June 2006 Archives

I was recently hearing from some people about what a wonderful sign of Islamic tolerance was the fact that, although there was mob violence, the government was not moving against Playboy in Indonesia. So much for that. From Reuters, with thanks to Kaosktrl:

JAKARTA (Reuters) - The editor of Playboy Indonesia and two models whose pictures appeared in the magazine's first edition are being investigated for violating indecency laws, police said on Friday.

The magazine's first edition sparked protests in Indonesia in April although it had no nudity. Less flesh was visible in the issue than many other magazines on sale in the world's most populous Muslim country.

Jakarta police spokesman Ketut Untung Yoga said models Andara Early and Kartika Gunawan had posed indecently in the edition, which was issued from the Indonesian capital, and editor-in-chief Erwin Arnada should also be held responsible.

"There are three suspects. Each will be processed based on their roles. Many more may come," he said.

Calling for jihad against Israel. Tiny Minority of Extremists Update and 1938 Alert from AP:

CAIRO, Egypt - Several thousand protesters at one of Cairo's main mosques called Friday for holy war against Israel to help the Palestinians in their conflict with the Jewish state.

The Middle East on the Muslim day of prayer saw other few protests against Israel's offensive in Gaza, except for small rallies by hundreds in Palestinian refugee camps.

More than 3,000 people packed Al-Azhar Mosque, the most prominent institution in the Sunni Arab world, for prayers and a demonstration organized by the Egyptian government's top rival, the Muslim Brotherhood.

"Rulers of Arab countries, start holy war! God is great!" men shouted, their voices ringing through the rafters of the 1,000-year-old building.

Participants said they had little hope their governments would listen.

"We have a chronic problem in the Arab world; policies don't reflect what the people want. People inside the mosque say they will die to save Palestine, but our governments don't do anything to help," said Mohammed al-Zaeem, 36, a visiting Syrian.

Hundreds of black-clad security forces in riot gear surrounded the mosque in the sweltering noontime sun but there were no arrests.

Police agreed not to arrest protesters if they remained inside the mosque, said Abdel-Galil el-Sharnoubi, a member of the Brotherhood's political bureau....

Several thousand people held pro-Palestinian protests in the northern Egyptian province of Damietta.

Clerics from Baghdad to Beirut referred to "American-Zionist terrorism" and a "war to annihilate the Palestinian people."

But Arab governments appeared eager not to enflame popular sentiment. Al-Azhar's government-appointed cleric conspicuously avoided the topic of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in his sermon.

"The U.S. supports Egypt with weapons and soldiers, so our government is paralyzed and unable to do anything," said worshipper Mahmoud Abu el-Bashir.

That's the best argument for the jizya to Egypt that I've heard in a long time. I doubt, however, that it will ultimately hold true.

There's that number again: 9. And while the authorities have intervened, this case demonstrates how the adherence to Islamic law and the example of Muhammad regarding the "acceptable" age for marriage undermine civil laws aimed at protecting female citizens even in an "Islamic republic."

Sharia Alert from the Khaleej Times: "Pakistani police rescue bride aged 9 wed to pay debt"

KARACHI - Police in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province have rescued a nine-year-old girl who was married off by her father to clear a debt for 400 kg (880 lb) of rice.

Both the father, Jan Mohammad, and her husband of four days, Abdul Sattar, a man of around 60, have been arrested and will appear in court on Saturday, a senior officer said.

“The marriage has taken place but the girl is underage,” police officer Masroor Ahmed Jatoi in Jacobabad district, 480 Km (300 miles) north of Karachi, told Reuters on Friday.

“She was given as compensation by her father, so we are treating it as a criminal case,” said Jatoi.

The girl, Wahida, has been sent for medical examination, and would be transferred to a care centre until a court decides where she will be best looked after.

Her father had stood as guarantor for a friend who bought the rice on credit, but when the debt put at 50,000 rupees ($833) was not paid, the trader demanded that Mohammad give his daughter in marriage to his elder brother as compensation, Jatoi said.

Human rights activist and lawyer Rashid Rehman said the law bars marriages of girls under 14 and boys under 16.

“The law has defined the ages clearly. There is also a law that prevents children and women from being given in any form of compensation to settle a dispute or blood feud,” Rehman said, adding that the court could declare the marriage void.

The government says it promotes the rights of women, but it is still common in rural areas, where feudal and tribal ways hold sway, for girls to be given as compensation to settle disputes.

Earlier this week, Pakistan’s Supreme Court stopped five minor girls from being handed over as compensation in a double murder case and ordered the police to conduct an inquiry.

Sunni/Shi'ite Jihad Update from Iran Focus, with thanks to JE:

Baghdad, Jun. 29 – Agents of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) are fomenting unrest in Iraq’s southern city of Basra, the Iraqi daily az-Zaman reported on Thursday.

Az-Zaman quoted Iraqi counter-intelligence sources as saying that fighters were being trained in Lebanon under MOIS supervision and sent via the Iranian border to infiltrate Basra.

Some of the fighters were being incorporated into the al-Hussein Battalion which has been responsible for numerous targeted killings and assassinations in Basra.

The daily quoted the sources as saying that the MOIS was the most powerful and influential intelligence service that had infiltrated Basra and several other key Iraqi cities including the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala.

Somali Jihad Update from CNN: "Bin Laden message: Somalia is front in war on U.S."

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- The hard-line Muslim leaders who control much of southern Somalia claimed nationwide authority, while the latest message attributed to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden describes the Horn of Africa nation as a battleground in his global war on the U.S.

Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, leader of the militia's executive council, made the claim of authority throughout the country Thursday, striking yet another blow to Somalia's largely powerless but internationally recognized interim government.

In a weekend restructuring, the relatively moderate Ahmed was replaced as the Islamic group's overall leader by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who is on the U.S. terrorist watch list as a suspected collaborator with al Qaeda.

"We hope this council will be more effective than the one before," said Ahmed, who had been reaching out the interim government and the West before he was named to the executive council on Saturday night.

U.S. fears al Qaeda hotbed

The developments in Somalia are of particular interest to the United States, which has long-standing fears the Horn of Africa nation will become a haven for bin Laden's terrorist organization, much like Afghanistan did in the late 1990s.

On Thursday, U.S. lawmakers told a House of Representatives panel in Washington that the United States has failed to develop a coherent policy to stop that from happening.

In an audio message purportedly put out by bin Laden -- released on an Islamic Web forum where militants often post messages and bearing the logo of al Qaeda's production branch -- the speaker vows to continue to fight the U.S. and its "allies everywhere, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Sudan ...."

The guys at Al-Azhar are crafty enough to know that an item like this will make headlines, and that those headlines will, like the one below, emphasize that that Islam forbids suicide, and the killing of "innocents" of some unstated definition. Of course, the ruling contains the usual elastic clause for "defending religion and the homeland."

From YNetNews: "Islamic leaders: Suicide bombers go to hell"

Suicide? Not in Islam. The following may be bad timing for the Palestinian factions preparing for battle against the Israel Defence Forces in the Gaza Strip and for revenge attacks on the Western world.

On Wednesday, top Islamic clerics at the Supreme Council of Al-Azhar University in Egypt, perhaps the most important in the Islamic world, said that the Islamic rule (Shaaria) forbids suicide, the London-based Arabic newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat reported.

The clerics determined that a connection was mistakenly made between suicide and a "sacrifice to defend religion and the homeland". The clerics stressed that the faith of those who commit suicide is no less than hell.

"Those who commit suicide bombings in the name of religion are not Muslims but rather people who sold their soul to the devil," Islamic clerics ruled. "They didn't understand the principle of the religion according to which there is no killing allowed, except by law."

"There is a difference between jihad and terror, between sacrificing yourself and suicide," said Dr. Mohammad Rafat Othman, a member of the Jurisprudence Research Committee of the Islamic Research Academy, Al-Azhar.

"Many don't fully understand the Islamic commandments in regards to jihad. Someone who blows himself up in the middle of a crowd is a sinner who commits several crimes, first and foremost is suicide. It is well-known that religion has a sweeping prohibition on suicide or killing of others. Taking one soul is one of the worst sins one can do, commanded specifically by God."

Dr. Othman continued: "The second crime that a man who commits suicide carries out is the killings of others, while his motives are political and not religious. There is this suicide bomber who kills himself against his ruler and at the same time kills many innocent people -- that is a sin. Not to mention public and personal property damage."

Suicide justified in war

"Those who commit a suicide bombing because of political motives turn the suicide into a religious ideology using it to sacrifice souls, not of martyrs but of those who commit suicide because God promised them torment on judgment day.

"The martyr, according to Islamic rule, is a man who fights the enemy and sacrifice his life while defending his religion, his homeland, his wives' respect, and protecting his land. This is set in Islamic laws, and only if he dies this way, he is a martyr."

However, Israelis should not be happy about this strict ruling. Dr. Ottman was quick to hint that suicide against Israeli targets is allowed.

"Those using suicide bombing against the enemy, the land robbers, and the occupier of nations, are martyrs," he concluded.

Iran rejects the impudent gestures of the dhimmis. They know who's in charge here. "Iran Granted Extension," from AFP, with thanks to JE:

Iran has rejected a week's extension to respond to an international proposal on suspending uranium enrichment.

However EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani will meet next Wednesday to discuss the plan, according to foreign ministers of the G8 group of leading nations.

"We expect to hear a clear and substantive Iranian response to these proposals at the planned meeting," the ministers said in a statement in Moscow, where they have been preparing for a July 15-17 summit in St Petersburg.

I'm sure Iran's ultimate response to all this dhimmitude will be as clear and substantive as a mushroom cloud in the sky.

The one who bombed the Golden Mosque, trying to set off Sunni/Shi'ite jihad in Iraq. From AFP, with thanks to JE:

IRAQI security forces have captured a Tunisian al-Qa'ida militant allegedly behind the February bombing of a revered Shia shrine that unleashed a massive wave of sectarian violence.

Abu Qudama al-Tunisi, allegedly a member of a cell that destroyed the Golden Mosque at Samarra, was captured when he and about 15 foreign fighters tried to attack an Iraqi army checkpoint in Dhuluiyah, north of Baghdad.

The 15 foreigners were killed in a firefight with Iraqi forces.

Anti-dhimmitude from D66. From the Financial Times, with thanks to Arjun:

A dispute over the citizenship of Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali brought down the Dutch government yesterday when D66, the junior member of the centre-right coalition, walked out after demanding the resignation of Rita Verdonk, the hard-line immigration minister.

Jan Peter Balkenende, prime minister, told parliament he would go to Queen Beatrix today to begin the process of consultations that could lead either to his Christian democrat alliance continuing to govern as a minority coalition with Mrs Verdonk's liberal VVD, or to a snap general election.

The crisis came as two D66 cabinet ministers and a state secretary with the centrist party resigned.

It is the second time in less than four years that a government led by Mr Balkenende has collapsed. He told Dutch television news: "It does not affect me that much. I am busy with the future, doing what I believe in."

Mrs Verdonk had survived a no-confidence vote yesterday, thanks to the support of her liberal VVD and the Christian democrat CDA, but D66, the junior member of the three-party coalition, insisted she resign anyway.

From the SITE Institute:

An audio message attributed to Usama bin Laden, the Emir of al-Qaeda, in which he speaks of the martyrdom of the Emir of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was issued today, June 29 2006, by as-Sahab. The 19:16 minute speech features two panels atop Arabic subtitles; one panel featuring a static image of bin Laden and the other of footage from Zarqawi’s video speech, "A Message to the People," from April 2006.

The voice does seem to be that of Usama bin Laden. In the message, bin Laden talks of the Muslim Nation’s regret at the loss of its "brave knight" and "lion of jihad," Abu Musab al-Zarqawi Ahmad al-Khalayleh, after he was killed in a "sinful American raid." Words of praise towards Zarqawi and his role in the Iraq jihad are proffered by the Emir; Zarqawi implicitly being referred to as a paragon for Mujahideen and Muslims, and stalwart against the "Pharaoh," U.S. President George W. Bush. He states: "Yes, he is the knight of Islam that we are talking about, and who stood up in the face of American imperialism to the Pharaoh of our time after the international organizations failed and regional gatherings failed and after the whole world failed to stop this oppressive aggression [in Iraq]".

Note the subtle slap at Judaism in bin Laden's comparing the mujahedin in Iraq to the Hebrews in the Book of Exodus, recasting that story as a matter of Islamic heritage.

Usama bin Laden also defends Zarqawi against those who accuse him and al-Qaeda in Iraq of killing the Iraqi people, explaining that he had "clear instructions" to target only the "occupying invaders," on top of them the Americans, and keep "neutral" those who wished to remain so. In addition, bin Laden addresses Bush and commands that Zarqawi’s body must be delivered to his family in Zarqa, and questions why King Abdullah of Jordan should fear Zarqawi’s return, musing that this is because he knows the Muslims will turn out en masse in support of the Mujahideen at the funeral.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s legacy and "good reputation," according to bin Laden, should continue in poetry and prose, and be studied by the world to instill belief in Allah and opposition to aggression. He states: "Abu Musab - Allah bless his soul - does not only honor his tribe and country, and nation, but honors all of humanity. He presented to it the meaning of glory, pride, sacrifice, and his legacy is a valuable symbol of this time."

Imagine how the issues of jurisdiction, of legal interpretation, and of the Sunni-Shia rivalry would play out if any number of countries tried to implement this plan.

But what is noteworthy, alongside the proposal of a world Islamic court, is the extent to which responsibility is displaced: Not only are Western nations to blame for the problems of the Muslim world, but now the entire UN is just a tool of the West. And the IMF. And the World Bank.

Sharia Alert, from the Khaleej Times:

JEDDAH -- Muslim nations have been urged to create their own world court under the auspices of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) that can try and condemn all those nations and individuals who have instigated or committed crimes against the Muslims.

"Since its creation, the United Nations (UN) has been nothing but a Western tool, which has harmed Muslims more than it has benefited them," wrote Reem Al Faisal, a Jeddah-based Saudi photographer, in yesterday’s issue of Arab News.

Cue the violins...

"(The UN has) given our enemies and all who wish to destroy us a legal cover to pillage and kill in Muslim lands at will from Palestine to Somalia to Afghanistan -- the latest masquerade of boycotting the legally elected government of Hamas by the West and preventing all other nations from helping them is more proof that we can no longer get our rights from a Western organisation disguised as an international body built to protect the rights of all nations," she added.

Al Faisal said that it was time to liberate Muslim nations from the tyranny of Western institutions like the UN, the World Bank, and the IMF, "which have brought nothing but misery and pain to all of us."

"If we want our rights to be respected we have to impose them through our own international institutions and not look for justice from a source that only works to protect its national interests and which rarely conforms to our desires and even less to ideals as human rights or justice since justice is served only to those who demand it with strength," she added.

Al Faisal said that the West, which has conquered and destroyed two nations that have never attacked it, sees itself as the guardian of world peace. "Those who this very minute are directing or condoning some form of destructive behaviour towards innocent civilians either in Iraq, Afghanistan or Palestine have the effrontery to question Iran’s intentions," she said.

And why should he be immune? He has waged jihad along with the rest of them. From Haaretz, with thanks to Kaosktrl:

Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Nasser a-Shaer, who evaded capture by Israel Defense Forces troops during mass arrests of Hamas officials before dawn Thursday, has gone into hiding in the West Bank.

A-Shaer has disconnected all his cellular telephones out of fear Israeli security services would again attempt to track him down and arrest him.

The mass arrests of senior Hamas officials were part of Israel's expanded military operation against the Hamas-led government in the Palestinian Authority.

The arrests were planned several weeks ago and received approval from Attorney General Menachem Mazuz on Wednesday. The same day, Shin Bet Director Yuval Diskin presented Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with the list of Hamas officials slated for arrest.

IDF troops launched the major arrest operation against Hamas officials overnight, detaining 64 of the ruling militant group's ministers and parliamentarians in the West Bank and 23 military operatives.

The arrests took place in Ramallah, Qalqilyah, Hebron, Jenin and East Jerusalem, according to Palestinian reports. Soldiers carried arrest warrants signed by judges that were issued following cooperative preparatory work by the state prosecution and police.

On Thursday morning, National Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer hinted that Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh is not exempt from arrest or harm.

"No one is immune... This is not a government. It is a murderous organization," Ben-Eliezer said.

Exactly so.

Islamic Tolerance and Sharia Alerts: "Mob stones 20-yr-old girl to death in Minna," from Vanguard, with thanks to Sugiero:

MINNA —The life of a 20yr old girl (name withheld) was prematurely terminated in Izom in Gawu Babangida Local Government Area of Niger State yesterday as she was stoned to death by irate youths for distributing inciting leaflets bordering on religion [sic].

Trouble started at about noon when the girl whose identity is yet to be ascertained was said to have walked straight into the Jumat Mosque in Izom where she dropped the inciting letter in the Mosque.

As the letter was opened, it was discovered that it was a letter full of unprintable materials accusing both Prophet Muhammad, Jesus Christ and even some living and dead Pastors of some misdeeds.

The lady was immediately trailed and arrested by the people who also handed her over to the police.

While the lady was under protective police custody for interrogation, the news of the inciting letter had spread to the town while the youth immediately mobilized and stormed the Izom Police station where they demanded for the release of the girl for instant judgement.

The police station was damaged by the youth with dangerous weapons like sticks and iron as they tried to force themselves to the station to capture the lady.

The DPO, ASP. M. Ibrahim, his DCO and some other police officers were injured as they attempted to ferry the girl away for protection as the irate youth descended on them with dangerous weapons.

The helpless policemen including those on highway patrol drafted to the scene to protect the girl were overpowered and eventually got hold of the girl.

As the policemen flee the scene, the youth rained stones, sticks and other dangerous weapons on her and killed her instantly.

Hugh Fitzgerald comments on the sale of advanced military materiel to Egypt:

Egypt should not be done any favors. And if it is suggested that if "we don't sell them" this equipment then Egypt will "buy it elsewhere" (the usual nonsense offered in defense of such things) then we have to ask -- where will Egypt get the money for buying this and other military equipment?

Egypt has been receiving Jizyah, nearly $60 billion, from the American taxpayers. It started out, apparently, as a reward to Saint Sadat, designed to ensure that Egypt would not, despite getting back the entire Sinai, despite getting those Israeli airbases and those developed oilfields, not break the "Camp David Accords." But Egypt did break the Camp David Accords. It failed completely to live up to its non-tangible, but nonetheless important commitments to end hostile propaganda and acts toward Israel. It has continued, and increased, such hostile propaganda, to the point where Egypt, its press, and radio, and television, is a world center of antisemitism as well as of anti-Americanism. Yet the money is taken from us, the Infidel taxpayers, and given to Egypt as classic Jizyah, that is, as a tribute paid by Infidels to Muslims, who have been given to understand that it will be received as if by right, and should be given in a spirit of recognizing that should that Jizyah (that foreign aid) be stopped, then the reaction of the Muslim to whom such Jizyah is owed will likely be most hostile, and otherwise unpleasant.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald discusses the dhimmi coverage of the murder of Eliahu Asheri:

I listened to the BBC last night. The announcer could not get enough of that word "settler." The "Palestinians" had executed "an Israeli settler." The "settler" had been kidnapped. And so on. One would have no way of knowing, unless one already knew -- and how many do? -- that this "settler" was a young boy, that he had "settled" on land that was in the original League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, even after all of Eastern Palestine (that is historic Palestine, east of the Jordan), was unilaterally closed by the British to Jewish immigration -- an act that infuriated the members of the League of Nations' Mandates Commission.

That land, of course, given by way of instant consolation prize to Abdullah, now grandly promoted to Emir of the Emirate of Transjordan. This young “settler” lived on land that still remained part of the absolute minimum territory that the British, as mandatory authority, were to hold and where they were supposed to promote, were required to promote by the terms of the Mandate, "close Jewish settlement on the land."

U.S. officials bend over backwards to make it easy for Muslims to get through airport security. "CAIR-Chicago, Muslims, Meet With U.S. Customs & Border Protection at O'Hare Airport" -- a CAIR-Chicago press release, with thanks to LGF:

On Wednesday, June 21, CAIR-Chicago’s Executive Director Ahmed Rehab and intern Susan DeCostanza along with other leaders in the Chicago Muslim Community attended a tour of U.S. Customs and Border Protection operations at O’Hare International Airport last week.

The meeting was part of an effort to build relationships between the Muslim community and different government and security organizations that work in the airport in order to proactively facilitate communication, avoid cultural misunderstandings and help to educate travelers about the ways that they can possibly avoid unwanted delays at the airport.

Brian Humphrey, Director of Field Operations, commenced the meeting by introducing the various Customs and Border Protection agents present.

Dr. Hytham Rifai - a well known physician and CAIR-Chicago client - related some personal stories of delays that relatives, friends, and community members have encountered upon re-entering the United States from travel abroad.

Ahmed Rehab outlined the community's purpose behind requesting the meeting and gave a brief synopsis of the number and nature of complaints that Muslims bring to the CAIR-Chicago office.

Sheikh Kifah gave examples of some of the problems his Mosque constituency have suffered.

Humphrey explained that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents must move through an interactive, online cultural sensitivity course.

Humphrey reiterated that if a traveler encounters any difficulties, the agents must follow protocol, and do not have the authority to deviate from that procedure. If a traveler has questions, or believes they are being mistakenly delayed, the traveler should ask to see a supervisor.

The group walked through Customs and Borders operations beginning at the point of entry for passenger arrival to customs stations, agricultural screening, and the interview rooms. The agents described the "Passenger Lookout Override" system that was implemented two months ago, in which a passenger who has the same or a similar name as a person with a suspicious record can be distinguished from the actual suspected person.

This system is supposed to expedite common delays encountered by travelers within the Muslim and other communities who have common names that are similar to people with an actual or suspected tainted record.

CAIR-Chicago looks forward to continuing the relationship with U.S. Customs and Border Protection offices in the region, and to furthering understanding between the organizations as well as facilitating future communication in order to eliminate problems for Muslim travelers before they even arise.

Read about Ahmed Rehab's jihadist sympathies here.

We have long excoriated the dhimmis at the New Duranty Times, aka the New York Times, for following in the footsteps of their illustrious Pulitzer-winning reporter Walter Duranty, who lied about the Ukrainian famine to please his master Stalin. Now the New Duranty Times has been likewise ignoring the Islamic jihad, and generally peddling the Leftist line that global terrorism is a reaction to U.S. atrocities.

Of course, with their latest bid to aid the global jihad, the Times may have finally gone too far, but in any case, Sweetness and Light (thanks to LGF) has found a post-9/11 editorial from the Durantys calling on the Bush Administration to do exactly what it now condemns it for doing. Any port in a storm, eh Pinch?

rganizing the hijacking of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon took significant sums of money. The cost of these plots suggests that putting Osama bin Laden and other international terrorists out of business will require more than diplomatic coalitions and military action. Washington and its allies must also disable the financial networks used by terrorists.

The Bush administration is preparing new laws to help track terrorists through their money-laundering activity and is readying an executive order freezing the assets of known terrorists. Much more is needed, including stricter regulations, the recruitment of specialized investigators and greater cooperation with foreign banking authorities. There must also must be closer coordination among America’s law enforcement, national security and financial regulatory agencies.

"CAIR Says Targeting of Gaza Infrastructure a 'War Crime'; Bush Administration Urged to Condemn Attacks on Bridges, Electrical Supply," a CAIR press release from US Newswire, with thanks to LGF, where Charles points out: "CAIR does not condemn the kidnappings, the constant rocket attacks against Israel, or the use of human shields by Palestinian terrorists."

WASHINGTON, June 28 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today said Israel's targeting of the Palestinian civilian infrastructure is a "war crime" that should be condemned by the Bush administration.

Following a Palestinian attack on a military post, Israeli warplanes fired missiles at the Gaza Strip's only power station, cutting electricity to most of Gaza. Israel also targeted three Gaza Strip bridges. Palestinian officials say the cut in power will impact water supplies and health services.

In reaction to the Israeli strikes, a White House spokesman said: "In any actions the government of Israel may undertake, the United States urges that it ensures that innocent civilians are not harmed, and also that it avoid the unnecessary destruction of property and infrastructure."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said in a statement released today: "Mild rebukes for the deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure in Gaza will not stop Israeli missiles. The Bush administration should condemn these war crimes and demand that Israel stop using American taxpayer- funded weapons to carry out attacks that will only serve to intensify the humanitarian crisis in Gaza."

CAIR recently called on President Bush to help end the Israeli and international "siege" imposed on the Palestinians because of the results of democratic elections.

The Washington-based group also condemned Israel's killings of Palestinian civilians and has repeatedly condemned Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians.

I just did a search for "Israeli civilians" at the CAIR website and came up with nothing. If they have really condemned Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians, they have evidently not done so using that term in press releases, action alerts, or news briefs -- the three searchable categories at the CAIR site. All come up with 0 results for "Israeli civilians."

Then I searched for "civilians" under "press releases" and got these results:

Press Releases | Monday, June 12, 2006 'Marines' Cheer Song About Killing Iraqi Civilians

Press Releases | Tuesday, May 17, 2005
CAIR Condems Massacre Of Civilians In Uzbekistan

Press Releases | Monday, November 15, 2004
CAIR Says Civilians in Fallujah Must Receive Aid

Press Releases | Thursday, October 14, 2004
CAIR Condemns Killings of Civilians in Gaza

Press Releases | Tuesday, July 23, 2002
Israel uses U.S. weapons to massacre palestinian civilians

Press Releases | Thursday, March 28, 2002
CAIR condemns attacks on civilians

Note that most of these are in defense of jihadists. The first one is particularly despicable; it's about the Marine Josh Belile's "Hadji Girl" song, which is actually a song about Iraqi civilians trying to kill a Marine and getting killed in the process. That last one, however, from March 28, 2002, is indeed a condemnation of a Palestinian attack on a Passover celebration. But it contains this sleazy bit of moral equivalency:

“We ask the international community to similarly condemn actions by the Israeli armed forces that also target civilians and impose daily humiliation and suffering on an entire population through blockades, home demolitions, assassinations, indiscriminate shooting, torture, land confiscations and a wide variety of Apartheid-like and oppressive practices.

No recognition, of course, of the fact that Palestinian jihadists stage attacks from civilian areas in order to try to provoke a retaliation that will give them a PR victory.

The original headline says "Israeli executed," but AP should know better; this is just a cold-blooded murder. "Hamas leaders arrested; Israeli executed," from AP:

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian Cabinet ministers and lawmakers from the Islamic Hamas, increasing pressure on the Islamic militants to release a captured Israeli soldier, and witnesses said tanks moved into northern Gaza, widening Israel's largest military operation in the year since Israel pulled out of the seaside territory.

Adding to the tension, a Palestinian militant group said it executed an 18-year-old Jewish settler kidnapped in the West Bank. Palestinian security officials said they believed the body of Eliahu Asheri had been found in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

They Were Nice Boys Alert from Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Seven men charged with conspiring to bomb the Sears Tower in Chicago and the FBI building in Miami were entrapped by a federal informant, lawyers for two of the suspects said on Monday.

An indictment issued last week accused the men of pledging loyalty to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda and seeking the group's support to "wage war" against the U.S. government.

The person they thought was an al Qaeda representative was actually an FBI informant, U.S. Justice Department officials said.

Albert Levin, the court-appointed attorney for suspect Patrick Abraham, said he believes his client was ensnared by the informant.

There was "a lot of talking going on by the informant and more listening by the defendant and or the defendants," Levin told Fox News Channel host Bill O'Reilly.

Why?

What has Egypt done for us?

What has Egypt done except trample the Camp David Accords in the dust and allow jihad and blood to be preached against Israel and America?

From IMRA:

ST. LOUIS --- Boeing has signed a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) agreement with the U.S. Army to deliver Avenger short-range air defense fire units to Egypt. The $50 million contract includes associated spares and logistics support.

The Avenger is the U.S. Army's mobile, shoot-on-the-move, short-range air defense system. Armed with Stinger missiles and a 50-caliber machine gun, Avenger provides effective tactical defense and convoy protection against helicopters, cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles.

"Avenger is a lethal forward-area air defense system with proven capabilities deployed worldwide," said Debra Rub-Zenko, vice president and program director for Boeing Integrated Missile Defense. "Through the cooperative efforts of the U.S. Army, Boeing is pleased to once again provide the Egyptian air defenders with increased Avenger force protection for their nation."

The new contract calls for Boeing to deliver the Avengers by September 2008.

In FrontPage this morning I discuss the "self-recruited, self-trained, and self-executing" jihadists to which FBI director Robert Mueller recently referred (news links in the original):

The day after seven people were arrested in Miami for trying to raise an “Islamic Army” to wage jihad by mounting terror attacks against the Sears Tower in Chicago and other landmarks, FBI Director Robert Mueller pointed to a new kind of jihad terror threat: “These extremists,” he said, “are self-recruited, self-trained, and self-executing. They answer not to a particular leader but to an ideology. In short, they operate under the radar. And that makes their detection that much more difficult.”

The Miami plotters were a case in point. According to the Justice Department, they were charged with “conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, namely al Qaeda; conspiracy to provide material support and resources to terrorists; conspiracy to maliciously damage and destroy by means of an explosive; and conspiring to levy war against the government of the United States.” But they weren’t a sleeper cell of Al-Qaeda operatives; rather, they “allegedly attempted to obtain the support of al Qaeda to achieve their goals and discussed this desire with an individual cooperating with law enforcement who posed as a member of al Qaeda. Believing they were dealing with that terrorist group, in March 2006, Batiste and other defendants pledged an oath of allegiance to al Qaeda and allegedly supported a plan to destroy FBI buildings in the United States by taking photos of the FBI Building in North Miami Beach, Florida, and other federal buildings in Miami-Dade County.”

Taqiyya in Texas. From AP: "US must check nationalists who clash with Islam: Arab league chief"

HOUSTON, United States (AFP) - The United States must check the internal voices of nationalism that are promoting a "clash of civilizations" with Islam, the head of the Arab League said.

"You have to stand firm against all negative forces with agendas," Arab League secretary general Amr Moussa told the US Arab Economic Forum in Houston, Texas.

"We fear it in the Middle East. Many of us read what they say and we are angry about this nationalist agenda that is gaining some ground."

While acknowledging the problem of Islamic extremists, Moussa said there is a deep misunderstanding of the US-Arab relationship among members of the American public, fuelled by inflammatory statements from politicians.

He also said there is a "political agenda" behind the promotion of the clash.

"The Arab world is the friend of America. The question of hating America is not there. We've never hated America," he said while explaining that the Arab world may disagreed [sic] with US policies but does not project that distaste upon the country as a whole.

Moussa vowed to fight extremists in the Arab world and asked US policy makers to do the same at home.

When was the last time our "extremists" -- for example, the aforementioned politicians spouting "inflammatory statements" -- rioted over a cartoon, planted roadside bombs, or beheaded someone?

The British authorities should be watching this character very closely. I doubt they are. And this kind of "music" should not be legal in Britain: we are in a war. This would be like a pro-Nazi song being recorded in London in the middle of the Blitz. The fact that only two record company executives are upset about this shows just how far the British have already sunk into dhimmitude.

"G-had and suicide bombers: the rapper who likens Bin Laden to Che Guevara," from The Guardian, with thanks to all who sent this in:

Two record company executives are threatening to resign from a label over an album by a radical Muslim musician which has tracks about the immorality of the west, suicide bombers and Osama bin Laden.

Aki Nawaz is determined to release what is, by anyone's standards, a phenomenally angry album. He says he fully expects a knock on the door from MI5. As the main component of the band Fun-da-Mental, Nawaz has been producing politically challenging music since 1991 but accepts he is pushing those boundaries further.

The album, All is War (The Benefits of G-had), contains one track which uses the words of Bin Laden issuing "a statement of reason and explanation of impending conflict" and equates him with Che Guevara. Another forensically recreates a suicide bomber at work. The opening song is a rejection of what Nawaz sees as the hypocrisy and immorality of the west. One supposedly dream-like track predicts the demise of America at the hands of Islam.

Nawaz, a former drummer in the Southern Death Cult, said yesterday: "I have a right to push the boundaries as much as anyone else has, whether it's Ken Loach or Harold Pinter or George Galloway or Neil Young or the Sex Pistols."...

The impending release of the album has already caused consternation. Nawaz says two silent directors of his label, Nation Records - Martin Mills and Andrew Heath of Beggars Banquet Records - have threatened to resign if he releases the album, which he intends to. Neither Mr Mills nor Mr Heath were prepared to comment yesterday.

Nawaz said he had respect for both men but added: "I'm kind of disappointed because it makes me think if Never Mind the Bollocks had landed on their tables they would have dismissed it. "They're in fear for themselves and they're in fear for me which is a telling tale of where we are at in the present scheme of things when it comes to freedom of expression."

Freedom of expression, once again, is not a suicide pact. He has all the freedom of expression he wants, but once he has revealed his real agenda, authorities have the responsibility to take notice. And as for his CD, he has no natural right to put out a recording. The record companies have no obligation to him.

Nawaz produced the album in London, Pakistan and South Africa and it also contains songs which address deaths in Afghanistan and Srebrenica.

He said rather than ask about the effect his album might have on impressionable people, the question should be asked of the government. "You've already got people at the top who are inspiring them to do wrong. It's like a mafia who say for us to do anything is legitimate but any resistance towards us is illegitimate. So you have legalised terrorism and illegal terrorism."

Nawaz, who grew up in Bradford, believes he is being honest. This "honesty" manifests itself in tracks such as the rap song I Reject, an angry polemical blast with lines such as "Reject your blood I reject your creed/Reject your queen and her stolen crown/Reject your media falsified news/Reject your patronising liberal views." It also takes a swipe at moderate Muslim voices who accept invitations to Downing Street....

Nawaz describes the songs Che Bin Parts 1 and 2 as a discussion on resistance and terrorism. He uses the words of Bin Laden and Che Guevara to suggest that they have more in common than differences. Nawaz said he challenged anyone to disagree with the statement by Bin Laden that he uses.

Cookbook DIY has lyrics about how a suicide bomber makes his bomb. It also has a verse about how a White House scientist makes his bomb - equating the two.

Nawaz denies that he is condoning suicide bombers. "Everything to me is tragic. I don't understand what the guys are doing. But I can feel what they're doing."...

Extracts

I Reject

Reject your thieving foreign policies
Reject your elitist congregation
Reject your mini skirt liberation
Reject your concept of integration ...

Parasites

But revenge will be mine, with my last breath I will rise to curse you
Because you, you dogs and parasites have made us helpless

Cookbook DIY

I'm strapped up cross my chest bomb belt attached
Deeply satisfied with the plan I hatched
Electrodes connected to a gas cooker lighter

Fox Guarding the Henhouse Alert: "Mosque watchdog will vet clerics to tackle extremism," from GulfNews, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

London: An organisation that will vet imams and tackle extremism in mosques is being launched.

The independent Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board will accredit imams, monitor their teachings and ensure recruits are followers of mainstream Islamic thought.

It will also advise the government on the suitability of overseas preachers who want to enter Britain and help governing bodies counter infiltration by radicals.

The board is being set up by the Muslim Council of Britain, the British Muslim Foundation, the Muslim Association of Britain and the Al-Khoei Foundation.

Clerics will be expected to have good English and reject extremist views. The board will have no legal power to bar imams.

It hasn't been updated for many months, but here is a site that nevertheless contains useful information about just how "moderate" the Muslim Council of Britain really is.

A mindset that Westerners have great difficulty understanding -- and that misunderstanding leads to numerous miscalculations and errors of judgment. Most Western analysts cannot conceive of such an all-encompassing religious imperative, and seem to assume that Muslims in general accept their own core assumption that all people wish to live in peace, abhor war, and will ultimately do virtually anything to avoid it. And that all people believe generally in the equality and dignity of all people, and will act on that belief.

None of those assumptions, of course, apply to Islamic jihadists.

From Alan Caruba in New Media Journal, with thanks to Tom Syseskey:

Anything modern, anything secular, including the rise of Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser, the leading proponent of Arab nationalism, was an anathema to Qutb. He was not ignorant of the West, but he was utterly contemptuous of it. Despite his having read widely of Western philosophers and, apparently, science and other topics reflecting the long road to modernity made since the Enlightenment, the only truth to be found anywhere, so far as Qutb was concerned, was in the Koran.

“First and foremost,” wrote Qutb, “the verses of the Koran were revealed in order to establish the correct criteria on which God wishes the concepts of humans as well as their life to be based.” Everything that preceded the Koran was the “accumulated debris; beliefs, concepts, philosophies, myths, thoughts, doubts, superstitions, customs and traditions.”

Prior to Islam, humans were “unable to find certitude.”

The one thing Islam does provide to those born into it and to those who convert to Islam is certitude. And with certitude comes the human affliction of an arrogant belief that no other religion or form of government other than that imposed by Islamic law has any right to exist. The punishment for leaving Islam is death. The enemies of Islam are to be beheaded.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you al Qaeda, Wahhabism, and the Islamic revolution that is your obligation to resist for the sake of all mankind.

Read it all.

Well, of course they are. What did you expect them to do? From AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Guantanamo Bay detainees are staging suicide attempts and hunger strikes to undermine American policy in the war on terror, a senior U.S. military official said, calling the acts a "jihad" against the United States.

"The detainees view this as a struggle. They view this as a jihad ... They're trying to figure out ways that they can continue the fight," Navy Rear Adm. Harry Harris, the commander of the U.S. prison on Cuba's southeastern tip. "They do that with hunger strikes, overdosing on medicines. And now they've succeeded in killing themselves."

Three detainees - two Saudis and a Yemeni - committed suicide in their cells on June 10. The U.S. military said the men hanged themselves by fashioning nooses from bed sheets. Harris said the deaths and other suicide attempts were coordinated acts of resistance - not acts of desperation prompted by their indefinite detention.

"I think it is less about the length of their detention ... It's less about that and it's more that they continue to fight their fight," Harris told reporters, adding that defiance in the prison was widespread. "I think the vast majority of detainees are resisting us."

And no doubt without any screening to determine the applicants' adherence to the jihad ideology. Such screening would be imperfect, but at least it would be something. From the Jerusalem Post, with thanks to Infidel Pride:

For the first time since the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, the US State Department has begun to sharply increase the number of entry visas granted to Saudi Arabian nationals seeking to visit the United States, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

Figures obtained by the Post reveal that after three years of steady decline, 2005 saw the number of US visas issued to Saudis remain relatively stable, while this year the number has more than doubled.

In an e-mail to the Post, Amanda D. Rogers-Harper, a spokeswoman for the US State Department, confirmed that as of June 10, a total of 18,683 non-immigrant US visas had been issued to Saudi citizens since the start of the current fiscal year.

"This," she noted, "is twice as many as the 9,338 issuances to Saudis" in the corresponding period last year, marking an increase of over 100 percent in just the past 12 months.

According to this story, he has ties to Bosnian jihadists. "Romanian bomb plot suspect held," from the BBC, with thanks to Kafir Nonbeliever:

Romanian police are holding a man suspected of planning a car bomb attack to protest against Romania's co-operation with US forces in Iraq.

Florin Lesch, a Muslim convert, was stopped on Monday as he drove towards the city of Timisoara with a bomb made from gas canisters, police said....

"There have been two types of suspicions, namely that [Mr Lesch] belonged to several terrorist organisations and that he planned to stage a terror attack," an intelligence service spokesman told Romanian radio.

Romania has more than 800 troops in Iraq.

Just in from AP:

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israeli planes attacked three bridges in central Gaza, the military said Wednesday, and Israeli tanks were on the move after the government approved a limited operation — a response to a weekend Palestinian attack in which two soldiers were killed and a third captured.

The Israeli military said in a statement that the object of the attacks on the bridges late Tuesday and early Wednesday was "to impair the ability of the terrorists to transfer the kidnapped soldier." Knocking down the bridges would cut Gaza in two, Palestinian security officials said.

Israeli military officials said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert approved a "limited operation" for southern Gaza, aimed at "terrorist infrastructure." The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

1938 Alert, from YNetNews:

The Syrian government has deployed security forces to protect Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal and has advised him to restrict all public activities for the time being, Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip told WorldNetDaily Tuesday.

Mashaal is believed to have called for the operation Sunday in which Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups carried out a well-orchestrated raid on an Israeli military station and kidnapped Israeli soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit.

In response, Israel has deployed thousands of ground troops at the Gaza border and has threatened a major incursion.

Diplomatic mediators involved in efforts to free the captured soldier told reporters it is Mashaal's reluctance that has been the key obstacle. They said they were told Mashaal was indeed behind the directive to carry out the abduction and that they were hopeful his position against freeing Shalit would change.

The notion of dealing with terrorists based on "hope" shows its usefulness once again.

In what has been interpreted as a threat to Mashaal, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday told reporters, "Let it be clear. We will find them all (terrorists), wherever they are, and they know it. Let it be clear that no one will be immune."

[...]

Mashaal has for years enjoyed the protection of the Syrian government. Israel accuses him of using bases in the country to order terror attacks and raise money for his terror group.

According to Israeli security sources, Syria and Iran has been pressuring Mashaal against releasing Shalit.

"Iran and Syria both want an escalation in the region to distract from the troubles surrounding their regimes," said a diplomatic source. "They want Israel to launch a ground operation. Violence helps them."

Israeli security officials told WorldNetDaily they have information the terrorists who carried out the Hamas raid and Shalit kidnapping were trained by Iranian Revolutionary Guard units and Hezbollah guerillas.

Senior Palestinian security officials linked to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party told WND Hamas and other Gaza-based groups have been receiving advanced military training by Iran and Hizbullah in recent months.

Of course, so do Hamas and Fatah. "‘Army of Islam’ wants Islamic Palestinian state: Website," from AFP, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

PARIS - The “Army of Islam,” which was involved in a brazen raid by Palestinian militants on an Israeli army post, vowed Tuesday to continue attacks until an Islamic state is established in the Palestine territories.

“Your brethren in the Army of Islam carried out an operation, along with the (Ezzedine) Al Qassam Brigades (Hamas’s armed wing) and the Al Nasser Salaheddin Brigades (of the Popular Resistance Committees), which heralds other operations ... aimed at establishing an Islamic caliphate,” an Internet statement said.

The statement was posted on several Islamist websites, including one used by Al Qaeda’s branch and other armed groups in Iraq.

The statement, in the form of a fax message, carries on top the group’s name with an emblem featuring a globe partially covered by a book that seems to be the Koran and a sword.

The emblem carries the Muslim profession of faith, “There is no God but God and Mohammed is the prophet of God.”

The Army of Islam first appeared in May by distributing leaflets in the Palestinian territories. According to Israeli press reports, the Israeli secret service suspected the group of having links with Al Qaeda.

“We are not waging jihad (holy war) for the sake of (recovering) a plot of land, illusory frontiers or nationalism ... Our jihad is much loftier,” a statement said.

“This religion (Islam) will not be able to triumph through a generation made rotten by (worldly) pleasures or broken by the security services of tyrannical governments,” it said.

“Our jihad is based on a solid foundation and aims to end occupation and tyranny as a prelude to the establishment of an Islamic caliphate” in the Palestine territories, the group added.

It did not define what the borders of the caliphate should be. The standard view among Palestinian Islamists has always included not only the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, but also the territory covered by Israel.

1938 Alert from Reuters, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

NIZMIT HILL, Israel (Reuters) - Israel massed tanks and troops near Gaza on Tuesday for a threatened offensive against Palestinian militants and said it would target Hamas leaders if an abducted soldier was not freed.

In northern Gaza, Palestinians blocked roads with dirt and barbed wire. Militants wielding automatic rifles and anti-tank rockets rigged explosive devices along a road as tensions hit their highest since Israel quit Gaza nearly a year ago.

The United States urged Israel to give diplomatic negotiations a chance to win the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit, who was seized on Sunday by militants who also killed two soldiers in a raid on an army border post.

"Diplomatic negotiations": i.e., concessions.

