November 2006 Archives

"...given the predictable collapse sometime in the future, of that famous 'peace accord' recently 'achieved' for the southern Sudan (one which will last just as long as the government in Khartoum thinks the West is paying close attention and not a minute longer)..." -- Hugh Fitzgerald, November 30, 2006

From Reuters, with thanks to Twostellas:

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Nov. 30 -- Hundreds of people may have been killed in the heaviest fighting between Sudan's former north-south foes since they signed a peace deal last year, a former senior rebel officer said Thursday.

Terrified civilians in the southern town of Malakal reported looting and bodies in the streets after three days of clashes, and U.N. officials in New York said 240 civilian workers had been temporarily evacuated.

"More than hundreds have been lost. The Sudan army sustained very heavy casualties, and civilians were caught in the crossfire," said Elias Waya Nyipuocs, a former senior officer in the Sudan People's Liberation Army, a rebel group that fought the government in a long civil war.

Nyipuocs said a militia allied with the Sudanese armed forces attacked the SPLA and the local commissioner of Malakal. The militiamen then took refuge in military barracks near the airport and full combat began. Nyipuocs said the armed forces fought "side by side" with the militia against the SPLA.

John Kass's thought experiment at the beginning of this Chicago Tribune column (thanks to Russell) may before too long become reality.

Imagine the Vatican surrounded in a fiercely secular yet very Muslim Italy.

The Christian community there has dwindled to only a few thousand after decades of ethnic cleansing. Much of the church's property has been seized. The government has closed the only seminary and refuses to reopen it.

A law has been passed: Any future Roman Catholic pope must be born on Italian soil, even though there is no seminary to train the young priests, even as the Christian community shrinks to a handful. A cold shadow falls on the Western church.

I asked you to imagine this because it's going on, right now, but not in Rome.

It is happening in Istanbul, where Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, patriarch of Constantinople and spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Church, is facing extreme pressure by the Turkish government.

This week, Pope Benedict XVI will travel to Turkey and pray with Bartholomew, and witness the liturgy in the Church of St. George.

The focus will be on the pope relying on the patriarch to help make inroads with Muslims, after comments the pope made this year about violence and Islam.

But I hope his visit will also draw attention to the desperate plight of the Orthodox Church, which has been largely ignored. There are an estimated 250,000 Orthodox Christians in the Chicago area, enough, you might think, for attention to be paid, especially now.

The pope will hear the liturgy as it was sung more than a thousand years ago, when there was only one church, before the split into East and West.

[...]

That the media ignores the patriarch's plight is astounding and hurtful to me. As is the realization that all that history could be gone if things don't change in Istanbul, in what was once called Constantinople, the heart of the Byzantine Empire.

At the patriarchate, one of the exterior doors is never opened. It has remained closed since 1821, when Greece fought for its independence from the Ottoman sultans, and the patriarch then was dragged out and hanged from that very doorway.

[...]

For me, it was especially important to visit Hagia Sophia, literally, the Church of Divine Wisdom, the ancient domed structure that was turned into a mosque when the Turks took Constantinople in 1453.

It is an immense structure, larger even than its copy, St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, and is nearly 1,500 years old.

There, I thought of the worshipers fearfully singing the liturgy as the city walls were breached, as the slaughter began, as a Christian empire that had stood for more than 1,000 years perished.

Most icons were destroyed, but you can see the Virgin Mary on the wall near what had been the altar. A sign prohibits religious observance, but the guards don't stop you from praying.

Pope Benedict is also scheduled to visit Hagia Sophia, now tersely referred to as a museum.

As he visits there, the news images may be sent around the world to remind us of what was, and how what little is left is slipping away.

No more pencils, no more books, because we can't guarantee your safety. An update on this story. "Thailand to close all 944 schools in Muslim south," from AFP:

BANGKOK : Thailand will close all 944 public schools indefinitely in the country's restive Muslim-majority south after a string of arsons and shootings that left two teachers dead, an official said Monday.

"We have made a decision because we are worried about our own safety and our lives," said Boonsom Thongsriplai, the chairman of the Teachers Federation of Pattani, one of three insurgency-torn southern provinces bordering Malaysia.

All 994 [sic] public schools, ranging from elementary to high schools, in Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala would be closed from Tuesday, Boonsom said, adding that all 336 schools in Pattani and 100 in Yala were already closed.

The school closure was due to a wave of arson attacks against school buildings, as well as shootings that killed two Buddhist school teachers last week.

In Pattani, suspected Islamic militants gunned down a 48-year-old school director inside his parked car then set fire to the bullet-riddled vehicle, the federation said.

The victim was the 60th teacher killed during three years of unrest in the south, where more than 1,600 people have been killed in the almost daily violence since January 2004.

Since taking office after the September coup, army-installed premier Surayud Chulanont has offered a number of olive branches, including an offer to hold talks with militants, in a bid to bring peace to the troubled region.

But the violence has spiralled in the last month, with bombings, arsons and shootings happening every day.

The Muslim-majority area was an independent sultanate annexed by mainly Buddhist Thailand in 1902. Separatist violence has erupted periodically ever since.

The latest unrest has been variously blamed on ethnic Malay separatists, Islamic extremists and criminal gangs.

A glimpse at how the sectarian conflict in Iraq will widen upon the departure of US troops, siphoning off money, arms, and personnel that jihadists could otherwise employ against nonbelievers. "Iraqi Shias angry at Saudi remark on Sunnis," from AFP:

BAGHDAD - Iraq’s Shiite leaders on Thursday said they were angered by a Saudi Arabian official saying that Riyadh would support the violence-wracked country’s Sunni Arabs in the event of a US pullout.

Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki said: “We will not countenance any language interfering in Iraq on the pretext of defending sects.”

Saudi security expert Nawaf Obaid wrote in Wednesday’s Washington Post that withdrawal of US forces could see Saudi Arabia giving Iraq’s Sunnis funds, arms and supplies to counter Teheran’s alleged support for Iraqi Shiite militias.

Obaid is managing director of the Riyadh-based Saudi National Security Assessment Project and also the private security and energy adviser to the Saudi ambassador to the US, Prince Turki Al Faisal.

If the United States leaves, Obaid wrote, “one of the first consequences will be massive Saudi intervention to stop Iranian-backed Shiite militias from butchering Iraqi Sunnis”.

In the southern holy city of Najaf, Mohammed Al Juburi, secretary general of the Shiite Fadhila party, reacted angrily to the article, saying: “This is a sectarian and un-Islamic statement.”

“We reject any interference in Iraq’s affairs, whether from Saudi Arabia or Iran,” he added.

Teheran is regularly accused of aiding militias linked to Iraq’s powerful Shiite politicians in the ongoing sectarian conflict with the members of the minority Sunni Arab community.

Sheikh Abdel Hadhi Al Daraji, an aide of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr, called for an intervention by Riyadh by way of seeking a timetable for the withdrawal of US-led coalition troops from Iraq.

“We advise Saudi Arabia and the neighbouring countries to seriously work over the exit of the occupying forces first and to mend fences among politicians, both Shiites and Sunnis,” Daraji told AFP.

“I think the neighbouring countries, if they wanted to interfere in Iraqi affairs, such interference should be in favour of the whole nation and not one party or another,” he said.

“This is the grave mistake neighbours are making,” he added.

Obaid wrote that Saudi King Abdullah pledged to US President George W. Bush that he would not intervene, despite the rise in bloody sectarian reprisal killings between Iraq’s majority Shiites and minority Sunnis.

However, that would change if the US begins pulling its troops out, Obaid warned.

“Options now include providing Sunni military leaders... with the same types of assistance -- funding, arms and logistical support -- that Iran has been giving to Shiite armed groups for years.”

“Another possibility includes the establishment of new Sunni brigades to combat the Iranian-backed militias."

Don't fit the Pope for a zunnar* just yet. By Sinan Fisek for Agence France-Presse, with thanks to Mackie:

POPE Benedict XVI put the brakes on his charm offensive in EU-hopeful, Muslim majority Turkey, stressing Europe's "Christian roots" and taking a strong stand on religious freedoms and minority rights.

Flanked by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I after mass at the patriarchal Church of S. George, the pontiff complained in a speech that “the process of secularisation has weakened the hold of (Christian) tradition” in Europe.

“In the face of this reality, we are called, together with all other Christian communities, to renew Europe's awareness of its Christian roots, traditions and values, giving them new vitality,” he said.

Yes.

* The distinctive cloth belt worn by dhimmis.

The grotesque attempt to ambush the Pope on his immediate arrival, to lecture him like a schoolboy on the wonderfulness of Islam, to demand that the "theology" of this or that faith be forever beyond any discussion, was all done by Dr. Ali Bardakoglu, head of the state-run religious affairs department.

One can assume that Dr. Bardakoglu is comfortable with, since he is a participant in, the Kemalist-mandated government control of religious affairs that is supposed to ensure that “moderate” clerics reading “moderate” khutbas will prevail. Bardakoglu used and abused the Pope (so much for famed "Muslim" hospitality) and in doing so was ably assisted by Erdogan, who after a fifteen-minute private discussion with the Pope then claimed to the outside world, without any confirmation by anyone, that a Pope who had for more than a decade expressed doubts about Turkish entry into the E.U. had suddenly -- no doubt on the basis of vague and non-committal remarks twisted in timeworn Muslim fashion to say whatever Erdogan wanted them to say -- now supported the entry of Turkey into the E.U.

Two centuries before the current American foreign policy, or before there was Zionism, or "Iraq" and "Palestine" to blame, long before "poverty" was pulled up as a root-cause, and the why-do-they-hate-us brigade not only did not exist, but would have been impossible to call into being, Muslims in West Africa were on the Jihad warpath.

A Muslim cleric, or mallam, Usman dan Fodio, led a Jihad against local non-Muslim rulers from 1804 to 1810. This led to the establishment of the so-called Caliphate of Sokoto, and to the spread, enforced spread by military conquest, of Islam.

"Hello from Fjordman. I will run a multipart essay over the coming few weeks where I will explore whether Islam is compatible with democracy. This is published in cooperation with the Gates of Vienna blog. The various parts will be published at Jihad Watch first, and then the full essay will be republished at the Gates of Vienna, similar to the Eurabia Code. Here comes part 1:"

Occasionally I get annoyed over the fact that I am compelled to spend significant amounts of my time refuting Islam, an ideology that is flawed to the core and should be totally irrelevant in the 21st century. But then I try to see it from a positive angle: The good part about our confrontation with Islam is that it forces us to deal with flaws in our own civilization. It has already exposed a massive failure in our education system and our media, both filled with anti-Western sentiments and ideological nonsense. These legacies from the Western Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 70s have left us unable to recognize the Islamic threat for what it is. Thus, when we are confronted now with the question of whether or not Islam is compatible with democracy, we also have to ask under what conditions a democratic system is able to function.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of a democratic system? What is "freedom" and "liberty," and does universal suffrage automatically equal liberty? Democracy could briefly be defined as the ability of the people of a state or political entity to genuinely influence the policies of their government by non-violent means. However, this is abstract; we need a more detailed definition to pin down the reality. In the Athenian city-state of ancient Greece, voting rights included all citizens, perhaps one tenth of the population of the city. Plato's description of democracy in The Republic is close to anarchy. He rightly points out some inherent weaknesses in the democratic model; no doubt influenced by the fate of his teacher Socrates. Socrates made many enemies by criticizing those Athenians who, by means of cheap rhetoric, used democracy to gain power. His courage in speaking out led to his trial, in which his accusers claimed that he was corrupting the young. Found guilty, Socrates was sentenced to drinking poison. This experience led Plato to conclude that Athens' democracy was an unjust form of government.

Hanif Malik, an Islamic leader in Britain, said some time ago: “Yes, everyone agrees the Muslim leaders must be more pro-active in fighting radical thought. But it's just empty words when Muslims feel the world is against them.”

The world is against them? One may be able to swallow this if one does not dwell on all those passages that preach Jihad and the need for Islam to spread and for Muslims to dominate, or if one does not pay attention to all those passages that inculcate hatred of Infidels that are all over the Qur'an. One may accept this if no attention is paid to how non-Muslims -- no matter how disparate they might be, whether Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Confucians -- have historically been treated wherever Muslims have had the upper hand.

Yet those Infidels have allowed Muslims by the millions into their countries. This creates an essentially immiscible, un-integrable population, a permanent security and societal threat. This creates a presence that makes the lives of those indigenous Infidels not full of some "rich diversity" that would otherwise not exist, but rather far more unpleasant, expensive, and dangerous than they would otherwise be, and precisely unpleasant, expensive, and dangerous in proportion to the size of the local Muslim population. Well, that does not appear to me to be a sign that "the world is against them."

There is no chance Turkey will be admitted to the E.U.

Some of the many reasons for this are located in the fact that Turkey let the murderer of Don Andrea Santoro, the priest murdered on February 7, 2006, get off lightly. And the Turkish authorities did nothing to publicize, throughout Turkey, exactly what it was that prompted those teenagers to harass him, to demand money, and then finally to return to kill him -- he who in Trabzon (Trebizond) did nothing to anyone, but merely had a congregation of eight or perhaps nine people, several of them Georgian women.

Mahdi Bray is very slick, but the truth is not on his side in the USAirways/Imam Rage controversy, and Michelle Malkin and Laura Ingraham don't let him get away with anything in this interview (from Hotair). I have never heard him sound so rattled. May it happen many, many times in the future -- as interviewers ask him the questions that he should be asked instead of the softballs he usually gets.

When Mahdi Bray complains that Muslims have been questioned "inappropriately" at airports, Ingraham responds, "Too bad." Bravo. I myself have been searched and questioned at Reagan National Airport and other airports. I have never contacted the ACLU about it, and never will. Malkin is right: Bray and his group "really don't want us to do anything to prevent another 9/11." To prevent one, we will all be inconvenienced. That's life after 9/11.

By Michael Ramirez at Investors.com.

This is the sort of tortured thinking that leads some otherwise perfectly sane American analyists to maintain that if we all pretend that Islam is peaceful, it will make it so. After all, Bardakoglu is affirming the other side of this coin: speaking about what within Islam gives rise to violence will only "encourage those who perform wrong-doing on behalf of religion." Uh huh.

"Insulting Islam breeds violence - Turk religious chief," from Reuters, with thanks to Twostellas:

Turkey's top Muslim official repeated in the presence of Pope Benedict that Islam was not a religion of violence and that arguing so can only encourage those who abuse religion to do wrong.

Ali Bardakoglu, who heads Ankara's Directorate General for Religious Affairs which controls Turkish imams and writes their sermons, said all Muslims were offended by accusations that their religion was violent.

"Such accusations and attempts can only serve to encourage those who perform wrong-doing on behalf of religion by way of exploitation," he said in a speech.

Reform or go to jail. Hey, whatever works. From The Associated Press, with thanks to Twostellas:

LAHORE, Pakistan: Police detained three hard-line lawmakers Thursday in an attempt to block a protest in eastern Pakistan against recent changes to the country's Islamic rape laws, witnesses and officials said.

A six-party coalition of Islamic groups, the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) or United Action Forum, had been planning the rally for Thursday to protest new legislation they say violates Islamic law. Activists and the government of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf support the bill as protecting rape victims.

The protest, announced Wednesday by MMA president Qazi Hussain Ahmed, called for a march from the eastern city of Lahore to the nearby town of Gujrat. But late Wednesday night, the provincial government issued a statement banning rallies.

On Thursday, police detained three lawmakers from the coalition — Liaquat Baluch, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed and Farid Piracha — along with several supporters as they gathered for the rally, witnesses said.

Police also swung batons to disperse about 100 people who had also gathered at the rally point.

Local police official Amir Zulifquar said police were upholding the protest ban, but he refused to comment on the arrests.

Earlier, Munawar Hassan, a senior leader of the MMA, told reporters on Thursday that police had detained scores of supporters and erected barricades to block the planned march route.

Musharraf is expected to sign the bill on Dec. 4 at a special ceremony in Islamabad to make the legislation part of the constitution. But the MMA has vowed to step up its protests.

What was that again, Mr. Ahmadinejad? "We all deplore injustice, the trampling of peoples' rights and the intimidation and humiliation of human beings"? Do we really, now? "Iran issues fatwa on Azeri writer," by Frances Harrison for BBC News, with thanks to Morgaan Sinclair:

One of Iran's most senior clergymen has issued a fatwa on an Azeri writer said to have insulted the Prophet Muhammad.

The call on Muslims to murder Rafiq Tagi, who writes for Azerbaijan's Senet newspaper, echoes the Iranian fatwa against Indian writer Salman Rushdie.

It was issued by the conservative Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Fazel Lankarani.

The writings of Rafiq Tagi sparked recent demonstrations outside the Azerbaijani embassy in the Iranian capital, Teheran.

The Iranian media is reporting that Grand Ayatollah Lankarani's followers inside the republic of Azerbaijan wrote to him asking for advice about what they called "the apostate writer".

They accuse the Azeri writer of portraying Christianity as superior to Islam and Europe as superior to the Middle East.

Horror of horrors! Well, this death fatwa will put paid to such notions in a hurry!

They allege that he has ridiculed all the sanctities of Islam and done it knowingly, fully aware of the consequences of his action.

In response, Grand Ayatollah Lankarani is said to have issued a fatwa calling for the death of the writer and also the person responsible for publishing his articles.

Earlier, an Iranian cleric had offered his house as a reward to anyone who killed the Azeri writer.

Hmmm. How many rooms?

Surprising EU anti-dhimmitude. By Constant Brand for Associated Press:

BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Commission's executive body on Wednesday recommended partially suspending European Union membership talks with Turkey to protest Ankara's continued refusal to open its ports to Cyprus.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the proposed suspension "unacceptable" and said his country would not compromise on the issue of Cyprus.

The recommendation, which must still be ratified by the full EU, comes at a sensitive moment for Turkey, with attention focused on the country as it hosts a visit by Pope Benedict XVI. On Tuesday, the pontiff expressed support for Turkey's efforts to join the EU, moving away from his previous opposition.

All 25 EU leaders are expected to rule on the commission's recommendation at their Dec. 14-15 summit, but the union's member nations appear deeply divided over how to handle Turkey's entry bid.

Marisol caught the same things I note here, but I thought they deserved emphasis in their own thread:

Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, said:

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.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran, said:

Is there not a better approach to governance?

Is it not possible to put wealth and power in the service of peace, stability, prosperity and the happiness of all peoples through a commitment to justice and respect for the rights of all nations, instead of aggression and war?

[...]

It is possible to govern based on an approach that is distinctly different from one of coercion, force and injustice.

It is possible to sincerely serve and promote common human values, and honesty and compassion.

It is possible to provide welfare and prosperity without tension, threats, imposition or war.

It is possible to lead the world towards the aspired perfection by adhering to unity, monotheism, morality and spirituality and drawing upon the teachings of the Divine Prophets.

In that is the call to Islam as prescribed by Muhammad -- for Islam in the Islamic view is the only true monotheistic faith.

That call is here too:

We should all heed the Divine Word of the Holy Qur'an:

"But those who repent, have faith and do good may receive Salvation. Your Lord, alone, creates and chooses as He will, and others have no part in His choice; Glorified is God and Exalted above any partners they ascribe to Him." (28:67-68)

That he chose a verse that rules out "partners" of Allah indicates that he intended a swipe at Christianity, as in the Islamic view Christians associate "partners" with Allah. Since Christianity is the dominant religion of the U.S., it seems likely that he meant to do this, as part of his call to Islam.

You can read his whole letter here: Ahmadinejad's letter to Americans

One has a few questions for Olmert:

What do you know about Islamic teachings?

How seriously do you think Muslims take those teachings?

Do you have any reason to think that the way Muslims are suffused with the teachings of Islam, a system of Total Regulation and Complete Explanation of the Universe, is different from the way that either Judaism or Christianity impinges on, or organizes the life of, Jews and Christians?

What do you know of Muslim teachings regarding non-Muslims?

The Thug-in-Chief devotes most of his letter to trying to convince us that, hey, we're not all that different, a theme also present in his letter to Germany's Angela Merkel.

But note the ending, which contains the familiar call for conversion (required prior to waging war in Islamic law, per Sahih Muslim 019.4294), plus a slap at Christianity in "any partners they ascribe to him": "But those who repent, have faith and do good may receive Salvation. Your Lord, alone, creates and chooses as He will, and others have no part in His choice; Glorified is God and Exalted above any partners they ascribe to Him" (28:67-68).

"Ahmadinejad's letter to Americans," from CNN:

(CNN) -- In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

O, Almighty God, bestow upon humanity the perfect human being promised to all by You, and make us among his followers.

That being the Mahdi, of course.

Noble Americans,

Were we not faced with the activities of the US administration in this part of the world and the negative ramifications of those activities on the daily lives of our peoples, coupled with the many wars and calamities caused by the US administration as well as the tragic consequences of US interference in other countries;

Were the American people not God-fearing, truth-loving, and justice-seeking, while the US administration actively conceals the truth and impedes any objective portrayal of current realities;

And if we did not share a common responsibility to promote and protect freedom and human dignity and integrity;

Then, there would have been little urgency to have a dialogue with you.

While Divine providence has placed Iran and the United States geographically far apart, we should be cognizant that human values and our common human spirit, which proclaim the dignity and exalted worth of all human beings, have brought our two great nations of Iran and the United States closer together.

Both our nations are God-fearing, truth-loving and justice-seeking, and both seek dignity, respect and perfection.

Both greatly value and readily embrace the promotion of human ideals such as compassion, empathy, respect for the rights of human beings, securing justice and equity, and defending the innocent and the weak against oppressors and bullies.

We are all inclined towards the good, and towards extending a helping hand to one another, particularly to those in need.

We all deplore injustice, the trampling of peoples' rights and the intimidation and humiliation of human beings.

We all detest darkness, deceit, lies and distortion, and seek and admire salvation, enlightenment, sincerity and honesty.

The pure human essence of the two great nations of Iran and the United States testify to the veracity of these statements.

Noble Americans,

Our nation has always extended its hand of friendship to all other nations of the world.

Hundreds of thousands of my Iranian compatriots are living amongst you in friendship and peace, and are contributing positively to your society. Our people have been in contact with you over the past many years and have maintained these contacts despite the unnecessary restrictions of US authorities.

As mentioned, we have common concerns, face similar challenges, and are pained by the sufferings and afflictions in the world.

We, like you, are aggrieved by the ever-worsening pain and misery of the Palestinian people. Persistent aggressions by the Zionists are making life more and more difficult for the rightful owners of the land of Palestine. In broad day-light, in front of cameras and before the eyes of the world, they are bombarding innocent defenseless civilians, bulldozing houses, firing machine guns at students in the streets and alleys, and subjecting their families to endless grief.

No day goes by without a new crime.

Palestinian mothers, just like Iranian and American mothers, love their children, and are painfully bereaved by the imprisonment, wounding and murder of their children. What mother wouldn't?

For 60 years, the Zionist regime has driven millions of the inhabitants of Palestine out of their homes. Many of these refugees have died in the Diaspora and in refugee camps. Their children have spent their youth in these camps and are aging while still in the hope of returning to homeland.

You know well that the US administration has persistently provided blind and blanket support to the Zionist regime, has emboldened it to continue its crimes, and has prevented the UN Security Council from condemning it.

Who can deny such broken promises and grave injustices towards humanity by the US administration?

Governments are there to serve their own people. No people wants to side with or support any oppressors. But regrettably, the US administration disregards even its own public opinion and remains in the forefront of supporting the trampling of the rights of the Palestinian people.

Let's take a look at Iraq. Since the commencement of the US military presence in Iraq, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed, maimed or displaced. Terrorism in Iraq has grown exponentially. With the presence of the US military in Iraq, nothing has been done to rebuild the ruins, to restore the infrastructure or to alleviate poverty. The US Government used the pretext of the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but later it became clear that that was just a lie and a deception.

Although Saddam was overthrown and people are happy about his departure, the pain and suffering of the Iraqi people has persisted and has even been aggravated.

In Iraq, about one hundred and fifty thousand American soldiers, separated from their families and loved ones, are operating under the command of the current US administration. A substantial number of them have been killed or wounded and their presence in Iraq has tarnished the image of the American people and government.

