January 2008 Archives

This will help foster integration, say British officials. No, this is not a parody. "Muslim schools to conduct own inspections," by Graeme Paton for the Telegraph (thanks to all who sent this in):

Private Muslim schools have been given the power to police themselves, despite widespread fears over religious segregation, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

In a controversial move, they have won the right to appoint their own Ofsted-style inspectors. A new independent watchdog has been set up to be more "sensitive'' toward Islamic education.

The decision comes despite concerns some private Muslim schools are already failing to prepare pupils for life in modern Britain.

Barry Sheerman, the chairman of the Commons schools select committee, told MPs last month local councils were finding it "difficult to know what is going on in some faith schools - particularly Muslim schools".

But religious leaders defended the move, saying the curriculum and religious traditions in faith schools demand specialist knowledge.

Under present legislation, most state and private schools are inspected by Ofsted, the Government's standards watchdog. The Association of Muslim Schools and the Christian Schools' Trust applied to the Government to set up a separate inspectorate for a small number of private faith schools....

One shouldn't judge Tufts' Hillel too harshly. After all, when Edina Lekovic and I were on the O'Reilly Factor with Laura Ingraham guest-hosting, Ingraham spent a great deal of time praising Lekovic for her moderation -- right before Lekovic began lying about what I stand for. And that, of course, was before Steven Emerson caught Lekovic lying more boldly, about her association with the Muslim publication that printed the praise of Osama bin Laden noted below. Details here. Yet even after being thus thoroughly exposed, Lekovic continues to enjoy uncritical acceptance as a "moderate" from careless non-Muslim individuals and groups. So something like this was bound to happen.

"Department of Homeland Security's funds bring Islamist sympathizers to Tufts," by Daniel Halper for the Tufts Daily (thanks to all who sent this in):

Regardless of how noble the ends might be, government-funded programs often fail to achieve their stated objective. One such example has resulted in federally funded support of jihadists at Tufts University.

In 2006, Tufts' Hillel received part of a $1.6-million Department of Homeland Security (DHS) grant to promote "inter-faith and intercultural dialogue." The program's intentions are noble and its goals laudable, since it is best to resolve conflict through dialogue.

But this past fall, Tufts' Interfaith Initiative, "Pathways," used its federal money to sponsor a dinner and dialogue by Edina Lekovic on "Women, Faith, and Women."

The problem is that Lekovic is a radical Islamist sympathizer who has gone so far as to defend Osama bin Laden.

A former managing editor of "Al-Talib, a Muslim publication at UCLA, Lekovic was on the masthead when it published an editorial - signed by the Al-Talib staff - praising and defending Osama bin Laden.

The editorial stated, "When we hear someone refer to the great Mujahid, 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 on national television about it, Lekovic initially denied any participation in the publication. Yet recently, she has admitted her involvement - claiming, however, that her position was insignificant, though it was listed as second highest on the masthead. She furthermore remained on the publication for the next three years and attributed the editorial to a printing mistake....

Looking for his virgins

New opportunities for advancement for Adam Gadahn. "Sources: Al Qaeda's No. 3 man killed," from CNN (thanks to all who sent this in):

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A senior al Qaeda terrorist who allegedly plotted and carried out attacks against U.S. and coalition forces was killed in Pakistan, a knowledgeable Western official and a military source told CNN Thursday.

He was identified as Abu Laith al-Libi, 41, who was on the military's most wanted list.

Al-Libi was thought to have been involved in the February 2007 bombing at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan while Vice President Dick Cheney was visiting.

The knowledgeable Western official said al-Libi was "not far below the importance of the top two al Qaeda leaders" -- Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri....

Joel Mowbray (thanks to Mackie) reports on yet another trial in which the jihadist defendants were acquitted despite overwhelming evidence:

Given that hard evidence is often scarce in trials of unsuccessful terrorists, federal prosecutors in Miami no doubt felt fortunate to be trying defendants who participated in a ceremony pledging allegiance to al Qaeda—which was captured on video.

The defendants took surveillance photos of government buildings. The leader of the cell admitted requesting from an apparent terrorist financier boots, uniforms, vehicles, machine guns and $50,000. Just in case the reason for the request was unclear, Narseal Batiste stated—on tape—that it was for creating an “Islamic army” to wage a “full ground war” and commit an attack that would be “as good or greater than 9/11,” such as blowing up the Sears Tower.

It wasn’t enough. They weren’t convicted.

In a stunning defeat for common sense, a Miami jury last month couldn’t convict seven defendants on a single of the 28 total charges. One man, who had moved to Atlanta months before the arrests and had severed ties with the group, was acquitted entirely. The jury deadlocked on all charges brought against the other members of the “Liberty City Seven.”

Though prosecutors are re-trying the remaining defendants soon, odds of success the second time around seem dicey. Put simply, it appears that several jurors were determined to acquit, no matter the evidence.

Read it all.

"Sheikh Osama bin Laden ordered us not to attack [the government] in the country and to combat only the communists, but the relationship with the government soured after the end of the war with Southern Yemen in 1994." Sounds similar to the reputed deal they made with the Saudis also. From AKI (thanks to Insubria):

Sanaa, 31 Jan. (AKI) -Yemeni al-Qaeda cell spokesman Ahmad Mansour has said that the government asked it to fight a Shia rebel group in the North of the country, local newspaper al-Wasat reported.

"They [the government] have asked us to fight against the followers of Imam al-Houthi of Saada. In return, Yemeni security forces will ease the persecution of our members," said Mansour.

Mansour added that al-Qaeda members are present in various locations throughout Yemen and have always had contact with the government, through Sheikhs and tribal leaders.

"Sheikh Osama bin Laden ordered us not to attack [the government] in the country and to combat only the communists, but the relationship with the government soured after the end of the war with Southern Yemen in 1994," said the al-Qaeda militant.

Trying to stir up outrage? "Iran Invites Islamic Ambassadors to Wilders Meeting," from NIS News (thanks to all who sent this in):

THE HAGUE, 01/02/08 - Iranian Ambassador Ziaran intends to invite all Islamic ambassadors in the Netherlands for a meeting on Party for Freedom (PVV) leader Geert Wilders' film on the Koran.

Ziaran met this week with the LBM, a new umbrella of Moroccan organisations in the Netherlands. On NOS Journaal, the daily TV news of public broadcaster NOS, he said he would organise a meeting with the ambassadors of Islamic countries shortly on the already-controversial film that Wilders has said he plans to air in March.

LBM, chaired by former leftwing Greens (GroenLinks) MP Mohammed Rabbae called on Ziaran to issue a message to the Iranian people not to react violently to the film, in which Wilders wants to portray the Koran as a fascist book. Ziaran could not guarantee that the streets of Tehran would remain calm.

According to De Volkskrant, Ziaran warned the Netherlands that the lives of its troops in Afghanistan may be endangered by Wilders. The newspaper yesterday quoted him as saying that the Afghans would "regard the Dutch troops as representatives of people who besmirch the Koran".

From the IAP came CAIR, and the rest is history. "Former IAP President Indicted For Naturalization Fraud," from IPT News (thanks to Sr. Soph):

Yaser Bushnaq, a former president of the Islamic Association for Palestine has been indicted in Virginia for naturalization fraud.

In applying to become a U.S. citizen in 2000, Bushnaq is accused of failing to disclose his affiliations with a series of organizations that the indictment links to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. The indictment clearly defines the IAP as "an overt arm of the covert organization known as the Muslim Brotherhood."

In addition, it alleges that when Bushnaq applied to become a citizen he failed to disclose:

* He was the IAP's president from 1989-1991.
* That he worked under the pseudonym Yaser Saleh.
* He was a board of trustees member for the Al Aqsa Education Fund, "an organization that sought to raise funds for Hamas."
* He was an authorized signatory for the Marzook Legal Fund, established in 1996 to support Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook after his arrest by U.S. authorities.

Read it all.

Islamic Tolerance Alert from the Islamic Republic: "More than 50 Bahá’ís get prison terms for talking about their faith," from Asia News (thanks to Insubria):

Tehran (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Iran yesterday sentenced three Baha'i to four years in jail for security offences after being convicted of propaganda against the political system and proselytism in the southern city of Shiraz under the pretext of helping the poor. Another 51 were given a year in prison with suspended sentences handed condition they attend courses by state propaganda officials, judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi said.

The Bahá’í faith is considered heretical by Iranian authorities and has been banned since the advent of the Islamic Republic in 1979.

More than 200 Bahá’ís have been executed or murdered since then; hundreds have ended up in jail, tens of thousands have been thrown out of their jobs, denied pensions or prevented from going into business.

All Bahá’í institutions have been closed—all their sacred places, cemeteries and properties have been seized by the government or destroyed (see in the photo the destruction of their shrine in Shiraz).

Many Bahá’ís have been sent to prison simply for teaching their children about their faith. Their youth have been denied the right to go to university unless they identify themselves as Muslims.

On 18 December 2007, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution expressing very “serious concern” for the systematic violations of human rights in Iran, which include the use of torture, flogging, amputation, stoning, public executions and repression of minorities, especially Bahá’ís.

The resolution calls on the Iranian government “to eliminate, in law and practice, all forms of discrimination and other human rights violations.”

What's that? The killer wasn't an Islamophobe at all? He was actually a Muslim, a jihad/martyrdom bomber laying hold of Allah's promise of Paradise to those who "kill and are killed" for Allah (Qur'an 9:111)? What are you, some kind of Islamophobe?

"Suicide bomber kills 6 in Afghan mosque," by Noor Khan for Associated Press (thanks to Sr. Soph):

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing Helmand province's deputy governor and five other people, officials said.

The bomber struck while people were praying inside the mosque in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, provincial police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal said.

Helmand's deputy governor, Pir Mohammad, was killed in the blast, said Nisar Ahmad, a provincial health official.

The blast killed five other people and wounded 11, Ahmad said....

Now that the border is open between Gaza and Egypt, Palestinian jihadists are taking full advantage. "Egypt: Palestinians With Explosive Belts Arrested In Taba," from ANSAmed (thanks to Insubria):

(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, JANUARY 30 - The Egyptian security services arrested five Palestinians wearing explosive belts in the city of Taba, at the border with Israel, Egyptian pro-governmental newspaper Al Ahram reported today. The arrested Palestinians are suspected of planning to carry out suicide attacks in Israel and an investigation in this direction has been launched. The security services also arrested a group of Palestinians carrying maps of some stretches of the Israeli-Egyptian border and details on the forces deployed in the same region. According to the newspaper, the security forces also seized sophisticated arms and bombs in the same operation....

And, according to one of the non-Muslim drivers, threatened to kill him when he complained, and said to him, "You F-ing Jew, you don't want us to pray here." The Muslim cab drivers, however, have charged him with assault, and he has been barred from working at the airport. Whatever the truth of that, however, no one seems to be disputing that airport officials allowed the Muslim drivers to turn the room into a prayer room unchallenged.

"Dispute over airport breakroom leads to lawsuit," by Sarah Dallof for KSL.com (thanks to LGF):

A shuttle driver has filed a complaint with the FAA against the Salt Lake International Airport, saying officials allowed thousands of religious services to be conducted on public property. Muslim cab drivers began praying in a small airport building used as a break room after 9-11, because, the airport says, they became targets, with people yelling at them and throwing things.

Last week we brought you the story of a Muslim cab driver at the airport who says he was assaulted when he tried to pray inside the building. Tonight the man charged in that case speaks out about his case against the airport.

Shuttle driver Jeff Brueningsen took photos inside the building he and other drivers share at the airport. "It was definitely an Islamic center." He said it didn't feel right, so he filed a complaint with the FAA against the airport.

"In proper, polite company you never bring up politics or religion. And they introduced both instantly into what's supposed to be a professional, secular transportation-aviation facility," Brueningsen said.

In the complaint he details claims that he was harassed by a group of Muslim drivers who he says have threatened to kill him. It came to a head earlier this month when Brueningsen says Mohammed Alahmed and other drivers attacked him.

"They were going like this, using their fingers, saying, ‘You F-ing Jew, you don't want us to pray here,'" Brueningsen says.

Alahmed says it was the other way around, that Brueningsen tried to stop him from praying. "He say the F word against me, and I didn't do anything. And he grabbed me from my shirt and hit me with his hand," Alahmed said.

Airport police investigated and charged only Brueningsen with assault. Shortly after, the airport closed the building, and Muslim drivers began praying outside.

No one was happy.

Cab driver Yuriy Artuyunyan says, "We cannot have breakfast, we cannot go to restroom, we cannot play chess."

Barbara Gann, with the Salt Lake International Airport, said, "There were some grave concerns over safety and possible escalating violence."

Airport officials say they never sanctioned prayers, but they never stopped them. Instead they trusted the drivers to be courteous and respectful to one another, a plan that didn't work.

Airport and city officials are meeting to decide what to do with the building. While they do that, Brueningsen isn't allowed to work on airport property.

"Risking the wrath of Muslims" and defending core Western principles of free inquiry.

From the Telegraph (thanks to all who sent this in):

Denmark's Royal Library is risking the wrath of Muslims with plans to display controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that sparked violent protest throughout the Islamic world two years ago.

The 12 caricatures of Islam's founder were published in Danish newspapers in September 2005 triggering riots and violence which claimed the lives of over 50 people.

Copenhagen's Royal Library – founded by King Frederik III in 17th century – is courting a new controversy by classifying the cartoons as “historic” objects alongside other Danish treasures, such as original manuscripts by Martin Luther.

"We hope we can secure all of the works to preserve them for the future.

The caricatures have become a part of Danish history,” Royal Library spokesperson Jytte Kjaergaard told the UK's Art Newspaper. But the images are likely to remain locked away from the public gaze.

"We are not interested in an exhibition, we are interested in them being kept safe for future generations,” the Royal Library spokeswoman said.

"This is the obvious place to keep them because we have all the security measures in place. It would be very difficult for a private person to come in and sabotage them because to see them for research purposes you will need a letter of consent from your university professor. They will be treated like any rare book.”...

Just another day at the office for the UN Human Rights commission. "Arbour backs plan that seeks end to Zionism: UN human rights czar supports controversial pan-Arab charter," by Steven Edwards for The Ottawa Citizen (thanks to Sounder):

UNITED NATIONS - Louise Arbour, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, has thrown her support behind a major pan-Arab human rights charter that commits to the elimination of Zionism.

Some critics say the wording is code for the destruction of Israel, but in a statement from her Geneva headquarters, the former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada welcomes the Arab Charter on Human Rights, which will come into force in mid-March.

"Regional systems of promotion and protection can further help strengthen the enjoyment of human rights, and the ... charter is an important step forward in this direction," Ms. Arbour says.

While the document demands respect for a host of internationally recognized human rights, its references to Zionism concern leading human rights activist groups, including Amnesty International, International Commission of Jurists and UN Watch.

The charter's preamble speaks of "rejecting all forms of racism and Zionism," alleging they violate human rights and threaten international peace and security.

Article 2 of the 53-article document says "all forms of racism, Zionism and foreign occupation and domination" should be "condemned and efforts must be deployed for their elimination."

"These provisions cannot be dismissed as harmless rhetoric," says a letter UN Watch sent Monday to Ms. Arbour asking her for a "clarification" of her support for the charter.

Indeed not. They are a figleaf for the jihad.

Maybe he thinks he and his fellow jihadists will destroy us from within. In any case, note the strong Islamic content of his appeal -- while the learned Western analysts continue to dismiss this, the most prominent feature of what he is saying, as mere window dressing that manifests a deep misunderstanding of the religion.

"Pakistani Taliban Emir By'atullah Mahsoud: We Will Destroy America and Britain, But Won't Use Nuclear Bombs," from MEMRI (thanks to Mackie):

Following are excerpts from an interview with By'atullah Mahsoud, the Emir of the Pakistani Taliban, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on January 25, 2008. Throughout the interview, the assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto was not mentioned, and it seems the interview was recorded earlier.

To view this clip, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1668.htm.

"Musharraf is Merely the Slave of Bush, the West, and the Infidels"

Interviewer: "Did you pledge allegiance to Mullah Omar?"

By'atullah Mahsoud: "We pledged allegiance to the Emir of the Believers in the past, and Allah willing, our allegiance to him will continue infinitely. He is our religious Emir, and our allegiance to him stems from the love and respect we have for him."

The Emir of the Believers is a title of the Caliph -- so apparently Mahsoud accepts Omar's shaky claim to the caliphate.

Interviewer: "What do you hope to achieve by this coalition? What are your goals? What are your plans for the future?"

By'atullah Mahsoud:"The goal of our coalition is to conduct defensive jihad. The Pakistani army is induced by Bush to send its forces here, and it bombs our homes and fights us. Therefore, we established this coalition in order to provide security to Muslim individuals and Muslim society. The Pakistani army employs tactics of deceit. It wages war in South Waziristan, while it maintains a truce in North Waziristan. Then it wages war in North Waziristan, and maintains a truce in Bajaur. Then it wages war in Bajaur, and maintains a truce in Swat. This is a policy of deceit. We established this coalition in order to confront the deceit of the army and its soldiers’ attacks.

[...]

"Musharraf is merely the slave of Bush, the West, and the infidels. Musharraf is subjugated to his masters. The Muslims in the tribal regions have suffered greatly at his hands, while our Arab and non-Arab brothers who have come here in order to defend Islam and the people, and in order to protect Pakistan - Musharraf has declared war against them, at the direct command of Bush. Some of them have been martyred, and others have been handed over to the Americans. All this did not satisfy Musharraf, who attacked the mosques, killing women, children, and youth inside. His motivation in doing this was to please Bush. We say that Musharraf persecuted the Muslims, demonstrated injustice towards them, and destroyed mosques."

[...]

"Above all, we are Muslims, Allah be praised. Islam does not allow us to kill women and children. Using a nuclear bomb leads to the killing of children, women, the weak, and the elderly. We cannot kill all these people, and so we do not think about using a nuclear bomb.

[...]

"All Muslims are brothers. The Taliban have the Emir of the Believers. He is not only the Emir of the Afghani people, but the Emir of the Believers throughout the world. We pledged allegiance to him, and we have the strongest ties with him. We consider Muslims - even in America - to be our brothers. With regard to Al-Qaeda, they are Muslims, and the Islamic zeal that runs in their veins is very rare. Al-Qaeda has fought heresy head-on, and confronted it with their weapons. They are our brothers, and Allah willing, we will remain brothers, and we will serve them, even if they ask us to sacrifice our heads for their sakes."

"I Have the Utmost Love and Respect For [bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri], Because of their Enmity towards the Jews and the Christians"

Interviewer: "Have you ever had any connection with Al-Zarqawi, Al-Zahawiri, or bin Laden?"

By'atullah Mahsoud: "Before Al-Zarqawi left for Iraq, he was in our region with us. We had strong relations with him. After America began committing injustice in Iraq, he went over there, and he had an extraordinary role. With regard to Osama and Al-Zawahiri, I never met them, but I have the utmost love and respect for them, because of their enmity towards the Jews and the Christians. The Muslims must be harsh towards the infidels and compassionate among themselves. These two men reflect this Koranic verse. Their enmity towards the Jews and the Christians is strong, and therefore, I respect them.[...]

That's Qur'an 48:29: "Muhammad is the apostle of Allah. Those who follow him are merciful to one another, but harsh to the unbelievers."

"We Muslims are united, and we will wage jihad in Afghanistan and in Pakistan. We will fight jihad in Palestine, Bosnia, and Iraq as well. This is our religious duty, and in Islam, there is no text that says that a certain place is Pakistan, and another place is Afghanistan. There are no borders in Islam. We fight the Jews and the Christians in Afghanistan out of ideological motives."

Interviewer: "Did you send your fighters to Afghanistan to participate in battle alongside the Taliban?"

By'atullah Mahsoud: "We fought alongside the Taliban, and we will continue to do so full force. The enemies have come from distant places. They have come from many Western countries, for the sake of money, and they kill for the sake of money. We, on the other hand, are Muslims. Our goal is to please our God and to raise the banner of monotheism. Yes, we send and will continue to send young men to the battlefronts in Afghanistan."

[...]

By'atullah Mahsoud: "We are by no means sorry when we kill them. They carry out the orders of the West and America, and destroy our homes. That is why we kill them, although I pray that Allah will guide them, because Pakistan is an Islamic country. But when the army soldiers come here to fight us, we will kill them, because the presence of the army and its soldiers here is in response to the orders of the infidels and Bush.

[...]

"We want to eradicate Britain and America, and to shatter the arrogance and tyranny of the infidels. We pray that Allah will enable us to destroy the White House, New York, and London. We place our trust in Allah. Soon, we will witness the miracles of jihad. I myself have experienced many miracles. Every time I was determined to do something, I prayed to Allah, and he made it possible. Our jihad is defensive jihad. Our determination is great, and it is directly entirely against Britain and America. The soldiers of heresy who have come here to oppress the Muslims - we will respond to their injustice and tyranny. One of the miracles of jihad will be that sooner or later, we will destroy their countries."

But never fear: the Mounties are on the case. Hate speech laws are dangerous, because jihadists and their allies will use them as much as they can to silence resistance to jihadist activities. However, there ought to be some way to limit the activities of this treasonous individual, just as no one would have tolerated the publication of a pro-Nazi newspaper in Toronto in 1943.

"Killing Canadians 'best way': student," by Stewart Bell for the National Post:

TORONTO - A Toronto-area man has been posting messages on the Internet supporting attacks against Canadian soldiers on Canadian soil, drawing the attention of RCMP national security investigators.

Police have advised the Bangladeshi-Canadian that he is under investigation for incitement and facilitating terrorism after he repeatedly called the killing of Canadian troops in Canada "legitimate" and "well deserved."

No charges have been laid, but counterterrorism officers are apparently taking it seriously, and the case has set off a debate inside government over where to draw the line between free expression and incitement.

"The promotion of hate and violence has no place in Canadian society, and it is an offence under the Criminal Code," Stockwell Day, the Minister of Public Safety, responded when shown a sample of the postings. "Our government carefully balances the right to freedom of expression with our duty to protect Canadians from harm."

Alarm bells about the online writings went off last September after German authorities arrested three Islamic militants accused of planning to bomb the Ramstein Air Base and Frankfurt International Airport.

That same day, Salman Hossain posted several messages about the plot on the comment board of a Toronto-based Internet site where he is a frequent contributor.

Although Mr. Hossain claimed in one of his communications with the National Post that he made the comments in a private online chat room, the messages can easily be viewed by anyone using a simple Google search.

"I hope the German brothers were gonna blow up US-German bases in their country. We should do that here in Canada as well. Kill as many western soldiers as well so that they think twice before entering foreign countries on behalf of their Jew masters," he wrote.

"Any and all Western soldiers getting prepared to enter Muslim nations like Afghanistan or Iraq should be legitimate targets by any and all Islamic militants either in the attacked nations or in the western nations --if there were any planned attacks against Canadian/ American soldiers by 'Muslim militants' in Canadian soil, I'd support it," he added.

"Canadian soldiers in Canadian soil who are training to go to Afghanistan or Iraq are legitimate targets to be killed. … Now it is POSSIBLE AND LEGITIMATE!! ... believe me, if we could have enough of our soldiers killed, then we'd be forced to withdrawn from Afghanistan."

In addition, he singles out Jews, writing: "When do I get to shoot a few Jews down for attempting to blow up dozens of mosques in America right after 9-11 … why f---ing target the Americans when the Jews are better?"

The author of the messages is a Mississauga university student in his mid-twenties who claims to know the infamous Khadr family and several of the men arrested in Toronto in June, 2006, on terrorism conspiracy charges. He confirmed to the National Post that he was the author of the postings but later declined to comment further on the advice of his lawyer. While he writes that he approves of attacking Canadian troops, he also says he would not do so himself.

Despite being visited by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and RCMP and told he was under investigation, Mr. Hossain has continued to post messages approving of attacks on Canadian troops.

Saying anti-war protests "will do sh$$," he describes a "mass casualty" attack on the home-front as "a well considered option" and "the best way to compel western soldiers to get out of Afghanistan/Iraq."

Such an attack "would be fantastic and would get the job done," he writes. "If someone gets the bright idea of committing such a wonderful act, it's NOT my responsibility in any way, shape or form."

He wrote, "I enjoy watching the blood flow from the western troops," and during Defence Minister Peter Mac-Kay's Christmas week visit to Kandahar, he wrote: "I pray that the Taliban kill our Mackay motherf---er."

In other postings, he wishes "a merry 9-11, and I wish y'all many more merry 9-11s"; says "the Jews are literally the most treacherous nation on the face of the Earth"; says "I hate the Jews"; and claims "the filthy Jews carried out 9-11."

He rails at police, saying "you can't charge me for possessing a thought" and writes that he "honestly got a kick outta pissing off the RCMP … HAHAHA … i was laughing my ass off for provoking the RCMP."...

I've just signed a contract with Regnery Publishing for a new book, tentatively entitled Stealth Jihad: How the Islamic Agenda Is Advancing Without Guns and Bombs. It is set right now to appear in November. All I have to do between now and then is write it.

Islamic experts in the Pentagon -- fired at the insistence of high-ranking Muslim officials for refusing to sugarcoat the truth about Islamic jihad. The ACLU allying with Muslim groups to make war on public celebrations of Christmas. Presidential candidates advised by Muslims who tell them to soft-pedal anti-terror efforts. American citizens sued for reporting suspicious behavior by Muslims in airports. Accommodation of Muslim religious practices in public places, at taxpayer expense. Muslim cab drivers refusing to carry passengers with alcohol, and Muslim checkout clerks refusing to handle pork products -- and even Bibles (they’re “unclean”). Islamic charities funding violent jihad -- abetted by non-Muslim politicians anxious to court Muslim constituencies. Islamic advocacy groups silencing all those who dare speak about these issues -- with the willing complicity of a clueless leftist mainstream media.

It’s all part of the stealth jihad: initiatives to advance the jihadist agenda not by means of guns and bombs, but through a series of initiatives designed to acclimate Americans to downplaying anti-terror initiatives, accommodating Muslim practices, and making special exceptions for Islamic law -- while being cowed by cries of “bigotry” into dropping all resistance to these phenomena. The result? An America completely subjugated under Islamic law -- just the way Osama bin Laden wants it.

Stealth Jihad will lay bare all the many ways in which this undercover jihad is advancing, and call upon Americans to resist it -- before it’s too late.

“The poll, carried out across 21 countries, found “widespread anti-immigration sentiment”, but warned Europe’s Muslim population will treble in the next 17 years." -- from this news article

"Will treble?" Is this simply a given? There is nothing Europeans can do about this to protect their own legacy, their own art, science, legal and political institutions, their own physical security? Nothing?

Many things can be done. By god, I could list a hundred:

An Islamist cleric who has defended suicide bombings and the execution of homosexuals is to be allowed to enter the UK, sparking a major row between government departments.

The Observer understands that senior civil servants in the Home Office and Foreign Office have recommended that ministers approve an application by Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who is banned from entering the United States, to come to London for medical treatment.

The news has prompted unease in the Department for Communities and Local Government, which fears that allowing Qaradawi in might offend other faith groups as well as many Muslims. Several senior civil servants are also understood to have reservations because Qaradawi, 80, has previously received treatment in France, suggesting that he can receive medical attention for his undisclosed illness elsewhere. -- from this news article

Imagine, for a moment, that you were suddenly denied access to medical care. Imagine that you could not count on a Western hospital, Western nurses, Western-trained doctors. Imagine that you had to endure only what the Muslim lands offer. Imagine, even, that the Western doctors who work for high pay (pay that is going to have to get a lot higher, as a kind of security premium, and for them to continue to endure the contumely they suffer, like all foreign workers, in Saudi Arabia and, to a lesser extent, in the sheikdoms of the Gulf) were no longer available to you. You would be very scared.

Now imagine that the Western world simply denied to the daggers-and-dishdasha boys, and to the Muslim clerics such as Al-Qaradawi, what they now take as by right: access to Western medical care.

But you can still get it in Indonesia

Hey, what about The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)? What about The Truth About Muhammad?

I don't believe that ideas that I oppose should be ignored or forcibly suppressed. I believe they should be met honestly and refuted. They don't agree in modern, moderate Malaysia.

"Ministry Bans 11 Books About Islam," from Bernama (thanks to Morgaan Sinclair):

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 29 (Bernama) -- The Internal Security Ministry has banned 11 books -- eight in English and three in Bahasa Malaysia -- about Islam whose contents have been found to be deviating from the teaching of the religion.

According to the ministry's Quran Publication Control and Text Division Secretary Che Din Yusoh, the ban order was gazetted on Jan 17 under Section 7(1) of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984.

The books banned are:

* Secrets Of The Koran: Revealing Insights Into Islam's Holy Book by Don Richardson (Regal Books From Gospel Light, Ventura, Calfornia, USA);

* Qur'an and Women Rereading the Secrets Text From Woman's Perspective by Amina Wadud (Oxford University Press, New York);

* The Two Faces Of Islam: Saudi Fundamentalism and It's Role in Terrorism by Stephen Schwartz (Anchor Books, New York);

* Woman In Islam by Margaret Speaker Yuan (Greenhaven Press Farmington Hills);

* Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions About The World's Fastest-Growing Faith by Robert Spencer (Encounter Books Califonia);

* What Makes Me A Muslim by Catherine M. Petrini (KidHaven Press Farmington Hills);

* The Importance Of Muhammad by Marilyn Tower Oliver (Lucent Books, Farmington Hills);

* Faiths Islam Worship, Festival and Ceremonies From Around The World by Trevor Barnes (Kingfisher, Massachusets);

* Amalan Kemurahan Rezeki by Lifa Karimah (Jasmin Enterprise);

* Rahsia Jalan Yang Lurus (Al-Mustaqim, Johor Bahru); and

* Islam & Pluralisme by Al-Mustaqeem Mahmood Radhi (Middle Eastern Gruaduate Centre, Damansara Kuala Lumpur).

Here is a comment bemoaning the release of the Wilders film by someone in an army magazine. The dismissal by Bill Roggio is warranted. Of course there will be some kind of trouble if, and when, the Wilders film is released. Muslims have been attempting to blackmail the Dutch, and the entire Western world, not to have it released, using that same argument. So what? This will always be the case.

The American military man or civilian who wrote that little comment apparently is not thinking straight about Islam. He is thinking only of the way in which Muslims can be so easily whipped up, and assumes they will be whipped up if the Wilders film is released.

But he is missing several points. One is that Muslims can always be whipped up. They don't need a film or cartoons. They are very good at manufacturing their own reasons for being whipped up. They stage atrocities -- see the Al-Dura case, see all the pictures on Al-Jazeera of American "Nazi-like" behavior in Iraq, with that hideous Arab score playing as the camera pans over what are supposed to be victims of "American aggression." And that could be pictures taken from anywhere, or for that matter made up. It doesn't matter.

LONDON - Britain's head of overseas intelligence warned that Saudi Arabia likely would stop sharing vital information on terrorism if prosecutors pursued an investigation into alleged corruption in an arms deal, lawmakers disclosed Tuesday.

Ministers were told the inquiry into the BAE Systems PLC arms deal with Saudi Arabia could lead to a withdrawal of Saudi assistance on counterterrorism, according to the annual report of the Intelligence and Security committee. The committee scrutinizes the work of Britain's intelligence and security agencies….

"All relevant agencies were clear about the crucial importance of U.K.-Saudi co-operation in the fight against terrorism and the damage to U.K. interests -- and, potentially, U.K. lives -- if that co-operation were withdrawn," Goldsmith said….

The head of MI6, John Scarlett, told the committee that antagonizing Saudi Arabia risked losing vital intelligence.

"There were threats made to the existence of the co-operation (and) there was reason to take those threats seriously," he said. "Saudi Arabia is an absolutely key country ... they have turned themselves into a very important and powerful player in the world counterterrorism campaign."… -- from this news article

What "assistance on counterterrorism"? Every mosque, every madrasah, every Wahhabi preacher who replaces an Ahmadi one in the mosques of West Africa, or even in Europe (the Ahmadis, being milder, are good at converting people to Islam, but they are not good at keeping the Wahhabis from then taking over those mosques, and those converts, and turning them into the full-fledged, dangerous thing) that has been supported by the nearly $100 billion the Saudis have been allowed to spend in the Lands of the Infidels on spreading Islam also, of course, increases the number, and power, of Muslims.

And inevitably, many of those Muslims will wish to participate, directly or indirectly, in Jihad. The instrument of that Jihad need not necessarily be qitaal, or combat. Jihad can be pursued by other means than combat, or for that matter "terrorism" (what we have no trouble calling "terrorism" -- deliberate attacks on civilians to spread terror -- Muslims consider to be just another form of qitaal). Saudi Arabia does not offer assistance "in counterterrorism." It makes more likely, more possible, terror against Infidels, everywhere it spreads its unmerited money.

And Bush and Rice are helping to number them. "'Filthy' Israel's days are numbered - Iran," from Agence France-Presse (thanks to all who sent this in):

HARDLINE president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has renewed his verbal attack on Israel, saying its days are numbered and predicting that the "filthy Zionist entity" will fall sooner or later.

"I advise you to abandon the filthy Zionist entity which has reached the end of the line,'' Mr Ahmadinejad today told world powers in a speech in the southern city of Bushehr carried live on the state television.

"It has lost its reason to be and will sooner or later fall,'' he said.

"The ones who still support the criminal Zionists should know that the occupiers' days are numbered.''

Democracy On The March Update.

From the BBC (thanks to PRCS):

The upper house of the Afghan parliament has supported a death sentence issued against a journalist for blasphemy in northern Afghanistan.

Pervez Kambaksh, 23, was convicted last week of downloading and distributing an article insulting Islam. He has denied the charge.

The UN has criticised the sentence and said the journalist did not have legal representation during the case.

The Afghan government has said that the sentence was not final.

A government spokesman said recently that the case would be handled "very carefully".

Now the Afghan Senate has issued a statement on the case - it was not voted on but was signed by its leader, Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, an ally of President Hamid Karzai.

It said the upper house approved the death sentence conferred on Mr Kambaksh by a city court in Mazar-e-Sharif.

Concerns

It also strongly criticised what it called those institutions and foreign sources which, it said, had tried to pressurise the country's government and judiciary as they pursued people like Mr Kambaksh.

Some governments and international organisations have called for the sentence to be overturned.

A legal expert, Wadeer Safi, told the BBC that parliament was not constitutionally allowed to intervene in a case in the way the Senate had done, and he was concerned the new statement might prejudice the independence of the judges.

Mr Kambaksh's brother, Yacoub Kambaksh, told the BBC that the journalist was very concerned about his future and said he had not had a fair trial or any lawyer to defend him.

But the provincial governor in Mazar has said the case is being handled with due process.

Precisely.

An article in the New Duranty Times a few days ago -- "Yemen's Deals With Jihadists Unsettle the U.S." -- explains that Yemen has hit upon a way to deal with its own homegrown terrorists. The method is simply to extract from them a promise not to attack Infidels in Yemen itself, or possibly -- the story does not make it clear -- not to commit acts of terrorism within the territorial waters of Yemen, which would prevent a repetition, presumably, of the attack on the U.S.S. Cole. And of course it should.

Here are excerpts from that article:

That same year, Mr. Saleh hit on an idea that he hoped would satisfy both his American and Islamist partners: “al hiwar al fikri,” or intellectual dialogue. This was an effort to inculcate the idea that Islam, properly understood, does not condone terrorism. Sessions began with hundreds of former jihadists who remained in prison without charges.

“It came from the idea that terror depends on ideology, and that thought should be confronted with thought,” said Hamoud al Hetar, the cleric and judge who led the program.

"Turin, 29 Jan.(AKI) - The Union of Arab Writers has written a letter of protest at the designation of Israel as a guest of honour for the next edition of the Turin International Book Fair, Italian daily Corriere della Sera reports....

"'In any case, this is a book fair, this is not the United Nations, it is not a political office. The Israeli writers that we invited are usually critical toward their government,' said the director of Turin's book fair, Ernesto Ferrero in a response." -- from this news article

Everybody should get into this, starting with writers in Corriere della Sera and Il Foglio.

As a free, advanced, Western country, heir to a history much longer than the 60 years of its modern existence, and peopled by the People of the Book, Israel is a perfect guest to be honored in that sixtieth year of the State's existence. Those putting on the Festival should be proud to have done the right thing, and to have given a schiaffo to the U.N., to the E.U., and to all those who have allowed their minds to be poisoned by the mendacious reporting, drip-by-drip-by-drip, that has done such damage to Israel while Israel is only trying, believe it or not, to stay alive, to withstand the Lesser Jihad that has been waged, is being waged, will forever be waged, against it, though Israel's own leaders seem determined not to recognize or name that Jihad. Ferrero seems to understand that he should be unapologetic about the Turin Book Festival's choice. He titles one reply to critics "La Fiera e fiera di Israele." (The Festival is proud of Israel.)

Omar bin Laden is a sideshow at best, but this article is typical of the international coverage he has received lately: it focuses on his rejection of his father's methods, without ever questioning whether or not he holds to his father's goals, and is trying to accomplish them through different means. This is, unfortunately, yet another manifestation of the superficiality and lack of understanding that mars so much of the media and government/law enforcement analysis of the jihad threat.

"Bin Laden urged by his son to end explosions," from Xinhua :

CAIRO, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was urged by his son to stop explosions as they do no good for anyone, the Egyptian MENA news agency reported on Tuesday.

The 26-year-old Omar bin Laden made the remarks in an interview with an Egyptian TV program broadcast on Monday, the report said.

The killing of civilians contradicts religion, democracy and humanity, Omar was quoted by MENA as saying in the first Arabic television channel interview in Cairo.

Asserting his intention to be an ambassador for peace, Omar also called on his father to try to stop using bombs and weapons and to find another way to reach his goals.

Ah. So.

Andrew Cochran at the Counterterrorism Blog notes that while in Bush's 2007 State of the Union address he referred to "Sunni extremists," "the Islamist radical movement," and "Shia extremists," and in his 2006 address spoke about "radical Islam," in his 2008 State of the Union speech he never used the words "Islam," "Islamic," or even "Islamist."

That suggests that his words from his 2006 speech can now be applied to their speaker: "By allowing radical Islam to work its will -- by leaving an assaulted world to fend for itself -- we would signal to all that we no longer believe in our own ideals, or even in our own courage."

Another one is still hosted out of Phoenix. "Local Firm Removes Jihadi Web Site," by Howard Altman for The Tampa Tribune:

TAMPA - A Tampa Web-hosting company has taken down a Web site used by al-Qaida for communicating in secret and hiding files from investigators.

The company, Noc4Hosts, took the action Monday after it was informed about the site by The Tampa Tribune. Noc4Hosts, at 400 N. Tampa St., is in an office building that also rents space to the Tampa district of the U.S. attorney's office.

The Web site includes a graphic interface program that is of special interest to those who monitor jihadi activity. Known as "Mujahideen Secrets 2," it allows for encryption of messages and files.

[...]

Noc4Hosts "is not in cahoots with al-Qaida," said Steve Eschweiler, the company's general manager.

The site, he says, was one of several hundred thousand the company hosts. Web hosting companies keep banks of computer servers where individual Web sites are based.

"If there is anything anti-American, we will take them down," Eschweiler says. "We work closely with authorities any time something like this comes up."

Eschweiler said he took down the site, which was at alekhlaas .info/forum, after a call from the Tribune. He would not say whether he has been contacted by investigators about the site.

He did say authorities sometimes request that he keep up certain sites.

"If it is not immediately taken down, there is a reason for that, but I can't really say anything more than that without disclosing information," Eschweiler said. "Read between the lines. We are as American as anyone."

[...]

The Web site, he said, is extremely popular. "When I looked at it, it had a counter that said it has had 17 million visits."

The U.S. attorney's office would not comment on the site, the encryption program or whether an investigation is under way.

The Web site often used by al-Qaida is of great concern, according to A. Aaron Weisburd, who runs the Internet Haganah, a Web site dedicated to hunting and disrupting jihadi Internet communications.

Intelligence investigators describe the site as "arguably the single most important al-Qaida Web site currently in operation," Weisburd says.

The site was registered on January 22, 2006, by a man named Peterson Hoffman in Amman, Jordan.

Though Eschweiler shut down the Web site, the information is still available online.

Another version, with a different Web address, is being hosted by a company in Phoenix, he said.

BAGHDAD - Al-Qaeda is using children as suicide bombers in Iraq, with at least two attacks in the past week committed by 15-year-olds, a US military commander claimed on Sunday. -- from this news article

As always, the PLO -- which is merely the earlier name of the "Palestinian Authority" -- has been there first. For there is hardly a method used by Al Qaeda in the Greater Jihad, that has not been used before by the shock troops of the Lesser Jihad, the one against Israel, which is not to be confused with the Lesser Jihad against Christians in Nigeria, or the one in the Sudan, or the Lesser Jihad against Hindus in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indian-possessed parts of Kashmir, and India itself, or any of the other subsets of the Greater Jihad that can be called Lesser Jihads.

For the "Palestinians" have long been using women, young boys, even mental defectives, as their human deliverers of explosives. When Al Qaeda, or the Taliban, employs such methods in Iraq or Afghanistan or, soon, in countries that are seen as within the Lands of the Infidels (Bilad al-Kufr), they are merely following the methods first copyrighted by the Arab Muslim terrorists who function as part of the "Palestinian" movement.

Freedom of Expression On The Ropes Update from AKI (thanks to Insubria):

Turin, 29 Jan.(AKI) - The Union of Arab Writers has written a letter of protest at the designation of Israel as a guest of honour for the next edition of the Turin International Book Fair, Italian daily Corriere della Sera reports.

The letter slams Israel's invitation to the event - timed to mark the 60th anniversary of the Jewish state - at a time when its economic blockade is crippling the Gaza Strip, according to prominent Iraqi author Younis Tawfik, quoted by Corriere della Sera.

The Union of Arab writers has also written a letter to the Union of Italian writers, asking it to clarify its position over Israel's invitation to the Turin book fair - Italy's largest.

"In any case, this is a book fair, this is not the United Nations, it is not a political office. The Israeli writers that we invited are usually critical toward their government," said the director of Turin's book fair, Ernesto Ferrero in a response.

"The fact that other writers are talking about their freedom of expression, seems to me incredible," he added.

Indeed.

First there was the legendary epistle writer Bouchra Ismaili. And now another "moderate" has been found to be...immoderate.

"Another PvdA Politician Supports Radical Islam," from NIS News (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

THE HAGUE, 30/01/08 - Another Labour (PvdA) politician has turned out to be supporting the radical Islamic group Hizb ut Tahrir. This time, it is Hatice Can-Engin, an alderman in the town of Gilze-Rijen.

Can-Engin, of Turkish origin, signed a petition of Hizb ut Tahrir against the insulting of Islam. Gilze-Rijen Mayor Rene Roep has confirmed that Can-Engin signed the online petition. The alderman herself had initially denied this. Whether her action will have consequences for her functioning as alderman is not yet clear.

Hizb ut-Tahrir, banned in Germany, aspires to worldwide Islamic dominance. Chairman Okay Pala recently said in newspaper De Telegraaf that the Netherlands "needs a bombing attack" and that he rejects democracy.

Welcome to the New Europe!

Because the Saudis are such valuable friends and allies, you see. Surely that's worth their skimming off a bit, innit? "MI6 Urged UK to Drop Saudi Inquiry," by David Stringer for Associated Press (thanks to all who sent this in):

LONDON - Britain's head of overseas intelligence warned that Saudi Arabia likely would stop sharing vital information on terrorism if prosecutors pursued an investigation into alleged corruption in an arms deal, lawmakers disclosed Tuesday.

Ministers were told the inquiry into the BAE Systems PLC arms deal with Saudi Arabia could lead to a withdrawal of Saudi assistance on counterterrorism, according to the annual report of the Intelligence and Security committee. The committee scrutinizes the work of Britain's intelligence and security agencies.

Britain's Serious Fraud Office in December 2006 ended the inquiry into allegations that BAE Systems ran a $118.9 million "slush fund" offering sweeteners to Saudi Arabian officials in return for lucrative arms contracts.

BAE has denied the accusations. Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a former ambassador to the United States and now head of Saudi Arabia's National Security Council, has also denied that he profited from the deal.

MI6, Britain's overseas intelligence service, believed Saudi Arabia likely would end information-sharing with Britain if investigators continued the inquiry, former Attorney General Peter Goldsmith told the committee. MI6 raised objections to the prosecution before Britain's Serious Fraud Office decided to end the case, he said.

"All relevant agencies were clear about the crucial importance of U.K.-Saudi co-operation in the fight against terrorism and the damage to U.K. interests -- and, potentially, U.K. lives -- if that co-operation were withdrawn," Goldsmith said....

Because he dared to cooperate with the kuffar, you see. "Gang plotted to behead Muslim soldier 'like a pig,'" from the Times (thanks to all who sent this in):

An Islamist quartermaster hatched a plot to kidnap a British Muslim soldier on a night out and behead him "like a pig" in a lock-up garage then release footage of the killing to the public, a court heard today.

Nigel Rumfitt, QC, prosecuting, told a jury at Leicester Crown Court that Parviz Khan, of Alum Rock, Birmingham, had pleaded guilty to terrorism charges a fortnight ago. Three other men had also admitted a range of terror offences.