Bridge sale offer rescinded. From Reuters, with thanks to Captain Diggs:

GAZA (Reuters) - The governing Hamas movement reached a political agreement on Tuesday with moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas but said it would continue to refuse to recognise Israel.

Abbas had sought to soften Hamas's hard line towards Israel -- the movement's charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state -- in the hope of ending a U.S.-led boycott of the cash-strapped Palestinian government by Western donor nations.

Hamas insisted it was sticking to its "agenda of resistance" against Israel.

"The document included a clear clause referring to the non-recognition of the legitimacy of the Occupation," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said, using the Islamist group's term for Israel.

Clash of Civilizations Update from AP, with thanks to Kaosktrl:

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - Nine people were convicted Tuesday of murder or being an accessory to murder in the killing of a 19-year-old woman gunned down by her older brother two days after her wedding because her Pakistani family disapproved of her husband.

The 12-member jury returned guilty verdicts against the nine, all family members and friends, in the slaying of Ghazala Khan. Sentencing was expected later this week.

Khan was shot and killed Sept. 23 in Slagelse, 100 kilometres west of Copenhagen. Her husband was shot twice in the stomach but survived.

In testimony during the trial, Khan's older brother, Akthar Abbas, admitted to shooting the couple as they tried to flee to a train station, but he claimed he acted in self-defence because his brother-in-law, Emal Khan, had allegedly kicked him.

Akthar Abbas was found guilty of murder. His father, Ghulum Abbas, was found guilty of incitement to murder and masterminding the killing. Both face the maximum sentence of life imprisonment, automatically commuted to 16 years under Danish law.

Seven other people, including three of Khan's uncles, an aunt and a family friend, were found guilty of being accessories to murder.

Prosecutors alleged Ghulum Abbas had his son and other family members track down the daughter and her new husband and kill them. Ghulum Abbas pleaded not guilty.

The trial, which began in May, has highlighted disparate views on marriage between some immigrants and Danes in this country of 5.4 million. An estimated 200,000 Muslims live in Denmark.

"In some parts of the immigrant community, there are still some differences in understanding love marriages and cultural backgrounds and traditions," said Torben Ruberg Rasmussen, a professor with the University of Southern Denmark's Centre for Middle East Studies.

Abdul Wahid Petersen, a leading imam in Denmark, said Danish Muslims did not regard the honour killing as "their case."

"To us, it is not a religious case, it is a criminal case," Petersen told The Associated Press before the verdict was delivered. "But it is obvious that in many people's minds, it will be connected to Islam."

Mmm hmmm.

1938 Alert from Fox News:

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed the possibility of nuclear talks with the United States Tuesday saying nothing would be gained from them, state television reported.

"Negotiations with the United States would have no benefit for us, and we do not need them," the television quoted Khamenei as telling Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade.

The U.S. has said it would only take part with European nations in negotiations with Iran over their nuclear nuclear program if Tehran accepted an incentives package offered earlier this month.

The Washington move was seen as a major concession as the U.S. lists Iran as a sponsor of international terrorism and there have been no diplomatic relations between the two countries since 1979, when militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took Americans hostage for 444 days.

The package of incentives seeks to persuade Iran to place a long-term moratorium on the enrichment of uranium, a process that can produce fuel for nuclear generators or the material for nuclear warheads. Iran has long refused to backdown on its enrichment program, saying it has a right to the peaceful exploitation of nuclear energy.

"We do not negotiate with anybody on achieving and exploiting nuclear technology," the TV quoted Khamenei as saying. "But if they recognize our nuclear rights, we are ready to negotiate about controls, supervisions and international guarantees."

Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, said that the West would misuse such a negotiating process to put pressure on the country.

According to this story, the Bush administration has already "dismissed" Khamenei's comments, saying "officials don't consider the supreme leader's comments to be an official response."

The UN decides jihadist and Sharia supremacism isn't all that bad. All they are saaaaaying...is give Sharia a chance. From DPA, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

VIENNA - Islamists should be given a chance to govern, Egypt’s Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (Unescwa), Marvat Tallawy, said on Tuesday.

The process of elections and democracy should not be stopped ”because we’re afraid of the result,” she said. Whether it was the Muslim Brotherhood or Hamas - “Give them the chance to govern!”.

Sure. They said that about Hitler in 1933 too.

Tallawi also called for more jizya:

If the same group was always in government, there would only be more corruption, she pointed out in the newspaper Die Presse.

Tallawi, who was Egyptian ambassador to the international organizations in Vienna from 1988 to 1991, and social affairs minister in the Egyptian government in the late 1990’s, also commented on the West’s relations with the Palestinians.

It would be negative and even “disastrous” if the EU completely halted its payments to the Palestinians. If the problems in Palestine grew, it would weaken the moderates in Arab countries and strengthen the extremists, she maintained.

In Britain, it's "males" who are causing all the trouble. But in Belgium, they need to monitor "youths." From the Brussels Journal, with thanks to Charles Martel:

The Belgian state is no longer able to guarantee the security of its citizens. On Saturday afternoon Guido Demoor, a 54-year old Flemish train conductor on his way to work, was kicked to death by six “youths” on a crowded bus near Antwerp’s Central Station. The incident recalls the rush-hour murder ten weeks ago of Joe Van Holsbeeck, 17 years of age, in a crowded Brussels Central Station on 12 April.

Guido Demoor, a father of two, intervened when six “youths” got on bus 23 in Antwerp and began to intimidate passengers. There were some forty people on the bus. Demoor asked the “youths” to calm down, whereupon they turned on him, savagely beating and kicking the man. At the next stop thirty passengers fled the bus. The thugs kept beating Demoor. They then pulled the emergency brake and jumped from the bus leaving their victim to die.

Three Moroccans, two of whom are minors, were arrested today. The website of the Dutch paper De Stentor reports tonight that a fourth suspect, believed to be the ringleader, fled into a shop as the police were poised to arrest him. He managed to escape from the shop when dozens of “youths” came to his rescue. Witnesses had described the culprits as immigrant youths of between 18 and 21 years of age. During the weekend the police had called for witnesses as only four people had come forward. The police offered the witnesses absolute confidentiality and promised not to reveal their identities. “Obviously people fear reprisals,” Gazet van Antwerpen wrote today....

Read it all.

The Orang Asli are, as they say, the indigenous people of Malaysia. Islamic Tolerance Alert: "Incentives for marrying and converting orang asli," from The Star, with thanks to all who sent this in:

KELANTAN will offer RM10,000 to each Muslim preacher who marries an orang asli woman and naturally converts her as part of renewed efforts to propagate Islam among the 3,000-odd community in the state.

State Religious Affairs committee chairman Hassan Mahamood (PAS – Tawang) said the same incentive was applicable if the preacher was a Muslim woman who took an orang asli husband.

Asked if the preacher may court the orang asli as a second or third wife, Hassan said it depended on the individual.

The latest figures show that in the past five years, 2,904 of some 3,000 orang asli who reside in Gua Musang and Jeli districts, embraced Islam on their own free will.

Hassan said the state government was unhappy with the conversion rate of the orang asli, who traditionally did not subscribe to any main religion.

Besides the monetary incentive, the preachers would also receive free accommodation, a four-wheel-drive vehicle and a fixed monthly allowance of RM1,000.

On criminal activities and social ills among youths, Hassan said these were due to the influence of the western media.

“The Federal Government allowed sex-oriented movies, music and magazines to be accessible to the masses.

“Crime can only be controlled through the Syariah Criminal Procedure Code,” he said.

That's it: we've got to monitor all British men. Otherwise another July 7 attack is inevitable. Monitor Males Now!

"Terrorism: Two Charged In Britain," from AKI, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

London, 27 June (AKI) - A 21-year-old male from the northern British city of Bradford and a 28-year-old man from London are to appear in court on charges under Britain's Terrorism 2000 Act. The 21-year-old is accused of conspiracy to murder and to cause public nuisance by use of poisons and/or explosives to cause disruption, fear or injury. The unspecified charges against the 28-year-old, also arrested during the same international terrorism investigation, relate to a separate matter, Britain's West Yorkshire police stressed, quoted by the Guardian newspaper.

Both men were arrested on 6 June in an operation linked to the detention of a man at Manchester Airport in northern Britain. The arrests were not related to the controversial 2 June police raid on a house in Forest Gate, east London during which a young Muslim man, Abdul Kahar was accidentally shot in a struggle with armed police as they searched for a suspected chemical bomb last Friday. There was also no connection to last year's coordinated 7 July suicide bombings of central London's transport system, police said.

Also on Tuesday, two people were arrested by anti-terrorism police during a series of dawn raids on several properties in the northern British town of Bolton, police said, adding that the operation was not linked to any other recent anti-terrorism raids. Police did not release any further details of the arrests, but the suspects are believed to be male, the Independent newspaper reported.

"Therefore, when ye meet the Unbelievers (in fight), smite at their necks..." (Qur'an 47:4). From AP, with thanks to Mackie:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Explosives experts had to dismantle three roadside bombs to reach the brutalized bodies of two missing U.S. soldiers, whose remains were found tied together with a bomb between one soldier's legs, the U.S. military said.

In a statement that provided additional details of the killings, the military said the bodies of U.S. Army Pfc. Kristian Menchaca of Houston and Pfc. Thomas Tucker of Madras, Ore., were found at 7:50 p.m. on June 19 not far from where they were abducted when insurgents attacked their checkpoint.

The military said it waited until the next morning to recover the bodies because an Iraqi in the area had warned the area was booby-trapped....

A U.S. military official said last week that one and possibly both young men were tortured and beheaded.

Bridge For Sale! Bridge For Sale! From AP, with thanks to Mackie:

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - The rival Hamas and Fatah movements agreed on a plan implicitly recognizing Israel, a top Palestinian official said Tuesday after weeks of acrimonious negotiations meant to lift crippling international aid sanctions.

"We have an agreement over the document," said Ibrahim Abu Najah, coordination of the "national dialogue" over the proposal.

Moderate President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah has been trying to coax his Hamas rivals into endorsing the document, which calls for a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Notice this: when polls show that Muslims have lost confidence in non-Muslim authorities, those non-Muslim authorities are expected to do something about it. And when polls show that non-Muslims have lost confidence in the loyalty and trustworthiness of the Muslims among them, non-Muslim authorities are expected to do something about it. Never, never, is any focus placed on any responsibility Muslims might have to win the confidence of authorities and the non-Muslim population.

From The Guardian, with thanks to all who sent this in:

Most Muslims have lost confidence in Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan police commissioner, and do not accept that officers have the right to take action to pre-empt potential terrorist attacks when the intelligence could turn out to be wrong, a Guardian/ICM poll shows.

So it's better to be blown up than risk inconveniencing innocent Muslims. I see.

The findings, in a poll of Muslim opinion, starkly illustrate the lack of confidence in the police following the raid on a home in Forest Gate, east London, this month. Police, acting on faulty intelligence that a chemical weapon was housed there, shot a Muslim man.

Fifty-four per cent of Muslims said Sir Ian Blair should resign over the Forest Gate raid, while 29% said he should not.

In the poll, carried out two weeks after the raid, Muslims were also asked: "Do you think it is right or wrong for the police to act to pre-empt potential terrorist attacks, even if the intelligence, information and warnings may turn out to be wrong?" Thirty-one per cent said it was right and 57% said it was wrong.

This view contrasts sharply with that held by the general public. When the same question was asked of a representative sample of all adults, 74% said the police were right to act and 17% said they were wrong.

Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said last night the respondents could be "reacting against the many hundreds of Muslims who have been arrested in high-profile raids across the country since 9/11"....

When Muslims were surveyed about their feelings in the aftermath of the July 7 bombings last year, their views offered scant comfort to the police, although the overall picture is complex. The poll asked whether their confidence in the police had increased, decreased or stayed the same since the bombings: 16% said it had increased, 29% that it had decreased, and 50% said it stayed the same.

Confidence in the police is higher in the south, which includes London: 23% say their confidence has increased. And there is more support for Sir Ian, too: 32% in the south say he should not resign.

Dr Bari said last night: "The police must, of course, have the right to act upon credible intelligence and try to pre-empt potential terrorist attacks against our country. They have a duty to maintain the public safety of all of us - Muslims and non-Muslims." He believed Muslims were reacting against the many hundreds of Muslims arrested in high-profile raids across the country since 9/11 - "the vast majority of whom were then released days later without charge".

He added: "The police must as a matter of urgency review the manner in which they assess the quality of the intelligence that they receive. Serious questions are being asked about how they have reviewed and assessed the intelligence, not just in the case of the Forest Gate raid, but many other similar raids since 9/11. This is a matter of professionalism and maintaining the trust of the wider society."

And why not? After all, Hitler visited Austria after the Anchluss. Of course, Ahmadinejad may be jumping the gun a bit as far as that is concerned, but he is certainly doing all he can to bring into being a Shi'ite client state in Iraq. From Iran Focus, with thanks to JE:

Tehran, Iran, Jun. 27 – Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will soon travel to Baghdad to meet and hold talks with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, the government-run news agency Fars reported on Monday.

The report quoted an “informed source” as saying that Ahmadinejad would hold talks with several top Iraqi officials.

He would lead a large delegation to Baghdad, the report said, adding that several political and economic agreements would be signed between the two states during his trip.

Thai Jihad Update from the BBC, with thanks to Charles Martel:

Five security officers have been killed by a roadside bomb in Thailand's south.

They were attacked by a group of suspected insurgents, who ambushed them as they were guarding teachers on their way to a school in Yala province.

The attack is the latest in a string of violent incidents in the Thai south, where more than 1,300 people have been killed since January 2004.

Officials blames Muslim insurgents for much of the unrest, although criminal motives are also thought to be at work.

The southern provinces are predominantly Muslim, with a separate language and culture to much of the rest of Thailand.

Militants often target schools and teachers because they see them as symbols of the Buddhist Thai authorities.

So of course his response was to start randomly shooting his coworkers. "Suspect, Victims In Safeway Shooting Rampage Identified: Gunman Tentatively Identified As Michael Ford," from The Denver Channel, with thanks to David:

DENVER -- An investigation is under way to determine why a Safeway warehouse employee walked into work and opened fire on his coworkers Sunday afternoon, killing one person and injuring five, including a Denver police officer.

The suspect, identified as 22-year-old Michael Julius Ford, was shot and killed during a shootout with SWAT officers inside the massive Safeway Denver Distribution Center, located near Interstate 70 and Colorado Boulevard.

He shot randomly at coworkers, and when he shot SWAT officer Derick Dominguez, the other SWAT team heard Dominguez cry out, and fired back, police said.

"(Ford) was unprovoked and shot Officer Dominguez -- unprovoked. That's when the other officers came to Dominguez' aid and were shot at," Denver police Chief Gerry Whitman said at a Monday afternoon press conference. "They were exchanging quite a few rounds in there ... He shot at us six times and we returned fire 17 rounds. It was a gun battle that he started."

Ford's mother and sister told a local TV reporter that Ford was a kind, caring person, who wouldn't hurt anyone but that he said he was being teased at work because he's a Muslim and he couldn't take it anymore.

However, police said that they couldn't find any motive for the shootings and not heard about the possible religious conflict that his family say provoked the attack.

Safeway spokesman, Jeff Stroh, said that there were no early signs of any trouble.

"In all of our investigations yesterday and this morning, we can find no problems of any kind that were brought forward involving Mr. Ford. None whatsoever, " Stroh said. "No complaints to supervisors. No calls to the employee assistance program hotline. Nothing whatsover to predict this kind of outcome."...

How long will Sweden have the will to continue to proseecute such cases? Clash of Civilizations Update: "Man jailed for daughter's circumcision," from Sweden's The Local, with thanks to Twostellas:

A man who arranged for his daughter to be circumcised has been jailed for four years by Gothenburg District Court.

The man was found guilty of taking his daughter to Somalia to have her genitals mutilated. The case was the first prosecution under a Swedish law against female circumcision introduced back in 1982.

The man, a 41-year old Swedish citizen who has lived in the country since the eighties, had denied the charges against him. He said that other people had carried out the crime on his daughter, who was 12-years old when the procedure took place last year....

The father has been told to pay compensation for 300,000 kronor to his daughter. She had demanded 650,000 kronor.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald wonders if policy should really be a matter of avoiding hurting other's feelings:

Turkey has had a good run. Ataturk, "secular" Turkey, Bernard Lewis and "The Emergence of Modern Turkey," Sanford Shaw, of course (without the Vryonis replique), those generals in Ankara meeting those American generals, the performance of those Turkish soldiers in Korea during the war, those airbases, that other base at Sinop, the assurance that Kemalism was forever, and that the numbers of the westernized Turks would always increase. Yes, a good run. And besides, what did it really matter -- because wasn't Islam throughout the Cold War seen only as "a bulwark against Communism"?

Now the discovery of another Turkey, la scoperta del imperio ottomano, or rather della Turquia, shows us that after the Cold War, when Turkey is no longer quite so necessary a place for listening-posts directed at the Soviet Union, the American bases are apparently not to be used for the only conceivable purpose for which they would now do much good: against those who, in Dar al-Islam, need to have their major weapons taken away. Turkey did not allow that fourth American division to invade from the north. Turkey has been critical of the invasion of Iraq for all the wrong reasons. An important Turkish official described the behavior of American soldiers as "worse than Nazis."

"They answer not to a particular leader but to an ideology. In short, they operate under the radar. And that makes their detection that much more difficult."

That means, of course, that that ideology has to be confronted and combatted. American Muslim advocacy groups should do this energetically -- or if they refuse, be shut down. The ideology that leads to terrorism and the idea of the Islamic subjugation of the U.S. should be made unwelcome here -- and anyone who works to advance it made equally unwelcome.

Freedom of religion? Sure. Just not sedition. Freedom of speech? Sure. But again, not sedition.

"Suicide Bomb Scare," from USNews, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

Soon after the September 11 terrorist attacks, officials at the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency began worrying that the next attack against the United States might involve the kind of deadly suicide bombings of malls, restaurants, or theaters that have been so widespread in Israel. So DARPA began a quiet collaboration with the Israeli government to use that country's vast video databases of suicide bombers approaching targets to develop biometric face and gait recognition software, sensors, radar, and other technologies to detect and deter suicide bombers, a former military official familiar with the program told U.S. News.

In fact, since 9/11, hundreds of U.S. bomb technicians, police chiefs, police officers, and FBI, Secret Service, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) agents have made repeated trips to Israel to learn from their counterparts and their extensive experience in detecting and deterring Palestinian suicide bombers. The train bombings in Madrid and London during the past two years and the U.S. military's daily bombardment from Iraqi insurgents' homemade bombs have only heightened the sense of urgency. Last month's arrests in Toronto and Paris of dozens of young Islamic men for allegedly plotting bombing attacks have raised the worry meter still further. Just a few days ago, FBI agents broke up what they described as a homegrown terrorist cell in Miami, arresting seven people for allegedly plotting attacks on the Sears Tower in Chicago and the FBI and other federal buildings in Miami.

In a speech delivered before the City Club of Cleveland a day after the arrests, FBI Director Robert Mueller said that pockets of "self-radicalized" jihadists represent the new face of global terrorism. "These extremists are self-recruited, self-trained, and self-executing," said Mueller. "They answer not to a particular leader but to an ideology. In short, they operate under the radar. And that makes their detection that much more difficult."

This morning I got this message from the Muslim Brotherhood, the forefather of Hamas and Al-Qaeda.

Dear sir

I'm touched by your worm sympathetic words towards the Islamic cause, which I assure you is a totally peaceful one. Islam dictates on its follower to pursue justice and prosperity through peaceful means that is based on mutual respect of other fellow human beings of all creeds.

Islam does not nurtures nor advocates terrorism, but surely like any other religion (and in line with all human conventions and current international laws) it legislates for defending one's self if unjustly attacked without any provocations in order to prevent spreading of injustices and hence corruption and to ensure a just world for all human to share its potentials. To this end I would like to introduce you to The Muslim Brotherhood Group, a socio-economical, political and spiritual movement that is promoting the middle course Islam and is embracing peaceful means in its long struggle to achieve social justice and bring about the long awaited for political reforms via the democratic change in Egyptb and elsewhere.

I would also want to draw your attention to the fact that www.ikhwanweb.com is the only official English web site airing the views of the Muslim Brotherhood Group on current national and international affairs as well as giving a true account of the group's history and their standing viewpoints.

Kind Regards
Ikhwan Web Editor

Here's an example of how peaceful the Brotherhood is.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald explains why the recommendation that American policymakers refer to the global jihad as "hirabah" (unlawful warfare) is wrongheaded:

Two analysts at the National Defense University have recently recommended that the West use the word “hirabah” instead of “jihad” to describe the actions of Osama bin Laden and Co.

It is not hard to figure out where the word comes from. It comes from Muslim regimes and their apologists, eager to protect certain regimes that are attacked by local "truer" Muslims for their corruption and misrule. The obvious example is Saudi Arabia, where a family, the Al-Saud, has for decades been stealing, not merely skimming off the top, large amounts of the nation's oil wealth. Those who dislike this, naturally, cannot raise a revolt against the ruler for mere appropriation of wealth; in Islam, the despot is owed submission. He (or his family, or his family-and-friends plan) can be opposed, in the moral and mental universe that Islam posits, only if he is not a Muslim, if he is an "Infidel."

What? You mean it hasn't already started?

Just in from the Hate Mail Bag:

hi bladdy americans. whats going on just wait now all muslims will starting the JIHAD against u.......... and u know who is this country.....? this is PAKISTAN PAKISTAN PAKISTAN

bladdy?

Further developments toward the formal establishment of an Islamic state in Somalia, from AP:

NAIROBI, Kenya - An Islamic cleric accused by Washington of collaborating with al-Qaida said Monday he will only support a government based on Islam in his new role as head of a militia that controls Somalia's capital and much of the country's south.

"Somalia is a Muslim nation and its people are also Muslim, 100 percent," Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys told The Associated Press in his first comments to the media since being named head of the Islamic militia over the weekend.

The militia defeated U.S.-backed secular warlords and seized Mogadishu and much of the south this month. Last week it struck a mutual recognition deal with the largely powerless U.N.-backed interim government.

Aweys, who is on a U.S. list of people with alleged ties to international terrorism, was appointed leader of the militia Saturday, replacing a more moderate cleric who agreed to negotiate with the interim government.

None of the militia leaders who voted for the surprise change in leadership has publicly explained the reason for it. The State Department has not commented.

The Islamic militia also changed its name from the Islamic Courts Union to the Somali Supreme Islamic Courts Council.

"Any government we agree on would be based on the holy Quran and the teachings of our Prophet Muhammad," Aweys said in a telephone interview from his home in central Somalia.

I just received this email. The dajjal is an Islamic apocalytic figure of evil; Kaffirs are unbelievers. Note the familiar notes sounded: the displacement of responsibility ("The Dajjal DOGS like America and his allies are beginning the holy war"), the exhortation to desire Heaven, the call to defend "our honour as moslems."

This emailer clearly believes this is a religious war, fought for religious reasons. The themes he sounds are familiar jihadist rhetoric. Yet Western analysts continue to insist that religion has nothing to do with this conflict.

The Dajjal DOGS like America and his allies are beginning the holy war.Why we are affraid with them,Dajjal and his dogs.Allah promise to us that we will win this holy war.If we are moslem we must place our trust in Allah our god.Let us stand up,break the Kaffir domination to us don't be coward moslem,remember the Heaven is waiting for us don't you miss it ? For Allah ! For Islam ! By our honour as moslems let's go JIHAD ! Allahuakbar!!!!

A horrible story from Western Resistance, with thanks to Looney Tunes:

Russian and western media are ignoring how the Turkish Tourism Board is airing an advertisement where drug-entranced Muslim dervishes dance on an image of Christ taken from a destroyed church, reports Fontanka.ru, a web-based newspaper in St. Petersburg.

So far, the offending advertisement has been seen on St. Petersburg's Channel 22, Rambler NBN, and was most likely shown elsewhere in Russia and the world, but the Turks who paid for the advertisement cannot be reached.

Until the mid 15th century, the Muslim country now referred to as `Turkey' was the Christian Byzantine Empire, one of the most advanced civilizations in the world. After the Muslim conquest, most Christian inhabitants were slaughtered or forced to convert. Thousands of churches were destroyed or converted into mosques. The Turks then launched an invasion of Europe, occupying most of the Balkans for centuries, and carrying out similar destruction and carnage.

Even though Russia is primarily a Christian Orthodox country, no one objected to the offending advertisement, until finally an Armenian resident of St. Petersburg, Artak Aleksanyan, undertook his own investigation. He hired a lawyer at the prominent firm of Naryshkin and Associates, which made a number of inquiries that revealed the advertisement violates Russian law, specifically Article 152 of the Criminal Code, ``Protection of the Honor and Dignity of Citizens.'' The offending Muslims who made the advertisement can be brought up on criminal charges.

But they probably won't be.

Read it all.

Somali Jihad Update: "Wanted terrorist to head Somali 'parliament,'" from The Australian, with thanks to all who sent this in:

MOGADISHU: Somali Islamists have named as the head of their new "parliament" a firebrand cleric wanted by the US for alleged links to al-Qa'ida.

Officials said Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys -- a wanted "terrorist" in the US -- had been chosen to lead the Council of Islamic Courts, which will serve as a parliament for regions under the courts' control.

The appointment came as the body of a Swedish journalist, who was shot in the back and killed while covering a rally in Mogadishu on Friday, was being flown back to Sweden.

The assailant of Martin Adler, 47, has not been caught but the ruling militia said the killing was planned by a foreign enemy that wanted to shatter weeks of relative peace since the Islamic militia took over from a US-backed warlord alliance in Mogadishu earlier this month.

As the jihad against Israel continues, Olmert takes action. From AP, with thanks to all who sent this in:

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday said he has ordered the army to prepare a "broad" military operation against militants in the Gaza Strip following the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier.

"It should be clear that there will be no immunity to those who are holding him," Olmert said in a speech at a business conference in Jerusalem.

Olmert also said he holds the entire Palestinian leadership for the safety of the soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit.

Memo to Ibrahim Hooper: better get the feds on this guy. It's Khaled Ahmed of the Daily Times (thanks to Sandi).

The latest dominant trait of the Muslims is victimhood. They think they are being persecuted and killed everywhere in the world. They want the world to take notice of this while the Muslims as a rule feel nothing about those outside the umma who suffer. The feeling of victimhood has something to do with the expatriate Muslims’ inability to integrate among host societies and their dissatisfaction with their own states.

Another invocation of the Qur'an to justify violence. "Iraqi Qaeda-led group says Russian hostages killed" from Reuters, with thanks to M3:

DUBAI, June 25 (Reuters) - An al Qaeda-led group posted video footage on the Internet on Sunday showing the killing of three men it said were Russian hostages seized in Iraq earlier this month.

The images, posted on a Web site often used by militants, showed two masked militants beheading of a man and the "execution" of another by shooting. It also showed the beheaded body of a third.

The fate of a fourth hostage was not clear.

"This is the video for carrying out God's ruling against the Russian diplomats which we present to heal the hearts of believers and in revenge for our brothers and sisters for the torture and killing they receive at the hands of the infidel Russian government," the said in a statement posted on the site....

The Mujahideen Shura Council defended the killings as an eye-for-an-eye measure, citing a verse of the Koran -- Islam's holy book -- which says: "Those who assault you, you shall assault with the same (form) of assault."

That looks to me like Qur'an 42:40: "The recompense for an injury is an injury equal thereto (in degree)..."

"Beggar scholars (affiliated with governments) will speak that slaughtering infidels is sacrilegious and so on. We tell them that this is the book of God, which will be the judge," its statement said.

A request for moderate Muslims: please explain to this fellow why slaughtering infidels is wrong, from the Qur'an -- not so that you will convince him but so that perhaps you will turn some other mujahedin or would be mujahedin away from the path of violence. What's that? You won't do it? The very request is an insult?

Or if you will do it, please send me your argument at director@jihadwatch.org. Also please provide evidence that your views are mainstream within the international Islamic community, and accepted by various schools of jurisprudence. This will provide clear evidence for the existence of the broad majority of moderate Muslims we keep hearing so much about. The ones who abhor and eschew all jihad violence and happily accept the parameters of Western society.

Islamic Tolerance Alert: "Tension in Bangladesh as Sunni militants threaten Ahmadiya mosque," from DPA, with thanks to Twostellas:

Dhaka - Tension was mounting in a northern suburb of the Bangladesh capital Dhaka Saturday after an Islamic militant group threatened to blow up a mosque of members of the minority Ahmadiya Muslim sect, officials said.

The Sunni Islamic group Khatme Nabuyut Movement called a 48-hour strike in the capital city's Uttara suburb following fierce clashes between riot police and Islamic militants marching on the Ahmadiya mosque in a bid to capture it.

'The Ahmadiyas are kafirs (non-believers) and must be declared non-Muslims by the government,' Noor Hossain Nurani, a senior member of the anti-Ahmadiya movement, told a gathering of an estimated 1,000 activists before an overnight attempt to seize the mosque.

Nurani warned the government that his supporters would destroy the heavily guarded mosque if the Ahmadiyas were not officially declared non-Muslims by Sunday.

As I have noted many times, Islam's evidence laws put victims of rape in Islamic societies at considerable risk -- and because of the strong emphasis on purity, they also can face the kind of treatment that Sabia is enduring. "Rape victim ostracised in Bihar," from the Indo-Asian News Service, with thanks to Daisy:

MUZAFFARPUR: Forced by a religious leader, a Muslim-dominated village in Bihar has asked a rape victim to leave the place after calling her 'napak' (impure) for giving birth to a child.

The husband has also deserted Sabia, a mute woman in her 20s and mother of two, following pressures from the leaders, the woman's distraught father Samsher Ali said.

The woman, who was raped last year by a neighbour, Mustafa, now lives with her parents in their thatched hut in the same village, Chandkiwari, in Muzaffarpur district, about 70 km from here. Mustafa is on the run.

Sabia's parents are facing the ire of the villagers for giving shelter to their "impure" daughter.

"No one talks to us; we have no social life. We are treated like animals for no fault of ours," Samsher Ali lamented.

Says Sabia's mother: "I fail to understand why my mute daughter was punished when she did not commit any crime. She was rather a victim of the heinous crime of rape. But these people do not realise it."

Maulana Abdul Haleem, a Muslim leader of the village, however said that as per Islamic law Sabia had become impure due to the rape and the "illegitimate" child.

"We have instructed the villagers to boycott her," he said without mincing words.

The villagers are following his instruction. "We are bound by the decision to boycott her," said Pir Mohammad, a villager.

He added: "This is not an individual decision. It was taken by the community."

Not, in other words, just by a Tiny Minority of Extremists.

The Qur'an forbids a Muslim man to have sexual relations with a woman who is married to someone else, except for "those (captives) whom your right hands possess" (4:3). This is the Qur'anic term for a woman captured in warfare and kept as a slave. Thus there is nothing preventing a pious Muslim male from having, as the Indo-Asian News Service rather luridly terms it, a "sex slave." So while it is likely that some will, or will try, to take the fact that Osama had a sex slave as evidence that he is not a fervent Muslim, in fact it establishes nothing of the sort.

Others, of course, will say: You can't say Osama is a pious and fervent Muslim. Why, that would be undercutting all the moderates. They would enlist us in their giant, global game of pretend, as if we are all five years old again and all we have to do is close our eyes and wish the dragon away.

Well, I myself think it is preferable to stick to reality, and to try to frame a course of action that is based on that reality, rather than on wishes, however politically correct and comforting.

"Osama’s former sex slave writes for TV" from IANS, with thanks to all who sent this in:

NEW YORK: Kola Boof, the former sex slave of Al Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, is writing for the NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives.

The TV network is already trying to distance itself from the new hire, according to reports by pagesix.com. The show’s executive producer Stephen Wyman says: “Yes, Kola Boof has had writing assignments from Days of Our Lives since May. However, she does not hold a staff position with our writing team.”

In 2003, Boof had to pull her son out of school after rumours were spreading that bin Laden was his father. Boof claims that she was held prisoner and was forced to have sex with bin Laden in 1996 when she was pursuing an acting career in North Africa. She adds that he raped her and forced her to live with him for four months at a hotel in Morocco.

She escaped to Spain and in 1998 bin Laden threatened to kill her after reading her book of poetry, which was critical of Islam. She has also been marked for death by the Sudanese-based National Islamic Front in response to her writings condemning slavery in Sudan and the ill-treatment of African women.

1938 Alert from the Khaleej Times:

TEHERAN - Iran on Saturday again rejected any deadline for its response to the international package of incentives offered if it stops enriching uranium as part of its nuclear program, state media reported.

"In our meeting with (EU foreign policy chief) Mr (Javier) Solana, we did not agree on any deadline to respond to the West’s proposals. On the contrary, we agreed to examine the proposals with precision and patience," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was quoted as saying from Geneva where he was attending a UN human rights meeting.

"In our meeting with Mr Solana, the Islamic Republic of Iran said it will not accept any preconditions, nor will it come forward with any preconditions," Mottaki added.

"However, if there were supposed to be any preconditions, it is the Islamic Republic of Iran that should be coming forward with them," he said.

The five permanent UN Security Council members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany have offered Iran a package of incentives that includes multilateral talks if it agrees to temporarily halt uranium enrichment.

That work is at the center of fears the hardline regime could acquire nuclear weapons, although Teheran insists the project aims only to provide fuel for nuclear energy.

Diplomats have said Iran was asked to reply by June 29 to the offer, but Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday Teheran would take until August 22 to answer.

On Friday, Javad Vaidi, deputy secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told AFP that suspending uranium enrichment will be neither a precondition for talks with world powers on its nuclear activities nor an outcome of those discussions.

They should call it the Adolf Hitler Memorial Jizya Fund. "Germany grants EUR 20m to Palestinian fund," from DPA, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

BERLIN - Berlin is granting 20 million euros (25 million dollars) to an aid fund for the Palestinian territories in the interests of "freedom and more stability in the region," the German aid minister, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, said Wednesday.

Wieczorek-Zeul said in parliament that the European nations had so far pledged 150 million euros for such funds, replacing official European Union aid which stalled in March after the election of the radical Hamas movement.

Just don't call him a Muslim. "Father of US man accused, as ringleader in terrorism plot can’t explain arrest," from AP, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

BUNKIE, Louisiana - The father of a man accused in a terrorism plot to blow up Chicago’s Sears Tower said on Saturday he was at a loss to explain how his son was suspected of leading such a group.

“He’s not in his right mind, I’ll tell you that,” Narcisse Batiste, 72, said in an interview at his home here in central Louisiana.

His 32-year-old son, Narseal, and six other men were arrested Thursday in a Miami warehouse. Federal authorities said they had no explosives and lacked adequate funding, with their only link to al-Qaida being an FBI informant fronting as a member of the terrorist group....

Narseal Batiste was accused of being the group’s ringleader, telling the informant that he and his soldiers wanted to attend al-Qaida training and planned a “full ground war” against the United States to “kill all the devils we can,” according to an indictment....

Batiste, a Christian preacher at a nondenominational church, said his son also developed an interest in Islam after studying the Bible for years. The pastor said his son was determined to study the Quran despite his urging to remain with Christianity.

“I didn’t agree with it but he was a man by then and I didn’t think I could argue with him about it,” Batiste said....

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald explains why it is wise not to dwell too long on the jihadist aspiration for a worldwide caliphate:

"The men [Douglas Streusand and Harry D. Tunnell IV] also want officials to stop using the term "caliphate" as the goal of al Qaeda and associated groups. The Caliphate came to refer to the successors of the Prophet Mohammed as the political leaders of the Muslim community. 'Sunni Muslims traditionally regard the era of the first four caliphs (A.D. 632-661) as an era of just rule, the men wrote. 'Accepting our enemies' description of their goal as the restoration of a historical caliphate again validates an aspect of their ideology.'” -- from this article

Robert Spencer makes the point in his comments on this article that, however, restoration of a Caliphate in fact mentioned as a goal and to pretend that it is not, convinces no one that the goal does not remain, for many, a vividly immediate one.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald offers a tribute to Olivier Roy and other like-minded "respected scholars":

"Olivier Roy, a respected French scholar of Islam, says Muslim silence is a 'classical psychology of immigrants' -- wanting to be 'normal' and become mainstream. 'For them, integration means to be recognized as citizens. They don't want to be recognized for their specificity.'" -- from this silly AP article dissected by Robert here

What gives the writer for this singularly jejune AP piece the authority to insist that Olivier Roy is a "respected French scholar of Islam"? He's not respected by all kinds of people who know about Islam. Bernard Lewis thinks little of him, and I heard him telling this to someone. The intelligent scholars of Islam at the Universite of Aix-en-Provence, possibly the most solid program in Islam in France, do not think much of Olivier Roy. All kinds of people find him only marginally better, in his repeated misunderstanding, over at least a decade or two, of the nature of Islam and the menace of French Islam, than that other pontificating sociologist, Gilles "Always Wrong" Kepel.

Don't tell us so-and-so is an "expert" or "respected." Tell us only that so-and-so "teaches" X or "has written" on Y or "has studied" Z. None of this argument from authority stuff here. We'll decide, after we study what X or Y or Z says, whether or not X or Y should be respected. Should I be impressed that Cornel West is a University Professor at Princeton? Should I be impressed that Jeffery Sachs has written 5 books, or 8 books, or 12 books, while someone else has written half as many, or possibly none at all? Should I be impressed that Professor Hamid Dabashi is the Kevorkian Professor at Columbia, the very same school at which Jacques Barzun taught for nearly fifty years, and in the same department, practically, as those two great scholars of Islam, Professor Joseph Schacht and Professor Arthur Jeffery? No. No. No.

Michael Gove is correct that "the British State has failed to tackle the underlying ideological currents that favour Islamism." But the real problem is still deeper: the British State, and all Western states, have failed to tackle the sources of those ideological currents, and to realize why "moderates" like the MCB, with whom they are so desperate to collaborate, so often turn out not to be so moderate at all.

From the TimesOnline, with thanks to Ruth King:

THE BRITISH State has come under severe criticism following the Forest Gate raid for its intelligence failures in the fight against terrorism. But the biggest failure of all in the battle against Islamist extremism has gone practically unnoticed.

Tony Blair has acknowledged that the fight against Islamist terrorism cannot be restricted to a police action against isolated individuals or small groups. Last summer he spelt out that a much broader effort is required to tackle, at root, the ideology of Islamism that has bewitched so many minds. But in the struggle against extremism the British State has failed to tackle the underlying ideological currents that favour Islamism. Organisations such as the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) and the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), whose members have shown sympathy for extremist positions, are rarely challenged, and certainly not publicly by the Government or its agencies.

For moderate Muslims the picture is dispiriting. They see the most religiously conservative and politically provocative groupings enjoy the lion’s share of attention and they wonder how serious the British State is about countering extremism. How can they convince young men within their community that the path of moderation brings respect and a voice in the nation’s deliberations when the most influential voices are seen to belong to those with radical agendas?

In Islamist circles a complementary message is absorbed. The British State does not have the courage to face down the advocates of political Islam. Islamists in Britain scent weakness. Just as Islamists abroad believe the West does not have the stamina to resist for long, so Islamists within the UK believe the momentum is with them. Islam’s Leninists have drawn the bayonet, probed, and found mush.

Of course these people should be called Muslims. Even if they aren't orthodox Sunnis, they have clearly been inspired by the warfare against unbelievers mandated by the Qur'an. From the Telegraph, with thanks to Olivia:

The alleged ringleader of a terrorist cell that planned to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago was an adherent of an obscure black Islamist sect that was first investigated by America's Federal Bureau of Investigation in the 1950s, relatives said yesterday.

According to an FBI indictment, Narseal Batiste, 32, wanted to build an "Islamic army" to "wage war against the United States government" and provide "material support to al-Qaeda". He and the six other accused lived in Miami.

Relatives said that Batiste, described as a "Moses-like" figure who roamed his neighbourhood wearing a robe and carrying a crooked wooden cane as he recruited young men, based his teachings on those of the Moorish Science Temple of America.

Founded in New Jersey in 1913, the basic tenet of Moorish Science is that all black people are born as Muslims and are descended from the Moors, a nomadic North African tribe. In the 1950s, the FBI tried to infiltrate the Moorish Science Church's activities, believing it to be involved in disseminating anti-American propaganda, but the investigation proved inconclusive and was dropped.

Batiste is said to have called his branch of Moorish Science the "Seas of David". His followers wore uniforms bearing a Star of David, and met for Bible study and martial arts practice in a Haitian section of Miami....

Batiste was said to have talked about blowing up the Sears Tower and the FBI headquarters in Miami.

Another adherent of Moorish Science was Clement Rodney Hampton-El, who was convicted in 1995 of taking part in a failed plot to blow up New York city tunnels and landmarks with truck bombs.

Another story on Saudi dissembling about their textbooks. And of course, why wouldn't this material be in them? It's in the Qur'an (2:62-65; 5:59-60; 7:166). From the Telegraph, with thanks to Anon:

Saudi Arabia has been accused of continuing to foster religious hatred in its schools, despite its repeated assurances since the September 11 attacks that it would rewrite textbooks that refer to Jews as "apes" and Christians as "swine".

The charges come after Freedom House, a non-partisan American research group which monitors civil rights worldwide, examined textbooks that it smuggled out of Saudi Arabia. The group found that despite promises of change from leading Saudi officials, including Saud al-Faisal, the foreign minister, and Turki al-Faisal, the ambassador to America, schoolbooks in the kingdom still promote hatred of those who do not practise its strict form of Wahhabi Islam.

The report also alleged that some of the textbooks are used in official Saudi schools around the world. Senior staff at the King Fahd Academy in Acton, west London, which has 750 pupils, said that it was not for the school to comment.

"Even if only a small percentage of the people who are exposed to this take it to heart and act on it, that's still a lot of people," said Nina Shea, Freedom House's director, after the release of the 39-page report, Saudi Arabia's Curriculum of Intolerance.

The report cites extracts from textbooks used in religious education classes for children aged between five and 16. It quotes the following exercise for the youngest children: "Fill in the blanks with the appropriate words (Islam, hellfire): Every religion other than ------- is false. Whoever dies outside of Islam enters -------."

It claims that older students are taught: "It is part of God's wisdom that the struggle between the Muslim and the Jews should continue until the hour (of judgment)."

The report is an embarrassment for the Saudi government, which has made great efforts to restore its image since being painted as a bastion of extremism after September 11. When it emerged that 15 of the 19 hijackers that day were Saudi, many blamed the kingdom's education system for breeding hatred.

Last month, however, only days before the report was released, the Saudi education minister gave a joint press conference with the American secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, in which he boasted of Saudi school reform.

"The education reforms in Saudi Arabia go beyond textbook rewriting," he said. "They go into teacher training [and] the messages that are given to children in the formative years… The whole system of education is being transformed from top to bottom."

When asked about offensive language in textbooks, he said: "This is taken out." But, according to Miss Shea, this is not true. "Teaching methods that ask kindergarten children to give examples of 'false religions', like Judaism and Christianity, add up to an ideology that runs throughout," she said. "It is not hate speech here and there. It adds up to an argument, an ideology of us versus them."

And indeed, there are aspects of what has been reported about them, as we have noted here, that suggests they are not orthodox Muslims. But as they seem to have identified themselves as Muslims and their cause with Al-Qaeda's, it would be foolish to take CAIR's advice and ignore that element of the case.

"US Terror Suspects Not Muslims: CAIR," from IslamOnline, with thanks to all who sent this in:

CAIRO — The Council on American-Islamic Relations, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, has urged the media not to associate the seven suspects arrested on charges of plotting terrorist attacks in the US with the country's Muslim minority, insisting they were not Muslims.

"Given that the reported beliefs of this bizarre group have nothing to do with Islam, we ask members of the media to refrain from calling them Muslims," Ahmed Bedier, Director of CAIR Florida chapter, said in a statement e-mailed to IslamOnline.net.

