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."

They entered the once-great cathedral, in its desacralized and appropriated state an international symbol of jihadist aggression and Islamic supremacism, and shouted a threat: "Pope, don't make a mistake, don't wear out our patience."

"Protesters occupying building detained," by Benjamin Harvey for Associated Press, with thanks to Twostellas:

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Police on Wednesday detained about 40 members of a Turkish nationalist party who earlier had occupied one of Istanbul's most famous buildings, the Haghia Sophia, to protest the visit next week of Pope Benedict XVI.

The protesters belong to the Great Unity Party, a far right-wing group that has previously staged demonstrations against the planned Nov. 28-Dec. 1 visit.

They entered the 6th century former Byzantine church and mosque, shouting "Allahu akbar!" — "God is great!" — and then knelt to perform Islamic prayers.

They also shouted a warning to Benedict: "Pope, don't make a mistake, don't wear out our patience."

A group leader read a statement saying Benedict had offended Muslims with his comments linking violence and Islam, but the reading was interrupted by police.

Astounding. But alas, not surprising. in "Narcissism on Stilts," Harold Evans in the New York Sun (via Melanie Phillips, with thanks to PRCS) recalls what happened at the Guardian's Hay-on-Wye Festival this year:

Something similar happened at this year's Hay-on-Wye festival, sponsored by the Guardian, where a five-person panel discussed "Are there are any limits to free speech?" One of the Muslim panelists said if anyone offended his religion, he would strike him. A lawyer, Anthony Julius, responded that Jews had lived as minorities under two powerful hegemonies, Christian and Muslim, and had been obliged to learn how to deal nonviolently with offense caused to them by the sacred scriptures of both. He started by referring to an anti-Semitic passage in the New Testament — which passed without comment. But when he began to list the passages in the Koran that denigrate Jews, describing them as monkeys and pigs, the panelists went ballistic. One of them, Madeline Bunting of the Guardian, put her hand over the microphone and said words to the effect, "I am not going to sit here and listen to any criticisms of Muslims." She was cheered, and not one of the journalists in the audience from right or left uttered a word about free speech — not hate speech, mind you, but free speech of a moderate nature.

It is understandable that the leaders of the Muslim community are sensitive to a stereotype of Muslims as enemies of the people. The vast majority — in Britain and certainly here — are decent, law-abiding citizens, and they deserve our sympathy and respect. But it is undeniable that terrorist crimes are committed by Muslims, and leaders in their communities have an obligation to denounce the jihadists. Symptomatic of the moral queasiness is the protest in Britain by 38 Islamic organizations, together with three members of the House of Commons and three of the House of Lords, who blame terrorism not on the jidhadists but on the foreign policy of Tony Blair and George Bush.

This attitude is, at the least, unhistorical. Islamic radicals were using Afghanistan as a base to plot murder, climaxing in 9/11, long before the ill-judged invasion of Iraq. In fact, they were plotting when the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was moving to a peaceful resolution. By attacking Mr. Blair instead of Osama bin Laden, the protesters in the Muslim community and their nursemaids in news organizations give the radicals a free pass and feed a sense of grievance among perennially disgruntled youth. Maybe the latest terrorist news — a plot to flood the subways under the Thames — will give second thoughts to all those well-meaning battalions of left and right and leaders of the Muslim community who have yet to see an anti-terrorism measure they approve.

The free pass is extraordinary in light of the deaths in Britain, the conviction last week of a man plotting to blow up the London subways, and the public warning last week by the head of British intelligence, who traditionally remains anonymous, that 30 more plots were in the offing.

These are the topics that should be worrying the press and broadcast organizations — that for all their brilliant staffers, resources, and reputation for authenticity, they can be fooled, and it is left to investigative Web sites to shout foul. In the Lebanon war this past summer, celebrated newspapers and television stations worldwide carried pictures showing that Israel had targeted two International Red Cross ambulances — a fabrication of Hezbollah that investigative Web sites ultimately exposed.

It is a pity that Father Peter Dougherty and Sister Mary Ellen Gundeck didn't think to investigate the institutionalized mistreatment of Christians under Sharia law before joining those who wish to impose that Sharia. No houses would need to be destroyed if the jihadists didn't use them as bases to attack Israeli civilians. "American nun, priest join Gaza standoff," by Ibrahim Barzak for Associated Press:

BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip — An American priest and nun spent several hours Wednesday at a militant's home that Israel has targeted for destruction, the first foreigners to join a weeklong standoff between Palestinian "human shields" and the Israeli air force.

Father Peter Dougherty, 65, and Sister Mary Ellen Gundeck, 55, both Michigan-based peace activists, said they were sent by God to help protect the Palestinians. The pair arrived Wednesday morning at the family home of Mohammed Baroud, a militant involved in rocket attacks on Israel.

For the past week, Palestinian militants and civilians have crowded into five militants' houses to try to thwart Israeli threats to hit them with missiles. The use of human shields is a new tactic in the Palestinians' war against Israel's mighty military.

Since militants allied with the ruling Hamas party kidnapped an Israeli soldier in June, the air force has destroyed the homes of at least 73 militants, usually after calling owners and warning residents to evacuate.

House demolitions are considered harsh punishment in crowded Gaza. Most people live in densely populated apartment blocks with extended families, and dozens are often left homeless when one building is destroyed.

Dougherty and Gundeck said they had visited several of the houses under threat on Tuesday, and on Wednesday they reached Baroud's three-story home.

"It is wrong for Israel to bomb people's houses," Dougherty said. "We are here in solidarity, and to try communicate to the world what is really going on."

The nun and priest, dressed in shirts and pants, said they were staying for several hours at each of the targeted houses. They were warmly welcomed by Ahmed Baroud, a brother of the militant.

The building's rooftop has been decorated with Palestinian political faction banners. Local leaders of the rival Hamas and Fatah groups spend the nights there, gathering around a small fire to show Israeli aircraft they are still in the targeted house.

Where did Nabeel Ahmed Issa al-Jaourah get that idea? Could it be from Qur'an passages such as 9:111, which guarantees Paradise to those who kill for Allah? It says: "Allah hath purchased of the believers their persons and their goods; for theirs (in return) is the garden (of Paradise): they fight in His cause, and slay and are slain." And there are many more where that one came from. We are always told these passages do not mean what they clearly do mean, and that no Muslims take them literally, and yet again and again we see that they do.

"Jordanian: British are enemies of Islam," by Shafika Mattar for AP, with thanks to DP:

AMMAN, Jordan — A Jordanian accused of opening fire on Western tourists in Amman's Roman amphitheater, killing a Briton and wounding six others, insisted in court Wednesday that God "blessed" him for the attack and said the British are enemies of Islam.

Prosecutors say Nabeel Ahmed Issa al-Jaourah fired a pistol at Westerners visiting the historic site in September, killing British accountant Christopher Stokes. Five other tourists from Australia, Britain, the Netherlands and New Zealand were wounded, along with a Jordanian police officer.

"God blessed me when I killed a British man and hurt others, because they are fighting the Prophet and his soldiers since (the) Balfour Declaration," al-Jaourah told the military court. In the 1917 document, the British government promised to support the creation of Israel.

"The British people ... insulted the honorable Quran and women who wear the head cover," said al-Jaourah, who is a Jordanian citizen of Palestinian origin. He was apparently referring to comments by British House of Commons leader Jack Straw, who said in October that face-covering Muslim veils inhibit communication.

Al-Jaourah has pleaded innocent to murder charges. But after his comments, the prosecutor said he had confessed and urged the court "to hand him the harshest punishment."

Al-Jaourah faces a possible sentence of death by hanging if convicted. The trial resumes in a week.

The Sept. 4 shooting was a rare attack on tourists in Jordan. Prosecutors have said al-Jaourah acted alone and had no links to terrorist groups....

In a separate case Wednesday, Jordan's military court sentenced two Jordanians of Palestinian origin to 10 years in prison for trying to infiltrate Israel with automatic weapons to carry out attacks.

Another defendant in the case, Osama Taleb al-Mahdawi, 25, from the West Bank town of Tulkarem, was sentenced to a year in prison, and two other defendants were acquitted. The five defendants, arrested Jan. 8, lived in the northern refugee camp of Irbid.

After the judge read the verdict, the militants shouted, "God is great," knelt on the floor, and started to pray.

In another trial, an Iraqi accused of being a member of al-Qaida in Iraq railed at the presiding judge, praised Osama Bin Laden and called Jordan's King Abdullah II an infidel.

"Jordan is one of the bases for the American attacks on Iraq and trains the Iraqi police who, with the Shiites, want to destroy Iraq," Ziad Khalaf Raja al-Karbouly said. "I accuse all the rulers of this era of being infidels, including (King) Abdullah bin al-Hussein."

He told the court that he is "proud of being a member of al-Qaida and a soldier for Osama Bin Laden," adding that, "We in al-Qaida, will continue our holy war and our reward will be the dear virgins of heaven."

Good luck with that, Ziad.

"Many women activists have been murdered, many women university professors. Many women physicians have been killed, women in the police forces, reporters and journalists." Who would do such a thing? Why, hardline Muslims who believe that women working in such professions violates Sharia provisions. Islam Respects Women's Rights Alert from AFP, :

VIENNA (AFP) - Women are increasingly the victims of violence in Iraq, as direct targets of assassinations and as widows left without support after the deaths of their husbands, an Iraqi women's activist said.

"Many women activists have been murdered, many women university professors. Many women physicians have been killed, women in the police forces, reporters and journalists," Rajaa al-Khuzai, president of the Iraqi National Council of Women, told a news conference in Vienna.

"We are losing an average 100 Iraqi (men) every day ... so I think (we have an additional) 3,000 widows every month... and all of them are young and have no support for them and their families," she added.

Al-Khuzai, a trained gynaecologist, was one of the first women in Iraq's interim Governing Council and was a member of the drafting committee for the new Iraqi constitution.

She then set up the Iraqi Widows Organisation, which promotes women's rights and provides material and other support to mostly young widows, often with children.

"We need to train and educate these young women ... by educating women we are educating all Iraqis," she said, adding her organisation could help secure the future of Iraq.

"If we want to see stability in the region we have to highlight the role of the women ... women who will make the change on the ground," said Edit Schlaffer, chairwoman of the Vienna-based Women Without Borders, which organized the talk.

Before Saddam Hussein's regime, Iraqi women enjoyed more rights than most of their counterparts in the region and even during the 1980s, "men were involved in the (Iran-Iraq) war and women took over", Al-Khuzai said.

"We played the role of the mother and father in the home."

But now "women are very easy targets," especially high-profile women such as herself, she added.

Yet Islamic apologists in the West continue to assure us that Islam has no death penalty for apostasy. Tell me another. "Christian convert killed in J&K," by Ishfaq-ul-Hassan in DNA India, :

SRINAGAR: Unidentified militants on Tuesday killed a junior engineer of J&K Power Development Department, (PDD) Bashir Ahmad Tantray, who had converted to Christianity ignoring threats from Islamic radical groups.

Tantray was shot dead in his village Mamoosa in Pattan tehsil of Baramulla district. “Two militants enquired about the public transport system. After that they fired at my cousin,” said Ghulam Rasool Tantray, cousin of the slain.

Bashir Tantray had migrated from his village, years back after he received threats from militant groups. He was staying in Sonawar but he returned to his village on Monday to visit his ailing father.

Deputy Inspector General of Police, north Kashmir range, Mohammad Subhan Lone said they had received reports that Bashir had converted to Christianity in 1995 or 1996. “As far as the motive is concerned, it is being investigated,” he said. Lone said Bashir was buried in his village with Islamic rites. “People offered Nimaz Jinaza. There was no problem,” he said.

This is the first time that a Christian convert has been killed in Kashmir, though there have been attacks on Christian missionary schools in the past. Militants had attacked a Christian missionary school with grenades at Pulwama a few years ago.

It's not all bad at MSNBC. In this exchange with CAIR's Legal Director Arsalan Iftikhar (who once backed out of a scheduled debate with me on a St. Louis radio station), Carlson doesn't let Iftikhar get away with talking about the imams who were taken off the airplane in terms of racism and bigotry. (Carlson even says, "Being anti-Muslim is not racism"; I would not have put it that way, for it sounds as if the focus is on individuals rather than on the jihad ideology, but I am glad to see this "racism" canard challenged in any form.) He explains forcefully that Islam is not a race, and defends the idea that American non-Muslims have worries about Muslims "that are rooted in reality." He also criticizes CAIR for trying to capitalize on the incident and use it as a "political tool." Bravo.

And Ibrahim Hooper is thrilled. I have already posted my article containing some of this incredible exchange (thanks to PRCS for sending it in), but I thought it deserved its own thread.

MSNBC was ready for this -- they have a graphic with the salient quote from Parks in the middle of this segment.

Here is the section from my article:

None of these questions about Shahin surfaced in the mainstream media. Instead, MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer compared the imams to Rosa Parks, offering a grateful Ibrahim Hooper a “defense that could be used for these imams”: the possibility that in refusing to get off the plane, as some unconfirmed reports held, the imams were engaged in an act of civil disobedience. Hooper suggested that even if this were not an act of civil disobedience, “it may come to that in the future, where people are just fed up and they say, ‘No, I am not going to be vulnerable to anybody’s stereotyping and bias, and their hysteria based on fear and prejudice, and I’m not going to give up my seat.’ Boy, it’ll be interesting to see what happens in that case.” Kenneth Quinn, general counsel for the Aviation Security Administration, spoke against the appropriateness of civil disobedience on airplanes, but called the incident “regrettable” and spoke of what he called the “But For Test:” “But for the person’s religious orientation in this case, would they have taken the security procedures that they actually took? And here I think it’s questionable. We’ll have to look at all the facts, but you don’t want to single people out on unfounded fears or through racial or gender or religious bias. In the post-9/11 environment, we have to really be careful about not singling people out and taking them off of airplanes.”

A pre-Thanksgiving miscellany:

1. Islam is not a race. One does not become a racist by opposing the jihad ideology.

2. I do not wish to drive all Muslims into the sea.

3. I have never said that the only good Muslim is an ex-Muslim.

4. I have never said that Muslims want to kill all Jews and Christians.

5. I do not single out the jihadist interpretation of Islam and anoint it as the only legitimate interpretation. As I have pointed out many times, all the orthodox sects and schools of jurisprudence teach violent jihad. I would love to highlight mainstream peaceful Islamic sects that are regarded as orthodox by other Muslims. Unfortunately, such sects do not exist. Courageous sincere individual reformers are deeply appreciated and to be applauded, but they are just that -- individuals.

6. It is false that by pointing out how jihadists use the Qur'an and Islamic teaching, I am encouraging and legitimizing those jihadists or pushing moderate Muslims to become jihadists. In fact, they do not listen to me. More importantly, it is incumbent upon moderates to refute the jihad ideology if they can. But if I can find holes in the moderates' presentations, jihadists will find ten more. And so those moderate constructions will prove useless to do what must be done: convincing Muslims to be peaceful.

7. Tabari says Aisha was nine when Muhammad consummated his marriage with her. That he says more about Aisha doesn't mean that somewhere he contradicts this assertion.

8. "Apologist" is not a pejorative term. It means a defender of a faith. And when apologists say something, this doesn't mean that no one else says it.

9. Word has gone out that I support unrestricted immigration from Muslim countries, with adjustment only to screen for active jihadists. This is false.

10. Comments here are unmoderated. If you think I support the sentiments expressed in one, please establish that with quotations from my own writings.

11. I did not add the section of my FAQ about the need to "remain true to our principles of freedom and equality of rights and dignity for all" in response to critics who claimed that I wanted to subvert those principles. In fact, that has been part of the FAQ since the site began in October 2003.

What is all this about? You know who you are.

More delusions of grandeur from the Thug-in-Chief. From AFP:

TEHRAN, Nov 21, 2006 (AFP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said the world is "rapidly becoming Ahmadinejadised" and global leaders have started following in his footsteps, press reports said Tuesday.

"I have travelled to all the continents except for one and I know what is going on out there. Everybody is eager to hear the Iranian people's message," the reformist Aftab-Yazd newspaper quoted the president as saying.

"The world is rapidly becoming Ahmadinejadised."

Worst neologism ever.

The austere hardliner said that Iran's "two big missions are constructing the country and introducing a model for humanity."

World leaders, he added, had started copying his provincial trips, during which he pledges to create jobs and fight poverty.

"When I telephone other leaders, I am told that they are on trips. Their trips are the same as the provincial tours that I have initiated," he said.

Actually, "field guidance" trips were for decades a trademark of Kim Il Sung, of Iran's axis-of-evil counterpart North Korea -- a practice continued by Kim Jong Il, and a staple of North Korean news. In other words, it's been done, Mahmoud.

So far, Ahmadinejad has gone on 21 provincial trips to look into local problems.

"This government has risen from people's prayers," he said of his presidential electoral victory.

"Someone even told me that he had vowed to say Salavats (a one-line formula to praise the Prophet Mohammed) as many times as my electoral votes count," Ahmadinejad said, referring to his June 2005 shock win by more than 17 million votes over pragmatist cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

[...]

Ahmadinejad ran on a platform of distributing the country's oil riches, "spreading justice", combatting corruption and vowing a "new Islamic revolution".

Stop Ahmadinejadization. Before it goes nuclear.

Yesterday I said that CAIR would try to use the imam/airplane incident to criminalize searches of Muslims in airports. And here we go: "Hearings on Profiling Sought After Imams Removed From MN Flight: DHS office of civil rights opens review of 'flying while Muslim' incident," a CAIR press release:

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today called for congressional hearings on religious and ethnic profiling at airports after six Imams, or Muslim religious leaders, were removed from a domestic flight yesterday in Minnesota.

The Imams were taken off a US Airways flight at Minneapolis- St. Paul International Airport Monday night because of alleged "suspicious activity." The Imams, who were handcuffed and questioned for several hours by authorities before being released, told the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) they suspect the activity cited by authorities was the performance of normal evening prayers offered by members of the group in the airport before boarding the flight.

The detained Imams also denied reports that they refused to leave the plane or that they chanted "Allah" as they were escorted from the flight. US Airways refused to allow the Imams to take another flight or to assist them in obtaining tickets on another airline. They eventually obtained tickets on Northwest Airlines and are on their way to Arizona.

A dentist? Doesn't he know that only poverty leads to support for terrorism? "2 charged with aiding Hezbollah TV station: One suspect is Old Bridge dentist," by Bill Bowman for the Asbury Park Press, with thanks to Carl:

An Old Bridge resident was one of two men charged Monday with supporting the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah by conspiring to broadcast the group's television station in New York.

Saleh Elahwal, 52, of Highpointe Way was arrested at his home Monday morning by federal law enforcement officials. Elahwal was charged along with Javed Iqbal, 42, of Staten Island, who surrendered to authorities Monday.

The men were charged with providing material support to a terrorist organization by arranging to broadcast al Manar, Hezbollah's television station, to customers of the Brooklyn-based HDTV Ltd. satellite television business, which federal prosecutors allege the two operate. The station was designated by the U.S. government this year as a global terrorist entity.

The men also were charged with providing broadcast technology to al Manar.

They face maximum jail terms of 100 years if convicted.

Elahwal is a dentist in Brooklyn and has "never committed a crime in his life,'' his attorney, Edward Sapone, said Monday. "He's done nothing but serve the community and looks forward to his day in court.''

[...]

Neighbors in Highpointe … a neighborhood of detached, single-family homes off Route 516 … were stunned by the news Monday.

"It's totally shocking because you don't think this would happen so close to home,'' said Michael Luzio, who doesn't know Elahwal. "I never saw anything strange.''

Most other neighbors, who did not want their names used, described Elahwal as pleasant, a man who had never done or said anything to indicate ties with a terrorist organization.

Which only indicates that he is not a fool.

"Jewel heists target Asians: One recent robbery included a male thief disguised in a head-to-toe burqa," by Betsy Powell and John Duncanson in the Toronto Star, with thanks to Cindy:

Abdul Rasheed Khalid was alone in his Brampton jewellery store filling the display cases with yellow gold rings and necklaces when two people, one wearing a head-to-toe black burqa, appeared outside his locked door.

"Salamu alaikum," the 58-year-old store owner said after pushing the entry buzzer, believing them to be a Muslim couple. There was no reply, and seconds later the pair — both males — forced him at gunpoint to the back office where he was bound with duct tape and hit several times. Then his store was cleaned out.

"Keep quiet, keep quiet, close your eyes," they said, while emptying the red velvet trays into duffel bags carried by an accomplice. Khalid caught a glimpse of the crooks. He thinks they were Pakistani or Indian.

Last Friday's daylight robbery has other South Asian jewellers across the GTA on edge, fearful they'll be next. The thieves didn't seem to care that Zaibi Jewellers is in the same strip mall as a storefront Peel Region police station at McLaughlin Rd. and Ray Lawson Blvd.

Internet Jihad Update by Jackelyn Barnard for First Coast News:

JACKSONVILLE, FL-- It's a video showing a room full of children sharing their dreams. They are not excited about being doctors, lawyers or teachers. Instead, the children shout, "We are the nation of Hezbollah. I shall sacrifice my life for Allah."

A group of children in training to be a mujahideen, or holy warrior. [Actually mujahedin is plural -- RS]

Online there are videos of those warriors. One suicide bomber announces he is readying himself to blow up a group of American soldiers.

The video goes on for eight minutes and even shows the explosion. In the background are cheers from those taking the pictures.

The video is just some of the many the First Coast News I-team found on the internet from sites like Youtube and Myspace.

"I think right now we are a ticking time bomb," says Tom Hayden, a retired Lt. Col Marine, who is also a counter terrorism expert.

Hayden says some of the videos, while disturbing, are online for a reason.

"Something like myspace, probably the most well known, popular website right now, it's even being used to transmit messages," says Hayden.

He says there are messages left on the internet for those recruited to carry out another 9/11 type attack. Hayden says those Jihad soldiers are getting messages in chat rooms and on message boards.

Read it all.

In today's feature article at FrontPage, I discuss the Minneapolis airport incident (news links in the original):

“I never felt bad in my life like that. I never. Six imams. Six leaders in this country. Six scholars in handcuffs. It’s terrible.”