Mr Rumfitt was speaking as the trial opened of two further men, Ahmad Mahmood and Zahoor Iqbal, both from Birmingham, who accused of offences under the Terrorism Act.

All six men were arrested on January 31, 2006, in co-ordinated police raids.

Outlining the plot, Mr Rumfitt told the jury that Khan had hoped to kidnap a Muslim soldier in the Broad Street entertainment district of Birmingham city centre, with the help of drug dealers.

"He would be taken to a lock-up garage and there he would be murdered by having his head cut off like a pig," said Mr Rumfitt. "This atrocity would be filmed . . . and the film released to cause panic and fear within the British Armed Forces and the wider public."...

Thus "striking terror in the hearts of the enemies of Allah," as per Qur'an 8:60.

Eurabian Cultural Suicide Update: "Muslim mums win discrimination appeal," from The Local (thanks to Fjordman):

Two Muslim mothers have won a court appeal against a municipal pool in Gothenburg that required them to take off their veils and body-covering clothing.

The Court of Appeal for western Sweden found the City of Gothenburg guilty of ethnic discrimination and ordered the authorities to pay the women 20,000 kronor ($3,000) each in damages.

The women, Houda Morabet and Hayal Eroglu, were at the pool separately on two different occasions in April 2004, accompanying their young children but not to swim themselves.

Both were wearing veils, long pants and long-sleeved tee-shirts because their religion does not allow them to reveal parts of their body in public.

In its judgment, the court said that the actions of the swimming pool lifeguards, who insisted that the women should change into tee-shirts, could be deemed discriminatory even if this had not been their intention.

The nature of Sweden's discrimination laws mean that it was up to the City of Gothenburg to prove that the request for the women to remove some of their clothing had nothing to do with their religion.

"In the view of the Court of Appeal, the City of Gothenburg did not succeed in doing this," the court said in a statement....

The lifeguards testified that although there was nothing in the security regulations about veils, the rules did require people in the pool area to wear shorts and tee-shirts, even if they don't plan to swim.

The mothers' cumbersome clothing would have prevented them from coming to the rescue of their children if necessary, they argued.

Sounds reasonable. Am I missing something? Oh yes, multiculturalism and cultural self-hatred.

Watch for the hand-wringing and blame-shifting. Watch for the dark laments about European "racism" and "xenophobia." One thing you won't see is any acceptance of responsibility, any acknowledgment that any Muslims may have done anything -- anything -- to lead Europeans to think this way. No one will talk about the Islamic justifications advanced by Muslims themselves for acts of violence like the 7/7 bombings in London and the 3/11/2004 bombings in Madrid. No one will acknowledge the existence of supremacist rhetoric about conquering Europe that even Sheikh Qaradawi, that renowned "moderate," has advanced. No, this is all non -Muslims' fault. Don't you know that? What are you, some kind of Islamophobe?

"Europeans Think Islam Is Dangerous," by Jason Groves for the Daily Express (thanks to Isabella the Crusader):

AN “overwhelming majority” of Europeans believe immigration from Islamic countries is a threat to their traditional way of life, a survey revealed last night.

The poll, carried out across 21 countries, found “widespread anti-immigration sentiment”, but warned Europe’s Muslim population will treble in the next 17 years.

It reported “a severe deficit of trust is found between the Western and Muslim communities”, with most people wanting less interaction with the Muslim world.

Last night an MP warned it showed that political leaders in Britain who preach the benefits of unlimited immigration were dangerously out of touch with the public.

Of course they are. And only groups like the BNP are taking up the slack, which cannot bode well for Britain's future in any scenario.

The study, whose authors include the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey, was commissioned for leaders at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

It reports “a growing fear among Europeans of a perceived Islamic threat to their cultural identities, driven in part by immigration from predominantly Muslim nations”.

And it concludes: “An overwhelming majority of the surveyed populations in Europe believe greater interaction between Islam and the West is a threat.” Backbench Tory MP David Davies told the Sunday Express: “I am not surprised by these findings. People are fed up with multiculturalism and being told they have to give up their way of life.

“Most people in Britain expect anyone who comes here to be willing to learn our language and fit in with us.”

And why exactly should anyone consider that unreasonable?

Mr Davies, who serves on the Commons Home Affairs Committee, added: “People do get annoyed when they see millions spent on translating documents and legal aid being given to people fighting for the right to wear a head-to-toe covering at school.

“A lot of people are very uncomfortable with the changes being caused by immigration and politicians have been too slow to wake up to that.”

The report says people have little enthusiasm for greater understanding with Islam and attempts to improve relations have been “disappointing”.

And with the EU Muslim population expected to reach 15 per cent by 2025 it predicts: “Any deterioration on the international front will be felt most severely in Europe.”

And from the Muslim spokesmen, predictable denial, obfuscation, and victim-posturing:

But leading Muslim academic Haleh Afshar, of York University, blamed media “hysteria” for the findings. She said: “There is an absence of trust towards Muslims, but to my mind that is very much driven by an uninformed media.

“To blame immigration is much harder because the current influx of immigrants from eastern Europe are by-and-large not Muslim.

The danger is that when people are fearful of people born and bred in this country it is likely that discrimination may follow.”

Don't want discrimination? Work to keep your coreligionists from blowing things up and announcing their intention to take over.

That 2006 truce just keeps on paying dividends, but not to anyone interested in life without the Taliban minding their business. "Pakistani Taliban grows bolder, taking fight to doorstep of frontier city," by Tim Johnson and Jonathan S. Landay for McClatchy Newspapers:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Islamic militants known as the Pakistani Taliban have extended their reach across all seven of Pakistan's frontier tribal regions and have infiltrated Peshawar, the provincial capital, heightening U.S. concerns that an insurrection may be broadening in the nuclear-armed nation.

Fighting over the weekend spilled into previously peaceful parts of the tribal belt that borders Afghanistan and intensified in South Waziristan, Bajour and Mohmand. In Bannu, southwest of Peshawar, gunmen fleeing police took dozens of schoolchildren hostage for several hours Monday before tribal elders brokered a deal offering them safe passage, state-run television reported.

And it bears repeating that they were reported to have fled with children and adult civilians as human shields.

"It's worsening day by day," said Safraz Khan, a political scientist at the University of Peshawar. "People feel vulnerable. People feel scared."

A disparate group of tribal armed militant groups, some of them linked to al Qaida, announced the formation of an alliance last month called The Taliban Movement of Pakistan. The 40-man leadership is from seven tribal agencies and eight bordering districts, underscoring the movement's reach. The group is thought to have 5,000 to 10,000 fighters and is growing steadily as it gains momentum.

U.S. officials are deeply concerned that the insurgency is becoming bolder and expanding faster than had been anticipated, a State Department official said.

"The feeling is that we are not dealing with a terrorist group here, but an insurrectionist movement," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. "That's an elevation without question from what we've been dealing with."

He noted the broad scale of fighting across the tribal agencies, which together form the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and in settled parts to the east.

"These are not groups of Pashtun brigands popping potshots at army patrols," he said. "This looks like there is clearly coordination going on. This looks like an effort that appears to have been planned."

Some U.S. officials think that al Qaida is providing the coordination, but others say it's too early to reach that conclusion, he said.

[...]

The State Department official also said that there were indications of a flow into Pakistan of fighters from Afghanistan who apparently sensed that there was "an opportunity to achieve a significant victory in Pakistan."

[...]

Mahmood Shah, a retired brigadier general based in Peshawar, said government forces had been "sleeping" as the militants strengthened, gaining new adherents.

"As they become more successful, many criminals also join them," Shah said. "They grow beards and they become 'pure.' "

Shah said he hoped that Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the recently installed army chief, and the army's vigorous engagement of militants in South Waziristan, the most conflictive tribal agency, would signal more concerted action.

But senior army officers are clearly uneasy about fighting fellow Pakistanis.

"These people are not our enemies. ... These people have been misguided," army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said in an interview.

In many tribal areas, Taliban militants establish checkpoints, collect fees, shut down or blow up video stores with racy films, hector women to wear veils and order wives to ride only in the back seats of vehicles.

Such radical influence now is seeping into Peshawar, especially at the university.

"They say I should have a beard and my hair down to here," said Khan, the political scientist, putting his hand at shoulder level. "They want me to be praying five times a day. They want me not to watch television."

"I almost don't go anywhere now, just to my office and my home," he said.

A few weeks ago, Taliban sympathizers briefly set up a booth at the school to collect money. The group is illegal, but police didn't stop them.

"People are afraid to confront them," said Ijaz Khan, another scholar at the university.

[...]

"I don't think the Taliban, at this stage, have any plans to capture Peshawar," said Rahimullah Yusufzai, the editor of the Peshawar bureau of The News, a national daily newspaper.

He said the Taliban actions over a broader area were intended to take heat off South Waziristan, where soldiers have used helicopter-borne aerial bombardments and long-range artillery. Mountainous South Waziristan is the base of Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban.

"The militants are trying to put pressure on the Pakistani army so the military campaign in Waziristan is either called off or the attention is diverted," Yusufzai said.

Nope, still not them. "Car bomb blast in Algeria kills 2," by Aoumar Ali for the Associated Press:

THENIA, Algeria - A car bomb exploded Tuesday outside a police station in northern Algeria, killing at least two people and wounding several others, the Interior Ministry said. Witnesses and security officials put the death toll at least three.

The blast hit the city of Thenia, about 40 miles east of Algiers, early in the morning.

Officers opened fire on a vehicle that was speeding toward the local police station. The vehicle exploded short of the building, leaving a 6 1/2-foot-wide crater.

The force of the blast stopped a clock on nearby City Hall and damaged surrounding buildings.

The Interior Ministry said at least two were killed. Earlier, security officials had said the bombing killed at least three people and wounded several others.

The explosion was the latest in a wave of attacks signaling that Islamic fighters are regrouping in Algeria, where military crackdowns and amnesty offers had thinned the insurgents' ranks in recent years.

But how many have regrouped after taking advantage of the amnesty offers?

No one immediately claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attack.

An Algerian al-Qaida affiliate said it was behind a similar attack earlier this month in the town of Naciria, east of Algiers. Four people were killed when a vehicle rigged with explosives slammed into the police station there.

"[Australian Federal Police] Commissioner Mick Keelty and NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione have revealed that they are investigating new terrorist threats, particularly in [New South Wales]."

And not acknowledging and challenging the ideology that produces new jihadists, and its origins in Islamic texts and teachings, will only help guarantee that more and more home-grown jihadists will threaten Australia and other Western countries.

"New crop of Jihadis is 'set to step up'," by Natalie O'Brien for The Australian:

A NEW crop of home-grown jihadis, groomed to step up and replace the leaders of Australian terror cells who have been arrested or jailed, is almost "mature" enough to launch an operation, an international terror expert has warned.

The warning came after the release of figures showing the Australian Federal Police had 76 new counter-terrorism cases to investigate in the past financial year. At June 30 last year, the AFP had 83 cases being examined by its counter-terrorism team.

The latest so-called network of militant extremists has been steadily evolving and its members are almost ready to take over from their predecessors, according to Rohan Gunaratna, international terrorism expert and the author of Inside al-Qa'ida.

Dr Gunaratna said the home-grown terror suspects had been under investigation by Australian law enforcement agencies for some time. The new networks were very similar in "character and composition" to those that had been disrupted by law enforcement agencies.

"Law enforcement has only peeled back one layer of jihadis," he said. "The second rung is maturing and ripe for another operation, possibly in the coming months."

Intelligence sources say they are aware of the new threats, but deny there is any evidence that the groups may be close to planning an attack in Australia.

The AFP yesterday declined to comment on Dr Gunaratna's warnings.

AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty and NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione have revealed that they are investigating new terrorist threats, particularly in NSW.

Statistics in the latest AFP annual report show that in 2006-07, they had 76 new counter-terrorism cases, they finalised another 83 cases and at June 2006 they had a total of 83 open cases.

India Jihad Update. "India: Islamists planned blasts in Mumbai," from United Press International:

NEW DELHI, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- India says rebels conspired to trigger serial bomb blasts in four crowded areas in Mumbai, including the historic Gateway of India.

Five suspected militants arrested in connection with recent blasts in Uttar Pradesh state wanted to carry out simultaneous explosions in Mumbai, an Interior Ministry official said. He said the suspects told their interrogators that Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami, which India views as a terrorist organization, was planning to carry out the blasts. The suspects were arrested in connection with the Nov. 23 serial blasts in Lucknow, Faizabad and Varanasi.

Gateway of India, the suburb of Andheri, Oberoi Hotel and Navi Mumbai were places where these suspected terrorists already carried out dry runs, the official said.

But where are the members of that cell now? Eurabia Alert, and more on this story. "Frankfurt Islamist group planned attack - report," from Reuters:

MADRID (Reuters) - A group of Islamist extremists in Frankfurt was planning an attack in Germany, according to a would-be suicide bomber captured by police in Spain, Spanish newspaper El Pais reported on Sunday.

The Frankfurt cell was one of several in European cities with orders to attack targets in Spain, France, Portugal, Germany and Britain, according to the would-be attacker turned police informant, El Pais reported.

The report did not make clear whether the German cell was to attack Frankfurt or another city.

Testimony from the same informant, who was captured after he arrived in Barcelona on Jan. 16, led to the arrest of 14 South Asians last Saturday in Barcelona after he told police an Islamist extremist cell planned to attack the city's metro and other targets in Europe, El Pais reported, quoting Spanish police.

The informant told police that leaders of the Barcelona cell told him to travel to Frankfurt to meet up with a group planning an attack, El Pais reported.

"They told him, initially, he was going to travel to Frankfurt," El Pais reported. "The informant thought he would travel to Germany to meet up with the group that was planning an attack there."

The plan changed and another member of the Barcelona cell, Akeel Abassi, was sent to Frankfurt on Jan. 18 with orders to work alone, the informant told police.

Abassi is being hunted by police, along with two other possible suicide bombers, El Pais reported.

How 'bout that logic, eh, Robert D. Crane? Anyway, let's hope that poor kafir Ronald McDonald fares a little better this time.

"Anti-Islam Dutch Film: Authorities asked to be alert for potential riots," from the (Pakistan) Daily Times:

ISLAMABAD: The Interior Ministry has directed provincial home secretaries, police chiefs and the authorities concerned in Islamabad, Azad Kashmir and the Northern Areas to remain alert to cope with any law and order situation that may erupt with the possible release of an “anti-Islam” Dutch movie. The National Crisis Management Cell has informed the abovementioned authorities in a letter that an “anti-Islam” film by Greet [sic] Wilders, a jurist in the Netherlands, is expected to release, which may result in public aggression against foreigners and the installations of multinational companies and diplomatic offices in Pakistan. Wilders, the chief of Holland Freedom Party, is also a Holland parliament member. Dutch Prime Minster Jan Peter and other leaders are urging him against the release of the movie. Wilders warns that he will upload the film on the Internet, if he is not allowed to release it.

And once granted safe passage, they took along five children and ten other residents of the town as human shields.

"Islamic militants take schoolchildren hostage in Pakistan," from Indo-Asian News Service:

Islamabad, Jan 28 : A group of Islamic militants entered a high school in a town in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) Monday and took around 300 children hostage, media reports said.

The insurgents stormed into the school to escape arrest after failing to abduct a government health official and his driver in the Battal Khel area of Bannu district, 200 km south of the NWFP capital Peshawar, the Aaj television channel reported.

From inside the school building the rebels exchanged fire with law enforcers, leaving three security personnel injured. One of the hostage-takers was also killed in the gunfight, but all the children remained safe.

The armed men released most of the students but held 25 of them and six teachers following hours of negotiations with the local religious leaders and administration.

The militants demanded safe passage with five schoolchildren and 10 local residents, assuring authorities that the hostages would be released once they crossed into the lawless tribal areas, the TV report said.

The hostage drama is the first of its nature in the ongoing conflict between Islamic extremists and the government of President Pervez Musharraf.

Pro-Taliban militants from the neighbouring restive tribal region bordering Afghanistan routinely launch raids in the Bannu district on security officials and state installations.

Just a few questions for al-Qaradawi: First, having previously traveled to France for medical care, why is it that you find yourself dependent on the West for advanced care? Why not Riyadh? Or Cairo, Dubai, or Islamabad? Second, having defended the execution of homosexuals, suppose while you're getting medical care in the West, a gay doctor saves your life. Would you rather he didn't? Should he still have to die?

"Row over Islamist cleric's visa," by Jamie Doward for The Observer:

An Islamist cleric who has defended suicide bombings and the execution of homosexuals is to be allowed to enter the UK, sparking a major row between government departments.

The Observer understands that senior civil servants in the Home Office and Foreign Office have recommended that ministers approve an application by Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who is banned from entering the United States, to come to London for medical treatment.

The news has prompted unease in the Department for Communities and Local Government, which fears that allowing Qaradawi in might offend other faith groups as well as many Muslims. Several senior civil servants are also understood to have reservations because Qaradawi, 80, has previously received treatment in France, suggesting that he can receive medical attention for his undisclosed illness elsewhere.

There were calls last night for ministers to reject Qaradawi's application. 'Qaradawi has been banned from the US since 1999,' said Dr Irfan al-Alawi, international director of the Centre for Islamic Pluralism. 'Why should the British government allow him to come here?'

This is not the first time Qaradawi's close relationship with Britain has attracted controversy. Two years ago the government paid for him and his wife to fly from his home in Qatar to Istanbul for a conference. In 2004 the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, invited Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, to the capital. The move provoked widespread protests from Jewish groups and gay rights organisations.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said that it could not comment on individual visa applications.

An update on this story. "Malaysia: Buddhist Family In Malaysia Challenges Shariah Court's Islamic Conversion Ruling," from the Associated Press:

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA: An ethnic Chinese Buddhist family was appealing to a Malaysian high court Tuesday (29 Jan), seeking to overturn an Islamic court ruling that found their late father had converted from Buddhism to Islam, prompting his burial as a Muslim.

The family of Gan Eng Gor said a Shariah court was wrong in ruling he had become a Muslim shortly before his death.

"We want a declaration that he is not a Muslim. Our main intention is to seek justice, not just for our family but for the rest of the non-Muslim community," son Gan Hock Ming told The Associated Press on Monday (28 Jan).

The case was expected to be heard Tuesday at the High Court in southern Seremban state, Hock Ming said.

It is the latest in an increasing number of interfaith conflicts that have raised tensions in multiracial Malaysia.

On Monday, opposition lawmaker Lim Kit Siang urged the government to end "body snatchings" by Islamic authorities, warning they were aggravating racial polarization and hurting Malaysia's multiracial harmony.

Indeed, this isn't the first such case.

[...]

Last week, an Islamic Shariah court ruled that Eng Gor, 74, also identified as Amir Gan Abdullah, was a Muslim and should be buried under Islamic rites.

The man's body was seized by Islamic authorities shortly after his death on 20 Jan after a complaint by his eldest son, Abdul Rahman Gan, a Muslim convert. He claimed his father had converted to Islam last July. Other relatives disputed this.

It seems likely that Abdul Rahman Gan would expect to benefit from being the only Muslim son of a Muslim father where any possible inheritance is concerned.

Hock Ming said Islamic authorities claimed his bedridden father made an oral declaration in Arabic to accept Islam, but the family has medical confirmation that his father was unable to speak after a stroke in 2006. He said the alleged conversion papers were also flawed because they weren't signed and certified.

"We hope the prime minister and the higher ups in the Islamic authorities review this case and ensure that the truth is unraveled," Hock Ming said, calling for all conversions to Islam to be "fair and transparent."

Report by David G. Littman, Representative of the Association for World Education (AWE) and the World Union of Progressive Judaism (WUPJ) to the UN in Geneva:

A recent article on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) that appeared in the New York Times Sunday Magazine (Sara Corbett, “A Cutting Tradition”, January 20, 2008) has prompted us to reproduce a statement that was delivered on behalf of the Association for World Education by David G. Littman on 19 March 2007 – at the 4th session of the new UN Human Rights Council (HRC). To this oral statement was attached AWE’s written statement to the 57th session (2005) of the Sub-Commission on Human Rights: E/CN.4/Sub.2/2005/NGO/27: Traditional or Customary Practices / Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and an appendix with the authentic Arabic text on FGM (according to the Shafi’i school of Sunni Law), with English translations from the widely used Nuh Ha Mim Keller edition, and its Certification from Cairo’s Al-Azhar University. This NGO written statement (and appendix) were attached a 2nd time when a joint oral statement was delivered by me on September 13, 2007 (6th session HRC), on behalf of AWE, the Association of World Citizens and the World Union for Progressive Judaism. The last sentence of our March 19 statement has been retained, although it is not about FGM – it deals with “underage” marriage in Iran (9 years), which is another abominable crime against women, inherited from medieval traditions – and holy writ – re-introduced by Ayatollah Khomeini after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. This form of sexual mutilation should also be declared “unacceptable” by the United Nations.

It is noteworthy that there has been no official reaction at UN bodies in relation to the irrefutable evidence contained in our oral and written statements (delivered in one form or another over the past 15 years) and confirmed in the appendix document widely circulated last year at the CHR.

According to UNICEF figures, FGM is traditionally practised in one form or another in 32 countries (roughly 16% of the Member States of the United Nations), of which 29 states (90%) are Members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

ASSOCIATION FOR WORLD EDUCATION

UN Human Rights Council: Representative David G. LITTMAN. Monday (5:50 p.m.) 19 March 2007
Fourth session (12 March–30 March 2007) President: Ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba (Mexico)

Female genital mutilation and barbaric crimes against young girls worldwide

Thank you, Mr President,

We congratulate Mr Paulo Sergio Pinheiro for his World Report on Violence against Children.

The term “traditional or customary practices” is a shameful euphemism for a crime against female children. FGM has no religious or hygienic justification yet over three million female children and girls in over 32 countries, including more and more thousands in Europe from an immigrant population, are being brutally mutilated each year.

A worldwide goal of outlawing this ancient child torture by 2010, as announced on 6 February 2004 at the International Day of Zero Tolerance of FGM, seems a pious hope – unless energetic steps are taken in many countries. Over the last 50 years about 10% of the world’s female population has been thus mutilated in childhood. Last month a UNICEF official spoke here of about 300 million victims still alive today. This sober realisation should prompt world leaders – both secular and spiritual, and UN bodies, to initiate positive measures against the practice.

Report by David G. Littman, in his capacity as representative of the World Union of Progressive Judaism (WUPJ) to the United Nations Office in Geneva:

Below is the brief oral statement delivered at the Sixth Special Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday, January 24, for the WUPJ. The speaker was twice interrupted on the grounds that he was off the resolution’s ‘subject’. We prefer not to react controversially here, because we know that the Romanian president had no other choice, as a ‘point of order’ would have soon been made by several members of the Council – those OIC states who impose their will, with the support of Russia, China, Cuba… the list is long. It is enough to note that not one word was mentioned – about the indiscriminate firing of rockets into Israel by terrorist groups – in the Council’s blatantly unbalanced resolution that condemned Israel unilaterally. The Council’s automatic majority was: 30 “yes”, 1 vote (Canada) “no”, and 15 states “absent”. The EU countries and some others felt restricted by the usual dhimmitude reflex from voting ‘no’. Both the United States and Israel (observer states) boycotted the session, yet only Israel’s absence was noted in a New York Times / International Herald Tribune article, not the absence of the U.S.A. delegate. The delegate of Pakistan, Dr. Imtinan E. Qureshi, Minister (Technical) actually said: “The latest episode of violence shows that Israel has no respect for International Law or the will of the civilized world expressed through HRC resolutions.” This is pure fairy-tale-Disneyland.

Our written NGO statement – printed as an official NGO General Assembly document – provides more data under the title: The Hamas Government in Gaza: A Genocidal Charter and a Legacy of ‘Jihadist-Martyrdom’ . After delivery, the oral statement was placed on the back table of the plenum, attached to the written statement in the normal manner and with the approval of the Secretariat. Despite this, the oral statement was soon removed by a young UN trainee. This was recognized the following day by the Council’s fair Secretary as a ‘misunderstanding’; and we were offered his apologies for this mistake. We have since written to him on a grave matter: – on entering the plenum, a uniformed female guard insisted on checking whether there were any non-UN documents in the briefcase. Outraged by such a total contradiction of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – the 60th year of which is being celebrated – we refused to disclose private ‘papers’ and stormed into the room – without being molested, as happened on a previous occasion for merely handing a UN text to the Italian delegate at the request of a mutually common friend in Rome. After 22 years at these human rights forum, we now see no future for the present Council on Human Rights – other than as a tourist, future ‘Palais Schwanstein’, like Ludwig II’s castle, which so inspired Walt Disney. We believe this UN farce cannot continue for very long.

We frequently hear from Muslim spokesmen in the West and elsewhere that today's jihad terrorists have twisted Islam, and have misunderstood its peaceful teachings. We have on many occasions noted the fact that this alleged misunderstanding of Islam is now a worldwide phenomenon, and that misunderstanders of Islam are often Muslim clerics who have devoted their lives to the study of the religion. And one element that has been conspicuously lacking from this scenario, and that I have called for many times, is any serious attempt by those Muslims who claim that the jihadists misunderstand Islam to teach against these misunderstandings within Muslim communities, in order to blunt the force of jihadist recruitment. We have seen several countries, notably Saudi Arabia and Yemen, claim to rehabilitate jihadists using the "true" teachings of Islam, but such programs have been marked by a high rate of recidivism and a curious vagueness about just how they teach against the jihad ideology from a Muslim perspective.

And here we go again. Six years after 9/11, 10,000 jihad terror attacks later, this Indonesian group decides that it's time to do something about all this misunderstanding of Islam. What will they do? That's not clear. I wish them well, but I wish they would spell it out, so if there is anything to it at all (which the unanimous vagueness on this point renders doubtful), other Muslims could do the same thing.

"Indonesian biggest Muslim organization declares to halt terrorism," from Xinhua (thanks to all who sent this in):

JAKARTA, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian biggest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulema (NU) vowed on Friday to stop the spread of misteaching of Islam, which could trigger radicalism and spark terrorism in the biggest Muslim country, the chairman of the organization Hasyim Muzadi said here.

Terrorim has grown fast in recent years in the country, which was supported by poverty and lack of understanding of the true Islam, through the spread of misteaching of the religion.

Among the teaching was hatred to the West and encouragement for retaliation through jihad in the form of attacks or suicide bombings targeting on the Western people or interest in Indonesia.

Many young people had been recruited and shifted to become suicide bombers, especially those from remote areas in the country which 87 percent of its more than 220 million population are Muslim. [...]

The more-than 40-millions followers Nahdlatul Ulema had the capacity to oppose the terrorist movement up to the level of grass root, said Muzadi.

"The Nahdlatul Ulama has a capacity to halt it (the spread of terrorism). The NU has an obligation to stop it. The (NU followers) at the grass root stage can be used to stop it," he told a press conference after meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the State Palace here.

The chairman of the NU said that tens of millions of members of the organization spreading across the archipelago would be a bastion of the spread of the wrong deliberation of Islam by terrorists.

"Should the followers of the Nahdlatul Ulema at the stage of grass root was already sterilized from the extremism, that would be very easy to stop the spread of the misteaching of Islam," he said.

Muzadi said that a proactive moves would be conducted to the community about the true Islam.

"We gave sermon to the people about how is the right teaching of Islam," he said.

Terorist has misinterpretated a Koranic verse about the legality for revenge through suicide bombings on infidels.

How does one interpret it correctly?

Feel the love. "Qaeda using children as suicide bombers: US," from AFP :

BAGHDAD - Al-Qaeda is using children as suicide bombers in Iraq, with at least two attacks in the past week committed by 15-year-olds, a US military commander claimed on Sunday.

“We are not sure whether one of these children even knew he was being used to deliver a bomb,” Rear Admiral Gregory Smith told a news conference in Baghdad.

One attack was carried out at a funeral ceremony near Tikrit, executed dictator Saddam Hussein’s home town 180 kilometres north of Baghdad and the other was at a school in the northern city of Mosul, Smith said.

He gave no details of the two bombings. Iraqi police said 17 people died in a January 21 suicide blast at the funeral ceremony near Tikrit for relatives of an Iraqi police colonel.

“Al-Qaeda in Iraq is trying to brainwash children with hate and death... they seek to create a culture of violence, hate and despair,” said Smith.

“(They) are sending 15-year-old boys on suicide missions to spread death and helplessness.”

Memo to Robert Leiken of the Nixon Center, who has recommended that the U.S. do business with the Muslim Brotherhood, which he maintains is now a moderate and mainstream (as it is called in this article) organization: read this closely.

"Jordanians rally in support of Hamas in Gaza," by Suleiman al-Khalidi for Reuters (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

AMMAN (Reuters) - Chanting slogans urging Islamist Hamas militants to resume suicide bombings against Israel, thousands of Jordanians marched in the capital on Friday to protest against Israel's blockade of Gaza.

About 8,000 activists from Jordan's mainstream Muslim Brotherhood took to the streets to support their ideological allies, the Palestinian Hamas group, and hail militants' success in breaching the Gaza border in defiance of an Israeli blockade.

"The people of Jordan are with Hamas," chanted the crowds who called on the Islamist group to resume a campaign of suicide bombings and intensify rocket attacks against Israel.

""Oh Hamas hit them with al-Qassam rockets ... bring the suicide bombers to Tel Aviv ," they chanted, waving the green flags of Jordan's opposition Muslim Brotherhood....

...where penalties for this sort of killing remain light -- on Islamic grounds.

"Teenage girl strangled in 'honour killing,'" from Gulfnews (thanks to Sr. Soph):

Jordan: A 17-year-old girl died after being strangled to death by her brother in a Palestinian refugee camp near the Jordanian town of Jerash .

He was apparently angered by her absence from home.

The woman, who had been married for eight months, was accused of shaming her family and killed in a so-called "honour" crime.

This is the second murder of its kind in a month.

A Jordanian prosecutor has charged the victim’s brother, a 20-year-old man, with premeditated murder.

Local newspapers reported that he had stuffed a scarf in his sister's mouth, choked her with an electric cable and smoked a pack of cigarettes before turning himself in.

And seize your property.

But remember: their nuke program is peaceful!

"Kayhan Editor Close To Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei: 'America and Its European Supporters Must Know... That the Price of Supporting [Israel] Will Cost Them the Property and Lives of Their Citizens... If the Heads of Some Islamic States Prevent the Muslim Peoples from Attacking the Zionists... They Can Be Toppled,'" from MEMRI (thanks to Sr. Soph):

In a January 26 op-ed in the Iranian daily Kayhan, the paper's editor, Hossein Shariatmadari, who is close to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, called on Muslims to unite in a retaliatory attack on American, European, and Israeli "sensitive centers" because of "the war crimes that these countries are committing in the Gaza Strip" and because of their support for Israel.

In his op-ed, Shar'iatmadari stressed that American and European civilians must be harmed in these attacks, so as to make the U.S. and the European countries change their policy towards Israel. He further called for harming Israelis worldwide, and explained that Islamic regimes that prevent an Islamic attack on Israel must be toppled, because they are defending the enemy.

Following are excerpts from Sharatmadari's op-ed, which was titled "The Defenders of the Enemy":(1)

[...]

"America and its European and Zionist supporters must know that their support for Israel's crimes will cost them very dearly. Once they discern that this support will cost them the property and lives of their citizens, they will doubtless reconsider their support for the savage Zionists... And didn't the Imam [Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini] teach that if every Muslim pours out one bucket of water, there will be a flood that will sweep away Israel, and destroy it?

"Every time a movement rises up against the Zionist occupier and acts to liberate its homeland, America and its allies accuse it of terrorism, and every state that supports these movements is punished. Why wouldn't the Muslims act the same way, and attack all the supporters of the Zionists everywhere in the world?

"The prevalent legal doctrine in both the Shi'ite school and the Sunni school is that it is permissible to attack anyone whom the enemy uses as a shield in the war against the enemies of Islam. Therefore, if some heads of Islamic states prevent the Muslim peoples from attacking the Zionists – thus constituting a shield that prevents support to the persecuted people of that region – it permissible to topple these defenders of the enemy."

While the Russians continue to aid and abet all this. From The Australian (thanks to Sr. Soph):

IRAN Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has warned of "serious consequences" if the UN Security Council adopts fresh sanctions against Iran for its refusal to halt sensitive nuclear work.

"If a resolution is passed ... it will have serious and logical consequences and we will announce it later,'' Mr Mottaki said.

Foreign ministers of the five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council - Britain, China, France, Russia and the US - plus Germany agreed on a new set of sanctions last week.

The UN Security Council is due to discuss them later today.

Iran's official IRNA news agency reported today that Russia had completed delivering fuel for Iran's first nuclear power plant in the Gulf port of Bushehr.

"With the last consignment, Russia has fully delivered the 82 tonnes of fuel enriched by 1.6 to 3.6 per cent, along with the supplementary equipment," said a statement from Iran's Organisation for Production and Development of Nuclear Energy....

Then why join the EU, Erdogan?

"PM Erdogan: 'We Got The Immorality From The West,'” from the MEMRI Blog (thanks to all who sent this in):

In his speech to Turkish graduate students going to study abroad, Erdogan made some controversial remarks that met with strong reactions in Turkey’s mainstream media. Erdogan said, “The poet who penned Turkish national anthem [the Islamist Mehmet Akif Ersoy] said that we should compete with art and science of the West; but unfortunately we adopted the West’s immoralities that are contrary to our values”.

He added that Turkey would continue sending students abroad for graduate studies for them to [learn and] compete in order to reach beyond the art and science of the West and asked the students to come back after their studies and work in Turkey.

The PM’s remarks were questioned by the media that asked what he meant by “the West’s immoralities”, whether or not he was talking about Western women not being covered, and how Turkey could become a EU member when the PM thought the West was “immoral”.

Source: Sabah, Cumhuriyet, Turkey, January 25, 2008

In Human Events this morning I offer the organizers of the next round of presidential debates a little help.

With another Republican presidential slugfest scheduled for Wednesday and the Democrats swinging away again on Thursday, I thought it might be a useful public service to provide some questions for the debate -- after all, the folks at CNN and the Los Angeles Times have many important things to do, and there are some issues I think it’s very likely they’ll overlook. So here is a cribsheet they are welcome to use, free of charge, with a few questions I, for one, would like to see the candidates of both parties answer:

1. What would you do to deal with the national security aspect of immigration? With plans afoot to bring large groups of Iraqis, including Iraqi Muslims, into the United States, what kind of screening will you implement to ensure that we are not importing jihad terrorists into the country? Will you reevaluate immigration levels from Muslim countries based on recognition of the fact that there is no reliable way to distinguish a peaceful Muslim from a jihadist sympathizer or potential jihadist?

This sura dates, like suras 6, 7, 10, 11, and 12, from late in the Meccan period, the first period of Muhammad’s career as a prophet. Its name comes a phrase in v. 13, “the thunder repeats his praises.” Its main theme is summed up by v. 1, in which Allah tells Muhammad, “These are the signs” — ayat, verses – “of the Book: that which hath been revealed unto thee from thy Lord is the Truth; but most men believe not.”

Ibn Kathir sees the four Arabic letters that begin this chapter, and similar unexplained letters beginning many suras of the Qur’an, as confirmation of its miraculous character: “Every Surah that starts with separate letters affirms that the Qur’an is miraculous and is an evidence that it is a revelation from Allah, and that there is no doubt or denying in this fact.” Despite the mystery of these letters, however, he goes on to assert that the Qur’an is “clear, plain and unequivocal,” and that “most men will still not believe, due to their rebellion, stubbornness and hypocrisy.” The Tafsir al-Jalalayn and the Tanwîr al-Miqbâs min Tafsîr Ibn ‘Abbâs say that the “most people” who will not believe according to v. 1 are the people of Mecca.

An update on this story. "Extremists plotted attacks across Europe, Spanish paper says," from CNN:

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Suspected Islamic extremists arrested last week in Barcelona were planning al Qaeda-style attacks in Spain, Germany, France, Britain and Portugal, according to an informant who "infiltrated" the group, Spain's El Pais newspaper reports.

"If we attack the metro [subway system in Barcelona], the emergency services can't get there," one of the suspected suicide bombers told the informant, El Pais reported on Saturday. "Our preference is public transport, especially the metro."

El Pais reported that it had access to the informant's testimony to Spanish officials.

CNN has confirmed that authorities have given high importance to an informant's testimony.

The judge who ordered 10 suspects held for allegedly plotting a suicide attack in Barcelona, cited in his rulings the testimony of an informant. CNN has viewed the rulings.

Spain's Interior Minister last Friday said an informant warned of a planned suicide attack against Barcelona's metro on the weekend of January 18 to 20. But he added that, for now, "there is only the testimony of an informant" regarding the timing.

The informant told authorities the cell comprised six suicide bombers, including himself, El Pais reported on Saturday.

Spain's attorney general, Candido Conde-Pumpido, said last week that the cell could have contained six suicide bombers, two explosives experts and two ideologues.

Judge Ismael Moreno, in rulings last Wednesday, wrote that the informant had named three suspected suicide bombers and an explosives expert, all of whom had traveled from Pakistan to Barcelona since last summer. The judge ordered these four men held, out the total of 10 jailed suspects who are from South Asia.

They include nine Pakistani nationals and a man from India, who is Muslim.

A court-appointed translator told CNN that all 10 suspects testified during their arraignments that they were innocent.

The cell planned three attacks in Spain, one in Germany and others in France, Britain and Portugal, according to the informant, El Pais reported.

On Sunday, another El Pais story added that the "wave of attacks" was to have been carried out by the Barcelona group and other extremist Pakistani cells were to attack elsewhere in Europe.

Read it all.

To impress a woman he wanted to make one of his four wives. In New York. Of course, now they've had a serious falling out, such that he calls her "a trashy and lustful woman, a weeping and cursed Jewish woman." In other words, not the kind of gal you'd want to bring home to meet mom and mom and mom and mom and dad.

"Imam E-Date From Hell," by Janon Fisher for the New York Post (thanks to Wallhacker):

January 27, 2008 -- A Wall Street stockbroker fears for her life after she rebuffed a Brooklyn imam she met on a Muslim dating Web site.

In an explosive $50 million lawsuit that blows the lid off the wacky world of Muslim dating in New York, Cherine Allaithy alleges the religious leader promised he would make her one of four future wives and boasted of a cousin in al Qaeda. When she dumped him, he trashed her reputation in the Arab press.

The imam, Tarek Youssoff Hassan Saleh, 42, says Allaithy is a loose, mentally unstable woman. He has filed criminal charges against her in Brooklyn for allegedly destroying two computers at the Oulel-Albab mosque in Bay Ridge. He also claims she threatened to frame him for rape.

Allaithy, 32, says she met the imam, who goes by the name Sheikh Saleh, online at the Muslim Matrimonial Network site in May 2007. They courted for a month.

In June, she claims in court documents, Saleh proposed marriage, telling her she would have to start wearing a veil and be subservient to him.

When Allaithy rejected the sheik's proposal, she alleges, he suggested they have a temporary marriage, or mu'ta, so they could have sex without committing a sin....

Saleh insists he is single and not actively seeking four wives. Allegations contained in the court documents say he used Arab-language newspapers to accuse Elhajj of being a womanizer bent on luring Muslim women into temporary marriages.

Allaithy attempted to reconcile with Elhajj and in August went to the mosque, where Saleh lives, to beg him to stop the newspaper stories. He told her she would be exposed next in the press, according to court papers.

In order to prevent her name from being smeared, she said, she ran into his bedroom, grabbed two laptops, and threw them in the sink.

Saleh responded by beating her up, she claims in court papers.

In another article referenced in the complaint, Saleh alleged she came to the mosque to threaten to have him charged with rape.

According to Allaithy's court claims, the sheik sent her an e-mail describing her as "a trashy and lustful woman, a weeping and cursed Jewish woman."...

Allaithy, a former broker with Gun Allen Financial, filed a defamation suit against the imam, his mosque and several Arab newspapers in Brooklyn Supreme Court on Jan. 14.

"This is a dishonor to my entire family, every member. My parents disowned me. Basically, he's ruined my life," she told The Post. "I have to clean my name."

Worst of all, she fears she is now a target for an "honor killing" by al Qaeda, according to court papers. Saleh admitted to The Post that a distant relative is a member of the terrorist organization, but said he has had no communication with him....

Of course not!

"My enemy, oh snake! Around the land, you are coiled. You have no choice, oh enemy, but to leave my country" -- here is yet another indication that the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas believes that there is nothing it can possibly do to dim the ardor that Bush and Rice feel for it, and that it can work for the destruction of Israel with utter impunity while pretending to be on the side of peaceful coexistence.

"Fatah TV Broadcasts Daily Call For Ethnic Cleansing of Jews," by Ezra HaLevi for Israel National News (thanks to Sr. Soph):

(IsraelNN.com) Fatah chief and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's PA television has been repeatedly broadcasting a hate-filled music video calling for the ethnic cleansing of the Jewish people from Israel.

"My enemy, oh snake! Around the land, you are coiled. You have no choice, oh enemy, but to leave my country," is the refrain in the video, which has been broadcast on a daily basis for the past several months, according to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW).

"The song's refrain, 'My enemy, oh enemy,' is repeated over and over throughout the song. Israel is not even given the courtesy of a name, but is tagged with such labels as 'treacherous,' 'imperialism' and a 'coiled snake,'" PMW Director Itamar Marcus points out. "The Palestinian is portrayed as a heroic victim who courageously confronts the evil 'enemy' Israel."

The song incites Arabs living under Fatah's rule in Judea and Samaria to fight to the death to rid the land of Jews, assuring them that, through this, they will ultimately prevail: "You have no choice, oh enemy, but to leave my country," it says.

Read it all.

Or so says a Sunni colonel. "Gadhafi Son May Be Linked to Iraq Attack," by Muheiddin Rashad for Associated Press (thanks to all who sent this in):

BAGHDAD (AP) - A devastating explosion in northern Iraq was spearheaded by foreign fighters under the sponsorship of Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, son of the Libyan leader, a security chief for Sunni tribesmen who rose up against al-Qaida in Iraq said Saturday.

Col. Jubair Rashid Naief, who also is a police official in Anbar province, said the Anbar Awakening Council had alerted the U.S. military to the possible arrival in the northern city of Mosul of the Seifaddin Regiment, made up of about 150 foreign and Iraqi fighters, as long as three months ago. [...]

"They crossed the Syrian border nearest to Mosul within the last two to three months. Since then, they have taken up positions in the city and begun blowing up cars and launching other terror operations," Naief told The Associated Press.

The so-called Anbar Awakening Council is a grouping of Sunni tribes in the western province that last year turned against al-Qaida and began working with U.S. forces. The council is credited with the sharp drop in violence in the former insurgent redoubt.

[...]

Naief did not explain why the younger Gadhafi would be sponsoring the group of fighters. Seif Gadhafi, however, was quoted by the Austrian Press Agency last year as warning Europeans against more attacks by radical Islamists.

"The only solution to contain radicalism is the rapid departure of Western troops from Iraq as well as Afghanistan, and a solution to the Palestinian question," Gadhafi was quoted as saying....

Sounds as if Siefulislam Qaddafi would get along famously with Ron Paul.

Meanwhile:

A suicide bomber then killed a police chief and two other officers Thursday as they toured the devastation. Residents taunted the chief and pelted him with rocks moments before he was killed.

Feel the love.

The estimable Jane Novak has the details over at the Jawa Report.

He's not against the secular state, you see. He just wants it to be a little more, well, Islamic. "PM wants university headscarf ban lifted asap," from Agence France-Presse (thanks to all who sent this in):

TURKISH Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he wants a ban on the Islamic headscarf in universities abolished "as soon as possible" despite harsh objections from secularists, Anatolia news agency reported.

"We want this issue to be resolved as soon as possible within the democratic parliamentarian order... It is time for this problem to come to an end," Mr Erdogan told a gathering of his Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Istanbul, Anatolia reported.

The AKP reached a preliminary deal with an opposition party on Thursday on a constitutional amendment to lift the ban, despite severe criticism from the judiciary and members of the academic community.

The AKP, the offshoot of a now-banned Islamist party, has long opposed the ban, arguing that it violates both the freedom of conscience and the right to education.

Secularist forces, including the army, senior judges and many top academics, see the headscarf as a symbol of defiance against Turkey's fiercely guarded secular system.

Easing the restrictions, they argue, will increase conservative social pressure on women to cover up.

Mr Erdogan rejected accusations that the AKP was seeking to erode secular traditions.

"How can you say that people who wear the headscarf are not secular?... We have a society in which those who cover up and those who do not both defend the democratic and secular state," he said.

"We are all defenders of the secular state," he added.

Right!

The candidates are linking Islam with terrorism? Really? As if they weren't linked already! Wasn't it Osama bin Laden who made this link? Wasn't it Khomeini who made this link, when he said, "Islam says: Kill in the service of Allah those who may want to kill you!...There are hundreds of other [Koranic] psalms and hadiths [sayings of the prophet] urging Muslims to value war and to fight. Does all that mean that Islam is a religion that prevents men from waging war? I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim"? Or maybe it was the Qur'an itself, which tells Muslims to "strike terror into the hearts of the enemies of Allah" (8:60). Maybe it was the perpetrators of those 10,000-plus terror attacks committed in the name of Islam since 9/11. Maybe it was the British Muslim Omar Brooks, who said in 2005 that it was imperative for Muslims to “instil terror into the hearts of the kuffar” and added: “I am a terrorist. As a Muslim of course I am a terrorist.”

