October 2006 Archives

More evidence of support for the jihad in Pakistan. From AFP, :

KABUL - Afghanistan’s intelligence agency said on Tuesday it had arrested three men planning suicide attacks in Kabul, including two from a Pakistan-based cell run by the capital’s Taleban-era deputy police chief.

The two were seized this week while trying to enter the city from neighbouring Logar province, spokesman Sayed Ansari told reporters.

They were part of a Pakistan-based cell organised by Mullah Mohammad Ibrahim Hanifi, who was the deputy police chief of Kabul during the 1996-2001 Taleban regime, he said.

“Mullah Ibrahim Hanifi, who is living in Pakistan, has been organising suicide attacks in southern Afghanistan. The two men we captured were also sent by him,” he said.

A mullah? An Islamic cleric? Doesn't he realize the Qur'an forbids suicide? (He does, of course. He just doesn't regard suicide bombing as suicide per se -- and to this, Muslim moderates have never formulated a response.)

I recently received a series of venomous emails from a prominent moderate Muslim apologist, whose work has appeared at FrontPage magazine and elsewhere, and who makes false charges about this site at his own website. He had accused me of "shameless lies," so I asked him to specify the lies, or retract the charge. He responded: "As for shameless lies, I stand by my assertion, especially after received material in which you claim Muhammad married his daughter in law etc."

This was rather amazing, given the fact that this story is referred to obliquely in the Qur'an (33:37), as well as in Bukhari, Tabari, Tafsir al-Jalalayn, and other sources respected by Muslims. Apparently, my black Zionist arts are more powerful than I thought, for I was able to conjure the story of Muhammad's marriage to his daughter-in-law Zaynab into all these sources. You can read the whole story in my book The Truth About Muhammad.

And tonight I discovered that my Zionist powers of conjuration are even more powerful than that. I was relaxing with an adult beverage and some light reading: non-Muslim Islamic apologist Karen Armstrong's new apologetic, Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time. And lo and behold, on pages 167 and 168, there it was: the story of Muhammad's marriage to his daughter-in-law, Zaynab! Armstrong even acknowledges that "this story has shocked some of Muhammad's Western critics who are used to more ascetic, Christian heroes, but the Muslim sources seem to find nothing untoward in this demonstration of their Prophet's virility."

Victory! My sinister mind-rays have now convinced even Karen Armstrong that this incident actually took place! Oh, the shamelessness of it all! The august professor who sent me the email above has promised a full-length article detailing my "shameless lies," and no doubt he will reveal all the Zionist secrets of mind control that have enabled me to convince millions of Muslims that Muhammad married his daughter-in-law. But until that article appears, I shall carry on, shameless as ever. Perhaps next I will invent, and plant into the minds of Muslims, the idea that a middle-aged Muhammad consummated a marriage with a nine-year-old. Oh, I blush at my own shamelessness! But...it is already working!

More Churchillian courage in the face of evil from Ken Livingstone. From the Daily Mail, :

Ken Livingstone today defended the right of Abu Hamza's son to work for a Tube contractor - despite his conviction for terrorism in Yemen.

Mohammed Kamel Mostafa, 25, from Wembley, was given a security pass and had access to restricted areas - including tunnels under Parliament - during his time as a labourer at nights and weekends on the Underground.

But the Mayor said he doubted the veracity of any conviction from Yemen and said Mostafa had passed Tube security checks.

He said it was wrong to restrict his ability to work simply because he was the son of Abu Hamza. Mr Livingstone said: "Has he broken any laws here in Britain? The answer is no. We are happy to have him working for us.

"No one can be blamed for what their parents do. All we ask is that they respect the law of the land and do not hurt anyone."

His extraordinary intervention came after Tube chiefs were accused of an appalling blunder after allowing Mostafa to work in restricted areas.

Don't even think about looking at Muslim women. And cut out that humming, buster. Sharia Alert from Iran's supreme leader Sayyid Ali Khamenei, by Yaakov Lappin in Ynet News, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Looking at non-Muslim women can lead to "vile consequences," Iran's supreme leader Sayyid Ali Khamenei warned a reader on his website.

The question and answer session is the most recent in a series of online religious rulings made by the Islamic Republic's highest religious and political authority....

"Is it permissible to look at the body parts — excluding the two private areas — that a non-Muslim woman used to show? And in this regard is there a difference between seeing in the flesh or in movies?" a reader asked Khamenei.

"There is no objection to unintentional looking at the non-Muslim woman's body regarding the amount they are used to uncover," Khamenei said. He added: "Of course, It is even haram (forbidden) to intentionally look at that in case it is sexually exciting, is associated with fear of falling victim to that which is haram or leads to vile consequences."

Sexual intercourse with a Christian woman?

Another reader asked Khamenei whether he could hold sexual intercourse with a Christian woman who was still married: "I am a young man living in a foreign country. Sometime ago I contracted a temporary marriage with a Christian girl, but after a while I came to know that she was (already) married. What about my relationship with her?"

"Temporary marriage" -- mut'a -- is a Shi'ite notion. One enters into a marriage contract with a time limit. Quite common in seminary towns full of lonely young men.

"…She is permanently forbidden for you no matter whether she finishes divorce matters in the court of law after that or not," Khamenei told the reader.

Another reader told Khamenei: "I heard that it is allowed to eat meat which has been slaughtered by a Jew, is it correct?"

"The meat of the animal slaughtered by a non-Muslim is not halal (permissible to eat) even though all other conditions required for Sharia (Islamic law) slaughtering are observed," the supreme leader said.

Khamenei also went on to rule against providing "children with musical instruments to be used in songs," and "singing/humming to oneself."

But is he saying this with anything beyond Saudi interests in mind? A CNSNews.com story by Monisha Bansal (thanks to Mackie):

(CNSNews.com) - Voicing support for U.S. involvement in Iraq, the Saudi ambassador to the United States said the U.S. has a important role to play in the Middle East, "whether it wants to or not."

"It is of vital interest to us as well as the United States that Iraq would remain a unified country," said Saudi Ambassador to the United States Prince Turki al-Faisal.

If Iraq were to be divided on ethnic or sectarian lines, he warned, problems in the country would increase three-fold, and there would be "ethnic cleansing on a massive scale."

Faisal talked about the role the U.S. plays in the region at a conference held by the National Council on U.S. Arab Relations in Washington, D.C. on Monday.

"The United States is the only one who can do the right thing for everybody in the Middle East," Faisal said.

"Not only because of the size and strength of the United States, but because the United States is engaged and enmeshed in our political situation and has been for the last 50 years or so, whether it likes it or not," he said.

But Faisal added that it was in U.S. interests for "peace to reign, so we can turn to more fruitful endeavors."

Our old friend D.C. Watson has a store in which he is selling a variety of anti-jihad shirts, stickers, and tschotschkes. Sure, it's early to do your Christmas shopping, but D.C. tells me he is closing the store at the end of November, so now's the time to do your shopping for that special anti-jihadist in your life. This Christmas, give the gift that keeps on giving: the gift of anti-jihad resistance!

A bracing bit of anti-dhimmitude regarding the Al-Hilali "uncovered meat" uproar from Janet Albrechtsen in The Australian, with thanks to Ynkedoodl:

THIRTY years ago, Elton John may have crooned that "sorry seems to be the hardest word", but these days the sorry word rolls off the tongue too easily. So it's no surprise that Muslim cleric Taj Din al-Hilali thought a few apologies would get him off the hook for claiming that women in short skirts who smile and sway their hips are to blame for unleashing unlawful sexual appetites in men.

The mufti was tapping into the modern-day disease of apologitis. Say you're sorry and endless Western tenderness and tolerance will forgive all. The West has mistakenly believed tolerance begets tolerance. Having discovered that it spawns intolerance, we are finally getting back into the values debate. That means realising that sorry just won't cut it any more.

But right on cue, the first reaction from Abdul El Ayoubi of the Lebanese Muslim Association was: "We did accept his apology and we want to move on." Whoa. Before we move on, let's figure out precisely why sorry does not work any more. The sheik's apology has the distinct smell of someone being sorry that he was caught. There was no hint of contrition from Hilali in the weeks between his speech and The Australian reporting it. His faint-hearted mea culpa once the media arrived looked more like one of those PR-spun apologies. You know the kind, like the one AWB was advised to make but declined.

Going into further damage control last Friday, the wily cleric from Sydney's Lakemba mosque said his words were misinterpreted just like the Pope's address at Regensburg University. Full marks for cunning, with Hilali and his supporters believing that if good-hearted people cut a Christian leader some slack, then a Muslim leader deserves the same courtesy. The argument fails on logic. The Pope is entitled to ask whether violence is part of Islam in an attempt to encourage Muslim leaders to talk openly about what it is within Islam that encourages jihadists. The validity of that question was instantly proved by the violent response it triggered. By contrast, Hilali's medieval comments about women as meat pose no valid question. They are unacceptable in an enlightened world.

Read it all.

A note from Fjordman:

I got some angry comments at Jihad Watch some days ago when I posted an essay saying that: "The welfare state is now just a big pyramid scheme where Leftist parties take our money and give it to Muslim immigrants in return for voter support. The welfare state in fact provides insecurity, since it is used to fund the Muslim colonization of the continent."

Well, read this:

Half of the first immigrants to Norway in the first half of the 1970s are now living on state payments. The study focused on 2,500 immigrants from Pakistan, India, Turkey and Morocco born between 1936 and 1955, and compared with a control group of Norwegians of the same age. In their first ten years the immigrants were actively employed, and as many were employed as Norwegians. But after this period their activity declined sharply, and by 2000 half of the immigrants were unemployed, compared to 13 percent of their Norwegian peers.

Yet despite this, the Norwegian Minister for Labor and Social Inclusion Bjarne Håkon Hanssen from the Labor Party was in Pakistan a few weeks ago and asked for more immigrants from Pakistan, because this would be good for the Norwegian economy. I think what he really meant was that it would be good for the Labor Party, since most Muslims vote for the left-wing parties because they give them more money:

http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=131085

http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/011958.php

The mosques have to be monitored. What is being preached in the sermons has to be known. The alternative? Many, many more murders and terror attacks. A provocative story by Barry Thorne and Claire Cavanagh for Radio Netherlands (thanks to Ana):

Mohammed Bouyeri, the man who murdered Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh almost exactly two years ago is serving a life prison sentence, but now questions are being asked about whether the sermon of a Muslim cleric played a role in the crime.

During the ongoing trial of another Dutch terrorism suspect, Samir Azzouz, it's emerged that Imam Fawaz of the as-Sunnah mosque in The Hague gave a sermon condemning Theo van Gogh just a few weeks before his murder. A recording of the sermon exists and in it the imam is heard uttering a curse against the Dutch director for his film Submission, which is critical of Islam. The film had been shown on television shortly before the sermon.

Criminal bastard

In the recording of the sermon, Imam Fawaz calls Theo van Gogh a 'criminal bastard' and beseeches Allah to visit an incurable disease upon the filmmaker. He also condemns former Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali who was involved in writing the script for Submission. The imam asks Allah to make Ms Hirsi Ali go blind and give her cancer of the tongue and brain.

What inspiring, moving, loving prayers. Nevertheless, they aren't enough in themselves:

Despite the claims in the recording, Ruud Peters, a professor of Islamic Law doesn't believe the imam's words are incitement to commit murder:

"I have a couple of arguments for that - the most important is that he [Imam Fawaz] says, 'the people who have insulted the Prophet Muhammad should die through the hands of God' - he was very specific in that… he says, 'leave it to God'."

Key witness

Professor Peters was a key expert witness at the trial of Mohammed Bouyeri and was asked to study Bouyeri's writing up until he carried out the murder of Theo van Gogh on 2 November 2004 in Amsterdam.

"I found no clue that [Imam] Fawaz had had any impact on him. On the contrary, we know that already more than a year before he killed Van Gogh, that he… deliberately turned away from the mosques, the […] mosques which are considered to be radical."

The wise, knowledgeable and perceptive Hans Jansen, however, disagrees:

Rhetoric

However, another writer and academic on Islam from Utrecht University, Hans Jansen, believes the sermon went much further than the usual rhetoric heard in Dutch mosques,

"It is simply incitement to violence. I can't judge the legal angles, but somebody who hears this sermon would get very excited and would want to do anything in the cause of Islam."

"I've heard fire and brimstone sermons before, one long speech which builds up tension and when you leave the mosque after having heard such a sermon, especially when you're young, you'll be very excited, almost ready to do anything."

"This sermon is much worse than anything in mosques, certainly worse than anything presented in mosques in the Middle East."

Well, that's debatable. But it is bad.

"Using his membership in a prestigious scientific organization to gain access, Rauf traveled through Europe on a quest, officials say, to obtain both anthrax spores and the equipment needed to turn them into highly lethal biological weapons." Wouldn't it be a good idea for such scientific organizations to begin at least attempting to screen prospective members for adherence to the jihad ideology? But of course, no one is considering such measures. To do so would (somehow) constitute "bigotry."

"Suspect and A Setback In Al-Qaeda Anthrax Case: Scientist With Ties To Group Goes Free," by Joby Warrick in the Washington Post, :

In December 2001, as the investigation into the U.S. anthrax attacks was gathering steam, coalition soldiers in Afghanistan uncovered what appeared to be an important clue: a trail of documents chronicling an attempt by al-Qaeda to create its own anthrax weapon.

The documents told of a singular mission by a scientist named Abdur Rauf, an obscure, middle-aged Pakistani with alleged al-Qaeda sympathies and an advanced degree in microbiology.

Documents seized by U.S. forces in Afghanistan in 2001 included letters from a Pakistani scientist to al-Qaeda's No. 2 commander, Ayman al-Zawahiri. The scientist, identified by U.S. and Pakistani officials as Abdur Rauf, traveled through Europe in search of anthrax spores and bioweapons equipment. The result of his work for al-Qaeda remains unclear.

Using his membership in a prestigious scientific organization to gain access, Rauf traveled through Europe on a quest, officials say, to obtain both anthrax spores and the equipment needed to turn them into highly lethal biological weapons. He reported directly to al-Qaeda's No. 2 commander, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and in one document he appeared to signal a breakthrough.

"I successfully achieved the targets," he wrote cryptically to Zawahiri in a note in 1999.

Precisely what Rauf achieved may never be known with certainty. That's because U.S. officials remain stymied in their nearly five-year quest to bring charges against a man who they say admitted serving as a top consultant to al-Qaeda on anthrax -- a claim that makes him one of a handful of people linked publicly to the group's effort to wage biological warfare against Western targets.

Rauf, 47, has been under scrutiny in Pakistan since he was detained there for questioning in late 2001, according to U.S. and Pakistani officials who agreed to talk about the case for the first time. But officially he remains free, and Pakistan now says it has no grounds for arrest. Last year, in an acknowledgment of the impasse in its four-year joint investigation with Pakistan, the FBI officially put the case on inactive status.

"We will never close the door, but the chances of getting him into the United States are slim to none," said one U.S. intelligence official, who, like others, agreed to discuss the case on the condition that he not be identified by name.

During the last round of the endless Esmay imbroglio, I followed a link from Esmay's site to an anonymous blog that invoked me, gratuitously and without any specific examples of inaccuracies in my writing, in writing about the alleged sins of Little Green Footballs:

To top it off, LGF has become an Internet Book Tour for anti-Muslim viewpoints from non-Muslims (yes, I believe that the head of Jihad Watch can actually present a completely unbiased view of the Muslim community – NOT).

You're right, of course, whoever you are. The head of Jihad Watch cannot actually present a completely unbiased view of the Muslim community. Nor has the head of Jihad Watch ever claimed to present a completely unbiased view of the Muslim community.

If you find someone who presents a completely unbiased view of the Muslim community, you have discovered the elusive unicorn, and out-Diogenesed Diogenes. If you find someone who claims to present a completely unbiased view of the Muslim community, you have found a liar.

In fact, the head of Jihad Watch is biased. Quite spectacularly biased.

The head of Jihad Watch is biased against the proponents of a totalitarian, genocidal ideology that has announced its intention to destroy Western civilization and subjugate all those outside that ideology. The head of Jihad Watch is biased against those who would ignore, deny, or make excuses for the adherents of this totalitarian, genocidal ideology. The head of Jihad Watch is biased against liars and deceivers, and those who abet jihad terrorism in any way.

I agree with the publisher of the Atlanta Constitution, Ralph McGill, who wrote this in 1963: "I believe in being strongly partisan on issues which require a choice. There are some newspapers which are mute and others which carefully engage only editors with chronic laryngitis. But there comes a time in all controversies when one must hit the issue right on the nose or turn tail and die a little."

I agree with William Cobbett, publisher of the colonial-era Federalist newspaper, the Porcupine's Gazette: "To profess impartiality here would be as absurd as to profess it in a war between virtue and vice, good and evil, happiness and misery." Indeed. Impartiality between the jihadists and their victims? No, thank you.

I agree with the New Jersey printer who wrote in 1798, according to Cynthia Crossen in the Wall Street Journal: "The times demand decision: there is a right and a wrong, and the printer, who under the specious name of impartiality jumbles both truth and falsehood into the same paper, is either doubtful of his own judgment or is governed by ulterior motives."

All that said, does that mean that anything I have written here, or in my books, or monographs, or articles, is inaccurate? If you think so, bring it. Bias does not equal inaccuracy, and I stand by what I have written. Attempts to show me wrong have thus far involved unsupported, sweeping generalizations, or outright falsehoods, or ludicrous errors and misrepresentations on the part of the one making the charges.

And one thing all those people who made those charges have in common: they're all biased. It may surprise you to learn, in fact, that bias is universal and inescapable. No one can escape his point of view. The virtue of the early partisan press of the United States was that in those days newsmen owned up to their biases, whereas today those biases are just as strong, but covered over by a profession of objectivity that is as hollow as it is impossible.

Likewise in academia: professors like Omid Safi and Carl Ernst preen and strut in the Emperor's New Clothes of academic objectivity, which they think will hide the fact that they are nothing more and nothing less than shallow and manipulative propagandists.

Not that I mind the bias of the professors. I don't mind it at all. They can't escape it, after all, and just as I ask that my own work be judged on its accuracy or inaccuracy, so I believe theirs should be also. Biases should be noted and held in mind as an interpretative tool, but never used to dismiss anyone's work out of hand. That would be like dismissing the writings of everyone who has a nose on his face. What I despise about Safi and Ernst and their ilk is the sham of their objectivity, but their work is not worthless because of their biases; it is worthless because it is inaccurate and propagandistic -- as I have shown of Safi at Dhimmi Watch and of Ernst (quite briefly) in my new book.

In any case, all those engaged in this new "rightosphere" (whatever that is) crusade against bias in reporting about jihad should beware of placing themselves in an impossible and untenable position.

Oh yes, I'm biased, and so are you. And when it comes to the ideology of jihad and Sharia supremacism, you should be, if you have any moral sense left at all. It is time, in McGill's words, either to hit the issue right on the nose or to turn tail and die a little.

One final word: before you tell me again not to dignify these silly attacks with responses, please note that I am replying not in order to engage in a discussion with those with whom rational discussion has proved impossible, but in order to illustrate certain principles and bring certain truths to light -- principles and truths that are larger than one particular reply to some anonymous sniping blogpost -- for people of good will.

Two joyous fellows

Is al-Maliki on the road to creating the Shi'ite client state that the Iranians have been trying to foster in Iraq for quite some time now?

From AP, :

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Tuesday ordered the lifting of joint U.S.-Iraqi military checkpoints around the Shiite militant stronghold of Sadr City and other parts of Baghdad — another apparent move to assert his authority with the Americans and appeal to his Shiite support base.

U.S. officials apparently did not have advance warning of the order to remove the around-the-clock barriers by 5 p.m. Tuesday. A military spokesman, Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, said officers were meeting to "formulate a response to address the prime minister's concerns."

Witnesses said U.S. forces were seen dismantling checkpoints around Sadr City made of sandbags and concrete blocks Tuesday afternoon.

The tightened security had been credited by some for producing a temporary decline in violence, possibly because they curbed the activities of Shiite death squads blamed for waves of sectarian killings of Sunnis.

But a car bomb exploded in the neighborhood on Tuesday, killing three people and wounding five, police said. On Monday, a bombing there killed at least 33 people.

The extra checkpoints were set up last week around Sadr City as U.S. troops launched an intensive search for a missing American soldier and raided homes looking for death squad leaders in the sprawling slum that is home to an overwhelmingly Shiite population of 2.5 million people.

Today I suspect that many of you will be dressing in wild and gaudy costumes and indulging in revels to celebrate the anniversary of Reza Pahlavi's declaring himself, on this day in 1980, the rightful heir to the Peacock Throne.

Others will be doing the same thing to honor Martin Luther's 95 Theses, nailed defiantly to the Wittenberg door on this day in 1517, and of which an on-topic version can be found here.

As for me, if it were not for the fact that my heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains my sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, or emptied some dull opiate to the drains one minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk, I would tell you that today is also John Keats' birthday. Celebrate his birthday today in honor of the civilization of which his work is a small but luminous component, and commit yourself anew to defending that civilization.

It is absurd to think that Muslim hearts and minds can be won. They can be rented, not bought, and rented only for the shortest of periods. Meanwhile, the rent -- that is the further transfer of wealth from the Camp of the Infidels to the Camp of Islam -- only helps to pay for mosques, madrasas, worldwide campaigns of Da'wa, and armies of Western hirelings who conduct public relations and disinformation efforts on behalf of Saudi Arabia, the Arabs and Muslims more generally, and Islam itself.

Sixty billion dollars has been given by successive American governments to Egypt. Egypt today has still failed to honor any of its solemn commitments under the Camp David Accords (save for that not to engage in open warfare, a commitment that it keeps for the same reason that Syria does not attack Israel -- because of the likely consequences). Tens of billions have over many decades gone from the American government to Pakistan, a country whose military actively encouraged A. Q. Khan in his theft from Western laboratories of nuclear secrets and his subsequent effort to share those secrets with, inter alios, North Korea and Iran.

"They killed 80 teenagers who were students of the Quran." Yes, and how does that establish in any way that this was not a "terrorist-training facility," as Major General Shaukat Sultan called it?

An update to this story from AP, with thanks to all who sent this in:

KHAR, Pakistan Pakistan's army spokesman said Tuesday the military used intelligence provided by U.S.-led coalition forces in an air raid that left 80 people dead, while thousands of pro-Taliban tribesmen threatened to send suicide bombers to attack Pakistan forces and execute people found spying for the Americans....

Meanwhile, up to 20,000 people protested Tuesday in Khar, the main town in Pakistan's northwestern tribal Bajur district, claiming innocent students and teachers were killed in the attack. They chanted," "Death to Bush! Death to Musharraf!"

In a fiery speech, local pro-Taliban elder Inayatur Rahman said he has prepared a "squad of suicide bombers" to target Pakistani security forces in the same way that militants are attacking Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"We will carry out these suicide attacks soon," he said, asking the crowd if they approved the idea. The angry mob yelled back in unison, "Yes!"

The rally also adopted a verbal resolution to stone to death anyone found spying for the Pakistan army or U.S. government. Protesters demanded compensation for the families of those killed.

Islamic leaders had called for nationwide protests Tuesday to denounce the air raid in Chingai village, located 10 kilometers (about 6 miles) from Khar near the Afghan border. It was the deadliest-ever military operation launched against suspected militants in the country....

The attack threatened efforts by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to persuade deeply conservative tribespeople to back his government over pro-Taliban and al-Qaida fighters, who enjoy strong support in many semiautonomous regions in northern Pakistan.

The attack also sparked claims of U.S. collusion with Pakistan, with villagers saying fixed-wing drone aircraft were seen flying over the town in the days before the attack, according to the Dawn daily newspaper....

Fears are high that the attack will fan unrest across Pakistan. In the northwestern city of Peshawar, 500 members of a hard-line Islamic group burned an effigy of U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday and denounced Musharraf. A smaller protest was also held in the southern city of Multan.

The unrest caused Britain's Prince Charles, currently in Pakistan, to cancel his planned Tuesday trip to Peshawar, located in the country's northwest.

Many local lawmakers and regional Cabinet ministers resigned in protest over the attack. The planned signing of a peace deal between tribal leaders and the military was also canceled Monday in response to the airstrike....

Pakistan's most influential Islamist political leader, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, was to lead a convoy of cars Tuesday from the northwestern city of Peshawar to Khar and Chingai, his spokesman, Shahid Shamsi, said.

"They killed 80 teenagers who were students of the Quran," Ahmed told reporters on Monday.

I hope she heeds. From AINA, with thanks to DFS:

WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Committee on International Policy has asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to consider measures that would help improve the deteriorating situation for Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq.

[...]

The complete text of Bishop Wenski's letter follows.

The Honorable Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of State
Department of State
2201 C. Street, N.W.
Room 7327
Washington, DC 20520

Dear Madame Secretary:

On behalf of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, I am writing to you to express our deep concern and growing alarm at the rapidly deteriorating situation of Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq.

We deplore the sectarian violence engulfing the Shia and Sunni communities in Iraq. We are especially and acutely aware of the deliberate violence perpetrated against Christians and other vulnerable minorities. Christians continue to decline from a pre-war population of over 1.2 million to a current estimate of about 600,000. The growing and deliberate targeting of Christians is an ominous sign of the breakdown in Iraqi society of civil order and inter-religious respect and represents a grave violation of human rights and religious liberty.

The recent beheading of a Syriac Orthodox priest in Mosul, the crucifixion of a Christian teenager in Albasra, the frequent kidnappings for ransom of Christians including four priests--one of whom was the secretary of Patriarch Delly, the rape of Christian women and teenage girls, and the bombings of churches are all indicators that the situation has reached a crisis point. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees estimates that approximately 44% of Iraqi refugees are Christian, even though they represent only about 4% of the total population of Iraq.

While thousands have fled to Syria, Jordan and Turkey, the remainder in Iraq are increasingly leading lives of desperation. Many no longer feel safe gathering in churches and Christian institutions, resulting in the closing of parishes, seminaries and convents. Others are fleeing to the north of Iraq in search of some measure of safety and sanctuary.

The vulnerability of Christians and other religious minorities is dramatic evidence of the serious and growing security challenges facing the entire nation of Iraq. Efforts must continue to end all sectarian violence and to make Iraq secure for everyone. At the same time, we also urge you to take several specific measures to improve the particular security situation of Christians and other minorities in Iraq. First, we hope that the U.S. government will consider the creation of a new "Administrative Region" in the Nineveh Plain Area that would be directly related to the central government in Baghdad. This could provide Christians and other minorities with greater safety and offer more opportunity to control their own affairs with assistance from the central government. Since the Kurds are key to any real efforts to stabilize Iraq and many Christians and other minorities are fleeing to the north of Iraq, we ask that the U.S. government work with Kurdish authorities to ensure the safety of Christians in the Plain of Nineveh and to provide adequate protection and assistance for religious minorities in areas controlled directly by the Kurds.

We also believe that an urgent review of economic reconstruction aid programs is needed to make sure that the aid is distributed fairly so that all elements of Iraqi society are able to rebuild their communities. Finally, we urge the U.S. government to adopt a more generous refugee and asylum policy, including the possible resettlement of at-risk cases to the United States, and to work with the governments of Turkey, Jordan and Syria to grant visas to allow Iraqi Christians and others compelled to leave Iraq access to economic, health and other necessary assistance and help until they are able to stabilize their own situation, return to Iraq or make other plans for their future.

Thank you for your attention to this important concern. We would be happy to meet with you to discuss this urgent and dangerous situation further.

Sincerely yours,

Most Reverend Thomas G. Wenski
Bishop of Orlando
Chairman, Committee on International Policy

In the featured article at FrontPage this morning I discuss the al-Hilali controversy (news links in the original):

The Mufti of Australia, Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilali, has gained international attention this week by saying that women are generally at fault if they are raped. Speaking to a Muslim audience in Sydney, he explained that rape (specifically, zina, sexual activity forbidden under Islamic law -- a word mistranslated in published accounts of the Sheikh’s words as “adultery”) is “90 percent the woman’s responsibility. Why? Because a woman owns the weapon of seduction. It’s she who takes off her clothes, shortens them, flirts, puts on make-up and powder and takes to the streets, God protect us, dallying. It’s she who shortens, raises and lowers. Then, it’s a look, a smile, a conversation, a greeting, a talk, a date, a meeting, a crime, then Long Bay jail. Then you get a judge, who has no mercy, and he gives you 65 years.”

Al-Hilali invoked another Islamic scholar in support of his views: “But when it comes to this disaster, who started it? In his literature, writer al-Rafee says, if I came across a rape crime, I would discipline the man and order that the woman be jailed for life. Why would you do this, Rafee? He said because if she had not left the meat uncovered, the cat wouldn’t have snatched it. If you get a kilo of meat, and you don’t put it in the fridge or in the pot or in the kitchen but you leave it on a plate in the backyard, and then you have a fight with the neighbour because his cats eat the meat, you’re crazy. Isn’t this true? If you take uncovered meat and put it on the street, on the pavement, in a garden, in a park, or in the backyard, without a cover and the cats eat it, then whose fault will it be, the cats, or the uncovered meat’s? The uncovered meat is the disaster. If the meat was covered the cats wouldn’t roam around it. If the meat is inside the fridge, they won’t get it. If the woman is in her boudoir, in her house and if she’s wearing the veil and if she shows modesty, disasters don’t happen.”

In the uproar that followed, Muslim leaders in Australia and elsewhere distanced themselves from Al-Hilali. Ali Roude of the New South Wales Islamic Council declared that Al-Hilali had “failed both himself and the Muslim community…As a father, brother and son myself, I take offence at the portrayal of both men and women in the alleged published comments.”

13,180 semiautomatic pistols, 751 assault rifles and 99 machine guns. And rocket-propelled grenades. It's likely they'll be seen again, of course, only in the hands of insurgents and death squads. "Audit reveals 14,000 arms given to Iraq are missing," by John Heilprin for AP:

WASHINGTON -- Nearly one of every 25 weapons the military bought for Iraqi security forces is missing, a government audit said Sunday. Many others cannot be repaired because parts or technical manuals are lacking.

[...]

The Pentagon cannot account for 14,030 weapons -- almost 4 percent of the semiautomatic pistols, assault rifles, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and other weapons it began supplying to Iraq since the end of 2003, according to a report from the office of the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.

The missing weapons will not be tracked easily: The Defense Department registered the serial numbers of only about 10,000 of the 370,251 weapons it provided -- less than 3 percent.

The Pentagon spent $133 million on the weapons, and "the capacity of the Iraqi government to provide national security and public order is partly contingent on arming the Iraqi security forces, under the ministries of defense and interior," the report notes. Military officials insisted the weapons either had to be new or never issued to a previous soldier.

By December, the U.S. military had planned to put those weapons in the hands of 325,500 personnel.

Missing from the Defense Department’s inventory books were 13,180 semiautomatic pistols, 751 assault rifles and 99 machine guns, according to an audit requested by Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The audit does not make clear at what point the weapons were lost. But it notes that "there could have been undetected losses" before weapons were ever issued to Iraqi security forces -- who also lack many needed spare parts, technical repair manuals and arms maintenance personnel.

This is likely to cause a firestorm, but of course it is simple common sense to recognize what the enemy invokes as his guiding principle, and learn what can be learned from it. In a sane world, the failure to have done this in the five years since 9/11 would be the cause for the firestorm, not the idea of studying Muhammad in order to understand the jihadists. To this, of course, my work has been dedicated for years.

"Ex-official: Muhammad reveals key to overcoming jihadists: Failure to analyze military plan of 'prophet' hurts U.S. military," from WorldNetDaily.com, with thanks to Doc Washburn:

The Pentagon must study the Muslim prophet Muhammad and his military doctrine to beat the growing number of jihadists, a former senior Pentagon intelligence official warns.

The failure of Pentagon brass to implement a "systematic study" of Muhammad's military doctrine is hurting the U.S. military's effort to control and defeat insurgents and terrorists, complains William Gawthrop, who until recent months headed a key counterintelligence and counterterrorism program set up at the Pentagon after 9/11.

During this year's Ramadan, just ended, U.S. troops suffered another spike in casualties. Ramadan is the Islamic holy month when Muslims believe Muhammad received the Quran, the Muslim scripture, in a divine revelation. Almost 100 GIs have been killed in Iraq this month alone. Attacks on U.S. and other coalition soldiers in Afghanistan also increased during Ramadan.

The U.S. still does not have an in-depth understanding of the war-fighting doctrine laid down by Muhammad, says Gawthrop, who recently stepped down as program manager for the Joint Terrorism Task Force of the Defense Department's Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA.

"As late as early 2006, the senior service colleges of the Department of Defense had not incorporated into their curriculum a systematic study of Muhammad as a military or political leader," Gawthrop said. "As a consequence, we still do not have an in-depth understanding of the war-fighting doctrine laid down by Muhammad, how it might be applied today by an increasing number of Islamic groups, or how it might be countered...."

Gawthrop says jihadists in Iraq and Afghanistan are simply following the example of Muhammad, who some 1,400 years ago personally led 27 attacks and sent his armies out 47 additional times against non-Islamic communities averaging about seven operations a year.

He says the Muslim prophet's military doctrine is contained in the Quran and its supplements, and the insurgents and terrorists are using them as their manual of warfare. They are Muhammad's soldiers in the 21st century. Homegrown and freelance terrorists are also following his example, he notes.

"There is evidence to support the contention that sources of terrorism in Islam may reside within the strategic themes of Islam," Gawthrop said. They include "the example of Muhammad, the Quran, the hadiths, Islamic law, the pillars of faith and jihad."

The Muslim sacred books cover all aspects of warfare, from methods and tactics of violence against kafirs to war booty to truces, he says. Even alms-giving is directed toward jihad, which is obligatory for Muslims, who are told by the Quran that "fighting is prescribed for you" (another translation says "warfare is ordained for you").

Gawthrop says the Pentagon needs to develop a broad new strategy to deal with the threat from Islamic terrorists. But to do so, officials must first overcome the political taboo of linking Islamic violence to the religion of Islam, its sacred scripture and the personal example of its revered prophet.

"Muhammad's mindset is a source for terrorism," Gawthrop flatly says.

Dealing with the threat on a tactical and operational level through counterstrikes and capture has proven only marginally successful. Gawthrop and other military leaders want to combat it from a strategic standpoint, using informational warfare, among other things. A critical part of that strategy involves studying Islam, including the Quran and the hadiths, or traditions of Muhammad, and exploiting critical vulnerabilities and controversies within the faith itself.

"The ideological lever has largely been ignored," he said, while the threat from Islamic terrorism and jihadism grows stronger and stronger – now now infecting Great Britain, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, in addition to Thailand, Indonesia (and indirectly Australia), Somalia, Russia and India.

"Today the United States and an increasing number of other governments are beleaguered by an expanding array of states, groups and individuals whose goals, actions and norms are animated by Islamic values," Gawthrop said. "This places the defenders in the unenviable position of having to fight, at the strategic level, against an idea."

How do you attack an idea? By hitting "soft spots" in the Islamic faith that, once exploited, "may induce a deteriorating cascade effect upon the target," Gawthrop says.

"Critical vulnerabilities of the Quran, for example, are that it was uttered by a mortal," Gawthrop said. "Similar vulnerabilities may be found in Muhammad's character."

As the jihad spreads, he says the government eventually will have to get involved in a such a controversial national education campaign, politically incorrect as it may be.

"If the United States, moderate Muslim governments and the non-Muslim world seek to engage ideological adversaries on their own ground," he said, "they will have to develop, use and maintain the full range of capabilities in the ideological component of national power, and address Islam's strategic themes directly."

Gawthrop notes that the Defense Intelligence Agency has produced reports on jihad, but not any detailed reports on Muhammad and his political and military doctrine. The reports discussing jihad include: "Y: The Sources of Islamic Revolutionary Conduct" by Air Force Lt. Col. Stephen P. Lambert and "Islam: The Peaceful Religion in Perpetual War" by the Joint Military Intelligence College.

Gawthrop's analysis appears in the new fall 2006 edition of "The Vanguard," the professional journal of the Military Intelligence Corps Association published out of Fort Huachuca, Ariz., the Army's intelligence headquarters.

An update on this story from Alexis Debat at ABC's Blotter :

Ayman al Zawahiri was the target of a Predator missile attack this morning on a religious school in Pakistan, according to Pakistani intelligence sources.

ABC News has learned the raid was launched after U.S. intelligence received tips and examined Predator reconnaissance indicating that al Qaeda's No. 2 man may have been staying at the school, which is located in the Bajaur region near the village that is thought to be al Qaeda's winter headquarters.

Despite earlier reports that the missiles had been launched by Pakistani military helicopters, Pakistani intelligence sources now tell ABC News that the missiles were fired from a U.S. Predator drone plane.

Between two and five senior al Qaeda militants were killed in the attack, including the mastermind of the airliners plot in the U.K., according to Pakistani intelligence sources.

No word yet on whether or not Zawahiri was killed in the raid, but one Pakistani intelligence source did express doubt that Zawahiri would have been staying in a madrassa, which is an obvious target for strikes against militants. That source, however, did express confidence that Pakistani intelligence is closing in on Zawahiri's location.

A bleak prognosis from Paul Belien in The Brussels Journal, with thanks to Mackie:

The German author Henryk M. Broder recently told the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant (12 October) that young Europeans who love freedom, better emigrate. Europe as we know it will no longer exist 20 years from now. Whilst sitting on a terrace in Berlin, Broder pointed to the other customers and the passers-by and said melancholically: “We are watching the world of yesterday.”

Europe is turning Muslim. As Broder is sixty years old he is not going to emigrate himself. “I am too old,” he said. However, he urged young people to get out and “move to Australia or New Zealand. That is the only option they have if they want to avoid the plagues that will turn the old continent uninhabitable.”

Many Germans and Dutch, apparently, did not wait for Broder’s advice. The number of emigrants leaving the Netherlands and Germany has already surpassed the number of immigrants moving in. One does not have to be prophetic to predict, like Henryk Broder, that Europe is becoming Islamic. Just consider the demographics. The number of Muslims in contemporary Europe is estimated to be 50 million. It is expected to double in twenty years. By 2025, one third of all European children will be born to Muslim families. Today Mohammed is already the most popular name for new-born boys in Brussels, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and other major European cities.

Broder is convinced that the Europeans are not willing to oppose islamization. “The dominant ethos,” he told De Volkskrant, “is perfectly voiced by the stupid blonde woman author with whom I recently debated. She said that it is sometimes better to let yourself be raped than to risk serious injuries while resisting. She said it is sometimes better to avoid fighting than run the risk of death.”

In a recent op-ed piece in the Brussels newspaper De Standaard (23 October) the Dutch (gay and self-declared “humanist”) author Oscar Van den Boogaard refers to Broder’s interview. Van den Boogaard says that to him coping with the islamization of Europe is like “a process of mourning.” He is overwhelmed by a “feeling of sadness.” “I am not a warrior,” he says, “but who is? I have never learned to fight for my freedom. I was only good at enjoying it.”

Aye, there's the rub.

Read it all, and don't miss the links.

Head In The Sand Alert: "'Hamas doesn't want to destroy Israel,'" by David Horovitz for the Jerusalem Post:

Hamas wants to "liberate the Palestinians," not to destroy Israel, Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

In an interview following his talks in Tel Aviv with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Solana insisted that it was "not impossible" for Hamas to change and "recognize the existence of Israel." History had shown that people and nations "adapt to reality," he said. "I don't want to lose hope."

Many, many others in the West are in Solana's position. They would rather believe arrant fantasies than face uncomfortable realities.

Pressed as to whether he was underestimating the fundamentalist religious imperative at the heart of the Hamas ideology, Solana said, "I cannot imagine that the religious imperative, the real religious imperative, can make anybody destroy another country... Therefore that is an abuse of religion...

"I don't think the essence of Hamas is the destruction of Israel. The essence of Hamas is the liberation of the Palestinians," he added. "The liberation of their people, not the destruction of Israel."

Sharia Alert: "Pakistanis deface women on hoardings," by Meenakshi Iyer for the Hindustan Times:

"No nation can rise to the height of glory unless your women are side by side with you; we are victims of evil customs. It is a crime against humanity that our women are shut up within the four walls of the houses as prisoners. There is no sanction anywhere for the deplorable condition in which our women have to live." - Mohammad Ali Jinnah, 1944 She can tame the tide and even lead a nation bristling with religious zealots, but the plight of the average woman – no matter where she is – is pitiable. Empty rhetoric about the deplorable condition of women in South Asia is only adding insult to injury.

But the recent rage against women, especially in Pakistan, forces one to sit up and think: Is this the same nation where once Benazir Bhutto dared to take on the male bastion?

Rapes, honour killings and a plethora of religious edicts against women are not new to Islamic society, and the status of women keeps getting worse.

In a fresh twist, women's faces on billboards across Pakistan, especially in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), are now being defaced.

Reason? "These multinational companies want to promote obscenity, lewdness and vulgarity," religious leader, Shehzada Babar is quoted as saying in UK's First Post magazine.

The depiction of women sans hijab or headscarf is considered un-Islamic by Muslim radicals and the Taliban, whose influence is growing in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

"Although the trend has been noticed in many cities across Pakistan, recently it's been on a decline. However, it is still largely prevalent in the city of Peshawar. The local government there is following a Talibanisation drive in the province," the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) told HindustanTimes.com.

Aatekah Mir, a resident of Lahore, confirms that billboards showing women are being removed/defaced, but says that it is confined to NWFP.

"It is only in the NWFP that billboards with women are being removed. The provincial government there has this ludicrous bill that forbids music and dance mehfils in public places as well as homes," rues Mir.

"They (women) live their lives in utter fear and under restrictions. Even girls studying in the best of the colleges don't have freedom to carry out their dreams or even speak against harsh rules made by men. They are captive in their own houses. They can't move like American girls buying apartments of their own," says writer Abeer Khan....

Terror Free Tomorrow recommends jizya as an antidote to terror. Aethelred the Unready Alert: "Analysis: Aid could impact Muslim opinion," by Aaron Rupar for UPI, with thanks to DP:

WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- Foreign aid could be a vital tool in the struggle to win over hearts and minds throughout the Muslim world, according to new polling data.

During the past six months, Terror Free Tomorrow has administered polls in Indonesia, Bangladesh and Pakistan -- the world's three most populous Muslim countries -- in which at least half of all respondents replied that American aid "makes them more favorable to the U.S."

"The bottom line is that American aid is the single most important action the people of the three largest Muslim countries want from the United States," writes Ken Ballen, TFT president, in the report's executive summary. "And here's the key to winning hearts and minds: deeper American assistance directly to the people, following their expressed priorities."

Terror Free Tomorrow is a non-partisan, non-profit organization, whose mission includes understanding the popular support behind global terrorists. Its advisory board includes Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

At a press conference publicizing the report, Ballen argued against the media-fueled misconception that "the U.S. is public enemy number one" in the Islamic world. Ballen used TFT's polling data to suggest the majority of Muslims throughout the Middle East and Asia don't dislike the United States, but "do not have a recognized voice" through which they can express their views.

However, in order to change the opinions of those sections of the Islamic world where anti-American sentiment runs deep, Ballen argued increased U.S. aid can play a remedial role. "We should reach out more forcefully to deliver aid directly to the Islamic world" in order to further swing public opinion behind U.S. policy, he said.

While TFT's report emphasizes the positive role of foreign aid, it also recognizes the significant negative impact that the war on terror has had on Muslim public opinion. "The same consensus view on the approval of American aid is mirrored by an equally strong unfavorable view of the anti-Muslim character of the U.S.-led fight against terrorism," the report states.

Ballen emphasized that simply piping money into Islamic countries is not enough. Equally important as the quantity of aid is the way in which aid is administered. "Aid is important, but interaction between Americans and Muslims and people-to-people contact is perhaps more important," he said.

To illustrate his point, Ballen cited the example of Egypt, which was the second-largest recipient of official U.S. aid in 2004. Despite the nearly $43 billion which Egypt received from the United States, Egyptians generally remain highly anti-American. Ballen argued the situation in Egypt could be changed if American diplomats made a concerted effort to establish their presence on the Egyptian street by getting out from behind the fortified walls of the embassy. Although this strategy could potentially put the security of American diplomats at risk, Ballen argued that without such efforts the impact of American aid is nullified.

Others, however, argue that TFT's suggestions regarding aid are superficial to the deeper issues which are affecting Muslim opinion of the United States.

Roberta Cohen, a senior fellow of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, told United Press International that American policy must be fundametally altered in order to affect a serious change in Muslim public opinion.

"You can't really buy favorable public opinion," Cohen said. "Frankly, I think a change in U.S. policies would be more beneficial -- changed policies towards Iraq, global terrorism, the Middle East, detainee treatment, and a more sustained effort to get an Israeli-Palestinian settlement."

Ah. A different kind of jizya: give them what they want peacefully, and they won't need to fight for it.

Even though the notorious Sheikh Al-Hilali, who blamed women for their own rape, has taken a leave of absence, things are getting worse in Australia. You see, Australian judges discriminate against Muslim rapists -- which charge is an attempt to lessen rape sentences in Australia, as part of the larger makeover of Australian society after the pattern of Islamic law. An update by Cameron Stewart and Richard Kerbaj in The Australian, with thanks to Rosie:

THE leader of Australia's most radical Islamic group has fuelled the Taj al-Din al-Hilaly controversy by accusing Australian judges of discriminating against Muslim rapists.

As Sheik Hilaly yesterday took "indefinite leave" from preaching after a "heart attack", The Australian can reveal Melbourne cleric Sheik Mohammed Omran told his flock on Friday that rapes committed by Australian non-Muslims - such as "bikies" or "football stars" - were treated more leniently than those committed by Muslims.

"I feel there is no justice here. Not 60 years and someone else three years and they did the same crime. Why?" Sheik Omran told worshippers at his Brunswick mosque.

"They make a big fuss about these kids because one of them, his name is Mohamed. Even if you kill someone you don't go for 60 years," he said, referring to Sydney's 2000 gang rapes in which Lebanese Muslim Bilal Skaf was initially sentenced to 55 years jail, but later had the sentence reduced on appeal.

"This is where I think everything has gone unbalanced," Sheik Omran said. "We don't support criminals or crimes, but at same time we want justice for everyone."

Sheik Omran strongly defended the besieged mufti, who until yesterday had defiantly resisted demands from Muslims and the wider community to step aside for likening women to uncovered meat and suggesting rape victims should be held responsible for enticing attackers....