So spoke Imam Omar Shahin, director of the Islamic Center of Tucson, after he and five other imams were removed from a Phoenix-bound US Airways flight at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. What were they doing to get removed from the flight? “We did nothing,” Shahin maintains – and the Council on American Islamic Relations has seized on the incident as evidence of American “Islamophobia.” “We are concerned that crew members, passengers and security personnel may have succumbed to fear and prejudice based on stereotyping of Muslims and Islam,” said CAIR’s executive director, Nihad Awad.

John Hawkins interviews me for Human Events about The Truth About Muhammad.

Yesterday, I interviewed Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch about his new book, “The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion.” What follows is an edited transcript of our conversation:

Now, Muhammad was around for quite a long time before he claimed to see visions and became a religious leader, wasn't he?

Muhammad was about 40 when he first claimed to have been visited by the angel Gabriel. According to the earliest Islamic traditions he did not actually start preaching immediately. He only told his wife and a few people who were very close to him for the first couple of years after that. But, then he got the command to begin to preach. It was at that point he began to develop a...following.

Now, I've heard that Muhammad borrowed heavily from the pagan religion many Arabs worshipped at the time, as well as Judaism and Christianity. Is that true?

Yes, there are clear signs in the Koran of influences from not only the Jewish and Christian scriptures, but also Jewish and Christian oral traditions and from the teachings in particular of Christian heretical groups, most notably the Gnostics, who denied the crucifixion of Christ and said that Judas had been made to look like Jesus and was crucified in his place. (That) notion appears in the Koran, in Chapter 4, where it says that they did not kill or crucify him, but it appeared so unto them. In Islamic tradition it is identified also here with Judas, that it is he who is on the cross, not Jesus.

Now, by today's standards, would Muhammad be considered a pedophile?

By today's standards, he probably would because you're talking about a man who did, according to the earliest Islamic traditions about the incident, consummate a marriage with a nine year old when he was in his early fifties.

Now, that being the case, however, it is also true that he is the supreme example for human behavior within Islam; he is imitated in this. That means that you have child marriage being very common all over the Islamic world where it is also not regarded as pedophilia today.

Now in his time, was it regarded as pedophilia or unusual for a man his age to marry a nine year old?

No. In his time, it was taken for granted. No one criticized him (for) it. No one felt like he was doing anything wrong by doing this. Only the fact that he is imitated makes it problematic.

Actually, I said that poorly. There is a lot more problematic about it than just that.

Would it be fair to call Muhammad a warlord or bandit leader, similar to the sort of bad actors we have in Afghanistan today?

Well, certainly there are quite a few similarities and that's not an accident either because these are people who are pious Muslims and who believe that he gave them an example for human behavior -- and he did lead battles, he ordered his followers to fight on his behalf and to offer his enemies conversion, subjugation as 2nd class citizens, or war. So, there's considerable precedent within Muhammad's life, in his words and deeds, to support that kind of a life.

Along similar lines, would it be fair to say that Muhammad lied, pillaged, murdered, and condoned rape and the murder of infidels?

He said, "War is deceit." He ordered his followers to pillage and the Koran contains very detailed instructions, both in a chapter called the Spoils of War and elsewhere in the book, for dealing with the results of that plunder. ... Murder is certainly in the aspects of the invitation to infidels that I mentioned just now. He said to his followers that they should offer non-believers conversion or subjugation as inferiors under the rule of Islamic law or death. So obviously, murder is condoned in that context. Also, he ordered the assassinations of some of his enemies—including several poets who had made fun of him in their verses and rewarded the killers, including the killers of a ... pregnant woman and a man who was according to the Islamic traditions, over 100 years old.

Muhammad ... took for granted that his followers would be having sex with the women that they captured in these battles—the wives of the pagan warriors that they had killed and the wives of the Jewish tribes that they had killed. ... In the Koran actually, it says that a Muslim may marry up to four wives and have sex with the captives that his right hand possesses, which refers to slave girls captured in battle.

Now, images of Muhammad—we've got them on the Supreme Court, for example. There are plenty of them out there. When did that get to be such a big deal?

Well, it's really a big deal when a non-Muslim makes them. Images of Muhammad are rather common in Shiite Islam. Sunni Islam tends to reject that kind of image making. But really, the main offense in the Danish cartoon controversy and also an earlier controversy that CAIR tried to stir up about that (frieze) at the Supreme Court is that non-Muslims are transgressing the limits proscribed for them within Islamic law and are not to depict Muhammad or insult Allah or Muhammad in any way. So, you have a situation where these kinds of protests, the cartoon protests in particular, the murders of innocent people and riots worldwide, were ... an element of a larger effort to impose Islamic standards of behavior onto the non-Muslim world.

So, a big part of the issue was not necessarily the images, but that infidels had made them, right?

Yes.

The Shiia and Sunni (branches of Islam) came about in a dispute over succession to Muhammad. Is that correct?

Yes, exactly.

Can you explain to people how that came about?

The prophet Muhammad died rather suddenly and he did not leave clear instructions as to his successors, as to who would succeed him as leaders of the community. The Party of Ali it was called or the Shi'at Ali believed that only a relative of Muhammad could legitimately take over his role as the leader of the Muslim community that he created. The other party believed that it was not necessary that somebody be a member of the Prophet's family, but only that the best man be chosen.

So Ali was not chosen, was passed over for the first three times in the choice for the succession to the leadership, and finally was chosen but was rather shortly thereafter murdered and his sons also were murdered. ... These became the cardinal incidents for Shiite Islam and are celebrated today, yearly, in extravagant displays of mourning of which you've seen pictures. ...

... People cutting themselves with swords ...

... Yes, people cutting their heads with swords in mourning for Hussein, the son of Ali. Really, there's not much difference between Sunni and Shiite practice of Islam although the Shiites do tend to be more spiritually minded—have more of a mystical tradition—and are certainly more emotional and extravagant in their piety and have a little bit more of an emphasis on, let's say, the cult of the Saint. But otherwise, certainly in terms of jihad warfare against infidels, there's not any significant difference between the Sunnis and Shiites.

One last question: Tell us a little bit about the 12th Imam that (Ahmadinejad) seems to be so enamored with.

The 12th Imam is, in Shiite Islam, the 12th successor of Muhammad. In Shiite Islam, the Imams, beginning with Ali, have some of Muhammad's prophetic powers and some of his luminous spirit, such that they are infallible in matters of faith and are to be regarded with this quasi-mystical devotion. However, the 12th Imam, the 12th successor to Muhammad, is supposed to have disappeared as a child, is said to be still alive, and will return at a moment of great persecution and hardship for the Muslims. There's great excitement in Shiite Islam today and it seems to be held by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran that these are the times when the persecution of the Muslims is coming to the breaking point that will hasten the return of the 12th Imam who will come back to destroy the enemies of Islam and institute the rule of Islamic law over the world.

If Islam had been properly understood, then not this idiotic "war on terror" but rather a war of self-defense, a war for human freedom, against the Jihad, would have been properly declared and articulated.

If Iraq had been properly understood, then this idiotic and messianic and polypragmonic dreamy desire to reshape Iraq and "the whole Middle East" would never have occurred to anyone, much less be obstinately held on to by Bush and Bush loyalists of all kinds. Instead, it would have been jetsam thrown overboard by a sauve-qui-peut captain of the listing ship of state, the S.S. Narrenschiff, long since.

Somali Jihad Update. "Somalia region leader to use Islamic law," by Mohamed Olad Hassan for The Associated Press:

MOGADISHU, Somalia - The president of a semiautonomous region in northeastern Somalia said Monday he will rule according to Islamic law, a surprising announcement in an area that has resisted the spread of Islamic militants who control much of the country's south.

Puntland President Gen. Addeh Museh did not cite a reason for his decision, but it comes amid increasing fears that the Council of Islamic Courts will try to seize his territory.

The move also isolates Somalia's official government, which has watched helplessly as the Islamic movement steadily gained ground since June. The U.N. envoy to Somalia tried to bolster the fragile administration Monday, urging leaders to restart peace talks with the Islamists in order to avert a war.

[...]

Puntland, which declared itself an autonomous state within Somalia in 1998, has generally been spared the violence that has wracked much of the rest of the country. But radicals within the Islamic courts have vowed to take over.

"I set up a committee of scholars and traditional leaders to implement sharia law," Museh said in his presidential decree. Puntland usually enforces a secular penal code, even though the region's charter says it is based on sharia law.

That arrangement is similar to that of Somaliland, another breakaway region in the north of Somalia. Its constitution sets up a democratic government, but contains the same "Sharia time bomb" (see Ch. 1, Article 5) as the constitution of Afghanistan (see Ch. 1, Article 3), which can be cited to override secular law at any time. Then, this decision by Puntland puts pressure on both the territory of Somaliland, and its legal ability to resist the erosion of existing democratic institutions by creeping Sharia law.

How convenient it will be for Al-Qaeda and its airport plots if Ibrahim Hooper and Nancy Pelosi get their way, and scrutiny of Muslims in airports is criminalized. "Al-Qaeda's airport bomb plot: An Islamist explosives expert now in a Northern Ireland prison conducted dummy runs for terror attacks at Dublin and Knock," by Henry McDonald in The Guardian, with thanks to Cindy:

A convicted al-Qaeda bomb-maker serving a jail sentence in Northern Ireland carried out dummy runs for a potential terrorist plot at Dublin and Knock airports, The Observer can reveal.

Last Tuesday the expelled Islamist cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed was seen exhorting young British Muslims in an online broadcast from Beirut to target Dublin because he incorrectly believed US troops used the airport as a transit centre on the way to Iraq and Afghanistan. Now it has emerged that key al-Qaeda bomb-making expert Abbas Boutrab visited both Dublin and Knock airports. Information on the airports was found at his north Belfast flat three years ago, according to evidence at his trial in Belfast Crown Court last November.

Boutrab lived in the Irish Republic for four years after successfully applying for political asylum using a fake identity. He left Lucan, Dublin, in 2002 after becoming the main suspect in a knife attack on an asylum seeker and moved to Belfast, where he lived under another false ID.

He was arrested after a joint MI5-PSNI operation in 2003 and information on his PC showed he had advanced a method of adapting ordinary electronic devices - including a cassette recorder - to detonate explosives in an aircraft.

Boutrab was convicted of possessing information on bomb-making and sentenced to six years' imprisonment. Evidence given at his trial stated that he was part of the al-Qaeda plot to smuggle the bomb on to an aircraft and detonate the device as it circled over a major American city.

Read it all.

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers flew to Saudi Arabia this week to reassure government officials there that Homaidan Al-Turki was treated fairly when he was convicted of sexually abusing an Indonesian nanny held a virtual captive in his Aurora home.

Suthers sat knee-to-knee for an hour with King Abdullah and also met with Crown Prince Sultan, Saudi journalists and relatives of Al-Turki during his weeklong trip to the capital city of Riyadh, Deputy Attorney General Jason Dunn said Friday.

"There was a lot of public attention in Saudi Arabia on this case," Dunn said, adding that "misperceptions" there about the U.S. judicial system and Colorado in particular convinced U.S. officials that the highly unusual trip was warranted. – from this article

What business is it of the Colorado Attorney General to fly off to Saudi Arabia to "explain" anything to anybody there? It is they who owe the civilized world an explanation. They owe us an explanation for not just this case, but for the dozens and hundreds of similar cases involving rich Saudis and other Arabs enslaving and mistreating servants whom they bring with them to the West while the man is engaged in so-called "studies." Often his Saudi wife turns out to be just as hideous in her behavior as he is.

And sometimes it is not a happy Saudi couple, but merely a princessette or princeling of the Al-Saud -- someone who enjoys, say, throwing an Indonesian maid down the stairs.

"It is forbidden in Islam for a believer to eat pork or its derivatives. To do so is a grievous sin." But pulling a knife on the one who served it -- is that A-OK?

Note also the supremacist demand that only halal foods be henceforth served.

By Maricel V. Cruz for the Manila Times, with thanks to SLM:

A Muslim lawmaker on Monday night raged at a catering crewmember of a Chinese restaurant for serving her food with pork.

Rep. Faysah Dumarpa of Lanao del Sur reportedly slapped the crewmember, Virginia Fernando Altamirano, and held a bread knife at her.

Altamirano, 36, has filed a complaint against Dumarpa with the Quezon City police.

“It is forbidden in Islam for a believer to eat pork or its derivatives. To do so is a grievous sin. An intentional consumption of such meat would hinder me from gaining entrance to paradise. Beyond dietary concerns, this is a matter of faith,” Dumarpa said in a letter to Ramon Sy, head of the Shangri-La Finest Chinese Cuisine, which caters for congressmen during sessions at the South Lounge in the House of Representatives.

Dumarpa said she “felt betrayed” and “grossly insulted” by being served food containing pork. “I assumed your [catering] crew purposely caused that by intentional concealment of the fact herein set forth. If it was not at all intentional, then there must have been gross negligence on their part.”

Dumarpa even demanded that Sy fire the crewmen, and that only halal foods be made available in the South Lounge.

Another Muslim legislator, Anak Mindanao party-list Rep. Mujiv Hataman, said the House leadership should take responsibility for the gaffe.

“This indicates lack of religious and cultural sensitivity even within the House of Representatives itself,” Hataman said in a text message.

To prevent a repetition of the incident, Hataman suggested that the House consider putting up a separate lounge for Muslim legislators and visitors of Congress.

Uh oh. An apartheid lounge.

Omar Shahin, one of the imams removed from the plane, has links to Osama bin Laden and Hamas. "Five clerics removed from US Airways fly back to Phoenix," by Martiga Lohn for Associated Press, with thanks to Twostellas:

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Six Muslim clerics who were refused tickets by US Airways booked a flights back home Tuesday on another airline, but it still wasn't clear what led to their removal from their original flight.

The imams had attended a conference in Minneapolis of the North American Imams Federation, said Omar Shahin of Phoenix, president of the group, who was one of those removed from the flight. Three of them said their normal evening prayers in the airport terminal before boarding the Phoenix-bound plane, he said.

"They took us off the plane, humiliated us in a very disrespectful way," Shahin said after the incident on Monday night.

The next morning Shahin called for Muslims and non-Muslims to boycott US Airways unless the company changes its ways. "They know what they have to do, they have to be fair and just with everybody," he said....

Airport spokesman Patrick Hogan said some witnesses said some of the imams made anti-American comments about the war in Iraq before boarding the flight, and that some of the men asked for seat belt extensions even though a flight attendant thought they didn't need them.

"There were a number of things that gave the flight crew pause," Hogan said. It wasn't immediately possible to verify whether the passengers who reported suspicious activity witnessed it themselves.

Shahin said Tuesday that three members of the group prayed in the terminal before the six boarded the plane, although on Monday night he said they had prayed on the plane. They entered the aircraft individually, except for one member who is blind and needed a guide, Shahin said. Once on the plane, the six did not sit together, he said.

"We did nothing" on the plane, Shahin said Tuesday.

Shahin said no one from the airline asked the six to leave, but when police arrived, the group complied....

US Airways Group Inc. issued a statement saying it was interviewing crew members and ground workers to find out more about what happened.

"We are always concerned when passengers are inconvenienced and especially concerned when a situation occurs that causes customers to feel their dignity was compromised. We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind," the airline said.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations planned to file a complaint, said CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper.

"Because, unfortunately, this is a growing problem of singling out Muslims or people perceived to be Muslims at airports, and it's one that we've been addressing for some time," Hooper said.

Watch for the criminalization of investigations of Muslims in airports.

Surprise of the year: "U.S. Muslims outraged after imams kicked off plane," by Michael Conlon for Reuters:

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Muslim leaders expressed outrage on Tuesday after six imams were removed from a commercial airline flight in Minnesota for what they said was nothing more than trying to say evening prayers.

"They were treated like terrorists ... humiliated," said Abu Hannoud, civil rights director for the Arizona chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, who said the men were taken off the US Airways flight in handcuffs.

He said the men were still trying to find a flight back to Phoenix where most are affiliated with a major mosque after the carrier refused them passage following the incident on Monday evening.

"We are concerned that crew members, passengers and security personnel may have succumbed to fear and prejudice based on stereotyping of Muslims and Islam," added Nihad Awad, executive director of the council, in a statement from the group's Washington headquarters.

"We call on relevant authorities to investigate whether proper procedures were followed by security personnel and members of the US Airways flight crew," he said.

The group said the men told it they were accused of "suspicious activity," which they believed was only their attempt to pray.

Hannoud said in an interview that the men had been attending a three-day meeting of the North American Imams Federation in the Minneapolis area "discussing how to build bridges" between Muslims and American society, and that the FBI and local police had been informed in advance about the meeting.

"They were rewarded by being treated like terrorists," he said. "Their humiliation is really a humiliation for the entire Muslim community," he added, and further proof that Islam phobia is a growing problem in the United States.

There is going to be more of this outrage, CAIR's Ibrahim Hooper summed up what it is all about in an earlier AP story:

"Because, unfortunately, this is a growing problem of singling out Muslims or people perceived to be Muslims at airports, and it's one that we've been addressing for some time."

Watch for efforts to criminalize searches of Muslims at airports. Nancy Pelosi will be glad to help.

Jihad Watch reader DK has kindly sent me this letter, which she wrote to US Airways:

Dear US Airways,

I want to express my deepest thanks for protecting passengers outbound from Phoenix, AZ by removing the six disruptive Muslim passengers.

I fly US Airways frequently and it is reassuring to know that you mean business when it comes to our safety. I will continue to fly on your carrier.

Having been married to a Muslim (deceased husband) I might add that evening prayers can be said quietly and while sitting in a chair. Those Muslims knew that yet refused to behave properly and respectfully towards the other passengers. It is obvious that they planned to taunt the authorities.

Here is an excellent story by columnist Barrett Kalellis in NewsMax, reflecting upon and giving a summary of my recent talk at the Heritage Foundation:

As an increasingly impatient American public and political class now grasp at anything that might facilitate the extrication of military forces from Iraq (and provide themselves with political cover), it becomes more and more apparent that the situation in Baghdad will go down in history as the U.S. equivalent of Dien Bien Phu -- the turning point in a military effort where popular will was lost and the enemy won, if only because their opposition decided to flee the theater of battle.

The present sorry state of affairs was predicted as far back as two weeks after 9/11, by myself and some other pundits. Pointing to a woeful lack of intelligence in the Middle East, the vacillating uncertainty about the worthiness of the cause, the religious fervor of the jihadist fanatics, and the general lack of patience and endurance for the long haul by the American public, the war on terror (and in Iraq) seemed likely to fail.

"To prevail in any war," I wrote in December 2003, "you first must know your enemy. Americans must understand that the worldwide network of terrorists is not going away until we stamp it out."

In the current conflict, knowing your enemy means having a thorough understanding of Islam, a subject that, to their detriment, most Americans know nothing about.

There is probably no one in America today that works harder than Robert Spencer, a scholar and writer about Islamic beliefs and traditions, whose mission is to make Americans aware of the true nature of radical Islam, and how this knowledge is indispensable for understanding and combating Islamic global jihad.

Spencer is a director of Jihad Watch, an organization that hosts two Web sites (jihadwatch.org and dhimmiwatch.org) that track radical Islamic news and events, and he has written six books and hundreds of articles on Islam and jihadi terrorism, including the recent best-sellers "The Truth About Muhammad," and "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)."

Spencer gives numerous speeches, participates in academic symposia, and is a frequent guest on radio and TV and in documentaries to raise consciousness about Islamic teachings and to combat widespread lies and distortions made by apologists for radical Islam.

In a powerful presentation to the Heritage Foundation last week in Washington, D.C., Spencer outlined the critical issues the West must be made aware of to face the threat that Islamic jihad poses.

"You can't fix what you won't admit is broken," Spencer said, "and you cannot reform what you say does not need reforming."

Peaceful Muslims have to confront and reform the elements of Islamic teachings and traditions that advocate violence, he noted, if there is to be an end to radicals using these to justify violence.

Spencer detailed several of the most egregious tenets of Islam that need reform, if there is to be any coexistence with the West, with the most fundamental being tolerance of non-Muslims.

The Quran teaches that only Islam is the true religion, and unbelievers have three options: 1) convert to Islam; 2) remain an infidel, and submit to humiliating subordinate status under Islamic law, including paying a hefty poll tax; or 3) wage war with, or be killed by, Muslims.

The rapid spread of Islam throughout formerly Christian lands beginning in the seventh century testifies to the zeal, deception, and savagery that Muslims have demonstrated to achieve their Quran-inspired goal of waging war against non-Muslims and imposing Islamic law first on Muslim states, then on non-Muslim countries.

Spencer pointed out that today, young jihadists are recruited wholesale around the world -- even in the U.S. -- based on these texts, with the promise to return to Allah's law.

Western analysts and policy-makers who are not aware or who choose to ignore these fundamental motivating principles when dealing with Muslim states, Spencer warns, do so at their peril.

This is especially true when negotiating with Muslim countries that profess to be our allies, yet continue to fund mosques and madrassas that preach hatred of the West, particularly against Jews and Americans, and are not being called to task.

He has harsh words for the fog of multicultural political correctness in which America is mired -- a cloud of self-righteous self-deception that blindly believes the feel-good falsehood that Islam is a "peaceful" religion "hijacked" by a few extremists.

This has dangerously strangled serious discussion of the issues that need to be addressed, Spencer claims, if the West is going to be able to deal with the jihadi threat.

Through his yeoman efforts, Spencer's message is beginning to gain some traction in popular opinion, along with that of fellow advocates like Nonie Darwish, Walid Shoebat, Brigitte Gabriel, Bat Ye'or, Steve Emerson, Serge Trifkovic, Daniel Pipes, and others who are speaking out.

For their pains, many have received opprobrium from Muslims that are jihad sympathizers, including death threats. I salute their candor and their courage. In hindsight, if Americans had heard and understood their ideas a few short years ago, we might have made a different and more effective intervention into the intractable Middle East situation.

"Charles B. Hoff," not satisfied with having revoked my citizenship (as well as that of Jihad Watch Board Vice President "Huge" Fitzgerald) in an earlier email in which he claimed to be a "than born amererican," now accuses me (and Daniel Pipes) of "brown shirt tactic" and of trying to "intimidate scholars." It's ironic that I would receive this email today, when false charges about me by Edina Lekovic and Hamid Mir are circulating. Just who is attempting to do any silencing and intimidating?