Their mothers and relatives have, on numerous occasions, displayed their discontent with the presence of their sons and daughters in a land thousands of miles away from US shores. American soldiers often wonder why they have been sent to Iraq.

I consider it extremely unlikely that you, the American people, consent to the billions of dollars of annual expenditure from your treasury for this military misadventure.

Noble Americans,

You have heard that the US administration is kidnapping its presumed opponents from across the globe and arbitrarily holding them without trial or any international supervision in horrendous prisons that it has established in various parts of the world. God knows who these detainees actually are, and what terrible fate awaits them.

You have certainly heard the sad stories of the Guantanamo and Abu-Ghraib prisons. The US administration attempts to justify them through its proclaimed "war on terror." But every one knows that such behavior, in fact, offends global public opinion, exacerbates resentment and thereby spreads terrorism, and tarnishes the US image and its credibility among nations.

The US administration's illegal and immoral behavior is not even confined to outside its borders. You are witnessing daily that under the pretext of "the war on terror," civil liberties in the United States are being increasingly curtailed. Even the privacy of individuals is fast losing its meaning. Judicial due process and fundamental rights are trampled upon. Private phones are tapped, suspects are arbitrarily arrested, sometimes beaten in the streets, or even shot to death.

I have no doubt that the American people do not approve of this behavior and indeed deplore it.

The US administration does not accept accountability before any organization, institution or council. The US administration has undermined the credibility of international organizations, particularly the United Nations and its Security Council. But, I do not intend to address all the challenges and calamities in this message.

The legitimacy, power and influence of a government do not emanate from its arsenals of tanks, fighter aircrafts, missiles or nuclear weapons. Legitimacy and influence reside in sound logic, quest for justice and compassion and empathy for all humanity. The global position of the United States is in all probability weakened because the administration has continued to resort to force, to conceal the truth, and to mislead the American people about its policies and practices.

Undoubtedly, the American people are not satisfied with this behavior and they showed their discontent in the recent elections. I hope that in the wake of the mid-term elections, the administration of President Bush will have heard and will heed the message of the American people.

My questions are the following:

Is there not a better approach to governance?

Is it not possible to put wealth and power in the service of peace, stability, prosperity and the happiness of all peoples through a commitment to justice and respect for the rights of all nations, instead of aggression and war?

We all condemn terrorism, because its victims are the innocent.

But, can terrorism be contained and eradicated through war, destruction and the killing of hundreds of thousands of innocents?

If that were possible, then why has the problem not been resolved?

The sad experience of invading Iraq is before us all.

What has blind support for the Zionists by the US administration brought for the American people? It is regrettable that for the US administration, the interests of these occupiers supersedes the interests of the American people and of the other nations of the world.

What have the Zionists done for the American people that the US administration considers itself obliged to blindly support these infamous aggressors? Is it not because they have imposed themselves on a substantial portion of the banking, financial, cultural and media sectors?

I recommend that in a demonstration of respect for the American people and for humanity, the right of Palestinians to live in their own homeland should be recognized so that millions of Palestinian refugees can return to their homes and the future of all of Palestine and its form of government be determined in a referendum. This will benefit everyone.

Now that Iraq has a Constitution and an independent Assembly and Government, would it not be more beneficial to bring the US officers and soldiers home, and to spend the astronomical US military expenditures in Iraq for the welfare and prosperity of the American people? As you know very well, many victims of Katrina continue to suffer, and countless Americans continue to live in poverty and homelessness.

I'd also like to say a word to the winners of the recent elections in the US:

The United States has had many administrations; some who have left a positive legacy, and others that are neither remembered fondly by the American people nor by other nations.

Now that you control an important branch of the US Government, you will also be held to account by the people and by history.

If the US Government meets the current domestic and external challenges with an approach based on truth and Justice, it can remedy some of the past afflictions and alleviate some of the global resentment and hatred of America. But if the approach remains the same, it would not be unexpected that the American people would similarly reject the new electoral winners, although the recent elections, rather than reflecting a victory, in reality point to the failure of the current administration's policies. These issues had been extensively dealt with in my letter to President Bush earlier this year.

To sum up:

It is possible to govern based on an approach that is distinctly different from one of coercion, force and injustice.

It is possible to sincerely serve and promote common human values, and honesty and compassion.

It is possible to provide welfare and prosperity without tension, threats, imposition or war.

It is possible to lead the world towards the aspired perfection by adhering to unity, monotheism, morality and spirituality and drawing upon the teachings of the Divine Prophets.

Then, the American people, who are God-fearing and followers of Divine religions, will overcome every difficulty.

What I stated represents some of my anxieties and concerns.

I am confident that you, the American people, will play an instrumental role in the establishment of justice and spirituality throughout the world. The promises of the Almighty and His prophets will certainly be realized, Justice and Truth will prevail and all nations will live a true life in a climate replete with love, compassion and fraternity.

The US governing establishment, the authorities and the powerful should not choose irreversible paths. As all prophets have taught us, injustice and transgression will eventually bring about decline and demise. Today, the path of return to faith and spirituality is open and unimpeded.

We should all heed the Divine Word of the Holy Qur'an:

"But those who repent, have faith and do good may receive Salvation. Your Lord, alone, creates and chooses as He will, and others have no part in His choice; Glorified is God and Exalted above any partners they ascribe to Him." (28:67-68)

I pray to the Almighty to bless the Iranian and American nations and indeed all nations of the world with dignity and success.

The disjunction between the idea that he is waging a "Crusader campaign" and what he is actually doing is of Grand Canyon proportions, but when has a disconnect from reality stopped them before? "Al-Qaida denounces pope visit to Turkey," by Maamoun Youssef for Associated Press, with thanks to CGiddens, Jr.:

CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida in Iraq on Wednesday denounced Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Turkey, calling it part of a "crusader campaign" against Islam.

In Istanbul, Vatican officials said the remark shows the need for faiths to fight "violence in the name of God."

The trip is Benedict's first visit to an Islamic country as pontiff, seeking dialogue with Muslims who were angered over a speech he made in September in which he cited a medieval text that linked Islam and violence.

Al-Qaida in Iraq issued its statement on an Islamic militant Web site it often uses to post messages.

"The pope's visit, in fact, is to consolidate the crusader campaign against the lands of Islam after the failure of the crusader leaders ... and an attempt to extinguish the burning ember of Islam inside our Turkish brothers," it said.

As far as terror threats in the general population go, Arafat Nijmeh has plenty of company. From WND, with thanks to Ruth King:

WASHINGTON – Half of the 91,516 illegal aliens from terror-sponsoring countries and those of "special interest" apprehended at the border between 2001 and 2005 were released into the U.S. population, according to a report by the inspector general's office of the Department of Homeland Security.

The report, "Detention and Removal of Illegal Aliens," released earlier this year with little fanfare or attention, suggests about 85 percent of those aliens – potentially the most dangerous – would abscond and likely never be seen by authorities again.

Acknowledging the danger such aliens pose to the national security, the report cites a DHS official testifying that terrorist organizations "believe illegal entry into the U.S. is more advantageous than legal entry for operations reasons."

Budget shortfalls were the explanations for why some 45,008 potential terrorists were released by authorities over a period of nearly five years after Sept. 11, 2001. The budget crunches prompted immigration officials to place strict limits on detention bed space, recruitment, training, travel and expansion of enforcement programs, the report explained.

Now we can all breathe easier. "Man who threatened to castrate Bush freed from prison," from AP, with thanks to Morgaan Sinclair:

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) — A mental patient who threatened to castrate President Bush was sentenced to federal prison, but a judge ordered him freed because of time he's already served.

Arafat Nijmeh, 27, formerly of Belleville, was sentenced Tuesday to seven months in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of threatening the president.

He was released after U.S. District Judge David Herndon credited him with the eight months he spent in custody after being charged. Nijmeh had been jailed without bail after being declared a flight risk and threat to society....

Nijmeh was accused of threatening to harm Bush in comments March 18 to workers at the Alton Mental Health Center and to two Secret Service agents the following day.

The indictment alleged Nijmeh told the agents that his earlier threat to castrate Bush was "not too harsh, considering what he has done to my country."

Nijmeh is a Palestinian born in Israel but O'Gara said he is a U.S. citizen....

Brooks said Nijmeh also told a supervisory nurse at the center he was going to "make her life a living hell" and threatened to kill Jews.

Note for the irony-impaired: Yes, my headline and remark above are sarcastic.

Showing once again an inclination to respond to the Pope's overtures to dialogue with a slap on the face. "Online terrorists launch 'e-jihad' attack on Vatican website," from israelinsider, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

The Vatican website came under attack today in an effort organized by the leadership of 'electronic jihad' to down the site.

The online Islamist terrorists, or e-jihadists, distributed programs to dozens of hackers around the world in order to stage a multi-pronged attack on the site as Pope Benedict XVI visited the Islamic nation of Turkey....

Today's attack on the website of the Holy See was cited in part as a response to the Pope's comments and anger related to his conciliatory visit to Turkey. In a speech during the visit the Pontiff declared that religious leaders must 'utterly refuse to sanction recourse to violence as a legitimate expression of religion', and referred to the situation in the Middle East as 'disturbing'.

The cyberattack that came in the wake of the Pope's visit was successfully thwarted by Vatican authorities.

One blogger, noting that the website withstood the attack, remarked, "Kudos to the Swiss Guards of the cybersphere for doing an excellent job."

Khalid Hasan of Pakistan's Daily Times has been upset with me for years. In January 2003 he charged that in my book Islam Unveiled I subject "the Holy Prophet’s person (PBUH) to blasphemous criticism." In June 2004 he lamented over my book Onward Muslim Soldiers: "How one can fight such ignorance, I am unable to say." In August 2005 he picked up his lament again: "Meanwhile, Islam-bashing goes on without let or hindrance. The publishers of the book The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) claim that it is a bestseller." It was, Khalid, it was: it stayed on the New York Times Bestseller List for four months.

However, amid all this breast-beating Hasan never gets around to specifying even one inaccuracy in any of these books. Instead, he lists their contents as if that inaccuracy was self-evident -- as if it was obviously false that while "Jews and Christians do not accept violent passages in their holy books in a literal sense, Muslims do," or that women face difficulties under Islamic law, or that the human rights record of Muslim countries is generally poor, or that "secularism" -- that is, non-religious government -- "will be unable to overcome the hurdles it faces to secure a foothold in the Islamic world."

But in his latest lament over my alleged "Islam-bashing," Hasan enlists help from Akbar Ahmed, the Islamic scholar from American University who was allowed to comment on my interview with C-Span's Brian Lamb last summer before that interview even aired. And Ahmed, as you'll see, has some harsh things to say -- which is a pity, since on C-Span he said: "I know the work of Dr. Spencer and I know a lot of these arguments because I’ve been a scholar of Islam for the last several decades. So, I’m very aware with all my friends and colleagues. And we interact with them. We debate. We discuss." But he never responded to my invitation to debate and discuss these matters. If he wants to do so, I am available.

"British channel to screen documentary on Islamic art," by Khalid Hasan in the Daily Times, with thanks to Brian of London:

WASHINGTON: The Glories of Islamic Art, a three-part documentary presented by Dr Akbar Ahmed, is to be screened by Britain’s Channel Five later this month.

[...]

Dr Ahmed, a professor of Islamic studies at the American University here, said old prejudices about Islam were resurfacing, and one of the world’s greatest and most humane religion was being portrayed once again, as it was in colonial times, as an inherently violent and fanatical religion that encouraged or condoned terrorism, as monolithic, backward and inferior. It is being accused of subjugating women and denying them their equal rights, making it out to be a religion incompatible with modern Western and democratic values, or even as the implacable enemy of Western civilisation.

Dr Ahmed said, “If you think I am exaggerating, take a look at the Amazon.com website and read the blurb of books, such as The Sword of the Prophet by Serge Trifkovic or The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam by Robert Spencer, who is also the editor of a huge anthology of articles entitled The Myth of Islamic Tolerance, and whose latest book, The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World’s Most Intolerant Religion, is advertised as a book that ‘gives the truth about Muhammad’s convenient revelations justifying his own licentiousness; his joy in the brutal murders of his enemies; and above all, his clear marching orders to his followers to convert non-Muslims to Islam or force them to live as inferiors under Islamic rule’. Books such as these do not merely disseminate a totally inaccurate account of Islam and Islamic history, but they do so in language that is outrageously abusive, and would never be tolerated if applied to any religion other than Islam.”

"A totally inaccurate account of Islam and Islamic history"? Prove it.

"In language that is outrageously abusive"? I'd like to see him substantiate that from the book itself.

"...would never be tolerated if applied to any religion other than Islam"? What utter hogwash. Does he expect us to forget the deconstruction of Christianity that goes on relentlessly in the mainstream media?

Dr Ahmed lamented that it was so rare nowadays to encounter a book or a film that had anything positive to say about Islam because several media pundits, in collusion with politicians, preferred to pander to the prejudices of the general public. “We live in the age of the politics of fear. Islamophobia clearly pays. For example, the recently released documentary ‘Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West’ has been an instant box office hit,” he said. The Glories of Islamic Art would prove to be a healthy antidote to neo-orientalist rhetoric used to malign and misrepresent Islam, he added. This television series does not aim to cover the whole history of Islamic art and architecture, but focuses on three great Muslim cities – Damascus, Cairo and Istanbul – moving chronologically from the Umayyad dynasty to that of the Fatimids and Mamluks, and finally to that of the Seljuks and the Ottomans. Other cities, such as Jerusalem, Cordoba and Granada, are briefly discussed. A future project may explore other great Muslim cities further east, such as Isfahan, Delhi and Lahore.

Well, I like Islamic art myself, and I'm sure it will be a great series. But how it will serve as an "antidote" to serious discussion of the jihad ideology and its implications, I'm sure I don't know.

"The Pope told the world from Ankara that Islam was a religion of peace," but the death of the priest John Andrea Santoro suggests otherwise. As did the helicopters and metal detectors. From the Guardian, with thanks to PRCS:

Pope Benedict XVI today honoured the memory of a Roman Catholic priest who was killed after the publication of the Danish cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.

At a small open-air mass in Ephesus next to the ruins of a house where the Virgin Mary is thought to have spent her last years, the Pope praised the priest to 250 invited guests.

He said: "Let us sing joyfully, even when we're tested by difficulties and dangers, as we have learned from the fine witness given by the Roman priest John Andrea Santoro, whom I am pleased to recall in this celebration."

A Turkish teenager shot the priest as he knelt in prayer in his church in the Black Sea port of Trabzon. The February attack occurred amid widespread Muslim anger over the cartoons. Two other Catholic priests were attacked in Turkey this year....

A paramilitary helicopter hovered low over the crowd as he arrived in a fleet of vehicles, and registered guests went through three separate metal detectors before reaching the sacred site.

On the first day of his trip, Benedict yesterday urged religious leaders of all faiths to "utterly refuse" to support any form of violence in the name of faith.

He also called for an "authentic dialogue" between Christians and Muslims based on "mutual esteem and respect.

But there was no apology for his remarks in September when he quoted a Byzantine emperor, who described Islam as "evil and inhuman."

The comments sparked outrage in the Muslim world and some Turks have demonstrated against the Pope's visit.

But the pontiff's bridge-building exercise, which included his backing for Turkey's membership of the EU, has gone down well so far with Turkish commentators.

"It started beautifully: the Pope told the world from Ankara that Islam was a religion of peace," the mainstream Hurriyet newspaper said.

I am a bit late with this -- for which I apologize, I have been a bit under the weather, and am trying to get caught up. Anyway, it is important to have it on the record: the Flopping Aces blog has some key and eye-opening revelations about this story.

Thanks to all who sent this in.

West African Jihad Update. "Liberia: Truth Commission Member Under Fire," by James Butty for VOA News, with thanks to all who sent this in:

A member of Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has been given a seven-day ultimatum to resign because of an article he allegedly wrote in 1996 calling for a jihad in Liberia. A group calling itself the Forum for War Crimes in Liberia has also accused Sheik Kafumba Konneh of protecting warlords from former Muslim-dominated warring factions during Liberia’s civil war.

According to its constitutive act, members of the TRC are supposed to be persons of high integrity and honor and not known or perceived as human rights violators. The chairman of the TRC, Jerome Verdier, who is visiting the United States, said his commission is looking into the allegations and would respond accordingly. Meanwhile, Sheik Konneh said the allegations are baseless.

“Because of the civil war, there are some individuals who have been traumatized, and they have become so disgruntled, they only take pride in tarnishing the reputations of those who are prominent in the Liberian society. They have given me an ultimatum, and I have told them that I’m not going to resign because their allegation is fallacious,” he said.

Konneh would not say if he wrote an article advocating for jihad as alleged or that he supported Muslim warlords during Liberia’s civil war. He could only say that his reputation would exonerate him.

“In the first place, they have to establish beyond all reasonable doubt that I wrote an article, and that such article called for jihad, and that I was in one way or the other supporting any warring faction during our national nightmare. But I believe that my track record can exonerate myself from those malicious charges that they have meted against me,” Konneh said.

A sobering update on the French intifada. "French police the target in urban guerrilla war" by Jon Boyle for Reuters, with thanks to all who sent this in:

PARIS (Reuters) - Stoned, beaten and insulted, their vehicles torched by crowds of hostile youths, French police say they face an urban guerrilla war when they enter the run-down neighborhoods that ring the major cities.

"Our role is to guarantee the safety of people and property but the great difficulty today is that police are having problems ensuring their own safety," said Jerome Hanarte of the Alliance-Police Nationale union.

Bedside television interviews with officers hospitalized after beatings in "les banlieues," or suburbs, support statistics showing a 6.7 percent jump in violent crime in the 12 months to August.

Fourteen officers are hurt every day in the line of duty, unions estimate, and law and order is sure to feature prominently in next year's presidential election.

The head of the French crime statistics body told Reuters the rise in attacks on police was partly due to Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy's 2002 decision to order police back into tough areas, to disrupt the black economy that fuels crime.

Some residents complain the move spawned constant police harassment which has only exacerbated tensions with local youths, many of whom come from ethnic minorities.

"You can see discrimination in ID controls," complained Kader Latreche, 36, an Algerian with his own photo equipment repair shop in the La Courneuve suburb.

"Why is it always people from the Maghreb or black people who are being stopped and checked? If it happens over and over again, it gets to you. People are frustrated, that's obvious."...

"It's a false debate," said Hanarte, whose union is generally supportive of Sarkozy and wants judges to take a tougher stance against delinquents.

"Why put foot patrols in these districts if they will be systematically attacked by youngsters, who are repeatedly arrested and then systematically released by the justice system?

"Having police in these areas can only be a good idea if, beforehand ... police have arrested the delinquents in the suburbs. You have to start by that, restoring a certain calm."...

Comte says the threat to police is so great in some neighborhoods they should exercise their "right to withdraw." That means refusing to respond to emergency calls if they judge they cannot guarantee their own safety.

"Frankly, it's not worth getting your head kicked in for an end of year bonus of 200 euros ($256.8)," said the plain clothes officer.

Or for French civilization. After all, if the leadership isn't defending it, why should the police?

They meet graciousness with gracelessness, as the Pope, alas, whitewashes the plight of Christians in Turkey. By Malcolm Moore in the Telegraph, with thanks to Looney Tunes:

The Pope called for an “authentic dialogue” between Christians and Muslims today at the start of a four-day trip to Turkey, as he sought to calm anger in the Islamic world caused by earlier remarks linking Islam to violence. His hosts responded with concialiatory words of their own, but the pontiff was ambushed into supporting Turkey’s bid for entry to the European Union and then reprimanded by Professor Ali Bardakoglu, the head of the state-run religious affairs department.

The Pope, making his first to a Muslim country since his election in April 2005, appeared uncomfortable as Dr Bardakoglu emphasised the “vast tolerance of Islam” and said that people who suggested it was a violent religion only gave extremists more cause for hate.

In a clear reference to the Pope's words at Regensberg University, Mr Bardakoglu said religious leaders should not try to “demonstrate the superiority of their own beliefs” or waste time in discussing “the theology of religions”.

He said Muslims universally rejected accusations that Islam “was spread over the world by swords”.

In another poke at the Pope, whose speech at Regensberg contained several historical references, he said accusations of violence “are not based on any scientific and historical research or data.”

The Vatican did its best to play down the attack, saying that Dr Bardakoglu had been “positive and respectful” and that there was “no controversy”.

The Pope in his speech repeated that the Christianity and Islam have more in common than not.

Benedict, who caused the original rift by quoting a 14th-century Byzantine emperor who accused Muslims of being “evil and inhumane” turned once again to a medieval quotation to try to make amends.

He quoted Pope Gregory VII, who said in 1076 that Christians and Muslims “believe and confess to one God, even if in different ways, and every day we praise and venerate him as Creator of the ages and Lord of this world.”

He also said Turkey “is very kind to Christians” and quoted John Paul II, who said on his 1979 visit to Turkey that Christians and Muslims had to “develop the spiritual bonds that unite them” in order to “defend their moral values, peace and liberty.”

Almost every paragraph of the Pope’s speech dwelt on the shared ground between the religions. “Christians and Muslims belong to the family who believe in the one God, and who, according to their respective traditions, look back to Abraham,” he said.

The Vatican has made clear that it wants the Pope’s trip to reverse the damage done by his previous comments, and that there will not only be words, but actions.

Texas Taliban. "Local men accused of conspiring to help terrorists," from KHOU:

Two Houston men have been charged with planning to aid the Taliban, U.S. Attorney Don DeGabrielle announced Tuesday.

Adnan Babar Mirza, 29 and 33-year-old Kobie Diallo Williams, also known as Abdul Kabeer and Abdul Kabir, are both in federal custody.

Williams, a University of Houston student, pleaded guilty Tuesday. Mirza hasn't entered a plea.

Both men are accused of training with firearms so they could go to the Middle East to fight with the Taliban against coalition forces in the Middle East. They're also charged with providing cash to support terrorist groups.

In addition, Mirza is charged with three violations of federal firearms law.

To hone their skills in anticipation for battlefield jihad, the indictment alleges, Williams and Mirza agreed to train with firearms at various locations located in Harris and surrounding counties.

“While these subjects did not operate at a high level of sophistication in comparison with the 9-11 hijackers, the expressed goal was to aid the Taliban by training to carry out jihad against coalition troops in the Middle East,” said Roderick Beverly, the head of the FBI’s local office.

[...]

According to allegations in the indictment, Williams and Mirza, a citizen of Pakistan who entered the United States on a student visa on Aug. 15, 2001, allegedly viewed the United States and coalition military forces on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq as invaders. In April 2005, they agreed that they should travel to the Middle East to fight with the Taliban to engage in battlefield jihad.

On at least eight occasions between May 20, 2005, and June 17, 2006, the men engaged in firearms training, and at times in reconnaissance training.

As part of and during the alleged conspiracy, Williams and Mirza are accused of agreeing to offer financial support to Taliban fighters and their families.

Federal law prohibits contributions of goods or services to the Taliban.

As a student visa holder, Mirza is prohibited from possessing firearms. Furthermore, once his student visa expired on Dec.12, 2005, Mirza’s status changed to that of being illegally in the United States. Illegal aliens are also prohibited from possessing firearms.

The indictment charges Mirza in three counts of unlawfully possessing firearms during three firearms training sessions occurring in May 2005, March 2006 and May 2006.

If convicted of the conspiracy charge, Williams and Mirza face a maximum punishment of five years imprisonment, a fine of $250,000 and three years supervised release.

Each of the three firearms alleged against Mirza in Counts Two through Four carry a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment, a fine of $250,000 and three years supervised release, upon conviction.

Direct from the jihadists themselves: The truce is only a pause in which to regroup and re-arm. Meanwhile, Olmert hopes this ceasefire is the beginning of a diplomatic breakthrough. "Terrorists: Ceasefire means chance to reload," by Aaron Klein for WorldNetDaily:

The ceasefire to which Israel and major Palestinian factions agreed yesterday will be used by Palestinian groups to smuggle weapons into Gaza, reinforce and train "fighter units," and produce rockets for a future confrontation with the Jewish state, the leaders of the four most significant Palestinian terror groups in Gaza told WND in a series of exclusive interviews.

