May 2007 Archives

So much for the conventional wisdom.

From the Daily Times, with thanks to PR:

LAHORE: As NATO troops in Afghanistan have begun intercepting sophisticated Iranian arms bound for the Taliban, US, NATO and Afghan officials are growing more concerned about Iranian policy in Afghanistan, says a Knight Ridder report.

It’s long been conventional wisdom that Iran would do nothing to destabilise Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s shaky government or aid the Taliban, against whom Iran nearly went to war with in 1998. The Taliban obtains the lion’s share of its weapons and other aid from the proceeds of opium trafficking and from supporters in Pakistan and Arab nations, the report says.

The recent seizures of Iranian arms by British troops in Afghanistan’s war-torn southern Helmand province are challenging that assumption, however.

“Iran appears to be playing a very small role, but it appears to be increasing,” said Seth Jones, an expert at the RAND Corp, a research centre that’s close to the Pentagon.

The intercepted weapons include the first so-called explosively formed penetrator bombs, devices that spit molten copper plugs that can penetrate the armour of American tanks, troop carriers and Humvees, said US officials who requested anonymity because the matter is classified.

The Bush administration accuses Iran of supplying the same weapons to Shia militias in Iraq. Iran denies the charge. Still, US officials and independent experts don’t think that Tehran wants the Taliban returned to power. “The Iranians don’t want the Taliban back,” said Barnett Rubin, a leading scholar on Afghanistan who met with Iranian officials during a recent visit to Kabul. “That is a red line for them.”

Well, the guy who sent this in to the Hate Mail Bag is on to me, Darth Spencer, Freakin' Batman, the Notorious Robert Spencer, the Alan Wolfe of the Right:

I have read some of your articles and am astounded by your ignorance with humanity. May God, you people hate to easy. If what you say is true about Muslims and they way they hate, then what about you? Your just as bad!!!

I wrote back to him:

Yeah, I guess so. I was chopping off some people's heads this morning and I had a twinge of conscience: I thought to myself, "Self, you're just as bad!"

Al-Qaeda, says John Miller, is getting more skillful. By James Gordon Meek for the New York Daily News, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

WASHINGTON - The FBI has increased its use of secret search warrants over the past two years because of a "high tempo of terrorist activity," a top official said yesterday.

FBI Assistant Director John Miller said the 2,176 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act search warrants approved last year, compared with only 1,754 granted in 2005, mostly targeted plotters inside America.

"We're seeing a very high tempo of terrorist activity, not just based on the cases you're seeing being brought in the United States," Miller said in an interview yesterday for C-SPAN's "Newsmaker" program.

Miller said the warrants, issued by a secret federal court in Washington, are usually not a "way to a prosecution," but are "an intelligence tool."...

Al Qaeda is "on a bell curve and they're getting more effective" at planning new strikes while pushing propaganda to inspire others to "take that ball and run with it."

"They're counting on both happening at once," Miller said. "They're better at this than they were before and they're thinking about it differently."

Iraqi Jihad Update: resistance to Al-Qaeda in Baghdad and a suicide/martyrdom attack in Fallujah. By Sinan Salaheddin for Associated Press (thanks to Morgaan Sinclair):

BAGHDAD (AP) - A battle raged Thursday in west Baghdad after residents rose up against al-Qaida and called for U.S. military help to end random gunfire that forced people to huddle indoors and threats that kept students from final exams, a member of the district council said.

Meanwhile, a suicide bomber hit a police recruiting center in Fallujah, killing as many as 25 people, police said - though the U.S. military said only one policeman was killed and eight were wounded. Elsewhere, three policemen and three civilians were killed and 15 civilians were wounded when a suicide truck bomber struck a communications center on the western outskirts of Ramadi, according to Anbar provincial security adviser Col. Tariq Youssef Mohammed....

U.S. forces backed by helicopter gunships clashed with suspected al-Qaida gunmen in western Baghdad's primarily Sunni Muslim Amariyah neighborhood in an engagement that lasted several hours, said the district councilman, who would not allow use of his name for fear of al-Qaida retribution....

But the councilman said the al-Qaida leader in the Amariyah district, known as Haji Hameed, was killed and 45 other fighters were detained.

Members of al-Qaida, who consider the district part of their so-called Islamic State of Iraq, were preventing students from attending final exams, shooting randomly and forcing residents to stay in their homes, the councilman said....

The Fallujah suicide bomber killed at least 10 policemen in the attack, which occurred about 11 a.m., according to a police official in the city who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information. The rest of the dead were civilians, many of them in line seeking jobs as policemen. He said as many as 50 were wounded.

Fallujah General Hospital had received 15 bodies and 10 wounded, according to a doctor there, who would not allow the use of his name because he feared retribution. The physician said he believed other casualties were taken to the nearby Jordanian Hospital and private clinics.

A member of the Fallujah city council, who also asked for anonymity for fear of attack by insurgents, said there were at least 20 killed and 25 injured.

Reacting to the now-notorious suckling fatwa, Ali Gomaa, the statue-hatin', wife-beatin', Hizballah-supportin' Mufti of Egypt, says we should bring some common sense back to the fatwa-issuing process. And I am all for that. What say the Mufti, instead of directing his attention to the toilet habits of Muhammad and his companions, issue a clear, unequivocal fatwa against the harassment and persecution of Copts and other non-Muslims? How about one that not only denounces attacks on innocent civilians without defining the terms, but one that says that Israeli, British, and American non-combatants, as well as non-Muslim non-combatants elsewhere, are innocent civilians?

Too much to ask?

"Mufti Ali Gomaa calls for restrictions on issuing fatwas," by Yasmine Saleh in Egypt's Daily Star, with thanks to LGF:

CAIRO: Ali Gomaa, Egypt's top Mufti, requested that all Islamic institutions put a unified standard to which all sheikhs in the world should adhere, when it comes to issuing fatwas, reported Al-Ahram Daily newspaper.

Gomaa made the request three days ago during a conference that brought together members of Dar El Ift (house of fatwa, religious edicts) yesterday in Kuwait.

The conference, titled "Issuing Fatwas in the Open World," is expected to run for three days, said Al-Ahram.

Gomaa himself is the author of a controversial book which claimed that Prophet Mohammed’s (PBUH) companions used to drink his urine, considering it a blessed act, as reported by Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper.

Gomaa stuck to his position despite criticism, claiming that everything which emanated from the Prophet is pure and sacred.

“We hope that we will no longer have to see another fake and incorrect fatwa similar to those that have been released recently about breastfeeding adult men and the Prophet's Mohammed’s (PBUH) urine,” Sheikh Mohmoud Ashour, former deputy of Al Azhar and member of the Islamic Research Center, told The Daily Star Egypt.

"If implemented properly [Gomaa’s recommendation] will prevent fatwas from becoming a business not a science as it should be," Ashour said pointing to the sheikhs who appear on TV and profit from making controversial and incorrect fatwas.

"A person who issues a fatwa should be qualified to do so. He should be honest and careful with every fatwa he releases," Ashour said.

Gomaa's request came a week after Sheikh Ezzat Atiya, president of the Hadith (Prophet Mohamed’s (PBUH) Sayings) department at Al-Azhar University, issued the breastfeeding fatwa in which he had drawn on Islamic traditions which forbid sexual relations between a men and a women who had breastfed him, to suggest that symbolic breastfeeding could be a way round the strict segregation of males and females.

The resultant controversy led to an apology and withdrawal from Atiya that was followed by Al-Azhar’s decision to suspend him and refer him to a disciplinary committee.

Not at the jihad. At "No Jihad Street."

Islam in Europe (thanks to LGF) has the story.

Where is this Saudi student, and what is he doing?

Another disquieting revelation from the recently vindicated Annie Jacobsen in Womens Wall Street, with thanks to LGF:

On October 15, 2006, a young Saudi Arabian male named Anwar Al——,* (His full name will not be used for legal reasons) claiming to be an engineering student at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock, presented what must have been false documents to United States Customs and Immigration (CIS) at an east coast airport and managed to slip into the country illegally. This is something that is not easily done: for a citizen of Saudi Arabia to get into the United States to attend an institution of higher learning requires the scrutiny of multiple, Cabinet level federal agencies. Customs was the last line in a series of Homeland Security controls that began halfway around the world at the US Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Anyone who has picked up a newspaper since September 11, 2001 understands why this is the procedure: fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers were Saudi nationals.

Those 15 Saudis were issued visas and allowed entrance by United States officials. In other words, technically, those 15 hijackers came here with US consent. For reasons that are tragically obvious, after those 15 Saudis and their four colleagues killed 3000 people, the question of how they got permission to come here so easily caused great alarm. US citizens demanded reform and they got it—sort of. A 100-year old agency was disbanded (INS), the visa-issuing facility in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (where most of the Saudi 9/11 hijackers received their visas) was shuttered and hundreds of millions of dollars flooded into the system to make sure no more murderous terrorists from Saudi Arabia would be coming our way.

So how did this Saudi kid presenting himself as a student slip into the United States without being stopped? And what was his reason for doing so? And illegal entry is only one of the federal offenses Anwar Al—— appears to have committed. Others raise even more serious alarms; events just three days after being admitted to the US involving this young, Saudi male raise the national security stakes exponentially. What happened next is enough to make you ask, just who is Saudi Arabia sending our way anyway – and what exactly are we doing about it?

Read it all.

When MPAC's Edina Lekovic and I were on the O'Reilly Factor last fall, the segment ended with her making several false and outrageous claims about me, but perhaps because I didn't get a chance to respond to them on the air and the falsehoods stood for the viewing audience, she didn't feel any need to respond to my repeated requests for a retraction. But when Steve Emerson caught her out a few days ago on CNBC's Kudlow, exposing her as the editor of a Muslim student paper in the 1990s that praised Osama bin Laden as a great mujahid, she responded swiftly in a letter to Emerson filled with the insults, slurs, distortions, and victim-playing that will be familiar to longtime readers of this site as often coming from Islamic spokesmen. From the Counterterrorism Blog, with thanks to LGF:

Mr. Emerson's witch hunt this time centered around a July 1999 issue of Al-Talib magazine, to which he referred in the interview and later on his website. And this time, his witch hunting stumbled on a printing mistake which I had no part in, but which he has exploited to serve his agenda. For reasons unknown to me, given that I had already graduated at that time, my name is listed in the staff box as a managing editor of that issue. I had graduated and had no participation in campus life by that time. I had no role in the publication of that issue of the magazine and I had no part in the writing of the article to which he refers.

I am shocked and saddened that my name has been falsely attached by Mr. Emerson to sentiments that I in no way support, and that are antithetical to the work I do day in and day out in the service of my community and my country.

My time as a student journalist at UCLA was indeed memorable to me, but has been misrepresented and distorted by Mr. Emerson. I was the editor in chief of the Daily Bruin, which won several prominent journalism awards for news reporting and overall excellence under my leadership. I wonder how in his relentless digging expedition Mr. Emerson neglected to note my award-winning work.

Check the facts -- I wasn't a student when this issue was published. I had no role in its publication, and I abhor the sentiments expressed in the article to which Mr. Emerson refers. Mr. Emerson's style of shock, smear and distortion have proven once again that the value and validity of the information he claims to offer to the American public is little more National Enquirer-style reporting.

But, as is the case so often with superficially fact-based presentations made by Islamic apologists, this one turned out to be completely inaccurate. Emerson blows her away with the facts:

So let’s examine Ms. Lekovic’s role with al-Talib. From October 1997 to May 2002, in addition to the July 1999 “The Spirit of Jihad” issue, there are at least 11 other issues of the newspaper which list Ms. Lekovic as either “managing editor,” “copy editor,” “assistant editor” “writer,” or give her “special thanks.” A curiously high amount for someone who initially claimed she never worked for the newspaper or now says she only “briefly worked” for it.

[...]

As you can see, well after Ms. Lekovic graduated in 1999, and well after the article she claims to “abhor” was published in July of that same year, Lekovic was still contributing to al-Talib.

And while Ms. Lekovic is suddenly and curiously coy about her stint at al-Talib, such was not always the case. Just a few short months after 9/11, a December 2001 MPAC event program (See Page 6), titled, "The Rising Voice of Moderate Muslims,” included a bio for Ms. Lekovic, which proudly stated, “While at UCLA, Ms. Lekovic also was the managing editor of Al-Talib (The Student), a nationwide Muslim student publication.”

If Ms. Lekovic was embarrassed by her association with al-Talib – which had referred to Osama bin Laden as a “great Mujahid” and “freedom fighter” almost a year after he ordered the bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa resulting in more than 200 deaths and over 5,000 injuries while her name was on the masthead as a “managing editor” - it certainly was not evidenced in MPAC’s December 2001 event program, ironically for an event supposedly dealing with “Moderate Muslims.” Clearly, in certain venues, including MPAC-sponsored conferences, being the “managing editor” of al-Talib is considered a source of pride. Why else include it in her bio?

Read it all.

They want academics to "consider the moral implications of links with Israeli academic institutions," but they themselves never consider the moral implications of aiding and abetting the global jihad.

By Yaakov Lappin for Ynet News, with thanks to LGF and all who sent this in:

Britain's University and College Union (UCU), comprising of university academics, voted in favor of considering a boycott of Israeli academics and institutions at its conference in Bournemouth on Thursday evening.

The resolution, passed by 158 votes in favor and 99 against, "notes that Israel's 40-year occupation has seriously damaged the fabric of Palestinian society through annexation, illegal settlement, collective punishment and restriction of movement... deplores the denial of educational rights for Palestinians by invasions, closures, checkpoints, curfews, and shootings and arrests of teachers, lecturers and students."...

Responding to the resolution, Professor Menachem Kellner, Professor of Jewish Thought at Haifa University, said: "I'm deeply disappointed by the failure of truth and justice at this vote."

"I don't think such a boycott will seriously impact Israeli academia, but I treat it with seriousness because it will affect Jewish organizations abroad," Kellner added.

"The people who organized this boycott are working for the forces of evil. They not working for Palestinians, they are working against Israel," Kellner declared, adding: "If there was something there that would actually help Palestinians, I would say they are honest but dumb. But this is just an attempt to defame and delegitimize Israel."

Yes.

Dossa's arrogance and sense of victimhood will be familiar to regular readers. And note that he is claiming persecution and talking about academic freedom in support of a genocide-abetting fiction. "Professor who attended Holocaust conference blasts critics as Islamophobes," by Michael Valpy in the Globe and Mail, with thanks to LGF:

A Canadian political scientist excoriated for attending what was widely labelled a Holocaust-denial conference in Tehran has retaliated with a blistering published attack on his university president and his colleagues for being illiterate Islamophobes.

Writing in the influential Literary Review of Canada, Shiraz Dossa, a tenured professor at Nova Scotia's St. Francis Xavier University, said that his academic integrity and academic freedom were grossly impugned by the university administration, an assault on his reputation that he said has yet to be remedied.

He accused the president and chancellor of authorizing a "small Spanish Inquisition" to denounce him - a campaign he said was initiated by two Jewish professors and the Christian chair of the political science department.

Prof. Dossa also wrote that the attack on his reputation was launched by The Globe and Mail's editorial board and by columnists John Ibbitson and Rex Murphy, whom he described as being "intellectually just a cut above the Trailer Park Boys" and ignorant of the Middle East.

James Turk, executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, likened the treatment of Prof. Dossa to the 1950s McCarthy period in the United States when academics and others were subjected to intense pressure not to attend events that were unpopular.

Two FGM Updates from MEMRITV. "Egyptian Villagers Explain Why They Circumcise Their Daughters":

Following are excerpts from a television program about female circumcision in Egypt, which aired on Al-Mihwar TV on May 10, 2007:

[...]

Interviewer: In the Islamic religion, and in the villages and neighborhoods, it is always said that girls should be circumcised just like boys. Does it come from the Sunna, or is it a custom or yours?

Female villager: Circumcision is part of the Sunna of the Prophet. We used to bring a daya, and she would circumcise the children, but when the role of the daya was abolished, we stopped. Now we take our children to the doctor, and he circumcises them.

Interviewer: So it is the doctor who circumcises the girl?

Female villager: Yes. If a girl is not circumcised, she can't stand it. When she is circumcised, she is calm and has self-restraint. The circumcision protects the girl and makes her clam.

[...]

Interviewer: So you think all women should be circumcised to protect their honor.

Female villager: The Prophet said that the men go and wage Jihad for a year. He said that girls should be circumcised so they can bear it for a whole year until the men return. [...]

And "Al-Azhar Cleric Farahat Sa'id Al-Munji Justifies Female Circumcision: It Replaces the Chastity Belts of Ancient Times":

Following are excerpts from an interview with Al-Azhar Cleric Farahat Said Al-Munji, which aired on Al-Mihwar TV on May 10, 2007:

Farahat Sa'id Al-Munji: The Prophet said that circumcision is obligatory for men, and is noble for women. This means that for the sake of her honor, a woman can be circumcised. This noble act can be either carried out or not. Moreover, this noble act is subject to restrictions nowadays. I once had a discussion with a gynecologist, who said: "A man brought his daughter to me, and I told him she must be circumcised immediately." Why? Because he discovered that her clitoris was so big that it was bound to cause her pain or bother her when she reached puberty, and therefore, she had to be circumcised. He told me that other girls came to him, and he said they should not be circumcised. Why? Because their clitoris was normal in size, and did not bother them. It would be crazy to deal with such a clitoris, which does not protrude to an extent that might bother the woman, when it rubs against her clothing and so on...

Guys, all these things appear in Islamic law. Don't think we are making these things up. It all exists [in religious law] and is determined... We say that if the clitoris is so on and so forth... What am I saying? When the Prophet Muhammad met Umm Salama in Al-Madina – what did he say to her? "Are you still doing what you sued to do in Mecca?" In other words, are you still circumcising girls, like you used to do in Mecca? She said: Yes. He said: "Trim it, but don't cut it off." According to another version, he said: "Shorten it, but don't cut it off." "Trim it" means leaving room for sexual desire. That little bit on top, which looks like the rooster's crest, is shortened, but just the upper part. She needs to cut off the prepuce, the little bit at the top.

Religious murder in California? From AP, with thanks to all who sent this in:

ANAHEIM, California — A man held for questioning in the murder of a father and daughter in California was upset with the family because they broke off his relationship with another daughter for religious reasons, court documents indicated.

Friends told the Orange County Register newspaper the victims were devoutly Hindu, and court papers said the religions in question were Hindu and Muslim.

Iftekhar Murtaza, 22, of Los Angeles was arrested on a fugitive warrant Saturday at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Arizona, and was being held on Wednesday without bail.

An extradition hearing was scheduled Thursday.

The Register reported that Murtaza had a one-way ticket to Bangladesh.

This sounds great, but note carefully this message from Fjordman: "I've seen signals from the European Union that they will step up control with 'illegal websites.' But since they recently passed pan-European anti-racism laws that ban incitement of hatred against 'religious groups,' this could potentially make Islam-critical websites illegal, too. Keep that in mind while reading this."

"EU to strengthen surveillance of terrorist websites," by Helena Spongenberg for the EU Observer, with thanks to Fjordman:

The European Union wants to strengthen its monitoring of militant Islamic websites, saying the internet plays a major role in the running and communication network of terrorist organisations. EU ambassadors gathering for their weekly meeting in Brussels on Wednesday (30 May) decided that a newly established online police portal "needs to be further strengthened" to combat terrorism, according to press reports. The European Union wants to strengthen its monitoring of militant Islamic websites, saying the internet plays a major role in the running and communication network of terrorist organisations.

EU ambassadors gathering for their weekly meeting in Brussels on Wednesday (30 May) decided that a newly established online police portal "needs to be further strengthened" to combat terrorism, according to press reports.

The high-security portal - named "Check the Web" - was launched earlier this month and allows the 27 EU states to pool data on Islamist propaganda and internet chatter at the European Police Office (Europol) in The Hague.

Islamic Tolerance Alert: "Man gets death for blasphemy after video trial," from the Daily Times, with thanks to Andrew Bostom:

LAHORE: An additional district and sessions judge on Wednesday sentenced a blasphemy accused, Younis Masih, to death after a video jail trial. The court also fined him Rs 100,000.

Factory Area police had registered a blasphemy case under Section 295 C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) against Masih on September 10, 2005, after he had allegedly made derogatory remarks about Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) at a Qawali function on September 9, 2005.

The accused challenged the whole legal process in his case and said that the investigation against him was illegal. He said that according to the law, a police officer below the rank of superintendent of police (SP) could not conduct investigation in a blasphemy case, but a sub-inspector (SI) had conducted the investigation in this case, which made the whole process illegal. He requested that the case against him be quashed....

The lawyer of the accused said that Christians had arranged a spiritual gathering at Chungi Ammarsidhu in September 9, 2005, at which a neighbour, Abdul Aziz, also a complainant in the case, had objected and demanded that they perform Islamic rituals instead of Christian rites. The argument turned hot during which, the complainant alleged that the accused had used the derogatory remarks.

Jihadists in Bangladesh find that a picture is only worth six words: Stop that or we'll kill you. Sharia Alert. "Bangladesh: Photography students receive death threats," by Angilee Shah for AsiaMedia:

Students and staff at Pathshala, the Dhaka-based South Asian Institute of Photography, received death threats over the weekend from proponents of Islamic law in Bangladesh. The letters, sent to at least three students and 16 staff, faculty and board members, allege that the school's photographers are violating Islamic law in their work.

The letters were individually addressed and mailed to Pathshala and to students' home addresses. While it is unknown who made the threat, the author claims to be a leader of Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), an organization banned by the government and known for its militant activities. The page-long form letter, one of which was seen by AsiaMedia, outlines alleged goals of JMB and warns students and staff to stop "all kinds of photography except natural photography," "all kinds of movie [sic] and movie posters," "cultural program" and "fine arts." The author writes that addressees and their families will be killed if these activities continue.

In Islam, idolatry is forbidden and in some of the strictest traditions, representing people in a form such as photography is considered a form of idolatry or a practice which can lead to idolatry.

Many Islamic jurists have considered photography exempt from prohibitions on graven images, seeing them not as humanly generated images, but as a record of things made by Allah. Nonetheless, photographers are often regarded with suspicion of immorality, and that suspicion is supported by the words of Muhammad himself:

Narrated Aisha: I stuffed for the Prophet a pillow decorated with pictures (of animals) which looked like a Namruqa (i.e. a small cushion). He came and stood among the people with excitement apparent on his face. I said, "O Allah's Apostle! What is wrong?" He said, "What is this pillow?" I said, "I have prepared this pillow for you, so that you may recline on it." He said, "Don't you know that angels do not enter a house wherein there are pictures; and whoever makes a picture will be punished on the Day of Resurrection and will be asked to give life to (what he has created)?" - Bukhari 004.054.447

Narrated Abu Talha: 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

"We are living in a small hell on earth." From Compass Direct:

ISTANBUL, May 22 (Compass Direct News) – A Chaldean priest kidnapped in Iraq on Saturday morning (May 19) was released last night.

Chaldean Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni told Compass from Baghdad that he had personally collected Father Nawzat Hanna from his captors at 9:30 p.m.

“For about one hour I was going here and there, here and there, until they told me to stop,” Warduni told Compass, describing his interaction by telephone with Hanna’s captors. “I was afraid then, because at 10 o’clock there was a curfew.”

Refraining from mentioning the exact location, Warduni said that after he stopped his car he recognized Hanna coming towards him.

“He came crying and saying, ‘Oh Father, Monsignor, thank you, thank God, thank our Lady,’” Warduni commented.

Sitting next to Hanna today at an undisclosed location in Baghdad, Warduni told Compass that Hanna had undergone a “little bit” of torture, but that he had not been hospitalized....

Warduni pleaded with Christians around the world to do everything possible to provide security for all religious and ethnic groups in Iraq. Expressing the daily fear that faces his community, Warduni said that it might even be better to die than to continue living in the “small hell on earth” that Baghdad has become.

Taliban growing bolder in northwest Pakistan. "13 people killed in attack on government official’s home in northwest Pakistan," from Associated Press (thanks to Davida):

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - About 100 suspected pro-Taliban militants attacked the house of a government official in northwestern Pakistan before dawn Thursday, killing 13 people, police said.

The house belonged to Ameerud Din, the top administrator of the Khyber Tribal region in North West Frontier Province, bordering Afghanistan.

Din was not home at the time, but his brother, who also is a government servant, was among those killed. Authorities said the dead included six members of the same family and seven guests.

"The attackers fired rockets, threw hand grenades and used guns" for about 30 minutes before fleeing, said Sanaullah Khan, an area police chief.

Two others were injured in the attack near the village of Guman, 12 miles from the troubled town of Tank.

Many husbands might have regarded such advice with some suspicion.

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

A young mother urged her husband to die as a terrorist martyr and said their baby son could follow in his footsteps, the Old Bailey has heard.

It is alleged Bouchra El Hor, 24, of Ealing, west London, encouraged Yassin Nassari, 28, in a letter found in their luggage at Luton airport.

Prosecutors said its significance was noted after missile-making instructions were found on Mr Nassari's computer.