I than reading the Islamic Horizons about you and your frllow criminal racist rightwinger attack the academic community so it doesnot challenge your bias veiw of Islam and your illegal smear attack on Islam. You on the far criminal right has tried to undermine academic freedom and intimidate scholars. Daiel Pipes the neo-nazie thought Camus Watch an racist smear organization devoted to smearing profesors who criticize American foreign policy and Tel Aviv's mistreatment of the Palestinians people and the stealing of they land, is nowseeking to intimidate free thinking on the middle east and siencing any views that challenge those of the racist criminal far right by use brown shirt tactic.

"Camus Watch."

Islamic Horizons is a publication of the Islamic Society of North America. If anyone has seen the hit piece to which "Hoff" refers, please send it to me.

Omar Shahin is one of the imams removed from a flight in Minneapolis. He was involved with Kind Hearts, which has been closed down for its connections to Hamas. He also acknowledged a connection to Osama bin Laden in the 1990s in a September 28, 2001 story in the Arizona Republic (thanks to Austin): "Arizona Was Home to bin Laden 'Sleeper Cell,'" by Dennis Wagner and Tom Zoellner. From that story:

Arizona appears to have been the home of a "sleeper cell" of Osama bin Laden's worldwide terrorist organization, with a select group of operatives living quietly in bland apartment complexes and obtaining flight training in preparation for the Sept. 11 attacks.

The organization's known history in the state goes back nine years and scholars say the activities of at least three part-time Arizona residents fits the pattern of the al-Qaeda terrorist group.

"We can only speculate at this point, but I'm convinced the FBI is operating under the assumption that Arizona was host to an al-Qaeda cell," said Jack Williams, a professor of law at Georgia State University who has studied the group's financing methods.

[...]

Omar Shahin of the Tucson Islamic Center said members of the Tucson mosque may have helped bin Laden in the early 1990s, when he was fighting against the Russians. But that was during the Cold War when U.S. intelligence agencies were encouraging support for bin Laden.

"They (the CIA) called him a 'freedom fighter,'" Sahin said. "Then they tell us he is involved in terrorist acts, and they stopped supporting him, and we stopped."

Shahin and Saadeddin expressed doubt that Muslims were responsible for the Sept. 11 attack. They also said they don't trust much of what the FBI has divulged - including the hijackers' identities.

[...]

Shahin of the Tucson Islamic Center said more than 1,200 Muslims died in the World Trade Center catastrophe, and no genuine member of Islam would do such a thing. Nor, he added, would Muslims have gone to strip joints prior to the attack, as several of the terrorists in Florida reportedly did. As for Al-Qaeda nests in America, Shahin said, "All of these, they make it up."

Omar Shahin says about being led off his airplane in Minneapolis: "I never felt bad in my life like that. I never. Six imams. Six leaders in this country. Six scholars in handcuffs. It's terrible."

After all, he's a humanitarian. From Muslim Voice, with thanks to LGF:

When the Tsunami disaster struck Muslim families in south East Asia, the students of Arizona Culture Academy answered the call and rushed to help. They emptied their piggy banks, brought their allowances, and lobbied their families to participate. In five days, $8,014.00 was collected and given to the Representative Imam Omar Shahin of the Kind Hearts Organization.

About the Kind Hearts Organization: Treasury Freezes Assets of Organization Tied to Hamas (again thanks to LGF):

The U.S. Department of the Treasury today blocked pending investigation accounts of KindHearts, an NGO operating out of Toledo, Ohio, to ensure the preservation of its assets pending further investigation.

"KindHearts is the progeny of Holy Land Foundation and Global Relief Foundation, which attempted to mask their support for terrorism behind the façade of charitable giving," said Stuart Levey, Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. "By utilizing this specialized designation tool, we're able to prevent asset flight in support of terrorist activities while we further investigate the activities of KindHearts."

This action was taken pursuant to E.O. 13224, which is aimed at denying financial and material support to terrorists and their facilitators.

Following the December 2001 asset freeze and law enforcement actions against the Hamas-affiliated Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) and the al Qaida-affiliated Global Relief Foundation (GRF), former GRF official Khaled Smaili established KindHearts from his residence in January 2002. Smaili founded KindHearts with the intent to succeed fundraising efforts of both HLF and GRF, aiming for the new NGO to fill a void caused by the closures. KindHearts leaders and fundraisers once held leadership or other positions with HLF and GRF.

Support to Hamas in Lebanon

KindHearts officials and fundraisers have coordinated with Hamas leaders and made contributions to Hamas-affiliated organizations. Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) Usama Hamdan, a leader of Hamas in Lebanon, reportedly phoned a top fundraiser for KindHearts during a September 2003 KindHearts fundraiser. During the call, Hamas leader Hamdan reportedly communicated to the fundraiser his gratitude for KindHearts' support. The KindHearts fundraiser reportedly also provided advice to Hamdan, telling him not to trust the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

Read it all.

This is likely the "religious conference" that was attended by the six imams who were subsequently removed from their airplane. From the Lileks blog, with thanks to LGF:

Hmmm. According to the TV, the men said they were in town for “a religious conference.” Interesting. I was talking today with a guy I know; he’d been at a suburban hotel for an annual company sales meeting. The regional manager was having a difficult time speaking, since the party in the next conference room was praying about as loudly as is humanly possible, and had followed the prayers with a speaker who expressed in rather . . . forceful terms the depth of Muslim oppression in America. Unless there are several Muslim religious conferences going on in Minneapolis at the moment, I’d guess that might be the one. If so, I wonder if the reported truculence of the men might have been influenced, or at least reinforced, by the speaker. Whoever he was.

An update to this story from the New York Times, with thanks to MB:

A New Jersey man has been charged with conspiring to help the terrorist group Hezbollah by allowing people to obtain satellite broadcasts of a Hezbollah television station, federal prosecutors said yesterday. The man, Saleh Elahwal, 53, of Matawan, N.J., was charged in an 11-count indictment unsealed yesterday in Federal District Court. The indictment also charged another man, Javed Iqbal of Staten Island, who was arrested in August. The indictment charges the men with helping people receive broadcasts of Al Manar, which features programming that promotes Hezbollah's positions, prosecutors said. Messages left for the men's lawyers were not returned yesterday. Mr. Iqbal's supporters have said he was exercising free speech.

Here's what happened, from "Dissent Crushed: Why Muslims Rarely Speak Out, Even In U.S.," by Adam Brodsky in the New York Post, with thanks to all who sent this in:

November 19, 2006 -- MUSLIMS are often accused of not speaking out sufficiently against terrorism. Nonie Darwish knows one reason why: Their fellow Muslims won't let them.

Darwish, who comes from Egypt and was born and raised a Muslim, was set to tell students at Brown University about the twisted hatred and radicalism she grew to despise in her own culture. A campus Jewish group, Hillel, had contacted her to speak there Thursday.

But the event was just called off.

Muslim students had complained that Darwish was "too controversial." They insisted she be denied a platform at Brown, and after contentious debate Hillel agreed.

Weird: No one had said boo about such Brown events as a patently anti-Israel "Palestinian Solidarity Week." But Hillel said her "offensive" statements about Islam "alarmed" the Muslim Student Association, and Hillel didn't want to upset its "beautiful relationship" with the Muslim community.

When asked why Darwish was disinvited, a Brown Hillel member responded:

Thanks for getting in touch with me. I appreciate the fact that you would like to explore this issue further. These are excerpts from articles that Nonie Darwish has written: (they can be found at http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/authors.asp?ID=1176, which I encourage you to look at)

- To be a Moslem is to belong to that bigger holier-than-thou, self-righteous group whom they try, but fail to emulate...
- Women with Muslim attire in the United States create a wall between themselves and the rest of the population and have a mission of spreading Islam...It is the Muslim women's form of jihad - without the violence - but it could be aggressive. Remember some of these women raise their sons to become terrorists and give up their lives to jihad.
- So why do these Muslims who want to adhere to strict Muslim dogma choose to leave Muslim countries and come to live with the infidels? They obviously behave as if Islam is the center of their life and existence. I can understand if they choose to live here because of a temporary business assignment or government job such as with an embassy. But why would a Muslim woman who wants to follow Islamic law to the letter, for her and her family, choose to live in the West and the U.S.?

I think we, as Jews, should be especially sensitive about comments which criticize strict religious observance and deem it unacceptable in America. I know from speaking to my Muslim peers who do wear Muslim attire, that they were extremely offended by this characterization of them as "extremists". I am an observant Jew, and I would be be equally offended if the Muslim Student Association decided to invite a speaker to criticize observant Judaism.

Brown Hillel is very committed to presenting a variety of perspectives on Israel, but there are ways to sponsor a speaker who praises Israel -- without denigrating Islam. I thnk that Nonie Darwish has a fascinating life story, and an interesting perspective to bring to the table, but I do not think it was appropriate for Brown Hillel to be the sole sponsor for this event.

A group of students active in Hillel requested that we co-sponsor the event, and we went through a careful decision-making process, which involved input from the students who were organizing the event, students across the spectrum who care passionately about the Middle East, and heard concerns from the Muslim community. After reviewing all this input, the Brown Hillel student board decided not to sponsor the event. It was a thoughtful decision, and I absolutely stand by it.

The Jewish and Muslim communities have a great relationship on campus, and I am glad representatives from the Muslim community voiced their concerns to us (and they did so in a very respectful way). I am confident that if the opposite situation would arise, the Muslim Student Association would heed our concerns in return.

I hope this has been helpful and informative. If you have any more questions, I am happy to help answer them.

Hillel Stavis, a board member of CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America), wrote this reply to the Hillel member:

I have read the articles which you sent me by Nonie Darwish from Front Page Magazine.com. Thank you for forwarding them to me. Among others, one passage from her writing you omitted from your selection was:

"I pray for Moslem countries to see the light that all men are created equal and not that all Moslems are created equal. Many come to this great nation in search for material gain which is fine, however, the biggest prize I gained was my religious freedom and to find myself in the glory of God."

I take issue with your decision to ban Ms. Darwish from speaking. Your decision to disinvite (read "ban") Ms. Darwish re: potential similar remarks uttered by a speaker at a Muslim Student Association fails on a number of counts:

Predictable. "Six Muslim imams removed from MSP flight," from AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

"They took us off the plane, humiliated us in a very disrespectful way," said Omar Shahin, of Phoenix.

The six Muslim scholars were returning from a conference in Minneapolis of the North American Imams Federation, said Shahin, president of the group. Five of them were from the Phoenix-Tempe area, while one was from Bakersfield, Calif., he said.

Three of them stood and said their normal evening prayers together on the plane, as 1.7 billion Muslims around the world do every day, Shahin said. He attributed any concerns by passengers or crew to ignorance about Islam.

"I never felt bad in my life like that," he said. "I never. Six imams. Six leaders in this country. Six scholars in handcuffs. It's terrible."

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, expressed anger at the detentions.

"CAIR will be filing a complaint with relevant authorities in the morning over the treatment of the imams to determine whether the incident was caused by anti-Muslim hysteria by the passengers and/or the airline crew," Hooper said. "Because, unfortunately, this is a growing problem of singling out Muslims or people perceived to be Muslims at airports, and it's one that we've been addressing for some time."

Hooper said the meeting drew about 150 imams from all over the country, and that those attending included U.S. Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, D-Minneapolis, who just became the first Muslim elected to Congress. Shahin said they went as far as notifying police and the FBI about their meeting in advance.

Shahin expressed frustration that - despite extensive efforts by him and other Muslim leaders since even before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks - so many Americans know so little about Islam.

"If up to now they don't know about prayers, this is a real problem," he said.

Reached by cell phone just after his release, Shahin said he didn't know where they would spend the night or how they would try to get back to Phoenix on Tuesday. Hooper said US Airways refused to put the men on another flight.

Despite being unable to defend his remarks about Islam when challenged to do so at the America's Truth Forum, Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir has repeated and expanded his false charges about me:

However the Muslim allies of the West, like General Pervaiz Musharraf, are very unlucky. On one side, their friends like George W. Bush have always praised their efforts in the war against terror, but on the other side Western writers like Robert Spencer are creating an impression that the real problem is not radical Islamism: but Islam as such. Robert Spencer claimed that Islam is a violent religion, which orders Muslims to kill all the Jews and Christians, he is also alleging that the Holy Quran allows Muslims to lie and so Muslims should change the Quran. Robert Spencer is wrong. Islam allows Muslim men to marry Jewish and Christian women, without changing their religion. What does it mean? Islam is a tolerant religion. Robert Spencer cannot deny the fact that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) himself struck a peace-deal with Jews of Medina, if our Prophet could have a peace-deal with Jews, we can also have a peace deal with Jews and Christians.

I don’t understand why some Western writers are trying to impose a radical form of Islam on all the Muslims.I am not a Muslim scholar, but – for me - Islam is very simple, and according to my understanding, Islam is not violent, it is peaceful. Islam says that the blood of an innocent non-Muslim is equal to the blood of a Muslim. The Quran speaks for truth, there is no permission in the Quran for lying. Robert Spencer cannot malign Islam with wrong facts and figures. He cannot mix-up real Islam with extremism.

I believe it is a peculiar species of dishonor for someone to repeat claims after already having declined to defend them, and to expand upon them with falsehoods. But for the record, here are Mir's assertions and my replies:

Robert Spencer claimed that Islam is a violent religion, which orders Muslims to kill all the Jews and Christians...

I have never said this -- not at the America's Truth Forum symposium in Las Vegas where I met Hamid Mir, or anywhere else. I challenge Hamid Mir to produce a quotation by me to substantiate his claim, or else to retract it.

...he is also alleging that the Holy Quran allows Muslims to lie and so Muslims should change the Quran.

As I told Hamid Mir in Las Vegas, this is in Qur'an 3:28 and 16:106. Don't believe me -- take it from Ibn Kathir, who is a mainstream Qur'an commentator. In his commentary on 3:28, Ibn Kathir says that it means that when Muslims "in some areas or times fear for their safety from the disbelievers," they may "show friendship to the disbelievers outwardly, but never inwardly. For instance, Al-Bukhari recorded that Abu Ad-Darda said, 'We smile in the face of some people although our hearts curse them.' Al-Bukhari said that Al-Hasan said, 'The Tuqyah [taqiyyah] is allowed until the Day of Resurrection.'"

Let Hamid Mir challenge such teachings from Ibn Kathir. I didn't make them up.

Robert Spencer is wrong. Islam allows Muslim men to marry Jewish and Christian women, without changing their religion. What does it mean? Islam is a tolerant religion. Robert Spencer cannot deny the fact that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) himself struck a peace-deal with Jews of Medina, if our Prophet could have a peace-deal with Jews, we can also have a peace deal with Jews and Christians.

Actually, the fact that Muslim men can marry Jewish and Christian women, but Jewish and Christian men cannot marry Muslim women, shows just the opposite: traditional Islamic law is anything but tolerant. And as for Muhammad's peace treaty with the Jews, by the end of his life he had killed or exiled all the Jews of Arabia. It would be nice if that treaty could be the basis for hope, but the fact that Muhammad himself broke it doesn't bode well for its utility as a model.

I don’t understand why some Western writers are trying to impose a radical form of Islam on all the Muslims.

This is, of course, a charge that Dean Esmay and others have made: that by speaking of the way jihadists use the Qur'an and Islamic theology, I am only encouraging them. But whether coming from Mir or Esmay or anyone else, this charge is false, and hides an unwillingness by self-proclaimed moderate Muslims to do what they must do: confront and combat the jihad ideology. I am not trying to impose radical Islam on all the Muslims. I am trying to get self-proclaimed moderates like Hamid Mir to confront the elements of Islam that need reforming instead of simply denying that those elements exist. For if they don't confront the jihadists, the jihadists will continue using those Islamic teachings to recruit and motivate terrorists. But it looks as if Hamid Mir, like so many others, would rather confront me.

Islam says that the blood of an innocent non-Muslim is equal to the blood of a Muslim.

Then why did the Sufi Sheikh Sultanhussein Tabandeh in his book A Muslim Commentary on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, say this: "Since Islam regards non-Muslims as on a lower level of belief and conviction, if a Muslim kills a non-Muslim…then his punishment must not be the retaliatory death, since the faith and conviction he possesses is loftier than that of the man slain"? Did I tell him that?

Since Hamid Mir is again making assertions about Islam and then denying that he actually knows anything about Islam, I doubt he will agree to a debate or dialogue with me, but in any case I nevertheless hereby issue the invitation to him to do so.

Hizballah said it would topple the government. Is it making its move now? "Lebanese Christian politician killed," from AP, with thanks to Paula:

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -- Prominent anti-Syrian Christian politician Pierre Gemayel was assassinated in a suburb of Beirut on Tuesday, his party's radio station reported.

His fatal shooting will certainly heighten the political tension in Lebanon, where the leading Muslim Shiite party Hezbollah has threatened to topple the government if he does not get a bigger say in Cabinet decision making.

Gemayel was rushed to a nearby hospital seriously wounded, the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. and Voice of Lebanon, the Phalange Party's radio station, reported.

The party radio later said he was dead.

Gemayel, the minister of industry and son of former President Amin Gemayel, was a member of the Phalange party and supporter of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority, which is locked in a power struggle with pro-Syrian factions led by Hezbollah.

Even when transgressing the Islamic prohibition on alcoholic drinks, this mob remembers to express hatred and contempt for the unbelievers, the "vilest of creatures" (Qur'an 98:6). From Compass Direct:

November 20 (Compass Direct News) – Armed and drunken Muslims struck two greeters at a Sunday evening service of a church outside Lahore last week, later returning to pelt the building with stones and bricks.

Led by Zulifiqar Akbar Jutt and Asif Ramzan, 10 men broke fluorescent lights and a cross on the outer gate of the Talab Sarai village Nazarene church on November 12, a Lahore-based human rights organization reported.

This is the eighth attack on a Pakistani church confirmed by Compass this year.

The attack on the vacant church occurred while the congregation was lodging a complaint against Jutt and Ramzan for harassing them earlier that day, according to a Center for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS) report.

According to Nazarene Pastor Rafiq Masih, prior to the 6 p.m. service, Jutt and Ramzan had approached the church intoxicated, singing swear words to the tune of the church’s hymns.

Two greeters stationed at the church compound’s outer gate intervened when Jutt and Ramzan began harassing Christian women on their way to the evening meeting, the pastor said.

Jutt and Ramzan quickly left when more members of the congregation came outside to investigate the commotion. Two hours later, however, Jutt and Ramzan returned with eight friends as the service was about to end.

“They all were drunk, equipped with firearms and clubs,” Pastor Masih told CLAAS. “Asif [Ramzan’s] mother, Wallayat Bibi, was also with them.”

The Muslim men began to hit Haroon Masih and Ashraf Masih, the greeters who had earlier challenged them, a CLAAS representative told Compass from Lahore.

The entire congregation, approximately 40 families, quickly exited the church, prompting the Muslim men to halt their attack. Pastor Masih urged his congregation to remain calm even as the armed men continued to hurl verbal insults against Christianity and Christian worship.

“They had every intention to use the firearms,” CLAAS coordinator Wasim Muntizar told Compass. “But because the Christians didn’t respond angrily, the situation did not get worse.”

It seems as if the "suspicious behavior" on the Minneapolis flight from which six Muslims, who turn out to be imams, were removed consisted of the imams' evening prayers. So Shahin says "he was 'humiliated' and never felt so bad in his life. He said 'it's terrible' to put six scholars in handcuffs."

Indeed. It is terrible. It is terrible to have to do so. It is terrible that these and other scholars have allowed those who commit violence in the name of their religion to do so unimpeded and unchallenged. It is terrible that these and other Islamic scholars have responded only with vilification when asked about the teachings of their faith that promote violence, instead of with honest dialogue and attempts to reform those teachings. It is terrible that they have thereby allowed their religion to become so associated with violence that American citizens on an airplane become alarmed at the sight of Islamic prayer.

It is terrible. But it is completely understandable. And the onus is not on the other passengers and the air marshals or whoever took them off the plane. It is on Muslim spokesmen such as Edina Lekovic, who deny and obfuscate when questioned about Islamic terrorism, instead of discussing it honestly.

An update to this story from AP, with thanks to Theseus:

MINNEAPOLIS -- Six Muslim imams were removed from a US Airways flight on Monday night in Minneapolis after several of them got up for evening prayers.

The imams were returning to Phoenix after attending a conference in Minneapolis of the North American Imams Federation. The president of the group, Omar Shahin, of Phoenix, was among the imams removed from the plane.

Shahin said he was "humiliated" and never felt so bad in his life. He said "it's terrible" to put six scholars in handcuffs.

Three of the imams had gotten up to say their normal evening prayers, Shahin said. A passenger who was concerned passed a note to a flight attendant. An airline spokeswoman said police were called after the men refused to leave the plane.

They were chanting "Allah, Allah, Allah," as they were led away from the plane. "6 Passengers Pulled From U.S. Air Flight in Twin Cities After Crew Sees 'Suspicious Activity,'" from AP, with thanks to all who sent this in:

MINNEAPOLIS — Six passengers of Middle Eastern decent were removed from a US Airways flight Monday at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and taken for questioning by police, an airport spokesman said.

The passengers had just boarded US Airways flight 300, bound for Phoenix, when crew members "saw suspicious activity" by the men and called airport police, said the spokesman, Pat Hogan. Police escorted the men off the plane and took them to be questioned, he said.

And from "Federal investigators questioning six Middle Eastern men removed from flight at MSP," from KSTP.com (thanks again to all who sent this in):

Sources tell 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that the men were chanting 'Allah, Allah, Allah,' as they were transported down the jetway.

Late Monday, federal investigators were still trying to determine exactly who the men are. One source tells 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that the men said that they were in town for the weekend for a religious conference.

Allahpundit over HotAir has kindly posted a video of my appearance tonight on the O'Reilly Factor with guest host Laura Ingraham and Edina Lekovic of the Muslim Public Affairs Council.

You will see toward the beginning and at the end of the clip that Lekovic continues the unpleasant habit of Muslim spokesmen of putting words into my mouth. She made two false claims about me: she said that I said that the only good Muslim was a former Muslim. And she claims at the end that I want to drive all Muslims into the sea -- an intriguing and probably unconscious echo of Palestinian jihad rhetoric about Israel.

Here (thanks to Ruth King) is a superb column by Caroline Glick, whom I had the pleasure of meeting several days ago at the Restoration Weekend in Florida. In it, she discusses a few of the excellent presentations -- of which there were many.