Sheik Omran, one of the country's most outspoken and controversial fundamentalist clerics, said on Friday that attacks on Sheik Hilaly were attacks on Islam.

"His name is a mufti and we should respect that name - we should respect the turban on his head," Sheik Omran said in the sermon, an audio copy of which was posted on his Ahlus Sunnah Wal-Jamaah Association website yesterday. "This is the sign of a scholar - you are not attacking Sheik Taj here, you are attacking the scholars, you are attacking Islam."

Sheik Omran has said bin Laden was a good man and the US, rather than the al-Qaeda leader, was behind the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Now it looks as if the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas in 2001 in Afghanistan was an act of jihadists from all over. "Bin Laden's prints seen on ruins of Bamiyan Buddhas," by Selim Saheb Ettaba for AFP, with thanks to Fjordman:

BAMIYAN, Afghanistan -- In a huge cavity dug into the side of a cliff, workers search through the rubble to exhume the remains of the giant Buddhas of Bamiyan.

At the scene of the crime carried out in 2001 all evidence points to Osama Bin Laden as the mastermind. "This is the terrorism of the Taliban," says Rahim, an official at the work site in front of the empty niche of the biggest of the two statues, one of which stood 55 meters (182 feet) tall and the other 38 meters.

Wearing a hard hat and a mask over his mouth, one of the workers, Rajab, is trying to save the remains of the destruction in which one of his family members played a part. "The Taliban took Ali Reza, one of my relatives, and they suspended him from a cable at the side of the Buddhas. Then they forced him to beat at the statues with an axe and an iron rod," he says. "They took four or five like him, to punish them for having fought against them."

He says that there were Arabs, Pakistanis, and Chechens among the Taliban fanatics who oversaw the demolition of the ancient relics - until then the largest standing Buddhist statues in the world - carried out on the orders of the head of the Taliban regime because they were deemed idolatrous.

One of his colleagues, Abdul Ali, adds: "The Taliban were the executors, but the masterminds were the Arabs and the Pakistanis."

At the nearby village of Sangchaspon, where the government has sent people who once lived in caves dug into the cliff around the Buddhas, two more witnesses give a similar account. "They started with tanks but that did not do much damage so they brought in explosives," says Mirza Hussein, another of the prisoners that the Taliban brought in to destroy the Buddhas.

"There were Arabs and Pakistanis," says Hussein, who was present for all 25 days it took to demolish the statues. As he recalls it, the foreigners "came by helicopter."...

Tora Bora is 100% safe, says Gul Agha Sherazi. Getting there through Pakistan and Afghanistan might be somewhat less so. "'Come To Tora Bora Caves,'" from Sky News, with thanks to Mackie:

There will soon be a new holiday destination for the most intrepid tourists, according to one newspaper.

Osama bin Laden's infamous Tora Bora caves hideout is reportedly being converted - into a £5.3m holiday resort.

It seems hotels and restaurants are being built on mountains overlooking the al Qaeda leader's secret lair in Afghanistan, says The Sun.

The newspaper quotes a former warlord-turned local governor as saying the area is now completely safe.

Gul Agha Sherazi said: "Tora Bora is world famous - but we want it to be known for tourism, not terrorism," claims the paper.

Bin Laden hid out in the network of caves in 2001 after the Taliban government was ousted.

It is believed he fled after a US bombing blitz.

Despite the fact two journalists have been killed in the area this month, Sherazi apparently insisted: "Tora Bora is 100% safe".

"The Middle East is the center of graft and corruption in the universe." Financial Jihad Update from Rowan Scarborough in the Washington Times, :

The U.S. military is not only trying to stop terrorists and arms from leaking into Iraq from Syria and Iran but also another just as dangerous commodity -- cash.

It's the lifeblood of the enemy -- whether they be al Qaeda terrorists, death squads or Sunnis trying to evict American forces and bring back dictator Saddam Hussein -- and U.S. raiders have seized millions of dollars in cash during the conflict.

Military officials point to Syria and its secretive banking system as the main source of Sunni walking-around money, while Iran's Revolutionary Guard funnels money to Shi'ite militias, such as cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.

The enemy's money began flowing into Iraq with the start of the insurgency in the summer of 2003, and the shipments are still coming in.

"There are billions coming in," said Daniel Gallington, a former aide to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. "The Middle East is the center of graft and corruption in the universe. It really always has been. The fight in Iraq is about who controls what area is really all about who controls the money."

Read it all.

Al-Hilali Update. Sheik apologises to 'cherished pearls,'" from The Australian, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

SHEIK Taj al-Din al-Hilaly described women as "cherished pearls" and said rape was abominable as he tried to explain the comments which have engulfed him in controversy.

While he expressed some contrition to the women of Australia, he attacked the "dubious media" and "devious groups" which he says have slandered and defamed him.

Australia's most senior Muslim cleric collapsed with chest pains and was taken to hospital today following widespread calls for him to quit after delivering a sermon in which he compared immodestly dressed women to uncovered meat eaten by cats.

In a written statement given to the media at Canterbury Hospital in Sydney today, he admitted the metaphor was inappropriate for western society.

But he said the comments were made in a private lesson at Lakemba mosque during Ramadan and were not meant for the general public "and particularly not the general women of our Australian society".

In other words, I'm sorry this was publicized.

"The metaphor ... has been quoted and misinterpreted by some groups with ill intention," the statement said.

Of course. When have a jihadist's uncomfortable words, when they have come to the attention of the general public, ever been interpreted correctly?

"I am deeply saddened and distressed by the acts of some devious groups which lurk in the dark watching me, and who cannot tolerate the moderate balanced way which I adopt to advocate for women's issues.

"Yes, I feel deeply saddened that such an ordinary lesson has been used to slander and defame me after it had been translated with the ill intention of a dubious media that wishes to incite and they present an unfair campaign, the aims of which are very well known."

He said a verse in the Koran dealing with adultery named `woman' before `man' because "she possessed the charm, the methods of seduction and all similar devices given to her by Allah to tempt the man.

"For that I borrowed a metaphor used by an author called Ar-Rifa'i.

"He said exposing the meat in an illicit way would encourage the cats to devour it. I didn't mean by that to humiliate immodest women; I meant to censure the person who would abandon his humility and turn into a vicious animal."

He said western women and Muslim women are entitled to wear what they like, but "Islamic Sharia made it incumbent upon Muslim men to lower their gaze. It is prohibited for them to stare at the beauty of strange women."

Rape, he said, was "an abominable crime; it has no justification, and the perpetrator deserves the severest punishment and would not deserve to belong to a religion or to humanity."

But he still urged women not to tempt men.

"I turn to all the women of Australia and the world. You are the shining lights of the world ... How could any sane person think of humiliating you?" he wrote.

"You are the cherished pearls, the dearest thing in the world. So don't be taken as offerings at the temples of the merchants of pleasure, or advocates of decadence and corruption.

"Once again I am very sorry and apologise for what resulted from an unintentional analogy."

Here is another review that has appeared today of my new book The Truth About Muhammad. This one is an erudite and generous perspective from Serge Trifkovic in Human Events. Trifkovic, of course, is the author of two essential books, Sword of the Prophet and Defeating Jihad.

At least since Georgi Plekhanov’s influential essay “The Role of the Individual in History” (1898), the proponents of the Great Man model—initiated in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and famously elaborated by Carlyle—have been on the defensive. For some decades now, the Western academe has been dominated by the upholders of the primacy of the relationships and conflicts between social forces in determining the course of history. Most chairs that count are held by Emeriti who see history as a linear struggle between social classes and their key fractions. Over the past generation the “proletarian” has been replaced by "RaceGenderSexuality" and the “capitalist” by the non-self-hating straight white male, but the dogma that history is determined by social forces has survived the fall of the Wall.

Robert Spencer’s “The Truth About Muhammad” (Regnery, a HUMAN EVENTS sister company) was not written in order to disprove the gnostic notion that history has a comprehensible pattern, a determinate logic and a finite number of possible resolutions or outcomes. But that is, indirectly, what the book achieves. This brief and readable summary of the life and times of the prophet of Islam, derived from eminently orthodox Muslim sources, reveals the centrality of Muhammad not only to Islam-as-religion but also to Islam as a totalitarian ideology, Islam as a geopolitical project, and Islam as a normative moral and legal system devoid of any “natural” foundation.

Hot and bothered

In the course of a recent interview on MSNBC, Tucker Carlson asked Hooper three pointed questions:

"Would you say that most American Muslims are horrified by the thought that Iran might possess nuclear weapons, or not?"

No clear answer from Hooper.

Do American Muslims believe that this is a "war against Islam"?

A slippery answer from Hooper, suggesting that he himself believes that America is waging a war against Islam.

"Are Muslims more likely to commit acts of terror than members of other faiths?"

A flat no from Hooper, in the face of mountains of evidence. Click on that link. 6,276 Islamic terrorist attacks since 9/11. And then, just try to compile a similar list of violent acts committed recently by members of any other faith, in the name of that faith and justified by its core texts, and see how far you get. I'm glad Carlson asked the question, and wish there had been time for an extended discussion of this, and the introduction of some distinctions. Human nature is everywhere the same, but is Islamic teaching inspiring violence today? That is plain to all but those who do not wish to see. Instead of bland denials from Hooper, it would be refreshing to see him offer some constructive way to counter this phenomenon. But apparently that must be left up to the "Islamophobes."

Expect CAIR to denounce this. And don't tell me, "Well, CAIR is an American group, you see, so you can't expect them to denounce atrocities committed outside America." That might have held water before they denounced the ban on headscarves in Tunisia, but it doesn't anymore. If they can denounce that, they can denounce this.

Can't they?

Islamic Tolerance Alert from AINA, :

(AINA) -- According to the Assyrian website ankawa.com, a 14 year old Christian Assyrian boy, Ayad Tariq, from Baqouba, Iraq was decapitated at his work place on October 21.

Ayad Tariq was working his 12 hour shift, maintaining an electric generator, when a group of disguised Muslim insurgents walked in at the beginning of his shift shortly after 6 a.m. and asked him for his ID.

According to another employee who witnessed the events, and who hid when he saw the insurgents approach, the insurgents questioned Ayad after seeing that his ID stated "Christian", asking if he was truly a "Christian sinner." Ayad replied "yes, I am Christian but I am not a sinner." The insurgents quickly said this is a "dirty Christian sinner!" Then they proceeded to each hold one limb, shouting "Allahu akbar! Allahu akbar!" while beheading the boy.

Good thing they weren't dirty sinners themselves, eh? And of course, they aren't, not even after they committed this cold-blooded murder. They aren't, that is, according to the Sharia stipulations that a Christian's life is forfeit if he violates the terms of his dhimma -- which they might have thought Ayad Tariq somehow did, perhaps simply by virtue of sharing the religion of the majority of the population of the Great Satan, the invaders of Iraq.

In any case, Islamic law sets a lighter punishment for the killing of a Christian than it does for the killing of a Muslim. The Iranian Sufi Sheikh Tabandeh even defended this in his book-length Islamic critique of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Probably the killers of Ayad Tariq share this view. So it is likely that today they have no fear that they will receive any punishment either on earth or from God.

The jihad against Israel continues without let-up, while Abbas struts and postures. From Xinhua:

A Palestinian home-made rocket landed in an open area near "a strategic site" in the south of Israel's coastal city of Ashkelon, Israeli Radio quoted Israeli army sources on Monday.

The rocket, fired from northern Gaza Strip, caused slight damages, said the sources, adding the timing of the attack which happened early in the morning has prevented more casualties among workers who were not there at that site.

Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad (Holy War), claimed responsibility. In a statement faxed to the press, the brigades said their fighters launched a medium-range rocket on Ashkelon at about 6:00 a.m.

According to the Israeli sources, situation in Ashkelon city has been relatively quiet recently, but the Palestinian rocket attacks against southern Israel's town of Sderot continued in spite of the ongoing military operations by the Israeli army in Gaza to curb rocket attacks.

Brigitte Gabriel's review of my new book this morning puts me in mind of her superb new book, which is not to be missed.

Because They Hate is her own harrowing -- beyond harrowing -- story, the story of her childhood in Lebanon, when jihadists sowed mayhem and destruction, keeping the Christian population in terror for years on end. And Brigitte Gabriel is not afraid to draw the necessary conclusions from her experience, as politically incorrect as they may be. Here is a first-hand account of how jihad terrorists destroy lives, and how they plan and hope to do to the entire world what they did to southern Lebanon.

Brigitte Gabriel was able to escape from the physical and psychological nets the jihadists wove, becoming a fervent and articulate defender of Israel and all the nations and peoples that are threatened by jihad terror and supremacism today. If you haven't read her book or heard her speak, do both as soon as you can, and give this book to all those who still need to wake up.

Here are the endorsements, including my own, that appear on the jacket of Because They Hate:

“Brigitte Gabriel eloquently reminds America what is truly at stake in this struggle against terrorism: our families, our way of life, and our hopes. Ms. Gabriel's personal account of her own experience is riveting, compelling and spellbinding. This is a must read for the entire American public . . . This book contains monumental revelations that will shock and disturb you. But it is also a story of an indomitable spirit--Brigitte's-- that will move you.”--Steve Emerson, author of American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Amongst Us, Executive Director, the Investigative Project on Terrorism

"A compelling and captivating personal story with a powerful lesson about threats to freedom in our time." --R. James Woolsey, Director of Central Intelligence, 1993-95

“Brigitte Gabriel's story is at once intensely personal and possessing global significance . . . the story of her family and her childhood encapsulates the threat that faces the entire free world today. Brigitte Gabriel's words should be read, and studied carefully, by all the law enforcement and government officials of the West -- as well as by everyone who values freedom.” -- Robert Spencer, author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)

“Because They Hate should be read by all to understand radical Islam. Brigitte . . . . This book gives dire warning of what is to come if the democratic and Western world does not take responsible action to protect its people and societies. The United States is the primary target as Islamic Radicalism attempts to spread its worldwide dominance.”-- Paul E. Vallely, Maj. General US Army (Ret.), FOX News Channel Military Analyst, and coauthor of Endgame: The Blueprint for Victory in the War on Terror

The courageous president of the American Congress for Truth, Brigitte Gabriel -- one of the most passionate and riveting speakers I have ever had the privilege to hear -- has written this review of my new book The Truth About Muhammad in FrontPage this morning:

“Freedom of inquiry and speech, the quest for truth, should not be cowed into silence by violent intimidation or the acceptance of half-truths and propaganda meant to appease freedom’s enemies. One thing is certain: if no one is willing to take such risks, freedom of speech will swiftly become a relic of history.”

These are the words of author Robert Spencer, who is risking his life to educate Westerners about the life of the founder of Islam. He has just come out with a new book, The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion. In this biography, Spencer tells the story of the founder of Islam -- a story that many Muslims themselves apparently either do not know about or do not want non-Muslims to hear.

Yet it's strange that any Muslim would react with anger to Spencer's book, since he bases it strictly on Islamic sources, all written by pious and serious Muslims. No critic can rightly say that anything Spencer has said about Muhammad in this book is inaccurate. But the problem Muslims find with it is that Spencer doesn't treat Muhammad as if he were the highest moral standard.

What kind of threats had to be made to Musharraf to get him to agree to this? An AP story by Habibullah Khan:

KHAR, Pakistan - Pakistani troops backed by missile-firing helicopters destroyed a purported al-Qaida-linked training facility in a northwestern tribal area near the Afghan border Monday, officials said. At least 20 people were killed.

The pre-dawn attack targeted a religious school, or madrassa, holding 70-80 militants in Chingai village near Khar, the main town in the Bajur tribal district, said army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan....

Sultan said the attack targeted terrorists training at the al-Qaida-linked facility, but local leaders said those killed in the raid were innocent civilians.

Among the dead was Liaquat Hussain, a local Islamic cleric who ran the madrassa and is believed to have been sheltering al-Qaida militants, locals said. Several of his aides also died, they said.

The attack came two days after 5,000 pro-Taliban tribesmen held an anti-American rally in the Bajur area near Damadola, a village close to the site of an alleged U.S. missile attack that killed several al-Qaida members and civilians in January.

"We received confirmed intelligence reports that 70-80 militants were hiding in a madrassa used as a terrorist-training facility, which was destroyed by an army strike, led by helicopters," Sultan said....

Siraj ul-Haq, a Cabinet minister from the North West Frontier Province, condemned the attack and announced he would resign from the government in protest.

"This is a very wrong action. The government has launched an attack during the night, which is against Islam and the traditions of the area," ul-Haq told the AP during the funeral. "They (the victims) were not given any warning. This was an unprovoked attack on a madrassa. They were innocent people."...

Ul-Haq, who belongs to the powerful Islamic political party, Jamaat-e-Islami, said protests would be staged throughout the northern tribal region on Tuesday to denounce the attack.

First Iran, now Turkey. Sharia Alert. "Women-only park plan causes stir in secular Turkey," from Reuters:

ISTANBUL: Strong reaction to a plan for a women-only park in Istanbul has focused attention on the divisions between Turkey’s secularists and supporters of the ruling AK Party, which has its roots in political Islam.

Critics of the plan see it as the latest sign that the ruling party is trying to push through an Islamist agenda, but several female voters in the district said yesterday they loved the idea.

News that the AK Party-run municipality of Bagcilar was planning to create a park exclusively for women, reported in the local press this week, prompted a fierce reaction among secular Turks who say the party is trying to give Islam a greater role in public life.

The controversy reached parliament on Thursday, when opposition CHP lawmaker Bihlun Tamayligil asked the assembly: "Can you reconcile the principles of the Republic with applying the segregation of men and women?" according to local media.

The row is the latest of several between pro-secular and Islamist-leaning camps in Turkey, which is officially secular but overwhelmingly Muslim.

Municipalities run by the AK Party caused outrage in some quarters last year by banning alcohol in restaurants they run. Islam bans alcoholic drinks. The party also wants to lift a ban on women wearing headscarves in official buildings.

Tension between the two sides is likely to increase as the November 2007 general election draws nearer.

"They’re talking about (protecting women from) sexual harassment but this is an Islamist agenda ... it’s very obviously an application of harem-selamlik (separating men and women)," Pinar Ilkkaracan, founder of the NGO Women for Women’s Human Rights, told Reuters.

In some parts of Istanbul skimpily-clad women hop between nightclubs, but in Bagcilar, where nearly all the women on the street wear headscarves, the AK Party seems to be in tune with voters -- at least with a handful of local women.

"It’s good, I hope it happens. It’d be more comfortable," 21-year-old textile worker Nurgul Karayanik told Reuters in the neighbourhood. "Men make comments, leer at women a lot in Turkey," she said.

Some were puzzled by other women’s opposition to the plan.

"There are women who don’t go out because of men ... because (they think) it’s sinful. And men make comments, it’s uncomfortable," said 49-year-old Muteber Kucukkaraca.

Local mayor Feyzullah Kiyiklik, angered by the controversy, declined to give any details.

"We haven’t finished the park yet, we haven’t opened it, no decision has been taken ... but if you are interested, the day we open our park you could also come, inshallah," he said.

There was a time when the British were made of sterner stuff. "British troops hide from bombers," by Michael Smith in the TimesOnline, :

BRITISH troops in the two main towns in the southern Afghan province of Helmand have been forced to stay in their barracks by the threat of Taliban suicide bombers.

The decision to keep the troops in their bases follows intelligence that suicide bombers are waiting in the province’s two main towns to attack British troops, said Lieutenant-Colonel Andy Price.

The would-be suicide bombers in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah and in the town of Gereshk were wired up with explosives and waiting for a British convoy. “We have suicide bombers physically walking around in Lashkar Gah and Gereshk looking for us — a lot of them are not locals,” Price said. “More and more they’re following the Iraqi example.”

Price, spokesman for the British forces in Helmand, said there was a “lockdown” of the two British bases. “There is no movement, no soldier, no police or the Afghan army,” he said. “We’re not going out and the Afghan police and army aren’t going out.”

The “lockdown” raises questions about how the Royal Marine commandos who last month replaced British paratroopers in Helmand will provide security to allow reconstruction projects to go ahead.

Lieutenant-General David Richards, the Nato commander in Afghanistan, has said that he wants British troops to withdraw from the northern outposts of Helmand and concentrate on creating safe development zones in Lashkar Gah and Gereshk.

By focusing reconstruction efforts on those two towns, Richards hopes to persuade residents that they are better off without the Taliban. But that will be impossible unless British and Afghan forces can provide security.

Reconstruction won't persuade them of anything. The Taliban argue on Islamic grounds. The British have no response to that. Neither does Hamid Karzai.

Imagine! Two new books shed light on the Prophet of Islam! The Boston Globe has a review of both:

The path of the prophet
Two new works seek to uncover the man who was Muhammad

By Ilan Stavans | October 29, 2006

Muhammad
By Eliot Weinberger
Verso, 64 pp., $10.95

Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time
By Karen Armstrong
HarperCollins/Atlas, 249 pp., $21.95

Muhammad by Eliot Weinberger, Amazon.com Sales Rank at the hour of this writing: #752,092. The publisher calls it "a luminous portrait of the Prophet, in the Islamic tradition....Muhammad is a shimmering, lyrical biography of the Prophet, composed from the words of Muslims throughout the centuries."

Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time by Karen Armstrong, Amazon.com sales rank this hour: #6,480. Booklist says of it: "It puts the best face possible on its subject. The Muhammad it projects gave his followers 'a mission: to create a just and decent society, in which all members were treated with respect.'"

Funny thing: I've heard there is a third new book out recently about Muhammad. This hour it is ranked #56 at Amazon. Now, of course the Globe can review any book it wants, and decline to review any book it wants, but I can't help but wonder why the paper would choose to run a review feature on books about Muhammad that deals with two books that have aroused much less reader interest (thus far, to be sure) than a third book on the same subject.

Could it be because Weinberger's and Armstrong's are both hagiographical and that third book isn't? I can't help but wonder.

CLARIFICATION: The salient issue here is obscured somewhat by the fact that I wrote the third book to which I refer above. The issue here is not that my book didn't get a review in the Globe. As I said above, they can review or not review any book they want. This post is about media bias, and the mainstream media's unwillingness to discuss anything that might appear unfavorable to Islam.

UPDATE: Please don't write to Ilan Stavans. It has come to my attention that some of you have done so -- if I had thought to do so I would have asked you not to in the first place. But in any case, he responded quite favorably to one person who emailed, saying: "Thanks for your e-mail. I'd love to see Robert Spencer's book, lathough I don't know if the Globe would be ready for a review." I will see to it that he gets a copy.

Al-Hilali Update. Tanveer Ahmed says in The Australian what I get called "Islamophobic" for saying. Is it true if a Muslim says it, but "Islamophobia" if a non-Muslim says it?

As long as Muslims view their religion as sitting above history and culture - with the Koran as the literal word of God, which in their view makes Islam undebatable - there will always be Hilalis who can point to certain texts and argue for a social and legal structure consistent with 7th-century Arabia. Let's not forget that a senior British cleric lavished praise on Hilali in response to this incident, saying Australia was lucky to have him, and suggesting he was "one of the greatest Islamic scholars in the world".

This is a man who knows the Koran in intimate detail and his views are consistent with a strict reading of the Muslim holy book.

And if you believe the Koran is the literal word of God, how is anything other than a strict interpretation appropriate?

All the world's religions have passages that are abhorrent or inappropriate to the modern age. But they were revolutionary in their time and can still inspire us today.

If Islam is seen in its context, as a product of history and not above it, there could be a meaningful debate about whether a version of the religion, inspired by but not chained to its past, can and contribute to modernity and human progress.

The Hilali incident and the loud chorus of his defenders suggest this is still some way off.

Women need only "cover their head and a little of their face." There now, don't you feel better?

"Islam against Talibani veil: Sadiq," by M Hasan in the Hindustan Times:

SENIOR VICE-CHAIRMAN of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) and renowned Islamic scholar Dr Kalbe Sadiq today announced that Islam was against ‘Talibani Purdah (rigid purdah system imposed by the Taliban in Afghanistan)’.

Coming to the rescue of film star Shabana Azmi over her statement on ‘purdah’ (veil), Dr Sadiq said Shabana was right in her interpretation of veil in Islam, as Islam never talked about the purdah system as prevalent in Afghanistan.

While mullahs have been trying to hound out Shabana for her comment that there was no Quranic injunction about the present form of veil, Dr Sadiq said, “There is no mention of Talibani ‘purdah’ in the holy book.”

Dr Sadiq said while dealing with the issue, the Quran had only said that women should cover their head and a little of their face. He said there was no need to cover the whole face.

Actually, this is all the Qur'an says about it. It has been variously interpreted, although most scholars agree that it does involve a head covering: "And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husband's fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers or their brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their women, or the slaves whom their right hands possess, or male servants free of physical needs, or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex; and that they should not strike their feet in order to draw attention to their hidden ornaments. And O ye Believers! turn ye all together towards Allah, that ye may attain Bliss" (24:31).

As I have long noted, any secular, democratic or republican or semi-democratic government in the Islamic world -- indeed, any government that does not fully implement Sharia -- faces mounting pressure from forces that believe that no non-Sharia government has any legitimacy at all. And that is true even in the country that is most often held up as the model and proof that Islam and democracy can coexist (despite the fact that its secularism was established in an atmosphere of war with Islam): Turkey.

"FEATURE-Islam challenges secularism in Turkey's east," by Paul de Bendern for Reuters:

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Oct 30 (Reuters) - In the heartland of Turkey's southeast, plagued by decades of conflict between separatist Kurdish rebels and the state, a new threat to secularism is emerging -- Islamist groups.

Local politicians say these organisations are becoming more active in the poor region that borders Iraq and Syria, and some fear this could fan fundamentalism, especially among young people who have grown up with violence.

As in the rest of predominantly Sunni Muslim Turkey, practising one's religion here long took a backseat to a public espousal of the secularism of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the republic's founder.

However, since the AK Party, which has roots in political Islam, swept to power in 2002, Muslims are now being more open about their faith.

"We feel much freer to practise Islam," said Engin Aydin, a teacher and physics graduate who was selling religious books near Diyarbakir's 11th century Ulu Cami mosque. "It's getting better by the day."

In the southeast's largest city, mosques are welcoming more worshippers, non governmental organisations (NGOs) with a religious overtone are helping the poor and the number of unofficial prayer rooms is on the rise, say politicians and lawyers.

"In every poor neighbourhood, new radical Islamic associations are giving hot food, they have meetings at people's homes. They pay for students to go to school," said Firat Anli, mayor of a district of Diyarbakir and member of the main Kurdish party, the Democratic Society Party (DTP).

"I'm very worried ... I fear they'll become more powerful and could turn to violence like the (Turkish) Hezbollah," he said, referring to a defunct armed group, active in the 1990s.

A breathtaking apex of French dhimmitude. No wonder the French "youths" are growing bolder and more assertive: they see that the French have no will to resist whatsoever, and reward those who engage in criminal activity. "Peace Gesture: French Unveil Monument to Boys Who Fled Police," from Gateway Pundit, with thanks to LGF:

You run from police... You accidentally get electrocuted while hiding from police at an electrical substation... You get a monument built in your honor!

A monument is unveiled to honor Zyed Benna and Bouna Traore who died on Oct. 27, 2005 by accidental electrocution while fleeing a police identification check.

A silent march ended in a mostly immigrant Paris suburb on Friday where French officials unveiled a monument to two youths who died while fleeing from police:

Relatives and friends of two French teenagers who were electrocuted as they fled from police a year ago have gathered in Clichy-sous-Bois near Paris. A plaque was unveiled in front of their school, and a wreath-laying ceremony was held at the power sub-station where the teenagers tried to hide.

The deaths of Zyed Benna and Bouna Traore sparked three weeks of violent riots in France's poor suburbs as the young and unemployed vented their anger over what they saw as lack of opportunity and racial discrimination. The crowd gathered in silent prayer wearing t-shirts with the slogan "Dead for nothing".

They also laid wreaths at the electrical sub-station.

Read it all.

Tensions rising. From the Jerusalem Post, :

Egypt on Saturday deployed no less than 5,000 security personnel on the Gaza border, news agencies reported.

Officials in Cairo said the move came in response to reports that Israel planned to intensify action to weed out smuggling tunnels, including bombing them from the air.

Yes, the "women are like uncovered meat" Sheikh. By Richard Kerbaj in The Australian, with thanks to LGF:

TAJ Din al-Hilali has praised militant jihadists in Iraq and Afghanistan, calling them men of the highest order for fighting against coalition forces - which include Australian soldiers - to "liberate" their homelands.

In an interview on Arabic radio two weeks ago, the imam based at Sydney's Lakemba mosque said he was opposed to terror attacks in Madrid, London and New York but strongly endorsed fighters in the Palestinian territories, Iraq and Afghanistan.

In the interview, Sheik Hilali pays tribute to Sayyid Qutb, the ideologue of the Muslim Brotherhood and intellectual mentor of Osama bin Laden and al-Qa'ida.

"Jihad of the liberator of Palestine, that's the greatest and cleanest and highest ... jihad which lifts our heads in pride in south Lebanon," Sheik Hilali says in the October 17 interview.

He tells broadcaster Abrahim Zoabi that he endorses jihad for liberation. "We are talking about ... jihad of liberating our land, jihad of Muslim Afghanis in their land - that's jihad.

"Jihad of Iraqi Muslims is jihad, but not when Sunnis and Shias are killing each other - that's not jihad."...

Walk back the cat.

Walk the cat all the way back to the real problem, which is not the nauseating speech given by Rice, wildly inaccurate and wrong in its every phrase, wrong in its diseased sympathy, wrong in its implied geopolitical calculation.

Whoever crafted this speech with and for her (was Philip Zelikow now coming into his own?) and whoever has been bending the ear of this dutiful student of Kremlinology (who is not particularly adept either at Russian history or Russian language -- her one attempt to use it in public, while in Russia, led to all kinds of mockery, and she won't be repeating that kind of thing) is ignorant about virtually everything that is important to know about this present crisis. But as far as George Bush is concerned, she is a towering intellect. One understands why he may think that.

The good news is, this has not been well received. The bad news is, he's Deputy Prime Minister. "Prescott heaps praise on 'tolerant' Malaysia, despite its crumbling human rights," by Ben Leapman and Jonathan Wynne-Jones for the Telegraph:

He has been lampooned as a lost soul, bumbling around the Far East with his retinue of aides in search of a purpose. John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, today concludes a week-long tour that has taken in Japan, South Korea and China.

Up to now he has kept a low profile. Apart from a speech in Seoul and a school visit in China, he has avoided public engagements and media appearances in favour of private meetings with his foreign counterparts.

But on his final stopover, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital, Mr Prescott broke cover by penning a 1,000-word article for the city's Star newspaper in which he reveals he wants to learn lessons for Britain about how different faiths live in harmony there. Malaysia is 60 per cent Muslim with sizeable Buddhist, Christian and Hindu minorities. On the surface, the groups live together peacefully. But underneath lies simmering resentment which has led human rights groups to observe that Malaysia treats its minorities unfairly. Christian campaigners in Britain have called his mission wrong-headed.

In his article, published yesterday, he speaks warmly of Islam, adding: "Islam enriches British society in many ways."

Somewhat bafflingly for his readers, Mr Prescott even digresses into the arcane topic of British motorcycle safety legislation, pointing out that our law allows Sikh bikers to wear turbans instead of helmets. Critics say it is that kind of tolerance that Malaysia lacks. Since the 1970s, the country has operated a "positive discrimination" policy, which gives priority to ethnic-Malay Muslims in applying for civil service jobs or university places.

The Sharia court system, which operates alongside civil courts, should not affect non-Muslims; but it has caused problems for Lina Joy, a Muslim who converted to Christianity. She has spent five years battling for permission to marry her Christian fiancé. And Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, a human rights lawyer, was this year ordered by the government to disband his organisation promoting religious freedom.

Baroness Cox, a human rights campaigner, called Mr Prescott's praise for Malaysian tolerance "gratuitously misleading". She said: "There is a great deal of religious discrimination. Christians there are finding that human rights and religious rights are crumbling away."

There should be nothing surprising about this. It is in line with Muhammad's words: "If a husband calls his wife to his bed (i.e. to have sexual relation) and she refuses and causes him to sleep in anger, the angels will curse her till morning" (Bukhari 4:54:460)

"Women can't refuse," from the Sydney Morning Herald, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

AN Islamic group praised by the Howard Government as preaching moderation has advised its followers that a woman cannot refuse to have sex with her husband.

The advice was posted on the website of the Darulfatwa organisation, in response to questions posed by readers.

One asked: "Is it haram [forbidden] for a lady to say no if her male partner wants to make love with her?"

The Islamic scholars replied: "In this case she should not refrain from such a legitimate right of marriage, but she could Islamically request for a place of living from her husband."

Darulfatwa spokesman Mohammad Mehio said Islamic teaching was that a wife could not refuse sex unless she had a good excuse such as being ill, tired or depressed.

Note that this was altered after it came to the attention of the media:

After The Sun-Herald questioned Mr Mehio about the answers on the website, he said they posted a "clarification".

The answer to the sex-in-marriage question was changed to: "In this case she has the right to refuse."

But when the media turns away again, will this caveat remain? That's doubtful. After all, Muhammad did not specify such an exception.

In "Palestinian 'humiliation'?" in the Washington Times (thanks to Doc Washburn), Joel Mowbray speaks truth to power about Condoleeza Rice's appalling myopia and inability or refusal to confront the reality of the jihad ideology:

In a keynote speech earlier this month to the American Task Force on Palestine, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sounded very unlike President Bush on the Middle East, lavishing praise on Palestinians and implicitly attacking Israel.

While the words she chose have invited criticism, much more concerning is that the top U.S. diplomat has the same fundamental misunderstanding of the Middle East that most do, namely that Palestinians are ready to coexist peacefully next to a Jewish state. This conventional diplomatic wisdom, however, ignores the history of the region since the Oslo accords in 1993: The once largely secular Palestinian society has become increasingly Islamic-and deeply radicalized.

Comparing the Palestinian cause to her own civil rights struggle growing up in "segregated Birmingham, Alabama," Miss Rice reminded the activist audience that if she could overcome such tremendous odds to become Secretary of State, Palestinians could achieve their dream of statehood. She based this belief on "the commitment of the Palestinian people to a better future."

Where does Mr. Bush's most loyal and trusted aide find evidence of this "commitment?" She offered none in her speech. Even if she had wanted to, though, such proof is in short supply. Poll after poll has indicated majority Palestinian support for suicide bombings. Even the term used for bombers, "shahids," is one of glorification, the equivalent of calling someone a saint. And whereas children across the world have posters in their room of sports stars or famous artists, Palestinian youths decorate their living space with posters celebrating "shahids."

In view of the radicalization of Palestinian society, the election this year of Hamas seems far less a vote against corruption-as the State Department explained it-and far more a statement of principle. Yet Miss Rice not only defended the election of Hamas but characterized it as an opportunity since "the Palestinian people and the international community can hold Hamas accountable. And Hamas now faces a hard choice that it has always sought to avoid: Either you are a peaceful political party, or a violent terrorist group -- but you cannot be both."

But what about the very real possibility, or even likelihood, that the Palestinian people elected Hamas precisely because it's a "violent terrorist group?" One thing Palestinians are not is stupid. Is it even possible that Palestinians didn't understand that they were electing a "violent terrorist group" with the stated goal of eliminating the Jewish state?

Read it all.

Morocco's relatively reformist leadership is, by virtue of its reformist tendencies, not sufficiently Islamic. And so it must be fought. From Reuters, with thanks to DFS:

RABAT: Moroccan authorities are holding 14 people suspected of belonging to a regional radical Islamist group linked to Al Qaeda, government officials said yesterday.

The 14 suspects had planned to carry out an unspecified "terrorist plot" on Morocco, with the help of Al Qaeda-linked foreign fighters who would travel from the Sahel-Sahara region, they said.

Morocco, a staunch US ally in the global fight on terror, has been on alert since 2003 when suicide bombings killed 45 people in Casablanca, the country’s commercial capital.

It has arrested more than 3,000 people since then and broken up more than 50 radical Islamist cells.

But it is the first time that the authorities have announced the arrest of people with suspected links to foreign cells.

"The 14 persons are suspected of being linked to a global terrorist movement which has connections with small groups operating in the Sahel-Sahara region and links with members of a group based on the Algeria-Mali border," an official statement said.

The statement did not name the groups but government officials said the small groups were Islamist cells linked to the main Algerian Islamic rebel Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) faction.

Anti-terrorism police officials in North Africa and Europe have voiced concerns that the GSPC might turn itself into a magnet for radical Islamists in the region, providing them with weapons and military training in lawless areas of the Sahara desert.

The GSPC said in September it had joined Al Qaeda, whose leader Ayman al-Zawhiri urged the Algerian rebel group to become a "bone in the throat of the American and French crusaders".

In a statement regarding the Minneapolis Shari’a taxicab dispute that recently came to Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs from the Muslim Brotherhood, "Dr. Habib described the cabbies’ position as 'absurd' and added 'Muslims must respect and comply with the laws and regulations of the countries they live in and be a good example for their fellow citizens.'"

This is akin to the about-face of the imam Hilali in Australia who, having been secretly taped at his mosque making his now-famous remarks about women dressed in non-Muslim fashion as "meat" who deserved whatever they got from inflamed Muslim men (apparently likened, in the somewhat clumsy metaphor, to the beasts that are attracted to that "meat"), and after indignation had been expressed too loudly and consistently to be ignored, pretended he had meant no such thing and apologized for any malentendu. He did the same thing a few years ago after praising the 9.11 attacks as “God’s work.”

Anti-dhimmitude in Italy. "Veils gag falls flat: An imam's 'death threat' to an Italian MP has not stopped her speaking out on Islam and feminism," by John Hooper in The Guardian, with thanks to Mackie:

Britain and Australia are not the only countries where debate is raging over the Islamic veil. In Italy, the issue burst into the news this week after the interior ministry ordered round-the-clock police protection for an MP, believing she had been threatened for expressing her views on the subject.

Daniela Santanche, an MP for the formerly neo-fascist National Alliance, clashed in a TV chat show with the imam of a mosque near Milan. After Ms Santanche insisted that the Qur'an did not call for women to wear a veil, the other guest, Ali Abu Shwaima, angrily replied: "I am an imam and I will not permit those who are ignorant to speak of Islam. You are ignorant of Islam and do not have the right to interpret the Qur'an."

Ali Abu Shwaima's charge is interesting. In the U.S. those who speak about the roots of the jihad ideology in the Qur'an and Sunnah are routinely called "ignorant" by Islamic apologists. Yet here Santanche is asserting that a more moderate view on veiling is supported by the Qur'an, and she is called "ignorant" by a hardline Muslim. So in the U.S. we are ignorant if we say Islam is radical, and in Italy we are ignorant if we say Islam is moderate. This is perhaps a measure of the relative strength and assertiveness of the Muslim communities in these two countries.

The ministry said it had been advised that the words used by the imam might amount to a coded death sentence - which the imam has vigorously denied.

At all events, his admonition has done nothing to silence Ms Santanche. A few days later she returned to the attack, comparing the veil to the yellow Star of David the Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis.

Her words have so far had two results. The first has been a debate among Muslims themselves. One imam has gone so far as to argue that the niqab, which leaves only the eyes visible, is obligatory for Muslim women. Not so, said the president of the Muslim Assembly of Italy, Abdul Hadi Massimo Palazzi: "The veil is a tradition that spread at a late stage among Muslims".

The other has been discussion of the position to be taken by non-Muslim Italian women. "Muslim males want to show that their women are submissive. They want to assert their macho, autocratic culture," Ms Santanche said this week. "I'm not worried by the threats. What worries me is the deafening silence of feminists."

Aishah Azmi, I think

Aishah Azmi Update from the TimesOnline, with thanks to Dragon:

THE Muslim teacher who insisted on wearing a veil in class has been following a fatwa issued personally to her by a Islamic cleric belonging to a hardline sect.

Aishah Azmi found herself in the middle of a national row about integration when she took her school to an employment tribunal after it suspended her for refusing to remove the veil in class.

Tony Blair joined the debate about the wearing of veils — opened by Jack Straw, the Commons leader — and supported the school’s actions.

Azmi, 24, has maintained that her decision to wear the veil was driven entirely by her personal beliefs, rather than the advice or instruction of a third party. But this weekend it emerged that she refused to take the veil off at school after receiving a fatwa, or religious ruling, from Mufti Yusuf Sacha, a Muslim cleric in West Yorkshire.

Her legal team revealed that the advice Sacha issued to Azmi ruled that it was obligatory for women to wear the niqab (face-veil) in the presence of men who were not their blood relatives.

Sacha is one of several hundred Islamic clerics in Britain with the status of mufti, entitling him to issue fatwas based on Islamic law. Although Muslims are expected to follow fatwas, they are not obliged to do so, particularly if they live in a non-Muslim state....

Whittingham said that Azmi, who had been wearing the niqab since the age of 15, asked Sacha whether women had a choice whether or not to wear the niqab. She was told it was obligatory, Whittingham said.

Azmi, who was employed as a bilingual support worker helping British Pakistani children learn English, was told to remove the veil because pupils found it difficult to understand her as they could not see her lips move....

During Azmi’s employment tribunal, Sacha was asked to give a written statement. He set out his reasons for insisting that the niqab was obligatory for women.

Whittingham said: “I know she went to Sacha for advice before starting the job. And at the tribunal Sacha also set out the religious position, which was accepted by both sides. It said that she is required to wear it in the presence of men who are not her blood relatives, or whom she can potentially marry.”

The tribunal ruled that Kirklees council — which runs the school — was within its rights to suspend her from work. But Azmi was awarded £1,100 on the grounds of victimisation....

Sacha follows the teachings of the Tablighi Jamaat, a hardline Muslim group, elements of which are suspected by western intelligence agencies of having links with terrorism. The majority of Tablighis are, however, regarded as moderate.

A colleague of Sacha, who did not want to be named, said that the cleric teaches at the Tablighi mosque in Dewsbury, which has become the organisation’s European headquarters.

Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, two of the London bombers, are said to have been regular worshippers there.

Sacha’s ruling on the veil is disputed. Mufti Abdul Kadir Barkatullah, who is affiliated to the Muslim Council of Britain, said: “I am 100% sure that wearing the niqab is not obligatory on Muslim women — it is a matter of choice. It’s more about habit than religion. The Tablighis observe the niqab very strictly.”

Good grief! I mean -- Allahu akbar! Charlie Brown and Linus become mujahedin! Over at the Jawa Report (thanks to Steve).

Oddly enough, this AP story actually mentions "Muslims." Perhaps the censor had gone to retrieve his liverwurst sandwich, and this one slipped through. "Rioting youths burn hundreds of cars in France: Authorities upbeat despite violence marking anniversary of ’05 unrest," from AP, with thanks to Andrea:

CLICHY-SOUS-BOIS, France - Marauding youths torched hundreds of vehicles overnight and on Saturday in renewed violence coinciding with the first anniversary of riots that exposed a deep schism between poor North African immigrants and mainstream France.

A group of teenagers set one bus on fire Saturday in the southern French port city of Marseille, seriously wounding a passenger. Three others suffered from smoke inhalation, police said. Two other public buses and 277 vehicles around the country were burned overnight, police said.

Six police were injured and 47 people were arrested, ministry officials said. Still the Interior Ministry described the night as “relative calm,” noting that up to 100 cars are torched by youths in troubled neighborhoods on an average night.

Police had braced for a bigger replay of violence in the poor suburbs predominantly made up of Muslims from former French colonies in Africa. Friday marked the one-year anniversary of the deaths of two teens that ignited three weeks of riots in 2005.

The rioting was fueled by anger at France’s failure to offer equal opportunities to many minorities — especially Arabs and blacks — and France’s 5 million-strong Muslim population.

France’s trouble integrating minorities and the suburban unrest are becoming hot political issues in the campaign for next year’s presidential and parliamentary elections. The government passed an equal opportunities law this spring and has poured funds into “sensitive” areas, but disenchantment is still pervasive....

Hmm. You mean they've given the rioters money and favorable treatment, and that still hasn't solved the problem? Do you think maybe it springs from the ideology of Islamic supremacism, and not from poverty at all?

“Four guys attacked Bus 346,” said witness Thierry Ange, 19. “They made everyone get off, then they hit a woman and dragged out the bus driver by his tie,” then torched the bus with a gasoline bomb in a bottle, he said.

The blackened remains of another bus burned earlier stood across town. Two armed men had forced passengers off the bus, police said.

Youths also tried to burn a bus in Reims in eastern France, and attackers hurled metal balls at an empty bus in Trappes, west of Paris, the Interior Ministry said.

Scores of police, wielding shields and backed by a helicopter shining its searchlight, swept into a tough housing project in Montfermeil, a town near Clichy-sous-Bois, and several youths responded by throwing stones.

Paris’ transport authority responded to the violence by curtailing bus services in the Seine-Saint-Denis region north of the capital, which is home to thousands of immigrants and their French-born children.

And thus Paris slides toward Third World conditions.

To deny this story about their role in the Minneapolis Sharia Cab Controversy. Charles Johnson's comments are apposite: "It’s the standard denial. This comes from the political and public relations wing of the global jihad. No need for them to threaten. When someone in their network goes too far, they’ll back down and pretend they had nothing to do with it. They’re in this for the long haul."

A portion of the letter, via LGF:

The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) denied completely any involvement in the current dispute caused by a group of Somali Muslim cab drivers at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, U.S.A, who are refusing to pick up drunk passengers or those carrying alcoholic beverages claiming that Islam prohibits them from driving passengers with Alcohol. Dr. Mohamed Habib, the first Deputy Chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood, affirmed that Muslim Brotherhood has nothing to do whatsoever with what these Muslim cab drivers believe or view mistakenly as religious decree. Dr. Habib described the cabbies’ position as “absurd” and added “Muslims must respect and comply with the laws and regulations of the countries they live in and be a good example for their fellow citizens”

The question naturally presents itself: is that an unshakeable principle, or a temporary expedient?

It is unopposed not only for the clueless indifference scored in this article. It is unopposed because the vaunted overwhelming majority of moderate Muslims has as yet framed no response to the theological presentations of the jihadists. Only the willfully self-deceived and irredeemably credulous believe that this immense work has already been done.