The couple deny a total of three terrorism charges.

'Combat death'

Aftab Jafferjee, prosecuting, said they were not merely radicalised Muslims but Mr Nassari was going to engage in "what he and others like him would call a jihad, but what the law describes as terrorism".

"He held both the ideology and the technology with which that could be achieved," he said.

"His wife was not only aware of his intention but positively encouraged it, despite the fact that his actions would almost certainly result in his death in some form of combat and would also result in their son being without a father."

The letter, which was read to the jury, said:

"The moment has come that you and I have to separate for the sake of Allah.

"I am so proud of my husband. I am happy that Allah has granted you the chance to be a martyr.

"I am writing to let you know that you have my support and to remind you to be strong and do not let Satan influence you... to remind you that jihad is now compulsory and we are now obligated to protect Islam, to help our brothers and sisters to fight the kuffar [non-believer].

"I really wish I could go with you because I too feel obligated. I'd like to participate in any way I can.

"Everything happens with the will of Allah. Maybe one day I can follow you. If I can't, I will send our son to you so he can follow his father's footsteps."

"Jihad is now compulsory" because in this view a Muslim land has been attacked, and so according to traditional Islamic law, jihad becomes fard ayn, or compulsory on every believer to aid in some way.

The truth will out, eventually. "Extremists winning war of words, too," by Greg Sheridan in The Australian, with thanks to JE:

SIX years after the 9/11 terror attacks that destroyed the World Trade Centre in New York and killed almost 3000 people, a majority of American Muslims do not believe the attacks were carried out by Arabs. And more than one-quarter of young US Muslims believe suicide bombings can be justified in some circumstances.

These shocking and tragic findings, which come from the Pew Research Centre, tell us much about why the war against Islamist terror is going to last for generations.

The West is losing the information and propaganda war against Islamist extremism. It is not losing because it is being insufficiently kind to Muslims at home or in the Middle East.

As Britain’s Tony Blair wrote in The Sunday Times: “Extremism will be defeated only by recognising that we have not created it ... pandering to its sense of grievance will only encourage it.”

Blair confronted the argument that Muslims hate the West because it has taken military action in Afghanistan and Iraq: “Tell me what exactly they feel angry about? We remove two utterly brutal and dictatorial regimes; we replace them with a UN-supervised democratic process. And the only reason it is difficult still is because other Muslims are using terrorism to try to destroy the fledgling democracy and, in doing so, are killing fellow Muslims. Why aren’t they angry about the people doing the killing?”

The reason we are losing the battle of information and ideas is because the coherent religious and ideological position that al-Qa’ida represents has an extraordinary degree of support within the Muslim world. Even sentiments that don’t finally endorse al-Qa’ida often adopt a similar world outlook that embraces much of al-Qa’ida’s historical narrative and paranoid world view.

Most Muslims are moderates and abhor terrorism. But the minority that is extremist is a big one.

The flipside of al-Qa’ida’s success in the information war is our own dismal effort in this field. This does not mean endlessly telling Muslims how much we love them. Although in principle a bit of that is OK, as Blair implies it can be counterproductive by feeding an unjustified sense of grievance....

In many nations, moderate Muslims have been intimidated or even killed....

The Danish imams who campaigned successfully to turn a few cartoons into a worldwide jihad had previously been wrongly identified as moderates and benefited from state travel grants and the like....

One of the many disturbing features of the US Pew survey on the attitudes of American Muslims is that younger Muslims are substantially more extreme than their parents or grandparents. This reflects the experience in Europe, and probably Australia, that far from the second generation being more integrated, as has happened with every other migrant group, it is becoming more prey to the appeal of extremist ideologies and more alienated from its host society.

It is important to emphasise that the US survey does show that most American Muslims are moderate and reject extremism, and that American Muslims tend to be more moderate than European Muslims or Muslim populations in most majority Muslim nations.

But the US poll is merely the latest from across the world to show that the extremist minority is a very big, and therefore dangerous, one. A poll by the British think tank Policy Exchange showed similar results. Although most British Muslims are moderate, among 16 to 24-year-olds, 37 per cent would prefer to live under sharia law than British law, while 36per cent believe a Muslim changing their religion to something else should be punishable by death and 13per cent support al-Qa’ida.

Similarly, a joint Asia-Europe Foundation and University of Malaya poll found that 98 per cent of Malay Muslims believe Muslims should not be allowed by law to change their religion, 31 per cent want sharia law to replace the Malaysian constitution, 12 per cent support suicide bombings and a clear majority dislike or hate Europe, the US and Australia.

And in Australia, Taj Din al-Hilali, after all his extremist statements, remains the mufti. After everything, the national imams council still has not dismissed him. To equate this with Christian fundamentalism is utterly absurd. The widespread presence of extremist views in large minorities among Muslim communities poses acute dilemmas for a liberal society that no one has yet begun to face up to.

Indeed not.

On the Religion Report with Stephen Crittenden (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist), Rosie Malek-Yonan details the ongoing plight of Christians in the Middle East, which we have exhaustively documented here over the years:

Stephen Crittenden: The plight of Christian minorities in the Islamic Middle East is one of the 20th century tragedies to which we pay least attention.

From the Copts in Egypt, to the Maronites, the Melkites in Lebanon, Orthodox and Chaldeans, the Christian population of the Middle East is a fraction of what it was, and more vulnerable than ever. Nowhere is the situation worse at the moment than in Iraq. And few groups are more vulnerable than the ancient Assyrian Christian community. In fact, this week the Italian journalist Sandro Magister, has warned of the end of Christianity in Iraq.

In early May in a heavily Christian suburb of Baghdad, a Sunni extremist group began broadcasting a fatwah over the loudspeakers of the neighbourhood mosque: the Assyrian Christian community had to convert to Islam or leave, or die. Their Muslim neighbours were to seize their property. The men were told they had to pay the gizya - the protection money Jews and Christians traditionally had to pay to their Muslim overlords - and families were told they could only stay if they married one of their daughters to a Muslim.

More than 300 Assyrian families have fled, mostly to the north into the Kurdish region of Iraq where they are not welcome either They are sleeping in cemeteries, they have no food, more than 30 of their churches have been bombed, their children are being kidnapped and murdered.

Rosie Malek-Yonan is an Assyrian-American. She is a successful film and television actor who has appeared in many popular shows including Dynasty, Seinfeld, E.R. and Chicago Hope. Her novel, The Crimson Field, is a fictionalised account of the little-known Assyrian genocide that took place at the hands of the Ottoman Turks during World War One at the same time that the better-known Armenian genocide was taking place. She recently directed a documentary film on the same subject. And last year she was invited to give testimony before the US Congress about the plight of Assyrian Christians in Iraq. Rosie Malek-Yonan spoke to me from her home in California.

Rosie Malek-Yonan: The Assyrian people are the indigenous people actually of Mesopotamia, before it even was Iraq. All of that area was Mesopotamia and is the original homeland of the Assyrians. They date back to over 6,000 years and were always concentrated in that region.

Stephen Crittenden: And Christianity was accepted by Assyrians, well virtually in apostolic times, right at the very, very beginning?

Rosie Malek-Yonan: Right. Assyrians were actually the first nation to accept Christianity as an entire nation, not just individuals, but the entire nation, and we built the first church of the east.

Stephen Crittenden: And what about language? Aramaic for church, but what language does a typical Assyrian family in Baghdad speak at home?

Rosie Malek-Yonan: Well the language that we typically speak is the modern Assyrian, which comes from the ancient Aramian, which is the language of Christ. The church liturgy still uses the ancient language, and we grew up learning it, and understanding it and knowing it, but it's not typically used at home. At home we generally will speak the more modern Assyrian dialect.

Stephen Crittenden: Now in early May, a fatwah was issued by a militant Sunni group in Baghdad, calling on the Christians in a particular suburb of Baghdad called Dora, to convert to Islam or die.

Rosie Malek-Yonan: Yes. Actually as we are speaking, I'm getting bombarded with emails, and one of them is a plea to help the Assyrians of Iraq. The women in particular - I'll just read you a little bit of this email - says the Virgin Mary put on a hijab (hijab is the covering) so why not all Christian women dress the same? They are asking all women to dress in that fashion.

Stephen Crittenden: I understand there's a lot of kidnapping and murdering of particularly of young kids?

Rosie Malek-Yonan: Absolutely. Our children are being murdered, they're being kidnapped for ransom, even when the ransom is paid they're still killed. Priests are being beheaded, nuns are being killed, and not just a beheading, they behead them, they cut also arms and legs, they hack them off and they return them in that manner. Little children, their heads are bashed with concrete blocks. This has been going on since the beginning of the Iraq War. This is isn't just an isolated incident here or there, this is an ongoing genocide.

Yes it is. Read it all.

Brett_McS is our contest winner, and Dinesh D'Souza is hereby crowned the Dilettante of Dhimmitude. Congratulations to Brett and Dinesh also -- send your address, Brett, to me at director[at]jihadwatch.org, and I will send you an autographed copy of The Truth About Muhammad. And thanks to all those who entered the contest. The entries were all terrific, and I think Dinesh richly merits the titles "Hooper of Hoover" and "Lawrence of Taqiyya" as well as the winning entry.

Meanwhile, Mr. D'Souza himself, unable to deal with the facts Hugh and I gave him in response to his challenge to name two Sunni/Shia conflicts, has resorted to making things up, attributing them to me, and then refuting those. And I can see how that is a much easier task.

In "More Religious Wars, Mr. Spencer?," he says this:

Today's New York Times reports on escalating sectarian conflict in northern Iraq between Sunnis and Kurds. I'm sure Robert Spencer would be on the case, spouting his nonsense about religious wars, except that the Kurds happen to be Sunni as well!

Ah, yes, but Robert the history major can find examples in history of clashes between the Kurds and other Sunnis. Indeed there have been clashes, but that's because most of the Sunnis in the Middle East are Arab, while the Kurds are not. Ethnic and tribal identity--not religion--is the source of the conflict.

Saladin was a Sunni Muslim of Kurdish descent, and I'm sure Spencer can find some ancient conflict over territory to convince his gullible followers that the Sunni-Kurd clash has been going on for centuries. Actually this is nonsense, but fortunately for Spencer none of his readers actually knows what any of the internecine Islamic conflicts were about. So Spencer relies on the argumentum ad ignorantium: the argument that relies on the ignorance of the reader.

Now have I actually said that the Sunni/Kurd conflict was religious? Of course not. Meanwhile, however, the other straw men D'Souza sets up turns out to have teeth: if Mr. D'Souza cared to do any research, he would have discovered that the Kurds have been in conflict with the Arabs, Turks, and Persians for centuries. When the epic poet Ahmad Khani called for the creation of an independent Kurdish state, free of Arab and Turkish domination, in the Kurdish national epic Mem-o-Zin in 1695, modern Kurdish nationalism was given its first great boost. The Kurdish Zand kingdom flourished in the latter half of the 18th century, but by the mid-19th century it and other Kurdish principalities had been destroyed by the Ottoman Turks and the Persians.

But in fact, I have never written about this before. That's because it has little to do with jihad, which, as you may have noticed, is what I do write about. D'Souza's whole column is just made up. But all is not lost: as his career as a pundit continues to implode, I see a bright future for him...as a novelist.

It's good to see US Airways not caving in to this naked attempt at intimidation and outlawing of lawful and necessary security procedures.

By Audrey Hudson in the Washington Times, with thanks to Morgaan Sinclair:

US Airways is asking a court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a group of Muslim imams, saying the airline followed government guidelines when it removed the men from a flight because of suspicious behavior.

The response to the lawsuit, filed March 12 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, says the airline "is required to adhere to the main points of the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) Common Strategy regarding security threats in the aviation context."

The strategy advises flight crew members to be "alert for odd or suspicious behavior during all interactions with passengers in the gate area, during the boarding process and during routine flight duties and passenger interactions," the response to the lawsuit states.

"Flight crewmembers are required to mentally assess each passenger's behavior and the potential for threat. Moreover, the common strategy notes that this is a subjective analysis, and recognizes that there is no key factor that applies in every situation," it states.

"Notably, the common strategy advises flight crews to "Presume the worst," and "Be suspicious about any passenger disturbance," the response states....

"While Haq identified himself as an 'American Muslim,' he was acting alone and had no ties to terrorist organizations." Feel better?

Naveed Haq Update. By Christine Clarridge for the Seattle Times, with thanks to Timothy:

Flanked by King County Deputies and Jail guards, alleged Jewish Federation shooter Naveed Haq arrives for his hearing Wednesday morning.

King County prosecutors this morning filed 11 additional criminal charges against Naveed Haq, who is accused of killing one woman and wounding five others last summer during a shooting rampage at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.

In response, Haq's attorneys filed pleas of not guilty by reason of insanity to the new charges and the nine others he already faced, effectively announcing the defense strategy.

In a hearing before Superior Court Judge Paris Kallas this morning, prosecutors received permission to charge Haq with five additional burglary counts, five malicious harassment charges and one charge of unlawful imprisonment.

Haq, 31, a Tri-Cities man with a history of mental illness, was already facing one count of aggravated first-degree murder for the slaying of the charity's fundraising director, 58-year-old Pamela Waechter. He also had been previously charged with five counts of attempted first-degree murder and one count each of kidnapping, burglary and malicious harassment, the state's version of hate crime....

He carried two guns, court documents allege, and spewed anti-Semitic statements as he made his way through the office, randomly shooting people he encountered as some screamed and tried to escape or hide.

The shooting came a day after the FBI had warned Jewish organizations nationwide to be on alert after Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon and al-Qaida's second in command urged that the war raging in the Middle East be carried to the U.S.

Haq reportedly told operators in a 911 call during the shooting, "These are Jews. I want these Jews to get out."

But law enforcement officials said that while Haq identified himself as an "American Muslim," he was acting alone and had no ties to terrorist organizations.

"Israeli officials are unsure" whether Assad could actually "deliver a deal." And Rice says that a Palestinian state must come first.

Both the Israelis and the Secretary of State are, quite simply, not dealing with reality. The public discourse about Islamic jihad and the challenge we're facing has been dominated by fantasy since 9/11 and before that, and if anything, the fog is thicker now than ever. In reality, a Palestinian state won't bring peace, because it will not only not herald an end to Palestinian demands, but will only embolden the jihadists to continue to press for the destruction of Israel altogether -- and provide them a platform for doing so. Evidently no one takes the Hamas Charter seriously except Hamas.

But does Syria present a viable alternative for peace? As we have noted here many times, although Syria is a relatively secular state, and Assad is not an orthodox Muslim, it is a foremost base for jihad activities and the advancement of Islamic supremacism. And now The Truth About Syria, an excellent new book by Barry Rubin of MERIA and the GLORIA Center, exposes the full scope of Syria's activities on behalf of the jihad. Rubin explains how Assad and his father have kept themselves in power by bringing together jihadism and Arab nationalism in Damascus -- and the hollowness of the arguments that contend that those two forces are and ever shall be irreconcilably opposed. Taking a long historical view, Rubin notes that the "window of opportunity" many have seen over the years for an accord between Israel and Syria -- and which Israeli officials seem to be seeing again today -- is actually for Damascus nothing more than a "window of weakness," Israeli weakness, which the Syrians will exploit for everything they can get. He lists fifteen cogent reasons why Syria will never make peace with Israel, and enters into peace talks never intending to compete them.

And of course there is much more involved than just Israel when it comes to Syria. The Assad regime is also deeply involved in jihad activities in Iraq, and is working closely with Iran and jihad terror groups such as Hizballah. As such, with or without Nancy Pelosi and her naive and counterproductive overtures, Syria cannot be ignored. Rubin explores all of this and more, not from the standpoint of fashionable politically correct fantasies, but from a realistic evaluation of Syria and the Assad regime on its own terms.

If Rice and the Israelis read this book -- and the Hamas Charter -- they might be able to embark on the road to policies that were actually viable to protect both Israel and the U.S. from the global jihadists, rather than embroiling us yet again in a round of futile and deceptive peace talks that will, ultimately, only advance the jihadist cause.

"Rice Cautions Israel on Syria: 'No Substitute' for Peace With Palestinians, Secretary Says" by Glenn Kessler in the Washington Post (thanks to Sr. Soph):

BERLIN, May 29 -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday cautioned against a growing sentiment in Israel to pursue peace with Syria instead of with warring Palestinian factions, saying there is "no substitute" for creating a Palestinian state.

Rice, who will discuss the stalled peace process with diplomats here Wednesday, has worked for months to lay the groundwork for Palestinians and Israelis to begin discussing what she calls a "political horizon" -- the parameters of a possible Palestinian state.

But with violence erupting between Palestinian factions -- and with Israel under constant attack from rockets launched from the Gaza Strip -- Rice has faced criticism from some outside experts for spending so much time on a diplomatic long shot, rather than seeking to quickly end the violence.

Israeli officials have confirmed Israeli news media reports that there is intense discussion about whether to pursue a peace agreement with Syria, which would in effect abandon the Palestinian track for now. Syrian President Bashir al-Assad has strongly suggested he is interested in reaching an agreement similar to one nearly concluded by his late father a decade ago, but Israeli officials are unsure whether he could actually deliver a deal.

"The gunmen were accompanied by civilians with identification cards from Iraq's Public Integrity Commission, an anti-corruption watchdog." An update on this story. "U.S., Iraqi troops hunt for Britons; militia blamed," by Mariam Karouny and Ahmed Rasheed for Reuters:

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. and Iraqi soldiers searched Baghdad on Wednesday for five kidnapped Britons who Iraq's foreign minister said had probably been taken by a Shi'ite militia.

Troops raided Baghdad neighborhoods, including the Sadr City stronghold of the Shi'ite Mehdi Army militia, after dozens of gunmen kidnapped a British computer expert Peter Moore and his four bodyguards from a Finance Ministry building on Tuesday.

An Iraqi government official said the kidnappings could be in retaliation for the killing of the top commander of fiery Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's militia by British-backed Iraqi soldiers in Basra in the south last week.

"It may be the Mehdi Army because the location of the (kidnapping) is in their theatre of operations," Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari told Reuters.

"Their safety is our top priority ... I don't think they will finish them. They are using them for bargaining, but they have not contacted anybody yet."

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said British officials were working with Iraqi authorities to find out how the Britons were abducted and to secure their swift release.

An Interior Ministry spokesman dismissed suggestions the kidnappers, dressed in police commando camouflage uniforms and driving official vehicles, were a renegade unit from his ministry.

Interior Ministry forces are known to be heavily infiltrated by Shi'ite militias, including the Mehdi Army, and have often been accused of kidnappings and sectarian killings.

But a top official in Sadr's political movement, Abdul Mahdi al-Mutiri, said the scale and organization of Tuesday's operation was beyond the Mehdi Army's capabilities.

A government employee who witnessed the kidnappings also gave new details of the well-planned operation and told how two other Westerners had narrowly escaped being taken by the gunmen at the Finance Ministry building in Palestine Street.

The ministry identified the kidnapped Briton as Peter Moore and said he worked for BearingPoint, a U.S.-based consulting firm. It appealed for his release, saying he had been working in Iraq's national interest.

It said the gunmen were accompanied by civilians with identification cards from Iraq's Public Integrity Commission, an anti-corruption watchdog. The commission denied any involvement.

An update on this story. Islamic Tolerance Alert: "Man Halts Action against Compulsory Arabic Names following Threats," from NIS News, with thanks to Fjordman:

HAARLEM, 30/05/07 - A Moroccan man who was opposing the Moroccan state intervention with the names given to children born in the Netherlands has halted his campaign. The many threats he received were too much for him, newspaper De Volkskrant reported yesterday.

In registering a newly-born baby, Moroccan parents have a list stuck under their nose by Dutch municipalities out of which they have to choose a name. This official list distributed by the Moroccan government contains only Arabic names. This is discriminatory and violates freedom of choice, according to Moussa Aynan. Dutch municipalities are thereby an outpost of the Moroccan government, De Volkskrant quoted him as saying.

The 34 year old Aynan, who has just become a father himself, is a Labour (PvdA) council member in Haarlem. Hundreds of angry and threatening reactions have reportedly come in on his website in the past weeks from the Netherlands and abroad. So many that he has now decided to remove his weblog from the air. "It became too much, my wife particularly became afraid," said Aynan in the newspaper.

"For reconciliation between the government and this political wing." Hmm. Evidently they have forgotten, or no longer care, how it was that the government and this political wing became estranged in the first place.

"Iraq: Government in talks with former Saddam deputy," from AKI, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

Erbil, 30 May (AKI) - Contacts are underway between Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki and the Baathist faction of Izzat al-Douri, former vice president during the Saddam era, according to a report on Kurdish language daily Aso. The scope of the contacts is "for reconciliation between the government and this political wing" the paper said. It quoted sources close to the government saying "the prime minister has created a high commission for directing the talks with the Douri faction, to be headed by an ex-aviation official."...

Al-Douri, the "King of Clubs" in the US deck of cards naming the Saddam regime's most wanted figures, gave an interview to Time magazine in July 2006, through written questions and answers passed on by Iraqi intermediaries. There have been reports that he has been living in Syria or Yemen or that he is dead.

The Iraqi leadership has in the past fiercely opposed any negotiations with Baathists involved in crimes against the Iraqi people. But among the recommendations that emerged from the conference in Sharm el-Sheikh earlier this month, on the situation in Iraq, was initiatives to support and boost national reconciliation.

Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri is one of three surviving plotters who carried out the coup that brought the Baath Party to power in 1968 and managed to survive Saddam's frequent purges.

He was responsible for northern Iraq when chemical weapons were used there in 1988, and is accused of mass torture and murder.

Sure, but why let that get in the way of "national reconciliation"?

The Swiss won't be able to be neutral for much longer.

"The Islamist Threat Arrives in Switzerland: The MEMRI Report," by Steven Stalinsky in the New York Sun (thanks to all who sent this in):

" Salman bin Fahd Al-Odah is a preacher of global influence and is one of the senior figures of the fundamentalist Islamic Wahhabi movement in Saudi Arabia as well as a close associate of Osama bin Laden. He was imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for his extremist ideologies from 1994 until 1999. Even after his imprisonment, he adopts the call to armed struggle against the infidel Western countries in his writings."

- A report filed by the Ministry of Justice in Switzerland, May 2007

In another sign of the spread of Islam within Europe, last month, Swiss Muslims announced their plan to open " Europe's biggest Islamic center" in the capital city of Bern. The center is estimated to cover 84 acres and to cost as much as $66 million to build.

Switzerland seems to be an unlikely locus for a battle over jihadist Islamism, but according to reports, its Muslim citizens, who make up about 5% of the total population, increasingly look to radical Middle East clerics for spiritual guidance. The country is also home to a controversial professor, Tariq Ramadan, whose visa to come to America was revoked by the State Department, and reports indicate there has been a rising tension between Muslims and non-Muslims there. In what could be considered pouring fuel on a fire, two weeks ago, the League of Swiss Muslims invited Sheik Salman bin Fahd Al-Odah of Saudi Arabia to participate in their annual conference.

Hailing from a wealthy Saudi family, Mr. Odah is a noted Islamic scholar who has a wide following among Islamists throughout the world. He was enraged when American troops were based in Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War and has gone on record supporting jihad against American troops in Iraq.

His stance on the American presence in Saudi Arabia earned him five years in jail there for speaking out against the government — a sentence condemned in Osama bin Laden's infamous 1996 fatwa against the West. According to reports, copies of Mr. Odah's sermons have been found in an abandoned Afghanistan home belonging to Mr. bin Laden.

Read it all.

During the Cold War Russian dissidents would say to visiting foreigners:

"Yes, the Soviet Union is indeed vast. You can go 3,000 miles up and down, and 6,000 miles across. But what happens when you come to the end of those 3,000 miles down? Or those 6,000 miles across? You still can't get out. You still are stuck."

That is Islam. You can't get out. You are not allowed the mental freedom to leave. If Islam did not promote the habit of mental submission, severe limits on artistic expression, hatred of, and war-making upon Infidels, the deliberate infliction of a state of permanent humiliation, degradation, and physical insecurity on Infidels, if it did none of those awful things, but only -- only -- prevented those born into Islam from leaving Islam, that alone would entitle us to see it as a totalitarian and cruel belief-system, and to regard it with permanent wariness and worry.

Because it was an honor killing, you see. "Man killed wife, but pleads ‘not guilty,’" from Aftenposten, with thanks to all who sent this in:

An Iranian man charged with stabbing his wife to death outside a crisis center in Drammen last autumn pleaded not guilty when his trial started on Tuesday.

The 44-year-old man also said in court that he was certain his wife had cheated on him, and he blamed her brother for being a bad influence on her. The brother, he claimed, had become "too European," and gave the dead woman "inappropriate advice."

And the crowd shouted, "Allahu akbar." Islam is a room with no exit door, and they're proud of it. Lina Joy Update, and Sharia Alert from modern, moderate Malaysia: "Malaysia rejects Christian appeal," from the BBC, with thanks to all who sent this in:

Malaysia's highest court has rejected a Muslim convert's six-year battle to be legally recognised as a Christian.