Says Glick:

If journalists, intellectuals, social critics, authors and concerned citizens throughout the world do not rise up and demand that their governments protect their right to free expression and arrest and punish those who intimidate and trounce that right, one day, years from now, when students of history ask how it came to pass that the Free World willingly enabled its own destruction, they will have to look no further than the contrasting fortunes of Al-Jazeera and Dyab Abou Jahjah on the one hand and Le Figaro and Robert Redeker on the other.

To find out about those contrasting fortunes, read it all.

The Thug-In-Chief is confident that he faces no trouble from Israel. "Iran to Use 100,000 Centrifuges in Nuclear Program (Update1)," by Ladane Nasseri for Bloomberg, with thanks to James:

Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Iran plans to use 100,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium as part of its nuclear program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today.

Iran ``aims to have 100,000 centrifuges,'' the state-run Iranian Students News Agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. ``God willing, Iran will meet its nuclear fuel needs by next year.''...

Ahmadinejad, speaking during a visit to the Tehran offices of state-run television, dismissed reports of possible Israeli strikes against Iran as ``media warfare,'' ISNA reported.

``The Israeli regime will presently not attack Iran because it faces many problems'' and is currently ``weak,'' said Ahmadinejad, pronounced ah-ma-deen-ah-ZHAD.

The Iranian president has called for Israel's destruction and expressed doubts about the scope of the World War II Holocaust.

After reports that he wouldn't, he did after all. And CAIR raised $620,000 for its "civil rights" work. A press release (thanks to all who sent this in):

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 1,000 people turned out on Saturday at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) banquet in Arlington, Va., to hear addresses by several elected officials, including Keith Ellison, the first Muslim in Congress.

The event raised more than $620,000 to support CAIR's civil rights and advocacy work on behalf of the American Muslim community. (Another dinner held by CAIR's Southern California chapter (CAIR-LA) over the weekend raised more than $430,000. Some 1,800 people attended that event.)

Elected officials who spoke at the sold-out event included Representative- elect Ellison (D-MN), as well as Reps. Mike Honda (D-CA), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) and Albert Wynn (D-MD). Ellison and Jackson Lee offered their addresses by video. Saqib Ali, who was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates (District 39) on November 7, was also in attendance.

Laura Ingraham is guest hosting the O'Reilly Factor, and I am scheduled to be on the show -- I don't know at what exact time -- tonight along with Edina Lekovic, communications director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, to discuss my book The Truth About Muhammad and related matters.

Here is another story in which the perpetrators are almost certainly Islamic jihadists, but no mention is made of that fact. Maybe we should declare "war against people." "Six Investigated in Germany for Alleged Airplane Plot," from AP, :

BERLIN — At least six people are under investigation in an alleged terrorist plot to blow up a commercial aircraft, German prosecutors said Monday.

The six are believed to have begun preparations for an attack on behalf of "so far unknown" terrorist backers, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

Several of the accused last summer approached a person with security clearance at an unidentified airport, the statement said. That person said he or she was prepared to load a case or bag containing explosives onto a plane in an exchange for an unspecified payment, it added.

Here is a somewhat mournful and puzzled NPR story about how oppositon to Muslim immigration is not just the province of "ultra right-wing parties" in Europe anymore. "Danes' Anti-Immigrant Backlash Marks Radical Shift," by Sylvia Poggioli for NPR, with thanks to P.:

Morning Edition, November 20, 2006 · An anti-immigrant backlash, bordering on xenophobia, is sweeping across Europe. Sentiments once associated with ultra right-wing parties are becoming mainstream. Many taboos are being broken -- nowhere more starkly than in Denmark -- the erstwhile poster child of the welcoming and nurturing welfare state.

Earlier this year, that haven of solidarity and liberalism was shaken by violent protests and deaths in the Muslim world over cartoons of Mohammed that were published in a Danish paper. Suddenly, Danes began to see their own Muslim immigrants as a threat to their national identity.

The cartoon crisis hit hard in the Copenhagen commune of Christiania, a bastion of the counterculture where freedom of speech is the paramount value.

Sculptor/welder Charlotte Steem, one of the commune's 800 residents, says the violence with which some Muslims reacted to the Mohammed cartoons has undermined many of her convictions.

"There are a lot of things I don't understand in [the] Muslim world," Steem says. She recognizes the free society of her country but says she doesn't know whether borders can remain open.

Only a few years ago, Denmark was proud of its open-door policy, and even the mildest critique of immigration would have been labeled racist.

But the mood shifted after Sept. 11, and the terrorist attacks in Europe. After many years of leftist rule, a right-wing government came to power, introducing Europe's toughest immigration laws.

It also introduced restrictions aimed at curbing forced marriages among Muslims.

Today, the Danish political discourse is no longer stifled by political correctness. The tone can even be inflammatory. One politician has called for the internment of some Muslim radicals in Denmark for security reasons.

And last year, a radio station went so far as to call for the extermination of all radical Muslims.

The difficulty of integrating Muslims who don't share Western values is the No.1 topic of discussion.

Currently, the nation's best-selling book is called Islamists and Naivists.

"We compare Islamism to Nazism and communism because they are all three of them a totalitarian ideology," says Karen Jespersen, who co-wrote the book with her husband, Ralf Pittlekow.

Their politically incorrect analysis would suggest they're right-wingers. But they're diehard Social Democrats -- proud veterans of the student protests of the 1960s.

Jespersen, a feminist and a former interior minister in charge of immigration issues, says the radicals' goal is the Islamization of Europe. When she was in government, many Muslims told her they were not free to adapt to Western society.

"In the parallel society, they use the term 'Muslim police,'" she says. "They are trying to control the more moderate Muslims. If they see their daughters talking to boys, then they go to the fathers and say, 'I saw your girl talking to a boy, and how can you let her? You have to stop it immediately.'"

The concept of the cradle-to-grave welfare state is so deeply embedded in the Danish psyche that even the conservatives don't dare touch it. But many Danes say their social pact has been undermined by the large inflow of immigrants -- many of whom don't share Danish civic values and, they say, prefer to live on the dole rather than work for the minimum wage.

"A welfare state can only function if there are restrictions on the border," says Soren Espersen, a leading member of the right-wing Danish People's Party, which has had increasing electoral success running on an anti-immigration platform.

The government depends on the party's parliamentary support to pass bills.

Espersen points out that thanks to new laws, annual immigration has declined to 2,000 last year from 27,000 in 2001. Asylum for refugees has also dropped sharply.

Despite promoting Europe's harshest immigration law, the DPP rejects being identified with the racism and anti-Semitism associated with French ultra right-wing politician Jean-Marie Le Pen. It's radical Islam, Espersen says, that today represents the extreme right.

And the only way to combat it is through integration and education, he says.

Commentator David Trads says there is such a broad political consensus that the DPP has become mainstream.

"We want as few new immigrants as possible," Trads says. "This is new; this is not how it was five years ago."

I will not be able to make that Karen Armstrong talk today, because I will be appearing on the Dennis Prager Show at 1PM EST.

Here's a pointless, feel-good public relations stunt organized in order to dull Western senses of the many troubling aspects of Islamic teachings, and which will have no constructive bearing on the authority or preaching of Muslim clerics elsewhere in the world.

"Muslim feminists in NY want to start Koran council," by Manuela Badawy for Reuters:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Muslim feminists from around the world vowed to create the first women's council to interpret the Koran and overcome two stereotypes about their religion: Muslims are terrorists and Islam oppresses women.

How did that happen? And whom do they aim to convince? Concerned Americans, or the many clerics who do call for open-ended warfare against unbelievers (9:5), wife-beating and child marriage, and other acts of abuse and discrimination with so much material from the Qur'an, Ahadith, and Sira to support it? For example, wife-beating:

Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them (4:34).

Women's testimony equal to half that of a man:

Get two witnesses, out of your own men, and if there are not two men, then a man and two women, such as ye choose, for witnesses, so that if one of them errs, the other can remind her (2:282).

Polygyny, and sex with slave and captive women:

"If ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly with the orphans, marry women of your choice, two or three or four; but if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one, or (a captive) that your right hands possess, that will be more suitable, to prevent you from doing injustice (4:3).

Child marriage, in accordance with Muhammad's own example:

Khadija died three years before the Prophet departed to Medina. He stayed there for two years or so and then he married 'Aisha when she was a girl of six years of age, and he consumed [sic] that marriage when she was nine years old. (Bukhari 005.058.236)

More examples here. The article continues:

The women's council was among the most groundbreaking ideas introduced at a weekend meeting of more than 100 leaders in the fledgling Islamic feminist movement.

Many in the newly formed group, the Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality, or WISE, said strict sharia law was not divine because it was created by men and should be changed to incorporate women's rights.

"In our societies men hold power and they decide what Islam should mean and how we can obey that particular understanding of Islam," said Zainab Anwar, executive director of Sisters in Islam, a Malaysian organization working on women's rights within the Islamic framework.

"I can't live with a God that is unjust," she said. "The law is progressive, but those men controlling the law aren't."

Daisy Khan, director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, or Asma, said she hoped to create a fund to provide scholarships for Muslim women to study Islamic law so they could form a Shura Council of Women, the first with women interpreting the Koran.

The women also want to break down myths that exist, particularly in the West, said Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, Asma Society founder.

'MISCONCEPTIONS'

"Two misconceptions about Islam are that it is associated with terrorism and that Islam is an oppressor of women. These are two myths that we seek to demolish. We need to change the perception of Islam in the West and this cannot be achieved without the participation of women," said Abdul Rauf.

The religious leaders, human rights activists, scholars, politicians agreed that education was essential to breaking down barriers between genders and generations.

[...]

"We must make laws work for us. We must make democratic institutions work for us," Chamberlain said.

Baroness Uddin, the first Muslim woman to enter the House of Lords in Britain, agreed that women needed to take control of their own destiny, come together and empower other women.

Let's celebrate the launch of a group whose stated purpose is to debunk stereotypes with a sweeping stereotype of our own!

"If Tony Blair and George W. Bush can get together and go to war, just imagine the power of peace that women can bring," Uddin said.

Al-Sadr can wage jihad against the U.S. with impunity, since he knows a decisive strike against him is virtually inconceivable. And it also seems clear that Al-Sadr has friends among the new Iraqi police force. "Kidnapping of Americans Linked to al Sadr: Four Contractors Taken Prisoner When Convoy Was Ambushed, Military Officials Say," by Luis Martinez for ABCNews, with thanks to Twostellas:

WASHINGTON, Nov. 17, 2006 — A senior Defense Department official told ABC News that Shiite militiamen tied to anti-American cleric Moqtada al Sadr were behind the abduction of four American security contractors and an Austrian co-worker seized in a brazen attack on a supply convoy near the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

The search for the missing contractors resulted in a raid by coalition forces earlier today near the Kuwait border that resulted in the deaths of two Iraqi gunmen, but no hostages were found.

Throughout the day, statements from Iraqi officials — later discounted — led to reports that some of the hostages had been released or found dead. However, their employer, Crescent Security Group, said there had been no claim of responsibility, no demand for ransom and no communication of any kind from the hijackers.

Despite the confusion, new details emerged about the incident Thursday that took place 20 kilometers north of the Iraqi city of Safwan, located near the border with Kuwait.

A senior defense official said it was believed that the gunmen who ambushed the convoy were wearing newly issued Iraqi police uniforms that are supposed to be tightly controlled, hard to duplicate and were issued only last month.

Only a month ago, the coalition began distributing the digitally altered blue camouflage uniforms to National Police Brigades. The uniforms are also tied to the mass kidnapping earlier this week in Baghdad at the Education Ministry.

One of the commenters on this article at the Evening Standard says, "A terror suspect should be treated as a suspect until proven guilty. Unmasking him now would only prejudge him guilty." But that has never been the case. The people on Post Office wanted posters are tried if captured, and are innocent until proven guilty. But the suspicion of their having committed a crime is enough for authorities to reveal their identities. This has never been a point in dispute until the advent of multiculturalism.

More UK dhimmi follies: "Terror farce over refusal to unmask 7/7 suspect," from the Evening Standard, with thanks to all who sent this in:

The war on terror has descended into farce after the Government refused to identify a July 7 suspect on the run from the security services.

The Home Office insists the British Muslim, who describes himself as a 'Holy warrior', is such a grave threat to national security he must be under a control order.

But, despite the 25-year-old committing a serious crime by repeatedly breaching the order and making himself a fugitive, John Reid will not take steps to lift his veil of secrecy.

The Home Secretary's refusal to act is in spite of fears the man is a possible 'missing link' to the London plot.

Investigators have linked him to two of the four bombers who claimed 52 innocent lives last year - ringleader Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer.

The Daily Mail knows his identity, his shocking links to terrorists and has a photograph, but is unable to publish.

Critics said it had reduced Labour's so-called war on terror to farce.

The Muslim Public Affairs Committee would like to wave this off as a personal, "innocent gesture of support."

But Bukhari used his position in the community -- having assumed the role of a "civil rights" leader -- to urge other Muslims to support Holocaust denier David Irving. That should lead those who haven't already questioned the agenda of Bukhari, MPAC, and the community it represents as what the article terms an "increasingly influential" entity, to do so without further delay.

"Muslim leader sent funds to Irving" by Jamie Doward for the Guardian:

One of Britain's most prominent speakers on Muslim issues is today exposed as a supporter of David Irving, the controversial historian who for years denied the Holocaust took place.

Asghar Bukhari, a founder member of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC), which describes itself as Britain's largest Muslim civil rights group, sent money to Irving and urged Islamic websites to ask visitors to make donations to his fighting fund.

Bukhari contacted the discredited historian, sentenced this year to three years in an Austrian prison for Holocaust denial, after reading his website. He headed his mail to Irving with a quotation attributed to the philosopher John Locke: 'All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good people to stand idle.'

No word on the present revolutions per minute (RPM) at Locke's grave.

In one email Bukhari tells Irving: 'You may feel like you are on your own but rest assured many people are with you in your fight for the Truth.' Bukhari pledges to make a donation of £60 to Irving's fighting fund and says that he has asked 'a few of my colleagues to send some in too'. He also offers to send Irving a book, They Dare to Speak Out, by Paul Findley, a former US Senator, who has attacked his country's close relationship with Israel. Bukhari says Findley 'has suffered like you in trying to expose certain falsehoods perpetrated by the Jews'.

In a follow-up letter, Bukhari writes: 'Here is the cheque I promised. Good luck, if there is any other way I can help please don't hestitate to call me. I have also asked many Muslim websites to create links to your own and ask for donations.'

Bukhari confirmed sending the letters in 2000. 'I had a lot of sympathy for anyone who opposed Israel,' Bukhari told The Observer said. 'I wrote letters to anyone who was tough against the Israelis - David Irving, Paul Findley, the PLO."I don't feel I have done anything wrong, to be honest. At the time I was of the belief he [Irving] was anti-Zionist, being smeared for nothing more then being anti-Zionist.

'The pro-Israeli lobby often accused people of anti-Semitism and smear tactics against groups and individuals is well known. I condemn anti-Semitism as strongly as I condemn Zionism (in my opinion they are both racist ideologies). I also believe that anyone who denies the Holocaust is wrong (I don't think they should be put behind bars for it though).'

At his trial this year, Irving said he had been 'mistaken' to say the gas chambers did not exist. He had been due to attend a conference hosted by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, questioning the 'truthfulness' of the Holocaust.

'David Irving was described by a High Court judge as a falsifier of history and a false denier,' said Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust. 'I can't understand why anyone would want to support his views, let alone encourage and influence others to sympathise with them. I'm appalled.'

[...]

MPAC was banned from university campuses in 2004 after being branded 'anti-semitic' by the National Union of Students. It is becoming increasingly influential within the Muslim community. At the last election the organisation drew up a list of Labour candidates with links to Israel, whom it urged Muslims to vote out. One MP, Lorna Fitzsimons, lost her seat to the Lib Dems by 400 votes.

'Getting into bed with Holocaust revisionists who are the heroes of racist organisations which use Islamophobia to divide communities on racial and religious grounds is just extraordinary and very, very sad,' Fitzsimons said.

MPAC, which strongly denies allegations that it is anti-semitic, accused The Observer of 'twisting an innocent gesture of support (even if gravely mistaken) into more than it is'. The story was 'just another Islamaphobic attack aimed at undermining and harming the brave individuals who support the Palestinian cause and the cause of Muslims within Britain.'

So let them be severed. Just stop the jizya. Stop the bribery. By David Leppard in the TimesOnline, with thanks to Fjordman:

SAUDI ARABIA is threatening to suspend diplomatic ties with Britain unless Downing Street intervenes to block an investigation into a £60m “slush fund” allegedly set up for some members of its royal family.

A senior Saudi diplomat in London has delivered an ultimatum to Tony Blair that unless the inquiry into an allegedly corrupt defence deal is dropped, diplomatic links between Britain and Saudi Arabia will be severed, a defence source has disclosed.

The Saudis, key allies in the Middle East, have also threatened to cut intelligence co-operation with Britain over Al-Qaeda.

They have repeated their threat that they will terminate payments on a defence contract that could be worth £40 billion and safeguard at least 10,000 British jobs.

The Saudis are furious about the criminal investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) into allegations that BAE Systems, Britain’s biggest defence company, set up the “slush fund” to support the extravagant lifestyle of members of the Saudi royal family.

The payments, in the form of lavish holidays, a fleet of luxury cars including a gold Rolls-Royce, rented apartments and other perks, are alleged to have been paid to ensure the Saudis continued to buy from BAE under the so-called Al-Yamamah deal, rather than going to another country. Al-Yamamah is the biggest defence contract in British history and has kept BAE in business for 20 years.

At least five people have been arrested in the probe. They include Peter Wilson, BAE’s managing director of international programmes, and Tony Winship, a former company official who oversaw two travel and service firms that are alleged to have been conduits for the payments. Both deny any wrongdoing.

But of course, there will be no international outcry about this reckless placing of civilians in danger. By Sarah El Deeb for Associated Press, with thanks to Drew:

BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip - Hundreds of Palestinians serving as human shields guarded the homes of two top militants Sunday, a new tactic that forced Israel to call off missile strikes on the buildings and re-evaluate a mainstay of its aerial campaign in Gaza.

In recent months, the Israeli air force has repeatedly struck the homes of militants after warning residents by phone to clear out. Israeli security officials said they did not know how to respond to the human shield tactic, but pressed ahead with other airstrikes Sunday.

In Gaza City, an aircraft fired a missile at a car, killing one man and wounding nine, including two Hamas militants. Four of the wounded were children, ages 5 to 16, who suffered shrapnel injuries, hospital officials said.

The military said the target of the strike was a vehicle carrying senior members of the Hamas rocket launching operation.

The standoff over the homes of the militants began late Saturday when Mohammed Baroud, local leader of the Popular Resistance Committees, was informed by the army that his house would be hit. The three-story building is home to 17 people from Baroud's family. Another militant from Hamas also received a warning.

Instead of fleeing, though, the two decided to stay in their homes and called in reinforcements. They were quickly joined by crowds of supporters, including dozens of armed men, who gathered on balconies, rooftops and in the streets outside.

"Death to Israel. Death to America," the crowds chanted. Local mosques and Palestinian TV and radio stations also mobilized supporters.

And MI5 would have to be the size of the Stasi to stop them all. "Al-Qaeda's ‘best assets’ prime UK timebomb," by Sean Rayment in the Sunday Telegraph, with thanks to Looney Tunes:

British Muslims volunteering to fight against coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan are being sent back to Britain to become al-Qaeda "sleeper" agents, The Sunday Telegraph has learned.

MI5 agents believe that young Asian men, who have been trained to take part in the so-called "global jihad" in al-Qaeda camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan, are now regarded as too valuable an asset to be used fighting British and American troops.

MI5 and MI6 are working on the assumption that they are being ordered to return to their communities in Britain with instructions to establish secret, autonomous cells and to conduct independent terrorists operations without any direct input from al-Qaeda's high command.

Security sources claim that al-Qaeda is unlikely to send a British passport holder to his death as a suicide bomber in Iraq when he would be far more valuable as a "sleeper" in Britain.

MI5 fears that it is impossible to estimate how many British Muslims have attended training camps over the past decade or how many are back in the UK planning attacks.

Hundreds of thousands of people travel from Britain to Pakistan every year, mostly to visit relatives or do business. The challenge facing the intelligence services, say security sources, is to discover which among them are travelling for "nefarious" reasons....

Security sources have also warned of the danger facing Britain from radicalised Muslims who are currently fighting as part of the insurgency in Iraq.

MI5 assumes that a "backwash" of violence may be unleashed in the UK by British-born Muslims who have been involved the fighting in Iraq....

Andrew Rowe, a Jamaican convert to Islam who is known to have visited Bosnia in the 1990s, is often cited as an example of a militant Muslim who fought a jihad abroad and returned to Britain to conduct a campaign of terrorism.

Rowe, a drug dealer before his conversion to Islam, became known as the "sock bomber" after he was arrested for carrying socks with traces of high explosives, which police believe had come from mortars. He was jailed for 15 years for possessing material which might be of use to terrorists.

It emerged earlier this month that Dhiren Barot, a Muslim convert who was jailed for 40 years for plotting to kill thousands of people in Britain and America, had attended a training camp in Pakistan and was subsequently recruited as a sleeper agent by al-Qaeda. Whitehall sources said he typified the threat now facing Britain.

At least two of the bombers involved in the attacks on London on July 7 last year are also known to have visited terrorist training camps in Pakistan.

Last week Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, the head of MI5, gave warning that it was just a matter of time before Britain was attacked with a chemical, biological or radiological weapon.

She said that up to 1,600 terrorists in the UK were involved in 30 "priority one" plots. Whitehall sources have admitted that it was impossible for MI5, given its current level of resources — it has 2,800 staff — to disrupt every terrorist plot being hatched against Britain.

The source said: "MI5 would have to be the size of the Stasi (the 100,000-strong East German secret state police during the Cold War) to have a chance of stopping every possible attack and, even then, it would be unlikely that it would succeed."

An astonishing update to this story. "Suthers reassures Saudis: Feds back Suthers' trip to explain case of captive nanny," by Chris Barge in the Rocky Mountain News, with thanks to James:

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers flew to Saudi Arabia this week to reassure government officials there that Homaidan Al-Turki was treated fairly when he was convicted of sexually abusing an Indonesian nanny held a virtual captive in his Aurora home.