"The ceasefire offers a period of calm for our fighters to recover and prepare for our final goal of evacuating Palestine," said Abu Abir, spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, a Hamas-allied terror organization in the Gaza Strip responsible for many of the recent rocket attacks against Israeli communities.

"We will keep fighting (Israel), but for the moment we will postpone certain parts of the military struggle," Abu Abir said.

Abu Abir was one of several terror leaders speaking to WND after a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants took effect yesterday morning.

Israel removed its ground forces from Gaza and agreed to not launch anti-terror operations in the Gaza Strip in exchange for Palestinian promises to halt attacks against Israel, including the cessation of rocket fire against Jewish communities near Gaza.

[...]

The recent increase in rocket bombardments prompted calls by the general public here and by many in the Israeli defense establishment for a large-scale Israeli offensive in Gaza.

Israel Defense Forces officials reportedly presented multiple military plans to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to dismantle some of the terror infrastructure in Gaza, minimize rocket attacks and attempt to halt rampant weapons smuggling from neighboring Egypt into Gaza.

IDF military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin and Yuval Diskin, director of Israel's Shin Bet Security Services, both warned in recent speeches to the Knesset if Israel doesn't launch a major offensive in Gaza, Palestinian groups there will soon have military capabilities similar to those of the Hezbollah guerilla organization in Lebanon.

But Olmert yesterday said he had faith the cease-fire would work. He said it could lead to a comprehensive peace deal with the Palestinians.

"All of these things ultimately could lead to one thing – the opening of serious, real, open and direct negotiations between us so that we can move forward towards a comprehensive agreement between us and the Palestinians," Olmert told reporters yesterday, speaking about the ceasefire.

Olmert said he would be willing to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for peace talks in the near future.

[...]

Olmert said Israel would display "patience and restraint" in the face of Palestinian violations of the cease-fire.

[...]

Terror leaders: We need period of calm to recuperate

Meanwhile, terror leaders from every major Palestinian faction in Gaza, speaking to WND, said their groups would for now abide by the cease-fire, which they stated would be used to re-supply their arsenals and prepare for a conflict with Israel.

The Committees' Abu Abir said, "We will reinforce very quickly and rush what we are doing to prepare (for attacks against Israel) in Gaza and in the West Bank."

Abu Abdullah, a senior leader of Hamas' so-called "military wing," told WND Hamas agreed to the cease fire "because we need a period of calm to recuperate. This lull in fighting will not bring us to speak about peace."

Abu Abdullah is considered one of the most important operational members of Hamas' Izzedine al-Qassam Martyrs Brigades, Hamas' declared military wing.

He pointed to Hamas' doctrine, which calls for the destruction of Israel and which refuses to recognize the Jewish state.

"The political leadership (of Hamas) will never compromise on these values," the terror leader said.

Abu Abdullah said Hamas has its own political reasons to respect the truce.

More or less.

"We wish to show Islam as a ruling party is capable of leading the Palestinian people. Since Hamas was elected, we have been through only chaotic periods. We want a period of calm to prove we are not only a revolutionary movement but to show the Palestinian people our rule is without the corruption of (the rival) Fatah (party)."

But Abu Abdullah said the cease-fire would ultimately end in violence.

They all do.

"All the Palestinian people and all the Muslims will launch a direct confrontation with Israel. This may come soon or it may take some time," Abu Abdullah said.

Abu Luay, a leader of Islamic Jihad in Gaza, told WND Israel's call for a cease-fire "proves our rocket attacks work. The Zionists know there is now remedy for our rockets."

The Islamic Jihad leader said Palestinian rocket attacks against Israel would resume "at a time of our choosing."

Abu Ahmed, the leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the northern Gaza Strip, told WND his terror group would respect the ceasefire.

The Brigades, responsible for scores of suicide bombings, shootings and rocket attacks, is the declared military wing of Abbas' Fatah party.

"We will respect the cease-fire as the president (Abbas) has ordered us to do," said Abu Ahmed. "We keep our right to respond to any Israeli aggression. Our group does not give up any of its ideals, which is a withdrawal of the Israelis."

"Sharia law is spreading as authority wanes," by Joshua Rozenburg for The Telegraph:

Islamic sharia law is gaining an increasing foothold in parts of Britain, a report claims.

[...]

Mr Yusuf said a group of Somali youths were arrested on suspicion of stabbing another Somali teenager. The victim's family told the police it would be settled out of court and the suspects were released on bail.

A hearing was convened and elders ordered the assailants to compensate their victim. "All their uncles and their fathers were there," said Mr Yusuf. "So they all put something towards that and apologised for the wrongdoing."

Although Scotland Yard had no information about that case yesterday, a spokesman said it was common for the police not to proceed with assault cases if the victims decided not to press charges.

However, the spokesman said cases of domestic violence, including rape, might go to trial regardless of the victim's wishes.

Mr Yusuf told the programme he felt more bound by the traditional law of his birth than by the laws of his adopted country.. "Us Somalis, wherever we are in the world, we have our own law," he said. "It's not sharia, it's not religious — it's just a cultural thing."

Sharia's great strength was the effectiveness of its penalties, he said. Those who appeared before religious courts would avoid re-offending so as not to bring shame on their families.

Some lawyers welcomed the advance of what has become known as "legal pluralism".

Dr Prakash Shah, a senior lecturer in law at Queen Mary University of London, said such tribunals "could be more effective than the formal legal system".

In his book Islam in Britain, Patrick Sookhdeo, director of the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity, says there is an "alternative parallel unofficial legal system" that operates in the Muslim community on a voluntary basis.

"Sharia courts now operate in most larger cities, with different sectarian and ethnic groups operating their own courts that cater to their specific needs according to their traditions," he says. These are based on sharia councils, set up in Britain to help Muslims solve family and personal problems.

Catering to "specific needs according to their traditions." No mention of the nastier penalties and miscarriages of justice by Western standards (such as requiring four male witnesses to prove a rape has occurred, following the Qur'anic criterion used for establishing sexual offenses under Sharia law).

Sharia councils may grant divorces under religious law to a woman whose husband refuses to complete a civil divorce by declaring his marriage over. There is evidence that these councils are evolving into courts of arbitration.

Faizul Aqtab Siddiqi, a barrister and principal of Hijaz College Islamic University, near Nuneaton, Warwicks, said this type of court had advantages for Muslims. "It operates on a low budget, it operates on very small timescales and the process and the laws of evidence are far more lenient and it's less awesome an environment than the English courts," he said.

Mr Siddiqi predicted that there would be a formal network of Muslim courts within a decade.

"I was speaking to a police officer who said we no longer have the bobby on the beat who will give somebody a slap on the wrist.

"So I think there is a case to be made under which the elders sit together and reprimand people, trying to get them to change."

But it certainly won't stop there if allowed to continue.

"No marriage of an adult or minor female" is "valid without the guardian's approval." Sharia Alert. "Marriage sans consent is over" by Mohsen Rashid for The Khaleej Times:

Dubai — The Dubai Court of Cassation has upheld a verdict issued by the Shariah Court ordering the termination of a five-year marriage between a national woman and an Egyptian man after the wife’s guardian filed a lawsuit against it saying it was solemnised without his consent.

The case unfolded when the woman’s brother filed a lawsuit on behalf of his father (her guardian) before the Dubai Shariah court in July, against the couple who have a daughter.

The plaintiff demanded the termination of the marriage contract, as it was signed without the consent of the guardian of the wife (according to Shariah). The husband argued that since the marriage was done in mid-August 2000 in Egypt it had become subject of the Egyptian personal status law. A previous civil lawsuit, issued in Egypt, resulted in validating the marriage.

However, the court referred to the personal status law, whereby each one of the spouses needed to obey the laws of his or her country of origin, and since the wife was a UAE citizen, the UAE law stipulated that no marriage of an adult or minor female was valid without guardian’s approval. The court thus recommended termination of the marriage contract.

Meanwhile, the husband appealed against the verdict, arguing that the marriage lasted since the year 2000 without any lawsuits, what should be considered as evidence that her father had no objection to it. He also stated that they were living in the UAE and were maintaining good relations with the wife’s family.

He also urged the court to confirm the authenticity of the power of attorney granted to the sons by their father (guardian), who lacks basic skills of reading and writing. The appeal, however, was rejected.

The husband then moved the Court of Cassation, which too upheld the previous verdict and pulled the curtain down on the case by terminating the marriage.

Yesterday I alerted you to a jihadist website, "The Ignored Puzzle Pieces of Knowledge." Well, Mr. Puzzle Pieces, who calls himself InshAllah Shaheed (Marytr, Allah Willing), was unhappy with all the attention. Today he has posted "My open letter to Jihadwatch.org."

I wrote yesterday that his site "conducts jihad recruitment through Qur'anic exegesis," so today InshAllah Shaheed responds, "As for this website, please provide proof that I have actually recruited people." But of course, I didn't mean that he was recruiting in the sense of signing up people for the great effort, but in the sense of trying to win over the hearts and minds of Muslims by appealing to their religious obligations as delineated in their holy texts. And in this "open letter," he's still at it. Who would not want to join the great struggle after reading something like this:

As for this website, please provide proof that I have actually recruited people. It is only from your evil desires that you wish to propagate that which will hurt the Muslims; and I pray to Allah that he breaks your hands and poisons your tongue so that you may never propagate your lies again. And if it doesn’t happen in this life, then only by the will of Allah, I will be the one laughing at you from Paradise – enjoying its eternal pleasures - while your body is dragged through spikes that pierce deep within your body, and you are only given to drink foul smelling pus and boiling water – which only makes you vomit and burn your insides - and eat extremely sour and thorny fruits – where if it to be dropped in one of the oceans of this earth, all of the oceans and even the lands of the earth would be destroyed.

In this the pious man demonstrates his awareness of the Qur'an's many passages about the damned being made to drink boiling water and having it poured over their heads: 6:70; 10:4; 14:16; 22:19; 37:67; 38:57; 40:72; 44:46; 44:48; 47:15; 55:44; 56:42; 56:54; 56:93; 78:25; 88:5.

Then he goes on to quote Sahih Muslim 4294, which I have quoted here many times. In it, Muhammad directs his followers to offer their enemies conversion, subjugation, or war -- and so Mr. InshAllah Shaheed offers those choices to us.

A few gems from the rest of his open letter:

Some of you seem to have a misunderstanding regarding my intentions. I did not preach that we must slaughter every single non-Muslim for the purpose of them being non-Muslim.

I don't know what he is talking about here. Obviously I have never said any such thing.

Rather, I have been repeatedly stating that we, as Muslims, are obligated to hate you for the sake of Allah because the fact is that you are non-Muslim; and if you can’t take it, then Alhamdullilah because one day, in the West, it will become extremely clear to the majority of who belongs to the Truth and who belongs to Falsehood. We will continue preaching the Truth until you feel like killing every single Muslim; and this has already started by the ones you worship the most: The Government. In fact, you worship your government more than you worship your own god – that is if you are a follower of a Religion. And only the people of understanding will know the truth in this.

Well, I know that isn't true of me, or of many people here, but I know what he means: he is referring to those who would prefer to live in a society in which there is no established religion than in one governed by religious law. I think the Founding Fathers were wise to include the provision of non-establishment in the Bill of Rights, as misinterpreted as it has been in recent decades; it is a framework by which people of different creeds can live together in peace. But if one believes that it is the will of the Almighty that Muslims should enjoy a privileged position in a multireligious society, as mandated by Sharia, then one will look upon the principle of non-establishment only with contempt. And call it government worship, or some such.

Mr. Shaheed also rails against Muslim moderates as not following true Islam -- as I have pointed out many times, jihadists do this routinely, and moderate Muslims have formulated no effective Qur'anic response.

Many of you seem to be very frightened and surprised by the fact that I openly preach Jihad for the sake of Allah, as it is ordained in our Religion. Keep in mind, I only preach that which is in the Qur’an and Sunnah; and those who tell you that preaching from these two sources is not necessary, do not listen to them; even if they call themselves Muslim since Allah says,

يٰأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ آمَنُوۤاْ أَطِيعُواْ ٱللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ وَلاَ تَوَلَّوْا عَنْهُ وَأَنْتُمْ تَسْمَعُونَ
وَلاَ تَكُونُواْ كَالَّذِينَ قَالُوا سَمِعْنَا وَهُمْ لاَ يَسْمَعُونَ
إِنَّ شَرَّ ٱلدَّوَابِّ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ ٱلصُّمُّ ٱلْبُكْمُ ٱلَّذِينَ لاَ يَعْقِلُونَ
O ye who believe! Obey Allah and His Messenger, and turn not away from him when ye hear (him speak). And be not like those who said, ‘We hear’, and they did not obey. For the worst of creatures in the sight of Allah are the deaf and the dumb; they are those who understand not. (al-Anfaal: 20-22)

That's Qur'an 8:20-22.

Later on, after some grievance propaganda, Mr. Shaheed refers to some episodes from the life of Muhammad, invoking the Prophet of Islam's example as normative for Muslims today:

If you are aware of Islamic History, O American, you are then aware of what happens to the enemies of Allah. Take heed from the example of the Jews of Khaybar! Take heed from the example of the Battle of Badr! Take heed from the example of the Battle of Khandaq! Take heed from the battle between the Muslims and the Persian Empire! Take heed of the army of Salahuddin al-Ayyubi when he declared Jihad against the mammoth sized Crusader Army of 300,000 or more and was reduced to 1,000!

Know that Islam, as Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu ‘alayhe wassallam) said, is meant to be dominant and not dominated (Sahih Muslim). As long as we are not engulfed in the life of this world, we become the most dominant force on earth. And as you can see, O Americans, our nation is heading in this direction. Our Religion teaches us to choose the life of the Hereafter over the life here-and-now, and to live like Knights during the day and monks during the night. So beware of our emerging power and know that honor belongs to Allah, His Messenger, and the Believers.

Know, O Americans, that we have with us people who love death the way you love the dollar! And we cannot live until we die since this life is a prison for the believer and it is a Paradise for the disbeliever. You fools enjoy this life to the fullest when in reality, it is temporary and all of us will one day die and take back nothing to the grave except our souls – which were created to prepare for death by living a life of piety, truthfulness, and devotion to Allah. Paradise is real, Hellfire is real, and this world is only a test and trial from Allah, The Most High, to see who will realize the reality of this life and then act upon it accordingly.

Know, O Americans, that it was Ronald Reagan who quite rightly pointed out that, “How do you expect to defeat a people who believe that when you kill them they go to a Paradise filled with beautiful virgins and rivers of wine?” Muse over this question and you will realize that we die for the sake of Allah because Allah is real and this Religion of Islam is the only Truth until the Day of Judgment.

There is no doubt that throughout history the promise of Paradise, along with the promise of booty (cf. Qur'an, sura 8, etc.), made jihad warriors fight with extraordinary ferocity. But you will find, sir, that some Americans are not as soft, either physically or psychologically, as you imagine. And your battle will not be as easy as you dream it will be. As I am quite certain you will find out in the years to come.

Yes, well, what else could he say after all the affection and warmth the Muslims in Turkey have shown him?

"Pope defuses tensions on visit to Muslim Turkey," by Philip Pullella and Selcuk Gokoluk for Reuters:

ANKARA (Reuters) - Pope Benedict told Turkey on Tuesday he backed its bid to join the European Union and believed Islam was a religion of peace, hoping to soothe rows overshadowing a delicate visit to the mainly Muslim country.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan hailed the comments, which he said Benedict made to him in their private talk at the airport, and Turkish commentators said they changed the tone of a visit clouded by disputes over the Pope's view of Islam.

Asked about Turkey's EU entry bid, which Benedict opposed before his 2005 election as Pope, spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the Vatican took no political stand but supported Turkey's entry "on the basis of common values and principles."

And what are those common values and principles, exactly?

Security was heavy but protests rare under Ankara's sunny skies as Benedict arrived, laid a wreath at the mausoleum of the republic's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and met Turkey's president and director of religious affairs.

Erdogan, who had originally said he was too busy to meet the Pope, greeted Benedict warmly as he descended from his airplane and held short talks with him before leaving for the NATO summit in Riga.

"He said we are not political but we wish for Turkey to join the EU," Erdogan told journalists after meeting the Pope.

Erdogan, who began his career in Islamic politics, added: "The most important message the Pope gave was toward Islam, he reiterated his view of Islam as peaceful and affectionate."

Yes. Cuddly, even. No Salman-Rushdieism here about Islam being the "least huggable of faiths." The intellectual acrobatics required for this aren't really all that difficult. Just decide a priori that all those committing violence in the name of Islam aren't really Muslims. Then all that are left are the poor victims of "Islamophobia."

According to Erdogan, Benedict now endorses the "grave error." But it is still a grave error, regardless. "Pope Benedict Backs Turkey's European Union Bid, Erdogan Says," by Flavia Krause-Jackson and Mark Bentley for Bloomberg, with thanks to Looney Tunes:

Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Pope Benedict XVI said he backs Turkey's bid to join the European Union, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after meeting the pontiff upon his arrival in Ankara for his first visit to a Muslim country.

The Pope told Erdogan that while the Vatican seeks to stay out of politics it ``desires Turkey's membership in the EU,'' Erdogan said at a news conference after the 15 minute meeting that initiated his four-day visit to Turkey. As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger he had said in 2004 that allowing Islamic Turkey to join the EU would be a ``grave error.'' The Vatican has yet to confirm Benedict's comments today.

The nature of the incident is surprising. The utter contempt for Queen and country, and the sense of entitlement ("I am a Muslim, I am fasting, I needed to eat.") is not. "Muslim jailed for killing British queen's swan to break Ramadan fast," from AFP:

LONDON -- A Muslim man who was so hungry while fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan that he killed a swan to eat was jailed for two months at a court in Britain Wednesday.

Shamsu Miah, 52, killed the mute swan at a boating pond in the north Welsh seaside resort of Llandudno September 25 - only the second day of fasting in Britain.

All mute swans in Britain belong to the sovereign, Queen Elizabeth II, an historical quirk dating from the twelfth century.

When challenged by police, Miah said: "I am a Muslim, I am fasting, I needed to eat."

Llandudno Magistrates Court heard that Miah had blood on his shirt and white feathers in his beard.

Prosecutor Jim Neary said: "When interviewed he said, 'I was hungry, I had to eat the swan so I killed it, I stabbed it. I did nothing wrong, it was just a bird, I needed to eat'."

"The officers told him the swan was the property of the queen and he replied, 'I hate the queen, I hate this country'."

Judge Andrew Shaw told Miah: "You killed a swan at night. It was a cruel and reprehensible act.

"I don't know how it died; there seems to be some speculation that you bit it but I accept you killed it with a knife.

"It is a taboo act and the only sentence I can pass is one of imprisonment."

Miah had pleaded guilty to intentionally killing a wild bird and possessing a bladed article.

He was released from custody having already served his two-month sentence while on remand.

Two items are of interest here. One is the manifestation of "deepening social and religious conservatism" in another Mideast nation considered an ally by the US. The other is the upsurge in Shi'ite political power, and its obvious implications on the larger Sunni-Shi'ite tensions in the region, including Iran's ambitions to expand its power and influence. By Jim Krane for The Associated Press:

MANAMA, Bahrain - Islamist candidates swept to victory in Bahrain's parliamentary election, splitting the vote between hardline Shiite and Sunni Muslims while female and liberal candidates fared poorly in the U.S.-allied kingdom, preliminary results showed Sunday.

With several races headed for runoffs, Saturday's vote appeared to reinforce the sectarian divide between the Persian Gulf island's governing Sunni minority and the underprivileged Shiites who make up two-thirds of its 700,000 people.

The results also underlined a deepening social and religious conservatism in Bahrain, which has been among the most liberal of Arab states in the region and is host to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet.

Of 18 women running, only one won outright — Latifa al-Gaoud, who was unopposed in her district. Another, Munira Fakhro, advanced to a runoff next Saturday but faces a tough race against Salah Ali of the pro-government Muslim Brotherhood, a hardline Sunni group.

No secular liberal candidates won seats outright. At least four were headed for tough second -round battles with Islamic hard-liners.

The runoffs will decide whether parliament's 40-member elected chamber is dominated by pro-government Sunnis or an opposition alliance of Shiites and liberals. The latter would likely press for broad reforms to Bahrain's limited democracy, under which the ruling Khalifa family controls most levers of power.

The religious sweep in Bahrain mirrored results of elections in Iraq, Egypt and Palestinian territories, where Muslim hard-liners have made inroads. The vote was watched closely by neighboring Arab countries planning similar steps toward democracy or dealing with their own Shiite populations clamoring for power.

"It looks like our parliament will be dominated by people who see themselves only as Sunnis or Shiites," said Fowad Shihab, a political science professor at Bahrain University. "These are the same Islamists that are gaining control across the Arab world."

The Shiite al-Wefaq movement, which boycotted Bahrain's 2002 election, emerged with 16 seats, the best showing of any party.

"The people trusted us and we did well," said al-Wefaq leader Sheik Ali Salman, a Shiite cleric in a rolled white turban and black cloak.

Analysts expect al-Wefaq to throw their runoff support to liberals, most of whom face Sunni opponents from the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist movement.

An important update to the US Airways Imam Rage controversy. Audrey Hudson in the Washington Times (thanks to all who sent this in) reveals that they were acting far more provocatively than previous reports have indicated.

Muslim religious leaders removed from a Minneapolis flight last week exhibited behavior associated with a security probe by terrorists and were not merely engaged in prayers, according to witnesses, police reports and aviation security officials.

Witnesses said three of the imams were praying loudly in the concourse and repeatedly shouted "Allah" when passengers were called for boarding US Airways Flight 300 to Phoenix.

"I was suspicious by the way they were praying very loud," the gate agent told the Minneapolis Police Department.

Passengers and flight attendants told law-enforcement officials the imams switched from their assigned seats to a pattern associated with the September 11 terrorist attacks and also found in probes of U.S. security since the attacks -- two in the front row first-class, two in the middle of the plane on the exit aisle and two in the rear of the cabin.

"That would alarm me," said a federal air marshal who asked to remain anonymous. "They now control all of the entry and exit routes to the plane."

A pilot from another airline said: "That behavior has been identified as a terrorist probe in the airline industry."

But the imams who were escorted off the flight in handcuffs say they were merely praying before the 6:30 p.m. flight on Nov. 20, and yesterday led a protest by prayer with other religious leaders at the airline's ticket counter at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, called removing the imams an act of Islamophobia and compared it to racism against blacks.

"It's a shame that as an African-American and a Muslim I have the double whammy of having to worry about driving while black and flying while Muslim," Mr. Bray said.

More here on the slick Mr. Bray.

The protesters also called on Congress to pass legislation to outlaw passenger profiling.

That would effectively make it illegal to stop a Muslim in an airport, no matter what he was doing. It would give carte blanche to future Muhammad Attas.

Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, Texas Democrat, said the September 11 terrorist attacks "cannot be permitted to be used to justify racial profiling, harassment and discrimination of Muslim and Arab Americans."

"Understandably, the imams felt profiled, humiliated, and discriminated against by their treatment," she said.

According to witnesses, police reports and aviation security officials, the imams displayed other suspicious behavior.

Three of the men asked for seat-belt extenders, although two flight attendants told police the men were not oversized. One flight attendant told police she "found this unsettling, as crew knew about the six [passengers] on board and where they were sitting." Rather than attach the extensions, the men placed the straps and buckles on the cabin floor, the flight attendant said.

The imams said they were not discussing politics and only spoke in English, but witnesses told law enforcement that the men spoke in Arabic and English, criticizing the war in Iraq and President Bush, and talking about al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.

The imams who claimed two first-class seats said their tickets were upgraded. The gate agent told police that when the imams asked to be upgraded, they were told no such seats were available. Nevertheless, the two men were seated in first class when removed.

A flight attendant said one of the men made two trips to the rear of the plane to talk to the imam during boarding, and again when the flight was delayed because of their behavior. Aviation officials, including air marshals and pilots, said these actions alone would not warrant a second look, but the combination is suspicious.

"That's like shouting 'fire' in a crowded theater. You just can't do that anymore," said Robert MacLean, a former air marshal.