A three-judge panel ruled that only the country's Sharia Court could let Azlina Jailani, now known as Lina Joy, remove the word Islam from her identity card.

Malaysia's constitution guarantees freedom of worship but says all ethnic Malays are Muslim. Under Sharia law, Muslims are not allowed to convert.

Ms Joy said she should not be bound by that law as she is no longer a Muslim.

Death threats

Malaysia's Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim said the panel endorsed legal precedents giving Islamic Sharia courts jurisdiction over cases involving Muslims who want to convert.

About 200 protesters shouted "Allah-o-Akbar" (God is great) outside the court when the ruling was announced.

"You can't at whim and fancy convert from one religion to another," Ahmad Fairuz said.

Thoughts on the Pew poll from FrontPage (news links in the original). Video here.

Some of the results of the Pew Research Center poll of Muslims in America were startling: twenty-six percent of Muslims between the ages of eighteen and twenty-nine affirmed that there could be justification in some (unspecified) circumstances for suicide bombing, and five percent of all the Muslims surveyed said that they had a favorable view of Al-Qaeda. Given the Pew Center’s estimate of 2.35 million Muslims in America, and the total of thirteen percent that avowed a belief that suicide bombings could ever be justified, that’s over 300,000 supporters of suicide attacks. And 117,500 supporters of Al-Qaeda.

It is unfortunate that the Pew Center pollsters were not equipped with a follow-up question for those who expressed support for suicide bombing, asking them about the circumstances in which they would consider it justified, and whether they would ever consider it justified in the United States. As columnist Diana West has noted: “the fact that a significant young chunk of American Islam believes such violence has a place in society indicates something closer to the end of unfettered political opinion. It may signal the beginning of physical coercion as a factor in the American political process.” The pollsters might also have asked those who professed support for Al-Qaeda whether they were working or would be willing to work to further that organization’s goals in the United States – but perhaps that kind of question shades too far over into what law enforcement officials should be doing.

Flight 327 Update. Will all those who ridiculed Annie Jacobsen for "hysteria" over "musicians," and derided her for "racism," now apologize? What do you think?

And what about those who think the Flying Imams case is a legitimate one of racist profiling? Will they now acknowledge that there is a genuine threat to American air travel? Again, what do you think?

And why has DHS covered up all these probes and dry runs? Are they more concerned about a fictional "backlash" against Muslims than about preventing another jihad terror attack? Do they think that keeping the public ignorant, fat, and happy will help prevent another jihad terror attack? This goes hand-in-hand with the polite fictions about Islam and jihad that dominate the public discourse -- it's as if in both cases that the truth is just too terrifying to contemplate, and so we'd rather play pretend.

Well, if we wish to survive, maybe it's time to grow up.

By Audrey Hudson for the Washington Times, with thanks to Gnosis:

Download the inspector general report (PDF)

A newly released inspector general report backs eyewitness accounts of suspicious behavior by 13 Middle Eastern men on a Northwest Airlines flight in 2004 and reveals several missteps by government officials, including failure to file an incident report until a month after the matter became public.

According to the Homeland Security report, the "suspicious passengers," 12 Syrians and their Lebanese-born promoter, were traveling on Flight 327 from Detroit to Los Angeles on expired visas. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services extended the visas one week after the June 29, 2004, incident.

The report also says that a background check in the FBI's National Crime Information Center database, which was performed June 18 as part of a visa-extension application, produced "positive hits" for past criminal records or suspicious behavior for eight of the 12 Syrians, who were traveling in the U.S. as a musical group.

In addition, the band's promoter was listed in a separate FBI database on case investigations for acting suspiciously aboard a flight months earlier. He was detained a third time in September on a return trip to the U.S. from Istanbul, the details of which were redacted.

The inspector general criticized the Homeland Security officials for not reporting the incident to the Homeland Security Operations Center (HSOC), which serves as the nation's nerve center for information sharing and domestic incident management.

The report comes three years after the incident, which was not officially acknowledged until a month later, after The Washington Times reported passenger and marshal complaints that the incident resembled a dry run for a terrorist attack. After reviewing the report, air marshals say it confirms their earlier suspicions.

Official denial

An air marshal who told The Times that he has been involved personally in terror probes that were ignored by federal security managers, called such behavior typical.

"Agency management was not only covering up numerous probes and dry-run encounters from Congress and other federal law-enforcement agencies, it was also hiding these incidents from their own flying air marshals," said P. Jeffrey Black, an air marshal stationed in Las Vegas.

Homeland Security officials initially denied the complaints and blamed passengers who reported the incident to the press as behaving hysterically. However, the inspector general report shows that air marshals had the group of men under surveillance before they boarded the plane.

"Prior to boarding, one of the air marshals noticed what he later characterized as 'unusual behavior' by about six Middle Eastern males, who arrived at the gate together, then separated, and acted as if they did not know each other," the report said.

"According to the air marshals, these men were sweaty, appeared nervous and arrived after the boarding announcement. The air marshals made eye contact with one another to ensure they were aware of this behavior," the report said.

The inspector general's two-year investigation was originally released in April 2006 but was then wholly redacted except for two sentences. The re-release stems from a Freedom of Information request by The Times on April 25, 2006, which was answered Friday.

Portions of the report remain redacted. However, current and former air marshals who reviewed a copy provided by The Times say the activities of the men details a dry run for a terrorist attack.

Read it all.

The beard is really coming along

A new message from the traitor Gadahn. "...You and your people will- Allah willing- experience things which will make you forget all about the horrors of September 11th, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Virginia Tech." From the SITE Institute (thanks to Jeffrey Imm):

Adam Yahiye Gadahn AKA Azzam the American, is featured in a 7:57 minute video produced by as-Sahab, the multimedia wing of al-Qaeda, and titled: “Legitimate Demands”. The video was issued to jihadist forums today, Tuesday, May 29, 2007. The speech, spoken in English and subtitled in Arabic, is presented as an address to U.S. President George W. Bush, Gadahn speaking in a condescending tone and accusing him of spearheading a Crusade led by his “empire of evil” against Muslims and embroiling American forces in wars without end. Reinvigoration of old fronts in Somalia, continuation of fronts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Algeria, and the region of the Levant (Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan), in addition to an alleged failure in the media to tarnish the image of the Mujahideen to Muslims, are cited by Gadahn as reasons for Bush to seek escape and “prevent the number of American casualties at home and abroad from rising even higher.”

The demands are emphatically stated by Gadahn to not be construed as negotiations, for Muslims do not negotiate with “baby killers and war criminals”. These entail the removal of American military forces from Muslim lands, cease of encroachment into the political, social, and economic affairs in these countries, and to free Muslim captives from prisons. Should these demands not be met, Gadahn states, “means that you and your people will- Allah willing- experience things which will make you forget all about the horrors of September 11th, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Virginia Tech.” Withdrawing from Iraq alone, Gadahn states, does not qualify as acceptance of terms, and he mockingly advices for Bush to stop his “futile farcical maneuvers on Capital Hill.”

Here's a happy announcement from the David Project. It looks from the information below as if, as in the case of CAIR's suit against Anti-CAIR, the discovery process came too close to compelling the ISB to disclose things it doesn't want the public to know.

Islamic Society of Boston Drops Lawsuits Against David Project, Concerned Citizens, Boston Herald and Fox, Abandoning All Of Its Claims Without Receiving Any Payment

David Project to Continue Public Records Lawsuit To Force Disclosure of Evidence on Boston Redevelopment Authority-Islamic Society Land Deal

The David Project has announced that the Islamic Society of Boston ("ISB") and its officers have withdrawn all of their claims against all of the citizens who raised concerns about the ISB, its funding and its leadership, as well as all of their claims against the Boston Herald, Fox-TV and the various journalists whose investigative pieces about the ISB in 2003 and 2004 disclosed damaging information about the ISB and its controversial land deal with the Boston Redevelopment Authority ("BRA"). The ISB and its officers have abandoned all of their claims against all of the defendants they sued 2 years ago, without payment to the ISB or to any of its officers of any money whatsoever.

The ISB's decision to drop all of its claims against all of the 17 defendants it sued back in 2005 alleging "defamation" and accusing them of conspiring to violate its civil rights comes just months after the defendants--who included a Muslim cleric, a Christian political science professor and the Jewish daughter of Holocaust survivors, as well as Boston civic leader William Sapers and national terrorism expert Steven Emerson--had begun through their lawyers to conduct discovery into the ISB's financial records, its receipt of millions of dollars in funding from Saudi Arabian and other Middle Eastern sources, its contributions to certain organizations and the records of certain of its officers and directors. The ISB's abandonment of its lawsuits comes only weeks after two of its original Middle Eastern Trustees, Walid Fitaihi of Saudi Arabia and Ali Tobah of Egypt, suddenly resigned as Trustees just before they were required to submit themselves to the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts court hearing the case.

The David Project, whose public records litigation against the BRA forced the public disclosure of evidence regarding the below-fair-market land deal between the BRA and the ISB and the role played in that deal of BRA Deputy Director Muhammed Ali Salaam, will proceed exactly as before with its litigation, seeking the remainder of the documents presently withheld by the BRA. That litigation, The David Project v. Boston Redevelopment Authority, is on file in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston.

"We were determined from the beginning to act the way citizens should, by asking questions about this matter and by refusing to be intimidated into staying silent," said David Project founder and President Charles Jacobs, "and we intend to continue as we have before. Indeed, the evidence that has emerged about the transaction, about the BRA's failure to do due diligence into those whom it chose to subsidize and about the funding and the leadership of the organization that received this public subsidy is of extremely deep concern. That evidence not only vindicates the reporting of the courageous journalists whose investigative work broke the story back in 2003 and 2004, but validates many times over the concerns expressed by the good and decent citizens--Muslims, Christians and Jews--who refused to stay silent."

"Those citizens were vilified by the ISB for having had the courage to speak out", said Jacobs. "The ISB's abandonment of its claims without payment of one dollar to them, coming as it does as the ISB was ordered to turn over evidence, speaks more eloquently than anything else could about the truth of what these citizens said, about the validity of their concerns, and about the lack of merit to the ISB's allegations that they had been 'defamed' and had been financially 'damaged'. Above all, the ISB's ultimate abandonment of its lawsuits speaks eloquently about the importance of refusing to be bullied and intimidated into silence."

"This has never been about the right of all people to worship, and to construct houses of worship, which is an important right possessed equally by all people, warranting great respect," said Jacobs. "What it has been about is specific evidence about specific leaders of a specific organization, and about evidence regarding the funding of that organization and those whom it, in turn, was funding. The threat of Islamic extremism in the United States and elsewhere is a real one. Many of the most courageous and forceful individuals speaking out about this threat are themselves Muslims, and they deserve the support of all of us. The victory we have achieved in this case is a victory for many, but perhaps especially for them, as it bolsters and encourages them, and sends a message on their behalf that intimidation will not work."

There is no jihad. There is only "Islamophobia" and racism.

"Lecturers oppose Muslim 'witch hunt,'" by Graeme Paton in the Telegraph, with thanks to all who sent this in:

Academics are threatening to derail a Government drive to root out Islamic extremists on university campuses.

The University and College Union, will ask its 120,000 members to refuse to take part in the Government-led "witch hunt".

It insists that Muslims are being "demonised" because of new guidance that asks staff to look out for students falling under the influence of radical preachers.

The Department for Education and Skills has warned university staff to log suspicious behaviour amid fears that campuses are being infiltrated by fanatics recruiting for so-called jihad. In a 20-page report published in December, ministers warned of "serious, but not widespread, Islamic extremist activity in higher education institutions".

It asks lecturers to vet Islamic preachers who have been invited to campuses, ensure that "hate literature" is not distributed among students and report suspicious behaviour to police.

But at the UCU annual conference in Bournemouth, lecturers will warn of a "recent rise" in racism and its "apparent promotion by Government policies".

Academics at the union's London Metropolitan University branch will say that "increasingly restrictive measures and the xenophobic language surrounding them" has led to an increase in racist attacks on Muslims.

"Islamophobia and the attempts at increased surveillance on Muslim communities are not only encouraging racist and xenophobic tendencies in Britain but are also leading to measures that threaten civil liberties," they will warn.

A motion to the conference will condemn Government attempts to use "members of staff for such witch hunts"....

A few years ago I was speaking at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and in the course of the talk explained that Hasan Al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Abdullah Azzam, cofounder of Al-Qaeda, among others, attacked the famous hadith in which Muhammad speaks of the "greater jihad" as a spiritual struggle. Al-Banna and Azzam pointed out that it was a weak hadith, and did not appear in any of the hadith collections that Muslims accept as reliable. I was talking about this in order to explain why it wasn't enough for peaceful Muslims simply to quote this hadith, as they often do, as if simply quoting it were sufficient to establish that genuine Islam is peaceful and the terrorists have hijacked the religion. They would have to go farther, and answer the argument that Al-Banna and Azzam advanced.

A student spoke up to say, "It's in Bukhari." I responded by saying that no, it wasn't in Bukhari, that I had searched and searched Bukhari for it, and that it wasn't in there. I told the group that if he could find it in Bukhari and email the citation, I would publicly retract. But of course he never did.

Anyway, here it is again, again attributed to Bukhari, the hadith collection Muslims consider most reliable -- but tellingly, no citation is given.

Open invitation: can anyone substantiate that this statement is actually in Bukhari? I do not believe it is, and am inclined to think this just more deception, but Bukhari's hadith comprises many, many volumes. So if you think it's in there, give me a citation. Everyone up to and including Karen Armstrong cites this hadith, but never gives a citation. Let's see one, please.

From askMuslims:

Did you know Jihad does NOT mean 'Holy War'?

Almost everyone in the world today has heard the word Jihad, thanks to the media.This word has a very broad meaning and does not mean 'Holy War' as many people believe.

The meaning of the word Jihad is 'Striving'.It applies to any sort of activity made by any person because of love of God.It covers every aspect of a muslim's life. It is Jihad when a muslim is called upon to make an extra effort - for example, to get up before dawn in order to pray, to fast during Ramadan abstaining from all the things which would invalidate the fast.It is jihad when a person helps another, and goes out of their way to be a friend etc (the intention being to please God alone and not for anything else, if it is done with any other motive, it is NOT Jihad).For example, a person can lay down his life for his country without being religious at all - this is NOT Jihad.

It is reported that the Prophet Muhammad(peace be upon him) said: *"The most excellent jihad is that for the conquest of oneself." The soul is tempted to do certain things which are prohibited(haraam) at times and a person who strives to eradicate such thoughts and seeks refuge with God is doing Jihad by controlling his/her desires.

*Hadith from Bukhari

The war between Iran and Iraq, of course, could not have been openly presented by Saddam Hussein as a Sunni-Shi'a war, for obvious reasons. But that is not the same thing as saying that it had nothing to do with the initial fear and hatred, felt by those who ran the Sunni Arab despotism (disguised behind "Ba'athism") of Saddam Hussein for the mad-dog Shi'a, as they saw it, of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In that war, Saddam Hussein referred to battles from early Islam between Arabs and Persians, and played up -- as other Sunnis have more recently done -- the "Persian" business. Some, such as Al-Zarqawi, and his successors, have reinforced the resentment of Sunnis at losing control of Iraq to the Shi'a by describing those Shi'a, inaccurately, as "Persians," or mere collaborators of the "Persians."

One of Bernard Lewis's most useful books is The Multiple Identities of the Middle East. One is not only a Shi'a Muslim or a Sunni Muslim. One can be more than one thing. One can be an Arab and a Muslim. One can be an Arab and a Sunni Muslim. One can be an Arab and a Shi'a Muslim. One can be a Berber, and a Muslim. One can be a Kurd, and a Muslim. In the case of Arabs, so strong is the identification of Islam and "Uruba" or Arabness, that even among some of the Christian Arabs (above all among those we have been carefully taught to call "Palestinians") the identification with Islam is intertwined with "Arabness," and a need to be able to identify with permanently threatening Muslim Arabs (as a way to fit in, as a way to win them over). One thus finds the phenomenon of the "islamochristian," which is much less common among more numerous, self-conscious, and historically less cowed communities, such as the Maronites of Lebanon, or even the Copts, especially the Copts once they leave Egypt and can think, feel, speak freely about Islam.

Whole lotta immorality going on in the Islamic Republic, but they're on the case. "Iran: 14,635 Arrested in Moralisation Campaign," from AKI, with thanks to Fjordman and Insubria:

Tehran, 29 May (AKI) - In the four weeks since a highly publicised government moralisation campaign kicked off, 14,635 people were temporarily detained under strict new Islamic dress code laws punishing offenders with arrest. Another 67,000 people were reprimanded by police, according to a tally kept by the local Rooz daily based on police statements. Only in airports and train stations some 1,115 people, mostly women, were arrested while 17,135 were not allowed to board planes or trains as they were not dressed properly.

This is the young man who was afraid it might be "racist" to say something to authorities about this. That is, apparently, the substance of the "moral dilemma" noted below. God help us.

From CNN, with thanks to Scott:

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The tipster responsible for helping authorities thwart a possible terrorist attack on a U.S. military base said Tuesday he experienced a "moral dilemma" over whether to report what he had seen.

Brian Morgenstern, a 26-year-old clerk at a Circuit City in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, was given the 8 mm tape January 31, 2006, by two men, whom he described as "normal people." They asked him to convert it to DVD format.

Authorities said the tape showed 10 young men shooting at a practice range and shouting in Arabic, "Allahu Akbar" -- "God is great."

Morgenstern said the video showed the men with hand guns and rifles that appeared to be "fully automatic weapons."

"I saw some stuff on the film that was disturbing and it kind of gained my attention that way," he told CNN's "American Morning."

"I started paying more attention to it," he said.

The tape's contents worried him. "I thought about whether or not it should be reported. I actually waited that night and weighed out my decisions, and I went home and talked to my family about it."

The next day, Morgenstern returned to work and told his manager about the tape and his decision to alert the police. He described Circuit City as being "very supportive" regarding the situation.

Arab nations have made a living by using international organizations to do their bidding. The UN, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are just a few of the bodies who have shown an unequivocal bias towards the Islamic bloc. The UN's Human Rights Council is the star of the show. In its brief history, it has only found cause to condemn Israel. Many times.

What happens when the tables are turned? Here are two examples from just the past two days.

Monday in Saudi Arabia: "'We Don't Need Foreign Groups to Come and Teach Us Human Rights,'" by Raid Qusti for Arab News:

Maj. Gen. Ali Al-Harithy, the director general of prisons, said yesterday that prisoners in the Kingdom were not tortured or beaten on a large scale, and that beatings were "individual cases," which should not be generalized.

Al-Harithy was referring to a report released last week by the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) in Saudi Arabia. "Regulations, directives and the constitution state clearly that there should not be any violations against prisoners. ... There are, however, individual mistakes, but that rarely happens. And if it does happen, then prisoner rights are fulfilled by punishing offenders," he said.

Al-Harithy criticized visits by foreign human rights groups to the Kingdom, which recently included prison visits by Human Rights Watch. "We do not need foreign organizations to come here and teach our sons and daughters human rights. We are obliged to protect human rights by ourselves without anyone coming from outside and implying that we have to care about human rights in 'the land of humanity'," he said.

So much for that. Human Rights Watch is only good for condemning Israel.

Tuesday in Iran: "Talks Can Bolster Iraq Sovereignty," from Iran Daily:

The European Union should make efforts to improve its own human rights situation instead of focusing on conditions in Iran.

Reacting to recent statements of the European Union rotating president, Jose Manuel Barroso, who expressed concern over human rights conditions in Iran, Mohammad Ali Hosseini said Barroso's remarks constitute interference in Iran's internal affairs, Fars News Agency reported.

"Barroso should better concentrate on social maladies in EU member-states and evident cases of human rights violation in many EU countries" he said.

Hosseini opined that the EU should focus on human rights violation in their secret prisons, the use of European airports for transferring CIA prisoners and violation of the rights of ethnic and religious minorities, particularly Muslims, immigrants and asylum-seekers.

The EU can investigate others, but don't meddle in our private affairs.

Typical.

Crossposted from The American Israeli Patriot.

By gunmen wearing police uniforms. The fact that it is apparently so easy to get these uniforms could be connected to the fact that there is no attempt made to ensure that those the government employs do not also support the jihad in some way. "Britons kidnapped by gunmen in Baghdad," by Nico Hines, Sam Knight, and Deborah Haynes in the TimesOnline:

Up to five Britons were abducted from a government building in Baghdad today in a brazen kidnapping by gunman dressed in police uniforms.

The victims were four bodyguards and a British economic adviser working at the Finance Ministry for BearingPoint, a US consultancy firm.

The guards are employed by GardaWorld, a Canadian firm that also protects Canon Andrew White, the vicar of St George's Church in Baghdad, and his Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East (FRRME).

Yesterday, when Dinesh D'Souza called me the "Alan Wolfe of the right," I offered an autographed copy of my book The Truth About Muhammad to the person who came up with the best "Dinesh D'Souza is the _____ of _____."

There were so many good entries, however, that we're going to have to have a runoff. Please vote for one of these in the comments field below:

1. The Karen Armstrong of the Hoover Institution (Contributed by Still Breathing)
2. Dinesh D'Souza - "Putting the 'me' in Dhimmi since 2007" (Contributed by Bunratty Bill)
3. The Hooper of Hoover (Contributed by justask)
4. The huckster of the highbrows (Contributed by RecoveringHog)
5. Dinesh D'Souza: "Lawrence of Taqiyya" (Contributed by joeblough)
6. The Dilettante of Dhimmitude (Contributed by Brett_McS)
7. The Saladin of wishful thinking (Contributed by I<3Crusades)
8. A voice of reason among the Islamophobes (Contributed by Dinesh D'Souza)

In this week's Jihad Watch videoblog at Hot Air, I survey some of what the Pew Research Center poll results tell us about Muslims in America, and ask, What is the Muslim community in America going to do about it -- if anything?

Thai Jihad Update. "Bomb kills four in Muslim southern Thailand," from Reuters:

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A bomb planted on a motorcycle in a busy market in southern Thailand killed four people on Monday, the army said, the latest victims of a Muslim separatist insurgency in which more than 2,100 people have now died. "There are four dead and 23 injured, five of them seriously," army spokesman Acra Tiproch said. Two of the dead were children.

It is not known whether the victims were Buddhist or Muslim.

The blast, in the southern province of Songkhla which has avoided much of the daily violence, came less than a day after a string of seven small bombs in the provincial capital, Hat Yai, wounded 13 people.

"The eight are suspected of receiving funding from part of the Saudi branch of Al-Qaeda to carry out attacks aimed at destabilising Mauritania."

"Up to 10 years jail requested for Islamists on trial in Mauritania," from Agence France-Presse:

NOUAKCHOTT (AFP) - A Mauritanian prosecutor on Monday requested up to 10 years behind bars for 25 Islamists on trial accused of links to a terrorist organisation.

A week after the trial began in Nouakchott, prosecutor Ahmed Ould Abdellahi requested prison sentences of between five and 10 years along with forced labour for eight of the defendants in order to "ensure State security".

The eight are suspected of receiving funding from part of the Saudi branch of Al-Qaeda to carry out attacks aimed at destabilising Mauritania.

Abdellahi also requested prison terms of up to 10 years with the possibility of forced labour for 11 other defendants who, he claimed, were associated with "the criminals".

This group stands accused of participating in training in 2004 by the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), now known as Al-Qaeda's branch in northern Africa, with the aim of going to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The prosecutor thus changed the initial indictment against the men, who were brought to trial accused of "belonging to a non-authorised organisation" and committing "acts not authorised by the government."

All the charges against the defendants, most of whom were arrested in 2005, fall under Mauritania's anti-terror law.

Four out of the 11 accused of participating in GSPC training have been present at the trial, three are being tried in absentia for escaping from prison in 2006 and four others, who were never arrested, are also being tried in their absence.

The court's announcement Monday that the four latter were also on trial pushed the number of defendants from 21 to 25.

The prosecutor on Monday also called for five defendants, all of them clerics, to be acquitted "due to lacking evidence."

[...]

The verdict is expected at the end of the week, according to the defence.

Sharia Alert from...Britain: "1,000 men living legally with multiple wives despite fears over exploitation," by Dominic Kennedy from the TimesOnline, with thanks to Andrew Bostom:

Polygamous marriage is flourishing as the Government admits for the first time that nearly a thousand men are living legally with multiple wives in Britain.

Although the families are entitled to claim social security for each wife, no one has counted how many of them are on benefits.

Ministers appear to be ignoring the separate practice of unauthorised polygamy, which is said to have become commonplace in some Muslim communities. The Ministry of Justice admits that it has no estimates of numbers for these unions, which are often presided over by an Islamic cleric.

A senior Conservative MP and immigration expert called for action last night to end the scandal of women being pressured into entering unrecognised marriages with no rights.

"The Government has no grip on the situation," said Humphrey Malins, the former Shadow Home Affairs Minister and founder of the Immigration Advisory Service. "This is quite clearly exploitation of women."...