Seven men — five US citizens, a legal resident and a Haitian — appeared in court on Friday, June 23, a day after they were arrested in Miami.

US Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales said the seven were charged with conspiracy to provide material support to Al-Qaeda and terrorists.

They face four terrorism charges, including a plot to blow up the 110-floor Sears Tower, the world's third tallest building, in Chicago and the FBI regional headquarters.

The charges sheet said the group's leader, Narseal Batiste, recruited individuals for an operation "which included a plot to destroy by explosives the Sears Tower."...

Bedier criticized the media for referring to the arrestees as Muslims.

He regretted "a lot of talk on conservative radio and television stations and opinion that this is militant Islamism, radical Islamism."

The Muslim activist asserted that the suspects seem to belong to "some sort of cult group."

Media reports said the seven detainees were part of the "Seas of David" religious group.

A man identified himself as a member of the "Seas of David" told CNN on Thursday, June 22, that they had no connection to terrorists.

"We are not terrorists. We are members of David, Seas of David," said the man, identifying himself as Brother Corey.

He said the group blends the teachings of Christianity and Islam.

"We study Allah and the worship of the regular Bible."

He went on: "We study and we train through the bible, not only physical -- not only physical, but mentally."

And both blame the United States and Israel.

From AP: "Hezbollah, al-Qaida mirror Islamic split"

BEIRUT, Lebanon - To the outside world, the two groups appear to have much in common: Devoutly Muslim, fiercely hostile to Israel and the U.S., and high on Washington's list of terrorist groups.

Yet al-Qaida in Iraq and Lebanon's Hezbollah are waging a worsening verbal dispute that threatens to burst into confrontation.

First came a fiery diatribe from al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- just a week before he was killed by a U.S. airstrike -- accusing Hezbollah of acting as a protective buffer for Israel.

Hezbollah, generally reserved in its comments on internal Islamic issues, began to react: One of its main political figures told The Associated Press it wasn't his group at all but al-Zarqawi that was the "tool" of United States and Israel.

The accusations on their face could be seen as little but competing propaganda. But the animosity runs far deeper than these two radical groups. There is a growing divide in the Middle East between Sunni Muslim extremists, including al-Zarqawi's group, and Shiite Muslim militants personified by Hezbollah.

Many see the emerging tensions as a dangerous trend that could lead to violent Shiite-Sunni conflict not just in Iraq but around the Persian Gulf.

[...]

In his last audiotape, al-Zarqawi accused Hezbollah of having "serious ties" with the Jewish state.

"The party has raised false banners regarding the liberation of Palestine, while in fact it stands guard against Sunnis who want to cross the border" into Israel to launch attacks, he said.

Hezbollah publicly has remained quiet on the issue, apparently so as not to inflame feelings. But its officials, when reached by AP, were quick to react.

Hezbollah's political bureau member in charge of international relations, Nawaf al-Mussawi, accused al-Zarqawi of being a U.S.-Israeli tool against Arab resistance groups.

"His criminal acts are aimed at igniting civil wars and inciting sectarian fighting," al-Mussawi said. "We will not permit the United States, Israel or its tools to kindle any kind of conflict in Lebanon -- between Christians and Muslims or between Shiites and Sunnis."

They can blame whomever they want, and may it drain the resources they would otherwise employ against the West.

Why should they condemn people who they don't even believe are real Muslims? Because other Muslims believe they're real Muslims, are are susceptible to their recruitment based on appeals to Qur'an and Sunnah. Isn't that a good enough reason?

From AP, with thanks to Kasia:

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - Europe's Muslims have remained largely silent in the face of terrorist attacks that have killed 254 people in Madrid, London and Amsterdam. Europeans want to know why.

Why have so few of them publicly condemned the train and bus bombings in Madrid and London? Why have so few spoken out against the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, killed because his work was considered an insult to Islam?

Talk to Europe's mainstream Muslims privately, however, and it turns out they have a lot to say.

Seek them out in the neighborhoods where they live and work - in the outdoor markets and butcher shops that sell halal meat, in the book stores that display literature on Islam and the West, in the boutiques that promote Islamic dress codes, in the Turkish restaurants and smoky Tunisian teahouses, in their schools and youth clubs - and they denounce, the vast majority unequivocally, attacks against civilians in both Europe and the United States.

"Van Gogh was a crazy man, but no one has the right to kill anyone who says bad things about the Quran," said Mohammed Azahaf, a 23-year-old student who runs a youth center in Amsterdam. "If you kill one, it's like killing the whole of mankind," he said, quoting a line from the Muslim holy book.

Of course, others differ, and on Islamic grounds -- specifically, the example of Muhammad:

At the time of the Messenger Muhammad (saw) there were individuals like these who dishonoured and insulted him upon whom the Islamic judgement was executed. Such people were not tolerated in the past and throughout the history of Islam were dealt with according to the Shariah. Ka’ab ibn Ashraf was assassinated by Muhammad ibn Maslamah for harming the Messenger Muhammad (saw) by his words, Abu Raafi’ was killed by Abu Ateeq as the Messenger ordered in the most evil of ways for swearing at the prophet, Khalid bin Sufyaan was killed by Abdullah bin Anees who cut off his head and brought it to the prophet for harming the Messenger Muhammad (saw) by his insults, Al-Asmaa bintu Marwaan was killed by Umayr bin Adi’ al-Khatmi, a blind man, for writing poetry against the prophet and insulting him in it, Al-Aswad al-Ansi was killed by Fairuz al-Daylami and his family for insulting the Messenger Muhammad (saw) and claiming to be a prophet himself. This is the judgement of Islam upon those who violate, dishonour and insult the Messenger Muhammad (saw).

What would Mohammed Azahaf say to that? He was quoting Qur'an 5:32: "On that account: We ordained for the Children of Israel that if any one slew a person - unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people. Then although there came to them Our messengers with clear signs, yet, even after that, many of them continued to commit excesses in the land." What would he say to someone who asserted that Van Gogh was "spreading mischief in the land," and so deserved what he got?

These are serious questions, because Muslims do say such things. If Mohammed Azohaf really rejects that perspective, he should have a response.

Why, then, the public silence?

For some of the more than five dozen Muslims interviewed for this story in Amsterdam, Paris and London, it's a sense of shame, or even guilt, that innocents have been killed in the name of Islam; they say those feelings make them seek to be "invisible." For those lucky enough to have jobs, there is little time to protest or even write letters to newspapers. For others, there is fear of being branded anti-Islam in their communities.

Dutch Muslim rapper Yassine SB wrote a song about his anger over Van Gogh's murder but scrapped plans to perform it out of fear of being ostracized by the Islamic community. He also turned down requests by a popular Amsterdam radio station to sing a song against terrorism.

Why would they ostracise him, if they all condemn what happened to van Gogh?

"If you sing that, it's like you choose the Dutch, not Muslims," said Yassine SB - the initials stand for his surname Sahsah Bahida - who is popular among Dutch North African youths like himself for his songs against racism.

"People will say 'you are a traitor,'" said the 20-year-old musician....

Why, many Muslims ask, should they have to speak out against, or apologize for, actions of radicals who do not represent them - people they do not even regard as true Muslims?

Because, as the van Gogh anecdote reveals, there are more of these untrue Muslims than anyone wants to admit. Something has to be done about it.

Many find the very idea of being asked or expected to denounce such acts "extremely offensive and insulting," said Khurshid Drabu, a senior member of the Muslim Council of Britain.

A thought experiment: imagine you are a member of a group. Any group. And other members of the same group are committing violent acts against innocent people and justifying doing so by appealing to the philosophy of your group. But you think they are misusing that philosophy. Would you be insulted at people who ask you to explain how they are misusing it, and to resist their doing so, or would you find the actual misusers of your cherished philosophy more insulting?

"I'm British," said Tuhina Ahmed, 24, a British-born Muslim in London whose family came from Gujarat in India. "I could have been blown up as well." Why, she asked, should she have to make a public statement to prove her objection to terrorism?

Because the terrorists did come from your group, and claim your religious ideology, Tuhina. Do it for Britain. If you care to, that is.

To many, the pressure to denounce acts of terror smacks of President Bush's warning that 'you are either with us or against us.'

"People and politicians say where are the Muslim people, why aren't they on the streets defending themselves? They say we should go into the streets and condemn what happened so they see us as good Muslims," said Karima Ramani, a 20-year-old Dutch born to an Algerian father and Moroccan mother. "I don't feel it's my duty. I'm not responsible for the death of Van Gogh."...

Yet the Internet is filled with blogs - mostly from Westerners but also by some Muslims - asking why Muslims are not expressing revulsion at the attacks. They see the silence as giving the terrorists strength.

"Isn't silence, justification, fear and hesitation in condemning terrorism, a factor in the encouragement of these individuals to appear on numerous platforms and satellite channels and claim that they represent a religion in the absence of active influential groups and institutions?" asked a blog entry by Ahmed Al-Rabei, a Kuwaiti journalist who works for London-based newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat.

"Isn't it a tragic crime to label the millions of European Muslims as guilty because of the rhetoric of a few professional lunatics, while the rest remain silent and wallow in self-pity? We have to admit that Islam has been hijacked particularly in European countries."

Muslim leaders say they and other Muslims have marched in a number of anti-terrorism rallies in Europe - the largest was held on the first anniversary of Madrid's 2004 bombings - and Muslims can't be expected to pour into the streets every day. They also say they have condemned the attacks in the media.

The fact that they would have to pour into the streets "every day" shows how ineffective their condemnations have been. When will they begin efforts to teach against the jihad ideology in mosques? If they care to.

Surveys indicate a small but significant chunk of Europe's Muslim population supports the terrorists.

In a poll of British Muslims after the July 2005 suicide attacks on London's transport system, 6 percent thought the bombings were justified. Another 24 percent condemned the attacks but had some sympathy with the bombers' grievances.

Many Europeans blame the Continent's Muslim leadership, which they accuse of making ambiguous and qualified condemnations that give the impression they are making excuses for the bombers: grievances over the war in Iraq or the West's support for Israel.

"It's the leaders who are most responsible," said Rory Miller, senior lecturer of Mediterranean studies at King's College, London....

Azahaf, 23, was among the thousands who marched in Amsterdam against Van Gogh's killing. "I demonstrated not for Van Gogh but for freedom to talk, to say what you want," he said.

Olivier Roy, a respected French scholar of Islam, says Muslim silence is a "classical psychology of immigrants" - wanting to be "normal" and become mainstream. "For them, integration means to be recognized as citizens. They don't want to be recognized for their specificity."...

Sure, but to this the Islamic community, with its set and comprehensive social order, has proved particularly resistant.

Many of Europe's best-integrated Muslims say their lives are so far removed from those of the radicals that it simply has never occurred to them to protest.

Alia Kdeih, 50, came to Paris in 1977, at the height of a civil war in her native Lebanon. She got her degree from the Sorbonne, married a Lebanese and presents a cultural program on the Arabic service of French government-owned Radio Monte Carlo. Her elegant Western-decorated apartment in a middle-class Paris neighborhood has only a few flavors of Lebanon.

Kdeih said she will not go into the streets to condemn the attacks even though she's appalled by them - pointing out that her identity is not defined by Islam.

"It's not something I want to stress," she said. "I don't feel responsible for what happened even if they are Muslims."

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald discusses the oft-repeated assertion:

We are told again and again, in various ways, that "Islam is not monolithic." Yes, we know. But we also know that the same passages in the same Qur'an, the Uncreated and Immutable Qur'an, the one dictated by Gabriel and taken down by an Arab amanuensis, are those which all Muslims read as the Word of God. And the Hadith (which is at least as important, to many Muslims, as the Qur'an), were long ago winnowed by the most authoritative muhaddithin, and have been ranked by them (e.g., Al-Bukhari and Muslim, as the two most authoritative of the Sahih Sittah, the six tippety-top ones). And what do those Hadith say about "Infidels" or "Jews" or "Christians" or "polytheists" or "jihad"? We can find out, easily. It is all online.

And we can find out as well what interpretive doctrines may exist -- in this case, that of "naskh" or "abrogation" -- which permits a reconciling of passages seemingly contradictory, which doctrine, alas, tells Believers that the earlier softer (so-called "Meccan") verses are cancelled, overruled (just as Plessy v. Ferguson is overruled by Brown v. Bd. of Education) by the much harsher, much more hostile and menacing later verses -- e.g. Sura 9. Are we to ignore the canonical texts of Islam because of local differences in food or dress or in the degree of syncretism (e.g. the marabouts of West Africa, or the syncretism of the much-persecuted "Anbangan" -- Geertz's word) among quasi-Muslims?

Another story about the desperate trouble in which apostates from Islam all too often find themselves. Islamic Tolerance Alert from Compass Direct:

June 23 (Compass Direct) – Attacked by her own family, one Muslim’s decision to convert to Christianity highlights the precarious situation of Muslims in Pakistan who leave their faith.

Sehar Muhammad Shafi, 24, has fled her home city of Karachi with her husband and two young daughters after being attacked and raped for changing her faith.

With help from the Center for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement, the Christian couple has relocated to another city. But as long as Shafi and her family remain in Pakistan, they must hide the truth of Shafi’s conversion.

Shafi was born the fourth child of a Muslim proselytizer in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi. Her family belonged to Ahle Sunnat wa-al Jimmat, a non-violent Muslim group that focused on converting non-Muslims. Members were instructed not to share food and eating utensils with “pagans” considered unclean.

Shafi’s father taught fellow members of his religious community how to proselytize. As a teenager, Shafi often attended her father’s training sessions on how to convert non-Muslims.

“It wasn’t normal for a girl to participate in those sessions,” the young woman told Compass. “But I was the daughter of an ‘evangelist’ and was eager to bring others to my faith.”

In 1999, Shafi began work for a medical company, Glaxo Wellcome plc, where she focused her energy on proselytizing a co-worker, a Christian named Naveed Paul. Paul had an interest in apologetics and engaged Shafi in religious discussions, inviting her to church with him.

Four years later, Shafi decided to become a Christian, and a local pastor secretly baptized her. “I had shared Islam with [Paul] and wanted to convert him, but instead I realized that my life was empty without Jesus,” Shafi said.

Secret Marriage

Shafi’s family was not aware of her conversion, but sometimes they would beat her when they found her singing Psalms to herself. Once they ripped up a Bible they discovered her reading.

Read it all.

Over a year after the July 7 bombings, UK Muslim leaders have gotten around to condemning terrorism. But once again, just as with the Fiqh Council of North America's condemnation of terrorism, their statement condemns the killing of "innocent" civilians, and does not address the fact that some Muslim clerics have on more than one occasion declared various populations of Western civilians to be not innocent. Thus for any Muslim condemnation of terrorism to be effective against jihadist recruitment within Muslim communities, it would have to specify that Westerners such as those killed on July 7 were indeed innocent, and must not be targeted. But this condemnation doesn't seem to be that specific.

"Muslim leaders condemn terrorism," from the BBC, with thanks to Anon:

Islamic leaders across Birmingham have issued a joint message against terrorism in a bid to tackle mistrust of Muslims in the UK.

Leaders of the 150 mosques in the city have backed the statement, which comes in response to the police raid in London's Forest Gate this month.

The religious edict makes clear the killing of innocent victims is against the principles of Islam.

It has been welcomed by the chief constable of the West Midlands.

The message is thought to be the first joint statement made by Muslim scholars in the UK against terrorism.

Activities regulated

It states: "That killing of innocent civilians is absolutely forbidden in Islam and anyone who contemplates or commits any such act, does so against the teachings of Islam."

The statement adds action has been taken to regulate the activities of every mosque to ensure worshippers are given a message of "calmness and civic responsibility".

It said the action of the UK Government in Iraq had caused anger in the Muslim community but there is a "resolve to guide the Muslim response in accordance with good citizenship".

More specifics about the jihad arrests in Florida -- a press release from the Department of Justice:

WASHINGTON – Seven Florida men have been arrested on charges that include conspiring to provide material support to the al Qaeda terrorist organization and conspiracy to levy war against the United States by discussing and planning attacks on targets in the United States, including the Sears Tower in Chicago and the FBI building and other federal buildings in Florida, the Department of Justice announced today.

The seven men – Narseal Batiste, Patrick Abraham, Stanley Grant Phanor, Naudimar Herrera, Burson Augustin, Lyblenson Lemorin and Rothschild Augustine – were named in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida (Miami). The indictment charges four counts: conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, namely al Qaeda; conspiracy to provide material support and resources to terrorists; conspiracy to maliciously damage and destroy by means of an explosive; and conspiring to levy war against the government of the United States.

The defendants – five U.S. citizens, one legal permanent resident, and one Haitian national in the country illegally – have all been arrested and are expected to make appearances at U.S. District Court in Miami today.

The indictment alleges that, beginning in November 2005 and continuing to the present, Batiste recruited and supervised individuals to organize and train for a mission to wage war against the United States, including a plot to destroy the Sears Tower by explosives. Batiste and his co-conspirators allegedly attempted to obtain the support of al Qaeda to achieve their goals and discussed this desire with an individual cooperating with law enforcement who posed as a member of al Qaeda. Believing they were dealing with that terrorist group, in March 2006, Batiste and other defendants pledged an oath of allegiance to al Qaeda and allegedly supported a plan to destroy FBI buildings in the United States by taking photos of the FBI Building in North Miami Beach, Florida, and other federal buildings in Miami-Dade County.

Batiste then allegedly took reconnaissance photographs of the FBI Building in North Miami Beach, the James Lawrence King Federal Justice Building, federal courthouse buildings, the Federal Detention Center and the Miami Police Department. In addition to conducting surveillance, the defendants allegedly provided the individual, whom they believed was an al Qaeda member, with a list of materials and equipment needed to wage jihad, including boots, uniforms, machine guns, radios and vehicles. In December 2005, at one of a number of meetings with this person, Batiste spoke of using an army of “soldiers” and explosives to destroy the Sears Tower. In a subsequent meeting, he provided the individual with a list of other materials needed in his plot to take down the Sears Tower, including radios, binoculars, bullet proof vests, firearms, vehicles and $50,000 cash.

According to the indictment, the plot advanced further through meetings with other co-defendants. In one of the meetings on Feb. 19, 2006, Batiste allegedly told the “al Qaeda representative” that he wanted to attend al Qaeda training with five of his soldiers, with a mission to wage a “full ground war” against the United States in order to “kill all the devils we can,” which “will be just as good or greater than 9/11.” Ultimately, all seven of the defendants allegedly swore bayat, or an oath of loyalty to al Qaeda.

“The convergence of globalization and technology has created a new brand of terrorism. Homegrown terrorists may prove to be as dangerous as groups like al Qaeda,” said Attorney General Gonzales. “I am pleased by the cooperation among federal, state and local law enforcement in taking down this group of individuals who wished to harm our country and its citizens.”...

If convicted, the defendants in this case face a maximum penalty of 15 years each in prison on the charges of conspiracy to provide material support or resources, and a maximum of 20 years in prison each on the charges of conspiracy to destroy by use of explosives and conspiracy to levy war against the United States....

Continuing, utter denial of the ideological roots of "terrorism" (that is, jihad). From AP:

KABUL, Afghanistan - One of America's closest allies says the war on terrorism fails to address its root causes.

Experts agreed with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, saying Friday the major military offensive against the Taliban will not fix Afghanistan's larger crises -- a lack of reconstruction and jobs, a booming drug trade, and a weak government.

"You won't win unless you can convince people that progress is being made," said Marvin Weinbaum, a former State Department analyst now a scholar at the Washington-based Middle East Institute.

Passive voice can be used with great effect to deflect focus from who ought to be making "progress," and at what.

"One of the things we recognize is that we have failed to improve on the development side, especially in the south. In the areas with the greatest need, we have not gotten the reconstruction that was necessary."

On Thursday, a clearly frustrated Karzai criticized the coalition's anti-terror campaign, deploring the deaths of hundreds of Afghans and appealing for more help for his government. The coalition has killed hundreds, mostly Taliban militants, since May.

Karzai spokesman Khaleeq Ahmad said Friday the president wanted the international community to reevaluate its approach.

"We want to fight (terrorism) in a way that we fight the roots of it: where they get trained, where they get equipment, where they get money, where the recruitment centers are," he said.

How we wish that were true.

In "Mosque Matters: Maybe we’d tackle the tough issues if we got that we’re at war," Michael Ledeen at National Review argues for what I have been arguing for for years: that we must monitor American mosques.

Some day we will be forced to deal fully with the war we are in, and when that happens we’re going to discover a lot of very nasty problems about the future of America. One of them has to do with, of all things, the First Amendment. Consider this story from Wednesday’s London Times:

AN AMERICAN al-Qaeda operative who was a close associate of the leader of the July 7 bombers was recruited at a New York mosque that British militants helped to run.

British radicals regularly travelled to the Masjid Fatima Islamic Centre, in Queens, to organise sending American volunteers to jihadi training camps in Pakistan.

Investigators reportedly found that Mohammad Sidique Khan had made calls to the mosque last year in the months before he led the terrorist attack on London that killed 52 innocent people....

Mohammad Junaid Babar, one recruit from the Masjid Fatima Islamic Centre, has told US intelligence officials that he met Khan in a jihadi training camp in Pakistan in July 2003. He claims that the pair became friends as they studied how to assemble explosive devices.

Babar, 31, a computer programmer, says that it was at the Masjid Fatima centre that he became a radical.

It’s interesting that British jihadis came to Queens to recruit Americans — and no doubt some of them, fully trained in slaughter, have returned to these shores — but the important thing is the mosque. Because there’s always a mosque, as my Italian friend Magdi Allam has been repeating for several years. Not all mosques are jihadi, but all jihadis come from a mosque.

Look at the 9/11 terrorists, look at the killer of Daniel Pearl, and you will find well-off, educated men who became radicalized in a mosque. And I’ll bet you a good-sized farm that if we ever get to the bottom of 9/11 we’ll discover that mosques were central in maintaining contact with and discipline over the terrorists.

So mosques can be very dangerous places when the local imam preaches jihadism, as is done in the thousands of Saudi-sponsored Wahhabi mosques all over the world, including the United States. It is clearly a matter of some urgency to put an end to the sort of indoctrination and recruitment that took place at the Masjid Fatima Islamic Center in New York. But that is easier said than done, because the absolutist interpretation of the First Amendment protects the imams and the incendiary sermons preached at such mosques. Freedom of religion forbids the state from meddling in the religious activities of the mosques, and freedom of speech forbids the state from telling the imams “you can’t say that.”

Freedom House should get a medal for publishing what I believe to be the only serious analysis of the contents of the literature distributed by some of these frightening places, and Nina Shea, who has driven this research for years, should have one personally engraved. As a result of this excellent work, along with that done by, inter alia, Steven Emerson, Daniel Pipes, Diana West, and Robert Spencer, we have a pretty complete picture of the dimensions of this threat. And as the London Times story illustrates quite convincingly, this is not just a theoretical matter. The evil words translate into evil action.

Thank you for the kind acknowledgment, Mr. Ledeen.

Read it all.

Regarding the National Defense University's recommendation that we all pretend that the global jihad is not a jihad, and hope that thereby it will go away, Greg Allen, on whose Right Balance radio show I have had the honor of appearing many, many times, has kindly passed on to me this memo from LTC Joseph C. Myers, Senior Army Advisor at Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell AFB.

I tend to disagree with this article. I understand our desire to de-legitimize the "jihadist" as part of our CIST objectives; but we should not fall into the trap of failing to understand ourselves the exegesis of "jihad" in theory and practice. True, jihad does not translate to “Holy War” but that is also irrelevant and moot. War is either “just” or “unjust” in Islam and jihad to be “just” must be fought for the ends of God and Islam. Even Muslim texts do not accept this artificial debate, I suggest you find a copy of the Reliance of the Traveller, the first English translation of Sharia Law in print at your local library and go to the index, look up jihad -— re-indexed to “Holy War.”

Jihad does mean in the classic Islamic texts “striving;” striving in the context of war, not in the context of individual spiritual growth...that is a later adaptation brought by Shia and Sufi scholars, the influence of ascetics, around the turn of the last millennium as Islam struggled with schism and the Moghul invasion. Its original meaning was associated with warfare and that meaning has never been rejected or renounced as invalid, it was merely added upon with the concept of “greater jihad.”

...While that term itself, becoming more spiritually prepared as an individual Muslim is associated with spiritual growth and non-violence, it also has applicability with becoming more spiritually prepared for combat: “jihad” and “shahada.” Recall Mohammed Atta’s “Last Night” preparations...which was for him and the other 9-11 jihadis a lengthy process of spiritual preparation for their martyrdom.

The resurgent global “jihad” in all its forms [including the bust in Miami yesterday] is based on classical readings of the Quran with mujahids willing to take up the sword for “dawa,” the proclamation and propagation of Islam.

Finally, if the thesis below were accurate then these would, in fact, be the terms used by Muslim scholars themselves (over 1400 years of written texts) with respect to this “theme” in theory and practice including the term “jahidu” (combat), but that is not the case. The scholarly texts discuss war “in the path of Allah” as “jihad.”

One can appreciate these modern Muslim scholars attempting to discredit the ideology of groups like al-Qaida, but before we latch on to these modern “vernaculars” we must make sure we fully understand the terms of reference denotatively and connotatively and historically as Muslims have understood them; not as part of a Western Strategic Communication campaign.

...In my humble opinion we still have not done our homework.

We are dealing with “classicists,” not “extremists.”

Praise for the late Zarqawi and vows for revenge. From Al-Jazeera:

Al-Qaida's deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has hailed the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, as a soldier, an Islamic cleric and a prince of martyrs.

The videotaped statement, broadcast by Aljazeera on Friday, was the first acknowledgment by al-Qaeda's central leadership of the death of al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a US air strike northeast of Baghdad on June 7.

The broadcast showed al-Zawahri, wearing a white robe and black turban, with a picture of a smiling al-Zarqawi over his left shoulder.

In the tape, al-Zawahiri said al-Zarqawi was "a soldier, a hero, an iman [sic: Islamic cleric = "imam"] and the prince of martyrs".

Al-Zawahiri addressed George Bush directly in the broadcast, and vowed to avenge al-Zarqawi's death.

"Yes O Bush, none of us is killed without us avenging him, with the help of God," said al-Zawahiri.

"You are not facing individuals but the whole of the Muslim nation.

"America will not dream in security until security has become a reality in Palestine and the other Muslim countries."

Al-Zawahiri also attacked Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, and Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to Iraq, saying al-Maliki "trades with Islam" for power and describing Khalilzad as "the Afghan apostate".

Al-Zawahiri did not mention the new leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, which the group has declared to be Abu Hamza al-Muhajer.

The omission of any reference to the successor might mean the tape was recorded before the successor was chosen, or it might indicate that al-Zawahiri does not endorse the new leader.

A new essay by the notable European writer Fjordman:

Do gang rapes boost GDP? Was that an offensive question, you say? Well, according to Sweden's finance minister Pär Nuder, more immigrants should be allowed into Sweden in order to safeguard the welfare system. However, in reality estimates indicate that immigration costs Sweden at least 40 to 50 billion Swedish kroner every year, probably several hundred billions, and has greatly contributed to bringing the Swedish welfare state to the brink of bankruptcy. An estimated cost of immigration of 225 billion Swedish kroner in 2004, which is not unlikely, would equal 17.5% of Sweden's tax income that year, a heavy burden in a country which already has some of the highest levels of taxation in the world.

At the same time, the number of rape charges in Sweden has quadrupled in just above twenty years. Rape cases involving children under the age of 15 are six times as common today as they were a generation ago. Resident aliens from Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia dominate the group of rape suspects. Lawyer Ann Christine Hjelm, who has investigated violent crimes in one court, found that 85 per cent of the convicted rapists were born on foreign soil or by foreign parents. Swedish politicians want to continue Muslim immigration because it boosts the economy, yet the evidence so far indicates that it mainly boosts the number of gang rapes. Meanwhile, research shows that fear of honor killings is a very real issue for many immigrant girls in Sweden. 100.000 young Swedish girls live as virtual prisoners of their own families.

An ever growing group of non-western immigrants in Norway is dependent on welfare. This was the conclusion of a study by Tyra Ekhaugen of the Frisch Centre for Economic Research and the University of Oslo. Ekhaugen's research contradicted the often heard assertion that Norway's labor market depends increasingly on immigrants. The study indicated quite the reverse. If the present evolution continues, immigration will increase the pressure on the welfare state rather than relieving it because many immigrants do not join the tax-paying part of the population. "Non-Western immigrants" in Norway are recipients of social security benefits ten times as frequently as native Norwegians. If we remember that "non-Western immigrants" include Chinese, Indians and other non-Muslims who are known for (and statistically proven to be) hard working, this speaks volumes of the heavy burden Muslims constitute on the welfare state.

Journalist Halvor Tjønn from newspaper Aftenposten, one of the few genuinely critical journalists in the country, in June 2006 cited a report from NHO, the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise. NHO stated that the current immigration policies were a serious threat to the country's economy. Norway is the planet's third largest exporter of oil, next to Saudi Arabia and Russia. Yet according to NHO, there is a risk that much of the profit Norway earns from oil could be spent on paying welfare for a rapidly growing immigrant population. The most profitable immigration would be high-skilled workers who stay for period of limited duration, but at the same time not too brief. A Danish think tank has estimated that the net cost of immigration was up to 50 billion kroner every year, and those were cautious estimates. Denmark could thus save huge sums by stopping immigration from less developed countries. A study found that every other immigrant from the Third World -- especially from Muslim countries -- lacked the qualifications for even the most menial jobs on the organized Danish labor market.

Professor Kjetil Storesletten at the University of Oslo said that the net contribution of immigrants to the economy was probably negative in
Norway, too. "Admitting immigrants with low levels of education leads nowhere. We cannot continue the immigration policies we have followed until now," said Storesletten. In Norway, social benefits and salaries for low-skilled workers are among the highest in the world. At the same time, the salaries for highly skilled workers are comparatively lower and the taxes are high. This compressed salary structure is the result of decades of Socialist policies in Scandinavia. It leads to attracting people with lower skills and little education, but also makes the countries less attractive for researchers and scientists. Still, the agency that handles immigration to Norway, UDI, in 2005 thought that the country must make it more attractive for both skilled and unskilled workers to move to Norway. "We need more immigrants," claimed UDI chief Trygve Nordby. "Too few dare to say that we have a large need for non-professional workers as well," he said. UDI, in turn, should be able to have more flexibility in deciding cases, and process cases more quickly and efficiently. As it turned out later, the bureaucrats of UDI were in fact so "flexible" that they had been running their own, private immigration policies, and that the agency's liberal interpretation of asylum rules had "stretched the boundaries" of the law. UDI violated both the law and political directives when it granted residency permits to nearly 200 Iraqi Kurds in the fall of 2005. A commission that probed the controversial permits blasted the former head of UDI, Trygve Nordby, and his successor resigned. More than half of the social security benefits in the city of Oslo are spent of non-Western immigrants, a portion that has grown tremendously over the years. City council leader Erling Lae warns against prejudice and states that without immigrants, there would be "complete chaos" in Oslo. Meanwhile, Norwegian newspapers are worried that online debates are "flooded with racist comments" about Muslims. One of the racist comments they mentioned was this one: "A large number of Muslims out of their own, free will choose to live in parallel societies where they speak their mother tongue, watch foreign TV, despise the society they have moved to and pick spouses from their original homelands. The only contact they have with the natives is in the social security office."

"The debate is often colored by ignorance. It is not a human right to be heard at any given time. It requires a certain minimum of social intelligence to be allowed to participate in the public debate," says Esten O. Sæther, online editor of the Leftist, pro-Multicultural newspaper Dagbladet. Sæther warns that the newspapers may have to impose stricter censorship on their online discussion forums and the comments to online articles. However, Dagbladet seems to have little understanding of why so many people are fed up with Muslims and their demands. Neither have they admitted that they were wrong in their one-sided praise of the positive effects of Muslim immigration for decades, nor apologized for demonizing the right-wing Progress Party and its leader Carl I. Hagen throughout the 90s for their "racism" for questioning the real costs of this immigration.

On the contrary, although information about the costs of Muslim immigration has been available for several years, this was a non-issue
in Norwegian media prior to the national elections in 2005. Instead, they were focusing on "poverty" in Norway and the need for increased welfare spending. This in a country that is among the wealthiest in the world and which provides its citizens with the highest social security benefits in Europe. Norway's media coverage of the national elections revealed a desire for a Leftist government, said Election expert Aarebrot, a professor at the Institute for Comparative Politics at the University of Bergen. He argued that, with few exceptions, most of Norway's media leans to the left politically. "Most newspapers are what I would call politically correct. By politically correct in Norway today I mean slightly radical, urban and liberal," Aarebrot said. Nearly 70 percent of journalists vote Labor (Ap), Socialist Left (SV) or Red Electoral Alliance (RV) according to a poll, and this is reflected in the press, Aarebrot said.

Oslo will have a non-Western majority in a few decades, if the current trends continue. There are now several researchers who predict that in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, the native population and their descendants will become a minority in their own country within this century. The only question is when. Since the Islamic Jihad usually enters a much more aggressive and physical phase once the Muslim population reaches 10 - 20% of the total in any given area, this does not bode well for the future of the urban regions in Scandinavia. Will they turn out different from similar regions in Thailand, the Philippines or Nigeria?

Admittedly, part of the problem lies with the Western European welfare state system itself and cannot be blamed on the immigrants alone. Iranian Nima Sanandaji tells of his family's meeting with the Swedish system: "In Sweden my family encountered a political system that seemed very strange. The interpreter told us that Sweden is a country where the government will put a check into your mailbox each month if you don't work. She explained that there was no reason to get a job." "Although my mother got several jobs, we concluded that this really didn't improve our family's economy. During the sixteen years we have been in Sweden, my mother has in total worked less than one year."

However, part of the problem is also due to the mentality of some of the Muslims who move there, yet display no loyalty to their new countries. Immigrant men who divorce their wives according to secular law, but stay married to them according to sharia, Islamic law, represent an increasing problem in the city of Odense, Denmark, according to Erik Simonsen, deputy major in charge of administration. The result is a large number of "single" women who receive welfare support. From other countries, it is known that some Muslim men to do this trick with several women at the same time. Some observers blamed the Muslim riots in France in 2005, accurately described by writer Mark Steyn as the "first welfare funded Jihad in history," on polygamy practiced by Muslim men, paid for by French taxpayers. But also immigrants who are financially independent are cheating, says Simonsen. "80 percent of the immigrant economy in Odense is a black market economy. That's a lot, and it cannot be tolerated, because the law is equal for all."

As one Muslim in Norway stated: "I worked in a Pakistani shop, but all of the work there is 'unofficial.' Neither the boss nor I pay taxes to Norwegian authorities. In addition to this, I receive 100% disability benefits and welfare. I have to be cunning to make as much money as possible, since this is my only objective with being in Norway." Undoubtedly, many Muslims view welfare money from the infidels as Jizya, the poll-tax non-Muslims according to the Koran are supposed to pay to Muslims as tribute and a sign of their inferior status and submission to Islamic rule. In Britain, one member of an Islamic group warned an undercover reporter against getting a job because it would be contributing to the kuffar (non-Muslim) system.

UPDATE: For the first half-hour of its existence, the headline of the article was the same as above, which was copied and pasted from the original. Clicking on the link now shows the headline has been changed to "FBI says suspects sought to form own army." Interesting.

Miami/Chicago Jihad Update, from AP:

MIAMI - Seven men accused of trying to blow up the Sears Tower with help from al-Qaida never actually made contact with the terrorist network and were instead caught in an FBI sting involving an informant who posed as an al-Qaida operative, authorities said Friday.

Federal prosecutors said the men -- who operated out of a warehouse in Miami's blighted Liberty City section -- took an oath to al-Qaida and plotted to create an "Islamic Army" bent on violence against the United States. Five of those arrested are U.S. citizens.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales stressed that there was no immediate threat in either Chicago or Miami because the group did not have explosives or other materials it was seeking.

"This group was more aspirational than operational," FBI Deputy Director John Pistole said.

But they all necessarily start as "aspirational."

Nevertheless, Gonzalez said Thursday's arrests underscored the danger of "homegrown terrorists" who "view their home country as the enemy."

Those arrested ranged in age from 22 to 32 and included a legal immigrant from Haiti and a Haitian who was in this country illegally. Investigators said all members of the alleged plot were in custody.

"We are confident that we have identified every individual who had the intent of posing a threat to the United States," said R. Alexander Acosta, U.S. attorney in Miami.

Five of the defendants, including alleged ringleader Narseal Batiste, appeared in federal court in Miami on Friday under heavy security. They were brought in and out in single file, chained together at the wrists and wearing ankle chains.

"It's an example of the philosophy of prevention. These arrests were made during the talking stage, long before any bombmaking stage," said Kendall Coffey, a former U.S. attorney in Florida. "While they may be seen as bungling wannabes, they are potentially dangerous wannabes who, based on the allegations, were pursuing extremely dangerous plans."

And now the standard "but he's a nice boy" denial about one of the perpetrators:

Joseph Phanor, the father of defendant Stanley Grant Phanor, said he did not believe "anything they say about" his son.

"This boy, he's not a violent boy. He never got into trouble. He didn't want to kill people," the elder Phanor said. Court records show that his son was convicted of carrying a concealed firearm in 2002 and sentenced to two years' probation.

Prosecutors said Batiste began recruiting and training the others in November. The FBI learned of the plot from someone the defendants tried to recruit, authorities said. The FBI then arranged for an informant of Arabic descent to pass himself off as an al-Qaida operative.

Batiste met several times in December with the informant and asked for boots, uniforms, machine guns, radios, vehicles and $50,000 to help him build an "Islamic Army," the indictment said.

In February, Batiste told the informant that he and his five soldiers wanted to attend al-Qaida training and planned a "full ground war" against the United States in order to "kill all the devils we can," according to the indictment. His mission would "be just as good or greater than 9/11," it said.

Prosecutors said the men plotted to blow up Chicago's Sears Tower, the tallest building in America, and other buildings.

Batiste and a co-defendant provided the informant with photographs of the FBI building in North Miami Beach, as well as video footage of other Miami government buildings, and discussed a plot to bomb the FBI building, the indictment said.

Richard Shultz, professor of International Security at Tuft's University in Massachusetts, said that groups such as the one in Miami could pose a threat even if they do not make contact with al-Qaida.

Indeed.

Unreality pervades not just Western analyses of the jihad threat, but the Islamic world as well. "Muslims 'Still in Denial' About 9/11, Pew Survey Finds," from the New York Times, with thanks to all who sent this in:

PARIS, June 22 — Non-Muslim Westerners and Muslims around the world have widely different views of world events, and each group tends to view the other as violent, intolerant, and lacking in respect for women, a new international survey of more than 14,000 people in 13 nations indicates.

In what the survey, part of the Pew Global Attitudes Project for 2006, called one of its most striking findings, majorities in Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan and Turkey — Muslim countries with fairly strong ties to America — said, for example, that they did not believe that Arabs carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. The findings, illustrating the chasm in beliefs, follow another year of violence and tension centered around that divide. In the past 12 months, there have been terrorist bombings in London, riots in France by unemployed youths, many of them Muslim, a global uproar over Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, and no letup to the war in Iraq....

Over all, Muslims in the survey worldwide, including the large Islamic populations in Britain, France, Germany and Spain, broadly blamed the West, while Westerners tended to blame Muslims for the bad relations. Muslims in the Middle East and Asia depicted Westerners as immoral and selfish, while Westerners saw Muslims as fanatical.

The results were not uniform, however, and delivered some surprises: Support for terrorism declined in some Muslim countries surveyed, dropping dramatically in Jordan, where terrorist bombings killed more than 50 people in Amman in November.

Two-thirds of the French people surveyed expressed positive views of Muslims, and even larger majorities of French Muslims felt favorable toward Christians and Jews. Muslims in Europe surveyed were less inclined to see a "clash of civilizations" than general publics in Europe and Muslims elsewhere.

Pew found sharp divergences on respect toward women: Non-Muslims in the West view Muslims as lacking respect, the survey indicated, while Muslims outside Europe say the same of Westerners....

Majorities in the Muslim world, Pew said, also expressed the opinion that the victory of the militant group, Hamas, in Palestinian elections in January would "be helpful to a fair settlement between Israel and the Palestinians — a view that is roundly rejected by non-Muslim publics."

Disbelief was strong among Muslims that Arabs were behind the Sept. 11 attacks, with 65 percent in Indonesia and 59 percent in Turkey, for example, expressing that viewpoint. Even in Britain, 56 percent of the Muslims surveyed did not believe that Arabs carried out the attacks. The results, Mr. Kohut said, show that "many Muslims are still in denial" about something that even Osama bin Laden has acknowledged.

Or is he just trying to get out of Guantanamo? "Hicks sheds his Islamic beliefs," from Reuters, with thanks to all who sent this in:

AUSTRALIA'S Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks is no longer a Muslim.

Hick was also publicly denounced by an al-Qaeda member at Guantanamo Bay for his lack of religious observance, a former British detainee has said.

Rumours that Hicks had abandoned his Islamic beliefs were confirmed by British Muslim Moazzam Begg.

Mr Begg shared a cell block with Hicks at the US military base in Cuba in 2004.

Mr Begg, who was released in January last year after the British government intervened, wrote about his experiences in a new book, Enemy Combatant: A British Muslim's Journey to Guantanamo and Back.

Mr Begg wrote that Uthman al-Harbi complained that Dawood, the name is Arabic for David, which Hicks adopted after converting to Islam in 1999, had not fasted during Ramadan.

He also wrote that Hicks had not prayed with others or undertaken his "duties".

"I wouldn't describe him as a dedicated Muslim," Mr Begg said to The Age.

"I don't think he was before and he certainly isn't now."

In a post entitled "'Islamophobia' and Islamic radicalism" at her website, Cathy Young has responded to my reply to her attack on Jihad Watch in Reason magazine.

By the way, Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch has replied to my columns and has also challenged me to a debate, in which I have no intention of engaging. I will, however, reply to two points.

On the subject of Fallaci's failure to distinguish between Islamic terroists [sic] and " Somali vendors of fake designer bags who urinate on the street corners of Italy's great cities," Spencer has this to say:

There are several problems with this. One is that the Somali vendors and other Muslims in the West have not made any serious attempt to root jihad terrorists out of their ranks. Another is that such people as Young's Somali vendor do exist, and while they are not members of terrorist groups, they are manifesting disrespect for the country and culture to which they have come. Is Fallaci wrong to be indignant about that? Such disrespect, of course, stems from the same sources as jihadism: contempt for the infidel and for jahili society, the non-Islamic society of ignorance and impurity. Thus one feeds into the other.

Point one: If Spencer or Fallaci know of any instances of terrorists in the ranks of Somali street vendors, let's have them.

That was not my point, of course. But it's an interesting response from Young. Does Cathy Young not know that jihadists have emerged from the ranks of ordinary, peaceful, law-abiding Muslims in Western countries? Raed Hijazi was a cab driver in Boston. Maher Hawash was a highly respected Intel executive. Sami Al-Arian was a college professor. Does she really think it inconceivable that a Somali street vendor could become a terrorist? On what grounds?

Point two -- public urination as a mini-jihad -- doesn't really merit an answer, but I'll answer anyway. Apparently, in the world according to Spencer and Fallaci, peeing on street corners and in other public places is a behavior peculiar to Muslim immigrants. (Has either of them ever been to New York?) As it happens, I have travelled in Italy a lot and have seen a lot of the Somali street vendors. On two occasions, I have seen men urinating in the street. Neither of them was a Somali or a Muslim.

Here Young veers sharply toward the ridiculous. Does the existence of public urination among non-Muslims somehow mean that public urination by Muslims is not ever and cannot be an expression of contempt for infidel society? Even when that urination targets landmarks of that society, as Fallaci has documented?