Naaaah. It was Mike Huckabee. And McCain. And Giuliani.

"US primaries anti-Islam terminology due to Muslims' inaction, absence," by Heather Yamour for the Kuwait News Agency (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

WASHINGTON, Jan 27 (KUNA) -- In the 2008 presidential race, White House hopefuls, mainly Republicans, are linking Islam with terrorism as a tool to scare up support among US voters, an election style experts describe as "shameful", as Muslims are still too absent from the scene to make the contenders re-consider.

Republicans fiercely attacking Islam as a religion interwoven with terrorism are targeting evangelical churches and conservative Americans seeking to preserve the strict Christian faith in the government and fear the possibility that the future president may open the door wider for Muslims to enter mainstream society.

Republican Mike Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, called Islamo-fascism "the greatest threat this country has ever faced", while his party challenger Arizona Senator John McCain rejected US trade with nations accused of sympathizing with terrorist groups, saying "I'm not interested in trading with Al-Qaeda." "Islamic terrorists are at war with us," Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor-turned presidential hopeful told voters in Maryland. "They want to kill us," he warned supporters in New Hampshire.

Rudy, you Islamophobe. Obviously they just want to give us a hug. If you knew Arabic you would know that, you ignorant hatemonger.

Giuliani criticized Democrats for not using the words "Islamic terrorist, Islamic extremist, Islamic fascist", in their campaign speeches, adding "You don't insult anyone who is Islamic who isn't a terrorist." According to Dr. Juan Cole, history professor at the University of Michigan and founder of the Global Americana Institute, an organization that translates classical American texts into various Middle Eastern languages, this kind of rhetoric is "shameful and alarming" because it presumes the essence of Islam and generalized Muslims, all 1.5 billion of them, as being related to terrorism.

"There are Muslim, Christian, and other terrorists. But the term 'Islamic terrorist' suggests there is something about Islam," he said.

What's shameful and alarming is that Juan Cole peddles this sort of thinking and anyone takes him seriously. Leaving aside for the moment the question of whether or not there is "something about Islam," the term "Islamic terrorism" does not suggest that "Muslims, all 1.5 billion of them" are "related to terrorism" any more than the term "Italian fascist" suggests that all Italians are fascists, or than the European designation "Christian Democrat" suggests that no Christians are monarchists.

"Islamic" in "Islamic terrorist" is a simple modifier referring to those terrorists who are operating, by their own account, in the name of Islam and in accord with Islamic teachings. They are, after all, the ones who destroyed the World Trade Center on 9/11, and have wrought so much havoc around the world. If the people who were doing these things were Christians who quoted the Bible to justify their acts of violence, it would be perfectly legitimate to call them Christian terrorists. But they are Muslims who quote the Qur'an to justify their acts of violence, and it is perfectly legitimate to call them Islamic terrorists.

A popular phrases used by the Bush Administration, "Islamo-fascism", conflates Islam with Mussolini's fascist movement.

Use of the phrase outraged Muslims worldwide, including Saudi Arabia, which reportedly issued a plea to the US to stop using the term.

It's interesting to note that while in America some are concerned that the term "Islamo-fascism" somehow separates Islam from any connection with terrorism, the Muslims who are "outraged worldwide" about this term seem to have no such impression.

Cole points out that this term marked the first instance in which a religion has been fused with a political movement.

"If you put two things together in one word like "Islamo-fascism" it implies that Islam is essentially fascist," explained Cole, who referred to fascist movements in modern history including the Romanian Iron Guard who were very invested in Christianity, "but nobody talks about Christo-fascism, as they shouldn't." Prejudice against Islam has also extended across party lines and into the Democratic Party.

Here again, Cole's implication here is contradicted by simple English usage and every compound term that has ever been used since the beginning of time. Try it at home, kids! Try to think of any compound term that implies that everyone in the first part of the term is part of the second part. Green coffee mugs: does that imply that all coffee mugs are green? Nope. Cute babies -- all babies are cute? Sorry. Islamic scholars -- all scholars are Islamic? Nope. Just keep going -- you'll never find one.

Say, Juan Cole, if you're up for a debate about the accuracy and appropriateness of the terms "Islamic terrorism" or "Islamo-fascism," I'm ready. Contact me at director@jihadwatch.org.

It has been a long time since we had a...Rumpled Academic Update. But Sami Al-Arian, having been definitively exposed as a jihadist and having pled guilty to terror-related charges, is a true believer to the end, and is still waging a courtroom jihad.

"Court denies Fla. ex-professor's appeal," from AP (thanks to Sr. Soph):

ATLANTA - A former Florida college professor who pleaded guilty to aiding a Palestinian terrorist group was not immune from a subpoena forcing him to testify in an unrelated probe of Muslim charities, an appeals court ruled Friday.

Sami Al-Arian, 50, had argued the terms of the plea agreement exempted him from testifying before a grand jury in an investigation of Islamic charities in Virginia.

A federal judge disagreed and found Al-Arian guilty of contempt when he refused to testify.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Al-Arian's appeal Friday, ruling that federal prosecutors did not violate the plea agreement by forcing him to testify in the Virginia case.

Al-Arian, a former computer engineering professor at the University of South Florida, was acquitted on eight counts of aiding the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. After a six-month trial, jurors deadlocked on nine other counts.

He pleaded guilty in 2006 to one count of providing services to members of the terrorist group, rather than face a retrial. He was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison and will be deported after serving the sentence.

And every lover of freedom should hoist a Carlsberg in celebration when he is gone.

The UN Security Council members must "correct their past mistakes" and stop snooping into Iran's nuclear program.

"Iranian: Normal ties to U.S. impossible," by George Jahn for Associated Press (thanks to Sr. Soph):

DAVOS, Switzerland - Iran's foreign minister on Friday urged the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council to "correct their past mistakes" and draw up a a resolution ending council involvement in his country's nuclear affairs.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki also said that — while it makes sense to talk with Washington over common interests such as Iraq — he could not imagine substantially improved ties with the United States even after a change in U.S. administrations.

[...]

Mottaki's call for an end to a Security Council role in trying to pressure Iran comes amid indications that the council is moving precisely in the other direction and is ready to pass a third round of sanctions for Tehran's refusal to mothball uranium enrichment and meet related demands.

Elements of a new U.N. resolution obtained Friday by the AP outlined new sanction proposals against Iran, including bans on travel, and stepped up monitoring of Tehran's financial institutions.

Asked what his message to the council was, Mottaki said, "it was time now to correct their previous mistakes" — involving itself in Tehran's nuclear program and passing the two sanctions resolutions.

At the minimum, said Mottaki, the council should wait until the International Atomic Energy Agency completes its probe of Iran's past nuclear activities, at the latest in early March.

If that report shows no attempt by Iran to make nuclear weapons — as claimed by the U.S. — council members "should ... pass a new resolution" formally washing their hands of Iran's nuclear activities, he said.

[...]

And he said he saw no room for improved relations between Tehran and Washington, even past the approaching change of U.S. administrations. Formal bilateral ties were cut in the wake of the 1979 Iranian hostage taking of U.S. Embassy personnel.

"Usually we do not look to the individuals in the United States or even to the (political) parties — we look to policies," he said.

"Being a realist ... I have to say that I do not see room for the time being for the (establishment) of relations between the Iran and the United States," he added, while acknowledging the sense of bilateral talks on the situation in Iraq.

The flame of free speech in Britain is flickering, but still burning.

Anti-dhimmitude, in an update on this story: "Islamic Sect Fail in Legal Attempt to Silence Olympics Mega-Mosque Opponent," from the Christian Peoples Alliance website (thanks to Joe):

Standards Board for England rejects Tablighi Jamaat complaint

Local authority watchdog, the Standards Board for England, has rejected an official complaint by Olympics mega-mosque promoters Tablighi Jamaat (TJ) against Cllr Alan Craig, leader of the Christian Peoples Alliance group on Newham Council.

Board officers decided that TJ's allegations against Cllr Craig did not even warrant investigation. They ruled that Cllr Craig's statements about TJ and the proposed Olympics mega-mosque were most likely to be lawful and protected by the freedom of expression articles of the Human Rights Act.

"Referring a councillor to the Standards Board is a very serious matter; I'm sorry Tablighi Jamaat have gone down this road to intimidate and close down democratic discussion," said Cllr Craig, who has been leading local opposition to the mega-mosque.

"They are an ambitious and powerful global Islamic sect but this small-minded action has backfired on them," he continued. "I'm glad the Standard Board has recognised my opposition to this enormous landmark mosque is legitimate."

TJ complained that Cllr Craig's statements had (1) failed to comply with equality laws; (2) failed to treat others with respect; (3) prevented council officers from acting in an unbiased fashion; and (4) brought his office into disrepute. The Standards Board considered that none of these allegations warranted referral to an ethical standards officer for investigation.

"Tablighi Jamaat are proposing a huge project which will directly impact all of east London," said Alan Craig. "If built, it will be their international headquarters. Therefore they should drop their secrecy, their silence and their attempts to intimidate.

"They should instead enter into public debate so that we can discuss both their organisation and their project with them.

"What have they got to hide?"

Good question.

By an "enemy of Islam," who was no doubt acting in accord with his understanding of the teachings of Islam and of his responsibilities as a Muslim.

By Noor Khan for Associated Press (thanks to JE):

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Gunmen kidnapped a burqa-clad American aid worker and her driver while they were traveling through southern Afghanistan early Saturday, a provincial governor said.

The two were stopped by gunmen outside the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, said Gov. Asadullah Khalid. He blamed the kidnappings on the "enemy of Islam and the enemy of Afghanistan."

Several Westerners — including two German construction workers and two Italian journalists — have been kidnapped in Afghanistan in the last year, but this was the first kidnapping of an American in recent memory.

Traveling around Kandahar city has turned increasingly dangerous in the last year, as the Taliban insurgency has spread throughout southern Afghanistan. Western civilians who operate there often travel with armed guards and with extreme caution. The area is rife with Taliban militants but also with criminals linked to the country's booming opium poppy trade....

In "Stephen Coughlin's Thesis" at National Review's Phi Beta Cons (thanks to James), Carol Iannone outlines Coughlin's assessment of some nomenclature, and of the principal views on this issue:

I've been reading Stephen Coughlin's master's thesis, "'To Our Great Detriment': Ignoring What Extremists Say about Jihad," submitted to the National Defense Intelligence College, and I can see why it got him into trouble. He frankly declares that this administration has been wrong on the relation of Islam to jihadism and terrorism. While members of the administration sternly warn of the dire threats we face and how we must know our enemy, they themselves are lost in illusions about that enemy. The enemy is not Islamo-Fascism, but the jihadist elements of Islam itself. Coughlin points out that on the basis of very little, Bush, Rice, and other Administration people blithely declare Islam a religion of peace that has been hijacked by a few violent extremists for their own agenda, an agenda which they insist has nothing to do with Islam. They ignore all the evidence from Islamic sources that support violence in the name of spreading or defending the faith and bypass the professed and frequently stated aims of the jihadists.

Absolutely. That's what I've been arguing for years now.

Coughlin's thesis suggests that there are not two schools of thought on Islamic terror, those who think it is simply a criminal problem and those who think it is a war we will be fighting for a long time, but three. First, there is the view that largely comes from the liberal-left, that thinks there really is no Islamic threat, that it's really America and its actions that have called forth violence from Muslims, that if there is violence, it is from a tiny few and can be managed by the world community like an international criminal problem.

Then there is the conservative-right view, that there is indeed a terrible threat, a virtual World War Four, and the threat is from Islamo-Fascism, not from Islam itself, but from the aberrations of radicals who are creating some distorted blending of Islamic beliefs with 20th century fascist concepts. This is only a recent development, according to this view, not centuries old, and therefore we can be very hopeful about stomping it out. About ten percent of the world's Muslims do believe in Islamo-Fascist jihad, and that is a serious number, but ninety percent of Muslims don't believe in it and want what we all want, material security and prosperity. In fact, the underlying causes of terrorism arise from the material deprivation and lack of freedom and opportunity in the Muslim world. There is thus no conflict between Islam and liberal democracy and modernity in general, and certainly no clash of civilizations. The Islamic world will not be able to resist the march of liberal democracy and the irresistible call of freedom. This view is largely that of President Bush.

The third view says that there is indeed a problem with Islam itself, that even if only a minority of Muslims will ever take up jihad, most Muslims know that that is mandated by their religion and they do support it in belief and sometimes financially. The term Islamo-Fascism is really a euphemism for those who wish to deny or ignore the violence inherent in Islam. This view sees that jihad has been a feature of Islam from its beginnings and that martyrdom is honored and rewarded in Islam. This view also finds that Islam may well be in conflict with liberal democracy. Muslims are told that they are meant to Islamicize the countries they live in, through "peaceful" means if they can, and violent means when necessary, and we already see signs of this in Europe and America.

I have always held, of course, to the third view, and have argued for it here and in my books. This view is abundantly borne out by Islamic texts and teachings, as well as by statements from numerous contemporary Muslims, but it is nonetheless completely ruled out of consideration a priori by a mainstream media dominated by the first view and a conservative media establishment dominated by the second. However, the truth will out, one way or the other, and cannot be ignored and denied forever.

One small caveat: "The term Islamo-Fascism is really a euphemism for those who wish to deny or ignore the violence inherent in Islam." While this statement is true of many who use the term "Islamo-Fascism," I don't think it is a necessary or universal component of that usage. Some who are fully aware of the violence and supremacism taught in the Qur'an and other core Islamic texts use the term to denote those Muslims who are actually waging jihad, in whatever manner, as opposed to those who are not. (Yes, that does leave out those who approve of the jihad while doing nothing, and those who are potential jihadists.) There is an illuminating FrontPage Symposium going on now about this term. I am participating in it, and I hope it will be published soon, although it seems to be moving at a glacial pace at this point.

In any case, it is also true in my experience that those who hold the second view and those who hold the third can work together in certain areas, and there is no reason to close off that cooperation -- especially since there are so few people resisting the jihad in any way. Of course, the idea that relieving "material deprivation and lack of freedom and opportunity in the Muslim world" will end the jihad is completely wrongheaded and doomed to failure, but those who hold these two views can and do still work together domestically against jihadist and stealth jihadist initiatives in the United States.

So, to return more strictly to Coughlin's thesis, he says that we are hampered in dealing with the enemy and in producing good intelligence for our strategic plans because instead of listening to what the enemy is saying, we impose our own hopeful, optimistic kind of view on the Islamic world, that everyone is really like us at heart and that we will see this in the end.

Precisely.

Bob Crane, the notorious former Nixon aide and convert to Islam, says so in a revealing new piece. He's against such violent protests, mind you, and he thinks Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician who is making the film, is just trying to provoke such reactions (Wilders explains himself eloquently here and here.) But he does think they would be "natural." "Challenge and Response: The Case of Islamophobic Wilding," by Dr. Robert D. Crane of The Center for Understanding Islam at The American Muslim (thanks to Freedom4Expression):

The challenge posed by Geert Wilders’ ten-minute film attacking the Prophet Muhammad, salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa salam, is political. He is a member of the Dutch parliament and a leader of a far right party that is trying to gain votes by exploiting the growing alienation and hostility between the minority of Muslims in Europe and the majority population.

He hopes to provoke radical responses by Muslims in order to support his party’s message that Islam must be purged from Europe and the Qur’an must be banned in public and criminalized even for private reading at home. He knows that some governments and other special interests in the Muslim world will oblige him by using his challenge to the Prophet Muhammad and the religion of Islam in order to consolidate their own power by stealing the thunder from their radical opponents. He has learned from the Danish Cartoons affair how tempting it is for unpopular Muslim governments to prove their legitimacy by facilitating and even provoking well-orchestrated and well-controlled violence against the “enemy”. Some Westerners, of course, have been known to do the same, and Geerts is one of them.

The first response that would be natural among Muslims is to fall into Geerts’ trap and resort to violent protests. Heavy-handed measures against such protests could merely provoke greater violence....

In other words, not only would violent protests from Muslims be "natural," but if non-Muslim authorities do anything to put them down, they'll just get worse. That is, shut up or else, and if you won't shut up, back off -- or else.

And in light of Crane's remarks, don't be surprised if, after Wilders's film comes out, Muslims start once again doin' what comes naturally.

Crane also backs attempts at censorship:

Right now, the Dutch seem to be doing a pretty good job without our help in getting popular support for restricting the access of Geert Wilders’ film within the Dutch media. The Dutch, however, would no doubt never ban it altogether, simply because the Dutch for decades, if not centuries, have had a reputation of liberality....

Pity that, eh?

Crane also claims that he and I were set to debate last November, but that he backed out. This is the first I heard of this:

...It is important to note that Brother Yusuf did not directly debate the rabid preacher, because such a debate would not be conducive to intelligent discussion. This was the reason I backed out of a “debate” on a national hook-up scheduled with Robert Spencer last fall on November 8. On November 6th, I concluded that we were on the same side in warning about and trying to counter the radicals who pose as Muslims, such as Osama bin Laden, who are using religion as a political tool to vent their hatred on everyone who disagrees with them. I told the producer of the show that I would join a two-man panel with Spencer after he had had a chance to read my latest book, which the IIIT is bringing out under the title The Natural Law of Compassionate Justice, more than a hundred pages of which directly expose almost line for line Spencer’s biased reliance on extremist Muslims as source material in his current book, The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World’s Most Intolerant Religion.

While this may be true, if anyone had ever scheduled a debate between Crane and me, I was never told about it. That doesn't mean that it wasn't actually scheduled. One very, very early morning, I got the call for what I thought was a routine and low-key radio interview, only to find myself half-asleep and coffeeless in a debate with Muqtedar Khan of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy. So these things happen. But not only did I not know about this purported debate -- also, I never received word from anyone that Crane wanted to debate me, or be on a "two-man panel" with me, after I read his book. Not from Crane, not from the producer of any show, not from anyone. In fact, I didn't even know he had written a new book, much less that a large part of it is devoted to refuting mine, until I read this article.

It's also worth noting at this point, however, that Crane has, in earlier criticism of my work, directly misrepresented the content of Islamic texts. He has even done so in the process of accusing me of doing so. Details here and here. That makes it difficult for me to muster any anxiety over his alleged demolishing of my book The Truth About Muhammad -- if Crane plays as fast and loose with the facts in his book as he did in those earlier articles, then his farrago may fool the credulous and those who really, really want to believe him, but objective observers will be able to find out the truth. For in reality, as I'm sure Crane himself knows full well, I did not rely on "extremist Muslims as source material" for the book, but used instead the earliest material written about Muhammad by pious Muslims. If this is a "biased reliance on extremist Muslims," then other biographers of Muhammad, including Muslims such as Tariq Ramadan, Muhammad Husayn Haykal, Safi ur-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, and Yahiya Emerick, as well as non-Muslim Islamic apologists such as Karen Armstrong, are guilty of the same thing, since they use the same sources.

But anyway, I'll see if I can get hold of a copy of Crane's book, and am of course happy to debate him anytime, despite his only glancing acquaintance with truth and accuracy, and his indulgence in the familiar tendency to defame my character and motives rather than actually to refute what I'm saying. It's interesting, finally, to note that ol' Bob got it published by the IIIT -- the International Institute of Islamic Thought. The IIIT was named in a May 1991 Muslim Brotherhood memorandum (pdf here) as part of the Brotherhood's "organizations of our friends" dedicated to "a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house by their hands ... so that ... God's religion [Islam] is made victorious over all other religions."

Got anything to say about that, Bob?

Ayman's question box is filling up. But as for the question about British Muslims killing British civilians, does anyone know who asked it, where this person is, and what he is doing? Does anyone care?

An update on this story.

"'Ask Zawahri' Web forum draws Qaeda-curious," by Randall Mikkelsen for Reuters (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

WASHINGTON, Jan 25 (Reuters) - A woman frustrated by the lack of opportunities in al Qaeda and a supporter wondering if Muslims should deal in gold instead of dollars are among hundreds who have submitted Internet questions to al Qaeda deputy Ayman al-Zawahri.

"My question: What is the role of women in al Qaeda? ... We are the ones who sit with broken hearts and we sit here with nothing to do," one woman asked, according to the U.S. based terrorism monitoring service SITE Intelligence Group.

The questions were drawn by an offer last month by al Qaeda-linked Web sites that carried an interview with Zawahri, Osama bin Laden's second-in-command.

The deadline was Jan. 16, and Zawahri's answers to selected questions are expected within the next several weeks, SITE said. It sampled about 500 questions of the more than 2,000 submitted. Most were in Arabic.

Although Zawahri and other top al Qaeda leaders are believed to be holed up in remote Pakistan, analysts credit the group with being highly Web-savvy. The semi-interactive forum with Zawahri lets him appear accessible, SITE senior analyst Adam Raisman said.

"It allows for a greater feeling of community on these al-Qaeda affiliated forums when members can voice their concerns to the leadership where there may be a possibility he can respond to them. It also allows them to achieve part of their propaganda goal," he said.

Among the hot topics, questioners wanted to know whether al Qaeda has a presence in Palestinian areas or plans one. It is believed the network wants to establish a foothold, but faces competition for turf from the well-established Hamas.

PROPER ROLE

Many asked about ties between al Qaeda and regional groups, how a local group can sign up with al Qaeda, and the proper role for aspiring militants in their home countries.

"Is the British Muslim allowed to kill British civilians whether they are nonbelievers or Muslims who support the war against Afghanistan, Iraq and others?" asked one questioner....

We don't need no (sharia-stifled) education. We don't need no thought control. Hey! Mullah! Leave them kids alone! "Iran: School textbooks latest target of sexual apartheid," from Adnkronos International:

Tehran, 25 Jan. (AKI) - Iranian authorities are looking at new restrictions that will create different school textbooks for boys and girls.

Ali Reza Ali Ahmadi, responsible to the interim public education minister, told a seminar on textbooks there was a need to provide students with books according to "the requirements of age and sex" to satisfy their particular needs.

"The spiritual, physical, and mental needs of boys and girls are not identical, and therefore textbooks that give them information cannot be the same," Ali Ahmadi told the seminar.

"The goal is not, however, one that will discriminate against female students but on the contrary give a more precise response to the needs of students."

That is, a more precise response to what we say they need.

The education official asked textbook authors "not to photocopy western textbooks, because our textbooks must only have space for our values and not those of other cultures".

Note what he has been sentenced to death for: "The article allegedly questioned why men are allowed to have four spouses in Islam while women are denied the same right."

An update on this story. "UN urges review of journalist’s death sentence," from Deutsche Presse Agentur (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

KABUL: The death sentence handed down to a reporter in Afghanistan has prompted the United Nations and several press freedom organisations to call on the Afghan government to intervene in the case.

Sayed Parvez Kambakhsh, 23, a journalist for the daily Janan-e-Naw, and a student of Balkh University, was detained in October for downloading from the Internet and distributing to classmates an article written by an Iranian scholar that contained anti-Islamic sentiments.

The article allegedly questioned why men are allowed to have four spouses in Islam while women are denied the same right.

On Tuesday Kambakhsh was presented before a court of three judges in northern Mazar-e-Sharif and handed the death penalty in a closed session without any legal counsel.

The Afghan Independent Journalists Association was outraged that no lawyer, journalist, or human rights representatives were permitted entry to the court during Kambakhsh’s trail.

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan on Thursday issued a statement saying the case is a “possible misuse of the judicial process” that does not “serve the cause of justice.”...

Did you even know that the wicked Zionists were supplying electricity and water to Gaza in the first place? Just stop and consider for a moment the implications of that fact in light of the febrile Leftist/jihadist rhetoric about Israel.

Meanwhile, at this point it would create an extremely interesting situation if Israel formally ceded Gaza back to Egypt, recognizing Egyptian sovereignty there as it prevailed before 1967. What would that do for the push for a Palestinian state? Would BushRice insist that the Mubarak regime relinquish Gaza to the sovereignty of the Palestinians?

"Israel says it wants no ties with Gaza," from AP (thanks to Louis):

JERUSALEM - A top Israeli defense official said Thursday that Israel wants to relinquish all responsibility for the Gaza Strip, including the supply of electricity and water, now that the territory's southern border with Egypt has been opened.

"We need to understand that when Gaza is open to the other side we lose responsibility for it," Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said, according to his office. "So we want to disconnect from it."

It was not immediately clear if Vilnai spoke for the entire government.

"We want to stop supplying electricity to them, stop supplying them with water and medicine, so that it would come from another place," Vilnai said.

Israel will continue to be responsible for the flow of such supplies into the Gaza Strip until an alternative is found, the office quoted him as saying.

In "Questions for the Pentagon: Who is Hesham Islam?" in National Review (thanks to all who sent this in), Claudia Rosett asks some pointed questions about the man who appears to be chiefly responsible for the firing of the Pentagon's only Islamic law expert, Stephen Couglin.

In the sorry tradition of shooting the messenger, the Pentagon is cashiering its top expert on Islamist doctrine, Stephen Coughlin. Some members of Congress are now contemplating hearings to ask why. Along with drawing attention to Coughlin’s research, now circulating on the Internet, the growing controversy has thrown a spotlight on Coughlin’s alleged nemesis at the Pentagon, a top aide named Hesham Islam — whose tale deserves closer attention. Not least, as a reporter for the Armed Forces Press Service observed last year, it would make a great Hollywood blockbuster. [...]

Hesham Islam is a native Arabic speaker, a Muslim, born in 1959 in Cairo and schooled in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. In 1980 he immigrated to the U.S. From 1985-2005 he served in the U.S. Navy, rising to the mid-level officer rank of commander. At some point after former defense-industry executive Gordon England joined the Bush administration as secretary of the Navy, in 2001, Islam went to work on his staff. In 2005, when England, after a stint in Homeland Security took over from Paul Wolfowitz in the Defense Department’s number two slot of deputy secretary, Islam came with him.

In England’s office, Islam’s official title is special assistant for international affairs. In that capacity he pops up as a man-about-town in Washington, making the rounds of embassies. But Islam also works as England’s point man for Pentagon outreach programs to Muslim groups. These include organizations such as the Islamic Society of North America, or ISNA, with whom Islam and England have forged ties — attending ISNA conventions, and hosting ISNA delegations at Pentagon events, and in England’s office.

That’s alarming to some, such as terrorism expert Steven Emerson, executive director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, who, for more than a decade, has been tracking Islamic extremist networks in the U.S. In a recent appearance on Fox News, Emerson described Hesham Islam as, in his view, “an Islamist with a pro-Muslim Brotherhood bent who has brought in groups to the Pentagon who have been unindicted co-conspirators.”

Emerson was apparently referring to ISNA, named last summer by the Department of Justice as a member of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood and an unindicted co-conspirator in the case of the Holy Land Foundation, an Islamic charity indicted in 2005 in Dallas federal court for allegedly providing millions of dollars to the terrorist group Hamas (itself an outgrowth of the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood). ISNA, in a press statement, says it “remains unjustly branded by the government as an unindicted co-conspirator.” (The Holy Land Foundation case resulted in a mistrial last fall, and is expected to be re-tried).

But whatever Emerson’s worries, Islam’s boss, Gordon England, apparently can’t praise Hesham Islam and his work enough. In public statements over the past year, England has described Islam as “my personal close confidante,” “my interlocutor,” a man who “represents me to the international community,” and “assists me in my own outreach efforts.” Photos taken on the Washington’s diplomatic reception circuit show England and Islam side-by-side, chatting up contacts. Last October, England described Islam to a Pentagon in-house reporter as a man with “wonderful friendships and relationships” which allow Islam to “give me extraordinarily good advice in dealing with countries and people.” England added, “I take his advice, and I listen to him all the time.”

Read it all. There is a great deal of revealing and disquieting information in the balance of the article about Hesham Islam, and the Pentagon itself.

“Fatah activists belonging to the "Brigades of Return" and to "Black September" claimed responsibility for carrying out the shooting attack in Shoafat Thursday evening. The attack left one Israeli dead and another one seriously wounded.

A spokesman on behalf of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Fatah's military wing, told Ynet that the attackers ‘returned to their base safely.’” -- from this news article

And meanwhile, the Olmert Government has refused to mount an operation to seize the killers -- known to the Israelis -- of those two young men, Israeli soldiers on leave, on the West Bank. It knows exactly where they are, knows what they did, but will do nothing to "offend" the Slow Jihadists of Fatah.

And in that same meanwhile, the unbearable Tzipi Livni speaks again and again about the necessity, as she idiotically sees it, of "dividing the land." By this she means that Israel, tiny Israel, which now exists on less than one-one thousandth of the total land area possessed by the Arabs, must relinquish part of the one-one thousandth to those Arabs. After all, the Arabs everywhere behave as if all of the Middle East, all of North Africa, belongs to Islam and to Arabs. The Copts, the Maronites, the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, the Berbers, and of course, above all, the Jews, are entitled to nothing: not to a state, not to autonomy, not to equal treatment with Muslim Arabs. No, it all belongs to them, by Divine Right -- as does, in the texts and tenets and attitudes of Islam, the Middle East, North Africa, and indeed the entire world.

But it never seems to be forthcoming. An excellent summation of the phenomenon of honor killings: "Honor killings: When the ancient and the modern collide," by Cinnamon Stillwell in, of all places, the San Francisco Gate:

Throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe, young Muslim women are being targeted for violence. Lest it be thought hate crimes are to blame, it is, in fact, their own relatives who are the perpetrators. So-called honor killings, whereby a Muslim male family member, typically the father, murders his daughter in order to defend the family's honor, is a growing problem.

While statistics are notoriously hard to come by due to the private nature of such crimes and the fact that very few are reported, the United Nations Population Fund approximates that as many as 5,000 women are murdered in this manner each year worldwide. Undoubtedly that's a low estimate, as reports from Turkey, Jordan, Pakistan and the Palestinian territories, among other locales, are filtering in at an alarming rate. Add to the list Germany, Sweden, other parts of Europe, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States, and it's clear that young Muslim women in the West are becoming increasingly vulnerable.

While fathers are commonly responsible for honor killings, they often act in concert with their daughters' brothers, uncles, and even female relatives. For infringements upon a Muslim daughter's "honor" constitute the greatest humiliation possible to the religious and tribal tradition from which many such immigrant families emerged. Acts that demand "punishment" include refusing to wear a hijab (or headscarf), having non-Muslim boyfriends or male friends of any origin, being sexually active, rejecting arranged marriages, aggressively seeking employment and education, and, more than anything else, attempting to assimilate into Western culture.

Trying to balance a tightrope between the demands of competing and in some cases incompatible cultures, young Muslim women in the West are caught between two worlds. And all too often they pay the ultimate price. Indeed, two such cases have rocked the United States and Canada in recent months, bringing the specter of honor killings much closer to home.

On New Year's Day, residents of Lewisville, Texas were shocked to hear about the brutal murder of teenage sisters Sarah and Amina Said. The two were found shot to death in a taxi after having made a last phone call to a police dispatcher asking for help. The police immediately issued an arrest warrant for the girls' father, Egyptian-born cab driver Yaser Abdel Said, who remains at large to this day.

A Muslim married to a Christian woman, the elder Said had a history of physical and sexual abuse toward his daughters. This past Christmas, his wife, Patricia, finally fled the state with the girls and set up residence in Tulsa, Okla., under an assumed name. Said's violent and domineering behavior was apparently motivated by his concern that, as the Dallas Morning News describes it, "Western culture was corrupting the chastity of his daughters." Honor students and athletes at Lewisville High School, Sarah and Amina were the quintessential American teenagers. Amina had been awarded a $20,000 college scholarship and Sarah planned to study medicine. Photos of the two young women demonstrate a vibrancy and attractiveness that undoubtedly induced fear in their controlling father. The emergence of non-Muslim boyfriends was the final straw.

Although the girls' mother denied that Said was motivated by religion or culture and their brother, Islam, claimed it was not an honor killing, all evidence points to the contrary. While, reportedly, the family was not terribly observant, Said, as described by the Dallas Morning News, "often espoused his version of traditional Middle Eastern values," including marrying his then 15-year-old wife when he was 30, threatening to take one of his daughters "back to Egypt and have her killed," where, as he put it, "it's OK to do that ... if you dishonor your family," trying to break up one of his daughters and her non-Muslim boyfriend, and threatening to kill both his daughters on multiple occasions over disputes surrounding their social lives. Summing it all up, the sisters' great-aunt Gail Gartrell stated unequivocally, "This was an honor killing."

The slayings of Sarah and Amina Said came on the heels of another apparent honor killing, that of 16-year-old Aqsa Parvez in Mississauga, Ontario, last December. Aqsa was a vivacious and popular young woman whose attempts at a normal, Western teenage social life angered her Pakistani father, Muhammad Parvez. Aqsa, who was opposed to wearing a hijab and sometimes changed her outfit once she got to school, often clashed with her father and had left the family home a week before the attack out of fear. But she eventually returned, only to be met with strangulation at the hands of her own father. She died later in the hospital and the elder Parvez, who initially called the police, was charged with her murder. Aqsa's 26-year-old brother, Waqas, was charged with obstructing police.

Like the Said sisters, Aqsa had long suffered abuse at the hands of her father, reports of which were never adequately pursued by Canadian authorities. But Aqsa's friends saw trouble brewing and, according to the National Post, noted that "she had been threatened by her strictly religious family before." According to one of them, Ebonie Mitchell, Aqsa held conflicting opinions with her family on wearing a hijab. As she put it, Aqsa "just wanted to dress like we do. Last year, she wore like the Islamic stuff and everything, the hijab, and this year she's all western. She just wanted to look like everyone else." As another friend, Krista Garbhet, noted, "She just wanted to be herself; honestly, she just wanted to show her beauty." However, as Aqsa was to discover, the latter desire can have dangerous consequences for young Muslim women in the West.

In the wake of Parvez's murder, one would hope for moral clarity from the Canadian Muslim community. But with a few exceptions, the usual suspects issued the usual apologetics....

Read it all.

Now wait a minute. Fatah. Isn't that supposed to be the peaceful group? The one that is poised to accept magnanimously a package of Israel concessions and the creation of a Palestinian state, in exchange for a chimerical peace that it doesn't have the power to enforce even if it wanted to?

One would expect that this group would at very least abstain from jihad terror attacks until this phony peace process plays itself out. The fact that they are not doing so shows that they have realized what a charade this whole thing is, and how impervious to evidence Bush and Rice are, so desperate are they to carve a legacy out of this man's disastrous presidency. These attacks prove, if there was ever any doubt up to now, that they know they can continue to kill Israeli civilians with impunity, while in Washington the President and the Secretary of State will continue no matter what to insist that they want peace, and that they're sincere about peaceful coexistence with Israel. And when this madness will dissipate, and what victories the jihadists will have been granted in the meantime, is anybody's guess.

"Fatah: More attacks to come," by Ali Waked for Ynet News (thanks to Jerusalem Posts):

Fatah activists belonging to the "Brigades of Return" and to "Black September" claimed responsibility for carrying out the shooting attack in Shoafat Thursday evening. The attack left one Israeli dead and another one seriously wounded.

A spokesman on behalf of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Fatah's military wing, told Ynet that the attackers "returned to their base safely."

The Fatah spokesman called a Ynet reporter to claim responsibility for the attack and said it marked the continuation of the organization's new policy, as reported last week in another talk with Ynet. In that talk, the group said it was no longer committed to the calm with Israel and added that small cells were again active across the West Bank in order to prepare for a series of attacks.

"This is our proof that we are no longer committed to the calm and that we do not intend to continue handing over our weapons," the spokesman said. "We are only committed to resistance against the Israeli occupation. The next attacks are already underway, we promised a response within a few days and this is the first operation in a series of operations."

The spokesman refused to address the attack's implications on diplomatic negotiations currently underway and said that at this time his organization was only committed to "respond to Israel's crimes in the Strip and to the killing of group members in the West Bank."...

Unless they blow themselves up beforehand falling down the stairs...

By Audrey Hudson for the Washington Times:

The upcoming Super Bowl game will be a desirable target for terrorists, according to a threat assessment by federal security officials, which outlines several scenarios of possible attacks and security precautions for the Feb. 3 event.

"Among the threats of greatest concern to high-profile events like the Super Bowl are the placement of explosive devices in heavily trafficked areas in and around the event site, to include individuals impersonating law enforcement and other security or service personnel and insiders to facilitate attacks," the threat assessment said.

Domestic and international terrorists have targeted major sporting events in the past, including the 1972 Munich and 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, said the assessment compiled by the FBI and Homeland Security Department.

"Al Qaeda and other Islamic terrorists may view sporting events as acceptable targets: the al Qaeda Training Manual specifically lists '... blasting and destroying the places of amusement, immorality, and sin ... and attacking vital economic centers' as a required mission of the al Qaeda military organization," the assessment said....

Virgins are standing by!

Fortunately, there's only one so far (unlike the doctors). But if they had five, the fifth could be a propagandist, and insist to a Western audience that proper brushing and flossing is a form of jihad. An update on this story. "Al Qaeda's Dentist," by Allison Barrie for Fox News:

London dentist Sohail Qureshi told the police he was just off to celebrate the Muslim festival of Eid with his family in Pakistan…

But instead of dental floss and fluoride, Qureshi, 30, tried to board a plane at Heathrow Airport with $18,000 in cash, a night vision scope, two metal batons, terror handbooks, extremist material, military information on CDs and medical supplies.

Security services didn’t buy Qureshi’s vacation story and ended his trip before it could start.

Describing his “vacation” in an e-mail, Qureshi wrote, "Pray that I kill many, brother. Revenge, revenge, revenge." On an extremist Web forum, he added, “I am not going for good as far as I know, it is only a 14- to 20-day operation, if it's in Pak, Afg or Waz."

The Islamic extremist was in fact on his way to fight for the Taliban against American and British troops.

In court, he boasted he had been sent to the U.K. by Al Qaeda for terrorist fundraising. He posted a farewell letter anonymously on an Islamist website bragging about raising thousands of pounds from sympathizers in the U.K. for the cause because "bullets cost money."

... The concern was raised that Samina Malik, the so-called “Lyrical Terrorist,” was a perfectly placed terror insider at one of the world’s largest airports. She wrote poems about beheadings, poison bullets and martyrdom, posting them to “attract men.” As it turns out, Qureshi may have been one of her suitors.

Police had the dentist under surveillance when he contacted Malik to ask about security at the airport. Recent testimony revealed that the dangerous duo was in e-mail contact.

Just before his arrest, Qureshi asked Malik, "What is the system like at work? Is the checking still very harsh or have things calmed down a bit?"

Read it all.

Yes, that's right: it's the epistolary wonder Bouchra Ismaili.

"Radical PvdA Councillor Refusing to Resign," from NISNews (thanks to Dav):

ROTTERDAM, 25/01/08 - Labour (PvdA) politician Bouchra Ismaili is refusing to resign. She is ignoring requests from her party to step down because she lied about signing a petition of the radical Muslim organisation Hizb Ut Tahrir.

Ismaili, a Muslim immigrant of Moroccan origin, is a PvdA member of Rotterdam's Charlois district council. Last week, she wrote in an e-mail to a citizen: "You filthy idiot. WE ARE HERE TO STAY hahahahahahhahah DROP DEAD". The email contained reams more similar remarks and urged the man to convert to Islam.

Ismaili's email was a reply to an email in which the citizen, Jos Parbleu, had confronted the council member with statements by Okay Pala, a spokesman for Hizb ut-Tahrir Nederland. Pala had said in newspaper De Telegraaf: 'We do not agree with freedom of expression, as we reject democracy' and 'what you need is a big bomb attack!'

The PvdA leadership in Charlois did not consider it necessary to boot Ismaili out. But meanwhile, during a meeting of Charlois district council, it has become clear that Ismaili also signed a petition from Hizb Ut Tahrir and lied about it.

The Hizb ut Tahrir petition stated: "It is time to rid ourselves of a culture that damages our Islam." Initially, Ismaili denied emphatically that she signed the petition. But when opposition party Liveable Rotterdam (LR) produced a printout of the Internet page with her signature, she had to admit it....

Yet another Islamic Tolerance Alert from modern, moderate Malaysia. By Julia Zappei for AP (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — An ethnic Chinese man received a Muslim burial after a court ruled against the wishes of most of his family members, who maintained Friday he never converted to Islam.

An Islamic Shariah High Court in the central Negeri Sembilan state ruled Thursday that Gan Eng Gor, 74, also identified in court documents as Amir Gan Abdullah, was a Muslim and should be buried according to Islamic rites. The burial took place late Thursday.

The dispute was the latest in an increasing number of interfaith conflicts that have raised tensions in multiethnic Malaysia, where minority non-Muslims feel their religious rights are under threat. [...]

The dead man's body was seized by police after a complaint by his eldest son, Abdul Rahman Gan, a Muslim convert. He claimed his father had changed his religion from Buddhism to Islam last July.

The rest of the family claimed otherwise, and the case was sent to the Shariah High Court.

The court's judge, Mohamad Nadzri Abdul Rahman, told The Associated Press he ruled in favor of the eldest son because the father's wife and seven other children, who had disputed the conversion, were not in court Thursday and he couldn't hear their arguments.

Gan Hock Sin, one of the sons of the dead man, said the family didn't go to the Shariah court because they felt it was unfair that the case was heard there.

"It's not fair for us. I don't know how they say he converted. My father couldn't even talk (before his death)," Gan told the AP.

"Unfortunately we feel the way they do (these conversions) is not fair for non-Muslim people. The government should be more transparent," he said....

Tarek Fatah, about whom I have written here, writes in the Globe and Mail about the encroachment of Sharia in Canada:

It seems only yesterday that Premier Dalton McGuinty declared: "There will be no sharia law in Ontario." Many of us, who witnessed the medieval nature of manmade sharia laws in our countries of birth, heaved a sigh of relief back in September of 2005. We thought this was the end of the attempt by Islamists to sneak sharia into a Western jurisdiction. We were wrong.

The campaign to introduce sharia is back. Last time, the campaign took a populist approach, invoking multiculturalism. This time, the pro-sharia lobby is dangling the carrot of new niche markets and has the backing of Canada's major banks. Such icons of the corporate world as Citibank NA, HSBC Holdings PLC, and Barclays PLC have endorsed sharia banking and have started offering Islamic financing products to a vulnerable Muslim population.

In May, 2007, The Globe reported that "Several Canadian financial institutions are preparing sharia-compliant mortgages, insurance, taxi licensing and investment funds to help serve the country's fastest-growing part of the population." Recently, the Toronto Star's business section reported that an unnamed bank may offer sharia loans as early as this summer; Le Journal de Montreal disclosed that Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation(CMHC) was also getting in on the act. Stephanie Rubec, spokesperson for the CMHC, said the Crown corporation had launched a tender worth $100,000 to study Islamic mortgages for Muslim Canadians. Could she be oblivious to the fact that almost all Muslim Canadians currently have home mortgages through banks and don't feel they are living in sin? In fact, CMHC has gone a step further: It has quietly entered into a partnership with a Saudi company, AaYaan Holdings, to develop sharia-compliant mortgage-lending systems.

The origin of Islamic banking has its roots in the 1920s, but did not start until the late 1970s and owes much of its foundation to the Islamist doctrine of two people — Abul Ala Maudoodi of the Jamaat-e-Islami in Pakistan and Hassan al-Banna of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. The theory was put into practice by Pakistani dictator General Zia-ul-Haq who established sharia banking law in Pakistan.

Proponents of sharia banking rest their case on many verses of the Holy Koran that outlaw usury, not interest.

Verses that address the question of loans and debts include:

Al Baqarah (2:275): God hath permitted trade and forbidden usury;

Al Baqarah (2:276): Allah does not bless usury, and He causes charitable deeds to prosper, and Allah does not love any ungrateful sinner.

Every English-language translation of the Koran has translated the Arabic word riba as usury, not interest. Yet, Islamists have deliberately portrayed bank interest as usury and labelled the current banking system as un-Islamic. Instead, these Islamists have created exotic products with names that are foreign to much of the world's Muslim population. This is where they mask interest under the niqab of Mudraba, Musharaka, Murabaha, and Ijara. Two authors, both senior Muslim bankers, have written scathing critiques of sharia banking, one labelling the practice as nothing more than "deception," with the other suggesting the entire exercise was "a convenient pretext for advancing broad Islamic objectives and for lining the pockets of religious officials." Why Canadian banks would contribute to this masquerade is a question for ordinary Canadians to ask.

Indeed.

Dick Van Dyke did a great pratfall over that ottoman, and Chevy Chase was a devastatingly bumbling Gerald Ford, but neither of their falls had the bang of this guy's. Premature Detonation Alert: "Suicide bomber falls down stairs...," from Agence France-Presse (thanks to Anne Crockett):

A WOULD-be suicide bomber fell down a flight of stairs and blew himself up as he headed out for an attack in Afghanistan, police say....

The would-be attacker tripped as he was leaving a building apparently to target an opening ceremony for a mosque that was expected to be attended by Afghan and international military officials, said Sakhi Mir.

"Coming down the stairs, he fell down and exploded. Two civilian women and a man were wounded,'' Mir said.