"It is estimated that there are fewer than 1,000 valid polygamous marriages in the UK, few of whom are claiming a state benefit," the Department for Work and Pensions said. "Because of the small numbers concerned, our IT systems do not specifically record such information."

From Agence France-Presse:

ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - At least six people died and 40 were injured Monday in a hand grenade attack on a crowd in eastern Ethiopia marking the anniversary of the 1991 ouster of a dictator, officials said Monday.

The attack occurred in the main stadium in Jijiga, the capital of the Somali region, during celebrations to mark the end of the regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam.

"Four hand grenades were thrown, three of which were stopped by our security officials," Jema Ahmed Jema, vice president of the Somali region, told AFP.

"Three people died initially from the blast and another three died from the stampede," he said, adding that the regional president, Mohammed Ali Sero, had suffered a minor leg injury.

Jema blamed two local rebel groups, the Oromo Liberation Front and the Al- Ittihad Al-Islami, for the attack and said they were supported by Ethiopia's neighbouring enemy Eritrea.

Background on Al-Ittihad Al-Islami can be found here.

A local aid worker, who asked not to be named, said up to 11 people may have died.

Official news agency ENA put the number of dead at five, with 52 wounded, 10 of them seriously.

"Anti-peace forces and terrorists operating in the region with the assistance of the Eritrean regime threw hand grenades on Monday on 100,000 people who were celebrating the day at Jijiga stadium," the agency said quoting police.

Two police officers are among the dead, the agency said.

Another grenade attack was staged in Degha Bur, a town in the same province, killing seven people and wounding an unspecified number of others, he added.

Federal police spokesman Commander Demsash Hailu told AFP that the same kind of attack that happened in Jijiga also took place at Degha Bur where he said "some people threw the bombs over the crowd into the stadium".

"Five suspects are under control, police has started an investigation," he said, adding: "Police tried to arrest all the suspects and identified who is responsible for these attacks."

Some good news from London: the Tablighi Jamaat should not be permitted to build this mosque at all. By Joanna Sugden in the TimesOnline, with thanks to Davida:

An ultra-orthodox Islamic sect has delayed plans to build a "mega-mosque" in East London after the Government warned it could "raise tensions" in the community.

Tablighi Jamaat had intended to submit plans to build Britain's largest place of worship next to the Olympic site, this September. But the group told Times Online that no plans would now be submitted until next year at the earliest.

More than 48,000 people have petitioned the Government to "abolish plans for the £100m mega-mosque" with a capacity for 12,000 worshippers beside the London 2012 Olympic park in Newham, East London.

The Government said that the issue could "raise tensions" and did not expect any planning application to be made in the "near future".

Andrew Bostom provides some historical background to this absurd incident at The American Thinker:

The brutal complexities of Iraq demand strategies informed by a serious, intellectually honest understanding of the local jihadist culture-both Shi'ite and Sunni-and an end to the ongoing cognitive dissonance of our policymaking elites "interpreting" daily events, if we are to avoid a real cataclysm.

Yes. Read it all.

The government loses ground to the jihadists in Pakistan. This is, of course, a phenomenon about which we have posted many articles, and which once again demonstrates the power of the jihadists' appeal to represent "pure Islam" -- an appeal to which peaceful Muslims have never mounted an adequate response. "Pakistan losing territory to radicals: The rise of a powerful cleric exposes economic and political failures in a government-administered area," by David Montero for The Christian Science Monitor (thanks to DFS):

SWAT, Pakistan - In this valley of orchards near Afghanistan, 90 police hid along the banks of a riverbed in March, preparing to arrest the powerful Pakistani cleric Maualana Fazlullah. Informants said the target, charged with terrorism, would soon appear with a modest contingent of followers. Instead, Mr. Fazlullah rode into sight on a white horse, surrounded by hundreds of people.

When the officers advanced, brandishing tear gas and batons, word flew through the town. Thousands more supporters turned out to further protect Fazlullah. The officers backed off in an incident that shocked the country, exposing as it did the state's powerlessness to apprehend a wanted terrorist.

Such scenes are common in the tribal agencies of Waziristan, where the Taliban hold sway under a controversial truce signed with the government in September. But Swat is not Waziristan: It rests squarely in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), a government-administered area long considered beyond such lawlessness.

The rise of Fazlullah exposes the economic and political failures fanning extremism even in these areas, and hints at the consequences, both for Pakistan and the international community, if the province continues down a path of deprivation. Allow him to persist, many observers say, and others will be emboldened to roll back the state's policies of moderation – small but symbolically important gains in women's empowerment, girls' education, and religious tolerance.

"My opinion is, if you take him out today, there will be a reaction," says Asfandiar Amir Zeb, a former mayor of the district of Swat. "Leave it for a month, there will be a bigger reaction. If you leave it for six months, you won't be able to catch him."

Read it all.

The Indian Army rebuilt shrines and mosques. Was the Grand Mufti of Kashmir grateful? Absolutely not: non-Muslims can't fund mosque construction -- that would be un-Islamic. In fact, he thinks it's a conspiracy against the Muslim community! Outlandish? Not from his point of view. This is how hearts-and-minds initiatives are understood all too often.

"Repay Army, Mufti tells Valley Muslims," from Express News Service, with thanks to Chaitanya:

SRINAGAR, MAY 28: The Army's drive to renovate Muslim shrines and mosques in the state has run into a roadblock with Kashmir's Grand Mufti Bashir-ud-din issuing a fatwa against it. The Mufti has asked Muslims to repay the Army before going ahead with prayers in the renovated shrines. The fatwa has also been endorsed by the state's Muslim Personal Law Board and Nudwat-ul-Ulama, a body of Islamic scholars.

"Islamic shariat does not give non-Muslims any role in the renovation of religious places. So the Army's funding is un-Islamic," Mufti Bashir-ud-din, who is also Chairman of the state's Muslim Personal Law Board, told The Indian Express. "I call upon Muslims to boycott these shrines. They can be made worthy of prayers only after they repay the Army the amount it has invested."

The Mufti said the fatwa was necessitated by the persistent demand of the people. The fatwa, which came after day-long deliberations among imams and religious scholars, termed the Army's programme as "contrary to the tenets of Islam and a naked interference in the religious affairs of the Muslim community".

"I, in my capacity as Grand Mufti of Jammu and Kashmir, appeal to all Muslims in general and Islamic clerics, scholars and imams to resist the Army's plans tooth and nail," a statement issued by Supreme Court of Islamic Shariat, an Islamic religious body headed by the Mufti, said.

However, the fatwa clarified that there was no intention to obstruct the Army's Sadhbavana programme. "The Army can limit its activities to civic programmes. We think the Army's investment in Muslim religious places has a political dimension. Such steps are nothing but a conspiracy against the Muslim community and shall be resisted with iron hands," the Mufti said.

Today is Memorial Day, and while Hugh grills the Jihad Watch burgers I thought I'd note that one of the reasons why the popular culture does not honor our fighting forces today or in general is that the politically correct mindset assumes that we have moved beyond all that. Conflicts don't ever need to be solved with wars, you see. All we need to do is understand each other a little better, show the opposition that we are really good fellows after all, win over a few hearts and minds, teach the children not to hate, and voila, all will be well, and all manner of thing will be well.

Unfortunately, in the real world, sometimes one may know someone else quite well, and see that he is a good fellow, and despite all the hand-holding and Kumbaya singing, still want to kill or subjugate for reasons of one's own, that don't proceed from the Kumbaya-singer's actions at all.

This is a point that all too many in Washington, at the highest levels, stubbornly refuse to grasp. It is axiomatic in the State Department, and in Europe, and at the UN, that all conflicts can be solved through negotiated concessions. This is so much a part of the air they all breathe that it would be unthinkable even to question it. No one would even think to ask, "What if we implement state-of-the-art hearts-and-minds initiatives, and conform to all their foreign policy and cultural demands, and they still hate us?" This cannot be. The non-Western man is just a reactor, not an actor. He has no imperatives of his own that might set him against us. He is, ultimately, at our mercy, and it is up to us and us alone to pacify him.

The unconscious paternalism of this is ironic, coming as it does from the most besotted of relativist multiculturalists, but in any case, the fact of Memorial Day, and the reality of those who died in this nation's conflicts, shows it all to be false. Sometimes there are disputes between peoples that can't be smoothed over by any amount of making nice. And then, if a nation does not have within it those who will fight and will die to defend it, it will perish.

Today those who believe we have moved beyond wars, beyond fighting, rule the day. Unfortunately, we face a foe who believes war and fighting is his religious duty. He will not be pacified. Our fight is not just military, although it has a military dimension, and a huge adjustment in our current foreign entanglements is needed to defend ourselves most effectively from this scourge. It is a matter of will. Of remembering that there is in Judeo-Christian civilization, and in all civilizations that are threatened by the jihadist imperative of Islamic supremacism, something worth fighting and dying for. Remembering that we are only here to fight this battle today because others fought and died throughout history for our nations, our people, and the principles for which we stand. Let us not just honor them today, but, each in our way, seek to emulate them.

My friend Tashbih Sayyed, a Jihad Watch Board member, died last week. When I got the news, I did not have words, and posted only this. Now, on Memorial Day, I wanted to try to make up for that.

Tashbih Sayyed was that most rare of human beings: a man absolutely fearless in his commitment to the truth. After 9/11, American Muslim advocacy groups began, with the willing complicity of the mainstream media, to flood the airwaves with a huge mass of disinformation and misinformation about jihad activity in the United States and around the world, and above all about its provenance within Islamic theology and tradition. Instead of acknowledging that there was a mandate to wage war against unbelievers that was rooted in the Qur'an and Islamic tradition, Islamic spokesmen routinely denied this, and castigated those who contended otherwise as "bigots" and "Islamophobes."

Amid all this Tashbih stood virtually alone as an honest man. He stood out sharply among contemporary Muslim spokesmen and activists by admitting that there was a problem within Islam that needed to be solved. As he once told me: "My whole life is devoted to one end: to make the Muslims understand that their theology needs to be reformed and reinterpreted. Anybody who thinks that there's nothing wrong with their theology is either a blind person or an apologist. There are many things in Muslim Scripture that need to be reshaped and reframed and reinterpreted, so that they cannot be used by terrorists to justify homicide bombings and honor killings."

This stance, of course, earned him ostracism and threats, but Tashbih was undaunted. I will never forget his reaction when I asked him whether he thought I should go ahead and write a sira -- a biography of Muhammad -- as I had been considering doing. He said "Of course you should" so quickly that it took me aback: usually when I broached the idea with people their reaction had been to tell me that if I did write such a book I would be threatened and possibly even killed. But Tashbih never flinched. He went on to explain to me that it needed to be done, that the truth needed to come out about these issues -- and clearly that was all that mattered, as far as he was concerned. He knew that if the world was going to prevail against the global jihadist threat, we would all have to take certain risks. And he himself never hesitated to put his life on the line for the truth.

Would that now we had hundreds, and hundreds of thousands, and millions like him, with his quiet strength, his good humor, and his indomitable and unshakeable love for the truth. If we did, the outcome of this present conflict would not be in the slightest doubt.

Tashbih, I am honored that you called me your friend, and I will miss you tremendously. And the forces of civilization have lost a warrior who cannot be replaced.

Jihad recruitment in al-Andalus. Can anyone explain why Spain should admit anyone from Morocco into the country, given that this sort of thing goes on with apparently no opposition from other Muslim Moroccans in Spain? From the BBC, with thanks to WriterMom:

Spanish police have arrested 14 suspected Islamist militants, mostly in the north-eastern region of Catalonia.

The suspects were allegedly involved in recruiting jihadi volunteers for training in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Police in Catalonia detained 11 in Barcelona and other towns. The others were arrested in Madrid and Malaga.

The interior ministry believes the majority of those arrested are Moroccan nationals. Police have confiscated a considerable amount of computer data.

A few days ago Hugh and I answered Dinesh D'Souza's question: "Can you name two previous wars that have been fought between the Shia and the Sunni?" D'Souza asked this question in the course of writing a paragraph that demonstrated yet again, as if fresh demonstration were needed, his abysmal ignorance of all things Islamic, and in this case, Islamic history:

Ask youself this question: can you name two previous wars that have been fought between the Shia and the Sunni? I didn't think so. Neither can I. Because there aren't any. The Shia and the Sunni have not been fighting for centuries. Historically speaking, they have not been fighting at all.

But instead of noting the information we gave him and admitting he was wrong, D'Souza digs himself in even deeper in a new piece, "Robert Spencer's History for Dummies":

Taking up the gauntlet, Robert Spencer purports to answer my challenge to name two wars fought between the Shia and the Sunni. The context for my question was this. I argue that the Shia-Sunni conflict in Iraq is not a religious war. Nor have the Shia and the Sunni fought religious wars in the manner of the Catholic Protestant conflicts in Europe. Rather, I contended that this is a gang fight between two groups over who gets to rule the country.

D'Souza says it's not a "religious war," it's a "gang fight between two groups over who gets to rule the country." By making this distinction he betrays his lack of awareness that there is no traditional delineation between the sacred and the secular in Islam (although reading farther into the one authority he claims to have read on Islam, Bernard Lewis, would have apprised him of this). It's not a "religious war" OR a "gang fight." It's a "religious war" AND a "gang fight." Like so many Western analysts, D'Souza is transposing Western assumptions about what a religion is and how religious people act into an Islamic context, where those assumptions don't hold: he assumes that if wars have a political dimension as well as a religious one, the very presence of political considerations means that the conflicts' religious character must be secondary -- as in the cultural identity politics of the Catholic/Protestant conflict in Northern Ireland. But in a cultural and religious setting that considers the religious to be political and the political to be religious, and earthly dominion to be a sign of Allah's favor, this is a false assumption.

Spencer proceeds to give a list of Shia Sunni conflicts of the past. Interestingly, all but one occurs before the middle of the seventeenth century. That's right! Spencer can name only a single Shia-Sunni clash in the past three hundred and fifty years. So my argument isn't holding up badly at all so far.

One sign of desperation in a debater is when he tries to change the terms of the debate in mid-conflict: he realizes he has lost on the original grounds, so he tries to shift the focus to a fight he thinks he can win. Note here that D'Souza is crowing because I can allegedly "name only a single Shia-Sunni clash in the past three hundred and fifty years." But in his original post did he say a word about limiting the question to the past 350 years? Nope. He asked: "can you name two previous wars that have been fought between the Shia and the Sunni?" No time limit. But when you're losing on the original point, shift your point.

Anyway, I noted that my previous list was not exhaustive. Here are some more Sunni/Shi'a conflicts, from the last 350 years. Andrew Bostom emailed to remind me of the Sunni Afghan invasion and domination of Iran that resulted in intermittent strife for around 70 years, from 1722 until the Shi'ite Qajars regained control in 1795 and reestablished a Shi'ite theocracy. Then there are the frequent Persian/Ottoman conflicts between 1499 and 1822, although since D'Souza imagines that the political and religious are distinct in Islam, he will say those are all political conflicts only. And Hugh reminds us here of the ongoing conflicts, going up to today, between the Sunnis and the Shi'ite Hazaras in Afghanistan. (I wrote about that conflict in Islam Unveiled, a book D'Souza has named in his writings and claims to have read.) There are plenty more still, which I will list if he responds again.

Spencer gets no points for mentioning the battle of Karbala, since I mentioned that in my original post. That was one of the earliest battles in Islam, and it defined the dividing line between Shia and Sunni. Every other conflict that Spencer lists is not a religious conflict. Spencer is simply listing dynastic and political wars that happened to have Shia and Sunni on opposite sides. For example, Iran used to be a Sunni country. When the Safavid rulers came they imposed Shia rule on Iran. That's how Iran became Shia. For the Safavids this was a way to consolidate power and to build alliances. Spencer lists their arrival as a Shia-Sunni war, as if the two sides were fighting over theological issues.

They were, of course, or the conquerors would not have imposed Shi'ism on Persia.

Similarly Spencer lists the ongoing power struggles between the Ottomans and the Safavids as a Shia-Sunni clash. But when there are five Islamic empires all trying to expand, we can expect these dynastic clashes. They occured just as often between Sunni and Sunni as between Sunni and Shia. That's because religion had very little to do with it.

Sure. That's why, again, the Safavids imposed Shi'ism on Persia. Here D'Souza is again reasoning in a deeply flawed manner, assuming that because people sometimes fight about things other than religion, they must never fight about religion.

To test Spencer's logic here, ask yourself this question. Was the 30 year war between England and France a religious war because there were Protestants on one side and Catholics on the other? Of course not, because the parties were not fighting about religion. Transubstantiation was not the issue. This was a war over territorial control and power. Another example: in the seventeenth, eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the British and the French fought several battles in India. Were these Anglican-Catholic wars? No, both countries wanted India as their colonial prize.

Using Christian examples to prove something about Islam is based once again on the assumption that the distinction between the religious and the political is identical in both religions. If D'Souza would actually read his Lewis books instead of admiring them on his shelf, he would know this is not the case.

Now I come to Spencer's recent example, and please don't laugh. It is the Iran-Iraq war. Here we see Spencer's power of discernment in full gear. Saddam was a secular dictator whose Baathist party drew its inspiration more from European fascism than from Islam. How can his eight-year fight with Khomeini be counted as a Shia-Sunni struggle? Spencer is unfazed. After all, Saddam was himself a Sunni and many of his henchmen were Sunni. Yes, Spencer, but the majority of Iraqis are Shia. If this truly was a Shia-Sunni conflict, why didn't the majority of Iraqi Shia fight on Khomeini's side? Khomeini was the leader of the Shia armies of Iran. The very fact that the Iraqi Shia fought on Saddam's side and were willing to kill their fellow Shia in Iran shows that they did not view this war as a Shia-Sunni conflict. Khomeini tried to make it one, in order to win Shia defectors from Iraq, but in this he was completely unsuccessful.

D'Souza demonstrates here that he knows as little about Saddam Hussein and the Iran/Iraq war as he does about Islam in general. Yes, most Iraqis are Shia. Does D'Souza think it would have been an easy thing for them to leave Iraq and cross the lines to fight on Khomeini's side? Does D'Souza think it would have been an easy thing to decline an invitation to join Saddam Hussein's military? He actually says, "The very fact that the Iraqi Shia fought on Saddam's side and were willing to kill their fellow Shia in Iran shows that they did not view this war as a Shia-Sunni conflict" -- as if they had a free choice in the matter, and Saddam's regime was gentle toward conscientious objectors.

How hospitable was Saddam Hussein toward the Shi'ites? Let me count the ways. Before 1963, there was considerable Shi'ite involvement in the Ba'ath Party. When al-Bakr (and his deputy Saddam) took power in Iraq in 1968, Shi'ite membership in the Ba'ath Party fell to six percent. Of the 15 members of the Revolutionary Command Council, none were Shi'ite. Saddam's persecution of the Shi'ites is well documented: in the 1970s and 1980s, he had numerous Shi'ite clerics tortured and killed, and during the war, he appealed to Iranian Sunnis to turn against the mullahocracy.

Anyway, in the "argument weak here, yell like hell" tradition, D'Souza concludes his latest farrago with a bit of chest-thumping:

With intellectual adversaries like Spencer, I never have to worry. He specializes in launching boomerang strikes that leave him gasping in a heap. I wish him well, but the poor fellow is quickly establishing himself as the Alan Wolfe of the right.

Gasping, yes. In a heap of laughter and chagrin at how this man continually backs himself into a corner and refuses to admit it, and continues to expose his own ignorance and carelessness with the facts. Rishwain scholar of the Hoover Institution, eh? I should think they would be backing away from Dinesh D'Souza as quickly as they can at this point. Anyway, I was trying to think of a good rejoinder to "the Alan Wolfe of the right." Hugh and I tossed around some ideas -- maybe D'Souza is the "Walter Duranty of the global jihad," or the "Clifford Irving of the right," but let's have some fun with this. It's a Jihad Watch Contest: come up with the best "D'Souza is the ____ of the ____," and you'll win an autographed Truth About Muhammad. Post your entries in the comments field here.

To understand the motives and goals of Islamic jihad terrorists, one good place to start might be to explore what they themselves say about why they’re doing what they’re doing, and what they want. That in turn will lead you to the Qur’an (or Koran), the Islamic holy book. The jihadists quote it frequently and portray themselves as those who are following “pure Islam,” the genuine article as it is taught in the Qur’an and Islamic tradition. So in the course of my work explaining the jihadists’ objectives, I’ve quoted the Qur’an a great deal – and hardly a day goes by without my being accused of “cherry-picking” violent passages, and quoting them “out of context.” Meanwhile, the Council on American Islamic Relations and other Muslim groups say that in order to understand the true, peaceful Islam, we should read the Qur’an.

So over the course of the next few months, I’m going to read it, and discuss it in a series of columns. All of it. Not “cherry-picked” or “out of context.” The whole thing, beginning to end. Some of you may be familiar with David Plotz’s series on Slate, “Blogging the Bible.” This series will be similar to that one, but rather than just write about what I think or feel about a certain passage, I will, unlike Plotz, refer to commentaries – all Muslim ones – on the Qur’an. I’ll try to explain how mainstream Muslims who study the Qur’an will understand any given passage, and what its import might be for non-Muslims.

Trying to prevent abuse of laws that are themselves an abuse. The U.S. State Department provides this summary of Pakistan's blasphemy laws, Section 295 of the Pakistan Penal Code:

Section 295(a), the blasphemy provision of the Penal Code, originally stipulated a maximum 2-year sentence for insulting the religion of any class of citizens. This sentence was increased to 10 years in 1991. In 1982 Section 295(b) was added, which stipulated a sentence of life imprisonment for "whoever willfully defiles, damages, or desecrates a copy of the holy Koran." In 1986 another amendment, 295(c), established the death penalty or life imprisonment for directly or indirectly defiling "the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Mohammad." In 1991 a court struck down the option of life imprisonment. These laws, especially Section 295(c), have been used by rivals and authorities to threaten, punish, or intimidate Ahmadis, Christians, and even orthodox Muslims. Since 1996 magistrates are now required to investigate allegations of blasphemy to see whether they are credible before filing formal charges.

Sharia Alert. "Blasphemy laws: Steps being considered to prevent abuse," by Sajjad Malik for the Daily Times:

ISLAMABAD: The government is considering a number of measures to stop the abuse of blasphemy laws to victimise minority communities, Pakistan told the European Union during a Joint Commission meeting on May 23 and 24.

"The government is formulating measures to forestall abuse of the blasphemy laws in Pakistan ... Efforts are being made to address the causes of religious prejudice through education, economic development and adherence to the rule of law," documents seen by Daily Times quoted Pakistani officials as telling EU delegates.

The Pakistani officials defended the blasphemy laws, saying they had been part of South Asia's legal system for over a hundred years. They accepted that the laws were being abused, but noted that the majority of cases registered under the laws were against Muslims.

They rejected EU concerns that there was organised intolerance towards minorities in Pakistan. "Many cases involving members of the minority communities are on account of personal enmity emanating from disputes over property, and other family related problems, and due to social and economic factors like illiteracy and poverty," the EU side was informed.

Pakistan officials also warned that too much external pressure on human rights issues could impinge on the government's ability to move forward with new initiatives since such public pressure could generate the impression that the government was acting under western pressure.

During the meeting, Pakistan complained of a rising tide of racism and "Islamophobia" in Europe and demanded the EU take steps to contain them. The EU was also urged to take steps to address a growing perception among Muslims that human rights were western political instruments meant solely to target Muslim societies.

When Annie Jacobsen first wrote about Flight 327 in 2004, she was ridiculed as hysterical and smeared as racist. But now a new DHS report, released through a Washington Times FOIA request, appears to have vindicated her view that the flight was a probe or dry run by jihadists.

"More details on Flight 327 released," by Audrey Hudson in the Washington Times, with thanks to all who sent this in:

The inspector general for Homeland Security late Friday released new details of what federal air marshals say was a terrorist dry run aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 327 from Detroit to Los Angeles on June 29, 2004.

Several portions of the report remain redacted. The release stems from a Freedom of Information request by The Washington Times in April 2006. The Times first reported on July 22 that this and other probes and dry runs were occurring on commercial flights since the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Look for the full report in Wednesday's edition of The Times.

Excerpts fom 51-page inspector general report:

On the flight, 13 Middle Eastern men behaved in a suspicious manner that aroused the attention and concern of the flight attendants, passengers, air marshals and pilots.

Briefly, the following events occurred. Thirteen Middle Eastern men were traveling together as a musical group, 12 carrying Syrian passports and one, a lawful permanent resident of the United States of Lebanese descent, purchased one-way tickets from Detroit to Los Angeles. Six of the men arrived at the gate together after boarding began, then split up and acted as if they were not acquainted. According to air marshals, the men also appeared sweaty and nervous. An air marshal assigned to Flight 327 observed their behavior and characterized it as "unusual," but made no further reports at the time.