And Rita Katz is right. It can't be done only by the Bush Administration, and not only because they show no signs of understanding the jihad ideology. It has to be done by those who have moral and intellectual credibility among Muslims -- and yes, this is another virtually insurmountable hurdle, since reformers immediately open themselves to charges from jihadists that they are disloyal Muslims for questioning the literal words of the Qur'an and Muhammad.

"U.S. seen balking at challenge by Islamist Web," by David Morgan for Reuters, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration is failing to counter Islamist online propaganda that could propel militancy into the next generation, experts say.

From the Middle East, Asia and Europe, Islamists have built an expansive Internet library of sophisticated texts on the ideology that underpins violence against the West and other enemies, analysts and intelligence officials said.

"It's a steady, stealthy indoctrination aimed at creating a whole new generation of jihadists. And scandalously, it is unopposed," said Stephen Ulph, who studies the Islamist Web for the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington think tank.

E-books and online pamphlets, with titles such as "39 Ways to Serve and Participate in Jihad," encourage the growth of home-grown militant cells across the world, including in such Western countries as Canada and Britain, the experts believe.

U.S. intelligence is reluctant to mount an effective counteroffensive by recruiting Islamic experts from overseas to rebut and even ridicule Islamist authors, according to experts and U.S. officials.

"Anything exposing the West as a supporter would destroy Islamic opposition to the jihadis," one intelligence official on condition of anonymity. "We are completely out of luck with the Muslim world, across the board."

Several agencies including the CIA, FBI and the office of U.S. National Intelligence Director John Negroponte are part of a closely guarded effort to monitor the content of Islamist Web sites.

But the program is hampered by stringent security standards that make it hard for intelligence agencies to employ Islamist experts from the Arab world.

"Even if we think we understand elements of the religion, we certainly don't understand elements of their cultural communications," the intelligence official said.

POP JIHAD PROPAGANDA

Others warned that U.S. policy-makers could be making a fatal error by ignoring doctrinal online texts that lay bare the substance of a violent Islamist mind-set.

"In order to be able to fight something, you have first of all to understand what is going on. And I don't think that at this stage they understand it well enough to fight it," said Rita Katz, director of the SITE Institute, which tracks and analyzes international terrorism.

In a presentation this week, Ulph said doctrinal material accounts for 60 percent of Islamist Web content and most texts are in Arabic. But many have begun to reappear in English and other European languages in an apparent appeal to Muslims living in the West.

One of the most popular is the 1,600-page treatise, "Call to Global Islamic Resistance," a comprehensive guide to militant life by al Qaeda ideologue Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, also known as Abu Musab al-Suri, who was captured in Pakistan a year ago.

The Islamist Web became a center for al Qaeda operational planning, training and fund-raising after the fall of the Taliban regime in
Afghanistan.

Thousands of Islamist Web sites have since sprouted, many appealing to disenfranchised Muslim youth with so-called Pop Jihad propaganda that can include films of beheadings and spectacular attacks on U.S. troops in
Iraq.

But Ulph and others, including former intelligence officials, say the future of Islamist militancy depends on the more sophisticated doctrinal material, capable of guiding the life of the committed militant from childhood to martyrdom.

"The focus has been on how these guys use the Internet for fund-raising and operations," said Jarret Brachman of the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. "Only recently have we realized there are strategic implications."

Only recently, eh, Brachman? Well, some of us have been trying to tell you for quite some time.

All four were studying at al-Iman University in Sanaa, Yemen, a university once suspended by the Supreme Yemeni Council for Universities for overlooking students' academic qualifications (or lack thereof) as long as they could recite 5 excerpts from the Qur'an (no word on which ones).

The Danish suspect is said to be a convert to Islam -- another convert, another alleged "misunderstander" of his new religion. "3 Australians, Dane Held in Yemen Over Arms Smuggling," from AP:

SANAA, 28 October 2006 -- Three Australians and a Dane have been arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle weapons to Somalia, a security official said late Thursday.

All four have been studying at the Islamist Iman University, which is run by Sheik Abdul-Majid Al-Zindani. The United States lists Al-Zindani as an Al-Qaeda supporter.

[...]

However, a Danish Foreign Ministry official confirmed the arrest of the Dane but refused to identify him. "All I can say is that a Danish national has been arrested according to our information," said Uffe Wolffheckel of the Foreign Ministry’s Consular Service.

Danish media said the suspect is a 23-year-old male who converted to Islam and moved to Yemen two months ago with his wife and child.

[...]

Yemen is believed to be a frequent route for smuggling arms to Somali factions.

And this has been known for 20 years.

Here is a story about the "uncovered meat" remarks. And here is the same Sheikh saying that 9/11 was God's work.

"Muslim cleric linked with terror groups," by Jim Dickens and Glenn Milne for The Sunday Telegraph, with thanks to LGF:

ASIO warned authorities 20 years ago that Sheik Taj al-Din Al-hilaly could inflame communal violence in Australia.

Court judgments show ASIO initially believed the controversial mufti posed a risk to the community because of his alleged propensity to cause or promote violence.

Shortly after his arrival in Australia as the new imam of Lakemba Mosque in 1982, Sheik Hilaly was also linked with a shadowy terrorist group, Soldiers of God, which is thought to have been involved in the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981.

A group of the same name, also known as Ansar al Islam, is among those listed by the Federal Government as a banned terrorist organisation.

Western governments believe Ansar al Islam has close ideological and operational links with al-Qaeda.

Sheik Hilaly was also alleged to have endorsed suicide bombing, verbally attacked women and preached a highly political message of extremism.

The Sunday Telegraph columnist Piers Akerman writes today that a former intelligence officer said Sheik Hilaly's name first surfaced in a report by one of Australia's most senior intelligence assets in Cairo. The claimed the sheik spent a number of years training in Libya and was sent to Australia to train extremists.

Akerman writes the report was shelved and the agent who sent it believes that a campaign was waged against its contents.

Not surprising, given the campaigns that are waged against those who tell the truth about such matters today.

Cox and Forkum nail the Minnesota Sharia Cab Controversy.

And don't miss the nifty "9:29" license plate.

"The lives of women" -- as well as those of non-Muslims "in Iraqi society have worsened dramatically since the US-led invasion of March 2003, amid a general break down in law and order and the rise of conservative Islamist militias."

"Women's rights champion murdered," from AFP, with thanks to Morgaan Sinclair and PRCS:

GUNMEN broke into the house of an Iraqi women's rights campaigner and shot her dead in front of her three children.

Human rights activists say the lives of women in Iraqi society have worsened dramatically since the US-led invasion of March 2003, amid a general break down in law and order and the rise of conservative Islamist militias.

Captain Imad Khudhir of the Kirkuk police said 38-year-old Halima Ahmed Hussein al-Juburi was killed late yesterday by 10 unidentified attackers who broke into her home in the northern town of Hawijah.

``We do not know the motive behind the crime,'' he said.

Oh really?

...Professional women and rights campaigners are often targeted by conservative Islamist groups who adhere to a strictly traditional view of women's role in society and use violence to drive women out of public life.

Canada's "fanatic adherence to Christianity"? Are they talking about the Canada that's just north of the United States, or is there some other Canada I don't know about? "Al-Qaeda warns Canada: Quit Afghan mission or endure attack like 9/11, threat says," by Stewart Bell in the National Post, with thanks to LGF:

OTTAWA - An al-Qaeda strategist has warned Canada to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan or face terrorist attacks similar to 9/11, Madrid and the London transit bombings.

The threat, attributed to a member of the al-Qaeda information and strategy committee, condemns Prime Minister Stephen Harper for refusing to pull out of Afghanistan.

It also refers to Canada's "fanatic adherence to Christianity" as well as its purported attempts to "damage the Muslims" and its support for the "Christian Crusade" against al-Qaeda.

"Despite the strong, increasing opposition to spread its forces in the fire of South Afghanistan, it seems that they will not learn the lesson easily," Hossam Abdul Raouf writes.

"They will either be forced to withdraw their forces or face an operation similar to New York, Madrid, London and their sisters, with the help of Allah."

Three years ago today, in a climate-controlled vault sealed with three feet of concrete, located somewhere in the vicinity of the Jefferson Memorial and the Golden Gate Bridge and accessible only by helicopter and bungee rope, I began Jihad Watch. I hoped to raise general awareness of the nature of the jihad ideology, the activities of jihadists around the world, and the ways in which both of these were being obscured by academic apologists and the mainstream media.

It has been a tumultuous three years. The site has grown considerably, such that we now average over 30,000 unique visitors daily, and about 600,000 to a million hits each day. ("Hits," as far as I understand it, refers to files viewed. If you look at the front page, it's a hit. If you open an article, it's a hit. If you go back to the front page and open up another article, that's two more hits. Hits also multiply if picture files are involved. There are about 20 to 30, or more, hits per person. Some have charged that by noting that we receive about 30 million hits per month, we are claiming 30 million different visitors. That is not in fact the case.)

Largely, I believe, because this site has captured attention, I have spoken about the jihad ideology on the BBC, the VOA, numerous other radio and television outlets, and to audiences all over this country, as well as in Europe and Israel. I've spoken at a workshop sponsored by the U.S. State Department and the German Foreign Ministry, given presentations to U.S. Central Command and to a Joint Terrorism Task Force group, and also addressed influential fora that I am not at liberty to name. I've given information on jihadist activity to media outlets on which (or in which, as the case may be) I've never appeared personally, including ABC News, the Washington Post, and the O'Reilly Factor. And I've written two books that made the New York Times Bestseller List. All this is personally gratifying, but it is all much more important as an indication that, increasingly, word is getting out. The truth is getting out.

Much of this I attribute to this site. Hugh Fitzgerald and I, with immense help from Marisol Seibold and others over the last three years, have endeavored to present the facts, no matter how politically incorrect and uncomfortable those facts may be. Although there is the expected drumbeat of calumnies and falsehoods about what we stand for and what we are doing, we have also seen that many people of good will have come to respect this site as a trustworthy and reliable source of information and commentary. We offer rational analysis, while those who tell others to slit the throats of their children lecture us about spreading "hate."

Of course, the fog of misinformation and propaganda still blankets the West and largely strangles public discourse about the nature of the jihad threat and what can be done about it. And for that reason, Year Four of The Jihad Watch Era hereby begins.

From the announcement of this Contest by the "Islamic Human Rights Commission":

What is Islamophobia? A contemporary and emerging form of prejudice Islamophobia can be described as stereotypes, bias or acts of hostility towards individual Muslims or followers of Islam in general. In addition to individual acts of intolerance and racial profiling, Islamophobia leads to viewing Muslims as a greater security threat on an institutional, systemic and societal level and perceiving their views to be intrinsically problematic, violent or unethical.

And the Awards:

Islamophobia Awards: The Islamophobia Awards is an annual event to acknowledge - through satire, revue and comedy - the worst Islamophobes of that year. Centred around a gala dinner, the 'awards' themsleves are both entertaining and raise awarness of a serious and growing prejudice. Real awards are given to those who have battled against Islamophobia - often against enormous odds.

Note the last sentence in the definition of "Islamophobia":

Islamophobia leads to viewing Muslims as a greater security threat on an institutional, systemic and societal level and perceiving their views to be intrinsically problematic, violent or unethical.

A security threat "greater" than what? Greater than that posed to non-Muslims, by other non-Muslims, in non-Muslims societies? But surely we don't need to know much of anything to know that that is true. After familiarizing yourself with Qur'an, Hadith, and the biography of Muhammad, do you perceive that those who claim to believe that the Qur'an is the uncreated and immutable word of God, and who take Muhammad to be the Perfect Man, uswa hasana, al-insan al-kamil, to hold views that might be described by you as "intrinsically problematic, violent, or unethical"?

An indication that, unfortunately, Sheikh al-Hilali's views are not all that uncommon. "Briton backs imam in 'uncovered meat' row," by Bernard Lagan in the TimesOnline, :

ONE of Britain’s most senior Muslims has defended as “a great scholar” the Australian imam who likened scantily clad women to uncovered meat that draws predators.

Abduljalil Sajid, a senior figure in the Muslim Council of Britain, offered support for Sheikh Taj Din al-Hilali’s views, saying that “loose women like prostitutes” encouraged men to be immoral. Dr Sajid, visiting Australia, said that Sheikh al-Hilali was attacking immodesty and loose dress, or “standing in the streets, inviting men to do these bad acts”.

Although the Australian cleric did not use the word prostitute, but appeared to be attacking women wearing revealing clothes, Dr Sajid said that the sermon had been taken out of context. Referring to the thrust of the Sheikh’s argument, he said: “So what is wrong in it? Who will object to that?” Dr Sajid, who is on a speaking tour, met the controversial Sheikh at his Sydney mosque yesterday.

Sheikh al-Hilali bowed yesterday to pressure and agreed not to preach for three months. But he defied those pressing for him to quit as the leading Muslim cleric in Australia.

After meeting him yesterday, Dr Sajid said: “As far as I am concerned he is a great scholar and he has a great knowledge of Islamic jurisprudence.” Dr Sajid added that he believed that the inflammatory excerpts from a speech, given last month, had been quoted out of context. “I respect his views. His intentions are noble in order to make morality and modesty part of our overall society,” the British cleric said.

Here is a story about the French Intifada that does not shy away from identifying the rioters as Muslims, or noting the jihadist element of the riots: "Ongoing 'intifada' in France has injured 2,500 police in 2006," from the World Tribune.com:

This might have dropped below the radar, but Al Qaida and its allies are literally battling the Crusaders every day in Europe. And so far, Europe isn't doing so well.

"We are in a state of civil war, orchestrated by radical Islamists," said Michel Thoomis, secretary general of the Action Police trade union. "This is not a question of urban violence any more. It is an intifada, with stones and firebombs."

The French Interior Ministry has acknowledged the Muslim uprising. The ministry said more than 2,500 police officers have been injured in 2006. This amounts to at least 14 officers each day.

The battles have been under-reported but alarming to French authorities. Muslim street commanders, who run lucrative drug networks, have organized youngsters in housing projects to ambush police and confront security forces. The response time allows hundreds of Muslims to storm police cars and patrols within minutes.

"You no longer see two or three youths confronting police," Thoomis said. "You see whole tower blocks emptying into the streets to set their comrades free when they are arrested."

France's huge Muslim minority community has come under the influence of agents often influenced and financed by Al Qaida. These agents have recruited Muslim youngsters for urban warfare in which police and government representatives are injured daily.

Not surprisingly, Muslim neighborhoods are becoming autonomous zones, with police and government workers too scared to enter. The police union is demanding the Interior Ministry supply officers with armored cars.

Inner Spiritual Strugglers thwarted in central Sinai. From Reuters:

ISMAILIA, (Reuters) - Egyptian police have recovered nearly one tonne of high explosives hidden in a mountainous area of central Sinai, security sources said on Friday.

The explosives were buried in 13 plastic bags and were discovered by bedouin trackers working for the government, according to the sources, who did not specify the type of explosive.

The area where the discovery was made has been the site of previous shootouts between police and suspects wanted for bombings in Sinai over the past two years.

More than 100 people were killed in bomb attacks in tourist resorts throughout Sinai since October 2004. Egypt has blamed the attacks on an Islamist militant group called al-Tawhid wal Jihad (One God and Jihad).

While looking around in the fever swamps of Dean Esmay's site in order to write this post, I discovered here that I have been nominated for "Islamophobe of the Year" by the Islamic Human Rights Commission of the UK.

"Islamophobia" is, in reality, a politically motivated construct designed to deflect attention away from the depredations of jihad terrorists. No one, of course, would have any "phobia" toward Muslims at all were it not for the acts of violence committed daily by Muslims and justified by those who commit them by reference to Islamic teachings. You will note that there is no worldwide "Buddhismophobia" or "Confucianismophobia." Now why is that?

Anyway, I'm in very good company among the international nominees (I'm in the U.S. category). Here are a few of them, along with the taglines from the Islamic Human Rights Commission:

Ehud Olmert For his massacre of the Palestinian and Lebanese people.

King Abdullah of Jordan For his submission to the Israelis and abandoning the Palestinians and Lebanese.

King Mohammed VI of Morocco For his 'so called reforms' aimed at removing Islam from the the Moroccan people.

Meles Zenawi (Ethiopia's Prime Minister) For saying that the war on terror is "something of a godsend" and that Ethiopia is at the "epicenter of terrorism" and "a secular island in the sea of Islam."

Daniel Pipes For his anti-Arab, anti-Islam articles and his campaigns and discrimination against Muslims.

George W Bush For the promoting the phrase 'Islamofascist'

Robert Spencer The author of anti-Islamic books such as ‘The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam’, as well as ‘Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions About the World's Fastest Growing Faith’. Islam is often vented in hateful websites such as Jihad Watch and Dhimmi Watch.

John Howard For stating that Muslims migrating to Australia are bringing problems such as jihadist views and conservative attitudes to women not encountered with other immigrant groups.

Ayan Hirsi For trading on a false reputation that she was a victim of Muslim abuse.

Jose Maria Aznar (Former Spanish PM) For his speech on 22 September 2006 at the Hudson Institute in Washington.

Jack Straw For stoking the flames of Islamophobia with his ‘request’ that Muslim women should remove their veils before he graces them with his presence.

John Reid For whipping up anti-Muslim sentiment and continuing his witch hunt against the Muslims.

Melanie Phillips For (amongst others) suggesting that Iran might attack Jerusalem on 22nd August to commemorate Meraj and for writing her book 'Londonistan'.

Tony Blair For everything.

I suspect that George Bush will sweep my category, so I won't be preparing my "I'd like to thank the Academy...You like me! You really like me!" speech, but I am honored to be nominated, as perhaps it suggests that my efforts against global jihad supremacism are making a difference.

Last Saturday I received an email from Aziz H. Poonawalla, a blogger at Dean Esmay's site, with the subject line "an olive branch." Mr. Poonawalla was alerting me to a post he had written at Esmay's site entitled "the jihadwatch," which he was characterizing as that olive branch.

When I received the email I was at the Objectivist Conference in Boston, where I spoke along with Daniel Pipes, Flemming Rose (the Danish newspaper editor who published the Muhammad cartoons last year), Professor John Lewis, and others. Then I took off for Norfolk, Virginia, where I gave a half-day introduction to Islamic jihad theology to the Tidewater Joint Terrorism Task Force. After that I went to Dallas, where I spoke to a Lumen Institute group Wednesday night. Only now am I getting a chance to respond -- which I am doing at this late date for two reasons: because I have had many other exchanges with Esmay (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here) and I believe it would be churlish not to respond to what is being characterized as an olive branch, and because it is certain that many people of good will believe the things that Esmay and Mr. Poonawalla apparently believe, and they may find this response helpful.

The funny thing about being a muslim in America is how you often feel like you're sidelined from the debate.

Mr. Poonawalla has no reason to feel sidelined as far as I am concerned. In fact, as I posted here last June, he and I had been enjoying a cordial and mutually respectful email exchange when I asked him politely to explain why he had apparently intended to mislead Dean Esmay's readers into thinking that my Arabic rendering of my own name was erroneous when it wasn't, taking advantage of their ignorance of Arabic to portray me as an ignorant buffoon. Then Mr. Poonawalla grew silent. Esmay, meanwhile, has gleefully referred to me as "Roobart Sbunsar" quite often since then, and apparently Mr. Poonawalla has never taken him aside and explained to him about p's and vowels in Arabic. Sidelined? Only by his own choosing. I would have been happy to continue our exchange, and to post his explanation of the transliteration deception, if he had cared to offer one.

In any case, in his "olive branch" Mr. Poonawalla goes on to praise Dean Esmay (whom he praises for his "jihad," while I am on a "crusade" -- loaded and significant word choices in Mr. Poonawalla's circles), and then comes to this:

Robert Spencer is on a crusade of a similarly noble intent. That is, to identify the rhetoric of the extremists within Islam and put it on naked display. In so doing he provides a benchmark against which other behavior and rhetoric can be compared. The purpose of this is to stand guard against the rise of such similar rhetoric here at home and thus prevent the ideology of bin Laden from gaining a toehold.

However the problem with both of these causes [that is, Esmay's and mine] is that they don't recognize or honor the other.

This reminds me of when Ibrahim Hooper called me a "hatemonger" on MSNBC, and Keith Olbermann told both of us, "Don't call each other hatemongers." Well, I hadn't actually called Hooper a hatemonger. Nor had I ever said one word about Dean Esmay, or even heard of him, very long before he started calling me a liar, an ignoramus, a traitor -- and since then, in carpet-chewing, eye-socket-popping rage, a man without conscience, destined to die unloved and unmourned, and to fry in hell. Among other things.

Now I am told that we don't "honor" each other, and that we should. Search for "Robert Spencer" and "Roobart Sbunsar" at Dean Esmay's site and you will find a rather steady torrent of abuse and assaults on my honesty, my intelligence, my integrity, my patriotism, my good will, and more. In his relentless attacks Esmay has never accorded me even a modicum of simple human courtesy or good will, as he did to Michelle Malkin and Rusty Shackleford when he attacked them (on false pretenses, I should add), and he has transgressed his own self-righteous exhortation never to assume that one knows the motives of one's opponents. Should Dean Esmay and I "honor" one another? That is not up to me.

Because Robert makes no effort to say to his audience of muslims, "they are more alike us than they are different. In fact, they ARE us", his site fills with the most egregious and xenophobic bile. Robert, like Charles Johnson of LGF, prefers to take no responsibility for the contents of his comment threads, but the problem is that his crusade cannot be separated from the miasma that lurkes beneath it. Simply put, the crusade of Jihadwatch becomes, because it has no emphasis on humanizing muslims, a witch hunt.

I don't accept this characterization on many levels. In the first place, Muslims don't need to be "humanized." They are human already. I am not sure what Mr. Poonawalla means when he faults Jihad Watch for having "no emphasis on humanizing muslims." Does he mean that we never post about Muslims doing good? But that is false. Do we decline to cover Muslims fighting against the global jihad? Of course not. As I pointed out to Mr. Poonawalla's fellow Esmay blogger Ali Eteraz here, we frequently cover Muslim activism against Muslim oppression. I noted two posts for Mr. Eteraz: this one from the early days of the site, recounting the travails of a member of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, a group that opposes the mullahocracy; and this one about Muslims opposing the Talibanization of Somalia. Search the archives and you'll find many more. Perhaps Mr. Poonawalla would be surprised to see posts like this one, or to learn that Tashbih Sayyed, editor of Muslim World Today, is a member of the Jihad Watch Board of Directors. As I have said from the beginning of Jihad Watch, "any Muslim who renounces the ideologies of jihad and dhimmitude is most welcome to join forces with us." But to my knowledge Dean Esmay has never troubled to tell his readers such things about Jihad Watch.

It also does not help that Robert routinely ascribes the CAUSE of Islamic extremist ideology to the faith of Islam. That the extremists use this or that Qur'an verse for their justification is not surprising; but were their holy text the phone directory would they act any differently? Throughout history every holy text - and even some non-holy ones - have been used to justify all manner of evil. Let us be frank about personal responsibility here: the CAUSE of the extremists' actions is their own souls and their own dark ambitions. Not their vision of Shari'a for its own sake, but rather the benefits that they imagine such to accrue to them in this life and the hereafter. THAT is what drives them and it is what has driven their predecesors of all faiths and none throughout history's bloody sweep.

All right. Here we come to the heart of the matter. I am wrong in ascribing "the CAUSE of Islamic extremist ideology to the faith of Islam," when in fact, according to Mr. Poonawalla, this ideology could have come from anywhere, even the phone book, and after all, the holy texts of every faith have been used to justify violence.

Yet there seems to be a bit of confusion here. In the first place, it is the "extremists" themselves, not I, who "routinely" ascribe "the CAUSE of Islamic extremist ideology to the faith of Islam." I have posted hundreds and hundreds of examples of this in the three years of Jihad Watch, and have many, many times asked moderate Muslims for some compelling Islamic refutation of the jihad theology. None has ever been forthcoming -- even from Mr. Poonawalla, who promised me in those cordial emails some anti-jihad material from Al-Azhar but never quite got around to getting it to me.

With jihadists daily recruiting for their ranks by appealing to the Qur'an and Sunnah, this is a grave and glaring omission. And it is not my doing. For it is not a matter of the jihadists using, in Mr. Poonawalla's words, "this or that Qur'an verse for their justification." Contrary to Esmay's repeated contention that finding justification for the jihad in the Qur'an is a matter of "cherry-picking" a few verses here and there that Muslims otherwise do not understand in a violent way, the jihad in order to establish the supremacy of Sharia is taught not only in the Qur'an, but in the Hadith, in the words and deeds of Muhammad, and by all the schools (madhahib) of Islamic jurisprudence.

Jihadists are well aware of this, and work hard to situate "the CAUSE of Islamic extremist ideology" within "the faith of Islam." See, to take just one of many examples, this article I wrote a couple of years ago about a theological exposition by Zarqawi. In it, I wrote this:

Zarqawi’s tape amounts to a direct frontal assault on the glib and still oft-repeated assertion that the 9/11 attacks are condemned by Islam because Islam forbids the killing of innocent civilians. It is urgently to be hoped that all those courageous groups that identify themselves as forces for Muslim moderation...construct responses to Zarqawi that reason from Islamic principles....With this audiotape, Zarqawi has seized the intellectual and theological initiative within the global Islamic community, and reinforced the jihadist claim to represent “pure Islam” — a claim that has proved to be a potent recruitment tool among Muslims worldwide, as well as here in the United States. If moderates do not or cannot take that initiative from him, the consequences could reverberate across the world for decades to come.

Did I write Zarqawi's exposition of Islamic theology? Or any of the other similar writings by jihadists? Did I ask Zarqawi to invoke Muhammad's example when justifying his beheadings in Iraq? With respect, Mr. Poonawalla's focus is misplaced. He is shooting the messenger instead of dealing with the real problem: the Muslims who justify violence by referring to Islamic teachings, not the one who reports on their doing so -- me. He is asking me either to look the other way when they quote the Qur'an and invoke Muhammad, or else to tell people that they are doing so incorrectly.

Well, it is not up to me to say whether they are doing so correctly or incorrectly. I just report that they are doing so, and show the deep roots of their perspective in Islamic theology and sacred texts. That's just reality. It is up to peaceful Muslims to challenge this perspective among Muslims if they do not wish it to prevail.

What's more, Mr. Poonawalla himself acknowledges that jihadists act in view of "the benefits that they imagine such to accrue to them in this life and the hereafter." Now, where did they get the idea that they would receive such benefits? From the Qur'an, of course, which promises Paradise to those who "kill and are killed" for Allah (9:111), and from Muslim preachers worldwide who invoke that verse and others to justify suicide bombing. Is that not a "CAUSE of Islamic extremist ideology" that is derived from and rooted within "the faith of Islam"? I believe it is. What does Mr. Poonawalla propose we do about this? Ignore it? Deny it is happening? I would rather he and other anti-jihadist Muslims confront and refute it, so as to try to discourage Muslims from having recourse to such actions in the future.

The result is that Robert's readers do indeed come to believe - fed upon a diet of one-sided interpretation as they are - that all muslims are the enemy, potentially.

Of course, I have never said that, in fact, but I have noted that the American Muslim community has made no effort to expel jihadist sympathizers from its ranks, and that some who were apparently moderates turned out to be deceivers. There has been no large-scale, organized effort of takfir by American Muslims: takfir is the process of declaring another group of Muslims to be unbelievers because of their heretical views. Why haven't American Muslims done this for Al-Qaeda, or Hamas, or Hizballah? And in the absence of such an effort, what are infidels to do? I look forward to Mr. Poonawalla's explanation of how non-Muslims in America can reliably distinguish between Muslims who sympathize with the jihad, and may someday act on those sympathies, and those who do not.

The only muslims that become non-threats are those that are externally non-muslim and secular.

That's false also. And I repeat: "any Muslim who renounces the ideologies of jihad and dhimmitude is most welcome to join forces with us."

Hence the popularity of the three Goddesses (Manji, Sultan, and Hirsi Ali) in their circles. Muslims such as myself have no margin for error - the slightest misstatement and we are damned, our motives and intentions pre-ordained. And the times we seek to reach out, we are dismissed as practicing taqqiya or decitful. Isn't it profoundly obvious how such alienation is counter to the self-interest of us all?

Esmay has denounced me repeatedly for taking issue with Ali Eteraz in this post. He has taken this as evidence that when Islamic reformers do appear, I condemn them as deceivers. In fact, you will find no such characterization of Ali Eteraz's motives in that post. But I do point out some rather glaring inaccuracies in his presentation. Why? Because if I can see them, knowledgeable Muslims can see even more -- and this attempt at "reform" will founder. I make no apologies for pointing out such things. Serious Muslims know what their religious texts say, and will not be moved by efforts at "reform" that pretend that large portions of those texts do not exist. Reformers should not ignore, but should refute, the jihad ideology. Why is that too much to ask?

The challenge I pose to Robert then is this: to simply acknowledge the fact that his work has attracted a community of hatred, and that is a problem. And not a harmless one, but rather one that genuinely hinders his very own cause.

Well, it's certainly true that CAIR and others have quoted unhinged comments from Jihad Watch -- which indicates that they can't find the "hatred" they're looking for in my own writings, so they have to resort to trying to hold me responsible for intemperate comments here. But as I have said many times, if you think I agree with the comment, provide evidence of that agreement from my own writings. If you can't, then the comment no more reflects on my own positions than do the comments of the many Islamic apologists and jihad apologists who also post comments at Jihad Watch.

But in any case, a "community of hatred"? No. There are angry people who come here, to be sure. But their anger is not without cause. I think that if Mr. Poonawalla and Dean Esmay had scolded Americans in 1943 for speaking in abusive terms about Germans and Japanese, they would not have found as sympathetic a hearing as Esmay does for his "Islamophobia" charges today. And this constant denial and shift of focus -- the blaming of me rather than the jihadists for using the teachings of Muhammad and Islam to justify their actions -- does nothing to assuage that anger. A "community of hatred"? No. A community of patriots, of lovers of Western civilization and human rights, of people who are passionately committed to defending those things.

In any case, comments are, when all is said and done, unmoderated. I don't have time to read most of them, especially these days, but when particularly abusive ones are brought to my attention, I do remove them. Unlike Esmay, who would not allow Jihad Watch commenters to comment in my defense at his site, I believe in freedom of speech, and that the antidote to bad speech is more speech. And I believe that if comments here offend Aziz H. Poonawalla, he should strive all the harder to eradicate the causes of that anger from the American Muslim community and from the umma worldwide.

Meanwhile, however, Esmay continues his attacks, with a screed against unmoderated comments at Little Green Footballs. Perhaps because I am not directly involved, his characteristic wall-climbing, straitjacket-worthy hysteria is not in evidence (if you like that sort of thing, check out his maniacal anti-Christian rantings in the comments field here), but he does make a number of simply false assertions:

The believer in the Taqqiya Libel against Muslims says that any Muslim can be assumed to be lying to you if you're not a Muslim. They further tell you that any Muslim who expresses hatred of terrorism, hatred of political violence, love for America, or love for Freedom is simply a liar. After all, the Koran "directs" them to lie about these things.

But of course the Koran contains no such direction. Taqqiya is only to be invoked in extreme circumstances, so as to avoid bloodshed and horror. Furthermore, Taqqiya is actually rejected by a majority of Muslims worldwide. Indeed, most conservative Muslim scholars say that "taqqiya" is just code-word for "liar" and that lying is never acceptable under Islam.

Of course, the idea that taqiyya means that "any Muslim can be assumed to be lying to you if you're not a Muslim" is absurd, but aside from that, his assertion that "the Koran contains no such direction" is false. For example: commenting on Qur'an 3:28, the great (and quite mainstream) Qur'an commentator Ibn Kathir says this: if believers "in some areas or times fear for their safety from the disbelievers," they "are allowed to show friendship outwardly, but never inwardly. For instance, Al-Bukhari recorded that Abu Ad-Darda said, 'We smile in the face of some people although our hearts curse them.' Al-Bukhari said that Al-Hasan said, 'The Tuqyah [or taqiyya, the shielding of what is in one's heart] is allowed until the Day of Resurrection.'"

Ibn Kathir, a pious Muslim and a renowned scholar whose work has been revered by Muslims for centuries, believes that the Qur'an allows believers to deceive unbelievers. Dean Esmay says that the Qur'an says no such thing, but gives no actual evidence beyond nameless authorities to support his view. And I'm an evil Islamophobe, repeating the equivalent of the blood libel against the Jews (Esmay makes the equation elsewhere in his post), for quoting an actual Muslim source (and I have many, many others that speak in the same vein) that says deception is acceptable, and pointing out that it is quite possible, and indeed probable, that some Muslims in the world today agree with Ibn Kathir. Get the picture?

Esmay also says that "Nowhere anywhere [sic] in the Koran is suicide bombing endorsed. This is yet another Libel against Muslims."

Call the Pentagon, Dean. You also might want to call in the authors of this detailed defense of suicide bombing on Islamic grounds for a little Islamic instruction.

Aziz H. Poonawalla wrote me again last Monday, saying: "Matoko clearly was mistaken, and I'll post ot that effect later. Also, Dean owes you an apology. Which I will make plain to him." "Matoko" is one of Esmay's favorite attack dogs, who doesn't seem to care how wild or inaccurate her charges are. See here and here, and so much for her. But so far no such post has appeared from Mr. Poonawalla. Instead, Esmay today links to a blogger who calls herself "Isis," who includes a gratuitous swipe at me in a post about how people should and should not talk about Islamic terrorism: "Reading Robert Spencer’s latest book or citing 'the Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam' does not make you an Islamic scholar." I do not know "Isis" and had never heard of her before this afternoon, but I repeat the request of her that I have always extended to reasonable people, and even to Dean Esmay: rather than simply sneering, please show me where I'm wrong, and let's discuss these issues in a rational manner. But I know: it is easier to throw stones and set up straw men to knock down than to defend one's own position. So I'm not expecting anything.

Esmay, finally, has been spending quite a bit of time today discussing a Muslim soldier who was killed in Iraq, as if his death proves everything he charges about "Islamophobia." I suggest on the contrary that that soldier's memory would be far better served by an honest discussion by both Muslims and non-Muslims of good will of the elements of Islam that give rise to violence and fanaticism, and positive strategies developed for how both groups can work to neutralize this threat. But good will, it seems, is in short supply these days.

UPDATE: A Jihad Watch reader has notified me that Esmay keeps hammering, saying here: "Ditto idiots like Brian Macker who ran around claiming that no Muslim could be trusted until he entirely repudiated Muhammed and repudiated entire swaths of the Koran, and accused any Muslims who disagreed with his interpretations as being liars. Which is also, interestingly enough, what Robert Spencer does for a living." (Brian Macker is or was a commenter at Esmay's site.) Of course, Esmay would never be able to produce any actual statements I have ever made to back up this characterization of my work, but who cares about accuracy when you can puff your chest out with self-righteous rage? For the record, I do not interpret the Qur'an or any other Islamic texts. Never have, never will. I report on their contents, and on how jihadists use them. I ask moderate Muslims to formulate a reponse to those jihadists. And I will not be intimidated by Esmay's rabid fulminations against me, and repeated attempts at character assassination, into stopping doing so.

No hint of the identity of these "youths" beyond their immigrant status. No hint of the fact that they are shouting, as they shouted last year, "Allahu akbar." French Intifada Update from AFP:

Hundreds of people marched in a silent tribute to two teenagers whose death exactly one year ago sent a wave of urban riots surging through France, sparking the country's most serious social crisis in 30 years.

French authorities were on alert for a new flare-up of violence after youth gangs, some carrying handguns, torched -- and in one case hijacked -- three buses near Paris on Wednesday, but police reported no major trouble overnight.

In Clichy-sous-Bois, the poor northeast Paris suburb where the riots erupted on October 27, 2005, around 1,000 people, most of them youngsters, filed quietly Friday morning past the spot where the two boys died.

"Once again, France and the world are watching us," the mayor of Clichy Claude Dilain told the crowd. "We need the calm, dignity and courage that are visible here to prevail. Let us show them who we really are."

"Let's not give anyone cause to point the finger at us," added local association leader Samir Mihi.

Many of the marchers wore white T-shirts printed with the words "Zyed and Bouna, Dead for nothing."

Zyed Benna, 17, and Bouna Traore, 15, both from immigrant families of African descent, were electrocuted as they hid from a police patrol in a power sub-station.

Riots broke out in Clichy that night, quickly spreading to dozens of immigrant-populated suburbs in the Paris region and beyond.

Night after night for three weeks, youth gangs clashed with police, torching more than 10,000 cars and firebombing 300 buildings in around 275 towns, until order was officially restored on November 17.

With the approach of the anniversary, police and local mayors have warned that the conditions that led to the riots remain firmly in place in the poor out-of-town neighbourhoods, plagued by unemployment of 30 to 40 percent.

Nationwide, police were under orders to be vigilant but to keep their presence low-key, to avoid encouraging confrontations with youths, officers told AFP....

Last year's riots -- which led the government to declare a state of emergency, a measure not enacted since the Algerian war half a century earlier -- cast an unforgiving spotlight on France's trouble in integrating its Arab-origin and black communities.

Badly shaken by the crisis, the government promised measures such as an extra 100 million euros (125 million dollars) for local associations, bigger training schemes and a crackdown on racial discrimination for jobs.

The dhimmis at the Beeb admit they're dhimmis. "BBC Internal Memo Admits Anti-Christian Bias," by Gudrun Schultz for LifeSiteNews.com, with thanks to Angie:

LONDON, United Kingdom, October 24, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The British Broadcasting Corporation has admitted to a marked bias against Christianity and a strong inclination to pro-Muslim reporting among the network’s executives and key anchors, in a leaked account of an “impartiality summit.”

The Daily Mail reported Sunday on the secret London meeting of key executives, called by BBC chairman Michael Grade and hosted by veteran broadcaster Sue Lawley. The report revealed that many senior executives are deeply frustrated with the corporation’s commitment to “political correctness” and liberal policies at the expense of journalistic integrity and objectivity.

BBC executives admitted the corporation is dominated by homosexuals. They acknowledged that ethnic minorities held a disproportionate number of positions and said the BBC deliberately encourages multiculturalism and is more careful to avoid offending the Muslim community than Christians.

Tossing the Bible into a garbage can on a comedy show would be acceptable, they said, but not the Koran, and if possible they would broadcast an interview with Osama Bin Laden, giving him the opportunity to explain his views.

"According to the police, Fahaad, a native of Karachi, is a post-graduate in Analytical Chemistry while Mohammad Ali is 9th standard pass from Manshera in Pakistan." A post-graduate in Analytical Chemistry, no doubt driven to jihad by his lack of education and grinding poverty. "Mysore: Two Pakistan militants nabbed," from DHNS, with thanks to Kisan:

MYSORE: The militants who are suspected to be the key functionaries of Al-Badr, a Pakistan-based militant outfit, were on a ‘specific mission’ to create terror in Karnataka, especially in Bangalore.

In a significant breakthrough against terrorism, a special team of Mysore City Police nabbed two Pakistani extremists after a shoot-out on the Outer Ring Road in Vijayanagar Police Station limits at around 12:10 am here on Friday.

The militants who are suspected to be the key functionaries of Al-Badr, a Pakistan-based militant outfit, were on a ‘specific mission’ to create terror in Karnataka, especially in Bangalore.

The militants have been identified as 24-year-old Fahaad (Pakistani identity) alias Nedu Thanni alias Mohammada Koya (Indian identity) and 22-year-old Mohammad Ali (Pakistan identity) alias Hussain alias Jehangir alias Asif Khan (Indian identity).

Acting on a definite information, the 12-member team led by Deputy Commissioner of Police K T Balakrishna intercepted the unsuspecting militant duo who were riding a moped at 12 am at the ring road. Sensing trouble, the militants opened fire at the police party from an AK-47 rifle. The DCP countered firing two rounds from his revolver before the police team overpowered the duo in a 10-minute-long gun-fire.

A police constable was injured on his forehead when a militant assaulted him with his rifle. The militants also suffered minor bruises during a scuffle with the police. The window panes of a police jeep were damaged in the crossfire.

According to the police, Fahaad, a native of Karachi, is a post-graduate in Analytical Chemistry while Mohammad Ali is 9th standard pass from Manshera in Pakistan. Two mobile phones, and a hi-tech satellite-based telephone (duo were speaking directly to militants in Pakistan via satellite) had been seized from them.

After receiving $20 million from Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University has been renamed the Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. According to this article, "The Center's leaders say it now will be used to put on workshops regarding Islam, fostering exchanges with the Muslim world, addressing U.S. policy towards the Muslim world, working on the relationship of Islam and Arab culture, addressing Muslim citizenship and civil liberties, and developing exchange programs for students from the Muslim world."

Why, it sounds as though the activities it plans are no different from those of the State Department or, more generally, the idiotized and paralyzed American government: explaining and explaining away Islam through the "workshops" and "fostering exchanges" and "working on relationships" and "addressing Muslim citizenship and civil liberties." Would that include discussing the relation of Islam and the conceivable loyalty of Muslims to the American Constitution and especially to the Bill of Rights?

"One day, my professor even had us act out the five pillars of Islam in class..."
-- from this article about the teaching of Islam at Butler University

This is a dead giveaway. The focus is on what is hardly doctrine, but essentially, for Infidels, the utterly trivial rituals of worship. They are trivial because they are seemingly devoid of ideological content.

Who would object if some people in some religion or cult pray five times a day? Or once? Or twenty? Who would object to those people prostrating themselves toward Mecca without knowing the significance of this in making Islam a vehicle for Arab imperialism? Who would object, unless they understand the ferocious collectivism of the prayers, and especially of the Friday Prayers, and especially of the sermons (khutbas) at those Friday Prayers? And who would object to the hajj, unless you knew exactly what was done at the hajj, the primitive pagan worship, the throwing of stones at a pillar that symbolizes not merely Evil, but the evil embodied in the Unbeliever. And why should you object to Ramadan? Or to the giving of zakat -- but only to fellow Muslims, unless by occasionally giving to Unbelievers that furthers the cause of Islam (see bin Talal's check ostentatiously handed over to Giuliani just after 9.11.2001)?

Vali Nasr (Member of the US Council on Foreign Relations): "We Need Engagement with Iran"

No doubt Vali Nasr, the son of a well-known Shi'ite writer and apologist, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, wishes to enroll the Americans in Iraq in order to dampen the Sunni-Shi'a clash. But his perspective is that of a Shi'a, loyal to Shi'a Islam, although not to the Islamic Republic of Iran, which he no doubt deplores. That is understandable. What is not understandable is why his views should coincide with those of Infidels, or that Americans should heed his desire to "avoid radicalization" of "both sides" by, of course, having the Americans remain and stick it out -- not for their own good, but for the good of both Sunni and Shi'a Muslims in Iraq.

Particularly piquant is Vali Nasr's inability to see that wherever Infidels are concerned, all the supposed assumptions about Sunni-Shi'a rivalry -- remember during Israel's attack on Hezbollah how we kept being assured that the Sunni Arab states were secretly delighted, and wanted Israel to keep going? -- tend to be muted, for the Infidels are the real enemy who will unite even warring sects of Islam.

We were recently told that the renewed French riots spring “in part from anger over entrenched discrimination against immigrants and their French-born children, many of them Muslims from former French colonies in Africa."

And in the same article this as well:

"Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, who is considering whether to run for president, said that attacks demonstrate 'a desire to kill.'

'Some individuals are looking for provocations, and sometimes go further,' she said on i-Tele television. She acknowledged people facing unemployment and living in overcrowded housing projects 'have trouble finding their place' in society." -- from this article

The article's author apparently thinks it is part of his job to tell us that when people in gangs, many of them with handguns, hijack busses, and turn the terrified passengers out, and then burn those busses, "many of them [are] Muslims." Yet ordinarily all of them are Muslims, with the appearance occasionally of one or two non-Muslim immigrants who are too terrified not to go along, and have already imbibed from the ambient air the same attitudes exhibited by Muslims who grow up in societies suffused with Islam -- in Paris as in Quetta or Riyadh or Baghdad.

And that author also takes it upon himself to supply the reader with a motive -- the motive never being Islam, but always being something else, in this case "anger over entrenched discrimination." What "entrenched discrimination"? Ask the non-Muslim immigrants, the Chinese or Vietnamese or Hindus or Antillais. Ask Madame Belaya, or for that matter de author of "Un plat de porc..." if they suffer discrimination in that land of la carriere ouverte aux talents.

The difference in Muslim behavior in the U.S., as compared to that demonstrated in Western Europe, is owed primarily to several factors.

First, and most important, the Muslim population is a much smaller proportion of the American population -- scarcely 1%. And of even that 1%, most of the Muslims are homegrown Black Muslims, whose own easygoing and at times even syncretistic interpretation of Islam in the past caused the orthodox at Al Azhar to refuse to recognize Elijah Mohammad's group as really Islamic at all.

But what if there were not 3 million Muslims (two million of them identified as belonging to the "Black Muslims") but rather 15 million -- that is, 5% of the total population -- or even 30 million, or 10% of the total population, as may already be true in France? Wouldn't local Muslims, already so aggressive and unyielding in the demands of their so-called representative groups (e.g. CAIR), be far more aggressive and even more demanding, even more uncooperative with the authorities on matters of security, even more aggressive in demands to changes in our legal and political institutions, in our schools, in our social understandings and arrangements, in our everything?

A Stop-The-Presses Alert from AFP : "UN peacekeepers unlikely to disarm Hezbollah: Russia":

MOSCOW - UN peacekeepers deployed in Lebanon are unlikely to be able to disarm the militant group Hezbollah, as required under UN Security Council Resolution 1701, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said on Friday, RIA-Novosti reported.

‘Under the UN mandate, one of the main functions of the peacekeepers is to disarm Hezbollah,’ Ivanov was quoted as saying by the state-run news agency. ‘I strongly doubt that the UN will fulfill this task.’

Ivanov said that concern over this aspect of the peacekeepers’ mission was one of the reasons Moscow decided to send a peacekeeping contingent to Lebanon under an accord reached separately with the Lebanese government, instead of under the UN mandate, RIA-Novosti reported.

UN Security Council Resolution 1701 requires the Shia militant group Hezbollah, which fought a 34-day war against Israel in July-August, to disarm.

Peacekeepers are instructed to ensure the south Lebanon border area with Israel is ‘free of any armed personnel and weapons other than those of the Lebanese armed forces and UNIFIL (peacekeepers).’

Hezbollah guerrillas have kept a low profile since the resolution, but refused to disarm.