Spencer also challenges my assertion that "Christian doctrine for centuries mandated Christian rule by force," and writes:

She should produce such a doctrine, but she can't, because it doesn't exist.

Oh yeah? Well, how about the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), which codified the idea of heresy as a high crime? See, also, this article in First Things in which conservative Catholic Michael Novak discusses Thomas Aquinas' view of heresy as a capital crime. (Aquinas recommends toleration for the religious practices of Muslims and Jews, but so does Islam with regard to Jews and Christians.) Novak quotes historian David Abulafia on the religious codes of the time:

Heresy, indeed, is presented as treason. Those who deny the articles of the Catholic faith implicitly deny the claims of rulers to derive their authority from God. They are enemies not merely of God and of the souls of individuals, but of the social fabric. Their questioning of religious truth involves a questioning of the monarch's command over the law; as enemies of the law, they are its legitimate targets, and the position of primacy accorded to legislation against heretics is thus entirely proper.

Sounds a lot like "Christian rule by force" to me.

Here Young is confusing two possible meanings of "rule by force." I was referring to the imperialist Islamic jihad doctrine, which mandates that Muslims must extend the rule of the Islamic social order by force; Christianity has no such imperialistic doctrine, and never has. The punishment of heretics by the Christian state, which is not a constant of Christian history or theology the way jihad supremacism is a constant of Islamic history and theology, is an internal, not an outward, imperialistic matter. Thus it is no analogy with jihad at all.

According to Spencer, I'm a "dhimmi," a term traditionally used to denote Christians and Jews who lived under Islamic rule and enjoyed certain rights but were relgated to second-class status (and nowadays used by certain "anti-jihadists" to denote any non-Muslim they regard as too soft on Islam).

Yes, that she is.

Well, considering JihadWatch.com puts Bernard Lewis, the eminent historian of Islam who warned about the danger of Islamic radicalism all the way back in 1990, in the same category, I think I'm in good company.

You'll see that to support this, Young has linked to Hugh Fitzgerald's article, "Bernard Lewis and his influence," which is mildly critical of Lewis for his inaccuracy about suicide bombing and his support of the Oslo accords. However, Hugh never calls Lewis a dhimmi -- not in this article or anywhere else. I called Cathy Young a dhimmi, in the sense of a Western analyst who uncritically accepts distortions and half-truths about Islam in a misguided attempt to appear non-bigoted and broad-minded, and who tars those in the resistance to jihad with the same empty and politically motivated charges of bigotry that the jihadists and their allies use so effectively. I stand by that. But there is no way that applies to Bernard Lewis, and we have never said so -- and Young is wrong to suggest otherwise.

Spencer wants to debate me, apparently, in order to demonstrate that he knows more about Islamic teachings and history than I do. And he probably does. However, I know bigotry when I see it, and Spencer's argument about public urination as a manifestation of the Muslim peril seals the deal as far as I'm concerned. I notice that JihadWatch.com issued no invitation to a debate to Bernard Lewis when targeting him for their smear. For Spencer vs. Lewis, I would definitely tune in.

Actually, it doesn't make the slightest difference to anything whether Young or I know more about Islamic teachings and history. She asserted in Reason magazine that I don't know anything more about Islam than she does; I don't know where she got that idea, but ultimately it's irrelevant. And that's not why I challenged her to a debate. The point of debating her would be to demonstrate certain important facts about Islam, jihad and dhimmitude. Nor would I fear to debate Bernard Lewis. I agree with him on almost everything, and he knows vastly more about Islam than I do, but the points on which we disagree -- which chiefly involve the nature and significance of dhimmitude and the Islamic foundations for suicide bombing -- I am not afraid to discuss publicly with him or anyone. I am sure of my ground.

So I won't be debating Spencer on his site, though I have to say I was highly amused by one of his commenters who suggested that my deplorable views on "Islamophobia" are due to the fact that (1) I'm a non-Jew (which would come as a big surprise to my Israeli relatives -- and, by the way, isn't this argument merely a reversal of the idea that Jewish commentators can't be fair when writing about Islam or the Middle East?), and (2) I'm a woman, and a lot of women secretly yearn for male power, and hence I am probably drawn to the male dominance represented by Islam. (Which is so true.)

I'm not going to respond to what she says about commenters here. Comments are unmoderated. As I said in my initial response to her, let her establish that I believe what the comments said from my own writings. But of course, that she cannot do.

She concludes with this little calumny:

...honesty about the harsher and darker aspects of Islam and Islamic history is not the same as tarring all of Islam with the same brush and denying that the moderate strands even exist.

Yesterday I wrote to her, saying, "I've never done that. You are speaking without knowledge." She replied: "Mr. Spencer: Show me any evidence to the contrary on your site and I will link to it." So I sent her this recent link -- but she has not yet posted it at her site as promised.

Of course, anyone who actually reads this site knows that I have discussed (and Hugh Fitzgerald has as well) the issue of moderate Muslims and moderate Islam at great length, again and again. Here are just a few examples:

On assertions without evidence

What is a moderate Muslim?

Moderate Muslims, part 674

The Islamic Reformation?

Hugh Fitzgerald: Ten Things to Think When Thinking of Muslim "Moderates"

In "Loosely Interpreted Arabic Terms Can Promote Enemy Ideology" by Jim Garamone of the American Forces Press Service (thanks to all who sent this in), we hear that if we just start calling the jihadists bad guys, they will -- voila! -- become bad guys in the eyes of the Muslim world:

BAGHDAD, June 22, 2006 – The pen is mightier than the sword, and sometimes in the war of words we unwittingly give the advantage to the enemy.

In dealing with Islamic extremists, the West may be giving them the advantage due to cultural ignorance, maintain Dr. Douglas E. Streusand and Army Lt. Col. Harry D. Tunnell IV. The men work at the National Defense University at Fort Lesley J. McNair in Washington, D.C.

I am surprised to see Douglas Streusand involved in this. He is the author of this relatively realistic 1997 article on the meaning of jihad.

The two believe the right words can help fight the global war on terror. "American leaders misuse language to such a degree that they unintentionally wind up promoting the ideology of the groups the United States is fighting," the men wrote in an article titled "Choosing Words Carefully: Language to Help Fight Islamic Terrorism."

A case in point is the term "jihadist." Many leaders use the term jihadist or jihadi as a synonym for Islamic extremist. Jihad has been commonly adapted in English as meaning "holy war." But to Muslims it means much more. In their article, Steusand [sic] and Tunnell said in Arabic - the language of the Koran - jihad "literally means striving and generally occurs as part of the expression 'jihad fi sabil illah,' striving in the path of God."

This is a good thing for all Muslims. "Calling our enemies jihadis and their movement a global jihad thus indicates that we recognize their doctrines and actions as being in the path of God and, for Muslims, legitimate," they wrote. By countering jihadis, the West and moderate Muslims are enemies of true Islam.

It is a perfectly legitimate tactic of warfare to call the enemy names, to impugn his legitimacy, to support his own internal enemies. In doing this, however, the National Defense University should not let it overwhelm a sober and realistic understanding of the fact that the core Islamic texts -- the Qur'an as well as the Hadith and Sira and the principal schools of Islamic jurisprudence -- all teach violent jihad (as Streusand seemed to know in 1997). To understand this is not to give Osama legitimacy; it is simply to state a fact that must be reckoned with, for like all facts it is perilous to ignore it.

It is not the business of the NDU or any non-Muslim to say whether the jihad of Osama bin Laden is legitimate or not. But there is no doubt that many Muslims the world over believe that it is legitimate. It is not the NDU that needs to declare this illegitimate; it is the ulama of the various Muslim countries that needs to do so -- but they have not, because they know that Osama and Co. are working within the broad range of Islamic tradition. The NDU should not pretend that this is not the case, but deal with the facts as they are.

The men asked Muslim scholars what the correct term for Islamic extremists would be and they came up with "hirabah." This word specifically refers to those engaged in sinful warfare, warfare contrary to Islamic law. "We should describe the Islamic totalitarian movement as the global hirabah, not the global jihad," they wrote.

This is not a new idea. The Free Muslims and others have advocated the same thing. But again, the NDU calling it "hirabah" will do nothing to stop mujahedin from making recruits by calling it "jihad" -- and until we acknowledge that, we cannot defend ourselves adequately against it. Calling it by another name will do nothing -- unless you think that if Churchill had stopped calling Hitler's men "Nazis" and started calling them "Idiots," he would have compelled the Germans to lay down their arms.

Another word constantly misused in the West is mujahdeen [sic]. Again, in American dictionaries this word refers to a holy warrior - again a good thing. So calling an al Qaeda terrorist a mujahid legitimizes him.

The correct term for these killers is "mufsidun," Streusand and Tunnell say. This refers to an evil or corrupt person. "There is no moral ambiguity and the specific denotation of corruption carries enormous weight in most of the Islamic world," they wrote....

Sure -- and again, as a propaganda effort, this is fine. But if non-Muslims in the West are reinforced in their assumption that most Muslims actually think of today's mujahedin as mufsidun, this would be false and self-defeating.

The men also want officials to stop using the term "caliphate" as the goal of al Qaeda and associated groups. The Caliphate came to refer to the successors of the Prophet Mohammed as the political leaders of the Muslim community. "Sunni Muslims traditionally regard the era of the first four caliphs (A.D. 632-661) as an era of just rule," the men wrote. "Accepting our enemies' description of their goal as the restoration of a historical caliphate again validates an aspect of their ideology."

But they do want to restore the historical caliphate. Their idea of "just rule" and that of the NDU differs considerably, I'm sure -- and I suspect that the NDU is overestimating the difference between the jihadists' caliphate and that envisioned by most Sunni Muslims. For there are historical parallels within Islamic history for all of the enormities noted here about the jihadists' caliphate:

The men point out that an al Qaeda caliphate would not mean the establishment of just rule, but rather a global totalitarian state where women would be treated as chattel, music banned and any kind of difference severely punished. "Anyone who needs a preview of how such a state would act merely has to review the conduct of the Taliban in Afghanistan before Sept. 11, 2001," they wrote.

The correct term for the al Qaeda goal is global totalitarian state - something no one in the world wants.

Finally, the men urge Westerners to translate Allah into God. Using Allah to refer to God would be like using Jehovah to refer to a Hebrew God. In fact, Muslims, Christians and Jews all worship the God of Abraham. Using different names exaggerates the divisions among the religions, the authors say.

Most Westerners do translate Allah into God. And Arabic speaking Jews and Christians use the word. Nevertheless, there are serious differences between the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim views of God -- serious enough to warrant keeping a distinction between them. This is especially true in light of the fact that the Islamic claim to be an Abrahamic faith is a supremacist claim which denies all legitimacy to Judaism and Christianity as they exist today.

In any case, as shallow and flawed as it is, the effort by Streusand and Tunnell is influential:

The men have launched an education effort. "Our work is an attempt to educate the interagency community about the challenges of communication with Islamic audiences," they wrote in answer to written questions. "Our particular effort is in its infancy, but is showing some level of success."

Scholars at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College use the essay in class, and the Marines are using an earlier version of the essay as part of their lessons-learned Web site. The final version of the essay is on the National Defense University's Center for Strategic Communications Web site.

Miami/Chicago Jihad Update: "FBI arrests seven in suspected terrorism plot," from Reuters:

MIAMI (Reuters) - U.S. anti-terrorism agents arrested seven people suspected of planning attacks on federal offices in Miami and the landmark Sears Tower in Chicago, a law enforcement source said on Thursday.

The source, elaborating on a brief statement on the operation from Florida authorities, said the suspects had thought they were dealing with the international al Qaeda group but had been infiltrated by a U.S. government informant....

"In the past couple of days, the U.S. government has taken into custody seven people who were conspiring to conduct jihad (holy war) in the United States," the law enforcement source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"They thought they were dealing with al Qaeda," the source said, adding the suspects had been trying to buy weapons and other things needed to carry out attacks.

The source said the government had an informant with whom the suspected conspirators had discussed their plans.

"There was no immediate threat because we were in on the discussions." the source said.

A man identified as a member of the "Seas of David" religious group later told CNN in Miami that five of his fellow members were among those arrested and that they had no connection to terrorists.

We are not terrorists. We are members of David, Seas of David," said the man, identified as Brother Corey. He said the group had "soldiers" in Chicago, but reiterated it was peaceful movement.

Of course, Ahmadinejad could do his part to stop the "defamation" of Islam by stopping his genocidal saber-rattling against Israel and his "Iran calls for UN action to stop ‘defamation’ of Islam," and his avowals that Islam will dominate the world.

Here is another attempt to compel non-Muslim states to adopt Islamic laws regarding blasphemy, in the name of respect for religious sensibilities. From Reuters, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

GENEVA — Iran backed efforts by Islamic states yesterday to get the United Nations new Human Rights Council to counter what they call “defamation of religion” around the world.

But Canada accused the Iranians of discrediting the Council by including in their delegation the state Prosecutor-General who Ottawa says was linked to the arrest and death in Teheran of a Canadian woman journalist.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told the 45-member Council, holding its first-ever session, that freedom of expression “should not constitute a pretext and a platform to insult religions and their sanctities.

“Defamation of religions, particularly the divine message of Islam, should be rejected,” he declared. Action on this should be part of the rights standards set by the Council and pursued through “implementation at the international level.” His remarks echoed a call from the Organisation of Islamic States (OIC) and assertions by Saudi Arabia that Islam faced “an escalation of hatred and animosity ... disdain for its values and everything it holds sacred.”

Although some diplomats say the drive reflects Muslim anger over cartoons published in the West last year depicting the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), others see it as part of a longer-term effort to counter criticism of the rights records of many OIC states.

Members of the grouping, including Saudi Arabia and Iran, were often accused at the Council’s predecessor, the Human Rights Commission, of violating the rights of women and national and religious minorities.

In his speech, Iran’s Mottaki accused Western countries of trying to impose “uniculturalism” on the UN system to ensure their own values set the model for all human rights standards....

In his speech, the President of the newly created Saudi Human Rights Commission said his country “in keeping with Islamic tradition ... accords special attention to the issue of religious tolerance” and respect for different cultures.

The Saudi Human Rights Commission. Sort of like the Tropical Snow Removal Unit.

Although there were ongoing efforts in the West to link it with terrorism, he declared, “Islam is a moderate religion that advocates mutual tolerance, empathy and coexistence and rejects fanaticism, obscurantism and coercion.”

Yes, and that somehow has millions of adherents who do not seem to understand that at all.

1938 Alert from AP:

GENEVA - Iran will not respond to incentives to halt its nuclear program before mid-July, at least two weeks past the date sought by the U.S. and its partners, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Thursday after meeting Iran's foreign minister.

"I don't think they will give an answer before the G-8 meeting in St. Petersburg," Annan told reporters after a meeting with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. The Russian meeting of the world's eight industrialized democracies is to run July 15-17.

"I expect their answer to come after that meeting, but I can't tell you specifically on what date," Annan said.

The U.S. has said that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and diplomats from the other five nations offering Iran the incentives agreed by phone that they expect an answer around the time of a meeting of G-8 foreign ministers on June 29 in Moscow.

The United States reiterated that Iran should respond by next week.

The Bush administration is reluctant to set a specific deadline, but U.S. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said that it would be "helpful and useful if we could get a response and know where the Iranians are" before the June 29 meeting.

1938 Alert from AFP, with thanks to JE:

WASHINGTON, June 22, 2006 (AFP) - The United States accused Iran Thursday of being a major destabilizing force in Iraq, accusing Tehran of training and arming insurgent groups and using "surrogates" to carry out terrorist strikes.

"It's decidedy unhelpful," the top US commander in Iraq, General George Casey, told reporters at a Pentagon news conference with US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Casey said that he had no evidence of Iranians actually in Iraq directing attacks against Iraqis or US forces, but said that he assumed elements in Tehran were guiding the process.

"We are quite confident that the Iranians, through their covert special operations forces, are providing weapons, IED technology and training to Shi'a extremist groups in Iraq, the training being conducted in Iran and in some cases probably in Lebanon through their surrogates," he said.

"They are using surrogates to conduct terrorist operations in Iraq both against us and against the Iraqi people," he said.

Another victory. From Reuters, with thanks to JE:

The UNITED States military said today it had captured a senior al-Qaeda in Iraq member near an area where the group's leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a US air strike two weeks ago....

The military did not mention the name of the senior al-Qaeda militant but said he was known for "facilitating" foreign fighters throughout central Iraq.

Tony Blair said on July 7, 2005: ""We know that these people act in the name of Islam but we also know that the vast and overwhelming majority of Muslims both here and abroad are decent and law abiding people who abhor this kind of terrorism every bit as much as we do."

Unrequited Love Alert from The Guardian, with thanks to all who sent this in:

Public opinion in Britain is mostly favourable towards Muslims, but the feeling is not requited by British Muslims, who are among the most embittered in the western world, according to a global poll published yesterday.

The poll, by the Washington-based Pew Global Attitudes Project, asked Muslims and non-Muslims about each other in 13 countries. In most, it found suspicion and contempt to be mostly mutual, but uncovered a significant mismatch in Britain.

The poll found that 63% of all Britons had a favourable opinion of Muslims, down slightly from 67% in 2004, suggesting last year's London bombings did not trigger a significant rise in prejudice. Attitudes in Britain were more positive than in the US, Germany and Spain (where the popularity of Muslims has plummeted to 29%), and about the same as in France.

Less than a third of British non-Muslims said they viewed Muslims as violent, significantly fewer than non-Muslims in Spain (60%), Germany (52%), the US (45%) and France (41%).

By contrast, the poll found that British Muslims represented a "notable exception" in Europe, with far more negative views of westerners than Islamic minorities elsewhere on the continent. A significant majority viewed western populations as selfish, arrogant, greedy and immoral. Just over half said westerners were violent. While the overwhelming majority of European Muslims said westerners were respectful of women, fewer than half British Muslims agreed. Another startling result found that only 32% of Muslims in Britain had a favourable opinion of Jews, compared with 71% of French Muslims....

Read it all.

Miami arrests update: "Arrests in Sears Tower terror plot," from the Chicago Sun Times:

At least seven people were arrested Thursday after federal agents launched a raid in Miami on a group that allegedly plotted to attack the Sears Tower and government buildings in south Florida -- and at least one reputed cell member had visited Chicago for intelligence gathering, law enforcement sources said.

"They were trying to collect information about the Sears Tower," one source said. The Chicago Police Department was involved in the investigation through the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, the source said.

The alleged terrorist cell discussed destroying government facilities in Miami, including an FBI building, and picked the Sears Tower, the nation's tallest building, as a "high-profile target," the source said....

A federal law enforcement official told the Associated Press the alleged plotters were mainly Americans with no apparent ties to al-Qaida or other terrorist organizations. More details were to be released today....

Residents living near the warehouse said the men taken into custody described themselves as Muslims and had tried to recruit young people to join their group.

The men slept in the warehouse, said Tashawn Rose, 29. ''They would come out late at night and exercise. It seemed like a military boot camp,'' she said....

Rose said she talked to one of the men about a month ago: ''They seemed brainwashed. They said they had given their lives to Allah.''...

While the federal law enforcement official said there were no obvious links to al-Qaida, MSNBC and CNN were reporting those being held were "radical black Muslims," and that one suspect had pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden.

However, an AP story suggests that they are not orthodox Muslims, unless this is just an attempt at deception:

Residents living near the warehouse said the men taken into custody described themselves as Muslims and had tried to recruit young people to join their group. Rose said they tried to recruit her younger brother and nephew for a karate class.

She said she talked to one of the men about a month ago. "They seemed brainwashed," she said. "They said they had given their lives to Allah."

Residents said FBI agents spent several hours in the neighborhood showing photos of the suspects and seeking information. They said the men had lived in the area for about a year.

Benjamin Williams, 17, said the group sometimes had young children with them. At times, he added, the men "would cover their faces. Sometimes they would wear things on their heads, like turbans."

A man who called himself Brother Corey and claimed to be a member of the group told CNN late Thursday that the individuals worship at the building and call themselves the "Seas of David."

He dismissed any suggestion that the men were contemplating violence. "We are peaceful," he said. He added that the group studies the Bible and has "soldiers" in Chicago but is not a terrorist organization.

Philippine Jihad Update from the BBC, with thanks to JE:

At least five people have died and 10 others have been injured in an explosion on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao.

The blast happened in a busy market in the town of Shariff Aguad, police said.

No one has claimed responsibility, but police said Andal Ampatuan, the governor of Maguindanao province, appeared to be the main target.

Mr Ampatuan, an ally of President Gloria Arroyo, was driving past the market at the time the bomb went off.

Four of those killed, including bodyguards and a former town mayor, were in the convoy. Police and army officials say the homemade bomb was hidden in a van and detonated as the motorcade went by.

Troubled island

Mr Ampatuan, who has survived several previous assassination attempts, wields a great deal of power on Mindanao, an island rife with Muslim and Communist rebels, as well as local warlords.

Mindanao is the heartland of the Philippines' small Muslim minority, but the majority of the country is Roman Catholic.

The country's largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), denied it was responsible for the attack. The group is now in peace talks with the government.

The military said there were indications the bombing was carried out by Jemaah Islamiah, a regional network of Muslim militants allegedly linked to al-Qaeda.

Tiny Minority of Extremists Update: "South militants number 3,000," from Thailand's The Nation, with thanks to Nicolei:

There are as many as 3,000 militants supporting the violence in the restive South, Ninth Police Region Commander Adul Saengsingkeow said yesterday.

The militants are divided into 500 groups with five or six members in each group spread throughout about 500 villages in Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, he said.

Adul said the militants were behind 63 explosions between June 15 and 16 across 31 districts of the South , which claimed three lives and injured nearly 30 people.

Adul outlined the structure of the organisation, but did not name it. According to Adul's reports the organisation is made up of five divisions: the Ulama, Political, Economic, RKK and Permuda units.

Adul said the Ulama unit's function is to indoctrinate and recruit youngsters.

Jihad In America Update: "Terror Suspects Arrested In Miami Housing Project," from AP, with thanks to SC:

(AP) MIAMI After an operation that started about four months ago, the FBI has arrested several suspects of domestic terrorism in a Miami low-income housing project.

The arrests took place Thursday afternoon at the Scott Housing Projects in the area of NW 68th street and 15th Avenue. Miami Police officers were seen in the area securing a perimeter for the FBI to carry out their arrests.

Sources tell CBS4 News it is unclear whether weapons or bomb-making materials were found, but those detained are suspected of being involved in planning terrorist activity.

Neighbors say suspicious activity had been observed at the home recently....

A U.S. counterterrorism official said 17 suspects in Canada are an example of a type of group that authorities have been concerned about for some time: self-organized, ad hoc cells of homegrown extremists, a development first seen in Britain....

Canadian police say there is no evidence the suspect group had ties to al Qaeda, but describe its members as being sympathetic to jihadist ideology.

"Ridge: Terror war likely to last decades," from AP:

PITTSBURGH - Former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge, speaking at the opening of a new RAND Corp. office, said the war on terror is likely to last for decades, much like the Cold War.

"For every (Osama) bin Laden, there's a bin Laden wannabe. And for every al-Qaida, there's a like organization," Ridge said Wednesday in Pittsburgh.

And why is that, exactly? Perhaps because their ideology continues to be spread and perpetuated within Islamic communities? Oh, we can't talk about that, now, can we?

Drawing this lesson from the Gaza withdrawal: terror pays. From Palestinian Media Watch:

A Hamas video just released on their web site focuses on the broader Palestinian Islamic ideology, promising the eventual conquering and subjugation of Christian countries under Islam. The way Israel "ran" from Gaza after terror is presented as the prototype for future Israeli and Western behavior in the face of Islamic force.

The video is a collection of statements by Hamas terrorist leader, Yasser Ghalban, killed last week by Palestinians, in the ongoing internal fighting.

To view this video, anticipating Islam's conquering of US and Britain, click here.

The following is the transcript of selections from the Hamas video:

"We will rule the nations, by Allah's will, the USA will be conquered, Israel will be conquered, Rome and Britain will be conquered… The Jihad for Allah... is the way of Truth and the way for Salvation and the way which will lead us to crush the Jews and expel them from our country Palestine. Just as the Jews ran from Gaza, the Americans will run from Iraq and Afghanistan and the Russians will run from Chechnya, and the Indian will run from Kashmir, and our children will be released from Guantanamo. The prisoners will be released by Allah's will, not by peaceful means and not by agreements, but they will be released by the sword, they will be released by the gun".

"The idea that, as my colleagues have repeatedly said in this debate on the other side of the aisle, that there are no weapons of mass destruction, is in fact false." But don't expect them to admit it. From FoxNews, with thanks to Arjun:

WASHINGTON — The United States has found 500 chemical weapons in Iraq since 2003, and more weapons of mass destruction are likely to be uncovered, two Republican lawmakers said Wednesday.

"We have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, chemical weapons," Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said in a quickly called press conference late Wednesday afternoon.

Reading from a declassified portion of a report by the National Ground Intelligence Center, a Defense Department intelligence unit, Santorum said: "Since 2003, coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent. Despite many efforts to locate and destroy Iraq's pre-Gulf War chemical munitions, filled and unfilled pre-Gulf War chemical munitions are assessed to still exist."...

"This says weapons have been discovered, more weapons exist and they state that Iraq was not a WMD-free zone, that there are continuing threats from the materials that are or may still be in Iraq," said Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

The weapons are thought to be manufactured before 1991 so they would not be proof of an ongoing WMD program in the 1990s. But they do show that Saddam Hussein was lying when he said all weapons had been destroyed, and it shows that years of on-again, off-again weapons inspections did not uncover these munitions....

Santorum pointed out that during Wednesday's debate, several Senate Democrats said that no weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq, a claim, he said, that the declassified document proves is untrue.

"This is an incredibly — in my mind — significant finding. The idea that, as my colleagues have repeatedly said in this debate on the other side of the aisle, that there are no weapons of mass destruction, is in fact false," he said.

American troops shot by Iraqi civil defense officers. Clearly they delayed on this because it lays bare so many of their false assumptions -- chiefly about their ability to distinguish democracy-minded freedom-loving Iraqis from jihadists. From AP:

The Pentagon waited nine months after completing an investigation into the deaths of two U.S. soldiers before notifying relatives the men were killed by Iraqi troops, the military acknowledged Wednesday.

The June 2004 deaths of Army Spc. Patrick R. McCaffrey Sr., 34, of Tracy, and 2nd Lt. Andre D. Tyson, 33, of Riverside, were originally attributed to an ambush during a patrol near Balad, Iraq. The Army said this week a military investigation found the two had been shot by Iraqi civil defense officers. No possible motive has been divulged.

Interesting findings reported in the Jerusalem Post:

LONDON - Islam is incompatible with modern Western society, according to a majority of those responding to a recent Dutch survey. Most of the people polled expressed a negative view of Islam and Muslims.

The survey was released the same week that a Dutch Justice Ministry report said radical Islam had made significant inroads among the country's immigrants, posing a threat to the nation's security.

Known for its laissez-faire social attitudes, the sharp turn in public opinion against Islam in the Netherlands has sparked a debate that has prompted criticism of Queen Beatrix and the government for allegedly abandoning Western values in the face of Muslim pressure.

The poll conducted by Dutch research firm Motivaction for the GPD newspaper chain on June 2 found that 63 percent of those surveyed believed Islam was incompatible with modern European life.

More than a quarter of respondents said Muslim immigrants were rude, lazy, intolerant and prone to criminal behavior. They said the increase in Muslim immigration has had a negative effect on civic and social life, with almost 80 percent saying relations between Muslims and non-Muslims had become strained.

Government-backed initiatives to acculturate Muslim immigrants had failed, respondents said, as most believed that many immigrants had walled themselves off from Western society in an attempt to create outposts of their home cultures on Dutch soil.

British/Canadian Jihad. From the TimesOnline, with thanks to Granny Weatherwax:

AL-QAEDA terrorists considered using bombs and stun guns disguised as cameras and flash attachments to hijack an aircraft from Heathrow and crash it into the Canada Tower at Canary Wharf in East London, according to a report from the US Department of Homeland Security.

The plot to strike London, and other world targets, is said to have been thwarted in the summer of 2003. This was shortly after Tony Blair was widely ridiculed for ordering extra security, including armoured cars, to Heathrow.

The plan to fly into the Canary Wharf Tower was uncovered in 2004, when computer files belonging to a key lieutenant of Osama bin Laden were seized in Lahore, Pakistan. Among the encrypted messages — all written in perfect English — were layouts of Heathrow and details of Canary Wharf, including the heights of tower blocks in the Docklands financial district.

The American report, obtained by ABC News yesterday, provides a further glimpse into what it describes as the “ingenuity” of al-Qaeda in attempting to convert camera equipment and other non-threatening items into deadly weapons that could be smuggled on to an aircraft. Such items could be used to “gain access to an airliner flight deck”....

In total, intelligence chiefs had learnt of nine schemes to hijack aircraft since the September 11, 2001, attacks on America. This, says the US Homeland Security Department, demonstrates “a continued commitment to attack aviation-related targets”.

Anti-dhimmitude in Brussels. "Islamic centre staff jailed for inciting race hatred," from Expatica, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

BRUSSELS — Brussels Court sentenced on Wednesday two workers of the Belgian Islamic Centre to 10 months jail, five of which were suspended, for inciting race hatred against Jews via the centre's website.

The 26-year-old Abdel Rahman Ayachi and the 30-year-old Raphaël Gendron are both responsible for administering the centre's website.

Besides the jail terms, they were each ordered to pay a fine of EUR 15,000 and deposit EUR 2,500 into the account of the Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism.

The anti-racism bureau had lodged a complaint against the Islamic centre and the monetary sentence is designed to compensate the Jewish community for the damage and insulting remarks made by Sébastien Courtoy, the lawyer for the defence.

Some 20 other people — who are members of a social dialogue collective — will each be paid the symbolic compensation of EUR 1.

The two defendants were convicted of denying the Holocaust, minimalising the extent of Nazi crimes and inciting race hatred, especially against Jews, via a video report and prosecutable statements.

"He preaches violent jihad, you know." "So what? He takes out the trash!" In FrontPage today I discuss an important but unexamined aspect of the Canadian jihad arrests (news links in the original):

We have heard many times that the vast majority of Muslims in the West are decent, law-abiding citizens who do not engage in jihad terrorism. That is manifestly true: most Muslims in the West are not engaging in terrorist activity. Many no doubt have no intention of ever doing so. But the recent arrests in Canada have raised questions about to what extent Muslims in Canada and other Western countries who are not engaging in terrorist plotting actually disapprove of such plotting – and how many passively allow it to continue under their noses either out of fear or because the ideological kinship between them and the plotters is closer than most Western authorities would like to believe.

In a meeting with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police just after the arrests, one Canadian Muslim leader asked Canadian officials why they hadn’t informed Muslim leaders about the plot, so that those leaders could have stopped it.

But there is mounting evidence that many Canadian Muslims did know – and yet did nothing to notify Canadian authorities of the plot. The Toronto Star reports that another suspect, Qayyum Abdul Jamal, actively spread the jihad ideology at the Ar-Rahman Islamic Center for Islamic Education in southern Ontario. Indeed, his “outspoken Wahhabist views” had “alarmed” some of the directors of the Islamic center. But by the account of mosque officials, because Jamal unlocked the mosque for daily prayers and they valued his services as a caretaker, they did nothing to stop his preaching. The Washington Post reports unironically: “He cleaned the rugs and took out the trash at the mosque. For those services, the directors tolerated his vitriolic speeches that portrayed Muslims as oppressed by the West, according to people familiar with the mosque.” No mainstream media outlet seems to have asked Ar-Rahman Islamic Center officials why they thought taking out the trash was a sufficient counterbalance to preaching hatred and violence. Sidestepping the fact that Jamal had been allowed to preach freely, Center Imam Qamrul Khanson said of those arrested: “I will say that they were steadfast, religious people. There’s no doubt about it. But here we always preach peace and moderation.”

Of course, they don't endeavor to dispel "Islamophobia" by doing any ignificant organized work among Muslims to curb the influence of the jihad ideology that gives rise to violence done in the name of Islam. "Media Campaign in US to Dispel Islamophobia," from Arab News, with thanks to LGF:

RIYADH, 21 June 2006 — A survey conducted by Cornell University recently found that around half of Americans have a negative view of Islam and would like the US government to curtail the political activity of Muslims in the US.

Addressing a press conference at the headquarters of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), Paul Findley, a former US Congressman, said that the cancer of anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic sentiments was spreading in American society and requires corrective measures to stamp out this malaise.

It was also announced that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) would be launching a massive $50 million media campaign involving television, radio and newspapers as part of its five-year program to create a better understanding of Islam and Muslims in the US.

Referring to the anti-Islamic sentiments in the US, Findley said that the campaign was being spearheaded by a tiny but influential section of society, including some politicians, academics and opinion-makers.

Findley commended CAIR’s initiative that he said could go a long way toward improving the image of Islam and Muslims, which has been badly dented in part due to the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

Hooper (not Cooper) is happy with how the media has been so compliant:

Speaking on his interaction with the US media, Ibrahim Cooper, spokesman for CAIR, said that his own feeling was that American journalists are receptive to issues affecting Muslims. For this reason, nearly all American newspapers, print or online, refrained from reproducing the caricature of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) that were at the center of a controversy earlier this year. He said CAIR took advantage of the issue by distributing DVDs free of charge, bringing out a book on the Prophet, and launching an awareness campaign.

“All of this had a positive impact,” said Cooper.

But all is still not well:

Parvez Ahmed, CAIR chairman, spoke on what he described as the most “vicious attacks on Islam” he has ever seen in recent years, adding that the campaign is being orchestrated by a minority fringe element in the US seeking to drive a xenophobic wedge between Muslims and non-Muslims.

Orchestrated. He has fifty million dollars, I have a weblog, and he's worried about orchestrated attacks. Of course, I shouldn't assume that he has me in mind at all, since I don't engage in "vicious attacks on Islam." I merely report on what Muslims do and say, and what the Islamic texts say. If that is a "vicious attack," it is because of those things, not because of me.

He said a minority of Muslim extremists helps perpetuate anti-Muslim sentiment in the US, but that it is wrong for Americans to rush to conclusions based on these groups that have distorted or misinterpreted Qur’anic text. He compared it to making judgments on Christians based on the Crusades.

About whether those groups have really distorted or misinterpreted the Qur'an, and why it matters, and about the Crusades as well, see here.

Elaborating on the CAIR campaign to dispel misunderstandings of Islam and Muslims, Nihad Awad, CAIR executive director, said that his group proposes to spend $10 million annually for five years in a media campaign. He said that CAIR would also recruit volunteers and produce educational material as part of its initiative.

“We are planning to meet Prince Alwaleed ibn Talal for his financial support to our project. He has been generous in the past,” he added.

You will recall that he is the man who had his money returned, for good reason, by Rudolph Giuliani after 9/11.

And as for WAMY, LGF ran this story in 2003 about their jihad camps in Ontario.

Some important observations from Uzi Rubin at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (thanks to US Infidel):

* The Iranians know they cannot win a war against the United States. Their stated policy is to deter the U.S. and its allies by threatening a war that will cause such damage at such a price that this option will become unacceptable. With this perspective, they are investing very smartly in deterrence enhancers and force multipliers instead of replacing obsolete equipment.

* What does Iran invest in? Precision strike munitions, anti-ship missiles, nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, and space capabilities. The newer Shahab 3ER missile (based on the North Korean No Dong), with a reach of 2,000 km, can threaten Ankara or Alexandria, giving Iran leverage over the entire Middle East.

* Iran has acquired eighteen BM25 land-mobile missiles with launchers from North Korea, which can strike targets in Europe. In the past, the BM25 has been produced in two models: one with a range of 2,500 km and the second with a range of 3,500 km.

* Well-substantiated reports indicate that the Iranians managed to smuggle out of Ukraine several Russian Kh 55 strategic cruise missiles, probably not to be deployed but to be emulated and copied.

* In 1998 Iran announced a space program. A space launcher that can orbit a satellite weighing 300 kg can be altered into an ICBM that could drop more than 300 kg on Washington.

* Iran's political leadership is now aiming toward global power projection in the name of Islam, demanding recognition that Islam comprises 25 percent of humanity and should occupy its rightful place in decision-making in world affairs. Statements like this are not about self-defense.

Read it all.

Once again we see the religious appeal that jihadists make, and the supine response of self-professed moderate leaders. "Jihadist video aimed at Muslim youth," from CBC News, with thanks to BL:

CBC News has obtained a copy of the video allegedly handed out by one of the Toronto bomb-plot suspects in the parking lot of a local mosque.

Muhammad Robert Heft, a Canadian convert to Islam, said he was given a copy of the video by Fahim Ahmed, one of 17 people arrested on June 2.

The video offers a chilling glimpse inside the jihadist mind and is intended as a wake-up call to Muslim youth in Canada.

"Those who believe do battle for the cause of Allah," says the voice on the tape, "and those who disbelieve do battle for the cause of taghout, evil."

The Sept. 11 attacks are a central theme in the video, appearing again and again, not as a nightmare but as an inspiration. "America was struck within its homeland … and the youths of Islam invaded it on that great day. So the whole world was totally changed as a result of this blessed invasion."

That message was handed out in the parking lot of the Salaheddin mosque in suburban Toronto, allegedly distributed by Ahmed. The video is subtitled so that Muslim youth who grew up speaking English, not Arabic, could understand the narrator.

The star of the video is Osama bin Laden, who is seen urging Muslims to kill infidels. "Therefore each individual from amongst the Muslims should come forth to kill the Jews and Americans," bin Laden says, "for killing them is foremost of obligations and the greatest form of worship."

The 36-minute tape lists famous suicide bombers as martyrs and urges Muslims to attack the West: "In this stage you have to hit then run away and hide. You should hit on their weak points."

Returning to Sept. 11, the tape portrays the attacks as a triumph for Islam, calling them "operations that were successful in all measures."

That is followed by a desert rider, superimposed on the scene, who turns out to be bin Laden.

Heft's allegation that he obtained the video from Ahmed fits with a synopsis of the prosecution's case obtained by CBC News. The synopsis also alleges that Ahmed handed out copies of a video glorifying jihad.

Aly Hindy, the imam of the Salaheddin mosque, says he knew nothing of the matter, adding that he has no control over what people hand out in the parking lot.

Sure. He has no responsibility. What a surprise. If this were a sane world, reporters and law enforcement officials would be asking him searching questions about what exactly he is doing to combat the ideology presented on the videotape.

An update to this story from CNN, with thanks to Mackie:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A group linked to al Qaeda in Iraq claims it has killed four Russian diplomats, according to a statement posted on a Web site on Wednesday.

The hostages were killed, the statement said, after Moscow did not meet demands to withdraw troops from Chechnya and "release all our brothers and sisters" from prison within 48 hours.

The Russian Foreign Ministry, however, assumes the diplomats are still alive, according to a report from the Russian news agency Interfax.

The Mujahedeen Shura Council said in a Monday statement it was holding four diplomats hostage.

But, the Wednesday posting said, "this government didn't care about the diplomats and didn't give their lives any value."

Instead, it said, the government merely asked for the release of the hostages "while continuing their fight against Islam and its people."

The Shura Council decided to kill the hostages, the statement said, adding that blood was on the Russian government's hands "and there will be an example for others after them."

D.C. Watson unmasks some less-than-upfront statements from recent news:

Recently, Sheik Hamza Yusuf, a Muslim cleric in the United States, was part of a speaking engagement at a University of Houston event. In what should come as no surprise, he seems to have been less than forthright about the violence in the Qur'an, cloaking its actual words in a nice, neat package of tolerance and moderate Islam.

From the New York Times story about him and other "moderate Muslims":

Mr. Yusuf told the audience in Houston to beware of "fanatics" who pluck Islamic scripture out of context and say, "We're going to tell you what God says on every single issue." "That's not Islam," Mr. Yusuf said. "That's psychopathy."

He asked the audience to pray for the victims of kidnappers in Iraq, saying that kidnapping is just as bad as American bombings in which the military dismisses the civilians killed as "collateral damage."

"They're both sinister, as far as I'm concerned," he said. "One is efficient, the other is pathetic."...

Perhaps Mr. Yusuf should come clean and admit that what is truly pathetic is the fact that these “brave mujahadeen” find it acceptable to hide behind innocent women and children. And about that worn out excuse that the Qur’an is being taken “out of context”….

The passages in the Qur’an that call Muslims to violence are obviously and certainly understandable, even for the simplest of people. There is nothing being taken out of context in this scripture. Exactly how “out of context” can any of the following phrases be taken?

“Slay the idolaters” Qur’an 9:5

“The spoils of war belong to Allah and his messenger” Qur’an 8:1

“I will cast terror into the hearts of the unbelievers” Qur’an 8:12

“You will soon be invited to fight against a nation of mighty prowess. Fight them until they submit” Qur’an 48:16

“Strike off their heads” Qur’an 8:12

“Besiege them” Qur’an 9:5

“Strike off every fingertip of them” Qur’an 8:12

“Fight with them until there is no more persecution and religion should be only for Allah” Qur’an 8:39

“Fight those who do not believe in Allah” Qur’an 9:29

“Urge the believers to war” Qur’an 8:65

“Until they pay the tax, acknowledge superiority, and are in a state of subjection” Qur’an 9.29

“Permission to fight is given to those upon whom war is made because they are oppressed” Qur’an 22:39

“Take then captives” Qur’an 9:5

“So when you battle the unbelievers, then smite their necks until you have overcome them, and then make them prisoners” Qur’an 47:4

“Fighting is enjoined on you, and it is an object of dislike to you; and it may be that you dislike a thing while it is good for you” Qur’an 22:16

“The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and his messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is that they should be killed or crucified, or their hands and feet should be cut off on opposite sides, or they should be imprisoned” Qur’an 5:33

“Lie in wait for them in every ambush” Qur’an 9:5

These are but a few samples of “peace and tolerance” that can be found in not one, not two, but in over 160 verses spread throughout the pages of the “Noble” Qur’an.

Of course, Bush didn't answer the Thug-In-Chief's letter. Iranian Appeasement Update: "Bush accuses Iran of dragging its feet," from AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

VIENNA, Austria - President Bush on Wednesday accused Iran of dragging its feet on a Western incentive package aimed at getting Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment activity. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said earlier in the day that his country will respond by mid-August to the proposals presented to Tehran in early June by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

If Iran accepts the offer, it has to suspend its uranium enrichment — a process that can produce material for nuclear generators or bombs.

"We'll come to the table when they verifiably suspend. Period," Bush said at an annual U.S.-European Union summit here.

He said that the mid-August timetable "seems like an awfully long time" to wait for an answer. "It shouldn't take the Iranians that long to analyze what's a reasonable deal," Bush said.

Islamic law allows those holding non-Muslim prisoners to kill, ransom, enslave or release them, depending on what they judge to be best for Islam. From The Australian, with thanks to Rosie:

A GROUP led by al-Qaeda in Iraq said it had decided to kill four Russian hostages after Moscow failed to meet demands to withdraw from Chechnya and free Muslim prisoners, according to an Internet posting.

"After granting the Russian Government 48 hours to meet our demands and their failure to do so ... the Islamic court of the Mujahideen Shura Council ruled to kill them (hostages)," said the statement posted on a website often used by militants.

"And let them be an example for those who follow them and challenge the mujahideen and dare to step foot in the land of honour, Iraq."

"New Al Qaeda Chief: I Slit Their Throats," from the Mirror, :

THE new head of al-Qaeda in Iraq personally slit the throats of two US soldiers whose bodies were found near Baghdad, it was claimed last night.

A statement on the internet gloated that Abu Hamza al-Muhajir had "implemented" sentence on the "two captive crusader parasites"....

But the uncle of one of the slain soldiers misplaced his ire:

Last night Kristian Menchaca's uncle Ken MacKenzie lashed out at the US government saying it had not done enough to bring them to safety.