"They should have been denied boarding and been investigated," Mr. MacLean said. "It looks like they are trying to create public sympathy or maybe setting someone up for a lawsuit."

Of course. And it's all about getting that legislation passed.

He asks for dialogue and brotherhood. Who in the Islamic world will reciprocate? By Brian Murphy for Associated Press:

ANKARA, Turkey - Pope Benedict XVI began his first visit to a Muslim country Tuesday with a message of dialogue and "brotherhood" between Christians and Muslims in an attempt to ease anger over his perceived criticism of Islam.

Two months after the pope touched off fury across the Islamic world with remarks linking violence and Prophet Muhammad, the Turkish prime minister — in a last-minute change of plans — was on hand at the airport in Turkey's capital to greet the pontiff.

"All feel the same responsibility in this difficult moment in history, let's work together," Benedict said during his flight from Rome to Ankara, where more than 3,000 police and sharpshooters joined a security effort that surpassed even the visit of President Bush two years ago.

The pope used his first moments of his four-day trip to try to mend fences with Islamic leaders.

"We know that the scope of this trip is dialogue and brotherhood and the commitment for understanding between cultures ... and for reconciliation," he told reporters on his plane.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed the pope at the foot of the plane.

"I want to express happiness to see you and your delegation in our country," Erdogan told the pope before meeting with him privately. He described the pope's visit as "very meaningful."

Erdogan, who was bound for a NATO summit in Latvia, had only announced the day before that he would make time to meet Benedict in a nation where many people view the pope with suspicion. Erdogan's political party has Islamic roots, though the government is secular.

In his first official act, Benedict visited the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, and wrote a message in a guest book calling Turkey "a meeting point of different religions and cultures and a bridge between Asia and Europe."

Police monitored the highway leading to Ankara from the airport, where Turkish and Vatican flags waved in a light breeze. Snipers climbed atop buildings and hilltops. In wooded areas along the route, soldiers in camouflage fatigues set up observation points and sniffer dogs passed along bridges.

In this morning's feature article at FrontPage I discuss the Pope's trip to Turkey (news links in the original):

Pope Benedict XVI is set to arrive in Turkey on Tuesday, and tensions are running high. Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turk who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981, wrote to Benedict: “Your life is in danger. You absolutely must not come to Turkey.” And several weeks ago, a Turk named Ibrahim Ak stood outside Italy’s consulate in Istanbul and fired a gun while proclaiming his desire to strangle the pope. As he was arrested, Ak shouted: “I am happy to be a Muslim!” He said that he hoped the Pope would decide not to come to Turkey, and that his actions would inspire other Turks to violence: “God willing, this will be a spark, a starter for Muslims ... God willing, he will not come. If he comes, he will see what will happen to him.”

Turkish officials are trying to make sure nothing does. According to the Associated Press, they have “mobilized an army of snipers, bomb disposal experts and riot police, as well as navy commandos to patrol the Bosporus Straits flowing through Istanbul.” However, Meliha Benli Altunisik, a professor at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, questioned whether such precautions were necessary at all: "Will there be protests? Yes, of course. But I cannot take seriously the notion that he is in physical danger. He will rather be ignored."

“War is imminent. There is no other alternative.” Somali Jihad Update: "Islamists mass troops on Ethiopian border," from Business Day, with thanks to D.:

MOGADISHU — Somalia’s powerful Union of Islamic Courts began massing thousands of troops on the border with Ethiopia over the weekend, days after Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said he was ready to confront the Islamic militants in Somalia.

“War is imminent. There is no other alternative,” Islamist military officer Sheikh Mohamed Ibrahim Bilal said by satellite phone from the border. “Ethiopia declared war, so we will defend ourselves and protect our country and people.”

The Islamists have declared a jihad on Ethiopian troops in the country to back the weak transitional government based in the northern town of Baidoa.

Ethiopia last week said it was ready for a confrontation with the Muslim militants, who control most of the country.

Residents of the border area have begun fleeing.

Meles told a news conference on Saturday he had explained Ethiopia’s position to western powers. “Both Brussels and Washington appear to believe that any military response on our part might be counterproductive, saying that dialogue is the best way forward,” he said.

“We, too, agree that dialogue is the best way, nevertheless as the direct victims of the aggression, we feel we might be forced at some stage to respond with force.

“It is our country that is being attacked. Naturally, we do not seek any green, red or yellow from anyone to protect ourselves.

“If, and when, we are convinced that all options of resolving the invasion through peaceful means are exhausted, only then we may act to respond in kind,” Meles said. The Islamists had trained, armed and smuggled hundreds of Ethiopian rebels into the country, he said.

I'm glad to see that Erdogan has turned around on this. By Benjamin Harvey for Associated Press:

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to meet Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday, a change of plans that appears to signal openness to a visit that has angered many Turks.

Small protests broke out in the cities of Ankara and Istanbul on Monday, but authorities said security measures for the pope — who angered Muslims worldwide with comments in September on Islam and violence — will be tighter than they were for President Bush's visit in 2004.

Benedict, on his first papal visit to a predominantly Muslim country, was to arrive at the Ankara airport Tuesday around noon, where he will meet briefly with Erdogan, who waited until the day before the pope's arrival to announce that he would make time to see the pope.

News reports say some 3,000 police officers have been assigned to guard the pope upon his arrival in the dusty, sprawling capital of Ankara. Snipers will watch from hillsides and tall buildings, and armored vehicles and riot police will be stationed near the areas he is scheduled to visit.

Police also were staking out spots in Istanbul, where Benedict will spend most of his four days in Turkey.

"We have taken all the necessary measures and observations of the route the pope (will travel) and the places the pope will visit," Istanbul police spokesman Ismail Caliskan said.

The most sensitive moment of Benedict's visit may be his walk through the Haghia Sophia, a museum in Istanbul that was built as a Christian church in the 6th century and converted into a mosque in 1453 when Islamic armies conquered the city, then Constantinople.

On Monday, a group of around 100 demonstrators displayed what they said were a million signatures for a petition demanding that the Haghia Sophia be declared a mosque and opened to worship for Muslims.

In a speech Sunday, Benedict said he was coming to Turkey as a friend of the Turks and asked his followers to pray for him. That same day, more than 25,000 Turks protested in Istanbul, asking the pope to stay home....

Justice Minister Cemil Cicek said the visit was an opportunity for improved relations between the Christian and Muslim worlds. "We would want this visit to be a cornerstone for (relations) between the two worlds," Cicek said after a Cabinet meeting Monday.

"Turkey is a country that is recognized worldwide for its tolerance and its hospitality. This is an opportunity for (Turkey) to display these qualities," he said.

Yes, and you're off to such a magnificent start.

No real surprise here. "Hezbollah Said to Help Shiite Army in Iraq," by Michael R. Gordon and Dexter Filkins in the New York Times, :

WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 — A senior American intelligence official said Monday that the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah had been training members of the Mahdi Army, the Iraqi Shiite militia led by Moktada al-Sadr.

The official said that 1,000 to 2,000 fighters from the Mahdi Army and other Shiite militias had been trained by Hezbollah in Lebanon. A small number of Hezbollah operatives have also visited Iraq to help with training, the official said.

Iran has facilitated the link between Hezbollah and the Shiite militias in Iraq, the official said. Syrian officials have also cooperated, though there is debate about whether it has the blessing of the senior leaders in Syria.

The intelligence official spoke on condition of anonymity under rules set by his agency, and discussed Iran’s role in response to questions from a reporter.

The interview occurred at a time of intense debate over whether the United States should enlist Iran’s help in stabilizing Iraq. The Iraq Study Group, directed by James A. Baker III, a former Republican secretary of state, and Lee H. Hamilton, a former Democratic lawmaker, is expected to call for direct talks with Tehran.

And why not? After all, Chamberlain went to Munich.

That is, Cat Stevens. In "Sending a Grim Message" in the New York Sun, Bruce Bawer tells the grim story (thanks to Nick Danger):

The Nobel Peace Prize Concert will be held in Oslo on December 11 and broadcast around the world. The Norwegian Nobel Committee doesn't much care for Americans these days (except for 2002 laureate Jimmy Carter), but it knows who's an international draw and who isn't, and so the concert, as always, is top-loaded with American celebrities. The co-hosts are Sharon Stone and Angelica Huston, and the entertainers scheduled to appear include Lionel Ritchie and Wynonna. Also on the bill is a British singer who calls himself Yusuf.

Does that last name not sound familiar? Well, this is the same guy who used to be known as Yusuf Islam. Still confused? Well, before that he was Cat Stevens, and before that, just for the record, he was Steven Demetre Georgiou. For those who know a bit about Yusuf — who dropped his original name after converting to Islam in 1977 — the invitation from the Nobel Committee came as something of a surprise. Then again, for those who know a bit about the Nobel Committee's politics (this is the same crowd, after all, who publicly regretted giving their 1994 award to Shimon Peres, but not to that year's co-winner, Yasser Arafat), the decision to invite Yusuf to pay tribute in song to this year's prize winner, Muhammad Yunus, was not quite so astonishing.

There is reason to be dismayed by the Norwegian Nobel Committee's anointing of Yusuf. This is, after all, a man who's been denied entry into America and expelled from Israel. After the publication of the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, he was quoted in the New York Times as saying that if Mr. Rushdie came to his door for help, "I might ring somebody who might do more damage to him than he would like. I'd try to phone the Ayatollah Khomeini and tell him exactly where this man is." A Web site called the Jawa Report claims that Yusuf has performed at fund-raising events for charities with connections to terrorist organizations. On the same Web site you can also read claims that he is an intimate of the Islamist Omar Bakri Mohammed and of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, who is now serving a life sentence for terrorist activities.

Read it all.

Hakan Tastan and Turan Topal Update from Compass Direct:

November 27 (Compass Direct News) – A criminal trial against two Turkish Christians accused of “insulting Turkishness” and inciting hatred against Islam grabbed national media coverage as religious tensions mounted before the visit of Pope Benedict XVI tomorrow.

A cluster of TV cameras, microphones and clamoring Turkish journalists waited for more than an hour outside the Silivri Courthouse in northwestern Turkey for Hakan Tastan, 37, and Turan Topal, 46, to emerge from their opening hearing on Thursday (November 23) before the Silivri Criminal Court.

Tastan promptly stepped up to the mikes, stating, “We are being accused because we are Christians and because we have done missionary work.”

Formally the two Christians are charged with violating Article 301 of the Turkish penal code, under which scores of Turkish intellectuals and writers have been prosecuted in the past 18 months for allegedly denigrating “Turkish identity.”

The former Muslims are also accused under separate statutes of reviling Islam (Article 216), as well as secretly compiling files on private citizens for a Bible correspondence course without the individuals’ knowledge or permission (Article 135).

“We don’t use force to tell anyone about Christianity,” Tastan said. “But we are Christians, and if the Lord permits, we will continue to proclaim this.”

Describing himself and Topal as “citizens of the Republic of Turkey who love its democratic, secular system,” Tastan stressed they had nothing to hide in defending themselves in court. “We are not ashamed to be Turks. We are not ashamed to be Christians.”

Tensions outside the courtroom were heightened by the unexpected appearance of ultranationalist Kemal Kerincsiz, a fiery attorney who intervened in the Christians’ case to lead a team of four other prosecution lawyers at the hearing. Kerincsiz has gained national notoriety by filing dozens of Article 301 cases against prominent intellectuals for defaming “Turkishness.”

Scuffles Break Out

Moments after Tastan and Topal walked away with their lawyer, Kerincsiz launched an impromptu press conference from the courtroom steps.

“Christian missionaries working almost like terrorist groups are able to enter into high schools and among primary school students,” Kerincsiz told reporters. “They deceive our children with beautiful young girls.”

At this, one Turkish Christian in the crowd shouted, “He’s lying!” Several nationalist demonstrators reacted violently, starting to shove the converts’ supporters and hitting one. But police promptly intervened to detain and remove the attacker, releasing him a few minutes later.

Read it all.

While the imams continue to do all they can to make this into an incident that will end all scrutiny of Muslims in airports, US Airways is still refusing to kowtow. From RTTNews, with thanks to Twostellas:

(RTTNews) - A spokeswoman for the US Airways Group Inc, the operator of the plane from which the six imams were removed on last Monday, expressed regret at the incident and said that the company is planning to meet with the imams later this week.

US Airways Group Inc. spokeswoman Andrea Rader said that the prayer was never the issue. She added that one passenger mistook the imams to be saying what he thought were anti-U.S. statements and informed the flight crew. Moreover the imams were moving about in the plane which forced the flight crew to consult with the airline about whether they might pose a security risk, she said.

"We're sorry the imams had a difficult time, but we do think the crews have to make these calls and we think they made the right one," she said.

What kind of reaction do you think Soheib Bencheikh, who is a member of the French Council for the Muslim Religion and head of the French Institute for Islamic Science, as well as a candidate for President of France, will get to this? Will his words be welcomed and taken to heart? Or will he be treated like Jamal Miftah? Probably he will get a little of both. "Former Marseilles Mufti Soheib Bencheikh: 'Islam Must Be Criticized, Just as Christianity Was [Criticized] During the Enlightenment; Islam is a Message for All Humanity – Therefore It Is Not the Property of Muslims [Alone],'" from MEMRI:

Bencheikh says that Islam came into being in tribal societies and is still focused on the tribal lifestyle. Thus, he says, it should be reformed to address the needs of modern life: "...Religious teachings were developed and formulated between the eighth and 12th centuries, and have not undergone any reform or updating since that time... In the 60s, most Muslim countries chose political modernity. Most of them became either republics or constitutional monarchies. But these choices remained completely theoretical. [There] was no reform to [adapt] Muslim theology to this historical transformation. Consequently, [Muslims today] experience a dangerous discrepancy between their status as citizens and their status as believers...

I have maintained just this for years: that there has been no significant Islamic theological movement to buttress the cultural Islam that has prevailed in areas of Central Asia, Eastern Europe and elsewhere for several centuries now. Consequently cultural Muslims in those areas are vulnerable to jihad recruitment based on Qur'an and Sunnah.

"This static theology we inherited was conceived for an Islam that was the religion of the majority and had sovereignty over its lands. Moreover, it was conceived for tribal societies. This theology was meant for times when nations hardly came into contact [with each other] - and if they did, it was in a spirit of rivalry for dominance. This theology could not care less about living in harmony with other cultures, and knows nothing of pluralism based on universal principals like secularism and religious freedom - [principles that are] applicable to all religions and granted to all." [3]

Bencheikh also explains that Islamic jurisprudence was aimed at managing Muslim life in a tribal society and must therefore be reformed: "[To take] Islamic jurisprudence - which was inherited from [tribal] societies - and turn it into a kind of universal jurisprudence applicable to all periods means to 'bedouinize' Islam and prevent Islamic societies from evolving... In Algeria, for example, fiqh [Islamic jurisprudence] is still applied... If I divorce my wife, she will have to leave our apartment with her children. Why is it like that? Because at a time when life was organized into tribes - and not into city blocks [as in modern times] - the divorced wife had to leave her husband's clan in order to go back to her father's clan. [In fiqh,] nothing has changed, even though the social framework has changed completely."

Political Islam Is Heresy

Bencheikh states that political Islam is a heresy promoted by the Arab states: "The first heresy in Islam in the 20th century was the politicization of Islam. As soon as Muslim countries became independent came the birth of political Islam - i.e. a kind of Islam that is dictated by the state, obeys only the state, and is merely an organ of the state - since it helps the state to increase its power and oppress the people... We are all familiar with the failures and the bloody [inclinations] of political Islam.

"In the Muslim countries, the state still pays the imams' salaries. It is the state that promotes Islam - but what kind of Islam? The kind of Islam that is not familiar with [the concept of] citizenship, but only [the concept of] subjects; the kind of Islam that is not familiar with [the concept of] a state [based on citizens'] rights, but only with the rights of the prince; the kind of Islam that is not familiar with democratic elections or with the free expression of a sovereign people, but only with the oath of allegiance [to the ruler].

"I am convinced that the Islamic state promotes its own destruction by teaching a kind of Islam that does not reform itself, and that still relates to traditional, patriarchal and tribal societies." [4]

Bencheikh draws a distinction between Islam as a humanist religion and Islam as a political tool, stating that Muslim theologians have a responsibility to promote humanistic Islam: "It is up to us Muslims who are versed in religious science to make the distinction, in the minds of Muslims and non-Muslims alike, between a religion based on spirituality, humanism, and civilization [on the one hand], and a purely instrumental use [of religion], which aims at seizing worldly, material power [on the other]..." [5]

Read it all.

"O ye who believe! Fight those of the disbelievers who are near to you, and let them find harshness in you, and know that Allah is with those who keep their duty (unto Him)." (Qur'an 9:123)

Here (thanks to John) is a jihadist website, The Ignored Puzzle Pieces of Knowledge, which conducts jihad recruitment through Qur'anic exegesis (no one thinks Islam is a religion of peace at this website) and instructs believers on such weighty matters as why they should not shake the hand of a Christian.

Sheikh Azzam, who is quoted in the first article, is Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, cofounder (with Osama bin Laden) of Al-Qaeda.

Note the copious references to Qur'an and Hadith. This is how jihadists recruit, while the politically correct cowards and fools in the West insist that what is going on has nothing to do with Islam, and we need not look at Qur'an and Hadith in order to understand it.

Tiny Minority of Extremists Update. He was kicked out for writing this article in the Tulsa World: Message of Islam is not jihad, fatwas.

LGF has the story and video.

Why is it entirely, or even mostly, the responsibility of the US government to resolve this "trust gap?" And this is the "gap" that exists even while government officials avoid or remain ignorant of the ideological roots of jihad in the Qur'an, Ahadith, and Sunnah, and operate on the assumption that Islam is a Religion of Peace that has been "hijacked" by a Tiny Minority of Extremists. "US works to bridge its Muslim trust gap," by Alexandra Marks for The Christian Science Monitor:

NEW YORK – It was an awkward moment for Martin Ficke, the special agent in charge of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in New York. He was seated next to a member of the British Parliament for a panel on the "War on Terror and the Clash of Civilizations." Why, the moderator asked Mr. Ficke, was this prominent British citizen with a diplomatic passport questioned for almost an hour when he landed at the airport?

To the audience, filled with Muslim-American students, the answer was obvious. His name is Shahid Malik, a Muslim name. "I've already talked to him about it privately and apologized," Ficke said. "It shouldn't have happened."

Across the country in conference rooms like this, as well as in local cafes and community meeting halls, officials of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and FBI are reaching out to Muslim-Americans in an attempt to bridge the huge gap of mistrust that developed on both sides after 9/11. It's sometimes an uncomfortable process, as Ficke found. It's also not being applied consistently across the country, working well in some places - like New York, where the Muslim Advisory Council meets regularly - and not so well in others. But homeland-security experts and Arab- and Muslim-American leaders believe such outreach is crucial to maintaining the nation's security and strengthening its social fabric.

"9/11 created a pretty big divide and we still have a ways to go, but there has been progress," says Arsalan Iftikhar, national legal director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington. "With five years of retrospect at our disposal now, we as a nation are able to see more accurately what are and what are not effective law-enforcement initiatives and how it is important to reach out to the Muslim-American community and make them feel as partners in our society."

Oh, yes, 9/11 created a divide, but why do Muslims blame law enforcement for that? Why not tackle that Tiny Minority of Extremists for the divide (that would involve assessing exactly how big that Tiny Minority is), and take steps to combat the jihad ideology beyond displays for public consumption?

There's no question the US Muslim community felt the brunt of the FBI's counterterrorism and law-enforcement initiatives after 9/11, say experts. More than 1,200 immigrants, mostly Arab and Muslim males, were detained and denied due process for months. The Justice Department's own inspector general concluded that their detentions were "indiscriminate and haphazard," with no clear distinction made between those held for immigration violations and those who were suspected terrorists. The report also found "a pattern of physical and verbal abuse" by correction officers. Ultimately, only a handful of those detained were charged with a terrorism-related offense, and 231 were deported.

Registration requirements for males

The Justice Department also set up a special program that required male visitors from 24 Arab and Muslim countries to register with local immigration offices. More than 80,000 men did so. Immigration officials found an estimated 13,000 were "out of status," which means there were problems with their visas. They're now awaiting deportation hearings. But experts say many of the visa problems were caused by inaccurate data and long delays in processing applications for permanent status. The Justice Department eventually canceled the program.

"By singling out a large group of mostly Arabs and Muslims, [these programs] involved a massive investment of law-enforcement resources with negligible return," says James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute in Washington.

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, discrimination against Muslim- and Arab-Americans also soared. In 2001, the FBI reported a 1,600 percent increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes and an almost 500 percent increase in ethnic-based hate crimes against persons of Arab descent, according to Mr. Zogby.

And the Monitor writer seems to suggest this as an example:

Last week, six imams returning from a conference on religious tolerance were removed in handcuffs from a US Airways flight from Minneapolis to Phoenix after a passenger raised concerns about "suspicious behavior." Three of them were seen praying in the waiting area and a fourth reportedly asked for a seat-belt extension. DHS's Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties has opened an investigation.

Efforts to bridge the gap

"One of the most disturbing things is that [polls show] more than half of the country views Islam as a violent or an extreme religion," says Faiza Ali, a student at Pace University, who spoke at the conference in New York.

The FBI found many such misperceptions about Islam among its agents as well, according to Andrew Arena, the special agent in charge of the New York FBI office. And so, as as the bureau began a concentrated effort to reach out to the Muslim community, education became one of its first priorities. At the FBI Academy and in ongoing field training, agents are now taught about the Muslim faith - its basic tenets and things like the difference between Shiites and Sunnis.

"It's helped to make our agents more culturally sensitive to the concerns of not only the Muslim community, but all of the communities that we deal with," says Mr. Arena.

Yet more saber-rattling by the Thug-In-Chief, while Iraq's President plans a trip meet the great man tomorrow. "Ahmadinejad Predicts Collapse of Israel, U.S., U.K. (Update1)," by Ladane Nasseri and Marc Wolfensberger for Bloomberg, with thanks to Mackie:

Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad predicted the collapse of Israel, the U.S. and Britain, attacking what he called their ``oppressive behavior.''

``The Zionist regime is on a steep downhill towards collapse and disgrace,'' Ahmandinejad told supporters at a rally of Basiji militia forces near Tehran today. In a reference to the U.S. and U.K., he said ``the collapse and crumbling of your devilish rule has started.'' The speech was carried live on state television....

The Iranian president also called on neighboring countries to drive out ``foreign occupiers,'' in a reference to U.S.-led forces in Iraq and Afghanistan....

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, whose visit to Tehran yesterday was postponed because of the curfew imposed on Baghdad since Nov. 23, will fly to the Iranian capital tomorrow, state television reported separately today.

The Iraqi president's trip to Iran is aimed at ``expanding bilateral ties in business, trade and transport affairs,'' the report said. Iraq security will not be the main issue discussed in this meeting, the Iranian Foreign Ministry's press office said on Nov. 21.

Welcome news from Cairo, although the authorities quoted at the end of this BBC piece, "Call to end female circumcision," (thanks to Doc Washburn), seem rather equivocal in their condemnations of the practice: Tantawi says that he doesn't find anything making it a requirement, and Qaradawi notes that some scholars approve of it. More will be needed to make this practice disappear.

Muslim scholars from around the world have called for female genital mutilation to be banned and those who carry it out to face punishment.

At a conference on the subject in the Egyptian capital Cairo, the scholars said governments should enforce existing laws against the practice.

Earlier, the top religious authorities in Egypt said religion offered no justification for the procedure.

Female genital mutilation is widespread in parts of Africa and the Middle East.

[...]

Parents who support the practice argue that it helps prevent promiscuous behaviour in their daughters.

Genital mutilation or female circumcision often robs women of sensitivity in their sexual organs.

'Do not cause harm'

The Muslim scholars said female circumcision was an aggression against women and should be stopped.

The scholars stressed that Islam forbid people from inflicting harm on others, explaining that those who circumcise their daughters were doing exactly that.

The latest declaration was unequivocal and should go a long way towards bolstering campaigns to eradicate the practice in Egypt and elsewhere, says the BBC's Heba Saleh, in Cairo.