Iraqi Jihad Update by Dave Clark for AFP, :

BAGHDAD (AFP) - An eerie calm has descended on Baghdad during the weekly day of prayers after a Ramadan of unprecedented bloodshed in Iraq, while US troops scoured the city for a missing soldier.

Reports of violence in the war torn capital dropped in the three days since the end of the Islamic holy month, in part because thousands of US troops are deployed in the city hunting a comrade who was kidnapped by masked gunmen.

Police found the bodies of 11 murder victims on Thursday and overnight, a US military spokeswoman said Friday, a toll considered low by the standards of Baghdad's vicious dirty war between rival Sunni and Shiite death squads.

On Friday, US troops were still manning cordons around the Karrada district, where the soldier was kidnapped on Monday, and on the approaches to Sadr City, the Shiite militia bastion where they fear he is being held.

Meanwhile, with US casualties for the month so far running at their highest level in a year and 24 Iraqi police killed in an insurgent ambush on Thursday, the Al-Qaeda militant group issued a triumphant statement.

"We call on all mujahideen... to support the young Islamic state in Iraq. Weakness has gripped the infidel nations. The first signs of victory can be seen on the horizon," the group said in an Internet statement.

The message, which could not be independently authenticated, was issued in the name of the self-proclaimed Islamic Emirate of Iraq, which was declared on October 15 by a Qaeda-led coalition of Sunni insurgent groups.

[...]

His family report that he was seized from their home by gunmen, and the US military has said that Wednesday's raid was in part following up on a tip that his kidnappers were based in a Sadr City mosque.

Sharia Alert from Britain, via GCN, :

The leading imam in Manchester, confirms that he thinks the execution of sexually active gay men is justified, the rights group Outrage reported.

Arshad Misbahi of the Manchester Central Mosque confirmed his views in a conversation to John Casson, a local psychotherapist.

Casson said: "I asked him if the execution of gay Muslims in Iran and Iraq was an acceptable punishment in Sharia law, or the result of culture, not religion.

"He told me that in a true Islamic state, such punishments were part of Islam: If the person had had a trial, at which four witnesses testified that they had seen the actual homosexual acts."

"I asked him what would be the British Muslim view? He repeated that in an Islamic state these punishments were justified. They might result in the deaths of thousands but if this deterred millions from having sex, and spreading disease, then it was worthwhile to protect the wider community."

"I checked again that this was not a matter of tradition, culture or local prejudice. 'No,' he said, 'It is part of the central tenets of Islam: that sex outside marriage is forbidden; this is stated in the Koran and the prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) had stated that these punishments were due to such behaviours.'"

This is ironic on so many levels. One is that the EU has discouraged assimilation at the behest of the Arab League and Muslim leaders in Europe since 1973 -- see Bat Ye'or's Eurabia. The other irony is that statements like Straw's were calls to assimilate -- and were greeted only with hostility by Muslim leaders. From AP, with thanks to Fjordman:

Stratford-Upon-Avon, England: Interior ministers from six of Europe's most populous nations met to seek ways to curtail alienation among the continent's Muslims.

The issue topped the agenda of the interior ministers of Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Poland who concluded a two-day summit yesterday.

Concerns about alienation of European Muslims were highlighted by violence in the deprived suburbs of Paris, where youths - many from immigrant families - set three buses on fire before the first anniversary of three weeks of rioting that raged there last year.

Relations between Europe's Muslims and non-Muslims have become a contentious issue around the continent, with strains growing and many fearing that increasing numbers of disaffected young people are being seduced by extremism.

The ministers agreed to work together to promote integration and said they would stage media campaigns and public events to try to persuade young Muslims to reject radical ideologies and embrace democratic values.

They said they would target young audiences with messages from 'secular Muslim' role models as part of the effort.

A debate over the veils some women wear has prompted emotionally charged arguments about minority groups' identities and integration. Former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw set off the argument by announcing he had asked Muslim women to remove their veils when they came for meetings in his district office.

The dhimmis in Belgium are beginning to awaken to the fix they're in. Still, a large number would happily throw freedom of speech overboard. From Expatica, with thanks to Fjordman:

BRUSSELS - More then six citizens in ten fear an increase in religious tensions in Belgium according to a survey by Belgian newspaper Le Soir.

A "pessimistic" attitude in contrast with the overall "moderate attitude" of Belgians towards religions, notes the evening paper.
The majority of interviewees supported a 'respectful criticism' of religions, meaning that criticism can be expressed so long as personal religious beliefs are respected.

But not all Belgians follow this moderated view: 23 percent are opposed to all critics of religion, half as much as the French notes Le Soir, while 16 percent assume a highly critical standpoint, three times more then in France.

Eric de Beukelaer, spokesman of Belgium's Francophone Bishops, said he was satisfied with the results.

"All religions can be criticised, but there are limits," he said, emphasizing the difference between "criticising" and "offending someone in his or her conviction."

The CAL, the Centre for Secular Action (Centre d’Action Laïque), agreed, although its president, Philippe Grollet said that 23 percent of Belgians thinking religion should not be criticised is "too much." He deplores such attitudes which leave no space for debate.

Abdelmajid Mhauchi, Belgians representative of the European Muslim Network, said that Belgium has a long history of conflict between Seculars and Catholics and has learnt to respect religious liberties. "As a Muslim" he said "I accept critics of Islam … but I cannot tolerate mockery and provocation."

[...]

Despite these reasonable views, 60 percent of the people interviewed predict an increase in tensions between Christians and Muslims with Flemish men being the most pessimistic.

Another pretext is fabricated to stir up rage among Muslims, thereby increasing jihad recruitment tallies. From Reuters, :

SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan - The Taleban accused NATO forces of genocide on Friday after the latest in a series of civilian combat deaths, and said they would step up already rising suicide attacks.

The strict Islamist group’s one-legged military commander, Mullah Dadullah, also denied NATO charges the guerrillas used villagers as human shields in combat against foreign forces.

The warning came as a a provincial official said a bomb had killed at least 14 civilians in the rugged southern province of Uruzgan on Friday.

‘We want to inform the foreign forces and their slaves that their defeat is inevitable in Afghanistan,’ Dadullah told Reuters by satellite phone from a secret location.

‘The Taleban’s mujahideen are ready to fight until death and in the coming days will increase their activities and suicide attacks to such an extent that the infidel forces will not get a chance to rest.

‘The Taleban will not let the the killers of Afghan women and children rest in peace and will continue to target them.’

Bruce Thornton is a professor of Classics at Cal State Fresno and co-author with Victor Davis Hanson of Bonfire of the Humanities: Rescuing the Classics in an Impoverished Age and author of Greek Ways: How the Greeks Created Western Civilization (Encounter Books). His most recent book is Searching for Joaquin: Myth, Murieta, and History in California (Encounter Books). This review appears at California Republic.

Ambrose Bierce once quipped that war was God’s way of teaching Americans geography. He could have said “teaching us history,” for the enemy is emboldened by our ignorance not just of where he lives but of how he lives, his beliefs and values, and to understand these traditions we must understand their history. Unfortunately, in the current war against Islamic jihad we persist in ignoring the documented history of Islam and its beliefs, accepting instead the spin and propaganda of various propagandists, apologists, and Western useful idiots.

This imperative to know the enemy’s beliefs is particularly important for understanding the jihadists, for Islam is a fiercely traditional faith, one brooking no deviation from the revelation granted to Muhammad and codified in the Koran, Hadith, and the sira or biography of the Prophet. As Robert Spencer shows in his invaluable resource The Truth about Muhammad, in these sources Muhammad is presented as “an excellent model of conduct,” as the Koran puts it, his words and deeds forming the pattern for all pious Muslims to follow. “Muslims,” according to Muqtedar Khan of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, “as a part of religious observance, not only obey, but also seek to emulate and imitate their Prophet in every aspect of life.” The facts of Muhammad’s life, then, are paramount for understanding the beliefs that warrant and validate jihadist terror.

Presenting those facts clearly and fairly is precisely what Spencer accomplishes in his new book. Spencer has been for years a bastion of plain-speaking truth. Through books like Islam Unveiled, Onward Muslim Soldiers: How Jihad Still Threatens America and the West, and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (And the Crusades), and as director of Jihad Watch, Spencer has courageously presented the simple facts of Islamic history and thought that too many Americans, including some in the current administration, ignore or distort. Spencer’s new book continues this important service of arming us with the facts we need in order to understand an enemy who wants nothing from us other than our conversion, death, or subjection.

Basing his description of Muhammad on the same Islamic sources revered by believers themselves, Spencer paints a portrait of the Prophet unrecognizable to any who have been deceived by the idealizations of apologists like Farida Khanam, whom Spencer quotes as claiming that Muhammad’s “heart was filled with intense love for all humankind irrespective of caste, creed or color,” or the British religious writer Karen Armstrong, who claims that “Muhammad eventually abjured violence and pursued a daring, inspired policy of non-violence that was worthy of Ghandi.” Such fantastic delusions cannot stand up to the relentless quotations and facts Spencer gathers from Islamic sources, all of which show us a Mohammad justifying and practicing violence in the service of the faith he invented.

In the weeks just after 9.11.2001, the American government still did not understand Islam. It had spent the past fifty years not understanding Islam. It had spent the past fifty years thinking of Islam only as a "bulwark against Communism" and attempting to curry favor with such "staunch allies" as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, while taking an indignant stand against its main allies at Suez (when Nasser might have been, and should have been, knocked right down). It constantly pressured Israel after 1967 to give up the Sinai for worthless guarantees. Later, in the post-1967 world, with all that Kissinger "shuttle diplomacy" and then the Rogers Plan, and then a dozen other plans and schemes, not a single thing was done about the menace of OPEC. Nothing, or close to nothing, has been done to diminish these monstrous revenues in the one-third of a century since 1973.

Nothing has been done to prevent, or even to study or wonder about or question aloud, the policy of permitting the mass settlement of Muslims within the Western countries, a policy of criminal negligence toward all Infidel peoples by all Infidel governments. This policy has been based on sheer laziness and sheer unwillingness to learn enough about Islam, or to listen to the diminishing number of real scholars -- as opposed to Muslim and non-Muslim apologists carefully infiltrating and rising in the ranks of academic and government "experts" and "advisers" on Islam: John Esposito was consulted by the Clinton Administration; Gilles Kepel and Olivier Roy by the French government; Tariq Ramadan was appointed to all sorts of E.U. commissions and is even now, in his pseudo-academic post at St. Antony's, "advising" the Blair regime that does not know where to put its feet and hands -- but its opponents promise no better.

Many times, when speaking of the nature of Sharia and the rights of women and non-Muslim dhimmis under Islamic law, I have in reference to women quoted Qur'an 4:34: "Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them. Lo! Allah is ever High, Exalted, Great."

And often, when I have quoted this verse, I have been charged with "cherry-picking" unpleasant verses from the Qur'an, and told that no Muslim takes this verse literally in the modern age. I wish that were so, but here is more evidence that it isn't.

"Iran: Men Can Hit Their Wives, Cleric Says," from AKI, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Tehran, 26 Oct. (AKI) - Iranian Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi has issued a fatwa - a Muslim religious edict - saying it is legitimate for men to hit their disobedient wives. Shirazi, one of the leading clerics of the Shiite holy city of Qom, wrote on his website that "the Koran first of all advises a man to try and convince his wife to obey to him in a polite way and through advice, then by refusing to have sexual relations with her and, finally, if all this will have failed to make her reason, with physical punishment."

The punishment, the leading cleric said, "must be light and considered an exceptional event, like surgery in case of a serious illness."

Makarem Shirazi advised his readers against "physical punishment which leaves signs and wounds." Women, he axplained, "are masochistic and sometimes they have a crisis and need light physical punishment to get back to normal."

The Islamic Courts fighters may be positioning themselves to attack the seat of the Somali government, as leverage for, or pending an expected outcome of peace talks scheduled for next week. Somali Jihad Update. "Somalia's Islamists take key town," from the BBC:

Fighters loyal to Somalia's Islamic courts have taken control of a key trading town from the transitional government without bloodshed.

They drove into Sakow on Wednesday evening moving closer to the seat of the interim administration in Baidoa.

Islamists are reported to be massing to the east of Baidoa, where government troops have been seen building defences with the aid of Ethiopian soldiers.

The opposing sides are due to meet in Sudan next week for peace talks.

There's a country that doesn't exactly leap to mind when "peace talks" are mentioned.

[...]

"It was simple because we did not encounter any fighting when we entered the town," Sheikh Hassan Derow, an Islamist commander told AFP news agency.

Residents of the town which is 170km south-west of Baidoa, said pro-government forces fled to the north.

The BBC's East Africa correspondent Adam Mynott says the pressure is building towards a confrontation between the two sides.

But the UIC said it dids not intend to attack the transitional government but would defend itself against Ethiopian forces.

"The Courts' forces are still in their positions to defend the town (Baidoa) against the Ethiopian troops which began to move towards the Courts' forces," leading Islamic Courts offical [sic] Shaykh Sharif Shaykh Ahmad told the BBC.

Developing a pretext: "Defending" Baidoa.

The Taliban takes a cue from Hizballah, perhaps, in exploiting casualties caused by the use of human shields, a practice banned by the Fourth Geneva Convention (see Article 28). "NATO says Taleban using civilians as shields, as high toll feared," from AFP:

KABUL - The NATO force in Afghanistan Thursday accused the Taleban of using civilians as human shields, as authorities scrambled to verify reports that at least 60 people were killed in military strikes.

The International Security Assistance Force said it could not say how many civilians were killed in a series of operations in the southern province of Kandahar late Tuesday, but was helping Afghan authorities to find out.

ISAF said late Wednesday that 48 Taleban were killed in three engagements, including air strikes, in Kandahar’s Panjwayi area late Tuesday.

However, the chief of Panjwayi district, Niaz Mohammad Sarhadi, said he had reports that about 60 locals were killed in aerial bombing that also destroyed a number of houses.

Deputy director of Kandahar provincial council, Bismellah Afghanmal, put the figure as high as 85, but national authorities could not immediately confirm the local reports, which have in the past been exaggerated.

Asked about civilian casualties, NATO civilian representative Mark Laity said "at the moment we don’t know", adding any that had occurred were deeply regretted.

ISAF took great care to avoid civilian casualties, but the Taleban were mixing themselves among residents when attacked, NATO officials told reporters in the capital, Kabul.

"With insurgents who regard the population as a form of human shield for themselves, it obviously makes life very difficult for us, but it doesn’t stop us making every effort to ensure we minimise any problems," Laity said.

"We know that the public rely on us and expect us to take every care, and if they (civilians) are accidentally killed then it can affect (public) faith in us," he said.

ISAF was working with an Afghan defence ministry team that had been tasked to find out what had happened, he told reporters in Kabul.

"We are helping Afghan leaders there fly over the area to make an assessment," added ISAF spokesman Major Luke Knittig at the same briefing.

The force would also attend a shura (council) being convened in the area to discuss the matter, he said.

Anti-dhimmitude in Danish courts. From AP:

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) -- A Danish court on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit filed by Muslim organizations against the newspaper that first published the Prophet Mohammed cartoons that touched off protests in the Islamic world.

The City Court in Aarhus said it could not be ruled out that some Muslims had been offended by the 12 drawings printed in Jyllands-Posten, but said there was no reason to assume that the cartoons were meant to "belittle Muslims."

The newspaper published the cartoons on September 30, 2005 with a text saying it was challenging a perceived self-censorship among artists afraid to offend Islam.

The caricatures were reprinted in European papers in January and February, fueling a fury of protests in the Islamic world. Some turned violent, with protesters killed in Libya and Afghanistan and several European embassies attacked.

Islamic law forbids any depiction of the prophet, even positive ones, to prevent idolatry.

"It cannot be ruled out that the drawings have offended some Muslims' honor, but there is no basis to assume that the drawings are, or were conceived as, insulting or that the purpose of the drawings was to present opinions that can belittle Muslims," the court said.

The seven Muslim groups filed the defamation lawsuit against the paper in March, after Denmark's top prosecutor declined to press criminal charges, saying the drawings did not violate laws against racism or blasphemy.

The plaintiffs, who claimed to have the backing of 20 more Islamic organizations in the Scandinavian country, had sought $16,860 in damages from Jyllands-Posten Editor in Chief Carsten Juste and Culture Editor Flemming Rose, who supervised the cartoon project.

The lawsuit said the cartoons depict Mohammed "as belligerent, oppressing women, criminal, crazy and unintelligent, and a connection is made between the Prophet and war and terror."

Yep.

It said the drawings were published "solely to provoke and mock not only the Prophet Mohammed but also the Muslim population."

T Thomas wrings his hands in the Business Standard of India over the widespread misunderstanding of Islam: not those committing violence in the name of Islam, mind you, but those who have the audacity to think that Islam may have something to do with inciting violence as a result.

We need to ask, is Islam perhaps a much-misunderstood religion. The 1993 bomb blasts, following the demolition of Babri Masjid, and the more recent July 2006 bomb blasts in Mumbai’s suburban trains have led many people in India to equate aspects of Islam with terrorism. The September 11, 2001, incident in New York turned most of the Western world to that way of thinking. Yet Prophet Mohammed never propagated violence while imparting his teachings. He urged his followers to fast and pray and to give a part of their wealth to charity. Many Muslims carry out these obligations very diligently even today. Muslims revere Jesus Christ as a prophet. According to Islam, Jesus did not die on the Cross and it will be Christ who will return on Judgment Day. In spite of this acknowledgement of Christ in Islam, the Christian West is more anti-Islam than even the Hindus of India, who suffered under Islam for five centuries.

"Prophet Mohammed never propagated violence while imparting his teachings." Except when he did. Get the whole story in my new book, The Truth About Muhammad. A couple of ahadith that T Thomas may have missed:

Narrated Abu Qilaba:

Anas said, "Some people of 'Ukl or 'Uraina tribe came to Medina and its climate did not suit them. So the Prophet ordered them to go to the herd of (Milch) camels and to drink their milk and urine (as a medicine). So they went as directed and after they became healthy, they killed the shepherd of the Prophet and drove away all the camels. The news reached the Prophet early in the morning and he sent (men) in their pursuit and they were captured and brought at noon. He then ordered to cut their hands and feet (and it was done), and their eyes were branded with heated pieces of iron, They were put in 'Al-Harra' and when they asked for water, no water was given to them." Abu Qilaba said, "Those people committed theft and murder, became infidels after embracing Islam and fought against Allah and His Apostle ."

It has been reported from Sulaiman b. Buraid through his father that when the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) appointed anyone as leader of an army or detachment he would especially exhort him to fear Allah and to be good to the Muslims who were with him. He would say: Fight in the name of Allah and in the way of Allah. Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war, do not embezzle the spoils; do not break your pledge; and do not mutilate (the dead) bodies; do not kill the children. When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to three courses of action. If they respond to any one of these, you also accept it and withold yourself from doing them any harm. Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them....If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah's help and fight them.

There are many, many others like that. You'll find them in the book.

In this week's Jihad Watch segment at Hot Air, I discuss the implications of the Afghan jihadist demand that apostate Abdul Rahman be returned to Afghanistan in exchange for hostage Gabriele Torsello.

A new essay by the prolific and profound European essayist Fjordman:

In my criticism of the European Union, I have been accused of being too positive towards the nation state. It is true that Western civilization isn't exclusively about nation states. The Renaissance took place in the city states of Italy while nation states were non-existent or weak. It is also true that there is a potentially destructive side to nationalism as opposed to defensive patriotism. However, our current democratic system is tied to nation states. The EU didn't cause all of Europe's problems, but it made some of them worse, and added a few new ones. If the EU collapsed tomorrow, we would still be in a lot of trouble, but at least we would have a fighting chance. I have heard a number of people say that "Europe is already lost." I do agree with them that if the political situation remains as it is today, then yes, Europe is lost to Islam, or at least significant parts of Western Europe, maybe not all of Eastern Europe. But I'm not so sure whether the political situation will, or has to, remain as it is today.

Tens of millions of ordinary citizens are now rapidly waking up to the full scale of the Islamic threat. The problem is that many Western Europeans have a sense of hopelessness because they need to confront so many enemies at the same time. Let's call them Enemy 1, 2 and 3. Enemy 1 is Islam and Muslim immigration. Enemy 2 is the anti-Western bias of our media and academia.

Enemy number 2 is common to all Western nations, also the USA, Canada and Australia. Enemy 1 is also common to all Western nations, but more powerful in Europe because of sheer numbers and proximity to the heartland of the Islamic world.

Enemy 3 consists of Eurabians and EU federalists, who are unique to Europe and make the situation more critical here than it is in North America or Australia.

The feeling among many of those Europeans who now understand the threat is that we can face down and defeat one of these enemies, maybe two, but not all three at the same time. We need a major shake-up in the political situation, something that is visible to everybody, to demonstrate that change is possible. The downfall of the European Union could do the trick.

Muslims may actually have done us a favor. The massive infiltration of Leftist and anti-Western rhetoric that now permeates our media and academia predates Islam, but the failure to identify the threat posed by Muslim immigration has exposed it. Many ordinary citizens still remember that our so-called academic experts and media columnists hailed Multiculturalism and Muslim immigration, which are turning out to be the most massive mistakes in modern Western history. This will sooner or later trigger a backlash.

The bad news is that all our various enemies are closely tied together. The good news is also that all our various enemies are closely tied together, and may all go down if one of them falls.

We can start with the Muslims. Their greatest flaw is that they are insanely aggressive and can't handle criticism or mockery at all. A
smart move would be to deliberately provoke Muslims as much as humanly possible. The more they rage and rant and threaten, the more they will discredit the ones who said it was a good idea to let them into our countries and that everybody who said otherwise were "racists."

An update on this story. "Somali Islamists recruit for jihad against Ethiopia," by Mustafa Haji Abdinur for AFP:

MOGADISHU -- Somali Islamists have begun recruiting thousands of young fighters to fight a jihad against Ethiopia, officials said Wednesday, amid fears of all-out war across the lawless Horn of Africa nation.

A day after claiming to have captured an Ethiopian military officer in fierce weekend battles with a militia allied to Somalia's weak government, the Islamists said that at least 3,000 people had enlisted for combat in the holy war.

Many of the new recruits have signed up in the last two days, since the supreme leader of the powerful Islamist movement announced the start of a threatened jihad against Ethiopian troops alleged in Somalia, officials said.

"We have at least 3,000 young fighters who have now registered to fight the enemy of Allah," a senior official with the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts (SICS) official said in Mogadishu.

The newcomers, including women, will join what the Islamists claim are tens of thousands of battle-hardened gunmen who seized Mogadishu in June from warlords and now control most of southern and central Somalia.

The Islamic Courts are already making use of their training camps and registration centers:

"We have trained them to fight and that is religious obligation," said Sheikh Abdinur Farah, a senior Islamist commander who runs a jihad recruitment center in Qoryoley, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of Mogadishu.

"Ethiopia has made clear its intention: that is a war against us," he said from the town. "So we are calling an open war against Ethiopia and every young fighter is welcome to join the jihad against the Ethiopian invaders."

Ethiopia and the Somali government have repeatedly denied eyewitness accounts of Ethiopian soldiers in Somalia, although Addis Ababa has said several times that it has sent trainers and advisors.

But mainly Christian Ethiopia has vowed to protect itself and the Somali government from the jihadists, whom, together with the transitional government, it accuses of links with Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda network.

[...]

On Monday, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, chief of the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS) and a hardline cleric designated a "terrorist" by the United States, urged Somalis to take up arms against Ethiopian troops.

Several recruits from Qoryoley Wednesday said that they had been inspired to join the jihad by Aweys' speech in which he vowed that the graves of Ethiopian troops would "be littered everywhere in Somalia."

"I have been looking for somewhere to devote my passion for my religion and country," said 23-year-old Abdullahi Sidow Hassan. "Now that the righteous jihad has started, I have found it. Fadumo Isaq Duale, 20, a female student, echoed that sentiment. "I am ready to die for my religion because it is a religious obligation on every Muslim, be it man or woman," she said. "We have nothing to lose because Ethiopia is violating our religion and our land." Soaring tensions between the Islamists and the government and worsening security in south and central Somalia have forced tens of thousands to flee into neighboring Kenya and added to concerns of widespread conflict.

The Taliban are solidifying their state-within-a-state in North Waziristan. "Taliban militias take control," by Isambard Wilkinson for the London Daily Telegraph:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Taliban militias in Pakistan have set up offices, introduced taxes and taken control of justice in the tribal agency of North Waziristan, where last month the government signed a peace agreement with militants.

In violation of the agreement, a Taliban shura, or council, distributed pamphlets of its policies while militants patrolled the area's streets. They have already killed numerous "American spies."

A "tax schedule" detailed how businesses are liable for paying charges to the Taliban. Trucks entering the agency will pay for a six-month pass, and gas-pump owners will have to make contributions to the Taliban shura. The taxes were described as a "donation" in the pamphlet.

The deal signed by the government on Sept. 5 stipulated that al Qaeda fighters were to be expelled from North Waziristan, and pro-Taliban militants were not to run a "parallel administration" or take part in fighting against coalition forces across the border. In return, Pakistani forces, who had been fighting local militants over the summer, withdrew from combat. The army retained the right to carry out strikes in the area if militants did not adhere to the deal.

But it was later discovered by Pakistani journalists that the deal was signed with wanted militants and not with tribal elders, as was officially claimed. Pakistani officials hoped the deal would empower tribal elders to control militants in their region, but an estimated 120 of them have been killed in the past year.

After the withdrawal of the army, a power vacuum was filled by mullahs and their long-haired, bearded, weapon-toting militants. According to Pakistani reporters, some of the militants wear badges that read: "Appointed by the office of the Taliban, the mujahedeen of the North Waziristan Agency."

Power is now in the hands of a so-called "mullahcracy" and people who Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf recently dismissed as hashish-smoking thugs who use the Taliban's mantle to coerce locals.

Maulana Abdul Khaliq Haqqani, a member of North Waziristan's Taliban shura, said his followers were abiding by the pact. But he said they still offered "moral support" to those fighting in Afghanistan.

"There is no doubt that we support this jihad against infidels, against these Christians who have invaded a Muslim land," he said.

Instead of crossing from Waziristan, fighters continue to cross into Afghanistan from other areas.

"If you can't go into Afghanistan from Waziristan, you can go from other areas. There are many, many other ways to go," a fighter from North Waziristan told Reuters news agency.

NATO officials in Afghanistan said militant activity has increased 300 percent in the border regions since the pact was signed.

The intifada continues in France. And this latest round of bus attacks shows that it is spreading to previously unexpected places. "Youths torch buses around Paris," by Cecile Brisson for AP:

PARIS - Youths forced passengers off three buses and set them on fire overnight in suburban Paris, raising tensions Thursday ahead of the first anniversary of the riots that engulfed France's rundown, heavily immigrant neighborhoods.

No injuries were reported, but worried bus drivers refused to enter some suburbs after dark, and the prime minister urged a swift, stern response.

The riots in October 2005 raged through housing projects in suburbs nationwide, springing in part from anger over entrenched discrimination against immigrants and their French-born children, many of them Muslims from former French colonies in Africa. Despite an influx of funds and promises, disenchantment still thrives in those communities.

About 10 attackers -- five of them with handguns -- stormed a bus in Montreuil east of Paris early Thursday and forced the passengers off, the RATP transport authority said. They then drove off and set the bus on fire.

Late Wednesday, three attackers forced passengers off another bus in Athis-Mons, south of Paris, and tossed a Molotov cocktail inside, police officials said. The driver managed to put out the fire. Elsewhere, between six and 10 youths herded passengers off a bus in the western suburb of Nanterre late Wednesday and set it alight.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said the events "should lead to an immediate response."

"We cannot accept the unacceptable," he told reporters in the northern suburb of Cergy-Pontoise. "There will be arrests. ... That is our responsibility."

Villepin also said efforts should be directed to "revitalize" troubled neighborhoods, and repeated the government's insistence that authorities rid France of "lawless zones" where youth gangs operate.

The overnight attacks and recent ambushes on police have raised concern about the changing character of suburban violence, which is seemingly more premeditated than last year's spontaneous outcry and no longer restricted to the housing projects. The use of handguns was unusual -- last year's rioters were armed primarily with crowbars, stones, sticks or gasoline bombs.

Regional authorities said the Nanterre bus line, which passes near Paris' financial district, had not been considered at a high risk of attack. Francois Saglier, director of bus service at the RATP, said the attacks happened "without prior warning and not necessarily in neighborhoods considered difficult."

[...]

The transit authority in the Essonne region south of Paris on Wednesday suspended nighttime bus service for security reasons following "multiple incidents," including a tear gas bomb.

France's inability to better integrate minorities and recent violence against police are becoming major political issues as the campaign heats up for next year's presidential and parliamentary elections.

Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, who is considering whether to run for president, said that attacks demonstrate "a desire to kill."

"Some individuals are looking for provocations, and sometimes go further," she said on i-Tele television. She acknowledged people facing unemployment and living in overcrowded housing projects "have trouble finding their place" in society.

More evidence of support for the jihad in high places in modern, moderate Indonesia. From AP, with thanks to DFS:

Two Islamic militants jailed for the Bali bombings that killed 202 people were freed yesterday and nine others had their sentences reduced to mark the end of the Islamic fasting month, officials said.

Indonesia traditionally cuts prison terms for inmates who exhibit good behavior on national holidays and the justice ministry said more than 43,000 convicts benefited this time.

But the decision to include convicted terrorists was likely to anger countries that lost citizens in the Oct. 12, 2002, attacks on two crowded nightclubs.

"After what I've survived, to see these people get rewarded ... it's something we Westerners just don't understand," said Australian Peter Hughes, who suffered burns over 54 percent of his body.

Yep.

It turns out that the Somali cabdrivers in Minneapolis who refused to carry passengers with alcohol were inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood, as part of a larger effort to bring Sharia to the United States. For what may seem to be a pragmatic and fair solution -- the airport's initial plan to color-code the cabs as Sharia-compliant and non-Sharia-compliant -- actually opens the door to numerous other Sharia provisions in the U.S., as Daniel Pipes has pointed out. Will an unmarried man and woman be allowed to share a cab? A man carrying a ham sandwich? This kind of effort, especially now that the Ikhwan turns out to be behind it, must be seen for what it is and resisted strenuously.

"Airport taxi flap about alcohol has deeper significance," by Katherine Kersten in the Star Tribune, with thanks to Fjordman:

The taxi controversy at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport has caught the nation's attention. But the dispute may go deeper than the quandary over whether to accommodate Somali Muslim cabdrivers who refuse to carry passengers carrying alcohol. Behind the scenes, a struggle for power and religious authority is apparently playing out.

At the Starbucks coffee shop in Minneapolis' Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, a favorite Somali gathering spot, holidaymakers celebrating Eid, the end of Ramadan, filled the tables on Monday. Several taxis were parked outside.

An animated circle of Somalis gathered when the question of the airport controversy was raised.

"I was surprised and shocked when I heard it was an issue at the airport," said Faysal Omar. "Back in Somalia, there was never any problem with taking alcohol in a taxi."

Jama Dirie said, "If a driver doesn't pick up everyone, he should get his license canceled and get kicked out of the airport."

Two of the Somalis present defended the idea that Islam prohibits cabdrivers from transporting passengers with alcohol. An argument erupted. The consensus seemed to be that only a small number of Somalis object to transporting alcohol. It's a matter of personal opinion, not Islamic law, several men said.

Ahmed Samatar, a nationally recognized expert on Somali society at Macalester College, confirmed that view. "There is a general Islamic prohibition against drinking," he said, "but carrying alcohol for people in commercial enterprise has never been forbidden. There is no basis in Somali cultural practice or legal tradition for that.

"This is one of those new concoctions."It is being foisted on the Somali community by an inside or outside group," he added. "I do not know who."

But many Somali drivers at the airport are refusing to carry passengers with alcohol. When I asked Patrick Hogan, Metropolitan Airports Commission spokesman, for his explanation, he forwarded a fatwa, or religious edict, that the MAC had received. The fatwa proclaims that "Islamic jurisprudence" prohibits taxi drivers from carrying passengers with alcohol, "because it involves cooperating in sin according to the Islam."

The fatwa, dated June 6, 2006, was issued by the "fatwa department" of the Muslim American Society, Minnesota chapter, and signed by society officials.

The society is mediating the conflict between the cab drivers and the MAC. That seems odd, since the society itself clearly has a stake in the controversy's outcome.

How did the MAC connect with the society? "The Minnesota Department of Human Rights recommended them to us to help us figure out how to handle this problem," Hogan said.

Omar Jamal, director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, thinks he knows why the society is promoting a "no-alcohol-carry" agenda with no basis in Somali culture. "MAS is an Arab group; we Somalis are African, not Arabs," he said. "MAS wants to polarize the world, create two camps. I think they are trying to hijack the Somali community for their Middle East agenda. They look for issues they can capitalize on, like religion, to rally the community around. The majority of Somalis oppose this, but they are vulnerable because of their social and economic situation."

The society

What is the Muslim American Society? In September 2004 the Chicago Tribune published an investigative article. The society was incorporated in 1993, the paper reported, and is the name under which the U.S. branch of the Muslim Brotherhood operates.

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna. The Tribune described the Brotherhood as "the world's most influential Islamic fundamentalist group."Because of its hard-line beliefs, the U.S. Brotherhood has been an increasingly divisive force within Islam in America, fueling the often bitter struggle between moderate and conservative Muslims," the paper reported.

The international Muslim Brotherhood "preaches that religion and politics cannot be separated and that governments eventually should be Islamic," according to the Tribune. U.S. members emphasize that they follow American laws, but want people here to convert to Islam so that one day a majority will support a society governed by Islamic law.

In Mason, Ohio, as well as in many other places around the country, religious observance suddenly appears to be acceptable in public schools, after decades of court rulings against it -- provided, that is, that the religious people in question are Muslim. "Parents Claim Discrimination Against Christian Students," from WCPO.com, with thanks to Janet Levy:

Some Mason residents are claiming their school district is discriminating against Christian students, and giving special treatment to Muslim students.

The accusations came after office space was made available to two students who were observing Ramadan.

District leaders said they set aside the space so Muslim students who were fasting for Ramadan didn't have to be in the cafeteria during lunchtime.

They said the students could have prayed in that room if they wanted to.

Some say that decision is favoring one religion over another.

Sharon Poe and Mason School Board Member Jennifer Miller said public schools like Mason High School are forcing Christianity out of the hallways.

Examples they give include the fact that Easter break is now called Spring break.

And nativity scenes are also not allowed on school grounds.

They claim that Christian students are being discriminated against.

They argue that if Christian students can't share their religion at school, no one should be able to.

Sharon Poe is a Mason resident.

"I want to make sure that it is being fair for every religious group in the school. We can't stipulate that's what's good for one is not good for another. This is a public education facility."

All too often this happens: the victim of rape is punished -- in part because, after all, she must have brought it on herself, and also because the moral crime involved is that which results from her own impurity, however unwilling she was. "Teenage girl murdered by brother in 'honor killing,'" from AFP, with thanks to DFS:

ANKARA -- A 15-year-old girl who gave birth to a child that she said resulted from a rape became the latest victim of so-called "honor killings" in Turkey, newspapers said Monday.

The young girl, from a mainly Kurdish town near Turkey's eastern border with Iran, was murdered by an elder brother Saturday, press reports said. The victim, named only as Naile, had apparently not been aware that she was pregnant until she started feeling unwell and was admitted to a hospital, where she gave birth to a boy, the reports added.

She later told her mother that the pregnancy had resulted from a rape. When other members of the family heard the news, the elder brother shot her dead at point-blank range in a street of the town, and then fled.

Anti-dhimmitude from Australia's Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward. "Sheik's sexist comments create storm," an update on this story from AAP:

Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward believes the comments are an incitement to crime.

"Young Muslim men who now rape women can cite this in court, can quote this man ... their leader in court," she told the Nine Network.

She wants him to go, but did not make clear whether she wanted to him to leave the country or step down as a leader of the Islamic community.

"It's time we stopped just saying he should apologise. It is time the Islamic community did more then say they were horrified. I think it is time he left," Ms Goward said.

Victorian Liberal backbencher Sophie Mirabella wants the sheik to consider moving back to the Middle East.

"I have a message for Sheik Alhilali: This is Australia, not Iran, and violence and degradation of women is not acceptable," she said.

More senior members of government were also scathing.

"Certainly I think if a religious leader in the Catholic Church or the Anglican Church or in Judaism was to make these sorts of statements, they would be getting a very severe rap over the knuckles, at the very least," Health Minister Tony Abbott told the Nine Network.

"He's wrong. He should be reprimanded and it's up to ordinary, decent Australians to make it clear that he is wrong."

Treasurer Peter Costello urged other Muslims to pull the sheik into line.

"I hope that the moderate Muslim leaders will speak out today and condemn these comments," he told the Seven Network."

Opposition Leader Kim Beazley said the sheik's comments were offensive and should be corrected by the Islamic community.

Not much luck so far: Keysar Trad says earlier in the article that this has all been taken out of context:

President of the Islamic Friendship Council of Australia, Keysar Trad, said the sheik's comments had been misrepresented, although he admitted his analogies could have been better.

"From what I understand, he was talking about the context of encouraging people to abstinence before getting married," Mr Trad said.

"His references to exposed meat etc was a very poor example that was meant to be a reference to both men and women, he wasn't talking about Islamic dress, he wasn't talking about rape."

Oh, really now. From the earlier item:

Sheik Hilali said there were women who "sway suggestively" and wore make-up and immodest dress ... "and then you get a judge without mercy (rahma) and gives you 65 years".

It appears that Musharraf's recent book-tour attempts to present himself as only a reluctant anti-jihadist have not mollified the Islamic hardliners in Pakistan. "Pakistan Islamists slam Musharraf, US in Eid sermons," from AFP, :

ISLAMABAD - President Pervez Musharraf led millions of Pakistanis in prayer on the Muslim holiday of Eid Al Fitr Wednesday, amid calls by Islamic hardliners for his ousting and for the defeat of the United States.

Security was heavy from the capital Islamabad to the southern port city of Karachi as people flocked to mosques and open air services, with thousands of extra police guarding places of worship and commercial areas.

Musharraf and senior officials offered prayers at the giant Faisal Mosque in Islamabad, where he later mixed with the congregation, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan said.

In a message issued on the eve of Eid, Musharraf urged Pakistanis to counter terrorists and the “misleading propaganda of those possessing negative tendencies”.

But leading Islamist politician Qazi Hussain Ahmad used his Eid sermon to thousands of people in the eastern city of Lahore to oppose American policies and Musharraf’s support of the US since 2001.

“America and its allies will face defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan.... We will take back our land from American agents,” Ahmad said at the Mansoora complex of his Jamaat-e-Islami fundamentalist party.

Ahmad also said an alleged US threat to bomb Pakistan “back to the Stone Age” unless it backed the invasion of Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001 attacks was itself “a threat amounting to terrorism”.

Musharraf said in his memoirs published last month that former deputy US secretary of state Richard Armitage gave the warning to Pakistan’s then-head of intelligence in September 2001. Armitage denies the claim.

Meanwhile the founder of Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Taiba Kashmiri militant group, Hafez Mohammad Saeed, called in a separate sermon for “holy war” against anyone who showed aggression towards Islam.

Aggression against Islam, of course, being any defense against the global jihad.

An update to this story. "BA employee rejects 'cross' offer," from the BBC, with thanks to Kasper:

A British Airways employee fighting to openly wear a cross necklace at work has rejected a compromise deal.

Nadia Eweida, 55, said BA has offered her a job in recruitment where she would not have to conceal her cross.

The check-in worker, from Twickenham, south-west London, plans to sue BA for religious discrimination after being told to conceal her necklace.

The airline said its uniform policy stated such items could be worn if concealed underneath the uniform.

Ms Eweida told the BBC she did not see why she should compromise "when my colleagues of other faiths are there in public view in uniform and they are accepting of their religious apparel".

One will recall that the original deadline was June 29 for Iran to respond to the incentives package proposal, some of which it is apparently receiving anyway in spite of its lack of compliance. Western diplomats said they would expect that response in "weeks, not months." Nearly four months later, nothing has happened.

Well, one thing has: Iran has expanded its capacity to enrich uranium, the very thing it was supposed to stop. "Iran expands controversial nuclear work," by Nasser Karimi, from AP:

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran has expanded its controversial nuclear work by starting a second cascade of centrifuges to enrich uranium, a semiofficial news agency reported Wednesday

The news came as world powers moved toward introducing a draft resolution in the U.N. Security Council that would impose limited sanctions on Iran because of its refusal to cease enrichment -- a process that can produce material for nuclear power reactors or weapons.

The Iranian Students News Agency quoted an anonymous official Wednesday as saying that Iran had started a second cascade of centrifuges two weeks ago and that "gas will be injected into the cascade during the current week."

"We will exploit the new product from the injection," ISNA quoted the official as saying, meaning that Iran would use the enriched uranium obtained by inserting gas into the centrifuges.

The report could not be immediately corroborated as Iranian officials were on holiday for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Neither the official Islamic Republic News Agency nor state television and radio carried the report by ISNA, an agency that receives state funding via the national universities.

Diplomats in Vienna said this week that Iran has started its second cascade of centrifuges in Natanz. The move violates a resolution of the International Atomic Energy Agency, a U.N. watchdog group that has required that Iran cease all enrichment-related activity.

Iran produced a small batch of enriched uranium in February from a cascade of 164 centrifuges at its nuclear plant at Natanz in central Iran. Iran says it plans to install 3,000 centrifuges at Natanz by the end of this year.

Production of enough uranium to fuel a reactor would require 54,000 centrifuges. Although Iran is nowhere near that goal, its successful operation of more cascades of centrifuges indicates the country is gradually mastering the complexities of producing enriched uranium.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday his country's nuclear capability had increased tenfold despite Western pressure to curb its atomic program.

[...]

The U.S. and its European allies are circulating a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that would ban the sale of missile and nuclear technology to Iran and deny the country certain assistance from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said there is "no choice" but to pursue sanctions against Iran after Tehran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment.

[...]

China and Russia, which can veto Security Council resolutions, are reportedly pushing for continued dialogue with Iran instead of punishment.

Anti-dhimmitude from Argentine prosecutors. By Oscar Serrat for AP, with thanks to Looney Tunes:

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Argentine prosecutors asked a federal judge on Wednesday to order the arrest of former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani and seven others for the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center that killed scores of people.

The decision to attack the center "was undertaken in 1993 by the highest authorities of the then-government of
Iran," prosecutor Alberto Nisman said at a news conference.

He said the actual attack was entrusted to the Lebanon-based group Hezbollah.

The worst terrorist attack ever on Argentine soil, the bombing of the Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires killed 85 people and injured more than 200 when an explosive-laden vehicle detonated near the building.

Iran's government has vehemently denied any involvement in the attack following repeated accusations by Jewish community and other leaders here.

Iranian authorities contacted here by The Associated Press said they would have no comment.

Women are abandoned "meat" and temptations from Satan. All this justifies Sharia provisions about veiling, of course, and thus is part of the overall imperative to impose Sharia on the rest of us.

Taj Din al-Hilali has a history of outrageous statements.

By Richard Kerbaj in The Australian, with thanks to David:

THE nation's most senior Muslim cleric has blamed immodestly dressed women who don't wear Islamic headdress for being preyed on by men and likened them to abandoned "meat" that attracts voracious animals.

In a Ramadan sermon that has outraged Muslim women leaders, Sydney-based Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali also alluded to the infamous Sydney gang rapes, suggesting the attackers were not entirely to blame.

While not specifically referring to the rapes, brutal attacks on four women for which a group of young Lebanese men received long jail sentences, Sheik Hilali said there were women who "sway suggestively" and wore make-up and immodest dress ... "and then you get a judge without mercy (rahma) and gives you 65 years".

"But the problem, but the problem all began with who?" he asked....

In the religious address on adultery to about 500 worshippers in Sydney last month, Sheik Hilali said: "If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat?

"The uncovered meat is the problem."

The sheik then said: "If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred."

He said women were "weapons" used by "Satan" to control men.

"It is said in the state of zina (adultery), the responsibility falls 90 per cent of the time on the woman. Why? Because she possesses the weapon of enticement (igraa)."

For centuries -- notably, although not universally, in central Asia, Eastern Europe, and West Africa -- jihad supremacism for many Muslims lay dormant and even dropped out of the Muslim consciousness. But now jihadists are using chapter and verse of Qur'an and Sunnah to teach their vision of Islam to cultural Muslims. And they are doing so quite often through the Internet.

From MEMRI:

In an article in the Saudi daily Al-Riyadh, columnist Fares bin Hazam reports that both preachers in mosques and online propaganda are inciting young Muslims to wage jihad. [1] An interview with a young Muslim who went to fight in Afghanistan, also in Al-Riyadh, provides first-hand testimony confirming this claim.

The following are excerpts from the article and the interview:
Saudi Columnist: Preachers in Mosques Urge Worshipers to Join the Jihad in Iraq and Afghanistan

Bin Hazam writes in his article: "The business with Afghanistan will never end as long as the 'duty of jihad' continues to live in [our] society, in mosques, in Friday [sermons], and on the Internet...

"After the fall of the Taliban and the subsequent Guantanamo crisis... there was increasing talk about the need to investigate our youth's growing [inclination] towards jihad, and about the need to search for the reasons that motivate them to go to Afghanistan and to other countries...

"The call to investigate these reasons is despicable; it is a tasteless joke. [One might think] that the reasons are unknown, that we are not aware of our situation [and need to conduct an] investigation in order to discover why [our young people] went forth and are still going forth [to wage jihad]... The reasons are obvious. Many of us know them, and there is no need for a scientific study or for any other [kind of study] to reveal them...

"Since the causes are known, do we lack courage to deal with [this problem]? [I believe that] we do. Our lack of courage has been apparent ever since we invented the excuse of 'external [influences],' and began to toy with it and wave it at every opportunity. I do not know where these [external influences] come from, since it was we who sent our young men [to Afghanistan] in the first place, before we ever heard of [these influences] that allegedly come [from outside].

"Some preachers, [namely] those who fear the censor, deceive him by being implicit in their incitement to [wage] jihad in Iraq or Afghanistan. They speak in their sermons about the merits of jihad without mentioning a particular region. They speak in general terms that can be applied to any location, even to our [own] country. During the prayer, the details start to pour in thick and fast: first, [a call to wage jihad] in Palestine, [which serve as] a smokescreen, and then [calls for jihad] in Afghanistan, Iraq and Chechnya, and finally... the call 'oh Allah, grant them victory everywhere!' 'Everywhere' includes our [own] country... and we say 'amen' after the preacher calls [upon Allah] to help the mujahideen in our [own] country..."