During the flight, the men again acted suspiciously. Several of the men changed seats, congregated in the aisles, and arose when the fasten seat belt sign was turned on; one passenger moved quickly up the aisle toward the cockpit and, at the last moment, entered the first class lavatory. The passenger remained in the lavatory for about 20 minutes. Several of the men spent excessive time in the lavatories. Another man carried a large McDonald's restaurant bag into a lavatory and made a thumbs-up signal to another man upon returning to his seat.

Flight attendants notified the air marshals on board of the suspicious activities.

In response, an air marshal directed a flight attendant to instruct the cockpit to radio ahead for law-enforcement officials to meet the flight upon arrival. After arriving, Flight 327 was met by federal and local law enforcement officials, who gathered all 13 suspicious passengers, interviewing two of them. An air marshal photocopied the passengers' passports and visas. The names of the suspicious passengers were run through FBI databases, indicating the musical group's promoter had been involved in a similar incident in January 2004. No other derogatory information was received, and all 13 of the men were released.

Sure is quiet around here. This evening we upgraded to the latest edition of Movable Type, complete with all the latest features, most of which I know little or nothing about at this point, and although the upgrade appears to have gone swimmingly, comments don't seem to be back yet. The best minds of this generation (i.e., not mine) are working on this problem, so it shouldn't be long.

In the meantime, kick back, pop open a Carlsberg, enjoy the introductory post of my new Hot Air "Blogging the Qur'an" series, and be assured that as soon as possible, everything will be running smoothly, except of course for the global response to jihad and Islamic supremacism -- but, well, you can't have everything.

Syed Hashmi Update. "American extradited on terror charges," from CNN:

NEW YORK (CNN) -- An American citizen has been extradited to the United States from Great Britain, charged with providing material support to al Qaeda, a federal prosecutor said.

"This is the first extradition on terrorism charges from the United Kingdom, and it has yielded a defendant who provided material support to al Qaeda," Michael Garcia, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Saturday.

The suspect, 27-year-old Syed Hashmi, arrived in the U.S. on Friday. He was arrested in June 2006 at London's Heathrow Airport.

Federal prosecutors say Hashmi is the first American citizen to be extradited from the United Kingdom on terrorism charges. Hashmi is originally from Pakistan.

According to a federal indictment issued in 2006, Hashmi, who was known to his associates as "Fahad," conspired to transport "military gear" to al Qaeda forces fighting U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Hashmi, who was arrested as he prepared to board a flight to Pakistan carrying a large amount of cash, also stands accused of conspiring to supply other members of the terrorist organization in the South Waziristan region of Pakistan. Federal prosecutors did not specify what materials or services Hashmi allegedly provided to al Qaeda.

If convicted, the former Queens, New York, resident faces a maximum sentence of 50 years in prison.

"If we are engaged in a war against terror -- and we most certainly are -- then Syed Hashmi aided the enemy by supplying military gear to al Qaeda," FBI Assistant Director Mark J. Mershon said. Mershon's office worked with New York City police in investigating Hashmi.

Mershon added, "In a global community, terrorism anywhere is a threat to people everywhere."

For a more accurate statement, replace "terrorism" with "jihad."

Hashmi is scheduled for arraignment before U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska on Wednesday.

It is doubtful that these talks will in any way benefit the Great Satan. They are much more likely to result in various Satanic concessions that will only strengthen the Islamic Republic, and postpone the problem of dealing with it. "Washington and Tehran to hold first substantial talks in 27 years," by Sylvie Lanteaume for AFP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Washington and Tehran open their first substantial talks in 27 years in Baghdad on Monday, with both countries setting modest goals and limiting discussions to ways to quell the chaos in Iraq.

US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker is set to meet Iranian ambassador Hassan Kazemi in the highest-level official bilateral talks between the two sides since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The United States and Iran broke off diplomatic relations in 1980 after radical students stormed the US embassy in Tehran and held its diplomats hostage for 444 days.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the talks would be held "in Baghdad, at an Iraqi government facility," giving no further details for security reasons.

An Iraqi representative will join them at the start of the talks, which will then continue behind closed doors. There will be no official statement, but Crocker said there could be a press conference at the US embassy after the event.

The meeting follows a brief encounter between US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice and her Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki, on May 4 at a conference on Iraq held at the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt....

Ahmad Tavakoli, an influential Iranian MP, told the Etemad Melli newspaper that Iranians can overcome their traditional hatred of the United States if it is in their interest.

"America is the Great Satan as the late Imam Khomeini had said," Tavakoli told the Etemad Melli newspaper. "However one can also talk with the devil if it is beneficial and if the circumstances arise."

This article about the U.S. selling out Bosnian Christians to Muslims is one more bit of evidence, if any more was needed, for those who cling to the idea that Bush, and the Bush Administration, "knows what it is doing." These loyalists, who put their Faith in George, range from Norman Podhoretz at "Commentary," to Charles Krauthammer, to any number of others who cannot bring themselves to recognize that the Bush Administration does not know where to put its feet and hands when it comes to Islam.

How else can one explain the failure, over six years, to come up with an energy policy, especially one that includes much higher taxes on gasoline and government support for nuclear reactors (as in France, where nuclear energy supplies 80% of the electricity), or subsidies for solar energy (as in Germany), designed to diminish the Money Weapon? How else can one explain the failure to change or even to begin to discuss the need for changing immigration policy as it pertains to those who are loyal to the umma al-islamiyya (that is, all who identify themselves as Muslims) and, one is perfectly justified in assuming, adherents of the worldview that is inculcated in the Qur'an, Hadith, and sira? How else can one explain the failure to take full advantage of the Arab Muslim genocide against black Africans, Christian and animist in the southern Sudan, Muslim in Darfur, that provides the excuse needed to seize those territories and hold them for a referendum that will ensure that the oil of Sudan will no longer be available to the Muslim Arabs of Khartoum, and that the Islamic thrust southward in East Africa will not only be halted but reversed?

"Ask youself this question: can you name two previous wars that have been fought between the Shia and the Sunni? I didn't think so. Neither can I. Because there aren't any. The Shia and the Sunni have not been fighting for centuries. Historically speaking, they have not been fighting at all." -- Dinesh D'Souza

"Historically speaking, they have not been fighting at all."

"Servants of Allaah! The animosity of the Shee'ah towards the people of the Sunnah is severe. This animosity has ever been ingrained in their souls since the time they took the belief of corrupt partisanship as a rule and path for their religion. It is no wonder because a snake gives birth to none other than a snake, and whoever reads the annals of history will find the murder and pillage that they committed on the people of the Sunnah, and will find their treaties with the enemies of Islaam far too notorious to be mentioned here." -- from a sermon by Sheikh Saalih al-Wanyyaan delivered in the Saudi province of Qasim, circa 1987.

But what does Sheikh Saalih al-Wanyyaan know, or his listeners in Qasim, Saudi Arabia, about Sunni views of Shi'a "animosity....towards the people of the Sunnah....ever ingrained in their souls since the time they took the belief of corrupt partisanship as a rule and path for their religion"? What do they know, that is, compared to what Dinesh D'Souza, who has been "studying" Islam for the past several years, knows all about it?

From "Fitzgerald: A Florilegium of Quotes":

#5. "There are only two political parties in Iraq: the Sunni party and the Shia party.�" Tawfiq Al-Suwaidi, Iraqi Prime Minister, 1929, 1930, 1946, 1950.

[Posted by Hugh at March 26, 2007 11:22 AM]

But what does Tawfiq Al-Suwaidi, Iraqi Prime Minister in 1929, 1930, 1946, 1950 know about Sunni-Shi'a rivalries in modern Iraq, compared to what Dinesh D'Souza knows, studying the matter over the past few years in his Palo Alto office, in his San Diego mansion?

"He conjures a vision of an Islamic state comprising Lebanon, Palestine and Syria." By Uzi Mahnaimi for the TimesOnline, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

THE deputy leader of Al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has urged supporters in Iraq to extend their “holy war” to other Middle Eastern countries.

In a letter sent to the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq in the past few weeks, Zawahiri claims that it is defeating US forces and urges followers to expand their campaign of terror.

He conjures a vision of an Islamic state comprising Lebanon, Palestine and Syria, where Al-Qaeda has already gained its first footholds.

The goal of an Islamic “greater Syria”, first outlined by Zawahiri two years ago, is detailed in the letter amid growing concern about the activities of new groups under Al-Qaeda’s influence in the countries concerned.

Unsurprisingly, some Kuwaiti legislators won't let this issue go away. Sharia Alert. "Islamists demand Kuwait woman minister wear veil," by Ulf Laessing for Tiscali:

KUWAIT (Reuters) - Kuwait’s new female education minister refused to wear a veil as she took an oath when the OPEC oil producer’s new government was sworn in on Monday, leading to protests by several Islamist parliamentarians.

Nouriya al-Subaih defied calls by some deputies to cover her hair when taking the oath with the rest of the Gulf Arab country’s cabinet.

"The minister must comply with the provisions of sharia (Islamic law) approved by parliament. The government must uphold the law," said deputy Dhaifallah Buramia, who stood up in parliament until Speaker Jassem al-Kharafi told him to sit down.

Another Islamist deputy, Nasser al-Sanae, disagreed and played down the importance of the incident.

"This issue is no problem for the government. These are individual opinions. It is her own decision," he told reporters after the assembly was dissolved.

Women won the right to run for office and vote in Kuwait in 2005 in the face of resistance from some deputies who managed to add a clause stipulating that women must abide by Islamic law.

The details of that stipulation have never been specified -- perhaps deliberately, so that it may be invoked as the supposed need arises without limitation.

Subaih, a liberal who does not belong to any political bloc, is one of two women in the new cabinet. The other woman, Health Minister Massouma al-Mubarak, always wears a veil in public.

"You must return the rights of the people you have erred against . . . or pay the price," by Hala Jaber for The Sunday Times:

The leader of Fatah al-Islam has threatened Britons with “destruction through resistance and attacks” for their government’s policies in the Middle East.

In a recent interview with The Sunday Times, Shakir al-Abssi, whose militant group is locked in a battle with the Lebanese army, said: “I advise the British people to cease their destructive policies in the Islamic world and to take an example of the fate of the United States, which is on its way to destruction.

“We tell the British people to exercise pressure on their government not to continue to be the arm and tail of the United States. They must understand that it is in their interest to ensure that unless we as a people are safe, they cannot be safe as a people themselves.”

[...]

Abssi was refusing to meet us in person, apparently because we were women and it would contradict his Islamic teachings.

[...]

During the interview Abssi blamed Britain for most of the ills of the Middle East.

“The British are the primary cause of the Middle East problems and they should be correcting their errors in the region and returning the rights of the people they erred against instead of blindly following the policies of the Americans,” he said.

“Is it just that we should accept their slaughtering of us and our people, and do nothing for fear of being labelled terrorists?” He spoke calmly, with none of the ranting of some jihadists, but it was clear he believed attacks against the United States and Britain would be justified.

“The crime is for them [Britons] to follow the Americans in their policies. If they want to be safe, especially since they are the principal culprits in the region, then they should now start supporting and backing the oppressed people,” he said.

He argued that both the US and Britain had preached democracy in the Middle East, but failed to recognise the democratically elected Palestinian government on the grounds that it was Islamist.

“How can we swallow this or even accept it? So yes, we do not denounce attacks against the United States. Under what logic should we, given what it is doing in Palestine and the region?” he said.

Demonstrating the fallacy of the Bush administration's Wilsonian designs on Iraq, Abssi admits the democratic process can and will be used to undermine the West-- if it continues under the illusion that introducing democracy alone can instill a nation with the values that have enabled it to be a force for good in the West.

But Abssi is not lashing out only at Britain: "Islamist militant in Lebanon vows to fight U.S.: report," from Reuters:

"We say to you, the guardians of the American project, the Sunni people will be leaders in fighting the Jews, the Americans and their loyalists," Abssi said, referring to Lebanese leaders.

"Lal Masjid gears up for attack on CD, video shops: Taliban jihad in NWFP backed," from Dawn:

ISLAMABAD, May 25: The Lal Masjid administration on Friday announced that its students would attack audio and video shops, massage centres and brothels in Islamabad if their owners did not wind up their businesses immediately.

“Our students can attack these outlets anytime because the deadline given to their owners had already passed,” Lal Masjid khatib Maulana Abdul Aziz said in his Friday sermon.

The deadline ended last month and the owners fear attacks from the mosque brigade anytime. “We are insecure and need government protection,” the owner of a CD shop in Abpara market told Dawn.

He said that a group of 40 to 50 baton-wielding people, some of them covering their faces, had visited different markets two months ago and asked owners of CD, audio and video shops to switch over to other business.

The CD shop-owner said he had been in the business for 30 years and had no expertise to start another business.

When contacted, Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi, deputy in-charge of Lal Masjid, said the one-month ultimatum had ended last month, adding that owners of some of the shops had assured that they would wind up their business.

Two months ago some people went to various markets in the capital and issued notices, signed by slain Taliban leader Mullah Dadullah, to owners of CD and audio/video shops, asking them to wind up their businesses.

However, Maulana Ghazi denied that those who had distributed the notices were students or supporters of Lal Masjid.

Our Correspondent in Kohat adds: In a telephonic address on the occasion of the inauguration of the basement of a mosque in Kohat, Maulana Abdul Aziz of Lal Masjid asked the Taliban to continue their jihad against obscenity, prostitution, video shops and other social vices and expand it to every nook and corner of the NWFP.

He said the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal secured votes in the name of Islam and Quran but failed to enforce Sharia and curb un-Islamic practices.

“Therefore, it is now the responsibility of all believers to support the activities of the Taliban in the province against CD shops and obscenity.”

He advised the Taliban to also help the weak and helpless segments of society in getting justice. He said the government would have to enforce Islam soon because they could not stop the movement of the Taliban which had got the support of millions of people. “People are fed up with the rulers and want immediate change for which time is ripe.”

He regretted that the MMA government had got involved in purely political matters which resulted in social degradation. “The sale of drugs and liquor has increased and dancing, prostitution and music are on the rise in the NWFP which is being ruled by graduates of seminaries,” he added.

This hadith helps explain why all of the above are targeted together, including any and all music, in Islamic campaigns against "vice":

that he heard the Prophet saying, "From among my followers there will be some people who will consider illegal sexual intercourse, the wearing of silk, the drinking of alcoholic drinks and the use of musical instruments, as lawful. ... Allah will destroy them during the night and will let the mountain fall on them, and He will transform the rest of them into monkeys and pigs and they will remain so till the Day of Resurrection." - Bukhari 7.69.494v

The article continues:

He said: “We have set the example of enforcing Sharia in Islamabad and, therefore, the MMA government cannot justify its inaction this regard.”

By Tim Graham in Newsbusters:

Frank Gaffney's film "Islam vs. Islamists" -- ripped out of PBS's post-9/11 film series "America At The Crossroads" like unsightly hair off PBS's back -- has now found a distributor in Oregon Public Broadcasting. Is that good news? It might be good that more of the public might have a chance to see it. But its new distribution deal with OPB means it's completely optional for PBS stations to air it, and whenever they want -- like 3 AM on a Monday morning. That's a far cry from the prime-time national PBS feed, with all the public-relations weight that the "Crossroads" series managed.

In The Washington Post, Paul Farhi framed the tale with a narrative of bald-faced intervention by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is supposed to just hand over the money to PBS and shut up, like a kid who gets his lunch money stolen daily. The PBS elite talks a phony game of artistic integrity and independence, but it's a liberal sandbox, and if you don't have something liberal to say, your ball gets taken away. We might offer some kudos to the Post for noting the deal, and letting Gaffney speak:

"I am a person they regard as a conservative, and they regard the airwaves as a liberal domain," said Gaffney, a former Reagan administration defense official who now runs the Center for Security Policy.

WETA and PBS officials denied this yesterday. "We had no problem with the concept or ideology," said WETA spokeswoman Mary Stewart. "It was about filmmaking and documentary standards. We had no problem with the argument laid out in the film."

One expects that the documentary will get all the more attention thanks to the fuss. From what I have heard, the movie does a good job of exposing the violent nature of Islam - but more in spite, rather than because, of Gaffney's involvement. At the private screenings it's had, apparently Gaffney has gone out of his way to explain away the manifest point that comes across, i.e., that Islam is violent. There does not seem to be any good explanation as to how this thing came to be made in the first place. I once asked Mr Gaffney whether Islamic violence was, in fact, rooted in Islam rather than some "extreme" distortion of it. He replied that, well, it didn't really matter. I retrieved my jaw from the floor and left. Of course, for a really ripping documentary that pulls no punches, may I recommend Islam: What the West Needs to Know, due out on July 17?

Pity the nation. The latest installment in the ongoing saga, the Slow Death of Lebanon. From Naharnet:

Hooded Fatah al-Islam fighters have fanned through the residential districts of north Lebanon's Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in preparation for what appears to be a final showdown with the Lebanese army, residents told Naharnet Friday.

Fatima Madhy, who deserted her apartment early in the day and re-settled with relatives south of Beirut, said the militants are "everywhere in the camp. They are occupying residential apartments and setting up sniping nests on rooftops."

Madhy, 42, said that after taking refuge in the basement with her husband, four children and neighbors, "we went up to our second floor apartment and found three hooded Fatah al-Islam gunmen entrenched in it."

"We begged them to leave. We told them that if they open fire from our apartment the Lebanese Army would shell it," Added Madhy, her eyes brimming with tears.

"They wouldn't listen. One of them who spoke Arabic with a North African accent told us that we better help them in the fight against the American (U.S) Army."

"We argued that it is the Lebanese army that they are fighting, not the U.S. Army, but they didn't want to understand. One of them said the Lebanese Government is controlled by the Americans which makes it an enemy government," she said.

Hizbullah Leader Sayed Hassan Nasrallah has accused the majority government of Premier Fouad Saniora of being a U.S.-controlled dummy.

Madhy's husband, Abdul Karim, a retired Palestinian guerrilla who fought with the mainstream Fatah faction in the 1980s, said Fatah al-Islam fighters are "not Palestinians."

"They speak a variety of accents: Syrian, Yemeni, Egyptian, Saudi, Moroccan and Algerian. Some of them do not speak Arabic at all."

"They say they came here to fight the crusaders," Abdul Karim explained.

A significant, though hardly atypical, observation. Wherever there is jihad, faithful mujihadeen from around the world flock to the cause. Exactly what happened in Bosnia, Chechnya, and Lebanon. Europe, please take note.

Abi Hureira, said in a telephone interview with the pan-Arab Al Hayat newspaper that "sleeper cells" in all 12 Palestinian refugee camps and elsewhere in Lebanon were awaiting word for a "violent response."

He claimed that Fatah al-Islam is "capable of transferring the battle to any spot in Lebanon."

"We can easily do that," he told Al Hayat by telephone from Nahr al-Bared.

He said Fatah al-Islam can launch a guerrilla war "which no army can defeat."

Abi Hureira said Fatah al-Islam members were "highly qualified" warriors with fighting experience outside Lebanon," adding that he himself enjoys a 21-year combating experience in various countries.

He emphasized that his group has no intentions to attack peacekeepers of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon "as long as they do not hit us."

Abi Hureira said between 600 to 700 Fatah al-Islam militants were spread across Lebanon's Palestinian refugee camps, not just in Nahr al-Bared as believed by the Lebanese authorities.

"They are (in a state) of maximum alert," he said.

Could this have something to do with Bush's alleged and no-longer-secret plan for Iran?

Or maybe this isn't true either, and both sides are trading disinformation.

"Intelligence Ministry discovers several spy networks," from IRNA, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

Iranian Intelligence Ministry said on Saturday that it discovered several spy networks at the Western, Southwestern and central Iran.

It said in a statement that the networks enjoyed guidance from intelligence services of the occupying powers in Iraq and Iraqi groups also were involved in the case.

Yet Abbas the "moderate" will no doubt continue to be the recipient of American and even Israeli largesse.

"Border policeman, security guard hurt in e. J'lem shooting," by Etgar Lefkovits in the Jerusalem Post, with thanks to all who sent this in:

Two Palestinian gunmen opened fired at an Israeli security patrol near a section of the separation barrier on the edge of Jerusalem on Saturday night, wounding two security guards - one seriously - police and rescue officials said.

The attackers were shot and killed by the wounded security personnel.

A Palestinian bystander was also killed in the shootout. Police said he was apparently killed by the gunmen.

The shooting attack took place during a routine patrol in the Arab village of Sheikh Said, adjacent to the Jewish neighborhood of Armon Hanatziv on the southeastern rim of the city.

The two assailants made their way on foot to the area and ambushed the patrol, then tried to flee, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said.

An offshoot of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, affiliated with the Fatah Party of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, claimed responsibility for the shooting, according to the Palestinian news Web site Maan, the Associated Press reported.

This is all high-sounding and noble, until you remember that Sharia is enshrined in both the Iraqi and Afghan constitutions.

And the reality on the ground is that these states "respect the rights of their people" except non-Muslims.

"Bush Says Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan Are Promoting Freedom," by Holly Rosenkrantz for Bloomberg:

May 26 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush, in a Memorial Day weekend radio address, said the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are aimed at promoting in those countries the freedom people enjoy in the U.S.

``Our troops are helping them build democracies that respect the rights of their people, uphold the rule of law and fight extremists alongside America in the war on terror,'' Bush said....

Congress this week approved almost $100 billion for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through Sept. 30. The package, stripped of a troop-withdrawal timeline Democrats sought and Bush opposed, handed the president a victory in the continuing debate over war policy.

Commissioned by the Prince of Wales. What a surprise. The Hermeneutic of Continuity blog reports (thanks to Rather Not Say):

Westminster Cathedral has attracted the notice Private Eye. In the current edition, there is a piece on page 12 "Music and Musicians" reporting on a new work by John Taverner, commissioned by the Prince of Wales that is to be performed in the Cathedral. According to the article:

It is based on the Koran and sets the 99 names of Allah to music, to be intoned over an hour and a half with choir, full orchestra and Tibetan gongs.

The same blog points out that the same Cathedral played host to another form of Islamic expression not too long ago, as we noted here at the time:

Hate crime in Queens. "Hate-crime charges in haircut attack," by Mitchell Freedman for Newsday, with thanks to all who sent this in:

A Queens high school student was charged with hate crimes Friday for violating a Sikh student's religious beliefs by forcing him to remove his turban and cutting his hair, the Queens district attorney said.

"The defendant is not accused of some schoolhouse prank, but an attack on the fundamental beliefs of his victim's religion and his freedom to worship freely," Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a prepared statement.

Umair Ahmed, 17, of 42-49 77th St., was arrested in the Thursday attack in a bathroom at Newtown High School in Elmhurst.

Ahmed and another student allegedly forced the 15-year-old victim into the bathroom, and after threatening him forced the boy to remove his dastar, a traditional Sikh turban....

Ahmed used scissors to cut off his victim's waist-long hair, then threw it in a toilet and on the floor, according to a spokesman for the district attorney. Cutting a Sikh's hair is contrary to the Sikh faith, which considers hair a gift from God that should never be cut.

Ahmed was charged with second-degree unlawful imprisonment as a hate crime, second-degree menacing as a hate crime, second-degree aggravated harassment, second-degree harassment and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon. He faces up to seven years in prison.

The victim told officials that he only went into the bathroom and took off his dastar because he feared that Ahmed would stab him....

The boy said it was against his religion, but Ahmed showed him a ring and said, "This ring is Allah. If you don't let me cut your hair, I will punch you with this ring."

Will the Iranian economy collapse, and the Thug-In-Chief be toppled, before the Mahdi returns? By Robert Tait in The Guardian (thanks to Morgaan Sinclair):

Iran's financial system suffered a fresh jolt yesterday with panic selling on the stock market after the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, abruptly ordered banks to cut interest rates sharply, despite surging inflation.

The order, which Mr Ahmadinejad issued by telephone during a visit to Belarus and which flew in the face of expert advice - has triggered warnings of a financial crisis and spiralling corruption amid fears of a capital flight from the country's lending institutions.

Mr Ahmadinejad's decree forced all state-owned and private banks to slash borrowing rates to 12%. Inflation is officially 15% but is generally believed to be much higher. State banks had been offering rates of 14%, while those in the private sector ranged from 17% to 28%.

The decision caused panic in the Tehran stock exchange, with private banks losing much of their share value overnight. Shareholders in one bank, Karafarin, queued on Wednesday to sell their stock when previously there had been 1.2 million applicants to buy its shares.

There was speculation yesterday that the move could force the resignation of the economy minister, Davoud Danesh-Ja'afari, who was not consulted.

And maybe of Ahmadinejad himself: "Tehran rate cut 'is economic suicide,'" from the Gulf Daily News (thanks again to Morgaan):

TEHRAN: Iran's Press and economists yesterday slammed a decision by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to slash interest rates, describing the move as "incomprehensible" and risking "economic suicide".

The rate cut decision, which economists said could overheat an already inflationary economy, appeared to have been taken without the knowledge of economy minister who had said exactly the opposite just hours earlier.

"Economic suicide for banks," the Mardomsalari newspaper said of move.

"The economy minister and the head of the central bank have to explain this decision since this decree is incomprehensible for economists," the economy minister in the previous reformist government, Saeed Shirkavand, said.