Suthers sat knee-to-knee for an hour with King Abdullah and also met with Crown Prince Sultan, Saudi journalists and relatives of Al-Turki during his weeklong trip to the capital city of Riyadh, Deputy Attorney General Jason Dunn said Friday.

"There was a lot of public attention in Saudi Arabia on this case," Dunn said, adding that "misperceptions" there about the U.S. judicial system and Colorado in particular convinced U.S. officials that the highly unusual trip was warranted.

In June, Al-Turki was convicted in Arapahoe County of 12 counts of unlawful sexual contact with force, one count of theft of services over $15,000, false imprisonment and conspiracy. He was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

Al-Turki has been portrayed in the Saudi press as a victim of the U.S. judicial system's bias against Muslims. Many Saudis say Al-Turki would not have been convicted in his own country.

The Saudi government gave Al-Turki $400,000 to post bail on the charges.

During the trial, the 24-year- old victim testified that she was brought to Colorado from Saudi Arabia by the Al-Turki family in 2000 and worked and lived with them in Aurora for four years. She worked seven days a week and was paid $150 a month, but Al-Turki and his wife kept most of that money.

She also testified that Al-Turki took her passport and that he repeatedly sexually abused her.

At his sentencing, Al-Turki said he would not apologize for "things I did not do and for crimes I did not commit."

"The state has criminalized these basic Muslim behaviors," he told the judge. "Attacking traditional Muslim behaviors was the focal point of the prosecution."

Prosecutors said it was a clear case of human trafficking....

Suthers' trip this week was sponsored by the U.S. State Department in consultation with the U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia and Gov. Bill Owens.

While there, Suthers explained how the U.S. judicial system works and said that "in Colorado, crimes of this sort are dealt with severely," Dunn said. "He wasn't apologizing for it, but he wanted them to understand why the result of the case was what it was."

The federal government picked up the tab for Suthers to spend the week in Saudi Arabia with Owens' chief counsel, Jon Anderson, Dunn said.

We wouldn't want our friends and allies to get their feelings hurt.

Hmmm. Has the RAND Corp think tank been reading Jihad Watch? "Ideology is Al Qaeda’s Achilles’ heel," from Reuters, with thanks to all who sent this in:

WASHINGTON: The United States could discredit Al Qaeda in the Muslim world by challenging its violent Islamist ideology and muzzling its leading proponents, an independent report released on Thursday said.

The 364-page study, published by the RAND Corp think tank, described Al Qaeda’s Islamist ideology of violent resistance as a “global revolutionary creed” akin to the Marxism-Leninism philosophy that the West defeated with “a robust political warfare” campaign during the Cold War. “If the ideology is countered and discredited, Al Qaeda and its universe will wither and die,” concluded the two-part study, entitled “Beyond Al Qaeda” and funded by the Air Force. “It follows that a comprehensive US strategy needs to move beyond the boundaries of conventional counterterrorism theory and practice, and address these ideological and political factors,” it said.

The study’s authors recommended the Bush administration expand “decapitation strategies” to include ideologues, holding up as examples decisions by British and Indonesian authorities to either jail or deport hard-line Muslim clerics. “Preventing Al Qaeda’s ideological mentors from continuing to provide theological justification for terrorism could expedite the movement’s ideological deterioration,” they concluded. Much of the research in the RAND study was completed in 2004 but has never been released. The authors updated the data to reflect developments in Iraq, the Middle East, Chechnya, Southeast Asia and Somalia. “The importance of ideology has become even more evident. The passage of time has only reaffirmed and reinforced it,” said lead author Angel Rabasa, RAND senior policy analyst....

"It has pretty much doubled our sales." And that's all that matters, right? From the Sunday Herald, with thanks to Rosie:

McDONALD'S latest bid to attract more customers -- Muslim fast-food lovers -- has caused uproar among customers. The fast-food chain has introduced halal products at two Melbourne restaurants, significantly boosting sales.

However some non-Muslim customers are furious they were not told their hamburger meat was slaughtered and blessed in accordance with Islamic rules laid down in the Koran.

McDonald's consulted Muslim leaders before introducing halal products at its Brunswick East and St Albans stores.

Halal meat is from animals that have been killed facing Mecca and blessed using the name of Allah.

Brunswick East store assistant manager Nicholas Yacoub said the move had attracted a surge of new customers.

"It has pretty much doubled our sales," Mr Yacoub said.

The store does not tell drive-through customers about the change and has only one small sign inside advertising the move.

Coburg resident Miriam McLennan was stunned to discover the hamburger she bought from the Brunswick East store was blessed.

"Just as a Muslim would not want to eat anything that isn't halal . . . I should have my rights to eat normal, ordinary food that hasn't been blessed," she said.

A Catholic Church spokesman said non-Muslims deserved to know if the food was halal before buying. But he said there was no biblical reason for Christians to avoid halal food.

A McDonald's spokeswoman said customers who did not want halal food should buy from any of its other stores.

The Courier-Mail's headline for this one is "Terror link probed." Yes, that's right. By Greg Stolz and Paula Doneman in The Courier-Mail, with thanks to Warren:

A SELF-proclaimed British multi-millionaire named Mohammed Islam who was arrested on the Gold Coast with almost $120,000 in cash is under investigation as to whether he has terrorist connections. Queensland police yesterday refused to comment on their investigation into the man, 22, but at this stage there is reportedly no evidence to link him with terrorist activity.

Islam allegedly had $118,000 in $50 notes in a suitcase and a mobile phone concealed in his rectum when he was arrested at a Surfers Paradise bus station on Thursday night.

Give the man a break. Maybe he lost the belt clip for his phone.

Good for Dan Gillerman. The UN is a disgrace, a handmaiden of the global jihad. And the European Union covers itself with shame yet again. From UPI, with thanks to Davida:

Israel's ambassador walked out on the United Nations session that resulted in a strong call to Israel to end its military operations in the Gaza Strip.

The 192-member General Assembly voted Friday night 156-7, with six abstentions, in favor of the non-binding resolution in an emergency special session.

The United States, Israel and Australia voted against the document, while all the European Union members supported it after last-minute changes were made to soften the tone.

Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman conducted a news conference nearby and blasted the session as a "farce" and a "circus," Ha'aretz reported Saturday.

I am attending the Restoration Weekend, where yesterday I spoke on a panel about the jihad in Europe along with Melanie Phillips, Douglas Murray, and Walid Phares. I am honored to be in such company.

Anyway, I'm trying to keep up with the news as best I can while I'm here, but I am a bit behind, and I suppose that by now the entire world has seen the video and heard the stories about Mostafa Tabatabainejad, the UCLA student who was tasered in the UCLA library after refusing to show ID to campus police, or to leave the premises. Michelle Malkin has useful background and commentary here.

The story is all over the TV news, CAIR is already on the case, evidently trying to spin the incident as an example of "Islamophobia." An investigation is certain to come, and almost certain to find the officers involved guilty of using excessive force.

Even if they did, however -- and I am not presenting that as conclusively established -- it is noteworthy that this story has received exponentially more attention in the media than this one. Nor has CAIR taken any trouble to say anything about it.

In one story, a Muslim in the U.S. is tasered in what may be a police brutality case. In another, a Muslim (probably) in the U.S. is arrested with information about nuclear materials and cyanide. Neither story may be representative of the status or disposition of the Muslim community in the U.S., but one gets a barrage of media attention and the other is ignored. The mainstream media, it seems, is engaged in storytelling and myth-making. They are constructing a picture of Muslims victimized in the U.S. by racism and bigotry. The Tabatabainejad story fits that agenda, or at least appears to. But the Dinssa news item may tell a different story: of Muslims plotting our destruction. That does not fit the prevailing mythos. So it goes relatively unreported.

If the Judeo-Christian West and the rest of the world threatened by the jihad today is to prevail, this media mythmaking must be exposed and challenged. It is happening today, what with the fauxtography revelations, the exposure of Dan Rather, and so on. But it must be understood that the immense coverage given to the Tabatabainejad incident, and the relative silence about the Dinssa arrest, is just as much part of the media dream factory as fauxtography. It is all part of an attempt to refashion the world after their own desires, burying reality in the process. And that, of course, will make it all the easier for reality to bite us.

It would be refreshing to see CAIR announce, if Dinssa is definitely a Muslim, that it is redoubling efforts to teach Muslims in America to reject the jihad ideology and live in peace with their non-Muslim neighbors. But they won't do that, not in this case or in any other case involving Islamic terrorism, because that is not the story they are trying to tell, or the myth they are trying to construct.

Dean Barnett over at the Hugh Hewitt site asks some Congressmen what should be an easy question. After all, what else should they be studying up about these days? (Thanks to all who sent this in.)

THAT’S THE GOOD NEWS. There’s also some bad news. As was the case with three previous conference call attendees, I asked Boehner the question. To refresh your memory, I had asked three other congress-people the following:

What books have you read about Islamic terrorism against America and the West?

None of the three were able to name a single book. Boehner followed suit, saying that he had read books on the subject but that he couldn’t give me any names.

There will no doubt be an uproar from Muslim advocacy and civil liberties groups about "profiling," and if Nancy Pelosi had her way, it would be much easier to take security agencies to court (civil and criminal) over such actions, and win. "Jihad's femmes fatales," by Robert F. Moore for the New York Daily News:

That's not a pregnant belly - that's a bomb.

The NYPD is warning business owners to be on the lookout for female jihadists who can hide explosives by faking pregnancy or sweet-talk their way past security officers.

"The threat posed by women is real, and it can't be overlooked," Rachel Weiner, an NYPD intelligence specialist, said at a security conference yesterday.

The warning was not in response to a threat against any specific targets in the city, but a general caveat for private security in light of the radicalization of women in other parts of the world.

"What this means is that we don't have the luxury of ignoring 50% of our population in assessing whether someone is a threat," Weiner said.

Cossor Ali, a young mother among two dozen suspects accused in a London-based plot to blow up U.S.-bound flights, intended to use her 8-month-old baby's bottle to hide a liquid explosive, authorities said.

Counter-terrorism experts noted that 19 of the 41 Chechen militants in the 2002 siege of a Moscow theater were women, part of a group known as the "black widows." More than 120 civilians were killed.

Experts said yesterday that female terrorists achieve martyr status among radicals. Wafa Idris, widely considered the first female Palestinian suicide bomber, killed one person and injured more than 150 in an attack in Jerusalem in 2002. She has a Palestinian summer camp named in her honor.

A growing number of female terrorists are housewives, scientists or even teens schooled in the U.S. and Europe, officials said yesterday, blurring the profile of would-be bombers.

During the NYPD Shield conference yesterday at police headquarters, cops also gave business owners tips on the general behavior of potential terrorists. The NYPD Shield is a security partnership between cops and private businesses designed to prevent terrorist attacks.

Peter Patton, an NYPD intelligence specialist, drew from an "Encyclopedia of Jihad" found at an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, saying that 80% of jihadists' information is drawn from public sources.

They read newspapers and scour the Internet for maps and shareholder reports, he said. The other 20% of their information comes from taking panoramic photos of potential targets, casually interviewing security staff, examining surveillance equipment and traffic patterns onsite and observing product delivery schedules.

Activities also easily carried out by either gender.

"Allah help destroy this body of evil making humanity miserable." He was just "upset and angry" about the news, doncha know. "Controversial Assignment Leads To Teacher's Resignation," from WRAL.com, with thanks to all who sent this in:

SMITHFIELD, N.C. -- A Spanish teacher at Smithfield-Selma Senior High School resigned this week after handing out an assignment that some students and parents said teaches hate.

Khalid Chahhou, who was in his first year of teaching in Johnston County, gave students a worksheet in which they were to translate words and find them within a word-search puzzle.

Some students started uncovering strange words in the process.

"There were words like 'kill,' then I saw it said 'destroy America,'" Eric Herrera said.

As they read on, students found the puzzle contained a paragraph that contained the following phrases:

* "Sharon killed a lot of innocent people," a possible reference to former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

* "Palestine is not a terrorist group."

* "Allah help destroy this body of evil making humanity miserable."...

School administrators said they confronted Chahhou about an unidentified concern Wednesday and he resigned....

Chahhou, who also teaches Arabic at a religious school affiliated with the Islamic Association of Cary, told WRAL in a telephone interview that students got the wrong message from the assignment.

"When I made the assignment, I was upset and angry about a story I recently saw on the news. If any message appears, it is more of a message to myself, not to my students. I never meant to hurt or upset any students or parents," he said.

"In an apparent response by separatist militants to Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont's peace visit." Thai Jihad Update. By Chalee Boonsawat for Reuters:

NARATHIWAT, Thailand (Reuters) - Three bombs went off in Muslim southern Thailand on Friday, killing one person and wounding 27, in an apparent response by separatist militants to Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont's peace visit the previous day.

Police said the first bomb, a 15 kg (33 lb) device hidden in a fire extinguisher, hit a Humvee carrying five soldiers in Narathiwat, one of the three southernmost provinces where more than 1,800 people have been killed since January 2004.

The second and third bombs were detonated by mobile phones around an hour later at a tea shop and in a nearby street in the provincial capital of the same name. One person was killed and 22 people were wounded, police said.

Since his appointment by the army after a September coup against Thaksin Shinawatra, Surayud has launched a major peace drive in the Muslim-majority, Malay-speaking region.

He has apologized for Thaksin's iron fist approach and stated a desire for talks with the rebels.

The suspected Muslim separatists, who have never made their goals public or claimed responsibility for any attacks, appear to be responding with coordinated bomb attacks and an increase in violence against civilians.

Bombs exploded almost simultaneously at eight car and motorcycle showrooms on November 9, the day after Surayud's previous visit to the region, which used to be the independent sultanate of Pattani until annexed by Bangkok a century ago.

Analysts said the militants appeared to be sending a message to the former army chief, who commands wide respect in all parts of Thailand, including the southern provinces bordering Malaysia, not to get involved.

"Surayud presents a far greater threat to the militants than anybody else," said Brian Dougherty of Bangkok-based security consultants Hill and Associates.

"They probably enjoyed having Thaksin because he was universally hated in the south, whereas Surayud is welcomed and liked. They cannot allow his programs, his new approach, to be effective," he said.

True, it may have been easier to muster public sentiment in the south against Thaksin, but the rest of the article supports the notion that Surayud's ascent to power and subsequent policies have sent the jihadists the signal that they are winning, and should only press on. If there is a rivalry between them and Surayud that poses a "threat" to them, it may be more usefully compared to the rivalry between Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas: Differing methods, but neither can be trusted to procure an outcome that is not disastrous for non-Muslims.

Since September, the month of Thaksin's removal, Dougherty said the daily violence was claiming almost three times as many civilians victims as before, a clear indication of a shift in tactics.

In one week alone, 90 percent of casualties were civilian, the remaining 10 percent being described as "officials" -- anything from soldiers and border police to village volunteers and local government bureaucrats.

"Insurgent groups are targeting civilians to show their power and highlight the Thai government's weakness," said Brad Adams of New York-based Human Rights Watch.

"But it's illegal and morally indefensible to attack civilians in pursuit of political goals."

Ask the jihadists their definition of "civilian."

"None of the boys is of Christian faith." As Tammy Bruce remarked to me yesterday when I did her show from here at the Restoration Weekend, a reliable way to know that the perpetrators of a given deed reported in news story were Muslim is the lack of any mention of their religion, or in this case, the assurance that they were not Christian. Hmmmm. Non-Christians from Serbia-Montenegro and Bosnia. Might they belong to a religion some of whose adherents, as Oriana Fallaci pointed out, have taken great pleasure in desecrating churches and monuments in Europe? Might this be an expression of Islamic contempt for those whom the Qur'an calls the "vilest of creatures" -- unbelievers (98:6)?

A translation by Mussi of "Kirche mit Kot beschmiert," a German-language article from Blick Online:

Muttenz, Basle – A bad joke or is there more behind this? The catholic church in Muttenz, Basle, has been repeatedly soiled with fecals for the last two weeks by teenagers.

A new day, a new shocker: They soiled the altar with excrements. They urinated into the baptism font, destroyed glassware on the donation table and destroyed vegetation.

The perpetrators: A gang of 12- and 13-year olds. One boy is Swiss (nationality), two are from former Serbia-Montenegro and two are from Bosnia. None of the boys is of Christian faith.

Investations are now underway, the public prosecutor is checking the situation of the children. Two of them are already in 'specialized institutions', three are currently examed by specialized medical personnel, according to the police.

The Swiss youth penal law could impose community service, a stay in an educational institution or name an assistant for the parents of the concerned children to help them educate their children.

What if the problem turns out to be how they have educated their children up to this point?

An update on this story. "Dutch to ban wearing of Muslim burqa in public," by Alexandra Hudson for Reuters:

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Dutch government agreed on Friday a total ban on the wearing of burqas and other Muslim face veils in public, justifying the move on security grounds.

Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk will now draw up legislation which will result in the Netherlands, once one of Europe's most easy-going nations, imposing some of the continent's toughest laws against concealing the face.

"The cabinet finds it undesirable that garments covering the face -- including the burqa -- should be worn in public in view of public order, (and) the security and protection of fellow citizens," the Dutch Justice Ministry said in a statement.

The debate on face veils and whether they stymie Muslim integration has gathered momentum across Europe.

The Netherlands would be the first European state to impose a countrywide ban on Islamic face coverings, though other countries have already outlawed them in specific places.

The move by the center-right government comes just five days before a general election. The campaign has focused so far on issues like the economy rather than immigration because most mainstream parties have hardened their stances in recent years.

Last December Dutch lawmakers voted in favor of a proposal by far-right politician Geert Wilders to outlaw face-coverings and asked Verdonk to examine the feasibility of such a ban.

Because veils were worn for religious reasons, she had feared new legislation could come into conflict with religious freedom laws. But she said on Friday this was not the case.

[...]

Dutch Muslim groups have complained a burqa ban would make the country's 1 million Muslims feel more victimized and alienated, regardless of whether they approve of burqas or not.

"This will just lead to more girls saying 'hey I'm also going to wear a burqa as a protest'," Naima Azough, a member of parliament from the opposition Green Left, told an election campaign meeting for fellow members of the Moroccan community.

Job Cohen, the Labour mayor of Amsterdam, said he opposed burqas in schools and public buildings, and said women wearing one who failed to get a job should not expect welfare benefits.

"From the perspective of integration and communication, it is obviously very bad because you can't see each other so the fewer the better," he told foreign journalists.

"But actually hardly anybody wears one ... The fuss is much bigger than the number of people concerned."

Regressive? Nah. Not when you're boldly moving forward into the 7th century. "Egypt Islamists demand minister quit over veil remarks" by Lamia Radi for AFP:

CAIRO (AFP) - Egypt's largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, has called for Culture Minister Faruq Hosni to be sacked for saying the wearing of Islamic veils was a "regressive" trend.

Hassan, who initiated the appeal, urged parliament to "remove this minister and replace him with a minister of culture who will respect our constitution, our Sharia (Islamic law) and our values".

"The appeal was presented to parliament on Thursday evening, and will be examined in the coming days," he said.

In an interview published Thursday, Hosni said that the ever-growing number of women wearing the Islamic veil in Egypt was regressive.

"There was an age when our mothers went to university and worked without the veil. It is in that spirit that we grew up. So why this regression?," the minister said in the independent Al-Masri Al-Yom daily.

"Each woman with her beautiful hair is like a flower, and should not be concealed from the view of others," Hosni said in his interview, arguing: "Religion today focuses on appearances too much.

"A woman's true veil is the inner veil, not the visible one. The relationship between God and a person does not hinge on the latter's sartorial decisions."

Hassan retorted: "If Mr. Hosni has personal opinions on any subject, he should keep them for his private conversations, and not use his official position to impose them on public opinion, by giving views that are contrary to our traditions and religious principles."

The Islamist group's deputy supreme guide, Mohammed Habib, for his part said Hosni's statements would pave the way for "obscenity."

"Qualifying wearing the veil as regressive is an invitation for obscenity," he told AFP.

Habib accused Hosni of attempting to "destroy the cultural characteristics of the Islamic nation" and wanting to "throw himself into the arms of the West, which attacks the wearing of the veil."

[...]

Most Muslim clerics consider wearing the veil to be a religious obligation, and growing conservatism has seen most women take up the veil in Egypt, formerly considered one of the most liberal societies in the Middle East.

Don't hold your breath, Hamid. "Afghanistan asks Pakistan to do more to hunt Islamic militants," by Waheedullah Massoud for AP, :

NEW DELHI (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai asked for greater cooperation from neighboring Pakistan to help fight Islamic militants during his visit to India.

Karzai said his country was the victim of violence by Islamic militants who use safe havens across the border.

"Afghanistan is affected by terrorism, there is violence committed against our people, there is violence committed against our schools, our children ... definitely that violence related to cross-border activity," he told reporters.

The president, however, said he was not accusing Pakistan's government of having a role in the Taliban-led violence.

"We are not blaming the government of Pakistan. We are seeking help from the government of Pakistan," Karzai said at a joint press conference with Indian Prime minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi.

Breathtaking short-sightedness. What happens at the end of the 10- to 15-year hudna? The Muslims will fight again to destroy all of Israel, and will be that much stronger because of this. Don't Olmert and Bush realize that? No, because they know nothing about the jihad ideology or Islamic law, and are sure that Islam is a religion of peace.

"Israel secretly studies 'bold' peace bid: Would surrender large tracts of West Bank," by Mitch Potter in the Toronto Star, with thanks to Carl:

JERUSALEM—Bedevilled by the continuing scourge of homemade Qassam rocket attacks, Israeli officials are believed to be exploring a new diplomatic overture that calls for the surrender of large swathes of the West Bank to a new Palestinian leadership in exchange for a decade-long ceasefire.

The plan, still in the formative stages, was outlined yesterday in the Hebrew daily Ma'ariv as a "bold and original" initiative that would enable the creation of a provisional Palestinian state as a first step toward normalization with Palestinians and the wider Arab world.

Israeli President Ehud Olmert secretly presented the concept to President George W. Bush during a meeting at the White House Monday, the Ma'ariv report said, citing unnamed political sources in Washington and Jerusalem.

Palestinian and Israeli officials refused comment on the initiative, which Ma'ariv described as "consensual realignment" — a term that implies Israel now is willing to involve Palestinians in a negotiated withdrawal from parts of the West Bank, where more than 250,000 Jewish settlers live on land conquered by Israel during the 1967 Six Day War.