Read it all.

While many Western analysts continue to portray them as a series of nationalist struggles, the jihads in Afghanistan, the Balkans, Iraq and elsewhere continue to attract many fighters from other countries, who wish to participate in jihad in the way of Allah -- jihad fi sabeel Allah. "Jihadis turn from Iraq to Afghanistan: Western forces offer more inviting targets," by Sebastian Rotella in the Chicago Tribune:

PARIS -- The conflict in Iraq is drawing fewer foreign fighters as Muslim extremists aspiring to battle the West turn their attention back to the symbolically important and increasingly violent turf of Afghanistan, European and U.S. anti-terror officials say.

The shift of jihadis to Afghanistan this year suggests that Al Qaeda and its allies, armed with new tactics honed in Iraq, are coming full circle five years after U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban mullahs.

Until Sept. 11, 2001, Afghanistan was the land of jihad, hallowed ground where fighters from across the Muslim world helped vanquish the Soviet Union in the 1980s, fought alongside the Taliban in the 1990s and filled terror training camps overseen by Osama bin Laden. Loss of the Afghan sanctuary scattered the networks and sent bin Laden fleeing toward the Pakistani border region, where many anti-terror officials believe he remains.

After the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, jihadis from the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa and Europe flocked to confront the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. Although foreigners have been a minority in the Iraqi insurgency, militants such as Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi played a major role in spectacular suicide attacks and kidnap-murders.

But insurgent leaders in Iraq are now mainly interested in foreign recruits ready to die in suicide attacks, anti-terror officials say. Moreover, the conflict is dominated by sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. In contrast, an accelerating Afghan offensive by the resurgent Taliban offers a clearer battleground and a wealth of targets: U.S. and other NATO troops and the Western-backed government.

As Iraqis have solidified control of their insurgency, the movement of foreign jihadis to Iraq has "significantly declined in recent months," said Pierre de Bousquet de Florian, director of the DST, France's lead counterterror agency.

"There is less need for them in Iraq because there's a need above all for kamikazes, and there are not an infinite number of volunteers," said Bousquet, whose agency works closely with U.S., European and Arab counterparts. "The Iraqi insurgency is now very well organized around Iraqis. Those who want to fight, but not necessarily to die as martyrs, go elsewhere."

Bousquet said anti-terror agents have detected a new flow of militants heading to Afghanistan, where more than 1,000 French soldiers are among the approximately 40,000 foreign troops deployed.

A leap in violence in Afghanistan this year has featured tactics such as suicide and roadside bombings that are trademarks of the insurgency in Iraq, according to Bousquet and other officials. Despite decades of warfare, suicide bombings were rare in Afghanistan. But the number of such attacks has shot up from 6 in 2004 to at least 78 so far this year.

Jihadis from North Africa make the odyssey to Afghanistan through routes that converge in Pakistan, another senior French anti-terror official said.

I received this email from Jihad Watch reader Paul:

Entering a local Borders outlet tonight, I noticed that front and center on the "New Non-Fiction" table was Karen Armstrong's "Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time." That set me to wondering whether "The Truth About Muhammad" was in stock. I looked in the Religion section and found Armstrong and Emerick's biographies, but not yours. Checking on the store's computer, I found it had been placed in the Middle Eastern History section -- well away from every other book on Muhammad. This was annoying enough to prompt me to take a copy up to the "New Non-Fiction" table and set it right by Armstrong's tome.

Earlier I received a report of another Borders where The Truth About Muhammad was classified in the "Christian fiction" section.

They can hide the book, but they can't hide the truth forever.

Friend and Ally Update: "Credible evidence' of Pak involvement in 7/11 blasts: PM," from ZeeNews.com, with thanks to DFS:

New Delhi, Oct 24: In the midst of a controversy over National Security Advisor M K Narayanan's comments, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said there was "credible evidence" of Pakistani involvement in the July 11 train blasts in Mumbai.

"All I can say is that there is credible evidence", he told reporters who asked him about the comments made by Narayanan that there was "pretty good" but not "clinching" evidence of ISI's involvement while Union Home Secretary V K Duggal spoke of fairly solid evidence.

On the Indo-Pak joint mechanism to fight terrorism, he Said, "it is a trial. We have to experiment... we have to talk as we are not going to war with Pakistan".

Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who will be the new External Affairs Minister, said India will share information with Pakistan regarding the Mumbai blasts and see the response from the other side.

"We will exchange information with Pakistan. After that we have to see how they react," he said.

No doubt with outrage and obfuscation.

Eid Mubarak and Death to the Grandsons of the Monkeys and Pigs from Ansar al-Sunnah! The Qur'an says in three places that Allah changed the Jews who broke the Sabbath into monkeys and pigs: 2:62-65, 5:59-60, and 7:166.

From the SITE Institute, with thanks to James:

Offering congratulations to the Islamic Ummah on the Eid al-Fitr, Ansar al-Sunnah issued a message, today, Monday, October 23, 2006, calling on Iraq’s Muslims to support the Mujahideen. The message asks “all capable Muslims in Iraq…who are able to give, men and women, young men and elderly, Islam needs you, needs all of you, to remove the obstacles from in front of the Tawhid doctrine and defend, worship, and uproot the bad things from the earth.”

Looking at the current events in Iraq, the author sees “a starting point for the Mujahideen toward their goals,” and an “awakening of jihad.” The author claims that jihad is the only way to liberate Iraq from occupying forces. Speaking to those who have not yet joined the jihad, the author asks, “When shall we hear the echo of your strikes, which should follow in the battlefield?”...

On behalf of the Mujahideen, the author asks Allah for revenge “for every Muslim whose blood was spilled by the hands of the grandsons of the monkeys and pigs and their helpers.” The message concludes with a prayer seeking revenge against the occupying forces: “We ask God for our brothers the Mujahideen, support the victory and make us able to hurt Allah’s enemies, for revenge for every Muslim whose blood was spilled by the hands of the grandsons of the monkeys and pigs and their helpers…O God, please grant victory to the worshippers and Mujahideen in Iraq, and everywhere in the Muslim lands.”

John Esposito's "Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding" flourishes, while Christian groups lose recognition. An update to this story. "Georgetown gets $20 million from prince promoting Islam: Just months later, university ejects evangelical Christians from campus," by Bob Unruh for WorldNetDaily.com, with thanks to Truth Seeker:

The Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University has been renamed after Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal donated $20 million to its projects. And while that may be just the tail, the dog appears to be moving away from its historic Catholic and Jesuit teaching philosophy too.

The Center's leaders say it now will be used to put on workshops regarding Islam, fostering exchanges with the Muslim world, addressing U.S. policy towards the Muslim world, working on the relationship of Islam and Arab culture, addressing Muslim citizenship and civil liberties, and developing exchange programs for students from the Muslim world.

The "Christian" part of the center's projects at the university that has a history of 200 years of higher education following its Christian founding, is conspicuous by its absence in its website plans for its 10-year future.

But that won't be a surprise to leaders of a number of Christian evangelical groups whose leaders recently were told to leave the campus and not list Georgetown University as a site for operations in the future.

That story, reported by WND earlier, still has folks wondering what happened to cause Georgetown officials to ban InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and others. InterVarsity spokesman Gordon Govier said the organization still doesn't know why the move was announced by university officials, who did not return WND messages left inquiring about the situation.

"We still are a little bit confused about what happened," he told WND. "We haven't been able to identify clearly what happened."

He said Christians in the InterVarsity organization still are meeting at Georgetown, but they have no official sanction and are meeting without recognition, much as many Christian churches in nations where religion is regulated meet.

He said there is a committee meeting that is supposed to hear concerns from Christians, and InterVarsity is hopeful there will be a positive outcome, but there's no time frame set.

But the time frame for other interests that have become relevant to Georgetown are a little more apparent. The school's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding confirmed several months ago that the $20 million donation was made by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, and a short time later the Center was given the added moniker as Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.

The organization now features a number of pro-Muslim statements and articles, with little reference to any Christian statements or understandings. It even has co-sponsored events with CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

CAIR is a spin-off of the Islamic Association for Palestine, identified by two former FBI counterterrorism chiefs as a "front group" for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Several CAIR leaders have been convicted on terrorism-related charges.

The center's chief, John L. Esposito, summarizes the goals of the organization clearly: "The Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding is concerned with Islam and the West and Islam in the West. The Center, since its creation in 1993, has built bridges of understanding between the Muslim world and the West, addressing stereotypes of Islam and Muslims and issues and questions such as the clash of civilizations, and the compatibility of Islam and modern life – from democratization and pluralism to the status of women, minorities and human rights – and American foreign policy in the Muslim world."

You know you're bad off when the Taliban complains that you're giving them a bad image. In any case, they probably find this embarrassing because Torsello is a Muslim. Gabriele Torsello Update: "Afghanistan: Taliban Ask Kidnappers to Release Italian Photojournalist," from AKI:

Lashkar Gah, 24 Oct. (AKI) - The Taliban have called on the kidnappers of the Italian photojournalist Gabriele Torsello to release him saying that it was not fair to avenge Italy by killing the innocent reporter, according to a report on the website of the Pajhwok Afghan News. Speaking from an undisclosed location via telephone on Tuesday, an alleged spokesperson for the Taliban, Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, told Pajhwok News that they had tried several times to contact the kidnappers but had not succeeded.

"Kidnappers of the Italian journalist are robbers and they have abducted the journalist for handful money," Ahmadi was quoted as saying in the Pahjwok News story. "We will drag the abductors to court if we find them."

Ahmadi told Pahjwok news that the Taliban had earlier guarded the Italian journalist during his two-day stay in Musa Qala and three-day stay in Sangin districts. The Taliabn spokesperson said Torsello's kidnappers wanted to "defame" the Taliban with such an act.

Torsello, a Christian who converted to Islam, was kidnapped between October 12 and 14 while he was travelling from Lashkar Gah, the capital of the volatile Helmand province to neighbouring Kandahar - the two parts of the country where fighting between insurgents and NATO forces is fiercest.

Italy's defence minister Arturo Parisi has categorically rejected the demands by the kidnappers of the Italian photojournalist to withdraw troops from Afghanistan in order to secure his release.

After initially offering to hand over Torsello in exchange for the return of a Christian convert, Abdul Rahman, who has been granted asylum in Italy, last week the captors - who claim to be Taliban militia but whose identity has not been determined - said if that were not agreed to they would insist on a complete pullout of Italy's 1,800 troops in Afghanistan.

The kidnappers had warned they would kill the journalist by Monday midnight if the Afghan Christian convert Abdul Rahman was not handed over to an Islamic court for trial and Italian soldiers left Afghanistan.

Unbelievable, but not surprising. From FrontPage's interview today with Abby Nye, a 2006 graduate from Butler University in Indianapolis:

Nye: I've had professors say Jesus was a homosexual, the god of Islam is the same god of Christianity, and sneer at the Bible calling it a book of myth - "that book with the talking snake and magic fruit." These statements were made in core content classes required by all students.

[...]

Nye: In terms of the professors who engage in this behavior are, first and foremost, chicken. They know that Christians are a safe target. By and large, we take that "love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you (Matt 5:44)" seriously. On the other hand, they know Muslims offer a quite different response.

In terms of the hypocrisy, it doesn't make sense to me. They don't even try to hide it. For example, all students at Butler were required to take a course on Islam. We were required to purchase the Koran and handle it with respect. If we were carrying a stack of books the Koran had to be on top. One day, my professor even had us act out the five pillars of Islam in class. If you ask me, that's going too far. It'd be equivalent to having a required course on the Bible (which, like you said, would never happen) and partaking in communion or baptism during class. I doubt there were any Muslims in my class, but if there were I can't help but think they would have been offended.

Given the general state of all too many adherents of the Religion of Perpetual Outrage, they probably would indeed have been offended, despite the manifest tribute being paid to Islam.

At FrontPage this morning I discuss the demand from Afghan jihadists that apostate Abdul Rahman be returned (news links in the original):

An Afghan citizen named Abdul Rahman, you may recall, made international news last spring, when his conversion from Islam to Christianity led to his arrest, with the intention of putting him on trial for apostasy. At that time he was spirited away to safety in Italy. Now jihadists in Afghanistan are demanding his return to Afghanistan in exchange for a kidnapped Italian journalist, Gabriele Torsello. “We want this issue resolved before the end of Ramadan,” his captors demanded, but no resolution seemed imminent as the holy month drew to a close.

It is safe to say that if Italian authorities agreed to turn over Abdul Rahman to the kidnappers, the convert would almost certainly be killed for his crime of apostasy from Islam. Yet at the time of Abdul Rahman’s arrest, puzzled Western analysts pointed to what they thought were guarantees of freedom of religion and of conscience in the new Afghan Constitution: after all, didn’t the document pledge “respect” for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? Didn’t it say, “followers of other religions” were “free to exercise their faith and perform their religious rites within the limits of the provisions of law”?

Another slavery case in the U.S. From Reuters, with thanks to James:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Two Egyptian nationals who pleaded guilty to enslaving a 10-year-old Egyptian girl at their Southern California home, making her work long hours serving their family of seven, were sentenced on Monday to prison terms.

Abdel Nasser Youssef Ibrahim, 57, was sentenced to three years in federal prison and his former wife, Amal Ahmed Ewisabd Motelib, 43, was given 22 months behind bars by a federal judge. Prosecutors said the pair will be deported after serving their sentences.

U.S. District Judge James Selna also ordered the defendants to pay their victim more than $76,000 in restitution, which represents the money the girl should have been paid during the two years she worked for their family.

"The young victim in this case was subject to inhumane conditions that included both physical and verbal abuse," U.S. Attorney Debra Yang said in a written statement.

I am in Norfolk, Virginia, today, where I led a half-day workshop on the sources of the jihad ideology for the Tidewater Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Eid Mubarak from Al-Qaeda! "Islamist Holiday Video Calls for Jihad and Slaughter of 'Crusaders,'" from MEMRI:

This ten-minute video (http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ai=214&ar=M4-006&ak=null ), titled "Rise Up," was posted on Islamist websites on October 22, 2006, and was described as "a gift for 'Eid Al-Fitr." Produced by an individual identified as "Abu Osama" (whose real identity is unknown), it calls on the Muslims to wage jihad against the "Crusaders." A caption in the film explains that Abu Osama produced the film on the occasion of the establishment of the Islamic State of Iraq.

The film begins with footage of horsemen under the caption: "O ye who believe! What is the matter with you, that, when ye are asked to go forth in the cause of Allah, ye cling heavily to the earth? Do ye prefer the life of this world to the Hereafter? But little is the comfort of this life, as compared with the Hereafter" (Koran 9:38).

Next, several Al-Qaeda leaders and commanders, including bin Laden, Al-Zawahiri, Al-Zarqawi and a number of unidentified young men (who may be field commanders or intended suicide bombers) call upon the Muslims to join the jihad. The following are excerpts:

Al-Zawahiri says: "I urge you, in [the name of] the duty of jihad, which is incumbent upon every Muslim, to hurry and pursue martyrdom in order to kill the Crusaders and the Zionists." An armed individual calls: "[Oh] defenders of the faith, hurry and prepare [for jihad], this is no time for [internal] disagreement." Another individual, sitting under a banner that reads, "Expel the polytheists from the Arabian Peninsula," asks: "Are there no men in this nation?" and a masked individual declares: "Jihad is ancient, and the fate of [all] infidel leaders is one and the same: to be slaughtered."

The video then shows a scene in which a man is beheaded. This is followed by another beheading, even more grisly, in which the severed head is waved in the air.

"The reaction from Muslims is to recede further and further into a sense of victimhood." And that's the problem. If European Muslims would take some responsibility for what their coreligionists have done in the name of Islam, and show some sincerity in working against jihad terrorism, they would find themselves not quite so put-upon. By Tom Heneghan for Reuters, with thanks to Looney Tunes:

PARIS (Reuters) - Britain's heated debate about Islamic veils reflects a growing frustration with Muslims in Europe that risks further isolating these minorities rather than integrating them, leading European Muslim activists say.

The new tone in Britain, which Muslims on the continent long saw as a model of tolerance where criticising minorities was politically incorrect, marks a watershed in the way Europeans talk about Islam, they told Reuters.

Islamist radicalism, ethnic segregation and clashes of values must be discussed openly, they agreed, but the increasingly polarised debate squeezes out moderates on both sides.

Former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw sparked off the British debate this month by saying the full facial veils some Muslim women wear hindered integration. Some Muslim leaders called his remarks offensive and accused him of whipping up Islamophobia.

"Intolerance is growing in Europe," said Dalil Boubakeur, president of France's Muslim Council, who saw the new mood as a response to security fears and the radicalisation of a small minority of Muslims who do not accept European values.

"There is a sense we are living in a different time," said Dilwar Hussain, head of policy research at the Islamic Foundation in Britain.

"With all the security concerns, people feel they can be more frank," Hussain said. "The reaction from Muslims is to recede further and further into a sense of victimhood."

In revenge for the invasion of Afghanistan. But 9/11, of course, preceded that invasion, and provoked it. So 9/11 was in revenge for something else. And if the West keeps daring to resist the mujahedin, they will find more pretexts for revenge. The only way we could take away their thirst for revenge would be to stop resisting them in any way.

From AFP, with thanks to DFS:

LONDON : Afghan militants are planning to launch deadly attacks on civilians in Europe in revenge for the 2001 invasion by US-led forces, a Taliban commander said on Sky News television on Monday.

Mullah Mohammed Amin said resurgent militants had built up stockpiles of weapons and were bent on vengeance against "the foreign invaders".

The Taliban, overthrown by the invasion, now wanted to export terror to the West, he said.

"It's acceptable to kill ordinary people in Europe because these are the people who have voted in the government," he said.

"They came to our home and attacked our women and children," he added. "The ordinary people of these countries are behind this - so we will not spare them. We will kill them and laugh over them like they are killing us and laughing at us."

Amin said the Taliban was inspired by tactics used by insurgents in Iraq, namely remote-controlled bombs, land mines and suicide bombers.

"They are our best tactic," he said.

"We weren't isolated growing up. We were part of the culture," says Hala Kotb. "Religion was important, but not so much that you'd have to cover your head or if you don't pray five times a day, that's it - nothing like that. There were a lot more progressive attitudes." That is a big contrast to the Islamic enclaves in Europe.

This is a major admission -- that more Islam leads to more Islamic violence. And the relatively high levels of assimilation here are indeed encouraging, but "for now" may be the most important words in this report, since assimilation (cf. Maher Hawash) will not ultimately be enough to counteract the effect of the jihadist appeal to the Qur'an and Sunnah when seeking recruits.

"Radical Islam finds US 'sterile ground': Home-grown terror cells are largely missing in action, a contrast to Europe's situation," by Alexandra Marks in The Christian Science Monitor, with thanks to Mackie:

NEW YORK – The Islamist radicalism that inspired young Muslims to attack their own countries - in London, Madrid, and Bali - has not yielded similar incidents in the United States, at least so far.

"Home-grown" terror cells remain a concern of US law officers, who cite several disrupted plots since 9/11. But the suspects' unsophisticated planning and tiny numbers have led some security analysts to conclude that America, for all its imperfections, is not fertile ground for producing jihadist terrorists.

To understand why, experts point to people like Omar Jaber, an AmeriCorps volunteer; Tarek Radwan, a human rights advocate; and Hala Kotb, a consultant on Middle East affairs. They are the face of young Muslim-Americans today - educated, motivated, and integrated into society - and their voices help explain how the nation's history of inclusion has helped to defuse sparks of Islamist extremism.

"American society is more into the whole assimilation aspect of it," says New York-born Mr. Jaber. "In America, it's a lot easier to practice our religion without complications."...

Jaber, the AmeriCorps volunteer, who is studying to become a medical doctor, says he has not experienced anti-Muslim bias. In part, he says, that may be because he doesn't have an accent or look particularly Middle Eastern - his father is Palestinian and his mother Filipino. But he also credits America's melting-pot mentality, as does Ms. Kotb, the Middle East consultant.

"We weren't isolated growing up. We were part of the culture," says Kotb, who grew up outside Washington in a family that inculcated a success ethic. "Religion was important, but not so much that you'd have to cover your head or if you don't pray five times a day, that's it - nothing like that. There were a lot more progressive attitudes" within her local Muslim community.

In mosques in America, it's fairly common for imams to preach assimilation, says Mr. Zogby. That's not as true in Europe, particularly in poorer neighborhoods where sermons can be laced with extremism.

"The success of ... Saudi-inspired religious zealotry in Europe was in large part because the Saudis put up the money to build mosques and pay for imams," says Ian Cuthbertson, a counterterrorism expert at the World Policy Institute at the New School for Social Research. "The American Muslim community was rich enough not to require Saudi money to build its mosques."

In Europe, it's estimated that millions of second- and third-generation Muslims have not been well assimilated in their adopted countries, so have little or no fealty to either the European country they live in or the one their parents were born in. "They are much more susceptible to the Internet, returning jihadist fighters, and extremist imams," says Thomas Sanderson of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "There's no doubt that Europe has an incubator environment and we have a somewhat sterile environment for radicalism."...

Identifying and tracking home-grown terrorists is a complicated task - one that risks alienating or even infuriating the general Muslim-American citizenry if tactics are seen as unfair....

US foreign policies "in the long term are going to hurt the US," says Mr. Radwan, the human rights activist, who works in Washington. "They, along with the crackdown on Muslim-Americans [by law enforcement], feed a feeling of resentment and the perception that the US acts on the basis of a double standard."

Indeed, America's Muslim community would wage the war on terror differently. According to the 2004 Zogby survey, three-quarters say the best way is for the US to change its foreign policy in the Middle East by recognizing a Palestinian state and being less supportive of Israel....

Give us what we want peacefully, and we won't resort to violence. But of course abandoning Israel would do nothing to end the jihad in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Chechnya, Nigeria, etc. More concessions would have to follow, until there would be nothing more to concede.

That experience leads him to suggest another reason the US hasn't seen European-style homegrown terror cells: the intense scrutiny the FBI has focused on Muslim-Americans. "That is good in the short term, but bad in the long term," he says. "The Bush administration policies feed resentment that ... will stay in the Arab- American psyche for a long time."

In other words, fighting jihad terrorism just leads to more jihad terrorism -- they're in effect saying, Lie down and die, please, Mr. Bush.

It could have been Osama bin Laden himself, for all authorities knew or cared. Keystone Kops Alert from Eurabia, via the Copenhagen Post, with thanks to Fjordman:

A reporter from daily newspaper B.T. dressed in a burka was able to pass through at Copenhagen's Kastrup Airport without being asked to reveal her face to security personnel.

Burkas are an item of Muslim clothing worn by women and exposing only the hands and eyes of their wearers. B.T.'s female reporter was required only to pull down the outfit's veil past her nose when passing through the security checkpoint.

The reporter flew from Copenhagen to London Stansted airport, where she was required to fully reveal her face to security personnel there - both on the incoming and return flights.

Police acknowledged that the woman should have been checked more thoroughly, but said the incident will not lead to any procedural changes for airport security.

Sure. Why should it? How would procedural changes for airport security address the root causes -- American and Zionist imperialism -- anyway?

(Note for the incurably literal-minded: that last paragraph was sarcastic.)

Part II of the Shire Network News podcast interview with me about The Truth About Muhammad is now available here. And part I is here.

The media blackout on this book, despite its status as a New York Times Bestseller, is near-total. But after all, that is what the Internet is for.

Meanwhile, near-total is not absolutely total. Later on today I'll be taping an appearance on CNN Headline News with Glenn Beck. I believe it will air tonight.

UPDATE: The Beck show will air first at 7pm and then repeat at 9 and midnight, all ET, all on Headline News. That means it’s on at 4, 6 and 9pm Pacific Time. I am scheduled to be the lead interview for the night.

Ethiopia plays a special role, as a Christian kingdom, in both the history of Islam and the history of Christianity. Because of an event that supposedly took place during Muhammad's lifetime, when many dozens of his followers found refuge from enemies in Ethiopia, a refuge freely offered by the Negus, Ethiopia was given a special status in Islam, and for many centuries was supposedly therefore not the object of Muslim attack.

Whether or not that was observed or honored in the breached is unclear. Certainly Arab slavers worked to the north in what is now the Sudan, to the west in the Congo (Tippoo Tib was not the only Muslim slavers about whom Stanley and Livingston presumed) and to the south. Pemba and Zanzibar were under the control of the Sultan of Muscat and Oman for centuries, and were used as a holding pen for black slaves then later brought by dhow to the Arab and Ottoman slave markets. And certainly Arab Muslims conducted Da'wa -- through violence as well as missionary work -- on the Horn of Africa (see Somalia, see Eritrea).

In "Islam's Useful Idiots," in The American Thinker, Alyssa A. Lappen discusses the barring of Kamal Helbawy from the US, and the reaction to it (many news links in the original):

The international press cried foul on October 19 after the U.S. denied a visa to a senior Muslim Brotherhood leader. Newsweek, Reuters, ABC News, The National Interest and other media complained that the “moderate” Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) founder Kamal Helbawy was barred from appearing at New York University’s Center for Law and Security. The U.S. also barred entry to Egyptian doctor and MB “guidance counsel” Abd El Monem Abo El Fotouh, who was scheduled to speak in the same discussion on the Muslim Brotherhood.

Helbawy claims to be “moderate.” The U.S. should not prevent “moderates from talking and discussing,” Helbawy stated after being pulled off his flight. El Fotouh is purportedly also temperate.

“At the end of the day, [Islam and the West] have a set of common humanist values: justice, freedom, human rights and democracy,”

he told The Economist in September 2003. Arabists consider El Fotouh “one of the brightest stars” of the MB’s so-called “middle generation.”

The Department of Homeland Security didn’t explain their actions. One can only surmise—and applaud. Consider:

• In 2005, Prime Minister Tony Blair denounced suicide bombings everywhere-even in Israel. “Well he is wrong,” Helbawy replied. “He is not a Mufti,” he told the Jamestown Foundation. In the same interview, Helbawy blamed “[T]he events in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine” as “a factor” behind the July 7, 2005 London bombings-along with U.K. participation in Iraq and its “policy toward the issue of Palestine.”

• “[T]he United States … invaded Iraq to divide Muslims,” El Fotouh told the New York Times on August 3, 2006. It was “better to support a Hezbollah-Iranian agenda than an ‘American-Zionist’ one,” he added.

• Islam’s war against Israel is not “a conflict of borders and land only. It is not even a conflict over human ideology and not over peace,” Helbawy told a December 1992 Muslim Arab Youth Association gathering, taped by terror expert Steve Emerson. “[I]t is an absolute clash of civilizations, between truth and falsehood. Between two conducts-one satanic, headed by Jews and their co-conspirators-and the other is religious, carried by Hamas, and the Islamic movement in particular and the Islamic people….” Muslims should never befriend “Jews and Christians,” who are only “allies to each other,” he warned.

• Islamic scholars had performed their “basic religious duty” in calling on Muslims to join jihad against the U.S., El Fotouh stated in March 2003. Al Azhar had rightly urged them to “defend themselves and their faith” against an “enemy” stepping “on Muslims’ land”—which the scholars called “a new Crusader battle targeting our land, honour, faith and nation.” Al Azhar’s decree, El Fotouh stated, was “no more than an attempt on the part of its scholars to fulfill their duty before God.” The U.S. had “plans to enslave the Arab nation,” he also claimed.

Read it all.

In the Twelver Shi'ism that is the official religion of Iran (and is also held by Hizballah's Nasrallah), the Imam Mahdi, the Imam-i Zaman, the Twelfth Imam, will emerge from his thousand-year occultation at a time of immense crisis and persecution for the Muslims, and will make war against the enemies of Islam, and Islamize the world.

And now: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hassan Nasrallah have established contact with him! His return is imminent!

This comes courtesy Timothy Furnish's excellent new Mahdi Watch: "Nancy Pelosi's Not the Only One Picking Out an Office..."

More on the jihad in France from Jamey Keaten for Associated Press (thanks to Drew):

EPINAY-SUR-SEINE, France - On a routine call, three unwitting police officers fell into a trap. A car darted out to block their path, and dozens of hooded youths surged out of the darkness to attack them with stones, bats and tear gas before fleeing. One officer was hospitalized, and no arrests made.

The recent ambush was emblematic of what some officers say has become a near-perpetual and increasingly violent conflict between police and gangs in tough, largely immigrant French neighborhoods that were the scene of a three-week paroxysm of rioting last year.

One small police union claims officers are facing a "permanent intifada." Police injuries have risen in the year since the wave of violence.

National police reported 2,458 cases of violence against officers in the first six months of the year, on pace to top the 4,246 cases recorded for all of 2005 and the 3,842 in 2004. Firefighters and rescue workers have also been targeted — and some now receive police escorts in such areas.

On Sunday, a band of about 30 youths, some wearing masks, forced passengers out of a bus in a southern Paris suburb in broad daylight Sunday, set it on fire, then stoned firefighters who came to the rescue, police said. No one was injured. Two people were arrested, one of them a 13-year-old, according to LCI television....

Michel Thooris, head of the small Action Police union, claims that the new violence is taking on an Islamic fundamentalist tinge.

Taking on an Islamic fundamentalist tinge? When did it not have this? They were shouting "Allahu akbar" last year.

"Many youths, many arsonists, many vandals behind the violence do it to cries of 'Allah Akbar' (God is Great) when our police cars are stoned," he said in an interview.

Larger, more mainstream police unions sharply disagree that the suburban unrest has any religious basis. However, they do say that some youth gangs no longer seem content to throw stones or torch cars and instead appear determined to hurt police officers — or worse.

"First, it was a rock here or there. Then it was rocks by the dozen. Now, they're leading operations of an almost military sort to trap us," said Loic Lecouplier, a police union official in the Seine-Saint-Denis region north of Paris. "These are acts of war."

Sadio Sylla, an unemployed mother of three, watched the Oct. 13 ambush of the police patrol in Epinay-sur-Seine from her second-floor window. She, other witnesses and police union officials said up to 50 masked youths surged out from behind trees.

One of the three officers needed 30 stitches to his face after being struck by a rock.

The attack was one of at least four gang beatings of police in Parisian suburbs since Sept. 19. Early Friday, a dozen hooded people hurled stones, iron bars and bottles filled with gasoline at two police vehicles in Aulnay-sous-Bois, a flashpoint of last year's riots, said Guillaume Godet, a city hall spokesman. One officer required three stitches to his head.

Minority youths have long complained that police are more heavy-handed in their dealings with them than with whites, demanding their papers and frisking them for no apparent reason.

Such perceived ill-treatment fuels feelings of injustice, as do the difficulties that many youths from immigrant families have finding work.

Distrust and tension thrive. Rumors have flown around some housing projects that police are hoping to use the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends this week, to round up known troublemakers, on the basis that fasting all day will have made the youths weaker and easier to catch.

Police say that suggestion is ludicrous. However, they are on guard ahead of the first anniversary this week of last year's riots. That violence began after two youths who thought police were chasing them hid in a power substation and were electrocuted to death.

Police unions suspect that the recent attacks may be an attempt to spark new riots.

"We are getting the impression these youths want a 'remake' of what happened last year," said Fred Lagache, national secretary of the Alliance police union. "The youths are trying to cause a police error to justify chaos."

Of course they are.

More short-sighted accommodation in the name of tolerance and good will. An update to this story. "Catholic publishing house under fire for new Islamic text deal," from CNA, with thanks to DFS:

Madrid, Oct. 20, 2006 (CNA) - The Spanish daily La Razon is denouncing a Catholic publishing company that has agreed to publish text books for Islamic religion classes that will be offered in public schools in Spain. The Santa Maria Foundation, which is operated by the Marianist religious order, has assumed the project of publishing Islamic text books through its publishing group “SM,” with the support of the Union of Islamic Communities of Spain (UCIDE – Spanish abbreviation). The first textbook, which has been released to reporters, is called, “Discovering Islam.”

SM, says the purpose of their decision to publish Muslim texts “is to foster intercultural encounter and religious dialogue, with the integration of Islamic values in the socio-cultural context of Spain,” La Razon, however, argues the deal is really about getting Muslim business....

According to reporter Alex Navajas of La Razon, “In countries like Saudi Arabia or the Sudan, if you are caught with a Bible, you are sentenced to death…Surely the Islamists in Spain are not as fanatical as the Saudis or the Sudanese. But that’s not what this is about. The problem is that SM, whose ‘identity is inspired by Christian values’,” has fallen prey to “the most severe form of relativism and syncretism.”

“That is, there is no difference between promoting the Christian faith or the Islamic faith because, in the end, all religious are equal since all of them lead to God. So, let them publish the Book of Mormon, which is just nonsense, or come to an agreement with the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who own one of the most powerful publishing companies in the world,” Navajas said.

Navajas is right.

The always insightful Fjordman's latest essay:

As a non-religious person, but still one that acknowledges and respects the impact of Judeo-Christian thinking on Western culture, I have warned against naïve Christian compassion related to Muslim immigration, as well as a disturbing tendency among too many Christian organizations to ally themselves with Muslims, for "religious values" and against Israel. But frankly, the most useful allies Muslims have in the West more often than not tend to be found among the non-religious crowd.

A number of executives and star presenters at the British Broadcasting Corporation admitted what critics already knew: The BBC is dominated by Left-leaning liberals who are anti-American and biased against Christianity, but sensitive to the feelings of Muslims. Former BBC business editor Jeff Randall said he complained to a very senior news executive about the BBC's pro-Multicultural stance, but was given the reply: "The BBC is not neutral in Multiculturalism: it believes in it and it promotes it."

The anti-Christian element seems to be a trait shared by Multiculturalists in all Western countries. Thomas Hylland Eriksen is a professor of social anthropology at the University of Oslo. He has written many books and is a frequent contributor of newspaper essays. He is also leading a major project for studying the Multicultural society in Norway.

Hylland Eriksen has proclaimed the death of nations as if he took pleasure in it, and has stated that the Nidaros Cathedral (Nidarosdomen), the most significant church in the country, should no longer serve as a national symbol in our Multicultural society. Mr. Eriksen has recently clashed with two brothers named Anfindsen, who run the bilingual website HonestThinking.org.

According to Hylland Eriksen, "Cosmopolites insist on a world comprising of more colors than black and white. In such a world, the problems presented by Ole-Jørgen Anfindsen are not just petty, but irrelevant."

What are the problems presented by Mr. Anfindsen? Well, he has published numbers indicating that if the current immigration continues, native Norwegians will be a minority in their own country within a couple of generations. And a large proportion of the new population will be Muslims.

Given the fact that ethnic groups who become minorities in their own lands usually have a hard time, and virtually always get persecuted
when the newcomers are Muslims, one would assume that this would be interesting information. But for self-proclaimed "Multicultural cosmopolites" such as Thomas Hylland Eriksen, it is "petty and irrelevant" to even consider that this could represent a problem.

Eriksen calls Anfindsen "stupid and ignorant," and hints that "Maybe Anfindsen's agenda is inspired by a kind of perverted Christianity (he has a Christian background)."

"He has a Christian background." Is that supposed to be an insult, and disqualify a person from worrying about whether his grandchildren will be persecuted? In a newspaper essay co-authored by Eriksen, he states that: "Is he [Anfindsen] asking us to once again repeat the obvious in that the murder of Theo van Gogh, various acts of terrorism and death threats against newspaper editors have nothing to do with Islam?"

Nothing to do with Islam? Really?

Mohammed Bouyeri, born in Amsterdam of Moroccan parents, killed Theo van Gogh as he was cycling in Amsterdam on Nov. 2, 2004, shooting and stabbing before slashing his throat and pinning a note to his body with a knife. "I did what I did purely out my beliefs," he told judges while clutching a Koran. "I want you to know that I acted out of conviction and not that I took his life because he was Dutch or because I was Moroccan," but because he believed van Gogh insulted Islam in his film criticizing the treatment of Muslim women.

The Chicago Tribune notices the signs that a full-scale Inner Spiritual Struggle is breaking out in East Africa, as we have been telling you here for quite some time. "Fears of jihad in Horn of Africa: Somali Islamists put neighboring nations on edge," by Laurie Goering in the Tribune:

JOHANNESBURG -- Four months after Islamists seized the Somali capital of Mogadishu, promising a return to order and peace in war-ravaged Somalia, the Horn of Africa country and its neighbors sit at the brink of a new and potentially deadly conflict.

Somali Islamists, furious that Ethiopian troops have crossed the border to support Somalia's Western-backed secular government, have called for jihad against Ethiopia, raising fears that Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, could suffer bombings or other guerrilla attacks.

Ethiopia, the region's military powerhouse, accuses Islamist leaders of terrorist ties and remains determined to deny the movement control of Somalia. It helped Somalia's weak government push the movement out of the southern town of Bur Haqaba, handing the Islamists their first military setback.

With Islamist troops just 60 miles from the government's base in Baidoa, about a thousand Somali refugees a day are streaming over the border into Kenya, fearing new conflict, according to the United Nations.

`Low-intensity war' possible

What's ahead for Somalia is probably "chronic low-intensity war," said Ken Menkhaus, a Somalia expert at Davidson College in North Carolina. That makes any promises by the Islamists to effectively rebuild the shattered nation hard to fulfill, he said....

Surprise, surprise -- an unusual comment from a Christian leader, and an entirely predictable response. "O'Brien urges Muslims to say sorry for 9/11," by Eddie Barnes in The Scotsman, with thanks to all who sent this in:

THE leader of Scotland's Roman Catholics, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, has called for Muslims to apologise for the 9/11 and 7/7 bomb attacks, declaring that the public should not have to live "in fear of attack" from believers of the Islamic faith.

In a move that has provoked a storm of outrage, the cardinal claims that, as the Pope apologised for the offence caused last month by his comments on the Islamic faith, so Muslims should now step up and say sorry for the attacks carried out in the name of their faith.

O'Brien said: "There have been no apologies for the shooting of the nun [in Somalia after the Pope made his remarks], let alone for 9/11 or the London bombings. I would like to see some reciprocal moves from the Islamic side. We shouldn't have to live in fear of attack from Muslims."...

Last night, the cardinal's views on Islam had stirred up a new controversy, with Muslim leaders furious at the comment. They claimed that as the terrorist attacks were carried out by extremists, mainstream Muslims who had already condemned the actions had nothing to apologise for.

Sure they do, until they expel the "extremists" from their ranks and adopt comprehensive programs to combat "extremist" theology.

The site they're sponsoring is called Radical Middle Way. They're doing to counter the growing jihadist influence among British Muslims, which, as we have pointed out here many times, proceeds by presenting itself as "pure Islam" -- an appeal to which moderates have yet to formulate an effective counter.

One immediate note of caution: the Radical Middle Way features audio of a talk by Hamza Yusuf. That's right, the same Hamza Yusuf who invoked the Treaty of Hudaybiyya that Muhammad opportunistically signed and just as opportunistically broke -- and told his audience: "There are times when you have to live like a sheep in order to live in the future like a lion." Mr. Yusuf, are there times when you have to advocate a Radical Middle Way, only to reveal your leonine nature later?

And another note of caution: Jamal Badawi, who almost made me rich once, is on their list of scholars.

"Al-Qa'eda is winning the war of ideas, says Reid," by Patrick Hennessy and Melissa Kite in the Telegraph:

John Reid has issued a dire warning that the Government risks losing the "battle of ideas" with al-Qa'eda.

The Home Secretary spoke out at an emergency meeting of ministers and security officials amid an ever-growing threat from home-grown Islamist terror groups.

He called for an urgent but controversial escalation in the propaganda war and said al-Qa'eda's so-called "single extremist narrative" was proving ever more attractive to young British Muslims.

The Government needed to do much more to win the "battle of ideas", Mr Reid said. The meeting came as ministers — including Jack Straw, Ruth Kelly and Phil Woolas — started to take a much more aggressive stance against radical Islam.

Ministers have told The Sunday Telegraph that 30 terror plots are being investigated and that 1,500 young Muslims — many more than previously estimated — are suspects.

A key government weapon in the struggle to win hearts and minds is the decision to fund covertly an Islamic website appealing for moderation. A classic of New Labour terminology, it is called the Radical Middle Way. Government documents disclose that the site is "run as a grassroots initiative by Muslim organisations". However, it has "most of its financial backing from the Foreign Office and Home Office". The site uses video and podcasts to spread an "alternative message" to young Muslims. Some content is available through the iTunes website with no indication that it is effectively an arm of Government.

Around 100,000 CDs promoting moderation have also been funded and distributed free to Muslim students as an "antidote", apparently, to the jihadist CDs circulated at universities and colleges.

It's not "unthinkable" in Khalid Adem's culture, and since it is justified by some Islamic religious authorities, you should expect to see more stories like this in the U.S. in the future. "Dad stands trial over daughter's mutilation," by Lateef Mungin in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, with thanks to Glenn:

A father stands accused of the unthinkable: brutally cutting his daughter's genitals.

The girl was only 2.

Monday, activists from all over the world will be focused on a Gwinnett County courtroom as Khalid Adem, accused of cruelty to a child and aggravated battery for allegedly circumcising his daughter, goes on trial.

Adem, 30, was charged with aggravated battery and cruelty to children more than three years ago and, if convicted, could face 40 years in prison. He was born in Ethiopia, where circumcision is a common procedure for young girls.

Adem's trial may be a landmark case for health and human rights activists fighting against the African custom they call genital mutilation. But for those close to the victim, this trial is about vindication and healing for a little girl who was forced to endure unbearable pain.

"When I saw that child I saw myself. I could see the pain in her eyes," said Soraya Mire, a filmmaker and activist who was circumcised when she was 13 in Somalia. Mire is known for her 1994 documentary "Fire Eyes" in which she chronicled her struggles after having the procedure.

Mire, who now lives in Los Angeles, was asked by Gwinnett authorities to counsel the victim in 2003 when it was discovered that she had been circumcised.

"She hugged me, and I just burst into tears," Mire said. "Since that day, I've been obsessed with finding out who did this to that child."

Police say Adem circumcised his daughter with scissors in his Duluth apartment, while someone else held the girl's legs.

Authorities said the circumcision occurred sometime in 2001 but the mother didn't discover it until two years later. The mother told police she learned about it while arguing with Adem about female circumcision. The mother told police that she told Adem she didn't want that to happen to their daughter, but Adem implied the circumcision had already occurred.

The mother went to a doctor who confirmed that the girl had been circumcised. The girl then told Gwinnett authorities that her father had done it. He was arrested in March 2003.

Stop criticizing that... thing we're not supposed to talk about, lest our words be used to justify violence that political correctness will demand we blame ourselves for. "British watchdog warns on veil debate," by Beth Gardiner from AP:

LONDON - The heated debate over veils that cover the faces of some British Muslim women is growing ugly and could trigger riots, the head of Britain's race relations watchdog warned on Sunday.

Britons are becoming increasingly polarized along racial and religious lines, and if they don't talk respectfully about their differences, tensions could fuel unrest, Commission for Racial Equality chairman Trevor Phillips wrote in The Sunday Times newspaper.

In an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. television, he said he didn't want Britain to suffer the kind of violence that exploded in the deprived suburbs of Paris a year ago, when disaffected young people, many from immigrant backgrounds, rioted for three weeks.

He warned there could also be a repeat of the rioting in several northern English towns in 2001 caused by racial tensions between white and mainly Muslim south Asian youths.

"Only this time the conflict would be much worse," Phillips wrote in the Times.

Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said some violent attacks already have occurred against Muslims in the country. He said some women's veils have been forcibly pulled off, mosques set on fire and Muslims beaten by gangs of men.

Any such incidents are reprehensible and are as incompatible with Western civil society as the niqab itself. But they should not be used as blackmail to end this debate, or tar all who object to veiling and other trappings of Sharia with the same brush.

[...]

The issue touches on growing anxieties about Britain's diversity and the alienation of young British Muslims like those who carried out suicide bombings on London's transit system last year, killing themselves and 52 commuters.

Last week, Prime Minister Tony Blair said the country needed to talk about how minority communities could better integrate into the wider society while maintaining their cultural distinctiveness. He called the veil "a mark of separation."

Phillips said he thought Straw's remarks had been polite and respectful, but he worried the debate had since grown ugly and rancorous. The commission he leads was created by law in 1976 to fight discrimination and encourage good race relations.

In the interview with BBC, he said "what should have been a proper conversation between all kinds of British people seems to have turned into a trial of one particular community, and that cannot be right."

Just all of the communities that practice full veiling, Mr. Phillips.

Another "Inner Spiritual Struggle"-related explosion, this time targeting Buddhist monks seeking alms, and the soldiers guarding them. Thai Jihad Update Reuters:

NARATHIWAT, Thailand (Reuters) - A remote-controlled bomb killed a soldier and wounded 11 people in Thailand's Muslim south on Sunday, police said, the latest attack in a separatist insurgency which has killed more than 1,700 since early 2004.

Militants used a mobile phone to detonate a 5-kg (11-lb) bomb hidden in a rubbish bin in the city of Narathiwat as soldiers accompanied five Buddhist monks to protect them as they sought alms, police said.

One soldier died on his way to hospital, while other soldiers, monks and four passers-by were wounded, police said.

The insurgency in the three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat -- an Islamic sultanate until Bangkok annexed the region a century ago -- has shown no sign of abating since a September 19 coup led by a Muslim general overthrew hawkish prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Nevertheless, Surayud Chulanont, the former army chief appointed prime minister by the military, has said he wants a peaceful solution to the violence and offered talks with militant leaders, a policy u-turn from the days of Thaksin.

During an official visit to Jakarta on Saturday, Surayud hailed Indonesia's Aceh peace accord signed in Helsinki last year to end a separatist insurgency which had seen more than 15,000 killed since 1979.

"Indonesia has set a model in solving the conflict in the Aceh province successfully," a Thai government Web site, www.thaigov.go.th, quoted Surayud as telling Indonesian media after meeting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

"The Aceh model is a good example to bring peace to southern Thailand," the Web site reported on Sunday.

And what a fine place that is.

I sounded a warning about Bridges TV in December 2004. It looks as if there was every reason to do so. "One religious figure who appeared October 3 said Muslims have a duty to change America and to increase their numbers to 50% of the population from 2%. He recommended that Shariah, or Islamic law, be implemented in American courts."