He told NBC TV: "Because the government did not have a plan in place, my nephew has paid for it with his life." Another US soldier, David Babineau, 25, was also killed in the attack....

And the jihadists gloated and invoked religion:

The killers' statement, supposedly from the al-Qaeda-led Mujahideen Shura Council - an umbrella body of Sunni militant groups - could not be authenticated.

Posted on a web forum used by Islamists, it said: "We bring good tidings to the nation of Islam from the battlefields. O my nation: rejoice that the ruling of God... against the two captive crusader parasites has been carried out by having their throats slit.

"God Almighty has graced the leader Abu Hamza al-Muhajir... with implementation of the sentence." Ex-boss of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in a US air strike on 7 June.

British Jihad Update: "4 terror suspects arrested in U.K.," from the Toronto Star, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

Four additional terror suspects have been arrested in London under Britain's anti-terrorism laws and reports say officials are investigating whether the men are linked to an alleged Ontario terror plot.

The four, all British citizens, are in custody in a London police station. One man, aged 28, was arrested yesterday and the three others, two 21-year-olds and a 29-year-old, were arrested Monday.

The arrests were part of a British investigation that led to charges earlier this month against a 21-year-old and 16-year-old, who face allegations of conspiracy to murder and cause public nuisance by using poisons or explosives.

At the time, sources told the Star, officials believed the 21-year-old had connections to the group of 17 Ontario suspects now in custody.

Of the latest arrests, the BBC reports police are trying to establish whether the four were giving support to the Ontario group, which police allege was plotting a series of attacks in the province.

Why were "British militants" running a mosque in Queens? Why wasn't it shut down? Jihad In America Update from the TimesOnline, :

AN AMERICAN al-Qaeda operative who was a close associate of the leader of the July 7 bombers was recruited at a New York mosque that British militants helped to run.

British radicals regularly travelled to the Masjid Fatima Islamic Centre, in Queens, to organise sending American volunteers to jihadi training camps in Pakistan.

Investigators reportedly found that Mohammad Sidique Khan had made calls to the mosque last year in the months before he led the terrorist attack on London that killed 52 innocent people....

A new book, The One Percent Doctrine, by Ron Suskind, claims that FBI and CIA agents discovered that Khan had made trips to the US and was in contact with American Muslim extremists on the East Coast.

Mohammad Junaid Babar, one recruit from the Masjid Fatima Islamic Centre, has told US intelligence officials that he met Khan in a jihadi training camp in Pakistan in July 2003. He claims that the pair became friends as they studied how to assemble explosive devices.

Babar, 31, a computer programmer, says that it was at the Masjid Fatima centre that he became a radical. He has admitted in a US court to supplying money and military materials to a high-ranking al-Qaeda official at the jihadi camp in South Waziristan, close to the Afghan border. Babar moved to Britain after his month at the camp. FBI agents who arrested him in Queens in April 2004 say that he had been under surveillance “for some time” but so far they have not revealed all that Babar told them about Khan.

It's all a "colonial crusader scheme," you see, and it's condemned by none other than the Prophet of Islam himself. From Ynet News, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

A British jihadists website has warned Muslims against being drawn in to what they described as "the new religion of soccer."

The Saved Sect website, which calls on Muslims to work to establish an Islamic state in Britain, has attacked "football fever," saying that soccer has "captivated the masses, dedicating their time and effort towards it."

Comparing the allegiance of soccer fans to Islam and jihad, the organization said: "Football is the deen (religion) by which people live their lives by and are willing to die for. Their jihad is to fight against those who are arch rivals against their team. Their da'wah (call, invitation) is to publicize, defend and justify their team, inviting others to support them in this."...

Claiming that soccer plants the seeds of nationalism, and is therefore part of a "colonial crusader scheme" to divide Muslims and cause them to stray from the vision of a unified Islamic identity, the website told readers: "The sad fact of the matter is that many Muslims have fallen for this new religion and they too carry the national flag.

The statement, aimed at calling on British Muslims to disassociate themselves with the World Cup in Germany, ended with a quote by Islam's prophet, Muhammad, condemning nationalism.

It doesn't matter that a country is willing and able to lend its human and technical resources to a movement dedicated to aiding people in crisis situations. It's better that lives go unsaved, lest someone be offended by the rescuers' identity.

In truth, it's not just about the choice of symbol. Any sign that would make Israel identifiable in acts of compassion could threaten to water down anti-"Zionist" fervor among a Muslim populace. Also, accepting an Israeli role in the Red Cross movement would put countries like Iran, Syria, Yemen, and Lebanon, whom the article names as instrumental in blocking the process, on a slippery slope toward acknowledging Israel's existence as a sovereign state.

From the Jerusalem Post: "New Red Cross emblem hits snag"

An attempt to end Israel's long isolation from the Red Cross humanitarian movement hit a snag Tuesday as Muslim opponents used procedural moves to block progress at a decisive international conference, delegates said.

The International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, which opened Tuesday and is expected to conclude Wednesday, is being asked to approve changes to meet Israeli demands of almost six decades that it be granted full membership without using the cross or crescent to identify itself.

[...]

The conference is focusing on the addition of an optional, third emblem, a blank, red-bordered square standing on one corner, that could stand alone or frame the Red Shield of David of the Israeli rescue society Magen David Adom.

The vote has been expected to be a largely formal one, as last December the diplomatic conference of the signatories to the Geneva Convention approved Protocol III to the convention recognizing an additional symbol. Two-thirds of the delegates present must approve that decision when it comes to a vote on Thursday, MDA chairman Dr. Noam Yifrach said.

Yifrach said that it would be a historic end to a long struggle that has continued since 1949, when an attempt to admit MDA was rejected by one vote. Israeli ambulances and staffers will continue to bear the Red Star of David symbol with pride, he said. Only on international missions, when necessary, would it be enclosed or accompanied by a red rectangle standing on one end.

Yifrach praised the Foreign Ministry, the US and its American Red Cross for their continued efforts to get MDA official recognition. When admitted to the movement, MDA will be entitled to special funding, expand its humanitarian work abroad, cooperate with other members and improve its rescue services inside Israel, he added.

Yet another imam suspected of jihad terror activity. Doesn't Dahou Meskine know that the Qur'an teaches peace and tolerance? How many imams will be arrested before Western authorities wake up to the manifest fact that what they are hearing from "moderate" Muslim leaders about the nature of Islam and about what mainstream Islamic schools of law actually teach about jihad and Sharia is false? How much more willful self-deception will they engage in before coming to grips with the reality of the problem that faces us, and deal with its full dimensions?

"France Detains 17 Suspected Finance Associates of Radical Islamic Terror Group," from AP, with thanks to all who sent this in:

PARIS — Police have detained a prayer leader at a suburban Paris mosque and 16 associates as part of an investigation into alleged terror financing, a police official said Tuesday.

Dahou Meskine, imam at the mosque in the suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois, and the 16 others were apprehended in separate raids around the capital early Monday, the official said.

Prosecutors believe the suspects were involved in a money-laundering scheme to benefit radical Islamic groups, the official said on condition of because the case is ongoing.

The suspects remained in police custody and were being questioned by investigators. Under anti-terrorism laws, they can be held for up to six days for questioning.

The arrests were part of a probe launched 18 months ago based on information from Tracfin, an agency within the Finance Ministry that tracks money laundering, judicial officials said.

French intelligence officials say terror cells here have been changing their financing and planning methods, with funds often coming through inventive, small-scale sources such as halal butcher shops, trade in cannabis and ATM scams....

Meskine is a member of the Council of Imams of France, the judicial officials said, and is reported to be a founder of France's first Muslim middle school. The school could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The group's "religious emir." He was captured and released in 2004. "Key Figure in al-Qaida in Iraq Killed," from AP, :

A key al-Qaida in Iraq leader described as the group's "religious emir" was killed in a U.S. airstrike hours before two American soldiers went missing and in the same area, the military said Tuesday.

Mansour Suleiman Mansour Khalifi al-Mashhadani, or Sheik Mansour, and two foreign fighters were killed as they tried to flee in a vehicle near the town of Youssifiyah, in the so-called Sunni "Triangle of Death."

U.S. coalition forces had been tracking al-Mashhadani for some time, American military spokesman William Caldwell said in announcing his death. He said al-Mashhadani was an Iraqi, 35 to 37 years old, and that one of the men killed with him was an al-Qaida cell leader identified as Abu Tariq....

Caldwell said the Iraqi militant played a key religious and recruiting role in the group. The spokesman said Mansour was linked to the senior leadership, including Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a June 7 U.S. airstrike, and Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the man the U.S. military has identified as al-Zarqawi's replacement.

Mansour "reportedly served as a right-hand man of Zarqawi's, and also served as a liaison between al-Qaida in Iraq and the various tribes in the Youssifiyah area, as well as playing a key role in their media operations," Caldwell said....

The U.S. military captured Mansour in July 2004 because of his ties to the militant groups Ansar al-Islam and Ansar al-Sunna, but released him because he was not deemed an important terror figure at the time, the spokesman said.

An informative interview with the groundbreaking pioneer of the study of dhimmitude and author of Eurabia. "'The protocols of the elders of Brussels,'" from Haaretz, with thanks to M:

The original sin is attributed to Charles de Gaulle. Disappointed by the loss of the French colonies in Africa and the Middle East, as well as with France's waning influence in the international arena, the president of France in the 1960's decided to create a strategic alliance with the Arab and Muslim world to compete with the dominance of the United States and the Soviet Union. This alliance became the position of the European Community (pre-European Union) during the course of the 1970s, when an extensive European-Arab dialogue developed. However, this alliance, in the context of which Europe allowed the immigration of millions of Muslims to its territories and adopted an anti-Israeli and anti-American policy, will ultimately - and in fact has already - transform Europe into a continent under the thumb of the Arab and Muslim world. Europe is dead, and in its stead "Eurabia" has arisen.

This controversial thesis belongs to Bat Ye'or, the pen name of a self-taught Jewish intellectual who was born in Egypt and who currently lives in Switzerland. She refuses to reveal her real name for security reasons, she says, but her thesis is just the prologue to far-reaching conclusions and extreme statements about some European leaders who are kowtowing to Islam. While her ideas were once almost completely ignored, nowadays, because of the prevailing consternation in Europe regarding its complex relations with the Muslim world, she is receiving more attention, though she is still quite far from entering the European mainstream.

Last week she was invited to Jerusalem to speak at a conference of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the study of Antisemitism at Hebrew University. "This is a matter of a total transformation of Europe, which is the result of an intentional policy," says Bat Ye'or in an interview. "We are now heading towards a total change in Europe, which will be more and more Islamicized and will become a political satellite of the Arab and Muslim world. The European leaders have decided on an alliance with the Arab world, through which they have committed to accept the Arab and Muslim approach toward the United States and Israel. This is not only with respect to foreign policy, but also on issues engaging European society from within, such as immigration, the integration of the immigrants and the idea that Islam is part of Europe."

Bat Ye'or's most recent book, "Eurabia - The Euro-Arab Axis," which was published in English in 2005, could not have been published at a better time as far as she is concerned, precisely when the question of the Muslim immigrants' integration into the continent and Europe's cultural coloration is coming up repeatedly for discussion. The terror attacks in Madrid and London, the Prophet Mohammed cartoons, the murder of the Dutch director Theo Van Gogh and the riots about six months ago in the Paris suburbs have made these questions more critical. Europe, with its pluralist and democratic ethos, has hesitated in its reaction to these phenomena, although today there is a move toward policy changes.

Europe's hesitation has helped bolster extremist attitudes toward Muslim immigration in particular. In the political realm, this is seen among the far-right movements. In intellectual circles, this is evinced inter alia by people like the provocative Italian journalist and writer Oriana Fallaci, Dutch member of parliament Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and also Bat Ye'or. Although all of these individuals are opposed to the extreme right and its violence, they are warning that Europe as a secular, enlightened civilization with a Judeo-Christian background is dying. In its stead, says Bat Ye'or, will come a civilization subjugated to Islamic forces and their jihad ideology.

Read it all.

A press release from the American Council for Kosovo:

Kosovo Serb spokesman: Ceku should be standing trial, “not being received with honors in the capital of any civilized democracy.”

WASHINGTON, June 19, 2006 – The American Council for Kosovo protests the official visit to Washington, DC, of Agim Ceku, an indicted war criminal and former commander of the jihad terrorist organization, the so-called “Kosovo Liberation Army.” According to the Associated Press, Mr. Ceku is scheduled to meet today with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and with officials at the White House, before proceeding to New York for a United Nations Security Council meeting on the future of the Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija. Mr. Ceku is styled “Prime Minister” of the local institutions operating under the authority of the United Nations, which has administered the Serbian province since 1999.

In a statement issued today, Rada Trajkovic of the Serbian National Council of Kosovo and Metohija said: “Speaking on behalf of a community that has been the victim of outrages committed by jihad terrorists under the command of Agim Ceku, we, the Christian Serbs of Kosovo and Metohija, fail to see how officially receiving such a person in Washington is consistent with America’s professed war on terror or with an honest effort to reach a just and equitable settlement in our province. Agim Ceku is an indicted war criminal in Serbia for crimes committed in Kosovo and Metohija, not even accounting for his previous crimes in Krajina. He should be standing as a defendant before a court of law, not being received with honors in the capital of any civilized democracy.” The Serbian National Council of Kosovo and Metohija is an officially registered non-governmental organization representing both Christian Serbs still living in Kosovo and the more than 250,000 that have been driven from the province by Muslim Albanian violence.

As I have pointed out many times, the Sharia requirement that four male witnesses are needed in order to establish guilt in cases of rape, based on the revelation Muhammad received exonerating his wife Aisha of adultery (Qur'an 24:11-20), puts women in grave danger. And indeed, studies have shown that most women in prison in Pakistan are there because they are victims of rape, but their accusations could not be substantiated and became evidence against them of zina -- unlawful sexual intercourse.

And it's not going to change: "Islamists oppose rape law reforms," from The Peninsula (Qatar), with thanks to Twostellas:

Islamabad • Islamist grouping Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal wants assurances from secularist Alliance for Restoration of Democracy that controversial rape laws will not be reformed before it signs the Charter of Democracy.

The MMA will present its reservations on the Charter of Democracy, with emphasis on resistance to changing the controversial Hudood Ordinance, which equates rape with adultery, in writing to the ARD in a meeting today, sources said here Monday.

Sources said that the MMA would seek assurance that any political party coming to power would not seek to amend or repeal Islamic laws, including the Hudood Ordinance.

They said the MMA would not sign the Charter of Democracy until all its reservations were addressed. They said that the MMA had reservation about a clause in the charter which said that political parties wanted to curtail powers of the Federal Shariah Court.

Morocco is often invoked as a model "moderate" Islamic state. But it looks as if the jihadists have been able to gain a foothold there as well, the same way they have been able to do so everywhere: through intimidation and appeals to the Qur'an and Sunnah. "Arrests spark fears of armed Islamist takeover," from the Washington Times, with thanks to Twostellas:

RABAT, Morocco -- Police have arrested more than 500 Islamist activists since late May on accusations that they were planning a coup to replace Morocco's pro-U.S. monarchy with an Islamic state.

Most were released swiftly, but the arrests revived fears that the country's largest Islamic movement, Al Adl wa al Ihsane, or Justice and Charity, is preparing to take up arms to fulfill predictions from the group's own Sufi mystics that Morocco's monarchy will fall this year.

The group, which already has Islamized higher education in Morocco, wants to replace the monarchy with an Islamic state and cut all political, cultural and economic relations with the West -- moves that it argues will end poverty and corruption in Morocco.

So far, its hundreds of thousands of followers have been content to patiently wait for an Islamic state to emerge. However, as the group's mystics churn out religiously inspired visions at an ever-faster rate, analysts fear the group will have to take action or risk losing credibility....

Sheik Yassine added that, for 14 centuries, "politics and spirituality have been kept apart by the Arab elites. And we have been able to reconnect these two aspects of Islam -- and that is why people fear us."

George Joffe, a North Africa specialist at the Center of International Studies at Cambridge University, said Al Adl wa al Ihsane "may not be directly threatening violence, but their subtext is that the government is creating conditions which might cause violence to erupt."...

"They have changed the universities into places of intolerance -- against girls, against gays, Jews, alcohol -- against almost everything," said Jamal Berraoui, editor of Voice of the People, a Casablanca newspaper. "They hold the universities hostage. They have created a climate of intellectual terrorism."

The Al Adl wa al Ihsane-run student union has forced the government to remove secular subjects such as philosophy from university curriculums. The group also has campaigned successfully for new university mosques, which it then staffs with radical Islamic preachers.

"When we talk with the Ministry of Education, we insist that our education conform to Islamic standards," said Mohamed Belkasmi, an economics student and head of the student union at Casablanca University. "We insist that our country's laws and teachings consist only of the Koran."

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald discusses the unsteady state of civilization in Europe and elsewhere:

ISLAMABAD — Taliban in tribal areas have warned male doctors against carrying out ultrasound tests on female patients.

In a pamphlet from the ‘North Waziristan Mujahideen’, they demanded that female doctors be appointed to carry out the procedure.

“We will award punishment in accordance with Islamic laws if any male doctor is found to be carrying out ultrasound tests on female patients,” read the pamphlet pasted on the main streets of Miranshah, according to media reports. – from this news item

One wonders what poor, wretched Afghanistan is doing with such top-of-the-line fruits of Infidel science and technology as ultrasound.

The demand itself is only a variant on the demands being made all over Western Europe, where Infidel taxpayers are paying for a grotesque series of entitlements for those who arrive, who do not admire or even like them, who wish them ill, who wish to change their laws and ways and who openly look forward to inheriting, through the magic of demographic change, their lands, their buildings, their institutions, their weapons, their everything -- taking possession of them because the indigenous peoples have forgotten how to defend themselves, have forgotten that they are in the right, and they too have a legacy to protect, however unsatisfactorily they have done so so far. Part of that protection is to recognize that legacy, and not to idly cast it aside for the synthetic and infantile offerings that now pass for "culture" in the Western world.

Arwah Jaber Update: "Man Acquitted of Terror Charge in Ark.," from AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- A University of Arkansas graduate was found innocent of attempting to provide material support to a Palestinian terrorist organization but convicted of lesser charges, including making false statements on immigration documents.

"I am not a terrorist. (The jury) knew it," Arwah Jaber said after the verdict.

Jaber, 33, faces a maximum of 10 years in prison on each count of obtaining his naturalization unlawfully and making false statements.

The government also moved to revoke his citizenship over his convictions for obtaining naturalization unlawfully and making false statements on passport and immigration applications....

Jaber came to the attention of authorities when he talked openly about joining Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a group the U.S. government considers a terrorist organization. He was arrested last year as he was about to board a flight and maintains he was going to the Middle East to visit relatives. The government says he wanted to join the holy war....

Jaber was born on the West Bank and became a U.S. citizen in 1994. He testified last week he made the statements about Palestinian Islamic Jihad because he was upset at delays in obtaining his degree. He receive a doctorate in chemistry from the university last fall.

He admitted using a false Social Security number, but said he needed it to obtain credit cards in his Palestinian name, Orwah Houshia. He said he did not include the name Orwah Houshia on immigration papers because he had used Arwah Jaber previously for immigration documents.

Jaber said he now expects to leave the country with his wife, Dawn, and find a teaching position in the Middle East.

Beyond dhimmitude. Beyond parody. "Saudis Offered Scholarships for Aviation Courses in US," from Arab News, with thanks to Michelle Malkin.

Maybe Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali will take advantage of this offer to resume his studies.

JEDDAH, 20 June 2006 — The Ministry of Higher Education and the General Authority of Civil Aviation are offering scholarships to Saudi men and women to study various majors related to civil aviation in the United States.

The forms are available online at the ministry’s website until July 12 for both bachelor’s and post-graduate studies. Nominations will be announced on July 31. Interviews will take place in August and final scholarship winners will be announced on Sept. 2.

The scholarships are available in majors such as communications, electrical and computer engineering, computer science, systems analysis, air traffic control, flight safety, and other majors related to the airline transport industry.

Applicants for the bachelor’s program must have a minimum score of 85 percent in the science section and 90 percent in other sections, such as Qur’an memorizing, administrative and commercial sciences. Prospective medical students must also have scored more than 70 percent in the abilities determination exams to become eligible. For other specialties the requirement is 65 percent. Students must have graduated within the past three years to qualify.

A note on dhimmitude at AP from Maria Sliwa:

In my six years of working in public relations, this is a first. For the past week, I have notified representatives at the Associate Press Daybook (AP) in Philadelphia, via phone calls and email (215-561-1133 and phillyap@ap.org) that there would be an event tonight involving three former terrorists presenting exclusive video footage of terrorism in America. Each time I spoke with an AP representative, I was assured that this event would be posted in the daybook today. When I called this morning, however, I was informed that the event would not be posted, because the AP is unable to verify that the three former terrorists are indeed former terrorists. This is despite the fact that they have received quite a bit of media attention in the past: see shoebat.com and 3xterrorists.com for a sample of past media coverage. Posting an event in the daybook is key to maximizing media exposure. Most editors, reporters and news directors review the daybook daily in order to set assignments for the day's news. So my question to the AP in Philadelphia is this: Should the three ex-terrorists go back to their former terrorist organizations and request ID cards?

A grim update to this story from AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The bodies of two U.S. soldiers reported captured last week have been recovered, and an Iraqi official said Tuesday the men were "killed in a barbaric way." Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for killing the soldiers, and said the successor to slain terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had "slaughtered" them, according to a Web statement that could not be authenticated.

The language in the statement suggested the men had been beheaded.

U.S. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell confirmed that the remains, found late Monday by American troops, were believed to be those of Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore....

The director of the Iraqi defense military's operation room, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Mohammed, said the bodies showed signs of having been tortured. "With great regret, they were killed in a barbaric way," he said.

Sharia Alert: "Tribal Taleban bar ultrasound tests of female patient by male," from the Khaleej Times, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

ISLAMABAD — Taliban in tribal areas have warned male doctors against carrying out ultrasound tests on female patients.

In a pamphlet from the ‘North Waziristan Mujahideen’, they demanded that female doctors be appointed to carry out the procedure.

“We will award punishment in accordance with Islamic laws if any male doctor is found to be carrying out ultrasound tests on female patients,” read the pamphlet pasted on the main streets of Miranshah, according to media reports.

Meanwhile, militant leader Haji Umar has in a statement said that stability in the tribal areas is linked to the withdrawal of the Pakistan Army....

“In our peace deal with the government, the withdrawal of the army was a key point,” he said. He warned Nato forces against protecting ‘American interests’ in Afghanistan and vowed that the jihad would continue “until the occupiers are forced out”.

From the Jerusalem Post: "Islam Channel sponsors anti-Zionist debate in London"

LONDON - Informed, honest debate on the Middle East has been stifled because of a fear of being accused of anti-Semitism, according to the participants in a discussion hosted by the Islam Channel in central London on Thursday. The broadcaster is the largest Islamic television outlet in Europe.

For "Zionism," substitute "jihad" (and "jihadists" for "Zionists"). For "anti-Semitism," substitute "Islamophobia." Much better.

The discussion, titled: "Why anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism," was filmed against a backdrop reading "Zionism: The cancer at the heart of international affairs."

The discussion was chaired by Alan Hart, a former ITN and BBC correspondent whose latest book, "Zionism: The real enemy of the Jews" was recently published. He said, "The anti-Semitism card is something the Zionists have exploited to suppress debate."

He said the mainstream media had concealed "the truth of history" out of fear of offending Jews and thanked CEO Mohammed Ali of the Islam Channel for "his courage in widening the debate."

[...]

"The propaganda they use, the Melanie Phillips version [a Jewish journalist for The Daily Mail], is that Israel faces annihilation and fears being pushed into the sea," Hart said. He said this was a myth.

Falls Church Jihad Update from the TimesOnline, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

BRITISH agents are operating in the United States to trace links with Islamic extremists from England who recruit Muslims to fight for terrorist groups abroad.

The British-led investigation has played a part in identifying a number of US-based terrorists and helped the authorities in Washington to break up an al-Qaeda cell operating in Falls Church, Virginia.

The agents are particularly keen to discover if the visitors included Mohammad Sidique Khan, leader of the July 7 suicide bombers, who is alleged to have travelled to America’s East Coast to meet fellow militants and stage a series of attacks on synagogues.

Khan was considered such a threat that he was banned from returning to America two years before the attack on London, according to a book written by a US intelligence specialist....

Neither the FBI nor police would comment on the investigations into Khan’s alleged visits to the US in 2002, but, in Falls Church yesterday, residents blamed “foreign agitators” for encouraging young men from the city’s Muslim community to join extremist groups linked to al-Qaeda.

In the Falls Plaza shopping mall, most preferred to chat about their historic city’s latest civic award for its floral displays and not its reputation as the jihad capital of America.

Over the past few months, 11 men who regularly attended the same Islamic Centre in Falls Church have been convicted of terrorism charges. Seven reportedly went to training camps in Pakistan, including one used by Khan.

Their trials exposed a network stretching from this placid commuter belt serving the US capital ten miles away, passing through British cities and on to jihadi camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

More on Pakistan's well-documented jihad factories -- and more adventures of the notorious Omar Bakri. "Pakistani Islamist group training, exporting youths for Al Qaeda," from the Indo Asian News Service, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

Islamabad, June 19 (IANS) An US-based security think tank has linked recent arrests in the US and one associated with the July 7, 2005, London bombings to the Pakistani branch of the Islamist militant group al-Muhajiroun.

The group has evolved into one of many support networks connecting Western Muslim youths, mostly from Europe, to jihad in southwest Asia, according to an analysis circulated by Stratfor, the US-based online news analysis service.

This occurred after the Pakistani branch's 2003 announcement of independence from the parent group in London. The Pakistani branch of al-Muhajiroun had decided to participate more actively in the jihad in Afghanistan, which necessitated its secession from the parent body.

Omer Bakri Mohammed, the organisation's founder, blessed this decision as he wanted to maintain plausible deniability for the group as a whole, the Daily Times newspaper said in a report from Washington.

Stratfor writes: 'Groups like al-Muhajiroun's Pakistani branch are channels for bringing conditioned Western Muslim youths into contact with Al Qaeda recruiters. This is likely the same medium that allowed the July 7 London bombers to go from being radicalised youth to becoming actual suicide bombers.'

Stratfor cites the example of Syed Hashmi, a 26-year-old US Muslim and New York City resident, who was arrested on June 6 at London's Heathrow Airport as he prepared to board a plane for Pakistan. He was charged with aiding an Al Qaeda plot to stage attacks in London and shipping equipment to the jihadi network headquartered in Pakistan.

Hashmi, the analysis notes, is a US citizen of Pakistani origin who grew up in New York. He graduated from college in 2003. During his student days, he was exposed to radical Islamic ideas, particularly those of the now defunct London-based group al-Muhajiroun.

Why didn't Mohammed Robert Heft notify authorities about Faheem Ahmad? "Man who knew some plot suspects says Islamic 'anger' prevalent," from CBC News, with thanks to Looney Tunes:

A Toronto-area man who knew some of the 17 people charged in connection with an alleged bomb plot in Ontario says one had some fairly extreme views.

Mohammed Robert Heft claims Faheem Ahmad thought the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington were a good thing for Islam....

Heft converted to Islam in his twenties. He says he fell briefly into a radical religious mindset but then regained his perspective. That's when he started helping troubled Muslims at a Scarborough, Ont., shelter.

He says he knows five of the suspects facing terrorism-related charges, some of whom came to the shelter. He never heard any of them advocate violence against Canadians, but he says he had a long and disturbing debate with Ahmad, 21, two months ago outside of a Scarborough mosque.

"He believed the 19 people involved in the World Trade Center bombings were martyrs and he was handing out DVDs openly of wills and testimonies of those 19 people suggesting what they did was right," said Heft.

But Heft has a different impression of another of the suspects, 25-year-old Stephen Chand, whom he describes as quiet and not at all political.

"I felt no threat from Steven Chand. This alleged [threat of] beheading of the prime minister sounds like a Hollywood movie to me."

Heft says a lot of young Muslims are angry and extremism is prevalent in the Toronto area. They get upset when they hear of alleged atrocities overseas in places like Iraq.

"People get emotional. Imagine if somebody came into your house and raped your family, or by mistake just blew up your family, you'd get a little angry.

"I mean we get angry ... when the water isn't hot in Canada or we lose our electricity for a day. So imagine what these people overseas are going through."

Heft knows personally about the road to religious extremism. He says when he was in the thick of it, he would have killed his own parents had they come between him and his newly chosen religion.

He blames the spread of extremism on the internet and what he calls "do-it-yourself Islam," where uneducated scholars are bending the peaceful word of the Koran to suit their violent ideology.

"For the last two years I've been involved in this mentality. I was dealing with it on a grassroots level. All it takes is a little education and sorting out who to take religion from."

Then why not educate? Why are there so many "extremists" in the Toronto area? What kind of education programs have the Toronto mosques estabished in order to fight this?

Heft says he hopes to start one:

Heft is hoping to open a new Islamic centre and residence for Muslim men and women. The idea is to help troubled young people and get those who have become radical back on track.

He says the problem of extremism is something the Muslim community has to face up to and solve itself.

More blaming of Israel for the troubles of the Arab world, and a brazen "demand" for jizya, from the Khaleej Times: "Palestinians must prevent 'civil war': Islamic conference"

BAKU - Palestinian factions must fight a slide into civil war which is being exploited by Israel, Islamic diplomats said at a pan-Muslim conference in Azerbaijan on Monday.

"Palestinian forces should not allow a civil war to take place," the foreign minister of Malaysia, Syed Hamid Albar, said at the opening of an Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) meeting in Baku.

Yemen’s foreign minister, Abu Bakr Al Kurbi, said the victory of the Palestinian Hamas faction at parliamentary elections in January was being exploited by Israel. Like Israel, the United States and the European Union consider Hamas to be a terrorist organization.

"The victory of Hamas is a trump card in the hands of Israel, which does not want dialogue with the Palestinian government," he said.

He also called on international donors to resume the aid to the Palestinians that was cut by Western governments after the Hamas win.

"Today there are threats to blockade the Palestinian people. We demand donor countries aid Palestine," Kurbi said.

1938 Alert from AP:

KINGS POINT, N.Y. - President Bush told Iran on Monday that nations worldwide won't back down from their demand that Tehran suspend uranium enrichment.

"Iran's leaders have a clear choice. We hope they will accept our offer and voluntarily suspend these activities so we can work out an agreement that will bring Iran real benefits," Bush said a day before leaving for Vienna, Austria, where he will talk with European Union officials who are leading efforts to resolve the nuclear dispute.

If Iran's leaders reject the offer, they will face action before the
U.N. Security Council and progressively stronger political and economic sanctions, Bush said during a commencement speech at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.

On Sunday, Iran accused the United States of trying to sway European nations from a possible compromise. The Iranian foreign ministry said U.S. insistence that negotiations be conditioned on Tehran's suspension of uranium enrichment has narrowed the scope of possible solutions, and made it more difficult for all parties to reach an accord.

Bush made it clear he would not budge. He said allowing Iran to enrich uranium, a process that can make nuclear fuel for a power plant or fissile material for an atomic bomb, would present a grave threat to the world.

"The United States has offered to come to the table with our partners and meet with Iran's representatives as soon as the Iranian regime fully and verifiably suspends its uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities," Bush said. "I have a message for the Iranian regime: America and our partners are united. We have presented a reasonable offer. Iran's leaders should see our proposal for what it is — a historic opportunity to set their country on a better course."

From Haaretz: "Ghana Football Association apologizes for Israeli flag at World Cup match"

Ghana's Football Association apologized Monday after Hapoel Tel Aviv defender John Paintsil pulled out an Israeli flag during celebrations over Saturday's 2-0 victory over the Czech Republic.

"It was an action out of naivete, and we apologize to anyone who was offended. It will never happen again," Ghana FA spokesman Randy Abbey said.

"He was obviously unaware of the implications of what he did ... He's extremely popular in Israel, and he wanted to thank the fans who traveled to see him play."

Horrors!

Abbey said that there had been complaints to the Ghana FA but did not elaborate.

"We're not here for politics," he said. "We don't support Israel or Arab nations ... It was unfortunate that the player was ignorant about the political situation."

Abbey added: "But he has apologized to us and I think the matter should end there."

Sports Minister Ophir Pines-Paz had been quoted as praising Paintsil for his actions and saying that Ghana had gained many Israeli fans.

"We have an Israeli at the World Cup. Paintsil's gesture has warmed our hearts and many Israelis have now become supporters of Ghana," Paz said.

But the gesture drew furious reactions in the Arab press.

More on those "furious reactions" from AFP: "Fury in Egypt over Ghana's Israeli flag waver"

"The ignorant and stupid Paintsil, who spent 20 days in Egypt during the last African Nations Cup, plays for Hapoel," sports commentator Alaa Sadek wrote in the daily Al-Akhbar, explaining to baffled Egyptian audiences Painstil's link to Israel.

"Egyptians supported the Ghanaian team all the way until the 82nd minute, and regretted it after the Israeli flag (waving)," screamed a bold red headline in the independent daily Al-Masry al-Yom Monday.

And now for the obligatory conspiracy theories:

... Some papers described Paintsil as a "Mossad agent", others said "an Israeli had paid him to do it" but the most elaborate theory was offered by the top-selling state-owned daily Al-Ahram.

"The real reason," sports analyst Hassan el-Mestekawi wrote, stems from the fact that many Ghanaian players go through football training camps set up by an Israeli coach who "discovered the treasure of African talent, and abused the poverty of the continent's children" with the ultimate goal of selling them off to European clubs.

"The training program for these children starts every morning with a salute to the Israeli flag," Mestekawi claimed.

Today's Wall Street Journal has a remarkable story by Peter Waldman, "At a U.S. Mosque, Path of Tolerance Leads to Tumult," about how a Muslim in San Francisco, Souleiman Ghali, lost battle after battle within his mosque and in the courts against more hardline Muslims. It's behind subscription, so I won't quote much, but here are a few telling fragments. One concerns Ghali's firing of an imam from the mosque:

After his firing, the Egyptian-born imam, Safwat Morsy, opened a new mosque in a basement just around the corner from the Islamic Society, in the heart of this city's gritty Tenderloin district. To swelling crowds, the Sheik Safwat has railed against "the traitor criminal Souleiman Ghali" and called for jihad, or holy war, against Israel and U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Our killed ones are in paradise and their killed ones are in hell," he told worshipers in 2003, in a sermon that was translated from Arabic for the court case....

Beware of "the new American Islam," Sheik Safwat warned followers in the 2003 sermon translated for the court case, "a faith that does not talk about the jihad; a faith that does not talk about the confrontation with tyrants; a faith that does not talk."...

Sheik Safwat, invoking familiar extremist rhetoric for his Sunni listeners, blamed the fall of Iraq on connivance by the "traitor" Shiites and Arab heads of states, whom he branded "agents of treason." The sheik also said he saw the hand of the "sons of Zion," the Jews. With the fall of Baghdad, he said, Israel had "realized" its dominion "from the Nile to the Euphrates."

He praised martyrdom. While the Muslim dead of Jerusalem, Afghanistan, Iraq and the Sudan were in paradise, he said, the infidel dead were burning in hell. "The beacon of the jihad will not be extinguished by the tank and will not be extinguished by the airplanes," he said. "The clash of civilizations and the combat of cultures and the recapture of the land and honor, this is what believers are waiting for."

In another sermon, the sheik adopted the slogan used by the Palestinian political party Hamas to reject Israel's right to exist: "Palestine, from the sea to the river."

More from the Ignorance-Is-The-Problem Department: this test misses the point that one may know all about Dutch history and geography and still want to institute Sharia there. From the TimesOnline, with thanks to all who sent this in:

A DRACONIAN new law is expected to force immigrants to the Netherlands to sit a tough exam on Dutch history, geography and culture or face heavy fines.

The rules, drafted by the country’s hardline immigration minister, “Iron Rita” Verdonk, and likely to be approved this autumn, will set a challenge for up to half a million mainly Muslim immigrants, including some who have lived in Holland for 30 years.

The legislation, which is due to come into force on January 1 next year, requires immigrants to attend 600 hours of coursework before being tested.

Failure to attend the course or pass the exam within five years will trigger an annual fine of almost £700, cuts in benefits or the termination of a residence permit.

Five years. How draconian.

The cost of sitting the course and taking the exam will be £4,000 per person, although local authorities will pay most of the fees.

Stop it, Iron Rita! You're killing me!

The measure is a further signal that Holland, once one of Europe’s most tolerant countries, has become the toughest point of entry for foreigners after a raft of restrictions in the past few years. “Several countries are looking at us, including Germany and the UK,” said a spokesman for Verdonk.

The questions will be far tougher than the British test, Life in the UK, which was introduced for new citizens last November and poses simple queries such as “What are MPs?” Candidates in the Netherlands will be asked about the intricacies of Dutch shipping history and the country’s constitution.

Ah, Dutch shipping history. That will cure them of jihad in no time.

Questions will be asked about its harbours, dykes and churches. The candidates will also have to show an understanding of historical sensitivities in Dutch society, including attitudes towards anti-semitism and the second world war....

Much of the coursework will have moral overtones, explaining liberal Dutch views on homosexuality, abortion and euthanasia....

But the coursework will not, evidently, touch on Judeo-Christian civilization, what it has given to the world, and how Western notions of equality before the law and the rights of the individual are superior to those of Sharia.

Anyway, even this milquetoast half-measure is facing stiff challenges:

The legislation now before parliament is so controversial that Verdonk may be forced to backtrack on her insistence that some naturalised Dutch citizens — immigrants who are unemployed, parents caring for children or religious workers such as imams — must also take the test.

Jeroen Djisselbloem, a Social Democrat MP, said the measures against naturalised citizens were “discriminatory”.

“All other EU citizens will be exempted from this law, so actually being a Dutch national puts you back compared with an Englishman who lives in Holland,” he said.

Even if Dutch citizens are exempted, 150,000 to 250,000 immigrants face the exam.

Verdonk, 50, a former prison warden and head of state security, has previously angered Muslims by expelling imams accused of promoting terrorism and cancelling a meeting with Islamic leaders who refused to shake her hand because she was a woman.

She has argued that a ban on burqas might be needed on grounds of public safety.

In March she introduced a compulsory Dutch language and culture test for would-be immigrants before they left their home country.

Many are being asked to watch a teaching video with provocative shots of gay men kissing and a topless woman on a beach to introduce them to Dutch lifestyles.

Famile Arslan, 34, an immigration lawyer of Turkish descent, said the crackdowns were dividing society between westerners and non-westerners, Muslim and non-Muslim. “I don’t feel welcome here any more,” she said.

Fine. Nowhere have you been granted a natural right to come live in a Western country and endeavor to impose your values upon it.

Verdonk’s bold approach has struck a chord with many Dutch people who feel that as a small country of 16m with more than 1.5m immigrants they have been too soft.

A poll earlier this month found that 63% of Dutch people believed that Islam was incompatible with modern life and one in 10 openly admitted to being racist....

Geert Wilders, a right-wing politician who has received death threats after criticising Islam, said all immigration should be stopped until the problem of integration had been resolved.

Threats of kidnappings, intimidation of female embassy staff into wearing abayas, sectarian tension within families, and more -- the jihadists are putting heavy pressure even on U.S. embassy employees in Iraq, as a memo from the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, makes clear.

You can view a pdf of the memo at the Washington post site here.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald again discusses the destruction of art under Islamic auspices:

Of course in the mists of time, when no one was looking, Muslims destroyed monuments, churches, temples, cemeteries, statuary and artifacts of every kind. But that was then, you think to yourself.

And this is now. And now, in the full light of history, knowing that they are being watched, surely they will not do such things. Surely, in this new 21st century, Muslims everywhere will watch their steps, and not desecrate, vandalize, destroy as before.

An update on this story from the Khaleej Times, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

LAHORE — Clerics refused to lead the funeral prayer of an alleged blasphemer, Abdul Sattar Gopang alias Tari, terming it a “great sin”.

Gopang was stabbed to death outside the Muzaffargarh district court where he was to attend the hearing of a blasphemy case against him. He was being escorted by a police team when he was attacked by two assailants — Muhammad Imran Waheed, a student of B.Sc., and Muhammad Iqbal Khan, a vendor. The police latter arrested both the accused. However, Gopang’s family hired a religious seminary teacher to perform his funeral rites. Only 35 people of Gopang’s family attended the funeral. A large police contingent was deployed in the area to deal with any untoward incident.

The Tehrike Khatme Nabuwat has offered its full support for the accused and praised them for their action. “We will provide full financial and legal support to Waheed and Khan. We are proud of them for accomplishing this noble task,” said a spokesman of the Tehrike Khatme Nabuwat, Maulana Muhammad Siddique. The accused were shifted to Muzaffargarh District Jail. DPO Muzaffargarh Rai Tahir has suspended Inspector Fida Hussain and City Police Station SHO Jam Muhammad Saleem for negligence of duty.

Iraqi Jihad Update: "Group claims it kidnapped U.S. soldiers," from AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - An umbrella group linked to al-Qaida in Iraq claimed Monday that it had kidnapped two American soldiers reported missing south of Baghdad, where 8,000 Iraqi and U.S. troops were conducting a massive search.

The group, called the Mujahedeen Shura Council, also claimed it had kidnapped four Russian diplomats and killed a fifth in Baghdad on June 3.

The message, which could not be authenticated, appeared on an Islamic Web site known for publishing messages from insurgent groups in Iraq. U.S. officials have said they were trying to confirm whether the two soldiers, who disappeared Friday evening following an insurgent attack that also killed a U.S. soldier, were kidnapped.

During the search for the missing Americans, U.S. spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell also said the military killed three suspected insurgents and detained 34 others in fighting that left seven U.S. servicemen wounded.

The Web posting said: "Your brothers in the military wing of the Mujahedeen Shura Council kidnapped the two American soldiers near Youssifiya." It did not identify the soldiers.

The Defense Department identified the missing men as Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore.

It said Spc. David J. Babineau, 25, of Springfield, Mass., was killed. The three were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.

Gunmen kidnapped the four Russian diplomats near their embassy in Baghdad's Mansour district after firing on their car and killing one embassy employee.

"God has enabled the lions of monotheism to arrest four Russian diplomats in Iraq and kill the fifth," said a statement from the group on the same Web site....

Sharia Alert: culture wars? Is the New Duranty Times drawing a sly parallel between Christian conservatives in the U.S. and Sharia advocates in Somalia? Probably. "In Somalia, Islamic Militias Fight Culture Wars," from the New Duranty Times, aka the New York Times, with thanks to all who sent this in:

MOGADISHU, Somalia, June 18 — Flush from a military victory earlier this month that caught Washington and the world by surprise, Islamic militiamen have begun waging smaller battles — cultural, not military ones — in and around Somalia's shellshocked capital.

A week ago, when Mexico and Iran were still playing the first half of their World Cup soccer match, gunmen allied with the Islamic courts burst into a tiny theater in the Hiliwaa neighborhood of north Mogadishu, condemned the place as ungodly and angrily switched off the television set.

When they caught sight of a man with a trendy Afro, with lines shaved into it, they tied his hands behind his back, took out a pair of scissors and evened it out into a scalp-revealing buzz cut.

"They said, 'Your hair is against our culture and is not Islamic,' " recalled the man, Abdi Fatah, 26. They whipped him with a belt, then jailed him for three days....

Moderate sheiks led by Sharif Ahmed, a fresh-faced former geography teacher who insists his country is not using Taliban of Afghanistan as a model, are jockeying for power with those with a more rigid interpretation of Islam. For every warm handshake a visiting reporter receives, others offer nothing more than an icy glare....

But one of his disciples is Mohamed Ali Aden, 19, who commanded 350 men in the recent war and said he would settle for nothing less than a full-fledged Islamic state.

"We've neglected God's verses for so long," Mr. Aden said in an interview. "We want our women veiled and we want them at home. We men have to grow our beards."