But Ghassan Khatib, a senior Palestinian political figure, told the Toronto Star that diplomats working beneath the radar have begun "an exchange of views about the potential of moving forward on the basis of a long-term ceasefire of 10 or even 15 years."

Leaders of the militant Hamas movement have for many years spoken of such a long-term hudna, or ceasefire, but only on the condition of a full Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 armistice lines — terms deemed unacceptable to the Israeli leadership.

But as domestic and international pressure mounts for a renewal of regional diplomacy, Israeli officials now are re-examining whether a ceasefire can be struck on the basis of the more limited West Bank withdrawal the Olmert government was elected to enact.

"The big difference now is that Hamas is in power. And some of the Israeli officials who are examining this idea are realizing that what the Hamas offers in terms for a 10- or 15-year ceasefire is really not very different from what the (internationally brokered peace plan) Roadmap describes in its interim phase — it is just another name for a Palestinian state with provisional borders," said Khatib, who served under the previous Palestinian Authority government as labour minister.

"There is an exchange of views happening because some people believe there is potential here."

Another warning to the dhimmis not to get out of line. "Iraq: Terrorists Blast Church," from Compass Direct:

November 10 (Compass Direct News) – Unknown assailants bombed the entrance of a Catholic church in Mosul last week, destroying three sets of doors as well as windows in the church, monastery and guest house.

A source near the church at the time of the November 1 blast told Compass that the explosion at 7 p.m. shattered the exterior iron doors of the Dominican Clock Church compound and flattened two sets of wood doors. The discharge ripped through the windows of the monastery chapel where Dominican priests were holding evening prayer.

No one was harmed in the blast.

“The whole area heard the explosion, it was so big,” said one eyewitness of the destruction, speaking to Compass on condition of anonymity the evening after the attack.

Three Dominican priests had returned to the church to celebrate mass on Sunday (October 29), after spending a week outside Mosul to avoid the city’s daily violence.

“They were afraid of kidnapping but never thought that anything would happen to them if they were inside the church compound,” a source close to the priests commented.

The Dominicans believe the attack was more than just a random act of violence, the source confirmed, requesting anonymity for security reasons. “You don’t set off a blast that big unless you are planning something more,” he said.

If I get a chance, I will drop by this talk and ask Ms. Armstrong why it is that there are so many Muslims who apparently misunderstand Islam, and think that it enjoins them to commit acts of violence. How is it that so many Muslims don't seem to be acquainted with the peaceful religion and its Gandhiesque prophet, about which she has written so much?

A Mosaic Foundation press release, with thanks to Twostellas:

WHO: Karen Armstrong, prolific author, speaker, teacher and media commentator on religious affairs in the U.S. and England, will launch the Mosaic Foundation's new lecture series "Re- Discovering the Arab World." Her lecture is entitled "Islam: The Misunderstood Religion."

WHAT: Mosaic Foundation's "Re-Discovering the Arab World." This program is designed to foster deeper understanding of the Arab world through a closer examination of the rich diversity of Arab culture, traditions, arts and history amidst the background of current public interest.

WHEN: Monday, Nov. 20

-- Reception: noon – 12:30 p.m.

-- Program: 12:30–2 p.m.

WHERE: National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor (Ballroom), Washington, D.C.

Is Keith Ellison distancing himself from CAIR? Will he deliver a video message to the CAIR banquet? Memo to Ibrahim Hooper: if you need someone to take Ellison's place, I'm free that day. An update to this story, as well as to this week's Jihad Watch videoblog at HotAir: "First Muslim Congressman Won't Address Muslim Group After All," by Nathan Burchfiel for CNSNews, with thanks to Mike:

(CNSNews.com) - Congressman-elect Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, will not address a meeting of a controversial Islamic organization Saturday even though the group has been advertising since the election that he would be the keynote speaker.

The Council on American Islamic Relations announced Nov. 9 that Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat, would be the keynote speaker at the group's annual banquet on Nov. 18.

The announcement also revealed that the speaker lineup is to include Democratic Reps. Elijah Cummings and Albert Wynn, both of Maryland, and Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas.

However, Bridget Cusick, a spokeswoman for Ellison, told Cybercast News Service Wednesday that Ellison had never accepted the group's invitation and was never scheduled to appear at the banquet.

"We have four events in the state that day and they've been on the calendar for a long time," she said. "The invitation was extended to us and somewhere in translation between our scheduler and the conversation that had happened about it with someone else, there was just a miscommunication."

Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for CAIR, told Cybercast News Service that Ellison was still listed on the banquet schedule because he would address the group through a videotaped message.

Cusick said she was unaware of the videotaped appearance. "He's been in D.C. all week, and I've been back here, so if that conversation happened, I'm unaware of it," she said of Ellison, who has been in the nation's capital for freshman orientation. "I'm certainly not saying it's not true, but it is something I'm unaware of."

And oddly enough, he was not a Lutheran from Norway. "Dinssa" is a common surname among Muslims in several parts of Africa. From Associated Press, with thanks to Joe Washburn:

DETROIT -- A man was arrested at Detroit Metropolitan Airport after officials say they found him carrying $78,883 in cash and a laptop computer containing information about nuclear materials and cyanide.

He will be held in custody at least until Monday, a U.S. magistrate ruled Wednesday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Leonid Feller said Sisayehiticha Dinssa is a potential risk to the community and federal agents want to get a warrant to search his computer more thoroughly, The Detroit News reported.

U.S. Magistrate Donald Scheer approved Feller's request to detain Dinssa. He is charged with concealing more than $10,000 in his luggage, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, plus forfeiture of the money, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Feller said Dinssa, who gave a Texas address, arrived in Detroit from Nigeria by way of Amsterdam and was headed for Phoenix.

Dinssa, an unemployed U.S. citizen, was arrested at the airport Tuesday. An affidavit filed in court said a dog found the scent of narcotics on cash Dinssa carried.

When agents asked him if he had any cash to declare, he said he had $18,000, authorities said. But when agents checked his luggage, they found an additional $59,000. When they scrolled through his laptop, they said they found the mysterious files.

In this week's Jihad Watch segment at Hot Air, I discuss Pelosi, Conyers, and Ellison, and why CAIR is celebrating an early Chri--uh, an early Winter Holiday.

Dhimmi and Rosalynn Carter with Jihad Watch Director Robert Spencer in 1984 -- if I met him again, I'd have a few things to tell him

Not surprising coming from the UN. "President Carter Could Lead U.N. Investigation of Israel," by Benny Avni in the New York Sun, with thanks to Ruth King:

UNITED NATIONS — As Palestinian Arab rockets struck two Israeli towns yesterday, U.N. bodies prepared to launch no fewer than two overlapping "fact-finding" missions to second-guess Israel's anti-terrorist tactics. President Carter could head one of those missions.

The U.N. General Assembly is expected to convene a special emergency session tomorrow to deal with the November 8 Israel Defense Force artillery strike on the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, which killed 19 civilians. A draft resolution for the assembly session calls on the U.N. secretary-general to establish a fact-finding mission into the event and requests that he report back to the assembly in a month.

And yesterday in Geneva, the U.N. Human Rights Council, which in its five months of existence has failed to pass one resolution on any country other than Israel, concluded its third emergency session on the Jewish state. In the session's resolution, the council called on its president, Ambassador Alfonso de Alba of Mexico, to establish a fact-finding mission to investigate the incident at Beit Hanoun.

A diplomat in Geneva who requested anonymity said the sponsors of the resolution are planning to ask Mr. Carter to head the investigation. Other candidates include the diplomats Martti Ahtisaari of Finland and Sadako Ogata of Japan.

Israel, which is conducting its own investigation into the incident, has yet to decide on its level of cooperation with the U.N. probes.

The Israelis shouldn't cooperate at all, but they will probably be compelled to do so. George Bush and Tony Blair will make sure of that, when they should be standing up and denouncing the UN's persecution of Israel and continuous ignoring of the mistreatment of women and religious minorities under Sharia.

Patrick O'Hannigan is right: there is as far as I know no program in the DHS, or State, or the Defense Department, or the CIA or FBI that is devoted to learning what the teachings of Islam and Muhammad reveal about the motives, goals, and strategies of contemporary jihad terrorists -- and this is a grave and possibly suicidal omission.

To O'Hannigan's list, on which he generously included me in his American Spectator article "On Forecasting Fratricide in Iraq," I would add Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald, who has written about this issue so often and so eloquently at this site. Take a look at Hugh's articles here, and catch up on those you may have missed.

If President Bush had spent more time learning about Islam from people like Robert Spencer, Steve Emerson, Daniel Pipes, Brigette Gabriel, and Bat Ye'or, he might indeed have foreseen the fratricidal nature of strife in Iraq after Saddam Hussein. Were anyone in the aforementioned group not available, the president could have learned much the same thing in consultation with the Kurds, or conversation with still-fugitive author Salman Rushdie, or any Muslim convert to Christianity.

Even those of us who've never had a power lunch or darkened the door of a Beltway think tank are pretty sure that Muslim leaders do not offer balloon animals and lollipops to apostates from their faith, or host birthday parties for them down at Dairy Queen.

SO HAS ANYONE ASKED Tony Snow whether people in the president's inner circle learned lessons from the life of Mohammed, or the etymology of the word "assassin"? Those are leading questions, to be sure, but they're scrupulously nonpartisan as well.

Another connection surfaces between Iran and Somalia's jihadists. By David Blair for the Telegraph:

Iran tried to obtain uranium from Somalia in return for supplying weapons to the anarchic country's Islamist movement, the United Nations said yesterday.

A report compiled for the Security Council found that Iran is one of seven countries breaking a UN arms embargo by providing weapons to the Islamic radicals who control most of southern Somalia, including the capital, Mogadishu.

This influx of weapons increases the chances of a new regional war in the Horn of Africa. It also underlines the close ties which Somalia's Islamists, who style themselves the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts, have forged with radical regimes across the Muslim world, notably Syria and Iran.

[...]

The flow of weapons into Somalia has "dramatically increased in terms of numbers of arms, frequency of delivery and weapons' sophistication", reads the 86-page report.

While most of the shipments consist of small arms, it adds: "Ominously, new and more sophisticated types of weapons are also coming into Somalia including portable surface-to-air missiles, multiple rocket launchers and second generation, infrared-guided anti-tank weapons."

Three illegal shipments from Teheran are detailed. On July 25, an aircraft carrying Iranian arms landed at Baledogle airport near Mogadishu. This consignment included 1,000 machineguns, 45 surface-to-air missiles, M-79 rocket launchers and land mines.

After its arrival, the UN says that Iran promised the Islamists further weapons, but only in return for uranium, presumably for use in Teheran's nuclear programme.

Two Iranians were sent to the Somali town of Dhusa Mareb to negotiate this deal. "At the time of the writing, there were two Iranians in Dhusa Mareb engaged in matters linked to uranium in exchange for arms," it said.

Somalia's recoverable uranium deposits, totalling about 6,600 tonnes, are among the smallest in Africa, but the country collapsed into anarchy 15 years ago when its central government was destroyed. The Islamists, who captured Mogadishu from a coalition of secular warlords in June, are now believed to control the area where uranium is present.

Teheran appears to have sought the right to exploit these deposits, which could be shipped to Iran through Mogadishu's large port.

Six other countries have aided the Islamists. Iran's main ally, Syria, trained 200 Somali fighters in guerrilla warfare. Libya provided £600,000 for training and salaries. Other support came from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Djibouti.

But most of the weapons have come from Eritrea ... [which] hopes to place pressure on its larger neighbour by building Somalia's Islamists into a major regional power and ally. Accordingly, it has sent about 2,500 troops into Somalia.

All this breaches a UN embargo placed on Somalia. The report was compiled by four experts charged with monitoring breaches of this embargo. Their conclusion is that the flow of weapons favours the Islamists and has succeeded in turning them into the "most powerful force in Somalia".

Tiny Minority of Extremists Update: the indomitable Tawfik Hamid here confirms what was acknowledged yesterday by the US Military Academy: that far from being that tiny minority, "radical Islam, sometimes called Salafism, is so deeply embedded in the Arab world that Salafis now constitute a 'majority or significant portion' of the Muslim population in the Middle East and North Africa." And elsewhere in the Islamic world also.

"Fundamental Islam linked to terrorism," by Jay Tokasz for the Buffalo News, with thanks to Mark:

Dr. Tawfik Hamid nearly boarded a plane decades ago on an eventual path to holy war with the United States.

Instead, he took an opposite route and now travels throughout Europe and North America warning about what he experienced firsthand as a member of a jihadist group run by Ayman al-Zawahiri, the current second in command of al-Qaida.

"One single mistake, and I would've been sitting with al-Zawahiri instead of sitting with you now," he said in a recent interview with The Buffalo News.

Hamid, an Egyptian-born medical doctor, psychologist and author of "The Roots of Jihad," travels throughout the world discussing Islam on college campuses, at churches and synagogues and in nonprofit organizations. Hamid was in Western New York in October for a series of private talks and will return for a presentation at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Love Joy Gospel Church, Lancaster.

The former member of Gama'a al-Islamiyya, which is identified as a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department, has plenty to say about Islam and terrorism - and some of it doesn't sit well with American Muslims.

Hamid worries that Westerners have become too politically correct, refusing to accept that current Islamic teaching - not poverty, not Israel and not the war in Iraq - is the root cause of Muslim terror.

"I believe Islam can be taught in a peaceful manner," he said. "But it's unfair to say the current dominant form of Islamic teaching, which is salafi Islam, taught in mosques and universities, is peaceful."

Quite the contrary, said Hamid, who traces the spread of this virulent form of Islam to the rise of Saudi Arabia as an economic and political powerhouse....

Among other teachings, salafi Islam calls for the killing of apostates, considers Jews subhuman, encourages the beating and enslavement of women and urges war to convert nonbelievers, said Hamid.

"These are fundamentals of Sharia law. This is what they teach in the mosques and the universities," he said.

Hamid was attending medical school in Cairo when he joined Gama'a al-Islamiyya, intent on becoming a more observant Muslim. "I was not thinking of doing evil to anyone, absolutely not," he said. Within a few months, though, he became a self-described "vicious monster, like a beast," due to the group's teachings on Islam....

Sunnis forbid sex outside of marriage, creating a sexual suppression in young Muslim males who haven't accumulated enough wealth to marry, said Hamid. At the same time, they believe beautiful virgins await in heaven for men who abide by Islamic tenets. Sunni men stuck in this situation would die for a cause "just to make sex in paradise," Hamid said. "It is embarrassing, but it is what I used to think."

As much as he thought of violent acts, though, Hamid couldn't bring himself to do them. He left Gama'a al-Islamiyya in search of a different understanding of Islam.

Hamid's preaching, however, soon got him run out of a mosque by a rock-throwing group of men who threatened his life, he said.

Hamid changed his name and fled Cairo in 1992. He moved to the West three years later but refuses to identify the country where he lives for fear that it would put him and his family at risk.

Even in the United States and Europe, Hamid believes moderate Muslims are in the minority.

Hamid accused Muslims in the West of feeding into the radicalization of Islam by not forcefully confronting fundamentalist Islamic teachings.

"Because of them, reformation is not happening," he said.

But Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Muslims here have condemned terrorism for years, even issuing a fatwa against it.

Ah yes, that handy fatwa. It says in part:

In the light of the teachings of the Qur’an and Sunnah we clearly and strongly state:

1. All acts of terrorism targeting civilians are haram (forbidden) in Islam.

2. It is haram for a Muslim to cooperate with any individual or group that is involved in any act of terrorism or violence.

3. It is the civic and religious duty of Muslims to cooperate with law enforcement authorities to protect the lives of all civilians.

All right. This sounds great. But what is a "civilian"? This fatwa, after all, was written long after many Muslims, including some influential Islamic teachers, began saying that civilians in Israel, most notably, were not civilians in the way we understand the term, and could be lawfully targeted by mujahedin.

With that idea widespread in the Islamic world, it was wholly inadequate for the Fiqh Council of North America, which issued the fatwa, simply to condemn attacks on "civilians." For its fatwa to be genuinely effective against the spread of the jihad ideology among Muslims, it would have to address the question of what a civilian is, and why Israeli and American non-combatants should not be targeted.

Why would the Fiqh Council issue such a paltry and useless fatwa? Was it more interested in impressing non-Muslims than in turning Muslims away from jihad activity?

See also Steven Emerson's remarks about the terror ties of many of those who signed the fatwa.

But because of the general ignorance of what Islam teaches and what Islamic teachers are saying, Ibrahim Hooper is brought in by reporters everywhere to spread more disinformation fog, and is never, ever called on it.

This was inevitable. An update to this story by Paul Garwood for Associated Press, with thanks to Kapil:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's lower house of Parliament passed amendments to the country's rape laws Wednesday, ditching the death penalty for extramarital sex and revising a clause on making victims produce four witnesses to prove rape cases.

Consensual sex outside marriage remains a crime punishable by five years in prison or a $165 fine, said a parliamentary official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

International and local calls for change intensified after the 2002 gang-rape of a woman, Mukhtar Mai, who was assaulted after a tribal council in her eastern Punjab village ordered the rape as punishment for her 13-year-old brother's alleged affair with a woman of a higher caste.

The amendments — which still must be approved by the Senate — enraged Islamic fundamentalists, but won cautious support from human rights activists, who wanted the controversial laws scrapped altogether.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf praised lawmakers for passage and urged the government-controlled Senate to approve the amendments within days. He also criticized Islamic fundamentalists for their "unnecessary" opposition and claims that his government was acting against Islam.

"I have taken a firm decision to change these unjust rape laws as it was necessary to amend them to protect women," Musharraf said in a televised address to the nation.

The amendments were passed by a majority of the 342-member assembly, including Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who said it marked "a historic day" for the country.

"Nothing is against Islam in this bill," Aziz said, adding that the amendments were made in consultation with Islamic scholars, lawmakers and human rights activists.

Pro-Islamic lawmakers stormed out of the National Assembly Wednesday in protest of the new legislation, known as the Protection of Women Bill.

"We reject it," Maulana Fazlur Rahman, a top Islamist opposition leader, told reporters after the vote, which he described as a "dark day" in Pakistan's parliamentary history.

Rahman and other Islamists vowed to devise a strategy to block Senate passage of the bill. Islamic political groups have previously staged mass rallies to denounce moves by the military-led government deemed contrary to Islam.

Pakistan's late military dictator, Gen. Zia ul-Haq, introduced the laws, known as the Hudood Ordinance, in 1979 to appease Islamic fundamentalist political groups opposed to the secularization of Pakistani society.

Human rights activists and moderates have long condemned the laws for punishing — instead of protecting — rape victims by placing the burden of proof on them and providing safeguards for their attackers, such as requiring four eyewitnesses to bring rape charges.

The amendments come amid efforts by Islamabad to soften the country's hard-line Islamic image and appease moderates and human rights groups opposed to the laws.

Hina Jillani, a leading female Pakistani human rights activist, praised the government for taking practical steps to amend the rape laws, but demanded more legislation to protect women's rights.

"The government has made some positive changes by passing this bill, but it does not meet our demands," said Jillani, of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. "We wanted a total repeal of the 1979 rape law, but the government has not done it."

The amendments include dropping the death penalty and flogging for people convicted of having consensual sex outside marriage and giving judges discretion to try rape cases in a criminal rather than Islamic court. Strict Islamic law dictates that a woman claiming rape must produce four witnesses, making a trial almost impossible.

Discussion on the bill broke down in September after the government failed to win support from opposition Islamic groups, particularly for abolishing the need for four witnesses to a rape.

In a compromise, the government proposed the clause allowing a judge to try cases in either a criminal court or in an Islamic court. The new bill also removed the right of police to detain people suspected of having sex outside of marriage, instead requiring a formal accusation in court.

Remember this opposition from Islamic groups the next time you hear an apologist explaining how wonderful Islam is to women. Musharraf and Aziz follow the pattern of all too many moderates: they simply claim that what is being done is not against Islam, while their opponents insist that it is and have chapter and verse from Qur'an, Sunnah, and Islamic law to back them up. If moderates hope ultimately to blunt the force of opposition from Islamic hardliners, they will ultimately have to confront this fact.

An act of war -- and further evidence of the international character of the jihad, and of Sunni-Shi'ite cooperation against the infidel. From The Australian, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

MORE than 700 Islamic militants from Somalia travelled to Lebanon in July to fight alongside Hezbollah in its war against Israel, a confidential UN report says.

The report, seen by The New York Times, says the militia in Lebanon returned the favour by providing training and - through its patrons Iran and Syria - weapons to the Islamic alliance struggling for control of Somalia.

The paper said the report appears to be the first indication that foreign fighters assisted Hezbollah during the 34-day conflict, when Israel maintained a tight blockade on Lebanon.

The report also says Iran sought to trade arms for uranium from Somalia to further its nuclear ambitions, though it does not say whether Iran succeeded.

The report says Iran, Syria, Libya, Egypt and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon are providing arms, training and financing to Islamic militants as they seize political and military control in Somalia.

The Washington Post said the report, prepared by a panel of UN weapons and financial experts, warned that the conflict could reignite a war between Eritrea, the chief foreign sponsor of the Islamists, and Ethiopia, which is backing Somalia's weak transitional federal Government.

When Al-Qaeda operatives are jailed, they are told to claim that they have been tortured. From the Al-Qaeda playbook:

1. At the beginning of the trial, once more the brothers must insist on proving that torture was inflicted on them by State Security [investigators ]before the judge.

2. Complain [to the court] of mistreatment while in prison.

3. Make arrangements for the brother ’s defense with the attorney, whether he was retained by the brother ’s family or court-appointed.

4. The brother has to do his best to know the names of the state security officers, who participated in his torture and mention their names to the judge.[These names may be obtained from brothers who had to deal with those officers in previous cases.]...

6. During the trial, the court has to be notified of any mistreatment of the brothers inside the prison.

From the Chicago Tribune, :

MIAMI, FLORIDA -- Federal prosecutors on Monday denied claims by suspected Al Qaeda operative Jose Padilla that he was tortured during his 3 1/2 years in military custody as an enemy combatant.

In papers filed in federal court, prosecutors said Padilla, 36, provided no evidence to back up his claims and urged that the case against the former Chicago gang member not be dismissed based on his allegations. They insisted that Padilla was treated humanely while in a Navy brig in South Carolina.

"Padilla's allegations of torture have no merit whatsoever," prosecutors said.