The MEMRI Report by Steven Stalinsky, via the New York Sun, with thanks to A Girl Scout:

Bridges TV, an American-Islamic TV channel "seeking to improve the image of Muslims in the United States" and to "offer a unique perspective on the Middle East and the war on terrorism," has extended its availability into six states, creating a potential audience of nearly 2 million.

The network's programming includes a mix of entertainment, sports, news, documentaries, and advertisements from companies like Ford, with an emphasis on religious programs.

The channel says it has been endorsed by "top American [Islamic] scholars and community leaders," whose representatives appear on many of its programs, including one called "Prominent Scholars."

Some speakers openly criticize Islamic extremists. An imam from Los Angeles, Sheik Tajuddin Bin Shuaib, appeared on the channel on October 8 and denounced Osama bin Laden and the September 11, 2001, hijackers.

Some guests, however, are extremists. One religious figure who appeared October 3 said Muslims have a duty to change America and to increase their numbers to 50% of the population from 2%. He recommended that Shariah, or Islamic law, be implemented in American courts.

During a roundtable discussion on the Arab-Israeli conflict on October 5, one participant offered a solution: "For the Jews to leave and return to Europe."

Bridges TV aired a speech by the influential Muslim scholar Jamal Badawi on October 4. Mr. Badawi, who teaches Islam throughout North America, gave an interview to the Saudi Gazette on June 24, 2005, in which he raised questions about who was behind the September 11 attacks and suggested that Americans could be behind the car bombings of Iraqi markets.

Every night, Bridges TV shows a news program, "Talking Points." Its guest on October 4 was Imam Mohammad Alo Elahi, whom it described as a leading "interfaith figure." According to his Web site, Imam Elahi was a spiritual leader in Ayatollah Khomeini's Iranian navy and also is the leader of "one of the largest mosques in the U.S.," in Dearborn, Mich....

Throughout the day, Bridges TV airs segments of Koranic verses, quite a few of which denounce "unbelievers." One notable verse that aired October 9 praised martyrdom.

Since the Islamic holy month of Ramadan began, the channel has been showing official, Saudi government-controlled Wahhabi sermons from Mecca's holiest mosque, Al-Haram. The sermons stream live via Saudi TV Channel one every day at 4 p.m., and Bridges TV adds its own English subtitles.

An anti-Jewish, anti-Christian sermon from October 5 included the call, "May God destroy them!"...

Bridges TV claims that its "major purpose" is "to build bridges between American Muslims and other Americans." After viewing the channel, I find this highly unlikely.

Yep.

There's that number again -- nine -- the age at which Muhammad consummated his marriage to Aisha. "Girls as young as 9 living in the streets in Iran," from Iran Focus:

Tehran, Iran, Oct. 21 -- Girls as young as nine are running away from their homes and living on the streets in Iran, according to a classified report issued by the Ministry of Education.

The report was made public by several Persian-language news websites run by former government officials.

It notes that there is an exceptionally high number of run-away girls near Iran’s holy cities of Qom and Mashad.

Iran has one of the highest record of runaway girls and women in the world.

The state-run news agency ILNA reported in July that there were some 300,000 run-away women and girls in Iran and that 86 percent of girls who ran away from their homes for the first time were raped. The majority of such victims are rejected by their families if they choose to return after having been raped.

"The anonymous mobile messages ... are specifically urging women candidates to withdraw their registration papers to avoid clashing with Islamic principles." Sharia Alert from the Khaleej Times: "Women candidates receiving threats"

MANAMA -- Much concern is mounting in political and other circles as female election candidates have reportedly started receiving anonymous threats and blunt mobile messages urging them to back out from next month's parliamentary and municipal polls in Bahrain.

The anonymous mobile messages, according to Dr Muneera Fakhro, who is one of the candidates, are specifically urging women candidates to withdraw their registration papers to avoid clashing with Islamic principles.

She told Khaleej Times yesterday that these messages are very upsetting for women candidates. They have been worrying about many things recently, including how best to convince people in a male-oriented society to vote for them and also how to secure the political endorsement and financial backing of recognised political societies.

Dr Fakhro and other female candidates have already filed official complaints in this connection to the Supreme Council for Women and urged the SCW to address this issue and ensure that women candidates are not intimidated in any way.

The SCW, she pointed out, is very influential as it is chaired by the First Lady Shaikha Sabika bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa and is committed to supporting and empowering women in all spheres including politics.

Dr Fakhro has also called upon the Ministry of Islamic Affairs to tackle the matter as well as the Ministry of Justice to take appropriate action as it is the official supervisor of the parliamentary and municipal polls.

Dr Fakhro claimed that some conservative scholars (Salafi) are behind the threatening mobile messages because many of them are strongly opposed to the idea of women participating in these polls, slated for November 25.

"We have five weeks remaining for voting day and I now fear tougher negative campaigns against women candidates. This is because despite the openness of Bahraini society, there are many people who are still against the political empowerment of women," she said.

Clearly.

The attackers were Muslim clerics. Islamic Tolerance Alert from AINA, with thanks to DFS:

The Washington-DC based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC) www.persecution.org has just been informed that on July 20, 7 Muslim leaders (clerics) brutally attacked 50 or more Christians in Henno, Ethiopia. This latest attack is just one example of the increasing violence against Christians in Ethiopia. In fact, Islamic leaders are urging Muslims in the area to kill full-time Christian evangelists. The situation has reached such intensity that Christian leaders are in fear and moving in pairs to ward off attacks. Local Muslim authorities failed to take action against the Muslim attackers.

Henno is located in the district of Kokosa of the Oromia region, 404 kilometers South of Addis Ababa. In 2005, two prominent Muslims in Henno converted to Christianity: "H," a well known Muslim leader, and "M," the son of a well-respected Muslim tribal leader. The two conversions angered Muslim leaders in the surrounding region. On July 20, 2006, "M" hosted a worship service for the other Christians in Henno and invited a choir from the Sidama region.

The worship service gained the attention of the whole village, including Muslim leaders who responded violently by instigating a riot, using gangs in the area. The gangs were carrying local weapons such as knives, stones, and metal rods.

The Muslim leaders demanded the expulsion of the choir from the area. The new believer and former Muslim leader, "H," refused to stop the service despite their pressure. Consequently, the crowd began to beat "H" and other Christians in the house with their weapons.

"H" was beaten badly, receiving five deep wounds to his head. Because he was beaten with an iron rod, he was also missing teeth. He suffered deep lacerations to his legs, where several ligaments protruded from the skin. "H's" daughter-in-law was pregnant at the time but lost her baby because she was also severely beaten.

In total, twelve people were seriously injured; five others were found to have lacerations on their body and received medical treatment in Shashamene Kuyera Hospital. "H" also received care and has recovered from the attack.

The Christians reported the riot to the district government administrative office, which took no legal action. Instead, the officers warned Christians not to worship in a region that is predominately Muslim. It is important to note that all officers who heard the case were in fact Muslim. The case was then taken to a higher police authority. The police responded by arresting 26 gang members. However, they were released quickly because tribal elders appealed to the government....

Jihad Watch News Editor Marisol Seibold has sent me this photo from Ynet News. Note the fury and intrasingence. These women are not interested in the community harmony or mature debate for which Jack Straw called. They are only interested in his surrender to their principles.

Blogging has been light today because I'm out of the office, in Boston for "The Jihad Against the West: The Real Threat and the Right Response," a conference sponsored by the Ayn Rand Institute.

I am writing this during an absorbing panel discussion conducted by Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Institute, Daniel Pipes, and Flemming Rose, culture editor of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which first published the notorious cartoons of Muhammad. I spoke earlier today, following a magnificent and bracingly politically incorrect address by John Lewis, assistant professor of history at Ashland University, and followed by an excellent talk by Daniel Pipes.

I believe that the addresses will be made available in some format, and will be well worth picking up -- all have been first-rate.

Brook is saying right now that when lives are threatened for speaking freely, the government should protect them. The newspapers that published the Muhammad cartoons should have been protected, and the principles involved defended. Instead, the government punted.

It is refreshing and heartening that we can have this kind of open discussion, despite increasing pressure on freedom of speech in the West. May there be many more.

And they're not happy about it. Jihad Watch reader Nancy has alerted me to an "American Muslim News Brief" that contains this gem:

INCITEMENT: ROBERTSON CALLS QURAN 'FRAUDULENT,' SPENCER AGREES - TOP http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/44498.aspx

This refers to an interview I did a few days ago with Pat Robertson, the lone TV host who thus far has dared to discuss my new book The Truth About Muhammad on the air. I will happily go on any show -- Oprah, Al Franken, whatever -- but I have to be invited. Anyway, Robertson asked me during the segment -- I am working from memory -- if I would be willing to say that Muhammad's claim to be receiving divine revelations was fraudulent.

I responded, "Of course." Because after all, I am not a believer in Islam. Robertson's word choice was not politically correct, and it may hurt feelings; indeed, it is not a word I would have chosen. But essentially the only two choices on this question are these: either Muhammad received divine revelations, or he didn't. Non-Muslims do not believe Muhammad was a genuine prophet. That means that they believe that the things that are claimed to be revelations are not genuine revelations -- even if this view is presented with consummate tact and delicacy.

Accordingly, when Robertson asked me this question, I could do nothing but answer the way I did, simply because I am not a Muslim. To present this as "incitement" is, of course, trying to provoke the "hate crimes" that CAIR professes to abhor, but actually uses politically with consummate skill. The idea that someone would be incited to commit violence against Muslims because I stated that I do not believe Muhammad was a prophet is beyond asinine -- but of course it is also part of CAIR's larger attempt to control the national debate about Islam. Not only do they now protest against statements critical of Islam or Muslims, but even against rather simple and mild non-affirmations of Muslim belief by non-Muslims.

And they will keep doing this, because there is no shortage of willing stooges who will happily restrict themselves to an ever narrower sphere of discussion about Islam in order to appease the all-powerful gods of multiculturalism.

From the BBC with thanks to Kaspar

Police in Manchester have been told not to arrest Muslims wanted on warrants at prayer times during Ramadan.
Greater Manchester Police confirmed it had asked detectives not to make planned arrests during those periods for reasons of religious sensitivity.
The advice was emailed out to officers working in Moss Side, Hulme, Whalley Range, Rusholme, Fallowfield, Ardwick, Longsight, Gorton and Levenshulme.
Police said it was not a blanket ban, just a "request for sensitivity".
The email stressed the order did not apply to on-the-spot arrests, only the execution of arrest warrants.

Jihad Watch reader James sent me this yesterday, and I posted it here. Now a blogger named Ali Eteraz, about one of whose writings I wrote here, has posted at Dean Esmay's site saying that the story came from him and he should have been credited.

Actually, I think that's probably true. After all, James sent me this from Esmay's site, so it's possible he saw this there too.

So here's your link, Mr. Eteraz. There is no dark conspiracy going on here; I have no problem linking to your site, and in fact, before you wrote this post, I linked to your site in this post.

This coming from Esmay's site, however, all sorts of dark motives are imputed to me. Eteraz says, "The other reason I find it particularly troubling is that in my post about the letter I added a whole section about how the Iranian activist to whom the website belongs to, patently opposes groups that favor destabilizing the Iranian Government. I even cited to her article in another magazine. These caveats, however, are not present in the JihadWatch post, which is probably well for them, because we know what JihadWatch think of any Muslim government."

Why didn't I link to that or comment on it? Because I didn't see it until this morning. And what is it exactly that we all know about what JW thinks of any Muslim government? Do tell, Mr. Eteraz: what is it that JW thinks of both the Shah and Khomeini, and of Bourguiba and Ataturk as well as Ahmadinejad and the House of Saud? I can't wait to hear. And it would be good of you to back up your assertions with citations from my actual writings, if it isn't too much trouble.

Then Eteraz says:

But why would JihadWatch (or a reader of it) be interested in Muslim activism against Muslim oppression — that would destroy the entire (weak) thesis on which Jihad Watch rests, namely, that all or most Muslims are dangerous.

The slander just keeps coming from the Esmay crowd. Mr. Eteraz, please cite where I have ever said or written that "all or most Muslims are dangerous." Happy hunting. And Jihad Watch doesn't cover Muslim activism against Muslim oppression? Perhaps Mr. Eteraz would be so kind as to explain the presence of posts like this one, which is not newly-minted but dates from 2 months after I started this site, and which recounts the travails of a member of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, a group that opposes the mullahocracy. Hmmm. Could that be a Muslim group? Just do a search here and you'll find many more articles about the Iranian opposition -- Muslim activists against Muslim oppression. And recently, we have posted stories about Muslims opposing the Talibanization of Somalia.

Finally, it's interesting to note that while Ali Eteraz is all exercised about not getting a link here, he doesn't seem to have called "Matoko Kusanagi" or Dean Esmay aside and whispered to them that "perfect man" is indeed a perfectly good translation of al-insan al-kamil, or that Adam is not in fact called al-insan al-kamil in the Qur'an. Instead, he seems content to let them think they've caught me in a great error when they're patently wrong, and to fire away with more slanders at me instead.

But as I noted here, truth, accuracy and fairness just don't seem to be in the lexicon of the Esmay crowd, at least when it comes to me and Jihad Watch. I do not think it wise, however, to leave their slanders unanswered, lest people of good will be swayed by them, and that is the reason for this posting.

Sharia Alert. By Mohamed Sheikh Nor, from AP:

MOGADISHU, Somalia - An Islamic court has banned women from swimming at the main beach in Somalia's capital, the latest step to impose strict religious rule that has sparked fears of an emerging, Taliban-style regime.

Sheikh Farah Ali Hussein, chair of a northern Mogadishu Islamic court, said Friday that the ban applies only to the northern Mogadishu Leedo beach, where families usually go on weekends to play and relax.

"We stopped women from swimming because it is against the teaching of Islam for women to mingle with men, especially while they are swimming," Hussein said.

Since sweeping to power over much of southern Somalia in June, the Islamists have banned movie viewing, publicly lashed drug users and broke up a wedding celebration because a band was playing and women and men were socializing together. They also have introduced public executions.

Somali women usually swim fully clothed as swimsuits are generally frowned upon. Somali men, however, swim in trunks, at times bare-chested or wearing vests.

"They cannot prevent us from our right to swim in the sea. What is wrong with us enjoying ourselves like men? That is clear discrimination," Miriam Isse told The Associated Press as she watched others swimming in the Indian Ocean.

More from the Al-Qods Day festivities. "Iran warns of revenge over Israel," from the BBC:

Iran's president has warned that Muslims around the world will take revenge on states which support Israel against the Palestinians. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad again questioned the extent of the Holocaust, when German Nazis murdered six million Jews.

Israel was founded on "claims about the Holocaust" for which the Palestinians were paying the price, he told a rally.

He was speaking on Jerusalem Day, when there are large demonstrations in Iran in support of the Palestinians.

BBC Tehran correspondent Frances Harrison says the tone of the speech was hardline, even by Mr Ahmadinejad's standards.

Implicit threat

Mr Ahmadinejad called Israel's leaders a "group of terrorists" and appeared to threaten any country that supports it.

"You imposed a group of terrorists... on the region. It is in your own interest to distance yourself from these criminals... This is an ultimatum. Don't complain tomorrow."

The "ultimatum" was directed at European states in particular.

"We have advised the Europeans that the Americans are far away, but you are the neighbours of the nations in this region," Mr Ahmadinejad said.

"We inform you that the nations are like an ocean that is welling up, and if a storm begins, the dimensions will not stay limited to Palestine, and you may get hurt."

'Israeli insecurity'

Mr Ahmadinejad said Israel no longer had any reason to exist and would soon disappear. "This regime, thanks to God, has lost the reason for its existence. Efforts to stabilise this fake regime, by the grace of God, have completely failed."

Mr Ahmadinejad said: "Even if we assume the Holocaust is true, then why should the Palestinians pay the price for it."

He said millions of Israelis should go back to their countries of origin.

Conversion from Islam to Christianity is an insult to Islam, according to the Egyptian authorities. Islamic Tolerance Alert from Compass Direct:

A Muslim sheikh jailed in Egypt for 18 months has declared from his prison cell that he is under arrest for “insulting Islam” by becoming a Christian.

Egypt’s secret police transferred Bahaa el-Din Ahmed Hussein el-Akkad, 57, to the Wadi el-Natroun Prison last month. He was told he would remain there indefinitely unless he agreed to work as a government informer against other converts to Christianity.

According to the prisoner’s Cairo attorney, Athanasius William, his client remains incarcerated in this desert prison “only because he has chosen a different belief, to be a Christian.”

El-Akkad was imprisoned without charges for more than a year after officials of the State Security Investigation (SSI) arrested him in Cairo on April 6, 2005.

Although subjected to repeated interrogations, the former Muslim was never told the specific accusations against him. But several of his cellmates spread rumors that he was converting and baptizing people into Christianity, sparking verbal abuse and at least one severe beating from a fellow prisoner.

When the courts finally ordered El-Akkad’s release from provisional detention 10 weeks ago, SSI authorities deliberately ignored the ruling. Instead, they held him in their Gaber Ibn Hayyan office in Giza and then transferred him to the Wadi el-Natroun Prison, located 60 miles north of Cairo along the highway to Alexandria.

William told Compass it was strictly illegal for the SSI to have re-arrested El-Akkad and jailed him indefinitely “without the orders of a legally authorized official,” as required under Article 280 of the Egyptian penalty laws.

Disillusioned with Islam

In a series of handwritten notes smuggled out of prison in recent months and obtained by Compass, El-Akkad declared that he had “chosen the Christian faith” after years of research on Islam.

For more than 20 years, the former sheikh was a member of the fundamentalist Islamic group Tabligh and Da’wa, which actively proselytized non-Muslims but strictly opposed violence. He also led a mosque community in Al-Haram, in the Giza area adjacent to Cairo. In 1994 he had published, Islam: the Religion, a 500-page book reviewing the traditional beliefs of the Islamic faith.

But he became disillusioned, and five years ago the sheikh said he began to pray that he could somehow know God personally. It was not until January 2005 that he talked for the first time with someone who explained the tenets of the Christian faith to him. He began intensive study of Christian Scripture, and within weeks he became a follower of Jesus.

“This is a proof to all Muslims,” El-Akkad wrote, “that the person who studies the two religions from an objective and serious perspective will choose the Christian approach.”...

Although Egypt’s Christian citizens are free to embrace Islam and obtain legal Muslim identities, Muslim citizens are not allowed to change their religious identity. Those who become Christians are subjected to severe harassment by the SSI, which often arrests converts for either insulting Islam or “threatening national security.”

Eid Mubarak and Death to Israel from King Abdullah! "Abdullah releases Hamas activists," from JTA, with thanks to Teri:

King Abdullah II of Jordan released nine Hamas plotters for the Eid al-Fitr holiday.

The nine, among 20 arrested in May in a plot to smuggle Iranian-made arms into Jordan, left prison Thursday in time for the feast holiday that ends the Ramadan month of fasting. Authorities accused the plotters of planning to attack officials of Jordan’s government, which maintains close ties with Israel.

In "Fish. Barrel. [BLAM!]," blogger Dean Esmay (thanks to James) claims that I have been "nailed to the wall" by one "Matoko Kusanagi," with whom I had an exchange here. (You can find my other exchanges with Esmay here, here, here, here, here and here.) Esmay's post this time is simply more vile name-calling -- as is his wont. The substance this time, such as it is, comes from "Matoko":

I was watching the Obsession youtubes when I heard Robert Spencer make the argument that all muslims must faithfully emulate Muhammed's (SAW) 7th century warlord behavior because Muhammed is al-insan al-kamil, which spencer translates as "the perfect man". Bad translation. al-insan al-kamil actually translates as "complete human". I know this because we were talking about angels and reason and revelation at Eteraz the other night, and Adam is described as al-insan al-kamil in the Qur'an. And we all know Adam wasn't perfect. He ate the apple.

So, I think this translation issue prettymuch torpedos Spencers argument that all muslims are mandated to behave exactly like 7th century warlords....don't you? Ha ha, im just a cyberchicklet and i caught that. Hmmm...wonder what other gaffes i can find?

wow. it just occurred to me that mebbe there is a buncha stuff in Spencer's new book, The Truth about Muhammed that references this botched translation. Anybody read it yet?

OK, let's take this point-by-point:

1. Matoko: "I was watching the Obsession youtubes when I heard Robert Spencer..."

My response: She must have been tuned in to the little voices that speak through her metalwork. I am not in Obsession. Of course, she probably means Islam: What the World Needs to Know, which I am in. A minor point, but this carelessness is indicative of the quality of her entire attack -- which doesn't stop Dean Esmay from falling for it, uh, hook, line, and sinker.

2. Matoko: "I heard Robert Spencer make the argument that all muslims must faithfully emulate Muhammed's (SAW) 7th century warlord behavior because Muhammed is al-insan al-kamil, which spencer translates as 'the perfect man'. Bad translation. al-insan al-kamil actually translates as 'complete human'."

My response: Unfortunately for "Matoko," Spencer is not alone in this. Among the others who translate "al-insan al-kamil" as "the perfect man":

a. Neal Robinson, senior lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Leeds, and author of Islam: A Concise Introduction (Georgetown University Press, 1999).
b. Barbara R. von Schlegell, Visiting Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Ursinus College Fellow, Penn Middle East Center.
c. David R. Vishanoff, assistant professor of religious studies, University of Oklahoma.
d. Tamara Albertini, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa.
e. Muslim Sufi intellectual Fethullah Gülen.
f. Dr. Usman Muhamad Bugaje of the Islam in Africa Organisation (IAO).
g. The Naqshbandi Sufi leader Sheikh Muhammad Hisham al-Kabbani.
h. Islamic preacher Dr. Ahmad Shafaat.
i. Shaykh al Islam Janasheen - Muhaddith Al A'zam Al Hind.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture. The evil and moronic Islamophobe Spencer didn't originate this translation: it is a fine translation, and it is used by Islamic scholars, even of the MESA variety, and by Muslim leaders and pious Muslims.

3. Matoko: "I know this because we were talking about angels and reason and revelation at Eteraz the other night, and Adam is described as al-insan al-kamil in the Qur'an. And we all know Adam wasn't perfect.
He ate the apple."

My response: Perhaps Matoko or Eteraz would be so kind as to tell us where in the Qur'an Adam is referred to as "al-insan al-kamil." Adam is mentioned by name in the Qur'an in Suras 2:31, 2:33, 2:34, 2:35, 2:37, 3:33, 3:59, 5:27, 7:11, 7:19, 7:26, 7:27, 7:31, 7:35, 7:172, 17:61, 17:70, 18:50, 19:58, 20:115, 20:116, 20:117, 20:120, 20:121, and 36:60. In none of them is he called "al-insan al-kamil." In 2:30 he is called Allah's "viceregent" -- caliph -- but that's as close as it gets. He is also known as "safiyu'llah," or the chosen one of Allah, but not as al-insan al-kamil.

Probably the confusion arises from the congruence of some aspects of Sufi mysticism, which strongly emphasizes the al-insan al-kamil idea, with Jewish mystical writings about "Adam Kadmon," the primordial man. But in any case, it isn't in the Qur'an.

4. Matoko: "I think this translation issue prettymuch torpedos Spencers argument that all muslims are mandated to behave exactly like 7th century warlords..."

My response: Matoko's point doesn't hold here because I don't claim that Muslims imitate Muhammad solely because he is al-insan al-kamil. Muhammad is called in the Qur'an "uswa hasana" -- an excellent model of conduct (33:21). To be sure, the Qur'an uses the same words in speaking of Abraham (60:4, 60:6), but it also says that Muhammad demonstrates “an exalted standard of character” (68:4), and that “he who obeys the Messenger [Muhammad], obeys Allah” (4:80).

So do Muslims imitate Muhammad? Says Muqtedar Khan of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy: "No religious leader has as much influence on his followers as does Muhammad (Peace be upon him) the last Prophet of Islam….And Muhammad as the final messenger of God enjoys preeminence when it comes to revelation – the Qur’an – and traditions. So much so that the words, deeds and silences (that which he saw and did not forbid) of Muhammad became an independent source of Islamic law. Muslims, as a part of religious observance, not only obey, but also seek to emulate and imitate their Prophet in every aspect of life. Thus Muhammad is the medium as well as a source of the divine law."

To take just one more of zillions of available examples, likewise the renowned Sufi philosopher Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali (1058-1111) declared that “the key to happiness is to follow the sunna and to imitate the Messenger of God in all his coming and going, his movements and rest, in his way of eating, his attitude, his sleep and his talk.”

I guess Khan and al-Ghazali have been listening to that wicked Spencer.

Meanwhile, over at Dean's World this farrago has them crowing. Commenter "Mal" says: "Robert Spencer is certainly free to offer his interpretation of Islam, and I, of course, am free to see his main theme as the reductive, pseudo-intellectual drivel that it is. I say let the man speak. He does more to discredit his own arguments that way than any name calling on your part....I predict that Spencer will always have a die-hard constituency but will eventually be marginalized for his indefensible views."

Very well, sir. Please show me where I am wrong in the above, and I will acknowledge it publicly here. I believe I have just shown my views not to be indefensible at all, and invite you to respond.

Says Dean: "Indeed, should I compile a list of various scriptural and doctrinal points in Judaism, as a person hostile to Judaism, and present them to you as a mass indictment of your entire faith? 'Jimmy the Dhimmi' does this every day. So does Robert Spencer. Would you appreciate that crap? I don't think you would. I can make Judaism look pretty frakking evil if I want to. It wouldn't even be hard."

No, sir, it is not I who do it. It is not I, but jihad terrorists acting in the name of Islam, who make Islam look "pretty frakking evil" every day, and I don't have to try hard at all to find them. I merely report every day on how jihad terrorists invoke the Qur'an and Muhammad's words and deeds to justify their actions. And I have called upon peaceful Muslims to confront these elements of Islam and repudiate them, and to work to try to ensure that they do not inspire violent acts in the future. And for this I will not back down or apologize, no matter how much abuse you heap on my name and my work.

Dean also says: "...just ASK some Muslims what THEY think it means." Well, actually, I have done that, and I think you should do that, Dean. You may be surprised what you hear if you ask Muslims if they think Muhammad provides a normative example for human behavior. You would no doubt be very surprised to find that I begin my book The Truth About Muhammad by showing how both peaceful and violent Muslims invoke Muhammad's example to support their positions. After all, you think I don't believe there are any peaceful Muslims, so I wonder how those pages got into the book.

And finally Matoko says: "how many times have you heard spencer insist that the Qur'an is immutable, revealed, unchangeable, consistent and not open to contextual interpretation? according to spencer himself al-insan al-kamil cannot mean two different things in the same Qur'an."

How many times? Maybe, um, zero? I have never said this, and I challenge her or anyone to demonstrate otherwise. In fact, I have explained many times the contextual interpretation used by many Muslims that abrogates some verses in favor of others. I certainly have never said it is consistent. And I have never come remotely close to saying that "al-insan al-kamil" or anything else can't mean two different things at once.

But I have learned from past experience that truth, accuracy, and fairness are not high on the priorities list of either Dean Esmay or "Matoko." Nevertheless, I offer all this yet again in the first place simply as a defense of the accuracy of my work. Esmay's vicious character assassination is beneath contempt, but at least here I have offered evidence for my positions, clarification of those positions, and evidence that Matoko's conclusions are wrong -- for any reasonable people who may find their arguments compelling.

To sum up: Matoko heard someone on the Eteraz site say something, and she wanted to believe it. She told it to Dean Esmay, and he wanted to believe it. Neither did even the most elementary research, or even a Google search. Now they are celebrating their fish barrel-shooting without a leg to stand on at all, believing what they want to believe in the face of the obvious veneration in which Muslims hold Muhammad -- a veneration of which we were vividly reminded by Cartoon Rage and Pope Rage. But this they do not wish to see, because it does not accord with their view of the world, and of my all-encompassing evil and stupidity.

Fish. Barrel. Blam.

UPDATE: Dean Esmay has sent me this comment he posted on his original article. (You can see what that "Roob" business is all about here.) Here is just a bit of what passes for rational argumentation in Dean's world -- you can see the whole thing at the link. He is mostly berating me for supposedly knowing no Muslims, which is false and in any case something he is in no position to know.

Here's what I predict for you, Roob: you will die alone, unmourned and unloved. And in your last moments on Earth, if you have any conscience at all, you will wonder if your whole purpose on Earth wasn't just to serve as a warning for others about the dangers of hatemongering and rampant stupidity.

You think I've got you wrong? Send me a private email that neither of us will ever reprint under any circumstances. Tell me I how got you wrong, and why I got you wrong.

Otherwise, it's all between you and your Saviour.

I must say I'm taken aback by the open hatred, vile slander, and unhinged personal nature of his remarks toward me. I do not know this man, we have never met, and he obviously knows virtually nothing of my real positions or the nature of my work. Yet he feels free to damn me with positively breathtaking intensity, condemning me to a lonely death and hellfire to boot. And you'll note, there is absolutely nothing, not a syllable, about the substance of my reply above. The facts, it seems, just do not matter for Mr. Dean Esmay.

With this kind of frothing, carpet-chewing, wall-kicking hysteria, and consistent refusal to engage in rational discussion, I do wonder -- again -- why anyone takes this man seriously.

Here, for your reference, is how I responded:

I am consistently astonished by the naked hate and slander you direct toward me.

You better check that "Roobart Sbunsar" business: your friends lied to you: http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/011704.php

Meanwhile, you have never acknowledged that Tashbih Sayyed, a Muslim and the editor of Muslim World Today, is a member of the Jihad Watch Board of Directors.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/013203.php

But don't let the facts get in the way of your unhinged, scurrilous attacks. They never have before.

Oh, and print this or not as you wish.

"There is a lot of money in Hamas." Yes, terrorism is profitable these days. By Joshua Mitnick in The Washington Times :

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- A U.S.-led funding squeeze, which has paralyzed the Hamas-led Palestinian government, has had the unintended effect of bolstering the militant group's network of schools, hospitals and alms societies.

Foreign donations, often consisting of cash in suitcases smuggled across the border, have permitted Hamas' vast social-welfare network to thrive, say officials and analysts.

"All charitable organizations affiliated with Hamas are still functioning," said Sheik Yazeeb Khader, an editor of Hamas' West Bank newspaper. He said the charities in Gaza have especially benefited from money "brought across the border and not checked."

For years, while Hamas' military wing dispatched suicide bombers to Israeli cities, the group's civilian wing quietly built up a grass-roots following with its network of Islamic social-welfare organizations.

The charities went far beyond anything established by the secular government of Yasser Arafat and helped give Hamas the support needed to oust Arafat loyalists in January elections and take power in March.

Unable to pay for supplies, government ministries have since ceased to function, and without salaries, civil servants have gone on strike.

The charities, however, openly boast that they continue to get money from Muslim communities in the Persian Gulf, Europe and the United States....

"There is a lot of money in Hamas," said Abdel Nasser Najjar, a columnist for Al Ayyam, a newspaper of the opposition Fatah party.

You just can't parody this sort of thing. "Research councils halt Islamist project," by Debbie Andalo in The Guardian, with thanks to LGF:

Research councils today confirmed they have put on hold their involvement in a government-backed project that aimed to identify the growth of Islamist groups around the world.

The decision by the Economics and Social Research Council and the Arts and Humanities Research Council followed accusations by academics that they would be putting the lives of British researchers at risk in Muslim countries.

In a joint statement this afternoon, the two councils said "a section of our academic community" had raised concerns about the research, which they "have to take seriously".

A spokeswoman said: "We are consulting further with the community, that has already been consulted with, to make sure that their concerns have been heard.

"We hope that the study can be relaunched with a more open call."

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has funded the £1.3m project, called Combating terrorism by countering radicalisation. Academics were told to focus on countries that had been identified by MI5....

Aishah Azmi, probably

No one thought to ask what she thought of other elements of Islam while they were awarding her a thousand pounds for her hurt feelings.

By Sam Greenhill and Laura Clark in the Daily Mail, with thanks to El Presidente:

The Muslim teacher suspended for refusing to work without her veil is connected to a hardline mosque where the ringleader of the July 7 bombers worshipped, it has emerged.

The family of classroom assistant Aishah Azmi, 24, plays a key role at the fundamentalist Markazi mosque in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire - which was attended by suicide bomber Mohammed Sidique Khan.

Until recently, Miss Azmi's father was joint headmaster of the secondary school attached to the building.

The family are known to worship there and may have encountered Khan before his terrorist act.

However, there is no suggestion that Miss Azmi or anyone in her family have any connection with terrorism.

Of course. But has anyone asked her what she thinks about jihad? Or about the imperative to replace British law with Sharia law?

This dates from August, and I have a general policy against posting archival material -- after all, if I post everything worthy that's out there, whatever its age, I could spend all day every day doing it and still never catch up. But I have to make an exception for this, as it just was sent to me today by Jihad Watch reader James, and it is, I think, an extraordinary insight into the human cost of Sharia. The Sharia that the jihadists are laboring to impose upon us is the Sharia that cost this boy his mother, and scarred his life forever after.

All decent people, all people who still retain an ounce of humanity, should resist it. This is a post from the Iranian the blog of Azadeh Pourzand (thanks again to James): "A letter about Stoning to Death."

A few weeks ago my mother, Mehrangiz Kar, wrote an article about stoning to death in Iran. She received many different feedbacks for her article that was published in Farsi. Among those responses we found an astonishing letter from an anonymous person whose mother was stoned to death twenty six years ago. Since the strength of the words of this letter paralyzed my body and mind for a few minutes, I decided to quickly translate the text.

According to Article 83 of the Islamic Penal Code of Iran, stoning to death has been declared a permissible punishment for a few different types of adultery.

Hello.

I read your recent article about stoning to death.

Reading your article reminded me of the bleeding bruises in my heart once again.

You wrote about murdering by stoning?

Have you ever held a bloody tool in your hands with which they have murdered your mother?

Have you ever touched the bloody skin and hair of your mother who has just been killed in a deep hole?

Have you ever followed the line of your mother’s blood in order to find her corpse thrown at the back of a truck?

Have you ever seen the fresh grave of that dearest being with a small piece of paper on which they have written her name wrapped around a small branch of tree?

Has anyone ever said a word about the children of the people who have been stoned to death?

I was fourteen and now I am forty.

To quote psychologists, I am one of the most fortunate people on this planet. I am fortunate, because despite this contempt in my life I have been able to continue my higher education and find myself a wife, children and a credible job without letting a single black spot remain in my life.

Do you even understand what it means to be the child of a person who has been shamefully stoned to death?

If Islamic clerics tell you that you could not win over the Islamic laws, they have, indeed told you the truth.

My mother used to tell me that she had become a sex-worker in order to feed us and to support us. She used to command us in being real men.
She used to tell us to stand on our own feet and to never lose our hope in Ali (the first imam in shiasm).

Seriously who would want to sell her body, to sell her sex to
anonymous men except for those women who have no other way of feeding their children?

If the husband knows how to make money, the wife and the mother of the family does not have to go and seek customers.

The economic situation needs to improve and single mothers or those mothers whose husbands do not have the ability or the willpower to work, should be able to seek help from the government.

You must establish an organization for supporting these women. It does not have to be a very rich organization in the beginning. No one has the right to condemn you for seeking financial support from different sources for these types of support organizations. Women like my mother who was eventually stoned to death need your help. They need the world’s help and support. Their forgotten families, too, need the world’s help. Help them!

Executing people for having not immoral actions is not going to have an effective result.

Tell me how many people have been executed and stoned to death since the beginning of the Islamic Revolution in Iran…What is the result of all of this violence other than the fact that the evil is now truly dominating our society?

I never forget the last words of my mother’s Islamic judge:

“I issued a verdict for stoning this woman to death so that other individuals learn a lesson from her doomed fate and to avoid sins of such nature. To execute by shooting would not have made her suffer enough!”

Alas. Twenty six years ago my mother was stoned to death before my eyes. Has these women’s tragic fate helped our society improve?
Statistics show that the rates of prostitution and corruption have increased exponentially.

God bless you!

Of course, they are claiming discrimination. "Muslim airport workers lose clearances," by Jamey Keaten for Associated Press, with thanks to Drew:

PARIS - Authorities at Charles de Gaulle airport have stripped several dozen employees — almost all of them Muslims — of their security badges in a crackdown against terrorism, a government official said Friday.

Four baggage handlers who lost their clearance filed a joint discrimination complaint this week, alleging they had been unfairly associated with terrorism because they are Muslims, their lawyers said. Some had been in their jobs for up to five years.

The baggage handlers and other employees have been barred from secure areas at the airport since February, Jacques Lebrot, an official who oversees the airport, told The Associated Press in an interview.

The cases were "linked to terrorism, of course," he said, adding that the crackdown followed recommendations by France's anti-terrorism coordination unit, UCLAT, as part of an 18-month investigation.

"You don't strip people of their badges for small matters," he said. The crackdown was part of heightened security in France, after terror attacks in Britain, Spain and the United States in recent years.

Lebrot, citing security reasons, declined to say whether the "several dozen" people — he would not specify how many — who lost their badges had been involved in specific plots.

"Mr. X or Y could have been suspected because corresponding facts ... suggested he belonged to a sizable network," Lebrot said, without elaborating. Others could have been stripped of the badges because they were "impressionable and manipulated" by such networks, he said....

In letters from the regional government office, the employees were told that they presented a "significant danger to airport security," or had shown "personal behavior threatening airport security."

Lawyers for those who lost their badges said that under police questioning, they were never told of the reasons they lost their badges — but repeatedly were asked about their religion.

"The link among these people is that either they are Arab — or practice their religion in a normal way," said Eric Moutet, a lawyer for the four employees suing in administrative court. Authorities, he said, "are in essence asking people to prove they are not terrorists."

They "practice their religion in a normal way." Does that mean in a way that Osama bin Laden might consider normal? In a way that accords with mainstream teaching of all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence, all of which mandate warfare against unbelievers?

Here is a simple, direct, clear, and unflinchingly honest introductory text for those who will not believe, and cannot believe, that the Islamic jihad is either deeply rooted within Islam or poses any serious threat to non-Muslims. In Religion of Peace?, Gregory M. Davis, coproducer of the documentary Islam: What the West Needs to Know, has provided in one volume of reasonable proportions the relevant extracts from the Qur'an, the Hadith, the Sira (the biography of Muhammad), Islamic jurisprudence, plus evidence that contemporary jihadists read this material and take it very seriously indeed. All this along with a history of jihad warfare and a trenchant analysis of the defects of today's politically correct public discourse, in which even world leaders peddle soothing falsehoods instead of formulating ways to defend Western civilization and the non-Muslim world as a whole against the jihadists who would convert or subjugate us all.

Here are some of the endorsements the book has received, mine among them:

"A fascinating thesis." - William F. Buckley Jr. Founder, National Review

"A valuable, well-argued contribution to the public understanding of Islam...it manages to convey in a short space what the West needs to know about Islam: that its violent aspects are not the result of deviance but of orthodoxy." - Robert Spencer, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and The Crusades)

"A very important work at a very important time. Anyone interested in understanding the growing violence on the world scene today must read this book. Its message for America and the West is, `Wake up before it's too late.'" - Gary Bauer, President, American Values

"This book provides a timely reality check to those still inclined to believe in the dichotomy between a "real" Islam and its allegedly aberrant violent fringe. That delusion costs lives and threatens the very existence of those affected by it. The refusal of the elite class to open its eyes to reality and protect Western nations from the threat is the biggest betrayal in history. It reflects a problem of cultural and spiritual decay that is the synthesis of all others." - Serge Trifkovic, The Sword of the Prophet and Defeating Jihad

Giant Palestinian and Hizballah flags in Karachi

Tiny Minority of Extremists Update: when did we ever see 6,000 Shi'ites demonstrating against Osama bin Laden (or...the Ayatollah Khomeini)? But it's Al-Qods Day, and you know what that means: "Death to Israel! Death to America!"

Even short of an anti-Osama rally, why do those who believe that the overwhelming majority of Muslims abhor jihad violence and are on our side never consider the implications of the fact that pro-America, pro-Israel rallies are hardly a frequent sight in the Islamic world or among Muslims in the West? From AP, :

Thousands of Shiite Muslims denounced Israel and the United States in rallies across Pakistan on Friday, demanding the Jewish state hand control of Jerusalem to Muslims.

The rallies in the southern port city of Karachi, in the capital Islamabad and the eastern city of Lahore were held to mark the annual al-Quds Day - or Jerusalem Day - that takes place on the last Friday of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Chanting "Death to Israel" and "Death to America," about 4,000 people, including 1,000 women, marched through a busy street lined by riot police in Karachi. No violence was reported.

Hundreds of people carried portraits of the late Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Hizbullah organization in Lebanon.

The government of Pakistan does something, a little something, but with a great show for its American benefactors, to counter terrorism in this or that part of Pakistan. At the same time, it makes deals with supporters of the Taliban in Waziristan, and then misrepresents those deals.

Meanwhile, in the cities of Pakistan, including Quetta, the Taliban and its Pakistani supporters cooperate freely with one another. After all, the Taliban owes its existence to Pakistan. It was in the madrasas in Pakistan that each little Talib once studied, and then, properly enthused, moved back in small groups to Afghanistan in the early 1990s, after the Soviet army had been defeated, in order to establishe in Afghanistan Peace on Earth and Good Will Toward All Those Willing to Abide by the Strictest Shari'a. And for the rest -- death.

Much has been made in Washington about so-called "neo-cons" and their presumed connection to the Mearsheimer-Walt fantasm, that "unified Israel lobby." But the two lobbies that have mattered most in the tarbaby Iraq disaster are the Americans who, instead of seeing Islam as it is, have either cheered for the Shi'a (sometimes without quite realizing it), and those who wish to do the bidding of Sunni Arabs in Iraq.

In the former category we have many who write for My Weekly Standard: Reuel Gerecht, the ineffable Stephen Schwartz, and less naive than the others but still a cheerleader for the Iraq business, Amir Taheri. Others who have thought the Americans have a stake in making Iraq safe for Shi'ism, rather than in weakening the camp of Islam by allowing Iraq to dissolve into permanent sectarian and ethnic hostilities (at whatever level), include Fouad Ajami and Vali Nasr. Indeed, the latter's soft-voiced presence at one of the military schools no doubt inhibits his colleagues even from considering the idea that the task of American policy is not to strengthen this or that branch of Islam, but to do nothing to dampen, and to do everything to exploit for the sake of Infidels, the sectarian and ethnic divisions that present themselves on a platter in Iraq.

"Mahdi Army militiamen have long enjoyed a free rein in Amarah," the article notes. Sadr's militia is just making its control official, with little or no expectation of a meaningful response from Nouri al-Maliki's government. "Shiite militia takes over Iraqi city," from AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Shiite militia run by the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr seized control of a southern Iraqi city on Friday in one of the boldest acts of defiance yet by the country's powerful, unofficial armies, witnesses and police said.

Mahdi Army fighters stormed three main police stations Friday morning, residents said, planting explosives that flattened the buildings in Amarah, a city just 30 miles from the Iranian border that was under British command until August, when it was returned to Iraqi government control.

About 800 black-clad militiamen with Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades were patrolling in commandeered police vehicles, witnesses said. Other fighters set up roadblocks on routes into the city and sound trucks circulated telling residents to stay indoors.

The militiamen later withdrew from their positions and lifted their siege of police headquarters under a temporary truce negotiated with an al-Sadr envoy. It was not clear on Friday afternoon whether security forces had reasserted control over the city or whether the cleric knew about his militia's planned takeover in advance.

The Iraqi army dispatched two companies to Amarah from Basra, the south's largest city. Mohammad al-Alaskari, a Defense Ministry spokesman, said "the situation is still tense."

The events in Amarah -- involving a dispute between the Mahdi Army and local security forces believed controlled by the rival Badr Brigade militia -- highlight the threat of wider violence between rival Shiite factions, who have entrenched themselves among the majority Shiite population and are blamed for killings of rival Sunnis.

Badr, of course, was the site of the first major battle fought by Muslims, led by Muhammad: an attack on a Quraish caravan returning from Syria.

Al-Sadr's envoy, whose identity remains unknown, was due to meet with the provincial governor, the local Mahdi Army commander and al-Sadr's representative in Amarah, a city of 750,000.

Shiite militia violence, mainly against the country's Sunni minority, has ravaged Iraq since February when a Shiite holy place in Samara was blown up. The violence has been on the increase, but this is the first recent fighting that has pitted Shiites against one another on such a scale.

Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, a former Shiite activist, won the top government post last spring thanks in part to the support of al-Sadr, who controls 30 of the 275 seats in the national parliament and five Cabinet posts.

In a sign of al-Sadr's influence, al-Maliki this week ordered the release of one of the young cleric's top lieutenants, Sheik Mazen al-Sa'edi, who was arrested by U.S. troops in Baghdad for alleged links to sectarian death squads. He visited al-Sadr in the holy city of Najaf Wednesday, the day al-Sa'edi was freed.

Mahdi Army militiamen have long enjoyed a free rein in Amarah, the provincial capital of the southern province of Maysan. Militiamen in Amarah often summon local government officials for meetings at their offices. They roam the city with their weapons, manipulate the local police and set up checkpoints at will.

Since British troops left Amarah in August, residents say the militia has been involved in a series of killings, including slayings of merchants suspected of selling alcohol and women alleged to have engaged in behavior deemed immoral by militiamen.

[...]

Fighting broke out Thursday after Qassim al-Tamimi, the provincial head of police intelligence and a leading member of the rival Shiite Badr Brigade militia, was killed by a roadside bomb. In retaliation, his family kidnapped the teenage brother of the Mahdi Army commander in Amarah, Sheik Fadel al-Bahadli, to demand the hand-over of al-Tamimi's killers.

At last the Thug-In-Chief and I agree on something, although no doubt for vastly different reasons: I don't think the UN Security Council, or anything about this corrupt, feeble, and ideologically compromised institution is legitimate. From Deutsche Presse Agentur, with thanks to Mackie:

Teheran (dpa) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Friday that the United Nations Security Council was no longer legitimate as long as it dominated by the US and Britain.

"All the world knows that the US and Britain are enemies of the Iranian nation and now they sit in the UN Security Council and act as both judge and executioner, but the era of such an order is over," Ahmadinejad said at a pre-Friday prayer sermon at Teheran University.

"This form of UN Security Council is no longer legitimate and neither are its resolutions, nobody would accept such decision-making any more," Ahmadinejad said referring to possible UN sanctions against Iran.