Just the economy minister and the head of the central bank? Not the head Thug?

Of course. They're all decent fellows.

Control Orders Update. "Terror suspect was 'nice guy,'" by Gary O'Shea in the Sun, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

TERROR suspect Ibrahim Adam poses with his arm around a stunning girl — before he was brainwashed by Islamic extremists.

Clean-shaven Adam, pictured aged 17, dressed in a sharp suit for his prom night with school pals.

But a short time later Adam, now 20, grew a beard and ditched his suave clothes.

Now he is one of three terror suspects feared to be headed to Iraq to fight "Our Boys" after breaking a Home Office curfew.

He and brother Lamine, 26, were put under control orders after being investigated for alleged plots to blow up troops abroad.

A third brother, Anthony Garcia, 25, got life for a plot to blow up a shopping centre and a nightclub....

Algerian-born Ibrahim Adam’s classmates from Beal High School in Ilford, Essex, are in shock. One said: “He seemed like a really pleasant guy.

“He was particularly popular among the teachers. No one can believe what’s happened.”

"And now this righteous Shi'ite brother is going to let us build a pipeline to get Iraqi oil -- but don't worry, we'll still harangue the Infidels for waging a 'war for oil'!"

Brave new democratic Iraqi government extends preferential treatment to Iranian firms. A "We won!" Update. By Mohamed Hameed for Azzaman:

Iraq has accepted an Iranian offer to build a pipeline connecting its terminals and refineries to the prolific Iraqi oil fields in Basra.

Assem Jihad, Oil Ministry’s Information Officer said, the agreement was reached during a meeting between Oil Minister Hussain Shahristani and the Iranian ambassador in Baghdad.

Initially, the pipeline will carry 200,000 barrels of Iraqi crude to Iran.

The countries will soon form a joint committee on how to implement the project, Jihad said.

However, Jihad declined comment on financing and duration of execution.

But said Shahristani has invited Iranian firms to invest in Iraq and present their offers to build new refineries in the country.

The government has said it would extend Iranian firms preferential treatment because many of them are still operating in southern Iraq despite the flight of other foreign companies.

Imagine the logistical nightmare of scheduling breaks to accomodate moving prayer times. "Dozens of Muslim meatpackers return to production lines after prayer walk-out," from the Associated Press:

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Dozens of Muslim meatpackers in Omaha, Nebraska, are back on the job, after walking-out last week to protest not having enough time for sundown prayers.

No complaints on the other shifts?

Swift and Company officials had said sunset prayers could take too many workers off production lines at once, forcing them to shut down. More than half of the Muslim workers -- from Somalia -- decided to return to the production lines, after meeting with management and union officials.

As summer draws near, later sunsets could run past slotted break times, which could mean more friction between management and workers. But a spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations says the workers have flexibility about when they are required to pray. And he says prayer should only take about five minutes.

And elsewhere, notably in Britain. "Canadian Islamists trying to bring in Sharia," by Khalid Hasan for the Daily Times:

WASHINGTON: Canadian Islamists who have been trying to bring in Sharia into Canada, so far without success, have now chosen another route - Islamic banking.

According to Tarek Fatah, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, “In 2003, we saw Islamists trying to sneak Sharia into Canada through the backdoor of Family Law and under the cover of Multiculturalism. Now, they seem to be taking a different route. They claim they are introducing the seemingly innocuous ‘Islamic banking’ by claiming such banking to be ‘interest-free’ and ‘Sharia-compliant’. This is one more ploy to prey on the fears and insecurities of Muslim Canadians. Invoking Islam to make a fortune is only one part of the agenda. The other is to try one more time to make ‘Sharia’ part of the Canadian lexicon. Only this time, it has the backing of corporate lawyers and senior bankers who see big money at the end of the line. The whole concept is a fraud that will further marginalise an already marginalised community.”

This position will probably lead to more death threats for Fatah and his organization, which has called for other anti-Sharia concepts like the separation of religion and state.

Because they don’t charge interest, financial services, like mortgages, offered by Islamic institutions tend to be higher priced than those from secular. Fatah said ideally, Islamic financial institutions should operate in places with a Muslim majority. “If it hasn’t picked up, this is because the Muslim community is not foolish,” he said. Islamic financial services in Canada are being pushed by banking executives from the Muslim community who feel that by creating a niche they will be able to tap into an area non- Muslims can’t access. “It’s a complete fraud because what you are doing is you are adding interest upfront and building it into your investments and dishonestly calling it interest-free,” he added.

A Muslim Canadian business executive who manages a shipping business in Pakistan, said, “In essence, ‘Islamic’ banking is manipulative, deceitful and fraudulent at several levels. Any finance student will tell you that interest-based banking as we know it today is a component of inflation, risk and the opportunity cost of money. It is centrally regulated and transparent. Furthermore, by having a more efficient Aggregate Demand-Aggregate Supply dynamic, one can minimise the inflation component but the other two components are the basis of a regulated banking system that is a key aspect of economic and technological growth. The Islamists have their own arguments which probably culminate in: ‘why do something with honesty and transparency when religion can be misused to obfuscate the issue and concentrate power in the hands of a few’!” A report by Brian Adeba in the Ottawa publication The Embassy, says rules on interest, real estate and overcoming apprehension from both within and without the Muslim community make it tricky for Sharia- inspired banks to be set up in Canada.

"Hezbollah to Lebanese army: Stay out of refugee camp," from CNN:

(CNN) -- The leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, has warned the Lebanese army not to enter the Palestinian refugee camp north of Tripoli where it has been confronting Islamic militants.

Nasrallah -- in a televised address to mark the seventh anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon -- said that to enter the camp would be crossing a red line, and the Palestinians should not be touched.

"Suppose that the government is having a war on terror, that doesn't mean they should kill half of the people on the street," he said in a reference to Palestinian civilians crammed into the Nahr el-Bared camp.

He also criticized the militants of Fatah al-Islam, who are holed up inside the camp, accusing them of an aggression against the army that was an aggression against all of Lebanon.

Hezbollah, a Shiite organization, views extremist Sunni groups such as al Qaeda and Fatah al-Islam as enemies.

While tension between Hizballah and al-Qaeda is nothing new, it's possible that there's even more to this, in light of reports from last fall that Hizballah was moving rockets into Palestinian camps in southern Lebanon: assets to protect, and secrets to hide.

Nasrallah said that a negotiated political settlement according to the rule of law should be reached to preserve the integrity of the Lebanese army. The Lebanese military stays out of the Palestinian camps under a 1969 agreement that allows the Palestinians to run them.

[...]

Nasrallah was also critical of the Lebanese government's request to the United States for military aid during the crisis.

"We should be aware of the American interference," he said. "[As for] the American intervention in this incident there should be an investigation into who took the decision."

The Hezbollah leader also said that Lebanon must not be allowed to become a battleground between the army and groups affiliated with al Qaeda. He said this would tempt the United States to bring the war on terror to Lebanese soil, as it had in Iraq.

"Are you willing to fight the wars of others inside Lebanon?" he asked his audience. "I want to warn that we should not be dragged by the Americans to fight their battle in Lebanon."

Fighting the wars of others... like Iran?

An update on this story. "UTD student convicted of having weapon," by Jason Trahan for the Dallas Morning News:

A University of Texas at Dallas sophomore who prosecutors said longed to join the fight against U.S. forces in the Middle East was convicted by a Houston jury on federal weapons charges Thursday.

Syed Maaz Shah, 20, a Pakistan native majoring in electrical engineering, was convicted of firing an Armalite M-15 assault weapon on two camping trips in January and March in a rural area near Willis, north of Houston.

The FBI says Mr. Shah and other men on the trips were engaged in military training with the ultimate goal to join the jihad, or holy war, against the U.S. overseas.

During his trial this week, Mr. Shah said he was going on fishing trips and didn't know guns would be involved.

"I was invited by my friends to go camping and have a good time, and that's what we had," said Mr. Shah in a letter to the UTD Mercury student newspaper that was published in February. "Isn't it mind-boggling that someone can be placed in prison for merely going to a shooting range? ... I mean, for God's sake, we live in Texas ..."

After a three-day trial in front of U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon in Houston, Mr. Shah was convicted on two counts of alien in possession of a firearm affecting interstate commerce.

Mr. Shah entered the U.S. in 2005 on a student visa and as such was prohibited from possessing a firearm, authorities said. He faces up to 20 years in prison. He will be sentenced Sept. 14.

In late November, he was arrested outside his UTD campus apartment and was transferred to Houston to join three co-defendants who authorities say joined him on the training campouts.

Prosecutors said that when Mr. Shaw was arrested, he told agents he went on the campouts to prepare for "what may come" and described American forces in Iraq as "invaders." During his trial, Mr. Shah denied making those statements.

Extremist materials were found on Mr. Shah's computer, seized by agents in Dallas, prosecutors said. "Statue of Liberty in Burka" reads the name of one file from his computer, according to a government trial exhibit list.

Shiraz Syed Qazi, 26, also in the U.S. on a student visa, was sentenced last week to 10 months in prison for unlawful possession of a firearm during the campouts.

Adnan Babar Mirza, a 29-year-old Pakistani native, is scheduled for trial in October on federal conspiracy and firearms charges.

A third co-defendant, Kobie Diallo Williams, a 33-year-old U.S. citizen, will be sentenced in October after his November 2006 guilty plea to conspiracy charges related to raising money for the Taliban and gun charges.

He said it.

That is, Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal, just deported from the UK, said it. But no one will dare to examine the implications of his statement.

"Profile: Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal," from the BBC, with thanks to Kate:

Muslim cleric Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal, who has been deported from the UK to Jamaica, was jailed in 2003 for soliciting the murder of Jews and Hindus.

Al-Faisal spent years travelling the UK preaching racial hatred urging his audience to kill Jews, Hindus and Westerners.

The imam called on impressionable teenage boys to learn how to use rifles, fly planes and use missiles to kill "all unbelievers".

In return for becoming martyrs, he promised them the reward of a place in paradise.

He did this in accord with Qur'an 9:111, which promises Paradise to those who "kill and are killed" for Allah.

One of the 7 July London suicide bombers, Germaine Lindsay, was heavily influenced by him, according to the Home Secretary John Reid....

In his tape Jihad, the father-of-four told Muslim women to raise their children "with the jihad mentality" by giving them toy guns.

In the tape recorded after 11 September, he said: "The way forward is the bullet. Our motto is 'might is right'".

In another tape - Rules of Jihad - thought to have been recorded before 11 September, he said Jihad had been declared against India.

"You are only allowed to use nuclear weapons in that country which is 100% unbelievers," he said.

But throughout the trial he denied he had intended to incite people to violence.

Instead he argued his talks came from the Koran and if he was on trial so was the holy text.

An explicitly religious appeal. "Qaeda vows 'seas of blood' over Lebanon Palestinians," from Reuters, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

DUBAI, May 25 (Reuters) - A group calling itself al Qaeda's wing in the Levant vowed to carry out bombings in Lebanon and attacks on Christians unless Beirut pulled its army away from Palestinian refugee camps.

"We warn you for the last time, after which there will be nothing apart from seas of blood," said a speaker identified as the military leader of the group in a video posted on Friday by a media arm used by Islamist groups including Qaeda in Iraq.

"What we want is that you order the Christian Lebanese army to pull its men from around all Palestinian camps and the Nahr al-Bared Camp in particular," he said addressing Maronite Christian Partiarch Cadrinal Nasrallah Sfeir.

"If you do not stop we will wrench out your hearts with ... bombs," said the speaker whose face was covered with a chequered head dress and who had rifle magazines around his torso....

The speaker described the army's campaign as a "brutal ... crusade under the pretext of fighting terrorism" and argued that Palestinians in Lebanon have always suffered discrimination....

Addressing Sfeir, the militant said: "Leash your dogs away from our kin and stop the fire of your canons, or else... No crusader will be safe in Lebanon after today. As you hit you will be hit."...

"We welcome a battle, and do not be fooled by the support of apostate Arabs to you," the militant said.

Hugh Fitzgerald has written a great deal here about the fact that the Sunni/Shi'ite conflict is 1,400 years old, and as it was not created (contrary to fashionable claims) by the American presence in Iraq, it cannot be ended by continuing that presence.

Now Dinesh D'Souza begs to differ:

Ask youself this question: can you name two previous wars that have been fought between the Shia and the Sunni? I didn't think so. Neither can I. Because there aren't any. The Shia and the Sunni have not been fighting for centuries. Historically speaking, they have not been fighting at all.

Oh, pick me, Mr. D'Souza! Over here! My hand is up. Let's see. Two previous wars between Sunnis and Shia? How about these, sir? Leaving aside the massacres at Karbala that mark the definitive split between Sunnis and Shia in 680, here are a few highlights:

754: Plans to enthrone the Shi'ite Jafar As-Siddiq as caliph, thus ending the schism, were disrupted when Jafar was murdered by the Sunni Al-Mansur, who himself became caliph.

972: Shi'ite Fatimids conquer Sunni Egypt, and continue fighting Sunnis until they rule much of North Africa and the Middle East.

1040s: Sunni Zirid revolt in North Africa against Shi'ite rule.

1169: The Sunnis Nuraddin and Saladin seize Egypt, ending Shi'ite Fatimid rule.

Early 1500's: Shi'ites take control of Persia, violently suppressing Sunni ulama.

1514: War between the Sunni Ottoman Turks and the Shi'ite Persian Safavids.

1623: More war between the Sunni Ottoman Turks and the Shi'ite Persian Safavids. This conflict was centered in Iraq. The Safavids captured Baghdad in 1624; the Ottomans recaptured it in 1638.

And here's one you're old enough to remember, Mr. D'Souza:

1980-1988: Saddam Hussein's Sunni-controlled Iraq fights a protracted war against the Iranian Shi'ite mullahocracy.

And right now, today, far from Iraq:

Yemen Declares Jihad on Yemeni Shiites

There are plenty more where those came from, Dinesh. No, don't thank me. I'm happy to help.

A few words about the world's fastest growing religion.

What planet does Gordon Johndroe live on?

"Fiery anti-U.S. cleric reappears in Iraq," by Ravi Nessman for Associated Press, with thanks to Andrew Bostom:

BAGHDAD - Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr appeared in public for the first time in months on Friday, delivering a fiery anti-American sermon to thousands of followers and demanding U.S. troops leave Iraq....

Al-Sadr traveled in a long motorcade from Najaf to the adjacent holy city of Kufa on Friday morning to deliver his sermon before 6,000 worshippers.

"No, no for Satan. No, no for America. No, no for the occupation. No, no for Israel," he chanted in a call and response with the audience at the start of his speech.

He repeated his long-standing call for U.S. forces to leave Iraq.

"We demand the withdrawal of the occupation forces, or the creation of a timetable for such a withdrawal," he said. "I call upon the Iraqi government not to extend the occupation even for a single day."

He also condemned fighting between his Mahdi Army militia and Iraqi security forces, saying it "served the interests of the occupiers." Instead, he said the militia should turn to peaceful protests, such as demonstrations and sit-ins, he said.

In Washington, National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe expressed hope that al-Sadr's reappearance signaled that he wanted "to play a positive role inside Iraq."

"He has an opportunity to be a part of the political reconciliation process. We'll see if he and his followers participate," he said.

Indeed we will.

Tawfik Hamid speaks truth to power in the usually reliably dhimmi Wall Street Journal, echoing points we have often made here:

To bring an end to Islamophobia, we must employ a holistic approach that treats the core of the disease. It will not suffice to merely suppress the symptoms. It is imperative to adopt new Islamic teachings that do not allow killing apostates (Redda Law). Islamic authorities must provide mainstream Islamic books that forbid polygamy and beating women. Accepted Islamic doctrine should take a strong stand against slavery and the raping of female war prisoners, as happens in Darfur under the explicit canons of Shariah ("Ma Malakat Aimanikum"). Muslims should teach, everywhere and universally, that a woman's testimony in court counts as much as a man's, that women should not be punished if they marry whom they please or dress as they wish.

We Muslims should publicly show our strong disapproval for the growing number of attacks by Muslims against other faiths and against other Muslims. Let us not even dwell on 9/11, Madrid, London, Bali and countless other scenes of carnage. It has been estimated that of the two million refugees fleeing Islamic terror in Iraq, 40% are Christian, and many of them seek a haven in Lebanon, where the Christian population itself has declined by 60%. Even in Turkey, Islamists recently found it necessary to slit the throats of three Christians for publishing Bibles.

Of course, Islamist attacks are not limited to Christians and Jews. Why do we hear no Muslim condemnation of the ongoing slaughter of Buddhists in Thailand by Islamic groups? Why was there silence over the Mumbai train bombings which took the lives of over 200 Hindus in 2006? We must not forget that innocent Muslims, too, are suffering. Indeed, the most common murderers of Muslims are, and have always been, other Muslims. Where is the Muslim outcry over the Sunni-Shiite violence in Iraq?

Islamophobia could end when masses of Muslims demonstrate in the streets against videos displaying innocent people being beheaded with the same vigor we employ against airlines, Israel and cartoons of Muhammad. It might cease when Muslims unambiguously and publicly insist that Shariah law should have no binding legal status in free, democratic societies.

It is well past time that Muslims cease using the charge of "Islamophobia" as a tool to intimidate and blackmail those who speak up against suspicious passengers and against those who rightly criticize current Islamic practices and preachings. Instead, Muslims must engage in honest and humble introspection. Muslims should--must--develop strategies to rescue our religion by combating the tyranny of Salafi Islam and its dreadful consequences. Among more important outcomes, this will also put an end to so-called Islamophobia.

Often broadcast on official PA television. "The Hamas Ideology of Hatred and Genocide: Islamic supremacy over the world, destroying Israel and Jews, promoting terror and violence," by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook for PMW, with thanks to all who sent this in:

Part 1: Islamic supremacy over the world

Former Foreign Minister and Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahhar:
"The prophetic foundation is the message of the prophet Muhammad, that Islam will enter every house and will spread over the entire world."
[Al-Ayyam, March 25, 2007]

Dr. Ahmad Bahar, Hamas (acting Speaker, Palestinian Legislative Council):
"This is Islam, that was ahead of its time with regards to human rights in the treatment of prisoners, but our people was afflicted by the cancerous lump, that is the Jews, in the heart of the Arab nation. Make us victorious over the infidels. Allah, take hold of the Jews and their allies, Allah, take hold of the Americans and their allies Allah, count them and kill them to the last one and don't leave even one." [PA TV, April 20, 2007]

Deputy Director of Al-Aqsa [Hamas] TV, Hazem Al-Sha’arawi, discussing the children's program Tomorrow Pioneers:
"Let’s ask history: …which time period was good to all communities? The Jews lived in the time of Islam [under Islamic rule] and were happy. The Christians lived in the time of Islam [under Islamic rule] and were happy. Look at the history, the prophet [Muhammad]… ordered the army: ‘Do not kill a monk in his prayer room.’ Even the Caliph Umar Bin Al-Khattab, [Islamic conqueror of Jerusalem in 638] when he came into the Al-Aqsa Mosque, he secured the churches and the prayer rooms. Therefore, when we talk about the mission of the restoration of Islam to its natural place [of world rule], we [are] calling for justice, and for goodness, and for world love… so that the Christians will live in peace, and that even the Jews will live in peace and security.”
[Al-Aqsa TV, May 13, 2007]

Text from children's program on Hamas TV, Tomorrow Pioneers:
Hazim (Adult): "Islam will spread to all parts of the earth from one end to the other and justice and good and kindness will spread. Did history witness a time period better than that when Islam ruled?... Every day do you remember Andalus (Spain)? This dear Andalus will return [to Islam] one day." [Al-Aqsa TV, May 11, 2007]

Part 2: Destruction of Israel

Dr. Khalil Al-Hayyah, member of the Hamas political leadership and the Palestinian Legislative Council:
“The Hamas movement bases its strategy and its policy on that the option of resistance is the only option that can liberate Palestine from its [Mediterranean] sea to its [Jordan] river [ie destroy Israel].”
[Al-Risalah, Hamas newspaper, April 19, 2007]

Hamas spokesman, Dr. Ismail Radwan, confirmed …that his movement will not recognize any existence of the Israeli enemy on an inch of Palestinian land and said, “We will liberate Palestine, all of Palestine...Palestine will not be liberated by negotiations, committees and decisions, it will only be liberated by the rifle and the “Al-Qassam” [rocket]. Therefore, prepare yourselves.”
[Al-Risalah, Hamas newspaper, April 9, 2007]

Video of Ahmad Yassin, founder and former head of Hamas, about future destruction of Israel, broadcast regularly March – May 2007:
“Tel Aviv is gone. They are defeated, they have no words left. ... When this process will end, they will become a state with no ability, helpless. They established a state to protect the Jews from death and murder. If death and murder chase them in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Netanya and everywhere among them, then they will say: 'What am I doing here? I founded a state to protect me from death, and if death chases me, I want to flee and go back to Europe and America.'” [Al Aqsa TV, regularly, March – May 2007]

Former Foreign Minister and Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahhar:
"Our position is the liberation of Palestine, all of Palestine. This is the final and strategic solution for us. There is a Quranic message for us, that we will enter the Al-Aqsa mosque, and the entrance to the mosque means the entrance into all of Palestine. This is the message, no one can deny it. Anyone who denies it must check his faith and his Islam.”
[Al-Ayyam, March 25, 2007]

"The representative of the Legislative Council, Dr. Yussuf Al-Sharafi, of the ‘Change and Reform’ faction [Hamas], emphasized the option of Jihad and resistance to banish the thieves of the occupation, who longed to drink the blood of our massacred people... because the Jewish faith does not wish for peace nor stability, since it is a faith that is based on murder: ‘I kill, therefore I am’ … Israel is based only on blood and murder in order to exist, and it will disappear, with Allah’s will, through blood and Shahids [martyrs]."
[Al-Risalah, Hamas newspaper, April 12, 2007]

Part 3: Demonization and extermination of Jews

The Hamas spokesman, Dr. Ismail Radwan:
“The Hour [Resurrection] will not take place until the Muslims fight the Jews and the Muslims kill them, and the rock and the tree will say: ‘Oh, Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, kill him!’… We must remind our Arab and Muslim nation, its leaders and people, its scholars and students, remind them that Palestine and the Al-Aqsa mosque will not be liberated through summits nor by international resolutions, but it will be liberated through the rifle. It will not be liberated through negotiations, but through the rifle, since this occupation knows no language but the language of force… O Allah, strengthen Islam and Muslims, and bring victory to your Jihad-fighting worshipers, in Palestine and everywhere… Allah take the oppressor Jews and Americans and their supporters!” [PA TV, March 30, 2007]

Read it all.

"Beastly persons." They don't even rise to the level of "cheeky humans." So says the Thug-In-Chief, perhaps recalling the Qur'anic passages that tell of Jews being transformed into beasts, specifically apes and pigs (2:63-5; 5:59-60; 7:166).

"Jews acting like beastly persons, Ahmadinejad says," by Dudi Cohen for Ynet News, with thanks to Mackie:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Friday that "there is a group occupying the young Palestinians while the latter are defending their mothers and fathers, and presenting them as terrorists. "Do these criminals believe in God and in the Bible? They are like beastly persons; they have no faith in God. We object to the crimes making bad use in the name of Judaism," he added in a speech to the Iranian people.

Not as many Muslims, or as powerful a voting lobby, as Hooper and Co. would like us to think. From IBD, with thanks to all who sent this in:

Politics And Demographics: We've been told for years that Islam is the fastest-growing religion in America, and that the size of the Muslim population here has swelled to 6 million to 7 million. A new study pops that myth.

The Pew Research Center just concluded an exhaustive scientific study of the size of the U.S. Muslim population. It was able to identify only 2.35 million Muslims — less than half the figure commonly cited by Muslim activists.

Pew, a liberal group with certainly no interest in marginalizing Islam, described its study as "perhaps the most rigorous effort to date to scientifically estimate the size of the Muslim American population."

Yet it practically apologized for its more accurate reading, being that it came in "significantly below some commonly reported estimates frequently cited by Muslim groups."

Foremost among such groups is the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which claims to represent Muslims in Washington. CAIR commissioned its own survey in 2001 and came up with 6 million to 7 million, an estimate it always touts in its press releases and on its Web site.

As a result, most media outlets — as well as Congress, the White House and the State Department — have parroted the figure to describe the size of the nation's Muslim population.

Politicians in Washington are intimidated by the figure, which CAIR uses as a cudgel to help advance its Islamist agenda. They believe it.

But it's a wildly inflated guess manufactured by CAIR, something the media could have easily refuted all these years if they dared — simply by deconstructing CAIR's unscientific methodology.

I was reading along in Salon's expose of Carlos Castaneda, the author in the 1970s of a series of wildly popular pseudo-anthropological books on American Indian sorcery and spirituality and, apparently, later the leader of a small cult, when I came to this paragraph:

No one contributed more to Castaneda's debunking than Richard de Mille. De Mille, who held a Ph.D. in psychology from USC, was something of a freelance intellectual. In a recent interview, he remarked that because he wasn't associated with a university, he could tell the story straight. "People in the academy wouldn't do it," he remarked. "They'd be embarrassing the establishment." Specifically the UCLA professors who, according to de Mille, knew it was a hoax from the start. But a hoax that, he said, supported their theories, which de Mille summed up succinctly: "Reality doesn't exist. It's all what people say to each other."