Padilla's lawyers last month asked a federal judge to dismiss the terrorism support charges against him based on their allegations that he suffered from "outrageous government conduct" while in military custody for more than 1,300 days.

As well as by the PC luvvies who infest the print media in the United States. "A Banned Book," by Sir Wellington Boot at HenryThornton.com, with thanks to Stephen:

Sir Wellington Boot, 15/11. Henry...there are a few new books on sale about Mohammad of Mecca and Islam. Some of them are shamelessly hagiographical, but this book is shamelessly critical. It is therefore banned, effectively, by the PC luvvies who infest the print media in Australia. You won't see a review of it in the Age or SMH; you won't easily find it in the expected quality bookshops (if at all); you certainly won't find it on uni or school reading lists. I am offering this review by the well known English social commentator and psychiatrist, Theodore Dalrymple.

It is important to grasp Islam realistically. It is most important to realise the ONE BIG TRUTH about this whole situation: there are moderate muslims, but there is no moderate Islam. The issue is not muslims, per se. The issue is Islam and its ambitions in the hands of men like Abu Bakr Bashir and armies of nameless Wahhabis who are working relentlessly to further their agenda. Purchase and reading of this book (the most exquisite Christmas gift for those with an ironical glint in the eye) is the least we can do, given that our enemies have been so kind as to publish their intentions toward us.

There follows Theodore Dalrymple's review of The Truth About Muhammad.

Incredible. By Irwin Arieff for Reuters, with thanks to Davida:

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iran, whose president has vowed to wipe Israel off the map, complained to the United Nations on Wednesday that the Jewish state was repeatedly threatening to bomb it.

The threats were "matters of extreme gravity" and the U.N. Security Council should condemn them and demand that Israel "cease and desist immediately from the threat of the use of force against members of the United Nations," Iranian U.N. Ambassador Javad Zarif said.

His comments came in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan dated November 10 and circulated at the United Nations on Wednesday....

Israel has fueled the speculation with a series of "unlawful and dangerous threats," Zarif said.

Better late than never, but if they had been reading Jihad Watch, they would have known that for three years now. "Qaeda Leaders Losing Sway Over Militants, Study Finds," by Mark Mazzetti in the New York Times, :

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 — As radical Islam spreads globally through online forums and chat rooms, a group of obscure Arab religious thinkers may come to exert more influence over the jihadist movement than Osama bin Laden and other well-known leaders of Al Qaeda, a research group at the United States Military Academy has concluded.

In a study billed as the “first systematic mapping” of an ideology sometimes called jihadism, the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point has found that Mr. bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, have had a relatively minor influence on the movement’s intellectual foundation. Among the network’s ideologists, they have come to be seen more as propagandists than strategic thinkers.

And while the two Qaeda leaders have released a flurry of video and audio messages to their followers over the past year, the study found that the scholarly work of a group of Saudi and Jordanian clerics — most notably Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, a Jordanian — seems more likely to influence the next generation of Islamic militants.

As a result, the authors found, the death or capture of Mr. bin Laden and Mr. Zawahri would do little to slow the spread of jihadist ideology.

“It would be a blow in terms of the emotional impact, but in terms of the larger movement that the foot soldiers are being recruited into, it wouldn’t put much of a dent into it at all,” said William McCants, the chief author of the new report, “The Militant Ideology Atlas.”

The 382-page report, a kind of who’s who of the global jihadist movement, examines the most influential and widely read texts among the thousands of tracts in Al Qaeda’s online library, known as the Tawhed.

With the dismantling of the Qaeda hierarchy that existed on Sept. 11, 2001, and the diffusion of the jihadist movement into smaller, more localized cells, the Tawhed has gained new significance in helping to shape militant thought.

American officials say they fear that the next generation of terrorist attacks could be carried out not by militants trained in Al Qaeda camps but by fighters influenced by radical texts posted online....

The report found that radical Islam, sometimes called Salafism, is so deeply embedded in the Arab world that Salafis now constitute a “majority or significant portion” of the Muslim population in the Middle East and North Africa.

“Western governments have neither the local credibility nor the cultural expertise necessary to diminish the popularity of Salafism,” the study found.

If demographic trends continue. "German Population Plunge 'Irreversible,' Federal Stats Office Admits: Expected that one third of all European children will be born to Muslim families by 2025," by Gudrun Schultz for LifeSiteNews, with thanks to David:

BERLIN, Germany, November 9, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Germany’s downward spiral in population is no longer reversible, the country’s federal statistics office said Tuesday. The birthrate has dropped so low that immigration numbers cannot compensate.

“The fall in the population can no longer be stopped,” vice-president Walter Rademacher with the Federal Statistics Office said, reported Agence France-Presse.

Germany has the lowest birthrate in Europe, with an average of 1.36 children per woman. Despite government incentives to encourage larger families, the population is dropping rapidly and that trend will continue, with an expected loss of as much as 12 million by 2050. That would mean about a 15 percent drop from the country’s current population of 82.4 million, the German news source Deutsche Welle reported today.

The low birthrate will cause the German population to age dramatically over the next 40 years--last year there were 144,000 more deaths than births, and that number could increase to 600,000 by 2050, the FSO forecast stated.

With a 22 percent reduction in the workforce and increasing costs for senior assistance and medical care, the drop in population is expected to have a radical impact on the nation’s economy, along with the welfare budget....

Germany has one of the largest populations of Muslim immigrants in Western Europe, with a Muslim community of over 3 million. That trend is expected to continue, leading some demographic trend-watchers to warn that the country is well on the way to becoming a Muslim state by 2050, Deutsche Welle reported.

The Brussels Journal reported last month that one third of all European children will be born to Muslim families by 2025. There are an estimated 50 million Muslims living in Europe today--that number is expected to double over the next twenty years.

"It's something that's partial. It's half-way. We would have liked to see a total repeal of these anti-women and discriminatory laws." Still, it's some good news. By Zeeshan Haider for Reuters, with thanks to Tanis:

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's lower house of parliament voted on Wednesday to put the crime of rape under the civil penal code, curtailing the scope of Islamic laws that rights groups have long criticized as unfair to women.

The Women's Protection Bill was seen as a barometer of President Pervez Musharraf's commitment to his vision of "enlightened moderation" and a major battle in a struggle between progressive forces and religious conservatives over the Muslim nation's course.

"It is a historic bill because it will give rights to women and help end excesses against them," Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told the assembly after the vote.

The Islamic laws, known as the Hudood Ordinances, were introduced by a military ruler, President Zia-ul-Haq, in 1979. They made a rape victim liable to prosecution for adultery if she could not produce four male witnesses to the assault.

The main amendment approved on Wednesday takes rape out of the sphere of the religious law and puts it under the penal code.

That does away with the requirement for four male witnesses and will allow convictions to be made on the basis of forensic and circumstantial evidence.

The amendment bill must be approved by the upper house of parliament before it becomes law.

Human rights campaigners have long pressed for total repeal of the Islamic laws, but have nevertheless welcomed moves to amend them.

The amendments were fiercely opposed by an alliance of Islamist parties, which make up the main opposition bloc in parliament.

"SOME RELIEF"

Islamist lawmakers walked out of parliament, boycotting the vote, after leader Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman told the assembly the change to the law would encourage free sex.

"This is an attempt to create a free sex zone in Pakistan," he said. "Existing laws are correct and should be maintained ... The changes are not in line with Islamic teaching."

In an apparent concession to conservatives, an amendment was introduced shortly before the vote setting down punishment of up to five years in prison for extra-marital sex, though sex outside marriage had always been an offence under laws on adultery.

Opposition members of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's more liberal Pakistan People's Party supported the bill.

"It's something that's partial. It's half-way. We would have liked to see a total repeal of these anti-women and discriminatory laws," Sherry Rehman, a senior member of Bhutto's party told Reuters.

"We felt that since there was some relief provided to women in this particular bill, we would not stand in its way."

The amendments also introduced the concept of statutory rape, outlawing sex with girls under 16. The Islamic code had banned sex with girls before puberty.

A message of Islamic Peace and Tolerance from the Iraqi Sunni jihadists, as reported by the pro-jihad Kavkaz Center via the pro-jihad site Vanquishing Falsehood (thanks to Jan III Sobieski):

We promise you, Oh Nation of Muhammed, peace be upon him, that we will massacre the Jews and Christians along with their agents and dogs. Our swords drip with their blood and they will not cool off except in their chests and on their necks. We promise you that we will institute the righteous state in the land of the Rafideen land we will rule the land and people by the laws of Allah.

The Rafideen are the Shi'a.

Tune in to Glenn Beck's radio show right now and you will hear "Muhammad" from the New York-based Islamic Thinkers Society, which has threatened my life in the past (calls for Allah to torture someone are calls for his followers to do so), calling for Sharia law in the U.S.

Or catch one of the replays of Beck. It's a very revealing interview. Muhammad sidestepped Beck's question about whether he would be allowed to listen to music on the radio, but he avowed that women would not be allowed to leave the house without a male escort, and without a head covering.

Omar Bakri, the former British jihadist now based in Lebanon, is still at it: recruiting and exhorting British Muslims to jihad via the Internet. "Covert preaching of banned cleric," from the BBC, with thanks to Davida:

A banned cleric is still preaching support for terrorism to young British Muslims by appearing incognito on the internet, the BBC has learned.

The joint investigation by File on 4 and Newsnight has found Omar Bakri Mohammed broadcasts hatred for the UK using a variety of pseudonyms.

He was excluded from the UK last August on the grounds that his presence was "not conducive to the public good."...

The BBC investigation has also revealed how young British Muslims are being radicalised by extremists on university campuses and in street gangs.

Omar Bakri Mohammed ran the radical al-Muhajiroun group from Tottenham, north London, until it was proscribed last year....

In one broadcast he praised the 2005 London bombers by saying: "How can you condemn those great men - it's not something so bad, something so good. Something so good to be involved in."...

During an online question and answer session a Vigil member asked Omar Bakri Mohammed if Dublin Airport should be a terrorist target because US troops transit there on the way to Iraq.

The cleric replied: "Hit the target and hit it very hard, that issue should be understood. Your situation there is quite difficult therefore the answer lies in your question."...

Home Office Minister Tony McNulty said he would examine the details of the claim.

He also said: "Glorifying terrorism on the internet is an offence and we are trying to deal with it and keep up with it.

Mr McNulty added: "We do have to keep these things under review."

of course, McNulty.

Still more dhimmitude from British authorities. Hizb-ut-Tahrir has been banned in many countries, including some majority-Muslim countries. Why not in Britain? "Hate videos of Muslim group they failed to ban," by Duncan Gardham in the Telegraph, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

A Muslim organisation which the Government chose not to ban is preaching hatred and has infiltrated the Home Office, an investigation has revealed.

Hizb ut-Tahrir is showing inflammatory videos to small groups of followers then encouraging them to attack non-believers.

An HuT member has gained a job as an information technology worker in the Immigration and Nationality Directorate of the Home Office and been given a grant to organise an event for the radical group, it has been claimed in an undercover investigation by Vigil, a group campaigning against religious extremism.

In a mocked-up video shown to new recruits, a woman interrogator at Guantanamo Bay was shown wiping blood over the face of a prisoner to make him confess. A student in his twenties, who posed as a recruit to HuT, said: "The reaction was shocking.

"The group were clenching their fists and shouting, 'We'll kill her, how can you do this to our brothers? F****** kuffars [non-believers]."

"Afterwards the mushrif [leader] asked for our opinions and people seemed to think the British were the same, they were saying, 'A kuffar is a kuffar and f****** British troops, we have to do something.'

"They said, 'we have to attack from the inside' and I think they meant terror attacks."

The young man, who is known as Jay - not his real name – was forced to rob three people to show his loyalty to the group.

The group, which met at West Croydon Mosque, comprised five black and Asian men, aged between 18 and 28, most of them unemployed and four of them converts. Each group had a number and theirs was in the fifties. "They were thugs," said Jay, who spent six months with them.

Read it all.

More short-sightedness from Western authorities: "West to boost aid to Yemen in face of al-Qa'ida threat," by Anne Penketh in the Belfast Telegraph, :

President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen has undergone quite a transformation since Saddam Hussein presented him with a gold-plated AK-47 for his support in the first Gulf War.

Now an enthusiastic convert to the US-led "war on terror", President Saleh will today attend a London donors' conference at which he hopes to raise more than $5bn (£2.6bn) to help Yemen fight poverty.

Britain, which contributes £10m per year to help Yemen meet international poverty targets, will raise its aid to £50m per year by 2011 - an increase of 400 per cent - the International Development minister Gareth Thomas said yesterday.

The West is acting to bolster the Yemeni government, which has carried out democratic reforms under President Saleh, in order to prevent Yemen becoming a failed state, said Mamoun Fandy, an analyst with the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

"Yemen can go two ways. It can either spiral into a Somalia, or donors can prop up the government to make sure its policies won't feed into the message of al-Qa'ida," he said.

If study after study hadn't already shown that poverty doesn't cause terror, this might make some sense.

The government this week vowed to strike terrorists with "an iron fist" after a group calling itself al-Qa'ida in Yemen claimed responsibility for an attempted suicide attack two months ago on oil facilities....

Britain hopes that wealthy Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, as well as the European Commission and World Bank, will donate generously.

Will the Saudis and Kuwait chip in? Hope away.

"But we did it because authorities did nothing against massacres of Muslims." Oh come off it, Hasanuddin. I take it these three Christian teenage girls were at fault for doing nothing against alleged massacres of Muslims?

Deflection of Responsibility Alert from AP, :

A suspected Islamic militant told judges Wednesday he took part in the beheadings of three Christian girls on an Indonesian island wracked by sectarian violence because he wanted to avenge the deaths of Muslims.

Hasanuddin told the Central Jakarta District Court he and two other men were "involved" in the October 2005 attack on the girls as they walked to school on Sulawesi island, the scene of interfaith battles that left at least 1,000 people dead from 1998 to 2002.

Those interfaith battles, of course, were unprovoked jihad attacks on Christians by mujahedin.

"I was indeed involved in the beheadings," Hasanuddin, who like many Indonesians goes by only one name, told the court. "But we did it because authorities did nothing against massacres of Muslims."

Rosie strikes again. And in one sense, she's right: I am certainly not interested in living my life in fear. And the defense against the global jihad is worlds away from her caricature of it as fear "of anyone who thinks different than you." But I suspect she equates due vigilance with fear.

From WorldNetDaily.com, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

TV host Rosie O'Donnell says there's no reason for Americans to fear terrorists because they are just moms and dads like us.

On her ABC show "The View" last Thursday, the shoot-from-the-lip actress-comedienne explained in less-than Rooseveltian fashion that Americans have nothing to fear but fear itself.

"Faith or fear, that's your choice," she told co-host Elizabeth Hasselbeck and panelists including Barbara Walters and Beverly Sills.

"You can walk through life believing in the goodness of the world, or walk through life afraid of anyone who thinks different than you and trying to convert them to your way of thinking. And I think that this country ... ."

To which Hasselbeck interjected: "Well, I'm a person of faith, so I, but I also believe ... ."

"Well then, get away from the fear," interrupted O'Donnell. "Don't fear the terrorists. They're mothers and fathers."

Sure. Moms like this one.

This story doesn't say how Wolfgang Bohringer has been linked to Atta. "Report: FBI raises terror alarm about South Pacific flying school," from The Associated Press, :

CANBERRA, Australia: U.S. authorities have raised an alarm over a plan by a German citizen — linked to the Sept. 11 terror attacks — to build a flying school in a remote South Pacific island nation, a news report said Wednesday.

Wolfgang Bohringer has been linked to Mohamed Atta, the lead hijacker in the attacks on New York and Washington in 2001. The German arrived by yacht in Kiribati a year ago with plans to build a flying school, but has since left the far-flung archipelago, Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio reported.

The island where the school was planned was among the country's closest to the U.S. island state of Hawaii, the report said.

Kiribati's President Anote Tong said the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation had warned him that it was suspicious of Bohringer, the ABC said.

Tong said the FBI also warned him that small countries like Kiribati, whose 94,000 people live on 33 atolls scattered 4,000 kilometers (1,400 miles) along the equator, could be vulnerable to terrorists, the ABC reported.

"I think it demonstrates how vulnerable small countries can be," Tong told the ABC.

"We confess we don't have the resources to be able to monitor everything and everybody that goes through our system, but it's made us a lot more alert, I think," he said.

"The Americans love Pepsi Cola, we love death" Update from Iraq. "Iraq: Three killed in suicide attack at funeral," from AP, :

A suicide bomber drove his car into a tent where a funeral was being held in the Iraqi capital on Wednesday, killing three people and wounding 15, police said.

The attack occurred at about 3 p.m. in the mostly Sunni-Arab neighborhood of Dora in southern Baghdad, said police Capt. Firas Geiti.

A note from Dr. Richard Benkin about Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury:

On November 14, Representives Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Nita Lowey (D-NY) introduced a Congressional Resolution urging the Bangladesh government to drop all charges against Muslim journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury and cease all other forms of harassment against him. I have attached Congressman Kirk's press release about this, as well as the Resolution itself, House Resolution 1080. It will be voted on before Congress adjourns at the end of this year.

Please contact your Congressional Representatives and urge them to support House Resolution 1080. Please encourage everyone you know to do the same. This is an issue that both Democrats and Republicans are supporting, and we must get it passed by a huge margin. This is our chance and the Congress's chance to make a strong statement for justice and against radicalism, and help save the life of this very brave man. You should contact your current Member of Congress who was in office before the recent elections.

Please act now and get everyone you know to act.

It will be interesting to see who votes against this.

Is that you, Mahmoud?

In the Moscow daily Kommersant, Daniel Pipes (thanks to James) discusses a new photo that has come to light. It may show the Thug-In-Chief of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, guarding the U.S. Embassy during the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979. (Many news links in the original.)

Is that really Mad Mahmoud? I can't tell from just two photos. What do you think?

Five former American hostages confirmed that Ahmadinejad as one of their captors. William J. Daugherty, a former intelligence officer, said he saw Ahmadinejad 8 to 10 times at the start of his captivity: "I recognized him right off. … I remember so much his hatred of Americans. It just emanated from every pore of his body."

BBC correspondent John Simpson recalled seeing Ahmadinejad on the embassy grounds. Abholhassan Bani-Sadr, a former president of Iran long living in exile, asserted that Ahmadinejad "wasn't among the decision-makers but he was among those inside the Embassy."

But Ahmadinejad's office denied these allegations and other hostage-takers, some of them now political opponents of Ahmadinejad – including Mohsen Mirdamadi, Hamid Reza, Abbas Abdi, Mohammad-Reza Khatami, and Saeed Hajjarian Jalaiepour – confirmed his account. One former American hostage denied Ahmadinejad had been a captor. Amir Taheri, editor-in-chief of a Tehran newspaper in the shah's time, concluded that "it is almost certain Ahmadinejad was not directly involved in the US embassy episode."

Thus did the issue die inconclusively: Ahmadinejad was for sure a central committee member of the main student group behind the embassy takeover, the "Office for Consolidating Unity between Universities and Theological Seminaries," leaving his precise role in the hostage-taking murky.

A new picture located by Kommersant re-opens this issue, providing new evidence that Ahmadinejad was not some backroom political type but in fact was a automatic gun-wielding hostage-taker. The person pictured here differs from the one in the Associated Press photograph, but should Ahmadinejad's identity as hostage-taker be established and accepted, it has two implications at this particularly delicate moment in U.S.-Iranian relations.

Is that Ahmadinejad in Kommersant's newly-located picture on the left? A recent photograph is on the right.

First, it brings back, especially for Americans over forty years old, the powerful and enduring humiliation of the 1979-1981 embassy takeover, with the likely consequence of hardening U.S. attitudes toward an Ahmadinejad-led government building nuclear weapons. The present alarm over his intentions will be fueled by a renewed mistrust.

Second, although Ahmadinejad is a powerful and dynamic politician, he has many domestic opponents and this evidence provides them with new evidence of his extremism, rashness, and unsuitability to govern the country, which they may be able to exploit.

Given the tepid reception to the picture that surfaced in June 2005, however, I expect that the information in this photograph will also be finessed. The machinery of international politics will likely find it too inconvenient for this unsavory history to be assimilated.

Watch for more kidnappings. After all, it works. Centanni and Wiig Update: "Fox News reporters freed for $2 million: Terrorists used cash for arms to 'hit Zionists,' payment said to encourage more abductions," by Aaron Klein for WorldNetDaily.com, with thanks to News4U:

JERUSALEM – Palestinian terror groups and security organizations in the Gaza Strip received $2 million from a U.S. source in exchange for the release of Fox News employees Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig, who were kidnapped here last summer, a senior leader of one of the groups suspected of the abductions told WND.

The terror leader, from the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees, said his organization's share of the money was used to purchase weapons, which he said would be utilized "to hit the Zionists."

He said he expects the payments for Centanni and Wiig's freedom will encourage Palestinian groups to carry out further kidnappings.

Officials associated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party and its security organization, the Preventative Security Services, confirmed to WND money was paid for the release of the Fox News reporters.

A senior leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group, the declared "military wing" of Fatah, said the group received a small percentage of the $2 million, which all parties interviewed said was transferred in cash.

Read it all.

Obvious questions: How many may not yet have been uncovered? How many more sympathize with Hizb ut-Tahrir's agenda? "Immigration HQ 'employs a radical Islamist'" by Nigel Morris and Ben Russell for The Independent:

An activist in the radical Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir is reported to be working in the immigration service headquarters.

The claim will cause embarrassment for the Home Secretary, John Reid, as he prepares to announce fresh counter-terrorism measures in the Queen's Speech today. The Home Office said last night it was urgently studying the claims on BBC2's Newsnight.

The man was claimed to be working at Lunar House, Croydon, the headquarters of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND).

Hizb ut-Tahrir, which backs the introduction of sharia law, has been banned in several countries, including Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Turkey. Tony Blair said in August last year that he too wanted to see the group outlawed, but the Government decided against such a move after warnings from police that a ban would force the organisation underground.

The group insists it opposes violence and has condemned terrorist bombings in London, Madrid and Bali.

Patrick Mercer, the Conservative homeland security spokesman, said: "This shows just how hopeless the Government's counter-terrorism strategy is."

Charles Johnson at LGF (with thanks to Michelle Malkin for the mag cover above) has a particularly egregious example of how the mainstream media is not just biased -- it is actively fighting for the jihadists.