I'm sorry they were wounded. I'm glad this idiot wasn't able to kill anyone but himself. And no virgins will be issued.

Unless they withdraw British troops from Iraq. Hey, it worked with Spain.

"Al-Qaeda threaten attack on Brown," from AAP (thanks to Richard):

AL-QAEDA in Britain has threatened suicide attacks on Prime Minister Gordon Brown and predecessor Tony Blair unless London withdraws its troops from Iraq and Afghanistan,

The message was posted in English to an al-Qaeda-affiliated online forum by "Umar Rabie al-Khalaila", US-based monitoring service the SITE Intelligence Group said.

The group, blamed for suicide bombings in London in 2005, vowed fresh attacks if Britain fails to withdraw its troops from Iraq and Afghanistan by the end of March.

"If the British government fails to respond to our demands within the last day of March 2008 ... then the martyrdom seekers of the Organisation of al-Qaeda in Britain will target all the political leaders, especially Tony Blair and Gordan (sic) Brown," the message said.

It vowed that suicide bombers would also "target all embassies, crusaders centre(s) and their interests throughout the country."...

Moroccan organisations in the Netherlands want Geert Wilders prosecuted for discrimination against Muslims -- for a film no one has yet seen.

Death of Free Speech Update for Expatica (thanks to Sr. Soph):

THE HAGUE – Moroccan organisations in the Netherlands want the public prosecution department to prosecute Freedom party PVV leader Geert Wilders for discrimination against Muslims. If the justice department refuses, then the organisations will approach the court to force the prosecution department to take action.

Chairman of the National Moroccan Council (LBM) Mohamed Rabbae said this on Thursday, partly in response to the film on the Koran that Wilders is currently working on.

Rabbae says that the public prosecution department is hesitant to follow through on the many complaints filed against Wilders and that there is some fear of taking legal action against him. "We want to force that action," says the former GroenLinks MP.

The public prosecution department received more than 40 complaints against Wilders after the MP called for the Koran to be banned. The justice department has not yet indicated whether the complaints will lead to prosecution.

The LBM, which claims to represent 200 organisations, says that Wilders is waging "racist politics" by constantly insulting Muslims and discriminating against them. "Wilders is a racist with regard to Islam. His comments are not aimed at a race, but at a religion and population group," says Rabbae.

He's a racist, but not toward a race. Got it.

Here is an exchange of emails between Jeffrey Epstein of America's Truth Forum and a General Motors executive:

1. Epstein to GM:

As discussed, we would appreciate the opportunity to secure a GM vehicle to raffle at our Dallas symposium. Once again, we’re not looking for GM to donate a vehicle but to provide one at a discounted rate. Please note that our presence in Dallas was at the request of Federal, State and Local law enforcement agencies. We expect that 40-60% of those in attendance will be law enforcement agents, counter-terrorism experts, Military leaders and veterans – people that drive GM products. Your prompt attention to this matter would be greatly appreciated. Respectfully, Jeffrey Epstein, President America’s Truth Forum (a 501(c)3 Non-profit organization)

2. GM to Epstein:

The South Central Region has responded and is not interested in supporting this program at this point. Still waiting for word from the specific Divisions here in Detroit.

3. Epstein to GM:

Your South Central Region might want to reconsider its position given that a portion of raffle proceeds will be used for Veteran causes. Plans are in the works to honor a serviceman who was lost this past year in Iraq.

4. GM to Epstein:

This morning we completed polling our Divisional clients and I'm afraid we will be unable to support your event. As you can appreciate, GM gets numerous requests from organizations such as yours for varying levels of support and we cannot work with them all. We appreciate your interest in General Motors and wish you good luck with your program.

5. Epstein to GM:

Due to our tax exempt status, I was referred to your office to secure a vehicle for our raffle. Do your divisional clients and South Central mangers realize that we intended to purchase the vehicle? Was it my request for a minimal discount or our initiative that turned them off?

6. GM to Epstein:

Not sure who recommended you contact us because of your tax-exempt status. We are GM's promotional agency and work with consumer-facing, marketing budgets. The reason we declined this opportunity is that it simply doesn't fit within any of the promotional platforms we support and from a timing perspective we typically need at least a six-month window to evaluate, approve and finalize all deals to the satisfaction of GM Legal, Finance and Risk Management standards. Tax-exempt, not-for-profit solicitations should be directed to the GM Foundation for consideration.

Hope this helps clarify.

Some suspect that GM’s apprehension stems from the fact that they sell their vehicles all over the Mideast. Epstein also reports that he faced similar responses in the past when trying to secure support from a cross-section of American Industries:

a) Cantor Fitzgerald, the investment house that lost 66% of its workforce on 9/11, claimed that terrorism wasn't their issue.
b) The President of Zodiac Boats told me that terrorism wasn't a maritime issue.
c) The insurance carriers that covered the 9/11 losses showed no interest.
d) The food and beverage industry (including Busch, Coors, etc.) showed no interest.
e) BP Petroleum stated that terrorism was a non-issue.

And some of those in attendance were not sufficiently browbeaten by political correctness to fail to notice that that meant victory over them.

"Muslim opening prayer at Iowa Statehouse raises concerns," by Erin Ballou for the Storm Lake Pilot Tribune (thanks to Bryan Preston):

The Iowa Legislature started just over a week ago and some people were upset before the first issue was every addressed.

When the session began, a Muslim Imam began the prayer in the Iowa Legislature. This is where the controversy begins.

The prayer asked of "Victory over those who disbelieve," and "Protection from the great Satan" among other things.

[...]

Here is the text of the opening prayer, as transcribed by Radio Iowa:

Imam Muhammad Khan of the Islamic Center of Des Moines spoke first in Arabic.

"I seek refuge in God against the accursed Satan in the name of God, most gracious, most merciful," Khan said in English. Khan made no specific mention of the war in Iraq or foreign affairs, but he called God the "master of the day of judgment" and asked for "victory over those who disbelieve."...

They were meeting in a mosque -- making this yet another story with implications for immigration and the Muslim presence in Western countries, and the willingness of Muslim communities in the West to root out jihadists, that haven't even begun to be explored. An update on this story. "Detainees Plotted Bombing in Spain, Judge Says," by Victoria Burnett for the New York Times:

MADRID — Ten men arrested in Barcelona on Saturday on suspicion of planning a suicide attack on the city’s public transportation system had intended to carry out the bombing last weekend, a Spanish judge said Wednesday in court documents ordering the men to remain in jail.

The detainees, most of them Pakistanis, were part of an “organized group” that was planning to attack Jan. 18 through Jan. 20, Judge Ismael Moreno of Spain’s National Court wrote.

The detainees include three potential suicide bombers, at least two of them Pakistanis who came to Spain in the past few months, the judge wrote.

He questioned the 10 suspects on Wednesday in the Madrid court, then charged all with belonging to a terrorist organization and some with possession of explosives.

Four others arrested Saturday were released without charge.

Judge Moreno said several suspects were arrested Saturday during a meeting at an unofficial mosque in Barcelona, where the police found materials that could be used in explosives, including nitrocellulose and timers. [...]

Its members were followers of the Muslim revivalist movement Tabligh Jamaat, the judge said. The movement professes to espouse a benign, apolitical strain of Islam, but Western intelligence agencies suspect it of recruiting jihadists.

According to court documents, the Barcelona group was led by Maroof Ahmed Mirza, 38, and Mohammad Ayud Elahi Bibi, 36, both Pakistanis and the members most well versed in Islam. Hafeez Ahmed, 39, a Pakistani who spent five months in Pakistan last year, was alleged to be in charge of making and handling explosives.[...]

The cartoons drew a link between Islam and terrorism? Really? Wasn't it Osama bin Laden who did that? Or maybe it was Khomeini, who said, "Islam says: Kill in the service of Allah those who may want to kill you!...There are hundreds of other [Koranic] psalms and hadiths [sayings of the prophet] urging Muslims to value war and to fight. Does all that mean that Islam is a religion that prevents men from waging war? I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim." Or maybe it was the Qur'an itself, which tells Muslims to "strike terror into the hearts of the enemies of Allah" (8:60).

"French editor back in court over prophet cartoons," from Expatica (thanks to Sr. Soph):

PARIS, January 23, 2008 - The editor of a French weekly, acquitted last year on charges of offending Muslims for reprinting cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in February 2006, appeared before an appeal court on Wednesday.

Philippe Val, who edits the satirical Charlie Hebdo weekly, was sued by two Muslim organisations who argued that the cartoons, first printed by a Danish newspaper, drew an offensive link between Islam and terrorism.

A Paris court ruled in March last year that two of the cartoons were absolutely not offensive to Muslims and that in the case of the third, the context of its publication made clear there was no intention to offend.

What an absurdity: courts ruling about what offends Muslims and what doesn't. Why not instead uphold the principle of freedom of speech? Abandoning it leads inevitably to these tragicomic scenarios.

War Is Deceit Update: Hamas fakes a crisis. When will the Western mainstream media -- the part of it that is not complicit, that is -- wake up to the fact that the jihadists are staging propaganda theater on this grand scale?

"'Hamas staged some of the blackouts,'" by Khaled Abu Toameh for the Jerusalem Post (thanks to Mladen):

On at least two occasions this week, Hamas staged scenes of darkness as part of its campaign to end the political and economic sanctions against the Gaza Strip, Palestinian journalists said Wednesday.

In the first case, journalists who were invited to cover the Hamas government meeting were surprised to see Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and his ministers sitting around a table with burning candles.

In the second case on Tuesday, journalists noticed that Hamas legislators who were meeting in Gaza City also sat in front of burning candles.

But some of the journalists noticed that there was actually no need for the candles because both meetings were being held in daylight.

"They had closed the curtains in the rooms to create the impression that Hamas leaders were also suffering as a result of the power stoppage," one journalist told The Jerusalem Post. "It was obvious that the whole thing was staged."

David Horowitz and I invite feminists to join us in protesting the oppression of Muslim women. From FrontPage:

This week, seven hundred feminists signed an Open Letter complaining that “columnists and opinion writers from The Weekly Standard to the Washington Post to Slate have recently accused American feminists of focusing obsessively on minor or even nonexistent injustices in the United States while ignoring atrocities against women in other countries, especially the Muslim world.”

We recognize this Open Letter as a delayed response to the Freedom Center’s Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, which protested the silence of feminists over the “Oppression of Women in Islam” on campuses all over the country last fall, organized sit-ins at a dozen Women’s Studies Departments to protest the absence of courses and department-sponsored events confronting the issue, and made this a matter of national discussion and debate. This is why the signers of the Open Letter complain that “‘Women’s rights are human rights’ was not a slogan dreamed up by David Horowitz or Christina Hoff Sommers,” two of our speakers for Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week. (We never claimed it was.)

Abigail Esman details the tense situation in the Netherlands as Geert Wilders prepares to release his film on the Qur'an. "Breaking News: Holland on Alert," in World Defense Review:

Holland is on high alert in anticipation of the upcoming release of yet another anti-Islam film, this one created by far right Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders, who has been living under high security since the death of Theo van Gogh in 2004 (van Gogh was murdered on the streets of Amsterdam by a radical Muslim in retaliation for a film that he directed, Ayaan Hirsi Ali's "Submission"). The government has recommended the evacuation of all its embassies "in sensitive areas," and has been engaging for weeks now in discussions with police officials as to the best way to handle the riots and violence they expect will erupt when the film is aired. And even Hirsi Ali, creator of "Submission," when interviewed in the Dutch press, ironically called the film "too provocative," suggesting that violent responses are indeed likely.

Hirsi Ali? The Hirsi Ali who helped produce a film that featured nude women with Qur'an verses written on their bodies? It's hard to beat that for provocative, but then again, I haven't seen the Wilders film.

It's a lot of activity for a film that no one has even seen, and for which no release date has yet been set. It is, however, expected that the film will air on Dutch television in late January or early February - and most likely on Friday, January 25th, just days from now. To date, however, he has not been able to find a television station willing to broadcast the project; if he hasn't secured on by Friday, he has said he will air the film on the Internet. [...]

And so Holland waits. Pundits blog half-jokingly about the start of World War III. Iran issues a warning to the parliament in the Hague. Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, reciting cliches about Holland's tradition of "tolerance and respect" and expressing concern that the film could cause "hurt feelings," has called it "a crisis situation," though insists "there is no reason for panic."

Is he right? Or is it, as some skeptics argue, but a tempest in a teapot? Wilders insists that his film will prove once and for all that the Koran is a fascist book filthy with violence and incitements to kill. In many ways, the outcome of the film, far more than the film itself, will tell us if this is true.

Indeed it will.

Anyway, I was quite surprised yesterday to discover that I may be in this film. Jihad Watch reader Ulrike sent me this purported trailer from the movie, consisting of interviews with Wilders and clips from the film Islam: What the West Needs to Know, in which I appear. Is this the actual trailer? The actual film? I have no idea (and no, Wilders would not have had to contact me to get rights, as I am not the producer or owner of the film). But I'll be watching the reaction to this film closely myself.

UPDATE: I've been informed that that is not the actual trailer for the Wilders film, and that no such trailer yet exists.

Scientists? Doctors? Don't need 'em. Engineers? Skilled craftsmen? Nah. "Attacks on Afghan students up sharply," by Jason Straziuso for the Associated Press:

KABUL, Afghanistan - The number of students and teachers killed in Taliban attacks has tripled in the past year in a campaign to close schools and force teenage boys to join the Islamic militia, Afghanistan's education minister says.

While the overall state of Afghan education shows improvement, Education Ministry numbers point to a sharp decline in security for students, teachers and schools in the south, where the Taliban thrives: The number of students out of classes because of security concerns has hit 300,000 since March 2007, compared with 200,000 in the previous 12 months, while the number of schools closing has risen from 350 to 590.

The Taliban strategy is deliberate: "to close these schools down so that the children and primarily the teenagers that are going to the schools — the boys — have no other option but to join the Taliban," Education Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday.

The Taliban know that educated Afghans won't join the militants, so a closed school leaves students with two options — to join the Taliban or "to cross the border and go into those hate madrassas," Atmar said, referring to Islamic seminaries in Pakistan where "they will be professionally trained as terrorists."

Wakil Ahmad Khan, a top official at Pakistan's religious affairs ministry, said Pakistani "madrassas are doing a wonderful job by providing education to millions of students" and "if the Afghan officials have any such information, they should share it with Pakistan's Foreign Ministry."

A wonderful job? Depends on who you ask.

But still, no Christianists were implicated. An update on this story. "Suspects 'planned Spanish suicide attacks'," by Al Goodman for CNN:

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- The Spanish judge overseeing the arraignment of 10 terrorism suspects said Wednesday that they had "planned to carry out a series of suicide attacks" last weekend on public transportation in Barcelona.

In a sequence of six-page rulings, one for each of the 10 suspects he ordered to be held in jail after their arraignments.

"Judge Ismael Moreno wrote that the suspects "had achieved human operational capacity and were very close to achieving full technical capacity with explosives, with the aim of using the those explosives for a jihadi terrorist attack, and it can be deduced that the members of the terrorist cell now broken up planned to carry out a series of suicide attacks last weekend, January 18 to 20, against public transport in the city of Barcelona."

CNN has viewed a copy of one of the court orders.

The ruling said three suspected suicide bombers had traveled from Pakistan to Barcelona since October, with the most recent one arriving as late as mid-January.

The three had followed another Pakistani man -- the alleged explosives expert -- who had just arrived after a five-month stay in Pakistan.

"This pattern is common in Islamic extremist groups, which to carry out an attack usually send in the suicide bombers shortly before it will occur," the judge wrote.

"The arrivals of these three occurred about two months after the presumed bomb maker had returned (to Barcelona)."

Further, Moreno wrote that an informant had told authorities about the suspected suicide bombers and the suspected explosives expert.

He added that police found nitrocellulose and mechanical and electrical elements that could be used to make one or more bombs.

Twelve men were arraigned Wednesday, but Moreno allowed two to go free. Those two -- Pakistani nationals who had been arrested with the others -- were released for lack of evidence, according to their court-appointed lawyer and a court source.

The 10 who were kept in custody include eight Pakistani nationals and two Indian nationals who are Muslim.

At least two of the 10 were prepared to be suicide bombers, prosecutor Vicente Gonzalez alleged during the arraignment, according to a government spokeswoman. The other eight were charged with fabrication and possession of explosives, she added.

The arraignments took place before Moreno at the National Court in Madrid, which handles terrorism cases.

The suspects were arrested last weekend in Barcelona and taken to Civil Guard headquarters in Madrid, where they were questioned. Authorities announced the arrests on Saturday.

Spanish and other European intelligence agencies told Spanish police that the suspects were acquiring bomb-making materials. These included four timers to activate bombs, Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said Saturday.

Why was it even legal for Egypt to have a wall on its border with Gaza in the first place? Why wasn't this the subject of international protests?

"Exclusive: Hamas 'spent months cutting through Gaza wall in secret operation,'" by James Hider for the Times (thanks to all who sent this in):

As tens of thousands of Palestinians clambered back and forth between the Gaza strip and Egypt today, details emerged of the audacious operation that brought down a hated border wall and handed the Islamist group Hamas what might be its greatest propaganda coup.

Hamas, which took control of the coastal territory last June after a stand-off with Fatah, has denied that its men set off the explosions that brought down as much as two-thirds of the 12-km wall in the early hours.

But a Hamas border guard interviewed by The Times at the border today admitted that the Islamist group was responsible and had been involved for months in slicing through the heavy metal wall using oxy-acetylene cutting torches.

That meant that when the explosive charges were set off in 17 different locations after midnight last night the 40ft wall came tumbling down, leaving it lying like a broken concertina down the middle of no-man's land as an estimated 350,000 Gazans flooded into Egypt.

The guard, Lieutenant Abu Usama of the Palestinian National Security, said of the cutting operation: "I've seen this happening over the last few months. It happened in the daytime but was covered up so that nobody would see."

Asked whether he had reported it to the government, he replied: "It was the government that was doing this. Who would I report it to?"

Abu Usama, who normally works from a small guard cabin in no-man's land, added: "Last night we were told to keep away from the wall. We were ordered to stay away because they were going to break the blockade."

The skill of the Hamas demolition operation was clear to see along the border today, although The Times could not visit the entire length of the border. Where the charges had been laid, the wall was heavily damaged. Elsewhere it appeared to be clearly cut.

The destruction of the wall prompted hundreds of thousands to cross into Egypt – and Egyptian border guards did not try to stem the tide of humanity.

I have just received this email from Wim Van Osselaer, who works in the Flemish parliament for the Vlaams Belang party, concerning my post here about the Vlaams Belang and the British National Party, and in the interests of fairness am posting it here:

I can confirm to you that the BNP was NOT present at the meeting and press conference of Cities Against Islamisation. Our party doesn't have any contacts with the BNP.

I send you hereby the English text of the charter that was presented to the press by the participating parties. The BNP didn't join and wasn't present, simply because the party wasn't invited.

I send you also the URL of the weblog of Pieter Van Boxtel: http://groups.msn.com/pietervanboxel. Pieter is chairman of the Vlaams Belang group in the municipal council of Malle (look at http://www.malle.be/bestuur/gemeenteraad/samenstelling.aspx). Pieter is Flemish and ... of Indonesian descent.

Here is the Cities Against Islamisation Charter:

Charter for “Cities against islamization”

By means of this charter the participating organizations lay the foundations of the connection of cities named “Cities against islamization.”

Conclusions

“Cities against islamization” concludes that since the renaissance the West in general and Europe in particular have renounced all religious dogma’s and replaced the standards resulting from them by standards and legal rules that are based on a multitude of sources like ancient classics, the Jewish-Christian values, humanism, the ideas of Enlightenment, nationalism, liberalism etc.

As a result of this evolution our civilization is now characterized by a respect for the fundamental rights and freedoms. Our civilization is moreover based on values like the separation of church and state, democracy, freedom of speech, equality of men and women etc.

On the other hand at the beginning of the 21st century West-European cities are confronted with substantial Islamic minorities, which are not in the least assimilated and which concentrate in constantly expanding ghettos. This is the result of a too lax immigration policy conducted by different authorities.

“Cities against islamization” concludes that the Islam is more of a social order rather than a religion. This social order is based on the Sharia (the Islamic religious laws, based on Koran and Hadith) and the Uma (the Islamic religious community), which is at odds with the entirety of values and standards, which are part of our European society.

“Cities against islamization” also concludes that at least a part of these Muslims prefers the Islamic divine laws to our civil laws. Within the Muslim population there is moreover an inclination towards radicalization which is expressed in a growing hostility to our western civilization and the values underlying it.

Mosques function like catalysts for the islamization of entire neighbourhoods, since they, as central authorities, emphasize a strict observance of Islam. In doing so they restrain the further integration of Muslim minorities.

Starting points

“Cities against Islamization” resists the multicultural ideology which results in the fact that West-European Muslims publicly live in accordance with their own values. That leads to the institutionalisation of this religion.

“Cities against islamization” resists the institutionalisation of Islam, the official recognition of Islam, the subsidizing of Islamic associations, Koran schools, imams etc. The institutionalisation of Islam will lead to the creation of an Islamic socio-political group which will slow down the integration of the Muslim community.

“Cities against Islamization” is opposed to concessions of the policy makers towards Islam which has for result that the Western values and standards are more and more suppressed in favour of Islamic customs, traditions and values, frequently not being compatible with our Western standards and way of life.

“Cities against Islamization” believes that the individual freedom of religion must be assured at all times - also when Islam is concerned. However freedom of religion cannot be an alibi for generalising or introducing undemocratic or discriminating customs or acts. “Cities Against Islamization” resists the introduction of Sharia law as a replacement for the European rules of law.

Initiatives

Islamization is not a local problem. It’s s a phenomenon taking place in almost all Western European countries and cities. The fast demographic increase of the Islamic population in the West threatens to result in an Islamic majority in a lot of Western European cities within a few decades.

The participating organisations engage themselves to coordinate their initiatives in the fight against the islamization, to organise demonstrations together and to mutually exchange information, with fighting the islamization of the Western European cities in a coordinated and better informed manner as a goal.

"The use of pigs raises cultural issues." Indeed. Many cultural issues. And questions of cultural suicide.

"Three Little Pigs 'too offensive,'" by Sean Coughlan for the BBC News (thanks to PRJ):

A story based on the Three Little Pigs has been turned down from a government agency's annual awards because the subject matter could offend Muslims.

The digital book, re-telling the classic fairy tale, was rejected by judges who warned that "the use of pigs raises cultural issues".

The awards which rejected the book are run by Becta, the government's educational technology agency.

The judging panel also attacked the book's stereotyping of builders.

The book's creative director, Anne Curtis, said that the idea that including pigs in a story could be interpreted as racism was "like a slap in the face".

Indeed.

Jihad recruitment in Montreal mosques. And what is being done about it? Any challenge being issued to Muslims in Canada to strike at the roots of this recruitment and explicitly renounce political Islam and Islamic supremacism? No. Any reevaluation of Muslim immigration into Canada, or even any attempt made to screen out potential jihadists (a flawed but possibly useful first step)? No. Any call to Muslims to renounce any intention of imposing Sharia in Canada now or in the future? No. What are you, some kind of Islamophobe?

"Charkaoui told CSIS about jihad recruiting," by Graeme Hamilton in the National Post:

MONTREAL - In a previously undisclosed interview with CSIS investigators, alleged al-Qaeda sleeper agent Adil Charkaoui described how members of Montreal's Arab community were recruiting people for jihad before 9/11.

"Charkaoui explained that many are called but few are chosen. It's a funnel effect," according to a summary of the April, 2001, interview with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, just added to the court record.

"The person responsible for recruitment attends certain nerve centres, such as mosques. Someone whom the recruiter considers to have potential will be invited to meetings where he will be exposed to certain activities having to do with jihad. The person is tested. If any flaw is detected related to the security that he must respect to participate in jihad activities, he will be expelled from the group immediately."

Nowhere in the interview does Mr. Charkaoui admit to participatingin the recruitment effort, but his comments reveal a depth of knowledge about the goings-on within Montreal's extremist community.

Mr. Charkaoui, a Moroccan citizen who came to Montreal in 1995, was arrested two years after the interview on suspicion of belonging to al-Qaeda. He has denied any involvement in terrorism and is contesting his removal from Canada on a federal security certificate that declared him a danger to national security. Mr. Charkaoui said he came to know Abdellah Ouzghar, a former Montrealer who is facing extradition to France after being convicted in absentia of terrorism charges, at Montreal's Assunah (or Al Sunnah)mosque.

Mr. Ouzghar attended the mosque regularly and worked at promoting jihad among those attending prayers. "Charkaoui specified that he disagrees with this way of acting," the interview summary says.

"According to Charkaoui, Ouzghar is someone who is very direct in his dealings with others, which explains his tendency to want to convert lots of people all over the place. Charkaoui, for his part, favours a more nuanced and targeted approach." He reported that videos promoting jihad were available for rental at Assunah....

I translated this article by Magdi Allam from the Italian original that first appeared in the Corriere della Sera:

The Fatwa of Anti-Israel Hatred that Constrains the "Moderates":

What a grave mistake it is on the part of those who have deluded themselves into believing that the normalization of relations between Islam and Judaism in Italy could conceivably be effected while ignoring the question of Israel.

That is to say, avoiding the essential question: the right of Israel to exist. The cancelling of today’s visit [January 21, 2008] by the Imam of the Grand Mosque in Rome to the Synagogue of Rome, because of a decision communicated to him by the Islamic university of Al Azhar, headquartered in Cairo, a kind of “Vatican of Sunni Islam,” confirms that even the so-called Muslim moderates share the ideology of hate, violence and death when it comes to dealing with the Jewish State.

That response by Abdel Fattah Allam, the right-hand man of the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Sehik Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, was, in effect, a fatwa, a juridical response based on the Shari’a, the Law of Islam: “The dialogue between Islam and Judaism cannot begin until rights have been restored to those who properly should possess them.” This translates thus: only after the “Palestinians” have acquired the whole of the geographic entity called “Palestine,” therefore only after the elimination of the state of Israel, will it be possible for Muslims to carry on a “dialogue” with Jews in Italy. This is the official, public position of Al Azhar, already expressed in the fatwa of April 4, 2002, by the same Tantawi, the fatwa by which he legitimized “Palestinian” suicide terrorism: “Israeli citizens constitute an occupation force. Therefore “martyrdom operations” are the highest form of Jihad,they are an Islamic duty until the “Palestinians” reconquer their land and push back the cruel Israeli aggression.” And in an explanatory note about this fatwa, broadcast on the Al Azhar website, it is specified that “any “martyrdom operation” against any Israeli, including small children, women, and adolestcents, is a legitimate act according to Islamic law.”

Thus, as it is Al Azhar who names the Imam of the Grand Mosque of Rome, the latter was ordered to renounce the visit to the Rome Synagogue. After all it is not anything new. Already, on June 6, 2003, the then-Imam Abdel-Samie Mahmoud Ibrahim Moussa delivered a sermon in which he delivered hysterical cries: “ O Allah, make the Islamic warriors in Palestine triumphant! O Allah, help us to wipe out the enemies of Islam!.” On March 26, 2004, it was discovered that inside the Grand Mosque of Rome there had been nurtured a group of Islamic extremists, when they decided to recite the “Prayer of Death” to commemorate the recent killing of the Hamas leader, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin. And afterwards, to calm things down, it was decided to send back to Egypt the new Imam Abdulwahab Hussein Gomaa. And now, with the new scandal, the prohibiting [by Al Azhar] of a visit by the present Imam to the Synagogue, the reality of the ideological extremism that inspires the spiritual guide of the Grand Mosque of Rome is palpable.

At this point Italy can no longer simply remain an observer. We cannot allow the present and future reality of Islam and of Muslims in Italy to be determined by the negators, the deniers of Israel who live outside Italy, nor by the apologists for Palestinian suicide terrorism. Let it be clearly understood, once and for all, that Al Azhar is a fortress of Muslim extremism and of Muslim terrorism. Let the Minister of the Interior send back to their countries of origin those Imams who are submissive adherents of this ideology. Let the Minister of Foreign Affairs clearly denounce the agreement of cooperation signed on June 15, 2005, between Al Azhar and five Italian universities, signed by Ambassador Antonio Badini with the rector of Al Azhar, Sheikh Ahmad al Tayyeb, who on April 4, 2002 said: “The solution to Israeli terror can be found in suicide attacks that will sow terror in the hearts of the enemies of Islam.”Let everyone stop legitimizing the ideologues of the Muslim Brotherhood, beginning with Tariq Ramadan. Let the state, and local institutions, stop handing over the mosques to UCOII. the lesson we must all learn from the latest scandal emanating from the Grand Mosque of Rome, is that before accrediting any Muslim as an official interlocutor, it is necessary to make him subscribe to a declaration in which he publicly recognizes the right of Israel to exist and condemns unequivocally Palestinian terrorism.

Magdi Allam
[Trans. HF]

If they really were Christian Crusaders, wouldn't they be stopping things like this?

"Green Party rejects Manley Report conclusions," from the Green Party Canada site (thanks to Ray):

OTTAWA – The federal Green Party shares a vision of a stable and secure Afghanistan, but today challenged the newly-released Manley Report’s premise that Canada’s troops must remain in Khandahar beyond February of 2009 to achieve this objective.

“The Manley Report fails to consider that the recommendation of more ISAF forces from a Christian/Crusader heritage will continue to fuel an insurgency that has been framed as a ‘Jihad’. This, in turn, may feed the recruitment of suicide bombers and other insurgents,” said Green Party leader Elizabeth May. “Better human security is certainly needed in the South but it should be provided by a different cultural mix of UN countries as well as the Afghan army and police. Even if this proves challenging to accomplish, this key objective should have been included.”

A plumber, a laborer, a policeman, a lawyer, a soldier, a teacher, a "massage specialist," a "weapons merchant" -- coming to Iraq in search of death, united by a common ideology that, true to form, is not touched upon at all in this report.

"Papers Paint New Portrait of Iraq's Foreign Insurgents," by Karen DeYoung in the Washington Post (thanks to Neil):

Muhammad Ayn-al-Nas, a 26-year-old Moroccan, started his journey in Casablanca. After flying to Turkey and then to Damascus, he reached his destination in a small Iraqi border town on Jan. 31, 2007. He was an economics student back home, he told the al-Qaeda clerk who interviewed him on arrival. Asked what sort of work he hoped to do in Iraq, Nas replied: "Martyr."

Algerian Watsef Mussab, 29, who arrived in Iraq via Saudi Arabia and Syria, said he had come for combat. He complained that the Syrian smugglers who brought him to the border took his money, but he contributed what he had left to the insurgent cause -- a watch, a ring and an MP3 player.

Hanni al-Sagheer, a computer technician from Yemen and aspiring suicide volunteer, gave the clerk his home telephone number and also that of his brother.

Their stories are among the individual records of 606 foreign fighters who entered Iraq between August 2006 and August 2007. The cache of documents was discovered last fall by U.S. forces in the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar.

Some include pictures -- bearded men in a turban or kaffiyeh, some smiling and some scowling -- in addition to names and aliases, home countries, birthdays and dates of entry into Iraq. Many list their occupations at home, whether plumber, laborer, policeman, lawyer, soldier or teacher. There is a "massage specialist," a "weapons merchant," a few "unemployed" and many students.

The youngest was 16 when he crossed into Iraq; the oldest was 54. Most expressed interest in a suicide mission.

The records are "one of the deepest reservoirs of information we've ever obtained of the network going into Iraq," according to a U.S. official closely familiar with intelligence on the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Analyzed and made public last month by the Army's Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, the documents have led the U.S. military in Iraq to reassess some of its earlier assumptions about the insurgent group and those who carry out most of the suicide missions that are its signature method of attack.

Suicide attacks by the Sunni group against Shiite targets sparked the sectarian violence that swept Iraq in 2006 and the first half of last year. Al-Qaeda in Iraq carried out more than 4,500 attacks against civilians in 2007, killing 3,870 and wounding nearly 18,000, the military announced yesterday.

Based on the Sinjar records, U.S. military officials in Iraq said they now think that nine out of 10 suicide bombers have been foreigners, compared with earlier estimates of 75 percent. Similarly, they assess that 90 percent of foreign fighters entering Iraq during the one-year period ending in August came via Syria, a greater proportion than previously believed. [...]

Although Saudi Arabia was by far the most common country of origin of foreign fighters, with about 40 percent of the total, a surprising share -- 19 percent -- came from Libya. Overall, about 40 percent were North African. [...]

The Belmont Club has some interesting observations on this.

The need to "safeguard" women is a common excuse for enforcing sharia law, and it is cited in this story as well. But does anyone ever stop to consider what that implies about their society's men?

Sharia Alert. "Malaysia Islamic State to Enforce Separate Lines for Women, Men at Supermarkets," from the Associated Press:

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysia's only state run by the Islamic opposition party will get stricter about enforcing separate lines for men and women at supermarkets, an official said Tuesday.

Authorities in the northern state of Kelantan — governed by the opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party — will fine supermarkets and shops if they let men and women use the same lines at checkout counters, said party spokesman Anual Bakri Haron.

Chief Minister Nik Aziz Nik Mat has called for stricter enforcement "to safeguard the ladies" from being harassed and to avoid close proximity between opposite sexes while lining up to buy groceries, Anual said. "He wants the enforcement to be looked into thoroughly."

Kelantan is the only Malaysian state governed by the opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party. The rest are ruled by the National Front coalition, which is made up of various parties representing Malaysia's different ethnic groups.

The coalition is dominated by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's United Malays National Organization party, which draws its support from the ethnic Malay Muslims who account for 60 percent of the country's 27 million people.

The Islamic opposition party, which has ruled Kelantan for more than 17 years, imposed the separate lineup rule as part of its agenda to promote Islamic values. In recent years, however, people ignored the regulation, and there was little enforcement.

Democracy On The March Update: "Afghan Journalist Sentenced to Death," by Amir Shah for AP (thanks to all who sent this in):

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan court on Tuesday sentenced a 23-year-old journalism student to death for distributing a paper he printed off the Internet that three judges said violated the tenets of Islam, an official said.

The three-judge panel sentenced Sayad Parwez Kambaksh to death for distributing a paper that humiliated Islam, said Fazel Wahab, the chief judge in the northern province of Balkh, where the trial took place. Wahab did not preside over the trial.

Kambaksh's family and the head of a journalists group denounced the verdict and said Kambaksh was not represented by a lawyer at trial. Members of a clerics council had been pushing for Kambaksh to be punished.

The case now goes to the first of two appeals courts, Wahab said. Kambaksh, who has been jailed since October, will remain in custody during appeal.

Wahab said he did not immediately have the details of the paper that Kambaksh circulated, other than that it was against Islam. Kambaksh discussed the paper with his teacher and classmates at Balkh University and several students complained to the government, Wahab said. [...]

Wahab said that only President Hamid Karzai can forgive Kambaksh because he had confessed to violating the tenets of Islam.

Rhimullah Samandar, the head of the Kabul-based National Journalists Union of Afghanistan, said Kambaksh had been sentenced to death under Article 130 of the Afghan constitution. That article says that if no law exists regarding an issue than a court's decision should be in accord with Hanafi jurisprudence.

Hanafi is an orthodox school of Sunni Muslim jurisprudence followed in southern and central Asia. [...]

Clerics in Balkh and Kunduz province arranged a demonstration in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif last week against Kambaksh, calling on the government not to release him....

Dinesh D'Souza, the Stephen A. Douglas of Dhimmitude, has said that if Muslim countries want Sharia, let them have it. This is the face of that grand populist notion.

And the dirty bomb charges have disappeared without a trace or an explanation.

"Jose Padilla is sentenced to 17 years," from AP:

MIAMI - Convicted terrorism conspirator Jose Padilla, once accused of plotting with al-Qaida to blow up a radioactive "dirty bomb" in a major city, was sentenced Tuesday 17 years and four months in prison on charges that don't mention those initial allegations.

The sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke marks another step in the extraordinary personal and legal odyssey for the 37-year-old Muslim convert, a U.S. citizen was held for 3 1/2 years as an enemy combatant after his 2002 arrest amid the "dirty bomb" allegations. [...]

Padilla was added in 2005 to an existing Miami terrorism support case just as the U.S. Supreme Court was considering his challenge to President Bush's decision to hold him in custody indefinitely without charge. The "dirty bomb" charges were quietly discarded and were never part of the criminal case.

"What I saw...would not be allowed here in Iraq - it would be illegal." And it shouldn't be legal in Britain. The idea of rampant immigration, combined with zero accountability for Muslim communities, all in the name of multiculturalism, is simply national suicide.

"Iraq deputy prime minister's 'Blackburn mosque jibe,'" by Tom Moseley in the Blackburn Citizen (thanks to John Doe):

THE Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq has claimed mosques in Blackburn are more extreme than in his home country, according to an MP.

The shock comments were allegedly made by Dr Barham Salih, who visited the town as a guest of Jack Straw in 2005.

He is reported to have told a Conservative MP: "I am not surprised that you British are facing so many problems with extremists after what I saw in those mosques in Blackburn.

"What I saw...would not be allowed here in Iraq - it would be illegal."

The comments have angered mosque leaders in the town, who have branded them "a load of rubbish".

[...]

Salim Mulla, of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, reacted furiously to the comments.

He said Dr Salih spoke positively about what he had seen when they spoke during his visit.

Mr Mulla said: "We are going out of our way to bring the community together.

"Nobody is working harder than us at breaking down barriers.

"For Dr Salih to make these sort of comments is not very helpful at all.

"I don't know where he's coming from.

"He was very co-operative when he visited, and took lots of photographs.

"How many incidents have we had in Blackburn?

"He is talking a load of rubbish."

The question is not one of "incidents." It is of Islamic supremacist and jihadist sympathies. Would Salim Mulla care to address that?

Yet another Sharia Alert from modern, moderate Malaysia.

By Elizabeth Eldridge for the Washington Times (thanks to James):

Malaysian authorities confiscated Christian children's books, claiming the illustrations of prophets such as Moses and Abraham violate Islamic Shariah law.

The independent news agency Malaysakini reported the Internal Security Ministry confiscated the literature from bookstores in two cities and one small town in mid-December.

The Malaysian Embassy declined to comment on the news service's Jan. 11 report.

The Rev. Hermen Shastri, general secretary of the Malaysian Council of Churches, confirmed the report and accused the government of persecuting Christians.

"The officials have offended the sensitivities of Christians because their publications and depictions of their Biblical personalities have now become targets of unscrupulous Muslim officials bent on curtailing religious freedom in the country," Mr. Shastri said.

And there's a drug trafficking connection, too. "US fears 'disastrous' links in Latin America with Islamic militants," from AFP (thanks to all who sent this in):

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A top US military commander said Wednesday he fears a "disastrous" linkup between drug traffickers and radical Islamists in Latin America, where he said Iran wields growing influence.

"I fear greatly that the connectivity between narcoterrorism and Islamic radical terrorism could be disastrous in this region," Admiral James Stavridis, head of the US Southern Command, told a conference on Latin America.

"What I worry about in this region with outside actors coming into it is the potential for those streams to cross, if you will, for the fuel of narcoterrorism to become engaged in Islamic radicalism here in the Americas, here in our home," he said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington.

Ain't multiculturalism grand?

The New York Daily News (thanks to Ruth King) has a slide show of photos from the Ashura celebration of the al-Khoei Islamic Center in Queens, where flagellants drew blood from their backs and heads.

The News says: "Although self-flagellation is a painful and bloody act, Shi'ites believe it to be a statement against violence." Uh huh. How long will it be before we start seeing this in New York? What will prevent it? The News also says: "The event, which takes place around the world, is painful both physically and emotionally to those who take part in it." That much is certainly true.

21st century, here we come! Hopefully by, oh, the year 2400. "Women Can Now Stay in Hotels Without Male Guardians, Saudi Officials Say," from the Associated Press:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Women in Saudi Arabia can now stay in a hotel or a furnished apartment without a male guardian according to decision by the Ministry of Trade, reported the local press Monday.

The daily Al-Watan, which is deemed close to the Saudi government, said the ministry issued a circular to the hotels asking them to accept women in their rooms even if they were alone provided that all their information immediately be [reported] to a police station in the area.

The decision was adopted after a study conducted by the Interior Ministry, the Supreme Commission of Tourism and the religious police authority known as the Commission for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.

Saudi women, under strict Islamic law, suffer severe restrictions on daily life as they are not allowed to be anywhere with an unrelated man, cannot drive, appear before a judge without a male representative, or travel abroad without a male guardian's permission.

The paper interviewed some Saudi women who complained that they had been severely inconvenienced by the rules banning them from staying in the hotels alone.

It quoted a woman identified as saying that she once arrived late at night at King Fahd airport on an internal flight and was denied a hotel room because she was alone.

Another woman, Fatima Ibrahim, said her son-in-law quarreled with his wife and daughters and threw them out of the house. When they tried to get a hotel room, they were asked to get a permission from the police.

It still wasn't a fanatical Christianist, Andrew Sullivan hysteria notwithstanding. It was -- well, you guessed it. The Islamic jihadist attack tally keeps growing, while those Christians who mount "just as many" such attacks have some catching up to do.

"Bomber strikes at Iraqi funeral," from the BBC (thanks to Sr. Soph):

A suicide bomber has attacked mourners at a funeral ceremony in northern Iraq, killing at least 10 of them and wounding a similar number, police say.

The bomber walked into a tent where residents were mourning the relative of a local dignitary near the city of Baiji, a security official said.

Northern Iraq has been the scene of a number of recent bomb attacks.

The US military says al-Qaeda has regrouped there after being forced out of Baghdad and other regions.

More assault to freedom of speech -- and a new Islamic Rage event on the horizon?

"Iran warns Hague over anti-Islam film," from PressTV (thanks to all who sent this in):

An Iranian MP says the Netherlands will face widespread protests if it gives the green light to the screening of an anti-Islam movie.

Head of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi said that the Iranian nation would react to any insult to Islam.

The senior Iranian lawmaker added that Muslims will not tolerate any insult to Islam.

Iran expects The Hague to ban the controversial movie, otherwise Majlis (the Parliament) will call on the government to reconsider its relations with the Netherlands, he said.

A Dutch MP announced in November that he plans to make a 10-minute film which would reflect his insulting views about the Holy Qur'an.

No one in the Iranian government cares, of course, about the Qur'an-quoting mass murderers who have led Dutch MP Geert Wilders to make this film.

"Well, once again free speech is under attack from a small group of Muslim fanatics." Pat Condell (thanks to Hot Air) speaks here eloquently and passionately about the Steyn case in Canada and its larger implications.

Watch it all.

In accord with Qur'an 5:38: "As to the thief, male or female, cut off his or her hands: a punishment by way of example, from Allah, for their crime: and Allah is Exalted in power."

Sharia Alert from the Kingdom of Woman Drivers: "Uganda: Pilgrim Arrested in Mecca," by Madinah Tebajjukira for New Vision of Kampala via AllAfrica.com (thanks to Morgaan Sinclair):

A UGANDAN pilgrim to Mecca is being detained in Saudi Arabia for alleged theft, the Uganda Hajj Mission has revealed. Under the Islamic law, or Sharia, he faces amputation of the left hand.

Hajji Suudi Nsereko was arrested on December 19 during the climax of the Hajj rites, according to the mission's chairman, Sheikh Ibrahim Kirya.

The Uganda Hajj Mission is one of the organisations that facilitate Muslims to travel to Mecca for the pilgrimage.

Nsereko was among over 1,000 Ugandans who left for Mecca last month to perform the annual pilgrimage. Kirya said it took them two days to discover that Nsereko was missing.

"We managed to trace him after four days at Mecca police station and we helped him record a statement because he could neither speak English nor Arabic."

This calls for a celebration. Let's pop open a bottle of cham -- Oh, never mind.

The Kingdom of the Two Holy Places creeps toward treating women as human beings: "Saudi Arabia to lift ban on women drivers," by Damien McElroy in the Telegraph (thanks to all who sent this in):

Saudi Arabia is to lift its ban on women drivers in an attempt to stem a rising suffragette-style movement in the deeply conservative state.

Government officials have confirmed the landmark decision and plan to issue a decree by the end of the year.

The move is designed to forestall campaigns for greater freedom by women, which have recently included protesters driving cars through the Islamic state in defiance of a threat of detention and loss of livelihoods.

The royal family has previously balked at granting women driving permits, claiming the step did not have full public support. The driving ban dates back to the establishment of the state in 1932, although recently the government line has weakened.

"There has been a decision to move on this by the Royal Court because it is recognised that if girls have been in schools since the 1960s, they have a capability to function behind the wheel when they grow up," a government official told The Daily Telegraph. "We will make an announcement soon."

Tawfik Hamid in the Jerusalem Post (thanks to all who sent this in) reveals how he became a jihadist, and his trajectory follows exactly what I have explained here many times: as he grows more devout, and studies the Qur'an and Muhammad's example, he tends more and more toward jihadist views and hatred of non-Muslims. That's why it's so critical for Muslims who claim to reject all this to do a searching reevaluation and reinterpretation of core texts of Islam, as Hamid is doing. But the likelihood of this on a large scale is virtually nil.