Hmmm. A hoax that supported theories held by academics, such that it fell to people outside the academic establishment to debunk the hoax. Sounds to me a lot like the whole "Islam is a religion of peace" enterprise.

In "Media bombs," Diana West notes how the 183,000 Muslims in America who declared their support for suicide attacks in the recent Pew poll could transform America in the future.

...According to Pew's data, one-quarter of younger American Muslims approve of the presence of skin-ripping, skull-crushing, organ-piercing violence in civilian life as a religious imperative -- "in defense of Islam." (The Pew pollsters declined to define "defense of Islam," but having lived through Pope Rage, Cartoon Rage, Koran Rage, Satanic Verses Rage, etc., I think it's safe to say this is a rather broad category.) Such approval for religious violence is not just another unfettered political opinion finding expression in a poll-taker's tally. On the contrary, the fact that a significant young chunk of American Islam believes such violence has a place in society indicates something closer to the end of unfettered political opinion. It may signal the beginning of physical coercion as a factor in the American political process. This helps explain why the 69 percent figure is no consolation prize; only unanimity is acceptable here.

It's not that a physical fear factor pertaining to mainly Islamic terrorism hasn't long existed -- just take a look at the dispiriting security perimeter erected around the Capitol, for instance. But this Pew poll may mark the first official acknowledgement that such violence, and, equally important, the threat of such violence, actually find approval within the American polity.

Something new and barbarous under the sun, right? This is why it's all the more disturbing to review the happy headline-spin the story received. The blogger Ace of Spades provided an early roundup of the Orwellian tags, which included: "Poll: Most Muslims seek to adopt American lifestyle" (USA Today); "Muslims assimilate better in U.S. than Europe, poll finds" (New York Times); "Poll: US Muslims Feel Post-9/11 Backlash Despite Moderate Outlook" (Voice of America). My personal fave: "Upbeat portrait of US Muslims" (Sacramento Bee). The accompanying stories were no less giddy.

But why the journalistic rush to depict the shocking story as so much happy talk? Therein lies a tale, one of fanatical religious fervor-on the part of the mainstream media (MSM). Like other politically correct elites, the MSM follow their own version of the "true faith": multiculturalism. Multiculturalism preaches that all civilizations are the same, all religions are the same, all peoples are the same. The Pew results, meanwhile, tell them something else again: Some people -- some young American Muslim people -- approve of suicide bombing in defense of Islam. Does this finding perhaps introduce a qualitative difference among civilizations, religions, and peoples? That is, is there something more desirable about societies that don't inspire and glorify suicide bombings -- something worth preserving? Conversely, is there something about Islam our own society requires protection against? This is very tricky territory for the MSM. The logical answers are multiculturally blasphemous.

The MSM response: it's better to say nothing at all. Or better yet, just smile. Big grin. Happy story. It's one measly quarter, after all. Just one in four. And isn't that something to be upbeat about?

Hamas doesn’t seem to understand Israeli airstrikes as a response to the recent wave of Qassams. After all, the Qassams are harmless. This from Maan News:

Bethlehem - Ma'an - Israeli TV Channel Two broadcast an interview on Thursday with the Palestinian Prime Minister's advisor, Dr Ahmad Yousef, in which Yousef described the homemade projectiles launched from the Gaza Strip at Israel as "fireworks".

The advisor said that these projectiles are not causing any damage or harm to Israel. Only one Israeli has been killed, he said, while 63 Palestinians were killed in the last week alone.

Yousef added that "Israel is using these projectiles in order to kill Palestinians. "Can the stick be compared with the sword?" he asked. "These projectiles are almost like fireworks; they are not killing. Only one Israeli woman has been killed, but the Israeli military machine killed 63 [Palestinians] last week." He added, "The president described them as useless."

One killed recently, yes. Thousands of Sderot citizens have been evacuated and millions of dollars in damage has been incurred. To Hamas, however, it’s just another day.

Crossposted from The American Israeli Patriot.

Here is the fruit of those trumped-up hate crime reports: they translate into cold, hard, cash.

From WorldNetDaily.com, with thanks to all who sent this in:

While the European Union investigates mosques for ties to Islamic terrorism, the U.S. government is giving mosques security grants that are designed to protect churches, synagogues and other nonprofit groups from Islamic terror.

Most recently, the Islamic Society of Baltimore landed a $15,000 grant from the Department of Homeland Security to upgrade security at its Maryland mosque.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations since April has been urging leaders of mosques and Islamic schools across the nation to apply for the DHS grants, even though the agency's program was set up to help protect nonprofit facilities that are at high risk for attacks by Islamic terrorists.

In a recent "Action Alert" posted on its website, CAIR encouraged its Muslim members to take advantage of $24 million in federal funds DHS has made available – specifically, DHS says, for nonprofit organizations "deemed high-risk for a potential international terrorist attack."

Organizations in 46 urban areas designated high risk for Islamic terror attack are eligible to participate in the new Nonprofit Security Grant Program.

The CAIR alert issued April 29 to Muslim members reads as follows: "ACTION REQUESTED: All eligible 501(c)(3) American mosques and other Islamic institutions are urged to begin the application process to receive training and to purchase equipment such as video cameras, alarm systems and other security enhancements."

Several Islamic institutions already have applied and are receiving government approval.

U.S. officials who spoke to WND on condition of anonymity expressed dismay that CAIR would drain limited federal funds away from higher risk targets for terrorism. They argue mosques are among the lowest risk for such attacks.

In a recent protest at San Jose University, students have decided to ignore Palestinian terror attacks on Israeli civilians and focus on Israeli life saving defensive measures. This from Eyal Marcus for YNET:

Students at San Jose University disguise as soldiers, Palestinians at improvised checkpoint to condemn Israeli army's occupation of West Bank.

On Israel's Independence Day this year, Max Grossman, an Art and Design lecturer at the University of San Jose in California, fell upon a giant wall built on campus by a student organization called Students for Change.

The wall was meant to symbolize Israel's security fence in the West Bank. Students set up a checkpoint near the wall where fifty students posed as either Kaffiyeh-clad Palestinians or armed Israeli soldiers.

"I was in shock when I saw it," Grossman said. "I am 40, I learnt at Berkley and Colombia, places where numerous public protests took place, but I never saw something like this. They pretended questioning and torturing detainee."

Students disguised as soldiers handcuffed, blindfolded and sometimes pretended to execute supposedly Palestinian civilians with their plastic rifles.

Schwartz added that some female students disguised as pregnant Palestinian women who were shot by students acting as soldiers for disobeying orders at the improvised checkpoint.

Universities around the US continue to be a breeding ground for radical left wing “activists” who have lost all sense of proportion. No matter what the facts may be, the Palestinians will always be the victim and Israel the criminal.

Crossposted from The American Israeli Patriot.

I had never heard of this idea until it was falsely attributed to me the other day, and now here it is getting close to being adopted as French state policy. It seems that unless it is coupled with sane and much-needed restrictions on the other end -- on immigrants entering France -- this is just creating a circular motion that will drain the French treasury. But at least it is a halting first attempt to do something to prevent the Islamization of France.

From Spiegel Online, with thanks to all who sent this in:

New French President Nicolas Sarkozy made immigration a central issue of his campaign. Now, his new minister for immigration and national identity says its time to start paying immigrants to leave the country.

France is home to over 5 million immigrants -- and the new conservative-led government doesn't plan on making things any more comfortable for them. While the new regime in Paris is determined to curb illegal immigration, it is also looking to encourage legal migrants to reconsider their decision to stay in France -- by paying them to go back home.

New immigration minister, Brice Hortefeux, confirmed on Wednesday that the government is planning to offer incentives to more immigrants to return home voluntarily. "We must increase this measure to help voluntary return. I am very clearly committed to doing that," Hortefeux said in an interview with RFI radio.

Under the scheme, Paris will provide each family with a nest egg of €6,000 ($8,000) for when they go back to their country of origin. A similar scheme, which was introduced in 2005 and 2006, was taken up by around 3,000 families.

More on this story. "Terror Suspects Want to 'Wage Jihad,'" by Julia White for the Daily Express, with thanks to all who sent this in:

THREE men on the run after breaching anti-terrorism control orders wanted to wage jihad against the West.

Lord Carlile, the independent reviewer of anti-terrorism laws, said there is "solid intelligence" that the trio were a danger to British troops stationed abroad.

He said: "These three men were the subject of solid intelligence that they intended to damage our national security by going as insurgents to kill British and other allied troops abroad."

It emerged earlier today that the suspects, who were held under "control orders", had absconded this week.

Scotland Yard named Lamine Adam, 26, his brother Ibrahim, 20, and Cerie Bullivant, 24, last night after they failed to report to police.

Police said the men, two of whom are brothers of a man jailed last month for plotting al Qaeda-inspired bomb attacks across Britain, had violated anti-terrorism "control orders" and failed to check in with authorities last week.

The announcement, following the disappearances of at least two other suspects last year, means that more than a quarter of those subject to the controversial orders -- imposed on suspects who are not charged with a crime -- are now missing.

Under control orders suspects are frequently confined to their homes for much of the day, required to wear electronic tags, obliged to check in with police, forbidden to use computers or telephones and banned from meeting people without permission....

Shadow home secretary David Davis said the news was “shocking” and said that Home Secretary John Reid had failed in his duty to protect the public.

He said: “People are placed on control orders on the basis they are terror suspects who pose a serious risk to the public.”

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg called for a “wholesale review” of the Government’s strategy.

“This is yet another hammer blow for the increasingly discredited system of control orders,” he said.

Yes.

1. "Do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?"

"I do."

2. "Let not the believers take disbelievers for their friends in preference to believers. Whoso doeth that hath no connection with Allah unless (it be) that ye but guard yourselves against them, taking (as it were) security." -- Qur'an 3:28

3. "Allah said next, 'unless you indeed fear a danger from them,' [or as above, 'unless it be that ye but guard yourselves against them'] meaning, except those believers who in some areas or times fear for their safety from the disbelievers. In this case, such believers are allowed to 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 [taqiyya, or religious deception] is allowed until the Day of Resurrection.'" -- Ibn Kathir's commentary on Qur'an 3:28

4. "Let not the believers take the disbelievers as patrons, rather than, that is, instead of, the believers - for whoever does that, that is, [whoever] takes them as patrons, does not belong to, the religion of, God in anyway - unless you protect yourselves against them, as a safeguard (tuqātan, 'as a safeguard', is the verbal noun from taqiyyatan), that is to say, [unless] you fear something, in which case you may show patronage to them through words, but not in your hearts: this was before the hegemony of Islam and [the dispensation] applies to any individual residing in a land with no say in it." -- the Tafsir al-Jalalayn on Qur'an 3:28

"Update: Quran can be used in courtrooms," by Eric J.S. Townsend in the Greensboro News-Record:

GREENSBORO — Muslims can now swear on the Quran when called as witnesses in North Carolina courtrooms, a Wake County judge ruled Thursday.

The decision represents a victory for the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, which sued the state after two Guilford County judges rejected an offer from an Islamic center to provide county courthouses with free copies.

"The highest aim of every legal contest is the search for truth," Wake Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway wrote in an 18-page opinion. "To require pious and faithful practitioners of religions other than Christianity to swear oaths in a form other than the form most meaningful to them would thwart the search for the truth.

"It would elevate form over substance."

So now North Carolinians can swear to tell the truth on a book that has been interpreted by its mainstream commentators as allowing for deceptive words to be spoken to unbelievers. Form over substance, all right.

"The United States is trying to assimilate us into Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), which is a Muslim entity."

Ken Timmerman reports at Newsmax:

The man who helped overthrow Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic says the State Department is pressuring him to hand over Christian Bosnia to its powerful Muslim neighbor, threatening the delicate balance that ended the Bosnian War.

The Bosnian Serbian entity was created under the 1995 Dayton peace accords.

"At the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo, I was threatened that if I did not agree to these U.S. demands, I would have problems," Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik told NewsMax in an exclusive interview.

In a meeting on Wednesday at the State Department, Dodik said that Assistant Secretary Daniel Fried didn't repeat the threats, but insisted that Dodik and the Christian Bosnian Serb government agree to dissolve its independent police force and parliament, and merge them into Muslim-majority federal institutions.

"The United States is trying to assimilate us into Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), which is a Muslim entity," Dodik said. Today, Dodik will be meeting with Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, who is expected to reinforce these demands. Dodik told NewsMax, "I will refuse."

Asked why he was coming to Washington if to be read the riot act, Dodik said it was "hard to refuse when you've been summoned."

Bush responds to this. Of course, this notion that this is a war on terror is, in my view, naïve.

"Bush: It's Naïve to Believe There is No War on Terror," by Randy Hall for CNSNews.com:

(CNSNews.com) - Responding to criticism that the conflict in Iraq is merely a civil war in a foreign country, President Bush said during a news conference at the White House on Thursday that "this notion that this isn't a war on terror is, in my view, naïve."

Bush made the comment one day after 2008 Democratic presidential candidate and former U.S. Sen. John Edwards dismissed the U.S.-led war on terrorism as "a bumper sticker, not a plan."

Speaking in the White House Rose Garden, the president also stated that the upcoming summer months will be a critical time for his troop "surge" in Iraq. He indicated that the last five brigades making up the 30,000-troop buildup should arrive in Baghdad by mid-June.

"We are going to expect heavy fighting in the next weeks and months, and we can expect American and Iraqi casualties," Bush said. "We will stay on the offense," he added, repeating what has become for him a consistent refrain: "It's better to fight them there than to fight them here."

Asked how long he could sustain the policy without achieving significant progress on the ground, Bush noted that the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, is due to report back on the effects of the new strategy by September.

In response to a reporter's question regarding making a choice between fighting al Qaeda and the war in Iraq, the president replied that "we are fighting al Qaeda ... in Iraq."

Bush also said that "the Iraqi government needs to show real progress in return for America's continued support and sacrifice. It's going to be hard work for this young government," he added.

Indeed it is.

NGOs have come a long and very dismal way since the dreams of Rene Cassin. They are as naturally filled with creatures of a certain worldview and bent as is the BBC World Service, or The Guardian. What is that worldview? That worldview consists of those who wish to criticize, in the main, what they see as the white, Western world, for not properly making what used to be called the "Third World." (Thank god the phrase is falling out of fashion.)

That is their chief concern. They are also concerned about rescuing that "Third World" from its own misrulers, who are often prompted by ideologies (such as Islam) that the members of those NGOs will never recognize as being the source of the misgovernment, the corruption and cruelty and waste that are such noticeable features of those states.

This makes the allegations of torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo look like the politically motivated propaganda that they are.

"Torture, Al-Qaeda Style: Drawings, tools seized from Iraq safe house in U.S. military raid," from The Smoking Gun (warning: graphic images), with thanks to all who sent this in:

MAY 24--In a recent raid on an al-Qaeda safe house in Iraq, U.S. military officials recovered an assortment of crude drawings depicting torture methods like "blowtorch to the skin" and "eye removal." Along with the images, which you'll find on the following pages, soldiers seized various torture implements, like meat cleavers, whips, and wire cutters. Photos of those items can be seen here. The images, which were just declassified by the Department of Defense, also include a picture of a ramshackle Baghdad safe house described as an "al-Qaeda torture chamber." It was there, during an April 24 raid, that soldiers found a man suspended from the ceiling by a chain. According to the military, he had been abducted from his job and was being beaten daily by his captors....

In other words, sit idle and let the jihadists work to destroy you. If you resist, the jihadists will work to destroy you. "Iran to Israel: Don't Attack Lebanon," from AP, with thanks to all who sent this in:

..."If you think that by bombing and assassinating Palestinian leaders you are preparing ground for new attacks on Lebanon in the summer, I am telling you that you are seriously wrong," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a rally in the city of Isfahan.

"If this year you repeat the same mistake of the last year, the ocean of nations of the region will get angry and will uproot the Zionist regime."

Islamic solidarity -- and another move by Iran to position itself as the leader of the entire Islamic world, not just of the Shi'ites. "Former Iranian Diplomat and Brother of Top Iranian Nuclear Negotiator Mohammad Javad Larijani: Iran Is Willing To Share Nuclear Technology with Saudi Arabia and Gulf Countries," from MEMRITV, with thanks to RW:

Following are excerpts from an interview with former diplomat Mohammad Javad Larijani, from the Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics, which was aired on Channel 2, Iranian TV on April 14, 2007:

Mohammad Javad Larijani: Iran's policy is a good one. We said to [the Gulf countries]: "If you want nuclear energy, come and we will teach you." I'm sure that the Westerners won't share even a tiny piece of knowledge with any of the Gulf countries. They won't share it even with Turkey.

Then followed a nice slap at Turkish secularism:

Turkey has danced so many Western-styled dances in the past 50-60 years, in an attempt to win over Europe's heart, but apparently, this heart is made of stone....

But the Russians will come through:

Under the present circumstances, no Western country will be willing to share technology of uranium enrichment with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and others. Meanwhile, they have a big brother to the north, which, praise God, has technology at its disposal. In my opinion, this happens to be a strong point. We can establish an excellent consortium with the Gulf countries, and produce nuclear energy. We will share this technology with them.

Some of this may sound familiar. By Bob Bernick Jr. for the Deseret Morning News, with thanks to Andrew Bostom:

The Bush administration has made a number of fine decisions in international politics — including overthrowing Saddam Hussein — but the president's Iraq foreign policy and war tactics have also suffered from many mistakes, according to Bush's former ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton....

"It is what has happened in the last four years that's made our involvement in Iraq unpopular" throughout the world, said Bolton, "not the original overthrow of Saddam Hussein."

"If we had said shortly after that statue (of Saddam) came down in Baghdad, 'Here are the keys to the Green Zone, Iraqis — you have our best wishes and whatever support we can give as we are packing up and leaving, or at least moving out of Baghdad,' then I think public opinion in our country might be different.

"Having overthrown Saddam, we had an obligation — it was a short-term obligation — to provide security until some kind of government of Iraqis could have gotten back up, for us to hold the reins for a short time for them to start forming a government," he said.

But the notion that America had to occupy Iraq or guarantee the country's security for a protracted time, or indeed indefinitely: "I just think that's a mistake."

The U.S. properly acted to protect itself from the external threat of Hussein, Saddam, Bolton said.

However, it is the Iraqis' responsibility to decide for themselves what kind of government they will have, even to the extent of whether Iraq should be broken up into two or more countries, he said.

"We didn't have any responsibility to provide tutorage for them," said Bolton, adding that he didn't have a lot to do with Iraq policy because former Secretary of State Colin Powell "excluded me from it, probably the best favor he ever did for me."

Don't resist Talibanization, or face Talibanization. Lal Masjid Update. "Pakistani mullah warns Musharraf of Taleban challenge," from Agence France-Presse:

ISLAMABAD - A Pakistani mullah whose mosque is holding two policemen hostage has warned President Pervez Musharraf that a Taleban-style opposition movement is emerging to challenge his already crisis-hit regime.

Baton-waving students from Islamabad’s pro-Taleban Red Mosque seized the police six days ago, adding to the pressure on Musharraf amid a groundswell of violent anger at his suspension of the country’s top judge.

Abdul Rashid Ghazi, one of two brothers heading the mosque, said his followers backed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and predicted the political upheaval would further the students’ goal of a pure Islamic state.

‘If the government tries to suppress the change that our movement is demanding, then there is a likelihood of Talebanisation,’ the 43-year-old Ghazi said. ‘I can see it happening.’

The Red Mosque’s hardline male and female students have resisted efforts to negotiate the policemen’s freedom and have vowed to fight to the death if the government launches an assault on the mosque.

‘We are not only challenging Musharraf, we are challenging the system,’ Ghazi told AFP on Wednesday, speaking inside the Jamia Hafsa seminary next to the mosque.

Bearded men with Kalashnikov rifles stood guard during the interview.

‘The country’s system has totally failed and needs to be changed because it is not giving any relief to 99 percent of the people,’ he added.

‘We know that if Musharraf goes away, another Musharraf would come instead. The system we want is an Islamic system.’

[...]

Ghazi said the Red Mosque students mostly come from the tribal areas of Pakistan, the lawless regions bordering with Afghanistan where the Taleban and Al Qaeda have taken refuge since the September 11, 2001 attacks.

He said that the 6,000 male students and 4,000 females belonging to the radical mosque’s two seminaries in Islamabad have received messages of support from Muslims around the world.

[...]

‘Suicide bombers are being prepared with the help of CDs and instruction manuals as well as inspirational films showing Iraqi insurgents fighting against UN forces,’ he told AFP.

One policeman who was earlier freed from the mosque was shown videos of suicide bombers operating in Iraq, he said.

Ghazi, who worked for a short time for the UN in Islamabad and says he is widely travelled, said he saw no easy resolution to the hostage drama, which has undermined the government’s claims to control the leafy capital.

[...]

‘Pakistan has become more secular since when my father was a cleric at the Red Mosque,’ he said. ‘This is our reaction. We want to go back.’

"More than a quarter of those subject to the controversial orders ... are now missing."

"Three UK terrorism suspects flee 'control orders'," by Peter Graff for Reuters:

LONDON (Reuters) - Three suspects held under controversial British anti-terrorism "control orders" have absconded this week, police said on Wednesday, an embarrassing blow for a key plank of Tony Blair's security strategy.

The announcement, following the disappearances of at least two other suspects last year, means that more than a quarter of those subject to the controversial orders -- imposed on suspects who are not charged with a crime -- are now missing.

The British prime minister introduced the orders, under which suspects are electronically tagged and subjected to a range of restrictions, after courts threw out Blair's measures to jail suspects indefinitely without charge.

"This is yet another hammer blow for the increasingly discredited system of control orders," said Nick Clegg, home affairs spokesman for the opposition Liberal Democrats.

The center-right Conservatives, who support the orders, said the government was nonetheless failing to keep the public safe.

London's Metropolitan Police took the extraordinary step of naming the three abscondees and releasing pictures of them. Suspects under control orders are usually entitled to anonymity because they have not been convicted of a crime.

The three were named as Lamine Adam, 26, Ibrahim Adam, 20, and Cerie Bullivant, 24. The Adams were both born in Algeria and were described as of North African origin. Bullivant was born in Britain and listed as white.

Police said the three may be travelling together. Members of the public were told not to approach them.

Under the orders terrorism suspects can no longer be jailed without charge but can be subjected to a range of measures up to virtual house arrest.

Suspects are frequently confined to their homes for much of the day, required to wear electronic tags, obliged to check in with police, forbidden to use computers or telephones and banned from meeting people without permission.

The orders must be imposed by a special court, but the suspects are not permitted to see evidence against them and the authorities do not have to prove they are guilty of a crime.

Two other suspects on control orders who disappeared last year have not been found. According to the Home Office, 17 people are being monitored under the program, including the three who absconded this week but not two who fled last year.

Long overdue. But AP tut-tuts that they arrested a "pragmatist." "Israeli troops round up Hamas lawmakers," by Ali Daragmeh for Associated Press:

NABLUS, West Bank - Israeli troops in the West Bank arrested more than 30 senior Hamas members Thursday, the army said, including a Cabinet minister, legislators and mayors.

The roundup came hours after Israeli planes struck what the military said were money changing offices and other businesses in Gaza which were channeling funds to Hamas.

The raids were part of a concerted offensive against the Islamic militant group, in retaliation for its rocket attacks from Gaza on Israeli border towns.

The most prominent Hamas politician to be arrested was Education Minister Nasser Shaer, considered a pragmatist in the movement. His wife, Huda, said soldiers knocked on the door of their home in the West Bank city of Nablus and took him away. Troops also seized Shaer's computer, she said.

It was the second time Shaer was arrested in a roundup of Hamas members in the past year.

Soldiers also arrested former Cabinet minister Abdel Rahman Zeidan, legislators Hamed Bitawi and Daoud Abu Ser, the mayors of the towns of Nablus, Qalqiliya and Beita — Adli Yaish, Wajih Qawas and Arab Shurafa — as well as the head of the main Islamic charity in Nablus, Fayad al-Arba.

Troops also searched for Ahmed Haj Ali, a Hamas legislator in Nablus, but didn't find him at home, neighbors said.

The Israeli military said more than 30 senior Hamas members were arrested.

It's scandalous that AI would lump Howard's Australia in with a global basket case like Mugabe's Zimbabwe, but Howard is not cowed: "My Government makes no apology for taking appropriate, balanced steps to protect the Australian public from the very real threat of terrorism and to protect our borders."

Bravo.

"PM brushes off 'fear-monger' tag," from AAP, with thanks to all who sent this in:

PRIME Minister John Howard has robustly defended his Government against claims by Amnesty International that it is as divisive as Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's regime.

The human rights pressure group has accused Mr Howard of portraying asylum-seekers as a threat to national security.