My new book The Truth About Muhammad has made the New York Times Bestseller List (Hardcover Nonfiction) for the week of October 29. It is at #31 on the list.

Thanks to all of you who helped make this happen. I am surprised and pleased to see it on the list, after very sparse national publicity and an unusually high number of canceled interviews even among local shows. Conservative and liberal TV and radio shows, as well as publications, are afraid to discuss this book, but the truth is getting out anyway. Thank you all again.

More on the British being A-Q's primary target. By Ian Bruce in The Herald, :

A resurgent al Qaeda has made the UK its priority target and is building active service units among disaffected young British Muslims, according to senior intelligence officials.

MI5 also fears the July 7 Tube and bus bombings were "just the beginning" of a rolling campaign aimed at inflicting mass civilian casualties and damaging the economy.

The terror network has also taken a lead from the Provisional IRA, organising followers into self-contained cells to make infiltration by the security services almost impossible.

They believe each cell has a leader, a quartermaster responsible for obtaining bomb-making materials and weapons, and a small number of volunteers drawn mainly from ethnic Pakistani communities concentrated in London, the West Midlands and even Glasgow.

The fact that British citizens make 400,000 trips to and from Pakistan each year to visit family is being used by a radicalised minority to connect with al Qaeda contacts.

They kill fellow Muslims because they regard them as having effectively apostatized by working for the Americans. From AP, :

KABUL, Afghanistan — Gunmen ambushed a car carrying Afghan civilians working on a remote U.S. military base in eastern Afghanistan and killed eight of them execution-style, police said Friday.

The ambush victims, who worked for the U.S. military as laborers in the mountainous Korangal area of Kunar province, were killed Thursday while driving home from work, said Abdul Saboor, Kunar's deputy police chief.

Gunmen stopped the workers' car, searched them and took about US$6,000 (euro4,780) before gunning them down, said Salehzai Didar, Kunar's governor. Two workers escaped, he said.

"This was a shocking attack against these poor people," Saboor said.

Saboor did not identify the attackers, other than to describe them as "the enemy."

Al Qaeda and Taliban insurgents operate in eastern Afghan regions bordering Pakistan.

Jamie Glazov conducts a FrontPage Symposium on forced conversion in Islam with Mustafa Akyol, David Aikman, Andrew Bostom and me. (Many links in the original.)

Last month, American al-Qaeda operative Adam Gadahn issued a “convert-to-Islam-or-die message to U.S. President George W. Bush, Daniel Pipes, Michael Scheuer, Steve Emerson and Robert Spencer. This attempt at forced conversion to Islam followed the “conversion” at gunpoint of the two kidnapped Fox News reporters Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig.

What exactly was the significance of these events?

On the one hand, these attempts at forced conversion were in clear continuity with Islam’s long history of calling people to convert before waging war on them. But how exactly does this tradition and practise in Islam square with the Qur’an’s verse “There is no compulsion in religion” (2:256)? If Gadahn and the kidnappers of the Fox reporters consider themselves Muslims, what was their rationale for their actions in this context? Also: if forced conversion is anti-Islamic, where were, and are, all the Muslims furiously protesting Gadahn’s threats and the treatment of Centanni and Wiig?

To discuss these issues with us today, we are joined by:

Mustafa Akyol, a Muslim journalist and author from Istanbul, Turkey. He has written extensively in the Turkish and international press, including many American publications, about Islam and the current Muslim world. His writings are available at www.thewhitepath.com.

David Aikman, a former senior correspondent and foreign correspondent with Time Magazine, an author (see www.davidaikman.com for his books), and currently writer in residence and associate professor of history (History of Islam, Ages of Revolution) at Patrick Henry College in Purcelville, VA. He recently wrote a column for the Houses of Worship section of the Wall Street Journal on religious conversion in the US and overseas.

Robert Spencer, Director of Jihad Watch who, last month, was offered by Al-Qaeda the same 'invitation to Islam' that Centanni and Wiig received: convert or face the consequences.

and

Andrew Bostom, M.D., M.S. (Providence, RI), an associate professor of medicine in the Division of Renal Diseases of Rhode Island Hospital. He has published articles and commentary on Islam in the Washington Times, National Review, Revue Politique, FrontPage Magazine.com, The American Thinker, Investor’s Business Daily, and other print and online publications. He is the author of The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims.

FP: Mustafa Akyol, David Aikman, Robert Spencer and Andrew Bostom, welcome to Frontpage Symposium.

Mustafa Akyol, let me begin with you. What do you make of the forced conversions of the two Fox journalists and with the Gadahn calls for the conversions of the people he named?

As a Muslim, how do you regard these events?

Akyol: First, greetings to all participants and readers of this symposium. And thanks for having me.

This is an important topic and, as a Muslim, my position is clear: I am absolutely against the concept of forced conversion, which I believe is in opposition to the basic principles of the Qur'an. The verse you mentioned -- “There is no compulsion in religion” (2:256) -- is very clear and there are also other ones, such as, "It is the truth from your Lord; so let whoever wishes have faith and whoever wishes be unbeliever." (18:29) There is nothing in the Qur'an which would justify a forced conversion to Islam. Indeed a purely Qur'anic Muslim view should cherish full religious freedom.

However, the post-Qur'anic Islamic literature is not so friendly to religious freedom. The hadiths and the jurists' opinions based on them added a lot of extra rules and regulations due to the political needs of the early Islamic empire. The ban on apostasy was such a post-Qur'anic rule that I think we Muslims should abandon right away. People should have the right to leave Islam and choose other religions if they decide to do so.

However, forced conversion is something that goes even beyond the mainstream post-Qur'anic orthodoxy, whether it is Sunni or Shiite. Although pagan Arabs weren't tolerated and were forced to convert, the Sunni orthodoxy accepted that Christians and Jews (and later, Hindus and Buddhists) had the right to keep their faith by accepting the dhimmi ("protected") status.

Therefore I think the Palestinian militants who forced those two kidnapped Fox News reporters Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig did something terribly wrong. From a purely Qur'anic point of view, that's totally unacceptable. Even from a Sunni Orthodoxy view, that's very hard to justify. It is also stupid: How can you think that you can make someone a sincere Muslim by pointing a gun at him?

Or maybe it was not that stupid. Those militants might have been seeking not a genuine conversion, but a political show. They might have wished to give the message that they are powerful and they can force Westerners to accept what they want, and even transform their identity. In other words, their focus seems not to direct people to what we Muslims believe to be a path to God, but to recruit them into their tribe. This tribal mentality lies beneath much of the assaults against religious freedom in the Muslim world, but it is not what the Qur'an commends.

The al-Qaeda call to American writers like Mr. Spencer seems to be a political show of the same sort. It is in fact a good thing to invite people to Islam from my point of view, but hearing a call to Islam directed to Americans by al-Qaeda, a terrorist organization which has killed thousands of innocent Americans up to now, is like a joke. If they were serious about it, what they should have done was to establish an Islamic cultural center in the Twin Towers -- not to blow them up.

FP: Robert Spencer?

Spencer: While I applaud Mustafa Akyol’s endeavor to construct an Islam free from “hadiths and the jurists' opinions,” unfortunately those traditions and rulings are normative for the overwhelming majority of Muslims worldwide. Since many of these ahadith are attributed to Muhammad himself and are found in hadith collections generally considered reliable by Muslims (such as Bukhari’s), it is extremely difficult to convince orthodox Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims to dismiss them. For them, the ban on apostasy from Islam is not just a “post-Qur'anic rule,” but a supreme evil, as it was regarded, according to many ahadith, by Muhammad himself.

When he was master of Medina, some livestock herders came to the city and accepted Islam. But they disliked Medina’s climate, so Muhammad gave them some camels and a shepherd; once away from Medina, the herders killed the shepherd, released the camels and renounced Islam. Muhammad had them pursued. When they were caught, he ordered that their hands and feet be amputated (in accord with Qur’an 5:33, which directs that those who cause “corruption in the land” be punished by the amputation of their hands and feet on opposite sides) and their eyes put out with heated iron bars, and that they be left in the desert to die. Their pleas for water, he ordered, must be refused (Bukhari 8.82.794-797; 9.83.37).

The traditions are clear that one of the main reasons that the punishment was so severe was because these men had been Muslims but had “turned renegade.” Muhammad legislated for his community that no Muslim could be put to death except for murder, unlawful sexual intercourse, and apostasy (Bukhari 9.83.17). He said flatly: “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him” (Bukhari 9.84.57). These words are obviously taken with utmost seriousness around the Islamic world, as we saw in Afghanistan during the Abdul Rahman case – which was by no means an isolated incident. Some Muslim authorities even argue that, aside from the Hadith, the Qur’an itself mandates death for apostates when it says: “if they turn renegades, seize them and slay them wherever ye find them” (4:89).

As for forced conversion, it is likewise unfortunately unclear among Muslims that what happened to Centanni and Wiig was, in Akyol’s optimistic words, “from a purely Qur'anic point of view…totally unacceptable” and “from a Sunni Orthodoxy view…very hard to justify.” Islamic law forbids forced conversion, but in Islamic history this law has all too often been honored in the breach. More significantly, Islamic law regarding the presentation of Islam to non-Muslims manifests a quite different understanding of what constitutes freedom from coercion and freedom of conscience from that which prevails among non-Muslims. Muhammad instructed his followers to call people to Islam before waging war against them – the warfare would follow from their refusal to accept Islam or to enter the Islamic social order as inferiors, required to pay a special tax:

Fight in the name of Allah and in the way of Allah. Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war…When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to three courses of action. If they respond to any one of these, you also accept it and withhold yourself from doing them any harm. Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them….If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya [the tax on non-Muslims specified in Qur’an 9:29]. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah’s help and fight them. (Sahih Muslim 4294)

There is therefore an inescapable threat in this “invitation” to accept Islam. Would one who converted to Islam under the threat of war be considered to have converted under duress? By non-Muslim standards, yes, but not according to the view of this Islamic tradition. From the standpoint of the traditional schools of Islamic jurisprudence such a conversion would have resulted from “no compulsion.”

Muhammad reinforced these instructions on many occasions during his prophetic career. Late in his career, he wrote to Heraclius, the Eastern Roman Emperor in Constantinople:

Now then, I invite you to Islam (i.e., surrender to Allah), embrace Islam and you will be safe; embrace Islam and Allah will bestow on you a double reward. But if you reject this invitation of Islam, you shall be responsible for misguiding the peasants (i.e., your nation). (Bukhari, 4.52.191).

Heraclius did not accept Islam, and soon the Byzantines would know well that the warriors of jihad indeed granted no safety to those who rejected their “invitation.”

Muhammad did not limit his veiled threat only to rulers. Another hadith records that on one occasion he emerged from a mosque and told his men, “Let us go to the Jews.” Upon arriving at a nearby Arabian Jewish community, Muhammad told them: “If you embrace Islam, you will be safe. You should know that the earth belongs to Allah and His Apostle, and I want to expel you from this land. So, if anyone amongst you owns some property, he is permitted to sell it, otherwise you should know that the Earth belongs to Allah and His Apostle” (Bukhari, 4.53.392). In other words, if you accept Islam, you may keep your land and property, but if not, Muhammad and the Muslims would confiscate it.

Would someone who converted in the face of such a threat be considered to have been forced by Islamic jurists? No – and therein lies the reason why the conversions of Centanni and Wiig could be presented by their captors as uncoerced, in the teeth of the evidence.

This, too, has a foundation in the Qur’an. Sura 9:29 says: “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book [that is, Jews and Christians], until they pay the Jizya [a special tax levied only on non-Muslims] with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.” This verse does not force conversion, but it did in Islamic history become the foundation of an elaborate legal system, the dhimma (to which Akyol refers). This system ensured that non-Muslims would “feel themselves subdued” by mandating a series of humiliating and discriminatory regulations that institutionalized second-class status for non-Muslims in Islamic societies. As the schools of Islamic jurisprudence developed, they constructed upon various ahadith and passages of the Qur’an a legal structure for the treatment of non-Muslims.

The features of this remained remarkably consistent across the centuries, and among all the legal schools. Consider the contemporary Saudi Sheikh Marzouq Salem Al-Ghamdi, who several years ago explained in a sermon the terms in which an Islamic society should tolerate the presence of non-Muslims in its midst:

If the infidels live among the Muslims, in accordance with the conditions set out by the Prophet — there is nothing wrong with it provided they pay Jizya to the Islamic treasury. Other conditions are . . . that they do not renovate a church or a monastery, do not rebuild ones that were destroyed, that they feed for three days any Muslim who passes by their homes . . . that they rise when a Muslim wishes to sit, that they do not imitate Muslims in dress and speech, nor ride horses, nor own swords, nor arm themselves with any kind of weapon; that they do not sell wine, do not show the cross, do not ring church bells, do not raise their voices during prayer, that they shave their hair in front so as to make them easily identifiable, do not incite anyone against the Muslims, and do not strike a Muslim….If they violate these conditions, they have no protection.[i]

In this the Sheikh is merely repeating the classic terms of Islamic jurisprudence for the treatment of non-Muslims in Islamic societies – and he explicitly links these terms to Muhammad’s example. The second-class status for Christians and Jews, mandated by Qur’an 9:29’s stipulation that they “feel themselves subdued,” was first fully articulated by Muhammad’s lieutenant Umar during his caliphate (634 to 644), in terms strikingly similar to those used by Sheikh Marzouq. The Christians making this pact with Umar pledged:

We made a condition on ourselves that we will neither erect in our areas a monastery, church, or a sanctuary for a monk, nor restore any place of worship that needs restoration nor use any of them for the purpose of enmity against Muslims….We will not . . . prevent any of our fellows from embracing Islam, if they choose to do so. We will respect Muslims, move from the places we sit in if they choose to sit in them. We will not imitate their clothing, caps, turbans, sandals, hairstyles, speech, nicknames and title names, or ride on saddles, hang swords on the shoulders, collect weapons of any kind or carry these weapons…. We will not encrypt our stamps in Arabic, or sell liquor. We will have the front of our hair cut, wear our customary clothes wherever we are, wear belts around our waist, refrain from erecting crosses on the outside of our churches and demonstrating them and our books in public in Muslim fairways and markets. We will not sound the bells in our churches, except discreetly, or raise our voices while reciting our holy books inside our churches in the presence of Muslims. . . .

After these and other rules are fully laid out, the agreement concludes: “These are the conditions that we set against ourselves and followers of our religion in return for safety and protection. If we break any of these promises that we set for your benefit against ourselves, then our Dhimmah (promise of protection) is broken and you are allowed to do with us what you are allowed of people of defiance and rebellion.”[ii]

All this does not add up to forced conversion, but many times in Islamic history it has made living as a non-Muslim so burdensome and onerous that conversion to Islam became the only path to a better life. Coerced? Perhaps not. But the line between coercion and free choice is in this case exceedingly fine.

FP: David Aikman?

Aikman: I applaud Mustafa Akyol's denunciation of the forced conversion of Fox newsmen Centanni and Wiig, but I fear that Mr. Akyol's humane disgust with conversion at the end of a gun-barrel is largely because he has benefited from having grown up in modern Turkey, which, since its founding in the 20th century by Attaturk, has been blessed by a secular state and not an Islamic one. If Mr. Akyol were resident in many other Muslim countries around the world, he would at best be repudiated for the un-shariah approach to the issue he expressed in this forum, at worst threatened with physical harm or death.

Mr. Robert Spencer, a specialist on Islamic attitudes in history towards people of non-Islamic faith, has put the case expertly and eloquently that the overwhelming weight of the Islamic tradition in practice has been to subject conquered non-Muslims to unconscionable humiliations in the way they are permitted to practice their faiths, humiliations that amount to coercion to convert to Islam. I certainly have nothing to add to his historical arguments. I think they are very persuasive.

What I do wish to address is what this new, threatening component in the discourse of Islamic militants means for the whole of the human race. It amounts to a war for a totalitarian control not just of its adversaries all over the world, but of the world as a whole. It aspires to coerce the entire world into conversion to Islam or into the humiliating acceptance of "dhimmi" status. In effect, Al Qaeda and all who support it are waging a war not just on the West, not just on the remains of a Christendom almost fatally weakened by political correctness and notions of moral equivalence, but on global civilization itself. Terrorist strikes and plots by advocates of global jihad have been committed or plotted in a variety of countries that makes little sense from the perspective of their various political positions. From England to Indonesia, from Canada to India, from the US to Spain, there have been terrorist plots and outrages, even though in regard to policies towards the Middle East, many of these states have been at odds with each other. But that has not protected them from the jihadist scourge. The reason is that their governments have all shared the view that in the modern world civilized life requires the free movement of commerce and people, of communications and ideas. All of these nations, indeed, except Indonesia, have been signatories of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations in 1948. Even Indonesia, however, is not an officially Islamic state. Article 18 of the Universal Declaration states that "everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, or religion." By extension that has been accepted by signatory states as implying also the freedom of their citizens to change religious belief without penalty or punishment.

In our modern world even those countries still ruled by one-party political systems such as China or Cuba had paid lip-service to the view that freedom of conscience and religious belief is inviolable. China itself has flatly repudiated that period of its recent history when, during the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976, a nation-wide attempt was made to suppress all manifestations of religious faith. Though China is not fully free by most criteria of political democracy, it is no longer a totalitarian society and has already moved far away from totalitarian state control of all areas of private life. Other countries have problems of pressure on ordinary citizens by adherents of one religion or another not to change religion (India and Sri Lanka, among others) but the overwhelming direction of global civilization is away from religious coercion, not towards it.

It is only in the Islamic world that there is broad sympathy for a point of view that the individual conscience is not a sacred thing at all and does not even belong to the individual, but to the Muslim-controlled community in which the individual is located. This is at odds with the entire direction in which, by overwhelming broad consensus, human civilization as a whole is moving. In effect, Islamic coercion of personal religious conscience is not an example of the "clash of civilizations," but of a war waged by desperate fanatics upon civilization itself. I will leave it to scholars of the early years of Islam to debate whether this war upon the human conscience was the intention of early Islam or not. But that it is the goal of Al Qaeda and practitioners of Islamofascism around the world, there can be no doubt. Mr. Gadahn, the Californian voice of Al Qaeda, may issue his sneering threats to President Bush, or Dr. Daniel Pipes, or to my forum colleague Mr. Robert Spencer and others. But I predict that, when this new totalitarian challenge to global civilization has been overcome, Mr. Gadahn's blustering will be recalled as a historical footnote, like the blusterings after the defeat of Japan during World War 2 of "Tokyo Rose".

Here comes the final part of Fjordman's insightful and courageous Eurabia Code essay series. First three parts:

The Eurabia Code, Part I

The Eurabia Code, Part 2

The Eurabia Code, Part 3

The Eurabia Code in its entirety can be read here.

This essay, or parts of it, can be freely republished by anybody who wants to, as long as Fjordman is credited as the author.

The European Union gave the Palestinians $342.8 million in aid in 2005 — or, more accurately, $612.15 million when assistance from the 25 EU governments is included. Even the United States has repeatedly donated millions of American tax dollars to the Palestinian Authority, though not at EU levels. In July 2005, as a response to the Islamic terrorist attacks on London a few days earlier, leaders of the G8, the group of influential industrialized nations, offered the PA some $9 billion, dubbed an "alternative to the hatred."

The West's largesse continued despite a demographic study in 2005 which revealed that the number showing the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza had been inflated by 50% by the government.

Almost all of the new infrastructure in the Palestinian territories from the beginning of the Oslo Peace Process in the 1990s — schools, hospitals, airports — were arranged and paid for by Brussels. As Jihad was once again unleashed with the second Intifada in 2000, Israel stopped its transfer of payments to the Palestinians. So the EU stepped in with another 10 million Euros a month in direct budgetary assistance to the Palestinian Authority. EU Commissioner for External Affairs Chris Patten stated in 2002 that "there is no case for stating that EU money has financed terrorism, has financed the purchase of weapons, or any similar activities."

However, a report by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies later found that: "There is indisputable evidence that PA money has been used to fund terrorist activities." This was confirmed by Fuad Shubaki, who used to serve as the finance chief in the Palestinian security forces. According to him, former Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat ordered millions of dollars, taken from international aid funds, tax money transferred by Israel and from Arab countries, to be used to purchase weapons and ammunition, including the 50 tons of armaments on board the ship Karine A. The transaction was coordinated between the PA, Hizballah in Lebanon and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

In May 2006, Mahmoud Abbas — President of the Palestinian Authority after Arafat's death in November 2004 and a leading politician in Fatah — talked to the European Parliament about the peace process. At the same time, the al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah, threatened to strike at US and European economic and civilian interests in response to international sanctions on the PA. Financial support evokes no gratitude in the Palestinians. However, they will threaten you with violence if aid is not forthcoming. This is plainly extortion.

This shakedown corresponds to the Muslims' view of the Jizya, the tributary tax paid by non-Muslims in exchange for not being killed. Documents from the Euro-Arab Dialogue frequently mention about "financial assistance" from the EU to Arab countries. Bat Ye'or points out that some of this Jizya tax is extracted from Europeans without their awareness.

In November 2005, the EU's official financial watchdog refused to approve the EU's accounts for the 11th year in a row because they were so full of fraud and errors. The European Court of Auditors refused to give a statement of assurance on the EU's $160.3 billion budget for 2004. "The vast majority of the payment budget was again materially affected by errors of legality and regularity," it said. It specifically refused to approve the budgets for the EU's foreign policy and aid programs, many of which are geared towards Arab countries. Half the project budgets approved by the European Commission were inadequately monitored. The European Commission is considered the EU's "government," and thus the government of nearly half a billion people. But it can release accounts with massive flaws for over a decade straight because it is largely unaccountable to anybody and was intended to be that way.

Muslims use deception to advance Jihad until it is almost too late for the infidels to stop them. The EU federalists and Eurabians have taken
a page out of the Islamic playbook, and have been approaching their goals by stealth for decades, buried beneath a mass of detail and technocratic newspeak all but incomprehensible to non-bureaucrats. In a frank moment, Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg's prime minister, once described the EU's "system" in this way: "We decide on something, leave it lying around and wait and see what happens," he explained. "If no one kicks up a fuss, because most people don't understand what has been decided, we continue step by step until there is no turning back."

In The Economist, columnist Charlemagne writes: "What Mr Juncker and those who think like him are trying to do is, in essence, to drown opposition to European federation in a mass of technical detail, to bore people into submission. As a strategy, it has gone a long way. [My emphasis] The greatest single transfer of sovereignty from Europe's nations to the European Union took place, in 1985, as part of the project to create a single European market. Even [British Conservative PM] Margaret Thatcher, not usually slow to spot a trick, later claimed that she had not fully appreciated the ramifications of what she was then signing up to."

Writer Christopher Booker has called this the EU's "culture of deceit":

"What in fact has been taking place has been a transfer of power (…) to Brussels on a scale amounting to the greatest constitutional revolution in our history. But much of this has remained buried from view because our politicians like to preserve the illusion that they are still in charge. The result is that remarkably few people now have any proper understanding of how the political system which rules our lives actually works."

I have used the term "neo-Feudalism" to describe the EU. There are definitely certain elite groups in Europe who think that everything that's wrong with Europe is because of "populism" — what others call democracy. The motive force behind the EU aims to cede national sovereignty to a new ruling class of bureaucrats, a new aristocracy. This is a throwback to the pre-democratic age. Karl Zinsmeister notes that: "The EU apparatus is exceedingly closed and secretive. Relatively few of the confederation's important decisions are currently made by democratically accountable officials. On front after front, bureaucratic mandarins are deciding how everyday Europeans will live. … Many Europeans, in a way Americans find impossible to understand, are willing to let their elites lead them by the nose. There is a kind of peasant mentality under which their "betters" are allowed to make the important national judgments for them."

More dhimmis put in their place. From Compass Direct, with thanks to A Girl Scout:

October 18 (Compass Direct News) – Eritrean security police tortured two Christians to death yesterday, two days after arresting them for holding a religious service in a private home south of Asmara.

The deaths came just after officials detained a U.S. citizen and re-imprisoned a popular Christian singer who was hospitalized as a result of spending 29 months in a metal shipping container.

Immanuel Andegergesh, 23, and Kibrom Firemichel, 30, died from torture wounds and severe dehydration in a military camp outside the town of Adi-Quala, eyewitnesses told Compass.

The military buried the two unmarried men yesterday in the southern Eritrean town near the Ethiopian border, where they had been performing their military service.

Andegergesh and Firemichel were arrested on Sunday (October 15), along with 10 other Christians, while attending a worship service in the home of Teklezgi Asgerdom.

The three women and seven men, all members of the evangelical Rema Church, were kept in military confinement, along with Andegergesh and Firemichel, and subjected to “furious mistreatment,” one source said.

The fate of the 10 other Christians remains unknown./blockquote>

Another genocidal prediction from the Thug-In-Chief. From AFP, :

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called Israel a "counterfeit and illegitimate regime that cannot survive", in a live broadcast on state television.

"The Zionist regime is counterfeit and illegitimate and cannot survive," he said in a speech to a crowd in the town of Islamshahr in southwestern Tehran.

"The big powers have created this fraud regime and allowed it to commit all kind of crimes to guarantee their interests," he added.

Jihad Watch reader James has pointed out to me that Amazon.com allows customers to add tag words or phrases to books. Here's one for my book The Truth About Muhammad: "behead-this-guy."

Does Amazon allow death threat tag lines?

UPDATE: As of now, 4:15 AM PDT, the tag has been removed.

The intifada continues in France, while the world looks the other way, French authorities are apparently paralyzed, and the media still employs transparent euphemisms rather than ask readers to confront unpleasant realities. "Eight youths arrested for assault on French policemen," from AFP, with thanks to Fjordman:

PARIS, Oct 19, 2006 (AFP) - French police on Thursday arrested eight youths in a tough Paris suburb over the ambush last week of three police officers, one of whom suffered serious facial injuries.

The suspects, aged 17 to 21, identified by their fingerprints, were taken into custody and face possible charges of attempted murder with premeditation over the attack in the southern 'banlieue' of Epinay-sur-Seine, police said.

Friday's incident, in which a police patrol car was set upon by around 30 youths with stones and metal bars, was the third in as many weeks in the Paris area, prompting a chorus of alarm from police unions.

Serious clashes have also occurred at the Les Tartarets estate in Corbeil-Essonnes and at Les Mureaux, in the western Paris outskirts — sparking high profile police raids to root out the suspects.

The pre-dawn operation in Epinay, carried out by plain-clothes officers, was lower key than the previous operations, which critics accused of dangerously fuelling tensions with the local population....

Almost a year after France's suburban riots, sparked on October 27 last year, police have warned the latest attacks could herald a new upsurge of violence in the country's high-immigration, out-of-city estates.

Thousands of cars and hundreds of buildings were torched last year in three weeks of nightly confrontations....

The English-language daily Tehran Times, quoting political scientist Hassan Nurani, said the influence of the late Imam Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution on the Palestinian cause is very obvious.

The ideas of Imam Khomeini reinforced the Palestinians' determination to liberate their homeland and led to the formation of the Islamic Jihad movement of Palestine, he underlined. – from this Islamic Republic News Agency story

The wrong lesson to draw from this is that there is nothing important dividing Sunni and Shi'a. There is, and there has been for 1350 years, and because of Sunni persecution and murder of Shi'a, Shi'a resentment has grown. Through assorted accidents, the Shi'a in Iran and Iraq, while hardly sharing the same views on everything, do share an interest on protecting themselves from being attacked by or subjugated within Sunni Arab states.

What the story above illustrates is what we already knew: that the Shi'a of Iran are not, pace Gerecht and other admirers of Sistani and "the Shi'a" at My Weekly Standard, less fervent than Sunnis in their opposition to the sliver of a state controlled by Infidels -- Israel. And anti-Infidel fervor, the Islamic Republic of Iran feels, can be used to win the allegiance not of the Sunni Arab rulers, who are suspicious of their attentions, but of the Sunni Arab ruled.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 -- A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today called on the government of Tunisia to respect the religious rights of women in that nation who choose to wear an Islamic headscarf, or "hijab."

Media reports indicate that Tunisian police are stopping women on the streets and asking them to take off their headscarves and to sign a pledge that they will not wear a scarf again. A 1981 Tunisian law prohibits Islamic attire in schools or government offices. -- from this CAIR press release

Tunisia is a police state, but a police state largely dedicated to constraining Islam. It was Bourguiba and his Destour Party who ruled Tunisia at and since independence. Bourguiba was, when it came to treatment of Infidels, far superior than were other Muslim leaders outside of Turkey. But it remains a state where Islam can only be constrained, and it cannot be constrained in all ways.

Of course Tunisia's foreign policy reflects the general unappeasable hostility toward Israel. Indeed, even Abdelwahhab Meddeb, the Tunisian-born student of Islam who has been so keenly critical of Islam, continues to hold violently anti-Israel views -- those views continue to linger among many who no longer remain loyal Muslims, those attitudes are among the last thing to go), and it was in Tunisia that the PLO found its refuge after Beirut.

WHAT: Muslim Brotherhood Official to Visit NYU Law School's Center on Law and Security WHEN: Thursday, October 19, at 6:00 pm WHERE: NYU School of Law, Vanderbilt Hall, 40 Washington Sq. South CONTACT: Journalists wishing to attend the Open Forum should contact the Center on Law and Security at 212-992-8854 or email cls@juris.law.nyu.edu.

The forum will be moderated by Peter Bergen, fellow at the Center on Law and Security, CNN terrorism analyst, and author of The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of Al Qaeda's Leader. The panelists will be:

Dr. Abd El Monem Abo El Fotouh, senior member of Muslim Brotherhood Guidance Council and general secretary of Arabic Medical Union.

Dr. Alexis Debat, senior fellow at the Nixon Center and senior consultant to ABC News. Former advisor to the French Minister of Defense on Transatlantic Affairs and currently writing a study on the Muslim Brotherhood.

Nick Fielding, author of Masterminds of Terror: The Truth Behind the Most Devastating Attack the World Has Ever Seen, and former senior reporter at the Sunday Times (London). -- From a press release

The whole thing was, in the topics and guests, scarcely a step up, in its import, than any of those Interfaith Gatherings with which we are familiar. There the Muslims present their own views, heavily laced with taqiyya, turn aside questioning with another dose of the same, fortified with tu-quoque, and a good time is had by all. And nothing whatsoever of real substance comes out, or is learned by the innocent Infidels.

This grand affair was conducted by Peter Bergen, famous for having interviewed Osama bin Laden, and therefore for being a "terrorism" expert. That, of course, does not make him an expert on all the other, much more important things one needs to know about -- the tenets of Islam and the attitudes to which those tenets naturally give rise, Jihad and the dhimmi system, the varied instruments of Jihad and, finally, the internal weaknesses within the Camp of Islam that might usefully be exploited in order to defend the non-Muslim world.

Little and late. Nor does the report apparently take any notice of the now well-documented fact that Hizballah deliberately operated from civilian areas in order to provoke attacks they could use for propaganda, while Hizballah deliberately targeted Israeli civilians. "Report: Hizbullah used cluster bombs," by Hilary Leila Krieger for the Jerusalem Post, with thanks to Rosie:

Human Rights Watch condemned Hizbullah on Thursday for using cluster bombs on an estimated 113 occasions during this summer's war, according to research performed by the NGO's investigators.

Thursday's announcement also repeats earlier criticisms of Israel's firing of what the UN has estimated to be four million cluster bombs and submunitions.

"We are disturbed to discover that not only Israel but also Hizbullah used cluster munitions in their recent conflict, at a time when many countries are turning away from this kind of weapon precisely because of its impact on civilians," said Steve Goose, director of Human Rights Watch's Arms Division.

HRW spoke to people in the Israeli Druse village of Mughar whose family members - civilians - were wounded by Hizbullah's cluster bombing, as well as with Israel Police officials.

The NGO argued that the use of cluster bombs violated international law by not adequately distinguishing between combatants and civilians.

"Use of cluster bombs is never justified in civilian-populated areas because they are inaccurate and unreliable," Goose asserted.

Gerald Steinberg of NGO Watch questioned why it had taken Human Rights Watch three months to discover Hizbullah's tactic when it reported on Israel's use of cluster bombs much earlier.

"By putting out this report at such as late date basically you are saying they don't think it's very important," said Steinberg. "This report on Hizbullah's use of cluster weapons is far too little, far too late to undo the damage they did by one-sided condemnations of Israel over the last three months."

He said that HRW's only comprehensive report on the war had focused on alleged Israeli violations, as had the vast majority of its approximately 30 press releases on the conflict.

You'd think that with all their appalling efforts to do apparently anything to accommodate Muslim sensibilities, they would get a break from Al-Qaeda. What they don't realize is that all that accommodation only emboldens the jihadists. From the Daily Mail, with thanks to Mackie:

Britain has become the main target of al Qaeda, which views the July 7 bombings as the beginning of its campaign in this country, security sources have warned.

Counter-terrorist officials claim the terrorist network has "regrouped" and presents a greater threat than ever before.

According to the officials, al Qaeda has re-established its organisation in Pakistan and is ready to unleash another major attack on Britain.

One security source told the Guardian the organisation saw last year's London bombings as "just the beginning", adding: "Al Qaeda sees the UK as a massive opportunity to cause loss of life and embarrassment to the authorities."

They ought to be embarrassed enough already.

Well, this explains a lot. "Terror suspect contributed to school 'religion guidelines': Issued by Clinton, rules let students pray to Allah, but banish Christmas," by Bob Unruh for WorldNetDaily.com (thanks to Davida):

A man arrested as a terror suspect for allegedly trying to transport $340,000 from a group tied to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, and who reputedly had connections to Osama bin Laden, helped write the "Religious Expression in Public Schools" guidelines issued by President Clinton during his tenure in office.

And that could explain why students at a California school were told as part of their required classes they would become Muslims and pray to Allah – and a federal judge approved that, and why an Oregon school this year is delivering similar lessons to its students, as WND has reported.

Abdurahman Alamoudi, who was president of the American Muslim Council and a supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah, worked with President Clinton and the American Civil Liberties Union when the guidelines, launched by Clinton in 1995, were being developed, according to reports.

Those are the same guidelines that the ACLU's Nadine Strossen referred to for authority when supporting organization lawsuits to restrict Christmas celebrations and the removal of the Nativity from public display, the reports said....

"Today, Christmas and Nativity scenes are outlawed while Clinton's nominee, U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton, recently approved 'Islam: A Simulation' where children learn to become Muslim, recite the Quran, fast for Ramadan and pray to Allah including this prayer: 'In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of Creation, The Compassionate, the Merciful, King of Judgment-day! You alone we worship, and to You alone we pray for help, Guide us to the straight path,'" wrote Jen Shroder, on her BlessedCause.org website.

"The double-standard is shocking, but one need only look at our public school guidelines and who wrote them, with clauses designed to open or close doors at the will of the ACLU, to discover how our nation finds itself in such a dreadful state today," Shroder continued....

Get the whole shameful story from "Camera Obscura: How French TV fudged the death of Mohammed Al Durah" by Richard Landes in The New Republic.

"French TV station wins Palestinian boy libel case," by James Mackenzie for Reuters, with thanks to Warren:

PARIS (Reuters) - Broadcaster France 2 won a libel case on Thursday over accusations it faked a report into the killing of a Palestinian boy whose death in 2000 became a symbol of the uprising known as the second intifada.

The Court of First Instance in Paris ordered Philippe Karsenty, director of Media Ratings, a website that comments on the media, to pay France 2 and its Israel correspondent Charles Enderlin symbolic damages of one euro ($1.25) each.

"Hopefully this decision will end a campaign of defamation that is particularly dangerous because it affects those with a duty to inform the public," Benedicte Amblard, lawyer for France 2, told reporters after the ruling.

The public sector station had said the case was a matter of principle and it had sought no more than symbolic damages.

Karsenty, who was also fined 1,000 euros and told to pay legal costs of 3,000 euros, said he would appeal the decision.

"It is a very somber day for France. The French justice system has validated a false report," he told reporters after the decision. "We are going to appeal straight away. It is a very surprising judgment."

Many Westerners still believe that the global jihad will founder in the face of the many lures and pleasures of the contemporary relativist materialism that comes from the West. Here is more evidence that that isn't so: a man who forsook Canada in order to live amid the danger and poverty of Somalia, dedicating his life to bringing Islamic law there. "Canadian among Islamists: Toronto man 'key player' with group in Somalia," by Stewart Bell in the National Post, :

TORONTO - A Somali-Canadian businessman is a "key player" in an emerging armed Islamic group that some describe as Africa's Taliban, sources have told the National Post.

Former Toronto resident Abdullahi Ali Afrah, who goes by the nickname Aspro, holds a senior position in the consultative council of Somalia's hardline Islamic Courts Union.

As second deputy chairman, he reports to Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who is on Canadian and United Nations lists of designated terrorists and was a founding member of the outlawed terror group Al-Ittihad Al-Islam (AIAI).

Mr. Ali Afrah is one of several members of the Toronto and Ottawa Somali-Canadian communities who have reportedly returned to their homeland and joined the Islamic Courts, either in leadership and support roles or as fighters in armed militias.

Backed by its militias, the Islamic Courts have captured Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, and much of the south from clan warlords since June, replacing lawlessness with strict Taliban-like rule....

A native of Mogadishu, Mr. Ali Afrah moved to Toronto in the 1980s and became a Canadian citizen.

Hamas is shocked! -- shocked! -- that anyone opposes their nifty family-friendly program of murder. After all, even mom and sis and the kids can join in. "Hamas 'shocked' by global opposition," by Nidal al-Mughrabi for Reuters, with thanks to Doc Washburn:

GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas, the Islamist group that runs the Palestinian government, said on Thursday it could never have imagined the vast international pressure it would come under after winning democratic elections earlier this year.

In a candid article published in the Palestinian press, Ahmed Youssef, a political adviser to Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, said the group had been shocked by the strength of opposition to its electoral victory.

"It went beyond all imagination," wrote Youssef.

"The government ... did not expect the pressures and the siege imposed on our people would be so harsh, so strong and so large in scale."

Youssef's is the latest in a series of articles by Hamas officials in recent weeks either seeking to explain themselves or calling on the Palestinian community to refrain from violence and think more carefully about how it opposes Israel.

Hamas, a staunchly religious and militant movement, won a surprise victory in elections in January, defeating the long-dominant Fatah movement, a more moderate and secular party headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas....

"Staunchly religious." Of course there is nothing in this Reuters article about Hamas' "glory record" of murders of Israeli civilians.

Aishah Azmi, so we're told

Hey, if hurt feelings are this lucrative, I'm starting to feel a little bit picked-on myself. After all, I get death threats and assaults on my good name and character on a regular basis, just for speaking honestly about the nature of Islam and jihad. Isn't that worth a few pounds? (But of course, in reality the only feelings that are worthy of monetary soothing are those of Britain's poor put-upon Muslim community.) An update to this story from the Telegraph, with thanks to A Girl Scout:

The Muslim teaching assistant who sparked a political storm after she refused to remove her veil during lessons, has won her employment tribunal case for victimisation against the school which suspended her but lost her claims for discrimination and harassment. Ms Azmi was awarded £1,000 for "injury to feelings" after she succeeded in her claim of victimisation. But her claims of direct and indirect discrimination, and her claim of harassment, were dismissed.

Kirklees Council suspended Aishah Azmi, 24, after she refused to remove her veil while teaching at Headfield Church of England Junior School in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.

The school said face-to-face communication was essential for Ms Azmi's job as a bilingual support worker. The case fuelled an ongoing debate about the use of the veil and the way that the Muslim community integrates into British society.

In a statement Mrs Azmi said she was considering an appeal against the decision to dismiss three of her claims. "It is clear that discrimination against me has taken place and I am disappointed that the Employment Tribunal has not been able to uphold that part of my claim," she said.

"I am taking the advice of my legal team at Kirklees Law Centre and will be looking to appeal against that decision. However, I am pleased that the tribunal have recognised the victimising way in which the school and the local education authority have handled this matter and the distress that has caused me."

She criticised the political involvement in the issue: "Sadly the intervention of ministers in my case (against the ministerial code) makes me fearful of the consequences for Muslim women in this country who want to work."

Yeah, it's tough. You might actually have to deal with people face-to-face. But look on the bright side, Aishah. You've got a thousand pounds, and I hear that in some countries religious minorities have it even tougher than you do in Britain. That's right! Hard as it may be for you to believe, there are countries in the world today where religious minorities are actually threatened with death for something they had nothing to do with. Some are menaced by violent mobs for not conforming to the norms of the dominant religion. In some places, clergy of minority religions have been brutally murdered for no reason at all by murderers who get off lightly. All you've suffered is some hurt feelings, and now you have a lot of money to blow on new niqabs. All in all, you've come out ahead.

Egypt has had its own ongoing controversy over veiling, and a matter of common sense has taken center stage: the use of the niqab to conceal identity, leading in this case to concerns about men posing as women to gain access to women's-only dormitories. "Muslim preacher threatened with death in veil row," from Gulf News:

Cairo: A female Muslim preacher has been threatened with death for declaring that the niqab (a veil which covers the whole face except for the eyes) is not obligatory.

Suad Saleh, a famous TV preacher and a professor of Islamic jurisprudence at the University of Al Azhar, infuriated Islamists when she told a television programme that wearing the veil was a Bedouin tradition before the emergence of Islam in the seventh century.

"There is no unequivocal text in the Holy Quran that women must cover their faces," she told the private satellite channel TV Dream.

"Meanwhile, the Sunna [the Prophet Mohammad's (PBUH) traditions] show it is legal for women to uncover the face."

An angry male preacher told a mosque congregation in Giza, south of Cairo, that he was ready to kill Saleh for her claim. The man was arrested and quizzed over his alleged threat.

Controversy over the veil in Egypt has escalated over the past few weeks after veiled female students were barred from staying at a university hostel in Cairo. President of the government-run University of Helwan decreed the controversial ban, saying the order was meant to prevent men disguised in the veil from entering the female-only hostel.

Scores of students staged protests, demanding the scrapping of the ban, which they slammed as anti-Islamic.

"The university will not rescind this decision because it would be blamed if a man, covered in the niqab, walked into the female-only dormitories," Mahmoud Refaat, a director at the University of Helwan, said in press remarks.

Meanwhile, MP Ebrahim Zakaria of the Muslim Brotherhood, has lodged a complaint with the Prosecutor-General, demanding investigations into the alleged expulsion of veiled students from government-run universities.

The Muslim Brotherhood is Egypt's largest opposition force, having 88 seats in the 454-member parliament, dominated by the ruling National Democratic Party.

The debate over the niqab in Egypt came shortly after a similar row in the UK where the leader of the House of Commons, Jack Straw, asked Muslim women to remove their veil when he met them in his constituency office.

Philippines Jihad Update from Gulf News: "Britain issues travel warning to Philippines"

Manila: Britain on Tuesday warned that terrorists may be finalising terrorist plots in the Philippines and advised its citizens against traveling to the region.

The advisory came after a series of bombings hit southern Philippines, which police blamed on Al Qaida-linked militants. At least three bombings last week killed more than six people and injured 29 others.

"We believe that terrorists are in the final stages of planning further attacks," a British Embassy advisory said, echoing caution from US and Australian embassies.

It cited possible kidnappings of foreigners in resorts and terrorist attacks against "all forms of public transport: road, rail, sea and air."

Authorities have placed Mindanao under "extreme critical alert" - the highest of a four-step public terror warning.

Police in the capital went on alert Tuesday, with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo urging the public to report suspicious people and activities.

Not long ago a report in Britain criticized the British government for cozying up to "extremists" rather than to "moderate" Muslims. But this is another indication that it is not so easy in Britain to find a "moderate" leader. From Reuters:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States barred a British Muslim leader from flying to New York from London on Thursday morning, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said.

The department's Customs and Border Protection section would not elaborate on why Kamal Helbawy, 67, a founding member of the Muslim Association of Britain, was told by airline staff to get off his flight shortly before it was due to leave London.

"The individual was inadmissible to enter the U.S.," said spokeswoman Kelly Klundt. "I can't speak specifically to this case as to why he was inadmissible."

Helbawy was due to speak on a panel on the Muslim Brotherhood, organized by the Center on Law and Security, an independent think tank based at New York University....

She said people could be denied entry for several reasons including improper travel documents, prohibited activities or intent, smuggling of contraband, criminal activity or history, immigration violations and watch list match or national security concerns.

"The U.S. government's action in this case should not be construed as a blanket U.S. policy against Muslim religious leaders. Indeed hundreds of imams from all over the world have visited and continue to visit the United States," Klundt said.

After all, Ramadan is the "month of jihad." "U.S. says Baghad attacks 'disheartening,'" by Christopher Bodeen for Associated Press:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The two-month-old U.S.-Iraqi bid to crush violence in the Iraqi capital has not met "overall expectations," as attacks in Baghdad rose by 22 percent in the first three weeks of Ramadan, the U.S. military spokesman said Thursday. The spike in bloodshed during the Islamic holy month of fasting was "disheartening" and the Americans were working with Iraqi authorities to "refocus" security measures, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell said.

"In Baghdad, Operation Together Forward has made a difference in the focus areas but has not met our overall expectations in sustaining a reduction in the level of violence," Caldwell said at a weekly news briefing.

The gloomy assessment of the operation, which began Aug. 7 with the deployment of an extra 12,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops, was issued at a time of perceived tension between the United States and the nearly five-month-old government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Caldwell said, for example, that U.S. forces had been forced to release Mazin al-Sa'edi, a top organizer in western Baghdad for radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. He said al-Sa'edi was set free on the demand of al-Maliki after being detained Wednesday with five aides for suspected involvement in Shiite militant violence....

On this week's Jihad Watch segment at Hot Air, I discuss the hot water that Canadian Muslims Farzana Hassan Shahid and Tarek Fatah have gotten into with their coreligionists for deviating even slightly from what John Esposito would probably call The Straight Path.

Friend and Ally Update from AFP:

BARMAL, Afghanistan - Handcuffed and weary, three confessed Taleban fighters told this week how they crossed into Afghanistan from Pakistan to carry out a “jihad” against troops after mullahs said it was their duty as Muslims.

The young men — two Pakistanis and an Afghan — were captured after a fierce five-hour battle in Paktika province Tuesday, just a few kilometres (miles) from the border.

During the battle, 24 of their fellow fighters were killed. The bloodied and broken bodies were later shown to reporters by the Afghan army at a base in Barmal district.