Mr. Aden counts as an associate Aden Hashi Ayro, a young military commander trained in Afghanistan who leads a faction linked to a string of assassinations. He is believed to despise the West. Mr. Ayro could not be reached for comment despite numerous inquiries. People close to him said he had nothing to hide but was unavailable.

Mr. Aden, though, was willing to speak, albeit with obvious disdain. Mr. Aden, an orphan who said religion taught him what his deceased parents never could, spoke in a whisper, his face peeking out from under a scarf.

"If you will not join Islam, you are not my brother," he said, refusing to offer his hand. "I am a holy warrior and those who disturb Islam, we will disturb them."...

When they could manage to track down the gunmen running rampant in the streets, some courts adopted stringent forms of Shariah, cutting off thieves' hands, executing killers and doling out lashes for lesser crimes.

Soon, the clan-based courts merged in a powerful alliance that eventually took on and toppled the warlords who had been ruling and running roughshod over Mogadishu residents.

But those courts owe part of their strength to the Bush administration, which tried secretly to undermine them. In recent years, American intelligence agents paid warlords to root out Islamic militants operating in Mogadishu. The United States said a small cell of Al Qaeda, made up of foreigners, had set up shop in Mogadishu after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and were being protected by court leaders.

"Al Qaeda's concept is right and one day they will rule," said Mr. Aden, the young militia commander. "The name Muslim and Al Qaeda are the same to me. We are alike."

But sympathizing with Al Qaeda and working on its behalf, Somalis say, are two different things. "I think there are people here who love bin Laden and Al Qaeda but that's true in every capital, even Washington," said Ali Iman Sharmarke, a prominent Mogadishu radio journalist who studied in America. "But those willing to strap a bomb to themselves and fight for Al Qaeda, they're not here."...

But there have been other confrontations. Earlier this year, Islamic militiamen stopped Ismahan Ali Mohamed, 18, on the street and ripped the long, tight-fitting skirt she was wearing. They ordered her to wear a looser garment next time.

Now, she wears a flowing hijab on the streets that covers all but her face. "It feels heavy and it's not comfortable," she said, removing it inside a hotel restaurant to reveal a bright pink outfit that still covered her but allowed more of a glimpse of what was underneath. "With this, I feel happy and beautiful and free," said Ms. Mohamed, an aspiring actress.

A friend, Ubah Mohamed, 34, who runs a beauty shop, said she feared the new rules. "If these Islamic people get their way, we'll have to cover all the way," she said. "I'm a beautiful girl and I like to show others how beautiful I am. Behind the veil, no one can tell."

Malyun Sheik Haidar, 31, who publishes a small newsletter devoted to women's issues, heard from a man involved in one of the Islamic courts that her publication would probably be shut down. "He said, 'Women have a right to sit in your house and do domestic things,' " she said. " 'You don't have a right to do a journal on human rights.' "...

Anti-dhimmitude from the National Post, with thanks to all who sent this in:

In Britain and much of continental Europe, radical clerics preaching hate to Muslim communities is nothing new. Here, thankfully, it remains less common. But recent lessons have taught us about the dangers of such ideas winning adherents on the fringes of our Muslim communities. Consequently, we would expect our government to do everything in its power to keep out clerics who have been preaching hate elsewhere.

Whether or not Ottawa is indeed willing to do so may well be tested by how it handles the planned visit of Sheik Riyadh ul-Haq.

Formerly a cleric at Birmingham Central Mosque, one of England's largest mosques, Mr. Haq has been described by Tarek Fatah -- host of Canadian TV show The Muslim Chronicle -- as "a nasty piece of work." According to transcripts distributed last week by the Canadian Coalition for Democracies (CCD), Mr. Haq has delivered speeches and lectures in which he has endorsed martyrdom; claimed that other religions are engaged in a "war against Islam"; described the Taliban as trustworthy "servants of Allah"; attacked Muslims considered by Westerners to be "moderates"; described Jews and Hindus as "the most unrelenting, unforgiving" enemies of Islam; and repeatedly launched other rants against Jews, including claiming they believe they "are superior to every other race" and have "monopolized" everything from "the global economy" to the Holocaust, and urging others "to see through their propaganda, their lies, and deceit and to view them as they really are and thus treat them accordingly."

These are not the sorts of messages that should be reaching Muslim youth. But later this month and next, Mr. Haq is scheduled to pay a visit to Canada. While an appearance at McMaster University in Hamilton has been cancelled, he still plans to address youth in Toronto and Montreal....

It is not a viable option to begin expelling citizens -- even landed immigrants -- for expressing extremist views.

Why not?

But that doesn't mean we are compelled to open our doors to hate-mongers. While no visitor will single-handedly turn law-abiding young Muslims into Jihadis, voices of hatred foment hostility and unrest with extremely dangerous consequences. To help prevent those, our immigration and security officials should pay close attention to the messages visitors are bringing to Canada.

Yes. For a start.

The New York Times, true to its Duranty tradition of obfuscating in the face of terror, tells us that the Thug-In-Chief didn't really mean it, oh no. He was just quoting "ancient" (i.e., Khomeini era) texts and expressing a wish, but of course Iran -- as the illustrious Juan Cole assures us -- hasn't attacked anyone in over a century, and therefore it won't, don't you see?

"Just How Far Did They Go, Those Words Against Israel?," from the increasingly execrable New Duranty Times, with thanks to Gabrielle Goldwater:

EVER since he spoke at an anti-Zionism conference in Tehran last October, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has been known for one statement above all. As translated by news agencies at the time, it was that Israel "should be wiped off the map." Iran's nuclear program and sponsorship of militant Muslim groups are rarely mentioned without reference to the infamous map remark.

Here, for example, is R. Nicholas Burns, the under secretary of state for political affairs, recently: "Given the radical nature of Iran under Ahmadinejad and its stated wish to wipe Israel off the map of the world, it is entirely unconvincing that we could or should live with a nuclear Iran."

But is that what Mr. Ahmadinejad said? And if so, was it a threat of war? For months, a debate among Iran specialists over both questions has been intensifying. It starts as a dispute over translating Persian but quickly turns on whether the United States (with help from Israel) is doing to Iran what some believe it did to Iraq — building a case for military action predicated on a faulty premise.

"Ahmadinejad did not say he was going to wipe Israel off the map because no such idiom exists in Persian," remarked Juan Cole, a Middle East specialist at the University of Michigan and critic of American policy who has argued that the Iranian president was misquoted. "He did say he hoped its regime, i.e., a Jewish-Zionist state occupying Jerusalem, would collapse." Since Iran has not "attacked another country aggressively for over a century," he said in an e-mail exchange, "I smell the whiff of war propaganda."

Jonathan Steele, a columnist for the left-leaning Guardian newspaper in London, recently laid out the case this way: "The Iranian president was quoting an ancient statement by Iran's first Islamist leader, the late Ayatollah Khomeini, that 'this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time,' just as the Shah's regime in Iran had vanished. He was not making a military threat. He was calling for an end to the occupation of Jerusalem at some point in the future. The 'page of time' phrase suggests he did not expect it to happen soon."

Mr. Steele added that neither Khomeini nor Mr. Ahmadinejad suggested that Israel's "vanishing" was imminent or that Iran would be involved in bringing it about. "But the propaganda damage was done," he wrote, "and Western hawks bracket the Iranian president with Hitler as though he wants to exterminate Jews."

If Mr. Steele and Mr. Cole are right, not one word of the quotation — Israel should be wiped off the map — is accurate.

But translators in Tehran who work for the president's office and the foreign ministry disagree with them. All official translations of Mr. Ahmadinejad's statement, including a description of it on his Web site (www.president.ir/eng/), refer to wiping Israel away. Sohrab Mahdavi, one of Iran's most prominent translators, and Siamak Namazi, managing director of a Tehran consulting firm, who is bilingual, both say "wipe off" or "wipe away" is more accurate than "vanish" because the Persian verb is active and transitive.

Then why isn't this story about the impenetrable, crystalline willful ignorance and dhimmitude of analysts like Cole and Steele?

Faheem Khalid Lodhi is guilty. "Architect plotted terror strike on Australia," from the TimesOnline, with thanks to all who sent this in:

A Pakistani-born architect behind a plot to carry out a terrorist attack on Australian soil was facing life in prison today.

Faheem Khalid Lodhi, 36, used a false name to purchase detailed maps of Sydney's electricity grid and military bases. He downloaded bomb-making instructions from the internet and placed orders for chemicals used in explosives.

Authorities were alerted in October 2003 by his boss when a suspicious fax - containing prices of chemicals which can be used in explosives - arrived at his office.

A 15-page book of notes handwritten in Urdu, containing instructions to make petrol bombs, cyanide gas and hand grenades was found in a raid the following day.

A computer disk containing more than 600 files relating to Islamic extremism and military training manuals was found in a simultaneous search of his home....

The Sunni Muslim had denied all of the charges, saying that he had migrated to Australia in 1998 to "do something better for my life" and saying the killing innocent people was against Islam.

He argued that, struggling to find work as an architect, he had considered setting up his own export business and chemical manufacture company.

"This country is my country. These people are my people," he told the court.

In court papers, Lodhi was accused of "the intent of advancing a political, religious or ideological cause, namely violent jihad".

Of course killing innocent people is against Islam. But who decides who is innocent, and on what basis?

Islamic Tolerance Alert from "moderate" Malaysia. "Malaysia group urges Muslims to stop joint celebrations," from AP, with thanks to Mathew:

An influential group of Islamic clerics has urged Malaysian Muslims not to join religious festivities of other faiths, infuriating moderate Muslims who called it a perversion of the country's multiculturalism.

The Ulama Conference during its annual gathering of top ulamas, or clerics, on Tuesday issued 22 resolutions including one saying that the practice of joint celebration of religious holidays must stop because it resulted in Muslims celebrating other faiths....

The clerics' view is a reflection of the growing Islamization of Malaysia, which prides itself on its image as a moderate and progressive Islamic nation where the majority Malay Muslims live in harmony with minority Chinese and Indians.

The Ulama Conference was pointing to a typically Malaysian celebration called Kongsi Raya, which refers to joint celebration of the Chinese New Year and the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr.

"Kongsi Raya" is a play on the greetings used by the two communities during the two holidays: "Gong Xi Fatt Cai" and "Hari Raya Aidil Fitri." Kongsi in Malay also means "share."

Since 1996, the two holidays have occurred within days of each other, providing Malays and Chinese an occasion to hold joint celebrations.

Harussani Zakaria, the working committee chairman of the Ulama Conference 2006, told The Associated Press that religious celebrations were not the place to foster unity.

The National Day -- when Malaysians commemorate independence from British rule-- was a more suitable time to promote integration and harmony, he said.

"You can invite Muslims to your house for dinner during Christmas or Chinese New Year without them having to celebrate the festival itself," Harussani added. "But nationalizing it, having Muslims celebrate it, that is wrong."

The Ulama Conference advises the Muslim kings of nine Malaysian states, who are titular heads, on religious matters. The conference has the authority to recommend to the kings edicts or "fatwa," which believers are bound by.

Harussani refused to say if the conference will pass a fatwa on joint celebrations, saying Islam already forbids it.

A Muslim confronts another who denounced the infidels...and the moderate is thrown out of the mosque. "If Muslims, or anyone else, doesn't like living in a land filled with Christians or in a democracy they should get the hell out."

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

Dr. Mahfooz Kanwar recently attended Calgary's largest mosque for a funeral.

At one point in the proceedings, a man Kanwar has known for more than three decades led the prayers.

"He was saying in Urdu (the official language of Pakistan): 'Oh, God, protect us from the infidels, who pollute us with their vile ways,'" recalls Kanwar, a professor of sociology at Mount Royal College in Calgary.

"I stood up and grabbed him by the lapels, which was shocking even to me because I have never done anything like that in my life and I said: 'How dare you attack my country.' And then I addressed the crowd and said: 'I have known this man for more than 30 years and he has been on welfare for almost all of those years.' "

Kanwar chuckles at the memory.

"Then I said to this semi-literate man, 'you should thank me and those you call infidels.'

"He asked me why and I said: 'Because the taxes I pay are putting food on your table as are the taxes of the so-called "infidels.' "

Most Canadians and many Muslims would applaud Dr. Kanwar's righteous outburst. But guess which of the two men is no longer welcome at the Sarcee Tr. S.W. mosque?

Not the intolerant, hate-spewing semi-literate. No, it's Dr. Kanwar who's persona non grata.

That, says Kanwar, is just one of numerous instances he has experienced as a result of the culture of ignorance and intolerance that permeates so many mosques in Canada and throughout the world....

Why, I thought the overwhelming majority of Muslims in the West were solidly on our side. Isn't that message dinned into our ears daily? And yet here again, all the evidence we ever actually see lines up against this idea.

In light of the arrests two weeks ago of 17 young Muslim Canadian men who are alleged to have planned terrorist attacks against their fellow Canadians that included attacking Parliament, seizing the CBC and beheading the prime minister, Kanwar says it's vitally important for Canadians to start making more demands of those who immigrate to this country.

Yes, indeed.

Kanwar says we now know one of the 17 accused was allowed to spew hatred and calls to violent jihad at a Toronto-area mosque and he was never once told by the leadership there to stop.

Six of the young men who listened to him are also charged in the plot.

Kanwar is pretty certain, if he spoke up at that mosque, however, with his message that Canada's culture is better than the culture found in any Islamic-based country, he'd be kicked out.

"The policy of official multiculturalism is a disaster," says Kanwar, who ironically once headed a government-funded multicultural organization in Calgary in the early '70s....

"Multiculturalism creates nations within a nation and divides the loyalty of people," says the 65-year-old Pakastani-born Kanwar, who immigrated to Canada in 1966.

"It allows people to marginalize themselves. It endangers us all as these recent arrests show."

Because of Kanwar's open and published opposition to Ontario's proposal last year to consider allowing sharia law for arbitration purposes in that province, Kanwar says he has been issued with fatwahs -- not the death-threat versions made famous by the one issued against Salman Rushdie for writing the novel The Satanic Verses -- but more like a shunning.

Kanwar, a devout Muslim, says he has essentially been excommunicated by Calgary's mosques because he is too tolerant of others.

Homa Arjomand, who lives in Toronto and headed Canada's successful campaign of the International Campaign Against Sharia Court in Canada (www.nosharia.com), says like Kanwar, she too once embraced the idea of multiculturalism.

Arjomand, who calls herself a "victim" of sharia law -- a strict set of rules based on Islam's holy book, the Qur'an, that subjugates women, as well as allows for the chopping off of hands for theft etc. -- says part of the reason she decided to immigrate to Canada was because she had heard about official multiculturalism.

"I thought how wonderful, but not anymore," she declares.

"I came here for Canadian values, not sharia values. I fled Iran on horseback because the values there threatened my very life. If people want to live under sharia or the way they lived back home, let them go back," she said.

Kanwar agrees. He says the time has come for the Canadian government to tell new immigrants "once you're in Canada we expect you to be totally devoted to Canada -- no divided loyalties."

"This country," added Kanwar, "is a democracy and democracy is founded on Christian principles.

"Canada is -- like it or not, take it or leave it -- a country founded on Christian principles where the vast majority of citizens are Christians," said Kanwar.

"Yes, there's separation of church and state but even that was a principle founded by Christians and Christianity.

"If Muslims, or anyone else, doesn't like living in a land filled with Christians or in a democracy they should get the hell out."

Appalling evidence of Britain's confusion and utter intellectual degeneration. "What have burnt toast, Gerry Adams and a burger to do with September 11?," from Mick Hume in the TimesOnline, with thanks to Neil:

EVER WONDERED what our schools are teaching children about terrorism? To judge by some of the material in an education pack being used in my London borough, the questions might include: could al-Qaeda poison your burger? Did the American Government stage the September 11 attacks? And what lessons for the Middle East can you learn from arguing with your mum?

The glossy pack of CD-Roms and worksheets is for secondary school citizenship classes. Called 9/11: The Main Chance (no, I don’t know either), it is sponsored by the Neighbourhood Regeneration Fund (no, I don’t know either). When I saw it reported in the Walthamstow Guardian, it sounded too bizarre to be true. Having studied the pack, I can confirm that it is bizarre, but it is true. So here is a glimpse of what might be going on in the citizenship classes that the Government now claims will teach children “our values”.

9/11: The Main Chance attempts to deal with September 11, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Middle East and human rights in a simple way intended to make sense to pupils not keen on conventional teaching methods. The result seems more likely to raise levels of confusion and concern.

A worksheet on the targets chosen on 9/11 asks pupils: “Are there any possible targets in your local area?” If that is not enough to get them boycotting public transport, it asks: “What weapons or methods could be used?” There follow helpful links: one to a story on “Food terrorism — the nightmare scenario” illustrated by a juicy burger (which seems an extreme way to get children off junk food), the other to a report “How safe is our water? The threat of terrorism”, which may help the water companies to cut consumption. When the Walthamstow Guardian asked if the 9/11 attacks should be used as a teaching tool, one educationist said the pack was not about “preaching” to children, but about providing “impartial and unbiased information” and “letting them make sense of it”.

That would be information such as: “The terrorists had shown that, despite America’s size and military power, careful planning and complete faith could defeat them.”

So al-Qaeda defeated America. Or did it? After all, according to this impartial pack, “it is not known whether Flight 93 was taken over by passengers or shot down by the military”. The only people to whom this should be “not known” are conspiracy theorists. You might as well tell kids it is not known whether men really landed on the Moon.

The outside sources of “impartial and unbiased information” include a news website that speculates about whether images of Satan appeared in smoke over the Twin Towers, and the mystic significance of the number 11. Another link, to explain the role of the US Vice-President, turns out to be an excerpt from a 9/11 conspiracy website that asks whether Dick Cheney “was directing the response to the attack. Or was he directing the attack?” The pack’s main attempt to situate 9/11 in some context is a lengthy list of “Osama’s grievances”. Raising the chestnut about terrorists and freedom fighters, the pack asks: “Which category do these people belong in: Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Gerry Adams, Martin Luther King?” A better question might be: what do any of them have to do with 9/11?

The orthodoxy today is that all education must be made “relevant” to pupils’ own experience. Thus the section on “Tolerance and 9/11” ends with a quiz about how you would react if your mum burnt your toast, or your brother lent your favourite DVD to his mate. The lesson on conflict resolution suggests that the Israeli-Palestinian issue is like a family dispute about sharing.

No doubt this teaching pack was put together by well-intentioned educationists, despite the inaccuracies and omissions. Of course it is not “pro al-Qaeda”. But nor does it appear to be pro anything else. Instead it reflects the wider confusion and incoherence about these issues. We are unsure who we are or what we stand for as a society, and it is nonsense to expect citizenship classes to fill that vacuum. Government commitment to teaching “values” is worthless when we don’t know what those might be.

East African Jihad to begin? From Garowe Online, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist and Jane Novak:

MOGADISHU, Somalia June 18 (Garowe Online) THE UNION of Islamic Courts that have taken control of Mogadishu and parts of southern Somalia in recent weeks have declared "jihad" on Ethiopian troops who have allegedly crossed into Somalia.

The Chairman of the Courts, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, said that Ethiopia should not allow its troops to enter Somalia and added that heavily armed militias loyal to the Courts will take military action against the invasion of Ethiopian troops.

Chairman Sheik Sharif called on the people of Somalia to prepare themselves for the defense of the Motherland from Ethiopian military aggression. He refered to the presence of Ethiopian troops in Somalia as "direct aggression."

In accord with the Grand Mufti's recent fatwa. "Statue attack fuels fears of an Islamist Egypt," from The Telegraph, with thanks to all who sent this in:

A religiously motivated attack on statues at a museum in Cairo has sparked outcry in Egypt and fuelled fears that the country is veering towards an Islamic state.

The attack on three artworks, by a black-clad and veiled woman screaming, "Infidels, infidels!" followed a fatwa issued by the Grand Mufti of Cairo, Ali Gomaa, which banned all decorative statues of living beings.

It led to furious criticism of the mufti from Egyptian liberals. In a televised debate with the mufti after the attack, one poet raged that "the prevalent religious discourse in the country encourages terror".

Although the ancient treasures of Egypt have been protected under Islam so far, an increasing extremism in the country could make statues such as the quartzite head of Nefertiti, the colossus of Amenhotep, and the golden death mask of Tutankhamen possible targets in future.

At the scene of the attack, in the villa and museum of the Egyptian sculptor, Hassan Heshmat, guards said they had been woken in the middle of the night by the woman's shouts and the sounds of destruction.

"It was a fully covered, religious woman," said Raisa Intesar, who looks after both the museum and Mr Heshmat, who is now 86. "She had jumped over the wall. We rushed out to stop her but by the time we had overpowered her, she had destroyed three statues."

The damaged works included Motherhood, a piece featuring three delicately carved heads, all of which had been snapped off. Also damaged was a smaller piece, The Victory Leap, Heshmat's tribute to Egyptian troops in the 1973 Yom Kippur war.

But the patriotic sentiment of the work was lost on the attacker, who was intent on following a religious imperative. "She had been listening to the mufti, and was following his orders," Ms Intesar said.

...as Britain continues its headlong rush to suicide. Or will these favored police applicants be subjected to searching questioning about their views on jihad and Sharia? Don't hold your breath.

"Race law update needed, Phillips," from the BBC, with thanks to Fjordman:

Britain's race laws need updating to help in the battle against terrorism, the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) has said.

Trevor Phillips has called for a debate on positive discrimination in favour of Muslims applying to join the police.

In a speech to be delivered on Monday he will question whether the police are "fit for purpose" for anti-terror campaigns.

He will also say race relation laws are stopping diversification in the police.

Mr Phillips will emphasise that it is not just a matter of fairness and equality, but an issue of national security.

Muslim commitment

In the speech to be given at the Social Policy Forum at the Government Office for London, he will say that British Muslims are as committed to tackling "terrorism" as anyone else.

On what grounds, and with what evidence, does he say this?

And as an example of how the new system might work, he will cite the Police Service of Northern Ireland, where the law was changed to allow it to recruit half of all its new officers from the Catholic community.

Irrelevant. The conflict was quite different, as were the agendas of the participants.

"I can't say for certain whether I think we should go down this road; and if we do how exactly we'd do it," he will say. "But I do know that we have to debate such measures if we are going to avoid the spectre of a mainly white security and justice apparatus policing increasingly aggrieved and hostile black and Asian communities."

Simplistic. Non-Muslim "black and Asian communities" do not have a supremacist agenda that would overwhelm the British state. But evidently Sir Trevor would rather fight "racism" than do anything effective against that.

Referring to the 2 June raid in Forest Gate, east London, he will say: "Every time an operation like this goes wrong it further alienates communities who want to help in the fight against terrorism."

Mr Phillips, who has been head of the CRE since 2003, will stress that race relations legislation is hindering the process of diversifying police and security forces.

"If you don't have Muslim officers to put into surveillance cars, you can give up any hope of doing covert operations in some areas."

And if you do have Muslim officers put into surveillance cars when their first loyalty is to the umma and their ultimate desire to see Sharia in Britain, you can give up any hope of doing effective covert operations.

Community tolerance

Mr Phillips, a former head of the National Union of Students, will also warn that it cannot be taken for granted that Muslim communities will put up with anti-terror searches indefinitely.

Yes. Better to lay down and die than to offend them.

Hugh Fitzgerald explains why the "Palestinians" deserve not a penny of humanitarian aid:

The "Quartet" of Middle East peace brokers have agreed on a plan to resume aid for Palestinians, frozen since the Hamas government took power.

The scheme aims to release more than $120m of EU funds to support local health services and cater for the basic needs of poor Palestinians.

But funds will bypass the government, which refuses to recognise Israel.

Many Palestinians have been suffering severe economic hardship following the suspension of international aid.

The EU and US cut off funding after Hamas came to power earlier this year, accusing it of being a terrorist group.

But the aid freeze has prompted fears of a humanitarian crisis. -- from this news item

Just as the ranks of UNRWA steadily swelled over the years, as the "Arab refugees" (as they were called then, before they magically metamorphosed into the "Palestinian" refugees) were joined by all kinds of local Arabs, happy to receive money from UNRWA, and none of those "refugees" ever seemed to die, so that the numbers swelled and swelled (and why not, since over time the people running the organization were the local "refugees" themselves and their U.N. sympathizers and apologists), so the "Palestinian" territories consist almost entirely of people on the dole -- the government dole.

These are the hundreds of thousands, in the various and competing (save when it comes to killing Israelis) "security" services, of which there may be a dozen or so, and the "officials" in charge of nothing, of an empty state, a phony state, a state or administration that can never be economically viable because its population does not work, will not work, has no oil like the other Arabs, and yet thinks the world owes it a living because it lives cheek-by-jowl with the industrious, enterprising, hardworking and determined Israelis, and the comparison in living standards rankles.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald offers one for Prester John:

No aid should be given by Western nations on the theory that it is "only humanitarian" -- not to the “Palestinians,” and not to anyone else. And as Somalia becomes an Islamic state, especially not to Somalia. Let Saudi Arabia make Somalia its project.

On what basis, for what benefit, should Somalis be allowed into Western lands at this point? After all, no care is taken, none, to determine their sentiments regarding Jihad. Will they not simply swell the ranks of those who either are adherents of a belief-system inimical to all Infidels? Or, if they are not full adherents, they can become so at any time, or their children or grandchildren can. For what reason should we not take that risk? Furthermore, in answer to those who say that some are "moderates" fleeing the "Islamic" takeover, their "moderation" is entirely relative, akin to that of certain Afghani warlords who opposed the Taliban, and whose services may be welcome in Afghanistan, but who themselves, or any of those supporting them, should not, out of some diseased sense of what they are owed (they are owed nothing), be admitted into the Lands of the Infidels.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the courageous spokesman of the anti-jihad resistance, takes on the slick "moderate Muslim" Tariq Ramadan: "Muslim pundits clash over future of Islam in Europe" from the Financial Times, with thanks to Fjordman:

Two of the leaders of European Muslim opinion clashed dramatically yesterday on the position and future of the Muslim communities in European states.

Tariq Ramadan, the Swiss-born intellectual and grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somalian-born Dutch MP who was stripped of her Dutch citizenship over allegations of a falsified application for citizenship, displayed in personal form the bitterness of a debate which both agreed convulses their co-religionists....

"You must start from Islam as it is today. The great number of Muslims believe that the Koran is the absolute word of God; few believe it is a historic document. The number of people who believe the Prophet literally are much more numerous than those who see him as a historical figure.

"Why are large groups of Muslims leaving their countries? Nearly all Muslim countries are tyrannies, authoritarian, or failed states. Islamic states are in a terrible crisis. There is a lack of freedom; a lack of knowledge; and there is a subjugation of women. No wonder people leave," she said.

She agreed with previous speakers from Britain and Denmark that there was an over-representation of young Muslim men in prison, and that there was "a micro-climate of fear for women".

Mr Ramadan said it was wrong to suggest that Muslims were in Europe to proselytise, and wrong to say that Europe had a Judaeo-Christian past.

"Islam is a European religion. The Muslims came here after the first and second world wars to rebuild Europe, not to colonise. It is a mistake to deny complexity. When we speak about Islam we speak about terrorism; you are focusing on the few who are destroying and not the millions who are building. Muslims are in great majority law-abiding," he said.

He argued against some who said that there would be a clash between native Europeans and European Muslims and that no integration was now possible. "Integration is done: you can't go back. Social problems can't be Islamised," he said.

In a direct and sometimes heated argument, Mr Ramadan said: "My problem with you [Hirsi Ali] is that you are saying it is a problem with Muslims. Are you working to change a mentality - or to please the western audience?"

Ms Hirsi Ali said Mr Ramadan was guilty of ambiguity, and that if he believed in reconciliation, he should found a "Ramadanist" movement and fight for it.

To rebuild Europe, not to colonize? Highly tendentious at best.

Over at Ummah.com, some of the faithful are rejoicing over this false report, which they take to be true, that the Danish editor of the paper that originally printed the Muhammad cartoons (or, as some of them have it, one of the artists) has been killed in a fire.

Here are some of the responses -- others were either disbelieving or skeptical of the idea that Muslims should rejoice at this. The support for Zarqawi below went unchallenged:

breaking news!!!!!!! the artist who drew the pictures of the Prophet Muhammed (S.A.W)has died in a fire. He was burned alive. Denmark government is hiding the news from the public and everyone has got to know. Plz spread this....

(its the price one must pay 4 the insult of Allahs Prophet(S.A.W)

___

anyways if its true, its about time .

___

If this is true. Its a punishment WELL DESERVED. You don't mess with Allah(swt) last Prophet.

___

JazakAllah! [Thank Allah!]

___

may he burn in hell

__

his a NONMUSLIM...no mercy for u guyz when u die

___

ook At This Double Standards.

Shiekh Abu Musab [al-Zarqawi] Rahimahullah Becomes A Shaheed And All The Kufaar [unbelievers] Are Happy.

This Kaafir Dies And They Expect Us Not To Get Happy?

If You Can get Happy Then So Can We.

___

Allaaaaaaaaahu Akbarrrrr!
i just love the smell of crispy danish bacon!

___

Allah is the Most Merciful as well as the Most Just. So yeh the pig deserves to burn in the deepest pits of hell.... yeh....ameen to du'as [prayers]

Islam is not 'lets all hold hands and sing in the Church', whilst letting the people do whatever they want!

Sharia Alert from the Khaleej Times:

KARACHI - A Pakistani Muslim man accused of insulting the Prophet Mohammad has been killed inside a court compound in a frenzied knife attack, police said on Saturday.

The suspect accused of blasphemy, Abdul Sattar Gopang, was set upon by two attackers as he was leaving a court in the town of Muzzafargarh, 480 km (300 miles) southeast of Islamabad, on Friday. He was stabbed in the chest 15 times.

Police described the attackers as "religious fanatics." The two, a student and a shopkeeper, were arrested on murder charges, policemen Rai Tahir told Reuters by telephone.

"They have no regrets, they’re smiling," Tahir said. "They say they decided to kill Gopang at the first opportunity, that it was their duty."

Gopang had been arrested in March after being accused of uttering blasphemous comments during a fight with a man.

Blasphemy is against the law in Muslim Pakistan and carries the death sentence. Cases are relatively common but death sentences have never been carried out because convictions have always been turned down by high courts citing lack of evidence.

Wile [sic] death sentences have not been carried out, there are occasionally instances of enraged mobs attacking and killing people accused of blasphemy, including desecration of the Koran.

On Thursday, a mob killed a Muslim cleric in a village in Punjab province after members of a rival religious group accused the cleric of burning pages of the Koran.

A teacher who tried to save the cleric was attacked and hurt, said police official Arif Nawaz said.

The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said the cleric’s killing highlighted how the blasphemy law was abused by people to settle personal or religious disputes.

Sunni-Shi'ite Jihad Update from AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen seized 10 workers from a bakery Sunday in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad, while a car bomb exploded near a university in the northern city of Mosul, killing a woman and wounding 19 other people, police said.

The scattered attacks came after a day of unrelenting violence that killed more than two dozen people as insurgents foiled heightened security measures, dealing a blow to the Iraqi government's pledge to bring peace to the capital....

Police also found the bullet-riddled bodies of 10 men who showed signs of torture in several areas of Baghdad, and the body of a man who was shot in the head was found in Karbala, 50 miles south of the capital....

The spree of bombings and mortar attacks in the Baghdad area — including eight attacks Saturday that killed at least 27 people and wounded 27 — was an embarrassment for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who ordered more police and army checkpoints for the city last week to restore security for its 6 million residents.

1938 Alert from AFP, with thanks to JE:

TEHRAN, June 18, 2006 (AFP) - Iran said Sunday it would not accept any "preconditions" for fresh international talks over its disputed nuclear programme, implicitly rejecting demands that the Islamic republic suspend sensitive uranium enrichment work.

"Dialogue must be without preconditions, because any precondition limits the framework of the dialogue and does not allow results to be achieved," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters.

"The Islamic republic of Iran will not give up its rights. One cannot fix preconditions to hold negotiations without taking into account the position of the other party," he added.

Was Khomeini's revolution ever really in favor of freedom and democracy? Does Hossein Khomeini really believe it was? In any case, it will be interesting to see how the Thug-In-Chief responds to this. From the Telegraph, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

The grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini, the inspiration of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, has broken a three-year silence to back the United States military to overthrow the country's clerical regime.

Hossein Khomeini's call is all the more startling as he made it from Qom, the spiritual home of Iran's Shia strand of Islam, during an interview to mark the 17th anniversary of the ayatollah's death.

"My grandfather's revolution has devoured its children and has strayed from its course," he told Al-Arabiya, an Arabic-language television station. "I lived through the revolution and it called for freedom and democracy - but it has persecuted its leaders."

He also made clear his opposition to Teheran's alleged development of a secret nuclear weapons programme. "Iran will gain real power if freedom and democracy develop there," he said. "Strength will not be obtained through weapons and the bomb."

Mr Khomeini, 47, is a Shia cleric, but he believes that the holy men who have run the country since 1979 - to whom he dismissively refers as "wearers of the turban" - abused their power following the overthrow of the Shah.

The Dubai-based satellite channel's website spelt out his backing for armed intervention by America, a country excoriated as the Great Satan by his grandfather and Iran's current rulers.

It stated: "As for his call to President Bush to come and occupy Iran, Hossein Khomeini explained that 'freedom must come to Iran in any possible way, whether through internal or external developments.

If you were a prisoner, what would you do? I want someone to break the prison [doors open]'."

“Don’t talk openly, like ‘Tony Blair (is) an open target’. Now you can be taken in for glorifying terrorism."

"Imam backs terror attack against Blair," from the TimesOnline, with thanks to PK:

A RADICAL Muslim who ousted a leading moderate cleric from his mosque on the south coast with a campaign of violence has said he believes Tony Blair is a “legitimate target” for terrorists.

Abubaker Deghayes, who now runs the mosque in Brighton and whose brother Omar is a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, told an undercover reporter that he endorsed the views of George Galloway, the Respect MP, who said an attack on the prime minister by a suicide bomber could be morally justified. Deghayes said he prayed for Allah to support anyone who attacked Blair.

Court documents show Deghayes took over the mosque using violence, intimidation and threats. Dr Abduljalil Sajid, a leading imam and a government adviser on Islam, was forced out as head of the mosque by Deghayes and his supporters.

It is understood Sussex police Special Branch held a number of meetings with Sajid about extremist elements at the site, but no overt action was taken. Sajid, chairman of the Muslim Council for Religious and Racial Harmony, is understood to have raised his concerns about the mosque with Blair.

Police sources have confirmed that in the past extremist literature had been found at the site and that some of those attending the mosque were suspected of having fought as “mercenaries” abroad....

A reporter spent two weeks undercover at the Al-Quds mosque, which is in a detached house in Brighton. On Fridays, it can attract 100-200 worshippers. Deghayes made his extremist views clear while chatting to the reporter. Asked whether he shared Galloway’s view that the prime minister was a legitimate target for suicide bombers, he replied: “Yes, I do, I do.”

In another conversation, Deghayes said: “He is a legitimate target. Him and Bush are part of all that we see now.”

Later asked if he ever prayed for Blair to be attacked by a Muslim, he said: “I pray to Allah to support them. Of course, I know anybody who attacks in the name of Islam, Allah will take care of him.”

Deghayes also said he was unconcerned about British troops being killed in Iraq because the issue was “all clear in international law”. “Under international law anybody who’s been invaded, they are entitled to self-defence,” he said.

“It’s something all countries are signatories to. So what’s happening is an occupation. People in Iraq have every right to liberate themselves.”

But he urged the reporter to be careful with whom he discussed his views for fear of prosecution. Deghayes said: “Don’t talk openly, like ‘Tony Blair (is) an open target’. Now you can be taken in for glorifying terrorism.

“(Even) among Muslim brothers . . . there are hypocrites, munafiqs (hypocrites). There are spies, all sorts of people. There’s no need to talk about it, to say like this.”

Imagine how many artists and comedians and others would be in prison today if this were the standard in free societies. A Let-Them-Into-the-EU Alert from the TimesOnline, with thanks to JE:

A BRITISH artist is facing up to three years’ jail in Turkey for exhibiting a collage that depicts its Prime Minister as a dog being awarded a rosette by President Bush in a pet show.

Police in Istanbul seized Michael Dickinson’s Best in Show — in which he superimposed the head of Recep Tayyip Erdogan on to a dog’s body — from his exhibition in the city.

He has been told that he is likely to be charged with “insulting the dignity of the Prime Minister”. The show’s organiser, Erkan Kara, will go on trial on September 12 on the same charge.

Mr Dickinson, 56, said: “It’s such an Alice in Wonderland feeling. The law is so absurd . . . This law exists in Turkey about insulting ‘Turkishness’ or the State. You’re not allowed to state your opinion.”

The case could greatly embarrass Turkey and Britain, for it raises questions about Turkey’s human rights record as it seeks EU membership, with Tony Blair’s backing.

"We have, I'm afraid, moved into a posture…that, unless what we did two years ago is rejected, we are clearly on the side of theocratic, totalitarian, anti-Semitic, genocidal beliefs, and nothing less." Bravo, Woolsey.

"Harsh words: Former CIA chief Woolsey sharply criticizes 2004 GA decision," from the Presbyterian Church USA website, with thanks to Olivia:

BIRMINGHAM, June 16 — Presbyterian James Woolsey ran the Central Intelligence Agency during part of President Bill Clinton's administration, so his take on world events carries a certain weight among General Assembly commissioners.

He minced few words when he spoke during an unofficial General Assembly gathering Friday. Woolsey criticized the General Assembly's 2004 decision to consider divesting in companies that refuse to reform such practices as selling bulldozers to raze the homes of Palestinians living on land disputed with Israel.

"We have, I'm afraid, moved into a posture…that, unless what we did two years ago is rejected, we are clearly on the side of theocratic, totalitarian, anti-Semitic, genocidal beliefs, and nothing less," Woolsey declared.

Read it all.

Have the Iranians delivered the promised funds yet? Or are they spending all their money developing nukes? "Powers agree Palestinian aid plan," from the BBC, with thanks to JE:

The "Quartet" of Middle East peace brokers have agreed on a plan to resume aid for Palestinians, frozen since the Hamas government took power.

The scheme aims to release more than $120m of EU funds to support local health services and cater for the basic needs of poor Palestinians.

But funds will bypass the government, which refuses to recognise Israel.

Many Palestinians have been suffering severe economic hardship following the suspension of international aid.

The EU and US cut off funding after Hamas came to power earlier this year, accusing it of being a terrorist group.

But the aid freeze has prompted fears of a humanitarian crisis.

Dhimmitude in the Netherlands: Jihad Watch reader Willem has kindly sent in this English translation of a news item in the Dutch newspaper Trouw, published yesterday.

Willem explains:

It concerns a case of censorship of a Dutch professor for daring to criticize Islam. To my knowledge this has not happened before in the Netherlands, and I think it deserves the widest possible publicity.

I think this is a deeply worrying development, the more so as it comes on the heels of a report commissioned by the Dutch government and published last Wednesday in which it is recommended to deal in a more "flexible" manner with "secularism" in order to provide Muslims with more space. Which is, of course, a coded way of saying that criticism of Islam should be off limits.

The subject of Dr. Van der Horst's lecture was "The Myth of Jewish Cannibalism," a reference, of course, to the so-called Jewish Blood Libel myth. As far as I can see the other Dutch national newspapers have virtually ignored this news. An exception is NRC-Handelsblad which printed a few lines on page 3 that will only be clear to the initiated.

And here is the translation:

"Islamic antisemitism / Censorship of professor’s farewell lecture"

Trouw, 18 June 2006

Prof. dr. Pieter W. van der Horst has deleted passages on modern Islamic Antisemitism from his farewell lecture, which he gave yesterday in Utrecht.

The University Board had urged Van der Horst to adjust his farewell lecture, according to Van der Horst out of fear for negative responses from Muslims.

The profesor of New Testament Studies, who is since 1969 a member of Utrecht University’s Faculty of Theology, is very indignant about the affair, calling it “an outrageous infringement of my academic liberty”.

The text of the lecture landed quite some time ago on the desk of Prof. Dr. W.H. Gispen, rector magnificus of Utrecht University. Van der Horst was called to justify himself before a commision of four. In the Nieuw Israelitisch Weekblad he says: “The Muslim students might make trouble, the rector could ‘not even guarantee my safety’, the lecture was ‘below scholarly standards’.”

In his farewell lecture ‘The Myth of Jewish Cannibalism’ Van der Horst wanted to call attention among other things to “a great global problem, namely that part of the Islamic world has taken over the torch of hatred for the Jews from the nazis and is carrying it forward enthusiastically. The Islamisation of European Antisemitism is one of the most horrendous developments of the last decades.”

In the incriminated passage the professor foresaw he would be accused of ‘islamophobia’. “But one should never close one’s eyes to matters one does not like to see or which don’t fit a picture of the world that is often determined by ideological blinkers.”

In a written response, the University Board confirms the interview with the departing professor. “In that interview Van de Horst was urged (not forbidden) not to pronounce certain passages because they did not form part of a scholarly discourse and by their nature should not form part of of an academic farewell lecture.

The University Board says it regrets Van der Horst views the advice as a restriction of academic liberty.

Another assault on freedom of speech, this time in India. Is what Taslima Nasreen said offensive? Sure. Should she be deported for giving offense? Who would be left? From Reuters, with thanks to Mathew:

INDIA: Muslims in eastern India urged the government on Thursday to deport a controversial Bangladeshi author, saying she had hurt communal harmony with her anti-Islamic remarks at a recent public meeting.

Speaking at a seminar titled "Irrelevance of religion in the era of technology" on Saturday, Taslima Nasreen - known for her controversial views - told a packed hall in the eastern city of Kolkata that she used to abuse Allah as a child and that the Koran "contains contradictions".

Angered by her speech, Muslim leaders have written to the government demanding her immediate deportation and plan to hold protests against her.

"Communal harmony is in danger and she must be asked to leave if she has problems with Muslims," Hasan Ahmed Imran, general secretary of the Muslim Council of Bengal, told Reuters.

The 43-year-old author fled her home country in 1994 after hardline Muslims called for her death following her most controversial book, "Lajja" (Shame), which was banned for blasphemy and suggesting free sex.

Nasreen has since lived in the United States and Europe, before settling in India's eastern state of West Bengal, home to 25 million Muslims. She has applied for Indian citizenship, which Muslim leaders say must not be granted.

Muslim groups said they were incensed by Nasreen's remarks, which they felt had gone well beyond what is considered freedom of speech.

"As a eight-year-old child, I was warned by my mother that if I abused Allah I would be punished, but I did that and nothing happened to me," said Nasreen, as Muslims in the audience walked out of the hall.

Muslim leaders say they have filed a police complaint against Nasreen urging action against her for attempting to disturb peace and inciting communal tensions.

In January 2004, Nasreen was given police protection after an Indian Muslim cleric offered a reward of 20,000 rupees to anyone who blackened her face or garlanded her with shoes, traditionally seen as an insult in south Asia.

A call for new leadership from Charles Jacobs and Seth A. Klarman of the David Project:

A rush of shocking events is creating a "tipping point" in Jewish consciousness. Increasingly, Jews feel our situation has substantially changed, and for the worse.

The events include Iran’s nuclear threats and Holocaust denial, Hamas’ electoral victory, the torture and murder of Ilan Halimi in Paris by a Muslim gang, the "discovery" by a Harvard dean that Jews actually do conspire to control Congress and American foreign policy in the service of Israel and to the detriment of U.S. interests, and the British academic boycott.

All of these demonstrate for many that there is a new assault on the world’s Jews. The hostility is based on a unique and intense hatred of Israel and deep resentment of its supporters, accompanied by a growing willingness to use violence.