In recent years, Muslim scholars have spoken out against female genital mutilation, but some had insisted that while it was not required by religion, it was not prohibited.

Others said it might be desirable in some cases and that it should be up to the medical profession to decide, our correspondent says.

'Doctors' decision'

The conference on the subject in Cairo was organised by a German human rights group, Target, and attracted Islamic clerics from across the world.

Earlier, speakers explained there was no religious reason for the practice, but hinted doctors should make any final decision.

Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, the head of the al-Azhar mosque, Sunni Islam's top authority, told the conference: "From a religious point of view, I don't find anything that says that circumcision is a must [for women]."

"In Islam, circumcision is for men only," the Associated Press news agency quoted him as saying.

Ali Gomaa, Egypt's top official Islamic scholar, or grand mufti, told the gathering no examples of the practice could be found in the Prophet Muhammad's life.

Another leading cleric, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, said that Islam did not require the practice but some clerics felt it was allowed.

A small blow for sanity in Virginia. The road is a private one running through a secretive Muslim community. "Private road named for Muslim is focus of Christian group's bid," by Jamie C. Ruff for the Times-Dispatch, with thanks to Twostellas:

...Members of an organization calling itself the Christian Action Network said they want to appear before the Charlotte County Board of Supervisors to request that the name of Sheikh Gilani Lane, the private road running through the Muslim community, be changed.

Martin Mawyer, president of the Forest-based group, showed up at Tuesday's board meeting to make his case but was not allowed to speak because the issue was not on the agenda. About 30 members of the Muslims of America community were also in attendance but also did not speak.

Members of the Muslim community as well as nearby residents declined to comment when contacted later last week.

The week before, the Christian Action Network, which says it is a nonprofit lobbying organization dedicated to protecting the traditions of the American family and defending the nation against radical Islam, said it dropped from an airplane about 2,500 fliers on the Red House area around the Muslim community. The fliers allege that Sheikh Gilani Lane honors a terrorist and blames him for the beheading of journalist Daniel Pearl.

Pearl was reportedly on his way to interview Sheikh Mubarik Gilani, a Muslim cleric in Pakistan, when he was abducted Jan. 23, 2002, in Karachi. Gilani helped found the Muslims of America and the Charlotte County site, as well as several others in rural areas across the country. Federal authorities have alleged that Muslims of America is connected with al-Fuqra and responsible for bombings and murders across the country.

The Christian Action Network's Web site says the group is one of the nation's leading grass-roots Christian political organizations with more than 250,000 active members.

"It is outrageous there is a road sign in Charlotte County named after an international terrorist," Mawyer said in a letter left at the board's meeting last week. "It is an insult to all the victims of 9/11 to continue to honor a known terrorist by granting him a sign that officially appears on the maps of Charlotte County."

Sheikh Gilani Lane was established shortly after the Muslim community was developed. about 10 years ago. County rules allow residents to name their private roads.

"We didn't know who Gilani was, and we felt like it was their business," Clark said. "But 9/11 changed all that."

Clark said the Board of Supervisors has referred the issue to the county attorney to decide whether it can even take up the question of the lane's name without it being an act of discrimination. There is no time frame for when the attorney will finish his research.

"All I can do is wait to hear from our attorney and the board will decide what or what not to do," Clark said.

"Changing the name of the road is not going to change the situation we are faced with," he said. "It wouldn't change anything going on in that community."

That is true.

Recurring themes: displacement of responsibility ("CRUSADES: What a very peaceful walk!"), assertions of Islamic theological supremacism ("Jesus is not Son of God. He is a prophet of Islam" and "We as Muslims...accepted Jesus as our prophet"), along with a nice nod to Edvard Munch.

Jews should return to dhimmitude, says Ahmed Benhelli, Secretary-General of the League of Arab States. "Israel as 'the Jewish quarter of an Arab town,'" from the Jewish Refugees blog, with thanks to Lyn:

Revealing outburst by Ahmed Benhelli in the pages of Al-Ahram following the accidental shelling by the Israeli army of Beit Hanoun in Gaza. While he does not explicitly call for the destruction of the Jewish state, Benhelli seems to be calling on Israel to ‘know its place’. There is one word missing in his idealised account of coexistence of Jews and Arabs in the Arab town – ‘dhimmitude’. The Jews never did have equal rights with their Muslim neighbours, were always at their whim and whimsy and owed their achievements to the more benign of their rulers.

What Benhelli has in mind is a ‘dhimmi’ state in thrall to its Arab neighbours. Not many Israeli Jews would be too keen. But there is nothing the Jews of Israel would like better, as Benhelli suggests, than to devote their energies to progress and prosperity – if only their neighbours would let them. (Via Guysen Israel News).

Guysen reports: "Ahmed Benhelli, assistant Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, uses the pages of the Egyptian Weekly Al-Ahram in order to pass on a clear message which he believes will settle the conflict once and for all. Israel must return to its historical place as ‘ the Jewish quarter of an Arab town’, and be cut ‘down to size’. His starting point is the Jewish state’s ‘inadequate’ behaviour. Israel is stubbornly clinging to the logic of overwhelming force towards its neighbours, the imposition of its hegemony on others without the slightest moral or human scruple. It lives in total denial of the geography of the region, the nature of its peoples and the composition of its societies. The dominant power in Israel, which is perpetually immune to international measures, is at loggerheads with nature and the logic of history. Israel’s politicians will perhaps draw lessons from the debacle in south Lebanon and previous to that in Gaza, in order to rethink Israel’s strategy in the region and the concept of their approach towards their neighbours, especially the Palestinian people.

Read it all.

"Muslims playing for power," by Sarah Boesveld in The Eyeopener, the Ryerson University student paper (thanks to Patrick). Ryerson is in Toronto.

As the largest student group on campus, the Muslim Students' Association has made its presence known in student politics. Former MSA vice-president Muhammad Ali Jabbar is heading up the RSU, thanks to support from the MSA. The group has monopolized use of the multifaith room, putting the true meaning of the room's name in jeopardy.

Through its renewed fight against Islamophobia, the MSA has also been criticized as being increasingly polarized and turning the RSU's attention mostly toward Muslim issues. Smaller religious groups with less influence have been left wondering when their needs will be addressed.

A variety of religious groups on campus have said they have felt uncomfortable trying to use the multifaith room.

Eric Da Silva, president of the Catholic Student Association, says the group looked into using the room for mass but was told by RSU front desk staff that the room was "permanently booked"; by Muslim students.

"No one is trying to take away the space from the Muslims, we just don't want to be stepping on their toes," says Da Silva. He stresses that the group found another space to hold mass and the conflict was quickly resolved. Da Silva acknowledges that Muslims have a stricter prayer schedule than Catholics, but he challenges whether the room should be called a multifaith one. The space, which is divided to separate males from females, has rows taped on the floor for prayer and Islamic decorations adorning the walls, is only accommodating to Muslims.

"I don't think the university should be calling it a multifaith room. If we went in there and decorated the room with rosary and crosses, other students would feel uncomfortable praying there," he says.

The Ismaili Student's Association, a smaller Muslim student group that practices the Shiite Muslim religion, has experienced conflicting schedules with the MSA for prayer space during the month of Ramadan. On a regular basis, the smaller group uses the multi-faith room for prayer between 6 and 7 p.m. During Ramadan, when Muslims break their fast at sunset, the Ismaili students, who practice a separate form of prayer were resigned to finding somewhere else to pray.

"We were pretty much in a different room every night for a month," says a member of the group who wished not to be named. "It can be frustrating at times, but you kind of have to make the best of the situation," she says of having to move so the MSA can use the room.

Read it all.

Joe Farah keeps us up to date on megapastor Rick Warren's strange infatuation with all things Assad: "Rick Warren on Syria: 'A moderate country,'" from WorldNetDaily, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

I am much obliged to Bruce Delay, a talk-show host at KFAQ 1170 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for downloading the audio version of Rick Warren's YouTube video, recorded while in Syria.

Now, keep in mind, Warren has been telling the world he was misquoted by the Syrian press when he extolled the virtues of the totalitarian police state.

But before anyone questioned his statements, Warren's Saddleback Church had recorded him as he strolled down a Damascus street explaining what a peaceful and tolerant place Syria really is.

As soon as I hotlinked to the YouTube video last week and questioned Rick Warren about it, the church yanked it. I didn't have time to download a copy, but, thankfully, one johnny-on-the-spot talk-show host did.

You may not be able to see it, but you can at least hear it. Here is a word-for-word transcript of what Warren said in the 50-second video:

"Syria's a place that has Muslims and Christians living together for 1,400 years. So it's a lot more peaceful, honestly, than a lot of other places because Christians were here first.

"In fact, you know Saul of Tarsus – Saul was a Syrian. St. Paul, on the road to Damascus, had his conversion experience and so Christians have been here the longest, and they get along with the Muslims and the Muslims get along with them. There's a lot less tension than in other places.

"It's a moderate country, and the official government rule and position is not to allow any extremism of any kind."

This is what Rick Warren said about Syria. You can hear him with your own ears:

You can listen to an mp3 at the WND link above.

Tiny Minority of Extremists Update from modern, secular Turkey. From AAP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

Tens of thousands of protesters denounced Pope Benedict XVI as an enemy of Islam at a rally that highlighted the deep strains in Turkey before hosting the pontiff this week.

Chants of "No to the Pope!" rose among the nearly 25,000 demonstrators at every mention of the pope's remarks on violence and the Prophet Muhammad. Many protesters wore headbands with anti-pope slogans and waved placards that included a depiction of Benedict as the grim reaper.

The protest, organised by an Islamist political party, was the largest mass gathering so far against Benedict's four-day visit scheduled to begin Tuesday - his first papal journey to a mostly Muslim nation. The outcry also was designed to rattle Turkey's establishment.

Turkish officials hope to use the visit to promote their ambitions of becoming the first Muslim nation in the European Union and showcase their secular political system. But pro-Islamic groups - which have been gaining strength for years - perceive Benedict as a symbol of Western intolerance and injustices against Muslims.

"The Pope is not wanted here," said Kubra Yigitoglu, 20, who attended the rally in a headscarf, ankle-length coat and cowboy boots.

Nearby, a large banner was raised amid a sea of red flags of the Saadet, or Felicity, party. It called the Vatican "a source of terror".

Sure. That's why those 19 Catholic priests flew those planes into the World Trade Center towers.

Except for taking more extraordinary measures in order to avoid creating "tension." "Muslim Militant Prison Warning" from the Wandsworth Guardian:

A "potentially explosive" dispute between Muslim factions inside Wandsworth prison has been revealed by an independent watchdog.

The Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) published a report on Monday detailing a "schism" that had emerged in the prison between Asian Muslims and those from North Africa and Afro-Caribbean areas.

A particular imam was said to have caused deep division among the prison's 265 Muslim prisoners and there was a warning that some inmates were pressuring others to adopt "more militant lifestyles and belief systems".

IMB chairman David Jamieson said the dispute centred on the interpretation of the Koran.

He said: "The situation is volatile but is being resolved. It concerns the way the Koran is interpreted within the Sunni Muslim sect."

The report, which reflected the fears of the Prison Officers Association that there was no national strategy to tackle the radicalisation of young Muslims in prisons, continued: "We are concerned that unless sensitively managed, this issue could become even more emotional and potentially explosive."

A Prison Service spokesman said the imam referred to in the report, which covered July 2005 to June 2006, has since been replaced and added that "any signs of radicalisation at the prison are firmly dealt with by a pro-active chaplaincy team."

But the report also highlighted the inadequate prayer facilities inside Britain's largest jail, which houses 1,451 prisoners.

Currently Muslims have to walk through the Christian chapel to reach their place of worship, "exacerbating at times inherent tension".

The facilities are struggling to cope with a recent surge in Muslim inmates at the prison, which is home to 73 different nationalities.

More than 200 people are thought to regularly attend Friday prayers in the sports hall, while 240 took part in the recent Eid meal.

As a solution, the prison plans to spend £20,000 converting the Anglican chapel into a mosque and then opening up the Catholic chapel to all of the prison's Christians.

The report also mirrored recent Home Office research, suggesting many prisoners use religious services as a venue for dealing in drugs and illegal mobile phones.

Mr Jamieson said a "major influx" of drugs and phones were "slipping through the net", while the use of dogs to detect drugs was almost non-existent.

This could be a matter of insufficient resources, or it could be another instance of cultural "sensitivity," as dogs are largely despised in Muslim cultures, supported by ahadith such as this:

I heard Allah's Apostle saying; "Angels (of Mercy) do not enter a house wherein there is a dog or a picture of a living creature (a human being or an animal)." (Bukhari 004.054.448)

Do not adjust your tv set... Sunni-Shi'ite Jihad Update from McClatchy Newspapers:

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Followers of the militant Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took over state-run television Saturday to denounce the Iraqi government, label Sunnis "terrorists" and issue what appeared to many viewers as a call to arms.

The two-hour broadcast from a community gathering in the heart of the Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City included three members of al-Sadr's parliamentary bloc, who took questions from outraged residents demanding revenge for a series of car bombings that killed some 200 people Thursday.

With Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki relegated to the sidelines, brazen Sunni-Shiite attacks continue unchecked despite a 24-hour curfew in Baghdad. Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia now controls wide swaths of the capital, his politicians are the backbone of the Cabinet and his followers deeply entrenched in the Iraqi security forces. Sectarian violence has spun so rapidly out of control since the Sadr City blasts, however, that it's not clear whether even al-Sadr has the authority — or the will — to stop the cycle of bloodshed.

"This is live and, God willing, everyone will hear me: We are not interested in sidewalks, water services or anything else. We want safety," an unidentified Sadr City resident said as the televised crowd cheered. "We want the officials. They say there is no sectarian war. No, it is sectarian war, and that's the truth."

Militia leaders told supporters Saturday to prepare for a fresh wave of incursions into Sunni neighborhoods that would begin as soon as the curfew ends Monday, according to Sadr City residents. Several members of the Mahdi Army boasted they were distributing police uniforms throughout Shiite neighborhoods to allow greater freedom of movement. The government announced it would partially lift the curfew today to allow for pedestrian traffic.

[...]

Al-Maliki's administration acknowledged it was powerless to interrupt the pro-Sadr program on the official Iraqiya channel, during which Sadr City residents shouted, "There is no government! There is no state!" Several speakers described neighborhoods and well-known Sunni politicians as "terrorists" and threatened them with reprisal.

"We'll obviously try to control them as much as we can, but when they [lose] more than 150 people in bombings, they have the right to speak," said Bassam al-Husseini, one of al-Maliki's top advisers. "What are we going to do? We can't stop this. It's too hot right now."

Another "truce" goes smashingly well for Israel's jihadist enemies. "Palestinian attacks go on despite truce" by Amy Teibel and Ibrahim Barzak for The Associated Press:

JERUSALEM - Israeli troops withdrew from the Gaza Strip as a last-minute cease-fire deal took hold Sunday morning, but two major Palestinian militant groups, saying they had no intention of stopping their attacks, fired volleys of homemade rockets into Israel.

The ongoing rocket attacks by Hamas and Islamic Jihad tempered hopes for a lasting truce, which was meant to end five months of deadly clashes. The rockets landed in open fields and caused no injuries.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with his security chiefs Sunday and ordered them to send their forces to the Gaza border area by early afternoon to prevent further rocket attacks, according to Palestinian security officials. It was not clear what action the forces would take against those launching rockets.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered the army to show restraint in the face of the rockets.

"Even though there are still violations of the cease-fire by the Palestinian side, I have instructed our defense officials not to respond, to show restraint, and to give this cease-fire a chance to take full effect," he said during a ceremony at a high school in southern Israel.

A senior Israeli official said Israel would wait a few hours to see if the attacks were isolated breaches or a full-scale violation of the agreement before deciding whether to respond. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

[...]

Ahead of the new agreement, which took effect 6 a.m. Sunday, Israel pulled all its forces out of Gaza, the army said. Dozens of tanks and armored vehicles were parked just over the border in a military staging ground in southern Israel early Sunday.

But Palestinian militants continued firing rockets into Israel throughout the morning. Israeli police reported at least four rockets fired at the Israeli town of Sderot and an Associated Press photographer in the border town heard at least two more strikes. Another AP photographer in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun heard several rockets fired throughout the morning.

"Let's hope that's just the problems of the beginning," Olmert's spokeswoman, Miri Eisin, said of the rockets. "But if Israel is attacked, we will respond. If there are Palestinian factions that are not part of the cease-fire, it's hard to see how the cease-fire will hold."

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said he had contacted the leaders of all the Palestinian factions Sunday and they reassured him they were committed to the truce.

"There is a 100 percent effort to make this work, but there is no guarantee of 100 percent results," said Ghazi Hamad, a spokesman for the Hamas-led government.

Hamas' own militants claimed responsibility for firing rockets into Israel after 6 a.m., clouding prospects for the truce's longevity.

"(We) reiterate that our attacks against the enemy continue," the group said in a statement posted on its Web site.

The Hamas militants said they continued their attacks because some Israeli troops remained inside Gaza, an accusation Israel denied.

Islamic Jihad also claimed responsibility for firing rockets into Israel after the truce, and a spokesman, Abu Hamza, denied his group had signed on to truce. However, top Islamic Jihad leaders had said they were part of the deal, and the new rocket fire suggested they were not in complete control of their fighters.

Wes Pruden on flying while Muslim.

Our own holy men could respect their Muslim brothers, as well as their own countries, by showing tough love instead of platitudes of one part goo and one part mush. They could explain to their Muslim brothers why they can't always practice their rituals as Islam is practiced in Islamic countries. The incident aboard a jetliner of US Airways the other day in Minneapolis is instructive. The details are in some dispute, but what is not is that six imams -- Muslim holy men -- were denied boarding after they created an incident and were briefly detained. Other passengers said the imams made a row with a show of praying, punctuated with shouted slogans about how Allah and Saddam Hussein are great and the United States is not. When an airline clerk denied him boarding one imam shouted: "This prejudice. This is obvious discrimination. No one can argue with this."
But arguing with "this" is exactly what we must do if we bring the Muslims under the fraternal umbrella -- of what, in better times than these, was called "the melting pot." The imams should be told, forcefully, that making an intimidating row of rituals is not the American way and won't be permitted. If a half-dozen Catholic priests insist on conducting a Mass aboard an airliner, they will be told to stop it. Six Baptist preachers won't be allowed to conduct a revival meeting amidst either the cheap or expensive seats. Jewish mohels can't perform circumcisions aboard (even for volunteers). We don't do things like that in America, and no apology is forthcoming.

Proof that sufficient public outcry -- and the possible loss of revenue -- can cause corporations to reconsider dhimmi policies. An update on this story. "BA to review uniform policy after outcry over crucifix," by David Millward for The Telegraph:

London: British Airways paved the way on Friday for a climbdown over its refusal to allow a Christian worker to wear a crucifix over her uniform.

The airline bowed to the threat of a boycott by consumers and condemnation from politicians and churchmen by announcing a review of its uniform policy.

The move came hours after Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, threatening to withdraw the Church of England's £10.25 million investment in BA.

It was a blow for Willie Walsh, the airline's chief executive, who had staked his authority on insisting that Nadia Eweida, a check-in worker, keep to its rules.

While defending the policy as consistent with industry standards and non-discriminatory, he signalled that the outcry had swayed BA.

"It has become clear that the policy will need to change in the light of the debate," he said. One option would be to let staff wear religious symbols as lapel badges.

[...]

"My reaction is that it is high time this happened, but I would like to have this vetted by my barrister," she said.

Announcing the climbdown, Walsh said: "The review will examine ways in which our policy will be adapted to allow symbols of faith to be worn openly while remaining consistent with the brand and compliant with legislation."

No pursuit into mosques without Iraqi troops. Loudspeakers in mosques permitted to broadcast prayers for the defeat of America. And the US is spending $200 million on reconstruction projects in Fallujah. And for what? None of this dents the jihad ideology. Clearly, they still hate us -- no surprise there. And when chaos fully erupts again in Fallujah, the US-funded reconstruction projects will probably be the first to be looted and set ablaze.

"Under fire, US marines hand off battered Fallujah," by Scott Peterson for the Christian Science Monitor:

FALLUJAH, IRAQ - From Observation Post Blazer, marines view Fallujah through a thick sheet of bullet-proof glass - already tested with numerous impacts. Or they stare through night-vision goggles or a thermal imaging scope that can pick up the heat of a dog hundreds of yards away.

The marines still patrol key roads. The US military, which still travels boldly through town despite a surge in deadly sniper attacks and roadside bombs, is spending $200 million on 60-plus projects to rebuild the city, heavily damaged in fighting two years ago.

But with just 300 marines, the US military footprint is smaller in this Sunni stronghold of more than 300,000 than it has been in two years. As the marine presence shrinks and Iraqis take more control, Fallujah - once a template for counterinsurgency efforts in Iraq, where US forces have controlled all the variables - is likely again to set a standard for the rest of the country.

"A lot of us feel like we have our hands tied behind our back," says Cpl. Peter Mattice, of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment. "In Fallujah, [insurgents] know our [rules of engagement] - they know when to stop, just before we engage."

[...]

"They say we are here to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, but I just don't see that happening," says Corporal Mattice, of Gladwin, Mich. OP Blazer is perched on the northern edge of the city, looking due south down a main street known to the marines as Ethan, site of numerous roadside bombs.

[...]

Each precinct in Chicago or Detroit, makes 100 to 150 arrests per night per 300,000 people," says Major Kolomjec, a lawyer who notes that Fallujah's population is similar. "Here you take 12 to 40 people per day, and people are up in arms. You can't expect stability, when you are not even doing the same level of policing as Detroit."

Another source of frustration: Pursuit in mosques is forbidden without the presence of Iraqi Army units. Marines say some of Fallujah's 76 mosques are used to hide weaponry. Some broadcast messages such as, "God help us defeat the Americans."

"Many would ask: What other war would we allow the enemy to broadcast calls for our defeat, for the sake of cultural sensitivity?" says O'Neill.

I thought it couldn't get any loonier in the dhimmi UK, but...

"Fury over Halal Christmas dinner," by Paul Jeeves in the Daily Express, with thanks to Romy:

PARENTS expressed outrage last night over a school’s plans to serve pupils a Muslim Christmas dinner.

The headteacher announced that she intended to replace the children’s traditional turkey meal with halal chicken.

She explained that eating poultry which had been slaughtered in the Muslim way would create an “integrated Christmas”.

But furious parents accused the school of undermining the Christian faith.

They were backed by Labour MP Denis MacShane who demanded to know why the children were not being offered a choice.

Mr MacShane said: “No child should be obliged to eat food that is contrary to their personal convictions or religion. Schools should offer a choice and not allow the joyous celebrations of a Christmas dinner to become a divisive issue.

“I hope all the children can join in this fun and if I am invited I would be delighted to sit down with all the children for a Christmas dinner, halal, non halal or the healthy option, vegetarian.”

After Mr MacShane’s intervention, Jan Charters, head of Oakwood School in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, backed down and youngsters will now be offered a choice of halal chicken or a traditional turkey dinner, costing £1.75.

Campaigners and religious organisations said the ban on traditional Christmas celebrations was making Britain a more divided society.

John Midgley, of the Campaign Against Political Correctness, said: “It seems as though the parents have made the school see sense.

“Until common sense prevailed the school was creating a problem when there was no problem.”

Nick Seaton, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, said: “Headteachers and school governors should not make this sort of mistake in the first place. There are a lot of these silly people around who undermine British culture.

“This is a victory for common sense. It is good these mad politically correct people have been made to think again.”

Abdul Dean, ethnic minorities officer for the Christian People’s Alliance, said: “There is a political agenda here. Who are these people speaking on behalf of Muslims?

“Muslim parents themselves would not have objected to children being offered a choice. The teachers should have taken this on board especially in this time of tension.”

Why, conservative Roman Catholics, Freemasons and U.S. intelligence services, of course. Who else? "Turkey prepares clampdown ahead of pope," by Selcan Hacaoglu for Associated Press, with thanks to Doc Washburn:

ISTANBUL, Turkey - If Turkish security authorities needed a reminder of the challenge posed by Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Turkey this week, Ibrahim Ak delivered it when he fired a pistol outside the Italian consulate in Istanbul and shouted that he wanted to strangle the pope with his bare hands.

