Mustafa
Eyad Mahmoud Ismail Najim
Fadil Abdelgani
Faker Abdellazziz Boussora
Fares Khallafalla
Farhad Farhbaksh
Farouk Ali-Haimoud
Fawaz Damra (Imam)
Fawzi Assi
Faysal Galab
Fuad Azzobaidi
Ghassan Ballut
Ghassan Elashi
Ghulam Chisthi
Gregory Vernon Patterson
Haissam Nashar
Habis al Saoub
Hamid Hayat
Hammad Abdur-Raheem
Hammad Samana
Hashim Mohammed
Hassan Faraj
Hassan Farhat
Hassan Laquis
Hassan Makki
Hatim Fariz
Hayel Hussain
Hazim Elashi
Hesham Hadayet
Homaidan Al-Turki
Hussain Alshafei
Hussam Jabura
Hussein Chahrour
Ibraham al-Hamdi
Ibrahim Al-Niqrish
Ibrahim Elgabrowny
Ibrahim Isa Ardel Hadi
Ibrahim Mahboub
Ibrahim Mezer
Ibrahim Suleima
Ihsan Elashi
Ilyas Ali
Imran Mandhai
Ismael Elbarasse
Issam Hassan Fawaz
Iyman Faris
Jaber Elbaneh
Jamal al Barzinji
James Elshafay
James Ujaama
Jamil Al-Amin
Jassim Hasan
Jeffrey Battle
John Muhammad
John W. Lindh
Jose Padilla (aka Abdullah Al Muhajir)
Kajlid Yousif
Kamal Derwish
Kamran Akhtar
Karim Ahmed
Karim Iraq
Karim Koubriti
Kassem Daher
Kevin James
Khalid Al-Dahab
Khaliq Salaam
Khwaja Hasan
Kifah Jayyousi
LafI Khalil
Levar Washington
Luai Khalil Ghali
Maged Hussein
Maher Amin Jaradat
Maher Hawash
Maher Zagha
Mahmoud Abouelleil
Mahmoud Kourani
Mahmoud Maawad
Mahmud Brent
Mahoud Ahmed
Mamoun Ahmed
Mansoor Hassan
Masoud Kahn
Matarawy Mohamed
Mazen al-Najar
Mazhar Tabesh
Mehdi Moussoui
Micah Akumu
Mir Kasi
Mirza Akram
Mohamad Barry
Mohamad Dbouk
Mohamad El-Zahabi
Mohamed Mohamady
Mohamed Albanna
Mohamed Darwiche
Mohamed Gaber
Mohamed Hussein
Mohamed Abdelhamed
Mohamed Salleh
Mohamed Sidi
Mohamed Youssef
Mohammad Abouhalima
Mohammad Adil Khan
Mohammad Hammoud
Mohammed Aatique
Mohammed Al Moayad
Mohammed El Mezain
Mohammed Hossain
Mohammed Khalil Ghali
Mohammed Mugalli
Mohammed Salahuddin
Mohammed Yousry
Mohammed Zayed
Mourad Madrane
Mousa Abu Marzook
Muhamed Mubayyid
Muhammed Afridi
Muhammad al-Khatib
Muhammad Bilal
Muhammad Jarad
Muhammad Sala
Mukhtar al-Bakri
Munir Shana
Nabil al-Marabh
Nabil Ismail
Nabil Mohamad Ismail
Nadia Elashi
Nadia Ibrahim Hammoudeh
Naji Abi Khalil
Nasir Abdi
Naveed Khan
Nawaf Mohammed
Nemr Rahal
Nezar Maad
Nidal Ayyad
Nimzet Ilmic
Noaman Abdulla
Nuradin Abdi
Omar Abdi Mohamed
Osameh Al Wahaidy
Oussama Kassir
Priscilla Dhafir
Rabih Haddad
Rafiq Sabir
Rajib Mitra
Ramadan Shallah
Ramsey Youssef
Randall "Ismail" Royer
Riyad Rahhal
Sadeq Ahmed
Sahim Alwan
Said Harb
Said Saleh
Salah Alsaedi
Salah Mohammed
Saleh Abugarbieh
Saleh Nawash
Salim Nemir Awde
Sameeh Hammoudeh
Sameeh Hamoudeh
Sami Al-Arian
Sami Al-Hussayen
Sami Ibrahim Isa Ardel Hadi
Sami Latchin
Samih Jamal
Samir Debk
Samir Shana
Sameeh Hamoudeh
Sami Al-Arian
Sami Al-Hussayen
Sami Ibrahim Isa Ardel Hadi
Sami Latchin
Samih Jamal
Samir Debk
Sarah Khonaizan
Saudi Princess Buniah al-Saud
Saudi Princess Hana Al Jader
Seifullah Chapman
Semi Osman
Serar Abdullahi
Shabbir Ahmed
Shafal Mosed
Shahawar Siraj
Shaker Rahhal
Sheik Abdel Rahman
Sheik Harake
Shueyb Jokhan
Siddig Ali
Soliman Biheiri
Stephanie Fava Ghali
Suied Mohamad-Ahamad
Syed Mustajab Shah
Tarig Elhassan
Tarik ibn Osman Shah
Tariq Isa
Tariq Javid
Umer Hayat
Uzair Paracha
Victor Alverez
Wadih El Hage
Wail Salem
Walid Beitouni
Walid Soliman
Wesam Al Delaema
Yahya Goba
Yasein Taher
Yassin Aref
Yong Ki Kwon
Zacarias Moussaou
Zaid Mu'min
Zayead Hajaig
Zhaleh Sarabakhsh