You’re not going to believe this one.

All our suspicions about mainstream media slanting and distorting the news from the Middle East are confirmed in a bombshell of a post by Bruno Stevens, at the Lightstalkers pro photographers’ forum: The Lebanon ‘garbage dump’ story: complete explanation. (Hat tip: Snapped Shot.)

His photograph, published by both US News and World Report and Time Magazine, had a caption describing the scene as the wreckage of an Israeli jet shot down by Hizballah. In this post, Stevens reveals that the captions he sent in with his pictures described the scene accurately—but editors at the magazines changed the captions to completely alter the story.

This caption clearly says that there is no proof that an Israeli jet had been shot down and that the objective was indeed to destroy a legitimate military target.

...A week later TIME published this image shot at the same time as the first...

They choose to caption it this way (I had NO control in this matter), they HAD my original caption: “The wreckage of a downed Israeli jet that was targeting Hizballah trucks billows smoke behind a Hizballah gunman in Kfar Chima, near Beirut. Jet fuel set the surrounding area ablaze.”

The anti-Israel bias of mainstream media has never been revealed more nakedly; the editors who selected this photograph deliberately changed the caption to convey an anti-Israel message, throwing the truth right out the window to do it.

And even more damning is the photo they chose not to publish, showing a medium range ground-to-ground missile launcher hidden in a civilian truck—on a Lebanese Army base.

In a sane world, George Bush and Tony Blair would publicly note such evidence of military action among civilians, abetted by the Lebanese army, and give their full support to Israeli actions against Hizballah. And they would warn people that in no way is Time magazine in any sense an objective news source.

Read it all.

Against their will. "Sharia: another threat to peace," from The Tide Online, with thanks to Morgaan Sinclair:

The North West zone of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) last week condemned the repeated trial of Christians before Sharia (Islamic) Courts in Kaduna without the due consent of the Christians.

According to a statement by CAN, several letters had been written to the Grand Khadi (Islamic Chief Judge) in the state where they pointed out the obvious disregard for the judicial reforms in the state.

CAN notes that in spite of the protest against the trial of Christians in Sharia Courts in Kaduna, the act had continued with the passing of judgement on Christians without their consent, noting that this could threaten the peace.

This is one complaint that should be treated with urgency to ensure that things did not get out of hands. If the Islamic leaders in the state have failed to respond adequately to this distress, the state can not afford to delay.

Even as the state is expected to act fast, the federal government must intervene now before the situation escalates. This must be done quickly to avoid the repeat of religious violence that results in the loss of human lives and property.

If what CAN has said is correct, all peace-loving people in Nigeria and beyond must persuade the Islamic Courts to desist from acts capable of disturbing the peace, including trying and sentencing of Christians.

In the interest of fairness and of peace, the Sharia courts must be seen to have completely absolved all the Christians arraigned before them of all charges and be transferred to legitimate courts of law in the state for proper trial.

UPDATE: Kevin Mooney has made some revisions and corrections to his piece, for which I thank him. The revised piece is here.

Here is a rather disappointing story about my talk at the Heritage Foundation yesterday -- but since there is unlikely to be any other coverage of the event, I thought I'd comment on it a bit. "Author Examines 'War' Against Non-Muslims," by Kevin Mooney of CNSNews:

Washington (CNSNews.com) - Western policymakers need to "undertake a systematic study" of Islamic theology and law before they can understand the goals and motives of terrorists who are working to subjugate or convert non-Muslim populations, a scholar on Islam told a gathering in Washington on Tuesday.

It would be a mistake to assume that Islam has been "hijacked," argued Robert Spencer, the author of a recent book on the prophet of Islam, Mohammed.

Terrorists and extremists targeting American interests today are making use of the actual text in the Koran and the teachings of their prophet, he said.

Spencer is the director of the Jihad Watch website and the author of six books, his most recent dealing with Mohammed.

"It is untrue that jihadists are a tiny minority of extremists," Spencer said in a lecture hosted by the Heritage Foundation.

"The texts of Islamic jurisprudence say it is incumbent upon the Islamic community to wage war against non-Muslims until they submit or convert. This concept is shared by all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence and is not rejected by anything considered orthodox."

At the conclusion of Spencer's presentation, police were called to the event after several individuals began to chant slogans, expressing their displeasure at the substance of Spencer's talk.

"One hundred thousand Muslims died -- that's like Nazi genocide. Spencer and Cheney want World War III," chanted the protestors, who identified themselves to Cybercast News Service as representatives of former presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche.

These LaRouche kids weren't listening. I had explained my opposition to the Wilsonian Iraq democracy project just a few minutes before they started singing about me and Cheney.

Police arrived on the scene following an altercation in the hallway outside of the lecture hall.

Spencer was particularly critical of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). He accused the organization of accepting funds from sources with ties to Hamas. He also said individuals in CAIR were working to replace the U.S. Constitution with Islamic law (shari'a).

I didn't say anything about their accepting funds from Hamas. I said their co-founders came out of the Islamic Association for Palestine, which was a Hamas group. Nor did I say that individuals in CAIR were working to replace the U.S. Constitution with Islamic law. I said that Omar Ahmad and Ibrahim Hooper had said they would like to see Islamic law in the U.S., and that several CAIR officials were now in prison for various terrorism-related activities.

These might seem like small distinctions, but on such matters it is very important to be careful. You can hear what I actually said here.

In response, CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said Spencer was a "leading Islamophobe" who has written "bone chilling" comments on his "Jihad Watch" website that incite unfounded and unjustified hatred of Muslims.

I wonder if Hooper really said I had written "bone chilling" comments here. If so, he has never published anything I've written that chilled his bones. He has put out press releases noting some unmoderated comments that were written by other people here -- many of which I deleted as soon as I saw them.

It is also worth noting -- although Kevin Mooney didn't come back to ask me anything about this -- that some of these "bone chilling" comments are planted. Recently a man with the name "Jevad" in his email address came here and wrote several genocidal and inciteful posts under the name "Feingold." I deleted them and banned him, of course, but it was clear that he was writing posts that he hoped would become ammunition for Hooper and Co.

Anyway, notice: Hooper doesn't address anything I said about CAIR, or even anything Kevin Mooney said I said. All he does is attack me personally. And Kevin Mooney, apparently, doesn't call him on it and press him to talk about CAIR.

It is disturbing that a respected institution like the Heritage Foundation would have someone like Spencer," Hooper told Cybercast News Service.

Ironically enough, I think it is disturbing that respected institutions like CNN, MSNBC, etc., would have someone like Hooper.

CAIR has launched an educational effort of its own called "Explore the Life of Muhammad," which includes a free book or DVD about the prophet's life and legacy. The campaign followed the worldwide controversy over caricatures of Muhammad, first published in a Danish newspaper.

Two years ago, CAIR launched an online petition drive called "Not in the Name of Islam," which is intended to "disassociate the faith of Islam from the violent acts of a few Muslims."

And that's it. No look into that petition drive to see its obvious inadequacies as a tool to dissuade Muslims from the jihad ideology. No questions about what CAIR is doing to fight that jihad ideology. Nothing about the arrested CAIR officials. Nothing -- just a last paragraph that gives readers the impression that here is a good moderate Muslim group that I am wickedly picking on.

I expect this sort of thing from the mainstream media. It is a bit disappointing to see it from CNS.

They've found more traces of plutonium -- and that's just where they've been able to inspect. By Michael Adler for AFP:

VIENNA, Nov 14, 2006 (AFP) - UN nuclear inspectors have found new traces of plutonium, a possible weapons material, in Iran, the UN atomic agency said in a confidential report that was unable to confirm that Tehran's nuclear program is peaceful.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report, obtained by AFP, also detailed how Iran is pressing ahead with research levels of uranium enrichment -- a process the West fears could be diverted to make a nuclear bomb.

Despite the threat of UN sanctions over Tehran's refusal to hold back its nuclear program, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced Tuesday that Iran eventually planned to install tens of thousands of uranium-enriching centrifuges to produce nuclear fuel.

The IAEA report said the agency is investigating traces of plutonium found in containers at a waste storage site at Karaj in Iran.

Iran has been "requested to provide further clarification" of highly enriched uranium as well as plutonium particles found at Karaj and responded to this request on Tuesday, the report said.

A senior UN official told reporters that the Iranian response had come too late to be analyzed before an IAEA meeting next week in Vienna that will review the Iranian nuclear program.

The official said an overall problem remains in getting full and timely Iranian cooperation with the IAEA investigation into its atomic program that began in February 2003.

Iran needs "to do more" to clear up "the ambiguities particular to some of the alleged military aspects of the program," the official said.

According to the report, progress in this regard "is a prerequisite for the agency to be able to confirm the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear programme."

Ahamdinejad announced Tuesday that the ultimate aim of Iran's atomic drive was to install some 60,000 uranium-enriching centrifuges to produce nuclear fuel.

In Washington, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormak said the announcement was a "cold jolt" to doubters of Tehran's nuclear arms ambitions.

And at the United Nations, US Ambassador John Bolton said: "President Ahmadinejad's statements and the draft IAEA report both demonstrate the urgency for the Security Council to act on Iran. Sanctions are obviously the only means to get Iran's attention."

Ambassadors from Germany and the UN Security Council's permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- are currently deadlocked in talks to agree on a European draft resolution urging nuclear and ballistic missile-related sanctions against Iran.

The draft put forward by Britain, France and Germany includes travel bans and financial restrictions on Iranian scientists working on the nuclear and missile programs.

It is viewed as too tough and as counter-productive by Russia and China, which both maintain close energy and trade ties with Tehran while Washington is pushing for even tougher sanctions.

Iran has installed a new cascade, or production line, of centrifuges at its uranium enrichment facility in Natanz in the center of the country, and now has two cascades of 164 centrifuges each running, as well as several smaller cascades.

Iran from August 13 to November 2 fed "a total of approximately 34 kilograms" of feedstock uranium gas into centrifuges in Natanz, producing a small amount of uranium enriched to low levels, the report said.

It did not detail how much uranium was produced but said enrichment levels seemed to be below five percent, nowhere near the 90 percent level needed to make atom bombs.

The research uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, where Iran wants eventually to build a large-scale facility with over 50,000 centrifuges, is monitored by the IAEA but the agency is also investigating possibly military-related nuclear work by Iran elsewhere.

One such site was a physics laboratory at Lavizan in Tehran that was razed in 2004 before IAEA inspectors could visit.

"Iran has not yet responded to the agency's long outstanding requests for clarification concerning and access to carry out further environmental sampling of equipment and materials related to the Physics Research Centre (PHRC) nor has Iran provided the agency with access to interview... (a) former head of the PHRC," the report said.

The agency is also waiting for information on high explosives testing and the design of a missile re-entry vehicle, the report said, adding that Iran had not provided "sufficient clarification" on experiments designed to separate out plutonium.

A report by George Jahn for The Associated Press includes these additional details of Iran's non-cooperation:

They said Iran refused to let the IAEA increase monitoring of enrichment facilities at Natanz ... denied access to suspicious equipment or military personnel, and refused to provide information on apparent experiments linking nuclear and ballistic missile research.

"You can't expect British society to be reconfigured around you." That, of course, is precisely what jihadists not only expect, but demand. From AFP:

LONDON: The second-highest figure in the Church of England waded into the row over Muslim veils, saying they did not conform to “norms of decency” in Britain, in a newspaper interview published on Monday. Doctor John Sentamu, the archbishop of York, questioned whether Muslim women should expect public acceptance for wearing the veil in Britain. He told the Daily Mail, “Muslim scholars would say three things. First, does it conform to norms of decency? Secondly, does it render you more secure? And thirdly, what kind of Islam are you projecting by wearing it? I think – in the British context – it renders you less secure because you stick out and it brings unwelcome attention. On the first question (of whether the veil conforms to norms of decency) I don’t think it does conform.”

The Ugandan-born 57-year-old archbishop said he removed his cross when visiting a mosque or a synagogue and covered his head in Sikh temples “because I am going into someone else’s home”. “I can’t simply say: ’Take me as I am, whether you like it or not’. I think the thing is in British society you can wear what you want, but you can’t expect British society to be reconfigured around you. No minority can expect to impose this on the public or civic life.”

This afternoon I spoke at the Heritage Foundation; you can find some remarks about the talk and its aftermath in the comments field here. You can watch or listen to an mp3 of the talk on the Heritage site here. (I can't tell from my laptop if these things are available yet, but I understand that if not, they will be within 24 hours.) The talk and Q-and-A was also filmed by C-Span, and should be broadcast in a few weeks.

There was one frivolous question, as detailed in the comments field linked above, but otherwise it was a good set of questions from a thoughtful group of people. At the end a number of plants in the audience began singing a song about me and Dick Cheney -- they turned out to be followers of cult leader Lyndon LaRouche. They also showed up at an event in Boston at which I spoke several weeks ago, so I wouldn't be surprised if I see them again soon. The song seems to have been a variant of the one they used to disrupt a debate between Lamont, Lieberman, and the Republican guy in Connecticut a few weeks ago, although I doubt they sang about me in front of Lieberman.

It is kind of them to think me so important as to write a song about me, but it is a pity that the only way the opposition sees fit to engage the points I bring forth is with scorn and ridicule, rather than substantive discussion. And that goes for many more people than today's singers.

Quick, set another deadline at the UN before they finish: Maybe this one will work! By Ali Akbar Dareini for The Associated Press:

TEHRAN, Iran - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that Iran would soon celebrate completion of its nuclear fuel program and claimed the international community was ready to accept it as a nuclear state.

[...]

"Initially, they (the U.S. and its allies) were very angry. The reason was clear: They basically wanted to monopolize nuclear power in order to rule the world and impose their will on nations," Ahmadinejad told a news conference.

"Today, they have finally agreed to live with a nuclear Iran, with an Iran possessing the whole nuclear fuel cycle," he said. He did not elaborate.

President Bush said Monday there was no change in his position that Iran must first suspend uranium enrichment before there can be any dialogue with Tehran.

"Our focus of this administration is to convince the Iranians to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions. That focus is based on our strong desire for there to be peace in the Middle East. And an Iran with a nuclear weapon would be a destabilizing influence," Bush said Monday.

The Iranian leader said he hoped "to hold the big celebration of Iran's full nuclearization in the current year." Iran's current calendar year ends on March 20.

Though Ahmadinejad did not specify, he appeared to indicate that Iran was on the verge of proficiency in the whole cycle of nuclear fuel — from extracting uranium ore to enriching it and producing nuclear fuel.

Russia, which is backed by China, opposes tough action advocated by the U.S., Britain and France, and its amendments to a Western draft resolution would reduce sanctions and delete language that would cut off Iran's access to foreign missile technology.

The U.S. and some of its allies allege that Iran is developing nuclear weapons and are suspicious of its intentions after Tehran concealed parts of its nuclear development from U.N. inspectors for many years.

[...]

Iran has said it will never give up its right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to enrich uranium and produce nuclear fuel. Officials have said they plan to generate 20,000 megawatts of electricity through nuclear energy in the next two decades.

Since revelations more than three years ago of a covert uranium enrichment program, Iran has moved to develop its capabilities, activating two small experimental enrichment plants and enriching small amounts of uranium to nuclear fuel level. Although that is far short of the weapons grade uranium that could be used for nuclear warheads, international concerns about Tehran's ultimate intentions led the Security Council to set an Aug. 31 deadline for an enrichment moratorium — which Tehran has ignored. Officials have said they plan to have 3,000 centrifuges operating by next year — enough to make enough material for several nuclear weapons a year.

Suspicions also are focused on Tehran's construction of a heavy water reactor that — when completed in the next decade — will produce plutonium waste, another pathway to nuclear weapons.

In "My day in court" in Israel Insider, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury , the persecuted journalist in Bangladesh, discusses the proceedings against him yesterday:

As some of you are aware, Bangladesh is currently experiencing serious political problems, and on 13th November the entire country was under the 'Blockade' programs of a major political party. Naturally, there was no vehicle on the road, and in every other place, there was a large number of angry demonstrators chanting slogans.

I woke up in the early morning to prepare for the court. By 8:30 am., I was already on my way. And, there was nothing on the road, except some bicycles and rickshaws. I had to walk for around 3 kilometers, before I could somehow manage a rickshaw (distance between my residence and the court is above 20 kilomemeters). Then the rickshaw was stopped at one point, almost two kilometers away from the court, by police, who put barricades on roads. Then I had to walk again. By the time I was inside the court building, I was sweating. Till now, winter has not been very much experienced in Dhaka.

The Court picked up my case at 1:35 pm., and there was a hearing for around 10 minutes. The judge, Mohammed Momin Ullah, asked the Public Prosecutor to read the charge in front of me. He came and read, "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 which, charges under section 295-A, 120-A, 124-A, 105-A and 108-A are brought against you. Are you guilty or not"? he asked.

I replied, "I am not guilty." By advocating inter-faith dialogue, supporting relations between Bangladesh and Israel, I have not done anything wrong. Regarding the existence of Islamist radicals in this country, the matter is already endorsed several times by country's press, leaders, administration and judiciary. Continuation of this false case will open the doors for JMB criminals, whose death penalty issue is now in the higher court, in getting legal benefit. I firmly stand on my position'. Then my lawyers told the court that they will challenge this decision to the higher court.

The angry judge, a radical, then asked the Public Prosecutor to call the witnesses on 22nd Janaury 2007.

What a 'great New Year gift' from the radical judge! Isn't it?

May I request you all to kindly consider the following points:

- The government should end all forms of harrassments on me

- The travel ban on Israel should be immediately withdrawn

- Israeli news media should have access to Bangladesh (presently Bangladesh does not permit appointment of representatives of any of the Israeli media),

- Bangladesh should immediately begin relations with Israel,

- Provocative sermons (instigating people towards scalled jihad and bloodshed) in mosques and madrassas against Jews and Christians should be banned,

- Demand immediate removal of radical judge Momin Ullah from the Metropolitan Session Judge's court, and sacked,

- Legal proceedings should be immediately drawn against him for his alliance with Islamist radicals,

- Government to ensure immediate security to me (police protection at my residence is not yet back, despite two letters to the President),

- Radical leader Mufti Noorani, who exploded a bomb in our office in July and the attackers belongs to BNP's cultural wing, should be immediately arrested,

- Cash US$ 3,000 and other valuables, which had been seized during my arrest should be immediately returned.

Thus my day in court.

I have no love for the BNP. Its strength is an indication of the wholesale abdication of responsibility on the part of the mainstream British parties, none of which seem able to discuss the jihad threat to Britain in any useful manner. (Yes, my British friends, the same thing is true of the mainstream parties in the United States.)

This case shows just how out-of-focus the British approach to the jihad threat really is. Nick Griffin calls Islam a "a wicked, vicious faith," and is charged with race hate. What race is Islam? It is a religious faith and a political ideology, of course, not a race at all, but at the same time the British authorities' classification of Griffin's offense is understandable. After all, most Muslims in Britain are from central Asia, and thus it has become illegal to discuss the elements of an ideology that is held by a large number of non-white people.

But this is absurd in a number of ways. For one thing, if Nick Griffin had said what he said about Islam to Abu Abdullah, a white British convert to Islam, would his offense still be "race hate"? And if Britain is now going to criminalize criticism of an ideology, does that mean that it will soon be illegal in Britain to call Nazism a wicked, vicious" political ideology? Does the religious content of an ideology exempt it from criticism, such that if Adolf Hitler had declared himself a prophet and Mein Kampf a divine revelation, it would be illegal to criticize him? Or if Nazism had not been held by Germans but by Pakistanis, it would be illegal to criticize it?

"Race-hate laws to be changed after BNP case fails," by Andrew Norfolk and Greg Hurst in the TimesOnline, with thanks to Fjordman:

NEW laws to clamp down on racism are being prepared by the Government after the leader of the far-right British National Party was cleared of stirring up racial hatred by attacking Islam.

Gordon Brown swiftly pledged to bring in tougher powers to raise the chance of convictions in similar cases, calling the BNP’s statements offensive.

His intervention came after an all-white jury decided that Nick Griffin, the BNP chairman, broke no law when he condemned Islam as “a wicked, vicious faith” at a secretly filmed meeting.

Plans for an offence of incitement to religious hatred were thrown out in a rare Commons defeat for the Government in February after a campaign led by the comedian Rowan Atkinson.

A watered down version was passed requiring that prosecutors prove intent and protecting freedom of expression but has yet to become law. It is expected to take force from February next year.

Although his speech focused on the alleged evils of Islam and was supportive of Sikhs, Mr Griffin, 47, could only be charged — alongside Mark Collett, 26, the BNP’s publicity director — with inciting racial hatred. It was their second trial, after a jury failed to reach a verdict at the first.

Mr Brown told BBC News 24: “I think any preaching of religious or racial hatred will offend mainstream opinion in this country and I think we have got to do whatever we can to root it out from whatever quarter it comes. And if that means we have got to look at the laws again, we will have to do so.”

Treasury sources indicated that John Reid, the Home Secretary, was thinking on similar lines.

Lord Falconer of Thoroton, QC, the Lord Chancellor, last night supported Mr Brown’s calls forreform of religious hatred laws. “We should look at them in the light of what has happened because what is being said to young Muslim people of this country is that we as a country are anti-Islam and we have got to demonstrate without compromising freedom that we are not.”

Why is it not incumbent upon Muslims in Britain to demonstrate unequivocally that they accept British laws and British society as it is currently constituted, and have no desire to implement Sharia in Britain at any time in the future?

And surrender on the part of the West is a good way to end that confrontation, as far as Zapatero is concerned. From Expatica, with thanks to Fjordman:

ISTANBUL — Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said on Monday one of the biggest challenges facing the world faced was changing the confrontation between East and West.

Zapatero was speaking in Istanbul during a visit to Turkey to see his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He said: "One of the greatest challenges confronting the international community is reversing the current negative interaction and disconnect between the West and the Islamic world."

In a letter signed by both leaders and published in the Spanish daily El Pais, they said the current trend of antagonism favours movement toward "policies based on identity in which extremism can flourish".

The joint letter came as both premiers took part in Istanbul, along with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and others, in a high-level meeting of those promoting "the Project for an Alliance of Civilizations" launched by the heads of government of Spain and Turkey.

For Zapatero and Erdogan "the initiative to form a true Alliance of Civilizations responds to a broad consensus among nations, cultures and civilizations that all societies are inter-dependent and their development,