"God willing, this will be a spark, a starter for Muslims ... God willing, he will not come. If he comes, he will see what will happen to him," the 26-year-old Turk told the TV cameras as he was led away in handcuffs.

The Nov. 2 incident ended without injuries, and nothing like it has happened since, but authorities are braced for trouble and have mobilized an army of snipers, bomb disposal experts and riot police, as well as navy commandos to patrol the Bosporus Straits flowing through Istanbul.

Benedict's four-day visit to this overwhelmingly Muslim nation begins Tuesday under the shadow of his September speech in which he quoted a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as "evil and inhuman," particularly "his command to spread by the sword the faith."

Like the rest of the Islamic world, many in this 99 percent Muslim nation are angry and want a fuller apology than Benedict's statement of regret for having caused offense.

Predicting big street protests, authorities plan to close several areas of Istanbul to traffic and are preparing lists of residents living in those neighborhoods.

Felicity, a pro-Islamic opposition party, is calling for a massive protest in Istanbul Sunday, before the pope arrives.

"If this trip would have occurred under normal conditions, then these lands, the center of tolerance and love, would show the necessary hospitality to him," it said in a statement. "But we don't want to see him on our soil because of the remarks he made about Islam's Prophet Muhammad on Sept. 12 and for not apologizing afterward."

"The center of tolerance and love." Yeah, I'm feeling it now.

Benedict will visit Istanbul, Izmir and Ankara, the capital. Istanbul, when it was named Constantinople, was the capital of Byzantine-era Christianity, but Christians are a tiny minority in modern Turkey, feel deprived of their rights and are expected to urge the pope to come to their defense....

They "feel" deprived of their rights. See, it's just a bad feeling on their part. Nothing to be concerned about, right, AP?

A recent Turkish thriller, "Plot Against the Pope" by Yucel Kaya carries the subtitle "Who will kill the pope in Istanbul?" Its conspiracy theory ties the assassination into a plot by conservative Roman Catholics, Freemasons and U.S. intelligence services to attack Iran, Turkey's eastern neighbor.

Sunni/Shi'ite Jihad Update from AP, :

Revenge-seeking Shi'ite militiamen grabbed six Sunnis as they left Friday worship services, doused them with kerosene and burned them alive near an Iraqi army post. The soldiers did not intervene, police Capt. Jamil Hussein said.

The savage revenge attack for Thursday's slaughter of 215 people in the Shi'ite Sadr City slum occurred as members of the Mahdi Army militia burned four mosques and several homes while killing 12 other Sunni residents in the once-mixed Hurriyah neighborhood, Hussein said.

Gunmen loyal to radical anti-American Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr began taking over the neighborhood this summer and a majority of its Sunni residents already had fled.

The militiamen attacked and burned the Ahbab al-Mustafa, Nidaa Allah, al-Muhaimin and al-Qaqaqa mosques in the rampage that did not end until American forces arrived, Hussein said.

The gunmen attack with rocket-propelled grenades, heavy machine guns and automatic rifles. Residents said militiamen prevented them from entering burned structures to take away the bodies of victims.

Important observations from Samia Barakat, a Beirut-based Jihadism analyst:

In the September 2006 issue of the Atlantic Monthly, an article authored by ex New York Times Corespondent Amy Waldman, was published under the title "Islam on Trial." In her "report" about several Terrorism trials in the United States, Waldman, a long time sympathizer of the Jihadists, claim Islam is on trial in American courts. She said she conducted interviews with experts and reviewed the proceedings of the trials thoroughly, and declared in her findings that the trials are about theology and religion by people who do not understand them. Her central allegation was that Salafism and Jihadism are just religious concepts and that the U.S Government and its prosecutors are after people (even if radicals and caught preparing for Terror) only because of the faith they believe in. Waldman's dangerous and false stipulations not only are baseless but shows a hidden agenda of covering up for the Jihadists. Indeed, Waldman, who spent a long time as a corespondent for the New York Times in India has, according to Indian analysts, cultivated a "hatred for Hindus and a strong sympathy for the Islamists." According to readers and analysts, the now national corespondent for the Atlantic Monthly, has been "all over the place to promote the image of Jihadists, particularly in Great Britain." It was learned recently that Waldman was granted a position at a New York based institution to write on Britain's Islamists and criticize those who claim the latter are extremists.

In her Atlantic Monthly article, which she attempted to portray as balanced, fair and researched, Waldman aimed at achieving the following goals while discussing the Detroit Terror trial of 2002-2003:

1. Asserting that the US Government, intentionally is attempting to put the Islamic religion on trial through Terrorism trials.

2. Describing one of the experts of the US Government, Professor Khaled Abou el Fadl, as unfit to perform his duties and unaware of the facts and of the developments that followed the trial.

3. Criticizing another expert of the US Government, Professor Walid Phares, as "not knowledgeable" of Islam.

4. Promoting the expert of the defense (of the sentenced Terrorists afterward), Professor Bernard Haykel, as the "only" expert on Salafism in the courtroom. Haykel, according to sources who follow his research activities, is a leading apologist for the Jihadfi Salafists and a close ally of the Saudi embassy in Washington.

After reading the article, experts came to the conclusion that Amy Waldman wrote the article in the framework of a greater effort by Wahabi and Salafi propaganda to counter the rising awareness among Americans and others, about the threat posed by Jihadism, particularly in US and European Courts. Waldman's record of Jihadi sympathizer around the world and particularly as a "Hinduphobe," (hater of Hindus) being established, her article is now being reviewed by analysts to determine the deeper background. The Atlantic Monthly being a serious publication, concerns are that Jihadi sympathizers have been able to penetrate the publication as they have done with other media in the West.

A more comprehensive analysis of Waldman's Jihad in the Atlantic Monthly will be released on December 10.

And you may ask yourself
This is a secular state?
And you may ask yourself
Where is that large Catholic Church?
And you may tell yourself
This is not equality of rights!
And you may tell yourself
This is not a European state!

Letting the days go by/let the Sharia hold me down
Letting the days go by/Christians meeting underground
Into the Blue Mosque again/after the Pope is gone
Once in a lifetime/Christians meeting underground.

Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...

(Thanks to David Byrne and Co.)

"A tense time for a papal visit: Turkey, which doesn't recognize the Roman Catholic Church, is still rankled by Benedict's comments on Islam," by Tracy Wilkinson for the Los Angeles Times, with thanks to Morgaan Sinclair:

ISTANBUL, TURKEY — To reach Turkey's most important Roman Catholic church, a visitor must scour a traffic-choked street to find the metal doors, walk down a flight of stairs, cross a courtyard and finally step into the consecrated basilica.

Inside the Holy Spirit Cathedral here, the lights remain low until a minute before evening Mass, and then reveal frescoed ceilings with gold-trimmed arches, 22 crystal chandeliers and blond-marble columns. On this night, 14 worshipers dot the pews.

In the Turkish capital, Ankara, the only Catholic church is even more discreet: It is marked simply by a French flag.

Why do they have to cower and hide in modern, forward-looking, European, secular Turkey?

When Pope Benedict XVI travels to Turkey next week, he will be making his first trip to a predominantly Muslim country at a moment of diplomatic fragility.

He also will be traversing some of the most ancient and revered milestones of Christianity, in a land where Christianity is disappearing and where non-Muslim minorities complain of systemic discrimination, harassment and violence against them.

Why are they disappearing? Why are they systematically harassed?

It is a complex agenda. The pope's main purpose is to meet with the Istanbul-based spiritual leader of the world's 250 million Eastern Orthodox Christians in a show of ecumenical solidarity. But he must also use the visit to attempt to repair the damage from comments he has made that cast Islam in a negative light.

Among Turkey's nearly 70 million Muslims, reaction to Benedict's visit ranges from disinterest to intense anger. A man opened fire early this month on the Italian Consulate in Istanbul, telling police later that he wanted to "strangle" the pope. A nationalist gang called the Gray Wolves is staging regular demonstrations protesting the pontiff's arrival.

Among the estimated 100,000 Christians who live in Turkey, there is hope that Benedict's presence will cast light on their difficulties.

The Roman Catholic Church is not legally recognized in Turkey. It functions largely attached to foreign embassies; its priests do not wear their collars in public.

Why isn't it legally recognized?

Most Christians in Turkey are of the Armenian, Greek and other Orthodox denominations, and although most of these are recognized in the Turkish Constitution as minority communities, they face severe restrictions on property ownership and cannot build places of worship or run seminaries to train their clerics.

Why do they face severe restrictions on property ownership? Why can't they build places of worship or run seminaries to train their clerics?

Such hardships make it almost impossible for Christians to sustain and expand their communities, advocates say. The Greek Orthodox, for example, have dwindled to no more than 3,000, just 2% of the community's size in the 1960s.

Why aren't they staying in this modern, forward-looking, democratic nation?

Fueled by a vitriolic, and growing, potion of nationalism and Islamic radicalism, spasms of violence have led to the killing of one priest this year, the beatings of two others and the burning of a Christian prayer center. Christian tombstones are often vandalized and property frequently confiscated by authorities.

Turkey has come under repeated criticism from Western human rights organizations and the Vatican for its failure to promote religious freedom. Turkey is an Islamic but secular country; in reality, this means that all religious activity, including mosques and imams, is controlled by the government.

So then all this must be laid at the feet of the government.

"Obviously, more needs to be done to promote religious freedom for all denominations," Ali Bardakoglu, president of Turkey's powerful Religious Affairs Directorate, said in an interview. But he defended the government's treatment of minorities, contending that Christians and other non-Muslims do not face serious problems.

He knows better.

Bardakoglu was one of the most emphatic critics of Benedict after the pope delivered a speech in Regensburg, Germany, in September that denounced Islamic violence and quoted a medieval Byzantine emperor who disdained Islam and its prophet, Muhammad. Adding insult to injury, as far as many Turks were concerned, the emperor was defending Constantinople, cradle of Orthodox Christianity, against the Muslim conquest that gave the city its name today: Istanbul.

Why is the conquest just fine, but the defense of the city by Christians not fine? Because from the point of view of Islamic supremacism, Muslims own the city by right. Their conquest was not aggression; the valiant Byzantine defense of the city was aggression.

Remember that the next time an Islamic apologist tells you that Muslims may only fight in defense against aggression.

Bardakoglu said the pope was welcome in Turkey despite the speech, which touched off outrage throughout the Muslim world. And although he said he accepted Benedict's subsequent explanations, Bardakoglu did not appear completely appeased.

"It is unfortunate that there are circles within Western society that attempt to blacken the name of our religion and are infected with Islamophobia," he said. "The role of the Vatican and the pope should be to help fight stereotypes. Rather than open debate, they should be seeking to heal wounds."

Bardakoglu could do a great deal to combat "Islamophobia" by granting Christians full equality of rights in Turkey, and moving energetically against persecution and harassment of Christians.

In a remarkable gesture, the pope will meet with Bardakoglu, the country's top religious figure, at his ministry, a modern, imposing building on Ankara's outskirts, on the first day of his Turkey visit. Bardakoglu's directorate commands a huge budget and oversees all of Turkey's imams.

Originally, the Vatican expected Bardakoglu to call on the pope at the Vatican Embassy, as protocol would have dictated. But the Turks refused. After a series of negotiations, the pope agreed to go to Bardakoglu. "It is a gesture of goodwill," a senior Vatican official said.

After all, humility is a virtue in the Pope's religion, not Bardakoglu's. But this will be understood, of course, as a sign of submission.

The pope's controversial presence in Turkey represents a balancing act for the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which regards itself a vital bridge between the West and East, a way for Westerners to deal with a modern and democratic Islam. But it also cannot appear too cozy with a pontiff who, in the view of many, is not fond of Muslims or Turks.

Erdogan is not scheduled to receive Benedict, citing a previous commitment to attend a NATO summit in Latvia on Tuesday and Wednesday. And there is no plan for the prime minister to see him off when the pope departs Dec. 1.

Both the Vatican and Turkish officials said this was not a snub, but Erdogan told visiting reporters in Istanbul last month, "You can't expect me to arrange my timetable according to the pope."

Of course. After all, how many divisions has the Pope?

In case anyone doesn't realize it, of course this is a snub -- and an acknowledgment of the power of the jihadists in Turkey: Erdogan dares not meet with the Pope. But the idea that he can't rearrange his busy schedule to fit in a meeting with someone as umimportant as the Pope is laughable.

The frictions are rooted in history. The Ottoman Empire, which ruled the region for more than six centuries, was relatively tolerant of Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims. But before and during World War I, Western powers collaborated with Christian and other minorities to bring down the Ottomans. In the carnage that followed, as many as 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered, a similar number of ethnic Greeks expelled and 1 million Turks deported from Greece.

It's all the fault of the Western powers, you see. In real life, however, the Ottomans only began to grant equality of rights to non-Muslims with the Tanzimat reforms of the mid-19th century, which they adopted under Western pressure.

The 1923 Lausanne Treaty founded the Republic of Turkey and recognized minorities. But deep mistrust persists, and even today among ardent nationalists, Christians are seen as a potential fifth column.

"It's a kind of preemptive intolerance: Don't let it flourish because it might take over," said Mustafa Akyol, a writer and expert on interfaith relations. "Everyone is afraid of something."

Akyol, a Muslim, said he once wrote a column advocating that the museum of St. Sophia, or Aya Sofya, in Istanbul be returned to its original use, that of a church. The response was harsh: He was threatened and castigated as a "secret Greek." The pope is scheduled to visit St. Sophia, built in the 6th century as a Byzantine church and converted to a mosque in the 15th century by the Ottomans.

Akyol is right, and courageous to call for this. Why shouldn't the Hagia Sophia be restored as a cathedral, if the Turks really believe that all religions should be given equal rights? In its present desacralized and appropriated state, the Hagia Sophia is an international symbol of jihadist aggression and Islamic supremacism. What better way for the Turks to show that they really don't endorse these things than to allow the great cathedral to become again just that -- the great cathedral it was meant to be?

The mere rumor that the pope might say a prayer at the site has led to a bit of hysteria. Islamic newspaper Milli Gazete, in a front-page commentary last week, lashed out at the government for permitting the "Crusaders" to plan to bless the former church in a brazen attempt to "revive Byzantium."

Would that it were so!

For their part, Turkish officials have sought to minimize the pontiff's main mission on this trip: to worship alongside Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, head of the world's Orthodox Christians. The coming together of the two religious leaders is meant as a bridging of the 1,000-year-old rift between the two ancient branches of Christianity.

It is fantasy, but it would be a consummation devoutly to be wished if they gave each other Holy Communion and announced the end of the schism. The theological issues between them are minor but intractable; perhaps only a bold move by two courageous men could make this happen. In this day of crisis Christian unity is needed more than ever, as well as cooperation between Christians and all others who are threatened by the global jihad.

Such frictions notwithstanding, Turkey, compared with many Muslim countries, is relatively hospitable to non-Muslims.

Oh, I feel so much better.

But its failure to make more progress on freedom-of-religion issues has been an important stumbling block in its years-long campaign to join the European Union.

As it should be.

It is EU pressure that has nudged Ankara along in easing some of the restrictions on minorities; for example, a Protestant group in Istanbul has for the first time been allowed to open a church.

"The EU reforms give people a sense of hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel," said Greek Orthodox Father Alexander Karloutsos. "It's been very dark here."

May the Pope's visit not create a new Christian martyr, but instead bring a little light into that great darkness.

And you may let Turkey into the EU
And you may tell yourself
My god!...what have I done?

Even the European Parliament delegation thinks this is a bad idea. "Indonesia warned against Sharia law," from News.com.au:

INDONESIA'S relations with other countries could be affected if it adopted Islamic Sharia law which is being introduced in one province, a European Parliament delegation said today.

Hartmut Nassauer, head of the delegation of eight MEPs, said non-governmental organisations had raised concerns about Sharia law, which is being gradually introduced in Aceh province.

"Of course it's a matter for the Indonesian people and society to decide on the law they have," Mr Nassauer said at the end of the five-day visit by the group which is in charge of links with Southeast Asia.

"What I would like to say is such a development has an impact on relations to other countries, it could burden the situation if there is a kind of religious law having consequences for state partnerships," he said.

Mr Nassauer said that a religious legal system must not influence the state legal code.

"According to our conception of most fundamental human rights, the liberty of... faith is one of the most important ones. It includes the right to live without faith and consequently you do not have to obey a faith which is not yours," he said.

However, the German MEP noted that Indonesia's main Muslim organisation had expressed opposition to the introduction of Sharia law.

"It was good to hear from representatives from Nahdlatul Ulama, for example, that this important and largest Muslim organisation, not only of Indonesia but of the world, is obviously against the implementing of Sharia law," he said.

The Indonesian Government allowed Aceh to implement Islamic law in 2001 as part of limited self-rule to pacify demands for independence.

Aceh has so far only partially implemented Sharia, enforcing Muslim dress codes and obligations such as daily five-time prayers, fasting and alms-giving.

Only partially. That's all.

While the rest of the world looks at Syria, Iran points a finger at its usual suspects. "Cleric holds US, Zionist Regime responsible for Gemayel's assassination," from the Islamic Republic News Agency:

Tehran's substitute Friday prayers leader Hojjatoleslam Ahmad Khatami on Friday held the US and the Zionist Regime of Israel responsible for assassination of Lebanese Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel.

"All proof and evidence point clearly to the fact that the US and Zionists are behind the assassination because the US State Secretary Condoleezza Rice had earlier disclosed that many assassinations would take place in Lebanon; large amount of weapons have also been shipped to the US Embassy in Lebanon and Gemayel too was assassinated with the same arms," said Khatami in his second Friday prayers sermon.

[...]

Khatami went on to say, "The reality is that we are witnessing a plot in Lebanon." He hoped such plots would be defused through wise initiatives of the Lebanese popular officials.

The cleric said, "True, the plots have been masterminded by foreigners, notably the US, but the enemy is at home." He recalled the 33-day of Lebanese resistance against the Zionist enemy and said there were some Lebanese statesmen who tried to harm the resistance.

Gutless indeed. Islamic groups worldwide are doing next to nothing to fight against real-life Islamic terrorists, but feature one in a novel or a TV show, and it's off to the battle stations. "Islamic fears kill off children's thriller," by Murray Waldren and Jodie Minus in The Australian, with thanks to Danlew:

A LEADING children's publisher has dumped a novel because of political sensitivity over Islamic issues.

Scholastic Australia pulled the plug on the Army of the Pure after booksellers and librarians said they would not stock the adventure thriller for younger readers because the "baddie" was a Muslim terrorist.

A prominent literary agent has slammed the move as "gutless", while the book's author, award-winning novelist John Dale, said the decision was "disturbing because it's the book's content they are censoring".

"There are no guns, no bad language, no sex, no drugs, no violence that is seen or on the page," Dale said, but because two characters are Arabic-speaking and the plot involves a mujaheddin extremist group, Scholastic's decision is based "100 per cent (on) the Muslim issue".

This decision is at odds with the recent publication of Richard Flanagan's bestselling The Unknown Terrorist and Andrew McGahan's Underground in which terrorists are portrayed as victims driven to extreme acts by the failings of the West.

The Unknown Terrorist is dedicated to David Hicks and describes Jesus Christ as "history's first ... suicide bomber".

Typical.

Ilana Mercer writes forcefully about the successes and failures of the film Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West. I tend to share her views. I think Obsession is a terrific film, and have twice spoken after screenings of it, along with the courageous Nonie Darwish, here in Los Angeles. It is a superb introduction to the challenge we are facing from the jihadists.

At the same time, I agree with Mercer that it doesn't go far enough in identifying the source of that challenge -- which I think must be done if anything is ultimately going to be done to meet the challenge effectively. So along with, but not instead of, Obsession, I recommend the less flashy but more informative Islam: What the West Needs to Know.

Now, I am in Islam: What the West Needs to Know, but not in Obsession, as Mercer points out, but that is not why I am recommeding the other film along with Obsession: while I appreciate Mercer's kind words, certainly the Obsession producers could have told the full truth about the jihad ideology without featuring my mug in their movie. If they had told those truths, however, they almost certainly would not have gotten their film onto Fox News. So it's a trade-off. A lot of people are waking up to what we're up against because of Obsession, and so my hat is off to Wayne Kopping and Rafael Shore.

From Ilana Mercer's excellent column:

...Viewers of "Obsession" are treated to terrifying, flesh-creeping scenes common in the Arab media: death-adulating, Quran-quoting kids and clerics in madrasas and mosques across the Muslim world, all calling for the killing of Jews and gentiles and for the subjugation of the West to Islam. Nevertheless, these spectacles are then punctuated by pieties about Islam being a peaceful religion, hijacked by extremists – a hell of a lot of them.

To be fair, "Obsession" does dispel the fiction that jihad is an inner struggle, but then even an A-list Islam apologist like professor John Esposito has admitted as much: "Jihad means to fight to spread Islam, not just to defend it, and to wage war against [Jews and Christians] who refuse Muslim rule," Esposito has conceded.

"Radical Islam": now there's another redundancy that ought not to have marred the message of this important documentary. If one cares to delve into the Quran, the hadith, and the Sira, or read the scholars who've done so for us, then it becomes abundantly clear: Islam is radical.

[...]

"Obsession" features the brilliant Daniel Pipes and the heroics Brigitte Gabriel and Walid Shoebat. However, conspicuously absent from the impressive lineup is the indefatigable Robert Spencer, whose detailed exegeses have exploded the myth of a peaceful Islam.

On the other hand, since the directors of "Obsession" appear intent on upholding this Scheherazade-worthy charade, it is perfectly understandable why they would exclude the author of "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)," and "The Truth about Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion."

Thank you, Ilana.

Read it all. And watch both films.

Later, when Islamic Southern Thailand is destitute, corrupt, and undeveloped, the local imams will blame the Western imperialists' war on Islam. "300 Thai schools to close amid attacks," by Rungrawee C. Pinyorat for Associated Press, with thanks to Terror-Watch (which has more Education Jihad):

BANGKOK, Thailand - More than 300 schools in Thailand's restive south will close indefinitely Monday after attacks by suspected Muslim insurgents left two teachers dead, a regional representative for teachers said.

The closure affects all primary and secondary schools in the province of Pattani, where two teachers have been shot and killed by suspected insurgents in the past two days.

In one of the killings, attackers shot a school principal Friday, and then set his body on fire. The principal became the 59th teacher or school official killed in three years of violence, said Bunsom Thongsriprai, president of Teachers' Association in Pattani.

"Teachers can't bear what has happened," Bunsom said. "They are paranoid, worried and afraid."

Bunsom said that Pattani's 336 public schools, which serve about 100,000 students, would reopen when teachers feel safe.

In other words, when the peace of Sharia reigns.

As Tammy Bruce asks, "Shouldn't Muslims declare themselves the Great Satan?" Takfir and Sunni/Shi'ite Jihad Alert from Ross Colvin and Claudia Parsons for Reuters, :

BAGHDAD, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Gunmen bent on revenge burned mosques and homes in a Sunni enclave of Baghdad on Friday as Iraq's leaders pleaded for calm, a day after the worst bomb attack since the U.S. invasion.

Some 30 people were killed, police said, as suspected Shi'ite militiamen rampaged for hours, untroubled by a curfew enforced in the capital by U.S. and Iraqi forces after bombs killed 202 people in the Shi'ite stronghold of Sadr City.

Four mosques and several houses were burnt in a small Sunni part of the mainly Shi'ite Hurriya area in northwest Baghdad, Sunni Deputy Prime Minister Salem al-Zobaie told Reuters.

One witness said 14 people were killed in his mosque during Friday prayers: "It was attacked by rocket-propelled grenades," university teacher Imad al-Din al-Hashemi said. "When the gunmen moved on to attack another mosque, we evacuated the wounded."

The White House called the violence a "brazen effort to topple a democratically elected government". The U.S. military said it sent no troops to Hurriya but that Iraqi police were on hand. Many police units are close to Shi'ite militia groups.