What occupies the mind of a jihad-driven Muslim? How is such fervor planted in young and impressionable believers? Where does it originate? How did I - once an innocent child who grew up in a liberal, moderate and educated household - find myself a member of a radical Islamic group? These questions go to the root of Islamic violence and must be addressed if free societies are to combat radical Islam. To further this aim, I will explore the psychological development of a jihadi's mind through my own firsthand experience as a former member of a Muslim terrorist organization.

I was born in Cairo to a secular Muslim family. My father was an orthopedic surgeon and an agnostic at heart; my mother was a French teacher and a liberal. Both considered Islam to be, primarily, an integral part of our culture. With the exception of my father, we would fast on Ramadan. Even though my father was not religious, he understood our need to fit into the community and never forced his secular views on us. He espoused diverse philosophical ideas but encouraged us to follow our own convictions. Most importantly, he taught my brother and me to think critically rather than to learn by rote.

I never had any doubt, however, that we were Muslim - that Allah was our creator, Muhammad his messenger and the Koran our book. I believed that if I performed good deeds, I would be admitted to paradise where I could satisfy all my personal desires. I also knew, alternatively, that my transgressions would be punished by eternal torture in hell. I absorbed these beliefs largely from the surrounding environment rather than from my parents; they were shared by most children around me.

I attended the private Al-Rahebat primary school in the area of Dumiat, which is about 200 kilometers north of Cairo, when I was six years old. Though managed by Christian nuns, the school was supervised by the Egyptian government and required its Muslim students to attend classes on Islam.

Before each Islamic lesson began, the teacher would dismiss the Christian students, who were then obliged to linger outside the room until the lesson was over. Adding salt to the Christian children's wounds, many Muslim pupils would tease them for their faith - telling them that they would burn in hell eternally because they ate pork and were "infidels." This made a strong impression on me. I felt sorry for the Christians, sensing that they must be hurt by being treated as an inferior minority in an Islamic society. In my short life it was the first time I perceived that my Christian friends were not my equals. My parents had never suggested that we were superior to Christians, and I counted many among my friends. We used to play hide-and-seek and other games together.

Not only Christian children in the school were persecuted, however; non-practicing Muslims were scorned as well. Observant Muslim children would gather around those who did not fast during Ramadan and sing, "You who eat or drink during Ramadan are the losers of our religious... the black dog will tear apart your guts." Such treatment of Christians and nonpracticing Muslims encouraged us to think that nonbelievers were inferior creatures and that it was right to hate them - they did not follow Islam and the Prophet Muhammad and, therefore, deserved to be tortured in hell forever. Though my secular upbringing prevented these thoughts from entirely dominating my mind at the time, other children were affected even more.

Beginning of a Dream

When I was nine, I learned the following Koranic verse during one of our Arabic lessons: "But do not think of those that have been slain in God's cause as dead. Nay, they are alive! With their sustainer have they their sustenance. They are very happy with the reward they received from Allah [for dying as a shahid] and they rejoice for the sake of those who have not joined them [i.e., have not yet died for Allah]" (Koran 3:169-70).

It was the first time I was exposed to the concept of shahid (martyr), and naturally, I began to dream of becoming one. The thought of entering paradise very much appealed to me. There I could eat all the lollipops and chocolates I wanted, or play all day without anyone telling me to study.

What made the concept of shahid even more attractive was its power to quell the fear I experienced as a young boy - for we were taught that if we were not good Muslims (especially if we did not pray five times a day), a "bald snake" would attack us in the grave. The idea of dying as a martyr provided a perfect escape from the frightening anguish of eternal punishment. Dying as a shahid, in fact, was the only deed that fully guaranteed paradise after death.

In secondary school I watched films about the early Islamic conquest. These films promoted the notion that "true" Muslims were devoted to aggressive jihad. While jihadi seeds were thereby planted in my mind, they did not yet seriously influence my personality or behavior. I was mostly occupied with schoolwork and such hobbies as sports, stamp collecting, chess and music. My father actively encouraged my brother and me to participate in ordinary activities. In fact, we were members of an exclusive private club where we pursued our hobbies and favorite sports. In my early years of high school, I was also - as many teenagers are - preoccupied with sex and hobbies. A variety of religious and cultural constraints made it virtually impossible to experience sexual activity, however.

During my last year of high school, I began to ponder seriously the concept of God while reading about the molecular structure of DNA in a biology book.

These thoughts prompted me to learn more about Islam and to devote myself to serving Allah. I remember one particularly defining moment in an Arabic language class when I was sitting beside a Christian friend named Nagi Anton. I was reading a book entitled Alshaykhan by Taha Hussein that cited the Prophet Muhammad's words: "I have been ordered by Allah to fight and kill all people [non-Muslims] until they say, 'No God except Allah.'" Following the reading of this Hadith, I decisively turned toward Nagi and said to him, "If we are to apply Islam correctly, we should apply this Hadith to you." At that moment I suddenly started to view Nagi as an enemy rather than as a longtime friend.

What further hardened my attitude on this matter was the advice I received from many dedicated Muslim fellow students, who warned me against befriending Christians. They based their counsel on the following verse: "O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends: They are but friends to each other. And he amongst you that turns to them [for friendship] is of them [an infidel]. Verily Allah guideth not a people unjust" (Koran 5:51).

In view of this verse and the previous one, I felt obliged as a Muslim to limit my relationships with my Christian friends. The love and friendship I once felt for them had been transformed into disrespect, merely because I wished to obey the commandments of my religion. The seductive ideas of my religious studies had diluted the influence of my secular upbringing. By restricting my contact with Christians, I felt that I was doing a great deed to satisfy Allah.

[...]

By immersing myself in Salafi ideology, I was better able to judge the impact of its violent tenets on the minds of its followers. Among the more appalling notions it supports are the enslavement and rape of female war prisoners and the beating of women to discipline them. It permits polygamy and pedophilia. It refers to Jews as "pigs and monkeys" and exhorts believers to kill them before the end of days: Say: "Shall I tell you who, in the sight of God, deserves a yet worse retribution than these? Those [the Jews] whom God has rejected and whom He has condemned, and whom He has turned into monkeys and pigs because they worshiped the powers of evil: these are yet worse in station, and farther astray from the right path [than the mockers]" (Koran 5:60). Homosexuals are to be killed as well; to cite one of many examples, on July 19, 2000, two gay teenagers were hanged in Iran for no other crime than being gay.

These doctrines are not taken out of context, as many apologists for Islamism argue: They are central to the faith and ethics of millions of Muslims, and are currently being taught as part of the standard curriculum in many Islamic educational systems in the Middle East as well in the West.

Moreover, there is no single approved Islamic textbook that contradicts or provides an alternative to the passages I have cited. It has thus become clear to me that Salafi ideology is what is largely responsible for the so-called "clash of civilizations." Consequently, I have chosen to combat Salafism by exposing it and by providing an alternative, peaceful and theologically rigorous interpretation of the Koran.

My reformist approach naturally challenges well-established Salafi tenets, and leads Muslims who follow Salafi Islam to reject me. Why? I have not altered the Koran itself. My system is simply one of inline commentary, in which dangerous passages are flagged and reinterpreted to be nonviolent. I have added these inline interpretations to key Koranic passages and examples of the commentary are freely and easily available.

For over 15 years I have tried to preach my views in mosques in the Middle East, as well as to my local community in the West, but have faced the unwavering hostility of most Salafi Muslims in both regions. Muslims who live in the West - who insist to outsiders that Islam is a "religion of peace" and who enjoy freedom of expression, which they demand from their Western hosts - have threatened me with murder and arson. I have had to choose between accepting violent Salafi views and being rejected by the overwhelming majority of my fellow Muslims.

I have chosen the latter....

Read it all.

Here is the latest Jihad Watch video at Hot Air, discussing some of the presidential candidates' recent statements on jihad. You can find more about this here.

Should the Saudi monarchy be permitted to purchase an important equity position in some of America’s leading banks? How can Hillary be objective when the very same monarchy donated $10 million to the Clinton Library and Foundation?

Should the UAE be allowed in? How can Hillary decide fairly when Bill — and therefore herself — have been getting a reported $10 million per year from a fund that administers the investments of the Emir of Dubai, the largest component state in the UAE?...

Neither Dubai nor Saudi Arabia would be permitted to contribute to Hillary’s campaign. Foreigners are not allowed to do so, precisely to avoid having potential office holders compromised by gratitude for their financial support. But these nations have used the porous ethics of the Clinton family to acquire positions of massive influence by making contributions, not to her campaign, but to her personal bank account — either through Bill or through the Library and Foundation, which the Clintons directly control. The extent of the influence their millions must buy with a family only recently, according to Hillary, in the “middle class” must be huge. -- from this op-ed by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann

The insensate greed of Bill Clinton -- the amounts he has taken in, for himself and for his favorite 501(c)(3) "charities," the ones that always seem to have his name attached -- continues to amaze and disgust. Simply look at the sums he has taken in, from those lecture fees. Look at his friends (all of whom now seem to be billionaires, or at the very least millionaires), since leaving his time devoted to "public service." And apparently he thinks this has gone unobserved, or that if he keeps smiling through, it will all be forgiven.

Why should it?

A Jihad Watch reader recently said: "We need people to be able to learn Arabic. How is this going to be achieved without indoctrination?"

The need for "people...to learn Arabic" is greatly exaggerated. There is no need to "learn Arabic" in order to learn the contents of the Qur'an, Hadith, and Sira. 80% of the world's Muslims are not Arabs and do not know Arabic. Arabs today have a great deal of difficulty understanding Qur'anic Arabic -- though not as much as English speakers would have reading, unaided, Beowulf or The Seafarer or The Wanderer or the riddles in The Exeter Book. But it is less important to pick up your Thackston (for an elementary guide to Qur'anic Arabic) than to pick up your book on Islamic law, by Joseph Schacht, or on war and peace in Islam (by Majid Khadduri), or other books by Snouck Hurgronje, or Henri Lammens, or others by those Western scholars, those Orientalists, who wrote before the age of fear, the age of flattery, the age of mental confusion, the Age of the Great Inhibition, set in.

And besides, there are native speakers of Arabic -- Maronites, Copts, Jews in Israel who came from Arab lands -- who can give us all the help we need, and who, what's more, can vet others, including possible "islamochristians," who might otherwise be hired or even put in charge of critical translations. When you have no idea what you are doing, as this Administration has not, you hire, you rely, on all kinds of doubtful characters to give you "insight" and "knowledge."

Sura 12, “Joseph,” is another late Meccan sura. It was revealed, says Maududi, “when the Quraish” — the pagan Arabs of Mecca, and the tribe of which Muhammad was a member – “were considering the question of killing or exiling or imprisoning him.” It tells the story of the patriarch Joseph, again – as we saw in sura 11 with the stories of other prophets – with a clear message relating to Muhammad and his opponents.

It begins in verses 1-3 with another panegyric to the Qur’an. Ibn Kathir expresses the mainstream Islamic view when he says: “The Arabic language is the most eloquent, plain, deep and expressive of the meanings that might arise in one’s mind. Therefore, the most honorable Book, was revealed in the most honorable language, to the most honorable Prophet and Messenger, delivered by the most honorable angel, in the most honorable land on earth, and its revelation started during the most honorable month of the year, Ramadan. Therefore, the Qur’an is perfect in every respect.” This is not, of course, a perspective that tends to be welcoming of critical examination of the book – as has recently been in the news with the discovery of 450 rolls of film of ancient manuscripts of the Qur’an.

5,000 rupees is 80 bucks and some change. That's an expensive haircut.

Sharia Alert: "Rs 5,000 fine impose in Pak for shaving beard," from the Indian Express (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

Islamabad, January 17:: A radical Islamic group in Pakistan’s Khyber Agency bordering Afghanistan has warned that any man shaving his beard will have to pay a fine of Rs 5,000.

Haji Namdar, the chief of the Tanzim Bilmaroof (group for promotion of virtue), announced a ban on shaving in a broadcast made on Wednesday from his illegal FM radio station.

“Shaving the beard is forbidden in Islam and I feel duty-bound to make every Muslim of my tribe sport a beard,” said Namdar.

The Tanzim Bilmaroof had earlier imposed fines for various acts it says are against the teachings of Islam. This includes a fine of Rs 50,000 for owning a dish antenna for receiving satellite TV broadcasts and a fine of Rs 500 for not praying five times a day.

The group has also banned listening to music and watching TV. It has also imposed a fine of Rs 500 for each audio cassette found in any person’s possession. Volunteers of the Tanzim Amr Bilmaroof have severely beaten tribesmen who do not cover their heads....

The Tanzim Bilmaroof also has links with the Lashkar-e-Islam militant group led by Mangal Bagh. The Lashkar-e-Islam too has banned several “un-Islamic acts” and imposed severe fines for violators.

No, not by this

"The group's bloody aims are seen as a bid to bring the return of the 'Hidden Imam'" -- because, according to Twelver Shi'ite tradition, the Hidden Imam will only come at a time of great upheaval and bloodshed, when the Muslims are being persecuted as never before.

"Shiite holiday marred by violence in Iraq: Death toll from fighting in two mainly Shiite cities at least 68," from AP (thanks to all who sent this in):

BAGHDAD - Hundreds of thousands of frenzied Shiites beat their heads and chests in unison and whipped themselves with chains Saturday across Iraq to honor the martyrdom of one of their most revered saints. The processions were marred by violence with a deadly bombing in northern Iraq and clashes south of Baghdad.

The street battles between members of a messianic cult and Iraqi troops raged for a second day as the death toll from the fighting in two predominantly Shiite southern cities rose from 50 to at least 68.

Iraqi authorities said at least 36 people were reported killed in Basra, Iraq's second largest city, and at least 32 in Nasiriyah, including Iraqi security forces, civilians and gunmen. At least 10 people were reported slain in Nasiriyah Friday.

Video footage broadcast on Iraqi state TV showed several dead or wounded men lying on bloodstained streets in Basra, where officials said the situation was under control. An Iraqi soldier held the yellow bandanna of one man, apparently signifying that he was a member of the Soldiers of Heaven cult.

Nine blindfolded detainees sat hunched over on a curb as men held a sign behind them that said "criminal investigation department in Basra."

There were conflicting accounts about how the clashes erupted, but all signs pointed to the radical Shiite group, which last year mounted a ferocious attack after Iraqi security forces raided its stronghold near the holy city of Najaf to foil an alleged plot to slaughter pilgrims and leading clerics during Ashoura.

'Hidden Iman' [sic]

The group's bloody aims are seen as a bid to bring the return of the "Hidden Imam" -- also known as the Mahdi -- a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad who disappeared as a child in the ninth century. Shiites believe he will return one day to bring justice to Earth....

Yet the money just keeps pouring in. By Jonny Paul for the Jerusalem Post (thanks to Sr. Soph):

British taxpayers are funding hate education and violence in the Middle East, according to a new report published by a British NGO over the weekend.

In the first of a series of papers analyzing the effectiveness of Britain's overseas aid, the Tax Payers Alliance (TPA), which lobbies for lower taxes and better government, has published a report looking at the effects of British aid spending in the Palestinian territories.

"Funding Hate Education" reveals disturbing evidence on the millions of pounds of British tax revenue has been funneled into hate education and promoting violence in the Middle East.

Some of the money is even being used to fund school textbooks that teach children in Palestine to worship violence and hate all non-Muslims.

"With moves towards a peace settlement at Annapolis and an American presidential visit to Israel, there is real hope that a peace deal can be reached," said Matthew Sinclair, author of the report and policy analyst at the TPA. "In order for a deal to stick over the long term, however, it is essential that the Palestinian population fully accepts it. This is why it is particularly concerning that British aid is supporting the radicalization of the Palestinian population, particularly the children."

Indeed.

An antidote to the fashionable hooey

Let's see. 10,380 violent attacks since 9/11 by Islamic jihadists who justify their actions on the basis of Islamic texts and teachings.

How many violent attacks since 9/11 by Christian zealots who justify their actions on the basis of Christian texts and teachings? Uh, none.

Major attacks: 9/11. 7/7 in London. March 11, 2004 in Spain. The Bali bombings. Several major attacks in India. Scores of thwarted plots. By Islamic jihadists.

Major attacks and thwarted plots by Christian supremacists? Zip.

As I explain in the book, this kind of talk by Gregory Green is not just stupid, although it is certainly that. It is dangerous, because it diverts our attention from the reality of the situation we're in, and interferes with sober analysis of what we can and must do to defend ourselves.

"Alumni artists prove anything but atrocious," by Robin Roup in the University of South Florida Oracle (thanks to James):

At first glance, Everyday Atrocities looks like a terrorist organization with a taxidermy hobby. However, it is actually a faculty focus exhibition in the Contemporary Art Museum.

From the look of Gregory Green's pieces there is confusion as to whether he promotes or opposes violence. This is because all his pieces models of explosives. Green grew up in Europe in the height of the Cold War. His work, he said, is influenced by this time in his life where he and everyone around him lived in constant fear.

Most of his pieces are not displayed like traditional art pieces. A model pipe bomb lies on the floor in the corner with barely any lighting. A Bible with an explosive inside sits prominently in the center of the room. Green explained that we typically think of terrorism groups strictly as Islamic and Muslim, but Christian extremist groups actually commit just as many acts. Green said his intention was for the pieces to be provocative and somewhat scary. As long as no one is truly frightened by them, he said, his pieces are still legal under the Patriot Act.

For this self-important twit to suggest that the Patriot Act has anything to do with his insufferable little "artworks" is just more self-aggrandizing paranoia.

Muslims in the UK demand that Sharia be given legal authority. "These rulings are made for all," says the Sheikh, in a statement resonant with implications.

By Clare Dwyer Hogg and Jonathan Wynne-Jones in the Telegraph (thanks to all who sent this in):

Amnah is a modern British Muslim. She is dressed in a denim skirt and her head is covered in a hijab. Poised and self-assured, she has come to meet Dr Suhaib Hasan, a silver-bearded sheikh who sits behind his desk, surrounded by religious books.

"But why would I have to observe the waiting period?" she asks him. "What are the reasons?" There is an urgency to her questions.

"These reasons don't apply to me, that's what I'm very confused about. If you could give me the reasons why I have to wait three months, then I'll understand."

Amnah is going through a divorce and is baffled at being told that she must wait for three months to remarry, considering that she hasn't seen her estranged husband for two years.

She twists her sock-clad toes into the carpet, grasping one hand with the other in her lap, and fixes Dr Hasan with an intense look. He meets this with a simple reply: "These rulings are all in the Koran. The rulings are made for all."

Amnah has little choice but to comply: Dr Hasan is a judge, and this is a sharia court - in east London. It sits, innocuously, at the end of a row of terrace houses in Leyton: a converted corner shop, with blinds on the windows, office- style partitions and a makeshift reception area.

It is one of dozens of sharia courts - also known as councils - that have been set up in mosques, Islamic centres and even schools across Britain. The number of British Muslims using the courts is increasing.

To many in the West, talk of sharia law conjures up images of the floggings, stonings, amputations and beheadings carried out in hardline Islamic states such as Saudi Arabia and Iran. However, the form practised in Britain is more mundane, focusing mainly on marriage, divorce and financial disputes.

The judgments of the courts have no basis in British law, and are therefore technically illegitimate - they are binding only in that those involved agree to comply. For British Muslims who are keen to follow Islam, this poses a dilemma. An Islamic marriage is not recognised by British law, and therefore many couples will have two ceremonies - civil for the state, and Islamic for their faith.

If they wish to divorce, they must then seek both a civil and an Islamic divorce.

Dr Hasan, who has been presiding over sharia courts in Britain for more than 25 years, argues that British law would benefit from integrating aspects of Islamic personal law into the civil system, so that divorces could be rubber-stamped in the same way, for example, that Jewish couples who go to the Beth Din court have their divorce recognised in secular courts.

Read it all.

On November 15 of last year, I wrote this about the controversy over whether anti-jihadists should support the Vlaams Belang party or not:

But there is cultural defense and then there is a white supremacism that is based on some idea of racial superiority and inferiority, and has via Hitler a historical link to genocide. They are not the same thing, and a distinction needs to be made between the two. If VB and SD have really made a clean break with the past, make it a complete one: let them deal with the ties to LePen and Haider, and make a distinction between cultural defense and white supremacism that is completely clear and distinguishes their position from the neo-fascists.

Instead, it seems as if the VB has gone the other way. "Right-wingers gather against 'Islamisation,'" from The Australian (thanks to Tanguy):

SEVERAL European far-right parties announced a new organisation aimed at fighting the "Islamisation" of Europe.

The group dubbed "Cities against Islamisation" was presented to the media in the northern Belgian city of Antwerp by Filip Dewinter, head of the far-right Belgian party Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) along with Austrian FPOE leader Heinz-Christian Strace and Robert Spieler of the regionalist Alsace First group.

Parties from Britain (the British National Party), Denmark, Germany and Italy were also represented at the launch of the group which has a road-sign-style crossed-out mosque as its logo.

The goal -- fighting the Islamization of Europe -- is laudable. The problem is the BNP. The BNP is an unabashed racial/ethnic party. Its membership statement says:

Membership of the British National Party is open to those of British or kindred European ethnic descent. While we welcome contact and co-operation with nationalists and patriots of other races, and with the many non-whites who also oppose enforced multi-racialism, we ask them to respect our right to an organisation of our own, for our own, as we respect and applaud their measures to organise themselves in like fashion.

The BNP says it is a party for indigenous Britons, but is not white supremacist or hateful. From a Q&A on the BNP site:

iii. Do you believe that blacks or other races are inferior?

No, we have never claimed any such thing. We simply believe that the different races are different, just as men and women are different, and as such they cannot be directly compared.

iv. If you believe that the races are different then you are racists.

Not at all. The definition of a racist is someone who hates people of other races. We do not hate anybody. Anyone who says the BNP is racist is either misinformed or a liar.

Yet even taking them at their word that they are not race supremacists in the National Socialist mode (although there does seem to be a good deal of contrary evidence), I think that their race-based approach is wrong in a number of ways.

1. It's the wrong way to fight the global jihad. The jihad is not a race, Islam is not a race, Muslims are not all of one race. The issues between the Islamic world and non-Muslims are not racial. They are about religious supremacism. Bringing in race just confuses the issue, and allows jihadists and their de facto allies among the Eurabian elites to claim that this whole thing is about racism.

2. To form one group for indigenous Britons and invite people of other ethnicities to form other similar groups reduces virtually every issue to the one non-negotiable issue of race and ethnicity, discourages cooperation, and thus encourages Balkanization, works against the idea of representative government, and obscures the common values of Judeo-Christian civilization that are shared by people of many races and ethnicities.

3. This approach hamstrings and marginalizes the anti-jihad movement. Many people who oppose the Islamization of Europe will never join with a race-based party to do so. Hugh Fitzgerald and I have often commented here over the years about the tragedy in Europe: the mainstream political parties have completely abdicated any responsibility to deal with the Islamization of Europe, thus leaving the field open to groups like the BNP who obscure the issue with racial politics.

4. Many, many people have written here, and will no doubt write again in response to this post, that the BNP is the only party in Britain that is doing anything to resist Islamization, and thus deserves the support of all those who believe there is something worth defending in Western non-Muslim civilization. I don't think that is any sounder an argument than the claim that we must support Hizballah because it builds schools and runs charities when not lobbing rockets at Israeli civilians.

Also, people I respect have pointed out that European culture is being overwhelmed and transformed by out-of-control Muslim immigration, and there is nothing wrong with defending it from that. I agree. But while culture has a racial component, culture and race are not identical. To reduce culture to race on a continent that has seen six million sacrificed to the idolatry of race and blood is not, in my view, the right way to defend European culture -- and there must be articulated a sane and moral alternative that is clearly distinct from that and rejects it utterly. Geert Wilders in the Netherlands has managed to mount a strong stance against Islamization while, as far as I know, avoiding dalliance with racial groups. While I am not a European and am conscious that Europeans will probably charge me with naivete and ignorance, I still don't see why it can't be done in Britain, Belgium, and elsewhere. Such dalliances inevitably raise the specter of neo-Nazism and white supremacism, and allow the mainstream parties to pretend that Europe faces a choice between becoming Eurabia and reviving the gas chamber. There are other ways, there have to be other ways, to deal with this.

The anti-jihad movement, if it is to become mainstream in Europe or the U.S., must articulate a positive vision of defense for the human rights of all people against the ways in which those human rights are contravened under Sharia, and avoid being diverted into side issues and non-issues, or formulating the problem incorrectly. Vlaams Belang, for all its talk about abjuring its past and moving into the mainstream, by allying with the BNP has taking a step in the opposite direction. Europe deserves better, and I hope a better choice will emerge.

As I have said before, I completely disavow all racist and neo-Nazi ideas. I also disavow all race-based approaches to the jihad threat, for the reasons explained above, and will not work with the VB or the BNP. I hope other anti-jihadists will find those arguments compelling and follow suit. In the recent bitter controversy between Charles Johnson and a group of counterjihadists over the nature of the VB, it does appear quite clearly from this new alliance, if it wasn't already, that Charles was right. The VB needs to do much more, and much more clearly, if it really wishes to avoid appearing to oppose Islamization solely on racial grounds. This angry, ugly rift between people I love and respect has disheartened me greatly. I hope now that it can be healed, and that out of it will come a more clearly defined sense of who we are and what we are trying to do.

UPDATE: I am told by sources in Europe that the BNP is not part of this anti-Islamization group. The Brussels Journal lists these groups that were actually there:

Yesterday politicians from several Europeans countries convened in Antwerp, the stronghold of the Flemish secessionist Vlaams Belang party, to establish the international organisation “Cities against Islamization” (CaI). Apart from the Vlaams Belang, the following three parties have joined the organisation: the FPÖ (Susanne Winter’s party, Austria), Alsace d’Abord (a regionalist party from Alsace, France) and Pro Köln (Germany).

The BNP's not being part of this new group, however, does not contradict The Australian's report that the BNP was at the meeting. If they were there, it would be good for the VB to explain why the BNP was there, and why the BNP didn't join. It would also be good now for the Vlaams Belang to renounce and distinguish itself clearly from BNP-style racialism, if it indeed hopes to become a broad anti-jihad party. I hope it will do so.

Nope, still not them. Eurabia Alert. "Spanish police arrest 14 in anti-terror raids," from Agence France-Presse:

MADRID - Spanish police have smashed a suspected Islamist terror cell, arresting 14 people and recovering bomb-making equipment in overnight raids in Barcelona, the interior minister said on Saturday.

‘During our searches, we found various materials which could be explosives or be used to make explosives,’ Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told a press conference in Madrid.

Those arrested included 12 Pakistanis and two Indians, he said. Four timing devices as well as computer equipment which was still being examined were also recovered.

He said that the group could be characterised as ‘radical Islamist’, was ‘highly organised’ and was preparing to carry out an attack in the north-eastern Spanish city.

The operation, which saw five homes raided by police, was carried out on the basis of information gathered by Spain’s domestic and foreign intelligence agencies.

The intelligence suggested ‘the possibility that a terrorist action was being prepared on Spanish soil, in Barcelona to be precise,’ Rubalcaba said.

Police then ‘detected an organised group suspected of gathering materials used to make explosives,’ and decided immediately to swoop, he said.

He added that it was ‘probable’ that some of the 14 were innocent.

Private radio station Cadena Ser reported that the suspects were believed to have links to a financial network for certain branches of Al Qaeda.

All the arrests took place in the Raval neighborhood of Barcelona, home to a large Muslim immigrant population, media reports said.

[...]

Newspaper El Pais reported on its website that Spanish authorities have warned France, Portugal and Britain of the possibility of attacks on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf during a visit to Europe next week.

Small groups composed principally of Pakistanis were preparing to carry out attacks ‘imminently,’ the report cited Spanish intelligence agency sources as saying.

Musharraf begins a European tour on Sunday that will see him visit Brussels, France, Britain and the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, speaking in Portugal, praised the intelligence services for the raids but said not to jump to conclusions about those arrested.

Sunni-Shi'ite Jihad Update. "Teen suspect held in Bhutto's killing," by Ishtiaq Mahsud for the Associated Press:

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - A teenager who said he was part of a team of assassins sent to kill former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was arrested near the Afghan border, Pakistani officials said Saturday.

The teen also confessed to taking part in a plot to attack Shiites during Ashoura, even as police in Pakistan's far south said they had foiled suicide attacks planned for the Shiite Muslim festival.

In Karachi, police chief Azhar Farouqi said officers detained five men who were in the possession of explosives, detonators and a small quantity of cyanide intended for attacks on this week's Ashoura processions.

"With these arrests we have foiled major attacks," Farouqi said.

The intelligence official said the 15-year-old told investigators that the five-person squad was dispatched to Rawalpindi, where Bhutto was killed, by Baitullah Mehsud, a militant leader with strong ties to al-Qaida and an alliance with the Taliban in nearby Afghanistan, on Afghanistan's northwest border.

The senior official from Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the teen was arrested Thursday and was involved in a plot to attack Shiites during an Ashoura festival on Sunday.

Moderate Jihad Update. "Hamas says it has foiled Fatah plot to kill leader," by Nidal al-Mughrabi for Reuters (thanks to Davida):

GAZA (Reuters) - A senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip on Saturday accused rival Fatah of plotting to assassinate Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh as he prayed and said the would-be suicide bomber had been arrested and had confessed.

Tension between Islamist Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction has increased since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in a brief but bloody civil war in June. Fatah still holds sway in the occupied West Bank.

"There was a plan by a suicide bomber wearing an explosives belt to assassinate Haniyeh as he prayed in the mosque. He was arrested and confessed," Saeed Seyam, who oversees Hamas government security forces in Gaza and is a former interior minister in the Hamas government, told reporters.

Recently the Jerusalem Post ran an article by Mark R. Cohen, "The New Muslim Anti-Semitism," which repeated many politically correct and comforting historical fictions, including:

THE FLIP SIDE of the discriminatory regulations imposed upon Jews is that they (as well as Christians) were a "protected people," ahl al-dhimma or dhimmis in Arabic, who enjoyed security of life and property, religious freedom, freedom from forced conversion, communal autonomy, and equality in the marketplace. For all its religious exclusivity and hostility towards the Jews, expressed in the Koran and in other Islamic literature, Islam contains a nucleus of pluralism that gave the Jews in Muslim lands greater security than Jews had in Christian Europe. For other important reasons, too, Jews in the Islamic orbit were spared the damaging stigma of "otherness" and anti-Semitism suffered by Jews in Europe. They were indigenous to the Near East - not immigrants, as in many parts of the Christian West - and largely indistinguishable physically from their Arab-Muslim neighbors.

Bat Ye'or, the pioneering historian of dhimmitude, wrote this in response and sent it to the Post:

Response to Mark Cohen’s article in the Jerusalem Post of January, 2008
Bat Ye’or*

In his article “The New Muslim anti-Semitism” (Jerusalem Post, January 2, 2006), Mark R. Cohen unfortunately provides nothing new on a subject that now involves a global jihad war and a genocidal threat. It merely rehashes a short-sighted article he published over twenty years ago, “Islam and the Jews: Myth, counter-Myth, History” (The Jerusalem Quarterly, n° 38, spring 1986) to which I wrote a rejoinder, “Islam and the Dhimmis” (JQ n° 42, spring 1987). Still no changes! Then, like today, Cohen stated that Muslim “anti-Semitism” (an inappropriate word borrowed from European context) is a new phenomenon as if this Princeton professor of Near Eastern Studies has never read the Koran, the hadiths and the biographies of the Prophet Muhammad. As in his 1986 article, he encompasses in one sweeping global judgment the civilizations expanding over territories covering Africa, Asia and Europe during thirteen centuries. History loses its events, transformations and evolutions as if it is reduced to the stillness of an empty shell.

This reductionist mental attitude upholds the dogma of Islamic goodness and tolerance versus Christian timeless evilness in all places. Cohen is not troubled by the complexities involved in comparing utterly different civilizations, religions, jurisdictions, political ideologies and transformations over a millennium. Faithful to himself over the years, he remains deaf to the Islamists’ Judeophobic references in their religious texts, praising the system of dhimmitude as one would admire slavery, since the slave might escape death if he obeys his master’s orders. As in his earlier article, Cohen pretends that the persecutions Jews suffered under Islamic jurisdiction are an invented myth, a mimicry of Ashkenazi sufferings in order to grab more than Oriental Jewry deserves of the “Zionist pie”. Thus Oriental Jewry not only should be grateful to its Muslim rulers for not having been wiped out entirely, but it is not even entitled to have its own history without being accused of posturing as Ashkenazim, thereby obtaining undeserved advantages by out-stepping its position in Israel.

Maybe Mark Cohen has never heard of the Human Rights Declarations promulgated in Europe and America with its subsequent developments in matters of equality and democratic rights. Or does he imagine that a caliphate ruled these continents? Has he even forgotten the letter sent by George Washington to Moses Seixas, president of the Newport Hebrew Congregation on August 17, 1790, and inscribed on a stone at the Touro Synagogue (Newport R.I.), stating the inalienable human rights for Jews, as opposed to tolerance? Does he unconsciously assume that George Washington was a caliph and that the regions from Afghanistan to Yemen and Algeria were Christian countries, since there – at the time of Washington and the Enlightenment – Jews were still obliged to walk barefoot, with distinctive clothing, live in social segregation, pay countless security ransoms, suffering the rape of their women, the abduction of their children, while the Muslim courts refused their testimony? They were exposed to murders (Maghreb, the Levant, Yemen), deportations, forced conversions (Persia, Afghanistan) and in many regions enslavement to tribal chiefs (Maghreb). Such situations, of course, could not happen in Islam according to Professor Cohen -- unless the Jews became arrogant by overstepping their place and imagined they were human beings.

The current fanaticism and mass killings perpetrated in Lebanon, Algeria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, Darfur, Indonesia and the Philippines evoke the continual tribal wars that have permanently ravaged the dar al-Islam with their religious-cleansing, the exodus or the deportation of populations, mainly non-Muslim, and the associated pillage, destruction, abduction and enslavement. Jihadist terrorism that has, over the centuries, eliminated the indigenous Jewish and Christian populations from their Islamized homelands continues unabated today, giving us a glimpse of this past, rosy time of dhimmitude. It is strange that Cohen remains at Princeton instead of emigrating to Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, even Sudan, to enjoy, under a shari’a–taliban type rule, that dhimmi condition he admires so much for Oriental Jewry.

* * * * *

* The latest book by Bat Ye’or, Eurabia: the Euro-Arab Axis, (English, French, Italian, Dutch) will be published in a Hebrew edition by Schocken in spring 2008.

This article was not accepted for publication. Bat Ye'or received this response from an editor at the Jerusalem Post:

Frankly, I don't know what there is to "respond" to as Cohen's piece was a carefully nuanced balanced essay which could have been written by Bernard Lewis. You may disagree with his argument that Christian Jew-hatred influenced Muslim Jew-hatred but he did not downplay the nature of negative Muslim attitudes toward Jews.

What you might want to consider is a brief letter to the editor.

He did not, as you can see, take up any of the points Bat Ye'or raised in her piece. Instead, it was enough for him simply to invoke Bernard Lewis. Yet as we have noted here before, Bernard Lewis is a great scholar, but he isn't infallible -- and his recent attributions of authoritarianism and antisemitism in the Islamic world to Western influences don't bolster trust in his powers of judgment and analysis at this point.

Later, this same editor offered Bat Ye’or “an original op-ed of up to 1,000 words”:

I will not run this attack on Cohen as an op-ed. I respect your decision not to cut it so that it can appear as a letter to the editor.

However, we would be delighted to consider an original op-ed of up to 1,000 words -- especially if you can connect it to a news hook.

But that is not sufficient space to clarify so many important matters. It is sad to see the Jerusalem Post, particularly at this hour of such peril for Israel, contenting itself with purveying pleasing falsehoods that may make the prospect for Israelis of living under Islamic rule easier to contemplate, as horrific as it remains in actuality.

In light of possible jihad attacks. "US Embassy in Algiers receives terror alert," from AP (thanks to all who sent this in):

The US Embassy in Algiers ordered its employees to tightly restrict their movements and urged other Americans in Algeria to do the same, citing indications of possible terrorist attacks.

Security concerns have been high in the Algerian capital since Dec. 11 suicide bombings targeted UN offices and a government building, killing at least 37 people, including 17 UN employees. An Algeria-based al-Qaida affiliate claimed responsibility for the attack.

"In response to continuing indications of possible terrorist attacks in Algiers, the Embassy has instructed its employees to avoid nonessential movement around the city until further notice, and may occasionally restrict movement completely," the embassy said in a message Friday.

The message also "strongly encouraged" American citizens in Algeria to avoid restaurants, nightclubs, churches and schools frequented by foreigners. The note was sent to embassy employees and Americans registered with consular authorities.

A clear financial jihad issue.

By Dick Morris and Eileen McGann for FoxNews (thanks to all who sent this in):

...Should the Saudi monarchy be permitted to purchase an important equity position in some of America’s leading banks? How can Hillary be objective when the very same monarchy donated $10 million to the Clinton Library and Foundation?

Should the UAE be allowed in? How can Hillary decide fairly when Bill — and therefore herself — have been getting a reported $10 million per year from a fund that administers the investments of the Emir of Dubai, the largest component state in the UAE?

The Dubai Ports deal compromised our national security by putting key points of entry in that nation’s control. But the infusion of capital and the acquisition of equity in our key banks has the potential to make that encroachment on our sovereignty seem piddling by comparison.

Neither Dubai nor Saudi Arabia would be permitted to contribute to Hillary’s campaign. Foreigners are not allowed to do so, precisely to avoid having potential office holders compromised by gratitude for their financial support. But these nations have used the porous ethics of the Clinton family to acquire positions of massive influence by making contributions, not to her campaign, but to her personal bank account — either through Bill or through the Library and Foundation, which the Clintons directly control. The extent of the influence their millions must buy with a family only recently, according to Hillary, in the “middle class” must be huge.

And it is for exactly this kind of situation that the Clintons should be required to divulge the extent of their involvement with foreign interests and exactly how much money their personal bank accounts and their Library/Foundation have received. (The Saudi donation to the Library and Foundation was only discovered by the New York Times when the information was inadvertently posted on the Library’s Web site. Soon after the story appeared, it was taken down. The Clintons refuse to reveal the donors to the Library or the related Foundation.) Hillary and Bill have also refused to release their income tax returns, despite the fact that Bill willingly released his when he was running for president....

Come and get me

Not that there was ever any free speech in this dreary post-Soviet outpost, but when and how did it become a dhimmiocracy?

"Belarus editor jailed for Islam cartoon," by Yuras Karmamau for Associated Press (thanks to all who sent this in):

MINSK, Belarus - A Belarus court sentenced a newspaper editor Friday to three years in prison for reprinting a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad that sparked worldwide riots when it was initially published in a Danish newspaper.

In Vienna, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe protested the sentence and called for the release of Alexander Sdvizhkov, the former deputy editor of the small-circulation Zhoda newspaper.

Security officers in Belarus launched an investigation of Sdvizhkov in February 2006 when he published the caricatures which had originally appeared in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

Fiery protests swept across Muslim countries in early 2006 in reaction to the Danish publication.

President Alexander Lukashenko ordered the paper shut the following month, calling the publication of the cartoon "a provocation against the state." Sdvizhkov was arrested and charged with "inciting religious hatred" in November 2007 when he returned to Belarus following several months of living in Russia and Ukraine.

"Inciting religious hatred." This conformism enforced with a jail term and extinguishing of free inquiry, then, is the future of the UK and other countries in the West. If one class in any country is exempt from criticism and yes, even ridicule, then a free society exists there no longer, and that class is a protected, privileged class.

"The main region of concern is Kabylia, but missionary activity is taking place also in other regions of the country." -- from this news article

There is no mystery as to why Christian missionaries might be having their greatest success in the Kabyle. In Algeria, that remains the Berber heartland. It is where the Berbers, that is, those who were not forcibly transformed into “Arabs” during the centuries of Arab rule (interrupted by 132 years of French rule) are concentrated. And how many of those "Arabs" who now persecute the Berbers realize that they themselves are a generation, or two, or five removed from their clearly Berber origins? (There is, by the way, a genetic marker that, in studies by French geneticists in Tunisia, shows that Berbers and Arabs can be easily distinguished.)

The cause of the Berbers is hardly known in this country. The writer Kateb Yacine, a Berber who refused to write in Arabic, but chose French, is celebrated in France, especially among Berbers -- but unknown in this country. His anti-Arab rage is not likely to cause his books to be included in the syllabuses of courses on "Francophone" literature, given that so many such courses are now taught by French-speaking Arabs.

Sincerely desiring peace. Or two pieces. "Hezbollah taunts Israel with 'body parts,'" from Agence France-Presse (thanks to JE):

HASSAN Nasrallah, the Hezbollah chief and one of Israel's most wanted men, appeared in public for a Shi'ite religious event in the Lebanese capital for the first time in more than a year.

In a fiery speech, Mr Nasrallah said that his Lebanese Shi'ite militant group had the heads and body parts of soldiers that the Israeli army had abandoned.

"We have the heads, the hands, the feet and even a nearly intact cadaver from the head down to the pelvis," he said.

Mr Nasrallah has been Israel's top public enemy since his Iranian- and Syrian-backed Shi'ite militant group fought a deadly month-long war against the Jewish state in the summer of 2006.

Amid heavy security, he took part in an event for the Shi'ite religious commemoration of Ashura in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, heading a procession of tens of thousands of Shi'ite faithful.

"God protect Nasrallah," chanted the crowd, carrying portraits of the Hezbollah chief.

"Terrorism" does not come out of a vacuum. It comes, as Mao Tse-tung's guerrillas were "fish that swim in the sea of the people," out of a demographic sufficiency, out of an ideological self-assurance.

"Terrorism" in Western Europe is a function of the fact that now large populations among whom “terrorists” are frequently found now live among their targets. This act of colossal folly has been the result of greed in some cases (as in Germany, with that supposed need for "gastarbeiter" who would supposedly, their work ended, return to Turkey -- but they didn't leave, and their progeny are obtaining German citizenship, and becoming more, not less extreme, in their Islam than their parents), and misplaced kindness in others (the British fondly believing that it was they who should rescue the Muslims among those Asians kicked out by Idi Amin and other African despots, rather than have them return to Pakistan or Bangladesh). And always and everywhere, it is the result of criminal negligence about Islam.

A Geneva teacher fired for controversial comments he made in an article for a French newspaper will receive SFr255,000 in damages from the canton of Geneva. The canton announced yesterday it is paying the amount to Hani Ramadan, a French teacher from a junior high school (cycle d’orientation) in Meyrin. The sum is the equivalent of two years’ salary for the teacher who was sacked in November 2004 after defending the stoning of men and women guilty of adultery. -- from this news article

Meanwhile, his more famous, and far more dangerous brother, Tariq, appears in the "Islam" issue of The New York Times Book Review, where he identifies himself as at present a "professor at Oxford." He is no such thing. He has been a temporary lecturer at St. Antony's College, in the Middle Eastern wing (the other wing is Russian and East European Studies), which ever since its inception was the fiefdom of the late Albert Hourani, described by J. B. Kelly as "a plump abbot dispensing his favors," who allowed the place to be a diploma mill for all kinds of doubtful people. The D. Phil. does not require courses, but only a thesis, and every Rashid, Hamid, and Yusuf could get a D. Phil. at St. Antony's, as long as Hourani was ruling the roost. Now he's gone, and possibly things are changing there. But not completely, for Tariq Ramadan was given his temporary post.

Now the Arabs have got together, and the most "respectable" of them -- the government of Oman -- has simply given a large sum of money, not only for a chair, but with a specific non-negotiable candidate, the Arab Muslim candidate, to fill it, at the otherwise respectable University of Leiden. That's right, the same University of Leiden that has a distinguished history in Islamic studies, where Joseph Schacht, having left Germany in disgust in 1933 (Schacht was not Jewish), ended up for a while, and where C. Snouck Hurgronje has a center named after him, is giving Tariq Ramadan a grand title -- "professor," I presume, or possibly "director" of some "institute" created just for him by fellow Arab Muslims. And that will be convenient. That will allow him to lecture, and to write articles, billed as "Tariq Ramadan, professor at the University of Leiden."

“I’m Allah’s slave, and you are the slave to money and your job.” -- from the statement by the would-be Muslim Arab terrorist, doing Allah's work -- terrorizing and killing Infidels -- in Serbia

Yes, we Infidels, whether Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, or this or that, or nothing at all, so often find ourselves having to work. It's not always pleasant.

Would that we were free, like Fuad Hodzic, to be nothing but "Allah's slaves," and not have to have jobs, but could be full-time marchers fi sabil Allah, on the Path of Allah (the Path of Jihad), because we would be supported, directly or indirectly, by those same Infidels. Directly, when they buy, and do little or nothing to enable themselves to diminish their buying, oil and gas that is virtually the sole source of wealth for the oil-rich Arabs. Or indirectly, by the fabulous additional sums transferred to Muslims from non-Muslims in the form of the foreign aid to all those Muslim states and peoples -- in Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, in the "Palestinian"-occupied territories -- who do not happen to have the bonanza of that accident of geology that Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., Kuwait, Qatar, and so on, enjoy. Yet those states are uncaring (except in regards to supporting Muslims fighting against Infidels -- then weapons will be paid for, propaganda will be paid for, upkeep for the families of dead terrorists will be paid for), and determinedly unsharing of their unearned wealth with those fellow members of the Umma.