As though in a "perfect storm," two global ideologies, rooted in different radical critiques of the West, have suddenly aligned against us:

1. Islamic anti-Semitism. Fueled by Saudi petro-dollars and Iranian revolutionary zeal, a global campaign in mosques and madrassas (Islamic schools) teaches hundreds of millions of Muslims that Jews are the sons of monkeys and pigs, and killing them is a holy deed. The internet and television embellish the message: docudramas in Iran, Egypt and Jordan depict Jews harvesting the organs of Muslim children, killing non-Jews to make matzo, and plotting to rule the world.

This poison reaches Muslims in the West. Europe’s Jews are besieged and violently assaulted -- on the streets and in the no-longer varnished rhetoric of polite society. In America, Freedom House told Congress it found Saudi-produced hate literature aimed at Americans, Christians – but mostly Jews – in mosques across the U.S.

Sobering truths from the TimesOnline (thanks to all who sent this in, and apologies for my lateness in posting it):

ONE of Britain’s most senior military strategists has warned that western civilisation faces a threat on a par with the barbarian invasions that destroyed the Roman empire.

In an apocalyptic vision of security dangers, Rear Admiral Chris Parry said future migrations would be comparable to the Goths and Vandals while north African "barbary" pirates could be attacking yachts and beaches in the Mediterranean within 10 years.

Europe, including Britain, could be undermined by large immigrant groups with little allegiance to their host countries — a "reverse colonisation" as Parry described it. These groups would stay connected to their homelands by the internet and cheap flights. The idea of assimilation was becoming redundant, he said.

The warnings by Parry of what could threaten Britain over the next 30 years were delivered to senior officers and industry experts at a conference last week. Parry, head of the development, concepts and doctrine centre at the Ministry of Defence, is charged with identifying the greatest challenges that will frame national security policy in the future.

If a security breakdown occurred, he said, it was likely to be brought on by environmental destruction and a population boom, coupled with technology and radical Islam. The result for Britain and Europe, Parry warned, could be "like the 5th century Roman empire facing the Goths and the Vandals".

Read it all.

In an inexcusable puff piece about alleged "moderate Muslims" in the U.S. in the New York Times, one of them makes a moral equivalency argument between jihad kidnappings and U.S. military action, and another says he would like to see Sharia in the United States -- instituted by peaceful means, of course.

And remember: these are what the New Duranty Times thinks of as "moderates."

"U.S. Muslim Clerics Seek a Modern Middle Ground," from the Times, with thanks to Charles at LGF:

Both men are converts to Islam who spent years in the Middle East and North Africa being mentored by formidable Muslim scholars. They have since become leading intellectual lights for a new generation of American Muslims looking for homegrown leaders who can help them learn how to live their faith without succumbing to American materialism or Islamic extremism....

They haven't succumbed to extremism? Yet at least one asserts that every Muslim holds the same goal as Osama -- the institution of Islamic law over the U.S.? But of course that isn't extremism at all. It's just mainstream Islam, as we have been pointing out again and again here for years now.

Both men draw overflow crowds in theaters, mosques and university auditoriums that seat thousands. Their books and CD's are pored over by young Muslims in study groups. As scholars and proselytizers for of the faith, they have a much higher profile than most imams, as Muslim clerics who are usually in charge of mosques are known. Their message is that both Islam and America have gone seriously astray, and American Muslims have a responsibility to harness their growing numbers and economic power to help set them straight.

They say that Islam must be rescued from extremists who selectively cite Islamic scripture to justify terrorism. Though Mr. Yusuf and Mr. Shakir do not denounce particular scholars or schools of thought, their students say the two are challenging the influence of Islam's more reactionary sects, like Wahhabism and Salafism, which has been spread to American mosques and schools by clerics trained in Saudi Arabia. Where Wahhabism and Salafism are often intolerant of other religions — even of other streams within Islam — Mr. Yusuf and Mr. Shakir teach that Islam is open to a diversity of interpretations honed by centuries of scholars.

Mr. Yusuf told the audience in Houston to beware of "fanatics" who pluck Islamic scripture out of context and say, "We're going to tell you what God says on every single issue."

"That's not Islam," Mr. Yusuf said. "That's psychopathy."

He asked the audience to pray for the victims of kidnappers in Iraq, saying that kidnapping is just as bad as American bombings in which the military dismisses the civilians killed as "collateral damage."

"They're both sinister, as far as I'm concerned," he said. "One is efficient, the other is pathetic."...

He said he believed that if more Muslims were schooled in the their faith's diverse intellectual streams and a holistic understanding of their religion, they would not be so susceptible to the Osama bin Ladens who tell them that suicide bombers are martyrs.

"Where you don't have people who have strong intellectual capacity, you get demagoguery," he said.

Here again, we have the assertion that Osama is wrong, but no proof offered -- no arguments from the Qur'an or anything else. I'd like to see Hamza Yusuf make his case before his fellow Muslims. Especially in light of the fact that:

Mr. Yusuf once was a source of the kind of zealous rhetoric he now denounces. He said in 1995 that Judaism was based on the belief that "God has this bias to this small little tribe in the middle of the desert," which makes it "a most racist religion." On September 9, 2001, he said the United States "stands condemned" for invading Muslim lands.

He has since changed his tune — not for spin, he says, but on principle. "Our community has failed, and I include myself in that," he told an audience in a downtown theater in Elizabeth, N.J., this year. "When I started speaking in the early 90's, our discourse was not balanced.

"We were focused so often on what was negative about this country," he said. "We ended up alienating some people. I've said some things about other religions that I regret now. I think they were incorrect."

He added, "A tree grows. If you're staying the same, something is wrong. You're not alive."...

But the Qur'an stays the same, Islam stays the same. What does Yusuf think they teach?

He said he still hoped that one day the United States would be a Muslim country ruled by Islamic law, "not by violent means, but by persuasion."

"Every Muslim who is honest would say, I would like to see America become a Muslim country," he said. "I think it would help people, and if I didn't believe that, I wouldn't be a Muslim. Because Islam helped me as a person, and it's helped a lot of people in my community."

New York Jihad Update just in from Time Magazine: "Exclusive Book Excerpt: How an Al-Qaeda Cell Planned a Poison-gas Attack on the N.Y. Subway":

Al-Qaeda terrorists came within 45 days of attacking the New York subway system with a lethal gas similar to that used in Nazi death camps. They were stopped not by any intelligence breakthrough, but by an order from Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman Zawahiri. And the U.S. learned of the plot from a CIA mole inside al-Qaeda. These are some of the more startling revelations by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Suskind, whose new book The One Percent Doctrine is excerpted in the forthcoming issue of TIME. It will appear on Time.com early Sunday morning.

U.S. intelligence got its first inkling of the plot from the contents of a laptop computer belonging to a Bahraini jihadist captured in Saudi Arabia early in 2003. It contained plans for a gas-dispersal system dubbed "the mubtakkar" (Arabic for inventive). Fearing that al-Qaeda's engineers had achieved the holy grail of terror R&D — a device to effectively distribute hydrogen-cyanide gas, which is deadly when inhaled — the CIA immediately set about building a prototype based on the captured design, which comprised two separate chambers for sodium cyanide and a stable source of hydrogen, such as hydrochloric acid. A seal between the two could be broken by a remote trigger, producing the gas for dispersal. The prototype confirmed their worst fears: "In the world of terrorist weaponry," writes Suskind, "this was the equivalent of splitting the atom. Obtain a few widely available chemicals, and you could construct it with a trip to Home Depot – and then kill everyone in the store."

Arwah Jaber Update. From the Jerusalem Post: "US Palestinian accused of aiding Jihad"

A former graduate student testified he used a fake Social Security number to obtain credit cards but denied accusations that he tried to help terrorists.

A naturalized US citizen born in the West Bank, Arwah Jaber said he was "trying to survive" and did not believe at the time that it was against the law to provide false information on credit card applications.

Jaber, 34, who received a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Arkansas, was arrested June 16, 2005, as he waited to board a flight at an Arkansas airport.

During the trial that began Monday, federal prosecutors said Jaber tried to help the Islamic Jihad, which the US government has labeled a terrorist organization.

The prosecution presented testimony that Jaber told several people he was going to join the Palestinian resistance movement, that his personality changed from a smiling, happy student to an intense person interested in fighting Israel, that Jaber consulted a spiritual adviser in the Palestinian territories by phone just days before his arrest, and that he planned to return to the Palestinian territories and fight.

Defense attorneys called several federal experts who testified they did not think Jaber was a terrorist.

"A real terrorist wouldn't announce his intentions to the world by sending an e-mail or telling people," said former CIA officer Frank Anderson, who testified as an expert on Middle Eastern terror groups.

Sure, they do. They just usually funnel videotapes to Al-Jazeera.

Patricia Koski, associate dean of the university's graduate school, said Jaber's e-mail to a professor threatening to join the Islamic Jihad struck her as another grad student being dramatic.

Anti-Piglet Jihad in Turkey. From Reuters, with thanks to Tom:

TURKEY'S public television TRT, controlled by the Islamist-rooted government, has barred the popular Walt Disney cartoon Winnie the Pooh from air because it has a piglet as one of its main heroes, the Turkish press reported today.

Several other cartoons featuring pigs also failed to win the green light from TRT management, according to the left-wing Cumhuriyet daily.

The station initially considered scissoring the scenes showing Piglet, but abandoned the idea because the small pink-skinned character, one of Winnie the Pooh's closest friends, appeared too often, Cumhuriyet and the mass-circulation Sabah newspaper said.

TRT officials were not immediately available for comment.

Hugh Fitzgerald sent this for posting yesterday, so mentally date it still as being posted on June 16. It begins in the White House and ends in a house at 7 Eccles Street, but it's the arrival, not the journey, that matters.

Yes. At long last an intrepid Muslim, writing from deep within the Dar al-Islam, a Pakistani named Reza Azmi, has published an article in The Daily Times of Pakistan, "Thinking Aloud: 'an archaic incongruity'?" that asymptotically approaches the grim truth about Islam. For those just beginning to find out about Islam, it should be a welcome place to start. That is, it is a good place to start for all those now making policy, or criticizing it, as it applies to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, or to Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Malaysia, or to the endless Arab siege of Israel, or to India always threatened with Muslim mayhem and murder, or to helplessly Islamizing Western Europe, or to menaced Armenia and Georgia, or to the Caucasus, or to oil-rich Kazakhstan, to -- well, as that policy now applies to anywhere or everywhere, about almost anything from weapons sales to energy policy to foreign currency holdings to immigration and naturalization rules, this article can be read in public, can be assigned in courses, can be distributed to one and all. For this article tells something like the truth.

And thus there should be none of that crippling fear that Muslims might complain about its contents, for it can innocently be said "but a Muslim wrote it." And then, once this article has been circulated up and down, other ways and sources for learning about Islam, other than what the army of apologists suggests (including those President Bush apparently relied on just a year or two ago, including a professor of law from Ohio who uttered one series of howlers after another about Islam), will present themselves. Ibn Warraq and Ali Sina and Walid Shoebat and Nonie Darwish and many other defectors from Islam should be read. They are ready to share what they know of how Islam operates on the brain, of how it is inculcated, of how it suffuses an entire society, affecting even those who may never attend a mosque, who may even be lax or entirely unobservant but who will rally round, will lie to protect and to promote Islam, in ways that only those who have done it themselves, and testified about it, or who have seen close family members do it (against all reason and good sense), can really know.

The works of the leading scholar of dhimmitude, Bat Ye'or, should be thoroughly digested by the those who most need to comprehend what is happening -- not merely to Christians in Iraq or Lebanon or Egypt, but to Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh, and Buddhists and Hindus in Malaysia and Indonesia, so that the remarkable similarity in treatment of non-Muslims, through time and space, can be understood, so that the whole thing begins to make sense. And there are the books by Robert Spencer intended for a mass audience - Islam Unveiled, Onward Muslim Soldiers and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), as well as The Myth of Islamic Tolerance.

Copies of all of these things should be given out to officers and men. They should be available in libraries on army bases. They should be distributed in the State Department, and not only to the Middle Eastern desks. They should be made available, paid for by the Pentagon, in tens of thousands of copies, for all the member states of NATO - and if Turkey objects, Turkey can simply not be sent a shipment. After all, in Turkey they already know all about Islam. They should be sure to reach the desks of those commentators who, until now, have carefully tiptoed around the subject of Islam altogether, which now limits their usefulness -- at least Fouad Ajami is clever enough to recognize that, though what he is prepared to say and write about this, and whether he is prepared to do the necessary study before speaking and writing on this matter, will be the test of his life.

Let copies be lying around Fort Monroe; let Generals Casey and Vines (he of the Esposito-composed reading list), and Ham and Kimmett (Abizaid, the keenest of the lot on these matters, probably doesn't need any reading list or books sent to him) make this the subject of their summer reading - that and nothing else. And let them read and re-read, until it all sinks in. A week or two spent with the Articles and Archives at Jihad Watch might also help. Break the silence, break the taboos, end the ignorance, end the talk about "the war on terror," end the talk about spreading freedom, start talking about defending against the Jihad and weakening the forces of Jihad. Stop the nonsense about "extremists" who have "hijacked" something, stop the talk about "tolerance" and "peace" in this ("noble," "great," fill in your false epithet here) "religion," stop all of it. Stop saying "they hate us" for this or "they hate us" for that. They "hate us" on Wall Street or in the Pentagon or on Elm Street or Main Street for the same reason that "they hate" a Hindu villager beaten to death for being outside a mosque in Bangladesh when Friday Prayers have just ended, or a Thai monk who happens to take care of a Buddhist Temple in southern Thailand, or any number of others, of every nation, of high and low degree: because they are Infidels. Infidels live in monarchies and parliamentary democracies and dictatorships; it doesn't matter; they are still Infidels. Infidels may have contributed not a penny to Muslims, or may have bombed fellow Infidels to protect Muslims, as some thought advisable, in Bosnia and Kosovo. They may be quick to aid Muslims after every earthquake or tsunami, with far more aid, delivered with far greater dispatch, than all the Muslim states put together. None of that matters: they are still Infidels. Residents of "Infidel" lands may be devout Christians or Jews, Hindus or Buddhists, or people entirely indifferent, even hostile to all beliefs. Doesn't matter: Infidels all.

Another honor killing in Britain. Islamization of Europe Alert from the TimesOnline, with thanks to all who sent this in:

A BUSINESSMAN is facing a life sentence for stabbing his sister to death in front of his two young daughters in a so-called honour killing.

Azhar Nazir, 30, and his cousin, 17, used four knives to cut Samaira Nazir’s throat and repeatedly stab her after she fell in love with an asylum-seeker from what they saw as an unsuitable caste.

Miss Nazir, 25, had rejected suitors lined up to meet her in Pakistan and had been summoned to the family home in Southall, Middlesex.

The father, also called Azhar, Nazir and the youth launched the attack and at one point dragged her by her hair back into the property.

Miss Nazir, a businesswoman described as “strong-willed”, was heard to shout at her mother, Irshad Begum: “You are not my mother any more.” She was then held down as a scarf was tied around her neck and her throat was cut in three places. Nazir’s daughters, aged 2 and 4, were screaming and were splattered with blood. Police fear that they were ordered to watch as a warning to them. Neighbours called the police after hearing the screaming.

Nazir was found guilty yesterday of murdering his sister; a day after his cousin, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was convicted for his part in the murder. They were remanded in custody and will be sentenced at the Old Bailey in London next month.

The expense of such prosecutions should be added to the overall expenses caused by unrestricted Muslim immigration into Britain.

Was the money he collected from this scam going to Palestinian Islamic Jihad? "Grocer pleads guilty in food-stamp fraud," from the Chicago Tribune, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

CHICAGO -- A 33-year-old man facing charges in Florida of funding the Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Jihad pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to illegally exchanging cash for food stamps at his West Side grocery store.

Hatem Fariz, of Spring Hill, Fla., admitted that from May 1999 to December 2000 he fraudulently redeemed more than $1.6 million from the Link program.

Fariz would let customers swipe their food-stamp cards for specific amounts of money and then pay them back a lesser amount in cash. He would then collect the difference.

Fariz, who formerly led a Chicago mosque, moved to Florida, where he was arrested for funding Islamic Jihad. At trial last year, a jury acquitted him of several terror-related charges but didn't reach a verdict on eight counts. He is free on $1.1 million bail.

For admitting fraud and money laundering in Chicago, he faces up to 3 years, 5 months in prison.

In "Faith crimes" in the Financial Times (thanks to Tim), John Lloyd criticizes the liberal establishment and media in Britain for not standing up for freedom of speech during the Muhammad cartoon controversy:

Liberals have lost some important battles in the struggle to preserve democratic standards in the face of extremism. One was lost here in Britain, and by my profession, namely the decision by all British newspapers not to reprint the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten.

The papers' decision was encouraged by the Labour government and accompanied by a good deal of sage self-congratulation that wisdom had prevailed.

The fact that journalism's central task is to relate or show to people what is happening was put to one side, even though in this case what was happening was, inter alia, murders, burnings, riots and boycotts. Now that the smoke has literally cleared, we can see more clearly what that decision was: a disastrous miscalculation.

The fourth estate acted on the possibility rather than the actuality of a threat, putting it in the same league as the management of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, which took off the play Behzti after it was attacked by militant Sikhs, and, more recently, the organisers of last month's London exhibition of the paintings of Maqbool Fida Husain.

Husain was targeted by Hindu militants because he painted nude gods and goddesses, which happens to be common in Hindu art and sculpture. But militants in any faith community are driven by competitive pressures as much as the keenest business leader. If the Muslims win a trick, why shouldn't the Sikhs? And the Hindus? The only faith that hasn't generally won these kind of contests is that of the Christians, who last month had to put up with seeing Madonna perform while hanging from a cross....

"Without fear or favour" has been a motto of the press. But in the case of the cartoons, it showed fear, and did itself and the communities to which the pro-ban militants claim allegiance no favours. Fundamentalist, violent Islam has, of course, a world- conquering ideology that no other religion now possesses.

Or ever has possessed, but let it pass.

A crucial debate is going on within Islam. While the keenest and most violent spirits of this war seek to win the fight by exporting it to the lands of the Crusaders and the Jews, their non-violent co-religionists are engaged in a struggle of opinions that must now involve us all. This debate is going on in the only place it can - in western Europe, where there are many diverse Muslim communities, and where the traditions and freedoms necessary for open argument exist.

In this context, acceptance of limits on debate serve Muslim communities ill. The defeat of the proposed law on incitement to religious hatred was a victory for free speech, but also for Muslims. When powerful figures in religious-ethnic communities seek to preserve their authoritarian status and confine argument, their first targets are their dissenting co-religionists....

Read it all.

A tough new immigration bill in France -- that's the good news. How tough is it? Well, it abolishes the right of illegal immigrants to remain in France after ten years! I guess it could be worse -- a measure like this could have been rejected.

"French immigration bill approved," from the BBC, with thanks to JE:

The upper house of the French parliament has passed a tough new immigration bill, weeks after it was adopted by the lower chamber.

The bill makes it harder for unskilled migrants to settle in France and abolishes the rights of illegal immigrants to remain after 10 years.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who drafted the bill, says it will bring France into line with other countries.

Critics say it is racist and accuse Mr Sarkozy of pandering to the far-right.

That rhetoric must be confronted head-on.

Mullah Ibrahim decides there is no reason to keep fighting since what he is fighting for is something that Afghanistan already has. Brave New Democratic Afghanistan Update: "Taliban commander surrenders," from AFP, with thanks to JE:

A MID-LEVEL Taliban commander said to lead more than 100 men in southern Afghanistan surrendered to a government reconciliation drive overnight as authorities arrested 12 other rebels.

Mullah Ibrahim, aged about 45, told reporters in the southern city of Kandahar that he had decided to join the reconciliation process "because I can see that there is an Islamic government in place."

Police arrested the one-legged mullah about two weeks ago in Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taliban movement that sees the worst of the militant uprising against the new government.

The US-led coalition says Ibrahim had been in charge of 100 to 150 troops and was "active" in Kandahar city and Panjwayi district, about 30km to the southwest.

Picked up by a U.S. boat. Watch for the estabishment of the Islamic Republic of Somalia. Somali Jihad Update from the BBC, with thanks to JE:

Two Somali warlords defeated in recent fighting in the capital, Mogadishu, are reported to have fled the country.

Bashir Raghe and Muse Sudi Yalahow, both part of a coalition formed to fight an Islamist militia, were said to have left Mogadishu by boat.

The Union of Islamic Courts gained control of the capital two weeks ago after months of fierce fighting.

The lawless city had been controlled by a group of secular warlords since the government fell in 1991.

Reports suggested that the two men had boarded a US vessel off the coast of Somalia.

'Looted'

"Bashir Raghe and Muse Sudi took a boat and they were picked up by the US," a senior aide to the Islamist leadership, Abdulrahman Ali Osman, told Reuters news agency.

Lights out in the U.K. "Police may let Muslims see terrorism intelligence," from The Guardian, with thanks to Fraser:

The police are considering a proposal to let selected British Muslims examine the intelligence used to mount anti-terrorism raids before they take place, the Guardian has learned.

The proposal will be considered as part of a review of the raid in Forest Gate, east London, a fortnight ago when 250 officers stormed a family house searching for a chemical weapon which was not found. One man was shot and police have apologised for the "hurt" caused by the raid which has further damaged strained relations with the local community. The review began this week and is expected to be completed before the end of the month.

While such a review after a controversial incident is standard, this one is unique because British Muslims are involved from the start.

A senior police source with knowledge of the issues involved said: "We are working on sharing more information with the community before, during and after events so they understand as much of the context as we can provide."

Oh yes, they're big on understanding context.

For "Koranic schools," will law enforcement look the other way, in spite of their being fronts for racketeering?

From CNN:

DAKAR, Senegal (Reuters) -- In a dirty white T-shirt hanging down to his knees, 4-year-old Harouna Balde begs for coins in bare feet among the traffic on the polluted streets of Dakar.

Holding a rusty begging tin that is the trademark of the "talibes" -- students at Senegal's Koranic schools -- Balde says he must take back money or face a beating from his religious teacher, or marabout.

"I must bring back 500 francs ($0.90) every day to my master or face punishment," says the tiny boy. He travels from his squalid daara, or religious school, in the distant suburb of Thiaroye to beg all day in the city center.

[...]

Balde is one of an estimated 100,000 children begging on the streets of Senegal, according to U.N. officials -- most of them sent out by their religious teachers.

100,000 children, if they're all compelled to bring in money like young Balde's 90 cents a day, are making someone an impressive amount of money, even by Western standards. One has to wonder what it's being spent on.

[...]

Now, the booming industry has become so successful that children are smuggled from neighboring Mali, Gambia or Mauritania to beg in Dakar, U.N. child agency UNICEF said. Balde was separated from his parents in Guinea Bissau.

"The problem is mushrooming," said Jean-Claude Legrand, West and Central Africa child protection officer with UNICEF, in an interview ahead of Friday's Day of the African Child.

"The issue of begging children in Senegal is becoming a sub-regional child trafficking problem."

Every year thousands of children are smuggled across West Africa, UNICEF says. Many end up as victims of forced labor, sexual abuse and prostitution.

From the Jerusalem Post:

Syria has expressed interest in purchasing weapons from Iran, including scud and anti-aircraft missiles, rocket launchers, Russian T-27 tanks, and even fighter planes. Meanwhile, Syrian Defense Minister Gen. Hassan Turkemani signed a mutual cooperation deal on Thursday with his Iranian counterpart General Mustafa Muhammad Najar.

The writer may have his/her numbers reversed in the paragraph above: The T-27 is a WWII-vintage model, while the T-72Z Safir-74, according to the Federation of American Scientists, is "an Iranian upgrade to the T-54/[T-55] that may have been applied to Iraqi T-54s captured in the Iran-Iraq War."

"The two countries' armed forces must be prepared to face the common enemy that has been working to undermine stability and cause regional tension," Turkemani said.

Seems like an awful lot of fanfare for some recycled tanks, scud missiles, and such.

Among his visits in the Islamic Republic, he met with the Iranian chief of staff and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and toured a local aircraft factory.

Syrian sources told the London-based Al Hayat that the understandings were of a strictly defensive nature. They indicated that both countries have been targeted recently [by Western powers].

After a meeting between the two senior officials, the Iranian Defense Ministry issued a statement saying that Teheran was interested in strengthening cooperation against "American and Israeli threats." It also noted that the two countries should struggle to bring peace and stability in the region and disarm it from weapons of mass destruction.

"Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power...to strike terror into the hearts of the enemies..." (Qur'an 8:60).

"Militants hack off noses, tongues," from Reuters, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

SUSPECTED Islamist militants killed a villager in Indian Kashmir by slitting his throat and cut off the tongues and noses of four others, accusing them of being police informers, authorities said today.

The attackers also beat up seven other villagers and set several houses ablaze late on Wednesday in a remote village near Mahore town, 65 km north-east of Jammu city, the Indian state's winter capital.

"It is a mountainous village and it takes six hours on foot to reach there from the nearest road link," said a police officer.

"These foreign militants are ruthless," he said, referring to guerrillas India say are Islamists who cross into its part of Kashmir from Pakistan, and sometimes even Afghanistan.

Villagers in the area said the attackers were probably acting out of revenge, suspecting the locals of informing the police about the presence of a militant who was killed in the area in April.

Elsewhere in the region, a civilian was killed and five others, including three policemen, were wounded today when suspected militants fired at a police patrol near a mosque in Bandipur town, north of Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital.

"The police party was attacked after it had attended Friday prayers," a police spokesman said....

More than 45,000 people have been killed since a separatist revolt broke out in 1989 in Jammu and Kashmir, mainly Hindu India's only Muslim-majority state which is also claimed by Pakistan.

For the crime of conducting a Christian worship service. Islamic Tolerance Alert from Compass Direct:

June 15 (Compass Direct) – Ten Saudi Arabian police armed with wooden clubs raided a private Christian worship meeting in the coastal city of Jeddah on June 9, arresting four East African citizens leading the service.

At press time the two Ethiopian and two Eritrean Christians remained in the city’s deportation jail.

More than 100 Eritreans, Ethiopians and Filipinos were gathered for worship in a home in Jeddah’s Al-Rowaise district at 11 o’clock last Friday morning when a group of Saudi police entered the meeting, wooden clubs in hand.

The startled worshippers brought chairs to seat the policemen, who sat and waited for the three-hour worship service to conclude. None used their clubs or physically mishandled the worshippers.

“Actually, some muttawa [Muslim religious police] came to this gathering about two weeks before,” a local source told Compass, “but they did not do anything.”

But after the June 9 weekly praise and prayer service finished, police arrested four leaders of the group: Ethiopian Christians Mekbeb Telahun and Masai Wendewesen, together with Eritrean Christians Fekre Gebremedhin and Dawit Uqbay.

The four were jailed in the Jeddah Terhil (Deportation) Center, where guards have since permitted an acquaintance to bring them all a change of clothes. Three of the men are married; Wendewesen is single.

Sunni-Shi'ite Jihad Update from AP, with thanks to JE:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide bomber struck a Shiite mosque during Friday prayers in Baghdad, killing at least 10 people and wounding 20, police said, as violence persisted in the capital despite a massive security operation aimed at restoring order.

Police Lt. Thaer Mahmoud said the attacker blew himself up at the Buratha mosque in northern Baghdad.

Mahmoud said the bomber was wearing an explosive belt, but Jalal Eddin al-Sagheer, the preacher at the mosque and one of the country's leading politicians, however, said the explosives were inside a worshipper's shoes.

He said guards first arrested a suspected attacker after discovering explosives as they were searching shoes left outside the mosque. The bomber blew himself up when confronted by the guards as they began searching worshippers with shoes beside them inside the mosque, al-Sagheer said.

Jihad Watch reader David has kindly sent me the above photos and this report:

On Tuesday evening, a group of "Persian Royalists" "occupied" the Arc de Triomphe in the center of Paris to protest the Iranian nuclear program, and the emerging alliance between Russia, China, and Iran. They flew the flag called the "draphshe," which is the royal crescent of ancient Persia.

The group undertaking the action is called "Derafsh e Kaviani". It is an anti-Islamic Iranian goup which is calling for the overthrow of the Islamic regime in Teheran, and its replacement by a royal regime. The protesters remained on the Arc de Triomphe until Wednesday morning.

Since 1995, this group has protested against the Iranian nuclear program, as well as the support for this program provided by Russia and China. In 2005 the group organized a protest in the European Union headquarters in Brussels against European negotiations with Teheran over the nuclear program. This group states that the Iranian nuclear program is one of the greatest dangers of our time. Their website is:
http://www.iran-resist.org/ -- but it is in French...

In "THINKING ALOUD: ‘An archaic incongruity’?" in the Daily Times of Pakistan (thanks to DFS), Razi Azmi offers a refreshingly honest view of the state of the Islamic world today. Here again, this is the sort of thing that, if a non-Muslim had written it, would immediately bring cries of "Islamophobia."

In their nearly 400-page Report of the Court of Inquiry into the Punjab Disturbances of 1953, popularly known as the Munir Report, two eminently learned Pakistani judges, Chief Justice Muhammad Munir and Justice MR Kayani had concluded, after 117 sittings, perusing 3,600 pages of written statements and sifting through 2,700 pages of evidence over eight months:

“Nothing but a bold reorientation of Islam to separate the vital from the lifeless can preserve it as a world idea and convert the Musalman into a citizen of the present and the future world from the archaic incongruity that he is today.”

Has anything changed since this bold statement was made by the justices over half a century ago?

Seventeen Canadian Muslims, five of whom are teenagers, were arrested earlier this month in Toronto for conspiring to carry out terrorist attacks in the very country which not only hosted and nurtured them but is also considered a model of multiculturalism and tolerance. Indeed, the province of Ontario recently came close to allowing Muslims to be governed by their own Sharia courts instead of secular civil courts.

At least six of those arrested regularly attended the same mosque in a middle-class Toronto suburb. The oldest, Qayyum Abdul Jamal, 43, is said to be an active member of the mosque who frequently led prayers and made fiery speeches.

In England, another bastion of multiculturism with a massive and thriving Muslim presence, less than a year after 9/11 Al Qaeda sympathisers were openly selling a video at Birmingham’s Central Mosque after the busy Friday prayers showing the chilling “last will and testament” of one of the September 11 hijackers. Duly impressed, a couple of years later four British Muslims carried out suicide-attacks on London transport killing 52 fellow-Britons and injuring hundreds.

When Abu Musab al Zarqawi was killed in Iraq a week ago, Pakistani parliamentarians belonging to Islamist parties demanded that the National Assembly hold a condolence meeting. The country’s Urdu newspapers are referring to Zarqawi as a martyr for Islam (shaheed). There have been demonstrations in the Palestinian territories hailing him as a hero.

Arabic Islamist chat rooms claim that Zarqawi is in heaven. One wrote: “Oh God, make heaven celebrate his arrival there.” “Oh Allah, reunite us with Abu Musab al Zarqawi in the great paradise alongside Prophet Muhammad [peace be upon him],” wrote another. “Farewell, oh hero,” said an unsigned poem. “We hope to meet you in ... a paradise filled with rivers and sweetness /And beautiful virgins that beckon to us in a unique voice.”

The subject of these fulsome tributes was a man whose barbarity knew no bounds. Zarqawi’s achievements included the “horribly grotesque” beheading of the Jewish-American businessman Nick Berg, in May 2004, publicised in his promotional video titled Sheikh Abu Musab Zarqawi Slaughters an American Infidel....

The very people who openly or secretly admire Zarqawi will, at the appropriate forums, cite the Quranic verse to the effect that the killing of even one innocent person is tantamount to the killing of all mankind and to emphasise that Islam literally means peace. Those who will not allow any differences of opinion or interpretation even within the Muslim community convene and attend what are called inter-faith dialogues with followers of other faiths, some of whom they regard as errant or misguided and others as evil and sinful....

Such is the Salafist doctrine which is gaining popularity among Muslims. Besides rejecting any genuine attempt at understanding, accommodation, coexistence and ijtehad, Salafism bars all joyous pursuits and entertainment (including most games, films and music.

In the heartland of Islam, namely, Saudi Arabia, women can neither vote nor drive, and alleged criminals routinely have their hands, feet and heads chopped off in public squares; in Iran, the Ayatollahs will not allow women to watch men playing soccer; and in Taliban-dominated lands (which includes Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan), alleged criminals have been stoned to death. Here, even fully veiled women cannot leave their homes without being chaperoned by a mehram (close male relative)....

Whenever a terrorist outrage occurs in any Muslim country and the victims are ordinary Muslims, we are told that Muslims must never kill Muslims. Even fatwas are issued to that effect. The unspoken and unwritten subtext seems to suggest that it is acceptable for Muslims to kill non-Muslims, provided there is a pretext.

Many Muslims will go to any lengths to migrate to the West, but, to the Salafists, the West is the evil enemy. The American-educated leader of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, Syed Qutb, stated that “truth and falsehood cannot coexist on earth ... the liberating struggle of jihad does not cease until all religion belongs to God”.

If that is militant, extremist Islam, determined to conquer or destroy all who follow another creed or beg to differ, other varieties are a hodgepodge of obscurantism, ignorance, mythology and mob mentality....

Hundreds of people, including Muslims, have been jailed, in some cases killed, for alleged blasphemy in the last two decades. In one such case about a year ago, the accused included five children, aged between nine and 13. In 2002, one Zahid of Chak Jhumra, a mentally ill person, was stoned to death for blasphemy by a mob instigated by a maulvi after being set free by a court.

Rapists have escaped prosecution for lack of “eye-witnesses” as required by traditional Muslim law. But many victims, including a blind woman who became pregnant as a consequence of being raped, have been convicted of adultery or fornication.

I wonder what the venerable Justices Munir and Kayani would have said about the present state of the ummah. An incongruity wrapped in absurdity?

Yes, or worse.

There's giving someone the rope with which to hang you... and then there's this.

From WorldNetDaily:

JERUSALEM - Weapons transferred last week by Israel to Force 17, the presidential guard units of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, will be utilized for attacks against Jews, a senior member of Force 17 told WorldNetDaily in an exclusive interview today.

The militant, Abu Yousuf, hinted the weapons already were used in two shooting attacks the past few days that killed one Israeli civilian and wounded another.

[...]

Olmert said the shipment was meant to bolster security forces loyal to Abbas amid an increasingly violent power struggle between the PA chairman's Fatah party and Hamas, which won recent Palestinian parliamentary elections.

"I did this because we are running out of time and we need to help Abu Mazen," Olmert told reporters Tuesday.

The weapons reportedly were escorted by Israel to Ramallah and to the Gaza border where they were received by Force 17 members.

Abu Yousuf said the weapons will be fired at Israelis.

"These weapons will not be used in an internal war but against Israelis," he said. "Force 17 is proud that we were the first to lead the Palestinian people during tough times such as resistance operations [against the Israeli army during large-scale operations in northern Samaria in 2002]. We will also be the first to lead the Palestinians in the current struggle against Israeli occupation."

Several Force 17 members, including Yousuf, also are members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a terror group linked to Abbas' Fatah party responsible for scores of suicide bombings and shooting attacks.

Somali Jihad Update. From AFP: "Somali Islamists overrun towns in northward push"

MOGADISHU (AFP) - Islamic militias now controlling swathes of southern Somalia pushed north, as their supporters protested against plans to deploy African peacekeepers in the lawless nation and an international forum began talks in New York.

The African Union for its part called for international support for the transitional government, which has been powerless to stop the new round of fighting which has killed more than 360 people in four months.

Areas under the sway of the Joint Islamic Courts militia now include most of the capital, Mogadishu, the town of Jowhar in Middle Shabelle region as well as Gialalassi town and several posts in Hiraan region, all former strongholds of US-backed warlords who were routed on Wednesday.

Islamic commanders said they had seized the towns without much resistance and were targeting Beledweyne, a key access town to Ethiopia, about 300 kilometres (189 miles) north of the capital.

Here's a map to put lesser-known towns and regions in context.

At the same time the Islamic alliance leadership sought the support of influential clan elders for the imposition of Sharia law in areas the Islamists now control and for the expulsion of the warlords from their last strongholds in the country.

1938 Alert from AP, with thanks to Warren:

Iran's defense minister on Thursday vowed that his country would "use nuclear defense as a potential" if "threatened by any power."

Speaking following a meeting with his Syrian counterpart Hassan Ali Turkmani in Teheran on Thursday, Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar emphasized that Iran "should be ready for confronting all kinds of threats."

Sunni/Shi'ite Jihad Update from AAP, with thanks to Twostellas:

Gunmen opened fire and threw hand grenades at a Sunni Arab mosque near the Iraqi town of Tikrit on Thursday, killing four worshippers and wounding up to 20 others, a police source and a local resident said.

A nephew of one of those killed, citing witnesses, said seven masked gunmen in traditional Arab clothes opened fire as people left the mosque in the small town of Alam after morning prayers, killing one person immediately.

He said the attackers hurled hand grenades as the worshippers fled back into the mosque, followed them inside and killed three others, including his uncle Dawod al-Khalid.

Keysar Trad spreads some soothing syrup to make up for Bashir's faux pas. "Bashir's call to Islam 'in bad taste,'" from NineMSN, with thanks to Jimmy:

Comments by Abu Bakar Bashir urging grieving Australian families of the Bali bombings to convert to Islam are in "bad taste", an Australian Muslim spokesman says.

The radical Muslim cleric, who was released from an Indonesian prison on Wednesday, said those killed in the 2002 Bali bombings had been destined to die by God and their grieving families should now convert to Islam to find "salvation and peace".

He also called on Prime Minister John Howard to convert to Islam or face eternity in hell.

Islamic Friendship Association spokesman Keysar Trad on Thursday said Bashir's comments had understandably upset Australians.

"I think these comments are in very bad taste and I can understand that the families would be incensed that he could be making comments of this nature," Mr Trad told AAP.

"They have lost their loved ones in this tragedy and we should be showing them understanding and support rather than talking about their loss in this manner."

Mr Trad said he was surprised by Bashir's outburst and the cleric was not showing "sensitivity".

"As a Muslim I am personally hurt on behalf of the families and I feel a sense of sadness for their loss," he said.

"For him (Bashir) to come out and make these comments I just find he is not passing on the right message.

"I am surprised that he made these comments but I do not believe they will threatened the idea of peace between religions."

Mr Trad said Islam was "a serious religion" that did not "take other people's pain lightly".

All right. Then I trust Mr. Trad is working hard to make sure that no Muslims in Australia believe the way Abu Bakar Bashir does. Isn't he?

Via Daniel Pipes comes this collection from FAIR of Media Pundit Thomas Friedman's august predictions, "Tom Friedman's Flexible Deadlines: Iraq's 'decisive' six months have lasted two and a half years":

"The next six months in Iraq—which will determine the prospects for democracy-building there—are the most important six months in U.S. foreign policy in a long, long time." (New York Times, 11/30/03)

"What I absolutely don't understand is just at the moment when we finally have a UN-approved Iraqi-caretaker government made up of—I know a lot of these guys—reasonably decent people and more than reasonably decent people, everyone wants to declare it's over. I don't get it. It might be over in a week, it might be over in a month, it might be over in six months, but what's the rush? Can we let this play out, please?"
(NPR's Fresh Air, 6/3/04)

"What we're gonna find out, Bob, in the next six to nine months is whether we have liberated a country or uncorked a civil war."
(CBS's Face the Nation, 10/3/04)

"Improv time is over. This is crunch time. Iraq will be won or lost in the next few months. But it won't be won with high rhetoric. It will be won on the ground in a war over the last mile."
(New York Times, 11/28/04)

"I think we're in the end game now…. I think we're in a six-month window here where it's going to become very clear and this is all going to pre-empt I think the next congressional election—that's my own feeling— let alone the presidential one."
(NBC's Meet the Press, 9/25/05)

"Maybe the cynical Europeans were right. Maybe this neighborhood is just beyond transformation. That will become clear in the next few months as we see just what kind of minority the Sunnis in Iraq intend to be. If they come around, a decent outcome in Iraq is still possible, and we should stay to help build it. If they won't, then we are wasting our time."
(New York Times, 9/28/05)

"We've teed up this situation for Iraqis, and I think the next six months really are going to determine whether this country is going to collapse into three parts or more or whether it's going to come together."
(CBS's Face the Nation, 12/18/05)

"We're at the beginning of I think the decisive I would say six months in Iraq, OK, because I feel like this election—you know, I felt from the beginning Iraq was going to be ultimately, Charlie, what Iraqis make of it."
(PBS's Charlie Rose Show, 12/20/05)

"The only thing I am certain of is that in the wake of this election, Iraq will be what Iraqis make of it—and the next six months will tell us a lot. I remain guardedly hopeful."
(New York Times, 12/21/05)

"I think that we're going to know after six to nine months whether this project has any chance of succeeding. In which case, I think the American people as a whole will want to play it out or whether it really is a fool's errand."
(Oprah Winfrey Show, 1/23/06)

"I think we're in the end game there, in the next three to six months, Bob. We've got for the first time an Iraqi government elected on the basis of an Iraqi constitution. Either they're going to produce the kind of inclusive consensual government that we aspire to in the near term, in which case America will stick with it, or they're not, in which case I think the bottom's going to fall out."
(CBS, 1/31/06)

"I think we are in the end game. The next six to nine months are going to tell whether we can produce a decent outcome in Iraq."
(NBC's Today, 3/2/06)

"Can Iraqis get this government together? If they do, I think the American public will continue to want to support the effort there to try to produce a decent, stable Iraq. But if they don't, then I think the bottom is going to fall out of public support here for the whole Iraq endeavor. So one way or another, I think we're in the end game in the sense it's going to be decided in the next weeks or months whether there's an Iraq there worth investing in. And that is something only Iraqis can tell us."
(CNN, 4/23/06)

"Well, I think that we're going to find out, Chris, in the next year to six months—probably sooner—whether a decent outcome is possible there, and I think we're going to have to just let this play out."
(MSNBC's Hardball, 5/11/06)

This is what passes for analysis in the mainstream media these days.

Not really. The Saudi paper in question is imagining divine retribution when, to the best of my knowledge, none has taken place and the actual Danish editor who printed the cartoons, Flemming Rose, is alive and well and has recently published this explanation of why he did it.

"'Danish Editor burnt alive,'" from Pakistan's The Nation, with thanks to Burns:

The editor of the Danish newspaper ‘Jyllands Posten’ was burnt to death when a fire mysteriously broke out in his bedroom, a Saudi newspaper claims.

According to the newspaper, the editor was sleeping in his bedroom when the fire ravaged his bedroom. He and his newspaper became controversial when it had published blasphemous caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

The paper claims that the Danish govt is trying to cover up the news of the death. He was hit by divine retribution, the paper added. Muslims, all over the world, strongly denounced this blasphemous act and massive protests were held in all Muslim countries including Pakistan. Text messages and emails that claim that the editor or the cartoonist has been burnt alive have also been circulating since Tuesday, lending support to this report. The paper named the editor as Elliot Back. However, Back is merely a senior in Computer Science at Cornell University, who had published the caricatures on his website. Name of the culture editor of Jyllands Posten, who commissioned the caricatures, is Flemming Rose. Jens Julius is the name of one of the cartoonists that drew the images. There were 12 cartoonists in all, who according to the BBC have gone into hiding.

Abu Bakar Bashir has previously invited Aussie PM Howard and the families of his Bali victims to join him in the faith that has motivated him to kill. "Cleric Calls on Bush to Convert to Islam," from AP, with thanks to David:

SOLO, Indonesia - A reputed leader of the al-Qaida-linked terror group blamed for deadly bombings across Indonesia on Thursday accused President Bush and Australian Prime Minister John Howard of waging wars against Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir also called on Bush and Howard to convert to Islam, saying it was "the only way to save their souls," adding that families still grieving after the 2002 Bali blasts that killed many foreigners should also become Muslim to find "salvation and peace."