A poster at Jihad Watch wrote recently: "There was a man from the Muslim Canadian Congress on who seemed like a decent, thoughtful man. But, when asked about the death sentence for apostasy, he said he would not say if it was right or wrong. He said he was troubled by it and agreed that most Muslim scholars interpreted the text as meaning what it says: apostates must be killed. So, he is troubled by it, but he won't renounce it. Why the heck not?"

He will not renounce it for the same reason that Hamid Mir accuses Robert Spencer of forcing him, Hamid Mir, by pointing out the real contents of Qur'an and Hadith, to learn of certain disturbing and unpleasant teachings of Islam and, having learned about them, accept them in toto.

For Hamid Mir asked Robert: "Why are you pushing me to adopt a more radical form of Islam?"

What Hamid Mir is admitting to is that he does not possess the moral freedom to weigh things and choose for himself. If it turns out that Islam says thus and so, as Robert maintains, then the supposedly heretofore innocent-of-all-this-unpleasant-stuff Hamid Mir has no choice: if it turns out to be part of Islam, then he must slavishly obey.

Aishah Azmi, or so we're told

Fired, but with full pay. Nice work if you can get it. Aishah Azmi Update: "Teaching assistant sacked in row over veil," by Paul Stokes in the Telegraph, with thanks to Wayne:

A Muslim teaching assistant who was suspended on full-pay for refusing to remove her veil in lessons has been sacked.

Aishah Azmi’s one year fixed-term contract at Headfield Church of England School, in Dewsbury, West Yorks, was renewed in August despite her not having worked for six months. It has emerged that she attended a disciplinary hearing this week, with her face veiled, in front of school governors and members of the local education authority.

Mrs Azmi, 24, who attended the hearing alone, was told she was being dismissed and her legal advisers are awaiting official notification before considering any appeal.

“Until we receive a written decision we don’t know what the reasons are,” said Nick Whittingham, her legal adviser, from the Kirklees Law Centre. A month ago she was awarded £1,100 by an employment tribunal for “injury to her feelings”, but her claim that she was discriminated against because of her religion was rejected....

A spokesman for Kirklees Metropolitan Council confirmed that a staffings’ dismissals committee of the school’s governing body had held a hearing into “the circumstances that resulted in the suspension of a bi-lingual support worker at the school”.

He said: “As a result of the hearing the committee decided to terminate the employment of the employee concerned.”

Will the Islamophobia never end?

"Insurgents in southern Thailand burn teacher alive," from Deutsche Presse Agentur, with thanks to Doc Washburn:

Bangkok - Insurgents shot a school director Friday afternoon in southern Thailand then set his vehicle on fire killing him in the flames, the English-language Bangkok Post newspaper website reported.

Police said the director of a school in Pattani province, 750 kilometres south of Bangkok, was shot in his pickup truck while driving out of school.

He was wounded but not killed in the shooting before insurgents set his pickup truck on fire. He was burned alive inside the truck.

Thailand's three predominately Muslim southernmost provinces have been increasingly restive the past three years, but no insurgent groups are claiming responsibility for the violence or making demands in exchange for stopping it.

Bangkok's new military-installed government has apologized to the people in the southern provinces for past injustices and is making a new approach to ending the violence peacefully a top priority.

It is the jihadists who should be apologizing, and being called upon to apologize.

Surayud Chulanont has already said that he would allow the imposition of Sharia in the South. Apparently that isn't good enough. From the Daily Star, with thanks to Twostellas:

Seven people were killed in Thailand's Muslim-majority south, police said Friday, despite the post-coup government's promise to boost the local economy in hopes of ending three years of unrest.

Finance Minister Pridiyathorn Devakula said the government would set up a special economic zone in the south to lure investment to the region, which lags far behind the rest of the nation.

"We are considering giving privileges to the private sector such as tax deductions and discount fees for land purchase as investors and businessmen have fled the area," Pridiyathorn told reporters.

The economic scheme, announced Thursday by army-backed premier Surayud Chulanont after a special cabinet meeting on the insurgency, covers the three restive provinces of Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani on the border with Malaysia.

He is quite mistaken if he thinks money will solve this problem.

In "Column One: The Gemayel warning" in the Jerusalem Post, Caroline Glick points out some of the sobering implications of the assassination of Pierre Gemayel:

Tuesday saw another nail driven into the coffin of US President George W. Bush's vision of a free and democratic Middle East. The Syrians aren't even trying to hide their involvement in the assassination of Lebanon's Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel.

Hours after Gemayel was murdered, his killers issued a communiqu calling themselves the "Fighters for the Unity and Liberty of Greater Syria." They said that they killed Gemayel because he was "one of those who unceasingly spouted their venom against Syria and against [Hizbullah], shamelessly and without any trepidation." Gemayel, they threatened, would be the first of many victims. As they put it, "Sooner or later we will pay the rest of the agents their due..."

The hit this week was not a bolt from the blue. For the past several weeks Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah and his bosses in Syria and Iran have made it brutally clear that they intend to bring down the anti-Syrian government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and replace it with a pro-Syrian, pro-Iranian coalition led by Hizbullah.

Although their intentions are clear, a casual observer of events could be forgiven for finding the timing of Gemayel's murder somewhat mystifying. After all, the UN Security Council is preparing the establishment of an international tribunal to try those responsible for the February 2005 murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. Why would Syrian President Bashar Assad wish to make people mad at him now by killing yet another anti-Syrian politician in Lebanon?

What a casual observer misses is the simple fact that events in Lebanon do not stand on their own. Like Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Lebanon is a front in a regional war being waged against the US, Israel and their allies by Iran and Syria. Iraq is another front in this war and Gemayel's murder is intimately tied to developments in Iraq.

The Democratic Party's victory in the November 7 Congressional elections convinced Iran and Syria that they are on the verge of a great victory against the US in Iraq. Iranian and Syrian jubilation is well founded in light of the Democratic leadership's near unanimous calls for the US to withdraw its forces in Iraq; Bush's firing of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his appointment of his father's CIA director Robert Gates to replace him; and Bush's praise for the Congressionally mandated Iraq Study Group charged with revisiting US strategy in Iraq, which is being co-chaired by his father's secretary of state James Baker III.

Although his committee has yet to formally submit its recommendations, Baker made clear that he will recommend that the administration negotiate a withdrawal of US forces from Iraq with Iran and Syria. That is, he is putting together a strategy not for victory, but for defeat.

Indeed, for his recommendations will not be based on redeployment to meet the larger jihad threat, as we have long advocated, but on appeasement and surrender.

Read it all.

I have pointed out for quite some time now that critics of my work restrict themselves to broad generalizations about my alleged inaccuracy, without troubling to provide any examples. Or alternatively they resort to outright fabrications, as in Khaleel Mohammed's utterly mendacious claim that "Spencer...misquotes verses of the Qur'an, takes things out of context, and shamelessly lies." When I asked Dr. Mohammed to provide evidence of any instance in which I miquoted the Qur'an, he did not comply -- and of course he cannot produce any such evidence.

But now Jihad Watch reader JVC has sent me some critiques of my work that appear to have some substance -- and that I therefore think are worth answering here. But I'm afraid there is less here than meets the eye, as JVC also writes: "Hey Spencer! I was talking with someone about your books, and he sent these to me from some online discussion he read. It is especailly ironic when it is only through you I even know what Tafsir is."

Tafsir is Islamic commentary on the Qur'an. JVC refers to it because the first critic says this (I don't know whom is being addressed):

I don't want to insult you, so I'll say only that you are quite ignorant of the facts. Some parts of the world do face threats from so-called 'jihadis', that much is true, but Islam and the Quran are not the basis for this. Like any theological text, there are 100 ways to interpret the Quran. The Prophet Muhammed himself said, "Difference of opinion in matters of religion in a blessing." For instance, I was born and raised a Muslim. I have read the Quran cover to cover and studied all six sunni collections of hadith, and I still have yet to come to Spencer's conclusion that Islam teaches its adherents to kill and/or subjugate all non-Muslims.

This is a common claim. Mahdi Bray pulled it on me during a talk I once gave up in Boston. With unctuous solemnity and folksy charm, he claimed that the Islam I described was like no Islam he had ever come across. Likewise now also this writer. But the problem is that if this person really studied Qur'an and Hadith, how exactly did he fail to spot Qur'an 9:29, Sahih Muslim 4294, and hundreds of other passages that tell Muslims to convert, subjugate, or make war against non-Muslims? Or am I supposed to have made all that up? There may be some way to understand these passages in a non-literal sense, and I'd welcome that, but just to claim they don't exist strains credulity beyond the breaking point.

I doubt that Spencer has ever picked up a book of tafsir.

"Zaynab bint Jahsh was apparently remarkably beautiful. According to the Tafsir al-Jalalayn, an ancient Islamic commentary on the Qur’an, after her marriage to Zayd, 'Muhammad’s eye fell on her, and love for Zaynab budded in his heart.'" -- Spencer, The Truth About Muhammad, p. 59.

"All this ground has been covered long ago, such that today Muslims can consult various venerable books of tafsir that carry enormous weight in the Islamic world. A useful starting point is the work of Ibn Kathir....Ibn Kathir elaborates on this in his commentary on Sura 9:29. That verse says that the People of the Book should 'feel themselves subdued'; he glosses 'subdued' as 'disgraced, humiliated and belittled. Therefore, Muslims are not allowed to honor the people of Dhimmah or elevate them above Muslims, for they are miserable, disgraced and humiliated.'" -- Spencer, Onward Muslim Soldiers, pp. 127, 139.

He really has much more in common with his salafi/jihadist nemesi than he would like to admit. Both of them can't stand dissension or opposition.

It's ironic that I am always the one asking Muslim spokesmen to debate, and many have declined (Omid Safi, Ahmed Afzaal, etc. etc.) and now I'm the one who can't stand dissension or opposition.

Meanwhile, it has become increasingly common lately for people to claim that I am empowering the Salafis by reporting on their words and deeds. Evidently if we all close our eyes and pretend with all our might that they aren't using the Qur'an and Sunnah to recruit more jihadists, they will stop doing so. Well, sorry, but I don't buy it. If Islamic reformers are sincere, they will confront jihadist exegesis of Islamic texts, not ignore it -- as most continue to do.

Both of them are on a religious crusade against each other. And most importantly, both of them think they can pick up the Quran and hadith and interpret them without the aid of any scholars. Perhaps, as a Catholic, Spencer calls this the miracle of immaculate scholarship. It's funny, he's such a great Islamic scholar, and yet he doesn't seem to have ever heard of the concept of sha'n al-nuzul, instead claiming that all the violent surahs and ayah of the Quran are eternal, immutable commandments for the Faithful.

As I have said many times, I don't have any interpretation of the Qur'an and Hadith. I report on their interpretation by Muslims. And I don't see any large-scale effort by Muslims to refute the jihadist interpretation of the Qur'an and Hadith. A few courageous individuals are doing so, but that doth not a movement make.

Likewise, the idea that the violent passages of the Qur'an take precedence over the peaceful ones is not my invention. In his sira, Ibn Ishaq explains the contexts of various verses of the Qur'an by saying that Muhammad received revelations about warfare in three stages: first, tolerance; then, defensive warfare; and finally, offensive warfare in order to convert the unbelievers to Islam or make them pay the jizya. Tafasir by Ibn Kathir, Ibn Juzayy, As-Suyuti and others also emphasize that Surat At-Tawba, the ninth and most violent chapter of the Qur'an, abrogates every peace treaty in the Qur'an.

In the modern age, this idea of stages of development in the Qur'an's teaching on jihad, culminating in offensive warfare to establish the hegemony of Islamic law, has been affirmed by Qutb, Maududi, the Pakistani Brigadier S. K. Malik (author of "The Qur'anic Concept of War"), Saudi Chief Justice Sheikh Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Humaid (in his "Jihad in the Qur'an and Sunnah"), and others. It is, of course, an assertion of no little concern to non-Muslims, since it encapsulates a doctrine of warfare against non-Muslims and their ultimate subjugation under Sharia rules, with all that implies.

Anyway, the sha'n al-nuzul involves the circumstances in which a particular passage of the Qur'an was revealed. It is more commonly referred to as the asbab al-nuzul. I've never heard of it, have I? Well, read on:

"Perhaps reacting to the fragmentary quality of the Qur’anic narrative, early Muslims elaborated two principal sources to provide context for the Qur’an: tafsir (commentary on the Qur’an) and hadith, traditions of the Prophet Muhammad. And a significant amount (although by no means all) of the hadith is itself tafsir. It gives the asbab an-nazool, or circumstances of revelation (as we have just seen for Sura 66:1-5), for various Qur’anic verses—which can have important implications for how the verse is to be applied in the modern age." -- Spencer, The Truth About Muhammad, p. 24.

It would be nice if these pseudo-scholarly critics actually read what I wrote before dismissing it. But I have given up such hopes.

Now of course, it isn't as if I have never made mistakes. At the same time JVC (and another reader also) sent me someone taking me to task for asserting in a recent interview that Qur'an 3:28 told Muslims not to take Jews and Christians as their friends and protectors (awliyaa) when actually it says "unbelievers," not Jews and Christians. That is true. My mistake. It is actually Qur'an 5:51 that tells Muslims not to take Jews and Christians as their friends and protectors (awliyaa). And since 3:28 goes on to say -- in the opinion of the tafsir of Ibn Kathir and others -- that it is permissible under certain circumstances to deceive unbelievers, it is useful to point out here that Qur'an 5:17 refers to orthodox Christians who believe in the divinity of Christ as unbelievers (kafara), the same word used in 3:28.

Next!

WND speaks to a 23-year-old member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. "'Hi, my name is Ahmed and I want to be a suicide bomber': Recruited attacker for terror group talks to WND about 'serving Allah by blasting unbelievers to hell,'" by Aaron Klein:

WND: Tell me about your life and what you do with your free time.

BOMBER: I study at a West Bank university and I have great hopes of getting married within the next couple of months. My life is very normal. I watch television, particularly news, and historical and religious programs. From time to time I play soccer and lift weights.

WND: Is your family poor?

BOMBER: No. We are regular but far from being wealthy. I share my bedroom with my brothers but now there is less pressure because last summer one of my brothers was married and moved to live outside.

WND: Why do you want to become a suicide bomber?

BOMBER: I originally decided to become a martyr after I saw what the Israeli army did in the refugee camp of Jenin in the big military campaign of April, 2002.

But this idea became stronger when I understood what status I will have in heaven if I scarify [sic; probably "sacrifice" is meant -- RS] myself for Allah. Every time somebody else dies as a martyr in a suicide bomb attack, I pray for him but I feel jealous. I want to be where he is now and I pray that Allah will one day offer me this occasion and this honor.

[Editor's note: The potential bomber was referring to an Israeli anti-terror raid in his hometown of Jenin in 2002 in which Palestinian leaders accused the Jewish state of a "massacre," claiming the Israeli Defense Forces killed over 500 Palestinian civilians, including many women and children.

It was later determined 56 Palestinians, mostly gunmen, were killed in the raid, which followed a series of deadly suicide attacks inside Israel that were reportedly planned and directed from the terror infrastructure in Jenin. Twenty-three Israeli soldiers died in the Jenin battle, in which IDF troops conducted house-to-house searches to minimize civilian casualties by avoiding air attacks.]

WND: Is your main motivation for becoming a bomber is to serve Allah?

BOMBER: Yes, of course. Allah gave Muslims the possibility to gain their prize and payment in different ways. There are those (Muslims) who pray and fast only and respect Allah's commandments, and there are those who wish a higher prize. And the highest prize is given to those who scarify themselves, their lives, their bodies and everything in this world.

WND: What you are saying is interesting because a lot of academics in the United States and many of my colleagues in the media claim Palestinians become suicide bombers because they are poor and desperate and because of so-called Israeli occupation. Are you telling me these are not the reasons you want to blow yourself up amongst Israelis?

BOMBER: The will to scarify myself for Allah is the first and most major reason. It is true that the Zionists are occupying our lands and that it is our religious duty to fight them, including through suicide attacks. The goal is not the killing of the Jews, but that this is the way to reach Allah.

The goal is satisfying Allah and his instructions. No money interests, nothing. No brainwash, no pressure; it is my decision. All the other lies are pathetic Israeli propaganda.

I pray that Allah gives me the honor to be dead in an operation. This is the supreme and the noblest way to ascend to Allah.

These martyrs have special status in the next world and have bigger chances to watch Allah's face and enjoy the magnificent pleasures he offers us.

WND: Did I hear you say your goal is not to kill Jews? Isn't that exactly what you will do as a suicide bomber?

BOMBER: Maybe the fact that I was born here has sharpened my religious conscience, but I believe that even if I was in Chechnya, in Iraq, Afghanistan on anywhere else I would want to be a martyr.

It is Allah's satisfaction that is important to me no matter where I live. But as we live in this part of the world the way to reach Allah for me is through fighting the Zionist enemy. It is the jihad, the sacrificing that is important.

Read it all. And then ask yourself, what is CAIR doing, what is MPAC doing, what are all the self-proclaimed moderate Muslims doing to counter among Muslims the idea that killing Jews will bring them to Paradise?

As France steadily islamizes, what should the governments of the rest of the Western world, those generals seconded to NATO, for example, begin to plan for? What should the peoples of the West worry about? The last time I saw Paris, in 2000, I had been shaken by what I saw. And, shaken and stirred, I sat down at the famous Brasserie Lipp, famous because of the kidnapping decades before of the Moroccan general Ben Barka by agents of the Moroccan secret services (for a time, in the late 1960s, not only “Le Parisien” carried stories about “l’enlèvement de Ben Barka,” though only “Le Parisien” juxtaposed those stories to those about the passionate vicissitudes of Johnny and Sylvie), and wrote out nearly twenty items in a half-hour.

I had only an envelope to write on, and jotted down first on its smooth front, and then, with the ever-so-slight awkwardness that comes from writing on the back of an envelope, on the back. The back of an envelope, of course, is topologically distinct from a flat piece of paper, with that flap waving that distinction in your face, and offering a surface tantalizingly close to being flat, but annoyingly marred by that flap which, no matter how flat you force it to attempt to lie, never lies quite flat enough for pen or pencil not to notice.

I filled up both sides of the envelope with a list of the things that came to mind as representing France, a personal and idiosyncratic France -- one that had existed, that still in part existed, and that could not possibly exist if things continued in the same way, at the same pace, while those trying to sound the alarm about the situation were met with indifference or incomprehension or confusion or panic.

John VI Cantacuzenes Alert: "Russian rocket deliveries to Iran started," from AFP, with thanks to all who sent this in:

Russia has begun deliveries of the Tor-M1 air defence rocket system to Iran, Russian news agencies quoted military industry sources as saying, in the latest sign of a Russian-US rift over Iran.

"Deliveries of the Tor-M1 have begun. The first systems have already been delivered to Tehran," ITAR-TASS quoted an unnamed, high-ranking source as saying Friday.

The United States has pressed Russia to halt military sales to Iran, which Washington accuses of harbouring secret plans to build a nuclear weapon.

Moscow has consistently defended its weapons trade with Iran. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said the contract for 29 rocket systems, signed in December last year, was legitimate because the Tor-M1 has a purely defensive role.

ITAR-TASS reported that the rockets were to be deployed around Iran's nuclear sites, including the still incomplete, Russian-built atomic power station at Bushehr.

Insulting "Turkishness" -- whatever that means. Meanwhile, Ali Bardakoglu of the Directorate General for Religious Affairs says that the idea that Christians have a hard time in Turkey is all in our mind. From AP, with thanks to Looney Tunes:

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Two men who converted to Christianity went on trial Thursday for allegedly insulting "Turkishness" and inciting religious hatred against Islam, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The trial opened just days before a visit to Turkey by Pope Benedict XVI. During his visit, the pontiff is expected to discuss improved religious rights for the country's tiny Christian minority who complain of discrimination.

Hakan Tastan, 37, and Turan Topal, 46, are accused of making the insults and of inciting hate while allegedly trying to convert other Turks to Christianity. If convicted, the two Turkish men could face up to nine years in prison.

The men were charged under Turkey's Article 301, which has been used to bring charges against dozens of intellectuals — including Nobel Prize-winner Orhan Pamuk.

The law has widely been condemned for severely limiting free expression and European officials have demanded Turkey change it as part of reforms to join the EU.

They also are charged under a law against inciting hatred based on religion.

Prosecutors accuse the two of allegedly telling possible converts that Islam was "a primitive and fabricated" religion and that Turks would remain "barbarians" as long they continued practicing Islam, Anatolia reported.

Likely retaliation for yesterday's coordinated bombings and mortar shelling in Sadr City. The targeting of multiple Sunni mosques is obviously a considerable escalation. "Gunmen attack Sunni area in Baghdad: ministry" from Reuters:

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen attacked a Sunni enclave in a mainly Shi'ite district in Baghdad on Friday, burning four mosques and homes, an Interior Ministry official said.

The official said the number of casualties was not known, but a resident of Hurriya district said at least 18 people had been killed and 24 wounded.

"They attacked four mosques with rocket-propelled grenades and machinegun fire. The attacks began at midday," said the resident, who was helping to evacuate people from their homes.

And if he doesn't? "Turkish Muslim wants Pope to say Islam peaceful," by Gareth Jones and Selcuk Gokoluk for Reuters:

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's top Muslim official said on Thursday Pope Benedict should state clearly during a planned visit to Turkey next week he believes Islam, like Christianity, to be a religion of peace.

Benedict infuriated Muslims worldwide in September with a lecture that appeared to portray Islam as an irrational religion tainted by violence. Benedict later expressed regret over the pain his remarks caused but stopped short of a full apology.

"I think the attitude the Pope should take is that neither Islam nor Christianity is a source of violence," said Ali Bardakoglu, who heads Ankara's Directorate General for Religious Affairs which controls Turkish imams and writes their sermons.

"If they ask me if Christianity has been the cause of violence, I would say no, that is not so ... We believe all prophets sent by God, from Moses to Jesus and Mohammad, are messengers of compassion," he told Reuters in an interview.

Violence committed in the name of religion was the fault of fallible and misguided human beings, he said.

"I believe the Pope shares this view and his saying this will be in the interests of all humanity," he said.

Bardakoglu, who meets the Pope next Tuesday at the start of the four-day visit, said in September Benedict must apologize for his remarks and should reconsider his trip to Turkey.

But he told Reuters it was now time to look to the future and said the Pope would receive a hospitable reception in the overwhelmingly Muslim country.

He said he would be happy to explain to the Pope the "unbreakable" link between reason and faith in Islam, citing the historic achievements of Islamic science and learning.

[...]

Bardakoglu said Turkey was a free country where people had the democratic right to protest.

"But any street protests will not reflect the mainstream hospitable attitude of Turkey," he added.

[...]

"He may make some good statements, saying we have only one God although we have different religions. We have sympathy for each other and we should not exploit the differences in a negative way."

The Pope is due to hold talks during his visit with the Istanbul-based spiritual head of the world's 250 million Orthodox Christians, Patriarch Bartholomew, who has complained of property and other restrictions his church faces in Turkey.

Bardakoglu defended Turkey's treatment of its tiny Christian community and of other religious minorities.

"If the Pope says Christians in Turkey are mistreated, I will tell him that he has been seriously misinformed," he said.

[...]

Bardakoglu also signaled he was ready to tackle the Pope over Turkey's bid to join the European Union. Before becoming Pope, Benedict spoke out against Turkey joining the EU, saying it did not belong there because of its religion and culture.

"The European Union as a Christian club would pave the way for other similar groupings that would seriously hurt the cause of world peace. For that reason, I think it important that the EU be based on common values rather than religion," he said.

We are supposed to believe what these two say about Islam, while what they say about me is demonstrably false. It doesn't speak well for their trustworthiness.

Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir wrote this about me: "Robert Spencer claimed that Islam is a violent religion, which orders Muslims to kill all the Jews and Christians..."

I have written to Mir asking him for a retraction. So far, I haven't received any response. I'll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, on The O'Reilly Factor last Monday night, Edina Lekovic of MPAC said that I thought the only good Muslim was an ex-Muslim and that I wanted to drive all Muslims into the sea. I wrote this to her:

Dear Ms. Lekovic:

On the O'Reilly Factor with Laura Ingraham Monday evening, you asserted that I believe that the only good Muslim is an ex-Muslim, and that I wish to drive all Muslims into the sea.