Why should the U.S. and Europe import jihadists?

From The Associated Press (thanks to Sr. Soph):

GODE, Ethiopia: Ethiopia is detaining "many" ethnic Somali Americans and Europeans on suspicion of terrorism links and participating in a separatist insurgency [i.e., jihad -- Ed.] in the southeast of the Horn of Africa nation, the top regional official said Friday.

Abdullahi Hassan, the most senior official in Ethiopia's Somali region, told reporters many of the foreign detainees were involved in "anti-peace" and "international terrorism" groups.

Hassan refused to say how many detainees are held or say which European countries they come from, just that there were "many." He said their embassies had not been informed.

The U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, through spokeswoman Darragh Paradiso, said: "We have no information on American citizens being detained and are following up on this issue with the government of Ethiopia as we speak."

All the detainees are natives of Somali region who had settled abroad and they include men, women, young and old, Hassan said.

"They are buying ... weapons, mines, and explosives (that) are destroying us," he said.

He said the detainees would face trial in Ethiopia, but would not say what charges they face....

What of those billboards, and this conference?

As for the billboards, only one thing will work. Not appeals to common sense, intelligence, morality, the truth. Not stuff like that. If the company that owns the billboard believes it will suffer, not necessarily through its billboard rental business, but in other ways, in other businesses it may own, it may begin to change its behavior. It would also help if at the same time it calculates that its losses will outweigh any "gain" from not offending Muslims and Arabs, including those with that oil wealth successive American governments have not done a thing to diminish. (Pleading as Bush did for lower prices merely causes them to believe that we believe that they hold all the cards, when of course if things were understood aright, it is we who hold them, beginning with the ability to make oil just as expensive, through taxation, as we wish, and thereby to diminish demand, and ending with their complete reliance on the Western world for medical care, education, advanced technology, weaponry, the defense of their assorted "royal" families, and so on.)

Make the owner aware that there will be consequences. Economic consequences, severe ones.

And as for the conference, the phrase "war on terror" is terrible, but the phrase "Islamist terrorism" also presents problems. For it reinforces the idea that it is only "violent Jihad," Jihad conducted through terrorism (which is seen by many Muslims not as "terrorism" at all, but as "qitaal" or combat), that matters.

Of course, he doesn't believe in terrorism. But he seems to believe deeply in jihad. An update on this story. "Canadian Qaeda bomb plotter gets life in US prison," from Reuters:

NEW YORK - A Canadian who admitted plotting to bomb U.S. embassies in Singapore and the Philippines was sentenced to life in prison on Friday.

Mohammed Mansour Jabarah, a Canadian citizen of Iraqi descent, was sentenced by a federal judge after pleading guilty in July 2002 for his role in disrupted bomb plots on orders from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

"I do not believe in terrorism, violence and killing," Jabarah, 25, said in a 20-minute leniency plea to U.S District Judge Barbara Jones, arguing he had been "brainwashed" by Osama bin Laden and top al Qaeda leaders when he agreed to the plot.

"I was very sadly deceived by them and they exploited and used me maliciously."

But the judge, noting that "actions speak louder than words," said although Jabarah had denounced al Qaeda and terrorism, he was the moving force in the embassy plots.

"That was a decision that had to be made knowingly and willfully and cannot be mitigated," she said, by arguing "you were duped into believing somehow killing innocent people could be right."

Jabarah admitted he swore loyalty in person to bin Laden in May 2001 and was dispatched to carry out attacks. He was arrested in Oman in early 2002 and deported to Canada, where he was held before being transferred to the United States.

Jabarah initially cooperated with U.S. authorities, but prosecutors argued he changed his mind months later after a childhood friend was killed trying to attack U.S. Marines in Kuwait.

They said he then vowed revenge, and planned while in jail to kill FBI agents and prosecutors assigned to his case, hiding knives and bombmaking instructions.

This week, Myrick said she began contacting other co-chairs of the Anti-Terrorism Caucus, such as Rep. Jane Harmon (D-Calif.), Rep. Richard "Bud" Cramer (D-Ala.), and Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas) about setting up a meeting with Coughlin and Pentagon officials to find out the circumstances behind the firing. -- from this article on the firing of Stephen Coughlin

That is good news. For this article by LTC Joseph Myers is one of the clearest, best, and most important statements ever posted here -- or posted anywhere -- about the failure of the American government, and the Bush Administration, to begin to think and reason clearly about what it must do if it is to understand the worldwide, long-term, even permanent threat of Jihad.

The statement by LTC Myers saddens, and stirs, and infuriates. One is saddened, stirred, infuriated that such a piece had to be written by an American military man, in order to denounce the stupid and cruel and dangerous decision to fire Stephen Coughlin (oh, sorry: not to fire, but "not to renew his contract"). His firing leaves us at the beginning of a very long, likely endless (but manageable, if we come to our senses in time) conflict with one of the very few people who understands the matter, Stephen Coughlin, shortly to be out of the Pentagon -- while one Hasham Islam (and who knows how many others like him?) sits contentedly in his office, just down the hall, no doubt, from his supposed boss and puppet, Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England.

This billboard design was submitted for the upcoming America's Truth Forum Symposium in Southlake, TX, in the Dallas/Fort Worth area:

This is the revised design that was eventually accepted and used:

Why the changes? The sales manager of a Dallas-area billboard company explained: “My boss wouldn’t go along with this type of advertising since we have an international clientele -- some of whom might be on the other side."

The other side? On the side of the jihadists?

Imagine an American billboard company in 1942 toning down an anti-Nazi billboard because, well, some of their clients are Nazis!

"They also discovered pictures of bin Laden, maps of Fort Dix, memos about New York's drinking water supply and letters that bemoaned the fall of the Taliban and railed against the evils of America."

More on this story. "Secret Al Qaeda Terrorist to be Sentenced in New York," from AP (thanks to BW):

NEW YORK — He pleaded guilty more than five years ago to plotting bomb attacks on American embassies, but the case against Al Qaeda member Mohammed Mansour Jabarah has been shrouded in secrecy until now.

Jabarah was to emerge from the shadows Friday to be sentenced, likely to life in prison, for his brief career in terror. It included training with Usama bin Laden in Afghanistan and unsuccessfully planning to bomb embassies in the Philippines and Singapore, prosecutors said in court papers.

The Canadian citizen's appearance in a Manhattan courtroom will be his first time in public since his detention in 2002. Thursday marked the first time the court system made public any details of his case, which has been under seal since his arrest.

Prosecutors said there was a good reason for the secrecy.

Jabarah, 26, initially worked as a government informant after he was brought to the U.S. from Canada in 2002 after his capture in Jordan. He pleaded guilty to the terror charges that summer in a secret proceeding, without mounting a defense, and briefly lived in an FBI-arranged housing facility rather than a prison while he worked as a collaborator.

"Jabarah was extensively debriefed by the FBI and prosecutors and provided a considerable amount of valuable intelligence," prosecutors said in court papers.

That changed, authorities said, when agents searched his quarters and found weapons, bomb-making instructions and materials suggesting he intended to murder some of the agents with whom he was dealing.

He was transferred to a federal detention center in Manhattan and spent the next four years isolated in a cell where he was under video surveillance 24 hours a day. He was moved to a different prison in 2006. Talks to renew his cooperation broke down....

Court records show Jabarah was a major coordinator of a plot to bomb embassies in Manila and Singapore, but the attacks were foiled in December 2001. Jabarah was arrested after fleeing to Oman, Jordan, and was deported to Canada, where he agreed to plead guilty in the U.S. and provide information about other terrorists....

Agents found a newspaper article about the armed attackers in Jabarah's quarters, with a handwritten note at the top: "By Allah I will avenge your death."

They also discovered pictures of bin Laden, maps of Fort Dix, memos about New York's drinking water supply and letters that bemoaned the fall of the Taliban and railed against the evils of America.

You just never know where that "inner spiritual struggle" will take you. Fortunately, in Mohammed Mansour Jabarah's case, that itinerary ended in prison, his plans foiled. "Indictment: Canadian planned attacks in U.S.," by Kelli Arena and Bill Mears for CNN:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A Canadian who has pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy to kill Americans and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction against U.S. property will be sentenced Friday, his lawyer said.

Mohammed Mansour Jabarah, 25, pleaded guilty shortly after his arrest in 2002. His indictment and plea were unsealed late Thursday at the U.S. District Court in New York.

Prosecutors recommended last June that he be sentenced to life in prison.

Jabarah, also known by the nickname "Sammy," also allegedly pledged allegiance to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

The government had been investigating Jabarah since his arrest overseas. Court papers allege he was trained in al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan.

He met with bin Laden and al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in the summer of 2001, was given money and told to carry out attacks on U.S. embassies in Southeast Asia, the government says. Those plots failed.

The indictment alleges Jabarah and other al Qaeda members "unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly combined, conspired, confederated, and agreed to kill nationals of the United States."

He later allegedly went to Oman to set up safe houses for al Qaeda members fleeing Afghanistan. There, he was arrested.

Jabarah's guilty plea and sentence were first tied to a cooperation agreement. U.S. officials said he initially helped ongoing terror probes, while staying in an FBI-arranged house under the around-the-clock watch of federal agents.

But "Jabarah was secretly planning to exploit the perception of cooperation," to carry out a "martyrdom mission" to kill American agents and prosecutors, U.S. officials said.

Knives, rope and directions for making explosives were found in his possession.

As Al-Qaeda claimed, although Mehsud has denied any involvement. "CIA boss names Bhutto's killers," from the BBC (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

The CIA has added its support to the view that a Pakistani militant, Baitullah Mehsud, and al-Qaeda organised Benazir Bhutto's killing.

CIA Director Michael Hayden told the Washington Post that the former Pakistani prime minister was killed by fighters allied to Baitullah Mehsud.

The Pakistani government accused Mehsud of the attack shortly after Ms Bhutto's death in Rawalpindi on 27 December.

Mr Hayden did not reveal the sources for his claim.

Correspondents say that Mr Hayden's comments are the most comprehensive public assessment by US intelligence of Ms Bhutto's death.

Feel the love, see the wondrous effects of the tranquility in her heart. Here (thanks to War on Hate) is the full text of Rotterdam district councillor Bouchra Ismaili's email to one of her constituents, discussed yesterday here:

Listen well, dirty madman, WE'LL STAY HERE, hahahahahahhahah, DROP DEAD. I am a dutch moslem, and I shall stay one until my death. I feel pity with your kind, you must live with hatred, really sad. My father and mother have worked hard to help building this country, and I have nothing to do with what others think or say. You are a miserable devil worshipper!!! You have sold your soul!!! Rather bizarre, to believe in the devil and his entourage, and to negate god the allmighty and ruler over heaven and earth. Your kind are the worst terrorists, you have been terrorizing our lives for years here in Holland. But fortunately, you are few only, and most dutchmen are developped and tolerant. You are the allochthonous here!!!! With Allah by my side, I fear nothing and nobody. I AND MY CO-MOSLEMS ARE LIVING, your kind is being eaten up by hatred. A piece of advice, if I may, convert to islam and find tranquility in your heart. Hatred eats you up and makes your heart stay empty. You have only a limited time in your life, go get a life and enjoyment, soon it's all over. We are living.......................You are trying to make something undone, to influence the lives and fates of others. Freemason hahahaha, you are not free, you are a slave of the devil. You think you're a kind of god, really sad, go and have yourself checked! If you're a man with BALLS, let me know who you are, let us talk. You can always talk to me. I know, you're empty inside, and sometimes you feel you wouldn't exist. You want to be seen and heard, but you're simply ORDINARY, a grey mouse and a pathetic little person, one of those billions walking around on this globe. But I hear your cry of emergency. I hear your cry for attention. I shall also have time for you, despite of the fact that I'm fully busy to make Holland a more beautiful, clean and safe country, where people can develop and live in freedom and democracy, no matter what colour, origin or faith. Where, for all I care, even devil worshippers have a spot, for who am I ultimately to judge. This I leave to the judges' judge, ALLAH A RAHMAN OU RAHEEM!!!

Here is yet another example of a Muslim saying something that, when Western non-Muslims say it, quickly brings on the "Islamophobe" charges.

From the Turkish Daily News (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

Islam undoubtedly requires women to cover their heads, Turkey's head of religious affairs said yesterday in a statement that coincides with the current discussions on lifting the headscarf ban in universities.

"As long as a woman says 'I am a Muslim,' she should cover her head," Professor Ali Bardakoğlu, president of the Religious Affairs Directorate, said in an interview with the private NTV channel.

"Discussions on the necessity of wearing headscarves or head coverings are of a legal and political nature. In religious terms, there is no doubt that they should," he said, adding that Islamic rules, dating back centuries, are unalterable.

"Politicians may forbid or allow the wearing of headscarves," Bardakoğlu said. "It is not my duty to tell them what to do," he added. "Whether Muslim women abide by the rule is up to their will," Bardakoğlu said, noting that the headscarf dispute can be solved with dialogue between political parties.

Unconscionable cultural suicide. Hani Ramadan Update: "Controversial teacher wins damages," from the Tribune de Genève (thanks to doppler):

The canton grants the equivalent of two years’ pay to a Meyrin junior high school instructor fired for writing an article in support of stoning.

A Geneva teacher fired for controversial comments he made in an article for a French newspaper will receive SFr255,000 in damages from the canton of Geneva. The canton announced yesterday it is paying the amount to Hani Ramadan, a French teacher from a junior high school (cycle d’orientation) in Meyrin. The sum is the equivalent of two years’ salary for the teacher who was sacked in November 2004 after defending the stoning of men and women guilty of adultery.

His opinion piece was published in the fall of 2002 by Le Monde, the Paris-based newspaper, causing a storm of controversy. The canton ruled that Ramadan had violated his professional principles in making public such views. Ramadan, who has since worked as director of Geneva’s Islamic center, subsequently contested the decision to fire him. An appeal commission of the education department sided with Ramadan, annulling the termination to the embarrassment of cantonal decision-makers.

The canton opted to pay the maximum indemnity to guarantee "peace" over the issue, Laurent Moutinot, cantonal president, told a press conference. The government has also agreed to pay Ramadan’s legal fees, which have amounted to SFr90,000 in the affair. In all, the canton has paid more than SFr1 million to deal with the conflict.

And still nothing, nothing, nothing to show for it. "International aid for Palestinians increases to $7.6 billion," from YnetNews (thanks to all who sent this in):

PA minister of planning laments difficulty of fulfilling development plans in Hamas-controlled Gaza, despite willingness to allocate some 40% of new development budget to impoverished coastal territory.

Total donations from a Paris aid conference for the Palestinians last month have increased to at least $7.6 billion after countries fine-tuned their contributions, officials said Thursday.

Overall international pledges from the Dec. 17 conference - which originally totaled $7.4 billion - have risen to $7.6 billion, a French Foreign Ministry official said. The Palestinian minister of planning, Samir Abdullah, put the figure at $7.7 billion.

The French official said he could not immediately explain the discrepancy, but both he and Abdullah said donors had clarified their pledges in recent weeks, and that the final figure could still change.

Abdullah said the Palestinian Authority has already begun receiving aid. The European Union transferred $44 million, France some $35.2 million, the United Arab Emirates paid $42 million, and Saudi Arabia paid $30 million, he said.

Orwell Alert from the UK: War Is Peace, Freedom Is Slavery, Ignorance Is Strength, and Islamic Terrorism Is Anti-Islamic. Violent actions committed by believing Muslims, who justify those actions by reference to Islamic texts and teachings, will now be called "anti-Islamic activity."

Ms. Smith, your statement that "there is nothing Islamic about the wish to terrorise, nothing Islamic about plotting murder, pain and grief" certainly expresses a mainstream view. I have just a few questions. How do you propose to counter the recruitment among peaceful Muslims that is being conducted by these "anti-Islamic" Muslims, who quote the Qur'an, Sunnah, and Islamic law to portray their "anti-Islamic" behavior as not only Islamic, but the only true Islamic position? Wouldn't combating that call for a searching and honest examination of the actual contents of those texts? Aren't you making that examination a bit more difficult to do by pretending that it need not be done, and that the strife is already o'er, the battle done, and the "moderates" have beaten back the ideological challenge of the "extremists"? How can sincere Islamic reformers prevail when you act as if there is nothing in Islam that needs reforming?

By James Slack in the Daily Mail (thanks to all who sent this in):

Terrorism by Muslim fanatics was yesterday re-named "anti-Islamic activity" by Jacqui Smith.

The Home Secretary said that - rather than acting in the name of Islam - they were behaving contrary to their faith.

Her words were chosen carefully to reflect new Government strategy on the language used to describe fanatics.

Security officials believe that directly linking terrorism to Islam is inflammatory, and risks alienating mainstream Muslim opinion.

In her first major speech on radicalisation, Miss Smith repeatedly used the phrase "anti-Islamic".

One passage said: "As so many Muslims in the UK and across the world have pointed out, there is nothing Islamic about the wish to terrorise, nothing Islamic about plotting murder, pain and grief. Indeed, if anything, these actions are anti-Islamic".

Another referred to enlisting the Muslim community against "anti-Islamic activity".

It follows a decision taken last year to stop using the phrase 'war on terror', first adopted by US President Bush.

Officials were concerned it could act as a recruiting tool for Al Qaeda, which is determined to manufacture a battle between the values of Islam and the West.

The strategy emerging across Government is to portray terrorists as nothing more than cold-blooded murderers who are not fighting for any religious cause.

Al Qaeda-inspired terrorism is instead being described by key figures as "more like a death cult".

That'll show 'em. An update on this story. "Army 'flees second Pakistan fort'," from the BBC:

Pakistani troops have abandoned a fort in a remote tribal area, a day after another was overrun by pro-Taleban militants, officials and witnesses say.

They say that paramilitary personnel at Sipla Toi military post in South Waziristan left their positions fearing an attack by the militants.

But an army spokesman told the BBC he had received no such reports.

On Wednesday, the army said hundreds of militants temporarily seized a fort in the Sararogha area of South Waziristan.

'Open challenge'

Locals told the BBC that 30-40 troops had been stationed at Sipla Toi, some 90km (55 miles) from the town of Dera Ismail Khan. The outpost is nearly as big as the one at Sararogha.

"According to our reports, the troops abandoned the fort on their own. Some left last night, others went away this morning.

"There was no attack from the Taleban," a South Waziristan tribal administration official based in the town of Tank told the BBC.

A resident of the area said that the retreating troops had not left any weapons or ammunition behind.

A Taleban spokesman, Maulvi Umar, told the BBC Urdu service that militants had captured the Sipla Toi fort. But there was no independent confirmation of his claims.

South Waziristan is a known stronghold of pro-Taleban and al-Qaeda militants.

The region has been at the centre of fighting between the army and militants in recent months.

Correspondents say the militants are now openly challenging the army in the area bordering Afghanistan.

They're-Going-To-Have-To-Overcome-That Update. "Blast at Pakistan Shiite mosque kills 9," by Riaz Khan for the Associated Press:

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - A suspected Sunni extremist opened fire in a Shiite mosque Thursday and then blew himself up, killing nine people on the eve of a religious festival that has been scarred by sectarian violence in the past.

The blast in northwestern Pakistan wounded at least 20 people including a prominent Shiite cleric, adding to tensions in the country as it prepares for parliamentary elections Feb. 18 that many predict will weaken President Pervez Musharraf's grip on power.

[...]

Arshad Ali, whose brother died in Thursday's blast, said the attacker was a man about 18 years old who walked into the crowded Imambargah Qasim Baig mosque, opened fire with a pistol and then blew himself up.

"People present there tried to stop him," Ali said, wailing and beating his chest in grief. "He took out a pistol, shot three times and then blew himself up."

It was not immediately clear whether any of the dead or wounded were hit by the gunfire.

Peshawar police chief Tanvir Sipra said nine people were killed, including a policeman who tried to stop the bomber from entering the mosque. A few policewomen were wounded, he said.

Prominent Shiite cleric Syed Rza Shah, who was wounded in the attack, had traveled to Peshawar from Rawalpindi to address a gathering at the mosque, said Mohammed Iqbal, another police official. Shah's deputy, Kalb-e-Abbas, was among the dead.

Somali jihadists insist that they are part of a global jihad that the learned analysts aren't sure exists at all. "Harakat Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen Calls to Attack Capitals of African Countries Participating In Peacekeeping Force in Somalia: 'We [Join] the Mujahideen in the Global Islamic War Against the Cross,'" from MEMRI (thanks to all who sent this in):

On January 3, 2008, the Islamist forum http://ek-ls.org (hosted by NOC4Hosts Inc. in Florida, USA) posted a communiqué titled "As You Condemn Others, So You Will Be Condemned" by the terrorist group Harakat Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen. In the communiqué the group threatens to attack the capitals of African countries which are participating in the peacekeeping force in Somalia.

[...]

"… We stress that we will retaliate. Whoever banishes Muslim nations [from their lands] grants us permission to banish his people [from their land]; whoever kills our women – we shall kill his women; whoever attacks our dignity – we shall give him what he deserves; whoever turns our mothers into widows and our children into orphans – we shall turn his mother into a widow and increase [the number of] his orphans…"

[...]

"The soldiers and people of the states that are participating in the occupation of our country have become part of the Crusader alliance led by the global criminal Bush, and [partners in] the war he is waging on all the Muslims. Thereby, they have made themselves targets for attacks by the Muslims who are protecting themselves and their religion.

"And just as they rallied under the banner of the global Crusade against Islam, we [now join] the mujahideen in the global Islamic war against the Cross; just as the Abyssinians [Ethiopians] are helped by their brethren, the worshippers of the Cross, so do we have our Muslim brethren in all the countries of the world, including the countries from which [the soldiers of the peacekeeping force in Somalia] come – [namely] Ethiopia, Uganda, Burundi and so on… They stand with us and we stand with them against [our] common Crusader enemy."

“For the first time, Israel is not demanding the custody of the murderers of Israelis. We are witnessing the shirking of the most basic responsibility of a government to its citizens.”

Of course. Nothing must be allowed to stand in the way of the "peace process"!

By Ezra HaLevi for Israel National News (thanks to Rachel):

(IsraelNN.com) Israel has acceded to a Palestinian Authority request not to demand the murderers of hikers David Rubin and Achikam Amichai, according to a Channel 2 report.

Rubin and Amichai were murdered last month while hiking in the Telem Stream region near Hevron. They were ambushed by four terrorists, but managed to return fire and kill two of them.

The two surviving murderers are Ali a-Hamid Rajeb Dandis, a clerk at Hevron’s Islamic Court and member of Fatah’s intelligence wing, and Amr Bader a-Halim Taha, a resident of the Abu-Sneineh hills opposite Hevron’s Jewish community and member of the Fatah-controlled PA security forces. The two took refuge shortly after the murders among their fellow PA security men in an apparently successful attempt to avoid arrest by the IDF.

Contrary to initial reports, the PA did not even inform Israel that the two had taken refuge at a PA facility until after the Shabak (General Security Service) filed a request that the weapons of Rubin, Amichai and their killers be handed over. At that point, assuming that Israel knew the whereabouts of the murderers anyway, the PA told the Shabak that it had the men in custody.

Now, according to the Channel 2 television expose, the Olmert government has agreed to let the murderers remain in PA custody, effectively confined to their place of employment. The IDF has operation plans ready and was poised to intercept the terrorists but the Olmert government refused to grant authorization. The terrorists are now being transferred to Jericho.

Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu slammed the decision, saying “the humiliating agreement of the Olmert-Barak government to give up on arresting the PA heads that murdered Achikam Amichai and David Rubin is yet another testimony to the weakness and loss of national honor on the part of this government. An immediate demand that the murderers be handed over must be made.”

Nachi Ayal, who directs the Land of Israel Legal Forum, said the decision constitutes an open invitation to terrorists to attack any citizen of Israel, since in exchange they will be presented with a vacation sponsored by the Palestinian Authority. “For the first time, Israel is not demanding the custody of the murderers of Israelis. We are witnessing the shirking of the most basic responsibility of a government to its citizens.”

Here is an issue that takes on more urgency in light of the Siljander case. "Terror's financiers," by Rachel Ehrenfeld and Alyssa A. Lappen in the Washington Times (thanks to Sr. Soph):

[...] So far, no U.S. official at any level, including presidential candidates from both parties, has publicly addressed how radical Muslim groups and Islamic terror organizations raise major sums to facilitate the murder of Americans in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, among other things.

Two years ago, President Bush denounced "the murderous ideology of the Islamic radicals [which] is the great challenge of our century." But U.S. dependency on Middle East oil made the Saudis and their Gulf neighbors rich beyond their wildest dreams. Saudi funding propagates global Islamist extremism that former CIA Director James Woolsey describes as "the soil in which al Qaeda and its sister terrorist organizations are flourishing." The September 11 commission awarded the government an A- for its "vigorous efforts against terror financing," both in 2003, and again in its October 2005 progress report.

In fact, government efforts thus far have apparently targeted the wrong funding sources. The vast Middle East sums feeding the global spread of radical Islam and jihad have not diminished. Yet, our government tells us, the Saudis and their neighbors are U.S. allies.

Such disinformation, combined with outdated monitoring technologies and systems, contributes to continuing government failure to secure U.S. financial institutions, economic stability and national security.

Government agencies have long warned of the federal failure to properly monitor and impede funds flowing to terrorist organizations. These include several GAO reports and a May 21 IRS report criticizing government ability to identify charities favored by radical Muslims to fund terrorism.

"The IRS provides only minimal assurance that tax-exempt organizations potentially involved in terrorist activities are being identified," it says. Furthermore, the report recommends that the IRS and other agencies "develop and implement a long-term strategy to automate the process... to identify potential terrorist activities related to tax-exempt organizations." Another major issue slipping under the radar concerns the growing influence of petrodollars on U.S. economic institutions, banks, markets and government agencies....

Ain't Eurabia grand?

"Muslim Councillor Tells Rotterdammer: 'Shut Up, Minority,'" from NISNews (thanks to WriterMom):

ROTTERDAM, 17/01/08 - Labour (PvdA) politician Bouchra Ismaili has reviled a citizen of Rotterdam in an e-mail. The man was told that as a member of the white minority in his district, he should not complain about the Islamic organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Ismaili, who has Moroccan nationality, is a council member for PvdA in the Rotterdam district council of Charlois. "You are the immigrants here!!!", she wrote to the white man who drew her attention by e-mail to statements by the controversial Muslim organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir. Ismali also wrote in her e-mail reply to the man: 'Drop dead,' and 'convert to Islam,' Algemeen Dagblad reported yesterday.

Ismaili has had her knuckles rapped by vice-party leader of the PvdA district council party in Charlois, Marco van Dijck. But he has not asked her to resign from the council.

Ismaili says she sent the e-mail in a burst of anger. "I do not want to justify it, but as a Muslim politician, I have for years been harassed by mail from extreme right figures. Normally speaking, I throw them away unread. When I saw the mail at home, something broke in me. All the more because I had heard someone that day say that all Moroccans should be dead. For me, this was the last straw."

Jos Parbleu, the man that received the e-mail from Ismaili, sent hundreds of local politicians an e-mail with statements by Okay Pala of Hizb ut-Tahrir. He is concerned about the rise of this movement, which is monitored by the AIVD secret service. The e-mail from Ismaili that he got back "shows the frightfully disastrous situation in which our country has landed!", he said in the newspaper.

Indeed.

"This isn’t an Islamic problem. This is a jihadist problem," said Mike Huckabee recently. Rudolph Giuliani spoke of “the way they’ve perverted their religion into a hatred of us.” In that, both men are reflecting the conventional wisdom -- conventional wisdom which, if you dare to transgress, you become a pariah. Everyone, you see, knows that whatever it is we're facing around the world today, it has nothing to do with Islam. If you don't see that, you're just a bigoted "Islamophobe."

Fuad Hodzic, meanwhile, asks the court to pray, accuses his enemies of betraying Islam, and says, "I’m Allah’s slave." This may indeed be, as Giuliani asserts, a perversion of Islam, but its adherents claim to be the exponents of true, pure, real Islam -- as Hodzic clearly does here. Waving away the Islamic component of this appeal, as Huckabee, Giuliani, and pretty much everyone else does, only weakens our ability to counter this threat. For until some counter to this claim of Islamic purity is formulated -- by peaceful Muslims who dare to stand up for human rights, and more importantly by non-Muslims who dare to point out and oppose the ways in which Sharia denies those human rights -- this claim will continue to win recruits among Muslims. Merely asserting that it isn't Islamic, in the teeth of so much evidence, does nothing to stop that.

"Serbia: Wahabi terror suspect displays religious fervour in court," from AKI (thanks to all who sent this in):

Belgrade, 16 Jan. (AKI) – The trial of 15 members of radical Islamist Wahabi movement saw a rare display of religious fervour in a Belgrade court on Wednesday.

One of the accused, Fuad Hodzic, before entering a plea on charges of terrorism and illegal arms possession asked the court to bow and say a prayer before refuting charges against him. He said the indictment was a charade.

The group members are alleged to have operated a terrorist training camp in the Ninaja mountain in southwest Sandzak region and have been charged with planning terrorist attacks on the American embassy in Belgrade, a theatre and a hotel in Serbian capital.

They are also alleged to have planned an attack on a police station in Novi Pazar, Sandzak's commercial and administrative centre.

According to the indictment, they also planned the murder of Sandzak mufti Muarem Zukorlic whom they accused of betraying Islam and of being an American spy.

“We were planning no terrorist attacks, nor the murder of the mufti Muamer Zukorlic,” Hodzic told the court.

“I swear to Allah, there are boys here who wouldn’t even know how to return home from here, let alone finding the American embassy,” he said.

He said the group moved to the mountain hideout because Zukorlic banned them from Novi Pazar mosque. He said Zukorlic was a “Jewish and American spy” who was hiding behind Islam.

According to the indictment, Hodzic told the police who arrested him in March last year: “You are my enemy and I don’t recognise this state and law, but only Allah the supreme.

"For you, I’m Bin Laden, your deadly enemy,” he told police. “I’m Allah’s slave, and you are the slave to money and your job.”...

During Ali Ahmed Karti's visit to Washington. Siljander says in this 2006 article that he didn't know anything about Karti's connections.

Background on the Siljander case: "Sudanese Official Is a No-Show at State Department," by Glenn Kessler for the Washington Post, May 13, 2006 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi E. Frazer planned to meet yesterday at the State Department with a top Sudanese official linked by human rights groups to the violence in Sudan's Darfur region that the Bush administration has labeled as genocide. But the official, deputy foreign minister Ali Ahmed Karti, did not show up for the meeting, a State Department spokesman said.

David Sims, a spokesman for the Africa bureau headed by Frazer, said a meeting had been planned but Karti "just decided he didn't want to make it." Frazer, who last week was in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, for intensive talks that led to a tentative peace agreement on Darfur, did not have qualms about meeting with Karti, Sims said.

Human rights groups say that Karti, though he now holds the title of state minister for foreign affairs, was the head of the Popular Defense Forces, a paramilitary group that fought alongside the militia known as the Janjaweed during a campaign of terror that has now resulted in as many as 450,000 deaths and driven more than 2 million from their homes. Some experts have said they believe his name is on the secret list of 51 names referred by the United Nations to the International Criminal Court for possible prosecution for war crimes.

[...]

Besides his alleged role in Darfur, Human Rights Watch documented that Karti was involved in the scorched-earth clearances in the oil regions of southern Sudan, beginning in 1998, as part of the long-running civil war in the south. A report on the campaign said that "PDF coordinating director Ali Ahmad Karti read out the names of the brigades that had been sent to the field, including the 'Protectors of the Oil Brigade,' and promised that more brigades would be created."

Sims said that Karti was granted a visa for a private visit to the United States and was a guest of former congressman Mark D. Siljander (R-Mich.). But Siljander said he knew little about Karti's schedule and had only arranged his attendance at a congressional prayer breakfast this week. He said that Karti planned to stay for two to three weeks and had told him he wanted to meet with State Department officials.

Siljander expressed surprise regarding the allegations about Karti's past. "I don't know anything about that," he said. "As far as I knew, he was in the cabinet."...

It was, at worst, a stupid and tasteless joke, and Arshad Mahmood reacted to it in a kind and mature manner. For the politically correct authorities, however, it was no laughing matter at all.

"Muslim PC laughs off Secret Santa gift of bacon... but bosses force friend who gave it to quit," by Duncan Robertson and Colin Fernandez at the Daily Mail (thanks to Ruth King):

A Muslim police officer given bacon and wine as a Secret Santa gift decided to treat it as a harmless if tasteless joke. But a non-Muslim colleague failed to show the same level of tolerance.

The officer who supplied the gift, 26-year-old PC Rob Murrie, was reported to his superiors for racism.

And PC Murrie subsequently came under such pressure that he felt he had no option but to resign from the Bedfordshire force.

Yesterday, the target of the joke, 31-year-old Arshad Mahmood, said he still regarded PC Murrie as "a good officer and a good friend", while Muslim community leaders accused police chiefs of "overreacting" to the incident at Luton police station.

The Bedfordshire force has come under intense criticism for its failure to recruit ethnic minority groups despite Luton being one of the most multi-racial areas in Britain - one of the reasons it was rated last year as the worst force in the country.

PC Mahmood, who joined the force in September 2005, said that about 18 of his colleagues had decided to join in the Secret Santa - where each member of a group is given the name of another to supply with an anonymous gift.

"We opened our presents in the canteen at breakfast time on Christmas Day. The gifts were chosen depending on the person's personality, and cost about £10."

One officer received a bus pass and a timetable because he lived so close to the police station that he did not need a car.

Others received intentionally "boring" presents such as a Parker pen and a pair of socks.

"When I pulled my present out, I did not realise that I had been given a bottle of wine," added PC Mahmood, a married father of one. "As a non-drinker, I thought it was a luxury bottle of orange juice or something.

"Everyone was joking but I thought the packet of bacon was a bit below the belt. Judging from the reaction of everyone else, they thought it was a bit below the belt as well.

"But it was not meant in a malicious way, just a bit of banter."...

Read it all.

On this video (thanks to Sr. Soph), indicted former Congressman Mark Siljander discusses the importance of the Fiqh Council of North America's condemnation of terrorism. Here is a discussion of the vagueness and inadequacy of that fatwa.

Islamic Tolerance Alert. Calling out the security forces against missionaries seems a bit excessive. It is yet another manifestation of the deep insecurity we see again and again at the heart of Islam today. Instead of engaging opponents on the level of ideas, Muslim spokesmen smear them. Instead of shrugging off insults and slights, or perceived insults and slights like cartoons of Muhammad and teddy bears named after him, all too many react with murderous fury. And here, while "counterpropaganda" is mentioned, the Islamic clerics who developed this plan are not dealing solely in the realm of discussion and debate: citizens are also to report missionary activity, and the whole thing is treated the way the old Soviet Union treated anything that it considered a threat to its very life.

From "El-Khabar", via WorldWide Religious News (thanks to Dav):

Algiers, Algeria - An Algerian security forces team is examining a new program for fighting missionary activity, to be submitted to Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

The program, which was prepared by clerics, includes encouraging citizens to report missionary activity and efforts to raise funds to support indigent individuals considering converting to Christianity, and counterpropaganda in order to point out the contradictions and heresy in Christianity and Judaism.

The main region of concern is Kabylia, but missionary activity is taking place also in other regions of the country.

In the featured article at FrontPage this morning, I discuss what we know at this point about the Mark Siljander case:

Former U.S. Congressman Mark Deli Siljander (R-MI) was indicted Wednesday for money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice, in connection with charges that a Muslim charity, the Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA), was involved in efforts to finance the Afghan jihad terrorist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The IARA was named a specially designated global terrorist organization by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2004.

John F. Wood, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, declared: "An organization right here in the American heartland allegedly sent funds to Pakistan for the benefit of a specially designated global terrorist with ties to al-Qaeda and the Taliban.... The indictment also alleges that a former congressman engaged in money laundering and obstruction of a federal investigation in an effort to disguise IARA's misuse of taxpayer money that the government had provided for humanitarian purposes."

According to the indictment, the IARA sent around $130,000 to bank accounts controlled by its parent organization, the Islamic Relief Agency (ISRA), in Peshawar, Pakistan, where the money went to Hekmatyar's activities. The ISRA's headquarters are in Khartoum, Sudan, with the Columbia, Missouri-based IARA as its American office until it was shut down. According to the Treasury Department, "IARA is formerly affiliated with Maktab Al-Khidamat (MK), which was co-founded and financed by UBL [Osama bin Laden] and is the precursor organization of al Qaida." The IARA has also funneled money to Hamas.

Here's a pdf of the indictment itself, and here's the DOJ press release on the Siljander indictment (thanks to Timothy):

KANSAS CITY -- A federal grand jury in the Western District of Missouri has returned a superseding indictment that charges the Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA) and several of its former officers with eight new counts of engaging in prohibited financial transactions for the benefit of U.S.-designated terrorist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The indictment also charges former U.S. Congressman Mark Deli Siljander with money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice in the case.

The 42-count superseding indictment returned today was announced by Kenneth L. Wainstein, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; John F. Wood, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri; Joseph Billy, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division; and Monte C. Strait, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Kansas City Field Office.

“This superseding indictment paints a troubling picture of an American charity organization that engaged in transactions for the benefit of terrorists and conspired with a former United States Congressman to convert stolen federal funds into payment for his advocacy on behalf of the charity,” said Assistant Attorney General Wainstein.

“An organization right here in the American heartland allegedly sent funds to Pakistan for the benefit of a specially designated global terrorist with ties to al-Qaeda and the Taliban,” said U.S. Attorney Wood. “By bringing this case in the middle of America, we seek to make it harder for terrorists to do business halfway around the globe. The indictment also alleges that a former congressman engaged in money laundering and obstruction of a federal investigation in an effort to disguise IARA’s misuse of taxpayer money that the government had provided for humanitarian purposes.”

IARA, the Islamic charitable organization named in today’s indictment, was headquartered in Columbia, Mo., and was formerly known as the Islamic African Relief Agency-USA. IARA was officially formed in 1985 and closed in October 2004, when it was identified by the U.S. Treasury Department as a specially designated global terrorist organization. Mubarak Hamed, 51, of Columbia, Mo., a naturalized U.S. citizen from Sudan, served as IARA’s former executive director and is named as a defendant in the indictment.

Also charged in today’s superseding indictment is Mark Deli Siljander, 57, a former U.S. Congressman from Michigan (1981-87) who serves as the owner/director of Global Strategies, Inc., a planning, marketing and public relations company located in the Washington, D.C. area.

Other defendants named in the indictment are Ali Mohamed Bagegni, 53, formerly of Columbia, Mo, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Libya and a former member of IARA’s board of directors; Ahmad Mustafa, 55, of Columbia, a citizen of Iraq, and a former fund-raiser for IARA; Khalid Al-Sudanee, 56, a citizen and resident of Jordan, and the regional director of the Middle East office of the Islamic African Relief Agency (also known as the Islamic Relief Agency, or ISRA); and Abdel Azim El-Siddig, 51, of Palos Heights, Ill., a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Sudan, and formerly vice president for international operations for IARA.

On March 6, 2007, IARA, along with five officers, employees and associates were charged in a 33-count indictment for illegally transferring funds to Iraq in violation of federal sanctions. They were also charged with stealing government funds, with misusing IARA’s charitable status to raise funds for an unlawful purpose, and with attempting to avoid government detection of their illegal activities by, among other things, falsely denying in a nationally-televised interview that a procurement agent of Osama bin Laden had been an employee of IARA. These charges are included in the superseding indictment returned today.

New Terrorism-Related Charges Against IARA

Today’s superseding indictment adds to the original charges by alleging that IARA and its former executive director, Mubarak Hamed, engaged in prohibited financial transactions for the benefit of Specially Designated Global Terrorist, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an Afghan mujahideen leader and founder of the Hezb-e-Islami-Gulbuddin (HIG), who has participated in and supported terrorist acts by al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Hekmatyar has vowed to engage in a holy war against the United States and international troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. government designated Hekmatyar as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist on Feb. 19, 2003, thereby blocking all property and interests in property of Hekmatyar.

According to Counts Thirty-Four through Forty-One of the new indictment, IARA and Hamed knowingly and willfully engaged in financial transactions for the benefit of Hekmatyar’s organization by sending approximately $130,000 in 2003 and 2004 in numerous transactions to Islamic Relief Agency (ISRA) bank accounts in Peshawar, Pakistan, purportedly for an orphanage housed in buildings owned and controlled by Hekmatyar.

“Sending money to benefit designated terrorists jeopardizes both U.S. national security and the security of nations around the world,” said Assistant Director Joseph Billy, Jr., FBI Counterterrorism Division. “The FBI will continue to work diligently with our partners in the law enforcement and intelligence community to pursue suspected terrorists and their supporters, whether in the United States or overseas.”

It is important to note that the indictment does not charge any of the defendants with material support of terrorism, nor does it allege that they knowingly financed acts of terror. Instead, the indictment alleges that some of the defendants engaged in financial transactions that benefited property controlled by a designated terrorist, in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

New Charges Against Former Congressman

Today’s superseding indictment also names Mark Deli Siljander as a defendant on counts of money laundering, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice. According to the indictment, Siljander was hired in March 2004 by defendants IARA, Hamed, and Bagegni to advocate for the removal of IARA from a U.S. Senate Finance Committee list of non-profit organizations suspected of being involved in supporting international terrorism.

The Senate Finance Committee placed IARA on this list of charities and published the list on Jan. 14, 2004. Siljander was to advocate for IARA’s removal from the list and reinstatement as an approved government contractor by gathering information and meeting with individuals and agencies of the U.S. government.

As compensation for the services that Siljander agreed to perform, IARA transferred roughly $50,000 in stolen federal funds to accounts that were controlled by Siljander at the National Heritage Foundation and the International Foundation. According to the indictment, the funds used to compensate Siljander for his services had previously been stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) by IARA, Hamed and Bagegni. The International Foundation and the National Heritage Foundation, which is not related to the Heritage Foundation, are not charged with any wrongdoing in this case.

IARA, Hamed and Bagegni had previously entered into a series of agreements with USAID for relief projects in Mali, Africa. When USAID terminated those agreements in December 1999, the amount of money involved totaled approximately $2 million. IARA had allegedly failed to fully fund the matching contributions required to receive USAID funds. After the termination of these agreements, the indictment alleges, IARA, Hamed and Bagegni, without authorization, retained approximately $84,922 of USAID money and failed to return the funds to USAID as called for by the agreements.

According to Count Twenty-Eight of the indictment, Siljander and defendants IARA, Hamed, Bagegni and El-Siddig conspired to engage in money laundering by transferring stolen USAID funds, knowing that the transfers were designed to conceal the nature, source and ownership of the proceeds. Counts Twenty-Nine through Thirty-One of the indictment charge Siljander along with IARA, Hamed, Bagegni and El-Siddig with engaging in money laundering by transferring stolen USAID funds, knowing that the transfers were designed to conceal the nature, source and ownership of the proceeds.

Obstruction of Justice

Count Thirty-Two of the indictment alleges that Siljander obstructed the due administration of justice in the grand jury investigation in the Western District of Missouri by making false statements to FBI agents in December 2005 and to FBI agents and federal prosecutors in April 2007.

According to the indictment, Siljander told federal officials that he had not been hired to do any lobbying or advocacy work for IARA and that the money or checks he received from IARA were charitable “donations” intended to assist him in writing a book about bridging the gap between Islam and Christianity. When he made these statements, he then well knew and believed that each statement was false, the indictment alleges.

The public is cautioned that the charges contained in this indictment are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence. The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, IRS-Criminal Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. AID-Office of Inspector General.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony P. Gonzalez from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri, in conjunction with Trial Attorneys Corey J. Smith, National Security Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and Steven M. Mohlhenrich, Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Arafat (left) with Siljander (right)

"We were the first white American Christians to speak on a Friday afternoon at the Khartoum mosque. That happened, not because we're so good looking, but because we built bridges of respect," said Siljander in November 2007. That comes from a very illuminating article in which he describes his evolution from a born-again Christian who aggressively proselytized among Muslims to a Christian apologist for Islam who sees no contradictions between what the Bible and the Qur'an say about Jesus.

Is he still building those bridges?

"AP: Former Congressman, U.N. Delegate Indicted as Part of Terrorist Fundraising Ring," from AP:

WASHINGTON -- A former congressman and delegate to the United Nations was indicted Wednesday as part of a terrorist fundraising ring that allegedly sent more than $130,000 to an al-Qaida and Taliban supporter who has threatened U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan.

The former Republican congressman from Michigan, Mark Deli Siljander, was charged with money laundering, conspiracy and obstructing justice for allegedly lying about lobbying senators on behalf of an Islamic charity that authorities said was secretly sending funds to terrorists.

A 42-count indictment, unsealed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo., accuses the Islamic American Relief Agency of paying Siljander $50,000 for the lobbying -- money that turned out to be stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development....

UPDATE: Here's an interesting article from 2005:

Edinburgh Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies - Special Lectures 2005

Dr. Mark Siljander will present two lectures this week, in a series entitled "The place of Muslim-Christian dynamic in international negotiations".

[...]