In a report released overnight, it also criticised Australia's role in the war on terror and its treatment of female victims of violence.

Amnesty secretary-general Irene Khan said the fear generated by leaders such as Mr Howard "thrives on myopic and cowardly leadership".

Ms Khan lumped Mr Howard in with Mr Mugabe, US President George W Bush and Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir in a paragraph about leaders who used fear to suit their political agenda.

In statement today, Mr Howard rejected the way Australia was characterised in the Amnesty report.

[...]

"I believe many Australians will be as offended by this report as I am," he said.

"My Government makes no apology for taking appropriate, balanced steps to protect the Australian public from the very real threat of terrorism and to protect our borders."

More signs of Iran's intentions, while the West continues to temporize and remonstrate, but not to act. From AP, with thanks to Catherine:

LONDON — Iran is attempting to draw up plans to strike targets in Europe and has conducted reconnaissance of European nuclear power stations, a security analyst told a meeting at Britain's parliament Tuesday.

Claude Moniquet, president of the European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center, a private think-tank in Brussels, said his organization also had evidence Tehran has increased numbers of intelligence agents across Europe.

"We have serious signals that something is under preparation in Europe," Moniquet said. "Iranian intelligence is working extremely hard to prepare its people and to prepare actions."

The center, which he said deals directly with European intelligence agencies, believes Iranian operatives have carried out "reconnaissance of targets in European cities, including nuclear power stations," Moniquet said. He mentioned no other specific targets.

More taxi Sharia, this time Down Under. "Taxi drivers refusing to carry blind passengers," by Heath Aston for The Daily Telegraph, with thanks to all who sent this in:

TAXI drivers regularly refuse to carry blind passengers with guide dogs - including Australia's Human Rights Commissioner - with many citing religious reasons, or other excuses like allergies.

Human Rights and Disability Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes, who is blind and reliant on his guide dog Jordie, is a regular Sydney cab user and said he was refused service on average once a month, including twice in two days recently.

He has been told on a number of occasions that it would be against a driver's religion to allow a dog in the cab.

What a surprise.

This is not the first time Edina Lekovic of MPAC has made extremely questionable statements on national television.

"MPAC in Denial About Radicalization of Muslim Youth?," by Steven Emerson at the Counterterrorism Blog, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

Earlier today, on CNBC’s Kudlow & Co., I debated the spokeswoman for the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), Edina Lekovic, on the findings of the recent Pew Poll on the levels of radicalism within the American Muslim community.

Lekovic, while a student at UCLA, was Managing Editor of the Muslim Student Association’s newspaper, al-Talib. In July 1999, under Lekovic’s editorship, the paper published an article entitled, “Jihad in America,” which included the passage:

“When we hear someone refer to the great Mujahid (someone who struggles in Allah’s cause) Osama bin Laden as a ‘terrorist,’ we should defend our brother and refer to him as a freedom fighter, someone who has forsaken wealth and power to fight in Allah’s cause and speak out against oppressors. We take these stances only to please Allah.”

When confronted with this fact, interestingly, Lekovic denied it, claiming that she was merely the editor of UCLA’s mainstream student newspaper, the Daily Bruin – it is true that Lekovic was editor of the Daily Bruin during the 1997-1998 academic year. But as you can see, in July 1999, she is clearly listed as the Managing Editor of al-Talib, in the upper right hand corner. This column as published almost a full year after the Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. At this point, the role of Bin-Laden in these bombings was widely and publicly known.

Islam vs. Islamists Update: "Oregon Public Broadcaster To Distribute Controversial Islam Program," by John Eggerton for Broadcasting & Cable, with thanks to Weasel Zippers:

Oregon Public Broadcasting has agreed to distribute controversial documentary Islam vs. Islamists: Voices From the Muslim Center after PBS said the show was incomplete and would not distribute it as delivered.

"As it stood, it did not meet our editorial standards," said a PBS spokeswoman. "We felt that it was missing some context." PBS asked the producers to add that context but, "they believe the film is done," she said.

Apparently so did CPB. Steve Bass, President and CEO or Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), says that CPB reached out and he concluded stations should have the opportunity to make their own decision about airing the show. He plans to give them that opportunity in the next 2-3 months....

Bass has seen the show and says it does lack context, but that OPB will produce follow-on discussion program help put it in perspective. So--why air it? "When something like this becomes an object of controversy, and is a program that people haven't seen, you are generally better off putting it out there," says Bass. "And I think it plays to public broadcasting's strength, which is that we are a collection of local institutions that make our own independent editorial decisions."

The documentary is part of the CPB-funded America at the Crossroads series primarily looking at issues surrounding terrorism and the Middle East. PBS scheduled 11 Crossroads films in April, but not Islam vs. Islamists, which PBS says was never slated for April.

Islam vs. Islamists, says Bass, deals with "five or six specific incidents in various countries of radicals putting pressure on centrists, but what you don't get is the broader context of how prevalent this is," he says. "Are these isolated incidents or is this part of a pattern."

Some conservatives have suggested that liberals don't like that the show is critical of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and that it questions whether it is really the "moderate" voice of Arab-Americans.

A marvelously dead-on mirror of the mainstream media coverage of the Pew Research Center poll of Muslims in America, from Iowahawk (thanks to PRCS):

Chicago - By an almost two-to-one margin, Midwest Lutherans voiced solid opposition to decapitation, suicide bombing, and chemical warfare in a new comprehensive survey of their social attitudes.

The Pew Research survey, conducted May 13-19, queried nearly 2,500 randomly selected Lutherans at flea markets and convenience stores across the Midwest. Interviews were conducted in High Plains Twang, Great Lakes Nasal and Flat Ohio Valley Bland.

"If there is one headline here, it's how remarkably moderate the Lutheran community is," said Pew director Andrew Kohut of the survey, which was co-sponsored by the Council on American-Yooper Relations. "It really paints a picture of a dynamic culture in or somewhere near the American mainstream."

Kohut pointed to one of the study's key findings that only 29% of all respondents agreed that "bloody, random violence against infidels" was "always" or "frequently" justified, versus 56% who said such violence was "seldom" or "never" justified. The approval of violence rose slightly among younger Lutherans and when the hypothetical violence was targeted against Presbyterians, but still fell well short of a majority.

"The only demographic cohort we saw where murderous random violence had a majority support was among 18-35 year old male followers of the Wisconsin Synod," said Kohut. "And that was barely above the margin of error. Even then, fewer than half (41% to 46%) said they would personally volunteer to carry out the violence themselves."

Further bolstering the findings, Kohut noted that fewer than 6% of respondents physically attacked field interviewers during the survey.

Although a majority 87% of respondents agreed that "The world should be brought to submission under global Lutheran conquest and eternal perfect rule," there was a great deal of disagreement on the means to accomplish it. More than 95% supported "pancake breakfasts" and "popcorn fundraisers," but support dropped to less than 80% for "cow tipping" and "T-P'ing infidel houses." Support dropped even more dramatically for more violent means of conquest, such as "suicide bombing" (28%), "decapitation" (24%), and "running over Presbyterians with my Ski-Doo" (23%).

"Taken as a whole, the results show that Midwest Lutherans emphatically support a moderate, mainstream path to world domination," said Kohut. "These folks are well-assimilated into the broad fabric of American society, and unless you are Presbyterian, there is probably very little here to cause concern."

Read it all.

New Taliban leader promises suicide attacks and jihad -- meet the new boss, same as the old boss. By Noor Khan for The Associated Press:

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- A man identified on tape as the Taliban's new top field commander warned Wednesday that new recruits were volunteering as suicide bombers and that fighters would continue their holy war until Western powers leave Afghanistan.

Violence struck throughout the country with two bomb blasts that killed four people, including a Finnish soldier in the usually quiet north. NATO said it attacked a meeting of Taliban leaders in the south, killing an unspecified number of militants.

Shuhabuddin Athul, a Taliban spokesman, played an audio tape over the telephone to an Associated Press reporter that Athul said was a recording of Dadullah Mansoor, brother and replacement of Mullah Dadullah, the top Taliban commander shot to death in a U.S. operation this month in southern Afghanistan.

The man on the tape said Taliban fighters were ready to avenge his brother's death and would "pursue holy war until the occupying countries leave."

"They will pursue their attacks against occupying countries and the (Afghan) government," he said in a first public statement. "The number of suicide attackers is increasing. ... All of the Taliban, we are ready to carry out suicide attacks, roadside bombs and ambushes against the Americans and the government."

With great sorrow I must inform you that Tashbih Sayyed, a courageous foe of the global jihad, has passed away.

After a long career at Pakistan Television, Tashbih's differences with the Zia ul-Haq regime in Pakistan (which gave the Islamization of Pakistan its first great boost) led him to come to the United States, where he founded two newspapers, Pakistan Today and Muslim World Today, and wrote eight books, including Mohammad – A Secularist's View. He appeared in documentaries including Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West. He was the President and founder of The Council for Democracy and Tolerance, an adjunct fellow of the Hudson Institute, and a member of the Jihad Watch Board.

Tashbih was insightful, humorous, and above all, fearless in his opposition to the jihad ideology of Islamic supremacism. Despite numerous threats and a relentless barrage of insults and personal attacks, he kept on trying to awaken the world to the magnitude of the threat we face, never trimming his truth-telling to fit current fashion.

He was a dear friend, and he will be greatly missed.

May his memory be eternal.

"Tatar may have also wanted to join the Army ... A second suspect in the case told the informant that Tatar wanted to join the Army so he could kill soldiers from the 'inside'." Fort Dix Jihad Update. By Geoff Mulvihill for the Associated Press:

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. - One of the men accused of plotting to attack soldiers at Fort Dix had recently applied to be a police officer in two big cities — a move some authorities believe may have been an effort to infiltrate law enforcement agencies.

How many more Serdar Tatars might there be across America? Infiltrators among first responders to an attack would increase casualties, delay the work of other responders, and would significantly augment the psychological impact of the attack.

Serdar Tatar, 23, applied for a job in Philadelphia last month, police spokesman Sgt. D.F. Pace said Wednesday.

"Based on what we know now, I don't think his intentions were good," Pace said.

Tatar also applied for a job in the Oakland, Calif., Police Department, according to a law enforcement official speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

[...]

Philadelphia police rejected Tatar, a Turkish citizen and legal U.S. resident, because he was not a U.S. citizen and had not lived in the city long enough to be eligible, Pace said. Tatar had lived there for about eight months when he applied, less than the city's one-year requirement.

He applied at a police job fair on April 10.

It isn't known when or where Tatar applied to join the Oakland police force or why he would try to join an organization thousands of miles away.

Tatar may have also wanted to join the Army, according to conversations recorded in March by an FBI informant during the investigation. A second suspect in the case told the informant that Tatar wanted to join the Army so he could kill soldiers from the "inside," according to a court filing.

"He had only one mind," a third suspect, Dritan Duka, told the informant, according to the court documents. "How to kill American soldiers."

Army spokesman Lenny Gatto said Wednesday that he did not know whether Tatar had applied to join the Army, which does not require U.S. citizenship.

Tatar, an out-of-work clerk whose last job was at a Philadelphia convenience store, and five others were arrested May 7 and charged with planning an attack on Fort Dix, which is 25 miles east of Philadelphia and is primarily used to train reservists.

It's not enough, but it's a start. Monitoring mosques is something I have long advocated. Why can't we at least begin by imitating the Europeans in this?

From AP, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

VENICE, Italy (AP) _ Security officials from Europe's largest countries have thrown their weight behind the EU Commission's plans to map out mosques on the continent to identify imams who preach radical Islam that raises the threat of homegrown terrorism.

The project, to be finished by the fall, will focus on the roles of imams, their training, their ability to speak in the local language and their source of funding, EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini told a news conference.

Europe had ample experience with the ''misuse of mosques, which instead of being places of worship are used for other ends, Italian Interior Minister Guiliano Amato said Saturday.

''This is bringing about a situation that involves all of our countries and involves the possibility of attacks and developing of networks that use one country to prepare an attack in another,'' Amato said, after a meeting in Venice of interior ministers and security officials from six European countries and the United States.

Frattini also emphasized the need of strengthened dialogue with the Islamic communities ''to avoid sending messages that incite hate and violence.''

Good luck with that.

Bush made it all up, you see. The whole thing. And just as I, through my mad Zionist skillz, am apparently able (in the eyes of some rabid critics) to cast embarrassing teachings into the Qur'an and Hadith, so the President has been able to create centuries of jihad warfare against unbelievers.

By Beth Fouhy for Associated Press, with thanks to James:

NEW YORK (AP) - Democrat John Edwards Wednesday repudiated the notion that there is a "global war on terror," calling it an ideological doctrine advanced by the Bush administration that has strained American military resources and emboldened terrorists.

In a defense policy speech he planned to deliver at the Council on Foreign Relations, Edwards called the war on terror a "bumper sticker" slogan Bush had used to justify everything from abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison to the invasion of Iraq.

"We need a post-Bush, post-9/11, post-Iraq military that is mission focused on protecting Americans from 21st century threats, not misused for discredited ideological purposes," Edwards said in remarks prepared for delivery. "By framing this as a war, we have walked right into the trap the terrorists have set—that we are engaged in some kind of clash of civilizations and a war on Islam."

Of course, the terrorists themselves have nothing to do with creating that impression. They are not actors of themselves. They can only react to our provocations. Edwards, like so many on the Left, does not recognize that he himself, in assuming this, is manifesting the same ethnocentrism and paternalism that he explicitly abhors.

Miss Kelly has sent me an email that she tells me was written by Karin Friedmann, aka Maria Hussain, and was sent out via the moderated Boston Muslim American Society/Islamic Society of Boston e-mail list, regarding the Boston mosque lawsuit:

Evidence: Frivolous Lawsuit was Aimed at Ethnic Intimidation

Boston--May 22, 2007--New court evidence reveals that David Project directors and several attorneys were planning to stop construction of the Roxbury Mosque.

One attorney suggested, "How about simply appealing the building permit and tying things up?"

“Ultimately our interest is based on the premise that…people in the ISB are supporters of terrorism and sworn enemies of America and Jews,” said real estate developer Steve Cohen.

The group decided to investigate potential parking violations and other legal technicalities.

On July 22, 2004 David Project director Anna Kolodner started panicking.

"The steel is going up on the Mosque," she wrote to the group. “We need to have a plaintiff. This is a priority. Please contact any individuals that would consider this role and let us know.”

Using the lawsuit, Kolodner demanded records from the Boston Redevelopment Authority to use for negative publicity.

Realizing that few Americans could care less where the Islamic Society of Boston obtained their mortgage, Cohen discussed creating suspicion by using vague language to question the mosque’s non-criminal foreign “connections.”

"However, the First Amendment will bar any governmental action against the mosque based on these connections - not in the absence of incitement that might lead to ‘imminent action.’ So all we are left with is a public relations campaign.”

This admission betrays a premeditated decision to incite hate by using “terrorist” as an ethnic slur to manipulate public sentiment, while their plaintiff sued the city for selling to Muslims.

“The suit itself will have to stick to the narrow constitutional issues, which have nothing to do with the terrorist connections,” Cohen continued. “However, the pr campaign surrounding the suit can strike a different chord: i.e. that the city of Boston should not be subsidizing a mosque or any organization with terrorist connections.”
“We will be much more effective if we let others ask this question than if we do so ourselves," Cohen strategized.

On September 2, 2004, Anna Kolodner wrote, "Filing the lawsuit will serve to trip the switch on the larger agenda of exposing the radical fundamentalist underpinnings of the Mosque and its leaders…We need to develop a media campaign and identify who will be the public spokesperson for the group…We need an expert in power point to develop a presentation that can be used with the media, politicians, and community groups."

That power point expert would turn out to be the notorious Robert Spencer.

Wooo, scary. The notorious Spencer, no less. Wow. It looks pretty damaging, except it's completely false. I am not a Power Point expert. I don't use Power Point, and don't know how to construct a Power Point presentation. I have never supplied the David Project or anyone else involved with the lawsuits connected with the Boston mosque project with a Power Point presentation or anything else.

The jihad proceeds apace in Pakistan, here targeting again the sale of sinful music. "Music shop blown up in Pak minister's village," from AFP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:

PESHAWAR: Suspected Islamic militants blew up a music shop in a grenade attack on the interior minister's village in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday.

The shop, which sold local and foreign music, was destroyed in the attack on Monday night in Sherpao village, senior police officer Feroz Shah said.

The village is named after the clan of Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao, who frequently returns to his ancestral home.

Shah said two militants on a bicycle lobbed a hand grenade into the Wahab Music Centre and fled. A police squad on motorcycles chased and arrested one man, while the other escaped.

Terrific post on the mainstream media spin of the Pew Research Center poll of Muslims in America, by Ace of Spades (thanks to LGF).

"The Islamic State of Iraq...March Toward Washington."

By Rhonda Schwartz at ABC's The Blotter (thanks to Jeffrey Imm):

Al Qaeda has a new opening graphic for its propaganda tapes: the U.S. Capitol under "attack."

"The Islamic State of Iraq...March Toward Washington" reads the headline in English superimposed over a digitally created scene of the U.S. Capitol under attack in the introductory sequence of one tape released on the Internet this week.

Another from al Qaeda's "as Sahab" production arm announces "Holocaust of the Americans in the Land of Khorasan" and shows an image of the U.S. Capitol to introduce a short clip of al Qaeda fighters.

The link given to Jihad Watch by Mr. Derbyshire at The Corner, at the word "separationists," is peculiar. There has never been any advocacy by this website for "bribing" Muslims to leave the United States. He must be thinking of someone or someplace else.

Furthermore, he appears to believe that Jihad Watch offers what it does offer as a "solution" to a "problem." I have never seen an example of Robert Spencer, or I, offering at Jihad Watch a "solution" to the "problem" of Muslims living within the West, receiving money from rich Arabs in order to build mosques and madrasas, conduct public-relations efforts, employ armies of Western hirelings (including lawyers to intimidate), mount carefully-targeted and well-financed campaigns of Da'wa, and in general, to make sure that Muslims may settle untroubledly deep behind what they are taught to regard as the enemy lines, the lines which demarcate Dar al-Harb. Not all Muslims may accept the full teachings of Islam, but even those who do not attend mosques or madrasas and may not accept all of the teachings for whatever reason, have shown a remarkable loyalty to, and defensiveness about, the faith that should be worrisome to Infidels.

Lately it seems to have become fashionable to attribute to me or to Jihad Watch positions that I don't hold. In a way this is a tribute to the success of our work, as we have become a symbol of something, although no one seems exactly sure of what. Recently, Dinesh D'Souza, Karen Armstrong, the Asia Times columnist who calls himself "Spengler," and Cathy Young, a columnist for the misnamed "Reason" magazine, have indulged in this sport. And now National Review's born-again atheist, John Derbyshire, has joined the fun. At "The Corner" this morning, Derbyshire adds this aside in the course of an otherwise worthwhile observation about Nation of Islam members being included in the Pew Research Center poll of Muslims in America:

Solution-wise, none of the policies proposed by "separationists"—for example, bribing foreign Muslims to leave the U.S.A., preventing further Muslim immigration—is relevant. Nation of Islam is here, and has no place to go.

The word "separationists" links to Jihad Watch. Now search for the word "separationists" at Jihad Watch. Nothing. "Separationism"? Nope, nada. All you'll turn up is this post itself. Apart from the merits or lack thereof of "separationism," which I believe is a proposal advocated at some other sites, it is strange, is it not, that the site Derb chose as his sole link for it has never mentioned it at all, until now?

Derb then explains "separationism" as involving "bribing foreign Muslims to leave the U.S.A." and "preventing further Muslim immigration." The first of these is absurd, and I have never heard of anyone advocating it, though someone may. I certainly don't. As for the second, it is eminently sensible, since no Muslim group anywhere in the world has pronounced takfir on Osama bin Laden and his ilk -- that is, ruled them out of Islam -- and so there is no reliable way to distinguish peaceful Muslims from actual and potential jihadists. But at the same time it is fraught with difficulties, some of which I discuss here. In any case, before it can even be discussed intelligently in the public sphere, there has to be a significant increase in public awareness about the jihad ideology and Islamic supremacism, and if anything, at this point we're generally going in the opposite direction on that.

So Derb, in sum, attributes to us a label we do not use and a position that we do not hold. Of course, this is the guy who invoked Muhammad Atta as an example of how religion did not ennoble one in the middle of a discussion that was otherwise completely about Christianity, and who thinks Karen Armstrong's fantasy-ridden and hagiographical biography of Muhammad is worth reading, so perhaps I shouldn't expect better.

UPDATE: In a new Corner entry, Derb quotes a secondary source to establish positions held by Hugh Fitzgerald about Muslim immigration, although that is not remotely the point of controversy here, since I call immigration restrictions "eminently sensible" above. Since he has had his own conflicts with that source, it is peculiar that he here relies on his summary as accurate. He also goes on to suggest that Hugh, and I also, I guess, ought to believe in bribing Muslims to leave the West even if we don't, because he, Derb, thinks it follows from what we do believe. That's what passes for high-level analysis these days, I suppose.

Alan Cooperman's Washington Post report on the the Pew Research Center poll of American Muslims is typical of mainstream media coverage of the poll: disturbing findings are ignored or downplayed, and the whole thing is given a bland, reassuring, and ultimately misleading headline.

The Post's story seems to be based on the proposition that all is well here because things are worse in Europe, which is like saying that your cold is cured because the guy across the street has pneumonia.

Unlike Muslim minorities in many European countries, U.S. Muslims are highly assimilated, close to parity with other Americans in income and overwhelmingly opposed to Islamic extremism, according to the first major, nationwide random survey of Muslims.

The survey by the Pew Research Center found that 78 percent of U.S. Muslims said the use of suicide bombings against civilian targets to defend Islam is never justified. But 5 percent said it is justified "rarely," 7 percent said "sometimes," and 1 percent said "often"; the remaining 9 percent said they did not know or declined to answer.

I don't see how this can possibly be spun as good news. Imagine if 13% of Christians had been polled as supporting suicide bombing. Do you think the WaPo headline would have been that Christians are "opposed to extremism"? It seems as if once again we are witnessing the soft bigotry of low expectations. No Muslims, or anyone else, in the U.S. or anywhere else should be supporting suicide bombing. If a significant number in the U.S. does support them, as seems to be the case, that is a matter of grave concern for government and law enforcement officials, and raises numerous important questions about immigration, the monitoring of American mosques, and more. But if anyone is concerned about it, they aren't getting a hearing in the Washington Post.

By comparison, Muslims in France, Spain and Britain were almost twice as likely to say suicide bombing is sometimes or often justified, and public acceptance of the tactic is even higher in some countries with large Muslim populations, such as Nigeria, Jordan and Egypt.

Oh, well then, everything is OK here. U.S. Muslims Assimilated, Opposed to Extremism. Got it.

Both the figures of the new Pew Research Center poll of Muslims in America, and the poll itself, far understate the problem.

As to the figures. It should be obvious, both by study of Islamic doctrines and by observation that Islam is a belief-system in which deception has always played a major role. There is, for example, "taqiyya," a doctrine that originates in Shi'a Islam. It is religiously-sanctioned dissimulation, originally made necessary because of Sunni persecution and murder of Shi'a, who felt they needed justification for lying about both the nature of their faith, and their belief in it. Like the related "Kitman" (mental reservation), it is also widely practiced by Sunnis.

Indeed, Muhammad, the central figure in Islam, famously said that "war is deception." This matters, for Muhammad is the Model of Perfect Conduct, uswa hasana, the Perfect Man To Be Emulated and Followed in All Things, al-insan al-kamil. His every word, his every deed, is pored over, as conveyed in the stories known as the Hadith, or traditions. Every detail of his life as preserved in the canonical biography, the Sira, is pored over as a guide -- a guide both to the full meaning of the Qur'an (both Hadith and Sira offering a kind of gloss), and for the submissive Believer's own conduct.

From the Pew Research Center poll of American Muslims.

It's true in America, Britain, France, Germany, and Spain: younger Muslims support suicide bombing in greater numbers than do their elders. One reason for this is the suicidal multiculturalist policies that each of these states has pursued relentlessly. While earlier immigrants may have been encouraged by the societies to which they had come to become members of those societies -- that is, to assimilate -- now their children are being told exactly the opposite. When Muslims are encouraged to hold fast to their cultural traditions rather than assimilate, all too often they end up embracing the ideology of Islamic supremacism as it is taught by all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence.

This just illustrates the suicidal nature of the whole multiculturalist enterprise.

From the Pew Research Center poll of American Muslims.

Isn't this backwards? Shouldn't Muslims be more concerned than non-Muslims about the rise of attachment to jihadism and Islamic supremacism? After all, given that the overwhelming majority of Muslims in America abhor terrorism, as we hear again and again, shouldn't they be directing their efforts to eradicating sympathy for the jihad terrorists from their community?

But instead, it seems that many are more concerned about perceived discrimination than about jihadists in their ranks:

19% list discrimination, and only 3% cite "Radical Islam/extremists."

The Pew Research Center poll of American Muslims