In fact, I have never stated either of those positions, and do not believe them.

Accordingly, I am hereby requesting that you issue a public retraction of both statements.

Thank you in advance.

Cordially
Robert Spencer

I haven't heard back from her, either -- and of course in reality I don't expect to hear from either Mir or Lekovic, unless they decide to send more slander and abuse my way. But I think it is interesting that while they feel free to retail falsehoods about me, they then claim the moral high ground. And in that, of course, they are not alone.

How bad has it gotten in France? Daniel Pipes answers:

They go by the euphemistic term Zones Urbaines Sensibles, or Sensitive Urban Zones, with the even more antiseptic acronym ZUS, and there are 751 of them as of last count. They are conveniently listed on one long webpage, complete with street demarcations and map delineations.

What are they? Those places in France that the French state does not control. They range from two zones in the medieval town of Carcassone to twelve in the heavily Muslim town of Marseilles, with hardly a town in France lacking in its ZUS. The ZUS came into existence in late 1996 and according to a 2004 estimate, nearly 5 million people live in them.

Comment: A more precise name for these zones would be Dar al-Islam, the place where Muslims rule. (November 14, 2006)

And where dhimmis dare not venture.

I fully expect US Airways to cave, but I do agree that so far they have been courageous. An editorial from Investor's Business Daily (thanks to Looney Tunes):

Homeland Security: Kudos to US Airways. Risking fines and a boycott, it did the right thing this week by removing a group of Muslim men from a flight to protect its crew and passengers.

By most accounts, the six bearded men were behaving suspiciously at a time when airports were on high alert for sky terror during the holidays. "There were a number of things that gave the flight crew pause," an airline spokesman said. According to witnesses and police reports, the men:

• Made anti-American statements.

• Made a scene of praying and chanting "Allah."

• Asked for seat-belt extensions even though a flight attendant thought they didn't need them.

• Refused requests by the pilot to disembark for more screening.

Also, three of the men had only one-way tickets and no checked baggage.

Police had to forcibly remove the men from the flight, whereupon they were taken into custody. A search found no weapons or explosives, and they were released to continue on their journey.

Within hours, the men enlisted a Muslim-rights group to make a stink in the press, insisting they were merely imams returning home from an Islamic conference in Minneapolis. They say they were "harassed" because of their faith.

But were they victims or provocateurs?

All six claim to be Americans, so clearly they were aware of heightened security. Surely they knew that groups of Muslim men flying together while praying to Allah fit the modus operandi of the 9/11 hijackers and would make a pilot nervous. Throw in anti-U.S. remarks and odd demands about seat belts, and they might as well have yelled, "Bomb!"

Yet they chose to make a spectacle. Why? Turns out among those attending their conference was Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, D-Minn., who will be the first Muslim sworn into Congress (with his hand on the Quran). Two days earlier, Ellison, an African-American convert who wants to criminalize Muslim profiling, spoke at a fundraiser for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Muslim-rights group that wasted no time condemning US Airways for "prejudice and ignorance."

CAIR wants congressional hearings to investigate other incidents of "flying while Muslim." Incoming Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., has already drafted a resolution, borrowing from CAIR rhetoric, that gives Muslims special civil-rights protections.

Read it all.

Internet Jihad Update from AFP, with thanks to DP:

PARIS -- They neither carry weapons nor lay ambushes for soldiers in Iraq or in Afghanistan. But thousands of radical Islamists are waging a different kind of war from behind their computers, called "electronic jihad."

These radical Islamic sites have sprung up over the past few years, specializing in the organization and the coordination of concerted cyber-attacks against Israeli, American, Catholic, and Danish Web sites.

All you need to join this anonymous cyberworld is an address registered in Iraq or in tribal zones in Pakistan, and basic computer savvy to carry out concerted attacks in which internauts from the four corners of the world take part.

Among their most high-profile attacks to date was that on the Danish Internet site of daily Jyllands-Posten, which outraged Muslims - and sparked violence worldwide - by publishing controversial caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in September 2005.

"It is the Internet version of jihad: you can telecharge viruses which will be activated at the planned date ... I downloaded one which was called 'Jihad reminder'," said Anne Giudicelli, a French specialist who runs a "terrorism" consultancy monitoring radical Islamic Web sites.

As El Presidente of Slapstick Politics says, Break out the riot gear. But this time it could be not only Muslims rioting, but outraged Eurodhimmis.

"Vatican enters Muslim veil debate," by David Willey for BBC News:

Cardinal Renato Martino said immigrants must respect the traditions, culture and religion of the nations they go to.

They ought to abide by local laws banning the wearing of certain types of Muslim veils, he added.

"It seems elementary to me and it is quite right that the authorities demand it," said Cardinal Martino, who heads the Vatican department dealing with migration issues.

Kamala has a terrific and detailed post comparing the Islamic apologetic group Discover Islam's statements about Islam (found on posters meant to proselytize non-Muslims) to what Muslims themselves say about the same topic in other contexts.

Every bit of it is well worth reading and keeping for future reference. Here is a small sampling:

The poster begins:

Islam simply means to achieve peace—peace with God, peace with oneself, and peace with the creations of God—through wholly giving oneself to God and accepting His guidance.

(For ease of identification, direct quotations from the Discover Islam posters will be shown in bold print.)

According to a large number of Muslim sources, Islam does not mean "to achieve peace." Islam means "submission" or "surrender." According to the Muslim Student Association at USC, this issue is first in a list of "Ten Misconceptions of Islam":

Misconception 1: Islam is 'the religion of peace' because: the Arabic word Islam is derived from the Arabic word "Al-Sallam" which means peace.

The explanation:

The root word of Islam is "al-silm" which means "submission" or "surrender." It is understood to mean "submission to Allah." In spite of whatever noble intention has caused many a Muslim to claim that Islam is derived primarily from peace, this is not true... A secondary root of Islam may be "Al-Salaam" (peace), however the text of the Qur'an makes it clear that Allah has clearly intended the focus of this way of life to be submission to Him.

To drive home the point, consider three English translations of the Qur'an itself provided on the Web by the same USC Muslim Student Association. The authors of these translations, Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Marmaduke Mohammad Pickthall, and M. H. Shakir, were all Muslims. At the USC site, it's easy to search for all verses that contain the word "Islam." As the search results show, sometimes the authors chose not to translate the word Islam to English, but often they did, translating the word not to "peace" but to "submission" or "surrender." Sometimes "(to Allah)" is also appended. For example, in verse 3.85, Shakir writes, "And whoever desires a religion other than Islam, it shall not be accepted from him, and in the hereafter he shall be one of the losers." In the same verse, Pickthall does not use the word Islam but instead writes "Surrender (to Allah)." Yusuf Ali writes "Islam (submission to Allah)." Other examples can be found in verses 43.69, 46.15, and 2.132.

So why is Discover Islam spreading what the MSA says is a "misconception" about Islam? Is there a split between the two groups? A schism? Odd, then, that there is no evidence of such a schism within the American Muslim community. Is there, then, something else going on here?

May it lead to his speaking against these crimes. From The Associated Press, with thanks to Looney Tunes:

VATICAN CITY: Pope Benedict XVI held a private audience Friday with Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos, who gave the pontiff an album of photographs of destroyed churches in northern Cyprus under the Turkish occupation.

After Benedict welcomed the Cypriot at the entrance to his library in the Apostolic Palace, the president showed the leather-bound album to the pontiff, who looked upset as he leafed through the pages. Some the pictures showed churches reduced to rubble, while others had been converted to restaurants, shops or other secular uses.

"Such destruction ... incredible," Benedict uttered, according to pool reporters who covered the greeting before the pontiff and the president began their private talks.

A Vatican statement singled out "with satisfaction" that Catholics on the island enjoy religious freedom. The Greek Cypriot population of Cyprus is largely Orthodox.

"The pope was very upset and expressed feelings of deep concern," Papadopoulos later said of Benedict's reaction to the photographs. "We all know his concern and deep interest in the preservation of churches and freedom of religion."

In Northern Cyprus, Ahmet Okan, adviser to Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat on political and cultural issues, said that while there were destroyed and converted churches on the Turkish side there were also several destroyed Ottoman Turkish buildings in the south. In a telephone conversation with The Associated Press, he contended that Turkish Cypriot calls for joint projects to restore Christian and Ottoman buildings were constantly being rebuffed by the Greek Cypriots.

Sure.

Hamas can now boast of having the Grandmother from Hell, along with the Mother from Hell. "Grandmother in first Hamas suicide attack in two years," by Mahmud Hams for AFP:

JABALIYA, Gaza Strip (AFP) - A Palestinian grandmother blew herself up in the Gaza Strip, lightly wounding three Israeli soldiers, in the first suicide attack claimed by Hamas in almost two years.

The mother of nine and grandmother of 41 became the oldest Palestinian suicide bomber at the age of 57, selecting as her target troops operating near her northern Gaza home in Jabaliya, seeking to curb near-daily rocket attacks on Israel.

"Troops saw a woman approaching them in a suspicious manner and identified her carrying an explosive device," an army spokeswoman said.

"They then threw a stun grenade in her direction but she managed to blow herself up," she added, adding that three soldiers were lightly hurt.

Within minutes the armed wing of the Hamas claimed the bombing. This was the Islamist group's first suicide attack since January 2005, when a bomber wounded seven Israeli soldiers in Gaza.

"The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades claims the martyr operation carried out by Fatima Omar Mahmud al-Najar, aged 57, in the middle of a group of Zionist soldiers," an online statement said.

The operation came two weeks after the radical faction threatened to resume suicide bombings in response to a botched Israeli shelling in the Gaza town of Beit Hanun that killed 19 Palestinians, mostly women and children.

Najar was shown in a clip from a pre-taped video message aired on mainstream television stations, wearing a Hamas bandana in addition to a white veil and carrying a heavy kalashnikov, fighter-style in her arms.

"I am the martyr Fatima Najar from the town of Jabaliya. I work for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades and I sacrifice myself for God, the nation, the Al-Aqsa (mosque in Jerusalem, the third holiest Muslim site)," she said.

Relatives said Najar left behind seven sons and two daughters, plus some 41 grandchildren, but insisted they were proud of her "martyrdom," which daughter Azhar said was a direct response to the Beit Hanun shelling.

"She did this operation in response to the Beit Hanun massacre. She was very moved by what happened," said Azhar, speaking from the family home in Jabaliya where relatives came to congratulate Najar's nearest and dearest.

Azhar also said her mother had taken part in a daring rescue operation, staged by Palestinian mothers and wives, who acted as human shields to free more than a dozen gunmen holed up in a Beit Hanun mosque on November 3.

"We are really happy. It's a big operation. She told us last night that she would do a suicide operation... We are proud," said Zuheir, Najar's 20-year-old son. "'I don't want anything, only to die a martyr.' That's what she said."

[...]

Najar was the second Palestinian woman to blow herself up in the northern Gaza this month, following a November 6 attack claimed by Islamic Jihad.

Sunni-Shi'ite Jihad Update. "150 die in deadliest attack of Iraq war" by Thomas Wagner for The Associated Press:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - In the deadliest attack since the beginning of the Iraq war, suspected Sunni-Arab militants used three suicide car bombs and two mortar rounds on the capital's Shiite Sadr City slum to kill at least 150 people and wound 238 on Thursday, police said.

The Shiites responded almost immediately, firing 10 mortar rounds at the Abu Hanifa Sunni mosque as Azamiya, killing one person and wounding seven people in their attack on the holiest Sunni shrine in Baghdad.

The Interior Ministry imposed a curfew on Baghdad until further notice.

Beginning at 3:10 p.m., the three car bomb attackers blew up their vehicles one after another, at 15 minute intervals, hitting Jamila market, al-Hay market and al-Shahidein Square in Sadr City. At about the same time, mortar rounds struck al-Shahidein Square and Mudhaffar Square, police said.

As the fiery explosions sent up huge plumes of black smoke up over northeastern Baghdad, and left streets covered with burning bodies and blood, angry residents and armed Shiite militiamen flooded the streets, hurling curses at Sunni Muslims and firing weapons into the air.

Ambulances raced to the scenes and police Col. Hassan Chaloub said at least 145 people were killed and 238 wounded in the blasts, which destroyed many outdoor food stalls and parked automobiles and buses.

[...]

Sectarian fighting also broke in another part of northern Iraq on Thursday, when 30 Sunni insurgents armed with machine guns and mortars attacked the Shiite-controlled Health Ministry building. After a three-hour battle, during which Iraqi soldiers and U.S. military helicopters intervened, the attackers were repulsed. But at least seven guards of the ministry were wounded, said police 1st. Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razaq.

The Sadr City and Health Ministry attacks were the latest example of widespread sectarian fighting involving Sunnis and Shiites that is leaving Iraq either on the verge of a civil war or already fighting one.

At about noon Thursday, heavy clashes broke out between about suspected Sunni insurgent gunmen and guards at the Shiite-controlled Health Ministry building in northwest Baghdad, security officials said.

State-run Iraqiyah television said the Health Ministry was being attacked with mortars by "terrorists who are intending to take control of the building."

Security officials said about 30 gunmen, believed to be Sunni insurgents, had launched the attack. Iraqi troops were being rushed to the area and all roads leading to the ministry in Bab al-Muadham neighborhood were closed, said the security officials on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.

Police Lt. Ali Muhsin said the attack began at 12:15 p.m. when three mortar shells hit the building, causing damage. After that, gunmen on the upper floors of surrounding buildings opened fire.

Ministry workers were trapped in the building.

"The gunmen fled as American helicopters and Iraqi armored vehicles arrived. Employees were able to leave starting about 3:15 p.m.," Health ministry spokesman Qassim Yehyah said.

Health Minister Ali al-Shemari is a follower of al-Sadr, the radical anti-American Shiite cleric.

On this Thanksgiving Day, Nidra Poller recalls a notorious Halloween incident:

OK, it was Halloween, but the incident didn’t occur in the heart of a black forest. University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann stood next to a shahid and didn’t see anything wrong with the photo-op. The shahid, who claims to have meant no harm, was so proud he splashed the slideshow on his blog with touching honesty, showing how the fairy tale enchantment of the intelligentsia opens the way to further jihad hijinks. He played the role to the hilt, mocking beheadings, enrollment of child soldiers, rape of liberty… And we are to believe it was just a student’s prank?

The reaction of academics, with rare exceptions, is as distressing as the incident. So calmly academic, so academically willing to explore the issue from the podium of every appropriate disciple, so patient, so collegial even in the harshest situations. As if we had 80 years to work out the kinks in our response to jihad.

President Gutmann apologized? And when she saw that her first apology hadn’t quite done the trick, she ironed it out—like her princess costume—and apologized again, better, less ambiguously. If she were a woman she would have resigned. And the student apologized too? Now all we need is an apology from Osama bin Laden and all our little cartoon characters can go back to their peaceful pursuits in fairyland.
In fact, President Gutmann’s first apology was the sincere one: the young man has the right to wear a mass-murderer costume and we have the right to say we don’t like it. Never mind the logical extension: mass murderers have the right to kill us and we have the right to say we don’t like it.

In this sixth (or 1385th, depending on your starting point) year of the defense against the global jihad, it is easy to succumb to a certain bleakness. After all, the fog of disinformation, misinformation, and willful ignorance is extraordinarily thick, and it is only by chance and accident pierced through here and there. The government and the national informational mainstream still dare not name the enemy (the global jihad) or stand up to the pressure groups in the United States that are effectively advancing the cause of that jihad through manipulation of our societal proclivities and weaknesses -- as has been vividly illustrated again this week by the case of the six imams removed from the airplane. CAIR and its minions are skillfully playing the race card and manipulating national phobias over race to call for Congressional hearings in the hope that any scrutiny of Muslims in airports will hereafter be illegal or at least functionally out of bounds. And the media generally abets this, with one talking head even comparing the "humiliated" imams to Rosa Parks.

Nevertheless, there are reasons to be thankful today. Here are just a few:

1. The fact that I am writing this at all, and that you are reading it, indicates that the fog is not all-encompassing. The Internet has broken the stranglehold of the mainstream media, at least until they find some way to regulate it into submission, and the truth is getting out on this site and many others. Also, the fauxtography scandal is just the latest blow to an industry that is already reeling, and beginning to collapse.

2. The jihadists' every victory is also a defeat. Every time they srike militarily, more people wake up from their Religion-of-Peace slumber to the reality and magnitude of what we are facing. Likewise, even as CAIR and Co. successfully mau-maus and intimidates the media (even the "conservative" media), it sows the seeds of the undoing of its own campaign: witness Tucker Carlson's unwillingness to take any race-hate nonsense from Arsalan Iftikhar. Will they succeed in criminalizing scrutiny of Muslims before enough of the public wakes up in time to stop it? Maybe. But each of their victories will bring them closer to defeat.

3. The truth is on our side. Those who claim that Islam is a religion of peace that has been hijacked by a tiny minority of extremists, and that therefore any examination of the elements of Islam that may be inciting violence and preaching supremacism is unnecessary, are proven wrong by every day's headlines. Those headlines show that such an examination is needed more than ever. Myopia about this is hindering our national and civilizational defense, and thus it must be challenged -- and every day makes that challenge easier, for it simply involves telling the truth and reporting on events as they occur.

So: Happy Thanksgiving to all American Jihad Watchers, and I hope that all those elsewhere will join us in gratitude for these and other things, and continue to struggle with us against the jihad and for the dignity of all human beings.

Michelle Malkin has a remarkable post contrasting the American media's hysteria about the Bush Administration's alleged assaults on civil rights to the reality of a muzzled press in other countries. Many of these are predominantly Muslim countries where authoritarian rule prevails, and where free speech and free inquiry are all too often considered un-Islamic.

Many links in Malkin's original post.

Give thanks we don't live in Bangladesh, where you can be put on trial for writing columns supporting Israel and condemning Muslim violence. Just ask Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, editor of Blitz, the largest tabloid English-language weekly in Bangladesh. He is currently facing a sedition trial for speaking out about the threats radical Islam poses in Bangladesh. He has been imprisoned, harassed, beaten, and condemned. In court last week, his persecutors read these charges against him: "By praising the Jews and Christians, by attempting to travel to Israel and by predicting the so-called rise of Islamist millitancy in the country and expressing such through writings inside the country and abroad, you have tried to damage the image and relations of Bangladesh with the outside world." For expressing these dissident opinions, he faces the possibility of execution.

Give thanks we don't live in Egypt, where bloggers have been detained by the government for criticizing Islam and exposing the apathy of Cairo police to sexual harassment of women. Just ask Abdel Karim Suliman Amer, 22, who was arrested earlier this month for "spreading information disruptive of public order", "incitement to hate Muslims" and "defaming the President of the Republic." Ask Rami Siyam, who blogs under the name of Ayyoub, and has been outspoken in his criticism of Egyptian brutality. He was detained this week along with three friends after leaving the house of a fellow blogger. His host, 24-year-old reformist Muslim Muhammad al-Sharqawi, had been detained by the Egyptian government this spring as he left a peaceful demonstration in Cairo where he had displayed a sign reading, "I want my rights." Sharqawi was beaten in prison over several weeks.

Give thanks we don't live in Sudan, where editors can lose their heads for not kowtowing to the government line. Ask the family of Mohammed Taha, editor-in-chief of the Sudanese private daily Al-Wifaq, who was found decapitated on a Khartoum street in September. He had been kidnapped by masked jihadi gunmen. What did Taha do that cost him his life? He insulted Islam, and dared to question Muslim history, the roots of Mohammed, and other Muslims. Before his murder, his paper was shuttered for three months and he was hauled into court for "blasphemy."

[...]

Give thanks we don't live in Lebanon, where outspoken writers pay with their lives. Journalist and Christian Orthodox activist Samir Kassir, who was critical of Syrian involvement in Lebanon, was assassinated in a Beirut car bombing in 2005. His colleague, An-Nahar newspaper manager Gibran Tueni was killed in a car bombing last December. Lebanese TV anchorwoman and Christian journalist May Chidiak survived a separate car bombing last fall, but lost an arm, leg, and use of one eye.

Read it all.

"Women Asked to Leave Seminar" by Raid Qusti for Arab News:

RIYADH, 22 November 2006 — A presenter from King Saud University at an international medical seminar at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center caused a stir yesterday when he insisted that all women — including medical and media professionals — leave the room before he would enter the room to give his presentation.

Initially some women expressed consternation at the request, but later relented and left the room so the doctor and orthodox man could give his presentation about Islam and the ethics of organ donation and end-of-life issues.

Prior to the presentation by Dr. Yousef Al-Ahmed, the audience was informed that the doctor would not be in the same room with women when he spoke about medical ethics.

“We had to ask the female medical staff to leave the hall based on the sheikh’s request,” said a member of the organizing committee who preferred to remain anonymous.

“This is ridiculous,” said one woman, a medical professional and Muslim. “In the Grand Mosque in Makkah men and women pray together. Why are we being asked to leave? This guy knows a hospital is a mixed place. He should have realized that before he came,” she said. “I am being put in a very embarrassing situation.”

Actually, the Saudi clerics recently tried to restrict women there, too.

A Saudi woman who specializes in neuroscience said the doctor had no right to ask women to leave.

“We had every right to be there,” she said on condition of anonymity. “We were attending a scientific medical symposium. If he did not want to attend the symposium because it was mixed with men and women medical experts doing their job, that is his problem, not ours.”

After Al-Ahmed persisted on his request that women not pollute his presentation with their presence, event coordinators began urging women to leave so the event could continue. Two women reporters from Saudi Arabian Television Channel One and Saudi satellite channel Al-Ekhabriya were also told to leave the hall.

I hope the people who met Shumpert at his barber shop are being watched closely. And did he ever attend any area mosque? What is taught there? What did they think of Shumpert? Of course, if approached now they will say they always abhorred him, but did they contact authorities about his jihadist tendencies?

"Rainier Valley barber shop owner flees U.S.: Facing sentencing in plea deal, he phones FBI to say he's in Somalia," by Paul Shukovsky in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, with thanks to Cindy:

Ruben Shumpert, who federal agents allege made his Rainier Valley barber shop a kind of "anti-American training ground for Muslims" where children were taught "how to shoot and fight the Americans," has telephoned the FBI to say he won't be going to prison anytime soon.

Shumpert, who faces sentencing on federal counterfeiting and weapons charges, has fled to Somalia.

A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Shumpert, who is also known as Amir Abdul Muhaimin, Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Redkey said. He was to be sentenced Tuesday.

Shumpert -- an African American convert to Islam -- was among more than a dozen, mostly African immigrants from Islamic countries arrested by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force two years ago on a mix of charges, including immigration fraud and bank fraud.

Shumpert was never charged with any terrorism crimes, but court documents paint a picture of his barber shop at 7821 Rainier Ave. S. as a gathering place for adherents of radical Islam where he showed children videotapes of "fighting, shooting and killing with images on Shumpert's computer screen of al-Qaida and the Taliban."

Shumpert had been free on personal recognizance and was facing sentencing under a plea agreement when he fled the country, Redkey said. Shumpert called an FBI agent on the Joint Terrorism Task Force from Somalia, Redkey said.

Hmph. I suspected that this authentic Hagia Sophia paperweight that I scored on eBay last week didn't really date from the fourteenth century. From the Daily Mail, with thanks to PRCS:

Forged archaeological artefacts traded on internet auction sites such as eBay are helping to fund international terrorism, it was disclosed today.

The faked historical relics, purporting to be genuine, Middle Eastern artefacts dating from as far back as 2000 BC, are being sold to innocent collectors and tourists for up to £2,000 each.

Police believe the profits are flowing back into criminal networks in the Middle East and that some is helping to fund insurgency in places like Iraq.

Some of the seized artefacts were on display at an exhibition of fake and forged works of art at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London today.

The exhibition is being held by the Metropolitan Police's specialist Arts and Antiques unit to raise awareness of the increasingly sophisticated fraud, estimated to worth up to £200 million a year in Britain alone.

Detective Constable Ian Lawson said of the artefacts: "We know for a fact that there is a terrorism link. Archaeological stuff is being exported by the tonne load from Middle Eastern countries. If the money goes back into criminality, some will inevitably end up in the hands of terrorists."