Ambassador Siljander is a student of several languages, including Arabic, Aramaic, Hebrew, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, and has spent over ten years studying the Scriptures of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

These experiences have led him to develop what he describes as "a unique paradigm for the peaceful resolution of conflict that has been successfully applied in several challenging areas of the globe".

Unique indeed!

In 1996 he received the 1996 Mohandas K. Gandhi International Peace Award, for "...recognition of his courageous statesmanship in international reconciliation."

Congressman Siljander is affiliated academically with the Edinburgh Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies.

Iran is planning on submerging the tomb of King Cyrus (Coresh), the Persian King known for authorizing the Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Holy Temple….

The Iranian ayatollahs are planning on destroying the tomb as part of a general campaign to sever the Persian people from their non-Islamic heritage; Cyrus was thought to be a Zoroastrian and was one of the first rulers to enforce a policy of religious tolerance on his huge kingdom. Journalist Ran Porat quoted a young Iranian who said that the measures being taken by the Islamic Republic’s regime include the destruction of archaeological sites significant to this heritage. -- from this article

This is merely Islam as Islam has always been: at best indifferent to, at worst actively hostile to, all that is pre-Islamic or non-Islamic in the history or traditions or civilizations of lands now dominated by Islam and ruled by Muslims. And this indifference, or this hostility, is shown in the deliberate destruction of monuments and religious sites.

It is all one vast Jahiliyya, or Time of Ignorance. Over 1350 years, despite the so-called status as "Protected peoples," the Christians and Jews endured, in the Middle East and North Africa, the destruction of churches (where was Tertullian from? And where St. Augustine?) and synagogues. In India, tens of thousands of Hindu temples and temple complexes were the main victims of Islamic destruction, though Jain temples, and Buddhist temples and stupas, were also destroyed. In the East Indies, which was once Hindu and Buddhist, how many of those Hindu and Buddhist structures have survived?

A welcome turn of events on the firing of Stephen Coughlin. "Congressmen Seek Answers about Terror Expert's Firing," by Fred Lucas for CNSNews.com (thanks to all who sent this in):

(CNSNews.com) - Members of Congress are seeking more information regarding the firing of a top terrorism expert at the Pentagon following reports that he was dismissed for being too critical of Islamic law.

Earlier this month, the Pentagon Joint Staff told Stephen Coughlin, a specialist on Islamic law at the Pentagon, that his contract would not be renewed in March. The firing apparently resulted from pressure by pro-Muslim officials working in the Department of Defense, according to numerous news reports.

Meanwhile, members of Congress have not had much success in getting answers from the Pentagon either, said Rep. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.), co-chair of the bi-partisan House Anti-Terrorism Caucus.

"We want to get to the bottom of this," Myrick told Cybercast News Service Tuesday. "We are contacting everyone to see who we can talk to."

Coughlin - who supporters say had one of the most important jobs in analyzing how Jihadists think -- crossed Hasham Islam, an aide to Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, according The Washington Times.

The paper reported, without attribution, that the aide told Coughlin to "soften his view" on radical Islam. When Coughlin refused, Hasham Islam called him a Christian zealot "with a pen," according to the report.

The incomplete reports and near silence from the Pentagon creates the need to get at the truth, Myrick said.

"This sounds like another example of someone protecting national security and being told to shut up," Myrick continued. "If we don't get over being politically correct, we won't be here as a country."

This week, Myrick said she began contacting other co-chairs of the Anti-Terrorism Caucus, such as Rep. Jane Harmon (D-Calif.), Rep. Richard "Bud" Cramer (D-Ala.), and Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas) about setting up a meeting with Coughlin and Pentagon officials to find out the circumstances behind the firing.

Myrick stressed that any congressional inquiry is in the early, talking stages, but she has contacted the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the House Armed Services Committee, and the House Homeland Security Committee to inquire about investigative hearings into the case....

Excellent news. Read it all.

Poverty and Ignorance Cause Terrorism Update. This time it's a diplomat's son, a computer expert. From the Daily Mail (thanks to Frank the Great):

A computer nerd from Shepherd's Bush, West London, became al Qaeda's top internet agent, it can be revealed today.

Younes Tsouli, 23, an IT student at a London college, used his top-floor flat in W12 to help Islamist extremists wage a propaganda war against the West.

Under the name Irhabi 007 — combining the James Bond reference with the Arabic for terrorist — he worked with al Qaeda leaders in Iraq and came up with a way to convert often gruesome videos into a form that could be put onto the Web.

Videos he posted included messages from Osama bin Laden and images of the kidnapping and murder of hostages in Iraq such as American Nick Berg.

His capture led to the arrest of several Islamic terrorists around the world, including 17 men in Canada and two in the US.

Associates linked to Tsouli in the UK have also now been detained. His 10-year jail sentence was increased to 16 years last month.

At first intelligence operatives who came across his activities dismissed him as a joke. It was only when anti-terrorist detectives began trawling through files on his computer after his arrest that they realised his true significance.

Pakistani Jihad Update. "Dozens dead as Islamists capture Pakistan fort," from AFP (thanks to all who sent this in):

WANA, Pakistan (AFP) - Hundreds of Islamist militants overran a Pakistani paramilitary fort near the Afghan border Wednesday, sparking fierce fighting that left seven troops and up to 50 rebels dead, the army said.

Another 20 troops were missing after insurgents armed with rocket launchers and assault rifles blasted their way into the remote outpost at Sararogha town in the rugged South Waziristan tribal district.

The area is said to be a stronghold of Baitullah Mehsud, a tribal warlord with alleged links to Al-Qaeda who is accused by the government of masterminding the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

"Around midnight 400 miscreants attacked the Frontier Corps at Sararogha. The fort was captured by militants, we are taking stock of the situation," chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told AFP.

"There are reports of 40 to 50 dead miscreants, while seven personnel embraced martyrdom."

Martyrdom?

He was just out for a casual strive in the countryside. If his name were Joe Christian Fundamentalist, we'd have cause to be concerned.

By Edith Bevin for The Daily Telegraph (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

A MAN who had ammunition in his pocket and a loaded pistol on the back seat of his car when he was pulled over told police he was, "going hunting with my uncle".

The gun was ready to fire when police pulled over Mahmud Jihad, 26, in Rooty Hill on Tuesday.

Also in a bag in the back seat was a tazer, Mount Druitt local court heard yesterday.

A further three pistols - including a Russian semi-automatic - were found when police raided Jihad's Shalvey home later the same day.

Along with the cache of guns and ammunition found in the bedroom of the builder's labourer, was $59,550 in cash.

Jihad yesterday faced court on 15 charges, including having a firearm in a public place.

The court heard Jihad was sentenced to 12 months' jail in 2005 for similar offences.

Or, as Kathy Shaidle puts it, "Publish stuff we don't like, and we'll kill you."

"Top Syrian cleric says media can cause war," from AFP (thanks to Five Feet of Fury):

STRASBOURG (AFP) - Syria's top Sunni Muslim cleric urged the media Tuesday to use caution when reporting on religion, saying that the choice and timing of a report can cause a war.

"A simple piece of information can spark a war. If a man dies because of information that you have made public, his death will be on your conscience," Shiekh Ahmed Badreddin Hassun told reporters at the European Parliament.

His remarks came in response to questions about the 2005 crisis when satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed first published in Denmark caused an uproar in the Muslim world, resulting in protests and several deaths.

The Grand Mufti expressed regret over what he said was the "instrumentalisation of this dossier, which arose from a simple, isolated case."

He doesn't seem to have said anything about the three cartoons that were much more incendiary than the ones that were actually printed in the paper, and which were added into this dossier by Islamic clerics. Instead, it's all the media's fault:

"Some television stations chose Friday, one hour before prayers" to broadcast the story, he said, adding that "there are media who want to create a conflict" between the West and the Muslim world....

He loved death, and now he has it.

"Israelis kill senior Islamic Jihad leader," from CNN (thanks to all who sent this in):

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli troops killed a senior leader with Islamic Jihad Wednesday, an Israel Defense Forces spokesman said.

Soldiers were trying to arrest Walid Obeidi when they were met with gunfire and fired back, the spokesman said. The soldiers killed Obeidi and arrested another militant after the gun battle in the northern West Bank, the IDF said.

Obeidi led the military wing of the extremist Islamic Jihad in the West Bank....

An announcement from America's Truth Forum:

Internationally recognized counterterrorism experts and nationally recognized pro-US advocates are endorsing the third in a national series of educational symposiums on the threat of radical Islam as providing critical information that every American should consume.

America's Truth Forum, in association with Basics Project, is proud to announce the third in the original national symposium series on the threat of radical Islam, Exposing the Threat of Islamist Terrorism, February 1 & 2 in the Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas.

Caroline Glick, Deputy Managing Editor, Jerusalem Post & Senior Fellow for the Center for Security Policy:

“As the 2008 presidential elections heat up it is clear that America and the world need for the American people to be sufficiently educated about the dangers of the 21st century that arise from the global jihad... America’s Truth Forum upcoming symposium, “Exposing the threat of Islamist terrorism,” will provide an essential service to the public... By bringing experts from a wide variety of fields and professional backgrounds together under one roof, America’s Truth Forum & Basics Project will provide the public with an opportunity to learn about what the media doesn’t report...Only by understanding these dangers will the American people be able to ensure that the next President will be a leader who understands and is committed to defending the United States and the rest of the Free World against the threat posed by the forces of jihad at home and around the world.”

Dr. Harvey Kushner, Chairman of Criminal Justice Dept. of Long Island University, best-selling author, advisor to the FBI and FAA:

“There is no shortage of blogs addressing the dangers of our Islamic enemies; however, there are just two organizations, America’s Truth Forum and Basics Project bringing the major issues related to Islamic terrorism directly to the people. Their meetings bring important, unvarnished information directly to the people impacted the most – the general public. The latter has been fed a varnished, politically correct, explanation of terrorism, not the real issue – the destruction of our ability to identify our enemy: the substitution of our Judeo-Christian values for Sharia law, ATF and Basics Project are the only organizations I know that visit different parts to allow people to interact directly with experts. This traveling road show must continue.”

Robert Spencer, Director of Jihad Watch, best-selling author and expert on radical Islam:

“The symposiums produced by America’s Truth Forum and Basics Project are one of the few occasions during which Americans can – without politically correct trimming and distortion – learn the truth about the nature and magnitude of the jihad threat and what we can do to resist Islamic supremacism. At a time when both liberal and conservative media figures resist telling these truths, whether out of ignorance, fear or both, these events serve as a time when some of the leading spokesmen of the counter-jihad movement can be heard at length.”

G.Gordon Liddy, nationally syndicated radio show host and pro-Western advocate:

"Were it not absolutely necessary that I be in Washington, I would absolutely attend the forthcoming America's Truth Forum/Basics Project event in Dallas. I know Caroline Glick and Frank Gaffney personally and would never miss a presentation of either of them. In Dallas you'll get to hear them both, on subjects of the utmost importance to our nation and to you. Be there!"

Capt. Larry Bailey, USN (ret.) and Chairman of the Gathering of Eagles:

“...nothing less is at stake than Western Civilization. That sounds over the top, but if one reads the news, it becomes clear that radical Islam is the greatest threat the West has confronted in centuries – Naziism and Communism notwithstanding. The Dallas symposium enables Americans to understand the nature of the threat and how to combat it.”

Don’t miss the seminal educational event February 1st & 2nd in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area: Exposing the Threat of Islamist Terrorism.

Scheduled to speak:
-- Frank Gaffney, Founder and President Center for Security Policy
-- Caroline Glick, Deputy Managing Editor, Jerusalem Post & Senior Fellow for the Center for Security Policy
-- David Harris, President of Democracy House & Former Chief of Strategic Planning of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service
-- Dr. Harvey Kushner, Chairman of Criminal Justice Dept. of Long Island University, best-selling author, advisor to the FBI and FAA
-- Laura Mansfield, Middle Eastern linguistic expert and investigative reporter specializing in jihadi activity both domestic and foreign
-- Dr. Moorthy Muthuswamy, Nuclear Physicist, Internationally recognized critic of political Islam
-- Atty. David Schippers, Former Chief Investigative Counsel for the US House Judiciary Committee, author, counter-terrorism expert
-- Robert Spencer, Director of Jihad Watch, best-selling author and expert on radical Islam
-- Dr. Wafa Sultan, Syrian-American Psychologist and internationally known critic of militant Islam
-- Dr. Bruce Tefft, Founding member of CIA’s Counterterrorism Task Force
-- Dr. Paul Williams, Former FBI consultant, best-selling author and investigative journalist
-- Roger Hedgecock, Emcee, Nationally syndicated radio talk show host
-- Michael Gallagher, Emcee, Nationally syndicated radio talk show host

Tickets for Friday evenings VIP reception are $119. Tickets for the Saturday symposium are $149. For more information on the event, to reserve your seat or purchase tickets logon to www.AmericasTruthForum.com.

There are so many fantasies involved in the fantasy-based policymaking that Bush and Rice are pursuing relentlessly against Israel, it is hard to keep track of them all. Abbas is supposed to be the moderate, who wants peaceful coexistence with Israel. He is supposed to be adamantly opposed to Hamas, and indeed, determined ultimately to eradicate Hamas's influence from Gaza and elsewhere and bring the whole of the new Palestinian state under the moderate, benign rule of Fatah, whereupon Palestinians and Israelis will live side by side, together in peace, happily ever after.

To get to this Valhalla, of course, Abbas is going to have to pursue armed warfare against Hamas -- which is why the Americans and the Israelis have been supplying Fatah with weapons. So when Israel moves against Hamas jihadists, the Israelis are doing Abbas's work for him. He should thank them.

Instead, he talks about a "crime" against his people. This in itself should be enough to collapse the whole charade, and end this "peace process." But of course, that "process" will just keep sailing on. Too many legacies at stake.

"Israeli forces kill 18 Palestinians in Gaza," by Nidal al-Mughrabi for Reuters (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

GAZA (Reuters) - Israel killed at least 18 Palestinians, most of them Hamas militants, in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, in violence the Palestinian Authority said was a "slap in the face" to U.S. President George W. Bush's peace efforts.

A volunteer from Ecuador, working on an Israeli kibbutz, or farming community, bordering the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, was killed by a Palestinian sniper near the frontier fence. Hamas claimed responsibility for shooting the man.

The violence, four days after Bush ended a visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank, resulted in the highest number of Palestinians killed in a single day since late 2006. Israel said it mounted the operation to curb rocket attacks from Gaza.

In a statement, the West Bank-based Palestinian government said Israel's "ugly crimes were a slap in the face" to efforts by Bush and the international community to resume peacemaking that would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state.

"There was a massacre today against our people, and we say to the world that our people will not remain silent against such crimes," said Abbas.

Hamas's armed wing claimed responsibility for firing rockets into Israel on Tuesday for the first time since the Islamist group routed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah forces to take control of the Gaza Strip in June....

A global movement of these folks, and we might be getting somewhere. Taslima Nasreen Update: "'Secular' Muslims want Taslima back in Kolkata," from IANS (thanks to lgn):

Kolkata: A section of secular Muslims on Monday spearheaded a move to bring controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen back to the city from where she was shunted out by West Bengal's ruling communists following street riots late last year.

Ostensibly for her own security, Taslima Nasreen has been kept virtually in seclusion by the central government at a 'safe house' somewhere in New Delhi.

The Dharmamukto Manabbadi Mancha (DMM) (Secular Humanist Forum), an organization of "secular" Muslims, Monday demanded that Taslima be allowed to return to the city.

"Taslima should not be kept under house arrest like now. She should get back her normal life and immediately allowed to return to Kolkata," said Giyasuddin, president, DMM. The meeting was attended by eminent writer Mahasweta Devi.

"A wrong campaign is doing the rounds. Everywhere it is being circulated that the Muslims want her out of the city. But those who took part in the street riots on Nov 21 that triggered her ouster from the city were hired rowdies. Not every Muslim locality of Kolkata had taken to the streets," he said.

"It is an insult to the Muslim society when it is said that the Muslims want her out of Kolkata or India. Some self-declared representatives of the Muslims should not have the last word," he said.

"Maulana Bukhari, the imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid, had gone to Nandigram as an envoy of the West Bengal chief minister, but he was rejected by the Muslims of Nandigram. Imams alone do not represent the Muslims," Giyasuddin said.

"We also demand that besides adequate security arrangements for her, she should also be allowed to visit the Kolkata Book Fair beginning Jan 30 and action taken against those clerics who issued a fatwa (decree) to kill her," Giyasuddin said.

It's a start.

"Middle East expert Martin Kramer suggests that Pape's theses may be comforting to Western readers who want to believe that if only the United States were to pull its military forces from the Persian Gulf and if only all occupation in the Middle East would end, that there would be no more suicide bombings." -- from this article

This is exactly what successive Israeli governments have done -- none as horrifically as the present government, of course -- in believing in negotiations, and Israeli concessions, and Israeli silences about Israel's legal, moral, and historic claim, and Israeli silence, or still worse wilful ignorance, about the texts, tenets, attitudes of Islam that explain the war against Israel. That war has no end, has no "solution," but can be contained, if only the Israeli government, and other Infidel governments, see things aright and do nothing to encourage Arab and Muslim triumphalism, do nothing further to whet, not sate, Arab appetites, and recognize the grim truth that it is not through concessions, but only through overwhelming, implacable superiority in power, and especially military power, that the Arabs and Muslims will, most unwillingly, most begrudgingly, and, as they see it, "temporarily," accept the situation. But if they are given further concessions, resulting in further Israeli weakness, they will never acquiesce, never accept even "temporarily" the existence of Israel.

The peace can be kept, but only if Israel recognizes the peace-keeping will be done on the basis of the Arab and Muslim acceptance of the principle of "Darura" -- Necessity. (Google "Darura" for more.)

And just as in Israel, in the United States, and in many other Infidel lands, those who have a duty to instruct and protect others would much prefer to believe that the menace comes not from those who understand Islam, but who “misunderstand” it, or who take an “extreme” rather than perfectly orthodox view of its teachings. They have convinced themselves that Muslims have a discrete and legitimate list of complaints, and if only we meet them half-way, and show that we are willing to recognize and meet those complaints, all manner of things shall be well. And since we have it in our power not to change Islam, it is comforting to believe, to convince oneself to believe, that it is not Islam’s texts and tenets and attitudes that explain the Muslim sense of grievance -- a grievance that we do not everywhere give in to their demands -- but rather something else, such as Israeli behavior, or our behavior, or the French laic state not permitting hijabs, or the inability, apparently, of every Infidel land to integrate its Muslim population even though it somehow manages to do so with its Buddhists, its Hindus, its Confucians, its Bolivian Indians, its everyone-but-Muslims.

The fruit of Eurabia.

From the BBC (thanks to Davida):

One of the biggest threats to US security may now come from within Europe, US Homeland Security head Michael Chertoff has told the BBC.

He said militant attacks and plots in Europe over recent years had made the US aware of the "real risk that Europe will become a platform for terrorists".

Mr Chertoff said it was likely security checks on travellers from Europe would be increased.

But he said steps would be taken to ensure travel and trade were not hit.

In the interview on the BBC's World News America, Mr Chertoff said he had seen "home-grown terrorism begin to rise in Europe".

Indeed. How about thinking about what might be causing this, and what can be done about it?

This is not the first time this has happened, and it is the inevitable result of asking Islamic groups to vet public school textbooks. The textbook manufacturers don't know the pedigrees of the Islamic groups they're dealing with, and they don't know enough actual history themselves to know that what they're being given is heavily biased proselytizing and apologetics, not an honest record.

"Textbook: Islamic 'jihad' means doing good works," by Bob Unruh for WorldNetDaily.com (thanks to all who sent this in):

An Islamic "jihad" is an effort by Muslims to convince "others to take up worthy causes, such as funding medical research," according to a textbook that is being used for junior high age students in California and other states.

And even at its most violent, "jihad" simply is Muslims fighting "to protect themselves from those who would do them harm," says the "History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond" book published by Teachers' Curriculum Institute.

But a parent whose child has been handed the text in a Sacramento district is accusing the publisher of a pro-Muslim bias to the point that Islamic theology has been incorporated into the public school teachings.

"It makes an attempt to seem like an egalitarian world history book, but on closer inspection you find that seven (not all are titled so) of the chapters deal with Islam or Muslim subjects," wrote the parent, whose name was being withheld, in a letter to WND.

Sacramento's students are being taught "jihad" is an effort to convince "others to take up worthy causes."

"The upsetting part is not only do they go into the history (which would be acceptable) but also the teaching of Islam," she said. "This book does not really go into Christianity or the teachings of Christ, nor does it address religious doctrine elsewhere to the degree it does Islam."

She said the book's one page referencing Jews "is only to convey that they were tortured by Crusaders to get them to convert to 'Christianity.' (It fails to mention that the biggest persecutors of Jews throughout history and still today are Arab Muslims). It gives four other one-liner references to the Jews being blamed for the plagues and problems in the land. It does not talk about the Jews as making a significant impact on the culture at large."

"How can the writers of this text get away with this?" she asked.

[...]

One of those experts who contributed to the text, according to the American Textbook Council, which released a scathing indictment of the project, is Ayad Al-Qazzaz.

"Al-Qazzaz is a Muslim apologist, a frequent speaker in Northern California school districts promoting Islam and Arab causes," the ATC review said. "Al-Qazzaz also co-wrote AWAIR's 'Arab World Notebook.' AWAIR stands for Arab World and Islamic Resources, an opaque, proselytizing 'non-profit organization' that conducts teacher workshops and sells supplementary materials to schools."

There is much more. Read it all.

Fort Dix Jihad Update. "New charges added in Fort Dix attack plot case," from AP (thanks to Morgaan Sinclair):

HADDONFIELD, New Jersey (AP) - Five foreign-born Muslims face new charges, including attempted murder, in a case where they stand accused of planning an attack on the U.S. military training base Fort Dix last year.

In a federal indictment handed up Tuesday in U.S. District Court, a grand jury said there was evidence that the men -- three ethnic Albanians from the former Yugoslavia, a Jordanian and a Turk -- tried to kill uniformed members of the military.

The five previously had been charged with conspiracy to commit an attack. That conspiracy charge remains.

When Robert Pape's study of suicide bombings came out a few years ago, many people saw its flaws immediately. Michael Gordon eviscerates Pape's study expertly here. But of course the mainstream media and the learned experts all took Pape's central finding -- that suicide bombings had no connection with Islam and were more common among non-Muslims -- as absolute truth. Many, many time Pape's study has been thrown up to me, as if it somehow negates the jihadist attempt to recruit suicide bombers on the basis of the promise of Paradise to those who "kill and are killed" for Allah (Qur'an 9:111).

But now here is a new piece that shows how Pape cooked his data, in ways that minimized the Islamic aspects of suicide terror.

"Contrasting Secular and Religious Terrorism," by Jonathan Fine in Middle East Quarterly (thanks to drtigay):

Since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, there has been a steady rise in Islamist terrorism. Too many analysts underestimate the ideological basis of terrorism and argue instead that rational-strategic rather than ideological principles motivate Islamist terror groups. Comparison between terrorist groups with secular and religious agendas, however, suggests that ideology matters for both and that downplaying religious inspiration for terrorism in an effort to emphasize tactical motivations is both inaccurate and dangerous.

Some researchers suggest that to understand terrorism it is more important to study what terrorists do rather than what they say.[1] University of Chicago political scientist Robert Pape argues, for example, that Islam has little to do with suicide bombing. Rather, he suggests, that suicide bombers, wherever they are in the world, are motivated much more by tactical goals. He juxtaposes the suicide terrorism of the (non-Islamic) Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) with Islamist suicide bombing to demonstrate that a desire to end occupation is the common factor rather than religion. Therefore, he suggests focus upon religion is a distraction and that policymakers seeking to stop the scourge of suicide attacks should work instead to address root causes, which he sees as the presence of troops or interests in disputed or occupied lands.[2]

Despite the revisionism advanced by Pape and others, the fact remains that most suicide bombings since 1980 in the world in general and in the Middle East in particular are sponsored by Islamist and not secular terrorist groups. Pape avoids this conclusion by gerrymandering his data so that he does not need to include the significant numbers of suicide bombings conducted by Sunnis against Shi‘a in Iraq.[3]

Middle East expert Martin Kramer suggests that Pape's theses may be comforting to Western readers who want to believe that if only the United States were to pull its military forces from the Persian Gulf and if only all occupation in the Middle East would end, that there would be no more suicide bombings. Western thinking admires empirics, metrics, and pie charts. The secular emphasis of Pape's theories also comforts. But comfort does not correlate with reality. Islamism is an ideology, and that it does not fit neatly into existing political theory should be beside the point.[4]

Read it all.

We have heard this before. And it may just be another attempt to claim credit for something that jihadists actually have nothing to do with, the way Al-Qaeda claimed credit for the East Coast blackout a few years ago, in order to "strike terror into the hearts of the enemies of Allah" (Qur'an 8:60). Or it may not be.

Also, don't miss this from Abu Musab Al-Suri: "Jihad is an art just like poetry, music, and the fine arts. There are people that draw and there are others that are jihadists. They both act upon inspiration.”

From the World Tribune (thanks to Morgaan Sinclair):

U.S. officials monitoring terrorist web sites have discovered a call for using forest fires as weapons against “crusader” nations, in what may explain some recent wildfires in places like southern California and Greece.

A terrorist website was discovered recently that carried a posting that called for “Forest Jihad.” The posting was listed on the Internet on Nov. 26 and reported in U.S. intelligence channels last week.

The statement, in Arabic, said that “summer has begun so do not forget the Forest Jihad.”

The writer called on all Muslims in the United States, Europe, Russia and Australia to “start forest fires.”

The posting quoted imprisoned Al Qaida terrorist Abu Musab Al-Suri, as saying “Jihad is an art just like poetry, music, and the fine arts. There are people that draw and there are others that are jihadists. They both act upon inspiration.”

Al-Suri is a senior Al Qaida leader captured in Pakistan in 2005 who is believed to be in U.S. custody.

“The idea of forest fires is attributed to him, may God set him free, as is in this short clip,” the writer stated.

The posting said that setting forest fires were legal under extremist Islamic law as part of a “eye for an eye” and that can produce “amazing results.”

Wildfires in California burned more than 500,000 acres beginning in October and authorities said arson was to blame for some of the fires. In August, wildfires broke out in Greece that authorities say were deliberately set.

The writer stated that it was permissible to burn trees in carrying out jihad.

“Scholars have justified chopping down and burning the infidels' forests when they do the same to our lands,” the writer said.

The writer stated that “targeted forests” are in the nations that “are at war with Muslims,” including the United States, Europe, Russia, and Australia.

Other nations, including Brazil are “off limits” because Brazil has not joined the “armies of the crusade.”

On damage caused by wildfires, the report said that the fires typically take months to put out which means that “this terror will haunt them for an extended period of time.”...

More fantasy-based recommendations from the Secretary of State. Of course, the major problem with this is that it is simply a wish, a hope, while all the actual concessions are being demanded from the Israeli side. Israel has in the past exchanged land for wishes -- notably in Sinai and Gaza. Rice seems intent on making sure it will do it again.

By Terence Hunt and Anne Gearan for Associated Press (thanks to all who sent this in):

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday that Arab nations must do more to reach out to Israel, as a way to do their part to nudge a Mideast peace accord into being.

Rice spoke from Saudi Arabia, at the side of its foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, giving her words and the U.S. position more weight. President Bush, traveling through the Mideast for eight days in part to build support for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, made the same request from Jerusalem earlier in his trip.

She stepped gingerly around the sensitive question of whether the outreach should include Arab countries establishing diplomatic relations with Israel, their historical enemy. The only Arab nations that now have relations with Israel are Jordan and Egypt.

"Diplomatic relations, of course, is another matter and undoubtedly down the road," Rice said. "We hope that as progress is made between Israelis and Palestinians that there will be more efforts, that there will be more opportunity for outreach. But this will move at different speeds for different countries, we understand that."

Saying he will not end his trip to the Middle East alive.

Probably more empty bravado, attempting to "strike terror into the hearts of the enemies of Allah," but as Dr. Rusty Shackleford says, "whenever Islamists talk about dirty bombs it's time to pay it a little attention."

"Bush! The Area Is Not Safe" from Sawt al-Jihad (The Voice of Jihad), with thanks to Dr. Rusty:

Disclaimers The postings in the discussion Blog do not undergo monitoring, and do not necessarily reflect Sawt Al-Jihad’s views

Of course not!

WELL-COME BUSH…

Oh…walk walk Mr Walker Bush…
Check where you walk…
You may die in an ambush…

Oh…walk walk Mr. Walker Bush…
Check around every bush…
you may be killed in a Church…

Oh…walk walk Mr. Walker Bush.
———————
Alexander, the Great-Soldier of Al-Qaeda. 1429 A.H.

Welcome Bush to the holy land where you’re the most hated…Bin Laden can be hated by some weak-hearted people, but he has supporters all over the world…from Philipines to Venezwella…

OH BUSH YOU HAVE NO PLACE ON THE EARTH…

If you get in a church… don’t touch the Grail…there you find some Venom…It’s a dirty bomb… If you pass by a mosque… don’t try to open the door… it’s a full-of expolsive-door…

Bush,

O Coward,

Be careful of every single flower… beautiful flowers which may pick you when you try to scent their odor… ANOTHER dirty bomb with Toxic Gaz…

Be awaited for tasting the bitter that our people tasted on your hands…

No one wants you HERE…You may travel to the moon to escape the force of Busho-hatred…THERE you will find a UFP(undefined flying person) saying ALLAHU AKBAR and exploding your HEAD…

You just can't parody this stuff.

Here, we will receive you with bombs and booby-traps, as we did with your soldiers…

Don’t think that you will be safe on our Land…

This is a promise!

Here you find no place…Men, Nature, Animals and Jinns all want you dead…

BUSH WANTED
DEAD ONLY

Recompense: Eternal Live in HEAVEN.

"The bomb sent a column of smoke into the sky, tore masonry from buildings and destroyed at least six cars in a Christian suburb north of Beirut, as well as damaging the armored four-wheel-drive embassy car."

By Tom Perry for Reuters:

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A car bomb damaged a U.S. diplomatic car in Beirut on Tuesday, killing at least three people and wounding 16, and the U.S. State Department said no Americans died in the blast.

The bomb sent a column of smoke into the sky, tore masonry from buildings and destroyed at least six cars in a Christian suburb north of Beirut, as well as damaging the armored four-wheel-drive embassy car.

The blast coincided with U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to Saudi Arabia as part of a week-long tour of U.S. Middle East allies.

Bush is not visiting Lebanon, though Washington has been a strong backer of the Beirut government in its power struggle with the Hezbollah-led opposition backed by Syria.

The Lebanese government put the death toll at three but the U.S. State Department said the bomb killed four Beirut residents. None worked for the embassy.

"There were no American diplomats or American citizens in the car at the time," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. A Lebanese national working for the U.S. embassy and a driver were in the car when it was attacked, and the driver was slightly wounded, he said. An American passer-by was also hurt.

Lebanese and U.S. security officials were at the scene, where rescue workers covered a corpse with plastic sheeting. Pools of blood covered the road. Two of the dead were Lebanese and the third a Syrian, security sources said.

"I'd like ... to just state the outrage of the United States against the terrorist attack that took place in Lebanon today," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is traveling with Bush, told a news conference in Riyadh.

In addition to intimidating Western workers and restricting their movement, the Taliban may also be seeking the support of pro-shari'a elements of Afghan society by targeting "unlawful" activities such as the consumption of alcohol and the unrestricted interaction of men and women. But hey now, let's not be judgemental: After all, the Christian right in the U.S. reaches out to "values voters" with suicide bombings too, right?

"Taliban plan to attack Kabul restaurants" by Jason Straziuso for the Associated Press:

KABUL, Afghanistan - The Taliban said Tuesday that its suicide bombers would attack restaurants where Westerners eat in Kabul, an ominous new threat that forced American and European workers to restrict outings in the Afghan capital.

The country's intelligence chief linked Monday's deadly attack on the Serena Hotel — a well-guarded, high-profile property in Kabul frequented by Westerners — to a Pakistani militant. Afghan officials arrested four people, and said they included one of the three attackers, who was disguised in a police uniform for the assault.

The death toll in the bombing and shooting attack on the hotel rose to eight. An American, a Norwegian journalist and a Filipina who died of her wounds Tuesday were among those killed.

"We will target all these restaurants in Kabul where foreigners are eating," Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press by telephone. "We have jihadists in Kabul right now and soon we will carry out more attacks against military personnel and foreigners."

Taliban spokesmen often boast that militants plan to step up attacks. Suicide bombings have increased in the last two years, and the hotel attack was the first against a facility favored by Westerners.

Security companies that protect international workers in Afghanistan restricted Westerners' movements Tuesday, placing restaurants and stores frequented by foreigners off-limits for some.

Kabul has about a half dozen restaurants popular with Westerners. The establishments — run by ex-pats with themed menus such as French or Mexican — do not allow Afghans entry because they serve alcohol, which is illegal for Muslims here. The restaurants sit behind nondescript walls and do little advertising, relying on word-of-mouth to bring in customers.

Some Westerners said they would continue to eat out. Christoph Klawitter, the head of a German logistics company, said he dined out two to three times a week, including at the Serena, before the attack.

"I will still go out but not as often as before, maybe, and the venue now is more important," he said. "The Serena was pretty secure, and even there they got in. So I don't know. The more security, the more likely it is I might go there."

The Taliban have targeted aid workers and civilian contractors with kidnappings and killings. But the Islamic militants have typically focused attacks on Western and Afghan officials or security personnel, not civilians.

If there are more attacks on Western establishments, it will likely restrict Westerners' freedom of movement even further, and eventually could force aid agencies from the country, the way attacks in Iraq did.

"This is a new kind of target for the Taliban," Barney Rubin, an Afghanistan expert at New York University wrote on his blog. "Foreigners going to restaurants in Kabul ... sometimes joke that they feel like targets. Up to now, however, they have not been."

Rubin added: "I imagine it will not be the last" such attack.

"The leaders that give Bush swords and scimitars and gifts worth a million dollars should have thought of the heavy consequences of their anti-Iranian conduct." Watch out, Bahrain!

"Iran: Leader warns gulf countries against supporting Bush," from AKI (thanks to Insubria):

Tehran, 15 Jan. (AKI) - Jomhouri Eslami, the newspaper founded by Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, has warned countries in the Persian Gulf against supporting US President George W. Bush.

An unsigned editorial, that many attribute to the Iranian leader, takes aim at the gulf emirates accusing them of having given "a warm welcome" to the American president.

"The emirs of the gulf should not underestimate our warnings, " the editorial said. "Supporting George Bush means playing with fire."

"You must value responsibily the interests of the Islamic Republic. It can cost our neighbors very dearly."

"The leaders that give Bush swords and scimitars and gifts worth a million dollars should have thought of the heavy consequences of their anti-Iranian conduct."

Bowing before the King

Friend and Ally Update: "Saudi oil minister: Kingdom will raise production only if market justifies it," from Associated Press (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia will raise oil production only when the market justifies it, the kingdom's oil minister said Tuesday, in response to President Bush's request that OPEC nations increase output to reduce world oil prices.

"Our interest is to keep oil supplies matching demand with minimum volatility in the oil market," Oil Minister Ali Naimi told reporters. "We will raise production when the market justifies it. This is our policy."

Naimi said inventory levels appear to be "normal," adding, "we want the inventories to be healthful, but we don't want it to be extremely high or extremely low."

Earlier Tuesday in Riyadh, Bush warned that soaring oil prices could cause an economic slowdown in the United States.

"High energy prices can damage consuming economies," the president told a small group of reporters traveling with him in the Mideast.

Saudi Arabia holds the world's largest supply of oil. Bush said U.S. consumers are feeling the pain of rising oil prices, which topped $100 a barrel this month.

"When consumers have less purchasing power, it could cause the economy to slow down," Bush said. "I hope OPEC nations put more supply on the market," he added. "It would be helpful."

Please, sir!

Ignatieff has seen the jihad up close, and he believes hearts-and-minds development projects will fix it -- once again showing that observation alone, when not properly grounded in study of the values and principles of the culture at hand, can sometimes lead one astray. How will development projects address the Taliban's insistence that what they are doing is carrying out the law of the one true God?

"When Iggy met the Taliban," by Colin Freeze in the Globe and Mail (thanks to all who sent this in):

It’s a pithy paragraph, capturing as it does the Taliban’s contempt for international conventions and their predilection for medieval punishments.

The central image is very well crafted, too. One can almost imagine the blood-spattered rope circle, the vacant swinging space, which once held the neck of the fallen ruler who was lynched for being a superpower’s stooge.

“Three nights before I arrived, the Taliban had dragged him out of the [United Nations] guesthouse, castrated him and beaten him to death and hanged his pulpy body from the stanchion of a traffic warden’s observation tower. As I drove into the city, only the noose, flecked with blood, remained swinging from the tower.”

So wrote Michael Ignatieff in 1997 in an essay for The New Yorker. At the time, he was a celebrated writer -- one who happened to arrive in Kabul just as the Taliban was taking over and the world’s security situation was about to under go some seismic shifts. It was at this point that the writer became acquainted with what he called the “pitiless logic of jihad.”

The noose had been used to hang a Soviet-backed former Afghan president, Muhammed Najibullah. His final indignities were a major coup for the Taliban, who by then had captured three-quarters of the country, and were well en route to implementing what they regarded as God’s law.

Mr. Ignatieff actually met Taliban fighters face to face during his visit, experiences reflected in the 1997 essay that puts what he did and saw into the context of a big-picture rumination: How should the international community deal with the rise of remorseless irregular warriors, who care nothing about human rights nor the conventions of war?

Fast forward a decade later, and the question still hangs.

Mr. Ignatieff was back in Afghanistan this past weekend. This time, as a top Western politician, representing the Official Opposition of a country that has sent over 2,500 soldiers to help fight the Taliban.

Mr. Ignatieff, the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, was travelling with his former political rival, Leader Stephane Dion. Their shared message was that Canada is going to want the soldiers back, sooner rather than later.

While the U.S. military and NATO allies, including Canada, have beaten back the Taliban over the past six years, the jihadists stubbornly linger. Now, the Liberals are pushing an agenda to ratchet down dangerous Canadian combat missions in the Taliban’s heartland, and crank up the less dangerous work, like development projects. (The position is fully articulated in an eight-page document released last week -- www.liberal.ca/story_13465_e.aspx .)

Because Mr. Ignatieff has hit hawkish notes in the past, he was asked within minutes of landing at Kandahar about whether he supported his party’s calls to start beating swords into ploughshares. “I wouldn’t be on this airfield if I didn’t,” he told reporters who asked whether he supported his party’s position.

While working with Mr. Dion in Kabul, the Liberal second-in-command said they both made sure that President Karzai got the message from a potential Canadian government-in-waiting “The key thing that the president understands, and the ministers understand, is that sooner or later this country is going to stand on its feet,” Mr. Ignatieff said.

For his part, President Karzai was gracious, but seemed unconvinced of the wisdom of the Liberal position. In a statement following the meeting, Mr. Karzai expressed thanks for Canada’s sacrifices, but pointedly added that “the events of September 11 serves us well in reminding ourselves that not fighting terrorism head-on can have disastrous consequences for Afghanistan, the region and the world at large.”

Not long after President Karzai’s statement, the Taliban issued a statement of their own.

It was called “Martyrdom attack preformed in Capital Kabul city.”

On Monday. gunmen killed eight inside a Kabul hotel. The Islamists claimed the attack was a noteworthy blow against “Western-backed puppet government, as well as foreign embassies and businesses.”

Read it all.

Creeping Sharia Alert. When will Americans get the message -- they must accommodate Muslim sensibilities? "High School Track Star Alleges Religious Discrimination," from WUSA9.com (thanks to Isabella the Crusader):

WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA) -- A DC track and field star says she's been the victim of religious discrimination. Officials at the Montgomery Invitational track meet told Juashaunna Kelly she had to remove her Muslim head covering if she wanted to compete.

It was a roller coaster weekend for the 17 year old star from Roosevelt High School. On Friday, Gatorade named her DC Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year. On Saturday, officials at the Montgomery Invitational left her weeping.

"I knew she was about to say I couldn't run," says Juashaunna. "So I started crying. And she told me to calm down and everything. And I was just standing there crying."

Since her sophomore year at Roosevelt, Juashaunna has worn a custom made suit that covers her head and neck as required by her faith. But officials at the prestigious indoor track told her it violated the rules. "And I told her, I've been wearing it for three years, why can't I wear it now?"

"I said doing that would be almost like me sending her out there buck naked," says Roosevelt track coach Anthony Bowden. "I can't do that."

Track meet director Tom Rogers insists it had nothing to do with what Juashaunna was wearing on her head. He says lots of runners wear hejabs. One was even officiating at the meet. He says it has to do with what was under her uniform. Association rules require undergarments be one single solid color.

"It started off with the hood," says Juashaunna's mother Sarah. "He didn't say anything about an undergarment or shirt. He said the hood. The hood had to come off."

The discussion got pretty heated.

"You need to back off," Coach Bowden told an official. "'I don't want you in my face, cause you're spitting on me.' It got to the point where I just took my hand and put it in his face and pushed him back."

Juashaunna's convinced she missed a chance to shine for college scouts. There "was a lot of recruiters at this meet," she says.

"I feel bad because I promised her something I wasn't able to deliver," says her coach.

The track meet is sponsored by Montgomery County Schools. Its director says a sanctioned meet has to follow the rules set up by the National Federation of State High School Associations.

Nope. Those rules have to change now.

Gholam-Hossein Elham's message: Kowtow, dhimmi!

I think Gholam-Hossein Elham has a point. Bush has a great deal to apologize for. He can start with his current fervor to destroy Israel. But I wonder if Gholam-Hossein Elham and the mullahs he represents would deign to be similarly reflective about the errors and excesses of the Iranian regime.

Chutzpah Alert: "Iran: Bush must apologize for damage his policy caused to Mid-East," from Ynet News (thanks to Sr. Soph):

Iranian government spokesman, Gholam-Hossein Elham, said Tuesday in reference to US President George Bush’s Middle East tour that “the president must apologize for the damage his irrational foreign policy did to the Mid-East, and withdraw US troops from the region.”

Elham also called Israel an “emblem for international terrorism”, and called on the US to end its support of Israel and apologize for the murder of the Palestinian people. (Dudi Cohen)

Will the Palestinians apologize for their murders of Israeli civilians, murders that they openly celebrated up until a few years ago? What are you, some kind of Islamophobe?

The girl, meanwhile, is being tried for killing her mother.

Memo to the Courier-Mail: renounced, not denounced, for pete's sake. "Daughter 'threatened if she denounced Islam,'" by Jeremy Pierce for The Courier-Mail (thanks to Abandonskip):

A GOLD Coast man threatened to kill his daughter and himself if she denounced Islam for Christianity, a court was told yesterday.

The Southport Magistrate's Court heard accused murderer Kaihana Tahsseen Hussain told police her father had once threatened to kill her if she abandoned the Muslim faith.

Hussain has been charged with murdering her mother, Shaheda.

A forensic officer told Hussain's committal hearing yesterday that police also told her the defendant had alleged that her mother had tried to strangle her during an argument three months before the October 2006 tragedy.

Anne-Louise Swain said the teenager's injuries were consistent with her claims that her father Muhammad killed his wife and tried to kill her before turning the knife on himself.

However, Dr Swain could not say categorically whether the teenager's injuries were sustained fending off an attack or from performing the attack.

Hussain is accused of her mother's murder and the attempted murder of her father, allegedly over their opposition to her desire to change religions, just days after the family had moved to the Gold Coast....

Is it possible that it wasn't over their opposition itself, but as a result of that opposition, in simple self-defense?

"War is deceit." An update on this story. "Afghan hotel attacker wore cop uniform," by Jason Straziuso for the Associated Press:

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan officials have arrested four men following an attack on Kabul's main luxury hotel, including one suspected of wearing a police uniform during the multi-pronged assault that killed eight, officials said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a militant connected to an insurgent leader in Pakistan was accused of masterminding the attack, which left at least one American among the dead and could signal a new era of brazen extremist assaults in Afghanistan.

Police said they also found a video made by two of the attackers in a home in Kabul, where they arrested two men. A fourth man — believed to have driven the attackers to the Serena Hotel — was arrested in eastern Afghanistan while trying to flee to Pakistan.

Amrullah Saleh, the head of Afghanistan's intelligence service, said three militants stormed the Serena Hotel on Monday evening. A guard shot and killed one attacker at the gate to the hotel's parking lot, which triggered his suicide vest.

A second attacker blew himself up near the entrance to the hotel's lobby, and the third attacker made it inside the hotel and shot his way through the lobby and toward the gym, Saleh said. A man alleged suspected of being the third attacker was arrested Monday.

The three militants stormed the popular luxury hotel just after 6 p.m., hunting down Westerners who had cowered in a gym. More than 30 U.S. soldiers in a half-dozen Humvees rushed to the hotel, and security personnel from the nearby U.S. Embassy ran to the scene.

Blood covered the lobby floor as gunfire rang out, witnesses said.

Saleh said the attack was masterminded by Mullah Abdullah, a close ally of Siraj Haqqani, a well-known militant leader thought to be based in Pakistan's tribal area in Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan. The U.S. military has a $200,000 bounty out on Haqqani.