The dead were mostly Afghans but included an Arab, Chechens, Pakistanis, Turks and a man from Yemen, an officer said, citing information from the captured three, identity cards and, in one case, a name on a bullet belt.

“Mullahs in Pakistan were preaching to us that we are obliged to fight jihad in Afghanistan because there are foreign troops — there is an Angriz (British) invasion,” dishevelled Alahuddin told reporters....

Shi'ites will never support Sunnis and vice versa, right? Right? The Palestinian struggle is simply nationalist, right? Right?

"Imam Khomeini's influence on Palestinian resistance undeniable, says political analyst," from the Islamic Republic News Agency:

Imam Khomeini's gret influence on supporters of the Palestinian resistance movement can be gleaned from his designation of the last Friday of the month of Ramadan as World Qods Day, reported an Iranian daily quoting a Palestinian thinker on Thursday.

Qods is the Islamic name for Jerusalem. It means the Holy Place or Holy City.

The English-language daily Tehran Times, quoting political scientist Hassan Nurani, said the influence of the late Imam Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution on the Palestinian cause is very obvious.

The ideas of Imam Khomeini reinforced the Palestinians' determination to liberate their homeland and led to the formation of the Islamic Jihad movement of Palestine, he underlined.

The participation of people all over the world in annual Qods day rallies demonstrates very clearly that the occupation of Palestine is not only the concern of the Palestinian nation but the whole Islamic World, Dr Nurani said.

In 1979, the founder of the Islamic Republic, the late Imam Khomeini, designated the last Friday of the holy fasting month of Ramadan as World Qods Day and called on Muslims worldwide to stage rallies to voice support for the liberation of holy Qods from Israeli occupation forces.

Israel's invasion of Palestine is in fact an "invasion against humanity," Nurani commented.

"The invasion is a violation of the national and religious rights of the Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims. In the same way, it is a violation of human rights," the political analyst stated.

Nurani said the threats against Masjid al-Aqsa are not new.

"But with support from the United States and Britain the Zionists claim that their holy shrine (Temple of Solomon) is located in that place and they want to rebuild it," he said.

"I do not think there would be an easy peaceful solution to this problem because the Zionists insist on their claims and declare Qods to be their eternal capital," added the Palestinian expert.

This suggests that Jewish claims to Jerusalem are trumped-up, while Muslims have a stronger claim. Of course, reality is just the opposite. But the brazen assertion of falsehoods is nothing new for the Islamic Republic News Agency.

It is good to see Jordan doing this, even though it means they are giving more ammunition to those who will charge that the Jordanian government has forsaken Islam and thus must be removed. "Jordan Convicts 8 of Plotting Attacks against Americans," from The Media Line:

Jordan's State Security Court has sentenced eight men to prison terms ranging from two to 10 years after convicting them of plotting terror attacks against Americans and Israelis, the daily Jordan Times reports.

The eight were also convicted of preparing attacks against Iraqi police training centers in Jordan. They planned to form 10 terror cells and called themselves A-Taifa Al-Man'soura (The Victorious Sect), according to the prosecution.

Note the means of recruitment:

"Some of the suspects used the Internet to lecture on jihad and the need to fight Israelis and Christians in any part of the world," the charge sheet added.

Note how strongly CAIR positions this as a matter of religious rights and religious freedom. Very well. Expect them, therefore, forthwith to condemn in the strongest possible terms the idea that non-Muslim students in an Islamic school should be made to wear headscarves. Or perhaps Ibrahim Hooper would be kind enough to explain to me why that is not a matter of religious freedom.

"CAIR Condemns Tunisian Ban on Islamic Headscarves; U.S. Muslim Group Says Ban 'Violates International Human Rights Standards,'" a CAIR press release (thanks to LGF):

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today called on the government of Tunisia to respect the religious rights of women in that nation who choose to wear an Islamic headscarf, or "hijab."

Media reports indicate that Tunisian police are stopping women on the streets and asking them to take off their headscarves and to sign a pledge that they will not wear a scarf again. A 1981 Tunisian law prohibits Islamic attire in schools or government offices.

-- Tunisia Moves Against Headscarves on BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6053380.stm

In a statement, the Washington-based Council on American- Islamic Relations (CAIR) said:

"Freedom of religion should be a valued aspect of any society. People of all faiths must be granted the right to freely practice their religion without government interference or intimidation.

"The Tunisian law banning Islamic attire in certain areas, and the apparent expanded interpretation of that law, violates international human rights standards set forth by the United Nations and ratified by virtually every nation on earth.

"We call on the government of Tunisia to respect the religious rights of its citizens by ending all measures that restrict the wearing of religiously-mandated headscarves. We also call on the U.S. Department of State to use whatever influence it has to convince Tunisian authorities to abide by international norms of religious freedom.

"Tunisia cannot claim to be a free and open society while carrying out such repressive and authoritarian actions."

CAIR's statement noted that Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), a transnational treaty having the weight of international law states: "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion ... (and) to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance."

In the past, CAIR has defended the right to wear Islamic attire in France and Turkey. The council has also defended hijab and other religious rights in American schools and workplaces.

A man who believes that could try anything. After all, he can't lose. Note also that he ties victory to Islamic fervor -- a recurring theme throughout Islamic history. Islam has no theological or conceptual apparatus to deal with defeat other than regarding it as a sign that one's Islamic commitment was not sufficiently strong. "Iran President Ahmadinejad: 'I Have a Connection With God, Since God Said That the Infidels Will Have No Way to Harm the Believers'; 'We Have [Only] One Step Remaining Before We Attain the Summit of Nuclear Technology'; The West 'Will Not Dare To Attack Us,'" from MEMRI:

...The following are the main points of the Iran News report of Ahmadinejad's Iftar speech:(6)

The Second Islamic Revolution

"...I told you that the second wave of the [1979 Islamic] Revolution has already begun [with my election to the presidency in 2005], and that it is bigger and more terrible than the first..."(7)

The Connection to God and the Anticipated Muslim Victory Over the Infidels

"On the nuclear issue, I have said to my friends on many occasions, 'Don't worry. They [i.e. the Westerners] are only making noise.' But my friends don't believe [me], and say, 'You are connected to some place!' I always say: 'Now the West is disarmed vis-à-vis Iran [on the nuclear issue], and does not know how to end this matter [with us].' But my friends say: 'You are uttering divine words! Then they will laugh at us!'

"Believe [me], legally speaking, and in the eyes of public opinion, we have absolutely succeeded. I say this out of knowledge. Someone asked me: 'So and so said that you have a connection.' I said: 'Yes, I have.' He asked me: 'Really, you have a connection? With whom?' I answered: 'I have a connection with God,' since God said that the infidels will have no way to harm the believers. Well, [but] only if we are believers, because God said: You [will be] the victors. But the same friends say that Ahmadinejad says strange things.

"If we are [really] believers, God will show us victory, and this miracle. Is it necessary today for a female camel to emerge from the heart of the mountain so that my friends will accept the miracle?(8) Wasn't the [Islamic] Revolution [enough of] a miracle? Wasn't the Imam [Ayatollah Khomeini] a miracle?... "

[...]

"I say that now, by the grace of God, we have gone most of the way; be confident that they will not dare to attack us."

Read it all.

What does this primer say? AP doesn't tell us. What does it teach about jihad and the subjugation of unbelievers? Do Spanish officials believe that simply teaching about Islam in Spanish will make the problem of jihad and Sharia supremacism disappear? If so, on what basis do they think that?

From The Associated Press:

MADRID, Spain Spain has devised a school textbook it calls unique in Europe — a primer for Muslim first-graders to learn about Islam but do so in the local language and thus not feel like outsiders, officials said Wednesday.

A first run of 15,000 copies of the Spanish-language book "Discovering Islam" was printed as part of the project, said Jose Manuel Lopez, managing director of the Pluralism and Harmony Foundation, which is part of the Justice Ministry. The ministry oversees religious issues.

The book, written by a Spanish Muslim leader and financed by the foundation, was exhibited at the Frankfurt book fair this month and drew keen interest from people in other European countries. The same thing happened when it was formally unveiled in Spain on Tuesday, as representatives of the governments of Germany, France and Italy attended the ceremony, Lopez said.

"Europe has 40 million Muslims and governments don't know what to do to assimilate them," Lopez said in an interview. "This book is a hint."

In other European Union countries with significant Muslim immigrant communities, primers on Islam are written in Arabic or French if they exist at all, Lopez said.

Indeed, in major EU countries such as Britain, France, Germany and Italy, there is nothing equivalent to the book now out in Spain, officials in those nations said.

The idea in Spain is to help Muslim children in public schools learn about their faith in Spanish and thus integrate better into society, Lopez said.

This morning I was in an airport, waiting to board a plane to come to speak at Ohio State University, which I just did. My flight was delayed, so I opened up the laptop and began to work. Not too long after I began, however, I was approached by two very kind but unmistakably forceful policemen. They explained that they had been told that I was looking at a website about jihad, and they'd like to ask me a few questions.

Of course I was able to explain to them that I was on their side, and that was the end of the matter. But there were a few things that I did not do:

1. Complain about the profiling of swarthy men with black beards.
2. Whine about discrimination.
3. Claim that law enforcement had obviously declared open season on anti-jihad activists.
4. Threaten to sue.
5. Call the ACLU.

I'm glad I was questioned. It shows someone was on the ball -- obviously there was no way to tell from a glance at my screen that Jihad Watch is part of the anti-jihad resistance. I'm glad that political correctness and fear of "profiling" didn't keep the police from approaching me.

Muslims who may find themselves subjected to extra scrutiny at airports should, if they have nothing to hide and truly abhor jihad terrorism as we are told again and again that they do in overwhelming numbers, likewise cooperate with alacrity with authorities.

And in the airport next time I will find a seat against the wall.

Even if the threat is empty, it is not issued in vain: it is issued to inspire fear. For that is part of the program of the mujahedin: "Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies, of Allah and your enemies..." (Qur'an 8:60). That this is part, if not all, of the motivation in issuing this threat is indicated by the title, "New Attack on America Be Afraid."

An AP story by Lara Jakes Jordan (thanks to LGF):

WASHINGTON - A Web site is claiming that seven NFL football stadiums will be hit with radiological dirty bombs this weekend, but the government on Wednesday expressed doubts about the threat.

The warning, posted Oct. 12, was part of an ongoing Internet conversation titled "New Attack on America Be Afraid." It mentioned NFL stadiums in New York, Miami, Atlanta, Seattle, Houston, Oakland and Cleveland, where games are scheduled for this weekend.

The Homeland Security Department alerted authorities and stadium owners in those cities, as well as the NFL, of the Web message but said the threat was being viewed "with strong skepticism." Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said there was no intelligence that indicated such an attack was imminent, and that the alert was "out of an abundance of caution."

"The department strongly encourages the public to continue to go about their plans, including attending events that involve large public gatherings such as football games," Knocke said.

UPDATE: Jawa Report has discovered that the threats do not come from a jihadist site, as LGF had initially reported.

In "Out of line: Musharraf Keeps A Wide Gap Between Declarations & Deeds" in The Statesman, Jagmohan, former Governor of Jammu and Kashmir and former Union Minister of Urban Development, Culture and Tourism, feeds the loony conspiracy theorists with the proposition that the jihad -- or more precisely, "an extremely narrow interpretation of Islam" -- is the product of the U.S. and Pakistan. I'm surprised he didn't mention the Zionists, but in any case he rather swiftly contradicts himself.

An extremely narrow interpretation of Islam was formulated and propagated amongst the Afghan Mujahideens by the American and Pakistani policy makers as a part of their war strategy against the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The sole objective was to create a fanatic Islamic zeal in the fight against a “godless nation”. Sophisticated weapons, communications equipment and funds were supplied to them in abundance. A similar approach was adopted by Pakistan in causing large-scale subversion and terrorism in Kashmir from 1989 onwards. This approach was virtually abetted, in the earlier phases, by the United States and other European powers by talking more about the “human right violations” than about the primitive savagery of the militants. All this whetted the appetite of the fanatics and they became so highly motivated and resourceful that they attained the capacity to strike anywhere they chose, be it in New York, New Delhi, Madrid, London, Cairo or Bali. Their tentacles are now practically spread all over the world.

Shades of the fiendish Mr. Yaqub cooking up the white race on Madagascar, a staple of Nation of Islam mythology. But here comes the contradiction:

According to a research study (2004) of the London Institute of International Security, about 18,000 potential Islamist terrorists are functioning in about 60 countries, and “there has been a terrifying jump in terrorist incidents ~ 175 in 2003 to 651 in 2004”. Terrorism has become mega-terrorism, and its sponsors have established strong bases for supply of recruits and their indoctrination. Thousands of madrasas have come up. For example, in Pakistan, there were 137 madrasas with a total enrolment of about 20,000 students in 1947. The number of these madrasas has now swelled to about 10,000 and students to about one and half million. In theory, they are meant for providing free religious education, board and lodging to poor students. But, in practice, a large number of them have become vast breeding grounds for orthodoxy, narrow sectarianism and militancy. They promote the culture of jihad and inject fanaticism in young and impressionable souls.

Now wait a minute, Jagmohan. Breeding grounds for "orthodoxy"? Islamic orthodoxy? But if the jihad ideology that fuels terrorism was created by America and Pakistan, and it's an extremely narrow interpretation of Islam, how could it be "orthodoxy"? Wouldn't orthodox Muslims be fighting against it?

In line with the madrasas are special institutions, like Markaz-e-Dawa al Irshad, Muridke, near Lahore. They run a vast publicity and propaganda machine. For example, the above Markaz’s monthly publication Majallah-al-Dawa, has a circulation of over 400,000. Its weekly ~ Jihad Times ~ has over 200,000 buyers. The madrasas and the special institutions are creating an overall environment which breeds religious fanaticism and violence. No wonder, in 2001-02, there were as many as 58 religious political parties and 24 religious militias in Pakistan.

Amazing that this tiny minority of extremists, proponents of a false Islam created by the United States, have become so numerous and powerful.

Islamic Tolerance Alert from AFP: "Malaysian Hindus protest Muslim warnings on Deepavali"

KUALA LUMPUR - A Hindu group protested Tuesday outside the headquarters of Malaysia’s top Islamic insurer after a company official forbade Muslims from extending traditional holiday greetings to ethnic Indians.

Some 150 demonstrators rejected an apology issued by Takaful Malaysia in a bid to defuse the furore, and demanded it punish the official and educate employees on the different religions practised in multicultural Malaysia.

Fauzi Mustaffar, head of the Islamic law department at Takaful Malaysia, last week issued an email warning Muslim staff to refrain from greeting their Hindu colleagues ahead of this weekend’s Deepavali festival.

Fauzi said because the festival involved the worship of Hindu deities, issuing greetings was against the tenets of Islam.

"The email sent by Takaful is unacceptable, especially in a multi-racial, multi-cultural society like Malaysia," said Charles Santiago, spokesperson for Group of Concerned Citizens, which led the protest.

"There must be policies put in place within Takaful to make sure the same thing does not re-ocurr [sic]. That is when the apology is serious, otherwise it is a joke," he told reporters.

This year, Deepavali, the Hindu festival of lights, falls three days before the Muslim Eid Al Fitr, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.

Malaysians have dubbed the extended holiday season "DeepaRaya", but the melding of the festivals has drawn fire from Muslim leaders, who condemn joint celebrations as blasphemous.

"This is against the tenets of Islam," said top cleric Harussani Zakaria, the mufti from Perak state and also a member of Malaysia’s National Fatwa Council.

"We practise tolerance in our country, but it does not mean that we should celebrate each other’s festivals," he told AFP Monday.

Politicians of both religions are this year holding joint "open houses", where they serve Malay and Indian food at the same table, and joint cultural performances are being staged with Malay and Indian dancers.

There is ample distinction to be made between acknowledging the coinciding holidays and wishing another the best, and in participating in the worship practices of another religion. None of the above events sound like they come anywhere near crossing that line.

The government has downplayed calls from religious groups to review joint celebrations, arguing they are in the interests of maintaining racial harmony in a country dominated by Muslim Malaysians, with Indian and Chinese minorities.

"The Janjaweed don’t make decisions. The orders always come from the government." From AFP: "Sudan training, arming and supporting Janjaweed militia"

LONDON - The Sudanese government is supporting the feared Janjaweed militia, which the United States accuses of genocide against non-Arab ethnic groups in Darfur, the BBC reported on Tuesday.

Citing an interview with a man identified only as ‘Ali’, a former member of the militia who admitted to killing innocent villagers in Darfur, the BBC said that Sudanese soldiers trained Janjaweed militiamen, and that the country’s air force bombed a village before the militia went in to kill villagers.

‘Ali’ served in the militia for two years, and is currently seeking asylum in Britain. The BBC consulted other Darfuri exiles in Britain and presented the interview to a psychologist who studied his interview, all of whom believed him.

‘The people who trained us came from the north, from the government. They gave us orders, and they say that after we are trained, they will give us guns and ammunition. We will be split into two groups -- one on horses, one on camels,’ the man told the broadcaster’s evening current affairs programme.

Asked how he knew the men training him were from the government, ‘Ali’ said: ‘They were wearing the uniforms of the military.’

When asked to name the members of the government who were ordering his forces, the man said that one ‘very well known and regular visitor’ was Sudan’s interior minister -- Abdul Rahim Hussein.

‘I tell you one fact. The Janjaweed don’t make decisions. The orders always come from the government,’ the man added.

‘Ali’ said he was involved in more than 50 attacks on villages, and recalls a specific attack on the village of Janga: ‘The (Sudanese government’s) aircraft went ahead of the janjaweed. We saw the smoke, we saw the fire, then we went in.’

The man also admitted that others in his unit raped women in villages that were attacked: ‘Yes, there are many rapes. But they don’t do it in front of others. They take the victim away and rape her.’

Of course they do. Without four witnesses, the victim has no standing under Sharia law.

Presented with the interview, Britain’s International Development Secretary Hilary Benn, who had himself just returned from Sudan, told the BBC: ‘It’s clearly very serious evidence and what I would urge is ... that that information is passed to the International Criminal Court investigators’.

Sudan on Monday announced a plan to disarm the militia, on the same day a human rights report charged that the huge death toll in the region could have been avoided if the world had learned the lessons of Rwanda.

The second example in as many days of blasphemy charges being leveled against unbelievers in order to gain an upper hand in personal disputes -- in this case, for insulting the Ka'ba.

"A Christian Woman Has Been Accused For Blasphemy in District Renala Khurd," from Pakistan Christian Post:

Lahore: October 14, 2006. Mr. Sohail Johnson, Chief coordinator, Sharing Life Ministry makes initial reports for press that a Chirstian lady named Rani Bibi ... has been accused for passing derogatory remarks against Khana Kahbah.

According to given information a Muslim fellow villager of Rani Bibi, named as Haji Kareem Bukhsh has agricultural land adjoined with Christian family of Rani. A quarrel arose between Haji Kareem and Rani Bibi on 7th October 2006 Saturday, when Haji Kareem cattle went into Rani field. She complained [to] Haji Kareem that his cattle are spoiling her corps [sic]. Haji Kareem in spite of taking his cattle out started taunting and beating her.

Haji Kareem expected that Rani would move application against him. He accused Rani Bibi for passing derogatory remarks against "Khana Kahbah".

Villagers conducted a protest march against Rani Bibi. Haji has been moved a written application for the registration of case.

More detail on the case recently cited by blogger Rusty in calling for a boycott of Indonesia. "Sulawesi Christian priest killed," from the BBC:

A Christian priest has been shot dead on Indonesia's Sulawesi island, where religious tensions are high after the execution of three Catholic militants. The Rev Irianto Kongkoli was shot in the head while shopping in Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi province.

[...]

The Rev Kongkoli was buying construction materials at a shop when he was targeted, a spokesman for the provincial government's information bureau said.

"He had finished bargaining for some tiles when someone called him back into the store. When he entered, two shots were fired at the back of his head," Jethan Towakit told Reuters news agency.

Central Sulawesi governor Bandjela Paliudju told reporters he believed the killing may have been linked to last month's executions.

"He was an outspoken priest who many times led Christian protests against the executions," Mr Paliudju said.

A police investigation is underway. "We need to make sure such killings do not happen again," national police chief Gen Sutanto said.

Yes, you do. But will you?

Abdul Rahman, you may recall, converted from Islam to Christianity and was spirited to Italy when Afghanistan's brave new democratic government determined to obey Muhammad's command to kill those who leave Islam (cf. Bukhari 4.52.260). Now jihadists in Afghanistan are demanding his return in exchange for a kidnapped Italian journalist.

And meanwhile, Islamic apologists in the U.S. blandly claim that Islam has no death penalty for apostasy, and call me "Islamophobic" for pointing out that it actually does (Salam Al-Maryati of MPAC did this to me on the Medved show not long ago, and it has happened elsewhere also). This illustrates the hollowness of the arguments we hear all the time about how we must support self-proclaimed moderate Muslims by refraining from noting the flimsiness and weakness of their presentations. While we're being polite to alleged "reformers," Muslim hardliners are cheerfully implementing the elements of Islamic law that we're nodding our heads and agreeing don't exist.

"Italian's kidnappers set terms for release: website," from AFP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

ROME (AFP) - The kidnappers of an Italian photojournalist in Afghanistan have demanded the return of an Afghan Christian convert living in Italy in exchange for keeping the reporter alive, an Italian online newspaper reported.

The PeaceReporter website said the kidnappers of 36-year-old Gabriele Torsello had made the demand in a telephone call to Italian non-governmental organisation Emergency and had given four days for their demand to be met.

"We want this issue resolved before the end of Ramadan," the PeaceReporter website quoted them as saying. The holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan ends this year on October 24.

Earlier this year Italy granted political asylum to 41-year-old Afghan Abdul Rahman, who faced possible execution under Islamic Sharia law in Afghanistan for converting to Christianity.

Here is one fruit of the general ignorance about and historical whitewashes of dhimmitude. From the Terror Finance blog, with thanks to Gabrielle Goldwater:

Muslim charities and others in support of jihadists in Australia have formed an alliance with church groups sympathetic to their cause, which is proving useful in raising funds and giving legitimacy to the jihadist cause.

In late 2005 John Henderson, secretary general of the National Council of Churches Australia(NCCA) was asked for comment on the evidence presented him of links between Muslim Aid Australia and jihadists organizations, including Al-Qaeda, given the NCCA and Muslim Aid’s joint fund raising efforts for persons in Iraq.

Henderson replied that the NCCA was proud of all the partnerships and associations it had entered into.

In October this year the Council of Churches in the state of Victoria, Australia, commissioned a study authored by Rev Dr Duncan Reid, whose recommendations for building better ties between Muslims and Christians include ” giving advice to Muslims about how to live as Muslims within this wider Australian context, eg how to bank one’s savings in normal banks, in the face of the Muslim ban on charging or receiving interest.”

Dr Rahim Ghouse, business associate the SDGT Yassin Al-Kadi is amongst those whose input Reid acknowledges in his study. Ghouse heads the Muslim Community Co-Operative Australia, the largest sharia compliant financial institution in Australia.

The Columban Mission Society Australia runs the Centre for Christian-Muslim Relations ,whose website included until a recent point in time, links to the Al-Haramaein Charitable Foundation of Saudi Arabia, even after the Centre was advised that that the Foundation had been banned in the US for financing terrorism. The Centre works with a local Muslim organization, the Affinity Inter-cultural Group, to promote better understanding of Islam, despite being advised about Affinity’s support for and links to the Syrian minister Dr Mohamad Al Habash. Al Habash has been denied entry to the US and Australia, and recently called for jihad against Israel.

Read it all.

And charged with sedition Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury Update: "Pro-Israeli editor beaten in Bangladesh," by Michael Freund in the Jerusalem Post, with thanks to LGF:

A Muslim journalist facing charges of sedition for advocating ties with Israel was recently attacked and beaten by a crowd in Bangladesh that allegedly included leading officials of the country's ruling party, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, editor of the Weekly Blitz newspaper, an English-language publication based in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, was working in his office on October 5 when nearly 40 people stormed the premises.

The mob beat Choudhury, leaving him with a fractured ankle, and looted cash that was kept in the company safe. Choudhury was briefly hospitalized.

According to a statement appearing on the Web site of the Weekly Blitz, the attackers were led by Helal Khan, international affairs secretary of Jasas, and included Babul Ahmed, Jasas's secretary-general. Jasas is the cultural wing of the ruling Bangladeshi National Party (BNP).

During the assault, Ahmed is said to have shouted at Choudhury, labeling him an "agent of the Jews."

In a photo taken shortly after the incident that was obtained exclusively by the Post, Choudhury can be seen hunched over a table wearing a torn shirt while a Bangladeshi policeman dressed in blue chats with two BNP officials. Both officials took part in the attack.

No arrests were made, and police refused to allow Choudhury to file charges against his attackers.

As the Post first reported last month, Bangladesh is moving forward with plans to try Choudhury on charges of blasphemy, sedition, treason and espionage in connection with his articles critical of Islamic extremism and favorable to Israel.

Redeker death threats update. "Frenchman held," from The News, with thanks to A Girl Scout:

PARIS: French police are holding a man accused of sending a death threat to a philosophy teacher who was forced into hiding after writing an article critical of Islam, justice officials said on Tuesday. Arrested on Monday in the central city of Orleans, the 25-year-old call-centre employee was held for 24 hours by anti-terrorist investigators, who found no evidence he was linked to a terrorist organisation. Remanded in custody, he faces up to five years in jail for “aggravated threats” over a threatening e-mail he sent last month to Robert Redeker, a 52-year-old father of three who teaches in southwestern Toulouse. Though a practising Muslim, the suspect apparently has no links to Islamic extremism, according to police who said he acted alone out of “hatred” for the author.

In America they would be saying that this wasn't an act of terrorism -- he just hated Redeker. This is more fruit of the massive misapprehension of the jihad, a misapprehension under which we must all labor. This man wants to kill Redeker because in his mind Redeker has insulted Islam and Muhammad, which in Islamic law is a capital offense. That makes him a freelance mujahid like Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar. The lack of ties to terror groups means nothing: he has ties to the ideology that fuels terror.

An update on this story: some in Britain are getting fed up with the pusillanimity and dhimmitude of British officialdom. "Judges blamed as terrorism suspects flee," by Michael Holden for Reuters, :

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Tony Blair blamed judges on Tuesday for watering down security laws after media reports two terrorism suspects had gone on the run.

One of the two escapees, accused of wanting to go to Iraq to fight, went missing two weeks ago after escaping through a window at a London mental health unit. The other disappeared some months earlier.

The revelations threw the spotlight on Blair's controversial anti-terrorism laws introduced after the September 11, 2001, attacks, many of which have fallen foul of the courts where they have been ruled illegal for infringing human rights.

At his monthly press conference on Tuesday, Blair re-opened a simmering feud with the judiciary which he accuses of putting the rights of terrorism suspects above the concerns of fellow Britons.

"We, of course, wanted far tougher laws against terrorism. We were prevented by opposition in parliament and then by the courts in ensuring that was done," he told reporters when questioned about the missing suspects....

So-called control orders were rushed through parliament under last year's Prevention of Terrorism Act after judges threw out emergency post-September 11 powers which allowed the police to jail foreign terrorism suspects indefinitely.

The measures allow the government to limit suspects' movements which often amounts to virtual house arrest.

They are applied to terrorism suspects that Britain is unable to deport due to concerns about possible mistreatment in their homeland or cannot put on trial because there is not enough admissible evidence to use in British courts.

However, in June the High Court ruled these powers broke the European Convention of Human Rights because suspects were deprived of their liberty without a trial.

The two escapees, now being hunted by the police, were thus being held under less stringent control orders.

"I wanted to make sure that the original anti-terrorist legislation was maintained in full," Blair said. "Control orders were never going to be as effective as detention."...

Thai Jihad Update: "Nine killed in wave of shootings in Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat," from Thailand's The Nation:

The deep South has been rocked by a series of killings attributed to Islamic separatists. Six people were shot dead in four separate attacks in Yala.

In neighbouring Narathiwat a suspected Muslim insurgent shot and killed a married couple, while a local official was killed in Pattani, bringing the day's death toll to nine.

The wave of killings began at 7am in Yala's Bannang Sata district when rubber tapper Amnuay Maneebutr was found shot dead on a roadside. Her injured husband Suan Maneebutr, 47, was taken to hospital with gunshot wounds but later died.

Police said two gunmen riding a motorbike opened fire at the couple with a pistol. The two had been aboard a motorcycle on their way home from work....

A Muslim (named Jihad, incidentally) just called in to the Mark Larson Show and insisted, among other things, that Islam forbids suicide, and thus that suicide bombing was condemned by Islam. Jihad, you might want to have a word with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem (who was appointed to the post because he was supposed to be a moderate, replacing a much more inflammatory incumbent, Sheikh Ikrima Sabri).

"New J'lem Mufti endorses suicide bombers: New Grand Mufti of Jerusalem hints that Palestinians have right to resist occupation by any means," by Yaniv Berman in Ynet News, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

On October 15, The Media Line news agency conducted an exclusive interview with the newly appointed Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Lands Sheikh Muhammad Ahmad Hussein. During the interview the mufti said he endorsed the phenomenon of the suicide bombers, as it was part of the Palestinian people's legitimate resistance.... With a Hamas government on the one hand and an angry US on the other, Abbas could not afford an inflammatory figure sitting in the highest religious post. He decided to appoint Sheikh Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, manager and imam of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

'A simple man'

An informed Palestinian source told The Media Line that Hussein was "a simple man, born to a family of humble means." He was chosen by Abbas because of an important quality he had – an ability to avoid controversies. According to the source, Hussein fears to lose all he has gained, and "Abbas knows he will never jeopardize his position."

For three months the new grand mufti followed Abbas' expectations. People who came to listen to him preach on Fridays in Al-Aqsa Mosque never heard him inciting against Israel. His fatwas (religious decrees) also avoided such controversial statements.

Hussein explains that the authority of the grand mufti was wide-ranging.

"We discuss worship, personal issues, economic issues, social issues and political issues – everything which is related to Islam."

Hussein went on to explain that the mufti discusses all aspects of Islam, including politics.

And then he made a surprising comment.

"It is the Palestinian people's right to engage in resistance until the occupation ends. As long as the resistance is legitimate, everything related to it is also legitimate."

Asked to express his view with regard to suicide bombing, the mufti answered: "It is legitimate, of course, as long as it plays a role in the resistance."

Progress. Up to this point Blair has been certain that Islam had no problems at all, but that there was just this pesky Tiny Minority of Extremists that had hijacked the religion. Now for him to be asking if "Islam" -- not "radical Islam" or "hijacked Islam" -- can come to terms with the modern world is momentous. "Prime minister says Britain needs debate about Islam," from Associated Press, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

LONDON Prime Minister Tony Blair said Tuesday that Britain needed a debate about the position of Muslims, but that the faith also needed to decide how it comes to terms with modernity.

At his monthly news conference, Blair said he supported a local school authority's decision to bar a Muslim woman from working as a teacher while wearing a veil.

He said, however, that should be just one issue in a broader debate about "the relationship between our society and how the Muslim community integrates with our society."

"There's a second issues which is about Islam itself, and how Islam comes to terms with and is comfortable with the modern world," Blair said.

Similar debates, he said, were happening around Europe and in the Muslim world.

The New Duranty Times notices the plight of Iraqi Christians that we have been chronicling here for several years now. This is the fruit, of course, of the resurgent jihad in Iraq since the toppling of Saddam Hussein. "Iraq’s Christians Flee as Extremist Threat Worsens," by Michael Luo in the New York Times, with thanks to Epibyzcath:

BAGHDAD, Oct. 16 — The blackened shells of five cars still sit in front of the Church of the Virgin Mary here, stark reminders of a bomb blast that killed two people after a recent Sunday Mass.

In the northern city of Mosul, a priest from the Syriac Orthodox Church was kidnapped last week. His church complied with his captors’ demands and put up posters denouncing recent comments made by the pope about Islam, but he was killed anyway. The police found his beheaded body on Wednesday.

Muslim fury over Pope Benedict XVI’s public reflections on Islam in Germany a month ago — when he quoted a 14th-century Byzantine emperor as calling Islam “evil and inhuman” — has subsided elsewhere, but repercussions continue to reverberate in Iraq, bringing a new level of threat to an already shrinking Christian population.

Several extremist groups threatened to kill all Christians unless the pope apologized. Sunni and Shiite clerics united in the condemnation, calling the comments an insult to Islam and the Prophet Muhammad. In Baghdad, many churches canceled services after receiving threats. Some have not met since.

“After the pope’s statement, people began to fear much more than before,” said the Rev. Zayya Edward Khossaba, the pastor of the Church of the Virgin Mary. “The actions by fanatics have increased against Christians.”

Read it all.

Conservative Book Club Editor Elizabeth Kantor interviews me about The Truth About Muhammad:

You're now the author of several books about Islam. Did your research for The Truth about Muhammad turn up anything new? If readers have already bought The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and tens of thousands of them have), why do should they read this book?

This book differs markedly from The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and my other books in that, instead of focusing on aspects of Islamic history and theology and their use by contemporary mujahedin, it concentrates on the figure of Muhammad himself. In Islamic tradition Muhammad is al-insan al-kamil, the perfect man, and uswa hasana, an excellent model of conduct (Qur’an 33:21). Accordingly it is extraordinarily important for non-Muslims in this age of global jihad violence to understand who Muhammad was and what he taught. So in this new book I explore the earliest Islamic sources about Muhammad in order to illuminate what pious Muslims learn about him, and show how jihadists today invoke his words and deeds to justify their actions.

So what kind of a person was Muhammad?

Muhammad was by all accounts a strong and compelling personality, who inspired magnificent loyalty in those who were close to him. His personal kindness and even gentleness are remembered in glowing terms by some of his closest companions. At the same time, however, he was a warrior who assured his followers that the supreme god, Allah, would reward them if they fought for him. He didn’t just fight in self-defense, but he initiated conflicts, gave instructions for the division of the spoils of war, and fought in many of those battles himself. For Muhammad the political and religious were virtually synonymous: Allah would reward obedience to him in this world with military victory and political power, and he ruled according to laws that he represented as having been revealed by Allah.

Osama promised not long after 9/11 that many more planes would be falling out of the sky. And evidently jihadist planning is still going in that direction. "Mujahideen Gather Information on Anchorage International Airport," from MEMRI, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

On October 17, 2006, an Islamist website posted a message titled "You Can Spy on the Enemies' Airports Directly by Controlling the Cameras' Direction." The message contains a link to a screen showing what it claims to be a live view of various areas within Anchorage International Airport via several cameras (http://209.193.48.89/view/index.shtml ). The message gives directions for how to control the cameras and promises to provide links in the future for other airports as well.

These are screenshots from the five sources: North View, South Terminal, Lake Hood, Cargo Area View, and Quad Stream.

They won't rein in Hizballah, but they'll fire on Israeli planes flying over Lebanon. What did you expect from the UN -- and the Eurabians of France? "Peretz: French UNIFIL commanders say will shoot at IAF overflights," from Haaretz, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Commanders of the French contingent of the United Nations force in Lebanon have warned that they might have to open fire if Israel Air Force warplanes continue their overflights in Lebanon, Defense Minister Amir Peretz told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday.

Peretz said that nevertheless, Israel would continue to patrol the skies over Lebanon as long as United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 remained unfulfilled, adding that such operations were critical for the country's security, especially as the abducted IDF soldiers remain in Hezbollah custody and the transfer of arms continue.

Over the past few days, Peretz said, Israel had gathered clear evidence that Syria was transferring arms and ammunition to Lebanon, meaning that the embargo imposed by UN Resolution 1701 was not being completely enforced.

Israel plans to inform the joint committee of representatives of UNIFIL, the Israel Defense Forces and the Lebanese Army that unless the arms transfers are stopped, Israel will be forced to take independent action, Peretz said.

Turning to the situation in the Gaza Strip, Peretz said that Israel could under no circumstances allow the Strip to be turned into a second South Lebanon. According to Peretz, the time when Israel used to check who was sending every missile is over, and the IDF is intent on striking at every terrorist no matter what organization he belongs to.

A strong response would be much more effective than half-hearted forays that demonstrate the cultural weakness at the heart of the West.

That should be "peace be upon him," but anyway, here is a very fine review of my new book The Truth About Muhammad by William Tucker in The American Spectator:

"History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake." -- James Joyce

If you want to spend a depressing afternoon, try flipping through Robert Spencer's The Truth About Muhammad. It's not a long read, but when you're through you'll have an idea of the monumental task awaiting the West.

Unlike the founders of other religions, whose lives are often shrouded in legend and mystery, Muhammad's rise took place -- as 19th century French scholar Ernest Renan put it -- "in the full light of history." Muhammad himself dictated the Koran. There are numerous other accounts of his life, both from people who knew him personally and from the hadith, a collection of "sayings of the prophet" that scholars collected shortly after his death. There is no great mystery about who Muhammad was or what he stood for. The only mystery is why the West has so much difficulty in recognizing it.

Muhammad was a warlord, pure and simple. He roused a disorganized group of nomadic tribes into a ruthless, fearless army. During his lifetime, he conquered the Arabian Peninsula and his followers eventually extended those conquests from Spain to India. By all rights, he should take his place in history among of Alexander the Great, Genghis Kahn, and Tamerlane the Great as early history's great military leaders.

The difference is that Muhammad was also a prophet -- or maybe just a bit of a psychopath. Probably illiterate, he was nevertheless extremely familiar with Jewish and Christian doctrines that prevailed throughout the Middle East. Realizing that people would not be won over unless they abandoned their religion, Muhammad reinterpreted these faiths, styling them all as forerunners and himself as the "Last Prophet," come to replace both.

Beginning in middle age, Muhammad heard the voice of god -- Allah -- almost daily. His followers took notes and these transcriptions were eventually compiled into the Koran. As Spencer points out, Allah's dictates often went into strange detail and had an uncanny way of aligning themselves with The Prophet's desires. When Muhammad decided to take his own son's young bride for his wife, for example, Allah expressed approval. When several of Muhammad's wives ganged up on him because of his philandering, Allah gave him permission to divorce them -- a Koranic passage that still governs divorce in Muslim societies today.

But it's worse than that. Where Allah and Muhammad occasionally disagreed, Allah was actually more harsh -- a kind of Freudian superego regurgitating the grim fantasies of early childhood. In several instances, Muhammad was ready to forgive his rivals and enemies but Allah wouldn't let him. Instead, they had to be beheaded.

What has survived from Muhammad's eventful life, then, is not just a record of his conquests but a philosophy, a religion, a set of personal attitudes that prevails among more than a billion people of the world today. Those attitudes are not very friendly. Briefly, they prescribe that might makes right, that forgiveness is a sign of weakness, and that no fate is too vile for those who reject the wisdom of The Prophet. Jihadists beheading their captives still quote Koranic scripture -- accurately -- today.

More than anything, Spencer's detailed analysis is a remarkable endorsement of Thomas Carlyle's idea that "History is the elongated shadow of great men." Say what you will about social and economic circumstances, about natural resources and geography, or even -- if you are to believe Jared Diamond's bizarre ramblings -- that climate is the determining factor of history, the fact remains that the ethos of every civilization can be traced to the historical actions of a few individuals.

Confucius was a hermetic scholar who set China on a path of family loyalty, submission to authority, and respect for learning. The authors of The Upanishads and the Bhagavad-Gita were Brahmin scholars who preached supreme detachment and caste divisions. Buddha was the Indian Prince Siddhartha who rebelled against the Hindu caste system but taught extreme patience and withdrawal from the world. Moses was a lawgiver who led his people out of bondage. Jesus was a prophet who taught personal responsibility and the forgiveness of sins. Muhammad was a warrior who led armies into battle and taught that the sword was a proper instrument for converting the unbelievers.

Granted, each of these founders often contradicted himself and the message of each has not always survived in its original purity. But each of these prophets set the tone of a civilization that still reverberates today. The tone of Islam, from its very beginnings, has been intolerance, conflict, and conquest. As a result, Islam now finds itself at war, not just with the West, but with every civilization on its borders. Of course this is everyone else's fault. Muslims are like the boy fighting with everyone in school whose mother comes to the principal's office wanting to know why everyone in the school is fighting with him!

Spencer uses one example after another to bring home the point. In a story from the 9th century hadith of Muhammad Ibn Ismail al-Bukahari, for example, Muhammad confronted a group of Jews about to punish a couple that had committed adultery. Asked to expound their own law, one of the rabbis then began to read from the Torah, but skipped a verse mandating stoning, covering it with his hand. Abdullah bin Salam, a rabbi who had converted to Islam, saw the trick.

"Lift your hand!" Abdullah cried, and the verse duly read, Muhammad exclaimed, "Woe to you Jews! What has induced you to abandon the judgment of God which you hold in your hand?" And he asserted: "I am the first to revive the order of God and His Book and to practice it."

Muhammad ordered the couple to be stoned to death; another Muslim remembered, "I saw the man leaning over the woman to shelter her from the stones."

Compare this to Jesus' prescription in an almost identical situation: "Ye who is without sin, let him cast the first stone."

Muhammad's story belongs to a period when, to quote Mark Twain, "History was one damned battle after another." Most of the world has left this era behind. The rise of civilization has been the history of people learning to live in peace and cooperate with each other on a wider and wider scale. All this requires that people forgive and forget, letting old grudges eventually recede into the past. Islam not only nurtures old grudges, it celebrates them. The Sunni and the Shi'ia are still fighting over the death of Hussein, Muhammad's grandson, at the Battle of Karbala in 680 A.D.

The fruit of Jesus' teaching of tolerance and forgiveness is that Western Civilization has been able to prosper while Islam remains locked in an era of primordial combat. Certainly we have had our wars and religious conflicts, but the overall trend has been toward cooperation and civilization -- especially in America, a land where much of history is virtually forgotten. Confucianism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and the great Eastern religions are also proving that they can prepare people for the modern world.

So why can't we make it clear to Muslims that it is time to forget the desert morality of the 7th century? For one thing, the people defending Western Civilization don't seem very familiar with its accomplishments. Last week the New York Times recounted how the Dutch government is introducing Muslim immigrants to Western values by showing them a DVD of "topless women and two men kissing" ("Across Europe, Worries on Islam Spread to Center," October 11). What would you think of a country that introduced itself by flaunting its pornography? Does the word "decadent" come to mind?

Robert Spencer has outlined the situation very clearly:

The words and deeds of Muhammad have been moving Muslims to commit acts of violence for fourteen hundred years now. They are not going to disappear in our lifetimes; nor can they be negotiated away.

Islam is just as violent and conquest-oriented as the jihadists say it is. The question is not whether Islamic values are incompatible with ours. The question is whether we are going to assert our own values -- or let decadence and submission lead the way.

"The committee members told me that these Muslim students were dangerous, and I should be careful in the way I handled them." Islamic Tolerance Alert from Compass Direct, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

October 16 (Compass Direct News) – A Christian high school teacher at Government College in Keffi, in the northern state of Nasarawa, is on trial for blasphemy after he disciplined a Muslim student.

Joshua Lai is standing trial at a Magistrate Court 2 in the state capital of Lafia on charges of blasphemy against the prophet of Islam, Muhammad, and for “public incitement, rioting, and mischief.” Following the June 12 incident, Muslim students attacked Christian students and teachers and burned four houses, including Lai’s home....

An English and history teacher at the school, Lai said he was teaching English when a Muslim student in the class, Abdullahi Yusuf, arrived as he was finishing the lesson.

“I asked him where he was coming from when the lesson was already over, and he claimed he was coming from the mosque,” Lai said. “I said he could not be speaking the truth, as the Muslim time for morning prayers was far gone.”

Lai told him that, as a former Muslim, he knew that Muslims pray between 5:30 a.m. and 6:00 a.m., and that Yusuf had arrived around 9 a.m.

Lai then punished Yusuf according to custom – caning, used in both elementary and high schools in Nigeria – and allowed him into the class.

“I told him that his reasons were not tenable,” Lai said, “and repeatedly told him that there was time for everything, a time to serve God and a time to be in the class – that this is how it should be, or else his parents wouldn’t have sent him to school.”

Later that afternoon, Lai said, he was working on his private property after school hours when a student came and told him that the principal, Musa Gwadabe, wanted to see him. Lai went immediately to the principal’s office, who told him a committee wanted to meet with him.

“I went into the office where the committee was sitting and I discovered they were all my colleagues, teachers in the school,” he said. “They asked me what transpired between me and the Muslim student in the morning, and I told them precisely what took place. They responded by saying that what I told them was exactly the same as what the student said, except on one point – that he said I will flog the prophet Muhammad.”

Lai denied saying this. “I never mentioned the name of Muhammad, so I asked why was this allegation being made? The committee members told me that these Muslim students were dangerous, and I should be careful in the way I handled them.”

The teacher thanked the committee – Islamic teacher Alhaji Jibrin Ahmed, Joseph Baka, Godwin Luka, and two others – and left with the impression that the matter was over.

At about 10 that night, two Christian students went to his house on the school grounds to warn him of Muslim students’ plans to kill him; another Christian student had managed to infiltrate a meeting to learn about the impending attack.

“These two Christian students who came to my house advised me to leave immediately,” he said, “so my son and I had to leave the house that night and were taken in by a Christian family in the town.”

Muslim students burned down his house on the school grounds that night; the rampaging students also demolished his private house, which was still under construction. They also attacked Christian students.

Just as predicted here, the tensions between the different factions in Iraq are increasing. "Fanatics lay claim to separate Sunni state," by Oliver Poole in the Telegraph, with thanks to Ruth King:

An alliance of Sunni insurgent groups claimed yesterday to be establishing a separate Sunni state in the west of Iraq in the latest demonstration of the growing fragmentation of the country. The statement by the Mujahideen Shura Council, an umbrella organisation of fanatical Sunni groups that includes al-Qa'eda, is the first time a Sunni body has supported the break-up of Iraq.

It said the move was in response to the passing by the Iraqi parliament last week of a federalism law which would permit provinces to join together to form self-ruling regions. That is expected to result in the creation of a semi-autonomous Shia zone in the south, similar to the Kurdish state in the north.

A separate Sunni state was needed to protect itself from such an eventuality, the insurgent group said.

At least 117 people have been killed in sectarian attacks since Friday and at least 57 died yesterday in shootings and bombings. They included the brother of the chief prosecutor in Saddam Hussein's trial, shot in front of his wife.