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald comments on the slippery Sistani fatwa:

In the various Muslim websites of the "Ask Mr. Fatwa" or www.islam-online type, one of the Most Frequently Asked Questions from Muslims living in the Lands of the Infidels is: "Do I have to obey the laws of these Infidels"?

The answer given, very gingerly, is: "You may obey any laws of the Infidels that do not contradict Islam."

The clear implication is that you have no duty to obey the laws of the Infidel nation-state in which you have been allowed to settle or in which you live, none at all, if those laws somehow are seen to contradict Islam.

Anger, yes, but neither CAIR nor anyone else can establish that anything he said is false. In fact, Muslim leaders confirm in this story that what he said is true -- even Muhammad's marriage to nine-year-old Aisha. From IslamOnline, with thanks to Girasol:

WASHINGTON, June 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A Florida minister from the Southern Baptist Church sparked anger in the U.S. Muslim community earlier this week with derogatory remarks concerning the Prophet Mohammed (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).

Reverend Jerry Vines, speaking at an annual church conference in Saint Louis, Missouri, attacked Prophet Mohammed and said that the “the man who founded Islam had 12 wives, the last of which was a nine-year-old girl.”

Vines claimed in the speech that many of America’s problems could be blamed on religious pluralism.

Pluralists "would have us to believe that Islam is just as good as Christianity, but I'm here to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that Islam is not just as good as Christianity," said Vines.

“And I will tell you Allah is not Jehovah either. Jehovah's not going to turn you into a terrorist that'll try to bomb people and take the lives of thousands and thousands of people," he continued.

During Vines’ address missionaries handed out green ribbons to encourage Baptists to pray for Muslims' conversion to Christianity.

Speaking on the issue of the Prophet’s marriages, prominent Muslim Scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al Qaradawi said that before the advent of Islam, it had been the habit of men to marry an unlimited number of women. The Old Testament states that David had 100 wives and Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines. However, Islam nullified marriage to more than four women.

“Allah Almighty granted Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, something that is not allowed to any other Muslims. He Almighty allowed him to keep the wives that he had married and did not order him to divorce, replace any of them, or to marry anymore women,” he said....

“He did not marry any of his wives for lust or worldly desires, but for the good of Islam in order to strengthen the ties between the people and the new religion, especially because kinship and blood relations were well respected among the Arabs...."

Another Muslim Scholar, Muhammad Ali Al-Hanooti said that the marriage of A'isha was Allah's plan for the Prophet.

“Allah usually is not the one who we are allowed to argue with for any ordinance or commandment. The Qur'an says, "He is not questioned for what He does, but they (people) are questioned for what they do."

”A'isha got married when she was 9, when the Prophet (SAAWS) died, she was 19. Her 10 years were of the life of a fully dedicated deciple, trainee and scholarly student with the Prophet (SAAWS). She was the source of knowledge for almost every companion. She was of the main sources for revealing knowledge and information of the private life of the Prophet (SAAWS). She was a big celebrity in politics and the best example of generosity. Her life is a token of a person who lived on earth, but never liked anything of dunya. She was always looking forward to joining the Prophet (SAAWS) in heaven. What is wrong in her marriage of six or nine or whatsoever?,” said Al Hanooti

In response to Vines’ comments, an indignant Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) called on U.S. President George W. Bush, Christian and Jewish leaders to condemn the minister's "reckless, Islamophobic statements."

"Reckless Islamophobic statements from individuals regarded as leaders in their faith community will harm America's image and interests worldwide and will serve to divide Americans at this time of national crisis," said CAIR president Omar Ahmad.

He said that such rhetoric from "respected leaders" could motivate hate crimes against some of the seven million Muslims living in the United States.

Seven million? Probably not even half that. But anyway, why doesn't Ahmad spend any time trying to dampen the inflammatory rhetoric that fuels actual violence by Muslims against non-Muslims around the world, instead of invoking the imaginary specter of vigilante violence against Muslims in the U.S.?

Eric Erfan Vickers, executive director for the American Muslim Council (AMC), in a statement noted the Southern Baptist Church’s historical legacy of supporting segregation between whites and blacks, said, Vines’ remarks “not only reflect unpardonable ignorance, but also indicate at a growing climate of religious prejudice in America.”

“Any failure by our nation’s political and religious leaders to condemn Vines’ bigotry will only give license to other hatemongers,” Vickers asserted.

Why is it bigotry and ignorance and Islamophobia if it's true? Vines said that Christianity is superior to Islam, but don't Ahmad and Vickers believe that Islam is superior to Christianity? Is one bigotry and the other isn't?

But of course the problem is not so much Aisha as the suggestion that Islam teaches violence:

Shakur Bolden, president of the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida, called Vines' comments misinformed and said they unfairly painted Muslims as if they were all religious extremists.

"We don't let the bad eggs define our way of life," Bolden said to the Florida Times-Union, "just as he would not let the Ku Klux Klan or the IRA [Irish Republican Army] or other fanatic Christian organizations define mainstream Christianity."

Yet here again, the perspectives of the KKK and IRA were never accepted by any mainstream Christian sect or organization, while violent jihad is taught by every mainstream sect and school of jurisprudence in Islam.

"It's really unfortunate that a top leader in a mainstream Christian church ... would use such hate-filled and bigoted language in describing the faith of one-fifth of the world's population," said CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper.

"This is the level of bigotry that requires a clear statement from the top leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention," he added....

Let Hooper denounce child marriages undertaken in imitation of Muhammad, and declare Muhammad's example unacceptable in this case as well as in cases of violence perpetrated in the name of Islam, and he may have a leg to stand on. As it is, he doesn't.

However, in St. Louis, where the Southern Baptists were meeting, religious leaders distanced themselves from Vines.

"In the name of God, we condemn the hateful statement made in our city about Islam and the Prophet Muhammad," said Episcopal Bishop George Wayne Smith.

Does Smith really believe he was a prophet?

UPDATE: This article, according to some commenters here, date from 2002. My apologies. It is dated only "June 15" by IslamOnline, and so when I received it this morning, I thought it was referring to today. I will leave it up, however, since the points I made in commenting on it are, I believe, still valid.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald offers an alternate plan to dhimmi governing officials:

A state policy of trying in every way to accommodate Muslims, including the policy of not offending them -- or rather, not doing anything that they could conceivably claim offends them -- is madness. It is obvious that Muslim groups, Muslim spokesman, Muslim individuals, are trying to force the Western world not to see what is in front of it. When appeals to the Idols of the Age ("Everyone Wants the Same Thing," "Everyone Is Exactly Alike") don't do it, other methods are chosen. These include murder of the outspoken (Pim Fortuyn or Theo Van Gogh) which unfortunately tends to make some Infidels suspicious of Muslims. It includes threats of murder, which unfortunately do not always work (Geert Wildres, Ayaan Hirsi Ali). It includes lawsuits and threats of lawsuits, including those the State brings (the trial of Oriana Fallaci). It includes outrage and hints of economic repercussions (Arab governments might pull those glossy ads), which can cause critics to lose their jobs (Will Cummins at The Telegraph).

The main thing is to shut those Infidels up, to force them to watch every word.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald offers an Exit Strategy:

Listen, some people like to concede defeat. I don't. I prefer, in Iraq, to concede victory. We won in Iraq; we've inadvertently created a situation which will inevitably lead to demoralization and division within the Camp of Islam. If only we have the good sense to recognize it and stop trying to prevent the result that is devoutly to be wished.

It was all inevitable -- the day the regime was deposed. It was inevitable whether or not Turkey had allowed in a fourth division to invade from the north. It was inevitable whether the number of troops that went to Iraq remained the same, or doubled, or tripled. General Batiste's criticism of Rumsfeld's numbers is wrong and irrelevant -- irrelevant because the number of troops could not have changed what became inevitable, and from our point of view highly desirable, after the removal of Saddam and his regime. Forget about the Iraqis, for god's sake, stop talking and stop thinking about "what's good for the Iraqis." Stop being influenced by the handful of plausible, nice, heartwarming "Iraqis" you have had contact with in Iraq -- many of those "Iraqis" serving as the staff (cooks, waiters, cleaners) in the Green Zone, or as translators, are the completely atypical Christians. Many, almost all, of the trustworthiest fighters are Kurds. For Infidels, the permanent instability within Iraq, and the worry that has created in both Iran and Saudi Arabia (and other Arab states) is a welcome, and to the Bush Administration still uncomprehended, unappreciated, development. But there it is: Saddam Hussein is out and from that all further blessings flow.

The English stories on Sistani's widely reported fatwa about obeying Western laws seem to have left out a key caveat. AP reports:

A Canadian Muslim leader said Wednesday that Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, had called on his Canadian followers to abide by a fatwa or religious edicts barring them from acts of terror or violence against innocent people.

The announcement by Imam Nabil Abbas, a Canadian representative for al-Sistani - one of the world's most influential Shiite clerics - reflects efforts by the country's mostly moderate Muslims to stave off a backlash in the wake of the June 2 arrest of 17 Muslims on terrorism charges.

Abbas told a news conference in Montreal that he had asked for guidance from the ayatollah and received the fatwa from al-Sistani on Tuesday evening.

"Any Muslim man or woman must act in the best interests of his or her country of residence by protecting it from all acts that might put this country in jeopardy," Abbas said, reading from what he said was the fatwa, a ruling issued by an Islamic scholar.

But Jihad Watch reader Marc has alerted me to a qualifying phrase that pops up in this French-language story about the fatwa:

L'ayatollah Al-Sistani ordonne aux musulmans canadiens de respecter les lois en vigueur dans leur pays d'accueil, « dans la mesure où les valeurs religieuses ne sont pas bafouées ».

That is, "The Ayatollah Al-Sistani orders Muslims of Canada to respect the laws of their host country, 'insofar as religious values are not ridiculed.'"

And if they are?

Bridge For Sale Alert from AP, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - The Islamic militant group Hamas said Thursday it is ready to restore its cease-fire with Israel several days after calling it off to protest a deadly explosion on a Gaza beach.

But Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the Hamas-led Palestinian government, said the offer was conditional on Israel accepting the Palestinians' demand "to stop their aggression."

"This is very clear for us. We are interested to keep the situation and quit, especially in the Gaza Strip," Hamad said. "We are ready to do it, but (only) if the Israeli side has a strong intention to respond positively to the call ... to stop their aggression."

Hamas called an end to the February 2005 truce Friday after eight Palestinian beachgoers were killed in an explosion the Palestinians blame on Israel. The Israeli army says it was not involved in the blast.

Hamas fired several dozen rockets toward southern Israel over the weekend, but in recent days there has been a lull.

...which is good news for the EU. "Turkey: Support for EU Membership Falls, Poll Shows," from AKI, with thanks to Fjordman:

Istanbul, 14 June (AKI) - Only 57 percent of Turks support their country's bid for European Union membership compared to the 70 percent who six months ago said they favoured entry into the bloc, according to the results of a new survey. Carried out by two university researchers, the survey, titled 'Social Choices In Turkey' interviewed 1,846 people living in 18 of the country's provinces during the period March-April 2006.

The results also suggested that the ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) Party would win the next elections scheduled for 2007. Respondents placed the AKP on the extreme right of the political spectrum while the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) was placed on the extreme left.

While the majority of those interviewed said they were in favour of democracy, some 40 percent think that "in some instances" military rule is better than an elected government.

Similarly, 51 percent said that they believe that human rights may be violated if to do so is in the interests of the nation.

Some 25 percent of respondents also said they thought that undue pressure was being placed on religious Muslims in Turkey and cited a ban on women wearing headscarfs in public offices and at universities as proof of this. Sixty-five percent said they thought civil servants should be allowed to wear the headscarf, while 68 percent said students should also be permitted to do so.

The majority - 65 percent - also favoured the introduction of curbs on the activities of Christian missionaries in Turkey, with 42 percent saying they believed that foreigners settling in Turkey pose a threat to Turkish culture.

While the results suggested that the majority of respondents want Islam to have a privileged position in Turkish society, around half of them said they wanted religious classes at schools to become optional. These have been mandatory for the last three decades.

Tiny Minority of Extremists Update: "Centre for extremist studies established," from Expatica, with thanks to Cornelius:

AMSTERDAM — A new centre for the study of radicalism and extremism has been established in Amsterdam.

The Centrum voor Radicalisme en Extremisme Studies (CRES) is being hosted by the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and will bring together researchers from various universities to advance the study of religious radicalisation in the Netherlands.

Researcher Frank Buijs of UvA's Institute of Migration and Ethnic Studies decided there was a need for the new academic centre while he was researching radicalisation of Moroccan youth on behalf of the Ministry for Immigration and Integration.

The study found 40 percent of the Moroccan youth in the Netherlands reject western values and democracy. Six to seven percent are prepared to use force to defend Islam.

The majority are opposed to freedom of speech for offensive statements, particularly criticism of Islam. ...

Buijs said on Wednesday that the government must provide alternatives for Salafism, a contemporary movement in Sunni Islam that seeks a return to the 'pure Islam' of the days of Mohammed.

Salafism is a gaining ground in the Netherlands and Buijs said the government must do more to stimulate a more pluralistic form of Islam. Buijs and his colleagues discuss the issue in a new book 'Strijders van eigen bodem - radicale en democratische moslims in Nederland' (home-grown warriors - radical and democratic Muslims in the Netherlands).

Why is it the government's responsibility? Why can't the government tell Muslims in Holland to abandom Salafism, political Islam, and Sharia, or get out?

"UN scraps contract with group chaired by Bali bomb cleric," from AFP, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

JAKARTA -The UN has cancelled a contract with an Indonesian organisation to deliver earthquake aid because it is chaired by the firebrand cleric jailed over bombings in Bali, a spokesman said on Thursday.

World Food Programme spokesman Barry Came said that the agency had not realised that the Indonesian Mujahedin Council (MMI), an umbrella organisation that fights for sharia law, was chaired by the radical Abu Bakar Bashir.

The cleric, who is also the alleged head of regional extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), was freed from prison Wednesday after serving more than two years for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings which killed 202 people.

“They were a partner until last night. The contract was cancelled,” the spokesman told AFP. Asked why, he responded: ”Because when we signed the contract with them, it wasn’t realised, the connection to Abu Bakar Bashir.”

Came said that as part of their two-month contract, the WFP had given 95 tons of food to the MMI, which had distributed the aid to victims of an earthquake that hit central Java last month and killed 5,800 people...

MMI spokesman Fauzan al-Anshori said he had not been informed about the WFP’s decision but described it as “racist.”

“Is teacher Bashir a monster? He has nothing to do with terrorism. If the cancellation is based on MMI’s ties with Bashir and our religious beliefs, then it’s a very discriminatory and racist act,” he told AFP.

"Racist." Fauzan knows how to push the right buttons.

Ajmer, a city in the Indian state of Rajasthan, is the site of the tomb of a Sufi holy man, Moinuddin Chishti. Namaaz is Islamic prayer. Those who want to ban women from the shrine are probably heeding the ancient dictum that "Prayer is annulled by a dog, a donkey and a woman (if they pass in front of the praying people)" -- which nettled Muhammad's wife Aisha (Bukhari, vol. 1, bk. 9, no. 490).

Sharia Alert from Ummah News, with thanks to Mathew:

Ajmer - The Khadims, traditional servers, of the Sufi shrine in Ajmer have decided to ban women from the dargah at the time of prayers as they purportedly distract men.

Several Islamic saints including Moinuddin Chishti, the Sufi saint of the Ajmer dargah, may have advised complete equality for women, but their present day religious heirs seem reluctant to follow them.

The dargah in Ajmer symbolises tolerance and spiritual solace for millions. However, in a letter to the Dargah Committee, the Khadims claim that under Islam if a man sees a woman while performing namaaz, it becomes a futile exercise.

"We have a lot of rush at the time of namaaz, and we hardly have any space left particularly during the Friday prayers."

"But if a woman sits in front, then the man's prayer becomes unacceptable. That is why we have raised this demand," says Zahoor Chishti, Joint Secretary, Khadim Association, Ajmer Dargah.

This Al-Qaeda Manual, discovered during an English terror raid, has been known for some time. I quoted from it recently, here and here. But here is a new story about it from Canada's Global National, with thanks to Cindy:

TORONTO -- A recent terror raid in England resulted in the discovery of a so-called 'Al Qaeda Manual,' a complex guide to waging Islamic Jihad -- from tips on organizing military bases in apartment hideouts to what Jihadists should do if they get caught by Western authorities -- with alarming real-life parallels in Canada's recent terror sweep investigation.

The document, titled "The Al Qaeda Manual," was apparently discovered by Greater Manchester Police after a terror raid in the Manchester metropolitan area. It was apparently found on a computer and later translated into English, revealing an alarmingly militant doctrine.

"Alarmingly militant" only to those who haven't been paying attention up to now.

While Islamic leaders frequently spread a message of peace, the message in the manual's 'Declaration of Jihad' is entirely different, asking explicitly for a confrontation with a "dialogue of bullets, the ideals of assassination, bombing and destruction, and the diplomacy of the cannon and machine-gun."

The document appears to contain eighteen lessons, and include complex instructions on such topics as:

- Obtaining counterfeit currency and forging documents,
- Organizing military bases,
- Means of communication and transportation,
- Training (for attacks),
- Buying and securing weapons,
- Espionage and intelligence-gathering

The eighteenth lesson, titled "Prisons and Detention Centres," provides information to jihadist if they are captured and face trial; including instructions that encourage 'fighters' to claim torture and mistreatment while in prison and resort to hunger strikes if possible.

And it is these lessons that bear alarming similarity to claims being made in Canada's recent terror arrests.

Yes indeed.

But will he move against the jihad ideology? From AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's national security adviser said Thursday a "huge treasure" of documents and computer records was seized after the raid on terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's hideout, giving the Iraqi government the upper hand in its fight against al-Qaida in Iraq.

National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie also said he believed the security situation in the country would improve enough to allow a large number of U.S.-led forces to leave Iraq by the end of this year, and a majority to depart by the end of next year. "And maybe the last soldier will leave Iraq by mid-2008," he said.

Al-Rubaie said a laptop, flashdrive and other documents were found in the debris after the airstrike that killed the al-Qaida in Iraq leader last week outside Baqouba, and more information has been uncovered in raids of other insurgent hideouts since then.

He called it a "huge treasure ... a huge amount of information."

When asked how he could be sure the information was authentic, al-Rubaie said "there is nothing more authentic than finding a thumbdrive in his pocket."

"We believe that this is the beginning of the end of al-Qaida in Iraq," al-Rubaie said, adding that the documents showed al-Qaida is in "pretty bad shape," politically and in terms of training, weapons and media.

"Now we have the upper hand," he said at a news conference in Baghdad. "We feel that we know their locations, the names of their leaders, their whereabouts, their movements, through the documents we found during the last few days."...

More than 450 detainees were being released Thursday as part of al-Maliki's national reconciliation efforts, according to the U.S. military.

Oh, that will help contain the jihad in Iraq -- just as the Muslim Brotherhood operatives freed from prison in Egypt by Anwar Sadat were so grateful that they...murdered him.

Afghan Jihad Update from the BBC, with thanks to JE:

A bomb has destroyed a minibus in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, killing at least 10 people and injuring 15, police have said.

Police say the bomb was possibly hidden on the bus, and the device detonated during morning rush hour.

The vehicle was carrying Afghan labourers on their way to work at a coalition military base in the city.

Officials say it is the first time that civilian Afghans working in Kandahar have been targeted by the Taleban.

Attacks blamed on Taleban have risen in southern and eastern Afghanistan this year, with hundreds of deaths.

A man claiming to be a Taleban spokesman claimed responsibility for the latest incident in a telephone call to a local news agency. He said that the Taleban had warned Afghan nationals not to work with US forces.

Darfur Jihad Update from the BBC, with thanks to JE:

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court says he has documented evidence of thousands of killings of civilians in Sudan's Darfur region.

Luis Moreno Ocampo, investigating alleged crimes against humanity, says the killings include large-scale massacres and hundreds of rapes.

In a report to the UN, he also criticised Sudan's own investigations.

Israeli Jihad Update from a strangely illiterate story: "cowered" for "cowed," "declined" for "denied." "Militants fire rockets into south Israel," from AP, with thanks to JE:

JERUSALEM - Palestinian militants fired five rockets at southern Israel early Thursday, shortly after officials said Israeli threats had cowered the Hamas-led government into stopping the attacks.

The Israeli army said one person was slightly injured in the southern town of Sderot and a building was damaged. The Islamic Jihad military group took responsibility for the attacks.

Hamas had said it was ending a 16-month cease-fire against Israel in response to an explosion Friday that killed eight civilians on a Gaza beach. Several dozen rockets were then launched into Israel, prompting the Israeli government to issue threats against Hamas.

Maj. Gen. Amos Gilad, a senior Defense Ministry official, said earlier Thursday that the rocket attacks had apparently stopped following the threats.

Israel Radio reported Thursday that a Hamas leader living in Syria, Khaled Mashaal, and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh had ordered a stop to the rocket fire. Hamas officials declined the report.

Thai Jihad Update from the TimesOnline, with thanks to JE:

Forty-one bombs exploded within less than half an hour, killing two people and wounding 16, across southern Thailand today.

One of the homemade devices went off at government offices in Yala minutes before Deputy Prime Minister Chitchai Wannasathit was due to arrive for an official visit.

The attacks are believed to have been carried out by Muslim insurgents who have mounted a long-running but largely hidden campaign for independence of the country's three most southern provinces.

The blasts went off between 8.30am and 9am local time, as people headed to work in the three Muslim-majority regions of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, said government officials. Both fatalities occurred in the Pattani province....

More than 1,300 people have been killed since violence flared in early 2004.

China-Russia-Iran. Will China and Russia rue the day? Will they ultimately be able to contain the jihad that already nips at them, and which is likely only to grow stronger in both countries -- abetted by Iran in Russia?

From the Telegraph, with thanks to Interested:

Iran's hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, arrived in China last night for a summit of Asian states and Russia that Washington fears is forming a new anti-western alliance.

Mr Ahmadinejad will seek support for his country's nuclear programme, fuelling US concern that Iran is being protected by its growing friendship with Russia and China, who both sit on the UN Security Council.

He is also believed to be pushing to join the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, which is holding its annual summit in the city today and tomorrow.

The SCO, under the leadership of China and Russia, is playing an ever-greater role in the jostling for power in Central Asia. The dictatorial nature of some of its membership, which also includes the former Soviet republics of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, has provoked descriptions of it as an anti-American alliance of despots.

Both China and Russia deny this, and China's vice-foreign minister, Li Hui, this week ruled out early accession by Iran. But Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, said in a newspaper article: "The SCO is not a closed and exclusive club whose lines of demarcation have been clearly drawn."

Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, has expressed concern about the summit, and the presence of President Ahmadinejad as an official observer.

"It strikes me as strange that one would want to bring into an organisation that says it's against terrorism. . . one of the leading terrorist nations in the world," he said.

Yes.

"And all married women (are forbidden unto you) save those (captives) whom your right hands possess" -- that is, slave girls. That's the Qur'an, An-Nisa 24, sura 4:24.

From the Khaleej Times, with thanks to Kaosktrl:

AURORA (Colorado) — The trial has started of a Saudi Arabian man accused of keeping a young housemaid as a ‘slave’, whom he subdued using rape and other forms of intimidation.

Homaidan Ali Al Turki, 37, is a university educated linguist who arrived in the US in 2000 along with his wife, Sarah Khonaizan, and their four children. But, according to an FBI criminal complaint, the couple kept their Indonesian housemaid, now in her 20s, enslaved by creating ‘a climate of fear and intimidation through rape and other means.'

The housemaid slept on a mattress on the floor of the basement in the couple's home in an upscale suburb of Denver, Colorado and, prosecutors allege, over the four years of her captivity was repeatedly raped by Al Turki. The woman was paid just $2 a day for the housework and child care she performed and according to the FBI document, feared that if she did not obey the Al-Turkis she would ‘suffer serious harm’.

The alleged abuse came to light after the maid was arrested along with the Al Turkis in November 2004 due to an expired visa. After her arrest, the maid told investigators of her plight. Al Turki, who by then was running an Arabic language publishing business called Al Basheer Publications and Translations, was arrested by federal agents and charged with forced labour, domestic servitude and harbouring an illegal immigrant.

The state of Colorado separately charged him with two counts of kidnapping, 12 counts of sexual assault, extortion, theft and false imprisonment. He faces life in prison if convicted. Al Turki denies the charges....

Meanwhile, all this is because of a wicked Islamophobic misunderstanding of Islam and Arab culture:

The case has sparked fierce debate in the U.S. with many Arab and Muslim groups branding the case a witchhunt based on a misunderstanding of Arab custom and culture and, prejudice following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Those feeling intensified when it was revealed Denver's Joint Terrorism Task Force had Al-Turki under investigation, suspecting he was “closely aligned to terrorists and may be providing material support to terrorism”.

In an interview with a Denver television station, Al Turki said there was ‘no doubt’ he was innocent. His lawyers have filed documents in his defence stating “there are Saudi Arabian customs regarding a host family’s retention of funds for their domestic servant until she leaves their service.” This, they say, explains why the housemaid was apparently paid so little.

If that's a Saudi Arabian custom, the American response should be the same as that of Charles James Napier, British Commander-In-Chief in India in the 19th century, when an Indian told him that sati was an Indian custom: "You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."

But Al-Turki is, consistent with what regular Jihad Watch readers will recognize as being common practice, disclaiming any responsibility whatsoever and claiming discrimination:

“This is very sad, but we Muslims basically after 9/11, have been profiled,” Al Turki told Denver’s CBS4 station. “And everything that is happening to us or every single Muslim in the community basically because we are guilty, no matter what.”

Yes, every single Muslim in the U.S. is currently on trial for keeping a housemaid as a sex slave. Sure.

Supporters have created several websites in support of Al Turki, who is a prominent member of Colorado’s Saudi community, and ensure that the court is packed with supporters for every hearing.

A few comments from Homaidan Al-Turki's Internet guestbook. This one is from here:

i am the daughter of homaidan al-turki and i make dua [prayers] for the best dada in the world. her is what i realy feel about this; my life with out a dad...... i feel bad whaen my dad is not around. i miss him so much.WHY just tell me WHY are they blaming my dad. it is realy bad with out a dad. my life is bad first they took my dad then freed him the n took my mom and my dad then freed my mom on tuesday. theres nothing fun with out parents they took my familys passports they took evrey thing that we had and left us some money,food,and drinks thats allwhat rood people are they very meanmy life is round by them. i hate them. WHY my familyjust tell me WHY. who ever wants to come her dont they will do the same to your family and make up some problems about your family. WHY WHY WHY WHY MY FAMILY....... BY;NORAH AL-TURKI

Why your dad? Why your family? Well, see, we don't have slavery in the United States. Yes, people can get quite mean about it, but you have to understand that your father needs to take responsibility for being so mean himself to the housemaid.

Other comments -- all without a trace of acknowledgment that Homaidan Al-Turki might possibly have done something wrong:

59. Maha - 2005-06-24 13:44:43 Lot of human rights viloation occur in USA ,especially against Arab & Muslims. May God free Mr.Humaidan soon inshallah.

56. Fahad - 2005-06-24 13:25:36
Where is the American justices???????

55. umsalih - 2005-06-24 12:59:22
we were shocked upon hearing this unjust news which is happening continueously to our fellow muslim brothers in the us but we want you to know that our hearts and prayers are with all of you and Allah will never abandon His worshipers-so pray and pray.

53. mohhamed - 2005-06-24 12:24:24
I think this case isn"t need to aressted the man and harm him .and I think the juistic was absent frome u.s.A and the important thing is tack the mony from his family.

I am ask the Gid tohelp you .

51. Abdulhamid - 2005-06-24 12:17:05
Man, I know this is american style, we got used to it.

I always said " don’t go to US and UK, go to Asia"

Allah bless this guy and his family

50. saudi3ever - 2005-06-24 10:27:15
May the god be with him

Iran overreaching in Iraq? There has been little evidence of fissures between Shi'ites and Iraq and Shi'ites in Iran up to this point. From a strategic standpoint regarding defense against the global jihad, U.S. officials should see this as a positive development. Whether or not they actually will is another question. From Reuters, with thanks to John:

BASRA, Iraq, June 14 (Reuters) - A crowd accusing Iranian television of insulting an Iraqi cleric attacked Iran's consulate in the city of Basra on Wednesday, setting fire to an annex of the compound, Reuters television footage showed.

Hundreds of protesters outside the consulate chanted slogans against an Iranian satellite station which they said had aired a programme slandering prominent Shi'ite Muslim cleric Mahmoud al-Hasani, who has many followers in the oil-rich Iraqi city.

Thick smoke billowed near the newly-opened complex in Iraq's second city, which is patrolled by British forces.

One demonstrator climbed up the roof of a building in the compound and hoisted an Iraqi flag, a Reuters cameraman said.

A cleric who addressed the crowd outside demanded an apology from the government in neighbouring, mainly Shi'ite Iran.

"If our demand is not met we will not be able to hold back these angry crowds," Ahmed al-Budairi, an aide of Hasani, told the demonstrators. The Iranian television station was not immediately available for comment....

The Saudis prevail. From the Telegraph, with thanks to Gabrielle Goldwater:

Four men who claim that they were tortured in Saudi Arabian prisons lost the right to sue their alleged torturers in Britain yesterday.

The law lords allowed an appeal by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia against a decision by the Court of Appeal in 2004 giving the men permission to sue. They ruled that the authorities were protected by the State Immunity Act 1978 from proceedings brought in the English courts.

The case, in which the Lord Chancellor intervened to support the State Immunity Act, may now go to the European Court of Human Rights.

Sandy Mitchell, Les Walker and Bill Sampson were arrested after terrorist bombings in the Saudi capital Riyadh and in Khobar, eastern Saudi Arabia, six years ago, and claimed that they were tortured into admitting responsibility.

The fourth man, Ron Jones, was seized after being injured in a blast outside a bookshop.

Lord Bingham said that at the heart of the case was the relationship between two principles of international law. One was that a sovereign state would not assert its judicial authority over another.

The second, and more recent, condemned and criminalised the official practice of torture, required states to suppress it and provided for the trial and punishment of officials found guilty of it.

To establish their right to sue for damages, the claimants had to show that the grant of immunity to the Saudi defendants under the State Immunity Act would be disproportionate, as inconsistent with a binding principle of international law. They had failed to do so.

Lord Hoffmann said international law was based on the common consent of nations.

"It is not for a national court to develop international law by unilaterally adopting a version of that law which, however desirable, forward-looking and reflective of values it may be, is simply not accepted by other states."

I am not an international lawyer. But I think a more robust and self-confident Britain would have protected its citizens.

Not content simply to call the Prime Minister of Australia to Islam, Indonesia's chief jihadist Abu Bakar Bashir now invites the families of those he murdered in the Bali bombings to join the religion that motivated him to kill their relatives. "Bali bombings God's will: Bashir," from The Australian, with thanks to Gabrielle Goldwater:

THOSE killed in the 2002 Bali bombings had been destined to die by God, radical Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir said today.

The families they have left behind should now convert to Islam, he said.

Conversion would give the bereaved relatives "salvation and peace".

"For the Bali bomb families, those who are non-Muslims, my suggestion is just convert to Islam so they can be saved and find some peace from Allah," he said at his home inside his Ngruki Islamic boarding school near the city of Solo in Central Java.

Jihad within the jihad? From FoxNews, :

CAIRO, Egypt — An Egyptian associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claims to have succeeded him as the new leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, even though an Islamic Web site said Monday that another man was in power.

Brig. Gen. Carter Ham said at a Pentagon news conference on Wednesday that Abu al-Masri, whose name surfaced shortly after reports of Zarqawi's death became widespread as a successor, had claimed to be in charge of Al Qaeda in Iraq.

"This individual said he is the successor for the leadership of Al Qaeda in Iraq," Ham said. "I think we'll have the intelligence effort in theater try to make that assessment if he is in fact exercising the leadership role in Al Qaeda in Iraq."

With several names emerging on Web sites and elsewhere, Ham said it's not clear whether they all refer to the same person....

An Islamic Web site Monday said a man named Abu Hamza al-Muhajer had been named to replace Zarqawi. A U.S. counterterrorism official said it's possible that this name could be an alias for al-Masri but said "we don't know for sure.

"It's not entirely clear whether this is a deliberate attempt to confuse or whether this is a name put out there as a placeholder of sorts. It is possible that this name could be the same person," the official said.

Tiny Minority of Extremists Update from Indonesia. "Bashir greeted by sea of support," from AAP, with thanks to Walt:

FIREBRAND cleric Abu Bakar Bashir has been greeted by a sea of supporters punching fists in the air and screaming "Allah hu Akbar", or God is Great, as he arrived home to his Java boarding school.

After a brief stop to bathe his feet and pray, Bashir immediately launched into a brief sermon, telling thousands of students and onlookers seated in a dusty courtyard before him that Australian Prime Minister John Howard should "convert to Islam".

And that, my friends, is da'wa, the precursor to jihad. Muhammad instructed Muslims to invite their foes to convert and only wage war against them if they refused (see Sahih Muslim 4294).

Hitoshi Igarashi, RIP

I was hard at work on my forthcoming book The Truth About Muhammad (to be published by Regnery this fall) when I received this wholly apposite and well-timed email from a courageous Dutchman, Frans Groenendijk:

Unlike some other people I do remember that although Salman Rushdie himself was not killed because of the fatwa against him by the despicable Khomeini, several translators of his book "Satanic Verses" were attacked and the Japanese translator of the book was killed.

Until recently I did not know the exact date he was slaughtered or even his name.

He was murdered on July 11.

I would like to make July 11 a day for worldwide vigilance against jihadist intimidation. This year it will be 15 years ago that this peaceful Islamic scholar was brutally murdered. So 2006 is a good year to start observing this day.

Mr. Igashari was not an average victim of the mujahedin.

The reason why I looked for Mr. Igarashi's name in the first place was in relation to the Danish cartoons. Via Yahoo I found this quote:

In Beirut, the leader of Lebanon's Shiite Hizbollah said the row would never had occurred if a 17-year-old death edict against British writer Salman Rushdie been carried out.

An outrageous statement indeed, but it was not the quote itself but what the news source added that appalled me most:

Rushdie went into hiding and was never attacked.

The extremes of this wishful thinking approach continue to amaze me. He was never attacked? He lived in hiding for many years. Even Muslims who suggested that the fatwa should be lifted were beaten up and lost their jobs. Last year the Iranian mullahs declared that the death sentence on Rushdie is still valid -- 16 years after it was issued.

The military organisation, loyal to Iran's supreme leader, said that the order was "irrevocable", on the eve of the anniversary of the 1989 fatwa.

The order was issued after publication of Mr. Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses, which Khomeini condemned as blasphemous.

Iran's reformist government has in the past distanced itself from the fatwa.

Without thinking much about the subject, I somehow supposed that Mr. Igarashi was "just" a translator, not objecting to translate this specific book. If Mr. Igarashi had been an average guy, not thinking too much about the sensibilities of the jihadsts, the murder would have been disgusting too. But reading a little about the background of Mr. Igarashi makes his story much sadder and more instructive.

According to this source, he opposed absolute freedom of speech and even somehow justified the fact that Khomeini came up with this act of spreading international terrorism:

Hitoshi Igarashi was stabbed in the face and arms until he died on Tsukuba University's campus in Ibaraki on July 11 1991.

Igarashi, 44, the translator of Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses, is believed to have been murdered by an Iranian Shia Muslim carrying out the fatwa issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini.

Igarashi, known to be one of Japan's leading young Islamic scholars, a man who had lived in Iran, decided to translate The Satanic Verses to act as a mediator between Khomeini (and the Muslim world) and Rushdie.

Igarashi's position was that both sides were right: Khomeini was justified in issuing the fatwa on Rushdie by virtue of his position in the Muslim clerical hierarchy; Rushdie, he argued, could be located in the lineage of mystical Sufi thought, and seen as not anti-Islamic but rather, as an Indian moved to England, more like a writer of the literature of exile, and thus not unlike Muhammad.

Igarashi's translation was not an attempt to force the Muslim world to accept the Western value of freedom of expression in an absolute form. It was a third-party effort to show common, middle ground, in order to end the conflict.

For his search for common ground, a kind of search that is suggested almost everyday now in media and politics in the Netherlands and other western countries as the right approach towards the jihadists, he paid with his life.

And that shows the effectiveness of that approach. Those who are calling for us to do the same thing now should take heed.

Remember him on July 11 and say to the jihadists: No more.

And may his memory be eternal.

1938 Alert from MEMRI: "Iranian Presidential Advisor Mohammad Ali Ramin: 'The Resolution of the Holocaust Issue Will End in the Destruction of Israel'":

On June 9, 2006, the reformist online daily Rooz reported that during a visit with students at Gilan University in Rasht, Iran, Mohammad Ali Ramin, advisor to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, discussed historical accusations against the Jews and questioned the Holocaust.

The following are excerpts from the Rooz article, in the original English: [1]

"'Throughout History, This Religious Group [i.e. the Jews] has Inflicted the Most Damage on the Human Race'"

"On a visit to Gilan University, president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s advisor Mohammad Ali Ramin said to a group of students in the town of Rasht, 'Ten years ago, when I brought up the issue of the Holocaust for the first time in this country, my goal was to defend the Jewish people. But among the Jews there have always been those who killed God’s prophets and who opposed justice and righteousness. Throughout history, this religious group has inflicted the most damage on the human race, while some of its groups engaged in plotting against other nations and ethnic groups to cause cruelty, malice and wickedness.'

"'Historically, there are many accusations against the Jews. For example, it was said that they were the source for such deadly disease as the plague and typhus. This is because the Jews are very filthy people. For a time people also said that they poisoned water wells belonging to Christians and thus killed them,' Ramin said.

[...]

"While acknowledging not knowing the source of these events around the world, Ramin said, 'I only know that Jews have been accused of such conspiracies and sabotage throughout history and have not performed well.'

[...]

"Claiming that the Holocaust was the principal reason why Palestine was occupied while Israel was the main cause of crises and catastrophe in the Middle East. 'So long as Israel exists in the region there will never be peace and security in the Middle East,' he said adding, 'So the resolution of the Holocaust issue will end in the destruction of Israel.'...

This is one of the very few times the President has spoken about jihad. From his Press Conference this morning, with thanks to Romy:

And I know there is an international jihadist movement that desires to do us harm and they have territorial ambitions. The reason I know that is that's what they've told us. And part of their territorial ambition is to have safe haven in Iraq. That's what they've said. That's what the enemy has clearly said. And it seems like to me that the Commander-in-Chief ought to listen to what the enemy says. And they believe capitalists and democratic societies are soft and it's a matter of time before we pull out.

"The Commander-in-Chief ought to listen to what the enemy says." Amen to that.

My take on some current events from today's FrontPage (news links in the original):

“War is deceit,” said the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, and some of his contemporary followers have been putting his words into practice with increasing industry lately:

* While international opprobrium focuses again on Israel for a supposedly errant rocket attack last Friday that killed eight Palestinians on a Gaza beach, it has become increasingly apparent that the victims were actually killed by Hamas explosives.

French Jihad Update from MosNews, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

A French court has jailed 25 alleged Islamic militants for planning attacks in France in support of Chechen rebels, the BBC reported Wednesday....

Prosecutors said the group’s intended targets included the Eiffel Tower, the Halles shopping centre, police stations and places of Israeli interest.

The group was accused of “jihad” links with Chechen militants fighting Russia. Some sources reported they had received training in Russia’s restive southern province.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald explodes a common myth:

"A full understanding of the Arabic language along with understanding of the context of the verses in question is an essential prerequisite..." -- from this article by Hesham A. Hasaballa

This is the first line of defense by the Defenders of the Faith. You, Infidel, cannot possibly understand the meaning unless you have not merely an "understanding" but rather a "full understanding" of the "Arabic language." This has been dealt with by many ex-Muslims, including Ibn Warraq, who point out the obvious: 80% of the world's Muslims are not Arabs and do not know Arabic. Yet they are treated as Muslims, and believe themselves to be Muslims, and act upon what they read in Qur'an and Hadith. Are all of them grossly misinformed? For that matter, how much of the Qur'an is accessible to Arabs? What about that famous 20% that makes no sense, and that Christoph Luxenberg, a world authority on the languages -- Arabic, Syriac (the Aramaic of Edessa), and lesser tongues -- of the period when the Qur'an was composed or concocted -- has helped to explain by reference to an Ur-text, or Ur-Qur'an, which was not written in Arabic. Arabic, indeed, was not a written language at the time; the Mu'allaqat appears to be a backdated post-Qur'anic forgery, as Taha Hussein, back in the 1920s, and others since, have argued. It was possibly designed to make written Arabic appear to be older than it is.

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald discusses the threat to Western art posed by the Islamization of Europe:

Already statues have been vandalized by Muslims in public places, and in churches, in both France and Italy. The destruction of the monuments and artifacts and hence part of the histories of Infidels, that so many Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Hindus, and Buddhists in the Middle East, in North Africa, in the Balkans and southeastern Europe, in Central Asia and Hindustan and in southeast Asia know well, now has come to Western Europe. What will happen in Italy, where every street corner in Rome has something that could be damaged by determined Muslims? What will happen to the churches, to the frescoes (including that which Muslims have been taped planning to destroy in Bologna), to the paintings in the Louvre, the Prado, the National Gallery, the Rijksmuseum, the Alte Pinakothek, the Uffizi? Has any organized association of museum curators, or of art scholars, even dared to think of organizing a conference on the protection of art in Europe, and the prohibitions of Islam against sculpture of all kinds, against paintings of living creatures?

Is anyone at all thinking about this, and contacting others? What about Philippe de Montebello or J. Carter Brown or Anne d'Harnoncourt or any other museum directors or retired directors, or any celebrated collectors, or those who already belong to such groups as Save Venice or Save Florence or FAI or Save Art here and there and everywhere? What about those who fund foundations that will pay to rescue Roman mosaics from the rising man-made floods that covered Zeugma, or the Temples near Aswan, but have a new kind of inundation to deal with, the flood-tide of Islam's adherents, who to the extent that they take their Islam seriously, can only threaten Western art, as they once not only threatened, but managed to destroy, so much of Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Greco-Bactrian monuments, stupas, manuscripts, temples, artifacts, to erase, or to appropriate as their own, the signs and symbols of anything pre-Islamic or non-Islamic?

Tony Blankley takes on official dhimmitude re Iran in the Washington Times (thanks to JE):

The Western response to the threat of Iran gaining nuclear weapons is tracking dangerously toward appeasement and failure. It is not yet inevitable? President Bush has insisted in two State of the Union addresses, and currently, that he will not permit it to happen. But most government officials in Europe and here, and of course the dominant media are already deeply into resignation, rationalization and denial. Indeed, in the last couple of years the absolute exclusion of a military option has become the only "respectable" posture among both European and American officials and senior media personages.

Read it all.

They lack formal ties to Al-Qaeda! Stop the presses! This article doesn't even mention Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, who came by his "radicalism" simply by reading the Qur'an, that book of peace, on his own. U.S. counterterrorism officials have not even come close to coming to grips with that. "Agencies: Homegrown Radicals Inside U.S.," from AP, :

U.S. counterterrorism officials say they are uncovering homegrown Islamic radicals inside the United States who lack formal ties to al-Qaida and operate independently.

Those independent qualities - combined with the radicals' ability to organize and plot on the Internet - make them particularly difficult to disrupt, retired Vice Adm. John Scott Redd, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday.

In a hearing on the changing face of terror, Redd said the threat from homegrown extremism is a recent trend that was seen in successful transit attacks in Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005.

One alleged homegrown North American plot has been disrupted: This month, Canadian authorities arrested 17 men and juveniles who are accused of planning attacks in southern Ontario. They are said to have obtained three times the amount of explosives used in the Oklahoma City bombing.

Redd pointed to what he said were three potential homegrown organizations that have been disrupted in the U.S. in just over a year:

_ Two Atlanta-area men, charged