Police arrested a man named Humayun, allegedly a key link to Abdullah, in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday as he was trying to flee to Pakistan, Saleh said, accusing him of supplying the assailants with weapons, explosives and suicide vests and driving them to the hotel.

Saleh showed a picture taken from the hotel's security cameras showing a gunman in a police uniform inside the hotel's lobby, apparently the third attacker. He was apprehended 15 to 20 minutes after the attack began, he said.

"The third person, after killing a number of the guests, maybe he changed his mind for some reason, he didn't detonate himself," Saleh said. "He changed his clothes and later when security forces searched the premises, he was arrested."

Welcome to the New Britain! And remember: when cabbies in Minneapolis started refusing to carry customers with alcohol, this next step became entirely reasonable. There are many Sharia rules, and we are going to see increasing pressure in the West to accommodate ourselves to them.

"Muslim M&S worker refuses to sell 'unclean' Bible book to grandmother," from the Daily Mail (thanks to all who sent this in):

A Muslim store worker at Marks & Spencer refused to serve a customer buying a children's book on Christianity because she said it was "unclean".

Sally Friday, a customer at a branch of one of the famous stores, felt publicly humiliated when she tried to pay for First Bible Stories as a gift for her young grandson.

When the grandmother put the book on the counter, the assistant refused to touch it, declared it was unclean and then summoned another member of staff to deal with the purchase.

Mrs Friday was so upset that she has now complained to the store's manager.

Politicians and religious leaders supported her in condemning the high street chain and it has reignited the debate over religious beliefs in the workplace.

Conservative MP Philip Davies said the refusal to serve Mrs Friday, 69, was "unacceptable" and "damaging" to community relations.

Inayat Bunglawala, assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, described the assistant's comments as "offensive" and called for Marks & Spencer to conduct an investigation.

He said: "This appears to be a very regrettable incident and the 'unclean' remark was clearly very offensive and unacceptable.

"Many Biblical stories complement the teachings of the Koran. We hope that M&S will investigate this incident."...

The store clerk was likely acting in accord with Qur'an 9:28.

Over Judaism. Hmmm. What could have so upset Ibrahim Ahmed about that? "Cabbie Sentenced For Running Down Student," from WSMV.com (thanks to ATM):

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A Nashville cab driver will serve six years in prison for trying to run down one of his passengers after an argument over religion.

Ibrahim Seikh Ahmed pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated assault for the incident last year that left a man with a fractured leg and broken pelvis.

The victim was a man visiting with a friend from Ohio, and the two had taken a cab ride on their way home from downtown. The argument apparently started over Judaism.

Regarding the usual mainstream media bias in this story, Jihad Watch reader LDT sets the historical record straight: "The claim that the south of Thailand was 'annexed by Thailand a century ago' is WRONG. The Sultanate was destroyed during the Thai war against Burma in the mid 1700s because it had sided with the Burmese against the Siamese. By this time the Sultanate was in decline. The Siamese conquered the area and have ruled it since. And whether they took the land 100 or 250 years ago is beside the point. What right does that give anyone to randomly bomb and kill anyone?" Indeed. And that makes it clear that Thailand was entitled to this land by right of conquest, which has been universally recognized throughout human history -- except, of course, when it comes to Israel, and apparently, to any Muslim land that is conquered by non-Muslims.

"8 Thai Soldiers Die in Ambush; Muslim Rebels Suspected," by Sumeth Panpetch for Associated Press (thanks to Sr. Soph):

NARATHIWAT, Thailand, Jan. 14 -- Suspected Muslim insurgents ambushed an army patrol in Thailand's restive south Monday, killing all eight soldiers and then beheading one of them, in a rebellion that has entered its fifth year.

The soldiers were on a morning patrol when a bomb hidden on the road exploded and flipped their vehicle over, according to an army spokesman, Col. Akara Thiprote. The attackers, hiding in roadside brush, then opened fire, leaving no survivors, he said.

More than 2,800 people have been killed in the past four years in Thailand's southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat and some parts of neighboring Songkhla. Many in the predominantly Muslim area feel they are treated unfairly by the country's Buddhist majority....

More than 30 people have been decapitated during the insurgency, many of them civilians. The object appears to be to terrorize Buddhists into leaving the region.

The insurgents do not issue public statements, but researchers who have had contact with them believe they seek a separate Islamic state. The region was a sultanate until it was annexed by Thailand in the early 1900s, and most of its Muslim residents are ethnic Malays who have more in common with the people of neighboring Malaysia.

The degree of influence on the insurgents by outside Islamic extremist groups is still a matter of debate, though many experts agree that the rebellion is a homegrown reaction to decades of disenchantment over misrule and discrimination by Thailand's central government.

No one there has the idea that any non-Muslim rule over Muslims is illegitimate and must be resisted violently. Oh, no. It's all about Thai misrule. Good governments ends jihad, doncha know.

The insurgency flared on Jan. 4, 2004, with a raid by unidentified gunmen on an army weapons depot in Narathiwat in which four soldiers were killed and hundreds of guns were stolen. A government crackdown accelerated the violence, and the region was soon beset with drive-by shootings and small bombings. Most of those killed have been civilians....

Critics of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in a 2006 coup, argue that his government exacerbated tensions with a hard-line approach. But the military-installed interim government that succeeded him has done no better after pledging to take a more nuanced approach that would not alienate southern Muslims.

Yes, he was a real hardliner, old Thaksin was. Those origami were brutal. Brutal!

And anyway, if it's all Thaksin's fault, why is it still going on? The new leader is a Muslim, and the "hardline" tactics, such as they were, are a thing of the past.

[A bomb exploded at a southern Thai market Tuesday, injuring at least 27 people, officials said. The bomb was hidden in a motorcycle in the capital of Yala province. Officials suspect Muslim rebels.]

Right. Bush dropped that off on the way to his whirlwind Mideast tour. "Serbia court tries 15 on ‘terrorism’ charges," from Agence France-Presse:

BELGRADE - A court in Belgrade heard prosecutors accuse 15 suspected radical Islamists of running training camps and plotting assassinations inside the country, Beta news agency reported Monday.

‘The defendants organised a criminal group in order to jeopardize the security of Serbia by planning attacks against police and murders,’ deputy prosecutor Jovica Jovanovic said in his opening remarks, Beta reported.

The defendants face charges of terrorism and illegal possession of arms.

All but two defendants, believed to be followers of the radical Wahhabite sect of Islam, were arrested last year near Novi Pazar, the main town in the southern Sandzak region, which has a large Muslim population.

Prosecutors say they had set up secret camps in the region for terrorist and military training.

They also alleged that the defendants had planned both an attack against a police station in Novi Pazar and the murder of Muarem Zukorlic, a local mufti, or Muslim cleric.

Gee, they should know better than to misunderstand their religion like that.

Jovanovic said the group had close ties with fellow Islamists in neighbouring countries and several other countries.

The indictment alleged the group had asked their commanders in Bosnia, Saudi Arabia and Austria for approval to kill Zukorlic—and had eventually decided to do so, Beta reported.

No attempt on Zukorlic’s life took place before the arrest of the suspects.

Jovanovic said that in a search of defendant Mehmedin Koljsi’s computer, police had found maps of Belgrade and photographs of several buildings in the capital including a hotel, a theatre and the US embassy.

At the end of the prosecution’s opening remarks, the first defendant, Senad Ramovic, pleaded not guilty, state-run Tanjug news agency reported.

Ramovic said the indictment was ‘based on hate towards Islam and Muslims,’ adding that it looked like ‘it was written by (US President George W.) Bush or CIA agent Zukorlic,’ the mufti named as a target in the indictment.

Other defendants are expected to enter their plea in the coming days.

Wahhabis are followers of a fundamentalist movement in Sunni Islam as practised in Saudi Arabia, who insist that their beliefs are those of the first three generations of Muslims.

Although local media reports say that their presence has increased in the Balkans in recent years, experts believe that they are still marginal.

The authorities have blamed the radicalisation of Sandzak, whose 420,000 population is 45 percent Muslim, on tensions between two of the region’s rival political parties.

A long war, and a still longer jihad. And after all, why should the Iraqis work harder to shorten this time span, when the Americans are so willing to do this work for them?

By Thom Shanker for the New York Times (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

FORT MONROE, Va. — The Iraqi defense minister said Monday that his nation would not be able to take full responsibility for its internal security until 2012, nor be able on its own to defend Iraq’s borders from external threat until at least 2018.

Those comments from the minister, Abdul Qadir, were among the most specific public projections of a timeline for the American commitment in Iraq by officials in either Washington or Baghdad. And they suggested a longer commitment than either government had previously indicated.

Pentagon officials expressed no surprise at Mr. Qadir’s projections, which were even less optimistic than those he made last year.

President Bush has never given a date for a military withdrawal from Iraq but has repeatedly said that American forces would stand down as Iraqi forces stand up. Given Mr. Qadir’s assessment of Iraq’s military capabilities on Monday, such a withdrawal appeared to be quite distant, and further away than any American officials have previously stated in public.

Above was an earlier title for my Human Events column this week. I like that one better. But now it's called "Republican Candidates Understand Jihad Better":

Among the biggest differences between the Republican and the Democratic presidential candidates is their judgments of what began on September 11, 2001, and why. In last Saturday’s ABC News debates, according to Investor’s Business Daily, the Republican candidates “referred to terrorists and terrorism as ‘Islamic,’ while also citing radical ‘Islam’ as the problem, no less than 22 times.”

The Republican candidates seem more terrified of labeling the source of terrorism correctly than they are of what terrorists could do. All were anxious to avoid the giving the impression that they thought that jihad terrorism represented a problem within Islam. Mike Huckabee even spoke of “the radical Islamic faith” and said that the enemy was “not all Islam, and that’s what’s very important. This isn’t an Islamic problem. This is a jihadist problem. This is an Islamo-fascism problem.”

Huckabee didn’t explain how a problem involving jihad, a central principle within Islam, could not be at least in some way an Islamic problem, but his intention – to divorce peaceful Muslim individuals and entities from so-called “radicals” – was all too clear. Similarly, Giuliani described the “Islamic terrorism threat against us” as having to do with “the way they’ve perverted their religion into a hatred of us.” He offered no explanation for why the adherents of this “perverted” Islam are so many, and why peaceful Muslims have mounted no large-scale opposition to their challenge.

Why is this story relevant here? Because it manifests yet again a phenomenon we see all the time in connection with jihad. You know how it will be on this issue, if it follows the pattern established so many times before. Islamic spokesmen will say, "Islam forbids...Islam condemns..." and disavow any connection between Islam and this phenomenon. We have seen this happening recently in regard to honor killings. And we have seen it for years when Muslim spokesmen in the West speak about jihad terrorism.

But meanwhile, there will be other Muslims who say, "Islam commands...Islam requires..." -- about exactly the same things. And that's why it's not enough for Muslim spokesmen in the West simply to tell us that Islam forbids child abuse, or honor killing or jihad violence. They must begin to counter the arguments of the other side within the House of Islam.

"Indonesia: Islam to blame for child abuse, says protection group," from AKI (thanks to all who sent this in):

Jakarta, 15 Jan. (AKI) – Poor interpretation of Islam may be responsible for rampant child abuse across Indonesia, according to a national protection group.

In an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI), Seto Mulyadi, chairman of the National Committee for Child Protection (KPAI), said that many parents misunderstand what Islam says about physical punishment.

“There is a saying in Islam which states, ‘At the end of a cane lies gold,’ which parents have taken as advice to discipline their children,” Mulyadi said.

“Many parents don’t reflect on the teachings. They think that if you want well-behaved children, then it is ok to cane them.”

"But Islam actually means that parents should be firm with the child’s education,” he added.

Mulyadi also explained that many parents view their children as possessions.

“Parents feel superior and think they can treat their children however they want, thinking it is for the sake of their future or education.”

According to a new report by KPAI, an estimated 72,000 Indonesian children were abused last year, either physically, sexually or mentally, and most of the violence was carried out by parents or relatives.

KPAI’s report shows that 447,294 children are living in the street, 42,771 are being exploited sexually in a commercial manner, 232,726 have dropped out of school and 721,615 are employed as workers.

The report also highlights how children’s rights are excluded from government plans, even though Indonesia has signed the UN Convention on Child Rights, which calls for it to uphold children’s rights.

Although most of the abuse happens in poor, uneducated families, Mulyadi explained that abuse also happens in wealthy homes....

However, Mulyadi said that, most importantly, the culture needs to change their perception of children and lift the cultural taboo that contributes to abuse in the archipelago.

“Many parents think that reporting incidents will bring shame to the family, especially if it involves sexual abuse,” he said.

About time. But the problem here, of course, is that because stoning is sanctioned by Islamic law, this appeal will fall on deaf ears in Tehran. From Reuters (thanks to Shlomo):

LONDON (Reuters) - Amnesty International on Tuesday called on Iran to abolish the "grotesque and horrific" practice of stoning people to death.

Amnesty, which opposes the death penalty under any circumstances, said an Iranian man had been stoned to death in July last year for committing adultery, despite a moratorium being imposed on such executions in 2002.

The woman he was convicted of committing adultery with still faces the threat of being stoned, a practice that involves the woman being buried up to her breasts in sand and then pelted with stones until she dies.

"Amnesty International is calling on the Iranian government to abolish immediately and totally execution by stoning and to impose a moratorium on the death penalty," the rights group said in a 30-page report on the practice.

"Iranian law prescribes that the stones are deliberately chosen to be large enough to cause pain, but not so large as to kill the victim immediately ... It is a particularly grotesque and horrific practice."

While stoning is used relatively seldom in Iran, it is the favored form of execution in cases involving adultery and has a disproportionate impact on women, according to Amnesty.

Iran has one of the highest rates of execution in the world. In 2006, 177 people were put to death, mostly by hanging. Last year, that number was expected to be exceeded, with 124 people executed in the first seven months of the year.

Carter, Livingstone, Olmert, Spencer, Steyn, Hirsi Ali

After many snags and delays, we have at last been able to hold the Jihad Watch 2007 Awards Banquet. Hugh and I pulled out our $49.95 powder blue Wal-Mart tuxes from storage and made our way down to the abandoned movie theater at the edge of town, and watched as all the glitterati made their way in: Paris, Britney, Lindsay Lohan, Jennifer Lopez -- none of them could make it, but we had a splendid time anyway.

Jimmy Carter's entourage stood and cheered as, for the second year in a row, I awarded him the cringing dhimmi statuette, signifying his status as...American Dhimmi of the Year 2007! Ken Livingstone was just as proud as he accepted the Dhimmi Internationale, although his co-winner Ehud Olmert seemed somewhat sulky.

And then came Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Mark Steyn, the Anti-Dhimmis of 2007, to accept the gratitude of an embattled free people for their efforts during a year in which both suffered from dhimmi attempts to silence them -- attempts meant to ease the surrender of the West. These courageous people have not given up. And neither will we.

Cartoon courtesy David Washburn, with immense gratitude. Pictured left to right are the Dhimmis Carter, Livingstone, and Olmert; the presenter of the awards (me, that is); and the Anti-Dhimmis Steyn and Hirsi Ali.

Some blame Israel. Others know better. Islamic Tolerance Alert by Erica Silverman in the Washington Times (thanks to Sr. Soph):

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A small group of Palestinian Christians stands outside Gaza City's Baptist Church on a Sunday morning, waiting for the generator to power up. The church is cold and dark in the dead of winter, Israel having reduced fuel supplies to Gaza in an effort to pressure Hamas to halt rocket fire into Israel.

Freshly bound prayer books, containing traditional American hymns, are tucked into the backs of the chairs in the fifth-floor prayer room. But there are no visible religious symbols in the room or outside the building, constructed about a year ago with the help of Christian donors in the U.S. and abroad.

Just eight worshippers are present for the service, compared with more than 100 who attended Sunday prayers six months ago.

Gaza's small Baptist community is dwindling rapidly. Pastor Hanna Massad, who attended seminary in California, took refuge in the West Bank after congregant Rami Eyad was killed in October. Mr. Eyad's religious bookshop was bombed in April.

Mr. Massad and his wife, director of the Gaza Bible Society, which is now closed, still hope to return.

Life has become increasingly difficult for Christians in Gaza since Hamas seized control of the coastal strip in June. Most Christians do not hold Hamas directly responsible, but they are calling for increased protection and accountability.

"The Hamas leadership, on the political level, wants to live side by side with the Christian community, but we are not sure who is responsible for Rami's murder," said Mr. Massad.

Ihab Al-Ghusain, a spokesman for the Hamas-run Interior Ministry, condemned the killing but said there had been no progress in the investigation. Some suspect an Islamic extremist group was behind the attack.

Church elder Farid Ayad, 67, now leads the Baptist service. "As a child, I learned from the American Baptist Mission that was here since 1954," said Mr. Ayad. The mission left in 2001, but a representative from the Southern Baptist Church remains in Jerusalem.

Clergymen in Gaza estimate there are about 3,000 Christians still living in the Gaza Strip. Most are Greek Orthodox, but there are also a few hundred Catholics and a handful of Baptists. They live among some 1.5 million Muslims in the 140-square-mile territory.

Some Christians believe the Hamas government is trying to protect them, if only to improve their image in the eyes of the West. But for others, the threat has become too great.

Over the past few weeks, Israel granted temporary permission to hundreds of Gaza Christians to travel to the West Bank for the holidays. At least six families — more than 40 people — did not return.

Wael Hashwa and his family of four are now living in the West Bank town of Beit Zahur, near Bethlehem. "We are living here month to month, waiting for the situation to improve," said Mr. Hashwa, who was employed by a now-closed organization of Christian ministers in Gaza.

The Baptist community, self-described as evangelical, has been a principal target of the extremists because of its missionary work, which has been halted.

"Christians get killed here, let alone a Muslim who converted," said Ashraf, 36, from Gaza City, who declined to provide his last name. "I stopped going to church even before the coup."

Father Artymos, originally from Greece, leads the St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church, founded 1,600 years ago in Gaza's old city. Christians and Muslims live peacefully together in Gaza, said Father Artymos, but conversions and the construction of new churches are prohibited.

The Rev. Manuel Musallan of the Latin Church in Gaza City blamed Israel for the woes of his tiny Catholic community, which also runs a school with 1,200 students, many of them Muslims.

"The embargo is inhumane. It attacks the innocent here — children, the sick and the elderly," he said. "If Gaza is to be prepared for peace, this is not the way."

Father Musallan meets regularly with the Hamas leadership, but members of his congregation are not as confident. "We are afraid Hamas is targeting Christians," said Issa, who manages a designer-clothing store in the city center.

Honored for faithful service

And the Saudis love him, although they love Osama bin Laden more. "Bush delivers arms sale to Saudi Arabia," by Anne Gearan for AP (thanks to all who sent this in):

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - President Bush, on his first visit to this oil-rich kingdom, delivered a major arms sale Monday to a key ally in a region where the U.S. casts neighboring Iran as a menace to stability....

Coinciding with Bush's trip, the Bush administration in Washington notified Congress on Monday that it will offer Saudi Arabia the chance to buy sophisticated Joint Direct Attack Munitions — or "smart bomb" — technology and related equipment, the State Department said. The administration envisions the transfer of 900 of the precision-guided bomb kits, worth $123 million, that would give the kingdom's armed forces highly accurate targeting abilities.

The proposed deal follows notification of five other packages to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, bringing to $11.5 billion the amount of advanced U.S. weaponry, including Patriot missiles, that the administration has announced it will provide to friendly Arab nations, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. Administration officials say the total amount of eventual sales as part of the Gulf Security Dialogue is estimated at $20 billion, a figure subject to actual purchases.

The arms packages are an important part of the U.S. strategy to bolster the defenses of oil-producing Gulf nations, such as Saudi Arabia, against threats from Iran. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, which have majority Sunni Muslim populations, harbor deep suspicions about Shiite Iran's apparent designs to establish itself as a major power.

Congress already has been briefed on all the packages, which also include the sale of the Navy's Littoral Combat system. Lawmakers mostly see the deals as critical to maintaining relations with war-on-terror allies. Some are opposed to the JDAMs portion out of concern that it gives Saudi Arabia the ability to attack Israel, but are unlikely to muster the two-thirds majority needed, within an allowed 30-day period, to block the sales.

The administration has assured lawmakers in closed briefings in recent months that there would be proper restrictions on the JDAMs sales to ensure they would not threaten to Israel. Israel, which has been sold JDAMs technology by the U.S. as well, also has said it does not oppose the deal.

How can anyone ensure that they will not be used to attack Israel?

Meanwhile, we'll have to see if the President dares raise the issue of rising oil prices with the Saudi King:

As for the topic of rising oil prices, Bush national security adviser Stephen Hadley would only say "we'll have to see" when asked whether Bush would raise the issue with the king. The Saudis are responsible for almost one-third of OPEC's total output.

And don't expect Saudi Arabia to change, either:

Another item for discussion could be the democratic principles Bush has promoted during his trip. While Abdullah has tried to push some reforms on education and women's rights and there have been limited municipal council elections, the king has been cautious and limited in his efforts. He apparently has been hampered by others in the royal family worried that fast changes could upset the country's conservative clerics and citizens.

Don't want to upset those "conservatives"! But no one on the Saudi side, for their part, is hesitating to make demands:

After arriving Monday afternoon in Riyadh from Dubai, Bush expected to hear Abdullah urge him to keep up the pressure on Israel to halt settlements in Palestinian territories. The administration was able to persuade the Saudis to participate in the U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Md., in November.

The Saudis know a true friend when they see one:

Bush enjoyed a warm embrace from Abdullah. He was staying a night at the monarch's ranch — a rare show of hospitality to a visiting dignitary that reflects Bush's hosting of Abdullah twice at his own ranch in Crawford, Texas.

And the king greeted Bush at the base of the steps of Air Force One — a gesture the president never affords foreign leaders visiting the U.S. A band played each country's national anthem as the leaders walked on a red carpet behind a high-stepping uniformed officer carrying a gold sword.

After dinner in the King's Palace, Bush and Abdullah walked through a large central atrium and picked up cups of Arabic coffee to take into their meetings. Sitting side by side in chairs, Abdullah presented Bush with a gold necklace adorned with a large medallion — the King Abdul Aziz Order of Merit, the country's highest honor, named after the founder of the modern Saudi state.

The award was placed around Bush's neck and the two exchanged the region's traditional double kiss. "I am honored," Bush said.

The hospitality masked Bush's deep unpopularity among ordinary Saudis.

A recent poll conducted for Terror Free Tomorrow, a bipartisan group whose goal is undermining world support for terrorism, found only 12 percent here view Bush positively — lower than Iran's president or even al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden — and more think warmly toward Iran than America. Top among the reasons are the chaos in Iraq that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and the widespread Arab feeling that the United States is biased toward Israel and not serious in seeking Mideast peace.

An update on this story. By Jason Straziuso for the Associated Press:

KABUL, Afghanistan - Militants stormed Kabul's most popular luxury hotel Monday, killing at least six people as they hunted down Westerners who cowered in a gym — a coordinated assault that could signal a new era of brazen Taliban attacks.

What? Not brazen Christian monk attacks?

The gunmen threw grenades and fired AK-47s, and one even blew himself up despite heavy security at the Serena Hotel. One American and a Norwegian journalist were among the dead, officials said.

More than 30 U.S. soldiers in a half-dozen Humvees rushed to the hotel as part of a quick reaction force, and security personnel from the nearby U.S. Embassy ran through the building looking for U.S. citizens.

"There was blood on the floor all the way to the kitchen. There was a lot of blood in the lobby," said Suzanne Griffin of Seattle, who had been in the hotel gym at the time of the attack.

"There were empty shell casings outside," added Griffin, 62, who was working for Save the Children.

She said she had to step over the lifeless body of a woman when evacuated from the locker room.

"Thank God I didn't get into the shower because then we heard gunfire, a lot of it. It was very close, close enough that plaster came off the ceiling," Griffin, her voice shaking, told The Associated Press shortly after the attack. "We all just sat on the floor and got as far as we could from any glass. ... We turned our phones on silent."

It was the deadliest direct attack on a hotel in Kabul since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

The assailants appeared to concentrate their assault on the Serena's gym and spa, where foreigners relax and work out at night, suggesting the militants had cased the hotel in advance.

The Taliban has targeted aid workers and civilian contractors with kidnappings and killings, but this was the most daring and sophisticated attack yet and was aimed at a prominent symbol of foreign presence in the country, apparently designed to point out the vulnerability of the Western presence.

Taliban attacks have typically targeted Western and Afghan government or security personnel, not Western civilians.

The multipronged assault began around 6 p.m., when the Norwegian Embassy was hosting a meeting at the Serena for visiting Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described Stoere as the target of the attack.

Witnesses said they first heard gunfire, then several explosions — likely from hand grenades — and also one large blast — the suicide bomb.

A man who apparently regularly broadcasts "insults" and "vile epithets" may have come close to touching off a war. An update on this story. "Heckler behind U.S.-Iran incident? Sailors say person often heard in region might have inflamed events," from AP (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

CAIRO, Egypt - A threatening radio message at the end of a video showing Iranian patrol boats swarming near U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf may have come from a prankster rather than from the Iranian vessels, the Navy Times newspaper has reported.

A video and audio of the Jan. 6 incident in the Strait of Hormuz featured a man in accented English saying "I am coming to you. ... You will explode after ... minutes."

Cmdr. Lydia Robertson, spokeswoman for the Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, said the Navy was still trying to determine the source of the transmission but believed it was related to the Iranian actions.

"The Iranian boats were coming close to the ships, making aggressive maneuvers and objects were being dropped into the water," she told The Associated Press.

However, the Navy Times, a weekly newspaper published by the Gannett company, quoted several veteran sailors as speculating the transmission could have come from a heckler widely known among sailors in the region by the ethnically insulting term "the Filipino Monkey."

The newspaper, which serves the Navy community, said U.S. sailors in the Persian Gulf have heard the prankster — possibly more than one person — transmitting "insults and jabbering vile epithets" on unencrypted frequencies.

"Navy women — a helicopter pilot hailing a tanker, for example — who are overheard on the radio are said to suffer particularly degrading treatment," the newspaper said Sunday. "Several Navy ship drivers interviewed by Navy Times raised the possibility that the heckler, or an imitator, was indeed featured in that video."

U.S. Navy officials at Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain could not immediately be reached for comment. However, Navy officials have said they were unsure where the transmission came from.

The threat, however, ratcheted up tensions in the incident, which began when Iranian patrol boats swarmed around three U.S. Navy vessels near Iranian waters in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran has denied that its boats threatened the U.S. vessels and accused Washington of fabricating video and audio it released. Iran's government has released its own video, which appeared to be shot from a small boat bobbing at least yards from the American warships.

The Navy Times quoted Rick Hoffman, a retired captain, as saying a renegade talker repeatedly harassed ships in the Gulf in the late 1980s.

"For 25 years there's been this mythical guy out there who, hour after hour, shouts obscenities and threats," he said. "He could be tied up pierside somewhere or he could be on the bridge of a merchant ship," Hoffman said.

Ehsanul Sadequee and Syed Ahmed are both U.S. citizens, who are accused of plotting jihad terror attacks for the "defense of Muslims or retaliation for acts committed against Muslims." So their U.S. citizenship is hollow; their allegiance is to Islam above all. Christians and other religious believers whose allegiance is to their religion first have no trouble reconciling this with being loyal citizens; what are American Muslim advocacy groups doing to inculcate similar attitudes among Muslims in this country?

"FBI: Atlanta terror suspects met with suspects in Canadian sweep," by Harry R. Weber for The Associated Press (thanks to Sr. Soph):

ATLANTA - Two U.S. men charged with aiding terrorists met with a group of terror suspects in Canada, and shot videos of Washington, D.C., landmarks that were later found on a computer belonging to another terror suspect in Britain, an FBI agent testified Monday.

The disclosures by FBI agent Mark Richards came during a hearing in the case of Ehsanul Sadequee and Pakistani-born Syed Ahmed, both U.S. citizens, who are accused of undergoing training to carry out a "violent jihad" against civilian and government targets, including an air base in suburban Atlanta.

Authorities say the men wanted to plan attacks for "defense of Muslims or retaliation for acts committed against Muslims." They have pleaded not guilty to providing material support to terrorists and related conspiracy counts. No trial date has been set.

The terror sweep in Ontario in June 2006 involved an alleged plot to bomb buildings there. Charges against the suspects included participating in a terrorist group, importing weapons and planning a bombing.

Canadian authorities allege the 14 men and four youths were part of an al-Qaida-inspired cell. Prior to the arrest, some of the men allegedly purchased three tonnes of ammonium nitrate for a bomb. In September, the Crown decided to halt the preliminary hearing for the adults and proceed directly to trial.

At the time of the sweep, authorities said Ahmed and Sadequee had been in contact with some of the Canadian suspects via computer.

But Richards said at Monday's hearing that the two men also met in Toronto in 2005 with some of the people arrested in a terror sweep there a year later. Richards also said videos of the U.S. Capitol building and other Washington landmarks that were taken by Ahmed and Sadequee were later found on a computer in the United Kingdom belonging to a terror suspect there who has since been convicted.

Britney's new look?

Well, she has been self-destructive for a long time. But in this, of course, she has no idea what she's getting into -- like so many non-Muslim women in the West.

Meanwhile, will this save her from beheading? Not necessarily. Repentance doesn't necessarily cancel punishment according to Islamic law. See this story.

"Britney wants to marry paparazzo lover and embrace Islam," from ANI (thanks to all who sent this in):

London, Jan 13 (ANI): Britney Spears is planning to marry her paparazzo lover Adnan Ghalib, and convert to his faith, Islam, it has been revealed.

According to sources, the Toxic singer has been telling pals how much she loves Ghalib, and that shes intent on tying the knot with him.

Britney has even been threatening to fake her own death to start a new life with him in Pakistan.

A close pal revealed that the troubled singer wants the ceremony to be conducted by a minister from the Church of Scientology, adding that her whole clan is in a state of shock.

Britney is said to have announced her exciting news last week on a beach in Mexico, where she fled by private jet with Ghalib.

Spears, who has been married twice before, is believed to be adamant on getting hitched with Ghalib, despite several warnings from her close friends and aides.

Shes been told it would be an act of insanity to marry this man. She says shes doing it and she doesnt give a f**k what anyone thinks, the Daily Star quoted a source, as saying.

More anti-dhimmitude from Ezra Levant. "Defiant Levant republishes cartoons," by Keith Bonnell for Canwest News Service (thanks to Mark):

A controversial conservative commentator was unrepentant going into a Human Rights and Citizenship Commission hearing yesterday, using his Web site to republish the same cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that got him into trouble in the first place.

"Contriteness implies that you've done something wrong for which you need to apologize or atone," Ezra Levant said moments before his 90-minute meeting with the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission in Calgary.

"I have not done anything wrong."

And here comes the predictable and absurd claim of victimization:

Mr. Levant's dispute with some members of Alberta's Muslim community became even more personal, as the head of a Calgary Muslim group said he now fears for the safety of his family due to "lies" Mr. Levant has been spreading about him.

The commission is investigating Mr. Levant's decision two years ago, as publisher of the Western Standard, to print a series of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

Not "the Islamic Prophet." Just "the Prophet." Apparently the mainstream media has already converted.

The same cartoons had already ignited violent protests and death threats from Muslims around the world after the images appeared in a Danish newspaper.

Syed Soharwardy, head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, filed a complaint after the Western Standard published the cartoons, which included a Muslim man with a bomb-shaped turban, and the commission is now investigating.

Mr. Levant, his lawyer and his wife attended a 90-minute meeting yesterday with a human rights officer.

Mr. Levant, who occasionally writes for the National Post, said he was asked about his rationale for publishing the cartoons.

"I don't need to be reasons-able. I have maximum rights of free speech," he said later.

"I have the right to publish this for the most offensive reason, for the most unreasonable reasons."...

For Mr. Soharwardy, the issue has become intensely personal.

He fired off a letter to Calgary police yesterday, complaining about statements made by Mr. Levant on his blog that refer to the Muslim leader as a "radical, Saudi-trained imam who has publicly called for shariah law to be imposed in Canada."

"I have asked him what kind of training did I get in Saudi Arabia?" an angry Mr. Soharwardy said from Calgary.

He said Mr. Levant has also called him anti-Semitic, despite the fact Mr. Soharwardy's mosque celebrates Hannukah with the local Jewish community.

"These people have the intent to incite hate against Muslims," Mr. Soharwardy said.

"God forbid if somebody reads from his Web site -- [if ] any fanatic reads it -- and he attacks me, who's responsible?

"If any crime [is] committed against me or my family, I will hold Mr. Ezra Levant responsible."

Calgary police said they were actively investigating the complaint, as well as another complaint Mr. Soharwardy made in December.

That complaint centred on comments made on a blog connected to the Western Standard Web site.

The comments, from an unknown user, included "There is no such thing as innocent Muslims," and "They must all be killed. All of them."

Obnoxious. Immoral. Not worth destroying free speech over. The greater threat comes from jihadists who really are killing people, instead of just bloviating on a website.

"The file is still open and we are still actively pursuing it," Insp. Bob Couture said.

Mr. Levant called his appearance before the human rights commission "an interrogation.""To me, this is offensive," he said.

"A secular government bureaucracy has essentially been hijacked by a radical Muslim imam," he said. "It's being used to further his fatwa against these cartoons."

"We have a great tradition of free speech in Canada," he said.

"My freedom to publish a cartoon that some radical Muslim imam doesn't like, well that's the free West for ya."

Get a new lawyer, Da Costa!

"Our Christian monks were engaged in Jihad when they fasted or wore hair shirts." Which means that this fellow who was training to murder people is a sweetheart. Got it?

"Terror accused wanted to live like monk, court hears," from the Wimbledon Guardian (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

A former bus driver accused of training would-be terrorists wanted to live like a monk, a court heard today.

Kibley Da Costa, 24 of Bentons Lane, West Norwood, is accused of helping self-styled "Osama Bin London" Mohammed Hamid prepare Muslim men for Jihad at terrorist training camps.

But Da Costa's supposed extremism was likened to the beliefs of Christian monks by his barrister Paul Keleher at Woolwich Crown Court.

Mr Keleher told jurors observant Muslims have the same values that monks and nuns espouse - finding God through physical struggle and hardship.

The Crown's case against his client is based on a misunderstanding of the Islamic concept of Jihad or struggle and a misunderstanding of Muslim values, he added.

"If nothing in your life has equipped you to understand the experiences of people from other religions or other faiths you are liable like the prosecution to jump to the wrong conclusion," he said.

"Our Christian monks were engaged in Jihad when they fasted or wore hair shirts.

"They weren't suicide bombers. They weren't extremists. It was just part of their religion, and if we understand a bit more about our religious heritage Islam does not seem so alien."

He added "the awareness of death in everyday life" was also an Islamic value, and when the defendants are recorded talking about death they are not encouraging each other to "seek violent death".

They most certainly were.

Continuing a series I started here with a discussion of Hillary's Clinton's statements on terrorism. As I have said before, I will not endorse a candidate. However, I'll evaluate their statements on jihad terrorism in light of the reality of the situation.

I have praised Romney in the past for using the word "jihad," and called for other candidates to do so -- and some now have started speaking in similar terms, although I certainly do not mean to take credit for that. Anyway, Romney's website contains a statement, "Confronting Radical Jihad."

CHALLENGE: Jihadism – violent, radical, fundamental Islam – is this century's nightmare.

Some people have dismissed Romney for using so many qualifiers -- "violent," "radical," "fundamental." On the other hand, I think it is refreshing to see him speak of jihad and Islam at all, and after all, it is undeniable that most Muslims are not fighting today's jihad, or aiding it in any way. It is not illegitimate to make a distinction between them and the jihadists, as long as one understands that such a distinction is not readily or easily identifiable or quantifiable in the Islamic world.

I used to use "radical" to denote those who were fighting it, until it began to be misunderstood by some as suggesting that there was a traditional, mainstream, orthodox version of Islam that didn't teach violence against and the subjugation of unbelievers. In any case, whether or not Romney grasps just how deeply rooted the jihadist impulse is within Islam, he at least recognizes that it's there, and is determined to resist it. That's a vast improvement over the present occupant of the White House.

It follows the same dark path as last century’s nightmares: fascism and Soviet communism. Many still fail to comprehend the extent of the threat posed by radical Islam, specifically by those extremists who promote violent Jihad against the United States and the universal values Americans espouse. Yet the Jihad has been with us for some time.

Radical Islam has one goal: to replace all modern Islamic states with a worldwide caliphate while destroying the United States and converting all nonbelievers, forcibly if necessary, to a fundamentalist form of Islam.

Or subjugating them under the rule of Islamic law.

Merely closing our eyes and hoping that Jihadism will go away is not an acceptable solution. U.S. military action alone cannot change the hearts and minds of hundreds of millions of Muslims. In the end, only Muslims themselves can defeat the violent radicals. But we must work with them. The consequences of ignoring this threat – such as a radicalized Islamic actor possessing nuclear weapons – are simply unacceptable.

Fine. But how are we going to work with them? What are we going to do to help them fight the jihadists? Here's "The Romney Plan":

To meet today's challenges, we must mobilize and integrate all elements of national power in unstable areas where traditional civilian agencies cannot operate effectively and traditional military power alone cannot succeed.

Create A Special Partnership Force (SPF). The SPF will integrate all elements of national power under a new force with leadership drawn from a core group of our Army Special Forces trained to work with civilian governments and intelligence personnel to form a new capability that is:

* Focused on locally-targeted efforts to win support in the community while identifying, isolating and eliminating terrorist elements.
* Highly integrated and able to mobilize all elements of national power, including humanitarian and development assistance and rule of law capacity building.
* Closely coordinated in partnership with local governments.
* Intelligence driven.
* Agile and flexible in its operations.
* A sustainable effort in contested areas and sanctuaries of Jihadist groups.

All right. This point seems focused on what to do in Iraq and Afghanistan. And it's all fine, although the idea of focusing on "locally-targeted efforts to win support in the community while identifying, isolating and eliminating terrorist elements" carries a whiff of the common assumption that hearts-and-minds initiatives will win over a populace in which jihadists live and work. This actually seems quite unlikely, unless the jihad ideology itself is combatted -- for otherwise, the kindness of American soldiers will only in a small number of cases dislodge deeply ingrained assumptions about the uncleanness and dishonesty of the kuffar.

Launch A New Type Of Marshall Plan Unifying Nonmilitary Sources Of Power To Support Moderate Muslims. As President, Governor Romney will call together our Middle East allies and the major nations of the developed world to establish a "Partnership for Progress and Prosperity."

This Partnership will assemble the resources of all developed nations to assure that threatened Islamic states have public schools, micro-credit and banking, the rule of law, human rights, basic health care, and competitive economic policies. Resources would be drawn from public and private institutions, and from volunteers and NGOs.

Which Islamic states? What kind of schools? What will be taught in them? Romney says, "this Partnership would assemble the resources of all the nations of the world to work to assure that Islamic states that are threatened with violent Jihad have public schools that are not Wahhabi madrasas." But Wahhabism is just one facet of the problem. A non-Wahhabi madrasa could still be jihadist.

And human rights according to which standard -- that of Sharia, or that of the West? Here again, while we are pouring out all this wealth on these Islamic states, what assurance will we have that the jihad ideology is not still being propagated? To stop that propagation, it has to be confronted as such. But it's not clear from this document that Romney will do that.

Strengthen Global Alliances. The failure of efforts such as the United Nations Human Rights Council has given multilateralism a bad name. America’s strength is amplified when it is combined with the strength of other nations.

We need to expand alliances such as NATO and efforts among the world's leading nations to face the new threat of radical Jihad and increase our homeland security. We need to build global and regional capacities and networks of law enforcement and intelligence officials to confront Jihadists and other transnational threats.

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: "This [Special Partnership] Force would work hand-in-glove with local host governments. Together, they would seek to target and separate terrorists from the local population, and to disrupt and defeat them. They would have the authority to call in all elements of civil assistance and humanitarian aid. Where they felt it was necessary, they could call in Delta and SEAL military resources. Their goal would be to build national institutions of stability and freedom, and to promote the rule of law and human rights." (Governor Mitt Romney, Remarks At AEI World Forum, 6/21/07)

Here again: this will never be done effectively unless the Sharia's discrimination against women and non-Muslims is confronted and explicitly rejected.

Perhaps vagueness is to be expected in such a statement, but since George W. Bush has never shown any inclination to confront the jihad ideology at all, and that is the gravest and most multifaceted omission of anti-terror policy since 9/11, and since Romney appears at the outset to understand that this is an ideological struggle, it's strange that his prescriptions are all financial and conventional, and not ideological at all.

Seeking common ground with Christians by urging them to accept the Islamic view of Jesus, sans crucifixion and divinity. In other words, become Muslim, and we'll be standing on common ground -- which is also the thinly veiled message of the celebrated "Common Word" document recently issued by 138 Muslim scholars.

"'Islamic Jesus' hits Iranian movie screens," from AFP (thanks to all who sent this in):

TEHRAN (AFP) — A director who shares the ideas of Iran's hardline president has produced what he says is the first film giving an Islamic view of Jesus Christ, in a bid to show the "common ground" between Muslims and Christians.

Nader Talebzadeh sees his movie, "Jesus, the Spirit of God," as an Islamic answer to Western productions like Mel Gibson's 2004 blockbuster "The Passion of the Christ," which he praised as admirable but quite simply "wrong".

"Gibson's film is a very good film. I mean that it is a well-crafted movie but the story is wrong -- it was not like that," he said, referring to two key differences: Islam sees Jesus as a prophet, not the son of God, and does not believe he was crucified.

Talebzadeh said he even went to Gibson's mansion in Malibu, California, to show him his film. "But it was Sunday and the security at the gate received the film and the brochure and promised to deliver it," though the Iranian never heard back.

Even in Iran, "Jesus, The Spirit of God" had a low-key reception, playing to moderate audiences in five Tehran cinemas during the holy month of Ramadan, in October.

The film, funded by state broadcasting, faded off the billboards but is far from dead, about to be recycled in a major 20 episode spin-off to be broadcast over state-run national television this year.

Talebzadeh insists it aims to bridge differences between Christianity and Islam, despite the stark divergence from Christian doctrine about Christ's final hours on earth.

"It is fascinating for Christians to know that Islam gives such devotion to and has so much knowledge about Jesus," Talebzadeh told AFP.

"By making this film I wanted to make a bridge between Christianity and Islam, to open the door for dialogue since there is much common ground between Islam and Christianity," he said.

[...]

But in Talebzadeh's movie, God saves Jesus, depicted as a fair-complexioned man with long hair and a beard, from crucifixion and takes him straight to heaven.

"It is frankly said in the Koran that the person who was crucified was not Jesus" but Judas, one of the 12 Apostles and the one the Bible holds betrayed Jesus to the Romans, he said. In his film, it is Judas who is crucified.

Islam sees Jesus as one of five great prophets -- others being Noah, Moses and Abraham -- sent to earth to announce the coming of Mohammed, the final prophet who spread the religion of Islam. It respects Jesus' followers as "people of the book".

Who are, incidentally, unbelievers, per Qur'an 5:17.

No-Go areas in Britain? Sure. And the Telegraph scratches its gray head over this one, for the guy who laments the Islamization of Britain isn't even a "racist"!

By Olga Craig in the Telegraph (thanks to Sr. Soph):

Do 'no-go' zones for non-Muslims exist in Britain, as the Bishop of Rochester claims? Olga Craig reports from some of Yorkshire's Asian-dominated areas

It has been more than 40 years since Tim Carbin walked the length of Oak Lane, the Bradford backstreet of his boyhood. Then, when he lived with his grandmother Florence Pawson, a matriarch within the community, his task after school was to run errands.

Down to Foster's, the baker's, for a loaf of bread and a pound of bacon from Donald Gilbank the butcher. "And mind it isn't too fatty," Florence would tell him.

Mr Carbin, then 13, knew all the local storekeepers by name, just as he knew the families in the surrounding terraces.

Yesterday, outside number 95A, his grandmother's former home, Mr Carbin gazed in bewilderment as he scanned his old haunt.

Not surprisingly, the stores of his youth had gone: such has been the change in our shopping habits over the decades that they have given way to supermarkets and fast-food outlets.

But that was not all that had changed irrevocably in Oak Lane. Among the new stores, the clothes shops sell Muslim dress, the butcher stocks halal meat and even the local takeaway advertises halal pizza.

"I feel like an alien, like I'm on a street in Karachi," Mr Carbin says, awkwardly.

"I don't feel I have anything in common with this area. It's like I've never been here before. I knew it would be different but I knew, too, that I would feel uncomfortably like I don't belong."

He now lives just 10 miles away, in the north of Bradford. He hasn't returned because Oak Lane, like so many similar areas of so many northern cities, is now an almost exclusive Asian Muslim community.

Mr Carbin is far from a racist, however. Well educated and widely travelled in Muslim countries, he has the utmost respect for the Islamic religion. What is worrying him is that Britain's increasing espousal of multiculturalism has led not to an integrated society but, instead, to ghettoisation, with white-only and Asian-only communities existing cheek by jowl but with little or no common ground. And that, he believes, could have an ominous outcome.

Indeed.